y * tjr 9 PROGRESS SENTINEL VOL. XXXXV NO. 21 USPS 162-860 KENANSVILLE NC 28349 MAY22.1980 12 PAGES THIS WEEK 10 CENTS PLUS TAX Magnolia Acting Mayor Refuses To Hold Office After Julv 1 Melvin Pope,, town com I missioner and former mayor ' who has been serving as acting mayor in the absence of a regularly elected mayor, told the town board last Tuesday he would no longer act as mayor. The former mayor had declined to run for re-elec tion in the last town election. Marjorie Pickett, who ran for the position refused to be ) sworn into the post after winning without opposition. Since that time Pope has of it any longer. I don't have the time to run my business and the town. I've not been able to work in my business so far this week. I have asked everybody to be mayor and nobody has come forward." He asked each commissioner to take the position, and all r refused. Pope said he will remain as acting mayor until July 1, but at the July meeting he will sit in the commissioner's chair to which he was elected, and someone else would have to be acting as mayor. served as acting mayor at the request of the board. "I flat don't want any part Library Summer r Program The Duplin County Dorothy Wightman Library will kick off its 1980 county wide summer story and film program with a story-telling festival on the Courthouse lawn in Kenansville on Wed nesday, June 4th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. In case of rain, | the festival will be held June 6th. Library staff members. Mrs. Marie ioaa ana Mrs. Eva Miller, have planned a program of story-telling, songs and other activities. The public is invited to attend. A complete stimoi'er reading and sto y-telHng program is planned by the staff. Dates and times are being scheduled and will be I announced later. This has been a popular summer acti vity for children for several summers. Parents and chil dren are urged to start now to make plans to participate, said Roberta Williams, the new library director. Awards Night At Extended Day School On Thursday night. May 29, 1980 at 8:00 P.M. there will be an awards night at Duplin County Extended Day School in the E.E. Smith Jr. High School Gym. Many of the teachers at Extended Day School will take this opportunity to give special recognition to some of their students. ? The Extended Day School Director, W.T. Stokes, the faculty, and students invite all friends, relatives, and concerned citizens to attend. Memorial Day Service Monday The American Legion will conduct Memorial Day Ser vices in honor or the nation's war dead at 11:00 A.M., Monday, May 26, 1980, at Pinecrest Cemetery, Com mander Robert L. West, Of Charles R. Gavin Post No. 127, announced today. Chairman of this year's Memorial Day observance is J.P. Johnson who outlines some of the details of the past's Memorial Day cere monies. Chairman Johnson ex plained that this years obser vance will include such items as the reading of a list of the known deceased Veterans, the Memorial Day Prayer, the placing of Flags and/or flowers on the graves, and the sounding of Taps, is scheduled. Post #127 will be one of thousands of American Legion and Auxiliary organi zations throughout the land which will be leading local observances of Memorial Day. Similar services to be conducted in American over seas military cemeteries, are being planned and carried out in many instances by Legionnaires living in foreign lands. "It is this tradition which The American Legion proudly serves in Warsaw, Faison, and Kenansville area," West stated. Rose Hill's Tax Valuation Increases By $2 Million An increase of about $2 million in assessed valuation for Rose Hill in the past year was announced by C.T. Fussell, town administrator at the town board meeting last week. Fussell said the current valuation stands at $15 million compared with $13 million last year. Fussell presented a proposed budget to the town board for study. The proposal would call for a gross of $112,500. The gross levy for the 1979-80 fiscal year was $97,500. The pro posed budget would hold the tax levy at 75 cents per $100 assessed valuation. The town's total 1979-80 budget was $195,710. The 1980-81 proposal calls for a total expenditure of $206, 200. The proposal estimates revenue from sources other than the ad valorem tax at $127,950. However, $43,000 was carried over from the 1979-80 budget in unspent funds. The board plans to have a second town sewer bond referendum in mid-August. A water and sewer bond proposal was defeated in March. The board proposes to ask for $375,000 in the referendum. Police Chief James Masters reported his depart ment is conserving on gaso line use by reducing some activities such as patrolling the Rose-Hill Magnolia school grounds a mile out side of the city limits and some escort services. Offi cers will no longer chase suspected criminals without a warrant. Such chases could get the department in trouble. Town Attorney Richard Burrows said. The board set a public hearing May 27 on a question of building 20 townhouses in the city at an estimated cost of $670,000. Building the proposed townhouses would be C immunity Research and Development Associates of Durham. PUPPY LOVE - Beagle puppies are naturally curious animals. The above puppies are three of a family of eight. The puppies are around and about everything, examining their new world and trying out their new skills Photo by Emily Killotto the still shaky run. the short sharp bark and the gnaw of new teeth. And even if the puppies chew on your toes and shoes as you try to pet them, who could help but love them when you look into their big brown eyes? Warsaw City Limits To Expand 4 Acres To Apartment Land The Warsaw city limits will ?bfc expanded to ijtt4-^*r about four acres on the' north side of town in order to accommo date 30-35 townhouse apart ments which the Community Research and Development Association of Durham plans to build in Warsaw. The town board last week directed Town Attorney Jene Thompson to open annexa tion proceedings. The apartment complex will be financed through federal funds. One of the requirements for funding is that it be located within the city limits. The board also held a public hearing on a $415,000 development grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development which it expects to receive to re habilitate 40-50 houses on U.S. 117 on the south side of town. Warsaw's pre-applica tion for the grant has been approved, and town officials have been told this normally means the grant will be approved. A second public hearing was held Monday at the town hall. The board conducted a public hearing on condem ? tsatjotT ?>f two decrepit houses, one at 305 W. Hill St. and the other at 503 N. Gum Street. No one attended the hearing. Town Manager Alfred Herring informed the board its next step is to obtain an issue in Superior Court against the property owners to allow denMtition of the buildings unless the owners either tear down the structures or repair them to meet town building standards. Herring said the town will demolish the struc tures and bill the owners for ~ the cost if nothing is done to the property. R. E. Wilkins asked for drainage work on the 500 block of West College Street, explaining that drainage has been blocked since the street is being four-laned and one inch of rairj would fjood the grounds o"f l.ve fin petty owners. Thurman Gastor, town maintenance supervisor, said he is aware of the problem and is starting to take cor rective action. Faison Board Holds Public Hearing On Revenue Sharing The Faison town board held a public hearing on revenue sharing money dur ing the regular meeting of the Board last week. About 10 Faison citizens appeared at the hearing to comment on the use of revenue sharing money for the up-coming year. Town Administrator Neil Mallory explained that the revenue sharing program may not be renewed by Congress in September, which would re sult in the loss of funds in the up-coming year. However, he said, the town would receive $3,500 in revenue sharing funds in the next three months and $5,000 of the funds had not been used in the past year, A total of $8,500 in revenue sharing monies was the concern of the public hearing, and if the revenue sharing bill is passed by Congress a new hearing would be held to discuss the use of additional monies. Mallory explained. Glen Jernigan. Chief of the Faison fire and rescue de partments requested that the Faison Board appropriate the same amount of revenue sharing funds for public safety as allocated in last year's budget. A representa tive from the Faison recrea tion department also re quested the same amount of funds as received in the 1979-80 budget from revenue sharing monies. Suggestions from the other citizens in cluded. the use of revenue sharing funds for ditching, mosquito control, and the curbing and guttering of streets. At the close of the public hearing, the Faison Board returned to their regular session and discussed the over-due water bill of James Jordan which had been ta bled at the April meeting. Jordan had appeared before the Board in April, when he stated that he should not be charged a dual water rate. Jordan said he had con nccted dual to his water meter before the 1973 ordi nance was passed to prohibit the action, and after receiv ing the first dual bill in November of 1979 he cut-off water to the unused connec tion on the meter. According to Commis sioner Wheless the town charged a dual rate for three months before passing a grandfather clause excluding persons on dual meters con nected before the 1973 ordi nance. During the three months, Jordan was the only person who refused to pay the dual rate, from which the town collected $979.86, Town Clerk Hazel Kelly said. The Board moved to send a letter to Jordan requesting him to pay the dual rate for all three months, totaling a bill of $195.12, and that the bill be paid within 10 days or his water service will be discon nected. Police Chief Randy Brock reported that a part-time police officer had been hired to work through the produce season. According to Brock the policeman is a full-time employee of Middlesex po lice department and will work weekends in Faison. Brock said, as the migrant workers begin to appear in Faison the number of break ins increases and a police man is needed on duty 24 hours a day. The policeman hired by the Faison Police Department is Danny A. Brock, who worked the part time position last summer during the produce season, the police chief said. At the conclusion of the meeting. Town Administra tor Neil Mallory informed the Commissioners that he would be resigning at the end of October, when he would be employed full-time with Mount Olive. However, Mallory said he would con tinue to work with Faison until all on-going projects of the town were completed. Mallory is employed as a tri-town administrator, work ing with the towns of Fremont. Faison and Mount Olive. Duplin General Plays Role In Reducing Health Care Inflation by Richard E. Harrell North Carolina hospitals are saving more than lives. Many of them, such as Duplin General, are saving energy, supplies, time and money through participation in the North Carolina Volun tary Effort for cost contain ment. The state Voluntary Effort (VE) was initiated in 1979 by the state's hospital and medical leadership as a response to the problem of rising health care costs. The program was primarily re sponsible for hospitals like Duplin General to bring the rate of health care cost inflation in North Carolina down by nearly 4 percentage points during the last year. Hospitals participating in the Voluntary Effort are re cognized for their cost con tainment achievements on two levels of certification. Full and Provisional. Duplin if General was provisionally certified bv the committee as a cost containment hospital during its frist year of partici pation in the voluntary effort after submitting a resolution from its board of trustees and medical staff in support of the statewide VE program. (Duplin General earned full VE certification after meet ing a more stringent set of criteria, which involved im plementation of an ongoing program to inform its med ical staff of hospital costs, establishment of a function ing cost containment com mittee, and meeting a strict expenditure goal determined by the Voluntary Effort plan formula.) Duplin General, like other hospitals, is uniquely vic timized by inflation and government regulations. Minimum wage increases have a double-edged effect at Duplin General, where large numbers of employees work at the minimum wage. The payroll comprises 56% of the total operating expenses at Duplin General. The energy crisis has greatly impacted the hospital with fuel cost increases, since it operates at full capacity 24 hours a day, 365 days a veai-. W. E. Rove, state VE coordinator, bus stated, "It is obvious from the results of our voluntary effort to date, that hospitals such as Duplin Gene J are totally committed to reducing the rate of escalation in hospital expenditures." Roye. potntr to the suc cess of the N