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Open sores plague young menhaden
JoAnn Burkholder, botanyMore fish with lesions discovered
JoAnn Burkholder, botany
NCSU
taps familiar face to lead Centennial Campus
David Winwood, Centennial Campus
NCSU
Names New Director for Centennial Campus
David Winwood, Centennial Campus
NCSU
selects new Centennial Campus director
David Winwood, Centennial Campus
Historical
marker will honor Aggreys
Jim Clark, English
Arena
operators seek new amenities
There was less consensus about building the north end restaurant, which would
wipe out a private seating area used by N.C. State University's chancellor.
Open sores plague young menhaden
Sept. 3, 2004
Associated Press; Charlotte Observer; News & Observer; WCNC; Wilmington Morning Star; Winston Salem Journal; WVEC, VA
By WADE RAWLINS
© Copyright 2004
Thousands of juvenile menhaden fish with open sores are turning up in the lower Neuse River below New Bern.
Jason Green, leader of the Division of Water Quality Neuse River Rapid Response Team, said he examined about 1,000 to 1,500 fish on Thursday in the river from Upper Broad Creek to Minnesott Beach.
In some schools Green examined, all of the fish had lesions, while in others the portion of sick fish was 20 percent to 40 percent. He estimated that about half the fish overall had lesions. Typically, about 5 percent of the menhaden population suffers from lesions, he said.
"The jury is still out on what exactly caused these lesions," Green said. "A fungus may play a role that seems to be present in a lot of the lesions. Whether it's a root cause or a secondary invader is still the subject of research."
Green said water samples were collected to send to university researchers.
JoAnn Burkholder, professor and director of the Center for Applied Aquatic Ecology at N.C. State University, said it is often very hard to diagnose the cause of fish lesions unless it's something very obvious, such as a pesticide spill.
Burkholder said scientific studies in the Chesapeake Bay had shown that menhaden with sores tend to occur more frequently in areas polluted by excess nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous found in fertilizers and treated sewage.
"A lot of bad-actor microbes -- bacteria, harmful algae, virulent strains of fungi -- are a lot more abundant in nutrient-enriched water," Burkholder said.
Burkholder said she did not suspect the lesions were caused by pfiesteria, an alga implicated in some fish kills in coastal waters in the 1990s. She said the conditions were not right. She said weather patterns can also stress fish, weakening their immune systems.
Larry Baldwin, the Lower Neuse Riverkeeper, said he collected fish Wednesday with a cast net in the Carolina Pines area of the Neuse, and 100 percent of them had sores. Baldwin said more fish with sores had been found on the north side of the river Thursday.
"This is not a natural occurrence," Baldwin said. "This is the result of excessive nutrients in the Neuse coming from sources such as wastewater treatment facilities, hog farming, residential runoff and stormwater. Menhaden are dying by the thousands because we are putting too many nutrients into the Neuse."
Green said nutrients may play a role, but the actual cause remained open to question.
"I'd love to say there is one cause; then we could focus on it," he said. "It really is a complicated system. These fish move around so much and are exposed to so many stresses."
Sept. 3, 2004
News & Observer
By TIM SIMMONS
© Copyright 2004
N.C. State University reached across several states and pulled in one of its own to be the next director of the school's Centennial Campus.
David Winwood, associate vice president for knowledge transfer and commercialization at Ohio State University, will take over as Centennial's director Oct. 11, NCSU officials said Thursday.
Winwood held several jobs at NCSU in the technology transfer field between 1998 and 2002 before moving to Ohio State in Columbus.
He also worked in the technology development office at UNC-Chapel Hill before coming to Raleigh.
His work in higher education has generally involved promoting the commercial use of university technologies.
Winwood's responsibilities will increase considerably in his new job. NCSU officials tout Centennial as the campus of the future, where university researchers, corporations and government agencies work together to produce and use new technologies.
John Gilligan, vice chancellor for research and graduate studies at NCSU, said those duties also will include an emphasis on economic development.
"David has so much experience in that area that it seems like a role he would inevitably take on anyway," Gilligan said.
Winwood, who has also worked for several private companies in the chemistry field, will take over as both the construction and daily population of the 20-year-old Centennial Campus is expected to increase noticeably.
A new College of Engineering building will open in January, bringing roughly 800 students and 100 more faculty members to the campus about two miles south of downtown Raleigh. About 57 companies employed 1,600 people there, according to figures released for August.
"One of the things that became obvious to me in Columbus is what a jewel Centennial Campus is for North Carolina," Winwood said. "People in Ohio were always asking how North Carolina State had developed so many corporate partnerships."
Winwood described similar efforts at Ohio State as being "in the formative stages." But his decision to return to North Carolina had more to do with timing and a keen interest by his family to return to Raleigh.
A scientist who earned his degrees from the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, Winwood replaces Bob Geolas, who left in February to start a research park at Clemson University in South Carolina.
Geolas was not expecting to leave when Winwood moved to Columbus in 2002, and Winwood was not expecting to stay for such a short time at Ohio State.
But his understanding of the center and the area -- he and Geolas used to make presentations together when both worked at Centennial -- made him a natural candidate.
Married with two daughters, Winwood said his family also made it clear they wanted him to pursue the opportunity.
"Professionally, this is a chance that I just couldn't pass up," Winwood said. "As far as my family, they've already left Columbus and moved back."
Arena operators seek new amenities
Sept. 3, 2004
News & Observer
By J. ANDREW CURLISS
© Copyright 2004
RALEIGH -- The RBC Center in West Raleigh could get a new look on its plush club level.
Arena operators have drawn up plans for a bar in the south end zone of the arena's limited-access middle level. For the north end, the plans show a restaurant with a pizza oven and open grill to serve a special seating area for 300 to 400 fans.
Gale Force Sports and Entertainment, a sister company of the Carolina Hurricanes, wants taxpayers to pick up the estimated $2 million construction cost of the amenities.
The hockey organization says it can make more money with the new features and says the public has a great interest in keeping the organization healthy.
Members of the authority that oversees the publicly owned arena began looking at the options Thursday.
The Centennial Authority's finance committee reviewed the details and took a brief tour of the middle deck, where the new features would go.
Members seemed more inclined to support putting a bar on the south end, near a large restaurant. The cost is projected at $500,000 or more.
There was less consensus about building the north end restaurant, which would wipe out a private seating area used by N.C. State University's chancellor.
Arena manager Dave Olsen said both changes would help draw more fans and keep the arena up-to-date.
The bar would give businesspeople a place to entertain clients and grab a drink while also seeing the games. Currently, there isn't a place to do that in the arena. And the bar could spice up the south end club level of the arena, which was sold out in the first year but has seen attendance wane recently, Olsen said.
No alcohol is served during NCSU events, and that restriction would remain.
The grill and pizza restaurant at the north end would serve special seating under a concept that Olsen said has been successful at other arenas, particularly in Tampa, Fla.
For one ticket price, fans would get unlimited food, beer and wine.
He said those seats would sell mostly to smaller companies and clients who want to entertain at the arena but can't afford or don't want to pay for a full suite. That project would cost at least $1.2 million, and probably more.
Olsen said Gale Force forecasts breaking even on the construction cost in one or two years.
The arena authority is being asked to pay for the work because it is an addition to the building. But Gale Force must share portions of its revenue with the authority, so the new features could make some money for taxpayers, he said.
The source of the construction money most likely would be from a special reserve already intended to be used for building improvements, though not this soon.
Finance committee members asked for more reports and are scheduled to discuss the issue in October.
More fish with lesions discovered
Sept. 3, 2004
New Bern Sun Journal
By Pat Coleman
© Copyright 2004
Members of the Neuse River Rapid Response Team found schools of juvenile menhaden on the north shore of the Neuse River Thursday morning with the same lesions reported Wednesday on the south side of the river near Carolina Pines.
Jason Green, of the response team, said wind conditions resulting in rough water on the southern side of the river sent the team to the north side near Kennel's Beach in Pamlico County.
"Yes, there are areas of the river that have menhaden with lesions," Green said. "But this is not a representation of the entire estuary. When we look at fish, we look at the entire population, not just small schools with lesions."
Green said that, while the small schools show that 100 percent of the fish have lesions, they represent only a small portion of the entire population of juvenile menhaden, which number in the millions.
"As a whole, the entire populations would not be 100 percent lesion menhaden," he said. "What we see is roughly 5 percent or less."
According to Green, conditions in the river change from day to day. He said one of the theories is that exposure to low levels of dissolved oxygen starves parts of a fish's body, killing certain cells.
"This tissue rotting happens from the inside out," he said. "Lesions form and secondary invaders make it look really bad."
The team gathered samples of the fish to deliver to Wayne Litaker, a molecular biologist with NOAA's Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research in Beaufort, to the Division of Water Quality's lab in Raleigh and to Parke Rublee, a researcher at UNC-Greensboro.
"The more people that look at the situation, the better," Green said. "We try to cooperate with everyone who is interested."
Larry Baldwin, Neuse Riverkeeper, said members of Dr. JoAnn Burkholder's N.C. State University team, who were on the river Thursday conducting routine water sampling, will deliver samples of the fish to her for evaluation.
Burkholder, a professor of aquatic botany and director of the Center for Applied Aquatic Ecology at N.C. State University, was credited in the late 1980s with isolating and formally naming Pfiesteria, an organism that produces lesions on fish that was blamed for massive fish kills in the Neuse River in the early and mid-1990s.
Burkholder saw pictures of the menhaden and said Thursday that any number of causes could be behind the lesions, but she did not believe Pfiesteria was one because of water and weather conditions.
She said lesions can develop over a period of two or three weeks, and finding the exact cause is difficult because of the amount of time between the exposure that triggered them and their current weakened condition.
"Stresses, like low oxygen, can lead to fish becoming weakened, and becoming more subject to lots of different problems and lots of different pathogens," she said.
Baldwin said he believed the incident of fish with lesions was not isolated.
"My feeling is that it is a much wider issue than some isolated schools here and there," Baldwin said. "If that were the case, we'd still be seeing healthy fish."
Rick Dove, the southeastern representative for the Waterkeepers Alliance who first reported the ailing fish Wednesday afternoon, believe the lesions are related to pollution.
"What we're seeing in this river is only happening since it got polluted," Dove said. "What really ticks me off about the state is they keep trying to attribute all these dead fish in the river to natural causes."
Dove blames runoff from farms, golf courses, streets and lawns for what he said is a polluted river that leads to fish kills.
Historical marker will honor Aggreys
Sept. 2, 2004
Salisbury Post
By Mark Wineka
© Copyright 2004
In November, Salisbury will celebrate the addition of a state highway historical marker that recognizes the lives and contributions of James E.K. Aggrey and his wife, Rose D. Aggrey.
Joe Morris, planning and community development manager for Salisbury, said the couple played pivotal roles in the history of Livingstone College, the state's public schools and post-colonial development of West Africa's Gold Coast, now Ghana.
"The marker will generally reflect the themes of their life accomplishments," Morris said, "although there are far too many to enumerate on a roadside marker."
It will be the first highway historical marker added in Rowan County since 1978, although Rowan has 33 already in place.
Mike Hill, research supervisor for the N.C. Division of Archives and History, said the Aggreys' marker will be unusual in that it is designed more for pedestrians than passing motorists.
The familiar silver-and-black roadside history markers have 3-inch-high letters with five or six lines of text.
The new marker will have 1-inch-high letters, allowing for up to 16 lines of text. It's a format, Hill says, that many other states have used, but the design is especially important for the Salisbury sign to tell concisely the story of two people.
The marker's dedication is planned for 11 a.m. Nov. 6, the closest Saturday to what would have been the Aggreys' 99th wedding anniversary on Nov. 8. It will be erected at the Aggrey home, at 700 W. Monroe St., across from Livingstone College's east gate.
Morris reports that participants in planning the event include Carol Meeks and Raemi Evans, granddaughters of the Aggreys; Fred Evans, Raemi's husband; Dr. Jim Clark, an English professor at N.C. State University; Eric Watson of Food Lion; and Mayor Susan Kluttz.
After learning of Aggrey and how he is still revered in Ghana, Clark provided much of the impetus and did much of the research for the historical highway marker nomination.
Clark met with a group of Salisburians three or four times to gather more background on the Aggreys, Meeks said. Clark has a sister in Rockwell, and he connected with Raemi Evans through her.
The last state highway historical marker erected in Salisbury also was on West Monroe Street near Livingstone College. Installed in 1978, it recognizes Joseph C. Price (1854-1893), a minister and teacher who founded Livingstone College.
It's believed, Evans said, that this will be the first of the state's 1,472 highway historical markers to recognize a husband and wife together.
"It's important to have both of them honored," Raemi Evans said.
James Emmanuel Kwegyir Aggrey was born in the central region of Ghana in 1875, came to the United States to study at Livingstone in 1898, graduated from the college's Hood Theological Seminary and pastored at Sandy Ridge and Miller's Chapel AME Zion churches near Landis in the early 1900s.
He also was a Livingstone professor, registrar and financial secretary. He wrote for the Charlotte Observer and authored a famous African story for children titled, "'Fly, Eagle, Fly," which today has an introduction from Bishop Desmond Tutu.
Aggrey became well-known for his travels throughout the United States and Europe, advocating harmony among races and the need to educate women and develop entrepreneurial skills among the people of Africa.
Aggrey played an important role in forming community leagues at the Sandy Ridge and Miller's Chapel churches. The leagues helped to raise the economic, health and educational level of the communities. He also was important in founding the first African-American credit union and a realty company and building and loan that helped black farmers buy land.
Aggrey died in 1927. In 1933, the people of Sandy Ridge named their Aggrey Memorial High School for him. Landis Elementary now stands at the same site. In 2002, the elementary school's gymnasium was dedicated in his honor.
Rose Aggrey lived much longer than her husband, dying in 1961 and leaving her own imprint on the community and state.
She served as a member of one of Salisbury's first interracial committees. She was principal of the Granite Quarry colored school, taught summer school at Livingstone College and N.C. College -- today's N.C. Central. She served in several other capacities, many involving schools and women's clubs.
Aggrey Avenue in Granite Quarry is named after her. The Aggrey Student Union at Livingstone College is named for the couple.
NCSU Names New Director for Centennial Campus
Sept. 3, 2004
LocalTechWire
By staff writer
© Copyright 2004
RALEIGH – David Winwood is returning to North Carolina State University as director of the university’s high-tech Centennial Campus.
Winwood worked for NCSU between 1998 and 2002. He replaces Dennis Kekas, who had filled the roll on an interim basis. Kekas, a long-time IBM executive, is also executive director of the Networking Technology Institute at NCSU.
Winwood will take the Centennial Campus post as of Oct. 11. He served as associate vice president for knowledge transfer and commercialization at Ohio State.
NCSU selects new Centennial Campus director
Sept. 2, 2004
Triangle Business Journal
By staff writer
© Copyright 2004
David Winwood has been named director of North Carolina State University's Centennial Campus.
He will start his new job on Oct. 11.
Winwood, who served in various capacities at NCSU from 1998 to 2002, rejoins the university from Ohio State University. At Ohio State, he was associate vice president for knowledge transfer and commercialization. He was responsible for supervising the activities of the Office of Technology Licensing and Technology Partnerships.
John Gilligan, NCSU's vice chancellor for research and graduate studies, announced Winwood's hiring and said the director's job responsibilities will be broadened slightly.
There will be more of an economic development component to the job," Gilligan said in a statement. "We'll look to the director to create the kind of government-industry-university partnerships that will foster economic development for North Carolina."
An NCSU spokesman was not immediately available for comment.
N.C. judge hears argument from former reservist suing Army
Sept. 2, 2004
Associated Press; NBC 17; AirForceTimes.com; Marine Corps Times; ArmyTimes.com; Navy Times; Sarasota Herald-Tribune, FL
By Estes Thompson
© Copyright 2004
RALEIGH, N.C. — Lawyers are expecting a ruling soon from a judge who is being asked to order the Army to stop efforts to recall to duty a reservist who contends his obligation is completed.
At a hearing Wednesday in U.S. District Court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Rudy Renfer said Todd Parrish, 31, of Cary can’t bring his case to court as long as it still is being decided by the military.
“The Army has delayed any activation order because he has requested an exemption,” Renfer said. The delay is in effect until Sept. 26, he said.
Parrish sued the Army after he received a recall order in May. He contends that his obligation ended Dec. 19 following four years of active duty and four years in the reserves.
At a hearing before Judge Louise Flanagan, Parrish’s attorney argued that an ROTC contract Parrish signed as a student at N.C. State University obligated him to only eight years.
“It is referred to as a contract over and over again,” said lawyer Mark Waple.
Flanagan already has granted a temporary restraining order against the Army and was asked to convert it into a preliminary injunction until Parrish’s lawsuit could be heard. In her earlier order, Flanagan said the Army’s willingness to extend Parrish’s reporting date several times shows the military will not be harmed by delaying the case until a full hearing can be held.
Flanagan promised Wednesday to issue a ruling on the injunction request in the near future and lawyers said it could come by the end of the week.
Renfer said Parrish is suing not because his obligation is up but because he doesn’t want to be deployed to Iraq.
Army lawyer Maj. Chris Soucie argued that Parrish had to resign his commission as a lieutenant to avoid being recalled to duty. He said Parrish failed to sign a resignation line on a letter asking for an update on his personal information.
Soucie told Flanagan that if Parrish succeeds in winning an order from her, it will affect the entire military mobilization of reservists for duty in Iraq and elsewhere.
Parrish said in an interview outside the courthouse that he did send the Army a letter resigning his commission earlier and didn’t sign the line on the form from the Army because he thought he had taken care of that chore.
Parrish said he was ready to be called up during his reserve time, which he began after serving as an artillery officer at Fort Polk, La. But after December, he said he felt he was entitled to live his life free of the military.
Parrish is a communications engineer and is married. He came to court with his wife, Colette, his mother and several friends.
U.S. Attorney Frank Whitney, himself a reservist, said that if Parrish wanted to get out of any military obligation, all he had to do was sign the resignation line.
“There are hundreds, maybe thousands of reservists and National Guardsmen who are deploying right now and not contesting this issue,” Whitney said.