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The ews I ournal Hoke County’s newspaper since 1905 No.37Vol.l09 Raeford & Hoke County n.c. Wednesday, November 19,2014 Seed company eyes ethanol tobacco Local operation gets $100k loan from county to expand greenhouses By Catharin Shepard Staff writer Local business Cross Creek Seed, Ine. eould work with the Tyton Bio- seienees ethanol plant in Dundarraeh to produee a speeial type of tobaeco that ean be used to make biofuel. The Hoke County Board of Com missioners granted the seed eompany a $120,000 interest-free loan from the eounty’s Revolving Loan Fund. The board approved the request at its Monday night meeting. The money will be used to expand the eurrent greenhouse transplant produetion, ineluding work that eould be used to provide tobacco transplants for tbe ethanol plant. The expansion will include provid ing jobs for more than 30 new tempo rary employees at the eompany and additional funding besides the eounty money, according to the Cross Creek Seed proposal. Cross Creek Seed is a Raeford- based business that primarily sells tobaceo seed both domestieally and internationally, and over the years (See TOBACCO, page 4A) Cross Creek Seed from the air in June. (Ken MacDonald photo) Cup stacking Sandy Grove Elementary students participated in what Guinness World Records terms the “World’s Largest Sport Stacking Event” during their PE class with Jill Rogitz. Sport stackers from all over the world stacked up and down various pyramids in prescribed patterns as fast as they could for about 30 minutes.This year, the goal is to have 600,000 stackers smash last year’s record of 555,932 stackers. Speed Stacks continues to gain popularity around the world. (Contributed photo) Strother house bums Internet fail first indication Commission bucks state law to help woman Wright: ‘Sometimes I disagree with the fellows that write those laws up there.’ By Catharin Shepard Staff writer The Hoke County Board of Commissioners voted Monday to allow a property tax valuation exception for a woman whose house burned down, even though the state statute instructed otherwise. The board voted to require property owner Carol Jones to pay one-twelfth of the assessed taxes owed on a home that burned down after just a month. “My house was a total loss. I was actually asking if you guys would consider at a fair and decent ap proach of a true assessment, out of really true compassion, to consider you take the 12 months and divide it by one month because my house was there for 30 days, and divide that by one month to consider that for an assessment for 30 days instead of 365 days,” Jones said Monday when she addressed the commissioners. That amounts to about $500 instead of the over $6,000 taxes as sessed by the county, she said. County Attorney Grady Hunt said the statue said the appraisal is as of January 1 of each year. Under the law, if a house was appraised January 1, 2007 and the house burned down on January 2, 2008, for example. Hunt reported, the property could not be reappraised until 2009. (See HOUSE TAXES, page 3A) A fire that started under a deck last week destroyed the home of local land sur veyor and former board of education member Leland Strother and his wife Judy Strother. No one was injured in the fire, which happened the evening of November 15 at the family’s home on Strother Road in the Ash ley Heights area of Hoke County. The fire apparently got started from grease that dripped down under the deck and later ignited, Strother said. “As best we can tell, it was like the drippings from my grill had gotten up under the deck and smol dered for about an hour and ignited some flammable material from there,” he said. The Strothers were at home when the fire started. They first realized some thing was wrong when their internet connection failed. Then the television connec tion went out. Then Strother (See EIRE, page 3A) This Week Calendar 2B Classifieds 5B Deaths 3 A Editorials 2A Legals 3-4B Sports 5 A Worship 2B Look for this symbol to find stores that sell The News-Journal Follow us on Facebook www.thenews-journal.com www.raefordnj.com Officials seek $1 million to build transportation hub By Catharin Shepard Staff writer The Hoke Area Transit Service (HATS) is seeking over $1 million in funding from grant programs to build a public transportation center for the county. The Hoke County Board of Commissioners held a public hearing Monday for the HATS application for grant funding from the Community Transportation Program (CTP). The board voted unanimously to ap prove tbe application. The funding for the CTP comes from federal and state sources and is admin istered through the North Carolina Department of Transportation. The pur pose of the funding is to provide grant money for lo cal agencies providing rural public transportation. The service is seeking over $1 million in funding to build the transportation hub, HATS Director Nancy Thornton said. The total grant amount is $1,289,300 with a 10 percent local share of $128,930 that would be provided by the county. The request also included a separate grant proposal seeking $196,151 for administrative use with a 10 percent local share of $29,423 to come from the county. The matching contribu tion of $158,353 is avail able through the county’s General Fund, according to the proposal. (See HUB, page 4A) Local Girl Scouts make top 12 of 1,500 troops By Ken MacDonald Here in the flatlands, we don’t have mountains for climbing or oceans for drowning—I mean swimming—so we have to create artificial terrors for our children to help them face their fears, and, in the case of boys, show off for the girls. So it is at the camp where we journey twice each year, there has arisen a mighty monstrous structure some 50 feet in the air to beckon to kids, “Come on sissy, quit your whining, what are you, a baby? Climb up here. You chicken? Bwak bwak bwak bwak!” Tbe recreation industry calls them zip lines and they print brochures to make them alluring, but what they don’t show you is the initial 50-foot climb— I’m estimating here, and acknowledge that because (See STUFE, page 4A) Maddy Keehfus (front, left to right), Angelina Musson, Abby Keehfus, Erin Godwin, Lauren Hoskins, Katie Hoskins. Back row—troop co-leader CJ Musson;troop co-leader Patti Hoskins; Coastal Pines CEO LisaJoneses;troop co-leaderAudrey Keehfus; Coastal Pines COO Cindy Kelley-Deaton. North Carolina Coastal Pines designated Girl Scout Troop #124 of Hoke Coun ty as one of 12 “Daisy’s Dozen Elite Troops” for its 2013-2014 membership year. Troop members were presented with their awards at an afternoon ceremony on Sunday, November 2 at Camp Mary Atkinson in Selma. The girls were treated to a luncheon and exclusive access to the camp for a variety of (See SCOUTS, page 4A)
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