Asheville Citizen-Times from Asheville, North Carolina • Page 11

SECTION TWO THE ASHEVILLE CITIZEN RADIO-TV CLASSIFIED PAGE 11 MARCH 20, 1976 Hospital Officials Here Urge Passage Of Bond Issue 'Since almost all North but it cost $12 million to build would be passed on to paying need for expansion of local hospital facilities, Ralph E. Passage of the amendment would provide an important source of revenue as an alternate to local contributions and raising rates, Highsmith said. Highsmith said issuance of the revenue bonds would not put the state in debt, since revenues of the health care facility would be pledged to pay the bonds, rather than tax money. The North Carolina Medical Care Commission would supervise issuance of the bonds, he said, and would not permit a hospital to go into debt unless it was financially possible for the hospital to repay the debt. Pointing to the immediate means we are full since there are no vacancies except when patients check out on a weekend and new patients not admitted until Monday.

Clarke said that although hospitals owned by religious groups would have some difficulty in utilizing the revenue bonds method of financing, he strongly supports passage of the amendment. "The day in which a community will raise money for major additions or new hospitals is gone." Clarke said. "The Tri-Hospital Growth Fund, a very generous major effort on the part of the community, raised $3 million Passage of (lie amendment would permit the General Assembly to enact general laws authorizing governmental bodies to issue tax exempt revenue bonds to finance health care facility projects. The bonds would be paid with revenues of the health care facilities and no tax money would be invol 1. Both Dr.

William E. High-smith, chairman of the board of trustees of Memorial Mission Hospital, and Harry W. Clarke, president of St. Joseph's Hospital board of directors, said the amendment would make possible reductions in the cost of financing hospital improvements which By MARY COWLES Citizen Staff Writer Ashcville hospitals, running 95 to 98 per cent full, are looking to passage of Constitutional Amendment No. 1 in Tuesday's election to provide an important alternate source of revenue with no cost to the taxpayers to finance critically needed hospital expansion.

Spokesmen for both Memorial Mission and St. Joseph's Hospitals voiced strong support of the amendment Friday and said not 'only would it not increase the )tax rate but that it would have a direct bearing on holding down hospital care costs to the patient. Carolina hospitals are nonprofit," he said, "this reduced cost of construction funds is passed on to the consumer. And the difference between revenue bonds and building with market funds can amount to upwards of 20 per cent over the entire period of payback. "The importance of this amendment is that without costing the taxpayer a nickel, it can directly affect the cost of health care." Clarke said.

The tax exempt bonds make a "very attractive investment for people in the higher tax bracket." Clarke said, thus accounting for the lower interest rate. the new St. Joseph's. Memorial Mission's needs will probably run $25 million or Clarke said a hospital must now go on the money market in competition for available funds with slates, counties, the federal government, private industry and banks. This means, he said, they must pay competitive interest rates and these are passed directly to the patient.

"The ability of a hospital to utilize revenue funds for financing its major improvements will have an absolute and direct effect on holding down the cost of hospital care," Clarke said. patients. Highsmith said it is important that voters understand the purpose of the amendment. At present, he said, there Is no way for privately owned hospitals to finance construction through the issuance of tax-exempt revenue bonds bearing interest lower than the commercial rate. Buncombe, he said, is the only major county in the state without a county hospital, but from the standpoint of policy, Memorial Mission Hospital fills that role, operating as if it is a public hospital.

Jennings, executive director of Memorial Mission, said since January 1 medical and surgical beds have been 98 per cent occupied in all rooms. Jennings said it frequently Is necessary to hold patients several hours in the emergency room awaiting availability of beds and that occasionally the hospital has had to postpone scheduled admissions one or more days. Clarke said that over a period of months St. Joseph's has averaged 95 to 96 per cent occupancy. "From a practical view, this State Agency Cites Dam Burst Cause w7 i The Bearwallow Lake dam crumbled Feb.

22 because its bottom half had gradually become saturated with water and weakened so much it could not support the upper half, according a report released by the Land Quality Section of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Economic Development. "The bottom half of the dam had gradually turned to a consistency of mud," said Craig McKenzie, chief of the Land Quality Section. Leo Ledbetter, his wife and indicates that the dam was apparently constructed higher and with steeper side slopes than called for on the plans," the report by the state agency said. The Bearwallow dam was built in 1963. four years before the stale Dam Safety Act was passed to regulate dam construction.

McKenzie said his agency has stepped up efforts to locate potentially dangerous dams. He said that for various reasons including the growth of second home developments a proliferation of dam building occurred in the 1950s and 1960s. "If those dams weren't built carefully, they could be reaching the age where they've begun to weaken." he said. The Dam Safety Act requires the builders of new dams 15 feet or higher or those with 10 acre feet of water to notify the Land Quality Section and submit plans for review before construction is started. Notification may be made at Department ot Natural and Economic Resources field offices across the state.

two children were killed the night of Feb. 22 when the dam burst and the lake's waters rushed into Newfound Valley. There was also extensive property damage. The report released to the press also states that the builder of the dam, Jim Worley, had obtained engineering plans and specifications trom the U. S.

Soil Conservation Service, but that apparently the specifications were not followed strictly. "A comparison of the plans and the present field data 1 AV UAl -W'WdK ft Two Dead fr Patlol Holds Gas Pedal Stilish: warm Practice Mission Mum A of cadets from Asheville Squadron. The exercise involves a search for an imaginary aircraft. The search is centered at Gastonia. This made-up problem is similar to many of the real searches CAP is called on to make.

New or inexperienced pilots and observers of Civil Air Patrol will receive training in search techniques. Mission coordinators will also be trained Saturday, so they can effectively run a mission at a later time. Trainees will fill most of the other positions under the direction of experienced personnel. Civil Air Patrol personnel, at the request of the US Air Force, performed more than 70 per cent of all searches in the inland United States last year. The North Carolina Wing of Civil Air Patrol, the civilian, non-profit official auxiliary of the United States Air Force, will hold a training search and rescue exercise Saturday.

The mission base headquarters will be in Gastonia. Civil Air Patrol personnel from Swain County, Jackson County, Haywood County, Hendersonville, Asheville, McDowell County, and Iredell County are among those from across the state who are presently Involved in this exercise. Among the personnel from Asheville are Lt. Col. Charles W.

Dixon Commander of Group I Headquarters. Lt. Arthur Chandler, Lt. Charles Bustle. Lt Col.

Foy Reese. Capt. David Inscoe and Lt. Clara Inscoe. Lt.

Julia C. Greenwood, Maj. Joseph Meserve. Capt. Bettye Meserve and a number II xniPfTi i A Jams, Three Are Hurt Damages totaled $3,500 and three persons were injured, one seriously.

In an accident at 4:20 p.m. Friday on South Tunnel Road, according to Patrolman Cecil Burnette. Burnette said the accident occurred as Hosea M. Burnette. 79.

of Rt. 2 Ashcville was starting to pull into the Wal-densian Bakeries Inc. at 92 South Tunnel Road, opposite the Dreamland Drive-in. The accelerator apparently stuck, the officer said, and the car hit a second car driven bv Bill Ray. 49.

of Old Highway 70 in Swannanoa. The Burnette car knocked the Ray car out of the way, the officer said, and then went back out into the highway. It made a loop in the road, then continued into a field and through a chain link fence, hitting two vehicles inside the fence, he said. Both Bumette's and Ray's cars were demolished, the officer said Inside the fence, a car owned by Robert H. Bates sustained $600 damage and a pickup truck owned by Harold Shoemaker sustained $300.

he said. There was a(so approximately $200 damage to the fence. A spokesman at Memorial Mission Hospital reported Friday night that Mary Burnette, 70, a passenger in her husband's car. had been admitted in fair condition with a fracture of the left upper arm. Burnette and Ray were treated and released, the spokesman said.

The accident took place on private property, and no charges were filed. In Murphy Home Fire MURPHY Two Murpby residents died in a fire at the home of one early Friday morning, the Cherokee County Sheriff's Department reported. Murphy firemen found the bodies of Mrs. Frances Kirkland Ramsey. 44, and Robert Burton Rogers, 46.

badly burned in a concrete block house and store combination on U. S. 64 near the Hiawassee Bridge. Mrs. Ramsey, the widow of Jack Ramsey, lived in the upstairs portion of the building, said Fire Chief Edwin Cook.

Sheriff's Deputy James Cole said a police officer noticed flames issuing from the upper windows of the building at 1:10 a.m. and called the fire department. Passersby had said the building seemed secure at midnight, he said. Cole said the cause of the fire is still being investigated, but he speculated it was started by careless smoking. The blaze was going strong when firemen arrived and it took more than an hour to remove the bodies.

Cole said. Kiwanians To Show Film On Johnson This month's film in the West Asheville Kiwanis "Movies for Shut-ins" program is "Tennessee Johnson," the story of Andrew Johnson. Civil Wartime governor of Tennessee. The film will be available through March 30 to rest homes and hospitals. There is no charge, and the club furnishes everything including the projector and the projectionist.

Arrangements may be made bv calling Frank R. Calloway at 252-2771. Mrs. Holshouser Speaks At Planting Mrs. James E.

Holshouser spoke at the Friday Gardens. The seed of the tree accompanied the Apollo afternoon planting of the "moon tree," the sycamore 14 astronauts to the moon in 1971. (Staff Photo by Bill shown in the foreground, at the University Botanical Sanders) 'Symbol Of Beaut A 'Moon Tree' Grows In Asheville Taylor Again Seeks Nationwide Primary WASHINGTON Legislation that would require all state presidential preference primaries to be held on the same day has been reintroduced by U.S. Rep. Roy A.

Taylor, who sponsored the bill in 1972. "The multi-state primary system we are now using leaves presidential candidates broke and exhausted, the public confused, tired and sick from an overdose of politics," Taylor said. "The present system also is expensive to the taxpayers and places too much emphasis on the results of one state which may or may not represent a valid cross-section of American opinion." The 11th District congressman added. "While my bill designates the first Tuesday in May as the date for the nationwide presidential preference primary, I am more interested in abandoning the present drawn-out primary process than the particular date on which a nationwide primary should be held. Friday being Arbor Day, much of the ceremony was dedicated to the importance of trees to society.

Resler noted that the first forestry school in the country was established here (the Blltmore School, founded at the turn of the century), and said that less energy is required to manufacture lumber than steel, aluminum and other building materials. "The U. S. must make some important decisions in the next few years on what uses we wish to make of our undeveloped lands," he said. Winkworth commended those involved with forestry conservation, saying that, while a few decades ago enough forest was burned in the state each year to make a mile-wide swath from Ashcville to Raleigh, the swath would now reach only to Morgan-ton.

The idea of planting the "moon tree" in the botanical gardens was that of Dr. J. B. Hilmon. director of the Southeast Forest Experiment Station.

As a three-foot sycamore tree went into the ground Friday afternoon at the University Botanical Gardens. Mrs. James E. Holshouser called the plant "a symbol of the beauty of the world around us." The tree was special because Its seed traveled to the moon and back on the 1971 Apollo 14 mission. Scientists who had wondered whether seeds could be transported in space discovered that weightlessness did not affect the ability of seeds to germinate.

The governor's wife made the dedication speech at the planting, which was attended by University of North Carolina at Ashcville Chancellor Dr. William Highsmith, Vice Mayor Bill B. Horton. NASA astronaut Col. Henry W.

Hartsfield U. S. Forest Service associate chief Rexford Resler and Ralph C. Winkworth, chief forester of North Carolina. About 50 of the general public also watched the ceremony.

UJllllltllltlf llHIIIiailllltlUllllMlltlll ItHIHIIIHinHMIIIHIIMIIIIIHIIHIUIIIiniinillllltllllllllKltllllltllHIIIII lllltlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllillllllt1ltlllllUIIIIIU Overstuffed In Charleston World War I Woman Acquitted Is Featured Barracks Will Meet Sunday I SllOOtillg CdSC By BILL MOORE Citizen Staff Writer The trouble with going to Charleston for a weekend this early in the spring is that it might rain. In fact it rained this last weekend. Well, It didn't exactly rain, either. It teemed; it pelted; lt poured down copiously. Rarraeks 505.

World War I Rain down there in the lowlands isn't like the rain we get up here in the mountains. Up here we get a little rain, a little sunshine, maybe a little snow and tnen sunshine again and the pattern keeps repeating itself. Down there when the weatherman decides to produce a rain number, he doesn't spare the budget. The clouds gather, the sky sullens up and down it comes by the bucketsful. It rains tor-rentially, but not all the time, of Veterans, and the Ladies Auxiliary will meet at 2:30 p.m.

Sunday in the recreation room of First Presbyterian Church. Claranre D. Howell, commander, will preside. Carl N. Bean, quartermaster, has received notice from W.N.

Knight, adjutant of Charlotte, that the Ashcville barracks Is No. I In membership In the state with 138 members. Average age of members Is 79 years. Bean also reported that state membership has been reduced bv 130 since the last convention in June. 1975.

The 1976 convention will be held at Albemarle, near Salisbury, on June 25-26. radius of action. Not for us were the magnolia gardens. I the gracious colonial plantations or even the boat ride i around Charleston harbor. I So we decided to fill the damp hours with seafood.

I It was a wise alternative. Acting on the advice of Phillip, the Sagacious, the epicure of the composing room, we sought a restaurant known as Henry's. From the outside it doesn't look like much. It's a 5 one-story, whitewashed concrete building. A small, modest sign announces its identity.

A nondescript doorway is flanked by two blank windows. I The decor inside is almost severe. There are no hokey 5 lobster traps hanging from the ceiling, no never-used oars or ersatz harpoons crossed on the walls. There are just a few paintings on the walls, tables. chairs and a corps d'elite of waiters.

The floor is covered with black-and-white tiles, always a good sign in a seafood restaurant. Just one sip of the she crab soup convinced us that I someone in the kitchen knew the recipe. And half-way through the curried shrimp Carolina we agreed that we were in one of the best seafood restaurants I between Old Bookbinder's in Philadelphia and Jimmy's in Miami Beach. So. while the rain hammered on the roof, we sat.

I warm, dry and exceedingly well-fed 5 Finally we left, vowing to return. And we did, for lunch the next day and for dinner the next day. too On such an I occasion, who counts the calorics? 2 lt was still raining when we left Charleston. But, I we'll go back: the first chance we get. 1 There's a lot there we haven't seen yet.

And there's about 95 per cent of the menu at Henry's we haven't tried I yet, too In Magazine CHEROKEE Oeonaluftee Indian Village, an 18th century replica of a Cherokee community, is featured in the May issue of Modem Photography, The article entitled "Indians Between F35 and F8" was written by Lyle Lawson and Is the Bicentennial "Shoot America" series article for this issue. Color photographs in the Issue Include the basketry, pottery, Council House, boadwork and trappings at Oeonaluftee Indian Village, and three from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The author writes that as far as she knows this Is the first lime any magazine has attempted to show poeplc how to photograph the historical sites of the United States. The village will open to the public May 13 and operate daily through Oct. 25.

"Unto These Hills," a companion attraction operated by the Cherokee Historical Association, will open this year on June 19 with performances nightly, except Sundays, through Aug. 28. A Buncombe Superior Court jury acquitted Mrs. Wyoma H. Baldwin, 38, of Sweeten Creek Road.

Arden of felonious assault charges Friday after a four-day trial. She had been charged in the shooting of two Candler brothers in Jack's Minipac store on U.S. 25 in the early morning hours last Oct. 20. She and her husband.

Jack Baldwin, were owners and operators of the business, which provided pool tables and beer. In the long trial, six witnesses testified for the prosecution, and six. In addition to Mrs. Baldwin, for the defense. Randal Steven Elkins, 24, attended the trial In a wheelchair.

He claimed an injured spine. Daniel H. Elkins, 23, allegedly received hip and stomach wounds. Mrs. Baldwin testified she fired two warning bullets from the .22 pistol into the ceiling after the two brothers and a younger one all started beating her husband while he was down on the floor.

A photograph in evidence showed Baldwin's bloody face and a cut near the eye. Testimony revealed the Elkins brothers brought their own beer into the store to drink while they played pool. Robert E. Riddle, defense attorney, told the jury it is a violation ot North Carolina law to take beer inlo a store that sells beer. Five Visitors Lose CB Radios Five out-of-town visitors staying at Ashcville motels fell victim to Citizens Band radio thieves Thursday night or Friday morning, according to reports filed with the Asheville Police Department.

The thefts occurred between 5 pm. Thursday and 11:30 am. Friday, police said, and the radios ranged in value from about $160 to $250. Police also received reports of CB radios stolen during the same period from the nearby Downtowner Motor Inn and Star I -I ties Bowling Center. MOORE Bicentennial Salute course.

In the intervals you get just plain rain. Even in the rain, however, Charleston has more charm and beautv than almost any other place on the East Coast. And a rainy day there offers some unforgettable pictures for the mind; brilliant patches of azalea blosoms against a dripping wall In a brick courtyard; the columned mansions on the Battery, standing against a grey blanket of cloud; the lean, graceful shape of a destroyer nosing through a fog bank off Fort Sumter; a group of men cackling over a card game in an otherwise deserted shed in the market. But it is true that rain does cut down on a tourist's Mrs. Irene Presley, Garren.

Creek Road: for painting her mail box and her brother's mail hox. Support thi blcenlinnltl tftort: Call MWnilllMMfMllllllllHlMllinMIIIIIIIHUIlllllt IMnillWIIIIIHIIinitllllHIIIIinillltllltUUIMnilllllUIIIIIIllllf HIIMIIIIIIIUMIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIlHUIMIMflllHni?.