Asheville Citizen-Times from Asheville, North Carolina • Page 14

State Region Page 14A ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES Sunday, Sept 1,1991 DOIpOlpD Lag Dim (i mm mars mm ILatar Pay But stated job outlook les well for change DOG minds, that's still a G. Donald Jud, a professor of finance at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, told The News ft Observer of Raleigh. "It's hard to be real positive until you get a couple of good months of job growth." Job growth may be just around the corner. The government said Friday that its Index of Leading Economic Indicators rose 12 percent in Jury, its sixth consecutive gain and the biggest gain in three years. Three of the 11 indicators accounted for almost all of the surge consumer product orders; plant and equipment orders; and order backlogs.

All three mean good news for manufacturing and for North Carolina, where one in four workers has a factory job, a higher percentage than in any other state. "The news looking forward is good for North Carolina," said Wayne D. Gantt, senior vice president and director of economic strategy for InterstateJohnson Lane Inc. in Charlotte. "We are out of the recession and it's mainly manufacturing.

That's what's doing it" Another positive sign for factories came Friday from the VS. Commerce Department, which reported that orders leaped percent in Jury, the biggest monthly increase in 20 years. "It may take a little longer for the North Carolina economy to recover, but not much longer," said Daniel FrieL a vice president and economist with NCNB Corp. in Jobless benefits for those covered expire after 26 weeks. So the growing number of unemployed people losing benefits state officials call them "exhaustees" echoes the spate of layoffs and factory closings last winter.

The recession was particularly cruel to workers in the state's manufacturing industries, which cut pay rolls by 4 percent between Jury 1990 and Jury 199L As the recession reached its trough last winter, the state division of Employment and Training received as many as seven notices a week from plants that they were closing or laving off more than SO people. Since May however, the division has received just 14 notices. Factory employment has not rebounded since winter. But factories are among the last to expand in a recovery, economists said, so they might begin hiring soon. Textiles, the state's biggest manufacturing industry, is showing early signs of recovery.

Employment in the -second quarter was 5 percent lower than a year earlier, but the average work week was 40 hours, up from 39.6 hours. Other manufacturers said business isnt getting any worse but it's not getting any better, either. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS RALEIGH North Carolina workers are finding few things to celebrate this Labor Day with no improvement in the state's unemployment rate and with jobless benefits running out, observers say. Although many economists say the recession has run its course, the state's unemployment rate in July stood at (L2 percent, unchanged from June. Last month 7,838 North Carolinians ran out of unemployment benefits, marking an eight-year high "Until that job growth picks up, in most people's TRAIN DERAILS fljftsr 1 DIGEST SiigsiireSte wars Competition, slow sales mean lost jobs for tobacco giant mm Are 71 Annexation for waste site spawns suit 4u- a V.

Vf tuit i 9 iV THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WINSTON-SALEM Declining domestic sales of full-priced cigarettes and growing competition in the generic market have demanded changes at RJ. Reynolds Tobacco Co, including some painful ones, a spokesman says. A slow, but continuous, paring of the full-time work force has cut employment from 9,650 workers last year to 9,348 as of July and another 200 full-time jobs are likely to be cut by the end of the year, David Fishel, a spokesman for the company, said Friday. "That number has some play in it," Fishel said. "We don't know who will retire, or what, but its our best ballpark.

It's been a painful time, a damn painful time." James W. Johnston, chairman and chief executive of Reynolds, interrupted his vacation last week to talk about the changes. "What it's like, is going from a peacetime army to a wartime army On a war-time basis, you have one Job: to fight the enemy," he said. "You have to be structured to do that as effectively and efficiently as you can-. We are trying to be right to fight the war we have tofight" Getting right has meant an overall plan, introduced by Johnston two years ago, to cut costs, improve efficiency and streamline operations, Fishel said.

It also has meant layoffs, early retirements and not replacing some employees who resign or retire. Temporary workers and part-time employees keep domestic tobacco employment around 10,000 workers in the Winston-Salem area. Job cuts cause anxiety, and, combined with a sometimes cynical view of the corporate hierarchy, they have triggered a series of rumors that the worst is yet to come. Rumors have run the gamut from layoffs of more than 4,000 employees to a pending sate of the company to Mitsubishi Corp. in Japan.

The Mitsubishi rumor has been around for about 10 years, but resurfaced with Reynolds' smokeless cigarette. Premier. It popped up again just before the leveraged buyout of the company in 1989, and now it's back. Analysts typically give little credence to a Mitsubishi buyout of Reynolds. They say it just isnt necessary because both companies already have what they want from each other.

Since the 1950s, Mitsubishi has been Reynolds' distributor in Japan. In 1984, several years before the Japanese market opened, the two companies formed a joint-venture company called RJ. Tobacco Co. Ltd. A former Reynolds executive who asked not to be named said, "As partners with Reynolds, Mitsubishi distributes (cigarettes), and they help us bust through the labyrinth Japanese trading system." Fishel and the executive also said another current rumor that employment cuts are being made to satisfy an acquisition-happy Mitsubishi are nonsense.

The relationship is much simpler, the executive said: "They have a lot of money. They are a strong company in one of the largest cigarette markets in the world, and they are our partner." Technology, like that of the. Premier, also intrigues Mitsubishi, and may prompt its executives to visit from time to time. "We are a factor in the Japanese market," the executive said. "It would be natural that they would be interested." BY JIM BURGINCmZEN-TIMES Train whMte from ovtrtumd raiiroad cars that wrightd thouunds of pounds lie stacked up Uk toys Saturday aftennM following Mtarfyn away, workers repair damage from the tfcraftaitiit, which sent fbwNorfok empty coal cars of the tracks.

No one was hurt RALEIGH Three Woodland residents filed suit in an attempt to nullify the town's annexation of property it plans to use to locate a hazardous-waste incinerator and treatment complex. The lawsuit, filed Friday in Northampton County Superior Court, charges that the Woodland Town Board violated state law by holding secret meetings before inviting ThermalKEM Inc. to build the facility on a 60-acre tract near the town. Woodland's mayor, Dr. John H.

Stanley, disputed that charge. The suit was filed on behalf of three Woodland residents: Thomas H. Joyner, Jane V. Mann and Bobby C. Mann.

It asks the court to void the annexation and prohibit the town from reconsidering the issue until after a regularly scheduled Town Board election in November. Although the state Supreme Court limited legal challenges to hazardous-waste facilities in a recent decision, he said that ruling would have no bearing on the Woodland case because of differing circumstances. But another recent suit against the town could have a bearing in the case. A court dismissed that suit, which also challenged the annexation, about two months ago. Drug raid booty WINSTON-SALEM More than $150,000 in cash and valuable coins, two trucks and other property were seized in connection with a drug raid in which police have charged a man with trafficking in cocaine, officials said.

Stokes County sheriffs Detective Jimmy D. Miller said police found about $120,000 in cash in several fireproof boxes, about $30,000 worth of gold and silver coins, deeds, stocks and other records and documents when they searched the house of Charles Wesley Sheets in Win-rton-Salem on Thursday. They also seized a 1991 Ford truck and a 1988 Chevrolet Blazer, he said. Sheets, 39, was arrested and charged with trafficking in cocaine, conspiracy to traffic in cocaine, felonious possession of cocaine, maintaining a dwelling for the sale or use of cocaine and possession of marijuana. He was also charged in Stokes County with conspiracy to traffic in cocaine.

Textile plant sued PILOT MOUNTAIN Simmons Chevrolet Inc. has filed suit claiming that ash and soot from the smokestacks of a nearby textile plant fall into the dealership's lot forcing Simmons employees to repeatedly wash and wax the new cars. The car dealership is seeking more than $10,000 in compensatory damages and more than $10,000 in punitive damages from Armtex Inc. The car dealership is also seeking a court order to prohibit Armtex from discharging pollutants on Simmons Chevrolet property. Armtex president Everett FLAVORFUL FESTIVAL Court begs off decision about judges7 election FROM STAFF REPORTS RALEIGH The state Supreme Court has refused to get involved in the issue of whether six judges, including one from Ashe-ville, are being forced to face election sooner than the constitution r4 Iff i The court's decision throws the question back to Gov.

Jim Martin. The governor could issue new commissions to the six four Court of Appeals and amci say a missing girl is still alive THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SPRING LAKE The father of a 7-year-old Cumberland County girl reported missing two months ago has told police she is alive and well, but he didn't say where, officials say. Alan Patterson said his daughter, Jennifer, is being cared for nearby, police say. Patterson offered information about his daughter in exchange for an agreement that he would not be prosecuted under state law, officials said. But late Friday a lawyer said Patterson told him he would be unable to help police find the girL "He did not admit to taking the girl anywhere," Spring Lake Police Detective Kevin Motter said.

"He only admitted to knowledge that she is alive and is being cared for." Patterson said he did not want Jennifer living with her mother, Jinger Patterson, Motter said. The girl was reported missing June 23. "He led us to believe it was a custody dispute between him and his wife," the detective said. Patterson made the statements to the detective, Spring Lake Police Chief Gil Campbell and an FBI agent Thursday after Patterson took a third lie-detector test Patterson previously told reporters he was advised he did poorly on some questions i Judges Jack Cozort, James A. Wynn, Robert F.

Orr of Asheville and John B. Lewis and Superior Court Judge Quentin T. Sumner of Rocky Mount In 1988, Orr became the first registered Republican to win a statewide judgeship since 1896. Martin first appointed Orr to the 12-member appellate court in 1986. Orr practiced law in Asheville before that The judges contend that under a provision of the state constitution, their elections should be for eight-year terms.

But a statute enacted by the General Assembly says their terms last only until the end of the term of the original judges they replaced, all considerably less than eight years. The sixth, Superior Court Judge W. Russell Duke was elected last year to a new judgeship for a term that the General Assembly specified would be for two years. But like the others, he says the constitution gives him an eight-year term. Donald L.

Smith of Raleigh, an attorney for some of the judges, said he did not know what their next step would be. "This is an issue that has got be decided, obviously not by the judiciary right now but by the governor," said Smith, a former appeals court judge. two Superior Robert F.Orr Court judges keeping them from having to face elections in 1992 and 1994. Or he could do nothing, leaving it to the judges to file a suit seeking a legal declaration of their right to remain in office. A spokesman for Martin said the governor had not decided what he would do.

He previously said he agreed the judges were entitled to stay in office longer before facing voters. Five of the judges were elected in 1986, 1988 and 1990 to fill vacancies: Court of Appeals VALERIE THOMPSONCmZEN-TIMES VWtmtotht45mamualNormCaroiiMA4)cFttth diffMwit apple mUOn at a booth Saturday. Thaflrtttwodayaof the fMtoy fattlval have haw lurahted a trmminVwii imcen, with a record mmbtr of people attend! thtftstlvttiaa. Sherrill declined comment. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS.