CMYK
Happy New year
Security asleep on the terrorist watch
Dispatch names All-area soccer team
Relish magazine — Inside Today
Opinion, Page 6A
Sports, Page 1B
Celebrating America’s Love of Food FRIDAY, January 1, 2010
Volume XCVI, No. 1
(252) 436-2700
www.hendersondispatch.com
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Hospital ends limits on visiting
Charter school needs permit to locate
Swine flu concern forced restrictions
The Zoning Board of Adjustment will be hearing a request Tuesday for a special use permit by the future Henderson Collegiate Charter School to locate at a temporary site at the southwest corner of County Home Road and Health Center Road. The nearly two-acre site, which is zoned office-institutional, is on property belonging to Vance
By DISPATCH STAFF
Temporary visitation restrictions at Maria Parham Medical Center because of the H1N1 flu have been lifted, the hospital announced Thursday. Effective Monday, the facility returns to its regular visitation policy. Restrictions had been in place since last October. However, in its announcement, the hospital said that the seasonal flu and the H1N1 flu are still major health concerns. “Even with the lifting of the restrictions, we still ask anyone who may be sick or have flu-like symptoms not to visit patients in the hospital,” says David Ruggles, Director of Marketing and Community Relations at Maria Parham. “We need every-
Henderson Collegiate to request OK for temporary site off County Home Road By WILLIAM F. WEST Daily Dispatch Writer
County. The property is southeast of the central business district, is adjacent to the Green-Bullock Assisted Living Center building and is adjacent to the Addiction Recovery Center for Men. The County Commission’s Property Committee on Dec. 17 recommended the full commission on Monday approve leasing the property. Terms call for the future school to pay the county $1 a year for three years. A charter school is publicly
funded, but operates under a private, nonprofit board rather than under the authority of the local board of education. Charter schools are allowed to operate under a locally tailored set of rules rather than the more rigid structure traditional public schools must follow. The other charter school in the county, Vance Charter, is at Henderson Mall off Dabney Drive. In other business Tuesday, the Zoning Board of Adjustment
will be considering requests for special use permits by: • Danny Finch and Phillip Hill to allow a sports bar/lounge at 419 Raleigh Road. The location, which previously was Alliance Supercenter, is in a highway commercial “A” zoning district. The location is across from the CocaCola bottling building. • Lynwood Brooks Sr. to allow an automobile repair facility at Please see CHARTER, page 8A
Downpours close two Granville bridges
Please see HOSPITAL, page 8A
Index Our Hometown . . . . . 2A Business & Farm. . . . 5A Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . 6A Light Side . . . . . . . . . 7A Sports. . . . . . . . . . 1-4B Comics . . . . . . . . . . . 5B Classifieds. . . . . . . 6-8B
Weather Today Mostly cloudy
High: 47 Low: 23
Daily Dispatch/WILLIAM F. WEST
Saturday
Water-logged spans are in northern section of county
Mostly sunny
High: 35 Low: 18
Details, 3A
Deaths Butner Brittany R. Oakley, 19 Creedmoor Lester D. Wooten, 52 Henderson Ola M. Brame, 83 Rena B. Mayo, 68 Shirley W. Ragland, 70 Barbara A. Terry, 45 Manson John Russell, 70 Oxford James P. Gill Spring Hope Bobbie E. Rogers, 66 Warrenton Roger Arrington, 81 Carl Bullock, 67
Obituaries, 4A
The downpours of rain have caused the closures of two Harry Davis Road bridges over the John H. Kerr Reservoir in northern Granville County. The worst impact is on the bridge near Pittard Road, the Grassy Creek Recreation Area and the North Carolina-Virginia line, right. A motorist Thursday afternoon managed to drive his truck across the flooded, but shorter bridge near Tilley Road.
Smoking, animal shelter, ethics rules for N.C. New laws take effect as New Year begins By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press Writer
RALEIGH — A smoldering cigarette butt in a trash can sparked a fraternity fire that killed five students at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1996, and smoking materials may have caused a 2007 Brunswick County beach house fire that killed seven South Carolina college students. Fire safety officials believe legislation taking effect today requiring tobacco companies to sell “fire-safe” cigarettes in North Carolina will lead to fewer smoking-related fire fatalities, serious
burns and property damage. North Carolina’s law, passed in 2007, is one of more than 30 laws taking effect with the new year. People shouldn’t have to suffer because someone was careless with a cigarette, said Ernest Grant with the North Carolina Jaycee Burn Center at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, which receives as many as 150 patients annually with injuries related to
unattended cigarettes. “The whole purpose of this legislation is not to tell people you can’t smoke but if you are smoking there’s a safer way to do it,” Grant said. The most high-profile change will begin Saturday when a ban on smoking in the state’s restaurants and bars will take effect. Smokers could face $50 fines Please see LAWS, page 3A