The Hoke County News - Established 1928
The News-Journal
Established 1928 ~
The Hoke County Journal - Established 1905
RAEFORD, HOKE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA $10 PER YEAR 25 CENTS Thursday, September 8, 1983
Still needed
Although this Montrose windmill cuts a desolate figure, it prohahly could still be used today to slake the thirst of
the dry soil and to combat rising utility cost,' how ever, the mill has fallen on had times and would need work to
become operational. - . ... ......
'Commission Approves
By Sherry Matthews
Hoke County Commissioners
voted unanimously Tuesday to
build a new animal shelter facility
at the city landfill.
The decision came after a site
feasibility study was submitted to
H the commissioners by the Laurin
burg architectural firm of Jordan,
Snowden and McVicar.
The firm was called upon to
study both the landfill site and a
2.5 acre tract of land at the end of
North Main Street.
In a letter, written to the com
missioner, architect Sam Snowden
recommended that the new animal
shelter be built at the landfill.
Around Town
By Sam Morris
Maybe the hot weather has final
ly left us for the year. I didn't ever
& think that 90-degree weather
would be considered cool for
North Carolina. This has been the
hottest summer that I can
remember. It should become
cooler as fall is only three weeks
away.
The rain helped and should
make the soybeans that are still in
the fields. Many farmers are now
harvesting corn, but the yields will
? be low. 1 heard last week where
one farmer in Iowa expected a
yield of 15 bushels to an acre. Last
year the same acreage averaged 150
bushels to an acre. The hot
weather has played havoc with the
corn crop.
The weatherman has returned
from Oklahoma, but I haven't
been able to obtain any figures for
August from him at this time.
Maybe by next week.
?
* * ?
The holiday Monday, Labor
Day, had the city almost closed
down. Many of the stores were
open, but the schools, industries,
county A city offices and the finan
cial institutions were all closed
down for the day.
I There were many people playing
P (Sec AROUND, page .1A)
"I think we should follow his
recommendation and get this thing
behind us," Commmissioner
VVyatt Upchureh said.
The debate over the dog pound
and its new location has been
brewing for over a year with city
and county officials butting heads
with members of the Hoke
Raeford Humane Society over a
site for the new facility.
The Humane Society and its
members favored the 2.5 acre tract
donated to the organization by
Ray Calloway of Elizabethtown
and opposed the landfill site as a
possible location for the new
shelter.
City officials apparently favored
the landfill as the location for the
pound and budgeted money for the
new shelter, only if it was built on
the landfill property.
County Commissioners also
budgeted money for a new shelter,
but did not specify any particular
location.
The landfill site was recom
mended by Snowden after the state
Department of Transportation
(DOT) decided that the Calloway
property might cause traffic pro
blems.
DOT officials noted that a
pound on the Calloway property
could cause access problems into
Giving first day instructions
McLauchtin School principal F. W. Caldwell Jr. tries a little unsuccessful
encouragement on two new first graders last week as school officially
opened for another year. Caldwell seems to be trying to get the new
students to go hack into the building but something outside has apparently
caught their attention.
Ambulance Plan OK'd,
County Enters Service
By Sherry Matthews
As of December 31, Hoke County will be in
the ambulance business, as a result of action
taken by the board of Commissioners Tuesday.
"We have had nothing but problems since we
began contracting the ambulance service out,"
Commission Chairman John Balfour said.
"1 believe we would have better control if the
ambulance service were run by the county,"
Balfour added.
In another move, the commission selected
Hoke Emergency Management Coordinator Bill
Niven to head the new service.
Niven's present position will be merged into a
new office of Emergency Management. He will
serve as the director, and will have responsibility
over rural fire departments and the ambulance
service, County Manager James Martin said.
Although no exact figures had been determin
ed, Martin estimated that the county would have
to spend some $200,000 to get the ambulance
service running.
Included in the $200,000 package would be
the purchasing of new medical equipment and
two ambulances that the county will need when
they take over the business.
At present the ambulance service is owned by
Jim Henley, who has been receiving monthly
more than $105,000 per year from the county as
a subsidy. Henley recently filed a re
organizational bankruptcy because of mounting
bills and apparently dwindling funds.
Henley has been in a financial rut for the past
four months despite a recent February subsidy
increase of more than 63.3%, which hikes the
payment from $60,000 to the present figure.
The county bailed Henley out of financial
woes by approving a new contract that would
allow for a $40,883 increase over last year's tax
payer subsidy and gave the ambulance service
$105,436 to cover expenses.
Two months after receiving the increase,
Henley informed the county board that he
would not renew his contract once it expired in
December.
At the March meeting, Henley cited financial
reasons for his decision not to renew his county
contract.
Since March, the ambulance service has com
piled some $4,700 in judgements for failing to
pay bills, and in early August the service filed
bankruptcy.
According to Balfour, contracting the am
bulance service has been "trouble" since the
beginning.
Although the commissioners agreed to go into
the "ambulance business", they tabled discus
sions on the level of service they should provide
and what size staff they would need.
"I think we should get the input of our county
doctors before deciding," Commissioner Wyatt
Upchurch said.
"I think we should get their feelings on what
level staff we need," Upchurch said.
The commissioners agreed to hold a joint
meeting between the county doctors, the rescue
squad and the county board to discuss the needs
of the ambulance service.
"We need to provide the best service possible
and get as much input as we can," Balfour said.
Presently Henley is providing intermediate
Emergency Technician service, but has been en
couraging the county to upgrade to a paramedic
service.
County officials have said that the increased
service would be too costly and local doctors
believe that it is not needed.
Site For Animal Pound
the on-coming traffic on U.S.
Highway 401 .
In an earlier interview, DOT
engineer Jerry Maddox said that
there were problems stemming
from a right lane that merges
directly into 401 .
According to Maddox, persons
entering the Calloway property
would have to cross into the lane
that is merging onto the highway.
According to Snowden's letter,
DOT officials felt that intersection
was not a safe place.
Because of the DOT report,
Snowden recommended the land
fill property in his feasibility study.
Humane Society Director Jack
McGinnis said T uesday he was not
pleased with the commissioners'
decision.
"I am not very pleased with the
decision, but I guess it is one I will
have to live with," McGinnis said.
McGinnis and other Humane
Society members have repeatedly
opposed the landfill site because of
its stigma as a "dump."
Although opposed to the landfill
location, members agreed to sup
port the site if a "good" facility
were built and animals housed
before the coming winter.
"That is our main goal, to get
the animals into a decent shelter,"
McGinnis said.
Elderly Woman Raped
By Sherry Matthews
Early this week, Raeford police
officers were still investigating the
rape of an elderly city woman, who
was accosted Friday night as she
slept in her home.
Police Chief Leonard Wiggins
said Tuesday the attack apparently
occurred during the early morning
hours as the woman, believed to be
in her late 70's, was in bed asleep
in her Robbins Heights area home.
According to the chief, someone
broke into the back door of the
residence and entered the home.
After the culprit entered the
house and found the victim, ap
parently asleep, he raped her, Wig
gins said.
Although the victim was
transported to Moore Memorial
Hospital, she only received minor
injuries, the chief said.
"No arrests have been made,
hut this case is very much under in
vestigation," Chief Wiggins said.
In an unrelated incident, the
Hoke County Sheriff's Depart
ment arrested a 23-year-old Hoke
man Monday for a rape attempt.
According to the sheriff's
records, James Handon was ar
rested August 29 after he apparent
ly attempted to "physically"
restrain a Hoke County woman in
a grocery store owned by the vic
tim and her husband in the
Lumber Bridge area of the county.
Handon was arrested and placed
under a $3,000 secured bond, but
was released the afternoon of his
arrest in the care of his parents.
Cookie Thief Strikes
The Labor Day weekend and the
days leading up to the holiday
brought a wave of thefts from
vehicles in the Raeford area.
A cookie thief apparently went
on a food binge Monday when a
case of raisin cakes and a case of
moon pies were abducted from a
Sunbeam Bread Truck that was
parked outside the Pantry Conve
nient Store on E. Central Avenue.
Although the culprit's sweet
tooth was apparently satisfied.
Racford Police Chief Leonard
Wiggins said no suspects had been
identified.
The case is still under investiga
tion according to the chief.
In an unrelated incident, Har
rison Dickson of Rt. I, Lumber
Bridge left his truck hood up while
he went in the East Central Avenue
Pantry Store Wednesday to get oil
for his vehicle.
According to Chief Wiggins, -
(See VEHICLE. page 2A)
"I preferred the Calloway pro
perty and do not understand how it
would have created a traffic pro
blem," McGinnis said.
"If a private enterprise were to
come in here and want to build a
convenience store, they would
allow that," McGinnis added,
noting that there would be a higher
volume of traffic for that use than
there would be if an animal shelter
were on the property.
McGinnis believes that the com
missioners used the feasibility
study as an excuse because they
"wanted" the shelter built at the
landfill.
tScc ANIMAL, page 3 A)
Inside Today
Horsing around
Kids visiting Hetsy-Jeff Penn,
a 4-H camp in Reidsville, were
introduced to a lot of outdoor
activities that they had never
participated in before in
cluding horse-hack riding.
After hours of practice these
kids, enrolled in the horse
hack riding class, strutted their
animals in a rodeo to entertain
the rest of the campers. We
take a look at the camp on
page l-R of today's News
Journal.