Newspapers / The News-Record (Marshall, N.C.) / June 18, 1981, edition 1 / Page 1
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*? ?e The News Record SERVING THE PEOPLE OF MADISON COUNTY 80th Year No. 25 PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE COUNTY SEAT AT MARSHALL, N.C. THURSDAY, June 18, 1981 15c Per Copy ? ' ' " WI W ? .... ___ P?H>to by W. Hancock Mr. And Mrs. Clarence Conners With Their Four Home-Delivered Children And 'Lucky' Makes F our By NICHOLAS HANCOCK Editor Gaston Lucky Conners was born into the world on Sunday, June 7 at 11:05 p.m. weighing in at a healthy eight pounds and eight ounces. And, like an older sister and two older brothers, Lucky is the fourth child of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Conners of Route 2, Marshall to be delivered at home ? by Mr. Conners. It was no accident or premature situa tion. The Conners planned it that way as they did with Robert Alexander, 6; Rodney Wahoo, S; and Nioka Pocahontas, 2'_>. The Conners' four older children were all delivered in a hospital. So why the decision to have the last four at home? "Well, I came to the conclusion that they didn't help me any at the hospital with our fourth child, and I figured if I could suffer pain at the hospital, I could suffer pain here at home, ' Mrs. Conners said. Mr. Conners and the other children were the only people present when Mrs. Conners gave birth to Lucky, and Conners delivered the other three youngsters unassisted by a doctor or nurses. "People ask me where 1 got my school ing for deliving babies,'' Conners laughed, "and I tell them I got my schooling out behind the barn like everybody else.' Mrs. Conners explained that she borrow ed some books on child birth and read the instructions to Conners before Robert's birth. Conners, who says he doesn't read very well, learned the procedure and has had little difficulty in hit role as midwife. "I've delivered a lot of farm animate, Connors said, "but this is a lot different, buddy. If you lose a calf, you've not lost nothing, but with this you ve got a human life in your hands, and you better believe it's different. It's an awful lot of respon sibility." Conners said he's never been frightened or nervous while delivering his last four children, but both Wahoo and little Lucky gave him cause for concern. He said when Wahoo was bom "for three or four seconds I didn't think he was going to start breathing, but I just slapped him on the back until he started. Conners said when Lucky s head emerged from the birth canal, "he just stopped. If I had golscarcd or panicked, I guess we would have lost him, " he said. The Conners said they took Lucky to a doctor the next day to have him examined and to get a birth certificate filled out. It's a procedure the staff at the Marshall Walnut Medical Center have become ac customed to with the Conners. "The folks there have been wonderful to us, Mrs. Conners fcaid "When my child birth books got burned in the house we liv- ' ed in, I went down to the clinic and they ran off some more copies for me. The only question they ever ask me is will I go to the hospital if I start to have any problems, and I assure them I will." Asked if they plan on having any more children, Mrs. Conners laughed and said, "No. Eight is enough, like that television program. Conners, who farms burley tobacco and runs a lawnmower service and small engine repair shop at his home, said, That's why we named this one Lucky. He s the last one. J Edwards Appointed To State Post <* Jl r! v. 'f; ., 'j. '* ???*?: Statr School Supcrinten SI ??2 K?dU< Ed wards, in the State >up.rinlrndeni s Sports Medlciix Advtoorj Commit ?ion is i ? ? M" n ? ami the Stale tr its effort toprovent death* anc disabling to students participating to school i , e ? activities gtgpB actions that w?re in Employees Locked In Bank Vault Hot Springs Bank Robbed Two men robbed the Hot Springs branch of Wachovia Bank & Trust Company of an undisclos ed amount of money about 10:30 a.m. Monday and escaped the scene in a pickup truck. At press time Tuesday, Sheriff E.Y. Ponder said the suspects had not been located, but he "has an idea" as to their identity and should know more once the film in the bank camera is developed. The unmasked men were reported to be armed with a pistol and a knife. The FBI has joined county and Hot Springs of ficers in the investigation of the case. Hot Springs Police Chief Leroy Johnson said the men were described as white males in their late teens or early 20s, one with light hair and the other with darker hair. Hot Springs town clerk Mrs. Gene Autrey was the only customer in the bank on Bridge Street at the time of the robbery, along with three bank employees. The robbers forced bank employees to give them money, and then locked the employees and Mrs. Autrey in the bank vault. No shots were fired, officers reported. Witnesses told officers the men left the bank on foot and climbed into their vehicle which was parked some 500 feet away near the Post Office and drove out of town. Ponder indicated officers had a strong suspi cion as to who the robbers might be and said when robbery photos are available they could lead to a positive identification and possibly an early ar rest. Sheriff's department spokesmen said the bank was robbed once before in 1957 when it was then a branch of Citizens Bank. Mayor Asks State Bill For Marshall At the request of Mayor James McClure Clarke and Robert S. Swain have in troduced a bill to add Marshall to those towns eligible to par ticipate in the federally financed Urban Development Action Program This program authorizes the Secretary of Housing and Ur ban Development to make Ur ban Development Action Grants to cities and towns "to alleviate physical and economic deterioration." The bill also permits eligible towns to lend or grant moneys received from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to private developers who are carrying out projects in the depressed area. Other North Carolina towns and cities already included in the same law are: Clinton, Fuquay-Varina, Goldsboro, Rose Hill and Warsaw. Residents Oppose Tax Hike By ALAN ANDERSON Some 60 Madison County residents attended a special commissioners meeting on Friday, June 12 to voice their opinions about next year's budget and property tax rate. Most of those who spoke argued strongly and af'tiraes emotionally against reducing the full-time, county-wide am bulance service now provided to county residents. At the same time there was a strong appeal to hold real and personal property taxes to the level of the current fiscal year. Zeno Ponder, Democratic county chairman, offered the results of an infor mal, county-wide canvas which heavily favored a tax rate of 67 cents. Such a rate would bring in $1 ,033,000 in tax receipts. Ponder said ? about 1 the same as those collected in the current year. James Ledford, chairman of 1 the Board of Commissioners, said that the meeting was call- ' ed to hear testimony from representatives of agencies and the public at large. He said that a decision on the tax 1 rate will probably be made 1 during the coming week. The commissioners face an 1 unusually difficult decision this year. On one hand, several substantial sources of funds from state and federal governments have shrunk or disappeared. Most notable among these are the CETA grants which, in the past, have paid the salaries of moat of the ambulance service personnel as well as other employees. At the same time, ex ecutives of the Southern Railway Co. have chosen not to pay their property tax to the county, arguing that it is un fairly high. This represents a loss to the county of $103,000, or nearly 10 percent of the cur rent year's planned receipts. Both of these problems have arisen independently of the in flation that has forced the costs of virtually all county operations sharply upward. Therefore the county has to make up for the loss of revenue during the coming year, as well as plan for reduc ed outside income. According to County Finance Officer David Caldwell, the tax rate would not cover any requests for in creases from county agencies. It would bring in a total of 11,412,000. Caldwell also said that the rate required to cover both the deficits and all increases that have been requested would be (1.04. This rate would yield about $1,610,000 in tax income. Commissioner Ledford would not speculate on the most probable rate figure. He did make his own personal feelings clear, however: "If it way my decision, I can tell you what I'd do ? "I d make it a dollar. Of those testifying at the meeting, Superintendent of Sctakpif, Robert Edwards described the greatest poten tial deficit during the coming fiscal year. He said that as much as $111,000 in federal funds might be taken from the lunchroom budget, $67,000 from Title I funds, and $47,000 from Special Education, totalling some $2S0,0Mf He also anticipates state cuts of up to 6 percent, undetermined cuts by the county, and infla tion of 12 percent. "We're talk ing in terms of 50 percent less than what we operated the school system on last year," he said. Health Department Direc tor Ed Morton said that he still has only a vague idea of how much money his department will receive. It depends large ly on the extent of reductions in money the state receives from Washington, and those reductions have not yet been announced. Day Care Director told the commissioners that the staff has been cut the the "bare minimum" that still complies with state law. She said that the nutritional and medical care received by the day care children is "well deserved and well net'ded," and that the program allows parents to hold jobs Mildred West, acting direc tor of the ambulance service, said that the service had responded to 439 calls in the county in the last six months, and 847 calls in the last year. She said that about 2D calls per month were made on the behalf of heart disease vic tims. "We're always getting little notes from people say ing, Thank you for saving my life,' or some such message. I just don t see how we can do without the ambulance ser vice." About 10 others spoke in favor of maintaining the am bulance service in its present state, including Buford Marler, Ernest Snelson, and three employees of the ser vice. The only voice raised against fulltime, professional ambulance service, and the tax increase that would be re quired, was that of Zeno Ponder. Ponder said he spoke on behalf of the Democratic Party committeemen. He said he had called as many of the 110 or so committeemen as he could reach. He reported that the overwhelming majority ? about 85 percent ? had voted to hold the tax rate to 67 cents. This figure. Ponder said, multiplied by the current valuation, would yield the same tax income collected during the current year. Ponder reported few dissen ting votes: about a dozen abs tained, four voted for an 80-cent rate, and one voted for a 55-cent rate. He also said the State Representative List on Ramsey of Marshall had sug gested he hold the line' on taxes this year. Ponder reeommeiukKl a volunteer ambulance service, funded by a flat grant of $25,000 to each of the three in corporated towns. "I think it 's pretty clear that the overwhelming majority of our committeemen out there think this is no time to raise taxes, " he said. "We're not as big as Fort Knox. We don't have all those dollars that Washington has rolling in. Can Madison County afford to pay for all those services? I got news for you. There ain't no way." Without any CETA money it would cost the county about $20,000 a month to maintain present ambulance service, or $249,000 a year, minus some $24,000 in revenues. Most of those who testified at the meeting said they would be willing to pay more in taxes to maintain the service. During the meeting, Jerry Plemmons presented a 15-minutc slide-tape show on county government. The presentation was contracted by the commissioners to ex plain where our budget money comes from and how it was spent. County Left; Unshuffled Madison County will ap parently be left unshuffled in the move to split some county lines in order to reapportion North Carolina's 11 congres sional districts. That move gained momentum last week with passage of a Senate resolution and the initial stops of a House subcommittee. Faced with crumbling sup port for a redisricting plan that only last month appeared to have the support of a bipar tisan coalition, the Senate returned its first realignment map to committee rather than bring the issue to a vote. Voting 30-15, the Senate then approved and sent the Houae a resolution authorizing legislative committees to draw up new maps that divide counties in order to arrive at numerically similar districts. r Spotted Fever Reported Here-, A 10-year-old county youth has been diagnosed as having Rocky Mountain spot ted fever, according to doctors at the Hot Springs Health Program. The diagnosis was made last week by Grant Trevor, a physician's assistant at the Marshall Walnut Medical Center. At press time Tuesday, HSHP doctors were awaiting confirmation of the diagnosis from blood tests being conducted at Memorial Mission Hospital in Asheville. Trevor said he can't be 100 percent sure that the child's illness is spotted fever until the results of the teste are released, but the Jones said they consider the diagnosis as al "real save," explaining that diagnosed ear ly the disease can be treated with an tibiotics; "miss it and your mortality rate is high," they said. Trevor said dosages of aspirin and Tylenol had no effect on the youngster's fever. He sent the youth to Memorial Mission where a spinal tap and initial blood tests proved negative, however, the white cell count in the blood "went along with spotted fever," he said. June and July are prime fever months, and Trevor urged anyone bitten by a tick to
The News-Record (Marshall, N.C.)
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June 18, 1981, edition 1
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