Newspapers / Morrisville and Preston Progress … / Dec. 20, 1995, edition 1 / Page 1
Part of Morrisville and Preston Progress (Morrisville, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
Morrisville & Preston ress December 20, 1995 Here’s what happened... What follows is a step by step account of the Dec. 1 i meeting of the Morris- ville Board of Com missioners: • Margaret Broadwell is sworn in as mayor by Anne B. Salisbury, Wake County District Court judge. • C.T. Moore, Leavy Barbee and Mark Silver- Smith are sworn in as commissioners by Judge Salisbury. • During a break for refreshments, the new mayor changes the seating arrangement of the board by moving their nameplates. • Commissioner Billy Sauls, whose seat had been switched from the middle to one end of the semi-circular table, remains in his old seat. • Mayor Broadwell, wanting to call the meet ing to order, talks to Com missioner C.T. Moore, who in turn talks to Sauls. Sauls leaves his seat, has a brief conversation with Ernest Lumley, the former mayor, and then heads toward the front entrance of the commissioner’s room. See HOW, page 2 Sauls eyes truce in dispute But mayor pushes for resignation By Bin Kirkland Morrisville Mayor Margaret Broadwell believes it would be in the "community’s best interest" for Mayor Pro Tern Billy Sauls to resign, but Sauls insists he’s stay ing on the Board of Commissioners for "at least" the ronaining two years of his four-year term. Their comments came in separate Progress interviews six days after a stormy Dec. 11 board meeting in which Sauls at first refused to ac cept the seating arrangements made by the newly swom-in mayor. Sauls, who took his new seat at one end of the table after he and the mayor exchanged words in the Town Hall foyer, said he’s ready for the squabble to end. "I don’t want this to continue," he said. "I’m fed up with it All this is making me look like a bad guy. I’m just not getting a fair shake. It’s an embarrassment to me and evay- body el^. "How can things go so well all the time I’ve been on the board and then go down overnight?" he asked. "I feel I’ve done a good job. We just don’t need this mess any more." Ms. Broadwell said she attempted to shake hands with Sauls the morning after the swearing-in ceremony but that he refused. The two ran into each other at Town HOT TIME AT TOWN HALL-Momsville Commissioner Biliy Sauls, left in above photo accuses Mayor Margaret Broadwell of being vindictive in changing the commissioners' seating arrangement. Town Manager Bill Cobey looks on. At left, Bill Hales of Durham smgs The Impossible Dream'' at the request of the mayor as Sauls watches from his new Hall. "I walked up to him and took the opportunity to speak," said the mayor. "I extended my hand to him and he pulled his hand back. I don’t remember his exact words but es sentially he said he had nothing to say to me. I wished him well and walked off." ^ Sauls downplayed the incident. "She didn’t tell me she had any thing to discuss with me," he said. The mayor pro tern said a truce is possible. "If ^e just wants to go on with business, I think that’s all it’ll take. I’m certainly willing. All of ment to me, the town and every body else. If she’s willing not to stir stuff up, I certainly am, too." Ms. Broadwell said she would prefer that Sauls resign. "From the comments I’ve heard. Com missioner Sauls is the root of most of the bad press and it would be in the community’s best interest that he step down," she said. "If he were to do that we could go forward in a much more peaceful and businesslike manner. That’s not to say, however, that there are not people out there who support Com missioner Sauls." would "not be the only way the community can go forwmd. We can do it with him seated on the board, but that would be a major mountain for him to climb with public opinion so much against him. "We have to find a way to take away the personalities and put good policy-making above everything else," she said. "It will take a com bined effort of all the com missioners to want to woik together before there will be any harmony." Sauls said it’s his style to say what is cm his mind. "I’ve always with me. I’ve sometimes said things that I’ve regretted, but hasn’t everybody? "Can anyone honestly believe that I haven’t done anything good for the town and that I’ve always been a troublemaker? I’m going to continue K) try to do gcxxi things and I’m going to try to wOTk with her. That’s the honest truth." Ms. Broadwell said Sauls’ per sonality "is different from minft He has been very vocal in disagreeing with my views. That the way he be haves with a lot of people. I don’t Chief Quidina clunker’s restoration into Mayberry replica ^ ^ —55?——u >. —5® had to be made since a i By Ron Page Until now, Morrisville has had little in common with the fictional television town of Mayberry. Both start with the same letter and both have one barber shop. But while Mayberry always stayed the same under the watchful eyes of Sheriff Andy Taylor and Deputy Barney Fife, Morrisville is growing and has eight times the number of law enforcement officers. A m^or link to the two com munities is on the way, howevw. Morrisville Police Chief Bruce Newnam can tell you about it, and so can Mack at the garage, Nathan at the bcxiy shop, Wayne at Car- quest and Terry at the ui^iolstery place. Or better yet, 80-year-old Clarence Holland, a resident of Church Street. He’s the erne who started it all. The link is a 1960 four-door Ford, the model used as the first police car in the television series, "The Andy Griffith Show." The Mayberry car continues to be seen by millions as it chugs along in reruns. And by next spring, its replica will be cruising the streets of Morrisville. The vehicle driven by Andy and Barney had white doors, a white top and a black front and rear. It rjimft equipped with a siren, whip antenna and a flashing bubble light on top. Clarence Holland was so im pressed with the car he saw on tele vision that he went to an Apex dealership and bought the same model. He drove it for 17 years, but for the last 18 it’s been on blocks in a shed behind his house. Enter Bruce Newnam. The police chief, a nostalgia buff who has spent his career in smaller com munities, had been searching for that same model so he could con vert it to a replica of the Mayberry vehicle. When he told Holland what he envisioned, Holland sold him the car. Once Newnam’s restoration pro ject is finished, he’ll put his car on display in various public events. The Board of Commissioners has authorized him to use the car and the old Police Department emblem in such events as Morrisville’s Day at the Park, pending a check as to the rawn’s liability if it’s used in a way that could be interpreted as town business. Newnam will use the Mayberry emblem as well. Both will be mag netized, so he can use one or both depending on the occasion. "When the chief came to me about four months ago and told me he had the car, it brought back aU sorts of memories," said Mack Baker, a mechanic who has been in business on Church Street since 1961. "That was my all-time favor ite show. How I remember that car." But BakCT knew it was going to take a lot of work to bring the car back to life after 18 years on blocks. For starters, the floor of both the car and its trunk had to be replaced because of rust. New brakes wwe installed, fender walls replaced, undercarriage repairs made, and two new brake drums ordered. "Because it stayed on blocks and BRUCE, NOT ANDY—Morrisville Police Chief Bruce Newnam dis plays a magnetized Mayberry Sheriffs Department seal that will be used along with the old Morrisville seal on a replica of the car used on "The Andy Griffith Show." was unused for so many years. Baker explained, "the wheel cylinders were filled with dust, rust and corrosion. And a new radiator had to be made since a replacement couldn’t be located." The car also needed new tires. All of the mechanical wwk has been completed and the car is now at Nathan Cotten’s garage on Church Street where body work is progressing. Gotten said the entire surface has to be sanded, including sheet metal woric and parts that have been filled. The bumpers were rechtomed by a California firm. When asked how long the body work will take. Gotten smiled. "That’s like asking when I’ll ^e. I don’t know. A minimum of 30 days if we worked on it all day, every day. But I’ve got my other work. I’d guess by Febmary." The whole project has been planned by Newnam, who admits to being a big fan of the Mayberry series. The series, he feels, may have projected a comical atmo sphere, but underlying that was the way of life as it used to be in a small town. "It projected people helping each other, teamwork, family values— See CHIEF, page 2 Fire destroys home in Carpenter; uninsured owner plans to rebuild * ■ j : .k.. th^, in about f By Ron Page For the first time in 41 years, Paul and Wilma Phillips won’t be spending Christmas at home this year. Their house on N.C. 55 in the Carpenter community was destroyed by fire late Saturday afternoon, a blaze that took with it both their cars and almost all of their belongings. "I can’t think or do anything," said a devastated Mrs. Phillips Monday as she looked out the window at the home of her sister and neighbor, Betty Hockaday, at the charred ruins of the combina tion ranch and two-story house. Burned and water-soaked furniture littered the property, located near the Morrisville-Carpenter Road in tersection. "I’m sort of in a daze,” she sighed. It was about 5 p.m. S^urday and Mrs. Miillips was on the phone, speaking to a friend. Her sem. Bill, was upstairs in his room, and her husband was nearby at another son’s bouse helping him put on a husband saying just the word "Fire!" But it took only minutes for the flames to race through the house. By the time volunteers from nearby Morrisville Fire Station No. 2 arrived (Mrs. Hockaday said they reached the scene in about five minutes), the flames had engulfed the rear of the house where the bedrooms are located and raced through a good portion of the rest of the frame structure. See FIRE, page 8 BULK RATE POSTAGE PAID MORRISVILLE, N,C. PERMIT #23 VERY LITTLE LEFT—Paul Phillips and his wife, Wilma, lost almost everything Saturday when fire struck their house on N.C. 55 in the Car- deck. the garage," she said. "I hung up "I heard a sort of popping noise the phone, went out back, and ^w out toward the back, in the area of smoke coming out of an electrical penter community. Phillips, taking a moment to sit in a swing, observes the scene the day after the fire. Delivered expressly to the residents of Morrisville and Preston box near the garage. She said she ran inside and called the fire department, then heard her
Morrisville and Preston Progress (Morrisville, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Dec. 20, 1995, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75