It s employ the elderly week in N.C. la aa age of shrinking budgets aad increased em phasis oa maximum productivity, the value of the oUcr worker should not be overlooked as a means to increase efficiency This is the message of Employ the Older Worker Week in North Carolina, currently in progress Gov. James B. Hunt, Jr., proclaimed the observance to coincide with National Em ploy the Older Worker Week. The national observance ha* emphasised the importance of older workers tor more than 31 years. "National Employ the Older Worker Week is an annual means of focusing public attention on the importance of using this valuable em ployment resource," said Bill Taylor, older worker specialist in the local Job Service office. "When you realise that more than two million North Carolinians, two-thirds of whom are m the civilian labor fore* of Ike stale, arc M years oM and older, you begin to see how important it is that we made good use of their experieace and knowledge." Job Service offices have participated in Employ the Older Worker Week for more than 20 years as a part of a year-round emphasis on placement of older job seekers. Since HIT, congressional legislation has t Older persons may be due a tax refund Many older or disabled persons across the state may be eligible for a tax refund as a result of a bill passed recently by the legislature. According to Nathan H. Yelton, assistant secretary of aging. Department of Human Resources, any senior citizen or disabled person who missed the deadline for the 17,500 property tax exemption in 1900 may now receive the 1980 exemption by filing an application with their county tax supervisor no later than April IS, 1981. That is also the final date for filing applications for the 1981 exemption. "Any 1980 taxes paid by such persons on the exempted property will be refunded to them upon filing the application," said Yelton. "Persons who have not paid their taxes must also file an application in order to receive the exemption." It is especially important that all eligible persons file a proper and complete application not later than April IS, Yelton stressed. Persons who qualify for the exemption in 1961 do not have to re-apply in 1982 and future years unless they change their residence. They are, of course, required to notify the tax supervisor if they become ineligible for the exemption. Leaders seek assistance for Atlanta, Ga. families Area black leaders began last week distributing posters designed to heighten the awareness of the situation in Atlanta, Georgia, which in volves the unsolved murder of 19 black children. Rev. John London, pastor of First Baptist Church, in Hertford, and newly elected president of the National Association of the Ad vancement of Colored People, and Walter White, Jr., president of the Bethel Southern Shores Property Owners' Association and chairman of the county Political Action Committee, met with Hertford Mayor Bill Cox last week, in a gesture London said he hoped would make people aware of the worsening situation in Atlanta. ? The poster, which * reads "Stop the killing of the Atlanta Children," was designed by White. * White and London are also seeking donations to send to the coalition of the murdered childrens' families in Atlanta. Those interested in making a donation for the cause should contact London. Watches, tennis shoes stolen The Hertford Police Department arrested ? low* youth Monday afternoon being sought for questioning in connection with a Saturday night break-in at Beit-Tyler Department Store in Elizabeth City. Willie Lee Jones, 11 of Covent Garden Street in Hertford, was arrested and charged after his car was spotted in the parting lot of Perquimans County High School, where he is a student Hertford police chief Marshall Merritt said Jones was wearing a watch believed to have been stolen in the break-in at the time of his arrest. Watches and tennis shoes were among the items taken in tlwlHMHK.llmMsaM.Mri WMIvl |?v ? MM* ?!* W kmi said tbat v - fc. * - >fc> %n nf nopra nuiric tr\mi ?u parts of the cwMy ?wM attend. *We bape to frt a i ii?U nidi imtiiMi Zaia Filter and Eric Skamer double their fun in Heart Fund rope jumping at Perquimans Cownty High School. Kids raise cash for Heart Fund The thump, thump, thump of the disco beat coincided with the rythmic pounding of the teenagers' feet as PCHS students jumped rope for Heart Fund Saturday morning at the high school gym. A total of M students raised ?.?? in a jumping session that lasted from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The students solicited contributions based on minutes jumped. And as "Ray the DJ." (Ray Ward of WBXB in Edenton) spun the singles, the young people kept their ropes tur ning. The top team raised $580 and won jogging suits for their efforts. Each of the six team members jumped for 30 minutes, and members in' eluded Cindy Sawyer, Sheila Rountree, Carla Skinner, Catherine Jones, Joy Chappell and Randy Winslow. There were seven teams involved in the competition. Gas tax (Continued from page 1) all on gas, though," said Harrington, "We'll probably have to get it ( money for transportation) from several places." Evans described the effect of declining revenues on the highway fund as "tremendous," and also favored the gas tax concept. A $2.1 billion tourist industry, in ad dition to agricultural needs, was in centive enough to increase highway improvement revenues, according to James. Also expressing favor for the gasoline tax, James said additional highway money could be gained by transferring expenses of the highway patrol from the transportaion budget to the General Fund, "where it belongs in the first place." He also advocated inclusion of the tax of up to $120 paid on new cars in the transportation budget. The new car tax is presently feeding the General Fund. But operations in Raleigh are at a virtual standstill as state government waits until the entire economic picture is unveiled by the Reagon Administration. "Things are pretty quiet in Raleigh right now," said Harrington, "We all have to wait and see what is going to happen in Washington." Daniels did, however, have some bleak predictions. "North Carolina has been getting some 25 to 27 percent of its total revenue from the federal government and I don't know how much we'll be cut," he said. "I will say that North Carolina is ex periencing declining revenue at a rapid pace," said Daniels, who added that he expected a 6 percent decrease in programs. "I don't want to be an alarmist, but I think you're going to see a shifting in priorities," said Daniels. Among proposals Daniels said he would make to the Assembly was a rate reduction from utilities, an increase in funding to public libraries, and a "complete review of CAMA regulations." Describing the Coastal Area Management Act as "unpopular with a lot of people," Daniels said he would propose "reimbursement for coastal land people own and have been denied use of." Daniel's comments drew a response from Hertford resident and Coastal Resource Commission member T. Erie Haste, Jr. "CAMA is a controversy because we were delving into something that's never been done before with a bunch of bureaucrats who haven't done it either," said Haste. "There is much more to the com mission than restraints and regulations put on private property," he added. "We don't enjoy denying a person U9e of his property, but we have to do what we think is right, and I think it's unfair to make a comment to this group that CAM A should be gutted. "We're trying to administer the program as equitably as we can," con cluded Haste. ? Evans, who is also involved with CAMA as a member of the advisory council, told the group that he, tan, felt "a lot of good had come out of CAMA." But Daniels was adamant in his ap position to the coastal program. "I think you've failed to listen to the people. I hear and you hear that people are Mac denied use of property that has been In their families for years. "Someone once said 'CAMA was trying to pre-judge God in their annual erosion rate predictions' and if we've got tight times in North Carolina, the PN.M (alotted to CAMA) might he used better somewhere else than to penalise people in the 20 counties," said Daniels. Haste reminded Daniels that the M county area had been issued "straight from" the General Assembly. "We