r'JWFUFBNTIFMETDPSFMFTT 'PSJUTDFMFCSJUZ JO##5'PPUCBMM QBSUJDJQBOU 5BLFUIF-BLF +BNCPSFFr8PMGQBDLCPZT PODFBHBJOTDPSFTCJHXJUI TPDDFSUFBNUPPQFOTFB BIPNFUPXOKFXFM4FF TPOUPEBZBU$MJOUPO TUPSZCFMPX Sports 4FFQBHF# ThePublished News since 1890 every Monday and Tursday forReporter the County of Columbus and her people. Monday, August 13, 2012 Courthouse Adoption rates leap by Wright Volume 122, Number 13 drop at county Whiteville, North Carolina is latest try 75 Cents to escape animal shelter nWright released from nFees increased last week. hospital Friday, and Inside Today jailed with no bond await- By NICOLE CARTRETTE ing trial next week. 4-A Staff Writer r%SJWFSQMFBETJO By BOB HIGH Three. GFMPOZSPBEEFBUI Staff Writer It’s the number of Columbus County fami- lies who have adopted pets at the county ani- DBTF B.J. Wright’s latest attempt mal shelter since pet adoption fees increased r$IBECPVSONBOHFUT to escape from law enforce- on Monday of last week. QSJTPOGPSGPSHFSZ ment ended Thursday after- The increased adoption fees include a new GSBVE noon with him hospitalized for mandatory spay and neuter fee and voucher. his leap from a second-story That means all dogs and cats that leave the window that ended with him shelter leave with a voucher for a rabies vac- falling onto an air conditioner cine and a spay and neuter voucher to be used unit. with local participating vets. He spent Thursday night in Officials anticipated a decline in adoptions Columbus Regional Healthcare but hoped to avoid such a sharp one. here, and was restrained in “Adoptions to the public have dropped a his bed. He was transferred whole lot,” said Rossie Hayes, county animal to a jail cell Friday afternoon, control director. “We have adopted out one dog where he’s being held without and two kittens this week,” Hayes said, just bond. three days after the new fees went into effect. The 26-year-old Wright Adoptions to nonprofit rescue groups who failed to appear Thursday pay a reduced $10 fee remain high. Last week morning in Superior Court 25 dogs and seven cats went to those organi- before Judge Douglas Sasser zations. when his cases were called for Columbus County commissioners unani- Today’s a review of their status. mously approved the proposal last month American Profle Wright finally appeared that is in line with what many other counties about noon, and was taken into require. features “Back- custody. Sasser, observing his In addition to standard adoption fees of $25 demeanor, ordered a drug test. to-School Bud- Wright tested positive for co- Staff photo by Mark Gilchrist See Shelter, 2-A dies. Te big ben- caine, marijuana and opiates. Seated in the prisoner box Courthouse escape attempt efts of mentoring Superior Criminal Court Clerk Kelly Sullivan looks down through a sec- little students.” See Escape, page 4-A ond-foor window broken by attempted escapee B.J. Wright Thursday DSS wants to afternoon to watch rescuers treat the defendant who fell onto an air conditioner and into bushes. talk pay with DIDYOB? Gause asks Did you observe ... commissioners Chadbourn Scores of Columbus McNeill-Balter is By NICOLE CARTRETTE County college and Staff Writer for favor university students Take the Lake celebrity A county pay study completed in April has packing for and By JEFFERSON WEAVER some employees less than thrilled at Social When the 2012 Take the Lake Staff Writer Services. moving back to their Celebrity Participant Jane McNeill- The Social Services board has asked com- Balter looks at national publications respective schools? ... A Chadbourn resident best missioners to attend a meeting Tuesday at and sees “Occupation: actor” next to known for his outspoken criti- 5:30 p.m. at Social Services to discuss those Back-to-school sup- her name, she knows it’s been a long cism of the town council Tues- concerns. journey getting there. plies stacked on area day night asked that same “Some of the employees were complaining Her childhood dreams of being store shelves? .... Stu- board to rezone his property— they were not treated equally or fairly,” Com- an actor have finally come true, with for the third time. missioner Edwin Russ said. He serves on the dents at the Columbus steady work on television recently as Russell Gause told the board DSS board and asked commissioners about a regular on “The Walking Dead,” and College and Career in May that he needed his meeting with the board this week to “discuss in movies “Hornets Nest” and “The home rezoned to qualify for some things.” Academy complet- Occult.” a grant. Gause lives on a sec- Commissioner James Prevatte made it clear She was no instant celebrity, ing their frst week tion of Sprouse Street that he wanted an “agenda” and insisted Russ re- though. After college at UNC Chapel of school for the new is currently scheduled to be veal what they wanted to talk about. Hill, she pursued stage roles in Ken- rezoned this fall. He asked Russ said “the pay study” but gave no school year? ... tucky, Arkansas and Chicago, working that the board waive the $500 further detail at the commissioners meeting. toward her actor’s equity card in com- application fee and fast-track Late last week, Russ told The News Reporter munity theater, and working other his request in May. The council that some employees who are set to get a 1 jobs to get by. Jane McNeill-Balter refused. percent salary increase this year, while others Worth Noting “I spent a lot of time waiting Town staff and council told ened her and inspired her to return will get more under the new pay plan, want Monday, August 13 tables,” she said. Te Whiteville City Schools Board Gause the area would be re- to acting. Their son, Ben, suffered better increases. Putting her acting career on hold in of Education meets at 6:30 p.m. in zoned in the near future, as the illnesses in his first two years, an “They were upset that they got a 1 percent the mid-1990s, McNeill-Balter earned the civic room of the Central Services planning board is currently experience she described as “more increase and not 2 percent like County Man- a masters degree in education, then Building on West Walter Street in working to make zoning more terrifying” than what was to follow, ager Bill Clark,” Russ said. He added that there Whiteville. taught drama and English for a while. consistent in mixed-use neigh- and what followed was breast cancer, were complaints about the county attorney’s She married Yoel Balter and returned borhoods. Although waiting which she overcame through aggres- pay increase that brings him up to the level to North Carolina where they began would mean Gause didn’t have sive procedures. paid to the previous attorney. to raise a family. Russ said he explained that the county at- County Deaths Serious challenges ahead strength- See McNeill-Balter, page 11-A See Chadbourn, page 3-A See DSS, page 3-A Delco Dora Dale Benson Bolton Billy Parker Math, science studying pays of for area student By RAY WYCHE completed a rigorous online testing program in math Staff Writer and science were selected for the camp. A release from Index NASA states the 84 selected winners “are some of the Math and science courses have always been favorite best of the young female minds in the nation.” &EJUPSJBMT" school subjects for 17-year-old Savanna Herring of “We had to maintain a good grade average on about 0CJUVBSJFT" Hallsboro. 10 tests and submit an essay,” Herring says. “I had to 4QPSUT# Since beginning school, she has always brought home do online math and science subjects.” top grades in these two courses as well as in her other The program is known as STEM (Science, Technol- $SJNF" school work. ogy, Engineering and Math), academic subjects the -JGFTUZMFT" Last month, her diligence in her school courses in girls got big helpings of during their week in Houston, these two fields paid off. She was one of 84 girls selected “studying every aspect of science,” Herring says. in a nationwide competition to attend a one-week space “We stayed busy. We did activities. We got to go on a camp at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The tour of the space center and we got to see where they camp is sponsored by NASA and is limited to rising built space capsules. We worked alongside of the NASA high school junior girls. people,” she says. The camp, with its intensive emphasis on math and One portion of the week’s program involved separat- science, is designed to attract more females into the ing the girls into four competing teams to design and fields of math and science. build a model space craft, a small scale duplicate of Herring is the daughter of Sherry and William Coun- a space vehicle that could go to Mars and return. The cil of Hallsboro. teams also had to design and construct a Mars Rover, a Only the brightest young ladies who successfully See Herring, page 2-A Savanna Herring 2-A – The News Reporter, Monday, August 13, 2012 This week, on... Breakdown of EOC scores shows strengths, weaknesses among city, county high schools By FULLER ROYAL were below state average. ENGLISH August 13, 2012 Staff Writer At CCCA black students were below the state average. ECHS SCHS WCHS WHS CCCA STATEWIDE The disaggregation of End- Algebra I EOC All Students 83.5 93.5 90.8 83.6 87.1 82.9 of-Course test scores by the CCCA had the highest profi- Whiteville.com Female 84.3 >95 91.8 91.8 93.1 87.2 North Carolina Department ciency rate in the all students Biser Ball of Public Instruction sheds category at 92.5 percent profi- Male 82.6 90.4 89.5 76.0 81.8 78.8 Sports Trivia more light on the strengths cient.