CMYK Chief: Police, sheriff working together
Violence videos spur bad politics
Rams claim Classic again
Public Records, Page 7A
Opinion, Page 8A
Sports, Page 1B THURSDAY, October 1, 2009
Volume XCV, No. 230
(252) 436-2700
www.hendersondispatch.com
Two drivers charged in three-vehicle, rear-end accident
Chamber’s Edwards at helm as group allots $2 million
By AL WHELESS Daily Dispatch Writer
Contact the writer at awheless@hendersondispatch.com.
Index Our Hometown . . . . . 2A Business & Farm. . . . 5A Public Records . . . . . 7A Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . 8A Light Side . . . . . . . . . 9A Sports. . . . . . . . . . 1-4B Comics . . . . . . . . . . . 5B Classifieds. . . . . . . 6-8B
Weather Today Sunshine High: 76 Low: 48
By AL WHELESS Daily Dispatch Writer
Submitted photo
The Little German Band and Dancers from Raleigh will perform on Saturday, Nov. 7, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for Henderson’s first Oktoberfest, organized by the Henderson-Vance Downtown Development Commission.
Oktoberfest a first for city Henderson-Vance DDC staging the Nov. 7 event Oktoberfest is coming to Henderson. The Henderson-Vance Downtown Development Commission is staging Henderson’s first Oktoberfest with performances by the Little German Band and Dancers on Saturday, Nov. 7, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. downtown. The DDC is also inviting food vendors, arts and crafts vendors and businesses to participate in the festival. Children’s games, including a moonwalk, an obstacle course and a slide, will be featured, too. “We are tremendously excited about the first Oktoberfest in downtown Henderson,” said Jason Stewardson, chairman of the board of directors for the DDC. “We hope to continue this event year after year along with other celebrations in the downtown area.”
Director says program’s reputation undeserved By WILLIAM F. WEST Daily Dispatch Writer
Deaths
Rupert L. Pearce, 77 Asheboro Lecter D. Jones, 93 Henderson Walter Green, 69 Laura S. Hayes, 90 John E. Perry, 69 Oxford Gertrude H. Daniel Vaughan Alva D. Endecott, 83 Warrenton William Richardson, 73 Alphonso Twisdale, 74
Traditional Oktoberfest celebrations are held anytime from mid-September through the first week in November, usually marking the end of the harvest and the preparation for winter, according to Phil Lakernick, director of the DDC and Henderson’s Main Street manager. A 16-day Oktoberfest festival held in Munich each fall is considered the world’s largest fair. The Little German Band and Dancers, composed of 80 fully-costumed musicians and dancers, have traveled the world since their start in 1971 in Raleigh, having fun while promoting Bavarian and German songs and dances. The group has made six trips to Europe with performances in Munich, Germany and in Austria, Switzerland, Spain and Belgium. They have performed
in more than 13 states in the United States. “Oktoberfest will be full of excitement for friends and family alike,” Stewardson said. “There will be a multitude of vendors involved for all sorts of food and beverages, along with The Little German Band providing the entertainment.” For an Oktoberfest such as the one scheduled for Henderson, anywhere from 24 to 48 members will perform in the Little German Band and Dancers. Harris Inc. and Ahner Security are the platinum sponsors for Oktoberfest. Additional sponsorships are available. The original “Oktoberfest” occurred just shy of 200 years ago — Oct. 18, 1810 — in Munich Please see OKTOBERFEST, page 3A
Half of Vance Section 8 housing in city
Section 8 housing has gotten a bad reputation. Friday Those were the words of Sharon Sneed, of Franklin-Vance-Warren Opportunity, to the City Council Nice in an informational talk about the High: 80 Low: 63 Section 8 program at a council work session on Monday. Sneed directs the Section 8 Details, 3A program in Vance and Warren counties for the anti-poverty agency. Section 8 offers monthly Alert
50 cents
Leader for LEAF panel
Injuries minor in collision
One driver received minor injuries Wednesday morning in a three-vehicle, rear-end, chain-collision on U.S. 158 Business at Horseshoe Bend Road, according to the North Carolina Highway Patrol. Trooper D.S. Smith said Adelmar Vondell Jackson, 26, of Owens Street was taken to Maria Parham Medical Center for treatment. Jackson was released from the hospital later in the day. The west-bound accident occurred at 7:40 a.m., Smith said, when a fourth, unidentified vehicle made a leftturn from the same lane onto Horseshoe Bend Road. Stopped in succession behind the fourth vehicle were a 2005 Camry driven by George Harris Cooper of Fern Lane and a Mercury SUV operated by Jackson. Smith said the chainreaction made a “sandwich” with the Mercury in the middle when it was struck in the rear by a Ford Explorer driven by Tiffany Rebecca Ayscue, 27, of Cypress Drive. Ayscue was charged with failure to maintain a safe speed. Jackson was charged with driving on a revoked license.
assistance to renters in the form of subsidies based on income levels and family sizes. Sneed said payment standards are governed by a cap on the rent range, with the majority of the assistance being in Vance County because of lower costs to house a family than in Franklin County, which borders Wake County and is in the path of Raleigh sprawl. A one-bedroom voucher in Vance County is at a rate of $479 compared to a rate of $715 in Franklin County, Sneed said, to the astonishment of council members. “Right now we administer 579 vouchers,” Sneed said, estimating the number in Vance County
being approximately 280. Sneed estimated approximately half of the 280 are in Henderson. “We have families that want to move here,” Sneed said. “We have families that want to move away from here, but it’s not like Vance County is a dumping ground. And I think that’s the misconception that the public has.” Sneed said she has 615 applicants on a new waiting list. Section 8 has a portability feature in which a tenant can carry a voucher anywhere in the nation. And Sneed said the federal government requires background checks of applicants to see Please see SECTION 8, page 3A
Vance water district a $22.6 million venture By AL WHELESS Daily Dispatch Writer
Potential totals of 3,448 customers and costs of $22,619,000 describe Vance’s intended, rural water district which has four phases. County Manager Jerry Ayscue said Wednesday that the money figure includes adjusted costs based on Obituaries, 4A today’s construction-cost averages across the State. It does not include other costs such as legal services and fees for selling bonds. Broken down, the futuristic statistics include: • Phase 1A — 1,275 customers
and $7,983,000. It includes Cokesbury and Aycock. • Phase 1B — 725 customers and $4,816,000. The area covered is Kittrell. • Phase 2A — 565 customers and $3,880,000. Coverage includes Dabney and the southern part of Williamsboro. • Phase 2B — 883 customers and $5,940,000. Communities involved are Townsville and the northern part of Williamsboro. As planned, the total project will have 167 miles of water lines ranging in size from six inches to 12 inches. The $27 million bond issue need-
ed to finance sending water through kitchen and bathroom faucets narrowly floated on May 6 in 2000 when the measure received support from 51.75 percent of the vote cast in a referendum. Construction would start Feb. 1 of 2010 under a proposed progress timeline that the Board of Commissioners is expected to receive at the regular meeting on Oct. 5 from its Planning and Environmental Committee. The members are Chairman Dan Brummitt, Terry Garrison and Danny Wright. Contact the writer at awheless@hendersondispatch.com.
Darwin’s “Survival Of The Fittest” principles will be applied fiscally by members of a review panel before submitting their scores by 5 p.m. Monday on project applications for Golden LEAF Foundation grants totaling $2 million. Twenty of the 21 people on the selection committee who met Wednesday night in the Civic Center at Vance-Granville Community College chose Bill Edwards, president of the Henderson-Vance Chamber of Commerce, as their chairperson. Margaret Ellis, vice-chairwoman of the Vance County Board of Education, then told him: “All of us at this table love you, but you know you aren’t going to be liked.” Before they adjourned after two hours, they agreed to meet again Wednesday at 6 p.m. to continue their deliberations. A time-line calls for the members to make their final choices by the end of October or early November. Pat Cabe — vice-president of Programs/Community Assistance And Outreach with the foundation — told the committee that when all is said and done, “Nobody is going to be happy. At some point in this process, everybody will be unhappy.” She was referring to the dilemma of having to reduce the total request for roughly $10 million in grants by 80 percent. Cabe required all of the panel’s members to sign a document entitled: “Acknowledgement And Agreement With Regard To Conflicts Of Interest.” She charged the members not to vote for any project in which they have a direct financial interest. Which prompted one of them to ask “Would you define ‘direct’?” There was a consensus within the group that the projects finally chosen need to meet the foundation’s criteria which includes: • Direct relation of the project to the key issue area and the priority objective. • The project’s potential to impact the most citizens. • The applicant’s ability/capacity to achieve desired objectives. • Sustainability of the project. • Partner support and participation. • Leveraging of new or existing resources. • Eligibility of the applicant. • Project resources must be used for eligible activities. Cabe announced that the 22nd applicant was eliminated from the competition because it was not a non-profit organization. She said either that status or being a government entity is required to stay in the running. The disqualified applicant was identified as DOChousing. Its proposal was the Community Design Resource Center, which required $285,009 in Golden LEAF funding, and had a total project cost of $308,559. When he took over running the meeting, Edwards wrote on a large flip-pad five points regarding the selection process that he thought would meet the group’s Please see LEAF, page 3A