After searching Google for a bit resulting in 08-dated responses, yours was what I was looking for.

(My /etc/conf.d/local did not have anything to load at start or stop so once I removed the file the warning messages went away. I also noted and read the /etc/local.d/README which explains that new .start and .stop scripts are processed in lexical order.)

Your response here is appreciated!

From /etc/init.d/local

start()
{
einfo “Starting local”

local file
for file in /etc/local.d/*.start ; do
[ -x "$file" ] && “$file”
done

if type local_start >/dev/null 2>&1; then
ewarn “/etc/conf.d/local should be removed.”
ewarn “Please move the code from the local_start function”
ewarn “to scripts with an .start extension”
ewarn “in /etc/local.d”
local_start
fi

return 0
}

meaning that /etc/local.d/ is the proper place to put scripts ending with .start that you want executed when the local level starts.