EDITORIALS, FEATURES
of orange county
Justice is thwarted
at $40 an hour cost
Newly-appointed District Solicitor Ike Andrews an
nounced on his first day of court duty in Orange County
last week that he intended to seek a special extra crimi
nal term of court for Orange, with the idea of relieving
the clogged docket.
Some cases currently pending trial in the quarterly
session of court have been on the docket as long as eight
years. The attorneys who have secured these endless con
tinuances have done well for their clients by these skillful
legal maneuverings. But the public, as a result, is not get
ting justice in its courts.
And unless this proposed court term starts out better
than just such a session did last week the thwarting of
justice will continue.
Costs $1,500 a term . .
Jurors’ fees (a frugal $6 a day per juror) plus other
costs that must be paid out of the public treasury of Or
ange County bring the cost of a one-week superior court
term up to roughly $1,500. Court is in actual session about
35-40 hours during the week, so this pro-rates out to a cost
of about $40 an hour.. (Of course it is anticipated that a
good share of this money will come back to the County
in fines and costs.)
But on Monday morning of last week, several hundred
jurors, law enforcement officers, court officials, witnesses
. %nd defendants, all of whom had been summoned under
penalty should they fail to appear, were in court ready
for the scheduled 9:30 a.m. opening of the session. For
nearly two sweltering hours all of these people waited in
the jam-packed court room, daring not leave.
It was after 11 a.m. when the judge appeared and the
session was called to order. Such an occurrence was not
at all unusual for an Orange County Superior Court ses
sion.
Now it is a good idea to have another term of court
to clear up the clogged docket—for when court opens two
hours late it is easy to see why the docket is so clogged.
Commissioners should ask .. .
But the Orange County Board of Commissioners should
ask the proper authorities to make certain that the public
■convenience and necessity, in which interests the courts
are supposed to operate, is going to be served in any extra
term that is called. This convenience and necessity includes
having the court in regular operation during all of the
hours that witnesses, defendants, officers, and others are
required to be present.
At a cost of $40 an hour Orange County cannot afford
to pay for a court that is not in session. And the public
should not tolerate such contempt for its convenience and
necessity.
If the public is to have respect for the courts of law,
the courts themselves must be conducted in a manner to
merit such respect. ^
3Pbej&etog of (Grange Count?
Published. Every Thursday By
THE NEWS INCORPORATED
Hillsboro, N. C. . Chopol Hill, N. C.
Bex 647 Box 749
Telephone 968-4444, Chapel Kill; 4191 Hillsboro
Entered as Second Class Matter at the Post Office at
Hillsboro, North -Carolina> under the Act of
y March 3, 1879
EDWIN J. HAMLIN ....7... ..... Publisher
ROLAND GIDUZ ........,.. .......... o. Editor
iMtffeboro Office _
Hill Office
-. N. Churton §t.
311; E. Main St., ,C*n*Oro
4«MiSCftfPT«ON RATES
$a.5o.
75, «iMr<9K>. fip*id*s N. C.); S3.00, one year, outside N. C.
To improve space between the ears
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all l'arty mi Iter, York Gazette & Daily
crackdown is laudable
- Business people who make credit sales have been wail
ing of poorer collections this year. Debtors are over-ex
tending themselves and payments aren’t up to par, they
say.
In the face of this the County of Orange has reversed
a trend. Its tax collections are up two and one-half per
cent over the previous year.
There’s a good reason for Orange showing this im
provement, too. The County Commissioners have initiated
a vigorous program of going after tax delinquents.
Rather than be satisfied with the customary yearly La
bor Day “sale” of tax liens of delinquents, Orange County
is utilizing the seldom-tried statute for in rem tax collec
tion from delinquents.
To date in rem proceedings have been started against
over 185 property owners who have continually failed to
pay their property taxes. Last week execution papers were
served against the first 18 of these delinquents. If within
40 days they haven’t paid their taxes and penalties the
sheriff will sell their property at public auction and the
county will take its tax debts off the top of the. purchase
payments.
The county commissioners, in pushing this procedure,
are exercising praiseworthy jurisdiction over the public
treasury. People who willfully fail to pay their taxes are
doing nothing less than figuratively stealing money from
those citizens who do pay their rightful public debts.
How will visitors find
historic old Hillsboro?
Over in Alamance County a State Archives Department
spokesman has said that as many as two-thirds of the po
tential visitors who’d like to see the historic Alamance
Battleground site and museum are missing out on it.
The reason is that there are insufltcieht directional
signs to point out the location of the historic site, and
federal and state regulations are very restrictive on erec
tion of signs on this interstate federal highway.
Historic Hillsboro will be additionally isolated from
the traveling public with the imminent completion and
opening of Interstate Highway 85.
There is much of the heritage of colonial America and
North Carolina that would be of great interest to the visi
tor to Hillsboro—much that he'd like to see if he knew
about it.
It is not here suggested that a series of billboards or
Burma Shave-type signs be sbught, urging the motorist to
turn off into historic old Hillsboro. But there certainly
must be some sort of pehnissable and effective directional
signs that may be erected in the public interest along the
new interstate artery and which will serve the needs of
the traveling public. i
It is now the job of Hillsboro citizens to make the ef
fort to see that such 'directional aids are secured, just as
interested Alamance citizens are apparently working to
ward this goal, also.
Ntwiwin,i Notwcf ...
Fluoridation
'white paper'
notes inaction -
on motions
A civil term of Orange County
Superior Court scheduled to open
September 25, more than one
month hence, -will test the sin
cerity of motive of the adminis
tration of the Consolidated Uni
versity of North Carolina.
For that will be the fourth
civil term of court to be held
since the University, through its
legal counsel, the State Attorney
General, filed motions to strike
and dismiss a lawsuit to prevent
fluoridation of the Chapel Hill
public water supply.
If no attempt to have a hear
ing on this motion is made for
this term of court the University
should stand convicted in the
public eye of bad faith in its
plans for fluoridation of the wa
ter supply. This is admittedly a
negative editorial approach to
the campaign for fluoridation.
But the record of inaction over
the past 11 months gives some
reason for this feeling. Here is
the record.
In the winter of 1960 the
Chapel Hill a Mermen appealed
to the University for the sec
ond time in a decade to take
the step recommended by all
major medical and public
health authorities of fluoridat
ing the local water supply.
Following considerable public
controversy and a postal poll
that showed customers favored
the proposal three-to-one the
University administration an
nounced this would be done in
the fall of 1960.
One year ago tomorrow, Aug.
18, Manning A. Simons of Chap
el Hill filed a 73-point legal com
plaint to prevent the pending
treatment. The University sus
pended its plans to fluoridate
until the lawsuit was settled. On
Sept. 23 and 24, 1960 the Uni
versity, via Asst. Attorney Gen.
Horton Rountree, filed motions
to strike almost all of the com
plaint and to dismiss the action
on technical grounds of improp
er service of the lawsuit on the
defendants.
In November a special term
of court was held for the pur
pose of hearings motions. No
effort was made to have the
University's motion heard. An
other term of court was held
in January. Again nobody
sought a hearing on these mo
tions. Another term of civil
court was held in the spring.
Inaction.
The third quarterly- term of
court is scheduled next month.
The lawsuit filed by Mr. Simons
cannot be heard until the motion
is aired and ruled upon. And the
motion cannot be docketed for
hearing in court until somebody
asks for a hearing on it.
Mr. Simons is obviously not
going to seek such a hearing, for
he is winning his lawsuit by de
fault. The attorney general’s of
fice has told Hie News in the
past that it is ready to argue its
motion at any time. But nobody,
apparently, has asked that the
case be put on docket. This is a
simple step. Write a letter. Make
a telephone call.
Last Aug. 25 The News da
dared editorially: "We urge
the University to show Its good
faith In moving toward fluo
ridation by quickly filing a
formal reply to the lawsuit.
Than it will be up te the plain
tiff to show whether or net ho
fears an open hearing on the
(See NOTEPAD, Page 2) •