The Hoke County News - Established 1928 VOLUME LXX NUMBER :i KAEFOKD, HOKE COUNTY, NORTH CAROM N \ - journal 25 The Hoke County Journal - Established 1905 S8 PKR YEAR Till HSI) \Y. M U Itt. I97H Around Town BY SAM C. MORRIS The rain chart that appears each month in this paper should give us some interesting figures the first of next month. It doesn't seem to matter what kind of saying you use. it doesn't keep it from raining. The reports for the remainder of the week don't look good and as we say in this column it seems to rain on Wednesday. ? * * Mrs. Clyde Knox, president of the Raeford Woman's Club, was by the office Monday and was telling me of the progress made so far on the club's campaign to send needy children to camp this summer. The club sent 35 youngsters to camp last year and hopes to do the same this year. The cost per camper is S50 and this includes items that are needed by each one. They have reserved places for 32 and Mrs. Knox said this was on faith at this time, but they hoped to reach the 35 figure by the middle of June. Many organizations and busi nesses are sponsoring one or more of these youngsters arid Southern National Bank is in first place with the sponsorship of five campers. If you would like to sponsor a camper as an individual or your business, do so, get in touch with Betty Knox or any member of the Raeford Woman's Club and they will give you complete details. The campers leave the week of July 4th so the club wants to have plans complete by the middle of June if possible. So open up your pocketbook and your heart and give a youngster a week of fun. A couple of weeks ago, seven candidates were in a race for three seats on the Board of County Comissioners. Monday night the present board was faced with a million dollar school budget and the resignation of the county manager who has been on the job about five months. These and the other problems faced by this board makes one wonder who were the winners and losers in the primary on May 2. Inflation and the federal govern ment getting into local business makes the job have more and tougher problems. Thank goodness we have people who take time to serve their county. * ? * In an announcement elsewhere in this paper the city council has found a replacement for Bob Drumwright. As the city brings in a new manager the county starts looking for another one. * * * The annual meeting of the Raeford-Hoke Chamber of Com ^Herce was well attended and the *^Peal served was excellent. Everything moved along in clockwork order and the night didn't seem as long as it has at other meetings. The talk that was given by Dr. Mills was very informative and some of the things he said should be heard by everyone in this nation. Read the write-up of the meeting in this paper and maybe some of what he said will be quoted. The Chamber of Commerce is founded on free enterprise and from what the speaker had to say. maybe we chamber members should take a second look before we take all the hand-out from the government. Anyway it was an enjoyable night. * ? ? I notice that the price of mailing a letter is going up from 13 cents to 15 cents. If this increase follows the usual pattern it will mean that mail will take a day longer to arrive. As this is being written on Tuesday morning I am still waiting for a letter that was mailed from Fayetteville last Friday. f. Maybe if we would go back to the piny post card and the two-cent amp the mail service would speed up again. Of course this would mean postal workers wouldn't be under union contract and someone would be outside looking for their job if they didn't put in a full day's work. The four and five day week (See AROUND TOWN. Page 1 5) City Hires Manager, Martin Resigns '.X Ronald Matthews Raeford got a new city mana ger this week. The city council voted Tuesday morning to hire Ronald Lee Matthews of Golds boro to fill the position formerly held by Robert Drumwright, who resigned in March. Matthews won't start work here officially until July 3. Bill Sellars has been serving as interim city manager. Drumwright resigned in March after two years here because he said he was ready for a change. The council reviewed about 100 applications -- one submitted from as far away as Seattle, Wash. ? before decid ing on Matthews. The city agreed to pay him $21,000 a year, cover moving expenses, and provide him with a car. Matthews. 37. has served as director of ihe Goldsboro Re development Commission since 1971. Prior to that he served with the Housing Authority of Statesville and Winston-Salem. A graduate of Guilford Col lege, where he majored in sociology, he has done post graduate study at Appalachian State University, Winston-Sa lem State University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a native of Winston-Sa lem and has been active in the Civitan and Kiwanis clubs, in Cub Scouts, and in little league tootball and baseball. He and his 'wife, Barbara, have two sons. Ronald Lee, Jr., 17, and Donald Steven, 15, and a daughter. April Dawn, age 7. Ronald was recently nominated for appointment to the U.S. Air Force Academy. His wife is a licensed practical nurse, employed by a private physician. Matthews has tendered his resignation in Goldsboro. While there, he has been responsible for an $8 million urban renewal project and for Downtown Com munity Development activities. He has worked closely with all departments of the city, parti cularly Public Works. Planning. Engineering, Financial, Person nel, Purchasing, Human Affairs, Inspections, and the Manager's Office. A member of many profes sional organizations. Matthews has also been an active church man. belonging to Providence United Methodist Church of Goldsboro. In 1977 he was namd Kiwanian Man of the Year by the Goldsboro Kiwanis Club. Matthews lists as his hobbies: singing, dancing, camping, fishing, and hunting. He is presently singing with a male quartet. Burlington Bloodmobile The Red Cross Bloodmobile will visit the Burlington Mills Plant on Tuesday. May 23. The Bloodmobile will operate between the hours of 11 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. While Burlington Indus tries will provide the majority of the donors, the public is also invited to come and give the gift of life. CHAMBER OFFICERS - New officers were installed during ceremonies at the .? 1st annual dinner meeting of the Raeford-Hoke Chamber of Commerce in the cafeteria of Hoke High School on Monday night. The new officers arc (left to right): Neill McFadyen, president; Julian Johnson, first vice-president ; James Wood, second vice-president ; Frank Baker. secretary-treasurer; Hilly Beaver, director; and Duncan McFadyen. director. F ederal Regulations Blasted At Annual Chamber Banquet "There are too many people trying to protect us in agriculture." Dr. William Mills. Poultry Exten sion Specialist with N.C". State University, told a large crowd Monday evening at the 31st annual dinner meeting of the* Raeford Hoke Chamber of Commerce. "Federal officials come to you and say: 'We don't know anything about your industry. Tell us enough so we can regulate it." " Dr. Mills said. He said the federal goven ment is determined to try to regulate every aspect of our lives. For example, he said one agency is declaring that bacon can cause cancer. "You would have to eat 4b. 000 pounds of bacon a day to get the same amount of nitrates that the rats got in those experiments." he said. "Our sense of values, to me at least, is suspect in some areas. We have to determine what's reason able. If you eat enough food. I guarantee it will kill you." He said government regulation is endangering the tree enterprise system. In regard to cancer re search. he said scientists are put ting the skull and crossbones on food items which have harmful agents in amounts of one part per billion. "One part per billion. That's a fifth of Jack Daniels in 250 million gallons of water." Dr. Mills said. "Where I come from even the Baptist Temperance League doesn't consider that a mixed drink." Agriculture has made tremen dous progress in this country. Mills said. "We have succeeded in freeing many people to pursue other careers." he said. "Six percent of the work force in this country is involved in the production of food and fiber, compared to 50 percent in Russia." Health Fair Next Week Hoke County's first Health Fair will be held Wednesday. Mav 24. from noon until 7p.m. at the National Guard Armory in Rae ford. Twenty-one exhibits are planned. The fair is being sponsored by the Hoke County Health Center in conjunction with 17 other health related agencies. Mid State Lung Association technicians from McCain Hospital will be there to administer breath ing tests. The Department of Social Services and Mental Health will show films, and Health Center nurses will be checking blood pressure. Other agencies participating are: Raeford Police Department. Ambulance Service. Hoke High's Health Occupations Club. Hoke Sheriff s Department. Employment Security Commision. Parks and Recreation. Rescue Squad. Fire Department. Hoke County 4-H Club. Hoke's Chapter of the American Red Cross, Raeford Home Visitor Nurse, Agricultural Extension Services. Since 1950. the price of broilers has gone up live cents a pound, cojnpared to f?0 cents for beef, and HO cents for pork, he said. "No other industry in the nation can match the efficiency of the poultry industry." he said. North Carolina is third in the nation in the production of turkeys. Mills told the group. And he said he expected the state to rank first before too many years. The ''inner meeting was held in the cafeteria at Hoke High School and included an installation cere mony for new chamber officers. The Hoke High Chorale, under the direction of Mrs. Neil A. McNeill, gave an excellent performance. The group was called "a little chamber of commerce" by chamber vice president Robert Gatlin. who praised the way the chorale had represented the city and county both here and abroad. New chamber officers for the coming year are: Neill McFadyen. president; Julian Johnson, vice-pre sident: James Wood, second vice president; Frank Baker, secretary treasurer. New directors are: Billv Beaver. Jack Bradford. Bobby Gibson. James Wood. Edwin Has ty. and Duncan McFadyen. Among accomplishments by the local chamber of commerce listed in the annual report was the establishment of a Downtown Re development Commission, opposi tion to the proposed Military Operation Area in Hoke County, the compiling of a detailed report on Highway 401 from Haeford to Fayetteville. assistance in obtaining a new industry to replace Summer field. and cooperation with county wide leaders in an effort to discour age the potential closing of McCain Sanitarium Raeford Man Found Dead Near Dillon Authorities in South Carolina continued their investigation this week into the death of a Raeford businessman whose body w as found last Tuesday in a ditch beside Interstate near Dillon. S.C. Dillon County Sheriff Roy Lee said that Glenn Currie Gibson. 43. appeared to have been dead for a week or more. The cause of death was not immediately determined. An autopsy was orded. Gibson reportedly lett Kaetord on a fishing trip to South Carolina on March 30. His body was discovered in a shallow , w ater-filled ditch about 40 feet from the highway by a couple who had stopped to change a fiat tire, according to authorities. Hoke Sheriff Dave Barrington said Gibson had not been reported missing. The victim told his family he was leaving on a fishing trip when he left Raeford in his car March 30. Barrington said. The car has not been found. Barrington said Gibson was seen in Raeford as recently as April 23. The father of five, Gibson lived in the Rock fish area of Hoke County. He owned an automotive supply and repair business and was Congressman's Office Visits Here Friday The mobile office of Congress man Charlie Rose will be at the Raeford Post Office from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. this Friday. May 19. Rose's district representative. Rip Collins, will be on hand to answer questions and convey comments to the Congressman. under indictment by a Robeson County grand jury for larceny and conspiracy to commit larceny in connection with a 1976 investiga tion by the State Bureau of Investigation. Gibson was never brought to trial. But the charges were not officially dismissed, according to reports. He and six other men were arrested after a stolen tobacco shipment was discovered near the Hoke- Robeson line. State Official To Visit Local School On May 23 Raz Autrv. superintendent of Hoke County Schools will join area teachers, principals and local school board members in a meeting with State Superintendent Craig Phillips May 2.1 at the high school here. These area educators will meet with staff from the Department of Public Instruction in order to set budget priorities for the 1979 - 81 biennium. According to Phillips, the state education agency seeks input and ideas regarding public school needs from local super intendents. local school board members, teachers, support per sonnel representatives, and lay citizens from across the state. The meeting will begin at 9 a.m. and will involve four to six area teachers during the morning session. The afternoon session will involve area administrators, board members, and other support per sonnel. Each session will last 2 to 2V> hours. For more information on the meeting contact Gladys S. Britt, (947-587l ) director of the Regional Education Center for Region IV. rnIm Hoke Coun,y Board Of Commissioners Monday night CoumvM thC resi8nation of tin Mdnager James E. Mar Martin assumed the post just arv hT!< ago in mid-Janu ZuHJ WOrked in account ief's [X uCCepting the man* that he ni 1Cre and exP,a'ned accmint ? t0 g0 back into County! Cumberland This is not a decision I have the?board ' "orning of his decision to leave Personality conflicts did not '?Tf't^0 thu decision- he said. , i there had been personnel L?JrS' the decisions would them mU easier" he told HnSrXpreSSed his tha?ks to !h? * County and the board for the support and co-operation he -a* given during hisS here 30 eSlgnat,on is effective June thihhn .Balfour- chairman of tlnn said that theresigna him ??We?Mn0 rea' surPr?to hln V (Martin and Balfour) had discussed this move before ^thought we could convince him He said Martin had worked Hoke r re-roof, ng South Hoke School. _ school board also pro posed the purchase of a com attend'0 be u^d for scheduhng attendance and eventually as i teaching aid. The cost of the computer for the coming fiscal year is $20,000. S Board Chairman K.L. Gibson explained that the implementa tion of the computer system would eliminate the need for one secretary at the high school at a savings of SN.OOO. This would bring the cost of the computer down to $12,000, Gibson said. Ben Niblock, director of social services, requested in writing that the Hoke County Board of Elections office and Four County Community Action be moved from the County Office Building and that the social services department be allowed to occupy the extra space. To receive federal fund ing, the physical size of the social services office must be increased, according to infor mation given at an earlier board meeting. The Hoke County Association for the Developmental^ Dis abled requested a budget of S5.000 for the coming year. The money would be used to pay x^driver to transport adults (S^^TIN RESIGNS, Page 15)