Photo by Chick Squire I
Walls Come Tumblin' Down
With children home for the Christmas
New Year's holidays, workers had a
chance last week to begin demolishing
the old Weaverville Primary School, de
clared structurally unsafe. Demolition
should be complete by the time children
report back for classes Monday. Con
struction of a new, $500,000 building
should begin within two months. Classes
are currently being held in temporary
trailer classrooms .
Mars Hill Board
Adopts Sign Rules
I$\ 1511. 1. STl'DKNC
Kditur
After nearly a year of debate,
discussion and delay, the Mars Hill
Board of Aldermen finally approved
a zoning ordinance, including regula
tions on commercial signs and out
door advertising, during a special
meeting Monday night.
The ordinance includes a ban on the
construction of any additional off
premises signs -? billboards and
calls for the removal of existing
billboards in most of the town and its
one-mile extraterritorial zone.
Approval came after Jim Edwards,
planning director of Land-of-Sky
Regional Council, met with board
members to answer a few remaining
questions about the much-discussed
section of the zoning ordinance
regulating signs
The ordinance adopted Monday
limits the heights of on-premises
ground signs, or business signs, to 25
feet, regulates the total area of all
signs and bans the construction of
any new off-premises signs.
Billboards currently in place must
be removed within a maximtim of
five years, depending upon the value
of the sign, according to the or
dinance.
Already, there are exceptions.
Signs along U.S. 19-23, a federal-aid
primary highway, will not come
under the Mars Hill ordinance. Those
signs -- both business signs and
billboards - are regulated by the
federal Highway Beautification Act.
Kdwards told the board
Some board members had
previously expressed concern that
the ordinance, as written, might force
the removal of such signs as the large
Texaco sign, some 65 feet high, along
U.S. 19-23.
"The federal regulations have
priority over local ordinances," Mars
Hill Mayor Owen Tilson said
The town could have called for the
removal of non-conforming signs
along U.S. 19-23. but would have had
to pay the sign owners a cash sum for
their investment in the signs, accor
ding to federal law
And that, town officials said, was
simply too expensive.
Under the Mars Hill ordinance,
owners of non-conforming signs that
must be removed will be compen
sated through an amortization
schedule which allows signs to re
main in place for a certain period of
lime. Thai schedule is:
? One year, for signs with a replace
ment value of up to $500.
? Two years, for signs with a
replacement value of $501 to $1,500.
? Three years, for signs with a
replacement value of $1,501 to $3,000
? Four years, for signs with a
replacement value of $3,001 to $5,ooo.
? Five years, for signs with a
replacement value of more than
$5,001.
The new ordinance also limits the
size of on premises business signs In
0-1 commercial and industrial-zones,
the maximum size is 32 square feet
per side, up to 64 square feet for the
entire sign. In C-2 commercial zones,
that limit increases to lOO^quare feet
per side, up to 200 square feet for (he
entire sign
The ordinance also creates a Board
of Adjustments, which "has the
authority to grant variances lo allow
the construction of signs that don't
conform to regulations.
"What ever size we pick, there are
going to be exceptions." said Wayne
Roberts of the Mars Hill Planning
Board
-Continued on next page
Highway Caused
- End Of Booming
Craft Industry
By KI.IZABRTH I). SQI IRK
Feature Writer
(Last of two parts)
Annie Shelton Gosnell says she was
bom about the time that Frances L
Goodrich came to Allanstand and
started Allanstand Cottage In
dustries.
Mrs. Gosnell grew up admiring the
founder of those Allanstand in
dustries, which flourished from the
tate 1880s to about 1930
She remembers her mother, Susie
Dudley Shelton. drawing the curved
lines, like vines and little leaves, that
were part of the design of coverlets
her mother made, by embroidering
homespun cloth.
The embroidery thread was dyed
with natural dyes and Mrs. Gosnell
went with her mother to see Teddy
Tweed, who ran a "blue pot." Mrs.
, Tweed's hands were always blue
from dying yarn.
According to Miss Goodrich's book,
"Mountain Homespun," the "blue
pot" was a fermented mixture of in
digo, madder, bran and home dripped j
lye. always prepared in a big iron pot,
taking great skill to control and pro- j
ducing a beautiful clear blue. I
Later, after she was married, Mrs.
Gosnell ran the Allanstand Industries 1
Shop, just down the hill from her
house, and when a prospective buyer
came she would stop her housework
and go down to the store. Some
customers were "kind of money-like
folks," probably tourists. Some
wanted to look but not buy.
The log -cabin shop had shelves with
a few large items like coverlets, but
mostly Mrs. Gosnell sold smaller
items. Her favorites were the corn
Photo by Elizabeth Squire
Annie Shelton Gosnell, left, shows off one of her latest craft
projects to her daughter-in-law, Christine Gosnell.
shuck dolls, she recalls.
Nell Thomas, who lived in Allans
(and as a child, remembers that the
shop sold wreaths and brooms, each
made out of one piece of hickory, split
and shaved. Also there were brooms
made from home-raised broom corn,
and hats made out of braided corn
shucks, and quilts.
She remembers the quiltings. Ten
or 12 women would get together, br
-Continued on next page
County OKs
A-B Tech Campus
For Madison
By BILL STUDENC
Editor
A satellite campus of Asheville
Buncombe Technical College to serve
Madison County has been formally
approved by the Madison County
Board of Commissioners.
The commissioners agreed Dec. 18
to build a satellite campus on an
undetermined site in Madison Coun
ty, using $800,000 appropriated by the
General Assembly last year
According to a resolution adopted
by the commissioners, the county will
contract with the A-B Tech Board of
Trustees to build the satellite campus
on county property.
The facility will then be leased to
A-B Tech's Board of Trustees.
Approval of the plan by the com
missioners on Thursday became
necessary when A-B Tech President
Harvey Haynes told the board that
the previous commissioners had ap
parently approved the plan, but never
adopted a formal resolution.
The only site that had been discuss
ed between the previous commis
sioners and A-B Tech was property on
Long Branch Road.
The commissioners agreed to
check out the site over the weekend
before meeting with the school of
ficials again last Monday for final ap
proval of the site
But at that meeting, the site was
not discussed. County attorney Larry
Leake said the commissioners would
bring the topic back up in January.
Robert Edwards, superintendent of
Madison County schools, suggested
that property near Madison High
School be used for the satellite facili
ty
-Continued on next page
1986: A Year Of Drought, Politics , Nuclear Threat
By BILL STUDENC
Editor
The year 1986 may well be
remembered by Madison County
residents as a year of vast political
change.
It was the year that legendary
Sheriff E.Y. Ponder lost his badge to
Republican Dedrick Brown in an
election that saw the GOP make ma
jor moves into a traditional
Democratic stronghold.
Republicans also took control of the
Board of Education. Democrats
avoided a Republican sweep by main
taining control of the Madison County
Board of Commissioners. Voters still
called for change in county govern
ment, however, as the incumbent
commissioners failed ib survive the
May primary.
The threat of Madison County
becoming a dumping ground for the
nation's nuclear garbage hogged the
headlines from January through
May. A 105-acre tract in Madison.
Buncombe and Haywood counties
was one of 12 sites considered by the
U.S. Department of Energy for a
nuclear waste repository DOE's an
nouncement sparked a tremendous
upwelling of public opposition, which
continued until a May announcement
that the search for a dump site had
been called off.
1986 will also be remembered as the
year of the big drought, perhaps the
worst in a century. A nearly yearlong
dry spell forced officials to call for
cutbacks in water usage, while coun
ty fanners were hard hit by the lack
of rainfall.
On this, the first day of 1917, here's
? look back at 1986. as reported in the
pages of The News Record:
JANUARY
The year began with the dismissal
of mail fraud charges against
fice had charged Ponder?^
ltorie; a nephew, Leonard; and, a
business associate, Marshall Kanner,
with 17 counts of mail fraud in con
nection with land purchases made in
Madison County in 1982. Federal pro
secutors had charged that Ponder,
then a member of the N.C. Board of
Transportation, used inside informa
tion to purchase property along (he
route of a planned Spring Creek
Marshall road.
But on Jan. 7, JJ.S. District Court
Judge Woodrow Jones dismissed the
charges, saying that federal pro
secutors had failed to prove their
case.
Ponder later blasted the charges as
"politically motivated," and accused
U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, a Republican,
of ordering the prosecution.
Meanwhile, Dedrick Brown threw
his name into the hat as a Republican
contender for sheriff of Madiaon
County. Incumbent commissioner*
James Ledford, Ervin Adams and
Virginia Anderson filed for re
election, along with incumbent school
board members Robert Z. Ponder,
Ed Gentry, Floyd Wallin, Gerald
Young and Frederick Anderson, and
Clerk of Superior Court James Cody
and Tax Collector Harold Wallin.
A Madison County grand jury call
ed for an investigation into county
board chairman Jama Ledford's
business transactions with the coun
ty. Audits showed that county agen
cies purchased goods and services
B.Y. Pander
. . . loses election
from service stations operated by
Ledford, a potential conflict of in
terest. But District Attorney Thomas
Rusher later in January announced
that Ledford would not be charged,
and blamed accounting errors for the
discrepancies
Madison County learned In mid
January that a l os-acre tract in
Madison, Buncombe and Haywood
counties was one of 11 site* under con
sideration for a nuclear waste
storage facility That announOMMnt
by the U.S. Department of Energy
sparked a massive public outcry
which did not subside until May.
In Mars Hill, town officials began to
look at an ordinance which would
regulate signs and billboards.
Sheriff E.Y. Ponder filed for re
election, while Democratic
challengers Robert Capps. Reese
Steen and John Hensley entered the
race for county commissioner.
FEBRUARY
February began on a good note -
with the startup of a new digital swit
ching' system by Contel, enabling
residents on one side of the county to
telephone, toll-free, residents on the
other side of the county.
The town of Hot Springs unveiled a
new Town Hall. Officials from Hot
Springs. Mars Hill and Madison
County government passed resolu
tions in opposition to a nuclear waste
dump in Western North Carolina.
Some 500 residents attended a
meeting in Mars Hill to hear how
state officials planned to fight the
proposed repository.
Later that month, 1,500 WNC
residents packed the Thomas Wolfe
Auditorium in AsheviU* to voice to
DOE officials their concerns about
UM repository The public hearing.
The Madison County Nuclear
Waste Education Committee formed
in response to the nuclear threat.
More candidates for local office
entered various races as the filing
deadline came in early February.
Republicans Bob Phillips. Clarence
Cutshall, Clarence Faulkner. Joe
Fowler and Howard Allen joined the
county commissioners race, while
Democratic challengers Rita Murray
and Donald Massey and Republicans
Edward Krause, Dr. Lester Stowt,
Mike Jenkins. Dewey Griffey Jr.,
Jimmy Dean Hensley and Assistant
District Attorney Jim Baker entered
the school board race.
William Bray and Jimmy Dean
Rios, charged with first-degree
murder in the September IMS slaying
of N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper Bob
by Lee Cogging, entered pleas of not
guilty during arraignment hearings
in Yancey County. Coggins was shot
on N.C. 209 near Hot Springs Sept. 14,
setting off a massive three-day