Patrick O'Neill: Solitary Confinement

The following column by Ted Vaden originally appeared in lastgaffe.com, an online blog for people in their retirement years.

I wrote to you recently about Patrick O’Neill, the Garner, NC, Catholic pacifist who is serving 14 months in federal prison for following his conscience. That is, he broke into a Naval base in Georgia and defaced a monument to nuclear warfare. The official sentence was conspiracy, trespassing and damage to government property.

Patrick since has written to me – a pencil-scrawled letter on yellow legal paper – to express gratitude for the people who have sent him letters of support after reading of his ordeal on this blog.  He recounted a harrowing tale of his recent hospitalization after experiencing a heart flutter in his cellblock. I’ll let Patrick tell the story from here:

“I have been in solitary confinement for two weeks, following a 4-day stay in the hospital about 45 minutes away. While in the hospital, I was under armed guard (2 corrections officers at all times) who kept me in leg irons and chained to the bed 24-7. I was only out of the bed (always in leg irons) for brief tests. I was expected to use a handheld urinal instead of the toilet….

“The guards worked 8-12 hour shifts over the four days. (They basically ignored me, but one of them I became friends with.) I listened to their conversations and realized some of them were working overtime at close to $50 an hour, so the cost of guarding me for those 4 days was likely in the $5,000 to $10,000 range. Your tax dollars at work.

“I spent my birthday (March 27) in the so-called ‘Special Housing Unit,’ AKA ‘The Hole,’ and I may be in here for Easter as well. So this Lenten season is unlike any other I’ve ever experienced (harder than the year I did a juice-fast all 40 days for Peace in Iraq and lost 30 pounds.) I really do thank God daily for my suffering, but I do have my moments when I try not to think about the fact that I’ve now been in a 9x5-foot room for 13 days and counting without the door opening once. I did feel a little stir-crazy one night and paced and recited the Rosary and felt better. I’m not as tough as I used to be, that’s for sure.”

Patrick’s wife Mary told me that she finally had received a phone call from him on April 7 and that he had been released from solitary confinement. He had been placed there because of COVID. He still has not been vaccinated but was returned to his cellblock of more than 100 inmates. The disease reportedly has infected hundreds of inmates and staff at the Ohio federal prison complex where he is incarcerated.

In a recent letter to supporters, Patrick wrote, “Some of the men in this room have been here for more than 10 years, many have 10 years to go! And almost all for charges that warranted placement in a ‘low security’ prison that has cubicles instead of cells. That means the Bureau of Prisons finds all the men in Elkton are low risk for any kind of violence, which begs the question – Why are they here? Why didn’t they get compassionate home confinement due to Covid? Why didn’t they get some alternative sentence to years in prison? Answer: because the U.S. Prison-Industrial Complex is a self-perpetuating institution that employs thousands of people doing unnecessary jobs, such as watching TV in Patrick’s hospital room.”

Patrick O’Neill is age 65. He and his wife Mary are the parents of eight children and are grandparents. He will complete his prison term in March of 2022 – maybe by Christmas, if gets out on good behavior.

Garner Public Hearing May 18th

PUBLIC NOTICE

Notice is hereby given of a meeting of the Garner Town Council at 7 p.m. on May 18, 2021 to consider the following applications.

Please Note: The Garner Town Council will meet in the Council Chambers located in the Town of Garner Town Hall located at 900 7th Avenue, Garner, NC 27529. 

Conditional Rezoning

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CZ-PD-21-01 Auburn Station

McAdams Company is requesting conditional rezoning for 66.67-acres from Multi-Residential 1 (MR-1) to Conditional Planned Residential Development (PRD). The is located at the intersection of East Garner Rd. and Auburn Knightdale Rd. and can can be further identified as Wake County PIN(s) 1730-28-9409 & 1730-38-5572.  (MAP HERE)

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CZ-21-03 Lofts at Aversboro

Douglas Ball is requesting conditional rezoning for 0.439+/- acres from Conditional Office & Institutional (O&I C5) to Conditional Multi-Family II (MF-2 C243). The site is located at 1419 Aversboro Rd. and can be further identified as Wake County PIN: 1710-37-9338.   (MAP HERE)

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Annexation

ANX-21-04 Harper’s Landing Subdivision 

Contiguous annexation: on the southside of Clifford Road across from its intersection with Bryan Road; +/- 38.175-acres of Wake County PIN # 1629242358 or Real Estate ID 0079763; and +/- 0.37-acres of Right-of-Way within Clifford Road along only the western portion frontage; totaling approximately 38.55 +/- acres. 

Handicapped persons needing assistance or aids should contact the Clerk’s office prior to the meeting at 919-772-4688.  

Stella Gibson, Town Clerk

DATE PUBLISHED:  Thursday May 6, 2021 through Tuesday May 18, 2021

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Please Note: This public notice is republished from the Town of Garner and The Garner News is not presently a official public notice publisher. Information provided is believed to be accurate at time of publication and is subject to change. You should check with the Town Clerk or Town of Garner website for official notices or changes thereof.

https://www.garnernc.gov/about-us/news-and-information/legal-notices

Garner Selects Lansing Melbourne Group for Downtown Development Site

At their May 3, 2021 meeting, the Garner Town Council voted unanimously to endorse the town staff’s recommendation to move forward with Lansing Melbourne Group (LMG) as developer for the Downtown Opportunity Site. 

This decision is the culmination of an almost two year process of working with the UNC School of Government’s Development Finance Initiative (DFI) to complete pre-development analysis  and solicit developer interest for the site, located between the historic business district and the new Recreation Center.DFI consultant Matt Crook gave a brief overview of the process leading up to developer selection and Downtown Development Manager Mari Howe presented the staff recommendation to work with LMG.  Howe told the council that LMG received very high praise from other communities that they worked in, where their original projects often expanded to include additional phases.

In her presentation, Howe shared several key factors that led to staff choosing LMG, including:

• their experience with public private partnerships,

• their background with parking development,

• their community oriented development process,

• their “club-level” financing model,

• their interest in future phases of development, and

• their local approach to retail recruitment.

Council members Demian Dellinger and Gra Singleton participated in interviews with the final two development candidates.  Dellinger agreed that LMG would be a good fit for Garner’s culture and needs in Downtown Garner. Singleton said that he felt confident that LMG would work hard to make sure they could deliver what the community wanted, even if that meant changing some elements of their original proposal.

Town council authorized staff to start working with DFI and LMG on negotiating a Memorandum of Understanding for the project, a process which will take about 90 days.

GEDC, Wake Tech Announce Scholarship for Garner Magnet, South Garner High Students

Garner high school students have a great new opportunity to attend Wake Tech thanks to a new scholarship endowment. The Garner Economic Development Corporation (GEDC) has established a $250,000 endowment with the Wake Tech Foundation which will provide scholarships to graduating seniors at Garner Magnet High School and South Garner High School who wish to further their education at Wake Tech.

GEDC and Wake Tech made the announcement during a ceremony Thursday afternoon in the Town Council Chambers at Garner Town Hall. In addition to Garner and Wake Tech representatives, Matt Calabria, Wake County Commissioner Chair, and Monika Johnson-Hostler, Wake County Public School System Board Member, spoke during the program.

The GEDC believes that an education is fundamental in building a bright and thriving future for the Garner community.

"Having a well-trained and educated population is vitally important to Garner's future," GEDC Chair Jeff Swain said. “Every community's greatest asset is its people. That is why the GEDC is pleased to establish this GEDC Endowment for Education and ensure that Garner students have access to a world-class education and a brighter future."

“Wake Tech is so grateful for the support and generosity of the Garner Economic Development Corporation,” said Wake Tech President Dr. Scott Ralls. “Because of this endowment, deserving high school students from the Garner community will have an opportunity to continue their education and pursue their college degree right here in Wake County.”

Students must have a minimum 2.5 GPA to qualify and financial need will be considered. The scholarship may be designated to assist students in any Wake Tech degree, diploma or certificate program.

The scholarship application is currently open, and the first two recipients will be selected this summer. Current Garner high school seniors graduating this spring who plan to attend Wake Tech in the fall are encouraged to apply at scholarships.waketech.edu by April 30.

"The Town is excited about this new opportunity for a young person from our community to pursue their dreams and career aspirations," Mayor Ken Marshburn said. "Garner has always taken pride in the way it nurtures young people. It's why our town is recognized as an All-America City. It's why Garner is a great place to live and raise a family."

About Garner Economic Development Corporation:

Since its inception in 2010, the Garner Economic Development Corporation (GEDC), an economic development non-profit, has been committed to improving the quality of life for all Garner residents through the recruitment and retention of quality employers, support and encouragement of entrepreneurship, and marketing the Garner community as a great place to locate a business and raise a family. For more information on the GEDC, please go to choosegarnernc.com.

About Wake Tech:

Wake Tech is North Carolina’s largest community college, serving more than 70,000 adults annually, with six campuses, three training centers, multiple community sites, and a comprehensive array of online learning options. The Wake Tech Foundation awards more than $450,000 in over 350 individual scholarships to degree-seeking students each year. The Foundation believes in making an education possible for anyone in our community who wants one so that our region remains the best place to live and work in the world.

Patrick O'Neill: A Birthday Behind Bars

The following column by Ted Vaden originally appeared in lastgaffe.com, an online blog for people in their retirement years.

I would like to tell you about my friend Patrick O’Neill.

Patrick and his wife Mary live in Garner, where they operate a Catholic relief shelter for women and children in crisis. The couple raised 8 children of their own there, and they now are proud grandparents.

Next Saturday, March 27, Patrick turns 65. He will observe his birthday living in a prison cellblock at the Oakton Federal Correction Institute in Lisbon, Ohio, where he is serving a 14-month sentence for breaking into a U.S. Navy base to protest nuclear weapons.

Patrick is a man of unimaginable faith and adherence to his convictions. A longtime pacifist, he is one of the so-called Kings Bay Plowshares 7, a group of peace activists who on April 4, 2018, cut through a security fence and slipped into the King’s Bay Naval Submarine Base in St. Mary’s, Ga. King’s Bay is the world’s largest nuclear sub facility, where six Trident submarines bearing nuclear-tipped missiles are berthed.

The group of activists chose the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to protest the nuclear weapons stored at King’s Bay. Patrick was apprehended banging on a monument to nuclear warfare with a hammer made of melted-down guns.

The seven protestors, all Catholic pacifists, were convicted in 2019 in federal court in Georgia, on charges of conspiracy, trespassing and damage to government property. They pleaded not guilty, saying they had entered the base not to commit a crime but to prevent one - “omnicide,” from nuclear warfare. They were sentenced last fall to terms ranging up to 33 months. Patrick was sentenced to 14 months and entered the Ohio prison on Jan. 14. With time served and good behavior, he could be released in 10 months.

Even though Patrick is in a low-security facility, his incarceration has been anything but easy. First, there is the threat of COVID-19 infection. Hundreds of inmates and staff in the Elkton facility have been infected, and nine inmates have died of COVID. A federal judge denied Patrick’s request to delay the start of his sentence until vaccines would be available for inmates.

Because of the infection, the prison is in lockdown, which means prisoners cannot receive visitors and are confined to their cellblock. “My block includes a range of 110-120 men living in a room with bodies always in constant motion as men move about looking to pass time in meaningful ways,” he wrote in a recent letter to supporters. “Many guys speak too loudly and there’s a public address system where guards make shrieking, sometimes shocking announcements throughout the day. The sensory overload is relentless, something akin to low-level torture.”

Patrick reports that many of the inmates are in prison for sex offenses – not for touching children or for manufacturing porn, but for viewing or sharing it on computers. They receive little or no rehabilitation and are treated by guards and other inmates as the lowest caste in prison society.

It is also a race-reversal society.
“Here, in an ironic reversal of fortune, whites are second-class citizens, so I have to learn and follow the rules, rules which are made by the inmates,” he writes. “I see it as my required affirmative action.”

Patrick is an indefatigable spirit. I first came to know him 28 years ago, when he was a reporter at The Chapel Hill News, where I was editor.  He covered UNC like a bloodhound, producing such scoops as the story that 50 coaches and Ram’s Club officials were receiving free loaner cars from 45 auto dealers in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Among the beneficiaries were basketball coach Dean Smith (a Cadillac Sedan de Ville) and former star Phil Ford. The dealers were made members of the Rams Club and given free season’s tickets to football and basketball games.

Within a month after Patrick’s stories appeared, UNC cancelled the program.

Another Patrick story was about cars with Rams Club stickers being allowed to park in fire lanes outside Kenan Stadium on football Saturdays. Shortly after, then-Athletics Director John Swofford (now ACC Commissioner) encountered me on campus to ask why the newspaper was so negative about the athletics program. I told Swofford we were just covering the news and told Patrick to keep doing his job – which was not necessary to tell him.

Over the years, Patrick has continued as a freelance journalist, but he has devoted himself foremost to his Catholic activism protesting nuclear arms, the death penalty, racial injustice and mistreatment of immigrants. In his peace work, all in the form of nonviolent protest, he has served more than two years in jail and prison, even before this current term.

After Patrick was sentenced last October, he emerged from the courthouse with an upbeat attitude. The judge, moved by testimony from Patrick’s children and others, gave him a lesser sentence than the 26 months allowed by law.

He said then: “I’m pleased with the outcome. I’m sad that I’m going to be away from my family for quite a while, but I think that the purpose of the Kings Bay Plowshares was to be willing to face the possibility of redemptive suffering, and so it is. It’s not the most severe thing. It’s certainly something that I can tolerate.”

In prison, not surprisingly, he has been an advocate for his fellow inmates, seeking better treatment and more opportunity for pastoral care. He says he sees his sacrifice as a blessing:

“I pray in gratitude each morning for redemptive suffering and humility. The unpleasantness of solitary is also a gift, as I experience a small taste of the suffering that most human beings face every day all over the world. I hope to feel a little more empathy for my sisters and brothers who barely survive in the world.”

Only Patrick O’Neill would see forced isolation in a COVID-invested prison as a gift.

Happy Birthday, Patrick. Happy Easter.

Garner's Station Podcast #14: Jeff Triezenberg, Garner Planning Director

Rick Mercier sits down with Garner's planning director, Jeff Triezenberg, to talk about what a planning department does and how Garner continues to plan for future growth. Topics include reexamination of Garner's UDO (unified development ordinance), traffic impact, public transit and much more in this latest episode of Garner's Station Podcast.

CALLING ALL ARTISTS FOR ART AROUND TOWN

CALL FOR ARTISTS

The Downtown Garner Association (DGA) and the Town of Garner are looking for local and regional visual artists to participate in an outdoor Art Around Garner art installation beginning August – October 2021.

Art Around Town  is a community art project for the residents of Garner and artists from surrounding areas to participate in a temporary art exhibit that will illustrate community and natural beauty and bring joy, healing, and civic engagement.

• Artists will be required to submit their “Art Around Garner” idea, concept, or theme of painting at the time of application.

• DGA will hold an artists interest meeting on May 13 at 6:30pm via Zoom.

• Twenty local and regional artists will be selected to participate.*

• $50-100 material stipends are available upon request.

• Artists will be notified if their artwork is accepted and where it will be located.

• Painting must be completed by July 1.

• *This is not a juried exhibit; however, artwork not consistent with the theme will not be accepted.

SPECS & INSTALLATION

Artists will be provided with a 3′ x 4′ board to paint.  Acrylic paint is recommended and pieces will be varnished by the exhibit coordinators to be weather safe.

The art will be on display August through October 2021 at the following proposed pedestrian-friendly locations including Town Hall, Garner Senior Center, Garner Rec Center (GRC), Garner Performing Arts Center, and other locations around downtown and town parks.

AUCTION

Upon completion of the exhibit, the art will be auctioned with 75% of the proceeds going to  the respective artists and 25% to DGA to benefit future art projects throughout the Town of Garner.
The exact time, location and date of auction is yet to be determined but anticipated for November 2021.

INQUIRIES

Questions from artists should be directed to Lorie Clark at lclark@garnernc.gov.

Garner Announced as Location for New VA Clinic

Garner, NC—The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced that it recently accepted an offer to lease 244,860 square feet of space for a new outpatient multi-specialty clinic in the Town of Garner.

The site for the new construction is approximately 17 acres located on the west side of N.C. 50 between Rand Road and Arbor Greene Drive. The real property investment amount for the project is estimated to be about $100 million.

“This facility will be a great addition to our community. We are proud that the Town of Garner will be known throughout the region as a hub for veterans' health-care services,” Mayor Ken Marshburn said. “Our veterans deserve the finest of care, and I’m confident that this new facility will provide outstanding care to the men and women who have served our country in the armed forces. I’m sure the VA staff and veterans who come to Garner for services will find us to be a welcoming and compassionate community that deeply appreciates what our veterans have done to ensure our freedoms.”

VA officials said they were enthusiastic about bringing a facility of this scale to Garner and Wake County.

“The Durham VA Health Care System values our local community partners’ efforts in helping us to keep the nation’s promise to our veterans,” said DVAHCS Executive Director Paul Crews. “The new outpatient facility will employ nearly 400 VA employees, ranging from administrative support to health-care providers. It will offer primary care and mental-health services to nearly 25,000 veterans annually from Wake County and surrounding areas.”

Limited specialty services may include cardiology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, pulmonology, pathology, audiology and speech, rehabilitation medicine, and imaging services including CT and MRI. A pharmacy and eye clinic could also be a part of the facility. VA officials say that specialty services could change based on demand and need at the facility.

“We are excited about the development and construction of a modern, state-of-the-art facility that will allow the Durham VA Health Care System to ensure that veterans who choose VA receive the highest-quality care. This facility will allow us to provide veterans with the right care, in the right place, at the right time,” said Fred Roche, administrator of the new VA facility.

A joint venture, Atriax/PPGG JV, based in Hickory, N.C., will serve as the developer and lessor for the center. The majority of the lessor’s design, construction and operations team is based in North Carolina. The Atriax/PPGG JV is a service-disabled, veteran-owned business with years of experience in U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs projects.

“As a veteran-owned company, we couldn’t be more proud to serve the veterans of North Carolina through this important project and the critical health-care services to be delivered by the professionals in the VA,” Atriax principal George Auten said.

Brenda H. Compton with locally based Hartwell Realty represents the property owners in the sale for the project.

“It was truly an honor for me and the Hartwell Realty team to be involved in a project that will have such a meaningful economic impact on Garner while providing a much-needed service for our veterans,” Compton said. “This multifaceted transaction could not have been successful without the hard work and collaboration of the Atriax Group, property owners and local municipalities. It’s a huge win for Garner and our regional economy.”

For more information on the Durham VA Health Care System, please contact Shahron James at 919.928.3997 or by email at shahron.james@va.gov For more information on economic development matters in Garner, please contact Joe Stallings at 919.773.4431 or at jstallings@garnernc.gov.