Ground Brooking
Groundbreaking ceremonies were held for Carolina Turkeys on Monday, May
6 at the plant site in Duplin County. Carolina Turkevs is a joint venture
between Carroll's Foods of Warsaw and Goldsboro Milling Co. and is to be
the world's largest turkey processing plant. Pictured (left to right) Sonny
Faison, president of Carroll's Foods; Stan Draughon of Century 21 Draughon
Agency; and Louis Maxwell, president of Goldsboro Milling Co., inc.
Century 21 Draughon Agency was instrumental in helping with the location
of the plant site.
Ground Broken
For Turkey
Processing Plant
Construction of the world's
largest turkey processing plant will
begin in a few days, Louis Maxwell,
president of Goldsboro Milling Co.,
said Monday following ground
breaking for the Carolina Turkeys
plant about IS miles north of
Kenansville.
Goldsboro Milling Co. and
Carroll's Foods of Warsaw jointly
formed Carolina Turkeys to build
and operate the $18 million facility.
Gov. Jim Martin, who spoke at the
ceremony, said, "This can be the
model to help farmers all across the
state. It's a homegrown company."
"Yes, the old turkey has come a
long way," the governor said.
"Homemakers have discovered
turkey is one of the best buys in the
'supermarket."
' The governor noted that North
Carolina is the No. 1 turkey produc
ing state, with JO million birds last
year totaling 550 million pounds of
meat that brought $287 million in
farm receipts. He noted the state
now will have the No. 1 turkey
processing plant.
This plant will employ 500 contract
turkey producing farmers in 10
counties and will employ more than
1,000 people in processing the birds,
Martin said.
Martin used the occasion to pro
mote his tax package, saying more
must be done to make North Carolina
competitive. "I propose elimination
of the inventory tax," he said. The
state can replace the money local
governments will lose, Martin
added.
He said it will require only one
fourth of the anticipated growth in
the state's revenue over the next few
years to replace the inventory and
intangibles taxes and the state's
three-cent sales tax on food. The
other three-fourths can be used for
education or roads or other services.
In interviews later, the governor
blamed the inventory tax, in parti
cular, for losing industrial prospects
to other states.
"We lost Brockway of Pennsyl
vania to Florida because of this tax."
he said. Xerox and Kroger built in
South Carolina instead of North
Carolina because of the tax, Martin
added.
North Carolina has the highest
intangibles tax of any state, he
added: "This discourages companies
moving executives into the state."
Only four states have inventory
taxes and two of those are elimi
nating them, he said.
Martin said he opposes a state
lottery and legalization of parimutuel
betting.
The governor joined officials of the
companies and state legislators and
other state officials in turning
shovelfuls of dusty earth in the
official groundbreaking on the edge
of what has been a corn field.
About 300 Sampson, Duplin and
Wayne County residents and offi
cials and a large delegation of state
officials joined in the ceremonies and
a luncheon starring turkey dishes.
State Sen, Harold Hardison intro
duced the speakers.
State Rep. Wendell Murphy par
ticipated. S. Thomas Rhodes, secre
tary of natural resources and com
munity development; Howard
Haworth. secretary of commerce;
and Jim Graham, commissioner of
agriculture, headed the state dele
gation.
Haworth said there is a tremen
dous opportunity for a food process
ing industry in the state.
William Sullivan, a Duplin County
farmer and official of the Oak Ridge
Community Club, where the
luncheon was held, observed, "This
is the greatest thing to happen to
northern Duplin County."
Maxwell said construction time
has been shortened: "We're think
ing about a year now." Earlier
estimates were that the plant would
take nearly two years to build.
H you've had your car for 25 years, K is officially an antique and qualifies
for special license plates.
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Sampson Native
Heads Extension In
South Eastern NC
Dr. James P. West says he has two
major goals for the agricultural
extension service in southeastern
North Carolina.
One goal is to maintain a highly
competent staff of extension agents
in each county. The second goal is to
make sure that local citizens have an
opportunity to help plan and execute
extension educational programs.
West is the new district chairman
with administrative responsibilities
for extension work in 17 counties,
including Lenoir and Duplin.
"This is the largest extension
district in the state in terms of
agricultural Income," West said.
Gross farm income in the district was
almost SI.3 billion in 1984. Tobacco
and poultry were worth more than
$300 million each, and income from
hogs exceeded $200 million.
Despite the current financial
squeeze. West believes the district
still has a lot of agricultural po
tential. "Our job is to deliver the
educational programs in agricultural
production, management and
marketing that will help farmers to
realize this potential," he said.
West also pointed out that the
Extension Service is responsible for
programs in home economics, 4-H.
and community and rural develop
ment. "But we couldn't do any of
this work without the strong support
of such volunteer groups as advisory
councils, 4-H leaders, extension
homemakers, and cooperating
farmers and agribusinessmen," he
said.
West assumed his new duties
March 18, filling the vacancy left by
the retirement of Ralph Sasser. He is
a native of the district, graduating
from Clear Run High School in
Sampson County. His father,
William Thaddeus West, farms in
theDelway community of that
county.
West has 20 years ot extension
experience. About 10 years were
spent as an agent in Wayne, Harnett
and Wake counties. The remaining
time has been as a state 4-H
specialist and district program
leader. He has a degree in agri
cultural engineering from North
Carolina A&T State University and
two degrees in education from North
Carolina State University.
Dr. Paul Dew, assistant state
extension director in charge of
county operations, said West has "a
rich background"* for his new
assignment. "He understands
extension work thoroughly both at
the county and state levels," Dew
added.
West has an office at NCSU but
will spend most of his time traveling
in the district.
Open
House
The oil painting class of Callie
Creel will have Open House to show
paintings on Sunday, May 19 from
3-5 p.m. at Albertson Community
Building (beside the post office).
The public is invited to attend.
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Telephone
Service Is Changing ?
In the past, under Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) regulations, local telephone service has been priced
below cost. Although the cost of connecting a customer to the
local network is about $26, customers on the average pay only
about $10 a month for local service.
The bulk of these remaining costs were paid by long distance
customers through their long distance rates. Long distance
rates were set at a higher level than the actual cost of providing
service in order to subsidize local service. This subsidy from
long distance was used to hold down the price of foCal service,
keeping it affordable for almost everyone.
Today, Customers Have More Choices
In the absence of competition, this system of subsidies worked
well. But, today, customers do have choices. They can drop-'
off or bypass the public network altogether, enjoy lower com
munication costs, and contribute very little or nothing toward
the cost of providing local service.
This drop-off of large customers is particularly threatening
because local service rates for customers who can't afford to
build their own telephone systems will have to go up to cover
the fixed costs of operating the network. :.
Telephone Costs = Telephone Services
So what needs to happen? Quite simply, prices for telephone
services should be based on the costs of providing them.
We must move away from the practice of charging customers
more for long distance telephone service in order to keep resi
dential rates low, and move toward cost-based pricing in the
telephone industry.
The Federal Communications Commission has a plan to re
structure the current pricing system so that all customers will
By for most of their own telephone costs.
m Does The FCC's Plan Work? m
The FCC's plan consists of "subscriber line charges" small
monthly fees which help cover the actual costs of the lines and
related facilities that connect a subscriber's telephone to the ?
telephone company's switching equipment. With subscriber
line charges, customers will pay closer attention to what it
actually costs the phone company.to connect and maintain
their local telephone lines for local and long distance calling. ' -
? It is important to understand that the subscriber line charge
plan is just a restructuring of rates ? not a rate increase for
telephone companies. As.the contribution from longdistance
is lowered, long distance rates will decrease.
Carolina Telephone Supports The FCCb Plan . M
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small addition to local
phone rates will pro
tect you from future
dramatic rate in- '
creases. We want to
make sure the phone
remains affordable for
everyone, and sub
scriber line charges
are a step in the right
direction.
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