The
ews
J ournal
Hoke County’s newspaper since 1905
IH
No.48Vol.l08
Raeford & Hoke County n.c.
Wednesday, February 5,2014
NCFAST blamed for DSS backlog
Hoke office will work the weekend, Feds threaten funding cut
By Catharin Shepard
Staff writer
The Hoke County Department
of Soeial Services (DSS) will
work over the weekend if neces
sary to meet a state-mandated
deadline to resolve a backlog of
food stamp (Food and Nutrition
Services or FNS) applications,
Director Della Sweat said.
The NCFAST computer sys
tem, which was intended to be an
easy one-stop way for people to
apply for some social services, has
been plagued with implementation
issues since the state unveiled it.
Those complications added up to
a backlog of FNS applications that
now threaten nearly $90 million
in federal funding for the program
administration, state Department
of Health and Human Services
(DHHS) division director Wayne
Black wrote in a recent letter to
all North Carolina county social
services directors. The United
States Department of Agriculture
(USDA) has threatened to pull
the funding from the entire state
program if counties don’t quickly
catch up on the applications. Black
wrote.
Hoke County’s DSS started
working with the NCFAST system
in October 2012 and immediately
encountered “numerous prob
lems” with the system. Sweat said.
Those problems have continued
causing delays for clients seeking
their benefits, she said.
Sweat said that to compensate
for the NCFAST issues, Hoke
County DSS reached out to
(See DSS, page 4A)
Snow rapport
Avery Modlin (front) is all smiles and so is her sister Riley Modlin (back) and Thomas McGirr (middle) as they get pushed down the hill
on a sled by Kristi Posey and Terri Frahm in front of the Methodist Church on Main Street last week. (Hal Nunn photo)
Snow, sleet dismiss students... to Saturday school
By Catharin Shepard
Staff writer
Hoke County last week received
several inches of snow that stayed on the
ground long enough to impact travel and
businesses for days, marking the first
major winter storm to hit the county in
recent years.
Official snowfall totals were about
four inches of powder last Tuesday night,
although some areas of the county may
have received a little more or less than
that amount. With temperatures barely
rising above freezing for several days, the
snow stuck around long enough to melt
and re-freeze as ice. Warming tempera
tures Thursday and Friday finally started
the melt, and rainfall Saturday cleared
the last remnants of the winter storm.
(See SNOW, page 6A)
Ambulance
service goes
for proposals
By Catharin Shepard
Staff writer
Three years after signing Medl as the
county’s exclusive medical transport company,
the contract is up and the county will consider
other offers.
The Hoke County Board of Commission
ers voted Monday to prepare a request for
proposals from ambulance service companies.
Any company, including Medl, interested in
providing medical transport for the county will
be able to submit a proposed agreement for
providing service. It’s not the same as accept
ing bids for a project and the commissioners
can consider factors other than cost when
deciding which company to accept. County
Manager Tim Johnson said.
Medl president Richard Hicks flew in from
Atlanta to discuss the matter with
(See AMBULANCES, page 6A)
City asked to rename
Robbins Heights Park
By Bill Lindau
The Raeford City Council heard a request
to rename the park in the Robbins Heights
Community in memory of one of Raeford’s
civic leaders, as council held its first monthly
meeting of the new year Monday evening.
Betty R. Perkins spoke to council of the
request to have the park renamed the Martha
R. Beatty Park.
Raeford Mayor John K. McNeill III said the
council would take the request under advise
ment. No further action was taken.
Perkins described the late Beatty as a
(See PARK, page 6A)
This Week
Election filing
begins next week
Page 3A
Calendar 2B
Classifieds 4B
Deaths 3 A
Editorials 2A
Legals 3B
Sports 5 A
Worship 2B
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www.thenews-journal.com
Committee announces Sports Hall of Fame
The Hoke County High School Athletics
Hall of Fame committee announced last week
this year’s list of sports honorees.
The committee selected Terrell Carpen
ter, Russell Davis, Lonnie Hendrix, George
Maynor, Alexander McMillan, Vernon Mor
rison, Harold Thompson and David Wood to
join many other former Hoke High athletes
and coaches in the hall of fame. The program,
started three years ago, seeks to recognize the
aceomplishments of people who have made an
impact through their local athletic involvement.
The awards banquet will be held this Friday,
February 7, at 5 p.m. in the West Hoke Middle
School cafeteria. Tickets for the banquet are
$25 and are available through the athletic de
partment and at The News-Journal office on
(See FAME, page 4A)
By Ken MacDonald
My truck, a 1994 S-10, turns 20 years old this month
and as most guys surely do, I have been reflecting on the
life events we’ve gone through together.
In 1995,1 ran over the towline of my sailboat and
ripped the front off the boat, for example. A short time
later, I locked its keys inside on a sailing trip and spent
two hours in the middle of nowhere retrieving them. In
the same time frame, I nearly killed my best friend trying
to play a practical joke with the truck, having left it in
neutral while we used it to try to straighten the mast of the
aforementioned sailboat. It nearly ran him over. I lost a
huge popcorn popper over its side once. There were also a
few times when she did me proud—^when my friend was
(See OTHER STUFF, page 4A)
Help catch
a thief
This screen grab from
video isn’t perfectly clear,
but perhaps someone can
help identify a thief who
stole a trailer from an
Eisenhower Drive home in
East Hoke Monday. Home-
woner Brandon Herron’s
cameras caughtthe thief on
tape,and he’s narrowed the
truck model to a late ‘90s
Dodge Ram. Anyone with
information should contact
the Hoke Sheriff’s Dept.