•Kirk, Powell lead honorees for The News Reporter’s 2016 All-Columbus basketball teams. Sports See page 2-B. ThePublished News since 1890 every Monday and Thursday Reporterfor the County of Columbus and her people. Monday, March 28, 2016 Ribbon-cutting Volume 125, Number 78 to launch new Whiteville, North Carolina 75 Cents rail era Tuesday By ALLEN TURNER Staff Writer Inside Local officials, economic developers and railroad executives from Kentucky are expect- 2-A ed to attend formal ribbon-cutting ceremonies tomorrow (Tuesday) in Chadbourn and again •Teaching is Julia Wednesday in Loris, S.C. Hardwick’s callin. The ceremonies will mark a new era of rail service for Columbus County and the South 3-A Carolina counties of Horry and Marion. •Fipps to go organic Tuesday’s ceremony will begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Chadbourn Depot, 103 S. Wilson Street. with old family farm. A similar ceremony is scheduled Wednesday •Park centennial at 10:30 a.m. at the town clock in downtown celebration Loris. The public is invited to both ceremonies. schedule set. The Chadbourn ceremony will take place at what will be the headquarters for R.J. Cor- 5-A This overturned sweeper was involved in a four-vehicle wreck Thursday. man’s Carolinas Line. The previous railroad •Mary Mintz’s book operator had been based in Conway, S.C. still available. The opening has been pushed back a few times, including this month, because of main- Four-vehicle wreck sends three to hospital tenance needs and some delays in moving DIDYOB? By JEFFERSON WEAVER David Ransom of Columbus lided with the road widener. locomotives. Staff Writer County Emergency Services said While the sweeper and both Bill Henderson, vice president for sales Did you observe ... the sweeper and a road-widener trucks were apparently demolished, and marketing for the Kentucky-based R.J. A bizarre four-vehicle crash were finishing up for the day when Ransom said the widener was not Corman Railroad, said Friday that trains Four tall dead pine involving a sweeper Thursday sent the crash occurred. A white pickup seriously damaged. would begin rolling in Columbus County as trees ready to fall on three people to the hospital, with at truck with its flashers on was act- “They were able to drive it on to early as this past weekend or the first of this least one having serious injuries. ing as an escort for the two heavy wherever they store it after it was week. Service to Horry County is expected to eastbound traffic on Complete details were not im- machines. The machines were on pulled out of the ditch,” Ransom begin the first week in April. Henderson said U.S. 74 near Ever- mediately available on the wreck, their way back from a work site on said. that among the first Columbus customers to which occurred around 3:15 p.m. the highway, Ransom said. At least three individuals were use Corman’s rail services will be Ply-Gem green overpass, plus between Union Valley Road and U.S. A large panel truck apparently transported to Columbus Regional, (formerly Kroy Manufacturing) in Fair Bluff 701 and blocked the eastbound lane collided with the pickup, which then Ransom said. The extent of their several more dead of U.S. 74-76. struck the sweeper. That in turn col- injuries was not available. See Railroad, page 11-A pines tall enough to reach outside lane SMART KIDS on eastern side of City schools same overpass? ... Maleah Murray, OK’d for a junior at UNC, getting the best of her mom and dad, accreditation nTwo areas cited as priority for im- Jolene and Keith, provement. University of Indi- By SHALON SMITH ana graduates, after Staff Writer the Tar Heels’ win Whiteville City Schools is one step closer to Friday night in the obtaining an accreditation that is recognized globally. Sweet 16? ... A crop In a special called meeting of the Whiteville duster swooping low City Schools Board of Education Wednesday afternoon, Dr. Julie Von Frank, lead evaluator to drop Easter eggs with AdvancED made recommended accredi- at Western Prong Baptist Church Sat- “We really do think you’re an urday? ... above average system. We feel that strongly about what you’ve got go- ing in your system.” County Deaths Natasha Viallavos and Brittany Barnhill of Evergreen Elementary position a balloon at the end of a complicated set-up that included a robot crane dropping a marble, taking loops on a track and Von Frank Whiteville eventually leading to the popping of the balloon. AdvancED lead evaluator James Richard Sessions Sr. tation for the system. Paul J. Sellers In two years, the district will need to report Annie L. Singletary Ward the progress they are making toward their Riegelwood County’s gifted students show improvement priorities. Some improvement Thurman Odell Blanks priorities may take a year, two years, or five Clarendon years to accomplish, depending on the district off their skills at AIG night and the improvement, she said. Hellen Chester Gore “These things are a process and it takes a Mary Jane Cooper By NICOLE CARTRETTE events to do a simple thing,” Columbus high schools. while to get there,” Von Frank said. Hallsboro News Editor Jared Williamson of Cerro Gordo “I like the flexibility of choos- An external review of the school district Larthine Frink Bracey Elementary said. ing and developing my own cur- focused on three domains—impact of teach- Marbles rolled through cre- He said AIG classes are dif- riculum, which can be tailored ing and learning, capacity of leadership, and ative contraptions and robots ferent. for my students. I like challenging use of resources. Though the district had roamed at the Columbus County ‘Learn more’ my students to think creatively no noted opportunities for improvement in Index Schools Academically and Intel- “It gives me an opportunity outside the box while integrating the review, each district evaluated by the Ad- lectually Gifted (AIG) Night held to learn more than I can in the technology,” Hewett said. vancED team must have a minimum of one Editorials ........ 10-A recently at Williams Township classroom. I’ve learned about Challenging students can be improvement priority. Obituaries ......... 7-A School. teamwork more than anything,” difficult when resources are lim- “I don’t care how good you are, you’re Sports ................ 1-B Gifted students from across Jared said. ited, he said. going to get an improvement priority,” Von “It teaches them the impor- ‘Not enough’ Crime ................ 4-A the district and their parents Frank said. attended the special function tance of teamwork, collaboration, “There are not enough of us to Between Sunday and Tuesday, team mem- where teams of students showed and communication while chal- give all the AIG students the atten- bers consulted 199 unique stakeholders in the off their problem solving, robot lenging them as a group and in- tion that they need,” he said. He community including principals, teachers, building and teamwork skills. dividually,” said Larry Hewett, an said he wishes that he had more and parents to gather data for their review. Rube Goldberg devices with AIG Specialist and Instructional time in the regular classroom to Von Frank noted leadership capacity all kinds of twists, turns, and Technology Facilitator. challenge students in their other as strength of the district. Whiteville City mechanics wowed guests as they He teaches AIG students at Old subjects. Schools is committed to a culture of high roamed a showcase in the school Dock Elementary. He also teaches A unit on magic, building rock- expectations as they strive to provide an eq- gym. an online AIG course, Creativity ets, Lego construction, writing uitable education and learning supports for “The Rube Goldberg is pretty and Technology, for high school all students, she said. much a complicated series of students at East, South and West See AIG, page 8-A See Accreditation, page 6-A 2-A – The News Reporter, Monday, March 28, 2016 Josh McNair and Julia Hardwick, Williams Township School’s Teacher of the Year, go over a reading assignment on a Chromebook. Teaching is Julia Hardwick’s calling By NICOLE CARTRETTE certification. to feed the pig,” she said. on the same page and we all News Editor “My daddy was so happy “We spend so much time need to be on board to work he even paid for it,” she said. seeing what they know that together,” she said. Julia Rankin Hardwick still She had no small task we don’t have time or take the Much like Alice Williams remembers what it felt like to ahead. It was 1993 and she time to give them what they knew, Hardwick realizes that come home with tears stream- had two children under 3 years need to get to the next level.” teaching isn’t just about the ing down her face because of age. She said she measures her grade. “It’s about self esteem of a speech impediment she In 1995 she began teaching success in her children’s faces and the whole child.” had when she was in the first at WTS. By 1999 she had been rather than test scores. Hardwick is married to grade. named Teacher of the Year but “I measure it by the growth her husband Dewayne of 28 “I went home and would cry she said the latest nomination I see in them,” she said. years. They live in Tabor City everyday because my teachers is the most humbling. Hardwick said she has al- and they attend the Barefoot did not understand me,” said “I was not expecting it,” ways loved teaching reading Church in Whiteville.