The News record
SERVING THE PEOPLE OF MADISON COL X
MAD I SON
82nd Year No. 44 PUBLISHED WEEKLY IN THE COUNTY SEAT AT MARS COUNTY LIBRARY 1983 15? per Copy
Mayor-Elect Promises
"No Drastic Changes'
By ROBERT KOENIG
Marshall residents won't see any radical
changes in the operation of town government
when mayor-elect Betty Wild takes office next
month. Marshall's next mayor said Monday
that she expects it will take up to three months
for her to get acclimated to the operation of the
town.
"There's a lot that needs to be done, but we
don't plan any drastic moves," she said. "I ex
pect that it will take us three months to get ac
climated and familiar with the town's con
tracts. We're not going to do anything without
thinking and talking about it."
Wild said she wanted to emphasize her slow
approach because rumors have been flying
around Marshall since she was elected last
Tuesday. One rumor the mayor-elect moved to
quash was that she would disband the Marshall
Volunteer Fire Dept. Wild met with members of
the department Friday night in Marshall to
assure them that the service would not be cut.
"Hie only way we can show what we can do
is by our actions. We told the fire department
we weren't pushing them out the door. We have
to work together to make it better," Wild said.
Wild will assume office on Dec. 5 prior to
the next scheduled meeting of the Marshall
Board of Aldermen. The mayor-elect will take
the oath of office along with newly elected
aldermen Ed Niles and Sammy Lunsford and
second term board member John Dodson.
Wild said her first act as Marshall's mayor
will be to call for a complete audit of the town's
books, including water and sewer billings and
taxes. Wild said, "You can't do anything until
you find out how much money you have," in ex
plaining her call for the audit. She added that
she has not yet decided on an accounting firm
for the audit.
There'll be no changes in the present police
protection or garbage collection until after the
audit is completed. Wild said she will call for a
study of the garbage collection routes before
recommending any change from the present
once-a-week system.
The mayor-elect also stressed the need for
inexpensive improvements and programs, in
cluding a drug awareness program for the
town's teenagers. "You don't always have to
spend a lot of money to get things done. I hope
to instigate a drug awareness program. We can
get people in here to help us for nothing. It's
something that's been needed here for a long,
long time. I'm not implying that our kids are
drug addicts, we've got some great kids here,
but they should have this information."
Saying, "We have to have recreation for the
EMERGENCY MEDICAL Service workers
Arthur Amnions, left, and Jeff Ammons stand
beside new ambulance Madison County EMS
received on Monday. The new ambulance has
been assigned to the Marshall station.
20*7" "3
Tobacco Bill
Clears First
House Hurdle
BETTY WILD
young people/' the future mayor said that the
future of the Marshall Recreation Center has
not been determined. Wild operated the town's
swimming pool in 1982. This year, the town leas
ed the pool to Sammy Lunsford, who also won
election as an aldermen last week.
Wild said she plans to meet with Marshall
merchants to find out what the town can do for
businesses. She also said she hopes to meet with
(Continued on Page 10)
4
By A. L. MAY
THE NEWS AND
OBSERVER
WASHINGTON ? Congres
sional tobacco forces Wednes
day won a key House vote they
hoped would clear the way for
approval of tobacco legisla
tion.
But the threat of a presiden
tial veto loomed, because the
non-controversial tobacco bill
is tied to dairy legislation op
posed by the Reagan ad
ministration.
"You are riding a sick
horse," House Minority
Leader Robert H. Michel,
R-Ill., warned tobacco con
gressmen who helped win a
victory on the dairy legisla
tion.
With other Republican
leaders, Michel warned that
the farm package including
dairy and tobacco would be
vetoed. "I predict it will be a
dead horse by the end of the
year," he said.
Michel's warning to tobacco
forces was the only mention of
the commodity during the
daylong battle over dairy pro
gram changes.
However, tobacco was part
of the action behind the scenes
as North Carolina Democratic
Keps. Charles G. Hose III and
Charles O. Whitley, both
House tobacco leaders, lob
bied hard for the dairy legisla
tion as a vehicle to get tobacco
legislation to a conference
committee with the Senate,
bypassing a House floor fight
on tobacco.
There was one interesting
political development in the
voting when Rep. James G.
Martin, K-N.C., a candidate
for governor next year, buck
ed the strategy set by Hose
and other tobacco leaders and
voted with dairy opponents on
the key amendment vote.
Reps. James T. Broyhill,
K-N.C., and James McCIure
Clarke, D-N.C., also . voted
with Martin against the
strategy. All three represent
districts in Western North
Carolina with little tobacco
but with substantial dairy in
terests who were opposed to
the dairy legislation.
The key vote was on amend
ment by Rep. Barber B. Con
able Jr., K-N.Y., which would
have upset the dairy legisla
tion. The rest of the North
Carolina delegation ? all
Democrats with significant
(Continued on Page 10)
? J- , - ?;-* . ' ??? * ' ' ? . **
Astronaut To Visit Weaverville
Astronaut Daniel C.
Brandenstein, the pilot for the
third flight of space shuttle
Challenger, will be in Weaver
ville on Thursday to make a
special presentation to ex
ecutives of the A-B Emblem
Company of Weaverville.
There will also be a public
program open to the com
munity Thursday night at
North Buncombe High School.
Astronaut Brandenstein will
address the gathering and a
short film on the space pro
gram will be presented.
Brandenstein will present a
display of space mission
emblems to E. Henry Conrad,
chairman, and Bernard Con
rad, president of A-B Emblem
Company. The emblems were
made by A-B Emblem Com
pany and are the patches car
ried into space by Columbia
and Challenger crews. The
display will also contain the
signatures of the various crew
members.
The Weaverville company
has had an exclusive NASA
contract to manufacture all of
ficial space flight emblems
since Apollo 12 carried a .
three-man crew to the moon in
1989 for the second ll.S. lunar
landing.
Brandenstein, a Navy com
mander, was a member of the
five-man crew that made
several space first. His flight
?was the first to make a night
launch and landing. Among its
crew was tiuion Bluford. Jr.,
the first black in space; and
Dr. William Thornton, a physi
cian who at 54 was the oldest
person to ever make a space
flight.
The flight was launched
from Kennedy Space Center in
F lorida on Aug. 30 and landed
at Edwards Air Force Base in
California on Sept. 5. Mission
officials dubbed the near
flawless flight "the fabulous
mission."
A native of Watertown,
Wise. Brandenstein has been
in the NASA program since
1978. He was a member of the
astronaut support crew for the
first and second flights of the
space shuttle Columbia. He
made his first space flight as
pilot for the third flight of the
orbiter Challenger.
A-B Emblem Company, a
division of Conrad Industries,
was founded in New Jersey by
E. Henry Conrad who arrived
in the United States from his
native Germany on Christmas
Eve, 1929. He went to work as
a pattern maker for a N.J.
firm that made military in
signia He started his own
firm, Conrad Embroidery
Company, in 1945, making
trim for women's underwear
and decorative designs for
outerwear. A-B Emblem Cor
poration was founded in 1947.
Conrad moved the prosper
ing business to North Carolina
in 1963.
Last year, the company had
sales of approximately $9
million. It employs 300 people,
operates three shifts a day and
produces emblems for a broad
variety of clients, including
the military, law enforcement
agencies, sporting organiza
tions, government agencies
and business in the United
States and abroad.
Paw Paw, Michigan: Unlikely Setting For A Vineyard
7- wJ.'*p 4
#U4;
PAW PAW. Mich - Hie
boxes of grapes came off the
track one after another, and
ware moved by fortMfts to Una
crushing area, the first step in
the process that would convert
them into wine.
Wine grapes? In
Ves, winters are cokl here
J. de BUj author of a
' book on the geography of
a sir
the temperature ?
? ?' \. ? '
vineyards here plant hybrids
that combine French taste
qualities with the hardiness of
American vines.
Grapes Suited te Nerth
"They're bred to be almost
ideally suited to this climate,"
says David Braganini, presi
dent ef the St. Julian Winery
here, where the fall harvest
was being unloaded. There
are dozens and dosens (if
hybrid varieties. We werk
with about a teen and we're
several southwestern
Michigan wineries. There are
two others here
But why southwestern
Michigan? The answer lies in
a geographical oddity that
geographers call a
"microclimate."
NIA'.- RA QRAPifc
| Mich., vineyard' it* n
to i with the in
> fUgoni
and the result is that when
everyone else is experiencing
first frost, we usually have
two or three weeks to go
before we get ours. It's not
much in terms of degrees, on
ly about four, but thoae four
degrees make a difference in
whether the vine will boid its
leaf canopy, photosynthesue,
and build s??ar in the fruit."
SaU Plays a Pact
What's more, the region has
rolling hillsides and sandy,
wttt-drained soil that
higher-quality table wines.
Tte result is that many of the
11,500 acres of vines planted in
the 40-mile area east of Lake
Michigan, Where the
microclimate prevails, now
These include Amerigo