Newspaper Page Text
FRIDAY
April 15, 2005
Volume 135, Number 330
Award-Winning
Better Newspaper
Contest
inside
Local golf course
sold to Investors
A local golf dynasty has
ended. Alan and Jeanne
White have sold the
Landings Golf Club to the
Landings Investment
Group, a consortium of 30
members of the golf club
that included Eddie
Wiggins, David Moore,
Bob Thompson and Krag
Woodyard.
Sports, page 11A
Happy BIRTHDAY!
April 15
Eric Farris
Barbara Graham
April 16
Bruce Hilton
Nell Minter
Callie Ray
April 15
Charles and Elneta
Bennett
(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!)
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Area DEATHS
Brian “Keith” Madden
Johnnie Earl Mills
Sharon Stammen
Obits, page 2A
INDEX
CLASSIFIED 9A
COMICS 10A
CROSSWORD ...10A
LIFESTYLE 6A
OBITUARIES 2A
OPINION 4A
SCHOOL NEWS . .14A
SPORTS 11A
TV LISTINGS 10A
WEATHER 2A
PERIODICAL
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Volunteers from the Warner Robins Home Depot and the 116th Air Control Wing of
Robins Air Force Base hang a wooden frame at the Houston County YMCA on Moody
Road Thursday. Volunteers from several local companies are working to build a youth
and teen center for the YMCA.
Volunteers pitch in at the Y
Houston YMCA
being renovated
with donations
of labor, material
Story and photos
by Mike George
WARNER ROBINS - The
clamor of saws and ham
mers vibrated through the
walls of the Houston County
YMCA Thursday morning.
A group of volunteers
from several local business
es and from Robins Air
Force Base spent the day
building a new youth and
teen lobby for the fitness
club, located on Moody Road
near Ga. 96. Volunteers and
staff are nearing the end of
a $400,000 renovation and
expansion project.
“Most of this building was
nothing but offices when we
came here,” said Rusty Hall,
the YMCA’s executive direc
tor. “We had to start from
scratch.”
The Houston County
YMCA moved to Moody
Road in November 2003
See YMCA, page 3A
Catch
and
release
Alligator found in WR
neighborhood freed in river
By RAY LIGHTNER
HHJ Staff Writer
WARNER ROBINS - A three-foot alliga
tor is back where he belongs.
On Wednesday, Warner Robins Animal
Control officers finally caught the alliga
tor, “Fred,” and released him into the
Ocmulgee River at the Knowles Landing
Houston County boat dock.
“We got the first 911 call on Sunday,”
said Animal Control Director George
Butts, about an alligator in the storm
drain behind 203 Palm Drive.
Butts said he went out again on Monday
with a Department of Natural Resources
See ALLIGATOR, page 3A
www.hhjnews.com
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Wyatt Johnson, who manages a generator business for
Flint Energies, rewires a panel box at the Houston
County YMCA on Moody Road Thursday. The YMCA is
nearing the end of a $400,000 renovation and expansion
project.
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Warner Robins Animal Control officers Lori Kovarovic and George
Butts hold a young alligator just before releasing it into the waters of
Ocmulgee River Wednesday. The two captured it in a storm drain
behind 203 Palm Drive in the city.
DOD official
speaks on
BRAC 2005
By SAMANTHA L QUIGLEY
American Forces
Press Service
WASHINGTON - Base
Realignment and Closure
2005 is in full swing, and
this round is important for
many reasons, said Philip
Grone, deputy undersecre
tary of defense for installa
tions and environment.
To support ongoing force
transformation, to improve
the joint use of
Department of Defense
assets and to convert waste
to warfighting are impor
tant in and of themselves,
Grone said this week.
“But the timing of BRAC
for 2005 is also important
because it provides a plat
form, an opportunity, for
us to assess the sites and
select the sites for forces
that will return to the
United States as a result of
USAF plans
more C-130
oversight
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The
Air Force has announced
that any future arrange
ments for the purchase and
maintenance of C-130J
cargo planes would have
more oversight, a move
that drew praise from a
congressional critic of the
program.
The Air Force had been
buying C-130Js from
Bethesda, Md.-based
Lockheed Martin under a
$4.1 billion commercial
contract that did not allow
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ONE SECTION *l4 PAGES
the broader global-force
posture realignment that
the secretary and the
department have under
taken.”
DOD uses the process to
reorganize its installation
infrastructure to most effi
ciently support its forces,
increase operational readi
ness and facilitate new
ways of doing business,
according to the BRAC
Web site. The first BRAC
occurred in 1988, and more
followed in 1991, 1993 and
1995.
Congress authorized
BRAC 2005 in the fiscal
2002 National Defense
Authorization Act. The
selection criteria were pub
lished in February 2004. In
March of this year,
President Bush appointed
the members of an inde
pendent BRAC
See BRAC, page 3A
it to review Lockheed’s
actual cost to produce the
plane. Traditional military
contracts require contrac
tors to turn over this infor
mation, and Sen. John
McCain, R-Ariz., had criti
cized the Air Force for
entering into such an
arrangement.
“I am gratified by the Air
Force’s receptiveness to my
concerns about the pro
gram, and I am looking for
ward to seeing precisely
how the Air Force
See C-130, page 3A
Perdue
signs
land bill
The Associated Press
ATLANTA - Gov. Sonny
Perdue signed his land con
servation initiative into law
on Thursday, describing it
as a commitment to future
generations to preserve the
state’s land and water
resources.
The law creates a trust
fund and a revolving loan
fund of SIOO million in
state, federal and private
dollars which will be avail
able to protect conservation
lands.
Under the law, the money
can be used by the state and
local governments to pur
chase environmentally
See LAND, page 3A