The News -Journal
The Hoke County News - Established 1928 The Hoke County Journal - Established 1905
Volume LXXV Number 41 RAEFORD, HOKE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA $10 PER YEAR 25 CENTS
Thursday, February 2, 1984
Paving nears completion
County office building workers should be able to
get their feet out of the mud soon, as finishing
touches are being put on the parking lot behind the
Main Street Pratt liuilding. This worker smoothes
out the paving in an effort to complete the rain
delayed project.
Sewer Moratorium
Is Lifted By NRCD
A state ban which has curtailed
industrial development in Hoke
County for more than six years has
been lifted.
After four months of testing, the
North Carolina Department of
Natural Resources and Communi
ty Development (NRCD) has
found that the Raeford's
wastewater treatment plant is
meeting state discharge standards,
City Council members said Mon
day night.
In a letter to Mayor John K.
McNeill dated Wednesday, NRCD
Director Robert F. Helms noted
that the ban had been lifted, and
the city treatment facility was
removed from "non-compliance"
status.
The non-compliance status had
the effect of placing a moratorium
on new industrial customers for
the city system.
The ban was first imposed by
NRCD on November 29, 1977 and
was renewed in September 1980.
Raeford has the only sewer
system in Hoke County, and most
new industries need sewage treat
ment.
"This is great news. I'm
delighted to hear it," Hoke
Chamber of Commerce Director
Earl Fowler said Tuesday.
"I see it as opportunity time for
us to move forward. This will
allow us to proceed with things
that we have had planned for
sometime," he added.
In addition, tough new effluent
pre-treatment guidelines were
adopted and fines were levied, but
not collected, against one in
dustrial user.
In order to get the ban lifted,
present industrial users installed
pre-treatment facilities, and the
city spent more than $1 million on
upgrading the sewer plant.
In the letter to McNeill, Helms
noted that based on data gathered
by the city from September to
December and on the results of
tests taken by NRCD on December
13, the Raeford facility is in com
pliance with final effluent limita
tions.
"I would emphasize, however,
that continued efforts by the city
will be most important to ensure
that adequate pretreatment is
maintained, and that the
wastewater treatment facility will
continue to be operated in such a
manner as to achieve optimum ef
ficiency," Helms wrote.
Raeford is presently running
about 2.5 million gallons of ef
fluent through the treatment
system per day. The plant has the
capacity to handle almost twice
that much, and could easily handle
additional industrial users, city of
ficials say.
Health authorities became con
cerned about the Raeford sewer
problem when it was discovered
that discharges were polluting
Rockfish Creek.
After pre-treatment systems
were installed at both the Burl
ington and Faberge plants, city of
ficials cracked down of the House
of Raeford processing plant.
Over $30,000 in fines were levied
against the plant and additional
charges, which could have
amounted to $10,000 per day were
threatened. However, when the
turkey processing plant began con
struction on a pre-treatment facili
ty, the fines were rescinded.
Recent tests results have shown
that the discharge level of
pollutants is about 10% of what it
was before the plant began func
tioning efficently, engineering con
(See MORATORIUM, page 11)
School Committee Will Make Recommendations By May 1
A study of the physical needs of
the Hoke County school system is
expected to be completed by May
1, residents gathered at LW. Tur-" '
lington School were told Tuesday
night.
? Members of the "Committee of
21," who are studying the schools,
are scheduled to meet with ar
chitects next week and then will
begin developing recommenda
tions for the facilities, committee
Chairman Bobby Gibson said.
The group held its fourth and
final fact-finding hearing Tuesday,
and received a variety of recom
mendations from parents, teachers
? and taxpayers attending the
meeting.
One speaker suggested that
"dynamite" might be the best
solution to correcting conditions at
the aging Turlington School, while
others recommended that the
building be maintained for some
use other than educating students.
? Around Town
By Sun Morris
Now this is the kind of winter
weather that I like. The past
weekend was perfect. As this is be
ing written Monday afternoon, the
wind is blowing and clouds are
coming in from the west.
0 The forecast is for colder
temperatures Monday and Tues
day nights, but after that the nice
weather will continue with the high
getting to 60 by Saturday.
This is perfect golf weather, but
a cold has me confined to the
house for several days.
0 Most folks I talk with these days
will finally, during the conversa
tion, ask, "How do you like retire
ment?" The answer is always the
same. "Fine, nothing like it."
There is one thing that being
retired causes me to miss; that is
seeing folks that come by the of
fice. These people are usually from
out of town and will drop by to say
hello as they are passing through.
? Last week I found a note on my
desk saying that Mr. and Mrs, L.S.
Gordon of Waldwick, N.J. had
stopped by to see me. Mrs. Gordon
is the former Nannie Russell Har
ris, a classmate of mine at Raeford
High School. We started in the
first grade together and finished in
the class of 1933. She was the
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur
Harris, who lived on the Fayet
(See AROUND, page 14)
No one suggested keeping
students in the 49-year-old struc
ture.
The last school gtud^ committee
recommended 10 years ago that
Turlington, then Raeford Elemen
tary, be replaced and estimated the
costs at $3.7 million, Hoke Depart
ment of Social Services (DSS)
Director Ken Witherspoon said.
"1 become frustrated when 1
wonder why I am still standing in
this building today," Witherspoon
told the committee.
However, Witherspoon, who
has children in county schools,
said he had no solutions for how a
county with the tax base of Hoke
would be able to pay for the educa
tional improvements that are need
ed.
"1 would guess that the $3.7
million back then was as hard to
come up with as the $12 to $15
million will be today," he added,
suggesting that the county attempt
r
to get more financial assistance
from the state.
Although one committee
member said she had been told by
a number of residents not to
recommend a tax increase, another
parent pointed out that im
provements could not be made
without increased costs.
"No matter how you figure it,
you can't have one without the
other," the parent said.
At Turlington students are
crammed into overcrowded
classrooms, and 400 students are
required to use inadequate
bathrooms, a teacher at the school
said.
"Forget renovation," she said.
Five classes are taught in rooms
under the gym floor. Trying to get
students to learn in that environ
ment is difficult, another Turling
ton teacher said.
It is equally difficult to teach
physical education classes in the
gym, the school's instructor said.
Students must be restrained and
given activities which will be as
quiet as possible.
"We can't have a physical
education program like we want
because of the noise," she said.
"I was in the last class to
graduate from high school in this
building, and it's all right with me
if you push it down," a Hoke High
teacher said about Turlington.
If the committee's recommenda
tions include the construction of a
new facility, that school should be
built on the Cumberland County
side of Hoke, parent Steve Phillips
said.
Efforts are being made by the
Hoke County Chamber of Com
merce and others to attract new
residents from Cumberland, and a
new school facility in an area con
venient to Fayetteville would help,
Phillips said.
Phillips also suggested that Turl
ington be saved and used for some
type of public facility.
Conditions are bad at Turl
ington, but they are equally bad at
Upchurch Junior High School,
another parent said.
"There is a cesspool under the
library at Upchurch," Jim
Wadsworth said. "I smelled it."
Wadsworth said he has mailed
letters describing the conditions of
the schools to President Ronald
Reagan, both U.S. Senators from
North Carolina, U.S. Rep. Bill
Hefner, state legislators and the
governor.
"We have got to let people know
what our needs are. They are there
to help us," Wadsworth said.
Another public hearing is
scheduled once the committee has
completed its preliminary recom
mendations, Gibson said.
The Turlington hearing, which
drew about 150 residents, was the
last of a series of meetings the
committee has been holding in
schools around the county.
The group will meet Tuesday
with the architects, who have
toured the schools and inspected
their structural conditions, Gibson
said.
Following that meeting, the
committee will begin formulating
recommendations for the needs of
the schools and will suggest ways
of raising needed revenues.
The process is expected to be
completed before decisions are
made on the upcoming fiscal year's
budget, he added.
The committee's recommenda
tions are not binding on the school
board or the county commission.
School Board members Bobby
Wright, Mina Townsend, Ruth
McNair and Bill Cameron, along
with County Commissioners
Wyatt Upchurch and James Albert
Hunt attended the hearing.
Animal shelter on go
This worker Inspects the concrete after floors on the
new animal shelter were poured last week. Over the
weekend, county workers raised the walls on the
shelter. County manager James Martin said he ex
pects the building to be completed by the end of
February.
Four Lane May Get
Annual DOT Review
Although the four-laning of
U.S. Highway 401 between
Raeford and Fayetteville is not on
the schedule for immediate con
struction, the project will be
reviewed on an annual basis, state
Department of Transportation
(DOT) Secretary William R.
Roberson Jr. said.
In a letter to Hoke County
Chamber of Commerce Director
Earl Fowler dated last week,
Roberson said the widening pro
ject would be reassessed "on an
annual basis and will be con
sidered, within funding capability,
for scheduling in future
programs."
The highway project, which had
been funded by DOT in 1971 but
was later dropped, is now listed on
the Example of Needs section of
the 10-year Transportation Im
provement Program.
Presently U.S. 401 is competing
for funds with U.S. highways I,
17, 74 and 220, Roberson said,
(See 401 , page 12)
News-Journal Wins
NC Press Awards
The News-Journal captured two
honors at the annual North
Carolina Press Association
(NCPA) awards ceremony held
Thursday.
Newspaper editor Warren
Johnston garnered first place
honors for editorial writing in the
weekly division.
Johnston received the honor for
three editorials which were carried
the headlines: "James Albert
Hunt, no longer serving," "Hoke
students falling behind" and
"Commission wins point, schools
lose future."
Second place honors in the
weekly division were also awarded
to Johnston for spot news
photography.
The award was made for a photo
of an Antioch fireman taking a
break during a mobile home fire
which erupted on one of the hot
test days of the year.
This year's NCPA contest was
judged by members of the Ten
nessee Press Association.
In the community newspaper
division, 1,101 entries were receiv
ed.
The awards ceremony was held
Thursday afternoon during the
NCPA's 59th Press Institute in
Chapel Hill. Governor James
Hunt Jr. presented the awards.