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The Proqress Published Monthly Serving the communities of Morrisville, Carpenter and Preston April 29,1999 Giant shopping center proposed for Morrisville-Carpenter Rd By Mary Beth Phillips Staff Writer A New York development compa ny has bought about 30 acres in the corner of Morrisville-Carpenter Road and Davis Drive and plans to build a gigantic shopping center there. Willard Stillman with Kalikow Development Associates confirmed ParkSide shopping center approved By Mary Beth Phillips Staff Writer The town rezoned 35 acres at the northwest comer of Davis Drive and McCrimmon Parkway in the ParkSide subdivision to allow a shopping center to be built there, but limited the size to 45,000 square feet after residents expressed con- cerns- Seppala Corp. had originally asked that the site be zoned neigh borhood business, but changed the request to general business because neighborhood business zoning does not allow stores with drive-through windows- At a public hearing, Richard Elliott, president of the Better Morrisville Association, suggested that a nice shopping center could be built on eight acres. “Keep 27 for fine single-family residential,” he said. "You could build 53 homes on 1/3 acre lots and charge $325,000 for a $17 million investment in the tax base. This would provide low- density traffic instead of a huge shopping area that would attract people from Cary, and some 50,000 people working in the Research Triangle. At rush hour, there would be a tremendous bottleneck.” Liz Johnson said that on Monday through Friday, whenever she dri ves anywhere, she needs to plan, and take into consideration the time of day. On Saturday and Sunday, she does not have to worry. "I’d hate to see us have this prob lem then, too,” she said. “If it is truly a neighborhood-type develop ment, then make it a smaller size,” she said. She also suggested that the board wait for the completion of the Land Use Plan before ruling on the request. Linda Lyons concurred, saying 35 acres was too large for a neighbor hood shopping center. “Are you interested in what the commission ers want or what the people want?” she asked the board. “We’re up here crying our heart out with what we want, then you do the opposite,” she said. Parker sentenced to death The woman accused of killing an elderly woman found in a car off Davis Drive in Morrisville last May was sentenced to death on April 1. Carlette Parker, 34, who had been an attendant at Springmoor Retirement Center, was convicted of first-degree murder and kidnap ping after she abducted Alice Covington, 86, a resident of Springmoor. Covington had been .found dead in her car in May 1998, stuck in the mud in a field off Davis Drive. Morrisville Police quickly handed the case over to the State Bureau of Investigation. Pathologists had been unable to find a physical explanation for the cause of Covington’s death, but lawyers contended Parker had drowned her. Parker said Covington had toppled into the tub at her home near Angier. She also admitted abducting her from a shopping cen ter near Springmoor. Parker withdrew about $2,500 from Covington’s savings account before leaving her body in the car in the field. Parker had previously stolen $40,000 from an elderly Garner woman ia 1995. She was paying court-ordered restitution in connec tion with that conviction. Developers plan 250,000-square-foot center on 30-acre site, which is nearly the size of Cary’s Crossroads the company’s plans, saying they are negotiating now with retailers. He declined to reveal any potential tenants, but confirmed that the shopping center could be about 250,000 square feet, which is about the size of Crossroads Plaza in Cary. Stores such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot have been anchor stores in Kalikow Development’s other cen ters. He said it depends on negotiations with tenants when plans will be brought before the town of Morrisville. The new shopping center would be the largest in Morrisville, surpassing Prime Outlets Mall, which is about 182,000 square feet. Richard Elliott, president of the Photo by Mary Beth Phillips Dr. G. D. Sharma and Saroj Sharma in the Hindu Temple. G. D. Sharma has been acting “volun tary" priest, ever since 20 Hindu families in the area held their first meeting in his home in 1976. Hindus expanding in Morrisville Local temple will add 21,260-square-foot building By Mary Beth Phillips Staff Writer There are about 20 marble idols on the altai- of the sanctuary of the Hindu Temple, in a beautiful dis play, wearing golden vestments. Saroj Sharma comes to the temple every morning to clean the altar, make offerings to the deities and conduct an aarti, which means “alto gether prayer.” The 40 or 50 people that come for the aarti each morning are very com fortable in the 6,000- square-feet of worship Hindus Growing ■Current building: 6,000-square-feet on 5.8-acre site ■Additions: 21,260-square-feet building, which includes four class rooms. Also, 1,400- square-foot priest home ■ Members: 800 and growing space. Most evenings of the week, a worship service for a different deity is offered. Attendance can reach 100 for these ser vices, still a fairly com fortable number for the worship space. About 250 people attend the temple on weekend days, but not all at the same time. Membership has grown to 800 members, and is continuing to grow. It is during large functions that occur monthly or twice a month that the temple is so packed, some members can’t get in the door. That will soon change, as the Hindus add a 21,260- square-foot building, three times the size of the existing building, and including four classrooms. In the current building, the one small classroom doubles as a library. A small kitchen is located at the other .side of a stage. Behind the altar, there is a small office and another small room that serves as the vestment area. The building also has a large lobby area with bathrooms and a drinking fountain. Classes in Hindi, Marathi and Tamil are held in the library -during the week. The leadership would also An architectural draw/ing of the new Hindu building in Morrisville. like to offer classes in Gujarati, Telugu and Bengali, but there is no time available in the small space. The worship area will remain the same, because the deities cannot be moved, but there are plans to pipe services into the new building by television. The Hindus had also hoped to build a playground and pavilion area on the 5.8-acre site. But the town revised the site plan because of drainage problems with the site. Large buffers were required to protect adjacent property that is below the site. The Hindu society also agreed to increase the driveway pipe from 12 to 18 inches, and improve the road in front of the site. Along with the large building, the town approved plans for a 1,400-square-foot priest’s home. For the first time, the Hindu society will hire a full-time priest. Dr. G. D. Sharma has been acting “voluntary” priest, ever since 20 Hindu families in the area held their first meeting in his home in 1976. In 1980, the group had grown to approximately 150 members, who bought the small, former Jehovah Witness Church on Ashe Avenue in Raleigh. They outgrew that building and bought the land for the current See HINDUS page 6 Students, administrators preparing Green Hope High School for next fall Better Morrisville Association, said he could not think of any “less suit able location” for such a shopping center, citing traffic on already-busy Davis Drive. Elliott and his civic group have pushed for more single-family resi dential as the town develops. “This would be a big setback for making western Morrisville the heart of our residential area,” he By Mary Beth Phillips Staff Writer The 868 students assigned to Green Hope High School and their parents are starting to meet and line up booster groups for the school. The athletic boosters were to meet last night, April 28; a RT.A. parents meeting is slated for Tuesday, May 4 and the students will be meeting to form a student council on May 4 at the same time. The band boosters will meet Thursday, May 20. All of the meetings will be held at 7 p.m. at Davis Drive Middle School. JV football schedule ■Sept. 2 @ Broughton ■Sept. 9 @ Leesvtlle Road ■Sept. 23 @ Garner ■Sept. 29 @ Athens Drive ■Oct. 7 Apex (home game) ■Oct. 14 @ Sanderson ■Oct. 28 Cary (home game) said. “We don’t need a Crossroads Plaza in the heart of our residential area,” he said. Town manager David Hodgkins said the property is already zoned for commercial use. “We have seen no plans,” he added. “We’ve gotten a lot of calls on it. But we don’t even know what they are proposing.” Morrisville to get new, larger post office soon It will be an 18,000-square-foot building on a five-to-six-acre site in the centrai part of town with 44 parking spaces The building and outbuildings are on schedule, said principal Donna Hargens. Construction of bleachers •and a ticket booth at the football field are expected to begin soon. By Mary Beth Phillips Staff Writer The U.S. Postal Service has taken Morrisville off the priority list and put it on the action list. But that doesn’t mean residents will be doing business in a new postal building any time soon. On March 17, postal officials met with the mayor and town manager and presented a letter stating that they intend to make a change. At Monday’s board of commis sioner’s meeting, Don Mackey, manager for administrative services for the Greensboro district, which includes Morrisville, outlined plans for the new building. It will be an 18,000-square-foot building on a five-to-six-acre site in the central part of Morrisville. It will have 44 parking spaces, com pared to 14 at the existing site, and an additional 29 spaces at the rear of the site for delivery vehicles. The current 600 postal boxes will be expanded .to 1,500. The building is designed to last for 10 years, and enough land will be purchased to double the space in the building after that time, Mackey said. Residents now have 45 days sub mit comments. Then the postal ser vice will advertise in local newspa pers for land. Postal service guidelines require that town input is received. “Based on those comments, we will decide an area that we wish to advertise in,” Mackey said. “We will request offers of land some where between this street, this street See MORRISVILLE, page 3 Special Olympic athletes coming to Prestonwood By Mary Beth Phillips Staff Writer Almost 100 Special Olympic ath letes from 12 countries and about 35 states will be arriving at Prestonwood Country Club on June 28 to compete in three levels of golf. Carol Donovan has been preparing for the event for months, coordinat ing a volunteer committee of 24 members who each oversee individ ual committees adding up to more than 300 volunteers. Committees range from trans portation—getting the athletes from their “villages” at N.C. State University and the UNC-Chapel Hill—to translation. All the signs have to be in international symbols, interpreters are being sought in 12 foreign languages, and “we’re hop ing the coaches speak some English,” Donovan said. Information services will let guests know where restaurants are located, or answer other questions about the area. Logistics will make sure there is enough ice, tables, and even pen cils for caddies. The logistics com mittee is working with a list of materials the size of the phone book, Donovan said. A volunteer committee will make sure volunteers report to the right place. The communications committee will file reports to the General Olympic Committee every few hours. They are setting up a station with laptops, radios and telephones. There is a security committee and a medical committee and a commit tee in charge of media. There will be up to 12 media people from other countries. Players will be coming from American Samoa, England, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, Monaco, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa, Sweden, Venezuela and Carol Donovan is organizing the golfing event at Prestonwood Country Club. Zimbabwe. There is a weather committee, which will arrange rain delays or get athletes off the course in case of lightning. Another committee is in charge of honored guests. Arnold Palmer is expected to come, but Donovan does not know whether he will be at Prestonwood or only at the course at Duke University where the more skilled, level 4 and 5 golfers, will play. Arnold Schwartzenegger, who is married to Maria Shriver, daugh ter of the founder of Special Olympics, is also expected to attend the games, but it is not known whether he will come to Prestonwood. There is also a good possibility of seeing Michael Jordan. But Donovan emphasized that she does not want spectators to come looking for celebrities. “The celebrities this week will be the athletes. We would love people to come out and encourage them.” Spectators get in free, she added. See SPECIAL, page 6 About three-quarters of the faculty has been hired, she said, and she is continuing to interview. “We have had the fortunate situation of a lot of interested and very well qualified applicants,” she added. A schedule for athletic events has been set up. Players will compete on both varsity and junior varsity levels in every sport except football, which will only play junior varsity. The teachers will begin on August 6. Some will come on early to order textbooks and supplies. And input is still being sought for the choice of a mascot, which should be made soon. Bulk Rate Postage Paid Morrisville, NC Permit #23 Dellvetsd expressly to the residents jolMnrrJsyiile and Preston
Morrisville and Preston Progress (Morrisville, N.C.)
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April 29, 1999, edition 1
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