Newspapers / Morrisville and Preston Progress … / July 30, 1998, edition 1 / Page 1
Part of Morrisville and Preston Progress (Morrisville, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
mm. ■^Morrisville Sc Preston The Proaress Published Monthly Morrisville, NC July 30,1998 Jordan, Laettner, REM to compete at Jimmy V Classic By Mary Beth Phillips Staff Writer Over 100 celebrities from ACC basketball coaches to television actors and nationally known sportscasters will play in the fifth annual Jimmy V Celebrity Golf Classic at Prestonwood Country Club August 30. Local fans will be pleased to see basketball great Michael Jordan, who was unable to make the tourna ment last year. Board beefs up eateries The Morrisville Board of Commissioners approved a Texas Steakhouse at its meeting July 27, along with several other develop ments and a plan to upgrade the town’s sewage system. The steakhouse will be located on the southeast side of Airport Boulevard across from Slater Road on 4.9 acres. The restaurant will be . 7,410-square-feet with seating capacity for 240 customers (includ ing about 40 seats at a bar). Plans also call for a future three-story motel, but developers said it will be built much later. There will be 90 parking spaces for the steakhouse. Developers plan to open the steak house in late fall. C.T. Moore led a lengthy discussion about washing dumpsters, hoping to prevent runoff from the parking lot from entering the town’s sewage system. The board also approved plans for two buildings in Enterprise Center at the southwest corner of Watkins Road and Perimeter Park Drive. The two large office buildings will . be built on 9.98 acres of land. The buildings will be 57,000 and 59,600 square feet. There will be 586 park ing spaces. Bob Yelverton of Weeks/Lichtin said only one of the buildings would be built immedi ately. Board members expressed con cern about traffic in the area, and asked that Weeks/Lichtin fund a traffic light at the entrance of the project off Perimeter Park Drive. Another office and distribution center will be built in Commonwealth Business Center at the end of Dominion Drive. Commissioners approved plans for the 18,850-square-foot building to be built on 7.4 acres with 69 park ing spaces. After C.T. Moore asked if a traffic light could be put in at Dominion Drive and Aviation Parkway, the developer, Brian Starkey, said it would not be fair for the last lot to be developed to fund the light for the whole development, so Moore amended his motion and withdrew the requirement for the traffic light. The board also agreed to allow Weeks/Lichtin to apply for an early grading permit for lot 8 of Paramount Center, a 24.4 acre lot that is planned to hold two 150,000 square foot office buildings. The board accepted a proposal from Rod Butler to prepare a sewer master plan for the unserved areas of Morrisville for a cost of $19,500. Golden Corral breaks ground Construction on the long-awaited Golden Corral restaurant at Park Place Shopping Center has begun, and construction on the shopping center should begin in the next few weeks, according to Charlotte Ellis, market and public relations director for FAC Realty Trust, developers of the shopping center. The plaza, which will feature at Food Lion grocery store, had been on hold for almost two years. Part of the reason for the delay was the acquisition of the plaza by FAC Realty from Kane Realty Co. Morgan Stewart Furniture Galleries and Super Cuts are the first smaller businesses to sign con tracts to lease space in the shopping center, which is slated to be occu pied next Spring, Ms. Ellis said. Morrisville has been anxiously awaiting construction of its first shopping center, to be located next to the Park Place Cinemas, which have been operating since last Spring. He will be joined by actors Patrick Duffy and Susan Anton, Terry Gannon of ABC Sports, Dick Vitale of ESPN, several Carolina Hurricanes hockey players and coach Paul Maurice, Duke coach Mike Kyzyzewski, N.C. State coach Herb Sendek and Georgia Tech coach Bobby Cremins. Also playing are all of the mem bers of Hootie and the Blowfish and R.E.M., US Figure Skater Todd Eldredge, former Notre Dame Football Coach Lou Holtz (also for merly of NC State), Duke grad Christian Laettner of the Atlanta Hawks, and many, many others. The events begin Friday, August 28, with a pairings party for spon sors and celebrities, where the weekend’s golf pairings are announced. On Saturday, a putting contest will be held from 8 to 9 a.m., a celebrity tennis challenge for sponsors and members of Prestonwood Country Club will be held at 9 a.m. Shotgun start for a practice round will be held at 10 a.m., followed by a fashion show and lunch at noon. At 6 p.m. Saturday, a silent auction and cocktails will be held, followed by the black tie gala dinner and show at 8 p.m. On Sunday, the golf participants will breakfast at the country club at 7 a.m.; a Dennis Walters Golf Exhibition will be held at the driving range at 8:45 a.m., and the main event begins at 9;30 a.m. About 20,000 spectators are expected to attend the golf classic. Photo aiNTsmirn-D by Tc»y Zurhk Morrisville resident Tony Zurek was a preeminent glass blower for 50 years. He recently slowed down and also closed his tavern. The end of a successful era Tony’s Tavern, glass-blowing shop close ‘I knew the market here for specialized glass work. People would come in and ask if I could design something for them.’ By Mary Beth Phillips Staff Writer In 1940, Tony Zurek was mak ing 35 cents an hour sweeping floors in a glass-blowing shop in Chicago. He never swept floors in a bar or tavern, but when he decided to open his own glass- blowing shop in Morrisville in 1975 he opened a tavern in the adjoining room. He didn’t do much advertising. There was no lighted sign, and the building wasn’t the type of build ing that attracted new customers —Tony Zurek to walk in off the street, but word of mouth and a spirit of cama raderie brought him many loyal customers through the years. Now, more than 20 years later, his loyal customers are at loose ends, after he closed up shop at the end of June. Zurek said running the tavern was a hobby, a “plaything,” a way to meet people and something he had always wanted to do. But his See THE, page 2 New police station needs new chief By Mary Beth Phillips Staff Writer The police have settled in and are enjoying their new building, despite going through some “rough waters” to get there, and are looking forward to welcoming a new police chief. Interim Police Chief Allen Rushing said the move was made about one week after Police Chief Bruce Newnam was terminated, a body was found in a car off Davis Drive during the same week, which required a larger-than usual Morrisville investigation; and the annual budget process was being completed. “But we worked as a team,” he said. “Our officers arc mature and professional.” Rushing said he didn’t ask for the interim job but has now held every position possible within the depart ment since he joined the town staff in March of 1989. He guided the department through the changes, but is looking forward to the appoint ment of a perma nent chief. The town has narrowed the list of candidates to three as of July 24, after receiving approximately 50 applications. Town manager David Hodgkins said a decision should be made by the middle of August. Meanwhile, former chief Newnam is appealing his firing. The new building, which is about four times as large as the quarters the department occupied on Page Street, features a fireproof evidence room and storage room, a chief’s office and conference room, a squad room with four large cubbies that the eight officers now share, offices for two patrol sergeants, and two investigators, an interview room, storage room, break room and lock er room with showers. There is also See NEW, page 2 The Nortel Million Dollar Hole In One Shootout will be held at 3:30 p.m. and a post-tournament awards banquet will be held at 4 p.m. This year for the first time. Triangle businesses are helping raise money for the classic. “Tee it Up for V” displays are set up. People who donate $1 will have their names written on a paper golf ball and dis played in the establishment. Among those participating are 360 Communications, Jersey Mike’s, Jillian’s, Sir Speedy Printing, Tony’s Bristol-Meyers cuts 120 jobs By Mary Beth Phillips Staff Writer About 120 of Bristol-Myers’ 428 employees will lose their jobs as the company reorganizes to produce different products over the next few months, a Bristol-Myers spokesman announced in July. Layoffs were announced July 9, most of which will be effective at the end of August. Meanwhile, the plant will begin manufacturing Four-Way Nasal Spray in October, and Keri Lotion by June 1 of next year. The Ban deodorant product line will also continue to be manufac tured at the Morrisville plant. “Obviously we will have some excess head count between now and next June,” said Charles Borgognoni, associate director of public affairs for Bristol-Myers headquarters in Syracuse, New York. “But we don’t want to sever peo ple and bring them back in. So we will offset it by working on some See BRISTOL, page 2 Board approves 300 apartments despite protests By Mary Beth Phillips Staff Writer Despite loud protests from more than 30 residents that no more apart ments are needed in Morrisville, the town board on July 13 approved plans for Waterford Place, a 300- unit apartment complex with a den sity of 10.5 units per acre. During the public comment time at the beginning of the meeting, four residents urged the commissioners not to approve the plans. Alan Klimeck said, “I am deeply concerned about the continued development and oversaturation of apartments. Every time I come to the meetings, there are more apart ments on the agenda. Apartments, condominiums and townhomes now make up about 85 percent of the res idential developn^ht... . “Cameron Chase? the mother of all apartments, could have been a Wessex,” he said, noting that a Morrisville apartment complex is featured on the cover of the Triangle area apartment guide. “Let’s do something for residents, not transients,” he said. “Let’s keep the name Morrisville, instead of Apartmentsville.” Concerned resident Richard Elliott said high-density plans outnumber single-family plans six to one in Morrisville. “We must get the situation under control here,” he said. “We must hold the line on all future, huge, high-density plans.” He also told Mayor Gordon Cromwell that he was counting on him to break the tie See BOARD, page 2 Town halts high density apartments By Mary Beth Phillips Staff Writer The cry of “No more apartments” has finally been heeded. Morrisville commissioners put a moratorium on all new high-density residential development that has not yet been submitted to the town until the land use plan is updated, proba bly eight months to a year from now. The board also rescinded a fee increase in water meters for sprin kler systems, which had risen from about $600 to $2,200. The board on July 27 heeded repeated requests from residents that no more apartments are needed in town. After the motion made by Mark Silver-Smith and seconded by Jan Faulkner, Leavy Barbee argued that most of the traffic through Morrisville is not generated by local developments, but by people from other towns coming through on the way to the Research Triangle Park. Barbee later voted with the majority to suspend the development. The moratorium would apply to all developments over five units per acre. Commissioners said the mora torium would not apply to the two projects already in the pipeline. The Martin project includes 380 apart- See TOWN, page 2 Bulk Rate Postage Paid Morrisville, N.C. Permit #23 Delivered expressly to the resi- ?« dents of Morrisville and Preston i?.: Oyster Bar, Jimmy V’s Steakhouse, Pizza Pasta Cafe, and the Triangle area Wal-Mart stores. In the first four years, the Jimmy V Golf Classic has raised $2.4 million for cancer research. Parking for the event is at the NC State Fairgrounds and Carter-Finley Stadium. The $5 bus ticket to Prestonwood includes a pairings list and program. Admission is also $5. Tickets may be purchased through Ticket Master or at the box office on the day of the event.
Morrisville and Preston Progress (Morrisville, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
July 30, 1998, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75