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. MAIN LIBRARY 5, GA 30602 5 Page 3A Houston Times-Joumat 1 Section, 10 Pages Inside I Today | Calendar 5A Church News 3A Classifieds 9A Death Notices 2A Editorials 4A Outdoors 8A Sports 7A Rack Rates Will Be $52/yr Buy a Subscription For $25 + tax & Save $25.75 Six qualify for open county seat BY BRENDA THOMPSON Staff Writer When qualifying ended noon Fri day, six people-three Democrats and three Republicans-were entered in the race for Post 2 of the Hous ton County Commission. The post, which pays an annual salary of approximately $5,000, is being vacated by incumbent Archie Thompson of Kathleen. Thompson, current vice chairman of the com mission, announced his intent to not seek re-election for a second term a few weeks ago. Joining the race for Thompson’s Please see QUAUFYING, page 3A Downtown area merchant will close up shop BY BRENDA THOMPSON Staff Writer Maffett’s Casual Shop, one of Perry’s only ladies’ clothing stores and an anchor in downtown Perry for the past 12 years, has announced „ its intent to shut down operations here. A major “going out of business sale” will begin sometime next week, with the store closing for good in the next month or so. A “closing notice” advertisement giv ing additional details appears in to day’s Houston Times-Journal. “Right now, we don’t have an exact date for closing. It really de pends on how the sale goes,” said Jack Maffett, owner of the Maffetts’ chain which also has stores in Warner Robins, Fort Valley, Mon tezuma and Americus. “We will continue until the people stop com ing. It could be as long as eight weeks or it could be sooner. It just Please see CLOSING, page 3A Simons continues to receive support for WAVE program BY BRENDA THOMPSON Staff Writer Perry Police Chief Frank Si mons’ final pitch to area govern ments for support of a proposed vi olence education program turned into a grand slam at the Tuesday night meeting of the Houston County Commissioners. By unanimously agreeing to award the proposed Weapons and Violence Education (WAVE) pro gram with the requested $13,750, the commission became the fourth and last governmental body in the county approached by Simons to pledge their support The county’s award matches pledges already made by the city councils of both Perry and Warner Robins as well as the Houston County Board of Education. “You can’t listen to the radio anymore without hearing of some one getting shot or stabbed in some of our larger, neighboring areas, such as Macon, and more and more of these crimes are being committed BOE offered land to build a new By BRIGETTE LOUDERMILK Editor The Houston County Board of Education has been offered three parcels of land in Perry in an effort to secure a new school south of Highway 96. Tom Whitten, spokesman for the group of concerned citizens, an nounced the offer at a press confer : '•* Jk | % I l c- If you think this line’s 10ng... If you think this line at Perry’s branch of the county tag office Is long, just Imagine what It’s going to be like on Monday as that’s the final day to purchase your 1994 Houston County vehicle tags. This photo was taken Thursday afternoon when average waits were anywhere from one to two hours. Increase of rabies cases in county continues By PAULINE LEWIS Staff Writer The number of rabies incidents in Houston County continues to climb with the majority of inci dents reported occurring south of Highway 96. During the four and one half months in 1994, 97 cases have been reported in Houston County compared to previous years in which total cases did not exceed 75. Since December, 1993, nine pairs of pet dogs have fought and killed or fed on raccoons. Of these, four by youth” Chief Simons said in stating his case before commission members Tuesday. “Our goal is to keep Houston County from getting in that shape and I feel that this program can help us reach that goal.” In addition to the support from area governments, Simons, who has helped spearhead the program, says he has also applied for a $82,432 grant through the state’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Council. If awarded, this grant, coupled with the $55,000 pledged by the four local governmental bodies, will make up the approximately $136,500 needed to fund the total program for one year. Whether or not the grant is awarded will be announced on June 15. After one year is up, Simons says that the program’s success and value will be closely reviewed and additional grants may be applied for if continuation is desired. WAVE, according to Sunons is Official Organ For Houston County, City of Perry & State of Georgia ence Thursday, April 28 at which time he said the owners of the properties would prefer to remain anonymous. Each parcel is a 20-25 acre tract, has (or will have) utilities in place and is convenient to services, such as police, fire and health. The cost to school board and taxpayers would be nothing Whitten stated. Vets offer discount on rabies vaccine Due to the serious problem of ra bies in the county, area veterinari ans have joined together to fight ra bies by offering to provide low-cost rabies vaccinations for all cats and dogs for a limited time. During the week of May 2-7, the raccoons tested positive for rabies and the other four were not avail able for testing. a program very similar in set-up to the existing D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program cur rently being taught in Houston County elementary schools. However, where D.A.R.E. focuses on the fifth grade and drug education, WAVE will be targeted at eighth graders and will contain curriculum on weapons and violence. Trained officers or “resource officers” will go into every eighth grade classroom in the county to teach a 12 to 15-week course with topics to be covered including re spect for other humans, other gen ders and life in general; the finality of death; responsibility for actions; gun safety; juvenile law and the ju venile and adult court systems; die fictional aspects of television violence; and acceptable conflict resolution, just to name a few. In further describing the program, Simons also added that the WAVE resource officers, all of Please see WA VE, page 3A For News And Subscriptions Call 912-987-1823 Sports Page 7A . Ifv ***& The purpose for the offer is to se cure a much needed new school, ac cording to Whitten who also said the school does not necessarily have to be a middle school, which is what Whitten's group originally sought to acquire south of Highway 96. The school board is currently planning to build two new middle following veterinary offices in Perry are providing rabies vaccines for $8: Perry Animal Hospital, 633 Courtney Hodges Blvd. (987-2415) and Smith Animal Hospital, 2032 N. Hwy. 341 (987-1514). Please see VACCINES, page 3A Since April 1993, there have been 12 wild animal contacts with 22 pets. Of these, five raccoons tested Perry Police Chief Frank Simons makes a plea for support from the Houston County Commissioners for a proposed weapons and violence education prog tarn. In stating his case, the local police chief showed county board members an array of guns which have been taken from local youth. Classified Page 9A schools in the north end of the county. The Feagin Mill site is a 20 acre tract and utilities are nearby and the Ferguson property in Bonaire contains a 20 acre tract and a 15 acre tract with according to Whitten and "to my knowledge no utilities in place". Whitten said the land offer stems from a March 24 meeting in which positive for rabies, two foxes tested positive for rabies, four raccoons were not tested and one raccoon tested negative. By comparison, from April 1992 to April 1993, there was one positive raccoon; from April 1991 to April 1992, there was one positive raccoon. Four persons have been treated by Houston Medical Center and three treated by Base Hospital with anti rabies vaccine since April 1, 1993. By comparison, from April 1992 to Please see RABIES, page 3A school Superintendent Tony Hinnant and concerned citizens discussed the need for a new middle school in the south end of the county. Whitten said Hinnant asked to the group to put together a better plan than the school board's and identify a location. "Obviously the price is right. Please see OFFER, page 3A Authority plans '94 budget By VETO F. ROLEY Staff Writer The Houston County Develop ment Authority released a 1994-95 working budget calling for $162,300 in spending during their regular meeting Tuesday, April 28. Tee Tolleson, treasurer for the authority, stressed that the budget was a very preliminary working draft. "If any of the numbers (in the working budget) match with the fi nal budget, then it is purely coinci dental," he said. Tolleson said the working draft was to give authority members something to work with. The proposed budget shows a large increase in the amount of salaries, up nearly $30,000. How ever, Tolleson noted the authority was without an executive director for six months last year, after Dick Ulm resigned and before Tim Martin was hired. Houston County will also be taking part in Operation Legacy, a series of events planned by the state to capitalize on the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, said Martin, ex ecutive director for the authority. Foreign businessmen would be invited into the state by state devel opment officials, and shown around the state. State officials will follow up the visits by giving tickets to the Olympics to the businessmen who are most likely to invest in the state. "They are targeting countries and industry clusters," said Martin. He added that he expects for Houston County to "be included on many of those visits." The county will also be visited by officials from East Germany May 10. The visit is in response to a visit made by the Middle Georgia Regional Development Center. After a presentation by Houston County, Martin said the East Ger man officials will visit the Air Mu seum in Warner Robins and Frito- Lay. In other business before the au- Please see BUDGET, page 3A