Newspaper Page Text
SUNDAY
July 25, 2004
Volume 135, Number 146
Award-Winning
Newspaper
2004
Better Newspaper
Contest
Inside TODAY
-15 to compete
for Miss WR
The 48th annual Miss
Warner Robins Scholarship
Pageant will be held next
Saturday at the Homer J.
Walker Civic Center.
We’ve got photos and
bios of the contestants
inside.
See page 8A
Runners finish up
cross country
Warner Robins High
School hosted its final leg
of the fourth annual
Middle Georgia Cross
Country Series Thursday
at Pearl Stephens
Elementary School.
Sports, page 1B
Happy BIRTHDAY!
July 25
Sandra Greathouse
Carl Mosely
Bobbie Parker
David Parker
Inez E. Watson
July 26
Vesther Allen
Rita Hagen
Delton Hawkins
Heidi Pinckney
Carley Swearingen
Riley Swearingen
Ray Trice
Area DEATHS
Bernice Ann Gruber
Donald Martin
Clyde E. Stewart
Obits, page 2A
INDEX
BUSINESS 7A
CLASSIFIED 5B
COMICS 5C
CROSSWORD ... ,5C
LIFESTYLE 1C
OBITUARIES 2A
OPINION 4-5 A
SCHOOL NEWS . . .4B
SPORTS 1B
TV LISTINGS 5C
WEATHER .2A
PERIODICAL
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Serving Houston County Since IH7O
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LEGAL ORGAN FOR HOUSTON COUNTY,
city of Perry, city of Warner Robins and city of Centerville
Tax commissioner endorses Kluge
JUANITA MASON
New management = new fun at DJ's
WR family entertainment
center unveils new facilities
By Ed Bania
HHJ Staff Writer
WARNER ROBINS DJ’s Galaxy Quest is a
place that kids young and old dream about.
Even I didn’t want to leave when I toured the
complex. .
A new managmnent team headed by opera
tions director Randy Trahan has brought about
new ideas and installed new equipment at the
50,0000-square-foot family entertainment cen
ter on Russell Parkway near Kimberly Drive in
Warner Robins. There is a
Softplay area, jumpers,
Laser Tag, 18 holes of minia
ture golf inside and out, pool
tables, batting cages, and
about 75 video arcane games
and 75 redemption games
that spit out tickets that kids
turn in for prizes.
There’s even a virtual reality simulator where
the child sits inside and experiences an exciting
roller coaster ride.
The concession stand sells pizzas, hotdogs,
hamburgers, popcorn, cotton candy, sodas, and
even low-carb chicken and steak wraps and gar
den and chicken salads.
There’s an 80-foot-long go-cart track outside
with seven single seat cars for kids eleven and
See DJ’s, page 7A
Man offers to buy land near building
From staff reports
WARNER ROBINS - A local busi
nessman who has agreed to buy a
former speculative building on
Osigian Boulevard has asked to buy
an adjacent 5 acres.
According to Larry Snellgrove,
chairman of the Houston County
Development Authority, Joe Kovac
Kerry’s Barrett to cut gov’t, waste
*
AP
Gov. Sonny Perdue (right) listens to Perry native Lonice Barrett during a press confer
ence in Atlanta. Perdue announced that Barrett will leave the Department of Natural
Resources to join his office as director of implementation to improve the efficiency of
state government.
www.hhjnews.com
Mason breaks silence to support her chief deputy
By Rex Gambill
HHJ Managing Editor
PERRY - Juanita Mason
has endorsed Judy Kluge to
replace her as Houston
County tax commissioner.
Voters will decide Aug. 10
whether it will be Kluge or
rival candidate Mark
Kushinka who will take over
the Tax Commissioner’s
Office.
Mason said she was moti
vated to set the record
straight on statements that
have been made in the cam-
I
ijnw _s’
lIHJ Ed B»nia
The Road Burner video game at DJ’s Galaxy Quest simulates a motorcycle ride up and down hills
and trails.
Related
photos,
page 7A
Sr. offered to buy the land for
$50,000 per acre.
Kovac has agreed to buy the
50,000-square-foot spec building at
150 Osigian Blvd. for $1 million.
The authority’s asking price for the
building was $1.2 million, but the
group was open to the $1 million
proposal in light of the work the
Mason's open letter to voters, page 3A
paign about her office and
her staff. She said she’s had
a lot of people calling her
and asking who she sup
ports for the election.
“I’ve tried to be quiet and
stay out of it, but there
comes a time where if we
don’t stand up for issues, we
don’t stand for much,” she
said Friday.
potential buyer plans to carry out on
the building.
Morgan Law, executive director of
the Development Authority, said
Kovac intends to perform about
$450,000 in external improvements
(including putting brick on the front
of the building), and another
SBOO,OOO in internal improvements.
Mason, who is retiring
after 43 years in the
Houston County Tax
Commissioner’s Office, was
eager to defend her staff.
“I’ve got the best office in
the whole state, and I’m
standing up for my staff,”
she said, adding that figures
like the county’s 99 percent
See MASON, page 3A
Perdue names former DNR
commissioner to new post
From wire, staff reports
ATLANTA - Gov. Sonny
Perdue chose a ripped-down
abandoned state office to
announce he’s about to start
cutting millions in govern
ment waste - especially
unused buildings.
Last year the Republican
governor set up a commis
sion of volunteer business
leaders - the Commission
for a New Georgia - to iden
tify places where the state’s
sl6 billion budget is leaking
money.
Among the problems
announced: the state does
n’t know exactly how much
office space it has, and some
employees work in expen
sive leased buildings while
older state offices languish
unused.
an Evans Family Newspaper
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THREE SECTIONS • 24 PAGES
JUDY KLUGE
Last Tuesday, members of the
authority discussed Kovac’s offer to
buy the adjacent land.
Law said the authority has made a
counter-offer of $75,000 per acre for
the sale of the land.
“Mr. Kovac did not give me any
indication of his thoughts about our
counter proposal,” Law said. “At
See LAND, page 3A
The businessmen also said
it was inefficient to have
each state agency make its
own decision about how
many cars to buy. Georgia
owns about 20,000 vehicles,
and the businessmen wrote,
“information on what it
costs to operate the fleet is
sketchy at best.”
Perdue released only a list
of the problems Thursday,
but no specific plans to fix
them. Many of the ineffi
ciencies had already been
reported in state audits,
some of them done before
Perdue took office.
But Perdue said he’s start
ing a fresh push to “look
under the hood" of state
government and save
money, rosily predicting his
See BARRETT, page 3A