CMYK FGV Partnership for Children changes name, offers same services Our Hometown, Page 2A
Governor Perdue to sign $19 billion budget after some changes From Page one, Page 3A
Local ‘soulful hip-hop’ artist working on second album Local & State, Page 7A
Official: Arena football’s folding ‘inevitable’ after 22 years Sports, Page 1B
Good Taste, Page 1C
WEDNESDAY, August 5, 2009
Volume XCV, No. 181
(252) 436-2700
www.hendersondispatch.com
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Rezoning bid fails to win planning OK Daily Dispatch/ASHLEY STEVEN AYSCUE
Lt. Irvin Robinson directs traffic around an accident scene at the intersection of Dabney Drive and Exchange Street Monday afternoon. The vehicle at right was transporting a gunshot victim to the hospital.
Gunshot victim in wreck on way to hospital W. Spring Street in reference to someone being shot. Investigators said Bowers was shot in the back with a handgun. At the accident scene, a bystander in another vehicle took Bowers to the hospital for treatment. The Uniform Patrol Division investigated the head-on collision. Its report listed Essecen Wykia Gill, 28, of 204 Fairway Drive in Oxford as the driver of the 2000 Ford that was carrying Bowers to Maria Parham before the wreck occurred. Damage to the Ford was estimat-
By AL WHELESS Daily Dispatch Writer
Detectives are investigating the shooting of a man who was then transported from the 500 block of W. Spring Street Monday afternoon in one of two cars that wrecked at Dabney and Prosperity drives. Henderson Police reported that the victim — Albert Bowers, 21, of Plum Nutty Road — was already enroute to Maria Parham Medical Center when officers were dispatched shortly before 3 p.m. to 548
ed at $3,000. The other driver was identified as Charlie Lee Harris, 60, of 657 Daniel St. in Henderson. Damage to his 1992 Chevrolet was estimated at $3,000. According to police, the Chevrolet was turning onto Dabney Drive from Exchange Street. The Ford was traveling straight on Dabney Drive, and did not come to a halt at the stop light. Contact the writer at awheless@hendersondispatch.com.
Council to decide if property can be used for bank By WILLIAM F. WEST Daily Dispatch Writer
A woman’s request to rezone her family’s deteriorating, empty residential property at the corner of Parker Lane and Dabney Drive to allow for a future bank will go to the Henderson City Council with a 4-1 recommendation of denial by the Planning Board. Diana Moore Mann, executrix of the estate, on Monday afternoon said an unnamed financial institution would like to invest between $1.5 million-$2
million in the slightly more than two acre site, but Planning Board member Horace Bullock, who made the motion in favor of recommending the denial, cited concerns expressed moments earlier by residents about decreases in their property values. Residents moments earlier additionally cited concerns about increased traffic along an already busy Dabney Drive and at the already congested intersection of Dabney, Parker and Parham Street. Mann asked for the property to be rezoned from moderate-to-lowdensity residential to office and institutional. Mann and her husband, Stacy, were the only two persons to speak in favor of the proposed rezoning Please see REZONING, page 4A
Sign up, community meetings follow setting of water use rates Phase 1A of the rural water district can move into the sign up and community meeting phases as soon as customer rates are established, County Manager Jerry Ayscue told Vance Commissioners Monday night. He said discussions related to the project continue between County staff and engineers with the City of Henderson. They focus on coming up with arrangements for Vance to purchase water in bulk rates from the City and to contract with Henderson for operation and
maintenance of the system. Ayscue said the County continues to seek additional grant funds for Phase 1A and the remaining phases of the project. He also mentioned that USDA Rural Development has indicated the possible availability of funds for at least part of the remaining phases in the current federal fiscal year. In other business Monday night, the county manager told the board that the Warrenton Road sewer project was put out to bid after John Hamme, project engineer, completed the design work. The bids will be received and opened Aug. 20 at 2
Index
Weather
By AL WHELESS Daily Dispatch Writer
Today
Our Hometown . . . . . 2A Business & Farm. . . . 5A Public Records . . . . . 6A Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . 8A Light Side . . . . . . . . . 9A Sports. . . . . . . . . . 1-4B Comics . . . . . . . . . . . 2C Classifieds. . . . . . . 3-5C
T-storm High: 94 Low: 67
Thursday T-storm High: 92 Low: 70
Details, 3A
Deaths Henderson George C. Edwards Maria P. Faulkner, 83 Patsy T. Fort, 65 Mary P. Higgs, 78 Oxford Mary K. Davis, 86
Lois S. Vaughan, 86 Wise Milton S. Jones, 72 Warrenton Luther J. Kimball, 83
Obituaries, 4A
p.m. The commissioners will then be asked to award bids during their September meeting, which will be on the eighth, instead of on Labor Day. Ayscue said construction should be completed within 90 to 120 days after contracts are signed. Also Monday night, the board approved filling these position vacancies: • Social Worker IAT in Social Services’ Children’s Services Unit. • Income Maintenance Supervisor II in Social Services’ Adult Medicaid Unit. • A deputy in the Sheriff’s Office. Please see WATER, page 3A
Raise the tree?
Daily Dispatch/ASHLEY STEVEN AYSCUE
City workers weigh their options on how to take down a large branch that this Averitt Express tractor-trailer snagged while attempting to turn onto Granite Street from Chestnut Street Tuesday afternoon. Granite Street between Chestnut and Garnett Streets has a sign prohibiting oversized trucks, but a resident of Granite said that she has complained about oversized trucks traveling Granite for over three months but the City says it cannot enforce the restriction.
Historian Tyson agrees rebel statue is divisive By WILLIAM F. WEST Daily Dispatch Writer
OXFORD — Tim Tyson was among the latest to take to the speaker’s podium at a Granville County Commission meeting about the presence of the Confederate monument near the entrance of what will be an expanded and renovated Richard H. Thornton Library. Tyson Tyson, an author and a historian who teaches at both Duke University and UNC, agreed with the Rev. Curtis Gatewood’s argument moments earlier that the statue of the likeness of
Commission imposes three minute limit for speakers at meetings
the rebel soldier is a divisive symbol. And Tyson, a former Oxford resident who presently lives in Chapel Hill, on Monday evening offered the commissioners the following advice, based on what he used to hear from Ben Averett while working for Averett years ago on a farm in the county: “Just do it right the first time and you won’t have to do it again.” “I think it’s fine to celebrate the Confederacy if that’s what you hold dear. As a Southerner myself, I prefer biscuits and barbecue and our music to the lost cause,” Tyson said. “It doesn’t, though, make sense, I think, to use the marker of the Confederacy at the front door of the
OXFORD — Persons wanting to address the Granville County Commission in the future will have to do so realizing they will be timed. The seven-man panel on Monday evening unanimously approved rules regarding the public comment period of commission meetings. The major changes are that each speaker will be limited to three minutes at the podium and that the total public comment period will be held to a maximum of 30 minutes per commission meeting. The policy additionally states the following:
Please see STATUE, page 10A
Please see SPEAKERS, page 3A
By WILLIAM F. WEST Daily Dispatch Writer