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WEDNESDAY June 1, 2005 Volume 135, Number 363 Award-Winning Newspaper 2004 Better Newspaper Contest Inside TODAY faf* . SWM : /£ - • H 'Tough'tournament The team of Gary Kiphart and Neil Brack Jr. captured the final day’s Warner Robins Ford Built Ford Tough Team Competition at Waterford Golf Course, Monday. Sports, page 10A Blueberries Losing weight? There are many ways to do it - and you can do it! Hearth&Home, page 9A i Happy BIRTHDAY! Florence Jackson Pattie Pilcher Anne Sinyard (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 Mackenzie Leigh Persinger Obit, page 2A INDEX CLASSIFIED 8A COMICS 7A CROSSWORD ... .7A HEARTH&HOME . .9A OBITUARIES 2A OPINION 4A SPORTS 10A TV LISTINGS 7A WEATHER 2A PERIODICAL 6* Georgia Newspaper Project Mam utxacv UNiV OF GEORGIA ATHENS GA 3Q6G2-OGG2 3-OIGfT 306 Serving Houston County Since 1870 (Ehe .ijmmtm LEGAL ORGAN FOR HOUSTON COUNTY \ city of Perry, city of Warner Robins and city of Centerville New billboards rise above Perry CVB unveils new series of promotional signs along 1-75 By MIKE GEORGE HHJ Staff Writer PERRY - Travelers along Interstate 75 may notice something different across the street from the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter. The Perry Area Convention and Visitors Bureau has posted the first of eight new billboards along the highway that are designed to highlight many of Perry’s attractions, from hotel rooms to downtown shops. The project is esti mated to cost around $12,000, according to Sheila Jones, the CVB’s executive director. During their regular meeting in April, the CVB scrapped plans to replace a ninth billboard at Exit 39 in Adel because Jones wanted each of the remaining bill boards to be spaced at least 30 miles apart. Jones told board members at the meeting last week that the CVB will have to find a new company to advertise on the billboard or they will not be able to opt out of a three year contract they have with the company that owns the sign. The rtewstgns will be Homeless man lacing numerous charges By RAY UGHTNER HHJ Staff Writer PERRY - Daniel Thomas Sylvester, 41, faces numer ous charges for fires at the Horton Supercenter in Perry and Ebeneezer Baptist Church and Crisp Local Lutherans plan mission trip Mount Calvary members headed to Nicaragua later this month By TIMOTHY GRAHAM HHJ Staff Writer WARNER ROBINS - A group of local folks will be leaving this month to spend a week in Nicaragua to help some of the poorest citizens of that poverty-stricken Central American nation. The members of Mount Calvary Lutheran Church on Carl Vinson Parkway will be spending a week in the Chinandega region of Nicaragua helping provide eye care to the residents. The Chinandega is the poor est province in the nation of Nicaragua, a country of five million residents located between Honduras and Costa Rica. “It is an opportunity to help people in need,” said Shannon Bohannon. “I work at Robins Air Force Base and I thought it would be good to take some leave and use the time to help people. I went on a mission trip to Mexico when I was 16, so this is an opportunity to go out again. It is a good experience to help people See NICARAGUA, page 3A www.hhjnews.com PERRY VISITOR INFORMATION 1610 AM <S22» WELCOME CENTER Q EXIT NOW^H HHJ/Mike George The first in a series of new promotional billboards has been posted Friday near Hamby Chevrolet Buick Pontiac GMC in Perry. The billboard is the first of eight new billboards promoting Perry along Interstate 75. posted along 1-75 in Valdosta, Tifton, Cordele, Unadilla, Byron, Forsyth, and near the Thompson Road exit in Perry. Each of the new billboards features the clock tower symbol associated with the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter. The Hamby sign also promotes AM 1610, a local radio station Academy in Crisp County. Sylvester has been charged with one count of first-degree arson, one count of second-degree criminal damage to property, and one count of burglary for allegedly setting fire to a Wkm feftHßllt 1 jrarefc | £j;. j HHJ,Timothy Graham Members of Mount Calvary Lutheran Church will be leaving this month to conduct a week-long mission to Nicaragua. that beams out tourist information. At Thursday’s meeting, Jones said work is progressing on a series of signs promoting the station that will be posted at Reaves Arena. Jones said that she is already working to replace two signs at Thompson Road and at Unadilla. “We are definitely moving storage building behind the Ebeneezer Baptist Church and Crisp Academy last Wednesday. A second charge of crimi nal damage to property resulted from a fire set in woods behind the church, forward,” Jones said. The work on posting the new signs will continue through out June. Also, the CVB board set aside $5,000 from its pro motion budget to buy advertising space in a new “Ladies Day Out” travel guide, designed for women’s groups that are See BILLBOARDS, page 64 according to Georgia Insurance and Fire Commissioner John W. Oxendine. Sylvester also has been charged with three counts of second-degree criminal damage to property for an Evans Family Newspaper 50c |ii*ii|l 8 *55 108*00001"'4 ONE SECTION • 14 PAGES Perdue, Unwood win awards Ga. School Bell Awards honor excellence in elementary schools From staff reports Linwood and David Perdue elementary schools have been chosen as 2005 Georgia School Bell Award winners by the Georgia Association of Elementary School Principals (GAESP). The GAESP recognizes deserving elementary schools each year with the School Bell Award. The award is presented to schools that demonstrate excellence in unique ele mentary programming. Linwood Elementary School was chosen for its Million Minutes Reading Incentive program, where the teachers challenge the students to read for one mil lion minutes over the course of a school year. The top reader and most motivated reader in each classroom are awarded reading medals for every 250,000 minutes mile stone that is reached and the student body is treated See AWARDS, page 64 other fires he allegedly set in Crisp County later on the same day. Fires were set in two mod ular homes on display at the Horton Homes store in Perry, and Sylvester has See CHARGES, page 6A