Regional Briefs: Annexation reform bill is alive in House

RALEIGH -- A state House judiciary committee advanced a wide-ranging bill for annexation reform that is designed to ensure that residents who are annexed by a town or city receive expected services and have recourse when the services are delayed.

The plan also gives more authority to the Local Government Commission to oversee involuntary annexations and ensure that a municipality can provide services in a fiscally sound manner. But it doesn't allow property owners to vote in a referendum before they are annexed.

The bill now goes to the House Finance Committee.

U.S. House OKs Foxx's barracks bill

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. House passed a bill yesterday that is designed to improve housing for soldiers living in Army barracks.

Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-5th, sponsored the bill, which is called the Sustain, Support and Defend Act of 2009. It involves expanding a pilot program called the First Sergeant's Barracks Initiative to Army bases across the country.

Instead of individual units maintaining barracks, the Army would designate a separate maintenance team to be responsible for barracks housing while Army units are deployed and their barracks are vacant and prone to deterioration.

The bill is designed to prevent poor conditions in barracks that were reported last year at such bases as Fort Bragg, Foxx said in a written statement. "America's soldiers deserve on-base housing that reflects our nation's commitment to their well-being," she said.

The House approved the bill 389-22. It now moves to the U.S. Senate.

Local road project cited by Biden

WASHINGTON -- Vice President Joe Biden pointed yesterday to a road-widening project in Forsyth and Stokes counties as an example of how states are using the federal stimulus money.

The project, which is receiving $15.8 million, will widen Tobaccoville Road in Forsyth County to Kirby Road in Stokes. It will cover 1.7 miles, widening the road to four lanes. The project includes rebuilding the interchange on U.S. 52 at the entrance of the RJR Tobacco plant, said Pat Ivey, a division engineer with the N.C. Department of Transportation.

The project is scheduled to be completed in mid-2010, Ivey said.

It is among 1,900 other highway projects nationwide that will receive $19 billion in stimulus money, Biden said. In North Carolina, state transportation officials have used $314 million on road projects.

Bill would give contractors tax delay

RALEIGH -- Contractors with unsold homes would get more time to pay property taxes on them in a bill approved by North Carolina legislators.

The House agreed by a wide margin yesterday to allow construction firms to defer local property taxes on homes that they have been unable to sell for up to three years.

Legislative staff says the bill could delay $35 million in taxes during the first year of the program, which will expire in 2013.

Rep. Leo Daughtry of Johnston County voted no because he said it would cost his county $1 million in delayed revenues. The bill now goes to the Senate.

Boy, 14, suffers from rare infection

FAYETTEVILLE -- A 14-year-old North Carolina boy has been hospitalized with a rare infection that cost him part of his nose and five teeth after swimming in a local lake.

The Fayetteville Observer reported that doctors at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill are treating Matthew McKinney for an infection caused by a bacteria called Chromobacterium violaceum, which was found in Hope Mills Lake.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that fewer than 150 cases have been reported worldwide since 1927.

Brian McKinney said his son is in serious condition but that antibiotics are beginning to clear the infection from the teen's blood.

Doctors had to remove the left side of Matthew's nose and palate. Brian McKinney said that doctors won't consider reconstructive surgery until the infection is gone.

2 kids missing in mountains found

BAKERSVILLE -- A young brother and sister missing overnight in rugged Western North Carolina mountains were found yesterday about a mile from where they had disappeared.

Sheriff Ken Fox of Mitchell County said that Alexander Lee Suddeath, 6, and his sister, Heidi Elizabeth Suddeath, 4, of Kingsport, Tenn., were found near the Roan Mountain Recreation Area in national forest lands near the Tennessee border. Both are safe, Fox told the Asheville Citizen-Times.