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WEEKEND August 13, 2005 Volume 135, Number 416 Award-Winning Newspaper 2005 Belter Newspaper Contest Inside TODAY HI HHMHHH Go Fish! New shop has a Christian message with high style There’s a new shop in downtown Perry with a giraffe out front, and plenty of shoppers inside. Lifestyle, page 7 A Happy BIRTHDAY! Aug. 13 Donnie Free Eunice Terry Manning Aug. 14 Paul Boyles Kathleen Daugherty Horace Matthews Rose Mae Smith Janice Loudin Stewart Aug. 15 Tyler Hightower William Jackson Flo Mitchell Sarah Sherman Le Ann Tuggle (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 Richard Wayne Doherty S. “Dana” Morgan Rollis Obits, page 2A INDEX CLASSIFIED 5B COMICS 4B CROSSWORD 4B LIFESTYLE 7A OBITUARIES 2A OPINION 4A POLICE BEAT 6B SPORTS 1B SCHOOL NEWS .. .5A TV LISTINGS 4B WEATHER 2A PERIODICAL HmNmRmnULJI 5 Georgia Newspaper Prices Man Librarv UN IV OF GEORGIA ATHENS GA 30662-0002 ALL FOR AOC 301 August 13. 2005 Serving Houston County Since 1870 K iionstint Hrlcrmelf (line JJmmtal * LEGAL ORGAN FOR HOUSTON COUNTY \ city of Perry, city of Warner Robins and city' of Centerville Robber hits WR, Perry stores Man hits five businesses in two cities; suspect eludes authorities By MIKE GEORGE HHJ Staff Writer Police in Perry and Warner Robins are search ing for an unidentified man wanted in connection with a string of armed robberies in Warner Robins and Perry Thursday afternoon and evening. Maj. Harry Dennard with the Warner Robins Police Department said the man used a handgun, possibly a revolver, to rob three Warner Robins loan offices before robbing the Video Warehouse on Ball Street and the Best Mexican store on Carroll Street in Perry Thursday evening. Police said the man is between 5-foot-10 and 6 feet tall, between the ages of 19 and 25, weighing 180-200 lbs., and was seen by clerks wearing a white shirt, a pair of dark shorts and white tennis shoes. Dennard said the man escaped from the WR office to get two new parole officers -m .if, yv jm HIM ft ay Lightner Parole officers practice making an arrest during execution of a warrant for violation of parole. C'ville DDA confronts right-of-way issues Homeowners refuse to donate land for downtown project By WILLIAM JOHN HAGAN HHJ Staff Writer A public meeting of the Centerville Downtown Development Authority (DDA) was scheduled for Thursday night at City Hall. However, the only members in attendance were Chairman Henry L. Hopson Jr. and Barbara Shaheen. After City Attorney Rebecca Tydings ruled that the DDA did not have a quo rum, it was decided that the meeting could go forward but no rulings could be made. Hopson and Shaheen took the opportunity to discuss two major issues of impor tance with Mayor Ronnie Brand and councilmen Sherod Wilson and Randall Wright: The topics on the evening’s agenda were the planned right-of-way pro posal on Margie Drive and www.hhjnews.com Perry video store on foot. “Based on the times of the robberies, we feel like he had used some type of vehi cle,” Dennard said. “But at this point, no vehicle has been seen or identified. “He would have had to have some type of trans portation.” The suspect first struck the Service Loan & Tax at 105 North Davis Drive at 4:24 p.m. Thursday, then hit the E-Z Title Pawn at 1755 Watson Blvd. and the Ace Title Pawn at 1716 Watson Boulevard around 5:30 p.m. Police said the robberies in Perry occurred within min utes of each other shortly after 7 p.m. Thursday. Capt. Bill Phelps with the Perry Police Department said police do not know which robbery occurred first, but said the call from the Mexican store came in first. Phelps said the man stole See ROBBER, page 3A the required training of the members of the DDA. The Margie Drive project is at the heart of Centerville’s future down town development and beautification plans. The project calls for a widening of Margie Drive from a two lane to a three-lane road. The project would also include the installation of sidewalks that would create a promenade for the city’s residents. As part of the plan, Margie Drive would be curved via Gunn Road into Houston Lake Road. The project is expected to relieve traffic congestion, and increase property values for businesses and homeowners in the area. In a perfect world, Centerville would face no obstacles to such a seeming ly positive development. See DDA, page 3A 11114/Mike George Capt Bill Phelps (left) with the Perry Police Department goes over details behind the counter of the Video Warehouse on Ball Street in Perry Thursday. Police believe an unidentified man wanted in connection with a series of armed robberies in Warner Robins forced clerks to hand over an undetermined amount of cash at gunpoint before escaping on foot. Mp V < HHHP| (Ms. %• , llsf Jr |i|Ji| I HH.J 'I im Hoskins Loma Cox, MGTC Instructor of the Year, shows off the surgical technology pro gram’s mock surgery lab. Cox named MGTC instructor ot year By TIM HOSKINS HHJ Student Writer “My students are like my children,” said Lorna Cox, surgical technology instruc tor at Middle Georgia Technical College. “I tell them: ‘l’m a good tech and I’ll make you a good tech.’” Training now under way for Harris, Skinner By RAY LIGHTNER HHJ Staff Writer Two new parole officers in the Warner Robins office are among the current class undergoing basic training in Forsyth. Sheryl Skinner and Lamario Harris will gradu ate Sept. 2 after eight weeks of training at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth. The two will bring the number of parole officers in Warner Robins to four, and they can expect a caseload of 80 parolees. The office will get a fifth parole officer once the next class in February is com plete, explained Kim Patton- Johnson, public information officer for the state Board of Pardons and Paroles. She said that would reduce their Cox was recently chosen as the MGTC 2005 Instructor of the Year and nominated for the Rick Perkins Award, a statewide recognition for the best instructor at a technical college. The decision was made by an Evans Family Newspaper 50c IIIIMIII TWO SECTIONS • 16 PAGES caseload below 70, and give the state 320 parole officers to supervise and monitor the state’s 22,000 parolees. Skinner is a six-year vet eran of the Macon Police Department and became a parole officer to stay in law enforcement with the social aspect. Harris said he want ed the opportunity to help someone get his or her life back together. Patton-Johnson said parole officers determine needs of parolees, so they get the assistance they need to get back into society, like getting the mental health or substance abuse counseling they may need and to meet the other terms of their parole including employ ment and drug screening. “They get out to their See TRAINING, page 10A a committee drawn from the college administration and the surrounding com munity. The committee interviewed several final ists before making their choice, and said that it was a difficult decision. See COX, page 6A