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yj .GENERAL DELIVER,'
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Serving The People Of Our Communities Since J 901
Thuraday, July 30, 1987 '
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District Attorney
Seeks Missing
County Records
By BILL STUDENC
Editor
The District Attorney's Office is
looking into allegations that Madison
County Tax Collector Harold Wallin
destroyed county tax records more
than 10 years old.
The probe into those accusations
comes on the heels of charges last
month by the State Bureau of In
vestigation that Wallin failed to
discharge his duties by not collecting
interest and penalties on back taxes.
Wallin had been scheduled to ap
pear in court Monday on four misde
meanor charges, but the case was
continued until Aug. 27.
The latest allegations were made
earlier this month by Betty Wild,
Wallin's unsuccessful Republican op
ponent for tax collector in the
November election.
Wild told the Madison County
Board of Commissioners during a re
cent budget hearing that she had ask
ed to see old tax records to determine
what Madison County residents have
not been paying their taxes.
"I think there should be an in
vestigation. Somebody has to lw
responsible," Wild said. "All of a sud
den, we want to see some books and
they're not available for us to look
at."
Wild said Wallin told her that the
records had been destroyed. Wallin
has denied that he destroyed any tax
records .
According to state law, no public
records can be destroyed without the
approval of the N.C. Department of
Cultural Resources and the perm is
sion of the governing body - in this
?Csatiued on back page
. ?
Liston B. Ramsey
. . .seeks state appropriations
Madison, Marshall
May Get $665,000
From Legislature
By BILL STUDENC
Editor
The town of Marshall could receive
up to $365,000 from the state if the
General Assembly approves special
appropriations requested by House
Speaker Liston B. Ramsey for his
hometown.
That $365,000 is among more than
9655,000 in budget requests made by
Ramsey for projects in Madison
County.
Ramsey has asked his fellow
legislators to approve $240,000 in
state money to help Marshall fund a
water and sewer system renovation
project. He has also asked for $128,000
from the state for water and sewer
lines for industrial expansion and the
Madison County campus of Asheville
Buncombe Technical College.
The $240,000 request, if approved
when the General Assembly com
pletes its work on the state budget
package, would help Marshall com
plete an extensive renovation project
at its aging sewage treatment plant
The co6t of that work, which should
enable the town to meets its
wastewater treatment needs for 20
years, is estimated at more than $1
million.
"At my request, I had some friends
of mine visit the town board several
weeks ago and work up a project for
the town," Ramsey said Tuesday in a
telephone interview from Raleigh.
"We think that federal money to the
tune of $800,000 will be available in
September 1968 for water and sewer
line repair, refurbishing and possibly
replacement."
But, in order for Marshall to qualify
for the federal money, the town must
put up some (240,000 in matching
funds. That's where the state comes
in.
"There's no way our little town
could come up with $240,000 to match
that federal money," Ramsey said.
Ramsey has also asked the General
Assembly to allocate $125,000 to Mar
shall for the extension of water and
-Continued on back page
Blue Mold
Reported
In WNC
front The Mountaineer
Despite warnings from N.C.
Agricultural Extension Service per
sonnel, blue mold is making c com
eback in area tobacco fields where
proper precautions w efe not taken to
prevent H - including a field in
Weaverville.
Blue mold, a fungus disease, can
cause total devastation of a tobacco
crop, but can be controlled with
specific fungicides.
The mold has been reported in
burley tobacco fields in Greene Coun
ty, Tenn., and just recently in a field
near Weaverville. All reported loca
tions have been fields not treated
A fungus pathogen brought into
Western North Carolina by southerly
winds and air currents causes blue
mold. The fungus does not not "over
-Continued on back page -
This sign located la a cornfield off U.S. 11-23
aear Flat Creek sums up the feelings of many
residents a boat a proposed rock quarry in
DILL rnviv
their community. A public hearing en the
quarry hat been set fur Aug. 6.
Rock Quarry Foes
Prepare For Battle
By BILL STUDENC
Editor
They're billing it as "North Bun
combe versus Vulcan."
No, the Weaverville-area high
school football team won't be taking
on a squad of refugees from "Star
But a group of North Bw
combe County residents will be going
head-to-bead with a Winston-Salem
mining company that wants to build a
gravel quarry in the Flat Creek area.
The battle will take place at 7 p.m.
Aug. 6 at Flat Creek Elementary
School during a publjc hearing called
by the N.C. Department of Natural
Resources and Community Develop
ment.
Organizers of a community effort
against the proposed rock quarry are
trying to convince North Buncombe
and South Madison residents to at
tend next Thursday's meeting to
voice their opposition to Vulcan
Materials Corp. plans.
Flat Creek residents have already
placed signs saying "Stop Vulcan
Quarry" along U.S. 19-23 near the
98.64-acre tract that the company
wants to convert into a mine. And
they intend to erect signs reading
"North Biincorab* Versun Vulcan'
later this week, said Gary Hensley,
one of the organizers of the communi
ty effort.
"That's what it's boiling down to -
North Buncombe versus Vulcan,''
Hensley said Tuesday.
"We feel like the burden of proof
that this will be have a detrimental
impact on the North Buncombe-Mars
Hill area has been placed on the com
munity. It's the community versus a
large corporation," he said.
Flat Creek residents would like for
the state to get involved in the issue,
Hensley said.
-Continued on back page
Tourism Expert: Regional Promotion The Key For Madison
By BILL STUDENC
Editor
Madison County's best bet for
boosting its travel and tourism in
dustry may be to join with other
Western North Carolina counties in a
regional promotion effort.
That was one of the suggestions
made by a panel of travel and
tourism experts during a panel
discussion in Mars Hill last Tliurs
day.
WNC counties along the Great
Smoky Mountains National Park are
forming a regional promotion group -
Smoky Mountain Host. High Country
Host, a regional effort to attract
tourists to WNC's northernmost
mountain counties, has been in ex
istence for several years and is show
ing signs of success, said Robert E.
Shepherd, executive director of the
Land-of-Sky Regional Council.
If Madison and other WNC counties
don't want to be left behind in the
race for tourism dollars, those coun
ties must Join the trend toward
regional promotioiy Shepherd told a
group of about 50 people at the
meeting, sponsored by the Madison
County Chamber of Commerce, the
League of Women Voters and the
Community Development Organisa
tion of Mara Hill.
"Western North Carolina com
munities have always had a tendency
to work entirely on their own,"
Shepherd said. "But tourists don't
come to Marshall, or to Cullowhee or
to Franklin. They pick a larger
destination, like the Great Smoky
Mountain area."
Regional promotion efforts in Nor
theast Georgia, and East Tennessee
have been extremely successful in at
tracting additional tourists to those
areas, he said.
The advantage of such a regional
effort is that adjacent counties can
pool their sometimes-meager
resources. That will allow the coun
ties, as a group, to pay for more pro
motional materials than they could
individually, Shepherd said.
Currently, tourism is the third
highest ranking industry in North
Carolina, said Richard Stiles, a
regional economist with Western
North Carolina Tomorrow. By the
year 2000, it should be the number
one industry.
Although tourism has been on the
upswing in Madison County, the in
dustry's growth has not kept pace
with the rest of the state, Stiles said.
"The good news is that Madison
County's tourism and travel revenues
from 1985 to 1986 increased 65 per
cent, to $368,000," he said. "You are
on your way, but you've still got a
long way to go . "
Tourism means big bucks for the
local economy. A daily average of 100
tourists is equal to nearly $1 million in
retail sales, Stiles said. And that
money, in turn, can educate 156
school children, he said.
Stiles agreed that Madison County
and WNC need to use promotion to at
tract more tourists - and more of
their dollars.
"Tourism is like any other business
- there's a product and a market," he
-Continued on back page
Two Candidates File
For Weaverville Race
Prom Staff Report*
Two candidates - one newcomer
and one incumbent - have filed for
?eats on the Weaverville Town Coun
cil.
Bernard Koesters. who is seeking
his second term as a Weaverville
councilman, was the first candidate
to file for November's municipal elec
tion In Weaverville. according to the
County Board of Elec
Of 37
Drive, filed last Thursday for
she said, saying the was not lookta*
to unseat any of the current council
members. "I think we have a good
board with the exception of one, and
that one's coming off."
Murphy said she is interested in the
on-going Lake Louise renovation pro
ject and in the prepoaed annexation of
a new golf course in the Reems Creek
area.
The Weaverville Police Depart
ment is another item high on
Golf Course Coming
To Reems Creek
By STEVE FERGUSON
Staff Writer
Weaverville has been chosen as
the site for a $35 million golf dub,
with construction set to begin in
September.
The project, set between Union
Chapel and Pink Fox roads near
RDM Greek Road, covers Me
acres and will include in single
family lots and 75 multi-family
Ms along with an lS-hoie. par 73
concern in choosing the location
We looked for two years for an
appropriate site You've got to
have plenty of land, and the south
side of Ashevilla was too can
fatted and too expensive."
Of the first tt lots available,
Bavins said he has already sold*.