Newspapers / The News-Record (Marshall, N.C.) / Jan. 3, 1980, edition 1 / Page 8
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Deringer ( iinhiiut'd l torn I'.iH'' 1 After two years downtown, Deringer moved to its present location on a ten-acre site overlooking the Marshll Bypass on Highway 25-70. Con struction was begun in the spr ing of 1974 on the present 22, OOO-squa re-foot plant, a one story brick and concrete building. The work force also grew, from a starting group of eight to a high of 78. Now there are 50 employees, all but four of them full-time. MALLIE HENSLEY OF MAR SHALL checks silver contacts while plant manager Pat Clemens looks on. Deringer contacts like these are used in automobile, ap pliances, electric switches and many other places. Because one employee can tend approximately four contact-making machines, this work force is able to turn out hundreds of thousands of contacts a day for a total of nearly 200 clients. Many of the employees work in inspection, shipping, and maintenance operations which insure that all the contacts are of uniform high quality and that each order is processed quickly to reach the correct location. Part of the concern of Der inger, according to Vice president Brown, is to produce just the right design of contact for each customer. There are many shapes of contacts, and a great variety of alloys, and each job must be considered separately. "For example," said Brown, "the materials ap propriate for electrical con tacts in an auto accessory switch are surprisingly dif ferent from those in the horn button. And both of these dif fer from the preferred choice for a vending machine switch, and for the same reasons, that a vending machine switch dif fers from one used in ap pliances, toys, etc." To learn to operate the contact-making machines, Deringer worked out a train ing program for local employees with Asheville Buncombe Technical Institute before opening for business in Marshall. The trainees got "in-shop, on-the-job" ex perience with the same kind of equipment they would be us ing at Deringer. Pat Clemens emphasizes that virtually all the Deringer employees are Madison Coun ty people ? with the exception of him and his daughter. "They're Madison people by birth," he said, "and we are by choice." The employee tur nover rate is very low, he said; a survey has shown it to be just over l percent a year. Clemens is proud of the way the company treats its employees, and praises their desire to work. "They're dog gone good people," he said. "And we try to reward them with good programs, salary, and benefits. We have an at tendance award, for example ? five days' pay for anyone who doesn't miss a day of work in three yean. That's a little thing, but it's things like that that make a difference to people '? Fire Truck ( ' iiitiiUK'il trom I'ano 1 ment. While cheaper fire truck bodies could have been used, all concerned felt that Emergency One, with its all aluminum construction, offers the best unit available for a cost approximately one-third higher than that of a steel body. The alumunum is lighter than the steel used by all other fire truck manufac turers, resists corrosion bet ter, and is of a modular design. This design will make it possible, if necessary, to place the body on a new chassis. The CMC chassis, of con ventional truck design, was purchased for $15,287 through Ponder Auto of Marshall, the low bidder. This new fire truck is the on ly one of its kind in Madison County. It has fire-fighting capabilities far greater than any other truck ever used out side the town limits of any of the three towns. Marshall firemen are already being trained in the use of the truck, and will be ready to respond to fires with it by the time this article is printed. It is hoped that a day for the public to view the new unit "up-close" will be an nounced in the near future. A great deal of time, plann ing, and paperwork have been donated by many people in order to purchase this truck. There has been much discus sion about the need for such a vehicle, but Marshall firemen hope to show the community that it has taken a step in the right direction. They ask for the support and help of all residents, and also thank those who have stood with them through the years. TROY RE ID of Marshall, left, gets a helping hand from Paul Reece in loading his 450-pound Fisher Papa Bear woodstove. Troy won the stove as first prize in the Christmas promotion held by the Marshall Downtown Mer chants' Association. The other winner in the contest was Pam Price of Route 3, Weaverville, who received a stereo. N C Job Injury Rate Below Nation "Recorded job-related in juries and illnesses among the 1,928,500 workers in North Carolina's private sector was nearly 20 percent below the national rate in 1978," N.C. Labor Commissioner John C. Brooks reported today. Brooks said that labor department research and statistics division data puts the 1978 incidence rate at 7.6 injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers employed in the state's private sector, compared to a 9.4 rate reported for the nation as a whole. "Expressed in human terms, this statistic means that, in private employment, one in every 14 workers in North Carolina, compared to one in 11 workers in the nation, experienced a job-related in jury or illness in 1978," he ex plained. "We are especially pleased that 1978 makes the seventh straight year that it has been safer and healthier to work in North Carolina than in many other states," Brooks added. "State and national com parisons are possible only for private sector employment because the U.S. Department of Labor does not compile na tional data on public employ ment, " Brooks explained. Five of the nine industry divisions in North Carolina's private sector experienced in creases in their rates of oc cupational injuries and il lnesses in 1978 compared with 1977. The 1978 rates ranged from a low of 1.4 per 100 workers in finance, insurance and real estate ( 1978 average employment 86,100) to a high of 13.3 in construction (1978 average employment 111,800). Rates for other private sec tor industry divisions for 1978, with average annual employ ment noted in parentheses, were: manufacturing (801,900), 9.4; agriculture, forestry and fishing (65,400), 8.4; transportation and public utilities (107,600), 7.3; mining (4,700), 7.3; wholesale trade (111,700), 6.2; retail trade (329,700), 5.5; and services (309,600), 4.3. Christmas Contest Winners The Marshall Lions Club has announced the winners of its annual Christmas contest. They are Edith Cody of Mar shall (Remington shotgun), James Griffin of Marshall (chain saw), Colon Bishop of Marshall (oil heater), Wes Staude of Hot Springs (landscape painting), Faye Reid of Marshall (Skil saw), Paula Wallin of Marshall (lantern), and Sheila West of Route 6, Marshall (case knife). "We wish to thank all those who cooperated in the giving of Christmas baskets to the blind," said David Caldwell, president of the Marshall Lions Club.
The News-Record (Marshall, N.C.)
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Jan. 3, 1980, edition 1
8
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