North Carolina Now; Episode from 1999-05-25

It's Tuesday, May 25th, tonight, a profile of efforts to reclaim the news in North Carolina, now. Hello, a pleasant Tuesday evening to you. I'm Marita Maturey. Thanks for joining us tonight for North Carolina, now. The bulk of our program this evening focuses on the news river. We'll explore the scenic beauty of that age-old eastern North Carolina artery, when we visit cliffs of the new state park. But we'll also examine the troubled side of that waterway when we speak with UNC Wilmington-Chancellor Jim Lutzie about his upcoming documentary about the news river. But first, we turn our attention to the state's efforts to change the way public assistance is distributed. North Carolina is doing away with paper food stamps in exchange for electronic debit cards. If you think this a $5 million change doesn't affect you, think again.

Berkeley Todd tells us why. Two or three times a month, Robin Gratcher goes grocery shopping for her family. Like many households, she's on a tight budget and looks for bargains. Good bad, huh? Each month, Robin tries to stretch the $220 in food stamps. She gets to feed her family of seven. She said she started receiving food assistance in December of 1997 when she lost her job. What kind of strain did that put on your family? Big strain. We didn't have any food Christmas. So, Robin says she reluctantly went on food stamps, but at first was embarrassed to use them. Some people, when they see people with food stamps, they just turn their noses up. Is that happening to you? Oh, it has. Yes. What happened? They just look and they say, when you come up to the, they kind of assume that because you have a cart full of food stamps. She says the humiliation gets worse if you're using food stamps and

have to get changed back. You can't get dollars back. You have to get food stamps dollars. And sometimes they don't have them and they have to haul her all over the store. I need food stamps once. Not as if you're already embarrassed. Then when they do that, hey. But all that will soon change for the 217,000 food stamp recipients in North Carolina. The state is gradually phasing out the paper coupons in favor of an electronic benefit transfer system called EBT. Today recipients get food stamp benefits in a paper fashion. It comes in their mailbox or they go to a certain site to pick them up from a county food stamp office. The electronic benefits is a plastic magnetic strike card. The cards will operate similar to the way ATM debit cards work. Each month the state will credit the amount of food assistance or recipient gets into an account

administered by Citibank. After receiving a little training on how to use the electronic cards, recipients can then go to any food store with a quest or EBT symbol and use them. There's no stigma attached. They're just using a card like anybody else. So they go use the same machine at some of the bigger grocery stores or the state of North Carolina has provided machines which we call Pornifsale machines. The only thing that really changes about the food assistance program is now recipients can pay for their groceries electronically. What they can buy and where they can purchase their food is not effective. While this may not sound like a big deal, the state is expecting that this new program could save taxpayers thousands of dollars. The way that we believe that it would save taxpayers money because the administration of the program should be a lot more streamlined. That means less paperwork. It also means the state will no longer have to mail out food stamps, saving taxpayers thousands in postage. The new electronic benefits card is also expected to reduce

welfare fraud, especially cases of recipients selling their food stamps. Last year the state uncovered close to 1700 cases of food stamp fraud. With the EBT card, a person would have to sell both their card and private pen number, which would mean they would no longer have assets to their food benefits. The state's EBT director Dolores McLeod believes the new system will make it easier to track and detect fraud. The electronic benefit card because it is electronic has a data trail and reports are produced. It indicates where an individual goes to the store to purchase grocery. It can even tell you the time of day that an individual goes to a grocery store. All of that information is made available to the state through the city bank, electronic system, and it will be available for anyone to use to follow up as trends to see if there are any unusual things that are going on. And so any of the entities within the department

are within the state that are involved in investigating fraud may in fact use that kind of data trail. State lawmakers appropriated $2.5 million, which the federal government matched to implement the EBT system. The technology that makes all of this possible is not limited to food stamp benefits. In the future, the magnetic cards could be used to distribute all state and federal benefits. The state of North Carolina, hopefully over the next year, is looking at federal funds, federal benefits being credited to the EBT card. They can use it at the bank to get cash. So that means that their benefits will show up on their EBT account every month. Just like they get a check, or it's direct deposit to a checking account, they could use this instead. While Robin Bradger likes the new system, she says not everyone wants to do away with paper coupons. Especially the elderly, like I said, I focus on them because it's hard on them. A lot of them

receive like $10. And they feel why do I have to go through this training? That's gotten a lot of people. Why do I have to go through all this training just for $10? But like it or not, the state is going to electronic benefits cards. And before it's all over, food stamp recipients in all 100 counties will be online. The state has been rolling out the EBT system in clusters of eight or nine counties at a time. Only about 12 counties are left to be fitted with the system. The entire state will be operating on this new system by the 1st of July. The US Department of Agriculture requires that all states be on electronic food benefit system by 2002. Well, coming up on the program will look beneath the waters of the news river. But first, we turn our attention to Mitchell Lewis at the North Carolina now news desk for a summary of today's statewide headlines. Hello, Mitch. Hi there, Marita. Good evening, everyone.

Topping the news, UNC Chancellor Michael Hooker plans to return to work next week after taking leave to undergo treatment for lymphatic cancer. Hooker has been receiving chemotherapy since January and has also undergone radiation therapy to supplement that treatment. The non-Hudgekins lymphoma has changed from a low-grade, slow-growing form to a high-grade, rapidly growing one. Hooker remains optimistic, but does acknowledge the change in his condition. A new board is tackling the problem of litter in North Carolina. Clean NC 2000 was created by Governor Hunt with the goal to make North Carolina litter free by the year 2000. The board will try to inventory illegal waste sites in every county and create local groups to eliminate litter. Clean NC 2000 will also work to increase the number of recycling and litter prevention programs across the state. If you ever wondered just how much the state knows about you, you can now find out. Until this week, North Carolina residents were not allowed access to information in the state's common follow-up system. A database on individuals, their employment history, and educational background. The database is maintained by the Employment Security Commission

and is set to contain data on more than two million people. Residents who would like to find out what if any personal information is being kept on them now can request the data from their local Employment Security Commission office. The North Carolina Coin Committee is still searching for a design to adorn the back of the state's commemorative quarter. The new coin design is part of the 50 state commemorative corn project. The U.S. Treasury will issue quarters depicting designs from all 50 states. So far, officials have only received a few submissions for North Carolina's design idea. If you have any suggestions, you're asked to submit them to Jeffrey Crowe, Division of Archives and History, 109 East Jones Street, Raleigh 27601. Apple growers in the western part of the state expect this year's crop to be excellent because of unusually warm weather and good rainfall this spring. The state agricultural department reports more than 300 orchards in the mountains are blooming and appear to have a good crop on the trees. North Carolina-grown apples should begin reaching markets in mid to late August.

Apples are the state's leading fruit crop with more than 3.8 million bushels harvested in 1998. And now for a look at tomorrow's weather, temperatures across North Carolina will range from the mid-60s to low 80s. Skies will be cloudy in the western part of the state with a slight chance of rain. Partly sunny skies are expected in other areas. In business news, Governor Hunt has announced plans for a two-week trade mission to Central and South America in August. The tentative itinerary includes stops in Mexico, Argentina and Brazil. State Commerce Department officials say the purpose of the trip is to boost trade and to expand educational and cultural exchanges. A delegation of 60 to 75 government and business representatives is expected to travel with Governor Hunt and Commerce Secretary Rick Carlisle. Sal's Barry-based food lion may have its eye on acquiring the Haniford Brothers Grocery chain, according to a report in the Charlotte Observer. Some industry analysts say the food lion Haniford acquisition would be a good match because neither are union shops, both operating largely rural areas and Haniford stores are in close proximity to food lion stores. Although food lion

officials say there are making acquisitions of priority, there have been no comments made on the possible purchase of Hanifords. The proposed merger of BF Goodrich and Charlotte-based Coltech industries is getting attention from Capitol Hill. The merger will be the subject of a hearing next month by a U.S. Senate subcommittee. An unrelated House subcommittee probe into the merger has also been announced. If approved, the merger would create the world's largest maker of aircraft landing gear. Both investigations are prompted by fears that mergers would lead to monopoly prices for the Pentagon, which buys about $100 million worth of aircraft landing gear each year. Five North Carolina municipalities that own their electric power systems have had their bond ratings lowered by Moody's investor's service. The affected cities include Washington, Aiden, Larnberg, Greenville, and Shelby, while several other municipalities may face a similar ratings drop later in the year. Moody warns impending deregulation of utilities could cause cities owning their systems to be involved in a competition war, and they could incur a great debt unless the

state provides some relief. It is the first time the debt problem of the 51 municipal electric power systems has directly affected municipalities bond ratings. And now for a look at what happened on Wall Street today. The news river is a study and contrast, scenic and wild in some stretches and overdeveloped and

polluted in others. This dichotomy is explored in a new documentary, which airs tomorrow night here on UNCTV. Co-produced by the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and North Carolina State University, this special titled Currents of Hope, Reclaiming the News River, looks at the environmental health of the river and what's being done and still needs to be done to reclaim it. The documentary will take viewers along the entire stretch of the river from its headwaters near Raleigh to its mouth at the Pamlico Sound. And joining me now is Dr. Jim Lootsey, the Chancellor of UNC Wilmington and the host of this news river documentary, Chancellor Lootsey, welcome back to North Carolina now. Thank you very much. I'm very glad to be here. This is more than just a scenic trip down the news river. You take a good hard scientific look at it. We do. There's a lot of

science in this program. We do take a scenic trip and you get to see it get an idea of how beautiful the river is. But we take a look at the multitude of issues that are connected with the river and its current condition. In your opinion, what is the environmental health of the news river? Sick but getting better. We think that there has been improvement in the condition of the news over the last several years. We think that the message is beginning to get out about the about the river, why it's important that a number of people and constituencies contribute to making it better. And we think that some positive things are happening. And this documentary seems to focus just judging by the title of it seems to focus on some of the more positive things rather than taking a look at the dark side of the news river. We think that a lot of the coverage, both media coverage and books and other things that have been written have been probably too dramatic on the downside about how terrible things are. And it is not that there are not problems with the river. But I think that there has been or we felt that there has been too much

emphasis really on that part and not enough on the good things that are happening. We hope that by focusing on the good things people will be encouraged to do more of the same and continue the kind of positive things that they've been doing. I'm going to continue down that path of looking at the bad side of it first and have you explained to us how we got to the point where the news river became so polluted. Very good point because and one that I don't think is commonly understood. Some of the problems with the river are comparative. For instance, if you looked at the Cape Fear River, which we looked at earlier, there is more pollution in the Cape Fear River than there is in the news river. But the problem is that the Cape Fear River has a tidal flush. It runs into saltwater at Wilmington and there's a tidal movement back and forth that takes the pollutants out to sea or flushes them out of the river because the news runs into the Pamlico Sound and there is no tide in the news river. Only a wind tide or a wind movement. When the pollution gets to where to down to where it meets saltwater, which is where some of the problems

begin to become particularly apparent, there's no way to flush them out. So it is an unusual river in that sense and that it does not have a way of cleaning itself. Because of the development along the river, the river I would say in many stretches averages less than one or two feet deep because there's been so much siltation. Now a hundred years ago, the river probably averaged 10 or 12 feet deep and therefore that also acted to help the river clean itself. But since it has become silted and the river flow has been slowed, you don't get some of those natural cleaning actions in the river. In fact, weren't there even points in your trip down the news that you actually got stuck? Yeah, one day I imagine we went around 15, 20, maybe 30 times and we were in a John boat, which drew 12 inches of water and so it is very silted in in many sections of the middle of the news river. But you say things are improving, what does the documentary explore in that area?

We look at some of the positive things. We point out a couple of industries that we think are doing a particularly good job, a warehouse which is down near Newburn, has done a good job in cleaning up the effluent that it puts back into the river. The city of Raleigh has spent millions of dollars in cleaning up its sewage treatment that it puts into the river. CP&L has taken a dam out of the river that was no longer necessary and really I think it was the first time in the history of the country that one of these dams had been built for power and have been voluntarily removed. So there are people and there are groups all up and down the river from the Eno River all the way down to Newburn and Oriental that are getting organized and are getting people interested in mending their ways so that they don't contribute to the nutrient load and other problems that the river has. And you remind what stands out most about this documentary, something that we can be on the look out for as we watch it tomorrow night. I think it is those things we all might do that will help

make the river cleaner. Whether it's as a homeowner and what fertilizer we put on our lawn, whether it is as a contractor and how we keep sediment from getting into the from a construction site from getting into the river, whether it be a city and whether it means that they need to do more in their sewage treatment. I think we all need to be looking at what can we do individually. We tried in this program not to pick out any single villain not to say oh it's the hog industry, if only the hog industry weren't here. It's more than that it's everybody. Everybody contributed to making the problem and everybody's going to have to contribute to making it better. I mentioned in the introduction this is a joint project between UNC Wilmington and NC State. Tell us about that collaborative effort. Well North Carolina State had the production unit that worked on it. Ron Kemp and people that work in his office did the filming and did the editing and Ron did the writing for this program. But they're also a scientist from both universities that contribute as well as scientists from Chapel Hill that are in the program and also contributed

to their research. So this really is a University of North Carolina project. We feel that if we're going to tell everybody else that they ought to contribute to trying to clean up the news, the University should do its part also. And one of the things we can do and that North Carolina public television can do is bring attention to this and say to the viewers, you can help, this is partially your river. It belongs to your grandchildren and your children. You now help us try to make it better and we're making progress, but we need to keep working on it. Chancellor Lutzzi, I look forward to seeing it. Thank you so much for being here tonight. Thank you, Marita. Okay. Now don't forget, currents of hope reclaiming the news river airs tomorrow night at 8 p.m. here on UNCTV. It's that time of the year again when people are getting out and traveling around our state.

Tonight we take you to Cliffs of the News as part of our continuing series on the state park system. As Audrey Bailey reports, you can learn a lot about our state from this area's spectacular geology. At the turn of the century, Whitehall, now known as Seven Springs, North Carolina, was known as a location for trendy resorts where visitors could sample the healing waters and take a river boat to the high cliffs along the news river. While the high quality of the water in the news river has been lost, the 90-foot cliffs along as banks were donated to the state in 1945 and are preserved today as part of Cliffs of the News State Park, just south of Goldsboro. The major attraction in the park is the cliff itself, where you can see millions of years of geologic history and sharp relief. I think what makes Cliffs of the News so special and really all of our state park for the same reason

is the opportunities here to learn something about the natural and cultural history. Each park has something unique to offer here at Cliffs of the News. It's number one, the geology of the area. When you're standing on the cliff and you look back at the cliff, you know, it's sure it's a bunch of different layers, but what's so amazing is they represent different time periods during the Lake Fortacious period, and each one of those colorations represent a time when there may have been a shallow ocean here or a marsh or estuarine system. As the soils in the park are diverse, so are the plants they support. You've got representation from mountains, Piedmont and coastal region, which is really amazing. We could walk to portions of the park, and we'd be standing on a ridge, and if you didn't know anybody, you'd think you were in western North Carolina with the Galax at your feet. There's not many places in North Carolina where you can come and see mountain Galax, trailing our beauties, which are typically found in the Piedmont and western part of the state,

along with Spanish moths and cypress trees, black gum or tipalogue. So there's a lot of diversity wrapped up within 750 acres here. The park features a campground, a clear spring-fed lake for swimming, numerous hiking trails, a museum, and a group camping area. You can drive to the park or paddle through the park down the news river. The best place to put in for a short maybe three or four-hour trip down

the river is up above the park off of Highway 111, and the easiest place to take out once you pass the park is down at the wildlife boat access in seven springs. It's an excellent way to see the park and the cliff, and our park boundary courses on the left and the right-hand side of the river. Every state park is a center for environmental education. This is a great place to study geology and observe the 425 plant species that have been recorded here. To bar the phrase, you know, this is yours to discover. It really is. You know, state parks, cliffs, and the news belong to the people of North Carolina. A lot of people take for granted what's here. In fact, I can tell anybody about cliffs to the news state park. I will tell them to come visit. When you understand something, you appreciate it. When you appreciate it, you want to keep it, make it special. So you want to preserve it and protect it. That's what cliffs to the news does for this area, and that's what

really state parks do for the state as a whole. And to plan your trip to cliffs of the news, you can call about the interpretive programs that are scheduled throughout the year. The park office phone number is 919-778-6234. And that's our program for tonight. We hope you enjoyed it. Looking ahead to tomorrow, state officials are preparing to set off on an Asian business summit. The China summit starts this weekend. So tomorrow, John Arnold will bring us a look at what state officials hope to achieve. And we'll continue with our picturesque look at North Carolina's beautiful state parks. Have a wonderful evening, everyone, and we'll see you back here tomorrow night. For another edition of North Carolina Now. Good night, everyone.