North Carolina Newspapers

>?~|S ?tyiM iltA. AM yrmwHin yjicpp Hif ffni'wfiw WEIMAR JONES JUHonml Page Editor THllfiOAV, MAT U. IN# ABOUT WAT ICR More Facts Needed For a dozen years, The Press has been advocat ing an adequate water supply for Franklin. The newspaper's editorial position is the same today it was back in 1948. We emphasize the same things now we always have: 1. Any decision should be based on long-time planning. 2. In a land of abundant water, the municipal su,pp!y should be so abundant that it could be sold at a low rate, so everybody could afford all they need. 3. In a land famed for good water, the quality should be the highest obtainable. (There is such a thing as taste quality in water; to suggest other wise is a little like saying "there's no difference in T-bone stake and spare ribs ? they're both meat, aren't they?") 4. A gravity system from the upper reaches of one or more mountain watersheds would have these obvious dollars-and-ccnt.s advantages: (a) Less treatment would be required for water that's already pure than water that's polluted. (b) A source that is pure to start with makes a tremendous psychological appeal to tourists, home-seekers, and industry. (c) Where nature provides the force of grav ity, it would seem good business to take ad vantage of it. 5. No plan should be adopted till every possible source and every ' possible system has been care fully studied and its advantages and disadvantages weighed. * * * This newspaper has never taken the position that it must be a gravity-watershed system or noth ing, nor has it indorsed any particular watershed. On the contrary, we have said repeatedly that the Cartoogechaye Creek project may be the best, may even be the only, answer. What we have done is to emphasize our Point No. 5: ? there should be careful, open-minded con sideration of every possible source and system, with all. the facts clearly stated, before we .act. Certainly there is confusion about the facts. It is not possible, for example, to make an in telligent comparison of the Cartoogechaye Creek project with the Wavah Watershed plan suggested in the I'leminons-Cabc report until there is agree ment about the costs. There is no such agreement. Men like Mr. Wood row Reeves and Mr. Allan Brooks, for example, at last week's public meeting questioned the Har wood-Beebc cost figures both on the Cartoogechaye project and on the reservoir the Plemmons-Calx: report suggested at Oak Hill. They indicated be lief the Harwood-fteebe figures are too high in both cases. There not only is wide disagreement between Messrs. Plcimnons and Cabe, on the one hand, and Messrs. Harwood-Bcc.be,- on the other, about the cost of the Wayah project ; there is wide diver ' g.encc in the latter firm's own figures on the cost of a pipe line to Wayah. Last August, Harwood Becbe put the cost at $325,000. A few weeks ago, after conferring with Messrs. I'lemmons and Cabe. they came up with a figure of $264,000. That's a ?difference of ^ > 1 ,< K K ) in the Spartanburg engineers' ?own figures on a single item. * * * And the evidence mounts that a gravity-water shed system has not been carefully considered with open minds, by either the board of aldermen or its engineers. Here are two new bits of such evidence. A letter in last -week's paper raised the question of the water rights of persons living below a muni cipal intake on Wayah. Does anybody believe, if the aldermen had .seriously studied the Wayah watershed, they would not have brought this im portant factor into public discussion long ago? And surely ai careful consideration of a gravity Watershed system would have takpi into account every reasonably possible source. Vet perusal of the 1956 Harwood-Bccbc report fails to reveal even so much as mention of Coweta Creek. It may be Cowx-ta Creek is not a practicable source. We do not know. What we do know is the only way to find out was to consider it. ? * ? The town needs more water, it is true. It is true, too, that the sooner we pet it, the better. We do not believe, however, that the plea of urgency should rush us into a $350,000 expenditure until and unless the facts are all so clear-cut it is evi dent we are spending the money to the best ad vantage. The .situation, as a matter of fact, seems con siderably less urgent now than it was a year ago. The explanation is simple: Thanks to installation of equipment at the Franklin Hosiery Mill that en ables it to re-use its water, that company today is using only about 1 million gallons of town water a month, whereas this time last year it was taking nearly 2J4 millions. That is, we are a V/i million gallons better off now than we were in 1959. ? * * Last week's public meeting no doubt served a useful purpose, provided answers to some of the questions in people's minds. It did not provide satisfactory answers to these: 1. If the quality of water from a gravity-water shed system is so desirable that New York City goes all the away across the state to mountain watersheds and Greenville, S. C., goes many miles to a watershed, why is it not desirable for Frank lin? And if it is practicable for .such towns as An drews and Waynesville and the City of Asheville, which get their entire supplies from watersheds, why is it so wholly impracticable for Franklin? 2. How can it make sense to go to a polluted source (and the State Board of Health representa tive admitted at last week's meeting that farm chemicals and detergents cannot be eliminated by filtration) until we have made .sure none of a num ber of sources of pure water can be utilized? 3. How can it be cheaper, in the long run, to pump water uphill than to let it run downhill? * * * Two points about the Franklin bond election to be held June 4 should be made clear. 1. It is not (just a question of voting for or against more water for Franklin. It also is a ques tion of approving or disapproving a particular project ? the one on Cartoogechaye Creek. 2. If the bonds are defeated in that election, the voters will still have a choice. If the majority vote for the bonds, the choice will be made ? for a long, long time. Why Poppy Day? Saturday is Poppy Day. The annual observance was started as a memor ial to the American boys of World War 1 for whom "the poppies grow, beneath the crosses, row on row", across the seas "in Flanders field". Today, of course, it is for them and the American war dead since. How better remember those who gave their all than by serving their buddies? The poppies to be .sold here Saturday by the American Legion Auxil iary were made by disabled veterans, thus enabling them to earn a little money, and the proceeds frorti the sale will go for rehabilitation of the veterans and in the service of the children of veterans. Downright Handsome (Bartow County, Ga., Herald) Perhaps Abe Lincoln never won ribbons for being handsome, but he looks mighty good on a five-dollar bill. A nation that doe* not know blatory U tated to repeat 11 ?George Sentaya&a LETTERS Favors Cartoogechaye Plant Editor, Franklin Press; I ?u present a few night* ago at a meeting In East Franks Un School which had been arranged In order that interested citizens might obtain Information about, and dlsrnss. the pro poned plan for a new water system for Franklin. The meeting was presided ever by Dr. Joe Kahn. a member of the Town Board, and was addressed by Mr McCoy, an engineer re pre- , sentlng Harwood Beebee, Consulting Engineers, and by Mr. Hill, an engineer representing the State Board of Health. Each of the engineers made talks and then answered any and all questions in his respective province. Mr. McCoy told us of Hie work which his firm had done in investigating the various means by which we might secure water and recom mending to the Town Board a filtration, treatment and pumping plant on Cartoogechaye Creek near the mill of the Franklin Hosiery Co. The recommended plant will have a capacity of 1,000,000 gallons per day. At present we are using about 400,000 gallons per day, but this, we all know, is inade quate. We live In constant danger of a serious fire during a dry spell when we cant keep the water tanks full. And then, there is the inconvenience, whenever there is a more than average drain on the water, supply, of having less than we need for ordinary use. I fe&, therefore, safe In saying that if we are using 400,000 gallons now, we need at least 600,000. And surely, in building a plant for a growing town, a town which we hope to see continue to grow, it would be folly not to add the 67% to present needs, which is what the recommended plant can produce. Mr. Hill, giving us the benefit of his experience and knowledge o{ many other plants in North Carolina, was in agreement with Mr. McCoy in believing the plant on cartoogechaye Creek near the edge of tows would give us the needed water at a less unit cost than any other practicable method. And he assured us that the proposed plant would give us better water than we have now, and as good as we could get in any other way. And he warned us that If we attempt to save money by constructing a cheaper and less effective plant than the one approved by the 8tate Board of Health we will be asking for trouble. I was Impressed by the clarity and comprehensiveness of the statements by both Mr. McCoy and Mr. Hill. Two points brought out during the discussion, points that have not always been known by persons attempting to compare the cost of the proposed plant with that of a gravity delivery line from Rough Fork, are as follows: first, water from. Rough Fork, in order to meet state requirements, and, in fact, in order to meet at all times ordinary standards of cleanliness, will have to be filtered in the same manner as that taken from the creek near town; second, while Burlington has offered to give the land for the plant near town, there almost cer tainly will be very considerable costs for right-of-way for the long line from Rough Fork, and, quite probably, law suits in connection with the riparian rights of those along the creek below the diversion point on Rough Fork. Heretofore I have been somewhat "on the fence" between a pumping plant on nearby Cartoogechaye Creek and a fairly long gravity line from Rough Fork or some other similar watershed. But I have checked the statements and recom mendations of the engineers as carefully as my capability and the information available to me will allow, and as a result I am completely in favor of the Cartoogechaye plant. And when we get it I will be in favor of raising the water rates enough not only to pay all operating costs, but also a large part of the bond retirement costs. Come on, all who are in favor of a better, cleaner and more thoroughly watered Franklin! Let's go! NEVILILE SLOAN Franklin. Some Points To Ponder Editor, The Press: Here are some echoes from the recent water meeting: The Interest Indicated during the question and answer session has carried over into conversations and some heated discussions, in small groups. Following are a few points to ponder. (1) Not too far from our doorstep, in the Trimont area. Is a small watershed ? Wallace Branch ? ' slightly less than a square mile, which has been estimated as having a minimum dry season capacity approximating that of the present well system. Average capacity would, of course, be far greater. With an intake at an elevation of about 200 feet above that of the present standpipes, water could, after passing through a small filter and chlorinating plant, be directed into the water system by gravity. It has been suggested that this could be done at a total initial cost well under $100,000. It would be necessary to check such items as the topography of the area, riparian and mineral rights, optimum location of Intake and purification plant, and a break town of costs of various Items. Is anyone sufficiently interested to look into this? The present wells could be retained as stand-bys, those with the better quality of water being drawn on first, with the others held for extreme emergencies. (2) At the meeting, mention was made of the annual rain fall at Coweeta as more than double that near Wayah. If true, there may be a potential water source between there and Franklin. (3) Apropos of the Cartoogechaye plant, one suggestion was that to be located sufficiently upstream to provide gravity flow instead of pumping and also reduce contamination from agricultural sprays. (4) In all discussion groups, someone is always sure to mention the old standby, namely the wells. Two new wells could be drilled every year for less than the Interest alone on a $350,000 bond issue. The use of transite distribution mains would reduce the incidence of iron rust currently con sidered to be caused by the reaction of carbon dioxide with F.YKJf LTV T. mi IS SPECIALIZED What Ever Happened To Family Life In America? CHAPEL HILL WEEKLY Several ijentlemen were sitting at a table in Danziger's one morn ing last week, drinking coffee and talking aimlessly about one thins and other. As it sometimes will when the talk is wandering all over the place about this and that, the conversatibn steadied and then homed right in on a single subject. The subject was American home life. This did not seem particular ly unusual, since all four men had what oould be loosely classified as typical American homes. It. was unusual, though, In that once they got, f the subject off the ground, there waS no veering off on other tangents, not even on sports. What seemed to set it off was a remark one of the men made about a pupil at Oienwood School "Outside of school this kid seems to be as bright as they come." he said, "but his daddy tells me he's overmatched against the third grade. 'Well, they're friends of ours and it Isn't hard to see why the kid's got his troubles. The mother and father both work and the kid is practically on his own from the time he gets out of school until the parents get home. As soon as they get home, the mother starts fixing supper and the father settles clown with the papers. Ih a way, the kid is still on his own. They race through supper so they won't miss any of the evening TV programs and send the kid to his room to work on his homework. So. the kid is still on his own.'" "I see what you mean," another gentleman said, "but I think it goes a lot farther than that. There's the bad effect on children and probably you notice thAt first because they are children. But there's no communication any more between ANY of the mem bers of the average family. Living has gotten to be what you might call specialized. The women have got their clubs and the men have theirs. The teenagers have got their record collections and that private jargon they talk in and nobody seems to be very much interested in what the other mem bers of the family do. "There's a family in my neigh borhood." another gentleman said; "every summer the man goes to New Hampshire for his vacation. His wife spends hers with her parents in South Carolina. The children go to camp. You can't blame that just on TV." "No ,it's not just TV," said the gentleman who had remarked about the pupil at Glen Lertnox. "It's probably really just the cur rent fashion in American home life. Everything you do that is THE thing to do seems to pull members of families, farther apart. It's got ten so the families who really live as families in the old-fashioned sense of the. wora nowadays are considered to be a little odd. If my daughter told her friends that she was spending Saturday Even ing at hame with the family, her friends would think either some body was sick or my daughter was nuts. Besides that, my daughter would feel completely unnatural Just sitting at home on Saturday night unless she was being pun ished." t "Well, who's to blame," one of the gentlemen asked, "is it you or your daughter?" "I don't think it's possible to place the blame." the gentleman replied. "I think it's more a way of living that we have just let ourselves slip into. There are in fluences, such as TV and the movies and the Presley influence on the teenagers, but there had to be a bigger fault to begin with. One of our preachers here called it a moral flabbiness. Nobody feels very strongly any more. They're not very much for or very much against anything. The same sort of thing has probably affected family life. There's not as much to hold members of a family to gether as there is to push them apart." "Then you think, basically, that being a family in the true sense of the word is a matter of moral ity," one of the gentlemen sug gested. "I'm not sure," the gentleman said. "That was what the preacher said, not me. But it's something to think about." A couple of the gentlemen look ed as if they probably would. metal pipe. Perhaps some ot the new wells wo?M tarn out to be poor producers. No w. wouldn't that be just too tad? If the oU companies had abandoned drilling after striking a dry hole, ? the hone and buggy might still hare Men the standard form of transportation! (5) In INT the water committee of the town board looked Into the matter of horizontal wells and inflltrf? * jalteries. A representative of this type of water system visited franklin and after going over the area, submitted a prop seal to the the town board for the necessary hydrogeologlcal survey and an estimate of the aost of the stream. Definite action was postponed until some new well* were compteted That was nearly throe years ago. The wells have lone since been com pleted, but the postponement goes on and on. Could this be "the stone that the builders rejected"? (?) There seems to be some uncertainty as to exactly how much the proposed (IstM debt will Increase the tax rate. In this connection, mention was made of on* city which made no capital investment oa Its new water plant, but paid only for Water used, with a minimum stipulation, and at a rate which would pay for the system In a definite number of years, after which the city would own It. , (7) Last week's Press carried a beautiful front-page pic ture of the 'to graduating class. Their generation will spend the greater part of their lives paying off the debt with Its attendant service charges, which their elders may Incur in the forthcoming bond election. Even the cute little mascots would not be Immune. Oome to think of It, perhaps they should be the ones to vote on the Issue! SAMUEL WARD Franklin. Population And Water Editor, The Press: For the past several years many of us have been compla cently sitting around admiring our town and county, and bragging about their beauty and p repressiveness to the visitors. Then the census figures were published and we were ap- ' palled. Instead of our population growing by 20 - >0% as they should have, If we were a progressive community, the town population increased by a pitiful 108 persons In the ten year period, while the county was losing 1,327 people. The only logical explanation for this is that people must leave here because there is no employment for them. Before a company will build a manufacturing plant In or near Franklin, they must be assured of a sufficient supply of water. Franklin has barely enough to meet Its water needs now. A new factory which Will employ approximately 300 people Is being built by the Dunlop Tire and Rubber Company at Westminster, a C., for the manufacture of golf balls. This plant will require about 300,000 gallons of water per day, which demand was easily and economically taken care of by increasing the filtering capacity of the Westminster plant. An adequate water supply was one of the prime reasons West minster was chosen as the site of this factory. If the water bond election on June 4th, i960, falls to carry ' I am of the opinion that Franklin and our community will have very little chance of attracting new Industry. T. W. ANGEL, JR. Franklin. Changing State (Raleigh News and Observer) Hardly anything has seemed more impressive in the dec ade behind us than the apparent movement of city people to the country. In this area particularly, that has been in large part a movement even beyond suburbia to hlghwayvilles and to rural routes. The automobile, the electric pump and the septic tank made country living seem to many more attrac tive. Yet the now-appearing fact Is that for the first time in Wake County's history more people live in Raleigh than out-, side it. . Similar changes have taken place in other counties, too. North Carolina, as It enters the Sixties, is ceasing to be a rural state. And that fact cannot fall to alter the habits, the thinking and the lives of people in the Old North State. As recently as 1930, Raleigh contained little more than a third of the population of Wake County. Even in 1950 in this county 65,679 people lived In the city and 70,771 outside it. Now for the first time the Census counts 93,000 people in Raleigh and only 75,815 outside it. But the movement to town Is actually more impressive than that in this county. During the decade just passed every town In Wake, save one, increas ed In population. V The drop In Wake Forest was for a clear and special reason. Eveh little Morrisville added one citizen to its population. City, towns and villages together In Wake showed a net gain of 32,969 people. The county as a whole gained 32,365 popula tion. Thus in the whole process there was a net decline of 604 rural people and that In spite of all the town-employe^ and town-thlnklng folks who live now in the country. These are not merely figures. They are the facts of change in the life of a people. On the basis of them will come changes, too, In taxation, in legislative representation, In the terms of political appeal, In organization for education, wel fare, law enforcement ? In the manners, morals and customs of a people. Candidates now running for Governor are making their appeals to the Image of a State which may no longer exist. And certainly whichever one of them is elected will deal with a state suddenly aware of how changed It Is. There can be no ducking this census In reapportionment or anything else. North Carolina has profoundly altered and neither politicians, nor promoters, nor planners, nor those who loved the old ways and fear the new ones will be able to dodge that fact. ? .... | DO YOU REMEMBER? Looking Backward Through the Files o I The Preai 65 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK , , (1895) We learn that the ladies of Smith's Bridge township are in favor of J. Frank Ray for Congress or President next year. Mr. E. H. Franks is having his store front and Interior painted, which greatly improves the appearance in that vicin ity. Mr. L. J. Zachary was in town Monday, drumming our 1 merchants. Lboney has a great many friends in this "neck of j the woods". A man was sentenced to two years in the penitentiary, in [ Clay County court last week, for changing the marks on two I , hogs Mr. W. B. McGulre has commenced the erection of a hand some new residence just outside the corporate limits on the. Georgia Road. ' 35 YEARS AGO (1925) The Wilson -Construction Company, contractors for the Georgia Road, has finished this road from Otto to the Geor gia line, and has a considerable stretch of the road from the Morrison School to Otto completed. 15 YEARS AGO (1945) Lt. Grant L. Zickgraf, one of the founders and command-' ing officer of the Macon County Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol, has been promoted to intelligence officer on the staff, of the commander of North Carolina Group No. 4 5 YEARS AGO t (1955) Franklin's new board of aldermen was sworn in Tuesday night. On the board are J. C. Jacobs, A. G. Cagle, Oscar Led ford, and J. Frank Martin, all reelected, and first tenflers Sam Gibson and J. L. West. W. C. Burrell Is mayor AlderJ man Jacobs was elected vice mayor.