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f Recap Os Months ’ Toil
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Tom Grant’s , Booster Club’s
Work Pays Off With Stands
Monday, June 28 the
county Board of Education
voted to spend $55,007 to
purchase 2,248 seats for the
Perry High football
stadium. The decision
came after many months
of efforts, and repeated
requests by the Perry
Panther Booster Club and
its current president, Tom
Grant.
Last October 14, Grant
formally requested the
board consider buying new
seating facilities at the
Perry High field. Waving a
32-page documented study.
Grant reminded the school
board of a similar visit
made almost two years
ago by a PHS Booster
group, and he recalled that
the school board had
denied that earlier
request.
Grant said on October 14,
that several reasons made
the need for better and
more seating acute. He
cited facts that showed if
Perry High were to win Its
region and be scheduled to
host a playoff game, the
insufficient number of
seats would force it being
played elsewhere.
He backed up his
statement by citing
Georgia High School
Association (GHSA)
regulations that specify at
least 4,500 seats for an AA
playoff contest. Prior to
Monday's decision, Perry
High's stands would seat at
best about 2,200 tarns.
The Booster Club
spokesman further ad
vised the board that the
bottom two rows of seats at
the north side present
r~ "N
No Jail Stays
Juvenile Law
Changes Made
A recent Supreme Court law enforcement officers,
of Georgia decision ap- including city police, to
parently means juveniles come to grips w'ith the
suspected of criminal acts matters,
can no longer be brought Perry Police Chief B.E.
into a police department, Dennard Tuesday night
or kept behind jail bars affirmed his fears that a
even overnight. Both juvenile suspect cannot be
county Juvenile even brought into the
Lieutenant Larry police department
Snellgrove and Perry facilities at all. "We're
Police Chief B.E. Dennard hoping to be allowed to
Tuesday separately question them in our
confirmed their thoughts Courtroom," he added,
that the decision may Snellgrove says he
hamper apprehension and rarely ever took a suspect
detention of juveniles in to Macon unless a serious
the future. offense had been com-
Snellgrove went before miffed. "Otherwise we
the Houston County returned them to their
Commission Tuesday parents," he stated. He
afternoon and told them released his activity report
that, as he understands the for June 1976. It shows
court decision, he no handling of 60 "official"
longer can assign a cases, of which 40 are for
suspected juvenile theft by taking or
criminal to a night behind burglary,
bars at the County or City Four cases were for
jails. criminal damage to
"The way I see it, we property, two for auto
have only three alter- theft, one runaway, one
natives now. We either: 1) ungovernable, one drug
release the suspect to abuse, and three
parents; 2) take to a trespassing cases,
detention home (in Through June, the
Macon); or 3) take before Juvenile offices had
the Juvenile Judge im- handled 767 total cases, 422
mediately," he added, "official". It Included 109
Juveniles can appear theft by taking, 103
before a Superior Judge if burglary, 16 runaways, 12
over 15 for serious felonies, assaults, four sex offenses,
Snellgrove further said, eight ungovernables, and
that practicality means eight trespassing, among
that if called upon at night, the more prominent types
his officers must take a of cases,
suspect to the detention in a related matter, Lt.
home in Macon, a6O mile Snellgrove asked that his
round trip. Suspects department be allowed one
cannot even be questioned new auto, to replace one in
at a police or sheriff's need of repairs. The
’ facility any longer. commissioners authorized
The decision was es- Purchasing Agent Bill
fective Immediately. State Roach to take bids on a
and Juvenile Court Judge small or medium sized
Paul Armltage has auto. They said gas
dispatched letters calling mileage will play a part in
for a meeting of all county their decision.
''home'' stands are
unusable, because they are
at field level and seated
fans therefore could not
see over the players or
sideline walkers.
(That revelation later
resulted in the school
board considering raising
on a concrete pad the north
stands, which indirectly
led to Monday's vote to buy
stands for the south side.)
Recalling the fact that he
is a former resident of
Warner Robins, Grant
chronicled the develop
ment of the Warner
Robins' football programs,
which coincided with the
building of concrete In
ternational Stadium in
Warner Robins, through
the use of county tax funds
after a referendum.
He advanced the
proposition that if Warner
Robins were still playing
behind its Junior High,
they would not attract
18,000 fans and dress out
200 players.
Again relying on the 32-
page study, Grant showed
that increasing the seating
to over 4,000 fans would
almost double the PHS
athletic income, if seventy
percent of seats were sold
at five home games.
The quotes which the
Booster Club had obtained
for 2,576 seats, delivered
and installed, amounted to
$76,000. The type of seats
suggested in the plan
called for room un
derneath for later addition
of a band room, and are in
essence like those seats
voted on Monday.
The school board took no
action on the Booster Club
proposal on that October
14th, and seemed to be of
the opinion they could not
legally expend general
operation funds for athletic
facilities. Instead they
mentioned possibilities of a
bond referendum that
would include the new
stands.
The issue of whether or
not the stands could be
purchased with general
operations funds resulted
in two Home Journal ar
ticles, one on October 30,
that told of a conversation
with a state school
executive. The executive
then indicated possibilities
the funds COULD be used
for stands, but a later
letter to School Superin
tendent David Perdue
reversed that opinion.
(Perry Mayor James
McKinley sent a letter to
the executive asking for a
ruling.)
The November 13 HHJ
carried an article with the
"official" opinion that
indicated the stands could
Home Building flourishes with the beginning
of Savings and Loan Associations
a Visitors to 4276 Orchard Street, Philadelphia,
find that this house is now an official historical
monument because of the way in which it was
purchased. It was the first house in this country
financed by a Savings Association. It was pur
chased in 1832 for $375. The money was borrowed
from Oxford Provident Building Association.
That association was formed by a group of 37
men iir 1831 to provide funds to buy or build
[u homes. By 1888 there were an estimated 3500 •
MALCOLM REESE
/ PRESIDENT, SECURITY FEDERAL SAVINGS
< iA / / ' - I
\\i \ /
\ ' j A \ /
/' fj Security Federal Savings made its first home loan in 1936 on a
house located at 905 Northside Drive, Perry. We are proud of the
v growth from our humble beginning of $3,800 to present assets of
$63,000,000. With seven Middle Georgia offices, we’re celebrating
our 40th year promoting thrift and home ownership in the 1832
tradition.
not be built from general
operations funds, which
appeared to end the
matter.
But this spring Grant
again appeared before the
school board, again
representing the Booster
Club. He said that since
new seats were not going to
be built, then the board
should consider elevating
the current "home" stands
on the north side of the
gridiron.
He again mentioned the
bottom two rows which are
in effect unusable. The
school board decided to
view the seats, and that
look evidently convinced
them to agree to elevate
the stands by five feet, to
be placed on a concrete
pad.
They subsequently asked
architect Henry Corslni to
prepare a plan and he did
so. But to their surprise,
costs of elevating the
several year old seats
amounted to $49,000.
Somewhat shocked, they
decided last month to seek
to buy more "bleacher''
seats, to place on the
"south" side with about 300
seats already there.
The $55,007 to be spent
for the weathered steel
bleachers comes, at least
to a large degree, from
efforts of the Booster Club
and Tom Grant. Though
the number of seats Is 4,000
or 4,500 (depending upon
which set of figures are
used), Perry High now
apparently has a ser
viceable, fairly modern
stadium in its immediate
future.
The Seats
Those 2,248 seats will be
of aluminum with
aluminum footboards. The
superstructure will be
weathering steel, and will
change In color as It ages.
At first the girders will be
a "cool gray", then turn to
"orangy-red rust" and
finally to a "deep earthy
brown", according to a
Standard Steel Company
brochure.
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