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Warner Robins American Little Leaguers earn Southeast Region’s top seed - Sports LEGAL ORGAN FOR HOUSTON CoJBtY, city of Perry, city of Warner Robins and city of Centerville VOLUME 137, NUMBER 154 BELOW THE FOLD: 116th earns National Guard award ■WR accepting resumes for post ■ City adds gaming machine ordinance Wednesday August 8,2007 The Home Journal’s FRONT PORCH WHERE^GHBQKSmET IN BRIEF School system seeks community input The Houston County School System, according to a release, invites parents and community members to attend a forum to give guidance and feedback on the 2007- 2008 Houston County Schools’ Instructional Goals. A meeting will be held Monday from 5:45 until 6:30 p.m. at the Houston County Career and Technology Center. Members of the Teaching and Learning Department will present the current goals and offer an opportunity for guests to give input for board consideration. Dr. Mike Mattingly, assistant super intendent for teaching and learning, will lead the discussion. The HCCTC is located at 1311 Corder Road in Warner Robins. For more information, contact Mattingly at 478-988-6100, Ext. 10100. First Baptist to host Red Cross blood drive An American Red Cross Blood Drive will be held Aug. 15, from 3-8 p.m. at First Baptist, Perry, which is located at 1105 Main Street. Call the church office at 987-2002 for more information. Miller ES to hold council election Miller Elementary School, accord ing to a release, will hold a School Council election for business part ners Aug. 14 at 6 p.m. in the media center. Miller Elementary Is located at 101 Pine Valley Drive in Warner Robins. Principal Gwendolyn Pearson-Kilgore may be contact ed either by phone at 478-929- 7814, Ext. 55275, or by e-mail at GKilgore@hcbe.net. BIRTHDAYS Today ■ D.C. Childs ■ Bailey Woods (Happy fifth!) ANNIVERSARY Today ■ Kay and Ray Jackson News tip hotline 6 a m.-4 p m: 987-1823 Ext 231 f 4 p.m.-until: 397-8811 PERIODICAL 500 8 m§ 4 Award-Winning Belter Newspaper Contest ycKjy l■■ll■lll■■lll»«||lllllll|||,, l || sll || 111 l> | | || ||| || COOI * GEORGIA NEWSPAPER PROJECT Man Library UNIV OF GEORGIA ATHENS GA 30602-0002 3-DIGIT 306 a Aug. 8, 2007 ttmwm Mffii-sWN €WifiNfr SiSui: IS7O Today Weather Isolated thunderstorms High: 102 Low: 77 hhjnews.com Attempt to rescue puppies fails Web Perry, Elko teens arrested in safe thefts By RAY LIGHTNER Journal Staff Writer Two Houston County 19- year-olds are in jail and a third from Nashville is want ed on charges related to the thefts of safes from homes in Elko and in Berrien County. The Houston County Sheriffs Office, Criminal Investigation Division, is investigating a residential burglary that occurred on fi : ■P A ■ WR adds new ordinance to regulate gaming machines By RAY LIGHTNER Journal Staff Writer Warner Robins is regulating coin oper ated gaming machines. A new ordinance, similar to the one enacted in Perry, puts more requirements and regulations on all coin-operated amuse ment machines. Operators of any of the machines have 30 days to come into com pliance said City Attorney Jim Elliott. Mayor Donald Walker said, “in my opin ion, there is a direct correlation between the increase in arined robberies and these machines because some are making large cash payouts. Over SBO,OOO in cash was found in 14 machines” recently seized in a raid. Lt. Lance Watson of the city police depart ment’s Narcotics Intelligence Unit agreed. “A lot of the stores have been robbed but don’t report it,” he said. Walker said the stores with the machines have three cigar boxes under the counter - one for them, one for the machine owner and one to pay out.” Councilman Dean Cowart said of the '1 don't like them. I've seen young couples become destitute because of them." - Councilman Dean Cowart, on gaming machines SCHOOL-New beginning a color -1 5A Felton Road in June. The suspects, according to the investigation divi sion, entered the residence through a window in the daytime hours and stole a security safe and two fire arms. In July investigators recov ered another safe in the area of the burglary. The safe was tracked to Berrien County from items left in the safe. That safe machines, “I don’t like them. I’ve seen young couples become destitute because of them.” State law prohibits cash payouts and requires any winning payouts to be in cou pons or vouchers for merchandise. Walker said a couple of the locations in the city have very little merchandise for sale, but have a large amount of the machines. Elliott said state law requires no more than 50 percent of a businesses revenue can be derived from the machines. “The 50 percent is hard to enforce,” said Watson. “It’s pretty hard to determine where it comes from.” With this ordinance, Elliott said, “we are trying to address the part of state law not being enforced by the Department of Revenue. I worked with the Perry city attorney to draw this up.” Because of the way state law is written, the ordinance applies to all coin oper ated amusement machines, including video gaming machines, but also pinball and arcade machines as well as skeeball, foos ball, air hockey. Unlike the Perry ordi nance, the Warner Robins ordinance does not restrict the number of machines at any location where gaming is not the primary purpose of the business. Warner Robins requires a city license for a gaming room and determines where the machines can be located. See ORDINANCE, page 6A www.hhjnews.com irW^l was also reported taken dur ing daytime hours during a residential burglary. Sgt. James Williams of the Houston County Sheriffs Office said investigators began working with their counterparts in Berrien County, which led to a search warrant being issued and served by both agencies on July 24 at an Elko residence on Whitworth Road. Coty Benefield, 19, of Elko, Reach breach FOOD: Bundt mania; cookies for kids; homemade k» cream and 1Q more. ID was arrested at the time by Berrien County Sheriffs Office on burglary charges. Williams said stolen prop erty was recovered inside the residence that was taken during various burglaries within several different area counties. A large security safe, bur ied in the back yard was also recovered from the resi dence. A second safe was recovered from a creek in 1160 i wins Guard award Special to the Journal According to a Robins Air Force Base news release, the 116th Communications Squadron has been named Outstanding Communications Unit and received the Mission Support Trophy for the National Guard for 2007, July 26. The 64 members of the 116th CS provide operations, maintenance and technical support of all computer net works, information assurance, ground radio, telephone systems and visual information services supporting 3,000 personnel of the 116th Air Control Wing and five geo graphically separated units. , According to the release, the squadron’s attitude and professionalism enabled the White House commu nication agency to provide critical communications to See AWARD, page 6A City taking resumes for council post By RAT LIGHTNER Journal Staff Writer Wafner Robins will be accepting applications for the Post 4 City Council seat until 5 p.m. Friday. The position was vacat ed by Steve Smith at last month’s meeting, and the city posted the job and has been accepting resumes since then. The requirements for the job are someone who lives in the Post 4 area and would otherwise be able to qualify uv li\ t vs Fwnn Ni wsr u'i R Two sections • 12 pages ■F *I3HRH)RI i"it iIl I 1 JH the area of the home. Sgt. Ronnie Harlowe of the Houston County Sheriffs Office Criminal Investigation Division interviewed Benefield and Christopher Stidham, 19, of Nashville, in Berrien County. The investigation led to arrest warrants here for Benefield, Stidham and a third suspect, Josh Tucker, 19, of Perry for burglary, See THEFTS, page 6A to run for the post. The regular election for the Post 4 seat is scheduled for November, and quali fying is scheduled for the end of this month. But in the interim, Mayor Donald Walker said, “the appoint ment to council is a manda tory thing we must do.” Walker said the city has advertised for resumes/appli cations, but “so far only one person is interested. Only one person has talked to me about it,” he said. See POST, page 6A Westfield’s Darylann Thompson is called out at second while trying to steal dur ing the Lady Hornets’ Freedom Park Invitational game against First Presbyterian Day School Monday in Macon. For more, see 68. ENI/Gary Harmon