Local News

Letter scare probed; air traffic curtailed

By COURTNEY MARTIN, LTN Staff Writer

Oct. 31 - Lincolnton is having its fits of terrorism nervousness this week.

There was a small scare at the Lincoln County Water Treatment Facility Monday after a suspicious letter arrived. And some pilots at the Lincolnton/Lincoln County Airport found themselves grounded as new restrictions were imposed.

A worker at the treatment plant who had just picked up the mail noticed the suspicious letter with no return address and postmarked from Trenton, N.J. — the city linked with anthrax mail. There have been four such letters recently.

The white, 4 by 9 1/2-inch envelopes were addressed to Larry Warren at the 7674 Tree Farm Lane location.

According to the sheriff’s office, Warren and other facility personnel got nervous when they saw dust of some kind come out of the envelope when it was opened.

But Susan Ledford at Emergency management said the letter turned out to be nothing. The powder may have been dust.

Ledford contacted the post office trying to find information about the easily traced, bulk metered mail. The post office reported that the letters, all of which turned out to be from book sellers, never entered the Trenton, N.J post office.

Officials say everyone should have recently received a post card in their mailbox from the United States Postal Service (USPS). Here is some of the ad-vice it gave for identifying  sus-picious mail:

· It is from someone you don't know or to someone who used to live at your address.

· It's handwritten and has no return address.

· It looks lopsided or lumpy.

· It's sealed with excessive amounts of tape or has more postage than needed.

· It is marked with "Per-sonal" or "Confidential."

The postcard the USPS sent out also tells people not to handle any suspicious mail. It goes on to say not to shake it or sniff it.

If you do handle any suspicious mail, you should wash your hands with soap and water then call the Police Department or Sheriff’s Office.

Meanwhile, the local airport was faced with more flight restrictions. The FAA has given notice that no aircraft are to fly within a 10 mile radius of any nuclear facility.

The airport is on the edge of that radius to the McGuire Nuclear Station and faces some restrictions.

Airplanes can only take off in a north-east direction and land in a south-west direction.

Jeff Lynn, the airport’s manager, said, “We’re OK, we just can’t utilize all our runways.”

© 2001 Lincoln Times-News  

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