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The Cherokee Scout
and Clay County Progress
Volume 80 ? Number 16- Murphy, North Carolina, 28906 ? Second Class Postage Paid At Murphy, North Carolina ? Thursday, November 13, 1969
IOC
Per Copy
Outstanding Teenagers
At Hiwassee Dam School, three
udents have been selected for
impetition as Outstanding Teenagers
' America. Principal Rex Sudderth
id they were nominated by the school
and will compete for state and national
awards. They are (L-R) Kathy Jane
Fox, a Junior; Shirley Anne Anderson,
Senior; Sharon Cecile Bagley, Junior.
Hospital Authority
Sets Open Meeting
The Murphy Hospital Authority will hold a public
eeting Monday night in the courtroom of the
herokee County Courthouse, beginning at 7:30.
Engineers and an interior decorating expert will be
i hand to present plans for modernization of the
iterior of Providence Hospital and interested citizens
e urged to attend.
The hospital authority has voted to renovate the
iterior of the hospital, including painting and lighting,
ngineers provided by American Thread, Rimco, Clifton
recision and Peachtree Products have studied the
rbjeCt, at no cost to the town or the hospital board,
id will present their plans at the meeting.
The renovation will serve several purposes, according
> members of the authority. Jack Owens, publisher of
he Scout and chairman of the hospital authority, says
Urphy will probably have to build a hospital within
ire years. But Providence will have to serve until a new
lilding is put into service and at the present, Murphy
jes not have enough doctors to adequately serve the
>wn, much less staff a new hospital.
A facelifting for the interior of Providence, Owens
ys, will provide definite benefits for patients. To
ipport this, he quotes medical reports which say
light, fresh surroundings aid considerably in giving a
itient the peace of mind needed for rapid recovery.
New painting and better lighting at Providence,
wens added, will keep the local hospital in good shape
t service until a new one is built and a bright interior
ill also be of help in attracting new doctors to Murphy,
>ctors who are needed now but will have to be here
(fore plans for a new hospital can be laid.
The hospital authority this week embarked on an
lucate-the-public campaign for the modernization
ogram.
Informational public service programs featuring
>spital authority members explaining the project were
red on radio stations WKRK and WCVP. Citizens
wing questions about the project are invited to
rite the radio stations or this newspaper.
Tuesday night Owens and authority members Hans
ierkins, Bill Christy and Doug Carlson spoke to the
ons Club, meeting at Odell's Restaurant. They
iplained in detail the makeup of the hospital authority
id plans for the modernization project.
Hospital authority members are available to speak to
her civic clubs to explain the project.
r
Retires From TVA
Charles F. Bates Sr., of Unaka, retired Oct. 31 after
I years with TVA. He Worked the first six years of his
VA career on dam construction projects and then was
nptoyed as a machinist at Hiwassee Dam. Working on
irbines, water systems, generating units, air
an pressors and other equipment at the dam, he says he
prer lost any time to an accident. He says he will use
? retirement to travel and get caught up on his fishing.
1MB Photo)
Houses Burn
At Culberson
Two houses have burned
rather mysteriously at
Culberson within the past two
weeks but Omrokee Sheriff
Claude Andenon says his
office has no evidence of arson.
The sheriff snys he was
asked to look into the burning
of the Luther Klinihurg home
by Mis. Iisne Stewe of
Peach tree, who owned the
house.
Sheriff Andenon aho
reported that a house on
Dickey Road owned by Mrs.
Beecher Lather am burned.
Both homes were meant
and both burnad to the
pound. There is no fire
department in that end of the
county.
Meeting Set
At Ogden
The Ogden Community
Action meeting wiD be held
Monday, Nov. 17, at the school
building. A covaeed dish supper
will begin at 6:30 p.m. and the
business reason wifl start at
7:30. People from Warne,
Brasatown and Pine Log are
invited to attend.
Complaints About Leaving Station Unmanned
Town Council Warns Police To 'Shape Up'
The Muiphy Town Council, stung by
complaints that town policemen spend too
much time drinking coffee and leave the police
office and phone unmanned, Monday night
gave strict orders to Chief Pete Stalcup.
Council members told Chief Stalcup to "lay
down the law to them" and one councilman
added "If it takes firing to make believers out
of them, then do it."
Mayor Cloe Moore brought up the matter,
saying he had received a number of complaints
about policemen not staying at the office to
answer the telephone. He said last week a
citizen went to the office and found no one but
Aortly found four policemen together, coming
out of a restaurant.
"There's absolutely no reason at all for
that," said Councilman Ken Godfrey. "They
riiouldn't have been there together unless they
were having riot over there.
"They're not staying around the station," he
added. "And when people call the police, they
expect somebody to answer that phone."
Town councflmen also voted unanimously to
provide office space for the Farmers Home
Administration, being pushed out of the
courthouse to provide more space for the Social
Services department.
The additional space for Social Services is
demanded by the federal government, which
pays 80 per cent of support for welfare of
county wards. Not furnishing the additional
office space would mean a loss of the federal
support for the program and Cherokee County
commissioners last week reluctantly told the
FHA personnel to look for a new office.
The councilmen said they wanted to keep
the FHA office in Murphy and voted to give
office space in the building where the town fire
trucks are kept, if the county will pay for
finishing the interior work on the office.
The space, it was explained by Town Clerk
Charlie Johnson, is presently in a rough state as
it is used only for storage of town properties,
such as Christmas decorations.
The FHA has loaned out several million
dollars in the past several years for home
construction in this county, according to
Robert Bruce, who heads the local office. It
only asks that it be provided with space,
rent-free.
W. T. Moore, chairman of the Cherokee
County commissioners, said Tuesday night that
the county is interested in the proposition and
wiU look into fixing up the space for an FHA
office. However, he said county funds are
limited and the actual money figure as to how
much the county can do will have to wait until
the next regular commissioners' meeting in
December.
Two men from Bell view, Charles Anderson
and Steve Brogdon, requested that they be
allowed to dump trash from a planned county
garbage pickup service at the town dump.
Johnson told councilmen that a fee system
for private dumping at the town facility was
established in the past at 50 cents for a pickup
truck load and $1 for larger trucks. He warned
that if the town has to go to a landfill system in
the future, such an operation is expensive and
dumping fees would have to increase.
Councilmen decided to let the Bellview
partners dump at the Murphy facility according
to the fee system with the understanding that
the fees would go up if the cost of running the
dump increases. The two men accepted and the
councilmen wished them luck, saying a county
pickup service will probably be well received.
In other business, the Town Council
. voted to make refunds to taxpayers who
prepayed their taxes when the county had
changed valuations, making for
overpay ments.The total, Johnson said,
amounted to over $4,000.
- voted to reimburse those who attend
meetings considered town business, namely
Mayor Moore and Johnson, for gas and other
expenses.
? voted to pay police officers $2 a day for
the period in which they used their own private
cars in their duties, the time recently when the
town was without a police car after the auto
was wrecked. The total, it was explained, would
be less than $50.
Boxwoods For Cemetery
Mrs. Edgar Harshaw, left, Mrs. Holland McSwain
and Mrs. Ruth Forsyth are pictured at Sunset
Cemetery where the Murphy Garden Club, of which
they are members, has placed a number of boxwoods
and other shrubs. Contributing plants for the
beautification project were Mrs. Cecil Mills, Mrs.
Beryl Sneed and Mrs. Bertha Bates, all of Murphy.
Mr. and Mrs. Harry Ferguson of Sylva gave 35
boxwoods in memory of the Tom Evans family of
Murphy. Helton Carmichael, a former Murphy
resident and now head of the Arrowwood Job Corps
Center at Franklin, led a squad of Job Corpsmen to
Sylva which dug up the memorial boxwoods and
readied them for shipment to Murphy. (Staff Photo)
Gibsons Indicted
For Tax Evasion
The federal Grand Jury in
AsheviUe Tuesday indicted
Roy A. Gibson and his son
Virgil, both of Andrews, for
income tax evasion.
The Gibsons, who operate a
retail furniture business in
Andrews, are charged with
failing to report their true
incomes. The bill of indictment
filed against the elder Gibson
charges him with failing to
report on $46,979 in the years
1962-1965. The son, Virgil, is
charged with failing to report
on $22,743 in 1964-1965.
The government is claiming
a total of $11,966 in back
taxes from Roy Gibson and
Mental Health
Meeting Set
An educational meeting in
regard to formation of a
mental health association for
Clay, Cherokee and Graham
counties will be held at the
Murphy Power Board building
tonight (Thursday) at 7:30.
Mrs. Cloe Moore, mental
health chairman for Cherokee
in the State of Franklin Health
Council, urges all interested
citizens to attend.
$5,349 from Virgil, plus
penalties.
The federal case against the
Gibsons charges that the elder
Gibson had a total income of
$66,817 in the years
1962-1965, but reported and
paid income taxes on $19,839.
The son, the government says,
reported and paid taxes on
$10,868 in 1964-1965 when he
actually had an income of
$33,611.
Zoning Heorinys
Are Scheduled
The Murphy Planning
Board, in a called meeting
Monday afternoon, set
Thursday Nov. 20, as a public
hearing on two matters of
rezoning.
C.L. Alverson has requested
that property on Biuminthal
Street from Alpine Avenue to
Cherry Street be re zoned as
Highway Business. Will Rogers
has requested that his
property, where his house
burned, on Connaheeta Drive
be rezoned to residence 2, so
he may put a mobile home
there.
TVA, Forest Officials Veto
Release Of Lakeside Lands
Lake Hrwaeeee is low simply
due to I ess-than-usual rainfall
during the past three yean.
Both the Forest Service and
the Tennessee Valley
Authority are in favor ol
keeping Hiwasaee a natural,
wilderness type lake and both
agencies oppose making land
available for building of private
lake homes by individuals.
When all the talk was boiled
down, that was the
information local civic leaden
gained from a meeting last
Thursday with Peter J. Hanlon,
supervisor of National Forests
in North Carolina, and Walter
Arrants, TVA manager of
properties.
Murphy Chamber ol
Commerce officers had
requested the meeting, to
discuss the low level of the lake
and the possibilities to free
some federally-coo trolled land
for construction of lakeside
homes.
Arrants said the level of the
lake depended on several
factors - how much water was
needed downstream for
navigation on the Tennesaee
River, how much is needed at
any set time for generating
power, how much rain has
fallen, how much of the rain
which falls reaches the lake as
runoff water and how much
space must be left in the
reservoir for flood control to
accommodate the seasonal
rains of fall and winter.
The rainfall is bask, he said,
and "You can't have the lake
full with inadequate rainfall."
He said rainfall figures for the
past three yean are below
average and TVA is haaring
complaints from all ovar the
system of lakes.
"Nobody's being robbed of
water," he said, adding that
users of other lakes think
sometimes that their water is
being taken to maintain a high
level at Hiwassee. He added
specifically that he has heard
complaints about low levels
from Lake Chatuge and
Nottley and that Fontana and
Norris lakes are also low.
Tom Gentry, Chamber
president suggested that if the
low lake level is to persist,
launching ramps be extended
so boaters and fishermen can
put their boats in the water
when the lake is low without
getting their vehicles stuck in
the mud.
Hanlon agreed to look into
the situation, with indications
that the ramp facilities at
Hanging Dog Campground
would probably be considered
first for extension.
Gentry then put in a request
that land along the lake be
opened up for development,
saying the government controls
40 per cent of the land in
Cherokee County, "land is at a
premium and we've gone about
as far as we can."
Hanlon opposed the
suggestion, saying "Hiwassee is
the kind of lake the federal
government is spending money
to keep in a natural condition.
It's zoned and it should be
kept zoned."
He added that the
topography of the lakeshore is
so rugged that any
development will result in
much damage.
Gentry and others then
suggested the poasibility of
developing a small section in
the Grape Creek area and there
was some discussion of this but
no agreement was reached, as
the TV A representative joined
Hanlon in defense of
naturalness and keeping the
lake a wilderness area for
enjoyment by urban dwellers
tired of their concrete jungles.
"Why should I have to look
up at your house when I'm
riding on the lake in my boat?"
Arrants asked.
The land around the lake, it
was explained, was purchased
by TVA and then given to the
Forest Service for control.
However, Arrants said, before
the Forest Service could
dispose of the land TVA would
have to be consulted and TVA
is neither leasing or selling
lakeside property for private
development.
Both Hanlon and Arrants
said a lake left in its natural
state would be a tourist
attraction in the future as more
land is settled by a growing
population and such quiet
recreation areas become scarce.
MoIImm Visit
Tom Mallonee, district
assistant to Congressman Roy
A. Taylor, is making scheduled
visits around Taylor's 11th
District and will be in this area
on Tuesday, Nov. 18.
Mallonee will begin on
Tuesday at 9 a.m. at the Town
Hall in Andrews. At 11 that
morning he will be at the City
Hall hen in Murphy and that
afternoon he will go to Clay
County, to be at the
courthouse in Hayesville at 3
p.m.
FFA Contest Winners H
The Future Farmers of America team from
Hayesville High School won a contest held in Murphy
Monday afternoon in which agricultural tools and
materials were identified. Seven other schools had
teams in the competition: Franklin, Bryson City,
Murphy, Stecoah, Robbinsville, Andrews and
Hiwassee Dam. The winners, front to back, were
Maurice England, Kenneth Anderson, Robert Beal
and Denny Woody. Their agriculture teacher, Ed
Roach, says they will go to Raleigh for the state
contest sometime in the Spring. Murphy cause in
second and the Hiwassea Dam PPA team was
third.(Staff Photo)
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