Newspaper Page Text
THURSDAY
April 21, 2005
Volume 135, Number 334
Award-Winning
Newspaper /&45S&\
2004 (nnHJ?)
Better Newspaper 'WiJ
Contest
Inside TODAY
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Westfield Renaissance
Festival this Saturday
Maypole dancers and
singers, knights and their
ladies, and even King
Henry VIII with his six
wives will be on the
grounds of the Westfield
Schools on Saturday as
the school’s Fine Arts
Department presents a
Renaissance Festival.
Entertainment, page 10A
Happy BIRTHDAY!
Valarie Moore
Judy Rich
(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
June V Benefield
Sally Buckles
Nathaniel D. Tiller
Eloise Marie Register
Willis
Obits, page 2A
INDEX
CLASSIFIED 8A
COMICS 7A
CROSSWORD . . . .7A
ENTERTAINMENT 10A
LEGALS 4B
OBITUARIES 2A
OPINION 4A
SCHOOL NEWS . . .6A
SPORTS 1B
TV LISTINGS 7A
WEATHER 2A
PERIODICAL
7*
Georgia Project
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UNP-/ OF GEORGIA
ATHENS GA 3G6C2-GGG2
3-DIGIT 306
Serving Houston County Since 1870
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* LEGAL ORGAN FOR HOUSTON COUNTY,
city of Perry, city of Warner Robins and city of Centerville
Houston gains nearly 13,000 in 4 years
Georgia will top 12 million people by 2030, according to U.S. Census Bureau
From staff, wire reports
ATLANTA - Some 12,988 people
have moved to Houston County
since the 2000 census, according to
the latest estimates by the U.S.
Census Bureau.
Houston now has 123,753 resi
Perryan heads for Iraq
motivated by 9/11
Special to the HHJ
FORT IRWIN, Calif. - A
citizen-soldier from Perry,
who came back into the
Georgia Army National
Guard after the attacks on
Sept. 11, 2001, said he rel
ishes his upcoming deploy
ment to Iraq with the 48th
Combat Infantry Team.
Sgt. Robert Stanfield of
the 48th’s Headquarters
and Headquarters Company
is a member of the unit’s
chemical platoon. He previ
ously served four years in
the Georgia Guard before
getting out in 1996.
“I left a lot undone in my
military career,” Stanfield
said. “I just didn’t get it all
out of me.”
While he had enjoyed his
time in uniform, Stanfield
said he was content to work
as a civilian telephone con
struction engineer and care
for his wife, Misty, and their
son, Garrett.
After five years out of uni
form, he thought his mili
tary career had come to an
end. However, watching the
news on 9/11 changed all
that, he said.
“When I saw all that stuff
going on, it made me realize
that I needed to do more,”
Stanfield recalled. “I had a
new little boy then and I
wanted to do more to make
this country safe for him.” I
told myself, ‘lf I didn’t do it,
then who would?”’
After discussing his feel
ings with his family,
Stanfield said he re-joined
the Guard early in 2002. He
has served with his Macon
based unit since then.
The absence of a chemical
See STANFIELD, page 12A
POW/MIA memorial planned at museum
Organizations need to raise over
SIBO,OOO to construct monument
By TERESA D. SOUTHERN
HHJ Staff Writer
WARNER ROBINS -
Members of the POW/MIA
Memorial Organization and
the 1033 Foundation are in
the beginning stage of rais
ing money to build a memo
rial at the Museum of
Aviation.
The POW/MIA Memorial
Organization would like the
community’s help in raising
funds for a memorial that
will honor prisoners of war
and those military members
that are and were missing in
action.
At a press conference,
members of both organiza
tions announced a silent
auction that will feature
Joanne Shirley, national
president of the POW/MIA
Families.
Steve Rodgers of the 1033
Foundation said they are
www.hhjnews.com
dents, according to county-level pop
ulation estimates released last
week. The figure is as of July 1,
2004.
In just one year, from 2003 to
2004, Houston gained an estimated
3,683.
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Pfc. Michael Pfaff/Kentucky Army National Guard
Perry resident Sgt. Robert Stanfield, a citizen soldier with the Georgia
Army National Guard’s 48th Brigade Combat Team, takes a break from
his convoy security mission.
securing items from
NASCAR, the Georgia
Sports, Music, and Golf
halls of fame, and individual
artists.
The silent auction is
scheduled for May 27, when
both organizations hope to
raise at least $50,000 needed
to complete the building of
the memorial.
The organization is also
selling tickets to the auction
for S2O and those who pur
chase them will be eligible to
win a five-day, live-night
trip to Oahu, Hawaii for
two.
Rodgers said he feels the
memorial will give military
and family members peace
and solace.
“It will be a symbol of our
freedom and democracy,” he
said. “That is why the event
is scheduled around
Memorial Day weekend.”
See POW/MIA, page 12A
Such growth is indicative of a
statewide pattern which will see
Georgia gain 3.8 million people in
the next 25 years, putting the
state’s population over 12 million
and launching Georgia past Ohio
and New Jersey in population.
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HHJ/Teresa D. Southern
Staff Sgt. Melanie Moore of the POW/MIA Memorial Organization shakes the hand of
retired Brig. Gen. Sam Hazel of the 1033 Foundation signifying their organizations’ plan
to build a POW/MIA Memorial at the Museum of Aviation. Steve Rodgers, president of
the 1033 Foundation looks on.
TWO SECTIONS • 22 PAGES
Georgia will be the nation’s eighth
most populous state by 2030,
according to the estimate released
Thursday. Georgia ranked 10th in
2000. The growth will be enough to
give Georgia one more seat in
See CENSUS, page 3A
Flooding
concerns
get tough
answers
ByRAYUGHTNER
HHJ Staff Writer
WARNER ROBINS - “The county
cannot go out and solve everybody’s
problem,” Commission Chairman Ned
Sanders said Tuesday night.
Sanders told residents of Ashford Park
and Oxton Plantation, who had come to
the commission with flooding concerns,
“the best thing I can do is tell you the
truth.”
That truth the residents didn’t like to
hear.
“There are a number of wet-weather
ponds in the county.” Sanders said.
“Some lots have drainage easements on
them. Water will run across the yard.”
About the ditches that run along the
back of their yards, he told Annie
Reynolds and Billy Bond from Ashford
Park, “we’ll ask engineering to look at it
and do what we can, what we are liable
to do.”
Bond asked that the ditch be dug
again and rip rap put back to help ease
the silting and water that gets up to 60-
90 feet wide.
“I don’t think the ditch would solve
the problem,” Sanders told him. “The
gradient is not there.”
Bond also asked why this problem,
which has been going on for 15 years,
has not been solved, but one on Peach
Blossom Trail has. Commissioner Larry
Thomson told him “they had homes
underwater” there.
Sanders said the county is also in the
process of building regional detention
ponds, including one in that area, which
once done, will prevent some of the
flooding.
Residents of Oxton Plantation blamed
See FLOODING, page 3A
an Evans Family Newspaper
50*