WEDNESDAY
July 27,2011
Roxboro,
North Carolina
www.personcountylife.com
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1 WIN AWAY!
The Roxboro 16 &
under baseball team
is one victory away
from securing a state
champiomhip. A8
SHOWTIME:
The Summer Youth
Theater Program
readies for debut of
Beauty & The Beast
Jr. this weekend. B3
G.W. KANE:
Person County
Museum exhibit
honoring G. W. Kane
opens today. B7
CUTE PICS:
Vote for the Cutest
Kid in the latest C-T
photo contest. B1
-]|
DEATHS
|[-
Walter Lester Carver, 88
Roxboro
Mary Stephenson Weaver
Day, 83
Durham
Curtis Wayne Jones, 55
Roxboro
Christina Tuck Ohie, 83
Roxboro
Pearlie Jay Thorpe, 63
Roxboro
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Our
129th year
Number 60
Three sections
26 pages
Copyright
2011
The Courier-Times Inc.
All rights reserved
Couricr-®mcsi
Changes looming for Home, Senate &
BYPHYLISSBOAMIGHT
COURIER-TIMES STAFF WRITER
pboatwright@roxboco-couriec.com
The North Carolina General
Assembly is on track to approve
redistricting maps this week that
would change the make-up of
state Senate and House, as well
as U.S. Congressional districts
involving Person County.
State Rep. W.A. (Winkie)
Wilkins, D-Person, said Tuesday,
between sessions, that, “The Re
publican [drawn] House map
passed in the House [of Represen
tatives] yesterday and has gone
on to the Senate. It passed largely
along party lines,” Wilkins said,
“and it pairs [Jim] Crawford and
me.”
Crawford, a Granville Coun
ty native and a Democrat, has
served 14 terms in the House of
Representatives.
Wilkins said Tuesday that the
most recent version of the redis
tricting map would take Wilkins
out of Durham County. He cur
rently represents a portion of
northern Durham County, as
well as all of Person County. The
new district, should it survive a
court challenge that Wilkins said
See CHANGES, Page 12
North Carolina’s proposed state House of Representatives districts
TIM CHANDLER I COURIER-TIMES
Sunday night thunderstorm aftermath
A severe thunderstorm packing strong winds and heavy rain caused damage to this residence on Mackfieldson Road Sun
day evening. Cleo Stukes, who resides at the home, said this large tree came crashing down on her roof during the storm.
Other trees in the vicinity were also toppled when the storm rolled through.
‘It doesn’t
make any
sense at all’
Person County leaders
against eonsolidation of
eommunity eolleges
BY GREY PENTECOST
COURIER-TIMES STAFF WRITER
greypenfetost@roxboro-courier.com
The possibility of consolidating some of
North Carolina’s community colleges is cur
rently up for discussion in the legislature,
and it is not something Person County leaders
would like to see become a reality.
Based on recommendations from a report
released in June by the legislature’s Program
Evaluation Division, Piedmont Community
College (PCC) would be in line to merge with
Durham Technical Community College. The
report stated that the General Assembly
should direct the North Carolina Commu
nity College System to reduce the number
of small colleges by merging colleges with
fewer than 3,000 student full time equivalent
(FTE) with another college. The researchers
Vec-CONSOLIDATION, Page 12
STATE’S JOBLESS
RATE INCHES UP
BY TIM CHANDLER
COURIER-TIMES EDITOR
tcban(ller@roxboro-courier.com
After holing steady at 9.7
percent for three consecutive
months. North Carolina’s un
employment rate rose slight in
June to 9.9 percent, according to
information released Friday by
the state’s Employment Security
Commission (ESC).
Friday’s release detailing the
state’s unemployment rate for
the month of June indicated that
North Carolina realized a loss of
10,200 government jobs, includ
ing 7,600 in state government.
That number includes jobs lost
in community colleges and uni
versities.
In comparison to the same
time last year, there has been an
increase in claims in state and
local government. This is largely
due to an increase in clams in
both local and state education.
ESC officials will release June
unemployment rates for each of
the state’s 100 counties on Friday,
July 29.
The May unemployment rate
for Person County was 9.9 per
cent, which was up by 0.1 percent
from April.
“Governor Perdue continues
to make job growth a top priori
ty,” ESC Chairman Lynn Holmes
said. “Clearly, there is much work
to be done, but as we work to re
cover from the global economic
recession, the ESC will continue
to work with the assistance of
our economic development and
workforce partners to put people
back to work.”
Seasonally adjusted total non
farm industry employment, as
gathered through the monthly
establishment survey, decreased
by 9,500 to 3,870,800 in June. That
decrease came on the heels of a
decrease of 7,400 in May and an
increase of 2,900 in April.
The largest over-the-month
employment increase occurred in
leisure and hospitality services,
which was up 4,400 jobs. The larg
est decrease was in government,
which was down 10,200 jobs.
Private sector jobs have in
creased by 28,900 over the year,
while government has shed 31,600
jobs.
The number of people em
ployed (seasonally adjusted) de
creased by 9,888 workers in the
state in June to 4,055,699, while
the number of people unem
ployed increased by 9,516 work
ers to 446,377.
Since this time last year, the
number of people unemployed
has decreased by 28,069 and the
number of workers employed is
up across the state by 10,099.
Storms beneficial to some, harmful to others
BY PHYLISS BOATWRIGHT
COURIER-TIMES STAFF WRITFR
pbootwriglit@roxboto-couriet.com
Thunderstorms Sunday and
Monday night brought any
where from one to over four
inches of rain to Person County,
“depending on where you were
standing,” said Derek Day, Ex
tension Service director.
Although there were re
ports of high winds and hail
in parts of the county. Day said
no farmers suffered structural
damage. The crop damage was
“limited,” he said, affecting
four or five tobacco growers
whose crops were “broken and
blown over” in spots.
As of Tuesday morning. Day
said he could not place a dollar
figure on the damage to tobacco
crops.
No other crops were affected
by the storms, he said.
Last week, with its steady
stream of 100 degree or higher
temperatures and no rain “was
tough on crops,” said Day.
“It’s hard to stand five or six
days of 100 degree tempera
tures with no crop loss,” he
said. “On Tuesday, [crops were]
reasonably good,” he said, “but
on Friday, it was bad.”
He added, “If you happened
to be in an area that got a couple
inches of rain” over the week
end, he said Tuesday, “things
look good today” But for those
who received little or no rain,
he said, things on Tuesday
were “still tough.”
Although the past couple of
weeks have been bad for farm
ers, Day said, “It’s not going to
be a terrible year yet, but we’ll
just have to wait and see” if the
coming days bring any relief
from the heat and dry condi
tions.
For now, he said, tobacco
growers were beginning to har
vest and were “in that mind
set.”
Growers here planted about
3,000 acres of tobacco this year.
That figure is down consider
ably from nine years ago, when
over 3,500 acres were planted.
Historically, tobacco was
the leading cash crop in the
$30 million annual agriculture
receipts in Person County, but
that is no longer the case.
Friday fire in Timberlake causes extensive
damage to Dink Ashley Road residence
A Friday night fire caused
extensive damage to a home on
Dink Ashley Road in Timber-
lake.
Jason Fletcher, assistant fire
chief for the Timberlake Fire &
Rescue Department, said fire
fighters responded to 1673 Dink
Ashley Rd. shortly after 7:30
p.m. Friday.
Gram Pulliam and his wife
owned the two-story wood
frame farmhouse, Fletcher
said, and he added that both
were at home at the time of the
fire.
The cause of the fire was
deemed to have been due to
an electrical malfunction. The
blaze, Fletcher said, originat
ed in the kitchen area of the
home.
The home and its contents
were deemed to be a total loss,
according to Fletcher.
Timberlake firefighters were
assisted at the scene by Person
County EMS, Person County
Rescue Squad, the Person
County Sheriff’s Office, and
firefighters from the following
departments: Bahama, Hurdle
Mills, Moriah and Roxboro.