Newspapers / The News-Record (Marshall, N.C.) / April 17, 1985, edition 1 / Page 1
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The NEWS RECORD SERVING THE PEOPLE OF MADISON COUNTY SINCE 1907 Vol. 85 No. 16 WEDNESDAY, April 17, 1985 25c .xpr- ? ? v"iMip-. ?' ? Story on Page 11 Marshall VFD To Hold Dance The Marshall Volunteer Fire Dept. will sponsor a dance on Saturday night at 8 p.m. in the Marshall Community Goiter. The Bounty Hunters Band will entertain. Walnut Creek CD Club To Meet The Walnut Creek Community Development Club will meet on April 22 at 7:30 p.m. in the fellowship hall of the Enon Church. Club president Ralph Ramsey invites all Walnut Creek residents to attend. Mars Hill Lions Fish Fry The Mars Hill Lions Club will hold a fish fry dinner from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m. Saturday, April 20 in downtown Mars Mil. All proceeds from the dinner will benefit the club's service pro jects. Operation Child Find In Marshall OPERATION CHILDFIND, a program to provide parents with fingerprints of their children, will be at the Marshall Presbyterian Church on April 27. Children to be fingerprinted must be accompanied by an adult. Parents will be provided with a permanent record of their children's fingerprints. Coon Hunters Bench Show The WNC Coon Hunters Association will sponsor a UKC licensed bench show and night hunt on April 20. A drag race and treeing contest will be held following the bench show. Deadline for entries is Saturday at 2 p.m. The hunt and show will be held at the American Enka Union Hall on Sardis Rd. south of Asheville. Take 1-26 to Exit 12 and follow signs. Job Search Class Offered The Opportunity Corporation of Madison and Buncombe Counties is sponsoring a five-day training class in developing good job-searching skills and building self confidence at the Marshall Elementary School beginning on April 22. The ses sions will be held daily through April 26 from 9a.m. until 2:30 p.m. The classes are free and open to the public. For more information, contact the Opportunity Corp. in Marshall at 649-3231. Clean Streams Day Reminder Group leaders for Clean Streams Day clean-up crews can pick up their trash bags and T-shirts beginning on April 23. Clean Stream Day is April 27. Teachers Receive Layoff Notices Eight Madison County school teachers received layoff notices last week as the county Board of Educa tion prepared assignments for the up coming school year. All eight are first-year teachers. The layoff letters were sent because state law requires that teachers be given at least 30 days notice of termination. In the letter to the new teachers, school superinten dent Robert L. Edwards held out hope that some, if not all. would be recall ed. Edwards told the April 3 meeting of the school board that the county will probably lose one full-time teaching position in its state allocation in the coming year. Edwards added that proposed changes in maximum classroom size now being considered by the General Assembly might change that allocation. The letters were sent to the new teachers. Edwards said, because the county has to be prepared to ter minate their positions if changes aren't made in the teacher allocation formula. The letters were sent to Allen Stines. Kathy Shelton. Sandra Reeves. Judy Grigg, Edith Cheek. Helen Norton. Melanie Blankenship and Anita Ward. Following an executive session in their April 3 meeting, the school board also voted to hire Fred Sams for the remainder of the school year as an vocational instructor at Mars {Continued on Page to Harmony I Democrat Lionv^ ? Swan Huff Elected Chairman SWAN HUFF, left, was elected as the Madison County Democratic Party's county chairman Saturday at the county convention. Lutrelle Robinson, right, was named the first vice chairman. By ROBERT KOENIG Madison County Democrats were united behind Swan Huff Saturday at the annual counmty convention held at Madison High School. Huff, a former Hot Springs mayor and school board member, was elected as the party's county chair man by unanimous acclimation. The 75-year old Huff succeeds Zeno Ponder as the county leader. Ponder, who had completed a second term as the local party chief, was prohibited from succeeding himself again. Ponder will remain a powerful leader in county politics despite los ing the chairmanship he had held for four terms, however. Ponder was unanimously elected as the party's seond vice chairman moments after Huff was named to his post. Ponder was nominated by delegate Levi Hunter. The convention selected Marshall Elementary School teacher Lutrelle Robinson as the county vice chair man. Democratic Party rules require that the vice chairman be a female if the county chairman is a man. County commission chairman James T. Ledford nominated former Jim Hunt aide Wayne McDevitt as the party's third vice chairman. McDevitt, like the other officers, was unopposed at the convention. The delegates also re-elected Christine Lister to serve as the eounty secretary and Hattie Nix was re named as the party's treasurer. Following the election of local par ty officials. Huff moved that Zeno Ponder continue to serve on the Democrats 'state executive commit tee. a position normally reserved for the county chairman Huff's motion was approved by acclimation. Former State Senator Larry Leake delivered the convention's keynote address. Leake, who currently serves as counsel to both the Madison Coun ty Board of Commissioners and the Board of Education, reminded the convention of the organizing efforts of Zeno and E.Y. Ponder. Swan Huff. Judson Edwards and Bill Moore when Madison County was a Republican controlled stronghold. Leake told the delegates. "We owe it to those who worked so hard in the 40's and 50's to continue to elect Democrats in Madison County." Leake cited the county's Emergency Medical Service, improvements to county schools, senior citizen meal sites and improved roads as the result of Democratic leadership in the county. Crediting the leadership of school (Continued on Page 1 4) State Trooper Slain On 1-40 Two-Day Manhunt Captures Suspect ?>-- ?*??????* ??'?" ?"' ** * " '? ny ni'DLHi Mienib A 26 year old North Carolina State Trooper was shot to death on Tuesday night in Haywood County after mak ing a routine traffic stop on Interstate 40. Trooper Giles A. Harmon of Arden was listed as dead upon arrival at Haywood County Hospital at 10:47 p.m. Harmon died from a single gun shot wound to the chest. The shooting occurred at about 9 p.m. along a paved detour around the 1-40 tunnels blocked by a March 18 rockslide. Harmon was on routine patrol at the time of his death. He was usually assigned to patrol duty in the Asheville area. Since the reopening of the 1-40 detour however, the National Transportation Safety Board has re quired the state to keep two patrol cars at the detour to monitor speeding and keep the congested area clear. Two truck drivers traveling 1-40 at the time saw the trooper fall to the ground after being shot. Driver Larry Hedlund of .Iowa told police he saw the trooper stagger backwards and heard a gunshot. Gene Mull of Cherryville, a trucker who had been following Hedlund's rig, also saw Harmon fall and pulled his truck off the road to aid the fallen trooper. ( Continued on Page 14) BILLY DENTON McQUEEN, Jr, center, covers his (ace as he is led to waiting police car following his arrest Thursday afternoon near 1-40. McQueen was captured following a two-day manhunt that involved more than 200 lawmen. He has been charged with the murder of State Trooper Giles Harmon Some Leaf Farmers Quit; Some Diversify; Others Hang On BY JOAN OLECK The News and Observer Second in a series of articles dealing with the future of tobacco in North Carolina Walter Hill quit growing tobacco last year and turned to a commodity unaffected by weather, pests and politics. Giving up the golden leaf was not easy. Hill, yellow-haired and ruddy faced. had sharecropped 30 acres of flue-cured tobacco in Green County for 14 years. "The biggest reason I quit fanning was. I anticipated the demise of the tobacco program," he said. "I was 35 sa leman . " 'Trailers' had a bad con- 1 notation." Hill is one of thousands of Eastern North Carolina farmers who have found in recent years that they no longer can depend on tobacco to sup port their families Federal quota cuts reduced the state'* tobacco pro duction 18 percent from 1978 to 1M2 and helped push many farmers out of tobacco According to the 1982 U. S Census of Agriculture. North Carolina has lost 22 percent, 8,500, of its tobacco farms ia that four year span Some former tobacco growers, such as Walter Hill, are switching to non-farm jobs. Others are staying on the farm and diversifying into hogs or poultry. StM tobacco's share of the In 1950, tobacco accounted for 60 I percent of all North Carolina cash farm receipts and 74 percent of all crop receipts That share fell steadily in the next three decades. In i960, tobacco's share had fallen to 31 per cent of farm receipts and 52 percent of crop receipts. Meanwhile, a varie ty of commodities, including soy beans, corn and all categories of livestock, were increasing their share. Tobacco reigned as the state's most valuable farm commodity from 1926- when it dethroned King Cotton until last year. Poultry took over in 19*4 as the state's top agricultural with total farm cecipts estimated by the N. C. Department of Agriculture at W.1JS billion to $1 555 billion. aKTOssttr than to the contract farmers who pro duce the birds for the processors. ) Although North Carolina's farm economy is diversifying as the world market and federal production quotas for tobacco decline, the state still depends heavily on tobacco-and on the federal production controls and prtee supports that guarantee it as a lucrative cash crop. Many farm and government leaders share Hill's fears for the program's future, synd they have worked hard for years to patch up and preserve the politically and financially threatened program Only recently have some of them begun to wondering aloud what North do if the UPmwMm Mm e'd take a liok it government franchises to growl tobacco-if the progran ended. Former iflt Rep. H. Parks Helms of Charlottvsays he is convinced the tobacco program will die sooner or later. When that happens, the state may not be prepared. ?I really don't believe it's a ques tion of 'if -it's a question,^; 'when,' " Helms said in interview Last sum mer he sponsored a bill to set up a "North Carolina in Transition" study group, but ft was killed in committee. "It seems to me long past the time when we should be planning for this transition" to an unregulated tobacco But Kentucky, the major bur ley tobacco state, has begun planning for a tobacco transition Preserving the federal program is the primary con cern of a task force set up by the Ken tucky legislature last year, but the group also is considering what Ken tucky should do if the program dies. "The reason we got it passed was that I pointed out that the tobacco in dustry cannot be replaced in Ken tucky." state Rep Ward "Butch" fca Burnette of Fulton County, the Ken tucky task force chairman, said in a telephone interview "And If we bury our heads in the sand and do ta issue, it could ( inausu y .. in |
The News-Record (Marshall, N.C.)
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April 17, 1985, edition 1
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