Top Stories of 2008

January 2, 2009 by pamliconews

In May, Tom Regan Jr., President of PCS Phosphate, traveled from corporate headquarters in Chicago to make his feelings known about union representation for the 815 production and maintenance workers at the sprawling mine and plant just north of Aurora.

Mick, seen here with owner Spencer Bliss, recovered from a poisoning earlier this year that killed two fellow canines in the Buccaneer Bay neighborhood.

Economic doldrums mar 2008
Other top stories for year take a back seat

JEFF AYDELETTE
PAMLICO NEWS STAFF

Declining real estate values, a spike in unemployment, and dreaded foreclosures hit Pamlico County with a vengeance in the last months of the year. The area, long insulated from financial woes afflicting much of the nation, remains resilient but no longer immune.
The courthouse steps will be busy on Dec. 30 and 31 as trustees auction off a duo of commercial properties. Typically, these are stalled residential developments for which the financing entities -- either banks or private individuals -- have finally lost all patience. Many private homeowners have also faced the devastating loss of their houses.

As further evidence of the local economic downturn, the Pamlico County Commissioners invoked rarely used authority earlier this year to “call” a number of surety bonds posted by developers. These are written guarantees, usually issued by banks and insurance companies, to ensure that promised roads, water lines, and other infrastructure will be constructed for subdivisions within a year after lots are first sold.

Other news reports, as selected by the staff of The Pamlico News as being the most important of the hundreds covered during 2008:

• A young mother, just days shy of her 28th birthday, was beaten to death Nov. 8 by her live-in boyfriend, who has a criminal history of assaults on females. Mark Southerland Grady, arrested within hours, reportedly confessed to the murder of Jacqueline Suzanne Cloninger. He remains imprisoned at the Pamlico County Jail. The slaying focused the public’s attention on domestic violence, which is a perennial problem affecting many county families.

• Hourly workers at PCS Phosphate in Aurora, the area’s largest private employer, overwhelmingly rejected union representation with a vote conducted in late May. The 593 to 151 tally rebuffed the United Steelworkers Union, ending an eight-month organizing effort. The vote on whether to unionize was just the second at the plant over the past 20 years. In the late 1980s, PCS employees turned down a similar overture from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

• An obscure outpost of the U.S. Coast Guard on the Intracoastal Waterway near Hobucken rallied on a brutally cold and windy Jan. 23 to execute simultaneous -- though miles apart -- Pamlico Sound rescues. Consecutive MAYDAYS, less than 10 minutes apart, sent the communications center into controlled mayhem.

“Phones and radios began ringing off the hook,” recalled one communications staffer. “It got pretty chaotic in there.”

The first call, received at 3:20 p.m., came from Lil Outrigger, dredging for oysters in the vicinity of Adams Point, near the mouth of the Pungo River. Minutes later, separated by a vast expanse of cold, choppy water, a desperate hunter -- one of four onboard a small 17-foot jonboat -- provided latitude and longitude seconds before capsizing into the 43-degree environs of Pamlico Sound.

Coast Guard coxswains, Bryce Adams and Jeff Moberly, led the separate rescues and praised their respective fellow Coasties. The two crews, working in frigid bone-chilling conditions, saved the lives of four duck hunters and two commercial fishermen.

• Two dogs found dead on the morning of May 4, with a third fighting for his life, convinced residents of the Buccaneer Bay neighborhood that their pets were victims of intentional poisonings.

Autopsies identified the lethal substance as a potent agricultural chemical, with the common brand name of Vydate. The Pamlico County Health Department labeled more than 15 separate deaths over the prior months as “an epidemic of dog and cat killings.” Thanks in part to publicity and to a community ‘watch’ program, no further incidents have been reported. The investigation remains open. If arrests are made, the suspects could face a variety of charges, including cruelty to animals.

• A third murder trial for Vaughn Antonio Jones, 40, ended with an acquittal in late October. Charged with two counts of First Degree Murder for the brutal January 2003 stabbing deaths of Merritt residents Richard and Rosa Flowers, Jones left the Craven County Courthouse as a free man, having been imprisoned without bail for five and one-half years. District Attorney Scott Thomas, apparently convinced of Jones’ guilt, directed his staff to prosecute for an almost unprecedented third time, despite hung juries in the 2006 and 2007 trials.

• The county’s festering, but immensely profitable, underground drug trade erupted violently Feb. 9 in Vandemere. A man, rumored to be a big-time drug dealer, was shot four times in the early morning hours at the Seven Eleven Convenience Store during an apparent deal-gone-bad.

Though severely wounded -- one shot punctured an artery in his leg -- Nagi A. Ali dialed 911 at 1:26 a.m. to summon an ambulance. Law enforcement authorities showed up first.
Before being transported for medical care, Ali fingered Demario Himbry, 20, who was subsequently arrested. Ali also OK’d a search of his vehicle in which law enforcement authorities discovered powder cocaine, marijuana, and more than $21,000 cash.
Himbry remains in jail, accused of felony assault. Ali, who has since recovered, was arrested upon his release from the hospital. Free on bail, he faces a variety of drug charges.

• In the local November elections, Republican challenger Kenny Heath pulled off a stunning upset by defeating long-time incumbent Doug Brinson, a Democrat, for the Township 5 seat on the Pamlico County Commission. The final tally was Heath with 767 votes to Brinson’s 710.

Heath, the much younger candidate, began his campaign early and adopted a strategy of showing up at a variety of civic functions and governmental meetings throughout the county.
Brinson, a 16-year veteran of the seat, was late in starting his campaign, relying to a great extent upon his name recognition and his status as the powerful Chairman of the Pamlico County Commission.

• Leadership of the Pamlico County Health Department continued to rotate as the volunteer 11-member Board of Health chose a new interim director, Russell Childress. A veteran of public health in North Carolina, Childress becomes the department’s sixth director -- whether permanent, interim, or acting -- in just over two years.

The top slot at the Pamlico County Health Department has been a revolving door since the October 2006 forced resignation of a former director -- arrested and jailed for drunken driving while en route to a professional conference.

The most recent permanent occupant of the post, Howard Ellis, left in September after just 10 months on the job. At the time, Ellis blamed his abrupt departure on a county commission vote, which he viewed as an unchecked usurpation of his authority.

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