Newspapers / The Warren Record (Warrenton, … / Feb. 19, 1970, edition 1 / Page 2
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fflhr Varrrn Sernrb Published Every Thursday By Tke Record Printing Company P. O. BOX 70 - WAUtENTON, N. C. 27589 BIGNALL JONES. Editor ? DUKE JONES, Business Manager Member North Carolina Press Association ENTERED AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POST OFFICE IN WARRENTON, NORTH CAROLINA, UNDER THE LAWS OF CONGRESS "Second Class Postage Paid At Warreaton, N. C." QTTPQrPTPTTnM D A TSM ? YIA1, $3.00) ID" MONTHS, $1.50 dUDOtAirilUIN ttA 1 ?2) . OUT OF STATU Off* YEAR, $4.00) SIX MONTHS, $2.00 Consider Change In Election We think it is time that our citizens should be giving some thought to a possible change in the matter of electing members of the Board of County Commissioners at the next session of the General Assembly. We would like to see district rep resentation on the board abolish ed and the county return to a coun ty-wide system of electing board members in order that the most capable men would be commission ers regardless of what section of the county in which they reside. This would not necessarily mean that commissioners would not be elected from districts, but often it could mean more capable represen tation. Modern transportation has reduced distance to a point that where a man lives in the county no longer matters and the entire coun ty is of county-wide interest. But if citizens hold out for district representation, then, In fairness, each district should elect its own representative. If we are to have county-wide elections, and there is no consti tutional bar, we would like to see commissioners elected for a stag gered four - year term, with two members being elected in one ?lection year and three in the next election. We would like to have the views of our citizens on this In order that we may pass them on to our read ers. It Is not the duty of a news paper to operate the county, only to stimulate thought on public ques tions. Abolish Proposed Surcharge During the years that the editor of this newspaper has reported meetings of both town and county boards, he has spent countless hours listening to commissioners discuss the solution of problems that have already been satisfactorily solved in other towns and counties. In many instances a few telephone calls or letters could save the Commission ers and the busy editor much time and in some instances could save the county or town a considerable sum of money. , v. ^ . The latest example is the wrangle over Joint action by the Warrenton commissioners and the county com-1 mlssioners over the extension of water lines to Warrenton's Indus trial Park. A similar problem has been worked out satisfactorily by numerous towns and counties long enough ago to have demonstrated the soundness and legality of the plans used. With Just a little time and a few telephone calls, the editor has been able to get a view of the common practice of the State by calling three counties, Wake, Vance and Granville. Of course three coun ties do not guarantee a uniform plan for the entire state, but it does Indicate a widespread plan and one that has worked well in the three counties contacted. The general policy seems to be that towns accepted the responsi bility of extending water and sewer lines to the town limits, and that the county pays the cost of run ning these lines to an industry or industrial park where the county can reco 14) its money through the collection of taxes in a given num ber of years. The towns accept the responsi bility of providing an ample supply of water, and also the supervision and maintenance of the lines. In re turn for this service1' off the f>ak*t of the town the county deeds or allows the lines they have purchased to become a part of the town sys tem. to none of the three counties contacted was a surcharge made or lines retained by the county. The principal interest of the coun ty, according to the chairman Of the Vance Board of Commission ers, idfbr attract industries to the aid in the development ?aid that the for main lines and the town in the operation of its water system outside the town, but could well be a bar to obtaining any other industry. It seems to us that the county would be wise to deed the tank to the town as a matter of simple economics. A tank has to be main tained,. it has to be scraped, clean ed and painted. It would probably cost the county in a few years around $5,000 to clean and paint the tank. If a leak should develop in either water line or tank, the county has no facilities for making repairs and no funds other than tax fluids for paying for repairs that must in many cases be done "right now." The town can pay for maintenance from profits from water sales. The surcharge on Cochrane will not be enough to paint the tank. As a mat tor of fact the surcharge is not sound under present conditions and is un fair to Warren ton whose citizens pay a considerable part of all the taxes paid by Warren County citi zens. Heart Sunday And You ( Prom a Clipping Submitted by Mrs. Leroy Bartholomew) The Heart Fund volunteer who rings your doorbell within the next several days deserves to be greeted with a smile, a warm handclasp and a generous contribution. In a sense, she is working for you, and over the years her services - combined with those millions of other volunteers - have helped to save thousands at lives. She is fully entitled to share with medical science the credit for dramatic advances achieved over the past 15 years in the fight against heart nd blood vessel diseases. To be sure, these spectacular gains were achieved by the scientists. But never forget that much of this research activity was un derwritten by dollars which she and others like her so laboriously collected. So give generously. Pol oat the welcome mat. Make this the most successful Heart Sunday appeal in the history of our community. Give ? so more will live! Quotes It is not because things an dUflctflt that we do sot dare to attempt them, bot thsy air* dif ficult her use we do not An to doso. I hare yet to ftad the i la life, who did not Mostly Personal "7M BJ BIGNAIX JONES "1*1 thine thai has moat im pressed me about Warranted has been lta ability to do what it wanted to do," the late Dr. BUI Rodgers told a small jroup of us aa are chatted on the atreet a few years before his death. That remark has reoccur red to me often in the years that have passed as Warrenton has faced problems, sometimes solving them arith determination and sometimes arith ingenuity and at other times faltering and making one wonder if the toam has lost its heritage of which Dr. Rodgers spoke. Reared on a small farm where the hospital now stands, Dr. Rodgers worked as a boy in his father's store on the corn er of Main and Market Street where Hy Diamond now oper ates a store. With savings and help from his father, he at tended medical school and upon graduation returned to Warren ton where he was a part of and witness to the transforma tion of the town from a village to a modern town and where he saw demonstrated that which caused him to make his remark on the street in his latter years. He loved this town and this county and worked for its ad vancement . No one worked harder to bring Warren General Hospital here than did Dr. BUI Rodgers, but that was only one of his good works, it would be a pleasure to eulogize this man of whom I was extremely fond, but that Is not the purpose of this article. In the days when Dr. BUI went to college, attending col lege did not mean the exodus of a boy from his home. Warren ton was home to Dr. Bill and when he had prepared himself, he came home to work". The same was true of Dr. Gld Hunt Macon, Dr. Frank Hunter, Bill Polk, and of a number of others who found that they could af ford to use their talents where their hearts lay. Others left, finding a village too restrictive of their ambitions, and many were rewarded by considerable financial success. These made more money but it Is question able if they made a better life or found more happiness. But those who returned to Warrenton witnessed an amaz ing transformation, perhaps not matched by any other town in the United States. We came to War renton in 1909 and with Dr. Bill saw this take place. Dr. Bill was not born and neither was I when Warrenton took its first amazing step that was to give it the title of "The Town That Owns Itself," In a write up in a national maga zine in the early twenties. Find ing itself without a railroad, in about 1883 Warrenton built its own, providing 70 per cent of the money needed to run three-miles of track to Warren Plains. It was a business and financial success and for many years carried both freight and passengers. When I went to the University of North Car olina In the fall of 1918 with Pat Hunter and Robert Davis we rode to Warren Plains over the Warrenton Railroad. When we came here to make our home, Warrenton was a quiet village of around 800 persons, I suppose. it had a relative good trade, but It had suffered from not being on a main railroad line, a handicap reduced but not overcome by the building of the Warrenton Rail road. The streets were unpaved, although there waa much side walk, due to profits from a liquor dispensary. The streets in the business section were lighted by kerosene lamps and each day just before dusk they were lighted by the town's lamp lighter. Stores and homes were served by primitive outdoor toilets. Stables were a part of the town's business, and horses, cows and chickens were to be found at most hones and flies and cats and English sparrows filled the town. A well on the south end of the court square furnished water for people coming into town and a long horse trough provided for watering ani mals and a long horse rack held the horses as they stood ?d added debris to the town. The meat market provided by refrigeration was v?ry limited. And there were ta addition to at paitt coats by day, a fact ?mt dwlt ml a tew of tht ?ut* bin slept In nlgM shirts, bat the great majority aiept la the heavy tone underwear which they wore all week. Pajamas and shortie nightgowns were un dreamed of. Deodorants were' undiscovered, bat the ssle at powders and perfumes were good, and they helped in the heat of summer. The shaving of underarms of women was unknown and the use of rouge and lipstick was taboo. That Is the bad part of the picture when we came to War renton and a part of the uni versal picture of rural America and accepted without much thought, amid the pleasures of a truly beautiful town In habited by a friendly and kind ly people, many of whom wore patches with dignity and would have been ashamed to boast of poverty. But War rent on was not with out ambition and a desire to restore its glory of pre-Clvll War days when It was cneofthe ten most important towns of the state. As early as 1907, it be gan to dream of lighting its streets with electricity and for a time engaged in a futile scheme to bring current here from Fleming's (now Hamme's) pond. But It was about five years later after Peck Manufacturing Company came to town, that its dream was realized, and the second sffep forward was taken. The town passed what was perhaps its first bond issue, organized the WarrentonElec trie Light Company and bought its current from the Peck Company. I don't recollect that there was any consider able opposition to this move. The same was not true few years later when the town voted bonds to Install a water system. This was fought by a few prominent citizens who had their own private water sys terns, but was passed without much difficulty. For years the late John Plummer, who operated a livery stable on a large lot at the west end of Macon street sold ice from the basement of his home facing the street of this lot. But town citizens felt that this system was not sufficient and the town form ed the Warr-enton ice plant, lo cated at the northern limits of the town and in later years sold to the Flemings of Nor Una. I don't remember how this WITH U. 8. COMBAT AIR FORCES, Vietnam - 0. S. Air Fore* Captain RotwrtG. Hedge - path from Littleton, N. C? and a tallow F-lOO Super Sabre Pilot recently struck an enemy encampment S3 miles east of Ban Me Thuot, Vietnam. Captain Hedfepetb, son of Mr. and Mrs. W. G. Hedgepeth, Littleton, found visibility and maneuverability limited at the target site due to low clouds and mountainous terrain. The captain and his wingman made a pass over the area to locate specific targets be fore they began their aerial attack. The two fighter-bomber pilots destroyed several enemy fortifications and Inflicted num erous casualties. company was financed but It was town owned. About 1917, the town paved the business section of Main Street, although It was sever al years later before other streets of the town were hard-surfaced. During the prosperous years Immediately following World War 1, the citizens decid ed that the town needed a modern hotel and voted $100, 000 in bonds for the construc tion of Hotel Warren, a show place and a source of revenue for several years, but War renton's only uhprofltable ven ture Into town ownership. In the earlier twenties War renton thus owned Its electric light system, Its railroad, Its ice plant, and Its hotel, all built by the town to meet the needs of the town when private enter prise could not be Induced to risk its capital. And remembering this In later years, Dr. Bill Rodgers knew of what this town was capable and was sustained by a faith in the town's ultimate progress. And I thought of his remark and I too remember ed what our citizens had done by working together as I listened a few nights ago to the com missioners stressing difficul ties Instead of opportunity as they discussed water for an In dustrial plant that could very well again place Warrenton on the road to progress. For I, too, still believe that Warrenton can do what it really wants to do. C#t. R. e. HedgepefH Pilot Captain HadwSth aerves with the 35th Tactical Fighter Wine at Phan Rang Air Base. Ha is a member of the Pacific Air Forces, headquarters (or air operations in Southeast Asia, the Far fcaat and the Pacific ana. He has served more than 22 months in Southeast Asia. The captain, commissioned in 1961 through the aviation cadet program, was a member of the expeditionary force to the Dominican Republic. A 1958 graduate of Lit tleton High School, he has at tended N. C. State at Raleigh. His wife, Janice, Is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John F. Huszar of 37 Fox HU1 Road, Hampton, Va. Small Child: "Mother, Isn't Santa Claus supposed to be an awfully good man?" Mother: Yes, dear. Why?" SmaU Child: "You should have heard what he said last night when hefeUover my skates." Say you saw It advertised in The Warren Record. Ill VWfcM WITH U. 8. COMBAT A? FORCES, Vietnam?U. 8. Air Fore* Airman First Class lit G. Diamond, son of Mr. aad Mrs. Hy Diamond, 311 ?arris St., Warrsnton, N. C? Is am duty at Phu Cat AB, Vietnam. Airman Diamond la aa air craft equipment rapalrmaa la the 37th Combat Support Groiv, a unit of the Pacific Air Forces, headquarters for air operations In Southeast Asia, the Far East and Pacific area. He pre viously served at MacDlllAFB In Fla. The airman graduated in 1985 from John Graham High School and attended East Carolina University. His wife, Jane, Is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. L. Melasky, 1851 Sterling Road, Charlotte, N. C. W Ue 000 Announcing THE OPENING OF THE NEWLY ESTABLISHED C*F MOBILE PARK Located Just Off Highway 401 At Afton WILLIAM L. FULLER, Jr. PHONE* 257-4336 HARRY J. CARTER DAY OR NIGHT Owners & Operators " l ? ? In 1940, Bogey played Chips Maguire in"lt All Came True" You paid 20 cents to watch. SIArtd if you 1 I hd|||' ? "r "
The Warren Record (Warrenton, N.C.)
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Feb. 19, 1970, edition 1
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