The Progress
Published Monthly
State vetoes
Civil War
battle marker
Sons of the
Confederate Veterans
endorse historic site
By Mary Beth Phillips
Staff Writer
On May 10, a committee of North
Carolina historians voted unani
mously not to fund a historic mark
er commemorating the Battle of
Morrisville.
Hrnie Dollar, who had spent at
least four or five months research
ing and preparing the request, (and
who had started researching the bat
tle in 1992), said he still hopes to
have a marker erected privately.
‘‘! probably won't rest until a
marker goes up," Dollar said last
week. "I think it’s important enough
to history in this area. Once I saw
how much progress is starting to
take over things, I decided some
body needed to bring it td the fore
front- The history of this area starl
ing to disappear.”
The state will send Dollar a list of
all the groups who endorsed his
application, including several Civil
War groups, such as the Sons of the
Confederate Veterans and the
United Daughters of the
Confederatio,n. and town groups
such as the Chamber and the Better
Morrisville Association. He said he
may approach them privately for
donations.
"In between sobbing i'ils. I'm not
quite sure what to do next." he said.
Dollar had been told it would be
difficult to get state approval, that-
the state feels most of the major bat
tles have already been designated.
But he had hoped that some new
diaries and first-hand, accounts he
found in April would help his case.
"It was basically everything I could
find." he said.
Dollar has found rifle pits on prop
erty near Town Hall, and his
research indicates that the sunender
papers between General Joe
Johnson and William Tecumseh
Sherman were delivered in
Mbrrisville.
He said it will cost about $ 1.600 to
erect the marker. An ideal spot
would be on a town picnic site on
N.C. 54.
For more information, or to make
a donation, call Dollar at 833-3651.
Day at the
park June 12
By Mary Beth Phillips
Staff Writer
General Johnson and the
Chairmen of the Board will be the
featured band at the Morrisville Day
at the Park June 12, a fun-filled day
of free carnival rides and entertain
ment held at Morrisville
Community Park off Morrisville
Parkway.
Arts and crafts, games, a dunk
tank, an AH-64 Apache Helicopter,
and concessions of every descrip
tion will be featured at the day-long
event.
"We're looking forward to a great
See DAY, page 4
Serving the communities of Morrisviiie, Carpenter
and Preston
May 27, 1999
The end of an era
Lee Phillips, who had grown tobacco his whole life in Carpenter, decided to give it up this year.
Local tobacco farmer calls it quits
Lee Phillips family farmed tobacco for 75 years
‘The, last three or four
years, I didn’t enjoy it any
more. 1 don’t know what
happened, but 1 lost that
drive. It became a job. ’
By Mary Beth Phillips
Staff Writer
When Lee Phillips was a young boy, he helped his
father farm tobacco, and when his father took a
break for a few years, he was at a neighbor’s tobac
co field helping.
"1 was always there, in the way maybe, but I want
ed to be there,” he said.
“In high school. I loved tobacco. 1 didn’t go to col
lege. I had a counselor who said you need to go to
college. I always told her no, I’m gonna farm.”
Phillips’ farm in the Carpenter community has
been in his family for about 75 years.
This year, for the first time since he graduated
from high school, Phillips does not have a tobacco
crop-
"I Just didn’t love it anymore,” Phillips said.
"The last three or four years, I didn’t enjoy it any
more," he said. “I had enjoyed the challenge, the
struggle, because there was something in it, when it
got worse, that made you drive that much harder. I
don’t know what happened, but I lost that drive. It
became a job."
Phillips grew some setting tobacco for other farm
ers this year and delivered most of it in late April
and early May. so in the past few weeks, he just
started feeling the void of not having tobacco in his
fields.
“It feels weird, but it’s a good weird.”
He planted rye in his fields. He is still finishing up
the annual strawberry crop, which he has had on the
side for years. He is getting rental income from the
units that used to house the migrant workers that
helped him in his tobacco fields. Now he is doing all
the field work himself. He has done some odd jobs.
—Lee Phillips,
farmer
mowing and baling. And he rented his allotment to
another farmer, so he has some income there.
“I’m just as busy now as I was when I had 100
acres of tobacco,” he said. "I don't know how I did
it.”
He will really feel the void in the late summer,
when it's harvest time.
“That’s when you have about 10 weeks when
you’re up every morning before daylight, wonder
ing if you have help that day,” he said.
The labor situation was a big factor in Phillips’
decision.
“Thcy are paying a dollar or two more an hour for
people holding signs at the road at construction site.
Why make a dollar less when you can go out there
and not do anything,” he said.
The growth in the area was another factor.
"In this area with all the development going on.
See TOBACCO page 4
Morrisville mourns
one of its leaders
Commissioner Moore was friend to the town
By Mary Beth Phillips
Staff Writer
The' Morrisville Board of
Commissioners passed a resolution
last Tuesday in honor of
Commissioner C. T. Moore, 61, who
died unexpectedly May 9 of a heart
attack.
At his funeral, the Rev. Myron
Yandle held up his life as that of a
peacemaker, and it certainly seemed
to be true as two commissioners had
words at the first meeting held since
his death on Tuesday, May 18. It
was the first sign of dissension on
the board in many months.
A large white bow was attached to
his place, and no mention was made
of replacing Moore, who would
have been up for re-election this
November.
“He’s irreplaceable,” Mayor
Gordon Cromwell had said earlier.
Moore’s wife Almeria said, “He
loved his family too. but he loved
this town with all his heart. He
worked for the citizens. The man
gave every minute of his time that
he possibly could to the town. He
was very dedicated. He always went
to every site plan, and he would
walk it off, and he read every blue
print from top to bottom.
“There was so much more he
wanted to get done,” she said.
C. T. Moore
“There is a big map in here he drew
of how to get water and sewer up in
Shiloh,” she said. And he had
already filled his agenda with notes
for the May 10 meeting which was
cancelled.
She said he received many phone
calls at home. “He never refused
any.”
“He’s the one that sort of kept it ail
together,” said Town Manager
David Hodgkins. “The divergent
views on the board were well noted.
See MORRISVILLE, page 2
Morrisville considers
$9.6 million budget
By Mary Beth Phillips
Staff' Writer
Eighteen new positions, 16 new
cars, a direct connection with the
Durham water system, upsizing the
Indian Creek sewer outfall which
serves Parkside, water metering and
valve replacemenC on Chapel Hill
Road and Airport Boulevard and
miscellaneous thoroughfare
improvements are among the new
items in the proposed 1999-2000
budget, and they will be totally
funded by the town’s growth..
“Our tax base went up consider
ably this year,” said Town Manager
David Hodgkins. “'We will pick up
about 20 percent total value
between the current year and next
year, and that’s not taking in account
revaluation (which will be done by
the county in 2000). That’s just new
construction,” Hodgkins said. He
said the town’s tax base is approxi
mately $600 million this year, up
from about $515 million last year.
Consequently, the town will hold
the line on the tax rate and water and
sewer rates, although .some fees
increased recently, not as part of the
budget process, especially in the
planning and zoning and utility
departments. The tax rate will
remain at 60 cents per $100 proper
ty valuation. The water and sewer
rates will remain at $3.23 per 1,000
gallons of water and $6.06 per 1,000
gallons of sewage treatment.
The total budget of $9,623,494 is
made up of $7,050,284 from the
general fund and $2,573,210 from
the water and sewer fund. Revenues
in the water and sewer fund are up,
Hodgkins said, compared with
expenditures. As the town has
grown, it has begun to realize
economies of scale, operating with
the same staff and about the same
costs.
Twelve of the proposed new full
time positions will be added to the
fire department. “We will still have
See TOWN, page 2
Shiloh Park looking for relief
Morrisville police start
bike patrols around town
Photx) by Mary Beth Phillips
Mike Ballard and Shannon Godwin of the Morrisville Police
Department’s new bicycle patrol.
By Mary Beth Phillips
Staff Writer
If you see someone ride by in a
bright yellow nylon shirt with
POLICE in big letters and black
bike shorts, stop and say hello. And
if they turn on their blue light, pull
over.
It will be Mike Ballard or Shannon
Godwin, who are the Morrisville
Police Department’s new bicycle
patrol.
Accessibility is one of the main
reasons why the town implemented
the patrol.
“You are more visible on a bicycle.
People like to stop and talk to you
more,” Godwin said. Another
advantage is that bicycles can get in
heavily trafficked areas more quick
ly than cars.
Godwin and Ballard learned how
to go up and down stairs, how to
bounce off a wall, how to fall safely
after a crash, and how to stop speed
ers, among many other things dur
ing 40 hours of training held during
May.
They are now certified as Police
Mountain Bike Officers by the Law
Enforcement Bike Association and
they have already hit Morrisville’s
streets.
They will be patrolling business
areas such as the mall, the new
apartment complexes, and single
family areas.
“Morrisville lends itself to a bike
patrol,” Ballard said. “It’s a small
municipality with new shopping
centers and apartment complexes.
We can go where a car can’t. We can
see, hear and smell things we can’t
in a car.”
There are a lot of recreational bik
ers in Morrisville. Ballard joked that
See POLICE, page 2
By Mary Beth Phillips
Staff Writer
Plans to put a restroom facility at
Shiloh Park have been tabled until
the town negotiates a long-term
agreement with Shiloh Baptist
Church for use of the land.
The town board held off on
approving the restroom plans until it
hears back from a church committee
that is negotiating a lease with the
town. The town currently has a 10-
year lease with the church, which
expires in August of 2000.
The town has asked for a 99-year
lease for the approximately two
acres of land, which includes the
baseball field and the Luther Green
Center.
Esther Dunnegan, a member of the
church committee, said they have
met several times but are not yet
ready to sit down with the town.
Bulk Rate
Postage Paid
Morrisviiie, NC
Permit #23
Delivered expressly to the residents
, of Morrisville and Preston •
"We need to sit down and talk
about a number of things, not just
the number of years,” she said. “We
need to consider the growth of our
church and the growth of the town,”
she said. The committee’s goal is to
schedule a meeting with town offi
cials for early August.
If the committee meets with the
town in August, they will still have
a year to work out any additional
matters that might come up.
Plans for the restroom have been
drawn and money is set aside in the
proposed 1999-2000 budget.
The building is proposed at 621
square feet and is estimated to cost
$50,000 to $60,000, with an addi
tional $5,000 to $6,000 architect’s
fee. It will be brick and built near
the picnic shelter. The architect is
Surapon Sujjavanich, P.A.
There are currently two port-a-
johns serving the town park.