Greater Ivy Newsletter
- See Page 9
Community
Calendar
The NEWS RECORD
SERVING THE PEOPLE OF MADISON COUNTY SINCE 1901 '
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Vol. 85 No. 15
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Leake To Keynote Democratic
Convention Saturday
The Madison County Democratic Party will hold its annual
convention Saturday at 1 p.m. at Madison High School. County
attorney Larry Leake will be the convention's keynote
speaker. The convention will elect a new county chairman to
succeed Zeno Ponder and name members of the county ex
ecutive committee. The county member of the state
Democratic executive committee will also be selected
May Day Festival
Set For May 4
Who is the horseshoe pitching
champion of Madison County?
Who are the tug-of-war and
volleyball champs?
These and other burning questions
will be settled on May 4 at Madison
High School during the fifth annual
May Day Festival, a 13-hour event to
be held from 10 a.m. until 11 p.m.
The annual festival is sponsored by
the Madison County Association for
Retarded Citizens. All proceeds from
the day's events will benefit pro
grams serving the retarded in
Madison County.
This year's festival is expected to
be the biggest ever, according to the
May Day organizers. Live musical
entertainment will be provided by
various local performers throughout
the day and a clogging exhibition will
be held in the school gymnasium
from8until 11 p m. Musicat the even
ing dance will be provided by the
Bounty Hunters Band. T
Durine the day. there will be field
games for children and adults with
trophies and ribbons awarded to win
ners of the day's activities. There will
also be concession stands offering
food and drinks donated by the Mar
shall Lions Club. Flea market spaces
are also available during the festival.
Members of the Madison County
4-H Clubs will operate a face-painting
service throughout the day.
There will also be a raffle, with a
beef on the hoof offered as the grand
prize. Raffle tickets are available
from any ARC member or at the
Unaka Center in Hot Springs and
Mountains of Madison in Mars Hill.
For more information on the May
Day festival or to reserve sales
booths or flea market space, call Rox
ann Rotundo at 649-2137 or Linda
Childress at 649-2093. Groups wishing
to enter tournament competition
should contact Nancy Klodt at
689-2026 or Sandy List at 649-2964
before April 28.
Unemployment
Declines Slightly
Unemployment declined in
Madison County during February and
throughout North Carolina in March,
according to figures released by the
North Carolina Employment Security
Commission (ESC) last week.
Locally, joblessness decreased by
nearly one percent during February,
to 8.8 percent of the work force.
Madison County unemployment stood
at 9.7 percent in January.
Statewide, the ESC reports that
unemployment dropped to a
seasonally adjusted rate of 5.4 per
cent, a .6 percent improvement from
February's 6.0 percent statewide
figure. Only Massachusetts, with a
rate of 4.2 percent, has a lower rate of
joblessness amoi% the 11 largest
states.
Madison County's 8.8 percent
jobless figure represents some 750
unemployed workers in a work force
totalling 8,480.
Two neighboring counties reported
declines in the unemployment rate
during the month, while two reported
a slight increase. Buncombe County
joblessness declined to 6.7 percent
during the month, down from 7.0 per
cent in January. In Yancey County,
unemployment rose to 12 percent in
February, a .4 percent increase from
January.
Haywood County unemployment
jumped by more than one percent in
February, to 14.4 percent. In Ten
nessee. Cocke County reported a
slight decrease in joblessness from
January's 32 percent rate, but the
February 29.2 percent rate was still
the highest in the state.
The slightly improving employ
ment picture is a hopeful sign for
unemployed workers receiving sup
plementary unemployment compen
sation. David Flaherty, ESC chair
man. announced last week that the
supplementary compansation pro
gram would be discontinued last
Saturday. The supplementary
payments were made to workers who
had exhausted their state-paid
benefits.
NC -iW/TiJ
T? "I g~\ P T? ???SHAU. KC
Board Of Luuci&uou
Re-elects R.Z. Ponder
By ROBKKT KOENIC.
The Madison County Board of
Education re-elected Robert Z.
Ponder of Hot Springs as the board
chairman during their monthly
meeting Wednesday in Marshall.
Ponder was unopposed and was
elected unanomously.
The school board also voted to re
tain Larry Leake as the school board
attorney. Leake also represents the
Madison County Board of Commis
sioners.
In other personnel matters con
sidered at the meeting, the board ap
proved maternity leave for Deborah
Boone, a teacher's aide at Marshall
Primary School. The board approved
Lena Mae Thomas, a former teacher
at Laurel School, to serve as Boone's
replacement for the remainder of the
school year. The board also accepted
the resignation of Sadie Wallin, a
teacher at Mars Hill Elementary
School. Wallin will retire in June. She
has taught at Mars Hill for the past 14
years
The board also appointed Juanita
Weseman as a substitute teacher at
Laurel School,
The board also voted to change the
school system's auto insurance,
awarding the contract for liability
coverage on the school bus fleet to
Roy Reeves, a Marshall agent for Na
tionwide Insurance.
Reeves submitted a low bid of
$5,792 for the contract according to
school superintendent Robert L. Ed
wards. Insurance on the county
school buses was previously under
written by Maryland Casualty. The
board voted to seek bids at their
March meeting when they learned
the carrier had requested $7,296 for
covering the bus fleet in the coming
year.
School superintendent Robert L.
Edwards told the board that the
private school operating in the Spring
Creek area has changed its name to
the Salt and Light Community School
and does not wish to participate in the
federally funded Title I program.
Edwards also said that he has
learned that John Shackleton is plan
ning to operate a private school in the
Laurel community that will serve 10
students. The superintendent said
Shackleton intends to comply with
state regulations regarding the
operation of private schools.
Edwards also told the board that he
expects the county's teacher allot
ment to be slightly reduced for the
1985-86 school year. He said the coun
ty's present allocation of 103
classroom teachers would probably
be cut to 101 for the upcoming' year.
He added that the vocational educa
tion program at Madison H.S. might
Continued on Page 5
ROBERT Z. PONDER
...re-elected as school board chairman
End To Revenue Sharing Would
Harm Towns, County Treasuries
BY JOHN DKKSCHKK, JR.
In Raleigh, it paid for construction
of a city hall. In Lumberton, a new
street sweeper. In Clarkton, police
salaries.
For more than a decade, cities,
towns and counties have relied to
varying degrees on federal General
Revenue Sharing, a program in
which $4.6 billion a year has been
distributed to local governments
across the country, no strings attach
ed. Since its creation in 1972, the pro
gram has become one of the most
popular federal -programs-"the best
thing for cities since ice cream," a
former New Orleans Mayor Moon
Landrieu described it.
But federal officials say the grants
can help fatten a budget as ice cream
does a waistline. President Reagan
has proposed eliminating the pro
gram, effective Oct. 1, a proposal that
has sent local officials scurrying to
Washington in defense of the pro
gram.
"They're used to my answer," Sen.
Jesse A. Helms, R-N.C., who supports
Reagan's proposal, said of the con
cerned municipal officials who visit
him.
"We'll share some deficit with
them, but we don't have any revenue
to share," he said in an interview.
"They come every spring-'Cut
federal spending but don't cut me, cut
that fella behind the tree.' "
In the current fiscal year, North
Carolina's towns, cities and counties
will receive $125 million in General
Revenue Sharing funds Without the
funds, local officials say, they will
have to raise taxes, cut services or
delay projects-or a combination of
the three.
"I wouldn't use the term
'disastrous,' but I would say this: It
would hurt us considerably," said
Tony C. Robertson, Smithfield's city
manager. Smithfield would have to
raise its property tax to 60 cents per
$100 valuation-a 20 percent increase
to offset the $120,000 it would lose in
revenue-sharing funds.
The city property tax bill for the
owner of a $50,000 house in Smithfield
would increase from $250 to $300.
On the average, North Carolina's
cities would have to increase proper
ty taxes 27.3 percent to replace
revenue-sharing funds, according to
a 1983 survey by the N. C. League of
Municipalities, the most recent
available figures.
The state's 100 counties would have
to raise their property taxes on an
average of 10.8 percent to replace
revenue-sharing funds, according to
figures provided by the N. C. Associa
tion of County Commissioners and the
state Revenue Department. People
who live within city limits pay both ci
ty and county property taxes.
The revenue-sharing grants are
distributed to all tax-levying
municipalities and county govern
ments according to a three-part for
mula based on population, the cur
rent tax burden and the number of
low-income people in the area. The
amount of revenue-sharing funds
allocated by the federal government
has been frozen since 1977, so the
amounts going to municipalities and
counties have changed very little in
recent years.
Generally, smaller towns and coun
ties are more dependent on revenue
sharing funds. Of the state's 480
towns and cities, 222 have fewer than
1 ,000 people. Those towns would.be hit
hardest by the cut in funds. They
would need to raise property taxes 34
percent to replace the revenue
sharing funds they would lose, accor
Continued on Page 2
Tobacco's Woes Reach Far Across State's Economy
By CHARLES JEFFRIES
The News and Observer
Editor's Note: This is the first in a
series of articles dealing with the
future of the tobacco industry in
North Carolina.
During nearly two decades of sell
ing cars, Emile Locoste has seen
business rise and fall with the for
tunes of Pitt County's top money
crop, tobacco.
"You can fell a poor tobacco
season,'' said Lacoste, 57. manager of
new car and truck sales at Hastings
Ford. "When there's no rain or too
much rain, we can feel it."
Tobacco has long been crucial to
the car business in general, in Pitt
County and across North Carolina
More than 800 Pitt farmers
harvested 14,235 acres of flue-cured
tobacco last year and sold it for IS2.6
million. 42 percent of .the county's
total farm income. Across the state.
51,500 farmers earned $1,066 billion
for their flue-cured and burley tobac
co
"Tobacco money pays the bills
around here," said Leroj James.
Pitt's agricultural extension chair
man. Pitt County is the state's top
.tobacco pnxHic tobacco money
Caroina <
These local economies lean Ml Juit
tk^^rX wV'lJke8* ?' Pr0dUC
Ion cigarettes, farmers and political
leaders fear that the program may
not survive 1965
And many farmers, forced by debt
to shoulder the tobacco program's
soaring debts, are worried about
their own survival. Flue-cured
farmers are scheduled to pay 25 cents
per pound- about $500 per acre- to
help cover program losses this year
That's 18 cents per pound more than
last year's assessment. For some
growers, it may make the difference
between breaking even and going
broke.
"If they put a 25-cent assessment
on us, it's poing to cause a lot of
fanners to go out of busimss,"
Wayne County farmer Russell Corbitt
said in an interview. "This could be
the year that a lot of tobacco fanners
would be filing for bankruptcy, if
there's not something done about it."
As the nation's No. 1 tobacco state,
North Carolina for half a century has
been the federal tobacco program's
chief beneficiary. Acreage
Some members of Congress are
pushing legislation to kill the tobacco
program outright. And John R
Block, the U.S. Agriculture
Secretary, proposes to dismantle the
50-year old program by cutting price
supports to a fraction of market rates
and phasing out quotas and
allotments over five year*.
"The effect would be the same as
not having a program." John H.
Cyrus, tobacco affairs chief for the
N.C. Dept. of Agriculture, said of
Block's plan. "It's just a bit slower
death for the tobacco program."
Becoming an antique
Economists and farm and political
leaders believe that soon- if not this
year, maybe next- the federal pro
gram may become a relic of the
tobacco's past, like wood-fired curing
barns.
"If we lose this thing, and it looks
like we might, the other segments of
the economy not involved in tobacco
will be just as badly affected as we
would be." said Harold Allen, a
tobacco farmer in western Harnett
County.
The high value of the dollar,
?vhich makes American tobacco more
\ pensive to foreign buyers, has hurt
he export market. U.S. exports of
obacco fell from a five-year ( I975-79)
iverage of 279 metric tons to 23ft
metric tins in IMS.
Growing anti-smoking sentiment
ind higher prices resulting from in
leased federal and state excise
axes helped to reduce cigarette con
sumption in 1183 to its lowest per
: a pita level since IMS. A bill now in
Congress would double the federal
cigarette tax to 12 cents per pack.
These factors have cut demand for
U.S. flue-cured much faster than pro
duction quotas have been reduced.
Rising surpluses have left the
Raleigh-based grower cooperative
that administers the program deep in
debt. The Flue-Cured Tobacco
Cooperative Stabilization Corp. uses
borrowed federal funds to acquire all
tobacco that does not bring at auction
a bid higher than the federal support
price.
Stabilization owes the U.S. Com
modity Credit Corp. $1.0 billion on its
806,000,000 pounds of surplus tobacco.
Two burley grower cooperatives owe
the CCC another (1.3 billion on about
600,000,000 pounds of surplus.
Because of that debt, the No-Net
Cost Program assessments tobacco
farmers pay to cover program costs
have risen from three cents per
pound in 1962 to 25 cents per pound
Continued on Pages