The Cherokee Scout
and Clay County Progress
12
PAGES
15* Per Copy
..urp hy Carnegie Library 4-73
Peachtree Street
I!urphy, N.C., 28906
Volume 79 - Number 39 - Murphy, North Carolina, 28906 ? Second Class Postage Paid At Murphy, North Carolina ? Thursday, May 13, 1971
Melted Wiring
Electrician Don Hughes and Foreman Kneed
Kilby examine a melted switchbox at the edge of
the conveyor belt pit where the fire is believed to
have started Tuesday morning at Easley
Manufacturing. Other Easley employes had much
of the fire debris cleaned up by late Tuesday but
production has stopped for the remainder of the
week, with several saws destroyed by the fire.
Clay School Board Fires
Non-Partisan Label In Doubt
- fly Wally Avett
Staff Writer
The Clay County Board of
Education is supposed to be a
non-partisan group - but it fired
five people last week, leaving
some of the voters in doubt.
The Democrats are
represented on the five-man
board by William T. Groves and
James Price.
"I've tried my best to serve
impartially," Price said this
week. "But when something
like this happens, it's just a big
joke to me."
Price said the three new
Republican members of the
board, Haig Davenport, Edgar
Moore and Chairman Todd
Phillips, voted for the
dismissals. He said he and
Groves either voted against
firing the people "or else the
other three voted to fire them
firstand there wasn't any use in
us voting at all."
Price explained that "It
was the view of these men that
we should hire local people
rather than outsiders, people
who are not natives." Involved
were two Methodist preacher's
wives and a Shooting Creek
teacher who lived in Georgia.
Mrs. Ethel LeNeave was
the Shooting Creek teacher
whose contract was not
renewed for another year and
Mrs. Jerry Chapman, wife of
the Rev. Jerry Chapman, a
member of the Methodist parish
at Hayesville .was also
dismissed.
The Clay board did not
finish its deliberations on
Tuesday night and met again on
Thursday night at
Superintendent of Schools Scott
Beal's office. After the Tuesday
night meeting, Mrs. John
Burton, wife of the Hayesville
Methodist minister, resigned
her post.
Beal agreed with Price's
statement that the non-partisan
label of the board was a"joke"
and confirmed Price's report
that the principals of the
teachers involved had
recommended that they be
rehired.
Three other employes were
dismissed, without any reasons
made public. They were Frank
Ledford, truant officer; Boyd
Scroggs, the school
maintenance man; Mrs. Mary
Holder, the lunchroom
supervisor. Several teacher's
aides also lost their jobs.
Chairman Phillips,
contacted Monday night, said
he would not comment at all on
the action of the board. He
jokingly said that he really
wasn't sure what happened,
that he may have been sleeping
during part of the meetings and
might have raised his fingei
periodically, which may have
been counted as a voting
gesture.
Phillips said "the best I car
tell, they've all been replaced
with local Clay County people."
When asked if politics were
considered in hiring
replacements, he said he didn't
know. "We're kinda getting out
of politics over at school," he
said.
The chairman added that
he didn't believe there would be
any meetings to reconsider the
the action taken by the board.
Democrats in Clay County
had Rep. Erwin Patton of
Franklin introduce a bill in the
Legislature back in March
which would have scrapped th
the non-partisan basis for the
school board.
However , Clay County
teachers and the Hayesville
PTA solidly opposed it and
Patton allowed the bill to die in
committee before it ever was
voted on.
PTA Projects
Murphy Elementary Principal
Bill Hughes and Mrs. Ann Shook and
Mrs. Bennie Jo Graham of the PTA
pose with some of the playground
equipment purchased for the school
recently by the PTA as the
culmination of a three-year project.
The equipment was purchased with
$947 raised by the PTA and
issembled and installed with
volunteer labor from Tri-Tech,
Murphy High's agriculture classes
and the Mainstream project.
Carringer Photo)
Easley Production Halted
Fire Damages Pallet Plant
Easley Manufacturing Compan>
suffered extensive damage in an
early-morning fire Tuesday.
Insurance adjusters were on the
scene by Tuesday afternoon as
electricians checking out the building
all day discovered more and more
damage. 'The more we look, the
worse it gets," one said.
R.W. (Bob) Easley said he
estimated that damages would run
somewhere between $15,000 and
$25,000 to his plant. "But that's not
counting our lost production time," he
said grimly.
Easley said he hoped to crank up
production lines next Monday, if it
can be arranged. His firm has been in
its present location on Concaheeta
Street about six years, employing
about 40 men in making wooden
pallets, the raised skid on which
many items are shipped to facilitate
handling by forklift trucks.
The cause of the blaze has not yet
been determined. Easley and others
believe it started near two conveyor
belts, which were destroyed along
with several special saws which are
used to cut the lumber in specified
lengths for making the pallets.
The Murphy volunteer firemen
got the call about 5 o'clock Tuesday
morning and arriving at the scene,'
found an intensely hot blaze, confined
inside the metal building. They
chopped a hole in the side of the
building and had the fire under
control in about 20 minutes.
"They did a fine job," Easley said
Tuesday. "You can't praise them
enough."
The nearly-airtight building
contained the fire, Easley said,
confining it to one section. "If it had
gotten air, the whole building would
have been burned."
He added that the intense heat in
such a limited space was the reason
for the heavy damage to the, plant's
electrical system. Electricians
Tuesday found fuseboxes and all
wiring in the vicinity of the fire had
been melterd and welded into one
solid mass from the heat.
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NUMBERS
GAME
Scout readers next week will be able to
play an exciting Numbers Game and, if
they're lucky, buy bargains at fantastic low
prices.
Participating merchants will pick
numbers at random and post them on marked
down merchandise inside their stores. And
each issue of the Scout next week will carry its
own individual hand-stamped serial number.
The trick will be to match your paper's
number with the numbers in the stores. When
you find your number, you're a winner. You
may be able to buy a suit, a dress, a pair of
shoes, fishing rod, piano, appliance or any one
of many other items, at a ridiculously low
price.
It's a bargain-hunting at its best, it's fun
and it's easy to play. Play the Numbers
Game...in next week's Scout.
2 5 1 5579
NATIONAL
NEWSPAPER
197n^?oTT177rrrl0^1l7t
Chambers Began
Before Revolution
By Gene Farmer
President '
Chamber of Commerce
The Chamber of Commerce as a wholly voluntary institution in
the United States is eight years older than the Declaration of
Independence.
The New York State Chamber, first in America, was organized
in 1768 and five years later the first local Chamber was formed in
Charleston, South Carolina.
In these nearly 200 years Chambers of Commerce have steadily
developed to a high point of efficiency and have proved vitally
important in business and civic development throughout the nation.
Basically it is the business community at work as the central
agency for community development for business, industry, the
professions, and all civic interests, doing jobs that no individual can
do alone, rendering many sendees that benefit all citizens.
The Chamber of Commerce works through committees which
analyze problems, develop solutions and take actions to achieve the
objectives which solve the problems. For example:
1. Committee work designed to stimulate new business;
conventions, promotions, industrial development, retail trade
promotion, agriculture, etc.
2. Committee work directed toward community improvement,
civic development, beautification, health and dafety, traffic and
transportation, etc.
3. Committee work designed to promote good citizenship,
legislative activities, get-out-the-vote campaigns, education, etc.
4. Committee work on organization improvement, membership
promotion, program of work, committee on committees.
We believe there is no more profitable investment for any
businessman, industrialist or professional man than his annual
financial investment in the local Chamber of Commerce.
Television Teacher
Mrs. Patsy Hendrix, shown above
teaching a literature class at Murphy
High, became a television "star" for
a short time last Thursday as a video
taping crew from Western Carolina
University moved its equipment to
the school. The small camera at left
records a teacher's classroom
presentation on the video-taping
machine at lower right. It is then
replayed on the television set for
evaluation. The process has also been
used recently at the elementary
school for student eteachers.
Bad Bills Reported
Counterfeit money is
showing up again in Murphy,
Wachovia Bank officers
reported this week.
Cherokee Sheriff Blain
Stale up and state and federal
officers seized a large quantity
of bogus 10-dollar bills at a
Bealtown housetrailer last
December and serveral bad 20
dollar bills were passed in the
county during December.
A Knoxville man was
charged with the big haul in
bad 10's but no arrests were
made on the passing of the bad
20's.
Wachovia Bank reported in
the past two weeks it has again
been getting counterfeit money.
both 10's and 20's. Two of the
fake 20-dollar bills were
received at the bank on Monday
morning.
"The last two we got are
poor", a bank spokesman said.
"Although some of the earlier
ones were fairly good. They
should be detected easily,
though, because the paper is
obviously bad."
Appropriate federal and
state officers have been
notified, he said, and are
investigating the case. The
bank officers warned
merchants to examine any bills
they suspect of being
counterfeit. Even on those with
a good printing job, they said,
reproduction of the Treasury
seal with its many sharp points
is "terrible."
The fake ltklollar bill bears
a serial number of E04034523A,
the bankers said, and the 20's
come with either of two serial
numbers, D54048722C or
JO4291069A.
Softball
THURSDAY MAY 13
6:30-Martins Creek-Westco
7:45 I -evi-Strauss-Martins
Creek Girls
9:00 First Baptist Church
Wachovia Bank
FRIDAY MAY 14
6:30-Be 11 vie w-Sunshine
Potato Chips
7:45 WCVP-Westco
9:00 Texana-Wachovia
Bank
MONDAY MAY 17
6:30 Martins Creek
Sunshine Potato Chips
7:45 American Thread
I>evi Straus (girls)
9:00 First Baptist Church
Ga. Boot
TUESDAY MAY 18
6:30 Westco-Wachovia
Bank
7:45 Martins Creek
Providence Hospital (Girls)
9:00 WCVP-Sunshlne
Potato Chips
. nirnn i fr ?
4-Square
Meeting Set
The monthly I
board of director* of
Square Community Action, Inc.
wiD be held Monday night at tin
Andrews Community Center.
The Meeting begins at 7:10,
an board members are urged to
attend and the aeaaion nk be
open to the public.
DE Banquet
Steve McDonald, standing rear,
president of the Distributive
Education Club at Murphy High,
presided over the club's annual
banquet, held last Thursday night at
O'Dell's Restaurant. DE students and
their employers attended, with
certificates of appreciation being
presented to participating
employers. (Staff Photo)
This is Chamber of Commerce Month . . . Support Chamber