TUESDAY
END OF AN ERA? Organizers cancel Horse and Mule Days. 1B
May 18, 2010 126th year No. 138
THE BIG CON: Scam artists pose as restaurant inspectors. 1B
www.hpe.com High Point, N.C.
TRIPLE THREAT: Southwest Guilford trio enjoys softball success. 1D
50 Cents Daily $1.25 Sundays
Budget raises utility rates, rec fees BY PAT KIMBROUGH ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
HIGH POINT – High Point City Manager Strib Boynton’s proposed 201011 budget calls for holding the property tax rate steady, but residents and businesses would see higher utility rates and a new garbage collection fee under the spending plan unveiled Monday. At $308 million, the proposed budget represents a decrease of 3.8 percent from the city’s current annual budget. Boynton’s plan outlines an additional $190 million that is committed to the ongoing rebuilding and upgrading of various water, sewer, transportation, solid waste, parks and recreation and other in-
frastructure, bringing the city’s total 2010-11 financial program to $498 million. “It is quite a juggling act, trying to balance our ability to maintain Boynton services with very limited revenues,” Boynton told the City Council. “Water and sewer projects, personnel, operational and capital expenses have been cut dramatically.” The city’s major general fund revenue sources continue to shrink because of the recession. New residential and commercial construction, electric usage, sales tax revenue and other sources have all dropped significantly, leading city officials
to cut $3.7 million from the current budget. The proposed budget calls for a 4.8 percent electric rate increase effective June 1 to cover the city’s cost to purchase wholesale power through ElectriCities, a 4.9 percent increase in water and sewer rates effective Oct. 1 to pay for major water and sewer system improvements and a new $6 monthly fee for solid waste collection beginning Jan. 1. Various parks and recreation fees would rise, as would the maximum business license fee, from $400 to $1,500. The High Point Public Library, which is currently open seven days a week, would close on Mondays and operating hours at five of the city’s six recreation centers would
be reduced by 15 hours per week during the school year. Enactment of the solid waste collection fee could depend on what happens with state and county shared revenue sources. The budget would eliminate 51 full and part-time vacant city positions, following the cuts of 23 vacant jobs in the current budget, for estimated total savings of $2.9 million. In addition, city workers’ salaries would be frozen for a second year in a row. The city has scheduled two public hearings on the proposed budget: June 7 at 5:30 p.m. and June 10 at 9 a.m. Council must adopt a final budget by June 30. pkimbrough@hpe.com | 888-3531
No stopping her
Nancy Nelson Hodges received the University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s 2010 UNC Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching. Hodges is associate professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Consumer, Apparel and Retail Studies.
INSIDE
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Disease motivates student to earn 4.1 GPA
FOUND MONEY: State makes annual pitch for claiming unclaimed property. 1B
Before you read...
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Third in a four-part series on local high school seniors who overcame hardships to graduate.
BY DARRICK IGNASIAK ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
THOMASVILLE – For Heather Looney, graduating from Ledford High School will mean that she didn’t let diabetes get BEATING in the way. THE ODDS Diagnosed with diaGraduates betes when overcoming she was adversity 6, Looney ■■■ has battled the disease for virtually her entire education career. The disease makes her prone to getting sick
WHO’S NEWS
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OBITUARIES
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Craig Davis Sr., 83 Ralph Dunn, 81 Stepphannie Eaton, 33 Arthur Gray, 63 Wendy Lindner, 72 Blanche Miller, 94 Lonnie Miller, 76 Dorothy Morgan, 90 Iris Queen, 86 Gregory Southers, 61 Obituaries, 2-3B
DON DAVIS JR. | HPE
Ledford senior Heather Looney enjoys lunch with her classmates. Not allowing diabetes to slow her high school years, she will graduate in June. often because her blood sugar can be high or low, causing germs to impact her more. “With my schedule, I have to build everything around how I eat,” she said. “Like in high school, we changed lunch times every semester, so I have
to work that around my diabetes and try to make it work for the best. I have to watch what I eat and what times I eat.” Sometimes Looney feels horrible during the day, but she has been feeling better her senior year. Her 4.1 GPA is proof that
she hasn’t let diabetes impact her grades, despite having to miss a school day every three months to visit doctors at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. She credits the diabetes as motivation to do good in school. “I just want to prove
to everybody that just because I have diabetes doesn’t mean I am different and I can do everything that everybody else does, if not better,” she said. And because of the
WEATHER
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LOONEY, 2A More showers High 69, Low 55 6D
Furniture company plans move
INDEX
BY PAUL B. JOHNSON ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
HIGH POINT – The New Jersey-based furniture business Huffman Koos has achieved so much success at the High Point Market that it plans to move to a larger location closer to the heart of the showroom district. Huffman Koos purchased the former First Union National Bank branch at Kivett Drive and N. Main Street four years ago, opening the building for the furniture trade at the spring 2007 market. Now Huffman Koos wants to relocate to a new location and lease its current, 13,500-squarefoot building, said Mike Salazar, vice president of sales and operations. “We want to be closer to the main building and/or possibly be in the building,” Salazar said, referring to the International Home Furnishings Center, the largest single
J.J. Farris: Unabashed booster ENTERPRISE STAFF REPORT SONNY HEDGECOCK | HPE
Huffman Koos, currently at 209 N. Main St., is moving closer to the center of the showroom district. showroom complex at the High Point Market. Salazar said Huffman Koos is negotiating for a new location, and the company hopes to be in its new showroom by the fall market Oct. 16-21. If not, Huffman Koos would continue to operate out of its current home for the fall market, he said.
Huffman Koos, founded in 1961, is one of the largest independent furniture retailers in the New York City metropolitan area. “The last few markets have been pretty good for us, and our business wholesale-wise has grown quite a bit. We’re looking for great foot traffic,” Salazar said Monday
about the relocation. The new location could give Huffman Koos 15 percent more space than it has now at market, he said. “We firmly believe in High Point. We know what it’s capable of, and we’re looking to grow and expand,” Salazar said. pjohnson@hpe.com | 888-3528
YOUR COMMUNITY. YOUR NEWSPAPER.
J.J. Farris received welldeserved credit for much of the development and growth of High Point during his years with The High Point Enterprise. He was quoted more than once saying the Enterprise, under his care, was a community booster and had “not even been run as a money-making establishment, which could have been done on a selfish basis.” He was perhaps the first to bear the “Mr. High Point” title.
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