Robesonian (Newspaper) - February 8, 1993, Lumberton, North Carolina THE ROBESONIAN Serving Robeson County Since 1870 1993 Park Newspapers of Lumberton Inc Lumberton NC Monday February 81993 vol No 295 25 cents See Weather Page 2 Mental illness is featured in talk at library Frank Gose will be the featured speaker during an informational meeting for families with mentally ill relatives to be held Wednesday Feb 17 at the Robeson County Public Library beginning at 7 pm Gose the executive director for the NC Alliance for the Mentally HI will discuss new issues concer ning illness and the NC AMI projects The Alliance has more than 2500 family members in North Carolina and 40 lacal affiliate groups In addition to providing support members gain informa tion about the treatment of mental illnesses including referral in formation and advocay for in creased and improved mental health For more information contact Francis Gold at 7385160 or Betty McMillian at 7382950 Council discusses Airpark tonight The Lumberton City Council will hold a regular meeting tonight beginning at pm at City Hall Tonights agenda includes discussion of legislation policy relating to drug offense penalties and the Airpark West Industrial Park zoning district Planning Director Rhys Kear will report to the council for the authorization to submit an ap plication to the NC Housing Fi nance Agency for housing rehabilitation Several other items of interest will also be a presented during tonights meeting The Lumberton City Council meetings are open to the public Unemployment 71 in January WASHINGTON AP The unemployment rate dropped to 71 percent last month the lowest in a year the government reported But most of the decline occurred because people quit looking for jobs not because they found them The jobless rate had stood at 73 percent since last November Though there was an anemic in crease in jobs last month the main reason the rate dropped was the departure of 508000 people from the labor force Still Wall Street read Fridays figures as good news continuing its recent rally Pine seedlings to be given away Feb 19 There will be a special tree giveaway on Friday Feb 19 from 9 at the OP Owens Agriculture Center on NC 72 west of Lumberton Only pine seedlings will be distributed and bundles of 25 per bundle will be available The program is especially designed for homeowners interested in develop ing windbreaks around the home or other small use purposes Call 6713276 for more information Remember Whats Classified Mr Goodnight ran an ad for Help Wanted He told us Please take my ad out of the paper I knew Id get good but Ive been over whelmed with phone calls Classified gets results Al I 7394322 Clinton makes budget cuts high priority WASHINGTON AP Before asking Americans to pay higher taxes President Clinton this week will seek to prove his credentials as a budget cutter starting with his own staff Vice President Al Gore says Clinton met Sunday with members of the National Economic Council to review spen ding cuts tax increases and a jobs producing economic stimulus package The president will present his plans to Congress in his State of the Union address Feb 17 but the ad ministration planned in advance to highlight its zeal Youre going to see announce ments this coming week that will demonstrate quite clearly that the experience Clinton has in balanced budgets is being brought to bear in weeding out the unnecessary wasteful kind of spending thats just been allowed to go on for too long Gore said Then were going to ask those who benefited the most from the last 12 years unfairly to pay their fair share he told interviewers on This Week with David Gore did not specify the cuts but said they would make it un mistakably clear that we have been wrestling with the guts of these very difficult decisions White House Communications Director George Stephanopoulos said today that it was highly un likely that Clinton would call for freezing Social Security ing raises Thats something he never wanted to do Stephanopoulos said on ABCs Good Morning America blaming unsubstantiated leaks for causing an uproar A senior White House official speaking on condition of anonymity said the first announcement proba bly Tuesday would focus on reduc ing the White House staff Details of cuts elsewhere in government will follow on subsequent days the of said The Washington Post reported Sunday that about 20 workers in the White House office that deals with letters telephone calls and other public tion already have been given layoff notices The Washington Times quoting unidentified sources in todays edi tions said the administration is drawing up a million tal appropriations measure to pay for 50 additional White House posi tions that would be given to political supporters No further details were available the paper said Please see BUDGET page Precinct works to help seniors TIFFANY Staff writer The Senior Citizens Awareness Network SCAN is conducting a week long workshop for its members requesting that all Premium Citi zens contact the SCAN at 7307700 Premium Citizens are persons 75 and older living alone in Precinct Five The group was established to improve the quality of life for some of oldest residents said Councilman Robert DeLane Shaw This week the group will be brief ed by the finance human resources public works and police depart ments The police department will have a list of the premium citizens and patrols will look that much harder when they pass their houses Shaw said The fire department and the city manager will have the only other lists Confidentiality is a must SCAN does not want to advertise to criminals that these persons are living alone so they are asking that other premium citizens who have not been contacted call the hotline number The services SCAN pro vides are free of charge SCAN will render special ser vices to premium citizens We will physically look at their particular needs and provide daily surveillance Shaw said in an earlier interview SCAN has assessed the needs of the aged and its goals are as follows Determine special needs of the premium citizens of Precinct Five that might have a critical impact on their lives such as domestic safety and life support as advocates to find solu tions that satisfy those needs and establish followup programs to preclude recurring conditions telephone tion systems to ensure daily contact is made with each premium citizen Establish an escort system for those who need assistance in reading understanding and corn Please see SENIORS page Wife dead in alleged Shootout with husband Husband allegedly is shot three times GLADYS DOWLESS Special correspondent TAR HEEL Gunfire allegedly exchanged between a married cou ple here Friday evening ended in the death of one and the serious injury of the other according to the Bladen County Sheriffs Department Peggy Ann Hemingway was killed with a blast from a shotgun while in a neighbors yard located on Reedy Meadow Road between Tar Heel and Dublin Her husband Jack Weldon Hemingway was reportedly shot three times in the side with a gun by his wife Witness told authorities the Bladen expands landfill GLADYS DOWLESS Special correspondent ELIZABETHTOWN Bladen Countys commissioners have agreed to expand the present landfill site The action came during a meeting Friday in which they voted to buy land adjacent to the county landfill on US 701 south of here The new plot is just over 42 acres and was for The terms of the sale state the land will be paid for over three years said County Manager Lex Jones Jones said the land purchased was required by the state for a permit which will be necessary to close the landfill in October The transfer station will be built on the land in connection with Du Ponts solid pro ject Bladen Cumberland and Hoke Counties have enterd into a agreement with a private company Energy Corp of Houston to take ther trash to use in an in that will provide steam for DuPont This will reduce the amount of trash going to counties landfills by about 80 percent commissioners said shooting occured following an argument in the couples home Mrs Hemingway ran next door to the neighbors home and was soon followed by her husband who was carrying a shotgun said Bladen County Sheriffs Department Chief Deputy Steve Bunn Mrs Hemingway ran out of the neighbors house and tried to hide in the yard but was found by Hem The report states that once Mrs Hemingway was found by her husband she fired the handgun at him Hemingway fired back once allegedly killing his wife Chief Bunn Please see WIFE page Slack Dr Rona Leach with Lanes McLean and Robert DeLane Shaw McLean is principal of Rosenwald Elementary and Shaw a Lumberton city councilman Dr Rona Leach Photo by John Principal to work on dropouts JOHN CAMPBELL Special to The Robesonian After 3 years as the director of student services for the school system Dr Rona Leach is looking forward to the challenges that come with being the principal of Lumberton Junior High She says she enjoys challenges One problem she will attend to immediately is the schools grow ing dropout problem I believe that my experiences in student services strengthened me as an administrator she said during a recent interview Dr Leach replaces Anthony Parker who had been principal at the junior high since 1989 Parker began his duties as principal of Lumberton Senior High School last Wednesday County Superintendent Purnell Swett said Leach will serve as principal at the junior high for the rest of this school year Swett said a permanent replacement will be selected this summer Leach says that she is looking forward to working with the staff students parents and private citi zens She intends to maintain a school and a strong instructional program Within the next few weeks she plans to go put into the community to meet with parents organiza tions and concerned citizens Educators parents staff stu dents and concerned citizens can create a collaborative com prehensive ap proach which will make it possible for all children to learn she said At the junior high Dr Leach will be responsible for about 900 eighth and ninth graders She says she has regrets about leaving her posi tion as director of student services Pupil services are essential to effective school programming she said Last year at this time we had 210 dropouts but this year at the same time we have 298 dropouts she said The dropout figures that Leach referred to are from the Fourth Month Principals Report which compared dropout data of the last two years The report shows the junior high with only six dropouts at this time during the 9192 school year but for the 9293 school year it lists 20 dropouts an increase of 14 dropouts compared to the same time last year The figures for the senior high school are even more sobering The 9192 data shows an table high of 42 dropouts at the mark of the calendar year Whereas the senior high this year reports a shocking 85 dropouts This is an increase of 43 students who have fallen through the gaps of the educational pro cess Leach says that until pupil ser vices are given adequate personnel to work with the schools and stu dents the problems will continue Unless we address dropout and attendance problems we will con to have low student achievement she says Our present personnel such as our school social workers and counselors are overwhelmed she said We need at least one psychologist assigned to the department of student ser vices We presently have only one teacher serving regular education students We need at least one more Leach concluded by candidly saying We have denied students these needed services due to the Please see LEACH page Mediators fail in peace accord street children scoop up bread and other goodies tossed from a passing UN vehicle Some of the biggest victims of the civil war are the children who spend idle days on deadly streets UNITED NATIONS AP Cyrus Vance and Lord Owen looked to the Security Council today for en of their proposal for peace in Bosnia having failed to win over either Serbs or the government The mediators hope UN pressure can bring the parties closer The Clinton administration how ever has refused to back Vance and Owens plan and is pursuing its own ideas for stopping the fighting Defense Secretary Les Aspin who presented the administrations pro to European leaders over the weekend said Sunday that the allies reacted positively He refused to discuss the pro with reporters and said the administration could make its ideas public this week Vance and Owen spent the weekend discussing their proposal with the warring factions but did not scheduled further negotiations for today according to Fred Eckhard a spokesman for the mediators He refused to characterize the meetings as a failure An agreement is within reach If the parties want to sign I think they have a good solid basis for an agreement Eckhard said He said he hoped that once the Se curity Council takes up the plan the increasing international pressures on the parties to agree will make it possible to wrap this up successfully next week The major sticking point is the negotiators proposed map of a Bosnia carved into 10 serai autonomous provinces Man charged in St Pauls murder NORM MORTON Staff writer ST PAULS St Pauls police and Robeson County Sheriffs detectives Sunday arrested and charged Harold D Locklear 20 of 209 South 1st Street St Pauls with the Oc tober murder of Juan Jose Wright Locklear was being questioned by St Pauls police officers late Satur day and early Sunday when they summoned sheriffs detectives who were familar with the case The ar rest was made at am Sunday morning The arrest was made by St Pauls Officer Allan Todd and two Robeson County sheriffs deputies A W Ox endine and James Carter The body of Juan Jose Wright was found in a swamp just outside the ci ty limits of St Pauls Oct 31 by some men fishing in the swamp The swamp is located off Elizabeth Street extension also known as Trash Pile Road Initially local authorities after a preliminary examination of the body said that their findings seem ed to indicate that he had been struck in the head with a blunt in strument During the autopsy at a later date it was determined that he had also been shot with a weapon of an undetermined caliber Identification of the body was not determined immediately when it was in the swamp and for several days the body was a John Doe Identification of the body was finally made the following Tuesday morning Nov 3rd when officials of the sheriffs department announced the name of the victim Please see ST PAULS page
