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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 illlllll 8 55108 00001 1 4 Award-Winning Better Newspaper Contest 1..11.H....11..11 i.iii...ii.,.ii iiiimii COOI * GEORGIA NEWSPAPER PROJECT Main Library UNIV OF GEORGIA ATHENS GA 30602-0002 3-DIGIT 306 December 23, 2006 s£imm Mm'smu £mw* Smm 1870 — 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 >MMMi f fIRKSBBHdH lNMttiflflflHHHttl 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 |i« SINGLETON