Serving The People Of Our Communities Since 1901
Vol. 87 No 42
''W
Thursday, October 15, 1967
Madison Football Player Is 'Improving'
From Staff Report*
A Madison County High School foot
ball player is improving but was still
listed in critical condition Wednes
day, nearly Ave days after lapsing in
to a coma following a bone-jarring
tackle in a Friday night football
game.
Senior Gary Mace was transported
to Memorial Mission Hospital in
Asheville by helicopter after he fell
unconscious on the sidelines during
Friday's game at O.E. Roberts
Stadium in Marshall.
Mace regained consciousness late
Tuesday night and appears to be
steadily improving, according to
David Wyatt, principal at Madison
High School.
"He has regained consciousness,"
Wyatt said Wednesday morning. "He
has really shown improvement over
night."
Mace was also slightly Injured in
the Oct. S football game at Rosman,
he said. "They put a collar around his
neck, but apparently found nothing
really wrong with him," Wyatt said.
. A Memorial Mission Hospital
spokesman said Wednesday that
Mace, son of Mr. and Mrs. Monroe
Mace, remains in critical condition.
"He is listed as critical and he is
still in intensive care," Barry Ward
said. "I do understand that he is now
conscious."
Mace's parents have been at the
hospital since late Friday night and
could not be reached for comment.
Mace's injuries apparently stem
from his head-on tackle of Avery
High School football player Charles
Barrier on a play late in last Friday
night's homecoming game, school of
ficials say.
Barrier took the football on a
reverse play and ran into Mace.
"The Avery player was coming in
from one side and Gary was coming
in from the opposite direction,"
Wyatt said. "He took a real hard lick.
I think they hit helmets head on."
Madison head football coach Woody
Amnions Is still not sure exactly what
happened to cause Mace's injuries.
"I really don't have any idea what
went wrong," Ammons said Tuesday.
"I've looked at the game tapes, and
you can't see very much. Another kid
shields the blow that Gary delivered,
and you really can't see anything at
all."
< Ammons said the tackle appeared
to be "normal football contact."
At first, coaches, players and even
Mace himself believed the Avery
player was more seriously injured
Barrier was transported by am
bulance to Memorial Mission
Hospital, where he was treated and
released.
"He (Mace) stood there for six or
seven minutes while they attended to
the other boy," Amnions said.
"While they were still attending to
him, Gary came off the field and said
he was having trouble seeing,
and then he got sick on his stomach,"
Ammons said. "He just sort of faded
away when he lost consciousness."
Madison County emergency
workers called for MAMA, Memorial
Mission's air ambulance, which
transported Mace to Asheville.
Ammons called the injury to Mace
the worst football-related injury he
has seen in 20 years of coaching.
"I'm very worried. He's a super kid
and I love him to death," Ammons
said. "The kid can use every prayer
he can get."
Mace is one of the team's leaders
and a popular member of the
Madison student body, school of
ficials said.
"All the kids love Gary very, very
much," Amnions said.
"There is a lot of concern at school.
I had a lot of phone calls over the
weekend from our students and from
different schools in the area," Wyatt
said. "We had a moment of silent
prayer at the beginning of the day
Monday."
Ammons held a team meeting with
the Madison football squad Monday
to talk about Mace's injury.
"I told them that this was
something that just happened and
that we didn't know why and that we
would resume practice," he said. "I
told them if they had second thoughts
about playing and didn't want to
?Continued on back page
Gary Mace
.. injured Friday night
Sheriff, County
Remain At Odds
On Jail Funding
By BILL STUDENC
Editor
The Madison County Board of Com
missioners appears no closer to
reaching a settlement with Sheriff
Dedrick Brown, who says he will file
a lawsuit to get sufficient funds to
operate the county jail.
Commissioner Reese Steen said he
met with Brown Tuesday to try to
iron out "S compromise that could
keep the county out of costly litigia
tion - but with Uttle success.
I suggested that we might be able
to give him up to $300,000, plus any
profit that he makes on keeping state
prisoners," Steen said Tuesday.
"That would have put us in a real
bind, but he was unwilling to accept
that."
Brown has told commissioners on
several occasions that he needs more
money to operate Madison County
Jail in compliance with minimum
standards established by the state.
The sheriff says state standards de
mand that prisoners be supervised 24
hours a day. With current funding,
that can't be done, he said.
The commissioners, on the other
hand, have ctitjgjtt Mtulh tor, ,
overspending in his department
Continued on
Cioli Re-Enters
Hot Springs Race As
Write-In Candidate
By BILL STUDENC
Editor
Incumbent Hot Springs Mayor Ken
ny Ramsey may want to put away the
celebratory champagne until after
Nov. 3, after all.
Gerald Cioli, one of two mayoral
candidates who withdrew last month,
has announced that he is re-entering
the Hot Springs mayor's race as a
write-in candidate.
"I was encouraged to do this by so
many people in Hot Springs who told
me they were disappointed because I
got out of the race," Cioli said Tues
day.
Cioli said he re-registered Tuesday
with the Madison County Board of
Elections as a candidate for mayor of
Hot Springs.
Cioli dropped out of the mayor's
race iast month after receiving
several harassing telephone calls.
That withdrawal came just prior to a
hearing called by the Hot Springs
Board of Elections to determine if
Cioli was a registered voter. Only
registered voters are eligible to run
for elected office.
On his application for candidacy,
Cioli indicated that he had been con
victed of a "low-grade felony" in the
state of Florida. Anyone convicted of
-Continued on back page
BILL STUDENC PHOTO I
Hands Of Time I
After waiting for more than a year for various replacement
cogs and gears, the 80-year-old Seth Thomas clock atop
Madison County Courthouse was finally hack in working
order last week. But it has already started to lose time. Phil
Gilbert, a member of the Western Carollnas Chapter of the
National Association of Clock Collectors, said the clock is
plugged temporarily into an electrical outlet, and that some
one must be flicking off the switch. A permanent source of
power for the clock is in the works, Gilbert said, and the clock
should soon be keeping accurate time.
. ..." w .
BILL STUDENC PHOTO
. > ? 4 ... iiri .
Zoning Vote Set
For Saturday
In Flat Creek
BV BILL STUDENC
Editor
Residents of Flat Creek township
will go to the ballot box Saturday to
determine whether a proposed land
use ordinance should be adopted in
the Northern Buncombe County com
munity.
If approved, the ordinance would
prohibit any additional bars or
taverns, industries deemed to have a
detrimental impact on the environ
*sh-nowe businesses.
* The proposed community or
(finance arose from the on-going bat
tle to keep Vulcan Materials Corp.
from placing a rock quarry off U.S. ?
19-23 In Flat Creek.
And although most Flat Creek
residents seem united in their opposi
tion to Vulcan Materials' plans for a
rock quarry, the same can't be said of
the proposed land-use regulations.
A group of residents of the com
munity organized late last month as
Flat Creek Concerned Citizens and
Landowners, and is trying to con
vince enough residents to vote
against the ordinance Saturday.
"If we can get the people out to
vote, they'll go against it, and by a big
majority," said Johnny M. Roberts,
treas^er of Flat Creek Concerned
Citizens and Landowners.
The chairman of the Flat Creek
Community Planning Council, which
prepared the proposed Flat Creek
Community Development Ordinance,
has a different prediction for the out
come of Saturday's vote.
"We feel very positive about this,"
said Hensley. "We have had a lot of
positive input. The only opponents we
have have clouded the issues."
Those opponents are saying exactly
the same thing about the Flat Creek
Community Planning Council. They
say that council members have
deliberately avoided using the word
"zoning" in what amounts to a com
munity zoning ordinance.
"This so-called community-based
plan developed into a zoning or
dinance," James Anglin, president of
Flat Creek Concerned Citizens and
Landowners, said in a prepared state
ment "The Planning Council then
tried to cloud the issue by calling it
. the 'Flat CHfk. Community Develop
ment Ordinance.' Hie 63-page or
dinance does not refer to itself as be
ing a zoning ordinance."
Anglin has also criticized the coun
cil for placing a major emphasis on
the "Stop Vulcan Quarry" move
ment.
"If a person speaks out against zon
ing, he is labeled by some of those
who support this ordinance as being
in favor of the rock quarry," Anglin
said. "This is not true. A person may
be against having the rock quarry
and still be against zoning."
There are no assurances that the
ordinance, if adopted, would have
any impact on the proposed quarry in
Flat Creek, he said.
Without the restrictions contained
in such an ordinance, Hensley said,
how can those opposed to a rock
quarry expect to do anything about
it?
"It is a contradiction in terms to
say, 'I'm not for Vulcan, but I'm op
posed to the kind of regulation that
could keep it out,' " said Hensley.
Both opponents and supporters of
the land-use regulations will be trying
to get copies of the proposed or
dinance into the hands of Flat Creek
-Continued on back page
Ex-Weaverville Police Chief
Subject Of State Probe
By BILL STUDENC
Editor
The N.C. Criminal Justice Standards Division is con
ducting an investigation of former Weaverville Police
Chief Darreil Rath burn to determine if his certification
as a law enforcement officer should be revoked.
The division, a section of the N.C. Attorney General's
Office, is looking into several misdemeanor offenses o I
which Rathburn was convicted prior to his employment
with the town of Weaverville in IMS.
Rathburn, who was fired as Weaverville police chief in
Aufluat but later allowed by town officials to resign, was
convicted of the following three misdemeanor charges in
Buncombe County Diatrict Court between 1878 and 1*80,
according to records in the Buncombe County Goqr
to warrant revocation of hia certification, Perry saM.I
"What the commission does is separate misdemeanors
into two separate categories," he said. "There are Class
A' misdemeanors, in which punishment ranges from no
time to six months, and there are 'Class B misde
meanors, which are more serious and carry a punish
ment of more than six months to two years."
The criminal Justice division is checking to see if
Rathburn was convicted of "Class A" or "Class B"
'It depends on what rules
was employed and certified,
tinually upgraded and
said. "That's what we're
Afiei
ting in*
in effect at the time ho
ation on Rathburn's i