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THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28. 1989
■ The Houston Home ■
I Journal
( a]
The Houston Home Journal
OFFICIAL ORGAN, CITY OF PERRY AND HOUSTON
COUNTY, GEORGIA, SINCE 1870
PUBLISHED EACH WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY MORNING
807 CARROLL ST., P.O. DRAWER M, PERRY, GA. 31069
TELEPHONE: (912) 987-1823
The Houston Home Journal (USPS 252-780) is published biweekly for $lB per year by the
Houston Home Journal, Inc., 807 Carroll St., Perry, Ga, 31069. Second Class Postage paid
at Perry, Ga, POSTMASTER: Send address change to The Houston Home Journal, P.O.
Drawer M, Perry, Ga. 31069,
ROY H. PARK, Praaldenl & Chairman of tha Board, Park Nawapapara
JAMES B. KERCE
Editor & General Manager
RALPH MORRIS
Managing Editor
V .. . J
Opinion
Historical district is necessary
We applaud the efforts of a group of Perry home
owners who want to establish an historical district in
the older part of town.
In the future, some of the homes within the district
will have tremendous historical significance.
For now, the historical district would include homes
on Beckham Circle and Evergreen, Washington, Main
and Gilmer Streets. Included in this area would be the
home where Sen. Sam Nunn was born on Beckham
Circle and the boyhood home of Army Gen. Courtney
Hodges on Evergreen.
Establishment of the historical district would mean
houses within it could not be tom down or altered,
without approval from the planning and zoning com
mission and the city council.
The homeowners in the district have signed a peti
tion to be presented to the planning commission for
approval.
We urge the commission and the council to act
without delay in approving the historical district.
Fee hikes will maintain quality
Effective July 1, the city will increase water, sewer
and garbage rates.
The reason: It costs the city more to provide these
necessary services to homeowners.
For residential water users, the minimum fee will be
$6.40 for up to 3,000 gallons. The next 3,000 gallons
will be charged at the rate of $1.55 per 1,000 gallons.
Over 6,000 gallons will cost $1.60 per 1,000 gallons.
The new sewer rates will be based on a $5.40 mini
mum or $1 per 1,000 gallons of water. The maximum
sewer charge will be sl3 for residential use.
Garbage pickup fees will rise from $6.75 to $8.50.
However, elderly and handicapped residents who have
applied for exemption from garbage pickup fees also
will be exempt from the July 1 increase.
Perry provides excellent utility services to its resi
dents. We support these fee increases because we want
that excellence to continue.
The fee increases are fair. As we said before, the
city would not seek these fee hikes if they were not
absolutely necessary to maintain these vital services to
us.
First leg of expansion completed
Construction on the Perry Hospital's $1.7 million
expansion is continuing on schedule.
This past Friday, BCB Inc., the general contractor
for the expansion, held a "topping off ceremony and
party to celebrate the completion of the concrete portion
of the work.
The remaining work should go pretty quickly, now
that the structural work is done. The expansion work
should be finished by year's end.
The $1.7 million expansion will significantly in
crease the hospital's emergency room and intensive
care unit.
What will the expansion mean to us? The hospital
will be able to provide better medical attention to local
patients. And it will be in a better position to recruit
more doctors and specialists to our town.
ff
Voice your opinion!
Write a letter to the
Editor...
The Houston Home Journal values your opinion,
and will gladly publish your "Letter to the Editor."
We encourage letters pertaining to issues faced
by Perry and South Houston County residents. To
submit a letter, either bring it by our offices at 807
Carroll St., (across from the courthouse), or mail to
P.O. Drawer M, Perry, Ga. 31069
PERRY. GEORGIA'S HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER SINCE 1870-FQR COVERAGE OF YOUR EVENTS. CALL ~ |
HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MAN ?
GEORGE BUSH, FORMALLY A PROMINENT PUBLIC OFFICIAL,
IS BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN MISPLACED SOMEWHERE
AMONG IMPORTANT AND INSIGNIFICANT NEWS EVENTS. HE
WAS LAST NOTICED, WE THINK, SOMETIME DURING THE
PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN. IF YOU SHOULD SIGHT HIM
PLEASE CONTACT YOUR NEAREST NEWS ORGANIZATION.
Homeless caught in vicious cycle
There is no happier sight than a
man who has just landed a job.
Proudly, he leaves the interview
ready for a fresh start.
The next day, this particular man
starts work and tries his best hop
ing to be able to put a deposit on a
small apartment so he can slop liv
ing in his car.
Although he is a hard-worker and
a skillful employee, his supervisor
starts to get upset about his new
worker still wearing his interview
clothes and looking dirtier everyday.
He comes to work exhausted every
morning after being ordered by the
police the night before to move on
every few hours when they find him
sleeping in his old car.
By the end of the week, he loses
his job.
He is one of the uncountable
homeless people in Perry faced with
this vicious cycle of not being able
to hold a job because he has
nowhere to live, but he has
nowhere to live because he can't
hold a job.
They are uncountable, according
to The Salvation Army of Houston
County, because the homeless don't
slay in Perry long, because there are
no resources here for them. They
catch rides up Interstate 75 to Ma-
July 4,1940: A time for rededication
(Editor's Note: The fol
lowing column was written
by Theresa D. Hodges. At
the time the column ap
peared in The Home Journal
on July 4, 1940, she was the
librarian of the Petersburg
Public Library in Peters
burg, Va. She was the sister
of the late HHJ Publisher
John Hodges. She wrote this
guest column at his request.)
By THERESA D. HODGES
The Fourth of July has been
celebrated by Americans in a great
variety of moods.
In times of national crisis and
distress, such as the War Between
the States, Spanish War, and the
World War, our people have been
too tense, too distracted to give
much thought to the day.
In times of peace and prosperity,
it has meant a noisy holiday, with
flags, uniforms, parades, picnics,
and perhaps some oratory to remind
us of Lexington and Valley Forge.
But, never in the 164 years since
the signing of the Declaration of
Independence should the mood of
celebration be more significant than
today.
In this time of anxious uncer
Perry viewpoint 1
Local editorials and columns on events in Perry & S. Houston J
Meiissa'craddock
HHJ Staff Writer
- -4
con or Atlanta or other cities
equipped with soup kitchens and
homeless shelters where they can
cat, shower and sleep until they get
on their feet.
It's easy for us people with
homes, families, food and jobs
to not think about what life would
be like if we didn't have all of those
things. But, I was given that chal
lenge by Capt. Larry Hambrick, the
head of The Salvation Army here.
One day when I was talking to
him about the homeless problem in
Perry, he told me to pul on my
oldest clothes, cut my fingernails,
dirty myself up some and walk
around near 1-75. He said I should
tainty and imminent dangers, we
Americans should take this Inde
pendence Day as a time for re-dedi
cating ourselves to national unity,
to a finer patriotism that means not
inertia but effort, not indulgence
but sacrifice.
Our forefathers not only declared
for this country the doctrine of
equality of man and the rights of
each to life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness, but they fought for
that principle for seven long years.
That priceless heritage we have en
joyed for 164 years. It has devel
oped a great nation of free people
and a great government, still re
sponsive to the will of its con
stituents.
So today, as we survey the
world, torn by war in which a
country, itself already enslaved by a
power-mad dictator, seeks to en
slave all other free people, we must
guard our own freedom with jealous
care. *
Practically, to guard our freedom
does not mean war. But it does
mean full preparation for defense,
with a great army and a great navy.
If such defense calls for universal
service, not only in arms, but in
industry and allied services, then we
should freely support it.
go up to people, ask them for
something to eat and see what
would happen.
I was frightened just thinking
about being out on the street,
alone, with no money and no place
to go. And that was exactly what he
wanted me to be.
"You're scared just thinking
about it, even when you know that
you have a warm bed to go home to
after it's all over," he said. "Now
just think how scary it really is for
people who don't have anywhere to
go.”
But he went further. He asked
me to imagine having to buy all of
my groceries at a convenience store
because it was the only place close
enough to gel to without a car.
Just think of having to carry
your clothes on your back to a
laundromat and washing them in
industrial machines that will wear
them out faster than a home ma
chine would, he said. If you can't
walk somewhere, think of the ex
pense of calling a cab to go every
where you had to.
It gets worse if you have chil
dren, and can't work because you
can't afford child care.
Most of us never think of these
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To support it may mean great
self-denial, not only in taxes, but in
relinquishing prejudices, old ideas.
But we should remember that na
tional strength comes from self-de
nial.
Full defense, prepared not only
for attack from across the seas, but
from insidious disguised attack
from neighboring countries and
even from within our own country,
is the only way of preserving our
selves against war in a world
largely dominated by a force that
knows no fear except a stronger
armed force.
Whether we are isolationists or
interventionists is not the question.
All of our great men from Wash
ington, Webster to Wilson, as well
as all thinkers of today, acknowl
edge our great debt to Europe in
science, law, letters. We know that
our free institutions had their root
in England. We should resolve then
to make a recompense to them.
Let us at all costs save the
United Stales as a free people, not
only for ourselves, but as a beacon
light from which those desperate
nations whose light has gone out
may some day rekindle the flame
that will restore freedom to them.
♦
A
»
Jim Kerce ;
HHJ Editor
JJ :
July 1989:
It is a time
to celebrate
July ushers in the second half of
1989.
The month was named for Julius 1
Caesar (it was formerly Quintilis);
it was the month in which the Ro
man ruler was bom.
For Americans, July is espe
cially historic. Our independence is
celebrated on the Fourth. The Battle
of Gettysburg was fought during
the first three days of July in 1863.
Three of our presidents were
born in July -- John Quincy
Adams, Calvin Coolidgc and Gerald
Ford.
The first admiral in the U.S.
Navy, David G. Farragul, was bom
on July 5, 1801.
The Republican Party was
founded on July 6, 1854, at Jack
son, Mich,
One largely forgotten, though
relatively recent day, is July 10. On
that day in 1942, the Allies invaded
Europe for the first time in World
War 11. Gen. Eisenhower directed an
amphibious invasion of Sicily.
July, the first full month of
summer, is a month of vacations,
holidays, swimming, boating and
outdoor pleasures - and too many
highway accidents.
But, more important, it is a time
of celebration -a time to celebrate
our freedom.
*** |' •, \
Steps down
On July 1, 1897, the president
of Washington and Lee University
resigned after leading that educa
tional institution for more than 20
years. Sixteen years later, in 1913,
he died in Virginia.
He had lost his rightful family
inheritance, Arlington, which was
only a few miles distant from him
when he lay on his death bed.
He had graduated first in his
class at West Point, in 1854, and
thus much was expected of him in ,
military circles. But he never quite ,
lived up to those high expectations.
He made his name in education,
and his name is still a revered name 1
at Washington and Lee.
He made his way through life
under the handicap of having the
most famous name in the nation,
which no one, perhaps, could quite
live up to.
Who was he?
His name was George Washing
ton Lee - all family names. He was
the eldest son of Robert E. Lee.
***
J_ast campaign
Many historians selected July 3,
1863, as the turning point of the
Civil War, when Union victory be
come almost a certainty.
On this date. General Lee was
defeated by Gen. George Meade at
Gettysburg.
This was also the day Vicksburg
surrendered to Gen. U. S. Grant,
thus cutting the Confederacy in
two.
Some historians argue that over
emphasis on the battles in Virginia
hides the fact that the war was
largely won in the west.
Grant had attempted to take
Vicksburg in 1862, but desperate
and daring cavalry actions by
Nathan Bedford Forrest and Gen.
Earl Van Dorn had checked his at
tack.
In 1863, he began a scige of that
city after two frontal attacks in May
had been defeated with heavy union
losses.
The Confederates couldn't break
Grant's seige and by July 3, the
20,000 troops of Gen. John Pem
berton holed up in that city were
starving, as was the civilian popu-;
lation.
Pemberton was forced to surren- •
der. This was ominous news for the-
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