U.S. 17 Windsor Bypass Ribbon Cutting

Re posted with Photos courtesy of Bertie County Commissioner Charles Smith.

Last week they held the ribbon cutting ceremony to announce the opening of the U.S. 17 Windsor Bypass to save time and gas in getting to Edenton and Elizabeth City. Bertie County has its first stretch of Freeway! U.S. 17 is still expressway (which means it is 4 lane but NOT limited access) to Williamston and from the end of the new bypass to the Chowan River. However we have to start somewhere. This is a great new road.

As the ribbon cutting ceremony is about to begin local dignitaries walked up to the area where the chairs had been set up. In the photo above from left (Belinda White, Sharon Davis, LC. Hoggard, Morris Rascoe and Wallace Perry).




Everyone was excited about the great step forward this road represents. Friends gathered in groups to talk about it

Local realtor Collins Cooper (left above), a member of the Windsor Town Council, and County Manager Zee Lamb (right above) were two of the local dignitaries who were there.




The most important person there was Mayor Bob Spivey (above middle), who has worked for years to make this great step forward come to fruition.



Many in the crowd did not get there in time to get a seat, and they lined the guardrails to participate anyway.



Dignitaries included Lyndo Tippett, Secretary of the NC DOT (seated on left), Stan White (second from left), the local DOT Board of Transportation Member, Mayor Bob Spivey (at podium) and Norman Cherry (seated on right), Chairman of the Bertie County Commissioners.



The local dignitaries lined up to cut the ribbon before sending cars on the first tour of the new Freeway.


Click here for the News-Herald article "US 17 Windsor Bypass opens".

Papers Facing Worst Year For Ad Revenue

by Richard Perez-Pena - June 23rd, 2008 - New York Times

For newspapers, the news has swiftly gone from bad to worse. This year is taking shape as their worst on record, with a double-digit drop in advertising revenue, raising serious questions about the survival of some papers and the solvency of their parent companies.

The reasons are not unsurprising. Two huge forces are weakening newspapers.

The first is the supremacy of the Internet to provide many of the services that have long fueled newspaper revenue. Coupons can be provided over the Internet at a fraction of the cost of printing coupons in millions of newspapers that will never be clipped. The search capability of the Internet means that job ads can be significantly more effective than in newspapers. Auto ads are much easier to find on the Internet for the same reason. As for real estate ads, the vastly greater ability of the Internet to allow great pictures, with thumbnails to make it easy to read and scan many ads, backed by larger pictures for detail, means that newspapers just cannot be competitive.

The second is the anti-Americanism of newsroom and editorial boards. Polls have repeatedly shown that newspaper writers are significantly more liberal than the populace they serve. So much so that there are more Marxists who cheer the destruction of America and free enterprise working on newspapers than there are conservatives, even though conservatives make up the largest single portion of American people while Marxists in the populace are in single digits. Even moderates are underrepresented on newspapers. The percentage of moderates in the populace is 4 times the percentage of moderates working on newspapers. Even freedom of speech is at risk as newspapers have stopped allowing ads they see as politically incorrect and letters to the editor are appallingly edited to make conservatives look out of touch. The result is that a significant majority of Americans have discovered that they can get more honest and less biased news and opinion on the Internet, and have stopped buying papers as a result.

These two trends will continue. Newspapers seem unable to figure out how to compete with the Internet advantages in their traditional ad revenue streams. And they seem unwilling to reverse the bias and bigotry in their philosophical barrier with the populace they serve. Holding the views of your customer in contempt is not the way to increase sales, or even maintain them as this article is pointing out.

There will always be a niche for newspapers, just as there is still radio after TV. However the newspaper of the future will be much smaller than in the past and many fewer will be sold. The industry has not yet come up with a vision of how to compete in the online world of the 21st century in a nation that is the world's bastion of free enterprise and liberty when their product is produced by socialists and marxists.

Shaw University Describes Bertie County Efforts

The Windsor Rotary Club continues to grow, and this day we hit a new milestone. The crowd was so large it overflowed our area and we had to bring in more chairs. In fact the crowd was so large a few people had to sit at the back after they had eaten so late arrivals had a place to eat too. We are shortly going to need to expand the room we use at Carolina Country Restaurant.




The pledge of allegiance (below) is part of the standard opening ceremony.




Diane Hoggard (below on left), a great singer, joined Holland Cayton (below center), leading us in the traditional song.




The program leader for the day was Dr. Chip Zullinger (shown below), Superintendent of Schools for Bertie County. He had arranged for some of the Shaw University personnel to talk about their plans for the Bertie County facility that they are setting up at the currently empty Southwestern School.





Dr. Grace Ndip, a native of Cameroon in Africa, was the primary presenter. She spoke about the plans for Shaw's Bertie Campus and its focus on getting degrees for Bertie County students who wish to pursue teaching as a career. There will be special programs to get our kids certification and experience right here in Bertie County.




She also spoke about the plans for the Ag-Science High School and Shaw's desire to help NC State, ECU and Elizabeth City State University to support this grand new school to provide a two year college for our kids while they are attending high school; and also seeking a career in the burgeoning industry of bio technology. Part of Shaw's help with this includes putting in a $5 million bio-fuels production and research facility, as a start towards a much larger effort in the future. It is a real coup for Bertie County to have this unique one of a kind facility.




Dr. Zullinger (shown above in middle) presented Jason Gilchrist (on left) and Dr. Grace Ndip (on right) with the traditional cobalt blue coffee mug embossed with gold lettering and Rotary emblem as a thank you for their presentation.

Roy Bond - Funeral Services Scheduled

Roy. L. Bond, Jr. was born in Windsor, NC in 1946. He was 62 years old. He attended schools in Bertie County including Indian Woods Elementary and Southwestern High School where he graduated in 1965. A graduate of Elizabeth City State University with a degree in Physical Education, he began his teaching career in Martin County in 1969. He came home to Bertie High School in 1985 and retired in 2002. During his coaching career he led Bertie High School to State Football Championships twice. Following retirement, he enjoyed farming and was an avid deer hunter as a member of the Silver Crow Hunting Club.





He is survived by his wife, Sharon, currently Principal at Bertie High School. He was the father of two sons and 5 daughters, sons Adrian of Greenvile, NC and Avery, a South Carolina resident, daughters, Precious Bond of Oak City, NC; Monica and Meesha Bond of Temple Hill, MD; Shannon and Chrystal Chamblee of Windsor, NC. He was also the grandfather of eleven.

Services for Mr. Roy L. Bond, Jr.

WAKE
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
6:00 - 7:30 PM
St. Francis Missionary Baptist Church
342 St. Francis Road
Windsor, NC 27983


FUNERAL
Thursday, June 19th, 2008
1:00 PM
Bertie High School Gymnasium
715 U.S. Highway 13 North
Windsor, NC 27983

Cherry Funeral Home of Windsor is handling arrangements. You can reach them at (252) 794-2272.

Coach Roy Bond - Bertie Legend

Statement from Chairman Rickey Freeman on the passing of former Bertie Football Coach Roy Bond

It is with very deep sadness and regret that I announce the passing of a Bertie County legend, Coach Roy Bond. I believe I speak on behalf of the entire board of education, administrators and staff of Bertie County Schools, and the entire Bertie County community when I offer our deepest condolences and prayers to his family, his friends, and to all those who have been touched by this fine gentleman. Coach Bond's passing leaves a deep void in Bertie County and across North Carolina where we feel he was a state hall-of-fame caliber football coach. He has mentored hundreds and hundreds of young people during his distinguished career including students, coaches, teachers and others. We will always remember this great coach who brought so much pride to Bertie County by bringing home not one, but two state high school football championships, in 1995 and 2000. Coach Bond will be missed, but Coach Bond will not be forgotten.


Rickey Freeman, Chairman
Bertie County Board of Education

Salvation Army Presents Program To Rotary

Windsor Rotary President Sharon Davis (shown below), of the Windsor-Bertie Chamber of Commerce, was back to preside over this week's Windsor Rotary Club meeting.




Jonathan Huddleston (shown below), our favorite lawyer (of Pritchett & Burch in Windsor), had the program for this day. Jonathan brought representatives of the Salvation Army to present their ideas for charitable efforts in Bertie County.




Bertie County representative Rod Mumma (shown below) spoke first.




He was followed by Captain Jim McGee (shown below), from the Elizabeth City regional offices of this great organization.





Jonathan worked too fast so I missed the picture of him the presenting traditional cobalt blue coffee cup to the captain.

Amazing Teacher Facts

Editorial - June 14th, 2008 - The Wall Street Journal

This month 3,700 recent college grads will begin Teach for America's five-week boot camp, before heading off for two-year stints at the nation's worst public schools. These young men and women were chosen from almost 25,000 applicants, hailing from our most selective colleges.

[snip]

It seems that Teach for America offers smart young people something even better than money – the chance to avoid the vast education bureaucracy. Participants need only pass academic muster and attend the summer training before entering a classroom. If they took the traditional route into teaching, they would have to endure years of "education" courses to be certified.

The American Federation of Teachers [an "education" union] commonly derides Teach for America as a "band-aid."

[snip]

Here's the gist: "On average, high school students taught by TFA corps members performed significantly better on state-required end-of-course exams, especially in math and science, than peers taught by far more experienced instructors. The TFA teachers' effect on student achievement in core classroom subjects was nearly three times the effect of teachers with three or more years of experience."

If you think this will matter to either the education unions or the politicians in their pockets, you are dreaming. The interest of the unions is school system employees. They do not want good teachers. They want loyal union members. So they have erected a system that attracts teachers who are not qualified, not motivated and tolerant of tedious bureaucracy.

The people who suffer are our children. Education quality has plunged down for over 2 generations, even as we have thrown more and more money at the system. Where is that money going? Why do things simply get worse year after year despite education union claims that it is getting better? If it is getting better why can't our kids read? Why after 40 years of more and more money is the only solution more money?

A five week boot camp turns out better teachers than the education unions provide after more than 2 years of so-called "education" training with more than 3 years of classroom experience. FIVE WEEKS VERSUS FIVE YEARS. We have a number of teachers who hate the current system but they are in the minority. Only when parents make politicians care more about the kids than they do about the education unions will things ever get better.

It is time.

Bertie County Ag-Science High School

Click here or on the title above for a great article about the proposed new Ag-Science High School for Bertie County.

With George Washington Carver being the inventor of Ag-Science and one of the world's greatest dozen scientists of the last century, I would like to propose that we name this innovative new school for this genius.

Rotary Learns How To Eat Smart

Mary Morris (shown below) of North Carolina State University gave the Windsor Rotary a great presentation on the importance of what we eat and drink. Mary is a Family and Consumer Science Agent for the University.




Mary shared a great deal of information about food values, calories (including calories in what we drink) and eating healthy.




Stacie Dunlow (above on left) presents Mary the cobalt blue coffee mug with gold rotary symbol that is the traditional thank you gift for Windsor Rotary speakers.


If you have any questions for Mary, she can be contacted at (252) 794-5319, or by email at mary_morris@ncsu.edu