BMCK
Five cent increase
Tax fate set at 78 cents for 81 - 82
Town Council passed a resolution
Monday night at a called meeting
raising 1981-82 property taxes to 79
cents, up from 73 cents last year. The
motion was made by Margaret Slagle
and seconded by A.F. Tyson.
Town Council will meet Monday,
June 29 at 7 JO a m. to determine
allocation of the funds for the 1981-82
budget as well as amendments to last
year's budget.
Voting against the five cent increase
were Mike Begiey and Doug Stafford.
Both Begiey and Stafford said they
would have preferred to maintain the
current 73 cent tax rate for one more
year by selling a 10-acre piece of
property which the town owns in
anticipation of the increased revenues
next year's property re-evaluation will
bring the town.
About the property sale, Mr. Stafford
said, "When we purchased the property
it was like putting money in the bank for
a rainy day," he said "This is the rainy
day."
Mr. Begiey said, "Taxpayer! will be
faced with an increase in taxes this year
and an increase in evaluation next year.
1 thought this year we had a better
alternative."
Mr. Tyson said selling town property
was "irresponsible" unless it was sold
to provide another capital asset for the
town. He said he beiieved the property
would bring in much less than the
projected $65,000, and that a budget
shouid not be based on something as
uncertain as a possibility of selling it.
In other action, the Town signed a
contract with In-the-Oahs, pledging $1
and up to 50,000 gallons of water per
month In return for rights & an
easement and drilling sites for two test
weils.
if the test weils are not successful all
rights revert to In-the-Oaks, according
to the agreement.
Council also voted to name Suzanne
Turner "acting town derk" effective
July 3, without the power to hire and
fire town employees. Urey also agreed
to begin an immediate search for a new
town manager. Aldermen Stafford and
Begley voted against the proposal. Mr.
Begley said he opposed hiring a new
town manager until November because
the possibility of a short-term job would
"affect the quality of applicants." He
said he was "fully in favor of Suzanne
as acting town derh."
Mr. Tyson accepted responsibilities
of treasurer for the town in the absence
of a town manager. Midge Biakeslee,
town accountant, was given additional
duties also
Newfacitities at
Mission dedicated
Memorial Mission Hospital will
dedicate its (35-million construction
project on Sunday, June 28, at 3 p m.
US. Representative William M.
Hendon will speak at the dedication
ceremony. Congressman Hendon was a
member of the hospital board of
trustees until he was elected to
Congress last November. Following the
ceremony there will be tours of the new
facilities, photographic displays, a slide
presentation, music and refreshments.
The facilities to be dedicated indude
four buildings and many renovated and
expanded hospital departments. The
new buildings are a 160-room West
Wing, a two-story radiology building, a
two-story service building and a 690
space parking deck. Departments that
have been renovated and expanded
indude emergency, obstetrics
gynecology, physical therapy, out
patient clinics, nursing stations,
pharmacy and many others.
The West Wing will become the new
core of the hospital. It will provide the
hospital with a spacious, open, modem
lobby and reception area for the
welcoming of patients and visitors. The
interior decor makes use of color, space
and texture to create a warm, pleasant
atmosphere. The second floor will
provide new quarters for administrative
and nursing offices. The next four
floors contain the 160 new private
patient rooms with baths. The beds
have communications systems built into
the side rails, allowing patients to call
the nurses and control radio and
television volume as well as the lights.
All of these floors are carpeted and each
has two isolation rooms and a handi
capped shower. Each area also has an
electronic nurse-call system and a
centralized vacuum system.
The radiology budding features the
most modem diagnostic radiological
machinery available including ultra
sound and a full-body CAT scanner.
This building also houses the radiation
therapy department, which treats
approximately 75 patients per day from
all areas of the western part of the state.
This department offers the only compre
hensive radiation therapy services in
Western North Carolina. Its new
machinery indudes a linear accelerator,
which is used to treat deep-seated
lesions, and a treatment simulator, used
to insure pin-point accuracy in the
actual radiation process.
The new service building houses a
variety of modernized and relocated
hospital departments: the pharmacy,
central sterile supply, the storeroom,
housekeeping, maintenance and bio
medical. It also houses the Johnson
Control JCM computer, which monitors
energy effidency throughout the
hospital.
A "transi-tube" system has been
installed in the hospital to link various
hospital areas and improve commun
ications and materials management. A
new music system will soon play music
throughout the hospital, and a barber
shop will be provided to complement
the already existing beauty salon. A
core of six new elevators are another
part of the new construction-two for
patients and staff, two for visitors, and
two for freight. There are plans to
carpet the hospital throughout.
The construction project was design
ed by Six Associates, Inc., an Asheville
architectural firm. R was constructed
by McDevitt and Street, Inc. of Char
lotte. The interior planning was done
by Health Care Hanning, he. of
Northfield, HI. Hanning for the projed
began in 1969.
The new West Wing o/ Memofiai Miaaion Hoapitai in
Aaheviiie containa an expaneive iobby and reception area,
adminietrative o/ficee and/oar/ioora o/iM private rooma.
Nutrition Center
director dismissed
Services of Blade Mountain Nutrition
Center director, Nancy Tslmage, were
"terminated" !ast Friday, June 19,
according to Joan Dunton, nutrition
services coordinator at the Council on
Aging.
Members of the Lakeview Center
Advisory Council and other senior
citizens came to Monday's Town Board
meeting to protest the dismissal of Mrs.
Tahnage. They were informed by
Mayor Tom Sobol that the town had
nothing to do with the action, as staff at
the Nutrition Center are employed and
governed by the Council on Aging.
Mrs. Dun ton said the action had,
"absolutely nothing to do with the
(Black Mountain) Town Council." She
gave as reason for Mrs. Tabnage's
dismissal, "internal personnel
matters."
The Nutrition Center remains open
for meals, Mrs. Dunton said, and the
Council on Aging is advertising to fill
the vacancy. Anyone interested in the
position should call the Council,
258-3027.
Sunday in the Park at Lake Tomahawk
Sunday in the Park moves to Black
Mountain June 28. Hie muaic festival
will be held on (he shore of Lake
Tomahawk, on Rhododendron Avenue,
&om4to630p.m.
The Mt. Mitchell Ramblers will play
old-time square dance and mountain
music. The leader is Walter Davis,
well-known for his special style of
presenting old songs. He was recently
featured in "Bluegrass Unlimited," a
music magazine.
"Pippin," a Broadway musical, will
be staged by (he Asheville Youth
Theatre. Pippin will be portrayed by
Kim English, an Asheville native.
The story revolves around Charle
magne's oldest son, Pippin, as he
attempts to make his mark on the world.
Vowing not & waste Ms life in
commonplace, ordinary pursuits, Pippin
encounters a world full of surprises and
disappointments that lead to a climax of
unparalleled brilliance.
This will be the first performance of
the musical this summer. July 1
through 12 Pippin opens at Carol Be Jr
Theatre of UNC-Asheville for 10 per
formances.
Next on the Sunday in the Park
program, contemporary folk and
country songs will be sung and played
by "traveller," composed of Ray Sisk
and Fred Bailie.
Sisk is a songwriter and guitarist who
has created many of the songs perform
ed by the group. His song, "Bounty
Hunter" was recently recorded by
Happy Traum.
Bailie, on lead guitar and harmony
vocals, plays folk, rock and toll, country
and country rock. He now resides in
Canton.
Clarence Greene Joins "Uncle Walt"/or a Jam session.
Both musicians have performed
throughout the Southeast and North
Carolina at concerts and coffeehouses.
Their style resembles Bob Dylan and
Gordon Lightfoot, whose songs they
intersperse with their own original
compositions.
With cooperation of the Old Depot
Association and the Town of Black
Mountain, a stage is being erected in
the shade on the east bank of Lake
Tomahawk. Black Mountain Recreation
Director Alice Schweitzer is helping
coordinate the program.
This will be the first time a festival
has been held at the lake. The residents
are planning several activities to coin -
cide with the musical performances.
Schweitzer hopes to have this as a
beginning of many family-oriented
activities to encourage residents and
visitors to use the lake and the park that
surrounds it, she said.
Sunday in the Park is a moving series
of eight music festivals that is sponsor
ed by Quality Forward, Asheville Parks
and Recreation Department and the
Community Arts Council of WNC. They
are free and open to the public.
The purpose is to provide family
entertainment in neighborhoods of
Asheville and Buncombe County while
giving local artists a chance to perform.
In case of rain, the program will move
inside to the Lake Tomahawk Center.
Unde Watt, otd-time banjo picker
byBHlStudenc Jr.
The sweet-sounding twang of the
banjo is often heard resounding from
the shaded porch of Biack Mountain
resident "Unde Wait" Davis, leader of
the famous Mt. Mitcheil Ramblers.
Originally from Madison County,
what has kept Walter Davis playing his
banjo for 66 of his 75 years is a love of
music.
Tve been playing since I was nine
years old," the retired cabinetmaker
said. "I didn't take no lessons, I just
picked it up myself. I loved music and if
you love music, you can learn it."
After learning the banjo, young Unde
Walt began playing on street comers,
accepting change from any passerby
who cared to stop and listen to his
music. He said he actually made more
money than his father, who made about
50 cents a day and thought he was doing
something.
"It was either learn to play the banjo
or starve, one, and Tve been doing both
ever since," he joked.
The Davis family later moved to Old
Fort, where Walter learned the finer
points of playing from such outstanding
local musicians as Gwen Foster,
Clarence Green and Roy Neal.
From these humble beginnings as a
street-comer musician, Davis began
playing in mountain conventions across
Western North Carolina, with a large
degree of success and many first-place
finishes, as evidenced by the yellowed
newspaper dipping collection he so
proudly exhibits.
While with a group known as the Blue
Ridge Entertainers, Davis moved to
Blade Mountain.
"My wife was the cause of that," he
explained. "She came over to visit her
unde, a neighbor of mine. I started to
follow her back to Black Mountain and
got messed up and got married. "
After a 17-year stretch with the Biue
Ridge Entertainers, he formed his own
band in Spruce Pine around 1949-the
Mt. Mitchell Rambiers. Unde Wait
piayed the banjo, while Ray Greene
piayed the fiddle and J.C. McCooi
played the guitar, although all men are
equally at home with any instrument.
Greene, a retired maintenance
mechanic who has been playing a guitar
"ever since I was big enough to cany
one," explained that he and Davis first
started playing together at square
dances and at fiddlers' conventions.
"J.C.'s ma ran a cafe in Black
Mountain and we piayed there and we
met him that way," he said.
The Ramblers performed at weekly
bam dances at Spruce Pine, along with
"Unde Walt Davis' Famous Black
Mountain Square Dance Team. " The
shows were broadcast weekiy over
television and radio stations.
"Several local stations picked it up,"
Davis said. "We were quite a hit back
then."
In addition, the Ramblers have
recorded 11 albums of North Carolina
mountain music at a New York studio
and have performed on the Mr. Bili
Show, a television show for children.
The Mt. MitcheM Rambiers keep their
playing skills sharp today by playing
each Monday at Ray Greene's house at
what they call the Monday Night
Hoedowners.
"We've been keeping in practice by
playing at iocai gatherings," Davis
said. "Like at Monday Night Hoe
downers. It's free and it's a chance for
old-time musicians to get together with
young ones who want to learn it."
"Anybody who wants to come and
listen, or play, it's all right as long as
they behave themselves," Green
added.
The Ramblers have recently been
playing for free for schools and hosp
Weather
revtew
June 16-high 89, low 57 degrees.
June 17-high 87, iow 60 degrees.
June 18-high 81, iow 59 degrees.
June 19-high 84, iow 65 degrees.
June 90-high 83, iow 60 degrees; .71
ind:es precipitation.
June 21-high 88, iow 69 degrees;
trace precipitation.
June 22-high 90, iow 58 degrees.
Weather information courtesy of
WFHW Radio, Biadt Mountain.
itals in the area.
"We play because we like to piay,"
Unde Wait said. "It's a good pastime
and I'd like awfuily to keep mountain
music going and I iike to heip young
children who iike music. "
Unde Walt and the rest of the Mt.
Mitcheil Ramblers will perform at the
Sunday in the Park festival at Lake
Tomahawk on June 28.
Sourwood
parade entries
due
"I Love a Rarade" will be the theme
of this year's Sourwood Festival parade,
beginning at 4 p.m. August 5.
Individuals and organizations, dubs
and businesses are all invited to enter
the parade of a colorguard team, fire
and police vehides, horse and buggy
teams, floats and downs.
Eh tries will be judged on originality,
theme portrayal, noise and animation,
parade committee chairman, Kathy
Wacaster said.
To register for the parade, contact the
Black Mountain Chamber of Commerce
for an entry blank. Line-up numbers,
time of line-up and parade route will be
announced at a later date.
Eh try blanks must be returned to the
Chamber of Commerce no later than
July 6.