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Local&State
FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 2013
B
MILITARY TUITION ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
Hagan wants aid restored
! The North Carolina Democrat has filed an amendment to the continuing
resolution that must pass by March 27 to keep the government running.
By Gregory Phillips
Staff writer
‘We shouldn’t
be balancing
our budget on
the backs of
our service
members,’
Sen. Kay
Hagan says.
U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan has filed
an amendment to restore the
military tuition assistance program that fell victim to federal
budget cuts, stripping thousands
of soldiers of help paying for
college courses.
Hagan and Sen. James Inhofe
of Oklahoma are seeking to
amend the continuing resolution
that must be passed in some
form by March 27 to keep the
federal government running.
“This is a very important
amendment, and we need to
have an opportunity to vote on
it on the Senate floor,” Hagan
said in a phone interview Thursday. “When you look at the number of men and women who are
active-duty and are using this to
further their education, it’s a re-
cruitment tool right now for the
military, it’s a retention tool,
but also as our men and women
are leaving the military it’s a
great transition to civilian
life.”
The Army and Marine Corps
announced a week ago the end of
tuition assistance for new enrollees because of forced budget
cuts. The decision is widely unpopular among service mem-
bers, many of whom were
counting on the benefit.
Based on last year’s numbers, an estimated 3,300 soldiers
would have used about $8 million in grants between now and
Sept. 30 if the program had not
been snuffed out.
About 10,000 Fort Bragg soldiers used tuition assistance in
the 2012 financial year,
spokesman Ben Abel said. The
grants amounted to $17.2 million spent on 33,329 college
courses. Until the program was
frozen for new courses March 8,
6,700 soldiers had spent about
$9.2 million in grants on about
16,000 courses so far in fiscal
2013.
The program provided $250
per credit hour with an annual
cap of $4,500.
Local schools help
Methodist University announced Wednesday it will offer
free tuition to active-duty military personnel for up to four
courses until July 15.
See TUITION, Page 4B
FORT BRAGG
Residents
are asked
to restrict
water use
By Caitlin Dineen
Staff writer
Anyone who lives and
works on Fort Bragg is asked
to restrict their water use
while the main water line to
the base undergoes emergency repairs, Bragg officials
said Thursday.
The water main has a
break and requires immediate repairs that could take
more than a day to complete,
spokesman Ben Abel said. He
said officials do not know
what caused the damage.
While the repairs are being
made, Fort Bragg’s only water
supply will be a 12-inch connection near east Fort Bragg.
That connection is used only in
emergencies, officials said.
While the repairs are being made, officials ask residents to adhere to the following guidelines:
% Lawns should not be
watered using an automated
sprinkler system. Only hand
held hoses are allowed.
% Residents should not
wash their vehicles anywhere other than a car wash
business. Even then, those
washes should only be done
for “mission critical purposes” and require written permission from Old North Utility Services Inc.
Other restrictions include
restaurants only serving water at a patron’s request and
homeowners not washing
outdoor structures, such as a
deck or patio, and not filling
pools.
Officials said if residents
and employees follow the restrictions, there should be no
loss of water supply.
Abel said residents and
others at Fort Bragg should
attempt to reduce their water use. Officials hope there
will be a usage reduction of
at least 40 percent.
Fort Bragg officials said
they will announce when the
water shortage alert has
been lifted. Officials said the
repairs are expected to take
between 25 and 30 hours.
For more information,
call Old North Utility Services at 495-1311.
Staff photos by Cindy Burnham
Above: The collar, badge and ashes of police dog Kyran are on display at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Southern Pines.
Below: Southern Pines Police Sgt. Robert Williams speaks about Kyran, his friend and partner, during the retired police dog’s memorial service. See a
slide show from the service at fayobserver.com.
Homegoing for a hero
Southern Pines police dog Kyran is honored with a
memorial service at Emmanuel Episcopal Church.
SOUTHERN PINES — They
gathered in the little ivy-draped
church for a
final
remembrance.
He was a
cop.
He was one
of them.
Bill
“There will
Kirby Jr.
never be
another Kyran,”
said Sgt. Robert Williams, 38. “We
found kids and suspects, and the
drugs.”
Staff writer Caitlin Dineen can be
reached at [email protected]
or 486-3509.
Cumberland’s population growth flat
! Harnett, Hoke, Lee and Moore, which also have
connections to Fort Bragg, see a rise over 2011.
By Paul Woolverton
Staff writer
Cumberland County, home
to Fort Bragg, barely rose in
population last year, while
four other counties with connections to the Army post saw
strong growth, according
data released Thursday by
the U.S. Census Bureau.
The Census estimates
that Cumberland County’s
population was 324,049 as of
2012, up just 768, or 0.24
percent, from 2011.
Neighboring Moore County and nearby Lee County
both had more than 1 percent
growth. Hoke and Harnett
counties had more than 2 percent growth. Moore, Hoke,
Harnett and Lee all attract
soldiers and civilian personnel who work at Fort
Bragg.
Harnett, the fourthfastest growing county in
the state, also has bedroom
communities for people who
work in the Raleigh-
Durham-Chapel Hill area.
Including Harnett, the
Triangle has four of the
state’s
fastest-growing
counties. The Charlotte area
— Mecklenburg, Cabarrus
and Union counties — saw
strong growth, too.
Onslow County on the
coast, home to the Camp
Lejeune Marine Corps base,
See POPULATION, Page 4B
He took a moment.
He wiped back the tears, and
looked toward the green collar
with the golden badge.
“He made me a better person,”
Williams said of his partner of
eight years with the Southern
Pines Police Department. “And he
taught me it was not all about
dope or an arrest. It was about
making a community better.”
Kyran was a Belgian Malinois
with a black snout known for
sniffing out illegal narcotics or
See KIRBY, Page 3B
Authorities: Drunk mom
reported child, 5, missing
By Nancy McCleary
Staff writer
Jones
Authorities say a Hope Mills mother was
drunk when she falsely reported Thursday
morning that her 5-year-old daughter was
taken from her parked car at a Camden Road
convenience store.
The child was found several minutes later
safe at the daycare center where the mother
See MISSING, Page 4B
inside FA I T H : S M I T H C H A P E L C E L E B R AT E S A C E N T U R Y O F WO R S H I P 6 B • O B I T UA R I E S 5 B • C L A S S I F I E D S 9 B
blogs.fayobserver.com
A N I M A L H O U S E : E V E R Y T H I N G F R O M H O U S E H O L D P E T S T O E X O T I C C R E AT U R E S
LOCAL & STATE
THE FAYETTEVILLE OBSERVER
GROWING
OPERATION
Deputies
seize
$200,000
in pot
By Nancy McCleary
Staff writer
SANFORD — Authorities
raided a sophisticated growing operation at a Sanford
home Thursday that resulted
in the seizure of marijuana
with a street value of more
than $200,000, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office said.
“This operation could easily yield upwards of $500,000
a year,” said Capt. John Holly, who heads the narcotics
division.
Gerardo Victoreo, 31, of
the 100 block of Triple Lakes
Road, has been charged with
trafficking in marijuana,
manufacturing marijuana,
maintaining a drug dwelling
and misdemeanor possession
of drug paraphernalia.
The search was done after
a three-month investigation,
Holly said.
Victoreo was renting the
four-bedroom house, between Sanford and Cameron,
and using the rooms for a hydroponic growing operation,
Holly said.
One room was designated
for starter plants, another
for mid-stage plants and a
third for plants that were
five to six feet tall, Holly
said. The fourth bedroom
was used for drying and processing the plants, Holly
said.
Victoreo rerouted the
power supply to the house to
keep the needed lights and
water for the plants, he
said.
“He had dug underground
and tapped into the main
power line,” Holly said, “and
ran a separate power line underground.”
By doing so, Holly said,
the power meter at the
house, which was rented in
Victoreo’s name, showed only regular use.
“He bypassed the meter
and was stealing electricity,’’ Holly said.
Investigators found 75
plants growing inside the
house and another 70 pounds
of already-processed marijuana, Holly said.
“We’ve been working this
for about three months,” Holly said, “but our intel (investigation information) says he
may have been running it for
a couple of years.”
Bail was set at $400,000,
Holly said.
Staff writer Nancy McCleary can be
reached at [email protected]
or 486-3568.
Authorities
looking for
arsonist
LUMBERTON — Authorities are looking for the person who set fire Thursday to
a storage building belonging
to a Robeson County man.
It is the latest in a string of
fires and shootings involving
Timothy Locklear, who lived
on the 1500 block of Huggins
Road in Lumberton, said Lt.
Brian Duckworth of the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office.
The fire at the 10-foot by
10-foot storage shed was reported at 2:29 a.m., Duckworth said. The building was
ablaze when firefighters arrived, Duckworth said.
Locklear is trying to
move back onto the property
after a deliberately set fire
burned his mobile home
Sept. 23, Duckworth said.
The building and its contents were valued at $7,000,
Duckworth said.
The fire Thursday is the
latest in a series of incidents
since September involving
Locklear, Duckworth said.
Some have involved shootings and others have involved arson fires, Duckworth said.
Anyone with information
is asked to call Duckworth at
910-737-5067.
— Nancy McCleary
FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 2013
3B
CAROLINA PANTHERS
Panel OKs bill to help with stadium
By Gary D. Robertson
The Associated Press
RALEIGH — A legislative
proposal that could pay for
most — but not all — renovations to the Carolina Panthers’ stadium cleared its
first hurdle in the North Carolina General Assembly on
Thursday.
The House Government
Committee recommended a
bill that would give more latitude to the city of Charlotte
and Mecklenburg County to
spend existing hotel and prepared food and beverage taxes toward upgrades that the
National Football League
team wants at the privatelyowned Bank of America Stadium.
The master plan calls for
$261 million to $297 million
in upgrades to the stadium,
which the team wants performed after the 2013 season. City leaders, worried
that failing to help with improvements could jeopardize
Charlotte’s standing as an
NFL city, asked lawmakers
to let them raise the prepared food and beverage tax
to 2 percent from 1 percent
to pay for them.
But Republican leaders
said no and don’t plan to pro-
vide state funding, either.
Thursday’s bipartisan bill
won’t pay for all of the renovations but is the best state
lawmakers can do, according to Rep. Ruth Samuelson,
R-Mecklenburg, a chief sponsor.
“We thought it was way
better than increasing taxes
or doing nothing and really
increase the odds that the
Panthers would leave,”
Samuelson told the committee.
The measure tells Charlotte-area leaders that revenues from a current 3 percent occupancy tax and a food
and beverage levy originally
earmarked to pay for the
Charlotte Convention Center
could now go to stadium renovations and building amateur
sports facilities in Charlotte.
The proposal would generate $34 million less than
the team sought from the
city.
Samuelson said any renovations in the stadium would
be owned by the city, serving
as a potential obstacle to any
move by future owners. Current owner and heart transplant
recipient
Jerry
Richardson, 76, has said he
won’t move the Panthers, but
city and state officials fear a
successor eventually could.
“It gives the city a tether to
the team, and it gives them an
ownership interest in the stadium that they currently do
not have,” she said.
The committee approved
the bill on a voice vote before
sending it to another committee. Samuelson said the
bill could be on the floor next
week and believes she has
support for the legislation in
the Senate. Gov. Pat McCrory, a former Charlotte mayor, wouldn’t be asked to sign
the bill because it’s considered a local issue.
1 man
charged
in car
shooting
By Nancy McCleary
Staff writer
Williams thought back
to that day and to the
familiar bark in danger’s
presence, and a partner in
harm’s way.
“I challenge every K-9
unit,” Williams told fellow
officers, “to do what Kyran
did.”
Williams gave another
glance toward the green
collar, and his partner’s
badge.
“Let your dog make you
a better person,” Williams
said. “And I hope you all
are treated as good ... as
he treated me.”
One man has been
charged in a drug-related
shooting that wounded two
people late Wednesday,
Fayetteville police said.
Gary Devin Hammond,
32, was charged Thursday
with two counts of assault
with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury and three
counts
of
shooting into
an occupied
vehicle.
Hammond’s
adHammond
dress was listed in court
records as the 500 block of
Swift Creek Road in Raeford.
Officers were called to
the area of Owen Drive and
Boone Trail Extension at
10:02 p.m. for a possible robbery and shots fired in the
area, said Gavin MacRoberts, a spokesman for the
Police Department.
Investigators learned the
incident began as a drug deal
which ended with an altercation and shots fired, MacRoberts said.
Witnesses reported that a
dark-colored vehicle was
seen leaving the area, MacRoberts said, and officers
were sent to the area of
Robeson Street and Weiss
Avenue, where they found
the vehicle.
Hammond and Kevin Rodriguez, 37, of the 600 block
of Piney Road in Fayetteville, were in the vehicle,
as well as a rifle and a handgun,
MacRoberts said.
Police later received a
call about two
people being
Rodriguez
treated
for
gunshot
wounds at Cape Fear Valley
Medical Center, MacRoberts
said.
They were identified as
David Odom Jr., 41, and Carlos Monroe, 23. Their addresses were not released because of safety concerns,
MacRoberts said.
Rodriguez was arrested
after police learned he was
wanted in Moore County on
larceny and possessing
stolen property charges, said
Lt. Chris Davis, a police
spokesman.
City police arrested a passenger in the victims’ vehicle,
MacRoberts said.
Xavier
Warren, 19, of
the 200 block
of
Center
Street in Lumberton, was
charged with
Warren
misdemeanor
offenses of marijuana possession, possessing drug
paraphernalia and resisting
arrest.
Bail was set at $40,000 for
Hammond, $10,000 for Rodriguez and $1,500 for Warren.
Bill Kirby can be reached at
[email protected] or 323-4848,
ext. 486.
Staff writer Nancy McCleary can be
reached at [email protected]
or 486-3568.
Staff photo by Cindy Burnham
The Rev. John Tampa, surrounded by members of the Southern Pines Police Department’s K-9 unit, celebrates
communion during the law enforcement memorial service for Kyran at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Southern Pines.
See a slide show from the memorial service at fayobserver.com.
Kirby: ‘He taught me it was not all about dope or an arrest’
From Page 1B
locating a missing child or
an intruder hiding in an
attic or basement.
He was 10.
Kyran, who served the
department from 2002 until
being medically retired in
2010, died Feb. 25 and left
a department with grieving
hearts.
‘It was his moment’
“One in a million,”
Robert Temme, 51, the
town’s interim police chief,
said before Thursday’s law
enforcement memorial
service at Emmanuel
Episcopal Church. “He
probably prevented a lot of
our officers from injuries.
And Kyran was fantastic
with kids ... just
phenomenal.”
He loved the kids.
And they loved him
back.
“All of them knew him,”
said Kelly Stevens, who
works in the Southern
Pines Police Department.
“He was so well-rounded,
and Kyran was one people
could go up and pet.”
He liked the attention.
He liked showing off his
skills, and they marveled
when he would walk
backwards.
He’d give ’em a look.
His ears perked.
He gave a wag of the
tail.
He was proud.
“He knew,” Williams
later said with a smile, “it
was his moment.”
The 14-year police
veteran and Kyran brought
smiles to youngsters’ faces
at schools throughout the
Sandhills.
They were a team for
sure, but Kyran was the
star attraction.
“The children loved
seeing Kyran,” said Ed
Dennison, chairman of the
Moore County school board,
“and I’m sure the students
are very saddened by
Kyran’s passing.”
He had a way.
He was personable.
He was protective.
A little mischievous, too.
“He chewed up the seat
of a brand new patrol car,”
Williams said after
Thursday’s service.
Contributed photo
Kyran was adopted by his partner, Sgt. Robert Williams, after he retired in August. Kyran
loved children, and they loved him. Kyran was fantastic with kids ... just phenomenal,’
says Robert Temme, the town’s interim police chief.
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fayobserver.com.
But Williams loved him
all the same.
‘A great dog’
“The first time he flew
into Fayetteville, I thought,
‘What a beautiful dog,’
said Williams, who trained
with Kyran in 2002 under
Sgt. Tracy Campbell at the
Fayetteville Police
Department.
Kyran was a quick
study.
He was no longer a dog.
He was a cop.
He was one of them.
“They were a very good
team, and Kyran was a
beautiful dog that was
really motivated, and a
very friendly dog,” said
Campbell. “Sgt. Williams
and K-9 Kyran made a
great deal of arrests, and
he was a dog that loved to
be around people ... and he
loved to look for
narcotics.”
Kyran and Williams
were not only crimefighting partners along the
streets and back roads of
Southern Pines, they were
best of friends.
Williams loved telling
the story about the day
Kyran took such pride at
finding the 4-year-old who
went missing in 2009 in
Reservoir Park.
“The little boy kept
running from adults,”
Williams said, “but he
remembered Kyran from a
police baseball card, saw
him in the park and came
running to him.”
‘... As he treated me’
Local&State
Departure
leaves
deep-rooted
memories
A great one has fallen.
He was a Haymount legend,
and a part of its history, and one
who watched over our children
for generations.
He braved the cold.
He withstood summer infernos
and the blowing winds, and never
once did he bend or break.
He stood as a loyal sentinel as
we strolled with our books and
satchels to Westlawn Elementary
in the 1950s and 1960s, and Alma
Easom just yesterday when the
school bell
tolled.
Mrs.
Haynie’s
school and the
playground
were within
Bill
his sight for
Kirby Jr. 40 years, and
children’s
laughter was forever a part of
the great one’s life.
He stood vigil over nearby
Woodrow Park by the PWC
water tower, too, and the great
one saw us in the dark of night
when we climbed aboard the
tower with mischief on our
minds and spray paint in our
hands.
He never snitched.
“I hate it,” Wilma Lytton was
saying Wednesday as, if you will,
his corpse lay near the soil piled
all around. “It’s just a part of
me.”
She knew his time was near.
And Earl Grant, too.
“I knew,” he was saying, “it
was going to happen.”
Grant was joined by neighbors
Faye Highsmith and Richard and
Bess Davis who stopped by to
offer condolences.
There were no tears.
There were no prayers.
Just a eulogy here, and a
word of remembrance there for
a great one now passed.
“Beautiful,” Grant, 77, was
saying. “Just beautiful.”
His heart ached.
Word spread along Virginia
Avenue and streets named Ruth
and Lamb and John and Judd,
and Morganton Road.
“An anchor,” Wick Smith, 56,
recalls from days of long ago
when he and the great one once
played when Smith was but a
boy.
But the great one was gone.
No tag for his toe.
No need for Sullivan or
Breece or Jernigan or Warren or
need for a hearse.
“We’ll get him,” the surgeon
was saying, “on that flatbed, and
take him along.”
No songbirds this day.
Or squirrels in sight.
Just the roar of the backhoe,
the surgeon who had taken the
great one down.
“I hated to have to do it,”
Mike Pleasant was saying, “but I
told Neil Grant, the broker,
before I bought the property it
would have to be done, and to
tell Mrs. Lytton.”
The old great oak that stood so
tall and so wide and for so long
on the Wickcliffe landscape
couldn’t share the land for the
$400,000 mansions coming its way.
A dwelling’s foundation would
be too much for earth replete
with those deep roots that held
the great one so firm and so
fine.
“The oak stood for my entire
life,” Wick Smith says of the
property, once farmland in the
Civil War and later owned by his
parents and his paternal
grandmother. “I climbed in it a
time or three when I was a kid.”
Wilma Lytton says Pleasant
will build on the small housing
parcel and quaint neighborhood
developed by her late husband
with historic Haymount in mind.
“He’s conscientious,” she says,
her thoughts drifting back to the
great oak of an estimated 250
years. “It’s kind of heartbreaking,
but I have my memories.”
Bill Kirby can be reached at
[email protected] or 323-4848, ext. 486.
Sign up for @lerts:
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SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013
NAACP FOUNDERS’ DAY
Barber: ‘No time to shrink back’
By Ali Rockett
Staff writer
The Rev.
William
Barber says
legislators
have
launched a
‘quadruple
assault.’
The Fayetteville chapter of
the NAACP celebrated its 73rd
Founders’ Day on Friday night
with a call for renewed vigor
in its fight for justice for
African Americans and all minorities.
“These are serious times
that we live in,” said the Rev.
William Barber, president of
the North Carolina State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People. “Right now
in North Carolina and America, we see some eerie signs.
This is no time to shrink
back.”
Barber said the association
offered to work with the current General Assembly to address economic, social and political disparities that continue
even 109 years after the founding of the NAACP and 73 years
after the local chapter founding. But, Barber said, there
does not look to be any collaboration.
Barber ridiculed the Republican-led legislature for
what he called a “quadruple
assault” launched in the last
weeks favoring an agenda and
legislation that would restrict
voters’ rights, reduce Medicare, unemployment and
healthcare, and provide tax
cuts to the wealthy.
He called the Republican
agenda “wrong,” “sinful,” “an
unnecessary injustice” and
“Robin Hood in reverse.”
“That’s a recipe for disaster,” Barber said. “Since we’ve
seen the renewal of Old South
politics here in North Carolina
we have to raise our voices
like never before.”
And raise his voice he did.
By the end of his nearly
hour-long speech, Barber was
shouting with conviction.
“There is nothing that the
NAACP had stood for that
didn’t make America better.”
The crowd of more than 300
rose to its feet as the preacher
reached the apex of his sermon.
“Don’t lose your faith,” he
said.
He told members of the audience to reach out and lay
See NAACP, Page 4B
MOORE COUNTY SHERIFF
Staff photo by Cindy Burnham
Moore County Sheriff Lane Carter, who is retiring in May, began his career as a patrol deputy 34 years ago.
Hands-on lawman to retire
By Steve DeVane
Staff writer
CARTHAGE — Sheriff Lane
Carter has experienced highs and
lows in more than 34 years with
the Moore County Sheriff’s Office.
Carter grieved when an officer
was killed in the line of duty.
He rejoiced after finding a
2-year-old missing child safe and
sound.
He faced frustration that
comes with confidence of a
suspect’s guilt without evidence to
make an arrest, and he wondered
how a man who admitted killing
eight people in a nursing home
could escape the death penalty.
And he felt the camaraderie of
the law enforcement community
that he considers family.
“That’s what I’ll miss most,
the people,” Carter said.
Carter, 55, started as a patrol
deputy in 1978 and worked his
way up to sergeant, investigator,
lieutenant, major and chief
deputy before being elected
sheriff in 2002. He’s retiring in
May.
He will be missed, too,
colleagues say.
Chief Deputy Neil Godfrey,
who worked with the State
Bureau of Investigation before
taking his current position in
2002, said Carter’s leadership
showed when Deputy Rick Rhyne
was shot and killed in December
2011. Rhyne was responding to a
trespassing complaint at a home
near Vass when Martin Abel
Poynter, a mentally troubled Iraq
war veteran and former Special
Forces soldier, shot the deputy
and then himself.
Even though Carter was hit
hard by the death, he made sure
See CARTER, Page 4B
RAEFORD ROAD SITE
‘That’s
what I’ll
miss most,
the people,’
— Lane Carter,
retiring
Moore County
sheriff
CITY COUNCIL PLANNING RETREAT
Increase proposed
Company to build
for
stormwater
fee
telephone call center
! Florida-based Sykes
Enterprises hopes to
eventually hire 500 workers.
By Michael Futch
Staff writer
A call center that will initially employ 150 people is planned for construction along Raeford Road at
Strickland Bridge Road, according to
building plans submitted to the city.
The project will be Sykes Enterprises’ first customer “contact center”
in North Carolina with long-term
goals of hiring 500 employees.
Based in Tampa, Fla., Sykes Enterprises announced plans in November
for the new center. The company will
operate temporarily in the former
Goody’s space at Cross Creek Plaza,
which is undergoing construction work
to accommodate the call center.
The center will work on behalf of a
financial services client, according to
Andrea Thomas, the company’s director of corporate communications. She
said she was not allowed to discuss the
client.
According to building plans submitted to the city, the new Sykes office
building would be at 921 Strickland
Bridge Road, which would be on the
undeveloped north side of Raeford
Road.
The plans show a one-story, 49,550square-foot building that includes
work space, administrative offices and
a conference room. The parking area
has 400 spaces. The building permit
values the work at nearly $4.1 million.
Developer Sharlene Williams of C&S
Commercial Properties owns the 30acre tract where the project is going.
See CALL CENTER, Page 3B
By Andrew Barksdale
Staff writer
Stormwater fees for
Fayetteville
homeowners
may go up $9 this year.
Rusty Thompson, the
city’s engineering and infrastructure director, is proposing about $8.5 million over
five years in improvements
to gutters, drains and other
stormwater systems.
To pay for those improvements, he is proposing the
city raise the annual stormwater fee to $45.
The fee, now $36 for
homes, is added to property
tax bills. The rate structure
for businesses is different,
and those fees would also
rise under the proposal.
Thompson discussed several other capital-improve-
inside C R I M E R E P O R T 4 B • O B I T UA R I E S 5 B • C L A S S I F I E D S 7 B • W E AT H E R 1 0 B
910pets.com
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G E T T I P S F O R C A R I N G F O R YO U R P E T F R O M O U R C O M M U N I T Y F O R P E T L OV E R S
ment projects Friday at the
City Council’s annual planning retreat at the Fayetteville Regional Airport.
The council did not discuss Thompson’s request to
raise the fee, and the subject
is likely to come up during
budget talks in the spring.
City Manager Ted Voorhees said the city would have
to hold a public hearing before voting to raise the
stormwater fee.
During a break, councilmen Keith Bates and Bill
Crisp told a reporter the city
in 2007 tripled the stormwater fee, from $12 to $36 a
year, and they didn’t like the
idea of raising it again.
In another budget matter,
the council was told the
See RETREAT, Page 3B
Local&State
Jury
gives
Shaniya
justice
She burst through the double
doors, adjacent to the courtroom
where Mario Andrette McNeill
had less than an hour prior been
sentenced to death.
“I’m sick!” the juror, fraught
with emotion, said. “No
comment! It’s terrible! My
nerves are shot!”
She, along with 11 other
jurors and four alternates, had
sat through eight weeks of
testimony before convicting the
33-year-old drug dealer last week
in the
kidnapping,
sexual assault
and murder of
5-year-old
Shaniya Davis
in 2009.
Bill
On
Kirby Jr. Wednesday, in
the sentencing
phase, the jury deliberated 39
minutes before agreeing McNeill
should die for his crimes.
“I think about her last
seconds,’’ Bradley Lockhart, the
child’s 43-year-old father, told
McNeill before the judge would
confirm the sentence. “You are
the last thing my daughter
looked at, and you made a
mockery of this court, laughing
and joking. Her life was not a
joke.”
A juror wiped away a tear
with a tissue, and another dabbed
her eyes.
Only the clicking of media
cameras interrupted the
otherwise silent and spellbound
courtroom.
McNeill sat without emotion,
much as he had throughout this
trial, where he spent most of the
time at the defendant’s table
with an aloofness and
indifference while crafting
origami cranes.
“Shaniya had started
kindergarten in August 2009,”
Billy West, the 38-year-old
district attorney told the jury in
pleading for a death sentence.
“She never graduated
kindergarten.
“Brad Lockhart will never put
her arm on his and walk her
down the aisle.
“She will never,” the
prosecutor said, “hold her own
child.”
West took pause.
He looked toward McNeill.
“He took that from her on
Nov. 10, 2009,” West reminded
the jury of those early morning
hours when McNeill abducted the
child from her mobile home,
drove her to a Sanford motel,
sexually assaulted the child and
then suffocated her. “No regard
for her innocence. No regard for
her life ... absolutely no
remorse.”
Be the moral conscience for
this state, this county and this
community, West implored. Take
the life of this killer who took
the life of this child.
Be her voice, West begged.
District Court Judge George
Frank had reminded McNeill at
a Nov. 20, 2009, arraignment
that if convicted he could be
facing the death penalty.
McNeill nodded.
On Wednesday, McNeill
became the 153rd death row
inmate in this state, three of
them women.
“He arrived at about
5 p.m.,” said Keith Acree, a
prison spokesman.
But not before Judge Jim
Ammons had a final word for
McNeill in a trial that has taken
an emotional toll on so many and
leaves so many shattered lives to
be forever haunted by such a
senseless crime.
“Stand up, Mr. McNeill,” the
58-year-old judge instructed with
a stern look and voice that would
flutter. “You did not have to kill
that child. Take him out of here
now!”
The judge spoke for all, and
the jury spoke loudest of all.
Bill Kirby can be reached at
[email protected] or 323-4848,
ext. 486.
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FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013
B
POLICE REVIEW PANEL
Stalled bill may be dead
By Andrew Barksdale
Staff writer
Fayetteville officials say they are
willing to meet with a law enforcement
association that has opposed the formation of a police review panel.
The City Council wants to form an
appeals panel that would review internal investigations of complaints lodged
against the Police Department.
City officials say members of the
proposed panel would need access to a
limited amount of personnel informa-
tion when hearing appeals. House Bill
349 would grant that special legislation, allowing Fayetteville to become
just the fifth city in the state with a
police review board.
But the bill has stalled in the General Assembly, according to city officials, mostly over the objections raised
by the North Carolina division of the
Southern States Police Benevolent Association.
And according to one state lawmaker from Fayetteville, the bill is dead
for this session.
The Police Benevolent Association’s
membership includes many on the
Fayetteville police force.
The association’s leadership has
said the review panel could lead to private personnel information and false
complaints being leaked to the public,
regardless of any confidentiality requirements the city would impose on
the review board.
The city has sought to create the
board in the wake of a controversy
See POLICE REVIEW, Page 4B
‘I think they
are, frankly,
disingenuous.’
— Ted Voorhees,
Fayetteville city
manager, on the North
Carolina division of the
Southern States Police
Benevolent
Association
YMCA ON RAMSEY STREET
A NEW PLACE
TO GET FIT
Staff photos by Jason Edward Chow
A construction worker walks across the YMCA site under construction Thursday on Ramsey Street.
3rd Cumberland County site to open June 15
By Alicia Banks
T
Staff writer
he fumes of fresh
paint drifted out
the front entrance.
A thin layer of
dust was scattered
across the concrete floor inside
the 16,000-square-foot facility.
Treadmills, ellipticals and
other cardio equipment will
soon fill the empty space,
along with mounted televisions
and a section for free weights.
What started as an idea
around three years ago has
transformed a portion of the
former Walmart on Ramsey
Street into a new YMCA.
The YMCA of the Sandhills
will open its third facility in
Cumberland County on June
15. The wellness center will be
able to accommodate about
200 members at one time with
trainers, instructors and a
dietician. The facility includes
bathrooms, group exercise
rooms and a space for child
care.
Kasey Titus, the branch
director, said the nonprofit
organization focuses on family
as a whole. The child care
center will provide a climbing
wall, too.
N.C. TAX SYSTEM
McCrory backs
moderate reform
By Gary D. Robertson
The Associated Press
RALEIGH — Gov. Pat McCrory sided Thursday with a measured approach to overhauling
North Carolina’s tax system and turned away
from a more dramatic proposal to greatly expand the number of transactions subject to the
sales tax.
The Republican governor released a statement several hours after three separate proposals were discussed in a pair of legislative committees Thursday morning.
McCrory said the House Republican proposal
and a bipartisan Senate proposal “are closest to
my position.” He appeared to criticize a plan
backed by Senate leader Phil Berger, R-RockSee TAX PLANS, Page 3B
See YMCA, Page 4B
The new YMCA is in a portion of what was once a Walmart
store.
Improving student behavior
is Character Academy focus
! The intervention
program could keep
students from being
sent to an alternative
school.
By Venita Jenkins
Staff writer
Cumberland
County
school officials plan to open
an academy next year that
would focus on improving
students’ behavior.
The Character Academy
would be available to students whose violations of the
code of conduct do not rise
to the level of being reassigned to an alternative
school, said Mary Black, associate superintendent of
student support services.
Black told members of
the school board’s student
support services committee
Thursday that the intervention program would address
behaviors that led disciplinary actions.
The program would be
for students who have numerous class 1 or class 2 violations under the student
code of conduct. Class 1 violations include dress code,
gambling, tobacco use and
truancy. Class 2 violations
include bullying, possession
of alcohol, property damage,
communicating a threat and
theft.
The academy would allow students to remain at
their assigned high schools.
However, the student must
participate in an afterschool program, in which
they must complete 20 hours
of modules on anger management, aggression and
conflict resolution. Students
also must attend seminars
and complete 10 hours of
community service outside
of the academy hours.
See COMMITTEE, Page 2B
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