The
ews
75^^
I ournal
Hoke Count3^s newspaper since 1905
No.31Vol.110
Raeford & Hoke County n.c.
Wednesday, October 7,2015
Raeford wiU do Christmas big this year
By Sheila Black
Raeford will be going all out at Christ
mas this year. Jackie Lynch, Executive
Director of the Raeford-Hoke Chamber
of Commerce, presented plans at the City
Council’s monthly meeting Monday night
for a “Hometown Christmas” to be held in
the downtown area of Raeford on Thursday,
December 3 from 6-8 p.m. with a rain date
of December 10. Plans are for the tree lights
and lights down Main Street to be turned
on at the same time, and luminaries to be
placed along Main Street from the library
to Bo’s and down Central Avenue. She
stated that the event will “focus on what
is downtown and the museum” and hopes
that businesses, churches and schools will
become involved.
On Tuesday, Lynch provided more de
tails about what she calls an annual family
event. “This will give people the opportuni
ty to see everyone and wish them a ‘Merry
Christmas,”’ Lynch said.
Many activities will take place at the cor
ner of Main Street and Central Avenue. Ac
tivities scheduled for this location include
the Christmas tree lighting, the arrival of
Santa and Mrs. Claus by horse-drawn car
riage, all Hoke County schools participating
in the singing of Christmas carols, the Hoke
County High School band performing at
5:45 p.m., and Christmas movies.
Tours of the Raeford-Hoke Museum on
Highland Street will be given throughout
the evening. The high school drama team
will perform skits at the museum also.
“This will give us the opportunity to show
case the museum,” Lynch said. There will
be hayrides and carriage rides throughout
the evening, leaving from both the museum
and Main Street.
Businesses will have the opportunity to
(See CHRISTMAS, page 8)
Iks "
■rv.a',,/.:,
One of three accidents on Calloway Road early Monday morning as rain wrapped up in Hoke County.The driver of
this car, Rachel Smith wasn’t seriously hurt when it flipped as she swerved in the rain to miss an animal.Traffic had been
diverted to other portions of Calloway due to an earlier accident on N.C. 211. Story, page 8. (Ken MacDonald photo)
Rain was 1 in 1,000 year event
Closes streets, spawns wrecks, cancels events
f A ’T'TT A riTlkT ^TTI-Tt A r> T~V -fV^ ->r~k4-4-l ^ I r-> 1 -l
National
Weather Ser
vice radar
precipitation
estimates for 2
weeks (above)
and the last
week (left).
Sign of the times at Raeford United Methodist
Church.
By Catharin Shepard
Staff writer
A storm system that some
experts dubbed a “thousand-
year” rain event dumped over
seven inches of rain on Hoke
County over 12 days of con
stant clouds.
Besides the occasional
downed tree branch, a few
wrecks and a handful of new
potholes, the county fared
well, according to emergency
management officials.
About seven and a half
inches of rain fell on Hoke
County between September
24 and October 5, according
to the weather station at The
News-Journal office in down
town Raeford. The county
typically gets an average of 48
inches of rain a year.
However, rainfall totals in
South Carolina dwarfed what
Hoke received. According to
(See RAIN, page 8)
This chart shows 12 consecutive daysof precipitation recorded
at The News-Journal in downtown Raeford.The largest one-
day total was 3.1 inches.
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Police promote website
‘Nextdoor’joins community, officers
By Catharin Shepard
Staff writer
The Raeford Police
Department is partnering
with a private social media
website, nextdoor.com, to
help stay in touch with the
community.
Nextdoor is a service that
works as a private social
network for people who live
in a certain neighborhood.
giving them an easy way
to communicate with each
other and law enforcement.
It’s a “virtual neighbor
hood watch” that’s free for
residents to join and doesn’t
charge the police department
any money either, according
to the company.
Officers will be able to
share useful information
like emergency notifications,
crime alerts, safety precau
tions and information about
upcoming events and crime
watch meetings, but won’t
be able to access residents’
websites, contact informa
tion or content through the
network, according to the
site.
Residents who sign up
can create private neighbor
hood websites to share infor
mation only with others
(See NEXTDOOR, page 13)
Man jumps, runs, is arrested
Deputies with the
Hoke County Sheriff’s
Office arrested a man
last week for possession
of stolen goods after he
allegedly fled from of
ficers.
Authorities investigat
ing a breaking and enter
ing on the 100 block of
Congaree Drive around
8:30 a.m. September 28
reported that, while try
ing to make contact with
a sus
pect in
regards
to the
inci
dent,
he
jumped
out of a Bethea
vehicle and ran.
Authorities found a
semi-automatic weapon
in the vehicle and, after
(See FLED, page 13)
Fears of overload from rain delays treatment plant opening
By Catharin Shepard
Staff writer
Heavy rainfall over the last
week convinced operators at Hoke
County’s new wastewater treat
ment plant to delay the plant’s
official opening until things can
dry out a little.
The plant is ready to go into
operation, but workers haven’t
flipped the switches on it just yet.
County Manager Letitia Edens
said Monday night at the Hoke
County Board of Commissioners
meeting. The managers were con
cerned excess water in the system
could cause a problem.
“They had to postpone the
startup for this week and they
moved it to Monday the 12th,”
Edens said. “Because of the near
record rain, they were not going to
start those effluent pumps.”
The 1.5 million gallon capac
ity treatment plant has been under
construction for over a year, and
officials hope having the utility
capacity in place will encourage
more businesses to move into
Hoke County.
Other business
At the brief meeting Monday,
the commissioners unanimously
approved an eight-item consent
agenda including a maintenance
agreement and technology
subscription agreement for the
Department of Social Services,
minutes from previous meet
ings, a single family rehabilita
tion funding agreement through
the
(See COMMISSION, page 13)