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u EDITION 250 P®rryA Houston County's Official Legal Organ WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1994 Journal, Times to merge Purchase of The Perry Times and the Houston Home Journal by Houston Publications Inc., a newly formed Georgia owned corporation, was announced late Tuesday. The sale was effective February 1,1994 Owners of the corporation are Daniel F. Evans, Julie B. Evans and Robert E. Tribble, president of Trib Publications Inc. Good morning, Perry The community's sympathy is ex tended to the families of those who recently died. They include:Mary L. Mcßenge, Perry; Gwen E. Sullivan, Macon; Edmond Williams Sr., Warner Robins; Giles Howell Webb Jr., Perry. For more infor mation please see Page 2A. JOYCE COMPTON 4A BETH JONES IB DEATH NOTICES 2A CLASSIFIED SB EDITORIALS M LEGAL NOTICES 3fi LOCAL CALENDAR 5A BILL OVERTON 6A VETOROLEY 4A City and county set solid plans for local airport By VETO F. ROLEY Staff Writer After weeks of meeting, the Houston County Board of Commis sioners and Perry City Council de cided on the new arrangement of the airport authority Monday night, Feb. 7. With the departure of Fort Valley and Peach County, the name of the airport authority will be changed from the Perry-Fort Valley Airport Authority to the Perry-Houston County Airport Authority. The au thority will be given the power to change the name of the airport, with consent on anew name given by the Perry City Council and the Houston County Board of Commissioners. Houston County and Perry agreed to an authority composed of seven members. The chairman of the county commission or his designate and the mayor of Perry or his desig nate will be permanent members. Perry and Houston County will ap point two additional members. The seventh member will be ap pointed on a rotating basis between Perry and Houston County, with Perry making the first appointment. Terms on the authority will be for two years each. Some members of the authority, the city council and the county commission wanted the new author ity drawn in a way to allow mem bers on the authority from outside the county, enabling the authority to retain the expertise of current mem bers living in Peach County. Mem bers of the new authority, however, will be required to reside in Houston County, lire authority will be given the power to add ex-officio members, who will not have voting power, from outside the county. The city council and the county commission would be given the right to review the appointment of ex-officio mem bers. The city and the county will share equally in the cost of running the airport. The budget for the airport will be drawn up by the authority Please see AIRPORT, page SA he Houston Homeff Journal The Perry Times was founded in 1985 by Daniel F. Evans. The Times has been the only home owned and operated newspaper in Houston County for the past nine years. The Houston Home Journal is now in its 124th year of publication and has been owned by out of state corporations for the past 15 years. . iMßßiii* aßßmt M i pLjr ▼ y Vyf%W^P % & ■ •WjfiMPS * ii k .\SESI " Marjorie Wells, owner and operator of Wells Florist In Perry, Is busy this week getting ready for her busiest day of the year, Valentine’s Day. Sweethearts, take heed, the big day Is this coming Monday. For florists, Monday will be their busiest day of the year BY BRENDA THOMPSON Staff Writer With Cupid drawing back his bow in preparation for Monday’s Valentine celebration, florists throughout the city are bracing themselves for what has become their busiest day of the year. “I’ve already ordered 1,000 red roses to be delivered this weekend and I’m sure I’ll have to order more,” said Marjorie Wells, owner and operator of Well’s Florist in Perry. “Especially if it is anything like last year when I had to order 500 or so extra roses in addition to my initial order of 1,000. I’ve been in business here for going on 34 years and it just seems like Valentine’s Day is getting bigger and bigger.’’ And, as the holiday becomes bigger and bigger, florists like Wells are having to start earlier and earlier in their preparations. Valentine's Day luncheon will celebrate heart health By BRIGETTE LOUDERMILK Managing Editor A different kind of heart will be celebrated this Valentine's Day at a special luncheon. A Heart Smart Luncheon is being held at the Houston County Ag Building on Carroll Street from noon until 1 p.m. next Monday. PERRY, GEORGIA’S HOMETOWN NEWSPAPER SINCE 1870-FQR COVERAGE OF YOUR EVENTS CALL 987-1823 2 SECTIONS—I 4 PAGES, PLUS SALES CIRCULARS In addition to their ownership of The Perry Times , Danny and Julie Evans are owners and publishers of Motorsports Weekly, a regional newspaper covering short track racing in six southeastern states, and Evans Motorsports Inc., manufacturer of race cars for short track racing. They are members of Perry “We started getting ready for this at least two weeks ago,” she said, smiling and gesturing to a towering stack of boxes and a sea of red rib bon bows. “Those boxes are filled with hundreds of vases and those bows come in all shapes and sizes. I hired a lady to come in this week just to sit and tie bows and, later, I’ll have a girl in here just to blow up balloons. All total, we’ll probably have 10 people in here helping out and it’ll take everybody to get it all done.” As for prices, Wells said that, although she really won’t know for sure until her first shipment of roses is delivered on Friday, she expects them to be in the same ball park as last year when a dozen of the long-stemmed beauties sold for between $45 and $55 in Perry. The prices, q f course, depend upon what the wholesaler is charging, the Those attending will receive a meal "where everything served will be heart healthy" according to County Home Economist Peggy Bledsoe. "Lunch will be served from noon until 1 p.m. and then we're going to hold an activity to help our United Methodist Church and live in Perry. Danny Evans said that he and his wife Julie "are thrilled to be associated with Bob Tribble, a long time family friend, in our new publishing endeavor. We are happy to have him bring his years of experience and expertise to the local newspaper scene.” supply and demand and even the geographic location of where they are purchased. “For example,” Wells concluded. “I heard that roses are going for anywhere from $75 to SIOO per dozen in Atlanta this year.” Across town, florists at Perry Florist and the Daisy Patch Florist and Gift Shoppe echoed Marjorie Wells’ sentiments, saying that they too have been preparing for weeks. “We placed our order for Valen tine’s flowers a month ago,” said Benita Gay, a designer at Perry Florist. “And, we’ve been tying bows, wrapping wires and spraying baskets all week. By Monday, where we usually only have one de livery driver, we’ll have four or five, and, where we usually only have two people working in the shop, we’ll have six or seven.” Please see FLORISTS, page 8A guests determine their individual risks of attaining heart related problems," Bledsoe added. All seats are reserved and 30 ladies are expected to attend. Bledsoe added the tables will be decorated to coincide with Valentine's Day. The Please see LUNCH, page 8A PERRY, GA. Locally owned and operated Evans pointed out that "it has been evident for a long time that Perryans would be best served if the two newspapers servicing this area could be combined under one ownership." He said that recent sale of The Houston Home Journal to American Publishing Cos. in West Frankfort, 111., by Park Newspapers Education board says no to anew school in Perry By VETO F. ROLEY Staff Writer Perry community leaders appeared before the Houston County Board of Education Tuesday, Feb. 8, request ing anew middle school for the Perry area. John Sundquist, chairman of the Perry Area Chamber of Commerce, told the school board there were four reasons for the request: the over crowded situation at Perry Middle School, the age of Perry Middle School, potential growth in South Houston County and transportation costs involved in bussing students from South Houston County north. The school board did decide to build two new middle schools Tues day. However, neither school will be built in the Perry area. One school will be built on Feagin Mill Road, with the other school going on the Local schools to receive state funds for technology By VETO F. ROLEY Staff Writer Houston County schools and li braries stand to be on the receiving end of over $1.4 million in new technology if Zell Miller's proposed budget is passed by the Legislature. Houston County schools will receive $339,700 for new comput ers, $472,500 for technology for media centers with each school's media center receiving $17,500, $70,000 for a model technological project at Perry Middle School, $17,500 for technological im provements in each of the three li braries in Houston County, and $500,000 for Middle Georgia Tech nical Institute equipment. In the Macon area, only Bibb County with $1.7 million is bud geted for more funds than Houston On the blotter... Police wrap up drug investigation By BRIGETTE LOUDERMILK Managing Editor Perry Police arrested eight local residents last week on drug charges. According to Perry Police Captain Steve Heaton, Detective Mike Pheil secured several warrants after a dnm investigation that spanned several weeks. Heaton said that although eight individuals were taken into custody there are still some war rants outstanding and more arrests Monday night shooting reported By BRIGETTE LOUDERMILK Managing Editor "We don't know for sure if the two are linked, but there's an ap pearance they may be. We're still investigating that," Perry Police Chief Frank Simons said yesterday concerning a shooing that occured at approximately 10:30 p.m. Monday night, Feb. 7. According to Simons, Michael Frank Stephens, 42, of 1502 Canterbury Court, was in his car in the Oldfield area discussing what "appears to be narcotics related." Simons said the Stephens and the 124TH YEAR—VOLUME 12 made this move possible. "It was through Bob Tribble's efforts that purchase of The Home Journal by our new corporation was possible," Evans said. Evans said that by combining The Perry Times and Houston Home Journal the readers, advertisers and the entire Perry community will be Please see MERGE, page 8A Ferguson property off Highway 96 near Bonaire. "There are no plans for anew middle school in Perry," said Zell Blackmon, chairman of the school board after the meeting. "I know Perry Middle School is an old build ing; but, we have lots of old build ings. We have to put the schools were the population is. We can't put in a school and hope for growth." However, Blackmon said Perry Middle School would get anew wing for the 1995-96 school year, which should help alleviate some of the overcrowding. Blackmon added that the locations chosen by the school board should reduce overcrowding in all the middle schools. The new middle schools will draw students from the northern area of the Perry Middle School zone. County. "This is what is proposed by the governor," said State Repre sentative Larry Walker. ’’We can not be sure it will be funded this way." Walker added that he "would work with his colleagues" to see that "most of it (budgeted money) comes back to Houston County." "In society, such as it is today, everybody needs to be computer lit erate," said Tony Hinnant, Houston County school superintendent. "More and more jobs require the use of computers. High school gradu ates have to have knowledge in the general use of computers." Hinnant said the school system was trying to make computers ac cessible to every student. He said Please see SCHOOLS, page 8A are expected. Heaton also said that when some of the warrants were served, those arrested for selling cocaine were also charged with possession of co caine. Some individuals received more than one count of selling co caine. One individual was arrested for being a party to the crime of selling cocaine. Those arrested include: Please see POLICE, page 8A male outside his vehicle began a verbal argument and the pedestrian fired a shot from a gun into Stephens' vehicle. Stephens was not injured by the shot Police are still waiting to question the victim of a similar shooting that occured Wednesday, Feb. 2 at approximately 2 a.m. According to John Layton Smith, 28, of 1311 Parkway Drive, he was shot in the neck and back when a man pulled his car up beside Smith's at the intersection of WJF. Ragin Drive and Courtney Hodges Please see SHOOTING, page 8A