Morrisville & Preston
ress
July 31, logg
Morrisville
encouraging
conservation
Residents undaunted by town’s
request to limit water usage
COLORFUL DISPLAY-Along the sidewalk fronting Charlie and signs. A cannon he fires at the football games at Apex High
Dreher’s home on High House Road are memorials to wars, flags are among the items one might see in his yard.
He’s a character
Self-reliant, opinionated, Chariie Dreher determined to live iife his own way
By Ron Page
During the past 10 years, Cary
police, sheriff’s deputies and
firefighters have made 33 visits to
Charlie Dreher’s property on High
House Road.
"They’ve been here on com
plaints about evCTything from al
legedly operating a commercial
wood business to a dog barking, to
firing a cannon," Dreher admits.
Firing a cannon? Where did that
come from?
"It’s a long story," Dreher says.
"The barrel came from a bam in
Arkansas, cost me $25. I offered
the man $20, but I would have paid
$100. And yes, I do fire it now and
then but only on times like the
Fourth of July, New Year’s Day
and other holidays."
Visitors who set foot on his well-
stocked (some would say cluttered)
acre of property quickly learn that
Dreher doesn’t beat around the
bush, although there are dozens of
bushes everywhere, from potted to
bacco plants on the outside walk to
a PawPaw tree which he says bears
fruit that tastes "like a mix of
bananas and apples." He’ll tell you
be believes in telling it as it is, or at
least the way he sees it is.
A retired 65-year-old federal
poultry inspector, Dreher is a for
mer U.S. Marine and Korean War
veteran. The son of an Indiana
butcher, he grew up in Teire Haute
and attended Indiana State Univer
sity. He recalls disputing one
professor’s observation of histori
cal events so often that the profes
sor told him that be didn’t function
like a normal individual. "He said
he’d give me a B-plus in the class if
I’d do us both a favor and not show
up anymore. I took the B-plus,"
Eireher says.
But history has always sparked
his thoughts. He read about the
Civil War extensively in his college
years and it was one of the attrac
tions which eventually led him to
North Carolina. Dreher recently
presented several artifacts of the
Civil War to the Town of Morris
ville. His discoveries include a
sword and pistol he uncovered
buried in a battlefield off
Morrisville-Caipenter Road. He has
a number of other "findings" at his
home, a simple brick ranch hidden
behind a wall of personal artifacts
that draw the attention of passersby
just east of Bond Park.
This became his home in 1966
after a five-year stay in a nearby
trailer park. "High House was
called Green Level Road in those
days, and the only other thing
around besides my house were the
woods. The road consisted of two
10-foot strips, which were widened
to 12 feet a couple of years later.
The woods were so thick you
See DREHER, page 3
By Ron Page
"I only run the washer with a full
load and I don’t have a dish
washer," says Mrs. W£. Culler of
Watkins Road when she was told
Morrisville commissioners are ask
ing residents and businesses alike
to save on using water whenever
they can. She says she’s been fru
gal for the 32 years she’s lived in
town and she neither sprinkles the
lawn nor wash the car.
"I believe in saving water...and
anything else," she says.
It’s the same with Dot Hoover
and Roslyn Keith, both residents of
Huntington Drive. Both agree with
the idea. "I’m already careful about
using water," Hoover claims, while
Keith points out it’s also a practice
in her family. "We used to water
the garden, but the weeds got it this
year so that’s not going to be a
problem" she relates.
Current estimates are that by
1997 there will be nearly 90,000
people in the four towns served by
Cary’s water system - Cary, Apex,
Morrisville and Holly Springs -
and by 2020 there could be more
than 300,000. Morrisville is ex
pected to have its present popula
tion of more than 2,000 rise to
7,500 by that time.
Morrisville officials feel it’s time
to voluntarily conserve on the use
of what one of them referred to as
"a priceless commodity."
The need for more water is al
ready a matter of record. Morris
ville commissioners have announc
ed a raise in water rates in town, ef
fective the first of July, from $2.87
to $3.23 per 1,000 gallons to match
an increase by the town of Cary last
month. The hike comes as a result
of an agreement signed late last
year for Cary to sell water and
sewer services to Morrisville and
for Morrisville to charge at least as
much as Cary does for the services.
The average Morrisville
household, which uses 6,000 gal
lons of water a month, will pay-
$25.92 more a year under the new
rate.
Commissioners also voted to ask
the state to allocate 4.5 million gal
lons a day of raw water capacity
from Jordw Lake to meet what the
town expects will be its need for
the next quarter of a century. The
request, according to Town Man
ager David Hodgkins is part of a
joint effort by the four towns from
the lake to expand the Cary-Apex
Water Treatment Plant.
In the meantime, Hodgkins sug
gested the voluntary conservation
plan for residents and businesses.
He said it was important to let resi
dents know water is "limited and
valuable" and to limit excessive
use, to which Commissioner Leavy
Barbee noted will become even
more critical in the future. "We
know sooner or l^er the water will
run out," said Barbee. "If we’re
making a mockery of it and asking
Cary for water, we need to put in
some strong rules for conserva
tion."
The town is asking to limit when
possible the sprinkling of lawns
during late morning or late
afternoon to minimize loss through
evaporation. Other requests center
on ensuring irrigation system heads
are aimed at landscaping and not
streets, running dishwashers and
washing machines only with full
loads, hmiting use of baths in favor
of showers because less water is
used, and installing in-ground ir
rigation meters instead of hose
meters because they are easier to
See RESIDENTS, page 2
New class helping kids cope with loss
By Ron Page
There are four keys to helping
children come to terms with loss:
information, emotional expression,
tenderness and reminiscing.
- Charles Smith
"Wonder to Wisdom"
Nine-year-old Ashley Barber and
her sister, ll-year-old Christie, re
member how much their father
loved his Harley-Davidson motor
cycle, how he and their mother
used to take rides, how much he en
joyed everything.
When they look at the 82 baseball
caps he had collected and hung on
a wall in their Morrisville home,
they’ll tell you how much he also
loved to wear colorful bandannas,
how he always wore bluejeans,
how great a mechanic he was, and
how they can still feel how strong
his aims felt when he hugged them.
On Feb. 24, 1995, their father,
Mark, was killed in a motorcycle
accident on Blue Ridge Road in
Raleigh. The loss was devastating,
but today Ashley and Christie, and
their mother, Sharon, are classic
examples of how a family comes to
understand death and can c(q)e with
the grief they felt and see in others.
During the months that followed
they became exposed to Reflec
tions, a caring program for children
operated by Hospice of Wake Inc.
and its children’s coOTdinator, Toni
James-Manus.
Reflections is a program which
provides pediatric hospice care to
young people 21 years of age and
younger and grief counsel
ing/support groups to any child in
Wake County who has lost a family
member to death. Last year. Reflec
tions provided care to 79 children.
"When children lose a parent, a
brother or sister, or a close friend,
they need help to understand death
and to cope with the grief they feel
and see in others," James-h^us
explained. "Frequently, parents are
so emotionally drained by their
own grief that finding words and
actions to comfort a child is dif
ficult. Many parents remain silent
in an effort to protect children -
yet the children sense even un
spoken pain. Clear and honest ex
planations help children accept
emotional distress and develop an
understanding of death, loss and
grief."
The Reflections program was
launched in mid-1993. Hospice of
Wake County has always taken
care of children and their famihes
as an integral part of patient ser
vices. However, the needs of chil
dren are so special and the stresses
on families so severe that a special
ized program was needed to pro
vide the best help and care.
When Ashley and Christie
returned to school after their fa
ther’s death, classmates attempted
to console them. "Everybody kept
saying they were sorry," explain^
Ashley, who was in the fourth
grade. "It made me think about it
(her father’s death) all the time.”
As a sixth grader, Christie met the
same situation.
"The teachers were wonderful
and the counselors at Morrisville
Elementary School tried to keep the
See REFLECTIONS, page 2
REMEMBERING DAD-Christie and Ashley their father who was killed in a motorcycle acci-
Barber keep a memory box of items belonging to dent last year.
Summertimes hectic, fulfilling for Preston’s
competitive swim team members, families
By Tammy Hayes
More than 2()0 swimmers, and
their parents and coaches, crowd
the area surrounding Prestonwood
Country Club’s pool. Parents sit in
lounge chairs that hug the water
and swimmers lay on towels
stretched across the grass. Burgers
sizzle on a grill as swimmers splash
into the water, racing competitors
in one of the last meets of the sea
son.
The Prestonwood Piranhas take
the meet late into the night and
sometime after 9 p.m., the crowd
shuffles out of the pool area and
out of the parking lot. But the
Piranhas families will be back the
next day for practice.
Being on any swim team is tough.
With three to lour hour swimming
meets and 45 minutes of practice
on every weekday there isn’t a
meet, being on the team is not only
tiring for the athletes.
Piranha parent Jan Baric has a
six-year-old daughter, Sarah, on the
team. But she also has two other
younger children. Baric has to find
a place to leave them during
Sarah’s meets.
"It is a little hard," Baric said of
having a child on the swimming
team. "You have to keep to a
schedule and plan your day around
it. She (Sarah) wanted to be on the
team, so we worked it in. But it’s
fun."
"It’s great," said Tom Manger of
having a child on the Piranhas. "It
gives the kids something to do."
Manger's six-year-old son, Burt,
is new to the area but has already
made a lot of friends on the team.
"There’s nothing worse than
being a kid in the summer hanging
around the TV and having only a
tin can to kick around in the yard.
Something like this helps challenge
him, uses his energy, and helps him
make friends," Manger said.
Manger
Sands
"It’s time-consuming but fun,”
Piranha parent Sharon Sands said.
Her daughter, Caitlin, age four, is
with the Piranhas for her first sea
son.
"it’s a long night for a four-year-
See SUMMER, page 3
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