Newspapers / The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.) / April 3, 1991, edition 1 / Page 1
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The ews Journal Don’t forget! Spring ahead ... set your clocks ahead one hour before going to bed Saturday night. The 51st issue of our 82nd year RAEFORD, NORTH CAROLINA 25 CENTS Wednesday, April 3,1991 Two downtown buildings to be renovated for offices, apartments Renovation work is in progress on two down town structures — the bumed-out Page Trust Building, and what is now Candlestick Crafts. Keith Jackson is renovating empty space over Candlestick Crafts, an Elwood Avenue store, into nine or 10 offices. llis wife Betty runs the store downstairs and Jackson, a building contractor, saw no reason to leave the 5,000 square feet of space upstairs empty. “I’m renovating an old building, that’s what I’m doing,” Jackson said. Jackson said he expects there will be a demand for his office space once completed. “1 don’t know of that many places in Raeford that’s got offtce sjiace,” he said. “Plus, this is close to the counhouse, hopefully that’ll help.” Ptu-t of the upstairs is panelled in solid pine where apartments used to be. I'he floor, too, is pine, though that will be covered in carpet in the offices. Tlie space once served as a wtu'ehouse. Jii “There was furniture stacked to the ceiling up here,” he said. Jackson has renovation experience, and has considered work downtown before. “At one time I had thought about buying the old Page Building, but that was in a little worse shape than 1 wanted,” he said. But Jackson found a way to bank on downtown’s future. “It’s just a gut feeling it’s fixing to start growing and I’m banking on being right,” he said. “I’d like to see downtown Raeford build back,” he said. “If this helps a little. I’d be tickled to death.” Jackson is not the only person renovating a downtown building. Raeford real estate agent Julian Wright now has a building permit to renovate the first floor of the empty Page Trust building on the comer of Main Street and Elwood Avenue. Page Trust has sat vacant since a fire broke out on (See BUILDINGS, page 4) County freezes hiring Also must purchase $50 food trays for jail y rj C ounty commissioners froze all county hiring and building projects at last night's meeting. The freeze will last until the next budget is ready July 1. The freeze is a stopgap measure brought on by state cutbacks in funds promised to local governments. County Manager Barry Reed said. Meanwhile, he will try to find more ways to shave about $50,()(X) from the budget. “In the interim, I think we ought to go with a freeze on all hiring and capital outlay projects,” Reed said. If the county receives any resignations be tween now and July 1, the county cannot replace them unless Reed says they are vital. Reed said most of the major building and buying projects have already been paid for or put in motion; those affected should be minor. “Most of them will probably be smaller items like desks and bookshelves,” he said. “I wanted to have this thing in place just in case,” he said. The only large item that might be affected is the county’s ponion of a $25,0(X) computer system for the Department of Social Services, Finance Officer Charles Davis said. “1 don’t have any problem with this,” Chairman Wyatt Upchurch said. “It think it’s a practice that’s been handed down. On the other hand...we promised the taxpayers to run the county as efficiendy as possible. I don’t want to do anything to hurt that” Jail to get $50 food trays Commissioners voted at the same meering to add money to the County Jail’s budget to comply with state jail requirements and pay unexpected safekeeping and medical bills for inmates. The county will buy 50 trays at $48.28 each and a metal building to house a freezer and store food for the jail kitchen. The decision came after months of wrangling between commissioners and Sheriff Alex Norton and state jail officials over inspection results that demanded the county put more money into its jail. The trays were bought because state jail offi cials cited Hoke for not covering food brought to inmates. (See COUNTY, page 6) Eagle project Doug Baker, son of Frank and Joan Baker, is placing stickers on the windows of homes where the elderly, handicapped or young live. The stickers are designed to help direct officials to them in an emergency. Here, Baker places a sticker on the window of Vernon Hubbard's Elwood Ave. home. Placing the stickers is Baker's Eagle project. Cable TV rates going up again Prison offices won’t be moved DeVaiie says he has assurances from governor A state official said yesterday the De partment of Corrections has given up moving the South Central Area Office from McCain to Aberdeen. The area office administers nine prisons in the region. “That didn’t come out at the price we wanted,” Monroe Waters, the department’s liaison with the General Assembly, said. “We have decided to withdraw our proposal at this time.” Two Aberdeen property owners reportedly bid on the contract to lease space to the office; the low bid ctmie in at $56,000 a year, accord ing to one source. Waters said the state’s financial bind made the move’s price tough to defend, though he said it was still needed. “In tight times, we have to tighten our belts, too,” Waters said. The area office needs to consolidate its per sonnel, who are now housed in two McCain buildings, he said. That office space, in turn, is needed by Hoke Correctional Institution, he said. Danny DeVane, representative for the State House 16th District, said the Department of Corrections was still trying to relocate the office away from Hoke County until recently. “1 found out they were trying to advertise in Fayetteville,” he said. DeVane said he called Governor Jim Martin and asked that he put a stop to the depanraent’s action. “It’s going to stay right where it is,” he said. The office space at McCain meets the Area Office’s needs, he said. “It’s foolish of them to spend $56,000 when we’re cutting education,” he said. CVI, formerly Alert Cable TV, has announced it will raise us basic cable service rales for the second year in a row. The company is also planning increases for prices of premium chan nels. Beginning June 1, the company will charge SI8.95 for its “full basic ser vice” which includes 26 channels. That’s an increase of 12 [X^rcent over last year, and 35 percent over the year before when viewers could get 17 chan nels for S14. Also effective June 1, are increases in the prices for HBO, which will rise to S12.95 per month; Showtime and Cinemax, which will cost S10.95 each; and Disney, which will increase toS9.95 April 1, the company began a “basic reception service,” providing 10 chan nels for SlO.95. However, there is a one-time S40 fee to switch from full basic to basic reception serv ice. Ted Crane, CVI general manager, said he believes “the excellence of pro gramming produced by the cable net works justified the higher costs the company is passing along to itscustom- ers.” As justification for the increase, he cited a 54 percent increase in CVI’s programming costs over the last two years, and a capital investment in the last two years to improve reception. Crane predicted costs will rise 22 [tcrcent in the coming year. Beginning June 1, subscribers will see two new services added: American Movie Classics and C-SPAN II. American Movie Classics will ap pear on channel 23 and will show mov ies from “Hollywood’s golden era” C-SPAN II shows live coverage of the House of Representatives, commit tee hearings, and press briefings. Because of the changes, ESPN is moving from cable channel 9 to 3; The Family Channel from 3 to 20; and WLFL from 20 to 9. This year’s increase is the second since Raeford City Council renewed CVI’s exclusive 10-year franchise to operate in the city. City Council has no control over rates set by CVI, but under terms of the agreement, must be in formed 60 days in advance of any rate increase. Attendance bomidaries considered for two schools under construction With the opening of the two new middle schools, Hoke County’s school system must redraw boundaries to tell kids which schools they will go to. Total populations and racial balances have gotten out of kilter since die last time district lines were drawn up. At its next meeting, die School Board will consider four plans for drawing those lines (sec illustration) presented at last month’s meeting by South Hoke Elementary’s Hank Richards. Right now, Upchurch Middle School has 693 students compared to Turlington’s 540. Plan One would make that 632 stu dents for West Middle School and 581 for East Middle in August That would keep current attendance lines, according to the plans, but puts a strain on the west building and also concentrates Hoke’s Indian populadon on that site. Plan Two goes the other way; West Hoke would get 551 kids and East Hoke would get 662. (See BOUNDARIES, page 8) Turkey Festival seeks part-time director Around Town The North Carolina Turkey Festival has gotten so big it needs help. And the festival’s toard of directors has decided it’s willing to pay for it. The Turkey Festival wants a part-time, paid director. President Jean Hodges said Monday. “We’re looking for a director that will administer the festival under the direction of the board,” she said. As the festival has grown over its first six years, the load on the volunteers who make it happen has grown too, she said. “1 don’t want anytxxJy to think that this is turning into a paid festival,” she said, “but the festival has grown to the point where volunteers can’t handle all the detail work, especially in fundraising.” “ The volunteers don’t have time anymore to run this festival because this festival is one of the large ones in the state.” she said. The director’s work will average out to 20 to 25 hours a week, for which he will be paid at least $10,000. The Festival will be able to pay for the director largely due to a contribution in kind from the Hoke County Board of Commission ers. The festival’s board of directors originally asked the county to pay the director’s salary. Last night, the commissioners voted unani mously to m;ike a contribution in labcir, paper, mailing and so forth that may save the Turkey Festival as much as $5,000. Duties for the new director will include: • creating a positive image for the festivtil • recruiting volunteers • soliciting money fiom the turkey industry • promoting the festival at industry events • publishing a newsletter, and • keeping records. The director needs to have at least some knowledge ot the turkey industry, Hodges said. ■^7 If F %{ y NCTL KKEY IkbTlWL tv Vl.l V iu,, 1 by Sam C. Morris The weather was nice for the Easter weekend after a sionny Friday night. We had approximately 2 inches of rain and the wind did some damage in the county. 1 don’t believe that anyone was hurt by the storm in Hoke County. The temperatures were about 70 degrees on Monday and Tuesday and the low on Sunday and Monday were in the high 30s. 1 didn’t sec any frost The forecast calls for the temperatures to continue to rise during the remainder of the week. The highs from Wednesday through Saturday will be in the 70s and the lows will be in the 50s. There is a chance of rain on Friday and Saturday. ♦ * * March was the 15th straight month tliat the temperatures have been above normal. Another unique fact is, there wasn’t a measurable amount of snow this winter. We did have a few flakes. but It wasn t enough to record. The above average wann weatlier has all the fruit trees and plants in full bloom. Raeford has some ot the prettiest azaleas in North Carolina. Almost ev ery yard has some kind of flowers blooming. Also the lawns are turning green and most people have had to mow their lawns. Yes, a warm winter brings forth early spring flowers, but it can also bring forth many insects. * * * Many letters come to newspapers re questing information andsometimes we arc able to answer the questions. Re cently the following letter came to the office from a school boy in Texas. I hope that some of die readers of this column will dig through their files and drawers and send this young man some infor mation. You could be the reason he t,i>ee AROUND, page 5)
The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.)
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April 3, 1991, edition 1
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