Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Group Threatens Second Suit Over Tower

A group opposing the location of a 911 tower at the Mary Bethune Complex in Halifax threatened the Halifax County Board of Supervisors with a second suit if the Board doesn’t consider another location.
“We thought we’d have some representation on this Board but we haven’t had any,” Frank Carr told the Board during the citizen comment portion of their Monday meeting. “I would ask some members of this Board to step up and represent their constituents to the satisfaction of everyone.
“There are other avenues available to us and we’d like to ask you to look at this before we file another suit,” he added.
County Administrator Bryan Foster said yesterday that the required permits to begin construction would be issued this week.
“It’s my understanding we’ll have the permit in hand this week,” he said. “Construction will begin right away once the permit is obtained.”
Halifax County Circuit Court Judge Leslie M. Osborn dismissed a suit on November 23 filed against the Halifax County Board of Supervisors and the Halifax Town Council seeking to halt the planned 180-foot communications tower at the Mary Bethune Office Complex.
Carr, who serves on the Town of Halifax planning commission, filed the motion seeking to stop the erection of the tower on August 9, claiming that public hearings held by the town on a permit request were conducted more than 21 days after notices of the hearings were published.
The notices were published on June 10 and June 17.
Halifax held its public hearing on July 13.
“Once again, the residents of Halifax have asked the members of this Board to re-think the placement of the tower," Carr said. “We feel we haven’t been considered in the placement of the tower."
Carr said there was no mention of the tower in the notices published advertising the construction of the 911 center.
“We feel the few dollars spent to relocate the tower will be little compared to the mistrust you will receive if you go ahead with the placement of the tower," he said.
Board Chairman William Fitzgerald said the lawsuit effectively cleared the way to build the tower.
“As far as I know, since the court made its decision that the matter was handled properly, the installation of the tower and the progress is continuing at this point," he said. “The court got involved at your request and has made a decision. No one on this Board wants to go against the court."
“If we have to go back to court, it will take another six months," Carr said. “The 911 center is 100 percent operational as it is right now. We need to look at this some more.
“I would ask you to consider the people you’re supposed to represent and look at moving the tower."
“Since I represent the district in which the tower is being constructed, I’d like to say that I looked into this and talked with an Alltel representative and found it takes about 25 permits, many of them federal, to construct a tower," Supervisor Doug Bowman said. “That’s the business reason.
“The reason I have chosen not to join the resistance is because of the greater good theory.
“I’ve talked to people in the know about the risks of moving the tower from the proximity to the 911 center," he added. “The further the tower is from the building the higher the risk of disruption of service.
“When I took the oath of office, I swore to represent the people of the county. More people benefit from having this tower where it is than by moving it," Bowman said.

 

Fitzgerald To Chair Supervisors

Board Voted To Change Meeting Time To 6:30 P.M.
Halifax County Board of Supervisors Chairman William Fitzgerald and Vice-Chairman James Edmunds were unanimously named to serve in the positions for a second year during Monday’s meeting.
Supervisors, with nominations by Ronnie Vaughan and seconds by Doug Bowman and Bryant Claiborne, unanimously supported Fitzgerald and Edmunds.
The only significant change supervisors made during Monday’s organizational meeting was scheduling their regular monthly meeting for 6:30 p.m. on the first Monday of the month.
The Board had been meeting at 7 p.m.
Supervisor Tom West suggested scheduling the meetings at 10 a.m. on the first Monday of the month, but Vaughan and the Rev. Roger Ford spoke in opposition to the motion.
“This is supposed to be a public meeting and it should be accessible to the citizens of the county," Ford said. “I think a day meeting robs a person that works and are poor and can’t get here."
Vaughan said his work schedule prevented him from attending a morning meeting, and made the motion to hold the meetings at 6:30 p.m. With a second by Lottie Nunn, the motion unanimously passed.
Rural Addition Funding Changes
Assistant County Administrator Jerry Lovelace told the Board that without changes to the subdivision ordinance to meet Virginia Department of Transportation standards, the county will not be eligible for rural addition funds after July 1.
Lovelace said the Board must decide on the changes to the subdivision ordinance no later than May 2 in order to advertise the changes for public hearing.
“I cannot emphasize too strongly how critical this issue is to both ongoing matters such as King Village Road and to future subdivision development in the county," Lovelace wrote in a memo to the Board.
This is not the first time the proposed changes have been addressed in the county, according to Lovelace.
“The Board has discussed this in the past, as has the planning commission," Lovelace said. “The Land Development Task Force held lengthy discussions on this in 2003 in formulating the revisions to the subdivision ordinance that became effective in January, 2004."
According to the assistant county administrator, ordinance changes making roads meet minimum VDOT standards will increase the cost of subdivision development in the county.
“What it boils down to is our ordinance allows non-VDOT standard roads," he said. “This new ordinance says we have to have VDOT-approved roads. This means we can’t have subdivisions as we have now and still get rural addition funds.
“This significantly increases the cost of subdivision development if you’re going to have internal streets and could be a detriment to contractors.
“This could have negative impact on affordable housing due to significantly increased lot costs because of the costs of the roads," Lovelace added.
The ordinance change could also lead to more sprawl, he continued.
“Due to up front construction costs, many developers may cease to create subdivisions with internal streets and solely plat ‘strip’ subdivisions with frontage on existing state-maintained roads," he said.
VDOT Resident Engineer Joe Barkley said that while July 1 was the deadline for implementation of the ordinance, if the county chose to not change their ordinance, they could still apply for the funds in the future.
“You won’t actually lose the funds, just the ability to use them for rural additions," he said. “You would have to use the funds on the secondary road system."
Kings Village will fall under the ordinance, Barkley added. “If you consider the resolution at some point, it can still be set aside to fall into the category."
Supervisors agreed to put the issue on the agenda for their January 28 meeting.
The search for new accounting software for the county will continue, County Administrator Bryan Foster told the Board.
“The Board voted in October to proceed with the Main Street system," Foster said. “I’ve reviewed the proposal and visited a neighboring locality with some county staff to see it and we feel this isn’t the route we need to go."
The price quoted for the Main Street software was $45,074.
“While the price looks attractive, there were some hidden costs that weren’t in (the quoted price)," he added. “While it can be a little more expensive to go the other way, we think it will be cheaper in the long run."
During their retreat, supervisors will also consider whether to take oversight of the proposed access road at Virginia International Raceway.
“I’ve talked to VDOT and the developers and VDOT suggests the county assume oversight of the project since we’re the grant recipient," Foster said.
The road will provide access to the location of the JOUSTER and VIPER projects at the raceway.
“I’m not suggesting the Board take any action at this time," he added. “We’ll continue to review the other issues and consider it during the retreat."
EDA Funding
On a motion from Bowman, who chairs the finance committee, supervisors unanimously agreed to an interim appropriation of $25,000 to the Economic Development Authority for January.
“Effective January 1, the employees under the IDA budget were assumed by the EDA," he said. “We would like for an interim appropriation of $25,000 to be approved for the EDA."
Bowman told the Board that there is roughly $170,000 in the IDA budget for the second half of the year.
“There will be a mini-audit of the IDA and we’ll have a clear understanding of the funds they will need at our next meeting," he said. “This is basically a transition period until we get in the spring budget season."

SoBo Couple Escapes Thai Killer Waves

Mitch and Teresa Wilborn Were Vacationing at a Phuket Beach Resort When ‘Paradise Lost’ Became A Reality

BY Mitch Wilborn
SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE-VIRGINIAN

Occasionally in life there are those small, ineffable pleasures that just sneak up on you: for example, walking down a beautiful beach in a tropical paradise admiring the calm turquoise-colored water on a cloudless day feeling glad to be alive. Then there are those not-so-small, inexpressible horrors that usually sneak up on you in your worst recurring nightmares: e.g., a three-story wall of water tumbling toward you at 40mph and your feet frozen in place...fortunately, you usually wake up at this point.
In Phuket on Mai Kao Beach the day after Christmas you got both experiences juxtaposed that morning, and the latter wasn’t a night terror that you could will yourself to wake up from. Until now most of my fears have been either garden-variety phobias-fear of small spaces, fear of heights, etc., or fairly rational fears about entering the food chain-swimming at the great barrier reef in Australia after a great white shark attack the previous week or hiking in California where mountain lion warnings had been posted.
The following is an account of how I acquired my latest neurotic baggage: cymophobia.
The Trip
I left from Raleigh-Durham airport in mid-December to spend Christmas with my wife, Teresa, in Singapore. The weather had just turned cold in Virginia so I was really looking forward to some time near the equator where the days are all 85 to 90 degrees year round.
The 9:35 a.m. flight was delayed because of some maintenance issues; then when we did finally try to leave, the pilot aborted takeoff because of a hydraulic failure warning light a few moments before lift-off and we were taken off the plane while they attempted to repair problem. We boarded plane again with same results. The lady behind me immediately called someone on her cell phone and asked them to pray for her. While I didn’t think divine intervention was necessary at this point, I knew it was going to be a very long day.
It was afternoon by this time and I obviously was not going to make the 1p.m. flight to Tokyo. I eventually ended up in a very cold and snowy Chicago later that night which made the warmth of the tropics even more appealing. The next day was uneventful. United was able to re-book me on the noon flight but because of strong winter headwinds, we took the northern route over Alaska which added to our time to Tokyo. I walked off one plane and onto another because of the late arrival; some twenty-four hours later I landed at Changi airport in Singapore where it was still 82 degrees at midnight.
Teresa and I had talked briefly about going somewhere during Christmas vacation but it looked like it wasn’t going to happen because this is the peak time for Asian holiday travel and everything gets booked months in advance. We had a Marriott timeshare that would expire at the end of the year unless we used it somewhere and since they have only one timeshare resort in Asia, I had just resigned myself to losing the week: their Thai resort was full and I just did not want to get back on a plane for an extended trip anywhere else.
I connected to the Internet after landing; being jet-lagged would keep me up all night anyway. I found that the JW Marriott in Phuket, Thailand was available for the week before Christmas...evidently someone had cancelled their week a few seconds before I logged onto the exchange site. I quickly reserved the week and with a couple of hours of scrambling to arrange the 1-hour flight on Thai Air, I was done.
The Resort
A few days later we arrived in paradise. The JW Marriott Phuket Resort is a 3-year-old 265-room showplace hotel and spa located on the north end of Phuket Island away from the main tourist area of Patong Beach. Because this area is a protected sea turtle sanctuary, Royal Garden Resorts, the owners of the Marriott had to develop the site without changing any aspects of the shoreline which included a 20 ft. elevation increase between the water and the hotel grounds. In addition to being very steep, the beach is not very wide so you can imagine that there were some interesting discussions between the developers and the building permit office concerning the amount of money being spent, the number of jobs the hotel would provide, and the taxes and tourist dollars the project would bring in on one hand versus the endangered turtles and their steep tourist-unfriendly beach on the other (the turtles evidently thought that the beach was just fine for laying their eggs).
In the US we have these legal confrontations from time to time regarding northern spotted owls, snail-darters or other rare critters than pit groups against each other depending on political affiliation, constitutional interpretations, environmental positions or whatever. These disagreements are usually localized and rather esoteric; thus, the outcomes have little significance on most people lives.
However, in the case of the Thai leatherback turtles, the 500 human beings at the Marriott Phuket Resort on the day after Christmas should be eternally thankful that the turtle won this time. Usually in poorer countries when there is this much money involved, beaches, mangrove forests, coral reefs, and wildlife habitats lose every time.
While no one could have presaged the 9.0-magnitude earthquake, this 20-ft. rise was the primary reason that there were no fatalities and only a few injuries at the Marriott. Not too far away, some developers had bulldozed the beach flat when they built in order to make their hotels more appealing.
The week in Phuket turned out to be very simple; no elephant rides, snorkeling trips, jungle treks or boat trips to James Bond Island. The formula for simplicity was as follows: eat, sit under an umbrella, read, nap, eat, sit under an umbrella, go for a swim if it gets too hot, eat... repeat as necessary. We stayed inside the resort grounds most of the time but did venture off the property once early in the week to follow a friendly group of dogs as they walked down the beach. They led us to Linda’s Restaurant.
The Animals
We eventually ate at Linda’s several times, a little oceanfront thatched-hut restaurant which is contiguous to the Marriott property on the north. Although their English is not very good-a lot better than my Thai, however-from what I could understand, Linda, her husband, and their 5 dogs run the place.
There is nothing pretentious about this eatery: just good food. The thatched structure is open air with most of the chairs and tables just out in the sand. The furniture is all handmade bamboo. I don’t mean the kind you can buy in fancy catalogs: I mean the kind you build with some backyard bamboo, a Sears Craftsman handsaw and a lot of 16-penny nails.
The mixed-breed dogs keep you company while you eat...they seem to each have their own mound of sand they stoically sit on in a king-of-the-mountain pose, coming by your table for a rub every now and then, but never to beg. We did not hear them bark once at any time during the week. On the night before the earthquake, they started barking as soon as it turned dark and did not stop until 8 a.m. almost the exact time the earthquake struck off Sumatra, Indonesia about 600 miles away from Phuket.
Western science takes a skeptical view of the predictive abilities of animals; they file these anecdotal accounts away in the same cabinet that contains Elvis, Bigfoot, and the Loch Ness Monster sightings.
Rupert Sheldrake, a retired Cambridge University Don, is one the leading proponents of the “psychic” powers of animals. He said that there were many independent reports of erratic animal behavior from around the world before earthquakes. He called the prevailing view narrow-minded, and, ahem, dogmatic.
James Berkland, a retired USGS geologist who correlates earthquakes with lost pet ads in daily newspapers states that the number of lost pets goes up significantly before an earthquake. Many pet owners would agree that their animals are tuned in to stimuli that are not accessible to their owners.
Fishermen through the Indian Ocean region reported that on the day before the earthquake, their catches were up to 20 times greater than normal. After the earthquake reports came in from Sri Lanka where the tsunami floodwaters inundated the Yala Wildlife Reserve which is home to hundreds of wild elephants and not one elephant was killed...they couldn’t find so much as a dead rabbit. Whether animals have a sixth sense or are as dull as that unnamed cousin of yours is open to interpretation. But don’t tell that to Linda’s dogs. By the way, they are all fine, Linda, her husband, and the dogs.
The Tsunamis
Six days, six books, a bottle of Coppertone, a lot of Thai food and a few umbrella drinks later, it was time to leave paradise. That Sunday morning started like every other day we had been there; warm, humid, no clouds and a gentle breeze just barely stirring the palms. We had a 1 p.m. flight so we planned to leave the hotel around 10:30 a.m. That gave me time to go to the gym around 8:30 a.m. while Teresa read by the pool, which is about 200 feet back from the beach. After finishing my workout, I went to the pool until we left for the room to pack. After about 15 minutes I left Teresa to finish the packing while I went to the lobby to check out. We were staying on the 4th floor of the north villas so it was a 10- minute walk via the beach walkway to the front desk. I walked out for one last look at the ocean and started back toward the lobby.
I had just walked up the first flight of stairs which was about 100feet from the pool when I heard a large roaring noise and the sound of breaking furniture as all of the wooden lounge chairs were smashed against the raised concrete planters along the pool or thrown into the pool as the first 30-ft. wave hit.
There was some screaming from the injured but surprisingly little; mostly you could hear the staff yelling in Thai. A newly constructed thatched-roof boat rental building was demolished...its roof beams snapped in two and the block foundation completely destroyed. You could see the water receding very rapidly sweeping the chairs and lounges back toward the ocean. Then the second tsunami hit with more power than the first.
Fortunately, the few people who had been out by the pool were not swept into any of the concrete structures nor hit directly by objects picked up by the waves. A third wave struck but with less fury than the first two. Then it was all over. There was just a slight breeze, still no clouds in the sky, and an eerie quiet just like nothing had happened. The sea remained unsettled for some time and full of debris but otherwise, the entire scene had a twilight-zone feel to it.
People were wandering around in shock; a few of them were bleeding and some limping or holding their heads. The hotel staff didn’t know what to do. No one really knew what was happening at this point so I foolishly went back down to the pool after the third wave. Before a security guard escorted me away, I got a view of the entire beachfront scene; it looked like something from the war footage in Baghdad. There had been a group of masseuses who gave 60-minute Thai massages for 300 baht (about $8.00) at the edge of the beach. I saw many of them covered with beach mud trying to recover any of their materials.
A few of the Palm trees were snapped off; virtually all of the extensive landscaping was uprooted and deposited into the pool or was part of the flotsam that got sucked back out into the ocean as far as you could see.
The hotel management wanted all guests to go to the main ballroom because there were rumors of more tsunamis on the way. I went to get Teresa who had noticed the commotion and seen the waves from our villa’s porch. We returned directly to the lobby. Power was off by this time. A nursing station was set up to handle the injured. I had my backpack with my computer and was able to access Marriott’s wireless network: this is how we discovered the severity of the disaster.
Initially, the reports from Indonesia indicated a 6.4-magnitude earthquake; while not small, this was not a catastrophic event when it occurs in 12,000 feet of water. However, within moments it was clear that the USGS reading of 9.0 was the correct one.
We began to realize how fortunate we were to have been at this resort. Reports started coming in from staff that Patong Beach was hit badly and people were killed. Then CNN started picking up on the global reach of the earthquake; every time you refreshed their internet site the death count rose. And it has risen unabated since then.
Rumors of more killer waves persisted for hours; thus, we had to stay in the lobby area the rest of the afternoon until they had the power restored and the threat of aftershock tsunamis had passed. Since the airport was closed, no one had any idea when we would be able to get out. By the time we got back to our room it was evening: we watched CNN most of the night and by morning were exhausted but by then knew how incredibility lucky we were. Found out we had tentative flights for day after tomorrow so we watched the TV reports until it was just too painful to see anymore videotape of the worldwide tragedy.
As we walked around the property later that day, we could only imagine what it would have been like without the 20-feet high beach to absorb most of the energy of the three waves. Some ocean front rooms looked bombed out; glass doors and windows blown into the rooms and only sticks left for furniture. The two oceanfront restaurants were completely ruined with most of their furniture washed away or broken up. You could tell which guests were on the ground floor because they were the ones you saw around the resort for the next few days in what looked like flowing white pajamas provided by the hotel until they could replace their ruined clothes when the shops opened. At first I thought it was a Hare Krishna delegation.
When we finally got to the airport a few days later, it was chaotic. People still had that shell-shocked demeanor and shuffled around aimlessly while waiting for their planes. Many were wrapped with bandages on arms and legs with the most severe in wheelchairs and on crutches. Their stories were frightening. The runway was filled with military rescue and support planes and helicopters dealing with the injured and the dead. They called our flight and within 30 minutes we were lifting off over the Andaman Sea on our way back to Singapore. Looking out the window at the ravaged coastline, it was difficult to imagine that only a week had gone by.
The Aftermath
By now you know the rest of the story. The enormity is overwhelming. Usually when bad things happen in nature, they occur on a variation of it-was-a-dark-and stormy-night theme: tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, typhoon, cyclones, hailstorms, etc, require, by definition, bad weather.
When the proverbial lightning bolt comes out of the blue on a perfect tropical day, the incongruity makes the cataclysm even more difficult to understand. Victims’ families struggle first with the grief, then with the uncertainty of what happens next. Closure is impossible for many because their loved ones will never be found. Survivors try to cope with the “Why not me?” issue. The poor and the children always suffer the most-1/3 of all casualties were children-whole generations were lost.
Ecosystems may never recover. The Maldives may not be able to survive economically: with the highest point on the island chain three feet above sea level, there is a real question about rebuilding. Since this is perhaps the first natural world-wide disaster in the modern era (the two world wars were certainly global in perspective but man-made nonetheless), the countries of world have a chance to overcome past jealousies, pettiness, and rivalries and do good.
For example, there is a glimmer of hope even in Sri Lanka which has been torn by civil strife for 2 decades. However, it usually doesn’t take long for goodwill to dissipate and the political status-quo return. The eurocentric International Herald Tribune chided the US about its aid contributions saying that the US donated less than 1 percent of its budget in previous year; the more conservative Asian Wall St. Journal countered in an editorial stating the US contributed 40% of all worldwide aid in that same year. This whole tragedy was made for TV and print.
Miles of copy have been written and hours of videotape filmed, first about the numbers:
• How many dead? Which countries? How much damage?
Then stories about individual survival and tragedy:
• The two Scandinavian infants who were separately found alone but ok.
• The 20-day-old baby found healthy floating on a mattress in Penang, Malaysia.
• The 72-year old man swept 2 miles out to sea but managed to swim back to shore.
• The family in Indonesia who lost five of their seven children when they went to pick up fish after the waters receded before the first big wave.
• The 10-year-old student who saved 100 people on a beach near the Marriott because she had just studied tsunamis in school and recognized the signs.
Then the truly bizarre:
• A woman near the epicenter of the quake, Aceh, Indonesia was carried out of her house by the waves and dragged toward her injured neighbor who was struggling to save her nine-year-old twins; she put the two children on her back and as she was swept away by the torrent, she was guided by a snake as big as a telephone pole back to the safety of the mangroves.
Then the ironic:
• The JW Marriott Hotel in Bangkok was advertising heavily in local papers the opening of their new restaurant, Tsunami, on the weekend of the earthquake.
Then the post-tsunami questions:
• Why there wasn’t an early warning system in the Indian Ocean like there is in the Pacific?
• Was the US “stingy” when they first announced their aid contributions?
• Why can’t the aid organizations get their act together in the delivery of services?
• Why did tourists receive preferential medical treatment and attention?
Personally, I am just glad to be alive. I could have been swimming in the ocean as I did every morning during my stay in Phuket. I could have been on a jet ski like the King of Thailand’s 21-year-old grandson was. I could have been at the brand new Sofitel Hotel in Khao Lak (just north of the Marriott) where 3000 workers had worked double shifts for a year to complete the project: it was completely demolished in five minutes with 90% of the staff and guests dead. I could have been shopping on the underground floor of Ocean Plaza Shopping Center in Patong Beach.
You can’t think about the “why” questions too much; otherwise you would just pull the cover over your head in the morning and not get out of bed...probably the best you can do is say that it wasn’t my or Teresa’s day, and move on.
Since Americans account for only 5% of Thailand’s 12 million tourists each year, most of the people I met were from other countries. Whether Buddhist, or Taoist, or Christian, or Muslim, or Hindu, as survivors we all had similar feelings of guilt, inadequacy, helplessness, and sorrow. The clichés about life become clichés because there is some truth in all of them: Life is fragile. Life is fleeting. Life is precious. My banal observations this week confirm all of the above.
The Thai people are the most generous and truly kind people that I have ever met in my travels. Maybe as a result of this global catastrophe we can all strive to be a bit kinder, a bit more generous, a bit more accepting. Maybe we can become a little less selfish and a little less critical. In other words, maybe we can become a little more Thai.
When I taught a course in the humanities, I used Eric Hoffer’s philosophical treatise, The True Believer. I had not thought of it in a long time until this tragedy. During the Depression, Hoffer, a longshoreman, did whatever he could to survive. While picking peas one day, he looked down his row and saw that someone was had begun picking on “his” row and was moving toward him. He got angrier and angrier the closer the two men got together. How dare this pea picker steal his peas! As they met in the middle of the row, Hoffer was ready to fight. The man, however, simply poured the peas he had collected in his hat into Hoffer’s hat, looked at him and said, “Pass it on.” Sounds like a good strategy for going forward.
As a result of the tsunami, I suspect I have changed in ways I can’t yet imagine. Time will tell. I can say this: If there is anything you have dreamed about doing with your life, do it now. Share whatever you can with those less fortunate than you. Live every day as if it was your last. Like one of my good friends said to me one day: You don’t know how many nickels are in the meter. I guess I will just have to live with my new found fear of waves.
Would I do anything differently? I do wish I could take my college physics lab exam over: I now have a much better understanding of the wave mechanic concepts of amplitude, refraction, and wave run-up. And one final bit of practical advice: If you ever see the ocean recede in front of you in a Red-Sea-Old-Testament fashion, run in the opposite direction as if your life depended on it. It probably does.

 

Obituaries

Carl Arthur Conner

Carl Arthur Conner, 74, of 2028 North Terry’s Bridge Road, Halifax died January 4 at Halifax Regional Hospital.
Mr. Conner was born in Halifax County on September 13, 1930, the son of Arthur Henry Conner and Sallie Wilborn Conner and was married to Frances Coates Conner. He was a member of Bethel Baptist Church.
Survivors include his wife; four daughters, Wanda Conner of Woodbridge, Vickie C. Newton of South Boston, Sheila C. Forlines and Kimberly C. Lloyd, both of Halifax; three brothers, Joseph H. Conner Sr., Edward A. Conner and Willis D. Conner, all of Scottsburg; 10 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Funeral services for Mr. Conner will be held tomorrow, January 6 at Bethel Baptist Church at 2 p.m. with the Rev. Vance Midgett officiating. Burial will follow in the church cemetery.
The family will receive friends this evening from 7:00 until 8:30 at Powell Funeral Home, and other times at the home.
Those wishing to give memorials are asked to consider Halifax County cancer Association, P.O. Box 875,South Boston, 24592

Mary Irene Morris Bennett Crymes

Mary Irene Morris Bennett Crymes, 71, of Crewe died January 1.
Mrs. Crymes was the daughter of the late Obie and Kathryn Blanks Morris, formerly of Halifax County, and the wife of Len Crymes. She was the widow of James Crider Bennett.
Survivors include her husband; two daughters, Brenda B. Clark and husband, Bobby, of Farmville, and Kathye B. Chambliss and husband, Joe, of Greenville, N.C.; one son, James Michael Bennett and wife, Sondra, of Richmond; her grandchildren, Gary and Michelle Kerns and their children, Maryssa and Dylan of Cary, N.C., Ryan and Becky Norton and children, AlecZander and Shae, all of Raleigh, N.C.; a stepson, Ronnie Crymes and wife, Nancy, of Richmond; one brother, Mac Morris and his wife, Reabel, of Burkeville.
Funeral services were held at 2 p.m. January 3 at Crewe United Methodist Church with the Rev. Rick Woodall officiating. Burial followed in Wards Chapel Cemetery.
Those wishing to give memorials are asked to consider the Nottoway Rescue Squad, 501 E. Virginia Avenue, Crewe, 23920, or Crewe UMC, 607 Georgia Avenue, Crewe, 23930.

Robert Miller

Robert Miller of 3125 Dan River Church Road, South Boston died at his home January 3 at the age of 54.
He was born in Albany, Ga. on June 15, 1950, to the late James Williams and the late Ophelia Wesley and was married to Brenda Brown Miller.
Survivors of Mr. Miller include his wife; 10 children; a host of grandchildren; and one sister, Minister Betty J. Wesley of Richmond.
Funeral services for Mr. Miller will be held tomorrow, January 6, at noon at Dunn & Sons Funeral Home in Halifax with the Rev. Phillip Brown officiating. Burial will follow in Brown Memorial Church of God in Christ Cemetery.
The family will receive friends this evening, January 5 from 6 to 7 at the funeral home and other times at the home.

Tale Of Two Champions

Armstrong, Spencer Compete In Muay Thai Boxing

BY Doug Ford
G-V STAFF WRITER

Former Muay Thai Boxing champion Ken Armstrong is attempting a comeback this year - and he may have Glenn Spencer Jr., to thank for it.
Armstrong, a 34-year-old Halifax County resident and Camp 23 Correctional Officer, is scheduled to fight February 26 in Atlanta, the first Muay Thai fight for him since 1996.
Spencer, a 33-year-old Raleigh resident and student of Armstrong, won the Light Cruiser Weight (185 pound) title in Muay Thai Boxing December 11 in Atlanta, and Armstrong found the spark he needed to return to the ring while training Spencer.
“I met Glenn about two and one-half years ago in Raleigh and we started training around here," Armstrong recalled.
“He started getting some amateur bouts in Virginia Beach, Norfolk and Roanoke, before we met someone who was holding fights every Saturday night in Georgia, and Glenn went down there," he continued.
Spencer has compiled a 15-2 record thus far in the sport of Muay Thai.
“He was given a title shot, and the only difference in his title fight from other Muay Thai bouts was that elbows were allowed," said Armstrong.
“We really had to go into specific training to learn how to throw and protect yourself from elbows."
The sport of Muay Thai evolved from a style of self defense taught to the Thai military to fight the Burmese, according to Armstrong, who said everything goes in Muay Thai boxing.
A fighter can use his hands, legs, knees and elbows against his opponent, and elbows are especially a potent weapon, he added.
“That could make or break a fighter, and if you’re cut bad enough, it could stop a fight," explained Armstrong.
“The only protection you have are 10 ounce boxing gloves."
Armstrong was exposed to Muay Thai while stationed with the U.S. Air Force in Thailand, first going to a couple of matches as a spectator, then to a boxing camp to learn the sport.
Training methods for Muay Thai are similar to those for boxers, according to Armstrong.
“They involve a lot of running, jump roping, situps, crunches, heavy bag work and Thai pad work," said Armstrong.
Thai pads are big pads similar to catcher’s mitts, except much larger. Muay Thai fighters punch and kick them as part of their training regimen.
Armstrong was fighting in the Junior Welterweight Division (142 pounds), when he became the first American to hold the Muay Thai Championship while in Thailand.
He defended his title twice before relinquishing it after returning to the U.S. in 1997, and he is returning to Muay Thai simply for the love of the sport.
“I’m not looking for any big national title," noted Armstrong. “I’ve held the biggest title someone in my profession can hold. “I’m fighting just to be fighting."
Armstrong is currently training for his comeback at a gym he co-owns in Clarksville, the only gym in the area that trains both boxers and Muay Thai fighters.
Co-owner Adrian Smith was another who encouraged Armstrong to return to the ring, telling the 34-year-old Armstrong to simply “go for it."
Smith has compiled a career record of 129-25 and will compete this time in the MiddleWeight Division (160-170 pounds).
Armstrong has a busy schedule in addition to his comeback plans and training Spencer.
He is also training local boxer Dinisio Martin for the Rough and Rowdy boxing competition in Salem January 28.

HCHS Baseball Booster Club Is On The Brink

Booster Club Officials Will Make A Final Bid Monday To Save The Organization

BY Joe Chandler
G-V STAFF WRITER

Officials of the Halifax County High School Baseball Booster Club will make a final attempt to save the organization when it meets Monday night at 7 p.m. at Halifax County High School.
Citing a lack of parent support and attendance at meetings, outgoing club president Brenda Trickey said the Booster Club is on the brink of folding – and likely will fold – unless there is a surge in attendance at Monday night’s meeting.
Booster Club officials are urging parents of players on the Halifax County High School varsity and jayvee baseball teams and parents of students who plan to try out for the team this spring to attend Monday night’s meeting.
The purpose of the meeting is to elect new officers and to make preliminary plans for activities for the upcoming spring baseball season.
“I am sorry to say that if parents don’t come forward to this meeting, the baseball booster club program may fold,” Trickey said.
“The last time we held a meeting and attempted to elect officers we had only six people there,” she said.
“When you consider how many parents there are of the players on the two baseball teams, six people aren’t very many. We need more help than that if we are going to continue to go forward.
“Therefore, I’m asking parents of these young men who will be a part of the high school baseball program this spring to attend this very crucial meeting,” continued Trickey.
“The club needs new officers every one to two years to keep the program healthy and running efficiently. We are urging parents and anyone else in the community who is interested in supporting and assisting the high school baseball teams to come to this meeting and express their concern and willingness to keep the booster club going. Anyone having any questions may contact me at 575-5122.”
The Halifax County High School Baseball Booster Club is a non-profit volunteer organization designed to assist the high school varsity and junior varsity baseball teams and the high school baseball program.
Funds raised by the Booster Club are used for a wide variety of projects. Projects such as improvements to the high school baseball field, providing charter buses for the varsity baseball team on its longest trips for district, regional and state tournament games and providing end-of-season team awards for Comets players are just a few of the items that funds have been designated for.
Last season, the booster club provided funds for practice apparel for players, district championship plaques and a year-end awards banquet for players, their parents, and team coaches.