John B. Marek

In 1953, a Texas businessman named Ellis Hall disappeared while flying his small plane over the Canadian bush. A search and rescue effort was mounted and eventually located a tangled mess of wreckage protruding from the side of Mount Kologet. However, it quickly became evident to the search team that the wreck was much too large to be Hall's bush plane.  When photos of the site were examined by aviation experts, the plane was identified as a B-36 "Peacemaker" that had been lost during a top-secret training mission three years earlier.  The B-36 was a long-range strategic bomber designed during WWII as a replacement for the B-29; specifically, a replacement capable of bombing Germany from air bases in the United States. By the time the plane came into service, the war in Europe was over, and its six piston-push-engines supplemented with four ramjets were a maintenance nightmare and functionally inferior to rapidly advancing jet-powered aircraft. Still, in the early '50...

As economic development director for Anson County, I strongly urge you to vote FOR the Mixed Beverage* Election November 8th. But, more importantly, I encourage you to listen to the voices of the young professionals upon whom the future of the county will depend. If you look closely at the lower right-hand corner of the blue and white signs urging a FOR vote on Mixed Beverages, you will see they are paid for by YP Anson. So what is YP Anson? Is it some political action committee funded by out-of-state alcoholic beverage manufacturers and casino owners? No, it's Young Professionals Anson, an organization made up of and funded entirely by local business people and community members under the age of 40.  They are the bankers, real estate agents, lawyers, shop owners, entrepreneurs, factory managers, and tradespeople who will lead Anson County into the next decade and beyond. Most of them were born and raised here, left to get a college education, and chose to return and raise a family...