Newspaper Page Text
” StFr i
VOLUME 137, NUMBER 42 J
BELOW THE FOLD: RAFB directorate earns defense award INSIDE: Hospital CEO joins advisory board
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Friday
March 2,2007
The Home Journal s
FRONT
PORCH
IN BRIEF
Deadline for Peach
pageant Monday
The deadline for application for
the 2007 Miss Georgia Peach
Pageant is Monday. Georgia girls
ages 4-23 are eligible and there
are different categories.
The pageant will be held March
10 at the Pettigrew Center, Fort
Valley State College.
Queens serve as the official
ambassadors for the Georgia
Peach Festival in June.
Each age group is limited
to 15 contestants. The winner
receives a SI,OOO Saving Bond
and the first runner-up receives
S2OO. Other queens receive sav
ings bonds. For more informa
tion or application Visit miss
georgiapeach.org or email
missgapeachpageant@email.com
or call 478-923-3846 or 478-987-
1960.
WR rec to register
for ‘Spring Dayz’
The Warner Robins Recreation
Department will begin registration
March 12 for "Spring Dayz", a day
camp for spring break.
The camp will be held from
7:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Monday
through Friday (five days), April
2-April 6 for boys and girls ages
7-12 years old.
The cost is $54 for city resi
dents, $lO2 for county residents
and $l6B for out-of-county resi
dents. Bring a sack lunch every
day - drinks and snacks will be
provided. For more information,
call 929-6945.
‘The 9 Body System’
class to be offered
Beginning the first Saturday
in April, Natural Therapies owner,
Rosemary Foster, will be conduct
ing “The 9 Body System” Class,
continuing for eight more months
- one Saturday of each month.
There is limited space. Call 922-
3316 for more information or to
sign up.
BIRTHDAYS
Today
■ Christine Friday
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UN IV OF GEORGIA
ATHENS GA 30602-0002
3-DIGIT 306
March 2, 2007
LEGAL ORGAN FOR HOUSTON COUNTY,
city of Perry, city of Warner Robins and city of Centerville
Judging the Impact 1
Community hears pros and cons of fees
By RAY LIGHTNER
Journal Staff Writer
Darren Hicks said he was “not
here to tell you impact fees are
good or bad.”
Hicks, an attorney who
works with the Home Builders
Association of Georgia, has made
more than 50 impact fee presenta
tions around the state. He was in
Perry Wednesday for an impact fee
seminar sponsored by the Home
Builders Association of Warner
Robins and the state association.
Hicks said impact fees are
designed to serve new growth.
“It’s a fee to pay for infrastructure
needs,” he said. “If you’re enacting
impact fees to stop growth, it ain’t
gonna happen.”
He said residential growth has
continued in the counties where
impact fees are imposed, but noted
in Cherokee County, business and
industry growth has flat lined.
Impact fees will not just be paid
by those coming in, he said. “You
King of the road
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Houston County engineer Robbie Dunbar goes over road charts with Larry Walker Monday.
Walker settles into new role
By CHARLOTTE PERKINS
Journal Staff Writer
As much as he has to get done,
Larry Walker is a man who never
seems rushed. On his busiest days,
he takes time for small-town and
family talk, and when he sits down
in his Perry law office to talk about
his new job in Georgia government
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"Elected officials are
usually shocked by
the cost of the impact
fee. Everybody is
in the same boat -
commercial, residential,
Industrial - all have to
pay based on the same
formula.”
- Home Builders Association of
Georgia attorney Darren Hicks
don’t get carded when you pull
a building permit,” Hicks said.
“Anybody who pulls a building
permit pays the fee, if coming in
or moving their business to a new
site.”
He said, by law, the fee cannot
he ponders his answers about his
new job in the same way he always
did during his three decades as
a power broker in the House of
Representatives.
His new job, like the old one,
involves big responsibilities and lit
tle compensation. Back in January,
he was chosen by the Georgia House
and Senate delegations from the
Perry heads ■
above Jackson Pul
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be assessed until the builder gets
the building permit, and it can be
a condition of getting the permit.
It can only be imposed by county
or municipal governments not i
school boards or development ,
authorities. |
The fees can be used for M
water supply, water treat
ment, wastewater treat- J 8
ment, stormwater, parks
and recreation, libraries
and public safety. “It can’t
be charged for schools,”
Hicks said.
The fees “have to be used for
capital improvements useful for 10
years or more,” Hick said.
The fees can be used for a facil-
ity but not the operation, staffing
or maintenance of the facility. He
gave a few examples.
You can use impact fees to build
a fire station and buy a fire truck,
but not for computers or police
cars or personnel. “A building and
See FEES, page 6A
Eighth Congressional District, to
serve on the Board of the Georgia
Department of Transportation.
While expenses are paid, there’s no
salary involved, and he will be once
again juggling a big public service
effort with a thriving law practice.
“It’s like being in the legislature,”
he says, “meeting with county
See ROLE, page 6A
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Journal/Ray Lightner
More than 100 citizens turned out
to hear Darren Hicks at the impact
fee seminar Wednesday; sponsored
by the Home Builders Association
of Warner Robins and held at the
Georgia National Fairgrounds and
Agricenter in Perry.
Police hunt
sex offender
By RAY LIGHTNER
Journal Staff Writer
Have you seen Renee Leimonilani
Leclaire?
Leclaire is wanted for registra
tion of sex offenders for failing
to notify local authorities of her
whereabouts. She was convicted of
child molestation in Missouri back
in 1998.
A warrant for
registration of
sex offenders was
taken Wednesday
by the Houston
County Sheriffs
Office. Her resi
dence was last
verified on Jan.
18, according the
Georgia Bureau
of Investigation
Registry.
Leclaire, 37, is 5 foot 2 inches,
130 pounds, with brown hair and
brown eyes. Her last known address
according to the Sheriffs Office
is 102 Donald Drive in Warner
Robins. Her address, according to
the Sex Offender registry is 1948
U.S. Highway 341 in Perry.
Anyone with information on
Leclaire’s whereabouts is asked
to contact the Houston County
Sheriffs Office Warrants Division
at 542-2095 or Macon Regional
Crimestoppers at 742-2330 or 1-
877-68 CRIME.
AF base directorate
earns defense award
By USA MATHEWS
Robins Air Force Base
The Warner Robins Air Logistics
Center Personnel Directorate
has won the Human Capital
Management for Defense Award in
the Most Innovative Recruitment
and Retention Program catego
ry. This announcement for the
inaugural awards program was
made Feb. 14 at the HCMD con
ference in Arlington, Va. Michael
O’Hara, director of DR accepted
the award.
While winning awards for con
tinuous process improvements
See AWARD, page 6A
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■ -- - 1
LECLAIRE
Sex Offender