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Battling the Bugs
Orchardists try out new tools instead of chemical pesticidesNCSU receives nearly $1M in NSF grant
North Carolina State University's College of Education has been awarded a $920,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a certificate program in science, technology, engineering and mathematics community college teaching.N.C. State Celebrates Environmental Anniversary
N.C. Solar Center Has 15th AnniversaryState of the Neuse dissected
Non-point source pollution remains one of the biggest challenges in the uphill battle to clean up the Neuse River, according to panelists at the Neuse River Foundation's annual meeting on Sunday at Orringer Auditorium.Small businesses find ways to stay vibrant during retail boom
Until recently, the Triangle was considered one of the most underserved U.S. retail markets, with much less commercial space than the national average for an area of its size.Take more time, then weigh money
"Right now, I think the atmosphere is too tense in North Carolina."A Tar Heel tradition
North Carolinians take pride in a university system that puts our sons and daughters first. Now Chapel Hill is pushing a new philosophy. Should UNC let in more out-of-staters?Tiny sensor-based computers could help track wildlife
Computer scientists at North Carolina State University aren't afraid of the big bad wolf - instead they're revolutionizing the technology that tracks him.People: N.C. State University
Karl F. Bowman, associate professor of equine surgery in the College of Veterinary Medicine, is the recipient of the 2003 NCSU Libraries Faculty Award.Footnotes: NCSU sets graduation plans
It's getting near graduation time again. N.C. State University has announced the events and schedules for fall commencement.Owners get the scoop on buyouts
An estimated 150-plus residents turned out Wednesday evening to hear N.C. State University extension specialists discuss the implications of a Navy buyout of 30,000 acres, including farms, businesses and homes in Washington and Beaufort counties.Hargett tells kids to grow up and get a real job
The assignment wasn't business as usual for state Sen. Cecil Hargett.Darryl's is going, going, gone
Hundreds show up at auction, hoping to buy bits of the Raleigh restaurantNew historians help preserve Greensboro
Let Benjamin Briggs and Ashley Poteat give you a whiff of the past.Veterans Day Activities
Wake CountyTown Architect: She Designed Many of Area Facades
Some of the most important buildings in Moore County sprang from the drawing board of petite, soft-spoken Lynn Page Anderson of Southern Pines.No ordinary day
Strangers converge in kindness, then are goneShooting deaths stun acquaintances
Friends of Najeebullah Naimee said that they had no indication that 27-year-old former N.C. State University student was fixated on a onetime classmate. Naimee was buried Friday, one day after police found him and the former classmate, Amena Hussain Khan, dead in what Durham police called a murder-suicide.Championship Event Could Move Cheerleading Closer To Being Sanctioned Sport
North Carolina high school athletic leaders appear closer to identifying cheerleading as a sport, rather than its current status as an extracurricular activity.Letter to the Editor: Components of trade
Michael Schwalbe (Point of View article, Nov. 2) noted that Dodge trucks [the reference was to an older D-50 model] are not 100 percent made in America.Letter to the Editor: An additional saving
Curiously, the Nov. 6 Auto section article about the 2004 Toyota Prius, a gas-electric hybrid that is rated at 60 miles per gallon in city driving, did not indicate that buyers of this car may claim a tax deduction of up to $2,000.
Midwest's
governors should unite to save jobs, panel says
cites Research Triangle Park and NC State
Tech
merger proposal dies
cites Centennial Campus
Democratic
candidates urge more student aid
cites John Edwards, NC State alumnus
Nov. 8, 2003
Associated Press; Winston-Salem Journal
By staff writer
© Copyright 2003 Associated Press
From the time that the buds swell until the boughs sag with apples, Jerry Knight employs an arsenal of chemicals to curb mites, maggots, leafrollers and other invaders - more than 20 in all.
Knight, a third-generation grower, has seen the selection of weapons shift over the last 40 years from chlorinated hydrocarbons such as DDT, banned in the United States in 1972, to an array of organophosphates derived from the nerve gas of World War II.
Today, the shape of things to come is evident in an assortment of sticky red spheres, yellow strips, orange twist-ties and white paper tents dangling from branches in Knight's orchard. They are traps and lures, designed to monitor insect populations or disrupt mating.
Growers are using the tools as part of a new, more narrowly targeted war on bugs, as regulators and consumers press for reductions in the use of broad-spectrum pesticides that pose ecological and health risks.
Knight's 100-acre orchard in Burnt Hills, 20 miles northwest of Albany, is one of many participating in a five-year, seven-state study of integrated pest management, or IPM, for apples and peaches.
It is financed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Risk Avoidance and Mitigation Program, or RAMP.
Besides New York, researchers and growers in North Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Michigan and Virginia are participating in the RAMP study.
For almost 40 years, growers have relied on organophosphate insecticides such as Guthion and Imidan to control pests. But use of organophosphates is likely to be sharply restricted.
Passage of the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 required the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to review all pesticides under guidelines that place special emphasis on foods eaten by children - with apples at the top of the list. The first group of pesticides being reviewed is the organophosphates, followed by carbamates and pyrethroids.
IPM programs for apples are probably the most complex of all crop programs, said Art Agnello, a Cornell University entomologist who is one of the principal investigators in the RAMP orchard study.
That is because of the large variety of pests and diseases afflicting tree fruits, the long growing season, the long life of trees compared to annual field crops, and the inability to rotate orchard crops.
Many growers use an IPM approach with traditional broad-spectrum pesticides, tailoring their spraying program to reduce the amount of chemicals used and avoid killing beneficial insects.
"IPM is more effective and less expensive than traditional methods, because it involves making applications with better timing at the right rates," said Walter Blackler of Apple Acres orchard near Syracuse.
"We used to spray according to the calendar. Now, we scout for insects, use traps, monitor weather, and spray only when indicated," Blackler said.
The RAMP study focuses on new, highly selective pesticides, also called soft pesticides, and mating disruption through the use of pheromones, or insect sex attractants. Researchers will evaluate effectiveness and costs, and develop manuals to explain complex IPM strategies to growers.
In each commercial orchard participating, researchers established test plots to compare the RAMP approach with the grower's traditional program.
In 2002, the first year of the study, the effectiveness was similar for the two approaches in New York orchards, Agnello said.
Costs for standard spraying programs averaged about $150 an acre, compared with about $200 an acre for the RAMP program, he said.
"We recommended a program that was more rigorous than necessary, rather than risk damage to an orchard," Agnello said. "We hope to tailor it to be almost as economical as standard programs."
As the phase-out of broad-spectrum products allows predator insects to flourish, growers should be able to reduce the use of the costly new pesticides, Agnello said.
Still, the complexity and cost of reduced-risk methods may be the last straw for growers already struggling to make a profit, Agnello said.
"We've already seen a reduction in the number of growers in many states because of various pressures - including regulation, foreign competition and labor issues," he said.
Entomologist Larry Hull of Pennsylvania State said that he's finding that the new products work as well as the old ones, but cost twice as much.
"The challenge is to minimize insecticide use and develop new ways to control these pests in the most economical fashion possible," Hull said.
Michigan researcher Larry Gut said that the alternative program wasn't as effective as traditional spraying last year, and cost two to three times as much.
"There are some critical pests for which the alternatives are not performing," said Gut, an entomologist at Michigan State.
"I have 15 sites, and maybe three of those have seen substantial loss of fruit," he said.
The toughest pests are the coddling moth and apple maggot, whose larvae feed inside the apple.
The most effective pesticides kill on contact. But the new pesticides kill after ingestion, and it's hard to get larvae to eat a lethal dose before burrowing into the fruit, Gut said.
In North Carolina, researchers have had success managing pests with the new strategies, said entomologist Jim Walgenbach of N.C. State University. But he said that some pests that hadn't been seen in many years, such as apple maggot and Comstock mealybug, re-emerged as serious problems when organo-phosphates were discontinued.
"Over time, we'll be able to develop systems that are economically sound as well as effective," he said. "But it won't happen overnight. It's a race to find an economical IPM approach before OPs are phased out."
NCSU receives nearly $1M in NSF grant
Nov. 7, 2003
Triangle Business Journal
By staff writer
© Copyright 2003 American City Business Journals Inc.
North Carolina State University's College of Education has been awarded a $920,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a certificate program in science, technology, engineering and mathematics community college teaching.
The departments of Adult and Community College Education and Mathematics, Science and Technology Education are teaming on the three-year project, which is called "Development of Master's and Online Certificate Programs in STEM Community College Teaching."
The grant allows NCSU's College of Education to offer online courses for a graduate certificate in community college teaching.
N.C. State Celebrates Environmental Anniversary
Nov. 7, 2003
WRAL-TV
By staff writer
© Copyright 2003 wral.com
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Fuel for the future will be featured at an environmental anniversary at North Carolina State University.
Friday is the 15th anniversary of the North Carolina Solar Center on N.C. State's campus.
As part of the celebration, officials will dedicate the center's new Alternative Fuels Vehicle demonstration facility.
It will serve as a research and education facility for a variety of alternative fuels and will house a number of alternative-fuel vehicles.
Nov. 10, 2003
The New Bern Sun Journal
By Pat Coleman, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The New Bern Sun Journal.
Non-point source pollution remains one of the biggest challenges in the uphill battle to clean up the Neuse River, according to panelists at the Neuse River Foundation's annual meeting on Sunday at Orringer Auditorium.
"I think we're kind of running standing still," said JoAnn Burkholder, a professor at N.C. State University Center for Applied Aquatic Ecology. "Nitrogen loading has decreased 33 percent, but it's very clear we wouldn't be doing nearly so well if it wasn't for the drought."
The panel discussion, which was moderated by New Bern Mayor Tom Bayliss, included Burkholder, Larry Baldwin, Riverkeeper for the lower Neuse, upper Neuse Riverkeeper Dean Naujoks, and Rick Dove, the southeastern representative of the Waterkeepers Alliance, an international program with over 100 chapters.
Bayliss applauded the accomplishments of the Neuse River Foundation, and of the Riverkeeper program.
"The most important thing you do is educate the public," he said.
The Neuse River Foundation, which was established in 1980, asserts that saving the river is key to preserving the area's economy.
"Certainly, we've improved the river," said Bill Olah, president of the Neuse River Foundation. "It's not great; it's not done; there's a lot more work to do, however, it's really better than it was."
According to Dove, the solutions to the challenge of cleaning up the Neuse had to begin "in our own back yard."
"Eleven discharge pipes have come out of the river in our own back yard, and we've gotten very sensitive about what we allow to go into the river these days, thanks to the cooperation we've hade from our city and county governments," he said. "We've also had a hog moratorium enacted. It didn't stop the problem, but it stopped it from getting worse."
Over the past 10 years, the population of the Neuse River Watershed has grown by 23 percent; the number of swine by 277 percent. The amount of urban land has grown by 115 percent, and in spite of all the evidence implicating synthetic fertilizer in non-point source pollution, the use of it has increased by 150 percent.
Burkholder said that the drought from 1999 to 2002 was very important from a scientific perspective, because it helped confirm the source of a portion of the nitrogen in the river. During the drought the amount of nitrogen in the Neuse River dropped by one-third.
"When there is a drought, we cut the pollution down through Mother Nature," she said. "You can see the decrease -- a substantial decrease of 33-percent. But when you take that drop away, it's flat. If anything, it's up about 12 percent."
Dove said that the future of the river depends on what happens to animal production operations, like hog farms.
"The most significant pollution program we must fix next, in order to fix the river, is the animal production operations," he said. "The moratorium is only helping it from getting worse. It isn't making it any better."
Burkholder said eastern North Carolina is not alone in its struggle. Efforts to reduce the nitrogen level in the Chesapeake Bay, where far more resources are available, have only been moderately successful.
"They've only achieved a 5 percent decrease in nitrogen," she said.
But, as a group, the Neuse River Foundation is undaunted in its goals, and members say they are heartened by every stride made toward protecting the river.
"Wake County just made it so that you can't develop in the watershed," said Dean Naujoks "The hog industry hasn't changed, but we did bring a lot of attention to them existing in the floodplain. Now there is a floodplain buyout plan because of that attention.
"We still have a long way to go, but when we look back where we were 10 years ago, it really is amazing what the Riverkeeper program has done. I see a lot of positive things going on."
Small businesses find ways to stay vibrant during retail boom
Nov. 9, 2003
The Durham Herald Sun
By Anne Krishnan, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The Durham Herald Company.
DURHAM -- Until recently, the Triangle was considered one of the most underserved U.S. retail markets, with much less commercial space than the national average for an area of its size.
How times change.
Renaissance Center at Southpoint, which opens next weekend, is the latest in a flurry of Triangle retail openings.
By March, local shoppers will be able to choose from the 1.3 million-square-foot Streets at Southpoint mall; the renovated University Mall in Chapel Hill, including A Southern Season's expanded store; the 189,000-square-foot Renaissance Center at Southpoint; and the 175,000-square-foot SuperTarget.
Sam's Club and other retailers and restaurants will follow shortly at the redeveloped South Square Mall site where the Target is being built, finishing out a two-year retail building boom.
"Until Southpoint opened, what everybody I knew said was, 'The only thing wrong with living in the Triangle is that you've got to get to some real markets so you can shop,' " said UNC economist James F. Smith. "Now that's no longer true. There's the new mall in North Raleigh, Southpoint and -- happy days -- Target is coming, which is long overdue in a nearby spot."
But not everyone is celebrating. The growing number of large national retailers creates challenges for the area's longtime small-business owners.
"Is there too much retail? Statistically, the answer would be yes," said Richard Morgan, who owns Durham's Morgan Imports, at 113 S. Gregson St., with his wife Jacqueline. "It's true in Raleigh, too. That's what really keeps you from having the kind of growth you normally would have."
Large retailers plan for population growth when choosing a site, said regional economist Michael Walden, of N.C. State University. "In the long run, we probably can support this number of retail stores and more stores ? over the next 15 to 20 years," he said.
In the meantime, the Renaissance Center probably will hurt Triangle stores that aren't as well situated or as attractive, Walden said.
"I think downtown stores, whether in downtown Durham or Raleigh, in this age of suburbanization, have a very tough way to go in competing with outlying stores, which tend to be close to the population center," he said.
Renaissance Center won't be one of Durham's largest shopping centers. At 189,000 square feet, it's less than half the size of both New Hope Commons off Durham-Chapel Hill Boulevard and North Pointe Shopping Center off Guess Road.
But the combined 1.5 million square feet of retail space at the Renaissance Center and at Southpoint mall across Fayetteville Road will represent the Triangle's heaviest concentration of upscale stores, Walden said.
Southpoint mall itself seems to have been a powerful force in the Bull City's economy since opening March 8, 2002. Durham retail sales in the three quarters after Southpoint opened were up $106 million, according to state sales tax figures.
Marketing, however, is key for smaller businesses that want to survive another shopping center's opening, economists said.
Small businesses, like those at Brightleaf Square or Peabody Place, should market themselves as anti-mall and as a historic destination, Smith suggested.
And retailers need to emphasize products and services that shoppers can't get in the chain stores, Walden said.
"They have to find some hook that's going to make them stand out," he said. "They generally can't compete head-to-head with mall stores. It takes being different in a positive way."
That's Morgan's strategy for competing with Durham's second Cost Plus World Market and third Pier 1 Imports. While his business did suffer somewhat after Southpoint opened, it picked up again, and he's expecting a good Christmas season, he said.
"Our prices are fair, and we try not to carry the same things they carry," he said. "We try to have unique things."
On Wednesday, Morgan Imports celebrates its 34th anniversary. Over the years, it has developed a following for its distinctive goods and a reputation as having the best selection and quality of holiday decorations in town, Morgan said. The store imports its own artificial Christmas trees and its prices compete with Wal-Mart, he said.
"We have a base of customers who like our service and ambience, and we try to stay ahead of what's going on," Morgan said. "We should have learned something by now."
Overall, Morgan said he was unconcerned about the impact of Renaissance Place on his business.
"We'll hold onto our own here," he said.
Owners of specialty outdoor stores also said they were not worried that REI was soon to be opening nearby.
"I'm sure it'll affect our business, but how it will affect our business is not of super concern to me," said Dan Hunt, manager of The Trail Shop at 308 W. Franklin St. in Chapel Hill. REI, an outdoor outfitter, already has a Cary location that Chapel Hill shoppers frequent, he said, so the new store just shortens the drive.
What's more, customers recognize that specialty stores thoroughly know one aspect of the business, said Dick Forest, owner of C&R Ski and Outdoor in Hillsborough.
"[Big-box stores] have got so much that it's hard to focus on anything," he said. "Specialty shops have got our own niche. We know what we're selling and we have top-quality products."
Take more time, then weigh money
Nov. 9, 2003
The News & Observer
By Jonathan Ducote'
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
"Right now, I think the atmosphere is too tense in North Carolina. There have not been enough forums for everyday North Carolinians to talk about this. This is one of those questions that is at the heart and soul of what it means to be North Carolinian. That's why people are so passionate on both sides, because you have the question: Do we serve our own and make our own better? Or can we make ourselves better by going outside? I think it's wise for the Board of Governors to take a little more time, have a little more public input, then really sit down and think of this as a statewide community. I don't think this one has been given enough time to breathe.
"There's a funding aspect that you have to think about. When you talk about National Merit Scholars, National Achievement Scholars, National Hispanic Scholars, you're talking about a very highly recruited group of students. Everyone is going after them -- Harvard, MIT, Michigan, you name it -- and not only with letters saying, 'Please come.' They're going after them with what counts most, money -- they're offering them fully funded scholarships and living stipends.
"There are so few campuses within the UNC system that can afford to bring this high-class intellectual student in. This policy, by design, is only going to serve the campuses that can truly afford it. A side conversation is making out-of-staters pay for the full cost of education, which I don't think is that bad an idea. But we need to be realistic. You're not going to get these heavily recruited people to come here if they have to work 50-70 hours a week to pay the tuition to get an equivalent education. That's what's being missed. I think everybody agrees that yes, we're going to increase the brainpower in the state and that people's lives are going to be enriched, but the dollars and cents only work for a few campuses."
(Jonathan Ducote, 22, an NCSU senior from Georgia, is president of the UNC system's Association of Student Governments. The association opposes the change.)
Nov. 9, 2003
The News & Observer
By Jane Stancill, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
UNC-Chapel Hill likes to portray itself as "the university of the people," a phrase made popular by alumnus Charles Kuralt. In the minds of most North Carolinians, they are "the people."
That's why a proposal to ease the cap on out-of-state students has struck a nerve with many parents, public school leaders and legislators. Any plan to allow more outsiders into the highly regarded, heavily subsidized UNC system is a plan to exclude North Carolina kids, they say.
A COMPARISON
UNC-Chapel Hill wants to attract more top students from outside North Carolina.
Here's a look at the performance of in-state and out-of-state students in the
class that started as freshmen in 1997.
Cumulative Out of
GPA In state state
Year 1 2.89 3.13
Year 2 2.93 3.15
Year 3 2.98 3.19
Year 4 3.03 3.22
Retention Out of
rates In state state
After 1 year 95.2% 94.1%
After 2 years 88.9% 90.7%
After 3 years 86.8% 88.8%
Graduation Out of
rates In state state
Within 4 years 68.8% 72.3%
Within 5 years 80.0% 82.6%
Within 6 years 81.3% 83.8%
(UNC-CH OFFICE OF INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH)
COLLEGE COST
At UNC-CH, undergraduates' educational cost is $15,842.*
OUT-OF-STATERS pay 95.4 percent or $15,106.
IN-STATERS pay 20.57 percent or $3,258.
* INCLUDES TUITION AND THE EDUCATIONAL AND TECHNOLOGY FEE SOURCE: UNC
what you can
do
SHARE YOUR VIEWS on the out-of-state debate with the University of North Carolina
Board of Governors. Send e-mail messages to board Chairman Brad Wilson at bog@northcarolina.edu
or write to Board of Governors, University of North Carolina, P.O. Box 2688,
Chapel Hill, N.C. 27515.
ATTEND THE NEXT MEETING of the Board of Governors, when a vote could be taken
on easing the out-of-state enrollment cap. The meeting is scheduled for 9:30
a.m. Friday at the UNC General Administration office, 910 Raleigh Road, Chapel
Hill. The board will not entertain public comments on the proposal during the
meeting.
LEARN MORE about the university system at www.northcarolina.edu.
And that plan couldn't come at a more politically sensitive time, three years after taxpayers approved $3.1 billion in bonds to renovate and expand campuses to cope with a boom in the number of North Carolina high school graduates.
The proposal, which the UNC Board of Governors could vote on this week, would essentially let campuses raise the limit on out-of-state freshmen from 18 percent to 22 percent of the class. UNC leaders have promised that every North Carolina student who qualifies will be guaranteed admission somewhere in the 16-campus system. But to the 7,500 North Carolinians who apply to UNC-CH because they want to study at the state's nationally ranked public flagship, that's little comfort.
UNC-CH leaders, who are pushing the change, have said they would enroll more in-staters each year, so North Carolinians would actually have more opportunity than they do now. They say bringing more stellar out-of-staters to campus would enrich the intellectual atmosphere and geographic diversity for everyone. It would no doubt help UNC-CH's academic reputation and boost its standings in the brutal competition for best college rankings, they say. Then there's the "brain gain" theory that North Carolina's economy would benefit from the infusion of top talent.
"Our vision of becoming the nation's leading public university is for the greater benefit of the people of North Carolina," UNC-CH Chancellor James Moeser said in a campus speech last month. "If our state is to flourish in a 21st century world economy, it must have an excellent global university whose students experience the world, rubbing shoulders with students from other backgrounds and cultures."
That argument just doesn't cut it with Roger Aiken, chairman of the Buncombe County School Board. He is the father of two boys, 12 and 14, who dream of attending UNC-CH. On a visit to Chapel Hill this summer, the boys insisted that their father pick up a university course catalog. They fought over it in the car.
"I want my kids to have more choices than I did," Aiken said. "Every parent wants that. Now you have someone you always admired saying, 'You may not have as many choices because we have to do this for the good of the university.' That's hard for parents to take."
Buncombe is a high-performing school district, with students scoring 46 points above the national SAT average and 72 points above the state average. And yet, Aiken said, UNC-CH sends too many rejection letters to Asheville.
Six years ago, one of those letters went to Meredith Pless, whose heart had been set on UNC-CH since she was in third grade. A student government president and competitive swimmer with A's and B's and about 1,100 on the SAT, she was crushed, her father said.
"Her grandfathers, her great-grandfathers and her parents lived in this state all their lives and paid taxes," Dusty Pless said. "To us, the common folk, this was absolutely wrong."
Pless was so upset that he drove to Chapel Hill to confront admissions officials. His daughter enrolled at UNC-Greensboro and eventually transferred to UNC-CH, from which she graduated.
"The point is, there are a lot of Meredith Plesses out there -- whether they're from Buncombe County, Wake County or Mecklenberg County -- that this is going to happen to," Pless said.
Pless' state representative, Martin Nesbitt, a Democrat in the N.C. House, is bombarded every year by parents who want explanations as to why their children were not accepted at UNC-CH. If the UNC system board raises the cap, Nesbitt predicted, the legislature will answer with a law setting a lower cap.
"That's a given," he said. "Members of the General Assembly will stand in line to introduce the legislation."
A 1940s innovation
Many states have no official caps. Out-of-staters make up about one-third of the undergraduates at the University of Virginia -- too many, in the view of many parents and lawmakers. At California universities, the out-of-state population is about 10 percent.
UNC-CH, the nation's first state university, was chartered in 1789 with the legislature's noble goal to "consult the happiness of a rising generation and endeavor to fit them for an honorable discharge of the social duties of life by paying the strictest attention to their education."
It wasn't until the post-World War II enrollment boom that a limit on out-of-staters was deemed necessary. A 15 percent cap was adopted in 1946 for the three campuses that then made up the university -- UNC-CH, N.C. State and UNC-Greensboro, then known as Women's College. The limit was unevenly observed as more campuses were added. Some campuses adhered to the 15 percent limit; others had as many as 25 percent of their students from outside North Carolina.
In 1986, the Board of Governors settled on a compromise of 18 percent, remembers Raymond Dawson, a former UNC vice president.
"There wasn't anything magic about it," he said. "We were backing some campuses back and setting a firm limit."
Still, Dawson doesn't recall a hue and cry about the fact that some campuses enrolled higher numbers of out-of-staters. At that time -- unlike today -- the number of high school graduates was leveling off. North Carolinians weren't clamoring for those spots.
Former UNC President C.D. Spangler remembers it differently. When he took the system helm in 1986, he traveled the state and encountered the same question over and over: "Why are you letting all those people in from New Jersey?"
Later, in the 1990s, the legislature jacked up tuition for out-of-state students, saying taxpayers should not heavily subsidize their educations. Today, out-of-staters pay about 95 percent of their educational costs, and some UNC board members want to raise tuition to at least cover the full cost.
In a case study published in the Journal of Higher Education in 1997, researchers from three Georgia universities concluded that North Carolina's out-of-state policies were based largely on politics and not on deeper concerns about educational values.
"It was in the interests of decision-makers not only to impose the limits but also to do so rather swiftly without much debate, analysis and reflection," the study said.
Exceptions to the rule
University leaders were able to finesse the details of the 1986 policy. The cap would apply only to freshmen, for example, not to transfers and not to graduate students. Last year, out-of-staters made up 41 percent of Ph.D. students and 22 percent of all graduate students systemwide.
There were other exceptions, too. With its special focus, the N.C. School of the Arts in Winston-Salem has never had a cap, and more than half of its current students are out-of-staters. Last year, the UNC board let N.C. A&T State University exempt its engineering program from the limit because so few historically black colleges offer such training.
Other campuses haven't always strictly followed the rules, either. Last fall, besides N.C. A&T, East Carolina and Elizabeth City State University also exceeded the 18 percent limit.
In 1995, the UNC board amended the policy to crack down on violators. If a campus exceeded the cap two years in a row, its budget could be reduced. In the last few years, however, the board has declined to issue "fines" because of state budget cuts.
Although UNC-CH has been the focus of the debate, several universities would likely take advantage of greater flexibility to lure more out-of-staters, especially those near North Carolina's borders. Mickey Burnim, chancellor at Elizabeth City State, said his campus could recruit more easily and cheaply in the nearby Norfolk, Va., area rather than distant places in the state such as Charlotte.
"There really wouldn't be much of a downside from our perspective because we have excess capacity," he said. "Every qualified North Carolinian who applied would continue to be accepted at ECSU."
'Quality' growth
That's not the case at UNC-CH, where about 60 percent of North Carolina applicants typically are accepted. "We can't be and haven't been for many years the university of the people in that we let everybody in," admissions director Jerry Lucido said recently.
Getting more out-of-state students would allow the Chapel Hill campus to grow "with quality," he said.
Bob Bailey, a 1964 UNC-CH alumnus from Clinton, said that sounds like an insult to North Carolinians. "It basically suggests to some people that you are not wanted at home. You can spin it any way you want, but that is one message that is communicated."
This year, the system's 28,332 freshmen were 85 percent North Carolinian and 15 percent out-of-state students. The 16-campus system is projected to grow by 34 percent this decade, and with UNC President Molly Broad aiming to increase the state's college-going rate, that estimate could rise. Broad has pledged a place in the system for all North Carolinians who want an education.
The question remains: Is there also room for more folks from New York and Michigan and Kansas?
Clint Lloyd, a UNC-CH senior from Graham, thinks so. Lloyd is from a die-hard Tar Heel family, and he strongly believes in the "university of the people" moniker.
But, he said, "I really like the diversity that the out-of-state students bring."
So he supports raising the cap. A little.
"As long as people don't come here and make fun of my accent."
Staff writer Jane Stancill can be reached at 956-2464.
Nov. 9, 2003
The News & Observer
By Anne Saker, Andrea Weigl and Barbara Barrett, staff writers
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
A backyard barbecue. Parents Weekend. A road trip to Chapel Hill. Nothing special.
A neighbor. A nurse and her family. A bunch of college guys. Nobody famous.
The first day of November was warm, and the home team won the big football game. After dark, at the intersection of Nowell Road and N.C. 54 west of Raleigh, a car ran a stop sign, colliding with another car. A few people stopped to help, then a few more. Someone called 911. No serious injuries reported.
But inside seven minutes, at the end of an ordinary day filled with ordinary pleasures, 17 people put aside their affairs and offered their hands to strangers in need, for all of them an ordinary act of kindness. Then, in a moment, a flash, six of them lay dead or dying.
It was the deadliest traffic accident in Wake County since 1982. The scene shocked the professionals who responded.
The speed of their deaths is not unfamiliar; car accidents usually kill quickly, especially those involving pedestrians. But the events of eight days ago organized themselves because a gigantic number of factors, most of them utterly insignificant, randomly merged. One minute sooner or later, one foot nearer or farther, for anyone involved, and the day could have ended in an ordinary way.
For Gene-Marie Alfaro of Waxhaw, near Charlotte, Parents Weekend at N.C. State University began Thursday night, Oct. 30. She called her best friend to say she would not make their monthly gathering to pray the rosary. She and her husband, Robert, were leaving the next day for Raleigh to see their fraternal-twin sons on campus.
In Greenville that Friday, five buddies gathered to do Halloween right. Bill Mallison, 18, came down from college in the nation's capital to meet his old pals Walter Manning, 18, and William Woolard, 18, for the revels at East Carolina University, Woolard's school.
Manning brought along two new friends from Campbell University: Nolan Myers, 18, a happy-go-lucky guy from Minnesota, and Myers' best friend, Steve Cox, 19.
The Campbell students "all pretty much aspired to be great," Cox said, and they conferred on themselves a name suitable to their ambitions: the Caesars. The Halloween costume must accord with their title, so they used bedsheets to fashion togas. The guys drank beer, took in a street party and did not get to sleep until 5 a.m.
In Raleigh that Saturday morning, a short distance from the intersection of Nowell Road and N.C. 54, Christopher Clemons, 41, parked a lawn chair outside his house on Lincolnville Road and listened to the birds. Across the street, from the dark of a screened-in front porch, he heard his neighbor, Louise Brown: "Hey, Chris, bring me my paper!"
When he delivered it, Clemons and Brown talked about the tree in the yard that Clemons had chopped down a week before. Brown said she offered Clemons some coffee. Before he left, he checked on Brown's mother.
Evening preparations
In the Harnett County town of Coats, Bryan Tutor, 29, awoke excited about going to see the NCSU-Virginia game with his friend, Dennis Bowes. Tutor's wife, Mandy, dozed in bed, their 5-month-old son, Carson, in her arms.
Tutor pulled out his No. 17 Wolfpack jersey and asked how it would look over a long-sleeved shirt. Mandy said sleepily, "Why would you need long sleeves? It's going to be warm." Tutor chose a red polo shirt. He leaned over, kissed his son and his wife and said, "I love you." She replied, "Be careful."
At Bowes' home in Cary, the alarm went off about 8:30 a.m. He got up and fed the dogs. His girlfriend, Lauren Murphy, said she ran out for biscuits. An hour later, Bowes, 28, put the grill from a portable Coleman cooker in the kitchen sink and scrubbed it.
At 10 a.m., Tutor arrived with his blue GMC Sonoma pickup already loaded with a borrowed generator and a television, to watch other games while tailgating. The friends packed the Coleman, a cooler and fold-up camping chairs. On the way to the game, they stopped at a grocery for bratwursts.
About the same time, a vanload of student assistants to the football team, including Baron Fulk, 20, arrived at Carter-Finley Stadium. Fulk helped set up tubs of Gatorade, water bottles and cups and took the emergency medical equipment onto the field: a spine board, crutches and other supplies.
In Greenville, the Caesars ate cereal then drove the 100 miles back to Campbell in Buies Creek. Woolard and Mallison stayed in Greenville for a bit, then joined the others in Buies Creek to plan the road trip over to Chapel Hill to visit friends.
At Carter-Finley, the Western Wake Volunteer Fire Department took up its usual position for the game. The firefighters treated a few people for minor problems and put out a small fire.
A few miles away at the NCSU library, Firas Naji, a pre-med student, finished studying and went to his family's home in Morrisville, looking forward to sundown, when observant Muslims could break the daily Ramadan fast.
The home team wins
Kickoff was at 3:36 p.m. As quarterback Philip Rivers, running back T.A. McLendon and other offensive players came off the field between plays, Fulk handed them towels, squirted water into their mouths or gave them cups of Gatorade.
The game ended about 7 p.m., and the roaring crowds dispatched word of a huge Wolfpack victory for miles. Fulk and the other assistants jumped up and down, hugging each other. Fans packed up blankets and seat pads to leave the stadium. From Cary, Bowes' girlfriend called Tutor's cell phone, and Tutor said he and Bowes were going to hang out and watch the end of another game on television.
In Buies Creek, the college guys piled into Manning's Jeep for Chapel Hill, with Myers as co-pilot and Woolard and Mallison in back. Cox stayed behind to finish a paper, which surprised his best friend.
"Nolan said, 'I guess this will be the first time you've turned down a good time,' " Cox recalled. "I said something like, 'I'll try not to make a trend of it.' "
That evening, a waxing moon reached the top of a clear sky at about 7 p.m., when Clemons was dancing to music at a friend's pig-pickin'. He was usually the last guy to leave any party, but at 8:20, his brother wanted to go. Since Clemons did not drive, he went along, taking home two plates of barbecue.
After dinner, Naji and his 10-year-old brother, Sammy, drove to the Raleigh mosque for evening prayers. He made a mental note not to stay long so that he could get home to study.
About 8:30, Tutor and Bowes finished loading the tailgating supplies and left for home. Another fan at the game, Martha West of the Cherokee County town of Marble, got in her car to go to a hotel for the night.
The Western Wake firefighters rolled their engine back to the firehouse on District Drive, where they saluted the retiring assistant chief with chocolate cake. Lt. Shevais Shrum made several attempts to leave, but he kept forgetting his digital camera, his radio, his turnout gear. He got razzed a lot.
Stopping to help
West of the fairgrounds, Hillsborough Street becomes N.C. 54. The city street lamps end. The intersection with Nowell Road is dark but for the indirect glare from the state surplus parking lot and the dim aurora from Carter-Finley. The speed limit on N.C. 54 is 45 mph. The intersection tops a hill from all directions.
A friend gave Fulk a ride to his green Chevrolet Blazer. He climbed in and headed south on Nowell Road. Police later said Fulk ran the stop sign to make a right turn onto N.C. 54.
As he entered the road, West hit him with her silver Chevrolet Blazer. The force of the collision spun Fulk's SUV around. It stopped diagonally in the eastbound lane, with the left front tire and much of the engine compartment in another lane. West's Blazer barreled into a ditch fronting the state surplus lot.
The accident looked like it might have caused injuries, so people began pulling over to help, among them some fraternity brothers from NCSU and an off-duty Bayleaf firefighter. Someone called 911 at 8:39 p.m.
Driving west on N.C. 54, Tutor was talking on the phone with a friend, Gary Pelletier, but interrupted to say, "Hey, it looks like there's a wreck up ahead. We're going to stop and check it out. I'll call you back."
At his home on Lincolnville Road, two-tenths of a mile away from the intersection, Clemons heard the crash. He hopped on a battered old bicycle.
The Alfaros also stopped, at the insistence of Gene-Marie, a nurse. Her husband followed her as she went to help. Their twin sons sat on the ground outside the car and waited.
As Manning's Jeep approached with the four college guys en route to Chapel Hill, Myers asked him to stop. The guys found the bedsheets that the night before had been imperial togas, and they ran to help, even though Mallison warned not to move anyone who was injured. At 8:41, Manning called 911 to report the accident.
White van approaches
The driver of the green Blazer lay on the asphalt next to his SUV. At least eight people stood over him in the road, their backs to the white Econoline van fast approaching them heading east on N.C. 54. Behind the wheel was Larry Veeder, 32, described as a kind and sweet soul who taught himself piano, accordion and harmonica and clowned for children's parties under the name Blinker.
Naji, returning from the mosque with his little brother on N.C. 54, saw cars making U-turns at the intersection. He passed the green Blazer then pulled over, telling Sammy to stay put. He saw the silver Blazer in the ditch; a man called out that everything was OK there.
Naji walked up the hill and saw a woman kneeling by an injured man's head. Another man knelt down with the woman. An older man, apparently the woman's husband, stood near, and so did two other young men, one in a red polo shirt. Three guys brought over bedsheets.
Without a warning, the scene exploded.
Naji felt the van's rush just inches from him. The woman was just getting to her feet when the van struck her, then it hit the four other men, then the college students. It mowed bodies down or tossed them into the air. It slammed into the green Blazer and finally spun around to a halt. Its broken horn screamed.
A shout: "Somebody better get on the phone right now!"
Nearby, Naji watched two young men suddenly run back and forth, sobbing, grabbing each other, separating, running apart, coming together again. Naji heard one ask, "Is my mom going to be OK?"
Mallison, near Manning's Jeep, raced into the road. Myers was dead. He found Woolard still alive and stayed at his friend's side.
The third 911 call logged in at 8:46 p.m., but the Western Wake volunteer firefighters never got that information. At 8:47 p.m., the department rescue vehicle arrived, Lt. Shrum at the wheel. All he knew was that there had been a motor vehicle accident with injuries, nothing that sounded out of the ordinary. As Shrum stopped the rescue truck, its headlights caught only the form of a body in the middle of the intersection.
Seconds later, the fire engine pulled up, and its big high beams lit up the carnage. Shrum could not believe it.
"I have never seen anything like it," he said later. "Surreal." The scene left him sleepless for days afterward.
He smelled antifreeze, the cornstarch from the van's airbag, bodily fluids.
He heard the van's horn, going on and on and on. Shrum turned to another firefighter and said, "You've got to make that noise go away."
A confusing scene
Because the intersection lay just outside Raleigh's city limits, the state Highway Patrol had to respond. Wake County's 911 center did not call the patrol until 8:51 p.m., 12 minutes after the first accident. A trooper at the Beltline interchange with Capital Boulevard took off, arriving 11 minutes later, at 9:02 p.m.
More officers and responders showed up. The situation grew so confusing that the Highway Patrol relied on a witness identification of one of the dead as the driver of the green Blazer, which the patrol's spokesman passed on to the media.
Woolard and Manning were severely injured and went to WakeMed, along with Fulk and West. A family friend picked up the Alfaro twins. Mallison fished out Woolard's cell phone in the Jeep and started making phone calls. Naji rushed to check on Sammy, whose little face was pressed to the car window.
Police and firefighters cleared the intersection at 3 a.m. Sunday. As the week progressed, funerals came and went, although Christopher Clemons' family did not have money for a burial. Myers' parents flew to Raleigh to see the place so far from home where their son died trying to help a stranger. The Alfaros' sons planned the rite for their parents at their Roman Catholic church in Charlotte. The service ended with the singing of an Irish blessing that begins, "May the road rise up to meet you."
West left WakeMed the next day and returned to Marble, where she refused interview requests. Manning, Woolard and Fulk are still in the hospital. Woolard and Fulk were listed in good condition and Manning in fair condition Saturday night.
Anger, questions arise
The van driver, Veeder, was charged with six counts of involuntary manslaughter and drunken driving, although the Highway Patrol and the Wake County District Attorney's Office would not release results of a blood-alcohol test. Nor would authorities tell what they knew about Veeder's whereabouts that night. Veeder's lawyer said that when he visited his client in the Wake County jail, the man could barely speak for his shock and grief.
Widespread anger rose at Veeder. Some relatives of the dead developed the mistaken impression that he was a habitual drunken driver. In fact, he was found guilty in 1990 of "aiding and abetting" drunken driving, and further details on that case were not available. Otherwise, Veeder had four speeding convictions and one knock on his record for driving without a license.
On Monday, Veeder appeared in court to hear a judge read the charges against him. His parents arrived from Kansas, and they issued a statement praising their son as someone who "shared his home with the homeless, planted flowers on downtown streets to beautify his neighborhood and idolized heroes whose messages were ones of peace, love and nonviolence."
He is, they said, the kind of person who, "had he first happened upon the accident scene, would have also been first to stop and render assistance. That gentle, caring man will live forever now with the knowledge that he was the instrument that violated everything he believed in."
A confluence of terrible circumstances brought a group of people to a crossroads on the edge of Raleigh, and in a heartbeat, an autumn Saturday of barbecue and Parents Weekend and a road trip mutated into That Day.
The simple things that filled the final hours of six lives suddenly changed color, at first taking on the gray of omen. But time can recast everything. It burnishes memory with the certainty that any moment can be the last, and there is no such thing as an ordinary day.
Staff writer Anne Saker can be reached at 829-8955.
Shooting deaths stun acquaintances
Nov. 8, 2003
The News & Observer
By Benjamin Niolet and Aisling Swift, staff writers
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
Friends of Najeebullah Naimee said that they had no indication that 27-year-old former N.C. State University student was fixated on a onetime classmate. Naimee was buried Friday, one day after police found him and the former classmate, Amena Hussain Khan, dead in what Durham police called a murder-suicide.
His NCSU classmates knew Naimee, who dropped out in September 2002, as a good guy who grabbed the check at the end of dinner or tried to help friends get a good deal at his brother's car lot where he worked.
"He is such a nice person that I can't imagine that he was a stalker," said Nadia Ali, who knew Naimee since middle school and said she noticed nothing wrong when she saw him last week. "It doesn't go together."
Ali said while also a business student at NCSU, she and others sometimes saw Naimee and Khan walking to class or talking in the halls. From what she knew, the two were friends.
Not so, say Khan's family and university officials, who determined after a campus investigation last year that Naimee was harassing Khan.
Khan was days away from starting a new life with her husband in Minnesota, where they were married four years ago. They had come to the Triangle for his residency in Chapel Hill, but he had moved to the Minneapolis area to finish. Khan already had packed a suitcase and planned to join her husband, Dr. Sameer Khan, next week. Instead, he called police early Thursday after he had been unable to get her on the phone.
When police went to the apartment at 1020 Country Lane in South Durham, they found Khan and Naimee inside and concluded that Tuesday night, Naimee confronted her as she arrived home, shot her and then himself with a 9 mm pistol.
More than 100 people attended the funeral service Friday for Naimee, a Kandahar, Afghanistan, native who lived at 508 Dartmouth Road in Raleigh.
Services are planned for Khan, 23, today at a Minneapolis mosque.
Co-workers and relatives described Khan as an ambitious woman who wanted to work her way up the corporate world. She also had worked as a model and had done commercials.
"She was a very fun, vibrant, gorgeous person," said Candace Keith, Khan's boss at a Raleigh sales and marketing firm, C.K. & Associates Inc.
Khan had graduated from NCSU in May, leaving behind, she thought, the troubles with Naimee.
In September 2002, Khan called police and complained that Naimee had been stalking and harassing her for about four months. Police said Khan decided not to pursue the matter as a criminal offense and the NCSU Office of Student Conduct took over.
By then, the university had officially recorded Naimee's withdrawal, though he was a class or two shy of a degree. University officials ruled Naimee had been harassing Khan. They required him to stay away from her and to attend counseling sessions before he could re-enroll.
Contrary to a News & Observer report about the case Friday, Naimee never attended any of the counseling sessions required by the NCSU Office of Student Conduct, according to university records.
He left the university for good and for a while, apparently, left Khan alone, members of her family said this week.
Naimee's friends knew nothing about these events, they said.
Bobby Maleki, 25, said he had been one of Naimee's closest friends at NCSU and last spoke to him three weeks ago. But Naimee was not very open about his life, Maleki said. He spoke only to a small group of friends. If he volunteered even mundane information about himself, he would sometimes swear Maleki to secrecy.
Ali said she knew Naimee had a pistol. He explained to her that he needed it for protection at the car lot, where Maleki said Naimee was working.
Ali said she trusted Naimee and even tried to set him up with one of her best friends.
"He would stay up with us all hours of the night in the library studying because he knew we didn't want to be by ourselves," she said.
Maleki and Naimee talked about getting graduate degrees in international business and going to work together.
"This thing has really shocked me," Maleki said. "I don't understand."
Tiny sensor-based computers could help track wildlife
Nov. 7, 2003
The Outer Banks Sentinel
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 The Outer Banks Sentinel.
Computer scientists at North Carolina State University aren't afraid of the big bad wolf - instead they're revolutionizing the technology that tracks him. The NC State researchers are studying how tiny, sensor-based computers can improve wildlife tracking methods for red wolves in eastern North Carolina.
Current tracking methods based solely on radio telemetry are expensive, cumbersome and provide limited data, said Dr. Robert Fornaro, professor of computer science at NC State. Wildlife researchers can currently track red wolves using radio collars, but this approach doesn't show the big picture, said Mark MacAllister of the North Carolina Zoological Society. "Radio telemetry helps us understand locations," he said, "but this new technology could help us understand behaviors."
Although red wolves are some of the most endangered animals in the world, very little is known about their pack dynamics. Since these tiny sensors can track location, movement patterns and environmental conditions throughout the day, researchers believe this new information could shed some light on pack behavior. By placing these devices on wolf collars, "We can find out who is hanging out with whom," MacAllister said.
Fornaro and colleagues from the N.C. Zoological Society and the N.C. Zoological Park are searching for sources of funding to support this research. But even as they wait for funding, they continue to plan for a project that requires sophisticated programming.
Wireless sensor systems are becoming commercially available; for example, Crossbow Technology markets a version called "MICA Motes." Powered by AA batteries, each MICA Mote measures only 2x1x1 inches, but is programmable and can be equipped with a global positioning system (GPS) component, a tiny radio transmitter, and a sensor board that detects light, temperature and acceleration.
Throughout a given day, the GPS component would receive signals from satellites to determine the longitude and latitude of a specific wolf. At the same time, the sensor board would take a reading of temperature and light, as well as the wolf's direction and acceleration. These GPS and sensor readings would be stored on the wolf's collar. The on-board radio would transmit the animal's position to a computer base station nearby.
To accomplish this, Fornaro envisions using the devices in another role - to build a wireless network grid across areas of wildlife habitat to act as a data collection mechanism.
"If 10 or 15 Motes were attached to trees about every thousand feet, the grid could conceivably cover an area of about one-half square mile," he said. Besides collecting and storing data, the Motes on the wolf's collar would also need to seek out these data-collection Motes and off-load collar information using its radio transceiver.
However, at certain times during the day, both the collar Motes and the grid Motes need to power down to conserve battery life. "So the wolf collar is either awake or sleeping, and the grid element is awake or sleeping," he said. "Sometimes we may get the wolf next to the grid, but both Motes are asleep."
This is one of several programming kinks that Fornaro and a team of students in the Computer Science Senior Design Center are working on. Both he and MacAllister believe Motes can improve tracking methods and supply wildlife researchers with more useful data.
And such knowledge would prove enormously helpful for projects such as the Red Wolf Recovery Program, which works to restore wild red wolf populations in eastern North Carolina.
Governed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the program has worked to restore wild red wolf populations in eastern North Carolina since 1987. The current red wolf population totals 100.
MacAllister and Fornaro also ee MICA Mote technology helping urban planners and wildlife researchers conduct more complete environmental impact studies.
As the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) plans to move forward to widen Highway 64 in Dare and Hyde counties - home of the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge and prime red wolf habitat - Motes could be used to determine wolf activity patterns in the vicinity of the roadway. By understanding these patterns, researchers will be able to better predict the impact a wider highway would have on interaction among packs or red wolf fatalities caused by automobiles.
"In either case, the new data can only expand our understanding of the lives and habits of our red wolf neighbors," Fornaro said.
Owners get the scoop on buyouts
Nov. 7, 2003
The Washington Daily News
By Bill Sandifer, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The Washington Daily News.
PLYMOUTH -- An estimated 150-plus residents turned out Wednesday evening to hear N.C. State University extension specialists discuss the implications of a Navy buyout of 30,000 acres, including farms, businesses and homes in Washington and Beaufort counties.
The Navy says it needs the property for the construction of an outlying landing field to help its pilots practice for aircraft carrier landings.
Ted Feitshans tackled legal topics while Guido van der Hoeven navigated the possibly even murkier waters of the tax implications of a buyout.
Before the two started, Frank Winslow, Washington County extension director, said, "We hope you don't have to use what we tell you tonight, but it's good to have a backup plan."
With that, Feitshans pointed out that the session was designed to provide residents with pointers rather than specific legal or tax advice.
"I'm here to tell you, if (the OLF) is not stopped, how to maximize the money and the benefits you get out of the Navy," explained Feitshans. "That doesn't mean you should give up."
Feitshans explained the compensation the federal government must provide when property is acquired involuntarily. "Just compensation," he said, requires that a property owner be compensated for more than just fair market value of the property. Costs, such as appraisals, legal fees, closing costs in purchasing new property, relocation costs and many other less evident costs incurred by the owner are required to be reimbursed, he noted.
Feitshans advised property owners to allow Navy appraisers on to their property but to accompany them as they look it over. The owner, he suggested, should note items of value that might not be immediately evident.
In addition, he advised owners to hire their own appraisers to ensure that an independent agent delivers an opinion on the property's worth. Feitshans added that such an appraisal may arrive at a value up to 25 percent higher than Navy appraisers determine. Such appraisals, he contended, are as much "art as science."
In addition, typical appraisals determine values agreed upon by a "willing buyer and a willing seller," conditions that don't apply in a forced buyout or condemnation, explained Feitshans.
He underscored the importance of having one's own appraisal before the Navy begins negotiating a purchase price, a process that could begin as early as January, according to the Navy.
By law, said Feitshans, the Navy can offer no less than the appraised fair market value for a property. He stressed that having one's own value established by an independent appraiser prior to negotiations provides an owner with a better basis for negotiating.
"You really have to have your own estimate of the value of the property," said Feitshans, who contends that most owners underestimate the value of their property.
In addition, he added, the Navy must provide written information to an owner explaining the basis of the offer.
Should the Navy begin its purchases, Feitshans explained that an owner cannot be forced to surrender property until the owner has been paid or money has been deposited with a court of law. In addition, a minimum of 90 days notice must be provided to owners before they are required to leave their property.
Of particular interest to owners of large tracts of land is a requirement that, if the amount of property forcibly acquired leaves too little property in the owner's hands to be economically viable, the Navy can be forced to acquire the entire tract, explained Feitshans.
He also discussed the unlikely scenario of donating one's property in exchange for tax credits, a notion that drew a surly chuckle from the audience.
A topic that drew many questions was individual lawsuits against the Navy. Should a property owner decide to sue, the judge can order the Navy to reimburse owners for the cost of litigation. However, according to Feitshans, such reimbursements are not guaranteed.
"You might not get it," he cautioned. And attorneys are generally reluctant to take such cases on a contingency basis or a fixed fee, he noted. Hourly fees for such actions can run rapidly into six digits, said Feitshans. In a nutshell, he noted that the owner of a $75,000 property would not be well-advised to pursue a lawsuit.
'Collateral damage'
One concern expressed by many residents near, but not in, the buyout area is what an OLF will mean for their quality of life and property values. Feitshans explained that such residents "may be in a worse position than (residents) inside the flight pattern."
However, those property owners are not without options, he explained as he introduced the concept of "inverse condemnation," or forcing the government to buy property if noise is "such that you can't use the property." The property owner, he explained, sues instead of the Navy. Such suits have been tried and won, he added.
In a legal twist that should provide some consolation -- if only by intent -- to property owners is the potential to realize more than fair market value in a forced buyout.
"You're actually entitled to more than the constitutional requirement," said Feitshans. "Congress has said it is unfair to make a few people bear the brunt of" the burden that would be imposed on residents in a forcible buyout that has benefits for the nation as a whole. And that could entitle property owners to negotiate for more compensation, he explained.
The law also requires the government "to give you everything you're entitled to," explained Feitshans. That may sound obvious on its face, but Feitshans urged residents to "plan and ask for everything; if you don't ask, you may not get it." The Navy, like any other federal agency, tries to lay out no more cash than it has to, said Feitshans. And that mind-set could shortchange a less-than-vigilant owner, he added.
Relocation, relocation, relocation
Feitshans explained there are many options in relocation reimbursements, including reimbursement for moving a barn, for example. In some cases, it might be in the owner's interest to move certain property rather than have the government buy it. Costs associated with finding suitable property -- hiring an agent, for example -- are also reimbursable, noted Feitshans.
In the event an owner cannot find suitable replacement property -- say an equivalent house in another area is considerably more expensive than the Navy's offer -- the owner is entitled to up to $22,500 above what the Navy already paid for the home. In extreme cases, the Navy can be required to provide land and construct a new home, added Feitshans. Also, the Navy may not force anyone in such a situation to move until the new home is ready, he noted.
Even renters are entitled to reimbursements and extra entitlements during a difficult relocation process, he explained.
For businesses that have difficulty in relocating, the reimbursement process gets very complicated and could involve compensation for loss of future business revenues, explained Feitshans.
Regarding water rights and access, he explained that anyone who "owns water that touches tributaries (has) a right to use that water; if not, compensation is due."
Vetting attorneys
Given the complex nature of the issues involved in a forced buyout, Feitshans urged residents at least to consult an attorney, if not hire one, to make sure they become aware of all their individual rights.
Attorneys offer free advisory discussions, he explained, and typically will offer a 30-minute consultation for "no more than $30."
He also cautioned residents to ensure that, before an attorney is hired, that attorney has "handled such issues on a regular basis. Ask questions," he added. And don't be intimidated by an attorney who, after all, is working for the client, said Feitshans.
Similarly, an appraiser should be selected based on the same criteria, he explained. "Experience in appraising rural land" is essential, he said, and an owner should "ask how many farms he's appraised in the last 12 months."
Tax professional van der Hoeven then delivered a succinct, if befuddling, discussion of the many, many tax issues involved in such sales, reminding all why the Internal Revenue Service remains the "best-loved" federal agency.
Before delving into the pit of snakes that is IRS code, van der Hoeven underscored Feitshans' advice on hiring an attorney.
"The mere fact that you are represented by an attorney will affect the amount the government will offer you," he explained.
Legal fees incurred by hiring an attorney to "help guide you if you don't go to court (would) probably be reimbursed," van der Hoeven said.
Four issues that will affect many owners of property other than a primary residence on a lot, said van der Hoeven, are income taxes, capital gains taxes, property taxes and estate taxes.
Citing "exceedingly complicated tax" law governing farming operations, he strongly suggested owners hire a tax professional. Those costs, indicated Feitshans, are probably reimbursable as well.
Forced buyouts trigger a so-called "involuntary conversion" of farm assets, something he referred to as "good news." In some cases, owners may defer taxes if what they're paid by the Navy is invested in like property.
Again, he underscored that such conversions are the domain of tax professionals.
If an owner sells the primary residence he has lived in for two of the past five years, a single owner can receive up to $250,000 and pay no capital gains taxes; owners who are married and file joint tax returns can receive up to $500,000 from such a sale and pay no capital gains taxes, said van der Hoeven.
That holds true whether the owner purchases another home or not, he added.
For those who understand "like-kind exchanges," another complex change in IRS law, van der Hoeven cautions such exchanges not be attempted beyond January.
Summing up a complex evening, Feitshans suggested yet another option open to homeowners.
"You can move your house," he said. "You can elect to have your house moved at the Navy's expense and deduct the value of the house" from whatever negotiated offer is arrived at.
"Make sure before you agree to anything," he cautioned, "everything you think you've agreed to is (in the document) before you sign, or you might not get it."
Finally, both experts discounted any real bargaining points regarding air and mineral rights.
However, should aircraft not adhere to the Navy's stated 2,000-foot approach elevation during flyovers, residents do have the option to pursue compensation should such flights become routine and "most of the value of the property is lost."
But Feitshans cautioned, "You can't sue the government for creating a nuisance."
On that point, everyone in the room -- by the looks on faces -- would have hired an attorney long ago.
Feitshans noted that, should a second session be needed, NCSU would make staff available again after the first of the year.
Hargett tells kids to grow up and get a real job
Nov. 8, 2003
The Kinston Free Press
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 The Kinston Free Press.
RICHLANDS - The assignment wasn't business as usual for state Sen. Cecil Hargett.
When he talked to high school students Friday about their futures, Hargett, a first-term Democrat, took a more laid back approach than he does when speaking to legislators in the General Assembly.
I graduated from Richlands in 1959 when many of you were probably in kindergarten, Hargett said, as he joked with Richlands High freshmen.
But his talk was nothing to laugh about. Hargett told them that at this point in their lives, college should be among their plans for the future.
After one semester at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Hargett decided to quit school and join the U.S. Air Force.
I don't think I was mature enough, he said.
Hargett was asked to speak to the students who are in the schools AVID program. Advancement Via Individual Determination caters to students who are in the middle academically and prepares them for college prep classes, essentially increasing their chances of getting into college.
After serving four years in the service, Hargett was sure he'd be a good catch for a potential employer.
I walked right in to the (Raleigh) News and Observer and told them I was a good writer, he said. They looked at me and said Well, what school did you graduate from?
I used to tell employers that I was one of the lucky ones and I could do anything they wanted and do it well without a degree, he said. After all, I made good grades in college. I think I graduated third in my class.
After being turned down several times, Hargett said he enrolled in N.C. State University and got a degree in political science.
The doors began to open, he said. Having a degree tells an employer that you have the sticktoitness, if that's a word. It means that you have discipline.
Hargett is just one of the speakers the school has invited to speak with the AVID students.
We hope having speakers will give the students a chance to the see the end result of what years of hard work can do, said Richlands assistant principal Lynn Jackson.
In some ways were hoping it serves as a career fair and opens the door to them thinking about careers they haven't considered.
Lindsay Mobley, 14, said she enjoyed listening to Hargett.
Mobley said she plans to follow in Hargett's footsteps by attending N.C. State and majoring in political science.
I liked that he could joke around and still be serious, she said.
Contact Kinea White at 353-1171, Ext. 235.
Darryl's is going, going, gone
Nov. 9, 2003
The News & Observer
By Sarah Lindenfeld Hall, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
RALEIGH -- A football game played on the televisions, and a crowd gathered around the bar at Darryl's restaurant Saturday. But instead of following the score, they focused on auctioneers, who sold a bit of Raleigh history, piece by piece.
About 300 people crammed the restaurant on Hillsborough Street, the first location for the Darryl's chain, for the public auction. They came to bid on restaurant equipment, grab N.C. State University memorabilia or get a piece of the place where they had their first date or always hung out.
"That is where I had my first meatball sandwich," said Linda Sebastian, a 52-year-old teacher from Raleigh. "It was like something you had never seen. It was a place so unusual for its time. It was such a destination."
The groundbreaking chain, which paved the way for Applebee's and T.G.I. Friday's, was started by Thad Eure Jr. and Charles M. Winston of Raleigh, founders of the Angus Barn, who formed a partnership with Darryl Davis of Cary.
Ownership changed about five times, and the chain grew to more than 30 restaurants in the Southeast. The current owner, Kansas City-based Houlihan's Restaurant Group, bought the business in 1998.
Financial pressures forced Houlihan's to close five Darryl's restaurants in 2002, including locations on Glenwood Avenue in Raleigh and U.S. 15-501 in Durham. The Hillsborough Street location shut down three years ago after it failed a Wake County health inspection, then reopened after $750,000 worth of work. It closed for good in September.
Auctioneer Tony Furr of Classic Auctions has handled three other Darryl's restaurants and is scheduled to sell off items inside the Norfolk, Va., location in December.
"Most of the time when we have this many people, it's one of the bigger ones," said Furr, who had estimated that 125 to 150 people would show up. "This one is kind of unusual."
Framed movie posters and old photographs hung from the walls of the restaurant, which was decorated with an eclectic mix of antiques including a gas pump, which sold for $1,400, and a large oak mirror, which went for $550. Auctioneers rattled off bids for hours, moving from glass racks to beer taps, booths to a barber pole.
But longtime patrons said what was left was just a shell of what the restaurant was in its heyday. They remembered the "circus room," where patrons drank beer in an area decorated to look like a circus tent. Circular stairs went up to second-floor dining area.
A newspaper columnist wrote in November 1971 that soon after it opened, "the word was out that Darryl's had the atmosphere of a real bar and people were standing on Hillsborough St. at 10 p.m. waiting to get in."
A framed copy of that column hung near the entrance. James Correll of Raleigh, a restaurant manager who graduated from NCSU in 1984, bought the column and an Employee of the Month plaque for $75.
"That was one of the first things I saw when I came in," Correll said of the column. "It's going to hang in my office."
John Dumproff, a 42-year-old business manager from Raleigh, found himself in the middle of the bidding for a shadow box with a jersey, parquet floor, pennants and photographs from NCSU's 1983 champion basketball team. He stopped at $375 and shook his head as the bidding got higher. Then he jumped back in with a shrug, ultimately buying the piece for $500, twice as much as he had planned.
He said he is developing an NCSU room at his house.
"It's going to be good for the collection," he said. "... You aren't going to be able to get that again."
Michael Strickland, a 45-year-old Raleigh lawyer, spent $1,650 on the 7-foot-tall wooden grizzly bear that was carved with a chain saw. It took eight men to position the piece, which Strickland guessed weighed more than 1,000 pounds, on a trailer to haul it away.
Strickland said he plans to put the bear in his office, the former headquarters for Darryl's near Crabtree Valley Mall. The office is decorated like a Darryl's restaurant, he said, with antique doors and dark wood.
Others walked away with smaller items.
Blake Tyner, a 34-year-old historian, had successfully bid on several pieces, including a cast iron pot and a Darryl's sign halfway through the auction. Tyner and his wife, Bess, a graduate of NCSU, dropped everything when they read about the auction and drove 2 1/2 hours from their home in Maxton.
Their first date, in August 1995, was at the restaurant. They became engaged less than a month later.
And each year around the anniversary of their first date, the two return to sit and eat in the same booth in the back.
"It was just sort of like the neighborhood hangout," Tyner said.
"It still had that feel."
Staff writer Sarah Lindenfeld Hall can be reached at 829-8983.
New historians help preserve Greensboro
Nov. 10, 2003
The Greensboro News & Record
By Jim Schlosser, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The Greensboro News & Record.
Let Benjamin Briggs and Ashley Poteat give you a whiff of the past.
Briggs, the newly named executive director of Preservation Greensboro Inc., and Poteat, the group's new curator of Blandwood Mansion, were seated in the dignified East Parlor of the house, a National Historic Landmark downtown and former home of Gov. John Motley Morehead.
Poteat said that from the 1840s to the 1890s the Moreheads held weddings and funerals in the room. In those days, she said, the time between death and funeral was lengthy. Friends and family had to travel from afar. Bodies weren't embalmed, thus the tradition of funeral flowers came about out of necessity.
"The flowers helped to disguise the smell,'' she said.
That's the kind of detail historians of old might not have aired publicly. But Poteat, 30, and Briggs, 36, belong to a new generation of history lovers who gloss over nothing to help explain how people lived -- and died -- long ago.
Despite their youth, "they both have a lot of experience and enthusiasm,'' said Jo Leimenstoll, a UNCG professor and architect who is the volunteer president of the preservation group.
Briggs replaces Wisconsin native Heather Seifert, a feisty fighter for old buildings, including the main building at Dudley High School. She left in August to become executive director of Preservation Oklahoma. Poteat replaces David Whitehead, who returned to teaching.
Preservation Greensboro members won't need to show Briggs or Poteat around the city. Briggs is from High Point; Poteat grew up and still lives in the Forest Oaks neighborhood south of Greensboro.
Briggs graduated with a degree in architecture and sociology from N.C. State University and earned a master's in preservation studies from Boston University.
Poteat studied history at State and earned a master's in fine arts in historic preservation from Savannah College of Art and Design.
Most recently Briggs directed a historic preservation program at Randolph Community College in Asheboro.
For the past 15 years, since he was in college, he has been an independent preservationist in High Point. He wrote reports for the city on seven neighborhoods and surveyed historic downtown buildings. He has restored old houses in the Johnson Street area and has worked on the long-term project to save the High Point train depot.
He lives between High Point and Greensboro on Penny Road in an 1843 house that has been in the Briggs family for six generations.
Before that, the house was owned by Thomas Korner, who, with a brother, operated a stage coach line between Kernersville and Fayetteville. The horses went full gallop from Kernersville to the house where Briggs now lives. Fresh horses stayed corralled next to the house.
"My dirt is supreme,'' says Briggs, who has moved other old houses to the property with the hope of someday creating a subdivision of kindred spirits who like living in historic dwellings.
Briggs credits his family, whose members helped found Deep River Friends Church, for instilling in him a sense of history.
At the age of 10, he was knocking on doors in High Point to get petition signatures to save old street lights. He wrote his master's thesis on five old Quaker houses in Deep River township that he had been around as a child.
By coincidence, Poteat comes to Blandwood after being director for four years of Korner's Folly in Kernersville, built by one of Korner's kin in 1878. The folly is famous for its oddities, such as 22 rooms spread over seven levels and ceilings from six feet to 25 feet.
Poteat says she's not sure what first ignited her interest in history, but she remembers as little girl making her parents pull off the road so she could read highway historical markers. She said she dragged them "into smelly old buildings'' because she was fascinated and wanted to poke around.
Briggs says he will continue Preservation Greensboro's watchdog role in sounding the alarm when old houses and buildings become threatened, particularly in the downtown and the bordering late 19th and early 20th century neighborhoods, such as Fisher Park, College Hill, Westerwood, Aycock and Dudley.
"I want to get out in the neighborhoods to encourage neighborhood pride and to encourage activities by neighborhood associations,'' he says.
The presence of two young people atop the city's foremost preservation organization could help attract younger members. While he's not a baby anymore, Briggs says one fact tells him he's not that old either.
"I think I'm the first executive director,'' he says, "who is actually younger than the organization.''
Nov. 10, 2003
The News & Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
Karl F. Bowman, associate professor of equine surgery in the College of Veterinary Medicine, is the recipient of the 2003 NCSU Libraries Faculty Award. The award is presented annually to an NCSU faculty member in recognition of outstanding contributions that support the library mission and role within the university.
Chuck Amato, head football coach, has been named the College of Education's 2003 Distinguished Alumnus. Amato, a native of Easton, Pa., earned his bachelor's degree in mathematics education in 1969 and his master's degree in education in 1973. He became the 32nd Wolfpack head football coach in 2000 after spending 18 years at Florida State.
Keith Vann Collins of Raleigh, Anna Clyde Fraker of Gaithersburg, Md., and Gerald Davis Mann of Indianapolis have been named Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award winners for 2003 by the College of Engineering. Collins, senior vice president and chief technology officer of SAS Institute Inc., received his bachelor's degree in computer science from NCSU in 1982. Fraker has the distinction of being the first woman to receive a doctorate in engineering as well as the first woman to receive a master's in engineering from NCSU. Mann is the senior partner of Mann Properties LLP, a commercial and residential real estate development company. He received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from NCSU in 1952 and his master's degree in civil engineering from Purdue University in 1956.
Veterans Day activities: Wake County
Nov. 10, 2003
The News & Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
WAKE COUNTY CEREMONY AND RUN: Reserve Officer Training Corps units at N.C. State University will hold a memorial ceremony at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday at the university's Bell Tower, preceded by an early morning Veterans Day Run. Units will gather at Carmichael Gym at 5:45 a.m., and the run will begin at 6 a.m. For information call Lt. Col. Michael J. Wawrzniak or Maj. Bill Medley at 515-2428.
Nov. 10, 2003
The News & Observer
By staff report
© Copyright 2003 The News & Observer Publishing Company.
It's getting near graduation time again. N.C. State University has announced the events and schedules for fall commencement. This year, it will take place at 9 a.m. Dec. 17 at the RBC Center in Raleigh. The graduation speaker is Shirley Ann Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a university in Troy, N.Y.
Jackson is a theoretical physicist. She has been chairwoman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a researcher for the former AT&T Bell Laboratories and a professor at Rutgers University. She will become president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in February.
There will be a reception Tuesday evening for Chancellor Marye Anne Fox to greet students and their families. After commencement ceremonies Wednesday morning, individual colleges will hold their own graduation ceremonies and distribute diplomas. The joint Army-Navy-Air Force commission ceremony is at 4:30 p.m. Dec. 17.
Anyone wanting information about graduation can visit www.ncsu.edu/reg_records/grad_inf.htm or call 515-2576.
Town Architect: She Designed Many of Area Facades
Nov. 9, 2003
The Pilot (Southern Pines, NC)
By Sara Lindau, staff writer
© Copyright 2003 The Pilot.
Some of the most important buildings in Moore County sprang from the drawing board of petite, soft-spoken Lynn Page Anderson of Southern Pines.
Anderson has served as architect for the substantial, 25,000-square-foot Pinehurst Assembly Hall with its two stories and basement; the Pinehurst Police Department across the road; and health clinics and public buildings in surrounding counties.
She currently has the renovations of the Southern Pines Police Department on her list and is finishing up the dramatic transformation of the old Carter Laundry building at the corner of Bennett Street and New York Avenue.
“I like downtown Southern Pines,” says Anderson, who is married to architect Robert Anderson of Hayes, Howell & Associates. “I’m generally behind the idea of renovating and saving some of our old buildings. If it can be renovated, that’s the right thing to do over the long term, looking at the big picture.”
Lynn Page came to Aberdeen from Maryland when she was in the eighth grade. Her father, Richard Page, had retired from the U.S. Air Force and moved his brood to his family home off Alison Page Road in the N.C. 5 area. He still lives there. Lynn Page graduated from Pinecrest High School in 1972.
The Pages’ most famous kinsman was Walter Hines Page, the U.S. ambassador to England during World War I. An intimate of President Woodrow Wilson, Page died in the 1918 worldwide flu epidem