Newspaper Page Text
WEEKEND
EDITION
250
Perry & Houston County's
official Legal Organ
SATURDAY, JULY 11,1992
Deaths
Lawrence Goss Sr., Perry. For
details, please see page 3A.
HOME JOURNAL
HIGHLIGHTS
Perry Players plan
next show
The local comedy group will
perform the British comedy
"Noises Off." Fordetails, please
see page SA.
Tolleson can cinch
baseball title
Tolleson is expected to win the
Ochlahatchee 10-12 year old
baseball title. The story is on
page 18.
Visiting Montana
Perry resident Joan Ogletree
treked through Montana’s wil
derness recently. The story is
on page3A.
INDEX— —
AGRICENTER EVENTS 5A
BRIGETTE HAMILTON 4A
CALENDAR 5A
CLASSIFIED 4B
DEATH NOTICES" 3A
EDITORIALS 4A
PERRY SCRAPBOOK 4A
POLICE REPORT _2A
SPORTS 1B
JIM SHIPLEY 4A
STREET TALK 4A
JOHN TRUSSELL 2B
BOBBY TUGGLE 2B
COSBY~WOODRUFF lET
WOODS'N WATER 2B
MISS YOUR PAPER?
We hope not, but if your carrier
should err, please call early.
987-1823
Our circulation department is
open from 8-10 a.m. to help.
.TO SUBSCRIBE, CALL:
987-1823, OR 987-5203
READ IT, THEN RECYCLE!
This newspaper is
printed, in part, on re
cycled paper and is re
cyclable. For locations
of recycling stations, call
987-1823
Police charge man
with July 7 arson
By BRIAN LAWSON
Staff Writer
Perry Police arrested Calvin
Whitest, 49, of Perry Wednesday
and charged him with arson in con
nection with the July 7 fire at 1319
Houston Street.
The fire gutted the living room
of the house but no one was inside
during the blaze that started at 4:16
a.m.
Fire fighters had the Tuesday
morning blaze at the home of An
nie Pearl Lester under control in
approximately 15-20 minutes.
The two pumper trucks that went to
the scene stayed until about six
a.m. assisting police in the arson
investigation.
From the outset, police officials
were convinced the fire was deliber
ately set. Police Captain Jim
Hardy said on the day of the fire, "It
was arson. We have a suspect and
will be making an arrest soon,"
According to Hardy the arrest of
Whitest was due, in part, to a pre
vious incident.
"He was implicated in a theft
[ PERRY, GEORGIA'S HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER SINCE 1870 FOR COVERAGE OF YOUR EVENTS, CALL9B7-1823 M
f The Houston Home!
Journal
2 SECTIONS—I 2 PAGES. PLUS SALES CIRCULARS
DA rules shooting was justified
By BRIAN LAWSON
Staff Writer
The Houston County District
Attorney's office ruled Wednesday
that Perry police officer John
Hardage did not commit a crime
during a May 9 confrontation in
which Hardage shot and killed An
thony Hill.
District Attorney Ed Lukcmirc
said the decision was based on
evidence presented in the Georgia
Bureau of Investigation report and
review of the statues governing
application of deadly force.
"We make the decision on every
case based on what the law says.
Based on the law and the evidence,
we found no evidence that a crime
had been committed. I know there
is a lot of hurt on both sides, there
Flyin’
Lidgard’s airplane
models have made
him famous hobbyist
By EMERY WARNOCK
Staff Writer
“If it isn’t simple, it isn’t fin
ished.” Those are the words placed
above his workshop where he sits
and thinks... making new inven
tions every day.
Anyone who knows Perry resident
Ed Lidgard will know that he is one
of the biggest authorities in the
world on simple model airplane Hy
ing.
Although he has been involved
with this hobby for 61 years, his
career is c'Tft'sely tfed to llte sport he
loves.
“I am actually an inventor by pro
fession. I like to create something
from scratch and work until I find
die solution,” Lidgard said.
Lidgard has 11 patents on glass
shipping devices. He and another
man formed their own company to
concentrate on selling their product
to major corporations to use in
shipping glass, especially in auto
mobile windshields.
But before his Edison-like career
unfolded, he was active in the
model airplane circles all across the
country and still remains so hav
ing fun making and dien flying air
planes.
But Lidgard’s introduction to the
world of imagination flying re
mains a classic in the annals of
model airplane flying.
“As I was walking down the street
in Chicago one day when 1 was
nine years old, I came across this
tailor shop and I saw set in the
window a model airplane,” Lidgtird
said.
“Day after day I would go by the
from the house approximately a
week ago. In addition to the al
leged theft we had information of
trespassing where he broke some
windows in the home. Due to that
information on the prior problems
and the supicious origin of the fire
we brought him in the next day for
questionning. The suspect appar
ently had a previous relationship
with the home's occupant. Based
on admissions made during the in
terview, tie-ins with the prior prob
lems and the bum pattern of the fire
we made the arrest Wednesday,"
Hardy said.
Whitest reportedly started the fire
by reaching through a broken win
dow and holding a cigarette lighter
to pieces of furniture until they ig
nited.
Hardy reported no accelerant was
used in the fire.
Perry Fire Fighter Sergeant
Doug Straka said, "When there is
no obvious heat source at the point
of a fire's origin you look for clues
to see how the fire could have
Please see ARSON, page 8A
City, Hill family attorney both expect suit to
be filed now that DA’s decision is public
By BRIAN LAWSON
Staff Writer
Now that the district attorney has ruled on the Anthony
Hill shooting, Perry city officials are expecting a
lawsuit to be filed in the name of the children of
Anthony Hill by Warner Robins attorney Kenneth Lucas
in the coming weeks.
Lucas said he was not surprised by the district
attorney's decision.
"I'm not surprised by the decision. I'm surprised it
didn’t go to the grand jury. The decision was
Please see EXPECT, page 8A
always is in a potential criminal
case. This office doesn’t want
anyone to hurt worse, but all we
• L ' Wy’yvL
* * * * -'\t« av«v'
Photo by Amy McDaniel
After Ed Lidgard invents and builds his own design model
airplanes, he goes outside to do the fun part flying them.
window and look at the airplane. 1
eventually asked the tailor who
made it and how much it cost be
cause I really wanted it,” he said,
although these were the years of the
Great Depression.
He said he paid 50 cents for his
first model airplane in the early
19305. Lidgard added that the tai
MMBI ' ••• • : *'
og£, «
Officials believe Wmteststarted the fire by holding a
lighter through the window and setting furniture on
fire.
can do is make our decision based
on the law. ” Lukcmirc said.
The GBI report covers interviews
lor’s son made the airplane and he
eventually took classes with the
son on how to make the models for
himself.
“So I went to these classes, but
we really didn’t have a place to go
and fly the models. So we founded
the Chicago Aeronautics Club and
Please see MODELS, page 8A
| PERRY, GA.
122 NP YEAR—VOLUME 56
with eight people who said they
witnessed the shooting, medical re
ports, a record of Hardage’s radio
transmissions, interviews with offi
cers and medical personnel who ar
rived at the scene shortly after the
shooting occurred, the autopsy re
port, an interview with a 911 dis
patcher and various other related
documents.
The report lists each witness'
account in a chronological format.
The GBI spent over a month prepar
ing the report and Lukemire re
quested the GBI to conduct an addi
tional interview with one of the
witnesses on July 2 at which time
the witness refused to sign a written
statement.
The altercation started with
Hill's tires reportedly being slashed
by Angela Holmes. Hill's mother
Cable co. says
weather, truck
caused problems
By BRIAN LAWSON
Staff Writer
A dump truck doing work along
Interstate 75 struck and pulled down
the Peachstate Cable main line with
its raised truck bed Wednesday
causing a four hour disruption in
cable services from 4:30—8:15
p.m.
Bill Mitchell, general manager
of Peachstate Cable, assessed the si
tuation.
"This is the worst thing that
could have happened to us. It cut
off our largest number of sub
scribers. The repair cost was a
couple of thousand dollars but the
cost was nothing compared to the
inconvenience. We would have
paid twice as much'to get it back
on line twice as fast. Our cable
line is the lowest on the pole and
the raised truck bed snagged it,"
Mitchell said.
A crew of seven Peachstate
workers including Mitchell worked
for approximately four hours to re
pair the damage
Mitchell said Peachstate is still
trying to locate the company that
owns the dump truck to send them
a bill.
The company reported receiving
400-500 calls per hour as sub
scribers learned their cable system
was out.
In addition to the mishap with
the truck, Mitchell said over the
past week the cable system suffered
from a number of power outages
caused by lightning, downed trees
and tree limbs. Most of the outages
Ag authority gives
Webb promotion
By EMERY WARNOCK
Staff Writer
With only three months away un
til the Third Annual Georgia Na
tional Fair, there has been a shift of
management at the Agricentcr be
sides the new executive director.
John P. “Johnny” Webb has been
promoted to the new position of
Deputy Director of the Georgia Na
tional Fairgrounds and Agricentcr.
Webb, former director of public
relations, has been with the Agri
center since its beginning four and
one-half years ago.
The promotion, announced at the
Georgia Agricultural Exposition
Authority meeting Wednesday, was
effective July 1. Webb will be in
volved with marketing efforts of the
12-building facility.
During the authority’s meeting
Wednesday, Mike Froehlich, new
executive director of the Agricentcr,
told the authority the top priority of
the Agricenter is now marketing.
“I am concerned in marketing the
facility. People aren’t too familiar
Maggie Mac Thompson called the
police in reference to the tire slash
ing. Thompson then called Hill at
another number. Prior to Hardage's
arrival both Holmes and Hill had
appeared at 1100 Bonner Drive.
The accounts are uniform in their
reporting that Hill appeared angry
and was insisting that Hardagc ar
rest Holmes, who was sitting in a
car with her uncle in front of the
house.
The issue of what happened dur
ing the confrontation is at the heart
of die question of whether or not a
criminal act was committed by
Hardage.
Os the seven signed accounts of
the physical confrontation that look
place after Hardagc reportedly told
Hill he was under arrest, all seven
Please see REPORT, page 8A
were reportedly repaired in less than
an hour.
"Storm outages just happen to
the system. On its own the system
hasn’t been down for three years.
But, with the storms, the power
surges and things like irueks hitting
lines, there are events that are out
of our control. All we can do is
repair the damage as quickly as
possible for our subscribers,"
Mitchell said.
Agricenter
bylaws are
amended
By EMERY WARNOCK
Staff Writer
Georgia National Fairgrounds and
Agricenter Authority members
amended their bylaws Wednesday
concerning duties of the authority
and the executive director.
Four new amendments were pro
posed to be adopted after discus
sions during the June authority
meeting, but the decisions were
tabled until July.
The amendments to the bylaws
governing the authority were ap
proved by the attorney general’s of
fice before authority discussion,
James Sutherland, chairman of the
authority, said.
The first amendment states the au
thority shall appoint, select, em
ploy, supervise and dismiss all non-
Please see BYLAWS, page 8A
Johnny Webb
with the facility as we wish,”
Froehlich said.
“Most of you know Johnny. This
is the commitment I’ve made to
make the public relations depart
ment patron and customer friendly
here,” he added.
Webb recently served as interim
Please see WEBB, page 7 A