RandolphObserver.com

N.C. Zoo receives clean water grant for wetland

ASHEBORO--The North Carolina Zoo has been awarded a $406,000 grant from the N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund to construct a wetland that will filter pollutants in surface water runoff from the zoo’s North America parking lot.

The wetland will be located adjacent to an 11-acre lake and associated picnic area near the North America entrance. The project will feature an observation deck and group catering deck for visitors to experience the wetland first hand. Educational graphics at the site will explain the water quality benefits of wetlands and allow school groups to study and learn about wetlands.

“The Zoo is thrilled to have the opportunity to show our 700,000 annual visitors and school groups a wetland and how its work to improve water quality,” said Mary Joan Pugh, zoo chief of staff. “Most wetlands are located in out of the way areas where no one can see them.”

The wetland will be constructed in partnership with the N.C. Department of Transportation (NCDOT). The agency conducted a feasibility study for the project and will also provide the construction design.

“This project would not be possible without the wonderful partnership with NCDOT,” Pugh said. “Their expertise also will be used in a water quality monitoring program that will evaluate how much the wetland improves the surface water runoff.”

The N.C. Zoo Society will be contributing funds for construction of the group catering deck to be built over the wetland. Plans call for the wetland to be constructed and operational by next fall.

The N.C. General Assembly provides funds to the Clean Water Management Trust Fund to protect and restore surface water quality in the state. The demand for funding is high, with 150 local governments, state agencies and land trusts requesting $244 million this year.

The zoo is an agency of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, William G. Ross Jr., Secretary; Michael F. Easley, Governor. For information call 1-800-488-0444 or visit the zoo’s Web site at www.nczoo.org.

If you live in the Randleman area, have considered starting a small business or want to grow your existing business, mark your calendar for Saturday, September 16, 2006. The Randleman Small Business Fair will open at 8:30am and run until 1:00pm at the Randleman Community Center.

Sponsored by the Small Business Center (SBC) of Randolph Community College (RCC), the fair is an opportunity to meet with experts in the field of small business development.

"We bring in local bankers, consumer credit agents, alternative lenders for women and minorities, and a couple of successful small local entrepreneurs for a been there done that session. We give away door prizes and a grand prize and most of all we have fun and learn about the free services that the SBC offers," says Lonnie Hamm, business development specialist for the Small Business Center of Randolph County.

According to Hamm, The Small Business Center has sponsored similar events throughout the county, "We have conducted these in other areas of Randolph with much success. We have had two in the East Side of Asheboro in the past two years, one in Liberty last November and one in Archdale-Trinity this summer," says Hamm.

Individuals wishing to register for this free event or to find out more information may contact either Sharon Warren or Lonnie Hamm at the SBC office or David Caughron at the Randleman Chamber of Commerce. Register by September the 8th for the Grand Prize. Monday, September 11 is the deadline for all registration.

The Randleman Community Center is located at 144 West Academy Street, directly behind the Richard Petty Museum.

Greensboro will once again take on a Scottish flair as Scots and non-Scots alike from across the east coast converge on Bryan Park to join in the 8th Annual Triad Highland Games on August 18th-19th, 2006. This wonderful cultural event brings to the City of Greensboro a celebration of traditional Scottish heritage.

This year’s Games will feature traditional amateur heavy-athletic events, Highland wrestling, pipe band competitions, solo and quartet piping competitions, Scottish country dancing, Irish step dancing, musical entertainment, border collie demonstrations, Scottish heritage and genealogy tents, fly casting competitions, a Scottish Music Jam tent, a Gaelic Song and History tent, Scottish Shortbread competitions, battle-axe exhibition, a Revolutionary War encampment, Scottish food and merchandise vendors, the Parade of Tartans and much more!

Full-competition heavy-athletic events for both men and women will include the caber toss; sheath toss, Clachneart (Stone of Strength), hammer throw, 28 and 56 lb. weight throw for distance and 56 lb. weight for height. There will also be children’s athletic events, ladies’ haggis hurl and broom toss, and a bonniest knees contest.

The full Pipe Band competition returns again this year after a successful début in 2005 and is anticipated to draw a large number of participating bands from across the southeast. The Triad Tartan Tea Tent as well as a Scottish Shortbread competition is sure to add to the day’s fun. Sword fighting demonstrations using traditional Scottish weaponry will be performed throughout the day by the European Martial Arts of America.

Triad Highland Games is pleased to have as its special Guests of Honor Gerry and Mari Reynolds of Inverness, Scotland. Gerry is the Secretary to the Highland Council in Inverness and the Events Promoter for the City of Inverness. Triad Highland Games has been honored to be named the sister Games to The City of Inverness Highland Games. Gerry has been an integral part of the Triad Highland Games here in North Carolina since it's inception in 1999.

The Triad Scottish Classic Golf Tournament will lead off the Games weekend on Friday, August 18th with a 9:00 a.m. shotgun start on Bryan Park’s Champions Course. A portion of the proceeds from the tournament and the Games will go to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Greensboro.

On Saturday, August 19th, the gates to the Triad Highland Games are open from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors, and $6 for children, ages 5-12. Children under 5 years old are admitted free of charge with paying adult.

The 2006 Triad Highland Games is proudly sponsored in part by Greensboro Parks & Recreation, Bryan Park, the Greensboro Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Greensboro Sports Commission and Time Warner Cable.

For more information on the Triad Highland Games visit the official website at: www.triadhighlandgames.org

Randolph County Schools is offering a signing bonus for fully certified teachers in the areas of EC, Math and Science. According to Amy Cagle, assistant superintendent of human resources, the bonuses are recruitment incentives to find teachers "who hold proper certification" in those areas " in lieu of lateral entry".

The lateral entry process may take up to three years during which time the teacher must take required classes and pass the Praxis, a certification exam, in order to obtain a clear teaching license. She recommended the incentives to the Randolph County Board of Education after studying the incentive programs of neighboring systems.

EC, short for Exceptional Children, is a broad category, which includes teachers of students with learning disabilities or students who are visually or hearing impaired as well as speech pathologists and school psychologists. This group, along with math and science teachers, is in great demand across the state.

Currently, Randolph County Schools has approximately 20 to 22 vacant positions totally, including the EC, Math and Science positions. The system normally adds 20 to 25 positions on average each year due to population growth or programs to meet individual student needs. The annual turnover rate for the county declined this past year from 13.5% in 2004-2005 to 11.7% in 2005-2006. Cagle says the system looses approximately 25 to 30 teachers each year due to retirement.

Yet, while North Carolina is facing a teacher shortage, other states have an abundance of teachers. Some of those educators are coming to North Carolina to teach. Cagle says they have recently hired applicants from Ohio and Michigan.

ASHEBORO, N.C.— The North Carolina Zoo has named Dr. Stephen Miller as the park’s new general curator. Miller will replace Ron Morris, who retired in February after 24 years at the zoo—13 years as general curator.

Until recently, Miller was the senior veterinarian at Audubon Institute's Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans.

He received his DVM from Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine in 1995 and has a bachelor's degree in biology from Nicholls State Univ. in Thibodaux, La.. He worked for ten years mainly at the Aquarium, but also at Audubon's Species Survival Center and Zoological Gardens. Additionally, for nine years (1996-2005), he served as an exotic animal consultant.

During his career, Miller has conducted extensive research projects on marine animals, including turtle excluder device research with NOAA, the Sarasota Dolphin project, the Coral Conservation & Recruitment project, a spiny-lobster tag implantation program, and numerous other projects and research.

He has both curatorial and veterinary clinical experience with a wide range of animal species, including turtles, dolphins, sea otters and a range of fish and marine invertebrates.

Miller's appointment will formally begin on August 14. As general curator, he will oversee the zoo division in charge of animal care, acquisition and exhibit.

ASHEBORO—A bronze likeness of “Marjan,” the blind and battered African lion who became a symbol for the recovery of the Kabul Zoo as well as the people of Afghanistan, has finally taken its place at the gates to the war-torn zoo that was for so long his home.

Officials with the city of Kabul and the Kabul Zoo received the 400-pound statue created by Texas artist Bob Coffee on May 3. Days later, the ¾-life-size bronze lion was set in place during ceremonies at the zoo entrance.

In November 2001, the story of Marjan gained worldwide attention for the plight of the war-torn Kabul Zoo. The elderly male lion, blinded and scarred by an Afghan soldier’s grenade, continued to fight for survival, despite neglect and the near total devastation of his zoo home. His story plucked at the heart strings of animal lovers the world over.

Spurred by public requests, North Carolina Zoo Director Dr. David Jones and the N.C. Zoological Society spearheaded an effort by member institutions of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums to raise funds to repair the Kabul Zoo and save its few remaining animals. Within three months the effort raised more than $570,000, including nearly $435,000 for the zoo and another $137,000 to help other Afghan animals.

Teams of zoo professionals from Europe and animal welfare experts from South Africa were dispatched to Afghanistan and within a year had rebuilt much of the zoo’s remaining exhibits and animal holding facilities, reconnected electricity and water, and provided a constant supply of healthy food and regular veterinary care for the surviving animals.

Sadly, Marjan did not survive to see his zoo home recover. The valiant old lion passed away in his holding quarters in late January 2002. But his cause lived on. Coffee, the Texas sculptor, moved by the plight of the Afghan animals and Marjan’s death, created the statue as a tribute. Officials with the N.C. Zoological Society accepted Coffee’s kind contribution in March 2004 and displayed the statue at the N.C. Zoo for more than a year before arrangements could be made to ship it safely to Afghanistan.

Now, a proud and permanent likeness of Marjan rests at the Kabul Zoo gates as a symbol of hope and strength for the zoo and the Afghan people. Today the Kabul Zoo is still struggling with where its future lies. But the zoo remains an island of calm and a place where families can get away from the economic and physical stress of everyday life.

The North Carolina Zoo is an accredited member institution of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). With more than 200 accredited members, AZA is a leader in global wildlife conservation, and your link to helping animals in their native habitats. For more information visit www.aza.org.