NEWS RECORD
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SERVING THE PEOPLE OF MADISON COUNTY
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7W? Year No. 13
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PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE COUNTY SEAT AT MARSHALL, N.C.
THURSDAY, March 27, 1980
15* Per Copy
YOUl'S SUBMARINE SHOP in
Mars Hill is the site of another
county controversy over alcohol.
The restaurant has been issued a
90-day "brown-bagging" permit
that allows customers to "bring
their own" ? beer, wine, or lfquor
? as long as tney seep it unaer
wraps. Last year Peabody's Dis
count Center, a beer store owned
by the same men who own Yogi's ,
was the focus of a dispute in Forks
of Ivy.
1 . ? , ? ______
Brown -Bagging Permit
Resisted By Mars Hill
The owner of Yogi's Sub
marine Shop, a sandwich
restaurant on Main Street in
Mars Hill, have obtained a
pair of temporary
"brown-bagging" permits
which could make Yogi's only
the second establishment in
Madison County where
customers can drink alcoholic
beverages.
Both permits, one for
"Special Occasions" and one
for "Restaurant and Related
Places," make it legal for
patrons to bring their own
beer, wine or liquor into the
restaurant if concealed by a
bag or other covering.
Presently, the only place in
the county where alcohol can
be purchased is the ABC store
in Hot Springs. One brown
bagging permit also exists at
Uie Wolf Laurel Resort.
According to Special Agent
Stewart Cook of the North
Carolina Board of Alcoholic
Control, 90-day permits were
issued on March 17 to Robert
Thomas Sofield and Edward
Kirkpatrick, the owners of
Yogi's.
Officials of the Town of
Mars Hill, who learned of the
permits on the day they were
issued, brought up the matter
at a meeting that same night
and voted to adopt a resolution
opposing the permits. The
resolution is being taken,
along with letters and a peti
tion being circulated among
Mars Hill residents, to the
Board of Alcoholic Control in
Raleigh. The board will decide
whether to issue permanent
permits.
Sofield and Kirk pa trick are
also the owners of Peabody's
Discount Store in Forks of Ivy,
the focus of a prolonged
border dispute last year.
Madison County argued that
Peabody's which sells beer, is
in Madison County and
therefore illegal. A three
judge panel, however, ruled
after nearly a year of debate
that the portion of Peabody's
actually selling beer is in Bun
combe County.
In the face of strong
resistance from the mayor,
aldermen, merchants and of
ficials of Mars Hill College,
the owners of Yogi's have
paused to reconsider their
plans to moisten a historically
dry town.
"I'll tell you the truth," said
Tom Sofield a week after ob
taining the permits. "We cer
tainly didn't realize there
would be this much of a con
troversy. We don't want to
disrupt the community. We
mostly wanted to provide a
place for young people to go
where they can have beer or
wine with a meal. We're not
interested in another-year
long struggle."
Sofield estimated that some
80 percent of the customers at
Peabody's, just three miles
from Mars Hill College, are
college students.
"We've had such a demand
from not only college students
but other young people to have
a place to go instead of just
rodding around in their cars.
They are going to drive to buy
stuff wherever they have to. I
think it's better to give them a
place to go so they don't drive
back from Asheville after
drinking.''
The college administration,
however, has little sympathy
with the plan. "We are
definitely opposed to it," said
President Fred Bentley. "We
will exercise whatever in
fluence we can to see that the
permit is not made perma
nent. We have no legal
authority beyond the campus,
but our students will be en
couraged not to go there."
No drinking is allowed in
college dormitories or at col
( Continued on Page 3)
County Will Get $533,948
Tp Repair Secondary Roads
In their artpua) public
meeting with the Board of
Commissioners, state
highway officials announced
last Wednesday that just over
half a million dollars would be
available to upgrade secon
dary roads in the county dur
ing the next fiscal year.
Division Engineer Earl
RfcEntyre said that a total of
|B33,948 has been estimated
(or Madison County for Fiscal
1M0-81. Of this amount,
9373,803 is projected to come
from the Secondary Construc
tion Program, which is funded
by revenues from the state
gasoline tax. Also, $160,345
will come from the secondary
bond allocation, This is the
county's share of the $300
million bond issue passed
statewide in 1977 for primary,
secondary and urban roads.
McEntyre emphasized that
Us figures are still estimates,
and that the final amount will
depend on tax revenues col
lected between now and the
end of the current fiscal year.
Commissioner Jim Ledford
pointed out that the highway
fund has suffered lately
because of falling gasoline
sales statewide. "Tax
revenues dropped $25 million
last year," he said, "while we
had a 22 percent inflation rate
for the cost of highway con
struction. We are really hur
ting. People have quit buying
McEntyre said that it costs
about $100,000 a mile to
upgrade and pave a road in
the mountains. ? compared to
perhaps >30,000 on flat land.
He said that a one-mile road
being done in Mitchell County
was costing 1173,000. In addi
tion, a bridge costs about
11,000 per foot. Thus the total
allotment for next year might
be enough to upgrade and
pave less than five miles of
Some officials fear that
oaiess more money is found ,
(or the highway fund, many
roads in the state will
too rough for use by
cars.
we have to consider,
ly," said Commis
Ledford, "is that we on
a small amount of
r.lfwei
to spend on secondary roads.
Then we could pave these
roads. The way it is now, we
can't."
The current year's alloca
tion of state money is being us
ed to pave Cutshalltown Road.
That road was selected on the
basis of a priority list, main
tained by the state and up
dated every two years. Every
unpaved road in the county is
Priority Roads: The Top 15
Priority S.R.
Number Number
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
1332
1375
1136
1369
1155
1158
1346
1319
1509
1584
1576
1405
1334
1303
1359
Length Homes Traffic
Count
Name
CQlvin Creek 2.75 38 200
Heck Creek 1.40 18 150
Dry Branch 2.35 25 150
Bee Tree Road 1.50 17 138
Anderson Branch 3.00 18 144
Big Pine 2.30 22 132
Bear Branch 1.40 19 120
Lonesome Mtn. 2.65 14 84
Holland Creek 1.40 18 114
Tillery Branch 1.05 17 100
Bend of Ivy 0.80 16 96
Thomas Branch 1.00 16 96
Sodom ? Rice 2.25 11 66
Lower Shut In 2.10 16 125
Old NC 213 0.70 9 120
Estimated
Cost
$360,000
$225,000
$350,000
$200,000
$325,000
$250,000
$200,000
$350,000
$200,000
$125,000
$100,000
$125,000
$300,000
$325,000
$100,000
McDevitt Elected President
Of N.C. Young Democrats
Wayne McDevitt of Mar
shall was elected president of
Young Democrats of North
Carolina at their annual state
convention held in Greensboro
March 15. McDevitt was
elected by acclamation by
more than 500 delegates
representing county and col
lege organizations from
across the state.
McDevitt also announced
that he was resigning as chair
man of the Jim Hunt cam
paign in Madison County. "In
no way is my resignation
meant to discredit Gov. Hunt.
I have always been a strong
supporter and worker for Jim
Hunt and believe he
demonstrates the kind of
leadership North Carolina
R. WAYNE
needs to continue on the road
of growth and progress. My
resignation is totally based on
a technicality in the
Democratic Party's Plan of
Organization which requires
any person holding a position
of leadership in the party to
refrain from holding a position
in a Democratic Party
primary." He also announced
his resignation as election
registrar in the North Mar
shall precinct.
McDevitt, 27, is currently
regional manager of the
Department of Natural
Resources and Community
Development for the western
region of North Carolina . He is
? graduate of Marshall High
School and political science
graduate of UNC-Asheville.
He served as vice president of
the North Carolina Young
Democrats during Iff*. Dur
ing the past 10 years he has
received several awards in
Young Democrats
Party at all
: :
ranked according to a point
system ? 283 roads in all,
totalling 315 miles in length.
Roads r^*?ive poiiits for each
house, church, school and
place of business, and for
school bus routes, traffic
count, and so on. Generally,
the highest priority roads are
those that are short, heavily
used and densley populated.
Priority number one this
year is Colvin Creek road,
which is 2.75 miles long and
has 38 houses and a traffic
(Continued on Page 8)
RANGER CHARLES MILLER,
center, has recently moved to the
French Broad Ranger District. In
the photo above he is flanked by
assistant rangers Richard Cook,
left, and John Strojan outside the
Forest Service headquarters in
Hot Springs.
New Ranger Moves To County
Charles N. Miller has suc
ceeded Joe Wallace as ranger
on the French Broad Ranger
District of the Pisgah National
Forest.
Miller, a native of central
West Virginia, first arrived in
Madison County in December.
After a brief leave, because of
illness in his family, he began
work in January, at the same
time the Forest Service staff
was moving into its new
building in downtown Hot Spr
ings.
Miller came to the county
from a very different environ
ment ? the Apalachicola Na
tional Forest in Bristol, Fla. ?
which is dominated by flat ter
rain, dense pine forests and a
wide river that must be kept
silt-free because of the famed
oyster beds in its mouth.
Nonetheless, Miller is no
stranger to the mountains. He
graduated from the Universi
ty of West Virginia in Morgan
ton with a B.S. in forestry and
wildlife. After graduating he
spent the summer in timber
country In Oregon, then mov
ed to the Shenandoa Valley in
Virginia for three years.
After a short tour in the U.S.
Array he was sent by the
Forest Service to Ervin, Tenn.
where he worked for seven
years as program manager in
charge of timber manage
ment, sales, and reforestation
in the 150,000-acre Unaka
District of Cherokee National
Forest. There he oversaw the
planting of trees, preparation
of timber sites, appraisal of
timber, and actual timber
harvesting.
From Ervin he went to
Florida, where he worked not
with timber but with
everything else that goes on in
a national forest. "The
customary arrangement,"
said Miller last week in his of
fice, "is that a district ranger
will have two assistant
rangers. One of them handles
the timbering operation, if
there is one, and that is such a
big Job that it will take all his
time. The other assistant
handles just about all the
other operations and respon
sibilities we have - wildlife
management, recreation pro
grams, helping visitors, and
so forth.
"It's also customary to get
experience in both kinds of
Jobs. U you do timber in one
area, youll probably do the
Republicans Pick
Convention Delegates
Stern, Roger Swann, Dedrick
Brown, Curtis Roberta and
rn ?? f> n I. n ?< m
tiyae ttooeirs.
The taOowinc alternates
were also elected: Jean
Flowers, Edith Lnniford,
William Tisdale, Cecilia
Powell, Ella Vee Willis. Larry
Ferguson, Mrs. Curtis
Giboon. France, Ramsey
Mrs. Charles Crocco and BUI
other activities in the next
place you go. The Forest Ser
vice does this so you don't get
locked into the same program
and so you see how various
ways of doing things work or
don't work.
"They also move you
Haynie
Chosen
Chairman
Roger D. Haynie of Mar
shall was elected chairman of
the Young Democrats of the
Uth Congressional District at
the annual state convention
held in Greensboro March IS.
The election follows his
nomination by the 17 western
counties who caucased at the
governor's western residence
in February.
Haynie, 29, is adult proba
tion and parole officer in
Madison County. He is cur
rently chairman of the
Democratic Party in the
North Marshall precinct. He
haa held several Young
Democrat positions at the
county and district levels and
was named one of the 10 most
ROGER HAYNIE
around a fair amount, for the
same reason. The broader
your experience is, the more
perspective you're likely to
have when you have to handle
new situations and problems."
Miller's two assistant
rangers are Richard Cook and
John Strojan.
Cook, who is in charge of
timber management from the
French Broad District, is a
native of Oklahoma. He
graduated from Louisiana
State University in 1976 with a
degree in forest management.
After graduation he was
assigned to the Southern
Forest Experiment Station,
based in New Orleans. For
three years he cruised timber
throughout four southern
states, measuring the growth
of trees in permanent plots.
For every state, growth trends
are compiled every ten years.
This shows the Forest Service
how much timber can be
harvested without cutting
faster than trees are growing.
Cook went from New
Orleans to BLue Ridge, Ga.,
where he worked as a
prescriptionist in Chat
tahoochee Nation Forest. This
Job involves cruising stands of
timber, measuring types and
ages and deciding the best
type of treatment for each
stand. After his brief tour In
Georgia, Cook came here in