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JHimstmt Bailg Itmrnal LEGAL ORGAN FOR HOUSTON COUNTY, city of Perry, city of Warner Robins and city of Centerville VOLUME 137, NUMBER 165 5mS! Thursday August 23,2007 The Home Journal’s FRONT PORCH WHER^NHGHBOI&mET IN BRIEF Driver Services to be closed Sept. 1 All Department of Driver Services, driver's licensing issu ance and testing Customer Service Centers, according to a release, will be closed Sept. 1 and will reopen Sept. 4. Standard operating hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. For complete loca tion information, visit the DDS web site at www.dds.ga.gov. Tucker to hold school council meeting The Tucker Elementary School Council will meet Sept. 18 at 5:15 p.m. in the media center. Tucker Elementary is located at 1300 Tucker Road in Perry. For more information, contact Principal Dr. Kim Halstead at KHalstead@hcbe. net or 478-988-6278. Hall of Fame to host collectibles show The Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in Macon will be hosting the Third Annual Middle Georgia Sports Collectibles Show Saturday. According to a release, many of the vendors will also be available to evaluate collections and offer advice on how best to sell them. The show runs from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tickets are $4 for adults, $2 for those ages 6-16 and free for chil dren under 6. Admission includes entry into the show and a tour of the museum. Quail Run sets school council meetings Quail Run Elementary School has scheduled its school council meetings for the 2007-2008 school year. All meetings are held at 7:15 a.m. in the data room. Meetings are set for: Sept. 18, Nov. 13, Feb. 5, 2008 and April 8, 2008. Parent Barry Vincent is serving as the school council chairperson for 2007-08. Quail Run Elementary is located at 250 Smithville Church Road in Warner Robins. For more information, contact Principal Dr. Cheryl Thomas at cathomas@hcbe. net or 478-953-0415. BIRTHDAYS Today ■ Brenda Phillips PERIODICAL 500 mill 8 “55108 0000 l 4 Award-Winning Newspaper 2004 Better Newspaper Contest COOI * Georgia pteviispapsr Projsd Man Library University of Georgia A i ritz nio G A 3u©vL:-uGG2 3-DIGIT 306 Aug. 23, 2007 fewv,;r„rvn .Vmv- MO BELOW THE FOLD: County approves its repaving wish list City says no to church sign Today Mostly sunny High: 100 Low: 72 hhjnews.com Humiliating? Yes A deterrent? Hmmm. Weather Web Impact fees on the way Perry council votes yes' Money raised to be used on fire protection, parks By CHARLOTTE PERKINS Journal Staff Writer Should those who are building new homes and bringing new resi dents to Perry pay part of the cost of increasing fire protection and recreational space? am j j ; JjH l<<i^ ir :: _ : ENI/Gary Harmon Perry first baseman Ashton Jones stretches for the ball to get a Rutland runner at first during the Lady Panthers’ loss at home Tuesday. For more, see 18. County approves repaving 'wish list' By RAY LIGHTNER Journal Staff Writer Houston County has submitted a 20-road wish list to the state for repaving. “We won’t get them all. We’ll probably get four to five,” said Tommy Stalnaker, county director of operations. The list of 20 county roads were submitted to the state Department of Transportation for funding under the Local Assistance Road Program. The road projects, below, are listed in order of preference: • Houston Lake Road, from Dunbar Road to County Line Road; • Old Perry Road from Ga. 98 to Sandy Run Road; ’ • Henson Road, from U.S. 341 to the dead end; • Davidson Road from Ga. 247 to the pavement ends; • Doublegate Drive from Ga. 96 to Gergia Chamber luncheon brings out record crowd. The answer is yes, as far as Perry City Council is concerned. Impact fees are on their way for the Perry service area. The city council voted on Tuesday night to appoint a seven-member Impact Fee Advisory Committee. Councilman Joe Kusar, who made Rut land Shannon Ridge Drive; • Water Drive from Smithville Church Road to Cliff Howard Drive; • Flournoy Road from Pitts Road to Fuller Road; • Sassy Fox Drive from and to Thompson Mill Road; • Gilchrist Drive from Green Street to Foxfire Drive; • Wimberly Road from U.S. 341 to the pavement ends • Heather Glen Boulevard from Sandefur Road to Horseshoe Bend Boulevard; • Jubilee Circle from Peachblossom Road to Peachtree Boulevard; • Cliff Howurd Drive from Morning Dove Lane to Dove Cove; • Habersham Lane from Hampton Way to dead end; • Falcon Crest from and to See REP A VING, page 6A www.hhjnews.com U SPORTS: NorttaMe Hanks StockirMge; HoCo wins but Perrv Ms; local golf ers win their flights 1Q at tourney Mope. | D the motion, included the require ment, under state law, that the committee would have at least 40 percent of its membership from development fields. In other words, three of the seven must be from the building, development or real estate industries As proposed by Mike Beecham, Perry’s director of community devel- Warner Robins says it plans to cut lax rale By RAY LIGHTNER Journal Staff Writer Warner Robins plans on lowering its tax rate. The City Council voted to advertise the lowering of the millage rate 0.003 mills. The council will vote later on at a public hearing to actually lower the rate from 9.257 mills to 9.254 mills. “It’s always a privilege to announce a reduction in taxes, especial dur ing an election year,” said Councilman Dean Cowart. “Thank you, and city staff,” Cowart added to Mayor Donald Walker. The millage is to be set at the rollback rate of 9.254 mills, which is the rate where the city report edly can bring in the same amount of money as last year, without raising taxes. Walker said the millage rate is based on the tax digest of $1,392,855,359 for 2007. The 2006 city tax digest was $1,289,585,375. The increase is attribut ed to the continued growth City: No to church sign By RA Y LIGHTNER Journal Staff Writer Warner Robins City Council said no to a sign request from Central Baptist Church. The church proposed a 300-square foot sign. The sign, 6-feet high and 50-feet long, would be brick between two 6-foot, 10-inch pillars, with 1-foot high letters, and ground level lighting. It was proposed for the corner of Lake Joy Road and Russell Parkway and set back from the roadway more than 65 feet off Russell and more than 25 feet off Lake Joy Road. The sign was rejected because it exceeds the 36-sqa ure-foot maximum in the Russell Parkway Overlay District. “We held CVS to it,” said councilman Doug McDowell. “I know it’s a church, but if we start making exceptions, we’ll have to keep making excep tions.” Mayor Donald Walker said, “the overlay is a guide line. We have made exceptions. The goal was to have something that looked nice as the entrance to the city. I’m gonna vote for it.” Councilman Dean Cowart said the overly district was in answer to concerns about “businesses with a hodge-podge of signs. I have trouble saying no to a church,” he said. Cowart also noted the entranceway is 500 feet away from the sign, and the church owned the land before the overlay district was approved. “I don’t have trouble saying no to a church,” Councilman Clifford Holmes said. “We said no once. I don’t care who comes in here.” Councilman John Havrilla said the church, which has entrances off both roads, could have two 36- square foot monument signs by the entrances. See SIGN, page 6A Two sections • 20 pages opment, the committee would review the costs of proposed improvements and make recommendations for fees to be paid. All funds raised through impact fees will be used for fire pro tection and parks. In other business, the city began discussion of changes to planned unity development regulations. See FEES, page 6A of the city through annexa tions. While cutting the tax rate, the city expects to bring in about 8 percent more revenue than last year. The city council also approved taking up to sl.l million out of the unobli gated general fund balance to cover the increase in contribution to the group health fund for the previ ous fiscal year, which ended in June. “We are $624,000 in the red today,” Walker explained. “It could go higher because more bills are still coming in.” City Councilman Terry Horton said, “I knew we’d have to transfer some money to cover expenses from last year.” City Comptroller Bill Harte explained, “there is a pretty significant defi ciency, but only the money needed to balance out the financial report will be moved over.” Walker said there were See jR.4 TE, page 6A \ V E\ 1N S I Will ) Y/ U S/M/V tfl m