Newspapers / The News-Record (Marshall, N.C.) / Sept. 1, 1988, edition 1 / Page 1
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madison COUNTY LIBRARY h!d!5al delivery Marshall Vol. 68 No. 35 NC And Buncombe Counties , iw ptember I, Parents Oppose Longer Bus Routes Nearly 200 Pack Hearing On Proposed County School Consolidation Plan By H.D. KOONTZ 111 The New* Record Editor The walls of the little theater inside Madision County High School echoed with impassioned pleas, angry ac cusations and determined threats from parents during a public hearing Monday night on the board's propos ed school consolidation plan. The Madison County Board of Education listened to two hours of speeches -- some neatly written on clean white paper; others straight from the gut - presented by parents from Spring Creek, Walnut, Mars Hill, Hot Springs and Laurel. Babies cried in the background. At times, it wasn't pretty. Literacy Program To Begin By H.D. KOONTZ III The News Record Editor A new adult literacy program is set to begin Sept. 15 at Walnut Elemen tary School. The program is available free for any parent, grandparent or guardian of a 3- or 4-year-old child who wishes to earn his or her UED. The Madison County Family Literacy Program, explained teacher Allegra Aylward, offers an opportuni ty for adults who have not earned a high school diploma or a UED a chance to do so at the same time a pre-school program for 3- and 4-year old children is made available. The program, to be at Walnut Elemenlarv. will be heldlhree days -CenUmied on Page 8 Some parents threatened to take their children out of the public school system. Others said it would "child abuse" to force elemantary aged children to ride long'trips on school buses. Some said drug abuse would in crease at larger schools, and others said some children would be left out to become mere "numbers" if smaller schools were consolidated. On the other hand, consolidation could be more economical and save taxpayers' dollars in the long run, and larger schools could provide big ger opportunities for enrichment to students. Speakers from all communities in Madison County spoke their piece, with the exception of Marshall. And the most vocal in the crowd of nearly 200 jammed inside the little theater came from the Spring Creek area, where the board is considering closing the elementary school at the end of this school year. If the consolidation plan, and hence the closing of Spring Creek School, is approved Sept. 13 when the board promised to announce its Final deci sion, the children now attending Spr ing Creek next year would have to at tend Hot Springs Elemtary School. And that makes some Spring Creek parents mad as hornets whose com munity nest has been stirred with a broom handle. Board of Education Chairman Jewel Church said, though, no final decision has been made, despite what some people in the audience believed Monday night. Church said she has not reached a final decision and added she did not believe her colleagues on the board had either. The parents from Spring Creek - 14 spoke out - filled half the theater. Just one said she favored the con solidation proposal. Others protested what they believ ed would be longer bus rides through twisting mountain roads further away from their homes. Bill Barutio, who has acted as spokesman for the Spring Creek op position in previous meetings, claim ed children from Max Patch near the Tennessee-Carolina border would be bused more than 40 miles to a school at Hot Springs under the consolida tion proposal. "All you have to do is get a calculator and add up the miles," he told the board. Barutio said an earlier state study had recommended Spring Creek School remain open rather than bus children over "some of the most treacherous, narrow roads in North Carolina." "The bottom line is the Spring Creek children will not go to Hot Spr ings," Barutiocaid. "I have a petition with 96 signatures of parents who say they will not put their children on a bus to go to a Hot Springs schoool." He said, as he has previously, that some parents might form their own private school rather than send their children to Hot Springs. A long line of Spring Creek parents followed Barutio, with all but one in opposition to the proposed consolida tion. Most objected to the longer bus rides, which many said made children ill. But Larry Stern, a Mars Hill Col lege professor, reminded those at the -Continued on Page 8 Spring Creek Elementary School to close at end of school year. Plan To Affect Elementary Pupils The Madison County Board of Education's proposed school con solidation plan will affect school aged children at all but the high school level. The proposal calls for: ?Consolidation of grades 6 through 8 throughout the county into one middle school to be built in the Walnut Marshall area ; ?The closing a Spring Creek Elemen tary School by the end of the 1968-89 school year; ?The consolidation of grades K through 8 at Spring Creek and Hot Springs into one school at Hot Spr ?The grade 6 through 8 students at the proposed consolidated Hot Springs school to be eligible to attend the new proposed middle school at Walnut Marshall upon request by parent or guardian; ?The reduction of enrollments at Marshall (K through 3), at Mars Hill, at Laurel, at Walnut and at Marshall (grades 4 and 5); ?The consolidation of all grade* 6 through 8 in the county, except for Hot Springs-Spring Creek, into one consolidated middle school district or area. The board is expected to announce its decision concerning the plan Sept. 1* Federal, State Probe Nets Two Marshall Men By H.D. KOONTZ III The New* Record Editor Two Madison County men have been arrested and charged in connec tion with a massive, federal-state in vestigation into black bear poaching in the southern Appalachian moun tains. The two were among 43 arrested last week by state and federal wildlife official* in Western North Carolina and Tennessee and charged with bear poaching and illegally selling bear party Eddie Franklin, 23, of 1 Franklin Mountain Rd., Marshall, was ar rested and taken to Knoxville, Tenn., to be charged, said Asst. U.S. At torney Max Gog burn Also, G.J. Burchfield, of Route 5, Marshall, was charged in Asheviiie with the illegal sale of bear parts, Gog burn said. Gog burn said both men will face preliminary hearings next month, but he expects both cases to be continued . The three-year undercover in vestigation - "Operation Smoky" - involved state and federal agents buying hundreds of poached bears and gall bladders, claws, hides and heads. Gog bum said agents even bought a bear cub during the operation in the three-state area. A bear's gall bladder, believed by some in the Orient to be an aphrodisiac, can bring as much as $1,000 each on the illegal black market in the Par East. Gog burn said poachers usually get between $35 to $75 for the gall blad ders, which are dried and ground into a powder for use as health aids and aphrodisiacs. "The price increases each step along the way," Gog burn explained, likening the black market for bear parts to that of illegal drugs smuggl ed from South America. "A whole bear will bring from $800 to $1,000" here in the Smokies, he ad ded. The heads are used for trophies. Madison Group Plans Cash For Trash Day | to purchase recylcaMe materials Saturday. Oct Several community groups cur rently do k on a small scale, said C.J. Wilson, an MEA member In a survey taken last spring by the alliance, many other Madison Count; groups expressed interest in par ) recycling but Um largest problem cited wa how to ge the materials to a mart^i Arbee Manula gle's grocery store on the U'.S. ?-W When residents and business recy cle materials, local communities benefit in many ways, Wilson said. The life of the county landfill is ex tended by reducing the amount of waste that goes into it, and all citizens And the cost of a new landfill pro mises to be much greater when it is Recycling can help beautify a com hides for rugs and the claws for jewelry. Last week teams of state and federal wildlife agents fanned out over Western North Carolina, Ten nessee and Georgia and arrested more than 30 people. One was ar rested in Georgia and eight arrested in Tennessee. Gogburn said all were arrested on federal charges. State warrants are expected in the next few weeks, he said. Charges are included in more than 100 state and federal warrants involv ing a loosely connected illegal black bear poaching businesa in the southern Appalachian Mountains. The bears were shot or trapped for their body parts, which were then sold on the illegal market. Wildlife experts estimate that the number of black bears lulled illegally equals or exceeds the number killed each year by hunters with legal hun ting licenses. The slaughter is thought to be one of the biggest threats to the dwindling population of black bear, which used to number in the thousands, in the Smokies. "There are only about 500 or 600 left in the Smokies," said Gog burn. "There's a lot of hunting pressure and habitat intrusion And it's not even a sport any more; the hunters have sophisticated radios and dogs "It's not a sport-it's just a kill. It's like shooting birds on a raft." Last yer Ml Mack bears were killed legally by hunters in North Carolina. During the three-year operation, the agents bought He bear gall I ders, 385 bear claws, 77 bear four heads, nine hides and one cub. Farm tour attracted two dozen. Brahma bull on Hal Edmond s farm Farm Tour , Held By H.O. KOONTZ III The Newt Record Editor More Uun two-dozen persons par ticipated in this year's m - Coun ty Agricultural Extension Advisory I tour The tour highlighted what County Extension Director Waily McAllister said was Uw first year of the county's long range program. 'Pathways to a ? VI Vl?i c 9, the tour hrtMtad a view of a ail maraary, commercial trout pro duction, a 4-H exhibit, project* of the Upper Laurel community Devatop nakeri. DavM Doan's tobacco burn and a part of the i went Weaverville Book Sale Saturday 'Real Finds9 To Be Sold By CHICK SQUIRE Correspondent There will be some real finds among the 30,000 books on sale this Saturday at the Weaverville Library because the library skipped its second-hand book sale last year. The sale will be held from ? a.m. until 5 p.m. Sept. 3. About 10 Weaverville volunteers have been busy pricing and sorting the books into categories. Magazines, paperbacks and records will be available, as always. Special features this year include a number of interesting art books and some unusual and rare books in the Collector's Corner. A lot of current fiction came to the booksale with other stock from a defunct Asheville book store and has been very reasonably priced. There is also an unusual number of cookbooks. Among Collector's Corner items is a book on hunting and Ashing in the lit * m/uiMtnino wesiern iNonn uarouna mouniains, one on birds of the Great Smokies, and an exceptionally broad collection of pohMahed versions of plays, in cluding most of the best of Broadway during the fc s tad M*s. Another gem to be on sale is a port folio of paintings of the flowers of Hawaii. 3 This year the sale - which takes
The News-Record (Marshall, N.C.)
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