Houston times-journal. (Perry, Ga.) 1994-1999, April 10, 1996, Image 1
i iiiik r» fii *•"''^**l . ■> *!~4—U- -v 7 a “M IMSIDE I'D Volume 126, No. IST 2 Sections, 16 Pages Wednesday April 10, 1996 50 Cents At the Crossroads this week Dogs lead Agricenter activities this week Several thousand dogs are in Perry this week to par ticipate in the Peach Blossom Cluster Dog Show, considered one of the top five shows in the United States. The show continues at the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter through April 14. Also this week at the Agricenter, the Georgia Cutting Horse Show will be held April 13-14. Those same days, there will be a sale of steers for showing through a show named Steer Power VI. The Agricenter will be the location for the Georgia Electrification Council meeting April 16-20. Restaurants pass inspections All of the restaurants and public kitchens inspected last week by the Houston County Environmental Health division passed inspection. Restaurants and their scores included: Club 33, 532 N. Davis Drive, Warner Robins', 54. Elberta Health Care, 419 Elberta Road, Warner Robins, 91. Hardee’s, 113 Russell Parkway, Warner Robins, 91. Kings Chapel Elementary School, 460 Arena Road, Perry, 96. Little Sandwich Factory, 202 Sheridan Way, Warner Robins, 100. Miller Elementary School, 101 t Pine Valley Drive, Warner Robins, 100. Parkwood Elementary School, 503 Parkwood Drive, Warner Robins, 98. Quail Run Elementary School, 250 Smithville Church Road, Warner Robins, 100, Teasers, 2070 Watson Blvd., Warner Robins, 97. Westside Elementary School, 201 N. Pleasant Hill Road, Warner Robins, 87. Recreation future to be discussed Houston County Commissioner Larry Sneßgrove has announced plans for a meeting to dis cuss recreational services in Houston County and what role the county will play. This open to the public meeting will be held April 11 at 7 p.m. in the board room of the County Annex Building at 200 Carl Vinson Parkway in Warner Robins. Revival begins The Rev. Howard Alford (See BRIEFS, Page SA) | Tell Us 1 The Houston Times- Journal wants to hear from you. Call (912) 987-1823 during business hours, 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Fax us any time at (912) 988-1181. Visit our office at 807 Carroll Street in historic downtown Perry. Reach us on the internet or through E mail services at timesjrl@hom.net Volunteers building in Perry New chapel Church Home getting room, 3A Houston Times-Journal Official Legal Organ for Houston County, the City of Perry and the State of Georgia New city manager coming from Cartersville Hiring of former Cartersville city manager Skip Nalley ends 8-month search for Phil Clark's replacement By EMILY JOHNSTONE Times-Journal Staff After an exhaustive search Perry city council members have Finally filled the sec ond of two high level positions that were left open after the resignation of a couple of top gun leaders within the city last year. The first was filled with the hiring of George Potter as police chief last month. Skip Nalley, a former city manager in both Thomaston and Cartersville, has now been hired as the new city manager for the city of Perry. - 1 ' 1 ~ Cutting the paperboard ribbon v''fill Times-Journal Photo by Eric Zellars NEW NEIGHBOR Hundreds of Houston Countians were on hand April 9to welcome the Riverwood International plant to the neighborhood. Participating in ribbon cutting ceremonies are (from left) Plant Manager Doug Leland, Octavio Orta, senior vice president of Riverwood; Bill Hendrix, leader of Clayton, Dublier and Rice Inc., new owners of Riverwood; Tom Johnson, president of Riverwood; Gov. Zell Miller, U.S. Rep. Saxby Chambliss, R-Moultrie, Ga. Rep. Larry Walker, D-Perry, Ga. Sen. Sonny Perdue, D-Bonaire, and Perry Mayor Jim Worrall. Riverwood International gets welcome to the neighborhood Community leaders greet newest industrial neighbor By EMILY JOHNSTONE Times-Journal Staff The hum of the machinery began a few weeks ago, but the ribbon cutting ceremony held April 9 officially opened the new Riverwood International plant in Perry. A number of visiting dignitaries were on hand for the occasion held at the facility locat ed in the Perry Allied Industrial Park. Ground breaking for the S3O million plant took place less than one year ago. Now the spot houses a 125,000-square-foot building that will turning out some one million cardboard car tons every 24 hours. These cartons will be used to package different types of beverages. It is the hopes of company president and chief executive officer Thomas H. Johnson that the approximately 106 employees already on the job at Riverwood in Perry will be joined by more workers in the near future. “We expect this site to be the principal site for our United States assets in paperboard pro duction,” Johnson told the crowd gathered for the ceremony. Being able to meet production demands and expanding the plant are high on his list of expectations. Future expansion is “very possible”, accord ing to Johnson, who added that a decision on that is expected to be made in late summer. The Perry plant is the “first option” in expansion plans, he said, noting the new state Apartment project attracts SRO crowd to Zoning Commission By RICK JOHNSTONE Timcs-Journal Staff A standing room only crowd of about 40 persons gathered for the Perry Planning Commission meet ing April X. A request from a Macon devel oper, Jeff Jones, to have some land near the Perry Country Club rezoned brought the residents from that area to the session. After hearing comments from Serving Houston County for more than 125 years Driving Charlie, not Miss E That fills the vacancy left when former Perry manager Phil Clark resigned from that position last August. Nalley was okayed for the job April 4 during a special meeting of the city council. “We are real excited about having him on board," Mayor Jim Worrall said April 8. “He has strong managerial skills and a strong economic background.” Worrall put no credence into recent com ments that suggest Nalley was fired from his job as city manager last month in Cartersville because of mismanagement. of the art equipment and highly skilled work ers, along with a desirable location is highly conducive to placing the plant in that category. Also on hand for the ceremony was Georgia Gov. Zell Miller who commented that “This (the plant) is one of a kind in the entire world and I am pleased it is in Houston County." Miller extended his thanks to company offi cials for deciding to locate the plant in Perry and added that, “We are grateful for the new jobs you are creating in middle Georgia and are proud to be your partner in training employees with the Quick Start program.” Middle Georgia Technical Institute entered into an agreement with the plant to train work ers. Perry Mayor Jim Worrall assured the com pany that the “city of Perry pledges to you our continued support as we grow together." U.S. Rep. Saxby Chambliss, R-Moultrie, told the group the Eighth District he represents is the second largest timber producing district in the United States. That helps provide plants such as Riverwood with the wood they need for operation. “We also have a supply of well-trained workers in this area,” he added. Ga. Sen. Sonny Perdue, D-Bonaire. praised company executives for their choice of loca tion for the plant. “They made a good decision. And, we hope to be a good host community,” he commented. Fake rider ‘Man’ accompanies her, page 8A Jones, Don Carter of a Macon architectural firm, and residents, the planning group voted unani mously to make the changes from C-2 to R-3 and R-l to R-3. Plans call for establishing some “It was a matter of choice. They have a new mayor in Cartersville who announced early he had a team he wanted to put in place." said Worrall. Nalley served in that capacity for a little over six months. “It reminds me of seven years ago when I was elected mayor. I had a segment of the population who asked me to change the city manager who was then Marion Hay,” com mented Worrall. “I just chose not to because I did want to work with him as best as I could." “I want to thank the Riverwood executives for believing in us,” added House of Representative Leader Larry Walker. D-Perry. Walker said Atlanta lawyer Jim Groome was instrumental in landing the plant in Perry. Recent years have shown the combination of Riverwood packaging with Pepsi products to be known as ‘innovative’ in the business world, according to senior vice president Octavio Orta. He pointed out that the Perry plant will be working closely with its sister plant in Macon which produces the paper that is now printed here. Plant manager Doug Leland told the gather ing his group is “very pleased to be in Perry. We recognize the individuals who helped make this possible.” A tour of the plant was made available after the ceremony. Participants saw the wonder of state-of-the art equipment printing beverage cartons with intricate designs, then how two high-speed cut ting machines separate the cartons, how they are glued and finished and how employees package the cartons to be shipped to various locations. The company’s provider of ink, Flint, Inc., has an on-site storage area inside the plant. Officials are hopeful Flint will decide to construct their own facility adjacent to the Riverwood plant in the near future. residential lots as well as construc tion of an apartment complex. Carter explained that the area fronting the golf course would be (See ZONING, Page SA) Classified 6B Church 6B Editorials A 4 Legal Ads 3B Home of the Georgia National Fair and Agricenter Worrall said recent conversations with Cartersville residents drew comments like. "You are the luckiest people alive to have this guy.” What does Nalley think about his stint in Cartersville? “It was not a good fit," he said during an April 8 interview. “Cartersville is undergoing some tremendous changes with accelerated growth spilling over from Atlanta. I primarily wanted to focus on get ting the community prepared for that (See MANAGER, page SA) Council OKs effort to get more traffic lights By RICK JOHNSTONE Times-Journal Staff Members of Perry City Council have given the green light to Mayor Jim Worrall to write a let ter to the Georgia Department of Transportation dealing with traffic lights in town. At the April 2 meeting of coun cil discussion on the need for additional red lights came up when local resident James Wilson requested that such a light be placed by the Flint Electric build ing on Commerce Street. Some council members then brought up other spots they would like examined for possible traffic lights. The intersections of Commerce and Macon and North side and Macon were among those cited. “I will write a letter to the DOT and see if we can get the traffic engineer to study the entire sys tem,” said Worrall. Speaking of letters, the Perry Area Chamber of Commerce has now sent correspondence to city council. Council member James Moore said among concerns of the busi ness group is having more rental cars available for pilots who land at the Perry-Houston County Airport. Chamber head Hayley Godbce told council “there is a problem with pilots being stranded at the airport.” Another area of concern expressed by the chamber deait with coming up with a system to rate hotels and motels. Godbee said, “It’s a serious problem(cleanliness at some of the motels in Perry). It is a shame you can rate restaurants but not (See CITY, Page SA) Study: Perry is best place for tri-county jail From Staff Reports The Central Georgia Regional Jail Authority OK’d a recommen dation from a consulting firm that Perry would be the best location for a tri-county jail facility even though one of the group did not agree. The Authority is made up of representatives from the three counties involved, Houston, Dooly and Pulaski and includes the sheriff from each of those counties. Houston County Commission Chairman Sherrill Stafford said he has received a letter from Dooly County Sheriff Van Peavy indicat ing he does not want to serve on that board any longer because he thinks the jail should be built in Dooly County. Consultants with Diversified Facility Services told members it (See JAIL, page SA) Obituaries A 2 Potpourri B 1 School Menus. . . . 2B Sports A 6 ft