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January 20-26, 2016 Vol. 17 Iss. 34

Massive cuts on the way for Haywood schools Page 9 Elk season proposal debated at public hearing Page 32

Weight Loss Clinic Now Open Saturdays!

CONTENTS On the Cover: When North Carolina residents go to the polls for the March 15 primary election, they will be asked to vote on whether they think the state should issue a $2 billion bond to pay for infrastructure projects. If the bond referendum passes, the Western North Carolina region would receive more than $140 million toward earmarked projects for universities, community colleges and state parks. (Page 6)

News Free clinic for uninsured opens in Bryson City ..........................................................4 Macon leaders still opposed to more wilderness ......................................................5 WCU appealed wrongful termination suit ..................................................................9 Massive cuts on the way for Haywood schools ......................................................10 Koch money at WCU remains under scrutiny ........................................................12 Waynesville takes next steps in town manager transition ....................................14 No charges will be filed in Jackson jail suicides ......................................................16 Tribe’s Justice Center named after fallen officer ......................................................17

Opinion Voters will ultimately decide if firing was a mistake ................................................20

A&E Healing the mountains, healing the people ..............................................................24

Outdoors Elk season proposal debated at public hearing ......................................................32

Smoky Mountain News

January 20-26, 2016

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Free clinic to serve uninsured in Swain County

three making under $42,000 could qualify.

Besides providing for the poor and uninsured, VanMiddlesworth said the free clinic would be a benefit to the hospital as well. He said an informal survey he conducted while working at the hospital showed more than 25 percent of patients he saw in the emergency room were uninsured and didn’t have a primary physician.

A free clinic will hopefully cut down on the amount of people unnecessarily going to the ER. The hospital has agreed to donate lab work and referral services for the free clinic.

“People wait so long and then go to the ER and their condition is much worse than if they had gotten medicine early on from their primary doctor,” he said.

VanMiddlesworth and a few nurses are volunteering their time to make this free clinic work, but there are still expenses associated with running any kind of medical facility. The nonprofit clinic has received two small grants from the Great Smokies Health Foundation Thrift Store to purchase start-up equipment and computers. The church has

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR r. Frank VanMiddlesworth is on a mission to bring free medical care to the uninsured in Swain County and improve the overall health of its residents.

He’s had the hope of opening a free clinic since his family moved to Bryson City 10 years ago and it’s finally coming to fruition.

Swain County Caring Corner opens its doors for the first time Thursday, Jan 21, at Bryson City First United Methodist Church.

“There are annual statistics that evaluate every county in the nation. We were 94th out of 100 counties in North Carolina in terms of health,” VanMiddlesworth said. “We felt like we could feel sorry for ourselves or we could take the Christ paradoxical approach — when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Volunteer health care providers are opening a free clinic on After a year of Thursdays at the Bryson City First Methodist Church to serve planning and gatheruninsured patients. Donated photo ing up some committed volunteers, the donated the space, which includes four group formed a Christian-based nonprofit rooms, and the clinic has also received donathat will operate similar to Good Samaritan tions form the community. clinics in Sylva and Waynesville.

“The biggest expenses — if we grow big VanMiddlesworth has experience volunteerenough — will be to hire a nurse practitioning for Good Samaritan in Sylva and currenter or a nurse,” he said. “Volunteers are wonly works in the emergency department at derful but there is something about having Swain Community Hospital. someone to provide continuity and accountVanMiddlesworth said residents have ability.” limited options when it comes to health care VanMiddlesworth said the clinic’s volunin Swain County. People without insurance teer board of directors went through the can go the health department and pay $45 process of establishing a protocol for the for a visit to receive basic preventive care or clinic. Under the Federal Tort Claims Act, they can travel to Sylva or Waynesville to Good Samaritan if they qualify. Even for peo- the employees of the clinic will be considered federal employees, which means the ple with insurance, finding a primary physihealth care providers don’t have to carry cian in the area can be difficult. malpractice insurance and the federal justice “We’ve had some attrition. We’ve had department will handle any malpractice really good doctors retire, two went to be medical missionaries in Papua, New Guinea, cases. VanMiddlesworth said many free clinics operate under this model. and others left to work at federally funded The clinic office will be open to take health clinics that see people on a sliding appointments from 9 a.m. to noon on scale,” VanMiddlesworth said.

Tuesday, Thursday and Friday while the clinSwain County Caring Corner will offer ic will be open for appointments from 4 p.m. primary care services for residents who to 9 p.m. on Thursdays. make less than 200 percent of the federal The clinic is located at Bryson City poverty level. For example, if a single person Methodist Church, 76 Main St., Bryson City. makes less than $24,000 a year, he or she Call 828-341.1998 to see if you qualify for free would qualify for services. A couple making medical services and to make an appointment. under $32,000 could qualify and a family of

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wilderness … is probably not enough,” Vanhorn said. “We agree the best way to achieve a forest management plan that represents all interests is to defer to the public process of the Forest Service. This process allows for all voices to be heard.”

The wilderness agenda item at the meeting attracted a room full of people that spoke out on both sides of the issue. Hunters and people in the timber industry were opposed to more wilderness area because they say it further restricts access to the land and the roads going through the land.

Brent Martin, Southern Appalachian director of The Brent Martin Wilderness Society, said he agreed that access to forestland was a problem, but he blamed it on budget cuts and not wilderness designations.

“We agree on many issues — the Forest Service is underfunded. Their budget has been cut by a third and they’ve lost so much of their discretionary budget in the Appalachians to fight fires in the West, so it’s way more complex than standing up and attacking wilderness,” he said. “And wilderness only denies access for motorized vehicles.

I think we need to look at the real problems like budgeting and Paul Higdon planning issues.”

Commissioner Paul Higdon said he appreciated everyone’s comments on the matter, but he said he’s seen firsthand how the land usage has changed in his 66 years living in Macon County. He said he supports the work the groups do to protect the county’s greatest natural resources, but it came down to locals having a lack of trust in the federal government.

“We’ve lost access to that property — we

Members of conservation groups attended the Macon County commissioners meeting last week to ask the board to pass a resolution supporting the U.S. Forest Service’s recommendations for future wilderness areas. Jessi Stone photo

Since almost half of Macon County is made up of national forest, county leaders and residents are often concerned about that land becoming more restricted by the Forest Service. have continued to watch that access diminish without anything being done,” Higdon said. “It’s just that little bit of a lack of trust of losing more access. It’s nothing personal.”

Commission Chairman Kevin Corbin reminded everyone that eight other counties in the region also passed resolutions opposing more wilderness areas. While he agrees with many of the concerns on both sides of the issue, he said the board’s position had not changed since it passed the resolution in 2014. However, he disagreed with Vanhorn’s comment that the commissioners’ resolu-

tion hindered the Forest Service’s public input process.

“We’ll publically say we support the public process — it helps us have the conversation we’re having tonight,” Corbin said. “As far as passing another resolution, I feel like we expressed our opinion just like everyone else and I don’t know if the opinion has changed.”

Corbin asked the audience not to overestimate the commissioners’ powers since the ultimate decision on creating more wilderness areas rests with Congress.

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BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR acon County commissioners maintained their stance against creating more wilderness areas in the county despite The Wilderness Society’s attempt to change their minds.

The U.S. Forest Service is in the midst of updating its Forest Management Plan for the Nantahala-Pisgah national forests and has presented a list of land that could potentially be designated as wilderness.

Since almost half of Macon County is made up of national forest, county leaders and residents are often concerned about that land becoming more restricted by the Forest Service.

In July 2014, the commissioners unanimously passed a resolution proclaiming the board was not in favor of the Forest Service designating more national forest land as protected wilderness areas.

Members of several outdoors and conservation organizations attended the commissioners’ meeting last week to ask the board to consider passing a resolution to support the U.S. Forest Service recommendations for wilderness even though those recommendations haven’t officially been made yet.

Bill Vanhorn with the Nantahala Hiking Club told commissioners he was the spokesperson for the 13 businesses and organizations asking the board to support the public input process by supporting the Forest Service’s recommendations.

The request letter to the county was signed and supported by the Franklin Bird Club, Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust, Southern Appalachian Plant Society, Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine, The Wilderness Society, Stay and Play in the Smokies, Bartram Trail Society, Wild South, Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards, Franklin Appalachian Trail Community Council, Outdoor 76 and Highlands Plateau Audubon Society.

“We all agree that 4 percent of forest service land in Macon County designated as

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Macon commissioners pass on wilderness resolution

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Infrastructure bonds garner bipartisan support

Connect NC bond overview • $2 billion of targeted, long-term investments.

• Projects in 76 counties.

• Infrastructure investments are vital to NC's competitiveness.

• Connect NC will pay for assets that will last for 50 years.

• Interest rates are historically low.

• Connect NC will not jeopardize state’s strong credit rating.

• There will be no new taxes or tax increases because of Connect NC.

Breakdown of funds

Dr. Travis Burke, interim associate dean of NC State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and director of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service, speaks to an audience in Swain County about the benefits of the $ 2 billion Connect NC Bond proposal.

Jessi Stone photo

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR n March 15, North Carolina voters will be asked whether they support borrowing $2 billion to fund a backlog of infrastructure projects throughout the state.

The $2 billion Connect NC Bond proposal includes funds for earmarked projects in 72 out of 100 counties for universities, community colleges, state parks, National Guard facilities, agricultural research, water and sewer upgrades and more.

Republican Gov. Pat McCrory developed the bond proposal but it has garnered overwhelming support from legislators on both sides of the aisle. It’s unusual for Democrats and Republicans to reach consensus on spending legislation in the General Assembly, but lawmakers representing the western region all agree this bond is crucial for North Carolina’s infrastructure needs.

Rep. Joe Sam Queen, D-Waynesville, and Sen. Jim Davis, R-Franklin, fall on fairly opposite sides of the political spectrum, but both agree the bond is the best way to begin catching up on a long list of needs the state budget hasn’t been able to handle.

“This is an opportunity for all North Carolinians of both parties to help their state.

This bond is balanced, it’s modest — some would like it to have more and some would like less — but it’s fair across the state and it invests where we need to invest,” Queen said.

“All of our major needs have been on the backburner since the recession. This bond will will create tens of thousands of jobs and meet the critical needs of our growing state.”

Smoky Mountain News

January 20-26, 2016

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NEEDS OR WANTS? Legislators say the projects earmarked in the bond are not pie in the sky wants —they are crucial capital projects needed to grow the 6 state’s top industries — agriculture, tourism,

health care, defense and technology.

McCrory has been across the state lobbying hard for the bond proposal since last May when he unveiled the plan at Western Carolina University. WCU stands to gain $110 million from the bond, which is the largest single project included in the bond proposal.

But McCrory will only see a fraction of his original bond proposal on the March 15 primary election ballot. His original plan included $1.3 million for highway projects, but the highway projects didn’t make it through to the final bond issuance.

Davis said he was against borrowing money to complete highway projects. Though the projects are sorely needed, he believes there will be funding available in the Highway Trust Fund to start completing them without a bond.

“This budget year is the first in a long time where we haven’t transferred money out of the Highway Trust Fund to the general fund,” he said. “We’ve put an end to that finally and we believe by not taking $250 million a year out of the trust fund we’ll be able to do the projects with current money.”

What remains is $2 billion for new construction and renovations for universities, community colleges, state parks and zoos, agriculture and public safety. The bond also sets aside $312.5 million for water and sewer projects. Rural county and municipal governments will be able to apply for that funding if the bond is passed.

Davis said he is taking every opportunity to tell people about the benefits of voting yes on the bond in March. He said he worked closely with all the community colleges in his district to make sure their most pressing infrastructure needs were met in the bond as well as getting WCU a new science building.

“Western is having incredible enrollment numbers for nursing and pre med and engineering and the science building is critical to the entire university because everyone has to take

• National Guard and Public safety — $78.5 million (4 percent) • Parks and zoos — $100 million (5 percent) • Agriculture — $179 million (9 percent) • Water/sewer and local parks — $312.5 million (16 percent) • Community colleges — $350 million (17 percent) • UNC System — $980 million (49 percent) TOTAL: $2 BILLION

Western region highlights • Western Carolina University Science and STEM Facility — $110 million • Improving Chimney Rock State Park — $1.5 million • Improving Gorges State Park — $2.5 million • Haywood Community College — $2.83 million • Southwestern Community College — $7.17 million • Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College — $5.5 million • Tri-County Community College — $4.5 million • Blue Ridge Community College — $2.9 million Source: http://connect.nc.gov/

classes in that building to graduate,” Davis said.

As it stands now, he said the 50-year-old building with shaky floors is not conducive for science classes in which scientific measurements are being taken.

“When I visited Western, Chancellor (David) Belcher said the building was obsolete, but I say it was obsolete when it was built,” Davis said.

Queen said the WCU science building project was absolutely critical given the need for an educated workforce in the western region. Areas of growth in this area include health care, engineering and other high-tech industries, and Queen said he wants to make sure those types of jobs stay in the region.

“It’s a focused investment for the future of our university system,” he said. “We really we worked hard to get it in the general budget in other ways but there was no other way.”

WCU may have the largest project, but Queen said some of the other projects are just as critical to the region and the state as a whole. He said money going to fund infrastructure projects at state parks and zoos and to build new National Guard facilities would create hundreds of thousands of jobs and also get the state caught up on capital needs that have been on the backburner since the recession hit in 2008.

GOOD TIME TO BORROW?

Connect NC is the largest borrowing packages residents have voted on since 2000 when voters overwhelming approved $3 billion for universities and community colleges. The state could have its debt nearly paid off by 2026 if the new bond wasn’t added, but the new bond would add a few more years to retiring that debt.

Even though the Federal Reserve recently increased interest rates by a quarter of a point, rates are still at a historic low. The interest rate on the bond could be between 3.5 and 5.75 percent, according to data on Connect NC’s website.

Davis said passing the bond wouldn’t result in raised taxes and wouldn’t increase the state’s debt service long term because the state is paying off older debt at a fast rate.

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Bond could give higher education an influx of funds

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Gov. Pat McCrory tours the aging natural science building at Western Carolina University just after announcing the Connect NC Bond proposal back in May 2015.

Community colleges also stand to benefit from bond passage

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— David Belcher, WCU chancellor

would fund projects at state universities while another $350 million would be funneled to community colleges.

Belcher will spend the next month or so traveling the region to talk to civic groups

Jackson County, SCC is looking to expand its campuses in Macon and Swain counties.

The plan to expand Macon’s campus from 4 acres to 20 acres includes a 38,000-square-foot science building with 15 classrooms and a lab and a new law enforcement training center with an indoor firing range.

The Swain Center only offers a limited number of programs, including Outdoor Leadership and Heritage Arts, but residents would like to see more general education classes offered so students don’t have to travel as much to Jackson County.

“We’re still in the process of determining our top priorities on these master plans, but all of the projects we’re considering now are vital to accommodating the projected growth of our college over the next 10 to 15 years,” Tomas said.

Community colleges don’t receive any funding for capital improvements from the state coffers unless a special bond is passed. Tomas said the community colleges have to rely on financial support from the county governments it serves. As counties have been strapped for funding as well since the recession, it is unlikely SCC would get the necessary funding more than or equal to the $7 million it could receive from this bond. However, if the bond doesn’t pass, Tomas said he would continue to work with community partners to ensure SCC’s most critical needs are met.

“We are fortunate to have extremely supportive community leaders throughout our service area of Jackson, Macon, Swain counties and the Qualla Boundary, and we hope they

will work with us on future projects as they’ve done throughout our first 50-plus years,” he said.

Haywood Community College leadership is also being cautious about not promoting the bond, but instead educating the public on the benefits. HCC President Dr. Barbara Parker said the $2.8 million slated for HCC would allow the school to complete some much-needed renovations to existing classrooms and instructional lab space.

“For the last few months, the Department of Campus Development at Haywood Community College has been working to determine essential updates to various buildings across campus, Parker said. “As a result, HCC, in coordination with the board of trustees, is recommending that funds acquired by the Connect NC Bond be utilized toward the renovation of existing structures and will not be allocated for new construction.”

HCC recently completed one major capital project — the Creative Arts Building — and broke ground on another — the Public Services Training Facility — using a combination of a quarter cent sales tax and loan funds. The county commissioners designated the quarter cent sales tax to HCC in 2008 for the completion of capital projects.

Over time, Parker said the quarter cent sales tax would be used to pay off the debt incurred by the Creative Arts Building and Public Services Training Facility. As a result, HCC is not likely to commit to new projects or major campus renovations for the next few years.

— By Jessi Stone, news editor 7

Smoky Mountain News

hough community college leaders aren’t allowed to take an official position on whether they support the $2 billion Connect NC Bond initiative, the proposal could mean $350 million for community colleges across the state.

If the bond receives majority support on the March 15 primary ballot, Southwestern Community College would receive more than $7.1 million while Haywood Community College would receive more than $2.8 million for infrastructure projects.

Dr. Don Tomas, president of SCC, said the bond could be a tremendous help to SCC if it passes.

“We are currently finalizing a master plan for our Jackson Campus and Swain Center, and we recently completed a master plan for our Macon Campus,” he said. “Potential funding from the bond would certainly be a great starting point for raising the capital we need to get started on some of the top priorities from each of these master plans.”

SCC has been holding public input sessions in the region to get a sense of what people in the community expect from the college in the future. While the flagship campus is in

“This funding is essential — it’s a very large dollar project and we don’t have any other resources to get it done.”

January 20-26, 2016

ing is a major building block of the university.

Belcher said WCU couldn’t adequately prepare these students to compete globally in these science areas. With a nationwide push toward encouraging students to pursue careers in STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — having the new building is essential for the university.

“Western really starts from the perspective that we exist to serve this region of the state,” Belcher said. “And we work hard to meet the workforce needs in this area.”

The WCU natural science building project is the single largest allocation in the $2 billion bond proposal, which would fund a variety of infrastructure projects across the state. About half of the bond money — $980 million —

about the benefits of the bond proposal. WCU has also set up a page on its website to explain the bond proposal and the need for a new science building. Belcher said he could feel good about advocating for the referendum because the bond would not cause an increase in taxes and won’t significantly increase the state’s debt service in the long term.

“We have historically low interest rates right now and the state has been paying off old debt fairly quickly — the last bonds passed in 2000 are now being retired so there will be no additional tax based debt service,” he said.

“From a financial point of view it’s a perfect moment to make this initiative happen.”

If the bond doesn’t pass, Belcher said WCU doesn’t have any other financial resources available to complete a project of this magnitude. Since the last state bond was issued in 2000, the population of North Carolina increased by two million people.

That much growth is usually followed by new and expanded infrastructure, but those types of projects have been postponed since the economy took a nosedive in 2008.

“Like the rest of the country, North Carolina went through the recession and revenue has dried up,” Belcher said. “The economy is recovering, but money isn’t flowing yet like it used to yet our infrastructure demands it.”

Belcher feels optimistic about the bond passing since it’s garnered bipartisan support in the General Assembly and the funds are fairly distributed throughout the state for a number of important projects.

“But it’s always hard to say — some people are worried about it being on the primary ballot — that it might have some impact on how people vote, but North Carolina has a long history of both parties supporting of education,” he said.

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BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR espite the large number of politicians that will be on the ballot March 15, Western Carolina University in Cullowhee probably has the most to gain and the most to lose during the primary election.

If voters pass the Connect NC bond proposal on the ballot, WCU will receive $110 million to build a brand new state-of-the-art natural science facility. If the bond referendum fails to garner a majority of the votes, WCU Chancellor David Belcher said the university would not be able to keep up with the growth of popular majors like nursing and engineering.

“We’re strapped for space and we won’t grow if we don’t get more space and, frankly, space that’s much better,” Belcher said. “This funding is essential — it’s a very large dollar project and we don’t have any other resources to get it done.”

The current science building was constructed 40 years ago when the university had 15 nursing students and no engineering or technology programs. Today, WCU has about 400 undergrad nursing students and about 600 students in other science and technology programs.

The building is full every day of the week, yet the aging science building can’t accommodate enough students and offer the newest technologies. The floors shake, the air conditioning units cause vibrations when they kick on, and there are problems with mold, plumbing and not enough storage space. The shaking and vibrating renders the sensitive scientific equipment used in the labs useless.

Measurements aren’t reliable under those conditions.

With more than 10,000 students now at WCU — and a majority of them required to take some kind of science course — the build-

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If the Connect NC Bond passes during the 2016 primary election, Western Carolina University would use its $110 million portion to build a new state-of-the-art natural science building.

BONDS, CONTINUED FROM 6

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“I’m not one for borrowing money, but if we’re going to do it, now is the time to do it and these are critic needs in the state,” he said.

Queen said the bond should pay for itself in about five years because of the current debt being retired quickly and because he anticipates these new projects will generate new revenue for the state that can be used to pay back the bond. He added that the new Sen. Jim Davis bond shouldn’t affect the state’s AAA credit rating, which is the highest rating given to state governments.

“It actually improves our position because part of maintaining a triple A rating is having the infrastructure in place to sustain the Rep. Joe Sam Queen economy, but we haven’t invested in infrastructure since the recession,” Queen said. “This is a wise investment — it will build jobs, build revenue and it will have a solid return.”

COULD IT BE DERAILED? Even with bi-partisan support among legislators, some worry about the fate of the referendum. Davis and Queen say they haven’t heard much negative feedback on the bond, but only time will tell.

One concern is that the bond referendum will be on the primary ballot instead of the general election ballot in November, which could result in lower voter turnout. Another concern is that the bond campaign team hasn’t had a lot of time to rally support. The bond was approved by the General Assembly in November just before the holidays so the

campaign team is just now hitting the ground running to drum up support across the state.

Proponents of the bond have expressed concerns over the bill being able to pass during a primary election. With a hotly contested Republican presidential primary, pundits worry that conservatives who are against government borrowing could shut it down at the polls.

“You always worry about that, but this is a bipartisan issue that wouldn’t have passed without bipartisan support,” Queen said.

Davis said the primary election wasn’t an ideal placement but time is of the essence to get a low interest rate nailed down and get to work on these projects. He thinks the primary will garner enough interest on both ides of the political spectrum.

“The reason it’s on the primary ballot is to get it done sooner,” he said. “In view of the fact we have a lot of interest in the national election, I think we’ll have a good turnout in the primary.”

The state political parties haven’t taken an official position on the bond referendum. The Democratic Party has only come out to warn McCrory that it would be inappropriate for him to be the face of the bond campaign because it would benefit his re-election efforts.

Dallas Woodhouse, executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party, said the party has not taken a position either way with the bond and he doesn’t anticipate it will do so.

So far there has only been a small group of opponents to the bond — a website Agaisntthebond.com with an accompanying Facebook page — NC Against the Bond that had 432 likes as of this week. The group recently filed the paperwork need to become an official referendum committee.

Rep. Mark Brody, R-Monroe, was one of few who voted against the bond proposal. He said he would like to see the state debt-free before undertaking all these projects.

He said the state has $6 billion in debt and pays off about $700 million in principal and interest on that debt every year.

“That’s $700 million we pay that takes away from other priorities just to fund the current debt — imagine what we could do with $700 million in the budget?” Brody said.

If the bond is approved and the state adds $2 billion more to the debt, Brody said that would be a grand total of $1.1 billion the state would have to allocate each year from the budget to pay it off in six years.

“I feel like we’re about four election cycles away from being debt free if we don’t borrow any more and that’s my number one argument against the bond,” he said.

He also disagrees that the bond will be an economic driver since the highway projects were taken out of the proposal. While transportation projects may move the economic needle, Brody said building new buildings does not.

“If you really want to move the needle, you pay down debt first,” he said “If the state were debt free we’d be a good example for the federal government to follow.”

When asked if he was surprised that even the most conservative Republicans are backing the proposal, Brody said, “Nothing surprises me anymore. I’m at the end of my second term, but maybe I would have been at the beginning.

Politics is a strange game sometimes.”

University appeals decision

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As a new hire, Russell, now 52, was paired for training with Michael Carpenter, a maintenance worker who had been with the university since 2005. It didn’t go so well, according to the judge’s decision. let either Walker or Smith know if he ever felt he was being retaliated against. Overby did draw the distinction that the evidence does not support an actual finding that retaliation occurred — just that Russell felt that’s what was happening.

January 20-26, 2016 Smoky Mountain News

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER fter a former employee won a lawsuit claiming that Western Carolina University had fired him without cause, the university is appealing the decision.

Rob Russell, who lost his job as an electrician with the university’s Division of Facilities Management in November 2014, convinced Administrative Judge Donald Overby in October that the university didn’t have a good reason to fire him. The events that led to his dismissal, Russell said, were set in motion by issues that had been brewing since he joined the staff, two years prior to his dismissal.

As a new hire, Russell, now 52, was paired for training with Michael Carpenter, a maintenance worker who had been with the university since 2005. It didn’t go so well, according to the judge’s decision. Carpenter would routinely steal items like Catamount T-shirts and scrap copper, Russell said, and that bothered him. To boot, Carpenter wasn’t much of a teacher. Two months into his employment, Russell went to his boss, Terry Watson, asking if he could be paired with a different employee.

“All he (Watson) would say to me was, ‘When I get good and ready I’ll rotate you, but until then just deal with it,’” Russell said.

Russell tried once more to talk with Watson before going a step higher, to Ombudsman Jayne Zanglein. In her capacity as ombudsman, Zanglein, also a university professor, was tasked with sorting out conflicts between employees. When Russell revealed the theft, Zanglein reported it to the WCU Police Department, who in turn interviewed Russell, court documents say.

Russell said he’d envisioned that the police would do some kind of stakeout to catch Carpenter, allowing Russell to remain anonymous as the tipster. However, when the police responded to Russell’s tip that Carpenter had just stolen some T-shirts from the stadium, where the crew had been working, it was obvious to all where the police had gotten their information. Carpenter was arrested and promptly fired.

But not for long. Carpenter challenged the termination, a case heard by Vice Chancellor for Facilities Management Joe Walker. There was no question that the theft had occurred, Walker determined, and in the course of the evaluation he determined that theft was actually fairly common within the division. Carpenter specifically implicated Watson as being party to it, according to the judge’s decision.

But rather than further investigating and disciplining those responsible, Walker rein-

stated Carpenter with full back pay and benefits. According to the court transcript, he decided that if he upheld Carpenter’s firing, he would “have to look at firing everybody in Facilities Management, or at least … a large number.”

“That Carpenter was reinstated without any discipline is unfathomable to this trier of fact,” Overby wrote in his decision. “That management likewise gave in to the, in essence, bullying because of pervasive criminal behavior is also unbelievable.”

A memo went out to facilities staff advising that further theft would result in disciplinary action. Carpenter got his job back.

“The University took the easy way out by turning its back on criminal activity by its employees,” Overby wrote. “It may have avoided being on the front page of the newspaper, but in so doing WCU gave a wholesale endorsement of bad and criminal behavior which should not have been tolerated.”

Russell met with Walker and Lee Smith, director of operations and maintenance. It was decided that Russell and Carpenter should not have to be alone together in the future, though Russell realized they’d still have to see each other in the break room and when collaborating on large projects.

“There is no question that Petitioner (Russell) became persona non grata,” Overby wrote, noting that Watson ordered Russell to dig ditches alone and by hand much more frequently than before he’d reported the theft.

Another time, Watson changed Russell’s schedule at the last minute, giving an overtime shift Russell had been scheduled to work to another employee — of equal rank to Russell — without giving a reason for doing so.

To that point, Carpenter had been out on Worker’s Compensation and not present on campus following his initial termination.

But after his return in September 2014, more problems arose. On Nov. 4, both men were assigned to a group of six electricians renovating a suite in the H.F. Robinson Administrative Building. At first, they were working on two separate subprojects within the space, but later in the day Jeff Gunter, who was the lead on the job, ordered the two to pull wire together. Russell refused, Gunter insisted, and Russell refused again. Gunter gave the order a third time, “rather forcefully,” Overby wrote, but Russell “shook his head, dropped his tools and work belt, and left the job site.”

According to court documents, Russell had left to find Watson’s supervisor and, failing that, the next person up the ladder — Smith. But he didn’t tell Gunter where he was going. When he found Smith, he told him he was upset and wanted to go home to “cool down.” Smith didn’t respond, which Russell took to mean he had permission to leave, according to the judge’s decision.

Not telling Gunter where he was headed was a mistake, Overby wrote, but did not amount to insubordination. And there was no evidence that Russell had been working slowly or destroying materials on purpose.

It pays to compare the way that Carpenter and Russell were treated, Overby continued. On the one hand, Carpenter’s theft went unpunished, even though all involved acknowledged it had happened. On the other, Russell was fired “for one act of insubordination which could have been cured had he merely reported to Gunter where he was going.”

“Petitioner (Russell) felt in good faith he was following directions he had been given

by Walker,” Overby continued. “”There is no good faith larceny.”

Therefore, he ordered that Russell get his job back — plus back pay and benefits — and that WCU reimburse Russell’s legal fees.

That was in October. One month later, WCU filed a notice of appeal asking for a reversal of the decision. The document stating the basis for the appeal has not yet been filed, and no court date has yet been set.

Watson retired in May 2015 after 29 years with the university.

“I don’t know why. Why are they appealing it?” Russell said. “I’d be the best employee they have because I know there’s going to be a target on my back. They’ll look for any excuse to kick me to the curb.”

WCU spokesman Bill Studenc said the university is not able to comment, citing constraints due to the ongoing judicial case and its concern with personnel matters.

news

Fired WCU worker wins wrongful termination suit

But after meeting with Watson and Human Resources officials, Smith decided to place Russell on investigatory leave. Five days later, Russell was invited to a “PreDisciplinary Conference” in which he was accused of leaving the work site without permission and purposefully working slowly and destroying pipe he was working with.

The next day, Russell got a letter saying he’d been fired.

Overby agreed with Russell’s contention that those justifications shouldn’t fly, writing that Russell had merely been trying to do what he’d been told by Walker, which was to

9

What’s getting cut

Smoky Mountain News

January 20-26, 2016

news

Earlier this month, the Haywood County School Board gave preliminary approval to a list of budget cuts aimed at making up the $2.4 million budget shortfall the school system found itself facing for the coming year.

After years of stealing from its savings account to soften the blows dealt by funding cuts from higher up, that account has no extra money left, and a reduction in student population means the school system is getting millions less in per-pupil money from the state than it was as recently as two years ago. To compensate, the school board is looking into closing Central Elementary School in Waynesville but will have to take more cost-cutting measures as well if it wants to balance the budget. Here’s a list of proposed cuts: • 22 teaching positions, $1.07 million reduction (51 percent).

• Shifting funding sources for some staff to create savings, $303,714 reduction.

• Office supplies across schools and programs, $36,200 (71 percent).

• Contributions toward school fundraisers, $24,500 reduction (100 percent).

• Athletic support, $10,500 (50 percent).

• Staff development for principals and assistance principals, $12,700 reduction (50 percent).

• Band supplies, instrument purchase and travel, $21,500 reduction (54 percent reduction).

• Choral supplies, $1,900 reduction (50 percent).

• Media clerk position, $41,465 reduction (100 percent).

• Two high school clerical positions, $62,299 reduction.

• Cell phone supplement reduction, $7,825 reduction.

• Shift administrative funding sources, $42,000.

• Reorganize maintenance and transportation support duties, $9,400 reduction.

• Academic remediation for middle and high school students, $110,000 reduction (41 percent).

• Local career/technical education funding, $42,040.

• Service contract with Mountain Mediation, $11,000 reduction (100 percent).

• Uniforms, $1,292 (100 percent).

• N.C. Association of School Administrators dues, $6,700 reduction (100 percent).

• School board materials and supplies, $2,500 reduction (23 percent).

• Maintenance costs, $50,000 reduction.

• Electricity for closed child development center, $10,000 reduction (56 percent).

• Custodial overtime, $25,000 reduction (58 percent).

• New kindergarten classroom start-up costs, $8,000 reduction (100 percent).

• Instructional and school materials, $53,281 reduction (20 percent).

• Telecommunications, $100,000 reduction.

• Local exceptional children program funding, $101,000 reduction (77 percent).

• County supplement, $48,000.

• Coaching for after-school programs, including athletics, $120,000 (42 percent reduction).

10

Massive cuts on the way for Haywood schools School system likely to cut 22 teaching positions, among other reductions

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER ews that a beloved elementary school might close next year grabbed headlines last week, but shuttering Central Elementary School in Waynesville won’t be enough to make up for the $2.4 million budget shortfall Haywood County Schools is facing next school year.

Closing Central would save only about $500,000 per year, and because it’s not yet a done deal, district leaders had to come up with an alternate plan to cut the full amount in the event that Central remains open. The list of $2.3 million in cuts — the district would still have a bit of shortfall to make up — which the school board voted to give preliminary approval last week, would slash everything from teaching positions to athletic coaches to administrators’ cell phone supplements.

“No one wanted to do this, but in order to maintain Haywood County Schools, we have to do it,” said Superintendent Anne Garrett, later adding, “We didn’t hit just one area. We made it as broad as we could without damaging any program permanently.”

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A DECREASE IN TEACHERS Undeniably the most troubling cut, however, is the first one — the school system will get rid of 22 classroom teaching positions, saving $1.07 million. It’s an upsetting but unavoidable plan, administrators say.

Personnel costs account for more than 60 percent of the school system’s budget in any given year, so it’s hard to significantly cut expenses without touching teachers.

Garrett hopes nobody will actually be laid off to achieve the reduction, as the school system typically expects 45 to 60 people to retire or otherwise leave the classroom each year. But class sizes — especially for grades four and up, which have no state-mandated cap — will go up, and there’s a potential for some course offerings to disappear, though district leaders vow to prevent that outcome if at all possible.

Specific decision about which positions stay and which go won’t come out until March, when the district makes its preliminary calculations for projected enrollment.

According to Chuck Francis, chairman of the school board, there’s a “very good possibility” that some low-enrollment high school courses might be pulled. Associate Superintendent Bill Nolte, meanwhile, said that the school system “doesn’t anticipate the loss of any offerings.”

But until March allotment numbers come out, those decisions will remain hypothetical.

The school board’s ultimate decision

about Central Elementary will also play a part in the final staffing decision. If the school board decides to go through with the closure, it may be able to restore some of the teaching positions that otherwise would be cut. But not necessarily.

It’s an election year, making it likely that the Legislature will decide to give teachers a raise, Nolte said. And while it’s a good thing for teachers to get paid more for their work, raises are a double-edged sword when it comes to budgeting. The state pays for a certain number of positions, but some teachers are paid with local dollars, and so a state raise means that increased salaries for locally paid teachers have to come out of the funding pot the county provides. If the state decrees a 5 percent raise, Nolte said, that would wipe out the $500,000 to be saved annually by closing Central.

“Very little on this list will change if Central closes,” he predicted.

Though teaching positions are the largest line-item budget cut recommended, staff and students will have to deal with myriad other reductions, as well.

Remediation services for students struggling with schoolwork in the middle and high schools will be cut by 40 percent, meaning the school administrators who decide how to spend that money will have some tough calls to make.

If the cuts are approved, remediation funding in grades six to 12 will fall from $272,000 to $162,000.

“It will mean, maybe, more students in a tutorial group. Instead of having three you might have six or seven,” Nolte said. “Or fewer days (of tutoring) a week.”

Local funding for exceptional children — kids with special needs — will suffer a 77 percent blow, with funding falling from $130,993 to $29,993. Garrett said the program will still receive substantial federal funding, with almost $200,000 that flows to it each year from Medicaid remaining intact.

The school system will also look at ways to move funding sources around to save money.

For instance, the school system has a Title 1 director who is partially paid with federal funds aimed at providing extra instructional help for children in poverty. But if the school system wants to task that person with any duties not directly tied to the paramenters of federal funding, they have to pay for part of the salary with local dollars. Next year, the school system plans to decrease the percentage of the position to be paid with local money.

IMPACTS TO EXTRA-CURRICULARS Extra-curricular activities won’t be immune from budget cuts. Most notable, perhaps, will be a $130,500 reduction in funding for coaching positions and athletic support.

Currently, the school district pays

stipends for coaches and also cuts a check to each school for athletic programs that don’t raise much money with gate receipts.

Going forward, the school system will likely fund head coaches only, no assistants.

And sports that are typically low on gate receipts will likely need to find other ways to fund themselves.

“To cover some of those non-revenue sports, we’d look at a participation fee or they may have to do some fundraising,” Garrett said.

Band and choral programs would see cuts as well, with allocations for band supplies and instrument purchases falling by $17,500, cutting funding by more than half. Band travel would be cut by 50 percent to $4,000, and choral supplies would also decrease by half, to $1,900.

ADMINISTRATION CUTS

The list of proposed cuts is light on reductions affecting central office staff, but according to Nolte that’s because any surplus is already long gone.

“What you’re looking at there is the cuts after the cuts,” Francis agreed.

Currently, 26 people work full-time out of the central office building. That’s five fewer than in 2008-09, a reduction of 16 percent.

Eliminated positions include student services/community schools director, offset press manager, custodian, payroll supervisor and transportation director.

“In all those cases, the duties were transferred to other people,” Nolte said.

The list of proposed cuts does include some small reductions in administrative funding, however. The $10,850 budget for the school board’s supplies and materials will be reduced by $2,500. The district will also surplus two staff cars, getting rid of $7,500 in expenses and bringing in a little revenue through their sale.

School administrators will also see some cuts, with staff development budgets for principals and vice principals cut in half. The supplement they receive to pay for their cell phones — it’s important for administrators to be reachable after-hours — will also be cut from $40 to $30 per month. Bus drivers get a supplement as well, though at $10 a month it’s substantially less.

The reduced budget will also cut costs for facilities and utilities. Overtime availability will be reduced for custodians, saving the district $25,000. Office supplies will be slashed by $36,200, a 71 percent reduction. The maintenance department will crank down on its budget to eke out $50,000 in savings.

All together, the recommended cuts will allow Haywood Schools to stay in business.

All the cuts are to recurring costs, meaning they’ll carry over to the next school year. But the big question mark for administrators is what the following school year will bring.

Will the school system lose more students, and the state money that goes with them?

Will state allocations decrease further? Will election-year teacher raises put untenable strain on the local funding pot?

“We think this will give us an operational budget we might be able to sustain, but we don’t think this will put us ahead of the curve,” Garrett said. “We’re at the mercy of the state Legislature and what they do with funds.”

Blame game flares up in school closure debate

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Coming this week: Haywood County Schools will release a comprehensive report Thursday, Jan. 21, outlining the pros and cons of closing Central Elementary School, as well as the logistics of how it would be done. The report will be posted at www.smokymountainnews.com when it is made available.

Central ‘I’m sorry, the state screwed us over,’” Davis said. “If they blame the state, they don’t have to take ownership of their decision to close the school.”

The consolidation of smaller, neighborhood schools isn’t a new trend, nor one isolated to Haywood, Davis said. He has seen it play out in his own county of Macon in recent years, and agrees it is emotionally difficult.

“Wouldn’t it be terrible if the parents and teachers and community didn’t love that school, if they weren’t so attached to it? It is a great thing that they are,” Davis said.

CHARTER SCHOOL CARD

BY B ECKY JOHNSON STAFF WRITER emocratic candidates who pledge to fight for more education funding could resonate with parents witnessing the impacts of the funding shortfall in Haywood Schools. Or those voters could likewise be turned off by candidates making political hay over the issue.

Or they could just end up confused.

While Democrats blamed Republican lawmakers for cutting the education budget, Republicans say they have actually increased education funding over the past four years they’ve been in control.

“Those who say we’ve cut the budget, ask them when we

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A public input meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 26, at Central Elementary School in Waynesville over the possible closing of the school in the fall-out of budget cuts. cation is not a ‘one size fits all’ endeavor,” Keilberg said.

Supporters of Shining Rock have been weighing in on the debate online and deflecting the role of charter schools in bringing on the funding crisis for Haywood’s traditional public schools.

“Blaming the charter school is an easy scapegoat,” Carolyn Lacey, who has a grandchild at Shining Rock, wrote in response to a Smoky Mountain News article online.

It’s impossible to ignore the numbers, however.

Between 155 and 175 students are now at Shining Rock who would otherwise be in the traditional public school system, according to enrollment data. (Between 20 and 25 per-

cut it and where we cut it,” said N.C. Sen. Jim Davis, RFranklin. “If you want to have a debate on whether we are spending enough on education, that is a different debate.

But to say we have cut it is a downright lie.”

Anyone with a student in the school system knows otherwise, countered Jane Hipps, a Waynesville Democrat running against Davis.

“No matter how you spin the numbers, our public schools are operating on shoestring budgets,” said Hipps.

Indeed, parents who see firsthand the larger classes, older textbooks and fewer aids these days are left scratching their heads over the claim that there’s more money going around.

Voters were equally dazed and confused in the last state election, as those on both sides of the aisle armed themselves with flip charts and bar graphs proving their case that school funding had indeed been cut, or conversely, been increased.

Can both be true? They are, in a way.

The state public education budget has indeed gone up — from $7.7 billion to $8.6 billion between 2011 and 2015, the four-year reign of Republicans in Raleigh.

But it’s an optical illusion, and one that exists on paper only.

The budget increase was primarily sucked up by teacher raises and higher benefit costs, plus non-classroom initiatives like school security or psychological counseling.

The increased spending didn’t go to the nuts-and-bolts of education itself, according to an analysis by the N.C. Department of Public Instruction.

While raises for teachers pumped up the bottom-line in the state education budget, actual classroom funding per student fell as it failed to keep up with the growing student body statewide.

“As a result, districts have had to accomplish more with less money per student,” according to the DPI analysis.

Smoky Mountain News

A yes or no please: Has the state school budget been cut?

Want to weigh in?

January 20-26, 2016

Haywood schools has witnessed an arresting drop in student body over the past few years, and is perhaps an even larger factor in the funding shortage. Fewer students equates to less funding for the school system. The drop is due to demographic changes — namely out-migration and a lower birth rate during the recession.

But it’s also due in part to a rise in charter schools that get a cut of the funding that used to go to the traditional school system.

Presnell said the school system should look within.

“Why is Central's student body dwindling? Many point to the charter schools, but it is important to ask — what are these other schools able to offer that Central cannot?”

Presnell said.

The drop in student body has been seen across the county, however, not just at Central. Only about 20 students left Central to go to the newly opened charter school Shining Rock Classical Academy, according to enrollment data.

Percentagewise that’s more than any other school lost, but that’s largely due to Central’s smaller student body in the first place of 235 students.

The reason Central is targeted for closure is a simple matter of logistics and geography, Superintendent Anne Garrett said. There’s two other elementary schools in close proximity to Central — both within a two-mile radius — that could absorb its students.

Shining Rock Board Chair Tara Keilberg said the notion to consolidate Central has most likely been an idea floating around for some time, and is not a “fiscal emergency as the administration has made it seem in recent days.”

She also defended the right of Shining Rock to exist in the education landscape.

“It is truly great that we live in a state where we can utilize school choice, since edu-

news

BY B ECKY JOHNSON STAFF WRITER he potential closure of an elementary school in Haywood County has become a poster child for those decrying funding cuts faced by traditional public schools.

While parents, teachers and students of Central Elementary School in Waynesville are struggling to cope with the prospect of their school closing, a political firestorm has erupted over who’s to blame for the impending $2.4 million budget shortfall confronting the Haywood school system.

Democratic candidates running for state office have been quick to pin fault on state Republican policies that have eroded public education. Rhonda Schandevel, a Haywood school board member running for the state House, said blame lies with state policies backed by her opponent, incumbent Rep. Michele Presnell, R-Spruce Pine.

“Michele Presnell has continually voted to cut millions of dollars from our public education budget, making it clear that our children fare not her priority,” Schandevel said. “I am ashamed that Michele Presnell has backed us into this corner.”

Presnell deflected the criticism, however.

She said it is disingenuous to blame the state — or to blame charter schools for diverting students and money from the public schools.

“It is shameful when people in the public trust actively mislead the public,” Presnell said. “Let’s work together to make Haywood County Schools a place where parents want to send their children, not divisively make false statements and disparage alternative educational opportunities.”

Meanwhile, N.C. Sen. Jim Davis, RFranklin, was being taken to task by his twotime Democratic opponent Jane Hipps of Waynesville.

“The possible closure of Central Elementary is a tangible and real outcome of the voting record of my opponent who has consistently voted to cut funding to public schools,” said Hipps, a retired public school educator.

Davis said the state is being used as a scapegoat.

“It is really easy for the school board to say to the parents and teachers and staff of

cent of the total 235 students at Shining Rock were home-schooled or went to private schools previously.)

The loss of students means less funding coming to Haywood schools that must be made up somewhere.

Davis said that’s just the reality.

“If you don’t have the students, why should you get the funding?” Davis asked.

All told, 265 students from Haywood County go to charter schools — be it Shining Rock, a charter school elsewhere in the region or one of the new online charter schools.

Presnell said that’s fair.

“Parents of students in home schools, in virtual charter schools and at Shining Rock Elementary made the choice to take their children out of Haywood County schools, and they deserve a proper education just as much as students in Haywood County Schools,” Presnell said.

Assistant Superintendent Bill Nolte said the school system has not passed judgment on the merits or demerits of charter schools in general, or Shining Rock in particular.

He has simply stated as a fact the number of students now attending charter schools and its impact on the budget. The school system was obligated to explain how the $2.4 million shortfall came about. Charter school enrollment is indeed a factor, so it was cited along with the other factors, but that’s shouldn’t be misinterpreted as condemning charter schools.

“It is inappropriate for anyone to apply additional meaning to my comments about charter schools,” Nolte said.

Presnell has offered to work with the Haywood County School system to find solutions. But Schandevel countered that Presnell has never been to a Haywood School board meeting during the four years she’s been a legislator, adding that Presnell spent last Monday touring the company headquarters of Lowe’s Home Improvement in Mooresville with an entourage of Republican lawmakers while Schandevel was in a school board meeting wrestling over the painful budget crisis befalling the schools.

“While I was on the frontlines this past Monday fighting to keep our schools funded and open she was busy outside our district rubbing elbows with corporate donors,” Schandevel said. “This makes one wonder if she shares our mountain values.”

11

news

Koch money at WCU remains under scrutiny Planning documents reveal strategy to embed conservative ‘thought-leaders’ among university faculty

BY B ECKY JOHNSON STAFF WRITER Western Carolina University professor with ties to the ultra-conservative Koch brothers political network worked behind the scenes with outside donors to devise a coordinated strategy that would influence the hiring of professors and use WCU to further conservative economic theory in society, according to a review of university email communications. “lf things do go the faculty’s way with these hires, then WCU would Dr. Ed Lopez be poised to emerge as a powerhouse of student development and research in the areas of economic freedom and free market policy analysis,” wrote Dr. Ed Lopez, an economics professor, in an email to the Koch Foundation in July.

At the time, Lopez was laying the groundwork for a $2 million gift from the Koch Foundation. In exchange, the Koch Foundation could advance its own mission of cultivating “a pipeline of students” trained in free enterprise theory and seeing free-enterprise “thoughtleaders,” Lopez wrote in the email.

By the fall, however, controversy had erupted among WCU faculty over whether to take $2 million from the Koch Foundation in exchange for creating a Center for the Study of Free Enterprise on campus.

Despite widespread concerns among faculty about the intent and motive behind the free enterprise center — namely whether it would serve as an advocacy machine for a specific socio-economic and political school of thought — it was approved by the university administration and board of trustees.

Chancellor David Belcher did not see the $2 million gift, the largest in WCU’s history, nor the creation of a free enterprise center as compromising academic freedom.

However, strategy communications between Lopez and the Koch Foundation — obtained through a public records request by The Smoky Mountain News — suggest part of Lopez’s goal is to stack the economics department faculty with professors who support conservative economic theory. Lopez described what he called “the hiring possibilities and my proposed strategy for successfully navigating them” in the planning document sent to the Koch Foundation in July.

In the document, Lopez shared an itemized assessment of each economics professor at WCU, including how “friendly” they were 12 to free enterprise theory.

Smoky Mountain News

January 20-26, 2016

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However, Dr. David McCord, chair of the WCU faculty senate, said the mission of academia is to serve as a marketplace of ideas, and students shouldn’t have one view being heralded over others.

“Students need to acquire over time the ability to sort through competing ideas and look at their advantages and disadvantages,” McCord said. “The idea of picking a specific, narrow, elaborate point of view and promoting that as the right way is not consistent with what the university education system should be.”

McCord said it is not uncommon for faculty in any department to want more professors from their discipline to be hired.

“There is a tendency to try to tap people from your own niche and try to develop it into a degree program,” McCord said. “But a healthy university has checks and balances.”

The planning documents reveal a vested interest by both Lopez and the Koch Foundation to make WCU a hub for the promotion of the free enterprise school of thought, a socio-economic philosophy rooted in conservative principles.

Koch-funded hubs on university campuses have been spreading across the country, serving as incubators for free enterprise theory. Lopez makes repeated references to the idea of “clusters” — his term for groupings of universities in a geographic region that also have Koch-funded free enterprise activities — and suggests WCU would be a valuable contributor within its “cluster.”

Professors could serve as “thought leaders” for the advancement of free enterprise ideals, Lopez wrote in the preliminary planning dialogue to the Koch Foundation.

But Dr. Bruce Henderson, a WCU psychology professor, said the university needs thoughtful leaders, not thought leaders.

Henderson said focusing on a particular school of thought can create an identity for a university and establish it as an expert in a particular field. However, that approach has drawbacks.

“The disadvantage is that students are faced with an education that is much closer to training or propaganda,” Henderson said.

More troubling to Henderson is that Lopez is acting unilaterally with an outside organization to steer university administration into developing a concentration in a school of thought outside the typical planning and prioritization process. That’s something a university should decide for itself, he said.

“Here a tiny, unrepresentative portion of the university faculty has decided on a strategic direction that has major consequences for the university, not in discussions with the rest of the faculty, but with an outside group with a decidedly biased perspective,” Henderson said.

“To my amazement, the administration bought it. That, in my experience, is extraordinary.”

Henderson said the early strategy discussion between Lopez and the Koch Foundation highlights their own interests of expanding economics course offerings and restoring the previously eliminated economics major, which don’t necessarily square with the university’s priorities.

“First prong: persuade the administration that the University’s economic development mission is better served with a thought leader instead of a speech-giving fund raiser. I will argue that a University’s comparative advantage is (and should be) in the production of ideas. In doing so, I will deploy my own research on the intellectual structure of political/social change.”

— Ed Lopez in a dialogue with the Koch Foundation

“The university faculty has been left out of the discussions and the Koch Foundation and Dr. Lopez are clearly the beneficiaries of the decisions that have been made,” Henderson said. “The process was off the rails.”

Henderson pointed to the campus-wide strategic planning process recently undertaken known as the 2020 plan. That was the proper venue for the academic community to decide collectively what WCU’s focus areas should be.

“When the 2020 report was publicly presented, I asked the group on stage if I was walking down the street in Charlotte in the year 2021 and asked a random person, ‘What is WCU known for?’ no one on that stage suggested we would be known for right-wing economic research,” Henderson said.

GAMING A PROFESSORSHIP University administration said they weren’t aware of the strategy discussions

between Lopez and the Koch Foundation. But they should be taken for what they are: preliminary brainstorming.

“An individual faculty member’s early draft of his discussion points regarding a proposal to a foundation had no bearing on the process of establishing a center at WCU. As stated previously, the university remains committed to an open and transparent process, with appropriate faculty involvement along the way,” said Bill Studenc, director of WCU communications and public relations.

In his dialogue with the Koch Foundation, Lopez wrote that the plan to create a free enterprise center hinged on convincing Chancellor Belcher to restructure a vacant economics professorship. Lopez said there was a problem to overcome: Belcher wanted the position filled with a professor who would serve as an economic development liaison for communities in the region.

“Among our upper administration, there is a strong preference to situate WCU as an institutional leader in the region’s economy,” Lopez wrote.

But Lopez and the Koch Foundation wanted this professorship to be brought into the fold of the free enterprise center instead.

Lopez wrote that this was an “important difference between the preferences of administrators and the preferences of the free enterprise (Economics) faculty.”

“The administration wants external engagement … with a clear emphasis on raising external funds. The faculty wants an academic thought leader who contributes to the University’s mission through sound research in economic freedom and, equally importantly, who helps lead our Free Enterprise Educational Activities toward their fullest potential,” Lopez wrote.

Bringing Belcher around was critical to pulling off the $2 million gift. In exchange for the gift, WCU would have to put up matching funds, but dipping into limited university coffers would be a hard sell and a likely deal killer. The only way to make it work was to use existing faculty positions already on the books to “count” toward WCU’s matching funds.

Enter the vacant economics professorship. Lopez laid out what he called a “twopronged strategy” that would meet the Koch Foundation’s goals as well as Belcher’s.

“First prong: persuade the administration that the University’s economic development mission is better served with a thought leader instead of a speech-giving fund raiser. I will argue that a University’s comparative advantage is (and should be) in the production of ideas. In doing so, I will deploy my own research on the intellectual structure of political/social change,” Lopez wrote.

Lopez not only had to win over WCU administration, but also had a sales job to do when it came to winning the Koch money. His dialogue with the Koch Foundation aimed to show the donors that WCU would be fertile ground for the dissemination of free enterprise theory. Lopez cited the effectiveness the economics department has already shown in reaching stu-

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dents with a free enterprise message, thanks to annual funding it already gets from the Koch Foundation — about $15,000 a year — to support a Free Enterprise student club, to take students to free enterprise conferences and to bring in free enterprise speakers that students get extra credit to hear.

“A pipeline of student development has been the result, and we have helped a number of quality students move on to careers in ideas,” Lopez wrote. “There is much potential for more growth of this pipeline.”

McCord said political think tanks play an important role in society, but they shouldn’t be embedded on public university campuses.

When liberal groups like MoveOn.org or Southern Poverty Law Center issue a report or study, no one expects it to be unbiased.

“We know exactly how it will come out and how it won’t come out. There is nothing wrong with that because those are point-ofview advocacy organizations,” McCord said.

“But we can’t let MoveOn or Southern Poverty Law Center buy shelf space in our university to give an aura of objectivity to what they are doing.”

LOPEZ’S COMMENTS

January 20-26, 2016 Things we want you to know: Shared Connect Plan and Customer Service Agreement with a 2-yr. initial term (subject to a pro-rated $150 Early Termination Fee for basic phones, modems and hotspot devices and a $350 Early Termination Fee for Smartphones and Tablets) or Retail Installment Contract for installment pricing required. Credit approval also required. Up to $40 Device Activation Fee applies. A Regulatory Cost Recovery Fee (currently $1.82/line/month) applies; this is not a tax or gvmt. required charge. Additional fees, taxes, terms, conditions and coverage areas apply and may vary by plan, service and phone. $300 Switcher Incentive: Requires port-in, purchase of a new Smartphone with Retail Installment Contract and Device Protection+, and trade-in of an active Smartphone on former carrier’s plan. Limit one per line. Traded-in Smartphone must be in fully functional, working condition without any liquid damage or broken components, including, but not limited to, a cracked display or housing. Smartphone must power on and cannot be pin locked. For in-store transactions: $150 Promotional Card given at point of sale. Additional $150 Promotional Card will be mailed to customer within 6–8 weeks. Promotional Cards issued by MetaBank,® Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. Valid only for purchases at U.S. Cellular® stores and uscellular.com. For online and telesales transactions, see uscellular.com for redemption details. Device Protection+: Enrollment in Device Protection+ required. The monthly charge for Device Protection+ is $8.99 for Smartphones. A deductible per approved claim applies. You may cancel Device Protection+ anytime. Federal Warranty Service Corporation is the Provider of the Device Protection+ ESC benefits, except in CA and OK. Limitations and exclusions apply. For complete details, see an associate for a Device Protection+ brochure. Kansas Customers: In areas in which U.S. Cellular receives support from the Federal Universal Service Fund, all reasonable requests for service must be met. Unresolved questions concerning services availability can be directed to the Kansas Corporation Commission Office of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at 1-800-662-0027. Offers valid at participating locations only and cannot be combined. See store or uscellular.com for details. Limited-time offer. Trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners. ©2016 U.S. Cellular®

Smoky Mountain News

Lopez was asked to explain and comment on the strategic planning discussions he had via email with the Koch Foundation. He requested that his comments be published in full. They appear below: “The email that I provided is an exploratory document from the earliest stages of this process. The fact is, no one at that time had any idea if a partnership between Western and the foundation was in the realm of possibility.

“Both sides gained a lot from learning more about each other, and that exploratory email served its purpose of initiating the process and moving things to the next steps.

“We’ve come a long way since then. It has been a rigorous and evolutionary process from the point of the initial proposal, through the periods of faculty review & comment, followed by the resulting changes to the proposal, and ultimately onto the Board of Trustees’ approval of the Center for the Study of Free Enterprise last month.

“Now the University begins the gradual process of establishing the Center, and hopefully hiring additional faculty according to the normal procedures and objectives pursuant to the University’s mission, so that we can all get to work creating cross-disciplinary research and outreach opportunities for Western’s students and faculty.

“I think as we move forward, a lot of the confusion and skepticism will give way to better understanding. At the end of the day, free enterprise means a level playing field for economic opportunity, with no special privileges for the powerful and connected, and with the freedom for our communities to serve each other economically.

“By studying the capabilities and limitations of free enterprise as one consideration in how to organize our shared institutions, Western’s talented thinkers can make a fundamentally valuable contribution to the public discussion. We all want this to have a positive impact on people’s lives, and ultimately the work of the Center will speak for itself.”

@SmokyMtnNews 13

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Low morale cited in vote to fire Waynesville town manager Supporters claim it’s a blow to progress

BY B ECKY JOHNSON STAFF WRITER aynesville Town Manager Marcy Onieal was fired last week in a 3-2 split vote by the town board following a nearly two-hour closed-door discussion among board members.

The three-person voting bloc that ousted Onieal was made up of Aldermen Gary Caldwell, LeRoy Roberson and newlyelected Jon Feichter.

Mayor Gavin Brown and Alderwoman Julia Marcy Onieal Freeman voted in support of Onieal, but were in the minority.

Several community members spoke to the town board prior to the vote, urging them to recognize the progress and advancements Onieal has made not only in her management of the town but also the get-it-done attitude she has brought to numerous community ventures.

“I think she has done an amazing job. She was appointed to take this town into the 21st century,” Phillip Gibbs said to the town board before they voted. Gibbs urged the town not to turn back the clock on progress

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January 20-26, 2016

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just to appease disgruntled employees.

Onieal is also credited with modernizing town operations, implementing more professional protocols and expecting more out of employees.

“She had to make lots of changes. You can’t do that without ruffling feathers. If you do it without ruffling feathers, you probably didn’t do a very good job,” said Bob Clark, another community member who spoke in support of Onieal.

Onieal’s downfall has been that some employees didn’t like the changes she made or her management style, especially following the long tenure and laid-back style of former town manager Lee Galloway.

A broad cross-section of civic and community leaders rallied in support of Onieal in the weeks leading up to the vote, hoping to sway the outcome, both through public statements and behind-the-scenes lobbying of aldermen.

Meanwhile, however, town employees who don’t like Onieal were making their views known to aldermen privatelsy.

A PERSONAL FACT-FINDING MISSION Alderman Jon Feichter said he attempted to get to the bottom of the conflicting versions of Onieal’s supporters and detractors.

What’s next in the Waynesville town manager debate

BY B ECKY JOHNSON STAFF WRITER aynesville leaders could name an interim town manager as early as this week to take the place of Town Manager Marcy Onieal who was fired last week four years into the job.

The town board was scheduled to meet Tuesday night (Jan. 19) to discuss a transition plan and potential candidates for interim manager.

One name that was already in play — well before the official vote to fire Onieal went down — is former town manager Lee Galloway, who was in the role for 20 years prior to Onieal coming on board.

Some aldermen have stayed friends with Galloway since he retired and were in communication with him regularly leading up to the vote to fire Onieal.

Galloway isn’t interested in coming back permanently, but has done other gigs as an interim manager in the region since retiring four years ago and could offer a con-

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The tension was palpable at the Waynesville town board meeting last Tuesday where three of the five aldermen — from right, Leroy Roberson, Jon Feichter and Gary Caldwell — voted to fire Town Manager Marcy Onieal (far left). Becky Johnson photo At times, it was like diving down one rabbit hole after another, Feichter said.

But after talking to 50 current and former town employees, Feichter said Onieal’s management style has caused and pervasive and “troubling morale problem.”

“I believe it indicated an emerging, serious problem for Waynesville that might result in lost productivity from things like onthe-job disengagement and absenteeism,” Feichter said in a written statement that he crafted in an attempt to explain why he voted as he did.

Although Feichter is new to the board — the meeting where he voted to fire Onieal was his first real meeting — he spent over 100 hours on a personal fact-finding mission over the past two months as he contemplated what to do.

Feichter said several former town employees told him they quit or retired early because they didn’t like Onieal’s leadership style. Two

venient short-term hire.

The termination of Onieal comes at a critical time of year. Late winter and early spring is when town managers prove their mettle in the complex, rigorous and technical process of crafting a budget for the coming fiscal year — balancing the must-do list against the wish list.

Galloway’s institutional knowledge of town operations would certainly give him a leg up over any other interim manager the town could find.

But the town is arguably in a different place than when Galloway left. Galloway was still signing paychecks by hand when he retired four years ago. Direct deposit is just a small example of the more modern and efficient practices Onieal ushered in.

Firing Onieal will cost the town. Her contract includes a severance package equal to a year’s salary — which is $112,000 — plus benefits.

The cost is double what it would have been if the three aldermen who voted to fire Onieal had simply waited until May. Onieal’s contract called for six-months severance pay — but it jumped to a year’s pay if she was dismissed within the six-month window following the election of new board members.

Alderman Jon Feichter, who cast the deciding vote, was just elected in November but said firing Onieal couldn’t wait until May due to what he perceived as the institutional costs of keeping her.

“Consider the costs incurred to hire and train new

more employees had threatened to quit last week if Onieal wasn’t fired Tuesday night.

“The sheer number of times I heard this kind of story coupled with my belief we hadn’t seen the end of it raised my concern that Waynesville was not being well-served,” Feichter said.

He said the decision was “gut-wrenching” and the most difficult he has ever made.

When Feichter was elected to the board in November, the deck was evenly stacked for and against Onieal. Caldwell and Roberson were resolute that she should go, while Brown and Freeman were equally resolute that she should stay. Feichter was instantly thrust into the limelight as the deciding vote.

“Positions were set in stone well before I was elected this past November,” Feichter said. “Most distressing was it didn’t appear to me that either side would ever change its stance. The longer this situation went on, the more intransigent

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employees due to turnover or those resulting from the drag on productivity related to slumping morale,” Feichter said.

Onieal’s contract terms and severance pay aren’t uncommon for town and county managers.

Shifting political winds often besiege town managers, county managers, and even school superintendents, and the generous severance guaranteed in their contracts provides a cushion against the fickle nature of local politics.

“I knew when I signed on here that I could walk in on any given day, and that if three of you didn’t like the color of my hair, or what I was wearing, or an election occurred that upset the equilibrium and you just wanted someone else in my place, that with three votes, I would be gone,” Onieal said to town board members last week before the 3to-2 vote to terminate her was cast. “You don’t need a reason to fire me, you just can.”

Onieal questioned whether the town employees who have been working against her would be satisfied with anyone other than Galloway.

“I can’t change my gender. I don’t yet have a 20-plus year relationship with town aldermen and employees.

And I can’t miraculously turn myself into Lee Galloway,” Onieal said.

Onieal’s last day is Jan. 29, a date chosen by the three aldermen who voted to fire her. A going away reception is planned at town hall from 1 to 5 p.m. on her last day.

Onieal said she loves Waynesville and does not plan to leave.

a right to know why their elected leaders made the decision they did.

“By all accounts, Marcy was effective at the fine technical aspects of administering the town, but I believe there is more to the job,” Feichter said. “While Marcy’s tenure had its successes, I learned of troubling employee turmoil and our board wasn’t making progress. It was time to make a tough call and move on.”

Onieal said she and town employees have tried to carry on “amid rumor, speculation, half-truths, and innuendo,” but admitted it has been difficult.

A coalition of employees who don’t like her have been emboldened by having aldermen on their side and have disrupted the chain of command. Some began taking their marching orders directly from individual aldermen who were actively undermining her.

A STACKED DECK About two dozen audience members waited through the closed session of the town board last week to see what the outcome would be — about half in support of Onieal and the other half hoping she would be dismissed.

True to her straightforward approach, Onieal openly addressed what she called the “elephant in the room” prior to the town board members going into closed session.

“I stand today for the same values you said you wanted in a manager and that I have tried to consistently model throughout my entire career — transparency, openness, integrity, responsiveness to our citizens and businesses, commitment to best practices, fairness and equity in treatment of all our citizens and employees, with the energy and enthusiasm to keep moving our community forward,” Onieal told the town board.

Onieal questioned “personal agendas at work behind the scenes,” but said the last thing she wants is to be a lightning rod for the town.

More online Go to www.smokymountainnews.com and click on this article to read the complete statement made by Town Manager Marcy Onieal the night she was fired and the complete statement of Alderman Jon Feichter explaining the rationale of his vote to terminate her.

Onieal arguably had a tough row to hoe when she came on board four years ago. She was following in the footsteps of a beloved, long-time town manager, Lee Galloway.

Employees accustomed to Galloway’s paternal nature had trouble adjusting to Onieal’s assertive style.

Onieal acknowledged this in a speech to over 200 employees at the town’s Christmas luncheon in December.

Expectations are higher than they used to be, but the status quo wasn’t good enough to remain economically competitive and

relevant in the 21st century, Onieal said.

“We must continually improve so that both the perception and the reality of Waynesville as an attractive place to live, work and play will continue on,” Onieal told employees at the luncheon.

Resistance to change is normal — “It disrupts routines, it creates fear of failure, and can feel like a personal loss or loss of tradition,” she said — but you can’t have improvement without change, Onieal said.

One of her comments alluded to the good old boy network that’s often institutionalized in small communities.

“The enemies of change are all those who have fared well, gained power, or achieved recognition under old conditions,” Onieal said.

At the town board meeting last week, Onieal said the “progressive and unified” reputation of the town was one reason she wanted to come to Waynesville.

“A unified board is a rarity in today’s political environment. I know that even though the five of you did not always naturally agree on the issues that were before you, you worked hard to reach consensus,” Onieal told the board Tuesday night before their vote. “It is imperative that the five of you get back on the same sheet of music for the good of this community as soon as possible.”

That’s one point Onieal and the aldermen who voted to fire her agree on.

Roberson said the board has always worked well together and are naturally likeminded, so he hopes they will put this division behind them and move forward.

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each faction became. I was concerned that the division would continue and have a negative impact on our decision making going forward.”

Waynesville’s board has been known over the last couple of decades for its professional demeanor that has been mostly harmonious in its decision-making and devoid of infighting. There have only been three votes in the past four years that weren’t unanimous.

Caldwell, Feichter and Roberson were visibly shaken following their vote at last week’s town board meeting. Some of Onieal’s supporters in the audience cried out that their decision was “wrong” and it wouldn’t be forgotten politically.

Feicther is the only one who has talked about the rationale for the vote since the meeting.

Caldwell did not return messages seeking comment. Roberson said he was hesitant to talk about the decision because employee performance reviews are confidential.

There is a lot to the story that the general public doesn’t know, but Roberson said he can’t share specifics due to personnel privacy laws. He added Onieal did nothing wrong or improper, but that the issue was with her management style.

“I believe this decision is in the best interest of the town now and in the future,” Roberson said.

Feichter said he was cautioned against going on the record about the underlying concerns leading to his vote, but he chose to anyway because he feels town residents have

January 20-26, 2016 Smoky Mountain News 15

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No charges will be filed in Jackson jail suicides

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER o charges will be filed following suicides at the Jackson County Detention Center in November 2014 and March 2015, District Attorney Ashley Welch announced last week.

“We reviewed absolutely everything they (the State Bureau of Investigation) presented to us, and they did a very thorough job. It’s one reason it took so long to review it because it was a very big case file,” said Welch, who received the initial report in June and the final in October. “I reviewed it personally several times, then I had another senior prosecutor review it in addition to me, without giving my opinion first.”

Evidence considered included surveillance video, witness statements, radio and telephone traffic, an autopsy report, detention center records, a suicide note, physical evidence, a scene search and a scene diagram. After taking it all into consideration, the prosecutors determined that no one on staff at the detention center was guilty of any kind of criminal negligence.

Their decision is the answer to a question that has been hanging in the air since 38year-old Steven Ross was found hanging from a makeshift rope in his cell on March 13, 2015. He’d been arrested nine days earlier on drug charges.

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entrance to the Jackson County Justice Center.

Joe Kays, who’s married to Moose’s mother, said the report and its results have given peace of mind to a family that’s been wracked by what-ifs since that day more than a year ago.

“He’s still gone. That changes nothing, but to know that they did everything in their power when we were led to believe for a long time they were lax in their duties and just let him lay there … I know that’s cliché, but (it’s) peace of mind and closure to know that the situation was handled properly,” Kays said.

After coming to her decision, Welch sat Ashley Welch down with the

mothers of Ross and Moose to talk about the report. Kays, who works on an oil rig in North Dakota, wasn’t present but said it was the first time either he or his wife had seen the surveillance video. Watching it provided some closure, a firm mooring to override all the conflicting stories they’d heard from inmates and law enforcement personnel and investigators.

“Looking at the videos, he was happy, carrying on, cutting up like nothing was wrong. He went into this cell. The video showed no one else entering his cell until they made their scheduled rounds — on time — and the video showed within just minutes the rescue squad was on site and how much work went into trying to resuscitate him,” Kays said. “They determined absolutely nothing more could have been done than what was done.”

“It was beyond their control,” Kays said.

“The only one that could control it was Chuckie.”

The Smoky Mountain News requested comment from Hall and from Ross’s mother but did not receive a response by press time.

“I know that’s cliché, but (it’s) peace of mind and closure to know that the situation was handled properly.”

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Smoky Mountain News

January 20-26, 2016

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The jail log showed long gaps in detention officers’ checks on cells in Ross’ pod the day of the suicide — state law requires checks two to four times per hour, depending on the inmate’s condition; the day’s log showed gaps as long as 106 minutes — prompting an investigation. The conversation grew to include an incident that had occurred just four months earlier, when Charles “Chuckie” Moose, 36, was also found hanging from a rope made out of bed sheets. In that instance, too, Moose’s family had questioned whether protocol was followed and adequate emergency response given.

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services launched investigations into both deaths, in each case finding that detention officers’ cell checks had not been happening frequently enough. An SBI investigation began was well, at first looking only into Ross’ death but later expanding to gather evidence about the circumstances surrounding Moose’s death.

The same two jailers had been monitoring the male inmates on both days. Sheriff Chip Hall handed out five days’ suspension without pay to each of them but delivered no permanent change in salary or job title.

However, one of the men did take a voluntary demotion to switch from working in the jail to working security at the newly secured

— Joe Kays

Fallen officer to be namesake of new justice center

tained his innocence and is appealing his verdict.

■ Clayton Davis, long-time horticulture agent for Haywood County and a resident of Maggie Valley for more than 50 years, has also applied for the board. He has been involved in beautification projects in the valley for many years.

■ Brad Pendley is part owner of Maggie Mountaineer Crafts and is an active member of the Maggie Valley Chamber of Commerce.

■ Robert Bradley is a longtime fixture in Maggie Valley as he worked as a gunfighter and choreographer for more than 30 years at Ghost Town in the Sky amusement park.

■ Allen Alsbrooks, owner of Hearth and Home Inn, has been active in town politics for many years and currently serves on the town’s zoning board of adjustments.

■ Tinker Moody owns and works at Ella’s Salon and Spa in Maggie Valley.

■ James Samuel Rice Jr. is the manager of Blue Mountain Inn. When asked on the application whether he had ever been charged with a felony, Rice said he had been convicted of four DWIs but the last one was in 1995.

■ Bruce Bain is retired from the insurance industry and has worked with the town on a number of issues concerning his homeowners association.

The town board will meet Wednesday morning to discuss how the interview process will go. The board hopes to make an appointment sometime in February.

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR In a surprising last-minute turnout, nine Maggie Valley residents have submitted applications to be considered for a board of aldermen vacancy.

Maggie Valley Board of Aldermen put out a request for applicants after former alderwoman Saralyn Price won a write-in campaign for mayor during the November election. With a full lineup up candidates, the town board will now begin conducting interviews to find the right person to complete Price’s two-year unexpired term.

Some of the applicants aren’t a surprise — Billy Case and Nikki McCauley said they planned to apply for the board vacancy after they failed to get enough votes in the November election.

■ McCauley is owner of Salty Dog’s Seafood and Grill in Maggie Valley and has lived in the area for 10 years.

■ Case has run for the town board three times and currently serves as the chairman of the town’s planning board. Many in the community have questioned why Case would apply to sit on the board after being found guilty in December of two counts of death by vehicle accident. The conviction stemmed from an accident last June when Case allegedly pulled out in front of two motorcycles on Soco Road. Case has main-

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Smoky Mountain News

Nine apply for Maggie Valley alderman seat

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January 20-26, 2016

caused his circulatory system to go septic.

“He had blood clots, he had seizures in his brain,” said Ben Reed, community outreach officer for the police department who worked with Lossiah throughout his years of service. “It just overtook him.”

Lossiah died at Mission Hospital in Asheville on Oct. 6, 2015.

“I think every one of us probably thought he was going to be OK. I know I did,” said Principal Chief Patrick Lambert.

Lossiah won’t be quickly forgotten.

Aside from the well-attended funeral, lowered flags and upcoming recognition at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C. and in the American Police Hall of Fame and Museum in Florida, his legacy will be memorialized in the justice center’s new name.

“This is different here because this honor is being presented by his peers,” said Council Chair Bill Taylor, of Wolfetown.

“The kind gestures, that means something to us,” said Francine Watty, Lossiah’s aunt by marriage, who spoke for the family.

“It helps this family heal.”

Lossiah left behind a wife and five children when he passed away. Seeing the $26 million building named for their father will give the family reassurance that he did not die in vain, Watty said.

“All those little ones know their daddy wore a badge and a gun,” Reed agreed. “It’s important they know his job was important and he’s being honored for his service.”

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BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER Tony Lossiah was a good man, a quiet guy with a caring heart. He loved his family and worked hard on the job, say the friends and family still mourning his loss in the tightknit Cherokee community.

When the 38-year-old patrol officer died in the line of duty this October, his death sent shock waves through the community, the sadness borne by all through the intricate web of personal and family connections that holds Cherokee together. It’s a loss that will never go away, but family members gave an emotional “thank you” to Tribal Council when its members voted unanimously this month to rename the EBCI Justice Center for Lossiah.

The $26 million building, completed in December 2014, will now be known as the Anthony Edward Lossiah Justice Center.

“He had a heart of gold,” said Councilmember Anita Lossiah, of Yellowhill. “He paid the ultimate price for the public service he provided to the community for years and years. This is a very appropriate memorial for him and his life.”

Tony Lossiah had been serving with the Cherokee Indian Police Department for 17 years on the day he joined his colleagues on a search for a larceny and armed robbery suspect on Aug. 11 last year. While on the search, he fell down a riverbank and tore a muscle in his hip. The tear bled internally into the hip joint, eventually becoming an abscess that

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Smoky Mountain News January 20-26, 2016

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Community Almanac Fleming awarded ‘Haywood Way 2 Go’

Philip Wright, CEO of Haywood Regional Medical Center, gives Bill Fleming with Haywood Regional Health and Fitness Center the inaugural ‘Haywood Way 2 Go’ award for saving someone’s life at the fitness center. Donated photo Haywood Regional Medical Center held an award presentation at the Haywood Regional Health and Fitness Center to present Bill Fleming with the inaugural “Haywood Way 2 Go” Award by CEO Phillip Wright.

Fleming has been with HRMC since 1996 and works as an exercise specialist, youth gymnastics coach and teaches Basic Life Support courses. He was selected for the award for noticing a member was not his normal self. Fleming assessed his blood pressure several times, the result being abnormally high and then told the member he needed to go see his doctor as soon as possible. The member was seen by Dr. Peterson and after a failed stress test, was scheduled for bypass surgery. The member is now recovering and exercising with Cardiac Rehab.

Winner chosen in senior center fundraiser

Duke shares the warmth this winter

The Canton Senior Center recently held a fundraiser to help keep the center operating.

Santa Claus drew the winner on Dec. 9 and Shirley Ray, of Clyde, was the winner of a gift basket containing more than $2,000 worth of gift cards and other items.

The Center is located at 1 Pigeon Street, in the Canton Armory.

828.648.8173.

Through the Share the Warmth program, Duke Energy employees and customers team up to raise funds to help families struggling to pay their energy bills.

The program provided Carolinas customers with $1.3 million in bill assistance in 2015. Through its Share the Warmth program, Duke Energy works with more than 80 local agencies in the Duke Energy Carolinas service territory to aid qualified senior citizens, families and other customers with financial assistance. The company annually matches up to $500,000 in employee and customer contributions during the heating season. www.duke-energy.com.

Funding available for WNC disability agencies The Evergreen Foundation board of directors is accepting grant proposals for fourth quarter 2015-16 until Feb. 29.

Funds for the fourth quarter are very limited, however, so the Foundation is also accepting proposals for the first quarter of the 201617 fiscal year. The cut-off date for accepting proposals for first quarter funding is May 31.

Grant proposals submitted via email should be submitted no later than 5 p.m. on the due date. Mailed proposals must be postmarked by 5 p.m. Applications and information on applying for funding can be found on the Evergreen Foundation website www.evergreenfoundationnc.org or by calling the office at 828-456-8005.

WCU lecturer to discuss faith Fred Bahnson, assistant professor and director of the Food, Faith and Religious Leadership Initiative at the Wake Forest University School of Divinity, will speak at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 28, in Room 130 of the John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center at Western Carolina University.

His presentation, “Tree of Life: Christianity in a Time of Climate Change,” will share Bahnson’s experiences from recent travels

Smoky Mountain News

New rector at Grace Episcopal Church Grace Episcopal Church in the Mountains in Waynesville has had a change in rectors as a result of the retirement of the Rev. Arlene Lucas after seven and a half years at the church.

The Rev. Jim Dannals began his ministry as Interim Rector of Grace Church on Jan. 4 and will serve in this position until a permanent rector is called. He is well known to the church members as he had served as sabbatical priest at Grace Church in the spring of 2013.

Dannals, a native of Huntsville, Alabama, received his bachelor’s degree at Florida State University and his M.D. from Yale Divinity School. He served parishes in Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Florida, before retiring in 2013 as rector of St. George’s Episcopal Church in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Grace Church in the Mountains is located at 394 N. Haywood Street, Waynesville.

SCC Foundation forms advisory council In an effort to capitalize on recent momentum from several successful fundraising efforts, the Southwestern Community College Foundation has formed a faculty and

among faith-based environmentalists, exploring the challenges of climate change, the evolving face of American Christianity and Pope Francis’s call for Christianity’s “ecological conversion.”

A reception will precede the lecture at 5 p.m.

828.227.7262.

SCC supports employee’s military service Not long after Kameron Buchanan learned about his impending Air National Guard deployment overseas, Southwestern Community College officials assured him that his job as SCC’s fire/rescue program director would be waiting on him when he returned.

He also discovered that, as a matter of institutional policy and practice, SCC strongly supports all of its employees serving in the nation's Guard and Reserve force, doing even more than federal law requires.

Buchanan was so thankful for the college’s support that he nominated his supervisor, Curtis Dowdle, for the Patriot Award through the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) – a U.S. Department of Defense Office established in 1972 to promote cooperation and understanding with employers regarding an employee’s military commitment.

Buchanan also nominated SCC for the Seven Seals Award, which recognizes significant organizational achievement, initiative or support promoting ESGR’s mission.

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staff advancement advisory council.

The first-of-its kind group will serve primarily to provide insight and advice to SCC Foundation leadership while also advocating internally and externally for the college’s fundraising arm.

The mission of the SCC Foundation is to “help ensure educational excellence” at the college. www.southwesterncc.edu/foundation or 828.339.4241.

‘Small Business Bootcamp’ offered The Small Business Center at Haywood Community College will hold a free, “Small Business Bootcamp, Ideation to Business Plan Development” series on Mondays beginning Jan. 25 through Feb. 22.

This series is a hybrid of in person and online webinars. The first class on January 25 and the last class on Feb. 22 will meet from 6 until 8 p.m. on campus in Building 200, Room 204. The remaining sessions will be online webinars.

Using a hybrid seminar approach, participants will have access to live online webinars, discussion forums and activities that will help develop a business concept and evaluate the feasibility of an idea. sbc.haywood.edu or 828.627.4512.

• Help with income tax preparation for seniors over age 60 will be held Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Haywood County Senior Resource Center in Waynesville through March by Bruce Johnson, registered tax return preparer, in exchange for donation to the Senior Resource Center.

By appointment only 828.356.2800.

• Physicians on staff at Haywood Regional Medical Center in Clyde decided to take their small holiday gift from administration and give it to community charities. The Community Kitchen of Canton — a nonprofit organization serving all residents in need in Haywood County by serving an evening meal every night — received $500.

ALSO:

• Learn how to build and maintain a positive visitor friendly business atmosphere and community with a customer service and hospitality training class held from 6 to 9 p.m. Jan. 20 at the Jackson County Cooperative Extension Center in Sylva.

The Qualla-T training integrates Cherokee and mountain values and attitudes into your workplace as a basis for providing excellent customer service.

828.586.4009 or 828.488.3848 or robert_hawk@ncsu.edu.

Opinion Voters will ultimately decide if firing was a mistake F Smoky Mountain News

ormer county commissioner, mayor and longtime Haywood County political player/observer Mary Ann Enloe was dead on in her column last week about the firing of Waynesville Town Manager Marcy Onieal (www.themountaineer.village-soup.com/p/marcy-onieal-is-a-classy-ladywho-will-be-fine-so-will-the-town): it was a bad decision by alderman, but Waynesville and Onieal will survive this smalltown political firestorm. Both have too much going for them.

Enloe writes for The Mountaineer, which published a series of articles prior to the Jan. 12 firing — but after the election of a certain — that left no stone unturned on this issue. Smoky Mountain News reporter Becky Johnson wrote two stories in our Dec. 16 edition (www.smokymountainnews.com/news/item/16869) which also covered the crux of the issue, which was this: Onieal’s management style and her work to modernize many town practices were pissing off employees, including powerful department heads who had been with Waynesville for decades.

Those who voted to fire her say they and other employees were going to quit if Onieal stayed on the job. So they canned her.

I don’t vote in Waynesville but my business is located here, and I have spent the better part of my professional life working in and around downtown. I’ve been here as a journalist through three Waynesville town managers (soon to be a fourth), and from the outside looking in Onieal appeared to be doing things right during her four-year tenure. Waynesville is thriving and is a fantastic place to live and work.

I won’t even try to pass judgment on the job she was doing.

Anyone who is in a workplace knows there are too many subjec-

Thankfully, we are about over Obama’s reign To the Editor Closing the stable after the horse has bolted describes Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech last Tuesday night. After almost seven and a half years in office Obama now appeals for civility and partisanship.

This is the president who mockingly jabbed “I won” to Republican congressional leaders during a 2009 meeting about Obama’s stimulus package where Republicans expressed concerns about spending and tax credits in the package. This is the president who has ignored military leaders’ advice on how to handle ISIS and other U.S. involvements in world conflicts. This is the President who stated that “if Congress doesn’t act I will.”

He has kept that “promise” by changing Obamacare law and making up his own amnesty law by executive orders. Soon to come are Obama’s proposed gun control executive orders that threaten our Second Amendment rights. What comes out of Obama’s mouth has nothing to do with his actions.

Following the State of the Union, Democrat National Chair Debbie Wasserman Shultz discredited the Republican response

tive standards to weigh when making decisions about hiring and firing, especially for those of us who know little of the town’s “company culture,” that unwritten code that permeates every organization and is way more important than all that gobbledygook in the employee manual. Perhaps Onieal was asking too much, making too many changes too fast. In my experience, though, most companies suffer more from not making changes rather than from making too many.

Some have called those who voted to fire Onieal disingenuousness.

During the campaign — at least during public statements — neither LeRoy Editor Roberson, Gary Caldwell nor Jon Feichter said this was a referendum on Onieal’s future. Those of us who follow town campaigns heard whispers, but none of those running for office made an issue of the manager, but instead said she accomplished the objectives she was given. Voters who took them at their word and read campaign stories and who listened to them at campaign events were blindsided once it became obvious right after the election that this was in the works all along.

Voters have short memories, and the hiring of a competent and professional town manager will assuage many questions that right now are so pressing. But a seed of doubt, of mistrust, has been planted, and the question is whether it will grow?

Since the firing of Onieal was obviously in the works prior to the election and candidates did not discuss it with voters, are

Scott McLeod

20

speaker from South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley as a Republican token female not fit to assume the response role. She then launched into a tirade about diversity. Democrat diversity in presidential candidates boils down to an aging governor, a socialist and a candidate about to be indicted for public corruption. All are northeasterners! No geographic diversity there!

The Republican candidate slate includes business persons, physicians, a female, Hispanics, an African-American, governors and senators hailing from states throughout the nation. That is a picture of the diversity in the USA and for that matter in the Republican Party, Ms. Wasserman-Shultz.

The Democratic Party and the Obama administration are a debacle that hopefully we will never have to experience in office again.

Carol Adams Glenville

Believe it or not, fear can kill you To the Editor: Startling new findings show that if you are a middle-aged white person, your life expectancy is dramatically declining. Almost every other demographic in the western

there other pivotal issues that will be handled similarly, quietly and out of the public earshot? Let’s hope not. Whether one supports Onieal for or not, there’s little doubt this could have been handled better.

And, I can’t help but ask another question related to this issue, one that is near and dear to my heart: just as I believe the aldermen who voted to fire Onieal were less than open with voters, did the media — The Smoky Mountain News included — fail in its duty to the voters of Waynesville by not bringing up the issue prior to the town election?

Look, at this newspaper we pride ourselves on trying to dig below the surface to let readers know what is really going on, a characteristic that doesn’t always win us friends. In this case, we had heard that this scenario might occur, that a Feichter win could lead to Onieal’s firing. We didn’t find a way to get that into print prior to the election. Whether that would have changed any of the outcomes is questionable, but it certainly will renew our commitment to give readers all the information as early as we are able.

Going back to Enloe’s column, I agree that the town will move on beyond this, that it will survive this firestorm. What’s controversial today will be tomorrow’s history.

And I think Onieal will be fine. She is professional, smart, straightforward, and gets results. In the business world, those traits are much desired; in local government, that kind of attitude is often interpreted as upsetting the apple cart.

Sometimes it’s simply a matter of perspective.

(Scott McLeod can be reached at info@smokymountainnews.com.)

LOOKING FOR OPINIONS The Smoky Mountain News encourages readers to express their opinions through letters to the editor or guest columns. All viewpoints are welcome. Send to Scott McLeod at info@smokymountainnews.com., fax to 828.452.3585, or mail to PO Box 629, Waynesville, NC, 28786. world is doing better. In the United States, every other group — including blacks, Hispanics, the young and the old — are all living longer. According to Angus Deaton, a Nobel prize winning scientist, the reasons driving these higher death rates are suicides, drugs and alcohol abuse, and chronic untreated diseases.

I think the real underlying reason is fear.

Fear of change; fear of losing power; fear of other religions; fear of immigrants; fear of losing your job; fear of rising minorities; and fear of the rising power of women. You name it.

The ground they grew up on has shifted under their feet. Most have worked hard all their lives and have little or nothing to show for it.

And many in this group have no health insurance. For this group their anger is palpable,

and for some, the only escape is through drugs, alcohol and suicide.

Fear is a powerful emotion and it is basic to our human nature. When used in a smart way, it can be a effective political tool. Its use in politics is nothing new. Our history is littered with effective rants against immigrants, religions, minorities, especially blacks.

Today's politics are no different. Just mention, the Muslim religion, Syrian refugees, Mexican immigrants, minorities or women's rights, and that fear fills the room with angry voters who are looking for someone to bring back the good old days.

This use of fear is not only dangerous to individuals but it is corrosive to our politics.

We have real problems to solve. If all a candidate has to offer is fear and divisive attacks, then the solutions we can all agree on are never going to happen. Promising to recreate the false nostalgia of the past, ignores who we are today, the real changes we must accept, and the bright future that is possible.

We must find a way to work together, and ignore the fear being trumpeted by the hate mongers. Our goal should be fairness and equality for all. That can only be achieved if we all put our emotions in check and get down to the hard work required for real democracy.

Louis Vitale Franklin

Susanna Barbee

O

don’t have tattoos (though I really want one) or piercings all over my body (though I once did). I don’t post slightly scandalous or controversial statements on my social media channels, but I am real on my channels and work hard not to portray my life as perfect and blissful when in truth, no one’s is.

And even if I wasn’t a mom and a community member and a principal’s wife, I don’t think I would be this kind of edgy. And I would never try to write a column pretending like I am because it would clearly sound forced.

Nevertheless, I feel like when I really dig down, I am my own type of edgy. I have many clear opinions, though I try to articulate them gracefully. I’ve traveled a jagged path through life which has simultaneously given me thick skin and a compassionate heart. I am not willing to settle for the status quo, hence my four career changes since graduating college. I have insane willpower, a stubborn will, my own style, my own musical taste, my own mind.

In fact, I think all women are edgy by default, but so many of the fairer sex lose their edge when life and parenthood and motherhood and wifehood (if that’s even a word) storm in and take over. When a person’s entire day is spent nurturing others, managing a home, using words like “potty” and “night-night” and “blanky,” it’s hard to resurrect even a semblance of edginess.

I love being a mom. It’s the most amazing job I never knew I always wanted, but I’ve finally learned, seven years in, that it doesn’t have to come at the expense of my own gypsy soul, my own edginess.

As we start this new column at The Smoky Mountain News, a column written by women, my hope is that some of our female readers will dig into their own personalities and remember their edginess, whatever that may mean.

(Susanna Barbee is a local mom, writer and educator. Find more on her blog, www.zealousmom.com. Reach her at susanna.barbee@gmail.com.)

Taste the Mountains is an ever-evolving paid section of places to dine in Western North Carolina. If you would like to be included in the listing please contact our advertising department at 828.452.4251 AMMONS DRIVE-IN RESTAURANT & DAIRY BAR 1451 Dellwwod Rd., Waynesville.

828.926.0734. Open 7 days a week 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Celebrating over 25 years.

Enjoy world famous hot dogs as well as burgers, seafood, hushpuppies, hot wings and chicken. Be sure to save room for dessert. The cobbler, pie and cake selections are sure to satisfy any sweet tooth.

APPLE ANDY'S RESTAURANT 3483 Soco Road, Maggie Valley located in Market Square. 828.944.0626. Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; closed Wednesday and Thursday. Serving the freshest homemade sandwiches, wraps, and entrees such as country fried steak and grilled flounder. Full salad bar and made from scratch sides like potato salad, pinto beans and macaroni and cheese. www.appleandys.com APPLE CREEK CAFE 111 N. Main St., Waynesville.

828.456.9888. Monday through Thursday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday 10

a.m. to midnight. Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Home to an extensive build your own sandwich menu as well as specialty salads, soups burgers and more. With local ingredients and made-from-scratch recipes using a variety of good-for-you ingredients Apple Creek Cafe is sure to become your favorite spot.

BLUE ROOSTER SOUTHERN GRILL 207 Paragon Parkway, Clyde, Lakeside Plaza at the old Wal-Mart. 828.456.1997.

Open Monday through Friday. Friendly and fun family atmosphere. Local, handmade Southern cuisine. Fresh-cut salads; slowsimmered soups; flame grilled burgers and steaks, and homemade signature desserts.

Blue-plates and local fresh vegetables daily.

Brown bagging is permitted. Private parties, catering, and take-out available. Call-ahead seating available.

BOURBON BARREL BEEF & ALE 454 Hazelwood Ave., Waynesville, 828.452.9191. Lunch served 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Dinner nightly from 4 p.m.

Closed on Sunday. We specialize in handcut, all natural steaks, fresh fish, and other classic American comfort foods that are made using only the finest local and sustainable ingredients available. We also feature a great selection of craft beers from local artisan brewers, and of course an extensive selection of small batch bourbons and whiskey. The Barrel is a friendly and casual neighborhood dining experience where our guests enjoy a great meal without breaking the bank.

January 20-26, 2016

ne Friday night in October my husband and I were dining at the bar at Frog’s Leap when I realized Smoky Mountain News Editor Scott McLeod was next to us enjoying a beer and an order of truffle fries. He and I began chatting about his kids, my kids, mutual friends and ultimately landed on the topics of writing and jourColumnist nalism. He asked what sorts of topics I write about and which publications I write for.

Hmmmmm….

Even though I spend countless hours writing every week, I felt myself fumbling for an answer. My immediate response would have involved a number of words like “parenting” and “mom blog” and “family.” So I decided to be honest and answered with something along the lines of, “Up to this point, I’ve written a lot about parenting and family topics, but I really want to get into magazine writing and other types of writing outside of the parenting world.”

Then he said, “We need to talk. And I think we need another order of truffle fries.”

Several weeks later we met for coffee at City Bakery and that’s when he asked if I wanted to write an “edgy” column for The Smoky Mountain News. During the hourlong meeting, I nodded my head with enthusiasm as if I knew exactly what he meant by that word. But in the days that followed, I felt my brow furrowing often as I contemplated the meaning of “edgy.”

Am I edgy? I think I might be.

People who only know me in passing would probably say that I’m sweet and smiley but not particularly edgy, but those who know me well would hopefully say that while I am nice (sometimes too nice), I am very edgy. Just in my own way.

I’m not one to cuss all day or spout my opinions in the middle of a public place. I

tasteTHEmountains opinion

If it means reconnecting with my gypsy soul, I’m in

Smoky Mountain News 21

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tasteTHEmountains

nchbox Café The Lu

Breakfast Sandwiches Served All Day Daily Specials!

MON.-SAT. 11 A.M.-8 P.M.

34 CHURCH ST. WAYNESVILLE 828.246.6505 twitter.com/ChurchStDepot M C facebook.com/ChurchStreetDepot

Behind Mountain Medical 828.246.6296 Winter Hours: Mon-Fri 8am-5pm

328-57

100 SPICEWOOD DR. CLYDE

BRYSON CITY CORK & BEAN A MOUNTAIN SOCIAL HOUSE 16 Everett St.,Bryson City. 828.488.1934.

Open Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday and Sunday brunch 9 a.m. to 3p.m., Full Menu 3 to 9 p.m. Serving fresh and delicious weekday morning lite fare, lunch, dinner, and brunch. Freshly prepared menu offerings range from house-made soups & salads, lite fare & tapas, crepes, specialty sandwiches and burgers. Be sure not to miss the bold flavors and creative combinations that make up the daily Chef Supper Specials starting at 5pm every day.

Followed by a tempting selection of desserts prepared daily by our chefs and other local bakers. Enjoy craft beers on tap, as well as our full bar and eclectic wine list.

Live Music with Oliver Padgett Saturday, Jan. 23 • 7 p.m.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

SUNDAY BRUNCH 328-47

9a.m.-3 p.m.

3 E JACKSON ST. • SYLVA, NC

www.CityLightsCafe.com

January 20-26, 2016

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Nutrition Facts serving size : ab out 50 p ag es

MEDITERRANEAN

Am ount per Serving Calories 0 % Daily Value * Tot al Fat 0g

0%

Reg ional New s

100%

Op inion

100%

Outd oors

100%

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100%

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* Percent Weekly values b ased on Hayw ood, Jackson, M acon, Sw ain and Buncom b e d iet s.

ITALIAN CUISINE

A LOCAL

FAVORITE FOR 15 YEARS AND COUNTING!

1863 S. Main Street • Waynesville 828.454.5002 Hwy. 19/23 Exit 98 LUNCH & DINNER TUES. - SUN.

CATALOOCHEE RANCH 119 Ranch Dr., Maggie Valley.

828.926.1401. It’s winter, but we still serve three meals a day on Friday, Saturday and long holiday weekends. Join us for Breakfast from 8 to 9:30 a.m.; Lunch from 12 to 2 p.m.; and Dinner buffet from 6 to 7:30 p.m., with entrees that include pot roast, Virginia ham and herb-baked chicken, complemented by seasonal vegetables, homemade breads, jellies and desserts. We also offer a fine selection of wine and beer.

And a roaring fire in the fireplace. So come enjoy mile-high mountaintop dining with a spectacular view. Reservations are required.

CHEF’S TABLE 30 Church St., Waynesville.

828.452.6210. From 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Tuesday through Saturday dinner starting at 5 p.m. “Best of” Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator Magazine. Set in a distinguished atmosphere with an exceptional

menu. Extensive selection of wine and beer.

Reservations honored.

CHURCH STREET DEPOT 34 Church Street, downtown Waynesville.

828.246.6505. 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Mouthwatering all beef burgers and dogs, hand-dipped, hand-spun real ice cream shakes and floats, fresh hand-cut fries. Locally sourced beef. Indoor and outdoor dining. facebook.com/ChurchStreetDepot, twitter.com/ChurchStDepot.

CITY BAKERY 18 N. Main St. Waynesville 828.452.3881.

Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Join us in our historic location for scratch made soups and daily specials.

Breakfast is made to order daily: Gourmet cheddar & scallion biscuits served with bacon, sausage and eggs; smoked trout bagel plate; quiche and fresh fruit parfait.

We bake a wide variety of breads daily, specializing in traditional french breads. All of our breads are hand shaped. Lunch: Fresh salads, panini sandwiches. Enjoy outdoor dinning on the deck. Private room available for meetings.

CITY LIGHTS CAFE Spring Street in downtown Sylva.

828.587.2233. Open Monday-Saturday 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tasty, healthy and quick. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, espresso, beer and wine.

Come taste the savory and sweet crepes, grilled paninis, fresh, organic salads, soups and more. Outside patio seating. Free Wi-Fi, pet-friendly. Live music and lots of events.

Check the web calendar at citylightscafe.com.

THE CLASSIC WINESELLER 20 Church Street, Waynesville.

828.452.6000. Underground retail wine and craft beer shop, restaurant, and intimate live music venue. Kitchen opens at 4 p.m.

Wednesday through Saturday serving freshly prepared small plates, tapas, charcuterie, desserts. Enjoy live music every Friday and Saturday night at 7pm. www.classicwineseller.com. Also on facebook and twitter.

CORK & CLEAVER 176 Country Club Drive, Waynesville.

828.456.3551. Reservations recommended. 4:30-9 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday Sunday brunch 11 a.m. to 2 pm. Tucked away

www.pasqualesnc.com

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APPÉTIT Y’AL N L BO

828-456-1997 22

BREAKING BREAD CAFÉ 6147 Hwy 276 S. Bethel (at the Mobil Gas Station) 828.648.3838 Sunday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Chef owned and operated. Our salads are made in house using local seasonal vegetables.

Fresh roasted ham, turkey and roast beef used in our hoagies. We hand make our own eggplant and chicken parmesan, pork meatballs and hamburgers. We use 1st quality fresh not pre-prepared products to make sure you get the best food for a reasonable price. We make vegetarian, gluten free and sugar free items. Call or go to Facebook (Breaking Bread Café NC) to find out what our specials are.

blueroostersoutherngrill.com

— Real Local People, Real Local Food — 207 Paragon Parkway, Clyde, North Carolina Monday-Friday Open at 11am

We’ll feed your spirit, too.

Cataloochee Ranch 119 Ranch Drive, Maggie Valley, NC 28751 | CataloocheeRanch.com | (828)926-1401

tasteTHEmountains inside Waynesville Inn, Cork & Cleaver has an approachable menu designed around locally sourced, sustainable, farm-to-table ingredients. Chef Ed Kaminski prepares American cuisine from local, organic vegetables grown in Western North Carolina. Full bar and wine cellar. www.thewaynesvilleinn.com .

COUNTRY VITTLES: FAMILY STYLE RESTAURANT 3589 Soco Rd, Maggie Valley.

828.926.1820 Open Wednesday and Thursday 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.; closed Monday and Tuesday. Family Style at Country Vittles is not a buffet. Instead our waitresses will bring your food piping hot from the kitchen right to your table and as many refills as you want. So if you have a big appetite, but sure to ask your waitress about our family style service.

JOEY'S PANCAKE HOUSE 4309 Soco Rd Maggie Valley.

828.926.0212. Winter hours: Friday-Monday 7 a.m. to 12 p.m. Joey’s is a family style restaurant that has been serving breakfast to the locals and visitors of Western North Carolina since 1966. Featuring a large variety of tempting pancakes, golden waffles, country style cured ham and seasonal specials spiked with flavor, Joey's is sure to please all appetites. Join us for what has become a tradition in these parts, breakfast at Joey’s.

JUKEBOX JUNCTION U.S. 276 and N.C. 110 intersection, Bethel.

828.648.4193. 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday; Sunday 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Serving breakfast, lunch, nd dinner. The restaurant has a 1950s & 60s theme decorated with memorabilia from that era.

MAGGIE VALLEY CLUB 1819 Country Club Dr., Maggie Valley.

828.926.1616. maggievalleyclub.com/dine.

Open seasonally for lunch and dinner. Fine and casual fireside dining in welcoming atmosphere. Full bar. Reservations accepted.

MOUNTAIN PERKS ESPRESSO BAR & CAFÉ 9 Depot St., Bryson City. 828.488.9561.

Open Monday through Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Friday 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. With music at the Depot.

Sunday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Life is too short for bad coffee. We feature wonderful breakfast and lunch selections. Bagels, wraps, soups, sandwiches, salads and quiche with a variety of specialty coffees, teas and smoothies.

Various desserts.

ORGANIC BEANS COFFEE COMPANY 1110 Soco Road, Maggie Valley.

828.668.2326. Open 7 days a week 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Happily committed to brewing and serving innovative, uniquely delicious coffees — and making the world a better place.

100% of our coffee is Fair Trade, Shade Grown, and Organic, all slow-roasted to bring out every note of indigenous flavor. Bakery offerings include cakes, muffins, cookies and more. Each one is made from scratch in Asheville using only the freshest, all natural ingredients available. We are proud to offer gluten-free and vegan options.

PASQUALE’S 1863 South Main Street, Waynesville. Off exit 98, 828.454.5002. Open for lunch and dinner, Tuesday through Sunday. Classic Italian dishes, exceptional steaks and seafood (available in full and lighter sizes), thin crust pizza, homemade soups, salads hand tossed at your table. Fine wine and beer selection. Casual atmosphere, dine indoors, outside on the patio or at the bar. Reservations appreciated.

PATIO BISTRO 30 Church Street, Waynesville.

828.454.0070. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Breakfast bagels and sandwiches, gourmet coffee, deli sandwiches for lunch with homemade soups, quiches, and desserts. Wide selection of wine and beer.

Outdoor and indoor dining.

RENDEZVOUS RESTAURANT AND BAR Maggie Valley Inn and Conference Center 828.926.0201 Open Monday-Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Saturday 7:30 a.m. to 11 p.m and Sunday 7:30 a.m to 9 p.m. Full service restaurant serving steaks, prime rib, seafood and dinner specials.

ROB’S HOT DOG SHACK 42 Montgomery St., Waynesville 828.707.7033. Open Monday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Rob’s serves gourmet hot dogs and has homemade side items. Outdoor and indoor dining, café style restaurant. Locally owned and operated.

Family oriented business.

SMOKY MOUNTAIN SUB SHOP 29 Miller Street Waynesville 828.456.3400.

Open from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. A

Waynesville tradition, the Smoky Mountain Sub Shop has been serving great food for over 20 years. Come in and enjoy the relaxed, casual atmosphere. Sub breads are baked fresh every morning in Waynesville. Using only the freshest ingredients in home-made soups, salads and sandwiches. Come in and see for yourself why Smoky Mountain Sub Shop was voted # 1 in Haywood County.

SPEEDY’S PIZZA 285 Main Street, Sylva. 828.586.3800.

Open seven days a week. Monday-Friday 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Saturday 3 p.m.-11 p.m., Sunday 4 p.m.-10 p.m. Family-owned for 30 years. Serving hand-tossed pizza made to order, pasta, subs, gourmet salads, calzones and seafood.

TAP ROOM SPORTS BAR & GRILL 176 Country Club Dr. Waynesville 828.456.5988. 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week. Enjoy soups, sandwiches, salads and hearty appetizers along with a full bar menu in our casual, smoke-free neighborhood grill.

TWIN MAPLES FARMHOUSE 63 North Hill Street, Waynesville.

828.452.7837. Open for Sunday brunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Located just two blocks from downtown Waynesville, Twin Maples is available for weddings, receptions, family reunions, birthday parties, showers, luncheons, corporate meetings and retreats.

VITO’S PIZZA 607 Highlands Rd., Franklin. 828.369.9890.

Established here in in 1998. Come to Franklin and enjoy our laid back place, a place you can sit back, relax and enjoy our 62” HDTV. Our Pizza dough, sauce, meatballs, and sausage are all made from scratch

by Vito.

January 20-26, 2016

MAD BATTER FOOD & FILM 617 W. Main Street Downtown Sylva.

828.586.3555. Open Monday through Wednesday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Handtossed pizza, steak sandwiches, wraps, salads and desserts. All made from scratch. Beer and wine. Free movies with showtimes at 6:30 and 9 p.m. with a Saturday matinee at 2 p.m. Visit madbatterfoodandfilm.com for this week’s shows.

Smoky Mountain News 23

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A&E

Smoky Mountain News

both due to “miracle drug” demand here and abroad. She also notes of her travels to the now-defunct coal mining communities of Kentucky and West Virginia, where genuine poverty and hardscrabble existences are daily lives for countless residents.

“I don’t want to hear about urban poverty until you see just how bad rural poverty is,” she said. “I did a lot of traveling, a lot of talking with people in those coal communities, a lot of listening, and seeing their transition out of coal is heartbreaking. It also shows us how lucky we are in Western North Carolina to still have our mountains, our clean water and resources.”

And within her efforts to shine a light onto the beauty of Southern Appalachian culture, Ballard also works tirelessly to push out the negativity and darker side of the people who have set deep roots in this fertile ground.

“I want to be clear, there are definitely aspects of our Appalachian culture we need to let go of — xenophobia, homophobia and racism.

We can let all of that go and still hold onto a vital, vibrant culture,” she said. “As mountain people, we Author of Asfidity & Mad-Stones: A Further Ramble Through Hillfolks’ tend to get our backs Hoodoo, ritualist and teacher Byron Ballard will present her latest up about stuff, get book on Jan. 30 in Sylva. righteous about things, but we need to see that not everybody is a Baptist or a “We’re practicing the same Methodist. If we can get out of a place of fear, and really know that we’re in a time techniques that my when our culture can keep the good pieces ancestors, and many others’ and transform out of the pieces that don’t serve us, then that’s going to be a beautiful ancestors, practiced. I pull place for all of us.” out my suitcase full of So, what about the misconceptions when the words “magic” and “witch” get mason jars and ingredients, attributed to you out of novelty and misguided curiosity, rather than out of the and people become so necessity of real knowledge passed down fascinated with what they through the ages?

“It is triggering for people. It makes peosee, where they connect ple uncomfortable. But, we’re practicing the and see the same things same techniques that my ancestors, and many others’ ancestors, practiced,” Ballard their grandparents used to said. “I pull out my suitcase full of mason survive.” jars and ingredients, and people become so fascinated with what they see, where they — Byron Ballard connect and see the same things their

Healing the mountains, healing the people

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD STAFF WRITER Byron Ballard is one misunderstood witch.

“There is this whole cultural mythology that witches aren’t human. They’re seen as these otherworldly creatures,” she said.

“Then, you have this Hollywood icon in films, and with things like ‘American Horror Story’ or ‘Sabrina The Teenage Witch,’ these beloved characters, but that’s not who we are or what we’re about.”

Known as “Asheville’s Village Witch,” Ballard is a fourth-generation Western North Carolina mountain woman, one steeped in the rich, intricate culture of people, medicine, food and folklore that make these hills shine with a vibrant past and promising future. It’s her mission, and passion, to uplift the longtime techniques, practices, storytelling and, most of all, pride of what it means have deep roots in Southern Appalachia.

“I find more and more that people come here and they want to take away from the culture what works for them — the beauty of the mountains or the handicrafts or the music,” she said. “But, a lot of people still look down on native Western North Carolinians, where they might think, ‘I don’t want these mountain people cluttering things up with ideas that aren’t like mine.’”

Ballard is the author of Staubs and Ditchwater, a book recounting the folk healing and folk magic Ballard not only grew up with in rural western Buncombe County, but also has collected over her many years of practicing natural medicine and pagan traditions. Recently, she published the sequel, Asfidity & Mad-Stones: A Further Ramble Through Hillfolks’ Hoodoo, which dives deeper into the mountain culture and longtime backwoods techniques of Appalachian people.

“I really thought with the first book I was preserving a culture, that perhaps wouldn’t be around in the coming years. But, as I travel and perform these practices, I’ve found there are a lot of people still out there, folks who came out of the woodwork when they heard what I was doing,” Ballard said. “It’s been wonderful, and a blessing to me, to find out all of these things aren’t really fading. There are plenty of people my age, in their 50s, and younger, who are doing this — this isn’t ‘Grandma Betty’ doing it up on a mountain somewhere, it’s everywhere in Southern Appalachia.”

But, with preserving and sharing this knowledge, Ballard also sees it as part of her duty to also ensure the protection of our mountains and resources. She points to the unhealthy harvest of ginseng and golden root,

Want to go?

“Asheville’s Village Witch” Byron Ballard will present her book Asfidity & MadStones: A Further Ramble Through Hillfolks’ Hoodoo at 3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 30, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva.

Writer, ritualist and teacher, Ballard believes in keeping the beloved but fading art of folk magic alive.

Her first book, Staubs and Ditchwater, generated widespread interest, which allowed her to travel and share her practices, gather stories, materials, and other ways of folk magic. She shares this with Asfidity & Madstones.

Ballard serves as elder priestess at Mother Grove Goddess Temple, a church devoted to the many faces of the Divine Feminine, where she teaches religious education and leads rituals. www.citylightsnc.com or 828.586.9499. grandparents used to survive.”

Ballard noted the long history of witches, one in which they were seen as the “doctors” of European villages and communities for centuries, a respected position that only found itself targeted by the creation of the university system during the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

“Witchy women did all the doctoring.

They caught the babies, took care of the dead, and were herbalists,” she said. “But, with the rise of the university system, the only people who were allowed to practice medicine were those who attended the universities, which were rich men, so they had to find a way to demonize these women, to get people to stop going to them and go to these new doctors.”

And as the 21st century takes shape, Ballard sees a significant societal and economical shift in perception and appreciation about what she practices, and what she wants to share with the world — the power and positivity found amid the knowledge of nature and nurture.

“People are so hungry for something authentic. So, when I pull out the old jug of mugwart — one of the most common weeds on the planet — they hold, smell it and are fascinated by its uses,” she said. “What I’m trying to do is take an academic background of capturing this mountain culture, versus how we grow this stuff organically and figure out what to do with it, versus how we work with the energies of the most ancient mountain range in the world.”

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD

arts & entertainment

This must be the place

come across. Where does that determination come from? And what will be the light at the end of the tunnel for you, professionally and creatively?

LR: Thank you. I’ve felt called to perform, write, sing and share since I was very young. I never questioned my purpose once I recognized it, and that drives me. There is no second-guess or Plan B. I feel it’s important for me to push forward despite any setbacks and fulfill my potential. The light at the end of the tunnel for me is to exist in a space where I’m able to explore all my ideas — musically, artistically, and visually — record them, share them, and perform them to their full potential around the world. I want to pair this mission with philanthropy and inspire our youth to also recognize their purpose and mentor on how one BearWaters Brewing (Waynesville) will host The can completely commit to that Darren Nicholson Band (Americana/bluegrass) path and it’s fulfillment. at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 21.

Garret K. Woodward: Nashville is well known for its country and rock roots. How do you fit in as a soul singer?

Laura Reed: Although Nashville is known for country, you’d be surprised these days how everything can “fit.” I never thought I would move from Atlanta to Nashville to make soul music, but it worked. Nashville has deep gospel roots, a deep songwriting tradition and my producer Shannon Sanders, who is based in Nashville, has been a soul music pioneer for years. Nashville cultivates that bridge between raw, rootsy soul and great lyrics.

HOT PICKS 1 2 3 4 5

The “Wine Smackdown” benefit for ARF and The Community Table will be held from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 31, at Evolution Wine Kitchen in Sylva.

Soul singer Laura Reed.

Want to go?

Acclaimed Nashville soul singer Laura Reed will perform on Friday, Jan. 22, at the Asheville Music Hall. Preach Jacobs and members of the Secret B-Sides will open.

Doors at 9 p.m. Showtime is 10 p.m. Ages 21 and over. Tickets are $7 in advance, $10 day of show, which can be purchased at www.ashevillemusichall.com. For more information on Reed and her latest record, ‘The Awakening,’ click on www.laurareed.com. influences and molded herself into a powerhouse singer-songwriter — one that stands tall on her own when held up to the light of critics and audiences alike.

She harkens back to the golden era of Motown, blues and folk music, but also puts her own modern stamp on the essence of that music. What you see is what you get with Laura Reed, and what you get is a performer ready and willing to claim the bright lights of her destiny.

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January 20-26, 2016

There are singers, there are performers, and then there’s Laura Reed.

Wandering the numerous floors and stages of New Mountain Asheville (a wild, freewheelin’ venue) last February, I eventually found myself downstairs in the main room, immersed in a sea of joyous faces, all eager to boogie down to legendary New Orleans funk-n-soul group Dumpstaphunk (featuring Ivan Neville).

Saddling up to the nearby bar, I ordered a drink and reached for my wallet. All around me, the speakers were radiating the sounds of this angelic voice, a tone of heart and soul that immediately stopped me in my tracks. I swung around and gazed up to the stage at the opening act. There she was, in all her melodic glory — Laura Reed.

Born in South Africa, raised in North Carolina, and currently based out of Nashville, Reed is — literally and figuratively — a breath of fresh air in an often stuffy and stale music industry. Where many acts are either carbon copies of their heroes or simply have talent but not an artistic identity of their own, Reed has soaked up all of her

GKW: In an era of studio tricks, what does is mean to you to be able to put out a musical product that is not only raw and real, but also true and pure in Smoky Mountain Coffee Roasters (Waynesville) this modern world of gimmicks will host Sam Lewis (country/soul) at 7:30 p.m. and false artistic substance?

Thursday, Jan. 21. All donations will benefit LR: I take that as a big comHead Start of Haywood and Jackson County. pliment as it is often a battle The “Robert Burns Dinner” Scottish celebration keeping the integrity of one’s will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 23, sound and identity in a world of in the Tartan Hall at the Franklin Presbyterian gimmicks and insatiable conChurch. sumption. It could be no other way for me, and those I work Tipping Point Brewery (Waynesville) will host a with — authenticity is the objecDisco Night with DJ Hurley at 8 p.m. Friday, tive. We wanted to release a Jan. 22. complete cohesive project with a message that would be timeless.

That’s what I want from music these days GKW: When you’re in the moment, and personally, and what I want to also create. your voice is fiery and silky all at once, what are you channeling?

GKW: What do you want the listener to LR: In those moments, I’m reliving the iniexperience at one of your shows? What do tial inspiration of the song. A song can be a three-minute script, a chance to really translate you want them to walk away feeling and something raw to an audience. It can be a bit of thinking?

LR: I want a listener to experience the an out-of-body or “holy ghost” moment when music as they need it in that moment in I’m completely committed and uninhibited to their life. I want them to feel like they were the song and feeling one with the audience. getting the message straight from an untamSometimes it’s Zen and all sonic — that’s pered source and it fill them with joy, another sweet spot I'm rather reverent about. growth, and inspiration. Music can be real medicine if done right and valued — that is GKW: You have one of the most driven my greatest hope. and passionate careers I have possibly ever

January Special: $50 for any of the above techniques For more information or to schedule an appointment call (828) 508-0904 Tina Knoedler, CRHS, LSH · Maggie Valley, NC

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On the beat arts & entertainment

Tribute to Elvis at The Strand ‘Young Elvis’ performer Travis LeDoyt will be in Waynesville on Jan. 29.

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Smoky Mountain News

January 20-26, 2016

328-15

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The “World’s Best Tribute to Young Elvis” Travis LeDoyt will hit the stage at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 29, at The Strand at 38 Main in Waynesville.

LeDoyt has been called “the best young Elvis in the world,” and also featured in the New York Times Magazine photographed in the office of Sam Phillips, founder of Sun Records and the man who gave Elvis Presley his first recording contract.

LeDoyt is enjoying amazing success emulating the career of “The King” during the 50s and there are four good reasons why: he looks like Elvis, sings like Elvis, moves like Elvis, his personality and mannerisms both on and off stage are strikingly similar to Elvis. To those people who think they have seen it all when it comes to Elvis tribute acts, this is the one that makes them do a double take.

Tickets are $35 for adults, $25 for students, and $15 for ages 12 and under. www.38main.com.

318-83

The production of the Nora Ephron play “Love Loss and What I Wore” will take place at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 22-23 and 3 p.m. Jan. 24 at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville.

Over the course of the next ten weeks, HART will present five different shows, including a musical revue, in the 65 seat back stage theater at the Performing Arts Center at the Shelton House. This is for people who love drama at its purest, and this year patrons can add dining on the theater’s main stage to the experience.

When you make a reservation for the show, you can also make a reservation to dine at the Center Stage Café, which will feature made to order paninis, stews, chowders, all prepared by Chef Christy Bishop, along with wines and beers on tap. Bishop will run the Harmon’s Den Bistro in the new Fangmeyer Theatre when it opens this spring, and this winter HART patrons can get a preview of things to come with the studio menu. Food service begins an hour and a half before show time and continues for audience and cast for an hour after each performance.

Tickets for “Love Loss and What I Wore” are $10 for adults, $6 for students. The season will continue with “The Fox,” based on a novella by Allan Miller, which will open Jan. 29.

828.456.6322 or www.harttheater.org.

Pam Tillis.

Pam Tillis to perform at WCU

Country music star Pam Tillis will be a featured performer at a Galaxy of Stars Series performance at 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 24, in the John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center at Western Carolina University.

Tillis has been a force in country music since her first single recording hit the charts and has racked up 14 top five hits including six songs that hit No. 1, and has sold more than 6 million records. She was one of the first women in Nashville to produce her own album, and was awarded the coveted Female Vocalist of the Year award by the Country Music Association in 1994.

Tickets are $21 for adults, $16 for WCU faculty/staff, and $7 for students/children.

For tickets, click on bardoartscenter.wcu.edu or 828.227.2479.

On the beat

Haywood Community Chorus will begin its new season under the direction of Kathy McNeil at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 1, at First United Methodist Church in Waynesville.

Founded in 1997 with a goal to help preserve and appreciation for the great classical music of the past, as well as the present, the chorus is sponsored in part

by The Junaluskans and the Haywood County Arts Council, through a grassroots grant from the NC Arts Council.

This season’s theme, “Songs of Peace, Freedom, and World Unity,” will be McNeil’s first season as director of HCC, taking over for long-time director David Traynham. New singers, as well as present members, are invited to join HCC for registration and rehearsal; subsequent rehearsals will be each Monday evening from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Singers should be able to read music, be familiar with choral singing, and be committed to attending rehearsals, and performing in the concert, scheduled for May 1. Tenors and basses are in great demand.

For more information, call Sylvia Everett at 828.550.6376.

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• The Classic Wineseller (Waynesville) will have Dulci Ellenberger (Americana/pop) Jan. 22, Joe Cruz (piano/pop) Jan. 23 and 30, and James Hammel (pop/jazz) Jan. 29.

828.452.6000 or www.classicwineseller.com.

ALSO:

• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will have Chris Minick (singer-songwriter) Jan. 21 and 28, Mark Keller Jan. 22, Bobby G. Jan. 23, Stone Crazy Band (pop/rock) 8 p.m. Jan. 29 and ‘Round the Fire (Grateful Dead tribute) 8 p.m. Jan. 30. All shows are free and at 7 p.m. unless otherwise listed. 828.454.5664 or www.froglevelbrewing.com.

• Heinzelmannchen Brewery (Sylva) will have Henry Wong (singer-songwriter) at 6 p.m.

Jan. 21. www.yourgnometownbrewery.com.

• Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will have an Open Mic night Jan. 20 and 27, and a jazz night with the Kittle/Collings Duo Jan. 21

• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Franklin) will have David Beam Jan. 23 and The Dirty Soul Revival (blues/rock) Jan. 30. All shows begin at 7:30 p.m. www.lazyhikerbrewing.com.

• Marianna Black Library (Bryson City) will hold community music jam from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Jan. 21. Anyone with a guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, dulcimer, anything unplugged, are invited to join. Singers are also welcomed. Free. 828.488.3030.

• No Name Sports Pub (Sylva) will host The Freeway Revival (rock/jam) Jan. 22, Porch 40 (rock/funk) Jan. 23, Scott Low & The Southern Bouillon (outlaw country) Jan. 29 and Fat Cheek Kat Jan. 30. All shows are free and begin at 9 p.m. www.nonamesportspub.com.

• O’Malley’s Sports Bar & Grill (Sylva) will Jesse Stephens & Ben Morgan (Americana) Jan. 22 and The Freeway Revival (rock/jam) Jan. 30. All shows begin at 9 p.m.

• Salty Dog’s (Maggie Valley) will have Karaoke with Jason Wyatt on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with Mile High (rock) on Wednesdays. Andrew Rickman (rock) will also perform Jan. 30. All shows begin at 8 p.m.

• Satulah Mountain Brewing (Highlands) will

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• Tipping Point Brewery (Waynesville) will host a Disco Night with DJ Hurley Jan. 22, Jesse Stephens & Ben Morgan (Americana) Jan. 23 and Chalwa Jan. 29. All shows are free and begin at 9 p.m. 828.246.9230.

• Tuck’s Tap & Grille (Cullowhee) will have College Night with DJ Alex Prince at 10 p.m.

Jan. 21 and 28, Joe Lasher Jr. (country/rock) 7 p.m. Jan. 20 and Zuzu Walsh 9 p.m. Jan. 23. 828.293.4688.

• The Ugly Dog Pub (Highlands) will have Nitrograss (bluegrass) at 7:30 p.m. every Wednesday, Red Leg Husky (Americana) 7:30 p.m. Jan. 23 and Charles Walker Band (Americana) 7 p.m. Jan. 30. 828.526.8364 or www.theuglydogpub.com.

• Water’n Hole Bar & Grill (Waynesville) will have a Local Showcase with The Beard, Vic Crown and Electric Phantom Jan. 23. All shows begin at 9 p.m.

the whole foot!

•Over the age of 45 •Overweight •Physically inactive •Relatives with diabetes •African American •American Indian •Latino

February 8, 2016.

Smoky Mountain News

There’s a Diabetes Prevention Program near you starting:

• Smoky Mountain Coffee Roasters (Waynesville) will host Nashville act Sam Lewis (country/soul) at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 21. All donations will benefit Head Start of Haywood and Jackson County.

If left untreated diabetes will take

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have Jimandi (folk/rock) every Wednesday at 7 p.m. and a rotating series of local performers on Fridays at 9 p.m. 828.482.9794 or www.satulahmountainbrewing.com.

January 20-26, 2016

• The Canton Armory will host “Winter Pickin’ in the Armory” at 7 p.m. every first and third Friday of the month. The event includes mountain music, vintage country, clogging and dancing. www.cantonnc.com.

and 28. All events begin at 8 p.m. www.innovation-brewing.com.

arts & entertainment

• BearWaters Brewing (Waynesville) will host The Darren Nicholson Band (Americana/bluegrass) at 7 p.m. Jan. 21. www.bwbrewing.com.

New season for Haywood Community Chorus

Registration is required.

For more information contact Sara Peterson at Swain County Health Department: 828.488.3198

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27

arts & entertainment

On the street • The “Wine Smackdown” benefit for ARF and The Community Table will be held from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Jan. 31 at Evolution Wine Kitchen in Sylva. $40 per ticket, includes 12 wines, appetizers, wine deals, door and raffle prizes.

The wines will be in a blind taste test and you'll be the judge to declare the winner of the smackdown. Snow date is Feb. 6. Visit www.evolutionwinekitchen.com for tickets.

• There will be a local community project from noon to 3 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 28, at the Jackson County Extension Office in Sylva. They are looking for people to lend a hand with a fundraiser for the Appalachian Women’s Museum. Help is needed to cut out and make aprons for the museum. All supplies and snacks will be supplied. To register, 828.586.4009.

ALSO:

Smoky Mountain News

January 20-26, 2016

• Learn how to make your own “Indian Cheese Paneer” at 3 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 4, at the Haywood Senior Resource Center in Waynesville. Cosponsored by the Canton Public Library. To register, call 828.356.2800.

• Drink-N-Think will be held at 7 p.m.

Monday, Jan. 25, at The Sneak-ESquirrel Brewery in Sylva. Come and join an open dialogue on an array of modern day topics. drinknthink@gmail.com.

• A chocolate and beer pairing will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Jan. 21 at Heinzelmannchen Brewing in Sylva.

The brewery will team up with Baxley’s Chocolates for the event. Sample six beers and six chocolates. Tickets are $10 in advance, with $5 from each ticket going to the Community Table.

828.631.4466 or 828.631.3379.

• There will be a Scrabble tournament at 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 24 at The Cut Cocktail Lounge in Sylva. The lounge will also be conducting a “Best Biscuits & Gravy” contest at 1 p.m.

Jan. 30. To register, 828.631.4795.

• A free wine tasting will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. Jan. 23 and 30 at Bosu’s Wine Shop in Waynesville. www.waynesvillewine.com or 828.452.0120.

• A wine tasting will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Jan. 20 and 27 at The Classic Wineseller in Waynesville. Free with dinner ($15 minimum).

828.452.6000.

• There will be a “Tasty Tuesday: Winter Seasonals” at 7 p.m. Jan. 26 and Feb. 2 at Mad Anthony’s Bottle 28 Shop & Beer Garden.

Mountain Heritage Center to host Apartheid exhibit An exhibit that traces South Africa’s struggle to end Apartheid will be on display from Feb. 1 through May 20 in the Mountain Heritage Center at Western Carolina University.

Created by the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, South Africa, the exhibit “From Apartheid to Democracy” will be on view in the center’s second-floor gallery in Hunter Library. The heritage museum is hosting the exhibit as part of WCU’s two-year interdisciplinary learning theme “Africa! More than a Continent.”

In addition to looking at the struggle to end Apartheid, the legal basis for the segregation and brutal mistreatment of South Africa’s people of color, the exhibit focuses on the country’s transition to democracy and explains parallels with the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S., said Pam Meister, curator and interim director at the Mountain Heritage Center.

April 1994 was a historical watershed for South Africa because it marked the end of the Apartheid era and dawn of a new democratic order, Meister said. The exhibit’s text and images show the similarities between the American South and the South African experience, and how each addresses legacies of poverty and racism, she said.

The Mountain Heritage Center gallery is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

828.227.7129 or www.wcu.edu.

The exhibit ‘From Apartheid to Democracy’ includes this iconic photograph of Nelson Mandela looking through the bars of his Robben Island jail cell that was taken by German documentary photographer Jurgen Schadeberg. Courtesy of Levine Museum of the New South

Celebrate Robert Burns in Franklin The “Robert Burns Dinner” will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 23, in the Tartan Hall at the Franklin Presbyterian Church.

Burns, the national poet of Scotland, is the only poet or musician that has a worldwide celebration. It is on or near his birthday, Jan. 25.

This year’s Burns Night will include the calling of the clans, presentation of the haggis, recitation of “Ode to the Haggis,” poetry and songs of Burns, singing of “Auld Lang Syne,” and a five-course dinner.

Entertainment will be provided by The Jacobites, a group with local ties to Franklin.

Piper will be Michael Waters. The Scottish country dancing will be led by Marshall and Anne McLaughlin.

Advance tickets are now on sale at the Scottish Tartans Museum and Heritage Center and the Franklin Chamber of Commerce. This dinner is sponsored by the Friends of the Scottish Tartans Museum and Heritage Center.

828.421.7771.

Call for master gardeners This June, the Haywood County Arts Council (HCAC) will welcome back the Haywood County Master Gardeners’ Exhibit, a show that marries fine gardens with fine art. The 2016 theme will be “Pollinate, Propagate, Cultivate,” and the HCAC invites interested artists to submit an application to participate by Feb. 1.

The Haywood County Extension Master Gardener Volunteers make up a program housed under the Haywood County Extension Service. Artists are asked to produce work inspired by local gardens and the pollinators (bees, butterflies, birds, bats, etc.) that help

reserve your space, please mail a check (payable to Ricardo Fernandez) to Suzanne Fernandez at 3553 Panther Creek Road, Clyde, North Carolina 28721. Reservations confirmed upon receipt of payment.

828.246.7465 or chefricardos@gmail.com.

Open call for WinterFest vendors

them thrive. Applications do not have to include finished work, but they should show work examples and ideas for show submissions.

For an application and more information, visit www.haywoodarts.org, click on “Artists,” and then “Call for Artists.” Email gallerygifts@haywoodarts.org or info@haywoodarts.org with any questions.

Mountain Cooking Club in Fines Creek Chef Ricardo Fernandez will be hosting a Mountain Cooking Club “Serving Up Love” class from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 6, at the Fines Creek Community Kitchen in Clyde.

Fernandez was the former co-owner/head chef of Lomo Grill. The classes celebrate local ingredients and seasonal fare. His classes combine his native Argentine cuisine with influences from Spain and Italy, the home of his parents.

The menu for this class will include a three-course dining experience: thai shrimp and chicken soup, crispy chicken thighs with salsa verde, and rum walnut bundt cake.

Class fee is $65 plus a $1 Mountain Cooking Club 2016 membership fee (for those who didn’t attend the January class). To

Vendor applications are now being accepted for WinterFest Smoky Style, which will take place Feb. 26-28 at the Maggie Valley Festival Grounds.

The event will feature an array of activities to do in the mountains during the winter, and will highlight a sled dog exhibition, mountain art/craft vendors, timber sports, outdoor sporting exhibits, K-9 and first responders, food and entertainment.

The weekend rental fee is $75 for applications received by Dec. 15; $100 thereafter.

The nonprofit fee is $50. For vendors who require electrical service, the fee is $125. The fees cover a 10-foot by 10-foot grassy area.

Vendors are required to bring their own tents, tables, chairs and other display materials.

This year’s event is sponsored in part by the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority. For more information, contact Denise Seay at seaycharlesl@yahoo.com.

LEGO Club in Bryson City

There will be a LEGO Club meeting at 4 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 28, at the Marianna Black Library in Bryson City.

The library will provide Legos and Duplos for ages 3 and up, the only thing area children need to bring is their imagination.

828.488.3030.

On the wall Artist Beth Grabowski will hold a special discussion “Print and the Paradox of Nostalgia” at 3 p.m. Jan. 27 in the Fine and Performing Arts Center at Western Carolina University. Professor Grabowski has been a member of the art faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill since 1985. Her art explores aspects of identity and relationship experienced from the perspective of motherhood. Issues such as nurturance, sentimentality, expectation, domestic labor, familial hierarchy and family narrative motivate her work. www.wcu.edu.

Stained glass for beginners at HCC

ALSO:

Open call for crafters This year, the town of Dillsboro will be hosting three arts and craft shows. The Dillsboro Merchants Association is scheduling over 40 artisans for each of these festivals.

• Saturday, June 18 — The second annual “Front Street Arts & Crafts Show.” Application due April 1.

• Saturday, Aug. 20 — The Dillsboro Summer Arts & Crafts Market showcases art and crafts, with a focus on family activities.

Application due by June 1.

• Saturday, Oct. 1 — ColorFest will line Front Street with colorful art and fine crafts.

Application due by July 1.

Apply for these shows by downloading an application at www.visitdillsboro.org/specialevents.html.

For more information, call Connie Hogan at 828.586.3511.

• The Haywood County Arts Council annual meeting will be from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Thursday, Jan. 21, at Gallery & Gifts in downtown Waynesville. Wine and cheese reception, followed by a presentation and performance, and community feedback session. RSVP by Jan. 15. info@452.0593 or info@haywoodarts.org.

• The High County Quilt Guild will meet at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 21 at the First Methodist Church in Waynesville. The meeting topic will be “Disappearing Blocks.” www.highcountryquilters.wordpress.com.

• The “Winter Textures” fiber and textile exhibit will be displayed through Jan. 30 at

• The live screening of the New York City MET Opera’s production of Puccini’s “Turandot” will be shown at 12:55 p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 30, at the Highlands Performing Arts Center. Opera’s leading dramatic soprano Nina Stemme sings the title role of the proud princess of ancient China, whose riddles doom every suitor who seeks her hand. Tenor Marco Berti is Calàf, who sings the iconic “Nessun dorma” and wins her love. Tickets are available online at www.highlandspac.org, at the door or by calling 828.526.9047.

Adults are $26, PAC members $22, and students are free.

• A community art group meets at 10 a.m. every Wednesday at the Hudson Library in Highlands. 828.526.3031.

• The films “The Intern” (Jan. 21), “The Martian” (Jan. 22-23) and “Everest” (Jan. 28) will be screened at Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. The free showings are at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. with a special 2 p.m. matinee on Saturdays. www.madbatterfoodandfilm.com.

• The film “The Martian” will be screened at 7 p.m. Jan. 22, 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Jan. 23, and 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Jan. 24 at The Strand at 38 Main in Waynesville. Tickets are $6.50, with a $3.25 matinee pass for the 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. showings. There will also be a free children’s screening of “Beauty and the Beast” at noon and 2 p.m. Jan. 23 and 30. www.38main.com.

January 20-26, 2016

Haywood Community College’s Creative Arts Continuing Education Department will offer “Beginning Stained Glass” classes spearheaded by instructor Melanie Lewis.

Classes will run for eight weeks with two sessions available. The first session will begin Feb. 8 and the second session will begin April 4. Beginning students will learn the basics of stained glass art in a spacious studio in HCC’s Creative Arts Building in Clyde.

Registration deadline for the first session is Feb. 1. Registration for the second session is March 28. For more information and a complete offering of classes for Winter/Spring 2016, please visit creativearts.haywood.edu.

For further inquiries or to register, call 828.565.4240 or email krrinn@haywood.edu.

• A pine needle craft workshop with Joyce Lantz will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 23, at the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva. Try your hand at this timehonored form of coiled basketry. Using long leaf pine needles, stitching around a wooden center, students can create a pin, a coaster or even a trivet. Good hand strength and eyesight is needed for this close work. All supplies will be provided.

Students should bring small sharp cuticle or embroidery scissors. This class is limited in size. Please contact the library at 828.586.2016 to register. www.fontanalib.org.

the Gallery & Gifts within the Haywood County Arts Council in Waynesville. The showcase will feature a wide array of works from Haywood County fiber artisans. www.haywoodarts.org.

arts & entertainment

Print nostalgia at WCU

• Learn to sew with the Sew Easy Girls and the Community Association (ECA) group from noon to 3 p.m. every first Monday of the month at the Jackson County Cooperative Extension Office in Sylva.

Refresh your skills and take on new projects. 828.586.4009.

Smoky Mountain News 29

30

Books

Smoky Mountain News

Start off with something old, something new ith the new year now upon us, it strikes me that “something old” and “something new” is appropriate for this column.

Last week a student gave me as a Christmas gift an old copy of C.S. Lewis’s Letters To An American Lady, and I have spent some enjoyable minutes perusing this collection. I have read many of Lewis’ other books: the Narnia Chronicles to my children, Mere Writer Christianity, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and several essays. (My favorite of his books is the somewhat neglected Till We Have Faces, a brilliant retelling of the tale of Cupid and Psyche. I teach this book every year, and every year I mine new ideas from the story).

Letters, however, was new to me. Though I have not finished the book, which is very short, it has already left two impressions.

First, Letters is unintentionally humorous.

None of the letters from the American woman, who is identified only as Mary, are included in the book, but it quickly becomes apparent that she was either queen regnant of hypochondriacs or was a walking medical disaster. In nearly every reply to her, Lewis, who by this time was himself not in good health, is offering her consolation to ailments ranging from cancer to toothache, from depression to rheumatism.

And yet, faced by such an ongoing litany of complaints, Lewis reveals himself as a sensitive, gentle, and wise counselor. Here in these letters we hear the voice of the man who wrote Mere Christianity: calm, compassionate, logical, witty. Here, for example, are the words he wrote after his wife Joy died from bone cancer:

Jeff Minick

W

“As to how I take sorrow, the answer is ‘In nearly all the possible ways.’ Because, as you probably know, it isn’t a state but a process. It

for help are precisely those when you seem to get none. And the moments at which I feel nearest to Joy are precisely those when I mourn her least.

Very queer. In both cases a clamorous need seems to shut one off from the thing needed.

No one ever told me this. It is almost like ‘Don’t knock and it shall be opened to you.’ I must think it over.”

We live right now in clamorous times. Letters To An American Lady brought me a comforting reminder that rationality, compassion, and the ability to listen still have a place in the world.

The tone and mood of What About This: Collected Poems of Frank Stanford (Copper Canyon Press, 2015, 750 pages, $40) stands in sharp contrast to Letters.

One reviewer of this book described Frank Stanford, who died at age 29 after shooting himself three times in the chest, as “a legendary badass from Arkansas.” The poems and Stanford’s own life certainly bear out this assessment. Stanford lived a wild, rambling life, failing at love and unable to make a living, yet in his short life 10 poetry books and one prose collection found publishers, and he left behind hundreds Letters To An American Lady by C.S. Lewis. Wm. B. Eerdmans of pages of unpublished Publishing Co.; Reissue edition. 144 pages poems and short stories.

Stanford was a son of the Deep South, and his poems reflect the harsh, keeps on changing — like a winding road with gritty landscape and people of this place. quite a new landscape at each bend. Two curious Interlaced with this rural setting are his discoveries I have made. The moments at which you call most desperately and clamorously to God dreams, a frustrated quest for home and love,

and his dirt farmer grasp of reality. Stanford is the poet of the bayou, of shanty porches abuzz with wasps on sweltering August afternoons, of murder done for love and revenge, of convicts, boat hands, shirtless farmers in overalls, of women who smoke cigarettes and cheat on their husbands and boyfriends.

Here is Stanford’s “The Last Boat:” An exile happens to be passing by the winds he loved leave him cold as lines recited in the name of the lord and the notorious earth of his country lying in wait like a woman an ambush Here is another titled “What Luck:” A man at the end of his rope and dead broke runs into a couple of his former mistresses having drinks together in a dark café they’re fit to be tied they’re so glad to see him again in the same shape they left him Two warnings: there is no traditional verse here. Though some of us prefer rhyme and meter to free verse, Stanford is worthwhile because of his vivid imagery and his evocation of the rural South. Second: the photo of Stanford on the book’s cover is off-putting. He looks too Byronic, as if he is playing the role of enfant terrible. Compare that picture to the one at the back of the book May 2016 bring you all many gifts and blessings, including good books.

(Jeff Minick is a writer and teacher. He can be reached at minick0301@gmail.com.)

Celebrate National Handwriting Day National Handwriting Day will be celebrated with a workshop on cursive writing at 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 23, at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin.

National Handwriting Day was established in 1977 and is celebrated on the birthday of John Hancock, the American founding father remembered for his iconic signature on the Declaration of Independence.

Marion Maynard, a resident of Franklin, will be teaching the series of lessons.

“Cursive writing is no longer required in state curricula, so some teachers choose not to teach it,” Maynard said. “I can see a time in the future when the average person will be unable to decipher family memorabilia. What a shame to have a treasured letter and not be able to read it.”

Maynard became interested in teaching cursive last year after the death of her husband John Maynard, former pastor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. She wanted a new mission in life.

“It occurred to me that I had a skill that was disappearing in our culture,” Maynard said. “Early last fall, in talking with Tammara Talley at the county extension office, we came up with a plan to offer a cursive writing class. Although the class was small, it was a success and all students could read and write cursive at the end of the lessons.”

A friend recently returned to her an eight-page handwritten letter Maynard wrote nearly 30 years ago. “Whenever I get a note from you,” the friend said. “I know at a glance at the envelope that it¹s from you.”

“Cursive handwriting is a practical skill as well as an art,” Maynard said. “I’m passionate about sharing its importance.”

The two-hour sessions are free and open to all over the age of 10. You may sign up by calling Maynard at 828.369.9573 or by registering at the library’s circulation desk at 828.524.3600.

THE FAMILY CARE CENTER

NEW YEAR NEW YOU We can help you keep your resolutions this year at the Family Care Center.

Call 828-554-5565 to make an appointment.

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Outdoors

Smoky Mountain News

To hunt or not to hunt Elk season proposal debated and public hearing

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER Should North Carolina start thinking about a hunting season for elk?

If the crowd that turned out to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s public hearing last week is any indication, it depends who you ask. Farmers, hunters, biologists, wildlife enthusiasts and everyone in between filled the seats at Haywood Community College’s auditorium, waiting for the chance to give their two cents on the Wildlife Commission’s proposal to pave the way for an elk hunting season in the future.

Before comment began, Brad Howard — the Wildlife Commission’s private lands program coordinator — emphasized the “pave the way” portion, stressing that the proposal would simply “establish the legal framework” for a hunt, not launch one before the elk herd was biologically ready.

Fifteen years after the 2001 release of an experimental elk herd of 52 animals in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the population has multiplied to somewhere between 150 and 200 elk — the Wildlife Commission is thinking that the day when the herd can sustain a limited hunt may not be far off. So, in this year’s set of rule changes they’re proposing to lay the groundwork for a season to start once staff biologists give the OK.

Basically, the proposal takes elk off the state’s list of species of special concern and lays out parameters for a one-month, permit-only season in October.

The idea has drawn ire, hurrahs and everything in between.

HUNTING IS CONSERVATION, OR, HUNTING OR CONSERVATION? For some, the proposed hunting season is a victory for an animal that’s only recently returned from more than 200 years of absence from the Smokies. The fact that the herd is doing well enough to even begin the conversation, the reasoning goes, is a big win.

“I never thought I’d say I support a hunt, but I do support this proposal with the understanding there is more time to be spent on counting how many we have, where they are — and more details, please,” said Cherokee resident Joyce Cooper, a member of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

“Hunting is conservation,” concurred David Allen, CEO of the RMEF, in a letter read

by Kim DeLozier, a former park biologist who was instrumental in the reintroduction.

These commenters expressed their faith in the Wildlife Commission’s “highly successful wildlife management program,” as Allen termed it, giving a vote of confidence that the

agency wouldn’t hand out a single permit until the herd could handle the pressure.

At the other end of the spectrum were those who said hunting elk is a bad idea, period.

“This seems to be history repeating itself if we do not allow these creatures to roam free without fear of being hunted,” said Haywood County resident Sarah Wendell, referencing unfettered hunting’s role in the species’ initial extermination in the East in the 1700s.

Wendell cited her experience monitoring bison herds in Yellowstone National Park, which is also home to elk, telling the commission that hunting would cause a domino effect of stress and disruption.

“Knowing that some hunters go for the big and the best, that is going to affect the health of the herd to have people go for the healthy ones, so I am opposed to this elk hunt,” said Henderson County resident Grace Shun, expressing concern with a hunting season that would overlap with breeding.

In a follow-up interview, Wildlife Commission district biologist Justin McVey said the October season was scheduled to start after most breeding was over but before it was completely finished. The idea is to harvest bulls after they’re likely to have finished mating but before the increased activity and vocalization that characterizes mating season is completely over.

People with opinions — both positive and negative — about the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s proposed elk hunting season came out in force to a public hearing held last week in Haywood County. Holly Kays photo

What’s in the proposal?

The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s list of proposed rule changes for 2016-17 contains a long list of proposals affecting everything from hunting to fishing to land management, but the five-line proposal dealing with elk is what’s getting all the attention this year.

The proposal would: ■ Establish a hunting season from Oct. 1 to Nov. 1.

■ Allow elk to be taken using any legal firearm.

■ Require a permit to harvest an elk. The number of permits would be decided based on elk populations. The Wildlife Commission could decide to issue zero permits in any given year.

■ Remove elk from the state list of species of special concern.

The proposal would not: ■ Make any hunting permits immediately available.

■ Specify how much permits would cost or how they would be awarded.

■ Lay out parameters for how the decision to issue or not issue permits would be made.

Written comments can be sent through Jan. 25 to regulations@ncwildlife.org or 1701 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, N.C. 27699-1701.

Proposed changes are online at https://ncpaws.org/PAWS/WRC/PublicComment s/PublicEntry/PublicComments.aspx.

A QUESTION OF TIMING Many people came down somewhere in the middle, lending cautious support to the idea of a future hunt but questioning the commission’s timing.

“I’ve hunted all my life, and I can’t understand how there could be a hunting season on something like a majestic elk that I get to take my grandkids and kids out to see when we have like 150 animals,” said Haywood resident Tom Ensley. “I just don’t understand how anybody in their right mind would let a hunting season go.”

Wildlife Commission staff are quick to point out that the proposal, if approved, wouldn’t make permits automatically available. It could be two, five, 10 years before the first permit was handed out, and initially the number of permits available would be quite small, in the single digits.

“It was just giving us the legal framework, and at some point in the future (we could) issue permits if we think it’s biologically appropriate,” McVey said.

But the proposal would give the Wildlife Commission staff the authority to approve a season internally whenever it saw fit, without necessarily holding another public hearing.

For some, amending the rules now seems a bit like jumping the gun.

“We would like to see more bio-

CONFLICTS WITH FARMERS

But perhaps the toll on farmers

Smoky Mountain News

IMPROVING HABITAT

January 20-26, 2016

Not everyone at the meeting looked at the issue from a simple population resilience perspective, however. For many people living in areas where elk like to roam — especially those running agricultural operations — the animals are more than just resurrected novelties. They’re bona fide pests, causing unsustainable damage to agricultural livelihoods.

For those people, the question wasn’t so much whether the elk could sustain a hunt as whether the community could sustain the elk.

“I think they need to be eradicated out of here,” said Brad Rich. “They push all our animals out. They destroy our land. It’s ridiculous.”

Others suggested a less drastic solution but maintained that the problem is real and demands a response.

“I love the elk and all animals, but whenever you have a biologist’s number on your phone on speed dial because of all the problems, there is a problem,” said White Oak resident Brooke Parrott.

She and McVey have long been on firstname terms, because the elk are always in her yard and impossible to scare away. She’s had one dog stomped to death by an elk, and another that had his eye kicked out. Elk are constantly tearing down the fences around the horse pasture, and Parrott’s constantly worrying the livestock will escape through the broken fences. Both livestock and fences are expensive to replace.

“I would be in huge support of a way to control these animals, whether it be by fence or by hunt or by getting rid of them altogether,” said Ronnie Ross, who lives in the Jonathan Creek area. Plenty of people love to come and watch the elk, take pictures and all that, “but they are a significant problem for the people who live next to the park and have to deal with them every day,” Ross said.

He’s had to reseed his pastures and fix his fences when the elk come through. Elk chase his cows around the pasture, stressing and frightening them. And the state doesn’t do anything to help farmers recoup those costs.

“I would be in favor of the hunt to a large degree,” Ross concluded.

wouldn’t be so large if public lands boasted better habitat for elk in the first place, others said. Elk were initially released on national park lands, which are full of old growth forest but light on grassy fields for elk to munch.

“The elk like grazing land. So we got a problem,” said Donald Smart, president of the Haywood County Farm Bureau. With 30 percent of Haywood County’s area owned by the government, he continued, there’s no reason it can’t be managed to provide the habitat elk need, but something has to change.

“I think we are amiss after many years of not following through with the proposals to take better care of our forests,” said Ramona Bryson, a Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation member who lives in Mills River. “We need better habitat.”

The Wildlife Commission is on its way toward meeting that mandate, with a land conservation project by The Conservation Fund poised to convey 2.7 square miles of land abutting the Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Maggie Valley to the Wildlife Commission by the year’s end.

The land would be managed as wildlife habitat, especially for elk, as the main herd is based in nearby Cataloochee Valley. Management techniques such as timber cuts and prescribed burns could be used to create the young forest habitat that is in low supply in Western North Carolina.

But that won’t necessarily solve the problem for farmers, Smart pointed out.

“It wouldn’t matter how large a habitat you had for those elk,” he said. “They’re going to wander. They’re grazing animals.

Pick out how much land you want, put a high fence around it, let them graze. Feed them like a farmer.”

The Wildlife Commission won’t be doing that, McVey said. But having a dedicated management area for elk would serve as a home base for the population, supporting a main herd — and in turn, making hunting on the private land where they’re not welcome a lot more doable.

“When they’re starting to spill off, that would be the excess animals that could be harvested once we reach a level that would be sustainable,” he said.

Of course, right now there are a lot of “ifs.” There are still two public hearings to go further east in the state, finishing out the schedule of nine held this month. Then, Commission members will have to consider what they’ve heard and come to their meeting Feb. 10 ready to vote.

If it’s a no, hunting is off the table, at least for now. And if it’s a yes, hunting will likely still be off the table for the immediate future, the question resurrecting once Commission biologists decide the population’s ready to take the pressure.

“I do think there is going to be a point in the near future where it will make sense to issue some permits, so to go ahead and have that process in place so when the time is right it can be easily accomplished makes a lot of sense,” said Neal Hanks of Asheville, the Wildlife Commission’s representative from Western North Carolina.

outdoors

logical effort to identify and be really clear the population can sustain a hunt. As it is right now, we are against it,” said Tommy Cabe, forest resource specialist for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, speaking for the tribe. Because the same elk move between state, National Park and tribal land, he added, the EBCI would like to have “all biologists, including ourselves, in agreement” before a hunt began.

“The herd is growing nicely, but I don’t think we need to jump into hunting quite so quickly as it seems to be everybody wants to run into it,” agreed Haywood resident David Feldman.

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outdoors January 20-26, 2016

Extreme hikers wanted to raise money for sick kids A pair of information sessions for those wanting to tackle a single-day hike of the 28.3-mile Foothills Trail as part of the Make-A-Wish Foundation’s Trailblaze Challenge is coming up Jan. 23 and 26 at REI in Asheville.

The Trailblaze Challenge, organized

by Make-aWish Central and Western North Carolina, aims to raise money to grant the wishes of children with lifethreatening illnesses.

Participants must be in top-notch physical condition, able to make the trek from Upper Whitewater Falls in Jackson County to Lavonia, Georgia on one day.

This year’s events will be May 20-22 and June 3-5. The hike takes place on a Saturday with pre- and post-hike events planned on either end.

To learn more, attend an information session. The Jan. 23 session will start at 10:30 a.m. and the Jan. 26 session will start at 6:30 p.m. The hike is limited to the first 75 registrants.

RSVP to the info session at www.rei.com/learn.html.

Hike 100 miles of Smokies trail in 2016 Smokies Superintendent Cassius Cash has issued a challenge to all hardy souls wishing to join him in celebrating the National Park Service’s 100th birthday this year: hike 100 miles of trail inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park between Jan. 1 and Dec. 6.

“The Hike 100 challenge allows me to have a personal role in ensuring that the next generation of park users, supporters and advocates carries on the legacy of the National Park Service for the next 100 years,” Cash said. “The lifeline of any legacy is to ensure that our voices are not only heard by the next generation, but also shared in a manner that inspires them to pick up the torch from the previous generation and carry it forward.”

Cash, who will be completing the Smokies Centenntial Challenge — Hike 100 mandate himself, will also invite park lovers to hike some of the miles alongside him.

■ On Saturday, Dec. 3, he’ll hike the Oconaluftee River Trail near Cherokee, and on Saturday, Aug. 20, he’ll hike the Gatlinburg Trail. These frontcountry hikes are open to all.

■ On Saturday, June 25, he’ll lead a backcountry hike in North Carolina. On Saturday, Oct. 8, he’ll lead a backcountry hike in Tennessee. These hikes are limited to 20 people through a reservation form on the website.

In an effort to engage groups of people

and an invitation to an end-of-year celebration hosted by Cash.

The challenge program is supported by the National Parks Foundation’s Active Trails grant, the Great Smoky Mountains Association and Friends of the Smokies. www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/gsmn p-hike-100.htm or gsmnp_hike_100@nps.gov.

If your New Year’s resolution involves a vow to spend more time outdoors, the Hike 40 challenge issued from the American Hiking Society offers a goal to work toward.

Participants can complete the challenge by logging 40 miles, 40 trails or 40 unique hikes between New Year’s Day and Oct. 13, which is the American Hiking Society’s 40th birthday.

The society is also using the challenge as a fundraising mechanism to support its work maintaining, advocating for and educating the public about hiking trails and opportunities in the United States.

Participants log their hikes and miles to raise pledge money as they complete the challenge. www.americanhiking.org/join-donate/hike-40.

Diane E. Sherrill, Attorney FREE LUNCHEON SEMINAR

Smoky Mountain News

who might otherwise not experience the park due to lack of transportation or finances, the park will host several regional youth organizations throughout the year.

Cash and hikers from the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club and Carolina Mountain Club will lead these hikes.

Participants who reach the 100-mile challenge goal will earn a commemorative pin

Hiking challenge encourages people to get outside

Is a Will Enough?

Feb. 10 & March 9

328-17

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Cassius Cash sets out on Cove Mountain Trail. NPS photo

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Power plant plans to be discussed at public hearing

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featuring NC and SC writers will read and discuss their work.

Saturday, January 23rd at 3 p.m.

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Smoky Mountain News

A certification class for private, public and commercial pesticide application will be held Jan. 26-27 in Bryson City.

N.C. State extension specialists, county extension agents and state pesticide inspectors will teach from the Pesticide Education Program manual and answer questions. At 1 p.m. on Jan. 27, students will be able to take an exam for certification.

Fees vary depending on certification type. Classes will be held at Swain County’s Southwestern Community College campus.

Christy Bredenkamp, 828.488.3848 or 828.586.4009. pesticidesafety.ces.ncsu.edu.

Contributors from KAKALAK, an annual journal

January 20-26, 2016

Pesticide certification offered

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outdoors

A public hearing on Duke Energy’s plan to build two new power plants to replace its soon-to-retire Asheville coal plant will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 26, at the Buncombe Count Courthouse in Asheville.

Initially, Duke had planned to replace the coal plant with a 650-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant and 45-mile transmission line to Campobello, South Carolina.

The plan drew opposition from people who felt that the transmission line be a blight on the mountain landscape.

In response, the utility revised its proposal to eliminate the transmission line. It wants to build two 280-megawatt units and potentially a third 193-megawatt unit in 2023 if demand at the time warrants it.

Environmental advocates have praised the new plan as a vast improvement over the initial proposal while questioning size of the project, especially the provision for a third unit.

“Duke has told the public that they are looking for cleaner alternatives, then they turn around and ask the public utilities commission for permission to build the additional unit seven years before they say it might be necessary,” said Julie Mayfield, codirector of MountainTrue.

However, according to Duke’s regional president Lloyd Yates, the plan “balances concerns raised by the community and the very real need for more electricity to serve this growing region.”

328-46

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outdoors

Professor to speak on balance between people and ecology Over 200 years of collective experience

The relationship between Christianity and the environment will be the topic of a lecture slated for 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 28, in room 130 of Western Carolina University’s John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center.

Fred Bahnson, founding director of the Food, Faith and Religious Leadership Initiative, and assistant professor of the practice of ecological well-being at Wake Forest University School of Divinity, will present “Tree of Life: Christianity in a Time of Climate Change.” He’ll share experiences from his travels among environmentalists of faith and explore the challenges of climate change, the evolving face of American Christianity and Pope Francis’ call for Christianity’s “ecological conversion.”

The lecture is the third in the four-part Jerry Jackson Lecture in the Humanities Series. It’s sponsored by the Department of Philosophy and Religion and the Honors College among other units, and supported by the Provost’s Visiting Scholars Fund.

John Whitmire, 828.227.7262 or jwhitmire@email.wcu.edu.

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January 20-26, 2016

328-33

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Fred Bahnson

Slopes open at Sapphire Ski season is underway at Sapphire Valley Ski Area.

Though heavy rain forced the slopes to close Friday, Sapphire re-opened for the holiday weekend Saturday morning with a groomed base of about 40 inches on the slopes and five lanes of tubing.

The ski resort is located on the Jackson-Transylvania county line near Cashiers.

828.743.7663. www.skisapphirevalley.com.

Spring baseball tryouts coming up Tryouts for the Raleigh Baseball Institute’s spring teams will be held Sunday, Jan. 24, at RBI’s indoor training facility in Sylva.

Spots are open on the 8U, 9U and 13U teams. Tryouts for 13U will start at 2 p.m. followed by 9U at 3 p.m. and 8U at 4 p.m.

Contact Eric Farmer at 828.508.2339 for 13U; Jeff Madden at 828.399.0650 for 9U; and Chris Bowers at 828.506.2800 for 8U. The building is located at 2663 Skyland Drive.

Smoky Mountain News

Date set for Smokies Half Marathon Cold & Flu Season is Here.We Can Help.

Let our pharmacist show you natural ways to strengthen your immune system.

828.452.0911 kimsrx.com kimswellnessinfo.org

Runners battle an uphill stretch. Kathryn Ray photo

366 RUSS AVE. • WAYNESVILLE (BiLo Shopping Center)

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The Gateway to the Smokies Half Marathon will send runners all around Waynesville on Saturday, May 14 — and for anyone looking to get in on the action, the time to start training is now.

The race, sponsored by the Haywood County Chamber of Commerce, starts on Main Street, winds through neighborhoods and farmlands and finishes out the 13.1 miles at the Frog Level Historic District. This is the second edition of the race, which started last year.

$55 early registration through April 1.

Katy Wyatt, 828.456.3021 or kwyatt@haywoodchamber.com.

WNC Calendar COMMUNITY EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS • Carlotta Walls-LaNier, youngest of the Little Rock Nine involved in integration of the city’s Central High School in 1957, will deliver a presentation at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 20, during Western Carolina University’s weeklong celebration of the life, words and activities of Martin Luther King, Jr. Presenation will be held in the Grandroom of A.K. Hinds University Center in Cullowhee.

• OnTrack will offer a credit counseling and money management on Thursday, Jan. 21, at Sequoyah Fund in Cherokee. Credit counseling sessions are available at 12:30, 2 and 3:30 p.m.; a money management class runs from 10-11:30 a.m. 359.5005.

• Community Coffee with Highlands Mayor Patrick Taylor is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 22, at Hudson Library in Highlands. Topic is town’s trash initiative. Refreshments provided; all are welcome.

526.3031.

• Tickets are being sold for Burns Night, a celebration of Robert Burns – the national poet of Scotland – that will be held from 5-8 p.m. on Jan. 23 in Tartan Hall of First Presbyterian Church in Franklin. Tickets are available at the Scottish Tartans Museum and the Franklin Chamber of Commerce. 421.7771 or merrilee.bordeaux64@hotmail.com.

• A Scrabble tournament at 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 24 at The Cut Cocktail Lounge in Sylva. 631.4795.

• Drink-N-Think will be held at 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 25, at The Sneak-E-Squirrel Brewery in Sylva. Come and join an open dialogue on an array of modern day topics. drinknthink@gmail.com.

• Winners of Franklin’s Annual Recognition Awards will be presented at the Franklin Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Installation Banquet and Annual Meeting, which starts at 6:16 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 28, at Tartan Hall at First Presbyterian Church in Franklin. 524.3161.

• Help with income tax preparation for seniors over age 60 will be held Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Haywood County Senior Resource Center through March by Bruce Johnson, registered tax return preparer, in exchange for donation to the Senior Resource Center. By appointment only 828.356.2800.

• Qualla Boundary Historical Society meets at 6:30 p.m. on the fourth Tuesday of each month. Everyone is welcome.

BUSINESS & EDUCATION • “Learn How to Build and Maintain a Positive, VisitorFriendly Business Atmosphere and Community” is the top of a presentation by Robert Hawk, county extension director, from 6-9 p.m. on Jan. 20 at the Jackson County Extension Center. Register: 586.4009, 488.3848 or robert_hawk@ncsu.edu.

• Learn how to build and maintain a positive visitor friendly business atmosphere and community with a customer service and hospitality training class held from 6-9 p.m. Jan. 20 at the Jackson County Cooperative Extension Center. The Qualla-T training integrates Cherokee and mountain values and attitudes into your workplace as a basis for providing excellent customer service. 828.586.4009 or 828.488.3848 or robert_hawk@ncsu.edu.

• Haywood Community College’s Small Business Center will hold a free series entitled “Small Business Bootcamp, Ideation to Business Plan Development” on Mondays from Jan. 25-Feb. 22 in Building 200, Room 204. Class meets from 6-8 p.m. Presenter is Tonya Snider. 627.4512 or SBC.Haywood.edu.

Visit www.smokymountainnews.com and click on Calendar for: ■ Complete listings of local music scene ■ Regional festivals ■ Art gallery events and openings ■ Complete listings of recreational offerings at regional health and fitness centers ■ Civic and social club gatherings • The Jackson County Business and Industry Advisory Committee has rescheduled its Jan. 13 meeting for 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 27, in Conference Room A227 of the Justice and Administration Building.

FUNDRAISERS AND BENEFITS • Contributions are being sought for the Glenville Area Historical Society’s historical museum, which plans to open next year. historicalsocietyglenvillearea@yahoo.com or 743.1658.

• The “Wine Smackdown” benefit for ARF and The Community Table will be held from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.

Jan. 31 at Evolution Wine Kitchen in Sylva. $40 per ticket, includes 12 wines, appetizers, wine deals, door and raffle prizes. Snow date is Feb. 6. Visit www.evolutionwinekitchen.com for tickets.

VOLUNTEERS • Volunteers are needed to assist with REACH of Haywood’s Helpline phone services and in other ways through the Friends of REACH committees. Training is scheduled for 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 23, at REACH’s office in Waynesville. Lunch and training notebooks will be provided. REACH is the county domestic violence/sexual assault/elder abuse prevention and intervention agency. Pre-register at 456.7898 or bqreach@aol.com. www.reachofhaywood.org.

• Volunteers are needed to help with a fundraiser for the Appalachian’s Women’s Museum from noon-3 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 28. Cutting and making aprons.

Materials and snacks provided. Bring fabric scissors.

Sign up or more info: 586.4009.

• Phone Assurance Volunteers are needed to make daily or weekly wellness check-in calls for the Haywood County Senior Resource Center. 356.2816.

VENDORS

Smoky Mountain News

HEALTH MATTERS • A monthly grief processing support group will meet from 4-5:30 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month at the Homestead Hospice and Palliative Care in Clyde.

452.5039.

• A program entitled “New You! – Part II” will presented at 1 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 21. Presenters Andre Vandenberg and Kellie Walsh of Haywood Regional Health and Fitness Center will discuss exercise and staying active through the winter months. They’ll discuss membership options and the Silver Sneakers program. Free. Register at the center or call 356.2800.

• A Marketplace Enrollment Event will be offered from 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 25, at the Haywood Regional Health and Fitness Center to help anyone wishing to sign up for affordable health insurance ahead of the final deadline of Jan. 31. Free. 452.8938 or getenrollmenthelp.com.

• A Ladies Night Out program entitled “Cancer and You” will be presented by Dr. Barrier from Western Carolina Digestive Consultants at 4 and 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 26 in the cafeteria of Angel Medical Center in Franklin. Snacks and door prizes available. A Men’s Night Out will also take place at 6:30 p.m. on the topic of “Blood Pressure” on the third floor of the hospital. on the first Wednesday of each month at The Meditation Center at 894 E. Main St. in Sylva. www.meditatewnc.org or 356.1105.

• A free, weekly grief support group will meet from 12:30-2 p.m. on Thursdays at the SECU Hospice House in Franklin. 692.6178 or mlee@fourseasonscfl.org.

• “ECA on the Move!” – a walking program organized by Jackson County Extension and Community Association – meets from 9-10 a.m. on Mondays through Thursdays.

It’s an effort to meet the American Heart Association’s recommendation of 10,000 steps per day. 586.4009.

• A Tuesday Meditation Group meets at 6:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Franklin.

RECREATION AND FITNESS • Registration is underway for a women’s volleyball league through the Jackson County Recreation Department. $175 per team. Deadline is Feb. 19; league starts in March. 293.3053.

• Cardio Lunch class will meet from noon-1 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Waynesville Recreation Center. For ages 16 and above. Cost is regular admission fee to the rec center or free for members. 456.2030 or tplowman@waynesvillenc.gov.

• Vendor applications are being accepted for WinterFest Smoky Style, which is Feb. 26-28 at the Maggie Valley Festival Grounds. Weekend rental fee is $100. seaycharlesl@yahoo.com. Sponsored in part by Haywood County Tourism Development Authority.

• Flexible Fitness class will meet from 4:30-5:15 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays at the Waynesville Recreation Center. For ages 16 and above. Cost is regular admission fee to the rec center or free for members.

456.2030 or tplowman@waynesvillenc.gov.

• Greening Up the Mountains Festival is seeking artists, mountain crafters, environmental and food vendors to apply for booths in the upcoming 19th annual event, which is April 23 in Sylva. www.greeningupthemountains.com, 586.2719 or at Sylva’s Town Hall. 631.4587.

• Pump It Up class will meet from 6:30-7:30 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays at the Waynesville Recreation Center. For ages 16 and above. Cost is regular admission fee to the rec center or free for members. 456.2030 or tplowman@waynesvillenc.gov.

The town of Dillsboro will be hosting three arts and craft shows open to vendors from the surrounding region. The Dillsboro Merchants Association is scheduling over 40 artisans for each of these festivals, artisans who will be displaying and demonstrating their hand made arts and crafts from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Family entertainment and festival food will be available during each show.

• Registration is underway for a winter coed volleyball league that will be offered through the Waynesville Parks and Recreation Department. An organizational meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 20, at the rec center. Fee will be based on number of teams at organizational meeting; payment is due by 9 p.m. on Jan. 27. 456.2030 or dhummel@waynesvillenc.gov.

Vendors may apply for these shows by downloading an application from www.visitdillsboro.org. [828.586.3511.

• The Canton Armory is open to the public for walking from 8-10 a.m. on Monday through Friday unless the facility is booked. 648.2363.

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All phone numbers area code 828 unless otherwise noted.

• Pickle ball is offered from 8 a.m.-noon on Mondays through Fridays at the Waynesville Recreation Center.

456.2030 or www.waynesvillnc.gov.

THE SPIRITUAL SIDE • A combined service of contemporary and traditional worship will be offered at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, Jan. 31, at First United Methodist Church in Sylva.

586.2358.

• Winter Shabbat Services are held at 10:30 a.m. on the first and third Saturdays of each month by Congregation Bamidbar in the Fellowship Hall of Andrews Methodist Church in Andrews. 369.9270.

POLITICAL • The monthly meeting of the North and South Jackson County Republican Party is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 25, at Ryan’s in Sylva. Meet candidates for county commissioner seats and District 119 House.

743.6491 or jacksonctygop@yahoo.com.

• A forum for Republican candidates running for the N.C. House of Representatives will be held at at 6 p.m. on Jan. 26 at Swain County High School. Featuring Mike Clampitt and Aaron Littlefield, who are running for the seat currently held by Rep. Jo Sam Queen, DWaynesville, who represents Jackson, Swain and parts of Haywood currently. Hosted by Swain GOP. • Occupy WNC General Assembly will meet at 7 p.m.

Jan. 26 at the Dogwood Wellness Center in Dillsboro.

828.743.9747.

AUTHORS AND BOOKS • Contributors to the annual journal Kakalak will present their work at 3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 23, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. The journal is a publication featuring North and South Carolina writers and artists. The 2016 journal poetry and art contests open March 1 and close May 15. A separate contest is held for best cover art. Additional information at Main Street Rag Publishing Company’s website: www.mainstreetrag.com.

586.9499 or www.citylightsnc.com.

SENIOR ACTIVITIES • Registration is underway for the Waynesville Parks and Recreation Department’s January Senior Trips, which include Frozen Waterfall Ramble (Jan. 20), and Local Artisan Ramble (Jan. 27). For details or to register, contact Tim Petrea at 456.2030 or tpetrea@waynesvillenc.gov.

• Learn how to make your own “Indian Cheese Paneer” at 3 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 4, at the Haywood Senior Resource Center in Waynesville. Co-sponsored by the Canton Public Library. To register, call 828.356.2800.

KIDS & FAMILIES • A special children’s story time celebrating Winnie the Pooh’s birthday will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 21, at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin.

828.524.3600.

• The Raleigh Baseball Institute (RBI), founded by former Western Carolina University & Tennessee head coach Todd Raleigh, will hold tryouts for its 8U, 9U and 13U spring baseball teams at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 24, at 2663 Skyland Drive in Sylva. 13U tryouts are at 2 p.m.; 9U at 3 p.m. and 8U at 4 p.m. For info, contact

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January 20-26, 2016

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bi-monthly magazine that covers the southern Appalachian mountains and celebrates the area’s environmental riches, its people, culture, music, art, crafts and special places. Each issue relies on regional writers and photographers to bring the Appalachians to life.

Smoky Mountain News

In this issue: Holiday Musings from Regional Writers Historic Postcards: Dispatches from the Smokies Santa Rappels Down Chimney Rock and Pigs Fly A Look at the Region’s Newest Inn Homes PLUS ADVENTURE, CUISINE, READING, MUSIC, ARTS & MORE

SUBSCRIBE: www.smliv.com OR

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866.452.2251

• “Once Upon A Wish,” an interactive musical fairytale, will be presented by Overlook Theater Company at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Feb. 6 and 7, the Smoky Mountan Center for the Performing Arts. Guests will participate in a live, interactive stage show with princesses and heros that will celebrate dreams and inspire wishes. Light refreshments will be served and guests are encouraged to come dressed as their favorite character. $15. Tickets at the door.

866.273.4615.

• “Plug in and Read,” a digital story time designed to help preschoolers (ages 3-6) learn early literacy skills, is held at 10:30 a.m. on the second Friday or fourth Monday of each month at Haywood County Public Library. Visit www.haywoodlibrary.org or call 452.5169 or 648.2924.

• Book Buddies for ages 0-3 is from 9:30-10:15 a.m. on Tuesday at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville.

• Imagine: Watercolor Silhouettes will take place on Tuesday Jan. 19 at 4:30 p.m. at the Jackson County Public Library for ages 8-12. 586.2016.

• Story time and kids can make their own piece of art from 10 a.m.-noon every Saturday during the Family Art event sponsored by the Jackson County Arts Council at the Jackson County Farmers Market located at the Community Table, downtown Sylva. On the first Saturday of each month, there is a scavenger hunt with prizes. 399.0290 or www.jacksoncountyfarmermarket.org.

AND CLUBS

• Fun Friday, everything science, is held at 4 p.m. on Fridays at Jackson County Public Library. 586.2016.

• Family Fun Night is at 6 p.m. on Thursdays at Jackson County Public Library. 586.2016.

• Just Write is at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesdays at Jackson County Public Library. 586.2016.

• Teen Coffeehouse is at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesdays at Jackson County Public Library. 586.2016.

• Youth Outright meets every Sunday from 4 p.m. -6 p.m. at First Congregational United Church of Christ in Asheville for ages 14-20. Youth Outright is a youth advocacy and leadership program for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth in 18 counties in Western North Carolina. www.youthoutright.org.

• Rock and Read is Tuesdays at 11 a.m. at Jackson County Public Library. 586-2016.

• WNC Martial Arts will hold karate classes from 67:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at the Old Armory in Waynesville. For more info, contact Margaret Williams at 301.0649 or mvwilliams39@gmail.com.

• Full STEAM Ahead (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) Tuesdays at 11:00 a.m.

Jackson County Public Library in Sylva. ages

• Tennis lessons for ages 5-8 (5:30-6:15 on Tuesdays) and 9-13 (9:30-10:15 a.m. on Saturdays) are offered through the Jackson County Recreation Center. $45.

293.3053.

• Michael’s Kids Club will be held for ages 3-and-up from 10 a.m.-noon on Saturdays at Michael’s in Waynesville. $2 per child for 30 minutes of creative crafts. 452.7680.

• A Lowe’s Build and Grow session for ages 3-and-up is scheduled from 10-11 a.m. on Saturdays at the Sylva (586.1170) and Waynesville (456.9999) Lowe’s stores. Free.

• Art classes are available for kids 10 and older from 4:15-5:30 p.m. on Wednesdays at the Bascom in Highlands. $15 per class. 787.2865 or www.thebascom.org.

• Art Adventure classes are taught for ages 5-10 from 3:30-4:45 p.m. on Wednesdays at the Bascom in Highlands. Theme: metal. Instructor: Bonnie Abbott. $20 per month. 787.2865.

• Free, weekly, after-school enrichment classes are offered by the Bascom and MCAA from 3-5 p.m. on Thursdays at Macon Middle School through a grant from the Jim McRae Endowment for the Visual Arts. To register, contact Bonnie Abbott at 743.0200.

•A Lego club will meet at 4 p.m. every fourth Thursday of the month, at Marianna Black Library in Bryson City. Library provides Legos and Duplos for ages 3 and up. Free. 488.3030.

•A community breastfeeding information and support group meets from 10:30 am.-noon on the first Saturday of each month in the main lobby of the Smoky Mountain OB/GYN Office in Sylva. Free; refreshments provided. For information, contact Brandi Nations (770.519.2903), Stephanie Faulkner (506.1185 or www.birthnaturalwnc), or Teresa Bryant (587-8223).

• Science Club is held at 3:30 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. on the fourth Thursday of each month for grades K-6 at the Macon County Public Library. 524.3600.

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Smoky Mountain News

• Youth Outright meets the third Saturday of the month from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at First Congregational United Church of Christ in Asheville for ages 11-13. Youth Outright is a youth advocacy and leadership program for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth in 18 counties in Western North Carolina. www.youthoutright.org.

• A Teen Advisory Group meets at 4 p.m. on the first Wednesday of each month to discuss YA books and teen program events. http://haywoodlibrary.libguides.com/teen or 648.2924.

January 20-26, 2016

• Wednesdays in the Stacks, “WITS”, a new program for children in grades 3-6, on the third Wednesdays of the month from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Macon County Library. WITS will include lots of fun games, prizes, and hands-on activities. This club replaces book club previous held on the third Thursdays of the month. 526.3600.

283 North Haywood St. Waynesville david.mesimer@allstate.com

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• Anime Night is held for teens on the second Monday of each month at the Canton Library. For anime titles that will be shown, call 648.2924.

• Page Pals for ages 3-5 is from 10:30-11:15 a.m. on Tuesday at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville.

ONGOING KIDS ACTIVITIES

David Mesimer (828) 452-2815

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• “Baby/Toddler Sensory Play Time” is set for 10:30 a.m. on the third Wednesday of each month in the Canton Library Meeting Room. For children ages three months to four years. Visit www.haywoodlibrary.org or call 452.5169 or 648.2924.

• Storytimes are held at 10 and 10:40 a.m. every Thursday at Hudson Library in Highlands.

• The Appalachian Toymaker & Storyteller will be making wooden toys and telling tales on select dates and times at The Storytelling Center of the Southern Appalachian. www.psalmsofthesouth.com or 488.5705.

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• Signups for the 2016 little league baseball and softball seasons will be held from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Jan. 30, Feb. 6 and Feb. 13 at the Cullowhee Recreation Department. For boys and girls, ages 5-18. $55 signup fee; $5 discount for additional siblings.

Bring child’s birth certificate.

Jacksoncountynclittleleague@gmail.com or 227.0061.

• Children’s Yoga is at 10:30 a.m. (for ages 3-7) and noon (for ages 8-11) on the second Thursday of each month at Canton Public Library. Sign-up required: 648.2924.

wnc calendar

• Crazy 8 Math Adventure Club for grades K-2 meets from 3:30-4:15 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 26, at Macon County Public Library in Franklin. 524.3600.

5+. 586.2016. 524.3600.

newsdesk crafts

Eric Farmer for 13U at 508.2339, Jeff Madden for 9U at 399.0650 or Chris Bowers for 8U at 506.2800.

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wnc calendar

• Macon County 4-H Needlers club, a group of youth learning the art and expression of knitting and crochet crafts, meets on the second Tuesday of each month.

For information, call 349.2046.

• A Franklin Kids’ Creation Station is held from 10 a.m.-noon on Saturdays at uptown Gallery in Franklin.

Snacks provided. $20 tuition. 743.0200.

• SafeKids USA Blue Dragon Tae Kwon Do School offers defense training with after-school classes Monday through Friday and Saturday mornings.

627.3949 or www.bluedragontkd.net.

• A Lego Club meets on the third Tuesday of each month from 3:30-5 p.m. at Waynesville Library.

452.5169.

• A Lego Club meets the second Thursday of the month at 4 p.m.- 5:30 p.m. at the Macon County Public Library. 526.3600.

• A Lego Club meets the second Tuesday of the month at 4 p.m. at Jackson County Public Library. 586-2016.

• A Lego Club meet the second Wednesday of the month at 5 p.m. at Cashiers Community Library.

743.0215.

• Explorer’s Club for kids will be held on the third of each month at the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva. Intended for all ages, with a special emphasis on cultural learning for children. Each Explorer’s Club will feature special guests, snacks and crafts that all are pertinent to the theme for that month. 586.2016.

• Smoky Mountain Model Railroaders holds public viewing session from 2 to 4 p.m. the second Sunday of the month, 130 Frazier St. off Russ Avenue in Waynesville. The group runs Lionel-type 3 rail O gauge trains. smokymountainmodelrailroaders.wordpress.com.

month, 1 to 2 p.m. for K-6 graders. Guest speakers, books, photos, crafts and food from different countries and cultures. Macon County Public Library. 524.3600.

• Crafty Kids on the second Wednesday of each month at 4 p.m. Children from Pre-K to fifth grade will meet after school and hear stories, share about what they are reading, play games and get creative with a craft.

Canton Library. 648.2924.

• Children’s craft time, fourth Wednesday, 3:45 p.m. at Cashiers Community Library. 743.0215 • The Wee Naturalist program, which is for children ages 2-5 (with a parent or guardian), is held from 1011:30 a.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays at the North Carolina Arboretum. Age-appropriate activities such as nature walks, garden exploration, stories, crafts and visits from classroom animals $7 cost per child; $3 more for each additional child in a family. Register at: www.ncarboretumregistration.org/Wee-Naturalistsfor-Pre-K-2014-15-C264.aspx

KIDS MOVIES • A children’s movie about an oddball alien striking up a friendship with a human girl will be shown at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 30, at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin. PG, 94 minutes.

• A family movie about yellow, second-fiddles who serve despicable villains will be shown at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 26, at Marianna Black Library in Bryson City. Free. For info, including movie title, call 488.3030.

January 20-26, 2016

•Teen Advisory Group, first Wednesday of each month at 4 p.m. For ages 13-18. Teens can enjoy snacks while discussing popular young adult books, help plan events and displays for children and teens at the library, and participate in community service projects.

Canton Library, 648.2924.

• The American Girls Club meets at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. The club meets one Saturday a month, call for details. Club is based on a book series about historical women. Club members read and do activities. Free. 586.9499.

Smoky Mountain News

• Teen Time, first, third, and fourth Tuesdays at 4 p.m. for ages 12 and up. Spend time with other teens talking about and sharing with each other. Jackson County Public Library. 586.2016.

• A Teen Writing Group will meet at 6 p.m. on the fourth Thursday of each month at Jackson County Library, ages 12 and up. 586.2016 • Games for kids on the fourth Wednesday of the month at 4:30 p.m. at the Jackson County Public Library. Play a variety of games including AWE After School Edge Computers, board games and other fun activities. 586.2016.

• Projects and activities after school Fridays, 3:30 p.m. for school age kids at Jackson County Public Library. Get your hands dirty with science experiments, discovering animals and making easy recipes.

586.2016.

• Adventure Club on Tuesdays 3:30 p.m. - 4:15 p.m. for grades K-2 at the Macon County Public Library. 524.3600.

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• Culture Club on the second Wednesday of the

• A wine tasting will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. every Saturday at Papou’s Wine Shop & Bar in Sylva. 586.6300.

ON STAGE & IN CONCERT • The Deitz Family Band will perform mountain folk music at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 21, in the Community Room of the Jackson County Public Library.

Free. 586.2016. Co-sponsored by Friends of the Jackson County Public Library.

• Henry Wong will perform from 6-8 p.m. on Jan. 21 at Heinzelmannchen Brewery in Sylva. www.yourgnometownbrewery.com.

• The Sock Hops, an oldies group, will perform at 7 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 22, at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin. Tickets: $18.

866.273.4615 or GreatMountainMusic.com.

• Dulci Elenberger (guitar, vocals) will perform at 7 p.m. on Jan. 22 at The Classic Wineseller in Waynesville. Free. 452.6000.

• Joe Cruz (piano/pop) will perform at 7 p.m. on Jan. 23 at The Classic Wineseller in Waynesville. Free.

452.6000 or www.classicwineseller.com.

• Country music star Pam Tillis will be a featured performer at a Galaxy of Stars Series performance at 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 24, in the John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee.

Tickets are $21 for adults, $16 for WCU faculty/staff, and $7 for students/children. bardoartscenter.wcu.edu or 227.2479.

A&E

• Teen time 3:30-4:30 p.m. Thursdays at Waynesville Library. A program for teens and tweens held each week. Each week is different, snacks provided. 3562511 • Homework Help, 3 to 5 p.m. Mondays for students in grades 2 through 6, Canton Branch Library. Former schoolteacher turned Youth Services Librarian Katy Punch offers homework help on a first-come, firstserved basis. Katy, 648.2924.

Bar in Sylva. Bring dice, cards or board games.

586.6300.

FOOD & DRINK • A chocolate and beer pairing will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Jan. 21 at Heinzelmannchen Brewing in Sylva.

The brewery will team up with Baxley’s Chocolates for the event. Sample six beers and six chocolates. Tickets are $10 in advance, with $5 from each ticket going to the Community Table. 828.631.4466 or 828.631.3379.

• There will be a “Tasty Tuesday: Winter Seasonals” at 7 p.m. on Jan. 26 at Mad Anthony’s Bottle Shop & Beer Garden in Waynesville.

• A free wine tasting will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. Jan. 23 at Bosu’s Wine Shop in Waynesville. www.waynesvillewine.com or 452.0120.

• A wine tasting will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Jan. 20 and 27 at The Classic Wineseller in Waynesville. Free with dinner ($15 minimum). 828.452.6000.

• “Brown Bag at the Depot” – an opportunity to gather with neighbors – is at noon every Friday at Sylva’s newest park at the corner of Spring and Mill Street along Railroad Ave. For info, contact Paige Dowling at townmanager@townofsylva.org.

• Graceann’s Amazing Breakfast is 8-10 a.m. every Tuesday in the Sapphire Room at the Sapphire Valley Community Center. $8.50 for adults; $5 for children.

Includes coffee and orange juice. 743.7663.

• There will be a free tasting and cooking demonstration from 5-7 p.m. every Saturday at Country Traditions in Dillsboro. Try a wide variety of wines while a gourmet chef prepares delicious treats that are available for purchase. Free. www.dillsborowineandgourmet.net.

• “Wine on Wednesday” is set for 6-8 p.m. at the Classic Wineseller in Waynesville. Free wine tasting with dinner ($15 minimum) or $6 per person.

452.6000.

• A game day will occur from 2 to 9 p.m. every third Saturday of the month at Papou’s Wine Shop &

• The “World’s Best Tribute to Young Elvis” Travis LeDoyt will hit the stage at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 29, at The Strand at 38 Main in Waynesville. Tickets are $35 for adults, $25 for students, and $15 for ages 12 and under. www.38main.com.

• Papertown Country Music & Dance Parlor is from 710 p.m. on Saturdays at 61-1/2 Main Street in Canton. $8. 736.8925.

• Music and Clogging is held from 8-10:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays at the Stomping Ground at 3116 Soco Road in Maggie Valley. 926.1288.

CLASSES AND PROGRAMS • The Sew Easy Girls meet from noon-3 p.m. on the first Monday of every month at the Jackson County Cooperative Extension Office’s conference room. Learn how to sew. 586.4009.

• High Country Quilt Guild meets at 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 21 at First Methodist Church in Waynesville. www.highcountryquilters.wordpress.com. Newcomers welcome.

• National Handwriting Day will be celebrated with a workshop on cursive writing at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 23, at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin. Free; open to all over the age of 10.

524.3600, 369.9573 or stop by the library’s circulation desk.

• A Creating Community Workshop on Pine Needle Craft with Joyce Lantz will be presented at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 23, in the Atrium of the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva. Free. Register by calling 586.2016. Co-sponsored by Friends of the Jackson County Public Library.

• National Handwriting Day will be celebrated with a workshop on cursive writing at 1 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 23, at the Macon County Public Library at 149 Siler Farm Road. The two-hour sessions are free and open to all over the age of 10. Call to register, 828.369.9573.

• Grace Cathey, owner of Grace Cathey Sculpture Garden and Gallery, will be guest speaker at a program for all adults at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 26, at Hazelwood Baptist Church. Free.

• Singer-songwriter-guitarist James Hammel plays pop, jazz and original music at 7 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 29, at the Classic Wineseller in Waynesville. 452.6000 or www.classicwineseller.com.

• The Jackson County Public Library in Sylva will offer a free WordPress class at 5:45 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 27. The 90-minute class will be taught by library volunteer Jim Geary, with assistance from library staffer Laura Chapman. Free. To register, call 828.586.2016.

• MET Opera’s production of Puccini’s Turandot will be screened live via satellite from New York City at 12:55 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 30, at the Highlands Performing Arts Center in Highlands. Tickets: $26 adults; $22 members; free for students. Available at highlandspac.org, at the door or 526.9047.

• Haywood Community Chorus starts its season with registration and rehearsal at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 1. Subsequent rehearsals are from 7-8:30 p.m. on Mondays. Concert is May 1. For info, contact Sylvia Everett at 550.6376.

• Joe Cruz (piano/pop) will perform at 7 p.m. on Jan. 30 at The Classic Wineseller in Waynesville. Free.

452.6000 or www.classicwineseller.com.

• Haywood Community Chorus will begin its new season under the direction of Kathy McNeil at 6:30 p.m.

Monday, Feb. 1, First United Methodist Church in Waynesville. 828.550.6376.

• The Magnetic Theatre in Asheville is seeking one-act plays, actors and directors for “Brief Encounters 2016.” Deadline for submissions is Feb. 7. ldv@themagnetictheatre.org. Open-call audtions are in March. www.themagnetictheatre.org. Directors can write ss@themagnetictheatre.org.

• Tickets are on sale now for WCU radio re-creation group’s presentation of “Blackbeard’s Ghost and the Queen Ann’s Revenge.” Tickets: $10 each. Eighth in a series of academic-based entertainment productions mounted in collaboration with three departments and two colleges at WCU. Show will be presented at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 17, in the John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. All proceeds from the event go to student scholarship funds in the participating departments. 227.3851.

• Bogart’s Live Bluegrass/String Band is at 6:30 p.m. every Thursday at 303 S. Main Street in Waynesville.

452.1313.

• Registration deadline for Haywood Community College’s Beginning Stained Glass classes will be Feb. 1. The first session is Feb. 8. A second session will begin April 4 with a deadline of March 28.

Creativearts.haywood.edu, 565.4240 or krrinn@haywood.edu.

• A Community Art Group meets at 10 a.m. every Wednesday at Hudson Library in Highlands. 526.3031.

• A writer’s group meets at 1 p.m. every Thursday at Hudson Library in Highlands. 526.3031.

• Free one-on-one technology help is offered every Tuesday and Thursday morning at Hudson Library in Highlands. Call 526.3031 to make an appointment.

• Tickets are on sale for “Art and Craft,” the Southern Circuit’s fourth feature, which will be shown at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 9, in the Western Carolina University Center theater in Cullowhee. The documentary details how one of the most prolific art forgers in U.S. history was finally exposed. www.artandcraftfilm. Tickets available at www.bardoartscenter.wcu.edu or 227.2479.

ART SHOWINGS AND GALLERIES • An exhibit tracing South Africa’s struggle to end apartheid will be on display from Feb. 1-May 20 at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. The display

January 20-26, 2016

… we’re there for you.

wnc calendar

Until you’re here …

We know that as much as you’d like to be here, perhaps you haven’t made Western North Carolina your home — yet.

However, you can still be a part of the community with the Smoky Mountain News, the region’s free weekly covering news, events and issues that affect life here in the mountains. And when the time comes to make Western North Carolina your permanent address, or maybe to just come back and visit, our blue boxes will be waiting.

Smoky Mountain News

For subscription information, call 866.452.4251 or visit online every week at www.smokymountainnews.com.

34 CHURCH ST. • WAYNESVILLE, NC • 629 W. MAIN ST. • SYLVA, NC

866.452.4251 TOLL FREE

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wnc calendar

is in the Mountain Heritage Center’s second-floor gallery in Hunter Library. The gallery is open from 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Friday. 227.7129.

• “Print and the Paradox of Nostalgia,” an artist talk with Beth Grabowski, is scheduled for 3-4:30 p.m. on Jan. 27, at Western Carolina University’s Fine and Performing Arts Center in Cullowhee. Grawbowski, a member of the art faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, explores identity and relationship from the perspective of motherhood through her art.

• The “Winter Textures” fiber and textile exhibit will be displayed through Jan. 30 at the Gallery & Gifts within the Haywood County Arts Council in Waynesville. The showcase will feature a wide array of works from Haywood County fiber artisans. www.haywoodarts.org.

• The 10th Annual Autumn Juried Group Exhibit of the Carolinas’ Nature Photographers Association Asheville Region entitled “Southern Appalachian Splendor Through the Seasons,” will be hosted through the New Year by the Green Sage Cafe in Asheville. www.cnpaasheville.org.

• Art by Marilyn-Sue Walsh (oils, water colors, acrylics and drawings) will be on display throughout January in the Macon County Public Library Meeting Room in Franklin. 524.3600.

• The “Star Wars: The FORCE of Popular Culture” exhibit is on display through Jan. 16 at the Western Office of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources in Asheville. Free. 296.7230 or jeff.futch@ncdcr.gov.

Visit www.smokymountainnews.com and click on Calendar for: ■ Complete listings of local music scene ■ Regional festivals ■ Art gallery events and openings ■ Complete listings of recreational offerings at regional health and fitness centers ■ Civic and social club gatherings shown at 2 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 22, in the Meeting Room of the Macon County Public Library in Franklin.

2:37. Free. For info, including movie title, call 488.3030.

• The films “The Intern” (Jan. 21), “The Martian” (Jan. 22-23) and “Everest” (Jan. 28) will be screened at Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. The free showings are at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. with a special 2 p.m. matinee on Saturdays. www.madbatterfoodandfilm.com.

• The film “The Martian” will be screened at 7 p.m.

Jan. 22, 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Jan. 23, and 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Jan. 24 at The Strand at 38 Main in Waynesville.

Tickets are $6.50, with a $3.25 matinee pass for the 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. showings. There will also be a free children’s screening of “Beauty and the Beast” at noon and 2 p.m. Jan. 23 and 30. www.38main.com.

• Adult movie time, 6:30 p.m. Mondays at Jackson County Public Library. Call for title of movie. 586.2016.

• Haywood County Arts Council will host artists from the Haywood Art Studio Tour at the Gallery & Gifts Space in Waynesville. www.HaywoodArts.org.

January 20-26, 2016

• The Mountain Heritage Center is hosting the exhibit “Collecting for the Community,” an exploration of the diversity and variety to be found in Western North Carolina. Visiting hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, with extended hours until 7 p.m. on Thursdays.

• A contemporary exhibit is open at the Fine Art Museum at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee.

The exhibit is intended to challenge the way beliefs about the natural world are formed. Entitled “Connections: Diane Fox & Beauvais Lyons,” the exhibit pairs photographs by Fox with lithography by Lyons.

The exhibit remains at WCU through Friday, Jan. 15.

The museum is open from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on weekdays with extended hours to 7 p.m. on Thursday. Admission and parking are free. 227.3591 or fineartmuseum.wcu.edu.

Smoky Mountain News

FILM & SCREEN

Outdoors • A pair of information sessions for hikers considering a 28.3-mile, single-day hike of Foothills Trail are scheduled for Jan. 23 and 26 at REI in Asheville. The hikes will be part of Make-A-Wish Foundation’s Trailblaze Challenge. The Jan. 23 session starts at 10:30 a.m.; the Jan. 26 event is at 6:30 p.m. RSVP: www.rei.com/learn.html.

• A class for people interested in a long-distance hike on the Appalachian Trail will be offered from 6-8 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 26 at Diamond Brand Outfitters (South) in Asheville. Course covers all aspects of planning the long-distance hike, including essential gear to the diversity of the trail experience. Free. www.appalachiantrail.org/events, 357.6542 or cdecamara@appalachiantrail.org.

• A recently released movie based on Bill Bryson’s “A Walk In The Woods” will be shown at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 20, at Hudson Library in Highlands.

• A public hearing on Duke Energy’s plan to replace its Asheville coach plant with two new power plants will be held at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 26, at the Buncombe County Courthouse in Asheville.

• A classic Rodgers and Hammerstein Musical will be

• A lecture on “Ecological Well-Being” will be present-

• Guided tours of WATR Discovery Trails at Monteith Farmstead Park in Dillsboro can be scheduled by calling 488.8418. For youth or adult/civic groups.

FARM AND GARDEN • A two-day pesticide school for individuals in need of certification as private, public and commercial applicators of pesticide will be held on Jan. 26-27. Presenters will include NC State Extension Specialists, County Extension Agents and NCDA & CS Pesticide Inspectors.

Times are 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. on Jan. 26 and 8:30 a.m.noon, then a test at 1 p.m. on Jan. 27. Register online and order books: pesticidesafety@ces.ncsu.edu. Info: 488.3848 or 586.4009.

• Artists are invited to submit an application to participate in the Haywood County Arts Council’s Haywood County Master Gardeners’ Exhibit. Deadline is Feb. 1.

Exhibit marries fine art with fine gardens. Theme is “Pollinate, Propagate, Cultivate.” Visit HaywoodArts.org, click on “Artists” then “Call for Artists.” GalleryGifts@HaywoodArts.org or Info@HaywoodArts.org.

• Applications are being accepted through Feb. 9 for participation in the Jackson-Swain Master Gardener program. Classes are held every Wednesday afternoon for 10-11 weeks, tentatively starting Feb. 17. 488.3848, 586.4009 or www.ncstategardening.org/extension_master_gardener.

• Registration is underway for the 13th annual Business of Farming Conference, presented by Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project. The event is from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. on Feb. 20 at UNC Asheville. $70 per person before Feb. 1; $90 after. asapconnections.org or 236.1282.

• The Macon County Poultry Club of Franklin meets at 7 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month at the Cooperative Extension Office on Thomas Heights Rd,.

Open to the public. 369.3916.

COMPETITIVE EDGE • Pre-registration is underway for the Icycle Mountain Bike Event, which is Saturday, Jan. 30, at Fontana Village Resort. $30 for one event or $50 for two. Day-of prices are $40 and $60. Categories available for riders of all skill levels. Presented by Pisgah Productions. www.pisgahproductions.com/events/icycle.

HIKING CLUBS • Nantahala Hiking club will have a seven-mile hike of Ridge Trail to Dyke Gap in the Coweeta Hydrological laboratory on Saturday, Jan. 23. For more info, contact leader Gail Lehman at 524.5298.

• Friends of the Smokies hikes are offered on the second Tuesday of each month. www.friendsofthesmokies.org/hikes.html.

• Nantahala Hiking Club based in Macon County holds weekly Saturday hikes in the Nantahala National Forest and beyond. www.nantahalahikingclub.org • High Country Hikers, based out of Hendersonville but hiking throughout Western North Carolina, plans hikes every Monday and Thursday. Schedules, meeting places and more information are available on their website, www.highcountryhikers.org.

• Carolina Mountain Club hosts more than 150 hikes a year, including options for full days on weekends, full days on Wednesdays and half days on Sundays. Non-members contact event leaders. www.carolinamountainclub.org • Mountain High Hikers, based in Young Harris, Ga., leads several hikes per week. Guests should contact hike leader. www.mountainhighhikers.org.

• Smoky Mountain Hiking Club, located in East Tennessee, makes weekly hikes in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park as well as surrounding areas. www.smhclub.org.

• Benton MacKaye Trail Association incorporates outings for hikes, trail maintenance and other work trips. No experience is necessary to participate. www.bmta.org.

• Diamond Brand’s Women’s Hiking Group meets on the third Saturday of every month. For more information, e-mail awilliams@diamondbrand.com or call 684.6262.

OUTDOOR CLUBS • The Jackson County Poultry Club will hold its regular meeting on the third Thursday of each month at the Jackson County Cooperative Extension Office. The club is for adults and children and includes a monthly meeting with a program and a support network for those raising birds. For info, call 586.4009 or write heather_gordon@ncsu.edu.

• The North Carolina Catch program, a three-phase conservation education effort focusing on aquatic environments, will be offered through May 15. The program is offered by the Waynesville Parks and Recreation Department. Free for members; daily admission for non-members. 456.2030 or tpetrea@waynesvillenc.gov.

• The Cataloochee Chapter of Trout Unlimited meets the second Tuesday of the month starting with a dinner at 6:30 p.m. at Rendezvous restaurant located on the corner of Jonathan Creek Road and Soco Road in Maggie Valley. 631.5543.

• Cold Mountain Photographic Society is a camera/photography club for amateurs and professionals who want to learn about and share their knowledge of photography with others. Must be 18 or older to join.

Meetings are held at 7 p.m. the second Monday of each month in the conference room of MedWest Health and Fitness Center, 262 Leroy George Drive in Clyde. More information at www.cmpsnc.org or info@cmpsnc.org.

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42

ed from 5-8 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 28, at the John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. Speaker is Fred Bahnson, founding director of Food, Faith and Religious Leadership. 227.2479.

Conveniently located off 19/23 by Thad Woods Auction

Puzzles can be found on page 46.

These are only the answers.

PRIME REAL ESTATE Advertise in The Smoky Mountain News

UPBEAT ADS

MarketPlace information:

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Starting Jan. 21st, 22nd & 23rd, Start Time 10 a.m. Lots of Wonderful Treasures, Antiques, Furniture, Art, Pottery & Primitives. Presented by Frog Pond Estate Sales

The Smoky Mountain News Marketplace has a distribution of 16,000 every week to over 500 locations across in Haywood, Jackson, Macon, and Swain counties along with the Qualla Boundary and west Buncombe County. For a link to our MarketPlace Web site, which also contains a link to all of our MarketPlace display advertisers’ Web sites, visit www.smokymountainnews.com.

Rates:

■ Free — Lost or found pet ads.

■ $5 — Residential yard sale ads, ■ $5 — Non-business items that sell for less than $150.

■ $15 — Classified ads that are 50 words or less; each additional line is $2.

If your ad is 10 words or less, it will be displayed with a larger type.

■ $3 — Border around ad and $5 — Picture with ad or colored background.

■ $50 — Non-business items, 25 words or less. 3 month or till sold.

■ $300 — Statewide classifieds run in 117 participating newspapers with 1.6 million circulation. Up to 25 words.

■ All classified ads must be pre-paid.

ARTS & CRAFTS

ALLISON CREEK Iron Works & Woodworking. Crafting custom metal & woodwork in rustic, country & lodge designs with reclaimed woods! Design & consultation, Barry Downs 828.524.5763, Franklin NC

AUCTION AUCTION: BID ON-SITE & ONLINE! Construction Equipment & Trucks.

Excavators, Dozers, Dumps & More! 1/26 @ 10am, Richmond, VA. Accepting Consignments Thru 1/22. We Sell/Fund Assets Fast! www.motleys.com. 804 232.3300x4. VAAL#16

Classified Advertising: Scott Collier, phone 828.452.4251; fax 828.452.3585 classads@smokymountainnews.com

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INVENTORY LIQUIDATION @ DODIE’S OF SYLVA 482 W. Main St., Downtown Sylva Sat. Jan. 23, 6:00 p.m.

(Come Early to Preview) Partial Listing: Home Decor, 3 Sewing Machines, 2 Dining Room Tables, Twin Bed (Like New), Stereo, Folding Chairs, Large Sofa, Love Seat, Misc. Chairs, Glassware, Vintage Clothing, Pictures & 2 Bookcases. Col. Dodie A. Blaschik, Auctioneer NCAL#3410 ‘No Buyers Premium - Gigantic Savings’ www.dodieallen.com 828.586.3634 PUBLIC AUCTION Saturday, Jan. 23, 1pm. Brookdale Furniture Frame Factory w/Inventory. Address: 621 Hyde St. Thomasville, NC 27360. Hughes Auction.

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Call this newspaper or 919.516.8009 for details.

BUILDING MATERIALS

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MOTORCYCLES CRAZY BOB’S BIKER STUFF Jackets, Chaps, Vests, Helmets, Rain Gear, Saddlebags, Sissy Bar Bags, Tool Bags, Stickers, Patches. We also got you covered with 50 Sizes of Tarps: Heavy Duty Silver, Brown & Green, Blue & Silver, Blue & Camo.

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FINANCIAL BEWARE OF LOAN FRAUD. Please check with the Better Business Bureau or Consumer Protection Agency before sending any money to any loan company.

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January 20-26, 2016

WNC MarketPlace

EMPLOYMENT

EMPLOYMENT

HILLSIDE GRIND A Non-Profit, Faith-Based Coffee House on the Campus of Western Carolina University is Seeking Applications for a Part-Time Manager Position. Competitive Wages and a Flexible Schedule that Follows the University Calendar, Make this a Unique Opportunity. Some Level of Food Service Management Exp. is Preferred. Please Submit Resume to: ukirkwcu@gmail.com

THE CHALET INN AND SUITES In Anticipation of Increased Visitation to the Smoky Mountains, We are Increasing Our Staffing for the 2016 Season, and Have the Following Positions Available: Manager (BA in Hospitality, Business or Marketing or Two Years Hospitality Management Exp.), Assistant Innkeeper, Housekeeper and Assistant Housekeeper.

References Required; Weekends & Holidays Req. Call 828.586.0251 to Schedule an Interview.

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ABBY A SWEET TORBIE (TABBY AND TORTIE COMBINATION) FEMALE ABOUT 10 MONTHS OLD. SHE HAS A BEAUTIFUL STRIPEY COAT AND HUGE EYES, AND WHILE SHE IS A LITTLE SHY AT FIRST, ONCE SHE SETTLES IN SHE'LL BE A WONDERFUL FAMILY FELINE COMPANION.

EMPLOYMENT

EMPLOYMENT

WCQS IS LOOKING FOR A Skilled, Professional Multi-Media Regional Reporter for Part-Time Position. Visit Our Website: WCQS.org and Click on ABOUT US and CAREERS AT WCQS for the Full Job Description.

CAN YOU DIG IT? Heavy Equipment Operator Career!

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FTCC Fayetteville Technical Community College is now accepting applications for the following positions: Accounting Technician-Accounts Payable. Computer Support Technician II. Golf Coach (PartTime). Grounds Technician. Men's Basketball Coach (Part-Time).

Shift Supervisor (Sergeant).

Women's Basketball Coach (PartTime). For detailed information and to apply, please visit our employment portal at: https://faytechcc.peopleadmin.com Human Resources Office. Phone: 910.678.8378 Internet: http://www.faytechcc.edu.

An Equal Opportunity Employer.

LAW OFFICE & LEGAL Assistant Training Law Firms & Government Offices need Legal Staff! No Experience Needed! Online Career training can get you job ready! HS Diploma/GED & PC/Internet needed! 1.888.926.6073 SAPA NEED MEDICAL BILLING TRAINEES! Doctors & Hospitals need Medical Office Staff! No Experience Needed! Online Training gets you job ready! HS Diploma/GED & Computer needed. Careertechnical.edu/nc.

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THE NAVY IS HIRING Top-notch training, medical/dental, 30 days vacation/yr, $ for school. HS grads ages 17-34.

Call Monday - Friday 800.662.7419.

NICOL ARMS APARTMENTS NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS Offering 1 & 2 Bedroom Apartments, Starting at $400 Section 8 Accepted - Handicapped Accessible Units When Available

www.smokymountainnews.com

BALUT A TERRIER MIX BOY, ABOUT THREE YEARS OLD, AND WEIGHING APPROXIMATELY 30 LBS. HE IS SUPER CUTE WITH HIS SCRUFFY FACE AND WIRY COAT. HE IS ALSO REALLY SWEET NATURED, AND FRIENDLY TO ALL.

OFFICE HOURS: Tues. & Wed. 10:00am - 5:00pm & Thurs. 10:00am- 12:00pm 168 E. Nicol Arms Road Sylva, NC 28779

Phone# 1.828.586.3346 TDD# 1.800.725.2962 Equal Housing Opportunity

Committed to Exceeding Expectations

Marilynn Obrig

Residential Broker Associate

(828) 550-2810

mobrig@Beverly-Hanks.com 44

www.Beverly-Hanks.com

EMPLOYMENT WEEKLY HOME TIME For SE Regional! Earn up to $0.45 CPM w/bonuses. Plus $2500 Sign On Bonus! Call 888.408.5275 or SuperServiceLLC.com SAPA

PETS HAYWOOD SPAY/NEUTER 828.452.1329

REAL ESTATE ANNOUNCEMENT LEASE TO OWN 1/2 Acre Lots with Mobile Homes & Empty 1/2 Acre + Lots!

Located Next to Cherokee Indian Reservation, 2.5 Miles from Harrah’s Cherokee Casino.

For More Information Please Call 828.506.0578

HOMES FOR SALE Prevent Unwanted Litters!

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Operation Pit is in Effect!

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Hours:

Tuesday-Friday, 12 Noon - 6 pm 182 Richland Street, Waynesville

REAL ESTATE ANNOUNCEMENT PUBLISHER’S NOTICE All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Fair Housing Act which makes it illegal to advertise “any preference, limitation or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin, or an intention, to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination” Familial status includes children under the age of 18 living with parents or legal custodians, pregnant women and people securing custody of children under 18 This newspaper will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate which is in violation of the law. All dwellings advertised on an equal opportunity basis.

BRUCE MCGOVERN A Full Service Realtor, Locally Owned and Operated mcgovernpropertymgt@gmail.com McGovern Property Management 828.283.2112.

YOUR AD COULD REACH 1.6 MILLION HOMES ACROSS NC! Your classified ad could be reaching over 1.6 Million Homes across North Carolina! Place your ad with The Smoky Mountain News on the NC Statewide Classified Ad Network- 118 NC newspapers for a low cost of $330 for 25-word ad to appear in each paper! Additional words are $10 each. The whole state at your fingertips! It's a smart advertising buy! Call Scott Collier at 828.452.4251 or for more information visit the N.C. Press Association's website at www.ncpress.com

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HIGH ON LIFESTYLE. LOW ON MAINTENANCE.

FROM THE HIGH $200’S 10 Minutes to Asheville 20 Minutes to Waynesville

Single Family Courtyard Homes & Townhomes

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VACATION RENTALS

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533 Hazelwood Ave. Waynesville 828.456.4240

LIFE ALERT. 24/7. One press of a button sends help Fast! Medical, Fire, Burglar.

Even if you can't reach a phone!

Free Brochure. Call 800.316.0745.

FURNITURE

LAWN AND GARDEN HEMLOCK HEALERS, INC. Dedicated to Saving Our Hemlocks. Owner/Operator Frank Varvoutis, NC Pesticide Applicator’s License #22864. 48 Spruce St. Maggie Valley, NC 828.734.7819 828.926.7883, Email: hemlockhealers@yahoo.com

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1.800.578.1363 Ext.300N

FOR SALE BORING/CARPENTER BEE TRAPS No Chemicals, Poisons or Anything to Harm the Environment.

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ENTERTAINMENT

WANTED TO BUY

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Emerson Group

Dan Womack BROKER

243.1126

828.

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ERA Sunburst Realty — sunburstrealty.com • Amy Spivey — sunburstrealty.com Haywood Properties — haywoodproperties.com • Steve Cox — info@haywoodproperties.com Keller Williams Realty

MOUNTAIN REALTY

26 N. Main St. • Waynesville, NC • 828-564-9393

STRUGGLING WITH DRUGS Or Alcohol? Addicted to Pills? Talk to someone who cares. Call The Addiction Hope & Help Line for a free Assessment. 800.511.6075 SAPA

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Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Lifestyle Properties — vistasofwestfield.com Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Great Smokys Realty

kellerwilliamswaynesville.com • Sam Hopkins — samhopkins.kwrealty.com

Lakeshore Realty • Phyllis Robinson - lakeshore@lakejunaluska.com

Jerry Smith 828-734-8765 jsmith201@kw.com

Mountain Home Properties mountaindream.com • Sammie Powell — smokiesproperty.com

McGovern Real Estate & Property Management • Bruce McGovern — shamrock13.com

Realty World Heritage Realty

328-32

434 Russ Ave. • Waynesville

Office: 828-926-5155 kellerwilliamswaynesville.com 214-64

realtyworldheritage.com • Carolyn Lauter realtyworldheritage.com/realestate/viewagent/7766 • Martha Sawyer realtyworldheritage.com/realestate/viewagent/7769

RE/MAX — Mountain Realty

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828.734.4864 MOUNTAIN REALTY

• • • • • • •

remax-waynesvillenc.com | remax-maggievalleync.com Brian K. Noland — brianknoland.com Mieko Thomson — ncsmokies.com The Morris Team — maggievalleyproperty.com The Real Team — the-real-team.com Ron Breese — ronbreese.com Dan Womack — womackdan@aol.com Catherine Proben — cp@catherineproben.com

26 North Main Street Waynesville, NC 28785

The Seller’s Agency — listwithphil.com

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• Phil Ferguson — philferguson@bellsouth.net

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find us at: facebook.com/smnews

smokymountainnews.com

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January 20-26, 2016

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Anti-Slip Floors. American Made.

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Haywood County Real Estate Agents 328-07

COMPARE QUALITY & PRICE Shop Tupelo’s, 828.926.8778.

GOT KNEE PAIN? Back Pain? Shoulder Pain? Get a pain-relieving brace at little or NO cost to you. Medicare Patients Call Health Hotline Now! 1.800.480.7503 SAPA

SFR, ECO, GREEN

WNC MarketPlace

NORTH CAROLINA MOUNTAINS Winter Vacations Cabins, Condos, Homes. Pets Welcome! Nightly, Weekly & Monthly Rentals. Best Rates! Boone, Banner Elk, Blowing Rock. Foscoe Rentals 800.723.7341 FoscoeRentals.com

MEDICAL A PLACE FOR MOM. The nation’s largest senior living referral service. Contact our trusted, local experts today! Our service is FREE/no obligation. CALL 1.800.319.8705 SAPA

TO ADVERTISE IN THE NEXT ISSUE 828.452.4251 | ads@smokymountainnews.com 45

www.smokymountainnews.com

January 20-26, 2016

WNC MarketPlace

Super

46

DANGEROUS CURVES AHEAD

CROSSWORD

63 Lab helper with a hump 64 “Hammerin’ Hank” 66 Sharp changes of ACROSS direction 1 Allured by 67 Sharp changes of 12 Where water remains direction after an ebb 68 Seniors’ dances 21 Direct results 69 Reduced 22 Big-band singer called 70 Zestfulness “The Jezebel of Jazz” 71 Claudius I’s successor 23 Common types of thrill 72 Italian “Bye!” rides 73 Audit org.

25 Co.’s top dog 74 Zestful 26 S.F. thoroughfare 75 Limonite, e.g. famous for its hairpin 76 Dad’s dad curves 79 Jon - Jovi 27 Fog or mist 80 Sottish sort 30 Bulge (out) 81 L-P middle 33 Gas in signs 82 Renoir of film 34 State north of Neb. 83 Put a label on 38 Oahu, e.g.

84 Quiet - mouse 39 Flower-holding jar 85 Bush spokesman 40 Boston Bruin Bobby Fleischer 41 Status 86 Holiday tree 44 Kimono securer 87 Bizarre, slangily 45 Disco fan on “The 88 Capacious coffeepot Simpsons” 89 - choy 46 Mended a hem, e.g.

90 Viking’s place 47 Port in Brazil, for short 91 Verb suffix in Sussex 48 Indefinite article in 92 Amiss Italy 93 Tribe of Canada 49 Psychic “gift” 94 Baldwin of “To Rome 50 Triceps site With Love” 51 Fired 96 Spiteful 52 Hooting bird 97 Suffix with infant 53 - Van Dyke 98 Frog locales 54 Maple stuff 99 Really hitting the 55 Dried out, with “up” sauce 57 Constricting serpent 104 Water, in Toulon 58 Window components 105 #1 Beatles hit of 1970 59 Pub draft 114 Actress who co60 “Zounds!” starred in “The Help” 61 Thickly fibrous 115 Very simple 62 Sneaky guy?

116 Unfinished business

117 2011-13 secretary of defense DOWN 1 Deed 2 AAA job 3 Prefix for “three” 4 Revolver, in old slang 5 With 56-Down, secondary personalities 6 Classic Liz Taylor role 7 Pothole fill 8 Foul up 9 Italian for “God” 10 Relate 11 Capital in Scandinavia 12 Seat of North Carolina’s Edgecombe County 13 Old Peruvian 14 Christian 15 Somewhat 16 Scottish girl 17 Actress Annie 18 Poem type 19 Boat paddle 20 Fleur-de- 24 “Bam!” chef 27 Entry stamps 28 Houston ballplayer 29 Pipe-clearing tool 30 Chatted 31 “Get - to it!”

32 A Kennedy 35 Acts the Samaritan 36 Favorite son of David 37 Some cured herrings 39 Tormented 41 See 72-Down 42 Quitter’s cry 43 Acorn bearers 46 Food wrap 52 “My bad” 53 San - Zoo

56 See 5-Down 57 Swamplike 58 Meager 61 Rock Starr?

63 Shah’s land 64 “Arabian Nights” figure 65 Spray can suspension 66 Bright, showy flower 67 Not a one 68 Spinet, say 70 Old name of the Congo 71 Bad news for magazine publishers 72 With 41-Down, patchworks 74 “- the night before ...”

76 Music class 77 Whittled 78 De Mille of dance 81 Total up incorrectly 82 Dewlap 86 Actor Ralph 87 Moo goo - pan 93 Route 95 Tab and RC 96 “- my big mouth!”

98 Wiccan, e.g.

100 Snout 101 Opening bet 102 Weed - (lawn care product) 103 Go upward 104 New Age superstar 105 Rolodex no.

106 Med. service 107 Comic Philips 108 Prefix with conservative 109 Veep Quayle 110 MSN, e.g.

111 Go (for) 112 Bit of land in a river 113 Narc’s agcy.

answers on page 46

PERSONAL A CHILDLESS Married couple seeks to adopt.

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Expenses PAID. Lucy & Adam 1.844.275.0355.

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SAPA ARE YOU PREGNANT? A single professional woman seeks to adopt. Will be hands-on mom with financial security. Let’s help each other. Expenses paid Text/Call Kim & Adam 1.800.790.5260 SAPA YOUR AD COULD REACH 1.6 MILLION HOMES ACROSS NC! Your classified ad could be reaching over 1.6 Million Homes across North Carolina! Place your ad with The Smoky Mountain News on the NC Statewide Classified Ad Network- 118 NC newspapers for a low cost of $330 for 25-word ad to appear in each paper! Additional words are $10 each. The whole state at your fingertips! It's a smart advertising buy! Call Scott Collier at 828.452.4251 or for more information visit the N.C. Press Association's website at www.ncpress.com

SCHOOLS/ INSTRUCTION EARN YOUR High School Diploma at home in a few short weeks. Work at your own pace. First Coast Academy. Nationally accredited. Call for free brochure. 1.800.658.1180, extension 82. www.fcahighschool.org SAPA FTCC Fayetteville Technical Community College is now accepting applications for the following positions: Accounting Technician-Accounts Payable. Computer Support Technician II. Golf Coach (PartTime). Grounds Technician. Men's Basketball Coach (Part-Time).

Shift Supervisor (Sergeant).

Women's Basketball Coach (PartTime). For detailed information and to apply, please visit our employment portal at: https://faytechcc.peopleadmin.com Human Resources Office. Phone: 910.678.8378 Internet: http://www.faytechcc.edu.

An Equal Opportunity Employer.

TEACHER RECRUITMENT FAIR To fill 2016-17 Vacancies ~ did you know over 800 teaching positions were filled by 21 Virginia school divisions? Join us on Sat, Jan 30 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. @ Salem Civic Center in Salem, VA. See www.wvpec.org (Job Fair) for details. NO FEES. Sponsored by the Western Virginia Public Education Consortium.

SERVICES AT&T U-VERSE INTERNET Starting at $15/month or TV & Internet starting at $49/month for 12 months with 1-year agreement.

Call 1. 800.992.1743 to learn more. (Not Valid in Virginia).

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YARD SALES 2 SMALL ESTATES - 1 LOCATION 10 Commerce St., Waynesville.

Starting Jan. 21st, 22nd & 23rd, Start Time 10 a.m. Lots of Wonderful Treasures, Antiques, Furniture, Art, Pottery & Primitives. Presented by Frog Pond Estate Sales

WEEKLY SUDOKU Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each small 9-box square contains all of the numbers from one to nine.

Answers on Page 46

The naturalist’s corner

BY DON H ENDERSHOT

Can I move? emember the scene in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” where the Kid was asked by an old miner (I think Butch and the Kid were applying for positions as payroll guards) if he could shoot, and tosses a small object on the ground 20 or 30 feet in front of them? Kid holstered his sidearm and prepared to draw and the old miner stopped him, saying something like no, no, no, I just want to know if you can hit anything with that. The Kid, with pistol drawn, takes aim and fires, missing the mark by a foot or so. The miner turns to walk away and Kid says, “Can I move?” The miner is standing there puzzled and the Kid draws, falls to one knee and obliterates the target in two quick shots, sealing the deal.

Birders fall, loosely, into two groups, with overlap in certain circumstances. One group is what the miner was looking for — they see the target and take aim, conscious of their target and the process, drawing a bead at a particular point and squeezing off the round. The other group is like the Kid, reflex and intuition take over, the process is unconscious, the round is automatic. There is no right way or wrong way; people just

R

process information differently.

The first group sees a bird (target;) they take aim — focusing, the bird is small, dark on top yellow below with black streaks, black eye patch, large white wing patch, black tail with wide white band; and they squeeze the round — magnolia warbler. The second group sees a bird, they focus, instinct takes over and bam — magnolia warbler.

I’m pretty sure the second group digests the same field characteristics as the first, they’re just not aware of the process.

I am firmly ensconced in that second group and am often reminded of it in the field, especially when leading groups. I was leading a group on the Blue Ridge Parkway a few years back and a little bird flew across the road in front of us as we were driving.

“What was that?” someone asked and I replied, “chestnut-sided warbler.”

“How could you tell?”

My initial response was, “It looked like a chestnut-sided warbler,” and I immediately realized that wasn’t helpful in any way. So I replayed the scene in my mind, like movie frames — a little bird (warbler-sized) approaching from the left; dark above, white below; and bam, right in front of me (freezeframe) was the clincher — the little bird

Magnolia warbler. creative commons photo with its wings up clearly showing its chestnut-colored flanks and bright yellow pincushion crown. That was what I had processed subconsciously to get to chestnutsided warbler. Now I always carry a field guide with me when leading groups so when someone asks, “How can you tell?” I can open the guide and point to the distinguishing field marks.

I know excellent birders from both camps. One of the best “literal” birders I have ever birded with is Fred Alsop. Dr. Alsop is an ornithologist, author and professor at East Tennessee State University. It is a

treat to be in the field with Fred. As soon as he gets a bird in his bins he begins listing the field marks — it’s about the only time I process consciously because I’m listening to him and it’s a great learning experience.

And if you’re an honest birder, there’s always something to learn. You learn from other birders and you learn from the birds by observing them in the field. The only birders that never make a wrong call are the ones that only bird alone.

Now, I need to get outside and move.

(Don Hendershot is a writer and naturalist.

He can be reached a ddihen1@bellsouth.net.)

January 20-26, 2016 Smoky Mountain News 47

48

Smoky Mountain News January 20-26, 2016