Newspaper Page Text
VOLUME 136, NUMBER 157
Friday
August 11, 2006
The Home Journal’s
FRONT
PORCH
INSIDE
■ Westfield’s Lady Hornets will
begin their season in the Freedom
Park Tourney in Macon. Also,
Perry's volleyball team is gearing
up for its year.
- See 1B
IN BRIEF
Phoenix Center
board to meet
The Phoenix Center Community
Service Board will meet at 6:30 p.m.
at the Phoenix Center Outpatient
Service building, located at 940-A,
Highway 96 in Warner Robins Aug.
17.
The Phoenix Center CSB is the
public mental health, developmental
disabilities and addictive diseases
board responsible for the delivery of
mental health services in Houston,
Peach and Crawford Counites.
According to a release, time is pro
vided at each meeting for public input
and or questions about services.
For further information, call 464-
5258.
Ya done good
Ray-donee' S. Jones of Bonaire,
who was selected to Abraham
Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton’s
Distinguished Achievement List for
the 2006 summer term. In order to
meet that mark, she had to have had
a grade point average of 3.3 or higher
on a 4.0 scale.
Lake Joy school sets
meeting dates
The Lake Joy Elementary School
Council meetings will be on the follow
ing dates: Aug. 16. Oct. 25, Jan. 17,
2007, March 14, 2007 and May 16,
2007. All meetings will be held at 7:30
a.m. in the conference room. Also,
parent elections will be held May 15,
2007 at 5:45 p.m., prior to the PTO
general session.
BIRTHDAYS
Today
■ Dylan Moore
■ Joanne Capps
■ Earl and Maggie Spivey
E-mail your birthdays to:
hhj@evansnewspapers.com or
donm@evansnewspapers.com or
send them to: 1210 Washington
St., Perry 31069: attn: Don
Moncrief. You can also call him at
987-1823, Ext. 231.
DEARLY DEPARTED
■ William B "Rooster”
McCloud
INDEX
LOCAL 2 A
WEATHER 3 A
OPINION .4 A
SPORTS 1 B
COMICS 4 B
CLASSIFIED 5 B
PERIODICAL 500
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Award-Winning
Newspaper
2004
Better Newspaper
Contest
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GEORGIA NEWSPAPER PROJECT
Main Library
UNIV OF GEORGIA
ATHENS GA 30602-0002
3-DIGIT 306
August 11, 2006
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LEGAL ORGAN FOR HOUSTON COUNTY,
city of Perry, city of Warner Robins and city of Centerville
County to
By RAYLIGHTNER
Journal Staff Writer
The county plans to raise taxes
and wants your input on it.
The Houston County Board of
Commissioners will hold three pub
lic hearings before formally setting
the tax rate on Aug. 29. The pub
lic hearings will be at the County
Annex Building at 200 Carl Vinson
Parkway in Warner Robins, Tuesday
at 9 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., as part of the
regular commission meeting, and on
Aug. 29 at 4 p.m., - that before for
mally setting the millage rate.
The county plans to lower the
millage rate by half a mill from 9.82,
“The people we talk to don’t
care about us. They’re conde
scending. No one has listened to
what we have to say. There’s a
difference between being heard
and being listened to.”
- Cynthia Ballard
mgs. You nave no representation .
_ 4 Aw!
n t kjE spiEj;
41 Step' / i ••
■ R l WF i
x&k, ’ a •'
- I JSSHfI ,W:
Journai/Charlotte Perkin
Gathering at the home of Skip and Harriotte McDannald were Langston Road residents (not in order) Mary Lynn Dukes, Dee Allison, Mike, Theresa
Michael and Veronica Stanley, Lynn and Stan Ruzic, Duane and Helen Turner, Gene Grinstead, Ken Walton, Clara Cussins, Bettye Griffin, Ralpl
and Margaret Dooley, Cynthia Ballard, Scott Westmoreland, Neil and Ann Edwards, Corky and Suzanne Powell and Lake Joy Road residents Davit
and Kim Wittenberg.
Langston residents fear loss of country lifestyle
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a
three-part series on Langston Road.
By CHARLOTTE PERKINS
Journal Staff Writer
Langston Road is just two miles
outside of Perry and running to
Houston Lake Road.
At every meeting of the Perry
Planning Commission and the Perry
City Council for weeks, Langston
Road has been an issue because
Hospice spreads its WINGS
Special to the Journal
Heart of Georgia Hospice is in search of volunteers for
its annual Camp WINGS. According to a release, the camp
“is a bereavement camp for children ages 6 to 16 who have
experienced the death of someone they love in the past two
years.”
The program integrates horseback riding, fishing, arts
and crafts, recreation games and more.
Heart of Georgia Hospice, according to the release, looks
for some general characteristics in all of its volunteers,
including good communication and cooperative skills.
There are a variety of positions and activities for which
to volunteer.
See WINGS, page fA
www.hhjnews.com
raise taxes, lower nrillage
INPUT
PLEASE
Below are the dates/times for three
public hearings set by the Houston
County Board of Commissioners in
regard to the tax rate. All will be held at
the County Annex Building.
■ Tuesday, 9 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.
■ Aug. 29, 4 p.m.
to 9.32 mills. The millage or tax rate
is based on the SB7 million budget
approved in June.
One mill produces $1 of tax for
every SI,OOO worth of property
of requests from developers who
want land along the road annexed
into Perry and zoned for subdivision
development which would bring in
hundreds of new homes.
Langston Road is still “country”
in southern terms. The road wasn’t
paved when Helen and Duane
Turner bought their 8 1/2 acres 41
years ago. It’s paved now, but still
narrow and tree-lined. Some of the
homes are set far back on the ridge
that rises and then drops toward
value. In Houston County only 40
percent of the assessed value of
property is taxable minus home
stead exemptions. To get the tax bill
multiply the millage rate by $40,t)00
for SIOO,OOO home.
For the owner of a SIOO,OOO hoine,
the roll back to 9.32 mills - not
including any other exemptions like
homestead and senioHKilr the fire
tax - would lower the
of a tax bill about s2(jPfj
But because of the expected
increase in the property hist digest,
countywide taxes are exported to
increase by 2.31 percent over
rollback rate. The rollback rate,
A
deadreld
Lake Lillian. Some are closer to the
road.
Homeowners living along
Langston, for the most part, have
unpretentious homes. The red-brick
mini-mansions that are increas
ingly dominating the mid-county
landscape haven’t been built on
Langston. They put their money
into the land.
Skip and Harriotte McDannald
have six acres and a comfortable
country-style home with a wide
Family-to-Family course offered
Special to the Journal
A 12-session free Family
to-Family course for rela
tives of mentally ill persons
will start Aug. 28 at 6 p.m.
at the Bonaire First Baptist
Church located at 142 West
Highway 96 Bonaire.
You do not have to live
in Houston County to par
ticipate.
The nationally acclaimed
Family-to-Family course will
be taught by two volunteers
Two sections • 12 pages
from the Middle Georgia
Chapter of the National
Alliance on Mental Illness,
Mary Ann van Hartesveldt
and LaVonne Harn.
The course provides
information, support, and
help with coping with the
problems of a mentally ill
relative.
The course will ineet from
6-8 p.m. for 12 consecutive
weeks.
The course and all mate
rials are free. It ife strongly
Boggin’ turns to floggin’ and one offender
tries to “wipe(r)” his slate clean
- POUCE BEAT. 5A
Below the fold
i. . .
■ Heart of Georgia Hospice
spreads its WINGS
■ NAM I Family-to-Family course
to be offered
defined by state law, is what the
millage would have to be to bring in
the same revenue on the previous
years tax digest.
Reassessments are required by
state law when the trend of prices
on properties recently sold in the
pteunty indicate an increase in fair
liagWMtvalue. The county commis-
over assessments,
bit flk igHfektax rate.
kof the $87.5a5J596
veranda set with rocking chairs. The
two driveways leading uphill from
Langston Road to their home are
pot-holed and bumpy.
On Wednesday night those drive
ways were lined with cars as their
neighbors joined them to talk about
losing Langston Road to the devel
opers.
For starters, they talked about
losing the country lifestyle, and
about losing any innocence they had
See COUNTRY, page *4
recommended that partici
pants pre-register for the
course and be willing to
commit to attend all 12
meetings. The course is
limited to 18 participants.
To register for the
course or to get more
information, call Harri at
213-7080 or email het at
harnssl® bellsouth.net.
Be advised that Family
to-Family is an educa
tional and support course
See COURSE, page §A