The News Record
SERVING THE PEOPLE OF MADISON COUNTY
On thm Ins Id* . . . ?
Marshall Fireman Warn
Of Rail Accidents
...Turn To Page 4
79th Year No. 15
PUBLISHED WESKLY IN THE COUNTY SEAT AT MARSHALL. N.C.
THURSDAY, April 10, 1980
15' Per Copy
Commissioners Face Budget Squeeze
Road Fund, Ambulance Cuts
Discussed At Board Meeting
At the regular county board
meeting last Friday night,
concern were divided bet
ween how to use this year's
secondary road improvement
money and how to pay next
year's bills.
Several groups from dif
ferent areas of the county
came to plead for a share of
the $533,948 in road funds that
will be passed along to the
county from the state in fiscal
M80-81
And several county agencies
heads warned of increased
needs for the coming
-year. In all cases these in
creases are to pay for higher
coats and an across-the-board
salary increase of 10 percent
? not for expanded programs.
The most immediate crisis
confronting the commis
sioners is the loss of CETA
funds that are being used to
pay seven of the county's IS
ambulance drivers. Finance
officer David Caldwell told the
board that paying for all the
salaries would cost the county
about $200,000 a year -
roughly 20 percent of all the
county's tax revenues.
The commissioner* agreed
to discuss various options im
mediately with Emergency
Services Director Ernest
gnelson. One possibility men
t:. ,. niae ft return to ftw
S day-a-week aervice on a full
time basis and volunteer ser
vice on weekends. AD agreed
that it now seems impossible
for the county to shoulder the
entire bill for full-time county
wide emergency medical ser
vice.
Other witnesses who came
before the board included
citizens' groups requesting
road work in their areas.
The largest group ? some 30
persons ? came from the Rice
Cove-Sodom Laurel section,
requesting that the money be
used to pave Road 1334.
"We've made several efforts
to get this road paved," said
Quentin Ramsey, speaking for
the group, "and we'd like to
ask again, that if there is any
possible way to get it paved it
would benefit all these people
in the room here and a lot
more who use It to get to work
and school.'' The group left a
petition with four pages of
signatures
Another request was made
by Carl Ed Woody and by Zeno
Pooder, who spoke on his
behalf, to replace two bridges
on East Fork Road they said
are too narrow to accomodate
a 12-foot-wide mobile home,
"there are a lot of people on
the upper end of the creek who
can't afford anything but tem
porary housing," said Ponder,
"but they can't get a tem
porary hqpae up there. I would
hope you would take whatever
steps are necessary to allow
these people relief ." County
Attorney Larry Leake sug
gested that a fund exists in
Raleigh to upgrade just such
bridges and a resolution was
passed to investigate such fun
ding.
Ponder also requested im
provement for the sharp curve
where the road to Paw Paw
turns right from Anderson
Branch.
A group of four men, also
supported by Ponder, asked
that the money be spent to
pave the Colvin Creek Road.
Oscar Boles asserted that
everyone on the road wanted
the job done and was willing to
sign a right-of-way waiver. In
addition, Howard Payne, sup
ported by Jackie Ball, re
quested that Anderson Branch
Road be paved. The entire
three miles of Anderson
Branch are now number 5 on
the priority list; Payne re
quested paving of just one
mile.
Colvin Creek is presently
first on the priority list of the
Department of Transporta
tion; if this list were followed
strictly the money would go
there. However, the commis
sioners said they had not yet
decided where to spend the
money. They did point out that
paving costs are so high today
? about $100,000 per mile in
the mountains ? that the
money would more likely be
spent on several projects to
improve but not to pave roads
in particularly bad condition.
In other business, Day Care
director Teresa Zimmerman
told the commissioners that
the new senior citizens' facili
ty adjacent to the day care
center on Long Branch Road
(Continued on Page 4>
County Has 'Green Thumb'
At Winning HUD Grants
When it comes to landing
large government grants to
improve living conditions,
Madison County has the
bureaucratic equivalent of a
green thumb.
There was little in last
week's announcement of three
community development
grants to indicate how difficult
they are to get, and how for
tunate the county is to secure
LARRY MCCALL of Lower Shut
in, near Hot Springs, stands pro
udly by his home-made water
wheel. Larry built the wheel from
400 square feet of white pine,
shaping the braces and sections
by hand with adze and draw knife.
Working from only a simple
sketch McCall constructed the
wheel around a seven-foot-long
shaft that formerly turned in the
Teague Mill in Marshall. The
(Photo by Kevin Morley)
Shut-In wheel is 14 feet in
diameter and will turn on ball
bearings. Larry says that building
the wheel was the easy part; now
he must move it some four miles
to its permanent site at his farm
in Upper Shut-In. For that task
Larry has set the wheel on giant
skids. When in place it will pro
vide mechanical and electrical
energy as well as the tranquil
sight of simple efficiency.
as many as it did.
But consider this: in the en
tire state of North Carolina,
only four single-purpose
grants were awarded this year
by the Department of Housing
and Urban Development and
Madison County got two of
them.
A (ingle-purpose grant
means a grant that is used on
ly for one purpose, such as
road repair, housing
rehabilitation or sewer in
stallation.
And consider this: In North
Carolina, only four com
prehensive grants were
awarded this year. Madison
County got one.
A comprehensive grant is
one that is used for a thorough
upgrading oi a neighborhood,
including funds for all
categories of needed repairs. I
(A second comprehensive t
grant went to Black Mountain, t
which is in the same ad- c
ministrative area as Madison s
County, Region B). I
The first and largest grant fa
goes to the town of Marshall, c
to the Rollins neighborhood v
upriver of town and adjacent a
areas up Hayes Run. A total of h
146 persons will be affected, 93
percent of whom have low and
moderate incomes. Some 88 ?
percent of the dwellings where ,
these people live are judged *
substandard, and four of them
are vacant and due for demoli
tion. HUD has put up (804,200 1
to fix up the substandard c
buildings and tear down the
rest. j
Of the 48 buildings to be c
rehabilitated, 34 are occupied t
by the owners and 22 are g
rented from others. In order to r
insure that the owners of the s
rental units don't raise the
rents or sell the houses right
after they are improved, the f
town of Marshall will set strict
rules on rental and resale 1
policy.
"To some extent, owners c
will benefit from this project," 1
says Becky Williams of c
Region B of the Land-of-Sky P
Council. "But HUD looks at
the people who live in the m
houses as the beneficiaries. jj(
The agency thinks it isn't fair 4,
to overlook them just because
they can't afford to own their j,
own houses. And there are ^
costs to the owners; in some gr
(Continued on Page 3)
DIVIDING UP THE SPOILS is
part of an Easter morning for
these children, who have just
finished an energetic egg hunt at
the Skemp's mountainside farm
high above Anderson Branch. The
(Photo by Rob Amberg)
parents divided their time bet
ween barnyard basketball, mak
ing mountain music and keeping
eggs and children from rolling
down the hillside.
County -Wide Clean -Up
Is Set For Apr. 14-20
April 14-10 is Community
)evelopment Week, and coun
y organizers are intensifying
heir month-long campaign to
lean up litter from the road
ides and stream banks. The
)epartment of Transportation
tas been spearheading the
lean-up effort for the past
reek, using highway crews
nd trucks to clean the
ighways.
Others to be involved in the
{fort include the county land
ill operation, the Agricultural
Extension Office, the county
ealth department, the
ighway department, law en
jrcement personnel, chur
hes and schools.
The county landfill office
ihone number is MD-2311. Any
'ommunity needing extra
rash removal during this
pecial month can call and
eceive instructions for extra
ervice.
Students are also a vital
tart of this community effort,
[he Department of Public In
struction has sent suggestions
o each school principal, en
ouraging them to involve
heir students in local clean-up
ampaigns and educational
rograms. ,
when the snows of winter
elted, we saw Just how much
Xer each of us has created
iring the past few months.
Ugly" was everywhere. Now
the time to retrieve our
ash and heave it into the
?en boxes and landfill.
County Community
Development organizers also
remind county residents that
littering ? at any time of year
>a ? ?' ' st *? f " -X*\ ?*"*?,
? is a misdemeanor,
punishable by a fine of up to
$200 and 30 days in Jail.
WALNUT CREEK LITTER is typical of
many of the county's roadsides and stream
banks. Citizens are urged to make April a big
clean-up month ? now that we can see what
winter has left behind.
Federal Budget Cuts Could Strike Deep Within The County
. At the county Board of Com
missioners meeting Friday
night, it became apparent that
inflation and cutbacks in
federal funding are putting a
painful squeeze on Madison
County during these budget
planning months.
On one ha no, the current in
flation rate of 18 percent
guarantees that the cost of run
ning the county will go up this
jmr.
At the same time, the reduc
ed spending by Washington on
social programs is certain to
reduce the amount of money
available to meet those costs.
For example, one of the
hardest decisions the commis
sioners must make regards the
ambulance drivers working in
the county - six each at Hot
Springs, Marshal] and Man.
Hill, Seven of these workers are
now paid out of CETA funds -
funds that will no longer be
ty must either find some other
way to pay for these position,
or modify the ambulance ser
vice.
To pay for the entire am
bulance service would cost
Madison County about $100,000
more than it is spending now.
This figure is about 10 percent
of the county's entire tax
One way to tod this service
would be to raise taxs by 10
cm* on "Vtt y oouir. oui
also becoming more expen
sive. The budget of the health
department, for example, will
probably rise by some $20,000.
Likewise, the landfill opera
tion, which had die benefit of
CETA salaries for three mon
ths last year, will rise by about
HO, MO. The day care and
?sniff "yni tfte frndgfl* "p
000,008 The biggest increase of
all, however, may come from
salary load could gs up by as
1 i?'
much as $250,000.
.
one of the ironies of govern
ment funding is that while the
commissioners face the unplea
sant prospect of raising taxes to
pay for a larger share of the
county's services, the county
has iust received approval of
fed<Ml HUD
$1 63 million -
?v? ;V': ! ? $
. . .... ? _
for rehabilitating older
i in several areas, we an
g for money to meet the
ir county expenses. We
are grant-rich and dollar-poor.
And it is aof easy to cut
-egular expenses.
imately 99 percent of the
ty's i