One-Of-A-Kind Ford Fairlane Ordered Here in 1957
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•WHS girls get fourth straight Three Rivers Conference victory. •WCHS thumps Gators for first TRC victory. Sports See Page 1-B. ThePublished News since 1890 every Monday and Thursday Reporterfor the County of Columbus and her people. Thursday, January 22, 2015 Beavers raise eyebrows Volume 124, Number 59 Whiteville, North Carolina Positive 75 Cents audit report Inside for county By ALLEN TURNER 2-A Staff Writer •Sheriff considering The Columbus County Board of Commis- use of officer body sioners Tuesday night received a positive audit report for the fiscal year that ended June 30, cameras. named a temporary deputy clerk to the board to fill in while the clerk is out on medical leave •Cats disappear as This 1957 Ford Fairlane, sold new through Quality Ford in Whiteville is expected to bring $125,000 and discussed at length efforts to eradicate coyotes spotted at or more when it goes on the auction block today in Florida. beavers in the county. Lake Waccamaw. CPA Alan Thompson, who conducted the county’s annual audit, said that the available •Nakina bridge to fund balance savings of $34,153,248 is equal close Feb. 2 One-of-a-kind Ford Fairlane to 53.92 percent of general fund expenditures for the year, which paints a healthy financial 6-A picture for the county. The state requires coun- ordered here in 1957 ties to hold about a month’s expenses, or 8.33 •Hallsboro maze percent, in their rainy day funds. owner is director of nVintage 1957 car with local ties is being Thompson told the commissioners that the state association. auctioned today in Florida. county’s financial position is “safe and sound.” The total fund balance increased from 9-A By ALLEN TURNER See County audit, page 3-A Veterans Rural Health Staff Writer Team coming Jan. 28. A 1957 Ford Fairlane – the only one of its kind ever manufactured, and which was sold new through Quality Ford in Whiteville – is expected to bring Hearing Friday DIDYOB? $125,000 or more when it goes on the auction block today in Florida. could end 37 Did you observe ... Ford Fairlanes retailed for from just over $1,000 up to a little over $3,000 in 1957 according to Wikipedia. The car’s top-of-the-line supercharged “F- Jolene and Morgan com and, while the car’s expected auction price is code” V-8 engine capable of 300 horsepower. years of prison pricey, its past is storied. Or so says the Fox News illegal liquor through the mountains of Georgia, Murray on ABC’s Network. North Carolina and Tennessee. Fox says the car was built specifically for the for Sledge, 70 “Good Morning The car being sold today in Florida was nick- moonshine trade and that it has a NASCAR con- named the “Likker Tanker” and, according to Ford n America” show nection. Lore has it that most of the early NASCAR Three-judge panel to hear motion here to dismiss conviction in Bladen Monday morning? racers were moonshine runners who transported See Ford Fairlane, page 6-A County murder case. ... Women of Worth organizer Lisa Clark By BOB HIGH running around Raleigh group surprises Old Dock Staff Writer town making deliv- Seventy-year-old Joseph Sledge can see eries and putting staff with bevy of supplies, books light at the end of the the finishing touches nLacy Elementary in Raleigh Spurred by wanting to help Old tunnel. on this weekend’s delivers almost 400 books and Dock get over the effects of the dev- It’s possible Sledge, many art supplies gathered by astating fire that gutted Old Dock’s who has spent 37 years in prison for a WOW event? It may students and staff to Old Dock main building on Jan. 7, the Raleigh double murder he has prove to be the larg- Elementary. school set about collecting books and art supplies. maintained from the est so far. ... Lacy Elementary’s Assistant beginning he didn’t By BOB HIGH commit, could be a Staff Writer Principal JeLynn Crane, two teach- Joseph Sledge ers and four Lacy students accom- free man before sun- set Friday. This could be far and away the panied the adults in the holiday trip to Old Dock. The teachers have Three Superior Court judges will hear a best “feel good” story of 2015. dismissal of all charges and conviction here County Deaths A small group of teachers, stu- local ties to Columbus County and Old Dock. beginning at 10 a.m. in the county commis- Whiteville dents and parents from Frances sioner chambers here along Smith Street. Lacy Elementary School on the west Local ties Margaret Walters Enzor Sara Owens Johnson, a 1993 Sledge was convicted by a Columbus Coun- side of Raleigh astonished Old Dock Adeline Layton, first grader at ty jury in 1978 for the murder of Josephine and Carl Hill Jr. Principal Ronna Gore and several of graduate of Whiteville High School Lacy Elementary School in Ra- whose parents now live at Lake Wac- Aileen Davis, murdered by knife in their home Talmadge Rooks the school’s staff and community leigh and a contributor to the volunteers when they paid an unan- camaw, and Staci Hester, a native See Sledge, page 5-A Lizzie M. Nobles Neill art supply drive for Old Dock of Bladenboro, are teachers in the nounced visit to Old Dock Monday Elementary, will have a special Clarendon morning. Raleigh school in the affluent Lake Rev. Brooks Carlyle Sykes birthday party on Jan. 30. See Boone Trail community of north- “I was just about overcome with story on today’s Page 5-A. Hallsboro what they did,” Gore commented. west Raleigh, just off the inner belt- Former mayor Alma F. Wright “It was a gesture that was just 5-A for a story about a Raleigh first- line there. Hester’s grandmother, Estelle Lee Rising Brunk, was an Bolton heart-wrenching,” she added with grader and what she has decided to Helen Jacobs a delighted smile. (See today’s Page do for her birthday). See Raleigh group, page 5-A of Chadbourn Tabor City Harold Wayne Johnson dies Tuesday Daisy Marie Bennett By JEFFERSON WEAVER Chadbourn Staff Writer Fax Rector Jr. Sunday celebration brought Jerry McNeill Fowler The man who community together didn’t want to be may- or is being remem- By WALLYCE TODD bered as one of Chad- Index Staff Writer bourn’s best leaders. Fax Rector, 74, died Editorials ......... 10-A Late Sunday afternoon, people Tuesday after an ex- Obituaries ......... 7-A from different worship communi- tended illness. He Sports ................ 1-B ties came to St. Mark AME Zion had been in hospice Crime ................ 4-A Church to celebrate the life of Dr. care at home for some Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK), time, family members Living ................ 1-C the Civil Rights Movement and said. 50th anniversary of the passing A former IT super- of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. A visor at the Wilming- multi-cultural, multi-denomina- ton Star-News, Rec- tional choir filled the loft of the Sunday’s celebration featured a multicultural choir. tor was a native of historic church on Whiteville’s Pittsburgh. He came Fax Rector Virgil Street. square panes, pastors from dif- faith practices to remember not to Chadbourn after As the evening sun shone ferent ethnicities and different only MLK, but to recognize there’s marrying his wife Beth, a native of the town. through the stained glass win- denominations gathered with more that unifies than divides. The plain-spoken Rector was well-known dows, matching the spirit of the visitors from across the commu- for his love of children and the town of service with their multi-colored nity and readers from different See MLK, page 12-A Chadbourn. After retirement, he and his wife See Rector, page 9-A 2-A – The News Reporter, Thursday, January 22, 2015 Sheriff considering use of officer body cams By ALLEN TURNER the safety and benefit of both the sheriff ’s facility, it con- Staff Writer the public and members of nects with a server and its my office,” and body cameras contents automatically down- would be an extension of that load. “I have MobileVision3 Sheriff Lewis Hatcher told benefit. cameras in the cars and I’m the Columbus County Board Hatcher told the commis- looking at a MobileVision3 of Commissioners Tuesday sioners he wanted them to body cam. I’m not saying here night that he is investigating be aware that he is looking tonight that is the system we the possibility of acquiring into acquiring the cameras want, because we still have to body cameras for his depart- and would be asking them for do research.” ment. funding when he knows more Hatcher said that grant “With all the controversy details. money for body cameras is going on about officer-in- “My grant writer is looking available, but that grant re- volved shootings – and I don’t into the process and I have cipients are expected to con- take sides one way or another some vendors scheduled to tribute a local match. – a lot of sheriff ’s offices and come and give demos so I can “It’s not a tremendous police departments are look- see what they’ll do,” Hatcher amount, but there is a local ing at body cameras,” Hatcher said. “I want to look at some- matching part, and that’s what said. “We have not had any thing that’s compatible with my grant manager is in the significant problems here in the in-car cameras I already process of looking into,” the Columbus County, but I feel have.