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Vol. 88 No. 1
Thursday, January 7, 1988
Consolidation Plan Gets Tentative OK
By BILL STUDENC
Editor
The Madison County Board of
Education has relunctantly adopted a
controversial state recommendation
calling for the consolidation of most
of the county 's elementary schools.
But Madison school officials are
quick to say that does not mean they
support the phasing out of schools at
Hot Springs, Laurel, Marshall and
Walnut and the construction of con
solidated middle and elementary
schools, as recommended by the N.C.
Division of School Planning.
School board members say they ac
cepted the state recommendation last
Wednesday because of a fast
Garland Woody of Spring Creek outlines his community's
objections to a proposed consolidation plan.
approaching deadline.
"We are making a five-year plan,
quite simply, because we have to do
that," James Baker, school board
chairman, said during last week's
speical meeting. "We are required to
do that by law."
Legislation approved last year re
quires all public boards of education
to submit by Jan. 1 a five-year plan on
future construction and renovation of
facilities.
Madison officials had hoped to base
their plan on recommendations made
by state planners following a survey
of county school facilities.
But the N.C. Division of School
Planning did not deliver its report to
the Madison County School Board un
til last Tuesday - just three days
before the school board's five year
plan was due in Raleigh.
Because of the lack of time to come
up with an alternative plan, the
Madison school board agreed the
following day by a 3-1 vote to adopt
the state planners' recommendations
as the five-year plan for Madison
County schools.
Board member Jewell Church of
Hot Springs cast the lone "no" vote.
Member Mike Jenkins was absent.
Church said she could not vote for a
plan that would result in only one
school in the entire lower end of the
county.
"I hate to be the one to disagree,
but I feel in no way can I compromise
the lower end of the county and not
have a school down there," she said,
eliciting applause from a crowd of
about 75 people, most of them from
Hot Springs and Spring Creek. "I do
feel that even in the very first presen
tation we give, there should be
something for the lower end of the
county."
Under the state's recommendation,
schools in Hot Springs, Walnut and
Laurel would be totally phased out
and students transferred to a middle
school serving all Madison students
attending grades 6-8. Students in
grades 6-8 at Spring Creek would also
be transferred to the countywide mid
dle school, but students in
kindergarten through fifth grade
would remain at a renovated Spring
Creek facility.
Church said she is concerned that
many Spring Creek and Hot Springs
students will drop out rather than en
dure a lengthy bus trip to a centrally
located consolidated school.
"I know a small school cannot offer
the advantages that can be offered in
a larger school," she said. "But I also
think that traditional education has a
place. I just don't feel that it's fair to
let the lower end of the county lose its
identity."
Baker said he agreed with Church,
but also said the time factor made it
impossible to come up with an alter
native plan in time to meet the Jan. 1
deadline.
"If we make a decision that the peo
ple don't necessarily agree with, I
don't want you to feel like this is
something that is written in stone
somewhere and can't be changed,"
he said. "Our problem in making this
plan right now is time. It has to be
submitted day after tomorrow.
"Fortunately, we can change what
ever plan we submit," Baker said.
BILL STUDENC PHOTOS
School board members Mike Jenkins and Jewell Church
listen to comments Monday.
School board members Gerald
Young and Franklin Anderson voted
in favor of the plan, but also prefaced
their approval with the disclaimer
that the plan can be amended.
"I think we definitely will have to
go with what's been recommended,
with the understanding that it can be
changed later," Anderson said.
"This plan would not be my first
choice," Young said. "I am for mid
dle schools, but I would be for two
middle schools."
Young made the motion to approve
the plan submitted by the state plan
ners, and Baker seconded it.
During last Wednesday's meeting,
about a dozen residents spoke out
against the plan - all of them from
Spring Creek or Hot Springs.
Among their concerns were the
length of time students would be on
the road enroute to and from a con
solidated school, loss of community
identity and reduction in the potential
for attracting industry.
The school board agreed to leave a
copy of the state-recommended plan
in the libraries at each county school,
and Baker urged interested parents
to obtain a copy of the report and read
it.
-Continued on Page 5
l
Hot Springs , Spring Creek Want West Madison School
Bv BIU. STUDENC
Editor
Hot Springs and Spring Creek
residents flocked to Madison High
School Monday night to let county
school officials know they do not
want their children bused to a con
solidated school in the Marshall
area.
The residents also gave the
school board a new recommenda
tion: if some consolidation must
occur, that a school be built in the
Hot Springs area to serve children
in Hot Springs and Spring Creek.
The school could also include
students from Laurel, if parents
there are supportive, speakers at
Monday's meeting said.
The Madison County Board of
Education has scheduled a special
meeting for 7 p.m. Jan. 18 to con
tinue discussion of massive
changes recommended by state
school planners.
About 125 parents and residents
attended the regular meeting of
the county school board to show
their opposition to the potential
closing of schools in Spring Creek
and Hot Springs.
Among those 125 people were
members of the Hot Springs Board
of Aldermen. "We figured this was
far more important than anything
we had to discuss," said Hot Spr
ings Mayor Kenny Ramsey.
Residents of the two western
Madison Cqunty communities had
met Saturday night to map out A
strategy for opposing recommen
dations made last week by the
N.C. Division of School Planning
(see related story).
Among those recommendations
was that all Madison County
students in grades 6-8 be transfer
red to a new consolidated middle
school in Marshall, and that
students in grades kindgarten-5 at
Laurel, Hot Springs, Walnut and
Marshall be transferred to a new
consolidated elementary school
nortfiol Marshall .
Students in grades K-5 at Spring
Creek and Mars Hill would remain
at renovated schools in those com
munities, under the state recom
mendation.
During Saturday's community
meeting. Hot Springs and Spring
Creek residents agreed that the
state's recommendation is "com
pletely unacceptable," said
Garland Woody of Spring Creek.
u was during saiuraay s com
munity meeting that opponents
came up with an alternative plan.
"We propose that a K-8 facility
be build on a site mutually accep
table to people of Spring Creek and
Hot Springs and the Board of
Education, with adequate
facilities for these grades, and
that this be made a permanent
facility with no plans shortly
-Continued on Page S
Pharmacy Board
Revokes Powell's
License To Practice
By BILL STUDENC
Editor
The N.C. Board of Pharmacy has
suspended for one year the license of
Mars Hill pharmacist William Paul
Powell, chairman of the Madison
County Board of Elections and
former Mars Hill mayor, for im
proper distribution of prescription
medication.
According to state pharmacy board
officials and documents filed in
Madison County Superior Court,
Powell distributed prescription drugs
on several occasions in 1966 to a Mar
shall woman allegedly representing
herself as a nurse caring for an pa
tient. That woman, Karen Ledford
Sheppard, faces 15 criminal charges
of obtaining a controlled substance by
fraud.
The Board of Pharmacy has also
permanently revoked the operating
license held by Powell's pharmacy,
Community Medical Center Phar
macy.
The two penalties are the result of
an administrative hearing held by the
board in Carrboro on Nov. 17, David
Work, executive director of the N.C.
Board of Pharmacy, told The News
Record from Chapel Hill in a
telephone interview Tuesday.
"The net result of that hearing was
a consent order to Mr. Powell to sur
render his license to practice phar
macy for one year and the revocation
of the permit to operate Community
Medical Center Pharmacy," Work
said. "He is to surrender those to this
office within 60 days of Nov. 17."
A "closed" sign was on the door of
William P. Powell
.pharmacy license revoked
Powell's pharmacy this week. He
could not be reached at home this
week and did not return a telephone
message.
The suspension of Powell's license
and the revocation of his pharmacy's
-Continued on back page
Mars Hill Gets Audit Report
By R.T. KOENIG
Special To The News Record
Mart Hill Mayor Joseph Godwin
warned the town's aldermen that
they were in for a long night Monday
as the board met for the first time this
year. Despite Godwin's warning, the
Board of Aldermen managed to wrap
up several matters during a
to-minute session.
On a night when temperatures
dropped into the teens, the town of
ficials outnumbered the audience
The board received the town's annual
audit report ffom Carl Shaw of the
Henderson ville accounting firm of
Hainan, Johnson and Associates,
P.A.
Shaw detailed the town's operating
budget for the 1HM7 fiscal year far
Ihe^afchro^According to Shawjs
the majority (41 percent) of its
operating funds from property taxes.
An additional 23 percent of revenues
are obtained from sales taxes, fran
chise tax and state tax refunds. State
funds account for 31 percent of the
town's operating budget.
Shaw warned that a large portion of
funds in the past year came from
federal revenue sharing funds that
are no longer available. He told the
?Mermen that additional revenues
will have to be found to replace the
lost revenue sharing funds.
Property tax receipts have shown
little growth in the past three years,
according to Shaw's report.
Shaw also said town expenses have
remained unchanged in many depart
ments. Government operations ac
counted for ? percent of the town s
operating Midget, as did public safety
(police and fire) expenditures.
Maintenance of public vehicles was
also a major expense during 1986-87,
claiming S3 percent of the town
budget. Only 3 percent of the budget
was spent on culture and recreation
while 8 5 percent want to debt ser
vice.
Shaw recommended that the town
upgrade its accounting system by
adapting a computer the town
already owna tar use in recording
frHinai transactions. The IBM com
puter is presently being used to
prepare water and sewer bills.
Auditor: No Wrong- Doing
In 1986 County Finances
By BILL STUDENC
Editor
Madison County financial transac
tions questioned by auditors one year
ago were the result of poor accoun
ting practices - not intentional
wrong-doing.
That was the verdict Monday from
Roger Gregg of Gregg & Lasher,
P. A., the accounting firm that ques
tioned several checks written on
county government accounts during
the final months of administration of
the former Madison County Board of
Commissioners.
"We again assiduously researched
all expenditures made during that
period of time," Gregg told the cur
rent commissioners during Monday's
meeting. "We have found no evidence
whatsoever of any criminal or civil
misconduct or improprieties in the
types of expenditures that were
made."
Gregg, on Jan. 12, 1987, told the
then-newly elected commissioners
that he had questions about several
county payments to former commis
sioners and employees.
Among those payments were
several 1500 checks to former com
missioners for "travel expenses" and
a check to a former county employee
for more than $5,000 in holiday, vaca
tion and sick pay.
"I am not stating for the record
that these are illegal," Gregg said
last year. "We are saying that the
documentation isn't there in all in
stances to make a determination.
There are things here that look like
we could have a problem with."
Gregg said Monday that his ques
tions of f year ago arose because of
improper documentation of transac
tions.
"These were the result of inade
quate accounting procedures," he
said. "They (the accounting pro
blems) have been cured. Frankly,
Mr. Chairman, we consider this a
past problem."
Commissioner Reese Steen,
however, said he is not satified with
the answers given Monday to ques
tions originally raised one week shy
of a year ago.
"If the accounting procedures and
things that went on in the last audit
were so hunky-dory in this audit, why
were they so questionable in the first
audit?" Steen asked Tuesday. "If
everything is fine, I think the accoun
ting firm not only owes some people
an apology, I think they also owe the
county $3,000."
The partial audit conducted in
January 1987 cost about 93,000, he
said.
-Continued oa Page ?
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