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The Hoke County News - Established 1928
VOLUME LXXIV NUMBER 32 RAEFORD, HOKE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA
- journal
The Hoke County Journal - Established 1905
S8 PER YEAR THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1982
v. MUgUr.f'
Remains of Stanley home left by Saturday night fire.
Fire Levels Arabia Home Sat.
A fire early Saturday night
destroyed the home of Mary Stan
ley in the Arabia community.
No one was at home at the time.
Volunteers of the Stonewall Fire
Department fought the blaze, but
couldn't save the one-story brick
structure.
j. All the contents of the Stanley
? * house were destroyed.
Mrs. Stanley's husband. State
Around Town
tfUmlW"
The weather has taken a turn for
^ , summer just when you think that
winter is here for awhile. As this is
being written the temperature is
above 70 degrees and the forecast is
for it to remain this way for the rest
of the week.
I haven't gotten the official
amount of rain, but would say it
was between lA and one inch over
the weekend. This was needed and
should help everyone except the
[? soybean growers.
So get out your sport shirts and
shorts and head for the beach this
weekend.
* * *
The Christmas decorations are
out in Raeford and the lights were
turned on last week. 1 don't know
the day, but first noticed them
Friday night. They look good and
^ help the downtown shopping dis
trict.
* ? *
The new shopping center should
have more stores open in the next
week and this will make for a traffic
problem on the bypass. I under
stand that the city has already been
^ at work to solve this problem and it
seems they are running into a
problem.
There should either be a stop
light put at the entrance off the
bypass or a turn lane should be
placed there. It will be too late after
two or three cars are crushed by a
truck. This is usually the formula
for fixing a dangerous intersection;
wait until a traffic fatality or two
and then the wheels of progress are
W set into motion.
* * *
Someone asked me this week if 1
remembered "Worm" McGill. 1
replied that he used to catch for
Raeford High School. This led into
more conversation about baseball
and where so and so played when
they were in school.
|0 A baseball field was located at
one time in the field across the
railroad track back of the old
county office building. I can't
remember this field, but can
remember hearing tales about hits
and errors made there.
The first diamond I remember
was located near the Raeford
Cemetery, this was in the 1920s.
The new part of the cemetery is
| (See AROUND TOWN, page 15)
Trooper Joe Stanley, was out of the
county on duty at the time, and
Mrs. Stanley was away from home.
The cause of the fire was believed
to have been a "hot spot" in the
water heater.
Members of Mrs. Stanley's Sun
day school class at Raeford Presby
terian Church and other members
of the congregation have been
making donations to help compen
f
sate at least partly for the loss.
Mrs. Stanley was reported stay
ing at the home of a friend. She is
employed at the Raeford office of
Faberge, Inc.
Stanley was assigned to temp
orary duty in Asheville in connec
tion with the traffic generated by
the World's Fair at Knoxville.
Tenn. He has now been transferred
to the State Highway Patrol at
Rockingham.
DUCKS AND GEESE -? Ducks and geese were in Kermit and Mabel
Riley 's pond when this picture was taken Friday. Some of both are the
Riley 's but others, including some Canadian geese, are free-loading. The
Canadians are the birds with the black necks. The Rileys live a few miles
north of Raeford on U.S. 401.
1 Hungry For The Holidays
j Poor Here Better Off
I But Still Need Help
by Warren Johnston
In a small farm house in South
Hoke County, 17 persons crowded
for the Thanksgiving holiday.
The scene was not unusual. It
is one that occurs everyday, al
though on Thanksgiving it was
perhaps made brighter because of
the efforts of some Hoke High
students.
The students collected and pre
sented through the Hoke County
Department of Social Services
(DSS) boxes of canned goods and
fresh foods to this family and 12
others like it in the county.
The efforts of the students
should have raised spirits of the
family, and Filled their stomachs,
but after the food is gone, the same
17 persons, 13 of whom are under
18 years old, will still be crowded in
the small farm house trying to exist
in hard economic times.
The adults in the family, and
many others in the county, are
mostly uneducated, unskilled and
perhaps unhealthy, DSS Executive
Director Ken Witherspoon said.
"Hoke County people want to
work, but there is little here for
them to do," Witherspoon said.
The unemployment level here
has been hovering around 10%,
but Witherspoon and other DSS
staff members guess that a truer
figure would be closer to twice the
official number.
Many county residents find
themselves depending on parttime
and -seasonal jobs and on the??
welfare system to exist, Wither
spoon said.
They are the kind of worker that
waits by the road for the truck to
pick them up and take them to the
fields to work, one DSS worker
said.
They work all day in the fields
and go home. If the truck does not
come the next day, they don't work,
she said.
"They don't know what else to
do," she added.
Although being poor is probably
tougher in the more urban areas of
the state, it is also difficult here.
Witherspoon said.
"It's the hardest on the old
people and the children," he said.
"We know there are deadbeats
out there, but there are more
people who want to work but
can't," Witherspoon added.
Many of the county's poor are
older and have worked all their
lives.
Now that they have become too
old to work, they find themselves
with no assets and no insurance to
cover medical costs.
"They turn to the welfare system
to survive," Witherspoon said.
"They feel like they have earned
it."
One of the biggest concerns of
DSS is the children of the poor,
Witherspoon said.
"We know that there are some
poorly motivated adults out there,
but in many cases you can't avoid
them if you are going to help the
kids," he added.
During October, DSS provided
local residents with $177,000 in
food stamps. *
The stamps went to more than
4,400 individuals of which probably
2,500 were children.
In October there were payments
of 579,696 made for Aid To
Families With Dependent Children
(AFDC) in Hoke County.
Of the 448 cases during the
*? month, 779 of the recipients were
children under 18.
Over 500 of the children receiv
ing AFDC benefits are less than 10
years old, DSS figures show.
More than 63% of the parents
receiving the benefits are less than
30 years old and still of child
bearing age.
Of those parents getting AFDC,
10.5% are 19 or under.
However, the number of children
receiving the benefits has increased
by only 13 since last year during
November, and the parents under
19 have decreased slightly since the
same period, the figures show.
In November, the county had 17
foster care homes which were
taking care of 20 children.
The number of children in the
foster care program has dropped
from 31 a year ago..
"So when you talk about shiftless
and deadbeats, you are talking
about kids," Witherspoon said.
DSS has to look at the total
family needs when awarding aid, he
added.
"Children used to be an asset in
this country. Now, they are a
liability," he said.
When people are poor, they tend
to be unhealthy. And when chil
dren are unhealthy, they tend to
stay out of school.
Uneducated children tend to end
up on the welfare roles.
"It's a never ending cycle,"
Witherspoon said.
"1 don't think that people are
starving here, but there are people
here who are hungry," he said.
There are houses with no run
ning water where residents eat in
the same room with the slop jar, he
said.
However. Hoke County tax
payers should be proud of what
they have accomplished to improve
lives here during the last 20 years,
Witherspoon said.
"People are much better off
today than they were 20 years ago.
The lives of children and adults
have been improved.
"And those who have been
paying the bill, should feel good,"
Witherspoon said.
Local taxpayers are also recover
ing taxes paid to federal and state
governments through the DSS ser
vices.
For a budget of about $6 million,
only $500,000 is paid through
county taxes. The balance comes
from federal and state taxes,
Witherspoon said.
State Offers Reward
A spokesman for Gov. James
Hunt said Tuesday afternoon the
Governor is offering a reward of up
to S5.000 for information leading to
the arrest and conviction of the
person or persons responsible for
the kidnaping or murder of
Florence R. McCray of Raeford.
Police Chief Leonard Wiggins veri
fied.
Mrs. McCray hasn't been seen or
heard from since 11:00 p.m.
August 1 when she talked by
telephone with her mother from her
home on East Prospect Avenue.
Unemployment Rate
Drops Again Here
Hoke County's unemployment
rate dropped in October to 10.3%,
a half percent from September's
rate, the State Employment Se
curity Commission (ESC) reported
Tuesday.
Hoke s total number of unem
ployed was 820 in October.
The county was one of the state's
15 which experienced a decrease in
their rates from the previous
month.
Hoke's work force in October
totaled 7,790 people, of whom
7.150 were employed.
Among neighboring counties,
only Cumberland and Moore
showed unemployment rates lower
than Hoke's, and Scotland and
Robeson higher. Cumberland's
rate was 9.f>%, and Moore's 8.2%.
Robeson's rate was 14.3% and
Scotland's 1 1.2%.
Statewide, the ESC reported the
unemployment rate increased to
9.3% in October from 8.7% in
September.
Donald A. Brande, director of
the ESC Labor Market Information
(Sec UNhMPLOYMHNT. page 15)
??x .rrr
Inside Today\
A
Sandhills Librarian Paul Fu
is working with former resident
Suzanne Linder to write a
history of Hoke County. On
Page I Section II in today's
News-Journal we take a look
back.
DSS Gives Handicapped Children More Aid
by Bill Lindau
Members of the Hoke County
Board of Social Services (DSS)
Monday afternoon approved re
guests for increasing the subsidies
for specialized foster care for two
multihandicapped children.
County DSS Director Ken
\tfitherspoon told the board the
additions will amount to S100
monthly for one child, a boy less
than 1 year old and is severely
retarded mentally and severely
handicapped physically; and $50
pet month for the other, a 2-year
old boy who is physically han
dicapped but considerably less so
than the younger child.
A total each was receiving
before the increases were approved
was $284 monthly. Witherspoon
said the money comes from public
funds but not from the county's.
The board also adopted Family
Day Care policies governing the
operations of Hoke County day
care centers.
The board was informed in
other business by Witherspoon
that distribution of new allocations
of federal surplus cheese and but
ter to people who qualify would
start at 8:30 a.m. Friday and con
tinue on Monday and Tuesday.
The commodities are due to ar
rive in Raeford at 1 p.m. Thurs
day, and local food store owners
have volunteered to store them un
til they are ready for distribution,
Witherspoon said.
People who receive food stamps
will receive vouchers for the butter
and cheese when they receive their
stamps, Witherspoon said Tues
day, and others may apply for but
ter and cheese Wednesday, Thurs
day and Friday.
Witherspoon said the distribu
tions will be made at the DSS office
in the Lester Building on South
Magnolia Street till 4:30 p.m. each
day.
The amount given will be based
on the size of the family of the reci
pient. The county has been
allocated 9,900 pounds of cheese
and 5,112 pounds of butter,
Witherspoon added.
Other distributions would be
made in the future, he said.
The written policies for day care
centers adopted include these pro
visions.
- Family Day Care Home pro
viders are "private providers"
(under private contracts), not
employees of Hoke County. Con
sequently, providers are not eligi
ble to receive county employee
benefits. Providers, however, are
permitted a holiday on July 4,
, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day,
and Christmas Day.
- When a provider plans to close
the Day Care Home for one or
k
more days, the country Day Care
coordinator should be notified
three days in advance, and parents
or guardians should also be given
the same notice so they can make
other arrangements for the
children for the period the home
will be closed.
? Providers are expected to pick
up the children and return them
home at a consistent time each
day.
- Children arc expected to be at
the Day Care Home no later than
8:30 a.m. and returned home no
earlier than 4 p.m.
? - Providers should plan
(See DSS HELPS, page 13)