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CMYK
Teens with power seeking grant applications for new projects
INSIDE
Can Northern Vance make another playoff run? Will Southern Vance’s returners push them to the top?
Complete team previews, photos and schedules: basketball/wrestling/swimming
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Our Hometown, Page 2A
1 out of 7 turkeys this thanksgiving is a North Carolinian
Terry’s time
Business & Farm, Page 5A
This is funny, you can trust us Opinion, Page 10A
The Word ... with a beat — Christian rappers Showcase, Page 1C UNC’s Deunta Williams hoists teammate Kendric Burney into the air following an interception for a touchdown in first half of win over Boston College.
Using trains as part of garden landscape a hit at holiday time Real Estate, Page 1D
Sports, 1B
winter 09/10
Winter Sports special
Inside Today
SUNDAY, November 22, 2009
Volume XCV, No. 274
(252) 436-2700
Extension gets new director
www.hendersondispatch.com
Oh! Christmas tree
Mary Helen Jones of Henderson has been named director of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Center in Vance County. She had served as interim director since February. Jones’ appointment as Vance Extension director was announced by Jon Ort, director of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service at Jones N.C. State University, and Jerry Ayscue, Vance County manager. It was effective Nov. 3. Jones succeeds Harold Thompson, who retired in 2008 after a 30-year Cooperative Extension career. The Daily Dispatch interviewed Jones as she was in the process of cleaning
Index Our Hometown . . . . . 2A Business & Farm. . . . 5A Opinion . . . . . . . . . . 10A Sports. . . . . . . . . . 1-5B Celebrate. . . . . . . . 2-4C Books & Leisure . . . . 5C Light Side . . . . . . . 6-7C A to Z Kids. . . . . . . . . 8C Classifieds. . . . . . . 3-5D
Weather
By WILLIAM F. WEST Daily Dispatch Writer
The City Council will have a work session on Monday evening that again includes considering privatizing the municipal sanitation service. This time, Assistant City Manager Frank Frazier and Public Works Director Linda Leyen are scheduled to recommend setting a public comment hearing to coincide with the Jan. 11 council meeting. Additional information will be made available at the work session, but Frazier and Leyen at previous sessions have recommended that the city change from the once-weekly picking up of garbage at residents’ back doors to a once-weekly picking up of garbage at curbside. And Frazier and Leyen recommend going with Waste Industries, which has offered to provide 95-gallon containers for garbage and 65-gallon containers for recyclables. The company would continue the city’s bi-weekly service of picking up recyclables at curbside. The city presently utilizes 18-gallon bins for recyclables, with the recyclables hauled by municipal crews to Sonoco, which is a professional recycling
Daily Dispatch/ASHLEY STEVEN AYSCUE
Campers from Camp E-Ten-Etu (above) help unload a trailer of trees Saturday morning at the Optimist Club Christmas tree lot on Dabney Drive. From left, Bruce Wrenn, Jon Dorsey and John Strickland maneuver a large tree to the back of the trailer. The lot opened Saturday, with prices ranging from $40 for seven-foot trees to $80 for 10-foot trees.
Today Rain ...
High: 51 Low: 46
Monday
Residents find little they like in closing eight railroad crossings By WILLIAM F. WEST Daily Dispatch Writer
... likely
High: 61 Low: 40
Details, 3A
Deaths Creedmoor Barbara D. Gregory, 68 Henderson Harold J. Choplin, 75 Rodney Kearney, 36 Lillian C. Satterwhite, 92 Oxford Thelma E. Almond, 85 James B. Husketh
Obituaries, 4A
The N.C. Department of Transportation got both an earful and written feedback about a proposal to eliminate eight railroad crossings. A group of citizens wants to keep the Harris Street crossing open on the northeast side, while another group of citizens wants to keep the St. Matthew’s Street crossing open on the south side. If the Harris Street crossing is done away with, then residents would have to use the Main Street crossing, which would mean driving on narrow pavement and past decrepit structures, Dale Ramsey told the Dispatch.
“It’s a lot of gang activity, drug activity,” Ramsey said, a reference to the David, Lamb and Main streets area. Ramsey lives on a farm to the east and said she uses the Harris crossing because other exits were blocked by the rail line and Bypass U.S. 1. “And we’re almost at the County Fire Department and they’re going to have to come down and go way back,” she said of losing the Harris crossing. Ramsey, when asked by the Dispatch whether she believes NCDOT will hear the concerns of those about losing the Harris crossing, replied, “Who knows?” But, Ramsey, with photographic printouts in hand, added, “They’re not
living over there. I mean, it’s not affecting them. The City Council is not going to listen because they’re not over there listening. If they were over there caring about the neighborhood, it wouldn’t look like this.” Dorothy B. Williams, who lives along Hawkins Drive down from the St. Matthew’s crossing, expressed similar concerns about the impact on access by emergency and rescue personnel. “If the Fire Department can’t get in there, we’re going to get burned up,” Williams said. Williams is 85 and has a neighbor who is past the mid-90s mark. And
$1.25
Council will pick up the garbage debate at Monday session Leaders likely to schedule January public hearing
By DAVID IRVINE Daily Dispatch Writer
Please see EXTENSION, page 3A
company in Raleigh. City Councilwoman Mary Emma Evans on Nov. 9 said she will not support privatization because she believes residents are satisfied with the municipal service and because she believes municipal sanitation workers would lose their jobs. Three residents, including local government watchdog Lewis Edwards, on Nov. 9 also • Related stated their stories, opposition to page 6A the proposed privatization. Edwards called for the municipal government to form a committee to investigate the possibility of Waste Management coming in and partnering with a west coast company, InEnTec, to use Henderson as a site to convert waste into energy. Waste Industries is offering to pick up household garbage and recyclables at curbside for a monthly base price of $8.94 compared to the municipal government’s current price of $9.91 for backdoor pickup of garbage and curbside pickup of recyclables. The price for the city to provide curbside service would increase to $13.46 by Fiscal Year 2014 because the city would have to replace aging trucks and acquire containers and additionally because of the labor and liability costs, Frazier and Leyen have said. Please see GARBAGE, page 4A
Organizational meeting for Granville Boys & Girls Club By WILLIAM F. WEST Daily Dispatch Writer
OXFORD — Granville County could be the latest addition to the list of Boys & Girls Clubs. An organizational meeting is set for 11 a.m. Tuesday at the Employment and Education Training Center, which is at 602 Raleigh St. and across from Oxford Housing Authority. “This is actually to go ahead and start the steering committee,” Cynthia Yancey said. Yancey, who works with the juvenile court and is the chief court counselor for the 9th District, said she and Housing Authority Executive Director Xavier Wortham have been working with the Boys & Girls Please see RAILROAD, page 6A Clubs of North Central
Yancey
Wortham
North Carolina organization, which is in Henderson. “We want to have a club in Granville County to work with the children after school to provide educational and tutoring experiences and also socialization skills for our young people,” Yancey said. Those from ages 6-18 would be served, Yancey said. Contact the writer at bwest@ hendersondispatch.com.