SUNDAY
FALLEN HEROES: City honors those who made ultimate sacrifice. 1B
May 30, 2010 127h year No. 150
LONG TIME COMING: Allen Jay alumni group to hold first meeting. 1B
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BAKER THE BIRDIE MAKER: Local golfer leads HPGA Memorial. 1D
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City starts staggered recycling collection BY DIANNA BELL ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
HIGH POINT – Beginning Tuesday, you may or may not hear the rumbling of the recycling truck moving through your neighborhood. It all depends on where you live. High Point this week makes the switch to picking up recyclables once every two weeks instead of once a week. Recyclable collection will continue to occur weekly, but the areas that are collected are staggered on an every-other-week basis. Richard McMillan, assistant public services director, says the move is a “cost saving measure.” “We went from 14 employees to three who will operate the automated trucks and be able to pick up the same amount as before,” McMillan said. Initially, the Public Services
Department debated on whether to buy 64-gallon carts as opposed to the 95-gallon receptacles. They realized the cost difference was minimal between the two and decided to go big. “Residents have raised complaints that they will be able to fill the new carts within a week,” McMillan said. “The carts are five times the size of the old bins. The only thing we can suggest is that residents compact boxes and other items that are able to be broken down to create more space.” The carts are a must because of the automated trucks. A single driver operates the truck, which has a mechanical arm on the side that grabs the carts and dumps the recyclables into the top of the truck. This increases the safety of employees, who no longer have to ride on the rear platforms or manually lift the containers. It also was debated on whether
AT A GLANCE
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To find out when recycling collection will occur in your area, visit the city’s Web site at: www.high-point.net. Links are provided to a map and a collection schedule.
to place stickers on residents’ carts to notify them of their collection date, but the City Council decided against it. “We felt it was a waste of the taxpayers’ money to invest in these stickers,” McMillan said. “It will probably take the first month or so, but residents will get the hang of it.” Residents may keep their old recycling bins, but they will not be able to be used for recycling pickup. The 95-gallon carts are the only receptacles that will be collected.
Businesses that are able to contain their recyclables in two carts will have access to the city pickup but may face a fee in the future. Discussions still are under way among council members on whether or not businesses that participate in the pickup will be charged. One thing to be wary of come collection day is the placement of your recycling cart. Place the bin within a foot of the curb or street and keep it at a 3-foot distance from your mailbox, poles or any other object that could hinder collection. Also, make sure the handle on your cart faces your house. Those who don’t comply with these guidelines will find an orange tag attached to the container explaining why the waste was not collected.
WHO’S NEWS
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Local attorney Ron Butler was named president of the High Point Bar Association for a one-year term. Butler is a sole practice attorney and has practiced law for 27 years.
INSIDE
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editor@hpe.com | 888-3537
SPECIAL BOY: 52-year-old single mom adopts foster child. 1E
BUILDING
TRUST
OBITUARIES
There’s no average day for surgeons Before you read...
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The High Point Medical Society recently held its 16th annual mini-internship program which invites members of the community to get a glimpse of what goes on inside a health-care facility. Participants in the program followed two surgeons for two days, observing them in an operating room setting and in a clinical setting. According to the society, the experience allows the interns to see the concerns, joys and frustrations that occur in the medical care field. Staff writer Pam Haynes participated in the internship program. The following stories are her accounts of the experience. BY PAM HAYNES ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
HIGH POINT – There’s no telling who Dr. Robert Leinbach will be operating on when he arrives at the High Point Regional Surgery Center at 7 a.m. When the head and neck surgeon pushes through the double-door entrance to the operating room, sometimes there’s a 10month-old boy lying on the table who needs tubes put in his ears. The procedure usually takes about 30 minutes. Other times, it’s a woman in her early 40s who needs the thyroid gland in her throat removed because of a suspicious growth that could be cancerous. The procedure can take two hours, with Leinbach standing on his feet the entire time. But, whoever it is, the whirling scene of nurses in purple scrubs pushing
trays of operating tools through the halls while surgeons such as Leinbach move from one operating room to the next are all there for one reason – to save or preserve a life. “I really enjoy operating,” Leinbach said. “But the relationships that develop with patients are the best part of my job. Patients put a great deal of trust into their physicians, and I take that trust very seriously.” There’s no average day for Leinbach, who’s worked for HPRMS for five years. Depending on the surgeries scheduled that day, he could finish anywhere between 2 and 5 p.m. On busier days, he performs five or six surgeries, finishing around 5 p.m. He then catches up on paperwork until a hospital meeting at 7 p.m. The paperwork is his least favorite part of the job. “It is very important to document every patient encounter in the chart. This can get very tedious,” he said. “We’re also responsible for putting in the proper procedural and diagnosis codes to later submit to insurance companies, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. This can be confusing as the health care environment changes and becomes more complex.” The Winston-Salem native said the best part of his job is using his gift of steady hands to save or improve patients’ lives. That gift wasn’t something he was always aware that he had. “I was not the traditional student going from undergraduate school to medical school,” said Leinbach, who majored in economics in undergraduate school. “I took some time off following undergraduate and worked in Colorado as an
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Maria Ascencio, 76 Dianna Chambers, 53 Grace English, 94 Myrtle Frazier, 90 Edward Justice Jr., 88 Lester Malone, 82 Sandy McCallum, 69 Maxton Medley, 47 Mary Murchison, 78 Elsie Myers, 73 Paul Rich, 87 Allen Robbins, 86 Carol Warren Elouise Watson Obituaries, 2B
WEATHER
PAM HAYNES | HPE
Dr. Robert Leinbach talks to a patient before prepping her for surgery to have her thyroid gland removed due to a suspicious growth. Leinbach is a head and neck surgeon for High Point Regional Health System.
Inspiration from an uncle pushed Leinbach to become a surgeon. EMT on the ski patrol at Keystone Resort.” His position as an EMT, and a little inspiration from his uncle, Laurence Leinbach, a former radiologist at Wake Forest University Baptist Medi-
cal Center, finally pushed him to go back to school to become a surgeon. After a long day, when Leinbach heads home to his wife and three daughters, it’s that joy of helping patients that brings him back the next morning for another round of surgeries. “I enjoy working with my hands and the rewards of performing a surgical case and seeing patients benefit from that,” he said. phaynes@hpe.com | 888-3617
PAM HAYNES | HPE
Dr. Gary Biesecker, a general surgeon, speaks with Cathy Weaver, a breast cancer survivor, during his clinical office hours at the Cornerstone Health Care office on Westchester Drive.
YOUR COMMUNITY. YOUR NEWSPAPER.
Providing care is No. 1 job BY PAM HAYNES ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
HIGH POINT – The 19 patients scheduled to see Dr. Gary Biesecker before lunch on a busy Tuesday morning during his clinic hours are actually part of a slower-paced lifestyle for the general surgeon. With the help of a physician’s assistant, he’s able to see all of the patients, many of them diagnosed with breast cancer, update their medications and schedule any needed surgeries with plenty of time left to go out for a bite to eat. “Some days are just busier than others,” Biesecker said about his now parttime career in surgery for Cornerstone Health Care. “I operate two days a week and see patients in my office one day a week since working a part-time schedule. The first 12 years, I was
CARE, 2A
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