The
ews
Journal
The 18th issue of our 83rd year
RAEFORD, NORTH CAROLINA
25 CENTS
Wednesday, August 14,1991
West Hoke gets principal; other staff ehanges announced
West Hoke Elementary, headless since Princi
pal Milton Williams took over Scurlock Elemen
tary, has a new principal.
Superintendent Bill Harrison announced
Jerome Miller will be the new principal at last
night’s School Board meeting—the night before
teachers go back to work at tbe school.
i
Harrison credited Miller with turning around
Crooked River Elementary in St. Mary’s, Geor
gia.
“That school has shown tremendous gains in
student achievement,’’ he said, despite a high
student turnover rate. The school is near a mili
tary base and students often do not stay at the
#
Futile
Chris Hikel finds cleanup of a yard near Spanco a bit
premature following last Wednesday’s afternoon flood.
The News-Journal recorded 2.6 inches of rain in less
County junkyard breaks law
H oke County officials were all smiles when
they won a court decision in late April
backing up a fairly new junkyard law;
little did they know they would be charged with
improperly running a junkyard themselves.
The City of Raeford issued a cease and desist
order July 31 against the county for breaking a
city zoning law because of junk cars the county
parked next to the Old Armory building on
Central Avenue.
“We won’t ever put cars there again,” County
Manager Barry Reed said Friday. He said the city
asked the county to do something about the cars,
but did not mention the letter he received was a
cease order.
City Manager Tom Phillips said Mike
McNeill, Raeford’s zoning adminismator, f rst
approached the county about the unsightly cars in
the spring, when several were added to the lot.
“Mike said, Barry you have to do something
about those cars,” Phillips said Monday. “Barry
said, well, we’re going to sell them.”
“Sometime in June 1 got word from the county
manager offering that if we would give them a
little more time, they were going to sell them.”
The county will auction off the cars September
14 at the Old Armory, Reed said.
Phillips verbally gave the county through the
end of July.
Toward the end of July, still nothing had been
done about the cars, some of which had been
salvaged for parts, city officials said. McNeill
reminded county Finance Officer Charles Davis
.4.
Surplus county vehicles form “junk yard” at the old
armory.
nothing had been done about the city’s request.
Phillips said he learned through the exchange
that “Barry said they weren’t going to do any
thing about it,” largely because the city never
gave the county anything in writing.
“So we gave them something in writing,”
Phillips said; an order to bring the property “into
compliance with the Zoning Ordinance within 7
working days.”
Reminding Phillips the county intended to
auction off the cars in September, Davis wrote a
letter to the city proposing three solutions to the
county’s car problem: put a portable fence around
the cars, move the cars inside Armory Park or
park them at the City Garage.
(See JUNK, page 4)
school long.
Miller developed a good rapport with the St.
Mary’s community, Harrison said.
“He’s done the types of things that 1 want to
see done here,” he said.
“The people in St. Mary’s, Georgia, are not
very happy with Hoke County right now.”
Miller has been principal of Crooked River
Elementary since 1989. He also served as assis
tant principal of St. .Mary’s Elementary and
assistant principal of South Scotland Primary in
Laurinburg.
Harrison praised Milton Williams for leaving
(See SCHOOLS, page 8)
Chief jailer returns
to detective work
Grumpier says no more changes
than two hours. Water was waist deep in a number of
areas around town and in the county. (More photos,
page 3.)
J immy Riley, whom former Sheriff Alex
Norton demoted from chief deputy to
chief jailer, is back on Hoke County’s
detective force.
Riley worked his first day as a plainclothes
detective Monday, interim Sheriff Frank
Crum.pler said.
Riley said he was glad to be back in detec
tive work.
He has mostly worked toward “changing
shifts around” since coming back to the front
office, he said.
“We’re working things around right now
trying to get things back to the way they’re
supposed to be,” Riley said.
He had tussled with former Sheriff Alex
Norton over the demotion, filing a grievance
through the county; Riley claimed he lost
more pay than he ought to have due to the
demotion.
Norton demoted Riley when he and his
deputies were sworn in December 4 during a
reorganization of the depanment. Riley
replaced Chief Jailer Jerry Goza, who moved
to a job with the state Department of Correc
tions.
Riley’s salary was cut from $25,292 to
$18,380. Norton then asked for and got
$3,500 from the county commissioners to
give Riley a raise, though still less than he
made as chief deputy.
After Riley filed a grievance with the
county, the Hoke County Personnel Advisory
Board recommended the sheriff raise Riley’s
pay to $24,720, the lowest salary to which
Riley could be demoted under county policy,
the board said.
Norton refused, saying it would make
Riley’s pay higher than new Chief Deputy
Wayne Gardner’s, which was $22,355.
Now, Riley and Gardner are on something
of an equal footing rank-wise, Riley said,
though Gardner is still officially the chief
deputy.
Riley himself seemed unsure of his rank.
“I’m one and he’s two, or we’re two and
two together,” he said.
(See SHERIFF, page 9)
Five apply so far
for sheriff’s job
Five men have applied for the job of sheriff of
Hoke County so far: Larry Godbold, Jim Mad
den, John McNeill, John Robertson and Tho
mas Rugg.
Tlie job was advertised by county commis
sioners as soon as they learned Alex Norton had
been ousted from the position. Commissioners
will appoint the new sheriff: Coroner Frank
Crumpler holds the job—as instnicted by the
state constitution—until they do.
Godbold does not live in Hoke County and,
elections records show, is not registered to vote
in the county. State law requires that any office
holder be legally able to vote in the county in
which he holds office, so Godbold should be
unqualified to hold the office. Godbold ran
unsuccessfully for sheriff in Cumberland County
last year.
Thomas Rugg, 48, of Dundarrach, was the
first to apply.
“I felt the desire and the need to serve my
fellow Hoke Countians,” he said.
A retired helicopter pilot in the Army, Rugg
said he has been trained in security work and
worked with the Judge Advocate’s office.
He served three tours of duty in Vietnam.
Rugg is married, has three children and has
lived in Hoke County nine years.
(See APPLY, page 8)
Reaction to dismissal mixed
Ben Ellington’s business lakes him
all over itie stale.
Referring to the recent SuperiorCourl
removal of Alex Norton from the
sheriff’s post Ellington says, “[X’ople
tell me, ‘ You ’ve got tlie bigge.st crook in
the state.’”
Ellington vehemenUy tii.sagrecs, “I
tell them ‘no.’ That kinda hurts my feel
ings.”
Ellington, who lost to Norton in last
year’s election, thinks it’s a shame tlie
former sheriff was “branded as a crimi
nal.”
“Hejusigoicaughlupinsome things
that everybody gels caught up in every
once in a while,” Ellington says from his
motorcycle repair business at McCain.
Across H ighway 211, at Parks ’ Gro
ceries, Michael Parks calls the ousting
of Norton “politically motivated.”
Parks, whose father was a character
w itness for Norton during the court pro
ceedings, says, “I think that the charges
were so petty. Tlierc was no criminal
intent. He has done a good job for the
county for the last 29 years. He did make
a mistake but I know everyone does—
even the county commissioners. Tdiey’re
not pertect.”
Michael’s cousin Albert Parks thinks
it’s “unfair for one person to be able to
throw somebody out without the people
having a say-so.”
Albert says the Uilk “around the rcs-
(See REACT, page 10)
Two injured
in shootings
Two people were injured in sepa
rate shootings over the weekend in
Raeford.
Robert Christopher Nance, 18,
of Chesapeake, Virginia, was ap
parently visiting friends in Robbins
Heights when he was gravely
wounded in a shooting before 1
a.m. Sunday.
One man, Kendall Banness Reiif
21, of 132 Meadow Lane Apart
ments, has been arrested for tlie
shooting, but Police Chief James
(See SHOOTING, page 9)
Around Town
By Sam C. Morris
The rain came back last week and on
Wednesday the rainfall in Raeford and
Hoke County was between four and five
inches. 1 have heard that two dams at
ponds broke. If you have been toward
Aberdeen since Wednesday you may
have noticed the Calloway Pond near
Timberland. It is one of the dams that
broke and most of the water drained out
of the pond. 1 was told Saturday after
noon that since Wednesday more than
three inches of rain had fallen and the
total was eight inches in three days.
Tlie rain stopped Sunday,bui came
back early Monday morning and it has
been raining all day. More rain is ex
pected Tuesday.
Tlic forecast calls for the high tem
peratures Wednesday through Saturday
to be m the high 80s and low 90s. The
lows for the period will be in the 70s. 1
hate to write iubut thunderstorms are in
the forecast for all the days.
* * ♦
The farmers are in the same condi
tion as reported last week. The fields are
waterlogged and the spraying of crops is
not doing much good because of the
rain. Let’s hope it will let it stop for
awhile before things are ruined.
* * *
Last week some people were talking
in the office about die u ash and garbage
situation in the county. It seems that
anotherof these “no win” problems con
fronts the county commissioners. The
vSec AROUND, page 10)