North Carolina Now; North Carolina Now Episode from 11/25/1997

The next tuesday No the big one. Tonight one man's mission at a rocking good news. The North Carolina name. Good evening everyone and welcome to this Tuesday edition of North Carolina now. Over the next six months state environmental leaders will be making some key decisions that could have a big impact on one of our state's most troubled rivers. Tonight we'll update you on the state's efforts to adopt new regulations for the Neuse River with our guest Mitch Woodward

the editor of the newsletter. Plus have you ever been to the North Carolina Zoo and wondered how they ship in all the food for the animals. Well tonight we'll show you a side of the North Carolina Zoo that's rarely seen. We'll take you to the zoo's post office where special deliveries often come with unique surprises. But we begin tonight in eastern North Carolina small town radio stations throughout North Carolina bring life and character to the airwaves. Listeners often relate with local announcers on a personal level. There is one radio personality that exemplifies the charm of a hometown radio's relationship with the community. Kelley McMullen brings us this story. Radio was everywhere from our cars to our homes most everyone these days can find a song or a message to relate to him somewhere along the AM and FM dial so we can radio listening and it's a little different. OK it has been for over 30 years thanks to the man everybody in this area calls the friendly boy ancestress. Every weekend Hansen

resurrect his heartfelt mission to lift the human spirit. His tool is w r r z 88 am from its tiny studio. The friendly voice Presley gospel compact discs vinyl albums and live in studio programming. It's a ritual that listeners have loved for I was 34 years in the end. I make people. To really enjoy a watch you don't. It's sometime it's a funny word to say you can say something funny. I said hello good monitors Joe friend I would be arguing Holon neighbor tell a friend no friend aboard Bakhit Debbie are easy again. So somebody take said a lie. Then the next would be a funny thing yo sweet but in fact I live I do I do I do. So that kind of thing. It's what people really enjoy here and yet my handsome strict I mean everything else

just no thank you. It's no put on it's not a professionally produced radio shows. It is revealed it is old time live radio. The way that radio is supposed to be. It was that way 40 years ago. It worked then and Hanson proved every Saturday and Sunday that it will work now. There's no secret to it it's just being yourself and the people that tune in every weekend or who keep the friendly boy behind the microphone right now. Reagan's life long dream has been to reach out and encourage those most in need of a kind word. Then the people that are in homework red hot find it today baby and you. They're calling you could call his name your name is the greatest thing to you own or you look around I'll call my nana said they love me and maybe somebody say I'm sick.

So let me play this record. You'll be better when I play it right out of the back I'm feeling that and I am. There is a charisma about handsome Stricklin that isn't dear to him to Sampson County and the surrounding areas. Some say it is the eternal good nature of a man who's never met a stranger. We get along we've always got along real well five like everybody gets along well with Hansen he's of course he's known as a friendly boy and he's a he's friendly to everybody he knows his music that he deals with and knows of the people in the area and I think this is a big and they call in quite often for requests to continuously sometimes us and he tries to get the phone and talk continue to talk to him to do so. He and play music and run a program. Oh Hanson has built his program and on air style around his audience. It's a mutual admiration that gives the show an interactive format. I never say my present to sweet to do that is our way green black guy

and why it's black white black why you got a song a day you want me saying a play Apple you know you got a birthday to day you won't mean sang happy birthday. Oh there are three phone lines that come into the control room. When he plays the first note of music. Oh yeah three phone lines light up and they stay there until he plays the last American music and he will answer the phone and acknowledge a person on the air. That's all they want is to be acknowledged. He doesn't necessarily dedicate a song to them. He just mentions their name. Most the time he may play 10 percent of the song the other 90 percent he's mentioning someone's name every now and then most everybody needs a kind word about Italy today. But it is comforting to know there is a handsome Stricklin out there in the business of uplift if you'll just go.

Then when I leave you I want to leave you with this. I will add outclasses got my towel and I got to go. LIVIO sweetie right if I do I do that in Baghdad. Hanson says he will continue broadcasting as long as he possibly can. If his past record is any indication he will be behind the microphone for a long long time. He has missed only one weekend of broadcast during the 34 year run of his program. Well coming up we'll show you some special deliveries you won't find anywhere except at the North Carolina Zoo. But first let's check in with Michel Louis for a summary of today's statewide news. Hi Mitch. Hello Shannon. Good evening everyone. Topping our news a Government Reform Group says it has found that members of the board of transportation their families and key business partners contributed more than two million dollars to state and national political candidates from 1990 to 1996. The group Democracy South says more than $650000 went to Jim Hunt's in 1992 and 1996

gubernatorial campaigns. Democratic Party committees and leadership PACs took in roughly four hundred eighty thousand dollars and Republican party committees received just over eighty five thousand dollars. A spokesperson for the governor said appointments were made based on merit and leadership and not on money. The secretary of the State Department of Environment and Natural Resources says those who pollute state waterways can expect swift and stiff penalties. A new policy outlined by Secretary Wayne McDevitt consists of five elements. They are preventing pollution through assistance loans and grants. More expensive cash penalties for violators. A focus on the worst violators by increasing moratoriums on expansion publicizing names of chronic polluters and pushing new laws that boost the department's enforcement power. Improving data collection also finding and spending more money on clean water projects. Secretary McDevitt says it must cost more to violate the law than to comply with it. North Carolina says it needs more time to come up with a funding plan for low level waste dump

site in Wake County. State delegates voted today to ask the southeast compact commission for an extension beyond a previously set December 1st deadline. North Carolina's low level waste management authority is in charge of building a radioactive dump site to be used by seven southeast states. The commission says if the deadline isn't met the project could be shut down. The president of the University of North Carolina system has ordered a review of U.N. sees affirmative action policies. President Molly broad science programs based solely on race should be reformed or abolished. Broad sense changes and race based policies may be necessary in light of recent court decisions against affirmative action in other states and USC should take action to avoid the problems of any lengthy court challenges brought says the review will change some programs specially tailored to minority students. But she still wants ethnic diversity on campus. After four years and eighty nine million dollars in North Carolina will soon be able to end its out of state prison or housing program

and increase in available prison space over the past few years will allow the state to Holles all North Carolina inmates in state facilities. The state has been steadily returning out of state inmates to prisons within the states as new facilities have been built. The final group of out-of-state prisoners are expected to be returned to Raleigh on December 12th. North Carolina's prison population is reportedly about 32000. North Carolina's two Roman Catholic bishops have come together to issue a rare joint statement urging their parishioners to get involved in helping the state's poor. The pastoral letter seeks to focus attention on what they see as vast economic disparities in North Carolina. It calls on Catholics to become more actively involved in helping the less fortunate bishops William Curlin and jewels of gossip and say they are calling on local parishes to talk with existing Catholic agencies to create a plan for taking action. And now for a look at tomorrow's weather. Temperatures will be in the low to mid 60s across most of North Carolina with the Boone area reaching the mid 50s. We'll see mostly sunny skies across the

state. In business news major acquisitions by nations bank and first union have thrust Charlotte into the number two banking center in the nation. The Queen City displaced San Francisco to take over the spot. Charlotte now controls nearly half a trillion dollars in bank assets with the nation's bank and first union locking up more than 100 billion dollars in assets since July. New York City remains the number one banking center in the nation and the world with assets totaling 1.3 trillion dollars. One hundred fifty jobs are slated for the chopping block at the Brunswick nuclear plant near Southport. A newspaper report today elimination of the positions is forthcoming. A spokesman for the plant says he can't say how many employees will be laid off because some of the positions to be cut are already vacant. The nuclear plant employs around 1000 workers and now for a look at what happened on Wall Street today a. And

a little more than six months a new set of rules will go into effect which could help lower the amount of nutrients in the news river. The new rules will regulate how much waste water stormwater agricultural waste and other nutrient rich substances will be allowed to be discharged into the Neuse River. Sound confusing. If so you're just the person. The new newsletter is trying to target. Here to tell us more about this unique newsletter is the editor of the news letter Woodward. Thank you so much for joining us tonight. Thank you for the invitation to be here. It's like a book. If you could briefly explain what the newsletter is and how it got started with a newsletter Shannon is really an idea that our new said education team at NC State

came up with. We were looking for ways that the 10 members of this team could disperse information on the news and since our job is education what better way to do that than through a newsletter. And one of the team members Mike Riggins actually coined that title so I can't really take credit for that but we thought that was a real need. We're pretty proud of ourselves for that title the newsletter. Yeah that is pretty pretty catchy we're so creative. Give us a brief update I know since 1995 there's been a lot of attention given to the news Ripper. What has happened and where are we in this whole process at this time where we are in this process right now is that this is the second round of public hearings actually I should say that the second round of public hearings had just been completed. This was back in October October 7th with a meeting in Raleigh and then in New Bern. Right now. Being the date that it is now the 24th 10 days ago the public comment period ended on the 14th of November. At this point the Environmental Management Commission and several weeks will hear from the hearing

officers and they will make recommendations to the Environmental Management Commission or EMC as to what they heard at the public hearings and then the EMC later in what I guess I should say early in the calendar year next year will decide and make a recommendation on imposing those new schools that have been at one of the things that I was impressed with with this newsletter is that you really put it all in an easy to read format as far as the proposed rules. What are you hoping that people take away from the newsletter. Really what we're hoping is that. They wonder stand that nitrogen is really the primary issue in the news and that's what we're working towards. The noose rules offered a particular challenge in writing that newsletter because there were five main categories that the new news rules were focusing on and managing our future. We had to distill that for the layman. And that's very difficult to do especially when you're talking about milligrams per the

leader and you're talking about various complicated rules that that really ourselves have to study a point to get to understand. That's really the goal of this is to try to boil that down. And the reaction has been very positive. We ran out of copies. We printed about four or 5000 copies we had to go back to another printing of 2000. And still we have a couple left but not many and we may go back and print some more. So it's been well received then if there's anybody out there that would like this information we sure would be glad. Share that with them. As you look at the proposed rules what is it that you feel every North Carolinian on a very basic level needs to know about the rules which should go into effect sometime next August. I think what everybody either within the news basin or outside of the news forever basin needs to understand is that our common day to day activities whether it's driving a car or fertilizing a lawn managing waste from a farm and farm animals applying fertilizer to golf

courses or managing our septic tanks properly for example and getting those pumped out in maintenance to all affect the water in the news forever. If you talk to people in New Bern they understand the Neuse River it's very wide at that point they live in and in and around the river and they understand where it is in this area of the news basin. It's a road or bridge that you cross on the way to work and people don't really understand where it is. We need to help them understand where they are in the basin. We need to understand that their day to day activities impact the river somehow and that's what we want to teach. Are we going to see any big changes in how things are done come August when these new rules are actually go into effect. I'm not sure if you're going to see any any big changes. I think it will be a continuation of some of the things that have been practiced I think up to this point. I don't think you're going to see any surprises. There's been a large public comment period actually to over the last two years the public interest in the last round

of public hearings was down somewhat from the first round I understand but that was to be expected because it is the second round of people pretty much I think are or accepting that these are going to go into place with some minor tweaking here and there. When you talk about the news river it seems that everyone has their own opinion on what needs to be done. How hard was it then to write an overview of all of this. Given that a lot of times when you start talking about the news river it is a politically charged debate. It is. It is very politically charged and that's good because I think it draws people's attention to it to this resource that we need to protect and this is one of the of the 17 major river basins of watersheds in the in North Carolina. This will be a model for the rest. So yes it was very difficult to try to distill that down into a few points that people could understand. And I think if you take a look and read that thoroughly you can understand exactly what those proposed rules are about.

Finally if someone wants to get a copy of the newsletter whether they need to do the best thing to do is to contact me. We can offer an e-mail address or better yet to phone the Wake County Extension office where I'm based. And if you would like I can share that number. It's 9 1 9 2 5 0 1 1 1 2. Sounds great looks like you have a lot of information to offer and we appreciate you sharing this with us tonight. Thank you for the invitation appreciate it. The North Carolina Environmental Management Commission is expected to put the new rules concerning the new news River into effect in August of 1998. When we think about our friendly neighborhood postal delivery we expect in the transport things like

letters magazines junk mail and even bills. And in most cases that's about right but not the mail clerk at the North Carolina Zoo. She delivers cows hearts knuckle bones and other wild animal delicacies. Tonight Sonya Williams introduces us to Ellen price the postal worker who delivers much more than just the mail. Ellen price is the mail clerk for the North Carolina do her route doesn't begin at the post office. It starts at the slaughterhouse. I pick up my blood roughly around 8:15 in the morning. That's right. Ellen picks up fresh blood every Tuesday for the zoo's vampire bat. If you take special precautions to make sure the blood is just right where the fangs creatures. This is a citric acid and dextrose mixture which I put into the blood to keep it from quoting. Once an uprising goes into the blood it has been there at the start at least without a minute a minute and a half that keeps it from crowding or forming clumps that look like a lever

because the bats can have a drink and then they drink it if it's so that they let us lose consistency. Something like that. Speaking of thick red drinks Ellen says making the blood life for the bats has changed her diet. The first two weeks set in anything red I know red meat didn't drink to made it is jolly and it was red I didn't touch tomatoes nothing while she still doesn't drink tomato juice. Elena says she's developed a much stronger stomach over the past four years. Once her duties with the blotter done Ellen heads to the post office for her next packages worms and crickets. Today Ellen is greeted by chirping crickets waiting in their usual spot. She takes them signs for her warms and is on her way. But things don't always go this smoothly. London I had to go pick them up at the post office and they had gotten out one box was like opened

and they were all over everything and everybody's male and they get there in the back of the truck or they get in truck with me you know and I'm like getting them out. I've had. I've put the progs and the frogs and that knowing they were frogs and I've had it at the back of the seat next to me and I look down this nose sticking out and it's like oh what is this. There's never a dull moment on Ellen's route. And she says no matter how gruesome the task is she loves her job especially because the food she delivers is vital for many of the zoo's creatures and their service she provides help is you. Overall it's incredibly valuable we would not have time to go and pick up all of these things from the different places that they have to be picked up from. And she brings them down to us once a week and then all we have to do is put them into our containers and feed them out and we have so many other things to do. There's just no possible way we would have enough time to go and get all of these worms and bring them here.

You know Ellen delivers about 5000 crickets to the you each week and even more warms. And while they're all tasty treats. Birds and dogs it's the Wildstorm that's in the birds flying in the trees. That's everybody's favorite candy for the birds they eat it first and then eat their diets later so we have to be careful not to feed them too many worms or they won't even eat their diet. Crickets meal worms and wild forms like things might not sound like an appetizing meal to us but the boards here at the zoo zookeepers like them as well because they provide essential nutrients to the animals. We've tried to find worms that have more nutritional value like birds will eat things like roaches but they don't have as high of a nutritional value as some of the other bags we feed so we feed meal worms which are the lowest in nutrition wax worms have a little more fat in them and they're especially good for birds or feeding chicks. And then crickets are really highest in nutritional value and we can also feed the crickets a special diet that's made for crickets. And

that brings up their nutritional content and then we feed them. In turn feed the crickets to the birds so that helps delivering these nutritious meals has taught Ellen a lot about animals and the food they need to survive and whether she's chasing runaway crickets or preparing the bats blood. Ellen says she's just glad to do her part to help the animals. There are no hard parts. I mean it's just is it just comes natural to me you know because I make a game of it and I make it fun. And so there's nothing hard about it. And I just have to have the stomach to be able to look at these things and just say well case is part of my job and move. Over the past few months Ellen has visited several schools around the state telling children about her job. If your school would like a visit from Ellen contact the North Carolina Zoo. Well that's it for tonight's show. Please be sure to join us tomorrow night when we'll introduce you to a traveling minister who finds something sacred in all the Tar Heel towns he visits. And if you've been watching the Liberty series all you would see TV you'll definitely want to join us as we go back in

time to a North Carolina battlefield that played an important role in the American Revolution. And Don Bauer will be in the North Carolina now kitchen cooking up a unique side dish that's so good you may want to include it in your holiday cooking. Have a great evening everyone what's See you tomorrow night.