!* Iktptin jSlfeTi m<? ?
4 PROGRESS SENTINEL
1
VOL. XAAAVII NO. 26 USPS 162-860 KFNANSVILI.E. N.C. 28349 JUNE 30, 1983 20 PAGES THIS WEEK 10 CENTS PLUS TAX
Millions A Year Lost To
9 Duplin From Shutdown
Shutdown of the bankrupt
| Watson Seafood and Poultry
Co. this past week means an
estimated $4.3 million a year
direct loss to the Duplin
County economy through lost
wages and payments to con
tract broiler chicken growers.
While Ebern Watson Jr.,
company president, expects
j ^}o begin selling off the firm's
Tbrooder chickens, its former
| contract farmers are making
last ditch efforts to avoid loss
, of their broiler supplier.
I Tko Konlrfu***
? uv uanni upi wiiipaujr
sold its last batch of broilers
last week, thus ending its
broiler producing operations.
Its contract chicken
growers met Monday and
Thursday in the Chinquapin I
^chool to see if they could
^^fcome up with any way of
obtaining financial banking
to revive the company,
it over or otherwise main
taining their broiler
programs.
I \
Watson said he sees no
hope of obtaining needed
financing, which he esti
mated would amount to at
least $2 million.
The company filed for
protection under Chapter 11
of the federal bankruptcy
laws April 11. It owed about
$4.4 million at that time to
Coastal Production Credit
Association of Kenansville
(PCA), Cape Fear Feed
Products Co. of Greensboro
and the J.C. Howard Feed
Co. of Kinston.
Under court direction, all
chickens hatched after April
21 have been grown out, but
no hatching ?ggs have been
set since that date. Money
from sale of the chickens sent
into a special account from
which the PCA, principal
creditor, released money for
production costs of the
broilers.
The shutdown means a
director economic loss to this
area of about $4.3 million per
year at current wage and
broiler price level^. It means
loss of jobs by 126 Watson
employees in Rose Hill and
about 150 employees of Rose
Hill Poutlry Co.. which pro
cessed Watson's birds, and
loss of income to 106 farmers
from gorwing chickeifs out.
Watson estimated the
company had a weekly pay
roll of $25,000. It was paying
farmers about $30,000 a
week for growing its broilers.
Another $25,000 in weekly
pay will be lost by the
unemployed processing plant
workers.
He said the company had
total sales of $16 million to
$18 million a year at current
broiler price levels. "We
needed 47 cents a pound at
the New York price to break
even," he said, "and the
highest price has been in
years was -16 cents. The price
has been 45 cents a pound
the last two weeks."
He said the depressed
poultry price outlook and
increasing feed costs be
cause of increasing grain
prices contributed to the
difficulty of raising "out
side" money to keep the
company afloat. The same
situation also contributed to
the refusal of creditors to
release funds from sale of
chickens for continued opera
tions of the company.
Unless the firm can raise
enough capital to satisfy
security requirements of its
major creditors, it has six
months, under an order of
the bankruptcy court to ar
range for sale of physical
assets. After that time the
court would permit the crei
tors to foreclose and sell the
assets.
Value of the major asset,
the feed mill, is disputed, the
PC A estimated the value at
$625,000. The court set the
value at at least $1 million.
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Group Offers Aid
* To Bankrupt Firm
Broiler growers must raise
a minimum of $900,000 if
they want to revive the
bankrupt Watson Seafood &
Poultry Co. of Rose Hill. Roy
Houston, president of
.^Coastal Production Credit
Association of Kenansville,
said Friday.
A group of former Watson
contract broiler growers
wants to salvage the com
pany's operation so the
growers can conti iue pro
ducing broilers.
The farmers offered to
grow broilers without pay for
a year or more if that would
enable the company to re
)? open. The offer was made
during a meeting of farmers
and officials of the PCA in
Kenansville Friday.
If each of the 106 former
contract growers grew three
flocks of broilers without
pay, the value of that contri
bution would be about
$900,000, according to I.B.
Sholar of Route 2, Wallace, a
former Watson contract
gruwcr.
P Houston said the offer
"has possibilities."
To have a chance of win
nine the approval of the
federal bankruptcy court
under which the company
has been operating since
mid-April. Houston empha
sized, the grower group must
work up a 12-month financial
plan showing how the
? ?ompany might operate
without going farther into
debt.
A minimum of SI.6 million
will be needed to restart the
company!* broiler program,
Richard Burrows. PCA attor
ney, said. Ebern Watson,
company president, earlier
this past week estimated that
$2 million would be needed
to restart operations.
If growers raised $900,000,
Houston said, about
$700,000 in special accounts
set up by the court might be
released to make up the
remainder of the $1.6 mil
lion.
In a broiler production
program, farmers contract to
grow chickens owned by the
supplier of program operator
in their chicken houses. The
growers supply labor and
utilities. The supplier pro
vides feed, medication and
some other services. The
farmers are paid a specified
amount per bird, usually
with some bonuses added
r tu. 1?__
mr cmcicncy. inc supplier
loads ouj. the matured birds
and sells or processes them.
The farmers' offer came
out of a grower meeting at
Chinquapin. Sholar said he
believed 90 percent of the
106 former Watson contract
growers would agree to it.
"It would mean we'd be
working for a year tor noth- .
ing in hopes things would
look up at the end." he wid.
The last of the Watson
company's broiler flocks
sold last week.
The PCA is the principal
creditor of the Watson firm.
One June 2 the company
owed the PCA $3,609,251.
Other secured creditors are
Cape Fear Feed Products Co.
of Creensboro and J.C.
Howard Grain Co. The com
pany owes creditors about $5 (
million.
Houston said the grower
group would have to find a
way of obtaining much more
than the $900,000 "up front"
money to provide operating
capital. The exact amount
would be determined by the
group in development of its
plan.
A memorandum filed by
federal bankruptcy Judge A.
Thomas Small June 16 said
the company had lost about
SS million in the last four
vears.
Houston said the PCA will
agree to continue providing
money to feed the Watson
firm's breeder flock of
80,000 hens until July 11, if
the other creditors agree, to ?
give the grower group time
to develop their plan. Sale of
the breeder flock was to
begin Monday. The breeder
flock lays the eggs from
which the broiler chicks that
are supplied the growers are
hatched in the company's
brooders. Feed cost is about
$24,000 a week.
Schools Want More
The Duplin County Board
of Education will ask the
county commissioners to re
store $96,000 of the $431,189
it slashed from the school
system's requested 1983-84
budget.
The request had bee,n
placed on the county com
missioners' July 5 agenda.
The school board prepared
its request in a special meet
ing in Kenailsville last
week.
It requested $2,321,775 in
county funds. The county
commissioners approved
$1,890,586, the same amount
as last year, for the school
system.
The additional request will
help pay for 2Vi assistant
school principal positions,
eight aides and provide an
extra $33,000 for utilities and
$14,000 for fuel.
Rose Hill Victim
Said Strangled
An autopsy report last
week indicated the death of
Lillian Miller Groves of
Route 1, Rose Hill, was due
to strangulation, Rose Hill
Police Chief Bobby Maroady
said.
The report also indicated
she had been beaten,
Maready iaid.
He reported that she was
found dead at her home
about 5 p.m. last week on
Monday by neighbors who
had become concerned about
her after they didn't see her
during the weekend, the
officer said.
The death occurred during
the weekend, according to i
the autopsy report, Mareadfr
said. i
Leaf Farmer Takes
Advantage Of Wood
With plenty of wood grow
ing all over the place, why
buy expensive fuels to cure
tobacco?
Bo Herring, who farms in
the Carlton's Crossroads
area near Warsaw, believes
he has answered that ques
tion by burning from kero
sene and LP gas to wood.
He plans to fuel his tobac
co curing process with wood,
as well as using home-grown
fuel to heat his home and
water for home use.
Herring and his sons grow
32 acres of tabac'co.
Engineers at N.C. State
University have studied
wood-fueled heating systems
for tabacco curing since the
price of petroleum products
began soaring tn the early
1970s.
Herring studies some of
these pirns. He decided he
had some ideas for improve
ments on the college plans
and went ahead with some of
his own ideas as he built the
system.
The system consists of a
14,000-gallon boiler made of
steel, a firebox, numerous
pipes and flues, heat transfer
equipment and fans. When
completed, the boiler and the
network of hot water pipes
will be heavily coated with
insulating material. It will be
a closed circulating system.
"It took three days of
pumping from my well to fill
the tank." Herring said.
Burning wood in the fire
box heats water that flows
into fb'f the
hot water flows into the neat
transfer radiators in the
tobacco barns or in the
house.
In the four tobacco barns,
fans will circulate the hot air.
Thermostats will control the
amount of heat delivered.
Herring plans to build a
conveyor to carry large logs
into the firebox. He believes
he will only need to stoke the
firebox once a day during the
tobacco curing season.
During the summer he will
get a free lift from the sun.
which will warm water in the
tank to possibly 100 degrees.
Herring believes the
system will pay for its
* 1* t"X? cost in two years
rttfougl. savings r. fuel oil
and gas.
For this season. Herring
plans to retain the conven
tional oil and gas heating
systems in his curing barns
as an insurance measure
against trouble with the new
system.
After his tobacco season
he expects his own woods to
provide sufficient fuel for the
heating system. Getting off
to a late start this year,
however, has forced him to
buy wood from loggers at
about $35 a cord.
MURAL OF AN OUTDOOR DRAMA ? Mark Patrus.
commercial art instructor with James Sprunt Technical
College in Kenansville, is pictured above with a mural
painted for the outdoor drama. THE LIBERTY CART. The
Kenansville-based outdoor drama depicts more than 200
years of history about the development of Duplin County
and eastern North Carolina through Colonial times and the
Civil War. The mural was placed on exhibition in the
Legislative Building in Raleigh last week where Repre
sentative Wendell Murphy and Senator Harold Hardison
were among the first visitors. The mural will be on display
with exhibits representing other North Carolina outdoor
drama.
Local Artist Hands
Liberty Cart Mural
A mural depicting 200
years of history from scenes
of the outdoor drama in
Kenansville. THE LIBERTY
CART, has been painted by
Mark Patrus, commercial art
instructor at James Sprunt
Technical College. The mural
is on display at the Legis
lative Building in Raleigh.
The mural was hung June
21. THE LIBERTY CART
mural will be one of several
displays featuring eastern
North Carolina outdoor
dramas. Patrus will be r<ck
nowledged for his past assis
tance with the production
and present work as THE
LIBERTY CART resident
artist in the 1983 LIBERTY
CART souvenir program. His
work will be featured on the
1983 season brochures,
posters and souvenir pro
grams as well as the posters
for the second annual pro
duction of GODSPELL at the
Kenansville Memoiral
Amphitheatre in Kenans
ville. <
"The mural was designed
to highlight the important
aspects of the 200 years of
history THE LIBERTY CAR!
covers," Patrus said. "And,
a scene has been added to
depict the celebration of
outdoor pageantry." The
full-color mural is 25"x47"
painted with acrylic oils. Life
durinj? the Revolutionary and
Civil Wars, along with
everyday events, are worked
into the mural.
"The idea behind the
mufal moves in a sweeping
motion," Patrus said.
"Strong images ot a Revo
lutionary and a Cival War
soldier are depicted in the
midst of the motion of a
battlefield. And. the sweep
ing view continues to include
everyday people and events
from the past as portrayed
through THE LIBERTY
CART."
Patrus pointed out he
characters and events which
make up the mural are direct
references from history and
slides from scenes o> the
production.