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Serving Stokesdale, Oak Ridge, Summerfield, & Northwest Guilford County :: Your Locally Owned, General Interest Newspaper :: December 2013 Edition ::
Summerfield Buys Building, 16 Acres Of Land For $399,000
Veteran Brian Friddle, who has served in Afghanistan under the Diplomatic Services, brought “Odey” the America service dog back home. Friddle said the dog’s American handler had been killed in combat. Photos: The Star.
Stokesdale Veteran Saves Dog During Afghanistan War By R.Gregg, The Star STOKESDALE – A Stokesdale veteran who was serving his country overseas has saved an unsung hero, an American service dog named Odey, who has also experienced the war in Afghanistan. Brian Friddle of Stokesdale served over three years in the U.S. Air Force, but more recently served in the Diplomatic Services or “DS” in Afghanistan through a civilian company. The DS is an armed division of the State Department that protects diplomats and VIP’s overseas and has had to deal with rocket attacks, IED’s, bombings, and small arms fire during the Afghan War. Friddle says that had been with the DS unit since 2012 and was serving in Afghanistan as part of the State Department protective details. He says that the war there has been tough. “You don’t know who the enemy is,” said Friddle. “As my Dad would say, this is our generation’s Vietnam.” Friddle said there have been many so called “green on blue attacks” where someone in the Afghan national police or Afghan Army decides they want to try to inflict damage on the NATO forces, usually in a suicide attack. “Somewhere down the road, they decide...they want to be a martyr,” said Friddle. Often they would use what they called “S-vests” or suicide vests. The bombers would run into an area and detonate the vest, hoping to injure as many people as possible while blowing themselves up. “We tried to change our patterns,” said Friddle, explaining that they had to stay unpredictable in their schedules to try and thwart planned attacks. In his experience, the DS forces also saw a lot of vehicle borne IED’s or “improvised explosive devices.” “They would load a vehicle full of explosives and drive it to a check point,”
Odey is a beautiful and loyal Belgian Malinois, known for their intelligence.
said Friddle, who said that he had some close scrapes with IED’s. “They were pretty prevalent.” There is no such thing as a safe place in Afghanistan, said Friddle. “We were a couple of miles from the [U.S.] embassy,” he said. “We did on several occasions get indirect fire by AK47’s and rockets.” Even the famous “Green Zone,” which was supposed to be a super-safe area for Americans was the site of a serious battle, said Friddle. Friddle says there was an 18 hour siege of American forces in Kabul in 2011 inside of the Green Zone. A DOG NAMED “ODEY” Odey, the dog that Friddle saved, is a loyal Belgian Malinois dog who was trained in the United States and then brought over to Afghanistan to help American Diplomatic Services. Friddle explained that although there are electronic devices that can “sniff” out bombs or explosives, often they are unwieldy and hard to use in a combat situation. “He was an explosives detection dog,” he said. “A dog is your best bet in the field.” “A dog’s sense of smell is 100 to 1,000 times better than a human being’s,” he explained. Friddle says he heard that Odey’s American handler was killed in a rocket propelled grenade attack during one of those attacks. As a result, Odey himself was no longer able to work effectively. “He just couldn’t work anymore,” said Friddle. “Because of his anxiety and stress, loud noises scared him.” What Odey was experiencing is something that many veterans go through as well after they come back from a combat zone. “He was basically suffering from what a lot of soldiers are suffering from now -- post traumatic stress syndrome,” said Friddle. Odey was stuck in the kennel in Kabul and he said that there were two choices -- to either find someone to adopt him or to euthanize him. Friddle knew he could not let the dog be put to sleep, so he called his wife and let her know that there was a dog in Afghanistan “who we needed to find a home for.” His wife said “yes” to trying to bring the dog home, so Brian looked into options. The State Department said they could ship the dog home but it would cost $30,000. However, Friddle found an American canine company in country who would ship Odey home “They were able to make the arrangements to ship the dog here [to the U.S.],” said Friddle. “They volunteered to do it.” Odey actually arrived back in North Carolina this summer about two weeks before Friddle did. Friddle returned home in July to greet the dog here. Friddle said that he has matched up the dog with a local soldier who is also Continued on Page 8...
The beautifully designed and well-known R.C. Gordon building at the main intersection in downtown Summerfield is part of the property. Photo: The Star.
By The Star SUMMERFIELD – The Town of Summerfield announced last week that they have entered into an agreement to buy a historic property along with 16 acres of land for $399,000. The purchase of the large property includes the historic R.C. Gordon hardware building on Summerfield Road, which is diagonally across from the Brittain building which is currently serving as the town hall. Both brick buildings are among the most well known structures in the area and are considered historic properties. The property also includes 16 acres of wooded land that goes to Highway 220 behind the building. According to the town, the property is owned by the limited liability corporation Ralph Gordon, LLC. The properties had been listed for sale for some time with a local commercial real estate broker. The decision to buy the property came after a series of closed session meetings by the Summerfield Town Council that were not open to the public. The meetings took place in November and the intent to purchase that specific building and land was not mentioned in open sessions of the Summerfield Town Council previously. In contrast, the Town of Stokesdale sought public input for over two years before proceeding with plans for a new town hall and expenditures associated with it such as purchasing the land. When asked why the town did not seek public input on the purchase, town officials said that they had publicly allocated money in the budget for infrastructure and that real estate negotiations were still underway and disclosing the intent to purchase before the sale had been completed could have adversely affected the price, etc. “The town wanted to negotiate the best deal that it could, premature public discussion would have potentially compromised its ability to do that, and the statutes specifically recognize the need for privacy in negotiation of land purchases and allow for this,” said Scott Whitaker, town manager. “Also, the town had a public meeting last January to discuss town hall needs and the budget process afforded citizens the opportunity to weigh in on the need for public meeting space,” he added. “We budgeted $600K for land acquisition and improvements.” Outgoing Summerfield Mayor Mark Brown also said that he felt the council had informed the public of their intentions to buy land. “Some years ago the town publicly asked residents that had land in the Summerfield Road area that the town might be interested in for a town hall complex to contact us,” said Brown. “We also reached out to at least two persons, [and] entities one of which was the Guilford County Schools regarding a possible Laughlin School purchase. “I can think of five persons [or] entities plus the two we reached out to that contacted us in the last four years,” added Brown. “So, to me there was
plenty of public notice that we were looking and state law does allow land purchase negotiations to be in closed session.” The Star newspaper asked newly elected Summerfield Town Council member Mark Adams if the town should have waited for the new council to have been sworn in at the December meeting before the purchase vote took place. However, Adams did not return phone calls or emails from this newspaper. In a second “official” press release announcing the deal that was sent to this newspaper a day after an “early” press release was sent to another media outlet, Summerfield Town Manager Scott Whitaker said that the R.C. Gordon building may be used for future meetings of the Summerfield Town Council. “Currently town meetings are usually held in a rented community center due to a lack of space within Summerfield’s town hall,” said the town manager in the release. “A key component of the town’s multi-faceted plan is the renovation of the Gordon Building -- downstairs as a public meeting hall and upstairs for additional meeting and staffing space.” The town says the building will be part of a renovation of the historic square where the town hall and R.C. Gordon buildings are located. “The project also offers an opportunity to tie historical structures together,” said Whitaker in the statement. The town may install a clock tower, brick pathways and other improvements. “[They] would create and further develop the intersection area as a Continued on Page 8...
The 16 acre property includes wooded areas that extend to Highway 220 behind the R.C. Gordon building. ::
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