Newspaper Page Text
TUESDAY
January 4, 2005
Volume 135, Number 257
Award-Winning
.Newspaper
2004
Better Newspaper
Contest
Inside TODAY
Perdue accepts
FFA Degree
Gov. Sonny Perdue
received the Honorary
FFA Degree, which recog
nizes his significant con
tributions to agriculture.
Local, page 8A
ft'' jh.
Holly Days camp
going on in WR
The Recreation
Department’s Holly Days
Christmas Camp lets kids
have fun.
Camp Director Jamie
Ambler said the kids play
different games and do
crafts inside and “we take
them out to the park.”
There was a Christmas
party and a New Year’s
countdown party. They
used the scoreboard clock
in the gym and count
down to noon instead of
midnight.
Local, page 8A
Happy BIRTHDAY!
Cliff Nash
(Surprise your friends! Let us
know when their birthday or
anniversary is, and we’ll put their
names in the paper that day. Just
send the name and date at least
a week in advance, ana we'll do
the rest. E-mail to
hhj@evansnewspapers.com, or
mail them to us at the address
inside. No phone calls, please.
Many happy returns!)
Vernie G. Stewart
Bill Trayner
Elizabeth Nix Ozmore
Tucker
O bits, page 5A
INDEX
BUSINESS 6A
CLASSIFIED 5B
CLUB NEWS 6B
COMICS 4B
CROSSWORD 4B
OBITUARIES 5A
OPINION 4A
SCHOOL NEWS .. .7A
SPORTS 1B
TV LISTINGS 4B
WEATHER 2A
PERIODICAL
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UNIV OF GEORGIA
ATHENS GA 30602-0002
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Serving Houston County Since 1870
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David Rossman, the construction manager for the new facility shows the new equip
ment in the operating rooms, which replaces a cart and makes it easier to move around
the room as needed.
Open for business
Houston Medical Center’s new surgery center opens
Story and photos
by Ray Lightner
WARNER ROBINS -
Houston Medical Center
opened its new Ambulatory
Surgery Center ok Monday.
The Surgery Center is a
great alternative for outpa
tient surgery, for patients
who don’t plan to be admit
ted,” said Construction
Manager David Rossman.
“It’s for surgeries on basi
cally healthy individuals
who don’t need to be admit
ted to the hospital,” said
Ambulatory Surgery Center
Director Tracy Erwin.
The Surgery Center, locat
ed on the other side of the
church from the hospital on
Watson Boulevard, has
three operating rooms, two
endoscopy suites, eight pre
op stations, two physician
consult rooms, eight moni
tored beds in anesthesia
recovery (with four more
available) and an on-site
Perdue: Schools will get breathing room in my budget
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Gov. Sonny Perdue is pictured in his office at the Georgia capitol in Atlanta Thursday.
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The glass blocks making up the Houston Healthcare logo
at the front door were donated by Mrs. Bill Parker. She
salvaged them from the first medical clinic in Warner
Robins which was recently torn down.
‘sterile processing center -
all in 17,242 square feet.
The $3.1 million facility
came in under budget and
on time, Rossman said,
adding “that’s how we like
em.
See CENTER, page 3A
Ray named
Flint CEO
Fort Valley native succeeds
Joe Cade as top officer
Special to the HHJ
WARNER ROBINS -
Robert (Bob) Ray Jr. has
been named chief executive
officer (CEO) at Flint
Energies.
The Board of Directors
named Ray during their
regular business meeting
in December, making the
appointment effective on
Jan. 1, 2005. Ray has been
serving as the chief operat
ing officer (COO) under
CEO Joe B. Cade, who will
be serving as advisor to the
board through March 31,
and formally retiring later
in the year.
“Flint is fortunate to
have Bob Ray as CEO,”
said John J. Neely, Flint
Energies board chairman.
“He is a well qualified
young man, energetic and
someone who makes things
happen. The board and I
are looking forward to
working with him and we
look for continued good
things from Flint under
Revenues up...
... but so are state’s needs as
GOP takes the budget strings
By DICK PETTYS
AP Political Writer
ATLANTA - Power to
control the state’s purse
strings passes to
Republicans this month
after years of carping from
the back bench that
Democrats were strangling
the state budget with pork
barrel spending and new
debt.
Already in control of the
Senate, Republicans
brought the House under
GOP control in the last
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808 RAY
Bob’s direction.”
Ray joined Flint in May
2003, preparing for a tran
sition into the CEO role
where he will be responsi
ble for supervising the day
to-day operations of the
224 Flint employees and a
$127 million budget.
Prior to joining Flint,
See RAY, page 8A
election, and with the vic
tory came special power
over the state’s financial
affairs. The budget always
starts in the House after
the governor submits his
recommendations.
The new Republican
leaders promise an era of
reform. No more, they say,
will budgets be delayed
until the waning hours of
the session when the pres
sure to pass the bill out
weighs even the staunchest
See BUDGET, page 3A
By DICK PETTYS
AP Political Writer
ATLANTA - Georgia’s
public schools and colleges,
pinched by budget cuts over
the past two years, will get a
little breathing room in rec
ommendations Gov. Sonny
Perdue submits to the new
Legislature.
Perdue declared in an
interview last week that the
state’s long budget crisis is
easing and said that he will
propose about $290 million
in new money for education
in the budget year that
begins July 1.
That’s in addition to
$106.8 million in new
money for the current budg
et year which he will recom
mend for the annual
midterm K-12 adjustment.
On a related topic, Perdue
revealed he will recommend
deferring for another year
the public school class-size
reductions required under
former Gov. Roy Barnes’
education reform bill.
It will be the third year in
a row local school systems
have been given the flexibil
ity to adjust classroom sizes
See PERDUE, page 8A