See the Opinion / Forum pages A6&7 See Sports on B1
The Chronicle
Volume41,Number30 WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. THURSDAY, April 9,2015
TOXIC NEIGHBORHOOD
School's neighbors outraged
Many living near
Hanes/Lowrance
search for answers
at meeting with city
BY CHANEL DAVIS
THE CHRONICLE
Residents in who live
near Hanes/Lowrance
Middle School on Indiana
Avenue are downright mad
and want answers to the
dozens of questions they
have concerning the soil
and air quality of their
neighborhood.
The school is consid
ered unsafe by the
Winston-Salem/Forsyth
County School (WSFCS)
Board because of contami
nation issues.
On Tuesday night,
March 31, the city held a
town hall meeting at the
Hanes Hosiery Recreation
Center at the corner of
Akron Drive and Reynolds
Boulevard. Nearly 50 peo
ple attended the hour-and-a
half-long presentation by
the Department of
Stormwater and Erosion
Control as representatives
presented a project that will
determine how much of the
area is polluted and what is
in the soil.
Stormwater Manager
Keith Huff told residents
that the main pollutants
found in the ground were
tetrachloroethene,
trichlorothene and 1
Dichloroethene, all com
mon chemicals that can be
found in common house
hold agents. The solvents
are used in dry cleaning,
cleaning of metal machin
ery and to manufacture
consumer products and
chemicals.
"They're very com
mon. They're in my house
hold and yours," Huff said.
"The pollutants give off
vapors that come up
through the soil column. As
they migrate through the
soil column, if in enough
concentrations, they can
make their way into a base
ment or through a slab in a
dwelling. That's how the
vapors can affect you in
your home. That's if in
enough concentrations."
In February, the
WSFCS Board voted to
move the students from the
school because of a vapor
intrusion from chemicals in
the soil, although a consult
ant determined that those
vapors were not at signifi
cant levels.
Questions like "Why
are just now finding out?",
"What about our chil
dren?", and "What are you
going to do about it?" were
thrown around.
Assistant City Manager
Greg Turner said that pre
liminary records have been
gathered from the city's
records and the Division of
Environmental and Natural
Resources (DENR).
"The city is in the same
position you guys are. We
don't regulate or control
these pollutants, but we are
impacted by them, the pub
lic streets as well as your
properties. What we want
ed to do is find out as much
as we could about what is
actually in the soil that
could affect you, our
employees and the contrac
tors who work for us," he
said. "We will be working
with the state, inactive haz
ardous branch and the state
DENR to assess what these
chemicals mean once we
get the samples."
In order to do that, the
city will implement moni
toring wells in the area.
The wells will determine
how far the pollutant plume
from 2007 has migrated
and how it impacts those
residents.
Kaba Ilco is the current
owner of the land in ques
tion and has owned the
property since 2001.
Sampling of the soil con
ducted before then showed
that the ground was pollut
ed when it was owned by
Stewart-Warner/Bassick
Sack, according to the pres
entation.
The new owners drew
up an agreement with state
officials, in May 2014, to
implement a plan to treat
See Neighbors on A2
Photos by Erin Mizelle for The Chronicle
A man in the audience questions city employees about what is happening in the neighborhood near the
HaneslLowrance Middle School,which is sitting vacant because the School Board deemed it unsafe.
Residents near HaneslLowrance Middle School gather to learn that the city of
Winston-Salem will begin testing their water for toxins. Mayor Pro Tempore
Vivian H. Burke is standing on the left.
$2.2 million grant to help
Early Head Start program
form in Forsyth County
CHRONICLE STAFF REPORT
Family Services, the
nonprofit that administers
the Head Start program in
Forsyth County within its
Child Development divf-*v'
sion, announced * Tuesday, ^
April 7, that it has Received
$2.2 million ibjpderal
funding that wiiyfcing the
Early Head Starf program
to Forsyth County in
September.
The initial grant period
for Forsyth County is for
three years, and is open for
renewal.
Early Head Start (EHS)
will operate year-round and
serve low-income families
With children from birth to
?36'pionths of age, provid
ing critical education and
development services. EHS
will serve 120 infants and
toddlers and their families.
The federal funds also
will allow Family Services
to hire more people. "The
Early Head Start grant will
pay the salaries of at least
42 full-time staff mem
bers," said Bob Feikema,
president and CEO of
Family Services.
Family Services will
pilot a new model for Early
Head Start that requires
collaboration among com
munity childcare providers
to deliver the program.
This model is intended to
strengthen the communi
ty's system of early child
hood development pro
grams.
"We will be partnering
See Grants on A2
Bob Feikema, center. President and CEO of Family Services, visits with the 3
year-old students of Ms. Reyas, left, and Ms. Wright, at the Sarah Y. Austin
Head Start Center on Tuesday, April 7. Family Services received a grant to form
the Early Head Start program in Forsyth County.
vO
IP
i s s
=- S 5 o
" ^
Al.'
Rep. Hanes calls for statewide body cameras
Winston-Salem already has them
BY CHANEL DAVIS
THE CHRONICLE _
N?. House Rep. Edward "Ed" Hanes has pre
sented a bill to the House that would call for most
of the police officers in the state to wear body
cameras and to activate them when interacting
with residents in certain situations.
House Bill 537, which was filed last week,
calls for law enforcement officers in a population
with more than 200,000 people
to activate body-worn cameras
when dealing with the public.
"The thing that we've tried
to focus on is this necessary
interaction between the police
and the community and the fact
that people on both sides of that
argument need to and want to
feel like they're protected. We
want to put both sides in the
position that they know when they're interacting
with each other, that there is an eye in the sky,"
Hanes said.
The bill would also fund the cameras with a $5
million appropriation from grant dollars from the
Governors Crime Commission within the
Department of Public Safety for the 2015-2016
and 2016-2017 fiscal years to purchase and main
tain the cameras, including the costs related to the
retention and storage of recordings captured.
See Cameras on \2
1
Hants
^RTiTiyM
ASSURED I
STORAGE I
of Winston-Salem, LLC
H
8B ^
i
! 1L. 3