Newspapers / The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.) / June 17, 1992, edition 1 / Page 1
Part of The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
ews J oumal The lOtti issue of our 84rd year RAEFORD, NORTH CAROLINA 25 CENTS Wednesday, June 17,1992 Angry Rockfish residents tell board they don’t want subdivision Angered Rockfish residents said no to rezoning for a housing subdivision in the community, but county commissioners approved the recommen dation to the planning board anyway. “I think you should listen to the people in Rockfish,” Rockfish resident Agnes Bowers said, “they don’t want this. Our feelings have to count too.” Commissioners said the residents could use zoning to control what kind of growth comes to the area, but not to thwart growth. “Based on what I’ve heard, we have several reasons here why people are against it,” County Commissioner Thomas Howell said. “Getting back to what I think the root of the problem is — I think they just don’t want any growth out there." But Clifford Ramsey does. Ramsey, a local builder, requested the rezoning of the property on Rockfish Road from R20 to R15 to build about 41 stick-built (low-cost wood) homes on property currendy owned by Roy Stephenson and Danny Brock. “Neither this board, nor the planning board, nor anybody in the county can control that,” Howell said. ‘That is going to be controlled by supply and demand on property. What we do up here is not going to have anything in the world to do with it,” Howell told the audience. Residents said that the number of homes, along with the quality of homes, and the problems (See SUBDIVISION, page 14) .N.' v New medical center discussions at impasse Board still wonH relinquish building V / / .V. Perfect landing More or less. Josh White landed almost upright as he and other youngsters at Raeford United Methodist Church found a sure way to beat the heat Monday when they played "slip and slide” on the church’s north lawn. A sheet of plastic placed strategically on a hill, a fine mist of water sprayed across the slope, and a dozen young, brave souls is the recipe for summer fun. P lans for the Hoke County Medical Center remain tentative as proponents and oppo nents battle for control of the building to house the facility. Debate centers around the use of the already extant community-owned medical facility which houses Dr. Robert Townsend’s office. “The clinic is dead if it’s not done in that build ing,” County Manager Barry Reed said. “There is no other building out here. We do not have the money to build a building and there’s no building readily available that anybody owns that they could donate to the project that I’m aware of.” Younger Snead Jr., president of the Hoke County Medical Complex Inc. which controls the building, said his committee has no intentions of relinquish ing control to the new project. “I want them to succeed, but not in that building,” Snead said. “The Hoke County Medical Complex is not against this new project,” he said, “but there’s not one objective in there that’s the same objective we (HCMC) started with and still have today. I feel just as strong about that building as the day I started work on getting it built.” “As I read this proposal, it’s not anything but an annex for Cape Fear Valley Hospital,” he said. “A training program for this outfit in Fayetteville.” The new proposal plans a partnership between the Cape Fear Valley Memorial Hospital, the FAHEC — Fayetteville Area Health location Center (its teaching program), and Hoke County. It would establish a community-based non-profit fa cility providing ambulatory and primary care for the area. “This appears to be the only long-term solution to medical care in Hoke County,” Reed said. “The experts from the North Carolina Medical Society, the Kate B. Reynolds Health Care Trust, the Duke Endowment and the state of North Carolina have all gone through this and have all reviewed our situa tion, and out of all the places in the state have picked us to develop a model program for rural health — something the whole United States is going to look at. And these people are convinced that this is our only realistic hope. We have to find a way to make it work.” Concern from the controlling board also focuses on the continuity of the staff. “They state in here they’re going to have doctors from Duke, Chapel Hill and East Carolina on a '“There is no other building out there. We do not have the money to build... ”—Barry Reed ‘7 want them to succeed, but not in that build’ ing. ” — Younger Snead Jr. training program from one week to one month,” Snead said. “It doesn’t say anywhere in here about getting permanent physicians which is what that building is for—and Aat’s what we’re in favor of, getting permanent physicians. These men, if you got sick today, in three weeks if you go back, you’re going to be looking at a different man.” Not true, proponent Reed said. The new program would bring three full-time doctors — including Townsend, one physician’s assistant, and numerous doctors in residency (docr tors receiving specialized training) to Hoke County. (See DOCTORS, page 3) Who will pay for doctors? With 23.2 percent of Hoke County’s population in poverty, opponents of the proposed medical clinic question who will pay the price for the needed medical services. Concerns rose over wheUier costs to fund the new program would come from the County budget, which caused its own furor with a possible 12 cent increase. The three sources of funding for the proposed program ’would come from the Kate B. Reynolds Health Care Trust, the Duke Endowment, and local funds, said Dr. Harvey Estes of the North Carolina Medical Society Foundation. Funds from the endowments would total $324,500 in year one, $151,000 in year two, and $115,500 in year three. County Manager Barry Reed said the endowments would deaease over a three-year period because the idea is to create a self-sufficient clinic. Local funds, which would consist primarily of patient-generated fee money, would be $300,000 in the first year, $348,000in the second year, and $408,688 in the third year. Approximately $50,000of theclinic’sfirst year tab would be covered by the Health Department budget allocation ($499,954), which totals 4.6 percent of the proposed general fund budget. 4OO.,»j400 Railroad marks 100; forecasts good future Around Town I m ^ An A&R train pulls into Raeford. It carried logs and soldiers and equip ment, and after a century of service, the little railway that could still can. On June 22, the Aberdeen — Rock fish Railroad celelvates 1(X) years of service as a family-operated business. It’s a business that survived economic disasters and two world wars; its owners plan to keep on chugging into the 21st century. “We’ve gone from a logging concern which was begun around the turn of the century, to an agricultural operation through the first half of the 20th century, and now we’re into the industrial seg ment,” said Ed Lewis, president of the railroad. Lewis said the railroad played a ma jor role in Hoke County development in the past and will continue to do so in the future. “I think it’s going to come around in the future. There’s going to be a lot more rail shipment of freight,” he said. Lewis said that the increased utiliza tion of the railroad will probably result from the inefficiencies in the uucking industry. ‘There’s certainly a need for truck ing, but there needs to be more effi ciency,” he said. “They’re shipping more things piggy-back, where they cany the trailers on the train over long distances, and make deliveries on the truck over short distances. I think there’s going to be more of that in the future.” As Hoke County grows, the A&R hopes to grow with it. The railway currently serves Chesebrough-Ponds and Borden Pack aging, among other industries, hauling chemicals and materials, and Lewis feels the railroad’s ability to move large quan tities fast could factor into the arrival of new industries in the area. “Most of our growth will come from the expansion of current customers,” he said,”and getting new customers on line.” Lewis said new customers look at many factors before coming to an area, but transportation plays a key role in the decision process. ‘‘They look at a whole gamut of things (Sec RAILROAD, page 4) By Sam C. Morris The weather over the week-end and over the last part of the week was as forecast in this column last wdek. The rains came on Thursday and Friday and they also came on Sun day. The temperatures were in the 70s and 80s during the day and the lows were in the 50s. Monday the sun was out and the temperatures were in the 80s. The forecast calls for the tem peratures to be in the 80s Wednes day through Friday during the day and the lows for the period will be in the 60s. On Saturday we could see the readings in the 90s again. There is a slight chance of rain on Thurs day. Maybe summer is here to stay! * * * This past Sunday Floyd McNeill asked me to say something in my column about the political signs still on poles and trees throughout the county. Most of the candidates have taken down theirsigns, but some still remain. I have noticed some from the first primary are still on trees and poles. So, if you haven’t removed your political posters, try to do so in the near future. They are now faded and tom and don’t help the looks of the roadside. * * Kathy Leandro was by the office last Friday and she was placing an ad thanking the people who panicipated or donated to the Project Gradua tion. After she had placed the adver tisement I talked with her about the project. The comments she made and the number of people who were involved came as a surprise to me. I would like to pass a few of her com ments along to the readers of this column. She said that about one-half of the senior cl ass participated in the event. It was on Friday night after gradua tion and the games and other activi ties lasted until daylight. There were (See AROUND, page 4)
The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
June 17, 1992, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75