The
ews
No. 33 Vol. 89
'No Wake Zone'
supported
9A
Business
of the week
5A
joint planning
board gets the nod
5A
Home
and health news
IB
Index
Accent IB
Calendar 2B
Classifieds 9B
Deaths 8A
Editorials 2A
Legals 8B
Socials 3B
TV Listings 6B
Weather 3A
Around Town
By Sam Morris
Contributing Editor
The cold weather arrived
over the weekend. Monday
morning my thermometer reg
istered 30 degrees. It is sup
pose to be in the low 30s again
on Tuesday night, the sun
came out and the temperatures
rose into the 40s by midday.
There was also frost in many
places.
The forecast for the remain
der of the week, Wednesday
through Saturday,calisforthe
highs to be in the 50s and the
lows in the 30s. There is a
chance of rain on Wednesday.
* + * * * *
If you haven’t made a do
nation to the “Share Your
Christmas” project, now is a
good t i me to do so. Th is project
is sponsored each year by the
staff and volunteers of the
H.E.L.P. organization.
They supply food, toys and
other items for the needy of
the county at Christmas.
You can mail your dona
tion to ‘Share Your Christ
mas”, P.O. Box 1038, Raeford,
N.C., 28376 or drop it off at
the H.E.L.P. office on Main
Street.
(See AROUND, page IIA)
Journal
Serving Hoke County for 88 years
50 cents
Wednesday, November 19,1997
Donations, volunteers needed
for Hoke Thanksgiving project
By Knigut Chamberlain
Interim editor
Nettie McDuffie, a long
time Hoke County resident and
friend of the less fortunate, is
again planning to prepare
Thanksgiving dinner for those
in Hoke County who other
wise might go without, but
she needs your help.
In past years she has had all
her food, plates, cups, con
tainers lined up and ready to
go, but due to unforseen cir
cumstances, she has barely
started antj Thanksgiving is
only eight days away.
As a result. The News-Jour
nal is making this front-page
appeal on her behalf. Individu
als and businesses are asked
to bring financial donations to
the Hoke Emergency Liaison
Program (H.E.L.P.) store on
120 Main Street in downtown
Raeford, so that Nettie can go
out and buy the supplies she
needs to feed at least 250
people and possibly as many
as 400 or more. Make checks
payable to H.E.L.P. and mark
them for the 1997 Thanksgiv
ing Feast Fund. No donation
is too small.
H.E.L.P. will also supply a
sign-up sheet for names and
phone numbers of volunteers
willing to assist with the prepa
ration and distribution of the
food. Any help offered will be
appreciated and is sure to make
Thanksgiving more meaning
ful for those who participate.
Call H.E.L.P. at 875-8857 to
get your name and number on
the signup sheet
We at The News-Journal
thank you, our readers, in ad
vance for the cooperation and
support we know you are ca
pable of offering.
? •»
• ; I
■v\.-
Kristin Guthrie/Ncws-Journal
No serious injuries
An accident early Monday morning injured a Hoke County bus driver’s wrist and sent two women to the
hospital to be checked, but no serious injuries were reported. The accident occurred when George
Hartgrove reportedly was blinded by the sun while driving toward Raeford on Aberdeen Road and drifted
left of center, side-swiping a school bus carrying approximately 15 children, and a Chevrolet Beretta.
Rising costs threaten
school lunch program
Child custody mediation
comes to Hoke court system
By Kristin Guthrie
St^ff writer
A combined $121,000 plus
deficit in the school system’s
child nutrition program over the
past two school years now leads
the Board of Education toclosely
monitor the program with sev
eral options in mind for change
in the near future.
By March, the Board plans to
make a decision on how to deal
with the shortages reported dur
ing the last two school years. The
discussions now on the table in
clude raising prices at the high
school and t\vo middle schools,
increasing prices on the a la carte
menu and charging a portion of
the elementary school children.
Hoke County already imple
mented a price increase on the a
la carte menu for adult school
lunches from $1.50 per plate
charge last year to a per serving
charge this year in an effort to
make up for the $93,320 loss
reported from last year, but the
question is whether increasing
prices in that arena alone will be
enough.
Assuming that an a la carte
price increase does not cover the
financial shortage, the Board may
choose one option or a combina
tion of a few. Regardless of the
outcome. Child Nutrition Direc
tor Wanda McPhaul said, “My
(See LUNCH, page llA)
■. -vTt#
By Nicole Gabriel
Correspondent
A new mandatory court me
diation program in Hoke County
keeps children out of divorce
court and out of the middle.
Child custody mediation —
already established in
Cumberland County and other
large cities throughout the state
—recently came to Hoke County
with the help of Chief District
Court Judge Warren Pate.
Pate said he always wanted
Hoke County to get the program
since its inception in 1987, but
never found a way to bring it
here until now.
With the help of child custody
mediator Bill Mitchell, a media
tor in Cumberland County, Pate
said, Hoke County now has the
means to let parents battle out the
legal issues of their divorce out
side the courtroom, while pre
venting their children from be
ing caught in the middle.
“1 can honestly say of all the
cases 1 have to try, custody cases
are by far the hardest,” Pates
said. “So often, children are
caught in the middle. This takes
the kids out of the courtroom and
1 think it really prevents them
from being put in the middle.”
As parents vent their anger
and frustrations with each other
throughout the divorce proceed
ings, Pate said, the children often
feel put in a situation where they
must choose between one parent
or the other.
Child custody mediation tries
to eliminate that stress for the
child as much as possible, Pate
said.
“The premise is to reduce the
acrimony between the parents,”
Mitchell said. “When they do
that the communication becomes
better and the kids benefit from
that.”
After receiving an orientation
to the program, parents meet with
Mitchell or another mediator to
hash out the details of custody
and visitation, Mitchell said.
Parents receive information
about step parenting, custody
changes and other issues, in ad
dition to discussing custody and
visitation arrangements, Mitchell
said.
The mediator does not take
the place of a lawyer and cannot
give legal advice or discuss ali
mony, child support or other
monetary issues, but the media
tion process provides a forum for
parents to discuss the issues or
even vent their anger and frustra
tions. Quite often, Mitchell said,
the mediation helps the parents
as much as it helps the children.
“You have to let them vent,”
Mitchell said. That's often why
they come tocourt to begin with.”
Pate said medial ion allows the
parentsto“let ilall hangout’and
work through thedifficull i.ssues,
which in turn fosters a less hos
tile atmosphere to work through
the other issues.
“Many times the most contro
versial issue is custody," Pate
said. “When this issue is settled
it makes the other issues easier to
settle.”
Not all mediations end suc
cessfully, Mitchell said. Some
times the parents work through
and verbally agree to a plan dur
ing mediation, but then refuse to
sign the agreement in court.
When that happens, the case re
turns to the court system.
While the mediation process
often contributes to speeding up
the court proceedings, the focus
of custody mediation is not to
lighten the court system’s load,
Pate said, but, instead, to serve
the best interest of the children.
“This is not so much to save
the court time,” Pate said. "The
focus is to do what's in the best
interest of the kids. To keep them
out of the court process. To lessen
the impact on the whole family
when they go through adivorce.”
Ferguson case goes to jury
Niciilc Gabricl/Ncws-JournjI
The emu, though usually docile, can wield a painful kick when
frightened.
Big bird’s ‘flight’ ends
in capture at business
By Pat Wilson
Staff Writer
Some yoLingstersat Jones Day
Care must have thought Big Bird
had stepped right out of “Sesame
Street.”
There he was, running down
the street ‘^‘while the children
cheered him on,” according to
Detective Greg Thomas of the
Raeford Police Department.
The big bird — an emu, to be
exact — was spotted at West
Hoke Middle School and at
Turlington Park on Highway 211
last Wednesday afternoon. There
weresightingsatDavid’s#8Shell
Station, Autumn Care Rest 1 lome
and North Main Street and Scot
land, Jones and Robinson av-
(See EMU, page I lA)
By Knight Chamberlain
Interim editor
Jurors in the Rodriguez
Ferguson murder trial heard fi
nal arguments Tuesday from the
defense and prosecution and are
expected to begin deliberating
the charges against him this
morning after Judge D. Jack
Hooks instructs them on the law.
District Attorney Jean Powell
and Assistant District Attorney
Kristy Newton reviewed the evi
dence with the nine-woman,
three-man panel and urged its
members to find Ferguson, 20,
guilty of first-degree murder for
allegedly killing Jamie Hunter,
39, Deborah Hunter, 37, Steve
Locklear, 18, and
Tim Powell, 20,
at the Puppy
Creek Game
Room on New
Year’s Eve 1994.
He is also ac
cused of shooting
the Hunter’s
Ferguson
daughter, Mary Ann Hunter, 15,
who survived, but was left para
lyzed and in a wheelchair.
Ferguson is also accused of
shooting and killing another vic
tim — James Morrison Jr., 31,
— a few hours later at the former
Zodiac Lounge.
Ferguson’s lawyers
Henderson Hill and Lisa Dubs
countered that the state failed to
prove its case bevond a rea.son-
able doubt despite former
Sheriff's Det.BobConerly'stes-
timony earlier in the irial.
His testimony, concerning a
sworn statement he took from
Ferguson llie day after the
shootings, was that Ferguson
confessed to shooting the vic
tims.
Hill and Dubs made repeated
attempts to block the statement
during the trial, but to no avail.
Conerly said in his testimony
that Feiguson made verbal state
ments to him that Feiguson shot
the victims after Conerly look a
sworn written statement from
Ferguson.
(See EERGbSON, page I h\)