The
ews
IH
J ournal
Hoke County^s newspaper since 1905
No.25Vol.llO
Raeford & Hoke County n.c.
Wednesday, August 26,2015
Cool air greets returning school children
By Catharin Shepard
Staff writer
Students’ first day back at Sandy
Grove and Rockfish Hoke elemen
tary schools started off a lot cooler
than the day in June when they said
farewell to their teachers for the
summer.
“Today, 600 students are in this
school and it’s a hot, humid day.
and it’s comfortable in here,” Brady
Services engineering director Andy
Nightengale said.
The two elementary schools,
which suffered from old and failing
chiller systems that left children
and adults sweltering in the heat,
got new chillers and a lot more this
summer as part of a system-wide
energy performance contracting
project meant to reduce the county
schools’ utility bills. Brady Servic
es, the engineering firm the Hoke
County Board of Education select
ed to perform the work, spent the
summer months getting the biggest
parts of the project out of the way
first before students returned.
The idea behind energy per
formance contracting is to look at
how a building is using energy and
figure out if newer, more energy-
efficient equipment would save
enough money to make it worth
replacing the old systems, Brady
Services president Jim Brady said.
“We go in and we take a school
system, for example, and we do
very deep, detailed diagnostics and
energy-related inspections. We look
at utility span, we look at water
consumption, we look at gas or fuel
{See ENERGY, page 10)
Facilities director Charles Tapp
with a chiller.
‘Celebrate now,
hard work
begins Monday’
Convocation was Friday
By Catharin Shepard
Staff writer
Hawk Eye Elementary
convocation at Sandy
School teachers and staff donned hats and face paint Friday to celebrate their school at the annual school system
Grove Middle School . (Catharin Shepard photo)
Red-and-white mohawks, skull-and-
crosshones bandanas and at least one rapping
principal helped get Hoke County teachers
ready to start the school year at the annual
school system convocation last week.
“I’m not going to quit my day joh,” Don
Steed Elementary Principal Kim Gray joked,
before premiering her school’s music video
for hundreds of Hoke County teachers gath
ered at the event.
The convocation gave principals a chance
to thank their staff members, introduce new
teachers and show off what their schools are
all about. Hawk Eye Elementary teachers
got into the spirit with face paint and giant
letters spelling out their school’s name, while
McLauchlin Elementary’s Mustang teachers
were wearing pirate gear. Grey and her staff
(See BACK TO WORK, page 6)
This Week
Soldier chained
with sex offense
Paged
Not too late
to register
to vote
Page 9
Huffs receive
state award
Paged
Former commissioner Hodges dies
By Catharin Shepard
Staff writer
jean Hodges
Local entrepreneur, civic
leader and volunteer Jean
Hodges, who was the second
woman to ever serve on the
Hoke County Board of Com
missioners and the first to
chair it, died Sunday.
Hodges, from Texas,
became a fixture of the Hoke
County community after
moving to Raeford in 1974
and was later elected to the
county’s governing board.
Tom Howell, owner of
Howell Drug, served on the
county commission with
Hodges in the 1990s. She
was “very personable” and
a staunch advocate for the
causes she was involved in, he
(See HODGES, page 6)
Computer betrays alleged thief
Investigators with the
Hoke County Sheriff’s
Office have arrested a man
in connection with a home
break-in last November.
Deputies arrested Ron
nie Gibson, 43, of the 500
block of Prospect Avenue in
Raeford on a charge of pos
session of stolen property.
He was arrested August 22
and held under a $25,000
unsecured bond.
Authorities called to the
home of Neisha Wither
spoon on the 1000 block of
Hunters Run November 13,
2014 were told that someone
broke into her residence.
Witherspoon later reported
that an Apple computer had
been stolen from her home.
Authorities named
Gibson as a suspect after he
allegedly tried to access the
computer and change the
password.
Browsing the Files 2
Calendar 9
Classifieds 8
Deaths 4
Editorials 3
Sports 5
Worship 8
By Ken MacDonald
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What’s way high up, and the faster it spins the more
likely it is to collide with other objects? If you guessed
something from Astronomy, like an asteroid, you lose; it’s
this guy, at a contra dance.
I’ll save you the trouble of Googling that—it comes
from contra—Nicaraguan counterrevolutionaries, and
dance, evade issues by going around them. In essence it’s
a room full of sweaty people mostly spinning into each
other, more or less to the beat of fiddlers (I call them a
contra-band). The idea is for the I’ll-charitably-call-us-
dancers to follow the instructions of a caller and perform
maneuvers with partners and “neighbors”— other guys’
partners, who in my case, seemed to wish they hadn’t
drifted into my neighborhood.
The appeal for me, Saturday night, was there would be
(See OTHER STUEE, page 6)
Oops
Michael McDonald and Tyler Kussman got tangled up during a Legends Series trace at Rockfish
Speedway Saturday. Everything worked out fine and both cars were able to continue. More,
page 5. (Glen Young photo)
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