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Volume 87 25c Per Copy Warrenton, County Of Warren, North Carolina Wednesday, August 22, 1984 . Number 34
Commissioners, Trustees Meet For Hospital Discussion
By KAY HORNER
News Editor
The prognosis for the survival of small, rural
hospitals like Warren General is not good, a University
of North Carolina professor of social and administrative
medicine told Warren County citizens
and officials at a public meeting last Wednesday.
"Since 1983, the use of hospitals has been going
down," Glenn Wilson told the audience that filled
the county courtroom, "and 50 to 60 of the state's 132
hospitals now have occupancy rates less than GO
percent. If we put our heads in the sand, 30 to 50
hospitals in North Carolina will have to close."
A Warren General Hospital Task Force in a
report released in June suggested that the hospital
explore alternate methods of care such as outpatient
services, but Wilson in his comments advocated
that area hospitals be created to serve
several counties under the umbrella of multi-county
hospital authorities.
Wilson's suggestion was bitter medicine for some
of those attending the meeting, which was caHed by
county commissioners, members of the hospital
task force, and hospital trustees.
Martha Page, administrator of Warren Plaza
Rest Home, expressed concern for the health care
of her residents.
Sheriff's Deputies Crack Cases,
Nab Three On Larceny Charges
POSTMASTER BRUCE BELL
Postmaster Stepping Down
By MARY C.HARRIS
Staff Writer
After 21 years of working to
ensure that "neither snow nor
rain nor heat nor gloom of night
stays these couriers from the
swift completion of their appointed
rounds," John Bruce
Bell is ready to allow someone
else to open the letters addressed
to the U. S. Postmaster,
Warrenton Office. He has announced
his retirement effective
October 3.
Having spent most of his adult
life as an automobile salesman,
with the exception of four years
of military duty, Bell came to
the Post Office Department in
1963. His first appointment was
postmaster of Macon, where he
served until 1975 when he was
chosen to fill the vacancy left in
the Warrenton office by the
death of Postmaster A. C. Blalock.
In an interview this week, Bell
reflected on the changes he has
observed as the Post Office
Department has evolved into the
U. S. Postal Service. He has seen
rural routes consolidated, making
the longest of the three
(Continued on page 8)
Unclaimed Money Is Available
By MARY C. HARRIS
Staff Writer
A total of $3,172.45 in unclaimed or abandoned
property is payable to 30 people of Warren Courity
from the N. C. Escheat Fund, according to information
released on August 15 by State Treasurer
Harlan Boyles. The fund, set up by law and administered
under the direction of the State
Treasurer, has returned more than $350,000 to
people throughout the state as a result of last year's
concerted effort to restore unclaimed and abandoned
property to its proper owners.
Over 11,000 businesses, corporations, firms,
banks, insurance companies and the like are on the
master file of holders required to report to the
Escheat Fund. These holders of property determined
to be unclaimed and abandoned must first attempt
to locate the owner before remitting the
property to the Department of the State Treasurer.
Law requires that lists of owners of such property
be sent each year to every cleric of court in the state.
These lists are then made available for public inspection
at each courthouse and are kept on permanent
file in the cleric's office. Efforts to return
the property are being intensified, and the treasurer
has enlisted the aid of the state's newspapers.
If the owners cannot be found, the money is invested
by the Department of the State Treasurer,
and the interest is used to provide educational loans
for qualifying N. C. students in the state's colleges
and universities.
"I know that people are very grateful when they
read in the paper that there is money waiiting for
them," Boyles asserted, "and our department is
gratified by this help as well."
The following persons of this county may write to
the Abandoned Property Office, Department of
State Treasurer, 325 North Salisbury Street,
Raleigh, N. C. 27611 or call (919) 733-4440 to get information
about the unclaimed property listed:
WARRENTON
Joseph Green, Mannie L. Green
and Charlie Alston $209.34
Warren Building k Development, Inc 47.51
Yettie Wilson and Elizabeth Smith. 472.86
Bobby Jefferson and Lois Jefferson 82.88
Candies Davis. 37.25
E. A. Turner ITF Alvette B. Turner 67.99
Georgia J. Exum 34.89
Benjaman Kieshawn Kearney
or Joselyn Kearney 25.64
Catherine Williams 25.41
Joel K. Green. 263.50
JanW.Pittman. 26.43
Paul P. Pope 48.00
Mary Bryant 47.95
NORLINA
Charles Burton, Jr. Joyce
F. Burton, Trustee 316.43
William Champion 74.17
CMa White or Travis White 145.79
David Boyd or Rosa Boyd. 70.61
Joyce Hawkins 25.18
George Howell and Mary W. Howell 59.3C
Martha Jiggetts and Marvin Jiggetts 26.66
John C. Allen 50.00
Glenis Alston 50.00
MACON
Steve Danial Brickhouse
by William V. Brickhouse 26.60
Clyde E. Brown 26.87
Kenneth E. Bender 34.40
William C. Harris 32.56
RIDGEWAY
Mary Frances Henderson 762.93
Spencer Henderson, Sr 26.90
MANSON
Alvin J. B. Hawkins 25.77
Glenn Casey 28.55
Prices Near
$1.70 Here
Hopes that tobacco
prices would continue to
rise as the season
progressed were
fulfilled Monday as
the Warrenton market
moved into its third
week of sales.
Mrs. Alice Marie
Robertson, sales supervisor,
reported that
Warrenton's warehouses
sold 376,273
pounds of tobacco for a
(Continued on page 8)
Jonas Mflo Alston, left, new Warren Comity deputy sheriff, takes the oath of
office administered by Mrs. Dora Stegnll, assistant clerk of court Witnessing
the Monday morning ceremony is Sheriff T. R. WUUami. (Staff Photo)
Warren Native Is New Deputy
A 24-year-old Warren
County native, Jonas
Milo Alston, was sworn
in on Monday morning
as a deputy sheriff for
Warren County. He
became the sixth fulltime
deputy on Sheriff
T.R. Williams'force.
Alston took hia oath of
office from Mrs. Dora
Stegall, assistant clerk
of court He will now undergo
seven weeks of
basic law enforcement
training at Vance-Granville
Community
College.
The son of Mr. and
Mrs. Stephen T. Alston,
Sr. of Airport Road,
Alston is a graduate of
John Qraham High
School and was awarded
a diploma (rem North
Carolina Central
University in Ml. He
majored in political
science with emphasis
on <Tli»lnfl justice.
Fran 1900 until 1N4
he worked in public
safety with Duke University.
He wm ■ Department
of Correction
employe* from
February until earlier
this month when he
resigned to accept the
deputy's post
Alae a resident of Airport
Road, Alston is a
member of Greenwood
Baptist Church. He is
single.
Three arrests were
made yesterday (Tuesday)
by the Warren
County Sheriff's Department
in connection with
break-ins in the area,
according to Chief
Deputy Bobby Dean
Bolton.
Larry Wayne Hamm,
26, of Warrenton was
arrested yesterday and
charged with breaking
into Warren Plains
Methodist Church and
with larceny of two airconditioners
and
draperies, as well as injury
to real property at
the church.
A Virginia man,
Steven Leonard Haislip,
20, of Gasburg, Va. was
also arrested in connection
with that break-in
and charged with breaking
and entering and
larceny.
Deputy Bolton said
that Hamm was
charged with breaking
into a mobile home
owned by Cheryl Coffman
of Norlina, located
on the Airport Road
north of Warrenton, and
with the theft of an airconditioner,
couch,
chair, brass lamp and
set of bamboo curtains.
The break-in at the
mobile home occurred
on Aug. 10, and the
church break-in was
Aug. 16.
Both men were being
held in Warren County
Jail as of presstime
Tuesday. Hamm is
being held on a $5,000
bond and Haislip on a
$10,000 bond.
Also arrested on connection
with the mobile
home break-in was
David Allan Aycock of
Norlina who was
charged with breaking,
entering and larceny.
He was released on his
own recognizance.
All three are scheduled
to appear in Warren
County District Court
today (Wednesday).
In addition. Deputy
Bolton said he has a
warrant for the arrest of
Robert Pitchford, Jr.,
17, of Rt 3, Warrenton
on a charge of posseasion
of stolen goods in
connection with the
mobile home break-in,
but the warrant had not
been served as of late
yesterday afternoon.
That warrant alao includes
a charge of
breaking, entering and
larceny of a firearm
from the residence of C.
B. Stegall of Warrenton
on August 4.
Deputy Bolton waa
assisted in the investigations
by Sheriff's
Deputies LE. Harrison,
and Thomas McCafflty,
and Warrenton Police
CMef Freddie Robinson.
"We have 100 elderly, senile, sick patients and it's
very hard to transport them to Henderson or to
other hospitals," she said. "I've been here seven
years and this hospital has saved many patients'
lives that I know about."
Mrs. Page also charged that the hospital had long
been neglected by county officials.
"The hospital should have been on the list of
priorities long ago," she said, "before this
desperate situation developed I sincerely hope
that you people will realize that we have 200 people
(in Warren Plaza and Warren Nursing Center) who
depend on that hospital."
Warren General, which opened in 1951, has in
recent years suffered from underutilization of services.
More recently, it has experienced financial
difficulty due to cost containment efforts such as
those mandated recently by the federal Medicare
program, and its inability to afford the specialized
personnel and equipment needed in the modern
practice of medicine.
As a county hospital, Warren General has also
carried the liability of indigent patients.
No one is turned away because of the inability to
pay, and Mrs. Eva M. Clayton, chairperson of the
county commissioners, said Wednesday that "some
people we know we are serving free of charge and
there are others who promise to pay and don't."
The fact that rural hospitals throughout the nation
are in the same predicament as Warren General
seemed scant consolation for those who spoke at the
meeting.
Gladys Wemyss of Warrenton said the operation
of the hospital "has always been a struggle. If there
is any way possible, we should concentrate on what
we have and make it work. It's an asset and it saves
lives."
Mary West, a nurse at Warren General, told the
group, "There are two people (treated recently at
the hospital) who would not be alive today if we had
not been there and a doctor had not been in the
hospital. There was no time to get anywhere else."
Warren County Health Director Joe Lennon
suggested that future plans for the hospital include
a "beefed up" emergency room with more extensive
services.
"We must do something to provide people in
Warren County with excellent around-the-clock
care," Lennon commented. "You don't schedule a
heart attack."
There has been no discussion by county or
hospital officials of eliminating emergency room
services which are vital not only to county citizens,
but also to the location of industry in the county.
Col. Herman Andersen, a past administrator of
the hospital now serving in a volunteer capacity,
urged support for the hospital "until we get something
better."
"We've come a long way and I'm sorry to see the
hospital in the shape it's in," Andersen said, agreeing
that a consolidation of area health care agencies
might provide the "biggest health value for the tax
dollar."
Warren General is the first county-owned hospital
in the state to seek alternative methods of service to
its current 37-bed in-patient services.
Seventh District Representative Frank W.
Ballance, Jr., a Warrenton attorney, said at the
meeting that funding for conversion of the hospital
into a facility offering services other than in-patient
care might be available from the General Assembly.
"The General Assembly likes to fund projects
which are models," Ballance said. "If we are in a
position by November to put plans on paper, in
February we can present the (dans."
"I know these people (who spoke at the meeting)
are sincere," Ballance said, "...and I know what the
citizens want. We want a hospital, but we want what
we can't pay for."
The N. C. Office of Rural Health Services, whose
representatives were on hand Wednesday, was
asked last month by county and hospital officials to
conduct a study of Warren General to determine
how it could be converted into a viable health care
facility. The agency has been directed to have its
report ready within six months.
"We have deadlines," Mrs. Clayton noted. "We
cant study this forever."
Homeowner Care
Urged By Firemen
Several residences in Warren County have
suffered fire damage due to direct or indirect
hits by lightning during recent electrical
storms.
The Warren County Fire Commission urges
homeowners to have a qualified electrician
check for smoldering Ore or other damage to
electrical systems if they aspect that their
homes have been hit by lightning.
"With a direct Hit, instant Are usually
results," 0. L. "Botch" Meek, vice cteirmen
of the commission said this week. "With an indirect
hit, shortages in the drcntt could occur
I IMllg a tnnMiIng thai tpyf Hifai qafll
it gets enough oxygen to ignite."
Meek said the fire could tg""» as long as
three or four day after the lightning strikaa.