Newspaper Page Text
WEDNESDAY
July 13, 2005
Volume 135, Number 393
W
Award-Winning
Newspaper
2005
Belter Newspaper
Contest
Inside TODAY
K M
■
Getting in the
spirit
Columbia County fan
painted in dark blue from
head to toe.
Sports, page 8A
Happy BIRTHDAY?
Ruby Overton
Cherry Crook Young
(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
Curtis I. McNeal Jr.
Ruth Elizabeth Myers
Robert Kyle Spratling
Gloria Y. Walker
Obits, page 2A
INDEX
CLASSIFIED 10A
COMICS 9A
CROSSWORD ... .9A
HEARTH&HOME .11A
OBITUARIES 2A
OPINION 4A
SCHOOL NEWS . .3A,
SPORTS 6A
TV LISTINGS 9A
WEATHER 2A
PERIODICAL
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UNIV OF GEORGIA
ATHENS OA 30502-0002
ALL FOR ADC 301
July 13, 2005
Serving Houston County Since 1870
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W LEGAL ORGAN FOR HOUSTON COUNTY,
city of Perry, city of Warner Robins and city of Centerville
McDowell to throw hat in ring
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doug mcdowell
Home Depot may locate in Peppy
Also, Houston Springs submits
redesigned site plan to planners
By MIKE GEORGE
HHJ Staff Writer
A community planner
with the city of Perry
revealed Monday night that
Home Depot, one of the
nation’s largest retail
chains, has submitted plans
for a new store near
Interstate 75 in Perry.
Perry Community
Planner Mike Beecham told
the Perry Planning
Commission that the home
improvement retailer plans
to build along St. Patricks
Drive near Sam Nunn
Boulevard. He said Tuesday
that the store will sit
between Wal-Mart and the
former St. Patrick Catholic
Church on the site of
Horton Homes. Building
plans, if approved, call for
an approximately 130,000-
square-foot complex with an
additional 20,000 square
feet for parking and land
scaping.
“I don’t know the owner
ship situation, whether
they’ve bought, but the spe
cial exception itself takes
about six to eight weeks,”
Beecham said Tuesday.
The project will have to
win the approval of both the
Perry Planning Commission
and the Perry City Council.
Beecham said the city’s “big
Nine Houston
roads to be
repaved
State to fund resurfacing
through Local Assistance
Road Program
By RAY UGHTNER
HHJ Staff Writer
Houston County will get
2.578 miles of roads resur
faced, thanks to LARP
The Georgia Department
of Transportation’s Local
Assistance Road Program
projects include portions of
nine roads in Houston
County with a cost of
$103,253.93.
GDOT Commissioner
Harold Linnenkohl awarded
the contract for the nine
roads to Reeves
Construction Company.
“We are proud to assist
local governments through
the LARP program,”
Linnenkohl said. “A well
maintained road helps make
See ROADS, page 3A
www.hhjnews.com
Military vet, school board employee to seek WR council post
By TIMOTHY GRAHAM
HHJ Staff Writer
Doug McDowell has submitted his
Declaration of Intention to Accept
Campaign Contributions at the
Warner Robins City Clerk’s Office.
McDowell, a retired member of the
U.S. Air Force and a veteran of
Operation Desert Storm, has decided
that he will be running for the Warner
Robins City Council Post 6 seat that is
now vacant due to the passing of
Councilman Tom Simms Sr.
“The passing of Councilman Simms
was unfortunate and Warner Robins
lost a good man who cared about this
city,” said McDowell. “Before retiring I
Home Depot
site plan, IZA
box” ordinance requires
planning and council
I D
approval for single
tenant residential
developments of
over 35,000 square
feet and shopping ,
centers of over M.
50,000 square Jr*
feet - /Ba
Beecham saidAtoM
that the
ning commission
plans to look at the
piciuo tu cii uic
project during their first
meeting in August. If
approved, the site plans will
move to the Perry City
Council, which will decide
the project’s ultimate fate.
Beecham said he was first
contacted by an architectur
al company representing the
retail chain about a month
ago. Don Harrison, a
spokesman with Home
Depot’s corporate offices in
Atlanta, said he could nei
ther confirm nor deny that
the company was planning a
move into Perry, but said
that most projects are kept
quiet until the property
where the project will be
built has changed hands.
Also during Monday’s
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submitted
Perry Firefighter Kelvin Ross smiles with campers at Camp 00-U-La,
a summer retreat for bum victims in Eatonton. Ross and the Perry
Fire Department are planning a boot drive July 22-24 for the Georgia
Firefighters Bum Foundation, an organization that supports the
camp.
spent more than 11 years stationed at
Robins Air Force Base and have
watched this city grow. Warner Robins
has given a lot to my family, and now it
is time for me to give back by repre
senting the citizens of Post 6.”
McDowell said he lives on the north
side of town and he has seen more and
more businesses move in across town.
“I see the potential for growth and I
will work to bring back businesses to
our area,” he said. “Crime is up in my
neighborhood and our families deserve
to be safe. We have a fine police depart
ment; however, more needs to be done
to improve the safety of our citizens.”
McDowell retired from military serv-
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meet-
ing, a devel
oper for the
Houston Springs active
adult resort community
submitted new plans for the
494-acre development,
including consolidating two
development areas into one
and relocating a proposed
commercial district.
Jeff Moredock, president
of developer Woodland
Property Partners, said that
his company decided to
move the commercial dis
trict to a more central loca-
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tion
near
the resort
community’s TO
112-foot-wide *
entrance
See PERRY,
page 12A
Peppy fipefighteps
pull out the boot
By MIKE GEORGE
HHJ Staff Writer
Kelvin Ross never anticipated that one
week at a summer camp would change his
life, but the Perry firefighter says that the
time he spent at a retreat for young burn
victims has inspired him to do more.
Ross and The Perry Fire Department are
organizing a boot drive to raise money for
the Georgia Firefighters Burn Foundation,
an organization designed to educate the
public about the realities of burns and how
to prevent them.
In late May, Ross spent a week as a coun
selor at Camp-00-U-La, a haven for kids
whose lives have been emotionally effected
by severe burns. The camp is funded
through money raised by the GFBF. Ross
said that Perry Fire Chief Freddy Howell
volunteered at the camp for several years,
and asked Ross if he would be interested in
working there.
“I said ‘why not?’” Ross said. “I have kids
of my own and I thought it was an opportu
nity to be a big brother to these kids, to give
them a direction in life.”
Ross spent the week with a group of young
boys who are all still recovering from the
emotional scars left by their injuries.
See BOOT, page 3A
an Evans Family Newspaper
ONE SECTION • 12 PAGES
ice after more than 20 years.
“After being stationed at Robins Air
Force Base in 1989 and spending over
11 years here, I retired and took a job
with the Houston County Board of
Education as their Web master,”
McDowell said. “I was born in
Elizabethtown, Ky., and lived there
until joining the military at 18. My
wife Wendy (Beckworth) was raised in
Warner Robins and graduated from
Northside High School. After I retired
from the Air Force, my wife and I con
templated moving back to Kentucky to
be with family, however, Warner
Robins is home for me and my family,
See McDOWELL, page 3A
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Airport Hood fittMNteo
This is the
new site plan
for Houston
Springs.
submitted