The following information was provided by the Kinston Department of Public Safety:

On Jan. 25 Lamar Brown was charged with two counts of first degree arson for two separate set fires on July 26, 2012.

Brown is charged with intentionally setting fires to structures at 1025 East Caswell St. and 1015 East King St.  No one was injured in the fires.Evidence recovered from the fire ground along with witness information led to the arrest of Brown.  

Brown was already confined in the Pamlico County Jail  on breaking and entering charges. Bond was set at $250,000.  Brown's first appearance is scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 29th in Lenoir County District Court. 

LCC taps another Casino dealer

Bill Ellis, director of Kinston-Lenoir County Parks and Recreation, is one of nine celebrity dealers to participate in Lenoir Community College’s first Casino Night, set for 7 to 10 p.m. Friday in the Culinary Arts Center of the Waller Building.

The ECU graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Parks and Recreation has been with the department for 30 years and director for the past 17. He is a member of the Kinston Exchange Club and the Kinston Noon Rotary Club. He has received numerous community service awards, including the Red Cross Citizen of the Year, the Roy Poole Memorial Award, the Parks and Recreation Distinguished Service Award, the Jaycees Distinguished Service Award and the East Carolina Distinguished Alumni Award.

Ellis and his wife Judy have a son and daughter-in-law, U.S. Marine Corps Capt. and Mrs. Kyle Ellis of Sneads Ferry, and a granddaughter.

AgCarolina awards ENC grants

AgCarolina Farm Credit has awarded $30,200 in grants to 11 organizations through their corporate giving program, the Fund for Rural North Carolina. The grants will help recipients carry out programs that specifically benefit farmers and rural residents in the communities of Eastern North Carolina where the Association conducts business.

Grants up to $5,000 per organization were awarded in the focus areas of education, environment, technology or quality of rural life.

Greene County Cooperative Extension was awarded $1,000 to begin the Fit to Farm program to educate farmers and families about healthy lifestyles and to provide them with access to no-cost preventative health screenings and classes.

Pitt County FFA Alumni received $3,000 to provide FFA membership packets to all students enrolled in agriculture education at Ayden-Grifton and North Pitt high schools.

ECU/NC Agromedicine Institute received $5,000 to provide educational training sessions to teach healthcare professionals, students, future AgrAbility partners and disabled farming individuals.

Southside High School Ag Education was awarded $3,000 to offer educational opportunities in agriculture mechanics and to buy a Briggs & Stratton educational kit. 

Wilson County Cooperative Extension received $2,500 to buy a compound microscope with a digital camera to aid in identifying and diagnosing plant diseases.

Other recipients included Corinth Holders High School, N.C. FFA Foundation, Port Discover, Aspire 2, Satellite Program and Rolesville Middle School FFA.

AgCarolina Farm Credit, a farmer owned financial cooperative headquartered in Raleigh, is the leading provider of credit to farmers in the central and eastern parts of the state.

I’ve now been 40 for about two weeks. As for now all is well, and I’m still confident enough in my health to buy green bananas.

One thing I’ve learned with age is that it’s not always best to solve every problem immediately. Sure, if an agitated co-worker partially disembowels you with a stapler, you may want to get to an emergency room within 24 hours. Otherwise, sometimes problems will solve themselves if given the proper room to breathe.

For example, the television in my living room is a 1987 Zenith. Against the wishes of family, friends and clergy, I’ve refused to get rid of the TV just because it’s not the width of a credit card. The picture on the thing is clear as a bell, and I believe if the job is being done there’s no reason to make a change.

Does anyone reading this believe one of these newfangled slim TVs will last for 26 years? That’s longer than the average lifespan of the child labor now assembling the current fleet of anorexic, gutless televisions.

According to RadioMuseum.org, the phrase “clear as a bell” was originally used by the Sonora Phonograph Company as an advertising slogan for its line of radios and record players. One branch of the company eventually morphed into the Magnavox Company. Sharing is caring.

Recently my cherished TV has shown signs of wear. Every so often, for no reason, the picture will go away. This is easily remedied by turning the power knob ever so slightly to the left. Whenever a family member blacks out in the middle of the day, we don’t throw them away, do we? We adjust their medication, unplug the microwave and get on with our day.

Although I had to cram my heart with steel wool to do it, about three weeks ago I decided it was time to get a new television. Ol ’87 has been blacking out upwards of three times a week lately — most recently near the end of an episode of “Columbo,” when Peter Falk was halfway staring a suspect in the eye and explaining how it was possible for him to kill his business partner with a stick of celery.

Ol ’87 was with me for “Miami Vice” — the two good years at the beginning and the three so-so years that followed. When “Twin Peaks” came along and reinvented what a television show could be, Ol ’87 was there. I was about to become one of those lying liars who claim not to watch TV, but Ol ’87 pulled me back in with “Seinfeld,” “Arrested Development” and “30 Rock.” Ol ’87 duct taped the once crumbling umbilical cord between myself and pop culture back together.

I’d gone so far as to price new televisions. As it turns out, it’s possible to get a decent set without having to sell any of your toes to medical schools — although, if you’re interested, the dough is pretty good. Many of my friends are obsessed with televisional terminology, such as resolution, frame rate speed and high definition. As long as I can tell who is saying what to whom, I could care less.

Besides, do we really need to see a close up of Honey Boo Boo’s mama in high definition? Will being able to see the Dorito dust stuck between the mom’s jowls make the experience more enjoyable? Okay, I guess that would be pretty cool; one point for technology.

I’ve never seen the “Honey Boo Boo Hour,” or whatever the show is called, but I’m assuming the cinematography isn’t a sticking point for most viewers. I just looked up some information on the show and found out Honey Boo Boo’s family is allegedly paid $50,000 per episode. If you created 10 of me in a laboratory and rolled them in gold dust, I wouldn’t be worth $50,000. Maybe I should euthanize Ol ’87 out of respect.

Other people want me to get a smart TV or a plasma TV. First of all, no TV that’s fed the current stream of stupid shows will ever be smart, and plasma should be in a local blood bank or black market organ drop-off Igloo cooler. I want a TV with some guts in it — not some slim, tofu-eating TV that thinks meat is murder. Had you rather board a plane with big, hefty engines or an ultralight powered by two AA batteries?

While this debate of one was going on in my slightly oversized head, I got a call from a family member asking if I’d be interested in a 4-year-old TV that was perfectly fine.

“This isn’t a new thin one that can be hung on the wall,” I was told. “It’s about a foot thick and is the same weight as Delaware, but the picture is clear as a bell.”

“You had me at Delaware,” I said.

Turns out it was smart not to run out and plunk down my hard earned money on a TV I didn’t really want. Ol ’87 has led a good life, and it’s my hope that it’ll find a home in a friend’s shop, basement or erotic dungeon. There’s something cool about a TV that still has a knob on it in an era when most of the shows are full of knobs. My new TV will sadly be knob free, but at least it’ll be heavy enough to give anyone trying to steal it a hernia.

Jon Dawson’s columns appear every Tuesday and Thursday in The Free Press. Contact Jon at 252-559-1092 or jon.dawson@kinston.com. To purchase books, music or tobacco products, visit jondawson.com.

TRENTON — A Trenton man, arrested Friday for possession of items used in making methamphetamine, was presented with additional drug charges Monday.

David Michael Spence, 26, of 3066 Cobb Road, remained in Jones County Jail Monday under a $100,000 secured bond.

Detective Timothy Corey said the Jones County Sheriff’s narcotic’s office received an anonymous tip that Spence was “being evicted from his residence and was in the process of setting up a lab so he could cook methamphetamine before he left.”

He and several deputies went to Spence’s residence, where they found him sitting in his car at about 5 p.m. Friday. He attempted to flee, but the officers were able to detain him, Corey said.

A search of the car revealed a small bag with about 40 pseudoephedrine pills and lithium batteries in the floorboard.

“They are commonly used in the manufacturing of meth,” Corey said about the batteries and pills.

Officers spent the night at the residence while waiting to obtain a search warrant. About 9 a.m., Saturday, the State Bureau of Investigation arrived on the premises and — with deputies from Jones County — searched the home.

Corey said the SBI confiscated a number of precursors for making meth, including household and farm chemicals such as anhydrous ammonia, which was found inside a fire extinguisher to keep it stable.

Upon completion of the search after noon, a private company, Advanced Environmental Options of South Carolina, came in to clean up and remove the hazardous materials.

“Basically, what they do,” Corey said, “is they log all the evidence and collect all the hazardous waste from the site.”

Spence was arrested and charged Friday for felony possession of meth precursors and placed under a $50,000 secured bond.

On Monday, he was served with two more of the same charges and maintaining a dwelling for a controlled substance with an additional $50,000 bond.

“(Spence) was in the process of gathering everything he needed,” Corey said about the meth precursors, “because he had intentions of cooking the meth that night. And due to the anonymous tip and quick response of Jones County Sheriff’s Office, we were actually able to catch him before he started the process.”

Spence is scheduled to appear in Jones County District Court Friday.

Margaret Fisher can be reached at 252-559-1082 or Margaret.Fisher@Kinston.com.

DEEP RUN — South Lenoir’s baseball program now belongs to David Combs.

Combs, a 25-year-old native of Wayne County, was officially named the Blue Devils’ next varsity head baseball coach on Monday.

The former Lenoir Community College and Mount Olive College right-hander came to Deep Run last semester as a physical education teacher after spending last school year at his alma mater, Southern Wayne.

Combs takes over for Tim Jenkins, who led the program for one season before leaving a few weeks ago for East Duplin.

“He’s very knowledgeable (in the game), he’s got a great rapport with the guys, and we just seem to think that he was a fit for it,” South Lenoir Athletic Director Lisa Smith said.

“This is a baseball tradition-rich school, and we think he’s going to continue on that tradition.”

In his last season at LCC Combs, a reliever, helped the Lancers reach the 2008 NJCAA Division II World Series in Millington, Tenn., where they finished as the national runner-up to LSU-Eunice. He also helped the Trojans to a top three finish in the 2011 NCAA D-II National Championships and back-to-back Conference Carolinas titles.

Combs went 7-1 with a 2.19 ERA in a team-high 21 appearances in his final season in a Trojans uniform.

While raw talent had a lot to do with those numbers, so did learning how to play the game correctly, which was something that was stressed at both LCC and MOC.

Combs plans on doing the same at South Lenoir.

“The biggest thing I think high school kids are struggling with now is the actual knowledge of the game in the way the game is supposed to be played,” he said. “That was something that was stressed very hard at Mount Olive and of course, LCC.”

South Lenoir doesn’t kick off the season until late next month, and Combs is already feeling welcomed by the Deep Run and Pink Hill communities.

Above all, he’s ready to get the season underway.

“The community has been awesome. The support of the parents is unreal around here at South Lenoir,” he said.

“The players seem like a hard-working group of guys. I feel very welcomed.”

MOSS HILL JUMPERS TO PERFORM DURING TONIGHT’S GAME: The Moss Hill Jumpers, a group of students from Moss Hill Elementary who perform with jump ropes, will perform at South Lenoir tonight during halftime of the girls basketball game against Richlands.

Ryan Herman can be reached at 252-559-1073 or Ryan.Herman@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter: @KFPSports.

If there weren’t people to remember, then who would know?

Ten years on from the catastrophic explosion at West Pharmaceutical Services’ old facility — a disaster that left six dead and nearly 40 injured — the march of time and progress proved itself once again.

The destroyed building on the Rouse Road Extension near the Global TransPark is gone. A new facility, online and operating by March 2004, continues to thrive and expand next to U.S. 70 West. When the new plant started shipping products, there were 210 employees on the payroll. Now there are about 325 and more to come.

“We have some really great employees,” said Keith Montgomery, West human resources manager. “They stood behind the company throughout that event, and they’re very, very positive. They recognize good companies do things for their employees, and to make sure that their jobs are here, that they can go home safe. Realistically, our people haven’t missed a beat.

“They very much know their jobs, they value their jobs, they value their company, they value the community. So, it’s not difficult from that perspective. They recognize and they certainly miss their colleagues, and those that were injured, as well. But, they have rebounded greatly.”

To some degree, the events of Jan. 29, 2003, always had a place at the new West building. By the entrance stands a memorial with the names of the workers who died from the explosion.

But today is a special day of remembrance.

“It’s going to be a private event, it’s been 10 years, and we want to respect our employees’ privacy and their feelings,” said Troy Player, West senior director of operations. “We’re going to have a small memorial service (today) at the plant for West employees.

“Our CEO, Don Morel, will be speaking. He knows — from his time when this was going on — many of the employees. It’ll be a time for him to talk to them, and for them to ask questions and talk to him about what’s going on in the business, also.”

Morel, the company’s chairman and CEO, said he is looking forward to talking to his employees today.

“I think they should be very proud of what they have done,” Morel said. “I think that everybody can take a great deal of pride in the way that they responded and in the way they have looked after one another; they supported the families of those that were lost or were injured. They can take pride in the fact the company stood by them in what was obviously a very dark and uncertain time.

“Our business is strong and their future is bright.”

That fateful day

Many in Kinston and Lenoir County will never forget Jan. 29, 2003 — and where they were at 1:27 p.m., when the explosion occurred at West.

Bruce Parson, then the president of the Kinston-Lenoir County Chamber of Commerce, was standing on Queen Street.

“I heard the noise and felt the shockwave,” Parson recalled. “I thought it was a plane crash; the noise came from the area of the airport, so I figured it was a plane crash, which were the first reports.”

Greg Smith, who was the Kinston Department of Public Safety director in January 2003, was at KDPS headquarters, which was then in the old Federal building. He said he felt the reverberations in the building.

“I heard a lot of radio traffic about an explosion; I asked someone in the hall if we were running a drill somewhere and they said, ‘No,’ ” said Smith, who retired from the KDPS on Dec. 31, 2009, and is now a partner with Down East Protection Systems. “At that point, we knew something was wrong.”

Initial reports were that an airplane had crashed into the building.

“Because the city of Kinston has responsibility for the airport proper, I requested a Level 3 (the most serious tier) alert at the airport,” Smith said. “It activated every volunteer fire department in the county.”

Bud Herring was on duty at the plant when the explosion happened. Extensive investigations by the federal government eventually determined dust from the compounding operation up in the airspace above the ceiling tiles caused the explosion.

“It got dark, and I turned around and looked back and saw a little white flash, and it’s all I can tell you,” Herring recalled on Monday. “I know one thing — thank the Lord I got out of there.”

The terrible news made its way quickly to Pennsylvania, where Morel — who had only taken over the reins of the company nine months earlier — was participating in a supplier recognition ceremony. He dashed home after an urgent telephone call about the accident and turned on a TV.

“All I saw was the aerial photography by the CNN helicopter, flying over the site,” Morel said. “Looking at the flames and destruction, it was an unbelievable scene. I threw some clothes in a bag and told my wife I didn’t know when I’d be home.”

There was inclement weather that day in Pennsylvania, so Morel had to scramble to find a plane to take him to Kinston. He finally arrived in Kinston around 8:30 p.m., about seven hours after the explosion.

When he arrived at the local command center, he said it was “a scene of some chaos.”

“They were battling the fire that was still going on in the raw materials warehouse at that point,” he said. “We had a difficult time getting an accurate count of number of employees that were on the site at the time of the accident. We were trying, as quickly as we could, to reconcile who had been injured. We knew we had lost a couple of folks — we just didn’t know how many.

“The hardest part was getting accurate and up-to-date information on the employees.”

Only an hour or so earlier, Smith asked for volunteers to go through the structure in an attempt to find more survivors. A dozen of his firefighters stepped up for the mission.

“Twelve guys immediately volunteered,” Smith recalled. “Walking down in that building in ankle deep to knee deep water, I had North Lenoir (Volunteer Fire Department) command and (Lenoir County Emergency Services Director) Roger (Dail) talking to me in my headset telling me where people might be. They were saying, ‘Go to the third machine,’ but I had to say, ‘The machines are everywhere; they’re not where they were.’ ”

Smith, Dail and NLVFD Deral Raynor — the scene commander — eventually used ductwork above the machines to determine locations — and to find another body.

“You could see blood marks and hand marks on walls, where people had tried to get out,” Smith said. “There were shoes floating around in the water. It was a real eerie scene when we went back in there to see if anyone else was left behind.”

In all, six people perished in the explosion. Three people — William Arthur Gray Sr., Faye Jones Wilkins and James Clarence Byrd — passed away that day, while Kevin M. Cruiess died on Jan. 31, 2003, Milton Murrell passed away on Feb. 18, 2003, and Allen Earl “Butch” Grant died on March 3, 2003, following injuries sustained in the explosion.

Rebuilding for the future

Morel said keeping West Pharmaceuticals in Kinston and Lenoir County was not a tough decision.

“We had always had a good relationship with Lenoir County and with Kinston,” Morel said. “The plant had always had an outstanding reputation with our customers for the quality of products produced and the attitude of the folks on the ground.”

While Parson and his team — which included (among many others) Group III Management owner Skip Greene III — negotiated to keep West in Lenoir County, the community was stepping up to help. Blood drives were held in the subsequent days and a charity basketball game sponsored by The Free Press and the Lenoir-Greene United Way raised thousands of dollars for the West family.

Local businesses also stepped up; Parson said local manufacturers put up money to help West employees through their tough times.

“The community at large knew this was a good company and a good employer,” Parson said. “The community knew West was hurting, too, because they were a close-knit group.”

Parson, now the manager of business operations at Lenoir Community College, said he walked away from every meeting with Morel and West leaders very impressed.

“The West company was just fabulous,” Parson said. “It was unbelievable just how community-oriented they were. They could’ve said, ‘This happened and we know there are going to be a lot of legal issues here so we’re just going to withdraw,’ but they didn’t. They jumped right in and said if there was any way they could stay, they’d do that.”

While West’s leaders were formally deciding to remain in Kinston, they also provided work for every local worker who wanted it, sending them to West plants in Florida and Nebraska before eventually bringing them back to Kinston.

Player, West’s senior director of operations since November 2003, also praised his Kinston workers.

“In the last 10 years, we’ve built this plant we’ve continued to grow, to expand it,” Player said. “We’ve gotten support from the city and the county and the state to build and expand, and we’ve continued to grow. We’ve added employees. I think it’s important that we have great employees. This area is a great place for people to come from and work at West.

“And we’ll continue to do those things.”

Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 or Wes.Wolfe@Kinston.com. Bryan Hanks can be reached at 252-559-1074 or at Bryan.Hanks@Kinston.com.

WASHINGTON — It must be true what they say about women — that they are smarter, stronger, wiser and wilier than your average Joe.

How else could one explain the magical thinking that apparently has prompted Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to abandon all reason and lift the ban on women in direct combat?

Methinks the boys have been outmaneuvered.

This is a terrible idea for reasons too numerous to list in this space, which forces me to recommend my 2008 book, “Save the Males,” in which I devote a chapter to the issue. The most salient point happens to be a feminist argument: Women, because of their inferior physical capacities and greater vulnerabilities upon capture, have a diminished opportunity for survival.

More on this, but first let’s be clear. Arguments against women in direct combat have nothing to do with courage, skill, patriotism or dedication. Most women are equal to most men in all these categories, and are superior to men in many other areas, as our educational graduation rates at every level indicate. Women also tend to excel as sharpshooters and pilots.

But ground combat is one area in which women, through quirks of biology and human nature, are not equal to men — a difference that should be celebrated rather than rationalized as incorrect.

Remember, we’re not talking about female officers of a certain age pacing the hallways of the Pentagon when we speak of placing women in combat, though perhaps we should be. My favorite bumper sticker remains: “I’m out of estrogen and I have a gun.”

We’re potentially talking about 18-year-old girls, notwithstanding their “adult” designation under the law. (Parents know better.) At least 18-year-old males have the advantage of being gassed up on testosterone, the hormone that fuels not just sexual libido but, more to the point, aggression. To those suffering a sudden onset of the vapors, ignore hormones at your peril.

Now, hold the image of your 18-year-old daughter, neighbor, sister or girlfriend as you follow these facts, which somehow have been ignored in the advancement of a fallacy. The fallacy is that because men and women are equal under the law, they are equal in all endeavors and should have all access to the same opportunities. This is true except when the opportunity requires certain characteristics. Fact: Females have only half the upper-body strength as males — no small point in the field.

Further to the fallacy is the operating assumption that military service is just another job. The rules of civil society do not apply to the military, which is a top-down organization in which the rules are created to maximize efficiency in killing enemies. It is not just another job that can be managed with the human resources department’s Manual on Diversity and Sensitivity.

The argument that women’s performance on de facto front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan has proved concerns about combat roles unwarranted is false logic. Just because women in forward support companies can return fire when necessary — or die — doesn’t necessarily mean they are equal to men in combat.

Unbeknownst perhaps to many civilians, combat has a very specific meaning in the military. It has nothing to do with stepping on an IED or suffering the consequences of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It means AGGRESSIVELY ENGAGING AND ATTACKING the enemy with deliberate offensive action, with a high probability of face-to-face contact.

If the enemy is all around you — and you need every available person — that is one set of circumstances. To ask women to engage vicious men and risk capture under any other is beyond understanding. This is not a movie or a game. Every objective study has argued against women in direct combat for reasons that haven’t changed.

The threat to unit cohesion should require no elaboration. But let’s leave that obvious point to pedants and cross into enemy territory where somebody’s 18-year-old daughter has been captured. No one wants to imagine a son in these circumstances either, obviously, but women face special tortures. And, no, the rape of men has never held comparable appeal.

We can train our men to ignore the screams of their female comrades, but is this the society we want to create? And though some female veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have endured remarkable suffering, their ability to withstand or survive violent circumstances is no rational argument for putting American girls and women in the hands of enemy men.

It will kill us in the end.

Kathleen Parker writes this column for the Washington Post Writers Group. Readers can reach her via email at kathleenparker@washpost.com.

North Carolina certainly doesn’t need another difficult-to-enforce law, but the slim chance of it actually working is the least offensive part of a plan rattling around the General Assembly that would prohibit people who receive public assistance from playing the state lottery.

State Rep. Paul “Skip” Stam, R-Wake, wants to dismantle the N.C. Education Lottery a piece at a time through legislation he hopes will come up in the session that begins Wednesday. In addition to banning the play of welfare recipients, he’d also like to see the word “Education” removed from lottery advertising. His thinking: the lottery preys on the poor, some of whom buy tickets with public assistance money meant for necessities, and tying the games of chance to public education lends it an undeserved air of respectability.

He’s right. And whose fault is that?

It’s no coincidence that lottery tickets sell best in the state’s poorest counties. Lenoir County, where more than 23 percent of residents live at or below the federal poverty line, had per capita lottery tickets sales of $410.60 in 2011 — eighth in the state. Edgecombe County, where the poverty rate is nearly 16 percent, recorded per capital sales of $561 to lead the state. The lottery appeals most to people who can’t see another way of catching up to the relative affluence around them.

It’s impossible to call these people desperate without acknowledging the lottery as a desperate act of the state to raise revenue. And who’s more irresponsible, the guy who blows $400 a year he doesn’t have in hopes of striking it rich or the government that created and feeds that temptation? And greed? No one in government, Republicans included, should go there.

Restricting access to the lottery would hardly reduce the state’s complicity in this fleecing. No law, particularly a law so easily circumvented, can instill a sense of fiscal responsibility. Likewise, making the lottery’s long odds more apparent to players than they already are — in pamphlets at lottery retail outlets and on the lottery website — will not curb players’ enthusiasm. They already know their chances aren’t good because most lose much more than they win.

Disassociating the lottery from public education is equally useless. Few people buy a lottery ticket with the goal of paying a teacher’s salary, even though all players do that to a degree. Since the lottery began in 2005, players have pumped more than $32 million into Lenoir County education coffers, about $12 million into Greene County and about $6 million into Jones. The take would have been more had the Legislature not raided the till to help balance the state budget.

Odd at it seems, money’s not the point. We’re no fan of state-sponsored gambling, but we’re even less supportive of the state’s curtailing the freedom of residents — in this case, the freedom to spend as they desire, even foolishly. The General Assembly can’t legislate prudence, and shouldn’t try. Better than it take steps to create jobs, improve education, ensure equality and give the state’s poor more hope than they find in a long shot.

Tom Bradshaw is out as executive director of the N.C. State Ports Authority, an official confirmed earlier this week.

Ports authority spokeswoman Laura Blair said Bradshaw no longer works for the N.C. Department of Transportation, but provided no other information.

Department of Transportation representatives could not be reached for comment.

“This is a change in the administration. This is a transition,” Bradshaw said. “You’ve gotta remember. If you go back, I told the governor and the secretary I would give them a year. I came on Jan. 23 and left on Jan. 25.”

But ports board members were caught by surprise when they learned news of Bradshaw’s leaving on Monday.

“I wish I had been consulted with,” said Danny McComas, chairman of the Ports Authority’s board of directors.

Bradshaw was named interim statewide logistics coordinator a year ago at a salary of $150,000.

A former Raleigh mayor from 1971-73 and state transportation secretary from 1977-1981, Bradshaw oversaw operations at the N.C. State Ports Authority and Kinston’s Global TransPark.

He was to work closely with Department of Transportation partners on a more strategic approach to transportation assets and the needs of businesses, the DOT said in a news release.

The DOT at the time planned to begin a national search for a permanent logistics coordinator.

Bradshaw said he only pledged to serve a year in the position.

“If you call my wife, she’d tell you I’m two days late coming back,” Bradshaw said. “I’m gonna be 75 years old this year, and my wife asked me if I was ever gonna take her anywhere. I said, ‘Give me a year to go do this, and then I’ll take you somewhere.’”

McComas said Bradshaw had been an effective leader of the ports, turning a profit and investigating new business opportunities.

The chairman also expressed fears that it could be difficult to find a qualified successor for Bradshaw.

“I would like to see stability,” McComas said. “I talk to my friends at the ports to the north and the south and they say, ‘There’s no stability. Why would I even apply for this job?’ It’s too political.”

Bradshaw’s leaving came on the heels of the departure of ports board Vice Chairman Alex McFadyen, who resigned before the board’s regular meeting in Charlotte on Thursday.

McFadyen said he stepped down after meeting with McComas and Tony Tata, the new secretary of transportation, prior to the meeting.

A major factor in McFadyen’s resignation was the fact that the secretary of transportation, not the board of directors, now appoints the executive director of the Ports Authority, a change that came about when the Ports Authority was transferred from the Department of Commerce to the Department of Transportation in 2011.

“What they’re doing is they’re politicizing the executive director of the port, which historically for 75 years the board of directors of the port has hired the executive director, and now the board of directors does not hire the executive director. It’ll be a political appointee, apparently,” McFadyen said.

McFadyen, a former vice president of First Citizens Bank, was appointed to the board of directors in 1999. His term was to expire in 2017.

McComas echoed McFadyen’s concerns about the executive director’s role.

“In a nutshell, we have a situation where you have an individual (the executive director) who cannot serve two masters at one time,” McComas said. “He serves the secretary of the DOT and he serves the board? That’s not the way the world works.”

MOREHEAD CITY — Jacksonville angler John Parks has fished two more Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournaments since a legal dispute stemming from the 2010 tournament.

How the case plays out determines top place and a $900,000 prize in the 2010 tournament. A piece of that prize would be nice but with the case now nearly three years old, Parks is ready to see it come to a conclusion.

“I wish it could be done with; I’m ready to see it resolved,” Parks said this week, days after learning the latest in the court battle.

While he’s not a party to the suit, he is impacted by its result.

Parks was an angler on the Carnivore in 2010 when he reeled in a 528.3 pound marlin on the third day of the tournament. When a mammoth first-place catch of an 883-pound marlin was disqualified, Parks’ catch was in position to move into first place.

The legal dispute over the disqualification has kept the 2010 standings in question, but the case appears to be moving closer to a finish after a lengthy appeals process that took the case all the way to the state’s highest court.

On Friday, the N.C. Supreme Court issued an opinion that is favorable toward the owners of the Hatteras-based Citation, who have been fighting the disqualification of their 883-pound catch.

The Supreme Court agreed with the dissenting opinion of the Court of Appeals in the case and remanded the case back to the appeals court to remand back to the Superior Court.

Andy Gay, one of the attorneys representing the Citation owners in their appeal, has argued that a lower court’s summary decision agreeing to the disqualification was wrong and the questions in the case are ones to be heard by a jury in trial.

“The Supreme Court has said that there is enough of a question of fact that you should have the right to be heard by a jury,” Gay said.

The result is expected to be a trial in Carteret County Superior Court, but it was too soon to say this week when that may be.

But Gay expects to process to move more quickly now that the Supreme Court has made its opinion.

“It’s going to pick up speed now,” he said.

The Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament’s action against Citation has centered on an alleged rule violation involving fishing license requirements for one of the mates working on the boat when the marlin was caught. Mate Peter Wann was found guilty of fishing without a coastal recreational fishing license in November 2010. A notice of appeal was filed and the case is still pending.

Contact Jannette Pippin at 910-382-2557 or jannette.pippin@jdnews.com.

I am going to ask you to think outside the box for a moment.

In 1963, there were 161 violent crimes per 100,000 inhabitants in the United States. In 2011, that figure rose to 386 per 100,000. So, in my lifetime, the per capita violent crime rate has more than doubled. The rate for rape and assault has nearly tripled. The murder rate is almost the same while the rate for robbery has doubled.

Needless to say, things have not improved in the last 50 years. In fact, the crime rate has steadily increased.

With all the new technology, we continue to spend more and get less return on our investment. Law enforcement relies on tax dollars to fund police protection, probation and parole, the courts, jailers and others in the quest to “control” the crime problem. Support industries such as uniform suppliers and outfitters for special equipment and firearms suppliers profit.

Attorneys defend the accused for a fee. Prisons grow larger to accommodate more convicts. Because the entire criminal justice system relies on the existence of crime the “Industry of Crime” continues to grow.

We have been programmed to believe crime is extremely difficult to curtail. Do you believe this? Crime control, to include prevention, prosecution, defense, adjudication and incarceration, is a business.

Crime exists, at least in part, because the industry surrounding it is a lucrative one. Our justice system is broken and the punishment almost never matches the crime. Why is that?

Some would place the blame on economic reasons. “We simply can’t afford to house all the criminals,” they say.

Others would place the blame on poverty and social issues or alcoholism and other addictions. I say there is no motivation or incentive for the multiple offenders to change their ways and certainly no example made of them. The convict usually has better health care and nutrition in jail than we do. The industry continues to thrive through recidivism.

But is there more to the story?

The economic paradox is that by “fixing” the crime problem, the industry surrounding crime would fail. Like General Motors, the industry is just too big and we won’t let it fail. Careers and livelihoods would be lost. Jail cells would sit empty. Taxes would go down. We allow lax sentencing for intolerable criminal acts and, in turn, perpetuate the downward spiral of crime suppression.

From an economic standpoint, tolerating a higher rate of crime to keep this industry alive is perverse, but we allow it as a society.

Socially, we suppress crime to an acceptable level, one the public can tolerate. We all need a sense of security, but at what price? We allow this lax mindset because some think it is inhumane to punish to the full extent of the law.

It is also easier to allow this nonsense to continue than to “fight city hall.” Sending a known criminal back into society with a slap on the wrist for his infractions is like putting a Band-Aid on a severed artery. The prevailing mentality is, “We can afford Band-Aids.”

Why not repair the severed artery once and for all? Why not punish to the extent that the crime is deterred? Is infliction of pain no longer an option?

I have worked with kids that have grown up under severe conditions. Not everyone has a great childhood. But when that child grows up and rapes or murders someone, there is nothing that can reverse the crime or bring back a loved one. The now adult criminal must suffer suitable consequences. And we all know that doesn’t happen in today’s society.

Why are we allowing this to continue? Why do we tolerate this nonsense? My intent is to provoke thought and expose truth. It is not to accuse any entity or subset of this industry of intentionally milking the system.

Most of you reading this never gave the idea much thought; you just want to be safe. The justice system, to include law enforcement, adjusts to the ever-changing socioeconomic challenges.

We now offer unrealistic rehabilitation options to criminals that don’t want rehabilitation. When rehabilitation won’t work, a harsher, more effective punishment is in order. The “rehabilitated” criminal reappears over and over again in the “revolving door” phenomenon.

We get caught up with human rights issues and hear the mantra about what kind of childhood they had. If they murdered someone because they had a bad childhood, game over. It’s too late. It’s a vicious cycle. Enforce penalties that match the crime.

We can build all the jails and prisons we want with our money, but if there is no true consequence for negative behavior, we will see more crime and more growth in the industry associated with it. It is our responsibility as citizens to bring about change. The government works for us, not the other way around.

Our country was founded on the premise that the purpose of government is to provide for its citizens those things they can not provide for themselves. Things like infrastructure and protection from outside invasion would qualify.

Many of us can protect ourselves from the majority of criminal attacks. Our forefathers provided us the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution for that reason. But today, we stand a higher risk of being incarcerated by defending our own home than by allowing the government to do it for us.

We allow our Constitutional rights to slowly disintegrate. We pay higher taxes and support a larger government on the local, state and federal level. 

In 2011, transfer payments, such as Social Security, Medicare, disability and pensions, consumed 61 percent of expenses paid for employees and retirees from government jobs. This is an average but includes the justice system employees. So, in effect, only 39 cents on your tax dollar is left to actually fight crime.

How ridiculous is that? But this is what we have come to as a nation.

Don’t forget that “We the People” do have a voice, that we live in a Republic whereby elected officials represent our interests. It is your responsibility to have dialogue with those elected officials and hold them accountable.

This country belongs to you and me, not the bureaucrats at the local, state or national governmental levels.

Our Constitutional rights are under attack every day. It is our responsibility to protect those rights for future generations. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness come at a price and freedom is never free. Stop ignoring the issues that are sending this country down the drain.

Write or call your legislators, visit your local county commission or city council meeting and be a part of the solution.

John Nix is the owner of Matrix East, a former Kinston City Council candidate and part of the Nix v. Holder federal lawsuit. You can reach him at john@matrixeast.net.

SNOW HILL — Doris Edwards began getting dialysis treatments Feb. 6, 1986 — almost 27 years ago.

It may not be the world record-breaker, but it’s a whole lot longer than the average survival rate of 5-10 years without a kidney transplant.

Tina Everette, a patient care technician with the DaVita dialysis center in Snow Hill who was at Edwards home Monday, described her as “spunky.”

“She has a lot of life left in her,” Everette said.

Edwards, 74, said she isn’t exactly sure why her kidneys failed, but she was diagnosed with chronic nephritis, an inflammation in the kidneys, and she currently has cysts on her kidneys.

She went to a doctor when her eyes were swollen and was treated for a couple weeks. The doctor then sent her to a specialist.

It was 10 years before she started having dialysis — 18 years in Kinston, two years in Greenville and finally in Snow Hill when the center was built.

“I’ve never missed a day, but one day in 27 years,” Edwards said.

The Greene County native underwent peritoneal dialysis, where the blood is cleaned inside the body, for a couple of years. For most of those years, she has and continues to receive hemodialysis with a machine — basically an artificial kidney.

Neither of her kidneys functions. She goes to the DaVita center near her home in Snow Hill three hours a day, three days a week. It’s a tiring process, but one that is vital for survival.

“I come home and it’ll take me a half a day to sleep it off,” she said, adding her good days are the other four days of the week.

She has to take medication to prevent getting an upset stomach.

About a month and half ago Edwards got a painful blood clot in her leg at the access point for dialysis. Following her bout in the hospital, she’s using a wheelchair until it gets better.

Joetta Cox, a social worker at DaVita, said the staff decided to award Edwards on Monday with the longest time on dialysis in the company because of her serious blood clot condition. But the pain is easing up, Edwards said.

“I don’t know,” Cox said, “she must have good genes. She thinks what she wants, she does what she wants to do and she eats what she wants to eat.”

Edwards said the grace of God, her church and her family are what keep her going. She has four children, a daughter-in-law and five grandchildren to help her, and two great-grandchildren.

One of her grandchildren, Amanda Harrell of Hookerton, is also a registered nurse who visits her daily.

“She eats in moderation,” Harrell said about Edwards’ dietary habits, “and she restricts her fluids.”

Her aide, Sabrina Edwards, has been assisting her for the past two years.

“She is very positive and very independent,” Sabrina Edwards said. “She tries to do on her own. She doesn’t give up.”

An online search revealed a few people who have exceeded 45 years on dialysis. Edwards said, matter-of-factly, she plans to see her current descendents grow up.

“Every day you can get up and see the light of day,” she said, “is a good thing.”

Margaret Fisher can be reached at 252-559-1082 or Margaret.Fisher@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @MargaretFishr.

Breakout box:

End-stage renal disease in the U.S.

Ages of renal failure            Number           Percent

Below 19                               7,388                1.4

20-24                                     98,277              16.9

45-64                                     261,940             45.1

65-74                                     119,875             20.5

75 and up                              93,261              16.1

Primary Cause                      Number           Percent

Diabetes                                219,794             37.8

High blood pressure             145,182             25

Glomerulonephritis               84,521              14.6

Cystic kidney                                    27,960              4.8

Other urologic                       12,919              2.2

Other/unknown/missing       90,365              15.6

Sources: U.S. Renal Data System Annual Data Report (2012), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Updated January 2013

For information, visit the National Kidney Foundation website at kidney.org

With several school safety topics listed on the agenda, gang activity and parental responsibility created the most buzz among a multi-agency roundtable dialogue on Tuesday.

For the second year, Lenoir County Schools hosted its Round Table Discussion on School Safety at the Central Office Board room.

Last year, a couple of safety manuals were produced and distributed from points made during the conversation with the law enforcement, fire and rescue, and emergency services agencies in Lenoir County.  

“We didn’t just meet and sit down,” Lidia Guzman, LCS public information officer, said, mentioning school safety procedures and gang awareness manuals produced from the previous roundtable. “Our meeting last year was not in vain, and we look forward to doing the same thing.” 

Since last year, schools have been in touch with Lenoir County law enforcement agencies about suspicious or mischievous activities on campuses, with several students having been identified as gang members.

“We are having some encounters with them,” said Kinston Department of Public Safety Sgt. Dennis Taylor about a Kinston gang with over a dozen teenage members suspected between the ages of 14 and 17. “There are females in this gang and they are actively doing things across the city.”

He said members may attend Kinston and North Lenoir High Schools and the Sampson Alternative School.

“We are monitoring it the best we can,” Taylor told some 60 attendees.

LCS Superintendent Steve Mazingo said this isn’t the first time youth gangs have been addressed.

“It’s something we’ve discussed in a lot of different arenas,” he said. “This (roundtable) group (was) unusually large, and all of the players were here today. For the gang issue to come up, I think it certainly helped. We try to stay on top of that.”

Taylor said Tuesday’s meeting will spread the word about gangs in schools, but it’s crucial to raise parental awareness to aid in student safety.

“We have to contact the parents and get (them) involved in the school system,” he said. “We can bring all this to a head and get some closure behind this gang situation because there are incidents.”

District Court Judge Beth Heath, who often reviews juvenile gang-related cases, said gang members post their activities on Facebook while they’re actually in school and questioned how schools monitor Internet activity.

“They’re very good at getting around the security (of the computers),” Mazingo said.

At that moment, system principals unanimously murmured in agreement that students use mobile phones to surf social media sites while at school.

“Facebook is a nightmare,” E.B. Frink Middle School Principal Tina Letchworth said during the discussion. “They do know how to get around it, and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Angela Bryant, Kinston High principal, said some students have reached a point where discipline — like school suspensions — no longer bothers them.

“They want to be suspended,” she said. “We want them to make better choices, but they aren’t scared of the consequences.”

An hour and a half into the meeting, KDPS Ofc. Woody Spencer offered a valuable suggestion.

“We’ve talked about everything else, but we’ve not talked about the parents,” he said.

Parents who neglect or contribute to their child’s severe mischievous behavior — including gang-related action — can be charged with a misdemeanor or mandated to attend parenting classes, according to Heath, who said gang-related cases didn’t start appearing until several months after she started as a judge in Lenoir County 10 years ago.

“It’s the parents, it’s not just (the children),” she said, citing examples of how even after parenting class options are presented, people still won’t cooperate. “They never want to go and they need it, (but) they’re too busy. Eventually, they finally realize they have to go.”

While the court has jurisdiction over some parents, LCS does not, but principals have taken matters into their own hands.

Northeast Elementary School Principal Kecia Dunn said she’s shown up to parents’ jobs and social outings because she couldn’t get in contact with them to address the need of a student.

“Parents are partners in education,” she said. “(Safety) is a collaborative effort and it starts at home.”

Other agencies in attendance pitched in their role to school safety, including better tracking for Lenoir County’s 140 school buses and finding funds to place resource officers in all schools.

“It’s going to take a collaborative effort of school administration, school teachers, parents, law enforcement and the entire community to come together and take this bull by the horns,” Rochelle Middle School Principal Nick Harvey said about student safety, especially as it relates to gangs. “I think it’s very important that it came up today. We have to protect our most precious resources: our children.”  

Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-559-1078 or at jessika.morgan@kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessikaMorgan.

BREAKOUT BOX:

Agencies represented at Tuesday’s community roundtable discussion:

• American Red Cross
• Kinston Department of Public Safety
• Lenoir County Board of Education
• Lenoir Memorial Hospital
• Lenoir County Schools
• Lenoir County Sheriff’s Office

On Tuesday, West Pharmaceuticals Chairman and CEO Donald E. Morel Jr. held a private meeting with the employees at his company’s Kinston plant.

The meeting was poignant and personal, focused on remembering the six people — William Arthur Gray Sr., Faye Jones Wilkins, James Clarence Byrd, Kevin M. Cruiess, Milton Murrell and Allen Earl “Butch” Grant — who passed away following the fateful accident on Jan. 29, 2003.

Before the meeting, Morel took part in an exclusive interview with The Free Press. He said losing the six members of his company, along with the dozens of injuries in the accident, was extremely tough for him personally and for his West leadership team.

“It’s something no one should ever have to deal with,” Morel said. “All of us were devastated. … We had never had anything like this happen to us as a company; an accident of this nature was something that was unforeseen and unanticipated.”

Morel said immediate lessons were learned from the accident by his team.

“The lessons came on a couple of different fronts,” Morel said. “We had always prided ourselves on our safety program and employee training. Many of the employees credited the emergency escape training with their being able to escape the building through the smoke and the confusion in the immediate aftermath of the accident.

“The second thing was that as part of your emergency plan, make sure that your emergency responders are familiar with your operation, familiar with your people and the types of material worked with on site.”

Morel had only been in the CEO position at West for a mere nine months when the accident occurred. However, his steady leadership and employee-first mantra helped him guide the company during one of its most vulnerable periods.

“Our ability to recover from the accident, I think, sprung from the fact that we met with the employees immediately afterwards, told them what we were going to do and what our priorities were,” Morel said. “That allowed us to begin the process of getting manufacturing to other sites, planning for personnel moves and equipment moves.”

Keeping West Pharmaceuticals in Kinston was personal for Morel.

He grew up in a small rural town in southwest Virginia and said he saw similarities between his hometown and Kinston — another reason he wanted to keep his company’s presence in Lenoir County.

When he was growing up, he said the biggest employer in his town left his home.

“As a young man, I saw what was left behind and the effect it had on our county,” Morel said.

That life experience motivated Morel to help keep West Pharmaceuticals in Kinston.

“We basically sat down, looked each other in the eye and said, ‘If there’s any way we can rebuild here, we’re going to do it,” Morel said. “Once that decision was made, the county and the township had a shell building we could move into quite quickly and began to renovate and begin construction on.”

Morel — who doesn’t hesitate to share his love of Kinston and Lenoir County — is also admired widely throughout this area.

“There is not a better corporation locally,” said Bruce Parson, who was the Kinston-Lenoir County Chamber of Commerce president 10 years ago. “I’ve never seen the compassion or concern, not just from middle management, but from the president, Don Morel. He made it his business to be here on the ground assuring his employees everything was going to be OK.”

In his interview with The Free Press, Morel made a specific point of wanting to thank doctors, nurses and officials at Chapel Hill’s N.C. Burn Center, but his largest gratitude was to Kinston and Lenoir County.

“After 10 years, when we look back, we tried to say ‘Thank you’ to the community the best way we could,” Morel said. “We’re very proud of our record in the community with how we support the United Way and with the West without Borders program that, on a year-by-year basis, goes to help children with special needs in the community.

“… We’re also extraordinarily grateful to all the people locally, whether they were first responders or the business folks who responded quickly. They were able to make a big difference in the people we were able to get out safely and offer aid to those that were injured.”

Bryan C. Hanks can be reached at 252-559-1074 or at Bryan.Hanks@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at BCHanks and check out his blog at bhanks.encblogs.com.

Indeed, Ashley Pierce said yes to the dress Tuesday.

Pierce, a Kinston native, chairwoman of Lenoir County Young Professionals and a new Kinston Housing Authority commissioner, applied and won a spot on the TLC bridal show “Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta.”

The entire process only spanned about a month.

“We applied in late December to be on the show, and they emailed us the first week of January to find out if we could set up a phone interview,” Pierce said. “They called me on the phone about a week later, and interviewed us and asked when we could come film. We selected a date and came down (Monday) night to film (Tuesday) — about six hours.”

A branch manager with Self Help Credit Union, Pierce is engaged to Kenny Chadwick, who works with Wells Fargo Dealer Services in Winterville. They plan to be married Oct. 5 at the Queen Street United Methodist Church.

The Atlanta spinoff of the popular “Say Yes to the Dress” franchise takes place in the northern suburb of Sandy Springs, at “the nation’s largest full-service bridal salon,” Bridals by Lori. It’s owned by Lori Allen, who is assisted by fashion director Monte Durham.

Ashley’s grandmother, Vicki, picked out a dress online before they showed up for filming at 9 a.m., and it was generally well-received. The other members of Pierce’s bridal party who accompanied her to Atlanta also chose a number of prospective dresses. After initial individual interviews, she tried on six to see which one worked best.

However, once the process began, Pierce’s grandmother’s choice turned out to not be the right pick.

“One dress her grandmother picked out online, and we thought we’d really like it,” bridesmaid Becky Hines said as they were at the mid-point of filming. “But when she got it on, it just wasn’t the dress for her. … Things just look different online, even when you put in your body type. We’re just waiting to find the one, because we’re leaving with a dress today.”

When Pierce finished trying on the different selections, none of them were quite right, either. She couldn’t choose between the final two. That’s when Allen stepped in.

“I couldn’t really decide between two, and the owner of the shop, Lori, she found a dress that kind of married the two dresses together — the things I liked about both of them,” Pierce said. “She brought it out, and that’s the dress I picked.”

Not wanting to give away too many specifics about the winning selection, Pierce said, “It’s a beautiful dress — ivory — and it has some bling on it: a belt, a beautiful belt.”

Her segment is slated to be included in Season Five of the series, but it’s not known yet when it will run or if it will run.

“They overfilmed, so there’s a chance we may not be selected for the show,” Pierce said. “However, they seemed to really like us.”

Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 or wes.wolfe@kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at WolfeReports.

Breakout Box

“Say Yes to the Dress: Atlanta”

Can be seen on TLC, Kinston/La Grange Suddenlink Channel 50

For more information, visit tlc.howstuffworks.com/tv/say-yes-to-the-dress-atlanta

The weather is too cold to enjoy being outside, especially with a light coating of ice on many plants.

In a few weeks, the master gardeners will begin growing annuals in the greenhouse for the spring plant sale. If you do not have a greenhouse and want to get your hands in the soil, there are cool season crops to begin shortly.

In our part of North Carolina, the middle of February is the traditional time for starting many vegetables that do not mind the cold temperatures. Seeds of beets, carrots, arugula, lettuce, parsnips, peas, potatoes, radishes, rutabagas, spinach and turnips can all be sown in a prepared garden spot.

Plants of broccoli, cabbage, collards, kale, kohlrabi, leeks and cauliflower are best transplanted into the garden. Cilantro, parsley and lettuce can all be started by seeds or transplanted into the garden spot.

Each vegetable has its own specific growing recommendations. First up are beets. Beets have a long history beginning with the consumption of the leaf beet that does not develop an enlarged root.

The Romans were the first to record recipes of the beetroot. In the early 1800s, only one variety of beets was generally available in the United States. The variety still grown today was common in Italy more than a hundred years ago.

Beets grown in home gardens are easy to grow and productive. Thousands of acres are grown each year in the U.S. for canning.

Most of the beets grown locally are deep red in color, but many colors are available, including yellow and a red-and-white striped beet. Beets are one of the most boron-intensive of our crops. A lack of boron causes the cells found at the tip of the stem and root (meristem tissue) to decay, producing rot in the heart of the plant.

Beets grow well in soil that is deep, well drained and easily worked. It is difficult to get a good stand started on soils that have high clay content or those that tend to form a crust after a light rain. Test the soil several months before planting to check the fertility. For early spring planting, choose a sandy loam which will warm up quickly.

Beet seeds germinate best at soil temperatures between 50 and 85 degrees but will germinate as low as 40 degrees. Prepare a firm raised seed bed. Space seed about 2 inches apart and cover with one half to three quarters inches of soil.

Harvest should begin when the diameter of the roots reaches 1 inch, usually about 65 days after planting. Beetroot can be peeled, steamed and then eaten warm with butter; cooked, pickled and then eaten cold as a condiment; or it can be peeled, shredded raw, and then eaten as a salad.

The leaves and stems of young plants are steamed briefly and eaten as a vegetable. More mature leaves and stems are frequently stir-fried. Pickled beets are a traditional food in the South.

Perhaps we should consider serving pickled beets as they do in Australia and New Zealand on a hamburger.

Peg Godwin is horticulture agent, Lenoir County Cooperative Extension Center. Reach her at Peg_Godwin@ncsu.edu or 252-527-2191.