Robesonian (Newspaper) - February 14, 1984, Lumberton, North Carolina Happy V THE ROBESONIAN Serving Robeson County Since 1870 A Park Newspaper Lumberton NC Tuesday February 141984 Vol No 312 25 Cents Police find new leads in LHS arson case Staff Writer An effort by the Lumberton Board of Education to revive the investigation of the Lumberton High School fire appears to be making headway Law enforcement officials returned this weekend from Athens Ga where they interviewed a college student about the fire that did an estimated to the high school in March 1979 Hes a possible suspect said Lumberton Police Captain JE Taylor who would not reveal the students identity Taylor chief of the detective division made the trip to Ho up expects project funding soon Staff Writer The Lumberton Housing Authority expects to have the revenue in 30 days to purchase a tract of land for a federally approved housing project the ex director said Monday The US Department of Housing and Urban Develop ment approved Friday a land purchase agreement for a 96 acre tract on Linkhaw and Meadow roads that will serve as the site of a housing project The project was approved by HUD last week said Executive Director Jim Meacher Up to this point we have had a lot of scary feelings said Meacher who has headed a effort to bring in additional housing But we are moving now The purchase price for the land is The project will cost an additional or about per unit Its designed to make the units maintenance free Meacher said We anticipate the project to be very at tractive to look like any other subdivision in the com The project will be made up of 12 duplexes and 16 duplexes The two bedroom unit will have 7435 total square feet the three bedroom unit 821 total square feet The housing authority will advertise for bids in May award the contract in July and hopefully said Meacher begin construction in late July or early August The pro ject is expected to take 300 days to complete Lumberton was awarded the 40 units two years ago as well as million last year to modernize its 10 public housing complexes More than 500 families are on the waiting list but only about 275 of them are active Meacher said The economic situation is that we have a lot of our population that needs public housing Meacher told The Please see HOUSING on page the University of Georgia with SBI agent Ray Eastman who was unavailable for comment A reward is still being offered by the governors office for information leading to the arrest and tion of the persons responsible but still no charges have been made in the five years since the fire Lumberton School Superintendent Gilbert Carroll has been openly critical of the investigation and recently asked law enforcement officials on the county city state and federal levels to renew their efforts One reason we have so much crime is that people are committing crime and not being punished for it Car roll said When something goes unsolved people begin to think you can get away with it Carroll said that he has been assured by the Federal and State Bureaus of Investigation that they are still working on the case They both sent representatives and each one spent about an hour with me Carroll said The state FBI office is located in Charlotte and SBI agents investigating the case are from the Fayetteville office Taylor said he just recently started his own tion because the officer assigned to the case before him was transferred to another department We have about the same information we had in the past Taylor said But some new leads have emerged Staff photo by DON ROBERTS Valentine King and Queen Valentine King JB Coleman of Mohr Plaza congratulates Valen tine Queen Trixie Locklear of Pembroke with a kiss at Monday nights Senior Citizens King and Queen Valentine dinner The pair recieved the crowns for raising the largest amount of money for the Janna Bray Fund Coleman raised and Mrs Locklear The total amount received from allof the county senior citizen clubs was The event attended by 120 people was held at the Red Carpet Restaurant Organ donor workshop scheduled Thursday By TRACY COLLINS Staff Writer What began as confusion over a rediscovered donor card has culminated in an education project for poten tial organ donors through the efforts of Miss Shirley Eaton The project is called A Pocket Miracle Workshop with a pocket miracle being an organ donor card Miss Eaton said The workshop is scheduled for Thursday from pm Back in July I was digging through my purse and I came across my organ donor card in pocketbook and I realized I needed two signatures for it to be valid she said When I started investigating to get more informa tion I found a great lack of knowledge Then by August the Josh Brooks story broke and I became personally in Becoming actively interested in the subject of organ donors was not easy for Miss Eaton who found public ig on the subject a formidable barrier to break through It was like digging to China to get information on this thing she said It amazed me One surprising revelation she found was the number of organs that can be transplanted Miss Eaton said Possi ble transplants include eyes bone marrow lung heart liver pancreas kidney skin and bone The idea of organ transplants is very near to Miss Eaton not only because of the nationwide search for a liver for Brooks but because she herself has undergone a transplant I have had bone grafts done and that is the only thing that allows me to work now she said on page A couple of new names have been mentioned Earlier this month a reward was paid to an anonymous informant by the North Carolina Arson Awareness Council for information leading to arrests and convictions in a 1981 Raleigh arson case The reward being offered by the governors office in connection with the Lumberton High School fire is ac tually more than is usually allowed in arson cases according to Pam Gaither assistant to the governors legal council We only offer in murder cases she said I think because of the extensive damage done to the school we went to Navy ship Lebanon jets join attack Marines fired upon at Beirut airport BEIRUT Lebanon AP A US Navy warship shell ed artillery positions in central Lebanon today as the Lebanese army and US Marines came under attack Lebanese jets also went into action for the first time since September against Druse militiamen US Air Force Capt Jack Giese said the guided missile destroyer USS Claude V Ricketts fired 11 rounds from its guns before daybreak at the request of the Lebanese command The Marine base at Beirut airport came under mortar fire from the southeast at am and the Marines shot back with mortars said Giese Giese made no mention of Marine casualties in the mortar attack nor in a volley of rockets that struck the base hours earlier I dont know how many rockets or where they came from he said He provided no details about the targets hit by the Ricketts in the third US naval bombardment in Lebanon since President Reagan announced his decision a week ago to redeploy the Marines to warships offshore Giese initially said the Ricketts fired on Syrian posi tions at the request of the Lebanese army But other Marine spokesmen said later the targets were in Syrian controlled territory radio stations in Beirut said the Ricketts blasted the central mountaintop towns of Chab and all Druse strongholds with varying Syrian military presence The broadcasts said these positions were providing artillery support for a Druse effort to capture a 1 Amile corridor linking the and Aley Mountain regions Lebanese air force jets bombed Druse positions in the mountains southeast of Beirut after the insurgents at tacked army positions The clashes ended a lull in the fighting around the Capital A military communique said army positions southeast of Beirut had come under attack by the Druse militiamen and the air force jets scrambled to retaliate with several bombing runs missiles were fired as a pair of Lebanese jets flew sorties in the mountains about 11 miles from center There was no immediate word on the extent of damage from the attacks It was the first time the Lebanese air force went to ac tion since last Septembers civil war in the central mountains when it lost two of its five a virtually obsolete aircraft Prices climb after start of Stabilization RALEIGH AP In 1933 tobacco was selling for about 6 cents a pound and the Depression had closed down all the leaf markets in North Carolina A farmer named Carl T Hicks gathered some colleagues and called on officials in Washington They hammered out a temporary plan in which the government agreed to support tobacco prices if growers agreed to reduce the size of the next years crop Hundreds of farmers signed up markets reopened and prices jumped to about 15 cents a pound Federal tion in 1936 and 1938 established official quotas and minimum prices In 1946 Hicks founded the Tobacco Cooperative Stabilization Corp to run the program Prices for the states largest crop have been rising ever since Thanks to the cooperative tobacco remains what Stabilization Part 1 in a series many believe is the last bastion of the small independent grower the yeoman farmer Thomas Jefferson saw as the cornerstone of democracy But 38 years after it began tion is in trouble a victim of new federal legislation declining demand for tobacco and swelling foreign leaf im ports that have forced the cooperatives stocks of stored unsold tobacco up to 761 million pounds Heres how the program works ac cording to Fred G Bond Stabilizations Please see TOBACCO on page Weather Tonight clearing low in nor winds around 10 mph day fair high in Local rainfall Monday 283 inches Lumber River 980 feet Monday high and low 75 and 53 At 8 am 61 Wednesday sunrise and sunset and pm Index Comics National Briefs Steel NC t bla ck program Miss NC Deneen Graham SU photo By JOHN A GAVIN Staff Writer The audience at Monday nights Black History Month Program received an additional treat that many probably werent expecting The first of the program held at the Pembroke State University Performing Arts Center had been ed to feature Deneen Graham Miss North Carolina Rogn Mitchell a popular comedian and Har rison an actress and playwright Also a little known calypso band out of Perry Ga The Steel Bandits was scheduled to appear However when the program ended it was The Steel Bandits who captivated the audience with a wide range of music varying from the disco hit All Night Long Lionel Richie to a classical number Air on a G String JS The group which literally plays steel instruments oil drum heads weld ed different depths to create different sounds consists of six brothers and sisters ranging from ages 10 to 18 Inez George the youths mother who served as a narrator while the band was playing said she came up with the idea of steel drums when she visited her hus bands Joseph home In the British West Indies When I first went there and heard that type of music I was impressed she said I felt that this playing the steel drums would be something great for them Also they are black in that blacks have developed and put to uso Now her talented family has put those instruments to use in full stride The leader of the group Travis 16 was the first to learn the instrument and eventually taught the rest how to play Now the rest of the group Terry 10 Lamarra 10 Valary 15 Michelle 16 and Rodney 18 play different types of drums blending to sound like a com plete orchestra Also to the delight of audiences Michelle and Rodney lead many of the songs and Terry and Travis occasional ly electrify audiences by doing Michael dance routines while the music is playing When the group finished its last routine many youths in the audience rushed to the stage to get autographs Also Miss Graham did a dance routine from the Broadway musical Chicago The North Wilkesboro Please see PROGRAM on page
