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VOLUME 12 NO. 8
FEDRUAKY 23. 1880
VANCEBORO, NORTH CAROLINA
PHONE 2444)780 OR 846-2144
(UPSP 412-110)
25 CENTS
' SIX PAGES
3 Grapplers
Making Trip
To Seek Titles
Allen, McKeel And Wooten
Headed To Championships
An ice storm during the weekend coated trees with ice, making a
crystalline scene. But that same ice that brought an artistic look also
brought problems. A Carolina Power & Light spokesman said the
ice storm caused minor, scattered cases of individual power outages
Winter Coating
in tile Vanceboro area. No major bloctrs of customers were without
power for a long time. Power was restored in most cases within one
or two hours, said Bob McCarn.
(Ric Carter photo)
WENDELL — West Craven’s
Eddie McKeel qualifled for the
state 2-A wrestling cham
pionships in the heavyweight di
vision with a third-place finish in
regional competition held
Saturday.
Also qualifying were Jason
Allen at 171 pounds and Toby
Wooten at 103 pounds.
Coastal Conference matmen
performed well at the North
Carolina High School Athletic
Association's Class 3-A Regional
at East Wake High School in
Wendell as D.H. Conley claimed
the title. West Carteret placed
third, Washington placed eighth
and Havelock was twelfth.
West Craven finished 13th with
48 points.
Coastal champion D.H. Conley
won with 167V4 points followed
by Eastern Alamance with 118
points. West Carteret was third
with 104, followed by Burlington
Cummings with 101 and Graham
with 85.
Washington, which finished
fourth in the Coastal Conference
tournament, finished eighth out
of 16 teams with 61V4 points.
Washington's Tim Tuck pin
ned Richard Harvey of Western
Harnett 4:45 in the consolation
round. Then, he decisioned Jeff
French of Burlington Williams 8-
3 before losing to McKeel of West
Craven 8-5 in the consolation fin
als. McKeel entered the regional
meet as the Coastal 3-A confer
ence champion.
Coach Billy Ray Brown said
Tuck was Washington's first
heavyweight competitor to qual
ify for the state meet.
Havelock’s finish was buoyed
by Kenny Frazier, who captured
the 160-pound championship.
Frazier finished with an unble
mished record of 4-0 in the re
gional.
(See WRESTLE, Page 5)
Scientists Suggest Farmers Use Test-Proven Seeds
There's no seed like certified
seed.
So say crop science specialists
at N.C. State University, who
would like someday to see all
North Carolina farmers planting
certified seeds. Unlike the uncer
tified “bin run seed,” certified
seed is grown under special con
ditions and subjected to a battery
of tests before it hits the market
in specially marked bags.
“Certified seed offers farmers a
product that is high in germina
tion, true to variety, with few
weed seeds and free from many
seed diseases," Dr. Jan Ferguson
said. Ferguson is a seed specialist
with the N.C. Agricultural Exten
sion Service.
Each bag of certified seed
wears a label that tells farmers
“T/ie /firmer iviil have better stands, fewer
iveed problems and a crop that is uniform in
maturity and growth habiC*
— Jan Ferguson
the percentage of pure seed, inert
matter, other crop seed, weed
seed and noxious weeds con
tained in the sack. In addition,
germination information and the
testing date can be found on ev
ery bag of certified seed.
Certified seed's counterparts,
“bin run seed" and “brown bag
seed,” are harvested when a far
mer decides to make seed from
his own commercial crop. Some
farmers clean and test the seed;
others don't.
“They know little about the
quality of the seed and tests
prove that these seeds have less
Officials Predict
Battle For Funds
B> MICHAEL ADAMS
Special lo the
Weal Craven Hifddight*
Area school officials dined on
oysters and predictions of hard
times ahead when they met last
week for their annual oyster
roast and conference.
The state schools superinten
dent Bobby Etheridge, and
Gene Causby, director of the
N.C. School Boards Association,
spoke to school administrators
from several northeastern coun
ties gathered fora regional super
intendents* council meeting.
They said the Basic Education
Program will face tough battles
in this session of the General
Assembly.
Causby said the recent pay
raise rally in Raleigh attended by
5,000 teachers may not have
helped the situation.
liie council meeting was fol
lowed by an oyster roast in the
high school gymnasium.
Etheridge said that maintain-
io^unding for the Basic Educa
tion Plan, or BEP, will not be
easy this year because many of
the legislators who voted for it in
1985 are no longer in office.
The BEP is an 8-year, $800-
million plan to upgrade public
elementary and secondary
schools. Etheridge called it “the
most important piece of legisla
tion for young people ... that
we've had in this state for 50
years.”
He said that some people, in
cluding legislators and even
some school personnel, did not
realize the importance of the
program. “We've got to do a bet
ter job educating the public ab
out what the BEP program really
is,” he said.
Causby, who serves as a liaison
between school systems and the
General Assembly, said, “We're
going to have the toughest year
legislatively that we've had in the
last 10 or 12 years.”
He said the BEP had strong
competitors — prisons, com
munity colleges and roads — for
its share of the budget. “It's
going to be hard to hang on to it.”
Gov. Jim Martin proposed
Monday using half of the $113
million scheduled for use in im
plementing the program in 1989-
90 to speed up a pay increase for
teachers and other state em-
(See SCHOOL, Page 5)
Problem Of Nutrients
In Area Rivers Puzzling
In previous news accounts tlie
problem of "nutrient overload
ing” in t>ie several eastern North
Carolina Rivers has been men
tioned. While nutrient overload
is certainly one of a river's chief
pollution threats, and while the
term is familiar to many who fol
low water quality issues, exactly
why it is a problem often is not
clearly understood.
As regards the issue of water
qualtiy, nutrients are simply ele
ments which make vegetation
grow. This sounds harmless
enough, maybe even beneficial,
and to some degree it is. But
when nutrient levels get too high
troubles begin.
The nutrients most affecting
the local watersheds are nitrogen
and phosphorus. Both occur
naturally in local rivers, though
phosphorus is decidedly more
prevalent.
Thus, according to resear
chers, high levels of added phos
phorus generally will not create
nutrient overload problems
since the water is conditioned to
it. It is excess nitrogen that has
the most effect on the Pamlico
River, and so nitrogen is referred
to as the "limiting factor” in the
river's nutrient stress (making it
different from most coastal
North Carolina rivers, which are
usually "phosphorus-limited”).
There are two main ways in
which nitrogen gets into the Tar-
Pamlico. By far the largest
source, accounting for more than
(SeeRIVERS. Paged)
Harris (34) rocs up for shot aRainsI Pam Pack defender
quality than certified seed,” said
Foil McLaughlin, director of the
N.C. Crop Improvement Asso
ciation and a faculty member in
the NCSU crop science depart
ment.
According to McLaughlin,
tests show a link between higher
crop production and the use of
(See SEEDS, Page 4)
Pack
Nips
Eagles
Lady Eagles Fall
Short After Rally
By MO KROCHMAL
Sport. Editor
Donald Gibbs reached into his
coaching bag of tricks and came
up with a defense that baffled
West Craven long enough for
Washington’s girls to take a 42-35
Class 3-A Coastal Conference
win Tuesday night.
The win, which gives Washing
ton a chance at the Coastal regu
lar-season championship, cap
ped a tripleheader sweep.
In the boys' game, Washington
could only watch as West Craven
went to the line for two free
throws with no time remaining
and the score knotted at 49.
But luck was with the Pack
and West Craven missed both
tosses. Washington then pulled
out a 50-49 overtime win to re
main in the running for the No. 2
seeding in the Coastal tourna
ment which begins next week at
Havelock.
Washington’s junior varsity
won its second straight and im
proved to 7-12 and 5-6 in the con
ference with a 38-34 win over
West Craven.
For the Pack girls to win or, at
least, get a share of the confer
ence title and force a draw for the
No. 1 seeding in the tournament,
they will have to defeat East Car
teret (2-9,3-16) in the home finale
Friday night and West Carteret
(7-4, 14-5) will have to beat
pacesetting Conley (8-3, 17-5).
Tuesday night, Washington,
which was picked to finish fifth
in the conference preseason,
played "great defense” said
Gibbs.
The Lady Pack executed a 1-3
zone with a chaser on West
Craven point guard Linetta
Bryant, the No. 3 scorer in the
conference averaging 15.7 points
a game. Hawked man-to-man by
Towanna Spruill, Bryant
finished with six points.
Washington, on the other hand,
rolled offensively as Gibbs
(See EAGLES, Page S)