Archive - May 2011 - News Article
Catawba County's school systems are safe from a consolidation — at least for the 2011-12 budget year.
The Senate's proposed budget will fund the state's 115 school systems, which includes counties with more than one school district.
Sen. Austin Allran said the proposal to fund one school system per county was removed from the Senate's plan last week with bipartisan support. However, Allran said the state will have to take a $13 million cut in another area of its budget.
A Conover dentist previously charged with Medicaid fraud closed her clinic doors and left Catawba County.
Dr. Letitia Ballance operated Carolina West Dental in Conover. In a letter dated April 11, Ballance informed her patients she was no longer going to operate in Catawba County after April 15. In the letter, Ballance said the business' closing is "a result of the continued struggling economy."
Ballance did not return phone calls to The O-N-E seeking comment.
However, Ballance's dental clinic closing brings satisfaction to at least one county resident.
May 30th
As the May heat scorched about Claremont City Park, Chester E. Deal just smiled.
The crowd of 100 or so area citizens was quickly leaving the annual Memorial Day ceremony to escape the 90-degree heat, but Deal and his family lingered around to take a few photos.
Deal, 92, who now uses a wheelchair to get around, looked over at a large stone wall next to the Veterans Memorial at the city park and read "Chester Ellis Deal — Merchant Marines."
He looked at his family and smiled, knowing that his service to the country will forever be etched in stone.
May 29th
Freedom comes at a cost. The American Legion Post 48 remembered the men and women Sunday who helped bring freedom to the nation.
With the sounds of a jet flying over a crowd of about 75 people, veterans and community members looked up with one thing in mind – remembrance of those sounds during a time of war when many lives were lost so Americans can live freely. These sounds and memories define Memorial Day.
Reggie York and John Lesjack hadn’t seen each other in more than 50 years.
The old Navy buddies, separated on different sides of the country nearly half their lives, now sat with only a table between them at the Artist’s Café in Newton.
It was a long-awaited reunion, but the two friends joked like they had saw each other yesterday.
“I’ve tried to write you, but only get responses from your wife and son,” Lesjack said.
“What do you mean?” York replied.
For most graduating seniors, the anticipation of finishing high school comes with the excitement of beach trips in the summer and starting college in the fall. For others, a much different feeling of anticipation is brewing. Trading in their flip-flops for combat boots, many local teenagers are making the decision to commit the next few years of their life to their nation rather than to themselves.
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Newton organizations, such as Green Room Community Theatre, Newton Depot Authority, the Newton-Conover Auditorium Authority and others, asked the city for almost $975,000 in special appropriations in the year ahead.
However, a budget plan unveiled this month by Newton City Manager Todd Clark comes up $112,000 short of requested funding levels and leaves many of those organizations with no city financial support in the year ahead.
May 26th
By
Associated Press Writer Mitch Weiss
CHARLOTTE (AP) — A North Carolina woman charged in the death of her 10-year-old disabled stepdaughter made her first appearance in federal court Thursday on unrelated charges of trafficking prescription medications.
U.S. Magistrate David Keesler in Charlotte ordered that Elisa Baker, 43, be held until a detention hearing on June 2.
Federal prosecutors said Baker distributed and planned to distribute drugs including oxycodone and hydrocodone between 2006 and last October. They also say she conspired with others to distribute the drugs.
A historical staple of Catawba County may never look the same.
The owners of the Rock Barn House in Conover are saying unidentified suspects broke into the historic home sometime between Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon and completely vandalized the property.
The Catawba County Sheriff's Office investigated the incident, but Sheriff Coy Reid said a incident report was not filed as of press time Thursday.
Donald Herman, 56, of Conover, owns the property along with five siblings and said the sheriff's department estimated more than $100,000 in damages to the home.
Sewer and water rates will increase in Claremont next year, but city officials said the rate hikes will help fund the city’s long-term infrastructure needs.
“Our treatment facilities are aging in their capacities, and we want to be able to handle the additional capacity generated,” said Claremont Mayor David Morrow. “It’s also going to help us in what our total capital expenditure and goals will require in the future.”
