The
ews
I ournal
Hoke County^s newspaper since 1905
No.38Vol.l08
Raeford & Hoke County n.c.
Wednesday, November 27,2013
‘Freak’ power line problem starts house fire
By Catharin Shepard
Staff writer
An electrical problem with a
power line on East Donaldson
Avenue left about five families
without heat in freezing tem
peratures Sunday night, then set
one house on fire, Raeford Fire
Marshal Terry Tapp said.
An unspecified issue with a
power line on the residential street
in Raeford knocked out the power
in the late evening hours Sunday,
when temperatures dipped into
the 20s. About six houses were
affected though one of them was
vacant, Tapp said.
“Something happened with the
transformer and caused it to do
some major shorting out, and it
sent an unusual amount of power
to the houses,” he said.
The Raeford fire department
responded to the problem twice -
once when a resident heard noise
related to the issue, and later after
smoke was spotted in one of the
houses. It took about an hour for
the power company to restore
power after the transformer went
out, and when the electricity came
back on, reportedly one power box
inside one of the homes shorted
{See FIRE, page 5A)
Lindsay announces
commission mn
By Catharin Shepard
Staff writer
Commissioner
Status: Candidate
Experience: Not previ
ously elected
Education: Master of Sci
ence from N.C. A&T, license
of school administration
from UNCP
Position: Paid
Michael Lindsay
Running for: Hoke County
Lifelong Hoke County
resident and Puppy Creek
volunteer firefighter Michael
(See LINDSAY, page 6A)
The Hoke School Board receives its award.
Boards win acclaim
By Catharin Shepard
Staff writer
The Hoke County Board
of Education and the Hoke
County Board of Commis
sioners were both named
“Board of the Year” this
month by the North Caro
lina School Boards Asso
ciation (NCSBA).
The school board re
ceived the 2013 School
Board Leadership Award,
which honors a board for
“extraordinary leader
ship during the 2012-13
school year,” according to
a press release. To receive
the award, “a board must
demonstrate excellent
governance skills through
commitment to the role of
(See ACCLAIM, page 7A)
Busy students
Students and staff atJ.W.
McLauchlin Elementary
dressed Wacky Tacky
(top) in an effort to
support Hunger and
Homelessness Relief.
The students collect
ed more than 680
non-perishable items.
On Tuesday, students
heard the Woodwind
Quintet and the Brass
Quintet from the Army
Ground Forces Band
from Fort Bragg. The
musicians also talked
about how music re
lates to math, reading
and science.
Raccoon tests positive for rabies
A raccoon found in the and other domestic animals
‘He promised he’d never hit me’
For local woman, homelessness began with abuse
Wallace McLean Road and
Crawford Wright Road area
tested positive for rabies,
according to Hoke County
Animal Control. Family pets
This Week
Man killed
in weekend wreck
Page 5A
Christmas Home Tour
features notable homes
Page IB
Calendar 2B
Classifieds 7B
Deaths 3 A
Editorials 2A
Legals 3-6B
Sports 9 A
Worship 2B
can get rabies if a rabid wild
animal bites them, and the
rabies virus can be spread to
humans. When rabies from
wild animals “spills over”
into domestic animals, the
risk to people is increased
because of close contact
with pets, officials said.
Dogs, cats and ferrets
should be vaccinated against
rabies. Animal Control
worker Kristi Pylant said.
“Not only does the rabies
vaccine help protect your
(See RABIES, page 5A)
By Catharin Shepard
Staff writer
The day her husband
raised a hand to her, Eileen
knew she had to leave, even if
it meant being homeless.
“He promised he would
never hit me. When he
grabbed my wrist, it triggered
every memory of what had
been done to me as a child,”
she said.
With bruises still fading
on her arm, she threw what
belongings she could grab
into her car, rounded up her
pets and left behind an abu
sive home for an even more
uncertain future.
The mother and grand
mother didn’t know where
she could go, what she could
do. Her children were not
supportive. She spent nights
in her car or in the woods, all
the while suffering the pain
of an old back injury from a
car accident that had left her
permanently disabled. The
memories from an abusive
childhood haunted her, and
she knew there was no going
(See HOMELESS, page 7A)
Illustration
Donations fund lifesaving equipment
By Ken MacDonald
“You been to the convention too?” I asked the lady sit
ting next to me on the plane Sunday as we waited to push
back from Nashville and head to Atlanta.
She’d offered me gum and seemed keen to socialize.
That she’d likely been to the youth work convention was
not a long shot, because the plane was full of us, though
most of the others were in their early to mid twenties. And
she obviously worked with young people—being ener
getic, kind, and a quite frazzled around the edges.
“Yes,” she responded. “You?”
I explained I went in my capacity of volunteering with
youth and to exhibit on behalf of our Mexico house build
ing organization.
“I sort of work with youth indirectly,” she said, and
(See OTHER STUEE, page 5A)
By Catharin Shepard
Staff writer
Three more fire departments in the county
now have portable heart defibrillators on hand
thanks to a donation from local manufacturing
company Unilever.
Automated external defibrillators, known as
AEDs, are portable electronic devices that can
diagnose when someone has a life-threatening
irregular heartbeat and shock their heart back
into pumping correctly. The AEDs are built to
be so simple to use that even people who don’t
have much medical training can use them to
potentially save someone’s life, Medl training
officer Brady Lawson said.
“They have been designed in the last few
years to be
basically
‘dummy
proof,”’
he said.
“It’s really
just open
it up and
press the
button, it
gives you
all the
commands, it tells you how to do CPR.”
When someone is experiencing a type of
irregular heartbeat called ventricular tachycar
dia (V-tach) or ventricular fibrillation (V-fib),
(See LIEESAVING, page 7A)