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West Craven Highlights
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PHONE 244 0780 OR 946-2144 (UPSP 412-110)
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VOLUME 12 NO. 40 OCrOBER 26. 1989
VANCEBORO. NORTH CAROLINA
25 CENTS
EIGHT PAGES
Fisheries director
says state in need of
salt-water licenses
MOREHEAD CITY — Members
of the Marine Fisheries Commission
and Division of Marine -Fisheries
staff will conduct n public meeting
in Washington tonight to discuss a
^oposed coostal waters licensing
system.
The meeting, one of 12 scheduled
throughout the state, was an-
nouncedinst week by William T. Ho
garth, director of the Division of
Marine Fisheries at n workshop at
division headquarters in Morehead
City.
The meeting will be 7 p.m. tonight
in the Superior Courtroom of the
Beaufort County Courthouse. Other
area meetings will be in Morehead
City, Manteo, Elizabeth City and
Hatteras throughout the week.
The state needs a licensing pack
age, in part, to get data on the
amount of fish caught, the fishing
effort and effectiveness of various
fishing methods, Hogarth said.
_ *We don’t know how many people
slilt-water fish,” Hogarth said.
Licensing alternatives to be dis
cussed include a license to sell, com
mercial vessel licenses, marine re
creational license, commercial gear
licenses and commercial opera
tional licenses, Hogarth said.
"This is a seriesof proposals,* said
Jess Hawkins, district manager for
the Division of Marine Fisheries in
Washington. *Input from the public
is vital.”
If the package is approved, it
could generate as much as $6 to $9
million, Hogarth said.
This money if allocated to the di
vision as an addition to its current
budget, about 65 percent would be
used for fisheries management and
development, 15 percent for enforce
ment, 10 percent for public educa
tion and 10 percent for administra
tion and documentation, Hogarth
said.
A $25 license to sell is proposed
for any North Carolina resident who
sells any fishery product taken from
the marine waters of the state.
An alternative to this is a Marine
Producers License dependent on
percentage of total income derived
from commercial fishing.
Other licensing proposals include
a fee for commercial fishing vessels
See FISH, Page 6
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Conservation helps
protect soil, water
resources locally
By Tim Etheridge
SCS Conservationist
Conservation is defined as pre
serving, guarding or protecting.
Using conservation measures on
our soil and water will preserve and
protect these valuable resources.
Some landowners consider con
servation practices something that
is needed that would be nice to have.
Installing these measures costs mo
ney which the landowner does not
feel he or she can justify. When in
stalled, conservation will pay for
itself.
Lets take a look at three conser
vation practices used in eastern
North Carolina and see how they
can pay for themselves.
No-till is a practice that’s used
throughout the state. Field borders
are used mostly in the more sloping
land of the state. Water control
structures are found more often in
the farmland of the coastal plains.
All three practices have ways of
paying for themselves.
No-till or conservation tillage is
practiced when a crop is planted in
residue left fi’om the previous crop.
It cuts soil erosion by water in half.
This is due to the residue keeping
the soil surface under cover. Re
sidue also prevents wind erosion
which is a big contributor to filled-in
ditches.
Slowing erosion prevents the loss
of your valuable topsoil and the nu
trients that are attached to the soil
particles. The soil cover serves to in
crease the amount of water taken in
and stored for use by the next crop.
No-till will pay for itself, but does re
quire a higher degree of manage
ment than conventionally planted
Halloween and harvest
The time of harvest comes to mind when one sees (top photo)
pumpkins, corn stalks and bales of hay put together to form a mi
niature landscape. The components of this autumn landscape
signify It's harvest time for what was planted as seeds In the
spring. Throw in a few ghoulish characters (bottom photo) and
Halloween jumps to mind. A leisurely drive around the county
See SOIL, Page 5 can bring a cornucopia of autumn landscapes.
crops.
Field borders are found in the
Coyotes threat to area red fox population
,—With coyote pups having been
found in Craven, Jones and Beau
fort counties recently, an area wild
life official says the counties ore
threatened by the loss of their red
fox populations.
‘Coyotes won’t tolerate having
red foxes around,” Perry Sumner,
furbearer project leader for the N.C.
Wildlife Resources Commission in
New Bern, said in a recent tele
phone interview. *The two species
don’t stay in the same area.”
Sometimes, he said, the coyotes
even will kill the red foxes.
In the Northeast, Sumner
pointed out, a lot of red foxes that
are moving into urban areas appa
rently have been pushed out of their
habitat by coyotes.
‘The ironic thing,” Sumner said of
Jones County, ‘is the folks who run
the foxes with hounds are generally
the ones who brought (coyotes) in
here.”
The main population of coyotes
had been moving toward North Car
olina from the middle of Tennessee
and Georgia, Sumner said. But per
sons who had brought coyotes into
North Carolina, where they never
had been a native species, had
speeded up the process. ‘Once (the
coyotes) get here, theyll beheFe,*he
added.
The coyote population in south
ern Geoi^a had stayed in that area,
he added, from the 1930s until the
last five or 10 years. But most Geor
gia counties have them now.
Coyotes had no natural enemies,
Sumner said, and research had
shown that hunting them and tiy-
ing to poison them had not been suc
cessful means of eliminating them
from an area. The more killed, he
said, the more pups the remaining
coyotes had.
About two years ago, he noted, he
had had two reports close together
of coyotes found in Jones County:
One had been killed in the road, and
a hunter had shot the second one.
Then, in the spring, he said, a far
mer in the Cove City area had noti
fied him that he had discovered the
two pups.
To his knowledge, Sumner added,
they were the first coyote pups bom
in North Carolina that anyone had
had their hands on.
The pups, which were about 6-8
weeks old, were destroyed, he said.
He had heard numerous reports
of coyotes in the Terra Ceia area of
Beaufort County, Sumner noted.
*But we’ve not actually had our
hands on them.”
Sumner said he also had had
numerous reports of coyote sight
ings in the Cove City area over the
last year, mostly from people who
had spotted them during the wheat
harvest.
See COYOTE. Page 6
Officials want
drinking water
rules changed
State and federal officials said
last week they will revise drinking
water regulations to prevent
another situation like that in
Washington, where authorities
failed to act for eight years on infor
mation that the tap water contained
dangerous levels of cancer-causing
chemicals.
The state already has found that
the drinking water of 13 of those
communities — including the Mar
ine Corps Air Station at Cheny Pont
— may contain carcinogens like
those in Washington’s water.
In Vnneeboro, the town’s water
system shows no signs of problems
like Washington is experiencing,
said Town Clerk Carolyn Ipock. She
said the town’s water supply is
tested twice a month, once by the
state and once by the county. TTie
town gets its water from groundwa
ter through a well.
If the regulations are revised,
small towns like Vanceboro could be
forced to meet more stringent treat
ment methods and report high
levels of possibly dangerous chemi
cals in their water supplies, if they
have levels above the EPA
standords.
The U.S. Environmental Protec
tion Agency isreviewingits require
ments for the water supplies of all
smaller U.S. communities in light of
Washington’s water problems, Mi
chael Leonard, chief of the drinking
water section of EPA’s regional of
fice in Atlanta, said in an interview.
“We are trying to review all reg
ulations of contaminates, lowering
the limits for some and lowering the
populations to which these limits
apply,” Leonard said.
The new regulations could be in
place in 1991 or 1992, he said.
Such action could extend environ
mental safeguards to 56,000 U.S.
water treatment plants serving mil
lions of people across the nation in
communities of less than 10,000 po
pulation, which are not now regu
lated by EPA.
Drinking water for an estimated
195-million residents in U.S. cities
above 10,000 already is protected by
the federal Safe Drinking Water
Act.
In North Carolina, 104 water
treatment plants serve at least half
a million residents in the
under-10,000 category, according to
estimates.
*I am concerned that people who
live in small communities are not
protected by U.S. Environmental
Iht)tection Agency requirements,”
said state health director Dr. Ro
nald Levine. “This clearly needs to
be addressed.”
According to documents obtained
See WATER, Page 5
VA administers loans
for children of veterans
According to veterans service of
ficer for Craven 0>unty, the N.C. Di
vision of Veterans Affairs adminis
ters the state’s program of scholar
ships for children of disabled,
deceased or POW-MIA veterans.
Many children apply each year
for the scholastic aid o^ered by the
program, which provides benefits at
public and private institutions in
the state.
There are several classes of scho
larship eligibility. They are:
Class I and IV: Children of certain
veterans who died or are 100 per
cent disabled as a result of service in
the World War I. World War II,
Korea or Vietnam or children of
peacetime veterans whose death or
100 percent service-connected disa
bility was incurred as a direct result
of armed conflict or while engaged in
extra-hazardous service or children
of certain veterans who were prison
ers of war or listed as missing in ac
tion. The veteran must have been a
legal resident of North Carolina at
the time of entry into the service, or
with certain exceptions, the child
must have been bom in North Car
olina and cqntinuously resided here.
Class II: Children ns described
above whose parent was a war vet
eran who has or at the time of death
had a 20 percent or more but less
than 100 percent service-connected
disability or a statutory award for
arrested tuberculosis. Certain
children of peacetime veterans may
qualify based on the nature of their
See VA, Page 6
Stilley literally getting kicks
in football as punter, kicker
Chris Stilley gets his kicks in
football — literally.
Stilley, a 5-9, 155-pound ju
nior, handles punting and kick
ing duties for the West Craven
Eagles. And he handles them
well enough to earn this week’s
Flying Eagle Award. The award
is given to an Eagle player mak
ing an outstanding contribution
to the team.
Stilley has kicked 23 point-
afier-touchdown kicks and three
field goals this season, for a total
of 32 points on the season.
In a game where a PAT kick or
field goal can mean the difference
between a winning or losing, Stil
ley has proved fairly consistent.
He didn’t miss his first PAT until
the sixth game of the season
against Havelock. That miss left
the Eagles down by one instead of
tied at 7-7. The Eagles later
scored and came away with the
win.
Stilley is tied for third in scor
ing in the Coastal Conference,
See AWARD, Page 5
Becton breaks 1,000;
Eagles stay undefeated
west
Oak.
Rogsr Rutsen phoio
Craven's Lee Becton (22) heads for one of three touchdowns in Eagles' 23-7 win over White
Lee Becton passed the 1,000-yard
rushing mark for the season on his
second rush last Friday night — a
39-yard touchdown score that
staked the fifth-ranked West Cra
ven Eagles to an early lead and an
eventual 23-7 win over White Oak.
Becton, a junior tailback, would
score twice more and finish with 189
yards to rush for 1,179 yards in
eight games as the Eagles improved
to 4-0 in the conference and 8-0
overall.
The fifth-ranked Eagles virtually
assuired themselves of a playofl'
spot and it appears they will face
D.H. Conley at the end of the regu
lar season for the league title.
Agame next week with West Car
teret stands in the way of the Eagles
going in undefeated against Conley,
also undefeated in the league but
with two other losses.
While Becton was Becton, the Ea
gle defense came up with two fumble
recoveries and two interceptions.
The defense also limited White
Oak’s Tracey Boone, the second-
leading rusher in the conference, to
eight yards on eight carries. The
Vikings were held to 91 yards in 20
rushes. Doug Hall, who scored the
Vikings’ only touchdown on a
60-yard jaunt, led the Vikings with
64 yards on two carries.
Eddie McKeel recovered a fumble
for the Eagles that led to Becton’s
second touchdown and Terrence
White’s fumble recovery led to a
27-yard field goal by Chris Stilley,
staking the Eagles to a 17-0 half
time margin.
Becton scored the second time he
touched the ball with a 39-yard run
and the PAT put the Eagles ahead
7-0. Stilley added his field goal five
plays later. McKeel pounced on his
first fumble in the second quarter
and Becton scored again five plays
later for a 17-0 lead.
Becton added an interception to
his trophies before the half ended.
Kip Bryan’s fumble recovery led to
Becton’s third score, but not before a
little confusion.
White Gak’s Chris Glasgow inter
cepted Eagle quarterback Kevin
Holzworth, but Glasgow fumbled
the pigskin on the return and Bryan
recovered at the Viking 15. Becton
bulled in from the 3 in three plays.
Slilley’s PAT was wide left, but the
Engles led 23-7.
White Oak had one more chance,
See ElAGLES, Page 6