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The Morrisville & Preston ress Published Monthly Morrisville, N.C May 28,1997 Community mourns loss Sgt. Godwin remembered as devoted officer, family man By Ron Page A long line of officers, standing at attention with their police dogs sitting tall on their leads, lined the parking lot at Brown-Wynne Funeral Home Tuesday morning as the funeral for Sgt. Earl Godwin took place. Other officers stood at attention, dressed in full regalia, lining the sidewalks around the funeral home. Inside the chapel, it was standing room only. Several hundred police cars from all jurisdictions and from counties as far away as Cumberland County filled the parking lots, and took their places in the long procession from Brown-Wynne to the Raleigh Cemetery off U.S. 70 where Godwin was buried. Richard Allen, a retired minister from Calvary Baptist Church in Morrisville who now lives in Pennsylvania, had come down to conduct the service. Allen was a former policeman himself, and spoke to the officers in attendance about the importance of family. He said it was important that Godwin had kissed his grandmother on the cheek before he left her home, just hours before he died. What’s all the chatter? Despite chilly reception, swimmers give pool 'cool’ review By Mary Beth Phillips At most 10 or 12 people at a time were in the Morrisville swimming pool on opening day May 24, per haps due to the 71-degree water temperature. "I'm a swimmer, but I don't like cold water," said Erich Hertzog, 12, as he balanced on a water noodle in the shallow end. Lifeguard Leslie Schnell wore a jacket in the lifeguard stand, even though the air temperature was in the eighties. "I've been splashed with water," she explained. The deejay hired by the town did not organize games such as limbos because the size of the crowd was never large enough to warrant it, but those who did come enjoyed the music. He was taking requests of top 40 and oldies. Lindsay Atalese and Jill Spillane were selling hot dogs, candy and ice cream, set up by the conces sionaire from the YMCA, but busi ness was far from brisk. "The lifeguards are good custom ers," Miss Spillane said. See SWIMMERS, page 5 Morrisville home base for Hurricanes The Carolina Hurricanes have leased about 20,000 square feet of office space in the Aerial Center in Morrisville from which to run hockey operations. Officials signed a two-year lease for the office which will contain the marketing opera tions, ticketing office, hockey operations and public relations offices, said Chris Brown, media director for the Hartford Whal ers. About 10 or 15 people will be coming down to work in the facility, which is at 5000 Aerial Center, Suite 100. Some local people are being interviewed now to bring the operation up to about 40 employees. Brown said. This will be the hockey team’s only office except for temporary offices probably within the Greensboro Coliseum while the arena is being built in Raleigh, Brown said. He said hockey officials chose the office based on the type of space needed. “It was the best space available for our needs.” Allen had presided at Godwin's wedding and had been close to his family. He had presided at his father's funeral and his grandfather's funeral, he said. Those who knew Godwin—and that was just about everyone in the tight-knit community of 2,000 peo ple—were stunned when they heard the department's 33-year-old canine officer was killed early last Thurs day afternoon on Church Street while responding to a routine dis turbance call. The sadness was made moreso when investigators revealed God win was not wearing a seatbelt when his car collided with another and he was thrown from the vehi cle. Several hundred police offi cers, officials, friends, and relatives attended visitation rites Monday evening. A nine-year veteran of the 11 full time member department, Godwin, was known to many by the com pany he kept, a Holland-trained black Belgian malinois named Gray. The dog, fellow police offi cers say, was devoted to Godwin. While in the small police head quarters building. Gray always stayed at Godwin's feet, under his desk. On the road he was kept in a specially designed cage at the rear of the department's 1988 Land Rover, a vehicle used by Godwin that had been confiscated during a drug raid. The two were seldom separated. Gray even went on va cation with the sergeant who pre ferred not to leave the animal in a kennel, or in the care of a veteri narian. Gray was with Godwin when he died. After the impact, the dog managed to get out of the cage and was found running back toward police headquarters. Fellow workers, town officials, friends and relatives all were numbed by the news. Police Chief Bruce Newnam, who stood by the coffin to greet visitors throughout Monday night's visitation, called it his worst nightmare. "Law enforcement was Earl's life," Newnam said emotionally, holding back tears and admitting he loved Godwin like a son. "The worst thing that can happen to you is to lose one of your people." One of the top ranking officers in the department, holding adminis trative duties along with being in charge of the canine unit, Godwin PARTNERS—Sgt. Earl Godwin and his dog Gray were constant companions as the Morrisville Police Department’s canine unit. was known for his love of animals and family. He and wife, Alison, have a 13-month-old daughter named Michelle. They lived at 7041 Rambling Hills in the Trey- brooke Apartments off Church Road and were in the midst of See COMMUNITY, page 3 HAVING FUN—Meaghan Johnson, 3, and sister Allison, 7, (left and right) were among the first to try out Morrisville’s new swimming pool on opening day May 24. Their mother Liz Johnson kept the girls company from the edge. Community’s brush with rabid pup a costiy ordeai By Mary Beth Phillips Morrisville's first case of rabies has sent a whole neighborhood scurrying to their doctors' offices for shots, after a cute new puppy that everyone wanted to play with contracted the disease. It is the first case of rabies in a pet in Wake County since 1994, al though rabies cases in wild animals have been on the rise here. Marcelle and Randy Riley got the puppy for their 9-year-old son, Randy, who had tested allergic to dogs until recently. They brought home the mixed-breed Siberian Husky and German Shepherd puppy April 7, and named her Pre cious. It was nine-year-old Randy’s first dog, and "he had been having a fit for one,” his mother said. Animal control officers suspect that the puppy contracted rabies from a raccoon carcass that was brought up into the yard of his old home, the home of Bobby Davis on Family Farm Road off McCrimmon Drive. But the Davises wonder why none of the other puppies tested positive for rabies, since they all had contact with the raccoon. The dog was put to sleep on May 2, after it showed signs of illness and aggressiveness toward family members. The test came back posi tive for rabies on May 6. The Rileys and about 25 other families in ^e Green Drive/Stella Court neighborhood, including Mayor Margaret Broadwell, have taken post-exposure rabies shots. Six other puppies from the same litter were tracked down by County Animal Control officers and put to sleep. The only way an animal can be tested for rabies is using brain tissue after the animal is dead. The tests on the other puppies have all come back negative. "If I knew then what I know now, I would have took her in [to the veterinarian] the first day," said Marcelle Riley. "Because animals are all natured different, they have different personalities. Sometimes, like with the shots we’ve got, I, thought maybe her shots were not setting so well with her. There were so many things going on, I just didn't put my finger on it. It just wasn't enough to warrant taking her in." The dog began to show signs of rabies after having her first rabies shot on April 25. According to Dicke Stoop, Wake County Animal Control Program Manager, "Vacci nations can speed up the develop ment if the virus is in there." She added that the Rileys "didn't do anything wrong. The puppies weren't ready for vaccinations yet." But Precious didn't show active signs'of rabies. "The only time ours was mean, I was sweeping the porch. She went after that broom like a wild animal. I didn't know, with a Siberian Husky or Shepherd, I thought maybe she was a little too vicious. I thought maybe this puppy is going to be aggressive." On the way to the veterinarian on May 1 after the puppy had had sei zures that afternoon, the puppy bit Robin Riley, 19, on the hand. "We were all bit or scratched, but not like a penetrating bite," Mrs. Riley said. "This was during the shedding period, so crucial a time. There are many others on this street that got it during the crucial time." She said she wishes she had been better educated about rabies. "I did not know until this took place there are two kinds of rabies," Mrs. Riley said. "There's paralegic rabies, when an animal comes growling and angry at you, and there's dumb rabies—they begin to get blind, they lose their hearing, they kind of wobble. We did see some aggressiveness, the very last day." The Rileys never suspected rabies until the end. "Animals can get viruses and get sick just like adults do," Mrs. Riley said. "They begin to lose their appetite...If I see an other animal acting like that, I would know now,” she said. Mrs. Riley came to the meeting of the Morrisville Town Board of Commissioners in mid-May to ask for assistance in funding shots for her neighbors. "Most of the neighbors have been very understanding. But there See BRUSH, page 2 Board casts barbs Shiloh sewer torrid topic at meeting By Mary Beth Phiilips A May 14 budget work session erupted into a shouting match and three commissioners left the meet ing after Commissioner Mark Sil ver-Smith accused Commissioner Leavy Barbee of trying to get sewer to his land in Shiloh so that he can sell the land. Silver-Smith said Morrisville should serve the entire Shiloh area at one time, instead of running lines to a small area that happens to be where Barbee's family owns land. A sewer plan being developed by Bass, Nixon, and Kennedy, the town's consulting engineering firm, is poised to be let out for bids as soon as the connection with Cary makes water and sewer treatment capacity available for the Shiloh area. As Barbee was taking his turn commenting on the budget, and praising the fact that water and sewer extension to Shiloh is in cluded, Silver-Smith interrupted him, "Why don't you tell them why you want it? Because people like you up there want to sell your land, make money and get out.” "You are just stupid," Barbee re plied. "I've got a problem with that." Silver-Smith said. "You want to sell your property." "I'm not going to let this man tell me this kind of stuff. ...I work for everybody in this town, Buddy," Barbee said. "It has to do with honesty," Sil ver-Smith said. "You're out of line," said Mayor Pro Tern Billy Sauls to Silver- Smith. "I'm tired of the lies," Silver- Smith said. "I'm going home. I can’t take this," Commissioner C.T. Moore said. "I did say I will sell some land," Barbee said. "Because I have some extra to sell." "This town will spend $500,000 so you can sell your land," Silver smith said. "Develop the whole area. That’s what the people up there want." "The town board didn't authorize the $10,000 to put a plan together for the whole area," said Mayor Margaret Broadwell. "It went to the town engineer and it has not hap pened." Broadwell had pushed for a mas ter plan that would weigh alterna tives for extending water and sewer to the Shiloh area at a work session on March 17. She proposed having the plan developed by Bass, Nixon and Kennedy at a cost of $10,000, but the board voted to have the work done in-house. The town's recently-hired engineer Jay Gibson agreed to do the work within two to three months. He faced some de lays getting topographic maps he needed to begin the project. "If you say you want to develop a See SHILOH, page 4 BULK RATE POSTAGE PAID MORRISVILLE, NC PERMIT #23 Delivered expressly to the residents of Morrisville and Preston
Morrisville and Preston Progress (Morrisville, N.C.)
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