Regional Briefs: Stimulus spending to be watched

By: JournalNow Staff | JOURNAL STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
Published: March 26, 2009

RALEIGH

Eight federal officials are in Raleigh to watch how North Carolina spends stimulus money.

North Carolina is one of 16 states being reviewed for stimulus spending.

Gov. Bev Perdue said she hopes that the state will be a good example in its spending of $6 billion.

The eight employees work for the Government Accountability Office, which investigates for Congress how tax dollars are spent.

Team leader Terry Dorn says that the group hopes to find examples of states doing things well that can be shared with other states.

North Carolina is using the money over the next two years for highways, bridges, vocational training, schools, water systems, energy conservation, foster care, child immunizations, crime victim assistance and Medicaid.

Section of parkway closed for repair

BOONE -- Officials with the Blue Ridge Parkway said yesterday that a section of the road north of Boone will be temporarily closed for slide repair.

A 1.8-mile section between U.S. 221 and Old U.S. 421 will be closed for about nine months. The closure is needed to stabilize a slide at Milepost 270.3, parkway officials said.

A detour will begin for visitors traveling south on the parkway at Milepost 269.8 at Phillips Gap Road, continue south on Idlewood Road, through Deep Gap and connecting back to the parkway on U.S. 221 or Old U.S. 421 at Milepost 280.9.

Visitors traveling north will begin the detour at Milepost 280.9. They will leave the parkway on U.S. 221 or Old U.S. 421, continue north on Idlewood Road through Deep Gap connecting back to the parkway on Phillips Gap Road at Milepost 269.8.

Greensboro vying for bicycling hall

GREENSBORO -- Officials of the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame are considering Greensboro and Davis, Calif., as sites for their headquarters.

The head of the organization's search committee said that Davis and Greensboro were finalists. Bill Brunner said that a group from the biking organization will visit Greensboro on Monday and Tuesday.

The group already has visited Davis, which bills itself as "the bicycle capital of the United States." The city pioneered the creation of bike lanes more than 40 years ago and is home to the California Bicycle Museum.

The group's hall of fame currently is in Somerville, N.J.

Two Marines killed in Afghanistan

CAMP LEJEUNE -- The military says that two Marines based in NorthCarolina have died during combat in Afghanistan.

The Defense Department said yesterday that Cpl. Anthony L. Williams, 21, of Oxford, Pa., and Cpl. Michael W. Ouellette, 28, of Manchester, N.H., died Sunday in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan.

Ouellette's mother said that he was killed by an improvised explosive device, but the military hasn't released details.

Both men were assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Lejeune.

N.C. Guard to get new headquarters

RALEIGH -- North Carolina will soon begin building a new headquarters for the state's National Guard.

Gov. Beverly Perdue said yesterday that the $56 million project in Raleigh will largely be paid for with federal stimulus money, along with some state money set aside for the project.

The N.C. National Guard Joint Force Headquarters building also will include offices for the N.C. Highway Patrol, the N.C. Division of Emergency Management and the N.C. Department of Transportation.

Perdue said that work could begin early this summer and be finished within two years. She said that it could create 4,200 jobs.

The existing National Guard headquarters office in west Raleigh will continue to be used by the Guard.

Appalachian conference this weekend

PORTSMOUTH, Ohio -- Regional scholars, writers and artists will gather this weekend in southern Ohio for the annual Appalachian Studies Association conference.

Some 600 participants are expected beginning Friday on the campus of Shawnee State University in Portsmouth. Workshops and presentations will focus on the region's arts, crafts and music.

The region includes all of West Virginia and parts of 12 other states: Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.