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ptatulQit VOLUME 136, NUMBER 164 Tuesday August 22, 2006 The Home Journal’s FRONT PORCH INSIDE ■ In Sports today: In addition to football scrimmage coverage, look for stories on local golfers competing, or about to compete, in tournies and on Perry’s Lady Panthers softball team and their run at the Griffin tournament. There's also Georgia, NASCAR and pro golf notebooks. - See 1B COMING Infused oil In Wednesday's Food Section, Houston Daily Journal Staff Writer Kristy Warren will explain how to make your own infused oil for cooking, home decoration or simply to give ■SiT'iSszr^' as gifts to your friends and loved ones. IN BRIEF Red Cross blood drive coining to Perry An American Red Cross blood drive will be held at First Baptist Church-Perry located at 1105 Main Street, Room 223, Wednesday. It is slated to be held from 3:30-7:45 p.m. HCHS, LES set meeting dates Houston County High School has set its School Council meeting dates. They are: Aug. 28, Oct. 30, Dec. 18, Feb. 26, 2007, April 30, 2007 and June 25, 2007. All meetings, accord ing to a release are slated to be held at 5 p.m. in the HCHS Media Center. Also, Linwood Elementary School has set its meeting dates. They are: Oct. 17, Jan. 23, 2007 and April 10, 2007. According to a release, they will be held at 6 p.m. in the Media Center. BIRTHDAYS Today ■ Wallace Soderquist ■ Carli Rayne Boyles 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 ■ Betty Gooden Estes ■ Julia Lindsey, 89 INDEX LOCAL 2 A WEATHER 3 A SPORTS 1 B COMICS 4 B CLASSIFIED 5 B PERIODICAL 500 S WJ I ill 4 Award-Winning Better Newspaper vg“jjMy Contest cam * GEORGIA NEWSPAPER PROJECT Man Library UNIV OF GEORGIA ATHENS GA 3C6Q2-CCG2 3-DfGIT 306 August 22, 2006 St:nvi\t; Hoi*ms ( orvn Sisce IS7O LEGAL ORGAN FOR HOUSTON COUNTY, city of Perry, city of Warner Robins and city of Centerville Meth dealer gets 14 years By RAY LIGHTNER Journal Staff Writer Richard Charles Allen was sentenced to 14 years in fed eral prison without parole last week. Allen, 30, of Athens, entered a guilty plea to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute meth amphetamine. “The defen dant’s sentence reflects the aggressive stance the United States Attorney’s Office will Football gaining ground Isßgiii' J| mmmmm !j m * flft W"Z*Wtmh\n tT J ill,, M maMMMBtBEMm Ml i'V • „ igMftk FIL-J Mm wBKBBBna-JpJ j 'V.JBti'’ B sß* 1 ENI/Gary Harmon Football competition began in Houston County on a pseudo-grand scale this past week/weekend with Warner Robins, Houston County and Northside all getting in on the action with their only scrimmage prior to season’s start. Pictured, A Northside player runs the ball as Perry defender Robby Taylor (49) moves in. For more, see 18. County housing permits decline in July By RAY LIGHTNER Journal Staff Writer There were 122 single family dwelling permits issued in the month of July for all of Houston County. That is down slightly from the 129 issued in June and from the 126 issued in July 2005. The average value of the 122 homes permitted in July was $129,830.57, also down from the previous month’s $145,347 but above the $98,867.94 in July of 2005. The total value of those houses permitted county wide at just over $15,839,330 is down again from the pre vious month. June’s total of $17,002,010 was down from Officials continue to work on big plans for the fair By KRISTY WARREN Journal Staff Writer At this past week’s Georgia Agricultural Exposition Authority Meeting, most of the excitement surrounded the upcoming Georgia National Fair Oct. 6-15. “I feel good about this year’s fair,” says Executive Director Michael Froehlich. And why wouldn’t he? Scheduled to perform are: Gretchen Wilson, Big and Rich, the Beach Boys, and local band Stillwater. Because the students have a break from school the second week in October, www.hhjnews.com "The organization probably brought hi a pound a week of metbamphetamine to Me Middle Georgia area." - Warner Robins Police Lt. Lance Watson, on a drug ring with Richard Allen at the head take against those who dis tribute methamphetamine in the Middle District of Georgia,” said acting U.S. District Attorney Pete $17,265,875 in May. Unlike the previous month when Warner Robins was the only one of the three cities and the unincorpo rated areas to have a drop in housing permits, in July Warner Robins was the only one with an increase - from 38 in June to 63 in July. However, the average value of those 63 homes permitted was down at 5108,169, from June’s average of $111,534. In Centerville only three homes were issued permits in July, compared to 14 in June, but the average value of those homes was up to $199,173.33 from $124,848 in June. In unincorporated See PERMITS, page 6A the members of the authority said they have worked with the schools to come up with a three-day pass for students for $lO. The passes will be sold in Houston County and surrounding area schools, with the schools keeping one dollar for every pass sold. Also at the meeting: ■ Michele Treptow, director of Communications, informed the com mittee of the three new billboard designs chosen for the fair this year. Twenty-five billboards will advertise in the Atlanta, Middle Georgia, Albany and Columbus areas, she said. In an effort to reach out to the Hispanic population, advertisement Peterman. Allen obtained large amounts of methamphet amine from two sources in Atlanta in 2004, which were Housing permits: Houston County Month Permits issued June 129 July 122 Warner Robins June 38 July 63 Centerville June 14 July 3 Perry June 26 July 21 Unincorporated Houston County June 51 July 35 distributed by Allen and oth ers in Houston, Bibb and Clark counties, Peterman said. The case was investigated by the U.S. Marshals Service and the Warner Robins Police Department, Peterman said, and prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. District Attorney Charles Calhoun. Lt. Lance Watson of the Warner Robins Police See DEALER, page 6A will also be placed in three Spanish publications in Middle Georgia and Atlanta. ■ In efforts to ease traffic problems, street lights have been requested to be placed along Elko Road next to the grounds. ■ Randy Moore reported that the new road work has been completed. Inside the park, routes have been paved to assist RV travel and fair tram travel along their routes. The county also assisted with a road at the North-South axis on the east side of the grounds from the Golden Isles Parkway to the South Perry Bypass. See FAIR, page 6B Two sections • 12 pages 1 la custody si tree s«am charges By RAY LIGHTNER Journal Staff Writer The Houston County Sheriffs Office is inves tigating several cases involving scam on tree services ■ and has JH one sub- \ ject in fl custody at the .Houston County ADAMS Jail. Leslie Gene Adams, 32, of 226 Creek Cove Trail, • Warner Robins, was arrested on Thursday by deputies from the Sheriffs Office on an open warrant for theft by conversation. Adams remains in jail without bond on charges of theft by conversion. ... Adams had agreed to cut down, clean up and grind stumps of sev eral trees in a yard in Houston County, came See SCAM, page 6A Resident voices big concerns over HL Rond By RAY LIGHTNER Journal Staff Writer Billy Vaughn told the County Commission Houston Lake Road was “the dirtiest, most unkempt road” he’s ever seen. “You should be very embarrassed,” Vaughn told the commissioners during their meeting this past week. “We have had construction out there since 2000 and they’re not finished yet. It’s one of the sorriest jobs of pav ing done out there I’ve ever seen.” Vaughn doesn’t blame the county but instead is critical of the state Department of Transportation. “The DOT took the sign down at the entrance to our subdivision,” he said. “They took it to the dump and will not replace it.” Vaughn also asked that the grass be cut along the sidewalk. “There’s one little strip out there. The weeds and trees have grown over. It’s a bad sight.” See CONCERNS, page 6A "We have had construction out there since 2000 and they're not finished yet." - Billy Vaughn IN IA INS F Will ) X/ H S/'W'/A- ■■ - - Below the fold ■ County housing per mits decline in July ■ Officials continue to make big plans for fair ■ Resident voices con cerns for construction on Houston Lake Road