Newspaper Page Text
Good luck, Perry High & Westfield Grads —See P-5A
f The Houston Home f
Journal
Perry, Georgia's Hometown Newspaper & Houston County's Legal Organ Since 1870-A Park Newspaper
SATURDAY, JUNE 3,1989-119th YEAR, NO. 44, 3 SECTIONS, 36 PAGES
City obtains
grant for
Creekwood
By OLIN HUBERT
Staff Writer
Perry will receive a SIO,(XX)
grant from the Department of
Natural Resources for improve
ments to Creekwood Park, Rep.
Larry Walker announced
Thursday afternoon.
The grant must be matched
by an equal amount of city
money, but officials said that
would not present a problem.
"The city will come up with
its share of the money," said
Mayor Jim Worrall.
The City Council will decide
how to use the money after the
Recreation Commission looks at
its priority list and makes rec
ommendations, Mayor Pro Tern
Hcrvia Ingram said.
Walker said the lion’s share of
Continued on Page 12A
$15,000
given by
Slezaks
By RALPH MORRIS
Managing Editor
"There's no better place to pul it
than in the hospital," said Mrs.
Irene Slczak as she presented a
check for $15,000 to Perry Hospital
Administrator Steve Johnson Friday
afternoon.
The hospital will use the
$15,000 gift from Mr. and Mrs.
John Slczak to purchase a $45,000
portable X-ray machine.
"The gift will enable us to pur
chase it," said Johnson. "Otherwise,
it would have been beyond our
budget."
Mrs. Slczak has been an active
member of the hospital's Pink
Ladies volunteer organization for
the past four years.
Johnson said the hospital is
"very appreciative" of the $15,000
gift. He added it's nice to know that
"there arc people in the community
who care."
At first, the names of the bene
factors of the $15,000 gift were
kept under wraps. On Friday, the
hospital announced that the gift was
given by the Slezaks, a prominent
Continued on Page 12A
Perry bypass
to get no aid
from county
By OLIN HUBERT
Staff Writer
The Houston County Roads and
Bridges Department will be unable
to provide clearing and grading
work for the North Perry Bypass
due to cuts in its budget requests
made at county budget deliberations
Thursday night.
County commissioners cut an
SBO,OOO bulldozer from the budget
submitted by County Engineer
Milton Beckham, and with it the
prospects that the county will assist
in the road project.
"We may have to back off it,"
Beckham said. "Unless you're going
to be going back and forth from one
road to another."
"It's not us doing it, it's the lax
cap," said Commissioner Houston
Porter.
The commissioners have com
plained about the restrictions of the
tax cap throughout the budget hear
ings.
"We've got a problem with the
cap," Porter said at Wednesday
Continued on Page 12A
Ready for camp!
Sports day camps are planned. See-P-1B
Westfield graduates urged to spread enthusiasm
% f % flflP MJf
Malcom Moseley greets valedictorian Jessica Neely before she gives her speech
...Neely will go to Sweetbrier College in the fall
Hnk' **• a .\
Mrs. Irene Slezak presents $15,000 check to Hospital Administrator Steve Johnson
...The gift from Mr. and Mrs. John Slezak will help buy a portable X-ray machine
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i
Martins and gourds
Any yard can control mosquitoes and insects with purple martins. All
you need are gourds for marlin houses. Bobby Tuggle explains on Page
28.
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Thought for the day
"The man of few words has few
to take back."—' Tom Spencer,
Perry, Ga.
Local death notices
Lottie Collins Riggs, 86. Death
notices appear on Page 3A
Index
BOBBY BRANCH 4A
BUSINESS 11A
CLASSIFIED 12A
ENTERTAINMENT 14A
808 EVANS 1B
FISHING REPORT 3B
RALPH MORRIS 4A
POLICE LOG 2A
SHERIFF'S REPORT 2A
SPORTS IB
STOCKS 11A
JOHN TRUSSELL 2B
BOBBY TUGGLE 2B
TV WEEK 1C
MARTHA WHIDDON 4B
JACK WITTY 11A
WEEKEND EDITION-250
By MELODY BACAS
Staff Writer
Sixty-four seniors look their
diplomas Friday night in the school
gym and became 1989 graduates of
the Westfield Schools.
The ceremony started with a
musical prelude by Deborah Walker
followed by the processional began
as each senior walked in. Chaplain
Johanna Compton gave the invoca
tion and Westfield Board of Director
Chairman David Pierce welcomed
guests.
The senior class traditionally
become a choir and sing a song of
their choosing. This year the song
was "Pray For Me."
After a brief "thank you" from
class president Jessica Neely, the
salutatory and valedictory awards
were given.
Neely, the valedictorian, talked
about desire, determination and en
thusiasm. She said the new gradu
ates should remember how much
effort parents and teachers have put
into training them to be responsible
Water plant to
get $1 million
for expansion
By MELISSA CRADDOCK
Staff Writer
With a combined $1 million
loan and grant from the stale, the
City of Perry will double the
capacity of its drinking water treat
ment plants to help plan for
growth.
Leman Scott, executive director
of the Environmental Facilities
Authority, announced the combina
tion loan and Department of Natural
Resources grant Wednesday set to
expand the treatment capacity to
four million gallons per day from
two million a day.
"It should help the city reach its
short and long-term economic de
velopment strategy," Scott said.
The project will help meet increased
water needs created by Northrop
Corp., the Georgia Agricenter, PPG
Industries and other commercial and
residential development.
The SBOO,OOO loan and
Jeff wants to fill the
sanctuary with song
By MELISSA CRADDOCK
Staff Writer
Jeff Underwood is looking for
ward to filling the Perry Presbyte
rian sanctuary with song.
Underwood has been the music
minister at Perry Presbyterian for
five weeks now, and is looking
forward to building on the strong
base of singers in its choir.
"We want to really build it up,"
he said of the adult choir. "There's a
lot more talent out there that could
be used for God's glory."
Underwood is a Macon native,
and was most recently the minister
of music at the Mikado Baptist
Church in Macon. Before that, he
worked with the First Baptist
Churches of Montezuma, Reynolds,
Jasper, Fla., and Quitman. He also
worked as a part-time music minis
ter at the Second Baptist Church
while attending Norman College.
Underwood earned his A.B. de
gree in Music at Valdosta State
College. Although he specialized in
voice, he also plays the piano.
One of his goals at Perry Pres
byterian is reactivating the handbell
II ■■■ ■ ■ ■ f ill I
I It's sli in TV Week
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adults.
She also challenged her class
males to use their skills to make
positive changes.
"We have realized the lime has
come for us to enter the adult
world, using the knowledge given
to us, to dedicate ourselves to be
come all we can be," Neely said.
"We may be a small group, but
if we continue to feel as we are
feeling, grow as we arc growing,
we will affect others with our en
thusiasm," she said.
Neely ended her speech quoting
the chorus from "Friends," a popu
lar song by Michael W. Smith and
Amy Grant.
The salutatorian, Melis Mose
ley, was more reflective of her time
spent at Westfield. She talked of
fun limes the group had around a
familiar elm tree and in various
classes. She also named some of
the attributes she will always re
member of her classmates.
"Twenty of the 64 of us begin
Continued on Page 12A
$200,000 grant are part of an $lB
million "pot of money" distributed
through 22 loans by the Georgia
General Assembly. Perry is among
14 cities and 8 counties receiving
state assistance through a bond sale.
The money will be available ap
proximately 30 days after the sale
on June 22.
Scott said that he expects the
money to become available in the
beginning of August.
City Water Superintendent
Danny Walker said that the expan
sion of the new water treatment
plant on 341 North will lake about
12 months to complete. "It'll be
finished about 18 months from
now, at least," he said.
The city will enter into a con
tract with the stale to pay back the
loan over a 20-year period at an es
timated interest rate of six and a
half percent.
Perry people
Jeff Underwood,
music minister
choir by this fall. "I'm really look
ing forward to that," he said.
Underwood said that it's just a
mailer of getting them all back
together most of the original
bell ringers arc still around.
He’ll also have to keep up with
the children's choir, although he
won't be directing it
One thing he's going to try here
Continued on Page 12A