Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY
November 10, 2004
Volume 135, Number 222
Award-Winning
Newspaper
2004
Better Newspaper
Contest
To our READERS
There will be no
Thursday edition of The
Houston Home Journal
in observance of Veterans
Day.
In BRIEF
'Thank-a-Ver run
set tor Saturday
The Carl Vinson
Chapter of the Air Force
Association is sponsoring
a “Thank-a-Veteran” Run
at the Museum of
Aviation. There will be a
5K run/walk and IK run.
Registration is sls in
advance, and S2O the day
of the race. More infor
mation and pre-registra
tion can be done online at
cv-afa.org/Vetßun.htm
Proceeds will go to
build a POW/MIA memo
rial on the museum
grounds.
For more information,
contact Kathy Copija at
(478) 923-5741.
- From staff reports
Happy BIRTHDAY!
Nov. 10
Marissa Conley
Jr Dennis
Shayne Holmes
Joyce Larrabee
Tommy Toombs
Nov. 11
Melissa Alcorn
BJ Brown
Samantha Red
Happy ANNIVERSARY!
Nov. 10
Jackie and Martin
Beeland
Nov. 11
Michael and Donna
Blackwell
Bill and Betty Lou Dabbs
Area DEATHS
Michelle Geohagan
Albert Lafayette Holberg
Edward James Wyatt
Obits, page 2A
CLASSIFIED 5B
COMICS 4B
CROSSWORD .. . .4B
LEGALS 1C
LIFESTYLE 8A
OBITUARIES 2A
OPINION 4A
SCHOOL NEWS . . .6B
TV LISTINGS 4B
WEATHER 2A
PERIODICAL
7*
Georgia Newspaper Project
Main Library
UNIV OP GtORGIA
AfHfcNS GA 006U2-UOG2
3-DIGIJ 306
Serving Houston County Since 1870
(Lite
9 LEGAL ORGAN FOR HOUSTON COUNTY\
CITY OF PERRYy CITY OF WARNER ROBINS AND CITY OF CENTERVILLE
Board
changes
school
calendar
By TERESA D. SOUTHERN
HHJ Staff Writer
WARNER ROBINS -
Houston County students
missed several days due to
the recent series of storms,
leaving many wondering
when the lost time will be
made up by students and
staff.
The Board of Education’s
calendar revision committee
recommended the following
proposal at the Houston
County Board of
Education’s work session
for students, faculty and
staff to make up their
See BOE, page 10A
FVSU announces more budget cuts
Special to the HHJ
FORT VALLEY - Fort Valley State
University announced its second in
a series of budget-reduction moves
Tuesday - a combination of person
nel reductions, administrative and
educational consolidations and
departmental restructuring that is
expected to save the institution
more than sl/2 million after the cur
rent semester ends.
“Like other University System of
Georgia institutions, Fort Valley
State has been increasingly chal
lenged in the past three years to do
more with less,” said FVSU
President Kofi Lomotey. “Our goals
Team trains for building collapse
Simulator in Forsyth center helps GSAR trainees prepare for the worst
Story and photos
by Ed Bania
FORSYTH - Scenario: A
tornado collapses a six-story
apartment building. There
are an unknown number of
victims trapped under the
rubble inside the building.
A quarter moon does
nothing to light up the hot,
pitch-black night. Rescuers
had only their helmet lights
and hand-held flashlights
once they crawled through
the debris and pipes.
It’s 10 p.m. on a Saturday.
And just another training
session for about 30 fire
department personnel from
Middle Georgia wanting to
make the cut and join the
first Georgia Search and
Rescue team in the state -
GSAR (Central).
The site of the night ses
sion is the massive Georgia
Public Safety Training
Center outside of Forsyth.
The apartment building is a
three-story wooden building
known as the “collapse sim
ulator.”
The $1.2 million GSAR
truck and a 53-foot support
trailer are on site.
The truck has the same
equipment that was used
during the 9-11 search and
rescue at the World Trade
Center, including the “Jaws
of Life,” 90-pound and 45-
pound jackhammers with
bits, a diamond-coated
chainsaw used to cut con
www.hhjnews.com
Parker awarded Bronze Star
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Lt. Col. Bob Parker, right, and Brig. Gen. Tom Lynn, 116th Air Control Wing com
mander, as well as a room full of fellow airmen stand at attention during ceremonies
Tuesday in which Parker was awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious achievement
for his efforts in Iraq during Operations Southern Watch and Iraqi Freedom.
are to operate more efficiently and
effectively with less money; sustain
our institution’s critically needed
academic - and other - programs;
and continue to address all of our
strategic initiatives.”
Citing the need to reduce the uni
versity’s current budget by about
$1.3 million, Lomotey said a series
of changes is being instituted at all
levels - staff, faculty and adminis
trative - of FVSU.
Restructuring plans being put
into effect at the end of the fall
semester include moving the univer
sity’s mass communications major
to the fine arts department; moving
crete, snake cameras like
police SWAT teams use, air
cylinders and generators.
Air monitors and outside
lights are also on the truck.
“You may have natural
gas lines and other things
that get ruptured in a col
lapse,” Register said.
The trailer carries lumber,
trench panels and other car
pentry equipment.
Sometimes, the team gets
building materials from
lumber or hardware supply
stores near the scene.
Occasionally, they use mate
rials they find near a col
lapsed structure.
Trainees had to use jack
hammers to remove 5,000
pounds of concrete stacked
up against an outside wall of
the structure and to breach
a six-inch concrete wall. The
three-foot-square hole in the
wall led to the interior of the
building.
“Before they can do any
thing, they’ve got to shore
up the outside of the build
ing,” Register said.
The trainees received a
crash course in carpentry.
“On the fly,” Register said.
Trainees propped up the
exterior wall with metal,
expandable rods carried to
the building from the truck.
Wood cut by a trainee on a
table saw about a hundred
feet away was used to shore
up the hole.
Air bags or air jacks are
used to lift up collapsed
See GSAR, page 3A
the advisement of the university’s
international students from the
Academic Success Center to the
Center for International Programs
and Services; and eliminating the
Information Technology
Department’s Webmaster position.
Administrative changes akw*-tn
take effect at the end of the current
semester - include eliminating the
office of the assistant to the presi
dent; reassigning the IT director to
classroom duties; assigning the
African World Studies Institute
associate director to classroom
duties as a larger percentage of her
workload; merging the events and
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A trainee plays a victim trapped in the debris during
recent GSAR Central team training in Forsyth.
THREE SECTIONS • 24 PAGES
ByRAYUGHTNER
HHJ Staff Writer
ROBINS AIR FORCE
BASE - “It was a very spe
cial day today.”
That was what Brig. Gen.
Tom Lynn, 116th Air
Control Wing commander,
said at Tuesday’s Bronze
Star ceremonies for Lt. Col.
Bob Parker.
“Few young airman or
officers get to see someone
recognized for duty above
and beyond the call,” Lynn
said.
“This is your legend, your
lore,” Lynn said. “It is what
we do, what we train for.
What your training for is to
be the guardian angel for
those on the ground.”
Parker was awarded the
Bronze Star for meritorious
achievement for his efforts
in Iraq, leading combat
flight operations from Jan.
12 to May 17, 2003.
“I am extremely hum
bled,” Parker said. “It was a
team effort. It was really
200 individuals.”
See PARKER, page 10A
facilities management positions;
and eliminating the university’s
Office of Internal Auditor.
At the faculty level, Lomotey said
the university will continue to
enforce the required teaching load
of 12 to 15 credit hours for all full
time faculty members, eliminate all
undergraduate part-time faculty
positions and encourage the hiring
of faculty able to teach in more than
one discipline.
Other changes taking effect in
January will include encouraging
FVSU staff members with teaching
qualifications to teach and
See FVSU, page 5A
Register
named
to hall
of fame
Special to the HHJ
ATLANTA - Lowell
Register, a longtime broad
caster/innovator in Georgia
has been honored with elec
tion to the Georgia
Association of Broadcasters
(GAB) Hall of Fame.
This is the highest honor
bestowed on an individual
by the association, with pre
vious honorees including
such well
known
broadcast
ers as Tom
B r o k a w,
NBC News;
Larry
Munson,
voice of the
Georgia
Bulldogs;
and Douglas
Edwards, CBS News. The
GAB Hall of Fame was
established in 1984 and is
housed at the University of
Georgia’s Henry Grady
College of Mass
Communications in Athens.
Register has spent his life
building and running his
See REGISTER, page 10A
an Evans Family Newspaper
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REGISTER