IHIh ■^Morrisville &l Preston
The Progress
published Monthly
Morrisville, NC ,,,
October 29,1998
New Morrisville Chamber may be built near town hall
Negotiations underway for land deal
By Mary Beth Phillips
Staff Writer
The Morrisville Chamber of
Commerce is negotiating to buy
land near the current town govern
ment complex for a new chamber
building.
The land is not owned by the town,
but by private individuals. Chamber
representatives would not divulge
the names of the landowners so
negotiations would not be jeopar
dized.
Santa not
coming to
town
Morrisville will' not have a
Christmas parade this year.
The town is looking for an outside
group to organize the parade for
next year. Neither the newly-formed
Rotary Club nor the Chamber of
Commerce could not take it on this
year, said Town Manager David
Hodgkins.
“In most places, its done by some
one other than the town— the
Jaycees, someone like that,”
Hodgkins said..
The parade was organized for the
past three years by the police
department.
“With the new chief and every
body (including a new administra
tive assistant), we didn’t feel it was
a good idea to throw that on them,”
Hodgkins said. “We want them to
spend their time on legitimate
police business.”
He said there was no other town
department that had the staff time to
devote to it this year.
Sports
bar comes
to town
The Grandstand Grille & Tavern, a
new restaurant/sports bar, is slated
to open November 1 at Triangle
Factory Shops.
Co-owner Brian Maiers said the
menu will feature appetizers, salads,
sandwiches and entrees such as ribs,
chicken, steak and pork. A full-ser
vice bar, multiple televisions for
sports enthusiasts and a variety of
sports memorabilia will decorate
the restaurant.
“The Grandstand Grille & Tavern
is a much needed addition at
Triangle Factory Shops, especially
with 10 hotels within walking dis
tance to our center and our close
proximity to Raleigh-Durham
International Airport,” said Triangle
Factory Shops’ General Manager
Gerald J. Boyle.
The new addition, owned and
operated by CKLB, Inc., brings the
total number of merchants at the
mall to 50. The Triangle’s only
outlet center is now 100 percent
leased.
Morrisville
monster
mash
An alternative to trick or treating
will be provided at the Morrisville
Parks and Recreation Department
Halloween Party and Dance, to be
held Saturday, October 31 from 7 to
10 p.m. at the community center.
The event will feature music by
DJ Kenny G, food, drinks, games,
costume prizes and door prizes.
Facility supervisor Tim Grant has a
full slate of non-stop games and
activities planned.
“We want to pack in as much
activity as we can,” Grant said.
A bake-off will also be featured. If
you want to enter, bring along your
favorite dessert. Judging by staff at
the community center will be at 8
p.m.
“We wanted to provide a fun and
safe environment on All Hallows
Eve,” Grant said. “The event will be
well-organized and well supervised.
Come on out.”
Admission is $1.50 for Morrisville
residents and $4 for non-residents.
“I can say that the chamber has the
ability to purchase the land, and has
agreed on the price,” said Mark
Bolebruch, who is heading up the
negodating team.
“There are some details that have
to be taken care of because it is part
of an undivided larger tract,” he
said. He hopes to have a contract
signed within a month, and hopes to
close by the end of the year.
“We don’t want to talk about it too
much until it’s a done deal,” said
Jim Huggins, current chairman of
the chamber. “We don’t want to
jeopardize any of the transaction.”
“We anticipate starting a building
within a year of acquiring the land,”
Bolebruch said. “We will have a
capital campaign and go out and try
to gel contributions from corpora
tions.”
He said having the land will help
obtain contributions.
“They can envision something
when we have a site,” he said.
Ray Lech, the chamber’s executive
director, said he’s looking forward
to the fresh smell of a new building.
“We’re cramped where we’re at,”
he said.
About three years ago, the build
ing, the former Morrisville Christian
Church, was condemned. There are
only a few rooms considered safe
for use, including the front office
The circle of a town’s life
Mary Ferrell stands next to one of her prized possessions, a spinning wheel that was owned by
her great-grandmother.
Morrisville’s Mary Ferrell
spins town’s wheel of history
By Mary Beth Phillips
Staff Writer
When Mary Ferrell was a child growing up in
Morrisville, the town looked a lot different than it
does today.
There were two general stores which sold gro
ceries, a drug .store, and a hosiery mill where most
of the residents worked, located where the Ruritan
park and gazebo are now, Mrs. Ferrell, 87, recalled
from her historic home located just across Franklin
Upchurch Road from the fire station.
The post office was located in Charlie Maynard’s
store in a room to the left, and across Morrisville-
Carpenter Road was the train station—on the other
side of Chapel Hill Road from the Hartness’ his
toric gingerbread home on the corner. At the train
station were two waiting rooms, one for the whites,
one for the blacks, and a room where freight was
stored until people could pick it up. The station
agent had a telegraph machine, and sent Western
Union messages for the residents, she said.
When the train arrived, people would come on
'We only had a preaching
service once a month. Our
preacher lived in Chatham
County, and he would ride
horseback. ’
—Mary Ferrell
their horses and wagons from the Carpenter com
munity or from the Mt. Herman area north of town
to pick up their feed, which arrived on the boxcars
in big bags.
One of the fondest memories of her childhood
was the Easter Egg hunts which were held on part
of her property, a fenced in, grassy lot that was
divided into areas for the different ages of children.
“It was a big event for the children,” she said.
See MORRISVILLE’S, page 2
Fire department making
upgrades, adding new truck
By Mary Beth Phillips
Staff writer
As 1999 approaches, the
Morrisville Fire Department is
working hard to make every
improvement possible, before offi
cials from the Insurance Service
Office come to change the town’s
fire in' urance rating.
Fifti,en years ago, in 1984,
Morrisville was given a rating of
six, just below average, with one
being the best possible rating and 10
being worst.
Fire Chief Tony Chiotakis hopes to
bring that rating up, but the boom in
population and increase in both
industries and commercial develop
ments make the task more difficult
than it would have been for a town
whose growth had been more status
quo.
The new fire station, which will be
the third in Morrisville, was one step
toward improving fire service. It is
under construction at the intersec
tion of McCriinmon Parkway and
NC 54 and is slated to be completed
in early spring.
The town recently bought a 1985
95-foot ladder truck, now being
refurbished in Roanoke, Virginia at
KME Fire Apparatus Inc. It was
bought from Islip Volunteer Fire
Company in Islip, NY. Chiotakis
told town officials it was in excel
lent condition, and the $374,179
purchase price (including refurbish
ing) is nearly half of the approxi
mately $600,000 purchase price for
a new ladder truck.
The truck will include a new 1,500
gallon per minute pump, two or
three additional storage compart
ments, and a new fully-enclosed
cab. The 95-foot ladder will be
removed, sanded, tested and recerti
fied to the manufacturer’s specifica
tions. The truck body will be sanded
and repainted. Delivery of the truck
is expected in December.
The ladder truck completes the
town’s inventory of four engines, a
tanker, and two brush trucks/EMT
trucks. In 1984, the town had three
See FIRE, page 7
space and a bathroom in the back.
The building, including the now-
condemned auditorium space, was
used as Morrisville Town Hall
before the town built the new town
hall.
“The board, the staff... everybody
is looking forward to a time when
we’re able to lock up the property
and get some architectural render
ings and start construction,” Lech
said.
“Golf outings, barbecues, and
things like that have given us -the
downpayment. But we will need lots
of money,” he added.
The chamber’s financial opera
tions have been in the black every
year. Lech said, thanks partly to the
town allowing the chamber to use
building for a minimal fee. The
town provided seed money in 1990
to help start the chamber, and has
provided a contribution in its budget
each year.
Town, chamber
endorse arts center
By Mary Beth Phillips
Staff Writer
The Morrisville Board of
Commissioners and Morrisville
Chamber of Commerce in October
each endorsed the location of the
prestigious performing arts institute
in Morrisville, but a decision will
probably not be forthcoming for
some time. Bill Little, chairman of
the selection committee said this
week.
The selection committee has nar
rowed its sights to five sites, three in
Durham County, one in
Hillsborough, and one in
Morrisville next to Imperial Center
at the intersection of the proposed I-
540.
The committee has also narrowed
its list of potential architects to
four—Cesar Pelli Associates of
New Haven, Conn., Barton Myers
Associates of Beverly Hills, Calif,
Moore Ruble Yudell Architects of
Santa Monica, Calif, and Hardy
HoIzman Pfeiffer Associates of
New York and Los Angeles. The
architect will look at the five sites
and make some preliminary draw
ings which will help the committee
make its decision..
See CHAMBER, page 2
Brian Wilkerson and Chris Spence look over the septic lines with
Vivian Mills, one of 15 homes that is in the process of being hooked
up with sewer service this week. Chris Jenkins, the foreman for the
project for J. F. Wilkerson & Co., is driving the backhoe.
Town sewer lines
finally reach Shiloh
By Mary Beth Phillips
Staff Writer
The first homes in the Shiloh com
munity were hooked up to sewer
service at the end of October.
The sewer lines, constructed by J.
F. Wilkerson & Co., serve 15
homes, the Shiloh Baptist Church
and the Shiloh Community Park and
Luther Green Center. Town money
is budgeted this year for restroom
facilities, which have been sorely
needed at the town’s best baseball
field. The majority of Shiloh resi
dents are still waiting for lines to be
run to their area.
“We sure need it,” said Vivan
Mills, one of the residents to benefit
from the new lines.
“This is great, because then we
can get off the septic tank,” said her
neighbor, Angela Roland. “We’re
having problems with it right now.”
The sewer lines have been contro
versial since the contract was voted
on in August of 1997, with
Commissioner Mark Silver-Smith
opposing the project because he
said the lines could not be added to
in the future to serve more of the
Shiloh area.
He also pointed out that the lines
benefit town commissioner Leavy
Barbee and many of his family
members, while not benefitting the
majority of the Shiloh community.
When Jan Faulkner and Bill Case
came on the board of commission
ers in December, they voted along
with Silver-Smith to abandon the
project, but retracted the vote after
learning that the project was too far
along to save the town any money
by stopping it.
The old board, which then includ
ed Billy Sauls and Phyllis Newnam,
had said it was a first step in .serving
the Shiloh community. Former town
engineer Jay Gibson has said it
would take several million dollars
to serve all of Shiloh.
Shiloh residents have been waiting
for over 10 years for water and
sewer, after voluntarily annexing
into Morrisville in 1985.
This project was delayed for sev
eral months because of negotiations
with the Norfolk and Southern
See SHILOH, page 7
Bulk Rate
Postage Paid
Morrisville, N.C.
Permit #23
Delivered expressly to the residents
of Morrisville and Preston