March 14, 2008

The Tar Wheel: March Madness Edition

There he was, Billy Packer, larger than life, present at an Asheboro Rotary meeting! Our speaker? A guest of the club? Not exactly: but we had him on TV, anyway. That’s 21st century technology bringing the ACC tournament to the Rotary meeting; when Chapel Hill plays Florida State starting at noon, we either have Mike Lee’s projection TV going, or half the club would be elsewhere! At least we were able to watch until our speaker needed the TV for his powerpoint show…

Not so many regular guests, probably for the obvious reason; Jim Campbell was visiting from the Wednesday club, and Jerry Haywood from the Sandhills club. Bill Batten brought along his business associates from Mexico, Andres Tostado and Hugo Matamoros. But we had double the usual student guests: Elizabeth Johnson, daughter of Duffy and Donna, is the editor of the Ash-High-Chat, plays for the varsity golf team (would we expect less in that family?), and will be attending Phifer this fall to play gold and study Public Relations and Journalism. Kathryn Lail, daughter of Dean and Kay Lail and grandaughter of Jack, is in the band, plays tennis and piano, and will be attending NC State to study “museum work,” or what they officially call in academic circles “Public History.” Julie Sheffield, guidance counselor at Southwest Randolph, was here to shepherd her students. Selection seems to have been based on (1) size and (2) last name: Elton Dale Cranford is the son of Scott and Kenna Cranford of Seagrove, is VP of the SWR FFA, plays baseball, likes fishing and NASCAR, and attends Trinity Wesleyan Church. He’ll be attending NC State to study engineering. Sam Cranford (no relation, but he has our sympathies for being burdened with the name of our PDG) is the son of Tony and Sheila, plays basketball and golf for the school and attends Oak Grove Methodist Church. He’ll be going to UNC-Chapel Hill in the fall.

President HR started us out with a moment of silence to honor the passing of our own Don Durham, a member of the club since May, 1960, when he was sponsored by Barron Mills. Don died March 13th, survived by his sons Carey (former president of this club) and Rick (still running the family business, Durham Printing, now in its 61st year in operation. See Don’s Courier-Tribune obituary here: http://www.courier-tribune.com/articles/2008/03/21/obituaries/293obits031408.txt

Richard Garkalns reminded us that the Human Race tomorrow will benefit the Volunteer Center. President HR reminded one and all that there will be NO ROTARY next week, Friday being Good Friday. He went on to read us Tar Wheel History from January 31, 1973, where former president John O.H. Toledano was presiding over an Honest Count of the votes for new officers, and someone stole his pencil.

Owen George (star of the District 7690 TV commercial now popping up at odd times on cable TV), introduced our guest Kevin Redding, executive director of the Piedmont Land Conservancy, based in Greensboro. (Us oldsters remember several years ago when Kevin came to talk, representing the competition: he was formerly in charge of the Asheboro/ Uwharrie office of the Land Trust for Central North Carolina, based in Salisbury. Kevin has a degree in Natural Resource Management, is married to Lori, has a son Boone aged 2 1/2, and a daughter on the way.

PNC does a lot of work in central North Carolina, such as preserving the 1,000-acre Saddle Mountain tract on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and the Mitchell River, cleanest stream in the Piedmont, both in Surry County. They’ve also been adding land to Hanging Rock State Park, and preserving Emily Allen’s wildflower garden in Winston Salem, where 7200 varieties of flower will be in bloom around April 12th (not coincidentally, the date of their open house, from 2-5PM : call 691-0008 for reservations).

In Randolph County Kevin and PNC have cooperated with the Zoo in the preservation of the Ridge’s Mountain tract (which, BTW, ought to have 2 or 3 times as much property included for real protection, but we’ll take what we can get since there’s no county parks department). Their primary focus in Randolph has been in the northeast corner of the county, where our so-called Agricultural Preservation District is located (so-called because it’s just a label on a map when developers want to situate a subdivision there- editorial comment). Former Olympian Col . Guy Troy was one of the first to convey an easement to PNC which preserves his family farm for agricultural uses. Since then, the Williams Dairy, the Goat Lady Dairy, and other farmers have donated or sold such easements to PNC. It’s part of the “slow-food” movement to protect family farms and promote the growing of local produce and livestock; it’s also, as Kevin points out, a national security issue, at a time when we should be concerned about food contamination in products being shipped from half a world away.

February 29, 2008

 [Thanks to Scribe Emeritus Phil Shore for jumping in today, while Mac was legally working- working legally?- over in sunny Salisbury. Out topic today is taxes, and the illustrations are courtesy of Google Images.  I personally totally agree with Richard about the need to invest public money in infrastructure.  It's a crime against posterity that Randolph County hasn't done better about this in the past.

However, let me just point out the interesting difficulty of finding PRO-tax increase images on the internet. Out of 50 pages of google images, the ones you see here were the least partisan or most neutral.   Believe it or Not.  Richard: get some county employees to post some positive spin out there. The anti-tax stuff will write itself.

The following illustration had nothing to do with sales tax, but I couldn't resist it:  ]

Joy Menius, at her usual high standard, accompanied the chaotic gnashing of our teeth and the clanking of our flatware against china with the sublime, well-organized sounds of music. Thank you, Joy.

President H.R. welcomed us with a bit of information about leap-Fridays. What are the chances of having five Fridays in the month of February? One in twenty-eight. The last one occurred in 1980 and the next one will visit us for the Rotary meeting in 2036. Mark your calendars now and plan to bring a friend!

The Prez was cranking the meeting out today. He and Vickie Gallimore had a plane to catch.  To Las Vegas. Will the Co-Treasurers please check the Foundation Account?

Our adult guests were all visiting Rotarians, save one. Richard Wells (our speaker), Jim Campbell, Gail Moore, Maggie Stevens and Mrs. V. Gallimore all came from the Randolph Club. Jeannine Thompson, our frequently visiting friend from the Bakersfield, CA, club, joined us today. Teresa Burton, the Southwestern Randolph High School Guidance Counselor, came as escorts to her students.

We hosted four student guests today. Maria Perez and Alyssa Koehler came from SWRHS. Kayla Davis and Kirby Micka came from Asheboro High School.

Maria is president of the Beta Club, the Chief Junior Marshal, and serves on the Student Advisory Board. She is also Hospitality Minister and an interpreter. Her college plans are not definite yet, but they include work in graphic design. Alyssa plays varsity tennis, performs in the marching band, the wind ensemble, and the Asheboro Flute Choir. She is a member of FFA, Science Club, Beta Club, among other clubs. She plans to major in bio-agricultural engineering at NC State University.

Kayla is a member of the National Honor Society and the Girl Scouts (she has completed the Bronze and Silver Awards and is completing the Gold Award). Another of her major interests is dance, which she takes and teaches. She is headed to Guilford College to major in forensic science with a minor in dance. Kirby is an Eagle Scout and a member of the band, the Jazz Band and the Latin Club. He intends to take a degree in pharmacy when he goes to college.

 Next week’s program will be a very interesting one—Concerning Aphasia. April Thornton has arranged this for us.

H.R. handed the podium to Greg Spainhour to introduce our speaker, County Manager Richard Wells. Richard is well known to the Asheboro Rotary Club. He is a past-president of the Randolph Club, the former head librarian of the Randolph County Library System, the former Head Librarian of Randolph Community College, and a man who loves cars. Richard has brought innovation and political savvy to each of his positions.  

After first asking who was packing heat legally or illegally, Richard announced his topic: the county-wide referendum on a quarter-per-cent sales tax increase.    

On May 6 Randolph County voters will voice an opinion about an increase in sales tax from 6.75% to 7% on goods and services. Richard said he knew very well that no one likes to discuss raising taxes in any form.  

Why do we need to raise the sales tax? Because school construction and infrastructure improvements (such as extending water and sewer lines to more parts of the county) require funding as simultaneously the County’s bill for Medicaid continues to rise. He reminded us that although the state is providing relief from the Medicaid bill, the state is also taking a larger portion of the sales tax.  Thus, infrastructure needs still suffer.

This method of taxing is fairer than simply socking it to property owners.  We all buy things and pay a sales tax almost without thinking about it.  It would require a 2.5 cents per $100 valuation increase to equal revenues earned by the quarter per cent sales tax increase. In promotion of the referendum, which Richard stressed, must be presented in a neutral fashion, not telling voters how to vote, the County has adopted the slogan, “Everybody benefits, so everybody pays.”  

One advantage of the sales-tax method of gathering revenue is that out-of-county residents help us along everytime they buy something in Randolph County.  The tax is not applied to gasoline, groceries, medicine. The revenues earned will support the construction of our two newest high schools (coming in at around $30 million each) and the $20 million bill for extending the water lines.

Richard left a generous amount of time for questions—of which there were really very few. Within his presentation he covered most of the things people may have had on their minds. There were several comments of support for the referendum and the method of gaining revenue.

  Then H.R. hustled us out of there so he could get to the airport. Tune in next week for what didn’t stay in Vegas.