Update on Fatal Church Van Crash

A woman was killed and several others were injured in a Monday morning crash involving a pickup and a van carrying a church group to camp. Officials from Charity Baptist Church of Boonville said 60-year-old Norma Shore was killed in the wreck on U.S. Highway 601 near the Davie and Yadkin county line. Shore was a youth group leader. The incident occurred at about 8:15 a.m.
Investigators said three adults and nine teenagers from the church were traveling to Fort Caswell, a Baptist retreat center in Oak Island. Their van and a pick-up truck collided head-on. A neighbor, Miranda Choplin, was one of the people at the scene and used her medical training to assist some of the victims. The driver of the van suffered a head injury, and two teenagers -- ages 14 and 16 -- were listed in critical condition. Some of the injured were treated and released from the hospital.
Residents said they frequently see accidents along the stretch of road. Authorities said charges are pending against the truck's driver.

Counterfeit $20's Passed at Golden Wok

Another Wilkesboro business has been the victim of money counterfeiters. This time, the counterfeiter passed off the fake 20-dollar bills at Golden Wok. Scott Foster tells officers when the man approached him and asked if he would give him a 100-dollar bill in exchange for five $20's, he thought the man had been eating in the restaurant, so he swapped the bills. As he was putting the $20's in the register, Foster realized three of the five were fake. Of course, the man who had just given them to him had left, and apparently wasn't eating in the restaurant after all. Foster says he saw the counterfeiter get into a red Toyota Celica with a faded hood. There was a woman waiting for him in the car. Foster says the man was white, about 6-2, with a light build, and short brown hair. He was unable to tell police what the man was wearing. Foster also said the woman was white, but he didn't see enough of her to make more of a description. The case remains under investigation.

Deputies Investigate Woman's Death

Wilkes sheriff deputies are investigating the death of a woman whose body was discovered Saturday afternoon. 52-year old Nancy Jenkins was found at her home on Fosters Trailer Park about 3:30 Saturday afternoon by a 33-year old Fleetwood man, Kris Greer. He tells deputies she was unresponsive when he first saw her, but he had no idea how long she'd been down. First responders verified she was dead. According to Greer, the only medical problems he knew of Jenkins having was some back problems. Because of the circumstances surrounding her death. investigators will treat the cases as a suspicious death until autopsy results indicate otherwise.

Deputy Uses Taser to Protect Paramedics

Wilkes EMS paramedics needed help from a sheriff deputy to subdue a person who was being combative this weekend. It happened yesterday morning. EMS had been called to 31-year old Billy Ray Garris' home in Milers Creek. When they called for help from the deputy, five or six people were having to hold down Garris just to keep him from attacking them. At the request of the paramedics, the deputy placed his Taser against Garris' shoulder and shocked him, stopping the struggle. However, Garris only remained calm for about 2 minutes, the deputy said, and then he was forced to use the Taser again to protect the people in the room. After handcuffing him to the stretcher, the deputy and paramedics rode with Garris to Wilkes Regional, and when he started acting up again, all it took from the deputy was a reminder, and Garris calmed down. The deputy reports doctors had to give Garris a variety of drugs in order to get him to calm down enough the deputy could leave.

Wreck Involving Youth Group Kills One Woman

A church youth group from Boonville has been involved in a wreck on Highway 601 this morning. The highway patrol says the wreck happened about 8:15 am on 601 near I-40, and involved the van from Charity Baptist Church and a pickup truck. A woman was killed in the wreck, and several people were injured. The yough group, whcih was nine students and two adults, was on the way to the caost for a bible study. A woman was killed and several others were injured in a Monday morning crash involving a church youth group. The van collided with the pickup head-on. No names have been released yet.

Fifth-Wheel Hitch Stolen

A thief was probably sweating after taking an item from the back of a man's pickup last week. That's because the item in question was a fifth-wheel hitch. Rickey Weaver told sheriff deputies he'd gone out of town for the weekend, and when he returned Wednesday, the hitch was gone from the back of his Ford F-150, which had set in the driveway of his Traphill home over the weekend. The missing hitch is described as a "Reese" model ,and included the truck rail and installation kit. It was valued at almost 13-hundred dollars. Deputies have no suspects at this time.

Tools Stolen

A local business believes an ex-employee is responsible for the recent theft of more than five thousand dollars worth of tools. The theft was reported Thursday by Ron Burchette, the owner of Burchette Hardwood. After the man left employment at the business, his ex-wife called Burchette and said there were a bunch of tools around her house that she didn't know where came from. He believes the man took the tools a few at a time between February and the day he was fired. Deputies are waiting until the ex-wife gives consent to search the house in Elkin, to match the tools she found with the ones Burchette reported stolen. The missing tools include an Edge brand hand held sander valued at 14-hundred-50 dollars, three spot nailers valued at 675-dollars, A DeWalt chop saw and a power jack, each worth nearly 300-dollars, and at least eight other tools. The unidentified man has not been arrested so far.

Lenoir Man's Arrest May Clear Several Cases

Wilkes county sheriff deputies have arrested a man believed to have broken into several cars and a garage early this morning. 33-year old Jerry Tarlton of Lenoir was arrested after a business owner caught him breaking into several cars at 109 Crews Road about 3:30 this morning. Four unlocked vehicles had been entered, and deputies recovered all of the property that had been taken from them, including two CD players, various tools and a video camera, together worth about 900-dollars. Tarlton told the deputy he had just stopped to go to the bathroom, and had only gotten in a couple of cars. Interestingly, the back of his pickup was loaded down with a number of weed eaters and chainsaws. He claimed they belonged to his boss.

The truth came out a few minutes later. As one deputy arrived at the jail with Tarlton, another was taking a report of a break in at a garage in Moravian Falls, not far from where Tarlton had been picked up. A weed eater, a leaf blower, a TV/DVD player and other items worth a total 15-hundred dollars had been taken. The stolen items are believed to be among the mess Tarlton had in the back of the pickup. There have been several thefts of yard tools around the county recently; given the number of such items found in the pickup, this arrest may solve several cases. The pickup has been impounded so a full inventory of the items can be done.

Anyone Notice It's Been Dry?

Gov. Mike Easley on Thursday said the most serious levels of drought have spread from the western part of the state into the Piedmont, and he has expanded his directive to state agencies in the region to stop various non-essential uses of water. Twenty-seven counties are in either severe or extreme drought, the third and fourth levels of a five-category national drought monitoring system.

"The good news is that we are seeing some rain and spot showers that are typical for the summer in North Carolina," Easley said. "But the problem is the rainfall is so sporadic that most of the state is bone dry. Until we receive several days of consistent rainfall, residents need to conserve water."

Ninety-four counties in North Carolina are now classified as experiencing some form of drought -- either moderate, severe or extreme. Wilkes is presently in the moderate drought category, according to the Palmer Drought Index.

A lot of people are usually getting ready this time of year to apply fertilizer, whether its to their yard or to hay and pasture crops. But the North Carolina Department of Agriculture is warning this year, you should not apply fertilizer. The reason is the drought. Agronomists say not only is it a waste of money because of the absence of moisture, but the left over fertilizer on the ground and the grass can be poisonous to livestock using it for feed. High levels of nitrates can kill cattle.

Even in the yard, fertilizing before the drought conditions have eased is nothing more than a waste of money, because grass will not come out of its summer dormancy as early as usual due to the drought stress. It will take more than a few heavy rains to ease the drought enough to matter, in either situation.

Bridge Collapse Sparks Memories

The images and stories of Wednesday's I-35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis, Minn. are like a flashback to people in Surry County. On February 23, 1975, a steel bridge that crossed the Yadkin River at Siloam, N.C. was struck by a car, causing the bridge to fall. On that foggy night, many drivers didn't know the bridge was gone and drove off into the river.

Today, one out of every three North Carolina bridges have the same deficiency rating as the bridge that collapsed in Minnesota. It's a concern among transportation officials, engineers and lawmakers, but the man in charge of North Carolina's roads and bridges says you are safe on the state's 17,000-plus bridges. "We do regular inspections," Department of Transportation Secretary Lyndo Tippett said. "We are not concerned with immediate safety of any of them."

A state Society of Civil Engineers study shows one-third of North Carolina's bridges are structurally deficient. "It just means it's not designed to carry the current load we have today," Society of Civil Engineers member David Peterson said. "A lot of the bridges we have today are over 50 years old." A Triple-A study also finds that North Carolina has the worst bridges in the southeast and is the 11th worst nationwide.