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- . <#x*:*:*#***********3-DIGIT 3U6 __________ | UNIVERSITY OF GA LIBRARIES 108* 1 J ATTN: 808 HENNEBERGER I y AI HENS. GA 30602 - H 1* w- mrnmm 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 Rack Rates Will Be $52/yr Buy a Subscription For $25 + tax & Save $25.75 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 >v% . /<■ Inß I sßfcs. a 11 In "V m llf 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 ||H af % Ms ■l^ p: I ® mm wft Mr mmi I wmJ 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 ; jfccj •’Bsj&fk •■■* . 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