milHTY 0 Volume 72 Number 28 Marshall, N. C. July 26, 1973 Kdtson County Xibr&ry Mershell, N . C, 28753 MEWS Farmers Home Adminis tr ation 9 s Fiscal Year Report Farmers Home Ad ministration in North Carolina has just completed its fiscal year ending June 30, 1973, with its largest lending volume in history, according to James T. Johnson, the agency's State Director. Total lending volume by the agency exceeded $192 million plus $1 million in grants for community water and waste disposal systems. In addition, another $11 million in grants by other federal agencies were made in conjunction with FHA water and sewer loan programs. This volume compared with $153 million for fiscal year 1972 and $84 million three years ago. Johnson emphasized that although FHA is serving more farmers, rural families, and rural communities than ever before, it is doing it with substantially less personnel than in previous years. A breakdown in the agen cy's three major lending programs is as follows: Rural Housing Over $104 million was loaned for con struction or purchase of some 6800 housing units compared to $96 million last year for some 6700 units. Contrary to public opinion, the moratorium on interest subsidy had little effect on the housing programs as the administration permitted processing of those already committed. Over half of all loan received some form of interest subsidy. Fanner Programs Loans to farmers by FHA exceeded "Mast year'i votame by $35 million. Total volume was $70 million compared to $45 million with some 7700 loans made to farmers for operating credit, farm ownership or real estate programs, and for farm emergency loans. The number of loans last year was 5.000. Community Programs These programs for last year consisted of loans for central water and sewerage systems and for county sanitary land fufl operations. Ten Million dollars were loaned for water systems, $6 million for sewer systems, and one-third million dollars for landfulls. One million dollars in FHA grants was used to supplement the loans. An additional $11 million from EDA, ARC, EPA, and state grants were used to supplement the FHA loans and grants. Total volume of these programs to rural towns and communities was $1 million plus the $11 million from other agencies. Total communities w receiving these funds nvra-jT bersd 62 for the VhT volume amount ever, fa year's dollar volume nearly $12 million. At the present time, I men Home Administrate North Carolina, has some million in loam outsta sarving some $0,000 Tarl families and about 250 I communities. Seventy! county offices serve thj counties. There are 11 di. supervisors and a state in Raleigh with total! ploymant of 290 people. 1 jonnsoa sum um , lul.a ft . Ik awl J QIUWH W turn W programs, the agear looking forward to j serving North Carolina 4 new authorities of the I nrocrams are Baal actions by Congror vSl contain aw tools t At Conferee Jy rsrd, taSrra t end Jenny Cody left Charlotte Airport last &r ft Chicago, Einots. v . 87 are attending a w '.coherence at the Unlv 4 Chicago la connectip a "F-iy Growth Sjt ' be t" J hi Madron dcrl- AagTJ-t, S-terr.1 Octet "T. ) V trm te 't t C; 1 " ?i ' Cacfc.x prove rural North Carolina when implemented through authority for loans for essential community facilities such as fire and rescue facilities, parks, tran sportation and traffic control and public buildings. The Business and Industrial loans are expected to provide essential capital to finance new and expanding Industry and businesses and thereby create the jobs so necessary and essential to Improve life in rural North Carol ina. The Farmers Home Ad ministration Office in Madison County, located over the Citizens Bank in Marshall is now serving an unduplicated case loan of some 300 and this figure may vary during the year. During the last fiscal year, a total of 125 loans were made totaling over $500,000 These loans were for operating loans, farm ownership loans and rural housing loans. The total outstanding Indebtedness in this office is over $2 million dollars. Governor Asked Marshall-Spring The following action taken by the Madison County Board of Education at its regular Jury meeting here is self explanatory: July 19, 1973 The Honorable James E. Holshouser, Jr. Governor of North Carolina Raleigh, N. C. Dear Sir: The Madison County Board $1 Million REA Loan Approved Rep Roy A. Tsylor an nounced Monday the approval of a $1,001,000 loan from the U. S. Rural Electrification Ad ministration to the French Broad Electric Membership Corporation in Marshall, N. C. The funds will be used to S nance 49 miles of distribution to serve a thousand I rmtanera. a new " ; i FOOD FUN DAY CAMP Baby Food Plant, Fruit M embership Corporation For six weeks groups of boys and girls in twelve communities in Madison County have attended Food Fun Day Camp. One hundred and ninty boys and girls have learned about what they need to eat and how to prepare some of these foods. A phono viewer, visuals, games and activities were all planned around the basic-four food groups and how we can be healthier by knowing about foods. Nutrition Aides, Doris Roberts and Wanda Wyatt; Pace Worker, Ila Ball, and SEP worker, Denise Allen have worked with these groups in their day camps. Everyone is especially invited to attend the graduation program Friday, July 27 at 7:30 p. m., in the Madison County Courthouse. of Education in their regular July meeting unanimously passed the following resolution . WHEREAS , the Con solidated Madison County High School will be opened in the FaD of 1974, and WHEREAS , the existing road serving Spring Creek School District is not capable of serving the school bus system that will be needed when the new school is opened, BE IT RESOLVED by the Madison County Board of Education in their regular July meeting that this Board petition His Excellency, Governor James E. Holshouser, Jr., that he take all possible action to expedite the building of the road known as State Road 213 Extension from the Marshall By-pass to Spring Creek; WHEREAS a $50,000.00 pro ration was made to make a study and or survey of the extension of Road 213 from the a a I ii r, into the munltit. and - ' ; -.-"""IV; t - , v r-. . ri youth from Long Ridge and Sodom toured Gerber and Vegetable Market and French Broad Electric on Friday, July 20,, as part of the final day of camp. To Expedite Creek Road this resolution be forwarded to the Governor for whatever action he may see fit to take. Very truly yours, -W!Uiani M. RoNrt. Chairman (Mrs ) Bobby Jean Rice, Member Mountain Folk Festival In Asheville Next Week - The 46th Mountain Dance and Folk Festival will be the da nc ingest festival yet! That's the word straight from South Turkey Creek and the event's founder and producer, folklorist Bascom Lamar Lunsford. Lunsford, 91, reports that he has received a final entry list from Mrs. Earl Ward, his assistant responsible for the event's square dancing competition. According to the Minstrel of the Appalachians it includes a record seven high-stepping clog teams, and five great-cesrnooth dance teams,. 4jmows In HP ? Emery Wallin, Member R Z. Ponder, f Member j j R. M. Lee ). T Member ' R. L Edwards, Secretary best square dancing that's ever been packed into an opening Thursday night. Altogether, in the three nights of the festival, 12 teams will be dancing, seven clog and five smooth! " Alert of mind sharp of memory but now frail of body, the bright-eyed Squire of South Turkey Creek is ob viously eager to see his mountain neighbors come moving gracefully across the wooden boards of his dancing platform at the Asheville City Auditorium the nights of August 2, 3 and 4. He is also enthusiastic over the decision of the competing , dancers to hold port closely tradition.! Region B Attempts To Solve Problems By BILLY PRITCHARD Citizen Staff Writer The Region B Planning and Development Commission Wednesday took positive steps toward settling differences among its members and gaining status as the Lead Regional Organization ILRO) in the four-county region. The commission members signed a letter to Gov. Jim Holshouser requesting him to designate LRO status to Region B and then resolved to enter into an agreement with the Metropolitan Planning Board (MPB) in Asheville. A recent controversy, caused in part by the lack of a Region B-MPB agreement and LRO status but also plagued with underlying political squabbles and dissension among its larger members, prompted each of the 16 commission members to attend Wednesday's meeting in the Sky land Village Hall. And everyone was there to sign a letter, drafted and proposed by Mayor W. A. Baxter of I -a Orel Park to the governor. "We the undersigned representatives of the sixteen member governments of Region B Commission respectfully request that you designate Region B. Com mission as Lead Regional Organization for Region B," the letter reads. "We have met every qualification set out in the LRO regulations and have filed our request for designation." The regional organization makes up its membership from i elected officials in Buncombe, Madison, Hen derson and Transylvania have met with his son, Imar Lunsford, Mrs. Ward and Jerry Israel, chairman of the Folk Heritage Committee of the sponsoring Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce. "These folks are dedicated. They want to preserve our mountain dancing. They agreed on 15 traditional figures that competing teams will have U draw on heavily They kind of agreed to agree on something I have always said," here the Squire paused to properly quote himself. : "I've always said that mountain dancing is men and women doing the old figures and having a good time dancing together to the music. ; marching and its not ...although now some is. ..it's swish, swish. ! the feet in the smooth ! dance, and the tappie. i of the feet in the clog ne of the figures agreed include many which from the middle cen- handed down through i country dancing, and I In the Appalachians 1 200 years of mountain dandnc. 1 These Include Garden Gate, irand Right and Left, Right .lands Over, and Ladies Peak. Traditional calls which inggeet the early breakdowns mountain settlers are Shoot he Owl, Grapevine Twist, make Drag and Georgia ang-a4ang. I, The 11-year-old Minstrel of (the Appalachians, a title be 'earned Iron lifetime spent learning the preserving la his Memory more thsa tot "ariations of mountain tunes and snatches of verse, ex-T-essed bU approval of son lamar Lunsford's decision $ t up a written schedule for , three nights of dancing am petition. Competition hich wiO carry with it the Je of "Best of the moon-' iris's and therefore, la the res of those who know It, n v title of "Best of the 'ountainaV' JI -Sin Je." ries fells reservec L L tmare counties and from 12 cities and towns within those counties Of its four big county government members, only Madison is not dominated by a Republican board of com missioners. The coinnusion's chairman. Mayor Charles H Campbell of Brevard, and its executive director, L. U Hyde, are Democrats, as are members of the City Council of Asheville, it largest city member. But as it was put at the meeting Wednesday, the commission's biggest hold up has been its inability to come to a wrking agreement with the MPB. Without this agreement, the commission has been blocked since its inception 17 months ago on Dec. 15, 1971 in gaining LRO status from the designating agency, the Department of Administration in Raleigh. The quest for a Region B MPB agreement and LRO status prompted some of the larger commission members last week to call for reorganization. Without LRO status, Region B is not authorized by the state to function in the manner for which it was created: to perform review and comment, or "clearing house,'" func tions required by federal funding agencies granting matching funds for local and regional projects. With the agreements reached Wednesday, the question of LRO status for Region B is now in the hands of Gov. Holshouser and his secretary of the Department of Administration, Wipiam L. Bondurant. The contract with MPB calls End "People always said I could carry a hundred things in my head about who was at the festival, what they sang or what they played best, and that I didn't have to write down any program. I took some pride in that. Also folks didn't like to be programmed. But then we dldnt used to have so many dancers.. . at least 200 this time'" According to the first program ever for a Bascom Lunsford festival, the following teams will dance at the following hours. Thursday, August 2: Pisgah View Ranch Smooth Dancers defending champions in exhibition, 8:15; Erwin Cloggers, 8:45; Montreal Smooth Dancers, 9:15; the Southern Appalachian Doggers, 9 30; the Erwin Smooth Dancers, 9:40; the Jutaculla Cloggers of the Cornelia Camp Laboratory School, 10:15, and the T. C Roberson Cloggers to con clude at 10:15 p.m. Friday, August 3: The Srookey Mountain doggers, 8:15 p.m.; the T. C Roberson Smooth Dancers, 1:45; the Carolina Sweethearts, cloggers from Murphy, t:15; the Valley Springs Smooth Dancers, 145, and the Green Gram Cloggers from Greenville, N. C, 10:49 pjn. On Saturday night, when the auditorium flows ever with a cheering, stamping audience, tie four winners from the previous two nights wiB meet the X87J defenduig championa. This year tt win be one defending champion, the Pisgah View team, since the Canton Old Tuners frill be carrying eld time" dance forms, with a mountain clogging twist, back - to . England. Bern nader the auspicious of Mrs. Hubert Hayes and the Mountain Youth Jamboree they wig bo taking the best of Mr. Bascom's festival to Sinouth and trie International Folk Festival - for that planning organization to turn over $20,000 in federal funds from the U S Dept of Housing and Urban Development to Region B for regional planning, for which the funds were granted. Kegion B, in turn, pledges to put up an additional 10,000 in matching monies and provide its own qualified staff to perform the duties of regional planning The resolutiaon followed statements by Asheville Mayor Richard Wood, who had met with Chairman Campbell just prior to the meeting. "I want to make it clear that we are 100 per cent behind Region B," Wood told the commission "We have been concentrating on things which divide us rather than on things that unite us ." Wood continued, however, by restating a continued gripe by Asheville members on the commission that the city pays a disproportionate share in funding the commission's local budget On a 10 cents per capita basis. Asheville was asked to pay $5,768 10 to the budget based on its population of 57,681. The second largest city member in the commission, Hendersonville (with a population of 6,443) was asked to pay $644 Wood also defended the MPB and its executive director, Nick Kmecza, for insisting that Region B meet certain requirements and show evidence it has the $10,000 before he wwkl turn r 14: ... "SPOTS," one of the pet cats of Mr. and Mrs. James Penland, of Marshall, is again "in the news." Top picture, reprinted from the issue of August 6, 1970, shows "Spots" being rescued from the porch roof of the Marshall Presbyterian Church by his owner. Bottom picture shows "Spots" as he appears now with a splint on his left back leg. The leg was recently broken in three places by unknown causes. James and Ruth, both great cat lovers, hope the splint can be removed this week. mm WNC Cattlemen's Tour To Be Held Next Week Fred B. Jones of Asheville, chairman of the Beef Cattle Commtsston of the Western North Carolina Development Ajsodatioa has announced . that 9 eatfle producers from I the area will partidpete in the ' anneal Western North Carolina Cattlemen's Tour to be held on July M August 1 Hghlichts of the 4-day trip w&l include visits to Bvestock farms In Kentucky, In&ant fend Ohio and cstUe research farms of Perdue University ; and the University of Ken 'tacky. Also scheduled are ifeedUs In C J v-f the graif e .'J see c Cii were purchased ia Western North Carolina last WX. over the $20,000 HUD funds. Kmecza, who was present at the meeting, stood up after the Region B-MPB resolution was passed and told the group that he was pleased the com mission had "taken the first step" in reaching a proper solution with MPB. Kmecza indicated that he felt the agreement could now be signed by both (rganizations "It seems only proper that we stand together and cooperate,'' Chairman Campbell said in an opening statement. "Politics have been injected into this by an outside influence." The "outside influence" Campbell was referring to was Republican State Sen. Charles Taylor of Brevard, who entered the controversy following an abortive Region B-MPB agreement last March. Campbell said he had in vited Taylor to the meeting Wednesday, but the state senator was not there. Baxter, who was chairman of the nominating committee for the commission before its executive committee was formed, said Wednesday that "Taylor had approved" the selection of the executive committee, which includes two Democrats and three Republicans. "I didn't know we needed his (Taylor's) approval," Zeno Ponder of Madison County, a Democrat, said. Ponder is secretary on the commission s executive committee. ) a 1"8 ;i The tour will depart from West gate Shopping Center Monday. ' - The Beef Cattle Commission .has sponsored similar tars for the past eight years in order that area cf" producers could observe 1 h research and on -arm r- .' n of various ca'Ue rvs - systems, breed : selection r4 crc ot-Vr tz 8-i f Tow I r :L. : pr V-t ff I I : V c. r -. ' o

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