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WEDNESDAY May 4, 2005 Volume 135, Number 343 Award-Winning Better Newspaper Contest 'jGaffjy Inside TODAY WR council OKs water ordinance The Warner Robins council approved a new Water Resource Protection ordinance for the city. The ordinance estab lishes guidelines to pro tect groundwater and wetlands in the region. Local, page 3A I wßsiit fcr 4 ■ *•„ 'J) Cinco de Mayo Cinco de Mayo, the fifth of May, is almost here, and while the celebration has a historical and patri otic basis, like our Fourth of July, it’s also a great day for celebrating the sizzling impact Mexican cuisine has had on cooks morth of the border. Hearth&Home, page 13A Happy BIRTHDAY! Christy Adams Sydney Bearden Nancy Joiner Dorothy Releford (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 DEATH Jackie Holtzclaw Obit, page 2A INDEX CLASSIFIED 7 A COMICS 6A CROSSWORD ... .6A LIFESTYLE 13A OBITUARY 2A OPINION 4A SCHOOL NEWS . .12A SPORTS 9A TV LISTINGS 6A WEATHER 2A PERIODICAL 7* Georgia Newspaper Project Mam Library UNIV OF GEORGIA ATHENS GA 3G6G2-GGG2 3-DIGIT 306 Serving Houston County Since 1870 77T \ rt> TflSifrSSr ( v/iK * LEGAL ORGAN FOR HOUSTON COUNTY, city of Perry, city of Warner Robins and city of Centerville PHS class of ’55 donates clock to school board ' Mv. ■ A > » * ■ 1 HI I ‘ SL ;- V' . QP ,=?■ ‘xjraf sjww;i § I ill ! ■ *. jHßjJfc • ? • 1 ' 1- bL . .rtJjKff" *5» ; VW - wlibjß pS a i W1 an . IIHk w- i :Aa v jß B fTfIHSM ■9! BS ,w ' i BhW yv \ ■Bgf i|HH * f -SfcJHHfep | I SB ' p ABOVE: Members of the Perry High School Class of 1955 stand around the Verdin Street clock at the Houston County Board of Education building at 1100 Main St. in Perry Saturday morning. Pictured are (from left) William Harrison, Ray Morrow, Evelyn Fowler Tucker, Lois Wheeler Holloway, Milton Culpepper, Mary Kathryn Duggan Thornton, Harvey Clarke, Barbara Davis Sharp, Gordon Scarborough, Frank Nix, Betty Layman Seago, Helen Sinyard Spear, John Watts, Julia Parker Watts, Sandra Thames Thompson, Jackie Newberry Beeland, Sandra Giles Sessoms, Franklin Middlebrooks, Dovie Stewart Norton, Geraldine Leaptrot Norwood, Faye Tharpe Lacey, Janice Harper Brown and Theresa Williams Bondurant. RIGHT: Jackie Newberry Beeland of Perry kneels near the base of the Verdin Street clock at the Houston County Board of Education building at 1100 Main St. in Perry Saturday. The clock was dedicated by the Perry High School Class of 1955. The clock is surrounded by bricks engraved with the names of teachers who taught at the school from 1943 to 1955. Huhmitted Protecting women and children Local Salvation Army makes case for new Safe House shelter at annual meeting Mm LARRY WALKER Barrett sworn in as new animal control officer ; jy HANNA BARRETT www.hhjnews.com Article and photos by Rex Gambill WARNER ROBINS - Nearly 100 turned out for a good cause recently - The Salvation Army Safe House. The Salvation Army took the opportunity Friday, at its annual meeting and capi tal campaign celebration dinner, to raise awareness - and, hopefully, part of the $1.7 million it needs to finance the construction of a new, larger Safe House, a shelter for battered women and children. “For about 18 years, the By MIKE GEORGE HHJ Staff Writer PERRY - The city’s newest animal control officer can hardly remember a time when pets weren’t a part of her life. Hanna Barrett was sworn in to the Perry Police Department by Judge Janice Spires at a ceremony at the Houston County Probate Court Office in Perry this week. Barrett, 21, said she is ready to jump into the work of caring for the city’s many stray and abandoned animals, and hopes to set new records for adoption. Barrett will fill the post held by Happy Wyatt, who left the department last month to spend more time with her husband and newborn son. r ? i tb|B Bjfe'. r jfr , 'kijM' £ -~4WKP%. M*/*?-'" JWS&lbSii? Jtto ■,? TT. *i s-**d Salvation Army has endeav ored to do something about domestic violence,” said Maj. Barry Corbitt of the Salvation Army of Warner Robins. “We want to eradi cate the problem complete ly.” Italine Davis, the Safe House’s support group facil itator and volunteer coordi nator, drove home the need for such a facility in telling her own story of how she overcame a destructive mar riage marred by manipula tion and domestic violence. “Instead of being the man of my dreams, he ended up being the horror of my life,” “I know that they say that Happy increased the adoption rate a lot more than it was,” Barrett said. “I just want to keep that going and maybe even sur pass her.” Barrett is no stranger to animals. According to her mother, Gay Barrett, Hanna grew up around the family’s kennel in Marshallville. Barrett’s fam ily bred basset hounds before moving to Perry in the early 19905. Barrett’s family owns Canine Cleaners, a Perry grooming business. “I know we’re all going to miss Happy,” Gay Barrett said. “But Hanna worked with her for a couple of sum mers and learned a lot from her. ” Barrett said she also spent four years working for the Pet Land pet store at she said. Davis recounted matter of-factly how she had been too ashamed to tell her fam ily about her husband’s abuse, and later how she had to be rushed into emer gency surgery after he kicked her in the abdomen. Finally, she said, she felt she was being drained as a person. “I didn’t have a life any more,” Davis said. “I was just existing.” She characterized her involvement with the Safe House as a divine mission, to be a part of the things the See SAFE HOUSE, page 5A an Evans Family Newspaper 50c ONE SECTION *l4 PAGES County sells surplus building DM VS asks for bigger building By TIMOTHY GRAHAM HHJ Staff Writer PERRY - The Houston County Board of Commissioners voted Tuesday to sell the former Board of Elections building at 732 Main St. to Shrad Amrit for $95,001. That building, along with the Ag Building and the Public Meetings Building - both at 723 Carroll St. - had been declared surplus prop erty. Since no acceptable bids had come in for the other two buildings, the commissioners voted to lower the minimum bids on them by 15 percent. Also in their regular meet ing Tuesday, the commis sioners discussed with rep resentatives of the Georgia Department of Motor Vehicle Safety the possibili ty of building a new building to house that agency in Warner Robins. “We’ve run out of room,” said Chief Hugh Tedders. “People are having to stand out in the sun and rain because the current build ing is too small. We wanted See COMMISSION, page 5A ITALINE DAVIS Colonial Mall Macon. Although she has worked with animals for most of her life, Barrett said she did not decide to pursue a career with animals until last summer. Besides her volunteer work at the Perry Police Department, Hanna wrote a column in 2001 for The Houston Home Journal that advocated a larger animal shelter for the city. City and county officials are working to estab lish a unified animal control policy, and volunteers are working to raise money to build a larger shelter for all of Houston County. Perry Police Chief George Potter said animal control is vitally important for the city. See BARRETT, page 3A