Life&Times

Making conclusions
BY BRANDON OLAND
TIMES STAFF WRITER
AP FILE PHOTO

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Sunday, May 1, 2011

UMBC students with county ties present during schools annual Research Day

Whitmire Town Councilwoman Chrystal Harsha looks at the site where the J.P. Stevens textile mill once stood in Whitmire, S.C., March 14. The mill closed in 2001.

Rural town clings to life after cuts

Whitmire faces decline, rough budget trouble
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WHITMIRE, S.C. This town of 1,600 used to live by the steady thump, whirr and whistle of the looms in its giant textile mills, churning out socks and yarn to be used by other mills in a vast region that stretched from the Appalachian foothills to the coastal plains of the Carolinas. The mills and the jobs they created led to decades of economic stability that earned Whitmire the nickname Pearl of the Piedmont. Now the last of those plants is gone, leaving the town caught between two forces of decline: the evaporation of its job and tax base, and a recession that has hammered governments at all levels. The plunge in government tax revenue for most states and their resulting budget crises means Whitmire and other small towns across the U.S. are receiving less assistance than they might otherwise get when a major employer packs up and leaves. State grants have dried up because South Carolina state government must cut hundreds of millions of dollars from its own budget. Meanwhile, the federal stimulus program that provided tens of billions of dollars to local communities is ending, and Congress has shifted into a cost- cutting mode as it struggles to contain the federal debt. Those cutbacks in state and federal assistance have consequences for small towns on the margins of the economy, where the recession remains a daily reality. At first glance, Whitmire, about midway between Columbia and Spartanburg, doesnt look like a town in trouble. The quiet is broken only by passing log trucks or 18wheelers and the on- the- hour recorded gospel music emanating from the Baptist church. A recent streetscaping project gave the two blocks of Main Street a nostalgic feel, but that work was paid for with the kind of grants that have dried up in the recession. A closer look illustrates Whitmires struggles. Its budget has been cut nearly in half, from about $1 million to $550,000, in about five years. The towns payroll has taken a similar whack, with just 15 employees left to patrol the streets, pick up trash and keep the water plant running. Were only about 1,500 people, so everybody knows everybody else. Some of these people had worked for the city a very long time, said Chrystal Harsha, who has spent eight years as a town councilwoman. Whitmire and small, rural towns like it were part of the first wave of places staggered by the Great Recession. Countless towns and cities followed as the recession intensified, discovering that it can be nearly impossible to keep offering the same level of services without raising taxes or fees on residents, many of whom are jobless or working part- time, low-wage jobs just to pay the rent or mortgage. A 2009 report from the National League of Cities provided little comfort, finding Please see Town, C5

CATONSVILLE After completing months of research, 230 University of Maryland, Baltimore County, students arrived on campus Wednesday with posters detailing what they learned. The posters were filled with mathematical equations, scientific hypotheses, survey results, bar graphs and detailed conclusions. The students used their posters to help explain their findings on Undergraduate Research & Creative Achievement Day at UMBC Wednesday. Many of the students were recipients of Undergraduate Research Awards. The students are eligible for school grants of up to $1,500 to help fund research. This years presenters represented 25 different majors. Four Carroll County natives were among the students sharing their research findings.

DAVE MUNCH/STAFF PHOTO

David Stonko presents his work during Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day at UMBC in Catonsville Wednesday.

David Stonko Graduated from: North Carroll High School Fields of study: Mathematics and biology Topic of study: Building a mathematical model to understand the molecular interpretations of spatial gradients of biological activators What hes discovering: In order to stop cancer from spreading in humans, researchers must understand how, and why, some cells migrate and others stay where they are. Stonko, and his research partner Xuan Ge, are studying how cancer cells spread in fruit flies. Humans and fruit flies have about the same number of gene families. Stonko, created a mathematical equation to serve as the basis of the research. He plans on continuing his research, made possible by a grant from the National Science Foundation, next year.

Meredith Donaho Graduated from: Francis Scott Key High School Field of study: Music education Topic of study: Musical for All: Private Music Education in Carroll County What shes discovering: While conducting a survey of parents in Carroll County, Donaho found 88 percent of respondents would enroll their children in a free after- school or free music program if one existed. Donaho developed a pilot program in which she offered introductory private lessons on guitar and piano for 13 children. She said her program was well- received and would fill a need should funding for music programs in Carroll County Public Schools be cut in the future.

Colleen Courtney Graduated from: North Carroll High School Field of study: Biochemical engineering Topic of study: Studying the Aspergillus nidulans Cell Wall through Plate assay What shes discovering: Courtney has spent 10 hours a week studying fungi in recent months. In particular, she is studying mutants so that in the future scientists will know how they fragment. She is working toward developing a plate assay that will allow for an efficient way to identify how a change in the environment, or in a genome, affects fungal cell wall properties. Fungi is used in pharmaceutical production and is a crop pathogen. With better knowledge of how the fungi behave, companies could make more efficient and better products.

Amar Kaneria Graduated from: Westminster High School Field of study: Chemistry and biochemistry Topic of study: Characterization of the Monomer/Dimer Equilibrium within the Untranslated Region of HIV-1 RNA What hes discovering: According to data collected by Kaneria, 33.3 million people had contracted the HIV-1 virus worldwide in 2009. Kaneria said the disease affects so many and is so difficult to treat that he felt compelled to study how the virus causes a continuous decline of a bodys immune system responses. His research, part of a study by UMBC chemistry and biochemistry professor Michael Summers, is studying the makeup of RNA. He said once more is known about the RNA packaging of HIV-1, it could lead to treatments that would slow the spread of the disease from human to human.

Reach staff writer Brandon Oland at 410-857-7862 or brandon.oland@carrollcountytimes.com.

Dont miss dance of planets in the morning sky

his month four bright planets are putting on an air show low in the morning sky. An unobstructed horizon with clear skies, and maybe a pair of binoculars, is all you need to see some close encounters of the celestial kind. Astronomer Fred Schaef calls it Drama at Dawn with the most compact visible gathering of four

Curtis Roelle Star Points

bright planets in decades. Guy Ottewell is even more enthusiastic, calling it one of the tightest four planet gatherings of a lifetime and much more. Combined all together in one month and small area of the sky, Ottewell says, they offer an astonishingly rich and complex show. If youre prepared to watch, knowing where and

when to look, and what to expect, this rare dance performance starring Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter should be easy to watch over a period of two or three weeks. But lets start with the bad news first. The spectacle takes place in the morning sky, when fewer people are likely to be up, let alone outside, as they would be

for a similar evening performance. Second, the planets are situated very low in the sky during bright morning twilight. With each passing minute the planets rise higher, but the sky also brightens making them more difficult to view. However, with preparation morning observers will be rewarded. With these caveats having

been said, lets discuss what happens and when. Each clear day you should begin watching about 30- 45 minutes before sunrise. The sun rises earlier each day, so you need to get up a minute or two earlier each day to stay ahead of it. Today Mars and Jupiter pass each other by an

Please see Sky, C5