Black Diamond Folk May Dissolve Town

By H.J. GLOVER

BLACK DIAMOND, Jan.12. -- After nearly a year of being an incorporated town, residents of Black Diamond have started a move to be free of mayors, councilmen and city police.

JOHN THOMPSON, a logging operator who owns five per cent of the three square miles of Black Diamond, is one of the signers of the petition asking for a vote on dissolving the incorporation. Names of other signers will be made public soon.

Thompson, who has been a resident here since 1918, calls Black Diamond a "wide place in the road" which is not able immediately to produce a swimming pool, disposal plant, street improvements and city hall.

MAYOR LLOYD HAGEN is unhappy with some of the people who want to go back to where they started last year. He accused the folks who want to disincorporate of spreading stories of impending ordinances which will prohibit townsfolk from keeping cows, poultry and dogs within the city limits.

MRS. GERTRUDE BOTTS, a member of the Town Council and mother of six children, said she will fight the move to disincorporate the town. She said that incorporation was the best thing to come to Black Diamond, apparently, since the discovery of coal.

The people who favor keeping the town incorporated point out that the mayor, council and others have given hundreds of free hours in grading streets, installing drains and doing away with unsightly brush.

AS GOMER EVANS JR., a councilman, put it:

"The town's streets are in bad condition. We are not a year old yet. So until we get on our feet financially, all the officials are pitching in with free time when not working on their regular jobs."

He says that his work keeps him out on the streets. Otherwise he would be at home looking at television.