Newspapers / The News-Record (Marshall, N.C.) / May 21, 1981, edition 1 / Page 1
Part of The News-Record (Marshall, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
The News Record SERVING THE PEOPLE OF MADISON COUNTY 80th Year No. 21 PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE COUNTY SEAT AT MARSHALL, N.C. THURSDAY, May 21, 1981 New Mars Hill Library Groundbreaking Held By NICHOLAS HANCOCK Editor County, town, college and library of ficials and representatives braved a cold, windy morning Saturday to par ticipate in the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Mars Hill Branch Library which will be located on Cherry Street between the fire department and the town parking lot in Mars Hill. Dr. Evelyn Underwood, chairman of the Mars Hill Library Committee, said she had been looking forward to this day for five years, and to her, "it is a time for rejoicing and celebration." Dr. Underwood presided over the ceremony which featured remarks and comments from several town and coun ty officials. Mars Hill Mayor Bill Powell con gratulated everyone involved with the library project and said the library committee had done a remarkable amount of work since 1976 in bringing the library project to a reality. Mrs. Lucille Roberts, county librarian, said that in 1977 she was pessimistic about the goals that the library committee had set, and that she did not envision the groundbreaking ceremony being held in four years. "Now I have to admit that I underestimated the committee. Their perserverance and dedication we com mend today," Roberts said. County commissioners chairman James Ledford said the new library facility is the result of cooperative work between people in the town, the county, the region and the state. "The people have worked hard to make this come true," Ledford said. "A noble effort" is how Dr. Grover Angel, chairman of the County Library Board of Trustees, described the work put into raising funds for the new library. "I don't remember when I've seen so much enthusiasm toward a pro ject," Angel said. Dr. John Hough, head of the Continu ing Education Department of Mars Hill College, said he thought the ground breaking event was the recognition of "women power," explaining that while many men were involved in the effort, it was the women of the community who often did the work to make life more en joyable for those who lived in Mars Hill. Hough said he was particularly happy for the forthcoming learning resource for local adult student enrolled in the continuing education program. Wayne Roberts, Mars Hill architect who designed most of the plans for the new library, introduced J. Bertram King of Asheville who presented the blueprints of the building to Dr. Under wood and told her that he had "never worked with anyone more dedicated" to a project. When construction is completed, the $150,000 brick and Wood library building will provide 3,300 square feet of space for library operations. The facility will be able to seat approximately 50 patrons and have the capacity to shelve some 17,000 books. The new library, operating under the county library system, will provide reading areas for adults and children, a community room for group meetings, films and programs, listening areas for recordings and talking books, and an expanded children's program including story hours and children's films. The Mars Hill Library Committee and the Community Development Com mittee raised over $50,000 locally through flea markets and other events toward the construction of the facility. Mars Hill College donated the land for the building, and the Appalachian Regional Commission granted $77,000 to the library. Other funds were secured from the McClure Foundation, Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, and from two state grants. Construction of the facility is ex pected to begin soon. Kingston Brings Art, Added Jobs To Madison County By JOHN YOUNG Can a builder of harp sichords find success in a western North Carolina coun ty where raising burley tobac co is the leading occupation? Despite the incongruity of the two products, the answer is an affirmative one from Richard Kingston of Madison County, who came to this state in the spring of 1979 because of its emphasis on the arts. The harpsichord casemaker acquired workers for his business under the Private Sector Initiative Program ? Title VIII ? of the Com prehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA). The ti tle provides that trainees be paid by Richard Kingston Harpsichords. Kingston is reimbursed by the North Carolina Department of Labor, whose Skill Training Improvement Program (STIP) oversees the project under a subcontract with the state Division of Employment and Training The division, in turn, uses federal CETA funds to repay the Labor Depart ment on a monthly basis. The current session of the harpsichord casemaking pro gram began March 2 and will end Aug. 28. Each day, Mon day through Friday, CETA eligible participants receive four hours of on-site classroom instruction, as well as four hours of on-the-job training <OJT) for a period of 26 weeks. The program will orovide ongoing job place ment for all enrollees who complete the 520 hours of classroom training and 520 hours of OJT. The project's in itial training operation in 1980 lasted 12 weeks and four days, which amounted to 256 hours in the classroom and the same period of time on the job. Courses being covered dur ing the classroom sequence in clude language skills, trade math and terminology, safety, wood technology, machine design and blueprint reading Students take tests and give presentations to the class on topics, such as types and pro perties of woods, in the tex tbooks. Individualized instruc tion, training films and field trips are engaged in the teaching process. Activities in the OJT seg ment consist of machinery setup and operation, material selection and preparation, hand tool work, blueprint and cutting ticket procedures and finishing. When trainees com plete the program, they should be prepared generally for employment in wood technology and wood products industries and especially in harpsichord casemaking. In addition to constructing harpsichords, this year's class started making hammered dulcimers. Kingston explain ed that trainees "could jump in right away" on the building of dulcimers because those musical instruments are not so intricate as harpsichords. A dulcimer has wire strings of graduated lengths stretched over a sound box. Played with two padded hammers or by plucking, a dulcimer takes on ly two or three weeks to build; therefore, a number of the wooden devices can be com pleted on a production basis. Kingston, 34, who has been working on harpsichords for about 13 years, "had to learn (his skill) the hard way." He expressed the view that he is the only professional, full-time harpsichord builder in the southeastern United States. Most of the others in his craft are located in New England, the center for the trade. Although he was a college preparatory student in high school, Kingston also took woodworking. A former business administration ma jor who needs 13 hours to earn a degree, he attended Temple University in Philadelphia ; Lamar University in Beau mont, Texas; and the Univer sity of Texas at Arlington. As a teenager and a young man in his 20s, Kingston held a diverse number of jobs, rang ing from driving a taxicab to serving as a buyer's assistant for men's furnishings. Having become interested in harpsichords as a hobby, the native Philadelphian sud denly realized that "being an accountant was not important anymore." Now married and the father of one son, Kingston gets to his downtown shop at 4 a.m. Howard A. Blount, program developer and counselor for STIP, helped Kingston devise the preapprenticeship train ing plans. According to Blount, who expects the harp sichord casemaking enter prise to be registered as an ap prenticeship with the state this month, "One of the fascinating things about STIP is that every aspect of the pro gram is designed to fit the in dividual needs of the company and the trainee." He added that STIP is ideal for a small company that does not have money to provide training. The system for selection of trainees begins with Blount registering openings with the Employment Security Com mission (ESC) and running advertisements in the local newspaper. In conjunction with ESC, he also certifies ap plicants that Kingston chooses GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONY - Dr. Evelyn Underwood (center with shovel) presided over the ground breaking ceremony held Saturday morning for the Mars Hill branch Library. Among others participating in the event were (1-r) Dr. Grover Angel. chairman. County Library Board of Trustees; Dr. John Hough, Mars Hill Col lege; James Ledford, chairman, Madison County Commissioners; and William Powell. Mars Hill Mayor. (Photo by John Campbell* HARPSICHORD MAKER Richard Kingston (center) discusses his CETA-funded training pogram for Madison County residents with Howard Blount (left) of the N.C. Department of Labor and Pete Ellis of the state Division of Employment and Training. for employment. Following his original inten tion to keep the operation small, Kingston likes the size of his work force. Three par ticipants from the Marshall area ? Karol J. Kavaya, Jane Peebles and Bryan Thad Sher man ? comprise the class of 1981. Residency in Madison County is one of the CETA re quirements for enrollment in this program. Assisting the three learners are Daniel Howe, shop foreman, and Mary Eagle, a full-time employee, both of whom com pleted their training for the same project last year. Kavaya, 30, hails from Detroit. She came to Marshall four years ago to raise animals and to do gardening and farming." "It took me about a year to adjust, but I love it here, " she observed. Continued on Page 10 FIRST GRAYSON SCHOLARS from Appalachia received diplomas during the 1961 com mencement at Mars Hill College. They are (1-r) Anita Eller of Daniels, W. Va.; Lisa Moody of Asheville; Amy Hamrick of Ellen boro; and Charlene Ray of Mars Hill. Dr. J. Wesley Grayson (center) of Laguna Hill, Ca. gave the college $1,128,000 in 1978 to fund the program. 223 Graduate At Mars Hill Two hundred and twenty-three seniors received their degrees Sunday from Mars Hill College president Dr. Fred B. Bentley as the Baptist-affiliated school brought to a close its 125th academic year. Bentley was the primary speaker during the afternoon's ceremonies, following the in dividual presentation of diplomas. He told the assembly that he has spent many frustrating hours trying to assemble jigsaw puzzles consisting of hundreds of pieces. "Today we celebrate the pieces which have come together for you, we applaud your ac complishment of finishing the puzzle of col lege, and we honor the beauty of what has been formed. "Looking at today national and world situa tion," he said, "we can see that many parts of the puzzle before us are missing, but that through the skills and abilities you have learned here we are sure that you can handle the challenge of pressure arid adversity You can become one of the constructive links in the puzzle of life by your contribution to the future of our region, nation and world,'' Bentley said. Dr. J. Wesley Grayson of Laguna Hills. Calif., also issued a challenge to the seniors. Dr. Grayson told the graduates they would go through many rooms during life, but none would be as important as the room for self improvement. Madison County residents receiving diplomas at the graduation exercise were: Clyde Stewart. Jr., Hot Springs. Deborah Boone. Barbara Z. Penland. Sandra Kaye Ford, Wavel Karen Rice, Lisa Lynn Tweed, Janie Edwards Franklin, all of Marshall ; and Kathleen Blossfield, Ernest Melin. Jr., Charlene Ray, Paul Leon Womack. Karen Robin English, Lynda Hinton, Nancy Elizabeth Anders, David Calvert, Charleata Carter, Suzanne Powell and Karen Marie Smith, all of Mars Hill
The News-Record (Marshall, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
May 21, 1981, edition 1
1
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75