Newspapers / The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.) / Jan. 18, 1979, edition 1 / Page 1
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f 25 *"Ote ;* The Hoke County News - Established 1928 VOLUME XXX NUMBER 38 RAEFORD, HOKE COUNTY. NORTH CAROLIN A ? - journal The Hoke County Journal - Established 1905 Stt PER YEAR THURSDAY. JANUARY 18, 1979 Around Town BY SAM C. MORRIS The temperature Tuesday morn - ing was 20 degrees, but it was fair ^ and the snow was still to the west of us. From looking at TV the people of the midwest have been in a snow storm. With the closing of the airport at Chicago, it has upped traffic at other places as planes are routed pt other ways. We can control lots of things, but we can't do anything about the weather. Last week a lady came into the It office to renew her subscription to the paper. Pam Frederick got up to assist her, but before Pam could say anything the lady turned my way and said, "How are you Charlie?" Of course I answered "Fine!" ^ Pam finally completed the sub scription form and as the lady went out the door, she could hold her laughter no longer. Now since Charlie Morrison left the post office, this hasn't happen ed as much as it used to. I can put ^ up with being called Charlie, but once when the bank deposited my wife's check to his account, that was going too far. Anyway he now works in the bank occasionally, so this shouldn't happen again. So Charlie, if anyone wants to _ buy an ad from you, go ahead and sell it. * ? ? The comments made in this column last week about the United Fund brought comments both Pro ^ and Con. Most of them were pro and I still think the directors should have a hard look before undertaking a drive next year. The participating organizations cannot operate on a SO percent budget. * ? * I1 Every once and a while a mistake is made in a news story as a price is transposed in an ad and this causes concern to the ones that have to explain the mistake. Last week the story about the police cars had an error and it seems that the city manager had a few phone calls. The error was that the price for two cars was quoted in the article as being for one car. Of course in this time of inflation most folks didn't think a car wouldn't cost $13,000. t but they thought the city fathers were a little off base in spending that much for a car. Anyway the article has been corrected in this week's paper. 1 told the city manager if his phone rang as much as he said that he ^ should know now that people read The News-Journal. I understand that the owner of Raeford Auto Company, Gordon Ragsdale, told someone that asked him about it that the price was right and that the city troopers were going to be riding around in ^ Lincolns rather than Fords. Now wouldn't this make the national news? A reader of the paper sent the following copy of a letter she wrote 1 to the writer of a column in this paper to ? the editor. It is self explanatory and it appears below: January 1 1 , 1979 Mr. Charles E. Friend Professor of Law Campbell College I Buie, N,C. Dear Mr. Friend: Your column printed in The News-Journal here in Raeford on the above date was very helful. The information in regard to helping injured strangers should help some I North Carolinians. However, 1 am writing to object to the preclusive title which com pletely ignores drivers who may also be women. I certainly am not and do not wish to be tarred a "layman." In my belief that criti I cism should be constructive, may I suggest: "Law for All." "A Law7er Speaks." or "Law for Non Lawyers." Signed Mrs. Dianne Williams This writer will not comment on * this letter as was said at the start . it is self-explanatory. ? ? * Soon Tuesday. January 16. 1979 this writer has finished a column on his 61st birthday and hopes to be > writing for many more years if the readers can put up with him. For Multipurpose Additions School Building Funds Asked DUI Charge Results 5 ____ & In Judge's Removal j District Court Judge Joseph E. Dupree was removed from the bench early this week by State Supreme Court Chief Justice Susie Sharp until a charge of driving under the influence made in con nection with an accident last Thursday can be tried. Dupree, who regularly holds court here and in Fayetteville, has been the target of state-wide publi city after his car allegedly struck the rear of a truck on U.S. 401 about eight miles north of Raeford Thursday night. According to the highway patrol, no injuries were involved in the accident which involved Dupree's and a vehicle being driven by William John Gillis of Rt. 4, Fayetteville. Sources said Dupree registered almost .15 percent on the breatha lyzer test. The test was adminis tered about an hour after the accident occurred, according to witnesses. A person is considered drunk under North Carolina law when he registers .10 blood alcohol content or more. According to Sgt. D.L. Minshew of the highway patrol, an out-of district patrolman, Sgt. Blalock, was brought in to administer the test because local breathalyzer operators were not on duty. Investigating officer Joe Stanley filed the DU1 charge following his investigation. Dupree said Monday that he "had no comment to make at this time" concerning the charge made against him. Chief District Court Judge D.S. Carter received notification from Justice Sharp's office Sunday after noon that Dupree was to be removed from the bench. Carter had stated earlier that he intended to continue assigning Dupree to the courts unless he was otherwise advised by the chief justice. An out-of-district judge is ex pected to try the case, and Assist ant District Attorney Jean Powell, who usually tries traffic cases here, will not be the prosecutor. The breathalyzer test results were not filed with the citation Dupree received, although it is common practice of many local troopers to attach a copy to the citation. A spokesman in the courthouse said that Stanley does not make a practice of attaching the breathalyzer reports to his citations, and apparently either practice is considered legal. Dupress has been serving as a district court judge in the 12th Judicial District since 1966. A retired highway patrolman, Dupree is one of the original district court judges. He won re-election in the November general election after having no opposition in either the general or primary races. Judge Dupree Correction Two police cars the City of Raetord is buying will cost S13.243.98. including tax, in all. not SI 3.243.98 for one and SI 3. 123. 98 tor the other, as the News-Journal erro neously reported in last week's edition. The two prices quoted in last week's paper consisted of one before the sales tax was applied and one including the tax. The writer read the figures mistakenly as being the price of each car. Raeford Auto Co. was the successful bidder to sell the cars. Courthouse Nominated For Register Listing The Hoke County Courthouse, built in 1912, has been nominated for inclusion in the National Regi ster of Historic Places by Larry E. Tise. State Historic Preservation Officer. The register is described as a national list of distinctive proper ties worthy of preservation because of their historical or other cultural value. The nomination was submitted as part ot the long range program the Division of Archives and History to identify, document and recognize historic properties in North Carolina. The courthouse is nominated as part of an innovative type of nomination to the National Regi ster -- a thematic nomination. This one is titled "Courthouses in North Carolina." Thematic nominations include many individual properties related through their common his tory. through being examples of a significant* aspect of history or architecture, or as varied com (See COURTHOUSE, page 13) The Hoke County Board of Education Monday night asked the county commissioners for county federal revenue - sharing funds to build a multipurpose addition to West Hoke and Scurlock schools. County Schools Supt. Ra/ Autry told the county board of education last week that the all - purpose rooms would be used for programs as well as a place for physical education activities on cold or rainy days. They also would be suitable for use by the community, he added. John Balfour, chairman of the board of county commissioners, told the school officials that the commissioners couldn't give them an answer Monday night but would as soon as possible. He said the revenue - sharing fund contains just an "X-number of dollars" and that "every (county) agency seems to be running out of space." Later Monday night, the com missioners discussed architects' bids to make a study of current and longrange space needs of county agencies and decided to get two of the three architects to provide more information. The board adopted a motion to table the matter till the February 5 meeting. They are Snowdon & McVicker of Laurin burg. which bid to do the work for S3. 200. and Lee & Thompson of Lumberton, which bid $2,900. The other bidder was Austin Associates of Southern Pines, which bid $11,250. The commissioners' dis cussions indicated the final choice would be between the bidders which submitted the lower figures. A statement regarding use of the present National Guard Armory building after the new armory is built is one of the items of information the commissioners want. Besides the school officials, about a dozen other people attended the meeting with the school officials. On request more than a half of the visitors not on the school board expressed their support of the board's request by raising their hands. Dr. Riley Jordan, chairman ot the school board, told the com missioners the two rooms were considered the present primary need in the school system. He suggested $80,000 be provided each year for the next four years. Autry told the commissioners the units would cost about $160,000 each. He w as replying to a question asked of him by Balfour. Autry said West Hoke and Scurlock are the only schools in the countv. except J.W. McLauchlin Elementary School which contains the grades for the youngest students, including kindergarten, which do not have such facilities. One visitor, not a school board member, told the commissioners, that at West Hoke "we have no place to put the children" on rainy or very cold days when they are not in class. Another indicated the extra space is needed at Scurlock part ot the time for the cafeteria. The speaker said the last children served at lunch do not get out of the regular cafeteria till 1:10 p.m. The reason is there's not enough seating in the cafeteria, he said, adding the school needs a little larger place to eat. Scurlock has 5b0 students, he said. Ex-Hoke Social Services Head Says Public Awareness Of Services Grew The following letter was written Monday to Sam Morris, general manager of The News-Journal, by Ben Niblock, who served as direc tor of the Hoke County De partment of Social Services for five years till this month when he started serving as director of the same department in Johnston County. The letter explains the Social Services programs, the change of attitude of Hoke County people toward public assistance and the growing awareness of the people of the kinds of services the depart ment offers. "AFDC" Niblock mentions stands for Aid to Families with Dependent Children. Dear Sam: 1 hope you will allow me to reflect and reminisce over the five years that I was privileged to spend as Director of the Hoke County Department of Social Services. When Jean and I moved to Hoke County on January 7, 1974, pretty soon 1 discovered that public attitudes and concepts of Social Services were pretty much what you would expect to find in other communities in North Carolina and throughout the nation.- In my first few months in the county as I began to speak to various groups relative to Social Serivce programs, I found that the most common conception of what social services was and what it had to offer was AFDC to mothers and children born out of wedlock. Very few persons seemed to be aware of the many non financial programs such as foster care for children, adoption serv ices, services to enable the elderly to remain in their own homes, receive medical care, counseling for children with disciplinary problems in the home, learning difficulties in school, etc. However, I have no ticed or at least I think I have, quite a significant change in public awareness as far as what programs are actually offered are concerned. While I would not pretend that we do not have some persons that misrepresent their situation and fail to tell the truth regardless of whether they are applicants or recipients of AFDC, Medicaid, Food Stamps. Title XX services, Aid to the Blind services or just county general assistance. As time went on. 1 did become convinced that incidents of fraud and abuse of our programs was very minimal and that at least I am convinced, that at least 95% or better, of all of our recipients and applicants for our various pro grams of assistance are just as honest and honorable and more importantly truly in need of the help and assistance that they are receiving or happen to ask for. I suppose one of the hardest notions and myths to dispel is the idea, especially as far as those receiving food stamps are concern ed that they are all, or most all are able bodied, and that they refuse to work; when the truth of the matter is, the bulk of food stamp reci pients do work or else they are elderly people trying to get by on a small Social Security or Supple mental Security Income cneck which a great many of them are receiving less than $200.00 per month. 1 would venture to say, although admittedly I have no proof or particularly sound basis for this contention, but due to better nutrition that the Food Stamp program has enabled many of our county and city families to have. I suspect that this might have had something to do with our eleventh graders doing much better on the competency test than our school officials initially felt would be possible. Actually 1 have personally found very few of Hoke County's citizens that were philosophically opposed to Social Services, but their main concern was to make sure that only eligible persons receive the assist ance that various programs offer. Of course this is right in tune with my own philosophy except 1 would go a step further and say that considering our nagging unemploy ment problem that economically people in the county would be doing themselves a good turn if they would encourage all eligible persons to apply tor Medicaid. AFDC. citizens to continue to support and refer persons to Mrs. Lower)', the IV-D or Child Support Coordinator. Based on current averages for the first six months of the fiscal year, the county is bound to receive around $15,000 to SI 8.000 in revenue from the IV-D program. This is based on the county's share of the AFDC costs being lb.09Sa'o. This added to the seventy five percent federal partici pation and total cost of the program including supplies, tele phone. attorneys fees, etc.. will mean the county will realize a 59.000 minimum net profit from the program. Too often persons tend to not consider the tremendous economic impact that the funds the Depart ment of Social Services brings into the countv has on the local (See N1 BLOCK, Page 13) DONATION - Faberge, Inc., presented Mary Stanley with a check to be used in producing the community musical. "Spring Is For Sure". The musical, to be presented in the spring, will be the first community-wide theatrical effort. Mrs. Stanley said that the group hopes that a community playhouse will grow from the production. Making the first donation toward the S2, 700 needed for production is Gus Zitsmann, general manager of the national Ravette division of Faberge. He said "sure, the multipurpose room would be a place to play, but not just a place to play." School board members Walter Coley and Mina Townsend at tended the meeting with Jordan, but members Ruth McNair and Bill Cameron were absent Autry told The News-Journal Tuesday morn ing in replying to a question at Mrs. McNair had to attend another meeting and that Cameron just didn't get the message that the school board would meet with the commissioners. Cameron told The News Journal that he didn't received till Tuesday morning the message that the meeting would be held Monday night. Cameron at last week's school board meeting refrained from I voting in favor of approving Autrv's recommendation that the entire school board go before the com missioners to request formally the funds. Cameron Was the only member of the board at last week's meeting (See FUNDS, page 13)
The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.)
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Jan. 18, 1979, edition 1
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