V.3 Edition 1 January/February 2013

132 Ye ars an dC ou nti ng

Complimentary Edition

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CA ITALat LAY The Free Spirit Of Enterprise

Publisher

Harley O. Morgan

Executive Editor Dasha Morgan

Senior Correspondents

Bill Fishburne, David Bradley, Linda D. Cluxton

Contributing Editors

K. Douglas King, Alexina O. Morgan, Hunt Mallett, Mike Summey

Creative Associates and Layout

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Alexandra M. Bradley, Matthew Tuers

Marketing and Advertising

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For Editorial Inquiries, e-mail editor@capitalatplay.com copyright © 2013, universal media. all rights reserved.

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Published by Universal Media Inc. PO Box 5615 Asheville, NC. 28813

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marketing director - Kate Brantly Patricia Starnes, Elizabeth B. Etheridge, Clint Parker

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January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com

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Publisher’s Thoughts I think that it can be reasonably agreed upon that bureaucracies (especially ones with an extremely vertical hierarchy) are not the most efficient operations. This can be shown in any number of ways. It is extremely difficult to measure the productivity of large bureaucracies. Ever think how hard it is to measure the ‘output’ of the EPA or of the Bureau of the Budget?

On the reverse side of the coin, the existing proliferation of many of our extremely large businesses (many of whom are filled with various bureaucracies) must be recognized for the monumental achievements that they have offered our nation, as well as our planet, thereby creating the fastest period of innovation that our world has ever seen. Advancements in telecommunications, medicine, logistics and supply chain management….the list goes on. These large businesses required large bureaucracies, but now many are re-thinking the advantages that might result from proper outsourcing to smaller independent units.

Given the truth of these two opposing forces, I think that there is great potential for a new kind of business structure that utilizes the best of both perspectives.

Companies like GE, P&G, and Gulf & Western found it more efficient to restructure ideas and competencies of many similar and different companies in order to increase efficiency, which still resulted in greater gains than those inefficiencies of the bureaucracies that were necessarily formed as a natural by-product of these large organizations. Outsourcing specific tasks that these bureaucracies perform to smaller independent units via technological means, makes the work far more measurable and cost efficient. An entire new structure will be determined by outsourcing to smaller independent capitalists.

We now see that many people are finding great satisfaction in being their own boss, especially because they get to decide how best to perform their job, as it suits their own schedule. We see companies employing telecommuters more and more. We no longer have the same need to pool resources into bureaucracies, as was necessary previously, because technology has enabled us to pool those efficiencies into smaller independent units.

If we recognize that the more efficient operations are observed in smaller, independently owned organizations, we also understand that people are already gravitating naturally to working for themselves as subcontractors (and using their own capital as they best see fit). When working with a small group of dedicated and like-minded individuals, can we not foresee an ultimately more efficient, productive, satisfied national labor force by encouraging the growth of small independently owned businesses like those showcased in this magazine?

Sincerely,

6

CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

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CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

Annual Manufacturing Issue

p.12

Those who take the risk and inspire others to do likewise... bringing every sector of private industry right to your fingertips.

Kara Errickson & SkinFare “There is no question of can; you just do.”

p.36

The Jackson Family 49 Years of racing innovation

p.46

Will Gay & John Delaloye Diamond Brand —132 Years and Counting

p.52

Judy & Gill Morgan Hand hooked rugs in Hendersonville, NC. Cane Creek Cycling

A Shocking Business

p.72 January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com

9

Contents

Keepin’ it Brief

Leisure & Libation

From the area of commerce you’re in, from the Carolinas, and from around the globe - you won’t find the same information in one magazine anywhere else.

Working as hard as you do, it can be difficult to make time to find these things - let us help.

20

Western Carolina News Briefs

30

44

News In The Old North State

Some thoughs and suggestions for 2013

59

60 World Briefs 62

Reflections & Resolutions

Health Briefs

Hunt Mallett Gives Us Wine & Wisdom

A nice port wine & a warm fire

Early Adopters These are some of the latest and greatest gadgets to improve your life and work, or maybe just to keep you entertained.

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1 Second Every Day App Stop forgetting and start remembering The Unigrip Pro a universal smartphone mount Snolo Stealth X This sled is certainly no small childs’ toy

Politics Sometimes the private and public sectors of industry collide - We show you what some writers think.

We also help you reach the elected officials that represent you.

50

How Do They Do It?

78

Voter Watch

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Inside the Cuckoo’s Nest

Local Industry All about your area. We help you stay on top of the businesses that impact and serve your region.

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Mike Talks: There’s got to be a better way

Real estate veteran Mike Summey enlightens us

10 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

Meet your newly elected representatives

Google’s tax avoidance is called ‘capitalism’, Most in SC want stronger ethics laws, poll finds Election over, administration unleashes new rules When S.C. legislators meddle in local affairs

Events

Today’s Real Estate

Here’s a current take on real estate issues that you’ll find interesting. Also some charts or graphs for the more informed reader

We ask this month’s Featured Capitalist’s : how do you manage your time?

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Events from all around WNC and Upstate SC. See what’s going on in your community this week

Photo at the top of this page: Taken by Harley O. Morgan

Dixon Hughes Goodman provides the Carolinas with full-service assurance, Dixon Hughes Goodman provides the Carolinas with full-service assurance, tax and advisory capabilities in a variety of industries, including: tax and advisory capabilities in a variety of industries, including: • Construction & Real Estate • Healthcare • Construction & Real Estate • Healthcare • Manufacturing & Distribution • Not-for-Profit/Government • Manufacturing & Distribution • Not-for-Profit/Government • Financial Institutions • Dealerships • Financial Institutions • Dealerships • Government Contracting • Insurance • Government Contracting • Insurance

Wish ing our current and future clients a joyous and Wish ing our current and future clients a joyous and safe Holiday Season and a prosperous N ew Year! safe Holiday Season and a prosperous N ew Year!

Former Big Four clients lean on Dixon Hughes Former Big Four clients lean on Dixon Hughes Goodman Certified Public Accountants and Advisors Goodman Certified Public Accountants and Advisors for deep industry and subject-matter experience, plus for deep industry and subject-matter experience, plus a hands-on style that beats service expectations. a hands-on style that beats service expectations.

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It never enters

Kara Errickson’s mind that something can’t be done.

“There is no question of can;

Written By Tina Barr

Photographs By Linda Cluxton

you just do.”

An industrial designer who graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design, she is the founder and CEO of CoCoChi. Her “mission,” based on product integrity as well as sustainable practices, is to produce a line of topical skin care products made of food-based ingredients, like coconut oil, beeswax, carrot, ginger and spearmint, that nourish and feed the skin, thus: SkinFare. She sees her business as a platform for creating sustainable, pervasive, even massive change.

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Upstairs in the bright, spacious, refinished attic of the house on Hendersonville Road where her company has their central office, six full-time employees, clearly a collaborative team, all work at various computer and production stations 70 hours a week. But the secret here is that Kara’s husband Tyler is in charge of production; she has hired her mother as bookkeeper, her brother is the IT consultant, and friends Paul and Krista, respectively, are in charge of sales and support. Kara and her husband and three year old daughter, who attends preschool, live downstairs. I am stunned, as I move around the room, by the beauty of what I mistake for elaborate wooden displays, in German Creche shapes, but Kara explains that these sales display units are made of cardboard. She explains the “radical thought behind the design” of her units. Recycled, biodegradable layers of corrugated cardboard, laser-cut, they can be disassembled and are put together with screws. Their slogans, that read “Leave No Chafe,” “Save Your Skin,” and “Bring On The Snow,” are easily changed, with minimal waste at the shelf. Kara’s talents as an industrial designer are on display here, and after learning that she earned a degree in woodworking from Haywood Community College, the penny drops. She has an intense interest in materials and materiality; wood, cardboard, paper, all these come from the trees she reveres. “I suppose North Carolina turned me into a tree-hugging dirt-worshiper. These mountains

12 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

inspire me on multiple levels, from bio-mimicry to spirituality. I have felt truly blessed to live here. My deep respect for natural materials was shaped at Haywood Community College while I was learning the craft of furniture making. A true craftsman strives to understand the intricacies of his medium, and for me woodworking is the exaltation of trees.”

Kara was drawn to this area, craving a different culture.

She was “driven to change herself, to take her talents and be somebody different.” “That language of change was industrial design and the potential for mass production.” She grew up in Fort Lauderdale and worked in theatre production at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, where she met the magician David Copperfield. She became his personal assistant in New York and acknowledges how much she benefited from his example and mentorship. She was inspired to follow her dreams and first moved to North Carolina to pursue her education in art and design thirteen years ago.

“It’s hard to be an environmental activist living in a community that doesn’t support those values.” She admires the entrepreneurial and pioneering spirit at work here, the ethos of local production, which she observes and marvels at as she talks about engaging with a local grocer, shop owners and restaurateurs. Errickson’s personality and initiative are perfectly suited to the integrated spirit at work in Asheville.

January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 13

Coconut

Galbanum

Helichrysum

“I first went to Bali during college to spend the summer researching bamboo with the Environmental Bamboo Foundation, which was founded by one of my mentors, Linda Garland. One week before my arrival, there was a devastating earthquake on the neighboring island of Java. I was eager to lend a hand and ended up designing a bamboo house, which was used to rebuild 300 dwellings in a small village called Tembi. I was encouraged to return after completing school, so after much contemplation, Tyler and I packed our bags and moved to Indonesia.”

Errickson’s design skills and her inventiveness are reflected in the SkinFare product itself as well as its packaging.

The company has secured a foothold in the marketplace because of its organic certification, obtained by Tyler Errickson, as Production Manager, which SkinFare sees as crucial to their business development. SkinFare is the first product to bear the newly developed “Blue Ridge Naturally” seal, which certifies products to standards for this region. Advantage West, the public/private partnership that supports regional economic development, allocated SkinFare a seed loan; it also supports Blue Ridge Food Ventures, where SkinFare is manufactured.

The six full-time employees work collectively on manufacturing days to produce the beautifully designed push-up pillars, like a giant chapstick, which melts on contact.

The three and a quarter inch, twist-top tubes, made of 90% recycled, 75% post-consumer waste, are biodegradable. The five coconut-oil based “flavors” are color coded, and have names like “Verdant Remedy,” and “Thunder Cake.” Thunder Cake will “energize, relieve and protect;” with ingredients like clove, nutmeg and anise,” it smells good enough to eat. Verdant Remedy smells like a grassy field. The sweeter and faintly spicy “Apothecary Prime,” delivers chamomile, sage and thyme. The scents are related to the colors, so Apothecary Prime’s tube is brown and pink. Verdant Remedy is, of course, green. In one section of the workspace, color samples are laid out next to the tubes, and there are shelves of essential oils like wild carrot,

Thyme

14 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

Basil

Beeswax

Ginger

Nutmeg

Left to Right: Tyler Errickson & Paul Heathman, working up a fresh batch

Carrot

Castor

Palmarosa

Palm fruit

helichrysum, chamomile, sage, thyme, rock rose and bergamot.

It’s an alchemist’s dream, and the team works collaboratively in developing each product, but Kara admits there have been failures, concoctions that didn’t smell as good or feel right on the skin.

Errickson’s dream is to see more botanicals produced locally and organically. The SkinFare product is composed of just seven ingredients, five of which can be grown in this area, but are not grown organically and in large quantities. The company had wanted to source most of their ingredients from this region, ideally within a hundred mile radius, but Errickson was disappointed to discover that crops here are not as diverse as one might imagine. In 2004, Congress closed the federal tobacco program, threatening an agricultural endeavor that had dominated this region for a century. So many farmers have been accustomed to producing tobacco. Undaunted, she understands that farmers need replacement crops for tobacco and wants to support a movement to diversify regional crops by purchasing organically grown agricultural products, medicinals and native plant species. The company wants to guarantee good manufacturing practices as well as purity. Incredibly, Errickson relates that “there is no oversight and no regulatory process for the manufacture of cosmetic products in the United States.

There are 11,000 synthetic chemicals in use; less than 10% have been tested for long-term safety factors.” “Manufacturers in the U.S. can use any ingredient or raw material,” with few exceptions, “to market a cosmetic product without government review or approval.” Johnson & Johnson just agreed to remove all carcinogens in its products by 2015.

As Errickson makes clear, “SkinFare is a company with values that will tie values to profitability.” She expects to succeed because of her mission, not despite of it. Although she has no business background, she has relied on her training in industrial design. She explains that “it’s the same process to design a product, to design a company.

Chamomile

Sage

January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 15

“Coconut oil changes from a liquid to a solid at 77 degrees. It has a small molecular structure so skin absorbs it easily, and it is an ideal carrier for beneficial ingredients since it can deliver them directly into one’s bloodstream.”

— Kara Errickson

16 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

My business plan is a continuous progression of a business vision.” SkinFare has total control of its integrated supply chain: they develop their own products, source locally when possible, have made changes in response to consumers and will continue to do so. “The last point in our mission deals with our mentality toward conservation and sustainability. Our search for packaging that wouldn’t end up in a plastic gyre in the middle of the ocean was an enormous undertaking. Making that decision meant that we couldn’t use typical suppliers and would battle decreased margins, but eventually the packaging became the key differentiator for the SkinFare products at shelf level. Consumers can instantly see the difference and that is hard to achieve.” Their first product was in black print, and consumer feedback led to the new colorfully packaged line, now diversified into five products, the five different “flavors” of SkinFare.

The tubes of balm feel almost like colorful toys. And I have to admit I’ve been using them, on my feet, dry hands, as a lip balm, and on my crow’s feet. After our interview, I wanted to see the product in situ and drove down Hendersonville Road to a Walgreens, where I consulted Dawn, an employee who was able to describe the benefits of SkinFare and how I should use it. I wondered who had educated her so well on the product!

The company has no marketing budget, and their sales success is based on grassroots word of mouth and community support.

In the year and some months it has been on the market, sales have exceeded 25,000 units. SkinFare is carried in over 300 retail locations nationwide, including Earth Fare, Whole Foods and Walgreens. Kara has been surprised by the sense of responsiveness she feels in relation to the consumer. She recalls a ninety-year old woman, who wrote her a letter to thank her. At a local Earth Fare demo, a wonderfully supportive woman was talking to Kara about her product. She pulled out a photo of her son, an infant who had a massive number of surgeries for cleft palate.

This mother knew SkinFare didn’t burn because the first time she used it on her son, he didn’t cry. As she conveys this story, Kara and I both get tears in our eyes. The woman believed SkinFare had helped heal his scars.

In fact, it was the birth of Tyler and Kara’s daughter in Bali that led to the inspiration for SkinFare. During the time she attended Rhode Island School of Design, she met Tyler, who was studying glassmaking. “Since we first met in college at RISD, we have structured a single existence, working together, playing together, living together, and loving together.

“Our daughter Kaia was born into Tyler’s January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 17

arms in a small, open-air house in Bali, Indonesia, three years in hope that I can encourage people to consider the relevance of ago, solidifying Tyler’s unwavering commitment to our family skincare products for exposure to carcinogenic chemicals.”

And did I mention that Kara is beautiful inside and out? Tall and our desire to create a better world. My daughter is my muse; my husband is my strength, and somewhere in the middle, I and lean, she has a Scandinavian bone structure, and lush and have found the courage to exist and move forward in spite of the beautifully colored tattooing. “I am constantly fascinated by the world around me and embrace any opportunity to experience obstacles.”

Kara relayed how the birth changed her as it changes many unique and exotic experiences. As a designer, there is always a mothers, who are now responsible “for a being who matters battle between form and function and as an artist, there is always beyond themselves.” During her pregnancy she wanted to use a balance between ornamentation and simplicity. My tattoos safe and affordable cosmetics. All foreign products offered for are an exploration of surface decoration on a living, breathing, changing medium and purchase in Bali are very to me, they express a expensive because of the willingness to experience duties levied on imports. life to the fullest!”

The locals introduced Her latest project is the Kara to coconut oil, which Flora Series, just released, has no carcinogenic a co-branded product ingredients. She used it with Sierra Nevada on her skin, in her hair; Brewing Company. All by the time her daughter of the products contain was born she was cooking hops as well as extracts with it. She wondered from plants native to why it wasn’t used in the the Sierra Nevada. She United States. During the intends to continue to 1950s, to make way for maintain control over the marketing of corn and the development of soy oils, used in margarine products, quoting Charles and other products, Eames, who said, “Never tropical oils became part Kara’s mother, Joyia James, official bookkeeper for SkinFare outsource knowledge.” of a smear campaign, and citizens associated products like palm oil as being bad for them. She intends to follow every step in the process, a competitive “Coconut oil changes from a liquid to a solid at 77 degrees. It advantage, since many cosmetics manufacturers outsource their has a small molecular structure so skin absorbs it easily, and it product development. She wants to appeal to a mass consumer. is an ideal carrier for beneficial ingredients since it can deliver Her enthusiasm is infectious, but she is also canny. During the them directly into one’s bloodstream.” Errickson explains that first year of marketing and selling her product, she considered a product is difficult for a consumer if it isn’t convenient, but where to sell SkinFare, investigating how retail stores dealt with she knew the company could make the product convenient. a small company, testing relationships with companies, whether Consumers know how to use a product that resembles a lip balm their structures were ethical. She asked the questions, “How do they work with a small business?” “Who is growing their or a chapstick.

Kara’s relationship to her products is deeply personal. She company in a Green direction?” Walgreens has a system that related the experience of losing her father to cancer. “My father’s supports its sale of local products, for example. A manager at a passing was a tremendous loss. I modeled myself after him and local Walgreens was watching television on a day she appeared continue to experience a profound sadness that I can no longer on WLOS. That fortuitous convergence seems emblematic of enjoy his presence. In November of 2011, Kevin was diagnosed the way Errickson’s life and ambitions have developed. Kara with a rare and aggressive form of cancer called Sarcoma. Less Errickson believes “Every day brings another opportunity;” than one year later, the battle was over. Having watched him within the week she was flying to London to meet a potential decline from a remarkably healthy man in such a short time backer, because “Someone in London got hold of the product was devastating. I openly share our personal family experience and loves it.”

18 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

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Western Carolina News Briefs

Ottinger named district conservationist - HAYWOOD & MADISON COUNTY John Ottinger is the new District Conservationist (DC) for the Haywood and Madison Soil and Water Conservation Districts.

Kara Cassels, a Buncombe native, has had the title for the past seven years, and moved to Buncombe SWCD in October. Soil and water conservation districts provide programs such as NC Ag Cost Share, which aids local landowners in agriculture conserve soil and steer clear of polluting the water. In addition, the federal agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA), offers programs that supply technical and financial assistance. The District Conservationist administers those programs. Ottinger has been preparing for this job for most of his life, as he grew up on a small farm in Waynesville. The future of agriculture has been an inherent concern for Ottinger, even before he earned his degree in Natural Resources Management from WCU. He graduated from Tuscola High School in 1989, started as an N.C. Ag Cost Share technician with the Jackson SWCD, and then continued his interest by working with NRCS a year later. For the following 11 years, he worked with the Swain, Jackson, and Macon SWCDs as well as the Cherokee

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These are briefs from around the

Indian Reservation. During that time, he traveled around the state with the federal Emergency Watershed Protection program due to floods resulting from Hurricanes Frances and Ivan. Ottinger is now married with three children. One of his favorite quotes by Franklin Roosevelt explains his point of view: “Men and nature must work hand in hand; the throwing out of balance of the resources of nature throws out of balance also the lives of men.”

Schools may move to automated system for finding substitutes - HENDERSON COUNTY The Henderson County Public Schools administration is proposing a new technology that could simplify the process of finding substitutes when teachers are absent. According to Human Resources Director Bo Caldwell, the school system is considering an automated substitute placement and absence management system since the current method is inefficient and time-consuming. He explained how the current system involves teachers calling in, then the principal spending 20 to 30 minutes calling in potential substitutes from a list. He added that principals’ time would be better spent in the classroom focusing on instruction rather than this managerial duty.

An automated system would allow teachers to register their absences either by logging online or calling a toll-free number.

Western Carolinas; news that doesn’t receive much coverage from local or regional news media.

The system would instantly start searching for an available substitute that matches the particular qualifications and preferences. In addition, principals would know in real time which teachers are absent and who is substituting for them.

Another perk an automated system offers is keeping track of employee absences. Although Caldwell said he did not think the school district had a serious issue with employee attendance, it would be beneficial for administrators to keep up with such data. Metcalf and Clear Creek Elementary Principal Audrey Reneau are on a committee with Caldwell that is responsible for gathering information about the various options of technology companies. Frontline Technologies, eSchool Solutions, and CRS Advance Technology each have computer software programs designed for substitute placement and absence management.

supported organizations such as Autism Society of Western North Carolina, YMCA-WNC, NC Arboretum Youth Programs, North Carolina Youth Camp Association, Girls on the Run, Dupont Forest Half Marathon, Hot Chocolate 10K and Mission Hospital’s Ladies Night Out program. Plus, Diamond Brand maintained its friendship with the arts and environment in 2012, greatly supporting Diana Wortham Theatre, WNC Nature Center, and various other organizations committed to improving the quality of life for Western North Carolinians. Toward the end of 2012, Diamond Brand pledged to donate 1% of all sales at its retail store between Thanksgiving and Christmas to the WNC YMCA. In addition, the company’s discount outlet store, Frugal Backpacker, helped the area’s homeless pets through an innovative pet food donation program.

Diamond Brand donates $44,000 to community groups in 2012

Solar power developer to locate headquarters in Fletcher

- BUNCOMBE COUNTY -

- BUNCOMBE COUNTY -

Diamond Brand showed its responsibility in the Western North Carolina community in 2012 by supporting charities in the area with over $44,000 in donations and countless hours of service. Diamond Brand has manufactured goods in WNC since 1943 and launched WNC’s first outdoors gear retail store in 1964. As a retailer dedicated to the active lifestyle, wellness and health has been a primary ideology of Diamond Brand Outdoors’ business since it began. So of course, Diamond Brand

Zentric Inc., an alternative energies research and development company, will consolidate and relocate the company’s headquarters to Fletcher. The company intends to create 116 new jobs and invest $7 million in real and business personal property over the next few years. The location decision shows Zentric’s emergence from a technology development company to an operating entity concentrated on advanced battery technology development. Zentric, founded in 2008 in Nevada,

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focuses on the development of battery technologies and fuel cell storage. The new headquarters will let Zentric further develop battery and solar technologies through research and design, as well as house assembly and administrative support operations.

Zentric President William Tien explained, “Henderson County offered a strong business climate balanced with a focus on sustainability, elected leadership that understood business needs, and access to a qualified workforce, all of which help to ensure our company’s successful start-up.” Zentric plans to hire the 116 employees over the next four years, and as many as 44 through the end of 2013. The average wages for jobs provided by Zentric are more than $40,000 per year, and include research technicians, engineers, warehouse/logistics staff and office support. In October 2012, Fletcher Town Council approved a 10-year incentive package of up to $125,125 for Zentric. Up to $22,750 will be given in the first year. Fletcher Mayor Bill Moore said the town welcomes the company. Town Manager Mark Biberdorf said there is no timeline yet for when the facility will open, and said the research and development company offers something different to improve the local economy. The company selected an existing facility at 220 Continuum Drive after examining various options. Zentric plans to expand the existing 31,000-square-foot facility in 2014 to accommodate additional growth. According to the company’s website, Zentric’s focus on alternative and renewable technology has been the impetus to its recent involvement in solar energy. Battery back-up and storage is an essential component of solar energy solutions and as a result, Zentric has created relationships with many solar panel suppliers who do not have the infrastructure or global relationships to expand their sales. “Consequently, Zentric has become extremely active in the solar energy arena leveraging our extensive network of business contacts resulting in our participation in the supply and management of solar energy solutions that has become a major revenue contributor to our business model,” the website says.

MSD makes $57 million offer for Asheville water system - BUNCOMBE COUNTY The Metropolitan Sewerage District board voted to officially offer the city of Asheville $57 million over 50 years for the water system. Several members expressed doubts at the December meeting about the fairness of the process, but a motion to add their reservations failed. MSD board members highlighted that they were simply starting a process, and that the compensation offer, which city leaders say is far too low, is not final. Board members Asheville City Council member Chris Pelly and former Council member Bill Russell were the only ones to vote against the proposal. “Many think this is just robbery. This is not a win-win for the ratepayers at all, it’s a tie-tie and big loser for the city of Asheville,” Russell explained. Pelly emphasized that the “real hole” losing the water system will create in the city budget is roughly $3.7 million a year, according to an analysis by city staff. MSD Board Chair Tom Aceto emphasized that the city is free to make a counteroffer, and more than one board member noted that state Legislators were the 22 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

ones pushing the idea of a merger. MSD is simply attempting to find the best way to make that possible. Board member Bill Stanley, a former Buncombe County commissioner, was especially enthusiastic in his objection to the whole process, noting, “There’s no question in my mind: I’m opposed to this,” Stanley said. “I don’t want them in Raleigh writing this for us.

They don’t understand it, even the two [Reps. Tim Moffitt and Chuck McGrady] that wrote it don’t understand it. There’s no way $57 million is enough for the city. But they’re going to do what they want to do and right now they’re doing it. They’re writing [a merger bill] right now, but this brings it forward to the city.” He also claimed that the legislation is Henderson County’s attempt to gain enough power over the system to steer development their way. Weaverville Mayor Al Root, who chairs MSD’s planning committee, recommended approving the offer, stressing that MSD has to consider the matter apolitically: Its role is not to comment on the process, but to try to craft the best model it can under the circumstances. “It’s an odd spot we find ourselves in,” Root explained. “We didn’t start this process.

We won’t be the ones to finish it.”

New shelter on the Appalachian Trail completed - MACON COUNTY Hikers of the Appalachian Trail (AT) have access to a new shelter where they can rest. The U.S. Forest Service recently announced the completion of the Long Branch Shelter, located in the Standing Indian Basin in the Nantahala National Forest.

“Thanks to a lot of hard work and donations from partners, hikers of the AT can now seek shelter from the elements in a new solid, timber-framed structure,” said Mike Wilkins, ranger of the Nantahala District, Nantahala National Forest. “Because it is so well built, the Long Branch Shelter will serve AT hikers for decades to come.” The shelter can be found at the head of the Long Branch Drainage alongad.pdf the AT, little more than HunterBanks_CapitalPlay 1 a 11/4/11 10:42 AM two miles

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north of Forest Service Road 83. The shelter is about 17 miles from the City of Franklin. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy paid for the supplies. The Nantahala Hiking Club provided the labor, and local contractor Goshen Timber Frames gave the timbers and helped with frame assembly. Nantahala Ranger District employees provided heavy machinery and logistical support during construction. The Long Branch Shelter replaces the old Big Springs Gap Shelter, which was located just north of Albert Mountain. The Big Springs Gap Shelter will soon be taken apart because it has fallen into disrepair. The site had also suffered severe soil compaction and erosion over the years.

‘A school with a heart’

Mission Health restricts visitors due to flu - BUNCOMBE COUNTY Mission Health declared that the Asheville organization is restricting visitors to its hospitals due to an increase in reported influenza-like illness throughout North Carolina.

Only immediate family members older than 12 will be allowed in patient care areas. This precaution will be applied at Mission Hospital and all Mission Health member hospitals in western North Carolina, including McDowell Hospital in Marion, Transylvania Regional Hospital in Brevard, Blue Ridge Regional Hospital in Spruce Pine and Angel Medical Center in Franklin. Toward the end of 2012, Mission Health requested that friends and family of patients limit visitations based on recommendations from Mission Health’s infection prevention department. The department recently recommended an additional restriction be imposed as the number of reported flu cases continues to increase statewide. Of course, all visitors are encouraged to wash their hands before and after visiting.

Hand sanitizing stations are provided at hospital entrances and throughout the buildings. People who have not yet received the influenza vaccine are advised to do so immediately, and to make sure their children have been vaccinated.

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William Forstchen is a history professor at Montreat College and is a prolific writer of various best-selling novels.

Presented For Your Consideration

A

By William R. Forstchen

As I came off exit 50, late for an appointment, I hit the traffic snarl. . . it is Christmas time at the Vanderbilt Estate. We who are blessed to be locals love that estate, if not just for its esthetic values, then at least for its commercial ones, the single largest tourist draw in western NC. Beyond the estate itself, we are blessed as well with the beauty of tens of thousands of acres of Pisgah National Forest thanks to George Vanderbilt who passed it on to “we the people” as a legacy of land protected. He shaped, as well, the artistic nature of our community, endowing us with architectural beauty and elegance, including his support of the church that my daughter was baptized in.

And if alive today, George Vanderbilt would be the most hated man in Asheville.

My name is William R. Forstchen. Some of you might know me as a history professor at Montreat College. Others as the author of a NYT best selling author of a cautionary novel set in Buncombe County, “One Second After.”

Some of you are old enough to remember along with me a classic sci-fi series. . . “The Twilight Zone,” that wonderful show of fantasy, scary stories and even some time travel tales created

by Rod Sterling. I loved his opening line for nearly every episode. . . “presented for your consideration. . “So let us call this OP/ ED (for members of generation Y & Z, that stands for opinion and editorial). . . “Presented for Your Consideration, George Vanderbilt is about to time travel to Asheville, to America of 2013. He has just crossed into the Twilight Zone!”

Opening scene. It is 1889 and George Vanderbilt has just

24 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

stepped off a train for the first time to survey the land and declares. . . “here I will build my home” And then he stumbles, heaven help him, through a time warp and into the year 2013 without having first built his dream.

His first sight, there is no Biltmore Estate, he never got to build it, but that view is quickly blocked off. . .because an angry mob, hearing of his arrival have swarmed out to meet an infamous Robber Baron of the “Gilded Age.” It is a gaggle of Asheville protestors, liberal lawyers, community activists and those with a “social conscious.” One of his staff who fell through with him, takes a quick lesson on modern technology and hands George an iPhone, showing news articles about the new IRS rules about to take hold, and a proposal to avoid the “fiscal cliff” with new estate taxes. “What’s this?” he cries as he reads that a Rockefeller, whose ancestors established one of the greatest charitable trusts in history, now in this brave new world of 2013 is shouting that passing along four million of a man’s hard earned labors to his children is “more than enough,” and the rest should go to the state.

George looks around with growing ill ease. His grandfather had established the family legacy, which had helped to build the transportation network of a prospering America. Staring at the iPhone George mutters that yes he wishes to build a home, but in so doing he will employ thousands, as well, it will trigger economic growth for an impoverished region. With a sense of social conscience, he will help build communities, churches, employment, and with his love of the environment he plans to buy

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up a hundred thousand acres of beautiful forests to preserve and protect them from mindless plundering. He looks around for his friend the famed landscape Architect Frederick Law Olmstead, fresh from his triumph of laying out Central Park in New York, who will create parklands of even greater beauty. But Fred has yet to fall into the “twilight zone,” of 2013.

George Vanderbilt’s receives a “tweet” from his savvy assistant a message from accountants about something called the 16th amendment and the current president has just announced that now that the “notorious robber baron Vanderbilt” has arrived he must pay “his fair share,” before doing anything else. Fair share first, then maybe after that enough left over for a few acres and employ a few people to help build the home, his assistant whispers: Any display of wealth unless he is a “Hollywood elite” who for some strange reason the mob loves to watch, might trigger a riot.

George Vanderbilt cries out. “Let me build this and one day people will come by the millions to see it, spend money while here and make Asheville flourish.” His appeals are met with dejected shrugs by advisors while the ever swelling “welcoming committee” screams for him to go home but leave his money behind for them.

Accountants text him: You can not afford to bring in thousands of workers, provide for them, build their churches and homes, in this new world. If you bring your money through that strange time warp, and especially if it is money backed with gold, it will disappear instantly to the government. Another cries out, “George forget the thousands you wish to employ in honest labor, 6:30 PM the government will find something for them instead or just pay them not to work at all with the money they will take from you.”

A lawyer of the year 2013, smelling a client with deep pockets, Gollum like, slips over, suggesting he be hired first whispering that George needs permits from a multitude of political machines and regulatory agencies for all of his absurd dreams. It might take ten to twenty years, the lawyer hisses softly but he will hire a hundred other lawyers to help him and suggests a million a month as an opening retainer.

And that first approach unleashes the mob of protestors to swarm in, each shouting their demands.

Even though this is a “right to work” state, union organizers, elbow their way in, swearing at him that they will shut him down anyhow and beat the hell out of any who try to work unless he goes union. An EPA rep says he can not touch the land where he wishes to build orchards, vineyards, model dairy farms and even a forestry school until he files the proper impact statements.

A feminist group demands that half of all employees must be women. The local LBGT group demands proper hiring quotas as well to show he is diverse. A group of wiccans demand that if he is going to help build an Episcopal or Catholic Church for his workers he must build a wiccan temple first to show his tolerance or they will put a curse on him. . .and are already considering a discrimination suit as well.

It’s time for a commercial break of public service announcements and part two of the Twilight Zone opens with Rod Sterling, just smiling sadly, watching as the mob of protestors close in around George Vanderbilt now trapped in the year 2013 but still wanting to build his dream.

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Another mob has marched down from Pack Place beating drums demanding he give his money to their group to fight for social justice and end war. . .or else things might get ugly.

Another group is screaming he must only use local goods and none of this importing classical art from Europe when there are plenty of starving artists right in town who will be glad, for the proper fees, to paint and decorate his home with works such as “American Greed #666,” showing he and his family as zombies devouring the poor. Another activist is screaming he must hire local writers and poets who can’t get published in the free market and demanding a subsidy to support their unpublishable works or they will Tweet against him, and he must also build an “activist” center on his property first (if he ever gets it). A poetry “slam” has already started nearby, shouting out incomprehensible rhetoric denouncing all robber baron capitalists as leeches. Another group is demanding no fur is to be used in any clothing worn on his property or they will throw red paint at everyone. Another group is filing a protest that a rare snail has been found on the land and are already huddling with the EPA man. Another group is protesting that the land belonged to their ancestors in the first place.

Somehow the famed landscape architect Olmstead now falls through the time warp, but he doesn’t make it far when he tries to show his plans for gardens, hiking trails, and open vistas that could draw millions of visitors some day. The mob turns on him, tearing the plans up since he is not taking into account how the earth spirits will react. A tweet is handed to George announcing that a Senator “Foghorn” is demanding a federal inquiry, the lawyer whispering to him that he should immediately set up a GOPAC and give it half his money to buy “some leverage in DC.” Media shows up, but he barely gets time to speak to them before they cut him off to go interview the various “community organizers” lined up with their prepared speeches, the mob behind them waving signs “Fair Share First!” “Vanderbilt, enemy of the people.” “Robber Baron Vanderbilt, go home!”

The exhausting day drags out until at last he sees Rod Sterling and falling to his knees he begs him “send me home!” Rod nods in agreement and points to the time warp portal and as George flees to it, he screams, “Get the hell out of my way, I’m moving to Switzerland or Singapore!” The mob howls with delight and swarm back up the hill to Pack Square to celebrate, while behind them, the Vanderbilt Estate, Pisgah National Forest, the scores of thriving businesses, the long lines of visiting tourists who will pump tens of millions into the economy, disappear into a squalid land of strip malls, cheap housing, empty stores, the lush mountain sides denuded. . .but they have won against a damn capitalist and are content and listen then to speeches that they should again camp under highway overpasses and demand the government give them more.

Our host, Rod Sterling, just stares at the camera, the empty landscape behind him and with ironic smile declares. “Presented for your consideration. . . .”

I thought that today as I eased through the tangle of traffic off of exit 50. Stop and go for several minutes past shops still prospering at least for the moment, surviving awhile longer until “their fair share” destroys them as well.

What would be here instead if George Vanderbilt had arrived in 2013 rather than 1889?

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With the New Year beginning, certain thoughts spring to mind:

Reflections

&

Resolutions Was 2012 a good year for me, for the world?

How can I make this a better year than last?

What changes can I make to improve?

Perhaps, this may be an old fashioned concept, but it is well worth reviving. The obvious resolutions we hear about are: on January 1st one friend stopped smoking or another stopped drinking anything alcoholic. Oh dear —there goes your cheerful happy friend, who just turned into a grouch or grump!! Other resolutions take time and thought to figure out. Perhaps it is something as simple as giving up carbonated drinks and just drinking more water or perhaps eating less red meat and adding more vegetables to your plate? Then again, perhaps there is something on your bucket list that you would like to accomplish this year? In any event, the time is upon us now to make a resolution.

30 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

J

Leisure&Libation

January is upon us, it’s 2013, and the world did not end on December 21st, as the Mayans had predicted. So instead, there is a list of accomplishments to better myself, in Mind-Body and Spirit. Note: I am not happy about the list, and not particularly motivated to tackle it; but, the list was started back in June, and almost running off the page, so if I can just get started on part of it, this will be an accomplishment.

Luckily I live in the western Carolinas, well known for health and wellness, spiritual healing, and well, let me put it this way, the Mayans would love it here.

In spite of a knee surgery years ago, I can still jog a few miles.

The jaunt around the block is a good start. Remembering to stretch the limbs first is a good idea; and, stretching the truth on how many miles I can go, is tempting. There are a number of activities, such as walking, hiking, running, swimming, tennis, golf, dancing and biking, that are easily available for exercise. My major goal is to jog to the fitness center to use the weights, and take an occasional spin class, or enjoy the muscle pump class. The choices of classes are endless, as are the locations to shake, rock, rattle and roll. But, the Zumba class is my favorite, a great workout, and I can imagine that I am in Brazil on vacation with my teenage niece…it’s just a street party. The Rush always seems to have some sort of discount and its open 24/7. The YMCA also has new year specials, and locations all over the region. The Asheville Racquet Club South has the most to do under one roof as does its downtown location. (Resolution discounts tempting me again.) The salt

water indoor pool at their downtown location could help with the soreness of my muscles. The personal trainer said it was okay to soak a bit. I like this advice. After getting accustomed to a regime, my neighbor finally twisted my arm, and I joined her for Jazzercise where we each sweated pints. We jumped around to a variation of jazz dance, hip-hop, resistance training, pilates, yoga and kickboxing. It’s not boot-camp, and it’s actually lots of fun. January is the best month to get started as most of the fitness fanatics are trying to give us the best deal of the year. They want to save us some money, and spend some calories with them. How sensitive and understanding of them.

My brother in law has suggested that I join him for a Pilates or Yoga class. The gurus say, “Pilates is a body conditioning routine that seeks to build flexibility, strength, endurance, and coordination without adding muscle bulk. People who do pilates regularly feel that they have better posture, are less prone to injury and experience better overall health.”

Stretching Expectations My mind has taken over my body, and slowly the slogan “mind over matter” seems to matter. The pilates instructor has alternated the yoga and pilates, so we can get a taste of each. The essence of yoga is about bringing balance to the mind, body and soul. Hatha Yoga is said to improve posture, add flexibility, provide more strength, better

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January/February 2013

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breathing, more concentration, and an improved sense of peacefulness. The Asheville Yoga Center in Asheville offers a full array of workshops, classes and teacher training courses. Classes are for beginners to advanced, as well as for those in rehabilitation. Bikram Yoga, or hot yoga, arrived in the western Carolinas in 2008. A Bikram yoga class is a series of 26 demanding postures completed twice in a heated room for 90 minutes. The yoga room is heated to approximately 104 degrees to protect the muscles for safe deep stretches. Classes are suited for all ages and levels of ability. Each posture stretches and strengthens specific muscles, ligaments and joints stimulating the organs, glands and nerves to move fresh oxygenated blood to 100% of the body. This is said to improve health, increase energy, help prevent illness and injury and limit the effects of aging.

Hendersonville’s Amazing Grace Yoga and Brightwater Yoga are among several that cater to all levels of experience.

Along with the practices of Yoga, are the therapeutic practices of Meditation. Meditation is simple, effortless, and takes only 15-20 minutes twice daily while sitting comfortably. The technique exercises the critical prefrontal cortex of the brain—to make the brain healthier, more integrated, and better able to function together as a whole. This allows your mind to settle inward, beyond thought, to experience the silent reservoir of energy, creativity and intelligence found within everyone—a natural state of restful alertness. During the practice, your brain functions with significantly greater coherence and your body gains deep rest. The Transcendental Meditation technique is based on the ancient Vedic tradition of enlightenment in India. This knowledge has been handed down by Vedic masters from generation to generation for thousands of years. It’s not a religion, philosophy, or lifestyle. It’s the most widely practiced, most researched, and most effective method of selfdevelopment. One can enjoy a more mindful existence and shed the stresses of the day. More than five million people worldwide have learned this simple, natural technique. So, I guess I can easily become one of them. No Sweat. There are a good handful of meditation studios in our region to help get started. And once on your way, you can keep up the daily exercises at home or office.

Body, Mind, & Spa For those of us wishing to improve our health in another way, a spa treatment may be just the solution. And, I didn’t say “lazy.” Over the centuries the curative power of hot and cold mineral water has been recognized. Ancient Roman Baths exist in Bath, England,—although updated today— and a well known spa in Baden Baden, Germany, near the Black Forest has enticed visitors for centuries.

32 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

Meditation is simple, effortless, and takes only 1520 minutes twice daily while sitting comfortably.

Here in the western Carolina mountains, in Madison County one can find natural hot mineral waters.

Heated deep within the earth, crystal clear carbonated water is found that is then piped to jacuzzi tubs by the Hot Springs Resort and Spa. It is quite a treat to experience these outdoor tubs which overlook the mountains —and even operate in the dead of winter surrounded by snow.

Larger, highly rated spas are found throughout the United States. Society and daily life today is so rushed and stressed that relaxation, massage and other therapeutic techniques are seen as an important aspect of healthy living. Spas have become more popular as they are undoubtedly a delightful and spiritual experience. A few noteworthy ones are Rancho La Puerta, Canyon Ranch, the Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa, Old Edwards Inn and Spa, Westglow Spa and Resort, the Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa and the Hilton Head Health Institute.

Many people stay in these plush over-the-top resorts for a week or more to fully experience the relaxation, the total body treatments, and renew their energy. “When you walk out of one of these, you usually feel absolutely fabulous, and even may have lost some weight in the process.”

In the western Carolina region there are convenient places to go to enjoy all the wellness therapies that Spa treatments include. The Adelaide Spa at the Crowne Plaza Resort can accommodate groups of various sizes for wedding parties or other celebrations. Their full menu consists of wellness therapies, such as Swedish and sports massages, acupuncture, body wraps, and even a beauty salon for skin care, nails, facing and waxings. Guests of the spa have access to the pool, whirlpool and steam room.

Spa Theology offers a wide array of services from head-totoe in their attractive quarters. The emphasis is on relaxation with body wraps, invigorating scalp massages and foot exfoliating treatments, as well as therapeutic age management treatments that rejuvenate skin cells and leave the body glowing. According to a licensed aesthetician and instructor, “a facial was once a luxury. Now it is seen as a way to continue to have healthy skin, a way to get rid of toxins, and rejuvenate the face by minimizing wrinkles, puffiness, and other signs of aging. A facial is important to the health and beauty of the skin.” And if I have a mirror in my home, the facial is a must.

Massage Envy Spa recently came to this area to offer massages and wellness plans for its members. Massage promotes circulation and relaxes muscles. People who suffer from chronic pain or limited mobility due to athletic training, repetitive movements and overuse can find relief with a massage. They offer Aroma Therapy Massage, Deep Muscle Therapy with targeted areas.

Lavender Fields Spa offers face and body treatments for men

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• Comprehensive college counseling program • 14% of graduates accepted to University of

• 14% of graduates accepted to University of

North Carolina, Chapel Hill (2011 & 2012) North Carolina, Chapel Hill (2011 & 2012)

• New Science Center: featuring robotics, mythbuster

lab, monster garage and observatory (opened 2012) • New Science Center: featuring robotics, mythbuster

lab, monster garage and observatory (opened 2012)

• 21 Eagle Scouts (2012)

• 21 Eagle Scouts (2012)

• 3,243 student community service hours in 2012

• • 3,243 student community service hours in 2012 Full arts program with three annual drama

productions

• Full arts program with three annual drama An Episcopal school for young men: grades 8 – 12 • productions • An Episcopal school for young men: grades 8 – 12

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January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 33

L&L

You might want to ask yourself if what you’re doing today is getting you closer to where you want to be tomorrow?

34 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

and women, personalized for each individual. I chose to try the Renovator Exfoliator on my arm. This incredible product, made from roasted sunflower seeds, left my skin radiant and silky smooth, then covered my arm with a lovely smelling masque, followed by a special body oil. My arm became soft, hydrated, and alive, showing fresh color and vitality. I am now convinced it is time to sign up for a full body treatment.

In the 1980s the doctor told me to stop using so much salt in my diet. I told him that I loved salt, even more than sugar. I told him I could take a bath in it. Apparently that would be better.

There is a salt spa in our area where you can enjoy the benefits of salt. You find yourself sitting quietly in a lounge chair in a 68-73 degree room with low lights surrounded by tons of Himalayan salt on the walls and floor with dry (salt) particles in the air—which a Halogenerator regulates —it is certainly a new adventure and experience. This is not a sauna or steam room. It feels cooler than any 70 degrees! Temperatures are kept cool for respiratory comfort, but you will be wrapped in a cozy blanket to stay warm. This Halotherapy treatment grew out of the medical research by Professor/Dr. Alina Chervinskaya of Russia who studied the beneficial effects of sodium chloride, as evidenced by those working in the salt mines. Halotherapy is a natural, drug-free method to find relief of various respiratory complaints, allergies, sinus issues, ear infections, certain skin diseases, and cystic fibrosis. The owners have created the micro-climate found in a salt mine that is safe, healing and relaxing. Your lungs and respiratory system will feel so much more open.

In this article I have offered a few concrete suggestions that could improve your body, open up your mind, and possibly lift your spirits. Maybe participating in one of these activities can be your New Year’s resolution. Maybe it will just be a new adventure. However, you might want to “Ask yourself if what you’re doing today is getting you closer to where you want to be tomorrow?”

TUESDAY BY BETH BOONE

Your Renoir or your Rottie.

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Capital At Play does not recommend that anyone make any alterations to their diet, physical activity, or any of the activities mentioned in this article without discussing it with a licensed physician first.

Portraiture by Beth Boone

Georgia Ar nall

Asheville, NC 828.231.3697 bethboone@aol.com

January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 35

The Jackson Legacy

Pride in Precision By: ARTHUR TREFF

PHOTOS: LINDA CLUXTON SINCE: 1963 ORIGIN: ARDEN, NC 49 YEARS OF RACING INNOVATION

It’s a hot Sunday in July. Drivers simmer in puddles of perspiration, their sweltering cars waiting for the go signal. Encased in racing garb —fireproof clothing and full-face helmets —the discomfort would be unbearable if it weren’t for the adrenaline coursing through their veins.

36 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

T

They are strapped into the seat of powerful racers so tightly that only movement necessary for piloting the car is possible; chest, thighs and upper arms are all lashed down, insurance against losing limbs during a high speed crash. Racing has begun! The roar is deafening. Cars are bellowing around the track, trailing the smells of high-octane fuel, hot engine oils and tires that are literally shedding their rubber in the quest to keep the car on the pavement.

Engines are pounding out hundreds of horsepower because every one of them have been so highly modified for speed, that each lap brings the motor closer to its demise. Lasting the entire race is all that the driver and his team can hope for…that, and a win.

This is Winston Cup auto racing in 1988, and the track is Talladega, Alabama. One car that holds together for the entire race and ends up winning is owned by Precision Products Racing, of Asheville. Put on your flame suit and let’s enter the world of the speedy Jackson family…(you did bring a crash helmet, didn’t you?)

Brothers Richard and Leo built a racecar when they were teens. Their father owned a service station, so the boys picked up on auto engines osmotically. Little did they know that this car project would not only be a winning racer; it would become a vehicle to propel them into a future unimagined.

The first outing for the car was on the track at McCormick Field in Asheville. What? Yes, in 1955 the Tri-State League, which included the Asheville Tourists, folded, and the stadium was turned into an auto-racing venue by local businessman, Jim Lowe. (His family would create the Lowe’s home improvement empire).

Home plate was the start/finish line of the quarter-mile oval paved around the baseball diamond. More than one driver and his car came to grief in the dugout after misjudging the home plate curve!

The racing hook was firmly set: Richard and Leo campaigned their project at McCormick Field as well as Asheville Motor Speedway. The Jacksons discovered that they were good at building fast cars as well as winning races.

As time unfurled, Richard became a mechanical engineer and Leo, a skilled machinist. They were both hired at Ex-Cell-o Corporation in Swannanoa, where they refined their talents, and continued to race on weekends. Idyllic as life appeared, it wasn’t perfect: the young men dreamed of opening their own business that was somehow dedicated to auto racing.

In 1963 their father, Leo Sr. sold his service station and was looking for an investment opportunity. The timing couldn’t be better: two Jackson generations decided to go into the metal machining business.

Every entrepreneur needs a plan, and theirs was a simple one: the brothers would capitalize on their racing experiences. At the track, internal engine components are forced to withstand incredible stresses. The maximum engine RPM have been increased to 10,000, almost two times what they were originally designed for.

At that rate, 166 explosions per second are taking place in the engine and the internal temperatures skyrocket. If one part fails, the engine will rapidly self-destruct, and a very expensive car will be eliminated from the race.

The men knew which parts needed fortification; so solving those problems was an engaging task for an engineer and a

“We make the jewelry worn inside racing engines.”

(Debbie Jackson, GM PPPC) machinist. The venture was appropriately named, Precision Performance Products Center (PPPC). They started cutting metal at once.

Within a short time, the Jackson’s company became the racer’s place to go for quality engine components. Their fielded parts proved themselves on the track by performing far better than any other products on the market.

A short list of race-bred products and services includes:

• Engine block modifications: boring and line honing, lifter bores and end caps • Connecting Rods • Wrist Pins and retaining rings • Valves • Valve Parts: lifters, guides, springs, locks, spring

retainers, seats, and tips

Diversification also appeared in the form of custom machining; manufacturing small runs of parts from customer provided drawings. In this capacity, Precision garnered a reputation for high quality work, which attracted the attention of aerospace firms such as: Northrop and Stencel Aero Engineering, the Asheville-based creator of ejection seats for the military.

The Jackson brothers had put racing aside while they were building their machining business… until 1974, when they entered a car in the NASCAR Late Model Sportsman Division.

The team won its first race with driver Bob Pressley, and went on to win an astounding 34 of 53 races that season.

By the time Leo sold his racing team in 1996, what had begun as a part time hobby had developed into a winning NASCAR enterprise. At one point the Precision Products Racing team had the support of 14 sponsors. This enabled Leo to employ engine builders, drivers and pilots to fly the team members to the races.

A book could be written about Leo and Richard’s success on the track, which is beyond the scope of our story. Perhaps the best testimony to their legacy is the success of Precision Performance, where the knowledge gleaned at races on Sunday was distilled into product improvements on Monday.

The small firm that started out with only a lathe, a mill, a screw machine and a surface grinder has now been in business for 49 years. Their facility on Airport Road in Arden houses a vast array of production machinery, which is run by a dedicated staff of 25.

Throughout his tenure, Leo has continued to build on his racing experience to spark innovations in the go-fast parts industry. He was the first manufacturer to offer Titanium Valve tips.

Traditionally, intake and exhaust valves have been made from high strength hardened steel, which is heavy. In the quest for speed, steel has been replaced by Titanium, a precious metal that is almost as strong, but far lighter. It’s expensive and difficult to machine, but engines do turn easier with the lighter valves; however, unfortunately, the tips wear quickly.

January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 37

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Leo created a titanium valve with tips made of high strength steel, allowing teams the benefits of both materials. Titanium tipped valves were instantly accepted by race teams and became standard equipment on Grand National Cars nationwide.

Manufacturers can alter the properties of a part to make it more durable or wear better. Artificial hip joints last longer, thanks to a patented process called Casidiam, a carbon coating that drastically alters their surface.

Leo had an idea: why not apply this coating to some engine parts? Precision Performance experimented with Casidiam and pioneered the application of this new technology to wrist pins, a part that wears out very quickly during a race.

The technique is very sophisticated: carbon ions are drawn into the metal’s surface when placed in a vacuum chamber, which is then filled with an ionized gas and heated. The resulting layer is very thin: 80 millionths of an inch.

Pulling all those carbon ions into the wrist pin makes the surface harder, which means it wears less quickly; it is also somewhat self-lubricating, much like Teflon.

Leo’s hunch paid off. Casidiam-treated wrist pins lasted longer and required less lubrication — race teams couldn’t get enough.

The process is also called: Diamond Like Carbon Coating (DLCC) — but there are no diamonds involved — and other manufacturers began using the process as well. Precision needed leverage against the competition, so they went the extra mile.

Leo realized that this whiz-bang coating could perform better if the surface upon which it is deposited was improved. He invented machines that would create a surface so smooth that it looks like glass.

His invention can polish the surface of a metal part to resemble fine jewelry yet retain dimensional tolerances to a staggeringly small, fifty millionths of an inch! (0.000050”).

A mirror finish, combined with the DLCC coating is a competitive edge for Precision Products. Today, the coating is offered on wrist pins, valve lifters as well as any other parts their customers desire.

When summarizing innovations brought to light by entrepreneurial companies, there is a pitfall for the reader; it all sounds so easy. Successful business owners will tell you that every day is a struggle and rare is the individual who ever feels like he is ‘out of the woods’. Hard work, dedication and a great deal of family support are the norm.

“Mom! You always smell like the machine shop!”

(Harrison, age nine)

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38 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

His mother, Debbie, is the General Manager of Precision Performance, but she wasn’t magically deposited into that role… she started to earn it before she could read.

Debbie accompanied her father to work and to the racetrack when she was a toddler. The slightly sweet scent of a machine shop was to become inextricably bound to fond memories of their time together.

Before Debbie was out of junior high, summers found her working full time at PPPC.

Throughout her college years (at UNCA) Debbie continued to support Leo in the family business. Originally on a track to become a veterinarian, she switched majors to mechanical engineering when she realized that if she didn’t work in Leo’s business, his legacy would wither.

Debbie chose an unusual path for a young woman. Few females sought their bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. Even fewer could be found advising machinists within their male dominion. No female engineers, however, could be found conferring with highly experienced NASCAR teams to develop race-winning parts.

But, her dad owns the company, so no big deal, right? She’ll just waltz into a plum cake job, on graduation day, right? Wrong.

Debbie was on her own like any other employee. Leo, in addition to managing Precision Performance, was running a fully sponsored, highly successful NASCAR team. He would give Debbie her marching orders, then disappear into the dizzying details of his work day.

She felt frustrated back then because she didn’t have a job title, and dad gave her a myriad of assignments, most of which didn’t involve her engineering skills. She thought them to be menial and beneath her; she was an engineer, after all!

Things became interesting when Precision Performance’s general manager left. As a result, Leo asked her to fill the newly created void. Debbie felt the fear of the unknown — for about a millisecond — then she got to work; there were valued customers who needed their parts!

Within a short time, Debbie realized that she was doing all right…even better than all right, she was running the company, and having a good time in the process.

Another appreciation dawned: she realized that those “menial tasks” Leo handed her were now valuable tools; Debbie had good, working knowledge about every job within the shop, invaluable for any GM. Leo comes to work now three days a week in a advisory capacity; most of the decisions are made by Debbie and her dedicated staff of professionals. She has also acquired a reputation for herself within NASCAR circles.

When Debbie was younger, race engineers would refer to her as “Leo’s daughter,” dismissing her as inexperienced. Today, when those same people call Precision Performance they demand to speak to Debbie Jackson. Period.

The number of tasks required of her can be staggering, so Debbie spends between ten and twelve hours daily at Precision and is usually the last to leave. Her son, Harrison, often opts to keep her company until she turns off the lights and locks the doors.

“There’s no ‘economy product line’ when you’re machining parts in the Ferrari category; I like to say that our offshore competitors are in the Wal-Mart category” (Debbie Jackson)

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In 2007, PPPC started to see sales figures drop, when the US economy began its downward slide. Along with the ensuing global financial slowdown, there were changes in some NASCAR rules, which meant teams needed fewer parts, so Precision’s sales sagged.

Unlike their competitors, the Jacksons have not outsourced their manufacturing to offshore shops, or cut their raw material costs to offset the lower sales figures. Precision has never laid off an employee and continues to buy only the best metals available from the US, Austria, and France.

This slavish attention to quality has paid off. Precision Performance has not lost customers; rather, they are attracting more. A new market has turned up recently: parts for antique cars.

Companies that painstakingly restore older, thoroughbred vehicles cannot buy engine parts.

Instead, restoration firms arm themselves with detailed drawings and search for a machine shop that can deliver.

Many such requests have landed on Precision’s doorstep.

Debbie reports that her company is now making parts for such exotic marques as: Maserati, Bugatti, and Ferrari.

Restoration companies ask Precision to machine some very complex parts in small quantities, which is expensive and time consuming.

Most customers are on a limited budget and tight schedule. Not so for restoration shops. They are rarely in a hurry, and have very liberal spending policies.

“You can’t trip over a dollar to pick up a dime.”

(Leo Jackson Jr.)

40 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

Leo Jr., Harrison, and Debbie Jackson January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 41

Precision ships large volumes of their parts worldwide and countless professional race teams depend upon their services.

Sixty percent of what they manufacture is private labeled, which means that you’re not likely to see their logo on the shelves of speed shops. The rest of their sales are custom work for individual customers.

What is the secret of this success story?

• Produce high quality products and services for a reasonable price.

• Treat your employees like family.

• Always listen to your customers.

The next time you see images of a professional race car, think about what you’ve just read, because there’s a good chance that some of the critical engine parts came from Asheville’s own Precision Performance Products Center.

No one can predict what kind of engines will propel racing cars 20 years from now. If history repeats itself, however, race engineers will be on the phone to a shop in Arden, speaking with a young engineer named Harrison Jackson.

He will represent the fourth generation of Jacksons at Precision, and he will be reminded of that every time he detects the sweet perfume of a working machine shop.

Pictured Below: Debbie Jackson & Ricky Jackson

42 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

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January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 43

News in the

Old North State

Cogentrix solar farm in Colorado chosen as a top project

Cogentrix Energy LLC, based in Charlotte, won second place in Power Engineering magazine’s “Solar Energy Project of the Year Award” for its 30-megawatt solar farm in Colorado’s San Luis Valley. Cogentrix developed and owns the Alamosa Solar Project in Alamosa County. It uses concentrating mirrors to boost the photovoltaic output of the solar panels. The magazine awarded first place to the 70-megawatt Solarpark Meuro Project in Brandenburg, Germany. Cogentrix formerly was a subsidiary of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. but was bought by the Carlyle Group in September. In September, the U.S. Depar tment of Energy revealed that it was providing a $90.6 million loan guarantee to Cogentrix to help fund the San Luis Valley facility.

American Airlines to offer flight from RDU to L.A. American Airlines will begin daily non-stop service between Raleigh-Durham (RDU) and Los Angeles International Airpor t (LAX) on April 2, 2013. Tickets went on sale in December. American Airlines will operate the service on a Boeing 737-800, which has 160 seats. The flight is the second from RDU to serve LAX. Since 2006, Delta has provided seasonal, several times weekly service, between the two cities. RDU spokeswoman

Mindy Hamlin noted that the airpor t did not award any incentives to Delta to land the route. Southwest Airlines also recently announced that it would add additional RDU flights to Denver and St. Louis.

North Carolina earmarked for offshore wind development The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is weighing interest in commercial offshore wind development in three areas off Nor th Carolina, accumulating to nearly 4,920 square kilometers. If developers express interest, BOEM may decide to proceed with a competitive or a non-competitive leasing as early as this year. BOEM’s Call for Information and Nominations, published in the Federal Register on December 13, 2012, is for about 195 blocks and 60 par tial blocks in federal waters on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). One area is just over 6 miles off the coast of Kitty Hawk, near the Virginia border. The other two areas are 7.2 miles and almost 13 miles southeast of Wilmington, near South Carolina. The ocean in all three areas is less than 130 feet deep.

BOEM is also looking for public comments on site conditions,

resources and other uses in the three areas. Brian O’Hara of the Nor th Carolina Offshore Wind Coalition said that he hoped Nor th Carolina utilities will be interested enough in buying electricity from projects.

The three ‘call’ areas have been chosen for being potentially attractive for development while not infringing on sensitive habitats and resources. They also allow for low levels of conflict with the military, shipping and fishing.

Additional water areas off Nor th Carolina are also being considered for wind development.

Nor th Carolina generally has shallow waters and a potential of some 297GW within 50 feet of the coast.

N.C. No. 4 best business state Forbes has dubbed Nor th Carolina number 4 in its rankings of the best states for business. Forbes says that, “People have been flocking to Nor th Carolina over the past five years, as the state has the highest net migration rate in the U.S. The state has the smallest union workforce in terms of percent of total employment, resulting in labor costs that are 19 percent below the national average and third lowest in the 44 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

North Carolina at a glance U.S.” Utah was titled the top spot, followed

by Virginia. Nor th Dakota held third place, and Colorado was number 5.

Lake Norman development agency contracts for industrial-buildings list The Lake Norman Regional Economic Development Corp., an industry-seeking agency for the Nor th Meck communities, has hired Bearing Resources Inc. to list all of the area’s available industrial building sites.

The next endeavor is to discover a way to increase the number of available building sites in order to speed attracting new industries to the towns. “We need more shovel-ready proper ties to keep attracting and retaining the stellar healthcare, energy, advanced manufacturing, plastics, motorspor ts and biotech industries the Lake Norman region is known for,” says Charity Barbee, who leads the LNREDC’s existingcompany program. The most recent success in the catalog is the six-story building for MSC Industrial Direct Co. being constructed in Davidson at Exit 30 off Interstate 77.

The project will bring 400 jobs to the area and will represent a $31 million investment.

Jerry Broadway, executive director of LNREDC, says he wants the area to have more state cer tified sites, which also will speed development of the sites. Michael Trotter, consultant at Bearing Resources, is in the process of gathering public-record information on potential sites for the list of developable sites.

ChristmasTown USA gets an app from Pharr Yarns ChristmasTown USA had an early present this year. Pharr Yarns, the textile manufacturer in Gaston County, par tnered

with CC Communications to launch a mobile tour Web app for visitors to the community’s annual lights display. The app offered an interactive map of the holiday lights in ChristmasTown, normally known as McAdenville, along with point-by-point descriptions of the history and heritage of selected displays along the route. It also highlighted images by photographer Steve Rankin and other contributors. Pharr Yarns star ted ChristmasTown more than 50 years ago as a gift to the community. It was free and open to the public until December 26.

Forsyth Tech gets grant to expand regional work force training Forsyth Technical Community College will utilize an $825,000 grant from the Golden LEAF Foundation to direct a regional effor t to expand training in computer integrated machining. Guilford Technical Community College, Randolph Community College, Rockingham Community College and the Davie County campus of Davidson County Community College will also be included in the consor tium. The five schools will coordinate their training in computercontrolled machining and also suppor t adoption of third-par ty credentials and build career paths to appeal to high school students into advanced manufacturing. Money from the grant will fund new equipment at each campus, instructional supplies, and other costs. “A skilled work force is a key factor in the economic development strategy for the Piedmont Triad, and a strong manufacturing base is fundamental to economic success,” David Powell, CEO of the Piedmont Triad Par tnership, said. “The coordinated, systematic, sustainable approach to midskills training envisioned will make the region even more competitive in recruiting new investment and landing new jobs.” The board of the Rocky Mount-based Golden Leaf Foundation awarded nine grants, adding up to $5.7 million, to suppor t work force training projects at 14 community colleges.

New N.C. economic development group forms A group of civic and business leaders, former governors and municipal leaders

has come together to establish the Nor th Carolina Communities and Business Alliance, an economic development group that aspires to encourage economic growth and development statewide. The group lists balanced growth, transpor tation infrastructure, water and wastewater infrastructure, education and tax fairness as its primary issues. The board members include Latimer Alexander, former mayor pro tem of High Point; Rober t Brown, CEO of B&C Associates in High Point; Keith Crisco, the state commerce secretary; N.C. Representative Daniel McComas; former N.C. Representatives Pearl Burris-Floyd and Lyons Gray; and former governors James Holshouser Jr. and James B. Hunt Jr. “The formation of the alliance stems from the need to establish long-term policies that allow for continued economic growth in Nor th Carolina’s cities and towns,” Hunt explained. The board’s first meeting was in early December, and the group will continue to meet once per quar ter.

Raleigh, Durham Chambers join others to form immigration coalition The Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce are par t of the 25 founding members of a national business coalition called “Business for Skilled Worker Immigration,” which hopes to renovate the nation’s broken immigration laws for skilled workers. The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce leads the coalition. According to the Boston chamber’s announcement on the coalition, members will work with congressional leaders to tackle the issue of talent retention. That suggests increasing the number of H1B visas for skilled workers, increasing the number of green cards for college graduates in the field of science, engineering, technology and math, and nur turing a conducive business environment for entrepreneurs to launch businesses in their communities. Coalition members include chambers of commerce in Pennsylvania, Arizona, California, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Washington and Missouri.

January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 45

Photo by Tom Windham

Fur & Feathers in Fletcher, nc.

Written

by

Bill Fishburne

Meet Will Gay & John Delaloye of Diamond Brand, a company 132 years in the making.

T

The headline on this article is intentionally misleading. Will Gay and John Delaloye never have sold fur and feathers in Fletcher even though the company they own, Diamond Brand, had canvas, fur and feathers in its original business mix some 132 years ago.

Thankfully, while the furs and feathers have flown away, the company has become a major contributor to the local economy and has found a market niche in the specialized manufacturing of outdoor gear, including web gear, canvas products, and tents.

Diamond Brand is all about specialized outdoor design and manufacturing. If you buy their tents you’re in good company, right up there with the United States Army and Marine Corps.

Gay and Delaloye will gladly sell you some accessories from their manufacturing line or retails stores to go along with the tent.

46 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

“We aim to make a person’s outdoor experience a good one,” Gay says. “That’s why we have so many products from the best manufacturers at the Diamond Brand Outdoor store. Diamond Brand can’t make everything. We recognize that and try to offer the best products in each category at Diamond Brand Outdoors, including our own products. At the Frugal Backpacker we have many discontinued products, some one-time purchases and more economical gear overall.”

“A lot of what we do has been gone from this country for a long time. The skills and equipment we have are hard to keep,” Gay says. “That has forced us to rethink our business, to work with strategic partnerships with designers and fabric manufacturers to come up with products we can use in all three of our entities.

We wind up with a lot of good ideas and technology that are beyond what we are able to do alone. This improves us as a

company and certainly improves our image.

“The Frugal Backpacker came about because, in 2005, our clients saw high prices on items in our Diamond Brand store and had sticker shock. A lot of them left us and went to Walmart.

We realized there was a need for more economical products and that led to the Frugal Backpacker.

To a large degree we’ve been successful in bringing those folks back.”

Diamond Brand’s manufacturing strategy is aided by a series of federal laws known as the Berry Amendment (USC, Title 10, Section 2533a). Originally passed in 1941, the Berry Amendment was intended to protect the strategically important domestic industrial base in the time of war.

For nearly 70 years this law was determined to include domestic tent manufacturing including fabrics, buttons, snaps, poles and even ropes. The passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, however, precipitated a 15-year period of continuing losses in our domestic textile manufacturing capacity including 5 million jobs. This led to a 2009 reinterpretation of the Berry Amendment that for the first time allowed the Department of Defense to source tents and tent fabrics manufactured overseas.

Industry associations then pointed out how vulnerable the U.S. would become if something so fundamental as shelters for troops were no longer produced domestically. The associations contended that the purpose of the Berry Amendment was to

guarantee the availability of strategically important military equipment during wartime. If DoD allowed something so basic as tent fabric to be outsourced, the intent and purpose of the law would be violated.

As with all political battles it took a while for anything to happen. Promises were made and broken. Congress failed to act in January, 2011 when language in the Ike Skelton Defense Authorization Act, which specifically stated that tent fabrics would be covered by the Berry Amendment, was stripped out of the bill.

Industry associations insisted that the wording be reinserted into the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, permanently amending the Berry statute so that tent components would be required to be produced in the U.S. The language potentially represented thousands of manufacturing jobs in the U.S., including many at Diamond Brand. It passed the Republican House but again was left out of the Senate version of the bill. Eventually, a joint House and Senate committee produced the final document which was signed into law by President Obama on Dec. 31, 2011. The final bill, H.R. 1540, the $662 billion 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, included language that restored the full intent and meaning of the 1941 Berry Amendment.

As a military tent provider since 1985, the political maneuvering in Washington may have saved Diamond Brand’s

“We try to be good corporate citizens,” Will Gay says. “We live here and work here, because we really want to be here.

Photo by Tom Windham January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 47

access to the market, if not its contracts. The difficulties involved in successfully bidding government contracts means the small company’s leadership will have to continue to compete for the business. There are no guarantees, and competition is strong, but Diamond brand has brought in more than $76 million in DoD contracts since Gay arrived in 2000. As long as soldiers need tents and the U.S. needs soldiers and Marines, that business should continue.

Diamond Brand was founded in Philadelphia in 1881. It hasn’t survived 132 years by putting all its eggs in one basket.

Thanks to young, flexible leadership, there is every indication that it will keep going.

Gay relates the story of the company’s name in the context of how the business focuses on quality. In 1881 in the canvas industry, a diamond was stamped or branded onto each roll of a company’s top-quality canvas. It wasn’t a big step for the founders to decide that an entire company carrying the Diamond Brand label would indicate top quality to buyers as well.

Today, Diamond Brand outdoor products are used by the military, tens of thousands of campers and hundreds of thousands of Boy Scouts around the world.

Diamond Brand’s manufacturing plant and corporate offices are located in the Cane Creek/Fletcher Industrial Park just off of Runway Drive in Fletcher. The Park was built on the site of the old Asheville-Hendersonville airport and has been a boon to the area in providing manufacturing and office space for a wide variety of companies.

Diamond Brand came to western North Carolina in 1943, at the height of World War II, when then-president Dave Kemp purchased a mill in Naples, NC, and plunged full-tilt into supporting the war effort. After the war, Diamond Brand wound down its military efforts and focused on making tents and backpacks for the Boy Scouts. They also used their production capacity to manufacture for other companies such as Morsans (now known as Campmor). Gay and Delaloye continue that tradition with many products or components sold by other companies.

The Arnold Kemp Years

Will Gay 48 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

When David Kemp passed away in 1963, Diamond Brand was fortunate that his son, Arnold, was fully prepared to carry on the family business. Arnold became President in 1966 and relocated the corporate offices from New York City to the site of the mill in Naples. Just two years earlier in 1964, Diamond Brand had also opened a local retail store to meet the needs of walk-in retail customers. These especially included Boy Scouts from all around the region.

The first store, called the Diamond Brand Camping Center, opened in a converted four car garage attached to the mill.

Thousands of visitors to the area, including the occasional hiker from the Appalachian Trail and military personnel home on leave, found their way to Naples to shop at the mothership.

The store exhibited a keen understanding of its customer needs and was one of the few locations where hikers (and real estate agents) could acquire detailed local topographical maps.

New products introduced specifically for this market included a lightweight, durable backpacking tent known as the “Free Spirit.” The design, with its double A-frame and connecting ridge poles, was extremely popular and spawned an entire series

of Free Spirit models that replaced conventional wall tents. In the 1980s the company created an even newer four man tent for the U.S. Army. The “Soldier Crew Tent,” as it is called, went into production in 1989 and helped Diamond Brand become an important supplier of tents to the US Military. During this period Diamond Brand also manufactured backpacks, tents and soft luggage for many well-known outdoor companies including LL Bean, Eddie Bauer, REI and Eastern Mountain Sports.

The 21st Century

Following a 12-year career in the medical device business, Gay saw an opportunity to go into business closer to home. In 2000 he acquired Diamond Brand. In 2004, having nearly doubled the size of the business, Gay decided he wanted a partner to focus on the financial side of the business. In early 2005, John Delaloye became that partner as well as the company’s first Chief Financial Officer. The partners then acquired Stahlsac, a local company with a high-demand line of Scuba luggage and a strong background in international manufacturing.

Marketing Director Sara Merrell says Diamond Brand’s economic impact, “reaches far beyond our nominal level of 100 employees. We can have up to 200 people working counting seasonal jobs in the retail stores. We regularly donate or sponsor more than $100,000 worth of community activities ranging from the Muddy Sneakers Day programs in local schools to ECO, to donations to the Daniel Boone Council of the Boy Scouts.

Other beneficiaries include the NC Youth Camp Association, the WNC run for Autism, the NC Arboretum and the YMCA of Western North Carolina.

“We try to be good corporate citizens,” Gay says. “We live here and work here, because we really want to be here. We have a very unique facility over in our manufacturing side with a lot of technology that just doesn’t exist anywhere else in the U.S. We appreciate that and want to make sure it stays here.”

Going Forward

The road ahead is uncertain. Continuing challenges to the U.S. economy could take their toll in employment and the resulting loss in disposable income. The military could be in for significant cuts as politicians focus more on domestic spending and walk away from overseas involvements including the war in Afghanistan and other sources of anti-American aggression.

As these scenarios unfold, Gay and Delaloye are determined to maintain Diamond Brand’s flexibility in manufacturing and marketing.

“We’re very proud of what our company does,” Gay says. “We really appreciate the Army and Marine Corps business. It’s an honor to be a provider to our military services. We’ve also made Boy Scout backpacks, wall tents and other gear since 1931. We value all these clients and appreciate the trust they have placed in us for such a long period. We don’t intend to stop working hard every day to continue to earn their trust and confidence.”

It’s a long way from Fletcher to selling fur and feathers in Philadelphia. From the halls of Congress to the Pentagon and the annual Boy Scout Jamborees, Diamond Brand has successfully traveled the path for 132 years. With young new ownership, a solid three-legged business plan and technology that is growing in value, there’s no reason to think they won’t be around another 132 years. Still making tents, for camping on Mars.

John Delaloye January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 49

How Do They Do It?

Judy and Gill Morgan

Will Gay

Debbie Jackson

How do you manage your time?

“I plan it as best I can, but I have to allow flexibility to meet customer and family needs.”

Well, unfortunately time manages us. It all depends on the orders we have. Generally we are off on weekends, but that can depend.

Sometimes to hit a target date for a client, we have to run seven days a week, even 24 hours a day if needs be.

“I do not leave at night until I’ve accomplished as much as possible, because I can’t afford to fall behind. I’m the last to leave the shop at night, because I work ten to twelve hours a day, so I’m happy if I have clean clothes to put on in the morning!”

When do you take time for yourself?

“I have a son who is 15 now. I try to spend time with him, and with my family. I’ve learned that to take time for yourself you have to make time for yourself.

It’s OK to say ‘yes’ to yourself sometimes. You make a better husband or father.”

50 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

We have a place in eastern North Carolina for our family, where we can hunt and fish. We love to go there and go as often as we can. Those are our two favorite things to do. If we can’t get away for any length of time, we will hunt and fish in this area.

“I do not arrive at the shop until 9:30 every morning. This allows me to spend some quality time with my son. After I drop him off at school, I enjoy a few quiet moments at home before I head to my job.”

Scott Sonnone

Kara Errickson

How can we help you?

Estate Planning Wills & Trusts Asset Protection

“I plan ahead and work with the staff to set goals and meet them. I’m a bachelor with no children, so I don’t have a lot of outside distractions.”

Kara Errickson manages time with her family by working with them! She, her husband, and daughter live downstairs; the team, including her mother and brother, work 70 hour weeks upstairs in a bright refinished attic.

Charitable Planning Estate Tax & Gift Tax Planning IRA Planning Planning With Blended Families Planning for Disabilites Estate Planning for Farmers Insurance and Your Estate Plan Medicaid - Elder Law

“I like to golf and go fly fishing. I like being in the kitchen. That’s where I go to clear my head. I come back reinvigorated, ready for another challenge.”

Probate & Estate Administration

They all stay focused on health, running and practice yoga.

Business Formation Business Succession Planning

77 Central Ave., Suite F Asheville, NC 28801 828-258-0994 104 N. Washington Street Hendersonville, NC 28739 828-696-1811

StraussLaw.com January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 51

By Dasha O. Morgan

52 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

MountainRug Mills Written by Dasha O. Morgan

Many of us think of handmade rugs as being indigenous to regions far away from Western North Carolina, perhaps the Middle East, Turkey, China, or India.

Few of us think of fine rugs actually being produced in our area. Surprisingly right here in Hendersonville, North Carolina, is a well recognized custom rug company, well known for its high quality rugs. Mountain Rug Mills produces custom rugs in all sizes and shapes, which, because of their fine craftsmanship, will undoubtedly be considered a hotly sought-after family heirloom. Their specialty is hand hooked (tufted) and braided rugs, made of virgin New Zealand wool, sometimes with the added highlight of Mulberry silk from China. Many of the rugs are quite beautiful, particularly when there is a combination of hooked and braided, an unusual border, or an amazing center medallion.

G

Gill and Judy Morgan (though no relation to this writer) are both from this area—Judy, from Fairview and Gill, from Toxaway. In 1973 Gill joined Mountain Rug Mills in Fletcher.

Even though his background was accounting, Gill says, “Wool is in my blood. It comes back to being able to have a clean slate, wool, and make a beautiful piece of art. It allows someone to be creative. They go from a paper design to a rug with many shades of wool colors to work with and incorporate. You might call it yarn art, or painting with wool. It takes a person with a lot of skill to have a finished product that is a beautiful piece of art, much like a museum piece. I just couldn’t get away from it, the construction process, building something from nothing.

It’s in my blood.”

In May, 1994, Gill and Judy bought Mountain Rug Mills.

Their son Anton became the plant manager and designer.

In 1999 due to the road widening of Highway 25 next to the building in Fletcher, the company found it necessary to move to Hendersonville. In 2007 they bought Spinning Wheel Rugs from Jason Sumner, and the combined companies are located on King Street in downtown Hendersonville. Their Factory Store/Showroom is located in the same building as the mill.

The Company

Most of their employees have been with the company 15 years or more. According to Gill, it “takes someone with good color perception and dexterity. One can almost always tell right away if the person has the capacity to be a good hooker. It takes years to train a person to get to a high level of expertise.” Before the economic downturn the company needed approximately 50 employees; now unfortunately it is close to half that. They had to make changes in order to survive. Major corporations, such a Citibank, have had to cut back and economize, so sometimes a particular project such as a board room must be completed within a lowered budget.

Thus, Mountain Rug Mills developed rugs with a lower price point and did some overtufting. Gill does “See some upticks in the economy since 2008.” He thinks the economy may have turned the corner last year and hopes their company will get back to full production soon.

Commercial projects including hotels and yachts all over the world are a major part of their business. Two weeks ago they made a carpet for someone’s Ferrari. One area of business that was once plentiful, but has slackened in this economy, is commercial and residential aviation, such as Delta Airlines, Hawaiian Air, Continental and American Airlines.

This included making carpets for Donald Trump’s private jet, helicopter flooring, or custom rugs for the Bing Crosby Estate and Perry Como.

Even though Mountain Rug Mills does not install the rugs in the aircraft, the work for the aircraft industry is quite exacting, technical, and must always be precise. The sizes of the bulk head dividers, often with a logo, the kick panels and the flooring must be spot on correct with no small variations. They must fit perfectly. And the specifications and codes by the industry are stringent, including the exact level of flame retardants needed for each separate area. Apparently most corporate jets have two sets of floor carpets. A set of carpets on the aircraft is taken out for cleaning while it is on the ground for maintenance, and clean or new ones are installed. Gill Morgan gets a chuckle over some projects. Some years ago the Egyptian government ordered carpeting—possibly wool and silk—for a wide bodied plane, perhaps an L-1011. But one area of the carpet needed to be extremely stiff and firm—stiff enough for the passengers to roll their dice easily! Another amusing sight was seeing an aircraft with all real gold fixtures! These were installed, because the owner did not think the gold plated fixtures were bright enough!

According to Judy and Gill, their business is primarily custom .

January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 53

Corporate orders make up close to 25%, while residential is approximately 75%. Eighty percent of the business is hooked rugs and 15%, braided. Mountain Rug Mills make very small rugs, like a 2’ x 3’ rug, all the way to very large rugs (sometimes more than 30’ x 40’).

54 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

Orders are sent to them from all over the country, including rugs, like a 2’ x 3’ rug, all the way to very large rugs, as well as the Northeast, Michigan, Ohio, and California. A lot of the chair pads. In fact, with an unlimited frame for hooking, they orders are brought to them through a private label, such as can handle any size of carpet. Usually one person hooks a rug Scalamandre or Stark Carpet. In recent years, however, completely, but when it is a very large size with a tight schedule, Mountain Rug Mills has been stepping away from the private different operators work on different design elements, in order label umbrella to be recognized on their own. They are to keep the continuity of quality the same within the rug.

Last year First Source Bank in South Bend, Indiana, came to gathering a network of representatives around the country.

Designers and architects are coming to them directly to them to remake their rugs, which dated back to the 1980s and place orders for their projects. They work with Cheryl Smith under heavy usage had become worn in places. This turned out to be an amazing job. These of Hendersonville, Susan were very large rugs, with many Kinney of Suezen Designs in angles and special shapes in Asheville, Kathleen Rivers of places with the largest being Charleston and Cashiers, Todd 30’ x 40’. Initially, First Source Richesin of Knoxville, Susan wanted to change the colors, Nilsson and Samsel Architects but ultimately they decided of Asheville, Jane Hoke of not to do so. The installation Birmingham, Amelia Handigan was quite a production. To of Charleston, Lucile Clarkson insure that business on Monday and several other designers could continue smoothly, the in the Atlanta area. Susan installation had to take place on Kinney says, “I have had such a a weekend. The coordination great time working with MRM, and timing had to be precise. and they did a fabulous job After the rugs were ready, they on all of the rugs I designed.” were loaded onto a dedicated These designers and others, Andy Balla working in the dye room truck, leaving North Carolina especially within a 300 mile on Friday afternoon. They had radius, like to use the MRM showroom because of the easy access to the large collection of to be delivered very early in the morning on Saturday. The samples and rugs. There is the added benefit of being able to windows of the corporate offices had to be taken out by the work directly with the mill. More are always welcome. One time the truck arrived. A crane was waiting to lift these rugs, specialty store MRM has worked with is Macy’s. However, they which were quite heavy, onto the proper floor and into the do not send orders to the big boxes, such as Walmart, Home rooms. Many walls had to be taken out inside. Workers were lined up and ready to install the rugs immediately. After that Depot or Lowe’s.

Corporate orders make up close to 25%, while residential is the corporate offices had to be put back together, so work could approximately 75%. Eighty percent of the business is hooked continue smoothly on Monday. The pressure and precision was rugs and 15%, braided. Mountain Rug Mills make very small immense for all to accomplish this without a hitch.

January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 55

We've been buddies a long time Priestley Cummings Fo

rd

Laura Cummings McCu

And now we are celebrating 10 years in business together managing our investment company, White Oak Financial Management, Inc. We help our clients take the emotion out of investing by using supply-anddemand technical charting to manage risk and help us determine not only what to buy and sell but when. The news of the day is generally not a factor in our investing decisions.

White Oak also provides this service to participants in company retirement plans – offering specific advice on the investment choices within a plan at any given time, directly to participants. To learn more about our advisory services and investment management strategies, please call us at 828-274-7844 or visit www.WhiteOakFinancialManagement.com.

www.WhiteOakFinancialManagement.com

828-274-7844 Every investment strategy has the potential for profit or loss

56 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

e

Mountain Rug Mills is a custom manufacturer with a Factory Store/Showroom. In their business, color and design are everything, which also means working closely with the customer. “Our level of service must be high, never sacrificing anything and paying great attention to detail,” says Judy. “I try to treat every client like I want to be treated! I take it to heart.”

Service is an important part of the business. The qualities they produce range from level one loop or cut with very little detail to multi-level with carving or needlepoint with a lot of detail.

Andy Balla, Judy Morgan and her son Anton often create the rug design for the customer; sometimes it is taken from a small piece of fabric, a drawing or photo; sometimes the creation grows out of something already produced. The customer can choose colors from the company’s standard color poms, or perhaps other yarns need to be dyed specifically for the project.

Mountain Rug Mills dyes everything in their own dye house.

This is an art in itself. They dye by the hank or skein in dye kettles with environmentally friendly “green” dyes—all the wool, the silk, the jute, the sisal. There are over one hundred standard colors, but many customers request slight variations on the tone. Custom colors can be dyed to match a piece of fabric, color pom or even a piece of tissue. A person needs a chemistry background, good math skills and experience to do this type of dyeing. Atmospheric pressure can make a difference, as can the exact condition of the wool itself. The finished product must be as colorfast as possible. If a sample is made, it must be approved by the customer—before production can begin. Sometimes a rendering is all that is required, or MRM may have a sample or rug in the factory Store/Showroom that serves as a sample. Then a stencil of the design is put on

the monk cloth, which allows the hooking to begin on the loom.

After the rug is completed, it is closely inspected. If it meets their high standards, a good quality of latex is applied to lock the wool in place, and the rug is sheared and carved if required.

Then it receives a final inspection. The overall finished product must exemplify fine craftsmanship. Most hooked rug orders average approximately 12 weeks to complete, but the Morgans work with a client to meet their schedule as much as possible.

The White House

An interesting job was making rugs for the White House. Just before leaving in 2009, First Lady Laura Bush unveiled and installed new acquisitions of area rugs handcrafted

by Mountain Rug Mills for the Old Family Dining Room and the Diplomatic Reception Room. Earlier Mountain Rug Mills had already installed a rug in the Green Room, a colorful state parlor. They were to replace carpets with signs of wear and tear.

The rugs were acquired for the White House collection as part of regular room refurbishments. Everything was purchased by the White House Historical Association through its Endowment and Acquisition Trusts. This is privately raised money.

Judy & Gill Morgan worked closely for a number of years with William G. Allman, White House curator, Mrs. Laura Bush, designer Ken Blasingame, and also Casey Wenskus, artist, to create some amazing designs. Architectural elements from the rooms were chosen to be included in the rug designs, as well as the easily recognized American emblem, the bald eagle. The rugs are quite large. The Old Family Dining Room rug is 17’9” x 21’10” and the Diplomatic Reception Room rug is 22’5” x 32’7.”

January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 57

The Family Dining Room was where the family ate most of their meals, up until the Kennedys added the upstairs dining room and kitchen. President George W. Bush entertained 81 heads of state for luncheons in this room. According to First Lady Laura Bush, the color in the rug was taken from the color that was already in the room, a cheerful yellow. The mantel has swags and an eagle, so these were used in the border of the rug. The room has medallions in the corner of the door casings, so these medallions were modified and placed in the field of the rug.

The Diplomatic Reception Room (p.57) is a lovely parlor for receiving diplomats from afar. The Mountain Rug Mills carpet here has emblems from the flags of the 50 states in the United States around its border. The Diplomatic Reception Room is the room where First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy picked out panoramic wallpaper, which depicts four scenes of North America, including Boston Harbor and West Point. The wallpaper was created by the artist Deltil for French wallpaper Manufacturer Zuber, a firm founded in 1797.

An Overview

Many pioneers of early America made hand hooked and braided rugs for their families. To produce them was very time consuming. It is part of the American heritage,

and many fine historical examples are found in museums and homes throughout the country. If you want to try your hand at hooking, small kits with the basics can be found in hobby shops. For the Early American look, Mountain Rug Mills is licensed to reproduce a collection of rugs on exhibit at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

It is quite amazing to find a successful company, such as Mountain Rug Mills, right here in our neighborhood, in Hendersonville. Happily for us, they do have an outlet store located in the mill itself at 609 North King Street. You would have to look far and wide to match the quality of their craftsmanship.

This is truly a Made in America product that one can be proud to own. The rug is made to last; it is a quality product. Their standard patterned rugs all have names that you can recognize, such as Etowah, Broom Sage, Mud Creek or Biltmore. Judy and Gill Morgan are members of the Southern Highland Craft Guild and collaborate with Handmade in America. Do visit Mountain Rug Mills or give them a call at (828) 698-4543 or visit their website at www.mountainrugmills.com. The outlet store is open Monday through Friday from 9 to 5, also evenings and weekends by appointment. For after hours appointments, call (828) 275-1857. They will be happy to help you with your creation or project. You will undoubtedly be pleased with the results.

A Unique Warehouse Experience

Shades of Style 58 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

575 Sweeten Creek Industrial Park Asheville 828.277.1121 Hours Monday-Saturday

Wine&Wisdom

Written by Hunt Mallett, the owner and operator of Weinhaus, located on Patton Avenue in downtown Asheville.

How sweet it is!

O

ne of my favorite songs this time of year opens with the line “When chimney smoke hangs still and low across the stubbled fields of snow, and angry skies reach down to seize the sorry, blackened bones of trees.” This draws the listener in to appreciate the “cure,” which, in this case, is the song’s title: “Hot Buttered Rum” (written by Tommy Thompson). In the wine world, the obvious substitute would be port wine. The classic sweet, warming sips of a port or similar wine enjoyed at the table or curled up in front of the fire, are hard to beat when it comes to fending off the blues and chill of winter. But what makes this wine so different than the red and white wines that pair so well with most of the meal? Let me provide a little background and reference a number of pairings that can enhance your enjoyment of this special wine.

Port wine comes from the Douro Valley region of Portugal. The British are credited with the development of modern port by providing a market for the wine producers in the 17th century when England couldn’t get wine from France due to war or some trade dispute. They discovered that in order for the wine to successfully survive the ocean voyage up from Portugal, a little brandy (distilled grape spirits) could be blended into the base wine to preserve it through the journey. This “fortified” wine stops further fermentation and results in a sweet taste and higher alcohol levels (18 -22%). This style was met with great favor and many English companies founded their “Lodges,” or port making wineries, in and around the city of Oporto at the mouth of the Duoro River where it enters the Atlantic Ocean. So, many of the great brands of port bear the names of their English founders such as Smith-Woodhouse, Grahams, Cockburn, Taylor and Dow. The port style is typically a red, sweet wine, but it can be dry, semi dry and even made from white grapes. Other areas that produce the port style include Australia, South Africa and the US. Under E.U. law, only wines from Portugal can be labeled “Port” or “Porto.” There are two basic styles of port that are determined by the method of aging the wine: in wood casks (tawny), or in the bottle

(ruby). Tawny port gets an amber-brown tint from the extended wood contact and has flavors of butterscotch and caramel, while ruby port retains more of the red color and has bright flavors of cherry and red berries.

While many less expensive ports are blends of wines made in different years, a “vintage” port must have only grapes from those harvested in the year of the vintage. Only the best wine can be declared a “vintage” from a producer, so a producer may skip some years where the harvest doesn’t meet the standards. Vintage ports usually refer to the ruby style, but a tawny port made from a particular vintage is called a “Colheita” and will have a year on the bottle. Ports are among the most age worthy wines, meaning that they can continue to develop for many years once in the bottle.

The high alcohol acts as a preservative to extend the life and development of port, as it does with maderia, sherry and other fortified wines.

Port can be enjoyed in a numbers of ways. It is an excellent aperitif, chilled or room temperature, and is often paired with desserts after the meal.

Here are some pairings that can enhance both ruby and tawny port. Try them with roasted walnuts, Stilton blue cheese, almonds, dried fruits, Gorgonzola dolce cheese, and any type of dark chocolate. And for those that like it, a fine cigar.

So fortify yourself for those cold winter nights, and don’t forget the advantages of port on Valentine’s Day!

January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 59

WORLD BRIEFS Savannah’s Gulfstream delivers first G650 Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. officially delivered its first fully equipped ultra-largecabin, ultra-long-range Gulfstream G650. The unique aircraft is the fastest certified civilian aircraft in production. The business jet has a maximum cruise speed of Mach 0.925, and was reportedly delivered to a U.S. customer in late December. Savannah-based Gulfstream recently publicized upgraded performance features for the aircraft. Now, the G650 can travel 6,000 nautical miles at its high-speed cruise, which is a 1,000-nautical mile increase from the initial goal of 5,000. The enhanced features allow the possibility for faster trips around the globe than any other business jet.

conversion and wave. In addition, it will recognize associated elements, such as rainfall, slope, soil characteristics, land use zoning and critical habitats. It does not display existing renewable energy projects, which can be found at the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative website.

Users can look for renewable resource information using a navigation map, a site address, or a tax map key.

Humana completes acquisition Humana Inc. has finalized its acquisition of Metropolitan Health Networks Inc. in a transaction valued at nearly $850 million. Boca Raton, Florida-based Metropolitan Health Networks coordinates and offers medical care for about 87,500 Medicare Advantage and Medicaid beneficiaries and others, primarily in Florida. The company runs about 35 primary care medical centers and a network of affiliated physicians who serve mostly Humana members. Humana offers insurance and health and wellness services across the nation. Metropolitan stockholders will receive $11.25 per share in cash from Humana for each Metropolitan share held. Humana also will repay all of Metropolitan’s outstanding debt.

Chevron to move 800 Bay Area jobs to Texas

Hawaii State Energy Office able to show location of renewable energy resources The Hawaii State Energy Office has established an online mapping tool that displays the locations and distribution of renewable energy resources throughout Hawaii. Called “Renewable EnerGIS,” the interactive tool is intended to help landowners, developers, residents and policy makers measure the renewable energy potential of sites statewide.

Accessible data in the Office of Planning Statewide Geographic Information Systems files, also known as “layers,” allow Renewable EnerGIS to show the location of renewable resources such as wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, biomass, ocean thermal energy 60 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

Chevron Corp. intends to move a quarter of its Bay Area headquarters staff, as many as 800 jobs, from San Ramon to Houston over two years. Chevron plans to keep its main office in San Ramon’s Bishop Ranch complex.

However, the oil and gas giant wants more of its advanced technology and information workers based in Houston, where its upstream business, finding oil and gas and obtaining them from the ground, is located. Aside from the 3,500 people in Chevron’s San Ramon complex, the company has nearly 3,000 more in the Bay Area, especially at its Richmond refinery. It employs 9,000 people in Houston.

Melting Pot franchise headed to Indonesia The Melting Pot Restaurants Inc. has decided to open a location in Indonesia through a fiveunit franchise development agreement with P.T. Jaya Internusa Abadi. P.T. Jaya Internusa Adabi reportedly operates more than 20 restaurants in Jakarta and Bali. The first Melting Pot is scheduled to open in Jakarta in 2013.

The restaurant is also striving toward franchise development in Asia and the Middle East, while continuing its growth in Mexico and Canada.

Tampa government establishes hotline for anonymous tips Starting in February 2013, internal Tampa employees will have a place to report instances of fraud, waste and abuse. The city of Tampa will begin a hotline for workers to share tips anonymously. Workers will be able to report via the phone, or a third-party website 24 hours a day, seven days a week. According to a statement, the Internal Audit Department will manage the hotline. The city will contract with The Network Inc., a company that manages anonymous report hotlines.

Moonbase exhibition to open at MOSI The Museum of Science and Industry in Florida recently opened its “Moonbase” exhibition in m i d - D e c e m b e r.

The exhibition, which is partially funded by NASA, gives guests an experience of traveling to the moon on a mission to help operate a lunar colony. Viewers will experience living and working on the moon in the year 2070. The ideal mission experience will expose visitors to a reality where there will be limited resources such as food, water and uncertain air quality.

Sierra Nevada Space Systems gets $10M NASA contract Louisville-based Sierra Nevada Space Systems has secured a $10 million NASA contract as part of ongoing private-industry efforts to construct a U.S. space taxi that will carry astronauts to the orbiting International Space Station. In total, three companies were awarded a total of nearly $30 million in NASA contracts. Boeing Co. received a $9.99 million commitment and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, secured $9.59 million. Each company is working on projects related to creating an earth-to-orbit transportation vehicle. All three have welcomed previous NASA contracts totaling hundreds of millions of dollars; NASA commitments to Sierra Nevada could amount to as much as

$213 million. The latest contracts are for work through May 2014 on developing methods to meet NASA flight safety and performance rules. Sierra Nevada Space Systems, a unit of Sparks, Nevada-based Sierra Nevada Corp., is in the process of designing a vehicle called the Dream Chaser, a winged, reusable spacecraft that would launch atop an Atlas V rocket and then land like a plane upon returning to earth.

Hawking, CERN scientists win physics prize A Russian billionaire’s foundation awarded two special prizes of $3 million each.The prizes went to British cosmologist Stephen Hawking for his work on black holes and to seven scientists at the world’s biggest atom-smasher for their roles in the discovery of a new subatomic particle thought to be the long-sought Higgs boson.

Yuri Milner’s Fundamental Physics Prize Foundation revealed the awards toward the end of 2012.

Hawking is honored for his discovery of Hawking radiation from black holes “and his deep contributions to quantum gravity and quantum aspects of the early universe.” The prize money for the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, will be split between a scientist who oversaw the building of the $10 billion atom smasher and six physicists who oversaw two teams of 3,000 scientists each.

EU approves joint oversight of Eurozone banks

German scientists seek to clone perfect trees

European Union finance ministers have come to an agreement regarding a deal offering the European Central Bank (ECB) new powers to supervise eurozone banks. All finance ministers from the European Union’s 27 countries agreed to give the ECB direct oversight of at least 150 of the euro zone’s biggest bank. The ECB will also be capable of intervening with smaller lenders and borrowers at the first sign of trouble. The deal will give the ECB the direct responsibility for banks with assets of more than 30 billion euros, or that represent more than a fifth of a state’s national output. The supervision plan appears to be the first step towards a eurozone banking union intended to reshape confidence, encourage cross-border bank lending and decrease high borrowing costs for peripheral banks. However, the United Kingdom, Sweden and other noneuro countries have won desirable safeguards to check the power of the ECB.Therefore, they will maintain some influence over technical standards applying to all EU banks.

Finding the perfect Christmas tree may be much easier in the near future, simply by picking a nice clone. German scientists are currently searching a way to guarantee that the sensitive saplings of the popular Nordmann fir species grow into impressive specimens.

The fir is native to the Caucasus, but is often cultivated on vast plantations in Germany.

Biologist Kurt Zoglauer of Berlin’s Humboldt University explained that 40 percent of trees do not make the cut when they mature after 10 to 14 years. Some are stunted by frost, while others develop into the wrong shade of green. Therefore, Zoglauer’s team hopes to perfect a method to clone particularly hardy and beautiful trees by 2016. The project is supported by a German government grant.

Haiti awards mining permits Haiti’s government has given permits for the first time in the country’s recent history that will allow two companies to openly mine for gold and copper. The nation’s mining director Ludner Remarais said that he issued the company SOMINE one permit to mine for gold and another for copper. SOMINE is jointly owned by Canadian company Majescor and Haitian investors. SOMINE’s Haitian engineer Michel Lamarre said he anticipates exploration to begin in 36 to 42 months, noting that the company has already spent $10 million in research. Remarais issued a second gold permit to VCS, a North Carolina-based mining company with offices in Haiti.

Leukemia drug company seeks to double its HQ Ariad Pharmaceuticals, the Cambridge company that recently won U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for its leukemia drug, is considering doubling its headquarters. The firm currently occupies 125,000 square feet in two buildings in Kendall Square, Cambridge.

At 26 Landsdowne St., they lease 100,000 square feet and at 64 Sidney St., they occupy 25,000 square feet. According to commercial real estate sources, the company is seeking a 250,000-square-foot headquarters either in new construction or existing offices in the narrow Cambridge market. Ariad has received FDA approval for its drug to treat two rare types of leukemia. With its first drug on the market, the approval places the biotechnology firm on the map as a commercial-stage company.

The drug, known until now as ponatinib, will be marketed as Iclusig. It is supposed to cost nearly $115,000 per patient annually.

January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 61

Healthy&Brief A blood test for autism?

By Laura Blue, TIME.com

E

arlier detection of autism, relying on markers in the blood, may help more children to take advantage of helpful behavioral therapies.

Diagnosing autism currently requires hours of observation by clinicians and a far from objective series of behavioral measures, but improvements in genetic testing could make the process more efficient.

In a study published in the journal PLOS ONE, researchers from Children’s Hospital Boston describe a new experimental test to detect the developmental disorder, based on the differences in gene expression between kids with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and those without the condition.

The blood-based test appears to predict autism relatively accurately, at least among boys and has already been licensed to a company, SynapDx, for commercial development. In an e-mail statement to TIME, a spokeswoman for SynapDx said the company plans to start clinical trials of the new test in early 2013.

The new blood test for autism is intriguing, researchers say, because it seems to be at least as effective as any other genetic test for autism that doctors currently use. Scientists believe that autism has some genetic basis, based on genes that have been associated with the disorder, and the fact that the condition seems to run in families.

“A week does not go by where you don’t hear about a genetic mutation that has been linked to autism in at least a few families,” says Isaac Kohane, a pediatric endocrinologist and computer scientist at Children’s Hospital Boston, and the senior study author on the new article in PLOS ONE. Kohane is

a scientific adviser for SynapDx, but says he does not own any stock in the company.

Autism is a complex condition, he says, with many possible genetic determinants. And the precise genetic mechanism, or more likely mechanisms, are still poorly understood.

To get a better idea of which genetic changes might be most relevant to the disease, Kohane and his colleagues compared 66 patients with ASDs and 33 similar patients who were not affected by the disorder. Because they couldn’t analyze the participants’ brain tissue, they relied on their blood as a proxy for revealing any differences.

And indeed, they found certain markers in the blood of autistic participants that did not appear in those without the disorder. They traced these to 489 genes and narrowed that list down to 55 genes that could predict autism in about two-thirds of those with the disease.

Studies: New clues to the genetic roots of autism “There are a lot of different mutations involved, and a lot of different pathways that seem to be involved in autism,” Kohane says. Those genetic pathways included some known to be related to learning, and some linked to immune function.

“The fact that not all kids had both, and some kids would be more abnormal in immunological pathways and others would be more abnormal in (another pathway) spoke, I think, to the genuine heterogeneity of the disease,” Kohane says.

“In that respect, autism is beginning to look a lot like what the cancer biologists are telling us about breast cancer, or lung cancer,” he says. “There may be hundreds of different molecularly defined cancers, which each have their own specific optimal treatment.” Similarly, autism spectrum disorders, too, may have diverse genetic roots, and appear clinically in slightly different ways from one patient to another.

Gene expression in the brain offers clues to autism’s roots Today, 1 in 88 kids suffers from an autism spectrum disorder, and prevalence has soared over the last 30 years, although it’s not clear why. Diagnosing the disease early is important because it allows children to take advantage of behavioral intervention programs that can lead to higher IQ scores and improvements in language. Kohane says the blood test could identify those at risk of autism well before symptoms appear around age 2, and help these children access potentially beneficial therapies.

The test, however, is still in early stages of development.

Kohane says that its accuracy (at around 70% in a highprevalence, predominantly male sample) is high enough to be clinically useful among kids with a suspected developmental disorder.

But he stresses that the test as it stands still generates too many false positives, or people mistakenly identified with the condition when in fact they don’t have it, for the test to be used as an autism screening tool among all children. If the current results are confirmed, that may take a few more years.

62 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

Healthy&Brief New prenatal genetic test gives parents more answers

N

CNN Health

ew applications of a genetic test could help parents learn more about the genetics of their unborn children.

Three studies released recently in the New England Journal of Medicine highlight the use of microarray testing as the latest technology in chromosome analysis. Researchers suggest using this test to identify potential intellectual disabilities, developmental delays, autism and congenital abnormalities as well as determining why a pregnancy failed.

During pregnancy a number of tests are suggested by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists based on the mother’s age, medical history or ethnic or family background, along with results of other tests. Chromosomal microarray analysis is a genetic test that finds small amounts of genetic material that traditional testing such as karyotyping cannot detect.

The genetic material is obtained during a regular amniocentesis (where small amounts of amniotic fluid and cells are taken from the sac surrounding the fetus and tested during the second trimester of pregnancy) or another commonly used test called CVS, or chorionic villus sampling (where a small amount of cells is taken from the placenta during the first trimester).

According to one study, this prenatal testing surpassed standard testing to detect more genetic abnormalities. Lead study author Dr. Ronald Wapner, says with microarray, doctors don’t look at chromosomes and are able to evaluate smaller pieces of DNA. If potential development issues are found, “we are way better able to counsel parents about what they would mean for the child,” Wapner says. “... We can modify the course and improve the outcome for the child.” This type of testing can

also be helpful to researchers, as learning what genes cause certain problems may lead to development of potential cures and treatments, he says.

Adequate counseling for parents is needed in case tough decisions need to be made regarding the pregnancy, given the testing outcome, Wapner says.

Dr. Nancy Rose, chair of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ committee on genetics, says the organization is going to review the studies but can’t comment on them yet. However, Rose, who is also the director of reproductive genetics for Intermountain Healthcare, says as a reproductive geneticist, “It’s a great promising new technology, but the clinical application really needs some careful evaluation” because of any potential ethical issues.

The second study examined microarray testing in relation to stillborn babies. According to the National Institutes of Health, 1 of every 160 births in the United States is a stillbirth.

Parents and doctors often don’t know why the babies didn’t survive. In this study researchers were able to help parents better understand the reason their baby didn’t survive and provide them with information that may one day lead to a successful pregnancy. The microarray testing can be done on tissue that is not alive, where previous tests require live tissue.

“It’s a great test for patients who have a pregnancy loss,” says Rose, “... and it’s superior to detect genetic changes in fetuses that have birth defects.”

The third paper was a case report of a specific genetic condition that was not detected prenatally by karyotyping, ultrasounds or the microarray testing, underscoring the limitations to these tests and the potential advantage of the genetic sequencing approach.

January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 63

Healthy&Brief Study questions benefit of yearly mammograms

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By Elizabeth Cohen, CNN Senior Medical Correspondent

hen the time rolls around for Kelly Bleyer’s annual mammogram, she hears two voices in her head: her gynecologist, who says she absolutely must have a mammogram every single year, and her father-in-law, who urges her to get a mammogram every other year instead.

While most women would listen to their gynecologist, Kelly’s father-in-law isn’t just anyone: He’s the co-author of a new mammography study in the New England Journal of Medicine, and he says he believes passionately that mammograms might be making women sick -- maybe even killing them.

“I really don’t know what to do,” says Bleyer, 50, an anchor and health reporter at KBND radio in Bend, Oregon. “I feel so conflicted.”

‘Mammography is not perfect’ Dr. Archie Bleyer knows his advice to his daughter-in-law is controversial, even heretical in a society where pink ribbons on everything from billboards to yogurt containers remind women to get their annual mammograms.

Here’s his reasoning: His study suggests that nearly one out of every three women diagnosed with breast cancer has a tumor that is so tiny and growing so slowly it would never cause any problems even if it weren’t treated.

The problem is doctors can’t tell in advance whether a tumor will be harmless or deadly, so they have to treat them all, and some of those treatments, such as chemotherapy, can increase a woman’s risk for leukemia and other diseases.

“We’re mortals, and we’re still trying to figure this out,”

says Bleyer, clinical research professor at the department of radiation medicine at the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health and Science University.

The new study also finds that mammograms aren’t catching some truly dangerous tumors that later turn out to become advanced cancer.

Mammograms are supposed to catch breast cancer early, but after 30 years of aggressive mammography, advanced breast cancer rates haven’t gone down at all, according to Bleyer’s study.

Kelly Bleyer has decided to follow her gynecologist’s advice and continue to get a mammogram every year.

Breast cancer prevention: What every woman should know “This study brings to light what we’ve already known for some time, which is that mammography is not perfect,” says Chandini Portteus, vice president of research, evaluation and scientific programs at Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Bleyer’s study, written with Dr. Gilbert Welch at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, examined national data on mammograms from 1976 to 2008.

They found that during this time, twice as many cases of early-stage breast cancer were caught -- but they estimate that 31% of those cancers were slow-growing and never would have made the woman sick.

Breast cancer was “overdiagnosed” in 1.3 million women over the past 30 years —70,000 women in 2008 alone, according to the study. ...continued on facing page

Porcupine quill could foster new medical devices

S

Barb design might translate to needles, researchers say – HealthDay News

tudying porcupine quills could lead to the development of new medical devices, researchers say.

A team at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston discovered how North American porcupine quills easily puncture tissue and why, once stuck in flesh, they are difficult to remove. They did this using natural porcupine quills and replicamolded synthetic polyurethane quills.

They said their findings could lead to the creation of needles that effortlessly penetrate skin and resist buckling, as well as new types of medical adhesives.

The study was published online Dec. 10 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A porcupine’s quills are its key defense mechanism. Each of the approximately 30,000 quills on a porcupine’s back contains a conical black tip studded with a layer of microscopic, backwardfacing barbs and a cylindrical base with a smooth, scale-like

64 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

structure, the researchers said.

The researchers discovered that the quill’s geometry and barbs enable it to penetrate tissue with ease. Once in the tissue, the barbs keep it in place.

“By carefully removing the barbs from the quill, we discovered that in addition to their physical features, the location of barbs on the quill played a major role in minimizing penetration forces and maximizing the work needed to yank them from the tissue,” study first author Woo Kyung Cho, of the department of medicine’s biomedical engineering division, said in a hospital news release.

In order to assess potential medical uses, the researchers developed plastic quill replicas that closely mimic the penetration force and gripping power of natural quills.

The authors pointed out that other creatures in nature have inspired bioengineered devices. For instance, geckos inspired the development of tape-based adhesives, they said.

Study questions benefit of yearly mammograms cont...

Mammogram advice for 40-somethings “That’s a lot of women, and that’s a problem,” Bleyer says.

The study also found that as mammograms grew in popularity, the death rate from breast cancer went down 28% in women over age 40, but the study authors said that was largely due to better treatment, not mammograms.

The study has already caused controversy. The American College of Radiology issued a statement saying the report was “deeply flawed and misleading” -- a claim the study authors refute.

Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, said while “overdiagnosis is a matter deserving of attention,” the study’s conclusions “must be viewed with caution.”

What’s to be done?

Given all this, should women have mammograms every year after age 40, as currently recommended by most health organizations, or start having them every other year?

Kelly Bleyer said after much thought, she’s decided to follow the advice of her gynecologist and not her father-in-law.

“I’ll keep having a mammogram every year -- my insurance covers it, and I know how my doctor feels about it,” she says.

“But I’m open to hearing more about what the science says. I think I could live with having it every other year.”

Here are some tips for making your own decision about how often to have mammograms: 1. Learn the mammogram guidelines.

Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the American Cancer Society and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommend women get mammograms every year starting at age 40. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force advises women to get mammograms every other year starting at 50.

2. Know your family history.

Screening recommendations are different for certain groups, such as women with a family history of breast cancer and women who have tested positive for breast cancer genes.

3. Find out about other screening tools besides mammograms.

Ultrasounds, MRIs, breast self-exams and exams performed by your doctor can all be used in addition to mammograms.

4. Keep in mind that mammograms miss many cancers Don’t have a false sense of security just because you’ve had a mammogram. Mammograms miss about one in five breast cancers, according to the American Cancer Society.

5. Realize mammograms catch some cancers that might not ever make you sick.

This study found that 31% of newly diagnosed breast cancers never would have caused any harm; other studies say it’s more like 10% to 20%.

Whatever the real percentage is, when you go in for a mammogram, realize that it might pick up a harmless tumor, but you’re going to have to get treatment for it anyway since doctors can’t yet discern a harmful from a harmless cancer.

“You should go into this with your eyes open,” says Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society and CNN cancer expert.

Live the life you choose.

Cheryl MacPhail, Broker Associate 828-337-2139

cmacphail@beverly-hanks.com www.beverly-hanks.com/agents/cmacphail

January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 65

Real Estate

Negotiations: Why is that crazy man waving his arms?

Have you ever walked up to the counter at a fast food place and tried to negotiate the price of your hamburger? Have you tried negotiating the price of your fishing license because you never catch anything anyhow?

H

ave you ever been in an area of the world where haggling over price was half the fun of making a deal?

Have you stood on a street or in a small shop haggling (love that word) with someone over the price of bananas and cantaloupes, or fake Calvin Klein jeans?

Well, with a lesser amount of arm waving and fake hurt feelings, we basically do the same thing when we buy a new car or make an offer on real estate. The differences between our refined and formal process and the seemingly raw emotions on display in haggling is determined by culture and the values differing societies take on the process itself.

When you go into a new car showroom, sooner or later a sales representative will come around and very politely begin interacting with you. He’ll greet you, shake your hand, introduce himself and offer to be of service. He’ll talk about football, the weather, your job or your dogs. If things go well during this informal get-acquainted period, you’ll start discussing cars.

If he’s well-trained he’ll begin to assess your personality type while you talk. He’ll avoid saying “I” and will get you to talk about yourself and your ideal car while he leads and controls the conversation.

After some time, if things go well, he’ll move you to one of the closing offices. At that point, everyone will know the game is on. He will use your personality type to help you decide this is the car you absolutely must have. You will be making the decisions, while the sales rep controls the process with just a few questions.

Colombo would be proud.

At some point you’ll name a price you might be willing to pay for the car. He’ll tell you how low that is and show you the value of all the options. At some point, he’ll say your offer is so low he’ll have to review it with the sales manager.

I don’t know what goes on in the sales manager’s office.

Maybe the salesman prostrates himself on the floor and begs “the man” to give you the car. Maybe they have a cup of coffee.

However it goes, you are not actually being represented in the discussion.

The sales representative’s role is that of an un-empowered agent of the seller. He works for the seller. He may be your friend and you might have him over for dinner, but he is paid by the dealership.

66 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

Look at the players again: - The Seller (dealership) - The Seller’s Agent - The Seller’s Sales Manager - The Buyer This is what makes many (or most) women fear or hate buying a new car. More than men, they are experts at seeing through flattery and insincere promises. Men have fed them that malarkey all their lives and they recognize it when they see it. (That’s one reason female salespeople do so well in the car business.)

Go back to the fellow waving his arms and pitching a fit on the street because you refused to pay his outrageous price for the fake Rolex. Unless a turnip truck has just brought you into the neighborhood, both of you know the watch is a fake. The issue, therefore, is the deal. In some cultures that can only be determined through intensive negotiation, raised voices, arm waving and the gnashing of teeth.

As an aside, I participated in such a negotiation in Mexico City many years ago. I was buying a small bust of an Aztec god made of carved and polished Obsidian. The vendor wanted $90. I had been at this little arts market before, and I knew that $90 was off the charts too high. I offered $30. He screamed and shouted. I started to walk away. He looked like he was going to cry and showed me pictures of his starving children. I looked at the photo and pointed out it had been clipped from Time magazine, page 103, and it said so right in the corner. He stopped the histrionics, laughed, and we quickly agreed on $45.

He probably “won” the negotiation, but it was an enormous amount of fun and we still have Tio Feo. The important thing to learn from this is that he who controls the process generally controls the outcome. The sculpture vendor lost control of the process. Auto dealerships are much more sophisticated, and they have the mysterious sales manager in the back office. They are not going to lose control.

In real estate, what is the process? What type of negotiation

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are you in? Is it an old-fashioned American Win/Win situation or are you in a Win/Lose contest? You’re very likely to be in the latter if you allow it to become confrontational. Your real estate agents (Realtors™ if they belong to the National Association of Realtors) will work hard to get you into the house or help you sell the house under the most favorable terms possible. It’s not in anyone’s best interest to have the parties square off in a macho shouting match that will almost inevitably result in two angry clients with no deal.

A few weeks ago I attended a class taught by Larry Kendall, President and CEO of The Group, Inc., of Ft. Collins, Colorado.

Working with his agents, Kendall has developed what many consider to be the nation’s best sales training program. In one part of it, Kendall reviews the various strategies and then overlays the style of negotiation on the culture of the negotiators. Win/Win strategies are nearly uniquely American, Kendall says. In in most of the rest of the world the belief is that the other guy will win, and you, therefore, must lose.

Avoid losing. Talk with your agent about the other side’s needs. Recognize the players in the negotiation and their style.

Then apply the tools you need to gain control. When all is said and done, remember it’s not personal. Your objective is to buy or sell the house.

Negotiation doesn’t always work Have you ever walked up to the counter at a fastfood place and tried to negotiate the price of your hamburger? Have you tried negotiating the price of your fishing license because you never catch anything anyhow? Those negotiations won’t work.

They won’t work in the upcoming housing crunch market, either. Whenever someone has complete control over the supply (burgers in a bun or trout in a stream) there will be no negotiation until supply and demand are in balance. The real estate seller may have the house you want, but there still are lots of houses.

Finally, remember that negotiators generally have limited or no authority. The real estate agent can’t initiate or accept a price proposal. The negotiator’s value lies in providing valuable information about the property and helping his or her client determine the next step in the negotiation process that will ultimately enable them to buy or sell a house.

Put a “W” on the board. In fact, put up two of them.

For more information on buying or selling real estate, contact your local Realtor or send me a note at bfishburne@beverlyhanks.com Written by Bill Fishburne, the President of the Henderson County Board of Realtors.

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Mike Talks

Mike Summey is a well known entrepreneur, the author of several books on real estate, and has written a number of real estate columns. He is also an avid pilot and philanthropist.

Why the gap between the rich and poor is widening I’m often accused of trying to oversimplify complex issues, to which I respond, “The burden of communication is on the person doing the talking.” I could be the smartest person on earth, but if I can’t communicate my thoughts in a manner that the listener or reader can understand, it’s my fault, not theirs.

With that thought in mind, I’d like to tackle the issue of why the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.

I believe the answer is consumer debt, which is the conduit through which wealth is transferred from the poor to the rich. Let me use a simple example to make my point. Suppose there are two individuals, each working the same job and each bringing home $4,000 per month. Suppose one of these people lives a lifestyle that consumes $3,600 per month and he/ she saves the other $400. Now, assume the other individual lives a lifestyle that consumes $4,400 per month and borrows $400 each month from the individual who saves in order to support this excessive lifestyle.

What happens? The person who borrows the money pays interest to the person from whom he/she borrows. Let’s assume the borrower has to pay 1% per month on the borrowed money…that’s about what many credit card companies charge. After one month, the borrower has $4 less to live on because he/she has to pay that much interest on the money borrowed the previous month. In the second month, the borrower has $3,996 in disposable income and the lender has $4,004. That’s an $8 difference in buying power in just one month between the two people making the identical amount.

Assume the lender continues to save $400 per month and lends it to the borrower for a full year. At the end of just one year, the borrower’s disposable income has been reduced by about $50 to $3,950, and the saver’s income has grown by this amount to $4,050 per month. Now the difference in buying power is $100 in just one year. Today, most of this transfer of wealth is facilitated by financial institutions that take deposits from savers, loan them to borrowers and make an additional margin for doing so.

Are you beginning to see how debt transfers wealth from the have not’s (borrowers) to the have’s (lenders)?

I know that’s a really simple example, but when you take that scenario and expand it to the overall population; it paints a pretty nasty picture. In 1950, the US population was just over 150,000,000 and total consumer debt average a little over $150 per person. Come forward to 2010; the US population has a little more than doubled to just over 308,000,000, but total consumer debt has increased by more than 5,200 percent to almost $8,000 per person.

Using the simple example I described above, and the same rate of interest, the average transfer of wealth per person in 1950 68 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

was only about $18.50 per year. By the year 2010, the average amount per person flowing from borrowers to lenders has grown to $950 per year. Since this reduces the borrower’s buying power by $950 and increases the lender’s by the same amount, the overall effect is a $1,900 difference between the borrower’s buying power and the lender’s.

But wait, as bad as this looks the real picture is much worse. In my example, I used the average debt per person for the entire population, but in order for some people to borrow, others must save.

If exactly half of the population is savers and half are borrowers, then the average debt per borrower would actually be more like $16,000 and the amount of buying power being transferred would be doubled. In our present debt oriented society, the number of savers is far less than the number of borrowers and declining, which accelerates the transfer of wealth and widens the gap between the rich and the poor.

With this widening gap between the rich and the poor, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how our growing debt burden is squeezing out the middle class, relegating more and more people to lower class and increasing the wealth of the smaller and smaller upper class.

The sad thing is there only two ways to curb this trend. One is for borrowers to tighten their belts and start living within their means so they can work themselves out of debt, and that’s true whether we’re talking about individual borrowers or cities, counties, states or the federal government. The other is for government to take from the “haves” and redistribute wealth to the “have not’s.” The problem with this approach is that the “have not’s” don’t learn anything by getting something for nothing; it only makes them more dependent.

Debt is one of those things that starts slowly but grows exponentially over time. Americans have been living above their means for decades and as the old saying goes, “The chickens are coming home to roost.” Personal bankruptcies are at an all-time high. Some municipalities have declared bankruptcy. A number of states are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and the federal debt has exploded in the last few years. The problem is, curbing debt and paying off debts requires a reduction in living standards, which is very painful and is an action usually only undertaken as a last resort.

We are currently seeing riots in the streets of some European countries that are being forced to reduce living standards because of their debts. In America, we have been enjoying a standard of living propped up with debt for decades. Let’s hope that we can come to our senses and start living within our means before we too are forced to take austere measures to curb our appetite for debt.

C L A S S I C G O O D L O O K S , A LWAY S .

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Imagine you just turned 30 years old. What if you captured just one second of video, everyday, for the next decade? On your 40th birthday you’d have an hour of video to remind you of your 30s. By your 80th birthday, you’d have five hours of footage to recall nearly your entire life. Well this phone app, 1 Second Everyday does that for you. All you have to do is record a one second highlight from your day, everyday, and you’ll catalog your life. It organizes, reminds you, and does the rest. Pretty cool, huh? Stop forgetting and start remembering those fleeting moments in life.

1secondeveryday.com

The UniGrip Pro ($49)

The UniGrip Pro is a universal smartphone mount which allows the user to mount virtually any phone with or without its protective case, to industry standard accessories such as Tripods, Mono-pods, Light kits and Stabilization devices. It has 1/4 20 Threaded Receivers on both the top and bottom of the unit. When connected, the UniGrip Pro creates a simple and effective platform for quality videos and photos. The UniGrip Pro is precision laser cut from high quality durable steel that doesn’t put your phone at risk of being damaged or destroyed. That must be why it comes with a lifetime warranty.

It can attach to large devices like the new Galaxy Note, iPhone 5, HTC Smartphones, Androids as well as smaller phones like an ATT Flip Phone with or without their protective case.

UniGripPro.com

Snolo - Stealth X ($2,999)

New Zealand based company Snolo Sleds have released their first high performance alpine sled – the Stealth-X. The carbon fibre flag ship model is designed to be used on both hard packed and soft powdered snow, and is a far cry from either the dust bin lid or the wooden sleds of old that were designed to run down a gentle slope when we were all kids. This sled is certainly no small child’s’ toy. It’s built for serious adult fun. The Stealth-X is built of carbon fibre and comprises three main parts. The mono shell which is the area you sit in, the single front ski with foot pegs, and the front arm which connects the two. An extra feature also allows this model to simply pull apart in one action, and be worn as a back pack which makes it ideal for back country exploring. If we get some snow this spring, you may want to have a new Appalachian adventure.

SnoloSleds.com

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63 Haywood St. • Asheville, NC 828-254-5088 Hours: Mon-Sat 10:30-6 January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 71

72 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

Cane Creek Cycling, A shocking way to grow a

business

By Bill

Fishburne

I

f you think that one of the bicycling world’s elite component manufacturers would have impressive offices, a CEO in a $2,000 suit and layers of receptionists and secretaries to get by before you get through the door, you would be wrong.

Wrong, at least, if you’re looking for Cane Creek Cycling Components. Cane Creek, named for the road it is on, is a small Fletcher company that is literally turning the trail bike world upside down with a patented and highly innovative line of rear suspension components.

For the first time, trail bikers can equip or buy their bikes with rear shock absorbers that can be adjusted by the biker while he or she is on a ride. The difference between this new concept and the old trail bikes with little if any rear suspension is, well, sensational.

“We knew the product was fantastic,” says Cane Creek CEO Scott Sonnone. “Now we have both manufacturers and consumers who share our opinion.”

Cane Creek isn’t a mass producer of stamped steel components. Instead, recognizing the reality of the higher cost of production in the U.S., they focus on top-drawer quality for a fairly limited but discriminating market. The result is that their shocks and front end headsets (load bearing inserts that allow the front fork to turn) are used by some of the world’s finest bicycle manufacturers.

“We cannot compete on cost alone,” Sonnone says.

“There are lots of unbranded headsets in Asia for a fraction of our cost. But they’re not that hot. People choose our brand for value. They’ll put our components on their higher end bikes.”

Sonnone has been with Cane Creek for three years. Prior to joining the firm as a member of the board of directors he was an investment banker on Wall Street and in San Francisco.

Sonnone was born in West Hartford, Connecticut. He graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, a small liberal arts school with a focus on intellectual discipline.

January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 73

His banking career led him to Cane Creek when his company invested in the small bicycle parts manufacturer.

Cane Creek traces its roots to its founding 1972 as DiaCompe USA, the U.S. branch of a major Japanese bicycling component company. They became independent in 1991 when the employees bought ownership through an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) and named Brad Thorne President and CEO. Under Thorne’s leadership the company developed its headsets to be the finest in the world and received patents for advanced designs that replaced ball bearings with silicon materials. Getting rid of the ball bearings meant that Cane Creek headsets were not subject to “Brinelling,” where the balls create indentations in their races. These in turn create steering problems as the front fork rotates.

Describing his introduction to the company, Sonnone says he “happened to be in the right place at the right time. Brad was working on his succession plan and the Board picked me. I thought about it and realized this was one of the most beautiful places in the world to live. I’d had the New York and San Francisco experiences. This would be a challenging job, but one I would look forward to every single day. I couldn’t wait to move here full time.”

Cane Creek has 40 employees in a 30,000 sq. ft. facility located on a five-acre industrial tract in Fletcher. Sonnone’s leadership has seen the company change its focus from making a wide variety of products, from headsets, disc brakes, wheels and seat posts to just a few items where it can be the industry leader. And although they continue to support legacy products, their focus now is on headsets, suspension components (shock absorbers and springs), and seat posts.

“We’re constantly amazed at the number of seat posts we sell,” says Marketing Director Holly Colson. “We’ve had them on the market for years and people keep asking for them. It can make a huge difference in rider comfort.”

If you are a bicyclist you may be sorely aware that road bikes (10 speed racing and touring bikes) have no rear suspension.

The rear wheel bolts directly to the frame and the only cushions between your rear end and the ground are the seat and the

74 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

flexible sidewalls of the rear tire. When the bike hits a bump, everything that can flex does. Whatever shock is left over goes into the rider and either into their legs or, even worse, straight up his or her spine.

That is acceptable on a road bike. But loads are multiplied by factors of 10 or more on trail bikes. On downhill bikes, such impacts can become unsustainable as well as unbearable.

That is where Cane Creek sees its brightest prospects for growth.

Bicycle suspension systems are relatively new. As recently as 1990 the average trail bike had no rear suspension. The rear wheel just hopped from bump to bump and spent a good bit of time off the ground. Jumps were painful, or even disastrous. Performance was limited because massive shocks from impacts and other surface irregularities were transmitted directly into the bike frame and the rider’s legs. Tires popped, rims bent and riders went down. Everyone in the business knew there had to be a better way to do things.

Cane Creek certainly wasn’t the first company to manufacture rear shock absorbers. The trick was to make a unit that was adjustable, so it would work for the majority of off-road riders.

Cane Creek engineers looked at existing bicycle shocks as well as the more sophisticated technology used on racing motorcycles and cars. Motorcycle technology helped them understand the effects of rider weight and suspension travel, where the drive chain has to be in constant tension to avoid the pogo effect of intermittent power followed by a period of no power when the chain is slack.

Another useful bit of information came from Indy cars and NASCAR, both of which use very sophisticated shocks that actually account for minute differences in ride height. A 2mm change in height at the wrong place at Indianapolis can cause a 5 mph speed differential. Indy car suspensions are activated by rocker arms attached to the upper suspension link, or more commonly, to pushrods. This enables designers to reduce unsprung weight and aerodynamic drag by mounting the shocks and springs inboard, beneath the bodywork.

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January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 75

Bicycle technology benefits from rocker arms and reducing unsprung weight. The gain in aerodynamic efficiency is of no concern. The rider is the number one aerodynamic problem.

Early bicycle rear suspension systems allowed the rear wheel to move up and down. These systems offered adjustability, but the process required disassembling the shock in a clean environment. Serious cyclists were carrying multiple pre-tuned shocks with them to avoid the lengthy adjustment process.

Cane Creek saw there was room for improvement.

The Cane Creek Double Barrel system, unlike anything else on the market, provides adjustability without disassembly and

Scott Sonnone 76 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

comes with a user-friendly technical manual that fits in a pocket or seat bag. The only tool required to make any adjustment is a small wrench that comes with the shock.

Cane Creek’s Double Barrel design also uses compressed air or nitrogen gas to pressurize the shock and reduce cavitation.

Riders can set their bikes up differently for short trail rides or long ones. If a rider simply follows instructions in the Tuning Field Guide, they can quickly adjust the shock for course conditions, rider weight and many other factors. The Tuning Field Guide was recently introduced in conjunction with the introduction of the 2013 bicycles from high-end manufacturer Specialized Bicycles at an industry conference in Snowbird, Utah.

“No one knows your ride better than you,” Sonnone said at the new product announcement. “For those consumers willing to embark on this process of ‘self-discovery,’ we must guide them.

Turning the adjusters can be intimidating. By providing them with the right tools, we can mitigate this fear and encourage them to explore all that our shocks can be. We can tune the bike to help new riders become great, and to help great riders become as great as their ability will allow. This premise is the foundation of our ‘Define Your Great’ concept.”

To facilitate this process, Cane Creek’s Tuning Field Guide poses a series of questions that encourage the rider to analyze and feel the performance of their shock. Based upon their impressions, the Tuning Guide then calculates what adjustment to make for their preferred riding style and trail conditions.

“Getting people excited about a new product is the easy part,” says Holly Colson, Cane Creek Director of Marketing.

“With every innovation we introduce, we are tasked with the responsibility of education. Albert Einstein put it best when he said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

Future plans for the Tuning Field Guide include development into an App for mobile devices. And as the Double Barrel shock evolves through the years, so will the rider-friendly Field Tuning Guide.

Sonnone isn’t talking about future products. He said it would be logical to figure the company was looking into suspension pieces for the front end as well as the rear. “I’d just keep my eyes open,” Sonnone said. “No one can tell you when the next Cane Creek announcement might come. Just rest assured, we will continue to lead and innovate.”

“What I can tell you is that I just love working here. The camaraderie is terrific. I come to work every day with an extended family of people I like and trust. We don’t always agree. We can fuss and argue about things, but then the lunch bike ride comes along, and we remember why it is we’re all here. By the time we get back, we’re all laughing. Cane Creek is special, and I’m excited about our future.”

And today it is a revered work of art – And today it is a revered work of art – a statement of what vision and planning can achieve. a statement of what vision and planning can achieve.

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January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 77

Voter Watch Meet your newly elected representatives

Dan Forest Position Elected: Lt. Governor of North Carolina Dan Forest is a leader in the business community having served as Office President and Senior Partner of the state’s largest architectural firm – Little Diversified Architectural Consulting. He holds two undergraduate degrees from UNC Charlotte and is a graduate of UNC Charlotte College of Architecture. Dan and his wife, Alice, reside in Raleigh, along with their four children, ages 7 to 19.

78 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

Pat McCrory Position Elected: Governor of North Carolina Patrick Lloyd “Pat” McCrory is an American politician and businessman. He was the 53rd Mayor of Charlotte from 1995 to 2009. In 1978, McCrory graduated from Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina, and he received a North Carolina teaching certificate that year. He resides in Charlotte with his wife Ann and their dog, Mo.

VOTER WATCH

South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley appointed Tim Scott to the US Senate, to replace Jim DeMint

Mark Meadows Position Elected: United States Congress - NC’s 11th District Twenty seven years go, with a $25,000 credit line, Mark and his wife, Debbie, started a small restaurant. This first successful business was later sold and Mark began building his business, eventually starting his own development company. Mark and Debbie reside in Jackson County with their two children, who are currently away at college.

Tim Scott Position Elected: Appointed to United States Senate

by SC Governor Nikki Haley Prior to being elected to Congress, Tim served on Charleston County Council for 13 years, including four terms as Chair and in the South Carolina House of Representatives for two years where he was elected Chairman of the Freshman Caucus and House Whip.

He was the owner of Tim Scott Allstate and partner of Pathway Real Estate Group.

January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 79

INSIDE the CUCKOO’S NEST

(

Who’s Crazy Now? Here are a few articles, from other publications, that talk about how the Private Sector interacts with the Public Sector

(

Google’s tax avoidance is called ‘capitalism’, says Eric Schmidt By Telegraph Staff

G

oogle chairman Eric Schmidt has insisted that he is “very proud” of the company’s tax structure, and said that measures to lower its payments were just “capitalism”.

Mr. Schmidt’s comments risk inflaming the row over the amount of tax multinationals pay, after it emerged that Google funneled $9.8 billion of revenues from international subsidiaries into Bermuda last year in order to halve its tax bill.

However, Mr. Schmidt defended the company’s legitimate tax arrangements. “We pay lots of taxes; we pay them in the legally prescribed ways,” he told Bloomberg. “I am very proud of the structure that we set up. We did it based on the incentives that the governments offered us to operate.”

“It’s called capitalism,” he said. “We are proudly capitalistic.

I’m not confused about this.”

In Britain Vince Cable was unimpressed by Mr. Schmidt’s views. The Business Secretary told The Daily Telegraph: “It may well be [capitalism] but it’s certainly not the job of governments to accommodate it.”

A Californian pressure group called Consumer Watchdog wrote to the Senate’s Finance Committee demanding a hearing on Google’s “global tax avoidance strategies.”

Consumer Watchdog’s director John Simpson called for the Committee to schedule a time for Mr. Schmidt and Google’s chief executive could “testify under oath and explain their company’s apparent abuse of the tax code to the detriment of all who play

fairly.”

Mr. Simpson urged the Senate to work with “other countries’ tax authorities” to “put an end to egregious loopholes that allow cynical exploitation by this generation’s Robber Barons.”

“Governments in Europe, many of which have been targets of Google’s morally bankrupt tax policies, are actively seeking redress,” he wrote. “But this is not a problem that only impacts other countries’ revenues. Google’s tactics strike at the US Treasury as well, forcing the rest of us to make up for the Internet giant’s unwillingness to pay its fair share.”

He added: “What makes Google’s activities so reprehensible is its hypocritical assertion of its corporate motto, ‘Don’t Be Evil’.”

Documents filed last month in The Netherlands show that Britain is Google’s second biggest market generating 11 percent of its sales, or $4.1 billion last year.

But the company paid [apx. $9.68 million] in corporation tax. Overall, Google paid a rate of 3.2 percent on its overseas earnings, despite generating most of its revenues in high-tax jurisdictions in Europe.

The company reportedly uses complex tax schemes called the Double Irish and Dutch Sandwich, which take large royalty payments from international subsidiaries and pay tax in low rate regimes.

By channelling its revenues through Bermuda, Google avoided $2 billion of global income levies last year.

Most in SC want stronger ethics laws, poll finds By Andrew Shain

A

majority of South Carolinians believe state ethics laws on politicians should be more strict, according to a new Winthrop University poll. [http://www.winthrop.edu/] Ethics has become a top issue on the S.C. lawmakers’ agendas after Lt. Gov. Ken Ard resigned when he pleaded guilty this spring to misusing campaign funds, and Gov. Nikki Haley was cleared this summer of charges of using her office for personal gain as a state representative.

The Winthrop poll taken for The State found 56 percent of South Carolinians thought laws ought to be more strict, while 32 percent believed the laws are adequate.

Haley’s ethics-reform commission held a public hearing last 80 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

month in the Brown Building on the State House grounds.

Winthrop surveyed 929 respondents from Nov. 25 through Dec. 2. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent.

Three special committees in the state House and Senate are examining ethics reform along with a commission appointed by Haley.

“Ethics normally wouldn’t rise to the level of the economy and education on a lot of peoples’ radars,” Senate Ethics Committee Chairman Wes Hayes, R-York, said. “The fact that 56 percent of people think we ought to strengthen the ethics laws shows the General Assembly needs to make this a top priority.”

Inside the Cuckoo’s Nest Election over, administration unleashes new rules By Matthew Daly, Associated Press

W

hile the “fiscal cliff” of looming tax increases and spending cuts dominates political conversation in Washington, some Republicans and business groups see signs of a “regulatory cliff” that they say could be just as damaging to the economy.

For months, federal agencies and the White House have sidetracked dozens of major regulations that cover everything from power plant pollution to workplace safety to a crackdown on Wall Street.

The rules had been largely put on hold during the presidential campaign as the White House sought to quiet Republican charges that President Barack Obama was an overzealous regulator who is killing U.S. jobs.

But since the election, the Obama administration has quietly reopened the regulations pipeline.

In recent weeks, the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed rules to update water quality guidelines for beaches and other recreational waters and deal with runoff from logging roads. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, meanwhile, has proposed long-delayed regulations requiring auto makers to include event data recorders — better known as “black boxes” — in all new cars and light trucks beginning in 2014.

The administration also has initiated several rules to implement its health care overhaul, including a new fee to cushion the cost of covering people with pre-existing conditions.

Some GOP lawmakers fear the worst.

Obama has spent the past year “punting” on a slew of jobkilling regulations that will be unleashed in a second term, said Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla. With the election over, it’s now “full speed ahead” for federal rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions, requiring cleaner gasoline and putting controls on drilling for oil and natural gas, said Inhofe, the senior Republican on the Senate Environment Committee.

“Under an Obama EPA that has earned a reputation for abuse, American families will be subjected to a regulatory onslaught that will drive up energy prices, destroy millions of jobs and further weaken the economy,” he wrote in a 14-page report on expected EPA regulations for 2013. The report predicts an influx of regulations that “spell doom for jobs and economic growth.”

Environmental groups say fears of a second-term regulatory deluge are overstated.

“At this point it still has the appearance of being more of a trickle than a flood,” said Frank O’Donnell, president of the environmental group Clean Air Watch. “I don’t see the hard evidence” of an avalanche of rules.

He said the EPA is principally focused on meeting courtordered deadlines, such as Friday’s deadline for a rule intended to reduce the amount of soot that can be released into the air.

Other high-profile rules and initiatives are being rolled out more slowly, if at all, he added.

Randy Rabinowitz, director of regulatory policy at OMB Watch, a private group that tracks federal rules, said regulations now being released are long overdue — in some cases months

or even years after federal guidelines say they should have been published.

“We’ve been disappointed that Obama has been a tepid regulator” in his first term, Rabinowitz said, adding that she hopes the administration “moves more vigorously to protect the public from harm” in a second term.

“I would love for the election to be interpreted as a mandate for Obama to move forward with stronger protections for the public,” she said.

A spokeswoman for the White House Office of Management and Budget, the gatekeeper for federal regulations, said the administration is focused on protecting public health and safety while avoiding unnecessary burdens on business.

“We intend to continue that approach moving forward, including careful analysis of costs and benefits as well as a commitment to protecting the health, welfare and safety of the American people at the same time that we promote economic growth,” OMB spokeswoman Moira Mack wrote in an email.

In January 2011, Obama ordered all federal agencies to get rid of rules that were excessively burdensome, redundant, inconsistent or overlapping. The ax fell on hundreds of regulations, with moves made to streamline tax forms, let railroad companies pass on installing expensive technology and speed up the visa process for low-risk visitors to the U.S. The administration said the moves would save businesses about $10 billion over five years and spur job growth.

But some Republicans and business groups say new regulations, on top of rules already issued by the administration, could strangle the economy just as it begins to grow.

A new study by the National Association of Manufacturers claims major new EPA rules could cost manufacturers hundreds of billions of dollars and eliminate millions of American jobs.

The report, issued in late November, said compliance costs for six major EPA regulations — including rules limiting air and water pollution from coal- and oil-fired power plants — could total up to $111 billion by government estimates and up to $138 billion by industry estimates. Construction costs could total $500 billion, it said.

Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the manufacturing group, warned of a “devastating ripple effect” that could be felt throughout the U.S. economy if federal rules are not relaxed or delayed. Some manufacturers are likely to “close their doors for good” because of EPA rules, Timmons said.

Susan Dudley, director of the Regulatory Studies Center at George Washington University and the former head of a Bush administration regulatory office, said she has not seen a postelection surge in federal rule-making.

“It doesn’t look like the floodgates are opening,” she said, adding that with four more years in office, Obama is in no rush to implement rules that could damage a fragile economy.

The slowdown fits a pattern, Dudley said. During his first two years in office, Obama published a “record-setting” average of 63 economically significant final rules per year, she said, a pace that slowed to about 50 major rules in 2011 and fewer than two dozen this year.

January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 81

When S.C. legislators meddle in local affairs By Cindi Ross Scoppe — The State

I

t’s no surprise that Richland County legislators are ignoring the attorney general’s opinion that says they don’t have the power to fire county Elections Director Lillian McBride.

After all, they ignored a long string of attorney general’s opinions — and, more significantly, the Supreme Court rulings on which those opinions were based — when they passed the law last year that gave themselves the power to hire her, but not to fire her.

The problem is that laws that affect only one county are prohibited by the state constitution. That provision was adopted at the same time the Legislature created county councils, as a way of making it clear that it was no longer legislators’ job to run their counties.

There is nothing ambiguous about the provision in the constitution: “No laws for a specific county shall be enacted and no county shall be exempted from the general laws,” it says in Article VIII, Section 7. And again, in Article III, Section 34: “where a general law can be made applicable, no special law shall be enacted.”

There is nothing ambiguous about how seriously the Supreme Court takes those provisions. In its last high-profile local-law decision, in 2007, the court overturned a single-county law that devolved power from the county legislative delegation to the county council — that is, a law that accomplished the very purpose that the ban on single-county laws was designed to accomplish.

And although attorney general’s opinions are always couched in deferential disclaimers about how of course the opinion is only an opinion, and a court must decide the outcome, there’s nothing ambiguous about those opinions: Time after time, like a broken record, they warn that the laws are “constitutionally suspect” and remind legislators of that long string of Supreme Court rulings that have invalidated laws that affect a single county.

Of course, our legislators don’t generally worry about such niceties as the state constitution, at least not when it comes to meddling in matters back home. They keep passing singlecounty laws because all legislative enactments have the force of law until a court declares them unconstitutional, and a court can’t declare them unconstitutional until someone whom the court decides has legal standing to sue actually files a lawsuit.

Since this happens so rarely, legislators convince themselves that the constitution doesn’t really say what it so clearly says.

What the attorney general’s office so clearly says it says — regardless of who occupies the office at the time. What the Supreme Court so clearly says it says — every single time the court rules on the question.

It’s a bizarre case of collective self-delusion that incapacitates the rational part of our legislators’ brains. When Senate President Pro Tempore John Courson was asked recently about the lawsuit filed last month challenging the constitutionality of the law merging Richland County’s election and voter registration offices 82 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

and laying the groundwork for the Nov. 6 debacle, he responded that lots of counties had passed similar laws.

The symptoms were even more acute when Richland County legislators gathered last week to collect non-answers about the unmitigated disaster that resulted from their law that changed how elections are conducted in Richland County — and only Richland County. They said they don’t pass … local laws.

Seriously.

Here’s Rep. Todd Rutherford, huffing about how lawmakers had been maligned, I presume by me, since no one else seems to care about the ban on single-county laws: “It’s not local legislation.

I’ve seen that in the newspaper. We cannot do local legislation, and we do not do local legislation.”

Uh. Right. So, let’s call that local law a caramel-almond torte instead, and everything will be just ducky.

Sen. Darrell Jackson, the chairman of the county legislative delegation, chief author of the law that applies only to Richland County but that Mr.. Rutherford insists is not a local law, and chief defender of Ms. McBride, thanked his colleague for making that important point for the audience. Then he segued into the lawsuit that challenges the law that applies only to Richland County but that Mr. Rutherford insists, and he agrees, isn’t a local law.

“That lawsuit would have a ripple effect throughout the state, and many, many counties would have to undo what they have done,” he said.

It must be a Senate thing, this non-defense defense. As if the ubiquity of unconstitutional behavior is at all relevant to the constitutionality of the law that merged a perfectly good election commission with a perfectly good voter registration office and resulted in perhaps the biggest election day disaster that our state has ever seen.

The Rutherford-Jackson love-in came in response to Sen. John Scott’s announcement that he had just received the attorney general’s opinion about who, if anyone, could fire Ms. McBride — as if anyone who might theoretically have the power to fire her seems at all interested in even drawing a frowny-face on her report card. The opinion said, and as anyone who can read at a fifth-grade level and who had read the law could have told you, that the legislators who have insisted for three weeks that only they can fire her … can’t.

More convoluted was the matter of whether anyone could fire her, but after applying several layers of legal rules that are used by courts to decipher the meaning of badly written laws, the opinion said it thought the election commission could fire her.

Although the reason for the ban on single-county laws was to make the Legislature stop meddling in local matters, it has a secondary benefit, on those rare occasions when legislators deign to obey it: Single-county laws don’t get vetted by the full Legislature, and so they tend to be horribly written, as the Lillian McBride Law so clearly demonstrates.

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Large firm resources with small town values. www.TCDG.com Asheville (828) 254-4515 www.biltmorepropertygroup.com January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 83

Past Events

Next Time You’ll Be There

Venture Local WNC

Dec. 7, ‘12

The second annual Venture Local conference held on Dec. 7 at the Asheville Renaissance Hotel was a huge success, selling out with more than 250 attendees from across the country. Noted as “the premiere local + social + sustainable business forum in the region,” the 2012 event featured two nationally recognized keynote speakers: Michael Shuman, director of research and marketing for Cutting Edge Capital and author of “Local Dollars, Local Sense,” and Martin Eakes, co-founder of Self-Help Credit Union and the Center for Responsible Lending.

“We believe the conference succeeded in its goals of accelerating community capital across all stages of entrepreneurship, furthering Western North Carolina as a center for emerging and connected sustainable industries, and fostering connections to spark new business development opportunities,” said Matt Raker, VP of Entrepreneurship at AdvantageWest, which organized the event. To learn more and watch for other upcoming events and opportunities, visit www. venturelocalwnc.com.

AdvantageWest is the economic development partnership serving the 23 counties of Western North Carolina. In addition to entrepreneurship, AdvantageWest focuses on job creation initiatives related to advanced manufacturing, filmmaking, agribusiness and the green economy.

Mrs Hyatt’s Music House

Trevor Baker makes a “fast pitch” presentation on his new venture, Nobel Cider

Every Thursday

They started playing in the home of Wayne and Nelia Hyatt on Brevard Road more than 50 years ago. Now with the house torn down and the 40-year-old music hall without power, Anderson Nissan stepped in and offered jam space in the dealership’s showroom. With shiny new cars bearing witness, Blue Grass and Old Time music greats gather to jam just as they did in Mrs. Hyatt Music House which Wayne Hyatt built in 1974.

“I remember hearing ‘The Blue Ridge Ranger’ Ray Hutchinson, and Grammy winner, Bryan Sutton play,” said Karen Cogdill-Reilly, the Hyatt’s granddaughter.

Today the music house is silent awaiting relocation to a site where it can be historically preserved. Riley said they need to raise about $200,000 to move the structure before April 30.

Those wishing to help can support the Mrs. Hyatt’s Music House Preservation Society fundraisers on February 2 and later in the spring. Donations can be made through the Preservation Society of Asheville Buncombe County at http://www.psabc.org or www.psabc.org or through Go Fund Me at http://www. gofundme.com/1bv92g. Contact Reilly at 828-633-1136 or www.gofundme. com/1bv92g. Contact Reilly at 828-633-1136 or ahspa2@hotmail.com for more information.

In the meantime, the music will continue jamming Thursday nights around 6:30 pm at Anderson Nissan on Brevard Road. Mrs. Hyatt will again provide coffee and her special cookies for all who attend.

UNCA’s Singers Dec. 14, ’12 President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama greet the UNC Asheville Singers in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House Dec. 14, 2012.

Presumably unbeknownst to most, the very rug they are standing on was made in Hendersonville, NC. by Mountain Rug Mills featured on P. 52 of this edition of Capital At Play. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson) 84 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

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We pay you the most for gold and silver 828-676-2448 828-449-0879 (c) 2144 #B Hendersonvil e Road, Arden, NC 28704

Your Beretta dealer in Asheville:

Guns ‘n Gear 828-633-1806 www.gunsngearwnc.com

.

MMAGolf com

Brett D. Miller , President

Consultants and Brokers to the world of golf courses and communities We work with bankers, private owners, boards, HOA’s • Licensed in NC, SC, TN 101 French Broad Lane, Fletcher, NC 28732 828 775-7765 January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 85

Events

So you know when and where

Jan./Feb. Spartanburg Philharmonic Orchestra: Masterworks III

Where: Hickory Nut Gap Farm

Cost: Free Details: Come learn about the

When: January 19, 2013 Where: Twichell Auditorium

Converse College 580 East Main Street Spartanburg, SC

Cost: Tickets: $35, $25, $10 Details: Featuring Michael Ludwig,

Violin. Presented by the Music Foundation of Spartanburg, Guest Artist Michael Ludwig on violin will perform with the Spartanburg Philharmonic Orchestra. Hailed by Strad Magazine for his “effortless, envy-provoking technique, sweet tone, brilliant expression and grand style,” Michael Ludwig enjoys a multifaceted career as a soloist, recording artist and chamber musician. He is a highly sought after soloist, who has performed on four continents including appearances with the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia, Boston Pops, Beijing Symphony and Shanghai Philharmonic.

Contact: 864-596-9725.

Presented By Music Foundation of Spartanburg

HICKORY NUT GAP FARM WINTER OPEN HOUSE When: January 19, 2013

57 Sugar Hollow Road Fairview, NC 28730 Times: 10-5, farm tour at 1

innerworkings of Hickory Nut Gap Farm. See our cows, pigs, berries, mushrooms and apple orchards!

Sample some of our cured meats and other local goodies. Take part in a FARM TOUR at 1 pm with farm owner, Jamie Ager! It’s time to connect with your farmers! | Contact: 828-628-1027 or office@hickorynutgapfarm.com.

Cowpens National Battlefield Anniversary Celebration

When: Saturday, January 19 12:00 PM until Sunday, January 20 - 12:00 pm Where: Cowpens National

Battlefield 4001 Chesnee Highway Gaffney, SC 29341

Cost: $0 Details: The park celebrates the

anniversary of the battle with firing demonstrations and a living history encampment.

Cowpens Battlefield commemorates a decisive battle that helped to

turn the tide of war in the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution.

Famous for the January 17, 1781, battle where Daniel Morgan led his outnumbered troops against Banastre Tarleton’s British troops. Cowpens offers interpretive facilities, a visitors center with exhibits, a tour road and a walking trail through the battlefield.

Cowpens National Battlefield will celebrate the 232nd anniversary of the Battle of Cowpens, a Revolutionary War battle that helped turn the tide of war to the advantage of the Americans. All activities are free and open to the public and all activities are family-oriented.

All weekend there will be a Revolutionary War soldier encampment, including a blacksmith, set up for visitors to observe camp life and ask re-enactors questions about daily life in the Revolutionary War. Eighteenth century cavalry demonstrations will be held by members of the 3rd Continental Light Dragoons. Re-enactors will present 18th century musket, rifle, and cannon firing demonstrations.

Both Saturday and Sunday, visitors can attend ranger-guided battlefield walks, musket and cannon firing and cavalry demonstrations by reenactors,

COSMETIC • PREVENTIVE • RESTORATIVE • ENDODONTICS • ORAL SURGERY

Steve Judge, ChFC, CLU One Oak Plaza, Suite 106 Asheville, NC 28803 www.SteveJudgeInvest.com bus: 828-348-5216 cell: 828-423-2366 fax: 828-348-4309 email: stephen.judge@investfinancial.com Securities and insurance products are offered through INVEST Financial Corporation, member FINRA, SIPC, and its affiliated insurance agencies.

86 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

Dr. Jamie Maddox Dr. Paige Leahy Dr. Cliff Feingold

600 Alliance Court Suite A-1 • Asheville, North Carolina 28806 828-670-9894 • www.aadentalpartners.com {located next to the Biltmore Square Mall}

Events lectures, storytelling, and book signings by authors.

No food or hot drinks are available in the park, so visitors should plan accordingly. Also, most activities take place outside - dress warmly.

Contact: (864) 461-2828

LUNCH & LEARN - LEADERSHIP STYLES & EFFECTIVE PRACTICES When: Wednesday, February 6, 2013 Time: 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm Where: 36 Montford Avenue

Asheville, NC 28801 Details: The Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce is hosting a monthly Lunch & Learn Series. This series is generously sponsored by the Advocates for Small Business and is intended to answer questions posed through our Membership Survey. Presenter is Brad Shaffer of Parallax Ventures, Inc. Participants are responsible for his/her own brown bag lunch. This event is a free benefit for Chamber member businesses. RSVP is required, as seating is limited; please click on Register Now. Contact: Amy Jackson, Director of Engagement, at ajackson@ashevillechamber.org or 828-258-6107.

THE UNDERSTUDY

When: February 13, 2013 - March 10, 2013 Times: Wed through Sat at 7:30, Sundays at 2:00 pm Where: North Carolina Stage Company

15 Stage Lane Asheville, NC 28801 Cost: $16, $25 and $28 based on day of week Details: This biting comedy tackles the insider world of

AQUARIUM & IMPORTS INC. Largest Selection From Around The World Fresh & Salt Water Fish - Corals - Pond Fish Exotic Reptiles - Birds - Small Animals - Supplies 2639 Hendersonville Rd. Arden, NC 28704 828-654-9938 Open: Mon. - Sat. 9:30-7:00, Sun. 12:00-5:00

CASH for Gold Broken and Unwanted Jewelry Gold, Platinum, Silver, Diamonds, Coins

The Salt Spa of Asheville

Take a deep breath and relax - You have arrived!

Salt Therapy for better breathing!

Allergies* Sinus Issues *Asthma * Boosting Immune System * Peaceful Relaxation * and more

(828) 505 1838

www.SaltasiaWellbeing.com

473 Hendersonville Rd. Ste B, Asheville NC

WE PAY TOP DOLLAR

for Your Old, Broken, Unwanted Jewelry

JEWELRY

Schedule your in-home gold buying party today!

Call Joe Cottrell at 230-5939

1186 Patton Ave. • 254-8681 736 Tunnel Rd. • 299-4440 Mon – Sat 9–7 • Sun 1-6

January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 87

Events

So you know when and where

big-budget Broadway productions, where talent is less important than buzz. Harry is an unknown but hard-working theatre actor, brought in to understudy for a handsome, charismatic movie star. Roxanne, the stage manager with secrets and dreams of her own, does her best to keep the actors on track, but the rehearsal veers nearly out of control between the actors’ bickering, the tricky set, and her own past with one of the actors.

Contact: NC Stage Company 828-239-0263 or ncstage@ ncstage.org.

6TH ANNUAL WINTER WARMER BEER FESTIVAL When: January 26, 2013 Where: US Cellular Center

87 Haywood Street, Asheville, NC 28801

Times: 3:00 - 7:00pm Cost: Tickets are $40 and will include a souvenir mug, samples during the event, and food provided by a local caterer Details: They are “movin’ on up” for 2013’s event - the festival will be held on the main arena level of the Civic Center, allowing for a handful more breweries, more elbow room, but the same unique intimate feel, providing quality food, music, and tastings that the “repeat offenders” have come to expect! Guest breweries will be: Founders, from Grand Rapids, MI - and Cigar City, from Tampa, FL. Contact: info@ashevillebeerfest.com

Spartanburg Art Museum: 5th Annual Art & Antique Show When: February 21-24, 2013 Where: Spartanburg Art Museum, Chapman Cultural

Center

200 East St. John Street

Spartanburg SC Details: The Spartanburg Art Museum will host the Fifth Annual Art & Antique Show, benefiting the Spartanburg Art Museum, on February 21-24, 2013.Predominately 18th & 19th century American, English, and Continental antiques and accessories from dealers outside of the Upstate area.

Pictured on this page: Tim Smith - Windsurfing Expert, 2) Cece Boone Wilson - Future Entrepreneur, 3) Brendas Sears & ‘Comes a Time’, 4) Brett Miller - Golf Course Broker, 5) Gloria-Maria LLanser & Robin Murray - Kangen Water Reps, 6) Tom Van Blaricom Property Manager, 7) Jamie Swilling & Malcolm - Landscapers, 8) Kevin Tuomey - Magician & Actor, 9) Betty Zeluff - Retired Entrepreneur, 10) - Aimee & Rich Fried - Attorney & Commercial Pilot

Are you at Play? Take a photo of yourself holding an edition of Capital At Play, and send it to:

events@capitalatplay.com

AUTO-TRUCK SERVICE

Beautiful you...

Private Duty All Surgery Post Operative Care Linda A. James-Wayne LPN

845-527-0868 www.cosmetic-surgery-care.com newburgh59@msn.com 88 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

COMPLETE AUTOMOTIVE SERVICE American • Imports • Hi-Perfomance • Fleet Maintenance Air Conditioning • Towing • Computer Diagnostics 151 COXE AVENUE • ASHEVILLE, NC 28801 • 828-251-2122 • MON-FRI: 8:00 am - 6:00 pm

What did you do today?

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People...At Play

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90 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013

Safe. Sound. Superior.

Since Forest Commercial Bank was established, we’ve become known not only for the professionalism of our staff and the quality of our service, but also for our financial strength. That’s good news for our clients and for the community we serve.

We’re Safe: With capital at approximately 17% of average assets, we are a “well capitalized” financial institution by any measure.

We’re Sound: We extend credit and provide other financial services in active support of our clients’ financial goals. Despite continuing economic headwinds, our loan quality remains top of class.

We’re Superior: Independent bank rating firm BauerFinancial, Inc. rates Forest Commercial Bank as a Five-Star bank, indicating “Superior” financial condition.

If you need a local bank you can rely on for solid advice, well-conceived products and exceptional care, consider Forest Commercial. We believe we make a pretty strong case.

Asheville: 828-255-5711 1127 Hendersonville Road Hendersonville: 828-233-0900 218 North Main Street ForestCommercialBank.com

Member FDIC

John D. Kimberly President & CEO

Charlotte: 980-321-5946 Loan Production Office • 122 Cherokee Road BauerFinancial Five-Star Rating

W. Louis Bissette, Jr. Chairman January/February 2013 | capitalatplay.com 91

FEEDING THE COMMUNITY FEEDING THE COMMUNITY Ingles has made a commitment to support organizations that help our community get the food and resources they need Ingles has mademembers a commitment to support organizations that help our community members get the food and resources they need

HUNGER HAS HAS A CURE HUNGER A CURE Through the assistance of local agencies, providing fresh, nutritious food to

Through the assistance of local agencies, providing fresh, nutritious food to people struggling with hunger people struggling with hunger

FORYOUR YOUR HEALTH HEALTH FOR Ingles supports organizations that provide financial and emotional support for

Ingles supports organizations that provide financial and emotional support for community members living with serious illness. community members living with serious illness.

TOOL S FOR TOOL S SCHOOLS FOR

SCHOOLS

VALUABLE LEARNING TOOLS

Ingles Markets has contributed over 10 million dollars to schools to purchase VALUABLE LEARNING TOOLS valuable learning tools and equipment.

Ingles Markets has contributed over 10 million dollars to schools to purchase valuable learning tools and equipment.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

The BackPack Bunch provides food for students to take home on weekends FOOD FOR THOUGHT when they otherwise would not eat.

The BackPack Bunch provides food for students to take home on weekends when they otherwise would not eat.

92 CA ITALat LAY | January/February 2013