Newspapers / The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.) / May 30, 2001, edition 1 / Page 1
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The ews f il happened^ it's news to J oumal No. 9 Vol. 94 50 cents Wednesday, May 30, 2001 Visit us on the web www.thenews-journal.com This week Memorial Day service honors sacrifices page 1B Empty houses go up in flames page 4A Five sentenced for fighting page 4A Index Business/Farm 3B Calendar 2B Classifieds 8-9B Deaths 4A Editorials 2-3A Legals 7B Public Record 4A Religion 10A School 4B,10B,5A Social News 3B TV Listings 5-6B Around Town By Sam C. Morris Contributing Editor We need more rain than we have received over the past week. For the past few after noons the sky has darkened and it looked like we were in for rain. According to my rain gauge it still registers zero. As 1 write this column Monday morning the sky is dark and you can hear thunder in the distance. So far there hasn’t been any rain, but I still have hope that it will be raining before 1 finish this column. The forecast for the remain der of the week, Wednesday through Saturday, calls for the highs to be in the 80s and the lows in the 60s. There could be some rain on Thursday and Friday. * * * ♦ In the paper last week was an article about the presenta tion of the new City of Raeford Seal. In the article was the following quote: “Featured a rendering of the former medi cal school and the Raeford Institute.” This is an error because the medical school and the Raeford Institute are two dif ferent schools. The City of Raeford was built around the Raeford In stitute many years after the medical school had closed. Since my name was mentioned in the designing of the seal, 1 just want to set the record straight. ♦ * * * * Last week I wrote about a (See AROUND, page IOA) Judge retakes control in Leandro case By Victorian a Summers Staff writer A Wake County judge snipped some red tape yesterday in a five-year legal bout to obtain more educational funding for Hoke and other low-wealth counties. Judge Howard Manning Jr. took back control of the case in order to expedite development of a plan for corrective mea sures. In a previous ruling he assigned the plan to both the state and the counties filing suit, but yesterday said he believed he could move more quickly. Manning said he will determine whether Hoke and other low-wealth coun ties lack the money to provide a “sound basic education” for their children or if they aren’t spending the money they have properly, and he will take responsibility for devising corrective measures. His recent order comes despite a plan announced last week by Gov. Mike Easley to set up an educational task force to study long-term options to improve the school systems. While Manning praised Easley's ef forts, he said he will require additional, immediate hearings be held. In order to speed up the process of his previous or ders, Manning said he will meet with the (See LOW-WEALTH SUIT, page 9A) II Budget crisis: county asks schools to cut Board of Education holds special session •» By Kristin Guthrie Staff writer The Hoke board of education met in a special session last night to discuss some possible ways to cope with the county commissioners’ plea for the board to cut its budget request for the 2001-02 school year. The commissioners recently met with school finance officer Carolyn Olivarez to request that the board find a way to reduce its budget request and even asked if the school system could make do with no increase over last year’s funding. Olivarez responded that there was no way the school system could open its doors with no additional funds. At the conclusion of the meeting between the commissioners and Olivarez, the com missioners recommended the board con- $180,000. Commissioners questioned whether the schools needed more mainte nance personnel and speculated that the state might not approve an eight percent increase in salaries for teachers, but rather just a three or four percent hike. Factoring in these two issues, the com missioners roughly calculated the school system could save the county about $180,000. Olivarez did the math a little more to the penny and found that respond ing to the commissioners’ request for a budget cut in these two particular areas would actually cost the board $171,139, rather than the original rough $180,000 estimate. Board of education members agreed that making a quick decision based on the commissioners’ recommendation without carefully studying the school system’s budget would not be a good idea. They sider decreasing its budget request by (See SCHOOLS, page 8A) Sandhills Hoke Center named for Upchurches Raeford campus will be complete in July Mary Marshburn, a Gov. Morehead teacher for the visually impaired, consoles Samuel “Sammy” Sosa, a 19-month-old Hispanic child who is completely blind. Child copes with loss of eyes By Victoriana summers Staff writer In a world of darkness, one-year-old Sammy Sosa, a native of Mexico, copes with the loss of his eyes. During the day, he receives therapy and plays at Children’s Development Center in Raeford. His par ents, Martha Cantor and Raymundo Sosa, have found a safe refuge for him while they earn a living. Though the Raeford residents are em ployed, the Sosa family has no medical insurance for Sammy because he was brought to North Carolina after his birth. The couple speaks only Spanish. Sammy does not qualify for any type of public assistance, said Shelley Daniels, director of the local childcare center. “Sammy’s mother is very committed to her son,” Daniels said. “She loves him very much and there is a tremendous bond there. This is a great adjustment for him to lose his eyesight, and not be able to understand what is going on around him.” Sammy was diagnosed with bilateral retinoblastoma — malignant tumors in both eyes — resulting in the surgical (See SAMMY, page 7A) By Victoriana Summers Staff writer Dr. John Dempsey, president of Sandhills Community College, officially announced last Thursday that SCC’s new $1.8 million Hoke Center will be dedi cated in honor of two outstanding Hoke philanthropists, Mary and Wyatt Upchurch. The Hoke campus will com pleted by July, Dempsey said, but open ing ceremonies will not be held until Sep tember when the facility will welcome the first students. In naming the 10,000 square foot Hoke Centerafterthe Upchurches, the first build ing erected will be desigrrated as “Upchurch Hall.” Dempsey credited the Upchurches’ “leadership” and other fine qualities in making the new Sandhills Community College center a reality. The Upchurches’ gift of property to build the college also served as a catalyst for SCC to move forward to meet the needs of the people of Hoke, Dempsey added. “All of us at the college are very ex cited about our new facility which will allow us to expand services to the people of Hoke,” Dempsey said. “We are espe cially grateful to Mary and Wyatt Upchurch for their generosity in donating the land that has made this center pos sible. “Mary Upchurch has long been an out standing member of the college board of trustees. We are delighted that the new building will bear the name of these good friendsof Sandhills Community College.” Owners of the Tarheel Turkey Hatch ery in Raeford, the Upchurches deeded 10.4 acres of land for the future educa- (See HOKE CENTER, page 9A) By Shelley Martin Special to The News-journal Physicians George S. Poehlman and W. Richard Schmits Jr. share a bond that goes beyond their recent associa tion with the FirstHealth Family Care Center in Raeford. Both have dedicated their lives to helping people in need through what one would call a spiritual approach to family medicine. Trained as a Meth odist minister. Dr. Schmits wants to reach beyond statistics and prescrip tions. Once a traveling missionary. Dr. Poehlman has reached out to rural populations inside and outside of this country. While neither has been at the Raeford clinic for more than two months, both say they already feel the ties that bind them to Hoke County and surroundingcommunities grow ing stronger. W. Richard Schmits, M.D. Even as a young boy, Richard Schmits was determined to follow in the footsteps of a man he never knew. The profession of a doctor had brought his mother’s father, William Schopfer, much joy in his relatively short life time. “My grandfather was a doctor,” Dr. Schmits says, “but 1 never met him. He died before 1 was born. My mother said what a great person he was and how his patients loved him. He died of hepatitis when he was in his 50s, and he was like a role model to me even though I never met him. My grandfa ther was a good person, a good physi cian, and when he died, the people praised him for all the good things he did.” So the Bergen County, N.J., native set out at a tender age to become like his grandfather, aiming to give back what he could with a desire to help others. Soon after receiving an A.B. in general science from the University of Rochester, Schmits headed to Duke University to take the first step in becoming the second doctor in his family. “I remember the first time 1 came from Rochester, N.Y., to Duke,” he says.”lt was in March, and snow was on the ground in Rochester where Doctors have spiritual approach to medicine a>i Dr. George Poehlman Dr. W. Richard Schmits there were terrible gray skies. I came down here, and there were azaleas and forsythias and dogwoods, and it looked like heaven. The people were so friendly. Duke Chapel was so beauti ful. It just really made a big impres sion on me.” He says he knew from the moment he stepped onto the Duke campus that he would eventually return to North Carolina to make it his permanent home. After following in his grandfather’s footsteps and becoming a physician, Dr.Schmits decided to attain another (See DOCTORS, page 7A) The way we were City employees johnny Melton, left, and Mike luens lower Raeford’s time capsule into the ground. The* water-tight capsule, containing items relating to present-day Raeford, is to be opened by a Raeford mayor in the year 2101. The burying of the time capsule was the last item on the agenda of the city’s 100th birthday celebration.
The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.)
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May 30, 2001, edition 1
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