Top Ten Stories Of 1998

BY FRANK DeLOACHE
SALISBURY POST

Though he died almost two years ago, 6-year-old Budde Clark continues to make his mark on Rowan County.

Accounts of how Clark and 2-year-old DeMallon Krider lived and died demanded the attention of two juries and the entire county this year. And the Salisbury Post news staff overwhelmingly agreed that the emotional telling - and the resulting verdicts and civil law suit - should be the top story of 1998.

Without even considering Monica, Bill and Saddam, many other local news stories competed for our attention and filled the pages of the Post.

Julian Robertson rewrote the face of philanthropy in a community already famous for the generosity of its citizens. Some incumbents survived and others tumbled in November. We continued to debate about the quality of our schools - and how to improve them - and a major utility visited but didn't like the welcome.

That's but a sampling of the stories Post news staffers considered in their annual, totally-unscientific poll of 1998 news.

The top news stories of 1998 reflect, in many ways, what is most important to us: helping the young or the weak, especially through education; jobs, exploding growth and how we'll deal with both; and our history and how we will preserve it.

So, without further ado, the Post's Top 10 Stories for 1998 are:

1. Child abuse trials Appropriately, Rowan's treatment of its most vulnerable children remained a topic of considerable debate. In May, a jury convicted Tamanchies Krider of felony child abuse and first degree murder of her son DeMallon, and three months later, another jury did the same for Robin Gosnell, Budde Clark's stepmother. A judge sentenced both women to life in prison without parole.

Witnesses in both trials testified to the abuse both boys suffered, again raising questions of why the Department of Social Services did not intervene. And Social Services' legal test is far from over. In June, Budde Clark's maternal grandparents filed a civil suit, accusing Social Services, its board and Director Rick Travis, the state and county of negligence in Budde's death. Travis later resigned, taking a job with Davidson County Community College, and the suit is pending.

2. Robertson Family Foundation In a town already well endowed with generous people, this gift still raised eyebrows and kept dozens of groups busy filling out applications to the Blanche and Julian Robertson Family Foundation.

Funded largely with $15 million from New York money manager Julian Robertson Jr., the foundation handed out millions of dollars in its first two rounds of grants, immediately making a difference in the lives of Salisbury area residents.

Thanks to the foundation, fourth and fifth graders in Salisbury area elementary schools will have tutors that the school board wouldn't pay for. Thanks to the foundation, the Park Avenue and West End(??) neighborhoods can proceed with plans to revive their communities. Salisbury High School will get a new athletic complex, and Spencer and Salisbury will get a wheeled trolley. The list goes on and will continue to grow through the years.

3. Elections What an odd election year! While N.C. Rep. Eugene McCombs was soundly beating County Commissioner Dave Rowland in a spring primary for the N.C. House, federal judges were still fiddling with U.S. Rep. Mel Watt's 9th Congressional District. The judges delayed the primary to September, and when Republicans finally saw the new district, they figured they finally had a chance to beat the liberal Watt. But - surprise again! - little regarded Salisbury dentist Scott Keadle worked hard, recruited Davidson County Sheriff Gerald Hege and won the Republican primary.

But even with Charlton Heston's help, Keadle could not defeat Watt, who remained in the House to blister Republicans as they impeached the President.

While Watt remained, Bill Hefner left, and Cannon heir Robin Hayes took his place. Besides McCombs, other incumbents won - N.C. Sen. Jim Phillips defeated Mac Butner again and Register of Deeds Bobbie Earnhardt turned back Penny Rowland, Dave's wife.

But some incumbents fell. In his third try, George Wilhelm defeated Sheriff Bob Martin. Jeff Barger took back the Clerk of Court job from Terry Osborne, and Charlie Brown ousted District Court Judge David Wilson. The School Board also made history with its first two black women, Kaye Norman and Ada Fisher. Fisher defeated Eldridge Williams, and L.A. Overcash and Clyde Miller filled empty positions.

4. New graduation standard We continue to debate the quality and funding of public schools, and this year, the school board's new policy - requiring graduates to keep a 2.0 average in core academic courses - threatened the diplomas of a substantial portion of the Class of '99. In the face of parent complaints, the Board of Education stood firm while administrators scrambled to provide remedial classes and raise the students' averages.

Finally, 52 parents finally filed a discrimination complaint with the Office of Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education.

After much haggling and finger pointing, county commissioners gave the Rowan-Salisbury Schools more money to bolder teacher supplements and provide more classroom supplies. Meanwhile, in the second ABC state grading report for elementary and middle schools, 75 percent of Rowan-Salisbury and all of Kannapolis schools are exemplary. In their first report card, three high schools - South and East Rowan and A.L. Brown - earned exemplary ratings, and the other three Rowan high schools met expectations.

5. Former teacher defends herself After firing her court-appointed lawyer, former Rowan-Salisbury teacher Deborah Brogden mounted her own defense against charges that she went to the home of Assistant Superintendent Danny Thomas and fired a handgun at the fleet-footed Thomas in his front yard.

She won one delay in her trial after she brought election signs to court and quizzed jurors about her heterosexuality. The judge strongly suggested she get a lawyer.

Months later, a different judge had had enough. He held her in contempt - twice - when she called witnesses who barely knew her and asked questions the judge had prohibited. When the jury finally got the case, they convicted her. The judge sentenced her to two years in prison - plus 60 days for contempt.

6. CP&L plant They wanted to build a "peak generator." But in the end, they piqued neighbors who fought back, and so Carolina Power & Light left as suddenly as they appeared.

In mid November, with no public warning, the utility, which serves residents in eastern North Carolina, announced plans to build a $250 million, gas-fired, electric power plant on 142 acres off U.S. 601 north of Salisbury. County officials called it the largest single private investment in county history and salivated over an extra $1 million in tax revenues.

Utility officials said they wanted to be good neighbors and promised to hold the noise to 75 decibels, comparing it to the sound of truck traffic on U.S. 601.

But residents, primarily those in nearby Plantation Ridge, raised a lot of questions and promised a fight during at least two public hearings. And several days before Christmas, barely a month after announcing their plans, utility officials withdrew the rezoning request.

7. Interstate 85 It's only begun, but the rebuilding of Rowan's section of I-85 already has touched any driver bumping along the main artery connecting us with the rest of the world. With construction starting to the south at China Grove, construction crews have closed bridges and rerouted traffic as they widen the road to four lanes on each side.

In the years to come, I-85 will prove the largest construction project - and headache - in county history. Even as crews and wide-bodied machines pour ribbons of concrete in the south, engineers are busy in the north planning how to build two completely new bridges across the Yadkin. Tentative plans call for taking down at least one span now crossing the Yadkin and erecting the two new bridge further east toward Duke Power's Buck Steam Station.

8. Zoning in the county Considering the battles the idea had produced in years past, Rowan County commissioners' historic vote to approve a system of zoning for unincorporated Rowan seemed anticlimactic. Commissioners and the county staff took pains to gather input from residents and approved a general agricultural zoning for most of the county.

Still, the commissioners - now sitting as the county zoning board - immediately faced questions of limiting the growth of mobile home parks and the expansion of noisy rock quarries. Commissioners stopped one mobile home park developer who had filed for approval before zoning took effect; the developer is now trying to overturn that decision in court.

Likewise, commissioners ruled that Martin Marietta could not reopen two old quarries near Bringle Ferry Road, between Dunns Mountain and Union Church roads. That decision earned the commissioners another court challenge.

Commissioners also spent some time arguing with Salisbury officials about where the county's new zoning authority begins and the city's ends.

9. Images of the past For a community already steeped in history, 1998 provided a treasure trove of new information - thanks to newfangled piece of equipment and a friendship.

Bob Melia made his reputation after the Oklahoma City bombing, when he used thermal imaging equipment to locate victims buried in the rubble of the federal office building. By happenstance, Melia is a friend of Sandy Bogle, a Rowan Public Library employee who also is active in the local chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

Earlier this year, Melia used his equipment to study the site of the old Confederate prison, producing evidence that the prison was larger than experts had thought, located slightly differently and that fewer federal prisoners likely died there. Melia's work united people with ancestors on both sides of that bloody war and reinvigorated efforts to preserve the prison's history.

Encouraged by the community's welcome, Melia returned later to turn his equipment on the grassy knoll at the corner of Liberty and Church streets. His work confirmed that the land was likely the cemetery for freedmen and slaves, and now a communitywide group is ironing out plans for a permanent monument there.

10. Freightliner rolls Announcing its latest expansion, and 500 more jobs, in March, Freightliner continued to set the economic pace for Rowan County. The Cleveland truck plant hired 20 to 25 new employees a week for most of the year, easily outdistancing any other company in the county, with about 3,100 employees by year's end.

The Cleveland plant now produces about 156 trucks a day, many of them parked row on row, even piggybacked, along U.S. 70. Headquartered in Portland-Ore., the global truck builder proudly announced a new production record for one year - 100,000 trucks. And where was the 100,000th produced? In Cleveland, of course, rolling off the line on Nov. 19.

The company also recorded its first fatality involving a Freightliner employee, though state safety inspectors eventually ruled that the company did not break any safety rules.

Success also put on a slightly different face for the town of Cleveland which found itself facing state environmental fines because business from Freightliner was overwhelming its waste treatment plant.

You might be interested to know a few of the stories that didn't make our Top 10 list. We rated these high but not among the first 10:

-A judge moved a Monroe murder case to the Rowan County Courthouse, trying to find jurors untainted by all the publicity surrounding charges against a young police officer. For weeks, Salisbury residents grew accustomed to the fleet of TV trucks taking all the parking spaces in front of the courthouse.

During his trial, readers and viewers studied the solemn face of Josh Griffin, the officer accused of stopping Kim Medlin's car and kidnapping and murdering the young cocktail waitress with a fondness for horses. The jury convicted Griffin and a judge sent him to prison for life.

-She told David Letterman. She told Larry King. She kept repeating, "I've learned never to say never."

So nobody was very surprised when late this year a committee, filled with Salisbury folks, announced it would campaign to convince Liddy Dole to run for president. Depending on the group's ultimate success or failure, Salisbury's famous daughter may move to the head of our list next year.

-The State Department of Transportation and Norfolk-Southern Railroad drew the ire of many South Rowan and Kannapolis residents after they began a campaign to close streets crossing the north-south rail lines.

Those lines cut through the heart of Landis, China Grove and Kannapolis, not to mention Salisbury, which already committed to close at least seven of its crossings. As a prelude to most of the debate, three people lost their lives in railroad crossing accidents, two in Salisbury and one in Landis.

That's the top 10 and more. Yet we haven't mentioned that Fieldcrest Cannon employees face another union vote, that a megamall is rising south of us on I-85, that the Chamber of Commerce completed a successful $2.3 million building campaign or that the former Towne Mall is suddenly coming to life.

With all that, we can all look forward to a newsy 1999.