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FRIDAY September 26,2003 Volume 134, Number 176 Award-Winning Better Newspaper ISgßjy INSIDE u i 8 Hard competition Over easy or hard boiled, that’s the competi tion range the county’s teams face this weekend on the football gridiron. Only Houston County and Northside enjoy home games - the latter on Saturday - the rest, are on the road. SPORTS, page 1B jf® - { V Hard work Heather DeMasi works on her pot which she is building a “coil” at a time. POTTERY, page 8B AREA DEATHS Olin Edward Anderson Nora Brown Mary K. Ellis Margaret Hobby SMSgt. J.W. Martin, USAF (Ret.) OBITS, page SA INDEX CELEBRATIONS . .9A CLASSIFIED 5B COMICS 5B CROSSWORD 5B LIFESTYLE 7A OBITUARIES 5A OPINION 4A SCHOOL NEWS .. .5A TV LISTINGS 5B WEATHER 2A PERIODICAL llllllll•ll■ll■■ll■llllllilll^| 1 * Georgia Newspaper Projeci MAIN LIBRARY UGA ATHENS GA 30602 3-DIGIT 306 Serving Houston County Since 1870 vu,ne 4|ourttHl LEGAL ORGAN FOR HOUSTON COUNTY, city of Perry, city of Warner Robins and city of Centerville H.C. juniors best their peers Students score well in GHSGT By Luci Joullian HHJ Staff Writer HOUSTON COUNTY - High school juniors in Houston County scored bet ter than juniors from around the state on the Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT) this year, according to results released by the State Board of Education. The test, which high schoolers take in the spring of their junior years and JR' v * jH u \ ||p ■■ I I 9 Bbt . %fc " HL \ j|f' ’SBMpSMP •’*- uw wj* , v*•• i. MiHff sHMR smsm HHJ Heather Fasciocco Robins Air Force Base Honor Guard presents the flag during Wednesday’s C-5 “Galaxy" Commemoration Ceremony as the official party stands at attention. (Back row, left to right) Maj. Gen. Donald Wetekam, commander of the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center; James Culpepper, Maintenance Director for the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center and Col. Ed Connolly, C-5 Maintenance Director for the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center. C-5 team meets goals set for production Over 700 RAFB workers recognized for achievement By Heather Fasciocco HHJ Staff Writer ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE - World events pushed the C-5 production goal at the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center to 17 air craft in fiscal year 2001 and 2002, according to officials. After being challenged by an enormous global trans port demands of war the center devised a plan to complete depot maintenance on 23 aircraft in fiscal 2003. Wednesday marked the C -5 Team’s accomplishments as they recognized over 700 maintenance workers and individuals throughout the base who have become essential in meeting the C-5 production goal that was doubted by many Air Force officials. “I made the commitment and brought it home for you all to carry out because we had the right leadership in place,” said Meg. Gen. Donald Wetekam, com mander of the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center. www.hhjnews.com which must be passed in order to graduate, tests the content areas of English/language arts, math, social studies and sci ence. Students must also pass a writing portion of the GHSGT, which is given in the fail of each year. Of regular program stu dents taking the test for the first time, 98 percent passed the English/language arts section, 97 percent passed the math, 89 percent passed the social studies and 81 percent passed the science section in Houston County. And although the Houston See GHSGT, page 6A Wetekam said the upcoming goal for the C-5 Team is to reduce their flow days by 10 percent of the current 240. Flow days are the total days allotted to complete mainte nance on the aircraft. Before implementing Lean concepts, a strategy defined to eliminate excess waste (time) and revitalize working criteria and strate gies, the depot worked on a 340 flow day operation. Wetekam told the crowd a long-term goal for the C-5 production team is to be down to 180 flow days by fis cal year 2005. Robins first became involved in the C-5 pro grammed depot mainte nance in early 1998 and has since completed mainte nance on 101 C-ss. “It instills pride in me and everyone else as we see it take off,” said C-5 aircraft mechanic Kenneth Deem. Deem said he also had doubts about the C-5 Team being able to put out “23 in ’03.” “It feels good to be part of the record, but I really feel patriotic,” said Deem, who has worked in the aircraft production field for 29 years. “I know I have to do anything and everything I can to help the warfighter.” GHSGT scons LA = English/language arts; MA = mathematics; SS = social studies; and SC = science. 2003 2002 LA/MA/SS/SC !I '. I LA/MA/SS/SC % Pass % Pass System 98 / 97 / 89 / 81 98 / 96/89 / 83 Middle Georgia 97/96/87/77 97/91/82/71 State 97 / 94 / 84 / 72 97 / 93 / 85 / 75 Houston Co. High 99 / 98 / 93 / 84 99 / 98 / 93 / 88 Northside High 98 / 97 / 87 / 76 98 / 93/84 / 76 Perry High 98 / 96 / 86 / 78 99 / 96 / 88 / 83 Warner Robins High 99 /98/89 /83 97 /98/92 /85 Source: Houston County Board of Education Jsk*o '« /* Hh-oM HHJ/Heather Fasciocco Members of the C-5 Team wore shirts celebrating their efforts of completing depot maintenance on 23 aircraft in fiscal year 2003. The past 11 out of 12 air craft have been delivered on time or early, according to Col. Ed Connolly, C-5 Maintenance Director for the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center. “This is not a flash in the pan success,” he said. “This is a team-assembled work force.” Connolly said future goals will be met by cutting costs Sm C-5, page 6A an Evans Family Newspaper 50c J»PV. TWO SECTIONS • 18 PAGES V 2020 looks at joint grant Legislative cooperative also considers its priorities By Jon Suggs HHJ Staff Writer WARNER ROBINS - At the latest meeting of the Vision 2020 Council of Governments, the assembled representa tives of Houston County’s various municipalities approved the notion of working together to keep cops in local schools. Representatives from the Houston County Board of Education pre sented a county-wide issue for the group to con sider - jointly applying for grant funds to contin ue paying for the law enforcement officers cur rently at work in most schools in the system. These include DARE (Define, Assess, Respond and Evaluate) and GREAT (Gang Resistance Education And Training) officers in elementary and middle schools, respectively, and school resource officers in high schools. Thomas Moore, princi pal of Perry Middle School, expressed his strong support of these programs, describing some of the changes he perceived in the learning environment before and after the officers were added to his school. He says having a uni formed police officer around makes kids com fortable around law enforcement officers, builds bridges within the community and acts as a deterrent against “mis chief.” The most important result, he said, is the kids feel safer, and that makes it easier for them to focus on learning. Yet, much as Moore and others like these pro grams, there is a threat to their continued existence. James Kinchen, assis tant superintendent of instruction, explained the current fiscal situation. See V 2020, page 6A