ews
Journal
No.42VoLl00
If it happened, it’s news to us
Raeford & Hoke County n.c,
Wednesday, January4,2006
Hoke third most dangerous county to drive in
Treacherous weather, careless driving, not alcohol cited most often in fatal crashes
By Victoriana Summers
Staff writer
Hoke County has sustained notoriety
for the third, consecutive year as one of
the most dangerous counties to drive
in.
According to AAA Carolinas Auto-
mobileClub, Hoke ranked in the top three
as one in 2004 in which a motorist had
the “greatest chance” of being in a crash
per mile traveled. Rural Bertie County
in eastern North Carolina was named
most dangerous followed by Hertford
County in second. Bertie and Hertford
placed for the first time in this hazard
ous category. Columbus County ranked
fourth followed by Harnett County in
fifth place.
However, statistics also released by the
N.C. Highway Patrol office in Aberdeen
last week indicated Hoke’s fatality rate
decreased slightly from 14 killed on
. 'adways in 2004 to 13 in 2004. Sgt.
Tyrone Ross of the Highway Patrol re
leased this data.
In spite of recent widening of shoul
ders on U.S. 401 and Calloway Road,
extra traffic lights, stop-sign warnings
and turn lanes installed, the rural roads
of Hoke are still taking a fatal toll. Ross
said the majority of Hoke’s wrecks in
2005 resulted from motorists experienc
ing treacherous weather conditions or
driving carelessly or recklessly.
“None of these fatal accidents were
1 isted as a result of alcohol use,” Ross said.
“This was based on our toxicology re
ports. A lot of factors enter into the cause
(See ACCIDENTS, page 7A)
Computerized
dispatching OK’d
Kiss those scanners goodbye
By Victoriana Summers
Staff writer
Hoke commissioners last night
^proved a new computerized dis
patching system, ensuring there
will soon be a lot of “dead air” at
the local command center and on
scanners monitored by residents
across the county.
Future emergency calls will be
directly transmitted via a wireless
computer system to law enforce
ment, rescue and fire personnel
rather than by “audible” radio,
according to E-9-1-1 communica
tions director Jimmy Stewart
However, FirstHealth of the
Carolinas mt*flic's will not be on
the systeiii umess I'lrsiliealth is
willing to pay for the software
and computers required to oper
ate it.
“Our emergency calls have
TliisWeek
Rockfish’sQark
runs for Senate
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The year’s best
and worst
page3A
Sixth arrest
made in teen’s death
page 7A
Index
Bulh 2B
Business/Farm 6A
Gdendar 3B
(Jassifieds 3B,5B
I )eaths 8A
Kditorials 2A
1 ngagemcnts 2B
Ix-gals 4B
RsJigion 2B
VluH)! nieiui.s 6B
StK ials 2B
S[M)rts 4A
Weddings 2B
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Read by 3,000 each week
grown ten percent per year,” Stew
art said of demand for services.
“In ten years, we have doubled
our responses.
“It would take a load off our
dispatching for routine stuff
which is becoming more of a
burden. We could attend to more
hot calls.
“Right now, criminals can
figure out where everything is at
in the county.”
Rather like a military stealth
bomber evading radar detection
by an enemy, the mobile dispatch
system would prevent criminals
from intercepting the location
and nature of an emergency call.
Mobile data terminals (MDTs)
capability would also prevent
criminals from monitoring the
activities of the Hoke SherifFs
Office when a crime or drug bust
may be in progress.
According to E-9-1-1 statistics,
Hoke communications handled
65,000 calls requesting emer
gency service from January 1 to
December30,2005 that were pro
cessed via radio transmissions.
Other activities such as warrant
information and record keeping
is currently tying up the dispatch
system. With MDT, telecommu
nicators could inform law officers
in their vehicles more efficiently
(See DISPATCH, page 5A)
Tim Thacker, with a plane similar to the one in which he crashed in Florida two days before Christmas.
Local pilot crash-lands in Florida orange grove
By Victoriana Summers
Staff writer
Raeford charter pilot Tim
Thacker feels like a Christmas
miracle, surviving withou. .serious
injuries from a crash-landing in a
Florida orange grove.
“This is not going to be good,”
Thacker said his last thought
was before crash landing on
December 23, feeling his plane
flip tail-over-nose with him still
in the cockpit. “I knew it was not
going to be nice. It was a shot in
the dark for me to land safely. I
braced myself for the worst, but
I remain^ conscious after the
plane lost power, and I landed.
“I said to myself, ‘this is really
going to hurt,’ but I did not want
to think about dying,” he said.
“I was able to climb out of
a window after turning off the
engine so it would not explode. I
know I was a pretty lucky guy.”
Thacker — who also did not
strike any homes, motorists or pe
destrians said he has done a lot of
soul-searching about the hereafter
and life since returning to North
Carolina. Employed by a private
charter service in Raleigh, the
42-year-old Thacker was on his
way to fly skydivers at a national
collegiate parachuting event in
Lake Wales, Florida at the time
of the fluke accident.
“My children, 12-year-old Al-
lie and 14-year-old Morgan, were
supposed to have been flying
with me,” the divorced Thacker
said. “Morgan had some sort of
(See CRASH, page ?A)
Leaders confident ethanol plant will get needed state, federal fiinds
By Victoriana Summers
Staff writer
Jack Carlisle, founder of
Clean Bum Fuels, LLC toured
the Hoke County Regional In
dustrial Park near Dundarrach
off N.C. 20 last week, obtaining
a water sample from nearby
neighbor Edgar Patterson on
Arabia Road.
“We are committed to es
tablish our plant in Hoke,”
Carlisle said.
Not required to do so by
the state, Carlisle took the
water sample merely for com
mercial purposes. He said it
will determine what mix in
the water can be converted to
sugar as the com is converted
to ethanol. Carlisle is planning
the $100 million plant that will
serve as a manufacturer of an
alternative fuel source instead
of gasoline.
“No water is the same,”
Carlisle said. “If the water is
right at the site, it could speed
up the process for the com to be
converted more efficiently.
“We just need to know what
chemical compounds are in the
water around the site for the
plant so we will know what
formula we will need to mix
the water.”
Informally meeting Carlisle
at the site, Hoke commissioner
Charles V. Dan iels showed Car-
lisle around the neighborhood,
introducing him to Patterson.
Daniels, like Carlisle, is dis
cussing potential funding on the
state level on behalfof the Hoke
board of commissioners.
“A lot of money has been
(See ETHANOL, page 6A)
jack Carlisle, founder of Clean Burn Fuels, at the ethanol plant site.
le iitws
News
4 Journal
Other stuff
Sports center ready to open doors
Indoor soccer, batting cage, rock climbing featured
By Ken MacDonald
Publisher
New Years Day I got up and re-read
an article in The Sun entitl^ “Secrets of
Pronoia - How the World is Conspiring to
Shower You With Blessings.” It’s not really
an article on positive thinking so much as
an exercise in acknowledging that most
everything in our lives goes right.
Your blood flows, the article says, the
air is just the right mixture of gases for our
lungs, the electricity in our houses flow
with a flick of the switch, our pillows are
soft, our water is clean, we use machines
people now long dead worked their whole
lives to perfect, even our hygiene products
have been carefully tested for safety.
So why do we concentrate on the things
that go afoul?
“Let’s say it’s now 9:30 a.m.
You’ve been awake for two hours,
and a hundred things have already
gone right for you. If three of those
hundred things had not gone right
- your toaster was broken, the hot
water wasn’t hot enough, there was a
stain on the pants you wanted to wear
- you might feel that the universe was
(See OTHER STUFF, page 8A)
By Victoriana Summers
Staff writer
When someone wants to
kick off a soccer game in
HokeCounty in Febmary, it
won’t matter if there is snow
on the ground, according
to George Fredericks, co
owner of the new indoor
Sandhills Sports Center in
western Hoke.
Fredericks said SSC
would provide athletic ac
tivities and recreation for
youth and adults in Hoke
and sunounding counties.
The company will also
enhance county sporting
opportunities that may be
currently lacking in Hoke’s
Parks and Recreation de
partment, he added.
“We have skylights
throughout the building
to bring the feeling of the
outdoors in tor our athletes
in a climate-controlled
environment,” Fredericks
said. “We have an authen
tic-looking rock-climbing
wall that soars 30 feet to
scale. It even has the texture
of rock.
“We also will offer an
extensive sporting goods
equipment center with
special items for sale,” he
said.
“In our second phase,
we will have outride fields
for tennis, youth football,
cheerleading camps and
volleyball.”
Thus, two y^ars after
Fredericks announced that
SSC would be op)ening the
(See SPORTS, page 5A)