Basketball Contest—Page 4
THE WEST CRAVEN
HIGHLIGHT
Volume 2 No. 4
Vonceboro, N. C. - Thursday, January 25, 1979
12 Pages
Price*. 20c
Deadline
for merger agreement set
by Connie Bryan
The Craven County Com
missioners have set a dead
line of 5 p.m. on February
23 for the Craven County
Board of Education and the
New Bern Board of Educa
tion to respond with a
merger plan to become
effective by July 1, 1981. If
the Boards fail to adopt a
plan, then the Commission
ers will prepare their own
plan for merger and
request that local represen
tatives introduce it in the
state legislature. The
February 23 deadline was
set after Rep. Chris Barker
informed the Commission
ers that March 10 is the
cutoff date for controversial
local bills to be submitted
to the state legislature.
Grover Lancaster of
Vanceboro pointed out that
an outside study was not
needed. He added that a
referendum was not neces
sary either, since the elec
ted officials could decide
the issue.
James Sugg, attorney for
Craven County, submitted
a proposed bill from Rep.
Barker, who could not be at
the meeting. As written by
Barker, this bill states,
“The seven members of the
Craven County Board of
Education shall run in dis
tricts and be voted on
county wide” effective with
the primary and general
elections of 1980. According
to this bill, the Board would
control the two systems
beginning in December 1,
1980 and continue after
their merger on July 1,
1981. Commissioner
Lancaster commented that
if the school boards fail to
come up with a plan, the
County Commissioners will
not necessarily submit
Barker’s bill as it is.
Basketball Contest’s third week
Gaskins wins six-way tie for first
Jeff Gaskins survived a
six-way tie for first place to
win in the third week of
the Basketball Contest
being sponsored by the
Highlights and area bus
inesses through January
and February. Richard
Gladson was second in the
tie-breaker and Jay Huff
was third. All three had
seven right and three
misses. Brian Hudson won
the “Beat the Editor”
drawing out of eighteen
entries. After three weeks,
three entrants are
deadlocked in the race for
the Grand Prize of two
tickets to the NCAA
Eastern Regionals plus fifty
dollars in expense money.
Jay Huff joined Pat
Troutner and Earl Wright
in the three way tie. The
third week’s winners are as
follows:
First- Jeff Gaskins
(Won Tie-breaker)
Second-- Richard Gladson
7-3 (Second in Tie-breaker)
Third - Jay Huff 7-3
(Third in Tie-breaker)
“Beat the Elditor”:
Brian Hudson
Last week's winning teams
were Virginia, UNC,
Davidson, Duke,
Tennessee, Notre Dame,
Ohio State, LSU, Purdue,
Louisville, and (Tie
breaker) Pittsburgh, 35
points.
Courthouse will stay in New Bern
by Connie Bryan
A proposed new Craven
County Courthouse complex
was among the topics dis
cussed at the County Com
missioners’ meeting on Fri
day, January 19 at 8:30
a.m. In a motion for a
resolution from the Board,
George Nelson of New Bern
recommended that they
keep the County govern
ment in downtown New
Bern. He defined “down
town” to mean the area
between Hancock Street
• and the Neuse River and
Johnson Street and the
Trent River. Nelson added
that he felt the Commis
sioners should go on record
as having the “intent to
keep County government in
New Bern.” The Commis
sioners passed this
resolution.
In related business.
Nelson suggested that the
Board ask the Redevelop
ment Commission and the
City of New Bern, if the
city would give the county
three acres of land in the
Urban Renewal Project
adjacent to the 6.9 acres
already purchased by the
county. Nelson noted that
there has been some con
cern that the present 6.9
acres would not provide
adequate space. He com
mented that this additional
acreage “would be neces
sary to overcome the
present deadlock” and to
insure that the courthouse
complex would be built on
the urban renewal proper
ty. The Commissioners
agreed to this proposal.
According to the archi
tects the estimated cost for
the new complex is
between four and six mil
lion dollars. Grover
Lancaster of Vanceboro
suggested that the Board
meet with Jim Roberts,
architect for the project. A
meeting was scheduled for
February 5.
The point of zero
degrees latitude and zero,
degrees longitude lies in
the Gulf of Guinea off the
western coast of Africa.
The closest land to this
point is Ghana.
ULTIMATUM-County Conunissioner Grover Lancaster,
Jr. delivered an ultimatum to the two school boards in
Craven County. Lancaster’s motion, which calls for
agreement of the two school boards on merger by 5 pjn.
Friday, February 23rd, passed in the recent County
Commissioners’ meeting last Friday. [Photo by Tony
Gatlin]
COUNTY GOVERNMENT STAYS-The County
Commissioners okayed a resolution by George Nelson
which expressed the commissioners’ intent to stay in
downtown New Bern. [Highlights File Photo]
Local men join Jaycees
“A Bird's Eye View of New Bern"
New Column begins . . . Page 7
Congratulations go to Doug
Robinson, son of Mr. and
Mrs. McRay Robinson and
Carroll “Butch” White Jr.,
son of Mr. and Mrs. Carroll
White. Doug and Butch
were inducted into the New
Bern Jaycees on January 8.
The Jaycees is an organiza
tion for young men
between the ages of 18 and
35. Some of their projects
are the bike and bowl-a--
thons and tele-a-thons for
Cystic Fibrosis, the basket
ball games for the Heart
Fund, Christmas parties for
the underprivileged and
handicapped children, and
the current jelly sales to
help build a burn center in
North Carolina.