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♦ THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2005
t Houston Hrlmtu' t
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OPINION
Daniel F. Evans
President,
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Lights Fop The Extension
Warner Robins is stepping up to the plate to
provide much-needed lighting at intersections of
Russell Parkway extension between Houston
Lake Road and Interstate 75.
At night this 6.5-mile stretch is dark and fore
boding. Lights at intersections could give the
impression that it is safe to stop at traffic lights.
Complete darkness is not reassuring on a lonely
road.
The Georgia DOT has indicated that it will help
with the cost of lights at the 1-75 intersection.
The city of Warner Robins, which has annexed
this road, probably will have to come up with
money for other lighting.
Lights will not be inexpensive. However, with
the anticipation that this stretch of road soon will
begin seeing commercial development lights
would make it more appealing.
Progress is great. And costly, too.
A lucky winner already
Telephones have been around since 1876, so it's
hard to believe that there are places in the conti
nental United States that don't have phone serv
ice.
Mink, La., population of about 15 families, has
finally been wired into the national grid - at a
cost of about $47,000 a phone to Bell South.
In a curious twist of history, it came the same
day as the announcement that Ma Bell, the ven
erable AT&T that started it all 128 years ago,
would be subsumed into SBC Communications.
Mink had phones of a sort - a powerful but
bulky variety of cell phone that residents told the
Associated Press worked only in the immediate
vicinity of the Dumpster outside the village store.
The era of modern communications is not total
ly an unalloyed good. Elaine Edwards told the AP
that she had had her phone only 15 minutes
before receiving her first call - from a telemar
keter.
Welcome to our world, Ms. Edwards.
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Southern snow, ice days unofficial holidays
Our transplanted friends
from the north must watch
with interest as residents of
this area deal with icy
and/or snowy weather occa
sionally.
Perhaps we should declare
these types of days special
national holidays!
It is true that many of us
go a little overboard when
we hear winter weather
warnings start flying.
The same part of us that
had us stocking food and
other items in anticipation
of Y2K kicks in and an over
powering urge to deplete all
grocery store shelves within
a 10-mile radius causes us to
put all other facets of our
lives on hold while we ready
for the impending storm
which shall surely keep us
off the roads a day or so.
• • •
Rex Gambill
Managing Editor
Foy S. Evans
Editor Emeritus
Emily Johnstone
Columnist
ejohnstone@evansnewspapers.com
Last weekend, I awoke
about 4 a.m. to something
that sounded like hammer
ing.
I wondered which of my
neighbors would be out at
that time of morning swing
ing a hammer.
Clearing out the mailbag
The mail - e-mail and
postal - keeps coming. Some
of it is worth passing on to
my readers. So here goes
once again.
• • •
Foy: How soon do you
believe it will be before
Warner Robins replaces
Macon as the primary shop
ping area of Middle Georgia?
Answer: A long, long
time.
• • •
Foy: I like to eat out at a
good restaurant. My com
plaint about some of them is
that it takes so long to get
my entree that I already am
full from eating bread. Do
you have the same trouble?
Answer: Yes, yes, yes!
• • •
Mr. Evans: All the talk
and news stories about how
Houston County will
increase in population by
about 50,000 people in the
next few years frightens me.
I remember when we
believed that it would be
great if the total population
of Houston County was
50,000. I know that growth
Senate Bill 5 is a real stinker
Alpharetta Republican
State Sen. Dan Moody is
either smarter than the
average bear, or he has a
serious political death wish.
Since I come in contact with
a lot of bears around Big
Canoe and have developed a
keen sense of their IQ, I
must assume the latter -
that Moody is looking to get
out of politics and into the
private sector as quickly as
possible. He is riding just
the horse that will help him
do that. It is called Senate
Bill 5.
Moody is the sponsor,
along with State Senate
President Pro Tern Eric
Johnson of Savannah, of the
grandly titled Georgia
Public/Private
Infrastructure Act, which
they say will expand public
private partnerships to deal
with water, transportation
and other infrastructure
issues without putting the
After awhile, I heard it
again and realized through
the fog of sleep that it
sounded more like gunshots,
which is also the sound pine
tree limbs create when they
snap under the weight of ice.
Who else jumped out of
bed during the predawn
hours to see what nature
had wrought in Houston
County?
I could barely wait for
sunrise so I could see this
temporary winter wonder
land.
How beautiful everything
was, though the beauty was
punctuated with sounds of
falling limbs all day.
Each time I heard that
telltale crack, I prayed that
no one’s home was being
damaged.
Certainly some of us lost
ill. . %>%!?£
'R {
Foy Evans
Columnist
foyevans 19@cox.net
is inevitable, but does it
have to be in such large
doses? Give me the good old
days. Answer: It all
depends on how it affects
your pocketbook and way of
life.
• • •
Foy: The way developers
and builders are going full
speed ahead it seems to me
that they must know some
thing we ordinary citizens
don’t about what BRAC is
going to do. Do they have an
inside track?
Answer: They don’t know
| Z 1 ® V I
Dick Yarbrough
Columnist
yarb24oo@bellsouth.net
burden on the taxpayers of
Georgia. Alas, the bill has
caused an uproar that can
be heard from Tybee Light
to Rabun Gap.
I don’t believe this is what
Gov. Sonny Perdue and
House Speaker Glenn
Richardson had in mind
when they said that this ses
sion of the General
Assembly - the first under
Republican control since
Reconstruction - was going
to be a quiet affair. Conduct
a little business, approve the
budget, have a couple of
soda pops and get out of
town. I think somebody got
caught trying to sneak a
sunrise by a rooster.
Johnson says Senate Bill 5
“proposes a sensible way to
meet the needs of the citi
zens of Georgia in coming
years without having to
implement tax increases at
the state and local levels.”
The bill is designed to inter
est private developers to get
involved in public projects -
Send your Letters to the Editor to:
The Houston Home Journal
P.O. Box 1910 • Perry Ga 31069 or
Email: hhj@evansnewspapers.com
power for a while here in
Perry.
Until about midday,' the
traffic on Tucker Road was
minimal and I could actually
see the vehicles passing the
house instead of the usual
blurs of color (another
tongue-in-cheek name for
this road is Tucker
Speedway).
• • •
Alas, for us, the winter
splendor was gone by the
next morning.
However, I was somewhat
shocked to hear that a num
ber of churches in the area
were not holding their usual
services. ,
Perhaps it was because of
power outages because most
roadways appeared safe
enough for slow driving by
then.
any more than we do. They
are just optimistic and have
faith. It will be several
months before anyone
knows which bases
Secretary Rumsfield wants
on the BRAC list and more
months before the BRAC
Commission, which
President Bush must
appoint, will make its rec
ommendations. Unless poli
tics hold sway, as was the
case during the last BRAC,
Congress is supposed to
accept the commission’s rec
ommendations without
change.
• • •
Mr. Evans: I heard that
you are moving away from
Warner Robins after 56
years. Is that so?
Answer: Yes. All the way
to Centerville.
• • •
Foy: I have lived here only
a few years. I understand
that President Jimmy
Carter actually visited the
Warner Robins city hall and
met people here while he
was in office. Has any other
president come here?
Answer: When Lyndon
like toll roads, jail houses,
sewage plants, etc. The gov
ernment provides the land.
The developer builds and
operates the project until it
has made its money back
and then turns it over to the
government.
Maybe it is what the sena
tors don’t say that is causing
such a ruckus. In order for
private enterprise to develop
a project, the government
can use its powers of emi
nent domain to seize our
property and then turn it
over to the developers. And
did I mention that the gov
ernment is not required to
select the lowest bidder and
that negotiations with the
developers do not have to be
made public until a deal has
already been reached? I
don’t know about you, but 1
like to know what is going
on in government while it is
going on, not after the fact.
Sam Griffin, publisher of
The Bainbridge Post-
Searchlight, can turn a
phrase better than Emeril
can turn a pot roast. Griffin
calls the bill “the most out
rageously repugnant piece
of legislative claptrap since
the Yazoo Land Fraud. If
Gov. Perdue and responsible
Republican leadership do
not immediately repudiate,
quash and bury forever this
travesty, folks will soon be
hunting down the Georgia
GOP with dogs.”
The Savannah Morning
News, the hometown paper
of Sen. Johnson, says, “This
bill is so far removed from
responsible, conservative
Maybe not, maybe I am
wrong.
I had a mental picture,
though, of folks from the
past who did not have nice
comfortable cars with
heaters in which to ride to
church each Sunday. Rather,
they had open conveyances
most likely pulled by a four
legged creature such as a
horse or mule. Or, even used
their own two feet.
• • •
Though I am not an avid
football fan, I have been get
ting into the spirit of the
upcoming Super Bowl.
Not because I want to
watch the game, but because
I am inspired by a recent
deluge of television shows
and newspaper articles deal
ing with the subject of what
to eat during the game.
THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL
Johnson was president, he
landed at Robins AFB and
his motorcade drove up
Highway 247 to Macon, but
he did not come into the city.
He just waved at people who
lined the road. Incidentally,
the Secret Service does a
good job protecting presi
dents, but they surely don’t
make any friends when they
come to town. I was mayor
when President Carter visit
ed and I wasn’t the only one
who was glad to see the
Secret Service agents leave
town.
• • •
Foy: Spring is coming and
some friends have been
telling me about a tornado
that struck Warner Robins
in 1953. Is it true that many
people rushed down
Highway 247 to the Sandy
Run Creek bridge and hid
under it when they saw
storm clouds approaching
for days after the tornado
struck?
Answer: Yes. And a few
people actually dug storm
cellars under their homes
and businesses.
government that it makes
one wonder if a project is
already in the works but
needs eminent domain to
succeed. It’s odd to see Mr.
Johnson take the lead on a
measure that would allow
such government intru
sion.”
Johnson, Moody et al. are
telling us to trust govern
ment to do the right thing
for us. Sorry, guys. No can
do. Not when you are meet
ing behind closed doors.
That is why we have
Sunshine Laws and Open
Records Laws: to ensure
that government does the
public’s business in public.
How do I know that some
developer won’t be dropping
a few coins in some official’s
pocket to grease a project?
And what is wrong with
picking the lowest bidder?
Hopefully, Sens. Moody
and Johnson are up to tak
ing some friendly advice
from a bystander: From
what I can tell, you either
have a good bill that you
have totally fumbled, or you
have a bad bill that is noth
ing more than a sop to a
bunch of developer buddies.
Either way, if it looks like a
skunk and smells like a
skunk, it is definitely a
skunk. There is no question
that Senate Bill 5 is a
stinker.
You can reach Dick
Yarbrough at
yarb24oo@bellsouth.net,
P.O. Box 725373, Atlanta,
GA 31139, or Web site:
www.dickyarbrough.com.
Now, that I can enjoy.
I even watched an entire
show about tailgating food a
few nights ago.
Have you planned what
you are going to cook for the
big game?
I cannot make up my
mind, although according to
Rick it should definitely be
something he can smother
in barbecue sauce.
I can imagine he and his
favorite cat now, each work
ing on a plate of chicken
(Oscar’s chopped finely!)
with one eye on the game.
Who is playing? Well, I do
not have a clue about that,
but I can tell you what peo
ple are probably eating!
• • •
Happy birthday to Tim
Harbuck who is celebrating
his birthday Feb. 5!