CMYK Paper products drive benefits ACTS Our Hometown, Page 2A
MPMC bond rating improves Finance, Page 5A
Remembering the roots of Christianity Opinion, Page 8A
Duke easily handles Gardner-Webb Good Taste, Page 1C
Evangelist Oral Roberts passes away in California at age 91.
Nation, Page 4A
Sports, Page 1B
WEDNESDAY, December 16, 2009
Volume XCV, No. 294
(252) 436-2700
New Heritage Book being published
www.hendersondispatch.com
Well, bless my ‘sole’!
By DAVID IRVINE Daily Dispatch Writer
Plans have been announced for a 2010 edition of the Vance County Heritage Book. The book committee, cochaired by Mark Pace and Judy Stainback, announced a deadline of March 15, 2010, for stories, photographs and book orders. The book, scheduled to be published by late 2010, will contain stories by and about people and families of Vance County. The committee invites submissions from: • Residents of Vance County, • Former residents of Vance County, and • People with roots in Vance County. Each household is encouraged to submit up to 500 words. For those whose ancestors came to Vance County before 1881, up to 1,000 words may be submitted. There will be a charge of 10 cents a word over those limits. Articles may deal with ancestors who lived in Vance County or the person or family submitting the material. Photographs may also be submitted. Please see BOOK, page 3A
Index Our Hometown . . 2A,7A Business . . . . . . . . . . 5A Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . 8A Light Side . . . . . . . . . 9A Sports. . . . . . . . . . 1-4B Food . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1C Comics . . . . . . . . . . . 2C Classifieds. . . . . . 3C-5C
Weather Today Sunny
High: 47 Low: 27
Thursday Sunny
High: 48 Low: 28
Details, 3A
Deaths Creedmoor Betty E. Moss David L. Wilkerson, 72 Henderson Margaret B. Greenway, 83 Louisburg Kevin T. Ayscue, 24 Oxford Elizabeth T. Evans, 79 Anice Fields, 53 Annie M. Lyons, 83
Obituaries, 4A
50 cents
Corps hears from lake enthusiasts By WILLIAM F. WEST Daily Dispatch Writer
Daily Dispatch/ASHLEY STEVEN AYSCUE
From left, Sgt. Shawn Spence, Sgt. David Diogo, Det. Marty Stewart and Lt. Marcus Barrow help load a pickup truck with confiscated shoes and socks for Chris Richardson and Mike Currin from the Masonic Home for Children in Oxford in the sally port at the Henderson Police Department Tuesday morning.
Seized shoes = gifts By AL WHELESS Daily Dispatch Writer
The sole purpose was to help the Jolly Old Elf bolster his distribution inventory. Stacked inside the Henderson Police Department’s sally port Tuesday morning were hundreds of seized knock-off shoes and boots. Worth thousands of dollars, they were ready to be presented to representatives of two agencies for distribution to needy children. Those representatives were Daycare Coordinator Tiffany Gray of the Vance County Department of Social Services and Assistant Administrator Chris Richardson and Athletic Director Mike Currin of the Masonic Home for Children in Oxford. “We have 848 children to serve,” Gray said. “They belong to more than 350 families.” Also on hand for the presentation was Assistant District Attorney Allison Capps, who had
assisted police in making the proposed event become a reality. The illegally manufactured and unauthorized merchandise that was on display included 158 pairs of shoes, 21 pairs of boots, 200 pairs of socks and several dozen hats. Detective S.R. Spence said the street value of the footwear ranged from $25 to $50 a pair. Over the last 18 months, he explained, the goods were confiscated from vehicles stopped on Interstate 85, from people selling the shoes out of their cars on city streets, and from some stores in Henderson. Spence said there were about six related criminal cases involving some of the merchandise that went through the court system in Vance County. At least three defendants were convicted as a result, Spence added. Send comments to awheless@hendersondispatch.com
Richard Snell said he came to the Army Corps of Engineers public scoping session about revising the master plan for the John H. Kerr Dam and Reservoir to find out about the potential impact on homes and properties. “We just want to make sure that what we have now doesn’t change too much or if it does that we have some say in what it changes to,” said Snell, who is from England and who retired after working in Goldsboro. Snell moved to Vance County to be next to the reservoir. Davis Snell said he is “fairly satisfied” with the way the reservoir is managed. “I think it’s a lovely lake and that the Corps of Engineers does a reasonably good job of keeping it the way it is and the way I’d like it to stay,” Snell said. Snell was one of more than 35 who attended the open-house style format Tuesday at Vance-Granville Community College. A session was held Monday in South Hill, Va., and another session will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. today at the Clarksville, Va., Community Center. Vance County Tourism Director Nancy Wilson, who attended Tuesday’s session, said she hopes the Corps will leave the woody shoreline in place. “That’s what I’d like to see because it works the way it is,” said Wilson, who estimates the reservoir attracts anywhere between 1.4 million to 1.6 million visitors yearly on the Tar Heel side of the North Carolina-Virginia border. “It’s huge,” Wilson said of the economic impact. Wilson has been Vance County’s chief tourism official for 17 years. Please see LAKE, page 3A
Oxford public safety study results on hold — again By WILLIAM F. WEST Daily Dispatch Writer
OXFORD — Residents will not know the outcome of a months-long-awaited $40,000 study of public safety until January. In an e-mail Tuesday, City Manager Mark Donham said that sending the information to the city commissioners for a thorough review could not be accomplished and that it was decided to set up a meeting after the holidays. Oxford has seven commissioners who serve staggered four-year terms and four new commissioners elected Nov. 3 were sworn in Dec. 8. The commission’s Public Safety Committee was scheduled to meet at 9 a.m. Thursday to discuss the findings of the study. The committee is chaired by holdover Commissioner and Mayor Pro Tem Howard Herring, with holdover Commissioner Bob Williford and new Commissioner Danny Currin as committee members. Police Chief and Acting Fire Chief John Wolford is a non-voting committee advisor.
The study, conducted by the International City/ County Management Association, has been a subject of controversy, as evidenced by the previous commission’s 4-3 vote Oct. 13 for a budget amendment to pay a final $4,000 amount owed when the document is ready. Holdover Commissioner Walter Cantley prior to the vote unsuccessfully called for the rest of the then-commission to stop this “nonsense” until the board received a full length, unedited report. Donham told the thencommission the reason for the allocation was because two $18,000 payments were made to the association in Fiscal Year 2008-09 and the $4,000 had to be shifted to this fiscal year so the association can be paid when the document is open for viewing. “The final report has not been submitted,” Donham told the then-commission. “We’re still working on drafts.”
Daily Dispatch/ASHLEY STEVEN AYSCUE
Marilyn Allen’s car sits in her father’s driveway after being involved in a four-vehicle collision on Raleigh Road Tuesday night.
Two hurt in four-vehicle wreck By DISPATCH STAFF
Two motorists were injured as four vehicles were involved in a chain-collision traffic accident on Raleigh Road Tuesday evening. Marilyn C. Allen, 35, of 836 E. Montgomery St., Henderson, and Katherine Brown, 21, of 30 Sterling Court, Franklinton, driving separate vehicles at the time of the accident, were taken to Maria Parham Please see SAFETY, page 3A Medical Center by ambulance,
treated and released, according to Trooper B.E. Pulliam. Also involved in the accident was Edith Garrett, 67, of 1528 Glover St., Henderson. She went to MPMC for treatment by private vehicle and was released. None of the three vehicles had passengers. The accident occurred when Brown, traveling south on Raleigh Road in a 2009 Nissan, allegedly looked down while driving and struck the
back end of a 1982 Chevrolet truck being driven by Garrett. The truck was knocked some 170 feet after the impact, striking the rear of Allen’s 1990 Ford Tempo. Allen, traveling in the same direction as Brown and Garrett, reportedly was making a left turn into her father’s driveway at 2506 Raleigh Road, when her vehicle, a 1990 Ford, was hit. Please see WRECK, page 3A