CMYK Make plans for a safe and sober holiday Our Hometown, Page 2A
Obama has failed his words Opinion, Page 8A
Tar Heels lose again in Meineke bowl Sports, Page 1B
Kwanza popularity declining? Showcase, Page 1C
2010 Cutest Kids Calendar
The next decade of homes
Inside Today
Real Estate, Page 1D
SUNDAY, December 27, 2009
Volume XCV, No. 302
(252) 436-2700
Travelers reacting to threats Passengers on planes willing to be proactive By ED WHITE Associated Press Writer
DETROIT — They heard a pop that sounded like fireworks. They saw a glow of flame followed by a rush of smoke. And that was enough for passengers on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 to pounce. From several seats away, Dutch tourist Jasper Schuringa says he jumped to extinguish a fire ignited by a quiet man who just moments before allegedly told passengers his stomach was upset and pulled a blanket over himself. Schuringa said his first thought wasn’t to signal a flight attendant or wait for an Please see TRAVELERS, page 9A
Index Our Hometown . . . . . 2A Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . 8A Sports. . . . . . . . . . 1-4B Showcase. . . . . . . . . 1C Celebrate. . . . . . . . 2-4C Books & Leisure . . . . 5C Light Side . . . . . . . 6-7C A to Z Kids. . . . . . . . . 8C Real Estate . . . . . . 1-2D Classifieds. . . . . . . 3-4D
Weather Today Mostly sunny
High: 55 Low: 29
Monday Sunny day
High: 43 Low: 25
Details, 3A
Deaths Henderson Ernest L. Glasscock, 74 Saimaya Williams, 6 months Irvington, Va. Elizabeth C. Palamar, 87 New York Annie R. Jones, 68 Oxford Pauletta F. De Jong William T. Pritchett Jr., 77 Wanda W. Williamson, 51 Wake Forest Brenda R. Shomo, 62 Willingboro, N.J. Samuel G. Sanders Jr., 70
Obituaries, 4-5A
www.hendersondispatch.com
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Granville eyes site for school
Murder, she wrote while at Dispatch Barbara Arntsen
Former reporter here publishes first mystery Officials like location off Philco White Road for elementary campus By AL WHELESS Daily Dispatch Writer
Barbara Arntsen, a former Daily Dispatch reporter who always danced to a different drummer, has had her first murder mystery novel published. It’s called “SOS.” Instead of the well-known distress signal, the acronym stands for “Society Of Stranders.” Their 10day musical event occurs in the spring and again in the fall of each year in the shagging world of North Myrtle Beach, S.C., on The Grand Strand. It was on her first visit in 2001, Arntsen recalled, that “I was blown away. I’ve never seen so many people going in and out of clubs, and up and down alleys. All of this to dance The Shag.” Then and there, she decided: “This would be a good place for a murder mystery.” And so it was. Besides the title, incoming ocean waves and an intriguing silhouetted figure are featured on the front cover which began coming off the presses of Eloquent Books in October. The company is a division
of Strategic Publishing Group, which is in New York City. The 52-year-old Southport native — who now lives in Goldsboro and is the communications director for Wayne County — started crafting the fictional tale in 2002. Arntsen would sometimes read excepts from the first few pages written at home to her fellow employees while she sat in her stall in the Dispatch’s newsroom. At one point, Arntsen wondered aloud whether to inject a hurricane into the plot. “I do have a hurricane in the book,” she mentioned over the phone Wednesday during an interview. Arntsen came to the Dispatch in 1997, and left in 2002. In between, she won four North Carolina Press Association awards. In her first journalism job, the woman with the piercing blue eyes and the amazingly thick blond hair became both famous and infamous in Henderson and Vance County — depending on whom you asked — for her investigative stories. The subjects included an office-holding rule violation, as well as improper spending of taxpayers’ money in local government.
A number of the articles were on crimes committed by a real estate company. Several focused on the illegal shooting-deaths of countless pigeons for fun and profit in a rural area. Her daughter, Mikaela Anderson, was a summer intern at The Daily Dispatch in 2001. Now 26, she lives in Florida and works for The National Conservancy. Arntsen won two NCPA writing prizes while working at two other newspapers. One was during her time at the Goldsboro News-Argus from 2002 to 2005. The other was while she was employed at the High Point Enterprise from 2005 to 2006. The book had yet to be completed when Arntsen took the manuscript out of a drawer about a year ago, and did a rewrite before submitting it last summer for publication. The action at the SOS event takes place over a three-day getaway weekend shared by the star of the book, Periwinkle “Peri” Mason, and her two friends, Jan and Laura. Mason, who has been a widow for two years, is an investigative reporter for a small-town newspaper in Eastern North Carolina. The way Arntsen made her pitch to the publishing company, her plot really gets underway at Fat Harold’s dancing club, where Peri has an encounter with a renegade cat
Please see MURDER, page 5A
Transportation planner likes rural area Granville staffer grew up in an agricultural section of Idaho By WILLIAM F. WEST Daily Dispatch Writer
OXFORD — Granville County Transportation Planner Justin Jorgensen said he got his first full-time job here right out of graduate school because he grew up in an agricultural area in eastern Idaho and wanted to work in a rural setting. Jorgensen, 28, completed his undergraduate work in 2007 at Brigham Young University-Idaho and went on to the University of Iowa, where he earned a master’s degree in urban and regional planning. He said he had become interested in how land and people interact. The main reason for Jorgensen’s decision to seek employment in Granville County was the Please see PLANNER, page 3A
Daily Dispatch/WILLIAM F. WEST
Large maps of Granville County are part of the scene in County Transportation Planner Justin Jorgensen’s office. He has been with the county since late August.
By WILLIAM F. WEST Daily Dispatch Writer
WILTON — The Granville County School District has picked a potential site off Philo White Road for a future elementary school to ease overcrowding at the southeastern end of the county, particularly at the nearby Wilton Elementary campus and at the Creedmoor Elementary campus. “We need to get these children out of these huts at Wilton and Creedmoor,” County Associate Schools Superintendent Allan Jordan said, referring to the presence of modular units at both campuses to compensate for the lack of space. Jordan “I mean, we need to get ‘em inside the building.” Jordan said that the district will be waiting to see if there are favorable soil testing results for the land off Philo White, which belongs to Glenn and Joelle Preddy. And Jordan said a transaction could possibly occur in approximately 60 days. The County Board of Education has approved a conditional offer to the Preddys, who responded to advertising the district took out in newspapers seeking land, Jordan said. The Preddy’s land is approximately 42 acres. Some of the front part of the property has been used for agriculture, but the largest part remains wooded, Jordan said. The land has other pluses in addition to the location near Wilton Elementary, Jordan said. Factoring in the Preddys’ federal income tax write-off of the land as a contribution to public education, the district would be paying approximately $350,000 for the site, Jordan said. The district’s plan had been to pay $400,000 for a 20-to-22-acre site, which Jordan said is the recommended size for an elementary school. And the Preddys’ land site has enough room for a middle school if needed. “We did not go out searching for enough land to build two schools,” Jordan said. “It just so happens that this piece of land was offered to us at a price that allowed us to stay within our budget and put the school system and the county in a situation where it would have land when a middle school is needed down there. “The kids who are in elementary school now, for whom we are building schools, will not go away,” Jordan said. “They will still be there and ultimately there will probably be a need down the Please see GRANVILLE, page 6A