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HH 93/99/39 Volume 127, No. 40 5 Sections, 56 Pages Wednesday, Oct 7 1998 50 Cents At the Crossroads This Week City offices closed Oct. 12 for holiday The administrative/munici pal offices of Perry City Hall will he closed Oct. 12 in observance of Columbus Day holiday. Offices will re-open Oct. 13 at 8 a.m. Other ' closings include Robins Air Force Base for most workers, area financial institutions, public schools and post offices. The Houston Times-Joumal office will be open. Students to be offered ham biscuits Here are this week's ele mentary school menus for Houston County public schools. All meals are served with milk Breakfast includes fresh fruit or fruit juice each day. Lunches include two hot veg etables and four to six cold fruit and vegetable choices daily. Schools under renova tion may have different menus. * Oct. 7 Breakfast: Ham biscuit or cereal and toast: Lunch: Com dog or grilled cheese with fruit yogurt or PBJ sandwich or baked potato with hot toppings, Mississippi Mud cake. Oct. 8 Breakfast: Manager’s choice or cereal and toast; Lunch: Nachos with beef and cheese or pizza or PBJ sandwich or sub sand wich. chocolate chip cookie. Oct. 9 Breakfast: Breakfast pizza or cereal and toast; Lunch: Steak nuggets with roll or barbecue on bun or PBJ sandwich or manager’s choice. Jell-O cookie. Oct. 12 Student Holiday (Columbus Day) Oct. 13 Breakfast: Waffles with syrup or cereal and toast: Lunch: Yogurt with deli sandwich, crunchy veggie sticks, ranch dressing, fresh fruit, oatmeal raisin cookie. Oct. 14 Breakfast: Sausage biscuit or cereal and toast; Lunch: Georgia fried chicken, choices of sweetheart potato souffle or potato salad r creamy cole slaw, new country style turnip greens, farm house cornbread or tasty apple crisp. Only two inspections result in discrepancies Inspectors for the Houston County Environmental Health Department reported only two discrepancies among restau rants inspected Sept. 28-Oct. 2. At Domino’s Pizza, 1431 Watson Blvd., Warner Robins, inspectors found problems (See FOOD, Page SA) 4*=;=: Houston 1 Contact the Times- Journal Contact the Houston Timcs ioumal: Voice (912)987-1823 Fax (912)988-1181 email limesjm@hom.net Mail PO. Drawer M, Perry. 31069 Street 807 Carroll St., Perry, 31069 Houston llines-Journal Official Legal Organ for Houston County, the City of Perry and the State of Georgia Taxes for county government, schools up slightly By CHARLOTTE PERKINS TIMES-jQtmNAL STAIT The Houston County Commissioners have set the 1998 property tax levy at 21.51 mills for the incorporated areas and 23.51 mills for the unincorporated areas. The difference in the two millage rates is due to a fire tax for residents of the unin corporated areas. For a homeowner with a $ 100.000 prop erty. with no exemptions, that would mean taxes of 860.40 in incorporated areas, and $940.40 in unincorporated areas The unanimous vote was taken at the Commissioners' Oct. 6 meeting at Perry City Hall. Members of the Houston County Board of Education met Oct. 5 to set their rate for 1998. The tax rate for schools, 12.46 mills of the 21 or 23 mill county total, is up slightly, one-tenth of a mill, from last year. One tenth of a mill would cost the owner Ninth Ga. National Fair opens Oct. 9 By EMILY JOHNSTONE Timks-Jouknal Staff Opening ceremonies. a parade, and an opening concert act by former Perryan Kelly Jerles Kristensen. are just three of the hundreds of interesting things going on during the ninth annua! Georgia National Fair set for Oct. 9-18. At 4 p.m. Oct. 9. opening cer emonies will be held on the fair grounds at the newly-constructed Court of Honor, located along side the Reaves Arena. Keynote speaker for the cere mony will be Ga. Rep. Bill Lee of Forest Park. A band from Robins Air Force Base will pro vide music. The next morning at 11 a.m.. it will be time to line-up along the streets to watch the 1998 Farm City Days Parade, sponsored once again bv the Perrv Kiwams Club. There will be a number of floats and local entries, along with a procession from the fair grounds representing Reithoffer Shows. Three big-name concerts arc scheduled. They include Alan Jackson with Lee Ann Womack Oct. 10; Brian McKnight on Oct. 16 and Alabama with Kelly Jerles Kristensen Oct. 17. Both Jackson and Alabama have performed at previous Fairs at the Agricenter. Tickets are on sale at the box office located on the Fairgrounds. Following the theme “The Tradition Continues”, many favorite activities can be found again this year at the Fair, includ ing the Royal Hanneford Circus, Reithoffer midway, racing pigs, youth exhibits and livestock shows and the popular Stories of Agriculture. One new item added to the event is the Georgia Living Store. The store functions as a consignment shop for artists and crafters who are interested in selling their fair entries to the public. The Georgia Living Store will be located in the McGill Building. Another new point of interest will be the Story of Ag Technology, presented by the Cooperative Extension Service of Fort Valley Slate University. Computers are used to showcase of a SIOO,OOO property $4. While the new millage rate shows a very slight increase over the 1997 rates of 21.41 for the incorporated areas and 23.41 for the unincorporated areas. County Commissioners were quick to point out that the increase was not due to county expen ditures but to an increase in the millage set by tTic Houston County Board of Education. Commissioner Tom McMichaels said 1 hope everyone will note that the county taxes arc the same as last year Commissioner Jim Cartel noted that “Citizens won't see any tax gain this year, and we've gone down 1.3 to 1 5 mills in the last five years.” The vote on the tax levy followed the fil .ing of the 1998 tax digest of $1,660.596,677, which represents the net value of all property in the county includ mg public utilities - -1 ' ■ Special Photo ENTERTAINER ON STILTS GREETS FAIR VISITOR He's One Of Many Roving Entertainers At National Fair how technology can help with advances and opportunities in the field of agriculture For more information about Great Escape practice is Wednesday By EMILY JOHNSTONfe Times-Jouenal Swn Local Fire Chief Gary Hamlin is asking Perryans to be a part of the “Great Escape" Oct. 7. The Great Escape is a concert ed effort to get citizens to develop home escape plans and practice them on Oct. 7 at 6 p.m., said Hamlin. This is in conjunction with events recognizing Oct. 4 through 10 as 1998 Fire Prevention Week. Every resident in the United States and Canada is invited to participate in this unified North American fire drill, where entire communities will practice their home escape plans at the same time, said Hamlin. “The Great Escape is a fun Serving HoiiHun County Since Dec- 17, lU7O The breakdown of this year’s millage rate is as follows: The tax levy for county costs (including general government, public safety, public works, health and welfare, libraries, conser vation of natural resources, intergovern mental costs, solid waste collection, animal control and various fringe benefits and insurance requirements) is 8.30 for both the incorporated and unincorporated areas. Property owners in the unincorporated areas also pay 2.00 mills for fire protec tion State Courts, and federally mandated costs account for .50 mills. The maintenance and operation of the county’s schools takes the biggest bite, with 12.36 mills. A required state levy accounts for .25 mills. In Georgia taxes are levied by state law on 40 percent of the assessed value of prop the 1998 Georgia National Fair, call 987-3247 or 800/YUR-FAIR You can visit on-line at www gnfa.com. "Phone calls to 911 should be made from a neighbor's house." Gary Hamlin activity for entire families to par ticipate in during Fire Prevention Week, but it could also save their lives,” he added. “If a fire breaks out in your home, you and your family only have a few minutes to escape to safety. Home fire escape planning and practice ensure that everyone in the house will know how to use that small window of opportunity effective (See FIRE, Page SA) Houston County high schools tops in midstate report GRADING THE SCHOOLS: This is the final installment of a three-part series on the rankings given to Houston County Schools in the recently-published “Georgia High School Report Card for Parents.” By CHARLOTTE PERKINS Times-Jquknac Staff Houston County's four high schools arc standard setters in the 37-county central Georgia region, according to a report recently issued by the Georgia Public Policy Foundation. Houston County High School ranked first among the 48 public high schools in central Georgia in the foundation’s “1998 Georgia High School Report Card for Parents ' Warner Robins High came in third. Northside was sixth and Perry- High was 13tn. Despite a good showing in central Georgia, however, none ol the Houston County schools made it into the top 50 in the state The ranking of the schools in Trendline building goes to foreclosure By EMILY JOHNSTONE Times- Journal Staff The former Trendline Home Fashions property located along Kellwood Drive is slated to go on the auction block in front of the Houston County courthouse steps Nov. 3. The plant ceased textile operations in early 1997. Rufus Dorsey, an Atlanta attor ney who represents a New York corporation, CIT Group, the com pany which made the loan, said the lease for a business that has been utilizing the building for the past several months has now expired, leaving the building vacant, and foreclosure proceed ings against Trendline Home Fashions, Inc., are moving along. According to a legal advertise ment published in this week’s edi tion of the Houston Times- Journal, there is about $5.5 mil lion owed on the property follow ing loans made in to Trendline in 1996 and 1997. - The property includes two parcels of land, one about six acres, the second about 14 acres. erty. A millage rate of 21.51 means that a taxpayer is billed $21.51 per SI,OOO on this adjusted property value In other business, the Commissioners: V Discussed two new water tanks which will soon be set up in the central area of the county, increasing the water storage capac ity by over a million gallons. One lank is being bought second hand and will be. transported here trom Ohio and set up |usi behind the Phoenix Center on Ga 96 The other, which is being purchased new, will be installed near Ga 247 Both are "pedisphere" tanks, with a single pillar base and spherical tank (similar to a golf ball on a tee.) and recognized the county s seven new paid full-time firefighters, who attended the meeting with Fire Chief Jimmy Williams the stale in the report is based on several criteria, including the fol lowing: V The average score on the math and English language arts sections of the 1998 Georgia High School Graduation Test V The average of the highest verbal and math scores on the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) for students enrolled in a college prep curriculum. \ The school's graduation rate as measured by the percentage of ninth grade students entering in the 1993-94 school year who graduated in the 1996-97 gradual ing class. Poverty rate is also included in the report because of its estab lished correlation with student achievement. However, it is noted in the report that some schools consistently ‘beat the curve on poverty. The top 10 schools out ol the 311 public high schools in the state, according to the report, are Walton High, Cobb County; Davidson Magnet, Richmond (See SCHOOLS, Page SA) Tim Martin, Executive Director for the Houston County Development Authority, said he is “all in favor of doing something with the property " included on the property is a 300,000 sq. ft. building The orig inal sections of the building are about 40 years old. said Martin. Before Trendline, the building housed another textile operation owned by the Kellwood Co. The property has been listed for sale at a price of about $2 7 million, said Martin. Several prospects have been shown the building in past months, but so far nothing solid has occurred, he added. “We will work with whatever company that shows interest in the community," said Martin. Chris Kinnas, president ot the Perry Area Chamber of Commerce, said he would “like to see it change hands to someone who could put jobs in the community." “Every time we have develop ers in town, we show the build ing.” said Kinnas. A Home of the Georgia National Fair and Agricenter