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Houston times- Journal
Volume 124 No. 54
2 Sections, 16 Pages I
Inside I
Today |
Calendar 5A
Classifieds 5B
Death Notices 2A
Editorials 4A
Announcements 8A
Sports IB
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County budget
of $20.3 million
set for 1994-95
BY BRENDA THOMPSON
Btaff Writer
Although the Houston County
Commissioners looked a little
soggy and waterlogged coming into
Tuesday’s regular meeting at Perry
City Hall, they took care of busi
ness as usual, formally adopting the
new 1994-1995 Fiscal year budget.
Cresting at more than
$20,285,127, the new general fund
budget was passed unanimously by
the commissioners and includes,
among other things, an across-the
board cost-of-living raise for county
employees and the addition of sev
eral new positions.
Receiving the two percent cost
of living increase will be all of the
county’s merit system employees,
elected officials, county agent per
sonnel, superior court reporters, the
magistrate judge and juvenile court
judges.
New positions figured into the
new budget include four new patrol
officers for the Houston County
Sheriffs Office as well as a nurse
and part-time physician for the
county jail, a new crew supervisor
for the landfill and a new dispatcher
for the Emergency-911 system.
According to County Commis
sion Chairman Sherrill Stafford, the
four new patrolmen were particu
larly needed as since 1990, the last
year the sheriffs patrol staff was in
creased, the county has grown by
nearly 2,000 new residences.
Although the county has ap
proved and provided for the new po
sitions, commissioners pointed out
that it is now up to the sheriff as to
which of the county’s five zones
and two shifts the new patrolmen
will be assigned.
The Fiscal Year 1994-1995
$20.3 million budget is nearly $2.5
million higher than last year when
the bottom line peaked at $17.9.
According to Stafford, factors re
sponsible for the increase include:
•One million dollars to under
write the construction of two new
buildings for the Houston County
Department of Health.
Because the county is responsi
ble, by state law, for providing
space and equipment for the the de
partment, Stafford said that county
will be underwriting the construc
tion costs of the new facilities
which are to house the department’s
child and adolescent services as well
as Pheonix Industries and will be
built along Highway 96 in the
county.
The health department will,
however, be paying the county back
by paying the same amount of
monthly rent they are currently
paying to an independent landlord in
Warner Robins. Total payback is
expected to be completed between
12 and 15 years.
•An additional $275,000 ear
marked to begin paying for the new
road to the Middle Georgia Techni
cal Institute’s new campus under
construction on Highway 95.
In addition to tpe general fund,
other budgets passed during Tues
day’s meeting were the water fund
Please see CQUNTY, page 9A
Houston County gets washed away
Remnants of tropical
storm hit area, doses
county and city roads
BY BRENDA THOMPSON
Staff Writer
Torrential rains were already
leaving much of Perry and the rest
of central Georgia under water when
the Houston Times-Journal went to
press just after 5 p.m. Tuesday
afternoon.
And, the rains continued to fall,
with the last update being an exten
sion of the flash flood warning con
tinuing until 6:45 p.m. in Houston
County.
According to Bob Hobson of
Perry, who also serves as official
weather buddy for WMAZ-TV
Weatherman Bill Powell, more than
six and a half inches of rain had
dumped on the local area since late
Sunday, the majority, of those rains
falling between the late hours
Monday and Tuesday afternoon.
Like the rest of the mid-state,
roads were closing all around Perry,
and reports of accidents and flooded
homes began coming into local
emergency offices early Tuesday.
From all the reports gathered by
the Houston Times-Journal office,
however, it appeared as if Perry
were not hit quite as strongly as the
northern end of Houston County
where there were reports of at least
one man having to be rescued from
atop his floating car and people be
ing either rescued or evacuated from
trailers which had essentially slid
off of the hills they were situated
on.
“Bad news, folks, I just got a
call from our public works director,
Tommy Stalnaker, and he says this
is the worst storm he’s seen in his
10 years here,” County Commis-
Despite BRAC, county is still moving forward
BY BRENDA THOMPSON
Staff Writer
Even though an air of uncer
tainty still lingers in the mid-state
and will most likely do so until the
final round of base closures in
1995, Tim Martin of the Houston
County Development Authority as
sures residents that things here are
still moving forward.
“Certainly, the uncertainty has
some impact on our economic de
velopment efforts and we get a lot
of questions about the base’s future,
particularly from aerospace-type
industries,” guest speaker Martin
told members of the Perry Ex
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Celebrating 50 years at the New Perry Hotel
Nannette Groan, behind counter, Harold Green end
friends of the New Perry Hotel staff, to Join them In
anniversary at the hotel. An open house and reception
3-5 p.m.
Sports
Page 1B I
Offlclal Organ For Houston County, City of Perry & State of Georgia
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This photo was taken on a section of Northside Drive just and Houston County that was sitting under water following
after noon on Tuesday and Is only one of the areas of Perry yesterday’s flooding rains.
sion Chairman Sherrill Stafford said
during the the commission’s regular
meeting Tuesday morning at Perry
City Hall. “Cars are floating, trail
ers are sliding and roads are either
change Club gathered Thursday for
their regular weekly here. “But, as a
whole, I assure you that life is not
on hold in our county ... a lot of
exciting things are happening and
we are very optimistic.”
Among the positive signs of
continued progress in the county,
Martin pointed to the fact that the
local board of education is planning
to build two new middle schools in
the coming year. Additionally, he
lauded the construction and planned
November opening of the new Gal
leria mall in Centerville and also
noted that the county is expecting
For News And Subscriptions Cali 912-987-1823
Wednesday, July 6,1994
to issue well over 800 building
permits for new residential houses
and structures during 1994, just like
they have for the past two years.
In talking about the future of
Robins Air Force Base, Martin said
that local officials are particularly
aware that the next round of Base
Realignment and Closures (BRAC)
planned by the Pentagon for 1995
will result in more base closures
and, consequently, will affect more
communities than the first two
rounds combined.
He also noted that it is the Air
Logistics Center at Robins that is
his daughter Marsha Haley, Invite
celebrating the Green family's 50th
will be held Saturday, July 16 from
under water or washed out all over
the county.”
In Perry, City Manager Janice
Williams said that parts of
Northside Drive, particularly the
Classified L
Page 5B |
area from Azalea Drive north, had
to be closed early in the day because
of standing water which made the
street look more like a lake than a
roadway.
causing the most concern as at least
three of the existing eight such cen
ters are expected to be cut during
the last round of BRAC hearings.
“The best way I have heard the
impact of the Air Logistic Center
closing described is that Sherman’s
march to the sea would pale by
comparison,” Martin said. “The
loss of those 11,000 to 12,000
civilian jobs would ripple through
out middle Georgia with devastating
results.”
“But, of course, no one really
knows exactly what will happen in
Please see MARTIN, page 5A
County Post 2 candidates
attend local political forum
BY BRENDA THOMPSON
Staff Writer
At least 25 residents of the De
vonwood Subdivision won’t have
to mark their July 19 ballots based
solely on which candidate has the
biggest sign in town.
After a special political forum
last week, they have much, much
more to go on. They now know
where each of the six candidates for
the Houston County Commission’s
vacant post two seat stand on a
number of local issues and can put
faces with the names they have seen
and heard so many times in the past
few weeks.
Coordinated by Leslie Belcher,
chairman of the Devonwood
Neighborhood Watch program, the
forum was held last Thursday
evening at the Ochlahatchee
Clubhouse. The purpose of the
event, according to Belcher, was to
allow residents of the subdivision
to get a first-hand look at the
candidates and to ask each of them
questions that directly affect their
area of the county.
All six of the commissioner
City residents of the Kings
Circle area were also experiencing
some significant flooding problems
and several folks on Cambridge
Please see FLOODING, page 9A
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Tim Martin
hopefuls-three Republicans and
three Democrats-attended the fo
rum.
Taking their turns at the
Please see FORUM, page 9A
Candidate vows
to donate salary to
library, food bank
BY BRENDA THOMPSON
Staff Writer
Houston County Commission
candidate Nora Reese-Laughlin of
Warner Robins announced late last
week that, if elected, she would not
accept a salary for her service.
Reese-Laughlin, who is running
for the county’s post two seat on
the Republican ticket, made her an
nouncement during a special forum
hosted by the Devonwood Subdivi
sion’s Neighborhood Watch group
last Thursday night at the Ochla
hatchee Clubhouse in Perry.
Please see SALARY, page9A