4
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2007
Factions face off for control of farmers’ market
BY DEVIN ROONEY
STAFF WRITER
Rival factions vying for control of
the Hillsborough Farmers Market
are working with Orange County
Cooperative Extension to mediate
the conflict between the two groups
of vendors.
Talks began after Beverly
Blythe, market manager, filed a
lawsuit against an incorporated
group fighting to reorganize the
farmers’ market management.
Blythe is both the market man
ager and a vendor, which the incor
porated group of vendors sees as a
potential conflict of interest.
Jeffry Goodrum, spokesman
Farmers eligible for federal aid
BY ROSE ANNA LAUDICINA
STAFF WRITER
While Friday’s rain let up just in
time for Saturday’s UNC football
game, it stopped too soon for local
farmers.
Because of the extreme lack of
rain so far in September, farms
in 85 counties throughout North
Carolina, including Orange County,
were declared disaster drought
areas Friday.
That means farmers now have
been declared eligible to apply for
low-interest loans.
To receive this aid, farmers
must first apply for bank loans
and be rejected before they can
apply for the federal low-inter
est loans, said Tommy McLamb,
of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture Farm Service Agency
in North Carolina.
Once a farmer receives the low
interest loan, it can be used to help
pay the bills and debt that the farm
er incurs because of crop failure.
“(Chance of rain) doesn’t look
good for the next 14 to 18 days
right now,” said Brandon Locklear,
a meteorologist at the National
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for the group and owner of Seeing
Stars Farm said he envisions an
elected governance board, an inde
pendent market manager, a trea
surer and an official set of bylaws.
He said these steps will bring
a necessary financial and bureau
cratic transparency to the mar
ket.
“I’ve never seen the financial
reporting, no budget reports were
ever given,” he said.
“There are other markets like
Hillsborough with a vendor that’s
a manager of the market, but that’s
the exception.”
Blythe could not be reached for
comment, but said in an August
Weather Service in Raleigh.
“Whatever we received from
Friday’s rain looks like all we
will have for the month of
September.”
That news is detrimental to the
farming population statewide, and
particularly to the Orange County
area, where crops already are fail
ing, said Lamont Dale Dixon of the
N.C. Farm Bureau.
“No matter how much rain we
get from now to the end of the
month, the crops are still ruined,”
Dixon said.
Soybean farmers’ insurance
companies already have come to
local farmers’ land and evaluated
the crops, deeming most of them
ruined by drought, Dixon said.
“The insurance people said that
the bean will not mature, no matter
how much rain they get. The farm
ers have been given the go-ahead to
salvage what they can and chop the
rest up to be used as hay for their
animals,” he said.
The average rainfall for the
month of September is 4.26 inches
for North Carolina, Locklear said.
This month Chapel Hill has
interview that Goodrum’s plan
would create “a level of bureau
cracy which may not be what is
best for the market as a whole.”
On Aug. 24 Blythe filed a cease
and desist suit requesting that
the incorporated group not use
the name Hillsborough Farmers
Market, and that the group stop
making intentionally false state
ments.
The lawsuit came after both
groups spoke at an Aug. 21 meet
ing of the Orange County Board of
Commissioners.
The groups both were present
ing plans for the market’s re
opening in a site that’s part of the
“No matter how
much rain we get
... the crops are
still ruined.”
LAMONT DALE DIXON,
N.C. FARM BUREAU
received about 1 inch of rain, most
of which came from Friday’s down
pour, he said.
Because of the small effect that
Friday’s rainfall had on lake lev
els, the year-round water conser
vation requirements are still in
effect. Further restrictions might be
imposed on the Chapel Hill-Carrboro
community within the next month,
said Greg Feller, Orange Water and
Sewer Authority spokesman.
“As we transition to the fall we
can start to see more and more
strong cold fronts moving in which
should bring more precipitation,”
Locklear said.
Contact the City Editor
at citydesk@unc.edu.
News
Orange County Justice Facility.
Goodrum said his group asked
for clarification of the issue
in a letter which was received
by Blythe’s lawyer on Aug. 31,
requesting a clarification of alle
gations.
“As far as we were aware, we
made no intentionally false state
ments,” he said.
The law firm never replied to the
incorporated group’s letter.
But Goodrum said Blythe over
reacted to the proposed changes.
“Even small groups have to
have some kind of organization
National and World News
FROM THE
CAMPAIGN TRAIL
Turnout sparse at
Fla. values forum
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.
(AP) So-called “values voters”
gathered here Monday to grill
Republican presidential candi
dates, but the forum was most
notable for its empty lecterns
and its unanswered questions.
The biggest GOP names
Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney,
John McCain and Fred Thompson
all sat out the Values Voter
Presidential Debate, citing sched
uling conflicts. A 2,688-seat the
ater organizers said would be so
fifll they started a waiting list had
several hundred empty seats.
Clinton says U.S.
should trust her
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP)
Thirteen years after presiding
over the biggest policy debacle
of her husband’s presidency,
Democrat Hillary Rodham
Clinton said Tuesday her experi
ence with failure makes her the
one who can succeed in provid
ing universal health coverage.
“If you don’t learn from your
mistakes, you stop growing,”
Clinton said in an interview with
The Associated Press, insisting
that voters should trust her lead
ership as she seeks a return to the
White House in her own right.
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and structure, and that’s been
fairly actively resisted for a num
ber of years now in this market,”
he said.
Since the lawsuit, Goodrum said
his group has made one more pre
sentation to the county commis
sioners.
He said the issue is on hold
because the market is moving into
anew county facility.
The regulations for use of the
newly dedicated market house
must be established before com
missioners can vote on the man
agement of the farmers’ market,
Police Taser student after he refuses
to leave the mic at a campus forum
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) - A
university student was Tasered by
campus police and arrested after
loudly and repeatedly trying to
ask U.S. Sen. John Kerry ques
tions during a campus forum.
Andrew Meyer, 21, spent a night
in jail before his release T\iesday
on his own recognizance.
Videos of the Monday night
incident show University of Florida
police officers pulling Meyer away
from the microphone after he asks
Kerry about impeaching President
Bush and whether they were both
members of Skull and Bones at
Yale University.
Bush pushes plan
to pleased crowd
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP)
President Bush, cheered on
by Iraq war veterans and their
families on the White House’s
South Lawn, urged lawmakers
Tuesday to back his plan to with
draw some troops from Iraq but
keep at least 130,000 through
next summer or longer.
“I ask the United States Congress
to support the troop levels and the
strategies I have embraced,” Bush
said, to loud cheers and chants of
“USA! USA!”
The president addressed about
850 members of military-support
organizations invited to the event
for coffee, juice and pastries.
Slip Saily (Ear Uppl
said Barry Jacobs, vice chairman
of the board.
He said the board will take up
the farmers’ market issue again in
October, after the regulations for
the market house are decided this
month.
Goodrum said that in the new
location, and with better organiza
tion, the market could double or
triple its customer base.
“The market could be far more
vibrant and active than it is.”
Contact the City Editor
at citydesk@unc.edu.
University spokesman Steve
Orlando said Meyer was asked
to leave the microphone after his
allotted time was up. Meyer can be
seen refusing to walk away.
As two officers take Meyer by
the arms, Kerry, D-Mass., can be
heard saying, “That’s all right, let
me answer his question.”
Audience members applaud,
and Meyer struggles and screams
for help as up to four officers try to
remove him from the room.
As Kerry says he will answer the
“very important question,” Meyer
cries out, “Don’t Tase me, bro,” just
before he is shocked by the Taser.
Police accused of
singling out O. J.
LAS VEGAS (AP) - News con
ferences, a slew of felony charges, a
perp walk in handcuffs and deten
tion in a holding cell without bail
it’s clear authorities aren’t giving
O.J. Simpson celebrity breaks.
Police insist such treatment is
prudent for a man known for his
chase from officers in a white Ford
Bronco. But legal experts are ques
tioning whether Simpson is being
singled out for extra-tough pros
ecution as payback for his murder
acquittal more than a decade ago.
Simpson was charged Tuesday
with ten felonies, including kid
napping, in the casino-hotel armed
robbery of sports memorabilia.
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