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