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Viewpoints
Compromise
An announcement last week from Rep.
Larry Walker, D-Perry, and Skip Dawkins,
manager of Alltel of Perry, that customers
would be questioned concerning adding
local dialing services for the Macon area is a
two-edged sword.
On the one hand, there is a tremendous
need for adding local dialing to Macon for
businesses which have extensive contact in
the Macon area. For them, the small month
ly additional line fee would be more than
covered in a reduction of their telephone
long distance bill.
Some residents, too, would benefit. Those
who have many needs to contact the Macon
area for social or business reasons will like
ly vote yes for extended local service,
assuming the fee isn’t prohibitive.
There are others, however, for whom the
extended service is not so desirable. These
are the customers who call Macon only occa
sionally, once a month or less, and who are
generally calling doctors when they call. For
the poor and the elderly, adding any fee to
their telephone service might endanger their
ability to afford local service.
For them, local dialing to Macon is no bar
gain, at any increase in price.
As presently proposed, the matter will be
decided by a majority vote of customers.
Whichever side generates the most attention
will win. If a majority of customers vote to
add the extended dialing, all customers will
pay the increase.
The amount of the increase is unknown
because studies by Bell, Alltel and the PSC
are incomplete. The amount could be less
than a dollar (not likely) to as much as $lO
per month (also not likely). Speculation is
that the monthly add-on fee will be more like
$2-5.
Perhaps there is a fair to all way to resolve
this matter. We think the telephone compa
nies involved, Alltel and Southern Bell,
could seek an agreement with the Georgia
Public Service Commission to allow the
additional dialing area to be optional for all
Perry customers.
Thus, the people who want or need the
service will pay the extra fees for the service.
At the same time, those who don’t want or
need the extended dialing service could sim
ply vote no with good conscience, knowing
they were not keeping their neighbors from
obtaining the service.
We encourage the public to express this
position to their telephone company and to
their elected officials in the interest of all res
idents of the community.
Thanks for help
Editor:
The tax preparers for the AARP Tax Assistance
Program would like to thank the Houston Times-
Journal, the Houston/Peach Section of the Macon
Telegraph,
WPGA and
PCTV for the
publicity they
provided for
our program
during this
past tax sea
son. Many 1
Letters to
the Editor
P.O. Drawer M
Perry, Ga. 31069
businesses,
the Health Department, the Senior Citizen Center
and the Adult Education School were also very
helpful by allowing us to post notices of our service
in their establishments.
Our very special thanks go to the Staff at the
Perry Library for allowing us to use one of their
rooms for the tax preparations. They could not have
been kinder or more cooperative than they were.
Without the Library help we could not have provid
ed tax assistance which helped over 300 people.
We look forward to providing tax preparation
assistance again next year and invite even more of
the citizens of Perry and the surrounding communi
ties to avail themselves of our free help.
Sue Amall
Perry
No to privatization
Editor:
Gov. Miller wants to privatize Stone Mountain
(See LETTERS, Page SA)
Houston Times -Journal
P.O. Drawer M • 807 Carroll St. • Perry, Ga. 31069
(912) 987-1823 • (912) 988-1181 (fax)
e mail jjedit@hom.net
Bob Tribble President
Jj Johnson Editor and General Manager
John Smalley Advertising Sales
News: Emily Johnstone. Pauline Lewis, Rick Johnstone; Sports: Phil Clark; Classified
Praise for the many good secretaries in my life
Without several people who serve in
some role as “secretaries” for me, I’d
be in a heap of trouble.
Actually, many of them are not sec
retaries in the definitions my American
Heritage Dictionary offered “one
employed to handle correspondence
and do clerical work, or, an officer of
an organization in charge of minutes of
meetings, important records, corre
spondence and so forth, or an official
presiding over an administrative
department of government.” A secre
tary is also defined as a writing desk, a
definition none of these people fit.
At the Times-Journai office, there
are no secretaries per se, but there are a
host of people looking out for me.
Pauline Lewis, our ever faithful
lifestyles editor, has been keeping
check on me for about eight years now,
and she knows me well enough that
she will come in and say something
calming when things aren’t going well.
Miss Pauline possesses a wonderful
faith, and shares it with me frequently.
She also serves as a wonderful exam-
~~The Pernur Gausrv k >"
( —" A I 1
n
©Mm 77
Public notices filled with juicy info
Most of us are guilty of paying
too little attention to too many
things. With so many pressing mat
ters on our plate each day, virtually
uncountable numbers of things skim
right over our head, never register
ing on our personal radar until, for
some reason, we stick our head up
out of the sand of busyness and get
struck between the eyes.
A lot of it has to do with our per
sonal priorities and interests too, of
course. The fact that Tiger Woods
mastered the Masters golf tourna
ment has much of the world aflutter,
but his name caused barely a ripple
of recognition amongst a group of
folks I talked with recently.
Some young man won a golf tour
nament, heh? How nice, they say
with a nod before turning to some
thing more fascinating, like a soap
opera or the price of corn.
Let’s face it. if we all had similar
interests, the world would be a pret
ty dull place. And thank goodness,
our interests often change as we
grow and mature.
Many of us never outgrow the
desire to read the comics section of
the newspaper but we simply add on
the business reports and internation
al news as our horizons broaden.
One young man I know, who used
to scramble to be the first to grab the
sports section, now routinely brows
es the stock market tables first thing
to check on his “investments. I pre
dict big things for him financially.
Most of us like to know a secret.
Something most everyone else is not
already privy to. If you’re interested,
I’ll tell you a spot in the newspaper
\rsgr
I * J
Page 4A
Wed., April 23, 1997
Ads and Composition: Chad Lewis, Circulation and Photography: Eric Zellars;
Bookkeeping: Paula L Zimmerman.
Our Policies
Unsigned editorials appearing in larger type on this page under the label of Our Views
reflect the position of the Houston Ttmes-Joumal. Signed columns and letters on this page
(and elsewhere in this newspaper) reflect the opinions of the writers and not necessarily
those of this newspaper.
Signed letters to the editor are welcomed. Please limit letters to 300 words and include
addresses and a telephone number for verification purposes. Letters are not published with
out verification Letters should be sent to P.O. Drawer M., Perry, Ga. 31069, or brought to
the newspaper office at 807 Carroll St.. Perry.
Our liability for an error will not exceed the cost of space occupied by the error
We cannot be responsible for the return of pictures or submitted matru ds unless a
stamped, return address envelope is included.
Jj
Johnson
Editor
pie of the work ethic, for she doesn’t
go home until way past quitting time.
Emily Johnstone has been associat
ed with the newspaper for about six
years now, and she, too, knows my
moods and when I need a reminder that
things will get better.
Emily is a frequent visitor to my
desk since she helps coordinate our
news coverage. She, too, is faithful and
dependable to complete her tasks.
Handling the other side of affairs at
our office is Paula Zimmerman, our
bookkeeper. She’s been with us about
six months, and how I wish I had
known she was looking for a job soon
er.
She’s efficient, she catches on to
what needs to be done, and she takes
Robert
Williams
Guest Columnist
where you can uncover a few
“secrets: every week if you’re alert.
They’re not really true secrets, of
course, if they’re printed in the news
paper, but they’re little-known
enough facts that knowing them will
put you at least one-up on most folks
you are in conversation with.
The legal ads, sometimes known
as public notices.
That’s right, those long columns
of legalese mumbo-jumbo can hold
interesting and entertaining secrets if
you follow them regularly and under
stand what you’re looking at.
Not all the news there is good, of
course, but what news is?
Turn to the legal section of our
newspaper or any other paper that
circulates in your neck of the woods.
What’s that? First financial So and
So is foreclosing on your first
cousin’s home the one he bragged
so to you about when it built it. You
didn’t even know he was in financial
straits.
And there, right below that, is an
incorporation notice where Mr. Jones
two doors down is starting a business
called “Jones Tax Service,
Drycleaning and Taxidermy, Inc.”
Well, how about that?
And next to that is a similar notice
Houston Times-Journal
care of it without massive amounts of
supervision.
She also knows how to stack my
mail every morning so I don’t get to
the complaints first thing.
At my church, Beverly McFall, our
official church secretary, remains the
source of information for me. She calls
to remind me of meetings I’m to attend
and other tasks for which I am respon
sible. She’s a friend. She’s a good rep
resentative for our church and she sets
a good example of how a Christian
conducts herself.
There are others, such as the
delightful voices I hear on the other
end of the telephone. These people call
to remind me of dental or other med
ical appointments and make sure I con
tinue to take good care of myself.
My biggest secretary is my wife,
Judy. She’s a real caretaker. She
reminds me when to mail the bills
she’s written out, she reminds me
when it’s time to go to the grocery
store, when it’s time to get dishes out
of the dishwasher, when it’s time to
where the vice president at the bank
is the registered agent for anew cor
poration called “Acme Investments
and Land, Inc.” Now what could that
be?
On the same page is a notice
where the Smith couple out on the
highway is adopting a baby. How
nice.
Next to it is the notice where the
Widow Johnson is petitioning to set
tle the estate of her late husband.
Could it be a year since he died? My
time does fly by.
And so on ...
More than once I’ve seen some
one’s name in the legal ads showing
their delinquency on a bill and
learned not to add their names to my
list of accounts.
Other times have allowed me to
interesting new additions to our com
munity as new businesses are incor
porated and start a life of their own
in our midst.
The world of business affects us
all. It pays to keep up and legal
notices, required to be public by law,
are put there for a good reason our
protection, mostly.
If they happen to be entertaining
reading at the same time, all the bet
ter.
(Robert Williams is editor and
publisher of The Blackshear Times, a
member of the Georgia Exposition
Authority and a close friend of
Editor Jj Johnson. The public notices
for this week are printed on pages
58-8 B.)
/
w_
k*~L —
Our Goal
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ing counties by Houston Publications Inc., Perry, Ga. Our goal is to produce quality, prof
itable, community-oriented newspapers that you, our readers, are proud of. We will reach this
goal through hard work, teamwork, loyalty and a strong dedication toward printing the truth.
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“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or of the right of
the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of griev
ances” Your right to read this newspaper is protected by the First Amendment to the United
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Times-Journal, P.O. Drawer M, Perry, Ga. 31069. ISSN: 1075-1874.-
carry out the trash, when it’s time to ...
well you get the idea.
She’s my constant memory source,
and without her I’d be in one big, enor
mous mess.
Judy is an excellent grammarian.
When I make a terrible mistake in the
paper, she gently points it out to me so
I won’t appear ignorant. She is an
excellent selector of clothing, and
because of her efforts, I look like I
have some color coordination sense.
Few of these women signed on as
secretaries, yet they fit the role in my
life at one time or another. Without
each one doing their job as efficiently
as they do, I’d never make it to work,
never accomplish anything here, nor
would I get anything done in my life
outside the office.
On National Secretaries Day, I
salute the folks who keep my life
orderly. Without each of you, I’d be in
bad shape.
(Fortunately, none of the above had
to remind me of my need to write this
column.)
Willie
Chance
Houston County
Extension Service
Houston turns
trash to treasure
One man’s trash is another man’s
treasure. This has been shown to be so
true lately. As landfills fill up, and no
one wants another one in their back
yard, we find new ways to keep things
out of the landfills. We can throw
things away or we can turn trash to
treasure by recycling, composting,
and reusing wastes.
Getting more use out of what we
throw away is the idea of the new
Houston County trash handling sys
tem. The county has contracted with
Sullivan Environmental Services to
provide curbside pickup for citizens in
unincorporated areas of Houston
County. For this system to work, we
need to understand it and handle trash
properly.
By this week, all customers should
have two containers —a 95-gallon
household trash cart and an 18-gallon
recycling bin. Four kinds of trash will
be picked up on various schedules
recyclable trash, household garbage,
yard waste and bulk waste. A handout
with a pickup schedule will be deliv
ered with your trash bins.
Recyclable trash includes newspa
pers, plastics, and aluminum and tin
cans. Plastics include soda bottles,
milk jugs, and opaque water jugs.
Labels do not have to be removed
from cans but all containers must be
rinsed clean. Put all recyclable items
in the 18-gallon bin and they will be
picked up twice monthly.
General household waste? go in the
95-gallon cart which is emptied week
ly. No car parts, tires, building materi
als, hazardous waste, liquid paints, or
other unacceptable materials should
go in this cart. All waste must fit in
with the lid closed
Since this cart will be dumped
mechanically, it must be placed in an
accessible spot.
Sullivan Environment will paint a
temporary dot in a good location to
put the cart. You can pick your own
spot, but it should be 10 feet from any
vehicle, 5 feet from other items and
within 2 feet of the curb with the
arrows on the cart pointing toward the
road.
Take care of the cart. It belongs to
the county. It will need to be washed
occasionally. Put a small scoop of
laundry detergent in the cart and then
rinse it out. The cart should remain at
your address. If you move, do not take
it with you. Call Sullivan
Environmental before you move or if
you have any questions.
Yard wastes are picked up on the
same day as household garbage. This
includes leaves, grass clipping, brush
ad other vegetation. Do not put lum
ber, plastics, large limbs or materials
(See TRASH, Page SA)
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