Nation's Energy Crisis Hits Home
Northamptonians will sleep in cooler houses,
vvork in cooler offices and stores, drive cars a bit
slower and sit in cooler classrooms this winter.
The nation’s energy shortage, the term applied to a
general and gradual depletion of the natural fuel
resources, has hit Northampton County.
It is not uncommon for gas stations to be
completely out of gas on weekends or even as late in
the week as Wednesday. Motorists daily are faced with
the problem getting enough gas to commute to jobs and
carry out routine chores.
Some drivers even have tales of being stranded in
Seaboard with the tank on empty.
The President has called for a sacrifice on the part
of motorists and ask that unnecessary driving be
eliminated. He is also calling for lower speed limits.
Gov. Jim Holshouser has imposed 55 mph speed
limits on all North Carolina highways. Workers from
the Division of Highways of the Department of
Transportation Wednesday were busy placing 55 mph
decals over 60 mph signs on primary roads and over 70
on the interstate in Northampton.
The new lower speed limit goes into effect
Saturday; however, the state will exercise a 10-day
grace period to allow motorists time to adjust to the
new maximum limit.
Reduced speed on the highway is expected to serve
as a conservation measure for gasoline which is in
short supply nationally.
A spot check on Interstate 95 Wednesday revealed
that about one out of every four motorists is observing
the reduced speed limit. In the left lane steady streams
of impatient north and southbound cars were leaving
the conservationists in the dust.
A check with several gas stations around the
county indicated the fuel is not being delivered by
distributors with as much regularity as last month.
Many stations have been closing down on weekends to
save gasoline for workers and not the weekend
pleasure riders.
All service stations are asked by President Nixon
to close down at 9 p.m. Saturday and remain closed
until midnight Sunday. The request is an effort on
behalf of the administration to attempt to curtail
Sunday driving. Though stations will be closed, no
Sunday ban on driving has been imposed.
HEATING OIL
With temperatures in the balmy 70’s and 80’s this
week, little attention has been placed on the problem of
heatine oil in the county.
Most companies are not taking on new customers.
Some companies serving Northampton haven’t taken
on new customers since last year in anticipation of the
shortage.
Residents are being asked to turn back
thermostats in an effort to save heating gas and oil, the
shortest of the fuels, economists say. Most furnaces
and room heaters have been off for several days due to
the unseasonable weather.
A number of businesses and industries have
announced steps to cooperate with conservation moves
in an effort to avert a situation ip which homes and
industry would be without oil.
Currently, oil drums at school buildings in the
county are practically filled.
BUSES CONSERVE
Supt. Roy F. Lowry reported Wednesday that the
situation with heating oil and coal is better than the gas
situation. The system operates 93 school buses and the
system only keeps a two-week supply of gas on hand.
To date, the schools have not been refused gasoline by
suppliers.
Lowry said he could not anticipate problems at this
stage with gas to operate school buses.
Efforts are being made in the school system to
conserve gas and oil. A recent memorandum to county
principals asked that no more gasoline be used that
was used in the second school month.
Students are to be at bus stops in time and drivers
are asked not to wait for late students. The stops are to
be .2 mile apart.
Bus engines are not to be operated while loading
and unloading at school and students are asked to enter
and leave buses as promptly and as safely as possible.
Ih addition, drivers are to leave immediately after
starting a bus in the mornings or afternoons.
Buses will be kept properly serviced to assure the
best gasoline mileage per gallon.
The county has 39 buildings to heat on 14
campuses. The majority of the heating plants are oil
fired furnaces; however, three large units are coal
fired.
The system has 20,000 gallons of extra fuel to fall
back on in storage, Lowry reported. Many schools
principals have been told they are expected to get
through the winter with their available oil supply.
The temperature in classrooms and other school
facilities will be lowered to 68 degrees. Gymnasium
temperature will be kept at 60 degrees and lowered to
55 when school is not in session.
Schools have been asked to utilize 20 per cent less
fuel and electricity as last year.
Though electricity hasn’t become a problem, in
this area, schools are still expected to observe efforts
to conserve power, Lowry stated.
As few lights as possible will be burned in
classrooms, libraries, and hallways and schools are
asked to schedule as few night meetings as possible.
Lowry mentioned no plans to shorten the school
term or the school day in an effort to save energy.
“During these times of shortages and crisis’ let me
urge everyone to do everything possible to conserve
fuel and electricity. If all will take a Spartan attitude
and try to make some sacrifices, rationing and school
closings are not as likely to occur,’’ the school
(See NATION’S, Page 14)
piTEm
I 11 LI
»i>
LIMIT
RUCKS
SIGN LANGUAGE — Highway division
employees O. D. Askew (left) and Tillery
Dempsey of Ahoskie place a 55 mph decale
over the 60 mph speed limit on this sign on
Rich Square Road just east ot Jackson. The
new maximum speed, brought on by the
energy crisis, is effective Saturday
statewide. j
Vol. 82 No. 48
THE County TIMES-NEWS
Northampton County's Only Advertising and News Medium
THE ROANOKE-CHOWAN TIMES — EstabHshed 1892
THURSDAY, Nov. 29, 1973
☆ THE NORTHAMPTON COUNTY NEWS — Established 1926
lOc Per Copy Rich Square, N. C.
24 Pages
N'ampton Would Net $128,000
County One Of Nine Without
Local Option Sales Tax
JACKSON — Northampton
County is one of only nine
counties not particip^ating in
the ons-i^liopal option sales
tax, according io the latest
quarterly report from the
state Department of Revenue.
The county has the option to
participate or not to
participate in the program
that could mean an additional
$128,000 in revenue to the
county.
County commission
Chairman Jasper Eley stated
at a recent board meeting that
the issue should have been on
the November ballot for
county voters to decide.
The law allows for a
referendum on the matter or
independent action by the
county board of
commissioners without a
referendum.
Northampton voters voted
down a similar proposal under
a different law several years
ago.
Commissioner Jack Faison
said he feels the county is
missing out on revenue and is
gaining nothing by being a
sales-tax-free island while
counties on dll sides are
earning sales tax.
Faison llo^ed that
Northamptonians are paying
taxes in other counties they
aren’t paying at home.
Northampton is one of two
eastern counties without the
tax. Hyde, a count of about
5,000 persons, is not taking
advantage of the tax.
Four counties in the
piedmond, Stokes,
Rockingham, Person and
Scotland, and three in the
mountains, Caldwell, Burke
and Rutherford, have never
enacted the tax.
State law allows
commissioners to impose or
call for a vote on imposing a
one-cent tax per $1 on general
merchandise sold in stores in
the county. The tax is reverted
back to the county coffers and
is shared with the
municipalities.
The tax is collected along
with the state’s three-cent
the counties and towns
quarterly.
Should Northampton adopt
the l«y, the connhy would
realize "about $101,250 of the
annual amount.
The municipalities would
share as follows based on the
estimate of $128,000:
Conway, $2,927; Garysburg,
$974; Gaston, $4,660; Jackson,
$3,214; Lasker, $481; Rich
Square', $5,289; Seaboard,
$2,577; Severn, $1,501;
Bloodmobile Set
In Rich Square
RICH SQUARE — The
Tidewater Regional
Bloodmobile will visit here
Monday in an attempt to
improve the county’s blood
collection record for the year.
It may not be a bright Christmas at night
in Rich Square this year, but the holiday
decorations put up in town will certainly
serve their purpose in daylight hours.
The town of Rich Square foots the bill for
the streetside Christmas decorations at the
tune of $1,400 per year.
Rich Square is on a special rental program
whereby different decorations are put up
each year for a flat fee. The town has signed a
three-year contract with the decorating
company, assuring service for the next three
seasons.
Town volunteer firemen were paid by the
municipality to install the lights along the
town’s two main streets.
Due to the energy crisis, the President has
asked towns not to burn unnecessary lights
this Christmas. Rich Square plans to comply.
interviewing him for her syndicated column,
“Postal Chatter”.
Following a brief reception at the Severn
Post Office, a few townspeople, the news
media and honored guests from the U.S.
Postal Service were treated to a meal at the
community building with Ralph’s Barbecue
of Roanoke Rapids catering.
The general said he was impressed with
Severn hospitality.
Last weekend it got to the point where
motorists on busy U.S. 258 would literally
fight for position at the few gas pumps
operating in Rich Square.
One report has it that town Police Chief
Willie Wayne Conner was called to a self
service pump on 258 to break up a squabble
between two gas-hungry motorists.
Both apparently drove a way with their share
of the juice.
The folks in Gaston have done their fair
share for the Roanoke Valley United Fund, a
consolidated charities organization for
Roanoke Rapids, Weldon and Gaston.
The Gaston division, headed by Ms. Emma
Moseley, has topped its $600-plus division goal
for the third straight year.
The UF serves some 20 deserving
charitable and non-profit organizations
serving upper Halifax and the Northampton
panhandle.
V
\
'Sh
-.t
Woodland, $3,138;
Margarettsville, $401; and
Milwaukee, $1,586.
(The figur?: listed '’or ‘he
town of Margarettsville was
included this 1971 estimate.
Since that time the town has
lost its charter and is no
longer a municipality and
would not be elgible for the
receipts).
Northampton’s neighboring
(See COUNTY, Page 14)
deficit of nearly 300 pints for
the first six months.
The bloodmobile will set up
in the Federal Building from
noon to 5 p.m.
A new ruling permits
prospective donors who have a
The program for the July to
sales tax and is administered June fiscal year is 900 units of history of treatment for an
by the state Revenue blood. Only 160 pints has been illness diagnosed as malaria
Department and returned to collected to date, leaving a may now be accepted as a
donor, provided the person
has lived in the country three
years without a relapse of the
disease.
The region servbd by the
Tidewater Bloodmobile
increases annually by 10,000
persons. Military donations
are down since 1967 by 65 per
cent. •
Anyone between the ages of
18 and 66 is a prospective
donor.
VISITS SEVERN — Postmaster General E. T.
Klassen (left) is greeted at the Severn Post Office
by Postmaster Mildred Vaughan and Severn
Mayor Rufus Johnson. Klassen later had lunch at
the Severn Community Center.
Postmaster Genera!
Visits Severn PO
Job Corps
RICH SQUARE - Job
Corps interviews will be held
Friday in Rich Square.
Job Corps Counselor Hazel
Tayloe will be at the CADA
Branch Office here to meet
with interested agencies and
individuals interested in the
Job Corps program.
SEVERN — U. S.
Postmaster General E. T.
Klassen visited the Severn
Post Office Friday and was
extended a royal welcome by
the people of this small
farming community.
Severn was the only third
class post office visited by
Gen. Klassen on his whirlwind
tour of several North Carolina
postal operations.
Klassen on his whirlwind
tour of several North Carolina
postal operations.
Klassen’s pre-holiday visits
for the purpose of inspecting
Friday had to mark the largest gathering
of newsmen and women the town of Severn has
ever witnessed.
Reporters and photographers from
numerous regional and local papers and
television station converged on the farming
community to meet the postmaster general of
the United States.
Gen. E. T. Klassen was coming to Severn
to inspect postal facilities at the small post
office and to meet with vivacious Postmaster
Mildred Vaughan.
Mildred, who was beaming from ear to ear
that the top postman in the nation had chosen
her office to visit, had met the general on
three prior occasions when she was
All over Northampton County resident
motorists and travelers are realizing more
daily how real this thing called the energy
crisis really is.
More gas pumps are without gasoline than
with in the towns and rural reaches of
Northampton. Those that have gasoline to
start the week generally are out by the
weekend.
It appears the shortage of auto fuel has hit
hard and fast in the rural sections of the
nation. Cities still have not felt the pinch like
small towns and farming communities.
It is rumored that some gas station
operatprs, in order to save gasoline for their
regular customers, are putting up fake “out”
signs to ward off the passers-through and to
keep the gas for county folk.
Still others are refusing to fill up tanks and
are allowing only $3, $2 or even $1 amounts.
No longer do gas station attendants
inquire: “Fill ’er up?”
“How milch gas can I get today?” is a
more common question of the motorist.
Energy Crisis
Affects Maii
Northampton postmasters cancellation of a number of
encourage postal patrons to previously scheduled airline
“move up the mailing of flights which normally
Christmas packages and would’ve carried letters and
cards by one week.” packages. The shortage may
The reason for the special further reduce the number of
appeal is blamed on the air taxis being used to
energy crisis and its effect on transport large volume of
mail service. mail, the Postal Service
Dec. 3 is the newly reports,
announced deadline for
package mailing and Dec. 8 is
the deadline for Christmas
cards with guaranteed
delivery by Christmas.
The dates had been Dec. 10
and 15, respectively, prior to
this week’s announcement.
Fuel shortages have caused
In addition, mail vehicles
can now travel at only 50 mph,
causing slower delivery
service, the postmasters
noted.
Letters and packages may
be sent by airmail as late as
Dec. 15.
facilities and encouraging
early Christmas mailing due
to the heavy volume and the
energy crisis.
When asked how the crisis
would affect mail service,
Klassen said he had been
assured the U. S. Postal
Service will be a top priority
recipient of fuel needed to
keep its trucks rolling.
He did warn of heavier mail
volume than ever before and
encouraged patrons to mail
early this year to avoid the
last week rush and possible
delay.
Severn Postmaster Mildred
Vaughan, postal information
officer for Northeastern North
Carolina, was hostess for the
general’s visit. The Severn
visit was the only announced
stop on the cabinet officer’s
agenda and, subsequently,
numerous television and
newspaper reporters were on
hand to interview the general.
Klassen is the highest
government official ever to
visit the community.
Scheduled to arrive at 1 p.m.
he was over an hour behind
schedule when he drove up to
the small post office with Mrs.
Vaughan. He flew to
Northampton via helicopter
which landed on a private air
strip near Severn.
Several current and former
postal employes were there to
greet the governmental
official as well as a number of
curious townspeople who
wanted to shake Klassen’s
haqd and
Severn.
welcome him to exchanges with members of
the crowd, the general
and several townspeople were
Mayor and Mrs. Rufus treated to a luncheon at the
Johnson greeted the community building,
postmaster general and Following the visit here, the
officially welcomed him to the postmaster general continued
village. his inspection of numerous
Following the guest’s tour of other postal facilities in the
the post office and brief state.
Man Remains
Serious At Duke
WOODLAND — A. Rt. 2,
Conway man remains in
serious condition at Duke
University Medical Center in
Durham with injuries
Parades Set
Holiday parades are on tap
this weekend for
Northamptonians.
The annual Amvet Holiday
Parade in Roanoke Rapids
will be held Sunday at 2 p.m.
Grand marshal for the parade
is Bill Bowman, better known
as Bowman Body on WXEX-
TV’s Schck Theatre. Over 100
units will be included.
Forty units are included in
the Ahoskie Christmas
Parade. William R. Raynor,
Ahoskie businessman, will
marshal the parade. This is
the first holiday parade in
several years.
sustained in a Saturday
afternoon motorcycle wreck
near here.
Wallace Henry Grant, 23,
was taken to Roanoke-Chowan
Hospital in Ahoskie by the
fescue squad and later
transferred to Duke.
According to Trooper L. J.
Pitula, investigating officer, a
car driven by Gilbert Brown
Timberlake, 56, of George was
traveling north on US 258 and
was making a left turn at a gas
station.
Grant, operating a 1969
Honda, was traveling at a high
rate of speed and struck the
car in the rear.
Grant was later charged
with careless and reckless
driving.
Damage to the Timberlake
1968 Buick was estimated at
$300 and $275 to the Honda.
The accident occurred at
2:15 p.m.