Christmas Parade ill Southern Pines draws crowd of 10.000. Stories and pictures on Page 7- D. ■LOT Jackson Springs including famed mineral spring sold to Ashton Richardson and Associates. Page 5-D. lAmtrak Will Begin Stops Here Friday Fund Drive Nears Goal The Sandhills Area Chamber of Commerce says it has received word from Congressman Earl Ruth’s office that the Amtrak passenger trains will begin stopping in Southern Pines on Friday. As of Tuesday afternoon, of ficials of the Seaboard Coast Line in both Hamlet and Jacksonville, Fla., say they know nothing about any such service to Southern Rnes. The Chamber information says one northbound and one south bound train will begin stopping Friday on a trial basis. Ac cording to the trial conditions, at least five persons must get on or off the train each time. In addition, boarding passengers must ride as far as either Washington or Jacksonville. Trains stopping here will be •The Vacationer”, tentatively scheduled here at 6:35 p.m., and the Silver Meteor. Northbound. If the Amtrak train does stop, it will mark the resumption of passenger service to Southern Pines after many months ab sence. Service at the Southern Pines depot is now devoted to the some dozen of freights which pass through each day, and in formation on where trains may be boarded. Local residents may presently catch a 4:40 p.m. Silver Star in (Continued on Page 8-A) In Moore Reported contributions and pledges in the Moore County United Fund Drive are “still hovering around the $85,000 mark,” says President Mrs. Ida Baker Scott. “When all the pledge cards are turned in, we believe that we will reach our goal of $98,000, and end the campaign this week,” she said. This is the fifth campaign of the United Fund here which was established in 1968 through the efforts of the Sandhills Area Chamber of Commerce. In recognition of the Cham ber’s part in establishing the Fund, Mrs. Scott asked William H. Gentry, Jr., 1968 Chamber President, to meet with Fund officers and representatives of some of the participating agencies for presentation of the final checks for 1972. On the occasion Gentry remarked that the establishment of a united fund was one of the first projects undertaken by the Chamber under its first (Continued on Page 8-A) Revenue Sharing Is Bringing Towns More Than Hoped Former Resident Found Murdered Near Atlanta PROPOSED PARK— This map shows in the darkened area near the center the proposed site for the Deep F.iver Park. Mostly in Moore County, it also is partly in Lee and Chatham. Town Coimcil Asks County New State Park is Proposed In Moore’s Deep River Bend To Conduct it’s Elections BY VALERIE NICHOLSON The Southern Pines town council Tuesday night unanimously adopted a resolution requesting that the county board of elections conduct all its municipal elections in future, and authorizing the town manager to negotiate with the county board on the costs of such service, any agreement they reach to be subject to approval of the council before taking effect. W. Lamont Brown, town at torney, explained that this was one of only two courses open to them under new election laws, with the choice having to be made before December 29. They could choose either to have the county board run their elections or do it themselvesj^jeltipg up their own election board to function for the town just as the county board does for the county, with year-round operation to be financed entirely by the town. Brown gave his view that it would probably cost less, be less trouble and cause less confusion to let the county board do the job than for the town to go into the election business itself, an en tirely new municipal activity. He said also that it would make no difference that the county board is set up as a partisan (Continued on Page 8-A) BY BYRAN GREEN After four years of studying the eleven county Sandhills region, the Division of State Parks has finally selected the site for what it hopes will be the next state park. The proposed location is a large wooded area along both sides of the Deep River ten miles north of Carthage. It is primarily in Moore County, but spills over into a small portion of Chatham and Lee. The area includes five Parade Success A crowd of 10,000 persons lined both sides of Broad St. Wed nesday evening as the Christmas parade officially brought the holiday season to town. The parade began promptly at 6:30 when the Pinecrest color guard and drill team stepped off from Memorial Field, leading the 65 entries in the annual caravan. The event was sponsored by the Southern Pines Jaycees, and Jaycee President Don Hill estimated that it took at least 45 minutes for the entire parade to pass any given point on the route. Spectators and participants alike were calling the parade a success Wednesday evening, and the Jaycees seemed especially proud everything had gone ac cording to schedule, including (Continued on Page 8-A) WINNING FLOAT — This old shoe, stuffed with children, was a favorite with the crowds who watched the annual Christmas parade Wednesday evening. Entered by CP&L, it won second place in the floats category. (Photo by Bryan Green). Riley Is Low Bidder On Paving Bids on more street im provements were opened Thursday at the town office, and the Southern Pines town council, supervising the opening, ap proved the letting of contracts to the Riley Paving Co. of Car thage, low bidder with a total of $47,786. Four bids opened by Robert F. Ruffner, engineer with the Raleigh consulting form of L.E. Wooten & Co., showed a spread of $2,549 between the high and the low, the other totals being as follows: Lee Paving Co., San ford, $48,410; Southeastern Asphalt, Rockingham, $49,345; and Crowell Construction, Inc., Fayetteville, $50,335. The projects include the paving and curbing of Midlothian Drive, and re-paving of a number of streets in that general area, from the Sandavis subdivision to streets branching out on either (Continued on Page 8-A) Man Killed In Accident Vardell Brown, 49, of Jackson Springs Rt. 1, died Friday af ternoon of injuries suffered when a maintenance vehicle over turned, throwing Brown and two other employees to the surface of a paved road on the Foxfire property. Jeffrey Campbell, who was driving the lightweight gasoline- powered Cushman pickup, said he swerved to avoid a washed-out place in the road, and that Brown, falling out, landed on his head, but did not seem to be badly hurt. The three men—Brown, Campbell and Bruce Mabe, all members of the club’s main tenance staff, were carried to the office of Bill Upchurch, golf course superintendent, where first aid was administered for (Continued on Page 8-A) miles of river frontage and touches the House in the Hor seshoe property at one point. Announcement of the site was made by State Parks Superin tendent Tom Ellis Friday during a luncheon meeting of the San dhills Area Chamber of Com merce. He said the area is a “first class” site and that parks officials logged over 4,000 miles of travel in the region during the search for a suitable site. I Another parks official who accompanied Ellis, Division Landscape Architect Alan Eakes, said the proposed park has been mapped out to include 3,500 acres, but that 2,000 acres would be a minimum figure for getting the new park underway if everything is approved. Eakes said the park will be able te offer the full range of park services. These would in clude boating, fishing, hiking, camping, picnicking and nature trails. He noted that as planned, the area is big enough to provide room for all these activities and at the same time, leave a large portion of the park in its natural state. The land is described by parks officials as being a fairly large expanse of woodlands divided by the Deep River. The several thousand acres of forests are situated on a “gently rolling to rugged terrain, and consist upland pine-hardwoods, pine plantations and bottom land hardwoods. “Wildlife appears to be quite abundant and the river is navigable from the southern end of the site to within a few hun dred feet of the western boun dary.” ( Continued on Page 8-A) Moore’s Buses Travel Nearly Million Miles A former Southern Pines girl living in Atlanta, Ga., married less than a month, was found murdered Saturday afternoon about 30 miles from Atlanta after having been missing for two days. The former Rhonda Jean Carter, 19, married November 17 to Wade Bevier, was found in rural Forsyth County off a dirt road, on the edge of some woods, badly beaten about the head and strangled to death with a heavy cord, which was still knotted about her neck. Officers said she was not raped or robbed, and was fully clothed when found. Information received here by her grandmother, Mrs. T. T. Ward of 560 North May St., was that she missed her usual bus to work Thursday morning, and told a friend she would walk to work. Officers said she is believed to have thumbed a ride. She was not seen again by family or friends. All law enforcement agencies of the area are cooperating in the search for her killer, headed by the Georgia DOI (Department of Investigation). The daughter of Wilmer A. Carter of Washington, D.C., and Mrs. Joe Batcho, she moved to Atlanta last year with Mr. and Mrs. Batcho but did not live with them, taking a separate apart ment. A native of Southern Pines, she attended local schools until her sophomore year at high school, Santa Visits Santa Claus will make his annual visit to Southern Pines this weekend, sponsored by Elks Lodge No. 1692. Ralph Martin, Exalter Ruler, says Santa will be at the Masonic Lodge building in West Southern Pines, corner of W. Mass, and S. Gaines streets, from 2 to 5 p.m. on Saturday Dec. 16, and on Sunday Dec. 17. Santa will be at Southern Pines Elks and Country Qub from 2 to 5 p.m. All children 10 years old and younger are invited and Santa will have a bag of goodies for each child. Rhonda J. Carter Bevier when she went with the Batches to Lakeville, Ind., her step father’s home town, and at tended high school there. The following year they all came back to Southern Pines, and she graduated in 1971 from Pinecrest High School. At Pinecrest, where she worked during her senior year in the office of (then)' assistant principal P.L. McMillan, she was described as “friendly, pleasant, (Continued on Page 7-A) Federal revenue-sharing checks arrived Monday for the County of Moore and seven of the eight county municipalities, with only one—Whispering Pines— left still watching for the mailman and wondering why its check hadn’t come. The amount received by the county was somewhat less than had been anticipated, while for the towns, even without Whispering Pines, the total ran considerably more. The county’s check was $152,947; that of the Town of Southern Pines, next largest, $63,613. TTie others: Aberdeen, $16,830; Robbins, $13,556; Carthage, $13,236; Vass, $10,228; Pinebluff, $4,978; and Cameron, $610. Since the measure as enacted last month by Congress was retroactive for the year the first checks are for the first half of 1972, and others of like amount are expected soon after January 1, 1973, for the last half of this year. Consequently, to figure the amounts available for Moore and its towns, in the very near future, just double the sums listed above. For the county, this comes to $305,394, where, according to one of several recent estimates received by Bob Helms, county planner, $402,455 had been ex pected. This means a dif ference—downward—of $96,061. For the towns, a total (without breakdown) had been estimated (Continued on Page 7-A) School Board To Meet To Discuss School Needs Superintendent R.E. Lee says that the Moore County Board of Education will meet in an unprecedented afternoon and evening sessions, December 13 at the Administration Building in Carthage to hear long-range capital outlay needs of the 19 schools, with the chairman of each advisory council spokesman for each group. Beginning at 1 p.m. each school will have 20 minutes in which to lay before the board what they, with the help of the principal, the students, faculty, interested parents and citizens, have determined to be the needs of their school according to priority. Cameron Elementary has the first slot, with the Education Center winding up the sessions that night at 9:20 p.m. The board plans to adjourn only once for dinner. On three consecutive Sunday afternoons, the Board met to tour various parts of the county for an on-the-site appraisal of what the county needs in terms of long- range capital outlay. The board did not visit all sites, since many needs at the school were common to those of another area. In order to give every school an opportunity to be heard, the afternoon and evening session (Continued on Page 8-A) It cost North Carolina tax payers 18 cents a day to tran sport a child to school during 1971-72. Sixty-six per cent of the public school chil^en rode the bus to class during the year, a total of 722,714. That’s an increase of nearly seven per cent over the previous year. The figures are from the 1971- 72 statistical report on tran sportation prepared by the State Board of Education. The average school bus carried 67 pupils each day and made 1.75 trips per day. The average bus traveled 38.9 miles per day for a yearly total of 7,058 miles. The total annual mileage for all buses was 73,614,515 miles. There were 10,430 school buses operated in North Carolina during the year and slightly more than 97 per cent of the students who were transportated to school rode the bus. The cost for this transportation was $24,411,000, including con tract transportation and replacement buses. The average cost of transportation was $2,225 per us for the 181 day school year. This breaks down to $12.29 per bus per day, $33.04 per pupil per school year, and 18 cents per (Continued on Page 8-A) Kiwanis Celebrates Anniversary The days of flappers, drugstore cowboys and Annie Oakley at the Pinehurst gun club were vividly recalled Saturday night as the Sandhills Kiwanis Qub gaily celebrated its fiftieth an niversary at Ladies’ Night at the Country Qub of North Carolina. The program was printed in gold, and it was a golden evening for the some 300 membtfs and their guests. President William F. Hollister presented Master of Ceremonies Voit Gilmore, who called on Lt. Gen. Richard C. Mangrum, (USMC-Ret.) to lead the pledge of allegiance. The invocation was by Dr. R. Bruce Warlick, who turned out to be the Kiwanian born nearest the birth of the club. Dr. Warlick’s life was described by four doctors as epitomizing toe spirit of Kiwanis, and he was presented a “this is your life” drawing done by Glen ,Rounds by Dr. R.M. McMllan. A hit of the party was a flapper Charleston done by Carlyn Anderson, Pete Broughton, Doodle Poole, Peggy Schnedl, and Jan Staub under direction of (Continued on Page 8-A) THE PILOT LIGHT HOLSHOUSER— Governor Bob Scott was the teacher early this week when Governor-elect James Holshouser went to school for new governors at Annapolis, Md. The school is sponsored by the National Governors Conference and was held last year at Pine Needles in Southern Pines. It is designed to help new governors in the organization and conduct of their offices. Governor Scott spent Monday as an instructor at toe school. Prior to going, Holshouser said of the school, “I really can’t spare toe time, but I can’t afford not to go.” The Governor-elect said he had been up untU 4 a.m. the night before. He was being interviewed by Ivey Qayton and Bill Arm strong of the North Carolina’s Citizens Association for a cover story in the January issue of the organization’s magazine. PACE — When Dr. A.C. Dawson, executive director of the North Carolina Association of Educators, .spoke to the winter conference of school superin tendents in Durham last week he made a strong appeal for support of PACE, toe political action arm of NCAE. Dawson disclosed that PACE had contributed $8,000 to toe Republican primary campaign of Jim Holshouser and also $8,000 to the general election campaign (Continued on Page 8-A) FLAPPERS-A hit of the evening when the Sandhills Kiwanis Club celebrated its 50th anniversary was this dance sketch by Carlyn Anderson, Pete Broughton, Doodie Poole, Peggy Schnedl, and Jan Staub under the direction of Pat Starnes Logue. (Emerson Humphrey Photo)