THURSDAY
TACKLING GROWTH: Randolph OKs treatment plant study. 1B
December 10, 2009 125th year No. 344
JUVENILE CHARGED: Deputies respond to false bomb threat. 2A
www.hpe.com High Point, N.C.
UM UM GOOD: High Point’s women bowl over Campbell. 1C
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WHO’S NEWS
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Daniel Ruggiero Jr. received the Triad area Sandler Training Center Sandler Training Quality Service Award. He operates Danny’s Tire and Automotive in Greensboro.
INSIDE
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DON DAVIS JR. | HPE
Gusty winds caused this tree in Scott Matheny’s yard on Ferndale Boulevard to crush his truck Wednesday.
High winds turn deadly BY PAUL B. JOHNSON ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
TRIAD – The high winds in the area appear to have caused a traffic fatality in Davidson County on Wednesday afternoon. A person died when wind toppled a tree onto a car near Denton. The N.C. State Highway Patrol reports the incident happened on N.C. 109 near Jim Elliott Road
around 4:15 p.m. Further details weren’t immediately available. Gusts brought down trees across Guilford County as the winds uprooted trees in soil soaked by rains Tuesday and from storms last week. City of High Point electric utilities repair crews spent Wednesday afternoon responding to scattered outages. “It’s probably involved 25 to 30
people,” said Larry Hopkins, electric operations engineer for the city. A tree that fell on a power line off Benjamin Parkway near Elam Avenue in Greensboro blocked traffic Wednesday afternoon, WXII-TV reports. More than 3,000 Guilford County residents were reported to be without power as of Wednesday afternoon, according to WXII. A wind advisory was in effect
pjohnson@hpe.com | 888-3528
WEATHER
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Anyone who needs help either looking for work or applying for unemployment benefits can contact one of the N.C. Employment Security Commission offices in the area. The offices include: • High Point ESC, 919 Phillips Ave., 882-4141. • Asheboro ESC, 355 S. Fayetteville St., 625-5128. • Lexington ESC, 103 W. Center St. Extension, 248-2326. moderate increase in their hiring plans for first quarter, Manpower reports. Of the more than 28,000 U.S. employers surveyed, 12 percent an-
Sunny, chilly High 45, Low 24 8C
SONNY HEDGECOCK | HPE
Memo Larach, district manager of Around the Clock Staffing, talks with client Michael Grier. ticipate an increase in staff levels in the first quarter. It’s the first positive outlook after three consecutive quarterly surveys where more U.S. employers planned to cut rather than bolster staff, said Mary Ann Laskey, spokeswoman for Milwaukeebased Manpower.
In the Greensboro-High Point area, 14 percent of companies surveyed intend to hire more employees, while 9 percent expect to reduce payrolls, Manpower reports. The remaining local employers either aren’t certain or
HIRING, 2A
Rental properties suffer along with housing market
HIGH POINT – Steep drops in home sales since last October aren’t the only negative figures residential real estate agents have been sorting out. Just take a look at the amount of vacant rental properties across High Point. “It’s terrible,” said Cam Cridlebaugh, vice president of Atlantic Insurance and Realty Co. “There is a vast amount of good rental
Faye Avant, 84 Lor Camp, 97 Linda Clingenfield, 53 Pamela Foster, 57 D. Friedland, 57 Willie Gaither Hilda Leonard, 93 Gary McCraw, 59 James Mearite, 91 Christine Meador, 95 L.M. Proctor, 79 Darin Reinolds, 43 Kathleen Scheetz, 53 Sadie Teague, 71 Dick See, 73 Lamer VonCannon, 84 Betty Williams, 67 Obituaries, 2-3B
JOB OFFICES
HIGH POINT – Amid a period of sobering unemployment and a tough job market, any positive report on future prospects for earning a paycheck comes as a welcome change of pace. Manpower Inc., one of the nation’s largest employment agencies, has provided that change of pace, if only for the first part of next year. Manpower’s most recent quarterly job outlook, for the nation and the area, indicates employers are more willing to hire workers from January through March compared to the same period at the start of 2009. Employers for the United States as a whole and in the Greensboro-High Point metropolitan area anticipate a
BY PAM HAYNES ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
OBITUARIES
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for the Piedmont through 6 p.m. Wednesday. Wind gusts reached from 30 mph to 45 mph across the region Wednesday afternoon, said Brandon Locklear, senior meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Raleigh. The high winds were expected to diminish overnight Wednesday, Locklear said.
Manpower survey offers promise for hiring in 2010 BY PAUL B. JOHNSON ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
CULP EARNINGS: Local company gets good news. 1B
property available. There just aren’t enough people to occupy the spaces because of a lack of jobs.” Rising unemployment rates have forced some homeowners into foreclosure and some potential buyers to put off purchasing their dream home, but they’ve also caused some people to “double up,” or move in with others to cut the costs, Cridlebaugh said. “Tenants are dropping off keys and moving in with mom, dad, friends and family. This is the
worst we’ve ever seen,” he said about the growing number of vacant properties and apartments. Amy Hedgecock, residential property manager at Fowler and Fowler Realtors, said the slow activity in home sales only has worsened the rental dilemma. “People whose houses have been sitting on the market that wouldn’t sell have decided to rent those homes instead,” she said. “Those homes are flooding the market.”
Workers at the Community Development and Housing Department of High Point said they noticed a growing number of available rental properties that their clients were relocating to. Cathy Gray, a resource specialist with the department, works with low-income tenants who are forced to move out of condemned or non-suitable structures. The tenants eventually must find a “good standing unit” that passes a city inspection. Baker said tenants
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had few problems finding an affordable, suitable structure to relocate to, and it had taken longer to locate those structures in the past. Tenants are the one crowd that can benefit from the situation, according to Cridlebaugh. “Their choices are numerous,” he said. “If an owner doesn’t keep his property up, a tenant can go right down the street and find a new location.” phaynes@hpe.com | 888-3617
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