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LEGAL ORGAN FOR HOUSTON COUNTY, city of Perry, city of Warner Robins and city of Centerville VOLUME 136, NUMBER 243 BELOW THE FOLD: Four years later - Couple at last gets to spend Christmas together Sex offender back in jail Friday December 22,2006 The Home Journal’s FRONT PORCH IN BRIEF The Chick-fil-A Bear Brawl tipped off at Houston County Wednesday. Winners included Houston County's girls and boys and Warner Robins' girls. Also, Perry standout softball and soccer player Crystal Greer signed a scholarship Wednesday to continue her education at South Georgia College. - See 1B IN BRIEF High Museum bus trip planned The Fine Art Society of Middle Georgia is planning a trip to the High Museum, Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta Jan 16, 2007. The bus will leave from Warner Robins Senior Citizens Center at 9 a.m. and return around 6 p.m. The cost is $24 which includes transportation and admission to the museum. To sign up call Pat at 929-2891. Georgia DOT to scale back over holidays The Georgia Department of Transportation, according to a release, will scale back its con struction projects across the state - suspending related lane clo sures on all interstate and major state system highways - through Monday to ease Christmas holi day traffic congestion. Beginning at noon Friday, and continuing until 5 a.m., Tuesday there essentially will be no sched uled lane closures on any Georgia interstate highway or primary state route. (Similar work restrictions will be in place next weekend for the New Year's Day holiday.) The Department noted that some work may continue on less er-traveled state and local sys tem roads and that incident - or emergency maintenance - could become necessary on any route. CLARIFICATION: In Wednesday’s Houston Daily Journal, it was reported that Habitat for Humanity was the recent recipient of a $5,000 donation. The article stated it came from Andy Thomas State Farm Insurance, which it did. but Thomas wanted to ensure every one knew it was the State Farm Foundation that provided the gift, not him or his agency personally. BIRTHDAYS Today ■ Sarah Hawk ■ Dorothy Lucas, 88 ■ Danielle Ray ■ Joan Dorsett PERIODICAL 500 IllVlil 8 *55108 0000l 11 4 Award-Winning Newspaper 2004 Better Newspaper Contest COOI * GEORGIA NEWSPAPER PROJECT Main Library UNIV OF GEORGIA ATHENS GA 30602-0002 3-DIGIT 306 December 22, 2006 |.S>.ffmr; IJorsfoS: ('or\f} ! Sf\rf:lS7o_ County, cities in a stink over septage By RAY LIGHTNER Journal Staff Writer The handling of septage is one of the biggest problems the cities and the county are facing. That is, according to the County Commission. Chairman Ned Sanders, who told the local legislative delegation Wednesday that septage - the residue com ing out of septic tanks - “is a genuine concern in Houston County. It’s a statewide and a local problem.” Sanders said local compa Finally... ... home for the holidays J AL. Jh OPERATION * j V • , ■ W w. A _ i # - JBtT' w m ■“ Tot i j BB " Mliui 1 l&BM tHaHt mmmmmi-Mk 4SB§6B3BSf>' ■ ■ J Journal Nancy Hawk Christopher and Stephanie McClesky. After four years of deployments, couple at last gets to spend Christmas together By NANCY HAWK Journal Staff Writer What if you were to get married and five years later, finally had the first family Christmas in your service career? That is the case for Christopher and Stephanie McClesky. The couple will celebrate their first Christmas as/with the fam ily this week. The very first Christmas as man and wife was at Kadena AFB, Okinawa, Japan. Christopher made it home to his wife, at 11:35, Dec. 25. The second Christmas he didn’t make it home at all. The third, baby Calloway WWW.HHJNEWS.COM nies have to pump out resi dents’ tanks from time to time and, that it’s getting to the point where the city sew age treatment plants won’t accept it. He explained it was because county septage has a higher concentration of sew age compared to city sewage, which is more diluted. He said the septage raises the levels at the treatment plant to beyond what is per mitted by the Environmental Protection Division. In fact, Mayor Donald McClesky had arrived, but McClesky was busy in training as a K-9 specialist and wasn’t able to make it home (for either event). When Christmas No. 4 rolled around, this time it was Stephanie who was deployed. Baby Madison had arrived sev eral months before, but this time it was mom who was gone. This year the celebration will be one filled with all the sights and sounds of the holidays - along with grandmother and grandfather, aunts, uncles and a cousin as they spend it in Cookville, Tenn. Regrets over Christmases lost? Yes. But they both admit they knew what they were getting into. Plus, they married for all the “right reasons. "A county-wide sewage system is economically astronomical. It's not economically feasible." - County Commission Chairman Ned Sanders Walker said the septage is so concentrated it’s about 10 times as sewage through the sewer line. Because it raises the lev els too high, the city sewer treatment plants in Perry “Many young people in the ser vice do not like the barracks life,” explained Christopher. “(That’s) not a good reason to get married. “The drive it takes to keep things going even when on deployment is not a matter of how close you are but on other important things. “Trusting each other and always communicating with your wife or your husband helps prevent troubles before they get so out of control.” “I got married not to have a room mate. I got married to my wife because I loved her. There are no conveniences in a military marriage. Everyone has to give their all or some of their selves up. “Even children to some extent See HOME, page 6A and Warner Robins have stopped accepting it, they said, adding Warner Robins recently began taking it again, but, at the request of the county and after find ing out Cochran, where they Two SECTIONS • 12 PAGES were telling the haulers to go, suddenly stopped as well. A possible solution is pre treatment of the septage. “The city has contacted the county about a pretreat ment site,” County Director of Operations Tommy Stalnaker said. He estimated the cost of such a site between $250,000 to $750,000, depending on the level of treatment. “Without pretreatment,” Stalnaker said, “it is a See SEPTAGE,page 6A WR to now charge paper for plastic By RAY LIGHTNER Journal Staff Writer So you want to pay your city taxes with your credit card? Now it will cost an additional transaction fee for the conve nience of charging your taxes in Warner Robins. The city has adopted a fee schedule begin ning in January. City Comptroller Bill Harte said the convenience fees allow the city to recoup the transac tion fees from the credit card service. The council action also gives latitude for the comptroller’s office to change the fees “as our costs go up or down,” Harte said. He noted very few people in the city use the service now. The fee is about 2.5 percent per transaction and is actually set at that amount for transac tions of SI,OOO or more. For transactions up to $49.99 the fee is $1.20. It’s $2.25 for transaction between SSO and $99.99, $4.40 for transactions between SIOO and $199, $6.55 for those between S2OO and $299.99 and $8.70 for those between S3OO and $399.99. The fee goes to $10.85 for transactions between S4OO and $499.99, is sl3 for those between SSOO and $599.99, $15.20 for those between S6OO and $699.99, $17.30 for those between S7OO and See PLA STIC, page 6A Sex offender back in jail By RAYLIGHTNER Journal Staff Writer Monroe Jackson 111, was arrested Thursday for failing to register his address with the Sheriffs office. Jackson, 32, is a convicted sex offender and is required to register his residence as part of his sen tence. He also has two drug convictions. He was convicted Nov. 14, 1997 for statutory rape. He was released and reg istered as a convicted sex offender as of June 6, 1999. He was also convicted of pur chase, possession, manufac ture, distribution or sale of a controlled substance or mari juana twice - May 23, 2001 and again Nov. 16 of this year - and given five years probation See JAIL, page 6A 4tj.' JACKSON 111