Newspaper Page Text
WEEKEND
EDITION
250
Perry & Houston County's
official Legal Organ
SATURDAY, APRIL 17,1993
Future of Perry Annex up in the air
BY BRENDA THOMPSON
Staff Writer
Although they say they want the
same thing-to preserve the Perry
Annex and to acquire larger facili
ties for their present governmental
offices-representatives of the City
of Perry and the Houston County
Board of Education arc reportedly at
odds this week on how they should
accomplish these tasks.
They just can’t seem to agree on
any one method of getting both
jobs done.
And, it is this lack of agreement
that has many Perry citizens, and
especially Perry Mayor Jim
Worrall, concerned that the end of a
local historical landmark, the Perry
Annex on Main Street, is near.
According to Mayor Worrall, the
Perry Annex was built in the 1930s
and served as Perry High School
until 1957. Many prominent
Perryans, including U.S. Senator
Sam Nunn, graduated from there.
Sheriff Talton
remains stable
after second
heart surgery
By ROBIN BOOKER
Staff Writer
Houston County Sheriff Cullen
Talton remains in stable condition
following his second heart surgery
in four months. Talton has been
moved to a private room at the
Medical Center of Central Georgia
following a two-day stay in the
Intensive Care Unit.
Talton, 59, suffered no compli
cations from the bypass surgery on
Tuesday. Hospital patient represen
tatives report he is progressing and
doing well in his recovery.
Following a mild heart attack
last December, Talton underwent
angioplasty surgery but returned to
work in late February. He was hos
pitalized for the second surgery fol
lowing a routine check-up Friday,
morning, Perry
Deaths
Delores Pendleton, Macon;
Lenora Woodard, Perry;
Kimberlee Joyce Lands,
Rainsville, Ala.; Costa Brown,
Fayetteville, Tn. For details,
please see page 3A.
It's Mossy Creek time
Don't forget the Mossy Creek
Barnyard Festival is being held
this weekend. The festival's
25th show will feature 150 arti
sans and craftsmen from all
over the nation.
Visit the Agricenter
Being held this weekend at the
Agricenter in Reaves Arena is
the Peach Blossom Cluster
Dog Show sponsored by the
Kennell Clubs of Atlanta, Au
gusta and Macon.
-INDEX
AGRICENTER EVENTS 3A
BRIOETTE HAMILTON 4A
CALENDAR 3A
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 IB
After anew high school was
built, the building then became the
home of Perry Middle School. It
remained Perry Middle until the
1970 sand is currently serving as a
distribution center for the county
school system’s media programs.
Sources say the annex is expected
to be vacated at the end of this year
and a possibility of the facility
being demolished is more evident
than ever.
The subject is on top of Mayor
Worrall’s agenda for a Tuesday
evening meeting with local city
council members. The following is
a synopsis of the views he will be
sharing.
The Mayor’s View
Ultimately, Mayor Worrall says
he wants desperately to fulfill a
campaign promise he made in 1989
to preserve and restore the Perry
Annex building and to also satisfy
the city’s critical need for a larger
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Stokes wins SI,OOO
Perryan Brenda Stokes, center, receives a check
for SI,OOO from Perry Area Chamber of Commerce
Executive Director Peggie Williams, left, and
Dogwood Festival Chairman Melodie Burrus. Stokes
was the winner of the drawing sponsored by the
chamber and Perry's downtown merchants in con
junction with the recent Dogwood Festival.
Perry chamber kicks off
1993 membership drive
BY BRENDA THOMPSON
Staff Writer
The 1993 Perry Area Chamber
of Commerce Membership Drive is
on tap for April 26 through April
30.
The theme of this year’s event is
“Battle of the Ages”. Three teams
of current chamber members are di
vided into age groups aqd will be
competing to see who can recruit
PERRY, GEORGIA'S HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER SINCE 1870--FQR COVERAGE OF YOUR EVENTS, CALL 987-1823
f The Houston Homef
Journal
2 SECTIONS—IO PAGES, PLUS SALES CIRCULARS
city hall.
He says the city has several
options to accomplish both projects
at the same time. Each option,
however, is dependent upon some
sort of agreement among representa
tives of both the Perry City Coun
cil and the local board of education.
Negotiations have been on the table
for several months, but have thus
far been unsuccessful.
According to the mayor, the
city’s options are:
• Option 1, and an ideal
situation in Mayor Worrall’s
opinion, is for the City of Perry to
purchase the present board of
education offices located right next
door to the current city hall on
Washington Street in Perry.
Because of its location, Mayor
Worrall and members of the city
council appear to be in agreement
that the board of education offices
Please see ANNEX, page 6A
the most new chamber members.
The winning team will be awarded
special prizes at a victory dinner
following the end of the drive.
The three teams and their cap
tains are: “Team Teethers”, ages 20-
34, Marti Tolleson, captain; “Team
Wheezers”, ages 35-49, David
Cosey’- captain; and “Team
"Please see CHAMBER, page 6A
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Afraid the Perry Annex may be demolished, Perry Mayor Jim Worrall has been trying
to save the building which he considers a historical landmark.
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Dr. Jerome Bloodworth has several truckloads of sludge dumped on his farm each day. Once the
trucks dump the sludge, it has to be applied and incorporated on farmland within 24 hours.
Sludge an area of concern in Elko
By ROBIN BOOKER
Staff Writer
Several South Houston County
residents arc once again- concerned
that the application of sludge near
their land is contaminating their
well water and fishing ponds.
W.C. McDowell owns 38 acres
of land adjacent to land currently
farmed by Dr. Jerome Bloodworth.
McDowell contends that run-off
from the continuous application of
sludge on Bloodworth’s property is
contaminating his fishing pond and
may eventually contaminate his
drinking well.
"I bought this property back in
1949. I'm retired now and should
not have to worry about things
such as this, but now I can't even
enjoy fishing in my pond any
more," said McDowell.
McDowell, whose concerns are
shared by his brother James and
Myra Andrews, said their main
worry is the lack of monitoring go
ing on with the application of the
sludge. Although the Georgia
General Assembly passed a bill ear
lier this year to allow counties to
monitor sludge application and
assess fees to the applicators,
Governor Zell Miller has yet to
sign the bill, so the McDowells
feel they are forced to do their own
monitoring.
"We felt like the Environmental
Protecting Division should be mon
itoring the’ application of the
sludge, but we don't feel they are
doing anything serious to address
our concerns," said McDowell.
The applicators of the sludge are
required by law to test samples of
the sludge periodically, but the
Grovania Road residents said they
are not very trusting of the results
of those tests.
"No one monitors this except
the people applying the sludge, and
they have admitted their jobs depend
on those tests coming back clean,
so who can you trust," said
Andrews, owner of an antique shop
on Elko Road.
Andrews has taken it upon her
self to monitor the number of
trucks hauling sludge in recent
weeks. From her antique shop, she
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can see the pucks go by and keeps
Pack of just how much sludge is
being hauled into the area each day.
"On April 12 there were 18
Pucks between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.
and on April 8 there were 26 trucks
between those same hours," said
Andrews. "That's an awful lot of
sludge coming into one area, and
we arc very concerned about the ef
fects of it on our land and water."
"The EPD has all these guide-
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Jake Lawson was one of several last minute filers who
mailed their taxes Thursday.
CPAs report busy week due to deadline
Although the deadline to file fed
eral income tax returns wasn’t until
midnight April 15, employees of
Chapman CPA Firm in Perry
paused for a few moments late
Thursday afternoon to celebrate the
culminating moments of the 1993
tax season.
123RD YEAR—VOLUME 31|
lines that are supposed to be fol
lowed, but as far as we can tell, we
are the only ones concerned with
whether or not there are violations
in the application of sludge," said
McDowell. "James Sommerville
from EPD came down to look at
my pond when it flooded and he
didn't even take any samples."
In addition to the already men
tioned concerns, McDowell said
Please see SLUDGE, page 6A
They popped open a bottle of
champagne, issued a collective sigh
of relief and, by Friday morning, at
least half of them were relaxing in
places such as North Georgia, Sa
vannah and Florida.
“It has been one hectic tax sea-
Please see DUE, page 6A