Kurp hy Carnegie Library 4-73
Peachtree Street
Murphy# N.C., 28906
The Cherokee Scout
16 Pages
and Clay County Progress 15* Per Copy
*
Volume 81 ? Number 4? Murphy, North Carolina, 28906 - Second Class Postage Paid At Murphy, North Carolina ? Thursday, August 20, 1970
Dedications
Planned For
Water Systems
Texana and Marble are now
planning dedication ceremonies
far their new community water
systems, completed and placed
in operation earlier this month.
More than a quarter-million
dollars in federal money made
construction of the community
systems possible, financed by
grants from the Economic
Development Administration
and loans through the Farmers
Home Administration.
Giles Bryson, who heads the
community water system at
Marble, said Tuesday that
dedication ceremonies for the
system are planned for
Saturday, Sept. 19 at the
Marble Community Center.
Representatives of both the
EDA and the FHA will speak
at the 3 p.m. ceremony,
Bryson said. The Marble
system was built with a
$100,000 grant from EDA and
a $100,000 loan from the
FHA, he explained, the loan to
be eventually paid off through
the fees charged users.
Frank Sudderth, who heads
the Texana Community
Non-Profit Water Corp., said
ceremonies at Texana will be
on Sept. 11 at the Texana
Community Building, with
EDA and FHA officials to
speak. The Texana system was
built with a grant from the
EDA of $45,800 and a loai
from the FHA of $20,800.
Texana has always ha<
trouble getting water and man;
residents hauled it fron
springs. Community leader
saw a solution when th
all-Negro Texana school, whicl
had a good well, was close*
and its students assigned t<
Murphy schools.
Two other wells were drilfa
but the flow from them was s>
small that for all practice
purposes the Texana systen
depends on the well at the oi<
school. A new 10,000 galloi
tank was erected for th
system by Wells & West,
general contractor on both
projects, which serves in
addition to the old tank at the
school building.
At Marble, wells were
shallow, easily polluted by
septic tanks and the water
tasted of iron or lime. The new
system brings good water, with
no bad taste, to Marble from
four wells drilled on U.S.
Forest Service land on Almond
Creek. A huge 250,000 gallon
tank welded together on the
spot by the construction crews
holds the water for Marble,
which is supplied by gravity
force from the higher Almond
Creek Section.
Republicans Protest
Registration Policy
Two Republican voices were
lifted this week in loud protest
at the decision of the Cherokee
County Board of Eeiections
last week that the county voter
registration books will not go
back to the precincts.
The county is now under a
loose-leaf registration system
whereby voters can register on
Tuesday, Thursdays or
Saturday until noon at the
Courthouse in Murphy. Glenn
Stalcup, chairman of the
county Board of Elections,
announced last week that
despite requests by some
candidates that the books be
returned to the precincts for
reigstration, his board had
decided not to do it.
Stalcup said the three-man
elections board decided not to
send the books to the
precincts, as was done before
the loose leaf system as started,
because it would strain the
board's budget.
Stalcup and Fred McDonald
are the Democrats on the
elections board. The lone
Republican, Robert Hartness,
said he did not go along with
the decision but was out-voted
by the two Democrats.
"The voter registration
books should be taken back to
the precincts for the
convenience of the people,"
Hartness said. He said a trip to
the Courthouse to register, "is a
great inconvenience to the
elderly people in the outlying
areas of the county. Some of
these people would be forced
to travel 50 to 75 miles round
trip to register."
Jack Simonds, Republican
county ommissioner from Wolf
Creek, said the budget for the
elections board was an increase
over last year's, with $2,000 in
it for registrars' pay.
"1 only went along with the
increase because I thought he
was going to send the books
back to the precincts," Simonds
said Tuesday night. "Stalcup
said that was the reason for
part of the increase, that they
were going to send the books
back out."
Simonds said the registrars,
one for each of the 17
precincts, are paid $20 a day
and pointed out that their
usual two days of work for the
general election would cost
only about $700. The rest of
the $2,000, he said, was to pay
for registering voters at the
precincts.
Funeral Is Held
For Crash Victim
Funeral services were held
Sunday afternoon at First
Baptist Church for Alan
Godfrey, 17, killed on Sunday
of last week in an airplane
crash in Peru.
The Rev. Woodrow Flynn
officiated and burial was in
Sunset Cemetery.
Pallbearers were Mitch
Myeis, Chris Schuyler, Bill
Dyer, Grover Smith, Tommy
Townson, Sammy Odell,
Carlton Van Horn and Tommy
Fisher.
Godfrey was a member of
the Murphy High School Beta
Club, the Aviation Club and
the Spanish Club. He was a
Junior Marshal and had a
perfect attendance record for
three years of high school.
He had gone to Peru on a
student exchange program and
was visited there earlier this
month by his parents, Mr. and
Mb. Kenneth Godfrey of
Together the Godfreys had
toured parts of Peru and then
split up the day before the
fatal crash, the parents flying
on to see some Inca ruins and
the son to fly back to the
capital of Lima. The airliner
crashed near Cuzco, taking all
on board to their deaths,
including about 45 American
exchange students.
In addition to his parents,
Godfrey is survived by two
brothers, Tony and Mike
Godfrey, both of the home in
Murphy; the paternal
grandmother, Mis. Pearl
Mac hen of Etowah, Tenn., and
the maternal grandparents, Mr.
and Mis. Loe Viol ants of
CarroKon, Ga.; the foster
grandmother, Mrs. Berta
Tanner of Atlanta, Ga.; the
great-grandfather, Hariey
Marrow of Etowah, Tenn.
Tow neon Funeral Hme of
Murphy was In ehmge of
,2? f "
;; J* v
James Garrett...Unaka's only new first-grader
Unaka Losing fupils;
Now Down To Only 62
At Unaka Tuesday morning James
" Roosevelt Garrett handed his big orange
, drink to his sister for a moment and
posed beside the sign with scaling paint
which reads "Unaka Elementary
, School."
And that's how the photograph of the
first grade at Unaka was made - because
little James Garrett is the first grade, all
! by himself.
"The school is losing ground all
ralong," says Principal Neil Marcus. "The
i.bett thing 1 can see is consolidation with
( Murphy.
"'The community hates to lose it," he
raddf?d, " because the school is the
kNuniber 2 social activity, right behind
the church. I can see why they wouldn't
' want to lose it but the kids would be
better off in Murphy."
James Garrett will enter the first
' grade at Unaka next week without
' benefit of Headstart or any other
, kindergarten program, Marcus said,
simply because Unaka doesn't have
enough youngsters to have a program.
The school, with 62 students to begin
classes next week, also doesn't qualify
for more than two teachers, he added,
but a third teacher is provided through a
special allotment by the state Board of
Education.
The Garrett boy will be in Mrs. Lucile
> Morrow's room and she'll also be
teaching second and third graders in the
'same room.
"The kids get less than full time from
their teachers," Marcus says. "A teacher
can only do so much in the dayandwith
three grades in the same room, the kids
; in each grade are actually getting about
three months of school rather than the
nine months they could get in a room
with only one grade."
At Unaka, the fourth and fifth grades
will be in one room and the sixth,
seventh and eighth will be in another
room. In addition to Mrs. Morrow,
Marcus teaches a class and so does John
Verner.
But Marcus says the three may be cut
to two next year, leaving little choice for
the eight-grade Unaka school. The 62
students this year is a drop of six or
seven from last year and will be noted by
the state board when the first attendance
reports are made.
"They wouldn't take the extra third
teacher away from us in the middle of
the school year," he said. "But with only
62 and a drop again for next year, they
might not continue to give us three
teachers."
Families are cutting back on the
number of children they rear, Marcus
says, and also Unaka is losing many
families which move to Atlanta or to
Murphy, to be closer to the plants and
the steady paycheck. He sees more losses
in the next two or three years. "We'll be
graduating eight or nine eighth graders to
the high school at Murphy and bringing
in only two or three first- graders each
year."
Statistics kept in the Courthouse
office of School Superintendent John
Jordan show that Unaka's present school
building, still in good condition, was
erected in 1952. That year there were a
total of 152 students enrolled there, 23
of them first-grade pupils.
Jordan said consolidation of Unaka
with Murphy schools won't be forced.
But he indicated that the county Board
of Education is well aware of the
problem and said no trouble is forseen in
consolidating, when Unaka parents are
ready for it.
From Unaka to the Murphy Schools
is 15 miles each way and Jordan said
state education officials are just as aware
of the distance involved as the Unaka
parents.
Jordan noted that Unaka is probably
in worse shape than any other school as
far as losing students, but the school is
certainly not alone.
White Church School had 228
students the year Unaka was built and
now has only 100. Martin's Creek had
281 students back in 1952, today has
152.
Readv For School
At the county garage, Cherokee
County schoolbuses are ready for
another year's work, cleaned and
repaired for distribution to student
drivers. Their daily grind begins next
week, with registration on Tuesday for
all schools in the county and the first
full day set for Wednesday (Staff
Photo)
Budget Group On Tour
The state Advisory Budget Commission visited
Tri-County Tech briefly Monday morning before
going to Cullowhee to tour Western Carolina
University. Shown left to right are State Senator
Lindsay Warren of Goldsboro; W. Kenneth Anderson
of Newiand, who replaced the late Frank Forsyth of
Murphy on the group; Tri-Tech President Holland
McSwain; former State Senator Tom White of
Kinston, who heads the budget group; Representative
Thorne Gregory of Scotland Neck. (Staff Photo)
Clay Timber Sale Blocked
A Florida Girt Scout group
Tuesday went to court to stop
sale of timber in eastern Clay
County by the U.S. Forest
Service.
The action brought by the
Girl Scout officials Tuesday in
federal court in Asheville is
aimed at stopping actual
cutting of timber, the standing
trees having already been sold
by the Forest Service.
District Ranger Harold
Fisher of the Nantahala
National Forest said Tuesday
that the Bradley Brothers
operation of Franklin has
purchased the timber stand,
located on the headwaters of
the Tallulah River.
Ranger Fisher said the
decision of the court will
"probably have a great
bearing" on how the Forest
Service will conduct sales in
the future and whether or not
private groups will be able to
successfully block sales.
The timber is located on
National Forest land near
private property operated as a
Girl Scout camp by the
Suncoast Girl Scout Council of
Tampa, Fla.
The Girl Scout officials
objected to the sale of timber
on 1,291 acres near its camp,
saying that cutting of trees and
building of logging trails would
mar the area for their hiking
and nature studies.
The Forest Service argued
that the area needs to be
logged over, that red and white
oak trees there are over-mature
and retarding the growth of
younger trees. The Forest
Service also pointed out that
there are a number of other
forest areas near the camp, in
both North Carolina and
Georgia, that are maintained as
nature or scenic areas and kept
reserved from commercial
Tri-County Tech
Slates Graduation
Tri -County Technical
Institute will hold its
graduation exercises on
Thursday night of next week at
8 o'clock at the Peachtree
Elementary School.
The speaker will be Dr. W.
Amos Abrams, editor emeritus
of the N.C. Education
magazine in Raleigh, a position
he has held for about 25 years.
Tri-Tech President Holland
McSwain said about 70
diplomas and certificates will
be given, some for competition
of courses at the school in
masonry, welding, auto body
repair, mechanical repair,;
business and cosmetology. '
Others, he added, will be for
those having passed the GELD
tests and therefore winning
what amounts to a high school
diploma.
Forestry Headquarters
Is Shown At Peachtree
i ne Advisory Budget
Commission on its visit
Monday to Tri-County Tech
also took a quick tour of the
new forestry headquarters
building at Peachtree.
The building, located
behind Tri-Tech, was
completed recently and got a
fresh coat of paint in
preparation for the budget
group's tour.
It contains offices for
Cherokee County Forest
Ranger Harold Hatchett and
for Clay Ranger John Payne, a
imber production.
Regional Forester T.A.
ichlapfer made the decision to
ell the timber after delaying
he sale for two weeks to allow
i study group of both foresters
ind Girl Scout officials to
urvey the situation.
After the study team had
ooked at the situation, it
idvised that the sale be held as
cheduled.
The Forest Service agreed to
educe the area from the
iriginal 1,291 acres to 474 in
>rder to leave as much of a
uffer zone as possible
etween the sale and the Girl
cout camping area.
The Forest Service also
greed to other steps so that
he logging operations would
'have no harmful effect" on
he Girl Scout property. These
nclude locating logging roads
iway from the camp and
eeding them with grass after
he timber is removed.
firefighting equipment locker,
kitchen facilities, a storage area
and a garage and grease rack
for servicing vehicles.
The building also contains a
communications room used by
the U.S. Forest Service as an
aerial dispatch headquarters.
Payne and Hatchett are happy
to have federal firefighters and
don't charge them any rent for
use of the state-owned
building.
The reason, they explain, is
that the federal Forest Service
airplanes are looking for fires
on federal lands but also are
quite willing to report any fires
they may spot on private lands,
which are the responsiility of
the local county forest rangers.
North Carolina District
Ranger Jack Farmer of Sylva
noted that the state of North
Carolina cannot afford to pay
the full price of construction
for forestry headquarters and
therefore purchased only the
material.
Hatchett said the $10,000
appropriation for building
materials for the
headquarters building was
secured by
McGlamery of day County
and Sen. Mary Faye Brumby of
Cherokee.
the building,
$30,000, wa
Communications Control
District N.C. Forest Ranger Jack
Palmer of Syhra, left, and Cherokee
County Ranger Harold Hatchett display
the multiple radios and telephones in
the fire control communications room
at the new forestry headquarters
building at Peach tree. State and federal
firefighting efforts are controlled from
this room, offering protection for gpn
a million acres. (Staff Photo) v