Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY
March 9, 2005
Volume 135, Number 303
i^p)
Award-Winning
Newspaper
2004
Better Newspaper
Contest
Inside TODAY
Strawberry
season is here
It’s strawberry season
again. They’reJ
plentiful in
local
eery
and the
Per r y .
Exchange
Club is sell
ing them
sl4 a flats,
fresh from
Florida, with pickup ™
on March 18 and 19 at
Advance Auto Parts.
So what are you going
to do with all those deli
cious berries?
Well, we’ve got recipes.
Hearth&Home, page 6A
WRHS coach
headed to ECI
Warner Robins’
strength and conditioning
and defensive ends coach
has accepted a job as head
football coach for
Emanuel County
Institute, a single-A
school in Twin City.
Sports, page 1B
Happy BIRTHDAY!
Shirley Pallini
(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, and 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!)
Area DEATHS
Harriett M. Grantham
Walter Vaden Marcus
Steven Wayne Shell
Horace Williams
Obits, page 2A
INDEX
CLASSIFIED 5B
COMICS 4B
CROSSWORD ... .4B
HEARTH&HOME . ,6A
OBITUARIES 2A
OPINION 4A
SCHOOL NEWS .. .6B
SPORTS 1B
TV LISTINGS 4B
WEATHER 2A
PERIODICAL
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Georgia Newspaper Project
Man Library
UNtV OF GEORGIA
ATHENS GA 30602-0002
3-DKS?T 306
Serving Houston County Since 1870
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W LEGAL ORGAN FOR HOUSTON COUNTY ,
city of Perry ; city of Warner Robins and city of Centerville
Council rescinds mayor's pay raise
But by a close margin: Three members dispute reversal of last months $25,000 increase
By TIMOTHY GRAHAM
HHJ Staff Writer
WARNER ROBINS - The City
Council reversed a previous decision
and voted 4-3 Monday night to delay
giving the mayor a $25,000 annual
raise until after the upcoming elec
tion.
The council had voted a month
ago to raise the mayor’s annual
salary from $50,000 to $75,000. The
vote then had been a unanimous 6-
0, with Mayor Donald Walker dis
senting from the vote. The intent to
raise the salary had been advertised
Parents
criticize
rezoning
proposal
By TERESA D. SOUTHERN
HHJ Staff Writer
PERRY - Four parents
spoke out in the Houston
County Board of
Education’s Monday night
work session.
The reason - a jezoning
proposal that would uproot
their sons and daughters
and assign them to another
school.
Dr. Greg Gentry, director
of testing and instructional
technology, presented a pro
posal that would rezone
Lake Joy Elementary School
students who reside in the
Mill Pond subdivision to
Quail Run Elementary
School.
At a January meeting held
to discuss growth in the
county, Lake Joy
Elementary was predicted
to be at least 120 students
over capacity with a full
time enrollment of 870 stu
dents. The school was only
constructed to hold 750 stu
dents. This increase is pre
dicted based on the number
of known housing units
coming into the area - about
1,659.
Classroom trailers will
have to be added to the Lake
Joy campus, but as Gentry
said in his report, there are
empty classrooms at Quail
Run Elementary.
Quail Run is currently
under capacity by 160 stu
dents and is expecting to see
growth in the upcoming
school year, but not as much
as Lake Joy Elementary,
with only 56 new housing
units coming into the area.
In 2003 when Mill Pond
and other area subdivisions
were rezoned to Lake Joy
Elementary, the board
allowed students to be
“grandfathered” to Quail
Run if they provided trans
portation, until the comple
tion of the Russell Parkway
extension.
According to Gentry, that
policy allowed students to
stay at their home school to
finish until a certain grade
year.
Months ago, the school
board changed this policy to
apply only to high school
seniors.
John Crutchfield, a father
of two children who would
be affected by the rezoning,
said he doesn’t want his
See BOARD, page 8A
www.hhjnews.com
in The Houston
Home Journal as
required by law and
was ready to go into
effect until
Councilman Dean
Cowart, who had
brought up the
original pay raise
motion, stated at
Thursday’s council
work session that
he wished to reverse his vote.
“I think we should rescind this
vote until after the election is over
Cleaning up Confederate cemeteries
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submitted
Sons of Confederate Veterans members who participated in a recent cemetery cleanup in Elko included (from left)
Dr. Ben Lowery, A.O. Smith, Ray Cape, Ricky Smith, Walter DuckworttußiU Hyder, Keith Smith, Commander Gary
Hudgens, Lt. Commander Randy Wilson, Marcus Fields, John Thigpen, Chris Day, (kneeling) Russ Huffman.
In honor and respect
Local Sons of Confederate Veterans cleaning up area cemeteries
By TIMOTHY GRAHAM
HHJ Staff Writer
The local chapter of the
Sons of Confederate
Veterans has been spending
its weekends lately cleaning
up local cemeteries, which
contain graves of
Confederate soldiers.
Recently the group was
working on a cemetery in
the Elko community in
south Houston County.
“We were contacted by
someone who heard we had
an interest in cleaning up
and restoring any cemeter
ies which contain
Confederate veterans,” said
Gary Hudgens, Commander
of the Lt. James T
Woodward Camp No. 1399
of the Sons of Confederate
Veterans. “We found two
tombstones of Confederate
veterans and two other
See SCV, page 8A
WRPD seeks citizen input via survey
By TIMOTHY GRAHAM
HHJ Staff Writer
WARNER ROBINS - The
Warner Robins Police
Department wants to know
how you feel about the job
they are doing.
To gather this informa
tion, they have mailed sur
veys to a random sampling
of citizens and businesses
asking for feedback on a
number of subjects.
The questionnaires will
survey public opinion on
the perception of crime in
the city, what crime topics
need to be addressed, how
well the department is
responding to those topics,
quality of life in the city,
and have the raise
go into effect for
the winner of the
next election,”
Cowart said at
Thursday’s work
session. “I do not
want this to become
an issue in the
upcoming election.”
On Monday,
Cowart made an
■ , e r
official request to rescind the previ
ous vote.
“I think that the pay raise is the
submitted
Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp Commander Gary Hudgens takes part in the
recent cleanup at an Elko cemetery.
appearance of public areas,
and growth in the city.
The survey is being con
ducted by the Department
of Government and
Sociology at Georgia
College and State
University.
Also being surveyed are
employees of the police
department.
The survey is totally
anonymous.
“We would like to encour
age all participants who
receive the survey to be
thoughtful and complete in
their responses,” said Sgt.
Bryan Smith of the Warner
Robins Police Department.
“The department is proud
of its record, but is always
COWART
'4 ■ ' M
EVANS
striving to
improve
both the
level of its
service and
the quality
of life in
the city of
Warner
Robins.”
If you
have any questions about
the survey, call Smith at
929-1169.'
Warner Robins Police
Chief Brett Evans said the
survey is very important to
him.
“I need to know how peo
ple perceive us and the job
we are doing,” said Evans.
“Perception is everything.
an Evans Family Newspaper
500
mm.
TWO SECTIONS *l4 PAGES
right thing to do but
that this was the
wrong time to do
it,” he said. “I move
that we rescind
action on the pay
raise.”
Councilman Matt
Stone immediately
jumped into the dis
cussion.
“We approved this 6-0 a month
ago, but now that it is in the politi
cal season we choose to
See COUNCIL, page 84
We can go out and lower
crime by 40 percent, but if
the people perceive that
crime is up, we have accom
plished nothing.”
Evans said what the
police think is not necessar
ily what citizens think is
important.
“I care a lot about this
city and I know how it is to
be a citizen, a student, and
a person walking the streets
here and I love Warner
Robins and I really care
what people think,” he said.
“We as a department do
care what people think and
we try hard to make people
happy. We cannot always do
it, but we try.
See SURVEY, page 8A
STONE