Newspaper Page Text
Jlowstmt Jferilg Immral
VOLUME 136 , NUMBER 161
Thursday
August 17, 2006
The Home Journal’s
FRONT
PORCH
INSIDE
■ Westfield's softball team saw
its charge in the Freedom Park
Invitational come to an abrupt end
with a pair of one-run losses.
Also, look for Braves, Georgia
and NASCAR notebooks.
- See 6A/108
IN BRIEF
Genealogical Society
to meet
The Central Georgia Genealogical
Society, Inc. will meet today at 7 p.m.
at Flint EMC located at 1600 Elberta
Rd. in Warner Robins. Visitors are
always welcome.
There is no admission charge. For
more information, please visit www.
cggs.org.
Phoenix service
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 today.
The Phoenix Center CSB is the pub
lic mental health, developmental dis
abilities and addictive diseases board
responsible for the delivery of mental
health sen/ices 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.
Huntington council «
sets key dates
Following are the Huntington
Middle School Council meeting dates:
Sept. 12, Dec. 5, Feb. 6, 2007 and
May 1,2007.
U.S. Rep. Jim
Marshall to visit
U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall will be
guest of honor at the VFW Post 6605
on Corder Road in Warner Robins on
Friday from 5 to 7 p.m.
Rep. Marshall is being honored
for having been inducted into the
Ranger Hall of Fame for his service in
the Vietnam War. The induction took
place recently at Fort Benning. The
VFW event is open to the public.
BIRTHDAYS
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.
INDEX
LOCAL 2 A
WEATHER 3 A
OPINION 4 A
SPORTS 6 A
COMICS 7 A
CLASSIFIED 8 A
PERIODICAL 500
S illiil 4
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GEORG? A NEWSPAPER PROJECT
Main Library
UN IV OF GEORGIA
ATHENS GA 30602-0002
3-DIGIT 306
August 16, 2006
Serving Houston County Since 1870
.... .
LEGAL ORGAN FOR HOUSTON COUNTY,
city of Pf.rry, city of Warnf;r Robins and city of Centerville
Raising taxes: Part II
County, residents debate again
By RAY LIGHTS ER
Journal Staff Writer
In the second of three public hear
ings on setting the county tax rate,
the county commissioners heard
more requests for impact fees and
criticisms about property tax assess
ments Tuesday.
One of those who spoke up and
against the rise in property taxes
was Charlotte Lowery who said
she was a “casualty of growth in
Houston County.”
The family farm owner said her
property has never been for sale
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Journal/Ray Light nor
Parole Officer Charles Arnold checks the whereabouts of a sex offender based on the data from the parolee’s
electronic monitor. A map is displayed showing where the offender went and at what time he was there.
By RAY LIGHTNER
Journal Staff Writer
Of the 285 parolees supervised by
the Warner Robins Parole Office,
about 24 are monitored electroni
cally.
Of those, explained Parole Office
Charles Arnold, 14 are on Global
Positioning System monitors. The
five officers, an investigator and
Chief Parole Officer James Bergman,
based out of the office on Moody,
monitor parolees in Houston, Peach
and Crawford counties.
The monitors immediately notify
a parole officer when there is a
violation by phone call. The notice
Perry to put parking
lot land up for bids
By CHARLOTTE
PERKINS
Journal Staff Writer
Discussion of the future of
the downtown Perry parking
lot at Ball and Commerce
Street has been going on
for months. Decision time
came on Tuesday night at
the meeting of the Perry
City Council.
After hearing from City
Attorney David Walker
that it wouldn’t be legal
to transfer the deed to the
Downtown Development
Authority, the council voted
to advertise for bids for the
land, with some specific
stipulations still to be ham
mered out.
The stipulations, based
www.hhjnews.com
"The downside of
growth is the county is
putting farmers out of
business fast."
- Farm owner Charlotte Lowery
but that it is valued as if it were
up for sale - not for farming. “We
want to keep it and pass it on to
our children,” Lowery said. “We are
concerned about the property taxes.
is sent out if the parolee is out
past curfew, goes into a restricted
area like a school zone or near the
victim’s home or in the case of the
GPS units, when the ankle bracelet
and the GPS unit are too far apart.
Sex offenders and some violent
offenders are given GPS electron
ic monitoring equipment, Arnold
said.
The ankle bracelet works with
and must be worn with the GPS
device when outside the residence.
It has a clip to be worn on the belt.
The charger/transmitter base
sends the data with the GPS unit
set in it. “We tell them to put it in
the base when they come back in
on recommendations of the
DDA, may require that the
oak tree at the corner of the
site be left standing, that
brick pavers be installed on
the perimeter of the greens
pace area.
Following the sale, the city
has the option of sharing the
proceeds with the DDA, but
also reserving part of it for
other projects.
The historic background
is that the downtown mer
chants at one point taxed
themselves to raise the
money to buy the land, but
a portion of the purchase
price was still provided by
the city.
In other business, the
city gave its stamp of
See LAND, page zA
It is getting out of hand based on
what we pay in taxes to what we get
from it in rent.
“Every year the valuation has
gone up.”
“The downside of growth is the
county is putting farmers out of
business fast.”
Commission Chairman Ned
Sanders responded by saying, “That
is happening because of state law
and market forces, not that we
want it to. We are reacting to our
mandates, state required,” to assess
See DEBATE,page $A
the house, so they get used to it,”
Arnold said.
Officers can also pull up a map of
where offenders went and at what
time. “One of the sex offenders was
not being truthful about where he
was going,” Arnold said in regard
to an example. “The map helped us
find out. He’s back in jail now.”
The map and the dot showing the
suspect change color when there is
a violation, be it for curfew or going
somewhere he’s not supposed to be.
“We actually sit him down and have
him give count by count where he’s
going,” Arnold said.
The monitoring can be tailored
See COLLARED, page lA
-k. fjP JjSJ
Two sections • 16 pages
Below the fold
■ Perry High School’s softball
team wins in a rout
■ City of Perry to sell Ball/
Commerce parking lot
Perry mayor:
Growth may be
coming toe last
By CHARLOTTE PERKINS
Journal Staff Writer
“Old Perry” is defined for Mayor
Jim Worrall, by the Perry Parkway,
and the goal is for it to retain its
small town character while growth
goes on in
adjacent
areas.
“If you go
back several
years,” he
says, “the
object of
the Perry
Parkway was
to prepare
for anticipat
ed growth. It
encompasses
the old city,
and no sub-
divisions are developing within that
perimeter.
“The subdivisions are outside the
old city.”
Where the city is planning for
growth, voting yes on annexation
and variance requests, the mayor
explains, is outside the city limits.
That’s where the requests are com
ing in from developers and land
owners seeking to sell their land.
The area being impacted is the
city’s “service area.” as defined
in earlier county-wide discussions
mandated by Georgia House Bill
489. The service area extends out
to Sandifer Road, and incorporates
the south side of Ga. Hwy. 127
to Kathleen, down Hwy. 247 from
Kathleen to US 341. It also includes
most of South Houston County.
Georgia House Bill 489, the
“Service Delivery Strategy Law”
was aimed at preventing double
taxation for residents of unincor
porated county areas, and is also
aimed at providing service delivery
in an efficient way. It went into
effect in 1999.
City planners are also anticipat
ing that roads that have been tra
ditionally “country roads” through
farmland, like Kings Chapel Road
heading toward Arena Road; and
Langston Road, which runs between
Ga. 41 and Houston Lake Road, will
become main “arterials.”
See GROWTH,page zA
"I feel for those folks."
- Perry Mayor Jim Worrall, on Langston
Road residents
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leaving
Langston
Partlll
A knee
slapper
KeKe Sullivan
sneaks into
second safely
- aided by
the fact the
second base
man dropped
the ball - in
Perry’s softball
opener against
Americus-
Sumter Tuesday
in Perry. For
more, see 6 A.
ENI/Gary Harmon