2
MONDAY, JANUARY 31, 2005
Local sheds light on airport
BY BRIANNA BISHOP
ASSISTANT CITY EDITOR
Anecdotes, facts and a slide
show were combined Sunday to
provide some local residents with
the history of a town landmark.
Doug Eyre, a Chapel Hill resident
and former University professor,
gave a presentation at the Chapel
Hill Public Library about the history
of the Horace Williams Airport.
The airport sits on a tract of
land that has been owned by the
University since May 1940, about
11/2 miles from the main campus.
It has been the topic of much recent
debate, as it is located on the pro
posed site of Carolina North, UNC’s
satellite campus and research park.
Eyre’s lecture chronicled the air
port’s history until about the time
it was purchased by the University.
He also welcomed questions and
input from his audience, which gath
ered in the library’s meeting room.
“When these opportunities come
up, you got to grab them,” Eyre said
of the decision to buy the land for
the airport.
He also spoke of the key players
involved in the airport’s evolution.
The economic prosperity of the
1920s nurtured a growing interest in
aviation, Eyre said. Out of that inter
est grew a private airport, which got
Program to support soldiers’ families
To be offered in 5 state communities
BY STEPHANIE NOVAK
STAFF WRITER
As increasing numbers of
National Guardsmen and reservists
are deployed, families and soldiers
are finding themselves in unfamil
iar territory both at home and
abroad.
But with the support of anew
government program, spearheaded
in part by UNC-Chapel Hill officials,
the transitions from deployment to
home will soon become easier for
soldiers and their families.
The Citizen-Soldier Support
program aims to build community
involvement to strengthen support
for these families.
The program is moving from
the planning stage and soon will be
implemented in five communities
throughout North Carolina, includ
ing Asheville, Greensboro, Charlotte,
Campaign slogans catch students’ attention
BY STEPHANIE NOVAK
STAFF WRITER
Several candidates for student
office woke up Saturday morning
to discover that some of their care
fully planned, meticulously painted
A-frames were missing.
While the signs later were found
strewn around the steps of Wilson
Library and several other locations
throughout campus, candidates
were worried about the conse
quences stemming from a vital part
of their campaigns going missing.
During election season, students
often realize that one of the most
important parts of any campaign is
publicity. Asa result, the campus is
littered with signs displaying a vari
ety of logos, from “26,878 Students,
One Unified Vision” to “Answer the
Bell” signs featuring the cast from
Saved by the Bell.
Candidates have tried to embed
parts of their platform in their
DNT
pro
crastino
com
its roots when Charlie Martindale
purchased the tract of land in 1928.
The 1930 sand ’4os brought
attempts to commercialize the
land, known as Martindale Field.
But near the outset of World
War 11, UNC and Duke University
received federal funds to develop a
flight training program at the air
port, Eyre said.
Former President Gerald Ford
was one of the program’s pilots.
It was then, with the growing
importance of the airport, that N.C.
86 was renamed Airport Road.
“Here we have the moderniza
tion of Airport Road,” Eyre said.
By the end of the war, Horace
Williams Airport was the larg
est college-owned airport in the
United States, Eyre said.
Eyre said he has been interested
in the airport’s history for a while.
He was already doing some
research on the facility before he
began meeting people and gather
ing firsthand information.
“You’re sopping up a background
that you’re not really aware of,” he
said of his research on the airport.
Alan Fearing, a pilot for the N.C.
Area Health Education Center pro
gram, which operates out of the air
port, said he enjoyed Eyre’s lecture.
“It had information about the
Rocky Mount and Wilmington.
The Department of Defense
appropriation bill, which was
finalized in July, includes $l.B mil
lion in funding for the National
Demonstration Program for
Citizen-Soldier Support —a col
laborative effort involving many
universities, including UNC-CH as
well as Duke, N.C. State and East
Carolina universities.
Last week, the program held a
three-day training session for com
munity liaisons and a group called
“Subject Matter Specialists.”
The liaisons will work in their
own geographic areas to raise
awareness among community
members about the soldiers and
begin developing new support
services for troops and their fami
lies. The specialists will serve as
backup resources to the commu
logos and other distributed items.
“We basically wanted all our
material to be substantive so that
people would know what we’re
about,” said Tom Jensen, candi
date for student body president.
The main goal of his campaign, he
said, is to reach students who do not
actively research the election.
Some questions have been
raised concerning candidate Seth
Dearmin’s use of the John Deere
logo because of possible legal impli
cations with trademark laws.
Dearmin has been using
“Nothing Runs Like a Dearmin” as
his campaign slogan but decided
Sunday night to replace it with
“Making Life Easier.”
Dearmin and his campaign
manager, Adrian Johnston, said
they researched the situation and
do not believe they have done any
thing wrong.
“We absolutely believe that we’re
DTH/RICKY LEUNG
Local historian Doug Eyre (left) speaks with Rodger Harris (right) after
Eyre s presentation of the history of the Horace Williams Airport on Sunday.
airport that I had never known
before,” he said.
One lecture attendee noted the
airport’s fate after Eyre’s lecture.
“I think it’s very important that
the University keep that airport an
airport,” said Chapel Hill resident
Tom Nuzum.
“What could you need more
than an airport?” he added.
The N.C. General Assembly has
nity liaisons.
Retired Maj. Gen. Doug
Robertson, director of UNC-CH’s
Highway Safety Research Center
and a member of the core team
involved in bringing the initiative
together, said he is looking forward
to the program becoming a model
for the rest of the nation.
He said he hopes all soldiers will
have information available to them,
as well as community support.
“Every county in North Carolina
has people being deployed,” said
Dennis Orthner, a core team mem
ber of the support initiative and a
UNC-CH professor of social work.
“In many cases they’re surprised
because they didn’t anticipate the
separation.”
The first plan of action for the
liaisons is to create community
contacts and find out what sup
port services are already in place,
Orthner said.
“We’re looking to mobilize the
“Weregoing to issue a statement
removing the logo. We want to spend
time on issues, not the logo
ADRIAN JOHNSTON, campaign manager for sbp candidate seth dearmin
in the clear, but we’re going to issue
a statement removing the logo,”
Johnston said. “We want to spend
time on issues, not the logo.”
He added that because of such
concerns, the campaign will remove
the John Deere logo from all signs
and posters and from its Web site.
Candidates also use the Internet
as a valuable campaign tool.
“The quality of your Web site
demonstrates the quality of your
candidacy to some extent,” said
student body president candidate
Seke Ballard.
“If I put up a subpar Web site,
how can I be expected to do a good
News
said that the airport must remain
open until anew site is found for
the AHEC program.
The lecture was organized by the
Friends of the Chapel Hill Public
Library as a part of its Sunday
Speaker Series program, which is
in its fourth year.
Contact the City Editor
at citydesk@unc.edu.
community to help soldiers (and
their families), particularly while
they’re deployed,” he said.
Heather Hill, a resident of
Mecklenburg County for 28 years,
said she knows the difficulties asso
ciated with having a loved one in
the service. Her husband is now
enlisted, and she served in the
National Guard for two years.
She will be the community liai
son for Charlotte.
“(Citizen-Soldier families) some
times feel lost and alone and the
community would love to help but
doesn’t know how,” she said. “If we
can let them know that the needs are
there... then we’ve done our job.”
Other community liaisons include:
Crystal Moore in Wilmington,
Roman Bowles in Greensboro,
Rebekah Murray in Rocky Mount
and Deborah Reed in Asheville.
Contact the University Editor
at udesk@unc.edu.
job as SBP?” he said. “I can’t even
represent my campaign, how can I
represent the student body?”
Candidates have to adhere to
campaign rules in the midst of the
publicity frenzy.
The Board of Elections fined
Dearmin’s campaign for illegally
posting campaign materials in
Ehringhaus Residence Hall.
Madison Perry and Whit Walker,
candidates for senior class officers,
were fined $3 for putting a sign in
Polk Place with a stake.
Contact the University Editor
at udesk@unc.edu.
_ same
■ / gßeat
ga pl ace...
* ™ F/ new lower rates!
$ if/
J / An elevator ride
to THE AGORA.
I O 2006 r-nlo Lay North America. Inc
POLICE LOG
FROM STAFF REPORTS
■ AJJNC Health Care employee
was arrested early Saturday morn
ing and charged with misdemeanor
assault with a deadly weapon, mis
demeanor damage to personal prop
erty and felony breaking and enter
ing, Chapel Hill police reports state.
According to reports, Natasha
Leann Munn, 25, of 10 Woodbridge
Drive, Apt. B, kicked in the door of
her ex-boyfriend’s apartment and
stabbed him with a small plastic
hobby knife, resulting in minor
injuries.
The incident occurred about
2 a.m. at the Colony Apartments
at 1250 Ephesus Church Road,
reports state.
Munn was taken to Orange
County Jail to be held without bond.
She will appear at the first opportu
nity today in Orange County District
Criminal Court in Hillsborough.
■ A Chapel Hill man was arrest
ed at 11 p.m. Saturday for violating
a domestic violence protective
order and is being held on a felony
fugitive warrant, Chapel Hill police
reports state.
According to reports, Herman
Lee Owens, 46, of 1527 U.S. 15-501
South, was arrested at the Kingswood
Apartments at 1105 N.C. 54.
He was under the influence of
drugs or alcohol, reports state.
According to reports, he was sent
to Orange County Jail to be held
pending extradition hearings for
a fugitive warrant that was issued
December 2003 in Virginia.
He will appear at the first opportu
Policies harm
tobacco growers
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CINCINNATI Tobacco grow
ers are being squeezed between the
government’s plan to phase out a
19305-vintage price support system
and cigarette makers’ refusal to pay
millions under an agreement tied to
a master settlement of anti-smok
ing lawsuits with 46 states.
In 1998, cigarette manufactur
ers agreed to pay the states $206
billion over 25 years. The following
year, in a deal known as Phase 11,
they said they would pay tobacco
growers $5.1 billion over 12 years
to soften the effect of reduced
demand for tobacco.
When Congress passed the $lO
billion buyout legislation last year to
pay growers the equivalent of about
five years of sales, tobacco companies
said that ended their Phase II obliga
tion. Because buyout payments won’t
start until later this year, many grow
ers were left short of cash.
“A lot of that money has already
been spent, and here they come
and say you ain’t going to get it,”
said Bob Koehler of Ripley, vice
president of the Ohio Tobacco
Growers Association. “That puts a
lot of boys in a pinch.”
The four major tobacco com
panies contend that under terms
of an amendment to the Phase II
agreement, they don’t have to make
the final payment of 2004 and are
entitled to a refund of payments
made earlier in the year.
Bill Phelps, spokesman for Philip
Morris USA in Richmond, Va., said
officials in the 14 tobacco-growing
states where Phase II payments
were made agreed that tobacco com
panies would be entitled to repay
ments in the year the buyout was
(Eljr oaUy sar Urd
nity today in Orange County District
Criminal Court in Hillsborough.
■ T\vo people, including a wait
ress at Woody’s Tar Heel Tavern &
Grill, were arrested shortly after
midnight Sunday and charged with
misdemeanor possession of marijua
na, Chapel Hill police reports state.
According to reports, Keith
Kareem Parks, 19, of Chapel Hill,
and Jessica Paige Robinson, 21, of
Durham, were found with marijuana
off Craig Street near Sykes Street.
They were found in a black 1994
Nissan Altima that was left at the
scene, reports state.
The two were released on writ
ten promises to appear March 7 in
Orange County District Criminal
Court in Hillsborough.
■ A UNC student was the victim
of aggravated assault at 1:30 a.m.
Saturday when he was struck with
a beer bottle at 316 E. Rosemary St.,
Chapel Hill police reports state.
According to reports, the 19-
year-old sophomore was under the
influence of drugs or alcohol when
he was struck.
The incident resulted in minor
injuries, reports state.
■ A UNC senior’s cell phone
was stolen Saturday morning at a
nightclub at 306 W. Franklin St.,
Chapel Hill police reports state.
According to reports, the phone
was taken while the 21-year-old was
inside the discotheque Avalon.
The phone and its cover were
valued at $315, reports state.
enacted. The states dispute that.
A judge in North Carolina ruled
in favor of the tobacco companies
last month, but the state Supreme
Court there agreed to hear the
states’ appeal directly, bypassing
the appellate courts. Thursday was
the deadline for filing briefs.
Tobacco quotas were established
to prop up prices and limit the
amount of leaf that a grower could
legally market. Ohio, one of the
smaller tobacco states, has an overall
quota of 10.9 million pounds divided
among nearly 15,000 growers.
At about $2 a pound, the aver
age grower makes about $2,600 a
year supplemental income rath
er than a livelihood. Most Phase II
payments due in December would
have been a few hundred dollars.
Not so for Lamar DeLoach, of
Metter, Ga., one of the nation’s larg
est tobacco growers and president
of the Tobacco Growers Association
of Georgia. He sold up to 2 million
pounds of tobacco a year in the late
’9os, and expected to receive a Phase
II check for $250,000 last month.
“That’s a quarter million dollars
cash flow I didn’t have January 1 to
meet my obligations,” DeLoach said.
“I had to renew some notes in the
past couple of weeks, and there were
a lot of other farmers at the bank.”
% Saili) alar lirrl
P.O. Box 3257, Chapel Hill, NC 27515
Michelle Jarboe, Editor, 962-4086
Advertising 8i Business, 962-1163
News, Features, Sports, 962-0245
One copy per person: additional copies may be
purchased at The Daily Tar Heel for $.25 each.
© 2005 DTH Publishing Corp.
All rights reserved