Newspapers / The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.) / Dec. 30, 1982, edition 1 / Page 12
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Editorials Good investment Members of the Hoke County Commission did a good thing when they decided several years ago to financially back the Chamber of Commerce's efforts for industrial development here. Even if one looks at the commission's continued support purely on its economic merits, it has been a sound investment. Last year the almost $34,000 spent by county taxpayers for the Chamber's industrial search program returned more than $4.7 million from just one industry. That is a return of approximately 138 times the annual invest ment. The industry is Faberge, which probably would not have located here had it not been for the Chamber and the efforts of Executive Director Earl Fowler. During 1981 Faberge returned to the county and the City of Raeford $41 1,000 in taxes, paid over $4 million in local salaries and purchased more than $350,000 from local merchants. The firm also employs 500 fulltime workers and about 100 part time employees. Faberge Corporate Vice-President August A. Zitzman said, dur ing interviews last week with The News-Journal, when Raeford was selected, the firm had been looking at 12 other sites in North Carolina and locations in six other states. The Hoke County Chamber of Commerce and Fowler made the difference, Zitzman said. Had Faberge decided to locate elsewhere, the old Summerfield Inc. textile plant building could have been purchased by an out-of state firm whose officials were considering the facility for a warehouse operation. That company would have employed 16 persons. Now, Faberge has filled the void left by textile plant's shutdown and replaced the jobs of the more than 500 workers laid off when the Summerfield facility closed. The Chamber's efforts also opened the door to industrial diversi ty in Hoke County and lessened the community's dependence on the stability of the textile industry. Beset by problems like a sewer moritorium and a sluggish economy, the Chamber has had little to show for its recent in dustrial development efforts. However, the tangible benefits from Faberge continue to provide local taxpayers with an abundent return on their annual investments put towards finding new industries. Now that sewer problems seem to be reaching a conclusion, and the current recession is apparently easing, perhaps the Chamber can do it again. ? We hope 1983 will be another great year for Hoke County, which would be made even brighter if the Chamber's economic develop ment efforts net another industry like Faberge. i Housing an asset It is good rfews thai grcxtfed wiH-fmally be 6rokeirrn January on ? 78 units of income subsidized housing here. ; Two projects, which will pump $2.2 million in construction : money into the local ecomony, will be architecturally designed and carefully managed by the Raeford Housing Authority. Although the housing authority has been organized for several years, until now its board members have been able to do little more than talk about housing in theoretical terms. Under an arrangement with the Hoke County Commission, the Raeford Housing Authority has jurisdiction over the entire county, and after the First of the year, authority board members plan to hire ' their first executive director as well as staff members to man a <- fulltime management office. Raeford will be unique because no other housing authority in North Carolina has avoided the entanglements of ownership or has been able to concentrate its efforts entirely on management. Officials hope the separation from ownership will provide strength to management, and help the authority maintain high quality developments. The new housing developments will also be overseen locally and Jnot by owners from other areas. J; In addition, if projects are not being run properly, county ?residents can complain directly to elected officials to remedy pro blems. I Perhaps prompted by changes in federal regulations governing public housing and by tight money, developers plan to construct solid, high quality structures on nicely landscaped sites. With the planning and thought that has gone into these first pro jects for the authority, it is apparent that the developments will be an asset to this community and a model for other areas of the state. Properly maintained public developments will also let industries interested in locating here know that Hoke County citizens care about housing and about the quality of life for all its residents. | Happy New Year! ?Cke <~Ylevod - journal / m*M unary D C| KT 4ET e NATIONAL NEWSPAPER association ASSOCIATION IWT Tt? <?> ?( RMfMl, N.C. 21376 119 W. Pwiii Athm i to , Pw Ymt? n.M ? MmUm? S4.2S 3 Moath* ? $2.25 LOUIS H.FOGIXMAN, JR. PAULMCUON EMtor HKNMY L. BLUE Pro^?ctk,?! W AMEN N. JOHNSTON Ntml i MLLUNDAU Ajaoctete ErfHor t MM. PAULMCUON Soctetyl IAMC.MOUB CoaMtatfacI ANN W1M AdTwtktog hpiwtolhi MWMmi) A?tox (jhristtftos Sale. -fjcvtV M?tw ! ?6tei5 ! HMVMI Z> '. C?6*Si I >}i( A?</ fictl! Utters To The Editor Exception taken Dear Editor: Since your editorial, "A Costly Move," (December 16), was not signed with a by-line, it was necessary for me to call The News Journal in order to find out the writer. I should have guessed it to be someone who was not familiar with the circumstances involved in my request for relief from what I believe to be an unfair water and sewer problem. First of all, we are on three separate water meters. One serves the old boilers and bath house with commodes, showers and lavatories. Since sewer is a part of this, 1 do and should pay our fees. No argument with rates, service, or whatnot. A second meter serves the office . with- water fountain, sinks and * ;cQmmpctes, no argument there. The third meter serves the blockplant where we use raw water in our mixer from the batcher and water for the boiler to make steam. The steam condenses, and runs in to a catch basin (not the City storm sewer), and is pumped onto our land via a sump pump, never going near the city storm sewer. In fact, there is no storm sewer on our property, to my knowledge. The water used in the manufac tured block is carried to the job site, each block having a moisture content of approximately 30. Since nothing goes into the city sewer system, I'm simply asking for a variance to the statute that re quires a sewer tax and a water rate. I know of several gardens, pools and lawns in Raeford that do not pay a sewer charge and I believe that we should have some relief. As you say, it may not amount to many hundred of dollars but in the depressed building economy, that's a lot. It was mentioned in the meeting that service stations might fall in the same category that we do. I don't think so because that all must have toilet facilities and cer tainly those in town discharge into either the storm sewer or the sanitary sewer. I do not think there will be a problem that the City Manager and I can't solve as to estimated charges since 1979 because of a defective meter. We will use the newly installed meter which they are reading weekly as an adjust ment basis. I hope this brings you up to date on a situation which some have at tempted to blow out of propor tion. FIRST WOMAN MAYOR. Electing women to public office is not really a new trend. Back in 1887, the town of Argonia, Kan sas, elected 27-year-old Susanna Medora Salter as its mayor. A ST1KING OMMISSION. Believe it or not, one book of the Bible never mentions the name of God. The book is Esther. NON-VOTING PRESIDENT. Gen. Zachary Taylor, 1 2th Presi dent of the United States, never voted in a presidential election, although he could have voted in ten of them. Our Company has been in operation in Raeford since 1913 and we begin our 70th year soon. While not a large employer at the present time, only 20 people, for many years the Oil Mill was the in dustrial backbone of the City. Times change, economic condi tions change and often it's necessary to look backward as well as forward in order to see things in their proper perspective. Sincerely, Hoke Concrete Works Clyde Upchurch, Jr. President & General Manager Greetings from Beirut To The News Journal, 1 am currently assigned to the Hmm 263, which is the marine squadron on duty at Lebanon. We are part of the 24th MAU detached from Camp LeJeune, North Carolina and New River Marine Corps Air Station. . .... I recently received * copy of the November 18 edition of The News Journal, and being away from Raeford, off and on since 1979, 1 was amazed to read how much the town/city has grown. The paper brought a flood of past memories, and a long awaited opportunity of contact with old friends. Alton Ray White Jr. 4cpl USMC Beirut, Lebanon Share Your Christmas Dear Editor, Please allow me to publicly thank the people of Hoke County who made our Share Your Christmas wonderful again this year. This community's caring folks gave generously of their resources and enabled Share Your Christmas to help over 180 families in some way. This means that hundreds of people were touched by the true spirit of Christmas. I could never thank personally all those who gave. Many gave money (it was used to buy new toys, books, socks, fruit and can dy), others gave of their precious just-before-Christmas time, and others shared clothing, toys, cann ed goods and household items. If only our loving, generous spirit can go on all year long... Our community has made a good start towards "Peace on earth, good will to men." Sincerely, Kay Thomas J 'MUlWW ""?* ??? ?? Puppy Creek Philosopher Dear editor: Some people are critizing Con gress for giving itself a raise of $8,1 38 a year during the lame brain, I mean lame duck, session, making a member's salary now $69,800. With the country in the shape it's in, the critics say, with high unemployment, inflation, lots of bankruptcies, more lay-offs feared and the government head over heels in debt, doesn't this seem like an odd time for Congress to be voting itself a pay raise? The critics don't understand. Congressmen are Fighting inflation in the only way they've figured out. You see, nation-wide inflation is something Congress doesn't know what to do about, other than refer it to a committee. ? : But on an individual basis, Con gressmen have discovered that there are only two ways of combat ting inflation; either spend less or earn more. Choosing the latter. Congress is thus setting an example. To spend less means further drying-up of consumer buying, which causes less manufacturing, which means more lay-offs, more firms going out of business. But to earn more, that's the key, and Congress has decided to lead the way by giving itself an $8,138 raise. Have you stopped to think what a boost it'd be to the economy if everybody got an $8,138 raise? Why that's enough to make the downpayment on a new car. Some people will say, "Yeah, but that Congressional pay raise comes from borrowed money, bor rowed from us tax payers who're already faced with a 150-billion dollar deficit." Such people should go stand in the corner. They should choose their corner carefully because some Congressman may be there ahead of them. Yours faithfully, J. A. Letters Policy Letters to the editor are encouraged and welcomed. Writers should keep letters as short as possible. Names, addresses and telephone numbers should be included and all letters must be signed. Names will be printed, however, other information will be kept confidential We reserve the right to edit letters for good taste and brevity, letters should be received by The News-Journal by 5 p.m. on the Monday of the publication week. It's a SnaN WorU hyMUOaa I was writing cutlincs for the pic ture of the Hoke High and East Lee freshman girls' basketball game of the week before theO holidays started when I thought about the business of Women's Lib and some of the things that go with it, like changes in names to make them gender-less. For examples, policemen are now police officers , firemen are - well, firefighters, and chairman is chairperson. The latter, incidental ly, is wrong for people who follow |V the rules of parliamentary pro-'J cedure, Mary Evelyn DeNissoff in formed us in one of her Pinehurst columns published in The Pilot of Southern Pines. The parliamentary procedure rule says it's "chairman," and if a distinction of sex is to be made in case a woman holds the position, she's "madame chairman", not "chairwoman," or "chairperson." Anyway, I was tempted, but not for very long, to write "freshper son" instead of freshman. But this would have been going to ex tremes, like calling mankind "per sonkind," or a manhole a "per sonhole." ? ? ? Christmas time always reminds me, for some strange reason, of in- 1 ) cident, but a very small one, that happened about 55 years ago. We were living in the Bronx, a borough of New York City and a very high percentage of the families living in the Bronx then were Jewish. One evening my mother and I went to a butcher shop, a common institution then in the days before the supermarket arrived. When the ^ butcher gave her her package of ~ meat, she said, "Merry Christmas." Immediately, a woman standing nearby, her face lighting up, said, in surprise, "Ah! A Goy! She said 'Meddy Kadismiss!'" Goy is the Hebrew word for "gentile," a non-Jew. ? ? * V A comedian told this joke about his mother on a Johnny Carson show a while back. She and a friend were talking about honesty. The argument got around to powerful temptations. "So what would yoti do if you found a milhon dollars in the street?" the friend asked skeptical ,y< . "I would give it back," mother Q replied solemnly, "if 1 found out a poor person lost it." A recent newspaper story struck another blow at the old myth that practically everybody over 60 can't do anything but sit in a rocking chair and watch the world go by. ? The story reported a senior 'jl citizen has been passing his regular physical required every two years by the FAA to renew his pilot's license. The pilot has been flying regularly since 1926. He is 90 years old. As another old saying goes, "Just because there's snow on the roof that doesn't mean there's no fire in the furnace." J I also could mention the men and women in their 60s who ride on fox hunts around the Moore County Sandhills, which is very strenuous for anybody. 1 also heard that one man in his early 70s from the Virginia Hunt Country actually rode-and completed--the Grand National steeplechase at Aintree, Scotland. That's six miles Tj of the hardest kind of riding, and horsemen consider it an ac complishment just completing the course, even if the rider comes in last. There are loads of stories about strenuous activities indulged in by senior citizens. Like Buster Crabbe, the 1932 Olympic swimm ing champion and later star of an adventure film series. He works ? fulltime as a traveling sporting goods salesman-and swims three miles a day just for exercise. He's about 73 now. For more, you can watch the Senior Olympics held every spring at North Carolina State Universi ty. A#WSVkE i J Here's ? quartet of wfehet for yo?: hcaMb, joy, wmMi mm! km. >
The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.)
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Dec. 30, 1982, edition 1
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