TheN
ews
Journal
Volume LXXIX Number 28
RAEFORD, NORTH CAROLINA
25 CENTS
Thursday, October 29.1987
Polls to
open Tues.
Lines are expected to be short or
nonexistent at the polls Tuesday,
November 3, as Raeford voters
decide on three city council seats.
Hoke Elections Supervisor
Caroline Shook says only 25 per
cent of the 1,742 registered voters
are expected to cast ballots. Polls
will open at 6:30 a.m. and remain
open until 7:30 p.m. at which time
ballot tabulation will begin. Shook
expects final results by 9 p.m. As is
the case each year, those results
will be displayed in the NEWS
JOURNAL office Tuesday night
and released the following morn
ing in the November 5th edition.
Five candidates, three in
cumbents and two challengers, are
running in the city’s first staggered
election. Those whose seats are up
for grabs, Vardell Hedgpeth, Joe
Upchurch, and Earl McDuffie, are
completing two year terms, and are
now running for four year terms.
The two other councilmen. Bob
Gentry and Bennie McLeod, were
top vote-getters in 1985 and are
serving four year terms that exr re
in two years. Mayor John K.
McNeill is currently in the middle
of his first four year term.
Voting will take place at three
precincts. There are 890 city
residents out of 1,194 total
registered voters in Raeford # 1,
and they will vote at the Hoke
County Public Library .All 650
registered voters in Raeford #2 are
city residents and will cast their
ballots at the old county office
building across the street from the
Post Office.In Raeford #4, only
202 out of 810 registered voters are
city residents and they will vote at
the Hoke Civic Center.Shook says
she expects very few absentee
ballots to be cast.
211 accident
This truck driven by Jim Danner of Fayetteville end
ed up on railroad tracks Tuesday afternoon along
Highway 211 west of Raeford, Neither Danner nor
Johnnie Sinclair of Red Springs, the driver of the
other truck, which jacknifed, were injured. Sinclair
was charged with exceeding safe speed and driving
left of center after the trucks nearly collided head-on.
(Other truck pictured page 6A).
Burlington to
hire about 100
Road naming awaits approval
By June Lancaster
News-Journal Staff Writer
Complaints from a group of
ladies from McLauchlin Township
about the method used to name
roads in their community is
holding up, at least temporarily,
commissioners’ approval of the
county-wide road naming project
which has been in the works for
almost two years.
At their October 19 meeting
Hoke County Commissioners were
all set to approve the names of
county roads as recommended by a
citizen task force when Grace
Kelton and other ladies from
McLauchlin Township expressed
their concern.
Kelton said she felt no special ef
fort was made to get black
Injured
Sandra Faye Goins of 405 E. Prospect Ave. gets medical attention
after her Mazada truck hit a car and careened into a house at 205 E.
Prospect last Saturday, Goins was only slightly injured. The driver of
a Pontiac, Fletcher Covington Jr. of West End with a stop sign vioia-
tion. The house, which belongs to Dick McNeill, suffered $7,500
damage.
representation on the task force.
However, Hoke County Tax
Administrator Dale Teal who was
responsible for getting the task
force volunteers said, “ I tried to
get a representative task force
made up of blacks, whites and In
dians and a balance of men and
women. It wasn’t easy because
people had a lot of excuses as to
why they couldn’t be on the task
force.”
Teal said he felt Ellen Willis,
Jim Madden and Daniel Gibson of
the McLauchlin Township had
gone to particular trouble to in
form their community about the
program and to get their input.
Willis, he said, put a notice in the
June 19, 1986 News-Journal
Calendar and the June 26, 1986
“Rockfish News” column in the
News-Journal included another
reminder of meetings at Rockfish
and Wayside Community Build
ings soliciting suggestions.
In addition, the community
watch put out flyers and signs were
posted in grocery stores and filling
stations. Teal said he feels the
McLauchlin task force members
probably did more than any other
to get input from their community
and yet the only complaint that has
been heard came from that area.
The 21-member task force which
included three people from each
township was appointed by the
Hoke County Board of Commis
sioners in April 1986 to recom
mend which names should be given
to state-numbered roads in their
communities.
The naming of the task force
came after several months of
preliminary work. The county first
started work on the project, part
of the Governor’s Highway Safety
Program (GHSP), in December
1985.
The purpose of the program is
two-fold. From a public safety
point of view, it is much easier for
(see ROADS, next page)
By Ken MacDonald
News-Journal Associate Editor
Raeford’s two Burlington In
dustries plants are extending their
operating schedules, a change that
is expected to add about 100 new
employees over the next several
months.
Raeford Plant Manager, Bill Ar
cher, and B.M. Dyeing Plant
Manager Frank Sessoms said in a
statement that the “division will
switch to continuous operating
schedules in some areas of their
respective plants.” Those areas,
though not named specifically, are
currently on six-days-a-week
schedules.
Kent Vesser, personnel director
of the Raeford Plant, said the new
employees are being added, about
half in one plant and half in the
other, to balance out work
schedules in anticipation of new
orders. He says the hirings are a
sign that business is good. “1 can’t
really speak for the industry, but
our business here has always been
good at this plant, even in the
tough times,” he said.
Vesser said additional people
will help the company meet in
creased demand for its product.
Already in some departments
workers don’t get as much time off
as others. “Some departments
have had several seven day
schedules,” he said. “This will
give them a little more time off.”
Vesser said the new employees will
probably come mostly from the
immediate area. “We’ve been for
tunate to have a great deal of ap
plicants whenever the public finds
out Burlington is hiring,” he said.
Company officials hope to have
the new schedule in effect by the
end of next February. “We’re go
ing to hire these people over a
period of two to three months,”
Vesser said. “It will take some
time to train them.” Vesser said
there will be no new construction
as a results of the changes.
Burlington Menswear manufac
tures worsted and worsted blend
fabrics for men’s and women’s ap
parel and for the uniform market.
Algebra scores up
486 apply for help
The Low-Income Energy
Assistance program for Indian ap
plicants is being administered
through the Lumbee Region
Development Association (LRDA)
this year, according to Rick Travis,
director of the Hoke County
Department of Social Services
(DSS).
Applications will be taken begin
ning Monday, November 2 in
Room 206 of the Post Office on
W. El wood.
Office hours will be 8:30 a.m. to
noon and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday
through Friday.
Non-Indian applicants should
continue to apply at the N.C.
Drivers’ License Bureau, 520 W.
Donaldson. Applications at that
location will be taken until
November 25.
Travis told the DSS board on
Monday that 486 clients had
already applied for the energy
assistance program.
In other business Travis told the
board he had sent a memo to
County Manager William Cowan
identifying the immediate space
needs of the department.
Currently DSS shares a building
with the Agricultural Extension
Office. It was pointed out that
even if the whole building were
given over to the DSS the building
would be fully occupied.
In connection with space pro
blems the board discussed more ef
ficient ways to handle storage of
records. There are now 60 file
cabinets of records at the depart
ment.
Consideration was given to the
possibility of microfilming records
to cut down on space needs.
Another possibility discussed was
the purging of files in which there
had been no activity in the last
three years.
J. H. “Buddy” Blue Jr. has
joined the board replacing Evelyn
Manning who resigned when she
moved away from Hoke County.
Hoke County students who took
Algebra last year made impressive
scores on end-of-course tests, scor
ing above average in both the state
and region.
According to Barbara Lupo,
director of instruction for Hoke
County Schools, 184 students took
the Algebra 1 test and 86 students
took the Algebra 11 test.
Of the 184 students who took
the Algebra I test, 28 were eighth
graders at Upchurch Junior High
School and 156 were students at
Hoke County Senior High School.
The state-wide testing results
show Algebra I students in 141
school systems in the state par
ticipated in the testing. Hoke
County students were equal to or
did better than students in 96 other
systems. In the region, Hoke
County was third out of 16 school
systems.
The average score of Hoke
County students on the 60-item
Algebra 1 test was 40.4, or 67.3 per
cent correct. Average score for the
state was 39.2, or 65.3 per cent cor
rect. Average score for the region
was 37.9, or 63.2 per cent correct.
Hoke County eighth-graders
had an average score of 50.1 or
83.6 per cent correct.
Hoke County High School
students had an average score of
38.7, or 64.4 per cent correct.
A score of 60 per cent correct is
considered average performance
on the test.
In the Algebra 11 end-of-course
test, the 86 Hoke County students
who took the test scored 38.9, or
69.4 per cent correct. The average
score in the region was 36.0, or
64.2 per cent correct. The average
score in the state was 37.7, or 67.2
per cent correct.
Lupo says, “We’ve shown a
great deal of improvement and
we’re very proud of our scores.
The teachers teaching the courses
have really worked on teaching the
objectives.”
Around Town
By Sam Morris
The rains came early Tuesday
morning and it was still raining as
this was being written. We need
rain because it hasn’t rained in
almost three weeks. 1 understand
that we have had only four tenths
of an inch this month. It is ex
pected to fair up later today and
for the winds to change and come
from the north.
The forecast is for the
temperatures to be in the 60s for
the remainder of the week during
the day. We don’t expect any
freezing weather out of the cold
front.
« « *
Don’t forget that the city elec
tion is next Tuesday and that fine
(see AROUND, next page)
Time to share your Christmas
It is not too early to start think
ing about Christmas, especially for
people who want to participate in
the Share Your Christmas pro
gram.
People who think they may need
help providing Christmas gifts and
treats for their families are invited
to apply at the Hoke County
Public Library November 9, 10, 16
or 17 from 9 a.m. to noon and
from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Street money allocated
Raeford will receive $98,686.26
in Powell Bill funds this month for
improvement to streets and roads
not included on the state highway
system.
City Manager Tom Phillips says
it is a source of revenue already in
cluded in the budget and is not ear
marked for special projects.
Powell Bill funds are alloted
every year to cities and towns
throughout the state to build and
maintain streets.
Allotment is based on a formula
set by tne General Assemoiy.
Seventy-five per cent of the money
is allocated on the basis of popula
tion and the remaining twenty-five
per cent is based on the number of
non-state system street miles a city
or town has.
Raeford’s share was based on a
1986 estimated population of 4,237
and 26.03 miles of lion-state
system street miles.
A total of $63.8 million is being
distributed to 470 municipalities
throughout the state this month.
Halloween story time
Four and five-year olds from Raeford Kindergarten
and Day Nursery attended a Halloween Storytime at
the Hoke County Public Library on Tuesday. Betsy
McNeill, the story lady, gave the children special
Halloween bags.
Once again this year Share Your
Christmas is being sponsored by
the Raeford Woman’s Club in con
junction with civic organizations,
churches and the Hoke County
Department of Social Services
which provides technical
assistance.
Share Your Christmas also
receives funds from the United
Way. This year the United Way
has budgeted $933 for Share your
Christmas.
If you want to help a needy
family you can select a name from
the Christmas Angel trees at
Moore’s, Sky City or Maxway
from December 1 to December 13.
You then purchase a gift or
donate money and return your gift
to the tree. Distribution of gifts
will take place after December 13.
Anne Hostetler and Jeanette
Jordan are co-chairmen of Share
Your Christmas. Richard Travis,
director of DSS and Willie
Featherstone, Hoke County
Agricultural Extension Agent, are
also working on the project.
Last year 144 applications were
received. In response, 360
children’s gifts and 220 adults’
gifts were donated in addition to
food and other needed items.