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Formerly The Hogansville Herald
Serving the Hogansville-GrantviUe Area Since 1944
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HOGANSVILLE, GA
PERMIT NO. 35
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60, NO. 47 HOGANSVILLE, GIORGIA - THURSDAY, NOV. 20, 2003 10 PAGES • 1 SECTION .50¢
Broken for Police Station
,'mony Launches Work
New $360,000 Facility
Thomas Pike and Tommy
CLINT CLAYBROOK
/Council
police officers
hands on Monday to
ground for what could
a $360,000 new police
uarters.
The new facility on
Street near the city
may cost less, Police
Guy Spradlin said
the ground-breaking
' late Monday after-
The facility will cost some
ust to build, accord-
to early estimates.
ment and furnishing
add thousands to that
the city's top cop
Spradlin had said earlier
he wanted the ground-
done Monday in
,gnize the efforts
the incumbent City
which approve d the
facility a few weeks
with support from
Wilson St. Clair.
So City C.QU;il members
Jackson, Charlie F.
Jean Crocker, Bobby
d Jack Leidner,
with the mayor, police
several police offi-
all scooped up ceremo-
spade-fulls of dirt to
ground-breaking.
Also recognized were
Councilman-elect
Thrower, who were on the
Hogansville City Council
when the site on Lincoln
Street was purchased in 1977.
Jackson, who lost a close
race for his District 5 City
Council seat to challenger
Pike in the Nov. 4 city elec-
tions won't be on the council
when the building is com-
pleted sometime next year.
Council members
• Hogansville has lost one
of its best-liked and most
citizens.
Bailey, 19, died
Sunday.
,Details, Other
Deaths, 6A
Crocker and Leidner each
won re-election to new terms
during voting that day.
"I want to express my
gratitude toward the City
Council and the officers who
made all " this possible,"
Spradlin said during the cer-
emony.
Whatever the cost of the
new headquarters, it ought to
send a strong message to
drug dealers and other traf-
fickersin illegal substances,
including the "mules" who
usually get caught transport-
ing drugs since the facility
will be built entirely with
money seized during drug
arrests within, th¢!ayear,
Spradlin assured the iincil
in making his original pitch
• for the building.
In the last year alone the
city seized $1.3 million in cash
and four automobiles in con-
nection with drug arrests
See GROUND, Page 2A
By Clint Claybrook
LONG LINE - Current and two former City Council members lined up to turn a little dirt at a ground-breaking ceremo-
ny on Lincoln Street on Monday, where the new home of the Hogansville Police Department will be located. City coun-
cilwoman Jean Crocker and Police Chief Guy Spradlin anchored the line.
Convenience Store, Game Room Approved
because council members had con-
cerns about whether there was suf-
ficientroomfor parking.
The Planning Commission final-
ly recommended against the pro-
posed rezoning, because the owner
of the property still wanted to include
both a game room and a pool hall.
But the City Council approved the
rezoning after Councilman Jimmy
Jackson said the owners of the prop-
erty had arranged for additional park-
ing behind the building which will
house the Convenience store and
game room.
No pool room will be permitted,
the council noted.
The council, on a unanimous vote,
By CLINT CLAYBROOK . OK'.d the zoning change from R-2 to
C-1, which will clear the way for the
A new convenience store may be convenience store that will also
in the offing for Hogansville after the include a game room, members decid-
City Council on Monday night ed.
approved the rezoning necessary to For several weeks, the decision
allow for locating the business at 505 was on hold and it eventually was sent
West Main Street. back to the Planning Commission
200 Gather
To Honor
Veterans
By CLINT CLAYBROOK
Some Hogansville t-
erans were pleased that
the crowd at the Nov. 11
Veterans Day celebration
in their town reportedly
drew as many people as did
the one in LaGrange. The
crowd was estimated by
veterans at the
Hogansville ceremony at
200, almost exactly the
number reported at the
LaGrange event.
City Councilman Jack #,, By Cllnt Claybrmk
Leidner, himself a retire II VETERANS - Some of the World War II veterans who'now live in Hogansville
soldier, was the featurei and who were paid special tribute at the Nov. 11 Veterans Day Ceremony.
speaker in Hogansville. -'
Flag Bank, just across
the street from Calvin
Hipp Park, where the
Hogansville ceremony
was held served up
refreshments to the veter-
ans and others in atten-
dance.
For the first time ever,
according to long-time
Hogansville resident
Frances Robinson- also the
local correspondent for
The Hoganville Home
See VETERANS, Page 2A
HONOR GUARD - HogansvUle Police
Chief Guy Spradlin, at left, and officers
John Starnes, Kenny Knox and Tommy
Hatcher made up the Honor Guard.
By Clint Claylxook
HOSTESSES - Flag Bank employees treat-
ed the Veterans Day crowd in Hogansville to
refreshments.
No Store Penalty, Despite
2nd Alcohol,Sale to Minor
By CMNT CLAYBROOK
The Piggly Wiggly here
on Highway 29 won't be
penalized even though the
store's second employee this
year has been caught selling
alcohol to a minor, the
Hogansvilie City Council
decided at a Monday night
meeting.
The council agreed to
give the store a "pass" even
though the city's Alcohol
Review Committee had rec-
ommended forcing the store
to suspend its sale of beer and
wine for seven days.
That recommendation
came after an under-aged
undercover agent for the
Hogansville Police
Department was recently
sold a 12-pack of Budweiser
Beer by one of the store's
cashiers, according to Police
Chief Guy Spradlin.
IT WAS the second time
a cashier had been caught
making sales to minors this
year.
Both of those cashiers
have been fired, the store
manager told the City Council
at recent meeting.
The council delayed
action on the alcohol com-
mittee's recommendation at
its Nov. 3 meeting in order to
allow more study of the situ-
ation.
And on Monday night, the
council unanimously agreed
with Mayor Wilson St. Clair's
recommendation that no
penalty be imposed on the
store's owner or management
this time, which came with a
warning that future sales to
minors will could mean
severe penalties.
EXACTLY WHAT those
penalties will, be is yet
unclear: The council
instructed the police chief
and City Attorney Dan Lee to
get together and come up
with a suggested suspension
policy for dealing with firms
and their owners/managers
when sales of alcoholic bev-
erages to minors are found
in Hogansville stores.
Lee said Monday nigh
that a store's license to sell
alcoholic beverages could be
revoked for repeated offens-
es and fines imposed, but said
the penalty for sales to
minors can be whatever the
City Council feels is appro-
priate "as long a it is applied
fairly." "
Councilman Charlie F.
Martin won the original delay
See NO PENALTY, Page 2A
