Newspapers / The Franklin Times (Louisburg, … / Aug. 7, 1969, edition 1 / Page 1
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Phone GY6-3283 Ten Cents Louisburg, N. C., Thursday, 7, 1969 (Ten Pages Today) lOOth Year Number 60 Tlt?? U x TT^ % Must Have Been Busy Chickens When that high county official re marked last week that "the chickens" got the air conditioning units taken from the county courthouse last year preparatory to the remodeling of the building, he might have added, "And a whole lot of other stuff as well." Commenting on the "other stuff," ? second official probably using a take off on the comment by the fust-said: "Maybe the ducks got them." Ducks or chickens notwithstanding, there are a number of taxpayer-owned items that were once in use in the county courthouse that are no longer there. And the disturbing thing about it all is that nobody seems to know where- if not there-they are. A limited investigation by this newspaper revealed last week that 15 window air conditioners were removed from the courthouse in May of last year. None were ever returned. The investigation resulted in the finding of seven of the units-four in the Family Counceling offices, two at the Louis burg Rescue Service building and one still stored in the old county-owned Griffin building. Seven are still unac counted for, However, one report In dicated that the Centerville Rescue and Fire Department has one and another report says that the Justice Fire Department was offered, but re fused, the use of another. One of the missing units, it was learned, was the property of the Bar Association. It was a Philco unit purchased for the Law Library, according to a reliable source. Among the items not now in the courthouse are an undetermined num ber of office desks; at least two stand mounted electric fans; three ceiling fans; Venetian blinds, two outside metal awnings; an undisclosed number of co modes and two electric water coolers. There are perhaps, also some tables and chairs unaccounted for but there has been no direct mention of such items. Also missing, but account ed for, are the globe light coverings. Memory being a receding thing, it is virtually impossible to determine how many office desks were in the court house before the renovation started. Nobody seems to know for sure. At best guess, there are six desks missing from the offices In which they were in use prior to the move. Two of these, according to reports, are upstairs in the solicitor's new office. Two others -not included in the six-have been reworked and are in use in the Magisr trate's office. Alex Wood, Register of Deeds, re ports that he is still using one of the old desks in his office. He ays "One and a piece" are missing. And he says he has no idea where they re. Veteran Service Officer George Champion says one desk was taken from his office and moved to the "warehouse" for storage. Beyond this he says he knows nothing of the whereabouts of the others. Sheriff William Dement says one old desk is still in use in his office and that one is missing. He says he believes one of the two desks moved upstairs is from his office. Magistrate Will Pace says his two have been reworked and that a third was placed, at one time, in the vault of the Register of Deeds office. . Clerk of Court Ralph Knott reports that he obtained new desks in 1962 and that all are now in use in his office that were in use there before the courthouse was remodeled. He says the same desk is being used in the Superior Court, Judge's office and that a new desk was purchased for use by the District Court Judge. He also reports that the same table is being used in the Law Library and a new table was bought for the jury room. County Accountant Kenneth Bras well reports that two desks were re moved from his office and he believes that the two moved upstairs came from his office. This conflicts with the Sheriffs belief that at least one of the to came from his office. One of the missing desks reportedly belonged to a former State Trooper stationed here. According to reports the Trooper returned to claim his desk when he learned it was to be moved from the courthouse. Some legal ob struction hindered his removing the desk it was said, and the last anyone remembers seeing it, it was sitting on the front porch of the courthouse. A reliable report says that when the old Venetian blinds were returned to the courthouse It was learned that they were too worn to be used. The source says he believes thay were discarded. Franklinton Awaits HEW Approval Of School Plan W. P. Pearce, Jr., attorney for the Franklinton City Board of Education, revealed Wednesday that the Franklin ton system has renamed the B. F. Person-Albion School the Franklinton Elementary School for the coming school year. It was announced earlier that the system will become totally integrated this fall. Pearce said that a plan agreed to last year which called for grades 1, 2 and 3 to be housed along with grades 10, 11 and 12 in Franklinton High School and grades 6 through 12 to be contained in what is now Franklinton Elementary School was physically im possible to implement. He said this plan had been approved by HEW last year. The plan recently approved by the Board calls for grades 1 through 5 to be housed at the Elementary School and all other grades will attend the Hign School. "More teachers and pupils made it physically impossible to do it that way," Pearce said. "We dont antici pate any difficulty in obtaining HEW approval of the changed plan", he added. In 1966, Dewey E. Doddsof the U. S. Office of Education, recommended that Franklinton establish one high school and one elementary school. Dodds and two assistants surveyed the Franklinton system at that time. Dodds ruled that Franklinton's free dom of choice plan was inadequate at the time. The Board refused to make such a move then and continued with full freedom of choice until last year. In the 1968-69 term, grade* 10, 11 and 12 were totally integrated at the Franklinton High School and an agree ment was made, according to the August 5, 1968 minutes of the Board, that "In the fall of 1969 transfer grades one through five, teachers and pupils of same, from B. F. Person Albion School to the Franklinton High School and transfer grades six, seven, eight and nine, teachers and pupils of same, from Franklinton High School to the B. F. Person-Albion 8chool." Last year, except for the top three grades, all other students were given freedom of choice to attend either school. Franklinton schools are slated to Weather Clear to partly cloudy and a little warmer today and Friday, low today, near 63; high, 84 to 89. 1 open on August 27 (or pupil orienta tion between the hours of 8:30 A.M. and 12 Noon. August 28 is the first full day and the cafeterias will be in operation. September 1, Labor Day will be a holiday with full classes resuming on Tuesday, September 2. Holidays as announced for the Franklinton system are as follows: Thanksgiving: November 27 and 28; Christmas, December 22 through Jan uary 2; Easter, March 26 through 31. May 29 is the final day of school. Board Orders Taxes Collected The Board of County Commission en reappointed C. W. St rot her to a two-year term as Tax Superviser and a one-year term as Tax Collector here Monday and "authorized, empowered and commanded" him to collect $27,000 in 1968 Uxes still on the books. It was explained that by law the term for the Superior is two years and for Tax Collector only one year at the time. St rot her has served in both capacities since 1966. His term as Superviser expire* on June 30, 1971 and as Tax Collector on June 30, 1970. The Board set Sunday, August 24, as the date for the long awaited Open House inspection of the renovated courthouse. The public will be Invited to tour the facility between the hours of 2 P.M. to 6 P.M. A spokesman said that departments heads would be on hand and refreshments would be serv ed. In other actions, the Board approv ed two road petititons and denied two others. Approved were a request for improvement of Wllkins Lane In Cypreas Creek for a distance of .06 miles and improvements o Pender Street in Franklinton. Denied were requests pertaining to State Roads 1120 and 1208. Audits of the Register of Deeds office and the Tax Collector's office were received and approved and Louis burg CPA Lonnie Shuptng was award ad a contract to audit the Tax Collec tor's office this year at a fee of $360. Commissioner E. M. Sykes was ap pointed as the county representative on the Board of Ftanklln, Vance, Warren Opportunity, Inc. for the term beginning Sept-mber 1, 1969 and end tag Augutst SI, 1970. , By Qint Fuller Times Managing Editor The light fixtures were giver, by one of the Commissioners to a county official who in turn donated them to his church. The official also said that he was given the metal awning off the rear steps to the courthouse. No one seems to know what happened to the metal awning over the door to the Commissioner's Room. This reporter verified from officials of both Franklin Christian Academy and Franklin Academy that neither of the schools obtained any furniture or other items from the courthouse. It has been rumored that one or both had received some desks or other The disclosure of the missing air (Sre Pieturv Hope 6) conditioners iasi ?wk orougru on a number of inquiries and comments from citizens in almost every section of the county. Some citizens suggested that the insurance companies be called on to make good the monetary value of the missing items. These people apparently believed that the county was covered by theft insurance. A check shows this is not the case. The county has no theft or burglary in surance. Nor do the insurance com panies possess an inventory of the contents of the courthouse before or after renovation. Some particular de partmens do have an inventory of furniture and fixtures contained in their offices and this information per sumably is in the possession of the insurance people. i The whole matter could con ceivably be cleared up come October. A key official says the possibility is great that the Grand Jury will ask the Board of County Commissioners for an accounting of the missing county owned property when the Grand Jury convenes. This action could scatter some chickens. And it could drown some ducks. Unofficial Inventory of What's Left The following articles believed to be the property of Franklin County is now stored in the county-owned Griffin building on the corner of Market and Johnson Streets: I Office Desk 1 1 1 r Conditioner partly disas sembled 2 Tables ^ I Painted table with drawers 1 Hook rack 16 h olding chairs 2 M oodcn chairs with broken legs Several wnctian blinds Floor pallets used to hold books Two benches like those used in courtroom Several church pews I H all book rack Quite A Difference Quite i difference Is shown in the pictures above of the Tar River here. The - photo at left was taken with the photographer standing on the floor of the River last September 25 when the long dry spell had taken Its toll of the local water supply. Photo at right taken from the Boulevahl bridge shows the Tar as it measured 13.75 feet here Wednesday. Normal is described by Louisburg weatherman (3. 0. Kennedy as between 2'/i and 3'/4 feet. The River reached 14.30 feet at 7 A.M. Wednesday but has receded to 7.25 feet today. Staff photos by Clint Fuller. Some Hope Expressed For Freedom Of Choice Bill Congressman L. H. Fountain re port*, in a release made public today, that the House of Representatives last week "adopted two significant amend menta to the $17.5 billion" HEW Appropriations bill. He refers to the two measures as "anti-busing" and "freedom of choice" amendments. Lee Bandy, Washington correspon dent for WRAL-TV Raleigh news, re ported Wednesday that some hope exists that the two amendments will receive a more favorable reception in the U. S. Senate this year than similar proposals received the past two years. Bandy reports that the Nixon adminis tration is "quietly supporting both measures." The House has for the past three years passed amendments softening the foroed integration procedures of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. The Senate has either . killed the amendments outright or watered them down to Ineffectiveness. Congressman Fountain reports the amendments as follows: "Sac. 408. No part of the funds contained in this Act may be used to force busing of students, the abolish ment of any school, or to force any student attending any elementary school to attend a particular school again* the choice of his or her parents or parent. "Sec. 409. No part of the funds contained in this Act shall be used to force busing of students, the sbollsh ment of any school or the sttendance of students at a particular school as a condition precedent to obtain Federal funds otherwise available to any State, school district or school." "The amendments," says the Con gressman, "do not specifically overrule any court opinion* or provisions of any Civil Rights Law. They do clearly prevent the use of these funds to deprive students of freedom of choice or to force busing of students in an effort to achieve forced integration." He says that if the amendments ait passed by the Senate, 'They should serve notice upon Federal bureaucrats that when they want to make law, they must come to the Congress. Funds appropriated for education must be used for education and not for forced integration." The Congressman relates an In teresting sidelight to the House action which involved Congresswoman Edith Green of Oregon. The following la taken from the Congressman's release: _ "One of the most imprecahre argu ments in support of Section 408 and 409 was made by a Member of Co? gress who described herself as a "com mitted integratlonist." She is the gen tlewoman from Oregon, Mrs. Edith Green, who has supported all CWfl Rights legislation. In her own worth, she is "committed to an integrated See FOUNTAIN Page 6 \ Highway Chairman Says Franklin Growth Tied To Wake ? . \ Highway Commission Chairman Lauch Faircloth haa been quoted aa saying that Franklin County was plac ed In a group with Wake, Durham and Orange counties "because Franklin's development and growth is really tied to Wake County V\ Commenting Tueaday on the new alignments of various countiea in old highway divisions. Faircloth said there will be only alight changea In the way in which funda are allocated. He explained that Durham and Wake Countiea were placed together under CommiMioner Clifton L. Benson because, "We've got one of the biggest projecta in the atate, the new Raleigh Durham Chapel Hill Expresaway in that division " "It would be just silly not to put W?ke, Durham and Orange together," the Chairman added. "Under our new system, the 14 old division lines are preserved for engi neering and administrative purpoMt," Faireloth continued. "But the primary road funds will now be dispensed on an 'area-wide' basis, that is to the areas represented by different commlarion ers." "Although well now have area wide distribution instead of division wide-distribution." Faireloth laid, "the major determining factor will continue to be mileage. "An ana under one commissioner which has twice aa much mileage aa another area under another commis sioner, will be getting twice as much money," he explained. Fairdoth noted that distribution of secondary road fundi la ?et down la state lawi and split up on a propor tionate county by county beats. Urban road funds are dispensed under a population-mileage formula. "Of courae the commlastoa win holdi a little money in nar.i for state- wide needs," Fairdoth said. Ha said "It la still too early" to say what percentage of the total highway bud get will be naarssd for state- wtde needs. "It will be spent on the recom mends tion of the entire ? mmlaalnii." See FRANK UN Page 6
The Franklin Times (Louisburg, N.C.)
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Aug. 7, 1969, edition 1
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