ELON WOMEN’S
BASKETBALL:
Defeats No. 2
team in SoCon
PAGE?
Mebane Historical Museum
opens in Mebane, N.C.
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INSIDE THIS EDITinN
HE Pendulum
ELON, NORTH CAROLINA 1 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2010 | VOLUME 36, EDITION 2
www.elon.edu/pendulum
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Jack Dodson
News Editor
Snow battered the state of North Carolina from
Jan. 29jhrough Jan. 30, leaving eight inches of
lasting snow in Alamance County, prompting
closures as late as Monday morning.
Elon University remained closed Monday and
Tuesday mornings because of the winter storm,
opening officially at 10 a.m. Alamance County
schools remained closed Monday to allow towns
more amount of time to clear the roads.
North Carolina, among other southern states,
was declared in a state of emergency by Gov.
Bev Perdue last Saturday morning. The National
Weather Service issued a winter storm warning
that lasted through the weekend.
Mike Dula, the town manager for the Town
of Elon, said it was fortunate the storm fell on a
weekend. He said because of the cold temperatures
after the snow fell, the roads became very icy.
“It’ll eventually go away, but if it freezes
overnight, it can hang around,” Dula said.
The Town of Elon is equipped with dump trucks
with blades on the front to clear snow, as well as
other trucks with the same equipment. The town
does not have chemicals that prevent ice on roads,
Dula said.
He said the state is responsible for clearing
certain roads in the area, including Haggard
Avenue, Williamson Avenue and University Drive.
Sophomore David Hodges said he had to
come back to campus early from western North
Carolina in order to avoid driving through the
storm.
“Friday night it just started pouring down and
Saturday morning it was a totally different story,"
Hodges said. Being from Florida, Hodges said he
didn’t have any experience driving in the snow
and had trouble keeping control when he drove
during the weekend.
Grant De Roo, a sophomore from New
Hampshire, said he had to drive to the airport
in Raleigh on Monday and was surprised by the
condition of the highways.
“It was unbelievable. It was awful,” De Roo said.
“The highway was the same as anything off the
road ... the sidewalks were plowed better than the
road.”
Hodges said North Carolina, and Elon in
particular, is not adequately prepared to deal with
a snow storms. He said he didn’t think investing
in snow equipment in North Carolina is worth the
cost.
De Roo said he felt, despite the few occasions in
which the South sees snow on the level of this past
weekend, a better system of clearing the roads
would be worth the price.
“Granted, it might only be a couple days a year
(that it snows), but it’s four days now and people
are still canceling school,” he said.
According to the Burlington Times-News, the
city of Burlington and the N.C. Department of
Transportation spent more than 5342,000 cleaning
the streets of the city.
The Greensboro News and Record reported the
city of Greensboro spent $25,000 in preparation
for the storm.
The Duke Energy Web site reported on Monday
afternoon there were still almost 9,000 power
outages in North Carolina and South Carolina.
Jackson County in the Western part of North
Carolina saw the most power outages, with
almost 4,000 alone.
Jenequa Breeze, the assistant manager at
Starbucks on Huffman Mill Road, Burlington, said
she opened the shop everyday during the weekend
and had more customers than she was expecting.
She worked on Saturday with only her student
manager, who lives close enough that coming
in to work wasn’t an issue. Most businesses on
Church Street and Huffman Mill Road, were
closed on Saturday, she said.
Breeze said that there really weren’t any snow
plows around clearing the roads during the day.
“It would be nice to see more snow plows
because there are still a lot of roads with ice on
them,” Breeze said.
New green jobs
grant offers NC
$150 million
Couple gives $1 million to Elon Academy
Samantha King
News Editor
Elon
Elon Academy, i
University-based program
designed to help low income
and first generation high school
students in Alamance County
to prepare for college, received
a $1 million donation from Elon
alumni Doug and Edna Truitt
Noiles.
The company was sold to
Johnson and Johnson, leaving
Doug and Edna with more than
enough money to continue the
modest lives they chose to live.
“I’ve thought about it a lot,”
Doug said, referring to the gift.
“We had more than we needed.
We lived a basic, simple life for
50 years.”
The couple’s long endearment
with the program began almost
four years ago when President
Leo Lambert told them about the
“abysmal situation” at Cummings
High School during lunch.
After speaking with Lambert,
Doug and Edna decided they
wanted to do something to
help the students of Alamance
County. They promptly donated
$220,000 because they wanted
to help make change possible.
The academy had not yet been
established.
“!n the beginning, Leo came
and we listened and we knew
we wanted to do something to
help,” Edna said. “When we put
the money in, we didn’t know
See GIFT I PAGE 3
Samantha King
News Editor
The Obama administration recently pledged to create
sustainable Jobs across the nation, authorized by the American
Recovery and Investment Act of 2009 and known as the
“Pathways Out of Poverty” grant. North Carolina will receive
$150 million as a part of this grant.
The United States Department of Labor collaborated with
nonprofit organizations to develop a budget for the grant and
determine where the funds are most needed across the United
States. The grant is intended to help those with low incomes,
criminal records or minimal education find and maintain jobs,
according to Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis in a press release.
Jim Barbour, associate professor of economics, said the
grant would not harm the economy other than the deficit it
would possibly create.
“Anytime people have extra money to spend, it would help
the economy,” Barbour said.
While Barbour said he could not comment on the long-term
prosperity of the grant, he did acknowledge North Carolina’s
need for change and new jobs.
“The existing (job) structure of North Carolina is badly
damaged," Barbour said. “Ideally, this would free up intellectual
ability to create better mills and put them to use. What they
will do, 1 have no idea, but it would free up people to imagine
a better world."
The funds are allotted and outlined to serve specific
purposes within the 38 different companies it will be divided
among across the United States, according to a press release by
the United States Department of Labor.
Three North Carolina businesses will receive funds to aid
in the burden of the recession, while creating sustainable jobs
for the future.
Good Will Industries International will receive more than
$7 million in six U.S. cities, including Charlotte, to aid “people
with disabilities, chronically unemployed individuals, ex
offenders, older workers, homeless individuals and high
school dropouts," according to the press release.
MDC Inc. is a company dedicated to helping “low wage
workers and unemployed individuals" find lasting careers,
according to the press release. The more than $3 million
allocated will be distributed among eight mostly rural areas in
the United States. The majority of the funding will go to MDC
Inc. headquarters in Charlotte, N.C.
The final North Carolina location served is a branch of
Opportunities Industrialization Centers of America Inc. in
Asheville. The $4.9 million allocated will be shared between
Asheville and two other cities.
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