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Defense of NAACP charges takes time and money, school board chairman says
By Andy Pettigrew
Post Editor
In one of the tightest budget years in the history of Pender County Schools, resources are being diverted from education to defending the school system against allegations by the Pender County chapter of the NAACP.
“A lot of people have put in a lot of time in getting this data out,” said Pender County School Board Chairman Tom Roper. “Nobody in our organization has any spare time to answer these requests. We are already short-staffed. Anytime we have to do anything outside of our normal day-to-day activities, it impacts our ability to take care of our responsibilities well. We will adhere to the public information law, but we can’t recoup these expenses.”
Roper says the added expense of gathering the extra data to meetNAACP requests has already cost Pender County Schools nearly $7,000. The latest request from the NAACP is for the expense account records for all school board members for the past four years.
“We have to go through a lot of archive data and records. It’s just ongoing,” Roper said. “Every time she (Pender NAACP President Dr. Rachel Stephens) calls, she has a request for additional data. If we don’t have it readily available, we have to pull it together.” School officials have made repeated attempts to meet with local NAACP leaders to discuss the situation and the allegations that have been leveled at the school system and at Chairman Roper. “As we reach out to find common ground, all we get is the door shut in our face that says ‘you are still under investigation,’” Roper said. “We haven’t heard one ounce of anything, other than more requests for more information. There has been no outreach or cooperation at all.”
Roper and Pender School officials met with Dr. Walter Atkinson from the Community Relations Service (CRS) of the U.S. Department of Justice last month to discuss the situation. CRS is the Department of Justice peacemaker for community conflicts arising from differences of race, color and national origin. CRS acts as a mediator in such situations.
Atkinson will bring together representatives from both sides and mediate discussions to hopefully resolve the conflict. “He said hopefully something could be in place by the beginning of the next school year. That’s unacceptable,” Roper said. “I was hoping we could begin this week or next week, but they don’t move that fast.”
Board uncomfortable with proposed total smoking ban on all county property
By Andy Pettigrew
Post Editor
Pender County Commissioners said no Monday to a total ban on smoking on county property proposed by the Board of Health.
Commissioners asked Health Department Director Dr. Jack Griffith and the county Board of Health to come up with a less restrictive smoking ordinance that would encourage people to not smoke, but not totally ban smoking on all county property. Commissioner Norwood Blanchard said he was uncomfortable with a complete ban on smoking. “I’m hoping we can find a little bit of middle ground here to do all we can to discourage smoking, but don’t completely outlaw it,” Blanchard said.
Commissioner F.D. Rivenbark said smoking will be addressed in the new wellness program under development for county employees. “We are working toward the time when county employees that take part in this program will have an advantage in their health insurance,” Rivenbark said. “If we can include that it will help a lot.”
Commissioner George Brown joined with Blanchard in opposing a total smoking ban. “There are folks on both sides of this issue. We know it’s not a healthy thing, but it makes me wonder – what is the next thing government will interfere in?”
Elections Director Dennis Boyles asked the board to consider the rights of county employees that are smokers. “We don’t have any problem with not smoking inside. But smoking outside is out in the open air,” Boyles said.
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By Jefferson Weaver
Post Staff Writer
 Staff photo by Andy Pettigrew
Burgaw DOT workers load a sand/salt mixture into dump trucks Saturday morning to spread on Pender County roads. Although ice accumulated on trees and vegetation, county roads remained relatively clear, except for northern and western areas of the county.
Pender escaped most of the ice storm that coated the area this weekend, although emergency crews were ready.
“We were spreading brine on some roads Thursday night,” said Ronnie Rochelle of the N.C. Department of Transportation office in Burgaw. Crews began hooking up salt spreading equipment around the same time, and worked through Saturday night spreading salt and brine on known highway troublespots. Nine drivers and workers were on duty through Saturday, and 12 were at work Saturday night to prevent re-freezing of roads.
“There were not many problems,” Rochelle said. “Thankfully, there just wasn’t very much here.” Gaye Johnson of Four County Electric Membership Corp. said only a handful of outages were reported in Bladen and Duplin counties. The cooperative experienced no problems in Pender County. “The outages were scattered with approximately 200 members off systemwide,” she said. “We had no extended outages. We didn’t have many members off at all.”
Interim Emergency Management Director Charles Newman said that while a large number of auto crashes were reported due to icy conditions, “we came through it pretty well.”
“There were no major power outages,” he said. “Some trees were down, and there was some ice around Willard and Penderlea, but nothing bad. We were spared, again.” Residents may have avoided the problems with ice, but low-lying areas could still see some problems with localized flooding in the coming days. The Northeast Cape Fear River was expected to crest today (Wednesday) just below flood stage, and numerous creeks and streams are already lapping at their banks due to the very wet winter.
Black River has been out of its banks in some areas for weeks, and more water is expected in coming days as heavy snows and ice upstream in the watershed begin to melt. The National Weather Service Tuesday called for warming temperatures in some upstream areas throughout the week, followed by another possible winter storm this weekend.
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By Andy Pettigrew
Post Editor
Pender County Schools will hold a public forum Monday Feb. 8 at West Pender Middle School. The meeting will be held in the cafeteria from 6 to 7 p.m., just prior to the regular monthly meeting of the Pender County Board of Education.
Central office staff as well as principals, administrators and school board members will be available to answer questions. “Our entire staff as well as some principals and teachers will be there. We should be able to answer most any question,” said school board Chairman Tom Roper. “Hopefully all their questions and concerns will be addressed in those meetings.”
The School Board will hold two other public forums in different areas of the county over the next several months.
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By Jefferson Weaver
Staff Writer
A registered sex offender was arrested Jan. 27 for trespassing on the campus of Penderlea School. Sgt. Scott Lawson of the Pender county sheriff’s Office said Brent Adam Murray, 29, of Watha, was placed under a $20,000 bond for going on the school grounds.
Murray was convicted of indecent liberties with a minor in Duplin County with a victim under 16 years old. As such, he is prohibited from going on school grounds, as proscribed by state law. Murray does not have children at Penderlea, Lawson said, which has classes from kindergarten through eighth grade.
In an unrelated case, a former resident of Hampstead and Rocky Point pleaded guilty to 11 counts of indecent liberties in Pender County Superior Court. James Nathan Marshall, 66, was sentenced by Judge Russell Lanier to serve 7.5 to 9.75 years in prison as part of the plea deal. Marshall could have faced hundreds of years in prison.
Marshall was arrested in May of 2008 and charged with eleven counts of statutory rape and eleven counts of indecent liberties with a child, Lawson said. He was placed in the Pender County Jail in lieu of a $1,000,000 bond, and remained in the county jail until Tuesday’s court date. Marshall was arrested after an investigation in 2008 by the Pender County Sheriff’s Office. During Tuesday’s hearing, Assistant District Attorney Lance Oehrlein told the judge that evidence showed that Marshall had sexually molested a girl between the ages of 13 and 14.
Marshall lived in the Hampstead and Rocky Point areas of Pender County.
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Meet with McIntyre
Staff photo by Andy Pettigrew
Congressman Mike McIntyre was in Burgaw Friday to meet with local residents. The congressman met individually with citizens about their concerns.
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