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West Craven Highlights
ISeu's From Aloiifi 77ii* Hanks Of Thv \riisv
UMOHAl rSWSMtrvs
VOLUME 12 NO. 32
AUGUST 17. 1989
VANCEBORO. NORTH CAROLINA
PHONE 244-0780 OR 946-2144 (UPSP 412-110)
25 CENTS
SIX PAGES
New Bern Post Office to celebrate special stamp issuance
NEW BERN — The New Bern
POM OfRce ie preparing for a feetive
celebration Aug. 23 to recogniie the
epeciol iuue of a North Carolina-
^tehood etamp in commemora
tion of the bicentennial of the ratin-
cation of the U.S. Conatitution.
Among the planned octivitiee will
be ceremonies at the main branch of
the New Bern Poet Oflice, hietoric
Tryon Palace and the mvesits of
Richard Dobba Spaight, one of
North Carolina’s three signers of
the Constitution. Special entertain
ment will be held throughout the
day at the gardens of'nyon Palace.
Postmaster Robert Peels says he
it excited about hosting the New
Bern ceremonies in honor of the spe
cial stamp ittue., The fact that we
have so much of N.C. history li^t
here in New Bern,’ he said, ’makes
this celebration one of the most re
levant and meaningful in the state.’
Bob ‘Rmberlake, a North Car
olina native and nationally noted
artist, has designed the statehood
stamp, which depicts the state sym
bol of white dogwood blossoms
against a black background. A pic
torial desim known os a ’cachet,’
featuring the Stale Seal, also will Im
used in cancellations throughout
the state.
A unique feature of the New Bern
celebration, oiganiiers say, will be
the additional issuance of a spe
cially prepared stamp cachet and
pictorial cancellation. It will depict
Tryon Palace, which was the state
Ca^tol in 1789, at the time of the ra-
tincation of the Conatitution. The
cachet also displays the historic
John Wright Stanly House, the
Coor-Gaston House and a prollle of
Richard Dobbs Spaight.
‘niis collector's item will be avail
able only on Aug. 23rd at New Bern
post oflioes and at a one-day postal
a historic marker. A color guard
with TOn salute will open that prog
ram. Remarks will be made by Su-
Backdoor parking at the fish house
Lots of small creeks around eastern North Carolina support Du-
Rk C«rl«r photo
sinesses. With seafood businesses, water parking Is often more
Important than a paved lot for cars. At Holton’s Dockside Sea
food In Bayboro, the fishermen are assured of plenty of space.
Area residents comment on Mobil plan
By Betty Gray
Special to the
West Craven Highlights
A crowd of environmentalists,
concerned citiaens, oil industry
spokesmen and government ofli-
cials turned up at Beaufort Com*
munity College last week to argue
for and against Mobil Oil Co. plans
to drill for oil and gas off the Outer
Banks.
Members of Greenpeace and the
Sierra Club wore black armbands to
^mbolize what they colled *a way of
life that is crying.*
*n)e safety aspect of drilling is a
legitimate concern on behalf of the
cidtens,* James C. Martin, project
iWiiiger for Mobil, told the meet
ing. *Mobil shares that concern. We
are conHdent this well can be drilled
safely.*
In an interview during last
night’s meeting, Martin said there
would be no construction on the
state’s Outer Banks, but an under
ground pipeline would come ashore
somewhere between Morehead City
and Norfolk, Va.
*We are creating as toxic environ
ment that we cant live in,* declared
Candace Cottrell for the opposition.
*What is the money (from environ
mental fines) going to be worth 20
years from now with air we cant
breathe and water we cant drink.*
"there is a large body of people
who ere skeptical and concerned ab
out the effects of industry in this
area,* she said.
the public hearing in Washing
ton, which drew about 60 people,
was the third in a series that federal
officials are holding on the drilling
plan. Another was held last week in
Raleigh.
*The fisheries resources in the
vicinity of the Manteo exploration
unit are important not only to the
North Carolina commercial and re
creational fisherman but to out-of-
state fishermen as well,* said Lor
raine Shinn, reponal manager of
the N.C. Department of Environ
ment, Health and Natural
Resources.
She read a five-page statement
expressing the department’s con
cerns about the proposed drilling.
The department, she said, would
like to see an environmental report
that includes geological hazards of
drilling, itseflects on fish and recre
ational areas and the effects of drill
ing on onshore development in east
ern North Carolina.
Ihe department wants the envir
onmental report to identify onsite
ffsh species and specify which of
those species are endangered.
Several sites near the drilling
areas are designated or have desig
nations pending as outstanding re
source waters or areas of environ
mental concern, Ms. Shinn said.
*rhe environmental report should
assess the effect of normal explorat-
oiy drilling and staging activities on
these environmentally sensitive
areas as well as the consequences of
an oil spill,* she said.
See OIL, Page 4
Blind beekeeperls
not quitting type
By Michael Adams
Special to the
West Craven Highlights
Too many people keep mental
lists—one of thi ngs they are fd>le
to do and the other of things they
can’t — and never venture any
thing that isn’t on the can-do side
^..Ihe ledger.
Bobby Gurkin, a blind bee
keeper who lives near William-
ston, keeps such lists himself.
But he looks at them a little diffe
rently. For Gurkin, the lists are a
challenge. He is busy shifting as
many things as possible from the
list of things he can’t do to the list
of things he can.
Gurldn has had diabetes, a
disorder that often causes loss of
sight, since he was young. But he
says it never caused him any real
prwlems. Until last year, that is,
when he had two detached reti
nas in two weeks and ended up
losing his eyesight.
"All of a sudden,* he says, "I
couldn’t see nothing.* He can tell-
the difference between light and
dark. But he can’t see much else.
There’s no suggestion of bitter
ness or frustration in Gurkin ns
he talks about the loss of his eye
sight perhaps because he
thinks of it as a surmountable
obstacle.
"Some people have one little
thing go wrong and they just give
up,* he savs. "I didn’t do that."
Indeed Im hasn’t.
Gurkin, a retired carpenter,
had planned to do a 1 ittle bl t of ca-
binetmakingin a shop behind his
house when blindness threw a
wrench in the works.
That didn’t stop him, though,
from using his power saws to
make hives for his bees and other
equipment for his poultry
raising hobby.
He uses a jointed ruler to mea
sure edges and has learned how
to cut brards evenly without the
benefit of sight. "I’ve learned how
to make templates for near about
everything,* he says.
He’s not able to ^ the fine, de
licate work necessary to make ca-
binets, but you get the feeling
that given time he might figure
out how it’s possible.
Gurkin spends a lot more time
thinking about his beehives, his
quail, his turkeys and his ban
tams than he does brooding over
his misfortune. And he eivjoys
sharing his hobbies with others.
He has had bees for about 12
years and he currently has about
15 hives. He says he has been fas
cinated by the way the hives
work since his wife and children
gave him a bee starter set for
Christmas many years ego. And
he still participates in all phases
of worlting the bees, firom con
struction new hives and supers
— the area where bees build
combs and store honey — to the
robbing of the honey.
When robbing the hives, he
says, "111 take it (a super) out of
the hive and wipe most of the
bees off and hand it to my son,
Robbie.*
Gurkin and his wife, Georgia,
have two sons, Geoige end VtxAh
Bobby Gurkin loaning on one of hla hivos
bie. George works at Fountain
Powerboats and Robbie is a shin-
gler. Gurkin calls Robbie "my
right hand when I go to mess
with my bees.*
Gurkin has also caught
swarms of bees — swarms that
he never sow.
A swarm — thousands of bees
—will leave a hive with its queen
See BEEKEEPER, Page 6
sen Moffat, executive dirtctor of
Swiss Bear; Brig. Gen. C.L. Vermi-
lyea and Craven County Comission
^airman Charles Potter. The Ri
chard Dobbs Spaight Chapter of the
Daughters of tne American Revolu
tion and the Boy Scouts will partici
pate in the dedication.
The gardens and grounds of his
toric Ttyon Palace will be opened
free to the public from 9:30 a.m. to 6
p.m. Visitors to the gardens will dis
cover the alternating musical
sounds of a harpsichord, dulcimer
and bagpiper. Several jugglers and
a magician will be on hand to enter
tain guests of all ages during the af
ternoon hours, and crafls^reons,
including the palace blacksmith,
will demonstrate their skills.
In honor of the commemorative
cachet issued only in New Bern,
Combination Ticket tours of Tryon
Palace, the John Wright Stanly
See STAMP, Page 2
Jim Hunt says
he won’t run
for U.S. Senate
Former Gov. Jim Hunt has de
cided against running for the U.S.
^nate in 1990 in a possible rematch
with Republican Sen. Jesse Helms,
the Washington Daily News learned
today.
In letters to Democratic friends
dated yesterday. Hunt declared:
"For persona] reasons that I feel are
compelling, I do not plan to make
the race.*
He was apparently referring to
the poor health of his parents.
Hunt’s letter indicated he might
consider a race later because of his
interest in improving education
nationwide.
Joyce Cutler, chairwomen of the
Beaufort Ck)unty Democratic Execu
tive Committee, received one of the
letters this morning.
Hunt, 52, is widely regarded in
national Democratic circles as the
strongest possible challenger to
Helms, the high-profile leader of the
New Right whom the Democrats
would dearly love to defeat.
Hunt’s unsuccessful 1984 cam
paign against Helms, the most ex
pensive in the state’s history, was
also regarded as one of its most
vitriolic.
Bowing out of next year’s race
was "a hard decision to make,* Hunt
said, but "(kirolyn and I have re
sponsibilities at home that we just
cannot leave now.*
Declaring that a run for the Se
nate next year would be "a wonder
ful opportunity to provide the kind
of forward-looking, progressive
leadership that I think our state and
nation deserve," Hunt added: "And I
really think we could win.*
Pressure on Hunt to make the ef
fort to unseat Helms has been
mounting in recent weeks.
Hunt, who lives in Wilson (k>unty
but commutes to Raleigh to practice
law, has received calls from Sen.
Charles S. Robb of Virginia, Sen.
Robert Graham of Florid and Sen.
John D. "Jay* Rockefeller of West
Virginia. These senators, all of them
former governors and friends of
Hunt, asked him to enter the race.
In addition. Hunt has met sepa
rately in recent weeks with Senate
See HUNT, Page 4
Etheridge to speak
at opening ceremony
for county schools
State Superintendent Bob Etheridge will be the guest speaker at the
official ope^ng ceremony for the New Bern-Craven (k>unty School Sys
tem 1 p.m. August 25 in the New Bern High School auditorium.
Etheridge was elected in 1988as the state’sSuperintendent of Public
Instruction after a public service career extending back to the early
1970’s.
He has served on the Harnett Ck>unty Board of Commissioners and
as a member of the N.C. House of Representatives as well as being ac
tive in many community, county, region and state civic affairs.
The opening ceremony is for the entire staff of the New Bern-Craven
County School System. Students will report to school August 31.
Area farmers gain
from disaster law
By Cliff Moore
County Executive Director
Area farmers will benefit from
the $897 million in disaster assis
tance that was approved when Pres
ident George Bush signed the legis
lation Monday.
The bulk of the aid — $490 mil
lion — will go to wheat farmers
whose winter harvest in Kansas and
other states was devastated by
drought.
At the other extreme, the Disas
ter Assistance Act will compensate
farmers in the south and elsewhere
whose rice, soybean, cotton and
other crops were wiped out by rain,
wind and floods.
Thisyearisrelief package is about
one-fourth the siu of the ^.9 billion
relief package that farmers got to
cope with a devastatingdrought last
year.
Although a wide range of crop los
ses will be covered. Secretary of
Agriculture Clayton K. Yeutter said
the main beneficiaries would be
those who lost wheat to the drought,
as well as farmers hit by rains that
damaged corn and soyl^ans in the
eastern corn belt and cotton in the
deep south.
Farmers who participated in the
price support program this year and
bought crop insurance will be paid
85 percent of the target price for any
losses beyond 35 percent of normal
production.
Those who were in the program
but did not buy crop insurance will
be compensated for losses beyond 40
percent of their normal production,
^ose who were not in the program
are eligible only if their losses ex
ceed 50 percent.
The new law caps benefits at
$100,000 for each pr^ucer and pro
hibits payments to those with $2
million or more in gross farm
revenues.
No dates have been set for apply
ing for disaster relief.
They will be announced in about
two weeks by the Agriculture Stabil
ization and Conservation Service.
Tobacco Marketing Cards
Tobacco Marketing cards are the re
sponsibility of the producer. The
producer should check the card after
each sale to ensure that calculations
are correct.
Producers are reminded that to
bacco for each farm should be kept
separate and marketed with the
proper card.
Penalties will apply for cross
marketing.
Tobacco Stalk Inspection
Tobacco stalk inspection is re
quired again this year.
The y^CS will check for use of
non-approved plant regulators, so
producers must notify the office be
fore cutting stalks. After the inspec
tion, producers will be notified when
their stalks may be cut.
Tobacco Redesignation
The next redesignation period for
tobacco and first sale date will be
Aug. 28 to Sept. 1 for a first sale date
Sept. 11.
1989 Loan rate
The following loan rates apply for
the 1989 crop year: (kirn — $1.91
per bushel; Wheat — $2.17 per
bushel; Grain sorghum — $3.07 per
cwt. The soybean loan rate has not
been announced.
Cover crop signup
The sign-up period will continue
through Sept. 13. Approval for cover
is eligible behind any crop this year.