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Early files contain familiar names, stories
When Carey Phillips asked me “Who was the other Democrat that ran for school board in 1986 that forced Bob Adams and Bud Lewis into a run-off,” I was flattered. He seriously thought I might remember events of two decades ago.
Unfortunately, I disappointed him. Despite the fact that I did work at the newspaper then, I couldn’t recall the answer to his question – I didn’t even remember that there was a run-off. So, with the filing period for local elected offices looming on the horizon, I searched microfilms of our earlier editions – both to learn the name of that third Democratic school board candidate and to remind myself what was on The Herald’s front pages 20 years ago.
Though the stories were different, many of the names were the same.
Sylva Police Chief Jeff Jamison was quoted in several reports because he was Jackson County Sheriff Fred Holcombe’s chief deputy in 1986. Jamison, along with current Sylva town board member Ray Lewis, were among numerous candidates to succeed Holcombe, who retired that year. That contest was won by N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper Bob Allen, who served two terms.
Another familiar name was that of Commissioner Joe Cowan – called “William” in The Herald’s 1986 news stories – who was then superintendent of schools. Terrorism was a concern of school officials at that time, too, with Cowan recommending school officials withdraw sponsorship of several planned trips abroad in the wake of a terrorist attack in a Rome airport.
Local attorney Paul Holt figured in numerous stories in his then role of county attorney, a position he still holds. While Holt is currently the school board’s attorney as well, in 1986 he apparently advised the school board as part of his duties for the county.
Filing for county offices opened Jan. 6 that year, and then Herald News Editor J.D. McRorie provided a series of local civics lessons in his “Knowing Jackson” columns. He wrote about the townships, school districts and voting precincts that winter.
Other familiar names and faces popped up in listings of cultural programs – Mary Jane Queen and her son Henry performed traditional Appalachian music for school children, and Cullowhee poet (and current North Carolina poet laureate) Kay Byer and Sylva storyteller Gary Carden read from their works at a Blue Ridge Parkway event.
Some stories are reminiscent of this week’s front page, with information from the Jan. 30 edition about a “weekend snow” and an April 10 report headlined “Library expansion to include purchase of land, house.” Based on a commissioners’ meeting, that story told of county leaders decision to buy the “old Kathleen Hooper Nash property” adjacent to the library for $100,000, with the building to be used for offices and storage by the library. Subsequent commissioners made plans to tear down the house and expand the library, but preservationists succeeded in restoring the Hooper House to be the office of the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce.
Another significant move came with the school board’s April decision to take an option on 55 acres on N.C. 107 near Speedwell Road – known as the Ferguson bottom and the Grady Parker property – as the future home of a K-12 school to replace Camp Lab. Plans changed there, too, after the 1988 consolidation of Cullowhee and Sylva-Webster high schools. A school was eventually built on a portion of the property (Cullowhee Valley, which opened in the fall of 1994), but the bulk of it was transferred to county ownership to become the Jackson County Recreation Complex.
In other building news, 1986 saw the completion and opening of Western Carolina University’s Ramsey Center, named for longtime state House of Representatives Speaker Liston Ramsey of Marshall.
A few other stories resonated: A report that gas prices had dropped sharply to 88.9 cents per gallon for regular; a story and photos about Project FIRE’s effort to supply firewood to the county’s elderly (we had a similar one just last week); a propane leak in Beta that forced residents from their homes just as a downtown natural gas leak forced us and other Main Street businesses to evacuate two or three months ago; and a report about the last 27 residents moving out of the old County Home. The cemetery associated with the old rest home figured prominently in several news stories last year, and a stone plaque from the old home was placed at the cemetery this past October. A Jan. 30, 1986, item reported Southwestern Technical College’s (now Southwestern Community College) decision to demolish the structure.
All the 20-year-old information was so interesting, I forgot my original purpose until a May front page reported the outcome of that year’s primary.
It was Elaine Norton who finished third but garnered enough votes to keep first-place finisher Lewis from claiming a majority and allowing Adams to call for a run-off.
The finish order was reversed a month later, and that election effectively ended plans for a new union school in Cullowhee. Adams, the pro-consolidation candidate, defeated incumbent Lewis, a supporter of a K-12 school to replace Camp Lab, by just 30 votes.
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