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Wednesday, September 1, 1999
tlhc lea&er -{Tribune
Vol. No. 110, Issue 35 5 Sections, 62 Pages
ACH
Inside ut
Pep Rally
A pep rally for the Fort Valley
State University Wildcats will
be held downtown Friday in
Fincher Park at 5 p.m. Free hot
dogs, cokes and music.
Tax Assessors
The regular meeting of the
Peach Board of Assessors will
be held on September 2nd at
6:00 p.m. in the County Com¬
missioners’ Public Meeting
Room at the Peach County
Courthouse.
Blood Drive
There will be a Blood Drive on
Monday, September 13 from 3-
7 p.m. at Chamlee Baptist
Church. There is a great need
for blood donors right now so
please help!
HESPTO
Hunt Elementary School
Open House/P.T.O. Meeting
Thursday, September 2, 1999 at
6:30 p.m. at the Hunt Elemen¬
tary Cafeteria.
Volunteer Training
Volunteer Training for
Children’s Bereavement
Program, Sat., Sept. 18, 9
a.m. - 4 p.m.; Sun., Sept. 19,
1-5 p.m. Peach Regional
Medical Center Conference
Room. Pre-register by call¬
ing 477-0335.
Bereavement Support
A bereavement support
group will begin Sept. 9 and
continue through Nov. 11.
Every Thursday night from
6:30-8 p.m. for 10 consecu¬
tive weeks at Thomas Public
Library. Must attend all 10
classes. Pre-register by call¬
ing 477-0335. Alicia Wilson
will lead the program.
Want to adopt?
Thinking about investing?
Invest in the future of Georgia’s
children. Help provide security
to Georgia’s children and their
families ... for the rewards. If
interested call the Peach Coun¬
ty Department of Family and
Children Services at (912) 825-
6428.
Hospice Training
Volunteer Training for
becoming a Hospice Volun¬
teer, Sat. Sept. 25. 9 a.m. -
12 noon., Peach Regional
Medical Center Conference
Room. Call 477-0335.
Self-Defense class
HODAC’s Victim Resource
Center is sponsoring a Com¬
mon Sense Self-Defense Class
for womm on Thursday
September 9, 1999. The class
will be held c* HODAC, 2762
Watson Blvd., from u.uu p.m. •
8.00 p.m. Participants wil
learn to identify survival sig
nals and basic self-defense
Reservations required. Cal
953-5675 to make reservations.
Drive on for records archive
Adina Bailey spearheads
The days of travelling all over
the county to gather information
may be coming to an end.
Edna Bailey, of the Fort Valley
Utilities Commission, presented
a report at this month’s quarter¬
ly intergovernmental meeting on
a proposed records management
system for Byron, Fort Valley,
Peach County and surrounding
counties.
Bailey said that out of the eight
governmental units contacted
there were five that said yes
immediately and three possibles
depending on how much it’s
going to cost.
The eight units include
Reynolds, Butler, Marshallville,
Oglethorpe and Montezuma,
Taylor and possibly Crawford
Peach County's source of local news, advertising and sports for over 100 years
• • •
Two accused here
of ‘indoor growing’
The Peach County Sheriff’s
Department raided the “biggest
indoor growing operation in
Peach County” last Thursday
morning.
Major Terry Deese, of the sher¬
iff’s department, referred to last
week's seizure of 42 pounds of
marijuana from a trailer on
Price Road.
Deputies executed the warrant
at 6:30 a.m. on Thursday,
August 26th. The raid was a co-
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$1100 in cash was found at the scene.
Less than 100 attend first tax forum
By Jarry Murtagh
The Lmadmr-Tribunm
Peach County Commissioners
took their search for a county¬
wide water and sewer system to
the Byron Elementary School
last Monday evening.
Fewer than 100 residents
attended the public forum
designed to rally support for a
Special Purpose Local Option
Sales Tax (SPLOST) which will
be voted up or down at a spe
cial election to be held on
September 21st.
Commissioners hope to use the
one cent sales tax to raise $12
million over a period of five
years as “seed” money toward
the first phase of the proposed
and Roberta.
Bailey said that Andy Taylor
not the one from Mayberry, the
one from the Georgia Archives
Department, “is talking with the
archives board to see if we could
get more money by the county’s
and cities working together.
If that’s not going to get more
money,” Bailey said, “then he’s
going to recommend that the
counties and cities pursue sepa¬
rate grants”
Bailey explained that the
grants are to pay for surveying
records to determine the volume
and types of records which would
need to be archived.
Mayor John Stumbo suggested
that if each unit applied for
their own grant it would be poe-
erffo/t (tett’t krtrtr unli hiA^t thmx *
operative venture among the
Warner Robins police depart
ment, the Drug Enforcement
Administration and the Peach
County Sheriff’s office.
David Porter, 36, and Roxanne
Barrett, 40, were arrested in the
raid.
Porter was charged with manu
facturing marijuana and posses
sion of a firearm during the com
mission of a felony. His bond was
set at $10,000 and he is being
water and wastewater treat
ment system.
Peach County Water and Sew
er Authority (PCWSA) Chair¬
man Melvin Walker provided an
overview of the history of the
proposed project beginning with
the appointment of the PCWSA
in July of 1997.
Beginning with the first
meeting of the PCWSA in
August of 1997, Walker said,
“We started to look at all of the
service providers in the coun¬
ty...people in the cities were
being served but there were
people in the rural areas that
weren’t. There was the area
along 1-75, the economic corri
dor, that we hadn’t done much
about. Warner Robins was
beginning to annex parts of
Peach County in that area.”
Walker explained that the
authority used a $25,000 grant
from the state legislature,
obtained through the good
offices of Senator Hooks, Repre¬
sentatives Robert Ray and Lyn
more James, to retain the Macon
engineering firm of Tribble and
Richardson to develop a prelim¬
inary plan for a countywide
water and sewer system.
Tribble and Richardson put
together a document savine
“here’s what you need...and
what you need doesn’t have to
all be built at the same time.
You need some of it within five
years, some in ten and some in
twenty...they came up with a
sible to pool their resources for
the creation of a central archive.
“I think that Mr. Taylor pointed
out before that if we did this col¬
lectively we would be able to get
more grants and more help but if
we did it individually it would be
too costly.
The plan would be to form one
archive for the surrounding
counties and cities with one
manager. Everyone would have
there own security system for
their records and could make
their own decision about how
long to keep records and when to
send them to the archives.”
Bailey added that all that’s
down the road, the first thing we
have to do is conduct a “survey of
our records” as a first step in the
process toward forming an
archive.
(See RECORDS. Page 2A)
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The loot conviscated from the home.
held at the Peach County Law
Enforcement Center,
Barrett was charged with man
ufacturing marijuana. She was
released on $5000 bond.
Deese said the three bedroom
mobile home was well set up for
manufacturing drugs. The walls
had thick insulation to keep the
heat from being detected by
police helicopters and the grow
ing lamps were set to operate
only between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00
p.m.
Two of the mobile home’s three
bedrooms were devoted to grow¬
ing marijuana and the third was
used as a drying room for the
plants. ,
Deese said that the marijuana
seized was very pure. He added
that Porter had allegedly been
selling it for $3000 a pound as
compared to a normal street
price of $1200 a pound for “home
grown” marijuana.
Deese noted that the 42
pounds seized left Porter and
Barrett eight pounds short of
being charged with trafficking
which carries a mandatory five
year penalty and a $100,000
fine.
Other items seized in the raid
included $1100 in cash, two
grow lamps with power units, a
thermometer, a humidity gauge,
a green ammo box with ammu
nition. * Remington Model 591
cal. 22 rifle ser#1138117, a
Stevens Model 62 cal. 22 rifle,
scr#L189200, a Mossberg Model
M835, 12 gauge shotgun, an
SKS cal. 7.62x39 rifle, a RedStar
4x20 scope w/mounts, a smoking
pipe, a metter electronic balance,
an April issue of High Times
magazine, a small pill bottle
with Marijuana residue, a Trion
Ilf hat is Peggy
Herbert doing?
i
d out inside this ft
eek on Page 7fl
Electronic Air Cleaner, 2 packs
of cigarette rolling papers, a pair
of sci I a Gerber baby food
conta ^'mtaining Maryuana
seeds, brass smoking pipes,
one large amount of foam wall
insulation, and 20 light bulbs.
If convicted, Barrett and Porter
face a minimum of five years in
prison and/or a $20,000. There
sentence could be as much as 20
years.
five year, ten year and twenty
year plan.
Their recommendations suited
us fine,” Walker added, “ because
the price tag on the total 20
year project was estimated at
$80 million. If we had to build
that all at once, we’d be up the
creek without a paddle.”
The authority explored the
possibility of funding the first
phase of the project with
loans, according to Walker, but
even assuming the lowest
interest rates, “There was no
way the residents of Peach
County could pay the rates
necessary to fund the project.”
In an effort to devise methods
for funding the project, Walker
said, the authority looked at sev-
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Trojan time
Steve and Roberta Smith were on the scene bright and early Satur¬
day morning painting Trojan heads on the streets near the high
school. In fact, when the photographer arrived at 7:15 a.m., they
were the only ones around. The Trojans kick off their season, Friday
in Warner Robins against the Northside Eagles, 7:30 p.m.
50c Per Copy
eral other counties that had
dealt with a similar situation.
“We looked at a number of
plans where they had done such
things, we went up to Clayton
County, we looked at seven or
eight examples of county’s like
us...McDuffie County and
Thompson, they’d done this and
when they finished...they ended
up coming out with very little
debt left.”
At that point, Walker
explained, we began to look at
getting “seed” money for the pro¬
ject through SPLOST. “We can
use that money as leverage...to
obtain grants and assistance for
funding the remaining portion of
the first phase of the project.”
(See FIRST, Page 2A)