Pe?chtre? 5ii
Murphy, N?C.? 28906
The Cherokee Scout
Pag2.,.15- p.f Copy Clay County Progress
Volume 79- Number *1 -Murphy, N. C. 28906-Second Class Postage Paid at Murphy, N. C.-Thursday, May 27, 1971
IN MEMO
DFBORAH JEAN
MEMBER 2. 1953
KENNETH ALA.N,
RUARY 8. 1953
SUZANNL
l|ER 4. 19
Memorial Plaza Dedicated
Former Editor Bill Gray has returned to the
Scout Staff for the Summer, before resuming his
college studies this Fail, and made this double print
)f the dedication last Friday of the Memorial Plaza
it Murphy High. The two negatives, one of the
>laque bearing the names of the three Seniors
tilled in accidents last year, and the other, of the
overall dedication ceremony, were made
separately and then combined in one print. Friends
and families of the three and the student body of the
school attended the dedication. Construction of the
plaza was a special project of the Senior Class, with
assistance of teachers and local contractor John
Smith.
%
?To Beg'11
ial"S okee June 1
In CKer?ke
If you stop by the store next
londay afternoon and get a
ollar's worth of groceries, your
>tal bill will be $1.03.
Buy the very same items on
ucsday jnorning and it 11 cost
u *1%:
The rising cost of groceries
not expected to jump again
pxt Monday night but the new
Minty sales tax will go into
ffect next Tuesday morning,
ri extra penny on the dollar.
The Cherokee County Board
(Irmmnissioners, which
oted to levy the tax, won't be
[Jle to lean on it quite as
flavily as members had
xpected, according to Mrs.
tuth Sprung, county
ccountant.
Cherokee is looking forward
j getting about $150,000 a year
-om the local one percent tax,
he said, but the tax will be
ullected by the North Carolina
department of Revenue along
iith the state's regular three
?ercent sales tax and then
eturned to the county.
Although the sales tax
'<?gins June 1 in Cherokee, Mrs.
torung said a letter from the
late revenue office in Raleigh
ndicates that payment will be
nade to the county on a
luarterly basis and the first
,'ayment won't be received here
intil November.
She said that probably
neans instead of the
?ommissioners getting the full
150.000 back from the state
'uring fiscal 1971-72, actually
inly about three-quarters of
hat will be received here
luring the fiscal year, which
uns from JuJv 1,1971 to July 1,
972.
The commissioners, who
re now in the process of
rawing up a budget for the
oming fiscal year, have said in
le past that the local sales tax
^oney would keep property
ixes from increasing and
might mean a cut in property
taxes.
An official of the state
revenue department said
Monday that the extra penny on
the dollar will apply only to
items which are now taxed by
the state at three percent. The
state gets lesser taxes, two
percent and one percent, on
items, he said, such as boats
and boat motors, cars and farm^
machinery. He said these will
not be affected by the new local
tax.
In Cherokee County, the
original local sales tax was
defeated in the election of
November, 1969. After the first
law was knocked down by the
State Supreme Court back in
January, the Legislature
passed a new local sales tax law
and under its provisions, the
Cherokee commissioners levied
the tax, making the decision in
late April. They had first called
for a vote of the people on the
matter, then decided to put the
tax into effect on their own,
which was allowed by the new
law.
In Clay County, the voters
approved the tax on the original
vote and it was in effect there
during 1970. After the
legislature passed the new law,
the commissioners there put it
back into effect in Gay and the
sales tax there got back into
action the first of May.
In Clay, the tax brings in
between $3,000 and $4,000 a
month, which is shared with
Hayesville. Cherokee, likewise,
will share the sales tax money
with the two incorporated
towns. Murphy and Andrews.
Thief Falls
Into A&P Store
A would-be thief who broke into the A&P
store here in Murphy on Saturday night got
nothing at all and was lucky he didn't break a
leg.
Murphy Police Chief Pete Stalcup, who is
investigating the break-in, said the robber
climbed to the roof of the store, wrenched the
top off a ventilating shaft and slid down the
shaft.
When he reached the end of the
vertical shaft. Chief Stalcup said, the intruder
couldn't stop and fell through the ceiling into
the floor of the store. Apparently unhurt, the
culprit then made his way to the store's office,
ransacked it and tried, without success, to cut
the hinges off the safe with a hacksaw.
Chief Stalcup said store employes could
find nothing missing. The thief, with nothing
to show for his troubles, had to break his way
back out of the store, the officer said.
Virgil Kephart 1
Kephart New
Tax Supervisor
Paul Nave is resigning as
Cherokee County's tax
supervisor and Virgil Kephart
will take over the post
beginning June 1.
Nave took the office early
last December as the new
Republican county
administration was sworn in
and has served since then.
A former Cherokee County
Extension agent, he begins
work June 1 in Rutherfordton as
assistant county supervisor for
the Farmers Home
Administration there.
Kephart worked for a
number of years for the
Chevrolet dealership in Murphy
and recently has been operating
a gas station on the Joe Brown
Highway. He is a resident of the
Hanging Dog section.
II
Graduation Exercises
This was a typical scene of the season as
Valedictorian Kathy Fox addressed the 44 Seniors
iduating at Hiwassee Dam on Friday night,
lurphy High graduated 106 in ceremonies at the
100I gym onSunday afternoon and Andrews
iduated 55 on Tuesday night. Hayesville High
will give diplomas to 65 in graduation exercises at
the school next Monday night. Cherokee schools let
out for Summer on Thursday of this week. Clay
schools let out on Thursday of next week. (Lonnie
Britt Photo)
New Hiawassee Hospital
Sets Open House Sunday
Open House will be held for
te public Sunday afternoon at
the new $2 million Towns
County Hospital at Hiawassee,
Ga.
The sparkling new hospital
facility has 42 beds for regular
hospital patients and another 30
beds make up the nursing home
connected to the hospital.
The hospital activities are
currently going on in their
nursing home section as
construction was being finished
on the actual hospital.
Therefore members of the
Towns County Hospital
Authority cordially invite the
public to come to the Open
House and tour the hospital
section, which is not occupied at
the present time.
Those inspecting the new
hospital will see the very latest
in up-to-date, modern hospital
construction, all done under the
strict supervision of the Georgia
Department of Public Health.
The building is two-story,
all-masonry construction,
completely fireproof. In
addition there is an electronic
fire alarm system which
monitors all parts of the
hospital.
Nurses won't have to crank
any beds to raise or lower a
patient, all the beds are new,
electrically controlled. And
there are no wards-no room
has more than two beds in it.
There is an intensive care
section where nurses are
stationed in tha room with
patients t ound-th^d&ck, there
is a large emergency room
section, there are several
operating rooms and a
comprehensive maternity
section.
The hospital's primary
service area is Towns and
Union Counties in Georgia and
also Clay County in North
Carolina, according to the
administrator, J.S. Homes. He
pointed out that the hospital
serves nearly all the medical
needs of Clay County and
patients from Clay
outnumbered those from either
of the two Georgia counties
during April.
Guy Puett is chairman of
the hospital authority and Bob
Anderson is vice chairman.
Howell Abbott serves as
secretary and treasurer and
other members are L.J.
Nichols, Jerry Palmer. J.L.
Hooper Jr., J.W. Denton, Mrs.
Mattie Lou Rogers and Zell
Miller.
Puett and Anderson said the
hospital began in Hiawassee
with the completion in
February of 1952 of the 13-bed
Lee M. Happ Memorial
Hospital, named in memory of a
servicemen killed In World War
II after his family in Macon, Ga.
contributed heavily to
construction of the small
hospital.
A county bond issue was
floated both for the first
hospital, they said, and again
for the expansion in 1960
doubled the capacity to 26 beds.
Federal funds and money from
the State of Georgia also was
used in financing the
construction of the early
hospital, they said.
Private donations from
citizens of the area have been a
constant source of help for the
hospital, they added, and
Anderson said the Georgia
Mountain Fair over the years
has contributed a total of $17,000
to the hospital.
A fire destroyed most of the
26-bed hospital several years
ago, Puett and Anderson said,
and the hospital authority
began the rebuilding, with local
and state money and also with
federal Hill-Burton funds.
Construction has been going
on for about three years, they
said, as hospital activities
continued in the fire-damaged
old hospital and then moved into
the new rest home as it was
finished. Henry Whitehead of
Atlanta was the architect and
Continental Construction of
Vidalia, Ga. was the general
contractor.
Hospital patients will be
moved from the rest home
section into the hospital proper
beginning early in June and the
rest home will begin operations
as a rest home about the first
of July. Applications are being
taken now for those who want to
live at the rest home.
family Health renter
^/CeAUiiptifrn
New Look For Parker's
James Parker, a co-owner of Parker's Drug
Store, poses cm the expanded sales floor of the
remodelled store. Parker's has doubled its floor
space by moving into the space formerly occupied
by the Cherokee Restaurant and is holding its
Grand Opening this week
GAME SLATED
The Jackets will
play Littlefield, a school
located in the eastern
part of the state near
Lumberton, in the state
semi-finals of Class A
baseball at 4 p m.
Friday at Hayesvil^
Parker's Drug Store
Celebrating Expansion
Jackets Sting
Play-Off Foes
By Red Schuyler
and Bobby Hollifield
Staff Writers
The Hayesville baseball
"machine" continued to roll
toward a state title as the
Yellow Jackets picked up two
easy play-off victories during
the past week.
I-ast Friday ue Jackets
crushed Pleasant Gardens 13-1,
and then Tuesday afternoon the
Jackets simply destroyed
Wentworth 23-1, to go into the
semi-final round of the State
Class A play-offs.
Fireballer Jimmy Stewart
for the Yellow Jackets had the
visitors eating out of his hand
the entire game Tuesday and
most especially the first four
innings . Through four innings
of play the visitors were set
down 1-2-3. Stewart was
striking out two out of three
men who came to the plate and
the third man was being sent
back to the bench by the superb
playing of the defense.
In the fifth inning, Stewart
walked the first man to come to
bat and his perfect game went
out the window, but he still had
his no-hitter and shut-out going.
In the meantime his teammates
had gotten him a cushion of 15
runs, the big blow coming by
Barry Lunsford with a grand
slam homerun. In the
Hayesville 4th inning eight
players crossed home plate.
The visitors managed to score
their lone run in the fifth on two
hits and a walk.
Stewart left 14 men
standing at the plate but also
helped his own cause by getting
three hits in five trips to the
plate and driving in three runs.
It would be hard to single out
any individual star as all the
team rut tne Pali hard ana
played a perfect game in the
field and ran the base paths
well.
However, the highlights oi
the game would have to be the
grand slam homer of
BarryLunsford plus a triple
and six runs batted in. Rex
Ledford who has improved
every game both behind the bat
and at the plate had a homer
and a triple and drove in twc
runs. Jimmy Tiger, outstanding
first baseman, had a big day
getting three hits and driving in
four runs early in the game.
Jackie Lunsford brother of
centerfielder Barry, played his
usual outstanding game.
Jackie, a Freshman with three
more years of eligibility had
two hits and three runs batted
in.
Buster Youngblood, the
other half of the pitching staff,
didn't have many chances to hit
was walked several times but
after reaching base stole three
bases. Youngblood and Stewart
alternate at third base when the
other is pitching.lt was
Youngblood who w as walked
intentionally to load the bases in
the fourth inning to set the stage
for Barry Lunsfords "grand
slam" homer.
Against Pleasant Gardens
the home-standing Jackets
pounded out 10 hits and scored
in every inning but one as they
sent the Indians to their first
defeat of the. season.. Buster
Continued Page 2
Parker's Drug Store is
holding Grand Opening this
week, celebrating the fact that
it has expanded and taken over
its original floor space again.
The building was erected in
1918 by the late R.S. (Doc)
Parker, who came to Murphy
from Raleigh and started in the
pharmacy business here about
1911.
James Parker, Doc's son,
and pharmacist Ken Godfrey
own the business now. Parker
said his father originally
operated the drug store in the
full street-level floor of the
building but it was cut in half
about 1942.
One half of the ground floor
has operated as a restaurant, he
said, and the drug store
continued operations in the
other half. There were various
restaurant operators, he noted,
among them were George
Phillips, Rat Stiles, Leon
Kimsey and most recently,
James Howse, who ran the
popular Cherokee Restaurant
there for the past eight years.
Howse, however, was elected
?erk of Court last fall and
Parker's Drug Store was
bursting at the seams with more
and more merchandise and
customers along the crowded
aisles. As the restaurant
equipment was moved out,
workmen were beginning to
tear away the partition that had
separated the two businesses
for almost 30 years.
The drug store business has
changed considerably in the 60
years since Doc* Parker came
here, his son said this week. The
original Parker Drug Store had
a number of booths and marble
top tables, he said, which went
along with the ice-cream parlor
and soda fountain image a drug
store had in those days.
The booths and tables are
gone and the fountain occupies
only one modest comer of the
store. Floor space is used
primarily now for
merchandising a wide variety
of items, he explained, rather
than accomodating ice cream
customers.
Youth
Program
Funded
The Neighborhood Youth
Corps has been funded
another Summer
according to an
this week by the i
Square Community Aflfcii
The]
federal grant of $llt,l
beginning the first of .
provide 2M jobs far
TVs Jobs
of Clay.
Swain.
Jimmy Stewart...Jacket Fireballer