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Thursday, November 30,1999
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iTioion-Salem Chronicle
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50 cents "7Vii- Twin City's Award-Winning Weekly"' ? VOL. XVI, No. 14
Federal agents subpoena NAACP financial records
By TONYA V. SMITH
Chronide Staff Writer
In connection with its investigation of political consultant Rodney J.
Sumler, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Ser
vice has subpoenaed the financial records of the local branch of the NAACP,
the group's president told executive committee members Tuesday night.
Monday afternoon, Walter Marshall turned over the NAACP's checks,
? deposit slips and other financial documents from 1985 to the present to
agents representing the federal organizations.
Mr. Marshall's announcement came on the heels of board members'
complaints about not having received a formal financial report from treasur
er Sylvia Gwyn in nearly a year.
Agents said that Mr. Sumler had said that he solicited funds from vari
ous charities and the Winston-Salem Branch of the NAACP was one of those
organizations, Mr. Marshall explained. In addition, Mr. Sumler said he had
made donations to the NAACP.
The federal investigation of Mr. Sumler was made public in August
when search warrants were issued for his home at 2515 North Patterson Ave.
and business, Associate Consultants, also on North Patterson. Aldermen
Vivian S. Burke, Pat Hairston, Larry W. Womble and Greensboro Council
man Earl Jones are also under investigation for possible misdealings with the
consultant. Money laundering, tax evasion, mail fraud and extortion are the
areas under investigation.
Mr. Sumler has long been affiliated with the local NAACP and is the
group's second vice president. As a delegate to the organization's national
convention in 1988, he received a check for $893 according to the NAACP
general fund account report for June-August 1988. Other checks written to
convention delegates were in the amount of $1,382 to Mr. Marshall, $793 to
executive board member Victor Johnson. +
Mr. Sumler's wife, Ann, who has directed the youth branch of the tocat
NAACP chapter, received a check for $380 for the national convention. A
check for $956 for the youth branch was also written for convention expens
es.
"I was concerned with turning over our financial records bccausc we
Please see page A10
Democrats try
to mend fences
By TONYA V. SMITH
Chronicle Staff Writer
Like a broken limb set in-a cast, the Forsyth
County Democratic Party is attempting to mend an
organization fragmented by one of the city's most
bitter mayoral primary elections.
Last week, Chair Walter Holton issued a state
ment on the status of the party.
"The big lesson of '89," he said, "is that our
party cannot withstand a primary struggle so divi-.
sive that rather than picking a candidate, we end up
turning off and splintering our rank and file party
, workers and voters. There is no question that the
Democrats were harder on each other in the past
election than the Republicans titae c^pseio heing*" .
Mayor-elect Martha S. Wood and former chal
lenger G. Dee Smith squared off in a campaign
marred with racial slurs and personal attacks. After
the battle was over, Mr. Smith publicly announced
that he would support Mrs. Wood. Nevertheless,
with less than a weeklxjfore the city's inaugural cel
ebration, there arc Democrats who refuse to
acknowledge and accept the Twin City's first
woman mayor, said Gerald H. Long, vice chair of
the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners.
Previously a Dee Smith supporter, Mr. Long
was one of the first people to announce his alle
giance to the party in support,of Mrs. Wood. He is
presently on a mission to convince other Democrats
to do likewise.
"I'm dealing with people right now, trying to
get them to come over and say they support
Martha," said Mr. Long, former CEO of R.J.
Reynolds Tobaeea Co."Some people still want to
turn around and make believe that Martha didn't
win the election and that she is not the new mayor. I
support her and will continue to support Martha,
and I'll do everything I can to promote that same
Please see page A11
Cartoon sparks
racial violence
at Glenn High
By ANGELA WRIGHT
Chronicle Managing Editor
Parents are irate, two Afro-American male
students were suspended for fighting and some
members of the school board's community human
relations committee say they are annoyed that they
were not informed about the controversy sur
rounding a cartoon appearing in the Glenn Higll
School newspaper.
The cartoon accompanied an editorial whfcti
suggested that students at Glenn could be "kvmkr
and gentler" to each other. In the first panel of the
cartoon, two Afro-American male students arc
portrayed yelling at each other, using profanity
The above cartoon appeared on the opinion page of the Glenn High School Howler under the
headline "A Kinder, Gentler Society," angering students, parents and community activists. Please see page A11
City's concessions should go to minorities, panel savs
By TONYA V. SMITH
Chronicle Staff Writer
Can an Afro-Amcrican or woman-owned firm
take over the city's concessions operations? And if
so, is the city willing to relinquish the $2 million
business?
The Minority/Women's Business Enterprise
Advisory Committee has-recommended that the cuy^
Board of Aldermen study the answers to the preced
ing questions.
Until the mid 1970s, sales at the city's conces
sion stands were contracted to an outside firm owned
by Gene Doub. He operated and staffed the stands
which sold hot dogs, chips and the like at swimming
pools, Reynolds Park Golf Course and Bowman
Gray Stadium. The cuy also operated concession
stands at the old coliseum.
In 1974, Mr. Doub told the city Board of Alder
men that the concession stands were not turning a
profit. Jim Dalrymple, then convention center/colise
um director, proposed to the aldermen that the eny
take on the concession operations and turn it into a
successful revenue-producing division of the city.
The revenues, Mr. Dalrymple said, would help offset
the costs of operation and maintenance of the indi
vidual stands and also would contribute to the city's
general fund.
Winston-Salem took over sales of conccssion
items at city-owned facilities in 1975. Today Eat!
Smith supervises that area, which includes 41 con
cession stands located throughout the city -10 in the
Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum, 10 in
the Coliseum Annex, six at Ernie Shore Stadium,
three at Bowman Gray Stadium, and others al Win
ston Lake Golf Course, Hanes Hosiery ballficld and
public pools.
For the past five years the city's concession busi
ness has had gross sales ranging from $697,000 to
$941,000. For fiscal 1989-90 the projected gross
sales is almost $2 million. The city has never ctcafed
Please see page A11
No site, no funds for proposed transit center
City must start over with plans for bus terminal, find local means of financitid
wmmwwsiasmmmmmmammmBatiuiiittftitf'' naifgEfc
Photo by Mike Cunningham
"Slzwe Bans! Is Dead," a drama depicting life In apartheid
South Africa, opens Dec. 1 at the North Carolina Black
Repertory Company. See story on page Bf.
\
By TONYA V. SMITH
Chronide Staff Writer
Members of the Winston
Salem Transit Authority must be
more vocal in their support of pro
posed sites for a bus center, and
city staff must come up with a
project which could be financed
locally, the involved entities said
in a meeting Tuesday.
Twelve years ago city offi
cials began discussing plans for a
transit center to shelter bus riders
from the elements. General man
ager James A. Ritchey has closely
studied 10 different sites for the
center - all of which have been
ruled out.J
The most recent setback for
the project came at the hands of
James E. Harrington, state secre
tary of transportation. A state
funded study had OK'd locating
the center at Third and Liberty
streets. But Mr. Harrington said
the Department of Transportation
could not support the site because
it was too far from the downtown
ridership and a location east of the
area would better serve the city.
Earlier this month the city
Board of Aldermen, prompted by
Mayor Wayne A. Corpening,
voted to drop the site at Third and
Liberty streets as a possible site
for the center.
"We're still very interested in
that core area," said Thomas W.
Fredericks, assistant city manager.
Ashcvillc, Chapel Hill, Durham,
High Point, Wilmington and Win
ston-Salem has depleted $27 mil
lion in grant funds, Mr. Ritchey
said. If a location had been decid
ed upon and approved earlier, the
city could have applied for funds
from the Urban Mass Transit
Authority and received up to 80
.
ed in that core area. But we're
that require modifying our
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Ki?E* :g Thorn** Fredericks
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"But we're going to have to do percent of the S9.3 million pro
things that require modifying our ject.
goals. We may not be able to get For now, it s back to the draw
an off-the-strecr facility. We also ing boards, Mr. Fredericks said,
need to get the cost down in a adding that city staff are now
range where we can finance it our- looking at alternative locations
selves. We may get some money and should have something pre
from federal funds, but not 80 per- sented to and approved by the
cent of the funding." Board of Aldermen within the
That's because replacing vchi- first half of 199Q.
clcs and financing projects in Meanwhile, authority mem
bers are examining the roles tilty
played in their support of previous
sites and assessing what they
should do in the future.
"What is the role of ll?c
authority in this process?" asked
board member Qaniel Beermitt.
"Should the authority be more of
an advocate? If you look back . . .
the board has been fairly quiet,
fairly passive about this."
The new Board of Aldermen
will sit down in the next couple of
months and develop a list of prior
ities, and, hopefully, building a
transit center will be high on its
list, Mr. Fredericks said.
Members of the authority
should do the same, Mr. Bccrman
added.
"If the Board of Aldermen
sets their priorities and some type
of strategy in that regard, woutdnl
it be useful for us to talk about our
priorities and a strategy?" said Mr;
Beerman.
Fellow member Geneva
Brown agreed.
"We've never done anything
Please see page A11
/