The News Record
SERVING THE PEOPLE OF MADISON COUNTY
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78th Year No. 41
PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE COUNTY SEAT AT MARSHALL, N C
THURSDAY, October 18, 1979
15" Per Copy
Life Along The Work Front
New Highway 25/70 Creeps Toward Marshall
ERNEST NORTON of Walnut
Creek and Terry Cawthorn warm
up over a fire as a chill wind blows
up the river. "Those men there
lead a rough life," said Bill
Ricker.
By ALAN ANDERSON
We had a call from Bill
Ricker of the highway depart
ment the other day, who asked
if we'd like to come up and see
how work is progressing on
new State Highway 25/70, bet
ween Marshall and Weaver
ville. The road is expected to
take a lot of the thrill out of the
drive between Marshall and
Asheville, bypassing those ex
citing cutback curves along
the French Broad River. But
most county residents are
willing to sacrifice the excite
ment for what Ricker says will
be an easy 15-minute trip to
town.
So I met him on the Mar
shall Bypass the next day and
we drove up Tillery Branch
Road for a two-hour tour of the
construction front. Bill, a
friendly, talkative man who
was raised in Marshall and
now lives in Mars Hill, has
been with the state Depart
ment of Transportation for 18
years, and his technical title is
now chief roadway and struc
tures inspector. As he eased
his four-wheel drive pickup
over a pile of jagged rocks I
asked him what that title real
ly meant.
"Well," he said as we bounc
ed and swayed, "we've got a
lot of people and machines
picking up dirt out here.
Somebody has to tell them
where to go with it, and you
might say that's my job."
Looked at from the other
end, so to speak. Bill's job is to
oversee the construction of
three and one-half miles of
highway, bridges and culverts
within a budget of $10.7
million. Bill's section runs
from Tillery Branch
Cemetery to a quarter of a
mile north of Jupiter Road,
where another inspector takes
over.
The actual construction
work is being done by
Asheville Construction Co.
and directed by project
Superintendent Fred Staton.
The section from Jupiter Road
to Weaverville is the respon
sibility of Phillips and Jordan
Construction Co. of Rob
binsville. A third section, just
0.2 miles long, between the
Marshall Bypass and Tillery
Branch Cemetery, will be let
for bids when the other two
are near completion. The
whole project, budgeted at
just over $30 million, is
scheduled to carry traffic in
the Fall of 1981.
"But we'll run over our
budget on this section," Bill
Ricker was saying as we came
to a steep valley at the in
tersection of Long Branch
Road. He pointed to the reason
why: a stretch of rocky slope
stretching ahead of us along
the route for about a mile. The
rock is less stable than
originally thought and would
cause mudslides during heavy
rains. So the slope will have to
be flattened.
"This will probably mean
some delay," said Bill, easing
the truck down into an 80-foot
deep valley that will one day
be filled. "We'll have to take
out maybe another 300,000
cubic yards of dirt along here.
BILL RICKER and project
superintendent Fred Staton share ?
a joke beside the Ivy River, where
they ?, building . *1 million
We're about 5 percent ahead
of schedule right now, but this
extra work, and the winter
coming up, will set us back
some."
I got an idea how much fill
300,000 cubic yards is when I
learned that the largest dirt
hauling vehicles used on the
project have a capacity of
about 30 yards. So one of these
"pans,'' as they are nicknam
ed, which has two engines and
costs about $350,000, would
have to make 1,000 trips to
move that much fill.
We crept upriver along the
Ivy, where burlap silt barriers
were gradually being over
whelmed by erosion. "We'll
have to replace those in a few
weeks before winter sets in,"
said Bill. "The state boys are
strict about letting any silt get
into the streams. We have to
keep to regulations you've
probably never even heard of.
Why, all the paperwork in
volved in this project would
fill two of these pickup trucks. '
He pointed toward the sky,
where the Ivy River would
soon go, 80 feet higher than it
is now, intersecting the new
highway. A little farther along
we came to the first workmen,
who were preparing to ex
cavate about 85 feet of hillside
from one side of the Ivy River,
build a $1 million bridge over
the Ivy River, and excavate
1.6 million cubic yards of rub
ble, from the other side of the
Ivy River.
We stopped to talk with the
men, who were busy conver
ting rock to rubble, by means
of long drills and explosives.
Chalky "rock dust," which
lubricated the drill bit,
covered the men as the cold
wind whipped over the hilltop.
Ernest Norton of Walnut
Creek and his partner Jerry
Cawthorn warmed their hands
over a small wood fire as their
machine drilled; Curtis Sutton
did the same 20 yards along
the slope. The holes would be
filled with dynamite and nitro
carbo nitrate and detonated
all at once to break up the rock
for the bulldozers and pans to
haul away. "Those men there
lead a rough life," said Bill
somberly as we got back into
the truck. "They do that 10, 12
hours a day."
We drove across the old
bridge, which will soon be
replaced, and waved at Bruce
Boone of Grapevine, who was
driving a bulldozer, as he has
been for the past 15 years. He
was making a coffer dam of
rocks and mud in the stream
bed. This would force the
water of the river to one side
and "keep the water off us"
where the pilings are being
sunk, as Bill put it.
We spoke with Superinten
dent Fred Staton ("as nice a
guy as you'd ever meet," ac
cording to Bill, "never gets ex
cited") and drove above a
long culvert that will soon be
buried beneath roadway.
"That's all Class A concrete in
that culvert," said Bill, " and
we've got a man at the con
crete plant just to check on
every batch as it's made. We
take a sample every time it's
poured and send it to the lab
for analysis. That seems like a
lot of fuss, but we're thinking
of this culvert lasting 100
years."
We came to the main work
front, where huge Caterpillar
pans were being pushed by
huge Caterpillar dozers - D8's
(Continued on 2)
Children At Day Care Sites
And Schools Must Have Shots
Edward A. Morton, director
of the Madison County Health
Department, announces the
following information regar
ding the new North Carolina
immunization law. The law,
effective July 1 of this year,
states that all children atten
ding licensed day care centers
or in school grades K-12 must
be currently immunized 'With
three doses of oral polio vac
cine and three doses of
diphtheria, pertussis, and
tetanus vaccine.
Additional immunizations
are required of children in the
lower grades. All those in the
eighth-grade or younger must
also be immunized against
measles, while those in the
second-grade or younger must
be immunized against
measles and rubella as well as
the established minimum of
polio, and DPT.
The law further states that
before the Fall of 1980,
students from day care
through 12th-grade must be
fully immunized against DPT,
polio, rubella and measles.
Failure to comply with any
part of this law could result in
the child being expelled from
school as well as a possible
fine or imprisonment for the j
parent.
Previous regulations
regarding exemptions for
religious or medical reasons
remain in force.
Cemetery Register
Being Compiled
A cemetery register is being prepared for
Madison County with the assistance of Bowman
Funeral Home and Capps Funeral Home. It is be
ing kept at the Madison County Library in Mar
shall.
People who would like to insert names, birth
dates and death dates of family members or com
plete listings of those buried in small cemeteries
are encouraged to do so.
Those bringing lists should write the name of
the cemetery at the top of a sheet of notebook
papa*, listing family members and any other
known persons buried there, with dates when
possible. Then bring the page or pages to the
library where it can be placed in the loose-leaf
Hearing Set To Gather
Public Opinion On Grants
Citizens of Madison County
are invited to attend a public
meeting Oct. 24 to discuss the
use of grant money in the
county.
Both the board of commis
sioners and the Madison Coun
ty Planning Board would like
to hear from all interested
persons on worthy projects
that might be eligible for
money from the Department
of Housing and Urban
Development.
The meeting will begin at
the county courthouse at 7
p.m.
This hearing is for areas of
the county outside the three
municipalities. Marshall,
Mars Hill and Hot Springs will
each conduct separate hear
ings for their grant requests.
These will be announced in the
coming weeks.
The purpose of the hearing
is to gather citizen recommen
dations and ideas about com
munity needs. This will help
county officials prepare an ap
plication for Community
Development Program funds
for the coming year.
The objective of the Com
munity Development Pro
gram is to assure residents of
decent housing and a suitable
living environment. CD
money is intended principally
for areas of moderate and low
incomes.
Typically, CD money is used
for the rehabilitation of
homes ; for building public
facilities, such as water and
sewer lines; and to help
develop industrial develop
ment by building industrial
sites, access roads and other
structures.
Examples of projects in
Madison County funded by CD
money since the program
began in 1974 are the three
community centers ( in Beech
Glen. Marshall and Hot Spr
ings). the housing rehabilita
tion now funded for Spillcorn
and the installation of wells
and septic tanks in several
areas.
Body Of A. Nelson Warner
Found By Marshall Men
The body of A. Nelson
Warner of Asheville was found
by two Marshall men in the
French Broad River just
before midnight on October 8.
Warner, 56, had been miss
ing since his locked car was
found on Sept. 12 on the bank
of the river near Alexander.
Several searches of the area
had failed to produce any
clues to his whereabouts.
Warner was manager of
employee communications
and public relations for the
Ecusta Paper and Film Group
plant of the Olin Corp. at
Pisgah Forest.
His body was discovered by
Denny Goforth of Route 5 and
Dannie Freeman of Route 4,
who were searching in the late
evening for a dog. They notic
ed an odor and found the body
on the west bank of the river
about of a mile below Paw
Paw Creek, some seven miles
north of Marshall.
They called Madison County
Sheriff E.Y. Ponder at mid
night, and the sheriff called
Asheville authorities who had
been searching for Warner for
nearly a month. Lee Warren of
the Asheville Police Depart
ment and Jack Ramsey of
Bowman Funeral Home in
Marshall accompanied the
sheriff and the two men back
to the remote riverbank,
which they reached around 6
a.m.
Warner had worked for 30
years in newspapers and
public relations. He also was
active in pursuing lifelong in
terests in the arts, particular
ly the graphic arts arid music.
At one time he wrote a column
on the arts and reviewed
musical events for The
Asheville Citizen.
He was an amateur
gardener, woodworker, pic
ture framer and interior
decorator. His friends knew
him, also, as a gourmet chef.
Warner was born in
Asheville on Dec. 14, 1922. He
was the son of Norman Joseph
and Amy Blakeney Warner.
They lived at 120 Kimberly
Ave.
Warner attended Asheville
public schools and graduated
from Asheville High School in
1940.
In the fall of that year, he
enrolled in North Carolina
State University at Raleigh.
His education was inter
rupted in 1942 when he left col
lege to enlist in the U.S. Army.
He was assigned to the 14th
Armored Division and saw
combat in the European
theater.
He entered the University of
North Carolina in 1946 and was
graduated with a degree in
journalism in 1948. He also
took special courses at the
University of Cincinnati.
He became a reporter for
The Burlington Times-News in
1948. He was a member of the
staff of The Asheville Citizen
from 1949 to 1953 when he went
to work for The Greensboro
Record.
In 1977 Warner was in
strumental in bringing the
A. NELSON WARNER
Van Sant collection of armor
of the Asheville Art Museum
for display there.
In the summer of this year a
dispute arose between Warner
and the museum director
about the armor display.
Warner was a founder and
board member of the
Chamber Music Series of
Asheville, a board member of
the Asheville Art Museum and
assisted with events of the
Thomas Wolfe Memorial
Association.
In lieu of flowers, friends
may contribute to the Folk Art
Center, P.O. Box 9545,
Asheville, 28804 or to the ar
mor collection, Asheville Art
Museum, Asheville Civic
Center, 28801.
FIRE GUTTED the house of Jack
Moore and family on Oct 15. Mrs.
Moore and a baby she was
keeping escaped unharmed from
the fourroom house located on
Sandy Mail Road opposite the
Plato Woriey residence. The
cause of the blase is unknown, and
the contents of the houst wart *
'?>: * it *.J
completely destroyed. Moore
works for an electrical con