BROUGHTON, THE ROAD BUILDER AND SPINNER OF TAU* TALL TALES
t
jm
i
Road Allocations in
Broughton's Last
Commission Year
Alamance
Alexander
Allegheny
Anson
Ashe
Avery
Beaufort
Bertie
Bladen
Brunswick
Buncombe
Burke
Cabarrus
Caldwell
Camden
Carteret
Caswell
Catawba
Chatham
Cherokee
Chowan
Clay
Cleveland
Columbus
Craven
Cumberland
Currituck
Dare' ,
Davidson
Davie
Duplin
Durham
Edgecombe
Forsyth
Franklin
Gaston
Gates
Graham '
Granville
Greene
Guilford
Halifax ~
Harnett
Haywood
Henderson
Hertford
Hoke
Hyde
Iredell
Jackson ,
Johnston
Jones
Lee
Lenoir
Lincoln
Macon \
Madison
Martin
McDowell
Mecklenburg
Mitchell
Montgomery
Moore
Nash
New Hanover
Northampton
Onslow
Orange
Pamlico
Pasquotank
$1,071,467.67
0
116,401.93
71,191.08
. 612088.00
>'6
■#.
316,076.27
>0
115,037.70
0
1,774,965.05
271,132.09
286,265.16
W
V,
t:
-;3r
sfc *
651,372.87
299.467.90
577.276.48
275.411.20
1.027.560.10
834.777.95
297.099.00
0
0
282.613.90
163.708.20
330.045.90
352,483.93
299.497.90
146,969.50
58.024.25
107.022.00
199,972.45
776.125.24
244.854.24
2.533.907.10
0
2,082,681.39
64,971.41
i 0
133.601.00
22,395.00
2,154,503.25
192.944.96
196.271.49
9,302,922.30
243.530.97
422,135.56
0
5,450.00
1,594,560.14
91,076.73
214,321.89
30,766.55
55077.3Q
149,599.55
416,891.19
0
93.007.25
0
327,646.73
2,555,444.91
0
164,308.28
34,837.50
1,015,344.73
1,444,655.02
773.081.01
324,254.07
456,113.79
0
Perquimans
Person
Pitt
Polk
Randolph
Richmond
Robeson:
Rockingham
Rowan ^
Rutherford
\
Stanley
Stokes
Surry
Swain
Transylvania
Tyrrell
Union.
Vance
Wake
Warren
Washington
Watauga j
Wayne
WMsoalipEptAg
Yfttcey
0
97,966.72
402008.72
133,599.00
357.636.50
13,671,09
1,975,795.14
90,190.55
8,702,335.09
287,317:50
48,98800
108.214.50
? 95,024.19
32,767.13
271,244.61
94.075.49
332,588.86
35.909.50
97,619.94
i 47,714.00
4,320,077.94
1,134,159.71
48,677.67
S 76,989.23
, * 704,628.71
# 131,470.61
^ 38,447.00
1,276,548.90
: 585,065.00
By Jack Rider
One of the ugly ahioms of poli
tics is “Voters Have Short Mem
ories.”
Gubernatorial Candidate J.
Melville Broughton is betting a
lot of money and some effort on
this unflattering attitude toward
those hev hopes will elevate him
to the state’s chief executive
ship. t
. Broughton among other things,
made tl*e first mistake of kick
ing off his Eastern North Caro
lina’campaign with a thunder
ing promise in Elizabeth City
that he would leave no stone un
turned to bring good roads to
the forgotten eastern end of
the state.
Apparently candidates have
shorter memories than voters,
since Broughton, who served
four years as Chariman of the
North Carolina Highway Com
mission, completely forgot that
in the last year of his tenure in
that capacity the County of Pas
quotank, of which Elizabeth City
is county seat, got exactly no
dollars and no cents worth of
rbadbuilding money.
Broughton also overlooked, or1
ignored that fact that there were |
seven counties east of Highway
301 in that final year of his'
chairmanship which suffered
this same sad fate. Bertie, Bruns
wick, Chowan, Martin, Pamlico
and Perquimans were the other
forgotten six.
And now that the campaign j
is in full swing Broughton has j
issued a pamphlet which boasts
of his accomplishments as high
way commission chairman.
"The Broughton (Highway)
[Commission changed the old,
outmoded method of distribu
ting road funds, completed the
most comprehensive inventory
of road needs ever made, start
ed work on massive highway and
bridge projects, and prepared a
15-year plan for road building
that is still being followed."
You can bet your last Luther
Hodges button they did just
exactly that.
For instance, during the 4
year tenure of Messrs. Hodges
and Broughton more new road
money was spent in the single
Piedmont County of Forsyth that
was spent in all 31 of those
counties east of Highway 301.
:THE JONES COUNTY
IO U RNAL
■ ■ ... , , ■4,
NUMBER 49 TRENTON, N. C., THURSDAY, AiPRIL 4, 1968 VOLUME XIX
EDITORIAL
Road Building Not Mel's Best Suit
The front page of this issue is very largely devoted to a
review of theroadbuildingrecord of Gubernatorial Candidate
J. Melville Broughton;'
This paper has not changed the view: it expressed some
months*ego when the: candidacies of Broughton, Bob Scott,
Jim Gardner and- Jack: Stickley were made formal: That
North Carolina votarsfin both parties were fortunate to have
a choice in tho primary and again in the general election
between sudviable candidates.
This review' of Broughton's road-building record does not
lessen the view of his character but it does seriously question
the wisdom of hiscampeign, in which he has made the mistake
of bragging about the "fair?' way ho and his commission die
tributed roadbuilding money.
We know very welt that Broughton had very little to do
with the ach>*t distribution of those funds. This was handled'
by the man who choose Broughton as a "figure head" high
way commlsaioh cheirman, Luther Hartwell Hodges.
But recognition, of Broughton's small part in<tMe abusive
distribution offund* does not remove from him the respon
sibility to have spoken out and to have offered some small
measure ef protOctien for the eastern end of tho state, and
for all of those other ports of the state which faredrso badfy
under Hodges' mania 'for superhighway construction.. ,
Broughton has many. facets, upon which he" could'wage a
reasonable campaign, but first among the things that he
surely cannot expect tho vast meiority of the people ■ in
the state to swallow ia his record for "fairness" as chairman of
tho highway commission.
■■‘Ast'Sic-Sat'Si.
Commissioners Set April 16th for
Equalization and Review Day, Act
On Number of Other County Matters
Monday the Jones County
Board of Commissioners set
Tuesday, April 16th as the day
on which the board mil be con
vened as a board of equaliza
tion and reveiw, to hear and
take action on matters pertain
ing to the tax listed vaulation
of all property in the county.
The board also renamed sev
eral members who represent
Jones County on the Neuse Riv
er Development Commission;
naming John W. Creagh Jr. to a
3-year term, Mrs. lone Collier to
a 2-year term and Flecther Bar
ber and Nolan Jones to 1-year
terms.
The board also voted to put
$364.17 in the 1968-69 budget
as Jones County’s part of the
operating cost of this commis
sion.
The board also authorized Tax
Supervisor Julian Waller to des
troy tax abstracts two years or
more old, authorized a survey to
determine what parts of James
Albert Williams’ land were in
Jones County, named Carl
Wheeler the county’s industry
hunter and authorized advertise
ments for the sale at public
auction of the old Negro Farm
Agent’s offices in Trenton.
Eight Cases Cleared
In Past Week From
Recorder's Court
In the past week pleas of
guilty before the clerk or trial
before Judge Joe Becton clear
ed eight cases from the docket
of Jones County Recorder’s
Court.
In non-traffic matters the plain
tiff withdrew a non-support
charge against James Albert
Aylor of Trenton route 1 and
paid the costs and Cornelius
Jordan of Pollocksville was or
dered to make good a worthless
check and pay the court costs.
Those paying off for traffic
violations included Mamie Riggs
Bell of Swansboro, Jane Leslie
King of Pink Hill route 1, J. A.
Martin of Jamesville, A. J. Milas
Jr. of Cherry Point, Braxton
Hall of New Bern and Courtney
Mitchell Jr. of Kinston.
Scott Women-in-Jones Hostesses
For Coffee Saturday Morning
From 10:30 until Noon Satur
day the Jones County Women
for Scott will be hostesses at a
coffee hour honoring Mrs. Bob
Scott.
The gathering. is being held
in the dub house of the Trenton
Woman’s Club and the public is
invited to come by and visit with
Mrs. Scott, who is taking an act
ive part in her husband’s effort
to be the next governor.
Two Jones Arrests
The only two arrests report
ed at the sheriffs office for the
past week in Jones County were
those of Thelma Boling MeLaw
horn of New Bern route 3 and
Harvey Allen Gautier of Kins
ton route 5, both of whom were
charged by the highway patrol
with drunken driving.
Jones County Gets
Industry Hunter in
Agency Program
Carl Wheeler, a native of New
Bern, who is a member of the
staff of the Jones County De
velopment Association, has been
designated official industry seek
er for the county.
This official, designation was
given to Wheeler Monday in the
regular meeting of the Jones
County Board of Commissioners.
The Development Agency,
headed by Rogers Pollock, and
the Board of Commissioners
urges everyone who has any
ideas about the industrial de
velopment of the county to con
tact Wheeler at the agency
offices in the court house at
Trenton. ;
Under that “old, outmoded
method of distributing road
funds” each district got back
approximately the same amount
of money of road work that was
collected in the district gaso
line taxes. Hodges and Brough
ton decided that this was not a
fair system, so they set about
with their little plan.
In the final year of the Brough
ton chairmanship, after he and
Hodges had had time to imple
ment their “new, fair system”
those forgotten 31 counties east
of 301 got a total of $6,135,755.14
for new roadwork, out of the
total of $60,304,323.48 that was
spent that year.
Those 31 counties included, at
that time 20.9 per cent of the
state’s population, but Brough
ton’s highway commission sent
back to 24 of them just 10.1 per
cent of the total road building
money. The other seven of
course, got nothing.
In that final Broughton year
Rowan County got a total of $8,
702,335.09 for new road work —
over $2 million more than all of
those 31 counties east of 301.
Under this “fair” system Ro
wan’s 1.8 per cent of the state’s
(Continued on page 5)