‘When they come for the librarians’ Page 21
Page 5
On the Cover:
When people think about snorkeling, usually images of clear ocean waters and tropical reefs come to mind, but the new Blue Ridge Snorkel Trail will give people a chance to see beneath the surface of creeks and rivers in 10 Western North Carolina counties. (Page 30) Two kids snorkel in a mountain stream. Mainspring Conservation Trust photo
News
Without tuition reimbursement, Pless won’t vote for Medicaid expansion bill..4 Haywood commissioners reject lone jail construction bid......................................5
Concerns emerge over what Pactiv Evergreen might leave behind....................6
Unfinished business: Hal Weatherman steps out from behind the curtain........8
Grant funds to help aging adults at risk of isolation and depression................10
Candidates certified for tribal elections......................................................................11
Highlanders object to canceling Highlands School expansion..........................12
Putin’s indictments: Maggie man who’s prosecuted war crimes weighs in....14 Franklin Skatepark fully funded......................................................................................15 Report shows deficiencies in UNC System teacher prep program..................16
Opinion
When they come for the librarians................................................................................18
It’s not about the mill, it’s about the people..............................................................20
A&E
Billingsley to headline Salvage Station........................................................................22
The earth speaks; hopefully, we’re listening..............................................................29
Outdoors
Invasive species workday planned in Bryson City..................................................32 Word from the Smokies..................................................................................................34
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The North Carolina General Assembly is one step closer to approving Medicaid expansion after the bill passed out of the Senate on March 15, but a popular amendment seen as a necessary addition by a Haywood County legislator — and every other member of the House — didn’t make the cut in the Senate.
“I’m not sure why they did that, but it puts me in a place of not voting for it,” said Mark Pless (R-Haywood), author of the tuition reimbursement amendment.
In 2010, Medicaid expansion became mandatory for states upon enactment of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, but the “mandatory” provision was struck down in 2012. Two years later, nearly half of all U.S. states had opted in, but North Carolina wasn’t one of them.
At the time, the reasoning was that since the federal government had offered to pay for the expansion population indefinitely, changes to that offer could leave states on the hook for the tab. But that hasn’t happened over the last decade, during both Democratic and Republican presidencies, and Democratic and Republican control of the U.S. House and Senate.
In 2022, the North Carolina Senate passed its expansion bill but encountered stiff resistance on the House side. This year, things worked out in reverse; the House took the lead on the bill, and passed it by a vote of 92-22.
The version that the House passed would allow for Medicaid coverage to begin on Jan. 1, 2024 for people aged 18-64 earning 133% or less of the federal poverty level, which means that individuals making up to $18,553.50 would be eligible for enrollment starting Dec. 1.
The bill also has a quit clause, whereby the expansion will be discontinued if the federal funding drops.
Pless has repeatedly stated that he’s con-
cerned about a shortage of medical care providers in the state, especially in rural areas. If patients can’t get in to see physicians, he explained, then Medicaid expansion isn’t really much of an expansion.
“There’s a lot of places that we need physicians, we need nurses, in these,” Pless said on the House floor on Feb. 15 in support of his tuition reimbursement amendment.
As proposed, Pless’ amendment would have appropriated $14 million in one-time funding towards loan repayment for doctors and nurses who commit to working in rural counties across the state.
A preliminary study estimated the $14 million would probably help around 200 people, with those earning doctorates in medicine or nursing eligible for $28,000 each year and nursing students eligible for $20,000 with a master’s degree, $14,000 with a bachelor’s degree and $6,000 with an associate’s degree.
Pless’ amendment passed by a measure of 119-0.
Haywood County Republican and real estate agent Lynda Bennett will be sentenced in federal court on June 20 after accepting a plea agreement for violating campaign finance laws during her failed 2020 congressional bid.
According to a Jan. 27 filing, on or about Dec. 31, 2019, Bennett “on behalf of her campaign did knowingly and willfully accept a contribution made by one person, Individual A, which aggregated $25,000 in the calendar year 2019, in the name of another person.”
Bennett was backed by then-President Donald Trump and retiring incumbent Republican Congressman Mark Meadows, among others, and won the first round of Republican Primary Election voting to replace Meadows. She lost the runoff election by a 2-to-1 margin to future
When the bill came back from the Senate on March 15 — it ultimately passed 44-2 — Pless’ amendment had been stripped from the bill. Now, it’s been sent back to the House, but Pless isn’t done fighting.
“We have two options,” Pless said. “It can go into rules committee and we can try to change it there and send it back to the Senate, or it can go into a conference committee.”
That bicameral committee would meet and try to hammer out changes acceptable to both chambers. Pless said he’d request to be part of the committee.
Sen. Kevin Corbin (R-Franklin) said that Pless’ amendment was taken out of the Senate version so it wouldn’t become an appropriations bill.
“An appropriations bill would have to go through the appropriations process, which is a lot more cumbersome and takes more time,” Corbin said, noting that there was no real opposition to Pless’ amendment.
Instead, Corbin said, the provisions of Pless’ amendment should end up in the
NC-11 Republican Congressman Madison Cawthorn.
Bennett, of Maggie Valley, signed a deal back in January offering to plead guilty to the sole count of accepting contributions in the name of another, but few specifics as to the crime were outlined until a March 8 filing by prosecutors.
That filing says that Bennett was concerned about having to “spend a large amount of her own money on the campaign” — so much money that she was having trouble meeting her personal expenses.
She requested a $25,000 loan from a family member, known only as “Individual A,” and received a personal check on Dec. 30, 2019, which she deposited in her personal Wells Fargo bank account the same day.
The next day, Bennett transferred $80,000 from her personal account — including the $25,000 loan — into her campaign account.
It’s not clear why she requested the $25,000 loan when she already had $55,000 in her personal bank account, or if
House budget, meaning the money would still be appropriated and the tuition reimbursement program could move forward. Corbin also said he’d advocate for just such an inclusion.
Pless, alluding to the sometimes-transient nature of budget requests, isn’t satisfied. He said that if the budget comes before the Medicaid vote and he can confirm that the budget includes tuition reimbursement, he’d be happy with that.
Until then, he’s still a no, because if it’s not in the bill that ends up getting passed and then it’s revealed that it’s also not in the budget, he’s out of luck.
Other western legislators who supported Pless’ amendment aren’t quite ready to put the brakes on Medicaid expansion just because the tuition reimbursement amendment didn’t make the cut.
“I did vote for the amendment, but it’s not a deal-breaker for me for Medicaid expansion,” said Lindsey Prather (D-Buncombe). “I think there’s enough of an appetite for supporting healthcare services in rural areas to accomplish that separately. We need to expand Medicaid ASAP.”
Prather’s fellow Buncombe Democrat, Rep. Caleb Rudow, said he wasn’t willing to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
“Even though that $14 million would be great to have, this is what we have to do all the time — balance the needs of the community and see the greater good,” Rudow said. “Medicaid expansion will help a lot of people and save a lot of lives.”
Rep. Eric Ager, who represents the eastern part of Buncombe County, said he’s willing to pursue standalone legislation that might revive the idea of tuition reimbursement.
“I’m planning to vote for HB76 despite the fact that Rep. Pless’ amendment was stripped in the Senate,” Ager said. “It’s important that we get this done. I am hopeful that we can pass separate legislation that will allow for a program to forgive loans for doctors and nurses that practice in rural areas.”
Individual A was aware of her existing bank account balance at the time of her loan request.
It’s also not clear why she transferred $55,000 of personal funds to the campaign if she was having trouble making ends meet, or why she included the $25,000 in that $80,000 transfer to her campaign if she was in dire financial straits personally.
Bennett reported the $80,000 transaction as “personal funds of the candidate” in violation of 52 USC 3010 (8)(A)(1), according to the filing, which also states that Bennett did so “knowingly and willfully.”
On March 8 Bennett was ordered to report to the central cell block of the Metropolitan Police Department, the U.S. Marshall’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Washington, D.C., for routine processing. Sentencing guidelines list Bennett’s maximum penalties of five years imprisonment and/or a fine of up to $50,000.
— Cory Vaillancourt, Politics EditorHaywood County still needs its proposed $21.5 million jail expansion, but an unexpectedly high bid from the lone construction bidder has temporarily derailed the process — a delay that could become costly.
“We actually posted the notices that were required through the LGC [Local Government Commission, for permission to borrow] not to exceed $25 million. We thought we’d actually build some buffer in there if prices came in over our estimates, and then lo and behold, when we did open the one bid we received. It was about $28.1 million,” said Bryant Morehead, Haywood’s county manager, during a March 20 meeting.
Kris Boyd, assistant county manager, said that by receiving only one bid, which came from Hickory Construction, there would be no way to compare the price with offers by other companies. Boyd offered commissioners two options moving forward. The first is to simply rebid the project.
“One of the problems potentially with rebidding is asking contractors to hold a price on equipment for the duration of the construction, which could be 12 to 18 months,” he said. “With the fluctuating market, I think we all know that prices change most of the time weekly, but at least monthly. We think that’s one of the reasons the bid was inflated, to try to be able to guarantee those prices by the end of construction.”
The other option, Boyd explained, is “construction manager at risk.”
Called “CMAR,” the procurement procedure involves a general contractor setting a guaranteed maximum price after the contractor and the county look through the subcontractor bids for instances of price gouging, waste or other costly practices.
Commissioner Tommy Long pushed back on Moseley’s initial $21.5 million estimate, asking how they could have got it so wrong.
Dan Mace, vice president of Moseley Architects, said their cost estimators provided the estimate based on the drawings the county paid for, and that he felt it was reasonable at the time.
Mace agreed with Chairman Kevin Ensley that the $28.5 million bid was “way high” and also that it was “gouging” when Ensley pointed out that the bid price for concrete was 351% over estimate, site grading and drainage 255% over estimate and site water and sewer 272% over estimate.
“We’re in the midst of runaway inflation, contractors are picking their jobs and
naming their price,” Long said. “There’s only so much concrete and rebar out there, and like you say, they want to stay closer to home to do their projects because there’s low-hanging fruit right in their own county, and you got all this ARPA funding floating around over the country, still COVID relief money floating around all over the country, and we’re just in a severely inflated climate right now.”
Commissioner Jennifer Best pushed for the CMAR option, saying it would hopefully result in more bids that would “proof out” the first one.
If additional bids continue to come in way over expectations, that just might reflect a new market reality and cause commissioners to rethink the entire project — especially in light of an as-yet undetermined tax hit the county will take when the Pactiv Evergreen paper mill closes in the next few months.
“I had a little heartburn to be honest with you over the $21.5 million,” said Commissioner Brandon Rogers. “It was hard to swallow because we had started out thinking it was going to be even lower than that, actually two different times. It’s a little tough for me at the $21.5 and here we are at $28.5. With that, and the economic impact we’re going to have at the mill, it grabs ahold of your heart and puts it on pause for just a second.”
Right now, the county has about $1.26 million into the project, including the needs assessment study, geotechnical work, a site plan, and right of way issues — all necessary components of any major capital project.
Morehead said that jail overcrowding costs the county money the longer the jail expansion isn’t in operation.
Last year, it was about $33,000 in fees the county paid to other counties to house its prisoners. That doesn’t include fuel costs, wear and tear on vehicles and pay for the law enforcement officers charged with operating the transport service.
Mace told commissioners that any new bid process would take a minimum of three months, and that his company wouldn’t charge the county anything additional for going through the process with them.
That timeframe torpedoes a planned meeting with the Local Government Commission over borrowing authority and could also have an impact on the county’s financing options — Truist, the county’s preferred financing agency, had only guaranteed its interest rates through mid-April. Since the guarantee, rates have only gone up.
After commissioners rejected Hickory’s bid, Morehead said he’d work with Mace to get the process back on track.
The economic impact of Pactiv Evergreen’s decision to close the Canton paper mill will be substantial. It is estimated that about 1,000 employees will be out of work by the summer, the majority of whom are Haywood County residents.
In an effort to understand the broader economic impact as it will affect other businesses in the county, the Haywood County Chamber of Commerce is partnering with local economist Tom Tveidt to conduct an economic impact survey. Owners and operators of local businesses that buy or sell products or services to or from the mill can take the survey at www.surveymonkey.com/r/CWHXXG2 .
Below is an evolving list of resources in the community for individuals and businesses that will be impacted by the mill closing.
NCWorks NCWorks.gov
The Haywood County NCWorks Career Center is located at 1170 N Main St, in Waynesville. The center can help people with unemployment benefits, job seeking, trade eligible services, medical coverage, insurance needs, housing assistance and connections to employers in the region.
WNC Career Expo ashevillechamber.org/newsevents/events/wnc-career-expo/
WNC Career Expo will take place 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, March 23, in the Davis Event Center at the WNC Agricultural Center. This is the largest hiring event in Western North Carolina with over 100 employers in attendance.
Waynesville Inn & Golf Club Hiring Fairs waynesvilleinnandgolf.com
Waynesville Inn & Golf Club have multiple upcoming hiring fairs. These will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 22, 29 and April 5 at the Waynesville Inn. There are opportunities in guest services, housekeeping, food and beverage, golf operations, course maintenance, and facilities maintenance.
International Paper Hiring Event lakejunaluska.com/
International Paper will hold a hiring event from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 23-25, at the Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center.
Resume Writing Workshop
This drop-in workshop will take place 9 a.m. to noon and 1-5 p.m. March 21-22 at the Education Center in Clyde. For more information call 828.456.2400.
Haywood Community College
haywood.edu/evergreen/
Haywood Community College is offering scholarships, career services, training and other educational opportunities. Find these resources and more at the link above.
Haywood County Food Resources
For a complete list of the food resources available in Haywood County, visit milltownstrong.com/wpcontent/uploads/2023/03/HaywoodFRG-3-9-23.pdf
Listening Circles
Residents affected by the paper mill closing are invited to attend listening circles taking place every Tuesday from 9-10 a.m. and every Thursday from 4-5 p.m. via zoom. The link to connect to a meeting is us02web.zoom.us/j/7395212604#success.
Health and Human Services
Haywood County Health and Human Services can help with continuing medical coverage, food and nutrition support, financial support, and workforce programs. For more information on these programs and services visit their website, call 828.356.2368 or email jill.mccracken@haywoodcountync.gov.
Mountain Projects mountainprojects.org/
Mountain Projects offers a variety of services including assistance with health insurance, food, utilities, transportation and child and senior services. For more information about these programs you can visit their website, call 828.452.1447 or email jplummer@mountainprojects.org.
Affordable Connectivity Program affordableconnectivity.gov/
The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) helps many low-income households pay for broadband service and internet connected devices. Households with an income below 200% of the federal poverty line are eligible, as well as anyone who currently receives a government benefit like SNAP, Medicaid, SSI, WIC, Pell Grant, or free and reduced-price lunch.
Champion Credit Union https://tinyurl.com/2kn5bc8k
The Champion Credit Union Member Relief Fund was established to provide financial assistance in the form of a grant to members who are experiencing financial hardship due to events beyond their control including disasters, extended illnesses or injuries and other special situations. Visit the link above for more information.
For more resources and job opportunities, visit milltownstrong.com.
The 185-acre paper mill at the heart of Canton is the most visible sign of Pactiv Evergreen’s corporate presence in Haywood County, but they also own dozens of other parcels worth tens of millions of dollars.
If the company moves ahead with its stated plans of closing the mill by summer and then further divests from the county, many of those parcels could become prime real estate, or cause for concern.
Blue Ridge Paper Products, a subsidiary of Pactiv Evergreen, is still the owner of record for 36 parcels totaling almost 680 acres with an assessed value of $33,223,000.
Some are odd slivers of unusable land, like a 25-foot wide, 900-foot long strip between Fibreville Street and the Pigeon River. Others, like the handsome grey stone building on Park Street in downtown Canton, could hold some commercial value despite being in a flood zone.
Still others could pose safety hazards or become ecological disasters if they’re allowed to degrade.
The largest and probably least-known parcel — a subject of great concern — is a 244-acre landfill off Incinerator Road just south of Interstate 40.
David Francis, Haywood’s economic and community development director, said that the county has been in meetings with North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality about the site.
“They’re already on top of all that — how the post-closure responsibilities go,” Francis said. “It’s an industrial landfill, and they’re saying post-closure monitoring has to take place, just like we do with our municipal waste at Francis Farm.”
Shortly after the county’s Francis Farm landfill entered service, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 mandated that solid waste landfills like Francis Farm would have to be constructed with an impermeable liner.
Since Francis Farm wasn’t, it started to leak into the surrounding area. Costly remediation took place and has since dramatically reduced the amount of exfiltration at the site, but the county’s still on the hook for monitoring costs for another three decades.
Francis said that won’t be the case with the Blue Ridge Paper landfill, which he says is lined.
“It would be up to Blue Ridge/Evergreen,” he said of costly monitoring activities.
Nestled deep in the mountains of southern Haywood County, scenic Lake Logan was once used as a corporate retreat for company executives and for company functions, like picnics. It even featured a small airstrip.
The retreat itself was sold to the Episcopal Diocese of Western North Carolina back in 2000 and has since become an attraction of its own as a conference center, hosting festivals and summer camps and the like.
The diocese owns much of the land surrounding the lake, right up to the waterline, and some private owners hold parcels near the shore. The state owns land surrounding the entire settlement, but Blue Ridge Paper still owns the 102-acre lake itself, along with a 9-acre parcel at the north end where the lake’s dam regulates water flowing into downtown Canton and into the mill.
Pactiv Evergreen hasn’t been responsive to media inquiries about activities related to the Canton mill’s closing, so it’s not yet known what might happen there.
In addition to the Canton mill, Pactiv Evergreen operates a facility in Waynesville, tucked in between the Great Smoky Mountains Expressway and Howell Mill Road. When company executives told workers on March 6 that the Canton mill would soon close for good, the Waynesville facility was
AVLmeetup, a networking group for Asheville’s real estate professionals, will host an exclusive Q&A session with Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers about the city’s future as the century-old paper mill makes plans to halt operations. The event will take place on Tuesday, March 28, beginning at 5 p.m. at the Hilltop Event Center, 21 Restaurant Court, in Asheville. Learn more at avlmeetup.com. RSVP at avlmeetup.com/rsvp.
also mentioned.
Byron Racki, president of beverage merchandising, said during the meeting that the facility, which sits within Waynesville’s extraterritorial jurisdiction, wouldn’t immediately close but would see substantial job cuts of perhaps two-thirds or three-fourths of its workers.
Racki also said that Pactiv Evergreen was exploring strategic alternatives for the 260,000-square foot facility, built in 1960 on 35 acres.
If one of those strategic alternatives is to close it down completely, it may not be easy to fill.
Five years ago, Haywood’s chamber of commerce entered into an innovative deal with the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce to co-market Haywood’s available sites alongside Asheville’s. One of Haywood’s most attractive, the Beaverdam Industrial Park, still has capacity.
The deal thus far has produced a lot more interest in Haywood’s available sites, and the county’s come close to landing “the big one” several times, but it still hasn’t happened, and Haywood taxpayers are out around half a
million dollars to the Asheville chamber for the effort.
But there is some hope, according to Christopher Chung, CEO of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina.
“Notwithstanding the news in Canton of course, the past few years have been characterized by what I would say is an unprecedented level of overall [economic development] activity,” Chung said.
The EDPNC performs a number of actions that fall under the economic development banner, including export assistance, and tourism and travel marketing, but most of it comes down to recruiting or retaining businesses.
At any given time, the EDPNC is talking to hundreds of companies about a potential investment that would create jobs in North Carolina.
Out of all those conversations — it’s about 230 right now, Chung thinks — there’s a fair number that start with companies asking the EDPNC to help identify potential real estate across North Carolina where they could theoretically place their operations.
“Most of what we’re dealing with right now does tend to be industrial manufacturing. We’re not seeing a lot of office-related projects. Ninety-plus plus percent of what we’re working on right now has some kind of industrial end use,” he said. “Two-thirds to three-quarters of them actually start off looking for an existing, vacant facility.”
Chung hasn’t yet visited the building but said that generally, it should draw interest if it becomes vacant.
“If it’s a modern, high-quality facility, there’s a good chance that’s going to get quickly on someone’s radar screen,” he said. “Is it going to be a fit at the end of the day? It’s hard to say, but at least it’s probably going to get some consideration — it’s certainly going to get more consideration than a community that does not have an existing building right now.”
The Canton mill itself certainly qualifies as a mega-site, with 185 acres straddling the Pigeon River and an external perimeter of nearly five miles.
It could end up languishing for years as a public safety nightmare. The massive industrial buildings there could be torn down, or left to rot. But as long as the company continues to pay its property taxes and obey all other laws and ordinances, it’s theirs to do with as they wish.
“Of course, we still need a willing seller at the end of the day and I would hope that the Pactiv people understand that this is devastating for the people who’ve depended on this for decades. I’m sure Pactiv understands that, and I’m sure to the extent they can they want to do something to soft-
Blue Ridge Paper Products, a subsidiary of Pactiv Evergreen, owns 36 parcels in Haywood County, totaling more than $33.2 million in assessed value.
175 Main St.................185.25...$19,791,400
81 Old Howell Mill Rd..35.12.....$7,142,300
Lake Logan Rd............101.74...$2,375,900
41 Main St...................0.64.......$640,400
128 Raceway Pl...........8.87.......$600,900
106 Park St.................0.34.......$474,700
Woodside Dr.................34.26.....$425,000
675 Incinerator Rd......41.89.....$384,900
142 Old Howell Mill Rd. .1.59.......$358,300
168 Beaver Rd............244.3.....$235,200
Reservoir Rd................12.36.....$218,200
82 Beaver Rd...............3.19.......$186,100
Skyland Terr.................1.95.......$104,700
Off Wrightsville Rd......0.62.......$47,600
Skyland Terr.................1.57.......$40,000
Off S. Main St..............0.2.........$25,800
Pasadena St................0.52.......$25,700
Off Wrightsville Rd......0.36.......$25,100
Terrace Dr....................0.39.......$23,900
Fiberville St.................0.4.........$22,900
Fiberville St.................0.2.........$18,700
Woodside Dr.................0.24.......$12,400
S Main St.....................0.09.......$11,500
Off Champion Dr.........0.87.......$4,600
Willow Dr......................0.09.......$4,500
Balsam Dr...................0.11.......$4,400
Off Champion Dr.........0.97.......$3,600
Off Champion Dr.........0.82.......$3,300
Balsam Dr...................0.09.......$3,100
Blackwell Dr................0.06.......$1,800
Fibreville St.................0.18.......$1,400
Fiberville St.................0.17.......$1,300
Skyland Terr.................0.22.......$1,200
Fiberville St.................0.14.......$1,000
Willow Dr......................0.03.......$900
White Pine St...............0.01.......$300
TOTALS:.......................679.85...$33,223,000
Source: Haywood County GIS, The Smoky Mountain News
en the blow,” Chung said. “Part of that would be, in my own opinion, working closely with the local economic development groups, state entities and other partners who can help them find another user or another use for that facility so that at least some amount of investment and jobs can eventually be replaced.”
But if it’s not being used to generate profit for the company, it ends up as nothing but a costly balance sheet liability. If that’s the case, there would be several challenges involved with marketing the property.
The entirety of the site is in an area subject to periodic flooding, as in 2021 when the Pigeon River rose to near-record levels, inundating the town.
And, it’s a highly specialized site; Pactiv Evergreen cited the cost of upgrades as one of the reasons for the mill’s impending closure,
so it’s unlikely there would be another buyer to swoop in and resume the same — or similar — operations.
Selling the mill to a competing paper company doesn’t seem to make much sense, especially in light of comments from Pactiv Evergreen that the industry is suffering.
Of the 230-ish projects Chung’s EDPNC is working right now, he estimates that one in six are in the automotive sector — specifically, vehicle electrification — 1 in 10 are food and beverage or agribusiness-related and another 1 in 10 are biotech or pharmaceutical production.
“I’m sure we’ve had paper products facilities looking in North Carolina but it doesn’t jump out as one of the top three or four sectors where we’re seeing constant activity,” Chung said. “That doesn’t mean the next phone call couldn’t be that product again. What we see today in the pipeline is by no means an indicator of what the future looks like. It’s just this snapshot in time.”
For prospective buyers, the EDPNC has a set of tools in its toolbox that could make the site more attractive.
“There are things we can do in terms of tax incentives, training incentives, infrastructure development dollars, things that would hopefully make it more appealing for a company to locate there,” said Chung. “And if Pactiv is a willing seller, then those are all the ingredients we’re going to need to have a shot at getting another user on some part of this property.”
The floodplain considerations and resulting insurance implications along with associated operational disruptions are considerations for any potential buyer’s risk management department, but there’s another unique challenge that would merit some due diligence.
The Town of Canton’s wastewater is treated by mill employees, on site. Getting that issue settled is urgent, both for the Town of Canton’s needs and for possible repurposing of the site.
“One of the most important things with economic development going forward is, we’ve got to get the town stabilized with a wastewater treatment facility,” said Francis.
There’s still a contract between the mill and the town that requires a two-year notice before employees stop treating the waste, which doesn’t leave much time for the town to seek other options.
“The two years is a nice little breather to have,” Francis said, “But as Nick [Scheuer, Canton’s town manager] and I were talking yesterday, if we’re not working on this every day, you’re going to see just how monumental the problem is.”
Haywood Rep. Mark Pless told The Smoky Mountain News last week that he’s seeking $35 million for a new treatment plant that’s not on Pactiv Evergreen’s property.
Francis said there may be some Community Development Block Grant funds available and that the county is working with federal funders from the U.S. Economic Development Administration trying to secure funding, but right now Canton doesn’t have the land, doesn’t have the money and doesn’t have the permits.
“We’ve got to turn the don’ts into dos,” Francis said. “We have no choice anymore.”
For the first time since 2008, North Carolina’s governor is termed out, meaning Democrats and Republicans will both have a pretty fair shot at what will be an open seat come 2024.
The political maneuvering around that opportunity has been closely watched with Democrats like Attorney General Josh Stein and Republicans like State Treasurer Dale Folwell and former Congressman Mark Walker at the center of the conversation.
Another Republican, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, has made his gubernatorial candidacy all but official, telling WFMY News more than a month ago that he’s been gearing up and “the possibility is great that we are going to take that next step.”
If that happens, it would open up the lieutenant governorship and have ramifications up and down the entire Republican ticket.
Although the job of lieutenant governor doesn’t exactly offer broad powers, it is important in a number of ways.
Now, lifelong North Carolina politico Hal Weatherman, best known for his backstage roles with some of the state’s most visible conservatives of the past three decades, wants to make sure that seat stays in Republican hands.
“To be clear, I'm not running against Mark Robinson. As Mark Robinson goes and does what we all think and know he is going to do, I am attempting to take his place as lieutenant governor,” Weatherman told The Smoky Mountain News. “If for whatever reason Mark were to not run [for another office], I would withdraw. Mark was the first phone call I made. Actually, the second.”
Weatherman’s no stranger to important phone calls with North Carolina’s lieutenant governor. His first call was to Dan Forest, who served in the role from 2013 through 2021.
“If you see how Dan governed as lieutenant governor, I was his chief of staff during that whole time,” Weatherman said. “I was intimately involved in everything that we did. To me, it's not really a question of how would Hal govern. You've kind of already seen it. And I feel like I have some unfinished business.”
But Weatherman says his relationship with Forest, who lost his 2020 gubernatorial bid to Rocky Mount Democrat Roy Cooper by more than four points, is more of a brotherly one. And there’s some sense to that.
Sue Myrick, Forest’s mother, hired Weatherman in 1995 after she went from being Charlotte’s first female mayor to being Charlotte’s member in Congress.
“I told her I would give her two years and instead did 18 years with her, worked my way up to chief of staff, ran all of her campaigns,” Weatherman said. “Sue was like my second mom.”
Myrick, now 81, remains something of a pioneering figure in conservative circles.
She came into Congress during the 1994 “Gingrich revolution” and was probably ahead of her time, serving as one of the most conservative members of the body at that moment.
An early supporter of the Tea Party caucus when it was formed in 2010 by Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, Myrick also chaired the influential Republican Study Commission, another fiscally and socially conservative caucus, from 2003 to 2005 — right before then-Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana.
Since then, the list of RSC chairs has read like a who’s who of conservative superstars, including Jim Jordan (R-OH), Steve Scalise (RFL) and North Carolina’s Mark Walker.
Presiding over a boom that transformed Charlotte from a sleepy southern town of
Cawthorn won a seat in Congress in 2020, Weatherman signed on as Cawthorn’s district director. It was a tumultuous 18 months for Cawthorn, who finally succumbed to a tawdry and incessant drip campaign that resulted in his defeat in the 2022 Republican Primary Election, albeit by a slim margin.
Many of Cawthorn’s electoral wounds were self-inflicted, but the biggest complaint about his service in Congress centered on his constituent services.
Elected officials in Western North Carolina routinely grumbled about having to go to Republican Sen. Thom Tillis for help when their constituents couldn’t get anywhere with Cawthorn, and Cawthorn’s replacement, Rep. Chuck Edwards (RHenderson) started working on a backlog of constituent service requests before he was even sworn into office earlier this year.
After Cawthorn, Weatherman went on to work on the 2022 congressional campaign of Bo Hines — basically a Cawthorn clone. Hines lost to Democrat Wiley Nickel by 2.6 points in a tossup district.
A few months later, Weatherman announced his candidacy for lieutenant governor.
One of the few ways a lieutenant governor in North Carolina can have an impact on the fortunes of America’s ninth — soon to be eighth — largest state is in the field of education.
The lieutenant governor serves on the state Board of Education and has considerable influence there. Indeed, Robinson just backed calls from the Board to increase teacher pay by at least 10%.
around 400,000 people to a world leader in finance and insurance with a population of 1.5 million wasn’t easy and there was plenty of division, according to Weatherman, who learned a lot from Myrick and her leadership style.
“She would bring people together,” Weatherman said. “If there were five different groups that couldn't agree she'd bring them in and lock the door and say, ‘We're not leaving.’ I always respected that. She was fearless. She stood on principle. She would not back down.”
When Myrick retired from Congress in 2012, Weatherman went to work for Forest, first under Republican Gov. Pat McCrory and then under Democrat Cooper. During that time, North Carolina’s GDP grew from $462 billion in 2013 to $662 billion in 2021.
But Forest’s electoral defeat was the beginning of a rough patch for Weatherman and his allies.
After Hendersonville native Madison
“I believe in life, that you have to be held accountable for your actions. That's true in business, that’s true in politics,” Weatherman said. “I served the people of the 11th District with integrity, and took pride in my work, took pride in my interactions with the constituents that I encountered. That's what I'm responsible for. I'm not passing the buck, but I'm responsible for Hal Weatherman. My name is not Madison. My name is not Dan.”
Weatherman wasn’t involved in the transition from Cawthorn to Edwards, but did point out that Cawthorn was the first freshman to open his district offices that cycle and thinks they did around 6,000 constituent service requests while he was there.
“That's good constituent service. A lot of that, I think, got caught up in the political windmill, and people started piling on,” Weatherman said. “I ran constituent services for 18 years in Sue Myrick’s office, with a much higher volume because it's an urban area and it's Charlotte, and I never had any complaints about the job that I did.”
That role has a lot to do with Weatherman’s unfinished business.
“I have a very strong belief, and Dan did as well, that people were put on this earth to work,” he said. “When we work, that's when we as people find our dignity, our selfrespect. It's where we learn self-sufficiency. It's where we train the next generation.”
Attempts to remove the stigma surrounding technical and vocational education aren’t new. One could argue that stigma doesn’t even really exist as it once did, but when Weatherman is asked for life advice from young people, he in turn asks them a series of questions to which the responses are often self-evident.
Do you want to learn a skill? Earn six figures? Be an entrepreneur? Start a business? Sell that business for seven or eight figures? Then go be a plumber, or an HVAC technician or a welder.
“I see the office of lieutenant governor taking over the apprenticeship program,” he said. “We have one, it's clunky, it's not well-utilized, it's not well pub-
“Most people come into office and it takes them a few months to get the lay of the land. Hal won’t have that problem. Hal will have a solid agenda.”
— Dan ForestHal Weatherman is seeking the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. Hal Weatherman photo
BY C ORY VAILLANCOURT P OLITICS E DITOR
In a letter sent by North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper to Mike King, CEO of Pactiv Evergreen, Cooper says that closing the Canton paper mill would violate the terms of a 2015 economic development deal and require the company to repay the state $12 million.
“North Carolina has been a partner to Pactiv Evergreen since it purchased the Canton mill, as demonstrated through a 2015 economic development agreement that provided $12 million to your company, efforts to rebuild and restore transportation vital to the plant’s operation in the wake of Tropical Storm Fred, and many other actions,” reads the letter, sent by Cooper on March 16.
Cooper went on to urge Pactiv Evergreen to “explore all options to keep the Canton mill in operation” either through sale, repurposing or other options, and warns of consequences if it’s not.
licized and other states do it better. Texas, Georgia, South Carolina — they do a far better job than we do.”
The lieutenant governor also sits on the State Board of Community Colleges. Many of them have been attempting to pick up the slack in workforce development, and still can’t meet the demand.
“I want our four-year universities to partner with the community college system in the same way that the community college system is currently partnering with the K-12 system to start offering ‘two and two’ degrees, where you get two years in the trades and then you get two years to take your pick, where you get graphic design, marketing, finance, business,” he said. “Then you have all the tools to be an entrepreneur but also a marketable skill set.”
One of the biggest workforce demands in Western North Carolina right now, aside from those of its burgeoning aerospace industry, is medical professionals. With Medicaid expansion imminent, providers will need to ramp up support staff to accommodate what’s expected to be several hundred thousand new patients.
The problem is so critical that Haywood Rep. Mark Pless recently offered an amendment to the House’s Medicaid expansion bill, offering a $14 million package of tuition reimbursement for roughly 200 doctors and nurses who will commit to working in rural North Carolina.
Late last year, Haywood Community College opened a new health sciences building, doubling the amount of floor space dedi-
“The mill’s closure would be a clear violation of a contract that two Pactiv Evergreen subsidiaries signed with the North Carolina Department of Commerce in February 2015,” Cooper said.
Signed by Republican Gov. Pat McCrory back in 2014, the Job Maintenance and Capital Development (JMAC) Agreement promised the mill’s owners $12 million over 10 years to convert its coal-fired boilers to natural gas, contingent on the company spending at least $51 million.
An October 2022 report on the grant program says that the $12 million has been fully disbursed and that the company had actually spent more than $56 million.
Some, including Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers, had openly wondered if there weren’t clawback provisions in the agreement or if the mill’s closing could possibly place Pactiv Evergreen in noncompliance with the terms of the deal.
The Smoky Mountain News first reported that the grant was still active after a North Carolina Department of Commerce spokesperson said that the DOC had begun an investigation into the specific circumstances of the company’s action as it might relate to repayments under the JMAC agreement.
“In this Job Maintenance and Capital Development Agreement (“JMAC Agreement”), Pactiv Evergreen promised to maintain operations at the Canton mill and to retain at least 800 full-time employees through December 31, 2024,” Cooper’s letter reads. “Closing the paper mill in Canton
cated to training the next generation of nursing professionals. At that very moment, there were around 100 job postings seeking certified nursing assistants, nurse practitioners, licensed practical nurses and registered nurses in Haywood County alone.
“I think the apprenticeship could help with that. We need to pay people to get the training that they need to get. I'm all in favor of paying people to do it. Most employers I know are willing to pay people to be trained,” Weatherman said.
With 1,100 people in Haywood County soon to be out of work due to the imminent closing of the Pactiv Evergreen paper mill in Canton, Weatherman not only talked of creating a “financial bridge” for employees by utilizing resources — federal, state and local, public and private — he also recommended pushing the community college system to take an active role.
“Through the North Carolina Department of Commerce, I would literally market to the world the availability of a physical plant and over 800 skilled workers available to any company in the world that is looking to relocate, and make the N.C. Community College system available to them to retrain the entire workforce if needed at no expense to the company,” he said.
Like many Republicans including Robinson, Weatherman is vocal on hot-button social issues surrounding North Carolina’s public school system, including critical race theory. On LGBT issues, he wants teachers to tell students who have questions, “Go ask your parents.”
would be a clear breach of the JMAC agreement. That breach would require you to repay in full the $12 million received under the contract. If you follow through your announced plans we will demand full repayment of those funds.”
Cooper said the breach would occur because Pactiv Evergreen promised to retain at least 800 full-time employees through Dec. 31, 2024 as part of the agreement. Also cc’d on the letter are Attorney General Josh Stein and several members of his staff.
Smathers said he wasn’t surprised to see the letter.
He’d like to see the U.S. Department of Education abolished, with its budget being sent back into local schools, and is a proponent of school choice — although he doesn’t want to see the state start to allow the infrastructure portion of school funding extended to public charter schools.
“They actually save the public school system money,” Weatherman said, adding that he served on the founding board of Wake Preparatory Academy, a public charter school. “I was a private citizen on a private board of directors running the school and we had to go out and find somebody to build a building, and we had to go raise the money and pay for it. And I'm fine with that.”
Obviously, Weatherman won’t have any influence on education if he doesn’t win his race; the 2024 Primary Election is still a ways off, but he has no shortage of opponents, even this early.
His declared Republican opponents, exGreensboro City Councilman Jim McKee and podcaster Allen Mashburn, don’t seem to have the experience or connections that Weatherman has, but if he makes it through the 2024 Republican Primary Elections, his toughest fight may be against Democrat Rachel Hunt.
Hunt is the daughter of former Gov. Jim Hunt, who served from 1977 to 1985. His name still carries considerable weight, as does hers — Rachel served two terms in the House, and is just starting her first term representing Mecklenburg County in the Senate.
But now that Weatherman’s stepped out on stage, running his own show instead of
“The conversation I had with Gov. Cooper in the hours following the closure announcement, he is doing exactly what he said he would do, which is put money in his budget for Canton and hold Pactiv Evergreen responsible for their legal obligations whether that is grants or cleanup,” Smathers said. “This letter is proof he is doing that. Where does it go from here? We’ll see. From day one, Democrats and Republicans in Raleigh have seen this not as a Canton crisis but as a statewide crisis. I appreciate Gov. Cooper’s tenacity in holding the company responsible to taxpayers.”
working behind the scenes for others, his fate lies squarely in his own hands.
Weatherman’s “brother” and former boss, Dan Forest, thinks Weatherman is probably the most qualified person on the planet for the job.
“There’s no doubt. He’s got more experience than most people running for office because of the background he has,” Forest told SMN on March 6. “He has the state level background in policy and politics, so he’s really good at both sides, and obviously he has the federal background in policy and politics, so he knows how to navigate that. Most people come into office and it takes them a few months to get the lay of the land. Hal won’t have that problem. Hal will have a solid agenda.”
Forest said that Weatherman hasn’t yet asked him for a formal endorsement, but when that time does come, he’ll “absolutely” endorse Weatherman.
Michele Woodhouse, former GOP chair of North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District, hasn’t yet formally backed anyone for lieutenant governor thus far, but offered a similar assessment of Weatherman’s credentials.
“I don’t believe there is or will be any candidate that understands the lieutenant governor position better than Hal,” Woodhouse said.
Learn more about Hal Weatherman at halweathermanfornc.com, and check out the list of his current and potential opponents — Democrat and Republican — at politics1.com/nc.htm.
Sixty-five-year-old Donna lived an active life until 2014, when her health struggles began. She soon felt isolated and depressed. Donna was desperate to get better, both emotionally and physically, even though her mobility was now limited.
“Somewhere within herself, she knew there is always hope,” says Vivian Gettys, chronic disease project manager at North Carolina Center for Health Wellness (NCCHW) at UNC Asheville. Donna was referred to PEARLS, the Program to Encourage Active, Rewarding Lives, a national, evidence-based program created by the University of Washington Health Promotion Research Center that works to reduce depression and social isolation in older adults. PEARLS dramatically improved Donna’s life.
NCCHW is working to launch a PEARLS program in North Carolina to help aging adults like Donna improve their mental and physical health. A new three-year grant of $660,189 from the Administration for
Community Living (ACL) will support that effort by allowing the Centralina Area Agency on Aging (AAA) to pilot PEARLS in North Carolina.
“This program complements
NCCHW’s Chronic Disease SelfManagement Education (CDSME) programs that focus on skill-building to more effectively manage symptoms of chronic conditions,” says Natasha Vos, senior project manager of the ACL grant. NCCHW will also work more closely with partners, including three AAAs, to expand its program offerings in the western and eastern part of the state.
Centralina AAA already serves as the CDSME training academy for the NCCHW Healthy Aging NC network of providers. In partnership with Centralina AAA, NCCHW will be “compiling best practices to share with other agencies in the state interested in providing PEARLS services,” according to Gettys, who will be managing the program in North Carolina.
Aging adults in the state are in great need of mental health programming. North Carolina has one of the highest numbers of people 65 and older in the country who are dealing with multiple chronic conditions, depression, frequent mental distress, and social isolation, according to the United Health Foundation’s 2021 Senior Report.
Nearly half of participants in CDSME programs offered by North Carolina Area Agencies on Aging live alone and many have multiple chronic conditions. This puts them at highest risk of social isolation and increases the chance of mental health issues.
“Social isolation itself is associated with a substantial risk for increased morbidity and premature mortality that is comparable to the risk associated with obesity, hypertension, or daily tobacco use,” says Gettys, “and it’s also associated with mental health morbidities such as depression, anxiety, and dementia.”
“Adults with chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure or persistent pain benefit from CDSME’s workshop-style educational programs, which guide them to utilize self-management techniques and develop a community of support to maintain a healthy lifestyle,” says Vos.
Trained workshop leaders facilitate a goal setting and action planning approach that builds participants’ success and confidence. PEARLS uses a similar model by linking counselors with older adults experiencing depression to coach them in devel-
oping problem-solving skills and to set goals to be more engaged in social, physical, and other pleasurable activities. It assists participants to feel better and have better control of their lives.
PEARLS has a demonstrated record of success. Studies show that people who completed the program have fewer hospitalizations than their peers and can experience up to a 50% reduction in or complete remission from depression symptoms. They gain greater health-related quality of life and well-being.
Donna was one of those who benefitted, leaving the PEARLS program in better health, mentally and physically. She learned techniques to improve her life and met her goals of becoming more active and connecting with others in meaningful ways. Her social life improved with regular social visits and phone calls, outdoor outings, attending church, going out to dinner, and by volunteering at her church kitchen. Walking and stretching regularly improved her physical mobility. Donna’s depression was alleviated after resolving major problems, becoming more physically and socially active and involved with crocheting, reading, and arts and crafts.
“She reminds herself on a daily basis to uplift herself by engaging in healthy and enjoyable activities, especially when she starts to have any unpleasant feelings. She is now able to recognize and manage her problems and emotions in more positive ways,” says Gettys. “Donna knows she is going to be more than OK.”
Atotal of 43 candidates have been certified to run for 17 offices up for election in the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians this year, nearly 20% fewer than the 53 candidates certified during the last chief’s election year in 2019. The final list contains some expected contenders and a scattering of surprises.
In a Primary Election June 1 and General Election Sept. 7, voters will choose their principal chief and vice chief for the next four years, as well as 12 Tribal Council members to serve two-year terms and three School Board representatives serving four-year terms.
Six people are seeking a shot at the tribe’s top job, including incumbent Principal Chief Richard Sneed and attorney Robert Saunooke, both of whom announced their intention to run last fall. However, former Wolfetown Rep. Bo Crowe, who had also announced in that timeframe, is not on the list. Crowe resigned his seat in January following criminal charges in connection to an alleged assault Jan. 6. That legal process is still ongoing, and Crowe opted to try and regain his seat on Council rather than following through on his intended bid for chief.
Also hoping to secure the principal chief job in September are Michell Hicks, who held the position from 2003-2015 and former Birdtown Rep. Gene Crowe Jr., who now chairs the Police Commission, as well as Gary Ledford and Lori Taylor, who have both previously run for tribal office.
During the Primary Election Thursday, June 1, Cherokee voters will select one candidate for principal chief and two to represent their township on Tribal Council. Painttown also has a primary race for School Board. The top four candidates for each Tribal Council township and top two for all other races will progress to the General Election.
There are not enough candidates for vice chief, Big Cove Tribal Council, Snowbird/Cherokee County Tribal Council or Big Y School Board to warrant a primary election in those races. These candidates will face off in the September General Election. The race for Yellowhill School Board is uncontested.
PRINCIPAL CHIEF
• Michell Hicks
• Gene Crowe Jr.
• Robert Saunooke
• Richard Sneed
• Lori Taylor
• Gary Ledford
VICE CHIEF
• Alan B Ensley
• Teresa McCoy
The vice chief race, which drew eight candidates in 2019, has only two contenders this time and will not require a primary.
Incumbent Alan “B” Ensley will face current Big Cove Rep. Teresa McCoy in the September General Election.
McCoy is the only one of the 12 sitting Tribal Council members who will not seek re-election to his or her current seat. In addition to Chairman Richard French, the other current Big Cove representative, three people are running to represent that community on Tribal Council. These candidates include Carla Neadeau, chief of the Cherokee Indian Police Department since June 2022, and Perry Shell, who has previously served multiple terms representing Big Cove on Tribal Council. Venita Wolfe, listed on the tribe’s website as a training and development specialist, is also running for the seat.
Big Cove and Snowbird/Cherokee County are the only two townships that will not require a primary for their Tribal Council race. In addition to incumbents Adam Wachacha and Bucky Brown, Janell Rattler is the only person seeking to represent Snowbird/Cherokee County.
Painttown and Wolfetown have the most Tribal Council candidates, with six each. In Painttown, incumbents Dike Sneed and Sean “Michael” Stamper, who won his seat in a Dec. 15 special election following the death of longtime Rep. Tommye Saunooke, are running for new terms. Contesting them are Andre Brown and Jeff Thompson, who both ran in the special election Stamper won; Carolyn West, former legislative attorney for Tribal Council and current chair of the Qualla Enterprise Board;
BIRDTOWN
• Cyndi Lambert
• Albert Rose
• Joi Owle
• Boyd Owle
• Jim Owle
BIG COVE
• Carla Pheasant Neadeau
• Richard French
• Perry Shell
• Venita Wolfe
PAINTTOWN
• Sean “Michael” Stamper
• Andre Brown
• Dike Sneed
• Jeff Thompson
• Richard Delano Huskey
• Carolyn West
YELLOWHILL
• T.W. Saunooke
• David Wolfe
• Stephanie Saunooke French
• Tom Wahnetah
• Ernest Tiger
and Richard Delano Huskey.
In Wolfetown, both incumbents won their seats in special elections — Andrew Oocumma Dec. 15 and Mike Parker March 2. Bo Crowe, who resigned the seat Parker now holds, wants to reclaim it, and to do so he will run against not only Oocumma and Parker but also his brother and 2019 principal chief candidate Peanut Crowe, who has also entered the race. Qiana Powell, who works in the tribe’s WIC Program and is pursuing a Master of Legal Studies degree in indigenous people’s law, is also running, as is Chelsea Taylor, who held the seat for one term 2019-2021.
In Yellowhill, incumbents T.W. Saunooke and David Wolfe will face Tom Wahnetah, who held the seat 2019-2021, along with Ernest Tiger and previous Council candidate Stephanie Saunooke French.
Birdtown voters will pick two of five candidates to represent them. Incumbents Boyd Owle and Albert Rose, who serves as vice chair, will seek re-election. They will face Cyndi Lambert, business owner and wife of former Principal Chief Patrick Lambert; Jim Owle, whose career includes more than a decade on Tribal Council and six years on the Tribal Casino Gaming Enterprise Board; and Joi Owle.
Of the three school board races, only one will require a primary. Incumbent Jennifer Lynn Thompson is running unopposed for the Yellowhill seat, while Samantha Hernandez will challenge incumbent Tara Reed-Cooper for the Big Y seat. Incumbent Regina Rosario will face Micah Swimmer and Keyonna Hornbuckle, who all hope to represent Painttown.
SNOWBIRD/CHEROKEE COUNTY
• Janell Rattler
• Adam Wachacha
• Bucky Brown
WOLFTOWN/BIG Y
• Bo Crowe
• Andrew Oocumma
• Qiana Powell
• Chelsea Taylor
• Mike Parker
• Peanut Crowe
SCHOOL BOARD YELLOWHILL
• Jennifer Lynn Thompson
SCHOOL BOARD PAINTTOWN
• Regina Rosario
• Micah Swimmer
• Keyonna Hornbuckle
SCHOOL BOARD BIG Y
• Samantha Hernandez
• Tara Reed – Cooper
The Smoky Mountain News will develop a voter guide over the coming months introducing candidates for the Primary Election. To be included, contact holly@smokymountainnews.com.
BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF W RITER
Several Highlands residents converged on a recent Macon County commissioners meeting to voice their opposition to the county commission cancelling a project that would have expanded Highlands School.
“If we could possibly look at funding our Highlands expansion, it would be so appreciated. We really would like to have it back,” said Highlands resident and retired educator Freda Bennet.
The Highlands School project, sometimes referred to as the Highlands pre-K project, involves renovating high school classrooms so they can function as pre-K classrooms, renovating and expanding the media center and building additional high school classrooms to make up for those converted into pre-K rooms. The project is estimated at around $4.8 million.
Highlands School currently has no preschool classrooms. The county serves about 90 preschool students annually, though it has around 300 students entering kindergarten each year. According to school board member Hilary Wilkes, private early childhood care and education centers in Highlands have years-long waiting lists.
Following a meeting of the liaison committee between the school board and county commission in February, the top five capital outlay priorities for Macon County Schools, as announced during the Feb. 21 county commission meeting, were the Macon Middle vent pipes, the wastewater treatment plant at Nantahala, the Franklin High School project, the Highlands Middle School renovation project and the Macon Middle School track replacement.
“As part of that, in acknowledging these priorities, we must also acknowledge that the Highlands pre-K did not make that priority list. With that being said, it will require us to take action to terminate that contract for architectural services at the Highlands pre-K,” said County Manager Derek Rolland during the Feb. 21 meeting. “The contract amount, as you’ll recall, was for $329,255. We’ve spent $35,262. We do have a deliverable in the form of a schematic design in case we decide to move forward in the future with that project, we will have those drawings.”
During that meeting School Board
Chairman Jim Breedlove noted that while, per the county commission’s request, the school board prioritized its lengthy list of capital needs to create a top five, two of the items on that list were emergency items — the vent pipes at Macon Middle and the wastewater treatment plant at Nantahala.
“We feel very strongly that the high school is our top priority; I think we’ve made that very clear,” said Breedlove. “However, we do not plan on removing the Highlands project from our capital outlay request. We think it’s a very important project, I think it provides a very needed service to the town of Highlands. It was behind the high school and a couple others, but by no means have
items on the list are considered emergencies — if either the vent pipes or the wastewater treatment plant were to fail, school could not be in session. Then there is the Franklin High School project. The next two items on the list, Highlands Middle School renovations and Macon Middle Track replacement, are already funded — Highlands Middle School through the North Carolina Repair and Renovation Fund available through the North Carolina Education Lottery with no local money needed, and the Macon Middle School track with money that has already been allocated to the middle school during its renovation, in addition to $109,000 from the general assembly that can only be used
argued that the request from the county commission for five projects from the school board was an arbitrary number and that instead, the commission should look at how much it can afford to give the school system for capital projects.
“I understand the school board gave you a list of priorities, the projects that need to get done, but when I watched that meeting online, I didn’t see discussion of, can we go beyond those five priorities, can we have seven, can we have eight, what can we afford? There was no discussion on what we could afford,” said Moore.
“I think each of you told me, you’re so for pre-K, but you don’t want the county to have to finance it,” said Bennett during public comment. “I get that. But sometimes state legislators just will not do what they should do and sometimes we just have to say ‘we’ll pick up that mantle and we’ll do it, one at a time.’”
Bennett taught for 34 years, most of those in Highlands.
Commissioner John Shearl spoke out during the public comment session to address Bennett’s comments.
“It’s not the board of commissioners’ responsibility to tell the school system what is needed,” said Shearl.
we let up. We will continue to pursue the request.”
“I think it would be a shame to take funding away from a project that’s already been budgeted for it,” said school board member Hilary Wilkes at the Feb. 21 commissioner meeting. “I think it would show a lack of investment in Highlands from this board to do so.”
The motion to terminate the contract for architectural services passed unanimously.
While the Highlands project may not have made the top five list requested by the county commission, school board members were clear that they still wanted to see the project funded.
It is important to note that while commissioners asked for a list of the top five most-needed capital projects, the first two
for athletic facilities.
Part of the reason the school board felt it needed to include these items on the top five priority list is because there were already funding sources available to make the projects happen.
This creation of a top-five priority list created some confusion among members of the public who came before the county commission March 14 to voice opposition to the county’s decision to terminate the contract for architectural services for the Highlands expansion project, thereby halting current work. These residents opined that the county should continue to fund the Highlands expansion project even if it is not listed in the top five priority list.
Highlands resident and business owner Jerry Moore spoke in public comment and
He read to Bennett from a newspaper clipping that he said presented false information. He went on to explain to Bennett that, as he understood it, the school board had changed their list of top five priorities that the county commission requested and moved the Highlands project off that list.
“It seems so very strange to me that I would have to argue or defend a position from the person that is elected to represent my district,” Bennett responded.
Several other Highlands residents spoke to the dire need of pre-K services at Highlands School and against canceling the project, including the executive director of the Literacy and Learning Center in Highlands, Bonnie Potts. She said that in her work she sees the direct effects of a lack of preschool access for students in Highlands.
A member of the Advancing Highlands Education Committee also spoke out and noted that the group has been working towards expansion for two years.
Sarge’s Animal Rescue Foundation, Inc. will join animal shelters across the country in hosting a Shelter Slumber Pawty March 25-26. For 24 hours, participants will eat, sleep and play in the shelter along with one of their favorite four-legged shelter residents. The entire event will be streamed on social media as participants provide viewers with a sneak peek into the lives of shelter pets.
WLOS-TV News 13 meteorologist Meghan Danahey brought the event to Sarge’s attention after she participated in a shelter ‘Slumber Pawtry’ while living in St. Louis.
“When I found out about this event I knew we had to do it,” said Sarge’s Events and Fundraising Coordinator, Caroline Ledford. “It’s such a unique and fun way to not just raise money for our shelter but to also give people a chance to see what it’s like for the animals on a day-to-day basis and how important human-animal companionship is. Through our live streams, viewers will be able to get to know some of our animals and we hope they fall in love with them as much as we are in love with them.”
Danahey will be sleeping overnight at Sarge’s during the event and broadcasting live updates on Facebook to give viewers a glimpse of animal shelter life.
Participants have begun fundraising efforts online and all proceeds will go toward the organization’s animal care costs. Help Sarge’s reach its goal of raising $25,000 to help support the homeless animals of Haywood County.
To donate, visit shelterslumberpawty.com/event/sarges.
BY KYLE P ERROTTI
N EWS E DITOR
Last Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin was indicted on a war crime related to his country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Maggie Valley resident David Crane saw it coming and even predicted Putin would be charged just the night before when speaking in front of a group in Haywood County. Once that indictment came to fruition, Crane’s phone blew up with all kinds of people interested in his take. After all, he was the last man to head up an international war crimes tribunal — a tribunal that ended in the successful prosecution of former Liberian president and warlord Charles Taylor, who now languishes in a North England prison.
Putin’s alleged crime was the forced deportation of children, and his Children’s Rights Commissioner, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, was also charged. According to a statement released by the International Criminal Court, Putin and Lvova-Belova allegedly committed the war crimes of “unlawful deportation of [children] and that of unlawful transfer of [children] from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”
A year ago, Crane took a leading role in the quest to prosecute Putin. Since then, he’s led the group that drafted several white papers making the case against Putin for various war crimes.
The first white paper came in at 276 pages and was released last April.
One appendix in that white paper includes a “crime narrative” that lists specific incidents in the first two months of the war and how they are violations of international law. The perpetrator listed for almost every incident is Russia.
Crane wrote the white paper’s opening statement.
“Since the first day of invasion, Russia has continued its attacks on not just Ukrainian military, but its civilian population as well, forcing approximately 3.5 million Ukrainians to leave Kyiv,” it reads. “Furthermore, there have been reports of war crimes by Russian government through its acts of shelling an orphanage, maternity hospital, children’s hospital.”
Crane also uses the opening statement as a rallying cry.
“The people of Ukraine are not in this fight alone, and the international system of justice must step up and fulfill its role as a mechanism of accountability,” it reads. “Without it, the painful and brutal history of Ukrainian occupation will continue unabated, leaving democracy and justice around the world in peril.”
Crane said he was thrilled with Putin’s
indictment and noted it fell almost exactly on the anniversary of the indictment of Charles Taylor, the first ever sitting head of state in the modern era to be indicted for war crimes.
“And now 20 years later, almost to the day, a second sitting Head of State has been indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity, and that’s Vladimir Putin,” Crane said.
Although Crane considers himself retired, he’s played a key role in securing the indictment of Putin since the invasion began on Feb. 24 of last year and was even among those sanctioned by Putin for his work.
In Crane’s effort to lead an international group to set up a special tribunal, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky publicly endorsed a written proposal Crane and his group put out in September of last year.
“I’ve actually drafted the UN General Assembly resolution that would help create the tribunal, and also the step-by-step plan and how to set up the tribunal,” Crane said.
A common refrain for Crane has been that the rule of law is more powerful than the rule of the gun, a warning to dictators who believe they can act with impunity.
“If we ease our way out of the Ukraine crisis with little to no accountability for Russian aggression, it will be a signal to the rest of the world’s tyrants, strongmen and dictators that the United Nation’s paradigm based on the rule of law is a sham. Democracies around the world must remain strong in holding the Russian Federation accountable,” one white paper reads.
Crane reiterated that sentiment in his interview with The Smoky Mountain News hours after the news of Putin’s indictment broke.
“This indictment is a forever ash mark on Vladimir Putin, who is now an indicted war criminal, and it sends an amazing and important signal to all the tyrants and dictators around the world, who are watching like crocodiles,” he said.
“This is this is a huge moment, a moment that pushed back the age of the strong man … we’re now going to go back to using the law as opposed to nationalistic power,” he added. “2023 is going to be the year that tyrants and would be tyrants.”
Crane talked specifically about Chinese President Xi Jinping, who traveled to Russia and met with Putin earlier this week. In the last couple of months, concerns have mounted regarding the potential that China may provide military aid to the battered Russian Army, aid that could very well set off a new, more successful offensive against Ukraine. Crane said that while Jinping may placate Putin by meeting with him, the indictment should ensure he doesn’t associate himself too closely with Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“This gives us legal authority to impose sanctions on China, and China’s all about business,” Crane said. “That’s why they’re the power they are … [Jinping] is a damn fool if he does that, because he knows he could be charged with aiding and abetting international war crimes.”
When Crane spoke in front of a group almost a year ago, someone in the audience asked what an indictment might tangibly mean for Putin. Would he be able to travel internationally without being arrested? If he just stays in Russia and plays it safe, will he live out the rest of his life without being brought to justice?
“He is an indicted war criminal, even if we never get him into court,” Crane said. “It doesn’t matter; it’s for life. It paints his history. It is the ultimate ash mark on his forehead. The only thing that could be worse for him is he’s brought in the court. And there may be a
political circumstance by which Russia would hand Putin over for a fair and open trial like the international community did handing over Charles Taylor to me for a fair and open trial.”
Throughout the war in Ukraine, thousands of children have been orphaned or separated from their parents, and Belova’s team has swept up a large portion of those children and brought them to Russia, where many are made citizens of that country. In response to being indicted, Belova scoffed and noted that ICC has no jurisdiction in Russia, essentially calling the charge meaningless.
“It is great that the international community has appreciated the work to help the children of our country, that we do not leave them in war zones, that we take them out, we create good conditions for them, that we surround them with loving, caring people,” she said.
When asked what he would say to Belova, Crane chuckled.
“I would say I’ll see you in court,” Crane said. “Charles Taylor blew me off and called me a redneck racist. They can put on a brave face, but in their heart of hearts, they know the significance of this.”
In the white paper that came out in April of last year, Crane and his team made the case for indictments of several individuals in Putin’s circle. He said he expects more people to be indicted on a whole range war crimes.
“This is just the beginning,” he said.
“This indictment is a forever ash mark on Vladimir Putin, who is now an indicted war criminal, and it sends an amazing and important signal to all the tyrants and dictators around the world, who are watching like crocodiles.”
— David Crane
BY HANNAH MCLEOD
STAFF W RITER
The start date for construction of the Franklin Skatepark is approaching quickly, and now the project has all the funding it needs.
Last week, Macon County commissioners voted to chip in more than $10,000 over the amount requested to help finish the project.
“I’m all about the skatepark; I think it’s way past due,” said Commissioner John Shearl.
Franklin Town Manager Amie Owens came before the county commission during its March 14 board meeting to give an update on the project. The original cost of the skatepark was estimated at $294,750, but because town staff decided to take care of all the grading at the site, that knocked more than $30,000 off the price. Through fundraising, a previous donation from the county and a SCIF grant from the Southwestern Commission, the town had pulled together just over $150,000 for the skatepark, leaving about $110,000 yet to be funded.
Town staff recently met with Andy Duck of Artisan Skateparks at the project site. Currently, the Artisan Skateparks team is working on renovations to the skatepark in Asheville. They will head over to Franklin next to begin construction there.
“Staff will start actually doing that grading when the weather breaks and allows us to do so,” said Owens. “But we’ll have that grading done by the first week in May so the project can start either late May or early June. They’ve got a 120-day process on that in the contract, so by late summer we will actually have a skatepark for individuals to utilize.”
Previously, there had been discussion and a request from the skate community to the board of county commissioners to potentially provide $50,000 to the project. That request was never formalized and that was part of Owen’s intent in coming before the board March 14.
“So that we can show the partnership that we all have for this particular project, it would be a contribution from the county commissioners, a contribution from the
town and we would still hope that the skate community would continue their fundraising efforts as they have been doing in the past,” said Owens.
Owens asked the board members that as they think about their budget for the upcoming year, they consider a $50,000 donation toward the Franklin Skatepark project. In addition to a $50,000 allocation from the Town of Sylva and $10,000 in additional fundraising, this would round out the project funding.
Commissioner Danny Antoine, liaison with the Franklin Town Board, suggested to his fellow commissioners that the county not only donate the $50,000 request, but also the additional funds that were going to be left to the skate community to fundraise — about $10,000.
“I think it’s awesome that we’re getting to partner with you guys on this particular project and I think these kids have done a phenomenal job raising $39,000,” said Antoine. “I would like to make a motion or a suggestion to the board for you guys to consider us funding the remaining balance of [$60,576], and let’s build these kids a skatepark. Let’s get this going.”
Commissioner Josh Young asked Owens how confident she was that the estimates the town received were correct and that there were not going to be additional costs. Owens told commissioners that the contract the town signed says the project is not to exceed $262,000 and that there is a 10% contingency built into that cost.
“We actually found out that because we happened to have some rebar laying around, that is actually going to reduce the cost because they’re going to use the rebar that we had on site for another project,” said Owens.
The motion to allocate $60,576 to the Franklin Skatepark project to cover the costs of the county’s donation and mitigate further need for fundraising passed unanimously. The money will come from the county’s general fund.
“Let’s build this skatepark, get it over with and give these kids something to do and go onto the next thing like an ADA playground,” Commissioner Paul Higdon said. “I’m ready to roll on this.”
The start date for Franklin’s skatepark is on the horizon, and now it’s guaranteed to be fully funded.Donated photo
North Carolina fourth graders are testing proficient in reading at the lowest level since 2009, and the University of North Carolina Board of Governors is concerned that its schools aren’t equipping future K-12 teachers to reverse that trend.
The 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress, which measures fourth and eighth-graders’ proficiency in math, science and reading, found that only 32.3% of North Carolina fourth-graders were proficient or above in reading. That’s right on par with the national average for 2022 but represents a backward slide in the progress North Carolina had been making since 2007, when only 29.1% of fourth graders tested proficient.
“We don’t control many parts of this equation,” UNC Board of Governors Chairman Randall Ramsey said during a Jan. 19 meeting. “The seeds of students’ achievement are sown in early life, starting with engaged parents. And we don’t control K-12 funding or curriculum. But as a university system, we do control what teachers in training learn in our universities.”
For the last several years, the UNC System has placed heavy focus on understanding and improving how it teaches literacy instruction to prospective K-12 teachers at its 15 institutions with education programs.
The N.C. Literacy Task Force, which the N.C. State Board of Education announced in September 2019, laid much of the groundwork. That group, of which Western Carolina University’s Dean of the College of Education and Allied Professions Kim Winter, was a member, was charged with developing a report to include recommended changes to educator preparation and licensure to improve K-3 reading instruction.
“We were all going in the same direction toward some common goals, but we were on different roads,” Winter said. “So it’s this idea of the last five years, six years of figuring out how we can come together and be on the same road together.”
In 2020, Winter coauthored a resolution later passed by the UNC Board of Governors
that tasked the UNC System with developing a framework for literacy instruction. The board adopted the 115-page Science of Reading framework in 2021, and that same year the Excellent Public Schools Act added a statutory mandate that institutions adopt and implement the program.
“If you were to think about it in simple terms, it really is this idea of using the evidence that we have from the research base that’s been going on for decades, and continues to evolve, to make sure those are the practices that we’re teaching our teachers,” said Kelly Tracy, Ph.D., who is director of WCU’s School of Teaching and Learning.
That’s a simple idea in theory, but it’s complex in practice. These requirements are aimed at students who are already learning the multitudes of general education practices and teaching techniques they’ll need to succeed as elementary or special education teachers — not reading specialists.
“There’s a lot of cognitive load sitting on our students,” Tracy said. “We’re really trying to make sure developmentally, we’re building a progression to help them understand so that they’re at a very solid spot when they head into their first year of teaching.”
Now that the UNC System is two years into the new framework — and the mandate to teach it — it has commissioned a study to evaluate how well its 15 institutions with teacher prep programs are implementing these research-based literacy instruction principles. The Board of Governors discussed the results of the study during its Jan. 19 meeting, and it’s safe to say they were not happy with the results.
“I sure hope that we keep our nose to the grindstone, and we see that the people of North Carolina get their money’s worth for all that they have paid and the little they have gotten,” Board of Governors member
• 32.3% of North Carolina fourth graders tested proficient or above
• Since 1992, the lowest percent proficient was 24.7% in 1992 and the highest 38.5% in 2017.
• North Carolina’s 2022 score was on par with the national average — eight states scored higher, seven scored lower, and the rest scored about the same.
• Only 17% of Black students scored proficient or above, compared to 56% of Asian students, 44% of White students and 21% of Hispanic students.
• Of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch, only 17% scored proficient or above compared to 41% of those who do not qualify for the program.
• Proficiency among female students was 3 percentage points higher than among male students, at 34%.
Source: 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress data
Thomas Goolsby said. “This is embarrassing for the Board of Governors. This is embarrassing for the university system and for the state of North Carolina.”
Reviewers for the study, conducted by Teacher Prep Inspection-US, looked for Science of Reading concept evidence and rated the accuracy and quality of these concepts in all 73 courses it reviewed across the 15 UNC institutions. Reviewers looked at course syllabi and schedules, assignments, assessments, video observations of course instructions and interviews with instructors.
Only one of the 15 programs scored as having strong implementation of Science of Reading, with five more rated as “good.” That left nearly two-thirds of the programs in need
of significant improvements. TPI-US rated eight institutions as “needs improvement” and one as “inadequate.”
“Today’s numbers and results should stir up anger and embarrassment for us all,” said Vice Chair Wendy Murphy. “It is not my nature to shame, but one college of education out of 15 being strong is not enough. Good is not good enough, and needs improvement and inadequate are unacceptable for the crown jewel of this great state. I can think of no other task or topic that will come before us more important than the work being done to train and produce effective teachers, who in turn produce future leaders of this great state.”
The only institution that TPI-US rated as “strong” in Science of Learning instruction was UNC Charlotte, while Fayetteville State, N.C. A&T, N.C. State, UNC Chapel Hill and UNC Wilmington all received “good” ratings. WCU was among the majority of institutions that received a “needs improvement” rating.
Tracy said her program is trying to approach this disappointing outcome “from a perspective of improvement.”
“I feel proud of so much of the work that we do, and I know how hard we’re working and what we really want our candidates to know, but I also know we can always get better,” she said.
So far, she said, WCU has received only a generic report listing its program’s strengths and weaknesses, but not an actual rubric showing how it ended up with the score it did. Leaders of WCU’s education program will soon meet with the reviewers at TPI-US to gain more insight into the deficiencies they perceived in WCU’s program.
“I think that will be really valuable for us,” Winter said. “We have this big set of things that were highlighted as here are all of these specific things, with examples in our report, that we’re doing very well, that were highly rated, and then really it boils down to these two things that
we’re continually working on, but we just sort of see them as broad commentary.”
Winters provided excerpts from the report showing 15 bullet points of program strengths but only two areas for improvement. The reviewers said WCU’s program does not adequately assess the ability of teachers in training to administer and score assessments for all oral literacy skills, and that it should better provide a spiraling framework across courses in which instructors introduce and revisit multiple research-based reading models for all literacy skills. Winters said those are both complex and difficult issues to tackle, and that WCU has already been working to improve in those areas.
“I would argue it’s likely everyone needs to be working on these two things, because there they really are big ones,” Winter said.
Tracy said the review itself was an intensive process, requiring professors to provide videos, interviews and a slew of course
schools. WCU and N.C. State are the only two institutions where that effort has come to fruition thus far. At WCU, $1.5 million from the Goodnight Foundation and $1 million in matching funds from the UNC System created a $2.5 million endowment. WCU is actively searching for a faculty member to fill the seat. Chancellor Kelli R. Brown said WCU is “extremely grateful” for the opportunity.
“The ability to read and write is the cornerstone of success not only for students in the classroom, but also for productive and engaged members of society,” she said in a press release announcing the endowment.
“This is why Western Carolina University was founded nearly 135 years ago — to provide educational opportunities to the people of the western mountains of North Carolina. Teaching and learning are embedded deeply in this institution’s DNA, and through donations like the one from the Goodnight Foundation we are able to further our opportunities in these areas.”
Across the road from WCU’s main campus, the N.C. Center for the Advancement of Teaching, which has a focus on literacy, welcomes teachers from across the state for intensive professional development.
“We’ve already started brainstorming ways that this professor can be involved in the work that they do,” Winter said.
Thus far, the UNC System’s efforts have focused on K-3 instruction, but Winter said future efforts should also consider birth to kindergarten as well as middle school.
materials. WCU turned over everything the reviewers asked for, Tracy said, but that was not the case at all UNC institutions. While most program leaders provided “vital assistance” to reviewers, the report said, some program leaders and faculty offered “minimal cooperation.” This included faculty members declining to provide course session videos or interviews and program or institutional leaders withholding course materials or access to faculty.
“I’m sure that’s upsetting from a Board of Governors’ perspective what’s happening, but all we know is what we did, which was laid ourselves bare,” said Tracy.
WCU has already started incorporating lessons learned from the report. The day after she received the document, Tracy said, she revised what she was doing that year.
“I just believe in the work that we do and want people to understand that we are really working hard to make sure our kids are good readers, and we just really care deeply about this work,” she said.
Additionally, the Goodnight Foundation is working with a set of universities across the state to fund endowments for distinguished professorships in early literacy. These eight professors will create a network of early literacy expertise charged with advancing UNC literacy preparation programs across all 15
“About 33% of our sixth graders come to us in middle school not literate, and so we’re talking about teaching reading across that gigantic span,” she said.
In the meantime, the Board of Governors is looking for immediate action from programs that fell short in the TPI-US review. In January, the board unanimously approved a resolution requiring elementary and special education teaching programs to address areas in need of improvement and present evidence to UNC System President Peter Hans by July 1 of the actions they’ve taken to do so. If a program doesn’t present sufficient evidence by that date, its chancellor, dean and provost will be required to present to the Board of Governors Committee on Educational Planning, Policies and Programs. The committee, in consultation with Hans, will then decide “what remedies are appropriate to ensure compliance.”
Success is vital, because reading is vital. Literacy is the foundation of success, for individuals and for entire societies. From the furthest-flung faculty office to the Board of Governors boardroom, everyone agrees on that — and on the frustration of seeing how little forward progress has been made in the last few decades. If two-thirds of kids aren’t learning to read fluently, what does that mean for them as adults?
“If you’re looking historically at how did you oppress people, you withheld literacy, because literacy empowers you,” said Tracy. “So how do we make sure all of our students in our state are empowered?”
BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF W RITERAfter more than 30 years in education, Superintendent Chris Baldwin will retire from his position at Macon County Schools.
“This county is very lucky to have your leadership, and we’re lucky to have your leadership on this board,” said school board member Hilary Wilkes.
Baldwin announced his plan to retire, effective Sept. 1, during a February school board meeting.
“September the first, 2023 will be my retirement date,” said Baldwin. “I want to thank the board and the community for providing me with an education, providing me with the opportunity to work with some of the best people in the world, without question the best students in the world, and for allowing me to have some of the best experiences that anyone could have ever hoped to have had. I am very grateful.”
Baldwin has served as superintendent for 10 years, and previously worked as a teacher and principal in Macon County Schools.
“Dr. Baldwin, in case y’all didn’t know, has served now for 10 years,” said Chairman Jim Breedlove. “And in the state of North Carolina a superintendent serving for 10 years is almost unheard of in today’s world. It really truly is. I think it speaks to how successful and just how good Dr. Baldwin has been in his work as superintendent.”
School board member Melissa Evans grew up with Baldwin and said “it’s been an honor working with him. I’m very proud
because he’s a product of the Nantahala School and he’s done us right, made us proud. I appreciate him.”
Baldwin not only worked exclusively in the Macon County School system during his time as an educator, he also attended all grades K-12 in Macon County Schools.
“It is rare I think for someone to have been able to attend 12 years in a school system and then have only ever worked in one school system,” said Baldwin. “I’m honored to have had that opportunity here.”
At this time, the school board has not released information on how it will move forward in the search for a new superintendent. Baldwin has offered to help throughout the transition however he can. In North Carolina it is the responsibility of the Board of Education to hire, oversee and fire superintendents.
Haywood County School Board recently hired its previous assistant superintendent, Trevor Putnam, as superintendent. The school board opted for an internal hire, forgoing the opportunity to search for another candidate from outside the school system. Putnam worked closely with previous superintendent Bill Nolte and the board felt Putnam was the best person to take on the job.
When Jackson County Schools filled its vacant superintendent position two years ago, an interim superintendent filled the role for several months while the school board conducted a search and eventually hired Dana Ayers, who was previously working in Asheville City Schools.
As Americans, we’re banning a lot of books these days, perhaps 1,650 in the past year, censoring others, and coming after librarians and teachers. In North Carolina, too, at least six attempts have occurred statewide and here in the mountains, one in Waynesville and another in Macon County. Frankly, the arguments for banning books are as old as the printing press and as flimsy as electronic tweets. Yet whether in Macon County, or McMinn County, Tennessee, most are not only unsuccessful but counterproductive. It’s called the “Streisand effect” after the singer/actress Barbara Streisand, and, in the case of McMinn County, the novel “Maus,” about a Holocaust family, shot to the top of Amazon’s best-seller list after attempts by the local school board to suppress it.
It’s far too convenient to blame banning books on rightwing extremists when, historically, the left has also attempted to censor the likes of “Huckleberry Finn” for “racist content.” At the root of all these arguments is the dystopian belief that books should represent some sort of ideal world, either a radically inclusive, impossibly egalitarian progressive one or a pre-civil rights “Father Knows Best” era where we all lived in a professionally happy Mayberry-like world layered over by sacred texts like the Bible and Constitution, one that never existed except on TV. Both ignore conflicting, controversial points of view and exclude many Americans, mostly minorities.
Implicit in both worlds is the belief that there is an AllAmerican attitude children should embrace even as adults don’t, an understood if seldom-followed Winnie-the-Pooh list of things you shouldn’t oughta do along with a set of societal or moral commandments you should, things like pledging allegiance to symbols of American patriotism, going to church, not making fun or bullying others, cursing, eating junk food, ingesting drugs, watching pornography, or think-
To the Editor:
“Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine ; I will repay, saith the Lord.” Those are wise words from Romans 12:19, King James Version of the Bible. Do you
ing of but certainly not discussing or having recreational sex, all standards parents inconsistently follow but forever proclaim.
So do books really influence behaviors, especially in the young? Especially if you read about “the others,” those of a different religion like Islam, of a race that isn’t yours, or sexual preferences you find abhorrent? Can reading about gays or Muslims “groom” you to become one? What if it makes you more understanding and tolerant of “the others?” Wouldn’t that be the ultimate “grooming?”
Research strongly and empirically suggests that, while behaviors such as teen drinking, smoking and sexual activity are influenced by many factors, books are not on the list. What is? Parental behavior, the home environment, social media platforms, mass media advertising and, not surprisingly, peer influence. Yet those who attack teachers, school boards and librarians are right to fear the power of reading a book. Why? Whether fictional or otherwise, reading itself ultimately makes us more open and accepting. Thus, the ideology, the “agenda” behind libricide — the killing of or censoring books — is that of killing reading itself.
We live in a time when we wring our hands, fuss and fret about the declining state of America when it isn’t, about what our children read and are being taught outside the home but not inside, about the dissolution of the family and morality in general, the languishing state of Christianity, and about what kind of future awaits us all. It’s as if we’ve all become the character Btfsplk from the comic strip, “Li’l Abner,” seriously wellintentioned but our own worst enemy, going about our lives with a dark, even nuclear cloud perpetually hovering over us. Our lives become a growing list of grievances.
Who to blame for our misery? Anybody but ourselves. In our perpetual, acrimonious culture wars that never improve our material worlds, why not librarians? Recently the heroes of the COVID lockdown for distributing books and curriculum materials to homebound students at their own risk, they
take the Bible literally or figuratively? Either way, ponder the wisdom of the words. And then! Consider the latest rant of Donald Trump labeling himself as the “retribution candidate” for President in 2024. If you want his anger spread across America, support him! If you want any semblance of law and order along with adherence to the
now have become society’s villains, accused of embracing a mysterious American Library Association “agenda” of reading works with “bad words” and “inappropriate behavior” like Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” “All’s Well That Ends Well” and “Henry IV.”
That same lockdown convinced parents that, with all their “rights,” they really didn’t want much to do with the often tedious familial work of passing on their knowledge, values, behaviors or spiritual or moral assets to their children. Or monitor and limit their access to social media. Perhaps Walt Kelly’s “Pogo” had the answer all along, namely “We have met the enemy and it is us!”
Yet the Proud Boys and Moms for Liberty know how to deal with pesky librarians. Like Virginia State Rep. Tom Andrews of Virginia Beach, “out” them by publishing their identities, addresses, family members and phone numbers, then harass and intimidate them publicly and privately. You can also check out offensive books and burn them, bring criminal charges against librarians for distributing “pornographic materials,” sue them in court for obscenity and lock them up, the default solution for those whom we find disagreeable. Yet when they come for the librarians, we’re finished.
At some point, our librarians, teachers and school boards deserve not our anger and harassment but our respect and gratitude. We should give them the freedom to obtain and use materials they deem important to the free play of ideas and the fundamental liberty to read. If we can’t trust our teachers and librarians, our system fundamentally is broken. Moreover, attempts to cancel the culture of “the others,” to manufacture and invent a new, sanitized history and to write new books and ban others often speaks to the bankruptcy of our own.
(Milton Ready lives in Western North Carolina and is the author of “The Tar Heel State: A New History of North Carolina” (2020). milton@miltonreadybooks.com.)
Constitution of the United States, then you must pick a candidate who is not filled with hate.
Legendary singer/songwriter John Prine wrote: “For a heart stained in anger grows weak and grows bitter. You become your own prisoner as you watch yourself sit there wrapped up in a trap of your very own sorrow.”
You can believe the Bible. You can believe
John Prine. You can believe both. You can believe neither.
Still, it is easy to see that Donald Trump is filled with a dangerous level of rage. Our Constitution must contain him. Trump is not a victim of our democracy. Our democracy has been victimized by Trump.
Dave Waldrop Webster
Two nights after we had dinner with our next-door neighbors, who moved here just about a year ago after one of them got a job at the mill in Canton, word began to seep out on social media that the mill would be closing, miserable and frightening rumors which were shortly thereafter confirmed by company executives to a roomful of employees and then reported all over the news.
The immediate aftermath felt as if an earthquake had hit Haywood County, which, in a way, it had. Tremors were felt the rest of the evening in the form of phone calls, text messages and thousands of posts on social media, some heated, some despairing, some reflecting the shock that a lot of people were experiencing. Neighbors checking on each other, some longtime workers getting the news that their lives were about to change dramatically on Facebook or in a text message from a friend or family member.
Anyone who has lived in Haywood County for any length of time at all either works at the mill, has a family member who works there, or knows someone who does. It is just about impossible to overstate how far-reaching the closing of the mill will be, and what it will mean not only to hundreds
— perhaps thousands — of individuals who will be directly affected economically, but also to the entire community, which will be affected economically but also in more profound ways as it wrestles with the unimaginable task of redefining itself after a century of thinking of itself in a very particular and significant way.
I guess a community’s sense of identity and the importance attached to that varies greatly from place to place, but in Canton, it’s an absolutely crucial feature, as real and tangible as any monument. More so, even, since monuments can be removed, but the way a town thinks of itself is an utterly indelible and vital part of its character and sense of pride.
Canton is not just a town with a mill. Canton is a town because of the mill, literally forming and growing around it. Its history has the force and feel of mythology, the relationship between town and mill inextricable. When I moved to Haywood County in 1991, I had no idea what that meant, but over the years, it became more and more apparent.
I’ll never forget the first time I attended a football game between Pisgah and Tuscola, an annual event when the entire county stops whatever it’s doing for a week
and plays out not only a good old-fashioned intra-county rivalry, but in some sense a clash of identities, the blue collar, closeknit, tradition-drenched Canton team versus the slightly more cosmopolitan and privileged kids of Waynesville. Now this description of Waynesville is bound to be met with derision by some, and I would hasten to add that my own sense of Tuscola’s vibe is that it is much more diffuse, even amorphous. Canton’s identity is much clearer and more focused.
Haywood County’s “house band,” Balsam Range, recorded a song called “Papertown,” an ode to Canton that articulates the significance of the mill, covering decades of its history and poignant examples of its impact on generations of employees. Milan Miller, who writes a lot of the band’s songs, wrote that signature staple of their shows more than 10 years ago.
“Although the lyrics to ‘Papertown’ are hitting me much different since the news about the mill closing was announced, the hope that I have for what lies ahead is just the next chapter in the story that inspired me to write the song in the first place,” Miller said. “‘Papertown’ isn’t about a corporation or the mill. And it isn’t about paper. It’s about the people. Their spirit, their determination, kindness and resilience. The people created the identity of the town and will write the next chapter. Like any story, there will likely be twists and turns, but the thing that will hold the plot together is the people.”
I was in the dentist chair a few days after the closing was announced, and my hygienist and I were talking about the mill. Her husband has been working there for 24 years. He just bought a new truck, wouldn’t you just know it? He’s not panicking. Something will come along.
The question, of course, is what?
Another question, repeated day after day: “What do we do now?”
There is no escaping the reality of the changing economic landscape in America.
In some ways, the mill had become an anachronism, one of fewer and fewer remaining reminders of the country as it once was, when people who were so
inclined could go to work right out of high school in local factories and make a very decent and honest living, and be paid well enough to buy a nice home, pay their bills, go on vacations in the summer, put their kids through college, and not go broke if someone in the family got sick.
There was, once upon a time, a thriving middle class, but it has been shrinking for 40 years with no signs of slowing as the country’s wealth continues to be redistributed more and more to the very top. There are fewer and fewer and fewer of these jobs every year. Busted unions, corporate greed, outsourcing, you name it, all of it talk for another day.
The big day right now will come sometime in late May or early June, the day of the closing, when the mill will shut down, most likely for good, an enormous corpse laid out across the town, inert and eerily silent.
“What do we do then?”
I can only think of one answer: “We look into that void, we remember who we are, and then we start again.”
As Milan Miller said, “’Papertown’ is about the people.” It’s not just the song he’s talking about.
(Chris Cox is a writer and teacher who lives in Haywood County. jchriscox@live.com.)
Phthalates consist of chemicals you probably have not heard of. However, these endocrine-disrupting chemicals are ubiquitous in making plastics more durable and contributing to fragrances in cosmetics, such as aftershave lotions, shampoos and hair sprays. They also can leach out from plastics. Phthalates have been associated with low sperm counts and poor sperm quality/mobility among men and pregnancy issues with women.
These chemicals are not regulated, and they are not required to be listed as ingredients relating to fragrance or flavor in products. At this point, the government has not seen fit to place any requirements or regulations on these chemicals because the association with reproductive problems has not been confirmed of a sufficient magnitude to requiring governmental action. In other words, the science suggests that these chemicals are associated with reproductive problems, but not to the extent that government agencies need to do anything about it. That said, if you are a man who is having difficulties in becoming a father, you might want to look into the products you use.
Despite all the political posturing, regulations are necessary to keep the public safe. Deregulations with respect to railroads may have played a part in the spate of derailments that made the news recently. The rail industry successfully fought to have fewer regulations and politicians capitulated — political contributions count. At present they are engaged in a battle as to whether any action will be imposed to reduce the risk of future derailments. Executives from the industry have resisted making any substantive or concrete commitments.
More recently we see where deregulation has resulted in a banking crisis. Congress members from both parties were warned about the dangers in reducing regulations on larger banks. Despite the warnings from knowledgeable individuals both within and outside of government, both the
House and Senate passed bipartisan deregulations during the previous administration. Now there is the piper to pay.
The banking issue, like the railway problems, were not surprises. Given the evidence available to all, it was only a matter of time before something went wrong. In the case of the banking fiasco, greed and imprudent practices set the stage for disaster. Then, the trigger appears to have been a billionaire pulling his money out of a bank and then claiming that the bank was no longer solvent. If one person can contribute to a run on a bank, think of what a concerted effort by a group could do to destabilize banking.
The petroleum industry is another area where stringent efforts to reduce regulations are frequently seen. This can range from getting products, as is the case with fracking, or transporting product via pipelines. The petroleum industry has a long history of failures resulting in pollution and contamination.
Whether you like it or not, no area of human endeavor is capable of self-policing — even policing. Self-policing has never worked and probably never will. What is required is an external hand to keep the process honest and the public safe. That usually translates into government regulations.
There are arguments that might draw on excessive or even ridiculous examples of regulation run amuck. That does not negate the necessity of logical regulations. We have seen recent examples of the consequences of the failure to implement prudent and necessary regulation. It is high time that politicians put aside petty partisan sniping and grandstanding to review and implement appropriate regulations at the national level. This same demand also pertains to state and local officials. The “public be damned” attitude needs to give way to accountability.
(Dr. Norm Hoffman is a semi-retired clinical psychologist living in Waynesville. wncfacts@gmail.com.)
Rock/jam ensemble Billingsley will host its “Spring Break Party” with indie-soul act Hustle Souls at 8 p.m. Sunday, March 26, at the Salvage Station in Asheville.
General admission tickets are $10 in advance, $12 day-of-show. Ages 18 and over. Doors open at 7 p.m. Free onsite parking. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, click on salvagestation.com/events. To learn about Billingsley, go to billingsleyrocks.com.
right spot, makes you feel something or validates something that you’re already feeling
the magic.
In the sacred realm that is rock-n-roll music, the formation of the power trio remains iconic. On paper, it’s a straightforward setup of electric guitar, bass, and drums. But, in method, it conjures an immortal, melodic triangle of intricate sound and improvisation possibility.
Simply put, the space between the musicians in a rock trio is what opens up the sonic textures and subtle tones. In a power triangle, you can’t hide behind others onstage or in the studio. You’re purposely vulnerable, which is, in essence, the beauty of the entire operation — vulnerability equals progress and discover.
And for rock trio Billingsley, the siblings — Wilson, Grant and Bennett — have built quite a following around its native Hendersonville, Asheville and greater Western North Carolina
since its formation in 2016. With a keen focus on rock, soul and pop sensibilities, the real prowess and talent within the ensemble lies amid the intricate musicianship of the Billingsley brothers.
Smoky Mountain News: With the band being all brothers, how did y’all first get into music, let alone become a group?
Wilson Billingsley: Our dad is a musician and songwriter. He basically just stuck us on instruments one day when we were kids and said, “Have at it.” It was a pretty organic thing from the jump. I think he waited until Bennett, the youngest, was in kindergarten, but then handed all of us instruments.
Six months later, we did the talent show at our elementary school. I think that was our “first big gig,” the Etowah Elementary school gymnasium. From there, and for the next sev-
eral years, we basically built up our chops playing at church, mostly with dad. The thing about playing in church was that it taught you how to be in front of lots of people.
[In church], you kind of squash the stage fright thing pretty quick when you play in front of several hundred people every few weeks for most of middle and high school. You get your playing to be pretty consistent, too, because you don’t want to screw up one of God’s songs, especially in His own house.
We just finished off four new tunes at Giraffe Studios in Hendersonville, run by our good pal Andy Bishop. The hopes for the new music is always the same — we want folks to listen to the music and enjoy it. It sounds cliché, but the point of making music is connection. We write songs and music that we enjoy, and that means something to us. And if one of our tunes hits you in the
SMN: In an uncertain era of the music industry, what is it that keeps you going and inspired to push ahead and overcome the tough challenges of being a musical act that records and performs in the digital age?
WB: We really have a lot of fun doing this. It’s just a great outlet, and weirdly feels like something we’re “meant to be doing.” No matter the emotion, good, bad, or in between, writing and playing music connects to all of that.
You can transmute life experiences and emotion into an art form that you then go out and share with people, and that’s pretty special. You never know who’s going to relate to what, and so there’s always an element of mystery and surprise.
I think it also helps a lot that we’re brothers. There’s a certain accountability there that underlies everything, where we have a level of trust in each other, and a bond formed over a lifetime of shared experience. And there’s a musical intuition that takes the wheel in a live environment.
In the breakdown of any given song, a quick glance and head nod will let someone know to keep it rolling on this section of the tune. If we hit a “sweet spot” in groove, we can stretch it out and build it into something brand new that we haven’t played before. Some songs will only sound a certain way once — where there’s a strong level of trust, there’s also lots of freedom to improvise.
SMN: Why the guitar? What is it about that instrument that you can express yourself and communicate with others compared to other instruments and artistic realms?
WB: I just feel at home on the instrument.
I’m a total guitar nerd. I love playing it, love listening to others play it. One of my favorite things is to discover guys just doing wild stuff on the instrument. When I hear some nut ripping a guitar solo that’s way out of my league, I get all excited and want to go play.
And I call it playing, not practicing. But, that’s just me. The instrument really lends itself to an unlimited set of possibilities, and the string bending thing is just so much fun.
Want to get a pianist mad? Ask’em to bend a C up to a C sharp during a blues shuffle in G — you can’t.
Hello from Lemon Street on the outskirts of downtown St. Augustine, Florida. It’s about 62 degrees and sunny. Slight breeze. Blue skies. Early Monday afternoon and the only plan at the moment is to wander down to the beach on Anastasia Island within the hour.
Each March, for the better part of the last decade, I’ve found myself on Lemon Street for a few days to visit my parents who leave the frozen depths of Upstate New York for an entire month of fun in the sun. Hop into the truck in Waynesville and motor on down to the “Sunshine State,” onward along Route A1A.
However, this year was a different. As per usual, my folks swung into Haywood County on their way to Florida at the end of February. But, all the while, my Uncle Bobby (dad’s younger brother) was not doing well back up in the VA Hospital in Albany, New York. He had been in declining health for many years, and it seemed we were nearing the end this go-round.
About a week or so into their Florida excursion, my folks received a late-night phone call and found out my uncle had finally succumbed to his illness back up north. By the next morning, they packed up the car and immediately drove back to Plattsburgh, New York — just about 1,300 miles door-to-door — to make preparations for the funeral and to get his affairs in order.
And as they made the trek back above the Mason-Dixon Line, there was another Nor’easter storm rolling through the northeast. Several inches of fresh snow amid temperatures dropping below 20 degrees (as the high for the day). A stark contrast from the hot sun and toes in the sand of St. Augustine and the Atlantic Ocean.
No matter, the family once again came together to celebrate the life, legend and lore of Robert “Bobby” Woodward. Immediate family and extended relatives from all branches of our tree descended upon the small football town of Peru, New York, for the services. Military honors for his 17 years in the Navy. Family memories shared at the podium.
For myself, I had agreed to prior journalistic assignments down here in Florida. And, after much thought and sincere contemplation, I decided to forego the extended trip back to the North Country. The intent within was to make peace with Uncle Bobby’s passing — our memories and moments together over the years — in my own time and fashion.
You see, I’m currently roaming this section of my mind and subconscious that I’ve somewhat avoided for most of my adult life.
It’s that forbidden landscape where all the darkness, sadness, and sorrow resides. As a lifelong eternal optimist, I tend to wander elsewhere in my thoughts, to the lighter side of things, that place of peace and serenity — remember tomorrow is a new day, so keep your head up.
But, as I’ve gotten older and found new and profound ways in dealing with the sad stuff, I’ve also found a deep sense of peace and genuine serenity by not avoiding a look into the rearview mirror of my existence. In essence, I want to provoke the chaos, but also with a vibrancy of respect and appreciation, for everything is one thing, you know?
The good, the bad, and the ugly is what makes you and I, well, “us.” Embrace the darkness, sadness, and sorrow. Make sense of the past and why bad things happen to good people. But, don’t dwell in those choppy waters. Navigate the past to the best of your ability, and seek safe harbor when need be — don’t drop the anchor, cut the anchor and float gently.
If the last three years of worldwide confusion and uncertainty have taught me anything of value, it’s that the mind itself is this vast closet, one where we don’t really ever clean out or throw anything away. The closet
of the conscious and subconscious is this abyss where everything is tossed in, either in any effort to clean up our appearance and demeanor in the general public or simply kick the can down the road in “dealing with things.”
Sweep it all under the rug. Toss that heavy box of memories and mementos into the back of the closet. Shut the door and forget about it, usually at least until something triggers
The 41st annual “Country Western Show” will be held at 7 p.m. March 24-25 and 2 p.m. March 26 in the auditorium of Tuscola High School in Clyde.
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Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will host Balsam Hot Club (jazz) at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 25.
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The play “Recycled Nuts” will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. March 2425 and 2 p.m. March 26 at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre (HART) in Waynesville.
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Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host Life Like Water (Celtic/jam) at 6 p.m. Friday, March 24.
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Singer-songwriter Len Graham will perform at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, March 25, in the Skylark Speakeasy at the Meadowlark Motel in Maggie Valley.
you to remember just what you forgot was in your internal storage unit.
Open that damn door. Open those heavy boxes. See what’s inside. And toss out whatever doesn’t serve you in the “here and now,” in the present moment of love and beauty that you seek out or are currently learning to embrace. Know your worth. That, and the only real currency in this universe is love, compassion, and friendship. That’s it.
Am I rambling? Perhaps. Actually, most likely. But, whatever. My mind is a constant whirlwind of thoughts and actions, or lack of action in times of rest and respite. The beach is now in the crosshairs. It’ll be my girlfriend and I, as well as my Aunt Chrissy and my mom, who decided to fly back to St. Augustine to spend a little more time in search of clarity and peace of mind under a warm, nurturing sun.
Once I hit that sandy beach on Anastasia Island, I’m going to lace up my running shoes and take off for the horizon. There’s lots on the mind, and with several miles of shoreline to clear the head. Thoughts of my late Uncle Bobby and our time together. Thoughts of this juncture of life, and of who currently surrounds me. Thoughts of endless words and those who read this here publication. Onward.
Life is beautiful, grasp for it, y’all.
‘Sweetness, innocence gone away, how I miss them good old days’Graham Swamp Trail, Florida. Garret K. Woodward photo
Singer-songwriter Wyatt Espalin will hit the stage at 6 p.m. Friday, March 24, at Mountain Layers Brewing in Bryson City.
Born and raised in Hiawassee, Georgia, Espalin has been entertaining audiences since he was eight years old. A blend of Americana, bluegrass and indie-roots music, he’s a beloved fixture on the Southern Appalachian live music circuit.
Free and open to the public. For more information, call 828.538.0115 or click on mtnlayersbeer.com. To learn more about Espalin, go to wyattespalinmusic.com.
Singer-songwriter Len Graham will perform at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, March 25, in the Skylark Speakeasy at the Meadowlark Motel in Maggie Valley.
Graham began his career in Newport Rhode Island in 1979 as a singer with the acoustic duo Euphoria. He later became the manager for the critically acclaimed singer Natalie Merchant of 10,000 Maniacs.
Ever restless, one day Graham sold his MG spitfire and fled to the Rocky Mountain National Park where he hunkered down with his songwriting craft and joined the everpopular band Load Limit.
He eventually headed back to New England where he and stepbrother John Noble formed Graham Noble, a band that would join Toy Caldwell and the Marshall Tucker Band during their 1985 tour.
In the decades since, Graham has performed for countless audiences from coastto-coast, and also launched a music publishing company, “Summer Boy Music.”
With songs from his album “Chronicles” now streaming all throughout Europe and America, Graham is now content to be retired and nestled here in the Smoky Mountains with the trio Smoky Blue Rain. Admission is $10 per person. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, click on meadowlarkmotel.com or 828.926.1717.
Rising Americana/bluegrass act The JackTown Ramblers will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday, March 25, at The Scotsman in Waynesville.
A four-piece bluegrass, swing and gypsy jazz ensemble from Morganton, the band formed in 2019 from a collection of “acoustic ramblers” who met through mutual friends and musical interests.
Collectively, the group wanted to do something a little different with its music by melding together traditional bluegrass with sprin-
kles of swingy feeling tunes, band originals, and some gypsy jazz type material just for fun.
The Ramblers unique brand of entertainment fuses solid improvisational instrument leads and traditional bluegrass harmonies with a dose of ignorance in its live set, and all amid a slick delivery of material.
The show is free and open to the public. 828.246.6292 or scotsmanpublic.com.
• Altered Frequencies (Franklin) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.342.8014 or alteredfrequencies.net.
• Balsam Falls Brewing (Sylva) will host an open mic from 8-10 p.m. every Thursday. Free and open to the public. 828.631.1987 or balsamfallsbrewing.com.
• Blue Ridge Beer Hub (Waynesville) will host a semi-regular acoustic jam with the Main Street NoTones from 7-9 p.m. every first and third Thursday of the month. Free and open to the public. For more information, click on blueridgebeerhub.com.
caesars.com/harrahs-cherokee.
• Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will host “Trivia Night w/Kirk” from 7-9 p.m. every Monday, Open Mic Night every Wednesday, Balsam Hot Club (jazz) March 25 and Mitchell Russott (singer-songwriter) April 1. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. innovationbrewing.com.
• Quirky Birds Treehouse & Bistro (Dillsboro) will host Open Mic Night at 7 p.m. Tuesdays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 828.586.1717 or facebook.com/quirkybirdstreehouse.
• Rathskeller Coffee Haus & Pub (Franklin) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Shows begin at 8 p.m. Free and open to the public. 828.369.6796.
open to the public. 828.246.6292 or scotsmanpublic.com.
• SlopeSide Tavern (Sapphire) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 828.743.8655 or slopesidetavern.com.
• Boojum Brewing (Waynesville) will host karaoke at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, trivia at 7 p.m. on Thursdays, Sun Dogs March 25, “Howlin’ At The Moon” karaoke party 7:30 p.m. March 31 and Arnold Hill (rock/jam) April 1. All shows begin at 9 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 828.246.0350 or boojumbrewing.com.
• Currahee Brewing (Franklin) will host “Franklin Appalachian Trail Hiker Bash” 1 p.m. March 25. Free and open to the public. 828.634.0078 or curraheebrew.com.
• Farm At Old Edwards (Highlands) will host the “Orchard Sessions” on select dates. Tickets start at $25 per person. For tickets, click on oldedwardshospitality.com/orchardsessions.
• Folkmoot Friendship Center (Waynesville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. For tickets, click on folkmoot.org.
• Fontana Village Resort Wildwood Grill will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 800.849.2258 or fontanavillage.com.
• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host its weekly “Tuesday Jazz Series” at 5:30 p.m., Life Like Water (Celtic/jam) March 24, Ben & The Borrowed Band March 25 and Jackson Grimm 6:30 p.m. March 31. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. 828.454.5664 or froglevelbrewing.com.
• Frog Quarters (Franklin) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows are from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Free and open to the public. Located at 573 East Main Street. littletennessee.org or 828.369.8488.
• Happ’s Place (Glenville) will host Jason Passmore (singer-songwriter) March 24 and Whiskey Fingers (Americana/country) March 25. Free and open to the public. happsplace.com or 828.742.5700.
• Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort (Cherokee) will host Dwight Yoakam (country) 8:30 p.m. March 31-April 1. For a full schedule of events and/or to buy tickets,
• Innovation Station (Dillsboro) will host “Music Bingo” on Wednesdays and semiregular live music on the weekends. All events begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. innovation-brewing.com.
• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Franklin) will host “Music Bingo” 6 p.m. Tuesdays, trivia 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Open Mic 6:30 p.m. Thursdays and Lillie Syracuse (singer-songwriter) March 24. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.349.2337 or lazyhikerbrewing.com.
• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Sylva) will host trivia 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Old Time Jam 6:30 p.m. Thursdays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.349.2337 or lazyhikerbrewing.com.
• Meadowlark Motel (Maggie Valley) will host Len Graham (singer-songwriter) March 25 ($10 admission) and A. Lee Edwards (Americana/folk) April 1 ($20 admission). All shows begin at 6:30 p.m. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, click on meadowlarkmotel.com or 828.926.1717.
• Moss Valley (Franklin) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. Food trucks and beverages available onsite. Bring a lawn chair. Presented by Drake Software.
• Mountain Layers Brewing (Bryson City) will host Wyatt Espalin (singer-songwriter) March 24, Scott James Stambaugh March 25 and Heidi Holton (blues/folk) March 31. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.538.0115 or mountainlayersbrewingcompany.com.
• Nantahala Brewing (Sylva) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.641.9797 or nantahalabrewing.com.
• Nantahala Outdoor Center (Nantahala Gorge) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows behind at 5 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. noc.com.
• Orchard Coffee (Waynesville) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. 828.246.9264 or orchardcoffeeroasters.com.
• Salty Dog’s Seafood & Grill (Maggie Valley) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 828.926.9105.
• Satulah Mountain Brewing (Highlands) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.482.9794 or satulahmountainbrewing.com.
The Pic’ & Play Mountain Dulcimer Players will be resuming in-person jam sessions at the St. John’s Episcopal Church basement fellowship hall in Sylva.
The group welcomes all beginners and experienced dulcimer players, including mountain (lap) dulcimer and hammered dulcimer players. Songs played include traditional mountain tunes, hymns and more modern music. The group meets at 1:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturday of every month in the basement of St. John’s.
Pic’ & Play has been playing together since 1995. The more experienced members welcome new players, help them navigate their instruments and guide them through some of the basics of tuning, strumming, and playing.
The mountain dulcimer, also known as a fretted dulcimer or a lap dulcimer, is a uniquely American instrument. It evolved from the German scheitholz sometime in the early 1800s in Appalachia and was largely known only in this region until popularized more broadly in the 1950s.
For more information, call Kathy Jaqua at 828.349.3930 or Don Selzer at 828.293.0074.
• Sauced (Waynesville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 828.246.9585 or saucedwnc.com
• The Scotsman (Waynesville) will host a “Celtic Jam” 2-5 p.m. Sundays, Rene Russell (Americana/rock) March 23, The JackTown Ramblers (bluegrass) March 25 and Jon Cox (country/rock) March 30. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and
• Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts (Franklin) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, click on smokymountainarts.com or 828.524.1598.
• Southern Porch (Canton) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.492.8009 or southern-porch.com.
• Stecoah Valley Center (Robbinsville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.479.3364 or stecoahvalleycenter.com.
• The Ugly Dog Pub (Cashiers) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. 828.743.3000 or theuglydogpub.com.
• The Ugly Dog Pub (Highlands) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.526.8364 or theuglydogpub.com.
• Unplugged Pub (Bryson City) will host Mountain Gypsy March 23, Wayne Buckner March 24, Carolina Freightshakers March 25, Jay Dee Gee March 30, Rock Holler March 31 and Jason Lee Wilson & Jame County April 1. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.538.2488.
• Valley Cigar & Wine Co. (Waynesville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows are at 2 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.944.0686 or valleycigarandwineco.com.
• Valley Tavern (Maggie Valley) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.926.7440 or valley-tavern.com.
• Water’n Hole Bar & Grill (Waynesville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 9:30 p.m. 828.456.4750 or facebook.com/waternhole.bar.
• Whiteside Brewing (Cashiers) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.743.6000 or whitesidebrewing.com.
• Wine Bar & Cellar (Sylva) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. 828.631.3075 or facebook.com/thewinebarandcellar.
• Yonder Community Market (Franklin) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. Donations encouraged. 828.200.2169 or eatrealfoodinc.com.
Acclaimed master blacksmith Brock Martin will host a “Traditional Utility Axe” class from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 31-April 1 at the Jackson County Green Energy Park in Dillsboro.
This course is designed to introduce students to axe-making using hand tools while learning the metallurgy behind producing a quality tool/weapon. Topics covered will
include: forging vs stock removal, heat treating and tempering, temperature control vs hammer control, posture, limitations of workability, filing, sanding, sharpening, forge welding and more.
Runner-up on the Season Four of the popular TV show “Forged in Fire,” Martin will discuss misconceptions associated with the art and how to fortify proper technique.
Students will walk away with a traditional, hand-forged axe that has a 1095 (high carbon) core. No prior experience required.
Cost for the course is $300 (materials included), due at registration. Space is limited. Pre-registration required. For more information or to register, contact the GEP at 828.631.0271. Feel free to contact the instructor directly at 828.310.4617.
• “WNC Wildflower” photography open house will be from 6-8 p.m. Thursday, March 30, at Blue Ridge Music Hub in Waynesville. Lori Johnson and Donna Machen will be on-hand to answer any questions you may have about their wildflower portfolio, which will be displayed. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, click on blueridgebeerhub.com.
• The immersive installation ”Courtney M. Leonard — BREACH: Logbook | CORIOLIS” is currently being showcased through May 5 in the Fine Art Museum at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. Created by the Shinnecock Nation ceramic artist as part of Leonard’s BREACH series, the exhibition explores cultural and historical connections to water, fishing practices, and sustainability. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday. Free and open to the public. For more information, click on arts.wcu.edu/breach.
• Southwestern Community College Swain Arts Center (Bryson City) will host an array of workshops for adults and kids. For more information on the upcoming classes and/or to sign-up, click on southwesterncc.edu/scc-locations/swain-center.
• Dogwood Crafters in Dillsboro will host an array of upcoming art classes and workshops. For more information and a full schedule of activities, click on dogwoodcrafters.com/classes.html or call 828.586.2248.
The world premiere of the play “Recycled Nuts” will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. March 24-25 and 2 p.m. March 26 at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre (HART) in Waynesville.
Almond Farmer Jerry wants to change the negative public perception of his nuts. But, when local reporter Alma dies of a nut allergy and returns as a ghost, it sets off a series of comically fatal accidents. Reluctant
Medium Felix must manage the living and the dead in this hilarious world premiere written by local playwright Travis Lowe.
The performance is rated PG-13 for language. Tickets are $21.50 for adults, $11.50 for students.
To purchase tickets, click on harttheatre.org or by calling the Box Office at 828.456.6322. Winter Box Office hours are 3-5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
• “Legally Blonde: The Musical” will be presented by the Swain County High School Vocal Ensemble at 7:30 p.m. March 24-25, 31, April 1, and 3 p.m. March 26 and April 2 at the Swain Arts Center in Bryson City.
Enjoy an evening of live entertainment from the award-winning Vocal Ensemble as they bring Harvard’s beloved blonde and all your favorite characters to life in this fun and upbeat adaptation of the hit film and award-winning Broadway musical. Tickets may be purchased at the door or at swain-
arts-center.ticketleap.com/legally-blondejunior.
• Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts (Franklin) will host a special stage production of “Seussical the Musical” at 7 p.m. March 24-25 and 2 p.m. March 25. The show is approximately one-hour in length. Presented by the Overlook Theatre Company. Sponsored by the Arts Council Of Macon County. Tickets are $13 in advance, $15 day of event. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, click on smokymountainarts.com or call 828.524.1598.
The 41st annual “Country Western Show” will be held at 7 p.m. March 24-25 and 2 p.m. March 26 in the auditorium of Tuscola High School in Clyde.
The Summit show choir will ride onto stage at Tuscola High School, carrying on a long-standing community tradition.
“The ‘Country Western Show’ is a way to celebrate our students and where they come from,” said Rachel Yates, Tuscola choral director. “FFA and Summit are joining forces to make it a fun event that celebrates our community and heritage.”
While the show is billed as a country western showcase, selections pay homage to a 41-year tradition while adapting to the popular music of today’s generation. Musical genres on the program span pop country and indie folk — including popular numbers by Taylor Swift, Mumford & Sons, Monsters & Men, and The Lumineers.
“The biggest challenge and joy with country western is learning how to own our roots,” Yates said. “There’s more folk [music] this year than there ever has been.”
There’s still plenty of traditional country numbers, however, like “9 to 5” and “I’ve Been Everywhere,” complete with line-
The Main Street Sylva Association will host its sixth annual “Sylva Brew Hop” from 3-7 p.m. Saturday, April 1, in downtown.
dancing choreography.
The “Country Western Show” is unique in being a student-choice performance, packed with solos, duets and small group numbers selected by the students themselves. Students vote on the full ensemble numbers, as well.
Summit is an audition-based choral ensemble, and students also audition for their individual and small group numbers.
A live band will perform the musical accompaniment for each of the numbers. Local vocal musician Julie Messer will also be performing during the pre-show and intermission with her duo partner Walt Wood of Blended Hemp.
A festival will kick-off each show two hours before the curtain opens, with food trucks, wheel-barrow races, a farm animal photo booth, face-painting, line-dancing instruction, silent auction and more.
The pre-show festival is being put on in partnership with Tuscola FFA students. Food trucks onsite will Pavino’s Pizza, Ben’s Backdraft BBQ, Fat Belly’s and Cheesecake Mousse.
Tickets are $10 ($5 for students/youth) and will be available at the door.
Enjoy the Jackson County Ale Trail. In honor of NC Beer, join Balsam Falls Brewing, Innovation Brewing, Nantahala Brewing (Sylva Outpost) and Lazy Hiker Brewing (Sylva Taproom) for this event.
Tickets include a souvenir glass and two 4ounce pours at each of the four locations. The first 150 people to sign up receive a bonus souvenir glass.
Proceeds will benefit the Main Street Sylva Association, a local nonprofit organization. Tickets are $35. Participants are encouraged to enjoy cuisine made to pair with beer at our local restaurants. For more information, go to mainstreetsylva.org.
• “Flights & Bites” will be held starting at 4 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays at Bosu’s Wine Shop in downtown Waynesville. For more information on upcoming events, wine tastings and special dinners, click on waynesvillewine.com.
• A free wine tasting will be held from 6-8 p.m. every Thursday and 2-5 p.m. every Saturday at The Wine Bar & Cellar in Sylva. 828.631.3075.
• “Take A Flight” with four new wines every Friday and Saturdays at the Bryson City Wine
Market. Select from a gourmet selection of charcuterie to enjoy with your wines. Educational classes and other events are also available. 828.538.0420.
• “Uncorked: Wine & Rail Pairing Experience” will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on select dates at the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad in Bryson City. Full service all-adult first class car. Wine pairings with a meal, and more. For more information and/or to register, call 800.872.4681 or click on gsmr.com.
Somehow in the last couple years scanning the stacks and shelves of our local library and indie bookstore, I missed seeing an important book focused on and designed for the times we are living in.
“Spiritual Ecology: The Cry of the Earth”
(The Golden Sufi Center Publishing, 309 pages, 2021), edited by Llewellyn VaughanLee, is a compendium of essays and poems addressing all the requisite issues that the word “ecology” implies.
It’s a who’s who of environmental, literary and spiritual leaders. If this were a music anthology, then this tome would be considered a Super Group of rockers in the Spiritual Billboard’s Top 100. Or, as none other than Barry Lopez writes on the back cover of this book:
“Spiritual Ecology is a superb collection of thoughtful pieces by people who have gone deep to understand our relations with the Earth. It comes at a crucial time for humanity.”
This is a book that proposes to help its readers to understand the critical nature of the environmental crisis the human race is now facing while also helping mankind to realize the sacred nature of creation and to help us all toward bringing the world as a living whole back into balance. With such male and female contributors as Thich Nhat Hanh, Thomas Berry, Chief Oren Lyons, Brian Swimme, Winona LaDuke, Richard Rohr, Satish Kumar and Vandana Shiva, this book addresses the issues of climate change, species depletion, pollution and acidification of the oceans as it focuses on our forgetfulness of how all this affects our relationship to the environment. There are 20 or more contributors in this collection, all of whom are more or less, in their
own way, channeling the voice of the earth as she speaks to us of our mistakes, their effects and necessary solutions. In his preface, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee says: “[This book] speaks to the idea of the Earth as a living being whose cry we can and now must hear. This cry is not a fringe or new age idea; it is a reality we must respond to.”
Appropriately, in the first essay in the book, Chief Oren Lyons of the Onondaga First Nations tribe sets the tone for the rest of the collection, stating:
“I don’t believe, personally, that we have reached a point of no return in this situation that we’re in, but we are approaching it. The farther you’re away from a point of no return, the more options you have. As we move each day closer to a point of no return, we lose that day’s option. And there will come a point where there will be no more options. So we have to take the degradation signposts seriously and begin to organize ourselves and do the best we can. It starts right now with you. It starts with you and then your family. Then from your family it goes out, and that’s how you do it. Also, what we have to do is get our leaders to change, and if our leaders don’t do it, we’ve got to raise better leaders, newer leaders. Raise our own leaders.”
Wise words, these, from a Wisdom Keeper and elder from our earth-based and ecologyminded indigenous population.
In his essay “The World of Wonder,” one of the most influential recent figures in Earth-based spirituality — eco-theologian Thomas Berry — picks up where Chief Lyons left off, saying “If there is no spirituality in the Earth, then there is no spirituality in ourselves. We need to regain the sense of wonder that comes from being deeply interconnected in a sacred way. The indigenous peoples of this continent tried to teach us the value of the land, but unfortunately we
could not understand them, blinded as we were by our dream of manifest destiny. For us to have a future, a change must occur deep in our souls.”
Then the Zen Buddhist monk, poet and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh expands upon Thomas Berry’s words, saying “We must wake up from the dream that is destroying the planet. Our mindfulness can change our collective consciousness, giving us the power to decide the destiny of our planet. The bells of mindfulness are calling out to us, trying to wake us up, reminding us to look deeply at our impact on the planet.”
The personally-charged essays in “Spiritual Ecology” escalate into more and more depth and detail about the interconnectedness of everyone on our continent, everything on our planet and all energy and matter in the universe. In a later essay by Franciscan monk Richard Rohr, all of this adds up to the one thing that each of the authors in this anthology agree upon:
“Our very suffering now, our condensed presence on this common nest that we have largely fouled, will soon be the ONE thing that we finally share in common. It might well be the one thing that will bring us together politically and religiously. The Earth and its life systems, on which we all entirely depend, might soon become the very thing that will convert us to a simple lifestyle, to necessary community, and to an inherent and universal sense of reverence for the Holy.”
And, finally, these words from a man who many consider to be America’s poet laureate in perpetuity, Wendell Berry: “I believe that the world was created and approved by love, that it subsists, coheres, and endures by love, and that, insofar as it is redeemable, it can be redeemed only by love. I believe that divine love, incarnate and indwelling in the world, summons the world always toward wholeness.”
I have shared but a few insights into what is understood and revealed between the pages of this book. If anything I have shared with you, here, speaks to you in any way, I strongly suggest that you support your local independent bookstore and library and either borrow or buy this book, which I am convinced in the future will be considered as holy writ.
Thomas Crowe is a regular contributor to The Smoky Mountain News and author of the multi-award-winning non-fiction nature memoir “Zoro’s Field: My Life in the Appalachian Woods.”
A monthly book club is being currently offered at the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva. Each month, a library staff member will be discussing some of the new book titles that the library has received. Particular attention will be paid to “under the radar” titles and authors, new releases and other books that the staff is excited about. All are welcome and no registration is required. For more information on when the club will meet, please call the library at 828.586.2016. This club is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Jackson County Public Library. The JCPL is a member of Fontana Regional Library (fontanalib.org).
OUTDOORS E DITOR
For most people, the word “snorkeling” conjures images of blue Caribbean waters, pink coral reefs and a rainbow of tropical fish. But witnessing a world of aquatic beauty doesn’t require a flight to the Florida Keys. From the top of the Tuckasegee to the waters of the French Broad, Western North Carolina is home to an incredible diversity of fish, salamanders and other aquatic creatures. The new Blue Ridge Snorkel Trail will make it easier than ever to meet them.
“When you get under the water with your snorkel and stuff on, the fish think you belong there,” said Callie Moore, western regional director for MountainTrue. “They’re not afraid of you at all. And as long as you don’t thrash around and make a bunch of noise, you can just sneak right up on them and they’ll just keep building their little nests in
The new Blue Ridge Snorkel Trail boasts 10 sites spanning 10 Western North Carolina counties. They are:
■ Bryson City Island Park in Bryson City, Little Tennessee River Basin. Sponsored by Town of Bryson City.
■ East LaPorte River Access Park near Cullowhee, Little Tennessee River Basin. Sponsored by Jackson County.
■ Joyce Kilmer Bridge Fishing Access near Robbinsville, Little Tennessee River Basin. Sponsored by U.S. Forest Service.
■ Queen Branch Nature Preserve near Cowee, Little Tennessee River Basin. Sponsored by Mainspring Conservation Trust.
■ Valley River Heritage Park in Andrews, Hiawassee River Basin. Sponsored by Town of Andrews.
■ Canton Recreation Park Boat Ramp in Canton, French Broad River Basin. Sponsored by Town of Canton and Haywood Waterways Association.
■ Mills River Park in Mills River, French Broad River Basin. Sponsored by Town of Mills River and Mills River Partnership.
■ Black Mountain Veterans Park in Black Mountain, French Broad River Basin. Sponsored by Town of Black Mountain.
■ Stone Mountain State Park near Roaring Gap, Yadkin River Basin. Sponsored by N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation.
■ Joseph McDowell Historical Catawba Greenway in Marion, Catawba River Basin. Sponsored by Town of Marion.
The Blue Ridge Snorkel Trail website is still under development at blueridgesnorkeltrail.com and will be populated with information about site kickoff events with guided snorkeling, the trail and snorkel sites.
the rocks and crayfish come out, and it’s just really incredible.”
The snorkel trail, a joint venture of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, Mainspring Conservation Trust and MountainTrue, is the first of its kind in the region. In her research, Moore said the only similar trail she found was in Michigan.
“Of course, we have way more biodiversity than they do, so ours is going to be even more impressive,” she said.
The Blue Ridge Snorkel Trail consists of 10 pilot sites, one in each of 10 western counties, but the partners hope to expand it to include all 24 western counties — and maybe even parts of northern Georgia and eastern Tennessee.
The 10 sites are located on easily accessible land that’s already open to the public, and in the coming months they’ll each have a kiosk highlighting the species that live there and giving pointers about how to identify them. The information will also be available on the website, blueridgesnorkeltrail.com. The group
hopes to eventually publish a guide to help people better explore the trail and understand what they see there.
“I’m obviously biased as an aquatics person, but in my mind, [snorkeling] covers all the bases,” said Jason Meador, aquatic programs manager for Mainspring who has been taking groups out snorkeling since 2014.
Snorkeling gives an up-close view of creatures that normally live out their lives unnoticed in Western North Carolina’s cool mountain streams, but it’s also easy to try and lowimpact, allowing people to experience aquatic creatures in their natural state without harassing or harming them. A decent snorkel mask is relatively cheap — about $30 — and will last for years. Plus, it’s fun.
“There’s so much to see, and it’s refreshing in the summertime,” Meador said.
Luke Etchison, western region aquatic wildlife diversity coordinator for the Wildlife Commission, said he and Mountain Habitat Conservation Coordinator Andrea Leslie came up with the concept as a way to get people excited about aquatic wildlife and to show them the importance of clean water and healthy streams.
“One hundred fifty years ago, if your neighbor dumped something in the water, you’d be mad about it because that was your drinking water,” Etchison said. “As how we drink water has changed over time, people’s concern about the quality of the water has also changed, and as people don’t eat as much fish from the river, they also don’t care as much about what the condition of the fish in river is like, so this is just another way to reconnect people with their local resource and help them see why they should care.”
It’s hard to care about something that you’ve never seen, Etchison said, so the more experiences people have in their mountain streams, the more they’ll want to protect them. That’s a philosophy that’s become something of a rallying cry in the conservation field, birthing multitudes of endeavors aimed at connecting people to the beauty, complexity and necessity of the species and ecosystems around them — in the hope that sense of connection will lead to a sense of urgency to protect them.
“It’s really just trying to get more folks out there and get more
folks thinking about what what’s going on in the water,” Etchison said.
The 10 pilot sites cover five different watersheds, featuring a diversity of freshwater habitat, ecosystems and species.
The trail features four locations in the Little Tennessee River Basin, starting with the Tuckasegee River at East LaPorte River Access Park in Jackson County. The river eventually flows down to another site at Island Park in Bryson City. The water is warmer there, resulting in an assemblage of fish distinct from that seen higher up at East LaPorte.
At Mainspring’s Queen Branch Nature Preserve property in Macon County, the river is broad and shallow, with a lot of bedrock. The water at the Joyce Kilmer Bridge Fishing Access on the Cheoah River below Lake Santeetlah is warmer and home to a community of fish that were reintroduced to the stream after that stretch of river was dewatered in the past. In the
Thus far, funding for the snorkel trail has come in bits and pieces from a wide range of partners. The group received a $5,000 grant from the Tennessee Valley Authority and $1,000 from the North Carolina chapter of American Fisheries Society, with funding for signage at individual sites coming either from the property owner or from a watershed group partnering on the effort.
“Site partners have been able to pay for it themselves, and the other grants help fund the design and the signs were unfunded,” Etchison said.
However, the snorkel trail partners hope to see more resources come their way to expand the trail and create a guide helping visitors to get the most out of it. MountainTrue’s lobbyist is asking Raleigh legislators for $150,000 toward the effort, Moore said.
“Hopefully they’re going to go ahead and support it in the budget this time anyway, but if not, we’re going to keep at it until we’re able to expand it to include all of Western North Carolina,” Moore said. “And even beyond.”
MountainTrue does work in Georgia and Tennessee as well, so in the years ahead the trail might look for funding to create snorkeling sites in those states, too.
“That’s why we called it the Blue Ridge Snorkel Trail, so that it doesn’t have to just be Western North Carolina,” she said.
The trail’s supporters hope its launch
coinciding with the 2023 North Carolina Year of the Trail, will help it gain more support and attention. The N.C. General Assembly passed a resolution in 2021 giving 2023 that title, and all year groups across the state will be holding events and focusing their marketing to draw even more people into the state’s growing community of trail enthusiasts. The Great State Trails Coalition, which is leading the Year of the Trail effort, is asking the General Assembly for $50.5 million toward a competitive grant pool funding development of local community trails.
The rivers are open for snorkeling now, but the water is still a little cold for anyone who doesn’t own a wetsuit to consider jumping in. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the Pigeon River at Canton is currently around 45 degrees. Kickoff events will be held this summer, once the water has had a chance to warm up.
“When people find out how much aquatic biodiversity there is, and that it’s not just trout or not just bass in the lakes that’s under the water, I think there’s a lot more incentive to be asking the questions like, okay, how do we protect that?” Moore said. “I think that it really goes to the conservation efforts and things like riparian buffers and native plants on the stream banks and stopping erosion when you see it on your property and things like that. “The more people love a resource, the more they’re willing to do to try to protect it.”
Hiawassee River Basin is a site on the Valley River in Andrews, one of the lower-elevation locations at about 1,780 feet above sea level.
In the French Broad River Basin, there’s the Pigeon River at Canton Recreation Park, Mills River at Mills River Park and the Swannanoa River at Black Mountain Veterans Park. The trail also features a stop at Stone Mountain State Park in the Yadkin River Basin and at the Joseph McDowell Historical Catawba Greenway in Marion.
“The hope is that people be able will to go to each site and see the unique species that are at each site, even when they’re close to each other,” Etchison said.
North Carolina is home to 234 freshwater fish species, each with distinct needs for food and shelter. Even slight variations in geology, elevation and water quality can have significant impacts on the types of aquatic creatures living in a given section of stream.
“They have all very different aquatic communities,” Etchison said, “so they’ll be able to see the difference in even a 15, 20minute drive.”
These are only the answers.
Help root out invasive species from Island Park in Bryson City 1-3 p.m. Wednesday, March 29.
Volunteers will use hand tools to cut down invasive shrubs like Chinese privet and then treat the stumps to kill them. No
experience is necessary, and both tools and training will be provided.
Organized by MountainTrue and the Tuckaseegee River Alliance. Register in advance at mountaintrue.org/event and bring water. Rain date is April 5.
Help tend young hemlocks during a volunteer workday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, March 31, in Waynesville.
Participants will help with tasks in the greenhouse and nursery where the Forest Restoration Alliance conducts a selective breeding program aimed at growing hemlock trees resistant to the deadly hemlock wooly adelgid. In addition to working with plants, volunteers will get a tour of the facility by researcher Ben Smith to learn about FRA’s efforts to restore hemlock populations. RSVP by Tuesday, March 28, to education@savehemlocksnc.org or 828.252.4783. Space is limited.
A mussel found in Western North Carolina will be listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act following a decision from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The longsolid mussel is a medium-sized mussel up to 5 inches long that can live up to 50 years. It prefers a mixture of sand, gravel and cobble stream bottoms and is currently found in ten states: Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
There are currently 60 known populations of the mussel, with 48 of those in a very limited area with no sign of young mussels growing into adults. Such populations have very low resiliency. This is down from a historical high of 160 populations. The mussel is no longer found in Georgia and Illinois.
In the same decision, the USFWS decided to list the hickorynut freshwater mussel
as threatened too. That species is found in nine eastern and midwestern states, but not North Carolina.
The USFWS is also designating critical habitat and tailoring ESA protections to protect these imperiled species from going extinct throughout all or a significant portion of its range in rivers and streams in the eastern United States.
The biggest threats to longsolid and round hickorynut mussels are habitat degradation and loss, genetic isolation and threats from invasive and non-native species. The USFWS worked with researchers from a variety of organizations to assess the species’ status and compiled those findings in a peer-reviewed species status assessment. The longsolid and round hickorynut mussels are found largely where federally protected mussels already occur, so any increased regulatory burden is expected to be minimal. No critical habitat for the longsolid mussel occurs in North Carolina.
The complete listing proposal is available under Docket Number FWS–R4–ES–2020–0010 at regulations.gov.
Visitors to the Nantahala Ranger District have a new Appalachian Trail Shelter to visit thanks to months of work from the Nantahala Hiking Club to replace the Rock Gap Shelter.
The replacement, conducted in partnership with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and U.S. Forest Service, is now complete. A ribbon-cutting was held March 17.
“The Nantahala Hiking Club is responsible for the maintenance of 10 shelters along our 60 miles of the Appalachian Trail,” club member Victor Treutel wrote in an NHC newsletter discussing the project. “Some are in great shape, others are a little tired. Rock Gap shelter was the most tired. It had generations of graffiti and a large colony of mice entrenched within its weathered walls.”
Escalation in the cost of building materials meant that NHC had to use more than $2,000 of its own money to complete the project, in addition to funding provided by the USFS and ATC. Donations are encouraged at nantahalahikingclub.org/donations.
The completion came just in time for thru-hiker season. March is the most popular month for north-bound hikers to start
their journeys in Georgia. Currently,
than 2,500 people have registered to start a
Six shuttle companies will offer rides to and from popular trailheads in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park this year, one of multiple firsts for the park in 2023 as it continues seeking solutions to traffic congestion, parking and overcrowding issues.
“We are committed to developing innovative solutions to improve visitor access and experience while protecting this national treasure,” said Superintendent Cassius Cash. “Having a shuttle option is a stress-free way for visitors to experience some of the park’s most iconic destinations.”
Shuttles will pick up and drop off at popular destinations like Alum Cave Trail, Laurel Falls Trail, Chimney Tops Trail, Trillium Gap Trail (Grotto Falls), Rainbow Falls Trail and Clingmans Dome. Providers include Bryson City Outdoors, which has locations in Cherokee and Bryson City, as well as five Tennessee-based companies: AAA Hiker Shuttle, A Walk in the Woods, Great Smoky Mountains Eco Tours, RockyTop Tours and Smoky Mountain Rides.
Visitors who use a shuttle to access the park will not need to purchase a parking tag, which since March 1 have been required for any visitors parking a vehicle for 15 minutes or more. Those who choose to drive themselves should also come with an alternative hike in mind in case no parking is available at their desired trailhead. The park has taken measures to prevent parking on roadsides and other areas outside official parking lots. Parking in areas not specifically designed for parking damages resources, adds to congestion, is unsafe along busy roads and can make it hard for emergency vehicles to access some locations in a timely manner.
To book a ride, visitors should contact shuttle providers directly. Routes and schedules vary by provider. Learn more at nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/shuttles.htm.
Appalachian Trail season is here, with more than 2,500 people registered to start a thru-hike from Springer Mountain between Feb. 1 and April 30. As they arrive in Franklin, a full schedule of events and services will greet them and help the larger community celebrate what the A.T. means to Western North Carolina.
■ Currahee Brewing Co. will host its Hiker Bash 1-5 p.m. Saturday, March 25, at the
Brian Turner, a four-term member of the N.C. House of Representatives who left office in January, will serve as the new policy director for Audubon North Carolina starting in April. In that role, he will oversee the organization’s policy work across the state.
“I spent my time in the legislature working across the aisle to promote and protect North Carolina’s natural resources and wildlife. I am thrilled to continue this work with an organization that so closely aligns with my values,” Turner said. Turner, who grew up in Western North Carolina and represented District 116 in Asheville, has worked with Audubon on bipartisan conservation legislation and policies. He served as vice-chair of the Wildlife Resources Committee and was a member of the Agriculture, Natural and Economic Resources Appropriations Committee, which includes oversight of the state’s Land and Water Fund and Parks and Recreation Trust Fund.
“Anyone who knows Brian understands his passion for the outdoors,” said Audubon North Carolina Executive Director Andrew Hutson. “We are delighted he will bring that passion and his deep understanding of North Carolina’s political landscape to work for birds and people as Audubon North Carolina’s new policy director.”
The U.S. Open national-level slalom and kayak cross event will draw world-class paddlers to the Nantahala Outdoor Center Saturday, March 25, and Sunday, March 26.
brewery.
■ Three Eagles Outfitters will host its 29th anniversary Hiker Fest Friday, March 31, through the end of the weekend.
■ Nantahala Hiking Club will hold its annual Thru Hiker Chow Down noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 1, at Lazy Hiker Brewing Company. At 3 p.m., the Hiker Hunger Games & Gooder Grove’s Groovy Gathering will commence at Gooder Grove Hostel.
■ The AT110 Fest will take place 6 p.m. Friday, April 7, at Rathskeller Coffee Haus & Pub.
■ The Nantahala Hiking Club will conduct its annual Easter on the Trail trail magic event Saturday, April 8.
■ At 5 p.m. Friday, April 14, Outdoor 76 will host Food, Fix & Brews at its shop in partnership with the Blue Ridge Bartram Trail Conservancy.
■ The Happy Trails to You event will be held 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, April 21, at Gracious Plates on Main.
■ At 6 p.m. Saturday, April 22, Lazy Hiker Brewing Company will host the Outdoor Music Jam & Gear Exchange. For information, visit atmile110.com.
Kids are invited to learn about the complex lives of plants at 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 29, in the Storytime Room of the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva.
Emily of the Balsam Mountain Trust will teach kids about botany in this program that’s part of the ecoEXPLORE initiative from the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville. ecoEXPLORE is designed to help kids learn about the region’s diverse ecosystem and become citizen scientists. The event is free and co-sponsored by Friends of the Jackson County Public Library. For more information, contact 828.586.2016.
Everyone is invited to compete against the country’s top whitewater athletes, starting with a slalom course March 25 on the Nantahala Falls section of the river. This 18–20-gate course should challenge intermediate to expert level slalom paddlers.
Participants are encouraged to use slalomspecific boats.
Sunday will feature the first-ever U.S. Open Kayak Cross race, open to all paddlers who have Class II river-running skills, a plastic boat under 8 feet and a strong roll. This new Olympic event puts four kayakers in a head-to-head format to race down a section of whitewater while negotiating several gates and completing a full kayak roll before the finish line.
Hosted by the Nantahala Racing Club. Registration is $50 for both days or $25 per event day. Sign up at nantahalaracingclub.com/us-open by noon March 24.
Doug Tallamy had been teaching at the University of Delaware for a quarter of a century when he had an epiphany: People who want to do something good for the planet have the ability to effect change immediately by choosing plants that share their energy with other beings, as opposed to those that don’t. And they get to see positive results in real time in their own yards.
“The public loves that,” he says, “and I love that.”
A professor in UD’s Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology, Tallamy has written several books about how simple stewardship at home can have a positive effect on the biodiversity crisis and make a big difference for overall ecosystem health. These include “Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants” and the New York Times bestseller “Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard.”
He will be the keynote speaker this year on Earth Day, April 22, as park partner
Discover Life in America celebrates its 25th anniversary in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. One of the things he’ll be talking about is his Homegrown National
Parks initiative to promote and record successful conservation on private property.
“When I was in graduate school in the 70s, we learned about host-plant specialization and co-evolution, the idea that if you take milkweed away, the monarch is not going to eat something else — and that’s true for 90 percent of the insects,” Tallamy says. “What we didn’t know, or I wasn’t following, was the degree to which non-native plants that don’t have these interactions have replaced native plants all over the place.”
This truth became real for Tallamy when he and his wife moved onto 10 acres in Oxford, Pennsylvania, in 2000. The land was impenetrable, thick with bittersweet, Japanese honeysuckle and bush honeysuckle. Clearing and restoring the land with native plants, Tallamy grasped the extent to which non-life-sustaining species are now pervading landscapes everywhere.
“Even if we’re not using invasive plants, they are still non-native, and they are still not supporting anything,” he figured. This led to more investigation into how humans tend to landscape with ornamental species that don’t support other life. “When I looked into the literature, I found a big, long list of reasons why non-native plants are not great, but wrecking the food web wasn’t on that list.”
they are transferring more energy from plants to other animals than any other type of plant eater. In short, if you don’t have a landscape that supports a lot of caterpillars, you are going to have a failed food web.”
Tallamy and his lab ranked the plant genera throughout the country in terms of their ability to support caterpillars, discovering that 14% of our native plants are supporting 90% of the caterpillars. Oaks support over 1,000 species of caterpillar, and no other plant genus comes close. (The tulip tree supports only 21.) Without one or more keystone species, the bulk of the caterpillars are lost from the landscape. Then the chickadees can’t breed, red foxes lose 25% of their diets, black bears cannot get enough natural food to get through the winter, and the list of catastrophic effects goes on and on.
Back on their 10-acre property, Tallamy and his wife have been counting the species now thriving there, and in 23 years, 1,199 have come back.
“That’s 44% of all the species found in the entire state of Pennsylvania, and it’s because we put the plants back,” he says. “What would happen if everybody put the plants back? We really could turn these terrible statistics around, and that’s a motivating force that has changed the direction of my research.”
Doug Tallamy (above) is a professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware. His books include “Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants” and the New York Times bestseller “Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard.” He will speak in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Earth Day. Rob Cardillo photo
Then, sitting in his kitchen on a Sunday morning in 2007, he came across the statistic that we in the US have 40 million acres of lawn. He thought: What if we cut that area in half and put it towards conservation? If you add up the acreage in national parks, how long would it take to reach 20 million acres? He started adding up some of the big ones — Denali, Katmai, Death Valley, Yellowstone, the Everglades, Grand Canyon, Glacier, Big Bend, Joshua Tree, the Smokies — and it still didn’t come near to 20 million acres. If we preserved private lands, Tallamy thought, we could create the biggest national park in the country — at home.
So Tallamy developed the Homegrown National Park initiative to create viable habitats outside of parks, forming connectivity between preserved lands so that the conservation activities inside of the parks can become more meaningful.
“More than 78% of the U.S. is privately owned, and 85% east of the Mississippi is privately owned,” he says. “To succeed we must do conservation on that private property. We’ll be able to sustain these species a whole lot longer if we extend our conservation reach beyond parks and preserves and create viable habitat outside the protected land.”
The polyphemus moth caterpillar is one of more than 1,000 species of caterpillar supported by oak trees, a keystone tree species. There is no other plant genus that comes close to that number; tulip trees, by comparison, support only 21 species of caterpillar. So, it’s important to choose keystone species to plant on your property in order to positively affect the biodiversity crisis. Bob Peterson photo
Tallamy says humans are so detached from nature that we think a few conservation biologists and ecologists do conservation and we’re not part of it — which for some translates into a green light to destroy the ecosystem.
“Because of this private property connection and because everybody on the planet requires healthy ecosystems, it’s our responsibility, everybody’s,” he says. “If it helps to empower you, don’t think about the entire planet and its problems, just worry about your one little piece of the planet. We can even be selfish about this and do it because our lives depend on it!”
On Saturday, April 22, the public is welcome to join a free, family-friendly open house at Twin Creeks Pavilion in the Smokies from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. There will be live music, lunch, tours of the natural history collections, nature programs and opportunities to meet and talk with scientists and park biologists. Then, starting at 6 p.m., there is a reception followed by Tallamy’s talk and book signing at 7 p.m. at Gatlinburg’s Park Vista hotel, 705 Cherokee Orchard Road. Tickets are $10. Learn more and register at dlia.org.
Examples of how to do this can be found in the most recent of Tallamy’s titles, “The Nature of Oaks: The Rich Ecology of Our Most Essential Native Trees,” which won the American Horticultural Society’s 2022 Book Award and earned Tallamy the Asheville EcoForesters 2022 Root Cause Award for his commitment to natural communities and the benefits they provide.
As he explains in the book, healthy oak trees support hundreds of species, play a vital role in maintaining insect populations and go a long way toward sustaining wildlife.
“Caterpillars are the bread and butter of terrestrial food webs,” Tallamy says. “So,
DLiA’s mission is to discover, understand and conserve biological diversity. Its flagship project, the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory, is a joint effort with the National Park Service to identify and understand every species within Great Smoky Mountains National Park. To date, DLiA has helped add nearly 12,000 species to the inventory of life in the park, including 1,063 that are new to science.
Frances Figart (rhymes with Tiger) is the editor of Smokies Life and the Creative Services Director for the 29,000-member Great Smoky Mountains Association, an educational nonprofit partner of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Reach her at frances@gsmassoc.org.
• The Jackson County Farmers Market meets every Saturday November through March 10 a.m.-1 p.m. and April through October 9 a.m.-noon at Bridge Park in Sylva, 110 Railroad St. Special events listed on Facebook and Instagram.
• The Jackson Arts Market takes place from 1-5 p.m. every Saturday at 533 West Main St. in Sylva with live music and an array of local artists.
• Cowee School Farmer’s Market is held Wednesdays from 3-6 p.m., at 51 Cowee School Drive in Franklin. The market has produce, plant starts, eggs, baked goods, flowers, food trucks and music. For more information or for an application, visit www.coweeschool.org or call 828.369.4080.
• Haywood Pathways Center’s 5th annual Empty Bowls fundraiser will take place 5:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 23, at Long’s Chapel United Methodist Church in Waynesville. For more information visit https://www.haywoodpathwayscenter.org/empty-bowlsfundraiser/ or call 828.246.0332.
• Jackson County Senior Center will host a GIANT Yard Sale from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, April 1. Proceeds from the event will fund the Smoky Mountain Senior Games which begin on Monday, April 3.
• The NC Guardian ad Litem Program is holding certification classes in Macon and Haywood Counties in March. Volunteers are needed to advocate for the best interest of children who have been alleged to be abused and/ or neglected. Applications can be filled out at volunteerforgal.org. For more information call Brad Renegar at 828.454.6395.
• REACH volunteer training will take place from 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Saturday, March 25, at First United Methodist Church in Waynesville. For further information and to register, contact Buffy Queen, REACH Community Educator, 828.456.7898, or BQreach@aol.com no later than March 21.
• A Gentle Yoga Class will be offered noon to 1:15 p.m. Saturday, March 25, at the Waynesville Yoga Center. Cost is $22 or one class credit. To learn more or register visit https://waynesvilleyogacenter.com/class-schedule/.
• Mountain Area pregnancy Services and the WIC Breastfeeding Peer Counselor work together to provide a casual support group for prenatal and breastfeeding individuals from 1-2 p.m. on Tuesdays at Mountain Area Pregnancy Services, 177 N Main St. Waynesville, NC. All are welcome, registration is recommended. For more information please call 828.558.4550.
• Chess 101 takes place 3:30-4:30 p.m. every Friday at the Canton Branch of the Haywood County Library. For more information, email Ashlyn Godleski at ashlyn.godleski@haywoodcountync.gov or call 828.356.2567.
• The Canton Branch of the Haywood County Public Library Creative Writing Group meets 10:30 a.m.-noon on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month. For more information, email Jennifer at jennifer.stuart@haywoodcountync.gov or call 828.356.2561.
• Knit Night takes place at 5:30-7:30 p.m. every second
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Tuesday of the month at The Stecoah Valley Center. The event is free and open to the public. RSVP is recommended: 828.479.3364 or amber@stecoahvalleycenter.com.
• Sylva Writers Group meets at 10:30 a.m. on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month at City Lights Bookstore. For more information contact sylvawriters@gmail.com.
• Professor Bart D. Ehrman, Biblical scholar and author of six New York Times bestselling books including “Jesus” and “The Triumph of Christianity,” will speak and answer questions at 7 p.m. Friday, April 14, at the Queen Auditorium in the Folkmoot Friendship Center at 112 Virginia Ave. in Waynesville. Tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the door Tickets may be purchased at Blue Ridge Books or by calling 828.226.5921.
• Tremont Writers Conference, an intensive five-day retreat for writers of fiction, nonfiction and poetry will take place Wednesday, Oct. 25-29. Applications to participate in the event may be submitted online now through April 30 at writers.gsmit.org.
• Move and Groove Storytime takes place 10:30-11 a.m. every Thursday, at the Canton branch of the Haywood County Public Library. Exciting, interactive music and movement story time ideal for children 2-6 years old. For more information contact Ashlyn at ashlyn.godleski@haywoodcountync.gov or at 828.356.2567.
• Mother Goose Storytime takes place 10:30-11 a.m. every Wednesday, at the Waynesville branch of the Haywood County Public Library. Ideal for children from birth to 2 years old. For more information, contact Lisa at lisa.hartzell@haywoodcountync.gov or call 828.356.2511.
• Wiggle Worms Storytime takes place 10:30-11 a.m. every Tuesday, at the Waynesville branch of the Haywood County Public Library. Ideal for children 2-6 years old. For more information contact Lisa at lisa.hartzell@haywoodcountync.gov or call 828.356.2511.
• Storytime takes place at 10 a.m. every Tuesday at the Macon County Library. For more information visit fontanalib.org or call 828.524.3600.
• Toddler’s Rock takes place at 10 a.m. every Monday at the Macon County Library. Get ready to rock with songs, books, rhymes and playing with instruments. For more information visit fontanalib.org or call 828.524.3600.
• Art afternoon takes place at 3:30 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month at the Macon County Public Library. For more information visit fontanalib.org or call 828.524.3600.
signing books. For more information and a full schedule of events, visit litfestival.org.
• The 25th annual Greening Up the Mountains will take place 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, April 22, in downtown Sylva. For more information and a schedule of events visit greeningupthemountains.com.
• “Meander in May,” the free, self-guided arts festival organized by the Highlands Chamber of Commerce/Visit Highlands, NC will return at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 20. For more information and a schedule of events visit highlandschamber.org.
• Paint and Sip at Waynesville Art School will be held every Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 7-9:30 p.m. To learn more and register call 828.246.9869 or visit PaintAndSipWaynesville.com/upcoming-events. Registration is required, $45.
• “Flights & Bites” will be held starting at 4 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays at Bosu’s Wine Shop in downtown Waynesville. For more information on upcoming events, wine tastings and special dinners, click on waynesvillewine.com.
• A free wine tasting will be held from 6-8 p.m. every Thursday and 2-5 p.m. every Saturday at The Wine Bar & Cellar in Sylva. 828.631.3075.
• Take a trip around the world with four different wines every Friday 11 a.m.-8 p.m. and Saturday 11a.m.-6 p.m. at the Bryson City Wine Market. Pick from artisan Charcuterie Foods to enjoy with wines. 828.538.0420
• Cooking classes take place at the McKinley Edwards Inn from 6-8:30 p.m. on Thursday nights. To reserve your spot call 828.488.9626.
• Chess 101 takes place from 3:30-4:30 p.m. every Friday in the Canton Branch of the Haywood County Public Library. No registration required, for more information call 828.648.2924.
• Wired Wednesday, one-on-one technology help is available at 3-5 p.m. every Wednesday at the Canton Branch of the Haywood County Library. For more information or to register, call 828.648.2924.
• Uptown Gallery, 30 East Main St. Franklin, will be offering Children’s Art Classes Wednesdays afternoons. Adult workshops in watercolor, acrylic paint pouring, encaustic and glass fusing are also offered. Free painting is available 10 a.m.-3 p.m. every Monday in the classroom. A membership meeting takes place on the second Sunday of the month at 3 p.m. All are welcome. Call 828.349.4607 for more information.
• “Thursday Painters” group will be held from 10 a.m.3 p.m. on Thursdays at The Uptown Gallery in Franklin. Free and open to the public. All skill levels and mediums are welcome. Participants are responsible for their own project and a bag lunch. 828.349.4607 or pm14034@yahoo.com.
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Grotto at University of North Carolina Asheville. The screening is offered free in celebration of CMC’s 100th year of existence. Masa was a member of the club.
• A meeting 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Thursday, March 23, at the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville will gather volunteers interested in becoming a citizen scientist. At the meeting, attendees will learn how to get involved with the arboretum’s citizen science projects for 2023.
• Currahee Brewing Co. will host its Hiker Bash 1-5 p.m. Saturday, March 25, at the brewery. For more information, visit atmile110.com.
• The U.S. Open national-level slalom and kayak cross event will draw world-class paddlers to the Nantahala Outdoor Center Saturday, March 25, and Sunday, March 26. Hosted by the Nantahala Racing Club. Registration is $50 for both days or $25 per event day. Sign up at nantahalaracingclub.com/us-open by noon March 24.
• Waynesville Parks & Recreation will offer seed tray plantings 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Friday beginning March 27 at the Old Armory. They department will provide soil and trays; participants provide the seeds they want to plant. Cost is $5 per tray with a limit of five trays per person.
• Three Eagles Outfitters will host the 29th anniversary Hiker Fest Friday, March 31, through the end of the weekend. For more information, visit atmile110.com.
• Help tend young hemlocks during a volunteer workday 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday, March 31, in Waynesville. Participants will help with tasks in the greenhouse and nursery where the Forest Restoration Alliance conducts a selective breeding program aimed at growing hemlock trees resistant to the deadly hemlock wooly adelgid. RSVP by Tuesday, March 28, to education@savehemlocksnc.org or 828.252.4783. Space is limited.
• Green Energy Park will offer courses on axe-making 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday, March 31, and Saturday, April 1. Students will walk away with a traditional hand-forged axe that has a 1095 core. No prior experience needed. Cost is $300, materials included. Space is limited, registration required. For more information or to register, contact the Green Energy Park at 828.631.0271.
• The Gateway to the Smokies Half Marathon will return to its scenic course and festive start and finish in downtown Waynesville Saturday, April 1. The race will run alongside the Mighty 4-Miler to benefit the Riley Howell Foundation Fund. For more information or to register, visit gloryhoundevents.com.
• Nantahala Hiking Club will hold its annual Thru Hiker Chow Down noon to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 1, at Lazy Hiker Brewing Company. At 3 p.m., the Hiker Hunger Games & Gooder Grove’s Groovy Gathering will commence at Gooder Grove Hostel. For more information, visit atmile110.com.
• The 21st annual Spring Literary Festival will take place March 20-23 on the campus of Western Carolina University. Fifteen award-winning writers will take part, reading from their work, meeting with students and
• Join the Carolina Mountain Club for a screening of the 2002 documentary “The Mystery of George Masa,” at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 23, at Highsmith Student Union
• Volunteers are needed for the Plateau Pickup at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, April 15. To participate, send an email to events@highlandschamber.org or call 828.526.5841. For more information visit highlandschamber.org.
• The Fire Mountain Inferno will take place Saturday and Sunday, April 22-23, at the Fire Mountain Trails in Cherokee. The event will feature enduro downhill racing. For information, visit gloryhoundevents.com.
The Smoky Mountain News Marketplace has a distribution of 16,000 copies across 500 locations in Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties, including the Qualla Boundary and west Buncombe County. Visit www.wncmarketplace.com to place your ad!
Rates:
• $15 — Classified ads that are 25 words, 25¢ per word after.
• Free — Lost or found pet ads.
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Yard sale rained out? Call us by 10a.m. Monday for your ad to run again FREE
• $375 — Statewide classifieds run in 170 participating newspapers with 1.1+ million circulation. (Limit 25 words or less)
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Note: Highlighted ads automatically generate a border so if you’re placing an ad online and select a highlight color, the “add border” feature will not be available on the screen.
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Welcome to Historic Christopher Farms, located only a short distance from downtown Waynesville. This thriving and profitable fresh market is the produce supplier for many of the local restaurants. The dreamy cottage located on property has been fully renovated to showcase an easy floorpan with plenty of charm. Reach out to our team for more information or to tour this unique property.
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