Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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22 UCW OCTOBER 24-30, 2018 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Hope Mills News & Views EARL VAUGHAN JR., Senior Staff Writer. COMMENTS? EarlUCWS- ports@gmail.com. 910-364-6638. NEWS Slippery problem for Hope Mills, eels' dam ladder damaged by EARL VAUGHAN JR. While the restored Hope Mills Dam safely protected humans in the community dur- ing the recent strikes of tropical weather, the animal kingdom didn't come out completely unscathed. Don Sisko, interim director of public works for the town of Hope Mills, said the eel lad- der at the dam did suf- fer some damage. The eel ladder was made a part of the Hope Mills dam restoration by order of the Army Corps of Engineers. Eels are not an endangered species, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced in 2015 that "for the species' long-term stability, the agency rec- ommends continuing efforts to maintain healthy habitats, monitor harvest levels and improve river passage for migrating eels.'' This is especially true around structures like the Hope Mills dam that block the natural migration of the eels from their spawning grounds in the ocean to the inland locations where they live and feed. The eel ladder allows then access to Hope Mills Lake. According to Sisko, tail waters caused by the storm backed up below the dam and damaged wiring to a pump that powers something called the attractor. The attractor creates an artificial waterfall that naturally attracts the eels to the eel ladder. "The downstream pump (the one that was dam- aged) is the attractor that creates a small water flow,'' Sisko said. "The biologists have figured out that's what attracts the eels. That brings them to the ladder, and they carry on and get up into the lake.'' The pump that feeds the eel ladder keeps water flowing at all times so the eels are in their natural environment. There is a material inside the lad- der that allows the eels to get traction so they can migrate and move up it into the lake. Twice a year, from March 15-June 15 and from Sept. 1-Oct. 15, the town does a count on eels that are caught in a basket at the end of the eel ladder. Sisko said the damage to the ladder pump took place sometime during Hurricane Florence, inter- rupting the eel count that was scheduled to start in September. "Once we remove them from the basket, we count them and release them a little further up the lake so they stand less a chance of getting sucked in by the pump that feeds the eel ladder itself,'' Sisko said. The last complete eel count was conducted in the spring when 229 eels were recovered and relocated in the lake. Since the next period for counting the eels doesn't come until mid-March, Sisko said there is no need to rush the process of repairing the damaged pump. Sisko said the problem will be presented to the Hope Mills Board of Commissioners at a future meeting. "It will be part of the FEMA claims and insurance,'' he said, referring to the cost of repairs. The total cost for the eel ladder when it was first installed was $35,000. Gray's Creek High School senior wins statewide poetry award by EARL VAUGHAN JR. When Tierra Ripley took freshman English at Gray's Creek High School, her teacher was Joel Mayo, a poetry enthusiast who has helped organize poetry clubs at the school. "I've gotten to see her grow from an amazing freshman student,'' Mayo said. "Her ability to tell a story is strong, one of the strongest I've ever seen.'' Mayo isn't the only one who feels that way. Ripley, now a senior at Gray's Creek, was recently honored by the North Carolina English Teachers Association as the winner of its state- wide high school Poet Laureate Awards. The award is named in memory of Kathryn Stripling-Byer, a former North Carolina Poet Laureate who died in 2017. Ripley's winning entry was a short poem entitled "Seafaring Sailor" that uses nautical imagery to tell a story of unrequited love. Ripley said she's been interested in poetry ever since her freshman year as Mayo's student. "It's a way of self-expression that I can talk about things that I have trouble verbalizing just normally,'' she said. In addition to writing poetry, Ripley said she likes to write short stories, although she doesn't do that as much now. "I don't have a set style or anything,'' she said of her poetry. "I just write what comes to mind. Sometimes they rhyme, sometimes not.'' She's not sure how many poems she's written over the years but estimates she's done about a dozen "really good ones.'' Her entry into the poetry contest came almost by accident. One of her former English teachers had informa- tion about the contest posted in her classroom. "It was like the last days of school,'' she said, near the end of her junior year at Gray's Creek. The contest required her to submit an original poem that had not been published. It didn't have to be about a specific subject. She finished the new work in a couple of hours and submitted it in June. She learned she won in early August and was pre- sented the award a couple of weeks ago. "It meant the world to me,'' she said. "I was so sur- prised. I entered the contest on a whim. "To get such recognition and to be congratulated for my work was amazing.'' Ripley said she's undecided on her college future. She's just beginning the application process and will likely attend an in-state school. She'd like to continue with poetry, but a lot of that will depend on what opportunities are available to her. "I'd like to involve English in my career,'' she said. "I'd like to be an author, writer or maybe a journal- ist, anywhere I can utilize English.'' Mayo said contests like the one Ripley won are great motivation for students. "I try to provide as many opportunities as pos- sible,'' Mayo said, "things like our poetry club, the different contests we try to get kids involved in. I think it helps push them so they can have better opportunity to express themselves.'' Tierra Ripley poses with the Kathryn Stripling-Byer Poet Laureate Award from the N.C. English Teachers Association. Photo credit : Greg Thompson, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service The eel ladder, which was recently damaged by Hurricane Florence, is located on the Main Street side of the Hope Mills Dam.