CMYK Crossroads boys/girls win
Our annual Year in Review
SEC expands charges against BofA
Sports, Page 1B
Inside
Business, Page 5A TUESDAY, January 12, 2010
Volume XCVI, No. 10
(252) 436-2700
www.hendersondispatch.com
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Joint funding, budget on tap Board names new school Council to discuss issues at retreat By WILLIAM F. WEST Daily Dispatch Writer
City Councilman Garry Daeke at Monday evening’s council meeting asked for and got two major items put up for discussion at the upcoming
council retreat: Joint funding and the annual budget. The next council work session is set for Jan. 25. The council retreat is set for Jan. 29 and Jan. 30. Daeke said that, based on tax revenues he has seen so
far, this year will be equally as tough financially as last year and recalled the council working hard last year to craft a frugal budget. “And my feeling is we’re going be here again this year trying to do the similar things of how to cut,” Deake said, noting he thinks the city makes cuts from the sense of what positions are unfilled to avoid
losing staff. When the council meets at the retreat, Daeke said, he wants an update from City Manager Ray Griffin in terms of where the city might be financially. Daeke said he also wants to talk about the city’s core services and what the city would need to provide for Please see RETREAT, page 8A
Straight from the horse’s mouth: Warmer weather coming soon
Daily Dispatch/ASHLEY STEVEN AYSCUE
A group of horses roam near a barn while wearing their winter coats on a farm off NC 39 north near Williamsboro Monday morning. After over a week of freezing weather, temperatures are expected to moderate later in the week. See page 3A for more details on this week’s weather.
Index Our Hometown . . . . . 2A Business & Farm. . . . 5A Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . 6A Light Side . . . . . . . . . 7A Sports. . . . . . . . . . 1-4B Comics . . . . . . . . . . . 5B Classifieds. . . . . . . 6-8B
Down, but not out Site of former Corbitt trucks still in use as warehouse space
Today
It’s Clarke Elementary School, with an “e.” The name for the somewhat faraway new facility that will soon replace Clark Street Elementary in Henderson became reality through a 5-2 vote on the Vance County Board of Education Monday night. The possibility arose when Mary I. Cobbs made the motion, and ViceChairwoman Gloria J. White came up with the second. Others who made up the majority were Ronald B. Kinsley, Emeron J. Cash and Chairwoman Margaret A. Ellis. The dissenters were Ruth M. Hartness and Robert L. Duke. They both said that the new location — at Rock Spring, Garrett and Mount Carmel Church roads — is nowhere near the old location of Clark Street School. Duke said the new elementary school shouldn’t bear the name of any individual. Hartness spoke in favor of “Southern Vance Elementary School,” because its namesake, Southern Vance High School, would be on the other side of Garrett Road. When Hartness said “I personally can’t support Clarke Elementary,” White countered with: “We have other schools where the name has nothing to do with the area.” At one point in the discussion, Hartness asked: “Why has the name offered by the committee — Clarke-Carmel — been dropped before we get here tonight?” Both Cobbs and Ellis said that the Please see SCHOOL, page 8A
By WILLIAM F. WEST Daily Dispatch Writer
Sunny
High: 39 Low: 19
Wednesday Sunny
High: 49 Low: 24
The rusty facade of this water tower and the front wall of the old army barracks are what drivers on Parham Street see when they pass the site of what used to be the Corbitt truck plant. A lot of the complex is leased out as warehouse space.
Details, 3A
Deaths Clayton
Obituaries, 4A
By AL WHELESS Daily Dispatch Writer
Water board behind schedule on draft of water transfer project
Weather
Herman L. Connell Henderson Julia L. Hansard Oxford Roy A. Rutledge Stem George W. Nicholson Jr. Townsville Doris C. Matthews
‘Clarke’ to grace new elementary facility
By AL WHELESS Daily Dispatch Writer
It has been more than half a century since the last Corbitt truck rumbled out of the plant that made Henderson a well-known name on battlegrounds in two world wars. These days, the site that includes other structures as well as the birth place of all kinds of vehicles from 1910 to 1952, shows a sad face to passing motorists on nearby Parham Street. Rocks thrown by vandals have made some of the small glass windows on a former army barracks resemble broken teeth. Above them, along the same wall, is spread-
ing rust. Not far away, the metallic disease has attacked a prominent water tower from top to bottom. Bill Stark is a share-holder in Corbittville Properties, which has owned the former manufacturing plant and other buildings on the site since the mid-1980s. He said as many as 30 tenants over the years have used various amounts of the warehouse space which totals 133,000 square feet. “We have tenants moving in and out all the time.” Only the front section is deteriorated, according to Stark. Instead of the Corbitt plant, he said, the Please see CORBITT, page 3A
The Kerr Lake Regional Water System Advisory Board will have to wait until March for a draft document of the proposed interbasin transfer to increase the capacity of the regional water plant to meet future demand. Christy Lipscomb, the regional water system plant’s manager, told the regional water system board Monday that the delay is because the system’s consultant, CH2M Hill, is waiting on additional data from a subcontractor. “So, we are about three weeks behind schedule,” Lipscomb said, noting she hopes to have a draft by the end of next month. At the request of Oxford Public Works Director Larry Thomas, a CH2M Hill representative will provide an update at the regional water system board’s March 8 meeting. The regional water system has been in the process of working toward obtaining state authorization to move massive amounts of water from one river basin to another so the system can increase the daily capacity of the plant to 20 million gallons. The expansion project is expected to cost $24-$25 million. The system’s partnership of Henderson, Oxford and Warren County is Please see WATER BOARD, page 3A