The
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Raeford & Hoke County n.c.
Wednesday, May 25,2011
BRAC-related growth overestimated
Hoke’s population of47,000 not expected to reach 56,700 as predicted
By Catharin Shepard
StaffWriter
Projections in a 2008 Base Re
alignment and Closure report may
have overestimated the potential
Hoke County population increase
by thousands.
The current county population to
tal, based on U.S. Census data, stands
at 46,952. The study sponsored by
the BRAC Regional TaskForce, now
known as the Fort Bragg Regional
Alliance, suggested that the county
would have56,704residents by 2013.
With the final 2,000 members
of the U.S. Army Forces Com
mand (FORSCOM) and the Army
Reserve Command set to move to
Fort Bragg by September, that kind
of last-minute surge does not seem
likely to happen at this point, real
estate chief executive officer Larry
Strother said.
As President and CEO of REA
Strother Real Estate, Strother has
worked in housing sales in Hoke,
Cumberland, Harnett, Lee and
Moore counties since the 1970s. His
company handles many of the exist
ing homes for sale in Hoke County.
The area is growing, but it’s not
the kind of growth officials once
predicted, he said.
“Everybody has anticipated that
BRAC was going to bring a signifi
cant amount of real estate growth
to the area as well as the overall
economy. There’s been all kinds of
numbers kicked around,” Strother
said. “That number has actually
shrunk up from the huge amount
they first talked about to the realm of
the numbers we really anticipated.”
{See GROWTH, page 6A)
Health director’s
suspension
extended 30 days
Hoke High Class of ‘ 11 graduates
By Catharin Shepard
StaffWriter
Health Department Direc
tor Cynthia Oxendine, placed
on paid leave for 30 days
earlier this month, is now on
leave for a total of 60 days
while officials work with state
consultants to make sense
of a months-long backlog of
unbilled or incorrectly billed
Medicaid filings.
The county Board of
Health authorized the ad
ditional leave while it looks
into the Medicaid billing at
the department, chairman
Mark Posey said.
“That (leave) is for an ad
ditional 30 days. We are not
through looking at things at
the Health Department to get
a true and total picture of what
we’re looking at,” he said.
Staff turnover and pa
perwork errors have left the
Health Department with
tens of thousands of dollars
in unpaid Medicaid billing,
according to areport prepared
by Joy Reed, head of the lo
cal technical assistance and
(See HEALTH, page 5A)
Band leaves for capital
The Hoke County High
School Mighty Marching
Bucks leave Saturday for the
National Memorial Day parade
set for Monday, May 30.
The marching band students
are very excited to hit the road
for their performance, band
president Betty Perkins said.
For months the band and
community supporters have
Gets combat award
page 5A
Kiss cursive writing
goodbye
page4A
Teaching Fellows
tom* county
page4A
Calendar 2B
Classifieds 5B
Deaths 3 A
Editorials 2A
Legals 3-4B
Sports 7A
Worship 3B
We Ve on the web at
www.thenews-joumal.com
Readby4,500 each week
worked to raise money to
send the band on the trip. The
students cut their trip short by
oneday to save money, aschool
official said.
The parade will be televised
on the Military Channel,
the Pentagon Channel, at 10
p.m. on the American Life
Network, and can be seen at
www.military.com. The band
will represent North Carolina
as one of dozens selected from
around thecountry. Theparade
begins Monday at 2 p.m. The
band will also perform at the
Fayetteville Veterans Affairs
Hospital this week.
Big Day
Some 300 Hoke
High School seniors
received diplomas
Friday night at Raz
Autry Stadium. At
left, valedictorian
Denzel Cummings
addresses seniorsAt
right, Rashad Hurst,
student body presi
dent, joins principal
Bob Barnes on stage.
Above, amidst a sea
of red and white,Jes-
sica Budreau looks at
the camera. (Catha
rin Shepard and Hal
Nunn photos)
It was on Memorial Day that he lost two buddies
Three World War II veterans now living here, share memories of serving their country
By Catharin Shepard
StaffWriter
For Robert Hale, Memorial Day is
not just about remembering soldiers
who gave their lives for America
but about remembering friends lost
too soon.
It was the day two of his buddies
died while fighting in World War II.
“That day has a very sad meaning
to me,” he said quietly, thinking back
to another time and place.
The last Monday in May is not
the only memorial Hale marks ev
ery year. Seven other friends died
the day he turned 20 years old. He
remembers another 10 men killed
on his mother’s birthday. Of the 286
soldiers who served alongside Hale,
fewer than half survived.
“When the war ended, there were
99 of us still standing,” he said.
Hale, now 87, served in the Army
for 30 years, 10 months and 19 days,
after first being turned down for ser
vice in 1942 because he didn’t pass
the physical. Six months after being
turned down, he was drafted. The
year after that, the young man from
West Virginia coal mining country
was fighting in North Africa.
Being an African-American
in the United States Army of the
1940s sometimes meant fighting
(See VETERANS, page 5A)
By Ken MacDonald
Jessica Kellermann stopped by to visit after patronizing
the new farmer’s market at FirstHealth Saturday. Naturally,
the conversation turned to chickens.
She told us a friend had helped her move her mother’s
chicken coop using a trailer, but despite her gentle question
ing along the lines of “Shouldn’t you tie this thing down?”
the friend proceeded until the structure fell off the trailer
into the road.
“What’s your point?” I asked. “All men have a story like
that.”
My friend Jimmy moved from Raeford to Laurinburg
some years back, I told her, and after he got settled, I went
to visit him.
(See OTHER STUEE, page 6A)
MacDonald is ‘Citizen of Year’
M.L. “Locke” MacDonald
was named Citizen of the Year
by the Raeford-Hoke Chamber
of Commerce, and was presented
the award at the annual chamber
banquet last Tuesday.
MacDonald was honored for his
work documenting the history of
Raeford and Hoke County and for
other civic involvement.
MacDonald retired as principal
MacDonald
of Hoke High School in 1992, and served in the National
Guard and U.S. Navy before working for Burlington
Industries for 16 years. He began teaching at Hoke High
in 1975 and also worked as assistant principal.
(See CITIZEN, page 6A)
(McKinney photo)
Moretti withdraws
murder guilty plea
A Raeford resident who
pleaded guilty last week to a
second-degree murder charge
will instead stand trial for
first-degree murder.
Legal counsel for the de
fense of Stanton Mark Moretti
Jr., 45, of Raymond Street in
Raeford withdrew the guilty
plea Friday, the day he would
have faced sentencing, court
officials reported. The trial
proceedings began Monday.
Moretti was previously
represented by court-ap-
(See PLEA, page 3A)