The Liberty Cart opens its fourth season
a
Supper in the pines
the James Gang perform
Phenius tells the history
. PROGRESS SENTINEL
V ?
VOL. XXXXIV NO. 27 USPS 162-860 KENANSV1LLE, NC 28349 JULY 5,-.1979 12 PAGES THIS WEEK 10 CENTS PLUS TAX
Farmers Protest Prices
I
At Faison Produce Market
Protesters continued to
tSnove through the sale line
Saturday at the Produce
Auction Market in Faison
carrying just one symbolic
package of peppers or cu
cumbers on their trucks,
according to market obser
vers. They reported that at
Heast sixty such vehicle; had
passed through the market
by 11 a.m. Saturday, with
more expected in the after
noon. And all the one
crate farmers interviewed
^promised to be back on
Ufdonday.
"I brought my cukes out
here and they brought $1.50
a bushel," said Edward
Shine of Faison. "1 went
sight home ;nd disced up the
whole acre and a half. My
~J>rother in New York said
Hcukes were selling for $18 a
bushel. Tt just ain't fair."
Not all farmers at the
market were sympathetic to
the protest, though. "This
protest, strike, or what-have
you ain't doing no good,"
[Jlsaid Wayne Phipps of
Turkey. "When this produce
has to go, it has to go."
One angry farmer, Billy
Whitehead said. "The gas
price affects us as well as the
truckers. We have to buy gas
Ajust like the truckers do.
"TVhile everything, such as
gas and labor, is costing us
more, produce is bringing us
less."
Junior Royal complained
of the large difference be
tween the price of produce at
grocery store and the
" prices being offered at the
market. According to Royal,
two cucumbers at the grocery
store cost $1, but at the
market $1 will buy almost a
whole bushel. Some farmers
uare also destroying their
V cucumbers to protest the low
prices.
Sampson farmer George
Oevault said he destroyed
$10,000 worth of cucumbers.
"Damned if I can live on one
good year out of every six. 1
[Vhave good credit, but I don't
know how long that's going
to last. The only day that
produce has sold good on this
market was the day Governor
Hunt came. It paid high
prices just to make a good
show/'? ?
A spokesman for the pro
testing farmers, Ben Robin
son of Rocky Point, said,
"We want $6 for all grades of
peppers. Buyers are saying
they can't get more than S6
on the Northern market."
Robinson is a member of
AgrL-Foods ? Association,
which, he said, represents
farmers' interests.
"A bushel of peppers
would have brought $48 at
one Rocky Mount grocery,"
he said. "The store manager
told ntp he Only: paid SI 7 for
the bushel that came from a
Faison market."
Farmers also complained
of persons selling produce
"as a sideline." "People
who have to make a living
can't take these prices and
survive," Robinson said.
Buyers, on the other hand,
claim they are caught in the
middle. One buyer, who
wished to remain unidenti
fied, said, "The buyers are
stuck in the middle. Our
customers (groceries and
wholesale produce firms) say
the prices are too high, but
the farmer says it's too
cheap, and the truckers want
higher rates."
The buyer added, "I paid
SI .50 to ship a crate, 15
percent seller's fee and 10
percent buyer's fee. If the
price is too high, our
Northern and Western cus
tomers are not going to buy.
If something doesn't happen
soon,'we may as well move
out."
The farmers, however, say
they will continue to slow
down the market until the
prices are satisfactory.
Meanwhiie, law enforce
ment officers are heavily
patrolling the market to pre
vent any violence.
Sheriff Elwood Revelle
placed six of his 18 deputies
at the market Friday. Three
Faison police, three highway
patrolmen and two state
Department of Crime Control
aides also guarded the site.
The two aides remained at
the market Friday after Sec
retary of Crime Control Her
bert Hyde visited the site in a
helicopter.
Meanwhile, prices
appeared to have strength
ened Saturday. Large
peppers ranged from $5.57 to
$6.60 per bushel in the 11
a.m. market report. Medium
large peppers were going for
$5.95 to $6.50 and medium
size peppers, $5 to $5.85;
while ' long green" cucum
bers were bringing $4 to
$4.55.
Volume was v^eported
heavy with peppers the main
offering. Market officials
could not say whether the
protest had helped bring
about the higher prices.
Friday, despite the
protest, nearly 90,000 were
sold, according to the
Federal State Market News
Service. Faison is the area's
largest sales point.
Movement from the
packing sheds is traditionally
light on Saturdays, officials
noted. Friday, officials re
ported sufficient trucks to
move the produce out of the
area, but one broker com
mented, "That doesn't mean
we could always move the
stuff where we wanted it to
go"
Saturday, officials said it
appeared as if there were
enough trucks available to
move the produce. They also
said the market will keep
regular hours despite the
protest.
Kenansville Reunion
Day Saturday
A reunion of Kenansville
Public School students and
teachers, described by
several residents as a town
reunion, will be staged on
the school grounds in
Kenansville July 7th.
The school building,
erected in 1926, will end its
days as a school at the end of
1979 when students will be
transferred to the new
Kenansville Elementary
School, now under construc
tion. ^
Disposition of the old
school building has not been
decided. During July, the
building is being used as
quarters for cast members of
THE LIBERTY CART.
A former student will re
view the school's history
during an afternoon pro
gram. A barbecue will be
held about noon.
More than 500 persons
have paid for tickets to the
barbecue, officials said,
some have also signed up for
a historic Kenansville tour,
according to Amos Brinson,
one of the originators of the
reunion idea.
The school opened in 1926
with 11 teachers and a prin
cipal. They taught grades
one through 11. During the
first week of school, students
had to sit on the floor as the
furniture had not been de
livered.
It was opened as a kind of
consolidated school, made
possible by the advent of
school buses in the county
three years before. Prior to
that time, one- and two-room
schools scattered across the
county provided education
usually to the seventh grade.
From 1923 until 1926,
school was held in the old
James Sprunt College build
ing, which had not been used
for its original purpose for
several years. In 1926, the
seventh- and eighth-graders
were 8 to 19 years old.
Brinson recalled that stu
dents played basketball on a
dirt court outside in all
weather. He remembers
going to Chinquapin to play a
game in the snow. Chin-*
quapin won 8 to 6, he said.
A gymnasium was built
some time after the school
was opened, but it burned in
the mid 1930's. Kenan
Memorial Auditorium was
built after World War II and
completely remodeled in the
late 1960's and early 1970's.
In 1957, the high school
and grades seven and eight
were moved to the then new
James Kenan High School on
N.C. 24 between Kenansville
and Warsaw. The Magnolia.
Warsaw and Kenansville
high schools were consoli
dated into the new school.
About 10 years ago, a
junior high was formed in the
E.E. Smith School in
Kenansville, and the former
lower-grac_ students of the
Smith school were trans
ferred to the Kenansville
Elementary School. The new
school building is scheduled
for completion in December.
k
*k~~> * -
LIBERTY RUN WINNERS
(L t? R) Steve Thomas, 2nd
Overall Winner; Ramone
Stroud, 2nd A-Male Winner:
Loren Jones, 1st D-Male
' '' - ' * % ,
Winner; Phyllis Barwick, Jkd
C-Women Winner; Jeffrey
Howard, 1st A Male Winner;
Melba Vinson, 1st C-Female
*? ?? ' y tr~?*
Winner; Roland Cavenaugh,
1st B-Male Winner; Kenneth
Reinhardt. 3rd C-Male
Winner; Ann Sumner. 2nd
- ? ? -'
t.-Femaie Winner. La. er?t
Cunninghani. - 1st D-Female
Winner, and McRae Sharpe,
1st C-Male Winner.
FRAZELLE RETIREMENT DINNER - Ap
proximately 150 people honored Z. i W.
Frazelle with a retirement dinner Friday,
June 22nd at The Country Squire. A portrait
of Frazelle was presented by the faculty.
staff, and friends of Kenansville Elementary
to be hung in the school in his honor.
FrazeHe retired after 31 years as principal of
the school.
Native Son Wins Kenansville's
First Liberty Run Sunday
McRae Sharpe, son of Rev.
and Mrs. Lauren Sharpe of
Kenansville, won the 1st
Liberty Run with a time of 35
minutes, fifty seconds over
the 6.2 mile course on Sun
day.
McRae came all the way
from Knoxville. Tennessee,
to participate in the Kenans
ville Jaycees-sponsored .1st
Liberty Run. All proceeds
will go to the Cystic Fibrosis
Foundation.
The race started at 5 p.m.
with seventy-two partici
pants, with the last one
finishing at 6:10 p.m.
The winners and times of the
four groups (A-12 and under:
B-13 to 18; C - 19to34; D- 35
and over) .vere as follows: A -
male 1st Place - Jeffrey
Howard, (49:53), 2nd Place
Ramone Stroud (59:00), A -
Female 1st Place, Jenny
Parker (69:04); B - Male 1st
Place, Roland Cavenaugh
(38:21). 2nd Place, Thomas
Kelleher (39:06; C - Male 1st
Place, McRae Sharpe
(35:50); 2nd Place, Steve
Thomas (37:22); C - Female
1st Place - Melba Vinson
(49:22,): 2nd Place - Ann
Sumnei- (50:24): D - Male 1st
Place - Loren lones (42:03);
2nd Place John Hort (42:48);
D - Female !ai Place Laverne
Cunningham (60:06).
Jaycee Mark Vinson,
chairman of the Run, said
that a total of 89 persons
entered with 72 running and
sixty-seven finishing.
Duplin Property Valuation For
1979 Totals $590,452,899
Duplin County's assessed
valuation for property tax
purposes for 1979 totals
$590,452,899 according to
Tax Supervisor Frank Moore
at the Board of Commis
sioners meeting Monday.
He said the total includes
$3.5 million from previously
unlisted automobiles and
other vehicles. The state
sends counties a list of
registered vehicles each
year. From this list, county
tax officials determine the
number and value of vehicles
whose owners failed to list
them in their regular
property tax returns.
The total also includes
$30,440,527 for public ser
vice property.
The Board, in determining
its budget and property tax
levy for the next year, used
an estimated valuation of
$563 million. The tax rate is
68 cents per $100 valuation, a
drop of 4 cents from last
year.
The largest increase in
value came in Island Creek
Township, which includes
the town of Wallace. Its
assessed valuation rose from
$113,362,389 in 1978 to
$119,262,285 1979.
The greatest rate of in
crease was 8.69 percent for
Rose Hill Township. The
township's valuation in
creased from $28,940,941 in
1978 to $31,459,385 in 1979.
Valuation of other town
ships withl978 figures listed
first and 1979 figures second
follows:
Warsaw: $62,933,731 to
$66,464,758.
Faison: $50,626,445 to
$51,61 in02.
Wolfscrape: $25,436,833
to $26,078,019.
Glisson: $14,433,070 to
$15,377,510.
Albertson: $17,876,570 to
$18,606,495.
N Smith: $21,817,225 to
$22,535,129.
Limestone: $57,746,378 to
$62,091,690.
Cypress Creefc: from
$27,575,938 to $28,914,397.
Rockfish: $19,659,022 to
$19,924,229.
I^agnolia: from $25,
599.497 to $25,960,377.
Kenansville: from
$65,287,354 to $68,359,443.
During Monday's
meeting, the Board re
appointed Moore as tax
supervisor and Leland Grady
as tax collector. The super
visor's term is two years and
the collector's term runs one
year.
Moore also reported that
veterans of the county re
ceived $2,770,499 in com
pensation for disability,
vocational rehabilitation and
insurance during the past
year.
County Finance Officer
Russell Tucker reported the
county owes the state
$37,125 for two months of
Medicaid payments.
He also reported fhe
county has $88,000 remain
ing in its public assistance
fund from the Social Services
Department budget for fiscal
1978-79. He said with unused
money on hand in this fund,
the county will be unable to
borrow money from the state
to meet the Medicaid pay
ments.
Board Chairman W. F.
Costin said, "When we were
sworn in as county com
missioners. we took an oath
to carry out what is man
dated by the state. This
means we are going to have
to pay this thing, and I
believe if we are going to get
any relief, we'll get it at the
mini-session (of the General
Assembly next spring.)"
The Board has been pro
testing the sharp increase in
the county's proportion of
Medicaid payments. Duplin
has so far refused to pay the
high amount and completed
its 1979-80 budget with pro
vision for $100,000 less than
the state directed it to pro
vide for Medicaid during the
next year.
H.L. Oswald, chairman of
the Duplin Development
Commission, recommended
John H. Gurganus. Jr. for
the vacant post of Develop
ment Director effective July
9.
The Board hired Gurganus
at a salary of $20,000 per
year. Gurganus if industrial
development director of
Northhampton County. He is
from Williairston and
received his bachelor's de
gree from East Carolina Uni
versity.
KENANSVILLE REUNION
Saturday Schedule
10 a.m. - Registration
12 noon - Luncheon
2 p.m. - Program
Invocation - Lauren Sh&rpe
Welcome ? Mavor Douglas
Judge and Z.W. Frazelle'
Speaker-Rev. Lauren Sharpe
Presentation of Awards &
Gifts
Benediction - Troy Mullis
I