Newspapers / The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.) / Jan. 31, 1985, edition 1 / Page 2
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' j " t v J r ' Campaign needed to widen US 401 If Hoke County expects to obtain a four lane highway between Raeford and FayetteviUe, pressure on state highway administrators must again be turned up, and state Board of Transportation members must be convinced that the project is needed. As of last Friday, Hoke County has a new highway board member. The time is right to let him know that this county has suf fered too long because of state politics, and has grown tired of waiting for more than 13 years on the Department of Transporta tion (DOT) to widen the dangerous strip of US 401 . Load residents should take a few moments now to inform our new DOT board member, Richard K. Pugh, that the future survival of Hoke County hinges on good highway transportation, and the link with Cumberland County on US 401 is essential if this com munity is going to grow. In the past, many county residents may have felt they were unable to make changes and to influence the shaping of this community. Those feelings may have once been justified, but now new doors for participation are opening. Widening US 401 is one area where a lit tle effort by citizens can make a great deal of difference. At the end of the Democratic administration of Governor James B. Hunt, the widening of US 401 was placed once again on the highway construction priority list. The project has been on and off the list almost as long as living memory. Unless pressure is kept on the DOT, the Hoke County project will again be removed from the list, no matter how bad we believe it is needed. The $8 million earmarked for the work will go to some other highway in some other part of the state. The highway improvements will never be made, if we sit back and wait on the state to get started. The only way US 401 will be improved is if Hoke County residents help Hoke County. Write a letter to Pugh and the new DOT Secretary James E. Harr ington. Let them know we are tired of being tail-gated by tractor trailer trucks, and crowded off the road as the diesels pass on a too short and narrow stretch. We are tired of close calls. Take a few moments and write Pugh and Harrington that although it has been happening for years, we still have not become accustomed to seeing and reading about the deaths and injuries of those who were not lucky on US 401. Let the DOT officials know we have grown weary of hearing pro spective industries complain about poor highway access and of potential residents resisting a move here because of the dangers of commuting. For too long Hoke County has had the lowest per capita income and one of the highest per property owner taxes in the state. Make Pugh and Harrington aware that we believe an improved US Highway 401 will change those statistics. Construction on widening US 401 is scheduled for fiscal year of 1989. With a little help from residents, that timetable could be mov ed up. Without local pressure, the project will be forgotten. If you care about saving lives, paying fewer taxes and improving the quality of life in Hoke County write: Richard K. Pugh; Rt. 6 P.O. Box 461; Asheboro, NC 27203. A copy or another letter should also be sent to: James E. Harrington; Secretary of Transpor tation; Highway Building; One S. Wilmington Street; Raleigh, NC 27611. For Hoke County to have a bright future, we cannot depend on the benevolence of state officials. We must get to work ourselves. The News-Journal Published Every Thursday by ? Raeford, N.C. 28376 Sabacrtptioa Rales la Advance la Coaaty Per Year? S10.00 6 Months? S5. 00 Oat of Coaaty Per Year? $12.00 6 Months? S6. 00 LOUIS H. FOGLEMAN, JR. WARREN N. JOHNSTON . HENRY L. BLUE MRS. PAUL DICKSON SAM C. MORRIS ANN N.WEBB Publisher Editor . . . . Production Supervisor Society Editor Contributing Editor Advertising Representative Second Class Postage al Raeford, N.C. (USPS 3SS-260) County wide zoning is worth the effort When I retired I swore on a stack of bad decisions, I would never attend another meeting. In my working for pay career I at tended at least a hundred thou sand. Unfortunately I broke the vow and to add to my sin I broke it by going to a soil and water conser vation meeting with my grumpy partner D.R. Huff. After my wild episodes out west with him my nerves looked like a ball of thread which had exploded. Less than two months later I was wheeling myself to Raleigh with D.R., Emmie and Donnie Harris Hoke County's conservationist. Most folks behind us on the road thought we had a diesel van or a coal burning stove in the van. It was only D.R. Smoking. I only had one damaged lung from the trip out west. He was determined to even them up. The conversation to Raleigh was more spirited than the western swing. D.R. asked me if I looked at the obituary in the newspaper. I told him I was too young to worry about the obituary news. Huff had a birthday on January 9, and so Looking On Raz Autry did I. He is more interested in the obituary section tin the paper than I because he is so much older. The Raleigh Inn is usually the meeting place for any convention which requires large rooms. While the motel is not one of the newest it is quite comfortable. If t^vcre is any thing' uncomfortable about the place it is the realization one* will have to float a loan to stay for any length of time. I worked in Beaufort during the summer when I was in college. Room and three giant size meals a day was only fif teen dollars a week. In January 198S a person could stay at the Raleigh Inn at a cut rate price of thirty five dollars per night. No meals are included, only a con stantly running commode. Soil and water is the sustainer of life. Many citizens in our state are becoming more concerned about abuse of the land. Pollution of our air and streams has been around for a long time. Hoke County is no exception when it comes to pollu tion. We can stack up with the best of them. If any citizen doubts the above statement, unhealthy pig pens and junk yard scattered over the county will open his eyes if he uses them to see. Soil and water conservation will come into focus if the commissioners will continue with their plans for county zoning. It is practically impossible to separate soil and water conserva tion from zoning. Intestinal fortitude will be need ed by the commissioners to pass a zoning ordinance with teeth in it. The hue and cry coming from lan downers will be heard from Fayet teville to Aberdeen. The cry will sound like the old song Play It Again Sam. The verse will be, it is my land, I will do what I please with it. I can understand their reluctance to let someone dictate by law what they should do with their land. The right to work with one's properties is taken for granted in a democratic society. While we cherish this right we do not have the right to make others suffer because of our position. It is con ceivable for a landowner to pour a deadly chemical in a stream which runs through his property. If the stream dumps into Rockfish Creek the landowner has not only violated the right of those who de pend on Rockfish Creek for water; he has endangered their life. Even the Constitution doesn't give us that right. . We are playing RusSian Roulette. It is every citizen for himself. All the editorials and let ters to the editor will not give us a well organized county. Only those in power who display the courage can do something about zoning. Having the guts to face the abuse which will surely come will separate those who do and those who sit. This is one citizen who will sup port their decision on zoning even if I have to move some peach trees. Farmers are consumers as well as taxpayers By John Sledge N.C. Farm Bureau Federation Like everyone else, the American famer is a consumer and a taxpayer, as well as a producer. Farmers take in about S138 billion a year from the sale of crops and livestock, plus another S41 billion from off-farm sources. They spend about $135 billion for goods and services to produce those crops and livestock. In addi tion, they spend up to $45 billion for personal taxes, investments, and for consumer items similar to those bought by urban residents. Farmers pay about $4.1 billion in farm real estate taxes annually, $514 million in personal property taxes, $3.8 billion in Federal and State income taxes, and about $344 million in sales taxes. That works out to about $3,600 in taxes per farm. Farmers' annual purchases in clude: -$10 billion for farm tractors and other equipment, which keeps about 150, 000 off-farm employees working year round. -$16 billion for fuel and equipment maintenance. -$22 billion for feed and seed. -$7 billion for fertilizer and lime. -Products containing 360 million pounds of rubber, enough to put tires on nearly 7 million automobiles. -33 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, about 2 percent of the nation's total. -7 million tons of steel in the form of farm machinery, trucks, cars, fencing, and building materials. Like everyone else, farmers feel the pinch of inflation. In the past 10 years, wage rates for hired labor have gone up 114 percent; tractors and self-propelled machinery cost 200 percent more; and taxes are up 78 percent. Overall, the average cost of commodities, interest, taxes and farm wage rates has climbed 125 percent in the last 10 years. How did the farmer's pocket book fare during this 10 year period (1973-1983) of inflation? In 1967 dollars (dollars adjusted for inflation), net income per farm family from farming (farm income minus farm expenses) dropped 75 percent, and off-farm earnings fell 12 percent. Beard's influence will remain on the table James Beard died last week. He will be missed by many of us who eat. "He was an innovator, an experimenter, a missionary in bringing the gospel of good cooking to the American home table," The New York Times Food Editor Craig Claiborne said, remembering his friend Beard. Before he died, I worried about James Beard's health. He was too fat. He enjoyed living and eating good food too much. Even the medical community was shocked when they heard he made it to 81 . His lifestyle curdled the recommendations of the American Medical Association, and his habits made heart specialists smolder. For yean, Beard had been used by doctors across the world as an example of a bad health practitioner. "You live like that, and you will drop dead before you are 40," the doctors had told their patients, while pointing at pictures of Beard. Of cOursc, the physicians were obviously wrong and embarrassed when they found out his true age. 1 Now, many of us are considering canceling our medical insurance and polishing off a double portion of banana pudding before the doctors cone up with some other example to make us diet. BnnI lived right. He traveled the world in the large seats of first dyHbttimiiai iiWllliift , feasting, lecturing and instructing as he Warren Johnston The Puppy Papers According to his friend Claiborne, Beard was a wonderful host, who believed that if you had to serve small portions of food, it was better to do without. As a result of this philosophy, Beard was enor mously round. James Beard was truly having too good a time living to die when he should have, 30 years ago. We first crossed paths, when I bought a paperback copy of The Best of Beard in 1973 for $1 .95. I did not know, much about cooking, but I knew how to read. Beard was easy to read, and I learned so much from him that I got a job in a restaurant as an assistant cook. But, as quickly as he tot me the job, he got me canned. Because all I knew about cooking was Beard and because Beard did unconventional things, it was not long before I got into hot water. "Make a veloute sauce, and be quick about it," the chef told me the first day. In a matter of moments, I whipped up what I believed to be one of the finest veloute sauces ever created and presented it to the chef. "This is a very fine sauce, but it's not a veloute. Quit fooling around," the chef said. I panicked. Beard had changed the ingredients, and left the name the same. All I knew was what he had taught me, and I had made a wonderful, but wrong-named topping. After an hour of trying, I failed to come up with the traditional veloute. I was fired. "Go read Julia Child and come back when you have mastered traditional French cooking," the chef said, as he hurled me and The Best of Beard out among the garbage cans. It did not matter though. Soon the customers decided the chef was too traditional, and they threw him out the back door, along with a big pot of Borddaise sauce. Following his ousting, the chef scraped off the coffee grinds and egt shells which were stuck to his red wine stained tunic, picked up the copy of Beartf, that I had left on the trash heap and started reading. Today he has one of the finest restaurants in the southeast, but he i? considered to be very unconventional and slightly overweight. James Beard will be missed; however, his gastronomic philosophy and his fine cooking will be around for many years, even o? my table.
The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.)
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Jan. 31, 1985, edition 1
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