The
Morrisville & Preston
ress
Published Monthly
Morrisville, N.C
January 30,1997
Preston scientist’s nuclear research drawing world’s attention
By Ron Page
Witb age comes deteriormion. It’s
that way with most things in the
world, and nuclear power plants are
no exception.
But scientists like Preston’s K.
Linga Murty, a professor of nuclear
engineering at N.C. State Univer
sity, is working to develop a meth
od that quickly and efficiently as
sesses the condition and life ex
pectancy of such projects.
In other woixk. Dr. Murty is
working to keep disasters from
h^pening at old nuclear reactor
pl^ts throughout the WOTld.
His work is drawing world-wide
ahention.
With a three-year $370,000 grant
from the Department of Energy, ad
ministered by the Massachusetts In
stitute of Technology for the Idaho
National Engineering Laboratory,
Dr. Murty win adapt a recently de
veloped miaoprobe to test nuclear
power plant components.
"We can build new power plants
with materials relatively less sensi
tive to radiation now that we know
what makes them radiation sensi
tive, but what do you do with the
old existing power plants thm are
built with radiation-sensitive
materials?" Murty asked.
"For North Carolina residents,
that concern includes a plant such
as Sharon Harris located just south
of the Apex/Cary area," he said.
Murty lives in the Arlington
Ridge subdivision opposite the
Prestonwood golf course. He and
his wife, Ratnaveni, have a son,
Venkataraman, 26, a business grad
uate of Bentley College, and a
daughter, Sunita, 19, a sophomore
and psychology major at N.C.
State.
While be teaches classes at the
college every morning, most of the
remainder of his days are spent in
research, much of it in front of the
conputer in his small office in the
Burlington Building at State which
houses the Department of Nuclear
Engineering and the Department of
Materials Science & Engineering.
Honors, awards, and citations are
everywhere among the shelves and
files of books and papers cluttered
in the room.
Last October, Dr. Murty became
a fellow of the American Society
for Materials International, and was
honored at the ASM fall meeting in
Cincinnati "for sustained contribu
tions to the understanding of
deformation of textured materials,
radiation effects on mechanical
Emu farmer
goes
to market
By Ron Page
There’s something new these
days at the State Farmer’s Market
in Raleigh.
Former Morrisville Mayor
Wade Davis and bis wife Jean
have opened an emu booth, out
fitted with products produced
from a bird that is fast gaining a
reputation for providing a wealth
of health benefits.
"There are some 300 breeders
of emu birds in North Carolina
today," Davis says, "as well as
two slaughtering houses. A few
years ago there were only a frac
tion of that number. While the
meat it provides is hailed for its
low fat content, the other produc
ts it provides are almost unbeliev
able."
While the bird is best known for
providing a range of meat cuts
with low fat content, it also offers
a variety of products ranging
from cosmetic and medicinal oils
to jewelry and lemher goods.
Even research into eye and heart
transplants into humans is taking
place, Davis explains.
"The bird has a heart the same
size as a human, with four cham
bers. Studies are being made
towards transplants, for the eyes
as well," he said.
But while such dramatic study
is comparatively recent, raising
emu birds for their meat has been
going on for years in other areas,
among them Texas. That’s where
Davis and his wife heard about
the bird that is native to Australia.
"The Aborigines were the first
to use the oil for the treatment
of muscle aches, sore joints, in
flammation, and swelling," he
said.
It was while they were attend
ing a funeral for Mrs. Davis’s
brother in Texas that they came in
MARKETING THE EMU-Wade Davis offers
passersby David and Lynn Wyatt of Raleigh
samples of hand cream made from the fat of
emus. His booth is at the Farmer’s Market.
contact with growere in that slate.
They decided to try their hand at
raising the birds and bought a pair
for about $2,500.
A year and a half ago the
Davises had only a breeder pair
of Mnu birds on their three-acre
Homestead Emu Ranch off Mor
risville Parkway. Today some 40
emu binls roam the pasture en
closures and more are on the way.
Davis is raising the birds at the
farm where he was bom and has
lived all his life. "It’s a very clean
animal," he explaias," and easy to
raise. Physically it’s covered with
brownish gray hair-like plum-
mage, stands between five and six
feet tall, and weighs about 120
pounds. Emus ran at speeds of up
to 30 miles per hour, swim well,
and defend themselves by kick
ing." Davis says they can’t fly,
however, because their wings are
tiny.
"This is 100 percent red meat,
98 percent fat free, higher in
protein and iron than beef and
lower in cholesterol than chick
en,” he says, opening a
refrigerator at the Market booth
to show cuts of meat that range
from filets to ground patties, but
ter and sirloin steaks, sausage pat
ties, shishkabob, stir fry, fajitas,
and barbecue steak.
To supply the anticipated meat
and products markets, coopera
tives have been formed and
slaughtering facilities have been
set up or started. In March of last
year the Davises joined the Tar
Heel Emu Cooperative organiza
tion. His Homestead &nu Ranch
is also a member of both the
American Emu Association and
the North Carolina Emu Associa
tion.
"USDA-approved slaughtering
houses are presently operating in
Greeiisboro and Spoisville, with a
possible third opening soon,"
Davis said. "Most of the growers
in the state sell from their farms,
but we decided to outlet through
the State Fanner’s Market and
were fortunate to get a spot." He
added that Southern Foods is also
marketing emu meat to a variety
of gourmet restaurants throughout
the South.
The 58-year-old former mayor
of Morrisville, who retired after
27 years as a field technician with
a Raleigh office products firm,
feels the emu wiU the salvation
of farmers in North Carolina. He
calls emu raising an alternate
form of agriculture in a slate
where lots of land is no longer
available to growers of such
crops as tobacco. "Everywhere
you look you see housing and of
fice developments gobbling up
See EMU, page 2
Hodgkins narrows engineer search; Feb. hire expected
By Mary Beth Phillips
Morrisville Town Manager David
Hodgkins should be introducing a
new director of engineering to the
town board at its meeting in mid-
February.
He has narrowed the candidates
for the position from approximately
50 to two "highly qualified"
finalists, he said, and has conducted
second interviews with each
finalist.
"They each have municipal
engineering experience, some pri
vate sector experience, and their
professional engineering license,"
he said. Both are also familiar with
the area.
The town board approved the
position at its meeting Nov. 25, and
plications ware accepted through
Dec. 18. The position was author
ized at pay grade 29, which ranges
between $39,600 and $58,500.
Hodgkins said he expects to pay the
new engineer between $40,000 and
$50,000 a year to start
Hodgkins said the position is
needed because of the r^id growth
of the town. Morrisville has con
tracted with engineering consul
tants for inspections and infrastruc
ture needs, but the volume of these
""'1.'
OPENING SOON-Morrisville’s Carmike Cinema
will hold a grand opening Jan. 30 when it will be
gin showing movies on its 16 screens. The cine
ma is among the largest in the state.
properties and synergistic effects
between radiation and defect be
havior in solids."
In 1993, he was the recipient of
the American Nuclear Society
Mishima award for outstanding
contributions to nuclear fuels and
materials research and develop
ment, and received the Alcoa Foun
dation Research Achievement
Award at NCSU in 1988.
Currently, he is a member of the
NCSU faculty senate representing
the College of Engineering and is
the vice-chairman of the Carolinas
Central Chapter of the ASM-
Sm PRESTON, pag« 2
LINGA MURTY
Town board
moves toward
land closing
Commissioners confident site
meets fire department’s needs
needs has risen in recent months.
"We can save money by doing it
in house," Hodgkins said, "and the
person would be more readily
available to staff and the develop
ment community."
He also expects the engineer to
take a strong lead role in coordinat
ing development issues for the
town.
Pick your seats;
movie compiex
ready for show
By Mary Beth Phillips
The re-release of Star Wars will
be among the offerings at the new
Carmike Cinema in Morrisville as
itpns Jan. 31.
TTie 16-screen theater will be
among the largest in the state and
the largest in the Triangle area. The
opening was delayed about two
months by Hurricane Fran.
Lewis Tew, Carmike’s city man
ager for the Raleigh area, was jug
gling times last week to schedule
16 movies with a minimum of
chaos. He said he will schedule two
movies every five minutes.
On Jan. 30, a grand opening gala
will be held with more than 500
city and county officials, con-
Sm pick, page 8
By Mary Beth Phillips
Morrisville is expected to close
on the site for fire station No. 3 on
Jan. 31, after receiving assurances
from a consulting firm that the site
is safe.
The town board voted 4-1 Mon
day night to proceed with the clos
ing, provided written assurance is
received from the state ground-
water section that the town’s
liability will be limited if an en
vironmental problem was found
after the purchase.
The bo^d also approved a hike in
cable television rates, and set a
public hearing for a proposed plan
for collector streets.
The 4.123-acre fire station site, at
the intersection of N.C. 54 and
McCrimmon Parkway, was
selected about nine months ago, but
the purchase was delayed after
neighboring landowners told offi
cials there was a gasoline station on
the site many years ago.
The owners, Charles and Nancy
Zimmerli of Chapel Hill, hired
Withers and Ravenel Engineers of
Cary to take soil samples to ensure
the site was environmentally safe.
The engineers found one home fuel
oil tank and removed it from the
site.
Commissioner Mark Silver-Smith
expressed concern that the water in
a pond on the site bad not been
tested, and voted against the motion
to proceed with the closing this
week.
Town Manager David Hodgkins
assured the board that the engineer
ing firm took soU borings at the
pond, which would have shown
contamination in the water.
"Nothing in life is risk free,"
Town Attorney Frank Gray told the
board, "but the town has done
everything reasonable...to assure
smnething won’t come up in the fu
ture."
Gray said the state standard for
liability extends 1,500 feet from the
property. There is one well within
that distance.
The fire station would use city
water, and if an environmental con
cern were to show up in the future,
the town would be liable to pay for
hooking the neighboring landowner
up to city water, state officials told
Hodgkins.
Fire Chief Tony Chiotakis is
working with architect Surapon
Sujjavanich on the design of the
station, and hopes to bring plans to
the board by April, he said.
The closing price for the land is
$230,000, Hodgkins said.
In other action, the board ap
proved a proposal from Time-
Wamer Cable which would allow
the company to increase its basic
rate to $9.26 per month.
By the vote, the board agreed that
the company ctsrectly applied FCC
ratemaking rales and procedures to
arrive at the figure.
Dahr Tanoury of the Triangle J
Council of Governments told the
board that Time-Wamer Cable has
agreed to install fiber-optic cable
that will improve reception, espe
cially during rain storms.
Time-Warner will collect
$113,321.53 over five years to pay
for the upgrade. This will be done
by raising rates by a dollar a month
per year per subscriber, he said. For
example, customers paid a $1 per
month increase in 1996,. and will
pay an increase of $5 per month in
2000.
Commissioners expressed con
cern that the cable company is al
lowed to collect the money before
providing the service.
"I wish in ray business, I could
charge money to fix something be
fore fixing it," Silver-Smith said.
"This shjff looks good on paper,
but it doesn’t do anything for our
pocketbooks," Phyllis Newnam
said.
Tanoury said Time-Wamer has
already extended fiber optic cable
from its headquarters in Garner to
Smithfield and Selma, and plans to
connect to Cary and Morrisville
within three months.
The board also set a public hear
ing for a proposed collector street
plan for the Feb. 10 meeting.
Two streets are under construc
tion; the proposed Airtech Drive
between International Drive and
Airport Boulevard, and an un
named street between Morrisville
Parkway and Morrisville-Carpenter
Road.
See OTHER, page 8
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