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LEGAL ORGAN FOR HOUSTON COUNTY,
city of Perry, city of Warner Robins and city of Centerville
VOLUME 136, NUMBER 231
BELOW THE FOLD: Houston County maintains exceptional writing test scores ■ Georgia launches website for teen drivers
Wednesday
December 6,2006
The Home Journal's
FRONT
PORCH
IN SPORTS
Houston County's basketball
squads hosted West Laurens
Monday. For the Lady Bears that
was good news, not so good for
the Bears. In swimming, Warner
Robins' giris notched another
second-place finish, while the
Demons swam to third. Perry also
competed in the Coffee County
Invitational with Sarah and Patrick
Cossart bringing home some .
- See 1B
IN BRIEF
Georgia Chamber to
host annual meetings
The Georgia Chamber of
Commerce will host its annual
meeting dinner and Eggs & Issues
breakfast Jan. 8-9. 2007 at the
Georgia World Congress Center
in Atlanta. Ron Galloway, a pro
business author, filmmaker and
speaker will headline the dinner
the first day ( Monday).
That Tuesday more than 2,500
business and community leaders
and elected officials will gather
again for the breakfast.
Newly re-elected Gov. Sonny
Perdue, Lt. Gov.-elect Casey
Cagle and Speaker of the House
Glenn Richardson will all be on
hand to speak.
According to Georgia Chamber
President & CEO, George Israel,
"Each year's Eggs & Issues
Breakfast seems to get larger and
take on more importance, and
we expect the 2007 events to be
especially significant following the
elections.”
Tickets are SIOO each with
tables of 10 available for SI,OOO.
Eggs & Issues breakfast tickets
are SSO with tables of 10 avail
able for SSOO. For more informa
tion, visit www.gachamber.com,
or contact the Georgia Chamber
at 404-223-2264 or toll free at 1-
800-241-2286.
BIRTHDAYS
Today
■ Kathy Wells
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.
ANNIVERSARY
Dec. 5
■ Darius and Gwen Johnson
DEARLY DEPARTED
■ Mark Howard Jennings
Seward, 55
PERIODICAL 500
Hill
8 ”55108 0000l 1 4
Award-Winning
Better Newspaper Voe~jj£y
Contest
COOI *
GEORGIA NEWSPAPER PROJECT
Main Library
UN!V OF GEORGIA
ATHENS GA 30602-0002
3-DIGIT 306
December 6, 2006
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Council douses (ire department grant
By NANCY HAWK
Journal Staff Writer
The Warner Robins city coun
cil held its meeting Monday at the
municipal complex.
One issue of particular interest
covered was a Homeland Security
Grant. The $1,035,000 grant was
earlier awarded to the Warner Robins
Fire Department by the Department
of Homeland Security but whether
it would be accepted was another
matter entirely. That, was up to
the council, which during the work
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U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. Joseph Kapinos
Staff Sgt. Sara Mustapha, a 455th Air Expeditionary Wing aide, hands a Christmas card to Master Sgt. Mark
Means, a 455th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron production superintendent. The cards were written,
decorated and sent to deployed members by Perdue Elementary School in Warner Robins. The cards made
their way to Afghanistan via Mary Terese Tebbe and Operation Season’s Greetings, a show program sponsored
by United States Air Forces in Europe and Air Force Reserve Command. Mustapha is deployed from Holloman
AFB in New Mexico and Means is from Pope AFB in North Carolina.
HoCo maintains exceptinnal writing scnres
Special to the Journal
The Houston County Board
of Education received the
results of the Georgia High
School Writing Test from the
State Board of Education.
Houston County juniors
have again scored better
than their peers around the
state.
Of the Houston County
students who took the test
for the first time, 97 percent
passed the test as compared
to 94 percent for Georgia.
Test scores range from 400
to 600; a passing score is 500.
Any student with a score
above 514 is scoring in the
highest quartile.
Georgia launches website for teen drivers
‘Joshua’s Law’ goes into effect Jan. 1, 2007
Special to the Journal
The Georgia Department of Driver
Services has launched a new website,
www. gateendr ive reducat ion .com, for
teens and parents to obtain informa
tion about the changes in Georgia’s
driver education requirements.
The website includes an on-line
question and comment tool for specific
inquiries.
DDS has also notified approximately
www.hhjnews.com
session discussed it, but during its
work session later, tabled it.
Succinctly put, that means it will
probably have to go to special ses
sion to cover all the issues involved.
For starters in that regard, coun
cil member Terry Horton of Post 3,
said he was not confident the time
lines actually meshed well enough
to avoid monetary stresses on the
Warner Robins budget.
“What if the fire station isn’t com
pleted on time,” he said. “Then we
are stuck with having to pay this
money for extra positions we might
Georgia High School Writing Test scores
2006 2005 2004
Percent pass Percent Pass Percent Pass
System 97 97 96
Middle Georgia counties 93 95 91
State 94 95 93
Houston County High School 98 98 97
Northside High School 95 96 95
Perry High School 98 98 93
“Our students have again
shown that they are among
the top scholars in the state,”
said Superintendent Danny
11,000 teens via mail who will become
eligible January 2007 and after to
ensure that they are aware of the new
requirements.
Senate Bill 226 also known as
“Joshua’s Law” was passed during the
2005 General Assembly.
Beginning January 1, 2007, all 16-
year-olds applying for a Class D driv
er’s license must complete an approved
driver education course and complete a
not need? Perhaps we could work on
five positions?”
The figure (five) Horton brought
into play comes about due to the fact
Fire Chief Robert Singletary said
the grant is for 10 new positions,
along with four others to fill vacan
cies currently open.
The salary for 10 new positions
would be $523,000 per year. With
the grant the federal government
would pay 90 percent the first year,
80 percent the second, 50 percent
the third and so on for a total of
four years. Then, in the fifth year,
Carpenter. “Our high school
English and language arts
teachers are determined to
help our students succeed
and I commend them for
their hard work. As a system,
we are focused on achieving
literacy for every student.”
total of 40 hours of supervised driving,
6 hours of which must be at night, with
a parent or guardian’s sworn verifica
tion that these driving requirements
have been met.
The Georgia Driver Education
Commission, also created by 58226,
has reviewed and approved various
programs in order to develop a compre
hensive plan for accessible, affordable
and effective driver education state
wide.
Some of the potential access
See DRIVERS, page 6B
Three sections • 18 pages
Warner Robins would pay for the
total salary.
The upside is that much of the
training and equipping of these posi
tions would also be taken care of by
the grant, Singletary said.
“By accepting this grant we will
have the crew of the ladder truck
ready and we will have the people
hired for the 14 position that we need
to be up to National Fire Protection
Code standards,” Singletary said.
“Right now we are at a force of 30
fire service members.
See GRANT, page 6B
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Education
department
seeks input
Special to the Journal
The Georgia
Department of Education
is seeking public input on
revised state rules guid
ing special education.
Over the next several
weeks, the GaDOE will
hold public input sessions
at 11 locations around the
state about the proposed
special education rules.
The changes, accord
ing to a release, are being
made to put state rules
in full compliance with
2004 revisions to the
federal Individuals with
Disabilities Education
Act.
“We want to hear from
the public about these
proposed rules,” said
State Superintendent of
Schools Kathy Cox. “I
urge the public, especially
those with an interest in
special education, to look
over the rules and give
us feedback at one of the
public input sessions or in
writing.”
After the 2004 chang
es to IDEA, the U.S.
Department of Education
See INPUT, page 6B
Meeting dates:
These are the dates, times
and contact information for
the 11 Public Input Sessions.
All sessions will be held 10
a.m.-1 p.m. and 4 p.m.-7
p.m. unless otherwise noted.
D Today: Clayton County
Central Office, 1058 sth
Avenue, Jonesboro. 770-
473-2700
• Monday: Houston
County Career Tech Center
(Room 115), 1311 Corder
Road, Warner Robins, 478-
322-3307
0 Dec. 13: Columbus
Public Library, 3000 Macon
Road, Columbus, 706-748-
2140
tl Dec. 14: Chattahoochee
Flint RESA, 121 East
College Street, Ellaville, 800-
541-9442
Q Jan. 3, 2007:
Southwest Georgia RESA,
178 West Railroad Street,
Pelham, 229-294-6750
Q Jan. 4, 2007: East
Georgia GLRS, 864 Broad
Street, Richmond County
Board of Education, Augusta,
706-826-1128
Q Jan. 8, 2007: First
District RESA, 201 W. Lee
Street, Brooklet, 912- 842-
5000 (Note time: 11 a.m.-2
p.m. and 4 p.m.-7 p.m.)
Q Jan. 9, 2007: Gwinnett
County, Instructional Support
Center, 437 Old Peachtree
Road, Suwanee, 678-301-
7286
D Jan. 10, 2007: South
Central GLRS, 1215 Bailey
St., Suite B, Waycross
31501, 912-338-5998
D Jan. 18, 2007: North
Georgia RESA, 4731 Old
Highway 5, South Ellijay,
706-276-1111