By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • Hoke County was up to 127 total known cases of COVID-19 Tuesday, with free testing set to start this Friday thanks to a Harris Teeter partnership. The drive-through testing will take place each Friday, Saturday and Monday through May 30 at Don Steed Elementary School. The testing runs...
Year: 2020
Post
Three more cases added over the weekend as slow, phased reopening begins
By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • Hoke County added only three new known cases of COVID-19 to the local tally over the weekend, after several weeks of seeing larger daily additions. Hoke was up to 123 known cases of coronavirus Monday, as North Carolina entered its first full week of phased reopening. The most...
Post
Hoke up to 120 total known cases, as state enters first phase of reopening plan at 5 p.m. today
By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • Hoke County was up to 120 known cases of coronavirus Friday, as increased testing capacity continued making it easier for doctors to identify patients with COVID-19. The most recently identified cases of COVID-19 in Hoke County include: A family of five including a 5-year-old girl, a 7-year-old boy,...
Post
Doorbell camera captures stolen car chase
(Image: A screenshot of the stolen Dodge Charger driving through a yard.) A doorbell camera caught footage of the events that played out last month in a subdivision at the Hoke County line as two people stole a car, and the victims pursued. The incident happened around 2:20 p.m. April 28 on the 7700 block...
Post
Hoke up to 107 known cases as North Carolina plans to start easing restrictions Friday
By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • Hoke County was up to 107 known cases of COVID-19 Wednesday, with seven people from the county hospitalized with the illness. A 63-year-old man who began feeling ill May 1 and tested positive May 4 is the most recent person from Hoke hospitalized with coronavirus. He experienced difficulty...
Post
COVID cases top 100 in Hoke
By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • Hoke County was up to 103 known cases of coronavirus Tuesday, including 23 people infected in an outbreak at Canyon Hills treatment center. So far, 14 Canyon Hills residents and nine employees – including six who live outside of Hoke County – have tested positive for the illness....
Post
Raeford proposed budget holds line on tax rate
(photo: City Council meets spread out around the chambers) By Ken MacDonald • Meeting spread apart in chambers Monday morning, Raeford City Council members heard City Manager Dennis Baxley’s proposed $6.5 million budget for the next fiscal year. He told the board there would be no increase to the tax rate— 48 cents per hundred-dollar...
Post
Small businesses find ways to adapt to pandemic
(photo: teachers at Rockfish Country Kids get some love.) By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • Running a small business in an uncertain time isn’t easy, and when that business is teaching young children, it’s tough for people on both sides of the six-foot distance. Rockfish Country Kids is a private preschool that opened about...
Post
Schools continue hiring–virtually
By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • Even with school buildings closed for the rest of the school year and students learning remotely at home, Hoke County Schools are looking toward making sure there will be enough teachers for classrooms in the fall. The district, like others across the nation, is facing an “unprecedented challenge”...
Post
Pierce cosponsors Medicaid bill
Hoke County and Scotland County Rep. Garland Pierce, a Democrat from Wagram, signed on as a co-sponsor to a bill to expand Medicaid in North Carolina. Under the proposed State House Bill 1040, an estimated 4,169 people in Hoke County would gain access to healthcare. The bill would provide medical care for more than 500,000...
Post
D.O.T. cutting back but NC 211 widening still scheduled
By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • The project to widen N.C. 211 from Raeford to Aberdeen is still in the works, but the right-of-way buyouts are now on hold, according to the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT). A “sharp decline in revenue” due to COVID-19 depleted the NCDOT cash reserve funds to below...
Post
County planning for hurricane season amid pandemic
By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • Even in the middle of a pandemic, Hoke County Emergency Management is about to help citizens prepare for a more familiar type of disaster. The Atlantic hurricane season starts June 1, and from May 3-9 North Carolina is recognizing Hurricane Preparedness Week. “North Carolina knows all too well...
Post
County building projects still in the works
(Photo: the Robert A. Wright Agriculture Building nears completion) By Catharin Shepard • Staff writer • Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States in March, Hoke County was working on a number of building projects. Those projects are still in the works, although one is far closer to being done than the others. A...
Post
Browsing the Files
(Graphic: the grip — influenza — gripped the nation in 1918) 75 Years Ago • May 10, 1945 • Kenneth Haire of Raeford was a member of a squad that captured 19 Germans recently. After a miniature close range fire fight that occurred intermittently all night, the squad rounded up the German soldiers as dawn...
Post
Letter: Police parade reminder community is thoughtful
To the Editor: Sunday was my grandson Archer’s fifth birthday, and of course, we could not have the party his parents had planned for him. What we did have was even better, a day where family and friends drove by to shout happy birthday from their cars, waving signs from their windows, and popping up...
Post
Letter: Feel sad for the President, happy for the Pates
To the Editor: Re. President Trump: I was aware of him for some years prior to his “running for President for the fun of it.” And like many, hoped he never would. He was a playboy, and a not very good businessman, except for filling his coffers, but basically turning his attempts at business into...
Post
Letter: And what does Kool-aid have to do with it?
To the Editor: In answer to the article you had on poor people, my father was one of 12 children, born in 1918. Today would be considered dirt-poor farmers, they were farmers who raised everything they ate. Those were hard times. The boys worked until they could either share crops or go in the service....
Post
Letter: At least 43 percent of us don’t like Huff’s rantings
To the Editor: I’m writing to express my disapproval of Mr. Huff’s “opinion” on political matters. Now he is certainly entitled to his right to voice his opinion, but by printing it you are validating his opinions. Likewise, it is your right to not publish his rantings. I subscribe to your paper to get news,...
Post
Can’t relax until things are produced (Huff)
I have a compulsion to produce. I don’t think it is an obsessive compulsion, but sometimes I would like to tone it down a bit. I often find myself lining up tasks in my brain when I would rather just forget about them. I am not sure what drives this. Perhaps it is a deep-seated...