Thursday. September 2. 1982. Volume 30. Number 35
Member of the NCPA
Second class postage paid
at Black Mountain. MC 2S7JJ
Employees
vote out
union
Drexel Heritage Furnishings Rant
No. 10 employees in Black Mountain
voted Thursday to decertify their union.
The piant was unionized over 40 years
ago by the United Brotherhood of
Carpenters and Joiners.
The plant's 170 employees voted
against the union by a 3:1 margin. The
election, called for by the employees of
the plant, affects only the Black
Mountain plant. Drexel operates other
furniture plants in Whittier, Marion,
Shelby, Morganton, Hickory, High
Fbint and Mocksville.
Band
director
resigns
Owen High School band director
Edith Slattery resigned from her posi
tion on Aug. 23. In a statement issued to
band members that afternoon, Owen
Principal Charles A. Lytle said assistant
band director Dale Whittington will act
as director until a replacement can be
found.
Lytle told the students, "I will
personally guarantee you that we will
have a competent, capable director here
to get our band program rebuilt to its
rightful place of being the best in
Buncombe County."
Litter on
increase
Litter control is backsliding in Bun
combe County according to a recent
study.
In the most recent photometric index
done by Quality Forward Director Jean
Webb there was only a 20 percent
reduction in litter since the beginning of
the study in March, 1978.
Last February the reduction was 36
percent. In May, 1981 there was a 69
percent reduction. This means there is
more litter shown now than there was in
the other two studies done over this past
year, Mrs. Webb said.
The worst offenders this time were
industrial loading docks where there
was a very high increase in litter.
Improvement was shown since May,
however, in vacant lots. Mrs. Webb
attributes this reduction in litter count
to an increase in weeds on the lots this
summer instead of a cleaner area.
Forking lots were another high in
crease site.
Other categories having increases
were commercial dumpsters and road
sides. Interstate ramp litter accounts for
the high count in this area.
This increase in litter is very discour
aging news to Clean Community Chair
man Larry Holt. "His committee will
have to take a hard look at the figures
and make plans to reach industry,
business and the public in more
effective ways," said Mrs. Webb.
County Environmental Control Of
ficer Don Roberts and the City Inspec
tions Department personnel will be
contacted to work on more effective law
enforcement The City and County
ordinances state that the property
owner or individual managing the
property is responsible for keeping it
dean and sanitary.
"The Clean Community must con
vince the public that the litter problem
is one that can be solved. This will only
happen if individuals, business, indus
try and government accept responsi
bility for the refuse each generates,"
said Mrs. Webb.
The Photometric Index of litter is
done by Quality Forward approximately
three times a year.
About 80 youngsters signed up for the Youth Soccer program iast Saturday. Hie eight to 11 year oids practice dribs
for evaluation on the field.
Plight of migrants eased
hy generous of Valley
by Cynthia Reimer
Life on the road is brand new to
Esther; this is her first year as a migrant
worker. Typical of many of the pickers
coming to North Carolina this summer,
she in trained and heid a job as a day
care worker before government pro
grams were cut back in Florida.
Nearing retirement age, desperate
for work, she joined a Florida crew
traveling to North Carolina to pick
apples.
The last of their funds depleted by the
trip, they arrived in Henderson County
where the final blow awaited them: the
apple crop was ruined by a late spring
freeze.
While some have found work in
tobacco, Esther's crew is picking a
scanty bean crop. Some can earn $10-25
a day, but Flsther can't. She's not an
experienced picker, and she is not
young. Some days she aches too much
to work at all bent down in a hot bean
row.
Esther (not her real name) lives in a
camp provided by a farmer. For $20 a
week she gets a,12-foot square concrete
block room with a cement floor. On the
floor is a matress, a styrofoam ice chest
and a hot plate where she cooks meals
when she can get them.
She shares a community bathroom,
another cement room with three toilets,
stained with filth, and three open
showers. W ater runs across the floor of
the undivided room from a broken pipe.
The camp, like all others occupied by
more than 10 people, has passed
inspection by the state.
Veronica is a proud young Haitian
woman, a first-rate picker. She works
for Brown Hat, the crew leader; She
didn't work Thursday because Brown
Hat was negotiating with the farmer for
a raise of 15 cents to 25 cents a stick for
picking tobacco. The raise would allow
most workers to make minimum wage
for their labor.
Veronica shares her meager lodgings
with a 15-year old who has run away
from home and her two-year old child.
Afraid the girl would be abused,
Veronica took her and the baby in.
There are three cots in the tiny
bedroom and a double bed inside
another room. The kitchen has a dirt
floor and the stove doesn't work.
Screens are taped haphazardly to holes
in the stucco wall that serve as
windows.
There are no locks for the doors. "I
reckon we ain't got nothin' to steal,"
Veronica says.
Hazel is Brown Hat's wife. She is*
ypung, pretty, black. She has teenage
children whom she hopes and prays will
get enough schooling to leave the hard
life of the road.
"This state is all right," she says, out
in the dusty yard where dogs nap in the
dirt and children play in it. "We came
up for the apples but we're doing
tobacco. You get real tired with the sun
bum in' down on you."
For their one-room lodgings, she
said, they pay $20 a week ' 'or move out.
If you have five kids you have to get
another room for them to sleep in."
In Florida, her home state, Hazel can
earn $60-70 a day in the orar.ge groves,
and for the same $20 a month, have a
four-bedroom home in a government
housing project.
Last Thursday, B.H. Roberts took a
second trucklohd from ABCCM-E to the
migrant workers of Henderson County.
He carried dothing from the Kiwanis
Thrift Shop, health kits made by
individuals of the community-consis
ting of toothbrush, toothpaste, soap and
washdoth tied in a bath towel with a
bow, crockpots, hot plates, toaster
ovens and $900 in cash, earmarked by
donors, to the office of the Migrant and
Seasonal Farmworkers Assodation in
Hendersonville.
Thereare 45 camps of people like
Esther, Hazel, Veronica and their
families in Henderson County, the most
concentrated number in Western North
Carolina.
A lack of migrant employment be
cause of the bad weather this spring and
a wet summer that hurt the tomato crop
made the Black Mountain donation to
some migrants literally life-saving.
Money sent last month by ABCCM-E
made it possible for a teenage boy to be
returned to his home. A woman with
cancer was provided with transportation
back to her home and medical facilities.
And it made it possible for a man to
return to the bedside of his dying wife.
In addition, it was used to provide
food, rent, clothing and medical aid to
people who qualify for no government
help.
"They are people who have entered
the migrant stream because of a lack of
general employment. They don't have
skills in farm work. Tlrey leave their
families behind to try to find work," a
Held representative for the Migrant
Association explained. They are inelig
ible for aid because they have not been
farm workers in the past.
"How do you turn somebody away
who says, I haven't eaten in five days
except what I could eat out of a trash
can'?'* she ashed.
The Migrant and Seasonal Farm
workers Association, funded by the
Department of Labor, takes dothing
and food to the camps and distributes
them. They aiso work to heip those who
are capabie out of the migrant stream
and train them for jobs.
Funding from the Department of
Labor iooks bieak for next year and the
office which provides the oniy aid for
seasonal workers may be dosed. Fieid
representatives for the office urge
dtizens to write to their Congressmen in
support of the program.
"Farm workers are tniiy the back
bone of our country," said a represen
tative who asked not to be identified.
"Without them there would be no food
on our table."
Wove safe
hoMay
Heman R Clark, secretary of the
N.C. Department of Crime Control and
Public Safety, issued an appeal asking
all citizens to think "safety" during the
Labor Day holiday weekend.
"This is the final long weekend of
summer and the roaos will be heavily
traveled with many people getting in
the last trip of the season to the beachor
"This is the final long weekend of
summer and the roads will be heavily
traveled, with many people getting in
the last trip of the season to the beach or
the mountains," Clark said.
"This is always a dangerous situation
as traffic accidents and deaths often
increase with the increase of holiday
traffic," Clark said. "I appeal to every
motorist to be extra careful during this
holiday weekend. "
According to State Highway Patrol
Commander John T. Jenkins, motorists
can expect to see more troopers on
heavily traveled roads during the holi
day period. "We will again be partici
pating in Operation CARE (Combined
Accident Reduction Effort)," he said.
CARE increases trooper visibility on
highways acrois the state in an effort to
encourage voluntary compliance with
the speed limit, detect and apprehend
drunk drivers, and prevent traffic flow
conflicts.
The Labor Day holiday period begins
at 6 p.m., Friday, Sept. 3, and ends at
midnight, Monday, Sept. 6. According
to Jenkins, 16 people died on the state's
highways during this holiday period last
year.
Workman burned
by power !ine
A workman in Swannanoa wan injur
ed Monday afternoon while he was
repairing a sign at the Fast Fare store
on U S. 70. He suffered electrical bums
on his arm and leg when a severed
electrical wire fell on him.
Steve Cooper, an employee of the
Petroleum Pump and Tank Company of
Asheville, was checking the lights in the
sign when the accident occurred at 2:26
p.m. According to a Swannanoa fire
man, Cooper was putting the sign back
together when a screw he was putting in
hit a wire in the sign. A short caused a
bolt to shoot up to a power tine which
was a main service line between
Asheviile and Black Mountain.
The workers had not disconnected the
power to the sign because they were
checking for burnt out lights.
Cooper was seated in a bucket
suspended from a boom when the
accident occurred. He was listed in
satisfactory condition at Memorial Mis
sion Hospital Tuesday afternoon.
Sparks from the downed power line
burned part of the lawn at an adult
bookstore next to the Fast Fare store.
Chamber rece/ves
state grant
North Carolina Commerce Secretary
D M. Faircloth announced (104,000 in
matching grants to 32 North Carolina
communities for promoting travel into
the state.
Faircloth said, "These grants will
help initiate or expand tourism promo
tion programs across the state. Many
more communities are realizing the
economic benefits that can be derived
from travel promotion." He added,
"Tourism is one of the fastest growing
sections of our economy, and could
become a (3 billion industry this year."
The Black Mountain Chamber of
Commerce will receive $500 for publica
tion of a brochure promoting the area.
Fairdoth told Chamber manager Ed
Weber that 55 applicatons were rece
ived requesting over $310,000 making
competition this year intense. "I com
mend you for the initiative and imagi
nation which you have already shown,"
he said.
This is the sixth consecutive year
Weber has sought and received grants
from the state for publication of
brochures.
Owen students receive their order sheets for the annual magazine sale.
(Photo by Amber Mason)
Owen begfns
magazfne safe
Hie annua! Owen High School maga
zine sale began Aug. 31 and will
continue through Sept. 17. Hie sale is
sponsored by the Owen Student Coun
cil.
Money from the sale goes into the
Student Activity Fund and the student
council decides how to spend it. For the
past two years students have sold about
$10,000 worth of magazines, of which
the school keeps 40 percent.
Hie money has been used to support
the Junior-Senior Prom, Homecoming
and other school dances. A water
fountain and an information bulletin
board were purchases for the gym lobby
area. The funds have also provided
assistance to dubs and organizations at
the school.
Students will take orders from par
ents, relatives, friends and the com
munity for subscriptions for magazines,
records and tapes.
Hie company supplying these items
is QSP, a division of Reader's Digest.
They hold the largest selection of
magazines on the market and are a
distributor for RCA records and tapes.
Erwrn downs
Warhorses, 35-14
Hie Owen W arhorses were defeated
by Erwin in their opening game of the
1982-83 season Friday, Aug. 27. Hie
Warhorses were hosts to the Warriors.
Erwin kept the Warhorses defensive
line working continuously. Hie War
riors tailback, William Humes, kept
Owen's defense on its toes. Humes
scored four of five touchdowns for
Erwin. Ronnie Ball also scored once for
the visitors.
Owen scored only twice in the ball
game, both times during the first half.
Hie first touchdown came from Alan
Roberts. Roberts ran 40 yards for the
score and was followed by a successful
PAT from David Duncan. Quarterback
Jamie Rumbough passed 25 yards to
Shannon Boling for a second touch
down.
The W arhorses had another chance to
score during the first half, but lost the
ball to B*win's Chris Jones at the one
yard line.
Erwin defeated Owen with a final
score of 35-14.
The W arhorses next game is FYiday,
Sept. 3, against the McDowell Titans on
Shuford Held