■^Morrisvilfe &l Preston
The Proaress
Published Monthly
Morrisviile, NC
January 29,1998
Gambling a ‘snap’
With patents in hand, a Morrisviile entrepreneur, partner prepare to market their invention
A NEW VENTURE—Greg Patterson of Morrisviile hopes a new
harness he and a partner have developed will catch on.
By Mary Beth Phillips
A couple of aerospace engineers
got together about five years ago
and thought up a horse halter, using
a process that compresses pow
dered metal, the same process used
for some aerospace parts.
For five years they have been per
fecting the harness, which they
named a Turtle Snap, because the
clamp resembles a snapping turtle.
Greg Patterson of Holly Creek
Road in Morrisviile and his partner,
Mark Welsh of Florida, are finally
ready to begin manufacturing and
marketing the halters, which will
automatically release at 400 pounds
of pressure, unlike the current state-
of-the-art halter, called a panic
snap.
“We could sit around and play
with this thing until we’re old and
gray,” Patterson said of the engi
neer’s penchant to keep improving
the product. “But we think we’re
Rotary Club
established
in Morrisviile
By Mary Beth Phillips
A provisional Rotary Club was
formed in Morrisviile Tuesday at a
lunch meeting at Sorento’s, led by
Cleve Folger of the Cary-Page Ro
tary Club, who has been assigned
to help organize a Rotary Club in
Morrisviile.
Thirteen prospective members
attended the meeting and decided
that future meetings will be held at
5 p.m. on Tuesdays and drinks and
hors d'oeuvres will be the fare,
rather than a traditional meal.
The site of the meetings will be
rotated, just as in the first Rotary
meetings in 1905, which is actually
how the club got its name.
Before the club permanently
charters, there must be 20 charter
members. No more than two can fit
a certain classification, such as
insurance or government.
“I am so excited about extending
a club to Morrisviile, I can’t stand
it,” Folger said after the meeting.
“I’m delighted with the quality of
people here, and very excited.”
Ten members of existing Rotary
Clubs also attended, offering back
ground and information on Rotary.
Bill Stone of the Raleigh Rotary
Club said his club was the first
civic club in North Carolina and
that Rotary Club was the first civic
club in the world. The organization
has a $101 million budget and
gives more scholarships than any
other foundation, he told the group.
There are more than 27,000 clubs
and more a million members
worldwide, he said.
Lynn Loots of the West Raleigh
Rotary Club gave some examples
of the service projects by her club
last year. Of course, Rotarians ring
the bell for the Salvation Army for
Christmas each year. Her club also
contributed to a handicapped pro
gram at a church, helped with con
struction and maintenance at Um-
stead Park, and got involved with
Exploris, the new science museum
under construction in Raleigh.
She said there are opportunities
for donating to such things as
building wells in India, and the
Rotary Foundation will match do
nations by individual Rotary Clubs.
Jay Miller, president of the Cary-
Page Rotary Club, said his organi
zation makes back-to-school pack
ets for elementary schools, and the
project has increased from 150 the
first year to 1,200 nine years later.
See ROTARY, page 4
BUILDING FOR BIRDS—Dr. Norman Banks,
environmental steward for Prestonwood Country
Club shows off one of several houses the main
tenance department has built for bluebirds.
They’re for the birds, bats too
By Mary Beth Phillips
Keeping dozens of families of
bluebirds happy has become a habit
for some members of the Preston
wood Golf Course Maintenance
Department.
They know that the bluebirds will
only build their nests out of pine
straw, and that they like their
houses to be exactly five feet off
the ground. They also like the bot
tom of the entrance hole to be 5-
and-a-half or six inches from the
floor, and for the house to face to
the Southeast.
Though they are picky, they are
friendly, and don’t mind human
contact, said Dr. Norman Banks,
environmental steward for the
Prestonwood Country Club.
Since 1995, bluebird houses have
been springing up all along the
fairways and near the greens at the
three golf courses. There are now
64 happy bluebird families winter
ing in wooden bird houses along
the “bluebird trail,” and about 25
more bluebird houses line the walls
of the maintenance shop, ready to
be set up this spring in time for
nesting. There is already a bluebird
house at every golf course hole,
and soon there will be two.
John Hilton, former maintenance
supervisor, started the effort, and is
still involved, but he has passed the
leadership to Banks, who also takes
care of the woodworking for Pres-
See THEY’RE, page 2
Cromwell recuperating from
recent stem cell transplant
By Mary Beth Phillips
Mayor Gordon Cromwell is recovering well from a stem cell
transplant Jan. 16, and is living temporarily in an apartment
that is isolated from other people and animals.
The surgery was performed on an outpatient basis, and the
first five or six days were “not the best days of your life,”
Cromwell said Tuesday. He said he is still kind of weak and
groggy, but he feels much better and hopes to go home next
week.
After stem cell surgery, which kills the existing bone mar
row, there is a period of about 20 to 30 days while the body is
See CROMWELL, page 2
Police officers say close calls
warrant need for SWAT unit
By Mary Beth Phillips
After facing several situations
with armed suspects in the past
year, six Morrisviile police officers
are training to become a SWAT
team.
Sgt. Alan Rushing’s report was
among those given by town de
partment heads at a work session
on Jan. 10 for the Morrisviile
Board of Commissioners.
Rushing said the police officers
paid for their uniforms out of their
replacement uniform budget, sup
plementing with money from their
own pockets. The training, which
will take place at Wilson Commu
nity College in February, is free.*
Rushing said during the past year
there have been several instances
where the training would have
come in handy.
On Dec. 14, Officer E.J. Hanks
stopped a vehicle on a routine traf
fic violation and later discovered
See OFFICERS, page 3
ready now.”
The partners have already gotten
three patents on the product, in
cluding a copyright on the name.
Turtle Snaps.
Patterson got the idea after going
to horse shows with his wife, Ash
ley, the horse enthusiast of their
home.
“I would watch the horses break
free. I found out that it was gener
ally around 400 pounds of pressure
where they would break the halter
or line. This product will release
before anything gets broken.”
He said the halter is also easier to
put on than the panic snap used by
horsemen today. It enables the
horseman to tether and untether the
horse with just one hand.
He is holding a meeting in the
Carpenter community on Friday,
Jan. 30, to discuss investment op
portunities.
Patterson got the idea for the hal
ter while working at Pratt-Whitney
in Florida. He had graduated from
N.C. State University with a degree
in aerospace engineering in 1986.
He spent eight or nine years in
Florida, but moved back home (he
met his wife at State) about three
years ago when he took a job at
See GAMBLING, page 2
Elections Board
reviews charges
of ‘flyer’ slander
By Mary Beth Phillips
Former mayor Margaret Broad-
well has filed a complaint with the
State Board of Elections, accusing
Ernest Lumley, who served as
mayor from 1982 to 1997, for
mailing out false and slanderous
flyers during the recent campaign.
Mrs. Broadwell said she traced
the flyers through the meter num
ber to Right of Way Equipment
Company and was told by officials
there that Lumley had requested
permission to mail the letters and
had paid cash for the mailing.
Lumley, a purchasing agent with
the North Carolina Department of
Transportation, has done business
with Right of Way Equipment
Company for many years.
The complaint cites general stat
ute 163-274, sections 7 and 8, both
of which are class II misdemeanors.
Section 7 focuses on the fact that
the flyers were nof signed (anony
mous, derogatory flyers). Section 8
focuses on the falsity or “reckless
disregard of its truth or falsity when
such report is calculated or in
tended to affect the chances of such
candidate for nomination or elec
tion.”
Yvonne Southerland, deputy di
rector of campaign finance with the
State B.oard of Elections, said Mrs.
Broadwell’s complaint was hand-
delivered on Dec. 17. She said the
elections board is investigating the
allegations and should come to a
conclusion by mid-February. If a
violation is found, the state board
would report the violation to the
Wake County District Attorney for
prosecution.
Alan Briones, Wake County As
sistant District Attorney, said the
maximum penalty for a class II
misdemeanor is 60 days in prison
or supervised probation, and/or a
fine up to SLOCIO.
Mrs. Southerland said using the
business meter was not a violation
because he paid for the use.
Lumley said a candidate, whom
he declined to identify, to mail the
flyers because of financial con
cerns, asked him. It was cheaper to
mail through a meter than with
regular postage.
“I didn’t unpackage them. They
had address labels on them, and
were sealed up,” Lumley said.
“I have no idea who put it to
gether, where it came from, what
was in there,” Lumley said. “It
looked like there were two different
kinds of materials in there. One
looked like a folder, the other
looked like an envelope.”
Lumley said he also picked up
some address labels for the same
person from the State Board of
Elections. He said he had to pay
part of that money out of his
pocket, but that he was reimbursed
for that money and for the money
paid to mail the letters.
Lumley said he paid out of his
own pocket to have a letter pub
lished in the Progress before the
election. He said he wrote the letter
because many Morrisviile residents
had asked his opinion about the
candidates. “The only thing I had
heard was rumors, especially about
Bill Case and Jan Faulkner. I didn’t
know them, but what I put in there
was based on what I had heard and
was my personal opinion at that,
time,” he said.
The letter said that if Mrs.
Broadwell and Case and Faulkner
were elected that they would fire
town employees,, including the
manager, the finance officer, the
planner, and the clerk. He went on
to call Commissioner Mark Silver-
Smith unprofessional, and to say
that Mayor Broadwell wanted'.an
office so she could make it. a
throne. “Mayor Broadwell wants a
kingdom and she the queen,” he
said in that letter.
He endorsed current commission
ers Billy Sauls and Phyllis
Newnam who were unseated by
Faulkner and Case, and political
newcomer Gordon Cromwell, who
was successful in obtaining the
mayor’s seat.
He added that he signed his name
to that letter, and that he'always
signs his name. “I’m not very good
at writing, so I don’t try to.'put a
whole lot of things out in the mail,”
he added.
Mrs. Broadwell said in her com
plaint that the flyers “bombarded
the public, stating totally false,
slanderous statements as if it were
the truth about my character and
See ELECTIONS, page 2
Bulk Rate
Postage Paid
Morrisviile, N.C.
Permit #23
Delivered expressly to the
residents of Morrisviile and
Preston ^