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®lip Satlg ®ar MM Volume 102, Issue 20 101 years of editorial freedom Serving the students and the University community since 1893 IN THE NEWS Top stories from the state, nation and world Fatal Tornadoes Rampage Through Southeast States PIEDMONT, Ala.—An Easter Week pageant turned into a horror show when a tornado flattened a crowded church, kill ing the pastor’s 4-year-old daughter and 20 other people. Twenty-three people were killed in Ala bama, 17 in Georgia, two in North Caro lina and one in Tennessee. Georgia Gov. Zell Miller took a heli copter tour of some of the damaged areas ofhis state Monday morning. “There’s not much you can do when Mother Nature takes over,” he said. “You’re kind of help less. ” In Charlotte, tornadoes stripped away the walls of a public housing complex and ripped the roof off an elementary school. Danish Police Investigate Possible Link to Bombing COPENHAGEN, Denmark—The FBI cooperated with Danish police in an inves tigation of three Egyptians who could be linked to the World Trade Center bomb ing, a police spokesman said Sunday. Danish police found the name, address and phone number of “one of the four convicted in the World Trade Center case” in the home of one of the Egyptians, the spokesman told The Associated Press. Four Muslim extremists were convicted March 4 in New York for plotting and carrying outtheFeb.26,l993, bombing, in which six people died and some 1,000 were injured. Embattled French Premier Rescinds Minimum Wage PARIS With the tear gas barely cleared from France’s most widespread protests in two decades, Premier Edouard Bahadur retreated Monday and suspended a law allowing em ployers to pay younger workers less than the minimum wage. Hundreds of thousands of young people had poured into the streets dur ing the past three weeks to protest the wage law. Hundreds of police officers were injured and hundreds of students arrested. At the end of Balladur’s first year French Prime Minister EDOUARD BALLADUR has fought a tough political battle since passing the wage law. in power, the French are losing patience. They want the conservative prime minister to reduce France’s record 12.2-percent un employment without jeopardizing the pay and job security of those who have work. Bosnians, Croatians Begin Discussing Peace Plan SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina With the guns around Sarajevo silenced, Muslim and Croat leaders met Monday to begin building a federation viewed as a key step toward ending Bosnia’s 2 year-old war. Both sides appeared confident as a joint assembly would approve a draft constitu tion and agree on an interim government to rule until elections within six months. “Now is not the time for euphoria, nor for pessimism, but for serious, determined and intensive work on the implementation of the agreement,” Haris Silajdzic, prime minister of Bosnia’s Muslim-led govern ment, said in opening remarks. The accord was signed March 18 in Washington. Supreme Court Lets State Reject Insanity Defense WASHINGTON The Supreme Court left states free Monday to abolish the insanity defense, refusing to second-guess Montana’s taking such action 15 years ago. Although the court’s refusal to review Montana’s law is not a ruling and does not preclude the possibility the high court might some day consider the issue, other states might follow Montana's lead. The insanity case turned away by the court had been appealed in behalf of Joe Junior Cowan, described as a paranoid schizophrenic with a history of mental health treatments in North Carolina. He was convicted and given an 60-year sentence for assaulting a U.S. Forest Ser vice employee in Missoula County, Mont. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Weather TODAY: Mostly cloudy, 60-percent chance of rain; high 55-60. WEDNESDAY: Mostly cloudy, breezy; high in the 50s. Employee: Racism Prevented Raise Accountant Claims Boss Passed Her Over for Raise BY KIM GOINES STAFF WRITER A University accounting employee ar gued in court Monday that she was denied a raise because of racial discrimination by a superior. The first session of a two-day hearing for Paulette McKoyofHillsborough began Monday at the Office of Administrative Hearings in Hillsborough. “We believe that Paulette McKoy was discriminated against by her race with re spect to compensation for a merit increase in August 1990,” saidher lawyer, Nicholas Herman of Chapel Hill. However, McKoy alleges that other DTH/MISSYBEIIO Sara Danagen, a junior from Laurinburg, and Allison Froof, a freshman from Shelby, stand behind speaker Doris Taylor at the B-GLAD Celebration Week kickoff Monday in the Pit. See story on page 3. Council OKs Construction Of Second High School BY JACOB STOHLER STAFF WRITER The Chapel Hill Town Council voted Monday night to clear the way for anew high school, which is slated to begin con struction by early 1996. But comments from local residents and the concerns of several board members forced some changes in the plan, particu larly in terms of parking and vehicle ac cess. To reduce parking permits and offset costs, town council member Pat Evans requested that the new high school in crease the S4O parking fee for students in order to come more in line with parking fees around town. She also asked that the new high school create a “closed campus,” where students wouldn’t be allowed to leave school for lunch. Both proposals would reduce traffic around the school, which is located close to Chandler’s Green and Chesley neigh borhoods, Evans said. The council also discussed the possibil ity of building a temporary sidewalk along the front of the school grounds to help encourage students to walk or bike to cam pus. School officials estimated that the 100- foot side walk could cost as much as $20,000 half of which would be paid for by the town and half by the school. Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Educa tion Chairman Ken Touw warned that any additional expenditures incurred by the town could detract from the quality of the high school once it was finished. “We have a set amount of money, and if we use it to make walkways, we take it away from the school.” Touw said the council could “make whatever stipulations you want,” but that Be sure to keep busy , so the devil may always find you occupied. Flavius V. Renatus Chp>l —. Iw> Cwifci TUESDAY, MARCH 29,1994 white employees in the accounting depart ment received pay increases, according to court papers filed with the State Personnel Commission. Herman also said McKoy contended that other employees with less seniority had received promotions but that she had remained at her current position. “And the second thing, we contended that Paulette McKoy was retaliated against for having filed an appeal to the denial of her merit increase in August 1990,” Herman said. The merit salary raise would have been granted on the basis of a performance re view by her supervisor. McKoy alleges that the performance review prevented her from receiving the raise. Herman said he could not comment more specifically about the matter because actual school programs might suffer later. Council member Mark Chilton said that even if the new plan received approval from all levels of government, he wouldn’t necessarily support it. “If (the town council) is the only level of government that’s unsatisfied, that’s fine with me,” he said. “I’m unsatisfied.” Chilton’s said he was unsatisfied with the level of safety at the proposed location —a busy stretch of Weaver Dairy Road that would have to support school buses, student drivers, parent drivers and teach ers in addition to everyday traffic. Chilton stressed that the leading cause of death among 16- to 25-year-olds was auto accidents. Under the designs for the new high school, 302 parking spaces would be avail able to students. That amounts to about 0.3 spaces per student. At Chapel Hill High School, there are 0.28 spaces per student. The town council’s meeting was a con tinuation oftheFeb. 22 public forum where residents near the proposed site voiced both their complaints and concerns. Ten additional people showed up at Monday’s meeting to re-emphasize those concerns. Chapel Hill resident Everett Meserve said she questioned whether the location should have two traffic lights, one at each entrance, as was discussed during the meeting. “Personally, to be completely honest, I would much rather see the town council use the money that it would cost to im prove education,” Meserve said. The new high school, to be located at the intersection of Weaver Dairy and Sun rise roads, will enroll about 1,000 students when it first opens in 2004. It also will feature a 2,000-seat football field, athletic facilities and two lakes. he was bound by a legal code of ethics. McKoy has been an accounting techni cian in die Student Stores Accounting Department since December 1986, accord ing to University employee records. Technically, the defendant is the State of North Carolina because the University is an agency of the state. But the principal defendant is Nancy Branch, McKoy’s supervisor in the Stu dents Stores Accounting Department, Herman said. Herman said he would finish presenting his evidence this morning. The hearings should end early after noon at the latest, after the state presents its two witnesses, he said. State Assistant Attorney General David Parker represents the University in McKoy’s hearing. Judge Brenda Becton of Durham is pre DTH Editor Selection Smoother in 2nd Year BY MARTY MINCHIN SPECIAL ASSIGNMENTS EDITOR Two years ago, candidates for editor of The Daily Tar Heel slugged it out in the campuswide election as editor hopefuls campaigned door-to-door alongside stu dents running for student body president and other elected offices. But when students elected the 119th DTH editor in 1992, they also passed a referendum giving the responsibility of choosing the editor to a board of 11 stu dents. On Saturday, the second DTH Editor Selection Board chose junior Kelly Ryan as the next editor after about an hour of deliberation. The annual selection board is composed of eight at-large students plus a DTH desk editor, an assistant desk editor and a staff writer. No member from last year’s board served on this year’s selection board. Ryan’s selection was markedly differ ent from the board’s first run at picking an editor. Last year’s board members called two of the three candidates for a second interview and debated for almost four hours before reaching the eight votes necessary to select an editor. “I think the process went a lot more smoothly this y ear, ” Ryan said. “Itseemed that all of the selection board members duly cared about the DTH being the best newspaper possible.” Kevin Schwartz, DTH general man ager who sat in on last year’s editor selec tion because it was its first year, agreed that the process ran more smoothly this year because of several changes that made the process more efficient. Mast General Store Closes Its Doors BY JAMIE KRITZER STAFF WRITER A week after the Hardback Cafe and Bookstore closed its business because of financial shortcomings, Chapel Hill’s Mast General Store decided to shut down for similar reasons. The outdoor clothing and camping store, located at46o W. Franklin St., had been in business for a year and a month, but gen eral manager John Cooper said the store’s profit losses were detracting from business at the store’s four other locations in west ern North Carolina. Cooper, his wife, who co-owns the store, and several managers had been discussing closing the store to reduce their losses. The store officially closed Monday morning. “We were expecting to do a larger vol ume,’’Cooper said of the discount store. “I think it has been difficult to attract the customers we need.” Cooper said much of the business in the N.C. mountains depended upon tourist business, something that was lacking in the college town. For the next week and a half, the Coo pers and some employees will pack the store’s merchandise into boxes for ship ment to its other locations in the N.C. mountains. Summer, usually a boom time for the mountain stores’ business, was dead in Chapel Hill without many students, Coo per added. Mast General Store has two stores in Valle Cruris, one store in Boone and an other in Waynesville. Tommy White, manager of the store's outdoor and mercantile department, said the location was the main reason why Mast couldn’t make a go of it. Richard Crandall, the merchandise manager and buyer, agreed. “The facility wasn’t right," Crandall said. “I think we were too far down on Franklin Street.” But Cooper didn’t think the location siding and either will give a verdict Tues day after hearing closing arguments from both sides or take the case under advise ment to review the evidence. Becton also has presided over other University employment grievances. In December, she granted the UNC Housekeepers Association the right to sue the University as a group, but that decision was overturned by another state judge. Wake County Superior Court Judge Henry Hight said Becton had no jurisdic tion in the housekeepers case. Herman said it was more likely that Becton would take the case under advise ment to review the evidence. University Vice Chancellor of Human Resources Laurie Charest said she couldn’t comment on the hearings or the plaintiff. McKoy could not be reached for com ment Monday night. One of the most effective changes was to hire Lee Trimble, an independent mod erator from the Orange County Dispute Settlement Center in Carrboro, to take the place of a board-elected chairman. She kept time during the four applicants’ hourlong interviews and directed die board members’ discussion. Selection board members agreed that Trimble provided an invaluable service to the process. “Lee kept the conversation on track,” said board member Angela Byrd, a senior from Winston-Salem. “She enabled the interviewees to show their full realm of experience.” The moderator also was able to serve as an unbiased chairwoman by not partici pating in the debate, said board member Carl Clark, a senior from Fuquay-Varina. “We (didn’t) elect a chairman because usually the chairman cannot participate, and that’s very frustrating,” Clark said. “With the moderator, all members were allowed to participate.” Other changes the DTH Board ofDirec tors made to the process included: holding the selection on a Saturday rather than a Sunday, which is a workday for the DTH staff; shortening the interviews to one hour from last year's 11 /2 hours; and giving the selection board members a break between the interviews and the board’s first vote so members had time to think about their choices. Some members said the board came to a decision in a short time because the members had similar ideas on what made a good DTH editor. Please See SELECTION, Page 2 DTH/IUSTIN WILLIAMS Thirteen months after opening at its West Franklin Street location. Mast General Store closed Monday. Owners say Chapel Hill is not the right market. was important. Instead, he said the store failed because of an inability to find the right market. White said the reason they derided to close the store so suddenly was because they didn’t want to make a big deal out of leaving. By 4 p.m. Monday, the treated wood that made up much of the decorum of the two-story business was barren. The shoe shelves had been emptied, and hundreds of shoes had been boxed. The Coopers bought the original Mast General Store in Valle Cruris in 1980. The store originally began in 1883. After the Coopers bought the store, it was a tourist attraction for about a year before it became an actual merchandising business. In 1987, they opened the Boone store, and four years later they brought the Waynesville store into the business. The 111-year-oldbuilding, which houses the original store, is in the National Regis- Newi/Features/Ara/Spons 962-0245 Business/Advertising 962-1163 01994 DTH Publishing Corp. All rights reserved. Carolina Inn to Get Facelift BOT Approves $13.5 Million For Renovations, Pool BYMARISSA JONES STAFF WRITER As UNC celebrates its Bicentennial, a 70-year-old University landmark prepares for a birthday face lift. The UNC Board of Trustees voted Fri day to approve $13.5 million in renova tions of the Carolina Inn. Improvements include anew wing containing 56 bed rooms, renovated dining facilities, a swim ming pool and changes to the main court entrance. The architectural firm Glave Newman Anderson of Richmond, Va., designed the renovations in conjunction with Univer sity officials and hotel management. BOT members also approved the demo lition of the Alumni House, built in 1939, to make room for the new bedroom wing. Gary Walton, general manager of the inn, said the renovations would provide the inn with much-needed changes. “It’s a significant amount, and some thing that will turn this place into an abso lute first-class hotel,” he said. “(The inn) has been a wonderful tradi tion and served the University for many years, but it’s badly in need of some re freshing. “We realize that due to the existing condition of the inn, certain guests don’t stay here,” he said. “We hope to attract those guests back.” The Carolina Inn has been under pri vate management by Double Tree Hotels Corp. since July. The expected renova tions were a part of Double Tree’s original agreement with the University, Walton said. Chris Coinson, project architect from Glave Newman Anderson, said the year long construction probably would begin this fall. Hotel managers have not derided if they will house guests during the renova tions, he said. Coinson said the inn’s renovations, al though stylistically identical to the original structure, would effectively transform it. “It’ll be the place to stay when you come to Chapel Hill. For sure. Guaranteed,” he said. UNC Associate Vice Chancellor Carolyn Elfland said she was excited about the renovations. “It was our goal from the start in getting a private company to operate it to have it renovated and brought up to normal mod em hotel standards,” she said. Please See INN, Page 5 ter of Historic Places. “We were asked to come to Waynesville and Boone,” Cooper said with a laugh. “We weren’t really asked to come to Chapel Hill. A lot of the vendors we worked with suggested we come to Chapel Hill. I think we should wait until we’re asked next time.” Among some of the things the Mast General Store sells include outdoor camp ing and climbing gear, hardware, apparel, furniture, comic books and mountain mu sic. The chain offers a 20-percent discount on all its merchandise. The building, which housed the store on West Franklin Street, has not been sold, but Cooper said it had been listed with Jan Hyrharrow, a local commercial real estate agent. Cooper was optimistic Monday and matter-of-fact about the closing. “We aren’t really closing a business,” he said. “We’re just relocating.”
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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March 29, 1994, edition 1
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