Newspapers / The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.) / July 16, 1987, edition 1 / Page 1
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TheN ews -Journal Volume LXXIX Number 13 RAEFORD, NORTH CAROLINA 25 CENTS Thursday, July 16,1987 Hoke County judicial district to be split By June Lancaster News-Journal Staff Writer The General Assembly ratified a bill on June 29 which has caused quite a stir in the legal community in Hoke and Cumberland counties. HB 589 is an act to provide for continued compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and affects the election of Superior Court judges and creates some new judgeships. The bill’s impact on Hoke County is that the county will be split for judicial pur poses between its two larger neighboring counties, Cumberland and Scotland. Now part of the 12th Judicial District with Cumberland, Hoke will become part of Judicial District 16A with Scotland for Superior Court purposes, but will remain part of the 12th Judicial District with Cumberland for District Court and pro secutorial purposes. Upon the effective date of the bill, January 1, 1989, when Hoke is joined with Scotland for Superior Court purposes, B. Craig Ellis of Laurinburg will become the Senior Superior Court Judge for Hoke County. Currently the Senior Resident Superior Court Judge for the 12th district is D.B. Herring Jr. of Fayetteville. The possible complication of Hoke County being divided into two separate judicial districts is not yet known but is cause for concern on the part of local of ficials. District Court Judge Warren C. Pate, who regularly presides over district court in Hoke County says, “The split will cause a lot of confusion and administrative pro blems.” County Manager William Cowan says the board of commissioners was made aware of the ratification of HB 589 at its July 7 meeting. According to Cowan the board requested County Attorney Duncan McFadyen to send a letter to the Hoke County legislative delegation asking them not to support the redistricting. Meanwhile, Rep. Danny DeVane of Hoke County says he has already asked Franklin Freeman, Director of the Ad ministrative Office of the Courts (AOC) in Raleigh “to check into the possibilities of putting Hoke back into the same district with Cumberland.” Dallas Cameron, Assistant Director of the AOC confirms that Freeman has passed on DeVane’s request to the legislature but says that any amendment to the ratified bill is a legislative decision. Cameron says his office is submitting the bill, along with its history and supportive data, to the U.S. Attorney General for pre clearance. The Justice Department will res pond to the state within ^ to 70 days. Some of the questions raised by the bill include the appointment of magistrates and the role of public defenders. Magistrates are appointed by the Senior Resident Superior Court Judge but super vised by the Chief District Court Judge. When those two judges are in different judicial districts, as this bill mandates, complications could arise. Judge Herring said the bill “causes a lot of problems of appointing public officials.” Mary Ann Tally, Public Defender for the 12th Judicial District, says she is assuming that her office “will be responsible for defending indigents in both Superior and District Courts” if the prosecutorial district doesn’t change. However, com plications could arise in coordinating schedules, she said. Judge Pate of Raeford says the bill is ambiguous on some issues including public defenders. He said if the bill results in Hoke County losing access to the Cumberland County public defenders’ of fice it could create a real problem for Hoke. Judge Herring voiced the same concern saying that Hoke doesn’t have enough lawyers to take over the public defenders’ role. Judge Pate says, “Members of the Hoke County Bar Association are quite concern ed about the impact of the bill and are looking at the situation closely.” Judge Pate also said, “As this bill has been enacted, at some point in time Hoke should be aligned with Scotland or Cumberland for all purposes.” Public is invited to ground-breaking The public is invited to a ground-breaking ceremony today (Thursday) for y'utumn Care of Raeford, a 70-bed nursing home facility currently under construc tion on North Fulton Street. Ceremonies will begin at 11 a.m. at the construction site which is near the intersection of North Fulton Street and the 401 Bypass. Included on the tentative schedule of speakers for the event are: Wyatt Upchurch, chairman of the board of commissioners; Raeford Mayor John K. McNeill; Economic Developer John Howard; Alice Glisson, president of the Raeford-Hoke Chamber of Commerce; and realtor-developer Avery Connell. Scheduled to represent the Autumn Corporation are Gerald P. Cox, president, and Doug Sud- dreth, director of corporate plann ing and development. Although an opening date has yet to be set for the nursing home, Cox said in a telephone interview on Monday that he will be able to anticipate an opening date after he visits the site today. Cox said the company will employ local people. Sixty days prior to the opening of the nursing home, an office will be set up at the site where job applications will be accepted and prospective pa tients can apply for admission. Autumn Care had earlier not been able to proceed with con struction because another nursing home company (Britthaven) had appealed a decision made against them by the state. When the 22,000 sq. ft. nursing home is completed, it will have two nurses stations, a physical therapy and recreation area, a dining area and a portico. Of the 70 beds, 24 will be reserv ed for those who need skilled care, eight will be for those who need rest home care and the remainder will be for those who need in termediate care. “This nursing home will be a tremendous asset to the communi ty in providing nursing care for those persons in need and job op- (See HOME, page 11) Nursing home Work is progressing at the construction site of Autumn Care of Raeford. Ground-breaking ceremonies have been scheduled for today (Thurs day) at the North Fulton Street location. The public is invited to the ceremonies scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. School board trims budget By June Lancaster News-Journal Staff Writer Members of the Hoke County Board of Education wrestled for over two hours with a pared-down version of the 1987-88 budget in a called meeting on July 7. Budget cuts imposed by the county commissioners necessitated a reduction of $120,791 in the cur rent expense budget. The board considered several options before accepting staff recommendations with only minor changes. Don Steed, school board business manager, recommended five items to the board which he and superintendent Bob Nelson thought could be cut and yet cause the least disruption to the educa tion of Hoke County students. The largest recommended cut was from vocational education in the amount of $89,241. School of ficials said they were advised by county commissioners that North Carolina is increasing its share of funding vocational education this year and the $89,241 would be received from the state, rather than from local money, so would not (See SCHOOL, page 11) Armed robbers bit convenience store An armed robbery took place at the Buck Stop convenience store on the 401 Bypass early Saturday morning. According to police department records, two black males entered the store at 12:45 a.m. and asked the clerk for change for a dollar bill. One of the men produced a gun and demanded money, then the other man went around the counter and took an unspecified amount of money from the cash register. The case is under in vestigation. Richard Jackson of Raeford reported to police that the wind shield of his 1978 Chevrolet was cracked on July 10 at 10:35 p.m. while the car was parked in the House of Raeford parking lot. Police records state the car sustain ed $200 damage. Several complaints were received by the police department on July 10 around 11 p.m. from residents of N. Jackson St. They reported a grey car, traveling at high speed, drove down the street and did minor damage to several mail boxes. Someone spray painted obscene words on the back of the building at Safeway Texaco on Harris Avenue on July 10. Records show the crime was reported about 2 a.m. Louise Ann White, 26, of Raeford was assaulted on July 6 and was taken to Scotland Memorial Hospital where she was treated for minor injuries and released, according to records at the sheriff’s department. The crime was reported at 10:40 p.m. Tony Lee Locklear of Raeford was charged with assault on a female. Norman Smith Jr. was charged with breaking and entering and larceny in the theft of a VCR from the home of Della Mae Parker of Raeford on July 3, according to sheriff’s department records. Smith was also charged with resisting arrest and obstruction in connection with the crime. In another breaking and entry, a 19-mch RCA color television, valued at $450, and a microwave oven, valued at $125, were stolen from the residence of Henrietta Gibson of Rt. 2 Raeford. The crime occurred sometime between 2:30 p.m. on July 3 and 12:05 p.m. on July 5, according to sheriff’s department records. Someone broke into a trailer on (See CRIME, page 11) Lavetta Horton selected as associate superintendent By June Lancaster News-Journal Staff Writer Hoke County Schools have a new associate superintendent. Lavetta Horton was selected for the post by the Board of Educa tion at its July 7 meeting. Mrs. Horton has been serving as director of instruction and testing co-ordinator for Hoke County Schools since August 1985. She replaces Dr. Virginia Hayes who resigned June 30. Mrs. Horton, a widow, is a native of Morehead City. She is a 1976 summa cum laude graduate of Elizabeth City State University with a B.S. in In termediate Education. She holds two master’s degrees, in education and super vision, from A&T College in Greensboro and is working on her PhD at UNC-CH where her major areas of study are cur riculum and instruction. Prior to joining the Hoke system and moving to Raeford, Horton taught in Vance and Cumberland counties. Horton notes that Hoke County is pursuing an Effective Schools Improvement Plan whose purpose is to improve the achievement level of students and create a positive environ ment for learning. Hoke schools are also conti- Lavetta B. Horton the nuing implementation of Basic Education Program. In her new post, Mrs. Horton says her goal will be, “To work really hard to provide the best educational opportunity for the children of Hoke County.” Around Town By Sam Morris The weather for the past week has been hot, but according to the weather people it is normal for this time of year. Maybe with all the offices and homes having air con ditioners we feel the heat more when we go outside. We have had afternoon thunder showers Saturday, Sunday and Monday. This rain was needed and with some parts of the county also receiving high winds, it could be put up with to get the rain. Bill Cameron of the Five Points com munity said that the wind blew over some buildings and also flat tened his tobacco last Saturday afternoon. We haven’t heard of any hail damage so far this sum mer. The forecast is for the remainder of the week to be hot, but temperatures will be in the 80s rather than in the mid-90s. (See AROUND, page 11) Festival T-shirts The Eddie McNeill family is pictured in their 1987 Turkey Festival T-shirts. Pictured from left rear is David, Eddie and Katie, Jim is seated next to his father. The royal blue Hanes shirts have red accents on the white "Strut Your Stuffin'' turkey logo. The shirts are available in sizes child's small to adult's xx- large and go on sale Thursday at Festival Head quarters in the Depot. City elections Incumbents have until Aug. 7 to file for race The filing period for Raeford’s upcoming municipal elections began July 3, but as of press time neither of the three city coun- cilmen whose terms will expire this year had filed for re-election. The three incumbents, Earl McDuffie Jr., Vardell Hedgpeth and T. Joseph Upchurch, have un til noon on August 7 to file for the election that will be held on Tues day, November 3. Any challengers must also file by August 7. A voter registration deadline has been set for October 5. McDuffie, Hedgpeth and Up church were elected to two-year terms in 1985. If they choose to run for re-election, they will be running for four-year terms. In 1985, the City of Raeford passed a resolution that established four-year terms for the mayor and city councilmen. Before the 1985 election, councilmen and the mayor ran for two-year terms. The resolution also stated that the two councilmen receiving the highest number of votes in the 1985 election would serve four- year terms and the three coun cilmen receiving the least number of votes would serve for two years. Councilmen James B. (Benny) McLeod and Bob Gentry got the highest number of votes that year and are currently serving their four-year terms that will expire in 1989. McDuffie, Hedgpeth and Upchurch received less votes and were elected to the two-year terms. Mayor John K. McNeill will be up for re-election in 1989. He is currently in the middle of his first four-year term as mayor. The three councilmen elected this November will be up for re- election in 1991.
The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.)
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July 16, 1987, edition 1
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