The
ews
J ournal
The 49th issue of our 83rd year
RAEFORD, NORTH CAROLINA
25 CENTS
Wednesday, March 18,1992
Builders can resume construction on Rockfish school
Hoke County Schools got permission again
this week to work on Rockfish Elementary
School, whose construction was stopped at an
early stage last week.
The building permit was revoked when soil
tests showed the site was not suitable for a septic
system.
The schools have agreed to buy five or six
more acres nearby from the family who gave and
sold land for the school site last year, said Super
intendent Bill Harrison, making room for its
septic system.
“We talked to the Williams family and they’re
going to sell us some land,” he said.
The schools will buy land from Deborah
Williams Robinson, Harrison said, though he said
negotiations had not begun on price or the exact
amount of land.
The agreement with Robinson and a letter
from architect Owen Smith landed the school
system a 90-day building permit; the schools
have until its expiration to work out all the details
of the land deal, he said.
“It’s unfortunate that this was a misunder
standing on the part of our architect,” the superin
tendent said. “We should have bought the land
that we needed back then rather than waiting until
now.”
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Renee (left) and Teresa Shaw pick up trash that has blown into their mother's yard from the dumpster site across the street.
Quecnmore residents fight dumpsters
Residents in the Queenmore area near
North Raeford Fire Department are angry
about trash blowing into their yards from a
dumpster site across the street.
The county health director said Monday
he would send crews to clean up the site
and pick up trash that has blown into a
field behind neighbors’ homes.
But this is not the first time residents say
they have gotten angry about the site; they
got up a petition around two years ago to
have the dumpsters removed.
That petition, residents say, was thrown
away or ignored; nothing was done about
the dumpsters. Now, some say they are
finding rats on their property they suspect
come from the dumpsters.
County officials say they never saw the
petition and theorized it may have been
given to (since ousted) Health Director
Bobby Rodgers three years ago.
“We got a fence up, but the trash comes
all the way up in here,” said Polly Morris,
who lives just across from the site. Her
yard and those of her neighbors were
littered with foam peanuts, bits of paper,
even a dog food can that had blown across
Mockingbird Hill Road from the
dumpsters.
And blowing trash, especially bad in
March winds, is not the only problem.
“A couple of weeks ago they found a
dead body out there,” Morris said. The
smell was terrible, she said, and it gets bad
every summer.
(See TRASH, page 10)
Second primary likely says election official
Voters are likely to have to go
through two primaries before
they’ll know who their two new
county commissioners will be,
Hoke’s elections supervisor said
last week.
A new state law goes into ef
fect for the first time in this year’ s
election requiring candidates to
get fewer votes (over 40 percent
instead of over 50 percent) in or
der to win an election.
In order to win the May 5 pri
mary, a candidate must get over
40 percent of all votes cast. With
two seats open, each voter will be
able to cast up to two votes.
But even with the lesser 40
percent requirement, said Elec
tions SupervisorCaroline Shook,
a second primary is likely given
the large number of candidates in
the Democratic primary.
Eleven Democrats have thrown
their hats in the ring for two seats
on the county commission; the
incumbents, Chairman Wyatt
Upchurch and Vice Chairman
Neill MePhatter, did not run.
“It’s supposed to make it easier
for candidates to get elected,”
Shook said, “and maybe to elimi
nate second primaries.”
“I don’t know if it’s going to
work that way,” she said.
In the commissioners’ race.
Law changes
would control
night clubs
H oke Commissioners agreed Monday night to consider
changes to county laws which three officials say will help
control Hoke County’s night clubs.
Area night clubs are often notorious, weekend scenes of vio
lence, illegal drug use and sales, and loud noise that keeps neigh
bors awake until 3 or 4 a.m.
Commissioners gave County Attorney Duncan McFadyen the
go-ahead to draft changes to the county noise law and a new law to
protect club neighbors who have cars belonging to patrons towed
away.
“We have met twice about the matter,” McFadyen said.
He, District Attorney Jean Powell and Sheriff Wayne Byrd
rejected a tax on nightclubs as a possible weapon. That was “not
available” according to a source at the Institute of Government in
Chapel Hill, McFadyen said.
But state lawmakers recently passed a law allowing local
authorities to raise fines for noise violations from ^50 to $500, he
said.
Another proposed change to the noise law would extend penal
ties to drivers of cars with loud stereos.
Often, even after night clubs close or turn down their music,
cars with very loud stereos blast the neighborhood, Byrd said.
Another problem caused by Hoke’s nightclubs, McFadyen said,
is club patrons parking on club neighbors’ property.
The group asked the board “to adopt an ordinance allowing
landowners to post their land ... to be able to have those vehicles
removed from their property” and make club patrons pay for the
towing.
McFadyen cited one instance where a child had broken his arm;
his parents were unable to take him to the hospital because their
driveway was blocked by patrons of a nearby club.
Elisha Dial, owner of the controversial Cousins Club in
Antioch, said the proposed law changes would not “solve the
problems in the clubs.”
“We need preventive mea
sures,” he told commissioners.
His club, which was shut
down temporarily last year as a
public nuisance, needs more
protection from the Sheriff’s
Department, he said.
“The reason people come to
Cousins is they know there’s no
enforcement,” he said.
Byrd said Dial can’t expect
every club to have a deputy on
duty outside; he has only three
deputies working at night and
eight nightclubs in the county to
cover.
“I do not have the manpower
to do what he’s asking,” he said.
second, third or fourth place fin
ishers will be able to call for a
second primary if one or no can
didates gets over forty percent of
the vote.
If that happens, the second pri
mary will be held June 2, Shook
said.
The Democratic Primary will
decide the two new commission
ers because no Republicans
ran.
New haz mats law
In other business, commis-
(See CLUBS, page 5)
The Club Scene
Items making the news in the
last two years at, or affecting local
night clubs.
June 10,1990
William McGougan, 18, and Dar
ryl Love, 22, Lumber Bridge men,
were injured early Saturday morning
in a shooting at the Unique Lounge, a
Raeford club.
According to one Sheriffs report.
Unique Lounge operator Ernest
Luckett said “someone had started
firing a weapon inside the club and
everyone started running out of the
club.”
July 7,1990
More than 200 people join in a
fray in the Jones Hill area, throwing
rocks and bricks at deputies’ cars
after a 69-year old black man was
(See SCENE, page 12)
401 widening brings
asphalt plant to Hoke
The widening of U.S. 401 from
Fayetteville into Hoke will bring an
unexpected new business into the
county — an asphalt plant.
County Commissioners approved a
request to rezone property (on U.S.
401 Business in the Hillcrest area) from
residential-agricultural to industrial for
the new plant, which will make asphalt
for the widening project. They also
granted a permit for extraction and
asphalt mixing.
Barnhill Contracting Co., which is
widening tlie highway, will build the
plant to mix asphalt for the project.
But the plant will be a permanent
addition to Hoke County, Barnhill rep
resentative Jean P. Berry said at Thurs
day night’s Planning Board meeting.
At a public hearing at that meeting,
some neighbors spoke in favor of the
plant; none spoke against it.
In other zoning matters, commis
sioners;
• voted to deny a request from Tony
Creed to change property on Ashemont
Road from residential-agricultural to
highway commercial.
Creed had planned to put an office
for a con struc tion company on the prop
erty.
Some residents spoke against the
change before both the Planning Board
and the commissioners, saying they
worried about loss of property value.
(See PLANT, page 12)
Man charged in shooting
Aroun(i Town
A Hoke man was charged with shoot
ing a neighbor twice Monday evening.
Don Tyler of Jackson’s Mobile Home
Park allegedly shot neighbor Graylon
Revels after a dispute, said Mike
Underwood, a detective with the Hoke
County Sheriffs Department.
“Don Tyler shot the victim in the
leg,” Underwood said, “and he was shot
again below his stomach area.”
Tyler was arrested later that night
and charged with assault with a deadly
weapon inflicting serious injuries.
Revels was treated, then released
yesterday from a hospital.
Man allegedly robs
neighbors at gunpoint
A Hoke County man is charged with
robbing his neighbors at gunpoint Satur
day night after kicking in their front
door.
Tony Jerome Harris, 28, of Route 3,
Raeford, was charged with first degree
burglary, larceny of a car and two counts
armed robbery, Underwood said.
Lucy Dockery, 78, who lives down
the road from Harris, awoke along with
her son and daughter due to noises at
their front door about 11:30 p.m.
Then a man kicked in the door bran
dishing what appeared to be a rifle or
shotgun wrapped in a jacket, U nderwood
said.
The man said he had just escaped
from prison and that he was trying to get
to Virginia, Underwood said. The rob
ber told the three to gi ve him money and
car keys at gunpoint; they obeyed.
The man ripped the telephone from
the wall and fled in Dockery’s car with
$80 cash.
Aberdeen police spotted Dockery’s
car at a store; they arrested Harris as he
(See CRIME, page 5)
By Sam C. Morris
Summer didn’t stay around long. The
cold weather came last weekend and it
was still around Monday, with the cold
wind out of the northwest. Snow fell in
the state on Sunday, but 1 haven’t heard
of any around this area. The tempera
tures warmed up some on Tuesday. The
rain was needed, but we could use some
mote.
The forecast calls for rain on Wednes-
day and Thursday. The temperatures
will be in the 60s and the lows at night
wilt be in the 40s. On Friday and Satur
day the thermometer will register in the
50s during the day and the lows will be
in the 30s.
Spring comes in Friday, March 20.
Usually the weather is warmer with the
beginning of spring, but Easter is late in
April and we usually have some cold
weather until after Easter. Anyway the
winter hasn’t been very bad this year.
I talked with Raz Autry Monday
night and he said that the peach crop in
Hoke County has been hurt, but it Will
be a couple of days before the damage
can be estimated. Many of the blos
soms were killed on some varieties of
peaches. Of course the growers like for
some of the blossoms to be killed,
because this will keep the thinning
expenses low.
Raz said the critical period will be
in about two weeks. At that time the
blossoms will have dropped off and
the young peaches will be bare on the
trees. If the weather turns cold at that
time, it will freeze the peaches and will
desuoy them.
So let’s hope that the cold weather
or freezing weather is over for the year
and then we can expect peaches like
we had last year.
(See AROUND, page 13)