IHIh ■^Morrisville & Preston
The Prooress
Published Monthly
Morrisville, NC
March 26,1998
Residents oppose park’s name change
201 sign petition in support of Lumley Park
By Mary Beth Phillips
Saying that people were “extreme
ly upset” that the board of commis
sioners changed the name of Lumley
Park back to Morrisville Park,
Morrisville resident Faye Baker
brought seven pages of petitions
representing 201 people before the
board on Monday, March 9.
Board delays
decision to
condemn
man’s iand
By Mary Beth Phillips
When Jesse Marcom bought his
land off Airport Boulevard over 50
years ago, he was surrounded by
woods and open land. Today, he is
hemmed in by hotels, office parks,
and a shopping mall.
Some of the Morrisville board of
commissioners had sympathy for
Marcom, tabling a request by
Perimeter Park developers to con
demn his land to put a road through
Paramount Park Office Park.
The 87-year-old Marcom sat qui
etly at the meeting with neighbors
and a lawyer as Bob Yelverton of
Weeks Lichtin, developers of
Perimeter Park, requested that the
land be taken, because Marcom has
refused to accept appraised values
for the land.
An appraisal by Frank D.
Leatherman, Jr., values the 62.49
acres of land at $2.5 million. He
said after the road is put through,
the value of the land will decrease
to approximately $2.33 million,
estimating damages at $169,852.
He also assessed the impact of the
sewer line, which would run along a
creek in another area of Marcom's
property. The property value, now
$2.33 million, would reduce to
$2,278 million, with damages of
$52,340.
Lichtin’s developers sent the
appraisal to Marcom in October of
1997, and his only response has
been that he does not wish to sell
the land-
Chuck Nichols of the firm
Manning, Fulton & Skinner PA who
was acting as attorney in place of
Ted Oliver, said “Even if the town
has the legal right, that doesn’t
mean it’s right. The road is of
marginal value to the town. Let it
wait until its proper day.”
Lichtin developers said they
received no response from Marcom
after sending the appraisal.
“‘We don’t want to sell,’ is a
response,” Niehols replied.
Yelverton reminded the board that
See BOARD, page 6
“The Lumleys were truly dedicat
ed to this town,” Mrs. Baker said.
“We should feel honored by what
they have given to thi.s town.”
She said the new board needed to
be more considerate of others, and
to take care of the more pressing
issues of the town.
“I am made fun of almost daily
beeause of what you commissioners
are doing,” she said, during the pub
lic comments portion of the meet
ing.
She turned her petition in to Town
Clerk Evelyn Lumley, who has
remained silent through ail the atten
tion. The park had been named for
herself, town clerk for 21 years, and
her husband, Ernest Lumley, who
was mayor for 12 years.
Earlier, another resident, Randy
Watkins, spoke against the name
change, which was made at the
meeting February 9 in a 3-2 split
decision with new commissioners
Jan Faulkner and Bill Case voting
along with Mark Silver-Smith to
change the name.
“1 didn’t have a problem with the
name of the park before it was
Future gymnast
Spring
Carnival
Weatherstone
Elementary School
held their second
annual Spring
Carnival on March 7.
Over $9,000 was
raised, and every
child won bags full of
prizes and cakes.
Abby Patrick (above)
of ' Preston Village
tries the parallel bar
with help from her
father Ray (right) and
Bill Black (left), who
runs the Little Gym for
preschoolers. At right,
student Margaret
Smith grabs a lollipop
from the lollipop tree
during the school’s
carnival as volunteer
Sandra Gutierrez
looks on.
Cavalry skirmishes on Petty Farm Road!
Carpenter man documents Civil War
history sites of local communities
By Mary Beth Phillips
Bryan Edwards began to be inter
ested in the Civil War after learning
about his great grandfather, who
fought in both battles at Manassas in
Virginia, but his interest multiplied
after learning that several skirmish
es took place on his native soil.
Edwards, who runs Edwards
Grocery and Hardware in the
Carpenter community like his father
before him, has been out with his
metal detector to several sites
around the area and brought back
lots of minie balls, which were the
bullets in the days of the Civil War,
and some old rusted stirrups.
Ernie Dollar of Lowes Grove in
Durham was the impetus that got
Edwards started and he has provided
Edwards with a lot of the history of
the battles that were fought here.
“He came to the house one night,
and he had an old map,” Edwards
related. “He asked me if 1 knew
where Moringsville was located. I
had no idea. We tried to place it by
looking at creeks on the map, but we
never could do it,” he said.
“Then I said, ‘Wait a minute, my
mother has got a very unique liame,
Lesbia Moring. Moring is her mid
dle name,’ So I called her and asked
‘where did you get the name
Moring?’ She said after her grand
mother’s people, and she had heard
of the town, it was over on the edge
of Chatham County. You can still
see some of the old houses and
grave sites over there.”
Moringsville is located near the
intersection of O’Kelly Road and
751, west of where Amberly will be
built. It was a major stage stop
because all roads led to
Moringsville, Edwards said.
There was a road that led from
Raleigh through Jones (which is
what Cary was called before Civil
War times) and from Morrisville to
Moringsville; there was a road that
came from Fayetteville through
Holly Springs to Green Level and on
to Moringsville. There was a road
that came from Hillsborough into
Moringsville.
“Back then they didn’t have con-
Photo by Mary Beth Phillips
Bryan Edwards began to be interested in the Civil War after learning
about his great grandfather, who fought in both battles at Manassas.
Crete and asphalt,” Edwards said.
“The roads ran across the ridges
until they found a common place to
cross creeks.” Moringsville was the
place where the roads crossed New
Hope Creek. It was also the place
where two cavalry generals called it
quits at the end of the Civil War.
According to research by Edwards
and Dollar, the two cavalry generals,
Wheeler (Confederate) and
See CARPENTER, page 4
Lumley Park, but I do have a prob
lem with the change,” Watkins said.
“Not going back before the people,
spending $400 of my lax money
repainting signs.”
Watkins also expressed concern
that the same three commissioners
were trying to fire the town manag
er.
“If he’s doing his job, leave him
alone,” he said. “Let’s get the per
sonalities out of things and move on
with town business.”
Mrs, Baker said she spent nine
hours taking the petition around
Huntington townhomes and' the
apartments behind them, and to
Hatcher’s Grove Baptist Church and
Shiloh Baptist Church.
“Most of people at Hatcher’s
Grove do not live in Morrisville,”
she said. But in Shiloh, “I could
have had more signatures if I took
another piece of paper with me. I got
about 32 signatures out there.”
See RESIDENTS, page 4
Broadwell asks
board to fire
town manager
By Mary Beth Phillips
Former Mayor Margaret
Broadwell told the public at the
meeting on March 9 that she had
urged the new members of the board
to join with Mark Silver-Smith and
fire the town manager.
Mrs. Broadwell said she had sup
ported them both in the past elec
tion, and that although Bill Case had
given her his word on certain issues,
he had “let me down.”
“This is not a personal vendetta,”
she said, referring to her relation
ship with Town Manager David
‘This is not a
personai vendetta. ’
—Margaret Broadwell,
former mayor
Hodgkins, “but I know from my
dealings through the years that there
are many shortcomings that need to
be addressed.”
She and Silver-Smith have also
See FORMER, page 2
Morrisville Chamber
supports FedEx hub
By Mary Beth Phillips
The Morrisville Chamber of
Commerce, at its board meeting
March 7, unanimously supported
the bid by Federal Express to locate
a hub at Raleigh-Durham Airport.
The move is in opposition to the
vote of the town board of commis
sioners in February,^ opposing the
proposed FedEx hub.
“We fell the positive economic
impact of the hub outweighed the
concerns of noise pollution and traf
fic problems,” said Mark
Bolebruch, president of the cham
ber, “but at the same time, we are
sensitive to those issues, and we
would like Federal Express to be a
little bit more forthcoming with
infomiation.”
Four board members were absent,
and Morrisville Town Manager
David Hodgkins abstained from
voting, but otherwise the vote was
unanimous.
Bolebruch added that two mem
bers of the board live in the flight
path— -Jim Gunther and Barbara
McGill.
Bolebruch said the vote has not
been communicated yet to the
Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority
and to Federal Express.
“We believe that whatever Fed Ex
would invest, would be at least dou
bled by other companies that would
come in to be near the Fed Ex facil
ity. It would bring a lot of addition
al economic development to the
area.
See MORRISVILLE, page 2
Meyers convicted
Found guilty for destroying
political signs of police chief
By Mary Beth Phillips
Bryce Meyers was convicted of
destroying political signs for
Morrisville candidates in Wake
County District Court February 24.
Meyers, of 260 Aviation Parkway,
was found guilty by Judge Paul
Gessner of injury to personal prop
erty for destroying the sign belong
ing to his former boss. Police Chief
Bruce Newnam during the last elec
tion,
Meyers was allegedly caught in
the act last October by Newnam’s
wife, Phyllis, who was also seeking
re-election to a seat as town com
missioner and Almeria Moore, wife
of Newnam’s campaign manager.
Commissioner C.T. Moore.
Meyers was sentenced to 10 days
in Jail, suspended to one year unsu
pervised probation, a $25 fine and
court costs. He was also ordered to
perform 24 hours of community ser
vice within the next 60 days.
Meyers’ attorney immediately
appealed the conviction to superior
court.
Meyers and his lawyer Evelyn
Davis of Durham both deferred
comment until after the superior
court hearing. A date has not yet
been set for that hearing.
Meyers has said in the past that he
was putting up signs for the candi
dates he was supporting for election.
Bill Case, Jan Faulkner and former
See MEYERS, page 3
Bulk Rate
Postage Paid
:
Morrisville, N.C,
Permit #23
Delivered expressly to the
residents of Morrisville and
- • , 4 .
‘ Preston