Bolton's Police May Shut Down Feb.28
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Contributing photographer Artist donates Douglas Sasser offers a painting to colorful glimpse of India’s Old Dock magnificent tigers on Elementary. today’s Living Page. See Page INSIDE See Page 1-C. 2-A. ThePublished News since 1890 every Monday and Thursday Reporterfor the County of Columbus and her people. Thursday, February 5, 2015 Bolton’s Volume 124, Number 63 Whiteville, North Carolina 75 Cents police may Inside shut down 3-A •Whiteville Optimists Feb.28 recognize nine By JEFFERSON WEAVER outstanding youth. Staff Writer If other grant funds aren’t located, Bolton 6-A Police Department may be shut down at the •Buckhead end of February. community set to try Town Administrator Frank Wilson told the town board of alderman Tuesday that plans lower speed limit. were being made to close the one-man office Staff photo by MARY KINDSCHUH unless Chief Ed Gillim finds additional grants 9-A by the end of February. The department was •State-mandated Steel work reopened with a $163,869 grant from the U.S. A steel worker welds a piece of the new water tower in Hallsboro. The tower is being built by Phoenix Department of Justice (DOJ) Community repairs to cost Fair Fabricators and Erectors Inc., based in Indiana. Oriented Policing Solutions (COPS) in 2012. Bluff $80K. The program was used to jumpstart small police departments across the country when 12-A communities laid off patrol officers due to •County’s horse, the economy. COPS grants require a graduated match cattle owners New LED outdoor lighting over a three-year period, with the last year find hay scarce. being funded entirely by local money. At that DIDYOB? brightening nights across area See Bolton, page 6-A Did you observe ... By JEFFERSON WEAVER First Presbyterian Staff Writer Local woman Church of Whiteville The night isn’t quite so dark any more in many communities. enjoying a “packed Utility companies have been in- is first fatality stalling LED outdoor lights across house” Sunday with Columbus County, replacing mer- its Cub Scouts, Boys cury vapor bulbs with new models Scouts, parents and that last longer, use less electricity of this year and put out more light than older nVictim made left turn in front of adult leaders in at- model lights. oncoming van at New Hope Tuesday LED stands for light emitting evening. tendance for servic- diode. A specially-designed circuit es? ... Parents grab- in the bulb itself allows full use of a broader portion of the light By BOB HIGH bing photos of their spectrum through the implementa- Staff Writer tion of balanced colored light fila- sons and daughters ments. The resulting light fixture Cheryl Godwin Hill, 54, who lived in White- as they headed to is cooler, brighter and requires less ville across U.S. 701 from Walmart, was the maintenance. first highway fatality of 2015 in Columbus the Whiteville Ju- LED lights were first used in the County Tuesday evening as she tried to make niorettes’ semi last 1970s for infrared switches such as a left turn onto U.S. 701 at New Hope, and television controls and equipment. her car was struck in the driver’s door by a weekend? ... People Advances in technology allowed southbound van. enjoying the sun- engineers to combine more cir- Hill died in the Columbus Regional Health- cuits to produce better light with care emergency department from head trau- shine this week? ... less power. LEDs made their way ma, according to William Hannah, assistant into interior lighting and signs coroner. starting around 1995, and practical Two occupants of Hill’s 1998 Honda were outdoor lights such as those used Staff photos by MARY KINDSCHUH injured, including 23-month-old Zaki Butler, County Deaths on streets, yards and parking lots Jeff Brooks of Duke Progress holds one of the 100,000 LED units who was airlifted to UNC Hospitals in Chapel were perfected around 2010. that will replace the mercury vapor street lights across the ser- Hill, according to the Highway Patrol. Whiteville The exterior lights have been vice area. Hill’s car was hit as she drove onto the high- Billy Ray Thomas embraced by utilities, munici- See Fatality, page 4-A utility to completely replace lights palities, businesses and residential Cheryl Hall Godwin Hill in the downtown area. customers. Chadbourn Some area lights are decidedly “We are in the process of re- Carolyn B. Grainger old-fashioned, Brooks said. placing approximately 100,000 County okays LED fixtures have an expected Dorothy Simmons Godwin mercury vapor street lights across life of around 50,000-100,000 hours, Elton Singletary our service area with LED lights,” about two to four times longer than grant application said Jeff Brooks of Duke Progress Fair Bluff high pressure sodium fixtures. Energy. “These lights were typi- George Carnell Johnson “In addition, we are replacing cally installed decades ago and are for water lines fixtures that, in the case of mer- Tabor City nearing the end of their useful life. cury vapor technology, may have Jane Ellen W. Hammer Work began in October 2014 and been installed decades ago. There in western areas Bolton is progressing across the state. In have been significant advances in addition, we are replacing some By ALLEN TURNER Mable Lee Nichols lighting technology and efficiency high pressure sodium lights – the Staff Writer Columbus County since that time.” amber-colored lights – as requested Aline Davis Brown He said Duke Progress hopes to by local communities, at the same The Columbus County Board of Commis- completely change out its sodium time as the mercury vapor replace- sioners Monday agreed to seek a Community vapor lights within two years. ments.” Development Block Grant of nearly $1.3 mil- Holbrook said the co-op installs Duke is focusing on street and lion to install new water lines in Water District Index an average of 154 LED lights every area lightings. Heather Holbrook II. The decision came after a public hearing in month. of Brunswick Electric Member- A close-up of the back of an which no one offered comment. Editorials ......... 10-A “Brunswick Electric started its ship Cooperative said that the LED street light. The improvements would be on Ice Plant Obituaries ......... 7-A LED program in February 2013 co-op is replacing both residential Road near Fair Bluff and Silver Spoon, Bras- Sports ................ 1-B change out all its old-style lights with yard lights in our service and public lights with LEDS as the well, Smith and Broadway roads in the Chad- by the end of this year. Nationally, area,” she said. “Some refer to Crime ................ 4-A older bulbs burn out or the fixtures bourn area. The county already had applied co-operatives have been faster to these as ‘security’ lights, but at Living ................ 1-C are damaged. twice for the $1,296,917, but those applications embrace LED lights than for-profit BEMC they are considered yard “We are replacing the fixtures were denied. County officials have been meet- utilities, but as the new model lights.” as we visit them for repair,” she ing with state officials to discuss deficiencies lights have come down in cost, the The explosive growth in tech- said. “At this time, BEMC is plan- in the prior applications. Engineer Reid Whi- brighter lights are becoming more nology has given the co-op reason ning to change all the yard lights tesell of the Holland engineering firm voiced and more common across the area, to pause, Holbrook said. system wide; however we are not optimism that this latest grant application will both in rural communities and in “One reason is that the LED planning to change all the other be favorably received. town. Columbus Regional Health- chips are changing so fast and the fixtures system-wide.” Some technical shortcomings in the previ- care is just one area institution cost of the fixtures are sometimes Four County Electric Member- ous applications were addressed in the new ap- that has changed over to exterior two and three times the cost of a ship, which also has members LEDs. The Town of Chadbourn is plication, Whitesell said, and a citizen survey in Columbus County, plans to one community working with the See LED, page 9-A in the target areas showed strong community See Water lines, page 9-A 2-A – The News Reporter, Thursday, February 5, 2015 Artist donates butterfly artwork to Old Dock By WALLYCE TODD been doing this for five years, Staff Writer “When I painted at that school, the artwork was what I and I consider Hope very influ- ential in my spiritual growth,” Flames destroyed the main felt. Many people looked at these children and thought Overby said. She followed up building at Old Dock Elemen- they will never get out of this situation, but God – and so by saying how much she was tary School, but not the spirit many teachers – see it differently.” going to appreciate having the of the school or its community. Hope Smith artwork at her workplace. As third grade teacher Jes- “We, (Diane Gore, an ODES sica Overby said, amidst the noted it was a beyond her each student,” Smith said. fourth grade teacher and an- recovery process, the school price range that day. Smith “A lot of times, when things other WOW attendee) present- has been “bombarded by bless- said, “I’d be glad to donate it are removed from our lives ed it to the staff the next week. ings.” for the school.” like the cocoon, that’s when We just knew it was meant One such blessing is the Then the hunt was on for something new and beautiful for us.