Newspapers / The Duplin Times (Warsaw, … / March 28, 1985, edition 1 / Page 1
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- PROGRESS SENTINEL VOL. XXXXVHI NO. 13 USPS 162-860 KENANSV1LLE, NC 28349 MARCH 1985 16 PAGES THIS WEEK 10 CENTS PLUS TAX Murphy Greeted Representative Wendell H. Murphy of Rose Hill was greeted by Governor Martin at a legislative breakfast held recently at the Raleigh Farmers Market. New Class Walls Get An A' Grade From Teachers w Some open classrooms in four Duplin County schools are no longer open, thanks to a pilot program that drew praise at a Board of Education meeting last week. Open classrooms have been parti tioned into three-classroom suites by removable, soundproof walls. In the program, administrators will study conventional classrooms versus the open classrooms. A The open classroom concept in primary grades has not been aban doned. officials said Wednesday. The project is being carried out in North Duplin, Wallace, Rose Hill Magnolia and Warsaw schools. Teachers said they liked the individual responsibility for their classes. This was something teach ers had brought up earlier. They also liked the reduced noise level. "We have some very happy ? teachers," sard Ben Mathews, prin cipal of Rose Hill-Magnolia Elemen tary. "These walls are wonderful. They have cut down sound. The walls are beautiful, super quality," Cecil Beaman, principal of Wal lace Elementary, said the walls are an improvement. One problem is that students have to go through neighboring classrooms to get to rest rooms, which were installed for the open classroom. Peggy Mangum, a North Duplin A teacher, said, '"it's so much fun to ? teach" in her own classroom. "We can make better use of audio visuals. Children settle down to work with less distraction." Open Gxift was another pilot program discussed by the board. It is a reading project costing $7,000 for kindergarten and first-grade classes in the Chinquapin Primary, Rose Hill-Magnolia and North Duplin schools. The system emphasizes phonics and brings all phases of learning together, officials said. The initial cost for kindergarten is about $16 per student and renewal for a second year is $6.50 per student, Assistant Superintendent Gary Sanderson said. The cost in the first grade is about $25 per student for the first year and $9 per student in the second year. Sanderson said plans call for ' establishing the system in the second grade next year. The cost is estimated at $34 per second grader for the first year and $14 for the second year. Sanderson said state education officials are observing the system in Duplin County and some other school systems. He said he hopes the state will pay for it in future years. Supt. L.S. Guy said the county has received $39,000 from the state for computer education. It plans to start its program in the fall. The money will be used to purchase 51 computer systems. That will provide one system for every 123 students. Brewer Motor Files In Bankruptcy Court Brewer Motor & Equipment Co., which went out of buisness last A month, has filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy In a case filed Feb. 26 in federal bankruptcy court in Wilson, the company lists $2,962,874 in debt to more than 50 creditors, according to a deputy clerk at the bankruptcy court. 1 Under Chapter 11, the company will be free from the threat of creditors' lawsuits for 120 days, giving the former car and farm equipment company until June 26 to 0 develop a plan to put its finances in order and file financial disclosure statements. After the financial plan and dis closure statements have been filed, the bankruptcy court will hold a hearing to review the company's finances. In a second hearing, creditors will be allowed to vote on the company's plan for reorganization. The court must approve activities of managers A as company reorganization proceeds. Brewer Motor Co.. ooerated bv Craven Brewer of Warsaw, went out of business Feb. 11 after nine years. ArrnrHtno to a romnanv press re i tfe lease, Brewer Motor Co. closed "due to continuing losses" and because the company's major farm equip ment supplier. International Har vester's Agricultural Division, was recently sold. On March 4, an early morning fire spread through the metal building on U.S. 117 in Wallace, rupturing some pipes and warping part of the structure. The amount of damage to the building is still being assessed, said Jerry Webster, a special agent for the State Bureau of Investigation office in Wilmington. Insurance on the ls-year-oid < building was held by Branch Banking and Trust Co. in Wallace, and N.Carl Wolfe Jr. of Burgaw, according to Bill Branch, city execu tive for BB&T in Wallace. Most of the company's equipment had been moved out of the building at the time of the fire. BB&T and Wolfe got insurance for the building in late February, the same day Brewer Motor Co.'s in surance lapsed, Branch said. Webster said that the SBI was waiting for laboratory results that could point to the cause of the p-e? ?. 1 ? . 11 Aid Program Opens Branch Offices In Wallace For Better Service An estimated 20,000 poor people in New Hanover and Duplin counties now have another source of help. The Region P Human Develop ment Agency Inc. of Jacksonville has established satellite centers in Wil mington and Wallace to aid low-in come residents. Emergency assis tance, nutrition, education and com munity awareness programs will be offered to eligible people, and are designed to promote self-sufficiency. The Rev. W.A. Greene, executive director of the agency, said there are 15,941 poor people in New Hanover County and about 9,000 in Duplin County. "It will make a vast amount of dif ference, because it will serve a very large number of people who have never had these services before," Greene said. The services have been available in Onslow County since 1967 when the human services organization was established through the Community Action Agency. The program gets money from state and local govern ments. New Hanover County contracted with the Region P agency after deciding against doing business with Sencland Community Action of Whiteville. That agency proviues similar services in Columbus, Bruns wick and Pender counties. New Hanover and Duplin counties have been in the program since March 1, the beginning of the agency's fiscal year. The counties will share with Onslow a $426,000 Community Services Block Grant. The Wilmington center is at 614 Red Cross St., the office of the New Hanover County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The Wallace center operates in the old C.W. Dobbins School building. People interested in getting their graduate equivalency degrees of high school diplomas can receive assistance. Region P will provide transportation for students and their children who attend day care cen ters. It will also pay day care expenses for three days a week. Completing high school enables clients to get better jobs, Greene said. Hot lunch-time meals are available three days a week to people 55 and over and to the handicapped in the two counties. Lunches are provided to 80 people in New Hanover County at St. Stephens A.M.E. Church and the Myrtle Grove Community Center. Officials hope to add a third feeding site in Castle Hayne for 40 more people. In Duplin County, meals are available to 70 people at the New Christian Chapel Church in Green evers, and the St. Louis Baptist Church in Chinquapin. The program also helps people grow their own food. Garden seeds and fertilizer will be given to 220 families in each of the two counties. Gardening information will also be provided, Greene said. Garden supplies will be bought from local businesses, Greene added. Emergency assistance will provide a first-lime maximum of S300 in aid* for families or individuals in crisis situations. The community affairs program is designed to unite neighborhoods and make them self-reliant. For information, call the Duplin center at 285-2158 or the main office in Jacksonville at 347-2151. Duplin Students Tested Last Week The California Achievement Test and the second round of the Compe tency Test in the 1984-85 school year were given last week in Duplin. The California Achievement Test was taken by all ninth and tenth grade students in Duplin public schools last week. The Competency Test was offered a second time this year to junior and seniors who previously failed one or both parts of the exam, said Duplin County Assistant Superintendent Gary San derson. According to Sanderson, Competency Testing only involved a total of 55 to 60 students. Each year* student has three chances to pass the Test. A third Competency Te*? will be given in mid-May for seniors who'' still have not passed one or both paris of the exam. The first test is given in the fall of each new school year. The Competency Test is made up of two sections, reading and math. Sanderson pointed out students need to score 87 correct answers of the possible 120 questions in reading, and 77 of 120 in math. The Com petency Test has been used in North Carolina since 1978 and is required along with a specific number of high school course credits to receive a diploma. Meeting the high school course credits, but failing one or ?both parts of the Competency Test results in the student receiving, a certificate of graduation rather than a diploma. Results of the 1984 fall tests show Duplin County public school students passing percentage com parable to levels for the overall state. And, the fall passing percentage is an increase over the first year results for the county schools. State passing percentages jumped from 90 percent in reading and 85 percent in tnath for 1978 to 95.2 in reading and 93.8 in math during 1984. Duplin's passing percentage for 1984 was 94.5 in reading and 93.4 in tnath. The Competency Tests are given by the high scho-'-i teachers and students tailing either or both parts the tftta-n atfifrfffcrtd afra'tli and reading assistance. Sanderson said. The remedial program in math and reading also offers assistance to students before taking the Compe tency Test, Sanderson pointed out. Taking the Competency Test for the second time last week, Sander son said, were approximately 40 of the original 550 junior students tested in the fall of 1984. And, taking iht exam as seniors were approxi mately 35 students of the 550 students tested in the fall of 1983. Sandersm emphasized the fact that students may have-ncsed a portion of the Competency Test prior to last week's testing. After passing one sjctton of the e\*n, students are only tested on the portion whicfi has been failed. Brinkley Wants $10.1 Million In Lawsuit Against Hanes Heir An heir to the Hanes hosiery company fortune is involved in a multi-million-dollar lawsuit, with claims and counterclaims alleging deceptive buisness practices, wrongful firing and corporate mis management. Barbara Brinkley of Duplin County has filed a S10.1 million suit in Duplin County Superior Court against James G. Hanes III of Winston-Salem, alleging that she was wrongfully fired from her job as a bookkeeper at Riverside Sand Company Inc. in Wallace. Mrs. Brinkley contends Hanes told her "she would have a job as long as she wanted" if she and her husband, Bobby D. Brinkley, signed an agree ment to lease 27 acres of land to Hanes for a sand-mining operation. The 15-year lease was signed in October 1984 and provided for annual payments of $1,200 and pay ment of property taxes, the suit says. Mrs. Brinkley received a letter Nov. 30, 1984, saying her job was terminated "due to unsatisfactory job performance," the suit says. Mrs. Brinkley's suit asks for $10,000 for "loss of work, embar rassment, emotional stress, humilia tion and loss of use of her property." She also is seeking $10 million in punitive damages from Hanes be cause his conduct "was so malicious, oppressive, deceitful and willfully corrupt." The suit says that because Hanes is worth in excess of $30 million, he should be "forced to pay in an amount that would punish him. . .and prevent him from engaging in similar conduct with other persons in the future." Hanes' answer to the lawsuit says he entered a "limited partnership agreement" in June 1980 with Brinkley. The agreement said Brinkley was to furnish land and management services for Riverside Sand and Gravel Co., predecessor to Riverside Sand Co. Inc., as Brink ley's contribution to the partnership. "Any negotiations . . .in the fall of 1984 were an attempt to fulfill the obligations" made by Brinkiey, the answer says. Hanes filed a cross-action earlier this month against Brinkley, saying Brinkley instructed his wife to take "improper actions" with company funds. Those actions involved "un authorized execution of corporate checks, unauthorized advances to employees. . .the preparation of multiple checks in payment of single corporate bills to circumvent the corporate requirement of dual signa tures ft* large expenditures and to conceal said payments from Hanes; misappropriation of corporate assets; and misuse of corporate funds to pay personal debts and to obtain benefits" for the Brinkleys, Hanes alleges. Those acts required Hanes to make advances to the company totaling $300,000, Hanes alleges. Warsaw National Spinning Honfored For Safety Mike Lawter, Warsaw National Spinning plant manager, is pictured above adding the newest award to the company's trophy case. The Warsaw plant of National Spinning received a Safety Award earlier this month for operating , five years without the loss of man-hours due to an accident. The award was presented at the annual Safety Conference of the American Yarn Spinners Association. 7 Old School Building Gets New Roof Goodbye flat, roof, hello "A" roof. The former Kenan^Ville Elemen tary School building is getting a new top. "Should have had this kind of roof all along," said Elton Blizzard, crew foreman of the new sloped roof. "Flat roofs are no good. They leak." Blizzard and two other county maintenance crew members, Dennis Stroud and James Williams, were busy this past week putting plywood sheathing on the roof frame. The preformed frames were hoisted into place earlier. A forest of beams now decorates the top of the building. When the roof is completed, it should do a better job of keeping the building's interior dry than the old flat roof and should need repairing less often, Blizzard said. The Duplin County school board turned the former school building over to the county government in February 1984. Several departments have requested space in the struc ture, but the county commissioners have not decided how the building will be used. The interior needs extensive renovation. The twt>-story structure was built in 1926. it was used as a school until the new Kenansville Elementary School opened in the 1979-80 school year. Other flat-roofed governmental buildings in Duplin County have leaked and allowed water to damage interiors. The county recently had a new "A" roof added on the Health Department building. The former flat roof leaked despite numberous repair jobs. A flat roof also has been replaced by an "A" roof on the landfill building. The county owns a few other flat roofed buildings that may be re roofed in the future. \ Whitley's Mobile Office Congressman Charlie Whitley's Third District mobile office will visit Duplin County on Tuesday, April 2. L.J. Outlaw, field representative will be manning the office and available to persons having matters that they wish brought to the Congressman's attention Locations and times are as follow Chinquapin, 9:30-10:30 a.m.. Post Office; Rose Hill, 11-12 noon. Post Office; and Warsaw, 12:30-1:30 p.m. Post Office. The schedule is subject to prevailing weather conditons affecting travel.
The Duplin Times (Warsaw, N.C.)
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March 28, 1985, edition 1
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