Looking back 2007

The year 2007 brought change and growth - and the promise of huge growth to come - in Craven and Pamlico counties.

In October, the Marine Corps announced that it will increase its numbers at Eastern North Carolina bases, including Cherry Point, Camp Lejeune and New River, by 11,477 by 2011.

The build-up - with profound effects on the region, the lives of our people and our economy - is No. 1 on the list of the Sun Journal¡¦s top 10 local stories for the year.

Those new Marines will bring many more people into the region. They will bring families who need housing, schools, services, and they will bring people and businesses to provide the services. Altogether, the build-up is expected to add almost 40,000 people over the next five years to Craven, Pamlico, Jones, Onslow, Carteret, Duplin and Pender counties.

The new Marines will mean an additional $432 million to the region¡¦s annual military payroll of $2.85 billion a year.

At Cherry Point in Craven County, the Marine Corps Air Station is expected to get 1,485 new military jobs, along with 1,241 new dependents.

For the most part, leaders in the region welcomed the news of the Marine expansion, but they recognize that accommodating it won¡¦t be easy.

The announcement prompted local leaders to work through North Carolina¡¦s Eastern Region to establish a Military Growth Task Force to help deal with the challenges of such rapid growth.

A 21-member board from seven counties including Craven, Pamlico and Jones was named in December and will begin meeting in January.

No. 2: Bridge demolition

The removal of the Alfred A. Cunningham drawbridge, a New Bern landmark of more than 50 years, was second on the list of top stories.

As it happens, this story has a Marine connection: The drawbridge across the Trent River was named for the nation¡¦s first Marine aviator. The bridge was built in 1954 and opened the next year.

The demolition was part of a $40 million project that includes the building of a new bridge, which is scheduled to open in 2009.

The Cunningham bridge, which had a 500-ton swing span, was closed in May. Keith Tyndall of Bridgeton was determined to be the last nonpedestrian to cross the bridge into New Bern, and he was. He got behind the last car and rode a bicycle across.

In downtown New Bern, merchants felt the effects of the bridge closing. Some said they had lost business because the signs noting the bridge closing and marking exits off U.S. 70 to downtown were confusing. The merchants met with state transportation officials and some signs were changed.

All through the spring and into the summer, workers labored at the task of putting up a temporary work bridge and taking down the old one.

People felt the tug of history. They turned out to make the last trip across the bridge before it closed, they turned out to watch the work, they turned out to take pictures of each other at the bridge. And in August, large crowds gathered at Union Point Park to watch as the mighty span was lowered onto two 110-foot barges.

Two tug boats pushed the barges up the river to Edenton, where the 223-foot swing span was taken to Waff Contractors¡¦ storage yard and harbor.

No. 3: Bridgeton growth

Across the Neuse River from New Bern, the little town of Bridgeton celebrated its first hundred years ¡X and as its centennial year drew on, it became clear that the next century will bring big changes.

A Florida company, Jupiter USA, announced plans for a half-billion-dollar development on a thousand acres, including commercial and residential sections, a yacht club and a marina.

The development is called Bridgeton Harbor and it is expected to be built in stages over the next decade.

The marina is under construction and is expected to be finished in February. It will have 129 slips and will be able to handle vessels up to 200 feet.

Bridgeton Harbor is projected to have homes priced from $200,000 to $800,000, with waterfront penthouses available for $1 million or more. The development will have 45 acres of manmade lakes. It will be a place, the developers say, that will be in harmony with the environment, a place were people will walk or ride golf carts instead of taking their cars.

The developers say the project will ultimately add $3.8 million a year to the town¡¦s tax base.

Jim Davis, executive director of the Craven County Economic Development Commission, said Bridgeton Harbor¡¦s reach will extend beyond Craven, Jones and Pamlico counties.

¡§The recreation, retail and waterfront-dining opportunities and entertainment venues that come with this will attract people from outside the three-county region once the information is made known,¡¨ Davis said.

Jupiter owns land along the waterfront near the edge of town on B Street, but most of the project will be on the east side of U.S. 17. The town has annexed about 570 acres of the property and is expected to annex more next year.

A key component of the development will be a new wastewater-treatment plant that Jupiter USA is building on 320 acres about three miles outside Bridgeton. That plant is expected to be ready in about 18 months. It will have more than enough capacity for Bridgeton Harbor, and the town¡¦s present sewage plant will be eliminated.

And Bridgeton will need more capacity. In December came news of another development north of town, a project called Sand Ridge Harbor on 88 acres that will have residences and a marina with about 250 boat slips. The developer of that project, Jerry Pounds of Clayton, said the town has agreed to provide sewer service for 130 residential units and eventually to annex the property.

No. 4: Super 70

The idea is to make U.S. 70 a more streamlined corridor from the capital to the coast, with a minimum of stoplights and access points. The state and proponents of making the road into ¡§Super 70¡¨ want to divert much local traffic to parallel roads.

But when local main streets are also major thoroughfares, as in James City and Havelock, conflicts can arise. That was the case in 2007 as business people and others protested changes made by the state Department of Transportation.

Owners of businesses in James City told the Craven County commissioners that the removal of a turn lane made access difficult. They said the change had hurt their businesses and endangered people.

¡§After growth at a good rate consistently for 15 years, the numbers are now down significantly,¡¨ said Drew Preston of 70 East Pawn. ¡§And somebody is going to get hurt out there.¡¨

In Havelock, people have similar concern about safe access to U.S. 70 because the state limits the placement of traffic lights.

¡§If you are coming from Raleigh to the coast, you don¡¦t care about that stoplight,¡¨ said Danny Walsh, a Havelock city commissioner, ¡§but if your wife and child¡¦s safety is threatened, you do.¡¨

Walsh is a member of the U.S. 70 Corridor Commission, which was formed by counties affected by the highway changes and will make recommendations for improvements.

At a meeting of the commission in November, a district highway engineer, Neil Lassiter, confirmed rumors that construction of a Havelock bypass is scheduled to begin in 2015.

No. 5 Judicial complex

In August, Craven County entered into a contract with DeVere Construction Co. to build a law enforcement complex on a 106-acre tract in the Clarks community off U.S. 70 about six miles west of New Bern.

The complex, which is scheduled to be completed in 2009, will include a new jail with beds for 300 inmates and the capacity to be expanded to 600. And it will have a courtroom for District Court as well as offices for magistrate¡¦s court and sheriff¡¦s employees.

The bid for the complex came in at more than $26 million but was whittled to about $25. 5 million through negotiations with the contractor. The first footings were poured in December.

Residents in the Clarks area objected to having the jail in their community, and some business people and lawyers dislike the idea of moving judicial functions from downtown New Bern. But county leaders say the present jail is crowded and outmoded and there is no room for expansion downtown.

In December, New Bern aldermen reacted to the concern. They approved money for a study of the economic effects of moving the jail and judicial offices out of downtown.

No. 6: Navy landing field

The question of where to put an outlying landing field for Navy pilots to practice has been a touchy issue for six years, ever since the Navy announced its first choice of a site in Washington County near Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. The Navy wants a place for pilots of F/A-18 Super Hornets to practice simulated landings on aircraft carriers. The field would be used by pilots from the Marine Corps Air Station at Cherry Point and Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia.

The controversy showed no signs of abating in 2007.

The original site drew immediate opposition from residents and from environmentalists, who took the issue to court. Attention turned to other sites on the Navy¡¦s original list of five in Eastern North Carolina, including one in Craven County.

In 2007, both North Carolina and Virginia suggested more sites for the Navy to consider. Four of the six new sites proposed in North Carolina are in Camden and Gates counties and they also drew strong opposition. Gov. Mike Easley reactivated a study group to work with the Navy to select a site. But after the group held forums on the six new sites, it adjourned without making a recommendation.

As the year ends, the issue of whether the landing field will be in North Carolina is still unsettled.

But one part of the controversy appeared to be ended: The site won¡¦t be the Navy¡¦s original choice in Washington. The U.S. House of Representatives passed a defense-spending bill in December with language that prohibits spending for that site.

No. 7: River Harbour

For a while this year, it appeared that New Bern would get a riverfront development on a scale similar to the big project in Bridgeton.

In fact, the plans for River Harbour were announced before the Bridgeton plans were. A Florida developer, Will Stout, wanted to build a marina and a residential complex in the Riverstation area downtown, on land formerly used for the old Arrant Coastal Lumber Co. Stout planned a $500 million project that would have included a riverwalk, marina, cottages, two-story houses and two high-rise condominiums.

But Stout¡¦s proposal got a much cooler reception in New Bern than the one Bridgeton gave to the development there.

The biggest objection was to the 15-story condominiums. Critics assailed the proposed buildings, saying they would violate the city¡¦s height restrictions and would be out of character for the riverfront.

Stout wanted an agreement with the city on what he would be allowed to do. New Bern¡¦s aldermen said they were prepared to reject the condominiums.

The issue never came to a vote. Stout decided to drop his plans. He said he would build the project, but he would do it elsewhere.

¡§I wasn¡¦t able to establish a relationship of trust here that I had hoped to,¡¨ Stout said. I have never been one to fight with my neighbors and friends and I¡¦m not going to start now. I will come back to New Bern to boat and to party, but not to do business.¡¨

No. 8: A church burns

In the small community of Arapahoe in Pamlico County, disaster struck on a hot day in June.

Two bicyclists noticed smoke coming from Bethany Christian Church. They stopped and borrowed a phone from a passerby to call 911. But it was too late to save the building.

Residents and members of the church gathered and watched, some with tears in their eyes, as firefighters fought the fierce blaze. The flames destroyed most of the property.

The main building was built in 1912, said Arapahoe Mayor Terry Cannan, a member since she was 8. It was moved across the road, N.C. 306, in 1955. It still had its original wiring from 1913, and it was the wiring that was believed to be the cause of the fire.

The disaster destroyed the building, not the church. The members came together, heartbroken but determined to rebuild. They used borrowed quarters for worship, and started making plans for raising Bethany anew.

Others joined in the effort. Churches and individuals sent money and offered help. In New Bern, churches held an ice cream social in July and raised more than $10,000 for Bethany. Thousands more came from other fund-events and donations.

No. 9: Delta flights

In May, Delta Air Lines made its inaugural flight from New Bern. The start of Delta¡¦s service gave the Craven County Regional Airport a replacement for Midway Airlines, which went bankrupt after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The airport now had another commercial carrier besides US Airways and had daily jet service.

Delta was attracted to Craven by a deal worked out with the airport authority and the N.C. Department of Transportation.

Delta agreed to provide two flights a day between New Bern and Atlanta, using 40-passenger jets. Under the agreement, the airline gets free rent and landing fees and up to $750,000 in guaranteed revenues until the end of 2008.

Delta now has two flights on Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, with one flight on other days. The airline plans two flights every day of the week beginning in January and three flights a day beginning in February.

No. 10: Victorious Bears

Three times the New Bern High School Bears battled Charlotte¡¦s Independence High Patriots for the state football championship. Three times the Patriots beat back the challenge.

This year, the Bears brought home the 4-AA title, and the city cheered.

The game, played in Winston-Salem on Dec. 8, started off looking like another disappointment for New Bern. The Patriots gained an early lead, 10-0. But the Bears roared

back.

They finished the game 28-17.

The city will honor the team with a downtown parade on Jan. 5.

The year brought plenty of other notable local stories. These were some of them unranked:

* New Bern¡¦s own Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue announced that she is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor next year. If she wins, she will become the state¡¦s first woman governor.

* Perdue¡¦s sons, Emmett and Garrett, went to trial in a lawsuit over an accident in 2003 in which their boat smashed into a boat operated by Philip Amerson, whose wife, Peggy, was injured. A federal judge ruled that Emmett Perdue, who was driving, wasn¡¦t negligent. The judge found Philip Amerson negligent for operating a boat at night without lights on.

* Vaughn Antonio Jones went on trial for the second time on charges of murder in the stabbing deaths of his employers, Richard and Rosa Flowers of Merrit in Pamlico County. This time, because of the publicity surrounding the case, the trial was moved to Craven County. But the outcome was the same. The second jury, like the first, was unable to reach a verdict and a mistrial was declared.

* Scott Figarao, the owner of a limousine service in New Bern, was charged with writing bad checks and intimidating a witness. He was accused of threatening to cut his estranged wife into pieces with a chain saw. Figaro spent months in jail before he was able to get a $100,000 bail posted.

* A Craven County sheriff¡¦s deputy fatally shot a man in Vanceboro. After an investigation by the SBI, the district attorney said the deputy, William Marsh, acted in self-defense in the shooting of William Wayne Wright.

* Pure Bliss, an adult book and video store in New Bern, was raided twice in three months by city police, who seized hundreds of dollars¡¦ worth of merchandise. The police charged the owner and an employee with violating the law against having more than one kind of adult merchandise in a store. The cases have not been tried.

* A fire started at Smitty¡¦s Welding Shop on Queen Street in June. Smoke billowed high enough to be seen for miles as the shop building went up in flames.

* J.T. Barber, which opened as a middle school in 1951, was added to the National Register of Historic Places. J.T. Barber has also been a high school, and is now an elementary school. It is one of about 150 New Bern locations on the historic register.

* Roger R. Bell, former Craven Community College trustee and Craven County Board of Education member and chairman, died April 12 at the age of 90. Roger Bell Elementary School in Havelock is named after him. He was part of the merger committee that decided to merge New Bern city and Craven County schools into one system.

* Craven Community College started a partnership with East Carolina University and N.C. State University to offer degrees from those two schools at Craven. Scott Ralls, Craven¡¦s president, announced the program, ¡§University Connections,¡¨ May 30 at the school¡¦s Havelock campus.

* Christ the King Catholic High School¡¦s board of directors unanimously voted to close the school because of financial troubles. The school, which opened in 2006-07, had about 100 returning students.

* About 80 New Bern High School students were sent home by administration on the second day of school for violating the dress code. Stuart Blount, principal at New Bern High, said the students were briefed on the dress code on the first day of school. The rest of the week, Blount and assistant principals sent at least 10 more students home and isolated at least 50 more students during lunch for violating the dress code.

* A Havelock mechanic took a Cherry Point Marine more than 900 miles to Illinois after the Marine¡¦s car had broken down twice on his way home. The mechanic, Michael Gray, did not charge the Marine, Joey Medill, for the trip. Gray immediately returned to North Carolina and did not miss work on Monday morning.

* Leon Farrow, in his first year as principal at West Craven High School, was named Craven County principal of the year for 2006-07. That was in October. In November, Farrow made news again when he had a friendly wrestling match with the school guidance counselor, Mark Hutchinson, an event they staged to raise money for the school. The match brought in more than $1,000, so both were winners. ( Farrow lost the match.)

* Scott Ralls, president of Craven Community College, was approved by the State Board of Community Colleges as the seventh president of the college system. Ralls will begin the job in Raleigh on April 1. His annual salary will be $275,000.

* A football player, Takirra L. Koonce, collapsed and died in July at a game of the New Bern Grizzlies semi-pro team. His father said later that the 28-year-old Koonce was diabetic and should not have been playing.

* The owner of the River Rats baseball team announced that the team won¡¦t have a season next year.

* Pamlico County completed a 14-month search for a new health director, hiring Florence resident Howard Ellis in December. Ellis, a former health board director, was approved by the county commissioners with a $60,000 annual salary.

The hiring ended a turbulent year for the health department and board, during which two interim directors were hired.

* The November municipal elections in Pamlico County produced new mayors in Minnesott Beach, Oriental and Vandemere ¡X along with sadness.

A 57 percent voter turnout in Minnesott Beach brought in a new four-man Board of Commissioners. However, the mayor-elect, John Forster, later suffered a stroke and died before he was able to take office. He had won easily as a write-in candidate.

The new board voted to seek applications from town residents for the mayor¡¦s job. The board plans to review the responses at its Jan. 8 meeting.

The other new mayors elected were Bill Sage in Oriental and Henry Armond in Vandemere.

In Oriental, incumbent Candy Bohmert won the fifth commissioner seat in a name drawing after she and fellow incumbent Barb Venturi tied with 246 votes each.

* In December there was a change in leadership for the Pamlico County commissioners, decided by a pair of 4-3 votes. Doug Brinson was elected chairman, unseating Ann Holton. Carl Ollison was elected vice-chairman, replacing Paul Delamar III.

Brinson and Ollison have both served as chairman in the past.

* Pamlico County commissioners in February approved $4 million in building improvements for schools. The package includes a new high school cafeteria and administration office.

School officials agreed to turn over any state lottery proceeds to help pay for the project.

* Pamlico County commissioners in January added costs for subdivision developers, instituting a tiered fee schedule for water hookups. The change does not affect the existing $1,500 charge for individual homeowners. Subdivision developers now pay $2,500 per meter for 21 to 250 units. Developments with more than 250 units pay $3,500 for each meter.

* A five-year effort by the Pamlico County Historical Association to build a 5,000-square-foot museum in Grantsboro became a reality in September, with an infusion of $320,000 from the United States Department of Agriculture. The association got a $20,000 grant and a 30-year loan for $300,000. The 200-member association has raised more than $500,000 in the past five years, through grants and donations.

The museum, called the Pamlico County Heritage Center, is under construction behind the county visitors center in Grantsboro. It is expected to be completed in the spring.

* The N.C. General Assembly took a 1/4-cent of sales tax revenue from counties but will entirely lift Medicaid funding responsibility from them by 2011. North Carolina counties are the last in the nation required to help with a state¡¦s 15 percent of Medicaid program cost. The action is expected to save Craven County at least $5.6 million¡Xmore than 13 percent of its total tax levy-¡Xin the first year.

* In July, for the second time in two years, Craven County commissioners took no action on a request to strengthen the county¡¦s ban on legally permitted concealed weapons in public buildings. Weapons are banned in most public buildings but the April 16 Virginia Tech shootings prompted a May request for the county to consider a stronger ordinance.

* Elections directors in both Craven County and Pamlico County resigned in July.

* Craven County borrowed $60 million to finance projects including a law enforcement complex, Creekside Elementary School, a project for a fiber-optic network connecting schools and government buildings, airport land, projects at J.T. Barber and Grover C. Fields schools, a county school bus garage, land for a new high school between New Bern and Havelock, school intercoms and phones, matching money for a West Craven Park, and the Tryon Palace N.C. History Education Center.

* After a six-month moratorium on billboards in Craven County beginning in February, the commissioners adopted an ordinance to control them. Outdoor advertisers say the ordinance effectively prevents additional billboards on U.S. 70 East. The impetus for the billboard ordinance came from Township 7 and growth there prompted the commissioners, at the request of District 7 Commissioner Steve Tyson in November, to begin considering county zoning there.

* The Craven Evaluation and Training Center closed its doors in March after 35 years of providing training and employment for handicapped adults. Financial mismanagement was given as the reason for the closing, which left the nonprofit agency more than $2 million in debt.

* Work began on the N.C. 43 connector road to U.S. 70 west of New Bern. The connector was promised as an incentive for BSH Home Appliances to expand its New Bern operations. The company marked its 10-year milestone in Craven County in 2007 and now employs about 1,300 people.

* A power plant was set up at the Coastal Solid Waste Management Authority¡¦s Tuscarora Landfill, producing electricity from gas generated from garbage. The plant began began selling power to Progress Energy in November.

* The N.C. General Assembly appropriated $35 million for Tryon Palace¡¦s N.C. History Education Center. Combined with other state and local appropriations, the money virtually assures that the center will be built at the corner of South Front and Metcalf Streets in New Bern. Its opening is set to coincide with New Bern¡¦s 300th- anniversary celƒÕƒÒƒâƒÑƒäƒÙƒßƒÞƒ|

* Rep. Walter B. Jones of North Carolina introduced a bill to amend the United States¡¦ War Powers Resolution to prevent the use of the U.S. military force in war without the consent of Congress.