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Wednesday Dec. <), l')'*!! Volume 127, No. 49 2 Sections 20 l\u;es 50 C cuts ' .r I lome nt I lie Georg'** National ;j - I .iir»rmmds and r '< ■> : . —'v At the Crossroads This Week Santa Utters weUome Someone ai your home planning to write Santa this year'.’ We'd be proud to pub lish that letter so all the com munity can enjoy it Letters to Santa can be sent through the Perry Post Office, at the special letters mail box in front of the post office, or they can be delivered to the newspaper office at 807 Carroll St. The deadline for letters is Dec. 19 so they can be for warded on to the North Pole in time for Christinas Eve Share locations of Christmas decorations Someone in your neighbor hood have a delightful Christmas decoration? Proud of your own yard? Tell the Times-Journal. We will list outstanding Christmas decora tions for the next two weeks so Perryans can drive by to see. Call the paper at 987-1823 to give the address of displays you enjoy. Computer show coming to Agricenter A computer show will be held at the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter Dec. 12-13. Chicken biscuits on school menu Here are this week's ele mentary school menus for Houston County public schools. All meals arc 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. Dec. 9 - Breakfast: Cheese croissant or cereal and toast, fresh fruit or fruit juice; Lunch: Corn dog or grilled cheese sandwich with soup or chili; PBJ sandwich or baked potato with hot toppings, shortcake with fruit toppings. Dec. 10 - Breakfast: Chicken biscuit or cereal and toast, fresh fruit or fruit juice; Lunch; Nachos with cheese and beef or pizza or PB.I sand wich or sub sandwich, ginger bread with lemon sauce. Dec. 11 - Breakfast: Pancake with syrup or cereal and toast, fresh fruit or fruit juice; Lunch: Steak nuggets with roll or barbecue on bun or PBJ sandwich, banana pud ding. Dec. 14 - Breakfast: Manager’s choice or cereal and toast; fresh fruit or fruit juice; Lunch: Chicken nuggets with roll or hot ham and cheese sandwich, PBJ sand wich or baked potato with hot toppings, pudding with top pings. Dec. 15 - Breakfast: Steak biscuit or cereal and toast, fresh fruit or fruit juice; Lunch: Taco or fish nuggets or PBJ sandwich or sub sand wich, million dollar cookie. Dec. 16 - Breakfast: Breakfast pizza or cereal and toast, fresh fruit or fruit juice; Lunch: Hot dogs or sloppy joes or PBJ sandwich or baked potato with hot toppings, brownie. Health inspectors dis cover discrepancies Health Inspectors make several local slops for the week of Nov. 30-Dec. 4. Following arr a list of the stops that were mauc OIIU the discrepancies that were found. Cherry Corner Express, 207-A Russell Parkway, (See FOOD, Page 3A) . p®fflK|f| m ’ S Y r^Jj% '^®il Houston Times-Journal Christmas in Perry mixes good news, bad news The Good: Cagle will bring 500-plus The bad: Northrop affected by Boeing jobs to community in year 2000 slow down, up to 500 could lose jobs By ROB MEAD Timks-Joi rso Stoi ______ Cagle Inc., based in Atlanta, bought the former Siroh brewery plant in Houston County from the Stroh Brewing Co. of Wisconsin Dec 4 said Doug Cagle. Chiet Executive Officer of Cagle Inc. The plant, on a 700-acre plot in Kathleen along Ga. 247 Spur, will need to be refitted to allow the processing ol chick ens. Unofficial sources estimated it will take up to a year before the plant will be ready for operation. Initially 500 job openings will \be filled, one-third of which will be management positions, said Steve Byrd, a member of the Houston County Development Authority. r —______ TTZ~ u JntAUMtX At ww 4% iffwal jt vm ¥ m m ' - i,! '. > m I—l M Timet-Journal Photo by Eric Zatlars ANTICIPATION A courthouse lawn crowd waits with anticipation the Community Worship Service Dec. 6. The county Christmas tree shines in the background. Work on new Perry Post Office begins next week By ROB MEAD Times-Journal Staff Harvey Sergent project manager and superintendent for the new Perry Post Office, said early this week that con struction would begin next week. Sergent, who works for Postal Services LLC, a Denver, Col., company, has been on site for a few days preparing for work to begin. Some work will begin before next week. Local surveyor Richard Jones will be at the property to remark the building location from when work look place almost two years ago. The plan is to still have a 15,467- square-fool building, said Sergent. “We arc looking into finding a local architect rather than going to the one we usually use in Arkansas" said Sergent Official Legal Organ for Houston County, the City of Perry and the State of Georgia He was pleased that an idle plant would be converted into a thriving industry for the midstate. The brewery has been closed more than two years Over a three-year period the number of jobs may rise to as many as 2.000 Cagle has told some officials. The sale is the culmination ol a six month effort spearheaded by members ol the Houston County Development Authority and supported by area officials. Members of Houston County Development Authority, working with Perry city officials, are assisting Cagle with applications to the State of Georgia for (See CAGLE. Page SA) “If things go smoothly we expect to break ground next week and complete the project in less than nine months” said Sergent. Sergent, who was with the Bison Co. when they started the project, left Bison after he was issued $12,000 in bad checks. Bison later went bankrupt and left the project. Sergent said. Steve Howard, Perry building inspec tor, said permits for the construction trailer, and clean-up equipment on site. He said other permits have expired and must be reissued before work begins. Sergent said he plans to submit per mit applications to the City of Perry to keep things running smoothly but does n't actually need them because the Post Office construction is federally regulat ed. St rung I iuuslou (iuinl\ Similht 17, IJI7O By STACIE M. VU Times-Joiirnal St ah Officials ai the Perry* Northrop- Grumman aircraft door assembly plant have announced they will reduce their work lorcc by AtH» starting in January IW9 Spokesperson Georgia Engle said the company will first release 300 contract per sonnel and will follow with 200 full-time employees The reduction notices will be issued beginning in January and will go throughout the year The plant employs close to ! ,000 people, including contractor employees A spokesman said Northrop-Grumman management will give the employees to be laid off a 60-day notice and no severance Christmas at Crossroads weekend events draw large, happy crowds By CHARLOTTE PERKINS Times-Journal Staff Community and church groups, volunteers and merchants TfimTed up vtrtr the Terry*rra .Chamber of Commerce and city employees on Dec. 5-6 to start the Christmas season oft right With the help of balmy w eath er, the opening festivities of the annual Christmas ai the Crossroads celebration attracted big crowds starting with' a turnout of well over 400 for the Perry Kiwanis Club's pancake breakfast. According to Kiwanis President Jo Crumpacker, busi ness was steady for the Kiwanians as they grilled sausage links and flipped thou sands of pancakes on their cus tom made grill. "Willie Tyson was in charge and he deserves full credit," Crumpacker said. While a final accounting is yet to come. Crumpacker estimated the Kiwanians cleared up to $1,500 at the event, which was held at the ag building on Carroll Street. The proceeds will go to D ARE.. P.A.L.. Read A Book and Meals on Wheels. The annual Christmas parade attracted a big crowd, including many who participated in win dow shopping and browsing in downtown shops both before and after the parade With 50 groups participating. School Board to lease part of old MGTI By STACIE M. VU IlMIs Jul HSU Sun Members of the Houston County Board of Education may lease part of the former Middle Georgia Technical Institute build ing at 1311 Corder Road in Warner Robins. If the Iniard goes through with the lease, the school system will offer programs at the facility, but details were not available at press time. Under the terms of the proposed agree ment, the school system would lease approximately 56,(XX) square feel of space from the school. The term of the lease is expected to start Jan. 1. 1999 and terminate on June 30, 1999. The lease wiil automatically renew for a period of one year on July I, 1999. with the option to renew annually through June 30, 2009, according to information provided during the Dec. 8 meeting of the school board. The lease can be terminated at anytime if HCBOE gives a 120-day notice. HCBOE will be required to pay a 70 percent share of utilities and maintenance costs according the parade was longer than in pre vious years It was organized by the Ferry Area Chamber of Commerce with help from Fire i^--' 1 , ‘*> : V v. "f Jslp'fifr . ««iim| V* \ - :. ->v» r. ■*&& ! wBMBWBBBBaEK |% S 1 ... BHhBPbHBHMbKS ; '& , «.. V , atiLk ..»’»•*£ ■&? Timet-Joumol Photo by Charlotte Perkins SHOESTRING HELP Perryan Payton Proffit, 2 1/2, gets some help with a shoestring while waiting for Santa Claus to pass by. package Northrop-Grumman is offering a job placement program to the employees who arc to be laid off and those employees that are laid off will be considered for other Northrop openings as they arc available. According to Houston County Development Authority Director Tim Martin, "The Asian economy is suffering a little bit and a lot ol Asian countries arc nol ordering as many airplanes as anticipated Because of that, Boeing has ordered cut backs of that company’s commercial con struction force. The Perry Northrop Grumman plant is an assembly plant for many commercial aircraft doors through a (See NORTHROP, Page SA) Chief Gary Hamlin, and included the Perry High School and Houston County High School (See WEEKEND, Page SA) to the agreement Also diseussed at the board meeting on Dec. 8, was a request that employees of the HCBOE be paid on Dec. 18, when Christmas break starts for students and teachers. It had been stated at the meeting that there would be no need to vote for early pay this month because Dec. 18. is the last working day of the month due to the holidays. Middle School to move By STACIE M. VU TimciJmibiul Staw Perry Middle School students will see different walls starting Jan. 4, 1999, when they move into their new building off Perry Parkway. The new Perry Middle School construc tion is almost complete, lacking some paving of the parking lot, and students wnU receive a tour of the new school starting on Dec. 15, with the 8(h graders. The 7th grade students will lour the (See MOVE. Puri 5A>,