Bmch
KLa-ik Houi.taix Library
105 if. j-cuRherty'SBTWtk
Black Mountain, 1. C. 26711
Using a pihe poie, Chie/Bart!ett breaks a ventiiator to reach
the biaze in the attic with /ire hoses.
F i re destroys
home
The Bum is Robinson residence on
Rock Church Street was destroyed by
Ere Thursday afternoon, Feb. 12.
Robinson had been experiencing prob
lems with the electrical wiring in the
house earlier in the week, and the Bre
was believed to be electrical in origin,
Black Mountain Fire Chief Gary Bartlett
said.
Robinson said that when he came out
of the shower about 2:45 p.m., he saw
flames coming into the kitchen. A
next-door neighbor dialed the operator
to report the fire, causing the cal! to go
through Asheville, Bartlett said.
The fire started in a breezeway
between two sections of the house and
spread in both directions. "When I got
there the whole house was burning,"
Bartlett said.
Bartlett said that it was an exception
ally hot fire, due to the amount of pine
and other wood used in the interior. "R
was an older home, remodelled with
plywood," he explained. "There was
a tremendous amount of combustible
material, wood ceilings, no sheetrock."
The supply hose was run 700 feet
from a hydrant near the Middle School.
"The police did a good job of keeping
traffic from driving over the supply
hose," Bartlett said. The Black
Mountain Police were assisted by a
Buncombe County Sheriff who sighted
the fire from Flat Creek Road before
Bremen arrived.
Firemen were at the scene two hours
and 14 minutes. Two engines, an
equipment truck, an ambulance and 23
men responded to the call.
Loss was estimated at (15,000 for the
house and (0,000 for the contents.
Bartlett said some of the contents of the
house are salvagable.
Robinson had recently been laid off
from his job, and had no insurance on
the house. His wife, a daughter, 17,
and a son, 14, are staying at the home of
another son.
Beacon Manufacturing
purchase comptete
Cannon has completed the purchase
of Beacon Manufacturing Company in
Swannanoa, Otto G. Stolz, chairman of
the board and president of Cannon
Mills, announced last week
Beacon, with plants located in Swan
nanoa and Westminster, S.C., is the
leading US. manufacturer and
merchandiser of blankets B employs
1,464 and had annual sales of (54
million in 1980.
Stolz said that Cannon will continue
the operations of Beacon as a major
bianket manufacturer. "Cannon is
extremely pleased to acquire an organ
ization with such a well-known name
and reputation for quality products.
The Beacon operations will be main
tained as a separate Cannon subsidiary
under the name of Beacon Manufactur
ing company," Stolz said.
Joseph Graham, general manager of
Beacon, will continue in this position
and will be president and chief execu
tive officer of the new Cannon subsi
diary, Stolz said.
John McGovern, who is responsible
for consumer sales of Beacon blankets,
will become product manager of a
reorganized and expanded Cannon
blanket department. McGovern will be
responsible for sales of both Cannon
and Beacon branded blankets and for
the development of the marketing
programs for these product lines. He
will be a vice president of Cannon Mills,
Inc., and will report to James Jolly,
president of the Cannon sales
subsidiary.
Beacon's national sales headquarters
are located in New York City and there
are regional sales offices in Los
Angeles, Ca., Atlanta, Ga., Chicago, m.
and Dallas, Tex.
Cannon Mills Company is a major
manufacturer and merchandiser of
cotton and synthetic household textiles.
decorative fabrics, Knitted apparel
fabric, yam and other textile products.
Group
opposes
censorship
A group of Buncombe County resi
dents has circulated a petition in the
county opposing censorship of boohs in
public and school libraries and plans to
present it to the Buncombe Co'inty
School Board at a meeting Thursday
night.
The group, which calls itself,
"Boohs," is based in Swannanoa and
led by Toby Ives. Ives, a member of the
Owen School District Advisory Council
and director of the Title XX program at
the Juvenile Evaluation Center, said
that the purpose of the group is to "let
folks hnow that there are two areas of
concern in the county, that a substantial
number trust teachers and librarians to
mahe the decisions. "
Ives said that the group currently has
over 800 signatures on the petition.
A committee led by Wendell Bunion,
a pastor of an Asheville church, met
Jan. 22 to speak out against several
books in county school libraries. On
Feb. 2, the committee announced plans
to file a complaint against book se
lection policy instead of individual
boohs.
Each side will have 30 minutes to
mahe a presentation to the school board
Thursday night, Ives said, after which
the school board will.mahe a decision.
Other co-ordinators for the Books
group include Don and Bettie Albright,
Blade Mountain; Richard Brown, Ashe
ville; Gay and Joe Fox, Black Mountain;
and Barbara Hempleman, Rederlch
Ohler and Put Sparks, Swannanoa.
Town Counci!
*
The Town Board decided Monday
night by a majority vote to retain the
liaison system whereby board mem
bers serve as advisors to town
departments by a 3-2 vote. Voting
against retaining the liaison system
were Aldermen Begley and Stafford,
with Aldermen Tyson, Brandon and
Slagle voting for it.
The Town Board also voted to clarify
a portion of the policy manual
describing avenues of appeal when a
disagreement occurs between
department heads and the town
manager. At present, the only way to
appeal such a decision is to bring the
town manager before the Town Board.
The policy manual clarification will
state that if a disagreement occurs, it
can be brought to the attention of the
Board in writing and the Board wiU
then make the final decision.
It was brought out at the called
meeting that Black Mountain does not'
by its charter have a council-manager
form of government, but rather a
council-mayor form of government.
In a council-mayor form of govern
ment, powers are not set by iaw but are
delegated by the Board to the town
manager.
Police and firemen expressed
dissatisfaction with the outcome of the
meeting.
Kids earn $2,800 for Easter Seais
Blade Mountain Middle School
students earned $2800 for Blaster Seals
this year In a "Shoot-Out for Easter
Seals," the most money raised by any
school in any region in Western North
Carolina. Keith White, physical educa
tion teacher and coach at the Middle
School, co-ordinated the program there.
"I was real pleased with the kids'
work," White said, "This says a lot for
the community."
Individuals and businesses in the
community pledged money for as many
baskets as a student could shoot in three
minutes. The money earned will be
used in Buncombe County for Easter
Seal work.
About 70 students in fifth, seventh
and eighth grades participated. Stu
dents of any age could compete and
White said he was especially proud of
his students because they were compet
ing with high schools and other much
larger schools in Western North
Carolina.
John Decker, an eighth grader,
brought in the most money in Western
North Carolina, $817, by shooting over
80 baskets in three minutes. John is a
starter on the seventh-eighth grade
basketball team at the Middle School.
John received a trophy, a certificate,
and a trip to the Western Carolina vs.
Citadel basketball game where he will
sit on the bench with the Western team,
visit their locker room at half time and
receive a basketball autographed by the
team.
David Rice, another eighth grader,
came in second at the Middle School
Biach Mountain Middle Schooi ciasses raised %3,800 /or
Easter Seais this year. Zndividaai winners were (ie/t to right)
John Decher, /irst piace, &M7; Biiiy Siagie, third piace,
(J25.00; and David Rice, second piace, over %250. Funds wiii
be used to purchase wheeichairs, braces, speech therapy and
camping /or the physicaiiy handicapped in the Biach Moun
tain area.
485 wrecks, 5 fato!
Accidents prompt new
Sheriffs Department program
There were a total of 485 traffic
accidents in just the east end of
Buncombe County last year, excluding
those in incorporated towns.
Five of them were fatal.
Property damage from those acci
dents was estimated at $376,875.
Statistics like these, rising every
year, have prompted the Buncombe
County Sheriff's Department to insti
tute a new program called the Sheriff's
Traffic Safety Program in an effort to
make county highways safer for
motorists.
Special new patrol units carrying
specially trained deputies will be sent
out to locations with high incidence of
accidents, where deputies will hand out
brochures, warnings and tickets. The
units have been ordered, according to
R-O. Elkins, bureau chief for the Traffic
Safety Unit, and are expected to arrive
any day. !t will then take a week to 10
days to install equipment and have the
units on the road, Elkins said.
This three-year program is financed
by a grant from the U S. National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration
through the North Carolina Governor's
Highway Safety Rogram.
hteraectioha and mads in the Swm
nanoa Valley with high inddence of
traffic aoddents indude: Grovestone
Brand! Road, 37 aoddents; Riceviiie
Weather
Review
Feb. 7-high 46, low 16 degrees.
Feb. 8-high 45, low 34, .03 inches
precipitation.
Feb. 9-high 47, low 19 degrees.
Feb. 10-high 41, low 30 degrees; .60
inches rain.
Feb. 11-high 53 (11 a.m.), low 25;
1.59 inches rain.
Feb. 12-high 33, low 3 degrees.
There was no weather report from
Clingman's Dome last week because
the instruments were covered with so
much rime frost they could not be
read.
Courtesy of WFBW Radio National
Weather Service weather station,
Black Mountain.
Road, 23 accidents; Bee Tree Road, 21
accidents; Whitson Road, 10 accidents;
Old U S. 70 at Bee Thee Road, nine
accidents; access to N.C. Alcoholic
Rehabilitation Center, six accidents;
and North Pork Road, five accidents.
Fatal accidents occurred at 1-40 and
Buckeye Cove Road; U S 70 and Lytle
Cove Road; U S. 70 and Old Lytle Cove
Road; and Old U S. 70 and Grovemont
and Poplar Hill Roads.
'Carelessness is a great big cause of
accidents," Elkins said. The Sheriff's
Department hopes that by making
drivers aware of the accident risks at
specific locations, drivers will be more
alert and careful. "We hope to be
working over a period of time at every
one of those places," EHdns said.
"Were hoping to teach defensive
driving."
and sixth in Western North Carolina
with over (250 for Easter Seals. He
received a trophy. Fifth-grader Billy
Slagle received a t-shirt and a certificate
for third place with (125.
Black Mountain Primary participated
in the contest two years ago, and a
student, Jamie Hoefling, placed first in
the state. That year the Middle School
earned a total of (1300.
Van teaves
store with
gaping ho)e
A hit-and-run accident Monday left
the Country Food Store with a gaping
four by five foot hole in a concrete block
wall, Montreat police reported. A
minor driving a van plowed into the side
of the store just before 5 p.m., got out of
the van, into the car of a friend and left
the scene of the accident.
Only minor damage was sustained by
the van, owned by George Bartlett. No
one was injured in the accident.
Montreat police said that the van
went through the wall on the North Fork
Road side of the building, pushing a
beer cooler which was against the wall.
Repairs began Tuesday to the
Country Food Store-victim o/ a
hit-and-run accident Monday
a/ternoon.
* * *
On the inside
Nine-year oid gives specia!
Vaientine to lucky Mom.
See story, page 10.