,\ The News R ?tAu I SON t OUNTV LIBKmRY "WERAL- DRIVER' ^bhall. NC 28733 > SERVING THE PEOPLE OF MADISON COUNTY 82nd Year No. 1 PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE COUNTY SEAT AT MARSHALL, N C WEDNESDAY, January 5, 1983 15c Copy County To Receive $700,000 Grant Homes In Spring Creek, East Fork To Be Refurbished By ROBERT KOENIG Editor The state of North Carolina has awarded Madison County a $700,00 grant from its |45 million share of Community Block Develop ment Grant funds. Acceptance of the grant funds will be made official at the monthly meeting of the county Board of Commissioners Friday night. Most of the grant will be used to rehabilitate homes in the East Fork and Beartown communities, according to Sam Parker, executive director of the Madison County Housing Authority. Parker told reporters Friday that $541,000 of the funds are earmarked for renovating 38 homes in the two communities. The project will repair 24 homes in East Fork and an additional 14 homes in the Beartown section of Spring Creek. In addition to rehabilitating substandard housing in the bounty, the grant funds will also be used to install septic tanks in connection with a Clean Waters project to eliminate straight dumping into local creeks. The grant also provides $20,000 for planning the construction of 10 low-income homes in the county at a site to be determined. The East Fork and Beartown rehabilitation projects will be the fourth such project un dertaken by the housing authority. In past years, Community Block Development Grants, previously administered by the federal government, have funded rehabilitation projects in the Lisenbee, Bluff, Bee Tree, Rice's Cove and Culvin Creek sections of the county. Work Begins On Spring Creek-Marshall Hwy. By ELIZABETH D. SQUIRE After a decade of hope, work has finally begun on a new road system linking the Spring Creek area of Madison County to the county seat at Marshall. Funding is already in the pipeline for all but the last four miles of the road to Route 63 near Trust. State Transportation Board member Zeno Ponder told The News Record, "I have all the faith in the world that we'll get the money for the last four miles in the next few months." Here is what is already happening along the new route: ? Funds are available to improve Sweet water Rd. (State Road 1138) from a point on U.S. 25-70 one mile north of the Marshall By Pass to Dry Branch Rd. (State Road 1136) as far as the gap where SR 1136 and SR 1134 in tersect. From that point, there is a short section where the exact route has not yet been deter mined. ? Money is available from the federal government's bridge rebuilding funds to replace an existing bridge oVer the French Broad River with a larger one to carry the new road across the river near Redmon. According to Earl McEntire, Transportation Department division engineer, a public hearing will be held, probably in Marshall, to decide the location of the bridge and the road it will carry. Although the hearing date has not been set, Zeno Ponder said he thought the location and date would be picked within about 60 days. ? After crossing the French Broad River, the new road will connect with Little Pine Creek Rd. (State Road 1135), where work is already in progress to widen and straighten the road to accommodate 40- to 55-mile-an-hour traffic. Work is largely funded to improve Little Pine Creek Rd. about 4.3 miles to Payne's Chapel Church. ? A projected new road is planned for the last four miles to the Spring Creek area, from Payne's Chapel Church to a point on Route 63 near Trust. When completed, the new road would offer an alternate route to Marshall from West Asheville via Route 63 and the Sandy Mush area. (See related story on Page 8) ). Jim Daniels, State Transportation board member from Buncombe County, joined with Ponder in expressing optimism that funds for the last four mile gap will be available shortly. The new road will trim about 45 minutes from the current ride from the Spring Creek area to Madison High School. The trip currently takes as long as two and a half hours each way, Ponder said. He added that the new road would also make Spring Creek a more desirable area for industry. Bill Moore of Meadow Fork remembers when Gov. Bob Scott came to a meeting in Marshall and promised a road to Spring Creek at the time voters were considering the con Exclusive Interview With House Speaker Ramsey Foresees Busy Session For Legislature Speaker of the N.C. House Liston Ramsey sees the budget (or the upcoming fiscal year as the biggest challenge facing the state legislature as it prepares to open the 1963-84 session on Jan. 12. In an ex clusive New Years' Day in terview with The News Record, the speaker said that work on the budget will begin as soon as the House con venes. "Work on the budget will begin the first week when Governor Hunt presents his proposal to the legislature. Once a budget is proposed, it will go to the budget com mittees. There'll be 30 new members in the legislature this year and the first three or four weeks will have to be spent on orientation for the new members. They'll need this time because state budgets are completely new to them. After that, we'll break up into subcommittees to look at the budget for each state agency. These continuation subcommittees will meet with and question the heads of each state agency to find out what their needs are. When these subcommittees reach a fin ding, five more sub committees will take up requests for additional money from the agencies in the ex pansion budget." Ramsey said that he expects the total state budget to be somewhere around 96 billion for the coining fiscal year. As speaker of the house, Ramsey appoints four members to an advisory budget committee that works with Gov. Hunt in formulating the state budget. Ramsey's appointments this year were Rep. A1 Adams (D Wake), Rep. Dwight Quinn (D.-Cabarrus), Rep. Sam Bundy (D.-Pitt) and Rep. Jeff Enloe (D.-Macon). Four members of the state senate are also appointed to the committee by Lt. Gov. Jimmy Green and four additional members are named by Gov. Hunt. Although the committee presents recommendations to the governor, he is not bound by their findings in his budget proposal to the legislature. Concerning the - budget, Ramsey continued, "1 don't think you'll see any major cuts, but there won't be any big new programs either." "The state constitution requires the governor to balance the budget. When we made up the current budget, we forecast a growth in revenues at somewhere around 8.9%. For the first five months of the year, its running at five percent, almost four percent below the expected growth. If it keeps up like it has, we'll be $120 million short. Gov. Hunt has cut most state agencies to 94% of their appropriations, except for education, in order to make up the difference. We'll wind up with a balanced budget on July 1." When he takes office on Jan. 12, Ramsey will become only the second man in modern times to serve two terms as speaker of the house. The Marshall representative in the state house will begin his 11th term of office when the house convenes Jan. 12. His re election as speaker was assured when he was the overwhelming choice erf house Democrats at their Dec. 3 caucus. With a second term assured a third term is ap parently Ramsey's for the asking. During the New Years' Day interview, Ramsey indicated that he would seek a third term as speaker, but said his political ambitions do not extend beyond the state house. "I've been encouraged by people all over the state to run for governor, but I'm not going to do it," he said. Ramsey indicated that he had no pet bills in the up coming session. He said that he would favor tightening up the state's drinking laws, as recommended by a study commission appointed by Gov. Hunt and headed by Asheville attorney John Stevens. While he favors stricter laws governing driving under the influence, he hesitated to say what specific measures he would endorse. Ramsey said, "Governor Hunt has endorsed the concepts presented by the study commission, but we haven't been presented with a legislative package yet. I'd favor raising the drinking age. The ways things are now, some places sell whiskey and others beer and wine. It ought to be uniform. I think that would make it easier to en ( Continii?< on Paw II Jobless Rate Hits 9.8 Percent Unemployment in Madison County increased two-tenths of a percent in November to 9.8%, according to figures released by the state em ployment security com mission last week. The 9.8% figure represents 880 jobless workers in the county. November marked the sixth month in a row that saw an increase in the county jobless rate. J The two-tenths of a percent Increase in the county mat ched the increase on a statewide level. Total North Carolina unemployment Id* creased to 9.5% in November from 9.3% in October. Nationally, the unadjusted unemployment rate for November was 10.4%, up (ran t.9%ia October. * *ir< ft decreased ia ? and remained /?& K ig to ttfenn R. Jer of the NX. Employment L seasonal employment losses in agriculture (-15, 760), manufacturing (-5,900) and in the self-employed group ( 2,200)." Fifty-seven counties statewide reported unem ployment over 10 percent Among the hardest hit counties were Graham with 32.7 percent, Swain, 29.1 percent: Ashe, 21.7 percent: Richmond, 18.4 percent: and Cherokee, 16.1 percent. Buncombe County unem ployment increased in Noveber to 8.1 percent, up from 7.9 percent the previous month. Yancey County unemployment dropped from 16.2 percent in October to 113 percent in November. Haywood County's jobless rate J?mped from 8.5 percent in October (o 11.1 percent in OtoillW. North Carolina counttos Prize Winner IfUMakv b construction of a pump station 1 to transport sewage to the . waster treatment plant on the ? island. i Gary McGiU, an engineer on 1 the project, said that sane f Individual homes ia Marshall ? needed to be inspected in Associates would supervise contractors working on the project The firm would also have an inspector monitoring the construction. Payments will be made by Marshall Town Hall personel. When bids are to be let, McGiO said advertisements will be pulished in both The News Record and AahevUle Citixen. He said two con struction also REP. LISTON RAMSEY Mars Hill Hires Hoyle The Mars Hill Board of Aldermen met Monday evening for their regular board