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PROGRESS SENTINEL
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VOL. XXXXVII NO. 34 USPS 162-860 KENANSVILLE, NC 28349 16 PAGES THIS WEEK AUGUST 25, 1983 10 CENTS PLUS TAX
Municipal Officials Approve
Tax Hike in Duplin
Representatives of six of
Duplin County's 10 muni
cipalities in an informal vote
urged adoption by the county
of the half-cent additional
sales tax during the August
meeting of the municipal
officials association in Rose
Hill Thursday night!
Only Calypso and Magno
lia failed to approve the tax.
Warsaw and Kenansville
were not represented.
Mayor Me^vin Pope of
Magnolia said the town's
board passed a resolution
i opposing the additional tax.
"It's not this tax as such,"
he said, "we're just against
any additional tax. There are
already too many new taxes.
This is just not the time for
another tax."
Wallace Mayor Me^vin
i Cording urged adoption of
the tax. He considers it a
substitute for a proposed
$300 million bond referen
dum. If the voters approved a
S300 million bond issue,
Cording said, they would be
saddled with a total payment
of S700 million including
principal and interest.
Cording said 23 counties
have approved the half-cent
local sales tax and several
others have hearings sche
duled on it.
The Duplin County Board
of Commissioners were to
conduct a public hearing on
the question Tuesday night
in the courthouse at Kenans
ville.
The N.C. Association of
County Commissioners has
estimated Duplin County and
its municipalities would re
ceive $590,000 in fiscal 1983
84 from the half-cent addi
tional local sales tax if the
county adopts the tax
County Manager Ralph
Cottle said the association
based its estimate on 56
counties' adopting the new
tax by Oct. J. The Oct. 1 date
is the earliest the tax can be
put into effect, which means
during the current fiscal year
a county could only get nine
months of income from the
tax.
Under a distribution for
mula mandated by the N.C.
General Assembly, Duplin
Countv would receive
$455,000 of the anticipated
$590,000, Cottle said.: The 10
municipalities in Duplin
County and two other towns
that have small areas in
Duplin County but are basi
cally located in other coun
ties would divide the
remaining $135,000.
Forty percent of the
county's share, or $182,000,
would have to be applied to
school facility construction.
Forty percent of the share
of each town would have to
be used for water and sewer
system improvements for the
next five years and 30 per
cent for the following five
years. After 10 years the
restrictions would disappear.
The money would be
divided on the basis of
population, Cottle said. The
county's population is 40,854
and the population of the
incorporated areas is 12,112.
If the projections are borne
out Beulaville would receive
about $11,685; Calypso,
$7,831; Faison, $7,062;
Greenevers, $5,369; the por
tion of Harrells in Duplin
County. $390; the portion of
Mount Olive in Duplin
County, $780; Kenansville,
$10,304; Magnolia. $6,584;
Rose Hill, $16,610; Teachey,
$4,266; Wallace, $31,805;
and Warsaw, $32,350.
Cottle said the county re
ceived $265,000 from the
one-cent local sales tax for
the quarter ending June 30.
Of that total the county
government was allocated
$204,899.42. The shares for
the county's towns were:
Beulaville, $4,930; Calypso,
$3,525.83; Faison, $3,179.77;
Greenevers, $2,417.43; Har
rells. $175.54; Kenansville,
$4,639.25; Magnolia, $2,964;
Mount Olive, $35.11; Rose
Hill, $7,427.82; Teachey,
$1,920.90; Wallace,
$14,318.98, and Warsaw,
$14,564.74.
BOB SCOTT AT MUNICIPAL ASSOCIA
TION MEETING - Bob Scott, new head of
the North Carolina Community College
System, met with the county's mayors, town
boards and county commissioners at the
Rose Hill Restaurant Thursday. Scott said
the community college system is "where the
action in education is." Scott said the
system, 20 years ago, had 21 campuses and
an enrollment of 54,000. Today there are 58
campuses and an enrollment of 600,000. One
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of every seven adults in North Carolina is
enrolled. The system trains 55% of the
nursing graduates and those who graduate
from the community college system have a
higher passing rate on the state exam than
those from four-year _ institutions. "The
system offers education opportunities to all
adults in North Carolina at a price they can
afford," says Scott ."Pictured above are Bob
Scott and Duplin County Commissioner D.J.
Fussell.
HIGH-FLYING SIGN - A 30-foot fcng banner
is being prepared to fly across the highways
into Faison the week of Astronaut William
Thornton's shuttle flight. . ."Faison's Pride
Astronaut William Thornton- ? ? -fifty
Faison townfolk's have front row seats for the
lift-off at Cape Canaveral. Faison is Thorn
ton's hometown.
Drivers
Asked
To Be
Careful
Extra care on the part of
children and motorists may
prevent pain and suffering as
the big, clumsy school buses
take to the roads. Public
school classes opened Mon
day.
"In the next week or two
vehicle drivers should be
extremely careful, because
the young children are ex
cited about school and not
thinking about traffic." said
Duplin County Sheriff T.
Elwood Revelle. "The chil
dren don't think anything
can happen to them."
State Trooper Billy Floyd
echoed Kevelle's warning
and added, "When people
are going to work in the
mornings they should leave
home a little earlier. When
they get behind school buses
they have to slow down.
Buses can go only 35 miles
?per hour. Around a sshdty.
bus is not the place to get
impatient and take chances
in passing."
Floyd had some warnings
for the bus riders and drivers
as well.
"When a chiid's waiting
for a bus, don't stand on the
pavement; stand at least
three feet back of the pave
ment," he said. "When the
bus stops, don't run to the
door because your shoes can
be slippery from the morning
dew."
"Don't distract the bus
driver," he said.
"When leaving the bus,
you should walk way out in
front if crossing its path. If
you drop something keep on
going until you can get the
driver's attention. Accidents
have occurred because the
driver thought the children
had gone," Floyd said.
The bus driver should keep
his mind on what is ahead
and keep both hands on the
wheel, Royd said.
"If things are happening
in the bus, the driver should
pull off to the side of the road
rather than glancing up in
the mirror to see what's
going on," Floyd said.
"When backing up, the
driver should have a student
at the back of the bus or
behind the bus to keep watch
for kids or obstructions."
Vehicle drivers should stop
four to five car lengths
behind a stopped school bus,
the trooper said. He empha
sized that state law requires
other vehicles to stop for a
stopped school bus.
Buses in the county school
system had four minor acci
dents last year, but no one
was injured, said Allen
Wood, school bus garage
superintendent.
School buses carried an
average of 6,442 students out
of Duplin County's average
daily school attendance of
about 8,500 students last
year. Wood said. The sys
tem's 138 buses traveled
1.234,882 miles.
Jaycaas In
Wallace
The Jaycees are coming to
Wallace. A new chapter of
the Jaycees, a young men's
leadership training and ser
vice organization, is being
formed in Wallace.'
A meeting to organize the
chapter will be held Tuesday,
August 30 at 7:30 p.m. at the
NCNB downtown office on
Southerland Street. All
young men interested in
joining or finding out more
about the Jaycees are iqvited
and encouraged to attend. .
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Turkey Production To Expand
Sale of the Swift & Co.
turkey growing-out operation
and feed mill at Harrells to
William Prestage of Clinton
will lead to expanded turkey
production in the region,
both buyer and seller said.
Prestage and Dave Bray,
manager of the Swift & Co.
turkey processing plant near
Wallace, anr unced the sale
last week and agreed expan
sion will result.
Prestage said he is making
plans to construct a new feed
mill with 50-tons per hour
capacity. The new mill will
be located beside U.S. 421,
about seven miles south of
Clinton. The present grain
operation and poultry houses
will be maintained at the
research farm near Harrells,
he added.
Prestage also plans to go
into the hog business. He has
begun construction of a
breeder herd housing project
that will house a 624-sow
breeder herd to provide a
7,000-sow commercial herd
over a four or five year
period.
"We'll have $12 million to
$14 million invested in
3Vi to 4 years," he added.
"1 hope to have the new
mill in operation by the first
part of 1985," Prestage said.
Bray said Swift made the sale
because of the outstanding
job Prestage had done in the
turkey production _ field for
many years with Carrolls
Foods of Warsaw.
The turkey operation will
produce 1.5 miiiioi. birds this
year. Prestage plans to in
crease this to 2 million next
year and 3 million by 1986.
The program now has 22
turkey growers on contract.
Swift will continue to
maintain its breeder flock
and hatchery operation, Bray
said. It will supply young
turkeys to Prestage, who will
sell his birds to the pro*
cessing plant in Wallace, he
added.
Bray said 5 million to 6
million turkeys a year now
are processed at the plant in
Wallace for an annual output
of about 50 million pounds of
turkey meat. About six mil
lion pounds of this output
goes into export channels,
mostly through the port of
Wilmington, he added.
He expects production to
increase by about 20 percent
in the next year, especially as
a large freezer-storage plant
is being built adjacent to the
processing plant. It should
J be in operation by Novem
ber, at the latest, he said.
Production from the
processing plant will be
frozen and stored in the ad
jacent freezer instead of
being shipped to half a dozen
freezer storage firms in the
two Carolinas, Bray ex
plained. This will reduce the
overall costs. Turkey meat
stored in Wallace will be in a
more convenient location for
export, being only 40 miles
from a port, than when it had
to be stored at locations
farther inland.
Bray said without the
growing operation the com
pany employs 345 people,
making it one of the three or
four largest employers in
Duplin County. He expects
employment to increase to
about 375 in the next year.
The mill and grow-out opera
tion employs about 30
people, he added.
The sale to Prestage "is a
good moye from our stand
point, particularly since he is
well known in the business
and is more up on turkey
nutrition than anyone I can
think of," Bray said.
He said Prestage is about
the oi ly person to whom
Swift would have sold its
grow-out operation. "We
were quite well satisfied with
it as it was," he added.
Swift has been in the
poultry business for manv
years, the 35-year company
veteran said. The company
doesn't often get into the
production end of the busi
ness, he added, preferring to
invest its money in process
ing operations.
"We procure our turkeys
from four major sources, in
tuding the one he (Prestage)
jusi purchased," Brav said.
The birds are grown out in
Duplin, Sampson, Pender
and Wayne counties, he
added.
He said the company
"backed into the grow-out
operation" to protect its
supply source as the people
that owned the mill at Har
rells were planning to go out
of turkey production. Swift
bought the mill and took over
the growers' contracts in the
early 1970s. The company
bought the processing plant
in 1968 from the local group
that built it the preceding
vear.
ANNUAL FARM BUREAU SCHOLARSHIP AWARDED -
Thomas Leon Stroud Jr. received the Duplin County Farm
Bureau Scholarship. Stroud is a freshman at North
Carolina State University. Ea:h year the Duplin County
Farm Bureau awards a $500 scholarship to a local student
entering into the study of agriculture or home economics.
Pictured, left to right above. Jack Williams, president of
the Duplin Farm Bureau, Thomas Stroud Jr., Thomas
Stroud Sr., and Robert Grady, East Duplin High School
vocational agriculture instructor.
FREEZER WAREHOUSE NEAR WALLACE Freezer
storage facilities for Williams Refrigeration Express is
taking shape. The facility is beside the Swift processing
plant. In fact* the facilities join hv a passageway. Turkey J
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processed by Swift will be moved into the freezer facility.
It will also store other products, many for shipment to the
state port in Wilmington.
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