Kaltson County Library
Marshall, n.C. 28793 9-80
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News record
SERVING THE PEOPLE OF MADISON COUNTY
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Ruby Gayle Anderson Is
Teacher Of The Year
. . . Turn To Page 4
78th Year No. 49
PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE COUNTY SEAT AT MARSHALL. N.C.
THURSDAY, December 13, 1979
15* Per Copy
Sheriff Seizes Cache
Of Stolen TV Gear
A cache of stolen electronics
equipment valued at $55,000 to
975,000 has been discovered on
the premises of tVEB Com
munications in Hot Springs, a
newly-formed cable television
company.
Charles B. Edmunds, 38, the
president of the company, has
been arrested on charges of
grand larceny. He has been
freed after posting a cash bail
of $5,000, according to
Madison County Sheriff E.Y.
Ponder.
The case is still under in
vestigation, according to
Ponder, and several other
suspects are being sought in
connection with the multiple
thefts.
Both Sheriff Ponder and
Yancey County Sheriff Donald
Banks have been working on
the case for some time, on the
basis of information supplied
by other law enforcement of
ficials, detectives, and com
pany employees in five states.
The actual arrest was made
on the basis of a warrant
sworn out by the Blacksburg,
Va., Sheriff's Department for
the theft of one spool of half
inch copper cable of the type
u?ed to carry cable TV
signals.
Altogether, however, 40
spools of cable were
discovered at the WEB offices
in Hot Springs. Each spool
holds about half a mile of
cable, so that the total amount
stolen would stretch approx
imately 20 miles. The cable is
' worth about $240 per 1,000 feet.
Other equipment in the haul
includes transformers, tap6,
C-lashes, amplifiers, and a
variety of installation equip
ment.
Original ownership of the
equipment has been traced to
the Gerrold Equipment Co. of
Columbia, S.C. ; Wometco TV
and Cable Co. of Roanoke,
CHARLES EDMUNDS
(Seated)
Va.; Peter Carter of Mem
phis, Tenn.; Catawba Cable
TV Co. in Hickory, N.C.;
Blacksburg Cable and TV
Equipment of Blacksburg,
Va.; and Clearview Cable Co.
Marshall Asks For Payment Of Water Bills
The mayor and the board of
aldermen of the town ef Mar
shall announce that any
customers of the twn water
system having delinquent ac
,~xints should pay any past
due balance promptly.
Town officials said that any
customer still carrying a past
due balance on Dec. 19 will be
subject to disconnection
without further notice.
If such a disconnection is
necessary, the customer will
be charged for reconnection to
the system.
The new water system has
electrically-operated pumps
for pumping water from the
wells. In order for the town to
pay these utility expenses and
to keep the water lines main
tained and improved, it is im
perative that all water
customers pay their bills pro
mptly.
County Man Recalls Effort
That Saved A Girl's Life
KEN METCALF on duty at the
Buncombe County Ambulance
Service dispatcher's console.
Kenneth Dale Metcalf, who
grew up on Big Laurel Road
north of Mara Hill, has a part
time job as a dispatcher with
the Buncombe County Am
bulance Service. Moat of his
on-the-job hours consist of
long slack periods spent in a
bomb-proof, radiation-proof
room deep within the bowels
of the Health Department
building in downtown
Aaheville. That room was
designed as a communications
center of last resort, where
civil or military officers can
coordinate emergency opera
tion in case of war or other
Mostly, Kan Metcalf wat
ches a small television
mounted above the two M?
tical communications coo
solas and chats with Ms
coworkers. But once in a while
these dispatchers to the test.
Ken has worked as an am
bulance crew member
himself, and most of his
career has been spent with the
State Highway Patrol, where
he worked for lOtfc years. And
he is a certified Emergency
Medical Technician.
When the call came sudden
ly, as it always does, on Nov.
17, Ken had to be ready. The
voice on the phone was yelling
at him, sobbing; it was saying
over and over that a child was
dead. It took him valuable
seconds to make sense of what
she was saying.
"The first thing I had to do
was to get the woman to calm
down," he said. "She was
hysterical. All she could say
was that the child was dead."
Gradually he was able to
understand what was going
on. The voice on the phone
I Helen, 3, and her nephewjl
Christopher Pruitt, the son of
Pamela Pruitt of 7-F Bingham
Heights Apartments.
She had gone to change the
diapers on the baby when the
daughter came running to tell
her that Christopher was in
the shallow pond near her
house. She dashed out to find
him floating in the water; he
was not breathing. Scooping
him up, she ran back into the
house and tried to find the
right phone number to call,
finally dialing the operator
who connected her with the
ambulance service.. '
"We have two side-by-side
consoles here," said Ken. "I
was working the fire and
rescue line, and Dell Wilker
son wss on the ambulance
line, tfk used to work at the
news department of WWNC
radio hare. Anyway, he took
the call, got the address, then
switched her over tp me while
"So I started to talk with
know anv of the names then
?' ?ontim**lSN*?>
of Burnsville, the company
now installing cable TV in
Mars Hill and Marshall.
Identification of some of the
articles and additional infor
mation leading to the arrest
has come from Salem, Va.,
Atlanta, Ga., and Miami, Fla.
Edmunds has listed his home
address as Bland, Va.
Three and possibly four
more warrants will be served
on Edmunds, and a trial has
been scheduled for Jan. 7
Edmunds had worked at
several of the companies from
whom cable equipment has
been stolen, including Colum
bia Cable Co. and Catawba
Cable TV Co.
According to Ray Miller,
owner of Clearview Cable TV,
Edmunds borrowed 45,215 feet
of cable, valued at about
$11,000, from Miller while in
stalling the system in Hot Spr
ings. He also borrowed other,
smaller items, such as connec
tors and converters.
Altogether he borrowed equip
ment from Clearview on five
separate occasions between
Oct. 17 and Nov. 23, and on one
occasion he loaned Clearview
10,800 feet of feeder cable.
"It is not unusual for com
panies to borrow from each
other when they're setting up
a system," said Miller last
week. "We pretty well have to
trade back and forth because
it's so hard to get equipment.
It's common for someone to
get in a bind when they've
ordered something that
doesn't come when they need
it; that's happened to me
repeatedly this fall.
"So I wasn't suspicious,
really, until the last time,
when he told me a story about
a shipment sent to the wrong
place that just didn't sound
quite right. Then a friend of
mine told me that some cable
had been stolen in Virginia
and we started to get a little
concerned."
Clearview Cable began in
stalling wire and electronic
components early this fall
around the communities of
Mars Hill and Marshall (see
accompanying story), the
company has a system in
Burnsville, and has been set
ting one up in Spruce Pine.
H. S. Health Program
Receives $13,311 Grant
The Hot Springs Health Pro
gram (HSHP) has received a
$13,311 award to help con
struct the new building for the
Laurel Community Medical
Center, the programs board of
directors announced last
Thursday.
The award was given by the
Kate B. Reynolds Health Care
Trust, a private foundation
based in Winston-Salem
Part of the award - $3,311 -
will be used to complete the
required match of funds from
the Appalachian Regional
Commission. The ARC had
earlier arranged an "80/20"
grant for the program, with 80
percent of the money coming
from the ARC and 20 percent
from the community, the
HSHP, through the hard work
of many Madison County peo
ple, had raised all but $3,311 of
its portion, and the present
grant takes care of this final
amount.
The rest of the money,
$10,000, is designated
specifically for the equipment
and furnishings necessary to
make the new building into a
fully equipped medical facili
ty.
The board of directors of the
Hot Springs Health Program
issued a brief statement
through its executive director,
Michael Norins.
"The board is pleased and
extremely grateful for this
award," said Norins. "The
portion of the grant intended
to pay for medical equipment,
office furnishings and waiting
room furniture was not includ
ed in the original grant and is
vitally important to the opera
tion of the center."
Intensive negotiations to ar
range for actual construction
are continuing, Norins added.
SHERIFF PONDER stands
beside some of the stolen equip
ment. Before the photo was made,
19 spools of cable had already
been returned to their owner.
Plans For Cable TV In County
Not Affected By Recent Thefts
The Work of installing cable
television systems in Mars
Hill and Marshall is more than
a month behind schedule. But
according to Ray Miller,
owner of Clearview Cable Co.,
the delay has little to do with
equipment loans made to
WEB Communications.
Charles B. Edmunds, presi
dent of WEB, located in Hot
Springs, was arrested last
week on charges of grand
larceny. A large amount of
cable TV equipment, some of
it belonging to Miller, was
found at Edmunds' place of
business in Hot Springs.
Instead, Miller cited dif
ficulties in obtaining equip
ment, the delay in gaining ap
proval from Southern
Railroad to hang wires over
its tracks near Marshall, the
departure of several key
workmen, and cold weather as
factors in delaying cable
hookups to private homes in
the county,
"The cold has definitely
been a problem," said Miller.
"You can't string cable when
it is less than about 40 degrees.
And it is hard to get equip
ment. I've been waiting for
some connectors for Weeks
now ; the first batch I got were
the wrong size, and without
the right ones I can't splice
lengths of cable together.
"I can't tell people exactly
when we will be ready,
because we have no control
over the weather. But if I were
to guess, and if the weather
were just right, we could be
wiring homes in Marshall
about three days after the con
nectors get here. In Mars Hill,
we still have about two weeks'
of trork in do. There are two
strands of cable to add to, and
the antennas are not up yet."
People with questions about
cable service can call collect
682-3790 in Burns vi lie, where
Clearview Cable is head
quartered.
County Students Excel In Test
On Oct. 9 and 10, 224
students at Madison High
School took the North Carolina
competency test. Ninety-three
percent of the eleventh grade
students, taking the test for
the first time, passed the
reading test. Ninety percent of
the students passed the
mathematics test.
The graduating class of 1980
will be the first class affected
by the North Carolina Com
petency test in reading and
mathematics before
graduating in the spring. Fifty
percent of the students who
had previously failed the test
passed the reading test and 33
percent of the students passed
the mathematics test. All
seniors, except six, have now
passed the competency test
necessary for graduation.
These students are presently
enrolled in remediation
classes and will have another
opportunity to take the test
again before the graduation
date. Only two of these
students have failed both
parts of the test.
Remediation classes have
established at the high school,
in both mathematics and
reading. Some remedial in
struction is given to high-risk
students in the tenth grade.
When students receive their
test results at the eleventh
grade level, they also receive
a list of those objectives which
they have not mastered. The
remediation teachers then
work with them for mastery
level in preparation for the
next test administration.
There are four opportunities
for the students to take the
test. If they are not successful,
another administration may
be requested.
Mars Hill Will Have Its Own Library
After five years of work and
many frustrations, a small
group of dedicated Mars Hill
residents can proudly an
nounce concrete plans for a
new branch library for their
town.
With the help of Mars Hill
College, the county library
system, and the town govern
ment, the Library Building
Fund Committee has manag
ed not only to raise some
$40,000 from private sources i
the area, but also to locate
necessary matching public
funds and a sizeable building
lot at the center of town.
Among the members of the
library committee, the most
active fund-raisers included
Ruth Anderson, Elizabeth
Crocco, Polly Cheek, and Dr.
Evelyn Underwood, the chair
man.
"I would say that the secret
of our success is the large sum
of money we raised on oar
own," saM Or. Underwood
earlier this week. "That stow
? ? iiwi n ? n K mif Alk.
??no** about the project.
sion. Becky Williams, a
representative of Region B of
the Land-of-Sky Commission
based in Asheville, wrote the
grant and skillfully guided it
through the tangle of red tape
that surrounds any project of
this magnitude.
The library committee
hopes to increase the funds
available to $150,000, both
through further local efforts
and through small supplemen
tary grants.
The land for the new
building has been donate^ by
Mars Hill College. Measuring
approximately 80 by 100 feet, .
it lies immediately below the
fire station.
Architect for the project is
Wayne Roberts of Mars Hill,
who works for the Asheville
firm J. Betram-King, ar
chitects. Roberts, who has
already done a good deal of
GREETING SIGNS of red, green and white
welcome drivers to Marshall. Hie signs were
presented to the town by the governor in
recognition of the work done by the local peo
ple in winning the Community of Excellence
volunteer consulting for the
library committee, has agreed
to furnish a preliminary draw
ing of the building by Jan. 1. If
adequate funds are available,
the building will probably
have two floors. Because of
the hill it will sit against, there
can be two "ground-level" en
trances, with the second-story
entrance set toward Main
Street, on the uphill side of the
lot.
The campaign to build a
town library began five years
ago when the Mars Hill Com
munity Development
Organization adopted it as one
of itt major goals. The library
committee was appointed, and
began raising pennies and
dollars through local ac
tivities : flea markets,
bazaars, quiltings, chicken
suppers, spaghetti suppers, all
kinds of suppers. As the years
went by, many people
wondered at the tenacity of
the committee, and the dollars
trickled steadily in
renovate an older building on
Main Street; they learned that
to bring such a building up to
government standi would cost
far more than they had
budgeted.
As a branch of the Madison
County Library System, the
new library plans to offer:
'Reading areas for adults
and children;
'Specialised areas for '
senior citizens and the visual
ly handicapped;
'Listening areas for
records, talking booths, etc.;