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Police
Roundup
University
Sunday, Sept. 20
■ Hinton James Residence Hall lost
power Sunday night, trapping a Duke
student in an elevator, police reports
state.
The student was trapped between the
eighth and ninth floors when a circuit
breaker failed at 10:56 p.m., reports
state. The breaker was reset and power
restored, freeing the student, reports
state.
■ Eric Douglas Barnes, of Kinston,
was cited Sunday for possession of a fic
titious license, police reports state.
He was cited at a driver’s license
checkpoint on South Columbia Street at
2:16 a.m., reports state.
Barnes had three licenses and admit
ted a Virginia license was fake, reports
state.
Saturday, Sept. 19
■ A Chapel Hill resident reported a
hit-and-run accident at Union Circle,
police reports state.
The man parked his car in Union
Circle, returned at 10:40 p.m. and said
he heard noises in the left-rear area of
the car, reports state.
Reports state the left-rear area of the
car was damaged.
Friday, Sept. 18
■ A Fetzer Gym employee reported
his book bag missing from the second
floor of the gym at 12:17 p.m., police
reports state.
The bag was valued at S4O. A $95
watch, a checkbook, a S2OO check and a
$55 anatomy textbook were inside the
book bag, reports state.
■ A book bag was reported stolen
outside Lenoir Dining Hall, police
reports state.
The bag was valued at SSO. Credit
cards, a $25 wallet, a driver’s license,
five books and a coursepack were inside
the bag, reports state.
■JIOSZ ■ J 'IU‘l
City
Saturday, Sept. 19
■ Carrboro police responded to a
report at 4:25 a.m. of a burning vehicle
in the parking lot of Estes Park
Apartments, according to police
reports.
Fire units responded to and put out a
fire in a 1991 Honda Civic, valued at
$4,500.
While at the scene, officers noticed
smoke and flames coming from another
vehicle nearby.
Upon investigating, officers found a
1990 Plymouth Acclaim, valued at
$2,500, also on fire, according to
reports.
■ Marianne Maxwell Pukal, 20, of
306 N. Estes Drive, was charged with
misdemeanor possession of marijuana
at 2:08 a.m., according to police reports.
Pukal was released on written
promise to appear Oct. 26 in Orange
County District Court in Hillsborough.
Friday, Sept. 18
■ Denna Nichell Alston, 31, of 213
N. Roberson St., was charged with mis
demeanor larceny at 5:45 p.m. after
leaving the Gap, 108 E. Franklin St.,
with unpaid merchandise, according to
police reports.
Alston was observed in the store tak
ing clothes off the racks, putting them
into a bag and then walking out of the
store, reports state.
She then boarded a westbound bus,
and when police stopped the bus they
found the merchandise in her posses
sion, reports state. She was cited and
released, and is scheduled to appear
Oct. 12 in Orange County District
Court in Hillsborough, police reports
state.
■ Timothy Dale Howard, 34, of
3413 Orange Grove Road,
Hillsborough, was charged at 5:08 p.m.
with driving with a license revoked and
giving false information to an officer,
according to police reports.
Both charges are misdemeanors.
Howard was released on a SSOO
unsecured bond, and is scheduled to
appear in Orange County District Court
in Chapel Hill on Oct. 13.
■ Pezzull Scurlock, 19, of Route 6,
Pittsboro, was charged at 1 p.m. with
driving with a license revoked, no insur
ance and driving while intoxicated, all
misdemeanors, according Jlo police
reports.
Reports listed additional charges as
no inspection, fictitious tag, consump
tion under 21 and delaying and
obstructing an officer. Scurlock was
arrested and transported to Orange
Countyjail under a secured SBOO bond,
reports state.
He is set to appear today in Orange
County District Court in Chapel Hill.
—From Staff Reports
Shop Owners Promote Downtown
The Carrboro Business
Association, a group of 45
merchants, meets monthly
to discuss downtown issues.
By Eleanor Cameron
Staff Writer
Carrboro businesses are uniting to
increase awareness of the town’s multi
tude of dinning and shopping venues.
The Carrboro Business Association,
an organization of businesses formed
this summer that meets monthly to
address concerns shared by downtown
merchants, said Joan Glacken, the asso
ciation’s vice president.
The association was started after sev
eral downtown shop owners, acknowl
edging there was no existing association
Petition
Filed for
Back Pay
A former UNC employee
wants a hearing to ask for
back pay already ordered
by a state appeals board.
Staff Report
A former University employee filed
a complaint Monday arguing that she
should receive back pay and lawyer’s
fees awarded by a state agency for an
unfair firing.
The complaint, filed in Orange
County Superior Court, states that the
University has not complied with a six
month-old order requiring the
University to pay Diane Riggsbee-
Raynor, an employee who worked at
the University in 1995.
“The University’s unreasonable
delay in taking the action ordered by
the (State
Personnel
Commission) has
adversely affected
Ms. Riggsbee-
Raynor’s rights,
duties and privi
leges as a career
State employee,”
the complaint
filed by Chapel
Hill attorneys
Alan McSurely
and Ashley
Osment states.
Officials who
fired Riggsbee-
— ~^ Sr
Chapel Hill attorney
Alan McSurely
signed the petition
requesting back pay
for a former
University employee.
Raynor claimed she falsified her work
record by not recording overtime hours.
In March, the commission, which con
sidered Riggsbee-Raynor’s firing unfair,
ordered the University to pay her two
years in back pay.
The commission agreed with
Administrative Law Judge Sammie
Chess Jr.’s June 1997 decision that
Riggsbee-Raynor was held to a different
work standard than other University
employees.
The University has petitioned for a
review of the commission’s decision in
Wake County Superior Court. The
request for a review does not remove
the University’s obligation to pay
Riggsbee-Raynor, the complaint states.
Riggsbee-Raynor had also won her
argument before a grievance board at
UNC. University attorneys had contin
ued to appeal the case.
The attorneys have only had an
appeal to Chancellor Michael Hooker
mled in their favor.
“I’ve won at three levels now,”
Riggsbee-Raynor said in March.
“It would be one thing if I had been
a bad worker. I got fired for working too
much.”
Riggsbee-Raynor took time off from
her job in the School of Medicine’s
Plastic Surgery Division after her super
visor told her to do so because she had
worked so many overtime hours, she
said. Months after she returned to work,
she received her walking papers for not
documenting the extra hours she
worked.
An investigator found that other
employees regularly took vacation time
after working overtime hours, but
Riggsbee-Raynor had been the only
one punished.
Riggsbee-Raynor said she would not
gain much money from her grievance.
UNC owes her back wages from the
time of her September 1995 firing, but a
clause in administrative code could
allow UNC to deduct the money she
has earned on her job, which she start
ed in December 1995, from what it
owes her, she said.
She should receive two more years of
seniority that applies to her retirement
plan and attorney’s fees.
Riggsbee-Raynor said she would also
have the satisfaction of having gleaned
the truth from her employer.
for Carrboro merchants, held an open
interest meeting in June at The Trains
Cafe. Glacken, owner of Finishing
Touches, arranged the meeting with
Demir Williford of Nomadic Trading,
the organization’s current president.
“Fifty-four business owners or repre
sentatives showed up at the meeting to
discuss the development of the town of
Carrboro,” Glacken said.
“We are concentrating on the little
things that will improve the infrastruc
ture of Carrboro.”
Glacken said the association’s plans
included printing a visitor’s brochure to
be distributed around the state, devel
oping group marketing and putting
together a complete directory of all
Carrboro businesses.
Glacken said the association is also
collaborating with the town to set up
pedestrian crosswalks and to install
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Rogelia Galvan resides at 102 Elm St. in Carrboro with her husband and children, Melissa and Raoul.
The house forms part of a unit that Carrboro town officials hope will receive a grant for repairs.
Town Seeks Grant for Housing
By Angela Lea
Staff Writer
Apolonio Galvan stood on his grass
less yard gesturing toward his house’s
peeling exterior and commented on the
dilapidated interior, which he said he
could not afford to repair.
“The floors are crooked, and the
pipes are leaking under the floor,”
Galvan said, who has lived in Carrboro
with his wife and children for six years.
But if the Town of Carrboro is suc
cessful in obtaining a $350,000 commu
nity development block grant from the
state, which it will consider accepting
today, homes like Galvan’s can be
repaired using federal funds, said James
Harris, Carrboro’s director of economic
and community development.
Galvan’s landlord, Marvin Johnson,
said he had tried to maintain high living
standards and low rents for his residents.
But he said that was difficult to do while
at the same time covering tax and insur
ance costs.
“I wish I had the money to refurbish
Bank Robbery Suspect
Has Hearing Date Set
Police say the suspect was
unarmed when he
demanded money from a
Central Carolina Bank teller.
By Matt Leclercq
Staff Writer
A Durham man arrested and charged
with robbing a Carrboro bank last
weekend will have a probable cause
hearing in Orange County District
Court in Hillsborough on Oct 5.
Jerry Bruce Cleveland 11, 26, of 3814
Mary Martin Road, Durham, was
charged with felony common law rob
bery after demanding money from a
Central Carolina Bank teller Friday,
according to police reports.
Cleveland appeared in Orange
County District Court on Monday
where a public defender was appointed
to represent him.
According to police reports,
Cleveland entered the bank around 11
a.m. and handed a note to a teller
demanding money.
After exiting the bank with an undis
closed amount of cash, Cleveland left
the scene in a vehicle that witnesses later
described to police, Sgt. J.G. Booker
said.
News
wastebaskets and
park benches.
These improve
ments will help to
foster the commu
nity atmosphere of
Carrboro, Glacken
said.
“I think the
CBA is really a
positive force,”
Alderman
Jacquelyn Gist
said. “Carrboro
has possibly the
best downtown in
the state because
Carrboro Alderman
Jacquelyn Gist
said the CBA could
be a positive force in
keeping Carrboro's
downtown unique.
of the businesses there.”
Of approximately 359 businesses in
Carrboro, 45 are currently members of
the association. “The idea of splitting
costs and maximizing developments for
7 wish I had the money to
refurbish like I want to.
The grant money would
surely help. ”
Marvin Johnson
Carrboro Landlord
like I want to,"Johnson said. “The grant
money would surely help.”
Carrboro has its fair share of sub
standard housing, Harris said. Some
homes need new heating systems, win
dows, siding and even roofs or founda
tions.
Harris said town officials, with resi
dents’ help, identified about 10 or 12
homes in Carrboro that were in such
states of serious disrepair. The grant
would enable these homes to be reno
vated, he said.
Towns compete annually on the state
level for these grants, Harris said.
Alderman Diana McDuffee said
Bank officials then triggered the hold
up alarm to notify police, he said.
Carrboro police described the vehi
cle to police departments in surrounding
areas, which led to Cleveland’s arrest by
Durham police Friday afternoon on
South Roxboro Road, Booker said.
“He was (on Roxboro Road) to make
contact with persons in that area,"
Booker said.
Cleveland was transferred to
Carrboro and confined in Orange
Countyjail on Friday evening under an
SBOO,OOO secured bond, according to
police reports. Booker said Cleveland
acted alone and did not show any
weapons during the robbery.
“There is no appearance of (a
weapon) in a concealed manner in the
security videotape,” he said.
Police recovered a portion of the
money taken from the bank, but Booker
would not say how much.
Friday’s incident was the fourth rob
bery at a Carrboro bank this year,
Booker said.
In two of the previous three rob
beries, arrests were made within a few
hours of the hold-up, Booker said,
tu “That’s well above the national aver
age.”
The City Editor can be reached at
citydesk@unc.edu.
the area is appealing,” said George
Malone, owner of Gallery Americas.
The association is an organization
complimentary to the Chapel Hill
Downtown Development Commission,
which is an appointed body, Gist said.
“This was the town’s vision 15 years
ago,” she said. “We wanted it to be
unique dining and entertainment for
grownups, and that is what it has
become.”
Glacken said Chapel Hill and
Carrboro commerce are distinctively
different although they are both depen
dent on the students. “We try not to dis
tance ourselves from Chapel Hill,” she
said. “Carrboro and Chapel Hill are two
separate towns but one community.
They complement each other.”
The City Editor can be reached at
citydesk@unc.edu.
Carrboro could certainly use the grant,
despite the town’s more affluent image.
“Carrboro doesn’t look as needy as
other towns, but there’s a desperate
need for more affordable housing,” she
said. “It’s critical for us to keep up the
housing we do have.”
Harris said the town’s plans for
repairs and improvements hinged on
actually receiving the grant. That final
decision will not be made until April
1999.
However, Harris said he planned to
ask the board of Aldermen tonight to
add $25,000 to the pot in order to show
their support for the grant.
But the difference between $350,000
and $375,000 means little to Galvan,
whose eyes widened at the mere men
tion of any possible repairs.
“When I think of what that money
could do here ...” he said, shaking his
head. “I would be very happy with any
of it”
The City Editor can be reached at
citydesk@unc.edu.
BABY FACE
Fifteen-month-old Taya Yates spent her Monday morning at Carrboro's
Weaver Street Market. She was one of many children at the market
enjoying the fresh air, sunshine and nice temperatures.
Tuesday, September 22, 1998
Housing
Woes Eased
In System
ECU resolved its housing
problems in 10 days, while
about 22 UNC-CH students
still live in lounges.
By Courtney Hathaway
Staff Writer
As UNC-Chapel Hill continues to
find permanent rooms for students still
placed in temporary houses, other
schools in the system are making signf
icant steps to remedy similar problems.
East Carolina University had 102 stu
dents living in study lounges at the
beginning of the semester, but they
were all placed into permanent housing
by the tenth day of classes.
“We can usually count on 100 to 150
spaces opening up by that time because
of no-shows and students that decide
this isn’t where they want to be," said
Manny Amaro, director of housing ser
vices at ECU.
Appalachian State University had 62
students living in seminar rooms at the
beginning of the semester. Now only
four students remain. Those students
have opted to stay where they are until
they can live together.
“We intentionally overbook by 60
students, 30 males and 30 females, to
accommodate for the no-shows and the
drop-outs,” said Brad Reid, director of
housing at ASU. “Our goal every year
is to have 100 percent occupancy by the
end of the second week.”
As the University began its sixth
week of classes, there were still about 22
students living in temporary housing.
Wayne Kuncl, director of University
Housing at UNC-CH, said the
Department of University Housing had
no plans to reform its current policies,
despite the recurring problem of stu
dents living in lounges.
“A committee will be looking at long
term and short-term enrollment, but
there are currently no specific plans for
any changes,” Kuncl said.
He said the temporary housing com
mittee had been negotiating with stu
dents in several suites that were not
filled to capacity. He said the major
problem had been students who met
while in temporary housing and wanted
to stay together.
UNC-Greensboro had to contend
with similar situations, as about 16 stu
dents are still living in study lounges.
“We’re trying to move students as
quickly as possible so they can get on
with their lives and stop living out of
suitcases,” said Guy Sanders, assistant
director of housing and residence at
UNC-G.
Sanders said he expected to have all
students in permanent housing by the
end of the semester, Dec. 14. Part of the
problem comes from the university’s
commitment to offering single rooms.
“We hold that commitment sacred,”
Sanders said. “At no time do we consid
er asking them to give up their rooms.”
Sanders said UNC-G planned to
make housing policies more efficient by
initially offering fewer single rooms and
by having more communication with
the admissions office about the number
of incoming students.
The State & National Editors can be
reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.
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