BtfTCK
Police and fire report
Arrested man flees
Black Mountain
Police Department
A man under arrest for driving
intoxicated on June 1 set a small fire in
the back seat of a Black Mountain police
car. When the officer opened the rear
door to extinguish the fire the man
bolted and escaped. The escapee was
wanted on several other felony war
rants, a spokesman for the depart'nent
said.
Tom's Vending Corporation reported
two incidents on June 3 which occurred
in May. Twenty gallons of gasoline and
$50 in cash from a company truck was
reported stolen.
A truck was reported stolen from
Garland Landscaping June 8. Through
the fhlice Information Network (PIN)
terminal, the truck was found in Burke
County where the driver was involved in
a traffic accident.
Also on June 8, a car on Cherokee
Ave. was reported to have a "sticky
substance” in its gas tank.
A battery was stolen from a car in
front of the Monte Vista June 12. The
battery was valued at $60.
The Black Mountain Police have
made six arrests for driving under the
influence; answered calls to five
accidents, one involving personal
injury, two involving citations and two
arrests; served and arrested on four
warrants; and given 15 miscellaneous
citations in the past two weeks.
The police department asks anyone
observing mistreatment of any animal
by injury, abandonment, deprivation or
neglect to contact the Black Mountain
Police Department or Mark Norton, dog
warden, at city hall.
According to state law, cruelty to
animals is a misdemeanor punishable
by a fine of up to $500, six months'
imprisonment, or both.
Black Mountain
Fire Department
Air Pollution Control requested that
the Black Mountain Fire Department
extinguish a fire at the dump on U.S. 70
east June 11, where trash and brush
were being burned. Twelve men and a
tanker responded to the 4:41 p.m. call.
Foil bike thieves,
cycle safely police say
It has been several years since Black
Mountain has had a fatal or serious
bicyde accident, ana Black Mountain
police would like to keep ’t that way.
Police Chief Slagle and Jim Dolan,
investigator, have been concerned at
unsafe cycling practices they have
noticed in town recently.
“Bikes don’t belong on sidewalks,”
Chief Slagle said. They should be
ridden as dose to the curb as possible,
going the same direction as other
traffic. By riding with traffic, if the
cyclist is hit by a vehide he will be hit
) fmjn the rear and will sustain less injury'
than if he were hit head on, Slagle said.
When crossing a busy intersection the
bike should be walked across the street,
he said.
Bright dothing, pedal and fender
reflectors, tall flags, lights of any
sort-anything that makes the cyclist
more visible makes him safer, Slagle
said. lightweight bicycling helmets
which have recently become available
also add to safety.
Cyclists are reminded that they are
governed by the same laws as auto
mobiles and must stop at lights and stop
signs and obey other traffic signs and
signals. They also must signal turns
and watch out for pedestrians. Several
years ago a Black Mountain youth was
killed when he rode his bike through a
stop sign, into a car, and was then
run over by the car.
Another problem that occurs,
especially when school is out, is bicycle
theft, Mr. Dolan said. To protect a
bicyle from theft, it should be chained to
a stationary object even if it is to be left
alone for only a few minutes.
When a bicyle is purchased its serial
number should be recorded and kept so
that if the bicyle is stolen it can be
traced. The store the bike is purchased
from does NOT keep this record, Chief
Slagle said. The Black Mountain Police
Department will keep on file the serial
number of any bike for the owner who
brings this information to the police
station.
Since many thieves take the stolen
bikes apart and discard the part with the
serial number on it, chaining an
unattended bike is really the only way of
keeping it safe, Chief Slagle said.
If you can’t find the serial number on
your bike, bring it to the police station
and an officer will help you find it.
Also, the police department has a
number of unclaimed bicyles at the
police station. If you have lost yours
and can identify it, you may be one of
the lucky ones who gets his bike back in
one piece. Call the police department at
669-8072.
Town Council
meets Monday
Town Council will meet Monday,
June 22 at 6 p.m. Three items are
slated for discussion.
Responsibilities of aldermen in
liaison positions to town departments in
the absence of a town manager will be
determined. Town Manager Ernest
Hudgins will present an agreement with
In-the-Oaks concerning well sites to the
board for their signature. Hie meeting
will also be a workshop for the 1981-82
town budget.
Well number 7
It's 'hot as a firecracker'
last Wednesday Caldwell Well Dril
ling, on contract to the Town of Black
Mountain, struck water on the golf
course at 400 feet. On a hunch held by
A1 White, Blade Mountain Water
Department head, and despite dis
couragement by some engineers, Town
Manager Ernest Hudgins let out the
$2,500 contract for the firm to drill to
400 feet.
“She’s as hot as a firecracker," said
Hudgins. "We just took a chance and it
worked out." The new well gushes
forth at a healthy 175 gallons a minute,
he said. Located on the fairway of the
fifth hole, the well was dubbed
“number seven.”
With well number seven, the com
bined wells now pumping for the town
will provide the town with about 485,000
gallons of water a day, just 100,000
gallons under the normal daily usage.
A $5,500 Reda pump has been
ordered from South Carolina and is
expected to arrive in about a week. Two
two-inch pipes will be laid to tie in with
two-inch pipe on Ninth Street and
Laurel Avenue. As soon as electricity
can be brought to the site, a 24-hour
“draw-down” will determine exactly
how much water is available in the well.
Hudgins believes the well could be in
service in about 40 days.
Town Council will meet Monday night
to discuss an agreement with In-the
Oaks concerning two wells to be drilled
on property there. If these wells “come
in good,” Hudgins said, the town will
no longer have to rely on the Dunsmore
Cove Reservoir.
Dad to a thousand
by Cynthia Reimer
A light breeze lifted the curtains and
carried the buzz of lawnmowers and the
green smell of cut grass into the
comfortable office. Behind the neat
desk sat a tall, graying man. Behind
and all around the man were photo
graphs of children and young adults,
paintings of children, trophies won by
children and gifts of the sort children
make from whatever is at hand and give
to a proud and loving parent.
Donald McKenzie looked up from the
desk and checked his watch. “You’re
right on time,” he smiled, conveying
the feeling it was something he
approved in a well-brought up person.
Donald McKenzie has been director
of the Presbyterian Childrens Home in
Black Mountain for 23 years--over half
his life, he says. In those years he has
raised a son and daughter of his own,
and been a father to over 1,000 other
children...the only father some of them
have ever known.
Like any father, McKenzie has had
his successes and failures. “I’ve got a
lot of gray hairs, a lot of joy, a lot of
sadness-just like any home, you have
your mountains and your valleys,” he
said. ‘ ‘I want to see them make good. I
grieve over the ones who fail.”
Forty children and 10 employees live
at the Home. The children are admitted
from age five to 11 and 91 percent stay
on to graduate from high school. While
the Home used to take in only orphans,
the only requirement now for residence
is that the child needs a home.
Though the children come from many
backgrounds, their needs are the same,
McKenzie says: love, understanding,
discipline and a background in Christ
ianity. “Children,” McKenzie says,
‘Team when they love.”
“Children are crying out for
discipline,” he continued, “a life
geared to discipline.” Rules should be
set by parents, he believes, and when
they are broken, the child should be
disciplined.
The most effective method he has
found is to take away a privilege for a
*5* -
■ ’
■ «* ■' >«"-■■.
. ?.* >.• . ****
* *"!£!£**
>**-*< >*>*<***
4' * *»* ■ m
if, »;i _
*,'«?* *. * ■
{■'¥» ( **#* *'*•**
• -:e.»» ■ ': *
>? . 'S, ..
4 :;W* ♦?%*.•• / V ^ '
,>X-.
Don McKenzie
certain length of time. “It’s good
because you don’t have to use it very
often,” he said.
McKenzie recalled an episode on Art
Linkletter’s television show many years
ago. Linkletter said he would give a one
hundred dollar bill to the first child who
said, “Yes, sir,” or “No, sir” in answer
to a question.
“That’s the kind of discipline adults |
look for in a child--respect and ;
courtesy,” McKenzie said.
Giving children jobs to do is im- 1
portant, McKenzie believes. “It makes
them feel like they’re making a contrib- j
ution,” he explained. “It’s important
in a regular home and it’s important
here, too.”
“I’ve told a lot of fathers they should
be concerned about their children’s
discipline,” he said. “They should be
with them as much as possible. They
should pay attention to their ambitions
and lead and guide them to reach
them.”
McKenzie’s son Don is a pitcher for
the Seatle Mariners; his daughter Susan
is a medical secretary. Some of “ his”
other children are teachers, lawyers,
and “advertising folks,” as he calls
them. Graduates of the Horne call
McKenzie and his wife Pa and Ma; their
children call them Mamaw and Papaw.
And most of them keep in touch
McKenzie has been best man for 10
of his boys and has given away 11 girls
in marriage. It makes McKenzie happy
that the children call the Home simply
“home” and that they return to the
Swannanoa Presbyterian Church as
their home church where they wish to
be married.
There is a large plaque behind the
desk of this man of a thousand children,
ft says, ‘ ‘There’s no limit to what can be
done if it doesn’t matter who gets the
credit.”
Inside.
I The tools of Louis Spegel, sculptor, gleam in the afternoon aun. Story on page 4.
Man treated
for injuries
in fall from van
A Blade Mountain man was treated
for head injuries at the Memorial
Mission hospital emergency room
Monday after he fell out of a van on U.S.
70.
Calvin Beid was riding in the back of
a van driven by another Black Mountain
man. When the van turned onto U.S. 70
from Blue Ridge Road, the door of the
van came open and Reid fell to the
pavement.
Reid was treated at the emergency
room and released.
Weather
review
June 9--high 88, low 63 degrees.
June 10--high 88, low 63 degrees.
June ll--high 87, low 66 degrees; .01
indies predpitation.
June 12--high 82, low 64 degrees; .02
indies predpitation.
June 13--high 88, low 62 degrees.
June 14-high 88, low 65 degrees.
June 15-high 92 (highest temperature
for the year), low 58 degrees.
Weather information courtesy of
WPGW Radio, Black Mountain.
Old 70
closed
at
bridge
A 300-foot section of Old U.S. 70 from
the new bridge in Swannanoa west was
dosed Monday by the North Carolina
Department of Transportation to allow
workmen to lower the existing road
level to meet the height of the new
bridge.
The section of the road is expected to
remain dosed for about a week,
according to Joe Buckner, engineer for
the Department of Transportation. The
road dosing will not affect use of the
bridge itself, he said.