Asheville Citizen-Times du lieu suivant : Asheville, North Carolina • Page 13

-V V--V i.Ajf 4 fc AV V'A V' i. a. ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES 'Sunday, Dec. 14. 1986 Page 13A LocalRegional News State News.

Man Finds A Renewed Beat To Life With New Pacemaker A Plus mm, i 3 I iJ. vc pacemaker helped regulate the beat to about 70." It was a temporary assist for Thomas' ailing heart, but despite the fact that his had been described as "only a light attack," his problems were far from over. The following September he underwent six-way bypass surgery and after long recuperation seemed to be getting along. "But that was because I knew my limitations," he said. "Last April, I started to get severe headaches," Thomas said.

"If I walked about 10 steps, I'd be out of breath. I couldnt go up two or three steps without feeling totally exhausted. My blood pressure was high, my heart rate down to 48." The family doctor referred Thomas to a Burke County cardiologist. Dr. Roger Seagle, the first doctor in Western North Carolina to implant the Activttrax, a single-chamber, rate-responsive pacemaker, since its approval by the U.S.

Food and Drug Administration on June 12,1986. The device weighs only 1 ounces, is about the size of an ordinary silver dollar or a common matchbook, and Is implanted by simple surgery, under local anesthesia. See BEAT, Page 23Af By MARION H. LIEBERMAN Citizen-Times Correspondent Perry Thomas, just a few years ago, could have been called Morganton's "music man." He had a piano and music store downtown and In addition to fine tuning keyboards all over Burke County, he'd move heavy uprights, spinets and baby grands in and but of homes and public buildings. "Between renting pianos and providing them for entertainment at civic clubs, schools, churches and community centers, it was nothing unusual for me to be hauling five or six pianos a day up and down steps, really backbreaking work," Thomas said.

He'd been at It since 1943, and he was used to it. Oddly enough, it was a comparatively lightweight chest of drawers he had carried up a flight of stairs that would prove "the final straw" for the man who appeared to be In such great shape. After moving the chest, Thomas suffered a heart attack, and was fitted with his first emergency pacemaker. "It was about the size of a small radio," Thomas said. "My heart rate had slowed down to the 30's and the Phots BY ANNE THOMPSON Ticker Tinkering Perry Thomas has the new rate-responsive pacemaker Implanted In his chest fine tuned by Dr.

Roger Seagle of Morganton. The new pacemaker adjusts the patient's heartbeats according to his activity. Madison Firings Attributed To Ponder Machines TV I IUI n---ti jit I Wi 1 iv CaldweU charged that Walfla promised county property owners relief from taxes and tax penalities that only Staude had the power. 1 grant, and became upset when Staude did not agree to them. "It's good politics.

(WaUin) never has to say no," Caldwell said-; Capps bristled at the suggestion that Ponder or Edwards have had any role in the personnel moves. "I've only spoken to Zeno Potj-der one time since the election, Capps said. "I think that I'ttr mn enough of my own not to need BonB one to tell me what to do." "I think that we still have a. 161 of people running a campaign And the election's over. I'm making my own decisions and will continue to make them," Capps said.

I "People put me in and they told me they wanted to make sonu) changes and we're making som changes," Capps said. He complained that Steen has "either abstained or voted against many things we've brought up it's going to make it very difficult; trj achieve any of the goals that wt-aj three probably wanted to do." Z- i Steen charges that many ofjhe commission's decisions were appan-ently made before its meettfigj began. He said when commissioners were replacing county transportation authority director Debra Jean- Rob erts, "There was a nomination and i flip of the resume towards me, ang before the resume hit the table, there, was a second" to the nomination. Capps defended the hiring process, saying new employees? "resumes are in the commissioners' office, and anyone's welcome to come in the commissioners' office and they'll see that we are trying 14 hire qualified people." He said commissioners hav hired "an ambulance director who'll a registered Republican and I don't; believe Bob Edwards and Zeno Pont der would be telling us to hire licans if they were telling us what to do." Ponder said that he has sup! ported the personnel moves made bjj Hensley and Capps, but did not jrus gest them. "They have not asked mi' See MADISON, Page A i2 By MARK BARRETT Staff Writer Opponents of two of Madison County's newly elected county commissioners say that Friday's canning of county tax supervisor Wesley Staude is just another example of the clout Madison's Democratic political "machine" has on the commission.

Commission chairman Bobby Capps says that just isn't so. Commissioners fired Staude in a special meeting Friday afternoon in another of their numerous split votes since they were sworn in Dec. 1. He was the third county supervisory employee to be axed by the new commissioners. Capps, who voted for the move along with commissioner John Hens-ley, said Staude was fired because "he had not gotten along well with the people when they had problems." "We had had some complaints from people that when they would question him (Staude) about why their property was rated at such and such an amount, he would seem sarcastic to them," Capps said.

Commissioner Reese Steen, a Mars Hill Democrat who opposed the move, said the reasons for Staude's dismissal were never substantiated. "We did not have just cause, and I felt like that was just opening a can of worms for a lawsuit," Steen said. "I just didn't want his kids to say, 'There's the man that fired my dad two weeks before Steen said. "I hope I'm wrong, but there appears to be something behind all these moves, placements and everything," Steen said. Others say the "something" Ls the political machine run by longtime Madison County political leader Zeno Ponder.

According to David Caldwell, who commissioners removed as county auditor Dec. 1 in a split vote, Capps "is just doing what they tell him: Zeno, (superintendent of schools) Bob Edwards, (tax collector) Harold Wallin." Bob Phillips, a defeated Republican candidate for commissioner, attributed the personnel moves to "a lot of politics. There's really two people calling the shots: (Ponder and Bob Terrell Books With Local Flavor Make Good Christmas Presents Christmastime is reading time. Maybe it's just that books, make good Christmas presents. People used to say they were good cheap presents but that's no longer true in these days or $20 price tags.

There are some good local books on the market this Christmas season, and some already have been reviewed. Here are some others that haven't: Jerry Bledsoe's "From Whalebone to Hothouse" (East Woods Press, $14.95) is a look at North Carolina from the town of Whalebone on the coast to Hothouse in the west. Bledsoe is an interesting writer, a columnist for the Greensboro Daily News, and the author of half a dozen other books. He writes with real humor and with a delight in the accomplishments of his fellowmen. The setting for Jerry's book is the longest highway in North Carolina, U.S.

164. He traveled its length and wrote what came along. Sometimes that's the best kind of writing; you can delve into the unexpected. His publisher said his purpose "was 'to capture in words the essence of his home state." He did that, and well. Roy Hensley is a native of Yancey County who spent most of tus life in other places.

He came back to Yancey when he retired in 1974, 'and in 1981 began to chronicle the lives of Yancey's old-timers in artl- 'cles for the' Yancey Journal He bowed to demand and put the stories in a 280-page book (Yancey Graphics, P.O. Box 148, Bums-viUe 28714, $18.50) that details a way of life in the mountains that has almost vanished. The people Roy wrote about were Yancey County people for the part, but they could have been from any other county in the hills. They are typical mountaineers. There, are 90 profiles of real mountain people in this book.

It's the sort of record that every county needs, for it will preserve these people and their way of life. Here's a smaller, less expensive book that won't appeal to everyone, but it will have an impact on those to whom it speaks. It is entitled "Vietnam Coming All The Way Home" (Vietworks, 111 McDowell Asheville 28801, $5) and was written by Carl Mumpower, a local psychiatrist and veteran of the Vietnam War. The book claims to be "a sup-'port guide for those who went, experienced the good and the bad, and having done so, want to come all the way home." All proceeds from sales arc being donated by the local Vietnam Veterans of America to organizations working for the return of POWs. Never has a war had such an impact on those who fought it.

They became members of a dubious fraternity of outcasts. Mumpower wrote directly to them: "Your initiation into that fraternity was uniquely personal. No one can exactly share the source of your hurt, fear, anger, or confusion. But you are not alone. Those emotions are common to many who went to Vietnam.

Listen, now, to their voices. Their message is clear. It's time to come all the way Another book on this Christmas list is "Bridge to the Sun," by Gwen Terasaki (Wakestone Books, 405 Clifton Heights, Newport, Does the title sound familiar? The book is a reprint. Originally published in 1957 by the University of North Carolina Press, it has been reprinted by Wllma Dykeman's son, Dykeman Stokely. 1 This is no ordinary story.

It is about a Tennessee mountain woman, Gwen Harold of Johnson City, and a Japanese diplomat, Hidenari Terasaki, who were married in 1931 and went through World War II together. Few marriages have been assailed by more hardships. The couple and their daughter were Interned In the United States after a last-minute effort by Terasaki to prevent the war failed. The was then returned to Japan where it spent the war years. The book movingly describes the end of the war from the Japanese viewpoint and Terasaki's work as a liaison between, the Emperor and General This one is hard to put down.

If your bookstore doesn't have the book, it can order it from the address above. 4 Staff Photos By STIVE DIXON Storefronts Revealed Shoppers get a view Friday of several refurbished storefronts along Patton Avenue near Prltchard Park after workers remove protective barriers. Uncovered were the front entrances of the Public Service Building and adjoining store fronts. Southeastern Historic Properties Inc. is refurbishing the buildings for office and retail space as part of an $8.4 million project.

At left, Henry Laster works a crowbar as Quenton Burton sweeps. Steve Fox, above, of Presley Electric Co. takes down wiring from the walkways. Flashback Vanderbilt Forms Trust For Biltmore Poor By HENRY ROBINSON Staff Writer Multimillionaire George W. Vanderbilt, builder of the Biltmore House, made arrangements with the New York Mutual Life Insurance Co.

for a $1 million policy 89 years ago and designated it to benefit the poor of Biltmore. The yearly premium on the 20-year plan was $35,000. The policy was finalized just before Vanderbilt sailed for Europe. $4-Years Ago: The Post Office Department in Washington announced plans to place a sub-post office in Asheville. One of the proposed locations was the Depot Street area near Glen Rock HoteL 73-Years Ago: A new Jewish congregation known as Congregation Talmud Torah was organized at the residence of Issac Michalov at 199 Ashland Ave.

L.H. Pollock was elected president of the congregation. "Quaker Girl," starring Victor Morley, was the feature movie at the Auditorium. 07-Years Ago: The Regional Coal Committee in Atlanta ordered Asheville to conserve on the use of coal during a nationwide strike by coal miners. Merchants were banned from using coal and electricity after 4 p.m.

The strike ended a few days after the order was issued. Cedl B. DeMille's "Male And Female" played at the Strand Theater. A two-pound fruit cake sold for $1.90 at Sawyer Grocery Co. on College Street.

Gloria Hancock, formerly of Asheville, and a nurse in the British army, was one of the most decorated nurses during World War I. She was decorated five times for bravery on the field of battle. Hancock, the wife of British army Brig. Gen. Mortimer Hancock, was daughter of Dr.

and Mrs. S. Westray Battle of Victoria Drive in Asheville. IS-Years Ago: Asheville City Commissioners agreed to construct a new school building on the grounds of the old Newton Academy to serve students in the south section of the city. Cost of the building was estimated alt $100,000.

Asheville mayor Gallatin Roberts obtained a lease from trustees of the property to construct the building. A West Asheville man was held In Buncombe County jail under a $200 bond for stealing $3.50 toy at Kress' on Patton Avenue. After being arrested, police found $25 in the man's pocket fry Southern Highland! Roiearch Cmttr Rock Caravan The Grove Park Inn was built in part from boulders weighing from three to five tons each from Sunset Mountain. This 14-wagon caravan, In the above photograph, being pulled by a truck -was used to haul the boulders down the mountain to the construction site. Construction on the hotel was completed In 1913.

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