r(BUPSTHSBCXJOPWFS4U1BVMTr8)4UFBNT GBMMBU&BTU#MBEFOr4$$3BNTPQFOTFBTPO r8BSSJPSUFBNTCPXUP'MPSB.BDEPOBME r7JLJOHTTXFFQQBTU4PVUI3PCFTPO r8FTU#SVOTXJDLEFGFBUT4PVUI$PMVNCVT Sports 4FFQBHF# ThePublished News since 1890 every Monday and Tursday forReporter the County of Columbus and her people. Monday, February 6, 2012 Area drought worsens – at Solid waste Volume 121, Number 63 Whiteville, North Carolina worst time shows losses By JEFFERSON WEAVER 75 Cents Staff Writer since 2007 Roughly one-third of Co- nOfficials hopeful for ‘break-even’ Inside Today lumbus County is considered situation. to be suffering from a severe 4-A drought, according to the Na- By NICOLE CARTRETTE r"DNF%FMDP tional Weather Service (NWS). Staff Writer &MFNFOUBSZJTTDFOF The declaration was made last week by the NWS and the County Finance Officer Bobbie Faircloth is PGNBKPSMBSDFOZ N.C Department of Agricul- hopeful the financial condition of the county’s ture. The easternmost portion solid waste operations will turn around this of Columbus is lumped with fiscal year. Since 2007 the county’s solid waste Brunswick and New Hanover operations have had losses each year. in the severe category, while A more than $1 million fund balance helped the rest of the county is clas- cover those losses that exceeded $350,000 in sified as moderate. That could some years but past solid waste profits have change if significant rain been nearly depleted. doesn’t fall in the near future. The county’s audit for fiscal year 2011 The dry weather comes at a showed that the county’s solid waste opera- critical time, as planting sea- tions had $4,600 in its fund balance or savings. son is right around the corner That is a tiny fraction – less than one-tenth Today’s for many crops. Without suffi- of one percent – of the more than $7.1 million cient and timely rainfall, corn, solid waste budget adopted for this fiscal year American Pro- soybeans and other crops will that will end in June. suffer extremely low yields. Despite a limited amount of reserved funds, fle features “Te The remainder of Colum- Faircloth said the collection rate is good at bus County is classified as about 96 percent most years, and six months Power of the Pen.” being in a moderate drought, into the year expenditures at 52 percent of the How daily writing along with Bladen, Cumber- projected amount are about on target. land, Robeson, Pender and “In my opinion until we see more of what it enhances lives and other eastern counties. is going on it looks like we may have a break- Local records show Colum- even budget or very little loss,” Faircloth said. relationships. bus County is, on average, “We are trying to hold down costs as much as slightly low for the month of Staff photo by Mark Gilchrist we can.” January, but nothing like it has Despite user fee increases year after year, DIDYOB? been in years past. The deficit Lucky dogs the revenues fail to keep up with rising ex- Did you observe ... is caused by last year’s largely Lucky, the dog on the left, and Bonnie walk their owners Fran Thomas, penses built into the county’s curbside trash left, and Elizabeth Gibson along Madison Street recently. Cool morn- collection contract. The Waste Management See Drought, page 3-A Rep. Dewey Hill, gro- ings have been giving way to unseasonably warm afternoons. See Solid waste, page 3-A cery and real estate Errant weather businessman, walk- County board ing the aisles of the plays havoc with First Optimist ‘Friend of Youth’ new Roses during the strawberries considering Friday opening? Te Gala April 14 to honor High By RAY WYCHE $750,000 for well attended opening Staff Writer The Whiteville Optimist Club will drew many shoppers host its first “Friend of Youth” Gala Old Dock foors to Hill Plaza. ... Gi- The warm days of last on April 14 at the Vineland Station month were welcomed but Depot. By NICOLE CARTRETTE ants fans celebrating the out-of-season warm spells The Optimist gala is designed to Staff Writer the team’s Super Bowl will probably cut down on recognize and honor a member of the local community who has provided victory at area res- strawberry production later Columbus County school officials will ask this spring. long-term dedicated service that has county commissioners to come up with ad- taurants and parties The average high tempera- significantly benefited the youth and ditional capital outlay money for a project at Sunday night? ... Too ture for last month was 59.10 community. one of the oldest schools in the county. degrees while the January The first Optimist honoree will Officials say one wing of Old Dock School many early blooms average is normally colder. be Jim High. He will be recognized is in disrepair with sagging floors and that the on trees and bushes The warm weather for Janu- through his service as editor and cost to renovate the oldest section of the build- across the county? A ary caused strawberry plants publisher of The News Reporter. The ing is almost as much as building a new wing. to blossom prematurely. Whiteville newspaper has been a stal- County Commission Chairman Amon February or March On two occasions last wart in its efforts to recognize the ac- McKenzie said he has toured the school and freeze could result in month, several consecutive tivities and accomplishments of area believes the appropriation of $750,000 is a ne- days of warmer-than-normal young people in education, the arts, cessity. “I think that is about half of the cost,” much damage to the weather brought forth blooms community service, and athletics. McKenzie said of the project that will also be “winter” blooms. on strawberry plants. For In addition, The News Reporter has Jim High paid for with state lottery funds. three days – Jan. 7, 8 and 9 – been a team sponsor in the Optimist “I saw an area of the building that needed to high temperatures reached 70 baseball and soccer programs every youth and community projects. Food be torn down and a new one constructed. The degrees at the Border Belt To- year that the programs have been in will be catered by the Whiteville wing is in an older part of the building and it County Deaths bacco Research Station north- existence, beginning with baseball in Women’s Civic League and music will really is in disarray,” McKenzie said. west of Whiteville. 1970 and soccer in 1992. be provided by the popular Holiday Commissioner Ricky Bullard said the In the six-day period from While providing an evening of Band. pod that houses six classrooms needs to be Whiteville Jan. 24-29, the average high at food, fun, and entertainment to those Tickets for the gala are $100 (ad- Hubert Shipman replaced. the station was slightly over attending, the “Friend of Youth” mits two) and can be reserved by “The urgency is there,” Bullard said. “I Anthony C. McDufe 69 degrees. The station’s ther- Gala will assist the Optimist Club contacting Judy Harritan at 642-6467 think it would be money better spent to totally Chadbourn in raising funds to sponsor its many or by email ([email protected]). Mary Loil T. Honeycutt See Strawberries, page 2-A See Old Dock, page 2-A Clarence Keel Emily K. Fowler Hinson Hallsboro Curtis Williams New gadget eases pecan harvesting By RAY WYCHE pulled version can be pulled by a lawn pick up the nuts by hand cut into their Staff Writer tractor or a golf cart and picks up in a profits and had other disadvantages. 35-inch wide swath. A family friend, Edwin Hammond, Index A new implement distributed by the When pushed or pulled under a pe- watched the Martins’ crews at work &EJUPSJBMT" Martin family of Williamsons Cross- can tree, the pecans are wedged among and remarked, “There’s got to be a bet- 0CJUVBSJFT" roads promises to end the sore backs the many 3-inch long plastic “teeth” on a ter way.” that too often result from picking up reel about 15 inches in diameter. A plas- “Like much of the Southeast, we 4QPSUT# pecans. tic bar with comb-like teeth rakes the had a bumper crop in the fall of 2011,” $SJNF" This new concept in gathering fallen captured pecans from the Bag-a-Nut’s Greg Martin says of the family’s pecan -JGFTUZMFT" pecans eliminates the stoop labor in- reel, and gravity sends them sliding harvest last year. volved in picking up nuts by hand. The into the basket. “Letting others pick up pecans and only time the operator bends his back is The original Bag-a-Nut, designed paying them by the pound, we noticed to empty the container on the apparatus and manufactured by a Florida man that they were missing many of the into which the nuts are deposited by who tired of staying on his hands and nuts. In the past we never cleaned the the machine. knees while harvesting a bumper crop orchard floor like the Pecan Growers The Bag-a-Nut comes in two mod- of pecans, emptied its pickups in to a Association and Howard Wallace of the els, one tractor-pulled and the other bag, hence the name Bag-a-Nut. County Extension Service, advised,” hand-pushed in two sizes. Both have The Martin brothers, Greg, Mark Martin says. spinning reels covered with numerous and Jeff, like the Florida inventor, tired One result of this oversight was that plastic “teeth” that hold the pecans. The of picking up pecans one at a time from people were being paid to pick up pe- hand-pushed models come with 16 and an orchard planted by their great-grand- Thomas Jolly of Pierce & Co.