CMYK MPMC earns CARF accreditation Business & Local, Page 5A
Americans open homes to Haitians Crisis in haiti, Page 11A
U.S. Marines’ Iraq command over World, Page 12A
The art of living in only one room
Duke and Clemson face off
Vintage snowflakes
Sports, Page 1B
Real Estate, Page 1D
Showcase, Page 1C
SUNDAY, January 24, 2010
Volume XCVI, No. 20
(252) 436-2700
City seeking $325K in funds
www.hendersondispatch.com
$1.25
Connecting the dots
By WILLIAM F. WEST Daily Dispatch Writer
Henderson city officials are seeking more than $325,000 in federal and state funding for energy conservation in buildings, for stronger law enforcement and for improved outdoor recreational grounds east of the city. The largest amount being sought is $200,000 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to reduce utility costs at the municipal operations and service center at 900 S. Beckford Drive. The city wants to replace the lighting and nine heating, ventilation and air conditioning units that are more than 20 years old. The city also wants to both Daily Dispatch/Al Wheless
Please see FUNDS, page 3A
Index Our Hometown . . . . . 2A Business . . . . . . . . . . 5A Opinion . . . . . . . . . . 10A Sports. . . . . . . . . . 1-6B Celebrate. . . . . . . . 2-4C Books & Leisure . . . . 5C Light side. . . . . . . . 6-7C A to Z Kids. . . . . . . . . 8C Classifieds. . . . . . . 2-5D
Weather Today Showers High: 60 Low: 51
Monday Some rain High: 60 Low: 35
Details, 3A
Deaths Henderson Sarah T. Pugh, 78 Vinso Small, 68 Oxford Kimberly B. Miller, 43 Kirk D. Wright Jr. Durham William Smith, 54 Stem Mary S. Bowling, 84 Warrenton Marie S. Buell, 77
Obituaries, 4A
Crime Analyst Kevin Buster looks at a Henderson Police Department map showing the prolific rash of daylight residential break-ins that occurred all over the city between June 1 and Aug. 31 in 2009.
Analyzing crime a perfect fit for Buster By AL WHELESS Daily Dispatch Writer
As far as occupations go, Kevin Buster thinks he might have found his niche. The 38-year-old crime analyst and records section supervisor for the Henderson Police Department has the job of taking the chaos out of incoming facts. The most reliable of those — according to the South Boston, Va., native who was part of a police task force against organized crime in Europe a few years back — are supplied by the Henderson officers who fill out incident reports. Some are provided by anonymous tipsters who call Crime Stoppers in hopes of getting cash rewards. Buster has the responsibility of organizing the bits and pieces into tell-tale patterns and other clear information pictures that Uniform Patrol officers, detectives, members of the proactive Power Shift and others can use to devise their own plans, tactics and strategies to prevent and halt crimes. “Who am I to tell them how to tackle
“You never want to see a crime and say ‘So-and-so did it.’ You never want to make assumptions. You want to utilize (and analyze) the evidence and data available.”
Kevin Buster
their problem?,” Buster asked Friday during an interview. “They may have sources of information I’m not privy to.” One of the first things Buster got involved in when he joined the police force in August of 2008 was a series of front-window break-ins and subsequent merchandise-larcenies at most of the rent-to-buy businesses across the city.
The first two had occurred that February. By the time the last one took place in the fall of the same year, there had been more than half a dozen. Apparently all of the crimes had been committed by the same theft ring, according to Buster. He was able to put together data that allowed police to converge on a break-in in progress at the former Kelly Rentals store on Prosperity Drive. The crooks managed to escape, Buster said, but they sped away in a vehicle that normally would have been loaded with flat-screen television sets and other electronic equipment. There were no other similar incidents after that, Buster said. “By the end of the year, it was over.” Besides bringing all of its divisions to bear on the smash-and-grab crimes, he explained, the Henderson Police Department shared information with the Oxford Police Department which had been working on at least one similar case. Since then, in a different group of Please see BUSTER, page 3A
Henderson plant target of Clean Air Act settlement By DISPATCH STAFF
WASHINGTON — The United States recently filed a Clean Air Act settlement to reduce air emissions from container glass plants throughout the country, including a plant in Henderson, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance said in a press release. The settlement covers 15 U.S. plants owned by Saint-Gobain Containers, Inc., the nation’s second largest container glass manufac-
turer. Saint-Gobain Containers, Inc. of Muncie, Ind., has agreed to install pollution control equipment at an estimated cost of $112 million to reduce emissions of NOx, SO2, and PM by approximately 6,000 tons each year. The settlement covers 15 plants in 13 states, including a facility at 620 Facet Road in Henderson. This is the federal government’s first nationwide Clean Air Act settlement with a glass manufacturer that covers all of a company’s plants. The states of Illinois, Indi-
ana, Louisiana, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wisconsin, as well as the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency and the San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District, joined in the settlement. In addition, as part of the settlement, Saint-Gobain has agreed to pay a $2.25 million civil penalty to resolve its alleged violations of the Clean Air Act’s new source review regulations. In the complaint filed concur-
rently with Thursday’s settlement, the federal government and the 10 state and two local governments alleged that the company constructed new glass furnaces or modified existing ones over the course of two decades without first obtaining pre-construction permits and installing required pollution control equipment. The alleged violations were discovered after an EPA investigation that included inspections, file reviews, information requests, and the review and analysis of data obtained from the company.