The Cherokee Scout
and Clay County Progress
Volume 79 - Number 51 - Murphy, North Carolina, 28906 - Second Class Postage Paid at Murphy, N. C. -Thursday, August 5, 1971
14
PAGES
15' Per Copy
2 SECTION]
Scenic Beauty?
District Ranger Harold Fisher of the U.S.
Forest Service sadly looked over the floating mess
Tuesday afternoon at Lover's Leap, just below the
joining of the Valley and Hiawassee rivers. The
heavy rains have brought the rivers almost to flood
stage and the garbage along the banks has
collected in a huge raft of debris here, containing
driftwood, bottles, the ever-present plastic jugs and
assorted trash. (Gray Photo)
Mountain Fair Starts Friday
The 21st annual Georgia
Mountain Fair begins on Friday
^t Hiawassee, Ga., to run (or 10
big days.
More than 110,000 visitors
were recorded last year,
jamming area motels and
campgrounds, and members of
the Towns County Lions Qub,
which sponsors the event, say
the total this year will go even
higher.
Special activities and
entertainment are planned for
each of the 10 days, beginning
with a performance on Friday
night under the big tent by
country music stars Jack
Greene, Jeannie Seely, the
Osborne Bros, and Kenny Price.
One of the most popular and
interesting features of the
Mountain Fair is Pioneer
Village complete with: an Old
General Store, a farm museum,
a replica of an old mountain
home, a quilting party, spinning
and weaving, soap and hominy
making. Reminiscent of the
ways of making alivelihood in
the by gone era of the
mountains are such things as:
the blacksmith shop, pottery
making, wood carving, the had
splitting of red oak wood to
make shingles, grinding of corn
meal - and - even the moonshine
still in actual operation.
The Georgia Mountain Fair
is most unusual in that it has no
commercial exhibits. But the
fairgrounds are replete with
attractively commercial
exhibits by the Mountain
people, community clubs,
churches, state and federal
agencies: Arts, needlework,
crafts, fresh and canned fruits
and vegetables, native
gemstones. There's room full of
antiques; another filled with
hundreds of varieties of
beautiful dahlias from Todd's
Farm at Suches, Georgia.
Miss Cherokee County Beauty Pageant
Saturday Night - 8:30 - Murphy High Gym
Peggy Martin, 16, daughter
at Mr. and Mrs. Ben Martin of
Route 2, Murphy, sponsored by
Rimco.
Gail Pnstell, 18, daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. George Postell of
Route 2, Murphy, sponsored by
levi's.
Sue Picklesimer, 18,
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ray
Picklesimer of Route 4,
Murphy, sponsored by Clifton.
Susan Barrett, 17, (laughter
of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Barrett
of Murphy, sponsored by First
Union.
Breeze Thompson, 20,
daughter of Mr. and Mrs. T.G.
Thompson of Andrews,
sponsored by Wachovia,
AnHrPU'C
*y?u? hicims. i?,
*w??iter of Mr. and Mra.
tt*h? of Murphy, tf
ty Wachovia, Murphy.
lUta Jordan, It, daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. Gar Jordan of
Topton, sponsored by Flowers,
iJd
Virginia Loving, II,
(laughter of Mr. and Mrs. Uoyd
hiving of Route 3, Murphy,
sponsored by American Thread.
Wanda Wilson. 18. daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. Roy J. Wilson of
Route 1, Murphy, sponsored by
Townson Funeral Home.
Angle earth, II, daughter
ct Mr. and Mrs. Hoy Curtis of
Route 1, Murphy, sponsored by
Peachtree Products.
Clay OK's
Budget
The Clay County
commissioners, meeting
Monday, adopted a $1.25 million
budget for the current fiscal
year, to be financed by the same
tax rate as last year, $1.50 per
hundred of valuation.
County budgets, by state
law, are supposed to be held
open in a tenative version for
taxpayer inspection for some
time before final adoption,
which has a deadline of July 28.
The Clay commissioners,
however, had some difficulty in
working out their budget and
Chairman Howard Wimpey said
the budget and tax rate were
adopted Monday as being
effective immediately.
The Clay budget includes
$19,000 toward construction of a
new county jail and $54,220 for
county debt service, to go
toward paying off the county
bond load.
The largest items in the
budget are welfare, which runs
$336,000 and the school fund,
$719,070. General fund
expenditures are set at $86,155.
The Cherokee County
commissioners, to meet the
deadline, held a brief special
meeting last week and
approved their budget of $1.35
million, as presented in
tentative form previously . It
calls for a tax rate of $1.50, a
nickel lower than last year.
Chairman Jack Simonds
and Commissioner W.T. Moore
voted for the budget,
Commissioner Jack Lovingood
voting against it in protest of the
$14,000 additional required for
two new sheriff's deputies,
authorized by the Legislature.
In approving the budget,
the Cherokee commissioners
cut out funds earmarked for
tying the Cherokee County
Sheriff's Department in with
several other Western North
Carolina counties in a large
radio system. Commissioner
Moore abstained on that vote.
In their meeting Monday,
the commissioners of both
counties discussed the
boundary line dispute recently
revived by the State of Georgia
but took no official action on it.
The Cherokee
commissioners met with Ed
Hyde, the attorney who ia
handling the legal work on the
$300,000 bond election to finance
construction of a new
elementary school at Andrews.
They agree agreed to make
application to the Local
Government Commission in
Raleigh to call the election for
sometime early in Octoder.
Irked by the critical tone of
a Grand Jury report last week
calling for extensive repairs on
the Courthouse, Chairman
Simonds commented "If we put
on enough additional taxes to
finance all these repairs, they'd
run us out of office."
The commissioners
actually had already been
considering some of the repairs
the Grand Jury urged and
received one bid Monday on
correcting the overload
situation in the Courthouse
electrical wiring set-up. Other
bids are expected.
Cherokee Sheriff Blain
Stalcup met with the
commissioners at their request
to discuss the time people
arrested for public drunkenness
are being kept at the jail. The
county pays $3 a day to the
Sheriff's Department for each
prisoner and the commissioners
were of the opinion that some
public drunkenness prisoners
were being kept longer than the
six-hour limit ordered by a
Superior Court judge.
Sheriff Stalcup said he
wderstood the judge to have
said public drunks should be
kept overnight. The jail day
changes at 6 in the morning, he
said, and a two-day charge is
often seen when a man is
arrested during the night and
released the following morning.
"I don't keep any of them
any longer than I'm supposed
to," the sheriff said. "If the jail
report shows a man was kept
longer, it was for another
reason."
Commissioners asked about
one case in the jail report which
indicated a man was kept for
eight days on a public drunk
charge. The sheriff explained
that this person was kept an
additional time while papers
were being prepared to admit
him to Broughton hospital at
Morgan ton.
1 ay lor
Slated
To Visit
Lt. Governor H. Pat Taylor
will visit Cherokee County on
Wednesday, August 11. He will
be the guest at a Democratic
reception to be held at 7:30 that
evening at the Murphy Power
Board Building.
Taylor is generally
considering a leading contender
for Governor in the 1972
primary.
All Democrats are invited
to meet the Lt. Governor,
according to Gary Kilpatrick,
local Party chairman. The
Cherokee Democratic Women
will provide refreshments, he
said.
Earlier in the day the Lt.
Governor will greet Clay
County party faithful at a
gathering at the Moss Memorial
library in Hayesville. That
meeting is scheduled for four
P.M.
Taylor , elected Lt.
Governor in 196S, had
previously served six terms as a
Representative in the General
Assembly. In 1963 he was
elected Speaker of the House.
Taylor practices law in Ms
native Wadesboro.He is
married to the former Elisabeth
lockhart and they have three
children.
via
Tourist Treated
Murphy Rotarians Jack Isaacs,
left, and Frank Atchison explained to
Curtis Cochran right, of Frost, Texas
Monday that he was not in trouble.
The Rotary Club wanted to have a
tourist family as guests at the
Monday luncheon and enlisted the aid
of Murphy police in stopping Cochran,
who said later he was "scared to
death...afraid I'd run a stoplight
somewhere." Cochran, who is
superintendent of schools in Frost, his
wife and their two children ate with
the Rotanans. and enjoyed the
foodwill gesture, as did club
members. (Staff Photo)
Rain Hurting Crops
Heavy rainfall over the past
two weeks is hurting farm crops
as well as home garden plots.
The Hydraulic Data section
of the Tennessee Valley
Authority, which keeps official
weather records in Murphy,
recorded a whopping 4.6 inches
of rain between 8 o'clock last
Saturday morning and 8
o'clock Wednesday morning.
Of that total, a TV A official
said two inches of the rain fell
on Murphy in about an hour
Sunday afternoon. Normal
rainfall for the entire month of
August is about 4V4 inches, he
said. The TV A check on rainfall
showed 6% inches received here
in July, most of it in the latter
part of the month, compared to
a normal figure of 5 and %
inches.
Cherokee Extension
Chairman Jack Earley said the
excess moisture is affecting the
trellis tomato crop as well as
other crops. At the Murphy
Tomato Packing House, prices
this week were holding at $4 for
a 20-pound case of No. 1
tomatoes, despite the fact that
the tomatoes contain more than
the usual amount of water and
therefore will spoil faster than
normal.
"Watery or not, the demand
for Western North Carolina
tomatoes is still holding,"
said Manager Edmund
Thomas. "They're still in short
supply compared to the
demand."
Thomas and Earley are
both concerned that tomato
plants of area growers will wilt
when the rainy spell ends,
exposing all the fruit to the sun
and causing blistering. Thomas
said the blistered tomatoes will
all have to be culled out as they
will not sell.
Earley added that wet
conditions will keep farmers
from spraying their tomatoes
and various plant diseases will
therefore hit tomato fields
harder than usual.
The heavy rain is causing
corn to sour in the shuck
Earley said, and many garden
crops - squash, cucumbers,
okra, potatoes,etc. - are rotting.
Schools Start
On August 26
Schools in both Clay and Cherokee
counties will open their doors for the first full
day on Thursday, Aug. 26.
Superintendents Scott Beal and John
Jordan, of Clay and Cherokee respectively,
announced opening schedules this week.
About 1,200 pupils are expected in Clay schools
this year; in Cherokee, the total enrollment
will be about 3,700.
In Clay, registration day has been set for
Tuesday, Aug. 24. All children will report to
their school on that day to register andreceive
textbooks . Schoolbuses will run *, but on a
hlaf-day schedule, returning the children
home before lunch. There will be no school on
Wednesday and the first full day will be
Thursday, Aug. 26.
Registration and issuing of textbooks in
Cherokee will be held on Wednesday, Aug. 25,
with buses running on a half-day schedule and
no lunches served in the cafeterias. The
following day will be the first full day.
New students who have moved into the
Hayesville area and will be attending = school
there are to be pre-registered at the
Hayesville school on Aug. 12-13.
New students entering Murphy High in
grades 7-12 can pre-register at the school on
Aug. 9,10 or 11, between the hours of 9 a.m. and
3 p.m.
The holiday calendar for school systems
in both counties has also been set for the 1971
72 year and students can mark Sept. 6 as the
first holiday. All schools will be closed that
Monday for Labor Day.
AUGUST >971
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LEFT TO RIGHT
JEFFREY DONALD HUGHES
?Mr. 4 Mrs. Jamos Don Hugh at
STEVE DOUGLAS LANEY
?Mr.AMrs. Scott Lanay
FREDRICK JAMES SPRUNG
?Mr.AMrs. Jamas R. Sprung
MARK ALAN CARLSON
?Mr.iMn W. Douglas Carlson
AIt can racommand
a ratiabla paintar
Saa Us for aU your
painting and a*ac
tricai supplias and
-naintananca.
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