?
The News rec.
NC
28753
SERVING THE PEOPLE OF MADISON COUNTY
82nd Year No. 4
PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE COUNTY SEAT AT MARSHALL, N C
WEDNESDAY, January 26, 1983
15c f-. '-"opy
Application Deadline Is Feb. 15
.
New Burley Tobacco Grower Quotas Available
Madison County tobacco
growers have until Feb. 15 to
apply for new quotas for
butley tobacco. William B.
Zink, county executive direc
tor for the Madison County
Agricultural Soil Conservation
Service, made the announce
ment last week.
To be eligible for a new
grower quota, a farmer must
own a farm, have no interest
in a farm which already has
an established burley tobacco
quota, derive at least half of
his income from farming or
farm products and have at
least two years experience in
I
the past five years on a farm
with a current tobacco quota.
Zink said that any county
farmer who is interested in ap
plying should contact the
ASCS office in Marshall before
the Feb. 15 deadline
In other tobacco news, the
U.S. Department of
Agriculture has announced
that farmers who produced
excess tobacco during last
year's crop will be allowed to
arrange for the tobacco to be
processed and stored without
having to carryover un
processed tobacco.
The carryover program is
designed to permit tobacco
producers who have marketed
110 percent of their farm's ef
fective quota and have excess
tobacco on hand to deliver the
excess for processing and
storage with the Burley
Stabilization Corporation. The
move will prevent insect in
festation and quality
deterioration.
Handling of the carryover
tobacco has been limited to
the Burley Stabilization Corp.
in order to insulate the surplus
tobacco from commercial
trade channels. It cannot be
marketed until the 1983
marketing season begins.
The Burley Stabilization
Corp. will announce
designated delivery points in
tobacco-producing areas wher
producers may deliver their
carryover crop. All tobacco to
be processed must be weighed
and graded by an inspector of
the USDA's Agricultural
Marketing Service before be
ing accepted for storage and
later sale.
Carryover tobacco will not
be eligible for penalty-free
marketing until the start of
the next marketing year on
Oct. l, 1983. At that time, the
carryover tobacco will be sold
on a sealed bid basis to all pur
chasers of tobacco, both
foreign and domestic. Car
ryover tobacco not bringing
an acceptable price will be
placed under loan in the
regular inventory, by grades,
at the 1983 loan rates.
Farmers who do not wish to
participate in the carryover
program may store un
processed tobacco on their
own farm, in warehouses or in
commercial storage. Tobacco
stored in such a manner must
retain its identity. It may not
be comingled with tobacco
produced on another farm.
In order to qualify for the
carryover program, the farm
that produced the tobacco to
be stored must have marketed
within 200 pounds or less of the
110 percent of the 1982 effec
tive farm quota. Farmers in
terested in bringing their car
ryover tobacco to the Burley
Stabilization Corp. must first
obtain a written statement
from the county Agricultural
Stabilization and Conserva
tion Service stating total poun
dage marketed during the 1982
marketing season and 110 per
cent of the farm effective
quota. Both the statement and
the 1962 marketing card must
be presented at the time car
ryover tobacco is presented at
the designated delivery
points. The Burley Stabiliza
tion Corp. is expected to an
nounce the locations of these
designated delivery points in
the next few days.
William Zink of the county
ASCS office urges all farm
operators to return their
marketing cards now that all
area burley markets have
closed.
Zink said, "The primary
purpose of the cards is to pro
vide the producer a simple
way to officially account for
the disposition of the tobacco
he produces on the farm.
Failure to timely return this
card by the operator can
result in a reduction of the
farm quota for the following
crop year, unless he can pre
sent proof of his entire
marketing in some other man:
ner."
Growers are required to
return the cards immediately
following the close of the local
markets. The cards are need
ed by the local ASCS office in
order to reconcile marketings
reported by each local
warehouse.
Victor Bechtol Is Acquitted
In District Court
Victor Bechtol was found
not guilty of charges of com
municating threats in last
Tuesday's session of District
Court. Bechtol had entered a
plea of not guilty to the
charge. Judge Robert Lacey
ordered warrants charging
Bechtol with damage to pro
perty quashed.
The court released Bruce
Massey, charged with
forgery, after a probable
cause hearing. Also dismissed
were charges of larceny
against Bobby Pittman and
Cornelus Vanhout, trespass
ing charges against James C.
Coates, a charge of assault
with a deadly weapon with in
tent to kill and trespassing
against Odis Shade and
charges of unauthorized use of
an auto against both Terry
Lee Roberts and Vicky Lynn
Anders. ' ? ?
The court accepted a volun
tary dismissal in cases involv
ing disturbing a public
cemetery charges against
Dellis Green and Guy
Baldwin.
The court continued, until
Feb. 15, larceny charges
against Gary Ball. Also con
tinued were assault charges
against both Ricky Dixon and
Nickey Adams.
Albert Rice, charged with
shoplifting, was called and
failed to appear. A case
against Helen Parrott Jacob,
also charged with shoplifting,
was continued until the Jan. 28
session.
On Wednesday, the court
heard a number of unrelated
cases involving driving under
the influence. The court ac
cepted guilty pleas from
Wayne Jerry Randall, Barry
John Wells, and Terry Lynn
Gibson, all of Mars Hill.
Gibson had also been charg
ed with no operator's license,
but the charge was dropped.
The court ordered each defen
dant to pay a $100 fine, plus
court costs, ordered each to
attend Alcohol Drug Educa
tion School and pay the
school's $100 tuition fee, and
sentenced each to serve from
30 to 45 days in jail. The jail
sentence was suspended for 12
months.
Troy Lee Meadows, Edward
LeRoy Banks, Robert Clyde
Cogdill and Sam Miller, all
charged with DUI, failed to
appear for their hearing. Ar
rest warrants were issued for
each.
The court also continued, at
the defendants' request, DUI
charges against Oakley
Freeman, John Ingram and
William Timothy Wilde.
The court sent on to
Superior Court hit and run
charges against William H
Stines. The court dismissed
charges of leaving the scene of
an accident and no liability in
surance against Stines.
Superior Court will conduct a
probable cause hearing into
charges of possession of a con
trolled substance against
Robert Lee Johnson.
James Brace Massey Jr.,
charged with drunk and
disorderly conduct and
assault on an officer, entered
a plea of guilty and was
sentenced to serve 30 days in
the Madison County Jail.
The court also issued an ar
rest warrant for failing to ap
pear for James Wagner,
charged with drunk and
disorderly conduct and
resisting arrest.
FmHA Rates Drop
Interest rates for loan pro
grams of the U.S. Department
of Agriculture's Farmers
Home Administration dropped
on Jan. 17, according to
FmHA State Director Larry
W. Godwin.
"These lower interest rates,
which apply to most loans
made by the USDA farm
credit agency, will be of great
benefit to the rural economy
and particularly for the na
tion's farmers who depend
heavily on credit," Godwin
said.
It is the third such reduction
since Oct. 1962 by the agency
which makes farm, home and
other loans to rural residents
and communities who cannot
get credit from private
lenders.
Godwin said the reductions
are possible because of a
general move toward lower in
terest rates across all sectors
of the economy and because of
lower costs of federal borrow
ing.
Interest rates for farm
operating loans, used to
finance annual costs of pro
duction, will drop from 11.5 to
10.25 percent.
Farm ownership rates will
drop from 11.5 to 10.75 per
cent.
Interest rates for "limited
resource" borrowers will drop
from 8.3 percent for operating
loans to 7.2S percent. Limited
resource farm ownership
loans go from 5.75 to 5.25 per
cent.
The interest rate for actual
loss loans due to natural
disasters remains at 8 percent
for those farmers unable to
get .credit from private
lenders. For farmers who can
obtain natural disaster loans
elsewhere, but choose to deal
with the Farmers Home Ad
(Continued on Page 6) v
E. Tennessee Cave Find
Unlocks Indian Mysteries
By BORIS WEINTRAUB
National Geographic
OgMiilna
nirwl oCiYiCf
First, slide down the en
trance hole for about eight feet
at a 45-degree angle. Take a
good look at that slide; it's not
Just the only way in. it's the
only way out.
Belly down, crawl a few feet
to the first "room." Crawl
through a tiny hole in a wall
hardy big enough for a human
body, wade through an
underground stream, walk
bent-over beneath an
overhanging rock ledge,
squeeze through a second
sophisticated human faces,
pictures of birds and serpents
and turtles, geometric designs
and drawings that look like
simple squiggles.
Those squiggles are mean
ingless to modern Americans,
but they may have had some
significance, to the earlier
Americans who put all these
glyphs here, Indians who lived
in the vicinity of this east Ten
name cave from the 11th
through the l<th centuries
"Picture yourself as an In
dian, barefoot and naked ex
cept for your loincloth, carry
feasor of anthropology at the
Univ. of Tennessee, is leader
of the team, which is funded
by the National Geographic
Society. He says the cave is
unique Scientists know of no
other cave that Indians
entered solely to carry out
ritual.
The medium, too, is unique.
The glyphs were made using
either a finger or a sharp
stick, and incited in the soft,
damp mud clinging to the cave
walls Because of the cave's
:ht glyphs have
ved over the cen
turies but '
? '< 1&
,in
Faulkner.
"The important thing about
this site is that it gives us a
much larger rapertorie of
Mftsissippian motifs that we
have already. Until now,
we've had artistic expression
only on non perishable items
like shell or copper or bits of
bene. This is the first time
we've found these motifs on
this medium, on day."
Scientists have known for
me time that prdiistoric
N. Buncombe Parents Protest
School Board Decision
By ELIZABETH D. SQUIRE
Determined North Bun
combe County residents put
their money on the line Mon
day night, contributing
$1024.15 to a possible legal ef
fort to overturn a Buncombe
Co. school board vote to give
number one building priority
to>?oka instead of North Bun
combe.
At a meeting at North Bun
combe High School to protest
the county board's vote, an ac
tion committee was elected
to:
? Approach the seller of the
Enka High School site for an
extension of a 1988 building
start-up deadline for the Enka
site.
? Spearhead an approach to
the Buncombe County com
missioners to overturn the
school board's request to ap
propriate building money
elsewhere.
Feeling has been running
high since the school board
voted last Thursday to build a
new high school in Enka
before it builds a new high
school to replace North Bun
combe.
"I looked forward M my
children going to a new high
school but now two of them are
already in college," said
Helen Boone of Weaverville,
relfecting the fact that com
munity residents have been
asking for a school for a long
time.
"As a businessman in the
community, I see the need for
North Buncombe to have good
vocational courses," said
David Bradley of Beech,
chairman of the North Bun
combe Advisory Council.
A member of the high school
staff said that large numbers
of students are unable to get
vocational courses they want
to take at North Buncombe
because there are not enough
facilities or vocational
teachers. At least 85 to 100
students are turned away
from welding, home
economics and woodworking,
for example.
Judy Ball of Flat Creek said
North Buncombe entirely
lacks facilities for some voca
tional courses like
cosmetology.
And perhaps the high drop
out rate at North Buncombe is
because so many students who
want vocational courses are
unable to get them, Bradley
said.
Not only do North Bun
combe schools lack space, but
they are older than schools in
other parts of the county, said
Rev. John Kelley of Hemphill,
who chaired Monday's
meeting: Kelley, pastor of the
Hemphil and Beech United
Presbyterian churches, said
that figures from the office of
the superintendent of schools
show that while North Bun
combe is the second fastest
growing school district 'after
Roberson), the district has no
new schools built since 1955
and the district includes six
schools that are at least 55
years old.
A recent report to the North
Buncombe Citizens for Better
Schools from Jim Penley,
chief of the Weaverville Fire
Department, and Kirk Red
mond, assistant chief, says
that the Weaverville primary
and middle schools "are not
totally safe with respect to
quick safe student
evacuation," due to age and
design.
In comparison to North Bun
combe, Owen, Reynolds,
Roberson, and Erwin, all have
three schools built since 1955,
and Enka has two, John
Kelley said.
A new high school in North
Buncombe would not only
allow more space and
facilities in the high school,
but since the old high school
could become a middle school,
the new school would mean
more space throughout the
system.
The school board voted to
build a new school in Enka
first because of a time limit on
the use of a piece of property
there, purchased at much less
than the current value on the
condition that a school be
started on the property before
1985. Citizens in North Bun
combe are saying that the
school board was unwise to ac
cept such a condition, which
puts unfair pressure in favor
01 a school in Enka at the ex
pense of other districts. Enka
and Erwin, Kelley said, are
the two slowest-growing
districts in Buncombe County.
"We are fed up with this end
of the county being run over,"
said Roy Shepherd, of Flat
Creek. "We need something in
this end of the county for our
children1; What's been done in
the past the parents have
done."
The proposed suit would say
that the North Buncombe
School district has been
discriminated against in com
parison to other districts in the
county.