Winston-Salem Journal from Winston-Salem, North Carolina • 4

BSAMB2 Obituaries B4 B5 The Weather B8 STATE EDITION 4 PHONE 727 7304 wwwjournalnowcom AX 727 7315 MPATR IJ I tl Winston Salem Journal 1 A £'J 3 tA ll a Thursday January 3 2002 I A A a A A 1 LZJ OOPS: Bid by chamber to reach out backfires Phoebe Zerwick ack in the early 1980s the minority owned businesses got together and formed a league of their own because they felt they getting the attention they needed from the chamber of commerce The group called itself the Win ston Salem orsyth Minority Busi ness League and it did all the things business groups do to help their mem bers network and grow That success at tracted the cham attention and with that came an invitationtojoinlt became the East Area Council The name may riot have seemed important then In those days to be a minority in Winston Salem meant that you were black And everyone knew that meant minority be cause most blacks lived on the east side of the city Names matter But times have changed may still be a code word But we have more than one minority in town now And the name matters Gayle Anderson tire president of the Greater Winston Salem Chamber of Commerce said that she wanted to expand the minority business program and reach out to the growing Hispanic and Asian populations So at the end of the year she formed a new committee called the Minority Business Council to re place the East Area Council "Our feelings were we needed to be more inclusive of all minority Anderson said se mantics as to whether dissolv ing it (the East Area Council) or not theory it's more broad based than only African American business but in practice it has not been I just felt if we kept calling it the East Area Council it would be perceived as an African American group and I thought we needed to broaden the Sounds reasonable to me except somehow Anderson never managed to convey her purpose One name change is insult Richard Davis for example is a former chairman of the chamber who runs a management consulting service on Patterson Avenue He is so angry that he has resigned from the chamber heavy handed not forthcoming She makes deci sions in a he said Ten more chamber members resigned just before Christmas with an equal ly harsh letter felt we should have been ac corded more respect than simply being dismantled without prior no said Reggie Hall a former chairman of the East Area Council and the president of Diverse orms Products Inc been working hard to be a good member why I get more Deeper lessons There are dozens of details in this story about who said what when and to whom Hall said he thinks that the chamber could have done a better job at reaching out to new mi norities without alienating the older ones And the deeper lesson here for any group trying to balance com peting interests We had a tough enough time getting along when there was only one minority in thisf town and we all knew what meant Our new minorities want all the same opportunities the old minority sought Elsa Guteres the Hispanic outreach coordinator at Southern Community Bank and the newest member of the Minority Business Council hears this from her customers at the bank "The business owners who work with us are really putting forward the effort to make their businesses thrive but their resources are This is tricky business making room at the table for newcomers without slighting old timers No wonder the chamber stumbled Phoebe Zerwick can be reached at 727 7291 or2fpzerwlck wsjournalcom isher determined to challenge Dole in race I faaBB ADA ISHER: She has criti cized Dole as someone who has not held an elected post Little known Republican candidate has hit trail hard visiting 60 of counties By Deirdre ernandes JOURNAL REPORTER Ada isher has faced obstacles before as a doctor a mother of two and a school board member But in September isher a Salisbury res ident took on perhaps her toughest chal lenge running for the US Senate seat being vacated by Sen Jesse Helms isher and a handful of other relatively unknown Republicans are the underdogs facing Elizabeth Dole in what promises to be a closely watched and expensive election this year Other Republican contenders in clude Jim Snyder a Lexington lawyer Jim Parker a Lumberton radiologist and Dou glas Sellers a Salisbury insurance agent Experts say that these candidates face a daunting task in trying to overtake Dole who has the backing of many Republican leaders and a deep campaign purse But that hasn't stopped isher She criticizes Dole as a carpetbagger who has never held an elected position isher is serving her first term on the Rowan Salisbury Board of Education credentials are better than hers in North Carolina" isher said Politics is expensive and political ana lysts offer isher much hope of defeat ing Dole in a primary that could cost $3 mil lion alone ormer Charlotte Mayor Richard Vinroot dropped out of the Senate race in November after having problems raising money "Someone without name recognition without money have a whole lot of said Eric Heberligh a political sci ence professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte Although the odds are against them less experienced politicians choose to run because they hope to estab lish a name for themselves or they have a cause to promote Heberligh said Others may just overestimate their chances of win ning Since she announced her bid for election in early September isher has visited more than 60 counties of the 100 counties See ISHER Page B6 is like a miniprofession You have to study but studying something you enjoy because you have to stay sharp Millicent King the president and founder of Winston Salem Scrabble Club a 1 ij a A 4 It hb AW BHHbSBBBBrBHBIIEB 1 oK i i a JOURNAL PHOTOS BY TED RICHARDSON Michael Stokes (seated left) and Greg Nesmith play a game of Scrabble at the party at Marla Mason's home In Clemmons ighting Words just a game but the pressure is on at Scrabble yearly holiday party By Brian Bedsworth JOURNAL REPORTER At a house in Clemmons a party is raging Pairs of partygoers sit across from each other intently star ing at the rotating wooden game boards in front of them Jazz music hangs lightly in the air but nobody is listening One woman hovers around the room toting a dog eared book checking the tabletops for irregularities is my dream come she says This is the Winston Salem Scrabble 10th annual holiday party More than 10 years ago a small group of local Scrabble lovers got together under the leadership of Millicent King to share their hobby with a group of similarly skilled enthusiasts They formed the Winston Salem Scrabble Club with the blessings of the National Scrabble Association and have been playing ever since Having been through a se ries of venues over the years the club now meets every Tuesday at Barnes Noble Booksellers on Hanes Mall Boulevard Its annual tourna ment is Jan 12 King the president and founder of the club described the object of her passion as something more than a game is like a minipro she said "You have to study but studying some thing you enjoy because you have to stay Serious players study word lists to stay in top verbal con dition They work on perfect ing their strategies and im proving their national rankings One woman at the party said she studied word lists while on the treadmill at the gym Scores for top players exceed 400 points King who has taught at Wiley Middle School for more than 30 years has had plenty of time to study her favorite See SCRABBLE Page B6 y5 A The Winston Salem Scrabble Club was formed 10 years ago and now meets every Tuesday ABC 45 will end its news shows Official says station was unable to make broadcasts profitable By Michael Biesecker JOURNAL REPORTER After six years of snuggling to make a dent in the local television news market the ABC affiliate announced yester day that it is calling it quits WXLV ABC 45 will suspend its news op eration after the 11 pm broadcast Jan 11 according to a statement released by Sin clair Broadcast Group Inc which owns the station About 35 people including all of the on air personalities are expected to lose their jobs "This was a wrenching decision to said Will Davis the general manager has been a awful financial year for our industry generally and been faced with the fact that though we produce a quality broadcast we make it ABC 45 which is in eastern Winston Salem near Kernersville has suffered from dismal ratings during its news broadcasts since going on the air in 1995 The station became the Triad's ABC affiliate after WGHP switched to the ox network The local Nielsen ratings for November the last month available show that ABC 45 received a 22 rating for its Monday through riday 6 pm newscast which translates to about 16000 viewers each night from the more than 642000 television households By comparison WMY News 2 Greens CBS affiliate got a 103 rating in the same time period WGHPOX8 and WXII NewsChannel 12 Winston NBC af filiate both got an 83 rating When the ratings were broken down into the demographics that potential ad vertisers look at ABC 45 did even worse The station earned a 09 share among 18 to 49 year olds which is estimated to be fewer than 7000 viewers Observers said yesterday that ABC 45 See ABC 45 TV Page B6 Nick Mando longtime Mocksville mayor dies He served from to and to By Danielle Deaver love of JOURNAL REPORTER jjs own (jjsdain MOCKSVILLE for partisan politics 1 0 DJ Mando one of longest serving mayors died yesterday leaving behind a legacy of putting the interests before politics He was 84 new members came on the town earned him a string dj 'nick' mando 1988 of electoral victories He served on the town board in 1957 and served as mayor from 1959 to 1975 and from 1987 to 1997 He never lost an election board he always had a little lecture right at the first meeting The lecture basically said you come into this room and attend meetings you leave politics outside It matter if you are a Democrat or Re publican good for the said Mocksville Mayor rancis Slate Mando was from Erie Pa He came to North Carolina to attend Lenoir Rhyne Col lege on an athletic scholarship His interest in athletics was part of the reason he decid ed to run for mayor See MANDO Page B6 State trooper enters the race for orsyth sheriff Clarence Moody will run as a Democrat By Victoria Cherrie JOURNAL REPORTER Clarence Moody met yester day with members of the orsyth County Democratic Party yesterday to declare his in tentions to run for sheriff Moody 54 has been a state trooper with the NC Highway Patrol in orsyth County for more than 25 years and will re tire Jan 31 He is the second Democrat to announce that he will run for the office that has been held by Sheriff Ron Barker since 1990 CC McGee a orsyth County assistant sheriff said last month that he will run for office Three Republicans also have said that they will run: Barker William Schatzman a former BI special agent and Robert Blakely a former chief deputy in the orsyth County Of fice Moody who grew up in Gas ton started his career in law en See MOODY Page B6.