Newspapers / The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.) / May 22, 1991, edition 1 / Page 1
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The ews Journal The 6th issue of our 83rd year RAEFORD, NORTH CAROLINA 25 CENTS Wednesday, May 22,1991 Commission unseals minutes from closed session on sheriff On a motion from Hoke Commissioner Tom Howell, board members voted to unseal minutes from a closed session held Monday, May 6 in which they voted to support a petition to consider removing Sheriff Alex Norton from office. The petition accuses Norton of “willful anti habitual neglect and refusal to perfonii the duties of his office and for willful misconduct and maladministration in office.” Immediately after unsealing the minutes. Commissioner Cleo Bratcher moved to change the words regarding his motion in favor of the petition. Commissioners voted to change the wording from “Mr. Bratcher moved to sign a petition” to “Mr. Bratcher moved to give Mr. McFadyen permission to sign a petition.” Duncan McFadyen is the county attorney. The vote also added “and the commissioners should stay out of it” to the end of the motion. Acconting to the minutes, McFadyen told commissioners “he could only sign the petition at the direction of the board.” Neither Bratcher nor McFadyen would com ment on the minutes after the meeting. “I think the clear implication was that you wanted me to sign,” McFadyen told commission ers Monday night. One commissioner has already backed away from the vote to support the petition. L. E. McLaughlin said last week he meant (See MINUTES, page 4) I" H / A i?* K Flying machine What appears to be an attempt to get an old Ford to tly is actually a pair of hang glider taxiing to the end of the “runway" tor takeoff. Tl le two Ft. Bragg DeVane looks at cutting state salaries D anny DeVane is venturing into hostile territory. But the state house representative from Hoke County says it’s all part of this year’s session, which is finding pitfalls everywhere it steps in search of a way to cut the beleaguered state budget. DeVane has asked for figures showing how much the state would save if it cut state worker’s salaries on a graduated scale. DeVane heads the house subcommittee on environment, health and natural resources; that committee was charged this year with looking at possible cuts in salaries and benellts. “What we’re doing,” fie said of state legislators, “is looking under every rock.” With a $30,000 cutof f, which he said was to protect classroom Dayiie Cruiiipler elected to head state association Daync Cnimplcr, sccreiary/trca- siircr of Criimplcr’s taincral I ionic in Raeford, has been ciceied by funeral diranors in North Carolina to serve as presirlcnl of the N.C. Funeral Direc tors’ Association. “1 am the first female ever to lx: a disirici director and the first female to be a president,” she said last week. “So I’m making history.” Tfic Funeral Directors’ Associa tion, founded 104 years ago, now has more than 500 members and a budget of S350.000. “Our programs arc specifically de- signal to help the funeral directors with their day to day operating prob lems and to help with tiicir profes sional development,” she said. She said her top priorities arc leg islation affecting funeral homes and building up the educational rc|uirc- ments for the profession. The a>siu iaiion wanL= to sec pre arranged limcrals regulated by the Board of Mort uary Science rather than the Banking Commission, she said. “I’ll be travelling all over North Carolina, she said. r Dayne Grumpier In August, Cnimplcr will go to a prcsidciiLs’ training session in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Cnimplcr is a co-owner with her husband. County Coronet I i.ink Cnimplcr, of Crumpler’s Funeral Home. TTie Crumpler’s two sons, Kemp and Kcl, arc also licensed b\ the Board of Mortuary Science. teachers, DeVane requested a printout of how much money would he saved if state enqtloyees who make over that figure were handed a pay cut. “It’s not my intent to cut classroom teachers,” DeVane said. “We’re finally getting them up to where they ought to be.” Under the plan, workers making $30,(X)() to 39,999 would get a three percent cut; those making $40,0(X) to $49,999 would get a four percent cut and so on. “If you cut three percent from the thirty thousand range, that’s 33 million right there,” DeVane said. 'I'he state officitil who gave DeVane his list stopped at a seven percent cut for $7(),(){)0 and up, but DeVane wanted to see an additional percentage point cut for each $10,000 more a year a worker makes. That would mean that top state salary employees, who make (See CUTS, page 4) Former Hoke residents guilty of fraud, perjury A husband and wife formerly of Hoke County were convicted last month in fcrleral court on charges stemming Irom an investigation into fraud in F ort Bragg housing. Edward Jameson was convicted of making 38 laisc claims, 58 instances of mail fraud, tnaking 84 laisc statements, two counts of theft of fetieral propeity and one count of accepting a gratuity .as a public official. His wife, Joyce, was convicted of one charge of perjury—giving false, misleading or incomplete testimony under oath. Jameson served as lead inspector as signed to monitor Earth Property Ser vices, a company contracted to maintain housing at Fort Bragg, according to John Bmce, an assisuint IhS. attorney gen- I r.il. Etirth I’roiK'rty Services and its di rectors were convicted of billing die govenimem for services they never am- dered. “As the lead inspector, the evidence shows tltat (Jameson) had to signott on all die invoices as they were paid,” Bruce said. Ttie gratuity Jameson accepted was a counter top which had been ordered for die Fort Bragg contract, Bruce said. Tlic counter top was found installed at Jameson’s house at Topsail Beach, he said. Jameson was also convictal of steal ing the counter top and a box of stair ucads, many of w hie It were also discov- cral installed at the beach house, Bruce said. Four of the false statement con victions involved llnancial disclosure documenLs reguia'd by the .•Vrmy. “He was charged with failing two years in a row to disclose his ownership of the beach house and the financing on It,” Bruce said. ITie crimes occurred while Earth Properly Services held the family hous ing maintenance contract at Fort Bragg between December 1985 and May 1989. The Jamesons llval m Hoke County uniil about two years ago. Coinniittee: jail needs addition $2 million 2ncl floor |)ro[)ose(l A committee head told county commissioners Monday night they should spend $2 million to double the capacity of the county jail. Raz Autry, who headed the committee appointed by county commissioners to study the jail’s long range needs, told commis sioners they should use existing jail space as much as possible. “You just don’t have the land” to build a new jail, he said. The estimated cost—$2 million—is so high, Autry said, because of “astonishing’ state jail rules. soldiers can olten be seen hang gliding Irom this field off Hwy. 20 just outside Raeford. More photos are on page 6. “The problem we kept facing was that you need a jail accessible to the courthouse,” .^utry' said. "Another problem is where to put the female prisoners.” The estimated cost—$2 million—is so high, Autry said, because of “astonishing” state jail rules. “We expected sontething similar to this," Chairman Wyatt Upchurch said of the cost, "but not as great as this.” “You’ve got to have recreation rooms now.” Autry explained. Adding onto the old jail will mean getting 48 new spaces up stairs. but losing 20 of the 32 existing first floor spaces. “Once you start adding to a jail, then you've got to meet state standards,’ Autry' said. Comnossioner Cleo Bratcher also complained about state jail rules. “I know 1 don’t get three hot meals a day.’' he said. The state prescribes a menu of three different, hot meals jailers must provide their inmates each day. “1 guess the thing that really bothers me is that we can come up with rules to keep people locked up but nobody can come up with anything to keep people out of jail,” he said. DSS fails strict court-ordered test In other business before commissioners. Bob Mercer, head of Hoke’s Department of Social Services, said his department failed a court-required test and must pay an $11,792 fine. Local departments of social services are being tested because of a court case in which a U.S. judge found counties were failing to process Aid to Families with Dependent Children and Medicaid claims within the federally prescribed time frames. The state Department of Human Resources pulls out files randomly through a computer; those files are watched as they go through a county’s processing. The county is graded on its perfor mance. If counties fail the test, they pay fines. Hoke is not alone in failing the test. “Across the state, there’s about a 75 percent fail rate,” Mercer said. He attributed Hoke’s failure to stricter monitoring, a high turnover rate at the department, heavy case loads carried by social workers and the flexibility of state officials interpretations of the (See JAIL, page 4) Around Town By Sam C. Morris Last week when ilie ihcnnometer had readings of over 90 degrees, 1 would have said that anyone was out of their head to predict that my heat would be turned on again this season. Monday morning 1 turned die air conditioning switch over to heal and it has been on that setting all day. Maybe 1 can turn it back to cool sometime on Tuesday or Wedne.sday. We have had over an inch of ram since Sunday morning. This was needed by the farmers. The forecast calls for the tempera tures to Stan up again on Wednesday. The high for Wednesday could be in the 80s and the lows in the W's. riiiirsdav. Friday ami .S.itiiril i\ ih ■ I i^'.li*, i nil I tv in the 90s and the luw.s in the high (>0s. No rain is forecast, but we could always have a thunderstorm with 90-degrcc weather. * * * Ihe annual inccuiig oi die Raeioid- Hoke Chamber of Commerce was held last Thursday night at Gibson Cafeteria, There were approximately 150 people in attendance. As usual other events were scheduled for this night and 1 be lieve dial this held the attendance down from previous years. Dr. John C. Ropp installed the new officers and directors. The new presi dent is L.S. Brock, Jr. and he replaces Walter Coley. If diese officers and di- ranors w ill heed the charge put on them by Dr. Ropp, then we should have a banner year ahead. The speaker for the evening was Ho race C. Davis of die CP&L Speaker Bureau. He kept the crowd laughing as he used jokes to put over his points and used the names ol local |X'oplc to hold the iniercslof his audience. He was well received. It was warm in the cafeteria, but the excellent meal prepared by Wanda (8ec AKUUNU, page 4)
The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.)
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May 22, 1991, edition 1
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