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_g- Houston County begins taking applications v for athletic director spot r t Collins: He plans on applying - page 8B 1 INSIDE: Westfield names Deems as Head of School; Man indicted for murder; PD has suspect In robbery; Mpre. Mmxzton Momi idcnßj^^l ■#*> m * ' s' a ‘ - %’ LEGAL ORGAN FOR HOUSTON GU V OF PERRY. Cri’V OF WARNER ROBINS AND WmStr^W Volume 137, Number 201 Santa’s baby Perry man boasts 50,000 lights ... and counting _ I| iBBMMOMiMHMHHWiBIi l '|if l | —~—————. — : — — . n ■— , Japlly 41 mg 11 ■*’ t j,... Ja|f r, Si'c . i IfHv B ♦. fl «*p^ : ; C;;jL JK | / i ■-*' fern v ■ f w MmKmm ■ U-m . \ lA.lt i. fl K ENI/Gary Harmon Jackson and Emma Algoe tell Santa, alias Leroy Bennett, what they would like for Christmas. By DON MONCRIEF Journal Managing Editor Leroy Bennett’s fam ily members never put up Christmas lights ... or at least the way he puts up Christmas lights. That trans lates to: a daughter that lives on one side of his 1316 Smoak Ave. address in Perry, a son that lives three houses down and a grand son that lives on the other side of him. In their households combined there are three granddaughters, two grandsons and a great grand daughter. Add in spouses and the total comes out to somewhere in Band of the U.S. Air Force Reserve to perform free holiday concert Special to the Journal The Band of the U.S. Air Force Reserve is scheduled to perform a free holiday concert at the Museum of Aviation Thursday at 7 p.m. This annual event, according to a release, fea tures songs from the band’s “Happy Holidays” series, including a mixture of classic holiday carols, novelty segments and sing-alongs. PERIODICAL 500 IIUIIII! 8 "55108 00001 11 4 f*iflillni l ffi,|| 111 l | l |f | | || j Georgia Newspaper Project Main Library University of Georgia ATHENS GA 30602 ALL FOR ADC 301 Dec. 12-14,2007 s i -k \a-< ( r . s,i u»\ €n>u -S.M ,s~-& i.\ Dr 1 -srf) the neighborhood - enough to prompt him to say they ought to just go ahead and name the loca tion “Bennett St.” - of 11 family members. Eleven family mem bers. Zero Christmas lights. Why no Christmas lights? Well, there’s a good explana tion for that actually: They’re too busy helping him put up his, he joked. His translates this year to an estimated 50,000 lights, plus the assorted sundry of religious items - him describing himself as a religious man - such as angels and a manger scene. It all started around 10 years ago, he said, when they - he and wife Retha, who joked nothing r : rtf— —/I | BIRTHDAYS Dec. 12 ■ Lauren Kennedy (Happy Sweet 16!) ■ Tim Cannon ■ Conchita Swift Dec. 13 ■ Dale Waite ■ Kathy Crenshaw ■ Kenny Roberts E-mail birthdays to: hhj@eVansnewspapers. com or donm@evansnewspapers. com. Mail to: 1210 Washington St., Perry 31069 attn: Don Moncrief. Or, call 987-1823, Ext. 231. Wednesday-Friday, December 12-14, 2007 about her better show up in the paper (or at least it’s hoped it was a joke) - moved from their country home on the outskirts of town. “I just enjoy doing it,” he said. “I enjoy putting them up. People enjoy looking at them ... children and adults.” He also dresses up as Santa Claus for the part - was Santa Claus for the Perry parade this year and has gone to Vienna peri odically to entertain pre-k chil dren on invitation from teachers - although not as much as he used to. “My knees,” he explained, See SANTA, page iA The concert is free, open to the public and will be held in the museum’s “Century of Flight Hangar.” Doors open at 6 p.m., and seating is limited. “Throughout this past year, the band has liter ally been around the world entertaining our deployed troops on five continents,” said Maj. Chad Steffey, music director and band commander. “We’re thrilled to be back home for the holidays and share this gift of music with our friends and family of Middle Georgia.” This week in HHJ history: 50 years ago: Man’s worst nightmare? You decide. The state extension service, and local county extension agent, announces a “kitchen improvement contest", the winner of which gets a new “electric" washing machine. Upon announcement, 800 farm women reportedly “get busy" renovating their homes. Here's a reminder in the 1947 paper plenty - with the apparent resurgence in popularity of motorscooters over the past few years - appropriate today. Operators are reminded by state and local officials they are not “play things. State law requires any power-cycle, whether it be a motorized bike or a motorscooter, must be licensed in the same manner required for a motorcycle.” 30 years ago: It’s official. Farmers go on strike and vow to stay on strike until their demands for 100 percent parity are met by Congress. Locally, farmers vow a boycott unless local communities close their doors that Wednesday as a show of support for the farmers. That in turn results in a meeeting of about 100 merchants -at least in Perry - voting to do just that for “two hours." But, State Strike Coordinator Tommy Kersey, whose farm was/is between Perry and Unadilla says: “Two hours isn't enough to satisfy us. We feel like merchants that we support all year can sacrifice one day to show their full support of us in our time of need." 20 years ago: Houston County District Attorney Theron Finlayson announced he will seek the death penalty for Tyrone Tharpe, accused of murdering Perry High School student Carla Ragin. He cites two reasons for his decision: One, the mur der was committed during the act of burglary and two, it was done “outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible dr inhu man in that it involved torture, depravity of mind or an aggravated battery to the victim.” In Sports, the 3-point shot makes its appearance in basketball. Almost immediately, Perry’s girls find out - the hard way - what it’s capable of doing. They are leading Twiggs County by seven when one of its players hits two straight sparking a rally. - Compiled by Don Moncrief * FwSm fnHw f ~ •^vs f Ai;.’*!? S'” JPIHL ‘ ENI/Gary Harmon Brandon Jordan, left, and Marques Ivory celebrate as the clock runs out in Northside’s Georgia Dome win over Tucker in the Georgia High School Association’s Class AAAA semifinals. NDOMEITABLE By MATTHEW BROWN Journal Sports Writer There’s a 21-point deficit on the scoreboard against you. The total yardage differential is 285 to 61 in favor of the other team. You’ve even given up seven points on a turnover. Desperate times do call for des perate measures, right? “No, not a desperation move at all,” said Northside High head coach Conrad Nix after the Eagles stormed back from that 21-point deficit at halftime to beat Tucker High 31-28 Friday in the GHSA Class AAAA semifinals (setting, of course, the Atlanta Georgia Dome). The “not a desperation move” was when senior quarterback Marques Ivory took the field to start the second half. Ivory had not played since suffering a bro ken leg at Upson-Lee on Oct. 19. Ivory didn’t look like a quar terback who was on crutches with a large cast at the end of one of his legs only days before Friday’s kick-off. “I had a lot of adrenaline keep ing me going,” said Ivory on his 11-for-16, 298-yard and three touchdown performance. “I didn’t worry about (rust). I was pretty confident going into the situation. I wasn’t worried about it at all.” Ivory was on the practice field the previous Monday focusing mainly on agility drills, and then later in the week it was back to "We put four years Into this, and we’re not about to let It slip out of our hands that easily. We were supposed to grab a hold of these guys and not let them go.” - Nortbside Senior Offensive Tackle Jerome Bibbins www.hhjnews.com INSIDE: More on the GAME AND PLENTY OF PICS regular football drills. He said he kept icing and wrapping his once injured area prior to the game. “I planned on using him some in the first half, but we never had the right opportunity,” said Nix. “I just decided to wait until the second half and start every thing over fresh. “I’m very, very thankful and proud for him. Praise God that he was well and able to contrib ute.” But a player coming off a seri ous injury would be a sure target for an opposing defense. Ivory, however, didn’t even have to worry about taking any shots to the leg because Tucker never got close to him. “They did great all night,” said Ivory about the Eagle offen sive line. “They knew I had to have time, and they put it in their hearts to do it.” “We are going to do that every day. It doesn’t matter who’s in there,” said senior offensive tack le Jerome Bibbins. “You could put coach Nix back there and we’re going to block for him. “(Ivory’s return) put a fire under us we never had before. He’s one of those guys that’s a leader on our team. That guy See DOME, page 6B Know someone or an agency that could use a pat on the back? Send your “Kudos" to hhj@evansnewspapers.com. Quote me on that ... “As farmers we are excited that we are once again being called upon to help the nation move toward energy indepen dence. And we are up to the challenge!” - American Corn Growers Association President Keith Bolin, on last week ’s pas sage of sweeping energy leg islation by the U.S. House of Representatives