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Viewpoints
Georgia on mind
Georgia is on the minds of a large number
of junior livestock owners who will spend
parts of the next 10 days in Percy. The
National Junior Angus Cattle Show is one of
the largest and most prestigious shows for
youths in the nation, and this week, Georgians
are hosting this show for the first time.
Along with the youths involved will be par
ents, teachers, advisors, and cattlemen inter
ested in the Angus breed. They will be head
quartered during the day at the Agricenter, but
they’ll also make their presence felt in the
community at motels, restaurants, shops and
other locations.
This is another of those top-notch shows
which management at the Agricenter has
sought as the facility grew and became capa
ble of housing such a major event. The visi
tors will be from across America, and they
will take their impression of not only Perry
but all of Georgia back with them, based pri
marily on what they find here during these
next few days.
We welcome the National Junior Angus
Cattle Show to Perry and encourage all of our
readers to join us in making the visit by these
cattlemen just as enjoyable as possible.
Don’t forget to invite them back, too.
Taking another look back
I think I’ll go ahead and give the year away in the
first paragraph. It was the year in which Billy Powell
led the Perry Panthers to the state basketball cham
pionship, the third of seven titles for the legendary
Eric Staples. It was the year in which Ohio Senator
John W. Bricker proposed sharp limits of presiden
tial powers to make treaties. President Eisenhower
lifted wage and price controls, increased United
States support for French war efforts in Indochina,
and negotiated an armistice that ended the Korean
War.
Congress created the Department of Health,
Education and Welfare and Maj. Chuck Yeager of
the U.S. Air Force set anew air speed record in the
rocket-powered X-l
jet plane.
“The Robe” was
the first motion pic- ’
ture shown in
Cinema Scope. '
American John
H. Gibbon, Jr. used
his invention, a
heart-lung
ii v a 1 11 u u
machine, in a successful open heart surgery. The
Nobel prize for peace was won by Gen. George C.
Marshall for his ‘Marshall Plan’, which provided
recovery loans and technical aid to European nations
after World War 11.
In the movies, the academy award for best film
went to “From Here to Eternity”, a movie in which
Frank Sinatra and Donna Reed won Oscars for best
supporting actor and actress. The best actor award
was won by Gary Cooper for “High Noon” and the
best actress was Audrey Hepburn for her role in
“Roman Holiday”.
Southern Cal won the Rose Bowl with a 7-0 win
over Wisconsin; Texas beat Tennessee 16-0 in the
Cotton Bowl; Georgia Tech beat Mississippi 24-7 in
the Sugar Bowl. Tech went on to win two straight
Sugar Bowls and three in four years. Alabama
demolished Syracuse in the Orange Bowl 61-6.
Native Dancer won the Belmont Stakes and the
Preakness, Dark Star won the Kentucky Derby and
Tom Fool won Horse of the Year.
While Native Dancer narrowly missed racing’s
triple crown, Ben Hogan came just as close to taking
golf’s grand slam. He won the Masters, the U.S.
Open and the British Open, but lost his grand slam
when Walter Burkemo won the PGA championship.
His death on New Year’s Day brought even more
attention to the great talents of Hank Williams, Sr.,
and two of his songs reached the pop charts, though
he had been exclusively a country singer. Music fans
also were treated to great songs like Perry Como’s
“Don’t Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes”, which hit
the top spot on the charts in January and stayed there
for five weeks. It was followed by Teresa Brewer’s
“Till I Waltz Again With You”, which stayed at the
top of the charts for seven weeks after reaching the
top on Feb 15.
Patti Page scored with “How Much is That
Doggie in The Window” and Percy Faith followed
with “Song From Moulin Rouge’”, which stayed
atop the charts for 10 weeks before Eddie Fisher’s
“I’m Walking Behind You” knocked it from the top.
The Ames Brothers scored with “You, You, You”
and “St. George and the Dragonet” enjoyed a four
week stay at the top for Stan Freberg.
Tony Bennett’s “Rags to Riches” was the last song
to reach the top of the charts, making number one on
Nov 21, and staying there for eight weeks —in 1953.
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 TVibble President
Jj Johnson Editor and General Manager
John Smalley Advertising Sabs
News: Emily Johnstone, Pauline Lewis, Rick Johnstone; Sports: Phil Clark; Classified
Phil
Clark
Reminiscing
Dogs may have roamed Mars’ surface long ago
For this column, I’m going to need
your cooperation. I need you to assume
that it is high noon and the sun is out,
meaning that if you are reading this
newspaper in the evening hours you
will be forced to use your imagination
I apologize for the inconvenience.
Now as you are walking down the
street (I’ll let you pick out the street
you would like to imagine yourself
walking down), take a moment to look
up at the sky.
What would you see up in the sky?
Well, you’ll probably see a big blue
sky, some puffy white clouds, a big
yellow sun, and some guy named Ernie
standing next to you asking, “Hey,
whatcha lookin’ at up there?”
But what I’m interested in isn’t
what you see, rather it’s what you don’t
see that I’m interested in stars.
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Options to spending s3o,ooofor lot
Editor:
This is a copy of a letter which I
have sent all members of the Perry City
Council, the City Manager, the City
Attorney and members of the Perry
Convention and Visitors Bureau
Authority.
It isn’t often that one can stand face
to-face with $30,000 of tax money
albeit room-tax money from approxi
mately 12,000 of Perry’s lifeblood
tourists —and watch it go gurgling
down a frivolous drain. (If the $30,000
had been tax money collected from
Perry citizens, the drain already would
have been slammed shut!)
Take a short drive down Courtney
Hodges Boulevard and check out the
“drainage site” —a 20-to-30-space
parking area under construction just
behind the Perry Welcome Center.
Wow! The overflow from the 100
parking spaces in front of the Welcome
Center must be tremendous!
That’s a tongue-in-cheek statement,
by the way, since that front lot proba
bly does well to average 15 to 20 park
ing situations on a daily basis if that.
My understanding is that the monies
being expended for the new lot are
monies which by law must be spent on
the physical improvement of a CVB
office/welcome center facility and/or
land on which that facility sits, or
“physical” items which the CVB could
utilize in promoting visitation to the
area. That is well and good, as they say,
unless there is absolutely nothing bet
ter to do with those monies.
A principal rationale seems to be
that the new lot is needed to accommo
date employee and visitation parking
for the Perry Area Chamber of
Commerce. TTie 100-car front lot
apparently is somewhat of an inconve
nience for that purpose —you know,
the “inconvenience” of having to walk
a little bit to get into the building.
The Chamber is a tenant in the
Welcome Center building —and a ten-
Ads and Composition: Chad Lewis; Circulation and Photography: Eric Zellars;
Bookkeeping: Paula L. Zimmerman.
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Unsigned editorials appearing in larger type on this page under the label of Our Views
reflect the position'of the Houston Times-Journal. Signed columns and letters on this page
(and elsewhere in this newspaper) reflect the opinions of the writers and not necessarily
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Wed., July 9,1997
Page 4
Chad
Lewis
Staff Writer
That’s right, the heavenly celestial
bodies that grace the evening skyline
and cause us to ponder our own signif
icance in the universe.
Now because of the sun’s reflection
of Earth’s atmosphere and some other
scientific facts that I am nowhere near
qualified enough to explain., you can’t
see stars during the daytime, but that
doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. We
just have to have something to bring it
to our attention.
Well, for many of us, NASA’s Mars
Letters to
the Editor
P.O. Drawer M
Perry, Ga. 31069
ant which “pays” a negative $250
monthly for its rental.
Strange, you say: well, each month
the CVB writes the Chamber a check
of $1,200 from its Hotel/Motel tax
receipts to cover the City of Perry’s
contract with the Chamber. Then the
Chamber writes a check to the CVB in
the amount of S9OO for its monthly
rental. That equals a negative amount
of $250. Sounds like a good business
deal, wouldn’t you agree?
Well, enough of that. The parking
lot fact is now accomplished.
But surely more sane rationale for
the expenditure of $30,000 could have
been considered by members of the
Convention and Visitors Bureau
Authority. For example:
1. The outright purchase and
removal or promotional use —of
the existing privately owned monopole
billboard on the rear property of the
Welcome Center;
2. A motor-home-sized “traveling
exhibit” vehicle professionally
designed and equipped as a walk
through display of both Perry and area
attractions. Perfect for use at any one
of the state’s several welcome centers,
or at travel shows, or during such
events as the Georgia National Fair, the
Moultrie Sunbelt Expo, the Mossy
Creek Arts and Craft Festival, the
Perry Dogwood Festival, et cetera;
3. A tourist-tempting view for north
bound traffic on Interstate 75
replete with a professionally designed
gardens/water fountain/picnic area.
Such a view surely would prompt
increased visitation to the Welcome
Houston Times-Journal
Pathfinder expedition has brought life
on other planets to our attention. What
they have found out in recent hours is
Mars-shattering news.
Ever since the 1976 Viking missions
that lead us to believe that Mars was a
huge dust bowl of sand so barren of
life that it didn’t even offer visitors
such amenitieSi as an ocean or a
Waffle House. Now researchers are
saying that their previous assumptions
were incorrect. Mars was more likely
to have been a huge planet almost cov
ered in water for a brief moment in
time.
Yes, water the wet stuff, the blue
magic, the fountain of life has been
found to have been on Mars. Now sim
ply because water probably inhabited
Mars billions of years ago should not
lead one to assume that life existed
_fc 1
Center! And increased visitation cer
tainly is needed to justify existence of
the facility;
4. A professionally executed study
and design for possible construction of a
tourist-drawing facility on the property.
(Several area communities recently
have taken that progressive step the
Cotton Museum at Vienna, the
Telephone Museum at Leslie, and not to
even speak of the Music Hall of Fame
and the Sports Hall of Fame in Macon!).
The culmination of such a project as
this could be financed through the use
of future Hotel/Motel tax monies
which are legislated to be used for
such a purpose;
5. An aesthetically designed cov
ered entry portico, including sidewalks
bordering the parking lot; or
6. On and on and on with possibili
ties which certainly would be much
more worthwhile to consider than a
24-30-space parking lot.
I’ll bet you could even add an item
or two to the above list!
I did not mean to be so long-winded
about this situation. It’s just that
around 12,000 tourists deserve more
for their $30,000 than a parking lot.
(That’s figured in this manner, by the
way: 12,000 motel rooms at say S4O a
room equals $480,000 times the six per
cent Hotel/Motel tax equals $28,800 of
Hotel/Motel tax revenue.)
George Mathis
Perry
Newspaper welcomes letters
The Houston Times-Joumal wel
comes letters to the editor from our
readers. Letters must be signed and
include a telephone number for verifi
cation purposes.
Send letters via email to
jjedit@hom.net, by fax to 988-1181,
by mail to P.O. Drawer M, Perry,
31069, or to the office at 807 Carroll
St. in downtown Perry.
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free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or of the right of
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there. But what it does mean is that at
one point in its long history, Mars
could have sustained life.
Now I am by no means a scientist.
In college, I took 10 hours of geology,
which qualifies me to endlessly stare at
rocks for days and ponder “What in the
heck is this thing?” Actually, the only
science you really need is the first sci
entific formula you learned.
Do you remember when your third
grade science teacher (big hair and all)
gave you the formula for water? If you
don’t, I’ll refresh your memory it’s
two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen.
That’s right, the same oxygen that me,
you, and your dog named 800 breathe
was at one point found on the planet of
little green men and women and their
(See MARS, Page SA)
From
Where I Sit
Bob Tribble
President
Leave retirement
age, Medicare
premiums alone
There are few Georgians who
believe in a balanced budget or deficit
reduction more than I do.
From the fiscal conservative point
of view, I would stack up with the
best. Waste in government spending,
business or personal finances is not
my bowl of soup. Never spend more
than you take in and plan on putting
back at least 10 percent for savings
has always been my plan.
With that said, I might surprise
conservatives when I say I oppose a
delay in Medicare benefits to age 67.1
also oppose the idea of those in a
higher income bracket paying higher
premiums to Medicare.
Most Americans know the U.S.'
Senate voted recently to increases
monthly Medicare premiums for bet
ter-off seniors and gradually raise the
eligibility age for benefits to 67.
Republicans say the higher premiums
would affect only five percent of
senior citizens. The Senate vote would
gradually increase the Medicare eligi
bility age of 65 to 67 by the year 2027,
the same as for Social Security.
We Americans have paid in our tax
dollars for years on end to provide us
with retirement at age 62 Or 65. We
have also paid in our tax dollars for
years for Medicare. Most of us had no
choice but to pay the premium taxes
forced on us. Many Americans would
have chosen to put these dollars into
individual retirement accounts had
that option been available.
Americans are living longer, and
thank goodness for that. At present
males have a life expectancy of 73
years while females can expect to live
to age 79, on average. While I plan to
work as long as my health allows,
most Americans look forward to our
present retirement ages of 62 Or 65.
Many retire at a much younger age
than 62.
No matter what level of income
Americas are when they become
retirement age, they have paid, and
their employers have matched the
same amount of dollars for their
Social Security and Medicare, per
centage wise. Those who earned more
over the years have paid more into the
system, with those earning less paying
less.
Now big government comes along
with the idea that because some have
been able to save that 10 percent of
their earnings over the years, they are
rich folks. Government will make
them pay a higher monthly premium
for their Medicare benefits. Frankly,
it's the principle of the thing which
bothers me.
If we are going to save the
Medicare dilemma, our country is
headed for, then somehow medical
costs must be brought under control.
Professional medical people and insti
(See TRIBBLE, Page SA)