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Vol. V No. 46
January 23, 1990
From the Greenbrier
Valley of West Virginia
A. Goddard
"Sam" Fixter is a quiet
Who is quietly dedicated to
Other people. Her dedication
to the Fairlea Rescue
as a volunteer E.M•T. --
Medical Technician
her newly-opened private
of massage therapy in Le-
Fixter and her husband Mark
from Up-state New York to
rirginia in 1979. TheY now live
Wood Farm, several
Country miles from down-
are so isolated that Mark
we needed to know
do if one or the other of us
while working on our
We both took First Aid
• Then we went into ad-
Aid which led us, natu-
Our E.M.T. training. Mr Fixter
.=ston where he is
Yed "asthe eyes and the
of the medical profession."
to her E•M.T. training,
is a graduate of the Flor-
of Massage at Gainsville.
;]raduation as a fully-licensed
;]e therapist, she accepted
at the Greenbrier Hotel
v, in addition to her work at
Jry spa, Ms Fixter is opening
practice in Lewisburg. Her
s located at 203 1/2 East
ington Street where she
Space with Doctor William W.
utilizes four different
ues in he;" practice:
ie for increased cir,
Therapeutic Massage,
'tt° accupressure and de-
o treat a specific discomfort;
Stephanie Fixter at work,
Polarity Therapy, developed by Dr
Randolph Stone, which helps to bal-
ance the electro-magnetic centers of
the body and Neuro-Muscular Mas-
sage, which is utilized only after a
physician refers a client to Ms Fixter.
A unique feature of Ms Fixter's
practice is her "on-site massage
therapy" service. Using a specially-
designed relaxation chair, Ms Fixter
provides a 15-minute treatment
"which promotes clear-headedness,
improves one's ability to perform du-
ties, increases the healthy flow of
oxygen throughout the body" and
provides a general sense of well-
being•
"The on-site therapy is especially
beneficial to those who are engaged
in high-stress work -- such as the
medical profession," Ms Fixter said.
"This is my major interest. You
know, stress is neither good nor
bad. It is just the body's way of al-
ways attempting to keep itself in bal-
ance. I want to help people learn
that there's nothing wrong with feel-
ing good."
When Ms Fixter is not helping
people through massage therapy,
she uses her talented hands to
weave and knit and to play the gui-
tar and hammered dulcimer.
"1 have a wonderful loom, a
Gallinger made in Ohio. I have done
production weaving on it and gone
to as many as 12 craft shows a year
to sell my work. And my music -- I
play a dulcimer built by John Stroud
of Williamsburg. He's built only a
few of them and the one I have is a
beauty." Ms Fixter often plays at
weddings, receptions and at local
square dances•
At Weaver's Wood Farm, Ms Fix-
ter and her husband keep busy
working on their owner-built home•
"There's an old Japanese saying my
neighbor related to me 'Man finish
house, man die.' Ms Fixter chuckles
and says "We're living by that
maxim•"
• ,~ L,,¸
i!i~/ •: i•
,urg
e
Jim Morgan
~urg organizers interested
the recent re-zoning of
Moore property to
endure vote have secured
Ures, according to Jim G.
The petition was
at Lewisburg City Hall
"Sburg residents concerned
construction of a
ential complex on
plot on U. S. 219 have
neighborhoods throughout
the required number
res• The City Code re-
quires valid petitions to contain' the
signatures of at least fifteen per cent
of the number of residents who
voted in the last gubernatorial elec-
tion. According to records from the
County Clerk's office, 1722 in
Lewisburg's four precincts voted in
the last general election This figure
includes an undetermined number
who live just outside city limits, how-
ever. City officials will have to deter-
mine the validity of each signature
before making a decision to call an
election.
Petition organizers had 60 days
from the re-zoning ordinance's
enanctment to present the signa-
tures to the city. "We have verified
each signature as a voter," Mr Mor-
gan said. "It's been a lot of work. We
had the help of about 25 people."
Mr Morgan says the purpose of
the petition is to allow the public to
decide whether the re-zoning should
stand or not. He is clear, however,
about his opposition to the Council's
3-2 decision on the property. "This
sets a bad precedent. If you do it for
one group, you have to do it for an-
other. I'm concerned about the con-
gestion it would cause, especially if
a traffic light were to be installed in
front of the property, rm also con-
cerned for the people who live
around there: it's not fair to them."
Eight businessmen, all but one
from the local area, plan a $2 million
first-phase project including a drug
store, grocery, and restaurant on the
part of the property nearest U. S.
219, across from Bill Lewis Motors.
The second phase would include
business, medical, and professional
facilities. The final proposed phase
involves condominiums, town
houses, and garden apartments.
The second and third phases have
an estimated cost of $10 million and
would be located on the back two-
thirds of the property.
The Lewisburg Council voted
November 21 to re-zone the front
40 percent of the property commer-
cial, with the stipulation that a pri-
mary access road through the prop-
erty from U. S. 219 to Fairview Road
must first be constructed before any
building permits will be issued.
In 1857 a German artist, Edward Beyer, visited what is now West Virginia and made sketches of the
famous watering places and of natural attractions. He took these sketches back to Germany where he
produced the finished pictures. They were printed in three colors from stone engravings (lithography).
Beyer's "Album of Virginia" gave many Europeans their first view of the wilderness of America, The
Album prints are prized by collectors today and usually sell for several hundred dollars each. This print
is of White Sulphur Springs as Beyer saw it in the middle of the last century.
Ronceverte
By Jonathan Wright
Massive, twelve-by-six-foot
monoliths of green foam seemingly
stand guard at various posts
throughout the plant grounds. Sliced
portions of the same green stuff
lean up against a wall, strangely re-
sembling gigantic tombstones. Much
smaller boxes of the foam lie
nearby, waiting to leave the factory.
This is Jiffy Foam, Incorporated,
one of Ronceverte's several manu-
facturing plants. Its out-of-the-way
location at the west end of River
Road, on the banks of' the Green-
brier River,,bet~.es its contribution to
the floral industry throughout North
America. The 30-year-old operation
produces the familiar green foam
used to position fresh, dried, or silk
flowers in containers.
"Business is good," plant man-
ager Lucy Morgan says. "Because
the floral industry is growing, so are
we. In the past three to four years,
particularly, we have seen a major
increase in our activity•"
The plant's 16 employees keep
busy making the foam, cutting it into
increasingly smaller segments, and
boxing it for shipment to wholesal-
ers. Accounts are located as far
away as Japan and Puerto Rico.
Jiffy Foam was founded in 1960
by Albert Palomboof Hanover, Mas-
sachusetts. "Experts were sent out
to find an ideal location for a plant,
with a centralized shipping area,"
Mrs Morgan says. The former plant
of Mountain State Poultry, in Ron-
ceverte, was selected and pur-
chased by Mr Palombo in 1962•
In 1972 Mr Palombo developed
and patented an "internalized wet-
ting agent," making the foam ca-
pable of absorbing moisture to keep
cut plants looking healthy longer• Mr
Palombo's son Bill now heads Jiffy
Foam from its corporate and sales
office in Newport, Rhode Island•
The process for manufacturing
the phenolic and urethane foam be-
gins with a base phenolic resin. Af-
ter a serious of time- and tempera-
ture-controlled reactions, the mixture
is then poured into a mold and
formed to dimensions twelve feet
high and six feet wide.
In what is perhaps the most im-
pressive part of the entire manufac-
turing process to plant visitors, the
mixture is then poured into the large
mold to a depth of 18 inches---and
rises to its twelve-foot height in only
three-and-a-half minutes. After "set-
ting" about twenty minutes, the
1600-pound foam block is stored in
a shelter at the rear of the plant
complex for two days. Band saw
operators then cut it into nine-inch-
thick slabs. Several more cutting
procedures result in the final prod-
uct: foam "bricks" with dimensions of
3 3/16 by 4 1/4 by 9 inches.
According to Mrs Morgan, sixteen
tractor-trailer loads of foam have
been shipped out so far in January.
"We have good workers here,"
Mrs Morgan says. "One has been
here twenty years, one has been
here 16, and another has been with
us 10 years. Although all of our crew
members have their own major re-
sponsibilities, each one is able to do
just about anything at the plant. We
all pull together to get the work
done.
"Also, all the people we sell to
are very nice people. Weereally
strive to keep up the quality of our
product and to offer fast shipping•"
Mrs Morgan says the company is
offering a new product now: model-
ing and sculpturing foam. Major cus-
tomers are craft shops, architects,
and schools.
The Ronceverte manufacturer
recovered quickly from the 1985'
Greenbrier River flood, which
caused extensive damage to the
plant. "Since then we have built a
50-by-50-foot extension for our
warehouse, a 60-by-90-foot storage
shed, and new offices, Mrs Morgan
says• "Now we are working on a
new laboratory."
Asbury
Old Asbury Road, looking north
,er Heavy
A soft road base cause by thaw-
ing is apparently to blame for dam-
age to a one-mile stretch of Old
Asbury Road on Muddy Creek
Mountain last week, acoopding to
the Greenbrier County Assistant
Supervisor Andy Morgan, of the De-
partment of Highways' District Nine
Office in Lewisburg.
The affected road stretches from
Asbury northward, with numerous
segments of broken pavement and
exposed base. According to Mr Mor-
gan, the damage was done January
18.
Johnson Limestone Company
trucks were hauling limestone three
days last week to a new plant of
British United Turkeys of America
(BUTA), approximately three-fourths
mile from the location. Supervisor
Raymond Johnson said, "Our trucks
were not overweight. We have the
tickets to prove it."
The legal weight limit on the road
is 65,000 pounds, Mr Morgan says.
tk.tr Johnson says his company's
trucks were hauling loads between
