Newspaper Page Text
FRIDAY
April 7, 2006
■ .111 ■ i
VOLUME 136, NUMBER 68
Award-Winning
Newspaper
2004
Better Newspaper
Contest
In BRIEI
Perry nixes
nepotism
The Perry City Council
approved a policy Tuesday
night designed to prevent
nepotism.
The new policy, adopted
unanimously by council
and requested by Perry
Public Safety Director
George Potter, will
restrict the employment
of relatives who plan to
work in the same depart
ments. The city will base
their anti-nepotism policy
on a similar policy estab
lished in Warner Robins
in 1985. The policy also
prevents relatives of elect
ed and appointed officials
from working for the city.
Under the Warner Robins
policy, city employees who
marry another employee
or become relatives after
they begin work in the
same department may be
asked to transfer.
- Mike George
Spring Fling
at Perdue
There will be fun for
the whole family when
David A. Perdue Primary
School will holds its
second annual Spring
Fling and Silent Auction
from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Saturday. On the day’s
schedule are fun games,
multiple moonwalks and
bouncing activities from
Kathy’s Rock, as well as
pony rides, prizes, pop
corn, snow cones and
more. The silent auction
will be from 10 a.m. until
1 p.m.
Happy BIRTHDAY!
' - - ---- - - - '
Alan Marshall
H — AW^R^ARY!
- - -
Theron and Penny
Bramb/ett
Area DEATHS ,
None reported today
INDEX
CLASSIFIED .... 10A
COMICS 9A
CROSSWORD .... 9A
FAMILY&FAITH ... 8A
HEALTH 6A
OPINION 4A
SPORTS 7 A
TV LISTINGS 9A
WEATHER 2A
PERIODICAL
April 7, 2006
Servmg Houston County Since 1870
®te fmtrnal
LEGAL ORGAN FOR HOUSTON COUNTY,
city of Perry, city of Warner Robins and city of Centerville
Dogwood blossoms, yellow ribbons, dancing and dawgs
.JL J
Deputy dies
in wreck
By RAY LIGHTNER
HHJ Staff Writer
Ronnie Harlowe Jr., 24,
was pronounced dead at The
Medical Center of Central
Georgia after 8 p.m. Tuesday,
from injuries sustained in
a single vehicle crash on
Buckeye Road at Holland
Road in Peach County.
According to Georgia
State Patrol Cpl. Richard
Peck, Harlowe was riding a
2004 Suzuki GSX-R750 with
another motorcyclist along
Buckeye Road about 6:11 p.m.
when, “for unknown reasons
left the roadway, struck a
ditch culvert and was ejected
from the motorcycle.”
Harlowe, from Warner
Robins, was a deputy with
the Houston County Sheriff’s
Office at Houston County E
-911 for two years. He was not
married.
His father, Sgt. Ronnie
Harlowe in Criminal
Investigations and uncle,
Capt. Ricky Harlowe, the 911
Center manager, have been
with the Sheriff’s Office “for
years and years,” said Lt.
Mikki Folds, E-911 Manager.
“Everyone’s still kind of in
shock here,” she said.
Classrooms First for Georgia Act becomes law
Houston school system already in compliance with 65 percent threshold
By CHARLOTTE PERKINS
HHJ News Editor
On Wednesday, Governor
Sonny Perdue signed into law the
Classrooms First for Georgia Act
(58390), an initiative setting a
statewide threshold for local school
systems on classroom expenses as
opposed to other educational costs.
With this new law, many educa
tors and school administrators will
face a new challenge in their bud
get planning: meeting a new state
requirement that at least 65 percent
fe.
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HHJ/Mike George
Tammy Vice, events and fundraising coordinator for the Perry
Area Chamber of Commerce, is one of the first people many
newcomers meet in Perry.
www. hhjnews. com
Perry to celebrate Dogwood Festival this weekend
By CHARLOTTE PERKINS
HHJ News Editor
The dogwoods are in full bloom,
and it’s time once more for Perry’s
Dogwood Festival.
This is the 18th year for the week
end celebration organized by the
Perry Area Chamber of Commerce,
with help from a big team of com
munity sponsors.
The opening events, by long tra
dition, are the 5K Run/Walk/Skate
and 1-mile health walk, sponsored
A find bow for Cat In the Hat
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Perry High School student performers gave their last performance of “Seussical", a musical based on the works of Dr. Seuss,
this week. The play was directed by Joe Sendek.
of education rands be spent on class
room expenses.
However, in Houston County,
school officials do not forsee any
major problems. That’s because
they’re already spending 67 percent
on classroom expenses.
Stephen Thublin, Houston
County’s Assistant Supt. for
Business and Financial Operations,
said on Thursday that the local sys
tem ranks in the top 11 percent of
systems statewide for proportion of
expenditure directly in the class
HELLO NEIGHBOR!
Tammy Vice: Serving the
Perry community with a smile
This is the first install
ment of a new HHJ series,
“Hello, neighbor!”, which
will be written weekly by
Mike George.
Tammy Vice has one of the
most recognizable voices,
and smiles, in Perry.
Whether answering ques
tions about local restaurants
and businesses, organizing
a weekend festival or lun
cheon, or providing tour
ist information about local
hotels for travelers along I
-75, Vice is one of the first
people many newcomers talk
to before moving to town, or
just stopping in for a visit.
As events and fundrais
ing coordinator for the Perry
Area Chamber of Commerce,
Vice is responsible for plan
ning a number of local
chamber events, including
this weekend’s Dogwood
by Houston Healthcare and Run
and See Georgia.
Those who’d rather have a lei
surely breakfast, however, can
enjoy pancakes cooked by the Perry
Kiwanis Club at the old Perry
Elementary School Lunchroom.
Meanwhile a good part of
Downtown Periy will be closed off
to make room for a street festival
with arts and crafts and live enter
tainment. Downtown merchants
will be welcoming festival-goers,
room.
“We’re already in compliance,”
Thublin said.
According to the Governor’s Office,
statistics show that school districts
that spend more than 65 percent
in the classroom average 73 points
higher on the SAT and 6-14 points
higher on the Criterion-Referenced
Competency Tests (CRCT).
“The classroom is the hub of
learning. There are a lot of infra
structure needs, from food service
to transportation to administration,
Festival, slated to feature
everything from a down
town concert to a motorcycle
show. Vice said planning for
the event began in full force
in early December.
“There is definitely a
lot more work than people
might expect,” she said.
“Just booking all the ven
dors is a challenge.”
Vice said the chamber is
working with 55 vendors
for this weekend’s festival
alone.
Megan Smith, the cham
ber’s president and chief
executive officer, said that
Vice is helping to fulfill the
chamber’s mission.
“This chamber is here to
help this community grow,
but grow in a way that it
wants, and needs to,” Smith
said.
Vice said the chamber
deals with questions daily
ONE SECTION • 14 PAGES
- -
too, and a wide variety of events,
from live music and dancing at
the Dogwood Jam to dessert judg
ing. There will even be an Easter
Egg Scavenger Hunt, starting at
the Courthouse Square at 2 p.m..
Pooches can get into the action,
too, with a Dawg Jawg, competi
tions for retrieving and racing, and
costumes.
For more information and times
for the various weekend’s activi
ties, see page 3.
but the classroom is where learn
ing really takes place,” Governor
Perdue said. “Our focus is on the
classroom. In the classroom our focus
is student achievement, and that is
why this threshold is so important.”
Under the new law, every fiscal year,
local school systems will be required
to spend a minimum of 65 percent of
educational operating expenditures
on direct classroom expenditures.
Operating expenditures, as defined
by the act, include federal, state
See CLASSROOMS, page 12A
from new retirees moving
in to the area, and military
families transferring on to
Robins Air Force Base. Vice
said the chamber deals with
the most questions in or
around the Georgia National
Fair in October, with over
900 calls logged to the cham
ber, according to records, in
August and September of
2004.
Vice is also responsible
for planning the chamber’s
new business expo, and the
annual Georgia Chamber of
Commerce Congressional
Luncheon in August. Perry
has been the site of the
annual gathering of stage
chambers for two years, and
the chamber plans to host
the event again this year.
Vice has worked for
the chamber for almost
three years, starting as an
See HELLO, page 11A
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