Turkeys in New Bern

Today I was showing property in Greenbriar, located in the central part of New Bern, and while my customer was checking out the back yard she cried out look across the ditch. Lo and behold there was a wild a wild turkey not 25 feet from us. First one I have ever seen. And who would have thought right in the middle of a subdivision.

Help is on the way

In about 3 weeks work will be complete on the stop lights in the James City area. For those that aren't familiar with what I am talking about, there are 4 stoplights starting at Williams Road and continuing through to Airport Road, Taberna, and Thurman Road. These lights have outdated internal electronics thus limiting the options of the DOT Engineers to time the lights in a manner that would allow for efficient traffic flow from one light to the other.

As we speak the DOT is replacing these lights with state of the art equiptment as well as making intersection improvements at Williams road that will help the gridlock that we have seen at certain times of the day. These improvements are not the cure all to our problems, but in the short term they are our best option. Let hope it works.

New Stoplights in James City

The internal electronics of the four stoplights in James City are going to be replaced within the next few months. These stoplights are located at the intersections of Williams, Airport, Taberna, and Thurman Roads.

Several months ago I met with a business owner in James City who suggested that better timing and a left turn light at Williams would really help traffic flow and reduce accidents. I relayed this information to DOT Engineer Duayne Alligood and several weeks later he emailed me and said if we could come up with $100,000 he could replace the lights at the intersections mentioned above and do some other improvements at Williams and Airport Roads to allow for easier left turns. Several weeks ago the General Assembly voted to give $77,000.00 towards the replacement cost and the DOT Division 2 Board Member Cam McRae committed to give the balance needed to complete the replacement.

Mr. Alligood told me that by replacing the internal electronics of the existing stoplights with state of the art gear will give them the ability to remotely control the traffic flow in the James City Corridor. By having the ability to remotely control the lights perhaps the timing of the lights could be changed several times a day to allow for peak traffic times. Hopefully the 4 stoplights can be timed in such a way that the residents in Taberna will not have the long wait, with no oncoming traffic, that they have to deal with now.

I would like to thank Mr. Alligood, Mr.McRae, and our legislative team for their help with this matter. There are long term solutions being worked on for helping traffic flow on Highway 70, but for now it is going to be the lower cost, common sense solutions, that we will have to utilize to help with traffic flow.
As with anything new I am sure there will be bugs that will need to be worked out after the new lights are installed. If you have any suggestions please send me an email at Tyson@Century21.com.

Fox in the Hen House or Quail House

The Craven County Board of Commission unanimously agreed tonight that we should ask our Legislative Delegation in Raleigh to pass a local bill that would allow for fox trapping from January 2nd till February 15th. They heard from area farmers, hunters, and a NC State Wildlife Biologist, and all agreed that the over population of fox in Craven County was causing problems with the decline of Quail, Turkey, and other bird and small mammals. Some were concerned that a rabies outbreak was imminent unless something was done to control the population.

Fun in downtown New Bern

Last Friday night I met my wife for our Friday night date in downtown New Bern. Our last 4 Friday night dates we have dined at Fred and Claires and have thoroughly enjoyed the dinner and the company. After eating we were both tired and just about ready to go home when I remembered that a friend of mine who plays bass guitar in a through together band was playing just down the street at the Trent River Coffee Shop. Reluctantly she agreed to go check it out.

The band was on break as we walked in so we bought a cup of coffee and found a seat. After a few minutes the band cranked back up and it was not long afterword that we both were glad that we decided to stay up past our bedtime.

City alderman Dana Outlaw was the bass player, local author Phil Bowie was on violin or at least it looked like a violin to me. City planner Bernard George played the bongos, and life time New Bernian Dan Jenkins was playing harmonica. Add two guitar players, one acoustic and one electric, and you had a somewhat weird combination of instruments that yielded quite a unique and pleasing sound that everyone seemed to enjoy. They played mainly country, southern rock music with an occasional Beetles woven in. The band's name was Cold Biscuit. Check them out. Especially if you are over 45. I'm sure they will be back downtown.

To smoke or not to smoke

Monday, at a regular schleduled Craven County Commissioners meeting we heard from the Chairman of the County Health Board on issues pertaining to second hand smoke. He handed out 3 papers on research that had been performed by the CDC, Mayo Client, and another research medical school whose name I don not remember. All 3 papers presented conclusive evidence that second hand smoke was harmful to those that are subjected to it. On a motion presented by one of the commissioners, seconded, and passed by a 4 to 3 vote a rule will be implemented in November to prohibit smoking in county owned buildings. I personally don't think it is asking to much for someone to go outside to smoke, and respect their right to do so. But the facts are the facts. Second hand smoke is bad for others.

Early spring

Unbelieveable, but according to the Azalas and Dogwood trees spring is either here or really close. I have never seen trees and plants budding this early. It is usually in April before we start to see signs of spring. Global warming? I don't know but we are enjoying the 70 dgree weather.

www.newbern-nc.info

Philadelphia here we come

I have said before that Craven County has an outstanding airport, perhaps the best in the state for a county of our size. Today it got a little better. U.S. Airways announced that they are adding a daily flight from New Bern to Philadelphia International beginning June 3rd. The flights will be handled by US Air Express using 50 passenger jets.
This opens up access to 20 flights to Europe which is particularly helpfully for Bosch executives located in New Bern. The flight will depart New Bern in the morning and return in the evening. In addition to the daily flight to Philadelphia US Air has 7 daily non stop flights to Charlotte's Douglas International. In addition, Delta has 3 daily non stop flights to Hatfield International in Atlanta.
Kudos to Craven Regional Airport director tom Braaton and the Craven Regional Airport board of Directors for a job well done.

Great Restaurant in downtown New Bern

While my wife and I have eaten lunch many times at Fred and Claires restaurant in downtown New Bern last night was the first time we have eaten dinner there. Wow, we were impressed. Last night around 7 pm we decided to go downtown and eat and were heading for the Chelsea. With a 45 wait to be seated we were to hungry and tired to hang around so we drove around the corner to Craven Street and stopped at Fred and Claires. Upon entering we were greeted by the owners, Martin and Jan, who seated us and watched to see we were taken care of. The service was great, the background music was soft and romantic, and the meal was fabulous. A truely fine dining experience. We have decided that this will be out bi weekly dining out place. Try it out for lunch or dinner.

Land left to the County?

Recently the County Attorney informed the County Commissioner's that a lady had passed away and bequeathed the county 50 acres of land. Some 2000 feet of this land abutts Brices Creek, a beautiful deep water creek which empties into the Trent River about 1 mile from downtown New Bern. Richard Dobbs Speight is burried on this proprty. He was one of the origional signersof the United States Constitution and served as governor of North Carolina. This is truely one of the nicest pieces of land in Craven County and immediately I and other citizens started dreaming of ways the county could best utilize this gem. The will states that the land could not be sold and must be used as a park and kept in its natural state. The owner wanted the land to be enjoyed by all the citizens of Craven County and not just those wealthy enough to buy waterfront property. What a wonderful and thoughtful lady she must have been. Although there are complications in the will that could result in someone else obtaining ownership to the property, I am hoping the county is able to resolve this issue quickly. With the current shortage of public access to to water this land is needed for the enjoyment of all.