A Severe Thunderstorm Warning was in effect for Alamance County until 12:15am Tuesday night as a storm system moved northward through the Triad. A Tornado Watch was also in effect until 5:00am. A Tornado Warning was issued during the 10 o’clock hour Monday Night.
The National Weather Service warns that nighttime tornadoes are extremely dangerous as they are difficult to see.
Two Elon students got into a fight early Friday morning after leaving Sandy’s Subs, according to a police report obtained from the Town of Elon Police.
Kyle Bremer
The report says campus police officer Paul Smith stopped town police officer Blake Tillotson for help with a fight between an Elon senior and junior Kyle Bremer.
Randy Gyllenhaal
Elon University is being audited by the Alamance County Tax Department for a lack of property tax payments on Lighthouse Tavern.
CORRECTION: According to Elon’s Director of University Relations Dan Anderson, Elon pays property taxes on 30 buildings located near campus. Lighthouse Tavern is not one of them — it is tax exempt. Phoenix14News earlier reported that the university paid property taxes on 13 buildings based on records obtained from the Alamance County Tax Department, this information was incorrect. Universities are exempt from property taxes if the building serves an educational purpose.
Anderson defends the school’s decision to claim Lighthouse as an exemption. “The Lighthouse is not open to the public,” he said. “It’s not a public business, so regardless of what’s served there it’s no different than the Zone [in Moseley].”
Elon purchased Lighthouse after it’s previous owner, Chad Snyder, was arrested for selling date rape drugs. It’s now used as a bar for students, but Elon argues it also serves an educational purpose, so it shouldn’t have to pay property taxes.
“We use it for alumni events, faculty-staff events, student events,” Anderson said.
Elon’s student activities director says the venue is a great place for bands and other student events. “There’s a variety of different things that occur in there that aren’t just related to the business of the bar,” Robert Dunlap said.
But according to the Alamance County Tax Department, the building is being used as a non-educational facility. The university will be audited sometime this month, according to Alamance County tax attorney Gerald York.
Tim Barber
Today Elon is 121-years old and so to celebrate it honored the man who helped build it– Dr. Danieley.
It was the first Founder’s Day that Elon celebrated a living legend.
“His personality and Elon’s personality are the same– have been for fifty years,” former Elon President Fred Young said.
Brian O’Shea suggested Dr. Danieley to be the first living Founders day honoree.
“There’s people that have made impacts but not quite as large as he,” O’Shea said.
The Start
In the fall of ‘41 Danieley enrolled in Elon as a Freshman. Since then he has cherished the long marriage between the man and his alma matter.
At a fireside chat in Whitley he talked about his freshman year…
“In the fall of ’41– the total cost for tuition and fees for the first semester was $82.50,” Danieley explained.
Today that tuition would still only be about $1,100.
The Importance
“I told my mother that I am going to name a child after him– and so she is hoping it is not a girl,” Danieley’s grandson Daniel Shutt (Elon ’09) said.
“I think it is important while he is still with us to say what he has meant to us,” Shutt added.
“I am rarely ever at a loss for words, but I don’t think I have words to express how fantastic it is to have this kind of acceptance at this university community.
A community that Danieley helped build.
“He was the president that began to plant the seed of true academic excellence that we are seeing blossom on this campus today,” Elon President Leo Lambert said at a dinner honoring him.
To symbolize that growth the community planted a tree for him in front of Lindner Hall.
If a government agency in North Carolina creates a document, it becomes public.
That agency can withhold a document if they have a reason and it falls under an exception to the law.
But keeping the exchange of information between government and the public free continues to be a battle.
“The records of the agencies of North Carolina belong to the people,” Assistant Director of the Sunshine Center at Elon University Dale Harrison said.
“Bad things happen in the dark,” Sunshine Center Director Connie Book said. “The Sunshine Center wants to make sure that our government operates in an open and democratic way.”
“If there are records that fall under the public records act, those records must be made available,” Harrison said.
Even a police department owned by a private institution like the one here at Elon is subject to public record laws.
But Phoenix14News has made several requests for documents from Campus Police that have been denied.
Campus Police only hands over the first page of an incident report, which does not include the complete circumstances of the case.
“The law tells you what you make public not what you don’t make public,” Elon Campus Police Chief Chuck Gantos said.
But the law says an agency must disclose the circumstances surrounding an arrest unless they have a court order or if it involves a sexual assault.
Gantos took our first request to the Alamance County District Attorney who said Campus Police is in accordance with the law.
We still haven’t heard back about our second request. If the D.A. determines the information we asked for is public record, Gantos says he will release it.
Naydine Sharpe is no stranger to thread or a sewing machine. She made her own wedding dress 47 years ago. Today’s project was a bit easier – just a few snips here, a couple presses there, a little bit of trim and a whole lot of faith.
“When my friend found this and presented it to me, I felt like that’s God working,” Sharpe said.
Her friend found the idea on a blog. A woman in Oregon was making dresses out of pillowcases and sending them to girls in Haiti. After losing her job, Naydine was looking for a distraction.
“I needed something to get me feelin’ good again,” Sharpe said.
So she called on some friends always ready to step in and help: the Alamance County line dancers. The group of ladies usually rehearses their box trots and twirls when they get together. But instructor Melba Fitzgerald says today’s sewing means just as much as their moves.
“Anything that we can do to make it a little better for them now, they most certain need it,” Fitzgerald said.
Their goal is two hundred dresses, so these women have their work cut out for them. Naydine says with enough donations, stitches and smiles, they can make a big difference.
“It’s a community effort, you know,” Sharpe said, “it just is.”
The Alamance County line dancers plan to meet again this month and are still looking for donations. If you want to help out with contributions of materials or money, contact Naydine Sharpe at 336-260-3808.
It’s a typical weekend scene for any of-age college student, like twenty-two-year-old Danielle Lewald who checks out each brand of booze before leaving with a brown-bagged bottle. But the Elon senior has no idea what politics lie behind the shelves of liquor.
North Carolina is one of eighteen states in the country that controls its liquor sales.
But the state may be missing out on a big budget boost from booze. And now the state is making its first big steps towards change in the alcohol business.
Alcohol Beverage Control stores, or A-B-Cs, are run under the same system put in place right after the Prohibition era. A report from the state General Assembly says it may just be time for an update and that could mean a hand off from government control to private ownership.
Haywood Simpson has been chairman of the local a-b-c board for the last decade. He controls Alamance County’s four stores and insists the current state-run system can work.
“The system is fine if we clean up the ones who don’t know how to operate one and give them some guidance,” Simpson said.
Scandals in Mecklenburg and New Hanover counties have the state questioning board member ethics. Four boards across the state actually lost money selling liquor back in 2007. And putting the liquor industry into private hands could fix these problems.
According to the state, ABC stores generate almost $700 million in revenue each year. If the stores were sold to private owners, the government could make even more money. Now, they’re just trying to figure out if that sale is worth it.
“I’m not sure what my recommendation will be.” Governor Bev Perdue told Phoenix14 News in an exclusive interview.
Governor Perdue wrote to state senators with an entire section on privatization. In it, she called for a valuation firm to assess how much the stores are actually worth and whether privatizing the alcohol business is the right decision for her government and consumers.
“I promise to hold local committees unharmed from the loss of the revenue,” Perdue said.
For Haywood, it’s as simple as A… B… C.
“You’re going to lose the C in ABC which is control,” Haywood said, “and I don’t think that’s the way to go at it.”
According to Governor Perdue’s letter, North Carolina will remain a control state in some capacity. Full privatization with licensing is the one extreme. The other is state control which means ownership could be shifted from local boards to the state government. And there are many partial privatization options in between. The amount of control will probably depend a lot on what the Valuation Research Corporation finds out about the value of ABC stores, and there has been no word as to when those investigations could end.
Check out the “Privatize NC Liquor Stores” Facebook page.
- Dannika Lewis
