These Days
Or - Behind The New*
From Washington
By
John Chamberlain
Worchester, Mass. — Is the
bloom off the rfo-good promis
es of business to do some
thing on its own about clean
ing op the slams? The U.S.
life insurance industry, in re
sponse to a request from Pres
ident Lyndon Johnson, had
originally promised to put
$2 billion into urban housing.
It is still some $400 million
short of its goal, and, accord
ing to a gloomy account In
the Wall Street Journal, many
of the projects it has already
underwritten with its policy
holders’ cash are falling in
to disrepair.
The Wall Street Journal de
scribes what has happened at
the “noble experiment” of Ba
bar Village in Maryland, 17
building low-income housing de
velopment which was started in
1968 by the African Methodist
Episcopal Church with a big
loan of $2.9 million from the
Prudential Insurance Company.
The sewers are now backing up
at Babar, there have been rent
strikes, and one resident man
ager ran off with some $3,000 in
rent money. The Department of
Housing and Urban Development
has had to assume the Babar
Village mortgage to avoid fore
closure.
Why do such things hap
pen? Is it because the “slum
is in people’s heads,” as some
cynics aver? Or is it becanse
of some break in the chain of
responsibility? Could Babar
Village have failed because
the insurance company that
provided the funds for its
construction was a distant
uncle, with no authority to
provide for a follow • through
in seeing that its funds were
well used?
LEGAL NOTICE
STATE BOARD OF EXAMIN
ERS OF PLUMBING AND, .
HEATING CONTRACTORS'
As of July 6, 1971, North Caro
lina General Statutes 87, Ar
ticle 2 requires license of ALL
plumbing, heating and air con
ditioning contractors as defin
ed by the Statute (1931, c. 52,
s.6; 1939, c.224, s.3; 1951* c.953,
ss.1,2; 1953, c,254, s.2; 1967,
c.770, ss.1-6; 1969, c.445, s.8;
1971, c.768),
G. S. 87-21 (d) provides as fol
lows; “License Granted without
Examination. - Any resident of
North Cajoling who was engag
ed in WistnAsi defined in
this Article in any city, town
or other area in which General
Statutes' 87, Article 2 did not
previously apply, shall receive
license without examination up
on submission of ah application
on forms provided by the Board,
together with reasonable proof
that he was engaged in business
as defined and upon payment
of the annual license fee; pro
vided, the completed applica
tion is submitted to the Board
on or before December 31,1972.”
If you believe that you qualify
for licence: Without examina
tion under the* provisions of
G. S. 87-21(d), please request
application forips from the un
dersigned.
Applications under G. S. 87
21(d) must be submitted to
the State Board of Examiners
of Plumbing and Heating Con
tractors on or before Decem
ber 31, 1972.
This 16th day of August 1971.
F. O. BATES, Executive Secre
tary, P. 0. Box, Raleigh, N. C.
27602. __
9/2/4tc
Here in Worchester a differ
ent approach is being tried.
Maybe it, too, will encounter
heavy going. But if it does, it
will not be because of a re
sponsibility gap. The Worches
ter-based State Mutual Life
Assurance Company of America
subscribed to the insurance in
dustry’s big program in 1968,
but instead of diffusing its ef
fort by spreading money around
the country for various projects
as other companies were doing,
it decided to build a big 430-unit
housing complex in its own
home town, where it could keep
an eye on it and provide its
own follow-through manage
ment.
The housing complex —
Plumley Village East — is
named for State Mutual’s
head, H. Ladd Plumley, which
means that it just can’t he al
lowed to fail Its total cost
will run to $15 million, with
some $4 million of the com
pany’s own equity in it — an
added spur to good watchdog
practice. Part of the complex
is still under construction, and
the rest is so new that it ob
viously hasn’t had a chance to
run down. The completed sec
tions are esthetically with
units arranged around semi
circular courtyards. The low
rise buildings are for the big
ger families, the theory being
that kids must have easy ac
cess to the out-of-doors. There
are plenty of sandboxes and
at one corner of the develop
ment there is a Little League
diamond. '
The whole ensemble suggests
a college community rather
than low-income housing pro
ject, and it could be significant
that the architect is Benjamin
Thompson and Associates of
Cambridge, Mass. So intent on
comeliness were the architec
tural planners that they over
looked an archaic clause in the
building code that would have
forced fine escapes on the high
rise part of Plumley Village.
Since the buildings are fire
proof, a variance can probably
be arranged.
If ithe “glum Is in people’s
heads,” !^ut! even close man
agerial responsibility and a
planned social • service pro
gram will keep a low-income
development from degenerat
ing. Bnt the Plnmley project,
availing itself of “Section 36”
of the Federal Housing and
Urban Development Act of
1968, will permit families to
remain in the Village even if
their income should rise above
the old predetermined FHA
level of acceptance.
With a continuity of residence
guaranteed the more able fami
lies, this provides for prideful
occupancies. Moreover, resi
dents displaced by the initial
bulldozing on the Plumley site
were given first whack at mov
ing into the new apartments^
which means that old regional
tradition can be maintained.
Plumley Village East in
Worchester is an offset to the
sort of thing chronicled by
the Wall Street Journal in its
story of Babar Village in Hary
land. Its fate will be worth
watching to see if it has
found the right principles for
providing low • income hous
ing for those who need Bent
Supplement assistance.
SAT I SAW IT IN THE TIME8
Gaither s Restaurant
Downtown Brevard Open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
BREAKFAST SERVED ANYTIME
Buffet Luncheon 11:45 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
Snacks — 2:30 to 5:00 p.m.
Dinner — 5:00 to 9:00 p.m.
FEATURING
* CHARCO BROILED STEAKS
* ROAST PRIME RIB OF BEEF
£ MOUNTAIN TROUT
* CAROLINA COUNTRY HAM
At The College
■ ■' 4
w>. -
Jones And Taylor
Get New Directors
Mrs. Nina McCurry is the
new Residence Hall Director
for Jones Hall. She maintain
ed this same position at West
ern Carolina University prior
to her coming here.
Mrs. McCurry is a native of
Bryson City, North Carolina but
now makes her home at West
ern Carolina University. She
has one son, who has made a
career of the Army, and two
daughters. She is very proud
of her two grandchildren (both
girls) and her German daughter
in-law!
“Mrs. Mac,” as she is called
by the girls of Jones, enjoys
arts and crafts as a favorite
pastime.
She sums up her feelings
towards Brevard College by
saying, “I am looking forward
to working at Brevard and am
sure to enjoy it.”
Taylor Hall also received a
new Residence Hall Director.
She is Mrs. Sarah Camlin, who
has recently spent two years as
Residence Hall Director at
Western Carolina University.
Prior to her position at West
ern Carolina, she spent eleven
years as executive - secretary
to the Waynesville Red Cross
and ten years as a member of
the Methodist Church Choir at
Waynesville.
Mrs. Camlin is a native of
South Carolina, but has lived
at Lake Junaluska for twenty
two years. She has three chU
Smohmf Sqwt
dren and three grandchildren.
Her favorite pastimes are
sports and crocheting, and she
enjoys reading current litera
ture and novels.
Mrs. Camlin says, "I am real
happy to be in Taylor Hall and
am enjoying working with these
nice men!”
“Compensation,” VA pay
ments to veterans and depend
ents for service connected in
jury or death, is often confus
ed with “pension” paid on the
basis of need to veterans dis
abled from non-siervicce con
nected causes.
When you think of prescrip
tions, think of VARNER’S, adv.
Senator Sam
(Continued from Page Two)
trade relations with other na
tions. He expressed doubts
about the wisdom of continuing
the foreign aid program when
we can no longer afford it. He
suggested that Americans take
jobs and not welfare. And, he
urged that Congress curb Fed
eral spending.
I have no quarrel with these
sentiments which I have ex
pressed many times during my
service in the Senate. It was dis
tressing to me, however, that
when the President gave his
prescription for our economic
ills, he failed to urge the Con
gress or the Nation to take a
hard look at the basic causes of
our dilemma. While he urged
that Congress hold Federal
spending in line with his recom
mendations, this is about like
giving an aspirin to a patient
that needs surgery.
The fact is that the President
did not call for any major re
vision of the fiscal 1972 budget
which he submitted in January,
and the latest estimates on that
budget indicate a deficit of from
$28 to $30 billion, one of the
largest in history.
Nor did the President actual
ly call for an end to foreign aid.
Quite to the contrary, Secretary
of State Rogers has been urging
Congress to approve another
$3.3 billion to give to other na
tions. ! ,|f J
At the very time the Presi
dent was urging people to take
menial jobs, he was also trying
to persuade Congress to pass a
measure to expand the welfare
rolls by many millions of re
cipients.
It is well to urge, as the Presi
LETTERS to the EDITOR
(Continued from Page Two)
those improvident or grasping individuals
who built on land historically subject to
flooding and be asked to rescue a city whose
present water system is so inefficient that
half of what they have is lost in distribution?
Should Mills River community be sacrificed
to those parasites who, when their victim is
dead, will attack another ? Me ? You ?
Our country, as any country or civiliza
tion, will remain strong only as long as the
majority of its citizens are free and willing
to create value, spiritual as well as monetary.
When they are no longer able to do so we
will die. Civilizations before us died when
those people who could not create forced the
creators to support them to the point where
incentive and ability disappear. So Rome
died !
A gentleman with a salvage business in
Asheville is a parasite in the basic sense of
the word. His business creates nothing ! It
consumes the superfluous creations society
no longer needs, in this it is merely sapro
phytic and makes a limited contribution.
But when he demands that others give up
their values for him — to save his business
from the results of the bad decision to build
it in an area known to be subject to periodic
flooding —■ he becomes a parasite and a
threat to the very fabric of our society. When
he and his kind are able to seize for them
selves the values created by others our coun
try is doomed. When a city can perpetuate
its ineptness at the expense of its neighbors
we are no longer the land of the free.
I hold that the people who have ereat
cd this situation should, by their own efforts,
get themselves out of it. They will need as
sistance, but they can do much on their own
initiative. This includes the City of Ashe
ville which issued the building permits and
mis-built its water supply, its citizens and
those of Buncombe and other counties who
have cluttered the river channel and indus
trial pi? its who are polluting the river. To
demani the homes, livelihoods and future
of even one community is too high a price
to pay for stupidities which can be correct
ed in other ways.
The cost in dollars and cents is also
too high. At a time of galloping inflation,
increasing taxes and a weakening dollar, we
need to look for ways to save money — not
waste it and decrease the tax base for the
county, state and nation. The Soil Conser
vation Service produced a plan which will
prevent most floods at a much lower cost in
terms of money, land and human values.
This seems to have got lost in the shuffle.
Even TVA does not claim that the fourteen
dams will prevent all flooding.
As for recreation and clean water, the
Upper French Broad basin has them now.
With the advent of people bent on “recrea
tion” with outboard motors on the lakes, lit
ter on the land and gasoline fumes in the
air, the pollution of air, water and land will
increase, not decerease. Yosemite and
Yellowstone National Parks are no longer
upspolied havens. They once were ! ”
Thank you for the chance to present my
opinion.
(Mrs. Fritz) Elizabeth F. Albrecht
dent did, “a new prosperity
without war and without infla
tion.” But more than rehtoric is
necessary to achieve this goal.
We have too long pursued con
flicting goals which have led us
into this financial morass, and
what is disturbing about the
President’s speech, he does not
seem read yto change this.
I frankly doubt that even if
Congress goes along with all of
the President’s suggestions for
tax relief that this will restore
the needed vitality to our
economy.
New Veterans Administration
authority to sell mortgages it
holds from direct loans to vet
erans at prevailing market dis
count rates is expected to make
more direct loans available to
veterans who live in eligible
areas.
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