1
Morrisville and Preston Progress. October 1998 • 7
Changing society for the better
By Roxanne Powers
I agree with those people who
have recently been writing to Ann
Landers, saying that our society
doesn’t give itself enough credit
for the positive changes it has
made. I’ve been arguing this point
for decades-
There have been so many posi
tive changes in the past quarter of
a century, that I’m not going to
offend your intelligence by deign
ing to attempt to list them all. But
after watching my five-year-old
son Jake’s last soccer game of the
season this past Saturday, I’d like
to share a few that I have noticed.
Jake is one example. For
instance, in today’s times, he has
the option of acting something like
his mom and his dad. Of course,
he will still get teased when he
acts like his mom, but it won’t be
because he is labeled as having a
lack of gender identification,
which might have been the case 15
or 20 years ago.
At Jake’s first soccer practice, his
temper flared when “those bad
kids’’ kicked the ball away when
he was kicking the ball. He was
ready to diss those kids for all eter
nity. Then with some heavy duty
explaining on our part, Jake came
around to the point where he is a
strong soccer player in the first
half of the game like his dad.
But somewhere around halftime,
Jake “zones out” and needs some
quite time to just gaze off into like
his mom.
This is when the coach wisely
dispatches Jake to the position of
goalie like his mom. Once there he
usually busies himself with absent-
mindedly poking his fingers
through the net. This past
Saturday, while engaging in this
repetitious behavior, Jake managed
to flip the goal over trapping him
self in it. Again, like his mom.
The relationship in the work
place has changed too. Women
have not only learned the fine art
of networking, we took the time to
observe the guys long enough to
learn how to best put our hor
mones to work. For instance, we
women used to cry and bat our
eyelashes, which only served to
convince men that they could fix
anything by allowing us purchase
a box of Kleenex and new eye
; makeup.
! I’m convinced that it was this
behavior that begat Cleopatra, and
I have to frequently remind myself
that it was all that eye makeup that
caused her to lose sight of what
was important in life. 1 make it a
point to remember this on those
days when I find myself consider
ing the possibility of permanent
eye liner.
These tattoos, or permanent eye
liner, which is after all, nothing
more than a long skinny tattoo
placed next to the eye lashes, is
another example of how women
have been allowed to step into the
men’s turf. These days it’s rather
common for women of all ages to
get tattoos in various locations on
their bodies. In fact. Just a few
weeks ago, a man from church was
telling me about a television pro
gram that featured a woman whose
entire body (including her now
blue face) has been tattooed. Now,
if men take offense to what I’m
fixing to say, I’m truly sorry, but, I
have to say it: I thought most
women were smart enough not to
put themselves through any more
pain than they already received on
a regular basis!
Women, I’m telling you, men
have never thought this thing
through! Those guys with tattoos
didn’t stop to think that their price,
in the way of pain, is that they can
be drafted against their will to
fight wars in strange territories,
and I’m not referring to those areas
where you sport new tattoos! If
you are planning to follow men
into the tattoo arena, you aren’t
thinking about how your price-in-
pain already involves the use of
panty hose, make-up, and hor
mones! I’m telling you, women do
NOT need any more pain!
Well, okay. I do, at times, consid
er getting a tattoo of a honey bee
in a . . . um .. . discreet location.
But, if the pain of the needles had
n’t occurred to me, the pain of
having another human being view
me au natural did. This thought,
and the high price in dollars, are
the only things standing between
me and liposuction.
This brings to mind another thing
the guys didn’t think about! What
happens if I get that honey bee tat
tooed on my . . . and I gain
weight? Is it going to look like a
bi-plane that crashed into the
Rocky Mountains? As I age, which
I am already doing at an alarming
rate, will it pucker up until my der
matologist mistakes it for
melanoma? Or, worse yet, because
I’ve already aged, will the Tattoo
Artist declare, “Ma’am, are you
sure you wouldn’t rather have a
raisin?” Then I’ll have to answer, •
“No, thank you. I’ve already had
five of those, and now they think
they are children."
Giving credit back to the men, I
have to admit that as far as I know,
they at least, were never crazy
enough to torture themselves by
wearing high heels. So, in this
practice, women were smart to
emulate men. Just look at what we
have learned! In this decade alone,
we have begun to wear chunkier
shoes so that while we are pretend
ing not to scratch, we can at least
plant our feet firmly on the
ground, and this act should prevent
our knees from knocking. Because,
you see, we finally came to realize
that knocking knees could serve as
a red flag to remind men that we
are on shaky ground, recalling for
them the sound of bongo drums;
and that sound might put them on
the defensive, and also recall for
them a mode of transportation that
involves pulling us across the
street by the hair.
This, in turn, might remind us of
the necessity of hair bobs, which
would recall the talents of Elena
Bobbit; and just the fact that we
still remember her, might put men
right back on the defensive, and
cause them to make silly jokes
about us.
Now, being the butt of men’s
jokes can make women a bit edgy,
which causes our estrogen to work
overtime. This is contradictory to
how testosterone works, which
puts women right back where we
started: acting like Cleopatra who
finds it necessary to wear too
much make-up, and Elena Bobbitt;
who, in all likelihood, wishes that
she could trade places even with
Monica Lewinsky right about now,
though her role tells us that maybe
things haven’t changed so much
after all.
Roxanne Powers is a Morrisville
resident. Her column appears in
The Progress montly.
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Town Board approves second tower
By Mary Beth Phillips
Staff Writer
Saying, “We’ve fought this as far
as we can fight it,” C,T. Moore made
the motion to approve another
telecommunications tower, but
spoke in favor of a proposed ordi
nance for stricter regulations on
future towers at the town board’s
Oct. 22 meeting.
The plans for the SpectraSite
Telecommunication Tower, being
built for AT&T at the west side of
Melsie Road, about three-quarters of
a mile north of McCrimraon
Parkway had been opposed at public
hearings, along with another tower
approved in September for
BellSouth on the J.F. Wilkerson
property off NC 54.
A public hearing was held at the
meeting for the new ordinance,
which would increase the distance
between towers from 4,000 to 8,000
feet and restrict the towers to the
town’s industrial management zon
ing district. John Weldon, represent
ing SpectraSite, spoke against the
. ordinance, saying Morrisville’s
ordinance for towers is already more
restrictive than neighboring munici
palities. The proposed ordinance
will be considered by the
Morrisville Planning Board on Nov.
Two additional police positions approved
12.
The planning board will also con
sider an ordinance that will allow
the town to use fees received from
developers in lieu of donating recre
ation land for other recreation pro
grams besides obtaining park land.
This ordinance was drafted in
response to the request by the Parks
and Recreation and Cultural
Resources Department to use devel
oper-donated money to erect a bub
ble over the town swimming pool.
The board then approved one
rezoning but tabled another because
the owner did not specify what
would be built there.
Barbara King asked to rezone 8.49
acres on the east side of Chape! Hill
Road, about a quarter mile south of
Perimeter Park Drive from agricul
tural district to industrial manage
ment district. She said a site plan
had already been submitted for an
82,000-square-foot fiex/office
building there. The board voted to
approve the rezoning but specified
that the site can only be used for flex
space.
Joe Satterthwaite wanted to rezone
his third-of-an-acre tract at the
southwest corner of Page Street and
Morrisviile-Carpenter Road diago
nally across from the fire station
from low density residential to vil
lage core. But he said he hoped to
sell the land to a developer later, not
knowing what the use would be. The
board tabled the request to study
what uses could be put there.
Concern was also expressed about
parking on such a small site.
The board on Sept. 28 approved
plans for an industrial center on 68.2
acres off the proposed McCrimmon
Parkway extension which will
extend across Aviation Parkway
adjacent to Evans Drive. The devel
opment will be next to Southport
and will have access off of
Southport Drive.
The initial plan included two
40,000 square foot warehouse build
ings on 6 acres of the property. Site
plans have not been submitted on
the two other lots in the develop
ment.
In other action during the month
of October the board:
□Set a public hearing for Nov. 9
for annexation of the 34.145-acre
Cameron Chase Apartments on the
east side of Chapel Hill Road across
from Morrisville Parkway. The site
plan has already been approved.
□Set a public hearing for Nov. 9
for annexation of 76.531 acres, part
of Parkside development, located
about 400 feet east of Chapel Hill
Road south of the proposed outer
loop.
□Annexed 5.53 acres at 508
Church Street owned by Shemin
Nurseries.
□Annexed 51.16 acres owned by
Weeks Lichlin developers, part of
Paramount Center development,
located on the east side of Chapel
Hill Road about half a mile north of
Watkins Road.
□Authorized two additional patrol
officers in the Morrisville Police
Department. Part of the salaries
would be paid for the first three
years through a Community
Oriented Policing Services (COPS)
grant of $75,000.
□Tabled plans for a warehouse at
the end of Pheasantwood Court in
Huntington Commercial Park after
expressing concerns about industrial
use next to Summit apartments. C.T.
Moore originally voted to deny the
request, but at developer Henry
Hammond’s request, amended his
motion to table the request.
Fire department makes upgrades, adds truck
Continued from page 1
engines, one tanker, two brush
trucks and a smaller equipment
truck. Blit at that time, the popula
tion was about a third of what it is
now.
Last August, a state-of-the art
emergency truck was added to the
fleet, custom designed for
Morrisville’s needs. The truck dou
bles as a mobile command unit, and
includes high tech equipment, from
medical supplies to portable air
breathing systems, and a 15-foot
telescoping light tower featuring
9,000 total watts of light. It holds up
to seven ladders, and contains a 35-
kilowatt generator.
But Chiotakis said adding trucks
and fire stations brings no guarantee
that the rating will go up.
“The rating schedule is extremely
complicated,” he said. “You can’t
look at it and say if you buy three
trucks and build one station you can
reduce your rating by three points. It
has to do with response time, com
munications capability, equipment
on trucks, training, personnel, how
many you have on duty... The opti
mum number for a structure fire is
18 people. We don’t have that at the
fire station ready to go. We have that
in combination of full-time, part-
time and volunteers.”
The ISO office also looks at the
service area and station locations.
Each station should serve about a
three-mile diameter. They also look
at the town’s water supply, including
hydrant locations, sizes of water
mains and storage capacity.
“The town’s water supply is 60
percent of the grading factor,”
Chiotakis said. “They do a survey of
your district to get a base fire flow.
Then they look at the buildings and
use a formula to determine what is
needed.”
Some of Morrisville’s buildings
require the maximum flow of 3,500
gallons per minute, so the town must
prove it can meet that requirement.
They also look at the sizes of the
buildings— if the town has five or
more three-story buildings, a ladder
truck is required.
Staffing is another critical issue.
This year, the town board has autho
rized paid firemen on a 24-hour,
Shiloh sewer lines finally
connect to town’s system
Continued from page 1
Railroad. The construction com
pany, J. F. Wilkerson and Co., had
to wait for railroad approval
before they could bore under the
tracks to take the line from along
54 up Barbee Road to the service
area.
Construction cost was $621,691,
with $100,000 of the cost paid by a
Community Development Block
Grant.
Thank you for reading our paper!
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seven day a week shifts, which
should help with that aspect of the
rating.
The training tower that had been
proposed for the new fire station but
was eliminated would have also
helped the rating, but more impor
tantly, it would have prevented fire
men from leaving the district for
training, Chiotakis said.
He said the goal of the department
is to obtain a rating of one. Whether
that was realistic or not, he declined
to say.
“There are only about 20 or 25
departments in the United States
that have a rating of one,” he said.
“Greensboro is the only one in
North Carolina.”
“Obviously it’s beneficial for the
town to obtain the lowest rating pos
sible,” Chiotakis said, “but the basic
responsibility and important respon
sibility is that the fire department
prepare itself to meet the fire protec
tion-needs that are in the communi
ty. To us the rating is secondary to
that.”
Chris Perry of the Wake County
Fire Marshal’s office said the differ-
ence in insurance premiums for a
residential property will be negligi
ble. “In June and July we called
about 10 insurance companies,” he
said. “The rate gradually gets lower
and lower until you get to a six, then
it basically stays the same from six
down to one.”
He said the savings will be realized
on the commercial and industrial
side, but it’s difficult to give an
exact quote because so many factors
are involved, including whether the
company has its own sprinkler sys
tem, what material the building is
made of, what type of business it is,
and the size of the business.
“There will be some savings is all
they’ll tell us,’’ Perry said.
Chiotakis expects to be notified by
the Insurance Services Office in
December, with the inspection to
follow a few months later.
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REMEMBER TO VOTE
November 3, 1998
KRISTIN
RUTH
DISTRICT COURT JUDGE
Endorsed by:
Wake Co. Assoc, of Classroom Teacher
AFLCIO • NC Assoc. Women Attorneys
RaleighAA/ake Citizens Associations
DEMOCRAT
Paid for Kristin Ruth lor District Court Judge
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