Newspaper Page Text
LEGAL ORGAN FOR HOUSTON COUNTY,
city of Perry, city of Warner Robins and city of Centerville
VOLUME 136, NUMBER 244
BELOW THE FOLD: Lake Joy Project increases SII2K ■ Stop leads to cocaine bust ■ Local leaders bring issues to legislators
Saturday
December 23, 2006
The Home Journal’s
FRONT
PORCH
Due to the holiday printing
schedule, this will be the Houston
Daily Journal's last issue until
Thursday. We apologize for the
absence but hope you have a safe
and very merry Christmas.
- The editor
IN SPORTS
A Chick-fil-A Bear Brawl girls
final without any Houston County
teams in it? That could be the
case - unless Warner Robins
does something about it - as both
Houston County and Perry lost
Thursday.
For the boys, Perry and
Warner Robins won so regard
less - with Houston County win
ning the day before - at least
one county team will be in the
finals for the boys.
Also, the Georgia Athletic
Coaches Association named
Houston County head coach Doug
Johnson as coach of the All-Star
team - the county is also well
represented with players. And,
Johnson was also selected Coach
of the Year by the Atlanta Area
Coaches Officials Association.
- See 1B
BIRTHDAYS
Today
■ Leslie Searcy
■ Bill Mitchell
Dec. 24
■ Stacey Stewart Frazier
■ Travis Capps
■ Mike Ross
■ Brenda Froehlich
Dec. 25
II Jan Price
■ Willie Harvell
■ Willie James Howard
■ Terry Mobley
Dec. 26
■ David Caldwell
■ Cason Vail, 4
Dec. 27
■ Allen Tatman
■ Durward Mercer
■ Sally Hair
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. 24
■ Hugh and Marian Lord
DEARLY DEPARTED
■ Janet Lynne Tritschler
PERIODICAL 500
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Contest
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Main Library
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ATHENS GA 30602-0002
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December 23, 2006
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—
Moms deliver record-setting month
By RATLIGHTNER
Journal Staff Writer
There wee 190 babies born at
Houston Medical Center in
November, making it a recording
setting month at the hospital.
Last year there were 149 in
November. Houston Healthcare
PERRY BRACES HIR fall GRIWIH
"Once the bypass gets developed, we'll see the
whole area take oft."
- Land murk Realty owner Lynward Barrett
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ENI/Gary Harmon
Once a pecan grove, this site off Ga. 127 and Houston Lake Road wil soon have 300 apartments and commercial development as well.
By Charlotte Perkins
Journal Staff Writer
he growth that has changed
the landscape of Houston
County is now reaching
Perry.
Developers and city lead
ers alike are predicting that
Perry Parkway, which has for
years seemed like four lanes
to nowhere, could rival the
commercial growth of Ga. 96
in a matter of a few years. The time
is coming when the Houston County
Courthouse won’t look so surpris
ingly out of place out there on its
strip of farmland.
Lake Joy Road project goes up SII2K
By RAY LIGHTNER
Journal Staff Writer
The latest change order on the Lake
Joy Road widening raises the cost of the
project by $112,855.40.
Two previous changes totaled
$588,457.91 bringing the total cost
from the original $2,809,210.47 to
$3,510,523.78 to pave Lake Joy Road
between Feagin Mill Road and Ga.
96. The latest change is for additional
asphalt over the existing pavement to
Local leaders bring issues to legislators
By RAT LIGHTNER
Journal Staff Writer
Annexation, Infrastructure
Development Districts and Oaky Woods
were just some of the issues of concern
brought up by local leaders at a meeting
with local legislators.
County Commission Chairman Ned
www.hhjnews.com
Chief Financial Officer Frank Powell
said the record-setting month was
41 more, 27.52 percent higher, than
that budgeted.
Year-to-date there have been 1,520
births at the hospital, 190 or 14.29
percent more than last year, Powell
noted. “We’re a growing county,”
he told the Hospital Authority at
A Publix grocery store with a strip
of shops is planned within the city
limits at the intersection of Houston
Lake Road and Perry Parkway. To
be built by Paradise Development,
the same firm that built the Publix
shopping center at Lake Joy and
Ga. 96, the store seems likely to be
a magnet for many Perry shoppers
as well as those outside the Perry
Parkway.
Davis Cosey, President of Davis
Oil in Perry, is a major player in the
growth just now, in part because
there’s a large mid-county area still
in need of convenient locations to
fuel their vehicles. He says that
they’re considering building a
minimize cracking.
According to the change order, the
additional two inches of asphalt will also
increase the structural integrity of the
road. The change does not increase the
time of the contract.
The commissioners also approved a
change order for the Lakeview Water
Supply and Treatment Facility add
ing $60,976.80 to the project and
bring the total to $2,236,262.80 and
See PROJECT, page 6A
Sanders said the list of issues was not
provided beforehand so responses would
be “impromptu, intentionally so.”
The five county commissioners,
the mayors or representatives from
the three cities met with four mem
bers of the legislative delegation -
See ISSUES, page 6A
Wednesday’s meeting.
Houston Healthcare, which
includes Houston Medical Center
and the Perry Hospital, has also had
a significant increase in inpatient
admissions compared to budgeted
figures based on last year’s admis
sions.
The 194 patients for November
Fillers gas station and convenience
store on Perry Parkway. Another is
already under construction a few
miles north where Ga. 127 curves
away from Houston Lake Road.
That’s where the old familiar
rural setting of the Houston Lake
Country Club is in the process of
urbanization with a new strip of
highway and 300 brand new apart
ments displacing the pecan grove
just across the road.
South of Perry, on U.S. 41 heading
toward Henderson, hundreds more
homes are being planned.
The biggest boom, however, is mov
ing south from Ga. 96 where farm
land has given way to everything
Traffic stop leads to bust
By RAY LIGHTNER
Journal Staff Writer
Two people from Tallahasee,
Fla., are behind bars on cocaine
trafficking charges following a
traffic stop Wednesday after
noon
Around 3:59 p.m., Deputy
Clay Chambers of the
Houston County Sheriffs
Office Interstate Criminal
Enforcement Unit made a traf
fic stop for failure to maintain
lane on a 2006 Pontiac Grand
Prix traveling southbound on
Interstate 75 near milemarker
138 near Perry.
The driver of the vehicle was
identified as Frank Johnson
Jr., 27, of Tallahassee. A license
check on the driver showed his
license status was suspended
through Florida, according to
the Sheriffs Office.
Chambers conducted a con-
Three sections • 22 pages
were 31.08 percent or 46 more than
the 148 in November 2005 at Perry
Hospital.
At Houston Medical Center, total
admissions were up 1.37 percent of
13 patients at 962 from the 949 from
November 2005
Year to date, Perry Hospital had
See DELIVER, page 6A
from fast food places to banks in
recent years. Scott Free, now a real
tor on the front lines of the county’s
transformation, can remember driv
ing a tractor on land that is rapidly
becoming a small city complete with
homes, businesses and offices.
Donny Free, too, remembers what
was there and knows what’s com
ing. From the window of his truck,
he points out where a bank is being
built at the once completely rural
intersection of Lake Joy Road and
Beulah Church Road. Everywhere
you turn, he and his son Scott can
tell you where another chain res
taurant (Ruby Tuesday’s is one)
See GROWTH, page ?A
JOHNSON
sensual search of the vehicle
in which he discovered the car
was rented from Hertz. A large
amount - a pound - of cocaine
was found during the search
inside the glove box of the
vehicle, Chambers said.
The driver and his passen
ger, Stephanie Singleton, 26,
and also from Tallahassee,
were arrested at the scene
and charged with trafficking
cocaine.
The driver was also
See BUST, page 6A
an Evans Family Newspaper
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SINGLETON