IAD ISO'
COUNTY LIBRARY
GENERAL DELIVERY.
MARSHALL NC
28753
? NEWS RECORD
THE PEOPLE OF MADISON COUNTY SINCE 190?
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Thursday, February 20, 1986 25c
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Community
Calendar
Shrubbery Sale
Shrubbery, ornamentals, fruit trees and berry plants are
available through the Madison County Extension Service 4-H
Club program. A price-list can be picked up at the Extension
office or obtained by calling 649-2411. Shrubbery will be
available for pickup April 10 and 11. Orders will be taklen un
til April L All proceeds benefit the county 4-H Youth Pro
gram.
Ivy Women To Meet
An organizational meeting for the Greater Ivy Women's Club will be held
Thursday. Feb. 27 at 7 p.m. at the Greater Ivy Community Center. All former
members and others interested in joining are invited to attend.
Community Meeting
The Greater Ivy Community meeting will be held Monday, Feb. 24 at the
Community Center. All residents of the Greater Ivy community are urged to
attend. Speaker will be Marilyn Cole of the Western North Carolina Develop
ment Assn.
Fire Company To Meet
Ebbs Chapel Volunteer Fire Dept. will hold its annual meeting on March 3 at
7:30 p.m. in the Ebbs Chapel Community Center, Mars Hill. Everyone in the
district is urged to attend.
County-wide Development
Meeting May Be In May
All parts of Madison County need
to work together for development if
any one town is to succeed, Ann
Payne, assistant executive director
of the Bristol-Kingsport -Sullivan
County Industrial Commission told
the Marshall Aldermen on Tuesday.
Her visit spurred a call for a meet
ing of all town officials and the
Board of County Commissioners.
Payne, who is originally from Hot
Springs and offered to give the town
of Marshall any development help
she could, said that Marshall and
the county in general have many
assets businesses look for: good
schools, a railroad, gpod roads into
the county, a good airport within
easy reach, and more.
She said that "spin-offs" from the
General Motors plant in her area
are looking for places where the
labor is less expensive for plant
sites to manufacture parts related
to the GM plant. Such small plants,
she said, are likely to be pleasanter
to deal with than very large plants.
Some of these, she said, might be
just right for the Madison County
area.
She enumerated recruiting tech
niques she uses. ?yjier Tennessee
area, including careful study of
every kind of help available from
the state and visits to the agencies
which might be able to help. She
suggested a video tape promoting ,
the area.
Jesse Ledford, chairman of the 1
county commission, who attended
the meeting, explained that many of
the techniques she suggested were
already in use in the county .
He agreed with Mrs. Payne and
the Marshall aldermen that a meet
ing of all the town officials and the
Board of County Commissioners to
discuss development would be ben
eficial to all. He said he would prob
ably try to schedule swh a meeting
for May after the primary, and in
vite all those interest if town
government.
Stopgap Sign Rule Set:
Weaverville
Council OKs
Zone Change
Weaverville's Town Council on
Monday night approved rezoning for
a 22-acre tract on Weaver Boulevard
for a new shopping center, but took
first steps toward sharply limiting
height rules for signs throughout the
town.
The council voted 3-0, with Coun
cilman Howard Payne voting nay, to
change the zone classification for the
Buckner tract to C-2 commercial
Councilman David Langdon was ab
sent with flu
Because the council's Long Range
Planning Committee has not yet
come up with proposed sign regula
tions for the town, and there is cur
rently only a mention in the zoning
rules that signs may be no
than the 35 foot
buildings, the
what Mayor Raece I
stopgap measure," to place a 20-foot
limit on the height of signs it wat
? may be no higher
ot height limit for
council decided. as
was because lfwasinmeiinancianrv
terests of the developers. He said the
Long Range Planning Committee had
not been consulted on the annexation
idea. The area was annexed by the
council earlier this month.
Joyner was joined in opposition by
residents of the adjacent Wildwood
area.
Town Manager Charles Home
observed that the part of the tract
that was already within the town
limits before annexation of the latest
tract would remain zoned as R-l
residential.
In other action, the council on Mon
day:
-Gave a plaque to Attorney
William Reeves in commemoration
of his many years of legal services to
the town
Agreed to let the Buncombe County
Sheriff's Dept have use of the firing
i range in Weaverville for another
. year, dating from March, but on con.
Grease, Water On Front I
Burner, Sewer Rules on Back
Marshall's sewer plant is "woun
led and limping" because of too
nuch grease and unnecessary
rater, representatives of the State
Dept. of Natural Resources and
Community Development told a
special Aldermen's meeting on
ruesday. They suggested an ordi
nance to prohibit the pouring of un
:ontaminated water into the
system, and a requirement for
;rease traps to be installed and
xiaintained in food service estab
ishments.
Max L. Haner, Environmental
Chemistry Consultant for the water
quality section of NRCD, said that
>ome days the plant, designed to
treat 80,000 gallons, was flooded
with about 200,000 gallons. If the un
eontaminated water flowing into
the system could be stemmed, he
said, the plant would actually have
excess capacity.
In consultation with Morris
Trammel of Waste Water Services,
who supervises the Marshall plant,
the town arranged for smoke tests
of the sewer system to find water
entry points and Roy Davis, re
gional supervisor or Environ
mental management for NRCD,
said that the tests needed to be fol
lowed up almost immediately with
corrective action.
"But grease is probably your
greatest problem," Davis told the
aldermen.
The grease, which the sewer plant
is unable to cope with, comes from
school and restaurant kitchens
Where There's Smoke ? There's Water ]
Smoke should be pouring out of
the tops of buildings, vacant lots,
storm drains and into a few cellers
in a part of Marshall on Friday, but
Mayor Anita Ward wants to be sure
nobody panics and calls the fire de
partment.
Smoke will be pumped into the
sewer system, section by section, in
a test to see where water is entering
the sewer in inappropriate ways. At
one time roof drains were hooked
into the sewer and the smoke will
t. '
reveal where this is still the case.
Old sewer connections from torn
down houses which collect water
when it rains will be "smoked out"
in vacant lots, and floor drains
without traps will belch smoke.
Sinks, toilets and other household
appliances with traps should not be
affected. Autry Black and James
Marler will operate smoke equip
ment borrowed from Waste Water
Services, Inc., which supervises
Marshall's sewage treatment plant.
The smoke will not be harmful to
breathe in reasonable amounts,
says Morris Trammel, president of
Waste Water Services.
The town will make a map of
smoke spots and may put markers
on some. The aim is to block incur
sions and keep water which does not
need to be treated out of the town's
swamped sewage plant, so that the
plant will operate properly, says the
Mayor.
J
without proper grease traps and
from garages, those at the meeting
agreed. The problem of both excess
water and grease has become much
worse since the Walnut Creek
hookup was added to the system
about a year ago Trammel said.
Food service for the high school,
which feeds about 500 people a day,
and a shopping center feed into that
system.
It would probably be necessary to
negotiate with food service estab
lishments to see how quickly they
would be able to comply, Haner
said. The school, for example,
would need time to go to the school
board and get funds appropriated
for the necessary grease trap. In the
meantime, he said, it would be im
Nuke Dump Foes
Gird For Briefing,
Long-Term Fight
Never say "it can't happen here,"
urge members of the Madison County
Nuclear Waste Education Commit
tee, one of the county groups urging
citizens to attend a Department of
Energy public briefing on the possi
ble nuclear waste depository at the
junction of Madison, Buncombe and
Haywood counties. The meeting is
tonight, Thursday, February 30. at 7
p.m. at the Asheville Civic Center.
Working to head off a waste
depository of about 20,000 acres, with
about a six-mile radius, citizens are
continuing to do and have done all of
the following:
-Written letters to the newspaper,
as the bulging letter?-to-Oie-editor
section in this week's issue makes
clear.
-Circulated anti-waste-facility
petitions door-to-door.
of DOE's Draft
on the
(locally
inallcoun
is assembling a scientific advisor;
committee to evaluate and critiqw
DOE's research methods finding
and conclusions
An article in the NWEC newslette
outlined the group's concerns wit!
the question of unstable rock forma
lions, possible water contaminatior
steep curving roads, and said that i
the group's opinion, Western Nort
Carolina is in fact one of the mos
likely sites to be chosen
The group said it feared that th
decision will be made as much o
more on political or convenienc
grounds as on safty, environment!
and economic concerns; that tl
siting of a Monitored Retreivab
Storage Facility in Tennessee, tl
?ss of 1-40 and nuclear was
I in South Carolina would mal
Mnvpim-nl area
d the que
i the was
portant to discuss what establish
ments could do to cut down on
grease immediately. The principal
of the school, for example could talk
to the cafeteria people and ask them
not to pour any grease down the
drain.
Those people who already have
grease traps must be asked to main
tain them properly right away, he
said.
Trammel said the town would
need to define "maintained" be
cause adding chemicals to the
grease would merely put it in sol
ution and the sewage plant would be
worse off. Westall said the grease
traps would need to be inspected
from time to time.
He suggested an immediate letter
to food establishments on the sub
ject of grease traps. It is important
that these should be large enough,
he said.
Westall said NRCD had been
sending Marshall letters stating
that its sewer system was not in
compliance, and wanted to work
with the town to help it come into
>... compliancy. If that did not happen,
however, at some point NRCD
would have to take an enforcement
action and negotiate a schedule of
compliance. He said he would
prefer to avoid that, and that he
thought citizens would be glad to
take actions to save their swamped
sewer plant.
The NRCD staff people suggested
that Marshall put the grease and
water "on the front burner" and put
a more extended sewer ordinance
on the back burner for more careful
study.
Snow Doesn 't
Whittle Vacation
E^ter "vacation for Madison Coun
- ty schoolchildren will be a week long
this year despite last week's snow
day, according to School Superinten
dent Robert L. Edwards.
The school system can make up one
1 more missed day by holding classes
on Memorial Day, May 26. Only if if
another day is missed will Easter
vacation-May 31 to April. 4~have to
be shortened, he said. The system
has used up 11.5 teacher workdays.
? On Friday, when it snowed again
principals were authorized to decidi
when their schools should close
yr depending on the conditions in theii
e areas, Edwards said. At 1:30 thi
s State Highway Patrol reported icini
conditions on Murray Mountain, am
r county elementary schools wer
li dismissed at around 2: 15, he said, aw
i- the high school about 3 p.m.
n Some drivers took buses to th
h garage to put on chains, he said, an
it since traveling was also slow, torn
buses were as much as an hour and
e half late getting home. While ther
r were rumors that some students wer
Fire Code
Hearing
Set
Proposed fire code changes in Mars
Hill will be aired at a hearing on Mon
day, March 3 at 7:30 right before the
regular business meeting of the
aldermen in the town hall.
New building or renovation regula
tions and a permit system for those
using combustable materials will be
among changes up for questions or
comment.
"Our main object," says Chief Ed
die Fox, "Is to make things safe."
The town has not had a fire preven
tion program except for educational
work in the schools, and needs one. he
says.
Unless a life threatening situation
is found, the new code would npt ef
fect existing buildings until they are
renovated or change hands, he said.
Like new construction, renovations
would have to meet a code which pro
vided for minimum distances to exits
from appartments. for example.
A permit system is proposed for oc
cupations using combustable or ex
plosive materials or producing com
bustable dust : woodworking, for ex
ample, a paint shop, or welding and
cutting operations
A permit would cost $5.00 and be
good for two years
Short term permits would also be
required for short term use of ex
plosives and other hazardous
materials, dynamite, for example
Even a Haloween "spook house"
decorated with crepe paper and
straw would require a permit. But in
such a case the fire company would
probably issue the permit to an
organization without cost as a
courtesy.
Storage of hazardous materials like
acids and chemicals would also ned a
permit.
The hoped for effect of the permit
system would be that the fire depart
ment would be constantly aware of
potential dangers, says Chief Fox.
The code wuld also provide for an
nual inspections to check the wiring
and other possible problems in every
business and in buildings occupied by
[ more than two families. Information
cards will be kept on file with the
' location of switch boxes and exits, for
t example.
Where new construction is propos
j ed, the fire department would be able
^ to rule whether enough water would
be available to the site of a large
shopping center, for example to make
it possible for the fire department to
protect the area.
* If the Board of Aldermen approves
the changes to the fire code, they will
e take effect 30 days after adoption.
?e Council Widen*
Zone Jurisdiction
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