OUR 27TH YEAR OF WEEKLY INDEPENDENT NEWS, ARTS & EVENTS FOR WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA VOL. 27 NO. 38 APRIL 21-27, 2021
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APRIL 21-27, 2021
MOUNTAINX.COM
C ONTENT S
NEWS
10 TALKING TRASH As Asheville grows, its waste does too
12 BUNCOMBE BEAT Council approves $1.6M land purchase to expand Deaverview housing community
WELLNESS
NEWS
FEATURES
24 CHILD ABUSE CRISIS Pandemic worsens child maltreatement; Dogwood trust launches online portal; more health news
PAGE 32 PAINT THE TOWN RAD A key milestone in the morethan-decade-long project to transform Asheville’s River Arts District into a center for art, commerce, recreation and housing has arrived, and now it’s time to party. A series of celebratory events is scheduled between Earth Day, Thursday, April 22, and Thursday, May 20, the birthday of the late literary artist and environmental pioneer, Wilma Dykeman. COVER PHOTO Cindy Kunst COVER DESIGN Scott Southwick 4 LETTERS
GREEN
4 CARTOON: MOLTON 26 COWS ARE CULPRIT Testing tags sources of E. coli contamination in local rivers; more environmental news
7 CARTOON: BRENT BROWN 8 COMMENTARY 10 NEWS 14 BUNCOMBE BEAT
A&C
17 ASHEVILLE ARCHIVES 34 GROUP THERAPY Restaurant owners lower the temperature through hospitality groups
18 COMMUNITY CALENDAR 24 WELLNESS 26 GREEN SCENE 32 ARTS & CULTURE
A&C
40 CLUBLAND 36 POLLINATING SALUDA Fiber artist Paris Evans grows Milkweed from Instagram to brick-and-mortar
42 FREEWILL ASTROLOGY 42 CLASSIFIEDS 43 NY TIMES CROSSWORD
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OPINION
Send your letters to the editor to letters@mountainx.com.
Putting the Vance Monument in perspective The decision of the Asheville City Council to tear down the Vance Monument has left a bitter taste in certain mouths, some of which have gotten quite loud. Here’s a thought experiment that might help put things in perspective: Long ago, let’s say 1897, the people of Buncombeville erected a 65-foot statue in the shape of a gigantic fish and dedicated it to “Jesus Christ: Savior. Healer. Orator. Rebel. Winemaker.” At the time, most people thought the structure was an eye-pleasing reflection of community values. The theme was subtle, but everyone knew there was an important symbolic connection between religion and fish. But that, they said, wasn’t the main point. They just thought the sculpture looked cool, and they liked the guy in whose honor it was built. Pretty much everybody did, unless they belonged to a religious minority. Some people thought the thing was kitsch, despite having been designed by a famous architect, and objected that the shape was so vague it was practically abstract art. A few grumblers complained that religion should be a private matter, but, as one would expect, they kept that theory to themselves. Decades later, the Supreme Court declared that the establishment clause applied to municipal governments under the 14th Amendment. Although people resented the idea of outsiders meddling in local affairs, and although they bristled at the implication that they had been doing something wrong all this time, and although they insisted that, in this modern era, folks had gotten so fed up with religious abuses that they no longer cared much about the sacred significance of the sculpture, and although they were deeply suspicious of political correctness in any form, a consensus eventually
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C A RT O O N B Y R AN DY M O L T O N arose that something must be done about the Christ Monument. Six members of the City Council wanted to tear down the fish and haul it away. They felt that the establishment of religion no longer represented the best values of the community, if it ever did, and it was time to make a clean break with the past. One member proposed to deep-six the inscription but keep the stone structure standing and rename it “The Scales of Justice.” This approach, she said, would give the statue a secular purpose, free up the demolition money for more tangible needs and keep religious fanatics from taking revenge on the minority in the community who supported the Constitution. That’s the end of the fable. Now it’s time for the moral, which you must work out for yourself. Does the dissenting City Council member, well-meaning as she may be, go far enough in her efforts to cleanse an unacceptable religious taint from the public square? Does merely removing the reference to Jesus Christ really obliterate the association with the sacred that Buncombeville’s landmark has always had? Isn’t it worth spending a few bucks to make sure the job gets done right, once and for all? And on whose counsel, moreover, should we rely for an answer? Shouldn’t we give some deference to the collective judgment of the elected representatives? After all, they must face the voters if they get the balance of interests wrong. Why should we pay any attention to a handful of fishy enthusiasts on social media who have done an about-face,
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seemingly out of nowhere, and decided that the association of the statue with religion was always repugnant to them, but nonrepresentational art for art’s sake is still the bomb? I almost get the feeling that some of these converts secretly harbor sympathies for the old superstitions. What do you think? Please keep your answers short and, if possible, respectful. — Peter Robbins Marshall
Could Vance Monument’s blocks be repurposed? The Asheville City Council has made a decision. The Vance Monument will be demolished and removed. At times, controversial monuments, like festering wounds, cause an amount of pain that overwhelms any historical value. With this decision, the council has made a strong statement against the acceptance of white supremacy in our community. We are now at a critical phase. The community must look to the future. Controversial monuments create complicated issues that require careful consideration and proactive solutions in order to shape that future. I agreed with Councilwoman Sandra Kilgore when she stated: “Unless we start working on healing, working together, uniting the community, all of our programs will be futile.” Councilwoman Kilgore knows that divisiveness is not productive and is also concerned about possible retal-
iatory actions from white supremacy groups. What concerns me even more is the possibility of a “racial amnesia” enabled by the disappearance of reminders of the lessons we have learned and the goals we must strive to achieve. The purpose of studying history is to keep the mistakes of the past from being repeated. When reminders of the past are gone, we may forget the lessons we have learned. Perhaps with a creative compromise, the past and future can be forged together for healing. Could the materials of the Vance Monument be incorporated into a new public monument? Seventy-five feet of granite is a lot of stone. I can envision a circular granite bench within to enclose community activities, but the possibilities are endless. Information about the design concept behind the repurposing of the materials would be important toward conveying the positive message. Asheville has been gifted with an enormous amount of creative talent. The arts are powerful, and I am a firm believer in the potential for healing and education through creative expression. — Karen Burt Coker Asheville
Commissioners’ delay offers jarring juxtaposition Twenty-plus people opposing the Pratt & Whitney plant called into the Nov. 17 Buncombe County Board of Commissioners’ meeting, but commissioners voted for it quickly with little discussion. PW’s plants produce components for weapons-delivery systems that maim, kill; lay off workers in other states to build in right-to-work states (no unions); pollute, leaving contaminated sites when they close. Commissioners seemingly disregarded this. Per local media, seven people opposing the Buncombe County ban on discrimination based on gender identity, race and other factors called into the April 6 board meeting. They opposed protections for members of our community who are continually persecuted, even though, as reported, callers to previous meetings supported these protections. Some callers requested a vote delay. Some religious leaders claimed the ordinance was coming at “warp speed,” that no one had contacted them. The commissioners delayed the vote. My point here is the great divide between how the commissioners rolled out the welcome mat for PW, with virtually no regard for the opposition, yet
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APRIL 21-27, 2021
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OPI N I ON
Send your letters to the editor to letters@mountainx.com.
postponed the protection ordinance vote that has far less opposition. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t address the need for this ordinance. N.C. Senate Bill 514, being considered now, bars medical doctors from treating transgender youths for transition. Buncombe County would join six other North Carolina jurisdictions that have provided local protection for this population as the state assembly tries to strip them of this right. (Arkansas’ governor vetoed a similar bill, but the Arkansas general assembly overrode the veto, making it the first state to prohibit physicians from providing gender-affirming treatment for trans people under 18.) Asheville city leaders have allowed our hometown to become a tourist’s “Hotelville,” while residents struggle to find affordable housing. Buncombe County leaders are driving us to become another cog of the military-industrial-congressional complex while postponing an ordinance that could be lifesaving for some members of our community. These are not the leaders I thought I voted for. — Cynthia Heil Asheville
Corporate free rides The article “Controversial Choices: Debating the Pratt & Whitney Project” [Jan. 20, Xpress] ignores the fact that the corporate welfare scheme is in desperate need of reform. Do cheerleaders for corporate welfare even talk to the victims of the freeloading companies? Such as the people who say they were fired for serving on a jury only to find that the county and state don’t enforce the law against firing jurors? The people who may have been disabled or may have had relatives killed by a dangerous workplace so a company can spend the money on executive perquisites instead of safety? The term “revenue neutral” was used in the Pratt & Whitney deal to mislead people into thinking the county is somehow getting a free lunch. They’re just shuffling numbers and hoping we can’t do math. Taxpayers are in reality paying for the deal, and so we have every right to hold them accountable. Everyone who spends money in the county benefits the economy and pays sales tax. By the Economic Development Coalition’s logic, every person is therefore entitled to a revenue-neutral tax deal. The argument was made that if we put conditions in the incentive contracts, a company may not sign. What then is our incentive to give them our money? Fix the failed scheme 6
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and put the following requirements in writing for the companies getting our tax dollars: 1. Pay a decent living wage to all employees, as opposed to a deceptive average wage achieved by giving most of the money to managers. Not just vague, unverifiable promises of “community prosperity,” but specific numbers for each job. 2. Hire only people from the county paying for the bailout. 3. Forfeit the incentive cash if a company fires people for serving on a jury, since no government agency enforces that law. Don’t tell the victim to pay a lawyer to enforce the law. We already pay taxes to have the law enforced. 4. Forfeit the incentive cash when a workplace is so dangerous that an employee is killed on the job. … 5. Conduct a yearly confidential survey of all employees (not just managers) and require a 70% approval to get that year’s incentive cash. 6. Ban the dishonest, unethical requirement that employees sign a statement allowing a company to take money out of an employee’s personal checking account. The trickle-down economists (corporate lobbyists) will say these regulations would kill jobs, but they can’t say how to bring back people who were killed on the job because of deregulation. If the companies don’t want conditions, then they can raise their money through a GoFundMe page instead of forced reverse-Robin Hood socialism for the rich. Companies may lobby to lower the bar by not including conditions. Trying to avoid improvement is self-defeating. Our highly skilled young people know how to use the internet to find better jobs elsewhere. After they’re gone, we won’t be able to attract any company. The argument was made that there was not enough opposition to stop the Pratt & Whitney deal. Convenient excuse, since they pulled a fast one and gave the opposition only a few days’ notice. There was even far less support for the deal. How many counterprotesters were downtown demanding we give a free ride to Pratt & Whitney? — Brennan Green Weaverville
Fourth Estate steps up for open meetings Thank goodness the Fourth Estate stepped up to its vital responsibility and got Buncombe County Board of Commissioners (and City Council) meetings opened. Transparency and
CARTOON BY BRENT BROWN openness by our elected representatives are so fundamentally important to our democracy! If our elected representatives find it too time-consuming or inconvenient to listen to their citizenry, they should resign — or not have run for public responsibility initially. This is not to say that reasonable limits on public comments are not acceptable. — Bob Gunn Asheville
APD puts words into action The Asheville Police Department under the new leadership of Police Chief David Zack is clearly putting words to action. Zack has been outspoken that violent crime involving shootings, stabbings and murder had reached an unacceptable level, even before the pandemic and his arrival in Asheville. To counter this threat to the safety of all Asheville citizens, APD officers have been hard at work. In just the first three months of 2021, APD has arrested a significant number of known violent and potentially violent offenders as [seen in] recent news stories. In addition, APD has extensively utilized local press outlets to gain help from members of the community. We are fortunate to have an outstanding police chief as well as a
courageous APD staff to get these criminals off our streets. — Mike Rains Asheville
First, get rid of racist cops All cops are not the problem. Racist cops are the problem. Get rid of the racist cops and replenish the police budget to where it needs to be, whatever that might be — not what the mob wants it to be. Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS). Then recruiting won’t be a problem, except the racists might not bother to show up for an interview if they know they are going to be kicked out once they are discovered. — Ed Rothberg Weaverville
Correction In our April 14 article “Green Getaway: Asheville’s New Hotel System Awards Points for Sustainable Lodging,” we should have included the correct name of the Green Building Initiative’s certification program as Green Globes. In addition, the Green Building Initiative has certified three Green Globes residential projects in Asheville. MOUNTAINX.COM
APRIL 21-27, 2021
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OPINION
From bigotry to advocacy The Gospel According to Jerry
Editor’s note: The following piece offers one in a series of reflections on the Asheville area by Jerry Sternberg, who celebrated his 90th year last December. Along with this perspective, Mountain Xpress is committed to publishing material that reflects the full scope of the region’s diversity, and we welcome expressions of interest from community members in writing commentaries on race and other topics.
BY JERRY STERNBERG
Back in February, Black History Month reprised the good, the bad and the ugly concerning a whole race of people who were brought here in chains and have somehow survived more than four centuries of unbelievable persecution. But that story didn’t suddenly end on March 1: What follows is my personal version of Black history. I grew up in the depths of the Depression in a middle-class family here in Asheville. Like most others, my family suffered difficult economic times, yet I never remember not having a Black maid in the house. As babies, we were bathed, fed, nurtured and disciplined by these Black women, many of whom left their own children at home to take care of us. They became part of the family, often serving as teacher, decision-maker and psychiatrist. I’m convinced that they kept many a white child from going astray, and their sage advice saved many marriages. All of this for the princely sum of $5 to $10 per week plus discarded clothing and leftover food for their family.
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Many of these “girls,” as they were demeaningly called, stayed with the same family for decades. When there was a wedding or other event honoring one of the children, they pleaded for an invitation “’cause these are my babies.” Just before the ceremony began, they would timidly walk into the back of the venue. Quite often their appearance was shocking. People we’d seen only in a hand-me-down housedress, rundown floppy shoes and a do-rag were transformed into beautiful, stately women with makeup, coiffed hair and their very best Sunday-goto-meeting dress. In terms of Black history, our education was a total fraud: We were brainwashed into believing that these alleged “subhumans” were perfectly happy with their lot. Like many others, I wallowed in the slime of Jim Crow laws that stigmatized and marginalized Blacks. I gave those laws little thought because the belittling was so common and seemed to be accepted by both Blacks and whites. Little did I know that speaking up or talking back was a sign of being “uppity” — or that a Black man’s making any kind of move on a white woman was life-threatening. As students we read Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Gone With the Wind and learned that Booker T. Washington had something to do with Black education and George Washington Carver found many new uses for peanuts and sweet potatoes. I guess I must have missed school the days they taught us about the Wilmington Massacre or the Tuskegee experiment. I also missed the day they
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covered poll taxes, literacy tests that college professors couldn’t pass and outright physical intimidation to keep Blacks from voting. I remember listening to Amos ’n’ Andy on the radio, two white men who used a faux Black accent to caricature a pair of lovable buffoons. I also recall helping stage a minstrel show at the Jewish Community Center that stereotyped Blacks as fatuous clowns. I don’t remember hearing anything about the terrible plight of our Black citizens. As I moved through Claxton, David Millard, Lee Edwards and, finally, the lily-white University of North Carolina, I was molded into a benign bigot. My experience in the U.S. Navy proved no more enlightening, as most Black men were consigned to serving as mess boys or doing manual labor on deck gang. I don’t recall ever seeing a Black officer. By the time I was 12, my daddy had taught me the exacting skill of operating a beam scale, used to weigh our scrap metal and cowhides. He also taught me how to fill out the bill of sale, drilling into me the importance of accuracy. When we picked up raw materials, I would ride with a Black driver and loader; being illiterate, they couldn’t do the weighing and recording. Sometimes my father would give me money to buy our lunch, which was a particular treat for these men. They almost always wanted to go to the Atlantic Quick Lunch on Depot Street. We’d park our truck around back and I would enter through the kitchen door. Lavinia, the very large Black cook, would
JERRY STERNBERG greet me with a shriek, practically smothering me as she pressed me to her enormous bosom in a big, sweaty hug. I would give her the orders for the men and she’d send me to the dining room to eat with the white people. Think about the message this seemingly innocent story sent to an impressionable teenager. My family life did not express hatred for Blacks; on the contrary, we loved the Black people we came in contact with. I was never allowed to use racial slurs or be rude or unkind to anyone whose skin color differed from mine. My dad was particularly fond of his Black employees and went out of his way to be generous and kind to them; still, he clearly enjoyed the role of “Patron.” He was a pioneer in the scrap metal business when, during World War II, he hired Black women to take on many of the men’s jobs: assorting metals, operating a baler and an
alligator shear. This wasn’t entirely altruistic, however, as many male laborers had gone into the military. My father was rewarded with the fact that many of these women did a better job than the men had, particularly with the assorting. Being better educated, they were literate and could learn faster. He eventually promoted women to supervise both Black and white men and women. Notably, though, none of them ever made it to the front office. Meanwhile, as a young adult, I was busy with my new family and a new job; I wasn’t particularly concerned about the first stirrings of a movement to elevate the African American community’s status. I do remember seeing the photos of “Bloody Sunday” in Selma and feeling saddened by the atrocities. On the other hand, my law-and-order mentality was saying, “What the hell are these people doing blocking this bridge anyway?” To be honest, it was those very acts of civil disobedience — the lunch counter sit-ins by dignified young Black people, the reasoned speeches of Martin Luther King and the angry voice of Malcom X — that gradually opened my eyes.
“As long as Black folks can’t eat at the Woolworth’s counter or stay at the Holiday Inn,” Malcom X warned in a speech I heard him give in Chapel Hill, “there are going to be more people like me rising up.” I was also chastened by the humorist Harry Golden of Charlotte, whose writings made Jim Crow laws look so foolish. At the same time, however, I — like many other white people — was frightened by the increasing racial turbulence of the time. That fear is reflected in the horrifying incidents of racial brutality that now seem to happen almost daily. As the suppression of Black history has diminished, whites have increasingly had to confront the fact that Blacks are just as bright and capable as they are. What alarms some whites even more is that Black people, too, are getting wise to this closely guarded secret. Over the years, my personal Black history has transformed me from bigotry to advocacy but, sadly, it has taken way too long. Asheville native Jerry Sternberg, a longtime observer of the local scene, can be reached at gospeljerry@aol. com. X
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APRIL 21-27, 2021
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NEWS
Talking trash
As Asheville grows, its waste does too
BY MOLLY HORAK
An on-campus Free Store offers donated books, furniture, clothing, cleaning supplies and decor to students, faculty and staff at no charge. Last fall, Davis and her team began creating a Hugelkultur, a layered mound of logs, half-finished and finished compost that increases the fertility of soil to grow native plant species. Composting is also key to waste reduction goals at UNC Asheville, said Jackie Hamstead, interim co-director of the university’s Office of Sustainability, in an email. Approximately 4,500 pounds of organic material are currently composted each week, down from a pre-COVID weekly average of 7,750 pounds. Recycling expectations are also written into UNCA’s construction guidelines, Hamstead added. Over 80% of construction waste generated during the recent build of The Woods, an on-campus apartment complex, was recycled or reused; the buildings are also LEED certified by the U.S. Green Building Council.
mhorak@mountainx.com In 2014, the city of Asheville made an ambitious pledge: By 2035,the amount of material going into the local landfill would be 50% lower than 2010 levels. Less than a decade later, that goal has ended up in a dumpster. At the end of 2020, Asheville had increased its municipal city waste by nearly 2.5% compared with the 2010 figures, a far cry from the 15% reduction staffers had projected would be needed by this point to stay on track to meet the city’s goal. The bump is part of a larger trend. Asheville is growing, and its garbage is growing with it. Fiscal year 2020 saw roughly 184,319 tons of municipal solid waste flow into Buncombe County’s landfill in Alexander from Buncombe County residents — an increase of more than 30 tons over the year prior. Residents living within city limits contributed 24,208 tons that same year. Buncombe County’s municipal solid waste landfill was built in 1997 and, according to Buncombe County Solid Waste Director Dane Pedersen, has 20-25 years left before it reaches capacity. Waste is currently going into cell six of 10; he predicts that work to develop the next cell will begin in the next year. That’s pretty good for a landfill built with an intended 30-year life span, he says. The Alexander site is also home to Buncombe County’s construction and demolition landfill, which had 19-24 years before it reached capacity at the time of the last survey, Pedersen says. The 2020 fiscal year saw 32,491 tons of C&D waste enter the facility from Buncombe County, a 12-ton reduction from the 44,779 tons that entered in 2017. All signs indicate that the area’s growth isn’t going to slow down anytime soon. Making good on waste-reduction goals has become significantly harder with more people entering the equation, but local waste management teams say that just means it’s time to double down on their efforts. MORE PEOPLE, MORE PROBLEMS More people moving to the area and more material to manage will take up more landfill space, Pedersen says. To track what’s coming in, the county’s solid waste team has asked commissioners for $100,000 in 2022 capital improvement funds to conduct a waste stream evaluation this fall to assess everything entering the landfill. 10
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DIRTY WORK: Buncombe County residents sent over 184,000 tons of garbage to the Buncombe County landfill in 2020, reports Solid Waste Director Dane Pedersen. Photo courtesy of Buncombe County “We know the region is experiencing historic growth, but we don’t exactly know how that translates into our waste output,” says Cassandra Lohmeyer, the county’s new recycling coordinator. “The data will really guide us and be a more accurate compass with which we can develop new diversion programs.” Much of that historic growth is showing up in construction and home renovations, says Morgan Alexander, the vice president of Asheville’s Consolidated Waste Services, a private waste removal company that works with commercial, residential and industrial customers. “It never fazes me to see something new being built on the next street corner,” she says, noting the boom in apartment complexes going up throughout Buncombe County. “I only anticipate for that to rise.” Constructing a typical home can produce 10,000 pounds (or 5 tons) of waste material, according to a June blog post written by CWS. 2020 was one of the busiest years on record for the company, Alexander says, with operations growing by 6%. Area population growth poses a host of other ecological problems to consider, says Megan Davis, the recycling and solid waste supervisor at Warren
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Wilson College. When people buy or build homes on the outskirts of town, garbage trucks have to make longer trips for collection, using more gasoline and generating more air pollution. When the landfill eventually reaches capacity, trash will likely be trucked to a location even farther away, increasing service costs. And if those costs rise, it becomes harder for lower-income folks to afford waste removal, Davis says, potentially leading to more illegal trash dumping. “It’s a complicated, complicated thing.”
WHAT COMES NEXT?
The findings from the county’s pending waste stream audit will dictate the solid waste team’s next moves, Lohmeyer says. Of the $100,000 requested in the 2021-22 budget, $40,000 will support a composting feasibility study to assess possibilities for future programs. In 2015, the city and county conducted a joint organics study to
COLLEGES STEP UP
Area colleges and universities are working to meet their waste reduction goals through ambitious initiatives. In 2017, Warren Wilson committed to diverting 90% of all waste generated on campus from the landfill by 2032, with additional efforts to reach 100% zero waste as new technology becomes available. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, students and staff were diverting approximately two-thirds of waste from the landfill through campuswide recycling and composting programs.
BOOMING: Construction in Asheville is booming, but new development comes at a cost. Building a typical home can produce 5 tons of waste material, according to a blog post by Asheville’s Consolidated Waste Services. Photo courtesy of CWS
quantify the amount of compostable material that ends up mingled with landfill-bound items. The study found that more than a quarter of Asheville’s trash could be used to produce fertilizer. Pedersen wants to take that data and augment it with new information from commercial businesses, other municipaliies and unincorporated areas, he told the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners during a Feb. 16 presentation. Meanwhile, Asheville’s waste reduction goals — which do not take population growth into account — need to be revisited, says Jes Foster, Asheville’s solid waste manager since 2017. The city’s Office of Sustainability and Public Works Department have internally requested $300,000 in the 2021-22 operating budget to complete a long-range solid waste master plan. The study would revise and create new waste reduction goals, update programs for equitable service delivery and make fee structure recommendations, Foster says. The city’s Sanitation Division has also asked for funding to add a waste reduction specialist to oversee recycling, composting and litter management initiatives.
Recycling also remains a focus for both the city and county. The city Sanitation Division encourages residents to use its online “Waste Wizard” tool to determine which items can and can’t be recycled; Lohmeyer is also working to educate “wishful recyclers” who put anything and everything into their blue containers about recycling contamination. Curbside Management, which processes a significant portion of recycling from Buncombe and the surrounding counties, is ready and able to meet a surge in demand, says co-owner Barry Lawson. At the beginning of 2019, he and his wife, Nancy, completed a $5 million addition to the company’s Woodfin facility and updated 80% of its equipment with newer automated models to speed up the sorting process. Well-executed policies can be a main driver of waste reduction initiatives, says Davis of Warren Wilson, but all bold changes need to be paired with educational programs and individual accountability to cut down on single-use material consumption. “We have to do something, now,” she says. “We don’t have any more time to waste. We have to really work together to fix this.” X
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Wear, wait, wash — or reduce, reuse, recycle? The COVID-19 pandemic has upended nearly every aspect of everyday life, including waste disposal trends. According to an August study published by the Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering, global stay-at-some policies aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19 led to a “significant surge” in production and consumption patterns of medical and household products. A September study published in the Case Studies in Chemical and Environmental Engineering found that 49 Asian countries used more than 2.3 trillion face masks each day during the early months of the pandemic, generating roughly 16,660 tons of medical waste daily. Locally, residential waste in Buncombe County jumped by 20% at the beginning of the pandemic, Pederson says. Packaging, especially from Amazon boxes, are entering the waste and recycling streams at greater levels, he notes. The plastic clamshell containers restaurants commonly use for takeout are not recyclable at Curbside Management, meaning most will end up in the landfill. The single-use face masks, gloves and medical gowns used by Buncombe County’s Health and Human Services team are thrown away after use, says department spokesperson Stacey Wood. The needles, syringes and vials used at county COVID-19 vaccination sites are considered medical biohazardous waste; the county contracts with Curtis Bay Medical Waste Services for removal. As vaccine distribution increased, so did the county’s medical waste. In February, the county spent $567 on waste disposal, compared with $252 the month before. Pardee UNC Health Care in Hendersonville also saw a slight uptick in sharps waste. The overall volume of medical waste generated by the hospital was lower than past years due to a decrease in inpatient admissions and surgeries, Pardee officials said. X
“After having a residential solar project go sideways and battling the original company for over a year, I was fortunate enough to find Nate & Asheville Solar. Nate came in w/ the mindset of keeping cost down to maintain as good of a return on investment as possible w/ this array. Nate was easy to communicate w/ throughout the project, and he did a top notch job fixing my system. A week into the fix and it has already set, then broke, the array’s daily production record. Only regret I have is not working w/ Asheville Solar from day one. Thanks Nate!”
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APRIL 21-27, 2021
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BUNCOMBE BEAT
Council approves $1.6M land purchase to expand Deaverview housing community Deaverview Apartments in West Asheville is soon getting an overhaul, thanks in part to a $1.6 million purchase of adjacent land. The move was approved unanimously by Asheville City Council at its April 13 meeting. The money to purchase the 21-acre property at 65 Ford St. comes from the December sale of city-owned land to yeast manufacturer and brewpub White Labs. Because a portion of the property in question was acquired through urban renewal, $1.6 million of the proceeds were earmarked as Community Development Block Grant funding in accordance with U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development rules. The cash infusion means that Asheville’s CDBG funds currently total around $3.6 million, Community Development Director Paul D’Angelo told Council. But HUD requires that all but $1.5 million of that balance be spent by Saturday, May 1, to avoid future sanctions, he explained. The Ford Street purchase, which had been approved by Council in February 2020 using Affordable Housing Bond land-banking dollars, was one of the only ways the city could
BIRD’S-EYE VIEW: The 21-acre property at 65 Ford St. is bordered by 15 acres of city-owned land on the left and the existing Deaverview Apartments on the right. Eventually, the city hopes to use all three properties to create a 60-acre “purpose-built community” with affordable housing units, a child care center, a high-performing school and a community center. Image screenshot courtesy of the city of Asheville spend the money fast enough to meet the looming deadline. Eventually, the city plans to use the land to revamp Deaverview
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into a “purpose-built community,” which, according to the Atlantabased nonprofit steering the national model, would help local leaders create “greater racial equity, economic mobility and improved health outcomes for families and children.” The organization has already helped redesign communities in Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh. At a Jan. 26 affordable housing work session, city staff shared a vision for an expanded Deaverview complex, which would include 300 units of housing, as well as an on-site affordable child care center, a school and a community center. There would also be options for homeownership, D’Angelo said. Some members expressed frustration about the tight timeline. Vice Mayor Sheneika Smith said she voted yes “in order to meet the
timeliness test and because there are limited options.” Member Kim Roney said she sees dual obligations — one to invest in Deaverview and the other to address the harms of urban renewal and redlining with impacted communities. She supported the purchase but asked if the Asheville Buncombe Community Land Trust could be at the table for future conversations about the redevelopment. “We can’t continue harm and displacement by pushing people to the outskirts or outside the city where they don’t have access to city infrastructure or the city school system,” Roney said. “I hear the complex situation that we’re in here, but this conversation, I don’t think it’s over yet.”
— Molly Horak X
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Community members blast planned homeless camp removal Because we love your car as much as you do. Voted one of the BEST OF WNC for 15 years in a row. Thank you! CLEAN, SAFE SPACE: BeLoved, an Asheville nonprofit that works with unhoused residents, recently launched a new project to bring trash and recycling containers to community members living in camps. The Lexington Avenue camp pictured above was removed by the N.C. Department of Transportation in February, though residents have slowly returned to the site. Photo by Poncho Bermejo, courtesy of BeLoved Asheville “Imagine having everything you own crammed into a backpack that you have to carry around,” Asheville resident and activist Victoria Estes challenged members of Asheville City Council on April 13. “Imagine not being able to come home after work and shower, wash your clothes and climb into a warm bed. Imagine the state of your mental health, knowing that you have no financial security and no one to help you. “That is what houseless folks in Asheville experience every day,” Estes continued, going on to call the city’s attitude toward individuals living on the streets and in parks “a war on poverty.” Her critical comments, echoed by seven other callers to Council’s regular meeting, come as the city prepares to oust people without housing from several encampments on city property. Asheville has issued removal orders for camps at Martin Luther King Jr. Park, Aston Park, along Cherry and Hill streets and at Riverbend Park near the Walmart Supercenter on Bleachery Boulevard in East Asheville. In March, the city announced plans to remove an encampment along the French Broad River to clear the area
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for greenway construction; police officers cleared the Aston Park camp on April 16. The city also made headlines after a camp on Lexington Avenue under Interstate 240 was removed by the N.C. Department of Transportation on a February day with sustained temperatures below freezing. City Manager Debra Campbell addressed the incident in a Feb. 9 presentation to Council, in which she reiterated that Asheville would continue to follow the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance to not remove any homeless camps on city property unless there was an imminent safety concern. City leadership has received reports of violence among individuals living in the camps and heard concerns from residents in the surrounding neighborhoods that necessitate the camps’ removal, Assistant City Manager Cathy Ball told Council. Unhoused residents were given between seven and 30 days’ notice to vacate before the camps’ removal, she said.
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TAKING ACTION
Maayan Chelsea is nourishing the soul Gardening is a beautiful metaphor for life, says Maayan Chelsea, co-founder of Soul Gardens in Barnardsville. People plant seeds of intention and weed out what no longer serves them, she says. As the plants grow, so too does a sense of belonging. That’s the spirit Soul Gardens’ education and holistic living programs aim to embody. Now in their third growing season, Chelsea and co-founder Scotty Karas offer an eight-month apprenticeship program beginning each spring for folks wanting to learn about organic farming. Participants learn the basics of plant identification, medical herbalism, orchard care, fermentation and composting, as well as gratitude practices, mindful eating habits and nonviolent communication. “There’s a desire to grow food that is deeply nourishing and has all the minerals and love in it that humans need to survive,” Chelsea says. “We find that just taking it back into our own hands is the best way to achieve food sovereignty, and we really want to educate people to have the same skills so they too can have independence over what they eat.” A core aspect of Soul Gardens’ work is to give back to the Cherokee people through acts of service. Once a month, the Soul Garden apprentices help a Cherokee elder tend her own garden. Last year, Soul Gardens grew hundreds of pounds of potatoes and sweet potatoes for Cherokee families experiencing food insecurity. “I’ve noticed that a lot of people think the Indigenous people of America are dead,” Chelsea says. “But they’re still here, and their cultures are vibrant. There are still
AT THE ROOT: Maayan Chelsea, left, and Scotty Karas take a break from teaching at Soul Gardens in Barnardsville. Now in its third growing season, the business offers an eight-month apprenticeship program to teach the fundamentals of organic farming. Photo courtesy of Soul Gardens people who carry on the traditional ways and traditional knowledge of the Cherokee language, and they have so much to teach us. “We’ve received so much by getting to live on this land,” she continues. “It feels like the tiniest, minor act of reparations to just say, ‘How can we help you? How can we be of service to you?’ It’s important to us to do what we can to make what our ancestors have done a little bit less painful.” Applications for Soul Garden’s apprenticeship program will open in the fall. For more information, visit avl.mx/98w
— Molly Horak X
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Kim Roney, the only member to speak on the issue, asked if Campbell or Ball knew how many people had received temporary housing. Mayor Esther Manheimer responded, saying that local shelters like Homeward Bound currently have space but “folks are choosing not to take the shelter option.” Roney continued her questioning, asking where the city is advising unhoused residents to go after an eviction. Staffers are “providing information” for downtown shelters, Ball said; the city is also looking into low-barrier shelters to fill the “missing link of the chain,” Campbell added. Low-barrier shelters don’t place conditions on those wishing to enter, like providing a valid form of identification or passing a breathalyzer test to determine sobriety. Short-term solutions include looking at partnerships with Buncombe County, churches and area nonprofits to open “Code Purple” shelters nightly, not just when temperatures dip below freezing, Ball said. Longrange goals include “providing a path to stable housing,” though Ball did not elaborate on what that might look like.
At Council’s annual retreat and at an April 13 budget work session, members expressed their intention to use federal COVID-19 relief funds to address the homelessness crisis. No formal plans or funding amounts have been shared. Asheville has a reputation of being a progressive, welcoming and inclusive place, Roney said, but the city’s latest actions are an embarrassment. “We also have such visible disparities because we have abundant resources, and we’re in Appalachia, a place with a rich history of taking care of each other in the really rough times and sharing what we have,” she said. “We need more people, we need more solutions and we need more resources.” Other callers echoed Roney’s plea, calling Asheville’s “heartbreaking” and “completely unacceptable” removal actions nothing short of a “human rights violation.” “It’s so blatantly obvious that our community is being sidelined so that tourists can continue to be welcomed into town,” said Paul Schulman of West Asheville. “What’s being inflicted on our neighbors is completely unacceptable.”
— Molly Horak X
ASHEVILLE ARCHIVES by Thomas Calder | tcalder@mountainx.com
‘Grand!’ President Franklin Delano Roosevelt extols WNC In the early morning hours of Sept. 9, 1936, reporters from The Asheville Citizen and other newspapers arrived to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where highway workers feverishly inspected the roadways for loose stones and cleared the shoulders of trash. Though still under construction, the park was set to host a special guest that day — President Franklin Delano Roosevelt — who planned to tour the area before heading east to Asheville. A detailed account of the president’s journey lined the front page in the following day’s edition of The Asheville Citizen. Sporting a gray suit, panama hat and dark sunglasses, Roosevelt smiled and waved to thousands of eager onlookers as he took in the mountains. “Such exclamations as ‘Fine!’ and ‘Grand!’ were uttered frequently by the Chief Executive as he made his way through the rugged beauty,” the paper wrote. Accompanied by an estimated 100 guests, the president lunched atop Clingman’s Dome. Served fried chicken, sandwiches, boiled eggs, potato salad, olives, coffee and beer, the large group enjoyed the fare until an afternoon shower cut the meal short. On his way to Asheville, Roosevelt greeted thousands more in Cherokee, Waynesville, Canton and Candler. “Entering Canton the whistles of the Champion Fibre company, some deep, others shrill, and fire department sirens added to the din but did not drown out the cheers of a crowd of an estimated 5,000,” the paper reported. Once in town, the president’s convoy of cars paraded down Haywood Road in West Asheville where an additional 5,000 residents lined the sidewalks. By the time the entourage passed through downtown en route to the Grove Park Inn, 20,000 onlookers had gathered in waiting. The next morning, Roosevelt spoke at McCormick Field to a similar size crowd. His address, printed in the Sept. 11, 1936 edition of The Asheville Citizen, waxed lyrical about the region’s natural beauty and appeal. “I am quite sure that millions of other Americans are going to come down here … and
WELCOME: An estimated 47,000 people welcomed President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during his drive from Knoxville, Tenn., to Asheville in September 1936. Photo courtesy of A326-8, Buncombe County Special Collections, Asheville spend more time,” the president predicted, before bidding the audience and city adieu. Not surprisingly, officials from the Chamber of Commerce delighted in Roosevelt’s words, which were broadcast across several states. On Sept. 12, 1936, the chamber produced a list of reasons why “the President’s timely visit to Western North Carolina” would benefit the region. Above all, the chamber asserted a likely spike in tourism. “The President came during the Western North Carolina fall advertising campaign in several large northern and eastern daily newspapers,” the organization noted in that day’s issue of The Asheville Citizen. “The attendant news stories written for many of these papers by special correspondents with the President’s party, are of inestimable value.” Later in the same article, the chamber boasted, “The speech that President Roosevelt made at McCormick field Thursday morning was one of the finest pieces of travel appeal this section could hope for.” Editor’s note: Peculiarities of spelling and punctuation are preserved from the original documents. X MOUNTAINX.COM
APRIL 21-27, 2021
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COMMUNITY CALENDAR APRIL 21-30, 2021 For a full list of community calendar guidelines, please visit mountainx.com/calendar. For questions about free listings, call 828-251-1333, ext. 137. For questions about paid calendar listings, please call 828-251-1333, ext. 320.
Clubland is back! See Pg. 40
In-Person Events = Shaded All other events are virtual
WELLNESS AdventHealth Hendersonville: Total Ankle Replacement Webinar Presented by orthopedic surgeon Peter Mangone. TH (4/22), 6pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/9a1 Running of the Goats 5k & Nature Walk Register: avl.mx/99v. SU (4/25), 7:30am, $35, WNC Nature Center, 75 Gashes Creek Rd
Steady Collective Syringe Access Outreach Free naloxone, syringes and educational material on harm reduction. TU (4/27), 2pm, Firestorm Books, 610 Haywood Rd
ART Jackson Arts Market Live demonstrations by local artists. SA (4/24), 1pm, 533 W Main St, Sylva
AIGA Asheville: Adobe XD for Web Design Webinar led by Caitlyn Burke. WE (4/28), 12pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/98e
MUSIC & DANCE Asheville Chamber Music Series: Neave Piano Trio Classical piano concert. FR (4/23), 7:30pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/99b UNCA Drama: A Night of Dance & Media Performance Directed by Mustapha Braimah. SA (4/24), 6pm, $3-$9, avl.mx/99z
LITERARY Malaprop's Author Discussion Featuring Ayanna Thompson, author of Blackface, in conversation with Natalie Hopkinson. WE (4/21), 7pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/987 Malaprop's Author Discussion Featuring Ena Jones, author of Six Feet Below Zero. TH (4/22), 6pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/988 UNCA: Social Justice as Science Fiction Lecture by author and science fiction scholar adrienne maree brown. TH (4/22), 7pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/992
THEATER
BASKETBALL CAMPS Go to our website, register and pay today at:
crossfireministry.com Half Day Camp • June 21-25 Asheville Christian Academy Mon–Fri • 1:00-4:30 PM Boys & Girls • ages 6-14 $100 per camper
Half Day Camp • July 5-9 First Baptist Hendersonville Mon-Fri • 1:00-4:30 PM Boys & Girls • ages 6-12 $100 per camper 18
APRIL 21-27, 2021
Full Day Camp • July 19-22 Mars Hill University Mon–Thurs • 8:30-5:00 PM Boys & Girls • ages 9-18 $250 per camper
Overnight Camp • July 18-22 Mars Hill University Sun–Thurs Boys & Girls • ages 9-18 $375 per camper
MOUNTAINX.COM
The Magnetic Theatre: The Court of the Grandchildren Staged reading directed by Jason Williams. Tickets: avl.mx/99a. TH (4/22), 7:30pm, By donation, avl.mx/99a
Magnetic in the (Smoky) Park Outdoor variety show. Tickets: avl.mx/97f. TU (4/27), 7pm, $18, Smoky Park Supper Club, 350 Riverside Dr
BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY SBCN: Innovation & Resilience Start-up assistance webinar for pandemic times. FR (4/23), 10am, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/98y
CLASSES, MEETINGS & EVENTS Old Buncombe County Genealogical Society: What Happened to the Children? Webinar on the use of apprentice indentures and bastardy bonds in family history research. SA (4/24), 2pm, Registration required, Free, obcgs.com Swannanoa Valley Museum: WNC History Cafe Lecture on businesswoman Julia Elizabeth Westall Wolfe, born 1860 in the Swannanoa River Valley. MO (4/26), 10:30am, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/98i WNC Historical Association: Tuberculosis & Tourism Lecture on Asheville's Von Ruck Sanitarium by local historian Kieta Osteen-Cochrane. TU (4/27), 6:30pm, Registration required, $5, avl.mx/98h WNC Historical Association: Drover’s Road & Sherill’s Inn Lecture by NC House Rep. John Ager. TH (4/29), 6:30pm, Registration required, $5, avl.mx/902
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CIVICS Buncombe County Library Board Special meeting. TU (4/27), 6:30pm, avl.mx/9a0
KIDS Summer Camp Expo Information fair with live music by students of Rock Academy NC. SA (4/24), 12pm, Asheville Outlets, 800 Brevard Rd Firestorm: Adventure Read Aloud Jacinta Bunnell presents A More Graceful Shaboom. TU (4/27), 7pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/98a
OUTDOORS Blue Ridge Parkway: National Park Week Open House Series Webinars on national park management, stewardship and resources. MO (4/19), 11am, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/997 NC Arboretum: 2021 Mountain Science Expo Presentations and discussion segments on the theme “Backyards, Beakers and Beyond." TH (4/22), 9:30am, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/99u SVM: Midweek Wildflower Identification Hike Moderate 1.7-mile hike on the Mountains-toSea Trail. Register: avl.mx/98j. TU (4/27), 9am, $25, Craven Gap, Blue Ridge Parkway Milepost 377, Swannanoa Bonsai at NC Arboretum: More Than Meets the Eye Lecture by curator Arthur Joura. Registration required. TH (4/29), 4pm, $10, avl.mx/99x
SPIRITUALITY OLLI at UNCA: The Neuroscience of Meditation & Higher States of Consciousness Presentation by Dr. Fred Travis. Register to get Zoom link: MeditationAsheville@ TM.org. MO (4/26), 4:30pm, Free Groce UMC: A Course in Miracles Group Study Register to get Zoom link: 828-712-5472. MO (4/26), 6:30pm, Free Baha'i Holy Day Observance and Devotions Observance of the Ninth Day of Ridván with prayers, music and readings. WE (4/28), 7pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/99w Recipe for Serenity: Journey of Self Discovery How to reconnect with your inner joy and peace using the "Emotional Freedom" technique. Register: anancy08@gmail.com. TH (4/29), 6pm, Free
VOLUNTEERING The Free Clinics Assistance with mailings and administrative tasks. Register: volunteer@ thefreeclinics.org. WE (4/21), 9:30am, 841 Case St, Hendersonville Edible Park Community Work Day Mulching, pruning and clearing invasive plants. FR (4/23), 2:30pm, Dr. George Washington Carver Edible Park, 30 George Washington Carver Ave Buncombe Rec Services: Earth Day Cleanup Roadside trash removal, landscaping, wetland remediation and lake surface litter skimming. Register: avl.mx/99y. SA (4/24), 9am, Lake Julian Park and Marina, 406 Overlook Extension, Arden
ISO Warehouse Space
You: 1,000-ish sq.ft. rough space with a roll-up door and possibly a loading dock Us: Local independent newspaper with a thing for purple Call to connect: 251-1333 x112
MOUNTAINX.COM
APRIL 21-27, 2021
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Mountain Xpress 27th Annual
r i o e g s e t a C t o l l A B All aboard!
2021
This year’s Best of WNC ballot is the ticket! It’s time to get back on track. As our local scene builds a head of steam, just waiting for the right conditions to throw the switch and see those wheels rolling on down the line again, we’re excited to get the voting underway for the 27th annual Best of WNC X-awards.
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Artists, Crafters
• • • Music Events & Venues • • Local Music Festival • • Place to Hear Live Music • • Outdoor Music Venue • • Intimate Music Venue/ • Listening Room • • Open-Mic-Night Venue
Musicians & Bands • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
All-Round Favorite Band Acoustic/Folk Americana/Country Blues Funk Jazz Old-Time/Bluegrass R&B/Soul Hip-Hop Rock Singer-Songwriter World Music Busker/Street Group Lyricist (Writer) Vocalist (Singer) Guitarist Percussionist-Drummer DJ (Non-Radio)
Music Services
• Recording Studio • Music Instrument Repair Company • Music-Related Nonprofit
Arts & Crafts
• Arts/Crafts Fair or Event • Studio Stroll/Driving Tour • Craft School or Place to Learn a Craft • Local Art Gallery • Craft-Oriented Gallery • Nonprofit That Serves the Arts
Fiber Artist Jewelry Artist/Designer Glass Artist Woodworker Metal Artist or Metalworker Mural Artist Painter/Illustrator Photographer Potter/Ceramic Artist
Film, Stage, Dance & Writing
⊕ Socially Distanced or Digital Event/Series • Movie Theater • Local Filmmaker • Theater Company • Actor (any gender) • Performance Dance Company • Place to Dance • Place to Take Dance Classes or Lessons • Vaudeville Troupe or Performer (Burlesque, Aerial Arts, Jugglers, etc.) • Comedy Troupe or Series • Local Comedy Show/ Night/Event • Comedian • Trivia Night Emcee • Local Author • Local Poet
DRINKS Bars
• Bar That Best Represents the Spirit of Asheville • Neighborhood Bar Downtown (including South Slope) • Neighborhood Bar River Arts District • Neighborhood Bar - West • Neighborhood Bar - South
COVID-related category ⊕ = Special
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This year’s ballot includes a dozen new categories inspired by the challenges of COVID-19. The Best of WNC ballot is long but it’s easy to navigate. Plus, it features a nifty • • • • • • •
Neighborhood Bar - East Neighborhood Bar - North Bartender Bar for Live Music Bar With a View Bar With Bar Games Family-Friendly Bar or Brewery • LGBTQ+ Friendly Bar • Hotel Bar • Dive Bar • Sports Bar • Bar: Local Beer Selection (excluding breweries) • Bar: Unusual Beer Selection (excluding breweries) • Upscale Bar • Bar or Brewery That Gives Back to the Community ⊕ Bar That Closed Permanently Due to COVID
Cocktails, Spirits & Wine • Wine Bar • Local Winery • Wine Store • Cocktails ⊕ To-Go Cocktails/ Cocktail Kits • Distillery • Bloody Mary • Margarita • Negroni • Mocktails or Nonalcoholic Options
Beer, Cider & Breweries
• Cidery • Local Cider • Local All-Round Brewery (for its beers) • Brewery (for its taproom & atmosphere) • Creative, Experimental Brewery • Local Beer (any style) • Local Dark Beer • Local Lager • Local Sour Beer • Local IPA
• • • • •
Seasonal Beer Brewmaster Favorite Local Beer Event Beer Store Homebrewing/ Winemaking Supplies
Coffee, Tea & Healthy Drinks
autocomplete function to let you vote quickly and accurately. You can even take a break fromvoting any time and return later. Just remember to save your ballot. • Restaurant in the River Arts District • Restaurant in West Asheville • Restaurant in South Asheville • Restaurant in East Asheville • Restaurant in North Asheville
Restaurant offerings
• Breakfast • Brunch • Lunch • Quick Meal • Restaurant Wine Selection • Restaurant Cocktail Selection • Restaurant Dessert Selection • Pub Grub • Takeout ⊕ Local Meal Delivery • Best Value EATS • Best Service • Barbecue Restaurant types • Ribs • Restaurant That Best • Burger Represents the Spirit • Veggie Burger of Asheville • Biscuits • Favorite Restaurant • Wings ⊕ Restaurant That Adapted • French Fries to COVID Restrictions • Fried Chicken ⊕ Restaurant That Closed Permanently Due to COVID • Hot Bar/Buffet • Hot Dogs • Restaurant to Take • Pasta Out-of-Towners to • Pizza • Restaurant With a View • People-Watching Restaurant • Sub Shop • Sandwich Shop • Outdoor Dining • Taco • Romantic Dining • Burrito • Fine Dining/Upscale • Sushi • Kid-Friendly Restaurant • Ramen • Diner/Homestyle • Salad • Late-Night Eats • Seafood • Food Truck • Special Diet Options • Catering Company (Gluten-Free, Lactose• Restaurant That Gives Free, etc.) Back to the Community • Vegan/Vegetarian • Green/Sustainability• Local-Food Emphasis Friendly Restaurant • Healthiest Food • New Restaurant (opened in the last 12 months) Cuisines • Restaurant Still Needed • French in Asheville • Italian • Greek Neighborhoods • Middle Eastern • Restaurant in Downtown • Mexican (including South Slope) • Coffeehouse for Its Vibe • Establishment With the Best Coffee • Coffee Roaster • Place to Drink Tea • Smoothies/Juices • CBD drinks/health elixirs • Kava Bar
• • • • • • •
Latin American Japanese Thai Indian Chinese Korean Southern
Desserts & Sweets
• Desserts • Ice Cream • Frozen Treats Other Than Ice Cream • Chocolate • Doughnuts • Locally Made CBD Treats
Bakeries
• Bagels • Bakery (Sweets/Desserts) • Bakery (Bread)
Miscellaneous • • • • • • •
Butcher Shop Cheesemaker/Cheese Dairy Local Food/Drink Product Chef Pastry Chef Local Food Festival or Event Nonprofit Helping With Hunger Issues
FARM, YARD & GARDEN • • • • • • • • • • • •
Tailgate/Farmers Market Roadside Farm Stand Farm to Visit for Events Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Farm Orchard Community Garden Garden Supply Store Mulch Supplier Tree Service Nursery (Trees, Shrubs) Landscaping Service Nonprofit Supporting Farms/Farmland Preservation
HEALTH & WELLNESS • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Physician (General Practice) Physician (Specialist) Pediatrician Cosmetic Surgeon Family Medical Practice Women’s Health Center Maternity Care/Service Counselor or Counseling Center Hospital Urgent Care/Walk-In Clinic Place to Get Medical Care When Under- or Uninsured Dental Practice Dentist Orthodontist Eye Care Specialist/Service Assisted-Living Community Nursing Home Hospice Mortuary/Funeral Services Pharmacy/Drugstore Place to Buy Supplements, Vitamins & Herbs Place to Buy CBD Products Place to Center Yourself
Alternative
• Homeopathic/ Naturopathic Practitioner • Chiropractor • Acupuncturist • Acupuncture Clinic
Physical Therapy • Physical Therapist • Massage Therapist
Fitness • • • • •
Gym or Place to Work Out Fitness Studio With Classes Physical Trainer Yoga Teacher Pilates Studio/ Center/Classes • Yoga Studio • Martial Arts Studio
KIDS Schools & Classes • • • •
School (Pre-College) After-School Program Preschool Child Care or Day Care Service • Art Education Program ⊕ Organization Helping With Home Learning ⊕ Story Time or Learning Session (online or in-person) • Music Teacher
Camps & Outdoors • • • •
Kid-Friendly Hike Overnight Camp Day Camp Nature Camp
Places • • • • • •
Daytrip for Kids Place for Indoor Fun Place for Outdoor Fun Playground Museum Place for Birthday Parties
• Bakery for Birthday Cakes • Place to Make Art • Teen-Friendly Place to Hang Out
Skill-Building • • • •
Dance Studio Gymnastics Program Martial Arts Program Team-Sports Program
Shopping
• Kids’ Clothes • Toy Store
Medical
• Pediatric Practice General Medicine • Pediatric Practice - Dentistry
Miscellaneous
• Parents Night Out Program
MEDIA • Local Radio Station (Commercial) • Local Radio Station (Noncommercial) • Local Radio Personality/ Announcer • Local TV Personality/ Announcer • Local Print Publication Other Than Xpress • Local Print Reporter • Local News Source • Local Events Information Source • Favorite Feature in Xpress • Local News Website • Local Podcast • Most Important Local News Story (in the last 12 months) • Most Over-Reported Story (in the last 12 months) • Most Under-Reported Story (in the last 12 months)
OUTDOORS Hiking
• Backpacking Trail/ Overnight Hike • Day Hike • Hiking Club or Group • Picnic Spot • Walk - In or Near Asheville
Biking
• Bicycle Club or Group • Bike Event/Race Mountain or Road • Mountain Bike Trail
Running
• Running Club or Group • Running Event/Race - Road or Trail
Camping
• Camping Spot • Place to Car Camp
Water & Rivers • • • • • •
Fishing Spot Waterfall Place to Relax on the Water Rafting Company Swimming Hole Whitewater Paddling Section
Miscellaneous • • • •
Canopy Tour/Zip Line Skate Park Ski Resort Outdoor Gear and Apparel Shop • Environmental or Conservation Nonprofit
PERSONAL SERVICES Cosmetic • • • • • •
Hair Salon Barbershop Hairstylist or Barber Aesthetician Nail Salon Nail Technician
Tattoo & Piercing • Piercing Studio • Tattoo Parlor • Tattoo Artist
• Alt Energy Sales and Installation • Plumbing Company • Electrical/Electrician Company • Heating/Cooling Company • Pest Control Service • Moving Company • House Painters • Roofing Company • Handy-Person • Equipment Rental Services • Cellphone Service Provider for the WNC Mountains • Print Shop • Home Cleaning Service • Dry Cleaner
Spa Tailor/Alterations Shoe Repair Local Body-Products Maker
Medical
Fashion
• • • •
Grooming Service Trainer/Training Center Pet Kennel Pet Day Care Facility
• Clothing: Dress-Up/Stylin’ • Clothing: Professional • Clothing: Used or Vintage (for-profit store) • Clothing: Used or Vintage (nonprofit store) • Asheville-Style Clothes • Shoe Store • Jewelry Store
Miscellaneous
Food
PROFESSIONAL & HOME SERVICES
Home
• Animal Shelter/Rescue Organization • Outdoor Place to Take Your Pet • Pet Supply Store • Pet-Friendly Bar • Pet-Friendly Restaurant
Financial
• Accountant/CPA Firm • Place to Get Your Taxes Prepared • Financial Adviser • Bookkeeping Services
General & Miscellaneous • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Law Firm Family Law Attorney Real Estate Attorney Criminal Law Attorney Real Estate Agent Real Estate Company Insurance Agent Architect or Architectural Firm Web Development Firm Computer Repair Car Repair Bike Repair Green Builder
Neighborhood Street for a Stroll Local Asheville Attraction Local City Tour Local Fundraising Event
mountainx.com/bestofwnc SHOPPING
Services
• • • • •
May 31
PETS • Veterinary Services • Veterinarian • Alternative Pet Health Care Provider
UNIQUELY ASHEVILLE
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Miscellaneous • • • •
• Adult Toys, Lingerie & Naughty Things Store • Bike Shop • Automobile Tire Store • Auto Dealer - New and/or Used • Motorcycle/ATV Dealer
• All-Round Grocery Store • Budget-Friendly Grocery Store • Health Food Store • International/Specialty Food Store • Convenience/Corner Store ⊕ Local Grocery Delivery or Curbside Pickup • New Furniture Store • Used Furniture Store (For-Profit Store) • Used Furniture Store (Nonprofit Store) • Bed and Mattress Store • Picture Framer • Antique Store
General & Miscellaneous
• Store That Best Represents the Spirit of Asheville • Pawn Shop • Florist • Bookstore - New • Bookstore - Used • Store for Comics, Collectibles and/or Games • Record/CD Store • Musical Instrument Store • Gift Shop • Head Shop • Vape Shop
• Place to Take Your Eccentric Friends • Place to Pretend You’re a Tourist • Place to Connect With Nature Within Asheville City Limits • Historic/Interesting Building • Venue to Book for a Party or Event • Place to Get Married • Hotel • B&B or Small Boutique Hotel • Holiday Event - Summer/Fall • Holiday Event Winter/Spring • Local Hero • Local Villain • Local Politician • Nonprofit That Improves Asheville • Nonprofit That Serves the Underprivileged • Activist Group for Civic/ Political Action • Bumper Sticker or Slogan About Asheville • Thing Downtown Asheville Needs • Thing the River Arts District Needs • Thing West Asheville Needs • Thing South Asheville Needs • Thing East Asheville Needs • Thing North Asheville Needs • Project You’d Like to See Local Government Do • Worst Thing to Happen to Asheville in the Last 12 Months • Best Thing to Happen to Asheville in the Last 12 Months • Biggest Threat to Asheville’s Uniqueness • Biggest Opportunity for Asheville’s Uniqueness
FAQs
In how many categories must I vote in order for my ballot to be counted? Each ballot must have at least 30 completed votes to be counted.
How are the votes counted? Mountain Xpress tallies the votes by hand, taking great care to understand each voter’s intent. We reserve the right to reject any ballot with inappropriate responses.
When does voting start and end? Voting officially begins April 21 and continues through May 31.
How do I get a category added or changed? The categories are set for this year, but to suggest a change for next year, email: bestofwnc@mountainx.com
Why do voters have to vote for 30 categories? We want meaningful results from people who are invested in and knowledgeable about the Asheville/WNC area.
WORK & BUSINESS • Business That Best Represents the Spirit of Asheville • Employment Sector to Work in • Business That Gives Back to the Community ⊕ Business Pivot/Innovation in COVID Times ⊕ Business That Closed Permanently Due to COVID (Excluding Restaurants and Bars) • Co-Op/WorkerOwned Business • Bank • Credit Union • Bank Services for Small Business • Support Organization for Entrepreneurs and New Businesses • Business With EarthFriendly Practices • Minority-Owned Business • Woman-Owned Business • Innovative or Entrepreneurial Business • Coworking Space • Business With Best Customer Service
REGIONAL
• • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Questions for the following regions: Brevard Burnsville Hendersonville/ Flat Rock/Mills River Hot Springs Marshall/Mars Hill Swannanoa/ Black Mountain Cullowhee/Sylva Waynesville/Maggie Valley/Canton Weaverville/Woodfin Business That Best Represents the Spirit of Your Town Breakfast Restaurant Lunch Restaurant Dinner Restaurant Coffee & Sweets Local Bar/Brewery/ Watering Hole Music/Entertainment Venue Retail Store Art Gallery Cultural or Arts Event Cultural or Historical Landmark Local Place to Enjoy the Outdoors Local Cause to Support Best Thing to Happen to Your Town in the Last 12 Months
How do you prevent voter fraud? Ballots examined for telltale signs of voter fraud or ballot stuffing. We disqualify all ballots that appear to be fraudulent. I hope my business wins. How do I get voting promotional materials? Call us at 828-251-1333. We can provide you with printable and digital materials, or contact your sales representative for information.
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HEALTH ROUNDUP by Xpress Staff | news@mountainx.com
Pandemic causes child abuse ‘crisis’ “Child abuse has been a hidden but prevalent problem in our area, but the pandemic has caused a child abuse crisis,” Leslie Hansen, a board member of the Mountain Child Advocacy Center, told the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners at its April 6 meeting. Commissioners proclaimed April Child Abuse Prevention Month. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the risk for child abuse and neglect has risen due to COVID-19 and the social and economic effects of mitigation measures, such as loss of income, increased stress related to parental child care and schooling responsibilities, and increased substance use and mental health conditions among adults. The CDC cites safe and stable environments for kids as key to preventing child abuse. Strategies to help families achieve those environments include strengthened economic supports, quality early childhood care, strong parenting skill programs and critical interventions. The Mountain Child Advocacy Center bestowed its 2021 Champion for Children Award on Dr. Cynthia Brown, the founder and leader of Mission’s child safety team. According to Mission Health’s website, Brown’s team “provides medical evaluations for nearly 700 children each year who have allegedly been abused or neglected. Mission’s program is part of a statewide network of child abuse specialists and serves one of the largest areas, 20 counties.” Drew Shelfer, a social work supervisor who oversees the intake process for the Buncombe County Department of Health and Human Services, said that 2,869 separate reports of child maltreatment were accepted for investigation by his agency in 2020. Child maltreatment was found in 497 of those cases. Shelfer advised commissioners, “We ask the community to report suspected child abuse and neglect
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ed to Brevard College, Mars Hill University, Montreat College and Warren Wilson College through a partnership with Mountain Area Health Education Center and collectively reached 22,000 college students through 93 positions. A spring 2021 grant from MAHEC funds 20 student health ambassadors at UNC Asheville. This semester, they have planned and implemented virtual panels, including one specific to vaccine questions; supported events such as the vaccine clinic and blood drives; completed 16 publications and 260 hours of training; delivered more than 200 meals to students in quarantine or isolation; and held over 600 support hours for the UNC Asheville campus community.
Health education events
CAREFREE: “The pinwheel is a symbol of a happy and carefree childhood, and we believe that every child deserves a safe and happy childhood,” Leslie Hansen, a board member of the Mountain Child Advocacy Center, told Buncombe County commissioners on April 6. April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, and a pinwheel garden outside Buncombe County government offices on College Street aims to build awareness of the issue of child mistreatment. Photo by Virginia Daffron in Buncombe County by calling our intake hotline at 828-250-5900. We are open 24/7. Our team is always here to support children and families in Buncombe County.”
Student health ambassadors win national award
Student health ambassadors at six universities across Western
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North Carolina earned second place from the National Consortium for Building Healthy Academic Communities in a recent competition and will be recognized during a virtual summit WednesdayThursday, April 21-22. “This collaboration has supported a rapid and successful COVID-19 mitigation strategy with infection rates lower than regional or statewide ones while students continue living and learning on their campuses,” said Amy Joy Lanou, professor of health and wellness and executive director of the N.C. Center for Health and Wellness at UNC Asheville. The student health ambassador positions were funded in fall 2020 through an N.C. Policy Collaboratory grant at UNC Asheville and Western Carolina University. The work was extend-
• Orthopedic surgeon Dr. Peter Mangone of AdventHealth Hendersonville will present a free webinar on total ankle replacement and minimally invasive foot and ankle surgery 6-7 p.m., Thursday, April 22. Registration for the session is at AdventHealthNC.com/events or 855-774-5433. • Transcendental meditation researcher Fred Travis of the Center for Brain, Consciousness and Cognition in Fairfield, Iowa, will present a 4:30-5:30 p.m. Monday, April 26, online program about the effects of meditation on brain connectivity and coherence. The talk is offered in association with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. To register, email MeditationAsheville@ TM.org or call 828-254-4350.
Dogwood trust launches online grant portal
Dogwood Health Trust launched an online grant application portal for nonprofit organizations serving all or part of 18 Western North Carolina counties and The Qualla Boundary. “While our original goal was to have this process up and running during 2020, our all-hands-on-deck response to COVID-19 delayed that process. Today we are delighted to open a clear avenue to partner
with Dogwood Health Trust,” said board Chair Janice Brumit in a press release on March 31. Dogwood’s new grant-making process focuses on learning more about any potential applicant’s idea or project before requiring a detailed grant proposal. Applicants are invited to complete a pre-application first. A member of Dogwood’s Impact Team will follow up within 10 business days with any questions, will let applicants know if they should proceed with a full application and will guide applicants through the process. Pre-applications are accepted on a rolling basis; there is no due date for submitting requests. Visit avl.mx/9a5 to access the portal.
Happenings in health and wellness • Pardee UNC Health Care on April 6 celebrated the opening of the primary care practice at its
newest location in Brevard, 1409 Asheville Highway. Pardee offers primary care medical services to adults and children of all ages at the new location. • Juan Mascaro and William Mills, both of Transylvania County, joined the board of Pisgah Health Foundation. Mascaro is vice president of finance and operations and CFO at Brevard College, and Mills is executive and program director for Rise & Shine of Brevard. • Dr. James Marnock, who has practiced family medicine in Black Mountain and East Asheville for 20 years, joined AdventHealth Medical Group Family Medicine at Black Mountain and Parkway. • Preliminary data released April 14 by the federal Centers of Disease Control and Prevention showed a nearly 30% increase in overdose deaths during the past year. In North Carolina, overdose deaths rose 14% from September 2019 to September 2020. X
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GREEN ROUNDUP by Xpress Staff | news@mountainx.com
DNA testing reveals sources of water pollution Testing conducted by local conservation organization MountainTrue identified cattle and faulty or inadequate sewer, septic or water treatment infrastructure as the major sources of E. coli pollution in the French Broad River. MountainTrue’s French Broad Riverkeeper conducts regular water quality monitoring of rivers and streams throughout the French Broad River Basin, including weekly testing of more than 30 recreation areas from May to September. After decades of slow but consistent improvement to the basin’s water quality, the organization has documented a sharp decline in water quality. “The difference over that past few years has been disturbing,” explains French Broad Riverkeeper Hartwell Carson. “Take Pearson Bridge in Asheville’s River Arts District: That site passed the EPA’s safe threshold for swimming 81% of the time in 2016. Just four years later, that site failed 81% of the time in 2020. Or Mud
MOO-VE OVER: DNA testing by conservation group MountainTrue identified cattle as the main driver of E. coli pollution in the French Broad River. Photo by iStock
Advancing Sustainability in the Built Environment. Since 2001, Green Built Alliance has been committed to advancing sustainability in the built environment through community education, measurable standards and regional action. Together, we can make the places where we live and work healthier for us and the environment.
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Creek in Henderson County; that site passed 52% of the time in 2018, and now it fails 93% of our tests.” MountainTrue’s standard E. coli testing program measures the E. coli in the river. Levels in the French Broad have been high and rising yearover-year, but the nonprofit couldn’t say for certain what the sources of the pollution were. Determining the major sources of E. coli required more expensive testing to look at the presence of DNA in the river. The nonprofit says it approached Sen. Chuck Edwards, whose district includes Henderson and parts of Buncombe County, for help securing state funding to pay for sampling and lab costs. With that funding, MountainTrue looked at the DNA found in 55 water samples to look for genetic fingerprints of E. coli from people, cows, dogs, poultry, sheep and swine. Of the 55 samples, 44 revealed DNA from cows. Human DNA was the second-most prevalent. The results vary, but at nearly every site the primary sources of pollution were cattle followed by human. Dog DNA also showed up as a moderate contributor to E. coli pollution at a few sample sites. “The French Broad has some clean and clear streams that run through protected public lands, but we’re seeing more and more problem sites that
consistently fail the EPA’s safe water standard for E. coli,” says Carson. “Until now, we’ve only had educated guesses about where the E. coli was coming from. With this testing, we have the data we need to make more informed decisions about how to clean up our rivers.” MountainTrue encourages the public to advocate for the adoption of a clean rivers policy agenda that includes funding to help farmers, property owners and local governments reduce water pollution. The public can read about issues affecting water quality, and the policies and reforms MountainTrue says are needed to fix them at avl.mx/9a6.
Get outside
• Starting Friday, April 23, Asheville Hiking Tours will offer wildflower and birding walks guided by wildflower authority Scott Dean and wildlife biologist and birding expert Bill Sanderson. Guided wildflower or birding walks are $20 using the promo code OUTSIDE2021. Information and reservations are available at AshevilleHikingTours. com or 828-476-8687.
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GR EEN
THE MANY uSES OF HEMP
WALK AMONG THE WILDFLOWERS: Asheville Hiking Tours is offering wildflower and birding walks guided by experts Scott Dean and Bill Sanderson. Here, Dean enthralls guests with jokes and stories about spring ephemerals. Photo by Jenny Gruhn, courtesy of Asheville Hiking Tours • Join a volunteer workday at the George Washington Carver Park (30 George Washington Carver Ave.) 2-5 p.m. Friday, April 23, or 2-5 p.m. Friday, April 30, at the Tempie Avery Montford Edible Park (34 Pearson Drive). Both parks grow fruits and nuts, the result of many years of community stewardship. • Bountiful Cities will also host two community garden work days at Pearson Garden in Montford (408 Pearson Drive) on Sunday, April 25 and Monday, April 26. Volunteers can sign up at avl.mx/99t. • Killer Bees Honey Farm is resuming its four-hour apiary tours beginning Friday, May 7. The 75-acre apiary in Lake Toxaway is deemed a wildlife refuge under the N.C. Wildlife Conservation Lands program.
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aid in the organization’s advocacy and mitigation efforts.
New face in town Tracy Swartout is the new superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The South Carolina native is a 21-year veteran of the National Park Service, serving most recently as the deputy superintendent at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington. “Throughout my life, the Blue Ridge Parkway has played a prominent role, with some of my most treasured mem-
Making Asheville bird-safe To reduce the number of birds that die each year as the result of window collisions, the Coalition for a Birdfriendly Asheville is advocating for bird-safe window treatments and a lights-out commitment during migration months. The coalition is made up of students at UNC Asheville, members of the Blue Ridge Audubon chapter and Audubon North Carolina. The group’s website at birdsafeavl. org outlines strategies and products for reducing bird-window collisions. Incident data on collisions can be submitted via a form at avl.mx/prvu to
SPOTTED: This photo of a “bluebird of happiness” was captured by Amy Cecelia LoPresti Owens during the 2020 Habitat at Home photo contest. Photo courtesy of Conserving Carolina
ories being shaped along that winding road and in the national parks and communities beyond,” Swartout said in a press release. “The area’s landscape, arts, music and culture are deeply meaningful for me. I am honored to join the talented park team and dedicated network of community and nonprofit partners to serve in this critical leadership role.”
Did you know?
• Asheville City Council named a newly completed 3.5-mile section of greenway in the River Arts District the Wilma Dykeman Greenway in honor of the late environmentalist, author and historian. Located on the east bank of the French Broad River between Broadway and Amboy Road, the section initially was called the French Broad River East Bank Greenway. The new name recognizes Dykeman’s contributions, as well as better distinguishes the east and west sides of the greenway that run along the French Broad River. • April is Food Waste Reduction Month, and the city of Asheville is sponsoring a home food waste challenge on social media using the #AVLFoodWasteChallenge hashtag. More information is available at avl.mx/99j. • The N.C. Apple Growers Association launched a new website at ncapplegrowers.com. • Pup-rearing season for bats officially begins on Saturday, May 1, and the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission encourages those who believe they have bats in their homes to practice responsible relocation. If unable to remove bats from a home before rearing season begins, NCWRC recommends leaving the bats undisturbed until the end of July. For more information, visit avl.mx/99n. • Asheville-based landscape architecture firm Equinox Environmental has entered a contract to design the Woodfin Whitewater Wave and Riverside Park expansion. The design process will take approximately 10 months to complete and cost roughly $719,120. • The Blue Ridge National Heritage Area Partnership has awarded $185,000 in grants to fund projects in Western North Carolina, including $16,000 to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ Department of Natural Resources to develop a master plan for a tribal eagle aviary to protect rescued birds, provide shed feathers for ceremonial activities and present educational activi-
ties. More information on the grantees can be found at avl.mx/99q. • U.S. Cellular is offering customers up to $500 for the return of old cell phones and wireless devices for safe recycling. In 2020, the company’s Trade-In and Recycling program diverted 99,000 pounds of electronic waste from landfills and avoided more than 280 million gallons of water pollution.
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GR EEN
INSPECTING THE HIVE: As part of the Killer Bees Honey tour experience, attendees don traditional bee suits, covered head to toe, to participate in a guided meet and greet with the bees. Photo courtesy of Killer Bees Honey
Photo contest encourages great habitats
Conserving Carolina’s 2021 Habitat at Home photo contest kicked off April 1 and runs through Saturday, May 15. The local conservation nonprofit is looking for photos or videos that show any of these three things: 1. native plants in gardens or landscaping; 2. projects to improve habitat; 3. wildlife (of any size) seen at or near home. To enter, create a public post of a photo or video on Facebook or Instagram with the hashtag #habitatathome2021. Entries may also be submitted by email to rose@conservingcarolina.org. A
judging panel will select five finalists, and the contest winner will be chosen through online voting. The finalists and the winner will win garden-themed prizes. Complete contest rules and information are available at avl.mx/99i.
Need seeds?
Dreaming of a garden makeover? Conserving Carolina, True Ridge and Tierra Fértil Collective are offering a free community seed swap throughout April. Community members can visit True Ridge’s office, 110 Edney St., Hendersonville weekdays 9 a.m.-3 p.m. to pick up free seed packets. Empty seed packets are also available on-site for growers to drop off excess
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locally saved and store-bought seeds, as well as native plants, flowers and food sources. For more information, visit avl.mx/99l.
Good, green jobs Local nonprofits Green Opportunities and the YMI Cultural Center’s Operation Gateway are offering a three-week paid training program to prepare members of marginalized
communities to succeed in living-wage trade jobs, including solar installation. The groups are partnering with solar installer SolFarm Solar Co. and TP Howard’s Plumbing to teach participants soft skills like leadership and accountability, followed by two weeks of on-the-job training with plumbing or solar crews. The program runs Monday, April 26, through Friday, May 14; companies have the option of hiring participants as full-time employees at the end of the training period. For more information, visit avl.mx/99o. X
Spring 2021
Nonprofit issue Coming May 12!
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ARTS & CULTURE
River Arts renaissance
RADTIP celebrations aim to enhance revitalized district’s future BY EDWIN ARNAUDIN earnaudin@mountainx.com Saïd Osio believes that Asheville’s River Arts District has the potential to be the nation’s next revolutionary creative sector. He would know: The visual artist and owner of Nadazul Gallery grew up in Los Angeles in the 1950s, when Venice Beach was what he calls “a bohemian enclave” that soon became “an art colony.” He then eventually moved to South Florida, where he witnessed the formation of the Miami Design District. “We have the same kind of infrastructure to create something like that,” Osio says. “But we can only go deep if we have the right resources and the people who have vision.” While he actively searches for like-minded local collaborators, Osio seeks to attract motivated individuals and inspire others during the grand opening of the River Arts District Transportation Improvement Project (aka RADTIP). The monthlong celebration is hosted and coordinated by the city of Asheville, and most events — all of which adhere to current state restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19 — are scheduled between Earth Day (Thursday, April 22) and
GOOD COG: The River Arts District Transportation Improvement Project has added 9 acres of new open spaces; almost 200 new parking spaces; 2 miles of greenway; a section of protected bike lanes; plus benches, trash cans, swings and over 3,000 trees and plants. Photo by Deanna Chilian
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the birthday of the late literary artist and environmental pioneer Wilma Dykeman (Thursday, May 20).
HONORING TEAMWORK
Steph Monson Dahl, the city’s strategic design and public space manager, calls the project “the centerpiece of a much larger effort to transform the greater RAD — and the entire French Broad and Swannanoa River corridors — in accordance with the vision laid out in the Wilma Dykeman RiverWay Master Plan.” “By getting that plan adopted in 2004, Karen Cragnolin, former executive director of RiverLink, helped the community make its case that environmental sustainability and improvements to transportation, economic development, education, and health and wellness are all needed parts of a holistic effort to repair our riparian environment,” she says.
Monson Dahl, who also served as riverfront redevelopment director until RADTIP construction began in 2018, notes that, prior to RADTIP, there were no sidewalks or stormwater management system on the 2-mile riverfront section; the connection between Riverside Drive and Lyman Street was unsafe; and “most people didn’t actually know how to get to the RAD.” City funding and development partners remedied those issues and added 9 acres of new open spaces; almost 200 new parking spaces; 2 miles of greenway; the project’s first section of protected bike lanes; plus benches, trash cans, swings and over 3,000 trees and plants. In turn, local businesses “have a better place to engage in creative commerce,” which has resulted in an increase from 140 artists in 16 buildings when RADTIP planning began to over 250 artists in 19 buildings. “It took a seriously collaborative effort to get us to what you see in and around the RAD today,” says Monson Dahl. “The city, local businesses, artists, nonprofits and others have been working on the RADTIP and other projects in the area for over 10 years, and it seemed appropriate to make sure that some of those same partners were given agency to create the kind of grand opening they wanted to see when it was complete.” Festivities that Monson Dahl thinks “are going to make people smile” include an open call for photographs or artwork inspired by the French Broad River, which will be displayed via an online gallery hosted by UNC Asheville; Asheville on Bikes’ pop-up skills park for youths, which takes place multiple Thursday evenings; and an app-based trivia game created by Connect Buncombe that awards prizes to participants who play while rolling or walking the greenway.
CREATIVE INVESTMENT
The River Arts District Artists are likewise poised to put their imaginative stamps on the celebration, during which many studios are planning on reopening after being closed for over a year. According to Asheville Print Studio founder Denise Markbreit, a committee spearheaded by former RADA President Nadine Charlsen “brainstormed many, many ideas, settling on the most doable in the short amount of time we had, and with little to no budget.” Among their additions are four Micro Art Galleries, which will be installed at the Art Garden at Riverview Station, Curve Studios, Pink Dog Creative and Wedge
Studios. Similar to the popular Little Free Libraries, the modest-sized structures will be filled with free art and replenished each week. Markbreit says the galleries “will be an exciting long-term addition to the RAD” and a “way for artists to reach out to the community and visiting tourists.” Each complimentary piece includes a QR code and website information linking participants to details on the work, the artist and where to find that artist’s studio. QR codes will also be featured at scenic spots throughout the RAD, directing visitors to artists who have been inspired by or have featured the particular scene in their work. Osio hopes to make a similar long-lasting impression with the Earth Memorial Garden and related events on Saturday, April 24, next to the Cotton Mill Studios. Inspired by Christo’s The Gates installation in New York’s Central Park, Osio seeks to honor the ambition of Black Mountain College’s storied history while “connecting the dots” among various area arts traditions. Members of the Cherokee community will construct a single-layer rock medicine wheel, offering a circular
sacred walk similar to the RiverLink labyrinth on that same property. The labyrinth will host a dance troupe performance to honor former BMC faculty greats Merce Cunningham and John Cage. In addition, there will be a memorial tree area similar to Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree projects, where people can pay homage to departed loved ones by writing their names on paper ribbons and tying them on branches; a gateway installation that echoes the work of British sculptor Andy Goldsworthy; and earth altars, which the public is encouraged to construct from earth and water throughout the month. By thinking big for this celebration, Osio hopes that the RAD and the city overall will recognize its immense potential and embrace it in new, innovative ways. “The greenway, I think, will become the soul of Asheville,” Osio says. “It is a renaissance because I think [the spirit of] Black Mountain [College] in a way could be resurrected [here] — not as Black Mountain but as a creative energy.” ashevillenc. gov/river X
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ARTS & C U L T U R E
FOOD
Group therapy
Restaurant owners lower the temperature through hospitality groups BY KAY WEST kwest@mountainx.com Charlie Hodge has a property problem. His irresistible attraction to small, quirky buildings and locations led him first to open Sovereign Remedies in 2014, then Ole Shakey’s (now The Getaway River Bar) in 2015, followed by The Make Space in 2018 and Asheville Beauty Academy in 2019. He vehemently denies having a master plan. “It was my own insanity,” he confesses with a laugh. “Give me a whiff of a dreamy space and magical location, and I’m all in.” But it soon became clear that he needed a cohesive strategy for managing these various businesses. Thus was born Hodgepitality, a centralized management group headquartered in The Make Space. “We’ve moved six key players — executive chef, beverage manager, operations person, financial/HR person, marketing person and me — into one operation, and now these six people can do their jobs for four places through one company,” Hodge explains. An increasingly popular national model, hospitality and restaurant groups typically invest in and support chefs or restaurateurs with big dreams and small budgets in opening new concepts or growing an original location into multiple stores. In Asheville, restaurant groups have emerged as independent restaurateurs who are seeking growth have recognized the efficiency and structure supported by the creation of a single umbrella company to manage multiple businesses. These
MOM & POP OPERATION: Creating the Chai Pani Restaurant Group as a management umbrella over all of their restaurant and product operations was a turning point for Molly and Meherwan Irani as they grew their businesses locally and regionally. Photo by Molly Milroy groups also provide opportunities for employees of individual restaurants to rise into new roles and grow professionally, strengthening the company by retaining valued team members committed to its mission.
TURNING POINTS
Molly Irani, who opened Chai Pani restaurant in 2009 with her
husband, chef Meherwan Irani, says the Chai Pani Restaurant Group happened organically. As the couple launched new ventures, including Chai Pani in Decatur, Ga., in 2013 and Buxton Hall BBQ with chef Elliot Moss in 2017, they sought to create a business structure that would allow their staff members opportunities for career growth.
CPRG currently includes the original three businesses, plus Spicewalla, Botiwalla locations in Atlanta and Charlotte, Nani’s Rotisserie Chicken and the upcoming Buxton Chicken Palace in the soon-to-open S&W Food Hall. Forming CPRG in 2015, when there were still just three properties to manage, was a turning point for all operations, says Molly, director of hospitality. “Having that structure and placing people who started in our restaurants on the CPRG executive team allowed us to continue to add more restaurants and concepts in a more thoughtful and organized way,” she explains. Vinnie’s Neighborhood Italian and Jettie Rae’s Oyster House owner Eric Scheffer has been a successful restaurateur in Asheville since he operated the now-closed Savoy more than 20 years ago. He formed The Scheffer Group in early 2021 to better manage his future projects, including Vinnie’s South, which opens this summer, as well as his newly created catering company, Cielo, and other concepts still in the planning stages. Aside from CEO Scheffer and brand manager Wilder Shaw, The Scheffer Group’s other key positions include CFO/controller, culinary director, catering director and director of operations. Until it opened dedicated office space on Haywood Street in late March, the leadership team held its meetings at Jettie Rae’s or Vinnie’s. “To have all the concepts under one group and the management team under one roof helps maintain consistent hospitality goals and our core values,” Shaw says.
CONTROLLING THE CHAOS
Chef Jacob Sessoms, owner of All Day Darling, El Gallo, Imperiál,
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TAKING ACTION Table and next door the Right There bar, says he gave his new hospitality group the name Perfectly Ad Hoc because it sounded more professional than the other choice: Controlled Chaos. “I am actually more uncontrolled chaos,” he admits. “By the end of spring, we will operate five concepts under various ownership structures, so it makes sense for the core management team to work for a separate hospitality group.” Sessoms credits Marisa Croce, PAH’s general manager of operations, with controlling the chaos, succinctly describing her responsibilities as “everything.” “I do everything for the group that a restaurant manager does — day-to-day operations, financials, staffing, bill paying, scheduling, direct management of employees,” Croce agrees. “I keep the moving parts organized.” For now, PAH is tiny but mighty; once all five concepts are operational and generating revenue (Table and Right There are scheduled to open in late April), the group will add key positions such as financial controller and marketing and social media manager. “I’m under development on two new restau-
rants, a new coffee shop and at least one bar,” Sessoms says. “PAH will become even more vital to managing that growth.” Looking back on the worst year to hit the hospitality industry in decades, Molly Irani reflects on how CPRG helped the group’s restaurants hold on and hold it together. “It’s kind of terrifying to think about if it had been just Meherwan and me,” she says. “But everyone on the team immediately went to their skill sets — unemployment, PPP (Paycheck Protection Program), safety and sanitation — and into a furious phase of figuring out how to take care of our people and get through this. Now we’re in full lookahead mode and excited to lay the table with love and intention to gather together again.” Hodge is also looking to the future with optimism. “We have some hefty goals to get high-functioning systems in place so that when we want to absorb another project, we have a model for it,” he says. “Even more, my hope is that members of this team have the opportunity to buy into future projects, and we all continue to grow together.” X
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Amanda Wray continues to expand local LGBTQ+ archive Since March 2019, Amanda Wray, an associate professor of English at UNC Asheville, has been leading the way in gathering and organizing materials for the LGBTQIA+ Archive of Western North Carolina. At the start, her team was composed of three undergraduate research interns. Today, the project includes 64 volunteers with major financial support from Blue Ridge Pride, a local organization that promotes inclusivity and equality for LGBTQ+ and allied communities in WNC. The pandemic, says Wray, has forced her team to readjust. Currently, all oral history interviews are conducted on Zoom. In some respects, the change has expedited the process. “Before COVID, I would run around town dropping digital recorders and consent forms on a volunteer’s front porch, and then I’d retrieve it later, upload the audio file and start processing the interview,” she explains. Convenience, however, does have its drawbacks. “There’s no checking out the magnets on [an individual’s] fridge, seeing the photos framed on their walls, meeting their beloved pet or hearing stories about flowers in the yard as you walk in or out of the interview,” Wray explains. Still, the archive continues to gain momentum, thanks to the support from Blue Ridge Pride, the YMCA, community members and a more recent partnership with Western Carolina University. But ultimately, what sustains the project is the group’s 64 volunteers and the diverse experiences they bring to the collaboration. “Some knew they were transgender at age 6, and others transitioned in their 60s,” says Wray. “Some came out to their parents, and others lived out only among trusted friends. Some still battle internalized homophobia. Many are estranged from one or more members of their biological family.” Such experiences, notes Wray, represent the core of the project’s mission. “These oral histories
INTERGENERATIONAL: “I am intentional to pair LGBTQ+ youth with LGBTQ+ elders, so that they can interview one another,” says Amanda Wray, the lead organizer of the LGBTQIA+ Archive of Western North Carolina. Intergenerational dialogue, she notes, deepens the local community’s understanding of LGBTQ+ issues, identity and history. “If you aren’t talking to your elders now, what the hell are you waiting for?” Photo courtesy of Wray showcase a diverse and courageous LGBTQ+ population that has protested against racism and sexism, educated faith-based communities on LGBTQ+ identity, shaped public narratives on transgender identity, created art of every mode and contributed to a reputation of LGBTQ+ inclusion in Asheville,” says Wray. “They are hilarious, series, sad, uplifting and always educational.” To learn more, visit the archive’s YouTube channel at avl.mx/98l. Want to work for the project? The archive is currently hiring Spanish-speaking interviewers who can collect oral histories from individuals in the Latinx LGBTQ+ community. Email Wray at wncarchive@gmail.com to apply.
— Thomas Calder X
ISO Warehouse Space
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ART S & C U L T U R E
CRAFT
Pollinating Saluda
Fiber artist Paris Evans grows Milkweed from Instagram to brick-and-mortar One of the main reasons that fiber artist Paris Evans and her photographer fiancé Paul King moved from Charleston, S.C., to Saluda a year ago was to enjoy a slower-paced life. Little did she know that the change of scenery would also provide her business with opportunities that she likely wouldn’t have experienced in a bustling environment. While growing up, the low country native spent many a summer in Western North Carolina visiting with her mother’s family and has long been interested in sewing and embroidery. “I went to [the Maryland Institute College of Art] briefly in Baltimore, so I did a lot of mixed media: painting,
and then I would layer over with hand embroidery,” Evans says. “Then I got into altering vintage, and it kind of just took off from there.” As she honed her skills, Evans was inspired by two developments: friends who were going to different markets in Charleston, and the purchase of a 1930s sewing machine that proved challenging, yet rewarding to figure out how to operate. She soon combined those facets and began doing live stitching at markets while also selling handmade patches. Thus was born the Milkweed brand — named in honor of a passage in her favorite Hal Borland book, 12 Moons of the
RURAL STITCHING: Paris Evans took a risk expanding her Milkweed brand into a physical space in downtown Saluda, but she reports nothing but success since opening in November. Photo by Paul King Year — which further expanded via an online presence. “Instagram is such a wealth of knowledge and a good way to connect from a visual and creative standpoint,” Evans says. “So I was like, ‘I’m just going to make myself a little Instagram for the business.’ And playing around with hashtags and all that stuff that can be helpful.” The addition of a digital shop helped Milkweed sustain a steady income as in-person sales were disrupted with the COVID-19 pandemic’s onset. But when the chance to grow her business into a brick-and-mortar establishment in downtown Saluda arose, Evans took the leap, despite what she admits “maybe at first sounded a little crazy, given the current state of things.” “I have a retail background as well, buying for different businesses in Charleston,” she says. “I’ve got a lot of smaller retail brands in my shop, and then I have my studio in here as well. So, a lot of times, when people come in, I’m just working on a commission, and I can stop and help them shop.” Easily distracted while working at home, Evans feels more productive in her new studio and finds value in featuring businesses that she’s been tracking for a while. The mix of local, regional and global brands include Asheville-based Spicewalla, Charleston-based soap company Old
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Whaling Co. and Australian denim brand Rolla’s Jeans. “Mainly, the focus is eco-conscious brands,” Evans says. “I have a lot of women-owned brands as well and smaller-line things that you can’t necessarily find on Amazon.” Having a physical space has allowed Evans to make friends with people whom she otherwise likely wouldn’t have met, especially during a pandemic that’s generally confined her to her house. The expansion also helps her increase stitching’s capacity to, in her words, “bring life to old stuff” and “keep that cycle of not buying fast fashion.” To continue growing her abilities, Evans will soon take a year-delayed class in clothing alteration and pattern work at Penland School of Craft. She hopes that the course will enhance her denim repair skills and eventually help her create clothing from scratch. “It’d be really cool if anybody wanted me to make them a custom suit,” she says. “Dolly Parton and everybody from the ’60s country and western [scene] had all these awesome, completely chain-stitched suits. So that would be another goal, because that would be such an undertaking but would be beautiful and rewarding.” parisnevans.com
— Edwin Arnaudin X
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FOOD ROUNDUP
What’s new in food
Archetype Brewing wins big A bronze medal for The Sage Belgian strong ale brought Archetype Brewing into the winners’ circle at this year’s prestigious New York International Beer Competition. Colossal, a barrel-aged saison, made an effervescent debut in the same competition, bringing home a silver medal and helping win Archetype the title of N.C. Belgian Brewery of the Year. It’s a heady honor for head brewer Erin Jordan, who’s been with Archetype since its inception. Currently the only woman in an Asheville brewery to hold the position, she has a simple explanation for Sage’s success: “It’s a damned good beer!” One of the beers that helped launch Archetype Brewing in 2017, The Sage also had a stellar year in 2019, taking Best of Show honors at the 2019 N.C. Brewers Cup and garnering a
2019, recently transformed the former Find Your Lane bicycle shop on Haywood Road in West Asheville into Café Canna. “I want to be more than a CBD dispensary and not just another bar; there are plenty of those around here,” he says. Featuring coffee from Dynamite Roasting Co., the menu offers espresso, lattes, tea, kratom and breakfast bagels on weekdays, and will host “special events with alcohol to party on weekends,” Ballad explains. Café Canna celebrates its grand opening with live music from Michael Martinez on April 20, 6 p.m.-2 a.m., and then will be open daily, 6 a.m.-2 a.m Café Canna, 487 Haywood Road. avl.mx/98s
WINNING HAND: Archetype head brewer Erin Jordan holds bottles of The Sage and Colossal, bronze and silver medal winners in the New York International Beer Competition. Photo by Drew Fowler bronze medal in the U.S. Open Beer Competition. A darker, heavier style Belgian beer, Jordan describes it as “dangerously drinkable. It’s a beer you should sip and savor.” Colossal, she explains, was aged in the barrel for 21 months, then fruited with blackberries, raspberries and strawberries, resulting in a “floral, fruity, funky, tart” flavor profile that
made it one of her favorite brews of 2020. “Good things come to those who wait,” she says with a laugh. Archetype Brewing, 265 Haywood Road and 174 Broadway. avl.mx/98p
Hemp, hemp, hooray! Beau Ballad, who organized the Asheville Hemp Festival in August
That’s amore
When Women of Weaverville posted a notice seeking a leader to coordinate a local Lasagna Love effort, it wasn’t just the alliteration that inspired WOW member Stacey Conley to say yes. Her friend Kim De suggested they do it together, and Lasagna Love Buncombe County was birthed. “It’s a national grassroots initiative started during the pandemic by a mom looking to help other moms in her community,” Conley explains. That mom was Rhiannon Menn, who started delivering homemade lasagna to families needing some help in the San Diego area. More people wanted to participate, and in May 2020, Lasagna Love was official. Since then, over 20,000 volunteers provide 3,500 meals a week in 50 states. “Lasagna is pretty easy to make, it’s hearty and most people like it,” Conley says. “It’s something you can do at home and is very rewarding.” Conley and De have expanded their area to include Henderson and Madison counties. For more information, to sign up to become a lasagna chef or receive a lasagna, visit avl.mx/98u.
Thirst quencher
Mother Earth Food is adding beer, cider and mead to its list of nearly 600 grocery products that it delivers in the Asheville area. The company, which sources from over 300 regional farms and local food artisans, has partnered with eight Asheville breweries to provide over 20 adult beverage products, including Noble Cider’s Village Tart Hard Cider, Wehrloom’s Black-Bear’y Mead and Fonta Flora’s Nebo Pilsner. For the full lineup, visit avl.mx/8jg.
— Kay West X 38
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ROUNDUP
Around town
and land resources in WNC, is hosting a photo/video contest. The organization is seeking images and video footage of native plants, wildlife and habitat improvement projects. To enter, post your work on Facebook or Instagram and include the hashtag #habitatathome2021. If you’re not on social media, you can submit your work via email to rose@ conservingcarolina.org. The final day to enter is Saturday, May 15. The winner will receive garden-themed prizes. To learn more, visit avl.mx/98o.
Hazel Robinson Amphitheatre concert series returns
After a year’s hiatus due to COVID-19, the Hazel Robinson Amphitheatre concert series is back. Local award-winning bluegrass band Balsam Range will kick off the 2021 relaunch on Sunday, April 25, at 5 p.m. “It’s been a whirlwind getting things figured out and dialed in,” says Jackson Whitfield, managing partner at Plugged-In Productions, a local company producing the series in partnership with Montford Park Players. Per state guidelines, capacity is limited, and masks are mandatory except when audience members are seated at their socially distanced pods. The concert series, which began in 2018 with a focus on local bands, will now also feature national acts. Along with Balsam Range, upcoming shows include performances by Mipso, Charley Crockett and the Jerry Douglas Band. “As the music industry begins to bounce back, we want to provide our extraordinary community with an extraordinary place to experience music and the arts,” says Whitfield. Hazel Robinson Amphitheatre is located at 100 Gay St. Tickets for upcoming shows begin at $25. For the full list of performers and to purchase tickets, visit avl.mx/98v.
Giant puppet show Speaking of the Hazel Robinson Amphitheatre — comics, musicians and giant puppets will take the stage this weekend for the Earth Day Weekend Outdoor Mythic Musical Giant Puppet Show, taking place Friday, April 23, and Saturday, April 24, 6-9 p.m. Intended for all ages, the multigenre performance explores issues of love and loss, corporate greed and uplifting songs of spring rebirth. “I’d like people to leave the performance with a reverence for life, an appreciation of what the costs are for our modern-day existence and a sense of beauty, joy and awe,” says show producer, writer and director Mica Sunshine.
Call for artists
The Weaverville Business Association and Art in Autumn Committee are accepting art exhibitor applications through Sunday, June 20, for the 14th annual Weaverville Art in Autumn Festival. Artists will be juried to receive awards up to $1,000. To apply, visit avl.mx/98q.
BACK IN ACTION: Bands return to the Hazel Robinson Amphitheatre with safety measures in place. This photo was taken back in 2019. Photo courtesy of Plugged-In Productions Tickets are $10. Masks are required. To learn more, visit avl.mx/98v.
Zoom link will be provided upon registration. To sign up, visit avl.mx/98n.
WNC History Café returns
The WNC History Café series returns to the Swannanoa Valley Museum & History Center on Monday, April 26. Entering its third year, the monthly lecture series offers a deep dive into local history. The 2021 inaugural event features Kayla Seay, assistant site director of the Thomas Wolfe Memorial. Seay will discuss the life, personality and accomplishments of Swannanoa Valley native Julia Wolfe, immortalized by her youngest son, Thomas Wolfe, in his 1929 novel, Look Homeward, Angel. Seay says she hopes her talk offers a deeper appreciation for Julia Wolfe, who is depicted as a frugal and self-serving businesswoman in her son’s writing. “Her life was so dynamic, and many of her experiences and choices parallel the broader evolution of Asheville,” Seay says. She was also a woman who endured much “pain and sorrow,” Seay adds, surviving four of her eight children. The lecture runs 10:30 a.m.-11:45 a.m. Tickets are $8 for museum members and $12 for nonmembers. A
I Can’t Breathe
“The ability to write poetry really sustained me and gave me a purpose during this past year,” says local poet Nancy Dillingham, whose latest collection, I Can’t Breathe, came our earlier this year. The book’s 22 works chronicle recent events, including Gov. Roy Cooper’s earliest COVID-19 response, the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the everyday realities of living through a pandemic. “I hope people will find solace in the poems, which convey the message that we as a country can survive and remember our strengths, and even hope,” says Dillingham. “The Vincent Van Gogh poem that ends the book contains Van Gogh’s credo: ‘Art is to console those who are broken by life.’” To purchase a copy, visit avl.mx/98t.
Nature photo/ video contest
Conserving Carolina, a local nonprofit that works to preserve water
Writing workshops The Writers’ Workshop of Asheville is offering online classes throughout the spring. Topics include memoir (May 1), writing strategies (May 15), screenwriting (May 29) and fiction (June 12). Each Saturday course runs 10 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Classes are $80 for nonmembers and $75 for members. Financial assistance is available for low-income writers. To register, visit avl.mx/98r or email writersw@ gmail.com.
— Thomas Calder X
MOVIE LISTINGS Bruce Steele’s and Edwin Arnaudin’s latest critiques of new films available to view via local theaters and popular streaming services include: BILL TRAYLOR: CHASING GHOSTS: This documentary on the former slave and celebrated outsider artist succeeds more as a family portrait than an examination of Traylor’s creativity. Grade: B-minus. Not rated
Find full reviews and local film info at ashevillemovies.com patreon.com/ashevillemovies
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CLUBLAND WEDNESDAY, APRIL 21 OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. French Broad Valley Mountain Music Jam, 6pm THE 2ND ACT Open Mic w/ Letters to Abigail, 6pm SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Witty Wednesday Trivia Night, 6:30pm 185 KING STREET Mike Ashworth, Mike Guggino and Woody Platt w/ Tommy Maher, 6:30pm
THURSDAY, APRIL 22 RABBIT RABBIT • Outdoor Movie: The Lorax, 5:30pm • Sunset Rooftop Standup Comedy, 6:30pm THE GREY EAGLE Wyatt Espalin (Americana), 6pm HIGHLAND BREWING CO. Crafted Singer Songwriter Series w/ Matt Smith, 6pm SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Open Mic Night, 6pm 185 KING STREET Gypsy & Me (Americana, folk), 7pm
Hazel Robinson Amphitheatre Spring 2021 Concert Series! Presented by Plugged-In Productions
FRIDAY, APRIL 23 HARRAH'S CHEROKEE CENTER - ASHEVILLE Epic Dance Showcase, 5pm SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Rod Sphere (solo acoustic), 6pm ISIS MUSIC HALL Peggy Ratusz & Daddy LongLegs (blues, jazz, swing), 7pm
SOLD OUT! Balsam Range | 4/25 @ 4pm
Charley Crockett | 5/20 @ 6pm
W/ JAM TO FOLLOW
W/ JESSE DANIEL
Mipso | 4/29 @ 6pm W/ RYAN & DANIEL OF RIVER WHYLESS
Jerry Douglas Band | 6/3 @ 6pm W/ FIRESIDE COLLECTIVE
Tickets and Information
HAZELROBINSONAMPHITHEATRE.COM @HAZELROBAMP // @PLUGGEDINTUNES
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FLEETWOOD’S Outdoor Show w/ Fortezza & Harriers of Discord (garage punk, surf rock), 7pm RABBIT RABBIT Silent Disco w/ Nex Millen, 7pm
HOME ON THE RANGE: Named after the majestic mountains where the Smokies meet the Blue Ridge, Balsam Range has been steadily making its mark on the bluegrass scene since the five musicians came together in 2007. The award-winning Haywood County quintet will play a concert at Hazel Robinson Amphitheatre Sunday, April 25, 5 p.m. avl.mx/9a3. Photo courtesy of the band 185 KING STREET Pretty Little Goat (Appalachian roots), 8pm
SATURDAY, APRIL 24 SWEETEN CREEK BREWING • Marc Keller (easy listening), 1pm • Krave Amiko (funk, rock), 6pm 185 KING STREET The Harrows (blues), 3pm WEHRLOOM HONEY MEADERY Music & Mead w/ Phantom Pantone DJ Collective, 4pm ISA'S FRENCH BISTRO James Hammel (solo acoustic), 5pm ISIS MUSIC HALL The Special Consensus (bluegrass), 7pm
SUNDAY, APRIL 25 ASHEVILLE CLUB Mr Jimmy (blues), 2pm HIGHLAND BREWING CO. Soul Jazz Sundays w/ Taylor Pierson Trio, 2pm
HAZEL ROBINSON AMPHITHEATRE Balsam Range (bluegrass), 4pm 185 KING STREET Open Electric Jam w/ King Street House Band ft. Howie Johnson, 6:30pm HARRAH'S CHEROKEE CENTER - ASHEVILLE Epic Dance Showcase, 8pm
MONDAY, APRIL 26 HIGHLAND BREWING CO. Totally Rad Monday Night Trivia, 6pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. House of SYNth, 6:30pm THE JOINT NEXT DOOR Blue Monday w/ Mr Jimmy, 7pm ALLEY CAT SOCIAL CLUB Industry Nite w/ Sam Wild, 9pm
TUESDAY, APRIL 27 MAD CO. BREW HOUSE Trivia Night, 6pm
185 KING STREET Travis Book & Friends ft. Jeremy Garrett & Jon Stickley (bluegrass), 6:30pm
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28 OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. French Broad Valley Mountain Music Jam, 6pm THE 2ND ACT Open Mic w/ Letters to Abigail, 6pm SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Witty Wednesday Trivia Night, 6:30pm THE GREY EAGLE The Travis Book Happy Hour w/ Jeremy Garrett (bluegrass), 6pm
THURSDAY, APRIL 29 HAZEL ROBINSON AMPHITHEATRE Mipso w/ River Whyless Members (folk), 6pm SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Open Mic , 6pm 185 KING STREET The Neverwhere Sisters (acoustic duo), 7pm
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FREEWILL ASTROLOGY ARIES (March 21-April 19): Blogger Emma Elsworthy wrote her “Self-Care List.” I’ll tell you a few of her 57 action items, in hopes of inspiring you to create your own list. The coming weeks will be a perfect phase to upgrade your focus on doing what makes you feel healthy and holy. Here are Elsworthy’s ideas: Get in the habit of cooking yourself a beautiful breakfast. Organize your room. Clean your mirror and laptop. Lie in the sunshine. Become the person you would ideally fall in love with. Walk with a straight posture. Stretch your body. Challenge yourself to not judge or ridicule anyone for a whole day. Have a luxurious shower with your favorite music playing. Remember your dreams. Fantasize about the life you would lead if failure didn’t exist. TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Some traditional Buddhist monks sit on city streets in Asia with a “begging bowl” in front of them. It’s a clay or iron container they use to solicit money and food from passersby who want to support them. Contemporary American poet Mariannne Boruch regards the begging bowl as a metaphor that helps her generate new poems. She adopts the attitude of the empty vessel, awaiting life’s instructions and inspiration to guide her creative inquiry. This enables her to “avoid too much self-obsession and navel-gazing” and be receptive — “with no agenda besides the usual wonder and puzzlement.” I recommend the begging bowl approach to you as you launch the next phase of your journey, Taurus. GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Gemini-born Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) is today regarded as an innovative and influential painter. But his early years provided few hints that he would ultimately become renowned. As a teenager, he attended naval preparatory school and later he joined the French navy. At age 23, he became a stockbroker. Although he also began dabbling as a painter at that time, it wasn’t until the stock market crashed 11 years later that he made the decision to be a full-time painter. Is there a Gauguin-like turning point in your future, Gemini? If so, its early signs might show itself soon. It won’t be as dramatic or stressful as Gauguin’s, but I bet it will be quite galvanizing. CANCER (June 21-July 22): A research team found that some people pray for things they are reasonably sure God wouldn’t approve of. In a sense, they’re trying to trick the Creator into giving them goodies they’re not supposed to get. Do you ever do that? Try to bamboozle life into offering you blessings you’re not sure you deserve? The coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to dare such ploys. I’m not guaranteeing you’ll succeed, but the chances are much better than usual that you will. The universe is pretty relaxed and generous toward you right now. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In 2013, the New Zealand government decided to rectify the fact that its two main islands had never been assigned formal names. At that time, it gave both an English and Māori-language moniker for each: North Island, or Te Ika-a-Māui, and South Island, or Te Waipounamu. In the spirit of correcting for oversights and neglect, and in accordance with current astrological omens, is there any action you’d like to take to make yourself more official or professional or established? The coming weeks will be a favorable time to do so. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Author Grant Morrison observes that our heads are “big enough to contain every god and devil there ever was. Big enough to hold the weight of oceans and the turning stars. Whole universes fit in there!” That’s why it’s so unfortunate, he says, if we fill up our “magical cabinet” with “little broken things, sad trinkets that we play with over and over.” In accordance with astrological potentials, Virgo, I exhort you to dispose of as many of those sad trinkets and little broken things as you can. Make lots of room to hold expansive visions and marvelous dreams and wondrous possibilities. It’s time to think bigger and feel wilder.
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LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran author bell hooks (who doesn’t capitalize her name) has a nuanced perspective on the nature of our pain. She writes, “Contrary to what we may have been taught, unnecessary and unchosen suffering wounds us, but need not scar us for life.” She acknowledges that unnecessary and unchosen suffering does indeed “mark us.” But we have the power to reshape and transform how it marks us. I think her wisdom will be useful for you to wield in the coming weeks. You now have extra power to reshape and transform the marks of your old pain. You probably won’t make it disappear entirely, but you can find new ways to make it serve you, teach you and ennoble you. SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): I love people who inspire me to surprise myself. I’m appreciative when an ally provides me with a friendly shock that moves me to question my habitual ways of thinking or doing things. I feel lucky when a person I like offers a compassionate critique that nudges me out of a rut I’ve been in. Here’s a secret: I don’t always wait around passively hoping events like these will happen. Now and then I actively seek them out. I encourage them. I ask for them. In the coming weeks, Scorpio, I invite you to be like me in this regard. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): “Where did last year’s lessons go?” asks Gillian Welch in her song “I Dream a Highway.” Now I’m posing the same question to you — just in time for the Remember Last Year’s Lessons Phase of your cycle. In my astrological opinion, it’s crucial for you to recollect and ruminate deeply on the breakdowns and breakthroughs you experienced in 2020; on every spiritual emergency and spiritual emergence you weathered; on all the scary trials you endured and all the sacred trails you trod. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn painter Henri Matisse had a revolutionary influence on 20th-century art, in part because of his raucous use of color. Early in his career he belonged to the movement known as Fauvism, derived from the French term for “wild beasts.” During his final years, he invented a new genre very different from his previous work: large collages of brightly colored cut-out paper. The subject matter, according to critic Jed Perl, included “jungles, goddesses, oceans and the heavens,” and “ravishing signs and symbols” extracted from the depths of “Matisse’s luminosity.” I offer him as a role model for you, Capricorn, because I think it’s a perfect time to be, as Perl describes Matisse, both “a hard-nosed problem-solver and a feverish dreamer.” AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “The guiding motto in the life of every natural philosopher should be, ‘Seek simplicity, but distrust it.’” Aquarian philosopher Alfred North Whitehead wrote that, and now I’m proposing that you use it as your motto in the coming weeks, even if you’re not a natural philosopher. Why? Because I suspect you’ll thrive by uncomplicating your life. You’ll enhance your well-being if you put greater trust in your instinctual nature and avoid getting lost in convoluted thoughts. On the other hand, it’s important not to plunge so deeply into minimalism that you become shallow, careless or unimaginative. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In ancient Greek comic theater, there was a stock character known as the eiron. He was a crafty underdog who outwitted and triumphed over boastful egotists by pretending to be naive. Might I interest you in borrowing from that technique in the coming weeks? I think you’re most likely to be successful if you approach victory indirectly or sideways — and don’t get bogged down trying to forcefully coax skeptics and resisters. Be cagey, understated and strategic, Pisces. Let everyone think they’re smart and strong if it helps ensure that your vision of how things should be will win out in the end.
MOUNTAINX.COM
MARKETPLACE
BY ROB BREZSNY
REAL ESTATE & RENTALS | ROOMMATES | JOBS | SERVICES ANNOUNCEMENTS | CLASSES & WORKSHOPS | MIND, BODY, SPIRIT MUSICIANS’ SERVICES | PETS | AUTOMOTIVE | XCHANGE | ADULT Want to advertise in Marketplace? 828-251-1333 advertise@mountainx.com • mountainx.com/classifieds If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Remember the Russian proverb: “Doveryai, no proveryai,” trust but verify. When answering classified ads, always err on the side of caution. Especially beware of any party asking you to give them financial or identification information. The Mountain Xpress cannot be responsible for ensuring that each advertising client is legitimate. Please report scams to advertise@mountainx.com EMPLOYMENT GENERAL A-B TECH IS HIRING A-B Tech is currently taking applications for a Full-Time position Custodian and Maintenance Technician, Madison. For more details and to apply: https://abtcc.peopleadmin.com/postings/5548
KAYAK ASSEMBLERS AND MOLDERS BIG Adventures is seeking full time Kayak Assemblers and Kayak Molders to start ASAP. All shifts. Email: jobs@ bigadventures.com. 210 Old Airport Rd., Fletcher, NC 28732.
ADMINISTRATIVE/ OFFICE FT CLIENT SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE NEEDED! HEALTHCARE & RETIREMENT BENEFITS! You are the initial point of contact with our clients. Desire to serve disadvantaged populations. 40hrs/week; 8-5pm, $15.80 per hour Deadline: 5/10/21 Submit resume at: www. ontrackwnc.org/hireme
RESTAURANT/ FOOD ASSOCIATE BANQUET STEWARD Haywood Street Congregation is an urban ministry whose primary constituency includes individuals experiencing homelessness. We are seeking a full-time Associate Banquet Steward, an executive chef and highly skilled professional cook, to work side by side with Haywood Street's Banquet Steward in managing the day-to-day operations of the Downtown Welcome Table, a free community meal served to hundreds of individuals twice a week. Access the complete job description at http://haywoodstreet.org/ about/haywood-street-employment/ • haywoodstreet@ haywoodstreet.org
DRIVERS/ DELIVERY MOUNTAIN XPRESS DELIVERY Mountain Xpress is seeking an energetic, reliable, independent contractor for part-time weekly newspaper delivery. The contractor must have a safe driving record, a reliable vehicle with proper insurance and registration, and be able to lift 50 lbs. without strain. Distribution of papers is on Tuesday afternoons and typically lasts about 7-8 hours per week. Occasional Wednesday morning delivery is is sometimes needed or an option. E-mail distro@ mountainx.com. No phone calls or walk-ins please. Central Downtown Asheville route.
MEDICAL/ HEALTH CARE MEDICAL POSITIONS AVAILABLE Medical - $20/hr for C.N.A.’s on L.T.C and behavioral units in Black mountain. All shifts, full time. Call Emily at Worldwide Staffing, 866-633-3700, extension 118.
HUMAN SERVICES AURA HOME WOMEN VETERANS IS LOOKING FOR A GRANT WRITER! We are dedicated to serving homeless women veterans. Payment is negotiable based on experience, please respond to aurahome. alyce@gmail.com. FULL-TIME POSITION: COMMUNITY MENTOR Onsite position(s) at treatment center for LGBTQ+ folx struggling with substance abuse and co-occurring mental health issues. Exp req/33-36k. Daytime and overnight-awake positions available. Send resume/cover letter to info@elevatewellnessandrecovery.com.
TEACHING/ EDUCATION A-B TECH IS HIRING A-B Tech is currently taking applications for a Part-Time position Lab Assistant Instructor, Small Animal Clinical. For more details and to apply: https://abtcc.peopleadmin. com/postings/5580 A-B TECH IS HIRING A-B Tech is currently taking applications for a Full-Time position Program Coordinator, Industry Training and Natural Products laboratory Administration. For more details and to apply: https://abtcc.peopleadmin.com/postings/5571 BILINGUAL HOME VISITOR - EARLY INTERVENTION SPECIALIST $16.46 - $20.58 / HOUR. This position educates and coaches ten - twelve families in the areas of parenting, health, nutrition, and child development through weekly 90-minute home visits to assist parents/guardians in becoming more effective educators of their children. https://wcca.org/careers/ CHILDCARE PARTNERSHIP COORDINATOR $38,052.00 $47,565.00 / Year. The position is responsible for the establishment, compliance and training of EHS Child Care Partners (CCP) in Family Child Care Homes in Transylvania County and for the ongoing monitoring of existing CCP sites. Please apply at https:// wcca.org/careers/ EARLY HEAD START TEACHER This position provides high-quality, responsive caregiving and educational experiences to enhance school readiness that comply with the NC Division of Child Development and Early Education requirements and Head Start Performance Standards in an Early Head Start setting. $14.82 - $18.52 / Hour • https://wcca.org/careers/
FULL-TIME SCHOOL COUNSELOR ArtSpace Charter School has an immediate opening for a full-time school counselor for grades K-8. This position begins as soon as possible. Applicants must have a current North Carolina Professional Educator’s License as Counselor and be willing to work in a collaborative, integrated, experiential environment. Knowledge of the arts and arts integration strategies is preferred but not required. The counselor will be expected to work with students individually and in small groups, collaborate with classroom teachers, and coordinate social emotional learning and bully prevention programs. Send a resume to resumes@artspacecharter.org with a subject heading "School Counselor." NC PRE-K TEACHER $16.46 $20.58 / HOUR. This position involves providing high-quality, educational experiences to enhance school readiness that comply with the NC Division of Child Development and Early Education, Head Start Performance Standards and NC Pre-K program requirements. https:// wcca.org/careers/
ARTS/MEDIA
CALENDAR COORDINATOR & EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Mountain Xpress is looking for an engaged and engaging communicator to gather, organize and present community news and event information across multiple formats: the Xpress website, including our Community Calendar/Clubland online platform; daily email newsletter; and weekly print newspaper. A great candidate is enthusiastic about contributing to Xpress’ community-oriented journalism • has strong writing skills (AP style knowledge a plus!) • sweats the details • is highly organized • collaborates well • meets deadlines. To apply, send a resume and cover letter explaining your passions and expertise to xpressjob@mountainx.com.
FRONT OFFICE & LISTINGS COORDINATOR Mountain Xpress is seeking an organized, multitalented, high-energy, person ready to handle a variety of tasks from connecting incoming callers to the resources they need, to helping develop routines, to simple accounting and collections work. Skills needed are a friendly, professional demeanor, attention to detail, strong verbal and written communication skills, broad computer literacy, including social media and office software tools as well as the ability to self-organize, engage with repetitive data entry and multitask under pressure. Must have a knowledge of Asheville/WNC and be community-minded. Experience in customer service (especially using point-of-sale systems) and/or
publishing preferred. This position is full time; somewhat flexible hours and some benefits are available. To apply, send a cover letter and resume to xpressjob@ mountainx.com.
XCHANGE TOOLS & MACHINERY ITEMS FOR SALE!! Small Gas Grill (Coleman), $50.00. John Deere (Sabre) Riding Mower, $700.00. 20- Inch Mower (New Motor), $140.00. Troy Bilt Self-Propelled Mower, $215.00. Small Gas Weed Eater (New Carb.), $75.00. Call Gene at 828-606-8566.
SALES FOR SALE: WORX WEED EATER WORX weed eater / edger, blower, 2 batteries, charger. Used once. $90. Call June 828.367.8473.
WANTED BUYING OLD PAPER MONEY Asheville, WNC, ETN over 10 years. Fair, open, and responsive. Buying currency, bonds, maps, documents, etc. Email papermoneybuy@gmail.com, or call/text 865-207-8994. Member SPMC, NCNA, SCNA, TNA. FEMALE PIT BULL PLAYMATE Male Pit Bull; 10 years old; Needs female companion for play dates. Your dog can play in my fenced backyard or we could go on walks together. I am in my 70's and live in N. Asheville. Please call Joan at 706.323.4670
SERVICES AUDIO/VIDEO CABLE PRICE INCREASE AGAIN? Switch To DIRECTV & Save + get a $100 visa gift card! Get More Channels For Less Money. Restrictions apply. Call Now! 877-693-0625 (AAN CAN) DISH TV SPECIAL $64.99 For 190 Channels + $14.95 High Speed Internet. Free Installation, Smart HD DVR Included, Free Voice Remote. Some restrictions apply. Promo Expires 7/21/21. 1-855-380-2501 (AAN CAN) HUGHESNET SATELLITE INTERNET Finally, no hard data limits! Call Today for speeds up to 25mbps as low as $59.99/ mo! $75 gift card, terms apply. 1-844-416-7147 (AAN CAN)
HOME 4G LTE HOME INTERNET NOW AVAILABLE! Get GotW3 with lightning fast speeds plus take your service with you when you travel! As low as $109.99/ mo! 1-888-519-0171 (AAN CAN) BATHROOM RENOVATIONS EASY, ONE DAY updates! We specialize in safe bathing. Beautiful new walk-in showers with no slip flooring. Also, grab bars and seated showers available. Call for a free in-home consultation: 877-752-6295 (AAN CAN)
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ACROSS 1 Get on 6 It may be found on the side of a bank 9 Parts of some chains NEVER PAY FOR COVERED HOME REPAIRS AGAIN! Complete Care Home Warranty COVERS ALL MAJOR SYSTEMS AND APPLIANCES. 30 DAY RISK FREE. $200.00 OFF + 2 FREE Months! 1-877-673-0511 | Hours Mon-Thu, Sun: 9:30 am to 8:00 pm Fri: 9:30 am to 2:00 pm (all times Eastern) (AAN CAN)
HOME IMPROVEMENT HANDY MAN HIRE A HUSBAND • HANDYMAN SERVICES Since 1993. Multiple skill sets. Reliable, trustworthy, quality results. Insured. References and estimates available. Stephen Houpis, (828) 280-2254.
ANNOUNCEMENTS ANNOUNCEMENTS ATTENTION ACTIVE DUTY & MILITARY VETERANS! Begin a new career and earn your Degree at CTI! Online Computer & Medical training available for Veterans & Families! To learn more, call 855-541-6634 (AAN CAN) BECOME A PUBLISHED AUTHOR! We edit, print and distribute your work internationally. We do the work… You reap the Rewards! Call for a FREE Author’s Submission Kit: 844-511-1836. (AAN CAN) DO YOU OWE OVER $10K TO THE IRS OR STATE IN BACK TAXES? Our firm works to reduce the tax bill or zero it out completely FAST. Let us help! Call 855-955-0702. (Hours: Mon-Fri 7am-5pm PST)
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20 If you think country singers 15 16 can’t do hair, you haven’t seen ___ 18 19 22 Barbershop amenity 21 26 Look up to 26 27 Deck out 28 Consumed 28 29 29 Headed up 31 32 33 34 30 Nickelodeon “explorer” 37 38 31 Fears 40 41 35 If you think pop balladeers can’t 46 run fast, you haven’t seen ___ 49 50 51 39 Angry outbursts 53 40 Only United Nations member 55 56 57 58 59 whose name starts with “O” 61 62 42 Tombstone letters 45 Barbecue spot 64 65 46 Heaven-sent food 14 Film festival 17 If you think actors 47 In entry, informally have two left feet, 49 Purpose of a faucet attachment 15 Flatow of public you haven’t seen radio 52 If you think ___ economists don’t 16 Message that, lose their cool, despite the 19 Panasonic you haven’t seen name, isn’t ___ necessarily chirpy subsidiary DONATE YOUR CAR TO KIDS Your donation helps fund the search for missing children. Accepting Trucks, Motorcycles & RV’s , too! Fast Free Pickup – Running or Not - 24 Hour Response - Maximum Tax Donation – Call 877-266-0681 (AAN CAN)
No. 0317
54 To love, in Italy 55 If you think film directors are always satisfied, you haven’t seen ___ 60 One without a kind word to say 61 G.I.’s address 62 Like a tightrope walker 63 Hose problems 64 Ranger’s home, in brief 65 Something matzo lacks
DOWN 1 See 2-Down 2 With 1-Down, the smallest amount
puzzle by Peter A. Collins 9 Cry while shaking hands
38 Discontinued iPod
11 Dal ingredient
41 Bread served with dal, maybe
49 Letter in El Al’s logo
42 Indian royalty
50 Counterpart of la luna
12 Pal of Roo in “Winnie-thePooh” 13 High 18 “Quit your stalling!” 21 Barbecue spots 22 Consumed 23 Leslie ___ Jr. of the original “Hamilton” cast 24 Bagel shapes 25 Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense,” e.g. 28 French monastery resident 31 Equal pay, e.g. 32 Passion
4 Cleared (of)
33 Like Mother Hubbard and King Cole
6 Ticket specification 7 Online provocateur 8 A host of
48 Removal of restrictions, informally
10 What locusts do
3 Throw in 5 Exact
37 Discontinued Dodge
34 Animal that’s a little weaselly? 36 Many regulars at artisan coffee shops
43 1967 hit that starts “Well, my pad is very messy and there’s whiskers on my chin”
51 Kind of room 53 Actor McGregor 56 Get on in years
44 One hanging around a party with swingers?
57 Through
46 Salvador Dalí contemporary
59 Dot follower, maybe
58 Loop loopers
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS NY TIMES PUZZLE M E N T A L
O T O O L E
S T R O K E
W A S H
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S L A T
J U M A S I Y E A
S M U E M A M A N A L I O N S E G P S O W R E T T A K S P O B O A N R S
I C K Y E E K H E I F E R
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G I F O S E T H E U P D O
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Mountain Xpress 27th Annual
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MIND, BODY, SPIRIT COUNSELING SERVICES
2021
ASTRO-COUNSELING Licensed counselor and accredited professional astrologer uses your chart when counseling for additional insight into yourself, your relationships and life directions. Stellar Counseling Services. Christy Gunther, MA, LCMHC. (828) 258-3229.
PETS LOST PETS LOST KITTY - REWARD Black & White, about 8 months old. Lost on the Island in Marshall and $500.00 reward. 434.391.4613.
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