Newspaper Page Text
WEEKEND
August 6, 2005
Volume 135, Number 411
Award-Winning
Newspaper
2005
Better Newspaper
Contest
Inside TODAY
Vr 1
Joanna's angels
Joanna McAfee is a 6-
year-old who loves butter
flies and ladybugs and
firmly believes in angels.
She also has some local
guardian angels working
hard to raise funds for her
medical costs as she fights
for her life.
See Lifestyle, page 9A
Happy BIRTHDAY!
Aug. 6
Susan Garrett
Bea Lemley
Winnie Parker
Charlotte Washington
Draper Watson
Aug. 7
Grayce Bearden
Joseph Bearden
Mary D’Angelo-Dent
Happy ANNIVERSARY!
Aug. 6
Jarrod and Andrea
Edwards
(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
Billy F. Collins
William N. Knight
Obits, page 2A
CLASSIFIED 5B
COMICS 8A
CROSSWORD 8A
HOMETOWN 4B
LIFESTYLE 9A
POLICE BEAT .. . .6A
OBITUARIES 2A
OPINION 4A
SCHOOL NEWS . . 2A
TV LISTINGS 8A
WEATHER 2A
PERIODICAL
5
Georgia Newspaper Projed
Main Library
UN IV OF GEORGIA
ATHENS GA 30602-0002
ALL FOR ADC 301
August 6, 2005
Serving Houston County Since 1870
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* LEGAL ORGAN FOR HOUSTON COUNTY \
city of Perry, city of Warner Robins and city of Centerville
Why does city grow? Walker knows
Warner Robins mayor not resting on laurels, though; growth takes planning, preparedness
By TIMOTHY GRAHAM
HHJ Staff Writer
Warner Robins is the fastest
growing city in Georgia, and
Mayor Donald Walker plans on
keeping it that way.
“It has been that way ever
since I took office,” Walker said
in an interview recently.
“Municipalities have to grow to
WALKER
Go
Hawks
Huntington
Middle School
opens its doors
By CHARLOTTE PERKINS
HHJ Lifestyle Editor
“Let’s start off right,
baby! Tuck that shirt tail in
all the way.”
Dr. Gwendolyn Taylor, at
her post near the front door
of the brand new
Huntington Middle School,
is all smiles ... and all busi
ness.
The still-yawning sev
enth-grader drops his book
bag and tucks his shirt into
his baggy jeans. It’s a bit of
a probldTSTltllce ne’s got no
belt on, but he follows
orders and then heads off
down Success Drive.
The halls in the new
school all have names, and
the names mean something.
Pride Place. *
Honesty Lane.
To get to the lunchroom,
you take Success Drive to
See SCHOOL, page 3A
Fair parade set for Oct. 8
By MIKE GEORGE
HHJ Staff Writer
This year’s fair parade may be big
ger, noisier, and better than ever.
The Georgia National Fair will cele
brate its 16th anniversary this season,
and sponsors with the Perry Kiwanis
Welcome
home!
250 from 116th Air
Control Wing return
from tour in Persian Gulf
By MIKE GEORGE
HHJ Staff Writer
Heather Rogerson has been waiting for
her husband to come home from the
Persian Gulf region since June.
But as buses turned onto the front drive
of Coats Hall on Robins Air Force Base
Thursday, Rogerson wanted her husband
back even more.
“I think when you’re waiting around in
those last moments, waiting for them to
get off the bus, trying to see which bus
they are on, you want them home more
than ever,” she said.
Rogerson’s husband, Steve, a master
sergeant who works on radar systems with
the 116th Air Control Wing, was part of a
group of 250 troops who came home
See 116TH, page 12A
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HHJ/ Charlotte Perkins
Dr. Gwendolyn Taylor, principal of Huntington Middle School, gives directions to stu
dents arriving for their first day in a brand new school
Club are looking for help with the
Georgia National Fair Farm/City Days
Parade.
Organizers hope that this year’s
event will bring out the same cadre of
interesting sights and sounds that
have marked the parade in year’s
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HHJ Mike George
Five-year-old Sarah Rogerson smiles as she holds a small flag on her father, Master Sgt. Steve Rogerson
in front of Coats Hall on Robins Air Force Base Thursday. Rogerson was one of 250 troops from the
116th Air Control Wing who returned home from a tour in the Persian Gulf.
survive. The trend all over
America has been for your high
er-educated, higher-motivated,
and higher wage-earning citi
zens to fly out to the suburbs. If
the city does not grow to follow
them, you are left with what I
call the ‘less blessed’ citizens.
When your proportion of less
blessed citizens exceeds 30 per
cent, you have problems fund
ing needed services.
“It is all about your tax base,
economies of scale, and manage
ment,” Walker said.
The engine of municipal
development is the provision of
sewer service, he said.
“We average 1,810 new sewer
and water taps per year,”
past. Whether its the sound of a horn
on an antique car, Shriners spinning
in circles on their go-karts, riders on
horseback trotting through town or
motorcycles revving their engines, a
parade always brings out an odd, yet
See PARADE, page 3A
TWO SECTIONS *lB PAGES
Walker said. “At SSOO per tap
that brings in more than $1 mil
lion annually and that helps you
pay for the coast of developing
the infrastructure. Most of the
work in laying those water and
sewer lines is done in-house and
that also helps lower the cost.”
Walker drew a contrast
See WALKER, page 3A
$7 million
secuped
for road
projects
By RAY LIGHTNER
HHJ Staff Writer
Some $7 million for
Houston County area road
projects is on the way,
thanks to U.S. Sen. Johnny
Isakson.
Isakson announced Friday
that he has secured the
funds as part of the national
highway funding bill.
Isakson has secured over
s2ll million for the entire
state of Georgia including
about $34 million in funding
for Middle and South
Georgia.
The two local projects are
$5 million to widen and
reconstruct Ga. 96 from 1-75
to old Hawkinsville Road
and $2 million for improve
ments to Ga. 247 Connector
(Watson Boulevard) from
Ga. 11/U.S. 41 to Ga. 247 in
Warner Robins.
“Infrastructure is our
state’s single greatest
need,” Isakson said. “This
legislation is critical to the
state of Georgia, because it
will provide our state with
the tools necessary to
improve and expand its sur
face transportation infra
structure to meet the
demands of a growing popu
lation.”
Isakson, along with Gov.
Sonny Perdue and Georgia
Transportation Board
Chairman David Doss, also
praised congressional pas
sage of new national surface
See PROJECTS, page 12A
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