<~Vlew6 The Hoke County News - Established 1928 * VOLUME LXV111 NO. 18 RAEFORD. HOKE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA 25 $8 PER YEAR THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1976 Around Town BY SAM C. MORRIS The weather for the past couple of days brings to mind that fall is just around the comer. Someone said that the temperature Tuesday morning was in the 40s. This is really a fall morning. Anyway it's about time with school starting and the first college football games coming up Saturday. Robert Gatlin hasn't brought in his rain chart, but besides the cool weather which will be welcomed by students returning to the class rooms, rain is certainly needed in the state. We are better off here than in other parts of the state. , Someone asked me this week if the City of Raeford was going to place restrictions in the use of water. So far I haven't heard anyone at City Hall mention that it was needed here. So maybe the rain will come before it is needed. Let's hope so! * * * The Hoke High Bucks lost a close one here last Friday night before a good crowd. They travel to Pine Forest this week and return here Sept. 10 to play Red Springs. If you haven't joined the Booster Club be sure to do so. Go by the drug stores and they will be glad to take your money. Be a Booster. ? * ? The Open House held by the Hoke County Schools last Sunday afternoon was well attended. Some went to see the new construction and others went to see where their kids would be this year and meet the teacher if they were present at the school. * * * The following letter is self - explanatory: Dear Sam, ? In view of all the recent controversy surrounding some of our law enforcement officials, it may be hard for some of our fltizens to keep their faith in our system and its people. We are very pleased to report to you a side of the coin that many times gets over - looked in all of the hoopla and excitement of our age. This is an example of a law enforcement agency acting with speed, decisive ness, hard work, and sound judgment to solve a crime. Just this week our business was broken into and several items were stolen. We reported the incident to the Raeford Police and within two days our merchandise was returned to us. We really never expected to see our goods again! Now, we know that there is nothing sensational about this case, and the head-line to it could hardly compare to others related to law enforcement officers that have appeared recently. We just want people to know that behind the uproar, furor, and sensationalsim. many times you will find hard - working, dedicated, honest men quietly going about the task of keeping the peace and up - holding the law . Our hats are off to the Raeford Police Department . Zeke Wiggins. Officer Harvey Young, and all who assisted in the investigation. They did a fine job and are well deserving of our continued respect as are. 1 am sure, many others in agencies presently undergoing extreme criticism. Thank you. The Staff of Wood Furniture Company ? * ? A class ring was brought by the office this week and it will be returned to the rightful owner if he or she will come by and identify the ring. This much will be said about it. that it is a Fayetteville High School ring. N-J Office Shut Monday The News ? Journal office \ill be closed Monday. Sept. 6 for the Labor Day holiday. Deadline for social items. * church and community news, regular features, and infor mation on upcoming events will be noon on Friday. Sept. 3. for next week's issue. County Signs HUD Contract , $460,000 Windfall Is Official Hoke Men Among Six Four Hoke County men, in cluding an assistant elementary school principal, are among six persons arrested last week in connection with the theft of S35.000 worth of tobacco from Robeson County. Those charged following an investigation by State Bureau of Investigation agents are Wendell Ronnie Branch, 25, of Raeford, assistant principal of Scurlock School; Glenn Currie Gibson, 42, of Rockfish; James Thomas Jones. 55, of Rt. 1, Shannon; William Sidney Drakeford, 40, of Marsh vine; Kenneth W. Jacobson, 19, of Cumberland, and James Walter Watson, 38, of Raeford. According to SB1 spokesmen, a tractor trailer rig loaded with tobacco was stolen from a St. Pauls truck stop Aug. 19. The truck, with its load intact, was later recovered from a wooded area near Raeford. School Supt. G. Raz Autry said that Branch agreed to take a leave of absence from his teaching duties until a hearing scheduled for next Wednesday in Lumberton is held. Detective Quits City Det. C.E. Campbell has resigned from the Raeford Police Depart ment effective this week. Police Chief V.L. Wiggins announced. Campbell. 26, who has been a city police officer for the past three years, was promoted to detective and assigned to juvenile investiga tions a year ago. He resigned to accept a position with another law enforcement agency. Wiggins said. Off. H.E. Young was named to replace Campbell as detective. Troopers The two state troopers charged with rape, crime against nature and kidnapping in connection with an incident involving a Hoke County woman Aug. 19 are slated for a preliminary hearing here on Sept. 1 7 in District Court. Jimmy D. Thigpen. 24. who was assigned to the Hoke troop in April, 1975, and Wiley W. Snow Jr.. 24, a Raleigh patrolman, were both released under $25,000 com bined bond after they were served with warrants last Thursday morn ing by Sheriff D.M. Barrington. Both men. who have resigned from the Highway Patrol, are accused of kidnapping Mrs. Bobbie SIGNS CONTRACT County planner L.G. Simpson [left] and T.B. Lester, county manager, look on as Ralph Barnhart signs the contract for $460,000 in community development funds which Hoke County was awarded this year from HUD. County Buys Armory Land County officials handed over a check for $22,500 Monday as part of the share of the land purchase tor the proposed new National Guard Armory which is expected Mr be constructed here sometime be fore 1980. The $22,500 in county funds is part of the agreement worked out with city officials earlier this year on costs of the project. Under the plan, the city is paying 25 per cent of the costs, or $7,500 of the price of the land. The land, a five acre site bordering U.S. 401 -bypass west of the city at Teal Dr., was purchased from developer Julian H. Wright. Under a federal assistance pro gram to replace older and outdated ' Hearing I R. Magee. 19. from her Old Trail Mobile Home Park in the early morning hours of Aug. 19 and raping her and committing crime against nature. Barrington refused to say where the alleged assault occurred. The investigation, which was conducted jointly by the sheriff's office. State Bureau of Investi gation. internal affairs division of the Highway Patrol and Dist. Atty. E.W. Grannis Jr., was kept in secrecy for a full week. Thigpen. a Maxton native, was suspended from duty immediately after the alleged assault was re ported. patrol officials said last Armory facilities, localities are required to provide a minimum five acre tract with water and sewer connections and assume 12.5 per cent of construction costs. Col. Elbert McPhaul. of the engineering office of the Adjutant General's office of the National Guard in Raleigh, estimated the cost of the new structure at about $404,000. The local contribution, not including the land purchase, would amount to $58,000 under the matching formula. The new facility would contain about 18.000 total square feet. Under a "reversion" clause, the old Armory building on Central Ave., built during the '20's. will be >ept. 17 week. Attorney Duncan McFadyen said he and the firm of Moses and Diehl have been retained as defense counsel. Capt. H.B. McKee. Thigpen's troop commander, said Thigpen was on duty when the alleged offenses occurred and that Snow, though not on duty and not assigned to Hoke County, was in uniform and riding in Thigpen's patrol car in the early morning hours of Aug. 19. The troopers, both bachelors, were friends who entered recruit school together, according to the patrol. Rose Introduces Bill On Rural Energy Office "The energy crisis is not over for rural Americans," Rep. Charlie Rose (D-NC) said Tuesday as he introduced legislation to establish a Rural Energy Office in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "American farmers are called on to provide increasing amounts of the world's food and feed and fiber; yet the fuel and energy needs of these citizens are not being ad dressed by our government." said Rose. "Families who want to spend their lives working on the land are being forced to find other work or abandon rural areas because the energy-related costs are too exhori bant. ' The Rural Energy Office will assess the fuel and energy needs of citizens who reside outside stan dard statistical metropolitan areas, looking to such needs as home heating and cooling, transportation agricultural production, electrical generation, conservation, and re search and development. "We are not advocating the establishment of a new bureau cracy," Rose assured his colleagues. "Energy experts at USDA. presently scattered over eleven separate agencies in the Department, will be directed to staff the Rural Energy Office, therefore mobilizing the expertise already found there." Rose noted that his constituents in Eastern North Carolina, faced with increasing shortages of natural gas, have been disappointed by actions of the Federal Energy Administration, an organization tuned to urban pressures and the interests of the oil companies. "If we expect rural Americans to maintain our farm land and our forests and our agricultural pro duction and our rural way of life, we must help them survive." Rose said. "The Rural Energy Office will serve them and us. too. as a result, as its start helps identify problems and sources of energy related to all of rural America." Rose is chariman of the Subcom See ROSE, page 1 I turned back to the county for its use. Under the timetable for replac ing older Armories, Raeford would come up for funding in fiscal year 1979, according to McPhaul. The Raeford facility was one of 23 in the state targeted earlier this year as "sub-standard" under military re quirements. The 401 -bypass location was approved by National Guard of ficials as satisfactory this spring. Holiday Closings All city and county government offices, including the courthouse and board of education building, will be closed all day Monday, Sept. 6 because of the Labor Day holiday. The Hoke ABC store will remain closed all day Monday. There will be no regular resi dential or business delivery of mail on Monday. There will be no city garbage pickups made on the holiday. Pickups usually made on Monday will be made Tuesday. Sept. 7. The regular monthly meeting of the county commissioners is scheduled for 9 A.M. Tuesday, Sept. 7. due to the holiday. The Raeford city council will hold its regular monthly meeting on Mon day. Sept. 13. Chairman of the board of county commissioners Ralph Barnhart. inked his signature Monday to the contract with the Department ot Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for $460,000 in community de velopment funds, making Hoke County's windfall official. The funds, awarded under the Community Development Act, will not be sent directly until the first of one of three projects planned late last year is ready to begin, county manager T.B. Lester said. The discretionary community development funds are to be used for services geared to low - income neighborhoods. Hoke County's application outlined extension of sewer lines to the North Raeford area, rehabilitation of substandard housing and construction of a neighborhood community center in the South Hoke area. The amount approved for the sewer project was $280,000. 590,000, less than the original request of SI 20.000, was approved for the housing rehabilitation, and $90,000. less than the $100,000 requested, and okayed for the South Hoke center. Neighborhoods named for the sewer extensions in the final application sent this year were Jones Hill. Silver City. Shawtown and North Raeford. all predomi nately black areas north of the citv limits. The neighborhood center for the South Hoke area was estimated on 3,000 square feet at a $75,000 cost, with the remaining $25,000 spent for land acquisition, parking and water and sewer systems. Rehabilitation of existing hous ing was based on improving 40 dwellings at a cost of $3,000 each, but no particular neighborhoods were specified for this phase of the project . Lester said it was his under standing that the sewer project would be the first to be started, since plans for it have already been made in greater detail than the other two projects. "As soon as we get an okay that HUD has all of the paperwork in. we can hire a firm for the sewer project. Lester Simpson (county planner) is checking the details oil how it's all going to be worked out", he said. "The money is disbursed as it is needed, it is not a lump sum payment", he said. "The money will be going into The Bank of Raeford. we don't get it directly, because the revenue sharing funds went into Southern National". This is the first year Hoke County has received a Community Development Act grant. The state was allocated $15 million this year, up $4 million from last year's appropriation. ?<*? IML ??' MEDIA CENTER ?? Almost twice the floor space of the old library, the new Hoke High School Media Center contains 16.000 volumes. The $330,000 building has 3fi carrels. or listening booths, for students who wish to listen to music, literature or language tapes and records. It also has a large screen that may be pulled down to permit film viewing for 200 to 250 students.