The news RECORD
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MADISON
SERVING THE PEOP COUNTY LIBRARY TY SINCE 1901
GENERAL DELIVERY
MARSHALL 28733 ?
WEDNESDAY, May 29, 1985
25c
Special Graduation Day Issue
Community
Calendar
Madison High School will hold graduation ceremonies Fri
day night at 7:30 p.m. in O.E. Roberts Stadium
Walnut-Brush Creek CD To Meet
The Walnut and Brush Creek Community Development
Clubs will have their meeting on June 4 at 7:30 p.m. in the
Walnut Missionary Baptist Church. All residents are urged to
attend.
Hot Springs Board Meets Saturday
The Hot Springs Board of Aldermen will meet on Saturday,
June 1 at 8 a.m. in the Town Hall.
County Commissioners To Meet
The Madison County Board of Commissioners will meet on
June 3 at 1 p.m. in the Madison Countv Court House.
Mars Hill Board Meets Monday
The Mars Hill Board of Aldermen will meet on June 3 at 7 : 30
p.m. in the Town Hall.
School Board To Meet June 5
The Madison County Board of Education will meet on June 5
in the Madison County Court House. _____
Phone Customers To See
$1 Rate Hike For Long
Distance Service
Local telephone customers will see
a small increase in their monthly bills
next week when the second stage of
increased access charges for long
distance service go into effect. The
latest increase will apply to residen
tial customers only.
The access charge was instituted
by the Federal Communications
Commission following the break-up of
the Bell System in 1964. The charges
apply to all telephone customers
throughout the country.
Turner Rogers, vice president of
the Continental Telephone Co. of
North Carolina (Contel) said that the
charges were designed to pay for the
costs of maintaining the national
telephone network. "Included in that
cost are wires, cables, telephone
polies, and the point in the phone
company's central office where a
customer's individual line in linked
with the switching equipment. Before
the breakup of the Bell System, much
of the cost was included in long
distance rates."
Rogers said that Contel customers
will see their new $1 fee on a separate
line of their phone bill noted as an
"Interstate Access" charge. June's
access charge, Rogers noted, will be
calculated retroactive to the first of
the month.
Child Restraint
^aw Passed
BY JOHN DRESCHER. JR.
News and Observer
Beginning July 1. all North
Carolina children younger than 3 will
- have to be secured in a safety seat
when they're taken for a ride in a car,
and children at least 3 but younger
than 6 will have to wear a seat belt if
they're not using a safety seat.
The state House gave final ap
proval Tuesday to a bill requiring the
safety restraints for children. It voted
unanimously to go along with Senate
changes to a bill that already had
passed both houses.
Aa originally approved by the
House, the bill called for a $10 fine for
drivers found in violation of the law
But by a 105-0 vote, the House concur
rred with a Senate amendment that
will allow a Judge to fine violators up
to m ? :*'?
The new law will not apply to
vehicles registered in another state
Children also can ride free of their
restraints when their "personal
needs" are being attended to.
Kep. George W. Miller, Jr.,
D-Durham, the child restraint bill's
sponsor, told the House that passage
would show "a strong concern for the
babies and children of our state... the
most precious cargo of all."
Sen. Charles W. Hipps, D-Haywood,
who sponsored a similar bill, worked
with Miller to toughen the penalty.
Hipps said in an interview he wanted
to make sure that the penalty was
"more than just a slap on the hand."
The $10 fine "was nothing more than
a fancy parking ticket," he said.
But the House and Senate also
agreed that a judge should be allowed
to waive the penalty. "We're really
trying to get people to get these
restraint systems rather than paying
a fine," Hipps said. "We're not trying
to collect money That's not the
idea."
The current law, which went into
effect on Julyl. 19*2. requires that
children less than one year old be
secured in a safety seat Children at
Paroled Killer Found
Dead In Motel Room
By ROBERT KOENIG
A nationwide manhunt for a Madison County resident
recently paroled from prison ended in the early morning hours
last Thursday in Myrtle Beach. Karl DeGregory, 39, of Ivy Hill
Rd. was found dead in a motel room alongside the body of a
longtime friend he'd kidnapped on Wednesday from ho- home
in nearby Conway, S.C.
Both DeGregory and the kidnap victim, Judy Collins, were
dead from single gunshot wounds when their bodies were
found in the Indigo Inn in Myrtle Beach.
Police report that DeGregory had burst into the Collins'
Conway home on Wednesday morning at 7:30 a.m., asking to
use the telephone. After making a call, DeGregory shot
Thomas Collins, 38, in the stomach and abducted Mrs. Collins.
The couple's teenaged daughter was home at the time of the
incident, but was unharmed. .
Mrs. Collins' uncle had adopted DeGregory when the con
victed killer was a child, polce said.
DeGregory was convicted in 1973 for the March, 1972 double
murder of Clovis and Mae Powell of Charlotte. A jury hearing
the trial rejected DeGregory's plea of insanity and sentenced
him to serve two consecutive life terms.
At the time of the A973 trial, newspaper reports indicate
DeGregory had confessed to two earlier murders in Florida.
DeGregory was denied parole at hearings held in 1981 and
1982. In late 1982, however, the state Department of Correc
tions recommended that DeGregory be admitted into a work
release program. At that time, he was transferred from a
Mecklenburg state prison unit to Graggy Prison. He was later
sent to the Madison County jail and was employed on the Zeno
Ponder farm. He continued to work for Ponder following his
release from prison for a time. At the time of his death,
DeGregory was employed as a helper by Marshall painter
Larry Chandler.
DeGregory called his landlady on Tuesday, telling her that
he was going to move to the Wolf Laurel area, where he had
found a new job. The terms of his parole ordered DeGregory to
remain in Madison County. He apparently left the county
sometime Tuesday before embarking on his spree of kidnap
and murder.
News of the apparent murder-suicide brought a stem reac
tion from Mecklenburg District Attorney Peter Gilchrist, who
as an assistant DA in 1973 prosecuted DeGregory on the double
murder charges. Gilchrist asked for a State Bureau of In
vestigation probe of circumstances which lead to the con
victed murderer's parole.
r-^ K. \ . -k.; ' % ? .. ?
Cigarette Firms Offer
Tobacco Plan
BY A. L. MAY
News and Observer
A new cigarette industry proposal
that would tie federal price supports
and tobacco marketing quotas direct
ly to the market has emerged in a
meeting of tabacco companies,
tobacco-state policticians and farm
groups.
The plan, offered in the private
meeting Tuesday by Lorillard, ap
parently has the backing of a majori
ty of the companies, sources aid.
The Lorillard plan would tie the
federal price support formula to
market prices starting in 1987 in such
a way that the support level would re
main 10 percent below the average
prices for the preceding five years.
According to tobacco experts, the for
mula initially would reduce the sup
port price to $1.36 per pound.
Estimates show the support level
would then rise to $1.39 in 1988 and to
$1.42 in 1989
The current support level is $1.70
per pound. Under most plans for
changing the tobacco program, the
support level would be reduced to
$1.40 before a new price support for
mula would take effect. .
The Lorillard plan also would
establish tobacco quotas according to
buying plans of the companies for the
upcoming year and limit the discre
tion of the secretary of agriculture in
establishing the quotas.
Meanwhile, Rep Charles G. Rose
III, D-N.C., who has not been involv
ed in the negotiations for a legislative
buy-out, is expected to introduce to
day a measure to fund the tobacco
program with 2 cents of the existing
16 cento per pack federal excite tax
of grower organizations in North
Carolina and Kentucky and Sens.
Jesse A. Helms, R-N.C., and Wendell
H. Ford. D-Ky.
Most termed the meeting construc
tive and said the group agreed to
meet again next week to continue
negotiations.
Helms, chairman of the Senate
Agriculture Committee, played a ma
jor role in organizing the meeting. He
said he was unsure when an agree
UNCLE SAM AND THE STARS AND STRIPES lead the
Memorial Day parade down Main Street on Saturday after
noon.
Changes In Store For Fall
Burley Sales
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Wffl- M f f Is ^
By GILBERT SOESBEE
The Newport Plain Talc
Changes may be in store for the Newport and Asheville I
hurley tobacco markets when sales open this (all.
The major tobacco companies,** cutting back on the
numbers of buyers in the hurley hplL forcingaflvjernment
officials to realign the assigniMm of b3^rs to the
various markets. But officials say farmers need not
worry about the change and it should not cause any pro
blems in getting local burley sold.
"This is going to cause a lot of questions, if not com
plaints," said Bill Myers, at the Burtey Stabilisation Cor
poration office in KnoxviUe. .
The proposals art alrebdy caiP^K| some complaints in
Newport and other burley marketing centers. Local
warehouse managers are reportedly apposed to the plan,
as is the Newport-Cocke County ChJuMier of Commerce,
which has written letters to federal officials asking I
Next year, due to a reduction in
% ? ? ? ~ i n
"U we do nothing, there will be 13 markets that will not
have enough buyers to conduct a bona fide auction sale."
Edwards said Friday.
Hie committee has been reviewing its options in recent
weeks and has come up with a plan to regroup burtey
tobacco markets, which will share arts of buyers based
on past sales history.
Newport and As he v ilk are grouped in the same market
and will share three sets of buyers. This means that, bas
ed on past sales records. Newport will share one set of
buyers with the Asheville market.
The immediate effect on the Newport market will be a
reduction in the number of sale days per week, Edwards
said In the past, the- Newport market has held four sale