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Journal
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Raeford & Hoke County n.c.
Wednesday, March 28,2007
Ethanol plant funding nearly complete
A&R Railroad ready to beef up tracks, possibly take over Laurinburg & Southern
By Victoriana Summers
Staff writer
The co-owner of Clean Bum
Fuels of Cary says the company
should have an alliance in place in a
few weeks to provide the remainder
of funding needed to start work on
an ethanol plant here.
Jack Carlisle says an investment
alliance should be secured by the
middle of April for the last $5 mil
lion needed to proceed. He said the
cost to build the ethanol-producing
plant at the Hoke County Regional
industrial Park has been raised from
$85 million to over $100 million.
Ed Lewis, president of the A&R
Railroad, said his company is behind
the ethanol enterprise 100 percent.
A&R will provide the spur for rail
service to the future Hoke plant.
“We are very close to closing on
our subscription agreements with
private investors,” Carlisle said. “A
big announcement will be f(Mth-
coming.
“During this period of time, we
have already let out our contracts,
(See ETHANOL, page 5A)
‘'The Chalaires have helped so many people
... they never talk about the good they spread
to others in need/' - Bessie Lemer, friend
Friends pitch in to help
stricken Raeford florist
■t
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Mary Lee Chalaire shares a moment in Moore Regional Hospital with husband Gene Chalaire and grandbaby,
Charlotte Parker.
By Victoriana Summers
Staff writer
Valentine’s Day at Calico Comer
Florists was hectic, with volunteers
and longtime staff designing and de
livering floral arrangements around
the county.
But Gene Chalaire, supervising
the preparations, was missing his ir
replaceable co-partner and wife of 39
years, Mary Lee Chalaire.
For 29 years, the Chalaire couple
have designed and delivered flowers for
every occasion to the Hoke community
and surrounding counties. Mary Lee is
now fighting for survival i n FirstHealth
Moore Regional Hospital as a victim
of lung and brain cancer.
Since January when she was first
diagnosed with the disease, she has
been in and out of the hospital with
two major setbacks. In spite of seizures,
she is determined to improve and kick
the cancer, according to friend Bessie
Lemer.
Lerner, a Raeford resident and
professional seamstress, has also vol
unteered at Calico Comer’s for busy
hohdays. She is now taking up the slack
temporarily for Mary Lee along with
other friends.
“The Chalaires have helped so many
people,” Lemer said. “Many times
people have not been able to afford
flowers for a relative’s funeral and Gene
and Mary Lee have discreetly seen that
flowers were available.
“They never talk about the good
they spread to others in need.”
(See FLORIST, page 8A)
Teacher gets
state-level
VFW award
page6A
Boys’track team
sweeps meet
page7A
Two convicted
in sex cases
page7A
Breaking story:
Sheriff’s Office breaks
up major ID ring
piigeSA
52
Calendar 6B
Classifieds 5B
Deaths 3A
Editorials 2A
Legals 4B
Schools 6A
Sports 7A
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Woman angered after school had her arrested
Beckel with daughter Makenna
By Victoriana Summers
Staff writer
After a Hoke school social worker
filed an arrest warrant against her, a
North Raeford volunteer firefighter
and mother of a West Hoke Elemen
tary pupil permanently withdrew her
daughter from school on Monday.
Jennifer Beckel said she took the
extreme action after being erroneously
arrested on a criminal charge. She said
the Hoke school officials mistakenly
alleged her daughter incurred too
many unexcused absences.
Beckel said she also conferred in
person yesterday with state education
officials in Raleigh. She complained
of the conduct of at least three Hoke
school employees.
“An apology would not be good
enough after being arrested falsely,”
Beckel said yesterday. “I have never
heard of anybody being charged with
this offense.
“I had documents to prove that the
school was wrong in what it did to me.
Most of my daughter’s absences were
excused,” she said.
“I was never counseled by the
school or notified in writing of any
problem with my daughter’s atten
dance.”
The wife of a U.S. Army Golden
Knight skydiver, Beckel said the only
(See MOM ARRESTED, page 5A)
Wall like along border of Mexico planned for Hoke
By Noah S. Verdad
News Journal Intern
Taking a cue from the federal govern
ment, Hoke County leaders have come up
with a solution to possible annexation of
Hoke residents by the city of Fayetteville:
a Mexican border-like wall.
“It sounds silly, I suppose,” said Abril
Tonto, an engineer for the county and
architect of the plan. “But we’ve found a
loophole in the law that says if the county
is fenced off with a border wall, it’s not
eligiblized for annexation by another
municipality.”
The wall will bring the added benefit
of keeping out undesirable aspects of
Fayetteville as well, said Tonto, such
as dmgs, heavy traffic, and possibly
Wal-mart.
But the wall is not without its critics.
“Unless you post guards at roadway
breaks in the wall, what’s the point?”
says Enganado Le, a Rockfish resident
whose backyard will be bisected by the
wall. “Fayetteville people can still get
into Hoke County.
“And what next? Are we going to
have to use passports to go to a movie
in Fayetteville?
“1 left Texas because of this mentality
and here we go again.”
And then there’s the expense. Though
(See BORDER WALL, page 7A)
Border wall similar to Hoke’s.
Removal of last downtown street light causes huge sinkhole
”We had Just pulled the
last bolt on the last street light
when the whole street opened
up,” said power company line
man Lotz Watts.
“It was like those street
lights were holding up the
pavement.”
As Watts looked on the
ground on Main Street col
lapsed into at least a 30 foot
hole Tuesday afternoon.
No one was injured, but a
Hummer owned by April Fur-
ste disappeared into the hole
while she was having lunch at
the Chatterbox Cafe.
(See SINKHOLE, page 5A)
r
he News-1 Journal
News Oth^ stuff
By Ken MacDonald
Publisher
The giri on the other end of the line had
asked how late her school could provide us
with its newspaper files and still have the
paper printed by Wednesday. It was Monday
liiuiiiing, and lici window was closing even
as we chatted on the phone, but 1 didn’t have
the heart to tell her that.
She told me she had worked on the paper
all afternoon and evening Sunday, and for
some unknown reason (unknown to her - it
:rr
was apparent to me her problem was she was
using a PC instead of a Mac) she lost all of
her work - there was nothing saved on her
hard drive.
When 1 told her if she could email me the
files sometime Monday night that I would try
to rearrange our printing schedule to accom
modate her, 1 heard her voice begin to break.
That still wasn’t enough time.
Through her tears she told me her school
was about to start spring break, the paper
(See OTHER STUFF, page 8A)
Workers block off a giant sinkhole on Main Street