Newspaper Page Text
WEEKEND
EDITION
250
Perry & Houston County's
official Legal Organ
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1993
Deaths
Myrtle Hudson Blackstone,
Perry; Rosa Mae Bateman,
Perry; James Leroy Boswell,
Perry. For details, please see
page 3A.
INDEX
AGRICENTER EVENTS 6A
ROBIN BOOKER 4A
CALENDAR 6A
CLASSIFIED 4B_
DEATH NOTICES 3A
EDITORIALS 4A
PERRY SCRAPBOOK 4A
POLICE REPORT 2A
SPORTS IB
JIM SHIPLEY • 4A
STREET TALK 4A
JOHN TRUSSELL 2B
BOBBY TUGGLE 2B
BRIAN LAWSON 1B
WOODS 'N WATER 2B
Educators voice support for whole language method
By ROBIN BOOKER
Staff Writer
As parents and concerned citizens
continue to voice their apprehen
sion about the whole-language ap
proach to teaching language arts in
Houston County, many educators
continue to voice their support of
the program.
The whole-language approach
endorses anew method of teaching
reading and writing in elementary
grades. While the methods em
ployed in the past taught many
Hospital
authority
approves
'94 budget
By ANISSA CLEMONS
Staff Writer
Houston County Hospital Au
thority members voted 8-1
Wednesday to approve a $66.3
million budget for fiscal 1994
which includes an eight percent
increase for most patient services
and a four percent merit pay
increase for Houston Healthcare
Complex employees.
Dr. Dan Stewart, chief of the
medical staff for Perry Hospital,
said he couldn’t vote for the in
crease because it sent the wrong
message to the public. He also said
the amount of money alotted in the
budget for the contingency fund was
too low.
Mr. Pete Rucker, chairman of the
authority, said a lot of thought and
careful study went into preparing
the budget since September. “We’re
not blessing this budget in a two
minute session,” he said.
The authority projects total pa
tient revenue for the Healthcare
Complex, which includes Houston
Medical Center, Perry Hospital, lo
cal ambulance services and Houston
Heart Institute, will be more than
S9B million. However, more than
S3O million has been reserved to
cover bad debt, indigent care, Medi
care and Medicaid costs.
In other business:
•The authority approved Jim
Peak, administrator of Perry Hospi
tal, be able to negotiate and spend
no more than $7,983 on renova
tions for the Perry Medical Office.
•The authority approved the re
newal of Perry Hospital’s radiology
contracL
•The authority approved a write
off of more than $727,000 for the
month of January for bad debts and
indigent care.
PHS band
styles new
uniforms
By ROBIN BOOKER
Staff Writer
The Pride of the Crossroads,
Perry High School’s Marching
Band, will be stepping a little
higher these days as they sport their
new tuxedo-style band uniforms.
After working for more than a
year to raise the funds to purchase
new uniforms, Band Director Rick
Searle said the hard work has paid
off in a big way.
“The students are really excited
about having new uniforms, and we
think they look really nice,” Searle
said.
The Band Boosters and the band
members worked together to raise
the money through concession sales
and fund-raisers such as car washes.
Additionally, several local busi
nesses contributed to the fund-rais
ing.
“We had tremendous support
from the community, and we
couldn’t have done it without
them,” Searle said. “We appreciate
everyone’s support so much.”
The band is looking ahead to
sending 10 of its musicians to the
district honor competition, which
Please see STYLES, page 7A
skills in isolation, including phon
ics, the whole-language approach
teaches reading and writing skills,
including phonics, in a variety of
ways throughout the use of real lit
erature.
Opponents of the plan are con
cerned that students are not getting
adequate instruction in the area of
phonics, whereas proponents of the
approach advocate the integrated ap
proach to teaching all language arts
skills. An example of the differ
■pi-; If ; s ' P
f : V
Susie Greer, contributions chairman for the
Balvaunuca Club of Perry, accepts a $550 donation
from Talan Pritchard, financial advisor for PPG. The
contribution will be used to help finance the Dogwood
Ball.
PPG donates SSOO to
1993 Dogwood Ball
By ROBIN BOOKER
Staff Writer
As the Dogwood Festival looms
closer and closer for Perry, local
businesses are doing their part to
make the festival a success. Pitts
burg Paint and Glass Industries, one
of Perry’s largest employers, is
making three donations to support
Dogwood events and challenges
other businesses to do the same.
Talan Pritchard, financial advisor
PERRY, GEORGIA'S HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER SINCE 1870-FOR COVERAGE OF YOUR EVENTS, CALL 987-1823
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Perry High School's Marching Band try on the new tuxedo-style uniforms they worked a whole year raising
funds to buy.
ences in the approaches would be
the old approach would teach chil
dren to read first and then write. The
new approach maintains that read
ing and writing can happen simul
taneously.
Additionally, the old approach
teaches phonics as an isolated skill,
and the new approach incorporates
phonics instruction throughout the
entire curriculum. It is the lack of
isolated phonics instruction that has
parents most concerned about this
at PPG, said the company is donat
ing $550 to the Balvaunuca Club to
help sponsor the fifth annual Dog
wood Ball. Additionally, the com
pany will donate SI,OOO to co
sponsor the 5K race and S2OO for
general festival expenditures.
The Dogwood Ball, scheduled for
April 3 at the Georgia Living Cen
ter of the Georgia Agricenter, will
Please see DONATES, page 7A
language arts curriculum.
“I am shocked that parents think
we areuot teaching phonics,” said
Debbie*Meck, first-grade teacher at
Centerville Elementary. “We teach
phonics all day long, from the first
day of school until the last We just
don’t -do. it using workbooks and
worksheets the way we once did.”
Meek has been a teacher in the
Houston County School System
for the past 13 years and has used
the whole-language approach for the
VOCA students
will attend
competition
By ROBIN BOOKER
Staff Writer
Melissa Holby and Benita
Durham are two Perry High School
students looking ahead to the fu
ture. Holby, a senior, and Durham,
a junior, are both members of the
school’s Vocational Opportunities
Clubs of America (VOCA) and are
headed for district competition with
their club’s projects. It is a compe
tition they are taking seriously.
Holby is representing the club in
the community project division.
For the past nine years the VOCA
group has chosen as their commu
nity project to visit the New Perry
Nursing Home and provide cards for
Final list of DOD facility sites
to be released in early March
By ANISSA CLEMONS
Staff Writer
Houston County Development
Authority expects to know if Hous
ton-Bibb County will be chosen as
a site on the “final list” of the De
partment of Defense’s Finance Cen
ter project, which will be made
public in less than two weeks.
Houston County Development
Authority Executive Director Dick
Ulm told authority members
Thursday Senators Sam Nunn and
Roy Rowland should know who
made the final list by March 9 or
10. Ulm said Nunn will meet with
the secretary of the Department of
Defense next week to give him a
letter of endorsement by area
legislators and himself. “Senator
Nunn said we’ve done all we can
do,” Ulm said.
If the DOD chooses Middle Ge
orgia as the site and decides a
7,000-employee finance center is
needed, Bibb County will receive
the center. If a 4,000-employee fl
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past two years. She said she fully
supports the program because of the
difference she has seen in her stu
dents.
“My students love to read and
write now, and this is in the first
grade,” she said. “I had one little
boy this week who actually wrote a
19-page story that he created him
self. Before, my students never
wrote this early.”
Houston County is currently in
its second year of using the whole-
Hii w -
Jfld : : '|hk
Melissa Holby,left, and Benita Durham are Perry High's
VOCA students headed to district competition in
March.
its residents during holidays. Holby
said the project pays off for the stu
dents as well as the nursing home
nance center is needed, Houston
County will be chosen.
Congress will have to approve
the budget for the center next
September; therefore, if the Middle
Georgia area is chosen for the site,
the budget still has to be approved,
according to Ulm.
Authority could give
Perry control of airport
By ANISSA CLEMONS
Staff Writer
Perry City Councilman Charles
Lewis says he expects the issue of
dropping Ft. Valley and Peach
County from the Airport Authority
which would give control to Perry,
will be discussed at the Airport Au
thority meeting Monday nighL
“We may not make any deci
sions, but it will be talked about,”
Lewis said. “We’re not going to let
123RD YEAR—VOLUME 17
language approach. The literature
used in this curriculum is published
by Houghton Mifflin and is termed
“The Literature Experience.” Meek
said the literature-based curriculum
exposes her students to a variety of
books and not just the basal reader.
“My students want to read every
thing in my room now, and they
are excited about it,” she said. “My
goal is to produce life-long readers,
and I believe that’s what we’re do-
Pleasee see SUPPORT, page 7A
patients.
“There are more than 100 pa-
Please see VOCA, page 7A
Some of the sites being consid
ered by the DOD have had base
closings. Ulm said he gathered in
formation explaining Robins Air
Force Base has lost about 4,000
employees through the last six year
and expect to lose another 1,000.
Please see SITES, page 7A
it die.”
Lewis said at an Economic De
velopment Commission meeting
Ft. Valley had made no financial
contribution to the airport this year.
He said Peach County had made a
$4,200 contribution this year,
which is considerably less than
Perry’s $8,201. Lewis also said
Houston County contributed
Please see AIRPORT, page 7A