Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

TUESDAY June 13,2006 VOLUME 136, NUMBER 115 OUR FRONT PORCH INSIDE Split and Web ■ Northside's baseball team teams as some players have been split into additional squads has had a good summer on the baseball dia mond. Such, however, has not been the case for Perry's squads. In other news, Region 1- AAAAA football has a new Web site, which will be main tained by local Internet expert and statistician Wade Moore. - Page 1B IN BRIEF 2 killed in motorcycle wreck ■ The Houston County Sheriff's Office Traffic Division investigated a fatal collision that occurred on U.S. 341, three miles south of Perry. Charles Evans, 57, and Mary Gordy, 47, both of Macon, the driver and pas senger, respectively, of the motorcyle died on scene. According to Sheriff’s Office, the accident occurred one mile south of Saddle Creek Road at approxi mately 2:40 p.m., Sunday. The motorcycle, a blue 1992 Harley Davidson, crossed the centerline and was struck by the tractor-trailer, a blue 2005 Ken worth. The driver of the tractor trailer attempted to avoid the collision, and according to the Sheriff’s Office, the tractor portion of the truck missed motorcycle, but the motorcy cle was struck by the trailer. Both were thrown off the motorcycle and died on scene. The driver of the truck was uninjured. Neither driver appears to have been under the influence of either alcohol or drugs. The truck driver was Rafael Ferrer, 38, of East Stroudsburg, Pa. He is not expected to be charged. Ray Lightner BIRTHDAYS Tuesday ■ Christine Walker ■ Tricia Weeks ■ Hugh D. Lord ■ Linda Christie ■ June Harris ■ Chad Shelton ANNIVERSARIES Tuesday ■ Steve and Nancy Greene DEATHS ■ Helen Virginia Beall ■ Wayne Tallant INDEX LOCAL 2 A WEATHER 3 A OPINION 4 A LIFESTYLE 9 A SPORTS 1 B COMICS 4 B CLASSIFIEDS .... 5 B PERIODICAL Award-Winning Newspaper 2004 Better Newspaper Contest illll.ill.lllldllllllllt lll.nl! l■■il■■■Hllll■nll COOI o GEORGIA NEWSPAPER PROJECT Main Library UNIV OF GEORGIA ATHENS GA 30602 0002 ALL FOR ADC 301 St-:rum; llnrsro\ Cot xn Si\a: IS7O (77T If ( 'Tf i Mcmstim JMmnr if (Uije A) ourft&l LEGAL ORGAN FOR HOUSTON COUNTY, city of Perky, city of Warner Robins and cit\’ of Centerville Twister, twister " * v*- * lit ■ - • . -4“’—.-, . '• * 1? $ B"— ‘——r- mmmm St « lll I 1 Hi ii ' */./'*■ 0. | , Jg|| Mg ' ij. * ’ p|| ENLCJary Harmon Jerry Reppert points to damage to his yard and house Friday. The storm that caused the damage hit the area June 2 in Warner Robins. Some residents say the damage was caused by the tornado, but no weather agency reported a funnel on that day. Damage caused by high winds, but was it a tornado? By DON MONCRIEF HHJ Managing Editor True or false, a tornado touched down in Warner Robins June 2? The answer: It depends on who you talk to. It’s false if you talk to anyone from the Robins Air Force Base Weather sec tion, which according to one forecaster is only con Proper planning can keep lawn green By KIMBERLY CASSEL PRITCHETT HHJ Contributing Writer Having a nice, green yard with healthy trees will take a little more than a green thumb in Houston County. It takes planning. With state water restrictions already in place and an additional curfew on watering implemented by the county, Houston Countians have to plan ahead to make sure their prized greeneries get the proper watering needed to stay healthy. According to Grady Trussed, project manager for Operations Management International Houston County Water, since 2005, state law allows even numbered houses to do outside water- Proper tree care essential for safety By KIMBERLY CASSEL PRITCHETT HHJ Contributing Writer With the first official day of summer approaching and temperatures consis tently in the 90s, proper care and maintenance of trees is essential. According to Houston County extension agent Willie Chance, hurricane season is not the only time people need to worry about' falling trees. It can happen anytime - and does. In April 2003, a tree fell on a car traveling south on Houston Lake Road in the middle of the after noon, causing traffic to be detoured and backed up for hours. And most recently, a falling tree limb injured a father and a son in their backyard while a second son was fatally wounded by it. “In the summer, we have thunderstorms and wind - high winds and rain fall make the tree limbs heavy,” he said. “In the www.hhjnews.com cerned* with a five-nauti cal mile radius arouftd the installation, anyway. This, the area in question, would have been just outside that circle. It’s also false if you talk to the National Weather Service. , “We had some reports of some strong storms on that day,” said forecaster Shirley Watering plans The state has placed restrictions on when residents can use outside water. In addition, Houston County placed further restrictions on use. Here’s a breakdown of when watering is allowed: Even-numbered houses: Monday, Wednesday, Saturday. Odd-numbered: Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday. No house can water on Friday and the county added a no-watering time of 4-10 p.m. everyday. ing on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays anytime during the day or night and odd-numbered houses on summertime, the leaves catch the wind. It weakens the trees and makes them fall.” When the wind the blows, Chance said that trees gen erally learn to strengthen themselves based on which way the wind is blowing on it. However, the problems begin to arise when people cut off limbs. When that occurs, the wind blows on the tree differently and puts stress on it in a dif ferent way, causing it to be more likely to fall. The best thing to do, according to Chance, is to be careful not to dam age a tree at all. He said that crowding a tree, doing anything within three to four feet of a tree could be extremely bad - causing it to fall. “Trees don’t forget - you can cut through a tree and see where it was wounded from years before. Basically anything that happens to its roots weakens the tree. See TREE, page 6 A Lamback, “but no reports of a tornado.” That, false, is also the case if you talk to anyone from the Warner Robins Fire Department. . “It was pretty rough,” said firefighter Bruce Davis, who wasn’t on duty June 2 but saw firsthand the dam age caused the day follow ing. “It knocked down some . u HHBhM#' ;D- K ; -‘Sum' 8perl«l to HHJ Kimberly Camel! Pritchett Houston County extension agent Willie Chance exam ines a tree for maintenance problems. power lines” “It did some damage,” he said matter-of-factly. “I haven’t heard it report ed as a tornado, but there were some pretty strong winds.” And then there’s Andrew Lang, and some others who live off Green Street and on James, Sidney and Merlin See WINDS, page 6A Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays; there is a total outdoor watering ban in the state on Fridays. But that’s not all the restrictions that have been placed on outside watering. “Since we’re having a draw down on our tanks in the afternoon, Houston County further enacted a total water ing ban from 4 to 10 p.m. daily,” said Trussell. The county, according to Trussell, is on a gravity flow system. Consequently, the tanks are a storage for the demand time of water and as the tanks draw down, the tank water pressure in the system at resident’s homes drops. As the tanks are filled, it provides the See WATER, page 6A TWO SECTIONS • 12 PAGES Housing permits down slightly By RAY LIGHTNER HHJ Staff Writer There were 152 single family dwelling permits issued in the month of May for all of Houston County, down slightly from the 155 issued in April and the 156 issued in May 2005. Perry was the only one of the three cities and the unincorporated area of the county to have an increase from April to May, with 26 single family dwelling per mits up one from 25 in April. It is also up 32 percent from the 17 permitted in May 2005. Both Centerville and the unincorporated areas were down' two permits in May with seven and 47 respec tively, compared to nine and 49 in April. Centerville per mits are down 42 percent from the 12 in May 2005. In the unincorporated areas, permits are down about 8 percent from the 51 in May 2005. Warner Robins was down nine percent from April’s 80 permits with 72 in May and down slightly from May 2005’s 76 permits. The average value of the homes permitted county wide, at $133,328.12 for May, was also down almost SIO,OOO from the previous month’s $143,998.67 and May 2005’s average value of $143,289.93. While down countywide, the average value of homes permitted in May in the unincorporated areas, at $184,052.34, was up from April’s $181,337.14 and May 2005’s $178,815.68. The average value of the homes permitted in each of the cit ies in May was also down from the previous month and May 2005 with drops of around SIO,OOO in Perry and Centerville. In Warner Robins, the average value for May was $105,761.73, down from April’s $111,378.06 and May 2005’s sll2, 594.60. In Perry, the average value of the permitted homes for May was $113,351.53, down from April’s $122, 628.80 and May 2005’s $134,712.94. In Centerville, the average value of the homes permit ted dropped from $185,860 in May 2005, to $162,034.44 in April and down again to $150,490 in May. The number of manu factured homes permitted countywide almost doubled from eight in April to 15 in May. It is more than double the seven permitted in May 2005. Centerville had most of the permits in May with seven. There were five in the unincorporated areas, three in Warner Robins and none in Perry. The unincorporated areas and Perry were both unchanged from April to May with five and no man ufactured home permits respectively. Perry had none in May 2005 and there were four manufactured home permits issued in May 2005. Warner Robins was up to three in May from one in April and two in May 2005. Centerville’s seven permits were up from the two in April and none in May 2005. There were also eight See PERMIT, page 6 A ivEw w/ t w//.v A 7:h sp\n r 500 |l: Will: 8 "5 5108*000 01"" 4