Newspapers / The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.) / March 28, 1985, edition 1 / Page 1
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The News-Journal The Hoke County News - Established 1928 The Hoke County Journal - Established 1905 Volume LXXVI Number 49 RAEFORD, HOKE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA $10 PER YEAR 25 CENTS Thursday, March 28, 1985 Industry recruiter is named By Ed Miller Local resident John Howard was hired Monday as Hoke Coun ty's first full time Economic Developer. The Raeford-Hoke Economic Development Commission chose Howard after screening many fine applicants, Commission Chairman Tom Howell said. "After weighing all cir cumstances, we think we have made a good decision. We are eager to go to work as soon as possible on making the economic outlook of Hoke County good," Howell said. As per a motion by Economic Commissioner and Raeford City Councilman Vardell Hedgpeth, Howard was hired for $25,000 per year. Howard will fall under Hoke County's personnel policy, said Hedgpeth, adding that the Economic Commission will fur nish him a car and that there will be a six-month probationary period placed on him. A review by the economic com mission at the end of the six month period will determine if the proba tion will be extended or revoked, said Hedgpeth. According to Howell, Howard . will also have planning respon sibilities as dictated by the Economic Development Commis sion. Howard will begin work on April 1, said Howell. The new 45-year-old recruiter has a good background in develop ment. Howard worked for American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) from January 1962 until May of 1980, he said in an interview Tues day. He has a B.S. Degree in In dustrial Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute. While with AT&T, Howard held various "interdepartmental assignments." He began as a communications craftsman and ended his career with the company as a staff manager. In between, he was an engineer ing associate, a sales supervisor, a national account manager, an in dustry specialist, a district plant supervisor, a district operations manager and a product manager with AT&T. After leaving AT&T to settle in Hoke County, Howard owned and operated Howard Clothiers in downtown Raeford for three years. Howard will begin his work for the county by drawing up a budget for the Economic Development Commission for presentation to the Hoke County Commission and by going over some outdated material being held on file at the Raeford-Hoke Chamber of Com merce office. Howard will also be working to get to know the management of ex isting local industries and businesses to let them know he is working for them, he said. Since the death of Earl Fowler in May of last year, Hoke County has not had an organized industrial recruiting effort. Fowler, who was the director of the Chamber, was on a limited budget and split recruiting time with local problems. Most of the Chamber duties are now being handled by Executive Secretary Beverly Pasternak and by volunteer committees. Hoke County has not landed a new industry since 1979, when Faberge settled in Raeford. Developer John Howard MkXo by Pun Frederick Hot morning Raeford Policeman Earl Tindall and Volunteer Fireman Tommy Pickler survey fire damage to a house at East Fifth Avenue. According to Raeford Fire Marshall Terry Tapp, the fire, which started last Tuesday morning, did about $10,000 damage to the house. The house was being rented to Cathy Bratcher, said Tapp. Most of the actual fire damage was held within the kitchen area of the house, but there was heat and smoke damage throughout the house, said Tapp. There Is a possibility that a small hotplate in the kitchen shorted out and started the fire, he said. Expanded phone service tied to economic future Local telephone service between the Raeford exchange and Fayet teville would insure the future economic survival of Hoke Coun ty, about 20 "concerned" residents and officials told Carolina Telephone Company representatives Monday. The group, which is hoping to launch a grassroots campaign to connect the 875 exchange to Fayet teville and Ft. Bragg, noted that the service must be established to open the county for new residents and taxpayers. "Not having the phone service is one of the main reasons that this county is In the economic shape that it is," state Rep. Daniel H. DeVane said. Hoke County is ranked 100 in North Carolina in per capita in come and has a jobless rate of almost 12*70. Supporters of the switch in telephone service are hoping to connect Raeford to Fayetteville without an increase in the Fayet teville rates or a vote by the Cumberland County customers. "A vote in Cumberland County would kill us," Hoke County Manager William Cowan said. Currently Carolina Telephone is using a "matrix" method to establish the rates for the proposed service. Those proposed rates would in crease Raeford residential and commercial phone rates by 57% and Fayetteville phones by 13%. "Once EAS (Extended Area Ser vice) is established calling will in crease 10 times," Carolina Telephone representative Ben Ward said. Because the calls would no longer be long distance, many Hoke County residents would call "Time of Day" or to find out what's on at the movies, Ward said. Many county residents would also be calling doctors and needed services in Cumberland County, Hoke Department of Social Ser vices Director Ken Witherspoon said. .4 "This county has about 2,500 elderly people on fixed income, who need to call medical specialists and the hospitals in Cumberland County," Witherspoon said. A recent 30-day survey of the calls between the exchanges shows that 72.8% of the 4,761 customers on the Raeford exchange called Fayetteville at least once, Carolina Telephone local rate manager David Tharrington said. Although only 8.7% of Fayet teville's 90,188 customers called Raeford, 7,800 persons called at least once during the survey period. Only about 30% of the Raeford customers made six calls or more during the period. "It takes about six calls per month to make the change worth while," Ward said. Carolina Telephone determined 38,315 calls were made during the period from Raeford to Fayet teville and $28,399.26 was generated. Overall long distance billing be tween the exchanges runs about $53,000 per month or about $634,000 per year, Tharrington said earlier. On Monday, Tharrington con firmed the proposed rate increases would generate an additional $1 .76 million per year for Carolina Telephone. However, although the firm has estimated local calls would be 10 times greater, Tharrington said there are no accurate figures to establish the cost of the equipment needed to connect Raeford to Fayetteville. "That seems like a lot of equip ment you're trying to recover," state Sen. David Parnell told the telephone representatives. Parnell helped Parkton obtain local service with Fayetteville in 1976, and no vote was taken on the larger exchange. Additional equipment needed to connect those exchanges cost Carolina Telephone $250,000, Tharrington said earlier. Parnell and DeVane are working with the local group to obtain the service, and, along with legislative See PHONE, page 10A) Child video testimony endorsed by Hoke DSS board By Ed Miller Members of the Hoke County [Department of Social Services (DSS) Board passed a resolution endorsing a proposed state law allowing children to video tape their testimony in cases where emotional damage may result from direct courtroom questioning. "It's hard for an adult to stand the pressure when a lawyer is firing questions at you and trying to trip you up. It almost has to leave ir reparable scars on a child," DSS Director Ken Witherspoon said Monday. According to the law, being pro posed to the General Assembly, children under age 13 tesifying in cases of child abuse, sexual molestation or incest may be allowed to be questioned on closed circuit television in a room away from the courtroom. Only attorneys for the prosecu tion and defense and "those per sons whose presence would con tribute to the well being of the child" would be allowed in the room, a draft of the proposed law says. Only attorneys and the judge may question the child, the draft says. Persons operating the equip ment must be behind a screen, mir ror or in an adjacent room. Defendants will be allowed to view the scene from the courtroom and will be allowed to confer with attorneys at "appropriate inter vals" during questioning, but can not be seen by the child. The law also provides for video taping tesimony. Those persons allowed in the room for closed circuit broadcasts and the judge can be present for the taped session. There are guidelines set up in the draft for the taping of such ses sions. The approved resolution will be taken before the Hoke County Commission at their next meeting. In an 1982 Hoke County case, charges had to be dropped, after a six-year-old alleged rape victim failed to answer questions in an open courtroom. Although the child had repeatedly answered questions earlier before law enforcement of ficers, prosecutors and counselors, she was 'unable to testify in court because of pressure from family members and the public, court of ficials said at the time. Had a video tape law been in force at the time of the trial, the outcome might have been dif ferent, prosecutors have said. Member of the DSS Board recessed their meeting until next week when the balance of the 1985-86 budget can be fully ex plained. The budget was not passed Mon day. According to Witherspoon, the total budget to be presented to the County Commission is over $1.43 million. The total budget is about 18% over last year's and will require about $100,000 more from the county than last year, said Witherspoon. "I suspect there will be some cuts," said the director. "The things that really frustrate me about the budget are the things 1 have no control over," said Witherspoon, adding that public assistance programs like Medicaid, Aid to Families with Dependant Children and foster care are con trolled by the number of applicants and not a set amount of funding. ? Around Town ?y Sam Morris The weather has been cool for the paat couple of days. The rain helped and will cut down on the forest fires in the state. I don't know for sure how much rain we had over the past few days, but ? would guess about two inches. The forecast is for the temperatures to dimb to the high 70s during the week. This should be good for all outdoor activities. Not only are we talking .about recreation, but also work. . a. f * Robert Gatiin, a member of the Raeford Kiwanis Club, told me Moaday that members of the club | now have tickets for sale to the dr (See AROUND, page 11 A) Inside today Nothing shy about this eolt. ru stood trill for ? picture Uke he has son h ham In him. For mora about this eolt and his friends, set pagt on*, section B of Today's News- Journal. Governor to be here as Chamber speaker North Carolina Governor James G. Martin will be the guest speaker at this year's annual Raeford Hoke Chamber of Commerce din ner,. a spokesman said Monday. Martin will be the guest of honor at the annual dinner to be held on May 10, Chamber spokesman Steve Parker said. The governor's office confirmed Monday that Martin would attend the dinner and would be in Raeford from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Preliminary plans on the details of the dinner were sketchy Mon day, Parker said, noting that the Chamber had been waiting on the Governor to confirm a definite date. Tickets will be sold to the event. and the Chamber is hoping to ac commodate more than 400, Parker said. The annual dinner comes at a time when the Chamber is attemp ting to boost its membership, and hopes are that the governor's ap pearance will stimulate interests in the drive. Currently the Chamber is active ly involved in such projects as the widening of U.S. 401, establishing direct telephone service with Fayet teville, developing a college satellite in Hoke County, remodel ing the Aberdeen-Rockfish Railroad depot, promoting downtown revitalization and co: ordinating the North Carolina Turkey Festival. Here May 10 North Carolina Governor James C. Martin is scheduled to he the guest speaker at the Raeford Hoke Chamber of Commerce Annual Dinner to be held on May 10. Depot gifts being urged Members of the Raeford-Hoke Chamber of Commerce are en couraging interested residents to speed up donations to the restora tion of the depot, a spokesman said this week. "We want to get started with the work, and we need for people to go ahead and make their donations," acting Chamber Director Steve Parker said. About S6.S00 has been received as of Monday, but much more is needed to make a significant effort in the restoration, Parker said. Under the present plan, the 80-year-old depot would be remodeled to hoote the economic development office, the Chamber (See GIFTS, page 11 A)
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