Peers work to solve problems See page 10 Merry Christmas from The News-Journal The News-Journal will be closed Wednesday, Dec. 25, Thursday, Dec.26 and Wednesday, Jan. 1 1 JKerrt^ Gfirisimas / No. 38 Vol. 88 Lumberton killed man By Nicole Gabriel Staff writer A l,umbcrlon man was shot to death in his car and two others were wounded in Antioch earl\ Satur day morning according to Sheriffs reports. According tr) Chief Deputv Wayne Gardner. Travis Coo per, 1 of l.iimberlon w as shot in the torso and killed about 4:3(1 a.m. Saturday morning after he and four others left the HalHield nightclub in Anitoch. C'ooper was a junior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, w here he w as studv - ing pharmacologv. A dean's list student, he graduated from Lumberton High SchiHil. Two others in the car were wounded. Gardner said. (!ar\ McDougald. 20. ofCaplc Street in 1 umberton and Gerard McRae. 10.of haxterStreet were treated at .Moore Region.il H(*s pital in Pinehurst after be-ingshot in their arms. Two other men in the car were not iniured. According to Gardner. Coo per and the others left the night club. drov e off in his I londa and were apparentb lost w hen a sus pect or suspects in another ear drove up next to Ciniper's ear and fired shots into it His friends tried to give him (.Sec \// Rm R. Judge delays motion decision ■ Ferguson back in court By Nicolf (iabrifi Staff writer After heated debate during a pretrial hearing, a superior court judge postponed ruling on the defense 's request toobtain met!i- cal recordsof a v ictim of a shoot ing incident involving a Raetord man. Rodriguez Ferguson, a Raetord man charged vsiih five counts of murder and one count of assault w ith .i deadiv we.ipon with intent to inflict serious m- jurv. appeared in court last SSednesdav with his defense at torney. Henderson Hill l erguson ischarged with kill ing Jamie Hunter. 3*^ his wife. Debbie Hunter. .37; '! im I’owell. 2(1; and Steve Locklear. IS; at the Puppy Creek family 1 un Arcade on New Year's I ve. IW4. and with killing James (.See I RIM., 1(1) Board selects linns ■ Takes first step in building schools By Kristin Guthrie Staff writer Last Thursday evening, the Hoke County I3oard of Hduca- tion met in a special session to interview and select architect firms to renovate the county’s present schools and build a new elementary school. Over the next several years, the board plans to spend almost $21.5 million dollars they were recently granted through a bond referendum during the Novem ber election. l ive North Carolina architect I i r rn s w e re i n te rv ie w ed a nd t h ree were awarded commitments for Hoke County work in the next few years. Among those inter viewed were lioney Architects of Wilmington; Hayes& Howell ofSouthern Pines; Shuller. I'erris. Johnson & Lindstrom of l-'ay- etteville; Stogner & Kanoy of Rockingham and IJ'V of l ay- etteville. The board selected Shuller. Ferris, Johnson & Lindstrom to take responsibility for designing and constructing the elementary school. “The need is in the east- (See SCHOOI, paf(e 14) ews Journal 'If it happened, it's news to us’ HOKE COUNTY SO CENTS Wednesday, December 25, 1996 ? V A.l,, iQ J{oliday semes Christmas scenes adorn Raefordas the holiday ap- prmches closer, showing ex'cryone s anticipationfor the holiday. Houses and trees glow with bright Christmas lights while lawns are decorated with brightly colored Santas and nativity scenes. Inside the homes of Raeford are lovely deco rations as well. Pictured above ((re pictures from the home of the Rev. David Dummon. To the left, is another holiday decora tion. (Photo by Kristin Guthrie) THIS WEEK Calendar ....6 Classifieds .. 13 Deaths ..11 Editorials ....2 Legals .. 12 Social News... 7 •••• / School News.. ....5 Around Town County loses funds in computer crash By Sam C. Morris Contributing editor Winter came in officially De cember 21 and itcame in as win ter should with cold weather. For the past few days, we have had the coldest weather of the year. The lows have been in the teens or low 2()s and the highs have been in the 4()s. Last Thursday night, we had a cold rain but in Southern Pines they had snow that was still on the ground Fri day morning. The forecast for Christmas Day is for the high to be in the 40s and the low in the 30s. Thurs day and Friday will see the tem peratures rise and the highs will be in the 5()s and the lows in the high 20s or low 30s. I don’t believe that we will have a white Christmas! * ♦ « « * In the Raeford Presbyterian Church newsletter recently was an item that read “You are cor dially invited toaChrLstmasOpen House at the home of Ernest and Jere Frame, 1004 N. Fulton St. on December 18,1996 from 2:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m.” Later the item was corrected to senior citizens over 50 years of age. (See AROUND, page 8) By Nicule Gabriel Staff writer A combination of a computer crash and a billing program change for the Hoke County Emergency Medical Service caused a loss of more than $500,000 worth of unpaid bills in June 1995. Despite the loss, the ambulance department still collected more money that year than ever before, according to the county manager. Although the county-run am bulance department accumulated $584,140 worth of outstanding bills when its biding computer hard drive crashed in June 1995, accordingto financial statements, the county went on to collect over $14'7,000 in revenues for fiscal year 1996. Mike Wood said the exact amount in billing lost as a result of the computer glitch could not be determined. The actual por tion of bills lost covered a six- month billing period. However, according to Mel issa Pittman, the billing system data entry clerk, after the system crashed, the county purchased an upgraded billing program which was incompatible with the back up disks she made. She was directed to start entering billing dataasofJuly I,thebeginningof fiscal year 1996. The combination of these two factors resulted in the loss of the $584,140 in unpaid bills accu mulated until that point, accord ing to Pittman. Wood, who was previously unaware of any back up disks for the lost data, said the crash was nobody’s fault. He said Pittman properly backed up the system and she could not have done any thing more. “The data,entry personnel were doing everything they (See COMPUTER, page 4)

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