The Charlotte Observer from Charlotte, North Carolina • 21

if' i (The Charlotte Observer Saturday May 2 1987 Section Senate Approves Incentives Tax Breaks May Lure Jobs To Poor Counties Control Of AIDS Debated Medical Society Speakers Say' Education Important By KAREN GARLOCH Staff Wrttar PINEHURST Because the Incidence of AIDS is low in North Carolina the state has more time than others to plan a strategy for containing the growing epidemic But how to do that is a matter of debate this weekend at the NC Medical Society meeting Speakers at an AIDS seminar Friday morning stressed education as the most important weapon should be universal it should be frank and it should be said Dr Samuel Pegram Jr associate professor of medicine at Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University word to students should be postpone intercourse use drugs and Insist on Dr John Gamble president of the Lincoln County Medical Society believes one way to an awareness of the is to test those who apply for marriage licenses His society has proposed that the state medical society adopt a resolution to require premarital testing for acquired immune deficiency syndrome Two similar bills have been proposed in the General Assembly At a reference committee meeting Thursday the resolution was opposed by members of the statewide AIDS task force Another debate is expected at house of delegates session Dr Jared Schwartz a Charlotte pathologist on the state task force said the proposal on the surface pretty But against requiring a test because the test is not always reliable and because there is no cure for AIDS are you going to do if you find out you have it?" As a method of preventing AIDS in infants Schwartz said premarital testing also falls short because 22 of babies born in North Carolina are to unwed mothers Dr Rebecca Meriwether head of communicable disease control for the NC Division of Health told doctors at the AIDS seminar "Friday that the task force is against mandatory AIDS testing A similar position emerged at a meeting on AIDS sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control in At- See WAYS Page 4B File Photo that the amount of fuel wasted by unless highways are improved or measures are developed traffic will increase five times by 2005 to get people off the road during rush hour The study concluded vehicles idling In urban Traffic Heading For Standstill By DON PRIDE RaMeh Buraaw RALEIGH The NC Senate on Friday overwhelmingly approved business tax breaks designed to bring Industry and jobs to depressed rural counties look at some of our remote western counties and just said Sen Bob Swain D-Buncombe people are Tobacco Road 10 years ago Tobacco Road today and 10 years from now still be Tobacco Road unless we do something to stimulate the economy" Republican Gov Jim Martin opposes the tax-credit bill and the Senate debate pitted Minority Leader Larry Cobb R-Mecklen-burg against the Democratic forces of Lt Gov Bob Jordan likely opponent in next gubernatorial election Even the few other Republicans present Friday abandoned the position leaving Cobb alone on a 36-1 vote Final Senate approval was delayed until Tuesday because of a possible need for a technical change in the bill The proposal then goes to the House Part of an economic development package proposed by Commission on Jobs and Economic Growth the bill would give a $2500 income tax credit for each additional job that a new or expanding business provides in the 20 most counties after next Jan 1 The state Department of Reve-'nue has estimated revenue losses ranging from $3 million to $12 million annually during the five years the bill would be in effect But Senate Finance Committee Chairman Marshall Rauch D-Gas-ton said increased economic activity generated by the legislation would produce income than it Rauch said 33 other states including Virginia and South Carolina already use income tax credits to attract new industry Echoing objection to the bill Cobb said the tax breaks would give industries in the poorer counties an edge over competitors producing the same products in other areas this the type of competition we want to encourage in the State of North he asked this being fair to our existing industries? I say it is Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand D-Cumberland who served on the Jordan- appointed study commission said: found that North Carolina is a state with two economies economy of the 1-85 corridor from Charlotte down to Raleigh Those are areas of the state that are doing quite well and they need any help there is another economy in this state that is not experiencing that kind of growth The rural areas of the state in many instances are in trouble and they need some were: Houston New Orleans New York Detroit San Francisco Seattle Los Angeles and Boston By 2005 the study projects that Charlotte will be the traffic-jam leader followed by Houston Detroit San Antonio Dallas Miami New Orleans Seattle Boston and San Francisco It bases those rankings on a severity total traffic delay (in vehicle-hours) per each million vehicle-miles In 1984 index was 5263 In other words for every million miles that vehicles traveled on Charlotte area highways there would have been 5263 hours of traffic delays By 2005 the study estimates the congestion index will rise to 76393 The study the first effort to quantify See CITY Page 3B By JOHN WILDMAN Staff Writer In 20 years a federal study estimates Charlotte area highways will be more congested than those in any other major US city But Dave Phillips a Federal Highway Administration official cautioned Friday that the projections for the year 2005 are best crystal ball Phillips heads research for the highway agency The study unveiled last fall but only recently publicized was based on state-supplied highway traffic data in the 37 most populated areas As of 1984 it listed Charlotte in ninth place one notch worse than Atlanta in terms of highway traffic congestion The top eight traffic-jam cities in order Oldest Buildings To Come Tumbling Down said assistant city engineer Ken town area Gillis been scheduled to open in 1984 as part of the Tryon Street Mall The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Properties Commission approved the demolition March 9 but required the city to photograph the buildings and identify document and preserve historic artifacts The commission still hopes some artifacts can be used in the park Members will meet with park designers Danadjieva and Koenig and Associates in the next few weeks done everything we can said commission Chairman Joseph Kluttz objective was to keep the buildings up as long as it took to consider all the alternatives disappointed the buildings are coming down But satisfied we looked at all to watch it nothing to Workers shielded from uptown commuters by plywood barriers began Friday to carefully remove historical artifacts: ornate ceilings and banisters window frames and cornice sections To save them workers will take down the granite facades by hand using tools no larger than crowbars do any knocking down until we complete this front said Jimmy Griffin project superintendent for DH Griffin Wrecking Co of Greensboro The actual demolition happen until Sunday afternoon or night Debris will be hauled out Monday and Tuesday nights The city required the work be done over a weekend and at night keep from disturbing people and activities in the down ByFOONRHEE Staff Writer The wrecking ball arrives today headed for uptown two oldest commercial buildings the 137-year-Old Trotter Building and the adjoining Garibaldi and Bruns Building After years of controversy and effort to I save them their demolition began quietly at The Square Friday By the fall of 1988 Tong-delayed Independence Plaza Park will stand in their place Mayor Pro Tem A1 Rousso for one watch past history with said Rousso whose four-year battle to save the Trotter building which housed his Brownlee Jewelers helped propel him to elected office think any need for me The buildings are all left of granite row first five office buildings In one Thomas Trotter and his son opened a jewelry business in 1850 Trotter sold the business to buy Confederate war bonds Garibaldi and Bruns Jewelry store opened there in 1896 but in 1909 its owners bought the two buildings next door Preservationists stalled the demolition last year City council members let the buildings stay while park design consultants studied incorporating the buildings into the park They decided against it and council members voted in February to raze the buildings to save money and to add open space to the 13500-square-foot park It had Lightning Flashes Storms Make Carolinians Scurry by a low-pressure system moving east over the Carolinas said meteorology technician John Welch of the National Weather Service in Charlotte Welch said much of the storm activity developed slightly to the south of Charlotte moved across Pineville and walloped Union and Anson counties Scattered power outages were reported throughout the area including at the Heritage USA grounds in Fort Mill weekend forecast calls for mostly sunny skies today and highs in the upper 80s a 30 chance of thundershowers Sunday By USA PULLEN Staff Writer Nature gave a tremendous show of force Friday evening carving the sky with lightning and sending a series of ferocious storms thundering south of Charlotte Towns throughout the Piedmont reported high winds heavy rains hail and brilliant streaks of lightning that sent burglar-alarm calls to local police departments and the faint-hearted searching for cover scared all of us" reported one police dispatcher The storms which stretched from Alexander County south to Greenville SC were prompted In Cheraiv Help Close At Hand CHERAW SC image of a small Southern town: stately old homes with broad verandas towering oaks a downtown where you park at a diagonal to the curb Maybe 8000 folks live here Surely a few know Robert McLeod But not it seems many whole helping Robert" says Kenneth Eddins who has worked with McLeod at Delta Mills for more than 20 years a good man He works hard raised his children by himself coached Little League in a bad way so folks want to help just the nature of On Jan 12 after weeks of feeling weak and bloated McLeod collapsed on his living room floor The diagnosis: a badly diseased heart just quit on says i McLeod 51 pump Doctors in Columbia referred McLeod to St Hospital in Hopes Are High At NC Zoo That 1st Baby On Way MATTHEW LEEStaff Robert McLeod with some of the folks who helped prepare a barbecue at Lower Macedonia Baptist Church that netted $3000 mother to tend to the said Rod Hackney head of public relations at the zoo near Asheboro and Hope are doing very well and seem to be in excellent health Both will continue to be on exhibit in the Gorilla Habitat right up to the time of Hope is on permanent breeding loan from the National Institutes of Health in Washington Carlos arrived last May after several years of unsuccessful matings between Hape and Ramar 18 Carlos is on loan through an agreement between the NC Zoo and the Memphis Zoo and Aquarium John Vaughan NC Zoo officials in Asheboro are hoping again Hope of course is the NC 12-year-old Lowland Gorilla whose longtime suitor has failed to impregnate her She has a new friend now and she may give birth by the end of June to the first gorilla born at the zoo Urine tests conclusive so keepers are watching closely for appetite changes restlessness irritability and mammary enlargement also looking for changes in the way Hope treats her 17-year-old mate Carlos a father of two hope for it to be a natural birth and that we can allow the run home for more Forest Pines Baptist Church raised $4000 with a gospel sing at Cheraw High School Delta Mills brought in $1000 with a raffle been real good to work McLeod says I had to quit I was a line-up man lining up the bolts to check for shrinkage and At Lower Macedonia Baptist Church a barbecue last weekend netted another $3000 See HELP Page 4B $250 to fly to Houston and arranged for Lions there to drive him to the hospital not a McLeod says the boys from the club said always bought a broom from us even when you had to go into the cookie jar to do it Now our A soup supper at Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church raised more than $2000 expected 300 people and 500 says Eddins had to water down the soup and Houston In March he was accepted as a transplant candidate and put on the waiting list for a donor The operation may cost $100000 insurance cover it all not the type to seek help But he had to ask The local South Carolina National Bank set up a Robert McLeod Heart Fund right away at 165 Market St Cheraw SC 29520 if interested The Lions Club gave McLeod.