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Volume 86 25° Per Copy Warrenton, County Of Warren, North Carolina Wednesday, July 27, 1983 Number 30
Warren County Is Likely To Enact New Sales Tax
By KAY HORNER
Staff Writer
If all 99 of North Carolina's 100 counties that now
have a sales tax take advantage of the General
Assembly's authorization to impose a new half-cent
sales tax, Warren County could receive as much as
1367,000, according to projections by the National
Association of County Commissioners.
Warren County Manager Glenwood Newsome
said this week that a projection of $125,000 to
$150,000 in additional tax revenues would be
realistic for this fiscal year, which began July 1.
The General Assembly in a compromise bill
passed last week gave county commissioners
throughout the state three options with regard to the
half-cent sales tax: (1) They may levy the tax
themselves following a public hearing; (2) They
may call for a referendum on whether to levy the
tax; or (3) They may forego the new tax altogether.
Newsome said the Warren County commissioners
will take up the matter at their next regularly
scheduled meeting August 1. He indicated that the
commissioners are leaning toward the first option.
If they take that route, and levy the tax after i\
public hearing, the county could begin receiving
revenues as early as October, Newsome said
The bill requires county governments tr rp.:. I a.
least 40 percent of the revenues from thr ""w ax
over the next five years for capital schc >i <.oristru< -
tion, and 30 percent over the following five year? for
the same. Municipalities will be required to spend
the same percentages on water and sewer projects
over the same time periods. After 10 years, there
will be no restrictions on how a county uses the tax
revenues.
Warren County Schools Superintendent Mike
Williams said this week that he would like to see the
commissioners consider allocation of all the half
cent sales tax revenues for the schools.
Williams cited needs for capital improvements
on, and even replacement of, the county's two mid
dle schools, John Graham in Warrenton and Norlina
*' idle School.
cording to Williams, both of these structures
? built over 50 years ago.
Using a figure of $320,000 in anticipated revenues
for the county projected by the State School Board
Association, Williams said such revenues would
take care of the pressing needs of the school system.
"It- would come close to meeting the on-going
needs of the system on a pay-as-you-go basis and
eliminate the future possibility of financing school
buildings, say, on a bond basis, which could wind up
costing twice as much," Williams commented.
Under the existing four-cent sales tax, three cents
on the dollar is a state sales tax and one cent is a
local tax with proceeds shared among county and
municipal governments.
In i
l-N _
Proceeds from the one-cent local tax are returned
to the counties where they are collected.
The formula for the new half-cent sales tax will
require collections to be distributed among par
ticipating counties according to population rather
than sales.
The new distribution method will benefit rural
counties like Warren, while proving less beneficial
to counties like Wake that have large regional shop
ping centers pulling consumers across county lines.
The countv according to Newsome, now gets
between $25,tHtt> and $28,000 a month from the one
cent sales tax. The county could stand to gain more
from the one-half cent tax than the one-cent tax now
returned to the county, depending on the par
ticipation by other North Carolina counties.
The total revenue for all counties which could be
generated by the new tax would be in the $104.2
million range in 1983-84 and the $135.5 million range
in 1984-85, according to estimates.
A * I
Gunmen Rob Local IGA; 2 Held
Two Oxford men,
charged with armed
robbery of a Warrenton
grocery store on Tues
day afternoon, were
scheduled to be given a
96-hour hearing in
Warren County Record
ers Court on Wednesday
morning.
Michael Crews, 30, of
307 Mimosa Street, Ox
ford and John Randolph
Crews, 24, of Rt. 3, Ox
ford, are being held in
Warren County jail un
der $10,000 bond each
following a hearing
before Magistrate
Stephen Rodwell on
Tuesday afternoon.
The two men are
charged with the armed
robbery of IGA Store on
South Main Street about
3 p. m. Tuesday and
escaping with $1,600 in
cash.
Within two hours the
two men had been
arrested.
A spokesman for the
Warrenton Police De
partment said that
Police Chief Freddie
Robinson arrested
Michael Crews on the
Henderson Road near
the Vance County line
soon after the robbery.
Detectives J. T. Jef
ferson and K. E. Vancey
■ a*
of the Vance County
Sheriff's Department
arrested John Randolph
Crews on the same road
in Vance County about 5
p. m.
The police spokesman
did not know if the two
men are related.
Officers who took part
in the search Tuesday
were from the Warren
ton Police Department,
the Warren County
« * i
Sheriff's Department,
the State Highway
Patrol, the Warren
Wildlife Department,
the State Bureau of In
vestigation, the Hender
son Police Department,
the Norlina Police De
partment, the Vance
County Sheriff's Depart
ment, the Vance County
ABC officer and the
State Prison Camp in
Warren County.
p» • n I l
LompensaTory f-unas biven warren ™",y *u,eu
* a _ Pk xi_ r
A compensatory grant
has been awarded by the
N. C. Legislature to
Warren County for the
location of a PCB land
fill in the Afton area of
the county. However the
amount granted falls far
short of that proposed
by Rep. Frank Ballance,
a Warrenton attorney.
The bill sponsored by
Rep. Ballance requested
$1 million earmarked
for industrial recruit
ment in the county. The
Legislature allocated
1100,000.
Warren County In
dustrial Developer Jim
Whitley said yesterday
that there were several
possibilities for use of
the funds, but that his of
fice would have to see
the specific wording of
the law and the restric
tions involved before
pursuing any specific
possibilities.
The Legislature also
passed a law barring the
location of two toxic
waste landfills within 25
miles of each other,
guaranteeing that
Warren County will not
be the site of a second
landfill.
In a related develop
ment, Warrenton Town
Manager Pete Vaughan
said this week that
reimbursement in the
amount of $2,000 to the
town of Warrenton for
expenses incurred
during the anti-PCB
landfill demonstrations
would be forthcoming
from the state in a few
days.
Vaughan said Gover
nor Jim Hunt has ap
proved the reimburse
ment to be made from
the state budget's con
tingency fund.
The PCB landfill, con
taining soil tainted with
the toxic chemical
illegally dumped along
240 miles of North
Carolina roadside in
1978, was officially
completed last week
despite five years of
protest and demon
stration from county
residents.
Warren Jurors To Get More Pay
Jurors called for duty from fyow on can look
forward to making more money for their
public service.
A pay raise for jurors took effect last Wed
nesday. Jurors will now be paid $12 a day, an
increase of $4 per day over previous pay.
The raises, along with increases in other
fees paid or required by the courts, were in
cluded in the Tax Adjustment Act of 1963 adop
ted by the N. C. General Assembly. The other
adjustments take effect August 1.
Among those other adjustments are an in
crease in the fee paid to jurors in special
proceedings held by the Clerk of Court. That
pay is currently $2 per day. It will rise to $6 per
day.
The cost of a magistrate performing a
marriage will rise to $10 from the current $5.
Criminal costs of court in District Court will
rise $4 to a total of $35.
In criminal Superior Court, costs will rise $2
to a total of $60. Costs in civil actions, special
proceedings, estate matters, and other ser
vices will also increase.
As Death Cause
The Warren County
Sheriff's Department
was notified early
1 Tuesday afternoon by
Memorial Hospital in
Chapel Hill that the
death of Rufus
} Hargrove, 29, of Middle
burg Sunday afternoon
' was due to drowning.
Hargrove's body was
1 taken to Chapel Hill for
1 an autopsy after he had
j been pronounced dead
at 7:50 p. m. at Warren
General Hospital. The
y cause of death was
believed to have been
accidental drowning.
According to the
Sheriff's Department,
the Middleburg man
drowned Sunday after
noon as he and a number
of friends were seining a
farm pond owned by
Furney Miller in the Af
ton Community of
Warren County. The
pond is reported to be
five miles south of
Warrenton.
Shortly after 6 p. m.
friends noticed that
Yarborough appeared to
be tired and disap
peared under the w^ter,
<Continued on page J 3»
nuueur uunyerb Mireu
Dump Opposition
Is Urged In Wise
By HOWARD JONES
A Warren County resi
dent who has spent five
years "fighting the PCB
trend" said Monday
night that a suggestion
that a nuclear waste
dump might be placed in
the Wise Community "is
the most serious
problem facing Warren
County and North
Carolina."
Kenneth Ferruccio,
president of the Warren
County Citizens Con
cerned About PCB who
has been arrested nine
times in connection with
protests over the estab
lishment of a PCB dump
near his home in Afton,
told Wise civic leaders
that they must "take a
no nonsense' position in
opposing the nuclear
waste dump in Wise
because the survival of
Warren County depends
on you."
Speaking before the
regular monthly
meeting of the Wise
Paschall Ruritan Club,
Ferruccio said the
creation of a nuclear
waste dump would
make Wise "not the kind
of place you would want
to live in," and he
predicted that "death,
destruction and suffer
ing" would accompany
creation of any dump in
Wise.
Ferruccio said that to
make Wise "the capital
of nuclear waste
disposal for North
Carolina would be to
make North Carolina
the waste disposal
capital for the South
east." He urged those in
his audience to "begin a
program of positive
direct action" to fight
the projected location.
Ferruccio was invited
to Monday night's
meeting along with state
waste management of
ficials who failed to ap
pear. The meeting was
arranged by Ruritan
Secretary Pete King af
ter Wise appeared on a
lengthy list of places
under consideration for
a nuclear waste dump
which will probably not
be built in this decade.
"If they decide to put
it in Wise it won't be a
scientific decision — it
will be a political
decision," Ferruccio
charged. He urged
Ruritans to join the
Concerned Citizens
group which he said
I
could serve as a
mechanism to fight
the location of a nuclear
(Continued on page 12)
1
Sales Begin Aug. 10
Sales on the Warrenton Tobacco Market will
begin on Wednesday, August 10.
That announcement was made yesterday by
Mrs.. Alice R. Robertson, sales supervisor of
the Warrenton Tobacco Board of Trade. Mrs.
Robertson said other markets on the Middle
Belt will begin sales on August 8.
The only sales scheduled for Warrenton
during the first week of leaf marketing will be
on August 8, she said. Farmers Warehouse
will conduct the first sale, beginning at 9 a. m.
This sale will be followed by sales at Currins,
High Dollar, Centre and Thompsons.
Rites Scheduled Today
For Richard R. Davis
Funeral services for
Richard Randol Davis,
74, former owner and
operator of Warrenton
Box and Lumber Com
pany and former
Warren County commis
sioner, will be held
Wednesday at 4 p. m.
from the Warrenton
Baptist Church by the
Rev. Gary Parker.
Burial will be in Fair
view Cemetery.
Mr. Davis died Mon
day morning at Duke
Medical Center in
Durham following
several days of critical
illness. He was a native
of Warren County and
was a resident of Rt. 2,
Warrenton.
He was twice
married, first to Grace
Burroughs, to which
union a son was born;
and to Mrs. Ida Daniel
Martin Davis, who sur
vives him. He was the
son of the late Peter
Randol Davis and Nellie
Buchanan Davis.
When the Warren
General Hospital was
built around 1948, Mr.
Davis was named a
member of the Warren
General Hospital Board
of Trustees and served
as chairman of this
board for many years.
He was member, trustee
and former deacon of
the Warrenton Baptist
Church. He was one of
the organizers, a char
ter member and first
president of the Afton
Elberon Ruritan Club,
and a former member of
the Warrenton Rotary
Club.
Mr. Davis was a
member of the board of
directors of the Warren
ton Citizens Bank and
remained on the board
when it was con
solidated with Branch
Banking and Trust
Company. He was also a
member of the Peoples
Bank board of directors
in Norlina and remained
a member when it was
consolidated with
Peoples Bank and Trust
Company.
He was one of the
founders and officials of
the Norlina Super
market, and had other
business interests in the
county.
Mr. Davis served as
a member of the Warren
County Ration Board
during World Warn. He
was a member of Johns
ton-Casweli Lodge No.
10, AF&AM, the Scottish
Rite Consistory of New
Bern, the Sudan Temple
of New Bern and the
Warren County Shrine
Club.
Surviving are his
widow, Mrs. Ida Daniel
Martin Davis; one son,
James R. Davis of
Warrenton; twc
brothers, Landon C.
D«vis and Elmer B
both of Warr.;
ton; and a grand
daughter.