Newspaper Page Text
The Houston Home Journal
Bobby Branch, President-Editor-Publisher ÜBNJkL
nu . , . r NeMpAper
Official Organ City Os Perry And Houston County. Georgia -*»/*•<>
A Prize-Winning
Newspaper
JIMMY CHAPMAN PHIL BYRD I 1 Q7*}
Production Mgr Sports Editor X wJ /
letter Newspaper I
Contests
JOE HIETT JANICE COLWELL EMILY MONTGOMERY
Advertising Mgr Bookkeeper Society Editor "/.»
"An Award Winning Georgia Weekly Newspaper"
HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL THURS., JUNE 13, 1974, »
Houston County Budgets
The Houston County Com
missioners have a tough, cutting job
ahead of them to trim the requested
$3,369,000 budget down to the an
ticipated income of the County of
about $3,000,000.
The staggering budget points with
glaring clarity to the fact the County
is becoming more hard-pressed each
year to provide the expanded services
to taxpayers and to the fact that it
would appear difficult at this time to
plunk down a few million dollars for a
County annex building in Warner
Robins.
In these days of increasingly
“tight” money and lax burdens
already strapped heavily upon
Houston County property owners, the
County Commissioners are going to
have to budget more cautiously than
ever before. They, of course, cannot
Rep. Walker Our Choice
State Representative Larry Walker
of Perry is seeking his second term in
the General Assembly in the August
Democratic Primaries. Because of
his outstanding record and list of
accomplishments during his first two
year term, the junior legislator is
unopposed in his bid for the state
office.
The Home Journal endorses Rep.
Perry Crime Down
Burglaries and robberies have been
on the decrease in Perry in recent
months. This is a direct result of the
Perry Police Dept. They are doing a
better job than ever before and are
receiving cooperation from mer
chants and citizens in their fight
against crime in the Perry com
munity.
Too often our police have been
criticized, many times unfairly. But
Courts In Houston
There is a move underway in
Georgia and other states to adopt a
uniform court system, whereby all
courts in the County operate from the
same location and under a uniform
system.
If such a move ever becomes a
reality, it would mean the Houston
Superior Court and the State Court
would hold trials and conduct
business from the same courtroom.
At the present, Superior Court is held
in the County Courthouse here in
Perry while State Court is conducted
in Warner Robins.
While a uniform court system such
as this would have flaws, there are
some worthwhile aspects also. Mainly
a savings to the taxpayer by holding
A Cleaner Perry
We endorse the Perry City Coun
cil’s establishment last week of a
“suggestion program” to solicit ideas
and suggestions from individuals in
the City as well as City employees to
help save the City money and to
operate more efficiently.
We especially commend Coun
PAGE 4-A
do this without the complete
cooperation of the Constitutional
officers and other department heads
of the County in taking a close, cutting
look at their budget requests for the
coming year.
The next few days of County budget
hearings should prove interesting.
The old, give and take situation will
be taking place and we hope the
Commissioners and department
heads take into full consideration the
give and take is being funded by us
taxpayers... And we just can’t hardly
give any more.
This is the year of sensible
budgeting and spending for the
County and we fully believe our
County Commissioners will use good
judgement and work out a budget all
of us can live with in Houston County.
--8.8.
Walker’s re-election as State
Representative. He has served the
people in his district well and
distinguished himself as an able and
hard-working member of the General
Assembly. It is for these reasons we
take pride in endorsing Rep. Walker’s
candidacy and we urge the voters of
this district to give him a vote of
confidence on August 12.
-8.8.
when you need them, they are there to
help in any way they can. We are
proud of the recent strides and
upgrading of our police department
and as always we support them to the
fullest.
We urge the Mayor and City Council
to maintain a continuous program of
upgrading and training our police
officers and we commend them for
their past interest in this area.
-8.8.
all court under the same roof. It is
feasible, in our opinion, that both the
Superior and State Courts could
conduct business in the present
Superior Court in the Courthouse
here. There would need to be a few
alterations made and a different
system set up but it could work
smoothly.
We are not saying this is the thing to
do. We are only pointing out this is the
move in the wind and should be
considered in future plans of the
County. After all, when it comes to
saving a tax dollar, elected officials
owe it to those paying their salaries to
look under every rock for those
savings.
-8.8.
cilman Alton Hardy for his research
of this program. It is one in which
Perryans can get involved closely in
the City government and at the same
time be rewarded for ideas and
suggestions. It is indeed a worthwhile
program.
--8.8.
COALITION CAMPAIGN
' —\
The Slanted Side |
By Joe Hiett
S Ty 4
For one of my not too frequent
times, I find myself in agreement
with Councilman D.K. Roughton. Dot
opposed the 5.5 percent cost-of-living
raises for city employees, because he
felt all employees should receive an
“across-the-board” raise, in other
words - everyone should get the same
amount of money hike, whether it be
S4O, or S3O, or SSO a month.
Roughton charged that the lower
salaried employee was being treated
unfairly. To a large, extent I agree.
Everyone does pay the same price for
groceries at the supermarket. And 5.5
percent of SBOO a month is more than
5.5 percent of S6OO a month. Yet the
cost of living increases affect
everyone about equally.
Os course, it is a sociological fact
that the lower salaried employee
usually has more dependents - more
children. Yet he is forced to feed,
clothe, and make them happy on less
money. The pay hikes just further
compound the problem. Whereas a
man’s boss might get a pay raise of
SSO a month, the employee receives
far less.
But the political bosses are happy.
They’ve paid lip service to the
masses. They’ve raised their em
ployees’ pay. I think, along with Dot,
that everybody’s pay should have
been raised the same amount.
Otherwise, it wasn’t a cost-of-living
raise.
The Houston County School Board
is to be congratulated on cutting their
millage rate from 20 mills this year
back to 18 mills for the 1974-75 school
year. Os course, though, this act was
made possible only through two
developments, neither of them at
tributable to the board itself.
Number one, the tax digest has
climbed by more than 21 million
dollars since September of last year
when countv tax employees mailed us
\
Rev. Dun Aria 'll
First Baptist Church
HOW WE LOOK AT OTHERS
Vi j
Therefore thou are inex
cusable, O man, whosoever
thou art that judges!: for
wherein thou judgest another,
thou condemnest thyself: for
thou that judgest doest the
same things.
-Romans 2:1
When we were born, we
came into this world with very
little knowledge. W'e could tell
whether we were being
treated lovingly or not, but
could discern little else. As we
grew, we were taught to know
the difference between one
those hated tax slips. This means that
each person’s share of the budget
would be reduced if the budget stayed
the same.
Number two, the school board
received an unexpected (and un
budgeted) bonus of over one million
dollars in IMPACT funds from the
federal government. Because of this
budget “bonus” million dollars, the
1973-74 school budget will end up
about $730,000 in the black. Note that
this meaps if the million bucks hadn’t
arrived, the system would have
operated about $270,000 in the red!
So the school board will have two
factors really going for them next
year -a residual balance of about
$730,000 left over from this year, and a
greatly increased tax digest. Do you
see now why they’re able to an
nounce a tax cut, AND reap the very
favorable impression created in
property owners’ minds?
“The mark of a true man is not
whether or not he is a success, but
how he plays the game of life.” Those
words are so true. Many successes
are made by “shady” and slightly
dishonest dealings. This is true on a
local, state and national level. We all
are aware of how infamous “cour
thouse gangs” used to rule county and
city governments. I have a feeling it’s
still true - how many times have you
heard of a candidate not part of the
“establishment” or “clique” winning
an election? I still feel that too few
men are controlling two many
political jobs. It is a sad fact that in
Houston County, too many times a
select few people seem to be ap
pointed to, or in a few rare cases,
elected to several positions at one
time. I feel that a person should not
hold more than one appointive or
elective governmental post at one
time. To do otherwise is to invite
power buildups.
thing and another, to know
right from wrong, to know'
what was good for us and what
was not. We were also in
structed in what was right and
wrong in the conduct of others.
But as with all sin, we put a
good thing to bad use; we
learned to use our skills in the
ability to detect the failings of
our neighbors and to delight in
comparing our own good
points with their short
comings.
Paul holds that there is no
quantitative measure of
iniquity. We have all failed to
follow the light which we have
been given; we have not lived
up to our own standards. If we
are at all honest, we must
admit that we, too, are sin
ners, a fact which makes us
very poor judges for the others
about us.
Montaigne has a grim tale in
one of his essays. There was a
Persian judge who had given a
biased verdict and he had
given it under the influence of
bribery. W’hen Cambysses, the
king, discovered what had
happened, he ordered the
judge to be executed. Then he
had the skin flayed from the
dead body and preserved; and
with the skin he covered the
seat of the chair on which
judges sat in judgment, that it
might be a grim reminder to
them never to allow prejudice
to affect their verdicts. Only a
completely impartial person
has a right to judge. It is not in
human nature to be com
pletely impartial; only God
can judge.
BOBBY a
BRANCH I.
OUT ON A
BRANCH
/
MOTIVATION --- Those Perry merchants and
businessmen who did not attend the seminars held
here recently by the Chamber of Commerce and
members of the University of Georgia’s School of
Business missed out on a lot of vital and helpful
information they could utilize in their business.
The closing session of the twice a week forums
was held Tuesday night in which Professors Larry
Bramblett and Wesley Clonts passed along and
helped interpret the results of a comprehensive
consumer survey conducted here in March. The
Survey reveals to all of us in business in Perry
what the attitudes of the consuming public in this
area are and what they want to see us do in the
future to provide more and better services.
In most other towns where sirfiilar surveys have
been taken, the percentage of those taking the
time and effort to complete the long forms has
been considerably lower than the percentage
tabulated in Perry. This shows me the people o|f
Perry are more concerned about their community
and the future of the town and want to do their
part in the preservation and revitalization of
downtown Perry.
The survey, you will recall, was a joint effort
between the Chamber of Commerce, the Perry
Re-development Commission and the Georgia
Business School. The re-development Com
mission, under the able leadership of people like
W. G. Mullins and Lewis Meeks, is dedicated to a
revitalization of the central business district of
Perry as well as a move towards more positive,
orderly, desired growth and expansion of the
overall business community to better serve the
people of Perry.
Mark my words. Positive things are going to
begin to happen in the Perry business community.
Positive things that will offer consumers some of
the things they have expressed they wanted in the
survey. A new era is approaching. It will not come
over-night but the dawn is beginning to shed
daylight and the full bloom of the approaching
new day will make Perry a better place to live.
MAKES YOU WONDER DEPT. A big portion
of that same crowd continuously screaming about
the morals and actions of just about all politicians
how bad they are is the same crowd that
laughs about people taking off their clothes and
“streaking” in public. There is some jumbled
logic there somewhere but I can’t find it.
OUR APOLOGIES ln last week’s Home
Journal, we mistakenly left out one of the names
under a photo of the newly elected members of the
Perry Junior High Beta Club. We apologize t cm
Miss Denise Ingram for the error. Certainly any
student achieving the scholastic requirements to
become a Beta Club member deserves recognition
and we regret the error.
MORE ATTRACTIVE PERRY I am sure
most Perryans have noticed the recent spruce up
job that has been going on in Perry by the City’s
maintenance dept. By a directive from Mayor
James McKinley, street lines have been painted,
grass cut, trash picked up along the roadsides ....
According to the Mayor, a clean town is one of
many things that help make a happy town and
he s right. Keep up the good work.
the SOVEREIGN STATE of AFFAIRS
A SW / f ’ Al - Ass FOR A V "X 1
( cool D YOU SPARE ) ( COP Os COFFEE?" )
Vs 3 for a \ v ARt yoo J
Q cur oi (off ft ? j f kipping me ?.'! \
i• t i V'/d.' 1 ;
( I KNOW WHERE ) II 7 YEAH... BUT Y(xA
f YOU CAM GET A X \ DON'T EXPECT ME )
V CUP r °rT AA ) /' T 0 WINK IT , \
FOR ?CH.' s C WITHOUT MILK )
v - J > and SUGAR,,, y
* Nw, 00 YOU ?
GET IT OFF !
YOUR CHEST...
WRITE A ,
LETTER TO
THE EDITOR!