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I PROGRESS SENTINEL
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VOL. XXXXVIII NO. 35 USPS 162-860 KENANSVILLE. NC 28349 AUGUST 29.1985 16 PAGES THIS WEEK 10 CENTS PLUS TAX
v Picking Just One Favorite Beagle
Whan there are seven beagle puppies, it is hard to pick a favorite and no one
knor,. better than little boys. Pictured above, Joseph Davis of
Wilmington visited his grandad's puppies in Duplin and decides they are all
his favorites 1
Farmers Say Co-Op Gets
Best Quality Tobacco
-
"If it's good tobacco, it's going to
the government," discouraged
tobacco growers grumbled last week
in Wallace as they watched pile after
pile of good-quality tobacco going
Itmder price support.
"The pool" or "the co-op" are
farmers' terms for Flue-cured To
bacco Cooperative Stabilization
Corp., which administers the price
? _ support program. The farmer-owned
W cooperative buys tobacco that fails to
get company bids higher thah the
support level, and pays farmers
through the warehouses just as
companies would. The sales tickets
on piles of tobacco that go to
stabilisation are marked "Co
op."
The co-op was the largest single
"beyer" of the day Monday and
Tuesday of last week in the Caro
Unas.
A The trend is scaring farmers
throughout both states. As higher
priced tobacco comes to market, utc
amount going under price support
appears to be increasing.
Farmers and warehousemen have
noted that companies appear to buy
most of the poorer quality, lower
priced tobacco, but pass over the
good quality leaf.
A different trend has developed in
Georgia and Florida where com
panies, particularly export-buying
companies have been snapping up
the better tobacco, although at lower
prices than a year ago. Grade prices
are considerably higher in
southern area, however, than in the
Carolinas. The Market News Service
reported Wednesday, for instance,
that fair variegated mixed leaf
tB4KM) averaeed $171 per 100
pounds in the Carolinas Wednesday
and $182 in Georgia. Low variegated
mixed leaf (B5KM) averaged $176 in
the Border Belt and $178 in Georgia.
"I'd like to see those fellows who
said last fall that if we lower our
price our tobacco would sell," Larry
Wooten of Currie said as he watched
a row of good-quality second crop
ping tobacco go to Stabilization
under price support. Most of the
piles carried support of $189 per 100
pounds.
"What they've said about quality
tobacco selling doesn't mean a thing
here," he added. Wooten echoed a
chorus of fanners in saying, "We've
really worked to put up good quality
tobacco and they're not buvine it."
A row of tobacco damaged by dry
weather near Wooten's row went to
companies, but is prices were mostly
in the SI 13 to $145 range.
As bad as the situation is, Wooten
believes that if the tobacco price
support and production control pro
gran ended, the price would drop
even more sharply.
Demand is appearing to weaken
rather than strengthen as the season
advances, said Joe Bryant, a Wallace
warehousemen. Warehousemen in
Whiteville and Chadbourn have said
the same thing.
The weak demand has come about
despite a drop of S15-S17 per 100
pounds in tobacco prices since last
year.
Eastern Belt farmers placed 37.9
percent or 2,441,419 pounds of their
tobacco sales under price support
Tuesday and 31.2 percent or
2,665,703 pounds Monday. They
have olaced 23 oercent of the 44 2
million pounds offered for sale in the
Eastern Belt under price support.
The Eastern Belt season average of
$149,04 per 100 pounds is $17.24 .
under the average for the same
number of pounds sold last year.
N.C. Border Belt farmers placed
27.6 percent of Monday's offering
last week, and 32.6 percent of
Tuesday's sales with Stabilization
under price support. They have
placed 24.4 percent or about 11
million pounds under price support
for the season through Tuesday of
last week.
The Market News reported that
the S.C.-N.C. Border Belt through 14
days of sales this season averaged
$154.98 per 100 pounds on sales of
45,579,000 pounds compared with an
average of $170.28 per 100 pounds
during the same period last year.
Land Cleared For Shopping
Center In Wallace
Construction of a new shopping
_ center will begin in the near future
W between U.S. 117 and Teachey Road
in Wallace.
Joe Bryant, owner of the site, said
land baa been cleared. Earth fill is
being hauled onto the site.
-"We not in 900 vards of dirt
Tdeeday and 1,200 Wednesday," he
added last week. About 3,000 yards
at earth will be needed.
Quality Construction Co. of
Easely, S.C., will build the center,
he added. At the outset it will have a
chain supermarket, a chain depart
ment store and a drug store, Bryant
said.
The site covers 13 to 14 acres. The
center will be accessible from the
highway and from Teachey Road.
Bryant said he had the same
company build the A&P store in
Wallace about 13 years ago.
Bud Nalley of the South Carolina
company said that he was not
prepared to announce the names of
prospective tenants. He expects to
complete leasing arrangements in a
few days, he added.
KKK Peacefully Parades
* i: Saturday In Beulaville
The military-attired members of
the Wldte Patriot Party, formerly the
Ku Khu Klan, peacefully paraded -
through Beulaville last Saturday
chanting "White Power" to the beat
of their inarch.
The parade consisted of only about
SO Klan members, said Beulaville
# -1- _
chief of Police Aubrey Murphy.
More than 400 KKK members were
slated to march in Beulaville ac
cording to the parade permit. The
parade was led by WPP state leader
Glenn Miller, who was an unsuc
cessful candidate in the race for
North Carolina governor during the
last election.
WPP members concluded the
parade in Beulaville and traveled to
Jones County for a rally, and the
next day the group marched again in
Raleigh. The parade through Beula
ville began about 5:30 p.m. on NC
#24 at Wilson Ave., and proceeded
east on NC #41 where it turned left
and ended at Bostic St.
Duplin Native Arrested On
Felony Drug Charges
A gftard at the itate's Sampson
County prison has been arrested
on four felony drug charges, in
? eluding a plot to deliver two ounces
cC marijuana to an inmate, autho
rities said.
-Eddie Earl Simmons, 35, of
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Faison, a guard at the prison for 11
years, was arrested last week and
released on $10,000 bond, court
records show.
He was charged with furnishing ?
controlled substance to an inmate,
possession of niaitjuana with intent
to sell, possession of percodan and
t!t* _ -
possession of dilsudln, according to
the court records.
The Sampson County Gerk of
Court's Office said the charges
involved two ounces of marijuana
and one tablet each of percodan and
dilaudid.
Buses Line Up
For School Year
Duplin County school bus drivers
will Assemble Aug. 30 at the school
bus garage to receive their buses.
Classes will begin in the county's
schools Sept. 3, the day after Labor
Day.
Allen Wood, school bus super
visor, said the system will operate
133 regular buses and seven special
education buses.
It expects to have four new diesel
buses. The diesels have nine-liter
engines, power steering, power
brakes and automatic transmissions.
Four mechanics were sent to a
training session on diesels during
the summer.
Wood said winter starting, long
considered a problem for diesels,
caused no problem in Asheville,
which has colder winter tempera
tures than Duplin County. He said
that in winter at Asheville, a fuel
mixture of 75 percent diesel and 25
percent kerosene has been used.
The diesels will be operated in one
area of the county to reduce the
distance fuel must be transported.
Last year the buses carried a daily
average of 6,084 students. They
averaged loads of 33.8 students per
bus. The buses were driven a total of
1,242,065 miles. They burned
256,654 gallons of fuel.
The system includes 17 schools,
mostly around the edges and corners
of the county, with the exception of
Kenansville Elementary near the
county center. The system includes
four high schools. North Duplin near
Calypso, East Duplin near Beula
ville, James Kenan west of Warsaw
and Wallace-Rose Hill at Teachey.
Last year 10 school bus accidents
occurred but no students were
injured.
Bus drivers are 16'/i to 18 years of
age and must have had driver's
licenses at least six months. They are
paid $4.24 per hour.
School Board Oks
Plans For Addition
The Duplin County Board of
Education approved an architect's
plans for an addition to James Kenan
High School costing about SI million
in a special meeting held last week.
It will call a meeting of parents
and teachers to discuss the plan with
Wilmington Architect Herb McKim.
The board also agreed on the
architect's fee of 6.6 percent of the
construction cost.
The plan calls for a 15,000 ^yiare
foot building and a hallway ext asion
- from the present building. It
includes sii classrooms and a
library. Eight mobile classrooms still
will be needed. James Kenan will
add the ninth grade when the addi
tion is completed. The ninth grade
students now attend Warsaw Junior
High end E.E. Smith Junior High in
Kdlwnsville. James Kenan now has
470 students. Enrollment will in
crease to 647 with the ninth grade.
In other business, the board
decided that a moment of silence
will open each school day. It will be
the first minute of the first period.
The board appointed Charles
Blanchard assistant psin/>ipal of
North Duplin Junior ,<tnd Senior High
schools. Replacing nim as principal
of Wallace Elementary will be Mary
Wellons.
Stevens Makes Memorial
Gift To JS Foundation
The James Sprunt Foundation was
the recipient of a $5,000 memorial
donation presented Aug. 16 in honor
of Mrs. Winifred "Winnie" Wells by
J.P. Stevens and Co., Inc.
UakU/. fk.
iTiumg uic [iiocuiauun ai a
luncheon in Wallace, Jim Wellons,
Holly plant manager, recalled Mrs.
Wells' exemplary service to her
community in both her public and
private life. Mrs. Wells, of Wallace,
was an attorney and superior court
judge, and served on the James
Sprunt Foundation Board as well as
the J.P. Stevens Board of Directors.
Accepting the presentation was
Marion Elkin, a member of the
Foundation Board. "We are verv
pleased and grateful to receive this
generous contribution in honor of
Mrs. Wells, and in support of the
wont or ine Foundation and James
Sprunt Technical College," she said.
The presentation marked the third
SS.000 contribution to the Founda
tion from J.P. Stevens in memory of
Mrs. Wells. The JSF supports JSTC
by providing funding assistance for
academic scholarships, professional
development and other cultural and
educational programs.
Whitley Mobile Office
Congressman Charlie Whitley's
Third District mobile office will visit
Duplin County on Sept. 3. L.J.
Outlaw, field representative, will be
manning the office and available to
those having matters they wish
brought to the Congressman's at
tention.
Locations and times are as follow:
Beulaville - 9:30-10:30 a.m. ? Post
Office; Greenevers - 11-12 noon -
Town Hall; and Faison - 1-2 p.m. -
Fire Station.
The schedule is subject to pre
vailing weather conditions affecting
travel.
Rocoption For Now Physicians In Duplin County
The Duplin General Hospital Foundation and Duplin
General Hospital sponsored a reception for physicians
recently locating in the county and becoming members
of the hospital medical staff. The reception, held at the
Country Squire restaurant, August 19, was attended by
more than 200 citizens representing Duplin's business,
industry and rural and community leaders. Pictured
above, Dr. Jane Atkins, M.D. of Duplin Medical
Association talks with Dr. M.I. Ammar, M.D. of
Dt
Kenansvillc, left, and Duplin General Hospital Trustee
Ray Sanderson, right, during the reception. Dr. Atkins
was one of the five new physicians honored. Others
included Dr. Ronald Dietrick, M.D. of Duplin Surgical
Associates in Kenansville; Dr. Mohib Ghobrial, M.D.
Thoracic and Vascular Surgery in Kenansville; Dr. Cari
D. Pate Jr., M.D., family practice in Beulaville; and Dr.
David Smith, M.D. of Goshen Medical Center in
Faisoa.
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