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\)

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