Scaled down predictions of severe flooding at South Boston broke through clouded skies late yesterday like rays of sunshine for Riverdale merchants who just a week ago, ducked the first flood bullet of the new year with little more than a few hours of inconvenience.
Bulletins released earlier yesterday had predicted the Dan would crest around 328 feet above sea level, high enough to cover US 501 and perhaps creep onto Route 58 at the Riverdale intersection. That would have sent up to three feet of water into some businesses including Ratliff Grocery, Riverdale Auto Sales, Ray's Key Shop and several others which are situated in the flood zone.
By mid afternoon yesterday, the water finally stopped rising in Danville which peak was measured at 17.55 feet and based on that benchmark, officials predict the crest at Paces early this morning will be 22.8 feet and later today in Riverdale at 25.5 feet or 324.7 feet above sea level. Light rain continued even into last night after beginning Tuesday and dumping as much as 4.46 inches in just 24 hours in places like Newport News.
Locally, 1.48 inches of rainfall was measured at the South Boston wastewater treatment plant between 7:00 a.m. Tuesday and 7:00 a.m. Wednesday. During the next 24 hours another .87 of an inch of rain fell.
With all the rain has been high winds that in South Boston caused a tree to fall across power lines and disrupt service to more than 625 customers. Even worse was a circuit that was lost due to the storm in Charlotte County where another 1,000 customers were without power for more than an hour.
Virginia Power's media relations official Patty Campbell still termed the outages as "really small" since most customer service was restored in a relatively short period of time.
Trees broken or uprooted by the storm kept highway crews scrambling about cleaning and clearing roadways all around Halifax County.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has predicted that John H. Kerr Reservoir will crest Monday morning at 313.5 feet above sea level. The elevation yesterday morning was recorded at 310.8 feet at the dam where releases are being increased from 18,000 to 24,000 cubic feet per second in order to minimize the impact of flooding.
Watching the weather and considering the flooding predictions is something Riverdale merchants have sort of conditioned themselves to. "To be a Riverdale merchant, you have to roll with the flow," said Bunny Propst whose pun was unintentional.
Rolling with the flow in her situation means moving all the vehicles from their auto sales lot, elevating the furnishings and fixtures inside the office and then facing the real job of preparing their grocery store for the flooding.
The food store floods when the elevation reaches 328 feet above sea level. In 1996 when hurricane Fran struck, the river crested at 333 feet in Riverda; a foot higher than the flood of 1987.
It takes about four hours for the Ratliff Grocery staff to elevate merchandise to prevent damage but 24 hours are needed to restore shelves and get back into business. Even that effort didn't prevent the loss of about 85 percent of the stock in 1996.
"What do I want to risk...my life savings or three days of labor?" asked Propst as she read the latest bulletin issued by the Virginia Department of Emergency Services and delivered by a public service worker with the Town of South Boston.
The Propst businesses along with most other Riverdale merchants were just annexed by the Town of South Boston and the first evidence of the new status fell last week with all the force another winter storm. Propst said her business license fees had tripled.
"We're calling it 'Black January'!" she added despite the fact that the troubles of the season had crossed over into a new month.
Consolidation of some county elementary schools, renovations and additions to several existing schools, and some new construction are components of a long range school facilities development plan being forged by school system officials.
County school superintendent Dennis Witt said yesterday the plan is a less costly "hybrid" of proposals submitted last year by the school facilities study taskforce.
Citing the need for more work on the proposal, Witt stated yesterday that it will be at least another month before the school facilities proposal will ready for airing to school trustees.
That, in essence, is the message that Witt will bring to the county school board Monday night at the 7:30 p.m. meeting that will be held in the second floor public meeting room of the Mary M. Bethune Office Complex in Halifax. The meeting is open to the public.
"We've been working hard on it," Witt said of the school facility plan.
"It takes time to fill in the spaces of money and projected enrollments. We're just not ready right now to make a presentation. We want to make sure that when we present it we do it right. We want to know we have all the numbers to support it."
While there is a minor delay in the presentation of the proposal to the school board, Witt said that he remains hopeful that a referendum containing the proposal can be placed on the November election ballot.
"That's still our goal," Witt noted.
"Whether or not that will be possible will depend on the school board, the Board of Supervisors, the public, and other things. We know we need to get it moving along and bring it before the citizens as soon as possible."
Witt did not reveal any of the finer details of the plan, but he did say that school consolidations are definitely a part of the proposal.
"The plan will have proposals for consolidating some of the schools," Witt said.
"But, that's really nothing new. Consolidating schools was included in the previous proposals. Both of the previous facility recommendations included a lot of new construction with a pretty high cost that ran into the $60 million dollar range. We're looking at taking some of the facilities we now have, make some renovations and additions, do some consolidating, and pare the cost down so that it will be more reasonable while still allowing us to do the things we need to do to meet the needs of our students well into the next century."
Consolidating some of the county elementary schools will be a sticky issue in selling the facility proposal both to school trustees and the public. But, Witt pointed out that due to the conditions of some of the older schools and small enrollments at others, consolidation is a feasible economical move to make.
"We're sensitive to the community school issue," Witt remarked.
"We're trying to put together a plan that will be reasonable, where feelings won't be hurt too much, and children will not be taken too far from their home."
While consolidating some schools will be a component of the plan, the primary focus of the proposal is targeted at renovating and, in some cases, constructing additions to some of the existing schools.
"We're leaning more toward renovating and adding onto schools as opposed to the construction of a lot of new schools," Witt explained.
"There is discussion about the construction of one new school in one area," he added.
As a side issue, Witt and school system officials had earlier been casting an eye toward the possibility of acquiring the Craddock-Terry building in Halifax. That, however, has now been put on hold.
"I think the Craddock Terry building is a facility that the county should look at for whatever use," Witt said.
"It is still a building we could make use of for Alternative Ed and some other programs. But, I think some other people should look at it, too. The IDA could possibly use it for industrial development. There are any number of possibilities for the use of that building."
"It could still have potential for the school system," added Witt, "but, we're putting that on the back burner until we see what happens with our school facilities plan. If the plan goes through, it could free up a facility that we already have that we could use for Alternative Ed and other programs."
Another side issue to the school facility plan is what happens in the wake of a visit that a committee of school system officials is going to make to the new technology school in Franklin County.
Witt said that the committee is going to visit the new technology center "to see if it has possibilities for fitting into our plans."
The school superintendent stated that if the committee feels that such a school could work here, efforts will be made to obtain cost estimates for that project.
In addition to Witt's report to the school board on the school facilities plan, Monday night's agenda includes two items under citizen comments that will include a presentation by Howard Dunn and Michael Leake of Halifax regional Hospital and a presentation by John Woody and Mike Stovall.
Witt said that Dunn and Leake will be proposing to the school board that the school system shoulder some of the financial burden for the services that Leake renders for the high school sports teams and cheerleaders as an athletic trainer.
There was no word available yesterday on the nature of the presentation being made by Woody and Stovall.
Also Monday night, Halifax County High School principal Larry Clark will update school trustees on the status of the implementation of Block Scheduling. Last month the school board voted to implement the 4x4 Block Schedule format at the high school next year.
Witt will also inform the school board about the need for purchasing two more new school buses. And, the body will consider a number of routine reports on upcoming conferences and school programs.
Emergency airwaves crackled to life yesterday morning signaling a disaster in Halifax County, a tour bus accident with 11 injuries - including one death.
The good news: It was a mock disaster drill initiated by Halifax Regional Hospital and area emergency medical services personnel.
The drill got underway at 9:44 a.m. with a broadcast call for emergency medical personnel to respond to a simulated tour bus accident on Highway 58, approximately 6 1/2 miles east of South Boston.
Eleven persons with simulated injuries were transported to Halifax Regional's emergency room. Mock injuries were classified as one dead on arrival (DOA), one code blue, one shock/hysteria and eight with various injuries.
Halifax County Rescue Squad members, Patient Transport System, state police and the South Boston Fire Department responded to the scene. At Halifax Regional, 53 employees from support departments and approximately 30 other personnel, including emergency room physicians, other medical staff members and ER staff participated in the drill.
The drill was completed by 11:20 a.m. when the last victim was treated and released. According to Harvey Newbill, Halifax Regional's Safety/Risk manager, emergency medical services personnel, law enforcement officers and hospital staff will meet in the coming week to evaluate the mock exercise.
"Under state and federal guidelines," explained Newbill, "hospital employees must have specific emergency medical plans and attend a variety of educational programs to learn methods for handling disasters of all kinds. Today's successful drill gave our personnel an opportunity to implement these plans."
A Halifax man injured during a fall at Wal-Mart in 1994 was awarded $365,000 in damages Tuesday afternoon by a Halifax County Circuit Court jury.
James T. Graham, 64, sued Wal-Mart for damages after he slipped on the floor near the pharmacy area of the Wal-Mart in South Boston on the morning of December 30, 1994, according to testimony.
The four-woman, three-man civil court jury took approximately 30 minutes to return Tuesday's verdict.
Graham was represented by Halifax attorney Bill Watson and South Boston attorney Lester Dillard. Wal-Mart was represented by the Roanoke law firm of Gentry, Locke, Rakes, and Moore.
Graham entered the store to shop shortly after it opened at 7 a.m. He was injured at approximately 7:15 a.m., according to testimony.
Prior to his arrival, floor crews had just finished mopping and waxing the floor area of the store, a task performed during the night when no customers were present, according to the then-store policy, Watson said.
However, an assistant store manager noticed a scuff mark near the pharmacy area and ordered one of the members of the floor crew to check in back to clean the spot, according to testimony.
The spot could not come up, so the woman ordered the employee to get a chemical floor stripper which could take the spot up, Watson said.
The employee told the assistant manager that it was against company policy to use the floor stripper prior to at least three hours before customers were present, Watson pointed out.
The assistant manager ordered the employee to use the chemical anyway, according to testimony. Being extremely slippery, the woman ordered the employee to go to the rear area of the store to retrieve some cones which would warn customers about the slippery surface, Watson said.
The assistant manager told him she would guard the area, but apparently moved away before the return of the employee, Watson said.
In the meantime, Graham arrived at the spot and fell, fracturing the T-11 vertebra in the mid-section of his back, according to testimony.
Graham was transported to the Halifax Regional Hospital for treatment and was initially hospitalized for 11 days, Watson said.
His injuries were described as permanent, Watson added.
The female assistant manager is no longer employed by Wal-Mart.
The company has not noted whether they will appeal. They have thirty days in which to do so, court officials said.\
Monday night's ACE academic competition at Halifax County High School will pit the Western District's top two teams against each other in what should be one of the season's top academic contests.
The Comets, which have won both of its first two ACE (Academic Competition For Excellence) matches of the season, will host district leader E.C. Glass in a contest that will pit the district's pair of undefeated teams against each other.
Monday night's academic competition will begin at 6 p.m. with the jayvee teams from both schools competing. The varsity match will begin about 10 minutes after the jayvee match has concluded.
The Comet-E.C. Glass tilt, a contest that marks the halfway point of the six week long regular season, is an important one for both the jayvee and varsity squads from both schools.
Halifax County's varsity team enters Monday night's match trailing the league leading Hilltoppers 657-468, a margin of 189 points. A win by the Comets will be a major confidence booster for the rest of the season's contests. But, more importantly, the Comets need the win to trim their deficit to the Hilltoppers in the overall standings.
On the varsity level, E.C. Glass, in addition to leading the overall standings, leads the overall standings in three of the five categories of the ACE competition and are tied with the Comets for first place in another. The only category that Glass does not lead is the Math category where GW holds a slim eight point edge over the Hilltoppers.
Halifax, on the other hand, is tied with the Hilltoppers for the lead in the overall standings in the All Around category. The Comets are in second place in the History category but are 75 points behind Glass.
Also, the Comets are in third place in the Science category but trail leader E.C. Glass by only 21 points. The Comets are in third place in the Math category, trailing leader GW by 48 points and are in third place in the Literature category where they trail leader E.C. Glass by 53 points.
The jayvee contest will be a big one as well and, in no way will it take a back seat to the varsity match.
Both the Comets and the Hilltoppers are undefeated. But, the Comets will enter this contest with the overall district lead as they hold a 35 point edge (210-175) over the Hilltoppers.
The Comet jayvee Math/Science team will be trying to make up some ground in the overall category standings. In that category, the Comets are in third place and trail leader E.C. Glass by 40 points.
Over in the History/Literature category, the Comets hold the lead in the overall district category standings and will enter Monday night's competition with a 60 point lead over second place GW and a 75 point advantage over Glass which is tied with Amherst County for the spot.
Regardless of the outcome of this encounter, the Comets and E.C. Glass will lock horns for a second time, that coming Monday, March 2, in Lynchburg at E.C. Glass in what will be the final week of the regular season.
Ellis 'Dee' Randolph Fountain of Virgilina died Monday, February 2, 1998.
Mr. Fountain was born on August 24, 1911 in Halifax County the son of Nathan and Isabelle Brooks Fountain and was married to Eva Owen Fountain. He was a member of Zion Hill Baptist Church and Mayo Grove Masonic Lodge.
Survivors include his wife; also, Mary Fountain Foster of Yeadon, PA, Charles and Mary Fountain of Richmond, Robert D. and Sarah Fountain of South Boston, Gilbert I. and Frances Fountain of Philadelphia, PA, Gerald D. and Dorothy Fountain of Richmond, John S. and Dorothy Fountain of Richmond, William D. Fountain of Hyde Park, MA, Gloria D. and Robert Hamilton of Freeport, NY, George W. and Viola Fountain of Jacksonville, FL, Marvin W. and Dottie Fountain of South Boston; one grandson he reared, Wyatt E. and Vanessa Fountain of Philadelphia; 24 grandchildren; 17 great-grandchildren; four great-great-grandchildren; a devoted friend, John Crowder; devoted in-laws, Isiah and Mary Owen and Nannie Owen, and other relatives and friends.
Funeral services for Mr. Fountain will be held Saturday, February 7 at
1 p.m. at Zion Hill Baptist Church with burial to follow in the church cemetery.
James Thomas Slate, 76, of Virginia Beach died Wednesday, February 4, 1998. A native of Halifax, he was a Virginia Beach resident for 29 years.
Mr. Slate was owner and operator of Slate Roofing Co. retiring in 1986 after 19 years in business. He was a member of First Baptist Church of Ahoskie, NC.
Survivors include two daughters, Linda S. Sawyer and her husband, Lawrence of Yorktown, and Betty Smith of Lansing, MI; a son, Jeffrey W. Slate and his wife, Adelina of Virginia Beach; two sisters, Lucille Conner and Pauline Henderson, both of Halifax; one brother, Branford Slate of Halifax; and three grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife, Juanita Griffin Slate, and one son, Jim Slate.
A graveside service will be held today, February 6 at 2 p.m. in Parklawn Memorial Park, Hampton with Rev. Franklin Hall officiating.
Those wishing to give memorials are asked to consider Bethel Baptist Church Building Fund.
Ricky Lane Glass of 2020 Lower Liberty Road, Nathalie died February 5, 1998 at Stratford Health Care Center at the age of 40.
Mr. Glass was born in Halifax County on August 3, 1957, the son of Richard Thomas Glass and Nancy Buchanan Glass. He was a member of First Baptist Church of Millstone.
His survivors are his father and step-mother: Richard and Frances Glass of Halifax and one step-sister, Carolyn Lewis of Halifax.
Graveside services will be held Friday, February 6 at 2 p.m. at First Baptist Church of Millstone with the Revs. Tony Brooks and Bob Watts officiating.
Eunice Baylous Munn of 2522 Hungary Springs Rd., Richmond, died February 4, 1998 at St. Mary's Hospital in Richmond at the age of 52.
Mrs. Munn was born in Halifax County on March 15, 1945, the daughter of Overton and Odell Warren Baylous. He was employed at Westminster Canterbury Health Care Unit.
Her survivors are her daughter: Cindy Tellis of Richmond; son: David Munn of Richmond; sisters: Mary Fears of Halifax, Judy Vivian of Port Tobacco, MD, Ann Fears of Richmond, Betty Dickerson and Inez Baylous of Halifax; and brothers: Warren Pulliam and George Baylous of Halifax.
Funeral services will be held today, February 6 at 2 p.m. at St. Matthews Episcopal Church. Burial will take place in the Emmanuel Episcopal Church Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers memorials may be made to Shrine Mont., c/o Diocese of Virginia, 110 W. Franklin St., Richmond, VA 23219.
Fannie Elizabeth Loyd Lacks of 4102 Howard P. Anderson Hwy., Halifax died February 5, 1998 at Halifax Regional Hospital at the age of 71.
Mrs. Lacks was born in Halifax County on May 18, 1926, the daughter of William Thomas and Lena Rebecca Ship Loyd. She was married to Howard Watkins Lacks and was a member of Winns Creek Baptist Church.
Her survivors include her husband; sons: Wayne Kelly Lacks and William Lewis Lacks of Halifax; daughters: Linda Wagstaff and Nancy Lacks of Scottsburg; brother: Paul Loyd of Nathalie, four grandchildren, two step-grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Funeral services will be held Saturday, February 7 at 2 p.m. at Powell Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. Richard Welch officiating. Burial will take place in Halifax Memorial Gardens.
The family will receive friends at Powell Funeral Home Friday, February
6 from 7-8:30 p.m.
Lillian Brandon Fontaine of 9520 Boston Road, Roxboro, NC died Thursday, February 5, 1998 after a lengthy illness at the age of 88.
Mrs. Fontaine, a native of Person County, was the daughter of Arthur Edmunds Brandon Sr. and Betty Ann Wilborn Brandon. She was married to Matthew Maury Fontaine and was a member of Bethel Hill Baptist Church. She taught school in the Person County School System.
Her survivors include her daughters: Mrs. Annie Snyder of Orange Park, FL, Mrs. Betsey Plantholt of Fort Walton Beach, FL, Mrs. Linda Stepp of Hendersonville, NC; sister: Mrs. Annie Weherenberg of Cluster Springs; brothers: Arthur Brandon Jr. and William "Tommy" Brandon of Roxboro; eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held Sunday, February 8 at 2 p.m. at Bethel Hill Baptist Church with the Rev. David Moore officiating. Burial will be held in the church cemetery.
Mrs. Fontaine will be taken to her home at 11 a.m. Saturday, February 7 where the family will receive friends from 7-9 p.m.
Those wishing to give memorials are asked to consider Home Health & Hospice of Person County, 325 S. Morgan Street, Roxboro, NC 27573 or the Bethel Hill Baptist Church, 201 Old Hwy. 501 North, Roxboro, NC 27573 or the American Cancer Society Research, 3500 Westgate Drive, Durham, NC 27707.
Curtis 'Boogalu' Garland of Pennsauken, NJ, formerly of South Boston, died February 4, 1998 at the Cooper River Clinic in Pennsauken at the age of 51.
Mr. Garland was born in Halifax County on November 26, 1947 the son of Margaret Garland.
Survivors include six sisters, Barbara Garland, Carolyn Clark, Diane Clark and Deborah Lovelace, all of South Boston, Cheryl Garland of Richmond and Peggy Collazo of Germany; two brothers, Robert Garland of Victoria and Larry Garland of Danville, and other relatives and friends.
Graveside services for Mr. Garland will be held Saturday, February 7 at 1 p.m. at Mayslanding Cemetery in Atlantic City, NJ.