' 25 <^VIgw4
The Hoke County News - Established 1928
Volume LXXIV Number 50 RAEFORD, HOKE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA
25
The Hoke County Journal - Established 1905
S10 PER YEAR Thursday, April 7, 1983
Not just clowning around
The Franzen Brothers Circus, with colorful downs, elephants, lions, and
' high wire acts, performed Friday night in front of two sold out audiences.
The circus, which was sponsored hv the Raeford Kiwanis Club, collected
a little over SI. WM) for the Hoke County Children's Center. The money
came from advanced ticket sales, as well as box office sales. The show
was so overcrowded that a third performance was held. Over 2. (KM) peo
ple attended the circus, which was according to Coordinator John
Howard, a pleasing performance. Howard also said that he was pleased
with the support that the project received.
| Photo by Terry Houston ]
County To Confer With City On Pound
J By Sherry Matthews
Two county representatives will
meet with Raeford officials in an
effort to speed up a decision on a
new animal shelter.
Members of the Hoke County
Commission voted Tuesday to find
out if the city is interested in par
ticipating in the construction of a
new facility before a final decision
is made about the proposed
rA pound.
The first step toward the goal of
a new shelter would be to see if the
city wants to participate in any way
with the building of a facility,
Chairman John Balfour said.
The battle over whether or not
to build a new shelter, which has
been lingering for over a year,
seemed stalled last year when the
pound was removed from the
^ budget.
However, a committee set up in
February to study the issue recom
mended last month that the com
mission construct a new shelter on
a 2.5 acre site on North Main
Street.
At that meeting, the commis
sioners made no decision on the
pound but did request that the
donated property be looked into.
D
Around Town
by Sam Morris
Do you think the farmers will be
able to get into the fields before
summer? If you haven't driven
^through the country lately, then
you don't realize the condition of
the farms. It seems that they are
the wettest I have ever seen for this
time of year.
Record rainfall for February
and March was the cause for this
condition, but also we haven't had
the usual winds of March.
The forecast is for more rain
Thursday and this will just add to
the bad conditions of the land.
^Maybe it will soon stop raining
every week.
? * t
The number of cars that were
parked around the ball park last
Friday would indicate that a
sizeable crowd turned out for the
circus. Cars were parked in the lot
beside my house on Jackson Street
^for the first time in many years for
"an event at Armory Park.
(See AROUND TOWN, page 12A)
County Attorney Duncan Mc
Fadyen informed the commis
sioners at Tuesday's meeting that
he had been in contact with the
property's owner Ray Calloway
and that he had agreed to donate
the property directly to the county
instead of to the Humane Society
as he had originally intended to do.
Calloway has asked that the
county honor conditions he re
quested upon donation of that pro
perty for the dog pound site.
The conditions Calloway asked
for were that the county pay for
the appraisal of the land, and the
map and survey, thai he be able to
keep the timber that is on that
land, and finally that the access
road be run half on his property
and half on the county tract.
Nothing was decided about the
Calloway property because the
commissioners felt they should
first see if the city wishes to par
ticipate in the building of a new
shelter.
The decision to send Chairman
John Balfour and County
Manager, as spokesmen for the
commissioners, to meet with the ci
ty council on the dog pound situa
tion was unanimous.
In an unrelated matter, the com
missioners unanimously voted to
accept the Parks and Recreation's
decision to name Denise Melton as
Recreation Director for Hoke
County.
Melton, who has been filling in
part time, has a degree in Parks
and Recreation and fulfilled all the
requirements requested for the
job. Recreation Commissioner
Walter Blue said.
The commissioners agreed with
the decision and made Melton's
job effective as of April 1.
In other matters of interest, the
state Department of Transporta
tion(DOT) presented its 1983-1985
Secondary Road Improvement
Program with the priority list for
the counties road improvements to
the commissioners.
The priority list for Hoke Coun
ty includes these roads:
?I. Slate Road (SR) 1414,
(McPhail Road),
--2. SR 1320, (Harmony
Heights),
--3. SR 1482 and SR 1483
(Shawtown North),
--4. SR 1240 (West Hoke),
--5. SR 1480 (Hillcrest Dr.), and
--6. SR 1478. SR 1484. SR 1485
(Shawtown South).
The roads on the priority list will
be serving 176 homes in the Hoke
County area.
In other unrelated matters, the
commissioners:
--Endorsed a request by Hoke
Representative Danny DeVane to
join Senate Bill 377 passed by the
General Assembly in 1977 protect
ing property owners from "road
hunting".
?Voted to turn over a van ob
tained from the Children's Ceater
for buildings and grounds use.
-Adopted and supported a
resolution from the North
Carolina Association of County
Commissi oners(NCACC) on
House Bill 426 allowing for addi
tional sales tax for the county.
-Rejected a matching grant
fund for the purchase of Emergen
cy Medical Supplies, and
-Accepted a bid from O'Neil
Motors of Raleigh for the purchase
of a 15-passenger van for use by
the Recreation Department.
Prior to the vote
Hep. Danny DeVane ( standing ) and other members of the Hoke County
Legislative Delegation met here last week with McCain supporters prior to
the vote hy the joint appropriations committee.
McCain Supporters
Will Keep Fighting
Members of a Hoke County
committee will renew efforts to
keep McCain Hospital operating
as the state's last tuberculosis
sanitorium despite a recent ruling
from a joint Legislative Ap
propriations sub-committee panel
to convert the facility to a 300-bed
prison medical unit, a spokesman
said Tuesday.
"We're unsure what our plans
are, but we don't believe that it is
over until the final vote in June,"
spokesman Tom Howell said.
Howell, along with Betsy Ann
McNeill and other supporters, met
Friday morning with members of
the joint appropriations sub
committee in support of upgrading
McCain to a 150-bed chest special
ty hospital.
Within minutes of the appeal for
McCain, members of joint Base
Budget Committee on Human
Resources voted to close facility
and convert it to a hospital for the
care of ill inmates in state prisons.
The measure will be brought
before both houses of the General
Assembly in June and must pass by
a voice vote.
According to the motion that
passed, McCain's closing will not
affect the present staff of the
facility. Those workers will be
either employed at the new prison
unit or at other state facilities, the
measure says.
The committee also voted to ap
prove a small tuberculosis care unit
for critically ill TB patients at the
Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro.
McCain supporters do not
believe the Goldsboro facility will
be adequate for proper care of
drug resistant and "hard core"
tuberculosis patients.
Rep. Sidney Locks, who serves
on the sub-committee, voted
against converting McCain, and
along with other members of the
Hoke County legislative Delega
tion, vowed to continue the fight
for the Sanitorium.
F ood Stamp Lines
F orm At Hoke DSS
By Sherry Matthews
As a result of new federal
regulations, the Hoke County
Department of Social Services
(DSS) was flooded Friday with
food stamp recipients trying to col
lect benefits.
The new federal regulation,
which is part of the 1981 Omnibus
Reconciliation Act passed by Con
gress, requires almost half the food
stamp recipients in Hoke County
to complete a five-page form
before receiving benefits.
The law will become effective
across the country in June or Oc
tober, but is being tested now in
Hoke and Pitt counties.
Because of the new law, DSS
employees must process the five
page forms within 30 days and also
evaluate all the returned forms.
Employees must also try to help
those recipients who can't com
plete the forms by themselves,
Hoke County DSS Director Ken
Witherspoon said.
Of the 586 monthly reports sent
out, about 100 clients need
assistance in filling out the forms,
Witherspoon said.
Last month, 55 county families
were dropped from the food stamp
program because their forms
weren't filled out in time.
These people must now go
through the application process
again in order to get the food
stamp benefits, Witherspoon said.
As a result of this and a backlog
of work that has piled up on DSS
employees, food stamp recipients
had to pick up their food stamps
rather than recieve them in the
mail as usual.
The flood of people, 1,393
clients, waited in line last Friday
and again on Tuesday to get food
stamps, including those cut off last
month.
Pitt, the other test county, isn't
fairing much better, Pitt County
DSS Director Ed Garrison said.
The new regulation hasn't wiped
out the non-eligible people like
Congress had hoped but it has add
ed more paperwork for the DSS
employees, Garrison said.
Pitt, like Hoke, has had to cut
off 50 to 60 clients because they
did not meet the regulation
deadline.
According to Garrison, Pitt
started testing in February, and
has not seen any improvement yet.
The administrative and client
related problems due to the new
regulation is "staggering",
Witherspoon said in an earlier in
terview.
According to Witherspoon and
Garrison, the forms are supposed
to help eliminate food stamp fraud
and save the taxpayers some
money.
The regulations, however, do
not really cut people off, simply
add more paperwork to the already
overloaded stack, the DSS direc
tors say.
Clients dropped from the food
stamp list can re-enter the system
by applying for the benefits again
at the first of the month, Withers
poon said.
If all those clients cut from the
list reapply then the benefits will be
restored and the taxpayers will
(See FOOD STAMPS, page 12A)
'Sting* Leaves Man
Holding Handkerchief
An apparent flim-flam scheme
with a Hollywood flair, left a
Hoke County resident duped last
week, without money and holding
a paper filled handkerchief.
Bruce C. Morrison reported to
the sheriff's department that while
he was pumping gas. two men ap
proached him.
One man offered to give Mor
rison and the other man S50 to
provide him with transportation.
The suspected con artist showed
the two men all his money and ask
ed that they do the same, the
sheriff's report showed.
The other man and Morrison
produced their money and placed
it in a handkerchief.
All the money was supposedly in
th& handkerchief that the first man
had produced, but a change took
place which Morrison did not
notice, the sheriff's report shows.
According to the report, the
suspect told Morrison that he
would meet him at Morrison's
house in about an hour.
The two men never showed and
Morrison was left holding a hand
kerchief stuffed with rolled up
paper, reports show.
The case is still under investiga
tion.
In an unrelated case, a breaking
and entering at West Hoke School
led to an apparent feast for some
one.
A classroom window was
broken out in an apparent effort to
gain entrance to the school's
cafeteria, the sheriff's report
shows.
The culprit's stomach was ap
parently the driving force behind
the theft because all that was
removed from the lunchroom was
meat, milk and bread.
The sheriff's report indicated
that the case was still under in
vestigation but that no suspects
have been found at this time.
Inside Today
Hamburger, prime rib and
roast all foods most of us enjoy,
but how many of us really know
how much work goes into the
beef that winds up on our
table. We take a look at the
Hoke County beef industry and
the cattle raisers, themselves,
on Page IB in today's News
Journal.