Perry Mayor and Council honors firefighters for Soho Inn rescue

On Tuesday, June 15 Perry Mayor and Council held its monthly pre-council and council meetings at 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. respectively. Both these meetings were open to the public and citizens’ inputs.

Staring the pre-council, Mayor Randall Walker and council members discussed the agenda of the council meeting. Special Events Coordinator Anya Turpin started with discussing the Juneteenth Freedom Day festival. On Saturday June 19, Perry will be hosting its first Juneteenth event at the Perry Event Center. Turpin explained that this event is to celebrate the emancipation of those who had been enslaved in the United States. Turpin requested the approval of the event and approval of the budgetary. The required fee is $1,500. Mayor and council approved of the event being held at the Perry Event Center.

Following, was Community Development Director Bryan Wood speaking on the city’s request to modify the land management ordinances sections. The specific zoning applications being modified are those for: official zoning maps amendments, annexation and zoning of land, de-annexation of land, amendments to the text of the ordinance, planned unit developments, special exceptions and variances and appeals of administrative decisions.

Continuing in the pre-council Perry City Manager Lee Gilmour came with the approval of memorandum of agreement between Middle Georgia Regional Commission and the City of Perry relative to sign inventory. The recommended budget session #1 was for police, leisure services and public workers. All the funds consisted of general, hotel/motel and stormwater funds.

Shortly after, at 6:00 p.m. Mayor Walker called to order the council meeting. Starting off the meeting was the induction of Perry’s newest firefighter, Corey Gaston. Chief Lee Parker presented Gaston as a 2015 graduate of Houston County High School and shortly after started volunteering with the fire department.

“In 2017 he started full time in Houston County and moved on to Perry’s fire department earlier this year,” the fire chief said.

Parker then moved forward to give away the Life Save Award to 12 firefighters. Parker said, “Hollywood sometimes glorifies and tries to make a fire look easy, but it’s not. It’s a very tough job to handle.” Parker went on to say, “According to the U.S. Fire Administration, as of January 1, there have been 1,215 civilian home fire fatalities in the United States.” He additionally stated that 57 of those were right here in Georgia.

On June 2, 2021, at 2:21 a.m. the fire department got a call that some possible victims may have been trapped in room 36 of a local motel. The door was blocked with a number of victims inside and three minutes after the dispatch the police department started arriving. The firefighters and police got the job done in a timely and selfless manner.

Those being honored for the heroic rescue operation are listed as follows: Captain Michael Paull, Sergeant Clint Mixon, Sergeant Austin Redmond, and Fire Fighters Austin Williams, Samuel Ansley, Shawn Jenson, Nadad Jeanjulien, Andrew Rowell, Vince Walls, Josh Kelley, Dave Minter, and Kadie Peterman.

Mayor Walker and Chief Parker presented the 12 firefighters with their awards.

Next in the council meeting was Wood presenting on land management ordinance sections, 2-2.1 to 2-2.7. Gilmour then presented mayor and council with Middle Georgia Regional commission and City of Perry to sign inventory. With this, they want to upgrade the street signage and load that into the electric database. The motion was approved to move forward by mayor and council. Shortly after this approval, the meeting was adjourned.

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