Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Formal Vote Expected This Week
Eades Endorsed For Industry Hunter Post

Expected To Be Named Executive Director ‘As Soon As Possible’

While no formal vote has been taken, the Halifax County Economic Development Authority appears to have narrowed its field of candidates for the executive director to one.
“We’re extremely interested in Mike Eades," EDA Chairman Rick Harrell said. “His 25 years of experience in economic development is the type of background we were looking for when we began the search in the middle of December."
Harrell said the EDA expects to pay Eades, 53, around $95,000 a year.
According to the EDA chairman, the Board reviewed around 15 candidates that were narrowed down to three before settling on Eades.
“After the endorsement of the county and South Boston, we hope to convene as soon as possible to vote on hiring our new executive director," he said.
Following closed meetings Monday where members of the Halifax County Board of Supervisors and South Boston Town Council met the candidate, both bodies unanimously agreed to endorse the choice of Eades for the position.
Supervisors said that while EDA members wanted their opinion on the candidate, the final decision rests with the fledgling authority.
“There was no official vote,” Board Chairman William Fitzgerald said. “We don’t have a vote on the candidate because that’s an EDA initiative.”
“We aren’t a part of the interview committee,” Supervisor James Edmunds added. “But they have picked one candidate out of the final three and wanted our support before they went forward.”
Fitzgerald said supervisors met with Eades for more than an hour.
“After meeting the candidate, the Board of Supervisors have agreed to support the EDA candidate presented to us,” he said.
According to his resume, Eades has been a Certified Economic Developer since 1981 and has continuously worked in economic development since 1976.
“I have demonstrated success in all previous assignments in both the public and private sectors and at the state, regional and local levels," his resume reads. “I have played key roles in team efforts that have resulted in the attraction of more than 100 new projects to various communities and the expansion of more than 175 existing firms."
The projects resulted in the creation of more than 20,000 new jobs, according to Eades.
Most recently, Eades served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Florence, S.C. economic development partnership.
He spent three years as the senior vice president of the Greater Columbia (S.C.) Chamber of Commerce and was president and CEO of the Central Carolina Economic Development Alliance.
Eades is married to Charlie Mae Eades. The couple has no children.
After meeting Eades, supervisors voted to allocate $10,000 from the existing Industrial Development Authority budget to the EDA for operations through February.

 

New Group Named To Raise School Monies

School Trustees Honored By Area Students

Halifax County has a new group responsible for seeking out funding for education programs.
The fifteen member board of directors for the Halifax County Public School Education Foundation was named Monday during the School Board’s regular monthly meeting at the Mary Bethune Office Complex.
“The focus of the Foundation is to raise funds for special projects here in the school division,” Schools Superintendent Paul Stapleton told School Board members. “You have some excellent people being appointed to this board. There are several people in this group who have experience chairing groups. You also have a number of people who have experience working with either fundraising efforts or foundations."
One-year appointments to the new board of directors include Chris Lumsden, Ted Bennett, Judy Kraft, Stanley Jeffress and School Board Chairman Arthur Reynolds.
Fields Thomas, John Cannon, Logan Young, Poo Roberts and Tay Bost were each appointed to serve a two year term on the board of directors.
Appointments to three-year terms included James Bradshaw, Rose Hawkins, Doug Bowman, Ellen Gray Hogan and William Coleman.
Eventually all members of the new board will serve a three year term, but initial appointments were staggered in order to create an appointment rotation cycle, according to Stapleton.
“You have to have a cycle where everybody is being reappointed so you will always have new and experienced members,” he said. “Hopefully the new board will have their first meeting at the end of February or the beginning of March so they can decide what direction they want to take.
“The main focus is to raise as much money as they can to fund special projects,” Stapleton added yesterday. “This is all program oriented. They will be looking for additional funding resources for programs like the new academy. The Foundation will fill a great roll for this school system.”
In other business, school bus driver Vivian Pringle asked school trustees to consider creating a retirement plan for bus drivers, many of whom have served the system for 30 to 40 years.
“We are trained drivers, driving thousands and thousands of miles,” she said. “We love children and have children of our own. We have patience but no retirement.
“We feel like we are left out,” she added. “We are willing to go the extra mile to get this. We say no bus driver left behind.”
The lack of a retirement plan for bus drivers is a statewide problem, Stapleton told the board.
“The problem we have is not with the board or the local budget,” he said. “You have to be classified as a full-time employee in order to be part of the states retirement plan.
“We are very fortunate to have a good group of drivers,” he added yesterday. “The have been doing it for a long time and I would really like to find something I can do for them. We are going to look to see if there is anything we can do for them locally during this year’s budget process.”
Monday night’s meeting also featured a number of recognitions, both by and of the board.
The board recognized Craig McCargo for becoming HCHS’s basketball career scoring record holder.
Harvey Dillard was also recognized for being Virginia’s Mentor of the year.
“I can think of no individual who has done more for the young people of this county than Harvey Dillard,” said Assistant Superintendent Larry Clark. “He served 32 years with distinction and established what we know as a Role Model Program.”
Dillard told the board he was pleased to have represented Halifax County.
“It was a pleasure to know we have something good for us in Halifax County,” he said. “We know we are making a difference. If just one person can say ‘there was a program that turned me around,’ that will be the true reward. If we can save just one young person then we will know it has been a success."
The entire board was recognized by area students to celebrate School Board Appreciation Month.
Students from each of the county’s elementary schools presented trustees with framed artwork and writing samples.
The board also unanimously approved a request to waive the states pre-Labor Day opening requirements.
In order to waive the requirements a school system has to have missed more than eight days in five of the past 10 years, according to Clark.
“Our average number of days in the past ten years is 11.2 days," he said. “ And, without the number of days that may be missed in the 2005-06 school year, taking just the number of days we have missed to date, we would also qualify for the 2006-07 school year."

Bacon Fire Chief Is Indicted Embezzlement

WYLLIESBURG - A former chief of the Bacon District Volunteer Fire Department has been charged with 19 felony counts of embezzlement, stemming from a two month investigation by the Department of Charitable Gaming (DCG).
According to DCG Director Clyde E. Cristman, a Charlotte County Grand Jury returned true bills on 19 embezzlement charges on William Ferrell, 56, of Wylliesburg, last Wednesday.
“Through an agreement reached with the Charlotte County Commonwealths Attorney’s Office, Mr. Ferrell turned himself into the Sheriff’s Office there on Friday,” Cristman said. “Ferrell was the chief of the department at one time, and in more recent years served as the assistant chief, and bingo treasurer, before resigning from the department in November 2004.”
Cristman explained that the Department of Charitable Gaming, which oversees the bingo gaming of all volunteer fire departments, received a complaint from the fire department on Dec. 20, 2004.
“Under the supervision of the new fire chief, members of the fire department were reviewing when it was discovered that some things did not add up right,” Cristman said. “In any situation where there is some question involving the bingo financial records, fire departments are required by state law to immediately notify the DCG and that is exactly what happened in this case.”
During the course of the DCG’s investigation, its members reviewed all bingo financial transactions back to 1995 when the Bacon District Fire Department first received authorization to conduct bingo games.
In addition, a search warrant was executed at Ferrell’s residence on Jan. 5 by the DCG’s Enforcement Unit and the Virginia State Police.
“The bingo operation has netted $300,000 to support the fire department since the bingo games began in 1995,” Cristman said, ‘Our investigation revealed that more than $10,000 of that money was missing from the bingo operation.”
Evidence recovered in the investigation supported information initially supplied by the fire department as to the alleged embezzlement of funds, he said.
Cristman added that all departments operating bingo games are required to keep specific records of all transactions.
“They are required to track the number of people coming in, the number of papers sold, the amount of prizes distributed, and how much money is left at the end, of the night,” he said. ‘They also must keep detailed records of all supplies bought and sold as part of the operation."
To determine the exact amount of money missing from the department, the DCG thoroughly reviewed all bingo financial records, bank deposits, and contacted all bingo operation suppliers as required by law.
Any company supplying material for bingo gaming must be licensed by the state, and maintain records of all transactions.
The 19 indictments represent six month intervals originating in July of 1995, and ending in November 2004, Cristman said.
From the moment the investigation began, Cristman said that the Bacon District Fire Department fully cooperated with every aspect of the investigation.
“We appreciate all the cooperation we received from the department, and from the State Police and other assisting agencies during the course of our investigation,” Cristman said.
Following his arrest Friday, Ferrell was released on bond. A trialS date is expected to be scheduled in the Charlotte County Circuit Court in the near future.

 

Obituaries

Rev. John Robert Anderson

Rev. John Robert Anderson, 91, of 1208 Union Church Road, Halifax died February 12 at his home.
Rev. Anderson was born in Halifax County on June 15, 1913, the son of the late James Solomon Anderson and Maggie Trent Anderson, and was married to Rosalind Elizabeth Royal Anderson. He was a member of New Vernon Baptist Church. Before retirement, Rev. Anderson served as pastor of Christ Chapel Baptist Church in Lynchburg for over 25 years.
Surviving Rev. Anderson are his wife; two daughters, Gloria Howerton and Doris Ferrell, both of Halifax; three sons, Harold Anderson of Halifax, Thomas Anderson of Fort Washington, Md. And James Anderson of Chesapeake; 15 grandchildren; 19 great-grandchildren; six great-great-grandchildren. H e was also preceded in death by two sisters, Anna Lee Hill and Irene Harris; and three brothers, Doctor J. Anderson, Henry Anderson and Isaac Anderson.
Funeral services will be held tomorrow, February 17 at 1 p.m. at New Vernon Baptist Church with the Rev. Dr. Roger Ford officiating. Burial will follow in the church cemetery.
The family is receiving friends at the home.

Carl Edward Henderson

Carl Edward Henderson, 78, of 1095 Carl Henderson Trail, Vernon Hill died February 13, at Medical College of Virginia Hospital in Richmond.
Mr. Henderson was born in Halifax County on February 28, 1925, the son of the late Herbert Edwin Henderson and Edna Smoot Henderson, and was married to Pauline Slate Henderson. He was a member of McCanless Memorial United Methodist Church and was a retired tobacconist with Universal Leaf Tobacco Company.
Survivors include his wife of the home; two sons, Carl Henderson Jr. and wife, Ginny, of Charlotte County, and Shannon J. Henderson of Vernon Hill; two daughters, Sherry Henderson Owen and husband, Henry, of Vernon Hill and Terry Henderson of Zebulon, N.C.; two grandchildren, Grey Henderson and Sydney Henderson, both of Charlotte County; and two sisters, Elyle Henderson Cole and Betty Henderson Terry, both of South Boston.
Funeral services for Mr. Henderson will be held today, February 16, at 2 p.m. at Pleasant Grove Christian Church with the Rev. Phillip C. Showers officiating. Burial will follow in the church cemetery.

West Sadler Martin

West Sadler Martin, born on July 21, 2001, to Benjamin Kyle and Marion Crews Martin of Richmond, died Sunday, February 13.
Survivors include a brother, John William; a sister, Leah Ambrose; his grandparents, John and Jessie Crews of Nathalie, and Alfred and Diane Martin of Richmond. He attended First Baptist Pre-school in Richmond.
The funeral will be held at St. James Episcopal Church, 1205 W. Franklin Street, Richmond, on Friday, February 18, at 2:30 p.m. with a reception in the parish hall following the service.
Memorials in West’s name may be made to the Kilmarnock Rescue Squad, Kilmarnock, 22482, or to Patrick Henry Boy’s Home, 204 Lynchburg Ave., Brookneal, 24528

Lillie Palmer Stone

Lillie Palmer Stone, 53, of Long Island died February 12 in Halifax Regional Hospital.
Mrs. Stone was born April 6, 1951, in Halifax County the daughter of the late Julian Palmer and Fannie Bell Jones Palmer Lewis of Long Island. She was employed by Capps Shoe Factor in Gretna, and was a member of Mt. Airy Baptist Church.
Surviving are her husband, Joe Stone, of the home; a daughter, Lakesha Crews of Long Island; her mother; her stepfather, Lionell Lewis of Long Island; two sisters, Sarah Davis and husband, James, and Ella Stovall and husband, George, all of Halifax; one brother, James Palmer of Long Island; and a nephew whom she raised, Terry Palmer.
Funeral services for Mrs. Stone will be held February 18 at 1 p.m. from Mt. Airy Baptist Church in Gretna by the Rev. R.P. King with burial in the church cemetery.
Visitation will be held Thursday evening from 3:00 until 7:00.

Otis Talley

Otis Talley, 64, of Baltimore, Md., formerly of Halifax County, died February 10 in Baltimore.
Mr. Talley was born in South Boston on June 6, 1940, the son of the late Irving Talley and Betty Gravitt Talley.
Surviving are his wife, Dorothy Talley; two sons, Michael and Marc Talley; one sister, Elaine Talley; one brother, Joseph Talley; two grandchildren; and one daughter-in-law.
Funeral services for Mr. Talley were held February 15, at 11:30 a.m. at New Shiloh Baptist Church in Baltimore.

 

Ladies Of The Mat

Heather Oakes, Shayna Oakes and Michelle Hunter Are Carving Their Niche On The HCHS Wrestling Team

BY Joe Chandler
G-V STAFF WRITER

Heather Oakes, Shayna Oakes and Michelle Hunter occupy a unique position in the realm of Halifax County High School’s sports program.
Three months ago, the trio of female athletes entered the rough and typically male-dominated sport of high school wrestling where the survival rate for females on male-dominated wrestling teams is low.
Several girls have joined the Halifax County High School wrestling team through the course of the past few years. Few stuck it out to the end.
Conditioning and skill practice drills are tough. So are the matches.
The female trio had plenty of bumps and bruises and an occasional bloody nose along the way. Officials often didn’t raise their arms to signify victory.
But, when their season ended last weekend, the three female members of the Comets wrestling team emerged as winners in their own right. They had faced and overcome numerous challenges and earned the respect of their male counterparts and coaches in the process.
“They’re competitors,” said Comets head wrestling coach Brady Taylor.
“This is the first group of girls I’ve had that have finished the whole season since my first year here when Kylie Armstrong and Tiffany Brizendine wrestled. We’ve had other girls to join the team in the past but they would last a day, maybe a week. The only girl that I have had since (Armstrong and Brizendine) to finish a season was Ashley Slaff. These girls are here to actually learn how to wrestle.”
The Comets coach says the hard work the girls have put in this season has been rewarded.
“They’ve picked up an awful lot,” Taylor pointed out.
“ They understand the sport. They know a lot about wrestling now and can hit a lot of different moves. Now, it’s just a matter of confidence and physical strength.
“They need to work in the off-season to get ready for next year,” continued the Comets coach.
“I’m expecting Heather, Shayna and Michelle to come back next year and win some matches for us.”
Shayna Oakes, a sophomore and Hunter and Heather Oakes, both of whom are juniors, have similar motivations for wanting to wrestle.
“I mostly wanted to get into shape for softball and to learn the different (wrestling) moves," explained Shayna Oakes. “I plan on doing it (wrestling) again next year."
“I wanted to get in shape and learn the basics this year so next year I can win more than I did this year," chimed in Heather Oakes. “It is a very good learning experience."
Hunter, who also plans to return to mat competition next year, said simply, “I want to be fit and know I can do this."
All three of the girls admitted that competing in wrestling is harder than it looks.
“It’s been very tough," admitted Hunter.
“To be honest, I was a lazy person. I came out here to run and do the conditioning. And, I wanted to learn to wrestle.”
Conditioning, Heather Oakes said, is the most difficult part of the sport.
“We didn’t come to conditioning for wrestling because we had started weightlifting for softball,” she explained.
“We came to (wrestling) tryouts and the conditioning there was hard just because I had not been running every day. Doing the moves and things was easy because the coaches made it easy and did it step by step instead of assuming we already knew it.”
The three girls pointed out that while competing in the matches is not quite as tough a task to face as the conditioning, but it is still a tough task to face.
“The first time I wrestled in competition I was scared because I didn’t know what to expect out there,” said Shayna Oakes.
“ I had seen it but I didn’t know what it would actually be like. But, after awhile it got easier to go out there.
“It’s very hard to compete,” added Hunter.
“It’s been a whole lot harder to compete than I thought. When you’re out there watching someone else wrestle, you know what to tell them. But, when you’re out there on the mat, everything is shut off. You can’t hear anything. You try to do your moves but you either forget them for a split second or you don’t do them quick enough.
“If you don’t think of that move in a split second, things have already changed and there is no time to do it,” Heather Oakes chimed in. “ It’s harder than it looks.”
Wrestling is a tough sport, a sport in which an athlete must have a combination of endurance, good physical conditioning, brute strength and a good working knowledge of basic wrestling moves.
Taylor said the sport, in some respects, represents a stiffer challenge for females than it does for males.
“In terms of girls actually physically going out and beating a boy, it’s tougher for them,” Taylor said.
“They have to work a lot harder than some of the guys just based on strength. All three of these girls know as many or more moves than the guys and can hit more moves than some of the guys on the team. But, when it comes down to just brute strength, it’s not there a lot of the time.”
Female wrestlers on male-dominated wrestling teams face additional challenges.
“They (girls) have a lot more to deal with than just wrestling, just in the way people think about them,” said Taylor.
“These girls have overcome that and have shown me and their teammates they are serious about wrestling. The guys look around in the practice room and see the girls are working just as hard or harder than they are. I think the guys have a fair amount of respect for that. From that standpoint, the girls on this team may have it a little easier than girls on teams at some other schools.”
The trio says they sometimes feel as if they are targets, that male opponents try harder to beat them than they would another male.
“The guys don’t take it easy on you because they don’t want to go back to their school and say they got beat by a girl,” Heather Oakes pointed out.
“ They try a lot harder because they don’t want to lose to a girl.”
Now that the season is over, the girls say they have proven a point to themselves as well as to others.
“Mostly, it’s us trying to prove a point to ourselves that we can do it and can go out and do better than the time before,” said Heather Oakes.
“We have a couple of other girls that want to join us next year just because they have seen this year we can do it.
“We are kind of a role model showing girls they can do whatever they want to do," added Shayna Oakes.
“They don’t have to go by the standard of this being a guy sport. Girls can do this, too."

Another Championship Season

Resilient Lions Boys Run The Table

BY Doug Ford
G-V STAFF WRITER

The Halifax County Middle School boys basketball team is celebrating another Southside Middle School Conference Tournament championship, its third in six years. This year’s team is the first in coach Mike Hailey’s tenure to go undefeated through both the regular season and conference tourney.
The Lions have won or shared the Conference Championship the past six years, adding tourney championships in 2001, 2003 before this season.
Resilience and an increasing confidence were the trademarks of the Lions this year, according to Hailey, who said each of his teams had a distinct personality.
“Each team is a personality unto itself," said Hailey, when comparing his six teams.
“When Craig McCargo was here as an eighth-grader, we were one game shy of being undefeated," recalled Hailey.
“Last year’s team ran the table but lost its last game [a heart breaker to Park View in the tournament championship].
“But, different levels of play have a lot to do with that. When Craig was here, the conference was extremely strong, last year I would say the conference was fairly average.
“This year, a couple of the teams were pretty good, the rest below average."
A strong non-conference schedule helped prepare the Lions for conference play this season, including two games with a strong Martinsville squad and a road game with always-tough Dillard.
The Lions beat Dillard 44-33 in its second game of the season, after opening with a 57-35 win over Martinsville. A comeback win during the Lions’ return matchup at Martinsville may have been the catalyst for Halifax the rest of the way.
“At Martinsville, we were down 11-2, and we outscore them 38-11 the rest of the way," recalled Hailey.
“This team developed a personality of its own and demonstrated it. They were resilient.
“Every time it looked like our backs were against the wall, they just dug down and did good things, and all of a sudden we were fundamentally sound again."
Halifax held its opponents to little more than 25 points a game this season, while averaging more than 54 points each contest, a more than 2-1 margin.
Four times this season the Lions held its opponent to under 20 points for an entire game, while scoring more than 60 points in four games.
The final test for Halifax came in the championship game of the Southside Middle School Conference Tournament, against an athletic Park View team with its own designs on the tourney title.
Three Lions starters were in early foul trouble, each picking up their third foul early in the second half, but Halifax didn’t fold.
Durrell Chandler, Lemal Adams, Russell White, Delquan Torian and Tremel Lipscomb hit key baskets and the Lions canned eight of eight foul shots in the second half, including six in a row down the stretch to seal the deal.
That Halifax didn’t fold may in large part have been due to the leadership of Lipscomb from the point guard position, according to Hailey.
“I thought it was going to get away from us, and I saw the momentum change a little bit, but Lipscomb has done it all year for us," said Hailey. “He’s been our heart and soul from the point guard position.
“I’ve always tried to keep a really good point guard and he’s as good as any I’ve had. He’s a better ball handler than some, a better shooter than some others are, and all-around, probably the best one I’ve had.
Perhaps the most improved player on the squad this season was White, according to Hailey, who at 6-5 towered over most of his opponents and used his height advantage to control the paint at both ends of the floor.
“He’s a super kid, and he’s come so far it’s hard to explain," noted Hailey. “Anyone who’s seen him play before this year and saw him the first day of practice as a seventh grader wouldn’t even know who he was."
This Lions team developed a confidence and poise that served them well as the season progressed, indicated Hailey.
“They’ve matured and come a long way, and they have their own personality," observed Hailey.
“They’re a real good bunch of boys and they genuinely like each other. That’s a big key."