August 28, 2007

NC to verify benefit of programs

North Carolina has established a new organization to review its many programs, determine if benefits are worth the cost and recommend changes where needed.

The Program Evaluation Division will "delve into how the state tackles wide-scale issues such as education and health care, and target smaller operations to find out whether the money spent has a real effect on the people served" according to the article just released.

The new organization should fill a much needed role to help insure state funded programs are producing value for N.C. taxpayers and to help improve or eliminate programs when needed. North Carolina is the 46th state to implement this type of "watchdog" organization.
News & Observer
August 27, 2007
Dan Kane, Staff Writer

N.C. to verify benefit of programs

North Carolina has auditors who make sure taxpayer money is spent as intended. But what if the spending has little public benefit?

Lawmakers have typically left that question up to the agencies and nonprofit groups that receive the money. But this year, lawmakers decided to create their own watchdog to get those answers: the Program Evaluation Division.

The division will delve into how the state tackles wide-scale issues such as education and health care, and target smaller operations to find out whether the money spent has a real effect on the people served.

"It will not be as focused on management processes and financial controls," said state Sen. Dan Clodfelter, a Charlotte Democrat who sponsored the legislation creating the division. "It will focus on more fundamental questions, such as 'Does this program still serve a fundamental purpose?' " Read more...

August 21, 2007

I-40 repair completion ends DOT 21.7M blunder


Repair of NC DOT's $21.7 million blunder has ended. The contractor has finished removal and replacement of faulty concrete that was supposed to last for 30 years. A final surface layer will be applied that is intended to make the new surface last for 10 years.


The bottom line - NC DOT failed to make sure proper instructions were given to the original contractor rebuilding a section of I-40 in durham county. Now $21.7 million that could have been used to build new roads or repair damaged ones is gone forever to fix a mistake by the DOT.

This is enough money to eliminate the funding gap that would have allowed construction to begin on the western part of I-540 that is now on indefinite hold. Commuters in the southern and western parts of the area must continue enduring daily backups and extended commutes on crowded roads and town streets with no relief in sight.

Unfortunately the same management of the state's DOT organization is still intact and continuing with the same management style that led to the I-40 funding waste. Accountability is not a word known within the NC DOT and poor management of funds and inability to find ways to secure new funding for needed roads and repairs will be part of life in NC until the current Governor's administration comes to an end.
News & Observer
August 21, 2007
Bruce Siceloff, Staff Writer

Big part of I-40 repairs complete

Lane Construction Corp. ripped out the last of the bad concrete on Interstate 40 in Durham County Monday night -- and finished removing the N.C. Department of Transportation's 10.4-mile mistake.

The on and off ramps on westbound I-40 at N.C. 54 (Exit 273, Chapel Hill) were closed overnight while Lane replaced faulty concrete with fresh asphalt.

That, DOT engineer Eben Miller said Monday evening, completes a major phase of Lane's $21.7-million contract to repair concrete that failed because of DOT's blunder in a widening project in 2003.

The DOT gave the wrong instructions to a different contractor, who incorrectly applied a 3-inch concrete layer to a stretch of I-40. The problem affected two lanes in each direction from N.C. 147 Durham Freeway in Research Triangle Park to U.S. 15-501 and the Orange County line.

The new concrete was supposed to bond with the original concrete beneath it. It was supposed to be good for 30 years.

Instead, the top layer began to expand, buckle, crack and crumble.

So DOT hired Lane to remove the bad concrete and replace it with asphalt. The third inner lane was not affected, and it is still solid concrete.

Later this week, Lane will do some cleanup work.

Next week, probably Monday, Miller said, Lane starts putting down a 5/8-inch layer of special asphalt that will cap all three lanes in each direction (including the inside, all-concrete lane). The material is designed to make the ride smoother and safer and to make the new asphalt last about 10 years. Original article...

August 20, 2007

Trooper's bias gets all ticketed cases dropped

DWI Cases of a North Carolina State Trooper tainted by his tendency to quiz women about personal lives when he stopped them for investigation gets his cases dropped. The officer

In an August, 2007, case involving a female driver, Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens rebuked the officer for “unacceptable" behavior while carrying out his police duties. Stephens threw out charges against a woman whom Harrison had charged with driving while impaired.

That case opened the way for others the officer handled to be thrown out due to his behavior towards female drivers.

News & Observer
August 20, 2007
Staff Reports

Trooper's DWI cases tossed

Wake prosecutors dropped driving while impaired charges today against drivers who were ticketed by a state trooper who was rebuked for targeting female drivers.

Scott M. Harrison was often the lone trooper patrolling Wake County overnight. He was accused of stopping women and then asking them about their personal lives.

An N.C. Highway Patrol spokesman said today that prosecutors had announced that the cases Harrison brought would not stand.

“We met with them this morning and they told us that’s what they meant to do,” said Everett Clendenin, Highway Patrol spokesman. “We support their decision and think it was the right thing to do.”

Harrison, 31, remains on administrative duty while the patrol investigates the claims of bias and an accusation that Harrison roughed up a man while processing an impaired driving suspect at the Wake County Jail.

Clendenin said the Highway Patrol expects to conclude its internal investigation soon.

On Aug. 8, Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens scolded Harrison for behavior the judge deemed “unacceptable.” Stephens threw out charges against Christina Pasive, a woman whom Harrison had charged with driving while impaired on November 10, 2005.

In an order dismissing the charge, Stephens said Harrison stopped Pasive and another woman because both were young females driving alone.

A court clerk testified that in 2006, 49 percent of the 106 people Harrison arrested for DWI were women.

Statewide, women are arrested for drunken driving at much lower rates. For example, in the 2006 fiscal year, 18 percent of all impaired driving arrests were of women, according to data from the Administrative Office of the Courts.

Judge Stephens also heard testimony from Trooper Cedric Herring, who testified that Harrison had threatened to do physical harm to two lawyers representing some of the women Harrison had charged with impaired driving.

Harrison was upset that the attorneys had complained to the media about his alleged practice of targeting women for traffic stops, according to Herring's testimony.

“Such conduct of threatening to harm lawyers is not in keeping with the excellent reputation and the high standards of the North Carolina Highway Patrol,” Stephens wrote. Original article...

Staff writer David Bracken can be reached at (919) 829-4548 or david.bracken@newsobserver.com

August 5, 2007

Recycling carried to a new level

Recycling lowers the urgency to find more new resources, helps reduce trash dumped along roadsides and in backyards, and has become a profitable big business for some. Recent news articles tell of copper tubing being stolen from construction sites and catalytic converters being removed from parked cars for precious metal content so thieves can "recycle" and sell materials. Home recycling helps reduce the volume of material going into landfills and often adds a little income for cities and towns.

Recycling has been a business for many years and junk yards are seen in industrial areas of many towns. "For the determined, scrap-hunting is a grueling, house-to-house quest. The worldwide hunger for scrap draws retirees and their trucks to the streets. The washtubs and faucets they haul across the scales might not make it into an Asian office tower, but the mad pace of building makes the metal more valuable everywhere" according to an article by Josh Shaffer and David Bracken.

Almost everything in our society produces volumes of waste, much of which can be salvaged and recycled -- packaging containing purchased products, newspapers and magazines, materials from buildings being demolished to make room for new ones, old cars and trucks. Even the food we eat offers the opportunity to "recycle" scraps to produce compost that can be re-used in gardens and around the yard.

Read more about this trend that is becoming a necessary part of our society and how it can produce a fortune for some willing to do the hard work to gather and sell byproducts of everything we consume...
News and Observer
August 4, 2007
Josh Shaffer and David Bracken, Staff Writers

Scrap metal: from trash to treasure
Hobbyists -- and thieves --cash in as demand spikes here and abroad

RALEIGH - An 80-year-old man with heart trouble spends his days bouncing over the Johnston County back roads, hunting for rusty farm equipment.

A thief sneaked into a scrap yard in Garner, made off with a bucket of old copper and immediately tried to sell it back for $100.

Just last week, 19 catalytic converters disappeared from a North Raleigh auto body shop. Over the past three months, more than 200 storm grates vanished in Durham.

Blame the invisible hand of scrap metal economics, which drives a global hunger for recycled junk that stretches to bridge-building in India and apartment construction in China. The tiniest, rustiest bit of metal discarded or stolen in the Triangle is wrapped up in a powerful global market that connects junkmen, recyclers and thieves with a construction boom in east Asia. Read more...

August 2, 2007

North Carolina bridges worst in the southeast

According to an August 2, 2007, AAA of the Carolinas statement "North Carolina's highway bridges are in the worst shape of any state in the Southeast, and two Charlotte-area counties -- Burke and Cabarrus -- are at the bottom of the list."

This follows on the heels of the terrible bridge collapse in Minnesota involving a 40 year old "unique design" bridge between Minneapolis and St. Paul.

The report does not say any bridges are in emminent danger of collapse but many are in need of significant repair now. As many as 30 percent of the state's bridges have problems that should be resolved in the near time frame.
The Charlotte Observer
August 2, 2007
Steve Lyttle, The Charlotte Observer

AAA: N.C. bridges need work

AAA of the Carolinas says North Carolina's highway bridges are in the worst shape of any state in the Southeast, and two Charlotte-area counties -- Burke and Cabarrus -- are at the bottom of the list.

Bridge safety figures to become a higher priority item across the country, in the wake of the collapse of a freeway bridge Wednesday evening in Minneapolis. At last report, at least four people were killed in the disaster, and another 20 are missing.

According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the bridge that collapsed was declared "structurally deficient" in 2005.

None of the Carolinas bridges listed by the AAA are in danger of collapsing, the agency said in its February 2007 report. But the AAA said a large percentage of the states' bridges are in need of repair.

In the Carolinas, more than a quarter of bridges were rated as "substandard" by the AAA in its survey this year. That figure was 30.6 percent in North Carolina and lower in South Carolina. Read more...