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Formerly The Hogansville Herald
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60, NO. 52 HOGANSVILLE, GEORGIA- THURSDAY, DEC. 25, 2003 12 PAGES • 1 SECTION .50¢
' CLINT CLAYBROOK
Work should begin in February
Hogansville's approximately
streetscape project, sev-
months later than originally
when the City Council
roved the proposed project in
Work Expected to Start in February
June.
The work is aimed at making
major improvements to the down-
town area, including rebuilding
sidewalks on Main Street, adding
new, more decorative street light-
ing and building some 5,000 feet of
new sidewalks on Highway 29
between the Piggly Wiggly and the
Dairy Queen
Councilman Jack Leidner said
at the Dec. 1S City Council meeting
that the delay was caused by some
changes to the plan that were
required by an engineer for the state
Department of Transportation
before DOT would put its official
stamp of approval on the project.
Leidner said that the project
should be put out to bids in January
and that work could start in
February.
Previously, the city was told that
the work on Main Street will be done
in 500-foot increments, in an effort
to minimize the disruption of down-
town businesses.
Plans were first sent to the DOT
about mid-summer.
The $350,000 will come from
federal highway enhancement
funds via a grant through the state
DOT.
Thanks for 30 Years!
Renamed
Plant Honors
Ronald Hill
By CLINT CLAYBROOK
Ronald Hill, who spent
about 30 years of his life
working at the water treat-
ment plant in Hogansville,
may never see his name
go up in lights, • but he will
soon see his name go up on
the plant: It's being
renamed in his honor.
Hill, who was felled by
a massive stroke on Aug.
30, 2002, is recuperating
and still getting stronger
at the home on Hines Road
in the Louise community
that he shares with his wife
17-year-old daughter,
Jenna.
' His injuries, were so
severe that Hill was
retired soon after that
awful day that hit him
"with no warning whatso-
ever." He battled for a cou-
ple of weeks at West
Georgia Hospital, and was
then shipped to the Warm
Spring Rehabilitation
Center, where he spent the
next six weeks.
Today, he gets around
with a walker, but still
struggles to make his left
arm and hand work prop-
erly.
Hill didn't hear until
this week that the
See HILL, Page 2A
By Clint Claybrook
FAMILY TOGETHER AGAIN - Ronald Hill with daughter Jenna, 17, and son Caleb,
7, around the family Christmas tree at their home on Hines Road. The family was sep-
arated almost three months while Hill recovered from a stroke in 2002.
I 'New' Panel
Gets Ready
For Work
Pike Ready to Take Seat
At Next Council Session
By CLINT CLAYBROOK
A new Hogansville City
Council member will take his
seat on the city's governing
body at first meeting in
January CW b council
membeI/ho Won re-elec-
tion in t].lXIoaber city
eleCti l'a] start their
new tours of duty then.
The new Post 5 council
member is Thomas Pike, a
retired contractor who
served several years back at
different times on both the
Hogansvile City Council and
the Troup County
Commission.
Pike won his term by out-
polling incumbent Jimmy
Jackson 311 to 266 in that two-
man race.
Post 3 Councilwoman
Jean Crocker won her new
term with 303 votes to the 226
cast for Louise Phillips
Harden ahd the S1 cast for
challenger Beverly Weeks.
Post 4 Councilman Jack
Leidner won his first full
council term by defeating
Theresa Sti-ickland, who had
230 votes and Randy Harris,
a plann.ing
commission
member, who
received 98
votes.
Jackson
was seeking
• his third term
on the council;
Pike the chal-
lengers , to
Crocker and Leidner were all
seeking elective office for the
first time in Hogansville.
Pike, Leidner and
Crocker were apparently all
helped to their victories by
an intensive telephone cam-
paign in Hogansville the
weekend before the Nov. 4
election.
All three "new" council
members will be sworn in at
the council meeting on Jan.
5, when the council's meet-
ing time moves to 5:30 p.m.
The council approved
changing from its "regular"
7 p.m. meeting time on the
first and third Mondays a few
weeks back, in a concession
to winter, saying the 7 p.m.
meeting time will likely be*
reinstated in the spring.
City to Get
Traffic Light
CUNT CLAYBROOK.
Hogansville, at the
for the last sev-
years a one-traffic light
has outgrown that sta-
because of so much traf-
on Highway 54 coming
town and other traf-
on Bass Road, which cir-
south of town and ties
into Highway 29
Hogansville and
Contractors working for
state Department of
ortation are nearing
of several weeks
at that busy inter-
which included about
of a mile of inter-
improvements and
of signal lights to
control the flow of traf-
and west on Highway
and
from Bass Road at
intersection.
The only other traffic
in town is at Highway
near
Once the new traffic sfg-
turned on - they're
but haven't yet
will be
left turn signals for traffic
heading south on Bass Road,
west from Bass Road onto
Highway 54 and for traffic
turning into the mall on the
north side of that busy high-
way that is home to the Ingles
Supermarket and other busi-
nesses.
On the. south side of
Highway 54 are the Money
Back Store, Rogers Bar B
Que and others shops and
businesses, including the
International Cafe and the
Waffle House.
Cost of improvements is
expected to total $136,285.
Terry Jackson and
Associates won the contract
and is doing the work.
Construction began on
Oct. 14 and May 31, 2004 is
the target date for comple-
tion, a spokesman for the
state Department of
Transportation said.
"Troup County officials
requested that a study be
made at this intersection to
determine whether or not the
traffic volumes warranted a
signal" and the study indicat-
ed that the new traffic lights
- See TRAFRC, Page 2A
: DEATHS
!%
• Ford Hogan, 86, of
Hogansville, died
Saturday, Dec: 20. He
was retired from the
Hillside Division of
Milliken and Company
and attended Faith
Harbor Apostolic Church
in LaGrange.
• Deaths, 5A
$10 Bill 'Didn't Feel Right,'
Alert Cashier Tells Police
BY CLINT CLAYBROOK
Maybe it was recent news
stories about the new $20 dol-
lar bills that made a
Hogansville McDonald's
employee suspicious of a $10
bill that "didn't feel right"
when a customer trmd to pay
at the fast food restaurant's
drive through window with
it.
At any rate, Mary White,
the McDonald's employee
who 'rejected the bill that "had
some bla,ck marks on it" as
though somebody else had
marked it:, rejected the bill
again whe,n the woman try-
ing to use ,it came back a lit-
See $10 BILL, Page 2A
By CIInt' Claybrook
• SUBDIVISION WORK -" Workers were squeezing in all the hours they could earlier this week at Shallow Creek: subdi-
vision, while the good weather held in Hogansville. One of the developers said he hopes to see houses in this, one of
three subdivisions under development in Hogansville, rising out of the ground sometime in January. The subdivision is
located on Highway 29 South, near th e city limits. ....
