Newspaper Page Text
WEEKEND
March 18, 2006
VOLUME 136, NUMBER 54
Award-Winning
Newspaper
2004
Better Newspaper
Contest
In BRIEF
Casino Fun Night
in Warner Robins
The Warner Robins
Little Theatre is host
ing a Casino Fun Night
tonight from 7:30 p.m. to
10:30 p.m. at America’s
Best Inn and Suites, 1440
Watson Boulevard. This
event is one of many fund
raisers the Theatre’s New
Building Fund committee
will host in their quest for
money for the construc
tion of a new theatre.
A round trip flight -
for two - to any Air Tran
destination is The Grand
Prize to be given away at
the end of the evening.
Yelverton’s Jewelers, Flint
Energies, Pampered Chef,
Sonny’s BBQ, Zaxby’s
and other local merchants
See CASINO, page 2A
Happy BIRTHDAY!
March 18
Major Brant C. Bushnell
Logan Donaldson
Shirley Grossarth
Brenda Horton
Carolyn Lovejoy
Willene Stewart
Wanda Turpin
David Westmoreland
March 19
Cecil Colbert
David Gibson
Pat Harris
Francine Brown McCall
L.H. Solomon
Hazel Watson
Donna Williams
Chris Wood
March 20
Paul Barber
Frank Deloach
Jim Fortson
Sonja Henson
Rebecca Ledger
Lisa Rountree
Abigail Smith
Louise Turner
(Surprise your friends! Let us know
when their birthday or anniversary
is, and we it 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-rnaii to hhj@evansnewspapers.
com, or mail them to us at the
address inside. No phone calls,
please. Many happy returns!)
Area DEATHS
None reported
INDEX
CELEBRATIONS. . 5A
CLASSIFIED 11A
CLUB NEWS .... 12A
COMICS 10A
CROSSWORD... 10A
HHJ QUIZ 3A
OPINION 4A
SCHOOL NEWS . 13A
SPORTS 11A
TV LISTINGS .... 10A
WEATHER 2A
PERIODICAL
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March 18, 2006
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LEGAL ORGAN FOR HOUSTON COUNTY,
city of Perry, city of Warner Robins and city of Centerville
O'Neal says P.E. bill is doomed
By CHARLOTTE PERKINS
HHJ News Editor
A Senate bill that raised the ire of
Houston County school officials as
well as causing rumblings from sys
tems across the state is, according
the Rep. Larry O’Neal, R-Warner
Robins, “D.0.A.”
“I don’t see any likelihood that
it will get through the process,”
O’Neal said, referring to SB 474,
which passed easily in the Senate,
but was put on hold in the House.
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ENI/ Gary Harmon
Signs of spring are showing up everywhere on the Houston County landscape, and these peach
blossoms, spotted in an orchard along Ga. 96, remind us that there’ll be plenty of great Georgia
peaches in the months ahead.
County voters face $l3O million question
By MIKE GEORGE
HHJ Staff Writer
Voters in Houston County
will head to the polls Tuesday
to decide the future of a safes
tax that is expected to gener
ate $l3O million over a six
year period, if renewed, and
has already been slated to
build new roads and fire sta
Elks honor sucessful students
By REX GAMBILL
HHJ Correspondent
Warner Robins Elks
Lodge 2178 held its annual
Youth Appreciation Banquet
Wednesday night, and recog
nized a number of successful
students, including one who
will represent Georgia in a
national scholarship compe
tition.
Cara Burgess, a senior
at Houston County High
School, took first-place
honors at the local, district
and state level of the Elks
Scholarship competition.
In total, Burgess has been
awarded $3,250 so far in
scholarship money.
She’s now in the running
for a four-year, $60,000
scholarship if she’s named
the Elks national scholar
ship winner. The announce
The bill was aimed at reducing
childhood obesity by requiring that
elementary and middle school stu
dents spend more time in physical
education classes.
While O’Neal and others, includ
ing local educators, have said that
they considered the problem of
childhood obesity a serious one, the
bill was criticized as an unfunded
mandate which would require hiring
additional certified physical educa
tion teachers, and take time away
Good things to come
tions, expand local libraries
and wastewater treatment
plants, and even bring a new
animal shelter to one com
munity.
Houston County’s Special
Purpose Local Option Sales
Tax, or SPLOST, has gained
well-publicized support and
opposition, but the sales tax’s
ment will come in May.
Burgess said after the
banquet that she has not
yet committed to a college,
but is considering Mercer,
the University of Georgia
and Duke University. She
intends to study interna
tional affairs and political
science, and hopes to go on
to Georgetown University to
study law.
Her mom, Pamela Dunn
of Bonaire, said Cara has an
eye on the Oval Office.
Other scholarship recipi
ents were on hand as well:
• Charles Lynch, a senior
at Houston County High
School, who placed first at
the local level, and second
at the district level. Lynch
received $1,250 in scholar
ship money.
• Victoria Bell, a senior at
www.hhjnews.com
renewal will mean Houston
County shoppers will con
tinue to pay an extra cent in
sales tax for every dollar they
spend.
Roads dominated the list of
projects slated to be financed
with SPLOST.
More than $92.9 million
See SPLOST, page 16A
Peach County High School,
who placed second at the
local level, and second at the
district level. Bell received
$1,050.
• Jonathan Eastman, a
senior at Central Fellowship
Christian Academy, who
placed second at the local
level and received S3OO in
scholarship money.
• Katherine Harringa, a
senior at Houston County
High School, who placed
third at the local level and
received $l5O.
• Christopher Broughton,
a senior at Warner Robins
High School, who placed
third at the local level and
received $l5O.
Young people who placed
in the Elks Hoop Shoot com
petition were also
See ELKS, page 12A
from other programs such as music,
art and remediation.
The Houston County School sys
tem issued a position paper opposing
the bill, and O’Neal said that many
other school officials objected to the
plan.
O’Neal also said in a phone inter
view from Atlanta that he was “real
ly disappointed” at the failure of a
bill which would have been “almost
a complete rewrite “ of Georgia’s
drunk driving laws. O’Neal said
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HHJ Rex Gambill
Cara Burgess accepts a check from Elks Youth Scholarship
Committee Chairman George Bertram. Burgess, a Houston
County High School senior, was the first-place Elks Scholarship
award winner at the local, district and state levels.
ONE SECTION • 16 PAGES
that House Bill 1222, which was
voted down in both the Senate and
House, closed loopholes and made
laws stricter for commercial drivers
of large trucks and buses.
He said that he was hopeful that
Senate Bill 502, another bill aimed
at cracking down on those who drive
under the influence, would pass.
Kelly Burke, District Attorney
of the Houston Judicial Circuit,
thanked both O’Neal and
See HOUSE, page ISA
21 st CP plans
to play 'offense 1
New $320,000 fundraising drive
promotes forward-thinking shift
By MIKE GEORGE
HHJ Staff Writer
The 21 s * : Century Partnership, a local advocacy
group working for the future of Robins Air Force
Base, revealed details of their new fundraising cam
paign Thursday.
Organizers hope to raise $320,000 for their operat
ing budget, and are already in the process of recruit
ing various representatives from sectors of the busi
ness community to form a fundraising team. Ben
Hinson, president and chairman of the Mid Georgia
Ambulance Service, has been tapped to organize the
fundraising drive. According to Hinson, the 21 st
Century Partnership relies almost exclusively on pri
vate donations, but does receive some support from
local governments.
The partnership is widely recognized for their work
successfully lobbying for Robins during the Federal
Base Re-Alignment and Closure Committee, or BRAC,
process last year, a massive re-structuring of the U.S.
Armed Services that identifies some bases and mili
tary installations to be closed, and brings more work
to others. Neil Suggs, co-owner of Marble Masters in
Warner Robins, said that the partnership operated
under an annual budget of more than $500,000 during
the three years leading up to BRAG.
But in the post-BRAC world, Hinson said the part
nership is looking forward, moving out of a “defen
sive” mode and focusing on the offense.
“Our goal is bigger and better things for Robins Air
Force Base,” he said. “For so long, we’ve operated
on the defensive, but now we need to start looking
towards the future.”
Hinson said that Robins is still a very small part of
the overall picture of the U.S. Air Force. As a mainte
nance depot, Hinson said the base continues to fight
an opinion of some in the military who don’t want to
keep repairing and re-using old aircraft.
“Our representatives are out there lobbying for
Robins in the Pentagon and in the halls of Congress,”
he said. “If we weren’t, we’d all have to just take what
we got,”
Although the partnership budgeted for $250,000,
Hinson has a set a goal of raising $320,000 for this
year’s campaign. Suggs said that the partnership is in
the process of developing a 5-year plan for fundraising
designed to push the group’s new drive to bring more
missions and work to the base.
“We have to be looking forward,” Suggs said. “We
have to be proactive from now on.”
The 21 Century Partnership is a collection of
business and community leaders working to support,
build and strengthen the role of Robins Air Force Base
in the U.S. Air Force. Hinson said the group plans to
begin their fundraising drive with a kickoff in June.
To find out more about the partnership, visit www.
robins2l.org.
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