10 years ago
* Graham County Schools Superintendent Chip Carringer said that the county school system had safeguards in place to help prevent a scenario such as the mass killings in Connecticut. Carringer and Safe Schools Coordinator Angie Knight said that the elementary, middle and high-school complexs each have a gun-carry, certified law officer at the schools and a lockdown plan in place. “All doors were kept locked except for the front,” Carringer said. Knight said that drills were also common. Update: Knight is now Graham County Schools Superintendent, while Carringer serves as the board of education’s vice chairman.
* Taking over as director of Travel and Tourism was in many ways Tabitha Myler’s dream job. “Seeing the passion that the ladies at Beta Sigma Phi had for their community, and how important it was for them to give help where needed, made me want to contribute too.” Although Myler wasn’t from Graham County, she had family roots that dated back nine generations. Her family used to come to Robbinsville and knew they wanted to retire here. Update: Daniel Allison is now the director of Graham County Travel & Tourism.
25 years ago
* If Graham County voters wanted to vote on alcohol sales, at least 2,000 of them would have needed to sign a petition that Karen Hall planned to initiate. The petition was Hall’s only hope for having this issue placed on the ballot after commissioners denied her request and since they chose not to do so, the state required 35 percent of register voters to sign a petition to place an item on the ballot. After Hall’s study on alcohol use and abuse in Graham County, she said, “I’m not stopping.” Update: It took 24 more years, but beer and wine sales are now legal in Robbinsville after the 2021 municipal election.
* Bluegrass, clogging and Santa’s “Ho, Ho, Ho” filled the auditorium with sounds of the season for the first Christmas celebration at the Stecoah Valley Center. The Carolina Bluegrass Boys kept the music playing and the Southern Appalachian Cloggers were there with their toe-tapping dancing. Cecil Johnson, co-sponsor of the event, planned to make the Stecoah Valley Center celebration an annual event.
50 years ago
* The cost to North Carolina taxpayers was 18 cents a day to transport a child to school in 1971-72 and 66 percent of public school children rode the bus to class. In Graham County, the average number of school buses that operated during this period were 25 and the buses traveled 130,919 miles. They carried 1,166 students, which was an average cost of $42.62 per student. These figures were from the report on transportation, prepared by the N.C. Board of Education. The average school bus in North Carolina got 5½ miles to the gallon, as 10,430 buses were in operation during the year.
* Continual rainfall contributed to a 5-vehicle accident between Robbinsville and Andrews. As a state truck with a full load backed up, a signal from someone attempting to direct traffic failed. Another vehicle occupied by four persons from Robbinsville proceeded into and under the state truck. A few hundred yards up the road, a commercial vehicle – seeing the wreck – stopped and was hit, then sandwiched in by another truck. Fortunately, only one passenger was transported to the hospital for treatment, as the rescue squad continued for two hours to assist others.
-Compiled by Diane West