r#SJTCPO .D$VNCFFMFBE"MM$PMVNCVTIPPQQJDLT r1BDLCVNQT4UBMMJPOTGPSUIJSEDPOGFSFODFXJOr-BEZ (BUPSTUSJQ4U1BVMTUPQVU53$SFDPSEBUr-BEZ 1BDLUBLFTTPDDFSXJOPWFS&BTU#MBEFOr7JLJOHTGBMMUP 4U1BVMTr+FTTF5BZMPSUBLFTGPVSUIJOTUBUFXSFTUMJOH Sports FWFOU4FFQBHF# ThePublished News since 1890 every Monday and Tursday forReporter the County of Columbus and her people. Monday, March 29, 2012 ‘An open China-American Volume 121, Number 78 door to partnership will Whiteville, North Carolina bring winery to 75 Cents poachers’ nHunters, sportsmen Brunswick speak out on night hunt- nCounty developer’s trip to China ing proposal. Inside Today holds possibility for future invest- 5-A ment; partnerships in Columbus By JEFFERSON WEAVER County r$JUJ[FOTBTTJTUJO Staff Writer DBQUVSFPGSPCCFSZ By NICOLE CARTRETTE TVTQFDU Nearly all the speakers at Staff Writer Monday’s public hearing on night hunting rules for coyotes When it comes to economic development, and hogs were against the Columbus County Economic Developer Gary Next Issue proposal. Lanier has demonstrated he is willing to go the Members of the state board extra mile and also has the taste buds for it. tasked with allowing the prac- Lanier recently was a guest at the expan- tice, however, seem in favor of sion celebration of a winery in China that has the plan. partnered with a new start-up winery coming The hearing, held by the to Columbus County. Wildlife Resources Commis- The Yountai Baolong Komas Chateau will sion (WRC) in Elizabethtown, be a 30 percent partner in the new winery that was the latest in a series giving will likely be housed at the Brunswick Electric the public a chance to speak Membership Corporation business incubator on the proposed rule changes. in Brunswick. The proposals would allow Wine is becoming highly popular with night hunting of feral hogs the Chinese middle class. Blended wines are and coyotes, using artificial especially popular, with sales of smooth yet Monday’s lights and electronic calls, sweet wines up. seven days a week, year round. Luckily for Lanier, his taste buds were on American Profle Only archery equipment could target during his trip. features :Where the be used on Sunday, and public During a wine tasting that he was asked to land would be excluded. help judge, his choice wines were produced by Lilies Grow,” Bulb The proposals would not the Yountai Baolong Komas Chateau. change the state’s prohibition Lanier, who was asked to give a few speech- farmers produce against firing a gun or bow See Winery, page 11-A foral symbols of from the passenger area of a Easter. moving or running vehicle. See Night hunting, page 8-A Commissioner Staff photo by Mark Gilchrist DIDYOB? Lake bugs Men of steel awarded state’s Did you observe ... Paul Hunt, left, and Aaron Marlowe sort sections of steel framework for demystifed the expansion of the Department of Aging building off Chadbourn High- Long Leaf Pine An excited reader way in Whiteville recently. who spotted the By RAY WYCHE By NICOLE CARTRETTE frst hummingbird Staff Writer Staff Writer of the season in her They’re midge flies, they A Columbus County commissioner who backyard Monday don’t bite or eat your shrub- is recognized as the state’s longest-serving bery, they don’t fly very well, Columbus Regional to county commissioner has been awarded the morning? ... Wanda’s they don’t eat after reaching Order of the Long Leaf Pine. Steppin’ Out dance adulthood, and their life spans ofer digital mammography Lynwood Norris of Tabor City was pre- are three to five days. sented the state’s most regarded civilian honor troupe’s magical Midge flies have been nIs first hospital in state to of- and improved patient comfort. at a recent Cape Fear Council of Governments performance at Walt around probably for centuries fer breast tomosynthesis. Only recently approved by the banquet. Disney World last but this spring for some un- FDA, breast tomosynthesis creates Norris has served as the chairperson for known reason they seem to be Three local organizations have 3-D images that allow doctors to see the Cape Fear Council of Governments since Saturday? ... Ed “John appearing in large numbers united to bring digital mammogra- tissue in a way never before possible. 1981. Director of that organization, Chris May, Deere” Miller driving around Lake Waccamaw, pre- phy and breast tomosynthesis – the While breast tomosynthesis is nominated Norris for the high honor. a Farmall 400 in the cursors of the more familiar latest screening and diagnostic not indicated for all patients, for “I am glad it happened,” Norris said. “I mayflies that normally begin technology in the prevention and certain women and in certain cases, am proud of it and thankful for the ones that Southern Farm Days their mating swarms about the early detection of breast cancer – to it is expected to become the “gold thought enough of me to nominate me.” Parade of Power? first of May. the women of Columbus County and standard.” Norris said the honor came as a complete When the midges appeared surrounding communities. Women in Southeastern North surprise. He later redeemed for the first time this spring The Walters Trust Fund Commit- Carolina will be among the first in “I did not know one thing about it,” Norris himself by driving a several days ago, many people tee, the Columbus Regional Health- the nation to have access to this new said. “Family were there and I did not even John Deere across the were mystified as to their care System Foundation and the technology. know they were there. I looked around and saw identity. Lake Waccamaw State Auxiliary at CRHS and have joined The combination of both tech- my daughters. Then I looked a second time and grounds. … Park personnel handled many with Columbus Regional to bring nologies is poised to revolutionize said ‘I’m seeing things.’” inquiries about the swarms of the state-of-the art women’s imaging how breast cancer is detected. It was a nice surprise and a very unexpected mosquito-like fliers that made equipment here. Additionally, the latest in bone surprise,” Norris said. County Deaths some lakefront buildings ap- Digital mammography is quickly densitometry technology is being Norris, who has been a county commis- pear to have been splotched by becoming the standard in breast added to ensure patients have local sioner since 1980, will finish out his last an untidy painter. imaging, incorporating imaging access to the early detection and term as commissioner this year. Last month, Whiteville The identity problem was Norris, 77, late into the election filing period Julius Robert Williamson technology that provides sharp 2-D handed over to the Raleigh images with lower radiation doses See Mammogram, page 3-A announced that he would not seek reelection Chadbourn See Lake bugs, page 2-A See Long Leaf, page 2-A Perry Edwards Rhodes Tabor City Sandy Lynn Wright Evergreen Jails’ ghosts increase activity as demolition nears James S. Jordan nThe 1855 jail and the one occupied in 1910 are to be demolished to make way “I was at the head of the stairs when I heard Index for a courthouse annex. the laughter. I told myself I was going down to ask what was so funny. I got downstairs By BOB HIGH &EJUPSJBMT" Staff Writer and there was no one in the building. The 0CJUVBSJFT" door was locked. I looked outside. There 4QPSUT# Ghosts of people jailed in the two old county was no one.” $SJNF" buildings scheduled for demolition within a few Kay Horne -JWJOH$ weeks are apparently uneasy at the impending doom of their homes for decades. Probation officer Ghosts or poltergeists – paranormal phe- nomenon – have been making themselves heard Strange stories frequently during the last few weeks as probation For whatever reason, Coleman, Horne and and parole officers prepare to move out of the several other probation officers relate strange two buildings. happenings in the old jails. The moves by the officers began Wednesday The dark gray two-story building immediately Jabel Register, in 1904, was the last person hanged in and continue through Monday. west of the Kangaroo convenience store at the Columbus County. This photo shows the condemned “They don’t want us to move,” Gentry Cole- corner of Madison and Smith streets is the oldest man on the scaffold on the southeast corner of the man observed. county building. It was completed in 1855, on land 1855 jail – soon to be demolished. Probation Offcer “I think they do want us to go,” Kay Horne Kay Horne’s offce is on the second foor in the south- stated. See Jailhouse ghosts, page 7-A east corner, pictured above. 2-A – The News Reporter, Thursday, March 29, 2012 WHS graduate is city Troop 513’s Giles earns school’s new fnance ofcer Scouting’s highest rank By FULLER ROYAL By FULLER ROYAL Staff Writer Staff Writer The Whiteville City Schools Fifteen-year-old Jonathan new director of finance is Giles is one of Boy Scout Troop “home-grown.” 513’s newest Eagle Scouts. Annie Newkirk, the daugh- “A tremendous weight had ter of Lilia Newkirk and the lifted since all I’ve concen- late Tommy Newkirk, is a trated on since my Life rank graduate of Whiteville High is reaching my Eagle rank,” School. he said. “It gives me a sense Newkirk earned her bach- of high honor and even more elor’s degree in business man- of a steadfast dedication to agement from Wake Forest serve God, my country and my University. After working in fellow man.” banking for several years, she The son of Wes and Karen was hired by the Whiteville Giles, he said he joined Scout- system in November 2011. ing after watching a slideshow “Everybody is great here,” about Scouting in his school’s she said of working with the cafeteria.