The
ews
J oumal
The 4th issue of our 84th year
RAEFORD, NORTH CAROLINA
25 CENTS
Wednesday, May 6,1992
City, County agree to split Plarniing and Development office
County commissioners and city councilmen
(see related story page 4) voted Monday to split
Raeford-Hoke’s Economic Planning and Devel
opment directorship into separate functions.
Two positions will replace the job vacated in
early April by Patric Zimmer, who quit to be
come a developer in Rockingham County.
Commissioners ordered the Planning and
Development Conmiission to start searching for a
new planner to oversee zoning and land use laws
and long-range planning for utilities, city annex
ation and other matters, said Barry Reed, Hoke’s
county manager.
Reed and City Manager Tom Phillips will
work together to hire an economic developer, he
said, to recruit industry, help existing industries.
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Signs of the times
Hoke Register of Deeds Candidate Cecelia Weston
stands among signs at the Hoke Library. Though she
Two in Leadership Hoke
may start DARE program
Last week. The News-Journal inter
viewed two more participants in the
Leadership Hoke program. These, the
second in a series of interviews, are
aimed at letting participants share what
they learned while probing important
issues in the county. —Ed.
Thanks to the efforts of two partici
pants in the Leadership Hoke institute,
county children may soon be learning
how to say no to drugs from specially
trained lawmen.
Jumper killed;
second injured
near airport
A British Army skydiver in trainli
over Raeford Municipal Airport dieo
yesterday, apparently from a mid-air
collision with another jumper at dusk.
Lee W. Sands was found dead by
Kevin Kinlaw, a Hoke sheriff’s deputy,
in a field near the airport with injuries to
his head and neck. His parachute was
found opened on the ground nearby.
Graham MacLaren, the other jumper
involved, suffered a broken leg when
Sands apparently flew into his knee just
as the two were opening their chutes,
according to a sheriffs report.
Sands apparently died from injuries
sustained in the crash before landing.
MacLaren came to earth near the
(See JUMPER, page 4)
Jean Powell, Hoke’s district attor
ney, and Helen Huffman, finance of
ficer for the City of Raeford, took on
starting Drug Abuse Resistance Educa
tion in HokeCounty as their “case study”
at the end of the institute.
And it looks like DARE will become
a reality in Hoke.
“It’s full force right now,” Huffman
said of the effort to start DARE in Hoke’s
schools.
Superintendent Bill Harrison favors
foster new businesses and possibly head a “Main
Street” program to revitalize downtown Raeford.
Both positions will be funded by the city and
the county, Reed said.
A separate planner will help the county stay on
top of land-use laws better, Reed said; currently,
Hoke’s junkyard law is administered by the
Health Department while zoning and other laws
are the joint responsibility of the Planning and
Development Commission and Inspections
Department.
The PDC will not be in charge of hiring the
developer because “most of its activities are in
the planning area,” Reed said.
TTie developer could answer to the PDC in the
(See PLANNING, page 13)
sought votes all day person to person, the effort wasn’t
enough to defeat incumbent Della Maynor-Goude.
DARE and “both the law enforcement
heads have expressed strong support,”
Powell said.
The only question that remains,
Powell and Huffman said, is whether
DARE is a high enough priority to af
ford assigning law officers to teach it
part time.
But Hoke Schools may apply for a
state grant tohire off ^cers to teach DARE.
Aimed at fifth graders, the DARE
(See LEADERSHIP, page 13)
Jordan, Hodges
top vote getters
Could face Crowder, Leach again
F our candidates for Hoke County Com
mission could face each other in a second
primary June 2.
None of the 11 candidates got the required 40
percent of the 6,238 votes cast yesterday to win
one of two seats outright.
Riley Jordan led with 1,183 votes; he needed
1,248 votes to avoid a possible runoff.
Jean Hodges came in second with 811 votes,
Charles Crowder third with 758 and James Leach
followed with 731.
According to state law, Crowder or Leach may
ask for the second primary; Crowder said this
morning he likely would.
If either fails to ask, his name won’t be on the
baUot; the seven remaining candidates are out of
the race.
They were led by Maggie Hunt with 626 votes,
followed closely by Howard Sinclair with 624,
Jimmy Morrisey with 578, Elizabeth Jones with
166 and Jim Knott with 129.
There were few surprises, if any, in other races
of local interest.
District Attorney
Jean Powell, the incumbent district attorney for
Hoke and Scotland Counties, handily defeated
challenger Allen Webster 5,251 to 1,993.
Powell got 2,729 Hoke County votes to
Webster’s 756.
Register of Deeds
Challenger Cecelia Weston made a strong
effort against Della Maynor-Goude, but not
enough to win the job from the veteran Register
of Deeds.
Maynor-Goude won 1,947 votes to Weston’s
1,465 with strong showings in largely black and
Indian precincts, particularly Raeford #5, where
she got 294 votes to Weston’s 26.
(See ELECTION, page 12)
Jury selection drags on
Lawyers are still picking a jury for the trial of
Kerry Morston, accused of murdering Southern
Pines drug detective Ed Harris in his western
Hoke home.
Eight jurors have been selected so far; if
Superior Court Judge Craig Ellis appoints two
alternates to the jury, lawyers have six more to go
in the process, which has gone on over a week.
Jury selection will take at least the rest of the
week, said Jean Powell, district attorney for Hoke
County and prosecutor in the case.
Powell last night called the jury selection
“tedious,” but said the process had to be slow.
Powell and her aide, William Farrell, and
Morston’s lawyers Woodberry Bowen and Ken
Ransom are questioning each prospective juror
separately, rather than in the presence of other
jurors, she said.
“Because of the pre-trial publicity, the court
felt that this was the best way,” Powell said.
Questioning prospective jurors separately is
slow, but keeps jurors from “tainting” each other
with opinions expressed during interviews.
“You can ask more detailed questions about
jurors’ opinions,” Powell said.
“It’s going as fast as it can,” she said.
Ed Harris was gunned down over a year ago in
the doorway of his Ashley Heights home.
Powell said it is normal for a complicated case
like this one to take over a year. Morston is one
of nine Moore County men charged in the mur
der, that means nine separate cases with a host of
defense attorneys making motions for psycho
logical analyses of their clients and other matters.
“The last evaluation (of a defendant) was just
recently completed,” Powell said.
“There have been volumes and volumes of
legal motions that have been heard,” she said.
It took three months just to get a copy of the
medical examiner’s report on the autopsy, she
added.
‘Girl Talk’ answers teens’ sex questions
EMS, Rescue and sheriff's officials await military authorities.
Between 30 and 50 sixth-grade girls
are going to a sleep-over Friday night.
If that sounds like a pretty big slum
ber party, you’re right. But West Hoke
Middle School has lots of room. And
there will be plenty of folks on hand to
chaperone the girls, says JackieMcKoy,
Fire inspections
to begin in June
Fire inspections of businesses,
churches, day care centers and schools
will begin in June, says a local fire
marshal.
City Fire Marshal Terry Tapp and
County Marshal Jimmy Stewart arehold-
ing a meeting later this month to explain
to businessmen, officials, and citizens
what the inspections will entail.
Tapp says the meeting on May 26
will cover general rules and fees for
inspections, and fines for violators.
“It’s for us to be able to discuss what
we’re going to be expecting of them,”
Tapp says.
All businesses, factories, churches,
day care centers, residential institutions
and schools will be inspected periodi
cally for fire safety violations.
(Ordinances passed recently give fire
(See INSPECmONS, page 13)
director of Hoke’s Teen Pregnancy Pre
vention program and organizer of the
event.
Several helpers will answer ques
tions about fashion, friends, beauty and,
— yes — boys, she said.
Also on the agenda for the night is a
human sexuality program.
McKoy says (3irl Talk is “for sixth-
grade girls to become more knowledge
able about their bodies.”
It”s “an opportunity to ask questions
which they would not otherwise ask in a
(See GIRL TALK, page 11)
AroLinii Town
by Sam C. Morris
The weather over the weekend was
perfect. It was warm and the rain stayed
away. Most folks enjoyed a weekend
outdoors. A low pressure system moved
into the state Tuesday and the thermom
eter went down and the rains came to the
county.
The forecast calls for the low pres
sure system to remain stationary for the
remainder of the week. The highs
Wednesday through Friday will be in
the 60s and the lows will be in the 40s.
On Saturday the temperature will again
get into the 70s and the low at night will
be in the 50s. There will be a chance of
rain for the entire week.
Let’s hope that when this system
moves out the weather will once again
become seasonable.
* * *
When someone writes a column in a
newspaper, he or she should expect ev
eryone to read an item the same way.
Well this IS not always the case, just as
when two or more people see a wreck,
each person will have seen it differently.
1 will explain what I mean by the above.
Last week Raz Autry in his column
“A View From The Country,” stated in
an item that Autry and his golf partner,
Sam Morris, wodd sing a duet at the
Hearts in Harmony for Hospice. He had
stated in the first paragraph that a lady
said she couldn’t believe anything in his
column.
Later in the week after the paper had
hit the streets, I was telling a friend about
the item. He said he had read the column
and that he had commented to his wife
that they should attend and hear the duet.
I took it a little further and I asked
Mary Archie McNeill if she would play
for us. She consented to do so. Ruth
Phillips said she would return my money
(See AROUND, page 4)