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FRIDAY June 10, 2005 Volume 135, Number 370 Award-Winning Better Newspaper uXUSaH&y Contest ybctfgy Inside TODAY i / P --«■» K.: Hk .Jpffc r jf¥j ™ Memorial Heights Baptist celebrates first half century Members of Memorial Heights Baptist Church in Perry celebrated their church’s 50th anniver sary last weekend, with a number of services and a covered dish dinner. Family&Faith, page 8A Happy BIRTHDAY! Don Dimsdale Trey Evans Joan Law Fran Pensyl (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 Patricia Saxon Brooks Robert C. Miller John Paul Obits, page 2A INDEX CLASSIFIED 12A CLUBS NEWS ...13A COMICS 11A CROSSWORD ...11A FAMILY&FAITH .. .8A OBITUARIES 2A OPINION 4A POLICE BEAT .. . .5A SCHOOL NEWS .. .6A SPORTS 14A TV LISTINGS ... .11A WEATHER 2A PERIODICAL Ll?Mll'l'il'>ll'.lll!rllf.f,|| l „i|,,,,,| | f|, | ,|| 6* Oecfgia r-iewspaper Project Man Library UNIV OF GEORGIA ATHENS GA 30602-0002 3-DIGIT 306 JNE 10, 2005 Serving Houston County Since 1870 V Mtmstcm Jimnc|f (LLhe jjaurreu ™ LEGAL ORGAN FOR HOUSTON COUNTY, city of Perry, city of Warner Robins and city of Centerville Airport snares grant to fund new lights By MIKE GEORGE HHJ Staff Writer The Perry-Houston County Airport has secured a $150,000 fed eral grant that will help them replace old and faulty taxiway lights that have kept the airport from I I ..... , ' SHARON DANIEL Daniel to lead Mfestside Special to the HHJ Sharon Daniel will serve as the principal of Westside Elementary School for the 2005-2006 school year. She currently serves as assistant principal of Northside Middle School. “I am very excited about becoming principal at Westside Elementary and look forward to working with the faculty, staff, and parents,” Daniel said. “By working together, we can do great things to allow our children to succeed in their education.” Daniel has 24 years of experience in education, including 17 years in admin istration. She has earned the following degrees: • bachelor’s in special education from Auburn University; • master’s in education leadership from University of Georgia; • master’s in special edu cation from the University See DANIEL, page 3A mnrnnifmtrn l jggi HHJ Ray Lightner Margaret Cox displays her the 2005 Master of Public Health Research Award from the Mercer University School of Medicine for the thesis entitled “Strategies for Assisted Outpatient Treatment in Georgia Using Kendra’s Law as a Model.” www.hhjnews.com staying open at night. Art MacDonald, chairman of the Perry-Houston County Airport Authority, said the Georgia Department of Transportation is ready to award the airport an enti tlement grant from the Federal Aviation Administration. On the Sonny side First Lady Mary Perdue listens as Gov. Sonny Perdue thanks a group of support ers at a fund raising dinner Wednesday at the Miller- Murphy-Howard Building at the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter in Perry. HHJ Mike George !'; 1 ~ I ‘*s; 1 IMMWg . . HHJ/Mike George Gov. Sonny Perdue visits with supporters at a campaign fund-raiser at the Miller- Murphy-Howard Building at the Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter in Perry Wednesday night. ■ jflßhL «• I . ... I 'M. 'A J r ‘ -*f r ' .. BBBk T I Margaret’s law C’ville woman’s thesis proposes alternative outpatient treatment By RAY LIGHTNER HHJ Staff Writer PERRY - Margaret Cox’s thesis explored violent crime associated with severely mentally ill patients who go off medica tion. The Centerville woman’s master of public health thesis is based on research done with Houston County Probate Judge Janice Spires, and Don Blair and his staff with the Phoenix Center. The thesis sup ports an alternative outpa tient treatment, which pro vides ongoing case man agement and court-ordered medication compliance for severely mental ill patients to keep them on medica tion and from returning to the court system. MacDonald said that the FAA hands out thousands of dollars in grants every year to small airports working to expand. The airport’s taxiway lights are reaching the end of their useful life. MacDonald said that the grant will be used to replace the taxiway “Spires had so many mental patients go off meds and act up, (that) pick-up orders have multi plied five times over the past five years,” Cox said. In 2003, 2,835 total active metal health patients including 764 sub stance abuse patients. In 2004 there were 2,581 total patients with 761 of those substance abuse patients treated at Phoenix Center. Patients subject to the law would have to be 18 or older, have a lack of compli ance of with medication at least twice in the past 36 months, which resulted in violent behavior once in the past 48 months. The mentally ill offend ers end up in the courts See COX, page 3A ONE SECTION • 16 PAGES lights, but the airport may wait to pay for replacing lights along the runway. He said the FAA has made several suggestions for capital improvements that may affect how the airport authority will use the grant. See GRANT, page 3A Bikes to descend onWR BRAG comes to town Monday, for the first time By TIMOTHY GRAHAM HHJ Staff Writer The movement of four wheel vehicles in and around Houston County is an issue close to the hearts of all of us. No matter where we choose to drive, there always seems to be too many of them trying to go the same place we are. Monday, Houston County will have to deal with a horde of vehicles of the two wheel variety, as the Bicycle Ride Across Georgia (BRAG) makes its first-ever stop in Warner Robins. Approximately 2,000 rid ers will make a stopover in Houston County Monday on their way from Columbus to Jekyll Island. Not only will they spend the night at Houston County High School, but they are also expected to drop about SIOO,OOO into the local econ omy. See BRAG, page 3A 'This is the decade of cancer' Women’s task force confronts Houston’s leading cause of death By TIMOTHY GRAHAM HHJ Staff Writer Mary Robinson from the Central Georgia Cancer Coalition and Mercer University School of Medicine presented infor mation on the statistics of cancer in Houston County and in Georgia at a meeting Wednesday of the Houston County Women’s Health Task Force. The meeting was held at the Houston Health Pavilion EduCare Center located in the Houston Mall in Warner Robins. The first of those statis tics was of no surprise to anyone: Cancer is the lead ing cause of death in the United States and in Georgia. Cancer kills an average of 13,322 people per year in the Peach State. The leading killer is lung cancer, with colorectal cancer com ing in second. Males are 42 percent more See CANCER, page 3A an Evans Family Newspaper 50$ in mill! 8 ™55108*0 0 dOl" 1 4