Police Probe Friday Murder

Richard Leon Petty Dies After Being Stabbed During Domestic Dispute

Officers with the Virginia State Police and the Halifax County Sheriff’s Office are investigating a Friday stabbing that resulted in the death of a 31-year-old county man, according to Sheriff D.J. Oakes.
Oakes said that Richard Leon Petty, of Humps Trail, was stabbed once in the chest during an alleged domestic dispute with a household member.
The alleged altercation occurred on Humps Trail at approximately 9:15 p.m., according to law enforcement officials.
According to the sheriff, emergency rescue personnel from the Turbeville Volunteer Fire Department were called to the scene, but were unable to revive the victim.
“His body has been sent to the medical examiner’s office in Richmond to determine the exact cause of death,” Oakes said.
Following the incident, the crime scene was photographed and processed by investigators from the two agencies, with the alleged murder weapon sent to the state crime laboratory for examination by forensic experts, according to the sheriff.
“The officers interviewed several witnesses who were present during the altercation and, on the advice of Commonwealth’s Attorney Kim S. White, will likely present the case to a grand jury during the September term of Halifax County Circuit Court,” Oakes said.
Oakes said more details could be available at a later date pending the release of information by the medical examiner’s office and the commonwealth’s attorney.
Anyone with information about this case is asked to call Investigator Sheldon Jennings at 476-4273 or Special Agent T.A. Larue of the Virginia State Police at 476-1887. At night or on weekends call Crimestoppers at 476-TIPS.

County Leaf Producers Facing Hard Decisions

Officials: Production Down 36 Percent From 2004 Crop. Urge Farmers To Stay The Course

BY Keith Strange
strange@gazettevirginian.com

Despite the bleak outlook this year in the county’s tobacco industry, officials are hopeful that there is “light at the end of the tunnel.”
J.T. Davis, Board member of Concerned Friends For Tobacco, said that only 36 percent – or 1,842 acres – of flue cured leaf has been planted this year compared to the more than 5,700 acres planted last year.
Davis blamed the lowered production on a combination of factors including the buyout and the fact that worldwide supply of flue-cured tobacco is greater than the demand.
“The pipeline is full right now,” Davis said. “But what’s going to happen is you’re going to have to deplete that supply and it will take two or three years.”
Ending the Depression-era quota system, President Bush signed the buyout into law on October 22, 2004.
Davis said that according to economist Blake Brown with North Carolina State University, once the existing supply of flue-cured leaf is depleted, production is expected to increase by around 60 percent.
“That’s due to taking the costs of the quota out and making it more attractive from a price standpoint,” he said.
Davis said many farmers who previously had Star Scientific contracts were unable to find a buyer for their leaf when the company stopped receiving tobacco previously contracted.
“(Star’s action) left farmers scurrying to find a contract," he said. “There were an unusual number of farmers who couldn’t find a contract because they’d been taken up.
Other factors influencing the low production this year is the lack of farmer-friendly contracts with the Flue-Cured Tobacco Cooperative Stabilization Corporation.
Although Stabilization is offering farmers contract marketing centers, Davis said the cooperative is only offering advance prices on 40 percent of quota grown in 2004.
“There was such a large carryover crop from ‘04 that (the 40 percent) was taken up with carryover," Davis said. “The acreage was so small in a lot of cases that it couldn’t justify planting in 2005 and getting migrant help."
Like many industry watchers, Davis called the 2005 growing season a “transition period."
“This isn’t going to be a year to base your decisions on the future on," he said. “Things will get better.
“Going from quota to no quota, we have to go through a transition and go back and adjust. You’re going to see the contracts get more farmer-friendly," Davis predicted.
According to Don Anderson, executive director of the Virginia Tobacco Grower’s Association, average contract prices this year are in the $1.40 per pound range.
While contract prices last year averaged around $1.83 per pound, Anderson said the figures could be misleading.
“Out of that higher average price last year, you had the costs of quota you owned coming out," he said. “If you take the average lease costs and program costs out, I don’t think our economics are a lot different."
Anderson said many producers didn’t anticipate increased production costs this year.
“It doesn’t take a mathematician to know how much fuel has gone up and our costs have risen to produce a pound of tobacco," he said, adding that costs have risen by as much as 15-20 percent from when contracts were sold.
“I think the companies could help out out as far as price increases or grading, but if they elect not to do that, the grower will take a hard look at whether to get back in the business," Anderson added. “I think the price of this year’s crop at the contract sales point or auction will very much determine whether tobacco comes back in Halifax County."
This year, like last, Anderson is growing around 80 acres of flue-cured leaf. But he said his return will be “very marginal".
“We’ve been fortunate to have some timely rains and the quality and appearance of the crop is very good," he said. “But I’m very concerned about the cost side and how we’ll handle that."
One alternative, Davis said, is to increase production of burley tobacco in the county.
“With the downturn in flue, there has been an upturn in burley production," he said. “When a grower is concerned with escalating fuel and electricity costs, you don’t have that in burley."
He said he is working with various entities on a burley project that would lower production costs.
“We’re looking at mechanizing the process," Davis said. “We could cut the cost of labor by 50 percent from what it is now.
“We’re going to be looking at burley as an opportunity to replace production of flue-cured."
Davis urged producers to not base their decisions on this year’s decrease in production.
“The person who stays the course over the next couple of years will see light at the end of the tunnel," he said.

School System Hit With Insurance Premium Hike

A 13.9 Percent Rate Hike Will Pinch More Out Of School System Employees’ Wallets

School system employees will again feel the pinch of higher health insurance premiums during the coming school year.
While there will be a pinch, it won’t be as bad as it could have been.
Premiums for the coming school year will be 13.9 percent higher than last year. However, a $30 per month increase in the school system’s contribution to employee insurance premiums for ten months, coupled with a four-percent across-the-board pay hike means that employees, in terms of pre-tax dollars, will see an increase in group health insurance premiums of less than $20 per month.
“I wish it could have been better,” said Bill Covington, the school system’s chief financial officer.
“But, it could have been a lot worse. All of the renewals I am aware of across the state are of the double-digit variety. Some counties saw rates go up 20 percent or more. In that context, Halifax County didn’t turn out too bad.”
If the rate hike to the school system had held to nine percent or less, school system employees would not have had to face having more money taken out of their paycheck for group health insurance premiums.
In terms of pre-tax dollars, the increase in insurance premiums will be $16.93 per month or $169.34 a year for employees taking the employee only plan. For those employees taking the employee-child plan, the increase is $38.89 per month or $388.87 for the year.
Employees taking the employee-spouse plan will see an increase of $65.46 per month or $654.55 for the year. Those taking the family plan will see an increase of $74.71 per month or $747.07 a year.
The annual rate is based on 10 months.
In terms of straight cost, as opposed to pre-tax dollars, the monthly increase for employee-only plan is $23.52. The increase for the employee-child plan is $54.01 per month and the increase for the employee-spouse plan is $90.91 per month. The increase for the family plan is $103.76 per month.
Those figures are based on a 10-month period as well.
For the 2005-2006 school year, the school system is paying $330 per month toward the employee health insurance premiums for the employee-only plan. The rate rises to $370 per month for the employee-child plan, increases to $390 per month for the employee-spouse plan and goes up to $410 per month for the employee family plan.
Those rates are 10-month rates.
The Halifax County School Board has appropriated $2.3 million of the 2005-2006 school budget for group health insurance premiums.
In explaining the situation to the Halifax County School Board Monday night, Covington pointed out that while the school system’s claims in terms of the total dollar amount were only slightly higher last year than the previous year, several large claims were noted.
Covington said there were three claims filed that totaled over $90,000 last year. Also, there were 20 claims last year that involved $25,000 or more as compared to 14 in the previous year.
“The total dollars were not way off base,” Covington pointed out yesterday.
“But, we had bigger claims which served as a red flag as being not a good thing.”
In Other Matters
The Halifax County School Board unanimously passed a resolution Monday night requesting the Board of Supervisors to submit an application to the Virginia Public School Authority to issue bonds in the amount of $17.5 million.
The bond will cover the interim financing for the Halifax County Middle School project.
A pre-bid meeting for the project will be held August 17 with the bid opening set for September 1.
Executive Director for Instruction Joe Griles spoke to the School Board on the school system’s summer program, which was attended by a record number of students.
A total of 822 students attended the elementary program which was held at four sites, C.H. Friend Elementary School, Clays Mill Elementary School, South of Dan Elementary School and Sydnor Jennings Elementary School.
The percentages of students showing improvement in reading based on pre-assessment and post-assessment tests were as follows: Clays Mill 83 percent, C.H. Friend 82 percent, South of Dan 76 percent and Sydnor Jennings 75 percent.
The percentages of students showing improvement in math based on pre-assessment and post-assessment tests were as follows: Clays Mill 97 percent, Sydnor Jennings 91 percent, C.H. Friend 90 percent and South of Dan 56 percent.
Remediation programs for students in English, science, social studies and math were held at Halifax County Middle School.
All 65 students in English 6 and all 64 students in Math 6 completed remediation. Only four students out of the 143 students enrolled in the summer program failed.
Sixty-two students attended summer school at Halifax County High School, which offered Pre-Algebra, Algebra I Part A, English 9, English 11, Geometry Part A, Government 12 and World History Part A with all but four students passing.
Executive Director for Administration Paul Nichols presented an overview of the seven new academies being offered for the first time this year.
Nichols told the School Board that 78 students had enrolled in the academies after the first round of public information meetings. Additional presentations will be made next week at the meeting of incoming freshmen students at Halifax County High School and the school’s parent orientation session.
“We’re expecting 350 to 400 students to become involved by joining academies this year,” Nichols told the School Board.
School system officials noted that there are approximately 50 current juniors at Halifax County High School that could possibly complete the requirements of a college associate degree by the end of their senior year.
Also, Deputy Superintendent Larry Clark told the School Board that all of the teaching positions have been filled for the coming school year. There will be 49 new teachers in the school system this year as compared to 59 the past year.
The Halifax County School Board set September 7-8 as the date for its annual retreat. The School Board and school system officials will meet at the conference room of Building I at the Riverstone Industrial Park complex.
Finally, the School Board voted to hold its September meeting at Wilson Memorial Elementary School.

 

Obituaries

Eddie Owen Smith

Eddie Owen Smith, 94, of 1405 South Avenue, South Boston died August 7, at Halifax Regional Hospital.
Mr. Smith was born in Halifax County on August 29, 1910, the son of the late Scott H . Smith and Swannie Lowery Smith and was married to Annabelle Payne Smith. He was a member of North Fork Baptist Church, a retired farmer and tobacconist.
Survivors include his wife; one stepdaughter, Virginia Belle Payne Shuler and her husband, Fred, of Fairfield Glade, Tenn.; and two step-grandchildren, Ray Thomas Shuler of Pittsgrove, N.J. and Gregg Shuler of Birmingham, Ala.
Funeral services for Mr. Smith were held August 9, at 11 a.m. at Powell Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. William LaWall officiating. Burial followed in North Fork Baptist church Cemetery.
Those wishing to give memorials are asked to consider North Fork Baptist Church, 5106 North Fork Church Road, Virgilina, 24598.

Richard Leon Petty

Richard Leon Petty, 31, of Halifax County died August 5.
Mr. Petty was born in Halifax County on July 31, 1974, to the late Robert Lee Petty Sr. and Bernice Venable Petty. He was a member of El Bethel Cathedral Church.
Survivors include one son, Fredrick Leon Petty of South Boston; two sisters, Nancy Petty and Vivian Jennings, both of Halifax; two brothers, Robert Lee Petty Jr. and Steven Maurice Petty, both of Lynchburg; and a dear friend, Peggy Kincy, of South Boston. Mr. Petty was preceded in death by one sister, Patricia King.
Funeral services will be held today, August 10, at 2 p.m. at Crawford House Chapel in Halifax with the Rev. Bruce Featherston officiating. Burial will follow in the Petty Family Cemetery in Cluster Springs.
The family is receiving friends at the home of Nancy Petty, 1109 Williams Trail, Halifax.

Freshman Football Drills Start

Halifax County High School Ninth Graders Began Practice Monday Evening With More Than 30 Players Trying Out For The Team.

BY Doug Ford
G-V STAFF WRITER

With the Halifax County High School varsity and jayvee football hopefuls already on the field, the Comets ninth-grade team began practice in earnest Monday evening.
Ninth-grade coach Michael Lewis thought the first day of practice went well, with 36 athletes trying out for the team.
“Things went about the way we expected them to go for the first day," said Lewis, who added the coaches put the players through speed drills to determine the areas where they would best help the team.
“That’s the goal this week, to get the guys where they need to be, so we can install our offense and defense," said Lewis, who will be assisted this season by Shawn Torian, Joe Wilkerson and Louis Watson.
A great number of the prospects played on an undefeated middle school football team last year, so high school football is new to them, Lewis pointed out.
“They need to pick up their intensity level and we need to get them used to our system, but that’s not uncommon for the first day of practice. “We have to get familiar with one another.
“This will be a true freshman football team, and they’re all brand new to our system."

Dixie Youth Baseball Founded On Racism But Flourishes As Integrated Program

By JAY REEVES
Associated Press Writer

AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — Dixie Youth Baseball was founded on racism, when dozens of all-white teams formed their own league to escape integration.
Fifty years later, as the league’s World Series began last weekend in Alabama, its leaders say it’s all about kids, not color.
Rather than play an all-black team that entered a state tournament during the days of legalized segregation, 61 all-white teams from South Carolina bolted the Pennsylvania-based Little League organization and held their own tournament in 1955 — no minorities allowed.
That act of defiance planted the seed that became Dixie Youth. As white opposition to integration spread across the Deep South, the lily-white league grew like kudzu after a summer shower.
Today, Dixie Youth Baseball has hundreds of leagues in 11 Southern states. And although it banished racial restrictions decades ago, it still has its critics. Players of any color or ethnicity are now welcome, as are both boys and girls, and the program is flourishing as the nation’s No. 2 youth baseball program.
‘‘Everything has changed,’’ said 81-year-old Matt Goyak, the league co-founder and longtime president. ‘‘We’ve got everyone including girls in the World Series.’’
The league still stresses local autonomy, a reminder of the ‘‘states’ rights’’ cries of Southern opponents of integration a half-century ago. And it got rid of what some saw as a symbol of open defiance — the Confederate battle flag on its official insignia — but not until 1994.
Gus Holt, who serves as a spokesman and historian for the all-black South Carolina team that the white Little League teams wouldn’t play in 1955, has little use for Dixie Youth Baseball, then or now.
‘‘I don’t think too much of it,’’ Holt said. ‘‘No one is saying it is a bad organization, but there is a legacy and a stigma behind it.’’
As 24 teams converged on the east Alabama town of Auburn for the 50th anniversary Dixie Youth World Series, which begins Sunday with opening ceremonies, Goyak said today’s organization bears little resemblance to the original incarnation.
About 400,000 players participate in Dixie Youth Baseball, second only to the much larger Little League, which holds its better-known World Series in Williamsport, Pa., beginning Aug. 19. Little League has more than 7,400 programs in over 100 countries.
But in the Deep South, Dixie Youth Baseball is the only kids’ league that many people know. Shortstops field grounders in dusty parks where their dads once played, and entire communities turn out for district tournaments leading to state competitions.
It all started because of 14 black kids who could really play ball.
In 1955, as blacks and progressive whites began challenging legalized segregation, the Cannon Street YMCA in Charleston, S.C., fielded an all-black Little League team and entered the state tournament, which had always been for whites only.
Rather than playing and possibly losing to blacks, 61 white teams quit Little League and started Little Boys Baseball Inc., which became Dixie Youth Baseball a few years later. Goyak was city recreation director in Georgetown, S.C., at the time and withdrew his town’s team.
‘‘We all dropped out and played our own tournament,’’ Goyak said. ‘‘The next year we went to six states, then eight and eventually 11. None of them wanted to play blacks, anywhere in the South.
‘‘Michael Jordan played in North Carolina in Dixie Youth. Bo Jackson played in Alabama,’’ Goyak said. ‘‘He’s going to be one of the speakers this year at the World Series.’’
But the team that started Dixie Youth Baseball simply by being black never took the field.
The Cannon Street All Stars were declared the state winner by default when the whites quit, but rules prevented a team from participating in the Little League World Series unless it had played in a tournament. That kept the boys off the field at Williamsport.
The black players, however, did get an expenses-paid trip to Pennsylvania, where they stayed with other teams and watched the Little League World Series. The surviving Cannon Street All Stars were honored at the Little League tournament in 2002.
At least one member of Cannon Street All Stars had a son who played in a Dixie Youth program. Leroy Major, a pitcher and center fielder back in ’55, said other members of the team have razzed him about his son, who’s now 25, participating in the program.
‘‘Somebody told me, ‘Man, I can’t believe you let your son play in that league. They’re the ones who discriminated against you,’’’ Major said. ‘‘I didn’t know the history at the time.’’
Major said Dixie Youth Baseball has never apologized for what happened 50 years ago. But last year some of the Cannon Street players did get to meet players from one of the all-white teams that wouldn’t play them.
‘‘We don’t have any animosity toward them,’’ he said. ‘‘It was an adult thing, not a kid thing. We all just wanted to play ball.’’

Middle School Welcomes 60 Football Hopefuls

BY Doug Ford
G-V STAFF WRITER

Halifax County Middle School head football coach Frank Shealy welcomed approximately 60 hopefuls to the start of Lions football practice Monday evening, and his initial assessment was positive.
“We had about 50 show up for the start of football camp last week, and 60 tonight," said Shealy.
The Lions welcome 12 returnees from last year’s undefeated powerhouse, which swept through the Southside Middle School Conference and defeated non-conference rivals GW and Martinsville.
Also returning are assistant coaches W.J. Long, Stanley Brandon and Barry Powell.
With so many of last year’s team graduating to the Halifax County High School ninth-grade squad, Shealy is still optimistic about his chances this season, despite an upgraded schedule.
“We have enough size and skill to do very well this year,” said Shealy. We added Franklin County to our schedule this year, and we expect them to be tough. GW and Martinsville played us tough last year, and we can never overlook the teams in our conference,” noted Shealy.
Shealy added the team seems to have a lot of potential, but that it was up to he and his coaching staff to put the pieces together prior to the team’s annual pre-season jamboree.