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% 9a% (Tar Uppl Re-election request rejected BY CARLYTRICHE STAFF WRITER More than nine weeks after Election Day, an N.C. Superior Court judge has ruled that there will not be anew statewide elec tion to settle the controversy over the race for commissioner of agri culture. Judge James Spencer ordered the N.C. State Board of Elections to find an alternate solution to the dispute surrounding 4,438 lost electronic ballots in Carteret County. The votes, cast before Nov. 2, disappeared because of an unno ticed error in an electronic voting system, throwing the result of the close election into question and sending the dispute to the state Board of Elections. Last month, the board called for anew statewide election to deter mine whether Democratic incum bent Britt Cobb or Republican challenger Steve Troxler would take office. Dell looks to leave mark on Triad BY MEGAN MCSWAIN ASSISTANT STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR A $37.2 million incentive pack age from Forsyth County helped lure anew Dell manufacturing plant last month to the Alliance Science and Technology Park. After Dell accepted a 20-year, $242.5 million incentive plan from the N.C. General Assembly in November, an incentive bat tle raged on between Davidson, Forsyth and Guilford counties. “Winston-Salem’s Alliance Park location is best suited to bringing our new operation online in time to meet growing customer needs, providing good proximity to an available work force and supporting our logistics objectives,” said Ro Parra, senior vice president and general man ager of Dell USA, in a Dec. 22 press release. The county competition was brought about by the possibility of new jobs in the struggling manu facturing industry. Other offers from Triad-area governments included Greensboro and Guilford County’s combined $12.4 million. Davidson County offered $23.1 million, including $1.5 million in potential land costs. The Dell plant will employ 700 L. Penny Draft Night fovfllloNlL Cl JAPEIHIM, \**Kl**< -'.A Avalon /Slight Club THIRSTY THURSDAY Penny Draft Jj FREE KEGGER!! Welcome Back Kegger!! JANUARY 13th Doors open at 10:00 pm 18 to party 21 to drink o o (919)929-9900 306 W. Franklin St. Across from Breadman’s The board also had changed its voting policy to be able to reach a consensus, said Don Wright, general counsel for the Board of Elections. The board decided that only three votes were needed to carry any motion. There are three Democrats and two Republicans on the board. “They tried to skirt the law,” Troxler said of the Board of Elections. Both Troxler and his lawyer, Marshall Hurley, say the board’s decision to hold anew election was unfair. Hurley said the discrepancy was a result of petty partisan politics and political rivalry. Spencer rejected the board’s call for anew election. The board now has to find anew method of determining the commissioner of agriculture. With the missing ballots uncounted, Cobb trails Troxler by 2,287 votes. people, a number which will rise to 1,500 in the next five years, accord ing to a Dell press release. Dell plans for the Forsyth County facility to eventually be its largest in the United States, said Debra Conrad-Shrader, vice chairwoman of the Forsyth County Board of Commissioners. A contractor has yet to be named for the 500,000-square foot plant, which tentatively will open fall 2005. Several Forsyth County area con tractors are waiting, hoping a local company will be chosen for the job. “(Dell) has made a commitment to use a local contractor whenever possible,” said Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines. Area officials are hopeful the Dell plant will boost the economy, not only through new jobs, but also through the attraction of new companies. “Approximately two- to three thousand indirect jobs will be cre ated,” Joines said. Peripheral companies are expected to follow the SIOO mil lion desktop computer assembly plant to the Triad. “It will be giving us national exposure,” Conrad-Shrader said. “I think it will just provide a lot of momentum.” THIRSTY THURSDAY Penny Draft “Britt Cobb has continually asked for anew statewide election since day one,” IVoxler said. Troxler gathered 1,352 affidavits from voters in Carteret County, all stating they cast their ballots for Troxler. These affidavits, along with the official results from the rest of the state, represent enough votes to declare a victory, Troxler said. “This proves beyond a reason able doubt that I have won the election,” he said. Spencer stopped short of hand ing Troxler an election victory, but the decision against anew election represents a defeat for Cobb. Others blame the problem on the faulty voting machines. “We said from day one that the best way to solve this was in Carteret County,” Cobb said. “If we had a paper trail, there wouldn’t be a problem.” Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu. But some say the price of nation al exposure was too high. Sen. Hamilton Horton Jr., R- Forsyth, said both the state and local governments paid too much considering the lack of competition for the plant. “We were the only game in town,” he said. The other candidate for the plant was Virginia, which would have offered between $33 mil lion and $37 million. But the state never proposed a serious deal. Horton said the new jobs will not pay as much as standard wages in Forsyth County. “It will hopefully provide 1,500 jobs, which we will have paid $186,000 a piece for.” Dell will start hiring for jobs in its new plant in April. Contact the State £3 National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu. January 21-23, 2005 *\ Tickets: $7.50 Individual $32.00 Five-Pack M Five-Pack discount ends Jan. 20 y flf CENTERPIECE SELECTION! fHHHp J 1 Darkness: The Vampire Version* With Filmmaker Intro and Post-Screening Q & A with Leif longer The QffSeOSOn* Sponsored by Chapel Hill Comics Rex Steele: Nazi Smasher* CENTERPIECE SELECTION! Dead and Breakfast* Sky Blue* Corner of Your Eye* 1 A Tale of Two Sisters* Gory Gory Hallelujah* •Denotes North Carolina Premiere House of Flying Dayyers Ong Bale The Thai Warrior* ■<ifc. The Carolina Theatre. Never Ordinary. (919) 560-3030 • 309 West Morgan St. - Downtown Durham Box Office Hrs: Mon-Fri 11 am-9 pm Weekends 1:30 pm-9 pm Study Hard. Eat Well. If you’re hungry for more than just knowledge, stop by Bear Rock Cafe. With our mountain stuffed sandwiches, garden fresh salads, black kettle soups and outrageously delicious desserts, it’s the perfect place to take a study break. $2 OFF ] ; Any Sandwich : ) Not valid with any other offer. - j BEA R j>WK BEARfROCK J immmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm m m m m m mi University Mall • 201 S. Estes Drive Chapel Hill • 942-4811 • Fax 942-1244 www.bearrockfoods.com > * News Cities target red-light runners, collect funds BY ERIC JOHNSON ASSISTANT STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR In Chapel Hill, drivers caught sailing through a red light will be seeing the flashing blue and reds atop a police cruiser. But a flashbulb might be all that drivers notice in many other North Carolina cities. More than a dozen cities and towns in the state now use auto mated camera systems to catch red light runners, and a number of others have expressed interest in the technology. The city of Charlotte was the first in North Carolina to begin using red light cameras, installing the units in August 1998. Doreen Szymanski, public ser vice and communications divi sion manager for the Charlotte Department of Transportation, said the city hoped to reduce the number of side-angle collisions by getting drivers to think twice about racing a yellow signal. “We wanted to influence driver behavior so that our intersections would be safer,” she said. The city has a contract with Peek Traffic Systems, based in Palmetto, Fla., which operates 19 cameras at locations throughout the city. “We had a twentieth,” Szymanski said, “but it kept getting knocked over by tractor trailers.” The city will be finding another intersection for that camera, she added. Peek Traffic also holds the con tracts for operating cameras in Greensboro, High Point, Rocky Mount and Wilmington. “There is a huge amount of interest,” said Russ Colthorpe, the company’s director of automated traffic enforcement. “The data is showing that it’s saving lives, it’s reducing accidents, and that’s got a lot of lawmakers’ attention.” Before Charlotte could go ahead with its camera system, the city had to seek a change in state law to allow the photo-captured violations to be processed as civil THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 2005 penalties rather than criminal and to prevent insurance points from being assigned. The statute also fixes the statewide penalty at SSO. “A lot of cities that have the abil ity to do this assess it as a criminal penalty,” Szymanski said, adding that statewide SSO fine was fairly modest when compared with other locations. In California, fines can easily exceed S3OO, while penalties in Maryland and Washington, D.C., are $75. “The east coast seems to be a little more tame about it than the west coast,” Szymanski said. Chapel Hill launched a cam era pilot program in 2003 with Affiliated Computer Services, one of the largest contractors in the red-light camera business. After a trial period of several months, the Chapel Hill Town Council narrowly voted to remove the cameras. Council member Mark Kleinschmidt led the campaign against the cameras, declaring that he had “great difficulties with the mechanization and privatization of police functions.” The council also expressed con cern about a large percentage of the fines going to the contractor instead of to the city. Mike Kennon, a traffic engineer with the Raleigh public works depart ment, said his city has been pleased with the results of its Safe Light pro gram, also run by ACS. “We’ve seen a significant reduc tion in the kind of accidents we were targeting,” he said. An inde pendent study found that total col lisions at camera-equipped inter sections in Raleigh were reduced by 17 percent. Law enforcement officials, not private contractors, review all photos to decide whether to issue a citation. N.C. law requires that city officials review and issue cita tions. That doesn’t comfort Greensboro uniquities Chapel Hill Store only 10:00am - 7:oopm 452 West Franklin St 919.933.4007 www.uniquities.com No checks please. Cash, Master Card, Visa and American Express accepted. Women Only Sale: Due to open dressing room, men are asked to remain outside for this day only. iIBP mm attorney Marshall Hurley, who tes tified in front of a U.S. House sub committee on Highway and Transit in 2001. “In one sense, the camera schemes are based on the concept of a government kickback,” he told lawmakers. “A contractor gets a guaranteed, protected, lucrative cash flow, while giving a portion back to the government.” He also said city governments violate due process by presuming guilt. “The notion that this is about safety is a ruse and a lie,” he said in an interview TLiesday. Szymanski dismissed the idea that the automated camera programs are intended as a revenue stream. “It’s always been about safety. The fact that we make revenue from it is sort of the side benefit.” In Charlotte and other cities across the state contracted with Peek Traffic Systems, the company keeps $35 of each SSO citation. Szymanski said the arrangement allows the program to be self financed and gives the city extra money to spend on safety pro grams. Raleigh pays ACS a flat fee to administer its system. In many municipalities, includ ing Raleigh, extra revenue from the automated systems is specifically earmarked for public education. A recent court ruling in High Point, part of a case brought by Hurley, has thrown that city’s camera program into question —a Superior Court judge decided that a larger percentage of the fines should be reserved for schools instead of the contractor. An appeal is pending. Wherever the money goes, Colthorpe said he has no reserva tions about its origin. “The people that are breaking the laws are the ones that have to pay for it, and that’s about as fair of a situation as I think you can get.” Contact the State is! National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu. 7
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