Bruton Smith:

‘It’s not my fault there’s no racing’

At N.W. Speedway

 

By JERRY LANKFORD

Record Editor

O. Bruton Smith says it’s not his call whether or not the North Wilkesboro Speedway may be sold to Junior Johnson. “I only own half of it. It wouldn’t be up to me,” Smith told The Record during a Monday morning interview. He added, “I haven’t talked to Junior. I can’t speculate on this.” The North Wilkesboro Speedway has been closed since September 1996. It was sold to Smith and Bob Bahre after the death of track owner Enoch Staley. Johnson, a former racecar driver and NASCAR team owner, says he and a group of investors would like to buy the track and bring some type of racing back to Wilkes. Smith said if he had gotten his way in 1996, racing would have never left. “I had a plan when I thought I would be 100 percent owner,” Smith said. He wouldn’t elaborate on what the plan was, but said improvements would have been made to the track, which opened in 1947.

Smith’s attempts to buy the track for himself failed. Smith, the owner of Texas Motor Speedway, and Bahre, the owner of New Hampshire International Speedway, bought the North Wilkesboro Speedway to acquire the fall and spring race dates for their tracks. The total sale price was reportedly $14 million. Since the sale, the track has stood dormant. It didn’t have to be that way, Smith said. “The people there had the chance to sell 100 percent to me,” Smith said. “If that had occurred it (the track) would have been operating today. I offered Mr. Bahre a $4 million profit and he wouldn’t take it. It’s not my fault.” Bahre has blamed Smith for the track’s closure. He told The Record in a previous interview that he would like to see the facility used, but that he couldn’t do anything without Smith’s blessings.

Smith said he’s not going to risk his money on a track of which he only owns half. “I’m not going to put my dollars and people at risk as only a 50 percent owner,” he said. As for Bahre, Smith said, “I can’t remember the last time I talked to him about (the North Wilkesboro Speedway).” The Record couldn’t reach Bahre for comment this week. Officials at New Hampshire International Speedway said he was out of town and referred all questions about the North Wilkesboro Speedway to him. Smith said that if he owned the track, he would have made substantial changes. Those would include installing a new sewer system, he said. “We would have spent a lot of money there and I was prepared to do it,” Smith said. And, apparently, Smith has it to spend. In 1996, the year he bought half the North Wilkesboro Speedway, he was listed in the Forbes 400 as one of the wealthiest businessmen in America. Smith is also the founder of Speedway Motorsports, Inc., which owns the Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Lowe’s Motor Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Sears Point Raceway and Texas Motor Speedway.

 

‘High quality’ marijuana plants seized by lawmen

By JERRY LANKFORD

Record Editor

Deputies were surprised when they found an elaborate indoor marijuana nursery inside a Cricket home. As lawmen walked upstairs in the two-story home, “You could smell it (the marijuana),” said Capt. John Summers of the Wilkes County Sheriff’s Department. “It was real high quality marijuana.” There were grow lights on motorized tracks, digital scales and other tools of the drug trade found in the home at 137 Staley Lane, Summers said. The resident of the home, Jon Edward Patterson, Jr., 27, was charged with trafficking in marijuana, maintaining a dwelling (for drugs) and possession of drug paraphernalia by Wilkes sheriff’s deputies, Summers said. Deputies, acting on information given to them, went to the home on Staley Lane at 1:45 a.m. Friday.

According to the sheriff’s department report, Patterson came to the front door and officers told him why they were there. Patterson told deputies that the only marijuana he had was a small bag. “We told him we knew he had more and he gave us a Tupperware container with approximately one ounce of marijuana (in it),” the report states. After Patterson gave deputies permission to search his home, they found the large cache of plants, some growing in upstairs bedroom closets. Grow lights had been used to nurture the plants, Summers said.

“The lights were on a motorized track to disburse the light evenly,” Summers said. Other items seized included two quarter-ounce bags of marijuana, a pack of rolling papers, 17 buds of marijuana, a grow light fixture and spare bulbs, a hydroponics power source, a set of scales, three ounces of marijuana in a closet under some steps, marijuana scraps, a timer and two fans. Summers said that it’s rare to find such a large stash of marijuana growing inside a home in Wilkes. He said that it is more common in other areas, like Boone, where there is a shorter growing season for the plant. “We don’t get much of it around here,” he said. According to Wilkes Detention officials, Patterson was released on a $15,000-bond a short while after he was detained. Summers said that, as of Monday morning, no other arrests were expected in connection with the incident. He added that Patterson doesn’t appear to have a prior criminal record.

 

 

N.W. Mayor ponders evidence

By JERRY LANKFORD

Record Editor

North Wilkesboro Mayor Steve Foster says it will be a while before he decides whether or not to unseat members of the hospital board. “I do not feel that I can render a decision tonight,” Foster said at the close of a Monday night hearing at Town Hall. “I want to look at it. The decision I make, I want a lot of thought put into it.” Foster is considering whether to remove Gaither Keener, Jr., Neil Cashion, Jr., Rick Brame, Gerald Lankford and Don Jarvis from a board that helps set policy for Wilkes Regional Medical Center. None of the five attended the hearing. They say Foster had no authority to call for such a proceeding. The board, formerly the WRMC Authority Board, voted early last month to dissolve itself and become the WRMC Operating Board. With the dissolution of the former board, the mayor lost his sole appointing power to the panel. A resolution was approved on Dec. 3 with a 4-1 vote of the North Wilkesboro Town Board of Commissioners (Foster and Mayor Pro Tem Faye Cox say they knew nothing about prior to the meeting) which gave the entire board the power to appoint members. Cox cast the lone vote against the change.

Foster alleges inefficiency, neglect and misconduct against Keener, Cashion, Brame, Lankford and Jarvis. The allegations, Foster says, regard the hospital board’s refusal to submit additional names to be considered for appointment to the Authority Board. They also regard a 25-percent discount which hospital board members receive for treatment at WRMC. The discounts are illegal compensation for WRMC board members, said Attorney Greg Brewer, who represents Foster, during the Monday’s hearing. About 30 residents and officials sat in the Commissioners’ Meeting Room during the hearing. It looked more like a court proceeding than a town meeting. During the hearing, Brewer read various documents and statutes. He also called witnesses, including Cox, Police Chief Randy Rhodes, Town Manager Hank Perkins and Town Clerk Kay Minton. A court reporter, which Foster said the town will pay for, took notes on a stenography machine.

Cox was sworn in and testified that she knew nothing about the resolution before it was presented at the Dec. 3 meeting. She also said that typically any impending resolutions are included in an agenda packet distributed to commissioners prior to meetings. Perkins also testified that he was in the dark about the resolution until just prior to the meeting. Answering Foster’s questions, Perkins said that, based on his prior governmental experience, entire boards are informed of such proposed actions prior to meetings. Minton echoed Perkins’ answer, adding that any proposed resolutions are usually put in agenda packets. Foster also asked Minton if she felt that the resolution had been drafted on the day of the meeting. Minton said, “No.” Rhodes testified that he served subpoenas to hospital board members, WRMC CEO David Hinson and John Logsdon, who is the attorney for the town, and the hospital. Rhodes said all were served with the documents except for Jarvis. “I made multiple attempts to deliver the package to him at his residence,” Rhodes said.

Before Foster closed the hearing, he offered members of the audience a chance to speak, but cautioned them against using “derogatory” comments against anyone. No one chose to speak. Foster said it was “unfortunate” that none of the hospital officials came to the hearing. “What brought us to this point tonight was a lack of dialogue,” he said. “This was a golden opportunity for us to start talking and begin the healing process.”

 

Center could cost taxpayers $15,000 per month

By JERRY LANKFORD

Record Editor

It could cost nearly $15,000 per month if a proposed senior citizens center moves into the old Heilig-Meyers Furniture building. Wilkes County commissioners are considering the option of renting the building from the Health Foundation. During a Tuesday morning work session, commissioners heard County Manager Gary Page and Commission Vice Chairman Arnold Lakey give details about the proposed lease agreement. The monthly cost to the county would include $8,714 to cover the cost of renovations and improvements and $6,250 for rent, Lakey said. The yearly cost would be $179,568. Such an agreement could last up to 20 years, Lakey said. Page said that he has met with Health Foundation officials about the possibility of leasing the building. Contractors estimated it would cost $1.3 million to renovate the 24,000-square feet building.

Three other agencies, including Blue Ridge Opportunity Commission, could possibly rent 8,000- to 9,000-square feet of the building and offset the county’s expense. “This has probably been the closest, viable option we’ve had,” Page told commissioners. “That’s a decision you’d have to make.” Wilkes Senior Center is now located off N.C. 18 North near Mulberry Elementary School. Advocates for a new center say that the building is too old, too small and too far out of the way for most residents. Page listed a short history of efforts to build a new center. He said the thrust of the movement came in fall of 1999. Then, residents had raised about $600,000 to build a new center. The group asked commissioners if they could channel the money through the county. Page said that $200,000 of the money was used to have architects draw a plan and give an estimate about the expense of a new building.

The estimate came back at $2.8 million to build a center on the Call property in Wilkesboro. A gym was deleted from the first plan, which brought the proposed cost to $2 million. In August 2000, commissioners were to consider whether or not to seek a loan to build the senior center along with four new middle schools. The county board voted for the schools, but against the center. There remains about $325,000 of the funds raised for the senior center, Page said. That would leave about $1 million left to fund proposed renovations to the Heilig-Meyers building, he said.

 

Photo exhibit shows strong work

By JERRY LANKFORD

Record Editor

Composition is the key to the attraction of Kirk Gulden’s photographs. The angle his camera captures portions of architectural structures, flowers and landscapes offers artistic and original perspectives. An exhibit that opened last week at the offices of the Cultural Arts Council of Wilkes at 911 Main Street, North Wilkesboro, will allow Gulden’s growth and achievements as a photographer to be viewed. “I’m pleased with the exhibit,” Gulden said. “We had a good turnout at the opening (on Saturday). And I had some good comments. It’s some of my best works I have up.” Gulden is showing 91 pieces in the exhibit. Other, smaller works, are being shown on note card-size prints. Describing his work, Gulden said, “Most of what I do is architect based. They include flowers, close ups and a number of landscapes. If I had to characterize myself, it would that of more of architectural photographer.”

Why were these particular photographs chosen for the exhibit? “I’ve been photographing for awhile and increasingly looked at what I’ve done,” Gulden said. “I picked (photos for the exhibit) that appealed to me and to other people. I’ve tried to present a good and extensive show that people will find enjoyable.” And the images in the exhibit take the viewer around the globe. Although some of the photographs capture local scenery, others show buildings and the natural beauty of further away places like Charleston, S.C., Italy, Germany, Turkey and Ireland. Gulden has been a photographer most his life. “I began to take snapshots when I was a child,” he said. “I got my first good camera about 25 years ago, and increasing became more interested in photography in the past several years.” His love for the lens is apparent in the color-filled photos of the exhibit. Gulden’s work will be shown through Jan. 25.

 

COMMUNITY HAPPENINGS

 

The United Methodist Men of Arbor-Grove United Methodist Church in Purlear, will hold their regular monthly breakfast on Sunday, January 12, 2003, at 8:00 a.m. The Church is located at 1984 Arbor-Grove Church Rd. All men are cordially invited to attend. There is always good fellowship and good food.

The Wilkes County Democratic Women (with County Party joining them) will meet Thursday, January 16, at 7 p.m. in the second floor conference room of the North Wilkesboro Police Department (Main Street). Wautauga County democrat, Pat Cashwell, will speak about her recent visit to China. A brief report on the January 11th Fifth District Meeting will be given, and refreshments will be served. All democrats, unaffiliated voters, and voters-to-be are urged to come and learn how to be better informed citizens of our county and our world. For more information call 336-838-2997 or 336-670-3362.

Communities in Schools will be holding Lunch Buddies volunteer training sessions on January 16, 2003 at noon. For more information please call 651-7830.

Blue Ridge Opportunity Commission, Inc. (BROC) will hold its executive committee meeting on Thursday, January 9, 2003 at 6:30 p.m. at the BROC Wilkes Office in Wilkesboro, 1203 A School Street, Wilkesboro.

Free clothing for anyone who needs them. Babies up to toddlers and boys and girls jeans and shirts size 10-18. Also lots of men's and ladies' in a variety of sizes. Please call 336-973-5472. Courtesy of Oak Grove Fellowship Church

The Wilkes County Public Library Chess Club continues to meet Saturdays from Noon to 3 p.m. in the Friends of the Library Meeting Room. Chessboards will be provided, and the club is free and open to all levels of players.

TOPS - Take off pounds sensibly. Join us every Monday at 5 p.m. at St. John’s Church Education Building located on C.C. Wright School Road. For more information, call Margaret at 696-2442.

A child passenger safety seat check by Certified child safety technicians takes place the third Wednesday of each month between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. at the Wilkes County Health Department. No appointment is necessary. You must check in with the front desk receptionist. For more information, call 651-7478.