MONDAY
EARLY HOLIDAY SPIRIT: Dickens scholar to present program. 1C
October 4, 2010 127th year No. 277
PTIA PROFILE: Meet the airport’s new executive director. 1B
www.hpe.com High Point, N.C.
STILL SEARCHING: Panthers come close, but remain winless. 1D
50 Cents Daily $1.25 Sundays
Garbage fees still up in air BY PAT KIMBROUGH ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
Inside...
HIGH POINT – The revenue at stake may not be all that significant in the great scheme of things, but a proposed city fee has generated plenty of discussion. At issue is how to implement a monthly charge for businesses, churches, nonprofits and other non-residential city garbage customers. The City Council’s Public Services Committee is weighing options that include $6 monthly charges for some customers and fees of up to $25 per cart for others. Some council members said
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City still trying to decide how to collect fee. 1B they would like to take action on the fees soon. The council’s initial goal was to include them in the city’s 2010-11 budget, which took effect July 1, but the decision was delayed because of confusion about how the fees should be applied. “We’ve kind of beaten this horse to death,” said Councilwoman Bernita Sims. “We’re already behind the eight ball on this. It
should have happened in July. I don’t think we need to push it out to another budget cycle.” The city considered imposing a $6 monthly residential garbage collection fee in the budget, but officials eliminated the idea after hearing feedback that it would impose a burden on financially strapped residents. “How badly do we need the garbage-fee-collection revenue to supplement the existing budget? I guess that’s the bottom line,” Councilman Latimer Alexander said. Projections are that the fees would raise about $60,000, a relatively small amount considering
that the city budget totals well over $300 million. Downtown businesses that have their garbage picked up four days per week would see the biggest impact. One option the committee is considering would hit them with a monthly fee of $25 per cart, although that doesn’t appear to be the most favored approach. Officials said the city’s ultimate goal is to end the four-day-a-week pickups, which have traditionally been offered at no additional charge for downtown customers that are in and around the High Point Market district.
HIGH POINT – It’s hard to find a feature in the rugs sold at Zaki Oriental Rugs that isn’t unique. Crafted by weavers in places like India and Pakistan, the rugs are hand-knotted and contain anywhere from hundreds to thousands of knots per square inch. From their patterns to their colors and craftsmanship, they’re of the uppermost quality, said store owner Zaki Khalifa. But a batch of rugs that Khalifa ordered in the spring is proving to be particularly special. A native of Pakistan, Khalifa travels about four times a year to countries famous for producing Oriental rugs to select new product for his showroom. He visited Pakistan in April, when he said purchased “an unusually large number of rugs” because the production of high quality rugs has diminished in recent years. “I wasn’t going on a buying spree, but I selected more rugs than usual because of this,” he said about the shortage. “No one was anticipating the floods that were coming.” Khalifa made arrangements for about 3,000 rugs to be shipped to his High
Point store, and they arrived in increments in May and June – just before major floods ravaged Pakistan in July and August. The floods destroyed more than 20 million homes, the United Nations estimates, in areas where Khalifa regularly made purchases from weavers. Not only did the floods worsen the shortage of high quality rugs, it also devastated numerous weavers, who often work six days a week for low to moderate wages that are paid by a group of commissioning entrepreneurs, Khalifa said. “There were many looms that had rugs partially finished that were washed away by the floods,” he said. “These rugs can take years to make. Many families have been affected.” He said he was devastated to hear about the flood damage in his homeland, but he’s glad he purchased the collection of rugs from Pakistan to have in his store. They may be the last batch of high-quality rugs to come out of the country for quite a while, he said. Now Khalifa, who donated the store’s former building to the High Point Chamber of Commerce, said he’ll use his philanthropic spirit to help those
INSIDE
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BUDGET CUTS: School leaders say core services in jeopardy. 1B OBITUARIES
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HIGH POINT – A north High Point transportation project on the drawing board for several years is about to turn a corner. City officials initially hoped to start construction about a year ago on the extension of W. Hartley Drive, which currently ends at the Hartley Drive Family YMCA, to Westover Drive at its intersection with Shadow Valley Road in Davidson County. A lengthy environmental permitting process and other factors have delayed the project, but the city is almost ready to solicit con-
Joseph Anderson, 92 Donald Carroll, 70 Margaret Clapp, 89 Mary Clodfelter, 96 Hugh Greene, 82 Paul Poston Jr. Tosha Powers, 30 Marie Rhodes Obituaries, 2B
WEATHER
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Isolated rain High 62, Low 45 8D DON DAVIS JR. | HPE
Nadeem Daeed displays some of the carpets that Zaki Oriental Rugs imported from Pakistan before the devastating floods which ravaged the country. impacted by the flood. He has plans to visit Pakistan this fall to keep in touch with his weavers. He also says he’ll work with various groups and organiza-
tions on relief projects in the country. “I’m sure all of the people will be able to get back on their feet, but it will take a few years,” he said.
“For me, it will now be more of a job to get them on their feet instead of finding good rugs there.” phaynes@hpe.com | 888-3617
Long-awaited road project nears reality BY PAT KIMBROUGH ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
Jorge Gaytan published a chapter, “Working with English Language Learners: Teaching, assessment, and Administrative Strategies to Effectively Meet Academic Challenges,” in the National Business Education Association Yearbook called Cross Cultural and International Business Education. He is an associate professor in the department of business education at North Carolina A&T State University.
pkimbrough@hpe.com | 888-3531
Store owner gets rugs before floods ravage Pakistan BY PAM HAYNES ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
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struction bids. The city has nearly acquired the last permit needed – for erosion control measures during construction – and is close to acquiring the necessary rights of way and easements. Once this is wrapped up and contractors bid on the project, the City Council will be asked to give final approval. “We’re so close. It’s one of those light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel moments,” said Keith Pugh, the city’s director of Engineering Services. City officials said the extension, which will total a little more than a mile, is needed to complete a key piece of High Point’s trans-
portation network. It should take some traffic pressure off Westover Drive, one of the main routes from northeast Davidson County and its many residential developments. Westover Drive is essentially a residential street that isn’t designed for through traffic, which the new W. Hartley Drive will be able to accommodate because it will be four lanes in most spots, Pugh said. It’s also designed to facilitate better access to east and south High Point by tying in with the College Drive corridor, linking traffic from Hartley at N. Main Street to S. Main Street at W. Market Center Drive.
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The extension, which has an estimated construction cost of around $8.5 million, was one of six major road projects approved by city voters in a 2004 bond referendum. Money for construction is available through the bond proceeds. Engineering design work for the project started in 2006. The project will entail construction of a bridge from just west of the YMCA through a wooded, low-lying area that includes a creek. The route will cross Ingleside Drive before connecting with Westover Drive. Construction should take around 18 months. pkimbrough@hpe.com | 888-3531
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