Newspapers / The Warren Record (Warrenton, … / July 15, 1987, edition 1 / Page 1
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WarrantonMem.Library X 117 S.Kain St. Wsrrenton, II.C. 27589 t fantn fRecnrft / 25c Per Copy Warrenton, County Of Warren, North Carolina Wednesday, July 15, 1987 Number 27 Tills 1978 GMC tractor-trailer crashed into a bank at the intersec tion of U. S. 158 Bus. and U. S. 158 Byp. on Friday afternoon after the driver tried to avoid slamming into cars in his path. According to reports given to State Highway Patrolman N. D. Satterfield. Thomas Earl Clifton, the driver, lost his brakes as he attempted to prevent a collision with cars in his right-of-way. The vehicle, owned by Marched Evans of Huss, Inc. o. Chase City, Va., crossed U. S. 158 business and hit a tall embankment. Clifton sustained no injuries, but damages to the truck, a total loss, were estimated at about $16,000. Trooper Satterfield remained on the scene for about three hours to assess the accident and route traffic around the site of the mishap. According to Satterfield, another truck was dispatched to transport the ioad of timber. Clifton will face charges of exceeding safe speed, improper brakes and improper tires when he appears in court on Aug. 5. (Photo by Rrenda Clarke) Enforcement Of Water Deadline Promised By Warrenton Council Warrenton Leaf Market To Open On August 11 By MARY C. HARRIS Staff Writer Warrenton residents can ex pect enforcement of the deadline for payment of water bills, the town's commissioners agreed during the regular board meeting Monday night in the town hall. The statement which water and sewer customers receive each month states that payment is due by the 10th, with provision given for a five-day grace period. Ser vice will be discontinued at the expiration of the grace period, the commissioners decided, and a charge of $10 will be assessed for restoration of service. Mayor Pro Tern Bobby Ed monds presided over the com missioners meeting in the absence of Mayor B. G. White, who is on vacation. Police Commissioner A. A. Wood commended the work of the police department, which is now manned by five officers. Wood said the policemen issued 38 cita tions during the past month and also wrote a number of tickets for parking violations. Efforts to en force the two-hour parking limit and to require parking within the spaces provided have been in creased, he said. North Main Street resident Jack Groves was appointed to the Warrenton Board of Elections to replace Thomas Gaskill who resigned recently. The mayor pro tern announced that: ?the total bill for resurfacing Eront and Bragg streets, in cluding work by S. T. Wooten and Company and the Department of Transportation was $35,875.98; -twenty-five trashcans have been ordered for the new wooden racks donated by the Warrenton Merchants Association for Main Street; ?a survey is being conducted by Carolina Power and Light Company to assess the feasibili ty of installing underground utili ty lines on Main Street; The Department of Transpor tation is studying traffic patterns at the intersection of Hall and Macon streets to determine the necessity for a traffic light. Rock Throwing Damages Rigs Windshields of at least three large vehicles have fallen victim to unidentified vandals, who, dur ing an apparent mischief cam paign have taken to throwing rocks at transfer trucks and a public conveyance. The cycle began last week when a truck driver, asleep in his compartment on U. S. 158 By pass, was awakened by a crash. A rock had been thrown through his windshield. Deputy Clarence Adcock is the investigating officer. The second incident occurred Monday at about 10:30 p.m. Steven Lucas, driver for the Diamond D Company of Texas, was traveling west on U. S. 158 Bus. when a car pulled off the shoulder of the highway and ap proached him. Lucas flicked his headlights as a signal to the driver of the approaching car to dim his lights. The response to that request was unexpected. Rocks were (Continued on page 11) Unidentified Body Discovered In Lake An unidentified body was found Tuesday at 3:15 p.m. floating in I^ake Gaston. Warren County Sheriff's per sonnel were contacted Tuesday afternoon by officials from the Mecklenburg County, Va. depart ment with queries about reports of missing persons here. The body, a 5' 10" white male believed to be between the ages of 25 and 55, was found floating in Lake Gaston. Railroad tie plates were attached to the victim's neck and legs. No identification has been made. The remains have been sent to the Medical Examiner in Mecklenburg County, Va. for analysis. The Warrenton Tobacco Mar ket, along with others in the Old and Middle Belts, will open for the 1987 flue-cured tobacco sales season on Tuesday. Aug. 11, ac cording to an announcement made last week by the U. S. Department of Agriculture Flue Cured Tobacco Advisory Com mittee. Exact sale dates for Warren County are expected to be an nounced within the next week. According to the announce ment, the Old and Middle Belts will be the last of the five belts to begin sales. Opening dates for the other belts are : Georgia-Florida Belt, July 28; South Carolina Border North Carolina Belt, Aug. 4; and Eastern North Carolina Belt, Aug. 5. The advisory committee had thought of delaying the opening dates by one week since dry weather had caused crops in Florida and Georgia to be run ning a week or more later than usual. Believing that the effect of recent rains had allowed the crops to catch up, however, open ings have been scheduled for their usual times. Foes Of Virginia Pipeline Win Small Court Victory North Carolina environmental advocates have won a small, but important, victory with a recent ruling made by a U. S. district court judge. U. S. District Court Judge Earl Britt in Raleigh ruled last week Warren Allocated Construction Funds Warren County has been allo cated $596,499 by the North Carolina Board of Transportation for secondary road construction, according to Ms. Sharon Hodges of the DOT public affairs office. The allocations are distributed to counties based on a formula applied to the number of miles of unpaved state-maintained sec ondary roads in their boundaries. For Warren County, a tally of 187.54 unpaved miles was used. Funding for the state's second ary system will not end with the $54.8 million approved last week. After the General Assembly has approved DOT'S budget, addi tional funds will be allocated by the board for fiscal year 1987-88. The record-setting road fund that will be seen is due in part to the "Roads to the Future" pro gram initiated by Governor Jim Martin and partially adopted by the legislature last year. The money is to be used for construc tion, safety improvements and stabilization work on the state's secondary roads. that the Army Corps of Engineers must do more environmental research before the city of Virginia Beach, Va. can draw drinking water from I,ake Gaston by constructing a pipeline. The ruling came as a result of a suit filed in 1984 by the North Carolina Attorney General's Of fice and the Roanoke River Basin Association (RRBA) to stop the pipeline. Virginia Beach had wanted to build an 85-mile pipeline from Lake Gaston to pump water into southeastern Virginia. A permit was issued by the Army Corps of Engineers. According to officials, the pump could drain up to 60 million gallons of Lake Gaston water per day by the year 2030. According to Attorney General Lacy Thornburg, the ruling will mean at least a one-month delay for the pipeline. "For North Carolina, this is a win, at least for the time being," he said. Thornburg believed the project would disturb the downstream spawning of striped bass and reduce the amount of water available to North Carolina in the future. He, along with RRBA, had requested a full-scale environ mental impact statement. Britt's ruling does not require a full-scale study, but it does in struct the Corps to investigate the effects of the pipeline on the population of striped bass and to ascertain the exact extent of Virginia Beach's water needs. Possible Warren Bond Issue Spurs Talk By 2 Boards! By THL'RLETTA M. BROWN Staff Writer Recognizing the need to discuss the county's requirements for public facilities, including school buildings, and a plan for meeting those needs, members of the Warren County boards of educa tion and county commissioners met Monday night in a joint ses sion which preceded the regular ly scheduled meeting of the board of education. Discussions in recent months had hinted at the possibility of a bond issue to finance needed proj ects for the county, among them a new middle school and a new jail. According to County Com missioner Chairman Eva Clay ton, Warren's needs have been estimated at a minimum of $13-14 million. "The bond issue is in a holding pattern for a number of reasons." County Manager Charles Worth said. It is difficult to know what the General Assembly will do." Worth's comment referred to state school construction bills which have been introduced in re cent months. The apparent bill of choice, No. 1155, cleared the N. C Senate, 36-7. on Friday. It was then returned to the House for consideration of an amendment ard is expected to be enacted this week. Bill 1155, if implemented, will create two funds valued at $830 million. The first component, the Public School and Capital Needs Fund, will allocate to counties monies using an algorithm based on daily school enrollment. Worth reported that about $959,000 could come to Warren County. The total value of the Public School Fund is estimated at $645.6 million over a 10-year period. The second component, the Critical School Facility Needs Fund, valued at $185.9 million, will match with three dollars every dollar spent in local funds. "It is too early to tell who would qualify," Worth said. The money is to be allocated at the con clusion of a study on the critical needs of all schools in the state's 100 counties. According to Chairman Clay ton, the delay in "going to bond will not be detrimental. With the two funds, our citizens will not hove to bear the entire burden. We are looking toward May 'rather than November), but joint efforts bet ween both board; need to begin now." ' hairrnan Clayton indicate! the county's space needs analyst; had assumed the construction o a new middle school Becausi new construction costs are pro Wbitive, the county's need foi new buildings could be reduced i vacated school buildings wen available for county use. Mori space is needed in the court house, but the feasibility o renovation is uncertain Regarding the jail, 'there is ro option,' Chairman Clayton saic ' We must build (a new jail' o the county will be held contempt." The timing of the recognition o Warren s accumulated needs is problem. This comes at a tim when taxes are already high,' ' 'layton said. According to C'our ty Manager Worth, financing a needs would require a tax rate o 21 cents. We are looking carefully an anxiously awaiting funds fror the General Assembly," Clayto said. I Continued on page 11) Sawmill Operation Moved By Brothers High Brothers sawmill opera tion, formerly located near Airli on Route 4 south of Littleton, ha. relocated to a site off U.S. 158 be tween Vaughan and Macon. Glenn High, who has been ii the sawmill business with hi brother, Charlie Adkins High, fo more than three decades, sat this week the move had enable the operation to convert fror diesel to electrical power and ha provided land for future e> pansion. The mill at its Airlie locatio, for many years served the nov defunct Mitchell Lumber Con pany. High Brothers currentl employees 12 people. The Highs reside in Triplet Va. Propane Gas Disaster Prevented As Quick Response Is Seen Here Disaster was prevented Sun day night as a result of coopera tion among Warren County's emergency personnel, who sought to minimize the potential for danger that was caused by a massive cloud of propane gas. The routine vigilence of War renton Police Officer Sara Solorz on the grounds of Hawkins Elementary School detected strong odor, "like a broken .ewage line." Upon closer inspec tion, she found a 500-pound pro pane tank, unsupported ahd on its side, spewing propane gas over three feet into the air. After blocking off the entrance to the school grounds, the Warren County Sheriff's office was alerted, along with Gary Robenolt, emergency manage ment coordinator. An unidentified vehicle, be lieved to be black or dark blue, is thought to have hit the tank, breaking the gas line that leads to the cafeteria. According to county emergen cy officials, the subsequent ac cumulation of propane gas, if ig nited by a spark, could have caused a dangerous explosion. Arriving first on the scene were two units from the Warrenton Rural Fire Department. Accord ing to Chief Kenny Clayton, a cloud of gas vapor was floating above the overturned tank. The Warrenton Rural Department, assisted by the town department which pumped water to them, wet down the vapor cloud and tank. The tank's valve was cut off by a volunteer fireman who works for a liquid propane supplier. Fire and emergency personnel remained at the site for about two hours. "We were lucky," Emergency Management Coordinator Gary Robenolt said. "There was no wind to blow the gas cloud away from the area and that it was humid enough to hold it close to the ground," he noted. Propane gas is heavier than air and tends to sink to the bottom. Air currents could have dispersed the cloud, endangering residents in the su rounding area. According to Chief Kenny Cla ton, about 15-20 families residii in a nearby trailer court and ' homes in the area were evac ated for a short time as a safe precaution. A broken Chevrolet signal lig cover was found at the scene ai dark blue or black paint w; found on the tank. "The vehic ran through a ditch and over very large rock, something looks like only a four-wheel dri' vehicle could do," Officer Solo said. The officer and Police Chi Freddie Robinson concurred th tire marks in a gravel drivewi leading to the scene match tho from this type of vehicle. "We are checking on vehicl, we know about which fit tf description...(as well as)... bo shops in the area," Officer Side said. Due to the force of the l pact, "...there should be a go< sized dent in it." The tank, owned by Troptgai Henderson, was repaired day and service to the i was restored.
The Warren Record (Warrenton, N.C.)
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July 15, 1987, edition 1
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