Smoky Mountain News | January 31, 2024 by Smoky Mountain News

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Western North Carolina’s Source for Weekly News, Entertainment, Arts, and Outdoor Information

Jan. 31-Feb. 6, 2024 Vol. 25 Iss. 36

New COVID variant, flu spike in December Page 7 Ela Dam owner asks to let go of its license Page 22

CONTENTS On the Cover: It’s been almost three years, but the catastrophic flood that ravaged Haywood County is fresh on residents’ minds, especially considering there are still plenty of cleanup and recovery efforts still in the works. Here’s an update on where those efforts stand, as well as a recap of a summit in Greenville that brought together state and local leaders, including Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers, to talk about future prevention, mitigation and recovery strategies. (Page 8) File photo

News Canton eyes Bethel Christian Academy for flood project........................................4 ‘Cowboy’ Coward, Deliverance actor and local legend, killed in wreck..............5 Macon receives $62 million grant for new high school............................................6 New COVID variant, flu spike in December ................................................................7 Public hearing scheduled for Sylva solicitation ordinance ....................................11 Sylva starts budget process with needs vs. wants ................................................12 Guaranteed college scholarship program launches in N.C. ................................13

Opinion Working together to raise good conversationalists ................................................14 Registering ‘Unaffiliated’ is a wise choice ..................................................................14

A&E Casting into the future: A conversation with Woody Platt ....................................16 HART students win national awards............................................................................20

Outdoors

Jan. 31-Feb. 6, 2024

Ela Dam owner asks to let go of its hydropower license ......................................22 Do doggy first aid in the backcountry..........................................................................24

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Scott McLeod. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . info@smokymountainnews.com Greg Boothroyd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . greg@smokymountainnews.com Micah McClure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . micah@smokymountainnews.com Jessica Murray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . jessica.m@smokymountainnews.com Jack Snyder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . jack.s@smokymountainnews.com Stefanee Sherman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . stefanee@mtnsouthmedia.com Susanna Shetley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . susanna.b@smokymountainnews.com Amanda Bradley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . amanda.b@smokymountainnews.com Sophia Burleigh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . sophia.b@smokymountainnews.com Scott Collier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . classads@smokymountainnews.com Kyle Perrotti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . kyle.p@smokymountainnews.com Holly Kays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . holly@smokymountainnews.com Hannah McLeod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . hannah@smokymountainnews.com Cory Vaillancourt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . cory@smokymountainnews.com Garret K. Woodward. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . garret@smokymountainnews.com Jamie Cogdill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . smnbooks@smokymountainnews.com Scott Collier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . classads@smokymountainnews.com Jeff Minick (writing), Chris Cox (writing), Don Hendershot (writing), Thomas Crowe (writing)

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news

Canton eyes Bethel Christian Academy for flood project BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS E DITOR he Town of Canton has taken a major step toward long-term flood recovery with an economic development project at a downtown parcel that could soon serve as the capstone to a broader resiliency effort all along the Park Street corridor, if the property owners agree. “I think it shows you that you don’t have to choose between flood resiliency and economic development. Any project in our river district has to have a mitigation component to it, and it can be done,” said Zeb Smathers, Canton’s Mayor. “I applaud the cooperation between all the parties involved.” When the remnants of Tropical Storm

in voicing their opinion that it will happen again, maybe soon. Built in 1965 as the Canton YMCA, the 39,000 square-foot school sits on a 6.5-acre parcel on the west bank of the Pigeon River — squarely in the river’s floodway — and has been repeatedly damaged by flooding in the past. The lowest floor of the school is actually more than 13 feet below the 100-year flood level. The Milltown Strong Pigeon River Floodway Acquisition and Park Conversion project could result in the acquisition and demolition of the school and put a flood-resistant park in its place. Preliminary drawings show the eastern

Fred hit Haywood County’s Pigeon River on Aug. 17, 2021, rural areas upriver were flooded out, killing six people. Once the water finally reached Canton, a significant portion of downtown took on several feet of water, which gutted businesses, homes, government facilities and a 25-year-old school in a 58-yearold building — Bethel Christian Academy. It was the second 500-year flood in less than 20 years. Local leaders haven’t been shy

half of the parcel nearest the river, about 3.6 acres, with a boardwalk and terraced overlook near a recreational lawn. Ecological restoration throughout and reforestation along the border the parcel shares with Pactiv Evergreen’s 185-acre site would cut down on the 2.5 acres of impervious ground cover — the school, and the large, paved area surrounding it — that currently serves solely as a source of runoff

Smoky Mountain News

Jan. 31-Feb. 6, 2024

Drawings show a radical rethinking of how the parcel home to Bethel Christian Academy in Canton will soon look, if the town is selected for a FEMA grant. Town of Canton photo

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neering and permitting costs, requires a $12,800 match. “In this case, we already have that in hand, so the town will be able to move forward with phase one without having to procure any additional resources,” said Travis Klondike, associate director of the CDDL.

Bethel Christian Academy in Canton, seen here in 2021, is subject to regular flooding. File photo

The CDDL has met with success in the past, securing funding from the North Carolina Department of Justice, the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, the Department of Emergency Services, philanthropic organizations and nonprofits like the Golden Leaf Foundation. The deadline for local match funding is March 2027, but the project timeline could proceed more quickly if everything goes smoothly and local match funds materialize sooner than that. On Jan. 25, Canton’s board of aldermen took the first step to phase one by approving a local match commitment letter that essentially promises the town will meet the local match amount if the project is selected. If it’s not selected, if local match funds aren’t available, if Bethel Baptist refuses to sell or if Canton officials simply change their minds, the town can pull out of the project at any point prior to construction, without penalty. Its only outlay, then, would be some staff time spent studying the project and applying for the grant. Last year, North Carolina had 22 projects selected for the BRIC program. This year, the state has ranked Canton’s project as number five in the state — good odds for selection. “It’s very likely to be selected in this year’s grant cycle,” said Klondike.

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and pollution instead of as a floodplain like nature intended. A playground is planned near the 34space parking lot and its adjoining overhead shelter. No immediate changes are expected for the baseball field, but the drawing does show plans for terraced grass stadium seating between the parking lot and the diamond. The entire project is slated for 36 months, with phase one planning beginning in summer 2025 and phase two — property transfer, site work and construction — beginning in March 2027. The project is dependent on the successful award of a Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant from FEMA. The project is also dependent on acceptance of a purchase offer by the building’s owner, Bethel Baptist Church. Haywood County has assessed the building and land’s value at $3.24 million; however, there’s no way the church could build an equivalent replacement for that amount. “They better have a chunk [of money] because we have one of the nicest buildings in the county,” said Bobby Shelton, chair of deacons at Bethel Baptist. Shelton stressed that he doesn’t speak for the church and that he’s only expressing his own opinion. Andy Fox, director and co-founder of the Coastal Dynamics Design Lab at N.C. State University said he’d worked with Canton Town Manager Nick Scheuer on the grant application. The project budget is set at $6.7 million with a required local match of 10% of the cost if the project is selected. “Our goal there is to eventually get to a point where not only do we have federal funds necessary for project implementation, but to also seek additional funds external to the community that act that serve as the matching portion,” Fox said. Regularly working with communities on projects of this scale, the CDDL also tracks a variety of no-match state grants that can help those communities substantially reduce or completely eliminate the local match. For example, phase one of the Canton project, which is $128,000 in design, engi-

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‘Cowboy’ Coward, actor and local legend, killed in wreck

William R. Robinson, a columnist for Newsmax, will moderate a Primary Election debate be-tween 11th Congressional District Republican candidates Christian Reagan, a businessman from Hayesville, and first-term incumbent Rep. Chuck Edwards — if Edwards shows up. According to Robinson, Edwards has declined the opportunity to debate his opponent, but the invitation still stands. Either way, Reagan will be in attendance to answer questions posed by Robinson — and the public — beginning at 1 p.m. at the A-B Tech Asheville campus, 340 Victoria Road, Asheville. The event is free.

to be nice to people. That’s how people will remember you when you die, is how you treated people. If you’re not good to people, after a year or two they don’t remember you when you’re dead and gone.”

Coward was believed to be 86 years old at the time of his passing. Arrangements have not yet been announced. SMN News Editor Kyle Perrotti contributed to this report.

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Herbert “Cowboy” Coward disciplines his unruly pet squirrel, named Angel, at his home near Clyde in 2019. Cory Vaillancourt photo

Jan. 31-Feb. 6, 2024

through role of Lewis Medlock in a raftinggone-wrong movie based on a novel by James Dickey. In 2018, Reynolds told late night talk show host Conan O’Brien how he introduced Cowboy to director John Boorman. “I said, ‘I know a guy, he can’t read and he can’t write or anything, but I’m telling ya, if we can get him, we got something special,’” Reynolds told O’Brien. “’Let me bring him in. His name’s Cowboy, and he’ll just talk to you, and you see if you like him.’” They did, and Coward’s portrayal of “Toothless Man,” part of a trio of baddies who kidnap and accost Reynolds, Ned Beatty and Jon Voight, terrified audiences and led some to walk out of theaters when the movie was first released. After playing one of the most memorable villains in movie history, Cowboy returned to his Haywood County home and worked a series of factory jobs, maintaining his friendship with Reynolds until Reynolds died in 2018. “Burt said he didn’t have but three friends — real friends — and I was one of them, because I never asked him for nothing,” Cowboy told The Smoky Mountain News after Reynolds’ passing. “He said, ‘That’s what you call a good friend. There’s a difference between a friend and somebody that wants something from you.’” Cowboy never shied away from fame and routinely fielded calls from strangers asking him to repeat his famous movie line in his famously thick Appalachian accent. Nor was Cowboy overly perturbed by being known as a movie villain. “It don’t bother me at all,” he told SMN in 2019. “It’s just part of acting, you know. It was just another character to me.” People who got to know Cowboy also quickly realized he was nothing like the silver screen character he had portrayed all those years ago. Humble, introspective, affable and an animal lover, Cowboy was often accompanied by at least one of his pet squirrels tethered to his bib overalls, whether at the grocery store or at Long’s Chapel Methodist Church, where he worshipped regularly — a stark contrast to the murderous backwoods villain he’s best known for portraying. Visitors to Cowboy’s home near Clyde invariably got to see the handmade wooden casket he’d procured for himself and proudly displayed in his parlor; in his later years, Cowboy was at ease with his mortality. “When you die you have to have a casket, and you better be ready to meet the Lord,” he said. “Everybody’s gotta die. I just want to live a good life and go to church, try

news

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS E DITOR erbert “Cowboy” Coward, a Haywood County native who shot to stardom after his hair-raising performance as a villain in the 1972 Burt Reynolds film “Deliverance,” was killed in a traffic accident in Haywood County last week. Sgt. Michael Owens with the North Carolina Highway Patrol said troopers responded to a 911 call reporting the collision at 3:23 p.m. Owens said Coward and his partner, Bertha Brooks, were leaving a doctor’s appointment from an office off U.S. 19 between Clyde and Canton when Coward failed to yield. The small Nissan passenger car he was driving was struck on the passenger side by a Ford F-150 driven by a 16-year-old. Neither Coward nor Brooks were wearing seatbelts. Owens added that speed was not a factor. “We had multiple witnesses who stated the driver of the F-150 wasn’t speeding,” he said. “And our investigation of the damage at the scene also led us to believe that.” Also killed in the crash along with Coward and Brooks were their pet chihuahua and Coward’s pet squirrel. Coward came to work on the 1972 blockbuster film, in which he delivered his famous “He got a real purty mouth, ain’t he?” line. He’d landed that role after befriending Hollywood actor Burt Reynolds when the two worked as “gunfighters” at the Ghost Town in the Sky amusement park in Maggie Valley in the early 1970s. Born to Fred and Moody Parker Coward in 1938, Cowboy worked as an itinerant laborer to help support his family after the death of their mother. As a heavy equipment operator, Cowboy traveled the United States but eventually settled back down in the county where he was born. He subsequently met amusement park impresario Hubert Presley, who in the early 1960s offered Cowboy a job clearing a road up Fie Top Mountain to what would soon become a wild west-themed amusement park featuring live performances of gunfights in the streets every hour, on the hour. Eventually, Cowboy was offered the role of a gunfighter, losing his two front teeth when an overzealous castmate accidentally knocked them out with the butt end of a pistol. It was there that Cowboy met Reynolds, whose career had experienced something of a down-turn after he left the epic television western series “Gunsmoke” in 1965. The two became fast friends, and Reynolds remembered Cowboy when he was called away to star in what would be his break-

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Macon receives $62 million grant for new high school

BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER acon County is one step closer to a new Franklin High School after state leaders awarded $62 million for the project. “This is a project that we’ve worked on for a long time; we’re very excited about it,” said School Board Chairman Jim Breedlove. “It’s for the betterment of our children in Macon County, and there’s nothing more important than that as far as we’re concerned.” On Jan. 23, Rep. Karl Gillespie (RMacon), Sen. Kevin Corbin (R-Macon) and State Superintendent Catherine Truitt attended a joint meeting of the Macon County School Board and the Macon County Commission to award the funds. The money comes from the Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund, awarded through the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction with revenue from the North Carolina Education Lottery. Grant funds are available to eligible counties for construction of new school buildings, additions, repairs and renovations of existing school facilities. Counties with an adjusted market value of taxable property of less than $40 billion are eligible to apply for a grant, meaning only seven counties in the state are excluded. Generally speaking, it is the responsibility of county governments to pay for capital projects and the state to pay for employees, though there are some locally funded and federally funded positions within school systems. However, in the 1980s, the North Carolina state government began helping small, rural communities pay for capital projects. Now, that state aid has transformed into the Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund.

State officials present Macon County with $62 million for a new high school. NCDPI photo extra help through the lottery funds that they are appropriating,” said Truitt during the joint meeting. “I think it’s important for everyone in this room to know how wellrespected [Corbin and Gillespie] are in the legislature and how they fight very hard every session to make sure that the far west is recognized, that people know what’s happening in the far west and how the far west contributes to the economy of the rest of the state and that resources are coming to the far west because of these two men.” Because there have been instances when counties have received the needs-based grant and then not been able to deliver on using the money for its intended project, part of Truitt’s trip was to determine community support for the project. While some commissioners have not been fully supportive of a new school, the board unanimously

The new school is designed for a capacity of around 1,400 students, which includes the consolidation with Bartram Academy Alternative High School. “We don’t get involved in local affairs,” said Corbin. “The decision to build a school is local, the decision to fund a school is local, we were not involved in that decision. But when you apply for a state grant that we had funded, you better believe that we’re going to be advocating for our counties.” “It’s locally elected officials’ jobs to make local decisions. It’s our job to make sure that every day we bring 100% of available funding back to our district,” said Gillespie. While Macon County has a 5% required local match for the grant, the county will likely be on the hook for much more. The entire cost of the new high school is estimated at around $100 million. “I am so grateful to the General Assembly for making available this capital needs-based grant because we do have districts and counties that are in need of some

approved a memorandum of understanding in June that stipulated the county’s intent to use any funds received through the NeedsBased Public School Capital Fund for the new high school project. The purpose of the memorandum was to ensure elected representatives in the North Carolina General Assembly that Macon County would use grant funds for the new high school. In order to show even broader community support for the project, representatives from the Chamber of Commerce attended the joint meeting last week, along with the mayors of both Franklin and Highlands. “As stewards of Macon County resources, we as a chamber board often get asked about the educational facilities available in our area,” said Chamber President Matt Corbin. “The new high school project will benefit our community as a whole and

encourage young families to look favorably at Macon County as a place to raise and educate their children.” Franklin Mayor Jack Horton previously worked as Macon County Manager. “The county has always been a big supporter of our school system. Through the years, we’ve done a lot of projects in the schools and so forth, but this is a tremendous project that’s been needed and well documented for a long time,” said Horton. “I applaud the Board of Education and the county commissioners and everyone together trying to make this project happen.” Horton said that all six members of the Franklin Town Board are in support of the new high school, and that the town plans to adopt a resolution in support of the project. While Highlands is home to one of the few K-12 schools left in the State of North Carolina, the mayor and fellow board members still showed their support for a new Franklin High School. “We are here because we believe in the best interest of students,” said Highlands Mayor Patrick Taylor. “This will be a tremendous asset to this entire county and region to realize a new Franklin High School. We endorse this.” Macon County has been working with LS3P design firm since the end of 2021 when the county solicited its services to assess the existing high school campus to evaluate needs and deficiencies. When weighing the merits of building a new school versus renovating the existing campus, LS3P found that it would be most efficient to build a new school, in part due to the number of separate buildings that make up the current campus. The new school is designed for a capacity of around 1,400 students, which includes the consolidation with Bartram Academy Alternative High School. “We think that is a real value add for this community because of the expansive amount of resources available to alternative

high school students when they are on the Franklin High School campus,” said Emily Kite, architect with LS3P. Plans for the new campus also include about 30 classrooms for the flourishing Career and Technical Education programs at FHS. The new campus will be entirely contained in one building which will help with ADA compliance and all-around safety. But there will also be an outdoor courtyard that allows students a place to be outside in a protected environment. LS3P is currently in the last phase of its portion of the project, as architects are drawing up construction documents. “Our hope is that our documents would be complete in time for construction to start sort of around that April to July window, depending on how everything lines up,” said Kite. Following the brief presentation from LS3P, Truitt announced that Macon County would be the recipient of the $62 million grant, the most that can be awarded through the needs-based program for a new high school. “This was a no-brainer, we could not be more excited to award you this grant,” said Truitt. “We know that the Franklin Panthers will be so excited to have their new school. Thank you to all of you who worked so hard.” Corbin congratulated the county and the school system and said that credit was due to the fact that such a thorough plan was already in place for the school. Breedlove said that this had been a goal for the entire 15 years he has been a school board member. “As superintendent of schools, I am a product of Macon County Schools,” said Superintendent Josh Lynch. “As I look to the future impact that this will have, I have my own kids who are in this great system, and they will be impacted by this, and their kids will be impacted by this, so we are grateful for the opportunity and I’m just thankful. Thank you so much.”

“COVID deaths have still been about three times the flu.” While deaths and hospitalizations are easy for officials to track, it’s nearly impossible to get an entirely accurate count of cases now that tools like contact tracing are no longer used. Articles about the recent nationwide spike cite wastewater analysis, a relatively unreliable method that isn’t even employed in most Western North Carolina communities since there aren’t enough people connected to public sewer systems. In this region, only the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, as well as Henderson, Jackson and Buncombe counties, do wastewater analysis to monitor viral activity.

the vaccine can cause myocarditis in young males; however, he added that people with COVID are still five times more likely to get myocarditis than those who receive the vaccine. Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle usually associated with a viral infection. When it comes to the continued hold disinformation maintains over some people, Banks said the specific thing that irks her has been the continued belief that the vaccine is intended to prevent any illness, so any time someone who’s been vaccinated becomes infected, people can point to those cases and say the vaccine doesn’t work at all.

“The flu is causing more respiratory illness, but COVID has been causing more serious illness, including deaths. COVID deaths have still been about three times the flu.” — Dr. Mark Jaben, Haywood County Medical Director

Primary Election voter registration deadline draws near The civilian voter registration deadline for the March 5 Primary Election is rapidly approaching, so now’s a good time to double-check your registration or register to vote if you already haven’t. A slew of candidates seeking local and statewide offices — including governor and every member of North Carolina’s council of state — are up this year, along with congressional and presidential candidates from major parties. Democrats, Libertarians and Republicans must vote in their party’s primary; however, unaffiliated voters may choose which party’s ballot to use.

“The vaccine has never been about preventing any illness; it’s about preventing serious illness,” she said. “No vaccine has ever been designed to guarantee you won’t get an illness. That’s why we are seeing a resurgence of vaccine-preventable illness, because the lack of vaccine uptake.” But Banks said the biggest factor may simply be “COVID fatigue.” “If they got COVID after they were vaccinated and they did well, some people felt like they had enough coverage at that point, but the people who had the same outcome without the vaccine feel the same way, as though the vaccine wasn’t necessary,” Banks said. Jaben said that while the new JN-1 strain may necessitate a new COVID booster, he noted that it isn’t causing serious illness as frequently in people who have the latest booster onboard. However, it is still highly transmissible, so even if someone feels confident in their ability to stave off serious infection, they can still pass it on to someone who is at higher risk. The consensus is that, like other years, 2024 will bring waves of COVID, and considering vaccines wane over time, Jaben said it’s best for people to ensure they are up on

Prospective voters who haven’t registered can do so in person at their county board of elections office or at their local DMV before 5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 9, which is likewise the deadline to change party affiliation. It’s also a good time to update your address if it’s changed since the last election. Online applications, with a North Carolina driver’s license, are also accepted. There is an option to register by mail; however, with the deadline at hand it’s perhaps best to find another way. Visit ncsbe.gov/registering to learn more about how to register. Take note of voter qualifications and have proper proof-ofidentity documents ready, to make your registration process quick and easy. For registered voters — check your address, party affiliation, polling place (some have changed) and preview a sample ballot

by visiting vt.ncsbe.gov/reglkup. Absentee ballots are already being mailed out to registered voters who’ve requested them; get yours at votebymail.ncsbe.gov before 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 27. In-person early voting for the March 5 Primary Election begins on Thursday, Feb. 15, and continues through 3 p.m. on March 2. Find your site at vt.ncsbe.gov/evsite. North Carolina does provide the option to register to vote in person for some during the early voting period. Voters must have resided in the county no less than 30 days. There’s also an option to register and vote in person, on Election Day. Voters and members of the military who are overseas or away from home face different requirements and different deadlines. For all election-related questions, visit ncsbe.gov.

Smoky Mountain News

However, Jaben said they still do what surveillance they can, and Banks said they get a good idea of trends by maintaining frequent communication with doctors, healthcare providers and even patients. Solutions and mitigation techniques are similar to what they’ve always been, especially when it comes to keeping vaccination numbers as high as possible. Jaben said that while this season’s flu vaccine has had a “pretty good uptake,” especially among older populations, people have been less likely to receive the COVID vaccine. However, the COVID vaccine is still integral in preventing serious illness, especially in older and immune-compromised people. Jaben and Banks both think the lingering effects of disinformation campaigns have left some people reticent when it comes to the vaccine — which has also bared out recently in the reduction of parents who are inoculating their children against measles. There have been myriad conspiracy theories regarding everything from the COVID vaccine’s efficacy to side effects even to its intended purpose — some still believe the vaccine is a form of population control. Jaben said only one thing he’s heard from these groups has proven true —

the latest booster. The FDA committee that handles those vaccines is supposed to meet in February, Jaben said, and if a new booster that’s tailored to prevent serious illness from JN-1 is approved, he recommends getting it as soon as possible. “This most recent vaccine will add to the effectiveness of that ‘covid wall,’” Jaben said. Another treatment that has proven successful for some who are at risk of serious illness has been Paxlovid, but Jaben said that works best if taken as soon as infection is suspected. Because the antigen tests aren’t always able to pick up illness until days after symptoms start, that can be difficult. In addition, Jaben said the medication can interact with many others, making it tough to prescribe for everyone. He said the key is to focus on prevention and mitigation in ways people can control. Banks and Jaben both said that whenever symptoms begin, even if a person thinks it’s just a cold or allergies or some other “garden-variety illness,” as Jaben called it, they should take precautions as though it may be COVID or the flu, because by the time symptoms become more severe, infection may have already spread to others. “There’s no way to really tell if you’re sick with COVID or the flu,” Jaben said. “Don’t write it off as allergies or a cold and then pass it on to someone who’s sensitive, because we are having people dying in our community.” Even if people are healthy and have fared well with the virus before, Banks recommends taking whatever precautions they can, because serious illness or long COVID are still occurring from time to time even in younger, less vulnerable populations. “What I tell my staff and my family is wash your hands first and foremost,” she said. “We know that washing your hands the single best way to stop the spread of germs.” Although the latest surge has waned, Banks and Jaben warn that the same guidance will continue to apply, especially since the one guarantee is that there will be more surges. “COVID hasn’t gone away,” Banks said. “It is still here, and respiratory illness is very, very high in our community right now, and people are getting severely ill.”

Jan. 31-Feb. 6, 2024

BY KYLE PERROTTI N EWS E DITOR aywood County hadn’t logged a coronavirus-related death in the better part of a year. But since Dec. 19, 2023, it has seen five. This comes amid a national and statewide surge fueled by the new JN-1 variant, which now comprises about 80% of cases. According to reporting from Stateline, the virus is continuing to take thousands of lives a month as wastewater samples indicate a recent spike in cases that peaked in mid-December with about 1.9 million daily infections nationwide. Surging alongside coronavirus infections have been flu cases, which have also led to hospitalizations around the state, and even some deaths. Haywood County Medical Director Dr. Mark Jaben has been one of the most consistent voices in the region when it comes to informing the public of viral spikes and how to mitigate them. He said that this year, COVID and the flu were both steady all summer, which is unusual in the case of the flu due to the virus’ sensitivity to heat and humidity. In September, there was a smaller COVID spike that lasted a few months and led to multiple hospitalizations. Next, there was a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) spike. That illness typically affects infants and elderly people but can still be dangerous for the greater community. “There were some hospitalizations here, but not as much as nationwide,” Jaben said. “That spike peaked around late November.” Officials began to see another increase in COVID and flu cases, and Jaben said that by mid-December, the region was in the middle of a full-on surge, just in time for the holiday season and all the gatherings that come with it. At that time, the county notched up from the low-risk category to medium risk. In a span of just a few weeks, there were five COVID-related deaths. “I had not seen a COVID death in a while, and then we got several all at one time right around Christmas,” said Dr. Sarah Banks, the Haywood County’s health director. “The flu is causing more respiratory illness, but COVID has been causing more serious illness, including deaths,” Jaben said.

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New COVID variant, flu spike in December

— Cory Vaillancourt, politics editor 7

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From risk to resiliency Floodwaters from the Pigeon River tossed mobile homes and cars around like toys in 2021. Scott McLeod photo

State waters summit highlights red tape, funding deficiencies BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS E DITOR n annual waters summit hosted by a pair of North Carolina congressmen brought together local, state and federal administrators, experts and elected officials who spent a lot of time looking back at the sad recent legacy of flood control, mitigation and recovery efforts in the state — hampered by funding anxiety, ensnarled in bureaucracy, stressed by the impact of growing populations on aging infrastructure and impeded by way too many government agencies on way too many levels that are all somehow siloed yet still tangled up like fallen trees in a raging river. “This is a North Carolina issue, and it’s bringing out leadership across partisan lines,” said Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers, who attended the Greenville summit and participated in one of the panel discussions. “I think this is the issue of our time.” The issue is complicated, but North Carolina’s General Assembly is putting a lot of hope in a forward-looking blueprint so that if the dollars appear and the red tape disappears, governments will be able to act. “If all we do is talk about this,” said Congressman Greg Murphy (R-Pitt), “then we should all go home.”

Jan. 31-Feb. 6, 2024

looding happens in different ways in different areas across North Carolina, but its impact on the state’s number one industry, agriculture, affects everyone. Even though agriculture isn’t a huge industry in Haywood County, streets were strewn with hundreds upon hundreds of beautiful, ripe green peppers after deadly flooding tore through Bethel, Canton, Clyde and Cruso in August 2021. With catastrophic flooding becoming more frequent, the substantial amount of land held by agrarian concerns large and small could hold the key to mitigation that would save lives, save millions of dollars and help thousands downriver, including in rural Haywood County. “The river floods a lot more than it used to. No doubt about it,” said Lawrence Davenport, a Pitt County native and fourth generation farmer who lives on the Tar River. When Davenport built his home in 1976, he measured the depth of the river at 24 feet. In 2016, he measured the depth at 16 feet. It used to take 5 or 6 inches of rain to flood the river near his home. Now, Davenport says, it’s only 2 or 3 inches. He estimates a third of the river’s carrying capacity has vanished. The main culprit is sediment, and farmers like Davenport find themselves at the forefront of debris and 8 sediment management.

Smoky Mountain News

Dredging, Davenport said, has become a dirty word in North Carolina. While it’s great for keeping waterways clear, studies show that it’s also devastating to local ecology, so it’s not always a viable solution. Mitigation strategies like field borders, riparian buffers, livestock exclusion zones, reforestation efforts and cover crop programs have all contributed to a reduction in sedimentation, but they’re still not enough, according to David Williams, director of the N.C. Department of Agriculture’s Soil and Water Conservation division. Keith Larick, the natural resources director for the N.C. Farm Bureau Federation, thinks there’s an opportunity to combine water storage with flood control measures, on-site. In 2011, North Carolina authorized the AgWRAP program, which helps small agricultural operators making less than $250,000 a year implement best practices on their land. Those best practices include agricultural water storage strategies, like the creation of farm ponds. Implementation funding is reimbursable, so applicants have to come out-of-pocket at least for a time. Projects are mostly capped at $75,000 or $100,000, with a 10% to 25% match for the applicant. Then, there’s the application and permitting to handle. Larick told Congressman David Rouzer (R-New Hanover) that streamlining the whole process could be beneficial, especially with the Army Corps of Engineers, which is responsible for protection of many of the nation’s waterways. “I’ve seen some projects in other states where when a farmer wants to build a pond they can go to the Corps, they can demonstrate, ‘Here’s this water resources need that I have,’ and in many cases that pond is exempt from permitting, or it is a very straightforward permitting process,” said Larick. Rouzer said that his efforts in Washington, D.C. were already directed at the “weaponization of permitting” that has slowed or stopped projects in the energy sector, but he also acknowledged the lack of a task force approach, whereby all the players understand exactly how that streamlining must take place on the federal and state level so local-level implementations can take place. “And keep in mind,” Rouzer said, “we weren’t thinking along these lines until relatively recently, because of what we’ve experienced and what we’ve endured from a flooding standpoint the last 20 years or so.” It’s over the course of those 20 years that many of the flood control projects of the 1950s and 1960s approached the end of their service lives. When some of those dams, berms and levies were built, North Carolina’s population was around 4 million. Today, it’s approaching 11 million.

John Langdon, a Benson native, farmer and chair of the North Carolina Soil and Water Commission points to infrastructure as a lingering weakness. “The DOT does a really good job of designing and building roads and bridges,” Langdon said. “But it appears that in rural America, we’re not doing as good a job of maintaining those drainage ditches and keeping the culverts [clear] so that small events don’t create a large event.” Williams said that while bureaucracy had been a barrier to rehabilitating old flood control measures and building new ones, like paying farmers to take on stormwater and then release it after the flood, so had funding. “I’ll go back to the water farming, for instance. Right now, we have no funding mechanism for water farming,” Williams said. “That can play such an important role in how we go forward with using the ag land base to benefit everybody, the communities downstream. And the farmer needs to benefit from it, too.” A pair of experts from Louisiana, Mark Harrell and Brandon Waggoner, shared their success stories in mitigating both coastal and inland flooding, but expressed worry over federal funding as populations naturally increase. Harrell, the recently retired director of the Livingston Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, testified to Louisiana’s population growth and its effect on flood control. “Huge,” Harrell said. “The runoff from all the development is hurting everything we have.” Waggoner, director of the Tensas Basin Levee District in northeast Louisiana, offered a different perspective on dredging. “’Dredge’ is a good word in Louisiana. We want dredging dollars, and the president puts it in budgets, and we like it,” he said, drawing applause from the 200-person audience. “It’s not an ugly word where I’m from.” But it all comes down to funding. If and when they’re available, federal funds usually trickle down to states, but availability isn’t the only obstacle. Murphy echoed Rouzer’s disdain for the bureaucracy that officials in Haywood County know all too well; currently, there are no less than 19 different federal departments or agencies with funding streams for mitigation, resiliency and recovery. “Primarily, the flood control measures that we have in our area were put there by the Corps of Engineers,” Waggoner said. “One of the problems that we run into is that the Corps has lack of funding … If it’s built by federal dollars and they’re not helping to keep it up, then that falls back on our state.” Most Corps projects begin with a study to

Trapped in a log cabin just off Cruso Road, Natasha Bright could do little more than watch as deadly floodwaters surged. Natasha bright photo

The rising sun paints an ugly scene at Pisgah High School’s Memorial Stadium. Greg Boothroyd photo

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When waters finally receded, Natasha Bright was left to survey the damage inside her Cruso home. Natasha Bright photo

Pless added. “I will continue to weigh the costs verses benefit as this moves forward.” An online beta version of the tool is expected sometime in April and will couple street-level flooding data with a spending dashboard and information on funding sources, all of which should make it easier to illustrate the return on investment. “It’s not enough just to create the tool,” Biser said. “We need to make sure that people have resources to be able to implement strategies that are going to help their communities become more resilient.” With the right resources, the tool could prove useful as Canton ponders decisions not yet made on myriad issues it still faces. Smathers, during a panel discussion of local government leaders moderated by Murphy, recounted the difficult circumstances created during and after Canton’s second 500-year flood in less than two decades.

Shortly after the 2021 flood, the town embarked on projects it was able to, most recently a transformative mitigation strategy for where Bethel Christian Academy now sits (see BETHEL, p. 4). The closing of the town’s century-old paper mill earlier this year could open up a huge swath of privately-owned riverside land downtown for any number of uses — the subject of much speculation. “As we rebuild and reimagine Canton, and we literally have to rebuild a city, almost 180 acres … the only hill that I will die on is if we do not take advantage of tying flood mitigation into the future of the mill,” Smathers said. “Canton was built in a swamp. This mill was built in a swamp. Mother Nature is undefeated. We have to take this moment to find a place for the water to go, and look at what mitigation can serve as flood protection but also economic development.”

Smoky Mountain News

ith trepidation about funding flowing through nearly every segment of the summit, ensuring each dollar spent creates lasting change is critical. Lessons learned from Louisiana to Haywood County will all contribute to a unique $20 million decision support tool called the North Carolina Flood Resiliency Blueprint, which could make North Carolina a national leader in flood resiliency. “The blueprint is designed to unify all the existing resources and knowledge we have, all the existing data and mapping and tools that different agencies at different levels of government have developed, and putting them all in one place so that we can have a better view on what the actual situation is and put that data in the hands of folks who are making decisions,” said Elisabeth Biser, secretary of the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality. Legislators outlined the directive in the 2021 budget and allocated nearly $100 million available to DEQ upon completion of the draft blueprint, which was presented on Jan. 19. Work has already begun in the Neuse

River basin with a pilot program designed to gauge effective and efficient utilization of data from the blueprint. The immediate focus will be on basinspecific strategies in basins vulnerable to tropical storms and hurricanes — Cape Fear, Lumber, Neuse, Tar-Pamlico and White Oak — as well as Western North Carolina’s French Broad River basin, which is affected not only by tropical storms and hurricanes but also by heavy rains. As reported in the N.C. Tribune, during a Hurricane Response and Recovery subcommittee meeting the day before the summit, Haywood County Rep. Mark Pless had some apprehension he further outlined in a Jan. 26 constituent newsletter. “The blueprint when fully functional will help guide federal, state and local governments and even citizens in preventing the destruction we saw just 2 years ago with Tropical Storm Fred,” wrote Pless, who also attended the summit. “However, I do have concerns about the implementation of the blueprint. My first concern is how do we keep it from being a regulatory tool. It is intended to be a resource tool only. I am assured it will remain as that, but I do have reservations.” Sushma Masemore, assistant secretary for environment with NCDEQ, emphasized during the summit that the decision support tool would not be used as an apparatus of state control. “The blueprint or DEQ is not in the decision-making role,” Masemore said. “We are not making those final decisions. The tool is going to provide the access to information. It is up to that local entity or project developer to then translate that [data] into a submission, perhaps it’s through a grant program or through the funding that the legislature has provided.” Pless, in his second term, found himself thrust into the center of the storm during Haywood County’s 2021 flood. Consequently, he also found himself charged with finding the funding to help hard-hit areas recover. “My second concern is how much money it will take to see a reduction in flooding,”

Jan. 31-Feb. 6, 2024

ensure they’re feasible, justified and environmentally acceptable. A new policy calls for delivery of these studies in less than three years for less than $3 million. Murphy asked Brett Walters, chief of the Corps’ planning branch, if that could be expedited. Large projects over $20 million, Walters said, must pass through a chain of command, from the assistant secretary of the Army through the Health and Human Services Department’s assistant secretary for administration to the Office of Management and Budget and then on to Congress for authorization. “Without Congress making changes, I don’t see how that could be accelerated very much,” said Walters. Murphy reiterated the importance of the ultimate level of legislative involvement — appropriations. “You can authorize everything in the world,” Murphy said, “but if you don’t pay for it, it never happens.”

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Public hearing scheduled for Sylva solicitation ordinance

to be more support for the measure among those new board members. Both Phillips and Mark Jones voiced support for such an ordinance during the Jan. 25 meeting. However, Council Members Brad Waldrop and Natalie Newman questioned the intent and effectiveness of an ordinance to address panhandling. Waldrop voted against staff creating a draft ordinance. At the behest of Council Member Mary Gelbaugh, the board made a motion for staff to create an ordinance that addressed solicitation rather than panhandling. The draft ordinance would amend the section of Sylva’s code of ordinances that addresses street and sidewalks, section 30, and is titled “public solicitation and begging upon the streets and sidewalks regulated.” The ordinance would prohibit anyone from soliciting or begging by accosting another, or forcing oneself upon the company of another; within 20 feet of any financial institution; 10 feet of any bus stop or other transportation hub; 20 feet of any commercial establishment that is open for business; while the person being solicited is standing in line waiting to be admitted to a commercial establishment; by touching the person being solicited without that person’s consent; by blocking the path of a person being solicited or blocking the entrance or exit to any building or vehicle; following

the person who has been solicited after that person has declined the request of walked away; by or with the use of threatening,

Additionally, as already outlined in North Carolina General Statutes, the ordinance states it would be unlawful to solicit

profane, or abusive language, during the solicitation or following an unsuccessful solicitation; by or with the use of any gesture or act intended to cause a reasonable person to be fearful of the solicitor or feel compelled to accede to the solicitation; and during nighttime hours from dusk to dawn.

or beg while intoxicated, by using false or misleading information, or by indicating that the solicitor or any member of their family suffers from a physical or mental disability when such information is false. According to the draft, violation of the ordinance is punishable by a $50 fine.

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BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER he Town of Sylva is once again considering a solicitation ordinance for the streets and sidewalks section of its code of ordinances, and now the public will have a chance to weigh in. The proposed draft ordinance can be found on the town’s website and in the agenda packet for the Jan. 25 regular board meeting. During that meeting, the town board unanimously approved scheduling the public hearing for Feb. 8, however, both Mary Gelbaugh and Brad Waldrop were absent for the vote. At the board’s Jan. 11 meeting, Mayor Johnny Phillips presented the idea of a panhandling ordinance and made clear his support for the proposal. “We’re a tourist town; we don’t have any industry,” said Phillips at the time. “Tourism is what we have. We want people to want to come back here. We want people to want to move here.” The board had previously considered a panhandling ordinance in November 2022, but ultimately decided against it after a majority of the board and several members of the public spoke in opposition to the measure. During elections in 2023, three new members were elected to the Sylva Town Board, and this time around, there appears

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Sylva starts budget process with needs vs. wants BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER ylva began its budget process last week with presentations from department heads about what they need in the budget, as well as what they want to see in the budget. The town is in a good financial position but is budgeting for reduced revenues in the years ahead as both sales tax and property tax revenues are projected to fall. “You’re in a beautiful location, you’ve got a downtown that towns would die for, you’ve got a great staff and it’s just a great place to live, work and play,” said Interim Town Manager Richard Hicks. Sylva currently has a tax rate of $0.45 per $100 of property valuation, and the 2023/24 fiscal year’s general fund budget totaled just under $6 million. One cent of tax revenue is equal to about $50,000 for the town. “I think you had a pretty successful year last year,” said Hicks. As the town moves into the fiscal year 2024-25 budget, it will have to face increasing health insurance and other personnel costs like competitive pay and retirement, as well as increased costs of goods and services and decreasing property tax revenue due to N.C. 107 construction. Additionally, there will be no more American Rescue Plan funds in the 2024-25 budget that were given out during the pandemic years. “Personnel costs, being able to compete and salaries, that’s something you’ve got to look at every year. It’s harder and harder to find good, qualified people and your competitors are paying more,” said Hicks. “It’s pretty difficult finding good, qualified applicants, especially law enforcement.” Jackson County will undergo a property tax revaluation in 2025, but it will not be reflected until the 2025-26 fiscal year budget. In the upcoming fiscal year budget, the police department anticipates it will need two new patrol vehicles to keep up with the current rotation. The department will purchase Ford Explorers, which are the cheapest option out of the types of cars that make sense for Sylva. Each car costs $43,000 to purchase,

and around $60,000 after it is outfitted with all the necessary police equipment. The police department is also in need of a firearms upgrade. Total retail cost for the upgrade would run around $13,000, but the police department gets special deals for this type of purchase and has been able to negotiate down to $6,500. “In the grand scheme of the budget, for the results that we get back from that, to me that’s not a lot of money for what it could potentially save us,” said Police Chief Chris Hatton. According to Hatton, the firearms in use now were bought under Chief Davis Woodard, who held that position from 2010 to 2017. “The upgrade that we’re looking to make, we’re the last, probably, in the surrounding counties… that hasn’t already done it,” said Hatton. “It’s time for new ones. And not just because of the wear and tear on the firearms, but there’s also a lot of new technology out there that makes our officers honestly safer, and more accurate.” Lastly, the police department needs a new server as the current one is obsolete and no longer supports software upgrades. This will cost the town around $8,000. “That’s our needs, those are the things we’re looking to put on our budget,” said Hatton. “We are not asking for any ‘wants’ this year. Obviously, we have lots of potential budget shortages and that type of thing, so I feel like if we get those needs, I think we’re OK as far as wants go.” The police department is also starting a cadet program to help fill open positions. This means the department can sponsor a prospective employee after they get to a certain point in their Basic Law Enforcement Training classes. Sylva Police can technically hire that student and start paying them to finish their basic training and as soon as they come out, they have a job with Sylva. This cadet program will not cost the town beyond what is currently budgeted because it will only be used to fill vacant positions, in which the department does not have another employee to pay. The fire department will need to pay for heating in its station. The town had to pay

$50,000 on the heating system in the past two years to keep it running, quite poorly, according to Fire Chief Mike Beck. The temperature in the fire station can get down to as low as 40 degrees. The town will also need to pay for a new pumper truck for the fire department, which will cost around $700,000. The town is three years behind the replacement schedule for this vehicle. The fire department is also in need of three additional personnel. Two of those positions will be requested from the county in its upcoming 2024-25 budget. The county already funds the building payment and eight staff members. From the town, the fire department is requesting one full-time position to be added in February, someone who can fill in for people on vacation or sick leave. The town currently funds overtime pay for the fire department at about $90,000 a year. Hicks said that the savings from overtime should cover the costs of the additional fire department employee. “When people are working overtime, keep in mind we’re talking about 48-hour shifts,” said Beck. “Eventually you’re gonna burn that person out if we keep doing that to them.” Beck would also like to repaint the second floor of the fire station and replace the carpet, but these items are classified as wants rather than needs. The public works department needs a new equipment trailer that will cost the town around $7,000. The department will also need a new air compressor, which should run about $3,000, as well as a new computer that is estimated at $2,500. The current computer is five years old and cannot handle software upgrades needed to read project plans, among other things. Under the ‘wants’ category, Public Works Director Jake Scott would also like to see an upgraded tire machine, around $8,500, and an upgraded welder, around $5,000. “I’ve got these separated into needs and wants, but I will point out that the wants this year will be needs next year,” said Scott. Public Works will have some larger capital needs in the coming years. A new brush truck will be needed in FY 2025-26, and a new garbage truck will be necessary in FY 2026-27, both of which run about $250,000. Economic Development Director Bernadette Peters requested $10,000 for matching funds for the façade grant and technical assistance grant programs. She is looking for funding for downtown landscaping following several projects that are underway or upcoming and would also like to see a supply building at Bridge Park, LED strip lights for downtown light poles and ADAcompliant connectors to Dillsboro’s new walking bridge in order to connect the towns. The next budget work session will take place Thursday, March 21, at which time town staff will have organized board members’ funding priorities for the upcoming fiscal year. A balanced draft budget will be sent out by Thursday, April 18, after which the board can opt for more work sessions if needed. A public hearing on the budget will be held Thursday, May 30 and the town will approve a budget prior to the July 1 deadline.

dents facing an unexpected financial barrier while taking classes, as well as options for high school students to enroll in degree and certification programs at little or no cost to them.

Critical moment for affordability

Guaranteed college scholarship program launches in N.C. Affordability efforts come at a critical time for higher education

Significant numbers of students at WCU, as well as Haywood Community College and Southwestern Community College, have already been taking advantage of the program in its initial form. At WCU, 2,995 students — 35.8% of the 8,368 in-state, undergraduate students who were eligible to apply — received an N.C. Scholarship for the 2023-2024 school year. SCC has 145 students currently using the scholarship and HCC has 56. SCC Dean of Students Mark Ellison said that, at SCC, an estimated 10% more students would qualify under the Next N.C. Scholarship. Certainly, a high proportion of local fami-

Scholarship deadlines coming up The 2024-2025 FAFSA is now open, and while the filing deadline is still a ways away, filling it out early is a good idea — some financial aid is offered on a first-come, first-serve basis, and individual schools may have earlier priority deadlines. Additionally, a separate application to apply for undergraduate scholarships specific to WCU closes on Feb. 1. At WCU, the priority filing date for the FAFSA is March 15. It’s May 15 at SCC and July 15 at HCC. The state filing deadline to access the Next N.C. Scholarship is June 1 for UNC System schools and Aug. 15 for community colleges. Fill out the FAFSA at studentaid.gov/h/apply-for-aid/fafsa. Complete the WCU scholarship application at wcu.edu/apply/scholarships.

Smoky Mountain News

Stacking scholarships

lies would fit under the $80,000 threshold. According to the most recent U.S. Census data, the median household income is $56,596 in Haywood County, $52,818 in Swain County, $51,482 in Jackson County and $51,042 in Macon County. The scholarship’s launch comes amid ongoing efforts to improve college affordability in North Carolina. In the N.C. Community College System, in-state tuition has remained flat since 2015, and the University of North Carolina System is in its seventh straight year of flat tuition. In 2018, WCU became one of three — now four — universities in the state to offer the N.C. Promise Tuition Program, which caps the sticker price of undergraduate tuition at $500 for in-state students and $2,500 for out-of-state students. In 2023, the university launched a scholarship guarantee program called Catamount Commitment that promises incoming students an annual scholarship of $1,000-$3,000, awarded on a sliding scale that’s based on their high school GPA. “Stacking all of that together can make a really good financial aid package offer for a student,” Orr said. In 2023, the expected cost of attendance for an in-state, full-time undergraduate student was $19,849, an amount that includes not only $4,532 for tuition and fees but also $7,000 for housing and line items for food, loan fees, books and supplies, travel and personal expenses. An incoming student with a family income under $80,000 and a high school GPA of 4.0 or higher would receive an automatic $8,000 per year in grants and scholarships from Next N.C. and Catamount Commitment, more than covering the cost of tuition and fees and knocking the total expected cost of attendance down to just under $12,000 per year. The Next N.C. Scholarship would also more than cover the cost of tuition and fees for a full-time student at either HCC or SCC, whose current rates are $2,579 and $2,720, respectively. Like WCU, their total expected cost of attendance is much higher, factoring in living expenses like housing, food, transportation and miscellaneous expenditures along with academic purchases such as books and class supplies to come up with a total of $17,165 at HCC and $18,194 at SCC for students who live with their parents. Both schools have other programs to help defray that total cost. Half of SCC’s students have received some kind of financial aid, with the SCC Foundation distributing $259,000 to 224 students last year. The HCC Foundation is currently working to create a new scholarship for high-demand, high skill-level and high-pay programs, set to be finalized in midFebruary. Both schools offer an emergency fund to help stu-

Jan. 31-Feb. 6, 2024

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER tarting in the fall, North Carolina students whose families make less than $80,000 a year will receive a guaranteed scholarship toward attending any of the state’s public colleges and universities. “As soon as we can get the aid offers out to students, they’re going to see exactly how affordable and accessible a quality four-year education can be to them,” said Trina Orr, director of Western Carolina University’s Office of Financial Aid. The program, called Next N.C. Scholarship, is a revamped version of a similar program that launched last year, which was simply called N.C. Scholarship. That program was open to families with an adjusted gross income of $75,000 or less, so even more students will be eligible under the new program. The award is made by combining federal Pell Grant funds with state scholarship funds, and it’s automatically applied when students fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, also known as the FAFSA. Every student is guaranteed at least $5,000 to attend one of North Carolina’s 16 public universities, and at least $3,000 to attend one of its 58 community colleges. State scholarship funds make up the difference between that guarantee and any Pell Grant a student may receive, and some students might get more than the baseline guarantee. The maximum Pell Grant is $7,395, and a student receiving that amount to attend a UNC school would also receive some state scholarship money, Orr said, about $1,000. The money can be used toward tuition, fees and books, but also for living expenses like food and housing. It does not have to be paid back.

These efforts come at a time when the value of a college education is facing increasing scrutiny, even as colleges stare down a demographic reality that will challenge future enrollment numbers. Due to declining birthrates, demographic changes and an aging population, the number of young people in the traditional “college-age” category is expected to shrink over the next 15 years. This is a nationwide trend that, while less marked in the southern states, is nevertheless expected to impact college enrollment. Meanwhile, the pandemic had a significant short-term impact, with enrollment at colleges and universities across the country knocked back in 2020. While WCU, SCC and HCC all still have lower enrollments than they did in 2019, enrollment has stabilized and seems to be recovering. A three-year run of increasing freshman enrollment has WCU hopeful it will recover from its pandemic setback, and HCC and SCC have both seen enrollment gains since the pandemic’s onset. Increasingly, students are enthusiastic about participating in face-to-face courses and activities, Ellison said. “Next N.C. will make access to college even easier for many families and individuals in Haywood County and across North Carolina,” said HCC President Shelley White. “This program will help reduce financial barriers and take the concern out of the equation when making a decision about higher education. It is all about increasing access.” By reducing the investment required to earn a college degree, the Next N.C. Scholarship could also have a positive impact on the calculated return on investment of that degree — a metric currently under scrutiny by the UNC Board of Governors. In November, the UNC System released a study examining the return on investment of the various degree programs it offers. Funded by the N.C. General Assembly, the study estimates the cost of earning specific degrees and calculated lifetime earnings with those degrees to come up with an ROI estimate for each program. It found that 94% of undergraduate degree programs and 91% of graduate programs

news

Southwestern Community College completed a new health sciences building in 2021 to expand enrollment and diversify opportunities in its popular health sciences programs. File photo

have a positive ROI for graduates, with the average student breaking even on their educational investment in 10 years. “Majorities of Americans have lost faith in the value of higher education, and the UNC System is not immune to this brand equity challenge,” Board of Governors Member Mark Holton said during the body’s Jan. 25 meeting. “The good news is that we have an important tool that we can use to help meet this challenge — the ROI study funded by the General Assembly that was unveiled in November.” The study assessed returns on investment for specific programs at the UNC System overall and at each individual university. By early March, the universities must respond with an assessment of any low-ROI program and a plan for improvement. 13

Opinion

Smoky Mountain News

Working together to raise good conversationalists R

Let first principles guide us To the Editor: A Google search reveals this simple concept: First principles thinking (or reasoning from first principles) is a problem-solving technique that requires you to break down a complex problem into its most basic, foundational elements. The idea: to ground yourself in the foundational truths and build up from there. The Supreme Court will soon be making a ruling on the Fourteenth Amendment, the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and whether Donald Trump is qualified to be President of the United States. The Fourteenth Amendment, Section 3, states: ”No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the Unites States, or under any State, who having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion

facets of life and something that’s crucial for us to thrive as a social species — conversation. It was enjoyable to research this topic because it’s helped me strengthen my own skills. After watching several TED talks and reading a number of articles on how to be a good conversationalist, I compiled these nine tips, which pertain to both verbal and nonverbal conversation. • Learn how to start a conversation — The simplest way to start a conversation is to offer a smile and simply say “Hi, how are you?” or “How’ve you been doing lately?” • Learn how to keep a conversation going — After initial pleasantries, keep the conversation going by asking a question about the other person’s Columnist life, finding a commonality, offering a compliment or asking for their advice. These are all productive ways to keep a conversation flowing. • Be a good listener — In most conversations, there should be equilibrium between talking and listening. Work hard to truly absorb what the other person is saying instead of waiting for your turn to speak. • Be genuine and curious — Become interested in other people. Everyone has something to offer if you’re willing to ask questions. Curiosity in both parties makes a conversation more enjoyable. • Practice makes perfect — Like anything else, being a good conversationalist takes practice. It may seem awkward or stilted at first, but eventually it will feel normal to be chatty. Also, if you’re naturally shy or averse to small talk, sometimes you have to force yourself to do it until it becomes more comfortable. • Know how to end a conversation — Once the conversa-

Susanna Shetley

ecently, I was asked to speak to a leadership class at Tuscola High School and although flattered, I wondered if I was the best candidate for this experience. In the past, I’ve served in leadership roles within the education system or on committees. But at this time in my life, I don’t manage a group of people or own a business. In fact, the only person that I professionally manage is myself. Working primarily from home on my own projects and with freelance clients offers benefits such as flexibility. But it also comes with challenges like being my own boss, ensuring I meet deadlines, putting income aside for taxes and so on. When I expressed my concerns to the teacher, she suggested I talk about growth and development or something of interest in my field, so I considered topics like content creation or time management. I agreed to speak to the class and as someone who communicates a lot, whether through writing, collaborations or my podcast, I initially decided to speak about effective communication. But when I started researching this topic, I found a lot of information about public speaking, and that wasn’t really the angle I wanted to take for this particular group. Instead, I decided to speak on the topic of how to be a good conversationalist. While researching for the talk, I learned quite a bit about characteristics of a good conversationalist, both verbal and nonverbal. Then I started observing the people around me, in small settings and in public, and discovered that a lot of folks struggle with how to have a fluid and productive conversation. I also realized that most kids and teenagers are never intentionally taught how to have a conversation, so no wonder we all grow up as adults who struggle in this same vein. We teach young people all kinds of other things, academic facts, athletic skills, hygiene regimens, how to drive a car, etc., but we don’t instruct them on one of the most important

LETTERS against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two thirds of each House, remove such disability.” The Presidential oath states: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Donald Trump addressed his supporters at the Ellipse (after having asked them to be there) on Jan. 6, 2021. He pleaded with them until around 1:10 p.m. to march on the Capitol and “fight like hell.” From then until 4:17 p.m. he watched on television as his supporters invaded the Capitol, destroyed public property and endangered the lives of those in charge of defending the Capitol. Their illegal activity resulted in deaths inside the Capitol. While Donald Trump watched this chaos/protest/riot/insurrection/rebellion he had several people plead with him to call the mob off. He refused. Until 4:17 p.m., three hours and seven minutes after his speech at the Ellipse ended. If the Supreme Court can, using first principles thinking, decide that Donald Trump is

tion has run its course, offer a simple exit statement, such as “It’s been great talking to you, I’ve got to run.” • Be future oriented — If you run out of things to talk about in the moment, move into the future by saying something like, “Do you have any fun plans this weekend?” or “Does your family have any trips coming up?” • Keep going — Don’t stop talking or leave a conversation if you say something you think is silly or ignorant, Just keep going. The other person is more likely to remember you abruptly leaving the conversation than a silly remark you made. • Remember non-verbal cues — Don’t glance around the room while in a conversation or look down at your phone. Be pleasant and open. It’s also not wise to put your hands in your pockets or cross your arms across your chest. This can give the impression you’re bored or unwilling to engage. Along with not being intentionally taught how to converse, today’s young people are growing up in a very different world than older generations. They are communicating heavily online, often looking at screens more than human faces, and have experienced a pandemic that kept them isolated for years from their greater communities, so they need extra practice and instruction when it comes to conversing with others. After learning about this and talking with the group of students at Tuscola, I’ve developed a passion for this topic and want to encourage other older individuals to help kids and teens instead of getting angry or frustrated with them when they don’t know how to enter, maintain or exit a conversation. With technology exploding and attachment to devices higher than ever, fostering an awareness of and love for good old-fashioned face-to-face communication is more important than ever. (Susanna Shetley is a writer, editor and digital media specialist with The Smoky Mountain News and Smoky Mountain Living magazine. susanna.b@smokymountainnews.com.)

still qualified to run for and possibly be elected President after he failed/refused to protect the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, we might as well shred the Constitution. This writer is fully aware that Trump has not been convicted of any violation of his oath yet. But television news documented his failure/refusal to protect the Capitol for all to see. The Supreme Court must use the obvious truth at their disposal to render Donald Trump unfit to hold any public office again. Donald Trump has appealed to various emotions within millions of people (with a cult-like charisma/philosophy). Party loyalty is one of the strongest, including appealing to the Supreme Court, which has been stacked with no less than three of his appointees. The

entire Fourteenth Amendment is based on emotion in the sense that it provides for

“equal protection under the law.” Yet, it tempers those same emotions with reason. At this dangerous point in history, especially, the Supreme Court must follow the law. First principles will work. Dave Waldrop Webster

Jan. 31-Feb. 6, 2024

Smoky Mountain News

A&E

Smoky Mountain News

Shannon Whitworth & Woody Platt will play Asheville on Feb. 1. Donated photo

Casting into the future

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD ARTS & E NTERTAINMENT E DITOR n his latest single, “Broke Down Engine,” singer-songwriter Woody Platt teamed up with bluegrass icon Del McCoury. The melody harkens back to the essence of bluegrass music, but also hops the fence into the Americana and indie-folk realms — symbolic in nature to where Platt currently stands sonically, artistically. A native of Brevard, Platt formed Grammy-winning Americana/roots band The Steep Canyon Rangers in 2000 while a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. What started initially as a traditional bluegrass entity morphed itself over the years into one of the finest, most sought-after string bands in modern American music. However, in the aftermath of the pandemic and complete shutdown of the live music industry in 2020, Platt took the rare downtime from touring to reflect on the last two decades with the Rangers — the physical, emotional miles traveled with his musical brothers. What resulted was his decision to step aside from the Rangers, to give a tip of his hat to his former bandmates on their hard-earned, shared success and to turn his attention to what he feels is the next, meaningful step for him — a solo career, coupled with much-needed quality time at home with his family, perhaps finding more time to fly fish in the bountiful waters of Southern Appalachia. And with the biggest chapter of his musical career (thus far) now in the rearview mirror, Platt’s vision is aimed forward towards the unknown horizon, which also includes his wife and longtime collaborator, Shannon Whitworth. A storied artist in her own right, Whitworth is a familiar face amid the local/regional live music scene, with Platt recently teaming up with her to forge this new path of words, notes, stages and possibilities — all of which seemingly unlimited at this juncture.

A conversation with Woody Platt Smoky Mountain News: What does it mean to be able to explore a solo career at this juncture of your life? Woody Platt: After 23 years with Steep Canyon Rangers, I really can’t imagine my life without music. This new exploration of other musical avenues has been an exciting, challenging and sometimes terrifying endeavor. In my case, there’s quite a lot to be said for the freedom to record, perform, travel on your own terms and at your own pace. I never really had plans to focus on a solo career, but after my decision to step away from touring with the Rangers, new opportunities have presented themselves. Currently, my musical focus has two angles — an Americana-style duo with my wife, Shannon Whitworth, and traditional bluegrass music. SMN: Tell me about the duo dynamic between you and Shannon, and how it unfolds onstage for you, compared to being part of a band dynamic? And, with performing alongside her, what does that space and moment feel like for you? WP: It has been incredible to focus on music with Shannon. She’s such a great artist who has been playing and performing for as long as I have and we are now — for the first time — able to play and create together. Shannon has been a prolific songwriter throughout her career, so we’ve been able to go back and reimagine many of her songs together, while working on new material. Since the birth of our son in 2015, she’s done very little touring [and] it’s really exciting to see her back in musical motion. It’s quite a bit different to play with your wife as opposed to a band of brothers like The Steep Canyon Rangers. Some days we’re really fluid and connecting and it’s truly awesome to rehearse and other days we get all the instruments out and never play a note. I think [Shannon and I] both really enjoying the musical journey together and are sensitive to protect the fundamental passion that we both share for the art. Onstage, the dynamic is

fun and loose — we tend to treat each show like it’s our living room. SMN: Now that you’ve had some time to reflect and distance yourself from the decision to step away from the Rangers, what’s been the biggest takeaway for you, personally and professionally, when you look back at that extensive chapter of your life? WP: I wouldn’t change a thing about the journey with The Steep Canyon Rangers. The developmental period was so exciting, when all we needed was enough money to buy fuel to make the next show, all the way to the later years, winning a Grammy Award, playing the big festivals and touring with Steve Martin [and Martin Short]. I look back at it with pride and am still very interested and excited to watch and enjoy the successes of the Rangers. As for me and the “where-to-from-here” question, I want to embrace the music with Shannon and am excited to play [shows together]. We hope to record an album [soon], which will be a very exciting time for our family. Also, I want to play and record more bluegrass music with some of my musical heroes, which I’m also focused on. In truth though, my biggest goal is to be home more, spend more time with my son and wife, spend more time in the river and enjoy Western North Carolina.

Want to go? Americana/folk duo Shannon Whitworth & Woody Platt will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 1, at the Diana Wortham Theatre in Asheville. Admission is $35.50 per person. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, go to worthamarts.org/events. To learn more about the artists, go to woodyplatt.com.

HOT PICKS BY GARRET K. WOODWARD

‘If there’s a goal that everyone remembers, it was back in ol’ 72’

The Natti Love Joys will perform during the “Bob Marley Birthday Celebration” at 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3, at Frog Level Brewing in Waynesville.

2 3 4

Boojum Brewing (Waynesville) will host Pleasantly Wild (rock/ funk) at 9 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3.

Folkmoot Friendship Center (Waynesville) will celebrate Groundhog Day with an open house for its artist studios from 5-7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2. Lazy Hiker Brewing (Sylva) will host John Torres & Friends (classic rock) at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3.

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The Ice Chalet is a rink in Knoxville. Garret K. Woodward photo

only soul in a sports bar asking “if I could get the Canadiens game on” the TV above the counter. Mostly, nobody pays attention to the “damn yankee” watching puck-n-stick competitions. But, sometimes, someone will mention a mutual love of hockey, only to soon become fast friends by the time the game is over. Even with my best buddy, Andy, that’s exactly how we met. One night, over a decade ago, I walked into the now-defunct Tipping Point Brewing in Waynesville. Sporting a Montreal Canadiens Guy Lafleur shirt, I sat down and asked for the game to be played on TV. Andy was sitting a few tables down with a Pittsburgh Penguins hat on. We immediately became thick as thieves and remain so today. Thus, as the weather gets colder, the wind becoming brisk and the snowflakes sporadically cascading across Western North Carolina, so, too, does that eternal urge within to throw on some Canadiens gear and saunter into the local watering hole to catch the game. So, too, does the singular love of hockey that remains as pure today as it did those many years ago in a small border town. Go Habs go. Life is beautiful, grasp for it, y’all.

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Smoky Mountain News

Four” win). As North Country kids, we’d either have our parents drop us off at the open skate session at the RPCC or simply shovel off some snow from the nearby frozen Lake Champlain for a pickup game of hockey. Usually we’d play pickup for a little while on the lake, a cold Arctic wind blowing down from Canada to the north, only to then skate endlessly in circles or up and down the homemade rink on the open water ice, dozens of ice fishing shantys in the distance near Stony Point Road along the shoreline. And there was always a pair of Bauer skates in the back of the closet in my childhood bedroom on Smith Street. In high school, I’d lace them up when I’d hit the Olympic Speed Skating Oval in Lake Placid, New York, in heart of the Adirondack Mountains. At that time, I was dating a girl who lived near Lake Placid in Saranac Lake. We’d go round-n-round the oval, all underneath the watchful eye of the Olympic Center, home of the “Miracle on Ice” moment of the 1980 Winter Olympics when the U.S.A. took down the U.S.S.R. Nowadays, being this far below the Mason-Dixon Line, I find myself usually the

Jan. 31-Feb. 6, 2024

he title of this column is the opening line of the song “Fireworks” by The Tragically Hip. A cherished Canadian rock act, the melody itself an ode to the legend and lore that is hockey and coming of age as a kid — a love of hockey transitioning to a love of women. That exact tune was echoing through my mind and thoughts last Thursday evening as I parked my truck in the parking lot of the Ice Chalet, located just a stone’s throw from the Kingston Pike in Knoxville, Tennessee. Sauntering into the lobby, there was a small fireplace to the left, the sounds of a lone hard rubber puck ricocheting across the backboards and plastic glass of the hockey rink just through another door — the room temperature dropping from 75 degrees to a very brisk sense of air and self once inside the rink. I was in attendance to meet up with my best friend, Andy. For several years now, he’s been part of a city hockey league. It’s a pretty casual thing, mostly either over-the-hill former skaters or die-hard enthusiasts who’ve taken the next step with sporting a slew of gear and diving headlong into the tireless yet bountiful activity. It was a surreal — more so pleasantly familiar — feeling to step inside a hockey rink, this physical and emotional reminder of my youth, all of which originating in that small town of Rouses Point, New York, on the Canadian Border in the depths of frozen tundra (this time of the year) that is the North Country. Wandering around the lobby of the Ice Chalet, I eventually crossed paths with the night manager of the rink, right between when he was throwing some hot dogs on the grill in the parking lot (for the league players following the culmination of the game) and returning to the ice post-game with the Zamboni ice-resurfacing machine to ready everything for tomorrow’s activities (ice skating and curling are also offered). I asked him about the rink and its history, etc. The Ice Chalet opened on Oct. 5, 1962. It would soon be run by a talented German ice skater and World War II veteran (hence the European ski chalet nature of the lobby/fireplace), who, by chance, was passing through Knoxville not long after the rink opened. He found a fondness for the space and ended up spending the rest of days running the rink and happily living in East Tennessee. Gazing at the old photos on the wall, the antique skating gear and award plaques strewn in seemingly every direction, memories started flooding across my field-of-vison of the Rouses Point Civic Center on Lake

Street — a building, more so social hub, amid a tiny community with an undying love for ice hockey and skating. To preface, skating is an ingrained part of the culture of Rouses Point and the greater North Country. In winter, when the National Hockey League (NHL) season reconvenes, so does the camaraderie of watching the games on TV (at home, at the neighborhood bar or local American Legion). Hockey (and the act of watching hockey) is part of my core existence. Being a little kid with the rabbit ears black-and-white TV in the basement of my parents’ farmhouse, watching the CBC’s “Hockey Night in Canada” and cheering on my beloved Montreal Canadiens. Being a college kid at Quinnipiac University where I got a work study job gig as the penalty box operator for the D-1 hockey team during storied ECAC matches (and eventual “Frozen

A special production of the satirical comedy “An Act of God” will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 2-3, 9-10 and 2 p.m. Feb. 4, 11 at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville.

arts & entertainment

This must be the place

DOWNTOWN WAYNE Y SVILLE 17

On the beat arts & entertainment

Reggae, soul at Frog Level The Natti Love Joys will perform during the “Bob Marley Birthday Celebration” at 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3, at Frog Level Brewing in Waynesville. A roots-rock-reggae band that has been playing live since 2003, the group consists of husband and wife duo Anthony “Jatti” Allen and Sonia “Marla” Allen (formerly Sonia Abel). Jatti was previously the bassist for the reggae group The Congos, while Marla originates from the cult all female reggae group Love Joys, where she recorded two albums under the legendary Wackies label run by Lloyd Barnes (Bullwackie). Free and open to the public. froglevelbrewing.com/events.

Smoky Mountain News

Jan. 31-Feb. 6, 2024

Natti Love Joys will play Waynesville Feb. 3. File photo

• Angry Elk Brewing (Whittier) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. All shows are free and open to the public. 828.497.1015 or facebook.com/angryelkbrewingco.

ALSO:

• Balsam Falls Brewing (Sylva) will host an open mic from 8-10 p.m. every Thursday. Free and open to the public. 828.631.1987 or balsamfallsbrewing.com. • Blue Ridge Beer Hub (Waynesville) will host a semi-regular acoustic jam with the Main Street NoTones from 7-9 p.m. every first and third Thursday of the month. Free and open to the public. For more information, go to blueridgebeerhub.com. • Blue Stage (Andrews) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.361.2534 or gm@thebluestage.com. • Boojum Brewing (Waynesville) will host music bingo 7 p.m. Mondays, karaoke 8:30 p.m. Wednesdays, trivia 7 p.m. Thursdays, open mic night 10 p.m., Pleasantly Wild (rock/funk) Feb. 3 and 5,000LB Tractor Feb. 10. All shows begin at 9 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 828.246.0350 or boojumbrewing.com.

• Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center (Franklin) will host the “Valentine’s Dessert & 18 Dance” w/The V8s 6 p.m. Feb. 10. Tickets are

$20 in advance, $25 at the door. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, go to coweeschool.org/music. • Currahee Brewing (Franklin) will host “Music Bingo” 7 p.m. Thursdays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 7 p.m. Free and open to the public. 828.634.0078 or curraheebrew.com. • Farm At Old Edwards (Highlands) will host the “Fireside at the Farm” sessions on select weekends. For more information, go to oldedwardshospitality.com. • Folkmoot Friendship Center (Waynesville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. For a full schedule of events and/or to purchase tickets, go to folkmoot.org. • Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host its weekly “Tuesday Jazz Series” at 5:30 p.m., Seth & Sara Feb. 2, Natti Love Joys (reggae/soul) Feb. 3, Bridget Gossett (singersongwriter) Feb. 4, The Harry Frenchmen Feb. 9 and Jon Cox & Ginny McAfee (country/folk) Feb. 10. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.454.5664 or froglevelbrewing.com. • Frog Quarters (Franklin) will host live music from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays. Free and open to the public. Located at 573 East Main Street. littletennessee.org or 828.369.8488.

• Happ’s Place (Glenville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 6 p.m. Free and open to the public. happsplace.com or 828.742.5700. • Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort (Cherokee) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. For a full schedule of events and/or to buy tickets, caesars.com/harrahs-cherokee. • Highlander Mountain House (Highlands) will host “Blues & Brews” on Thursdays, “Sunday Bluegrass Residency” from noon to 2:30 p.m. and semi-regular live music on the weekends. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, go to highlandermountainhouse.com. • Highlands Performing Arts Center will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. For tickets, go to highlandsperformingarts.com. • Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will host “Trivia Night w/Kirk” from 7-9 p.m. every Monday, Paul Edelman (singer-songwriter) Feb. 3 and Andrew Wakefield (singer-songwriter) Feb. 10. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. innovation-brewing.com. • Innovation Station (Dillsboro) will host “Music Bingo” on Wednesdays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. All events begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. innovation-brewing.com.

• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Franklin) will host Karaoke on the second/fourth Friday of the month, Ray Ferrara (rock/country) Feb. 2 and Trailer Hippies (folks/blues) Feb. 9. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.349.2337 or lazyhikerbrewing.com. • Lazy Hiker Brewing (Sylva) will host “Music Bingo” 6:30 p.m. Mondays, John Torres & Friends (classic rock) Feb. 3 and Blue Jazz (blues/jazz) Feb. 10. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.349.2337 or lazyhikerbrewing.com. • Meadowlark Motel (Maggie Valley) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, go to meadowlarkmotel.com or call 828.926.1717. • Mountain Layers Brewing (Bryson City) will host an “Open Mic w/Frank Lee” Wednesdays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.538.0115 or mountainlayersbrewingcompany.com. • Orchard Coffee (Waynesville) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. 828.246.9264 or orchardcoffeeroasters.com. • Quirky Birds Treehouse & Bistro (Dillsboro)

On the beat

• Rathskeller Coffee Haus & Pub (Franklin) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Shows begin at 8 p.m. Free and open to the public. 828.369.6796.

• Salty Dog’s Seafood & Grill (Maggie Valley) will host “Karaoke w/Russell” every Monday and semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 828.926.9105.

• Santé Wine Bar (Sylva) will host semi-regular live music on Sundays. Free and open to the public. 828.631.3075 or facebook.com/thewinebarandcellar.

• Satulah Mountain Brewing (Highlands) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.482.9794 or satulahmountainbrewing.com.

• Sauced (Waynesville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 828.246.9585 or saucedwnc.com.

ALSO:

• The Scotsman (Waynesville) will host a “Celtic Jam” 2-5 p.m., Jessey Adams Feb. 1, Christina Chandler (singer-songwriter) Feb. 8 and Very Jerry Band (Grateful Dead tribute) Feb. 9. All

shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.246.6292 or scotsmanpublic.com. • SlopeSide Tavern (Sapphire) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.743.8655 or slopesidetavern.com. • Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts (Franklin) will semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, go to smokymountainarts.com or 866.273.4615. • Stecoah Valley Center (Robbinsville) will host a Community Jam 5:30-7:30 p.m. every third Thursday of the month and semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, call 828.479.3364 or go to stecoahvalleycenter.com. • The Ugly Dog Pub (Cashiers) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. 828.743.3000 or theuglydogpub.com. • The Ugly Dog Pub (Highlands) will host “Bluegrass Wednesday” at 6:30 p.m. each week. 828.526.8364 or theuglydogpub.com. • Unplugged Pub (Bryson City) will host

Caribbean Cowboys (free) Feb. 1, Ricky Gunter Feb. 2, Carolina Freighshakers (rock/country) Feb. 3, Karaoke w/Lori Feb. 8, Whiskey Mountain Feb. 9 and Outlaw Whiskey (rock/country) “Album Release Party” Feb. 10. All shows are $5 at the door and begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 828.538.2488. • Valley Cigar & Wine Co. (Waynesville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 828.944.0686 or valleycigarandwineco.com. • Valley Tavern (Maggie Valley) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.926.7440 or valley-tavern.com. • Water’n Hole Bar & Grill (Waynesville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 9:30 p.m. 828.456.4750 or facebook.com/waternhole.bar. • Whiteside Brewing (Cashiers) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 828.743.6000 or whitesidebrewing.com. • Yonder Community Market (Franklin) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, go to eatrealfoodinc.com.

On the table • “Flights & Bites” will be held starting at 4 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays at Bosu’s Wine Shop in downtown Waynesville. For more information on upcoming events, wine tastings and special dinners, go to waynesvillewine.com.

arts & entertainment

will host Open Mic Night at 7 p.m. Tuesdays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 828.586.1717 or facebook.com/quirkybirdstreehouse.

• “Take A Flight” with four new wines every Friday and Saturdays at the Bryson City Wine Market. Select from a gourmet selection of charcuterie to enjoy with your wines. Educational classes and other events are also available. For more information, call 828.538.0420. • “Uncorked: Wine & Rail Pairing Experience” will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on select dates at the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad in Bryson City. Full service all-adult first class car. Wine pairings with a meal, and more. There will also be a special “Beer Train” on select dates. For more information and/or to register, call 800.872.4681 or go to gsmr.com.

Pleasantly Wild will play Waynesville Feb. 3. File photo

Smoky Mountain News

Asheville-based rock/funk trio Pleasantly Wild will hit the stage at 9 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3, at The Gem downstairs taproom at Boojum Brewing in Waynesville. Founded in 2020 by vocalist/guitarist Derrick Pace, the band has crafted a tight and vibrant sound. Through catchy melodies, dancing grooves and vintage basslines, listeners can enjoy a tasteful blend of reggae, funk, jazz and pop. In December 2022, the group released its debut album “Golden” The show is free and open to the public. For more on Pleasantly Wild, go to pleasantlywildmusic.com. 828.246.0350 or boojumbrewing.com.

Jan. 31-Feb. 6, 2024

Boojum goes Pleasantly Wild

arts & entertainment

On the stage

HART presents ‘An Act of God’ A special production of the satirical comedy “An Act of God” will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 2-3, 9-10 and 2 p.m. Feb. 4, 11 at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville. Written by 13-time Emmy award winner David Javerbaum, known for his work on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” this laugh-a-minute play explores the human experience through the lens of a higher power. In this divine comedy, the Almighty takes on the form of local beloved actor Pasquale LaCorte, who audiences recently saw as Patsy in “Spamalot.” He is joined by archangels Gabriel and Michael, played by two more HART veterans, David Spivey and Tom Bastek. LaCorte proposed “An Act of God” as a dream role, originally performed on Broadway by Jim Parsons (“The Big Bang Theory”) and later by Sean Hayes (“Will & Grace”). “In my opinion, this is a perfect show. It’s a laugh

‘An Act of God’ will play at HART on select dates. Donated photo

a minute, but if you truly come with an open mind, it has the ability to change you for life,” LaCorte said. “An Act of God” is rated PG-13 for strong language and suggestive content. To make reservations, go to harttheatre.org to make reservations online or call the HART Box Office at 828.456.6322.

• Overlook Theatre Company will present “Fifteen Years of Favorites: A Dessert Cabaret” at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 1-2 at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin. The OTC invites friends, family and patrons to join them in a wonderful retrospect evening of songs, stories and fun from the last 15 years of musicals and memories, all served on stage with a decadent dessert. Tables seat six people and are open by general admission the evening of the show. Reserved seating is not available. Doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets are $25. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, go to smokymountainarts.com or 866.273.4615.

Jan. 31-Feb. 6, 2024

ALSO:

HART students win national awards Students representing the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville won multiple awards at the 2024 Junior Theater Festival Atlanta (JTF Atlanta). The monumental weekend dedicated to rewarding and celebrating excellent student-driven musical theater programs took place Jan. 12-14 at the Cobb Convention Center in Atlanta, Georgia. The students of HART Theatre won a Freddie G Excellence in Dancing award. Additionally, James Cloninger and Chelcy Frost won the Freddie G Student Direction & Choreography Award. Students Drake Frost and Abby Welchel were named Junior Theater Festival All-Stars, a select group of outstanding performers. At the festival, each group performed 15 minutes of a Broadway Junior® musical for adjudicators. HART Theatre presented Disney’s Newsies JR. to actor Morgan Siobhan Green (“Hadestown,” “Be More Chill”). “Wow. Their choreography was nothing short of professional, clean, and creative. It was not dancing just for dancing’s sake, but choreography that furthers the telling of a story. These students’ acting was top notch, with not a weak link among them,” said Green. “They not only have skill, but they also were encouraged to create. This show was choreographed by students, and you couldn’t tell at all.” Kids at HART is the Youth Drama Program under the artistic direction of Shelia Radford Sumpter. Each year, Kids at HART offers acting classes and hands-on experience in tech to youth from the Western North Carolina area. The program was started in 2016 as a way to provide theater experience and education to youth throughout the area. No young person has to pay to be in any Kids at HART show. There is a minimum fee for classes and camps. For more information, go to harttheatre.org.

On the wall • Folkmoot Friendship Center (Waynesville) will celebrate Groundhog Day with an open house for its artist studios from 5-7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2. Free and open to the public. For more information, go to folkmoot.org. • The “Love Exhibit” will run through March 3 at the Haywood County Arts Council’s Gallery & Gifts showroom in downtown Waynesville. The HCAC gallery is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays. For more information, go to haywoodarts.org.

Smoky Mountain News

ALSO:

‘Untitled’ by Bernadine Hicks George (Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians). Tim Burleson, Frontier Photography

‘Spark of the Eagle Dancer’ at WCU

The exhibit “Spark of the Eagle Dancer: The Collecting Legacy of Lambert Wilson” will run through June 28 in the Fine Art Museum at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. The showcase features works of contemporary Native American art from the collection of one of Western North Carolina’s most notable art enthusiasts, the late Lambert Wilson. This exhibition brings together a selection of baskets, pottery, carving, painting, photography and more. To learn more about the exhibition and reception, please go to arts.wcu.edu/spark. The Fine Art Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 20 Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday.

• CRE828 (Waynesville) will offer a selection of art classes and workshops at its studio located at 1283 Asheville Road. Workshops will include art journaling, watercoloring, mixed media, acrylic painting and more. For a full list of classes, go to cre828.com. For more information on CRE828, email dawn@cre828.com or call 828.283.0523. • Gallery Zella (Bryson City) will be hosting an array of artist receptions, exhibits and showcases. The gallery is open from noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. For more information, go to galleryzella.com or call 517.881.0959. • Waynesville Photography Club meets at 7 p.m. every third Monday each month on the second floor of the Haywood Regional Health & Fitness Center

in Clyde. The club is a nonprofit organization that exists for the enjoyment of photography and the improvement of one’s skills. They welcome photographers of all skill levels to share ideas and images at the monthly meetings. For more information, email waynesvillephotoclub@charter.net or follow them on Facebook: Waynesville Photography Club. • Haywood County Arts Council (Waynesville) will offer a wide-range of classes, events and activities for artisans, locals and visitors. The HCAC gallery is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays. For more information and a full schedule, go to haywoodarts.org. • Jackson County Green Energy Park (Dillsboro) will be offering a slew of classes, events and activities for artisans, locals and visitors. For more information and a full schedule, go to jcgep.org. • Southwestern Community College Swain Arts Center (Bryson City) will host an array of workshops for adults and kids. For more information on the upcoming classes and/or to sign-up, go to southwesterncc.edu/scc-locations/swain-center. • Dogwood Crafters in Dillsboro will offer a selection of upcoming art classes and workshops. For more information and a full schedule of activities, go to dogwoodcrafters.com/classes or call 828.586.2248.

On the shelf

Ann Bevilacqua

called. Many considered decline inevitable. “And then,” recount the authors, "miraculously, crime began to go down, year after year after year,” and New York by the 2010s became a “tourist destination and a magnet for business investment.” What accounted for the change? Not one thing, not one hero, but “dozens, if not hundreds, of changes made by police, courts, civic groups, non-profit organizations and

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Smoky Mountain News

other key stakeholders.” The story of safety in New York doesn’t end there, because the story of democracy never ends, say the authors. Crime began to rise again in 2019. “The gains of incrementalism are fragile.” Among the missteps, a rapid overhaul of the bail bond system failed to enlist the input of law enforcement, prosecutors and judges. Legislators ignored a core principle for change; care must be given to implementation. The successful role of careful implementation is illustrated by a full chapter on “Social Security’s Heroic Incrementalists.” Social Security took years to come into being and the end result was never a given. The two men who led the creation of the system, Edwin E. Witte and Arthur J. Altmeyer, “were not theoreticians; they believed that practical, real-world experience was more important than abstract reasoning.” They knew that a system funded in part by worker contributions was politically more stable in the long run than one funded by govern-

ment revenues. Radicals pressed for the latter. Payouts would be larger at the beginning. That was only one of the threats faced in the 15 years it took for Social Security to become what it is today. The goal was to start slow and grow as it became politically possible to do so. All the while, the administrative tasks, including assigning numbers and collecting pay slips from employers, were huge. Data warehouses were set up around the country to handle the “blizzard” of paperwork in the age before computers. Social Security, according to the authors, has lifted millions out of poverty, and much credit to its success is given to the fact that Witte and Altmeyer stayed in for the long haul, and were adept at the unexciting details of administration. The authors call them “modest and even-tempered” men. Radicals can be impatient. They insist that big change is both necessary and desired, but the case is made here that big change almost always comes with both unintended consequences and a big backlash. Think Prohibition. In addition, surveys have told us that the general public is not in favor of big changes. The authors condense the work of social scientist Phillip Converse with these words, “… unlike elites, the vast majority of the American public has no clear ideology and little desire to develop one.” Public opinion, which is often hasty and reactive thought, susceptible to demagoguery, is contrasted with public judgment, described as what the public thinks after a deliberative process. Such judgment is often wise. Think of the enlargement of civil rights, an incremental process. What about gridlock? A surprising and well-respected study by political scientist Frances E. Lee shows that a lot of legislative work is being done, with bipartisan support, as long as these are not “front-page issues.” Some of the evidence presented here surprises, some merely reminds us of what to appreciate. Philosopher Gerald Gaus is quoted to say that democracy is anything but a “dispiriting imperfect compromise …. It allows an incredible array of diverse views to disagree, cooperate and learn from each other.” He calls it “perhaps one of the greatest moral achievements in human history.” (Anne Bevilacqua is a book lover who lives in Haywood County. abev1@yahoo.com.)

Jan. 31-Feb. 6, 2024

n the year 2020, we lived with a pandemic and a hotly contested presidential race. Strong feelings made their appearance, frustration and anger among them. Early that year, Greg Berman wrote an op-ed for The Hill titled “In Defense of Incrementalism.” Response on Twitter was swift and fairly large, almost entirely negative, and some of the negative was downright angry. But dozens of Berman’s friends agreed with him, sometimes “wholeheartedly.” And many admitted they were afraid to agree publically. This mixed reaction persuaded Berman and Writer his fellow incrementalist Aubrey Fox that a book-length defense was in order, and now we have a gem of a book, “Gradual: The Case for Incremental Change in a Radical Age” (Oxford University Press, 2023, 227 pages). The subject is, succinctly, how do you best make change in a democracy? From their years of experience in a non-profit tasked with reform of the justice system, Berman and Fox were convinced of two realities about such change. First, “how hard it is to accomplish anything;” second, “small changes can add up to something significant over time.” This is nothing new, we are told. Alexander Hamilton addressed the problems of change at the very beginning, in the first of his papers arguing for the adoption of the newly written and experimental Constitution. He stated his strong belief that compromise, based on humility, was the only way that government by the people could work. He railed against the angry extremism of his day, convinced it could only undermine the rational and respectful process necessary for self-government. Are we living today through unprecedented troubles? That is a frequently heard opinion. Probably not, say the authors, but we are indeed living in a time when both the noise of anger and the volume of information are at a peak. They quote journalist Matthew Yglesias, who calls this a problem of “crisis-mongering,” and says the idea of unprecedented crisis is “unsubstantiated” and not in our best interest. “I think we’re living through a time of toxic self-involved drama that threatens to make things worse through twitchy overreaction.” On the subject of incrementalism, Berman and Fox know of what they speak. They worked together for 15 years on criminal justice reform in New York City, part of a wide response to that city’s 1970s and 1980s crime problem. Those of us who were adults then remember well the horrible reputation of the city for safety. “Fear City” it was

arts & entertainment

An encouraging book about democracy I

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Outdoors

Smoky Mountain News

Ecological opportunity

would only occur, if at all, subsequent to license termination,” the application states. Northbrook has owned the dam since 2018 and operates under a 2011 FERC license granted to previous owner Duke Energy. That license isn’t set to expire until 2041. If FERC grants the surrender, the dam will be subject to regulation from the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, and any activities involving entry into the Oconaluftee River in that area would require authorization under the federal Clean Water Act, typically administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Northbrook also owns the Franklin Dam at Lake Emory and the Mission Dam on the Hiawassee River — those dams would not be affected by the requested license surrender at Ela.

SUPPORT FROM STAKEHOLDERS

Ela Dam owner asks to let go of its hydropower license BY HOLLY KAYS OUTDOORS E DITOR he owner of Ela Dam, a 99-year-old structure that sits about half a mile above the confluence of the Tuckasegee and Oconaluftee rivers, is asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to let it surrender its license to generate power there. The move could pave the way for ecological and cultural renewal along 1.5 miles of river. “It would open up a lot of opportunity for restoration on the Oconaluftee, both on the physical level and the cultural landscape,” said Mainspring Conservation Trust Executive Director Jordan Smith. “From that standpoint, Mainspring is supportive of the application for sure.”

REQUEST FOR SURRENDER Mainspring has been involved with discussions surrounding the dam’s future since shortly after operator Northbrook Power Management inadvertently released a massive amount of sediment in October 2021, blanketing the downstream reach and severely damaging its aquatic communities. The incident highlighted environmental issues associated with the aging dam, which was completed in 1925. A coalition formed to support removing the structure and thereby opening 549 river miles of the Oconaluftee River and its tributaries, connecting streams across the Qualla Boundary and parts of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to the lower Oconaluftee and Tuckasegee Rivers. However, dam removal is not proposed in the application dam owner Northbrook Carolina Hydro II LLC has submitted

The application includes letters of support from several key agencies and organizations, including the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Southern Environmental Law Center representing American Rivers, N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, American Whitewater, U.S. Forest Service National Forests in North Carolina, Mainspring, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and N.C. Department of Environmental Quality. All of the above organizations offered their full support of the proposal. “From the information available, we do not believe that license surrender would negatively impact the Oconaluftee River nor surrounding communities,” SELC Associate Attorney Alyson Merlin wrote on behalf of American Rivers. “To the contrary we believe that surrendering the license and transferring the dam to a local entity will beneficially empower the local community to determine the appropriate use of the Biologists insert a tracking tag into a dam. Accordingly, we support Northbrook’s application for sicklefin redhorse. Gary Peeples/USFWS photo simple and expedited license surrender.” “Although the project is not on National Park Service land, to FERC. Instead, the company is merely asking the agency to Great Smoky Mountains National Park believes the decommislet it surrender its hydropower license, given “the relatively sioning of the dam would be beneficial within the larger watersmall” amount of power the dam produces. Ela Dam has a gen- shed,” wrote Smokies Superintendent Cassius Cash. “More eration capacity of only 980 kilowatts, just 20 kilowatts shy of specifically the effort would contribute positively toward 1 megawatt. Nearby Fontana Dam, by contrast, has a power reconnecting miles of native fish and mussel habitat, restoring generation capacity of about 300 megawatts. natural river flows, and allowing access by highly migratory “The FERC license surrender is about just that,” said Erin species like sicklefin redhorse and lake sturgeon to upstream McCombs, director of southeastern conservation for American spawning areas.” Rivers. “It’s about Northbrook The N.C. Department of Natural stopping their being able to generEla Dam was completed in 1925. Hunter Library/WCU photo and Cultural Resources and U.S. ate hydropower on that [dam]. And Army Corps of Engineers weighed then anything downstream of that in as well, offering more neutral is separate from what is happening comments on the application. The here on this FERC license surrenArmy Corps merely noted that der. But it’s important step.” based on the information currently In a 2022 FERC filing, available, it was unable to say Northbrook said the dam brings in whether a Department of the Army only about $55,300 in annual net permit would be needed in connecrevenue and that “any meaningful tion with the decommissioning. attempt at active remediation” The Department of Natural and from the 2021 sediment dump Cultural Resources said that in 2003 would cost more than the dam’s aggregate net cash flow “over the dam and powerhouse were deemed eligible for listing in many years.” In a September 2022 letter, Northbrook said it the National Register of Historic Places and that the license had spent more than $400,000 in river restoration efforts. surrender would “result in a foreseeable adverse effect” to the Violation cases stemming from the sediment dump handled structures. However, “understanding the reasons for the proby the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality and U.S. posed license surrender and the ultimate demolition of the hisArmy Corps of Engineers, which had required that toric property,” the department said, it was prepared to enter Northbrook undertake those mitigation efforts, were closed in a consultation process that would “mitigate the loss of the hisAugust and November 2022, respectively. toric property through the use of photographic and mapping If the license surrender is granted, the application says, the documentation as well as development and implementation of property will likely be used for conservation. some form of public education tool about the historic proper“There is significant local support and interest in having ly.” the Project transferred to a local land trust or similar entity in However, the application does not call for demconnection with any such habitat restoration activities, which olition of any buildings or structures. While dam

until 1992. The fish has a small range, being found primarily in the Hiwassee and Little Tennessee rivers, with migration into smaller streams within those watersheds such as the Oconaluftee, Tuckasegee, Valley River and Brasstown Creek. Wildlife experts estimate that half of the known population in the Tuckasegee River basin spawns in the Oconaluftee River. “When you have three species like that, that are in one place, we want to look at all the opportunities for restoration — upstream, downstream of the dam, all of the above,” Smith said. But that opportunity is far from guaranteed. Northbrook submitted its license sur-

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outdoors

removal has been discussed in the past and may be discussed in the future, the proposal currently before FERC concerns only the license surrender. Dam removal would require a separate process at a later date. The plan outlined in the application calls only for disconnecting the generator from its connection point with Duke Energy’s grid and removing generators and turbines. The canoe portage and river access will continue to be maintained so long as Northbrook owns the property. Any future owner would have the ability to modify recreational facilities and public access points in connection with other conservation and restoration activities.

Authori h ized Motor Flee l t Management Main a tenance

Ela Dam is 341 feet long and 36 feet high. File photo

MORE THAN A DAM

— Jordan Smith

McCombs said she’s hopeful good things will come from the effort. “I think we’re seeing this turning point where folks are really celebrating the values of rivers, and that’s really important, because we depend on them,” she said. “There’s a lot of benefits that come with looking at restoration — climate change benefits, both adaptation and mitigation, and justice issues, and of course, the incredible biodiversity that we have here in the Southeast.”

Lunch and Learn Your heart is one of the hardest working muscles in your body and it beats around the clock, only getting a break when you relax or sleep. This month’s talk will feature cardiologist Steven Gore, MD, and dietitian Lauren Teague, RD, CDE, who will discuss heart health and nutrition, so you don’t miss a beat! Guests will enjoy a complimentary lunch during the presentation.

Steven Gore, MD

Laren Teague, RD, CDS

Wednesday, February 21 12:00 - 1:00 pm Haywood Regional Health & Fitness Center 75 Leroy George Dr., Clyde, NC 28721

Smoky Mountain News

“”You’re talking about a mile and a half plus of critical habitat for listed species. So, definitely, yes, there is potential there. And that’s on top of and intertwines with the cultural component.”

Heart to Heart: Let’s Talk Heart Healthy Living

Jan. 31-Feb. 6, 2024

Regardless of what’s in store for the dam itself, the opportunities for ecological and cultural restoration projects on the property are huge, Smith said. Northbrook owns a total of 131.6 acres along the Oconaluftee River in Swain County, with all parcels save the dam site taking the form of long, skinny tracts that border 1.5 miles of the river upstream of the dam. “The potential is way more than just the dam,” Smith said. “You’re talking about a mile and a half plus, of critical habitat for listed species. So, definitely, yes, there is potential there. And that’s on top of and intertwines with the cultural component. Those things are inseparable — the biological and cultural components associated with this project.” That stretch of river abuts the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ Qualla Boundary and is home to the federally endangered Appalachian elktoe mussel and to the eastern hellbender, a rare giant salamander that is listed as a species of special concern in North Carolina. It’s also vital habitat for the sicklefin redhorse, a fish that is on the state’s endangered species list and has special cultural significance for the EBCI. In Cherokee, the fish is called Ugiidatli, a name that references the appearance of the fish’s dorsal fin, roughly translating to “wearing a feather.” It can reach 2 feet in length, so its large size coupled with its predictable spawning runs made it an important food source for the Cherokee people. Despite its long cultural history among the Cherokee, the sicklefin redhorse didn’t gain official recognition as a unique species

render application in November, but FERC has yet to officially accept it. “Once we determine the surrender application is complete, we will issue a public notice seeking comment on the application,” said Celeste Miller, media relations representative for FERC. That notice would kick off FERC’s formal approval process. If approval is granted, Northbrook would then be able to take its generators offline and consider transferring ownership of the property to a conservation organization like Mainspring.

Use QR Code to RSVP!

To learn more or to RSVP, visit online at MyHaywoodRegional.org/lunchandlearn

Jan. 31-Feb. 6, 2024

outdoors

Parkway visitation grows in 2023 In 2023, the Blue Ridge Parkway saw its highest visitation since 2007, according to preliminary figures from the National Park Service, representing a 6.1% increase over 2022. While Virginia entrances saw the most year-over-year growth, the westernmost portion of the Parkway led the way in North Carolina. However, overall visitation in the western region is down compared to 2021. According to preliminary figures from the National Park Service, 16.67 million people made a recreational visit to the Parkway in 2023, up from 15.71 million in 2022. Virginia visitation increased 753,000 to 5.14 million, a 17.1% increase, while the North Carolina portion picked up a more modest 203,000 visits for a total of 13.47 million, a 1.5% increase from 2022. The lackluster increase in North Carolina was due to lower use near the Virginia border and along the stretch between Linville and Asheville. However, the southernmost entrances in Haywood County and westward posted double-digit percentage increases. The U.S. 23/74 entrance at Balsam Gap saw the biggest change, with the 114,000 people using it in 2023 representing a 14% increase over 2022. The N.C. 215 entrance near the

Middle Prong Wilderness and the U.S. 441 entrance near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park saw a similar boost, growing by 13.6% and 13.8%, respectively. The U.S. 19 entrance at Soco Gap saw a slightly smaller 12.2% increase but largest absolute number, with 202,000 recreational visitors accessing the Parkway there. Use at the U.S. 276 entrance grew 6.3%. These same entrances saw double-digit percentage decreases in 2022. The higher numbers recorded in 2023 brought visitation back toward the highs of 2021 but not all the way there. Altogether, nearly 680,000 people visited the Blue Ridge Parkway south of U.S. 276 — more than the 608,000 in 2022 but substantially lower than the 709,000 of 2021. This uptick in use comes as the Great Smoky Mountains National Park recorded lower visitation to its North Carolina entrances in 2023. The park, which logged 13.22 million visits in 2023, saw North Carolina visitation fall 5.1% even as File photo overall visitation rose 2.2%. Additionally, both parks saw a substantial decrease in overnight visits. On the Blue Ridge Parkway, overnight stays fell 10.4% to land at 146,000, while the Smokies saw a 4.4% decline for a total of 494,000 overnight stays this year. In the Smokies, backcountry overnights saw the largest decrease, falling 12.6% from 2022 levels to clock in at 85,000.

— Holly Kays, Outdoors Editor

my teeth

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~ Judy Actual Patient

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Up your recycling know-how during a program at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 7, at the University of North Carolina Asheville’s Reuter Center. Brendan Roberts, new managing partner at recycling collector company Curbie, will discuss why so much recyclable material ends up in the landfill and what individuals can do to help change that. Free, and offered as part of the WNC Sierra Club’s regular monthly meeting. The presentation will also livestream via Zoom, with registration for the virtual version available at wncsierraclub.org. For more information, contact Judy Mattox at judymattox@gmail.com or 828.683.2176.

Plant trees in Bryson City

Learn what to do when your dog gets hurt on the trail with a workshop offered 1011:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 3, in Clyde. Nancy East, a retired veterinarian who is also a Search and Rescue team member and outdoor educator, will teach the course, titled “K9 Wilderness First Aid: What You Should Know and What You Can Do.” It will cover how to keep your dog safe on long

hikes and what to do when things go wrong. The workshop is offered as part of the Behavior Tails Spring Hiking Series, with the next installment on March 12, also taught by East, titled “How Not to Die in the Woods: What Every Search and Rescuer Wishes You Knew.” Cost is $30. Sign up by clicking on “Upcoming Workshops” at behaviortailsllc.com/getstartedtoday. For more information, contact info@behaviortails.com or 828.565.1050. Behavior Tails is located at 422 Valley View Drive.

Go coon hunting in Sylva

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Help MountainTrue plant more than 2,500 new native plants at Bryson City Island Park during volunteer workdays 1-4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3, and Wednesday, Feb. 14. In case of bad weather, a rain day will be held Saturday, Feb. 10. Volunteers will help install both live stake and rooted tree and shrub material for bank stabilization, wildlife habitat and beautification as the next step in the Island Park Bank Restoration Project. Gloves and tools are provided but volunteers are welcome to bring their own shovels, gloves or other digging tools. Volunteers should also have closed-toed shoes, long pants, warm layers, water and snacks. Sign up at mountaintrue.org/event.

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Diplomate

Spend the weekend focused on coon hunting with the Jackson County Coon Hound Association Friday, Feb. 2, and Saturday, Feb. 3, in Sylva. • An HTX Hunt Text will be administered at 6 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2. The test, offered through the United Kennel Club, offers hunters the chance to earn a working certificate and title recognition on qualifying dogs. Dogs are evaluated alone for one hour and must go hunting, open on track, tree and stay treed and allow the coon to be seen without committing a fault. Cost is $10. • A bench show and night hunt will take place Saturday, Feb. 3. The bench show deadline is 4 p.m. and the cost is $20. Doubleheader night hunts will begin at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m., each costing $25 and lasting for one hour. The group will meet at 44 Oak Hill Drive in Sylva. For more information, contact Mathew Bryson at 828.508.6465.

Calling all forest landowners

Prune like a pro Learn how to give your fruit trees some love with a workshop starting at 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 3, at Winding Stair Nursery in Franklin. Horticulturist Adam Bigelow will discuss tools and techniques to prune and train fruit-bearing trees to optimize their performance over the coming year. The

Prepare for gardening season with “Learn to Grow: Vegetable Gardening,” a workshop offered 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 8, in Waynesville. The class will cover how to plan a garden for spring and fall planting, follow a garden calendar, improve the soil and compost. It will include

Wednesday is family day at Cataloochee Families can visit Cataloochee Ski Area for a reduced cost on Wednesdays through the end of the season.

HaywoodBuilders.com 100 Charles St. WAYNESVILLE

An EcoForesters staff member plants a tree seedling. EcoForesters photo class will last about three hours, offering plenty of time for participants to ask questions about their own trees. Handson practice is possible, but participants should bring their own tools. Registration is required, with cost on a sliding scale from $5 to $25. In case of inclement weather, the class will be rescheduled to Feb. 10. Sign up at windingstairfarm.com/nursery/events. both lectures and hands-on demonstrations led by Extension Master Gardener Volunteer Abby Anzelmo. The $10 class fee will be accepted at the door, but pre-registration is required at go.ncsu.edu/haywoodgardeningclasses or by calling 828.456.3575. The class will be held at the N.C. Cooperative Extension’s Haywood County Center at 589 Raccoon Road in Waynesville.

Jan. 31-Feb. 6, 2024

Ready, set, grow

FREE

ESTIMATES

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A forest landowner workshop coming 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 10, at the Haywood Agricultural Center in Waynesville will give landowners a chance to learn principles and resources for stewarding their forest. The nonprofit EcoForesters is offering the workshop in partnership with Jackson County Extension, the N.C. Forest Service and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, with sessions to cover how forests have become degraded over time and what can be done to restore them. Landowners will receive access to professionals, maps of their forest and information on cost share funding in a casual setting. Subjects will include information about forest management resources, tax incentives for forest management, cultivating non-timber forest products and how to enroll your forest in carbon markets. Free, with lunch provided, thanks to funding from the U.S. Forest Service Landscape Scale Restoration Grant. Snow date is Feb. 4. Register at ecoforesters.org/outreach-events.

On Family Days, one child 17 or under can receive a free lift ticket for every accompanying parent or guardian who purchases a full-priced slope pass, up to a maximum of two free passes. For more information visit cataloochee.com/pricing-promos/slope-tickets.

The 12th annual Plunge Benefit-t-t-ting Kids in the Creek and Environmental Education will take place 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 10, at the Lake Junaluska Pool in Waynesville. The depth of the plunge is a personal choice, ranging from a dip of the toe to full immersion off the diving board, and costumes are encouraged. Prizes will be given for best costume, top individual fundraiser and team fundraisers. Plungers show off their costumes during the Youth activities will be on hand throughout the 2023 event in Canton. HWA photo event. The cost to participate is free for youth under 18, $35 for adults or free by raising sponsorships. All proceeds go to Haywood Waterways Association’s Kids in the Creek and environmental education programs. Walkins welcome. To register or donate, visit goplunge.org. For a hard copy registration form, contact Haywood Waterways at 828.476.4667 or info@haywoodwaterways.org.

Smoky Mountain News

Take ‘The Plunge’

outdoors

Land trust surpasses 70,000 acres of permanent conservation The Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina has now permanently protected more than 70,000 acres in the South Mountains after a 1,460-acre acquisition in the Pinnacle Mountains of McDowell and Rutherford counties pushed it over the mark to a total of 70,193 acres conserved since its founding in 1995. “Surpassing 70,000 acres of permanent land and water conservation is a major accomplishment for our land trust,” said FCNC Executive Director Andrew Kota. “We share this achievement with our donors, supporters and partners who worked alongside us during this 29year journey, and we’ll soon share the land itself with the communities in this region when a section of the Wilderness Gateway State Trail is constructed.” The land purchase was part of an ongoing effort to conserve lands connecting the South Mountains to the Blue Ridge Mountains, allowing for the Wilderness Gateway State Trail to be developed as a

long-distance public trail system. In early 2024, FCNC will convey a permanent conservation easement on the property to the state. The land, referred to by FCNC as Pinnacle Mountains West, adjoins 960 acres that FCNC purchased in 2022 using a North Carolina Land and Water Fund grant. This land connects to an assemblage of state and federal lands to the east. Pinnacle Mountains West extends this string of conserved land west toward Hickorynut Mountain, another large aggregation of private conservation land.

A mountain vista stretches out from the newly conserved property. FCNC photo Preliminary work has also begun on FCNC’s pending acquisition of 1,686 acres adjoining Pinnacle Mountains West to the south, aptly named Pinnacles Mountains South, with funding from the North Carolina Land and Water Fund.

Jan. 31-Feb. 6, 2024

Sign up for summer camp Registration for Spring Break Camp at the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville opens at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 7, with Discovery Camp registration following suit at 11 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 14. Spring Break Camp will be held April 1-5, with summer Discovery Camp sessions held Monday through Friday June 10-28 and July 8 through Aug. 23. Camps for younger children are expected to fill particularly quickly once registration opens. Those who are unable to register will be able to add their name to a waitlist. Arboretum members will receive a 10% discount on all camps and registrations. Learn more at ncarboretum.org/education-programs/discovery-camp.

Bike Chestnut Mountain

Smoky Mountain News

Ride the trails with an experienced mountain bike instructor at 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 10, at Chestnut Mountain Nature Park in Canton. The group will meet in the parking lot, where the instructor will offer basic information

Puzzles can be found on page 30 These are only the answers.

Sarah Taber, a candidate for N.C. Commissioner of Agriculture, visited Darnell Farms in Bryson City during a recent tour of farms in six mountain and foothill counties. She is shown speaking with Nate Darnell (left), as he shows her a trial the farm is running that experiments with keeping strawberry plants in the ground for two years instead of one. Taber, a Democrat, is one of four candidates running for the commissioner of agriculture seat. Also running are Libertarian Sean Haugh and Republicans Colby (Bear) Hammonds and Steve Troxler. Troxler, the incumbent, has held the seat since 2005. Sarah Taber campaign photo

and safety reminders before hitting the trails. The ride will be on more technical trails, so previous mountain biking experience is recommended. Loaner bikes and helmets are available. Cost is $10, with online registration at bit.ly/haywoodrec.

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38 North Main Street | Waynesville

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Jan. 31-Feb. 6, 2024

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