Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

WEDNESDAY June 22, 2005 Volume 135, Number 378 Award-Winning Better Newspaper vii U|K7 Contest Ngqgjy Inside TODAY i . -• Jtmirywr Beef on the grill Want to be famous far and wide for your great cooking? Here’s a tip. Cook the food that peo ple already love! Whatever your budget, summertime culinary success starts with firing up the grill, or getting that charcoal to turn to a perfect ashy gray. This week, our empha sis in on beef, thanks to the folks from the Georgia Beef Council. We start on the low-budget side and proceed to great show-off grilling. Hearth&Home, page 11A Happy BIRTHDAY! Jackie Dußose Brooke Heiden Pierce Staples (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 Wayne Edward Mercer Obit, page 2A INDEX CLASSIFIED 10A CLUB NEWS 5A COMICS 9A CROSSWORD ... .9A HEARTH&HOME .11A OBITUARIES 2A OPINION 4A SPORTS 6A TV LISTINGS 9A WEATHER 2A PERIODICAL 6* Georgia Newspaper Project Man Library UNIV OF GEORGIA ATHENS GA 30602-0002 3-OIGFT 306 June 22, 2005 Serving Houston County Since 1870 Y JHxmtelf dim flovccxml * LEGAL ORGAN FOR HOUSTON COUNTY , city of Perry, city of Warner Robins and city of Centerville DA probes owner of poker machines Warner Robins company scrutinized as result of recent video poker seizure in Perry By MIKE GEORGE HHJ Staff Writer The Houston Circuit District Attorney’s office has shifted its investigation to focus on a Warner Robins company that owns five Fill the boots WRFD kicks off boot drive for Jerry’s Kids this weekend By RAY LIGHTNER HHJ Staff Writer Warner Robins firefight ers will be out with their boots in hand this weekend. For the 16 th year, Warner Robins firefighters will be collecting donations for individuals with neuromus cular diseases. About 100 of them will be out in front of Wal-Mart, Kroger, Lowe’s, and Winn Dixie Friday through Sunday raising money to defeat muscular dystrophy. See BOOT, page 3A Council i passes budget Animal control ordinance becomes law in TIMOTHY GRAHAM HHJ Staff Writer The Warner Robins City Council ducked the fire works issue but still kept things interesting in Monday night’s meeting, as it passed the controversial animal control ordinance and adopted a city budget for the 2005-2006 fiscal year. The budget calls for spending $28,321,321 from the General Fund, $1,975,075 for the Special Revenue Funds, $5,782,916 for the Sanitation Fund, $11,323,858 for the Water and Sewer Fund, and $3,728,987 for the Natural Gas Fund. See WR, page 5A Board recommends denial of rezonings Houston planners don’t support spot commercial zoning in two residential neighborhoods By RAY LIGHTNER HHJ Staff Writer One applicant had a room full of residents in opposition, while the other had the support of the homeowner’s association, but both requests were recommend ed for denial because to bring commercial development to those areas would be spot zon CHILDERS www.hhjnews.com poker machines seized in a June 10 raid in Perry. The Perry Police Department seized the machines during an after noon raid at the OM Food Mart on Sunset Avenue. The store’s owner, Semi-independent living facility to open Thursday ■ f'- W jjjfe submitted Amy Lateefuddin (left), Happy Hour staffer and local AARP members plant flowers at Happy Hour’s Falcon Park 111 Apartment Complex. Locals help Happy Hour prepare y • •'* . 't"■ '• -'‘‘uSre j b s ;SHK, ' r| I MSB M** ' , Iff ; iWimr J ML - 4 I °sßr P J? % % PET a SUM J : mk■tf'" ’ jgf &ag - , submitted Steve Smith (second from right), executive director of Happy Hour, thanks Rosita Huckeba (right), president of the local AARP Chapter - and other members of the chapter - for helping plant flowers and shrubbery at Falcon Park 111, Happy Hour’s new apartment complex. ing. A 1 Childers’ request to rezone a 1-acre tract at Lake Joy and Hatcher roads near Joy Drive from R-l (single-family residen tial) to C-l (neighborhood com mercial) for a 2,300-square-foot real estate office with two entrances was opposed by a roomful Monday night in a Prakash Patel, could face felony charges for operating a casino gam bling establishment, but Assistant District Attorney James Balli said that no indictments have been filed and no arrests have been made in meeting of the Houston County Planning and Zoning Commission. They had come out in the past to fight back two other commercial requests fro the same site. Lawrence Guillory of Tharpe Road spoke for the concerned neighbors. “If this one goes commercial, ONE SECTION • 12 PAGES the case since the raid. Balli said the investigation has shifted its focus to a Warner Robins based company that owns the machines, identified by evidence See POKER, page 3A By TIMOTHY GRAHAM HHJ Staff Writer Happy Hour is about to open a new semi-independ ent living complex, and they have been hard at work get ting the facility ready for its grand opening Thursday. A lot of people have been working with Happy Hour to get the Falcon Park 111 facility ready, and one group was the local chapter of the American Association of Retired People (AARP). Local AARP Chapter President Rosita Huckeba and a dozen of her members were at Falcon Park 111 recently to help landscape the building. “We were very proud to have the AARP people help us out,” said Happy Hour Executive Director Steve Smith. “They were a god send. Happy Hour would not be a reality without the help of local people like the AARP “We would also like to thank Tom and Anissa See HAPPY HOUR, page 3A it wouldn’t take long for others to go commercial,” he said. “It will be the end of our nice resi dential area.” Guillory noted that Russell Parkway is 300 yards from the property, the county and city are working to delay commer cial development of that area, See ZONING, page 3A an Evans Fa mil y. Ne wspa per 500