JBRA&Y
Serving The People Of Our Communities Since 1901
? ? 1 .ii.ii i i
Thursday, December 31, 1987
State Recommends School Consolidation
By BILL STUDENC
Editor
State planning experts have recom
mended that Madison County phase
out elementary and primary schools
at Hot Springs, Laurel, Marshall and
Walnut and build consolidated middle
and elementary schools.
That was just one of several sweep
ing recommendations made Tuesday
night by the N.C. Division of School
Planning to the Madison County
Board of Education.
But that recommendation did not
get much support from some SO
parents who attended Tuesday
night's special session.
Garland Woody of Spring Creek
presented a petition signed by 406
people asking the school board to con
sider alternatives other than con
solidation.
"I don't know whether Dr. Gull edge
or Dr. Spencer has ever ridden a
school bus over that road, but
children don't learn too well when
they get to school sick and
ff
exhausted," Woody said to Karen
Gulledge, school planning consultant,
and Darreil Spencer, director of
school planning tit's beginning to
approach child abuse, and that's il
legal."
Other recommendations include
renovations to the existing Mars Hill
Elementary School and Madison
High School, and the conversion of
the Marshall Primary School into an
administrative complex for county
school officials.
State planners also recommended
that portions of the Spring Creek
Elementary School be razed and new
facilities constructed, although those
facilities would serve only 60 students
in kindergarten through the fifth
grade. Sixth- through eighth-graders
from Spring Creek would attend the
new consolidated middle school
under the state recommendation.
The cost of implementing the
recommendations has been
estimated at $15.7 million.
The recommendations were the
result of a survey of Madison County
facilities by the Division of School
Planning.
The survey has become even more
important - Madison County school
board members are expected to base
their long-range plan for school
repair and construction on the state's
findings. A first draft of that plan
must be completed by today (Thurs
day) and school officials planned to
meet again Wednesday night to
discuss the recommendations.
Some $7.7 million is expected to
become available to Madison County
school officials for new school con
struction over the next decade
Madison County may also be eligi
ble for a portion of $95 million
available this year in "critical
needs" money set aside by the
General Assembly. Another $10
million will be available statewide
per year for the next nine years.
The Madison County school board's
first step toward obtaining some of *
that available construction money
was Tuesday night's meeting with
-Continued on Page 10
' Schools that would be phased out
kNew consolidated schools
Schools that would be kept
The Year In Review
A Look Back At 1 987 From The Pages Of The News Record
By BILL STUDENC
Editor
What a long, strange trip it's
been.
That line from an aid Grateful
Dead tune may beat turn up news
that made headlines In Madison
and northern Buncombe counties
in the year 1987.
? "Hot Springs Police Chief
Totals Vehicle"
? "County Audit Uncovers Er
rors"
? "Jury: Chandler Guilty"
? "French Broad River Claims l
Life In Rafting Accident"
? "Tax Collector Paces Four
Charges By SBI"
? "Zeno Ponder Found Not Guil
ty"
? "Weaverville Police Chief
Fired"
? "Sheriff Threatens To Sue
Commissioners"
Those are just a few of the
headlines that blazed across the
front page of The News Record
during the past 12 months.
1887. It was a year of revolving
police chiefs in the towns of Hot
Springs and Weaverville. It was a
year when Man Hill got a new
aldermen ' * ' '
Court officials ware certainly
busy in 1987. Andrew "Junior"
Chamfer sat through one mistrial
in Madison County before being
found guilty by a Buncombe Coun
ty jury of several child molesta
tion charges. The State Bureau of
Investigation filed four miade
meaner charges against Madison
County Tax Collector Harold
Wallin, alleging that he failed to
collect interest and penalty on late
tax. Those charges were later
rttimiisrri
And Madison Democratic leader
Zeno Ponder made news again as
charges that he used inside infor
mation to profit on a land deal
resurfaced early in 1M7. Ponder
was eventually acquitted
Madison County Sheriff Dedrick
Brown found himself at odds with
county officials over funding for
his department. Flat Creek
reaMants banded together to op
pose a proposed rock quarry. A
proposal that would have brought
a medium-security prison to Mar
shall was defeated.
And now, here's a look back at
the year 1987 through the pages of
The News Record:
JANUARY
1987 was only a few seconds old
when the first big news story of the
year occurred - Hot Springs
Police Chief John Barrett totaled
the town's only patrol car. Barrett
claimed that he and former
Madison County Commissioner
Virginia Anderson were in the car
in pursuit a ( a speeding vehicle,
but aevaral town raaidants said
that Barrett was intoxicated at the
time of the crash.
| I ill- ?
mayor, and Hot Springs, Marshall
and WeaverviUe eoi .new
Hie jjx>i spaw
Junior Chandler
...after mistrial
first fatality of the year when he
lost control of his vehicle on snow
covered Grapevine Road on Jan.
i.
The Madison County Board of
Commissioners learned Jan. 12 of
several "improperly
documented" financial transac
tions that occurred during the
final months of office of the former
commissioners.
A Madison County grand jury
handed down a bill of indictment
Jan. 13 charging Democratic Par
ty leader Zeno Ponder with con
spiring to make a profit using in
formation available through his
former position as a member of
the N.C. Board of Transportation
Similar charges filed in federal
court had been dismissed in
January 19M.
The trial of Andrew 'Junior"
Chandler, a former driyer for the
during the first day of testimony.
Weaverville officials adopted a
resolution 4 r. opposition to tbe con
struction in the Weaverville area
of a replacement for aging Craggy
Prison, and the Attorney
General's Office agreed to in
vestigate Hot Spring Police Chief
John Barrett's New Year's Day
accident.
A News Record investigation
detailed many of the "improperly
documented" transactions in
Madison County books. Foremost
among those questionable
payments was a $5,403 check that
former finance officer David
Caldwell wrote himself shortly
before he was fired. The check
was for 65 days worth of vacac
tion, sick and holiday pay.
Two 14-year-old boys - Leroy
Higgins and Fred Messer -- were
indicted on charges they raped a
6-year-old girl in October 1966. and
Zeno Ponder blamed the latest
charges against him on
Republican harassment.
A snow storm dumped 16 inches
of the white, wet stuff on WNC on
Jan. 22, and the Junior Chandler
sexual abuse trial continued.
FEBRUARY
Superior Court Judge James A.
Beaty declared a mistrial Feb. 2 in
the trial of Junior Chandler when
jurors announced they were
hopelessly deadlocked. Later in
the month Beaty would order that
the retrial be moved to Buncombe
County because of security pro
blems at Madison County Cour
Brigman's Store in Walnut,
which served as the rural postal
station in Walnut, burned in a
Car Found floating In French Broad
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they thought I migh have
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MARION BULL PHOTO
Patriot Pass
Kenneth Anderson gets ready to pass off while fellow
Madison Patriot Scott Haynie screens a Tuscola player hi
high school basketball action Monday night. Madison is
participating in a holiday tournament In Sylva-Webster, and
North Buncombe is playing at Mitchell. See Page 8
Growers Unhappy
With Burley Prices
' There are timet it peyi to get
your burley worked up early.
Thi? may be one of thoee years
The Aaheville market began with
an average price of II5HI par
pound on opening day. ?lroppad to
an average of ?1. 5281 b> tto? end of
1 J A ^ Jj __ __ A L ? f . I T . f ? _ - .
me second ween, men reu again 10
around tl .44 to $1 ? during weak
ict wa. 4m tn
Last Thi x :?