East volleyball
program off to
a rough start.
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Pigall
THOMASVILLE
Saturday, August 21,2010
THOMASVILLE PUBLIOTBRARY
14 RANDOlJRbfe«'T3aEer9l/70
THOMASVILLE, NC 27360
119th Year - No. 127 50 Cents
WWW.tvilletimes.com
State sees slight drop in jobless rate
BY ELIOT DUKE
Staff Writer
North Carolina’s unemploy
ment rate may have dropped be
low 10 percent for the first time
in 18 months, hut experts stiU
worry that the state isn’t out of
the woods quite yet.
According to statistics re
leased by the Employment Se
curity Commission of North
Carolina on Friday, the state
unemployment rate dipped to
9.8 percent in July, marking the
lowest rate since last January
Total employment, however,
decreased by 29,800 jobs as the
'The number of people missing from the labor
market is at an all-time high and the state contin
ues to lose jobs.'
—Alexandra Porter Sirota
N.C. Justice Center, Budget and Tax Center
state’s labor force continues to
shrink.
“The decline in the rmemploy-
ment rate is masking the reality
in the labor market,” Alexandra
Forter Sirota, a policy analyst
with the North Carolina Justice
Center’s Budget and Tax Center,
said. “The number of people
missing from the labor market
is at an all-time high and the
state continues to lose jobs.”
North Carolina’s laW force
declined by 35,612 workers from
Jime, which accounts for the
decrease in the unemployment
rate, despite the loss of jobs.
Since the start of the country’s
recession in December 2007,
Sirota said North Carolina’s
labor force has declined nearly
five times the national average.
If more jobs are not created, the
unemployment rate wlU inevi
tably go back up. Sirota added
that the state’s job shortfall, or
the number of jobs needed to
keep pace with the growth in
the working age population and
replace lost jobs, grew in July to
more than 425,000 jobs.
“Without greater focus on pre-
See RATE, Page A4
Simulator
keeps driving
mistakes off
the road
BYERINWILTGEN
Staff Writer
Davidson County Com
munity College began
integrating its new, high-
tech driving simulator
into classes this month,
seeking to offer students
and professionals alike
enhanced road safety
techniques.
The computerized sim
ulator, which the school
purchased in June, wUl
give law enforcement,
firefighting, rescue, first
response, and truck driv
ers the opportunity to
practice and learn emer
gency driving skills with
out actually endangering
themselves or others.
“The instructors can
design a scenario that
puts the students in a
situation that they might
not normally see, that we
can’t emulate in real life,”
said Randy Ledford, asso
ciate dean of the DCCG
School of Business, En
gineering and Technical
Studies.
The simulator, valued
at $320,000 and purchased
See ROAD, Page A4
KICKING OFF
THE SEASON
Above, the East Davidson Golden Eagles rush the
field Friday night just before game time against
Randleman to kick off the 2010 football season. At
right, Ledford defensive back Deyonta Dow makes a
move on a Trinity player for some yardage. See game
stories, Page B1.
TIMES PHOTOS/FRANK RAUCCIO
AND LARRY MATHIS
Dragonfly House to offer help to abused children
BYERINWILTGEN
Staff Writer
When it comes to children,
parents rarely take shortcuts.
So when Davie Domestic Vio
lence Services and Rape Cri
sis Center in MocksvUle — an
agency working with adult vic
tims of domestic violence and
sexual abuse — noticed a gap in
services for abused children, as
well as the correlation between
children who were abused and
grow to become abusers, staff
took action.
The idea for a Children’s Ad
vocacy Center (CAC) in David
son and Davie Counties ^as
born.
“As parents ourselves, we
saw the need to work difectly
with children and begin! edu
cating them and offering safe
services and resources for the
child victims, because if they
aren’t helped now, then there
is a strong possibility that this
abusive pattern wUl be carried
into their adult life,” said Bran
di Reagan, coordinator for the
Davie and Davidson Counties
CAC.
Davie Domestic Violence Ser
vices and Rape Crisis Center
wrote a grant from the Gover
nor’s Crime Commission Vic
tims of Crime Act and received
an award to create a local CAC.
The center, ndmed The Dragon
fly House Children’s Advocacy
Center, wUl open Oct. 1.
“There is a great need in this
district for that because right
now, all of the children have
to go out of county to get ser
vices,” Reagan said, adding that
the agency already has begun
helping a few ThomasviUe chil
dren.
CAC, a chUd-friendly center
that gathers a multi-disciplin
ary team of community profes
sionals to help abused children
and their families work through
the healing process free of
charge, was founded in 1993 in
Cumberland County, N.C. Cen
ters now span across the state’s
100 counties. '
The Dragonfly House, oper
ating under the same system
See HOUSE, PageA4
Free, reduced
price lunch
numbers
on the rise
BY ELIOT DUKE
Staff Writer
One of the By-products
of the lingering national
recession is the grow
ing number of children
across the state who
receive free or reduced-
priced meals.
In ThomasviUe City
Schools, 88.78 percent
of aU students received
either free or reduced-
priced meals during
the 2008-09 school year,
according to statistics
from the North Carolina
Department of Public
Instruction (DPI). Lib
erty Drive Elementary
and ThomasvUe Primary
School had more than 96
percent of its students
qualify, as 1,219 out of
1,267 students combined
got reduced-priced or free
meals. Across the state,
more than half of all stu
dents in public schools
are in the same boat.
“Total enrollment in
public schools in North
Carolina is close to 1.5
mUlion,” Lynn Harvey,
section chief of ChUd
Nutrition Services for
the DPI, said. “So to think
770,000 qualify for free or
reduced-priced lunches is
a huge number. It’s sober
ing to see that.”
DPI recently released
the USDA policy on
free and reduced-priced
meals for chUdren in pub
lic schools, and Brenda
Watford, Child Nutrition
Director for ThomasvUle
City Schools, is making
sure parents are getting
their applications in time
for the upcoming year.
“We’ve got the applica
tions at the home ofiice
and at the schools,” said
Watford. “Parents are
already filling them out,
and they can come at any
time, ru call the parents
who were on the list last
year to make sure they
fill out their applications.
We do anything we can to
make sure our students
are eating.”
One of the changes
See RISE, Page A4
INDEX
Weather
Focus
Opinion
Obituaries
Religion
Sports
Classifieds
A2
A3
A5
A6
A8
B1
B6
6 veto » J UU K ,5 !>
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At ThomasviUe Medical Center, we are proud of our ph)^iaans and staff who deliver remarkable cate Ibr our patients.
We invite pu to check the North Carolina Hospital Quality Performance Report and compare hospitals across our re^on and state. f =
Get the facts. And get the care you deserve. rrif *|f \
1 homasviUe) medical center
www.thomasvillemedicalcenter.org/quality
ThomasviUe, North Carolina • Your Town. Your Times.