the News Record
SERVING THE PEOPLE OF MADISON COUNTY
On the Inside . . ?
Madison VICA Members
Score High At Cullowhee
...Turn To Page 4
79th Year No. 14
PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE COUNTY SEAT AT MARSHALL, N.C.
THURSDAY, April 3, 1980
15* Per Copy
HUD Approves $1.63 Million For Madison
The Department of Housing
and Urban Development has
issued an invitation to three
Madison County units of govern
ment to apply for community
development funds totaling $1.63
million for fiscal year 1960.
The units of government and
amounts are: the town of Mar
shall, $804,000; the town of Hot
Springs, $494,000; and Madison
County, $333,000.
These funds will be used by
Hot Springs and by Madison
County for the rehabilitation of
substandard housing units. They
will be used by Marshall for
water lines, sewer im
provements, street paving and
housing rehabilitation in the
Rollins neighborhood.
The announcement was made
on March 31 by congressman
Lamar Gudger, who was notified
directly by the White House.
"We are delighted to learn from
the White House," said Gudger,
"that these preapplications have
been approved. We had feared
that the small cities and com
munity programs would be cut
back early under the administra
tion's balance the budget policy,
because it always seems that
austerity hits rural America
first."
The three grant
"preapplications" were
prepared and submitted in
January by several grant coor
dinators at Region B of the Land
of-Sky Council in Asheville.
Despite the tentative sound of
these documents, approval of
them by HUD is tantamount to
approval of the grants
themselves. The step that re
mains is for the three units of
government to submit final ap
plications and hold public hear
ings but the money has already
cleared the most difficult hurdle
on its way to the county.
In this harvest of unusual
beauty, Region B has also been
notified of the approval of two
other grants. The town of Black
Mountain is scheduled to receive
$903,000 and Henderson County
1812,000. The 11th Congressional
District, congressman Gudger's
district, will receive a total of
$4,272 million in HUD funds for
fiscal I960.
"These projects," said
Gudger, can go a long way
toward providing needed jobs, as
well as improving housing and
the quality of life in our moun
tain communities."
A BIG BIRTHDAY was
celebrated last week by William
Melvin Melton of Marshall, who
says he is 100 years old. Indeed, he
does have a plastic card in his
wallet proclaiming "Born under
the sign of Pisces, 3-15-1880" there
are also several other cards, in
cluding those from the Veterans'
Administration, and the Social
Security Administration, in
dicating various ags. But
whatever the precise details of
Melvin's long history, he is cer
tainly among Marshall's best
loved citizens. He was born in
Rocky Knob Flats, above Bar
nardsville, on a hillside so steep,
he says, that "a dog had to
scratch a hole to bark in." He
served along the Rhine in World
War I, and rose to the rank of staff
sergeant. After the war he moved
to Marshall, where he has lived
ever since, a familiar figure along
Main Street, where he enjoys
showing off his latest hat and han
ding out quarters to children. He
gives away virtually all the
money he doesn't use to pay his
few bills, and may even borrow to
give to children. "Melvin's the
best credit risk in town," says
Deputy Sheriff Frank. Ogle,
"Anybody will trust him."'
Yogi's Owners Return
Brown -Bagging Permit
Three days after receiving
"brown-bagging" permits for
Yogi's Submarine Shop in
Mars Hill, the owners of the
restaurant returned them to
the Asheville office of the
Alcoholic Beverage Control
board.
As a result of strong and
sudden opposition from the
town of Mars Hill, Mars Hill
College, the Mars Hill Mer
chants' Association and chur
ches and citizen* in the town,
Robert Thomas SoffteM -and
Edward Kirk pa trick agreed
without serious dispute to
relinquish their 90-day permit.
Soffield and Kirkpatrick
received both "Special Occa
sions" and "Restaurant and
Related Places" permits on
March 17.
Just eight days after that,
they met with Mars Hill
Mayor Bill Powell, the town
aldermen, and Mars Hill Col
lege president, Fred Bentley,
in Dr. Bentley's conferene
room. Out of that meeting
came the agreement not to use
the permits.
"It was a fairly friendly
meeting," said Mayor Powell,
"and it was good to talk with
them personally. They had
talked through their lawyers
before, and that shouldn't hap
pen in a town this size. We
talked about some of the pro
blems they've had with the
town."
The mayor and aldermen
drew up a resolution last week
detailing some of those pro
blems, including sewage
runoff, altering the alleyway
behind the restaurant and in
complete garbage disposal.
A more serious problem,
which has led to the issuance
of orders of arrest for both Sof
field and Kirkpa trick, has
been violation of the town zon
ing ordinance for about one
year. The men own a trailer
which is parted just- wast of
town, off Highway 21S, in a
residential area zoned for
houses only, and the
houseowners there have com
plained. In the meeting, S of
field and Kirk pa trick agreed
to move the trailer.
The brown-bag permits
were returned by an attorney
{or the two men, Reid Brown
of Waynesville. Brown, accor
ding to Soffield, had previous
ly assured them that the per
mits were completely legal.
But the reaction of the com
munity was so uncompromis
ing that the permits were
never used.
"At the meeting," recalled
Mayor Powell, "they said they
didn't realize there was this
much resistance. They said
that Mars Hill just wasn't
ready for it yet."
The town had prepared a
package of "resistance
materials" which officials
delivered to Special Agent
Stewart Cook of the N.C.
Board of Alcoholic Beverage
Control. It included the resolu
tion, a petition bearing some
800 signatures, including those
of about 250 college students,
critical fire inspection report
on the Yogi's building, photos
showing the proximity of
Yogi's to the college and let
ters from the pastors of two
town churches (the pastor of
the third church sent a letter
under separate cover). Powell
said the packet would be
returned from Raleigh, where
Agent Cook had delivered it to
the state ABC Board.
Alcoholism: It's
A Family Illness
"Alcoholism is a very
serious problem in Madison
County," says Jean Taylor, a
counselor at the Blue Ridge
Community Mental Health
Center in Marshall. "I talk to
groups all around the county
about it, and at the end of the
talk I ask how many people
have personal knowledge of
alcoholism in their own fami
ly. Usually about 90 percent of
the hands will shoot up."
How can this be true in a
"dry" county, where liquor is
sold only by the bottle, and on
ly from one store, the ABC
establishment in Hot Springs?
Indeed, because Madison
County is "dry" on paper, the
Department of Human
Resources in Raleigh assum
ed until last year that there
was no need for an alcoholism
counselor here, and there
were no funds for such a posi
tion. And without the revenue
that is collected in "wet"
counties from ABC stores,
there were no county funds for
an alcoholism program.
Yet the problem is real, and
widespread, according to
Taylor. And its effects reach
far beyond the obvious
evidence along roadsides, in
the courtroom, and in the acci
dent statistics. The problems
of an alcoholic affect all other
persons that are close to him
or her, especially family
members. There is an in
calculable toll of suffering in
the form of guilt, delinquency,
physical abuse, work pro
blems and financial trouble.
Taylor and Blue Ridge
Director Joe Martin estimate
3 Men Face Trial In Kidnapping Case
District Court Judge Robert
Lacey found probable cause to |
try three Waynesville men on
the charge of kidnapping an
AabeviDe woman on Doggett
Mountain.
AiKb-ea La wson of 166 River
view Drive in Asheville
testified at the show-cause
bearing in Marshall March 37
Board Of Ed
Gets $11,870
Energy Grant
The U.S. Department of
Energy has approved an
to the Madi
of
that the three men blocked her
way on Route 63 aa she was
returning from Hot Springs to
AsheviUe after a visit with
relative*.
She told the court that she
"flwte" in her automobile as
the men waited about six to
eight feet in front of it, refus
ing to tot her proceed. Only
when she accelerated did the
men give way, she said, allow
ing her to drive without fur
ther incident to her home.
Sheriff E.Y. Ponder testifed
that he learned the identities
of the three mea over a three
day period, finally having the
WaynesvWe police authorities
Madison County jail.
The warrant for the arrest
of each of them is for "Kidnap
Andrea lawson... by
unlawfully restraining her,
without her consent, for the
purpose of terrorizing her."
Although they did not
"kidnap" Mrs. Lawson (she is
married to an AsheviUe police
officer) in the sense of remov
ing her to a place of confine
ment, the description of the
Doggett Mountain incident
does match one line of conduct
described by N.C. General
Statute 14-39. The statute
defines as a kidnapper
?anyone who unlawfully
restrains ..any other person
his consent... if such...
$10, OOd fine.
After the show-cause hear
ing for Mrs. Lawson, she
became involved in a fight
downstairs in the courthouse
with Margaret Warren, the
wife of Clifford Warren. The
fight wu broken up by Bob
Moore, courthouse custodian,
as Clifford Warren went to the
courtroom far help Court was
disrupted by the fracas and
both women have been cited
for contempt of court.
5th Senior Meal Site
Opens In The County
Sixty happy senior citiaens
gathered for the opening of the
Upper Laurel Nutrition Site,
March 34. Several visitors, in
cluding Dnl Shields of
WMMH, were present for the
Miry Raraaey ii the cook and
Evelyn Hill English is the site
that the incidence of
alcoholism in Madison County
is about the same as it is na
tionwide ? about one in eight
persons. For a population of
roughly 17,000, that represents
just over 2,000 persons.
Jean Taylor, like most
workers in the field today,
defines alcoholism as a
disease, and an alcoholic as
someone with an illness.
"There are two main
theories on the cause of
alcoholism," she says. "One is
that it is a character disorder
aggravated by environmental
causes, and the other is that it
is geqptic. Probably, both play
a part. But analyzing the
cause of a person's drinking
isn't as important to me as
getting at the problem itself."
And the problem, Taylor
emphasizes, is never confined
to the single person who has
the drinking problem. It
always involves others, who
may suffer as much or more
than the drinker. She knows
this effect first-hand, since
both bar parents aad her hus
band have suffered from
alcoholism.
"I try to talk to a whole
family at once," says Taylor.
COUNSELOR JEAN TAYLOR
"I see a lot of families, a lot of
children, especially. Children
in a family with an alcoholic
member must be considered
'sick' because they've ad
Justed to living in an unnatural
environment. Everyone who
lives or works with an
alcoholic becomes ill. They
think it's hia problem or her
problem alone; often they
don't realize that they have
been drawn into it also."
Family members adopt
many behavior patterns that
are not normal. TTiey may
start to believe an alcoholic's
(Continmd on Page 3)
A Quick Test For Alcoholism
For the drinker: Do yon...
1. Need a drink in the morning?
2. Like to drink alone?
S. Lose time from work due to drinking?
4. Need a drink at a definite time each day?
5. Have a toes of memory while or aft
?. Find youradf (or others) harder to
7. Find you
t. Drink to :
9.
m,