.c
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Antiques Fair
Will be held for the 20th time by the
Moore County Historical Association
March 24-25 at the Southern Pines
National Guard Armory. Preview
Party, March 23. Page 7-A.
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^n«blu
LOT
Index
Books, 2-B; Church Calendar, 3-B;
Classified Ads, 6-11-C; Editorials, 1-B;
Entertainment, 4-5-C; Obitnaries, 14-A;
Pinehurst News, 1-3-C; Social News,
2-7-A; Sports, 8-10-A.
Vol. 57, Number 18
44 Pages
Southern Pines, North Carolina Wednesday, March 2, 1977
44 Pages
Price 15 Cents
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GOLF COURSES BUSY — After weeks of cold the
warm weather of recent days brought out the golfers
on all of the courses in the Sandhills, and early this
week they were crowded. Here’s a scene on the No. 3
Pinehurst course on Monday afternoon.—(Photo by
Glenn M. Sides).
Charges Renewed Against Turner
After Dismissal at Court Hearing
BY VALERIE NICHOLSON
Charges of arson and murder
were renewed Monday against
Henry Webster Turner, 35, of
Southern Pines when the grand
jury returned true bills on both
counts.
The charges had been
dismissed last Thursday
following preliminary hearing in
Moore District Court, when Chief
District Judge F. Fetzer Mills
found no probable cause in the
case hi which Turner’s mother
had died in a fire At their home on
Jan. 11.
Bills of indictment had been
sent up independently Monday
30-Year Term Given
In Motel’s Robbery
Anthony Thomas, a resident of
Berkley, Aberdeen, was con
victed this week in Moore
Superior Court of the armed
robbery last November 12 of the
desk clerk at the Pinehurst
Motor Lodge, drawing a sentence
of not less than 30 nor more than
35 years.
It could amount to half a
lifetime-for $60 in cash.
The trial opened the court term
Monday, going to the jury at the
close of that day. Special Judge
Robert L. Gavin of Pinehurst,
presiding, dismissed the jury for
the night, to begin their
deliberations Tuesday morning.
At that time, it took them less
than an hour to reach the
“guilty” verdict.
The State’s case hinged on
acceptance by the court of a
(Continued on Page 15-A)
morning by District Attorney
Carroll Lowder, or\ the grand
jury’s convening at Carthage for
the current special term.
An order of arrest was not
immediately signed, but Lowder
said this would probably be done
today.
Among the 55 true bills handed
down, on what may have been
the grand jury’s busiest day in
history, were also eight against
Robert L. Stuart, Jr., 18, charged
with arson and other types of
felonious burning, which had
taken place in Southern Pines
and Pinehurst over a five-week
period.
Committed January 25 to
Dorothea Dix Hospital at Raleigh
for psychiatric evaluatipn,
Stuart had been returned
Monday on the finding that he
was competent to stand trial.
Wednesday, he was carried by
his attorney, P. Wayne Robbins,
to a bond hearing in Monroe,
where the Superior Court Judge
William Wood, who had com
mitted him to Dix Hospital, set
bond for him at $50,000. This
was immediately made.
Friday, he appeared with his
attorney in Southern Pines
District Court, where he waived
hearing on the eight felony
counts and was bound over for
grand jury action.
Judge Wood had in January
revoked a $4,000 bond set for
Stuart by a magistrate, following
a strong protest by many people
fearful that more fires might be
set.
A wave of alarm was beginning
to manifest itself in the Southern
Pines-Pinehurst area this week,
(Continued on Page 16A)
School Chiefs Raised
Under New Contracts
Mental Health Clinics
Have Acting Directors
Clinical acting directors for
each county in the area served by
the Sandhills Mental Health
Center have been appointed by
Area Director David Culbreth.
He said Tuesday that Dr.
Theodore Clark, who has
resigned as clinical director, has
a verbal agreement to continue
emergency service to in-patients
with other psychiatrists working
with him through this week.
Dr. Clark, he said, will
continue serving the alcoholic
program at Sandhills Mental
Health Center by contract.
Doctors who are the acting
directors in the clinical and
medical supervision of patients
are:
Moore County: Dr. James
Groce.
Montgomery: Dr. Ralph
Beasley.
Hoke: Dr. Fagan.
Richmond: Dr. Randy Grigg.
Anson: Dr. Larry Champion.
Culbreath says the
appointment of these physicians
satisfies state requirements.
The Moore County Board of
Education Tuesday night
granted their top administrators,
Supt. Robert E. Lee and
Associate Supt. C. Edison
Powers, contract renewals for
four years each, effective with
the new fiscal year.
They also granted raises for
both men in their county-paid
salary supplements. Added to
Lee’s present supplement of
$6,616 will be $2,(XK) over the first
biennium, $4,000 over the second,
for a total of $6,000 over the
four-year period; and, for
Powers, $1,000 over the first
biennium, $2,000 over the
second-$3,000 in all-added to his
present supplement of $6,510.
Water Vote Questions
On Agenda Monday
Opponents of the county-wide
water system, to be voted on in
a bond referendum on March 29,
will be heard at the regular
meeting of the Moore County
commissioners next Monday.
Chairman W. Sidney Taylor
said a request from the group to
be heard has been placed on the
agenda for 3 p.m.
Representatives from county
commissioner boards in Hoke,
Scotland and Robeson, along
with the Sierra Club, are
expected to be present and to ask
questions about the water
system, especially as it pertains
to the water flow of E^owning
Creek.
Under the proposed water
system Drowning Creek will be
the principal source of water in
the early phases of the program.
Chairman Taylor said he had
talked on Tuesday with Ralph
Bamhardt, vice chairman of the
Hoke commissioners, about the
matter. “Their chief concern,”
he said, “appears to be the
dilution of the effluent from the
regional sewer system which will
flow from Aberdeen Creek into
Drowning Creek.”
Drowning Creek flows into the
the Lumbee River, which flows
through Scotland and Robeson
counties.
“I feel certain we can answer
their questions effectively,”
Chairman Taylor said, pointing
out that the waste water which
will be returned to Aberdeen
Creek will be completely treated,
and that the water flow of
Drowning Creek will be more
than ample to thoroughly dilute
the effluent.
The water supply in Drowning
Creek is plentiful, Taylor said,
and he cited a 36-year study of
(Continued on Page 16A)
Lightning
Damages
Houses
A single bolt of lightning
during the sudden storm
Thursday morning caused
considerable damage to elec
trical systems in several houses
on Riverside Dr. in Southern
Pines.
Fuses were burned out,
telephone and electric lines
knocked out, and it was even
reported that a cord on a bamboo
curtain began to smoulder.
John Ponzer, of 295 Hillside
Dr., said the lightning came
through the cable connected to
his television, knocking out the
set. A long panel of electric
sockets on the wall over the
kitchen counters popped right off
the wall, he said.
A neighbor, Mrs. Edward
DuRant, reported to Ponzer that
(Continued on Page 16A)
Group Will Oppose
Moore Water Bonds
The county funds will supple
ment their state salaries, which
at present are $21,792 for Lee,
$19,848 for Powers. The General
Assembly is expected to give
these salaries a boost, thou^ it
is not known yet by how much.
The board granted the
contracts and raises in a brief
executive session held in the
course of their regular session,
leaving their meeting room in the
Administrative Building for the
purpose, and returning to report
to tile press on actions taken.
They said the levels of
compensation Lee and Powers
would receive were “in line with
others in the state serving
systems of comparable size.”
Lee’s state-paid salary is 43rd
among 142 superintendents in the
state, and all systems now pay
supplements, according to their
(Continued on Page 16A)
A citizens’ committee headed
by Linda McFayden of Pinebluff
met last night to approve a paper
questioning the proposed Water
^nds as a possible threat to the
environment.
Moore County committee
members opposing the Bonds
include Howard Muse, Jay
Carter III, David Drexel,
MUdred Carpenter, Dr. Thomas
Suther, Lockie McFayden and
Diedre Newton, Mrs. McFayden
said.
They are joined by Warren
Pate of Raeford and others from
Scotland, Hoke and Robeson
Counties who say further en
vironmental studies are needed..
A citizens group met with Jim
Mulligan of the Department of
Natural and Economic
Resources in Fayetteville
yesterday to voice what they
called lack of environmental
planning from the engineering
fira of Les Hall and Associates,
on which Moore County
Commissioners are basing their
water study and proposed
county-wide system.
They also alerted Dr. Leo
Applegate of Scotland County,
Chairman of Land Use and
Planning for the Council of
Government for Region N, which
includes Hoke, Scotland,
Robeson and Bladen Counties
who, they said, is working on the
issue in those counties.
The paper is being circulated
to inform voters of issues “of
which they may not be aware,”
Mrs. McFayden, acting chair
man of the group, explained.
It says:
“1. Moore county farms, forest
lands, and open spaces are the
key to the quiity of life residents
now enjoy. Do we as taxpayers
wish to see this destroyed in
order to subsidize high intensity
growth of condominiums, mass
suburbia, and industrial parks
that these systems will promote?
(Continued on Page 16A)
4-
THE
PILOT LIGHT
...
CHAMPION RETURNING — "Kettle Hill" of Fairway Farms of Sedgefield,
champion of the 1976 Hunter Trials, is returning to defend his championship at the
30th annual event in Southern Pines on Saturday. See story Sports Page.
HUNT—Governor Jim Hunt is
beginning to make use of his
“Green Stamps,” and more
appointments, one of the major
sources of power for the
Governor’s office, can be ex
pected in the coming weeks.
Many of the major ones,
however, including 12 superior
court ju^eships, wiU not likely
be forthcoming while the
legislature is in session. The
Governor will be holding back
until he gets his program toough
the General Assembly, and he
will need that leverage.
There is stiU a feeling in
Raleigh that the Governor will
push hard for passage of a
constitutional amendment to
give the governor veto power and
the right to succeed himself.
Many legislators say they may
vote to sulxnit those questions to
a vote of the people, but they will
insist on it not applying to the
present occupant of the office.
ILLITERACY—Eleven per
cent of the adult population in
Moore County cannot read and
are classed as functional
illiterates, according to a recent
study made by the Highway
Safety Research Center at the
University of North Carolina.
This compares with 8.3 percent
of the state’s adult population as
a whole.
(Continued on Page 16A)
FOREST FIRE — Two lady firefighters of the
SbuthSrh Pines Fire Department—Judy Rorie and
Carol Smith-are shown fighting a forest fire behind
the Charlton Motel. Fire Chief Pete Rapatas said the
fire was believed to have been started by a passing
train.—(Photo by Glenn M. Sides).
Buildings Destroyed
In Fire From Train
A brush fire Sunday along the
railroad tracks behind the
Charlton Motel, destroyed
several small wooden storage
buildings and nearly got out of
control, according to the
Southern Pines Fire Dept.
The Fire Dept, answered the
call at about 12:02 p.m. Fire was
reported from Saunders Blvd. to
the CaroUna Mobile Home Park.
Several acres of land were
burned, in addition to the wooden
sheds, firemen said.
The brush was believed ignited
(Continued on Page 16A)
Peach Festival Slated
At Ellerbe On Saturday
The Ellerbe Civitan Club and
the North Carolina Peach
Growers Association are making
plans for the North Carolina
Peach Festival to be held in
Ellerbe on Saturday, March 5.
There are 15 Peach queen
contestants that are residents of
the peach growing counties of
Anson, Hoke, Montgomery,
Moore, and Richmond. Only
single girls between the ages of
17 and 26 are eligible to enter.
Any peach producer or civic club
can sponsor a contestant for a $15
entry fee.
Competition will be in four
(Continued on Page 16A)
James Van Camp
Van Camp
Appointed
To Post
James Van (Damp, Southern
Pines attorney, has been named
a defense attorney on the
reorganized Governor’s Crime
(Dommission, formerly the Law
and Order (Dommission, of which
he was Executive Director in the
Scott Administration.
Practicing in Southern Pines,
Van Camp also served on the
committee from 1970 to 1973 on
appointment of Gov. Scott.
He attended Atlantic (Dhristian
College and received his law
degree from Wake Forest
University School of Law. He
was appointed by former At
torney Robert Morgan in 1973 to
serve on the 30-member (Driminal
Code Commission.
Van Camp, from Jacksonville,
has law offices here on S. West
Broad Street.
He is among 22 citizens and
professionals appointed by
(jovernor James B. Hunt Jr.
District Judge Phil Carlton of
Pinetops is the new chairman,
and Wake District Attorney
Burley Mitchell, vice chairman.
4
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TRUMPETS OF SPRING — These bright yellow
harbingers of coming warmth lift noble heads to Pilot
visitors.—(Photo by Glenn M. Sides).