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SATURDAY, Feb. 26, 2011
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Serving All of Person County Since 1881
Copyright The Courier-Times inc. 2011 All Rights Reserved
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Our 129th Year — No. 17
Roxboro, North Carolina
Two Sections — 22 Pages
www.personcountylite.com
City manager stepping down March 25
Jon Barlow will become town manager of Fuquay-Varina on April 1
By PHYLISS BOATWRIGHT
C-T Staff Writer
pboatwright@roxboro-courier.com
Jon Barlow
The City of Roxboro will soon
be looking for a new manager.
Jon Barlow, who has served
as city manager for the past six
years, this week accepted a simi
lar position in Fuquay-Varina.
Barlow said Wednesday, after
the announcement was made by
Fuquay-Varina’s town council
Tuesday night, that his last day
on the job in Roxboro would be
March 25.
He will assume his duties in
Fuquay-Varina on April 1.
Barlow admitted that it would
be tough to leave Roxboro.
“It’s extremely difficult to walk
away from something you like,”
he said. “Six years ago, I thought
this was a great opportunity,” he
said, and added that he had not
been disappointed.
But, Barlow noted, “Doing
what I do is kind of like being a
preacher, you don’t expect to stay
in one place for long.”
The 46-year-old Barlow has
spent a total of 23 years in local
government, and 17 as a city
manager.
“Each move has new chal
lenges,” he said. And each move
he has made in his career has
been to a larger town that pre
sented larger challenges, but also
greater opportunities for Barlow
and his family
He joked Wednesday that
he’d had more people comment
that they would miss his wife,
Roxboro Community School
teacher Beth Barlow, and their
two children, Anna and Griff,
more than they would miss Bar-
low himself.
He said his wife and children
would remain in Roxboro until
the end of the school year and
that he would rent a temporary
home in Fuquay-Varina until the
whole family could settle in.
He said this week that Roxboro
Community School had been
“wonderful” for his family
Barlow said he had indicated
to city council members and
Mayor Samuel Spencer that he
was looking for a new challenge
and said all had been supportive
of his decision.
Mayor Pro-tem Merilyn New
ell said this week, “I am saddened
to lose a city manager of the
caliber we have enjoyed in Jon
See CITY back page
YIKES!
Tim Chandler / C-T
GAS PRICES SOARING — Personlans obviously noticed a steep Increase In the price of gas this week, sparked by
the unrest In the Middle East. At some locations, the price of gas rose as much as 25 cents per gallon between
Wednesday night and Thursday. Some experts say the price of fuel will continue to escalate In the coming days.
'I hope you
rot in hell'
■ Durham man
receives 42-52
years in prison
for sex offenses
By TIM CHANDLER
Courier-Times Editor
tchandier@roxboro-courier.com
“I hope you rot in hell.”
Those were among the emo
tionally charged words spoken to
Alfred Manga Bell, 29, in Person
County Superior Court Thursday
after he was found guilty of four
counts of first-degree sex offense,
three counts of kidnapping, two
counts of armed robbery and one
count of burglary.
The words were spoken by
one of Bell’s victims. Bell broke
her Misty Road residence in
Timberlake last September at ap
proximately 6 a.m. and demanded
money and committed sexual
assaults.
The mother, 62, her daughter,
39, and six-year-old grandson
were all in the home at the time
of the incident.
Bell ordered the women to
undress and perform sexual acts
on each other, while he took pic
tures of them with their camera.
He also sexually assaulted the
women with his hands during
the approximately 40 minutes
n
Alfred M. Bell
he was inside the residence. The
six-year-old child was forced to
stay in a separate room during
the incident.
“Make sure you look at me,”
the victim said angrily to Bell
before Superior Court Judge
Wayne Abernathy sentenced
him to a prison term of between
42 and 52 years. “You made me
break a sacred trust a parent has
with their child.
“You made me defile my
daughter and you made a daugh
ter defile her mother, ” the victim
added. “For that, Mr. Bell, I hope
you rot in hell.”
Bell told the women he would
See DURHAM backpage
Tm very proud of
what's happening now'
■ Local restaurant owner Ashraf Kamel
keeping watchful eye on happenings in Egypt
By GREY PENTECOST
C-T Staff Writer
greypentecost@roxboro-courier.com
On Jan. 25, when protests erupted in
Egypt, people around the world watched
as a revolution unfolded. Here in Per
son County, one man and his family
didn’t just see a foreign struggle being
broadcast, but a battle for freedom
undertaken by his own people in his
native country.
Ashraf Kamel, better known as “Ash”
by many Personians, is the Egyptian-
born owner of American Hero restau
rant here in Roxboro. About 15 years
ago, after graduating from the college
he attended in Cairo, Kamel left Egypt
for the United States, and now lives
in Roxboro with his wife Rania. As a
Christian Egyptian, Kamel said he had
two main reasons for coming to the U. S.,
the first being that Christians suffer
persecution from Muslims in Egypt.
The other main reason, he said, was so
that he could have a better future.
“We love Egypt,” Kamel said of he
and his family “Egypt is in our mind
and our heart, but to live in a country
which is very corrupt, and you feel that
you’re a second degree citizen, it really
hurts you.”
Watching the revolution on televi
sion, Kamel said he often cried for the
people dying, suffering and risking
their lives for a better life.
All his life, Kamel has only seen one
Egyptian president, and that is the re
cently ousted Hosni Mubarak, who was
in power for nearly 30 years. He said he
knew the government was corrupt, but
didn’t realize the extent of that corrup
tion. The government kept the Egyptian
people blinded from the truth, said
Kamel, and everywhere people went they
had to bribe officials. During elections,
Kamel said, the people’s votes didn’t
actually count.
In Egypt’s 2010 parliamentary elec
tions, for example, Kamel said it was well
known that the police manipulated the
results to suit the government’s choice.
He explained that in order to distract the
citizens from the deceit, the government
played a part in the bombing of a church
on Christmas Eve. It was hard for Kamel
and his family to celebrate Christmas as
they mourned the tragedy experienced
by their people and friends in Egypt.
Kamel believes the recent revolution
to be “a result of the people’s suffering. ”
Egypt has big universities and some very
talented and educated people, he com
mented, and it is frustrating for people
to have spent so much time and money
on school, only to find that there are no
jobs after graduation. He said he thinks
the revolution was started by the youth
who “have nothing to lose,” because the
government doesn’t take care of them
Grey Pentecost / C-T
Ashraf "Ash" Kamel (second from right) runs American Hero restaurant In Roxboro with various members of
his family. Pictured are, left to right, Younan Ebd, Adel Habib, Adel Eshak, Ashraf Kamel and Rania Kamel.
See LOCAL back page
access progress reports online
By GREY PENTECOST
C-T Staff Writer
greypentecost@roxboro-courier.com
Some parents of students in Person
County Schools no longer have to wait
for progress reports, report cards or
periodic phone calls from teachers to
find out their children’s grades. They
can now access them anytime online,
thanks to a new grading system that
thus far has been implemented at the
high school and middle schools.
With Edline’s Easy Grade Pro pro-
Agenda
....A2
Business
A3
Churches/Religion
.B2-3
Classified
B8-9
Commentary
AS
Court
B7
Do You Know
A3
Editorial
A4
Education
A9
Legal Notices
B9
Lifestyle
B4
Looking Back
A3
Obituaries
All
Pentecost
A2
Person County Reads.
B1
Realty Transfers
B7
Schooi Spotiight
A10
Sports
A6-8
TV Listings
B6
See SOME back page
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