Newspapers / Jones County Journal (Trenton, … / April 9, 1964, edition 1 / Page 1
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riNfe C, THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 1964 Griffin Bound Over on Manslaughter Charge I J<m« County Recorder's Court Judge Nick Noble last Friday' found probable cause of guilt against James Coy Griffin, 56, route 1 Trenton, who had been charged with reckless driving and manslaughter following a March 30th accident that resuled in Jones County’s first traffic death of 1964. According to investigating offic ers Griffin was operating a pickup 'pi truck that went out of control, re ? suiting in the death of 57-year-old Leonard Hunter of route 2 JVen ton who was a passenger in the truck. The accident occurred ap proximately two-attd-one-half mil es east of highway 58 on a rural paved road that runs southwardly from Doc Kilfingsworth’s store. Hunter was killed instantly in . the accident. Other Recorder’s Court In dthre Recorder’s Court action Friday Judge Noble found Carl Todd of Maysville not guilty of hit and run, leaving the scene of an accident, driving drunk, drunk and disorderly, and malicious damage to private property. ' , James Gaskin Rodman of route 1 Trenton was fined 25 dollars and Costs for driving without a license. James Augustus Bruton of route 1 Trenton was assessed court costs for violating a drivers license re striction. Hugh Thomas Morris of Fort Jackson, South .Qprioljna, paid- thap ' wrong side'Of ..the road. „ v. . Gladys Murrell of Pollocksville paid Court costs for failing to see that intended movement could be made safely. Lester Jones of route 2 Snow Hill was fined 10 dollars and costs for speeding. Jesse Gray of Trenton was or dered, to pay court costs for being drunk. Floyd Roberts of Pollocksville was fined 25 dollars and costs for driving without a license. George Albert Small, of route 1 Pollocksville was ordered to pay court costs for failing to dim his headlights. William Edward Johnson, route l Trenton, was fined 10 dollars and costs for reckless driving. Gaston Smith of route 1 Kenans ville was assessed court costs for Continued on Page 8 (o^Hliton Congressman David N. Hender son today announced that the Sub committee on Public Buildings and Grounds of the House Public Works Committee approved con struction of a new Federal Build ing in Trenton. Approval ' by the full committee normally follows subcommittee ap proval as a matter of routine. The proposed building will house the Trenton Post Office and also provide office, space for District Judge John D. Larkins, Jr. Henderson said that the author ization approved by the subcom mittee provided $46 thousand for fiscal 1965 for site acquisition and planning and that the complete cost of the structure was estimat ed to be $180 thousand. The Congressman estimated that the actual work of construction would probably get underway dur ing 1965. Henderson is a member of the subcommittee and of the Public Worlcs Committee. Man’s Death Ruled Accident The death early last Friday of Jasper A. “Jap” Cannon of Mays ville has been ruled accidental by Jones County Coroner George Dav enport. :: ■ ■„ Cannon, manager of the US 70 ABC Store was cleaning a shotgun at his home when the gun fell and he grabbed for it and was struck by the load of buck shot with which it was loaded. There were reportedly several members of his family in the room with him when the accident hap pened. First Transplanting? Mac Banks of the Comfort sec tion of Jones County transplanted about one acre of tobacco last Thursday despite the week’s record breaking cold weather. Bank’s plants got ready and they had to fan moved whether he or the wea ther were ready or not. STILL DESTROYED Jones County Sheriff Brown Yates discovered and destroyed a Uquor still Saturday afternoon in the Cypress Creek community. Thirty barrels of mash that was working was destroyed by the sheriff. Supreme Court Reverses The United States Supreme Court Monday reversed the death penalty decision of Jesse James Arnold and George Dixon, Lenoir County negroes convicted of the September 10, 1951, shotgun slay ing of 68-year-old George McAr thur. The Supreme Court listed as a reason for making t hje decision, “systematic exclusion of negroes from Lenoir County grand juries.” Arnold and Dixon have been on death row in Raleigh since Dec ember 1961. They were convicted of 'murder zing McArthur at his fruit stand near the DuPont plant during a robbery attempt. McArthur was shot twice at close range with 12 guage shotguns. The Supreme Court’s decision of course means that Arnold and l3ixon will now get a new trial in Lenoir County. Jones Housewife OK in Alaska Friends and relatives of Mrs Billy J. Cook will be happy to learn that she, her family, and their home came through the Good Fri day earthquake in Anchorage, Alaska, in good shape. In a letter Mrs. Cooke said, "We are fine, and lost very little, I only hope our families get that mes sage.” Mrs. Cook’s husband is employed in Anchorage by the Philo Corp oration as an electronics engineer for the U. S. Air Force. The Cooks mvoed to Anchorage in 1960 when he retired from the Marine Corps. to Be Held in Area Starting Political Activity See# Five File For Offices in County Political activity in Jones Coun ty during the past week saw live men indicate their willingness to serve in a public office by paying their filing fees and announcing their candidacy. Horace Haddock vwill seek a seat on the county board of commis sioners. Four men filed for seats on the county board' of education. They are J. C. West, Jr., Jeff J. Con way, J. C. Wooten, and W. E. Phillips. Jones Commissioners Accept Low Bid for County Revaluation In regular session Monday the Jones County Board of Commis sioners decided to hire Carroll Phelps Company of Greensboro to revalue all real estate in the county. This task is expected to start in the near future, and is to be com pleted by 1966. The firms low bid was $19,800. In another action, the commis sioners voted to continue the sur. plus food program for the aged and handicapped, at least through the summer. Mayville to Install New Water System Work got under way Tuesday ol this week on a new water system for the town of Maysville. A new well is being dug, and a complete new water system will be installed Site contwet'calls fdt' the work tc be finished by December 1st this year. Cost of the project is not to ex ceed $214,000. The money wil come from the sale of bonds unathorized by citizens ol the town in January. The vote or the bond issue was 130 for, 2/ against. DRUNKS BOOKED The Jones County sheriffs de partment over the past weekend booked Joe Bender of Pollocks ville and William Strayhorn ol route 2 Trenton, both on charges of being drunk. MICROFILM RECORDS Representatives of the Archives of History are in Trenton to in ventory the county’s records. When the inventory is completed all per manent records will be microfilm ed. Jones County, and a portion of Lendir County, will become a bat tleground for some ten days start ing Sunday, April 12th, when two thousand paratroopers from Fort Bragg will drop froth the skies in the Oak Grove section of Jones County. The jump is scheduled to take place between 6 and 8 a.m. These 2,000 paratroopers' mis sion is to eliminate a few hundred “guerillas” who will be operating in two counties, mainly around Trenton. According to propaganda materi als being distributed in the schools and on the streets the guerilla forces are “to be regarded as fri ends of the citizens of Jones Coun ty." These men will not be in full military uniform, but will be easi ly recognized. The ‘enemy’ will be in full paratrooper uniform includ ing steel helmets. All participants in the exercise, dubbed “Quick Kick” are from the i 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg. All farmers and other property owners in the vicinity of the ex ercise have been notified that no heavy equipment and no live am munition will be used. The Army has stated that no property will be damaged, or if it is accidentally, the government will pay for it. Maysville Expands Corporate Limits The town of Maysville is now officially bigger in area. At a meeting of the town board of aldermen Tuesday night the board voted to annex an area en compassing 7.2 acres. The proper ty annexed runs from the south side of Sixth Street to the western limits of the town. Former Trenton Mayor, Alderman W. H. Hammond Dies Funeral services will be held to morrow (April 10th) at 3 p. m. in Trenton Methodist Church for William Henry Hammond, Jr., 60, who died Wednesday in a Kinston Hospital. The body will be placed in the church one hour before ser vices. Hammond was a former mayor of Trenton, and had served as al derman for many years. At the time of his death he was an auto mobile dealer in Trenton. Hammond was a native of Tren ton and moved back there from Mt. Holly in 1948. He practiced law in Mt. Holly from 1928-1948, serving as mayor, recorder’s court Continued on Page 8 m ft Equitable Taxation Officialdoms Most Difficult Problem It By Jack Rider Every group of officials charged with the responsibility to levy tax es is always confronted with the next-to-impossible task of levying a tax that hits every tax payer’s pocketbook in the Same fashion. Perhaps the most difficult tax to levy equitably is the “ad valo rem” tax on real estate. In Latin “ad valorem" means “at value,”bbt different people on different days and especially in different, years — have widely ^differing views of the “value” of a given parcel of landj and the buildings upon it An effort has been made in re- . But even with the scientific ap proach the shifting sands of a county’s economy and other com mercial factors undo the work of the evaluator frequently before the ink has dried on his evaluation. Lenoir County this year, and Jones County next year will have their real and personal property re-evaluated in this scientific man ner. Jones Job Easy In Jones County the problem is fairly simple because there is no large concentration of industry and the overwhelming majority of the real estate valuation of the coun ty is represented by farm landsJ.t real estae valuation in, $7,375,044 and of is represented of Lenoir Is Dirferent But in Lenoir County, where there is a greater balance between farm and non-farm property the picture is far different and the problem gets much more compli cated. The total real estate valuation for 1961 in Lenoir County was $58, 647,290, but farm land val ue for that same year in Lenoir County was only $20,845,955, which is only slightly more than 35 per cent of the total. In Lenoir County .for ’61 town resdiential lots were valued higher than all the farm land in the coun ty at $23,695,974 and residential lots outside of corporate communi ties added another $2,500,094 to the total. j 1- * t ^. v „, And there comes the rub, be cause although hobsing costs have -World War II gone up at the same ratio as iarm property. Residential property in Lenoir County is valued at about one-third its present market value. Farm land is presently valued at about one-tenth of its market value. On the basis of current sale prices of farm land which are very largely detremined by the size of tobacco allocation on a farm one third of the market value of Le noir County’s farms would be nearer to thirty million dollars than the present figure of just over twenty milliop dollars. Farm owners argue quite logical ly that farms are “too high” but buyers of residential property can offer the me Doara oi county commission ers will face the ticklish task of narrowing the gap between these valuations or it will face an an gry crowd of residential property owners. And, quite obviously if it raises farm values the meeting room will be filled with hot farm owners. As one city property owner re cently told the county commission ers: “I don't care whether you raise the value of farm property or lower the value of residential proprety, just as long as you feed all property owners out of the same spoon." At present this is not the case. This should be one of the para mount considerations when the voter goes to the polls on May 30th to select the slate of men who are most likely to be those who deter mine what, if anything is to be done to bridge this gap. ■ ■ - V/i-AJSm
Jones County Journal (Trenton, N.C.)
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April 9, 1964, edition 1
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