State investigation reveals Jackson jail flaws Page 15
www.smokymountainnews.com
Western North Carolina’s Source for Weekly News, Entertainment, Arts, and Outdoor Information
April 15-21, 2015 Vol. 16 Iss. 46
Haywood eyes new animal shelter location Page 12
Taste of Local Come out and meet 15-20 local farmers and vendors.
May 21 | 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. Barber Boulevard, Waynesville
CONTENTS
STAFF
On the Cover: Western Carolina University’s second annual tourism conference will focus on the impact festivals and events in Western North Carolina have on the economy. Tourism experts will discuss how to make each festival a major success. (Page 6) Ashley T. Evans photo
News Cherokee culture vital to health issues ................................................................4 Festival frenzy fueling local economies ................................................................ 6 Canton, Maggie Valley cleanups under way ....................................................10 Tourism director in Jackson County’s future ......................................................9 Haywood eyes new animal shelter location ......................................................12 Senate candidates ready for another round ....................................................14 State investigation reveals Jackson jail flaws ..................................................15 FBI investigates apparent homicide in the Smokies ...................................... 21 Trash being tossed on Tuckasegee River bank ..............................................21
EDITOR/PUBLISHER: ADVERTISING DIRECTOR: ART DIRECTOR: DESIGN & WEBSITE: DESIGN & PRODUCTION: ADVERTISING SALES:
CLASSIFIEDS: NEWS EDITOR: WRITING:
ACCOUNTING & OFFICE MANAGER: DISTRIBUTION: CONTRIBUTING:
Scott McLeod. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . info@smokymountainnews.com Greg Boothroyd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . greg@smokymountainnews.com Micah McClure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . micah@smokymountainnews.com Travis Bumgardner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . travis@smokymountainnews.com Emily Moss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . emily@smokymountainnews.com Whitney Burton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . whitney@smokymountainnews.com Amanda Bradley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . jc-ads@smokymountainnews.com Hylah Birenbaum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . hylah@smliv.com Scott Collier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . classads@smokymountainnews.com Jessi Stone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . jessi@smokymountainnews.com Becky Johnson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . becky@smokymountainnews.com Holly Kays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . holly@smokymountainnews.com Garret K. Woodward. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . garret@smokymountainnews.com Amanda Singletary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . smnbooks@smokymountainnews.com Scott Collier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . classads@smokymountainnews.com Jeff Minick (writing), Chris Cox (writing), George Ellison (writing), Gary Carden (writing), Don Hendershot (writing).
CONTACT WAYNESVILLE | 144 Montgomery, Waynesville, NC 28786 P: 828.452.4251 | F: 828.452.3585
Opinion Rational gun violence debate needed ................................................................24
SYLVA | 629 West Main Street, Sylva, NC 28779 828.631.4829 | F: 828.631.0789
P:
A&E
INFO & BILLING | P.O. Box 629, Waynesville, NC 28786
The quest for fresh seafood ................................................................................28
Outdoors Solar energy movement comes to the mountains ..........................................38
The Naturalist’s Corner
Copyright 2015 by The Smoky Mountain News.™ Advertising copyright 2015 by The Smoky Mountain News.™ All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. The Smoky Mountain News is available for free in Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Swain and parts of Buncombe counties. Limit one copy per person. Additional copies may be purchased for $1, payable at the Smoky Mountain News office in advance. No person may, without prior written permission of The Smoky Mountain News, take more than one copy of each issue.
SUBSCRIPTIONS SUBSCRIPTION:
1 YEAR $65 | 6 MONTHS $40 | 3 MONTHS $25
Smoky Mountain News
April 15-21, 2015
The swamp a ghost saved ....................................................................................55
2
Save more when you buy more
10% off* - $50 - $149.99 15% off* - $150 - $249.99 20% off* - $250 & up
* excludes sale or clearance items. excludes Indian, victory & Slingshot.
New 2015 Indian Scout $11,299 $99 per month*
2009 Harley Davidson Ultra Classic Flame Blue, Factory Security, Painted Inner Fairing, center stand $15,999, $166 per month***
Exit 100 off US 74 - 82 Locust Drive | Waynesville, NC | 828.452.7276 Mon.-Fri. 9-6 | Sat. 9-5 | Closed Sunday SMSH.co
*Payments based on 72 months at 5.99% with $5800 cash or trade equity due at signing. All prices and payments are WAC plus any applicable taxes or fees.
New 2015 Victory Hi Ball $13,349 $199 per month**
2012 Harley Davidson Ultra Classic Black 11087 miles, 103 ci, 6 spd, $17,999 $197 per month***
**Payments based on 72 months at 5.99% with $1300 cash or trade equity due at signing. All prices and payments are WAC plus any applicable taxes or fees.
***Payments based on 48 months lease with $5400 cash or trade equity due at signing. All prices and payments are WAC plus any applicable taxes or fees.
April 15-21, 2015
Smoky Mountain News
3
news
Healing through heritage Conference highlights native culture as integral to addressing health issues
BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER t’s been a century since the grandfather of Beverly Kiohawiton Cook’s husband was taken from his family and shipped off to Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. Those years at school, days of travel away from family and forbidden to use native dress and speech, were traumatic. The tale is more than just an anecdote in the family history, said Cook, an elected chief of the Saint Regis Mohawk tribe in New York. “He was very handBeverly Cook some, but he was a beast,” Cook said of the grandfather. “He had 13 children, and he raised them the same way he was raised at the boarding school. There was a lot of violence in the home.” Cook’s husband was beaten as a boy and raped by a Boy Scout leader, who went unpunished. To cope, he developed a drug problem early in his youth, and at age 60 he passed away from disease caused by the drugs. The family recently buried his cousin, 46, whose life had followed the same plotline. “We have that kind of trauma going on, and to me that’s violence,” Cook said. “To me that’s a trigger that was pulled back when my husband was 5 years old. It took him down decades later, but it will take you down.” So was there any way to avoid that ending to the story? Is it possible to keep the opening chapters of such tales from being written? Speakers and discussions throughout the three-day Native Health Conference, the second annual meeting of the Smithsonian Institute’s Native Health and Culture Workgroup, attempted to answer those kinds of questions, or at least to find the smaller questions propping up the big ones. The conference, held at Western Carolina University, brought tribal leaders from Indian land across the country as well as scholars, researchers and representatives of federal agencies. Health was the conference’s headline focus — which issues are most pervasive in Native American communities, what causes them, how to address them — but the discussion was remarkably free of statistics and science-ese. In fact, someone who stumbled into the room unaware of the conference’s title might have mistaken the event for a forum on cultural recovery rather than an exploration of health issues. That’s because health and culture are not separate. Their fate is bound together. Take the issue of drugs, for example. “All these programs, all these other drugs to help you overcome drugs are good. But because of who you are, we have something 4 better and that is traditional healing, if you
TRICKLE-DOWN ISSUES Many of the most pervasive health issues on Indian reservations — drug use, obesity, domestic violence — have historical origins, resulting from patterns borne of divorce from culture, conference speakers said. “Everything that I’ve encountered and everything that comes out of the speakers in this session deals with the destructive nature of devaluing one’s culture, so that’s being done through colonization. That’s being done through being told they’re not allowed to speak their language, that’s being done by being sent off to the boarding school,” explained Gwen Isaac, curator of North American ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural
The three days of 2015’s Native Health Conference were packed with information, emotion and a pervading sense of spirituality, a recipe that met with overwhelmingly positive feedback and plans to bring the conference to Western Carolina University again next year — the planned theme would focus on mental health and well-being. “Several of the key program people said it was the best event they ever attended regarding native health,” said Lisa Lefler, director of WCU’s Culturally-Based Native Health Program and conference organizer. Holding the program amid the homeland of the Cherokee people was a big part of that success, Lefler said. The location made the issues feel real, and the conference’s conclusion — a fish fry held at Kituwah, the mother town of the Cherokee people — only underscored that feeling. This was the conference’s second year, with the inaugural 2014 event held in Washington, D.C. “What we learned last year was how important it was that all these people who
don’t normally talk to each other have an opportunity to learn from each other,” said Gwen Isaac, curator of North American ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History and one of the organizers of last year’s conference. The goal was to create an experience that felt more like a conversation than a convention, and that’s exactly what happened, Lefler said. People shared experiences and exchanged ideas, all against the backdrop of the Western North Carolina mountains, the Cherokee homeland. “It was more than just a discussion,” Lefler said. “They felt like it was something that had some teeth, and with the funding agencies there they could give us some guidance about funding opportunities. It made it very real to people.” Native presenters had the opportunity to communicate the importance of their culturally-based interventions to the federal representatives attending, making clear the need for initiatives that focus on community engagement rather than data and academics. “Answers to community problems are already in the community,” Lefler said.
Mohawk teenagers wear traditional dress for the Ohero:kon ceremony. Tribal leaders are looking to cultural restoration to address the issues plaguing their community. Donated photo
Smoky Mountain News
April 15-21, 2015
I
will just keep in mind you were Cherokee first,” explained Myrtle Driver, cultural and traditional specialist for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. The same goes for all native cultures, and for all health battles.
A good time had by all
History. Isaac was instrumental in organizing the inaugural Native Health Conference, held last year in Washington, D.C. Of course, those things all happened a long time ago. But the effects trickle through the generations. Cook spoke of her late husband as case in point, referring to the Adverse Childhood Experiences study, an ongoing project by the Centers for Gwen Issac Disease Control and Kaiser Permanente that looks at the effect of traumatic experiences in childhood on later life. “The higher your ACE score, the higher your chances are that you’re going to be depressed, alcoholic, that you will be raped in your lifetime or enter into another abusive
relationship,” Cook said. Thus, the abused child becomes the abusive husband, fathering children of his own who then learn that same abusive template for a home. “We have an ever-increasing problem, and where do you step in to make a difference?” Cook asked. First of all, she said, by recognizing that the source of a medical problem may not be strictly medical. For instance, Cook said, when treating an overweight person, “Maybe someone needs to talk to that person and find out why you can’t get a handle on your eating. What happened to you?” “Those kinds of questions I think really get at the root of what we need to do with our people,” she added. A person’s exposure to struggle begins in the womb, Cook said, which is why it’s so
important for native communities to emphasize prenatal care. The clinic she spearheaded in her own homeland, Centering Pregnancy, did just that, giving care that begins with the understanding that most women who come in are dealing with some kind of trauma. The clinic uses dimmed lighting, music and massage to create a comforting atmosphere and puts the mothers-to-be in groups of other women with similar due dates. “I would love for someone to say, ‘This is the way prenatal care should be given’ and teach it in medical schools so everyone knows what it means and how to do it, and don’t fund anything else,” Cook said.
BACK TO ORIGINS But in a way, medical intervention is little more than a finger in the dyke, a last-ditch attempt to protect a sin-
F
Sylva celebrates Earth Day birthday news
The second Earth Day/Birthday will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, April 22, at Bridge Park off Mill Street in Sylva. Reading volunteers are encouraged to bring a favorite earth-friendly selection and join in the fun. Readings must be under four minutes in length, earth partisan and family-friendly. There will be free birthday cake to commemorate Earth Day as well as free drawings for a children’s book and a collection of Aldo Leopold writings. “If you don’t want to read,” notes Smith, “bring a lawn chair and listen.” 828.586.6556 or rerunsmith@frontier.com.
Macon Health continues aging series “Just For the Health of It,” a free healthy aging series hosted by Macon County Public Health, will be held at 4 p.m.Thursday, April 16, at Macon County Public Health, 1830 Lakeside Drive, in Franklin. Physical Therapist Randy Phillips talks about maintaining strength, flexibility and balance. Free thera-bands & pedometers for the first 50 participants. Free C-Reactive Protein Tests, which measure inflammation in the body, and other Biometric screenings are available at 5 p.m. for first 50 participants. Join Dr. Ed Morris at 6 p.m. as he explains the body’s response to chronic inflammation and the relationship to disease development. 828.349.2425.
“In our communities we’re being programmed to death and we’re overinstitutionalized. We have to go back to the origins, back to our original instructions.” — Louise MacDonald Herne, Bear Clan Mother in the Mohawk Nation
QUESTION: My 8 year old child is very resistant to trying new vegetables. Can you give me some ideas on how I can get him to eat more vegetables?
ANSWER: It’s great that your goal is to introduce more vegetables into your child’s diet. The important thing to remember is that it may take multiple attempts to get your child to try a new vegetable – so don’t give up! There are a few ways that you can go about getting your child to taste (and hopefully enjoy) new vegetables. 1. Shopping: Take your child to Ingles with you when you shop and let them pick out a new or unfamiliar vegetable and research a little bit about it including how to prepare it. 2. Sneak it in: • Smoothies are a good way to add in vegetables. You can put spinach, kale, cucumber and even cooked butternut squash and pumpkin into smoothies. • Soups, Stews, Casseroles, Lasagna – Add additional vegetables like butternut squash, sweet potatoes, kale, spinach, broccoli celery or celery root (celeriac).
Lastly, make sure YOU set a good example by trying new vegetables and not making faces!
Smoky Mountain News
3. Dip it: Often children respond better to raw, crunchy vegetables than cooked. Make a dip or let use their favorite salad dressing to dip snow peas, grape tomatoes, radish, yellow squash or zucchini.
April 15-21, 2015
gle hole from the oncoming flood as hundreds of others pop open all around. The thing to do is rebuild the dyke — to instill native culture into the upcoming generation. “It’s our young people who are sitting there speaking our language, singing our songs and conducting our ceremonies,” said Louise MacDonald Herne, Bear Clan Mother in the Mohawk Nation. “I always say, are we ready? Are we ready, because we stand at the door of tremendous social change and revolution. Are we ready to usher these young people in?” The Mohawk have made great strides in doing so. The nation is in the tenth year of its Ohero:kon ceremony, a word that means “under the husk” in the native language. The ceremony is a 20-week rite of passage for teenagers, culminating in days — the exact number depends on the number of years the teen has participated — spent in the woods without food, water or human contact. During the weeks leading up to the fast, the teens participate in a variety of culturally-based activities to prepare themselves for the spiritual journey. It’s an undertaking that involves the whole village, and the teens come out the other end with a greater awareness of who they are and what it means to be Mohawk. The experience empowers them to go on to become leaders in the tribe rather than statistics attesting to the woes plaguing their community. “In our communities we’re being programmed to death and we’re over-institution-
alized,” MacDonald said. “We have to go back to the origins, back to our original instructions.” That’s not just true on Mohawk land. Native tribes are all one people, one family, Driver said. Similar traditions span across tribes, components of an ancient culture that are indispensible when working toward a positive future. “I’m proud for your children,” Cherokee member Oneida Bush told the Mohawk women. “We would love to start something like that down in Snowbird where we’re at.” Bush said she is working with a group of women on The Doula Project, a group dedicated to bringing traditional aspects back to the process of childbearing. But young people’s participation in traditional practice in Cherokee is not yet as far along as in Mohawk. “The barriers are there’s not enough adults that even know now,” Driver said. “They don’t know the traditions, our customs.” Or the language. Just as culture is tied to health, so language is tied to culture. “The prayers are in Cherokee, the formulas Myrtle Driver are in Cherokee,” Driver said. “If you don’t speak, read and write in the language, you can’t practice the healing methods.” Currently, only 219 fluent speakers of Cherokee remain, of which Driver, 70, is one. But as in the Mohawk nation, Cherokee is looking to the young people to carry on that tradition, as evidenced through students at the 11-year-old Cherokee immersion school, New Kituwah. Childish voices are once more beginning to speak the native tongue. Maintaining — and growing — an ancient culture amid a modern world is a daunting task. But it’s a battle worth fighting, one in which victory is vital if tribal communities are to flourish. And, Driver was quick to say, it’s not a battle without hope. “It can be done,” she said. “It can be done.”
5
news
Festival frenzy fueling local economies WCU to host second annual tourism conference BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR s a tourism expert in the Southeast, Dr. Steve Morse has been asked to judge competitions at festivals all over the region. His hectic schedule doesn’t allow him to participate in all of them, but he recalls one event he couldn’t turn down — judging entries at the National Banana Pudding Festival in Hickman County, Tennessee. “I didn’t even look at my calendar — I just called my wife and told her we were going,” he said. “Where else are you going to find something like that?” Why is a banana pudding festival so appealing? Because it’s fun, original and authentic — the three essential ingredients needed to make a festival successful. This is the message Morse hopes to drive home during the second annual Tourism Works Conference next Tuesday at Western Carolina University. The one-day conference will give tourism professionals the tools to organize and execute a success festival, which in turn will increase tourism spending.
plan their vacations around. “It’s hard to pick and choose the most successful ones — we have long-term festivals that people come to every year and plan their vacation around and we have new events generating a lot of buzz and publicity and a new type of crowd,” she said. “With the varied types of events we have, I think there’s something for everybody.”
A
Smoky Mountain News
April 15-21, 2015
FINDING YOUR FESTIVAL Morse, director of the hospitality and tourism management program at WCU, said communities have to find a way to distinguish themselves by organizing one-of-a-kind festivals and events. He pointed to the White Squirrel Festival in Brevard — a spring music festival that also celebrates white albino squirrels with a photo contest and other fun events featuring the unusual species that thrives in Brevard. Banner Elk is known for its Wooly Worm
2015 Festival lineup
• April 18 — Smoky Mountain Oyster & Seafood Festival, Maggie Valley. www.maggievalley.org • April 25 — Greening Up The Mountains, Sylva. www.greeningupthemountains.com • May-December — Art After Dark, Waynesville. www.downtownwaynesville.com • May 2 — Tour de Cashiers. www.tourdecashiers.com • May 2-3 — Ramp Festival, Waynesville. www.downtownwaynesville.com • May 8-10 — Mother’s Day Gemboree, Franklin. www.franklin-chamber.com • May 13 — Whole Bloomin’ Thing Spring Festival, Waynesville. 6 • May 22-24 — Maggie Valley Spring Rally.
MAINTAINING THE MOMENTUM
The Maggie Valley Arts and Crafts Festival, organized by the Maggie Valley Area Chamber of Commerce, draws large crowds each year to the Maggie Valley Festival Grounds. Margaret Hester photo Festival. In its 38th year, the fall festival is centered around the woolly worm’s ability to predict the severity of the winter to come. Again, it’s something unique to the community that celebrates local flavor and piques tourists’ curiosity. “We don’t need any more bluegrass and barbecue festivals — everyone has those,” Morse said. “And you don’t need a big committee to put it all together — have a few good people get together and come up with something different.” Lynn Collins, executive director of the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority, said she felt like Haywood County festivals do a great job of showcasing local heritage with signature events from the 27th annual Apple Harvest Festival and the 32nd annual Church Street Art and Craft Show to newer events like PlottFest and Appalachian Lifestyle Celebration. Each celebrates a part
of Appalachian culture — music, agriculture, homemade crafts, local produce and the North Carolina state dog. Even though it’s not authentic Appalachian, Folkmoot USA has a major economic impact on the region. The weeklong festival brings in seven or eight international groups to perform around WNC. The most popular event, the Parade of Nations, is held in downtown Waynesville each July. Collins said the event is definitely one that tourists
www.maggievalleyrallys.com • May 23 — Block Party, Waynesville. www.downtownwaynesville.com • May 23-24 — Cashiers Rotary Arts & Crafts Fair. www.cashiersrotary.org • Late May — Blues, Brew & BBQ, Cashiers. www.visitcashiersvalley.com • Memorial Day through July — Concerts on the Creek, Sylva. www.mountainlovers.com • Memorial Day through August — Groovin’ on the Green, Cashiers. www.visitcashiersvalley.com • June 4-6 — Cherokee Bluegrass Festival. www.adamsandandersonbluegrass.com • June 6 — Art, River & Music Festival, Murphy. www.cherokeeartscouncil.org • Mid-June — Taste of Scotland Weekend, Franklin. www.franklin-chamber.com • Mid-June — Cherokee Voices Festival. www.visitcherokeenc.com • June 13 — Appalachian Lifestyle Celebration, Waynesville.
www.downtownwaynesville.com • June 20 — Front Street Arts & Crafts Show, Dillsboro. www.visitdillsboro.org • June 20-21 — PlottFest, Maggie Valley. www.plottfest.org • June 26 — Mountain Street Dance, Waynesville. www.downtownwaynesville.com • June 26-27 — Stecoah Artisans Drive About Studio Tour. www.stecoahvalleycenter.com • Late June — Mountain Artisans Arts and Craft Show. www.mountainartisans.net • July 4 — Stars & Stripes Celebration, Waynesville. www.downtownwaynesville.com • July 4 — Fourth of July celebration, Maggie Valley. www.maggievalleyfestivalgrounds.org • July 4 — Lake Junaluska Fireworks Celebration. www.lakejunaluska.com • July 4 — Fourth of July Parade/Fireworks Celebration, Franklin. www.franklinchamber.com • July 4 — Cherokee Pow Wow. www.nccherokee.com
For every festival that survives and thrives, there are just as many that fail. Organizing and promoting a festival is a large undertaking that requires a certain amount of risk. Even when a festival is able to pick up some momentum, keeping that momentum going year after year can be challenging. Mater Fest in Canton had been a beloved tradition in the community for a decade, but FOCUS on Canton, the volunteer group that put on the two-day event, called it quits last year. Volunteer participation was at an alltime low, and the group couldn’t continue to manage the popular event. Collins said there are so many small details that go into planning a festival that people don’t always consider. “People who don’t do it don’t have a clue what a big undertaking it is,” she said. “If you have a situation where you have the same people over and over, they’ll experience burnout — you always need to recruit new volunteers.” Stagnant ideas were part of the problem with Franklin’s Main
F
Tourism economic impact on WNC — 2013 TOURIST SPENDING JOBS GENERATED LOCAL TAXES GENERATED Haywood County ............$155 million ...............1,610..........................$5.69 million Jackson County..............$163 million ...............1,610..........................$7.37 million Macon County................$140 million ...............1,180..........................$11 million Swain County .................$188 million ...............2,110..........................$4 million
• July 4 — Fourth of July Celebration. Sylva. www.jacksonnc.org/parks-and-recreation.html • July 4 — Glenville Fireworks. www.friendsoflakeglenville.com • July 4 — Fourth of July Fireworks Show, Cherokee. www.nc-cherokee.com • July 4 — Sapphire Valley Yankee Doodle Dandy Day. www.sapphirevalley.com • July 4 — Freedom Fest, Bryson City. www.greatsmokies.com • July 10 — Mountain Street Dance, Waynesville. www.downtownwaynesville.com • July 11-12 — Maggie Valley Summer Arts & Crafts Festival. www.maggievalley.org • July 16-26 — Folkmoot USA, Western North Carolina. www.folkmootusa.org • July 18 — ArtFest, Waynesville. www.downtownwaynesville.com • July 18 — Franklin Folk Festival. www.franklinfolkfestival.com • July 23-26 — Macon County Gemboree, Franklin.
F
www.downtownwaynesville.com • Labor Day Weekend — Canton Labor Day Celebration. www.visitncsmokies.com • Labor Day Weekend — Cashiers Valley Arts & Crafts Show. www.cashiersrotary.org • September-December — Murphy Art Walk. www.cherokeecountychamber.com • Early September — Cherokee BBQ & Bluegrass Throwdown. www.visitcherokeenc.com • Early September — Seven Clans Rodeo, Cherokee. www.visitcherokeenc.com • Sept. 4-5 — Smoky Mountain Folk Festival at Lake Junaluska’s Stuart Auditorium. www.lakejunaluska.com • Sept. 4-6 — Railfest Celebration, Bryson City. www.gsmr.com • Sept. 5 — Block Party, Waynesville. www.downtownwaynesville.com • Sept. 5-6 — Cashiers Rotary Arts & Crafts Fair. www.cashiersrotary.org • Sept. 5-6 — Maggie Valley Labor Day
Weekend Craft Show. www.maggievalleycraftshows.com. Sept. 11-13 — Thunder in the Smokies Fall Motorcycle Rally. www.handlebarcorral.com Sept. 12 — Shining Rock Riverfest, Bethel. Sept. 12 — Dazzling Dahlia Festival, Highlands. www.highlandschamber.org Sept. 19 — Youth Arts Festival, Dillsboro. www.visitdillsboro.org Sept. 25-27 — Guest Appreciation Festival, Nantahala Outdoor Center. www.noc.com Sept. 26 — Mountain Heritage Day, Cullowhee. www.wcu.edu. Early October — Taste of Sylva. www.mainstreetsylva.org Early October — Sapphire Valley Arts & Crafts Show. www.sapphirevalley.com Oct. 2-3 — Maggie Valley Oktoberfest. www.maggievalleyoktoberfest.com Oct. 3 — ColorFest, Dillsboro. www.mountainlovers.com Early-Mid October — Cherokee Indian Fair.
www.visitcherokeenc.com • Early-Mid October — Autumn Leaves Craft Show, Franklin. www.franklin-chamber.com • Oct. 10 — Maple Leaf Festival, Whittier. www.greatsmokies.com • Oct. 10 — Church Street Art & Craft Show, Waynesville. www.churchstfest.com. • Oct. 10-11 — October Leaves Craft Show, Maggie Valley. www.mvcraftshows.com • Mid-October — Highlands Own Arts & Crafts Show and Hometown Day. www.highlandsnc.org • Mid-October — Leaf Festival, Cashiers. www.visitcashiersvalley.com • Oct. 16-18 — Leaf Lookers Gemboree, Franklin. www.franklin-chamber.com • Oct. 17 — Chili Cook-Off, Bryson City. www.greatsmokies.com • Oct. 17 — Oktoberfest, Dillsboro. www.visitdillsboro.org • Oct. 17 — Apple Harvest Festival, Waynesville. www.haywoodapplefest.com
Learn from the experts Tourism conference to focus on festival success
T
MONDAY, APRIL 20
• 5-7:30 p.m. — Wine and beer reception overlooking the Tuckasegee River. Best Western Hotel, Dillsboro. TUESDAY, APRIL 21 • 8-8:45 a.m. — Registration • 8:45-9 a.m. — Welcome, introductions, overview of conference • 9-9:45 a.m. — Tourism Economic Fact Sheets (Steve Morse & WCU students) • 9:45-10 a.m. — Break • 10-11 a.m. — Festival and Events 101: Essential elements of planning a successful festival or event • 11-11:15 a.m. — Break • 11:15 a.m.-noon — Concurrent breakout sessions (choose one session) Session 1: Secrets to getting and keeping financial sponsors and community volunteers for festivals and events Session 2: Success with food and craft vendors at festivals and events Session 3: Choosing a festival or event theme and marketing strategy to reflect your local community’s authenticity and unique sense of place • Noon – 1:15 p.m. — Lunch served on site and an update on North Carolina tourism from Raleigh Smoky Mountain Host (Betty Huskins) Blue Ridge Mountain Host (Pepper Parris) High Country Host (Candice Cook) • 1:15 – 1:30 p.m. — Break (15 min) • 1:30 – 2:15 p.m. — Repeat of concurrent breakout sessions (choose one session) • 2:15 – 2:30 p.m. — Break • 2:30 – 3:30 p.m. — The top 7 ways to make your festival or event a failure. • 3:30 – 3:45 p.m. — Break • 3:45 – 4:15 p.m. — Meet and find a WCU Hospitality and Tourism student looking for an internship. • 4:30 p.m. — Conference Ends
April 15-21, 2015
Conference agenda
ourism is a huge topic with a major impact on Western North Carolina’s economy. Western Carolina University will host the second annual Tourism Conference next week to focus on one major aspect of the tourism industry — festivals and events. Steve Morse, director of the hospitality and tourism management program at WCU, said the conference hopes to accomplish three things: allow WCU to engage with the communities it serves; provide WCU students majoring in hospitality and tourism real hands-on experience; and give those students a final product they can show employers when they graduate. Morse said his students gather and compile all the tourism fact sheets for the tourism leaders in the region. Those facts on the impact of tourism are vital tools tourism leaders can use when going after funding and planning a marketing strategy. “I’ll go over the fact sheets at the conference and teach them how to use the numbers,” Morse said. More than 150 tourism professionals from 26 counties attended the inaugural tourism conference held at WCU last year, and this year attendance is expected to double, which is why the event will be held in the Ramsey Center this year. While the first conference took a broad look at the industry, Morse said attendees wanted to dig into more details of one particular issue. This year’s conference will focus only on the impact festivals and events can have on
local economies in Western North Carolina. Morse already has a topic ready for next year — how to make your community an outdoors adventure destination. Lynn Collins, executive director of the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority, will be attending the conference for a second year and said she is looking forward to the focus on festivals. “It’s always helpful to learn as much as we can and bring back information and apply it to what’s happening here in Haywood,” she said. Morse said WCU was fortunate to have an extraordinary lineup of tourism experts in the region coming to the conference to cover a number of interesting topics. Melissa Porter, who ran Bele Chere in Asheville for many years, will be giving tips on how to obtain and keep financial sponsors and community volunteers, and Dr. Mary Morse will be sharing tips on how to get the right craft and food vendors for a festival. Chris Cavanaugh, president of Magellan Strategy Group in Asheville, will tell tourism leaders how to make their festivals authentic and reflective of the community. During lunch, Wit Tuttle, the executive director of the Division of Tourism in Raleigh, will give everyone an update on how the state is marketing Western North Carolina as a destination. Morse said one of the most entertaining sessions would be “The Top 7 Ways to Make Your Festival or Event a Failure.” John Whisenant, executive director of Tourism and Events for the Tennessee Hospitality and Tourism Association in Nashville, will present the workshop. The last 30 minutes of the conference will give tourism professionals an opportunity to talk to WCU hospitality students looking for an internship. Conference registration costs $149. Register at www.wcu.edu/academics/ edoutreach/conted/profdev/ TourismConference.asp.
news
Street Program — a nonprofit group responsible for putting on several of the town’s popular festivals and events. The Main Street Program board recently decided to go inactive until it could regroup with some new people and fresh ideas. Understanding the importance of festivals to the local economy, Franklin Town Manager Summer Woodard said the town decided to step in and take over the management of the four big events — Fourth of July, Pumpkin Fest, the Veteran’s Day parade and Winter Wonderland. Woodard hopes to keep the 19th annual Pumpkin Fest going strong because the signature event attracts locals and tourists from all over and kicks off the fall season in the mountains. She said the annual pumpkin roll is a good tracker of the event’s tourism draw. More than 700 pumpkins were rolled down Frogtown and the winners for the last five years have been from places as far away as Texas and New York. Franklin is also looking to expand its Fourth of July event to two days and make changes to distinguish it from the chamber of commerce’s fireworks celebration held in the afternoon. “This will be the first year for the town taking over the festivals from the Main Street Program,” she said. “It will be a good trial run to see what works and doesn’t work.” Doug Morton, chairman of the Taste of Scotland Festival committee in Franklin, said the four-day event held in June takes all year to plan and the process begins again the day after the festival is over. “It’s not just a little thing,” he said. “It takes a lot of hours and people.” To keep the momentum going, the committee strives to make the Scottish and Celtic festival as authentic as possible by scrutinizing every performer and vendor who wants to be part of the event. Morton said the festival had about five clans present last year, but this year 20 are already committed to attending, which he hopes increases attendance and interest. “The exciting thing for me is that more people are hearing about us,” he said. “I’ve received calls from music groups from as far away as
S EE TOURISM, PAGE 8
• • • • • • • • • • •
Smoky Mountain News
www.franklin-chamber.com • July 24-25 — Smokin’ in the Valley WNC BBQ Festival, Maggie Valley. www.maggievalley.org • July 31-Aug. 1 — Hillbilly Woodstock, Maggie Valley. www.maggievalley.org • Aug. 7-8 — Fines Creek Bluegrass Jam, Fines Creek. www.finescreek.org • Aug. 7-8 — Mountain High BBQ Festival & Car Show, Franklin. www.mountainhighbbqfestival.com • Aug. 8-9 — Lake Logan Multisport Festival, Canton. www.gloryhoundevents.com • Early-Mid August –— Sapphire Valley Fine Art Show. www.sapphirevalley.com • Aug. 14-16 — Maggie Valley Summer Rally. www.maggievalleyrallys.com • Aug. 15 — Waynesville Beer Faire. www.waynesvillebeer.com • Aug. 15 — Blue Ridge Breakaway at Lake Junaluska. www.blueridgebreakaway.com • Aug. 21 — Main Street Mile, Waynesville.
7
news
TOURISM, CONTINUED FROM 6 Nova Scotia, California and Texas wanting to be a part of it. Word has gotten out.” He said the biggest challenge, as with most festivals, is funding. Taste of Scotland receives grants from tourism organizations and the town of Franklin, but the committee volunteers raise a majority of the money. The event has always been free and Morton intends to keep it that way for the enjoyment of visitors and locals.
April 15-21, 2015
TOURISM TAX RELIEF Morse said flourishing festivals lead to an increase in tourism dollars, and more tourism dollars mean locals are paying less in taxes. He likes to call tourists “temporary taxpayers.” They may not pay property tax, but they pay sales tax, gas tax and an occupancy tax. The occupancy tax visitors pay when they stay overnight at a hotel or bed and breakfast goes back to the tourism agency in each county and is spent on increasing tourism through advertising and events. Every dollar spent by tourists lightens the tax burden of local households. According to Morse’s data, for example, Macon County’s 25,292 households pay $660 less in state and local taxes as a result of tourism spending. When comparing employment trends in 2003 compared to 2013, it is clear that tourism is the mainstay industry in the region. Manufacturing and construction jobs only make up 9.8 percent of total jobs in the seven westernmost counties — Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Swain, Cherokee, Clay and Graham — while tourism and hospitality jobs increased from 18 percent to 21 percent of the total jobs. Tourism spending in these counties adds up to $721.3 million, and the region is experiencing the fastest tourism growth of any in the state. “In Western North Carolina, tourism jobs will never be outsourced to another country like manufacturing jobs have been,” Morse said. Some argue that most tourism jobs are minimum wage or temporary positions that don’t do much to benefit the overall econo-
Smoky Mountain News
• Oct. 17-18 — Maggie Valley Fall Arts & Crafts Festival. www.maggievalley.org • Oct. 24 — Pumpkin Fest, Franklin. www.franklin-chamber.com • Oct. 24 — NOCtoberfest, Nantahala Gorge. www.noc.com • Late October — Catch the Spirit of Appalachia: Celebration of the Arts, Bryson City. www.mountainlovers.com • Late October — Hauntober Weekend, Fontana Village Resort. www.fontanavillage.com • Late October — Hiker Jam Octoberfest, Cashiers. www.hikerjam.ticketleap.com • Early November — Highlands Culinary Weekend. www.highlandschamber.org • Early November — Cheoah Storytelling Festival, Robbinsville. www.townofrobbinsville.com • Early November — Mountain Shapes & 8 Colors, Bryson City. www.greatsmokies.com
my, but Morse disagrees. Yes, many of the jobs — food service, transportation, lodging, retail, recreation and entertainment — can be seasonal and low-paying, but there is a ripple effect. Tourism-related businesses rely on other industries to keep them going — banking and finance, media and print design, services like HVAC and plumbing and much more. “It’s like looking at a hospital. Sure, there are low-paid orderly positions, but there are also a lot of behind-the-scenes positions making the hospital run,” he said.
DO BUSINESSES BENEFIT? When a festival rolls into town, most Main Streets shut down to vehicle traffic. Food vendors, arts and crafters set up their tents and musicians line the street. Many downtown merchants love the foot traffic created downtown during a festival, but others don’t see how their businesses benefit when tourists are buying food and other items from street vendors. Some business owners feel like their shops are only used for bathroom breaks during festivals. “I think a few would say it doesn’t help them, but a majority do seem very receptive of festivals and appreciate having them
“People who don’t [plan festivals] don’t have a clue what a big undertaking it is. If you have a situation where you have the same people over and over, they’ll experience burn out — you always need to recruit new volunteers.” — Lynn Collins, executive director of the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority
• Nov. 7 — WNC Pottery Festival, Dillsboro. www.wncpotteryfestival.com • Nov. 11 — Veteran’s Day Parade, Franklin. www.franklin-chamber.com • Nov. 11 — Veteran’s Day Celebration, Cherokee. www.visitcherokeenc.com • Nov. 26-29 — Thanksgiving Family Festivities, Fontana Village Resort. www.fontanavillage.com • Thanksgiving Weekend — Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony, Franklin. www.franklinchamber.com • Thanksgiving Weekend — Hard Candy Christmas Arts & Crafts Festival, Cullowhee. www.mountainartisans.net • Nov. 27-28 — Stecoah Artisans Drive About Tour, Robbinsville. www.stecoahvalleycenter.com • Nov. 28 — Bryson City Spirit of Christmas. www.greatsmokies.com • Thanksgiving-Christmas Eve — Winter Fest,
Employment trend changes in the southwestern seven counties. Source: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of Labor Statistics
downtown,” Woodard said about Franklin merchants. The annual Taste of Scotland Festival, now in its 18th year, is held in downtown Franklin. Morton said the event attracted about 4,000 people to Franklin last year. “That’s a lot of people for a small town like Franklin. Shops were packed last year and the year before,” Morton said. “We know it has big impact on the businesses downtown.” The Maggie Valley Festival Grounds hosts a different event or festival almost every weekend during from May through October. While multiple-day events like motorcycle rallies benefit the lodging industry, many restaurants and merchants feel like they don’t benefit from the events because people stay within the festival grounds for food and alcohol. Cabbage Rose Gift Shop in Maggie Valley is located just outside the festival grounds gates. Co-owner Troy Graves said some festivals benefit his business while others seem to only hurt business. “Some festivals help and some festivals absolutely kill us,” he said. “Craft festivals — we get traffic from that — but when it’s a barbecue festival or a motorcycle rally with food and craft vendors, people don’t ven-
ture off of the festival grounds.” But whether it helps his business or not, Graves said he was supportive of any festival that brought people into Maggie Valley for a couple of days in hopes that they might return in the future. Morse said he has heard the same kinds of concerns from merchants everywhere. While it is difficult to measure the ripple effect festivals can have on businesses, he said merchants do benefit from festivals because the events bring in new people that hopefully will return again to shop. Morse has several suggestions for trying to improve business visibility during downtown festivals, including inviting local businesses to have a free booth to show festivalgoers what is in their stores and restaurants. “Some festival organizers have specific areas for food and craft vendors that are in a different location away from permanent stores, and organize the foot traffic to maximize exposure for the permanent stores,” he said. “Location of main festival activities has always been a concern for permanent stores that choose locations that are not in the mainstream of traffic … Overall, more traffic and customers are better than less traffic and customers.”
Robbinsville. www.townofrobbinsville.com • Thanksgiving-Late December — Festival of Trees, Cashiers. www.villagegreencashiersnc.com • Late November — Christmas Tree Lighting, Highlands. www.highlands-chamber.com • Late November — Christmas Parade, Franklin. www.franklin-chamber.com • Month of December — Christmas in the Smokies, Fontana Village Resort. www.fontanavillage.com • Early December — Canton Christmas Parade. www.cantonnc.com • Early December — Cherokee Christmas Parade. www.visitcherokeenc.com • Early December — Christmas Parade, Brasstown. www.ncmtnchamber.com • Early December —Bryson City Christmas Parade. www.greatsmokies.com • Early December — Highlands Christmas Parade. www.highlandschamber.org
• Early December — Cherokee Christmas Bazaars. www.visitcherokeenc.com • Early/mid-December — Dillsboro Lights & Luminaries. www.visitdillsboro.org • Dec. 5 — Hometown Christmas Parade, Murphy. www.cherokeecountychamber.com • Dec. 7 — Waynesville Christmas Parade. www.downtownwaynesville.com • Dec. 12 — “A Night Before Christmas,” Waynesville. www.downtownwaynesville.com • Mid-December — Holiday Homecoming, Cherokee. www.greatsmokies.com • Mid-December — Cashiers Christmas Parade. www.cashiers411.com • Dec. 31 — Possum Drop, Brasstown. www.ncmtnchamber.com • Dec. 31 — New Year’s Eve Fireworks, Cherokee. www.visitcherokeenc.com • Dec. 31 — New Year’s Eve Reception and Gala, Bryson City. www.gsmr.com
BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER ackson County’s Tourism Development Authority will soon launch a search for a tourism director, a milestone for the newly minted countywide tourism agency. The position will initially be a part-time, contracted position, with the possibility of becoming an in-house employee of the tourism authority down the road. Whether to hire an executive director to carry out the marketing and promotions has been a lingering question since the countywide tourism authority was created two years ago. Having someone in charge of executing all the day-to-day responsibilities of the tourism program has become increasingly necessary, said Robert Jumper, board chairman for the TDA. There is more work than the volunteer board members can carry out, and carry out well. “A lot of those people are entrepreneurs in Jackson County who have hotels, so they’re busiest when we need them the most,” Jumper said.
J
Currently, the board is working on the person’s job description. “At least for the first year as we fine-tune that scope of work, we thought it would be in our best interest to make sure of the person and the job responsibilities before we entertain the possibility of a full-time employee,” explained Jumper. The current scope of work would task the director with a host of responsibilities, ranging from providing overall vision and direction for the county’s tourism programs to building relationships with other agencies to managing the budget and legal agreements. The TDA has not decided on a salary range. They have compiled a list of tourism director salaries for about 30 North Carolina counties to get an idea of the going rate and found that salaries are “all over the road.” “Salary ranges from in the mid-$30,000 range to as high as $75,000,” Jumper said. Jumper said the responses from applicants will determine in part what they pay. “We want to see what the market says the work’s worth and then we’ll go from there,” he said.
news
Tourism director in Jackson County’s future
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR EVENT SPONSORS
Hearing to take input on Cullowhee planning standards
Registration open for Jackson County T-ball
A workshop entitled “Dementia: Get the Facts” will be presented by Dr. Lisa Verges from 2 to 3 p.m. Wednesday, April 22, at Waynesville Library Auditorium, 678 S. Haywood St., Waynesville. Sponsored by Memory Care of Asheville, The Haywood County Public Library, The First Presbyterian Church of Waynesville and the Senior Resource Center. www.haywoodlibrary.org or 828.356.2507.
Sandlot Baseball (instruction-based Tball) registration is open at the Jackson County Parks and Recreation Department April 20 through May 1. The cost is $25. Registration is limited to the first 15 participants to register in each time slot. Participants must be 5 years old as of May 1, and cannot turn 7 before May 1. 828.293.3053.
/SmokyMtnNews
COME SEE OUR NEW LARGER SHOWROOM
FAMILY FUN AND ENTERTAINMENT TVs • Spas • Swim Spas • Pool tables Storage Sheds • Car ports
Smoky Mountain News
Library presents dementia workshop
April 15-21, 2015
Community members with an opinion on the Cullowhee zoning standards will have their last chance to sound off during a public hearing beginning 6 p.m. Thursday, April 23, at the Jackson County Recreation Center in Cullowhee. For the past two years, the Cullowhee Community Planning Advisory Committee has worked to draft a set of standards guiding community development in Cullowhee, a nonincorporated community that’s been growing rapidly. The committee approved its final version of the standards and zoning map after hearing public input at multiple community meetings and passed the document along to commissioners. The standards have been endorsed by the Jackson County Planning Board, and the Jackson County Commissioners will take a final vote after considering comments delivered at the public hearing. Jackson County Planning, 828.631.2255 or planning@jacksonnc.org. www.jacksonnc.org/planning.html.
DAVID’S
Home Entertainment & Recreation 452.5534 | 2566 Asheville Rd. | Waynesville (formerly Plemmons Plumbing) 286-125
9
news
AMERICA’S HOME PLACE
HOME BUILDING SEMINAR TUESDAY, APRIL 21ST, 7:00PM Please join us at Southwestern Community College Sylva Campus in the Burrell Conference Center for a presentation and Q&A on how easy building a home is. Representatives from the State Employees’ Credit Union and Macon Bank will be present to answer lending questions. Pizza and Refreshments will be available.
Franklin Building Center 335 NP & L Loop, Franklin, NC 28734 Across from Franklin Ford on Hwy 441
April 15-21, 2015
(828) 349-0990
Make a Difference in Your Community
Smoky Mountain News
Become a Nurse Western Carolina University’s Nursing Network – Careers and Technology Mentoring Program (NN-CAT) provides scholarships, living expense stipends, tutoring and individualized nursing mentors to qualified minority students as well as rural students who were raised in Cherokee, Graham, Swain and Jackson counties and the Cherokee Qualla Indian Boundary.
nncat.wcu.edu SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE FOR RURAL AND MINORITY STUDENTS 10
Macon commissioners give board new direction W
nance is to promote health, safety and general welfare of residents by diminishing the impacts of noise, odors, vibrations, fumes, light, smoke, dust or other impacts that would interfere with residents’ quiet enjoyment on adjacent land. High-impact uses would include — but are not limited to — airfields or airstrips, asphalt plants, chemical or explosives manufacturers, wood grinding operations, commercial incinerators, concrete suppliers, processing plants and solid waste facilities. The ordinance limits where these types of businesses can be located, establishes certain setbacks, buffers and other mitigating factors. “Some regulations go a little too far in my opinion,” said Commission Chairman Kevin Corbin. “It doesn’t make sense that people can’t do a few things listed in the high-impact ordinance.” Commissioner Paul Higdon said he would like to see the planning board look for any opportunity to help small businesses overcome any impediments they may be fac-
“Some regulations go a little too far in my opinion. It doesn’t make sense that people can’t do a few things listed in the high-impact ordinance.” — Kevin Corbin, Commission Chairman
Macon County Planning Board.
ing with county fees. Commissioner Ronnie Beale suggested a couple members of the planning board get more involved in the county’s transportation issues. Beale represents the county on the North Carolina Department of Transportation planning committee. Since the committee is responsible for prioritizing transportation projects based on a point system, Beale said the planning board could be helpful identifying the needs in Macon County. Planning board chairman Chris Haners
said it would be beneficial to have more communication between the county commissioners and its appointed boards because many of the boards work toward the same type of goals in different ways. In the past, Corbin said the planning board has spent time developing new ordinances that ended up not getting passed by commissioners. To avoid wasting the planning board’s time in the future, he said commissioners should give the planning board direction as to what they would like to see done.
Sat. April 25th, 2015 10am - 4pm
Downtown Sylva
April 15-21, 2015
18 Annual th
news
BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR ith the six-month process of getting a nuisance noise ordinance passed behind them, members of the Macon County Planning Board now have some new assignments. Macon County commissioners commended the board for hashing out details of the county’s first noise ordinance and didn’t waste any time giving the board further direction on other ordinances that need attention. The planning board will begin examining the county’s telecommunication ordinance as well as its high-impact land uses ordinance. Planning Director Matt Mason said the telecommunication ordinance needed to be adjusted to reflect new state and federal requirements. The telecommunication ordinance allows the county to regulate the placements and heights of communication installations like radio and cellphone towers. The purpose of the high-impact ordi-
Art & Craft Vendors, Traditional Demonstrations, 5K Run, Great Food, Kids’ Zone, Farmer’s Market and two stages with live local music all day long! Signature Brew Stage (Suntrust Lot)
Bridge Park Stage:
9:30 - 11 – Mountain Youth Talent Show
10 - 10:20 – Betty Collins Brown & Co.
11 - 11:30 – Jackson County JAM
10:20 - 10:30 – Lions Gate Kung Fu
10:30 - 11 – Encore Dance Troupe 12 - 1 – Ian Moore & the J.C. Roots Brigade 11 -12 – Subluminous 1 - 1:05 – Lions Gate Kung Fu Academy 12 - 12:05 –Lions Gate Kung Fu 12:05 – 1– French Broads 1:05 - 2 – Rye Baby 1 - 2 – Positive Mental Attitude (PMA) 2 - 3 – Three Creeks Over 2 - 2:45 – Porch 40 3 - 4 – Through the Hills 3 – 4 - Darren and the Buttered Toast
For more info:
828.586.2719
Smoky Mountain News
11:30 - 12 – Triple Threat Dance Troupe
www.greeningupthemountains.com
Discover the state you’re in. 1-800- V I S I T
NC
W W W. V I S I T N C . C O M . 288-41
11
news
Haywood Fairgrounds scuttled as potential animal shelter site, but new site already in the wings BY BECKY JOHNSON STAFF WRITER aywood County is back on the prowl for potential sites to build a new $3 million animal shelter to replace its existing one. County commissioners initially set their sights on an empty field at the Haywood County Fairgrounds. But that is now off the table due to deed hang-ups — namely legal covenants limiting what the fairground property can be used for. “We have moved on and found another potential site,” said Commissioner Mark Swanger. That’s good news to fairgrounds supporters, who didn’t want an animal shelter at the fairgrounds anyway and were gearing up to fight it. They claimed an animal shelter wasn’t compatible with the fairgrounds and would compromise its intended purpose. “It would have negatively impacted any possibility for future expansion of the fairground facilities,” said Nancy Davis, who
April 15-21, 2015
H
serves on the county fairgrounds board. “There is also a concern from the marketability standpoint. Right or wrong, it would have impacted the attractiveness of the facility for event planners.” That’s something the fairgrounds can’t afford. It has been on shaky financial footing for years, barely able to bring in enough on facility rentals to break even on its overhead. Meanwhile, however, the commissioners saw the empty field as a prime location. For starters, the field is rarely used, and besides, there are other empty fields at the fairgrounds should empty fields be needed for an event. Other pros: it’s flat, has water and sewer and is in the geographic center of the county. Moreover, the price was right since the county already owns it. Fairgrounds board member Dorothy Marrow said she understands the commissioners’ rationale. “They have to try to save taxpayers’ money, and that was one of their forefront
Western Carolina Animal Pain Clinic “Improving quality of life through pain management” A regional specialty hospital focusing on pain management and rehabilitation for pets. • Regenerative Stem Cell Therapy • Platelet Rich Plasma • Acupuncture • Herbal Formulas
• Pulsed Signal Therapy • Laser Therapy • Conventional Medications • Physical Medicine • Chiropractic & Massage Available
Acupuncture and herbal formulas available for chronic medical conditions.
Smoky Mountain News
Dr. Tami Shearer, DVM Certified Veterinary Pain Practitioner Certified Veterinary Acupuncturist Certified Canine Rehabilitation Practitioner
Dr. Shearer has been in practice for 29 years. She is one of only 62 veterinarians in the world with a certification in pain management.
Western Carolina Animal Pain Clinic 1054 Haywood Road, Sylva, NC
828-586-3300 12
Learn more at www.shearerpethealth.com
284-18
ideas,” Marrow said. Nonetheless, Marrow wasn’t fond of it. One of her concerns was the fairgrounds’ image. The empty field flanks the main entrance, and the animal shelter would have dominated the view of the fairgrounds from the road and when pulling in. “It would take away from the aesthetic appearance of the fairgrounds,” Marrow said. For the record, Davis said she is for building a new animal shelter. “The facility we have is really no longer sufficient for the county’s needs,” said Davis, who runs Creature Comforts boarding kennel and is also on the board of the WNC Dog Fanciers Association. “I am convinced, however, that Haywood County Fairgrounds property was not the best option.”
STUMBLING BLOCK But the philosophical debate over the fairgrounds site was a moot point in the end. A legal clause in the property deed knocked it out of the running as a contender. A deed restriction stipulates it must be used “solely for fairgrounds, agricultural buildings and for recreational uses only.” The clause was attached to the deed when the county bought the property in 1990. A letter signed by “Friends of the Haywood County Fairgrounds” was written to commissioners last month, reminding them of the deed limitation. It’s possible the county could have gotten around the deed restrictions, however, and appeared to be working out an arrangement to that end. Commissioners discussed the county’s legal options in a closed-door meeting last week, citing attorney-client privilege. But commissioners decided not to push it. The county had initially scheduled a public hearing to hear views on the fairground site next week. Fairground supporters had organized a crowd to speak against it. But the hearing was called off, and the county instead began looking at other sites. The county may have found one already. This week, the county drafted a property option on a tract off Jones Cove Road near the Haywood Regional Medical Center campus. “The county manager has executed a contract that requires approval by the county commissioners within 30 days. Assuming that approval is granted we enter a 60-day due diligence phase,” Swanger said. The price listed in the contract is $233,000 for a 2.5 acre tract. The county approved $325,000 at its last meeting to pay for the planning, architectural design and engineering. The design and engineering fees are typically 10 percent of a pro-
ject’s cost. Extrapolate that and you get a final price tag of more than $3 million. The county has been reluctant to share a cost estimate given the early stages, but Swanger confirmed the math as legit. The estimate doesn’t include the additional expense of buying land.
NOT OUT OF THE WOODS The fairgrounds supporters may have defeated the animal shelter plan, but they haven’t escaped the larger issue: keeping the fairgrounds afloat financially. “We are so close every month we can barely break even,” said Katie Swanger, the part-time events manager. The fairgrounds rents out the buildings and covered arena for events, and relies on that income to cover its costs — including utilities, grounds upkeep, insurance and so on. But it’s not booking enough events to cover its own overhead. Katie Swanger said the fairgrounds is a tremendous community resource in theory. “The potential is vast. It is huge,” Katie Swanger said. But in reality, there are several factors working against it. Depending on the type of event, the cost ranges from around $450 to $850 a day to rent one of the buildings and $700 to $1,300 for the covered arena. While reasonable given the facility, the price is a deal killer for many events. Meanwhile, lack of funding for marketing or upgrades to the facility — even new folding tables and chairs — creates a catch-22. “A lot of people don’t know we exist but we don’t have the funds to do a large marketing campaign,” Swanger said. “And we can’t afford to upgrade anything, so we are working with an older, outdated facility that is not drawing in the clientele.” The fairground’s underuse could be one reason the county commissioners set their sights on its empty field in the first place. Commissioners may have weathered the naysayers and chosen it anyway had it not been for the deed hang-up. The relationship between the county and fairgrounds board is a muddled one. The fairgrounds board used to have more autonomy, functioning as a stand-alone nonprofit, albeit with county subsidies. But the fair board lost its independence a few years ago when it got in a financial bind and went hat in hand to the county. The fairgrounds was unable to pay off its construction loan on the covered arena. The county authorized a $700,000 bailout, but in exchange, took control of the fairgrounds — sort of. The county now owns all the buildings at the fairgrounds, as well as the land, and the fair board is now appointed by the commissioners. But the nonprofit framework still exists, and the fairgrounds’ daily operations are still run under the nonprofit, even though the fair board is technically a county entity. “We are in a very unique position as a board,” Davis said. The board is beholden to the county, yet expected to function as a selfsustaining nonprofit. The county used to subsi-
F
Trade in for the Samsung Galaxy S® 6 or Galaxy S® 6 Edge and get $50 on top of your old device’s value. Plus, we’ll pay off your old contract up to $350 per line.
A better value than Verizon and AT&T
Lines
Verizon
U.S. Cellular®
100*/8GB
$
120*/8GB
$
2
$
4
$
AT&T
115*/8GB
$
145*/8GB
$
130*/10GB
160*/10GB
*Per month. Valid as of 3/24/15.
0
$
DOWN
Retail Installment Contract, Shared Connect Plan and $25 act. fee required. 0% APR; 20 mo. payments of $34 for Galaxy S® 6 or $39.50 for Galaxy S® 6 Edge.
See more plans at uscellular.com/payoff Things we want you to know: New Retail Installment Contracts, Shared Connect Plan and $25 device act. fees required. Credit approval required. Regulatory Cost Recovery Fee applies (currently $1.82/ line/month); this is not a tax or gvmt. required charge. Add. fees, taxes and terms apply and vary by svc. and eqmt. Offers valid in-store at participating locations only, may be fulfilled through direct fulfillment and cannot be combined. Contract Payoff Promo: Offer valid on up to 6 consumer lines or 25 business lines. Must port in current number to U.S. Cellular and purchase new Smartphone or tablet through a Retail Installment Contract on a Shared Connect Plan with Device Protection+. Enrollment in Device Protection+ required. The monthly charge for Device Protection+ is $8.99 for Smartphones. A deductible per approved claim applies. Federal Warranty Service Corporation is the Provider of the Device Protection+ ESC benefits, except in CA and OK. Submit final bill identifying Early Termination Fee (ETF) charged by carrier within 60 days of activation date to www.uscellular.com/contractpayoff or via mail to U.S. Cellular Contract Payoff Program 5591-61; PO Box 752257; El Paso, TX 88575-2257. Customer will be reimbursed for the ETF reflected on final bill up to $350/line. Reimbursement in form of a U.S. Cellular Prepaid Card is issued by MetaBank,® Member FDIC; additional offers are not sponsored or endorsed by MetaBank. This card does not have cash access and can be used at any merchant location that accepts MasterCard® Debit Cards within the U.S. only. Card valid through expiration date shown on front of card. Allow 12–14 weeks for processing. To be eligible, customer must register for My Account. Retail Installment Contract: Retail Installment Contract (Contract) and monthly payments according to the Payment Schedule in the Contract required. If you are in default or terminate your Contract, we may require you to immediately pay the entire unpaid Amount Financed as well as our collection costs, attorneys’ fees and court costs related to enforcing your obligations under the Contract. Trade-In: Requires activation of new line of service with any Smartphone. Requires trade-in of Smartphone in fully functional, working condition without any liquid damage or broken components, including, but not limited to, a cracked display or housing. Smartphone must power on and cannot be pin locked. $50 U.S. Cellular Promotional Card: Enrollment in Device Protection+ required. Kansas Customers: In areas in which U.S. Cellular receives support from the Federal Universal Service Fund, all reasonable requests for service must be met. Unresolved questions concerning services availability can be directed to the Kansas Corporation Commission Office of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at 1-800-662-0027. Limited-time offer. Trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners. Additional terms apply. See store or uscellular.com for details. ©2015 U.S. Cellular
Smoky Mountain News
dized the fairgrounds operations but now the only financial support it gets is for building maintenance and upkeep. Still, that is something the fairgrounds simply couldn’t afford to do on its own. “If it hadn’t been for the county graciously helping with that, we probably wouldn’t have made it,” Marrow said.
Get the new Samsung Galaxy S® 6. And then some.
April 15-21, 2015
BY BECKY JOHNSON STAFF WRITER Haywood Community College had to pay back $126,000 in state funding after accidentally inflating its enrollment numbers. The state doles out community college funding based on enrollment. HCC inadvertently reported more students than it actually had, however, and as a result got more money than it was supposed to for last year. A forestry class was over-reported as having 90 students instead of nine. And a history class was accidentally reported as having 227 students, instead of just 27. The extra digits were simply a data entry error and nothing intentional or fraudulent, said HCC President Dr. Barbara Sue Parker. Parker briefed the HCC board of trustees on the issue at its regular meeting this week. The error isn’t reflective of the employee who made it, Parker said. “This person is extremely careful and extremely particular and was extremely upset this error had occurred,” she said. Parker said the mistake had a silver lining. The college examined its reporting processes and realized a “second set of eyes” was needed in the future. “Had someone from curriculum been looking over it, it would have been clear this number was askew,” Parker said. Enrollment numbers are reported to the state for each class. With so many part-time students — taking just one or two classes a semester — a total head count would be too simplistic. Instead, funding is based on the cumulative, combined course load. That means tallying the number of students in every class for every semester. Those numbers are checked as part of the annual audit. The outside auditor cross-references the number of students reported to the state with the actual attendance records for that class and compares them against a massive student database, and even verifies that an instructor is on record as being assigned to the class, according to HCC vicepresident Laura Leatherwood. It’s only a spot check, however. The auditor picks a random sample of classes to look at. HCC officials actually discovered the error inhouse before the auditor came, while in the process of compiling the records the auditor was going to need. “The minute we realized we had a problem we self-reported,” Parker said when briefing the HCC board of trustees on the issue at a meeting this week. “It has been paid back and we have a clear slate, but it will be a material finding in our audit.”
news
Accounting fumble, superfluous zero blemishes HCC audit
13
news
State senate rematch REGISTER NOW already in the making FOR 2015 SUMMER & FALL CLASSES REGISTER NOW THRU APRIL 24 TWO YEAR DEGREES. ONE YEAR DIPLOMAS. CERTIFICATES.
haywood.edu Call 828.627.4500 HCC counselors are available to assist you with the enrollment process. Career counseling services are also available to guide you as you choose a major and career path. For more information regarding enrollment, programs of study, RU ÀQDQFLDO DLG FDOO 828.627.4500.
IF YOU’RE GRADUATING IN 2015 FROM A HAYWOOD COUNTY
PRIVATE
Smoky Mountain News
April 15-21, 2015
HCLC
14
HOME SCHOOL ADULT HIGH SCHOOL
Claim your scholarship today.
Call Erica Vaughn at: 828.565.4170
BY B ECKY JOHNSON STAFF WRITER ast fall’s election is barely in the rearview mirror, but battle lines are already being staked out for 2016. And voters may be looking at a rematch for the state senate seat that sprawls from Waynesville to Murphy, spanning seven mountain counties. Both N.C. Sen. Jim Davis, R-Franklin, and challenger Jan Hipps, DWaynesville, say they will run again in two years. Both announced their intentions during the annual county conventions of their respective parties — Davis while making Jim Davis the rounds to county Republican conventions in March, and Hipps during similar rounds to Democratic conventions last weekend and this coming one. At the Haywood GOP convention, Davis acknowledged Jane Hipps there were rumors floating around that he wasn’t going to run again. But he said those rumors were not true and he had every intention of another run. Despite low approval ratings for the Republican-backed agenda being pushed in Raleigh, Davis won re-election by a comfortable margin in November, with 54 percent of the vote compared to 46 percent for Hipps. But Hipps believes she will be able to build on the groundwork she laid last time. Hipps was a non-stop campaigner in the last election. She often went from dawn to dusk, six days a week, making a giant circuit across the far west multiple times in a week, meeting and greeting, speaking and listening, shaking hands and walking the streets. Davis said Hipps worked harder on the campaign trail than any candidate he knows, and he respects her for that. Last time, Hipps was a relative unknown out of the starting gate. But this time, she will already have name recognition at the outset of the campaign and can build on momentum she already has. “This time I have name recognition, and face recognition,� Hipps said.
L
Questions? Schedule an appointment today.
PUBLIC
Last year’s candidates waste no time declaring they’ll be back in 2016
YOU QUALIFY FOR A
2015 HCC
50th ANNIVERSARY SCHOLARSHIP
OF $500
Meanwhile, Davis has won the seat three elections in a row and will boast six years as a legislator by the time 2016 rolls around. That tenure comes with mounting political clout in the halls of the General Assembly. He has landed two chairmanships on key committees — including the powerful base budgeting committee. Meanwhile, Hipps would essentially be a benchwarmer as a Democrat in a Republican-controlled landscape. “That’s not the way it ought to be but that’s the way it is,� Davis said, offering a frank assessment of the political workings in the legislature. “I have a lot of influence here that she wouldn’t have and that allows me to serve my constituents.� That will still be to his favor in 2016, as long as a power flip-flop between parties isn’t projected. Both Hipps and Davis would have to clear their respective party primaries to appear on the ballot side by side again in 2016. It’s doubtful Davis would have any competition from a fellow Republican. So far, Hipps is the only Democratic to publicly announce her candidacy. But it’s early yet, and may not stay that way. Hipps said she began thinking about another run the morning after the election. And as a result, she has kept her campaign pin on and continued traveling the region interfacing with the public, albeit at a reduced pace from full-fledged election season. Why run again? The state is being damaged by the regressive policies of Republican leaders in Raleigh, Hipps said, and those concerns have little hope of getting fixed in the next two years. “The problems continue. The plan is to continue with more of the same,� Hipps said. For Davis’ part, he said the progress Republicans have made needs to continue. “We are still in the process of getting good things done,� Davis said. Davis said his role as a legislator has been filled with personal and professional sacrifices — like the 600-mile round trip he makes back and forth to Raleigh weekly for half the year. “It is not fun. It is rewarding to make a difference, but it is a lot of work. It is an incredible honor,� Davis said. On paper, the seven-county senate district — including Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Swain, Clay, Graham and Cherokee counties — is almost evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans. But voting patterns, including the wild card of growing number of independent voters, makes the race appear as a toss up in most political polling. It’s also too early to say how the dynamic of a presidential and gubernatorial election year will influence more local races.
Investigation reveals jail deficiencies BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER state investigation into jail conditions in Jackson County turned up a passel of compliance issues and a mandate that Sheriff Chip Hall submit a plan of correction by the end of the month. The Department of Health and Human Services sent out an investigator after Steven Ross, an inmate in the jail, died by suicide on March 13 — the second person to do so in less than half a year. Jail logs had showed a gap of 85 minutes between jailers’ rounds at the time they found Ross, a far cry from the twice-per-hour checks the state requires for all inmates. Chris Wood, State Jail Consultant for DHHS, listed three areas in which Jackson County Detention Center deviated from state regulations. The first deficiency was undoubtedly the most obvious: that the jail did not “provide for the safe and secure confinement” of Ross, who was found hanging from a bed sheet and later died at Harris Regional Hospital. But the investigation also found that not only did jailers fail to check in on Ross at the
A
baseline interval of twice an hour, but they also failed to follow the jail’s detoxification policy, which would have required them to check on Ross four times an hour upon his admission. Hall would not say whether Ross was under the influence of any drug at the time of his death or what his status was upon admission — “It would be premature for me to go ahead and comment on it without completing our response back to DHHS,” he said — but arrest warrants allege that upon Ross’s arrest March 4, nine days before his death, he possessed heroin, methamphetamine, Xanax, clonazepam and marijuana, as well as drug paraphernalia. The documents do not state whether Ross was under the influence of any of these substances but allege that he possessed the drug paraphernalia with intent to use it. According to state law, inmates who are intoxicated, in danger of self-harm, verbally or physically violent or behaving erratically must be checked at least four times per hour. The report also showed that, while the written jail log revealed gaps between inmate checks as large as 106 minutes on March 13, the electronic record was even spottier. On the day in question, no electronically documented rounds in Ross’s pod were made between 4:56 a.m. and 4:22 p.m. “Staff indicated that the facility only has two working ‘pipes.’ These ‘pipes’ are used to electronically document supervision rounds,” the report reads. “… Staff reported
that the insufficient number of ‘pipes’ resulted in supervision rounds not being properly documented in the facility.” Hall takes issue with the assertion that there was a shortage of pipes. “There wasn’t a shortage,” he said. “That was an opinion of a staff member.” However, he has since purchased additional units, upping the number from two to four pipes. Five jailers work each shift. DHHS is required to conduct biannual inspections of the state’s 112 jails, the most recent of which occurred Nov. 4, 17 days before Charles “Chuckie” Moose’s death at the Jackson jail. That inspection turned up no deficiencies and did not require any corrective action. The State Bureau of Investigation is continuing its own probe into Ross’s death as well, an investigation that — though focused solely on Ross’s death — will likely include some discussion of Moose’s suicide. The Jackson Sheriff ’s Department, at the time under Sheriff Jimmy Ashe, had requested that the SBI investigate that death as well — Lt. Jimmy Clawson made the request — but was turned down. “The SBI supervisors after careful consideration respectfully declined that request,” said SBI spokesperson Teresa West. Moose’s family had pushed for an investigation as well, believing that, though jail records from that day showed that the appropriate number of checks had been conducted,
100,000 to Schools!
*
Borrowing with YOUR local credit union can help YOUR JVTT\UP[` 9LÄUHUJL `V\Y SVHUZ ^P[O *OHTWPVU *YLKP[ Union in 2015 and potentially SAVE…to help us donate $100,000 to our SCHOOLS!*
Start your North Carolina mountain journey here.
Refinance** and post pics using
#SchooledOnSavings
maybe you will be on our next billboard!***
Smoky Mountain News
Come, stay and play!
>L VMMLY V\Y TLTILYZ SV^ JVTWL[P[P]L YH[LZ VU SVHUZ HUK ^VYR OHYK [V ZH]L `V\ TVUL` *VTL NL[ #SchooledOnSavings HUK YLÄUHUJL `V\Y SVHUZ [V ZLL ^OH[ ^L TH` IL HISL [V ZH]L `V\ 6UJL ^L ZH]L V\Y TLTILYZ PU SVHU PU[LYLZ[ ^L ^PSS KVUH[L IHJR [V [OL ZJOVVS Z`Z[LTZ PU [OL JV\U[PLZ [OH[ ^L ZLY]L @V\ ZH]L TVUL` [OL JOPSKYLU NL[ TVUL`¯P[»Z H ^PU
April 15-21, 2015
#SchooledOnSavings $
news
Jackson jail didn’t follow detoxification, monitoring rules prior to inmate suicide
such checks had not actually happened. “Who’s next? Who’s the next one to show up if they don’t get this dealt with, and unfortunately they’ve already seen this Ross gentlemen was the second so will there be a third?” said Joe Kays, Moose’s stepfather. The deaths came at an inopportune time for Hall, who won the sheriff ’s seat in a landslide victory in November and was sworn in just nine days after Moose’s suicide. The administration of his predecessor, Ashe, had been fraught with scandal and public relations issues, and by the time Ross’s death occurred in March, Hall, a 25-year veteran of the Jackson Sheriff ’s Department who had most recently served as Ashe’s second-incommand, had less than five months to make the necessary changes. In fact, he’d begun making the case to hire a jail captain to oversee day-to-day operations at the jail in January but wasn’t able to make the hire until shortly after Ross’s death. Following Ross’s death, Hall said, he’s asked staff to do a complete review of the jail’s intake procedures in hopes of catching warning signs of suicidal behavior in the intake process. He’s also continuing an ongoing effort to revise the policy and procedure manual and has charged the new jail captain, John Buchanan, with ensuring the policies are followed. Hall placed jailers Brian Wellmon and Mark Leamon, who were both on duty during Moose’s and Ross’s suicides, on five days of leave without pay. They returned to work Monday and have not seen any change in pay or job title, according to Human Resources records.
BlueRidgeHeritage.com Find us on Facebook. Federally Insured by NCUA *$100,000 will be divided between the public school systems in Haywood, Buncombe, Henderson, Jackson, Swain, Macon, Graham, Madison, and Transylvania Counties based on the number of students per system. **Loan approval based on JYLKP[^VY[OPULZZ *LY[HPU YLZ[YPJ[PVUZ HWWS` (WWSPJHISL [V SVHUZ ILPUN YLÄUHUJLK MYVT HUV[OLY SLUKLY )` \WSVHKPUN `V\Y picture to our social media pages, you give Champion Credit Union permission to use it in future promotions.
15
news
Fracking falls under industrial development rules, planning board says Jackson planning board gets started on industrial development rewrite BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER iscussion about a new industrial development ordinance is just getting going in the Jackson County Planning Board, but the board didn’t waste any time in taking a unanimous vote asserting that fracking — a controversial form of fossil fuel extraction recently legalized in North Carolina — falls under county regulations for mining. “Our attorney and others have determined it [the definition] does include hydraulic fracturing [fracking],” County Planner Gerald Green told the board. “I recommend as we continue with this we add hydraulic fracturing in there so there’s no question.” “I think us adding in that terminology makes it current,” agreed Scott Baker, board vice-chair. A unanimous vote — member David Brooks abstained — placed fracking among the list of uses that qualify as mining, mean-
April 15-21, 2015
D
ing that any hydraulic fracturing operations that showed up in the county would be subject to regulations in the industrial development ordinance. “We have now addressed fracking in our industrial development ordinance,” said Sarah Thompson, board chair. “But we will go further.” The industrial development ordinance rewrite landed on the planning board’s to-do list when the newly elected board of county commissioners decided they wanted rules to regulate fracking’s impact on Jackson County — if the industry ever decided to develop there. A section in the state law that lifted North Carolina’s moratorium on fracking complicated that wish, as the legislation stipulates that local rules can’t impose regulations greater than those written on the state level. However, commissioners believe that zoning rules regulating where such operations can occur do jive with state legislation. The county now has an agreement with the Natural Resources Defense Council to help it write an ordinance that can stand up in court. The board didn’t vote on any other aspects of the IDO last week but discussed
the possibility of requiring that mining and industrial developments conduct an environmental assessment to identify any issues the development might bring with it, such as impacts to groundwater, endangered species or noise level.
F
Fracking and the state rules governing it were widely opposed in Western North Carolina. SMN photo
Changing Employers?
A WildLife Tradition
We can help
Award Winning Taxidermist
TAXIDERMY Nickie Burgess:
Understanding new benefits
CALL TODAY FOR DETAILS Game Heads Fish Life Size Game Rugs - Birds
401K Rollovers Signing up for new 401K Deferred Compensation Plans
Smoky Mountain News
When conducted on federal land, environmental assessments trigger the much more rigorous environmental impact statement if a problem is identified. Board members said they would not want to require that onerous of a next step. “We’re not going to make them do a finding of significant impact and do a full impact analysis, but we can require them, if there is an identified impact, [to say] what are they going to do to mitigate that impact,” Green said. The environmental assessment, if required, would likely
828-550-2755 awildlifetraditiontaxidermy.com
Please keep in mind that rolling over assets to an IRA is just one of multiple options for your retirement plan. Each option has different advantages, disadvantages, investment options, and fees & expenses which should be understood and carefully considered. Investing and maintaining assets in an IRA will generally involve higher costs than those associated with employer-sponsored retirement plans. We recommend you consult with your current plan administrator before making any decisions regarding your retirement assets.
Larry East, CFP®
Vice President - Investments
J. Chad Muri, CRPC
Better Quality, Better Prices
Jack Webb, Financial Advisor Shannon E. Carlock
Senior Registered Client Associate
Financial Advisor
828.456.7407 Investment and insurance products:
NOT FDIC Insured NO Bank Guarantee MAY Lose Value
16
Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC, Member SIPC, is a registered broker-dealer and a separate non-bank affiliate of Wells Fargo & Company.
52 Walnut St., Suite #6 Waynesville, NC 28786 Next to Haywood County Chamber of Commerce
ON DELLWOOD ROAD (HWY. 19) AT 20 SWANGER LANE WAYNESVILLE/MAGGIE VALLEY 10-5 M-SAT. 12-4 SUN. 828.926.8778 tupelosonline.com
news
go to the county planning department and then to the planning board to review. Member Clark Lipkin said the environmental assessment requirement sounds reasonable but questioned whether the planning board might be accumulating too much responsibility. Its members are volunteers, and multiple ordinances the board has recently passed or is working on could require that the board review documents or give oversight where they hadn’t needed to before. “That’s a good point,” Green said, adding, “We might want to recommend to the commissioners at some point in the future that they set up an environmental review board.”
REGULATING JUNKYARDS
Advertise in The Smoky Mountain News 828 | 452 | 4251
Our deep roots in the community lead us to believe that healthcare is about connec ting with people. It’s about knowing where you came from, and knowing where you’re going. Harris Regional Hospital and Swain Community Hospital are now Duke LifePoint hospitals. And that means great things for the communities we serve – like new technologies, more doc tors and
Smoky Mountain News
SPACE AVAILABLE
Caring Together Sets Us Apart April 15-21, 2015
The board also spent plenty of time talking about the side of the ordinance regulating junkyards. Junkyard regulations haven’t been well enforced in the past, they said, which means that any changes would have to be coupled with knowledge that the people charged with enforcing them are willing and able to do so. “I think it needs to be very clear who has the responsibility for doing what,” Board Member Tom Rodgers said. “Put the tail on the donkey and say who’s going to do what and how, and another thing say how big is the hammer you’ve got. You can expect violations.” Board members also said they’ll look at writing regulations for private junkyards — properties with a large amount of defunct vehicles whose parts aren’t being sold commercially. That language could get thorny. What is the threshold to qualify as a private junkyard? Is it judged by the number of cars, or by density, or by age? And what role should aesthetics play in the regulations? “It’s not easy [to address aesthetics], but we’ve done it in the steep slope ordinance,” Thompson said. “I don’t think we can not do it for junky yards but do it for fancy houses.” But from an enforcement perspective, Green cautioned, “I don’t want to have to determine if it’s pretty or not. I want to determine if there were four or more vehicles or if it’s in the road.” The nitty-gritty of the ordinance will likely take a while to figure out. But for now, Donna Dupree of the Jackson County Coalition Against Fracking is just happy to see that the board is taking an environmentally-focused tack with the revisions. “It does a pretty good job of trying to protect people where they live or where they work,” she told the planning board of the current ordinance. “There is no mention of the environment, and our environment is pretty durn important here.”
enhanced services. When When it it comes comes to to caring caring for for your your h health, ealth, w we e know know that that caring caring together together sets sets us us apart. apart. To To find find a physician physician or or services, services, call call (844) (844) 414-DOCS. 414-DOCS.
MyHarrisRegional.com MyH arrisR egional.com
|
MySwainCommunity.com MySwainCommunity.com 17
news
Taking back downtown Canton looks to set commercial building standards BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR Downtown Canton has seen better days. A once vibrant and bustling Main Street is now struggling to hang on to its few surviving businesses. Some of its historic buildings are now vacant and falling into disrepair. The recession is partly to blame — owners with empty buildings don’t have much motivation to make improvements and upgrades. Other buildings are for sale and just waiting for the right tenant to come along. As the economy is slowly making a recovery, the town of Canton realizes the importance of having an attractive downtown. “We do need to maintain our downtown area,” said Mayor Mike Ray. “When we go to sell our town to potential businesses, we want something to sell.”
TOWN MULLING
escapes, decks/porches, gutters, windows, doors and signage. The basic premise of the requirements is to make sure downtown structures don’t have the appearance of being vacant. The town wants to limit the number of boarded up windows and doors within the downtown area. Not only do boarded up openings pose safety issues, they also increase the risk of property loss in the event of a fire or flood. The town may issue a 90-day boarding-up permit for special circumstances. The proposed ordinance also has a registration requirement for vacant properties. Commercial property owners must register their vacant buildings of their own accord or
Many buildings sit vacant in downtown Canton, just waiting for a buyer. Improvements are being made (below) to a large brick building in downtown Canton owned by Bob McKenzie. Jessi Stone photos
“You need to know what you have available and then make sure what you have is aesthetically marketable and it needs to be structurally sound.” — Seth Hendler-Voss, Canton town manager
DOWNTOWN ORDINANCE
Smoky Mountain News
April 15-21, 2015
In an effort to retain current businesses and recruit new ones, the town has drafted a downtown commercial maintenance ordinance for the board of aldermen to consider adopting. The ordinance would allow the town to tackle some of the safety issues with commercial structures downtown, whether they are occupied or vacant. “With the buildings, my priority is safety — we’re looking at an ordinance to see what can be done to make sure they’re up to code,” said Alderman Zeb Smathers. Jason Burrell, Canton’s assistant town manager, said the proposed ordinance was not meant to set strict aesthetic codes — like those found in Charleston or Savannah — but to address boarded-up windows, flaking paint and other upkeep issues. “It doesn’t dictate ‘your building can or can’t be painted color X.’ The expectation is that it would assist in ensuring the health, safety and welfare of the community,” he said. “A spinoff of that is that it has the potential to aid in town efforts to promote the viability and marketability of the community.” Additionally, Burrell said, the staff and the board of aldermen had discussed the possibility of including some sort of incentive programs or policies that would assist property owners with the repairs, upgrades, façades or interior building improvements. The draft ordinance put before aldermen last Thursday would require all the exteriors of commercial buildings downtown to be painted, maintained and free of holes, loose or rotting materials and have proper drainage measures. Siding and brick façades would also be required to be kept in good condition. The proposed ordinance also addresses 18 foundational walls, roofs, stairways, fire
within 30 days of receiving a notice from the town. Registration costs $50 and must be renewed annually. Once the property is no longer vacant, the owner must provide written proof of occupancy or sale to the town. The proposed ordinance states that violators would be issued a $50 citation and shall submit a plan of action to the town code enforcement officer and town manager within 10 business days. Failure to implement the plan can result in a $500 civil penalty. The ordinance will have to be approved by the town planning board and a public hearing will have to be held before the ordinance can be adopted.
DOWNTOWN OWNERS WELCOME STANDARDS Bob McKenzie is currently investing more than $50,000 in upgrades and repairs to his downtown Canton building. He wouldn’t mind if other downtown property owners were required to do the same. “As long as it’s not too abrasive, I think it’s fine,” he said about the proposed ordinance. “I’m putting my money where my mouth is.” He bought the historic brick building about four years ago. Renovations are complete on the ground floor while the upstairs is still being redone. “The upstairs is unbelievably beautiful and there’s an office-type space downstairs — could be an insurance or doctor’s office,” he said. “I’d like to see a coffee shop down there.” On the outside, McKenzie is making repairs to the brickwork to ensure it will last for years to come. Crumbling brick is not a
problem unique to his building — several of the brick buildings in downtown are starting to deteriorate. McKenzie said he bought a building in downtown Canton because he hopes the town will make a comeback. Originally from Savannah, he understands the importance of a historical downtown like Canton’s. “I think Canton’s going to come back — it’s 20 minutes from Asheville and it’s a lot cheaper to build here,” he said. “The old people I have coffee with are still negative — that’s the problem. The young people aren’t the problem.” McKenzie said downtown Canton also would benefit from creating a separate truck route to make downtown more pedestrian-friendly. “We’ve got to get the big trucks off of Main Street — every other town I know has a truck route except Canton,” he said. The semi trucks rolling down Main Street — mostly transporting to and from Evergreen Packaging — create a hazard for people parked along the street and also stir up quite a bit of dust, which only adds another unattractive quality to the vacant buildings. Dust from the trucks clings to the windows of vacant buildings. Jerry Penland,
owner of Davis Furniture on Main Street, said he has to wash his windows at least once a week so passersby can see the furniture inside the showroom. Penland purchased his building in 2003 from Toby Davis, who has a number of buildings for sale in downtown Canton. He has since repainted, put a new roof on the building and redone the hardwood floors. “I’d like to see people clean up their buildings, but I don’t know if you can force people to do it,” he said.
LAYING THE GROUNDWORK
Burrell is in the process of doing a lot of groundwork before the town can begin trying to recruit new businesses downtown. “We can’t just go out and recruit without everything being staged properly,” he said. “You need to know what you have available and then make sure what you have is aesthetically marketable and it needs to be structurally sound.” He is collecting information and photos of available downtown properties to list on a statewide online database.
S EE CANTON, PAGE 20
news
Cleaning up the clutter Maggie Valley gears up for spring cleaning
SOCO LOOKING SO-SO
successful mountain town is a very nice picture in a beautiful frame. We have the frame of the Great Smoky Mountains, but if we don’t have a beautiful picture to go in it, it doesn’t matter how pretty the frame is — it’s not going to sell,” Bowen said. He has identified 30 problem properties along Soco Road but isn’t ready to call them out by name. He doesn’t even want it to get to that point. He wants the community business owners to step up and fix the problems before any enforcement or citations are needed. “Overall the valley looks nice, but there are a few pieces that detract from the overall beauty of it,” Bowen said.
BUSINESSES PUT ON NOTICE With spring and summer tourism approaching, Bowen asked business owners to take a look around their properties from a tourist’s perspective. Since visitors come to this area for the natural beauty, he said, it was vital that the valley’s business corridor be aes-
thetically pleasing and welcoming to encourage visitors to stop, shop and stay. Bowen said the letter was a heads-up for all property owners, but on May 1 he will start notifying the business owners that have infractions. They will have a month to fix the problem before Bowen begins issuing citations for every day the problem is not addressed. “As this will be a town-led initiative, I will be enforcing all town ordinances that apply to issues of clutter and uncleanliness,” Bowen wrote in his letter. “To be exact, I will be pursuing all infractions within the subject matter of signage, solid and
organic rubbish and junk vehicles.” Bowen said he doesn’t want the cleanup effort to be a negative or harsh process. He said he is willing to answer any questions businesses have and help them resolve any issues they have. DeSimone said all of the businesses, residents and tourists have something to gain by making Maggie Valley visually appealing. He wants the town to approach the cleanup initiative in a positive and helpful way to ensure community participation. “I’ve often said, if you go over to a business and tell them they have to do something, you’ll probably get some resistance,” he said. “But if you try to reach out and help them, they’re more likely to do it.” DeSimone said the town was willing to assist businesses in a number of ways, whether it’s donating trash trucks to do some cleanup or organizing volunteers to paint or clean up brush. Troy Graves, co-owner of Cabbage Rose Gift Shop in Maggie Valley, said the cleanup effort is a move in the right direction. “The valley is beautiful and people come here to see the surrounding mountains, so we need the town to look good to have people want to stay,” he said. As a business owner in the valley for many years, Graves also understands how businesses have been struggling since the recession. While the town sidewalks used to be congested during the summer to the extent people couldn’t get through the crowds, that is no longer the case even on the busiest of weekends.
S EE MAGGIE, PAGE 20
“I’ve often said, if you go over to a business and tell them they have to do something, you’ll probably get some resistance. But if you try to reach out and help them, they’re more likely to do it.” — Ron DeSimone, Maggie Valley mayor
Smoky Mountain News
Driving down Soco Road through Maggie Valley reveals a hodgepodge of different structures — some well-kept and others that were long abandoned when the economy tanked in 2008. There are vacant parking lots with weeds growing up between the cracks in the pavement, buildings in disrepair, junk cars lining the highway, old signage for closed up buildings and boarded up windows. It isn’t what the town, the residents or the business owners want visitors to see when they drive through. They would prefer visitors to notice the unique attractions, restaurants, parks, greenways and beautiful mountains surrounding them. With the town board’s support, Bowen is working on a “spring cleaning” to get rid of the junk cars, grown-up weeds, unauthorized signage and dilapidated buildings. He sent 107 letters out in late March to every property owner along Soco Road to let them know about the cleanup effort. “Here’s the analogy I’ve been using — a
The town of Maggie Valley is launching an effort to get businesses to clean up their property before the tourism season begins. Several junk cars (below) are parked in the parking lot of the Stompin’ Ground, a violation of the town’s ordinance. Jessi Stone photo
April 15-21, 2015
BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR Telling people what to do with their property is not an easy job, even when a town’s local economy may depend on it. Maggie Valley is in the process of dealing with the sticky issue of getting business owners to clean up their property for several reasons — mostly to attract more tourists and more businesses. “We can’t expect any economic and social change until we get some of these properties cleaned up,” said Town Planner Andrew Bowen. “Everyone’s property has a large impact on their neighbors.” The staff and board of aldermen in Maggie Valley realize it has to be done and have made it a priority this spring before the summer tourists begin to pour into town. But Bowen, who is leading the initiative, is framing it as a community project and hopes the valley residents and business will work together to improve the town’s aesthetic beauty. Maggie Valley has the tools needed to get the Soco Road corridor spruced up — it’s just a matter of enforcing the ordinances it has on the books. Bowen said the only difference now is that the board has the political will to make it happen. “As a tourist town, the perspective and visual aspect is very important,” said Mayor Ron DeSimone. “I think our board is committed to improving the visual quality of Maggie Valley, and we all recognize something needs to be done.”
19
news
CANTON, CONT. FROM 18
NOW IS THE
TIME
April 15-21, 2015
TO START
YOUR OWN
BUSINESS! Enter the 2015
Smoky Mountain News
Business Plan Contest & win up to
10,000
$
INFO: 456.3021 DEADLINE: MAY 7
SUPPORTED BY: Haywood County Chamber of Commerce, Haywood Economic Development Council, Haywood Community College Small Business Center, Haywood Advancement Foundation.
20
A 31-question survey also has been sent out to all downtown businesses. Burrell said the survey would give the town a better understanding of the challenges business owners are facing and how the town can help. Canton Town Manager Seth Hendler-Voss said all these steps are tied into the economic development initiative that the board created last year. Collecting all this information will allow the town to be prepared to respond to requests and fit potential buyers with the best space for their business needs. “We need to be able to respond to requests with data, a strategy and the confidence that we know what we’re doing — we’re in inventory mode right now,” he said. “It’s going to take time and patience.”
INCENTIVES TALK
Penland’s Furniture is one of the buildings that is still McKenzie said money talks, and if the town could offer some occupied and doing well in downtown Canton. Jessi Stone photo sort of incentive to property owners for fixing their buildings it could only help erty owners, creating requests for proposals Canton recover more quickly. He said offer- to attract development, develop small busiing matching grants for improvements would ness finance programs and more. Alderman Carole Edwards said the city of go a long way. Ray asked the board of aldermen during a Durham worked with the same UNC team to recent meeting to consider working with the revitalize its inner city. If the program worked University of North Carolina School of for that area, she said, it could definitely benGovernment to develop a plan for develop- efit Canton. “What they did was amazing,” she said. ment incentives. The School of Government Ray said a representative from the prohas a Development Finance Initiative program and helps local governments attract pri- gram was willing to come talk to the board vate investment for special projects like about it. The board agreed to hold a special meeting at 6 p.m. April 20 to learn more downtown revitalization. A team of experts and graduate students about the program. “We have to take the first step to make at UNC can help the town with assessing distressed properties, facilitating private/public things look nice — we have to have that drivepartnerships to develop incentives for prop- by curb appeal,” Ray said.
MAGGIE, CONTINUED FROM 19 “It’s hard — I understand with the way business has been for several years it’s expensive to make improvements,” he said. “A lot of people just don’t have the money.”
PARKS AND GREENWAYS The town is not just waiting for businesses to make the valley look better. When the community came together last month to offer ideas about how Maggie Valley could create a town center plan, many residents indicated they wanted to see some improvements done quickly instead of years down the road. In response to that, Bowen is working to create more open spaces for residents and tourists to enjoy. He has a passion for parks and greenways, and Maggie Valley has plenty of opportunities for both. Bowen said the town found that it had an easement for a 0.4-mile stretch along
Jonathan Creek — near the west intersection of Moody Farm Road. He said the town has applied for a grant from the Pigeon River Fund to create a greenway that has three access points to the creek. The town is applying for a state recreation grant to improve its park and playground area behind town hall. Bowen’s long-term recreation plan includes adding a splashpad water feature for kids, a brand new playground and a place for people to play bocce ball and horseshoes. Maggie Valley also has shown interest in purchasing a portion of a larger tract of land along Soco Road to convert it into park space. The town board of aldermen went into a closed session last month to discuss purchasing about 1.3 acres of the total 6-acre parcel at 4521 Soco Road — just past Setzer Cove Road. The property was once home to a barbecue shack that was torn down. DeSimone said no official vote has been taken on the purchase.
Trash being tossed on Tuckasegee River bank
B
happen to our river? It took years to get it clean — let’s keep it clean.” Smoky Mountain News was unable to reach a manager at Super Saver for a comment despite many attempts in the last
Black plastic crates are piled up along the Tuckasegee River bank behind Super Saver in Bryson City. Barbara Robinson photo
week. Two messages were not returned last week and the business’ line was busy all day Monday and Tuesday.
Roger Clapp, executive director of the Watershed Associations of the Tuckasegee River, said he went out to the grocery store on Monday when he received the complaint about trash dumping. He said the trash was still on the riverbank and he spoke to a manager about the issue. “I talked to the manager at the moment and he’s frustrated,” Clapp said. “He said someone had cleaned it up but between distributors of Coke products and the wind, it was a mess again.” Clapp said he recommended Super Saver put up a fence to keep trash from blowing out of the loading dock area and into the river. He said installing a T-post fence and stretching hog wire over it would be the easiest and least expensive fix. Clapp said WATR’s policy was to always go to the source of the problem first to see if it could be corrected before taking any further action. In this case, he said he feels the business is willing to work toward a solution to keep trash out of the river. While he said Super Saver is responsible for cleaning up trash in its own property, the watershed association will be holding a countywide cleanup on April 25 to pick up trash along the riverbank.
news
BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR arbara Robinson of Bryson City drives by the Tuckasegee River on a daily basis, but lately the peaceful view of the river has been interrupted by overflowing trash piling up on the riverbank. Robinson said this is the second incident in which trash has been piling up behind the Super Saver in Bryson City. In January, Robinson noticed blue plastic bags all along the riverbank behind the business. She took pictures of the mess and reported it to the town. Town Manager Larry Callicutt said he recalls the incident from January. He said he sent police out to Super Saver to ask management to get it cleaned up — and they did before any citation was issued. Robinson said last week she noticed black plastic crates strewn on the riverbank behind the same business. She again took pictures of the mess on April 6 and the mess was still there on Monday, April 13. As soon as he was informed of the situation, Callicutt again sent police out to Super Saver to get the trash cleaned up off the riverbank. When people come to fish in the river or when they ride the train through Bryson City, Robinson said the last thing she wants them to see is trash piled up along the river. “Bryson City is going to be a Trout City,” Robinson said. “Why are we allowing this to
FBI investigating apparent homicide in the Smokies A Whittier man was discovered dead in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park during the early morning hours of March 29. The death of Tyler Britton Gaddis, 25, is being treated as a homicide, with the Federal Bureau of Investigation looking into it with assistance from the National Park Service. Gaddis was found at Smokemont Baptist Church, also known as Luftee Baptist Church, located at the entrance to Smokemont Campground near the Cherokee entrance to the park. “The FBI responded to the scene and gathered evidence, which will be processed to determine the cause, manner and circumstances of the man’s death,” said Shelley Lynch, public affairs specialist for the FBI. Because the death is still under investigation, few details are available for release. However, said the park’s spokesperson Dana Soehn, “We do not believe there is any threat to park visitors or the community related to the crime.” Gaddis, a Jackson County native, was the father of one daughter and is also survived by his parents and four siblings, according to his obituary. Condolences can be sent online at www.crispfuneralhome.org. — By Holly Kays, staff writer
288-32
New health care laws may mean you now have vision coverage.
April 15-21, 2015
OFFERING A FULL OPTICAL DEPARTMENT WITH CHOICES FOR THE ENTIRE FAMILY
Call today to schedule your appointment! Smoky Mountain News FROM HWY. 19/23 TAKE EXIT 104 TOWARDS LAKE JUNALUSKA; CONTINUE 1/2 MILE TO HAYWOOD MEDICAL PARK ON THE LEFT.
www.smokymtneye.com 828.456.3211
21
22
Smoky Mountain News April 15-21, 2015
Includes event admission & live music
news
Community Almanac Relay for Life moves to downtown Waynesville Relay for Life of West Haywood will kick off this year’s festival season in downtown Waynesville. This year’s cancer fundraising event will be held from 6 p.m. to midnight on Saturday, April 25, on Main Street. Relay teams will set up tents to sell food, crafts and other goodies to raise money for cancer research. Musical entertainment will include The Porter Family, Hunter Grigg, Matthew Curry and more. Local restaurants will be participating in the second annual Greater Waynesville Wine Race at 2:15 p.m. on Miller Street in downtown Waynesville. The best servers in Waynesville will battle it out to see who can race up and down Miller Street without spilling filled wine glasses. All proceeds go to Relay for Life. To sign up, call Mark Scott at 828.627.6137.
Businesses, organizations needed for charity event
Smoky Mountain News
NEEDLING FOR THE NEEDY Kids with the Macon County 4-H Needlers Club knitted and crocheted scarves and hats this winter to donate to the needy through the Hickory Knoll United Methodist Church Coat Closet. Donated photo
Ceremonial Grounds, a flat route of about 1 mile. There, Tate McCoy with the Eastern Band’s Department of Social Services will speak about the need for foster families and DSS resources. Aubrey’s caregiver was charged with involuntary manslaughter and child abuse in connection with the toddler’s death in 2011. The tragedy became a rallying cry for more oversight and vigilance of child welfare cases in Cherokee, with the tribe assuming that role instead of contracting with neighboring Swain County social services. 828.359.7000.
Street. Replicas of it will be sold to benefit the construction of a new county animal shelter. practice@animalhosp.com.
Hospice House Foundation of WNC received a $50,000 donation from Jodi and Bernard Maki of Franklin to construct the SECU Hospice House, an inpatient facility serving hospice patients in the western six-county region of North Carolina and northern Georgia. The Makis have also pledged to make an additional $50,000 donation if Hospice House Foundation can raise this amount from other community residents. Donations are taxdeductible. Make checks payable to: Hospice House Foundation of WNC, P.O. Box 815, Franklin, N.C., 28744 (note “Maki challenge” on memo line of check).
Stroud elected chairman of N.C. Animal Federation
Walk raises awareness of child abuse
Haywood healthcare New quilt block revealed grants cast a wide net The Haywood Healthcare Foundation has in Waynesville announced the recipients of its first-ever cycle
A walk in memory of Aubrey Kina-Marie Littlejohn, a Cherokee toddler who died from suspected neglect and abuse while in the care of a relative, will be held at 10:30 a.m. Monday, April 20, in Cherokee. The fourth annual Aubrey Littlejohn Walk Against Child Abuse will begin near the KFC on U.S. 19 and progress to the Cherokee
• Jackson County Domestic Violence Task Force and REACH of Macon County will hold a joint open house from 3 to 6 p.m. April 30 at 26 Ridgeway St., in Sylva. Meet the staff and enjoy refreshments. 828.586.8969. • Sarge’s Animal Rescue Foundation announced naming opportunities for sponsorship at the adoption center in Waynesville and for sponsorship of Sarge’s major events during 2015. Call 828.246.9050. • An anonymous donor has offered to match
A new quilt block unveiled in downtown Waynesville not only adds another stop on the ever-popular quilt trail, but will serve as a fundraiser for the Friends of the Haywood County Animal Shelter. The new quilt block was put up by The Animal Hospital of Waynesville along Depot
of grant funding for health care initiatives and programs in Haywood County. The recent round of mini-grants — 25 of them in all and up to $5,000 each — will support a wide variety of healthcare needs, including eye and dental care for needy populations, a suite of healthy eating and active living cam-
every donation made to The Community Table up to $2,000 through April 23. Donate at communitytable.org or to The Community Table P.O. Box 62 Dillsboro, N.C. 28725. Make a note with your tax-deductible gift that this is for the “Challenge.”
Every donation will receive a receipt with the Foundation’s tax ID number for a full write off. The Academic Auction will be held May 2 at Cartoogechaye Elementary gym. brian.aulisio@macon.k12.nc.us.
ALSO:
• The Macon County Academic Foundation members will be visiting businesses across the whole county Saturday, April 18, to collect donations for the upcoming Academic Auction.
paigns, medical equipment for senior healthcare programs, mental health counseling for victims of child abuse and domestic violence and substance abuse prevention. The Foundation formerly functioned as the Haywood Regional Medical Center Foundation, primarily raising money to aid the hospital with new equipment and construction projects. But the hospital became a for-profit entity when it was purchased by Duke LifePoint last year, and could no longer receive charitable giving. So the foundation retooled its mission to support healthcare initiatives in the community at large. The Haywood Healthcare Foundation will tackle signature healthcare initiatives of its own undertaking, plus support a host of healthcare programs and causes through grants. For a full list of recipients, go to www.haywoodhealthcarefoundation.org or call 828-452.8343.
Franklin Hospice project Arc of Haywood County receives $50,000 employee recognized
Women of Waynesville is currently recruiting Haywood County businesses, nonprofits and civic organizations to participate in the second annual Battle of the Charities event in September. Last year’s event raised about $10,000 that went to benefit the Meals on Wheels program. WOW hopes to double participation and the fund going to nonprofits this year. In addition to raising money for a charity of their choice, participants also get to dress up and perform as an “air” band of their choice from the 1970s. For more information about the event or to sign up, call WOW President Nikki White at 828.545.6879.
David Stroud, executive director of the Cashiers-Highlands Humane Society, has been re-elected in a statewide vote of animal welfare professionals to a second term on the Board of Directors for the North Carolina Animal Federation.
23
• Harrah's Cherokee Casino Resort recently donated $10,000 to the Good Samaritan Clinic of Jackson County in support of the organization’s programs and services. The Good Samaritan Clinic serves adults with limited income who are ineligible for Medicaid and have no health insurance.
Lynn Dills, program coordinator for Arc of Haywood County, was selected as the Direct Support Professional (DSP) of the year in North Carolina during the 25th Annual North Carolina Providers Association Conference for Intermediate Care Facilities in Winston Salem. The Arc of Haywood County is a nonprofit corporation that provides direct care to over 50 individuals in Haywood County who have disabilities. 828.452.1980 or visit wwww.arcofhaywood.org.
Canton library has new teen space
The Canton Branch Library now features a space within the library that local teenagers can claim as their own, thanks to the Haywood County Friends of the Library. The new teen area features a diner-style booth for group or individual work, a modern and flexible seating area with chairs that include built-in outlets, a technology bar with outlets for devices and new shelving for the young adult collection of books and books on CD. 828.648.2924.
• “Give Them Hope Breakfast” for children and families in need will be held from 8:30 to 9:45 a.m. April 23 at Southwestern Community College’s Burrell Conference Center in Sylva. Hosted by Children’s Hope Alliance, formerly known as the entities of Barium Springs and Grandfather Home for Children. RSVP to 828.231.5413. • The Jackson County Republican Party elected officers at its recent county convention. They are: Ralph Slaughter, chair; Danny Keever, first vice chair; Aaron Littlefield, second vice chair; Trina Phillips, secretary; Phyllis Fox, treasurer.
24
Opinion
Smoky Mountain News
Pseudo police force would Time to get re-acquainted with an old friend lead to bigger problems I
By the numbers
Chris Cox
BY SCOTT MCLEOD • PUBLISHER Nothing would reflect better on this country than to have a rational, reasoned debate on gun violence and what steps could be taken to curb it while still adhering to the Second Amendment. One look at the statistics shows how badly this needs to take place. But we aren’t getting close. In face, a recent law introduced in the North Carolina General Assembly would be a step in the wrong direction. Sen. Jeff Tarte, a Republican from Mecklenburg County, has proposed a new state law (Senate Bill 708) that would create a “super permit ”(my words) that would give some concealed carry permit holders a badge and let them carry guns anywhere except a few specific places noted in this proposal (mostly government buildings). So here we are with campus shootings and shootings by police and all manner of other tragic incidents in the news surrounding violence and guns, and Sen. Tarte’s answer is to put a pseudo police force out on the streets ■ One in three people in the U.S. know someto add to the chaos. one who has been shot. I haven’t talked to ■ On average, 32 Americans are murdered Tarte, but some other with guns every day and 140 are treated for a reporters have. Here’s gun assault in an emergency room. what he told the ■ Every day on average, 51 people kill themselves with a firearm, and 45 people are shot Asheville Citizenor killed in an accident with a gun. Times: “It would be ■ The U.S. firearm homicide rate is 20 times nice to have good peohigher than the combined rates of 22 countries ple who are prepared that are our peers in wealth and population. to take care of the ■ A gun in the home is 22 times more likely to defenseless. That’s why police, I think, are be used to kill or injure in a domestic homicide, suicide or unintentional shooting than to be very supportive.” used in self-defense. And this gem: “The *Source: Brady Campaign more guns we have in to Prevent Gun Violence society, the politer society will be.” Anyone who follows the news today knows how we in the U.S. deal with horrific shooting episodes like a massacre at a school or a university. It’s happened time and again over the last couple of decades, and so it’s become a predictable pattern. A horrific, tragic event will occur and we all get on our soapboxes. The left will say we have way too many guns and that we should enact stronger laws to regulate purchases and keep them away from potential bad guys. The right will say guns aren’t the problem, that American society is disintegrating — traditional families are disappearing, the media glorifies violence, and immigrants are taking American jobs — and traditional, freedom-loving citizens should have access to firearms. A few weeks or months will pass, and the devilish details of forging a compromise lead to the demise of any progress. I don’t, however, see how Sen. Tarte’s bill will do anything to help find that compromise. Most law enforcement agencies support stricter gun control laws despite his statement to the contrary. And a provision in the law to allow a permit to be granted to some who have sought psychiatric help seems especially shortsighted. The U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment will forever complicate efforts to find gun laws that can pass muster in our democracy. But we hire police officers and spend a lot of money training them in hopes that they can keep order. Recent events have shed a light on police abuses, but again, measures like body cameras and perhaps even more training will help alleviate some of those problems. But let’s not pass a law that gives private citizens a badge and the right to carry wherever they want. It’s just a bad, bad idea. (Scott McLeod can be reached at info@smokymountainnews.com.)
t is just mid-April and already too hot to sleep, but too early in the year to resort to air conditioning. For years, I managed to do without any air conditioning at all, even in my car — partly out of some last remaining strand of stubborn resistance to being overly pampered, but mostly because when I bought my first car and my first house, I didn’t have enough money for such modern conveniences. It is much easier to maintain excellent principles when you lack the funds to compromise them. My car had a radio and floor mats and my house had doorknobs and a kitchen. In the summers, I kept the windows down and drank Columnist a lot of ice water. That went on for a few years until I just couldn’t take it anymore. I remember the night when I decided to give in and finally get air conditioning. It must have been two or three o’clock in the morning, and I had every window in the house wide open and every fan I owned — ceiling fans, box fans, rotating fans — whirring madly, all set to lift-off speed. I had an enormous glass of ice water on the nightstand, although the ice had long since melted and the water was about as cold as the water in your average swimming pool and even tasted faintly of chlorine. I thrashed around on the bed until my sweat-drenched sheet twined around my leg and torso like a boa constrictor. I tried to think cool thoughts, tried to will myself into a peaceful slumber, before finally grabbing the sheet-snake by its clammy throat, ripping it from my body and hurling it into the Venetian blinds. I stumbled wearily into the bathroom, turned on the cold water, and plunged my head into the sink, scraping my forehead on the faucet in the process. I then soaked a hand towel and applied it to my head, stumbling back into bed, and the only cool thought I had was this one: this would be the very last summer I would spend without air conditioning. Then I melted into the mattress. At some point I am sure I went to sleep, but it was not a peaceful, climate-controlled sleep. It was the sleep of cheese curling around a sizzling hamburger patty. It was the sleep of a record album warping in the backseat of a car. I’m not sure why it took me so long to get an air conditioner. I could say I wasn’t raised that way. There was no air conditioning in my home growing up. We relied on fans and iced tea and Solarcaine and Blue Ridge Mountain breezes to keep things tolerable in our house. But those were the hardscrabble days of my youth, when a person
who wanted to change the channel on the television actually HAD TO GET UP and change it by turning one of those knob doohickeys on the front of the set. If the phone rang, we had to get up and go answer it and then stand there until we were finished talking, thanks to the stupid cord. We had relatives in Winston-Salem, which was quite a bit hotter than Sparta, and when we’d visit them in the summer I was genuinely amazed at the unimaginable difference in the temperature as we stepped into their house and out of the oppressively hot sun. It was like opening a gigantic refrigerator and taking a seat between the cream cheese and Country Crock. It was marvelous, but also a little weird and unnatural, like a February tan or tofu burgers. I guess I didn’t quite trust it. In my economy, air conditioners were for hotel rooms at the beach. Mountain folk like me could get by with hospital-grade oscillating fans and a grape Popsicle. Finally, I did get a car with air conditioning, and then, a few years later, we got air conditioning for the house. First, we saw an ad in the paper posted by a guy who had TWO air conditioners, both described as nearly new, so I called him up and made arrangements to go and look at them. When we arrived, we saw a pet goat, a very handsome and well-groomed gentleman, leashed up in the front yard like a dog. He even had a dog house, which he promptly jumped and perched on the minute I opened the car door. Not a bad little show. Then I looked on the front porch and saw a man in a bandana laughing at our reaction. Evidently, this was not the first time his goat had impressed strangers with his acrobatics. We went around back and looked at his air conditioners, both of which were already plugged in and purring out delicious icy relief into the sultry early evening air. I walked around them to inspect for any obvious signs of damage, then put one hand in front of each one, to make sure there was no trick. Then I imagined them installed in my living room and bedroom, and I imagined sleeping for 10 solid hours without one trip to the kitchen to fetch ice water or a soaking hand towel. I imagined turning off my fleet of fans. I imagined icy, refreshing, delicious sleep. “I’ll take both of them,” I said, hauling my checkbook out of my back pocket. We put one of the units in the trunk, and the other one on its side in the front seat, where it barely fit. On the way home, I kept looking over at my new passenger, even putting my hand on it as if it were the shoulder of an old friend. Now, every year around this time, we get reacquainted like a couple of kids at summer camp. (Chris Cox is a writer and teacher who lives in Haywood County. He can be reached at jchriscox@live.com.)
A big thank you to Sen. Jim Davis
To the Editor: Thank you Sen. Jim Davis, R-Franklin, for raising my taxes. As with the majority of North Carolina citizens who earn less than $84,000 a year, my total state tax bill went up. Most of the promised tax cuts went to the higher income taxpayers and large corporations. So much income was lost by these cuts that the state budget is now in the red. You have to admire Sen. Davis faith in “trickledown economics” even though that economic philosophy has never been proven to work. Thank you Sen. Davis for supporting the redistribution of wealth. He supports legislation that redistributes sale tax revenue to “poorer” counties. That could mean the loss of about $1.5 million for Macon County and a loss of $44,000 for the town of Franklin. This is money you and I would have to make up with our local tax dollars. Could it be that most of those “poorer” rural counties vote mostly Republican, and most of those “rich” counties vote mostly Democratic? Thank you Sen. Davis for making sure the uninsured in Macon County stay uninsured. By voting to prevent Medicaid expansion in North Carolina, he has guaranteed that at least 1,500 Macon County citizens will stay without health insurance. Every time one of these uninsured goes to the emergency room and can’t pay the bill, the hospital charges us more to make up the difference. So you and I pay a higher health premium, and since we already paid for Medicaid expansion in North Carolina with our federal tax dollars, we lose twice. Now I know what a “fiscal conservative” is. Louise Vitale • Franklin
Live Music
SID’S ——————————————————
ON MAIN
117 Main Street, Canton NC 236-50
1 Year Anniversary
Glorious BURLESQUE
AMMONS DRIVE-IN RESTAURANT & DAIRY BAR 1451 Dellwwod Rd., Waynesville. 828.926.0734. Open 7 days a week 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Celebrating over 25 years. Enjoy world famous hot dogs as well as burgers, seafood, hushpuppies, hot wings and chicken. Be sure to save room for dessert. The cobbler, pie and cake selections are sure to satisfy any sweet tooth.
SAT. APRIL 18 8 P.M.• $5
BLUE ROOSTER SOUTHERN GRILL 207 Paragon Parkway, Clyde, Lakeside Plaza at the old Wal-Mart. 828.456.1997. Open Monday through Friday. Friendly and fun family atmosphere. Local, handmade Southern cuisine. Fresh-cut salads; slow-simmered soups; flame grilled burgers and steaks, and homemade signature desserts. Blue-plates and local fresh vegetables daily. Brown bagging is permitted. Private parties, catering, and take-out available. Call-ahead seating available.
617 W. Main St. Sylva 828.586.3555
BOGART’S 303 S. Main St., Waynesville. 828.452.1313.
SHOW
287-36
Taste the Mountains is an ever-evolving paid section of places to dine in Western North Carolina. If you would like to be included in the listing please contact our advertising department at 828.452.4251
www.MadBatterFoodandFilm.com
Open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Carry out available. Located in downtown Waynesville, Bogart’s has been long-time noted for great steaks, soups, and salads. Casual family atmosphere in a rustic old-time setting with a menu noted for its practical value. Live Bluegrass/String Band music every Thursday. Walking distance of Waynesville’s unique shops and seasonal festival activities and within one mile of Waynesville Country Club. BOURBON BARREL BEEF & ALE 454 Hazelwood Ave., Waynesville, 828.452.9191. Lunch served 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Dinner nightly from 4 p.m. Closed on Sunday. We specialize in hand-cut, all natural steaks, fresh fish, and other classic American comfort foods that are made using only the finest local and sustainable ingredients available. We also feature a great selection of craft beers from local artisan brewers, and of course an extensive selection of small batch bourbons and whiskey. The Barrel is a friendly and casual neighborhood dining experience where our guests enjoy a great meal without breaking the bank. BREAKING BREAD CAFÉ 6147 Hwy 276 S. Bethel (at the Mobil Gas Station) 828.648.3838 Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Chef owned and operated. Our salads are made in house using local seasonal vegetables. Fresh roasted ham, turkey and roast beef used in our hoagies. We hand make our own eggplant and chicken parmesan, pork meatballs and
hamburgers. We use 1st quality fresh not pre-prepared products to make sure you get the best food for a reasonable price. We make vegetarian, gluten free and sugar free items. Call or go to Facebook (Breaking Bread Café NC) to find out what our specials are. BRYSON CITY CORK & BEAN A MOUNTAIN SOCIAL HOUSE 16 Everett St.,Bryson City. 828.488.1934. Open Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday and Sunday brunch 9 a.m. to 3p.m., Full Menu 3 to 9 p.m. Serving fresh and delicious weekday morning lite fare, lunch, dinner, and brunch. Freshly prepared menu offerings range from house-made soups & salads, lite fare & tapas, crepes, specialty sandwiches and burgers. Be sure not to miss the bold flavors and creative combinations that make up the daily Chef Supper Specials starting at 5pm every day. Followed by a tempting selection of desserts prepared daily by our chefs and other local bakers. Enjoy craft beers on tap, as well as our full bar and eclectic wine list. CATALOOCHEE RANCH 119 Ranch Dr., Maggie Valley. 828.926.1401. Mile-high mountaintop dining with a spectacular view. Beginning April 24, join us for cookouts on the terrace on weekends and Wednesdays (weather permitting) and family-style dinners on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Social hour starts at 6 p.m., with dinner at 7 p.m. Our bountiful family-style meals include prime rib, baked ham, and herb-baked chicken; cookouts fea-
- Hand-cut, all natural steaks from local farms - Seafood & burgers
- Vegetarian options available - Local microbrews - Small batch bourbons
288-48
BREAKFAST SERVED ALL DAY
Café Le Rouge ON THE HALF SHELL RAW • STEAMED • FRIED OYSTER PO’ BOYS OYSTER ROCKAFELLER BLACKENED CATFISH SEAFOOD GUMBO
454 HAZELWOOD AVE. WAYNESVILLE | 828-452-9191 Lunch 11:30am - 2:30pm | Dinner Nightly starting at 4pm | Closed Sundays
In-house Pastry Chef
Smoky Mountain News
OYSTERS:
April 15-21, 2015
OYSTER BAR NOW OPEN
VOTED BEST STEAK & DINNER Mountaineer d Readers’ Choice Award 2014
opinion
-Local beers now on draft-
828.492.0618 • SidsOnMain.com Serving Lunch & Dinner
tasteTHEmountains
288-12
Burgers to Salads Southern Favorites & Classics
10:30AM - 9:30PM 7 DAYS A WEEK 180 N. MAIN STREET, WAYNESVILLE
828-550-3560
2 doors down from Tipping Point
Free WiFi
25
tasteTHEmountains FRIDAY, APRIL 17 • 7 P.M.
Karen “Sugar” Barnes & Dave MaGill 3 E JACKSON ST. • SYLVA, NC
www.CityLightsCafe.com
April 15-21, 2015
Big Results...
CHEF’S TABLE 30 Church St., Waynesville. 828.452.6210. From 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday dinner starting at 5 p.m. “Best of” Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator Magazine. Set in a distinguished atmosphere with an exceptional menu. Extensive selection of wine and beer. Reservations honored. CITY BAKERY 18 N. Main St. Waynesville 828.452.3881. Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Join us in our historic location for scratch made soups and daily specials. Breakfast is made to order daily: Gourmet cheddar & scallion biscuits served with bacon, sausage and eggs; smoked trout bagel plate; quiche and fresh fruit parfait. We bake a wide variety of breads daily, specializing in traditional french breads. All of our breads are hand shaped. Lunch: Fresh salads, panini sandwiches. Enjoy outdoor dinning on the deck. Private room available for meetings. CITY LIGHTS CAFE Spring Street in downtown Sylva. 828.587.2233. Open Monday-Saturday 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tasty, healthy and quick. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, espresso, beer and wine. Come taste the savory and sweet crepes, grilled paninis, fresh, organic salads, soups and more. Outside patio seating. Free Wi-Fi, pet-friendly. Live music and lots of events. Check the web calendar at citylightscafe.com.
...small investment.
Advertise your business in the smoky mountain news
828.452.4251
COUNTRY VITTLES: FAMILY STYLE RESTAURANT 3589 Soco Rd, Maggie Valley. 828.926.1820 Open Daily 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., closed Tuesday. Family Style at Country Vittles is not a buffet. Instead our waitresses will bring your food piping hot from the kitchen right to your table and as many refills as you want. So if you have a big appetite, but sure to ask your waitress about our family style service. FILLING STATION DELI 145 Everett St., Bryson City, 828.488.1919. Open Monday through Wednesday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sundays (in October) 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Locals always know best, and this is one place they know well. From the highquality hot pressed sandwiches and the huge portions of hand-cut fries to the specialty frozen sandwiches and homemade Southern desserts, you will not leave this top-rated deli hungry. FRANKIE’S ITALIAN TRATTORIA 1037 Soco Rd. Maggie Valley. 828.926.6216 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Father and son team Frank and Louis Perrone cook up dinners steeped in Italian tradition. With recipies passed down from generations gone by, the Perrones have brought a bit of Italy to Maggie Valley. frankiestrattoria.com FROGS LEAP PUBLIC HOUSE 44 Church St. Downtown Waynesville 828.456.1930 Serving lunch 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; Dinner 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday. 5 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Closed Sunday and Monday. Frogs Leap is a farm to table restaurant focused on local, sustainable, natural and organic products prepared in modern regional dishes. Seasonal menu focuses on Southern comfort foods with upscale flavors. www.frogsleappublichouse.com.
CORK & CLEAVER 176 Country Club Drive, Waynesville.
GUADALUPE CAFÉ 606 W. Main Street, Sylva. 828.586.9877.
288-49
Smoky Mountain News
828.456.7179. Reservations recommended. 4:30-9 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Tucked away inside Waynesville Inn, Cork & Cleaver has an approachable menu designed around locally sourced, sustainable, farm-to-table ingredients. Executive Chef Corey Green prepares innovative and unique Southern fare from local, organic vegetables grown in Western North Carolina. Full bar and wine cellar. www.waynesvilleinn.com.
THE CLASSIC WINESELLER 20 Church Street, Waynesville. 828.452.6000. Underground retail wine and craft beer shop, restaurant, and intimate live music venue. Kitchen opens at 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday serving freshly prepared small plate and tapas-style fare. Enjoy local, regional, or national talent live each Friday and Saturday night at 7 p.m. www.classicwineseller.com. Also on facebook and twitter.
APPÉTIT Y’AL N L BO
REEKSIDE COYSTER HOUSE & GRILL
blueroostersoutherngrill.com
— Real Local People, Real Local Food — 207 Paragon Parkway, Clyde, North Carolina Monday-Friday Open at 11am
Open 7 days a week at 5 p.m. Located in the historic Hooper’s Drugstore, Guadalupe Café is a chef-owned and operated restaurant serving Caribbean inspired fare complimented by a quirky selection of wines and microbrews. Supporting local farmers of organic produce, livestock, hand-crafted cheese, and using sustainably harvested seafood. J. ARTHUR’S RESTAURANT AT MAGGIE VALLEY U.S. 19 in Maggie Valley. 828.926.1817. Lunch Sunday noon to 2:30 p.m., dinner Thursday - Sunday starting at 4:30 p.m. World-famous prime rib, steaks, fresh seafood, gorgonzola cheese and salads. All ABC permits and open year-round. Children always welcome. Take-out menu. Excellent service and hospitality. Reservations appreciated. JOEY'S PANCAKE HOUSE 4309 Soco Rd Maggie Valley. 828.926.0212. Winter hours; Friday through Sunday and Mondays, 7 a.m. to noon. Joey’s is a family style restaurant that has been serving breakfast to the locals and visitors of Western North Carolina since 1966. Featuring a large variety of tempting pancakes, golden waffles, country style cured ham and seasonal specials spiked with flavor, Joey's is sure to please all appetites. Joey & Brenda O’Keefe invite you to join what has become a tradition in these parts, breakfast at Joey’s. JUKEBOX JUNCTION U.S. 276 and N.C. 110 intersection, Bethel. 828.648.4193. 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday; Sunday 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Serving breakfast, lunch, nd dinner. The restaurant has a 1950s & 60s theme decorated with memorabilia from that era. LOS AMIGOS 366 Russ Ave. in the Bi-Lo Plaza. 828.456.7870. Open from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for lunch and 5 to 10 p.m. for dinner Monday through Friday and 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Enjoy the lunch prices Monday through Sunday, also enjoy our outdoor patio. MAD BATTER FOOD & FILM 617 W. Main Street Downtown Sylva. 828.586.3555. Open Tuesday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Wednesday-Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Hand-tossed pizza, steak sandwiches, wraps, salads and desserts. All made from scratch. Beer and wine. Free movies with showtimes at 6:30 and 9 p.m. with a
288-31
288-40
Full Bar • Creekside Dining Specialty Sandwiches Crafted Beer & Moonshine
828-456-1997 26
ture steaks, ribs, chicken and pork chops, to name a few. Every dinner is complemented with an assortment of seasonal vegetables, homemade breads, jellies and desserts, and we offer a fine selection of wine and beer. Breakfast is also served daily from 8 to 9:30 a.m., and lunch from 12 to 2 p.m. Please call for reservations.
TUESDAY: 75¢ Oysters after 4pm WEDNESDAY: AYCE Fish & Shrimp THURSDAY: AYCE Crab Leg FRIDAY: Surf-N-Turf Special SATURDAY: Seafood Trio Special SUNDAY: Low Country Boil
828.586.1985 • CLOSED MONDAYS
438 Skyland Drive • Sylva
Exit 85 to Skyland Dr., two blocks from McDonalds
MEDITERRANEAN
ITALIAN CUISINE
Enjoy Spring in the Smokies on Our Patio 1863 S. Main Street • Waynesville 828.454.5002 Hwy. 19/23 Exit 98 LUNCH & DINNER 7 DAYS A WEEK
tasteTHEmountains
Papertown Grill Breakfast served all day Daily Specials & Sunday Buffet
MAGGIE VALLEY CLUB 1819 Country Club Dr., Maggie Valley. 828.926.1616. maggievalleyclub.com/dine. Open daily for lunch and dinner. Fine and casual fireside dining in welcoming atmosphere. Full bar. Reservations accepted.
NEWFOUND LODGE RESTAURANT 1303 Tsali Blvd, Cherokee (Located on 441 North at entrance to GSMNP). 828.497.4590. Open 7 a.m. daily. Established in 1946 and serving breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week. Family style dining for adults and children.
PASQUALE’S 1863 South Main Street, Waynesville. Off exit 98, 828.454.5002. Open for lunch and dinner, 7 days a week. Classic Italian dishes, exceptional steaks and seafood (available in full and lighter sizes), thin crust pizza, homemade soups, salads hand tossed at your table. Fine wine and beer selection. Casual atmosphere, dine indoors, outside on the patio or at the bar. Reservations appreciated.
RENDEZVOUS RESTAURANT AND BAR Maggie Valley Inn and Conference Center 828.926.0201 Open Monday-Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Saturday 7:30 a.m. to 11 p.m and Sunday 7:30 a.m to 9 p.m. Full service restaurant serving steaks, prime rib, seafood and dinner specials. SMOKY MOUNTAIN SUB SHOP 29 Miller Street Waynesville 828.456.3400. Open from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. A Waynesville tradition, the Smoky Mountain Sub Shop has been serving great
153 Main St. Canton
This This Weekend’s Weekend’s M Music usic Friday, Friday, Ap Apr. r. 1 17 7@7p pm m T THE HE 9 9TH TH ST STREET REET ST STOMPERS OMPERS hot hot guitar, guitar, ukulele, ukulele, b bass, ass, vo vocals cals ($10 ($10 ea. ea. adv. adv. purchase purchase suggested) suggested) Saturday, Saturday, Ap Apr. r. 1 18 8@7p pm m Joe Joe Cruz Cruz - piano, piano, vocals vocals
Paid in part by Haywood County T ourism o www .visitncsmokies.com Tourism www.visitncsmokies.com
Monday - Saturday 7am - 8pm Sunday 7am - 3 pm
food for over 20 years. Come in and enjoy the relaxed, casual atmosphere. Sub breads are baked fresh every morning in Waynesville. Using only the freshest ingredients in home-made soups, salads and sandwiches. Come in and see for yourself why Smoky Mountain Sub Shop was voted # 1 in Haywood County. Locally owned and operated. SOUL INFUSION TEA HOUSE & BISTRO 628 E. Main St. (between Sylva Tire & UPS). 828.586.1717. Tuesday-Friday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday noon -until. Scrumptious, natural, fresh soups, salads, sandwiches, wraps and desserts. 60+ teas served hot or cold, black, chai, herbal. Seasonal and rotating draft beers, good selection of wine. Home-Grown Music Network Venue with live music most weekends. Pet friendly and kid ready. SPEEDY’S PIZZA 285 Main Street, Sylva. 828.586.3800. Open seven days a week. Monday-Friday 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Saturday 3 p.m.-11 p.m., Sunday 4 p.m.-10 p.m. Family-owned for 30 years. Serving hand-tossed pizza made to order, pasta, subs, gourmet salads, calzones and seafood. Also serving excellent prime rib on Thursdays. Dine in or take out available. Located across from the Fire Station.
828-452-6000 828-452-6000 classicwineseller.com classicwineseller.com 20 20 Church Church Street, Street, Waynesville, Waynesville, NC NC
Twin Maples
UPCOMING EVENTS
288-43
F•A•R•M•H•O•U•S•E
Sunday Brunch FRIDAY, APR. 17
BENEFITING WOMEN OF WAYNESVILLE
SATURDAY, APR. 18
Sunday, April 19 • 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
Karaoke w/Chris Monteith American GonZos SUNDAY, APR. 19
Shane Meade & The Sound 83 Asheville Hwy. Sylva Music Starts @ 9 • 631.0554
———————————————
LIMITED SEATING CALL FOR RESERVATIONS 63 N. HILL ST.
828.452.7837
288-77
Local favorite café reopens after extensive renovation
TAP ROOM SPORTS BAR & GRILL 176 Country Club Dr. Waynesville 828.456.5988. 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week. Enjoy soups, sandwiches, salads and hearty appetizers along with a full bar menu in our casual, smoke-free neighborhood grill. THAI SPICE 128 N. Main St., Waynesville. 828.454.5400. Lunch: Tuesday-Friday 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday noon to 3 p.m. Dinner Tuesday-Saturday 4:30 to 9 p.m. Closed Monday. Thai Spice, an authentic Thai restaurant, warmly welcomes you to experience a superb dinning experience. Don’t be timid, the food comes mild, medium, hot and Thai Hot. You choose. www.thaispicewnc.com VITO’S PIZZA 607 Highlands Rd., Franklin. 828.369.9890. Established here in in 1998. Come to Franklin and enjoy our laid back place, a place you can sit back, relax and enjoy our 62” HDTV. Our Pizza dough, sauce, meatballs, and sausage are all made from scratch by Vito. The recipes have been in the family for 50 years (don't ask for the recipes cuz’ you won't get it!) Each Pizza is hand tossed and made with TLC. You're welcome to watch your pizza being created.
Now Open for Lunch Same great taste with a few new additions including burgers and fries! Come join us! Enjoy the new surroundings and check out the new menu. Monday - Friday 10:30 - 3:00
Smoky Mountain News
PATIO BISTRO 30 Church Street, Waynesville. 828.454.0070. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Breakfast bagels and sandwiches, gourmet coffee, deli sandwiches for lunch with homemade soups, quiches, and desserts. Wide selection of wine and beer. Outdoor and indoor dining.
LIVE LIVE Music Music
April 15-21, 2015
ORGANIC BEANS COFFEE COMPANY 1110 Soco Road, Maggie Valley. 828.668.2326. Open 7 days a week 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Happily committed to brewing and serving innovative, uniquely delicious coffees — and making the world a better place. 100% of our coffee is Fair Trade, Shade Grown, and Organic, all slow-roasted to bring out every note of indigenous flavor. Bakery offerings include cakes, muffins, cookies and more. Each one is made from scratch in Asheville using only the freshest, all natural ingredients available. We are proud to offer gluten-free and vegan options.
Restaurant Restaurant
Country Cookin' at its Best
Saturday matinee at 2 p.m. Visit madbatterfoodandfilm.com for this week’s shows.
MOUNTAIN PERKS ESPRESSO BAR & CAFÉ 9 Depot St., Bryson City. 828.488.9561. Open Monday through Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Friday 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. With music at the Depot. Sunday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Life is too short for bad coffee. We feature wonderful breakfast and lunch selections. Bagels, wraps, soups, sandwiches, salads and quiche with a variety of specialty coffees, teas and smoothies. Various desserts.
Retail Retail
32 Felmet Street off N. Main St. in Waynesville
To Go Orders:
828-456-9888 27
28
A&E
Smoky Mountain News
Mountains to Sea
The quest for fresh seafood Debbie Milner of Sentelle’s Seafood. Garret K. Woodward photo
BY GARRET K. WOODWARD STAFF WRITER Debbie Milner has a simple philosophy. “If I won’t eat it, I won’t sell it,” she said. Standing next to a large display case at Sentelle’s Seafood in downtown Clyde, Milner points out all of the right-off-the-boat and shipped to Southern Appalachia products her family business offers. “Right there is flounder from the coast of North Carolina, halibut from Alaska and over there is live lobster from Maine,” she proudly stated. Entering its 53rd year, Sentelle’s has established itself as a seafood hub for foodies, fish freaks and those curious about the endless possibilities of culinary delights. And yet, even though Sentelle’s has been around for half a century, the idea of fresh seafood in the mountains still has a stigma to shake, one that chefs, restaurants and food stores around Western North Carolina have been erasing in recent years amid a food culture explosion in and around our region. “There’s a difference in technology, shipping and in culinary attitudes in the mountains these
serving crap seafood, whatever frozen stuff they could get, and they really dug a hole,” Weaver said. “Fresh seafood as a product has been available in the mountains for years. It’s just now you’re getting restaurants and owners that are good enough, and have the experience and knowledge, to know how to use the products.” Weaver said that right of out of Seafood and its place in the culinary culture of Western the gate, seafood in the mountains North Carolina has come a long way in recent years. of Western North Carolina has a big hurdle to tackle, which are tourists Pictured is a shrimp and salmon dish at The Sweet frequenting this area from fresh fish Onion in Waynesville. Garret K. Woodward photo capitals like the coast of Florida, Charleston and Atlanta. “There’s a certain stigma, where someone might think, ‘Well, how’s • The Smoky Mountain Oyster & Seafood Festival will be that hillbilly going to know how to held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 18, at the handle raw oysters?’” he said. Maggie Valley Festival Grounds. Oysters made everyway “People can sometimes be weary, possible — raw, steamed, friend, etc. Shrimp, clams, and that’s because back then, up barbecue, and more. Oysters and seafood will be prehere, maybe some folks weren’t pared by J. Arthur’s Restaurant in Maggie Valley. The doing their best to offer the best beer tent will feature selections from Asheville Brewing product possible — that’s all and Green Man. There will also be Budweiser products, changed now, if you’re not doing it wine, malt coolers and other refreshments. Live music high quality it won’t sell.” will be provided by Al Coffee & Da Grind and The Mile Besides massive advances in High Band. There will also be a free interactive kid’s technology and shipping, the mere zone, which includes corn hole, mini-golf, face painting, availability of seafood products, bubbles and balloon twisting. Tickets are $5 in advance either native or exotic, has increased (on Eventbrite), $8 at the gate. Children ages 12 and dramatically to where prices are under are admitted free. www.smokymtnoysterfest.com. dropping in a competitive market• There will be an oyster roast from 6 to 10 p.m. April 17 place. Thus, with those price drops, at The Bascom in Highlands. The event will be in celerestaurants now have affordable bration of the center for visual art’s recent expansion. and delicious items right at the finFree steamed oysters. Other food and drinks available. gertips with the click of a button or Live bluegrass music by WellStrung from 7 to 9 p.m. quick phone call to their vendors. www.thebascom.org. “Nowadays, I can get a call from one of our vendors on great deal for “And my wife and I were looking for healthcrab or shrimp or whatever — it’s amazing,” Weaver said. “And with all of those products, ier ways to eat,” he said. “Around here it was we are also trying new varieties, especially either you could have beef, pork or chicken, or you could have chicken, when certain species of fish have been put on pork or beef.” the endangered list. It’s all about finding that Hendrix has had a plentiful, high quality fish.” lifelong love of fish. He spent many years of his RIENDSHIP THROUGH FISH childhood living in Panama, fishing alongRight down the road from The Sweet Onion side his skilled father. in downtown Waynesville is Eric’s Fresh Fish The young Hendrix also Market. Opened last summer, it’s the third location of the independent business, which Eric Hendrix for a time owned Mi Casa in Franklin, one of the also includes the company’s flagship store in first Mexican restaurants in the mountains, Sylva and other spot in Franklin. “When I take fish out and open the lid of where he’d feature exotic fish entrees and spethe containers, people are blown away by how cials. He looks at fish as a cleaner meat, one fresh it is,” owner Eric Hendrix smiled. “They with innumerable ways to prepare and present are blown away by the quality, that the edges for all to enjoy with gusto. “When I first started the fish market back aren’t dry, that it hasn’t been sitting under a lamp, that all the flavors haven’t mingled — it’s in 2008, I didn’t know a whole lot about fish, just about what fish I liked,” he said. “But now, just stunning.” With deep family roots in the mountains of I know a lot, and it’s been a lot of fun to learn Western North Carolina, Hendrix has perma- so much about all the different types of fish out nently resided in the Sylva area for over 30 years. there. I learned a lot from simply listening to Once an English professor at Western Carolina my customers. How did they cook their fish? University in nearby Cullowhee, he looked for What were their recipes? People are always ways to supplement his income, and saw a need for fresh seafood and fish in his town. S EE FOOD, PAGE 31
Craving seafood?
days when it comes to seafood,” said Doug Weaver, co-owner and head chef at The Sweet Onion in Waynesville. “That, and the shifting palettes and cultural diversity of our area.”
MAKING CHANGE It’s lunchtime on a recent Thursday. The dining floor and kitchen are buzzing at The Sweet Onion. Regarded as one of the finest restaurants in Western North Carolina, the location is well known for its cosmopolitan offerings. The business incorporates the best in local farm-to-table meat and produce, as well as prodDoug Weaver ucts from an array of high-quality food vendors — a key product being seafood, from across the state and around the country. “You’ve got to think that for a long time, a lot of the ‘seafood’ restaurants in the area were
F
BY GARRET K. WOODWARD
Garret K. Woodward photo
T
COFFEE WITH THE POET continues with Katherine Soniat
Thursday, April 16th at 10:30 a.m.
STEVEN HARVEY will lead a discussion on memories and present, Book of Knowledge and Wonder
Saturday, April 18th at 3 p.m. 3 EAST JACKSON STREET • SYLVA
828/586-9499 • citylightsnc.com
Featured Property: 2BR/2BA • $925/MONTH
828-456-6111
www.selecthomeswnc.com
288-18
Call today to schedule a free consultation! “I went to see Dr. Hamel and the results have changed my life. I am able to express myself in front of people with much more confidence and boldness. I recommend this to everyone wholeheartedly.” - MH
JOHN HAMEL HAMEL M.D. JOHN M.D.
HICKORY • NEBO•• GASTONIA GASTONIA • WAXHAW HICKORY • NEBO • WAXHAW BRYSON CITY •CITY ASHEVILLE MALL • MOORESVILLE BRYSON • ASHEVILLE MALL
877-252-5273 877-252-5273
COMPLETELASERCLINIC.COM COMPLETELASERCLINIC.COM
Fly Fishing the South
Smoky Mountain News
HOT PICKS 1 2 3 4 5
Bookstore
April 15-21, 2015
hey fascinate me the most — in a way that is captivating and haunting, ancient and mysterious. Women. The opposite sex. Bluegrass legend Peter Rowan will perform The basis behind all great art, at 7 p.m. April 21 at Cataloochee Guest Ranch music, literature, war and unanin Maggie Valley. swerable questions we never Mad Batter Food & Film will have a one-year seem to stop asking. They are anniversary Burlesque Show at 8 p.m. April 18 the reason many of us get up in in Sylva. the morning, why we think twice about our appearance and life As part of the 150th anniversary of the Civil choices, all the while subconWar, the stage production of “The Actor and sciously dictating our daily interThe Assassin” will be at 7:30 p.m. April 17-18 actions, reactions and distracand 3 p.m. April 19 at the Haywood Arts tions. Regional Theatre in Waynesville. I was always aware of women, or “girls” as we called An Empty Bowl fundraiser will be held from 4 to them back in the day of monkey 8 p.m. April 24 at The Community Table in bars and childhood antics, but it Sylva. wasn’t until I hit middle school Country/southern rocker Joe Lasher Jr. will perthat I found myself utterly mesform at 7 p.m. April 18 at the Colonial Theatre merized by their presence. in Canton. Though I noticed them, I doubt that notion was reciprocated. I soon become the captain of the cross-counwas a nerdy, scrawny kid back then. The try and indoor/outdoor track teams. I was in kind of Coke bottle glasses wearing, hair student council, cleaned up my appearance, parted to the side with too much gel adoleswore the “right” clothing and assimilated cent that was stuffed into lockers and merciinto the upper echelon of the social circles. lessly ridiculed by my peers. Thus, those girls that didn’t pay me any And yet, even with all my social shortattention just a few years earlier were now comings, there were a handful of girls who asking me to slow dance with them or actutook a chance on me. Those girls who didn’t ally excited to go on a date. It was quite the mind that I had braces when we made out emotional conundrum for someone like behind the bleachers in the gymnasium or myself. I always felt I’d be found out, some that my attire was a generation behind, not kind of fraud that would be caught and sent to mention my overkill on the cologne and back into exile from the “beautiful people.” deodorant. The last two years leading up to graduaHigh school fared a little better. I discovtion I dated my high school sweetheart. It ered that I was really good at running, and
288-37
arts & entertainment
This must be the place
was an incredible time together, truly. We had the whole plan nailed down — graduate, go to a local university together, graduate, get married, have kids, etc. Of course, like for most of us, that idea came to screeching halt around Thanksgiving (or “Breaksgiving”) of our freshman year at college. So, back to square one. Back to licking my wounds and moving forward, pushing ahead until the next one caught my eye. And there were many, for good or ill. My 20s were a road lined with endless bad breakups and missed opportunities, but also innumerable memories of passion, pleasure and purpose, all held tightly between two people trying to prove the world wrong that their love was a just cause. Towards my late 20s, I just gave up completely on dating. Nothing serious, all fun. With my 30th birthday knocking on my door last year, I felt the odd internal urge to make something meaningful happen in my love life. Taking the plunge with a girl back up in New York, we tried our best plate-spinning abilities to make a long distance relationship, well, go the distance. Eventually, the plates fell down, and we walked away, back into our separate lives. And yet, now three decades headlong into this endeavor of existence, of trial and error, I’m still enthralled by women. Whether it be the unknown girl at the end of the bar, the brunette sauntering by down the dairy aisle, the blonde two rows up at a friend’s wedding or the redhead at a house party — curiosity killed the cat and sometimes I feel like I have more lives than three felines out to explore their surroundings. This is not to say I don’t have respect for women. Are you kidding me? I worship at their alter. I tried for years to make things work in serious relationships all across this great big country of ours. They all either blew up in my face or disappeared into the night as if they never were mine to claim in the first place. Sometimes I wonder if my purpose with females is to simply show them the respect and love they all deserve, but never seem to find from John Q. Public. I like taking them out. I like making them laugh. I like showing them beauty in the world either unnoticed before or merely forgotten since. I like making them feel special, because they are just that — incredible specimens my fellow man will spend eternity trying to figure out. So, here I am, still strolling down this rugged path I chose those many years ago, when my options were to do what everyone else does, or to do something different, something wild, where my mischievous flashlight of irresponsible enlightenment casts a bright light on the unknowns we all are afraid of, yet all secretly desire to immerse ourselves in. Who knows? Maybe I’m just full of shit. Maybe, after all these years, I simply don’t know how to hold together a monogamous relationship. But, maybe I’m just a guy out to take the world by storm, a whirlwind of admiration and adventure, eager to connect the dots of humanity and pure intent. Who knows? It’s Friday, and tonight is another chance encounter with fate and femme fatales.
288-07
Two locations to serve you ASHEVILLE 252.3005
WAYNESVILLE 251.9721
www.hunterbanks.com
29
arts & entertainment
The Deals at Harry’s are Closer Than You Think 2015 GMC ACADIA
0% FOR 60 MONTHS* PLUS $500 BONUS CASH - 16 TO CHOOSE FROM
2015 GMC SIERRA SLT CREW SUPPLIER PRICING FOR EVERYONE! PLUS $3750 GM DISCOUNTS.
27 CREW CABS TO CHOOSE FROM!
2014 CADILLAC XTS April 15-21, 2015
SAVE $11000 ONLY 2 REMAINING!
2015 CADILLAC SRX ONLY $36382 STOCK #C15038
Smoky Mountain News
*with approved credit
819 Patton Avenue, Asheville, NC 28806 Sales: (828) 348-0616 30
HarrysOnTheHill.com
Service: (828) 348-0873
On the street or
Taste of Chocolate in Maggie Valley
Bryson City chocolate cook-off Cooks of all things chocolate will square off at the 8th annual Chocolate Cook-Off from 2:30 to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 25, at the Swain County Chamber of Commerce in Bryson City. The Friends of the Marianna Black Library will host this tasty event to help raise money for the library. Admission is $8 for adults, $7 for children ages 6 to 16 and
The 16th annual Taste of Chocolate will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. April 18 at the Maggie Valley Club. There will be bakers from professional, bed and breakfast and amateur categories, as well as non-chocolate and showcase items. There will also be a silent auction, milk fountain and wine bar, and live music by pianist Ray Lyon. Proceeds from the event will go to the Haywood Jackson Volunteer Center to assist in connecting volunteers in the community. Tickets are $12 in advance, $15 at the door. They are available at Quilters Quarters, Blue Ridge Books, Chocolate Bear, Maggie Valley Club, Dillsboro Chocolate and The Better Bean Coffee House. 828.356.2833.
Vaudeville at The Strand
FOOD, CONTINUED FROM 28
ALSO:
• A Thai cooking class with Chef Anon will be held at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 16, at the Sapphire Valley Community Center. Four-course Thai dinner and dessert. $25 per person, $15 for children under age 10. • A sample yoga class will be held at 6 p.m. April 23 at the Macon County Library in Sylva. Instructor will be Jennifer McIntee of Beyond Bending Yoga.
• A six-week beginners meditation class will start at 10:30 a.m. April 20 at the Senior Resource Center in Waynesville. Instructor will be Melissa Moss. Free, and open to all members of the community. • The Wheels Through Time museum in Maggie Valley is now open for its 2015 season. The museum showcases one of the most rare collections of vintage motorcycles and antique automobiles. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Monday. Admission is $12 for adults, $10 for seniors age 65 and up, and $6 for children. www.wheelsthroughtime.com. • The Antique Car Franklin History Tour will be at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, April 19, at the Town Hall parking lot. Vehicles will leave from the lot and cruise the town, all in support of the Macon County Historical Museum. Free. To RSVP, email maconantiquecars@aol.com.
• There will be a free tasting and cooking demonstration from 5 to 7 p.m. every Saturday at Country Traditions in Dillsboro. Try a wide variety of wines while a gourmet chef prepares delicious treats that are available for purchase. Free. www.dillsborowineandgourmet.net.
• A car show will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 18 at the Resurrection Lutheran Church in Franklin. $15 registration fee. Food available. There will also be a bouncy house for children. All proceeds from the event will go towards resurfacing the Great Beginnings Preschool playground. www.franklin-chamber.com.
• There will be an oyster roast from 6 to 10 p.m. April 17 at The Bascom in Highlands. The event will be in celebration of the center for visual art’s recent expansion. Free steamed oysters. Other
• The Macon County Senior Games Flea Market will be from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 18 at the Macon County Community Building in Franklin. www.franklin-chamber.com.
Mountains celebration on April 25 in downtown Sylva. “I love the communities here,” he said. “I love serving people. I love the relationships I have with my customers and our employees. It’s about the people who work with me and the people who support us.”
THE ART OF MOM AND POP And it’s that relationship with its customers Sentelle’s Seafood also cherishes. “We’ve been here a really long time,” Milner said. “We don’t just come in here, flick the lights on and stand behind the counter. We are constantly cleaning, rearranging and making sure everything is top quality and fresh.” Originally known as Carolina Grocery, the business was purchased in 1962 by Milner’s parents, William and Shirley Sentelle, who still, to this day, own the company, with Milner overseeing the seafood operation. In the beginning, William owned three shrimp boats on the South Carolina coast, all hauling in fresh product for the mountains. Though the boats were eventually sold, Sentelle’s still
Sentelle’s Seafood in Clyde. Garret K. Woodward photo
purchases items from those same people. “There are very few ‘mom and pop’ businesses left these days, and we probably wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for our seafood selection,” Milner said. “We get fresh seafood delivered in here almost every single day. You have a quick turnaround and that’s it — you’ve really got to be on your game. I couldn’t bring in this much fish if I couldn’t turn it around. It’s major money purchasing the inventory we have here.”
Smoky Mountain News
wanting to tell you those things.” When asked about the stigma of “fresh seafood” in the mountains, Hendrix immediately shot back a response. “Did you see where your chicken came from? Did you see where your beef was processed? Ever been to a large chicken processing plant and came out craving wings?” he chuckled. “I mean, why wouldn’t fresh fish be available more and fresher in the mountains these days? The fish we get is captured, processed on the boat, iced down and shipped — the turnover is so quick.” After seven years selling fresh seafood, Hendrix is curious about opening a fourth branch of his business. He’s also looking forward to building on relationships with other local organizations and companies, which would include food tastings or pairings, perhaps even educational programs and fundraising benefits with fresh fish as the connector between people and a just cause. To kick-start this intent, Hendrix will team up with Tonic Craft Beer Market for an inaugural crawfish boil at the Greening Up the
• An Empty Bowl fundraiser will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday, April 24, at The Community Table in Sylva. Choose a handmade ceramic bowl, then fill it with a complementary bowl of soup, bread and dessert. $20. www.communitytable.org.
food and drinks available. Live bluegrass music by WellStrung from 7 to 9 p.m. www.thebascom.org.
April 15-21, 2015
An intricate mix of artistic performance, The Moon Show will be held at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 23, at The Strand at 38 Main in Waynesville. A collaboration between performing artists Valerie Meiss, Rich Risbridger and Madison J. Cripps, the show was born out of the family of Asheville Vaudeville. The Moon Show is the first theme-based variety show performed by a small cast, versed in multiple art forms, interweaving them throughout the evening. Attendees will experience a variety of beautiful, whimsical vignettes including original folk tales, puppet shows, music, song, and more, all exploring the theme of the moon, the night sky, and the world of dreams. This performance is all ages, but may have some mature themes. PG-13. Tickets are $8 in advance, $10 at the door. www.38main.com.
• A benefit for the Kids Advocacy Resource Effort (KARE) will be held from 6 to 11 p.m. April 24 at Frog Level Brewing in Waynesville. Tickets are $12 in advance, $15 at the door, which includes a beer and bratwurst plate. www.froglevelbrewing.com.
arts & entertainment
Friend’s Members. www.fontanalib.org/brysoncity www.greatsmokies.com.
Sentelle’s gets customers from all over Southern Appalachia, all in search of that fresh meat from the sea. Milner crosses paths with folks daily who rave about Sentelle’s, where they are praised for their affordable industry prices and succulent offerings, all of which can hold their own with what one might come across on the coast. “We’ve spent a long time building the good reputation we have — it’s what has 31 made us who we are today,” she said.
Smoky Mountain News
April 15-21, 2015
arts & entertainment
On the beat
32
WCU drummer tapped for U.S. Marine Drum and Bugle Corps Western Carolina Seth Estes. WCU photo University Pride of the Mountains Marching Band drummer Seth Estes, who graduates in May with a bachelor’s degree in music education, has been selected for a position on the drum line of the U.S. Marine Drum and Bugle Corps, known as “The Commandant’s Own,” in Washington, D.C. “It’s kind of unbelievable and I couldn’t imagine being able to say this would happen a South Carolina, in early June. After that, he year or two ago. There’s been a lot of hard will reside in the historic Marine barracks at work, but everything seems to have built on 8th and I Streets, near the Capitol Building. itself,” he said. Estes served as the bass drum section In “The Commandant’s Own,” he will be leader for the 2014 season of the Pride of the part of a long-standing music tradition in Mountains. He also has performed in a varithe Marine Corps. The group’s 90 musicians ety of musical groups, including wind and play in several hundred public shows and percussion ensembles, radio shows and ceremonies each year and give special perPurple Thunder, the indoor percussion formances for audiences that include U.S. group at basketball games. During his freshpresidents, world leaders and other digniman year at WCU, he and the Pride of the taries. The corps, a sister group to the U.S. Mountains marched in the 2011 Marine Band, frequently appears in parades Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year’s in the nation’s capital. The members also Day. As a senior, the WCU School of Music tour nationally and internationally. All the corps’ musicians are on active duty, named him the Instrumental Performer of the Year for 2014-15. He also led the group and Estes will be enlisting in the Marines during the 2014 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day before he moves to Washington. He reports Parade in New York City. for 13 weeks of basic training at Parris Island,
‘Help for the Homeless’ concert The Help For Homeless Concert will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 16, at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin. The event will include performances by Tom Quigley, Curtis Blackwell, Paradise 56, Blue Ridge, Johnny Webb and The JW Band. All proceeds benefit New Hope Center, Community Outreach Ministry, as they raise funds for a homeless shelter in Franklin. Tickets are $15. www.greatmountainmusic.com or 866.273.4615.
Music of the Carpenters at WCU The melodies of one of America’s topselling duos of all time, The Carpenters, will come to life during the production “We’ve Only Just Begun: Carpenters Remembered” at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 26,
in the Bardo Arts Center at Western Carolina University. The sister-and-brother duo of Karen and Richard Carpenter sold more than 100 million records in just over a decade and still hold the record for the most top 10 singles in a row. The 90-minute tribute show will feature pop music classics including “For All We Know,” “Goodbye to Love,” “Hurting Each Other,” “I Need to Be in Love,” “Please Mr. Postman,” “Rainy Days and Mondays,” “Superstar,” “There’s a Kind of Hush,” “(They Long to Be) Close to You,” “Top of the World,” “We’ve Only Just Begun,” “Yesterday Once More” and many more. “Carpenters Remembered” is sponsored by Bear Lake Reserve and 540-AM WRGC Radio. The production is the final presentation of WCU’s 2014-15 Galaxy of Stars series. Tickets are $21 for adults ($15 in groups of 20 or more), $16 for WCU faculty and staff members, and $7 for students/children of any age. They may be purchased at the Bardo Arts Center box office or by calling 828.227.2479. www.bardoartscenter.wcu.edu.
Don Williams returns to Franklin Country music’s legendary “Gentle Giant” Don Williams will perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 25, at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin. A highly acclaimed country music singer and songwriter, Williams has produced 17 number one hits and more than 40 Top Ten singles. He is also a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and has multiple awards to his claim. Classic songs such as “Good Ole Boys Like Me,” “Amanda,” and “Tulsa Times” showcase Williams’ unique blend of commanding presence and laid-back, easy style. That, along with his stately build, earned him the nickname, “Gentle Giant.” Williams discovered his love for music at the age of 3 when he competed in a local talent contest and won first place, an alarm clock. His mother taught him how to play the guitar and as a teenager he played in several different bands and explored several
Don Williams will play April 25 in Franklin. Donated photo
different genres. In 1964, Williams joined the Pozo-Seco Singers, a folk-pop group. Columbia Records signed the group and released a series of Top 50 hits and three albums. The group disbanded in 1971 and thus began Williams’ solo career. Ticket prices start at $35. www.greatmountainmusic.com or 866.273.4615.
LASHER TO PLAY TWO BENEFITS Country/southern rocker Joe Lasher Jr. will perform at 7 p.m. April 18 at the Colonial Theatre in Canton. Tickets are $7, with proceeds going to The Community Kitchen, a local MANNA FoodBank partner. The event is sponsored by Ingles Markets. www.cantonnc.com or 828.648.0014. Lasher will also be playing another benefit show at 6 p.m. Saturday, May 9, at Bridge Park in Sylva. Tickets are $7 at gate or bring a donation of at least five food items.
Jeanne Jolly will star in the “All Night Long” performance on April 24 in Cullowhee. Donated photo
Friends of the Arts benefit, concert A special performance by WCU alumna and recording artist Jeanne Jolly will take place as part of the Friends of the Arts benefit on Friday, April 24, in the Bardo Arts Center at Western Carolina University. The event will begin at 4:30 p.m. with a
silent auction, followed by a Outer Banks travel package raffle at 8 p.m. and performance by the WCU Catamountain Singers and Electric Soul “All Night Long” featuring Jolly. WCU music faculty members Bruce Frazier and Jon Henson are directing “All Night Long,” which will be a celebration of the “top-of-the-charts” songs made popular by pop artists such as Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Bruno Mars and Maroon Five, plus standards from Michael Buble, Aretha Franklin and Lionel Richie. Frazier said Jolly, coming in to perform as special guest artist, “is invigorating the music scene with her heartfelt lyricism, heavenly range and soulful folk-pop beats tinged in Americana.” Karyn Tomczak, a former Rockette and member of the School of Stage and Screen faculty, has choreographed a fast-paced and exciting program. The silent auction is free, raffle tickets are $50 apiece or three for $125, with the “All Night Long” performance $15 for adults, $10 for WCU faculty/staff, $5 for students. 828.331.0646 or jeannemcguire1@me.com or www.wcu.edu/friendsofthearts.
On the beat
• Balsam Mountain Inn will have Tomi Lunsford, Tommy Goldsmith and Tom House as part of their Songwriters in the Round series ($47 per person) April 18; and Annie Sellick & The Hot Club of Nashville (gypsy jazz, $49 per person) April 26. Both shows begin at 6 p.m. and include a buffet dinner. www.balsammountaininn.net. • BearWaters Brewing (Waynesville) will have Mark Bumgarner (Americana) April 17 and Tonology (metal/hard rock) April 24. Both shows begin at 8 p.m. www.bwbrewing.com or 828.246.0602.
ALSO:
• City Lights Café (Sylva) will have Karen “Sugar” Barnes & Dave McGill (blues/acoustic) at 7 p.m. April 17. www.citylightscafe.com.
• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will have Chris Minick (singer-songwriter/folk) at 6 p.m. April 16 and 23, Bobby G (rock/acoustic) 7 p.m. April 18 and the Kabin Fever Party 6 p.m. April 24. Free. 828.454.5664 or www.froglevelbrewing.com. • Haywood County Public Library (Canton) will host pianist Richard Shulman (jazz/world) at 3 p.m. April 19. Free.
• Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will have an Open Mic night April 15 and 22, and a jazz night with the Kittle/Collings Duo April 16 and 23. All events begin at 8 p.m. www.innovation-brewing.com. • Jackson County Public Library (Sylva) will have Balfour Knight (harp) and Carol Lynn Knight (vocals) following the Jackson County Arts Council membership meeting at 6:30 p.m. April 27. There will be a light reception after the performance. Free. 828.507.9820 or www.jacksoncountyartscouncil.org. • Mad Batter Food & Film (Sylva) will have a
• Nantahala Brewing (Bryson City) will have OGYA World Music Band 8 p.m. April 17, Shane Meade & The Sound (Americana/soul) April 18 and Ravenhill (indie/rock) 8 p.m. April 24. All shows are free and begin at 8:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. www.nantahalabrewing.com. • No Name Sports Pub (Sylva) will have Dustin Martin & The Ramblers (Americana/string) April 17, Deltaphonic (southern rock) April 18, The Dirty Soul Revival (blues/hard rock) April 24 and Skunk Ruckus (hillbilly rock) April 25. All shows are free and begin at 9 p.m. 828.586.2750 or www.nonamesportspub.com.
WSOP CIRCUIT EVENT ®
HARRAH’S CHEROKEE CASINO RESORT
• Oconaluftee Visitors Center (Cherokee) will have an old-time music jam from 1 to 3 p.m. April 18. All skill levels welcomed. • The Strand at 38 Main (Waynesville) will have Pat Donohue (singer-songwriter) at 7:30 p.m. April 16, The Hillbenders (bluegrass/Americana) 8 p.m. April 17 and Soldier’s Heart (Americana/soul, $8 advance/$10 day of show) 7:45 p.m. April 25. Tickets for Donohue and The Hillbenders shows are $18 in advance, $20 day of show. www.38main.com or 828.283.0079. • Tipping Point Brewing (Waynesville) will have James Stinnett (singer-songwriter) at 9 p.m. April 17 and ‘Round the Fire (Grateful Dead tribute) 8:30 p.m. April 24. Both shows are free. • Water’n Hole Bar & Grille (Waynesville) will have Deltaphonic (southern rock) April 17 and the Ryan Cavanaugh Duo (bluegrass/jazz) April 18. All shows begin at 9:30 p.m. • Western Carolina University (Cullowhee) will have Alex Vaughn Senior Recital 5 p.m. April 18, Civic Orchestra April 20, Gamelan Ensemble April 22, Flute Studio Recital April 23 and Pavol Wlosok (jazz) April 25 in the Coulter Building. All shows begin at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. The Inspirational Choir Spring Concert will also be at 3 p.m. April 19 at the University Center Grand Room, with We The Kings concert at 8 p.m. April 20 in the UC Central Plaza. www.wcu.edu.
Don’t miss your opportunity to get in on the game and win a WSOP Circuit Ring. Special hotel rates are available as low as $99 mid-week and $299 on Friday and Saturday. Call 844-777-7711 and mention code WSOP15 to book now. Visit WSOP.com for additional event details.
Smoky Mountain News
• Haywood County Public Library (Waynesville) will host the Blue Ridge Big Band at 3 p.m. April 18. Free. 828.456.4880.
• Marianna Black Library (Bryson City) will hold community music jam from 6 to 7:30 p.m. April 16. Anyone with a guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, dulcimer, anything unplugged, are invited to join. Singers are also welcomed to join in or you can just stop by and listen. The community jams offer a chance for musicians of all ages and levels of ability to share music they have learned over the years or learn oldtime mountain songs. Free. 828.488.3030.
April 15-21, 2015
• Classic Wineseller (Waynesville) will have The 9th Street Stompers (gypsy jazz/roots, $10) April 17, Joe Cruz (pop/piano) April 18 and 25, and Dan Shearin (folk/Americana) April 24. All shows begin at 7 p.m. 828.452.6000 or www.classicwineseller.com.
one-year anniversary Burlesque Show at 8 p.m. April 18. $5. www.madbatterfoodandfilm.com.
arts & entertainment
• Andrews Brewing Company will have Rob Alwine (singer-songwriter) at 6 p.m. April 17, The Dirty Soul Revival (blues/hard rock, $5) 7 p.m. April 18, Rob Tiger (singer-songwriter) 6 p.m. April 24 and Porch 40 (funk/rock, $5) 7 p.m. April 25. All shows are free, unless otherwise noted. www.andrewsbrewing.com.
Subject to change. Must be 21 or older to enter casino floor and to gamble, and must present a valid state or federal photo ID upon request. Know When To Stop Before You Start.® Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-522-4700. An Enterprise of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation. ©2015, Caesars License Company, LLC.
33
On the street
arts & entertainment
On the stage Rowan returns to Cataloochee Bluegrass legend Peter Rowan will perform on Tuesday, April 21, at Cataloochee Guest Ranch in Maggie Valley. A 5:30 p.m. cocktail hour will then be followed by dinner and a fireside performance by Rowan. Acclaimed for his work with bluegrass godfather Bill Monroe, Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia and other Peter Rowan musical icons like David Grisman and Vassar Clements, Rowan is a renowned, Grammy award-winning performer, who is considered one of the torchbearers of bluegrass and folk music. Tickets are $60 per person, which includes a dinner buffet. www.cataloocheeranch.com or 828.926.1401.
April 15-21, 2015
‘Peter Pan’ flies into WCU The School of Stage and Screen will close its 2014-15 Mainstage season with a high-flying production of the J.M Barrie classic “Peter Pan: The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up,” at 7:30 p.m. April 16-18 and 3 p.m. April 19 in the John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center at Western Carolina University. The production follows the adventures of Peter, Wendy, Michael and John in
Neverland. This new adaptation of the classic play that will be performed at WCU is based on the work of John Caird and Trevor Nunn, who researched and restored Barrie’s original intentions. The London Times considers the play “a national masterpiece.” The WCU stage act of “Peter Pan” will feature special flying effects provided by Hall Associates Flying Effects, an Illinoisbased company that will visit campus for three days to hang rigging and train actors and crew. Tickets are $16 for adults, $11 for seniors and WCU faculty and staff, and $7 (in advance) and $10 (day of show) for students. 828.227.2479 or www.bardoartscenter.wcu.edu. • There will be a workshop for actors and actresses about performing the works of Shakespeare at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 18, at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville. The 90minute session will feature actors and actresses from HART’s current stage production “The Actor and The Assassin,” who will discuss their craft. Free. www.harttheatre.org.
ALSO:
• As part of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the production of “The Actor and The Assassin” will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. April 17-18 and 3 p.m. April 19 at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville. Tickets are $24 for adults, $20 for seniors and $11 for students. There will also be a $7 matinee price available. www.harttheatre.org or 828.456.6322.
Greening Up welcomes spring
The 18th annual Greening Up the Mountains spring kickoff street festival will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 25 in downtown Sylva. Alongside food and craft vendors, artisan demonstrations, craft beer tastings, street performers and children’s activities, there will also be an array of events, which are as follows:
• 11 a.m. — Jackson County Junior Appalachian Musicians • 11:30 a.m. — Triple Threat Dance Troupe • Noon — Rye Baby (Americana) • 2 p.m. — Three Creeks Over (Americana/bluegrass) • 3 p.m. — Through the Hills (Americana/bluegrass)
• 9 a.m. — 5K run/walk. Mark Watson Park. $15 preregistration before April 21, $20 thereafter. Register at www.imathlete.com or at the Jackson County Recreation Center in Cullowhee. • 9 a.m. — Cub-mobile Downhill Race. Schulman Street. Open to registered Cub Scouts. Sign up at 8 a.m. Races from 9 to 11 a.m.
Bridge Park Stage, Railroad Avenue • 10 a.m. — Mountain Charter Junior Appalachian Musicians • 10:30 a.m. — Encore Dance Troupe • 11 a.m. — Subluminous • Noon — French Broads • 1 p.m. — Positive Mental Attitude (jam/rock) • 2 p.m. — Porch 40 (funk/rock) • 3 p.m. — Darren & The Buttered Toast (funk/soul) www.greeningupthemountains.com.
Signature Brew Stage, Main Street • 9:30 a.m. — Mountain Youth Talent Show
Diane E. Sherrill, Attorney 287-11
Is a Will Enough? Smoky Mountain News
This Weekend Songwriters in the Round with Tomi Lunsford, Tommy Goldsmith and Tom House Tickets: $47 includes buffet dinner • Reservations required
Lunsford, great-niece of mountain music royalty Bascom Lamar Lunsford, has received high praise in Esquire and the Tennessean: “At one moment you’d call (her style) folk, at another it’s jazz, and around another corner it’s country ...” More about Lunsford, Goldsmith & House at balsaminn.com
FREE ESTATE PLANNING SEMINAR April 8 • April 22 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Holiday Inn Express & Suites Dillsboro, NC
828.586.4051 nctrustlawyer.com
828.456.9498 www.balsaminn.com
34
Upcoming Shows: April 26: Annie Sellick and the Hot Club of Nashville May 9: David Olney, Malcolm Holcombe & Dayna Kurtz
28 Maple St. • Sylva
On the wall
A two-day chair seat weaving and caning class will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday, April 20, at the Masonic Lodge in Dillsboro. Junetta Pell, a member of Dogwood Crafters Cooperative, will be the instructor for the class. Learn an old Appalachian craft and revive an unused piece of furniture. Bring a chair or stool (repaired and refinished if it needs to be) that needs a new seat and you'll take home a diagonally woven or caned bottom while learning the basics of chair seat weaving or caning. Cost for the workshop will include any materials participants need to buy to finish their item of furniture plus a $6 class fee. Register to attend by calling 828.586.2435 or emailing junettapell@hotmail.com by April 13. Please let Pell know at that time if you need her to order materials for your chair or stool.
There will be an array of art classes at the Cowee Pottery School in Franklin. • A small casserole dish workshop will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. on Wednesdays from April 15 to May 13. Hand-building course taught by Carmen Holland. Cost for the fiveweek course is $105, plus clay and tools. • A Cowee Raku Firing class will be from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, April 18. Participants can purchase an unglazed piece of pottery from $10-20. They can then glaze, fire and smoke it. Class held by Macon County potter Doug Hubbs. Preregistration required. • A Jugs and Mugs workshop will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, April 18. Potter Brian Davenport will demonstrate how to create faces on jugs and mugs. Students will then select a mug or jug to work on. Cost is $50. Preregistration required. • Open studio hours are from 1 to 4 p.m. on Sunday and noon to 4 p.m. Monday. www.coweeschool.org.
• Artwork by child survivors and their families will be on display from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 16, at the Cedar Hill Studios in Waynesville. The art show is a benefit for the Kids Advocacy Resource Effort (KARE), which is dedicated to preventing child abuse and advocating for those who have been abused. www.karehouse.org.
tary schools. Hosted by the Nantahala Hiking Club. www.franklin-chamber.com.
ALSO:
• A nature-inspired student art reception will be held at 6 p.m. April 21 at the Macon County Library in Franklin. Art from students at Cartoogechaye and East Franklin elemen-
• The film “Dead Reckoning” (2 p.m. April 17) will be screened at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin. • There will be an After-School Art Adventure for children and students from 3:15 to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 15 and 22, at The Bascom in Highlands. Participants will work on individual and collaborative art projects. There will also be a Franklin After-School Art Adventure from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. Wednesday, April 8 and 15. Free. www.thebascom.org.
• The “Come Paint with Charles Kidz Program” will be at 4 p.m. April 23 at the Charles Heath Gallery in Bryson City. $20 per child. Materials and snacks included. 828.538.2054. • The Franklin Kid’s Creation Station will be from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 18 and 25, at the Uptown Gallery. There will also be a station from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 11, at The Bascom in Highlands. www.thebascom.org or 828.349.4607 (Franklin) or 828.526.4949 (Highlands). • “Blade Runner” (April 16), “Weird Science” (April 17), “Rango” (April 18), “Riverwebs” (April 22), “Take 3” (April 23), “Goonies” (April 24) and “Wall-E” (April 25) will be screened at the Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. Screenings are free and begin at 6:30
• “Serena” (April 18-22) and “Wild” (April 24-May 1) will be screened at The Strand at 38 Main in Waynesville. Every Friday and Saturday in April, “The Big Lebowski” will be shown for free at 9:30 p.m., with “Tinkerbell: The Legend of the Neverbeast” also for free every Saturday in April at noon and 2 p.m. For screening times, click on www.38main.com or call 828.283.0079. • The films “Danny Collins” (April 17-23) and “Cirque Du Soleil: World’s Away” (April 20-21) will be screened at the Highlands Playhouse. Tickets are $9. For show times, go to www.highlandsplayhouse.org. • “The Lego Movie” will be screened at 7 p.m. Friday, April 17, at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin. The show is presented by the East Franklin School. $4. “Life Changes Everything” will be shown at 7 p.m. Friday, April 24. Free. Presented by the Christian Training Center International. www.greatmountainmusic.com.
The PETER ROWAN Bluegrass Band
Tuesday, April 21
On Tuesday night, April 21, Grammy winner Peter Rowan will appear with his Grammy-nominated bluegrass band in a special performance at Cataloochee Ranch. This will be the legendary singer-songwriter’s fifth appearance at the Ranch, and the performance is expected to be a sellout. So come join us for a memorable evening of music, food and fun, with dinner at 6 pm and music beginning at 7:30. Tickets for dinner and the show are $60, and reservations are required. To reserve your space for this not-to-be-missed event, just call the Ranch at 828-926-1401.
Smoky Mountain News
Cowee Pottery School art classes
ALSO:
• A glass bird sculpture class will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 18 at the Jackson County Green Energy Park in Dillsboro. Each class is 30 minutes. $45 per person. 828.631.0271 or www.jcgep.org.
April 15-21, 2015
Dogwood chair seat weaving, caning class
• There will be a watercolor, acrylic and oil painting class at 10 a.m. Thursday, April 16, at the Sapphire Valley Community Center. The workshop will be held by Pauline Marr. $45 per person. 828.743.7663.
and 8:30 p.m. There is also a 2 p.m. matinee on Saturdays. www.madbatterfoodandfilm.com.
Photo by Bill Harbin
Gayle Woody will host a bookmaking class on April 18 in Sylva. Donated photo
Gayle Woody will lead a bookmaking workshop at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 18, in the Atrium of the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva. This style of book making is easy to learn, but hard to master. Accordion books are extremely effective for journaling, collage and simple pocket pages. Woody has lived in Sylva and Cullowhee for over 50 years. She is currently the art teacher at Smoky Mountain High School. She is a member of the Jackson County Arts Council and has won numerous awards for her art. All materials will be provided and the program is free of charge. The workshop is limited to 10 participants. Please call the library to register. This event is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Jackson County Public Library. 828.586.2016 or www.fontanalib.org.
• A rapid fire raku class hosted by Rick Berman will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 17-18 at The Bascom in Highlands. $150 for members, $200 for non-members. www.thebascom.org.
arts & entertainment
Want to learn bookmaking?
Cataloochee Ranch 119 Ranch Drive, Maggie Valley, NC 28751ɄɄƌɄɄwww.CataloocheeRanch.com
35
36
Books
Smoky Mountain News
Fate and fortune sing in new novel partanburg poet and nonfiction writer John Lane has broken out of his comfort zone and journeyed into the netherworld of the novel and Appalachian noir. Joining company with Ron Rash, Charles Frazier, Wayne Caldwell, Wiley Cash, Pam Duncan and David Joy, Lane has maybe even raised the bar a bit by dovetailing the upstate South Carolina textile mill culture with that of the Western North Carolina farming communities. Talk about conflict! In Fate Moreland’s Widow, conflict crosses state Writer lines and cultures and embodies the tensions and inequities in characters redolent of the haves and the have-nots and of labor unions vs. the business elite on both sides of clearly drawn lines. Lane, who is a recent inductee into the prestigious South Carolina Academy of Authors, has lived and worked in Jackson and Swain counties here in Western North Carolina and owns land in the Caney Fork community in Cullowhee, knows first-hand of life and legacy from both sides of the Blue Ridge escarpment. This knowledge shows up in vivid detail in his tale of mystery and mayhem set in the fictitious mill town of Carlton, South Carolina, in the 1930s. Ownerial greed and an unsolved boating “accident” up in a mountain lake that claims the lives of a father and his two children are the storylines that drive Lane’s knowing narrative. Based on stories he heard from his mill-working mother growing up, Lane uses his natural gift of oral storytelling to craft a fiction fine enough to have garnered the atten-
Thomas Crowe
S
female resilience poised to become the Circe of the Carolina foothills.” As the saying goes, “the devil is in the details,” and Lane has done his homework. His saga of Depression-era mill uprisings and early 20th century mountain life is like a coal-bin of history ready to ignite. And ignite it does with carefully choreographed writing that is cleverly understated and unpretentious in its mysterious attack upon the book’s storylines. As Pat Conroy has pointed out, nothing is more mysterious than Lane’s character of Novie Moreland, as evidenced in this passage spoken by the book’s narrator Ben Crocker:. “All the men turned to watch the new widow depart, but not out of condolence. My gaze was a little too long and obvious. Her beauty was an open secret.” Lane keeps Novie Moreland just out of sight and just tight-lipped enough to tease the reader toward temptation. In fact, teasing us toward infatuation and possibly even more. Lane’s Novie is counterpoint to Rash’s Serena. And as Ben Crocker insinuates, we can’t take our eyes off of her or wait for her to appear again, even if 50 pages hence. I can already see the headlines in the movie tabloids of young leading ladies queuing up to read Fate Moreland’s Widow by John Lane. The University of for this part. South Carolina Press, 2015. 184 pages. But Fate Moreland’s Widow is not a romance novel, it is, rather, a weaponless incarnation of the Civil War and the mill owner, trapped by the desires and abuses of unchecked power. In the widow played out via the story of the Scots-Irish from Novie Moreland, Lane has crafted a masterful- the North Carolina mountains migrating to ly nuanced new symbol of male obsession and the neighboring South Carolina hill country tion of none other than Pat Conroy, who says of Fate Moreland’s Widow, “What John Lane does better than anyone I have read is explore the interrelatedness of both the millworker
Celebrate National Poetry Month at Jackson library
Touching memoir, poetry at Blue Ridge
For the month of April, the Jackson County Library in Sylva will host events as part of the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poetry Series. The series was created as a result of past NC Poet Laureate, Fred Chappell, who encouraged the NC Poetry Society in 2003 to create such a program to foster the reading, writing, and enjoyment of poetry across the state. Join current Distinguished Poet for the western part of North Carolina, Brent Martin, with student poets to hear them present their current work. Poet Alison Howe will read April 23, with Mary Christensen April 30. All events begin at 6:30 p.m. Martin is the author of three chapbook collections of poetry — Poems from Snow Hill Road (New Native Press, 2007), A Shout in the Woods (Flutter Press, 2010), and Staring the Red Earth Down (Red Bird Press, 2014). The event is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Jackson County Public Library. Free.
Authors Debra Dalton and Diana Kenney and poet Kirk Thomas will each present their works on Saturday, April 18, at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville. • Dalton and Kenney will read from their co-authored memoir How Cancer Transformed Our Lives at 3 p.m. Dalton, the primary writer of the book, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1990. She began writing because she saw the need for her story to be shared, and it’s her voice that you hear so distinctly at its onset as she details the first 15 years of her journey with cancer. The book also offers advice and recommendations she wishes to pass on to everyone touched by cancer. • In celebration of Poetry Month, Thomas will discuss his work Miscellaneous Musings and Other Odd Thoughts: The Desert Poems. Thomas volunteered for Army Special Forces during the Vietnam War. He got out of the army, but later returned to Special Forces, then worked as a military contractor in Saudi Arabia after his retirement.
out of work-related necessity. With no shots fired, what we get instead is wave after wave, volley upon volley, of mature prose and explosions of dialogue coming from characters such as legendary local hero and union organizer Olin Campbell. “It’s like I already told these boys, McCane can’t fire me for being in the union, and he sure can’t throw us out of our homes without legal papers. Is against government settlement. We’re staying if there is any hint that McCane is breaking the law. You tell him to come back with the sheriff. My rent’s paid up. I don’t have anything to fear. You know the difference between right and wrong, Ben, between a rule book and playing sandlot.” This, contrasted with the greedy pontificating of the family-monied mill owner George McCane. “Union men? You go back up there and you get them out of my house. I don’t care if it is Labor Day weekend. Labor Day, hell.” And so the story goes, with George McCane’s trial for the possible murder of Novie Moreland’s husband and two children, and the palpable tensions of a long courtroom scene that rivals those in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. As Lee Smith says on her back-cover quote: “John Lane has written a cracker-jack page-turner. I couldn’t put this book down.” And neither could I. I was up until 1 a.m. reading the final 50 pages to get to the end of the story. To get the full flow and to find out how this epic ends, you’re gonna have to read the book yourself. You won’t regret it. Scout’s honor. Thomas Crowe is the author of the award-winning nature memoir Zoro’s Field: My Life in the Appalachian Woods and writes editorials and reviews for this paper. He lives in Tuckasegee and can be reached at newnativepress@hotmail.com.
These poems come mainly from his time in Saudi Arabia. www.blueridgebooksnc.com.
Harvey to present at City Lights Author Steven Harvey will discuss his work The Book of Knowledge and Wonder at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 18, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. There is a reason why we can’t let go of haunting memories and they can’t let go of us. Memories, especially bad ones, can be clues to who we really are. They can help us sharpen our understanding of the meaning and purposes of our lives. The Book of Knowledge and Wonder is a memoir about claiming a legacy of wonder from knowledge of a devastating event. Harvey is a professor Emeritus of English at Young Harris College, Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Ashland MFA, Senior Editor of River Teeth Magazine, the creator of The Humble Essayist website, and the author of three collections of personal essays. 828.586.9499.
books
THANK YOU. We Love Our Volunteers
It’s easy to measure the difference you make. Thank you to the more than 90 hospital and hospice volunteers who dedicate thousands of hours to Haywood Regional Medical Center each year. Your tremendous contribution of time and talent makes a difference in our community.
www.haymed.org
Find every kitchen and bath resource under one roof!
April 15-21, 2015
~ 2 D AY S O N LY ~
KITCHEN 2015
10am - 5pm
Whether you’re planning to renovate or redecorate, you’ll ƂPF ETGCVKXG KPURKTCVKQP RTCEVKECN KFGCU CPF GZRGTV CFXKEG CV VJG #UJGXKNNG -KVEJGP $CVJ 5JQY WNC Agricultural Center, 1301 Fanning Bridge Rd., Fletcher NC
Smoky Mountain News
April 25 & 26 ,
P L E N T Y O F F R E E PA R K I N G Purchase advance tickets for $5 ($10 at the door) at
AshevilleKitchenBath.com DOZENS OF EXHIBITORS
::
C U L I N A R Y D E M O N S T R AT I O N S
::
DESIGN SEMINARS
37
38
Outdoors
Smoky Mountain News
Soaking in the sun Solar energy movement comes to WNC BY HOLLY KAYS reach coordinator for Clean Energy for STAFF WRITER Western North Carolina, told a roomful of lisolar power is on the rise across the teners at a Solarize forum in Franklin last U.S., and a campaign recently week. launched in Western North Carolina is urging mountain folk to join the trend. ECLINING COSTS “You can only do what you can afford to do, and now that it’s affordable, people are Though costs are coming down, using taking advantage of it and getting involved,” solar energy has a long history as an environsaid Avram Friedman, executive director of mentally-based decision. That’s still a fact, The Canary Coalition, one of the two groups according to Ben Yoke, sales manager and syscollaborating on the Solarize WNC campaign. tems designer for Sugar Hollow Solar. “I think we’ve sort of reached that critical “If one person goes solar, it’s not going to mass when things are turning around.” change the world,” Yoke said to the group in Converting to solar requires attainable cost as well as motivation from the property owner, and prices for solar energy panels and installation have dropped dramatically over the past several years. Rooftop systems cost 29 percent less in 2013 than they did in 2010, and costs for large-scale commercial projects have fallen even further, according to a Union of Concerned Scientists report. With the price drop has come an increase in solar installation nationwide — between 2010 and 2013, the amount of solar panel power in the U.S. has risen nearly five-fold, the same report said. But that still doesn’t mean that it’s easy to make the switch. Enter Solarize WNC, a grassroots campaign that’s part of a statewide Solarize movement. A collaboration of Clean Energy for North Carolina and The Canary Coalition, the campaign’s goal is simply to tear down the three main barriers that make solar conversion difficult for the average homeowner Installers put in a solar or businessperson: cost, red tape and knowledge. array on a home in The organization reaches out to Buncombe County. Donated solar installers and energy efficiency photo A full room learns companies ahead of time, vetting about the ins and outs of their services and negotiating dissolar in Franklin. Holly Kays count prices for clients recruited photo through the Solarize campaign. Solarize then provides free educational events to explain the program and get people signed up for a free solar assessment on their property. From there, contractors work directly with clients to do discounted energy audits and solar installations. “You guys live in one of the most beautiful places around, I think, and these are all resources we’re trying to protect,” Ashley Edwards, out-
S
D
Franklin. “We all kind of need to do it. Billions of people need to do it. And because billions of people have not done it yet, if you do it you will be leaders.” Solar is a “clean” form of energy, meaning that it doesn’t rely limited resources like coal or oil and doesn’t require pollution-producing smokestacks to refine. The panels themselves are made of non-renewable materials, but they can last for as long as 100 years before needing replacement. But it’s always been an expensive form of energy, hard to justify financially when stacked against more efficient and low-cost fossil fuels. That’s changing. “It’s great to do for the environment, but you can’t lose too much money and stay in business,” said Ed Morris, owner of Franklin Health and Fitness Center. But Morris hasn’t found that solar conversion is necessarily a money-losing proposition. He’s already started using solar hot
Solarize keeps moving Waynesville is the next stop for Solarize WNC, with a forum planned for 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 21, at First United Methodist Church. Presentations will cover the basics of technology, tax credits, utility rebates and financing, while also offering opportunities to meet experienced solar installers. Enroll for the commitment-free program at www.cleanenergyfor.us or just show up on the 21st. Future forums are planned for Bryson City, Canton, Highlands and Cherokee. 828.631.3447 or info@canarycoalition.org.
water for the gym’s swimming pools and says it’s saved the business “a lot of money.” Next he has his eye on the $30,000 annually the company pays in electric bills. “If we could finance it and save money on our electric bill, we’d be glad to do it,” Morris said. Cost is an important consideration for Franklin resident Kathy Ratcliffe. She’s had an energy audit done on her house — a service also supported by Solarize that tells property owners how to make their buildings more energy-efficient before shelling out for biggerticket upgrades — but is “kind of iffy” on whether a conversion to solar electricity would be the way to go. Though her roof faces south — the direction that receives the most sunlight — she has trees all around that would reduce the panels’ efficiency, and because she’s retired she likely couldn’t get the solar tax credit that’s an important factor in affordability. However, she’s grateful for Solarize’s help in wading through all those variables. “In order for someone to do it themselves, you have to do all the research, you have to buy each of the components, figure it all out yourself,” Ratcliffe said. “That’s hard. But to have someone come in and know the whole package, then you don’t have to know anything. That’s a big advantage.”
CHOICES, CHOICES The variables certainly are many. First off, there’s the question of exposure. Latitudewise, North Carolina is a great place for producing solar energy, Friedman said, but the mountains can complicate things. Trees are everywhere, and while a house on a southern slope may be able to make things work just fine, homes on northern slopes might have a hard time producing much solar power at all. There’s also the issue of how to receive the power. Most people tie their solar panels to the grid, meaning that any power produced goes into the pool of energy people in that area draw from when they flip their switch. Energy produced beyond what the home consumes can be sold back to the power company for a profit. That’s the option most people go with, because being independent of the grid requires purchasing
F
Foundation pledges $600,000 for Parkway projects
HEIGHTENED INTEREST
A trio of bills introduced to the N.C. General Assembly would have a marked impact on the landscape of solar energy in North Carolina if passed. ■ The Energy Freedom Act (H245) would keep energy-generating sites — including solar arrays — installed on a person’s property to supply their house from being regulated by the Utilities Commission. This would allow companies to install solar energy systems without charging customers an upfront cost, with customers instead paying on a monthly rent-to-own basis. This system currently exists in some other states. ■ H454/S447 would extend the N.C. Solar Tax Credit, which is set to expire on Dec. 31. The bill would take the 35 percent tax credit through 2021. ■ The Efficient and Affordable Energy Rates Bill (H377/S483) would do three things: allow the state to issue low-interest loans for energy-efficiency and solar energy projects; create an inverted rate structure for utilities so that larger consumers of electricity pay more per kilowatt-hour while smaller consumers pay less; and create an incentive for purchasing energy-efficient household products. The Energy Freedom Act and H454/S447 have a bipartisan list of sponsors, but all sponsors for the Efficient and Affordable Energy Rates Bill — in both House and Senate — are Democrats.
seven Solarize WNC forums planned through July, about 50 people packed the room at Macon County Public Library. A March 17 forum in Cullowhee drew 45. Of those 45, Friedman said, “ten of them at least signed up for energy audits or solar assessments.” “I expect that there will be quite a few installations coming out of this,” he said. “If we’re following the example of what’s happening in the rest of the state, we’re right on schedule. I think we’re doing better.”
Smoky Mountain News
But the price has changed, and with it the cost structure. Now, some banks will grant loans for solar panel purchases, with those monthly payments sometimes winding up cheaper than the existing energy bill, Friedman said. In some states, third-party installers will put in the solar panels for a $0 upfront cost, with the homeowner agreeing to pay in monthly installments on a rent-to-own basis — a bill that would allow this practice in North Carolina is currently awaiting hearing in a House committee. And, North Carolina also has a tax credit that can greatly reduce the cost for taxpaying individuals and companies. The credit is set to expire at the end of 2015, but a bill to extend it through 2021 has bipartisan support. All these factors are coming together, Friedman said, to make interest “just really high in solar energy right now.” Case in point: In this, the second of
Solar in the Legislature
April 15-21, 2015
batteries, the cost of which has not declined at nearly the same rate as that of solar panels. Batteries also have a much shorter lifespan than solar panels and so need to be replaced periodically. And, of course, there’s the size of the solar array. Aesthetics and energy generation needs can influence how many panels the property owner wants to purchase. “The average American household uses 30 kilowatt-hours a day,” Yoke said. “We rarely put in systems that make that much.” That’s because of the cost issue. Though solar is becoming more affordable, it’s still not cheap. “There’s a sweet spot for residential, which is between $10,000 and $30,000,” Yoke said. “If it’s less than $10,000, the economy of scale isn’t there. Over $30,000, you’ve maxed out the state tax credit.” A $30,000 array can crank out 30 kilowatt-hours, Yoke said, but only under the most optimal of conditions. Solar panel efficiency hasn’t changed that much over time.
■ Parks as Classrooms will continue to be funded, with Foundation dollars supplying staff to introduce 25,000 children each year to the natural wonders of the Parkway while meeting educational goals. ■ Research and training will work toward a variety of wildlife management goals. A crayfish survey by Appalachian State University and the National Park Service will identify species and threats along the Parkway, a wildlife forensics training will better equip rangers to reduce poaching, 35 wildlife cameras to be monitored by citizen scientists will be purchased and research to aid in wildlife management decisions for elk and wild boars will be funded. ■ Water fountains along the Parkway will be repaired and rebuilt. Since 1997, the Foundation has contributed more than $7 million to Parkway projects and programs.
outdoors
The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation will spend $600,000 in 2015 on projects to benefit the Parkway and the plant and animal life calling it home. Every year, the Foundation collaborates with Parkway staff to come up with its list. Highlights include: ■ Educational signage will be installed at Graveyard Fields, a popular hiking and jumping-off point to the Shining Rock Wilderness on mile 418, highlighting the place’s history and environmental significance. The signs will finish up a 2014 project to build a restroom and expand the parking lot at the site. ■ Hemlock trees along the Parkway will be treated to prevent their deaths due to hemlock wooly adelgid, an invasive insect that’s devastating hemlocks throughout the eastern U.S. Funds will also support a campaign to engage private landowners in the fight against the adelgid.
39
outdoors
2015 Spring
WilD
NOC rings in spring A celebration of spring and its waterborne joys will be held April 24-26 at Nantahala Outdoor Center with a Spring Fling featuring
the Hometown Throwdown freestyle kayaking event, Nantahala Racing Club Slalom Series kick-off, a vendor fair, live music and
Paddlers of all ages will have a chance to show their stuff at NOC’s Spring Fling. NOC photo
flower Pilgrimage A FIVE-DAY EXPLORATION OF PLANT AND ANIMAL LIFE IN THE SMOKIES April 21-25, 2015
April 15-21, 2015
W.L. Mills Conference Center
Run to benefit elementary school A run/walk May 2 at Fairview Elementary School in Sylva will raise money to benefit PTA-supported activities at the school. In its second year, the Flyin’ Eagle 5K Run/Walk will begin at 9:15 a.m., just after the Half-Mile Family Fun Run/Walk starts at 8:45 a.m. Check-in and day-of registration begins at 7:30 a.m. The 5K is $20 before April 30 or $25 day-of; the half-mile option is $5. Prizes for top finishers in age and gender categories with a limited number of T-shirts available. Register online at http://goo.gl/Yzg8Wo.
Hike to explore Palmer’s Creek
GATLINBURG, TENNESSEE
A 9.5-mile hike through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Saturday, April 25, will follow Palmer Creek’s route through the Cataloochee area, taking in an elevation change of 1,200 feet. The hike, organized by the Nantahala Hiking Club, is open to visitors but not dogs. Keith Patton, 828.456.8895.
Smoky Mountain News
Learn how to hike local in Franklin
Choose from 146 guided walks and indoor talks led by 110 professional leaders! Learn about wildflowers, birds, bears, medicinal plants, butterflies, ecology, plant identification, nature photography and sketching, natural and cultural history and more in the Smokies. For detail go to:
springwildflowerpilgrimage.org
40
scheduled releases on the Nantahala. • The Hometown Throwdown is a free community freestyle event giving area paddlers a chance to show off their moves at the 2013 Wave. Registration is 10-11 a.m. April 25 with the race beginning at noon. • Nantahala Racing Club will kick off its summer slalom series with races 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 26. • Releases on the Cascades and Upper Nantahala will mean 250 cubic feet per second April 25-26. • The Race a Pro event at 11 a.m. April 25 will mean a prize of 20 percent off at the Outfitter’s Store to anyone who beats an NOC pro paddler on a 20-second slalom or attainment course. • The Kids Surf event will give kids of all ages and ability levels a chance to play and surf the Founder’s Bridge surf wave. • A vendor fair and gear demos will show off the newest gear from a variety of companies and allow one-hour free demos at the Outfitter’s Store. 828.785.5082.
Bill and Sharon Van Horn will share their tips for hikes around Franklin with a one-hour program at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 22, at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin. The Van Horns will point out some of their favorite hikes with directions to the trailheads and will also profile the federally
designated wilderness areas nearby. The program will include information about day hiking gear, safe hiking and wilderness ethics. The Van Horns are members of the Nantahala Hiking Club, with Bill serving as a past president of the organization and currently co-chairing the Franklin Appalachian Trail Community Committee. 828.524.3600.
Swap outdoors gear, enjoy a brew A gear swap and community cookout at Outdoor 76 in Franklin will give anyone with extra outdoors gear in the closet a chance to swap it for something to fuel the next adventure. The gear swap will begin at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 25, with live music and beer tastings offered afterward from noon to 5 p.m. Soldier’s Heart, Nitrograss and The French Broads will play, and beer from
Highland Brewing Company, Hi-Wire Brewing and Oskar Blues Brewery will be served. Gear swap applications are online at www.outdoor76.com. 828.349.7676.
Women’s mountain bike clinic planned A former World Cup racer and East Coast mountain bike icon will teach a women’s mountain bike skills clinic 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 25, at the Western Carolina University picnic area. Sue Haywood is also a certified International Mountain Biking Association instructor. Sponsored by Nantahala Area SORBA and Base Camp Cullowhee. $40 for Nantahala Area SORBA members and $50 for the general public. Limited space available. Register with nantahala.area.sorba@gmail.com or 828.488.1988.
Joyce Kilmer reroute planned for Benton McKaye Trail The Benton McKaye Trail Association recently completed a major reroute of the trail’s path through the Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness. The new route is more direct and include scenic highlights such as Stratton Bald and the Hangover. In addition, it avoids crossing Slickrock Creek — a dangerous proposition during high-water conditions. Owners of the historic Tapoco Lodge also helped the process by allowing the new route to cross their property. This allows the trail to emerge onto U.S. 129 directly across the road from the trailhead for the new Yellow Creek Mountain reroute, eliminating the half-mile of road walking left over from the May 2014 trail reroute through that area, which had reduced the 3.8-mile road walk to a half-mile. Signage for the new route will finish in the fall, but the 2015 Benton McKaye Trail guidebook has current information. The Benton MacKaye Trail is 288 miles long and volunteer-maintained through its North Carolina-Tennessee-Georgia route.
Work day planned for East Street Park
East Street Park. Donated photo
WNC towns snag grants for bike route, pedestrian planning The towns of Franklin and Canton were among 10 municipalities across the state to win a grant for bicycle and pedestrian planning from the N.C. Department of Transportation. Each town will receive $36,000, with a 10 percent match required. The money won’t go to one specific project; rather, it will be used to develop an overall strategy for bike and pedestrian planning. The grant, now in its 12th year, aims to help North Carolina towns and cities develop an overall strategy for expanding bike and pedestrian opportunities. To date, $4.3 million has been awarded to 164 communities. The initiative is sponsored by DOT’s Division of Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation and Transportation Planning Branch.
Saturday, NovFNCFS t .BHHJF Valley CMVC t o p.m.
Saturday, May 16, 2015 Maggie Valley Club 6:00p.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Roulette
Smoky Mountain News
Heavy Hors d’oeuvres
predsent presenattios n s
for for
(Texas Hold’em)
Casino Royale H H
PokFS )JHI 3PMMFS Game
HAYHRM WOOC F D HoEund A a FounLTHtCioAnRE
y yh Pla ePalat alth e
Craps
Black Jack
An Earth and Wellness Celebration in conjunction with Earth Day will liven up Western Carolina University 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, April 22. Booths featuring community vendors, environmental nonprofits and student organizations will share their missions and give out freebies, and music will keep the atmosphere festive. Campus Recreation & Wellness will host games, a noon drum circle will bring a beat to the Cata-Fount, hula-hooping will be available and the Courtyard Dining Hall will offer a $5 lunch special. Co-hosted by the Office of Sustainability and Energy Management and Campus Recreation & Wellness. Lauren Bishop, 828.227.3562 or lbishop@wcu.edu.
April 15-21, 2015
F O U N DAT I O N
Casino Royale Night
WCU celebrates Earth Day
Event to provide Nar arr-can Nasal Spray ay fo or prescription drug overdoses, AED Ds
HI½FVMPPEXSVW JSV PE[ IRJSVGIQIRX ZILMGPIW I d Bli P k f escription escripti T SYV (VYK 'SEPMXMSR
Please mark your calendar HRMC
outdoors
A volunteer work day to upgrade East Street Park on Howell Street in Waynesville will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 18. Volunteers will cut invasive species so town employees can paint the stumps with herbicide and should bring tools, lunches and appropriate wear for briars. The effort to revamp East Street Park stemmed from a project Katie Carr Messer originally began as part of an assignment for a college class but has morphed into a real-life attempt to get rid of invasives, reduce erosion and make the park a better place to hang out. The event is sponsored by Haywood Waterways Association in conjunction with Earth Day. The organization will also hold invasive removal and trash pickup days 2-4:30 p.m. April 21 at Vance Street Park and 9-11 a.m. April 25 along Richland Creek, both in Waynesville. RSVP to Christine O’Brien, christine.haywoodwaterways@gmail.com or 828.476.4667.
LIVE A AUCTION UC TION ION A AND ND SI SILENT LLENT ENT AUCTION AUC TION
SV I QEMP 94459
41
outdoors
College students to share flooding study
School partners with land trust for wetland conservation Though the wetland bordering U.S. 441 on the North Carolina-Georgia line isn’t that noteworthy on first glance, it’s an ecological treasure trove that Land Trust for the Little Tennessee is excited to have purchased. “Conserving the wetland buffers the headwaters of the Little T, which significantly helps the water quality downstream,” explained LTLT Land Protection Manager John Culclasure. “Many thanks to Rabun-Gap Nacoochee School for partnering with LTLT to conserve this unique ecological feature.” LTLT had purchased the 11.7-acre property from the school with funding from the Georgia Land Conservation Center. The land is a mountain bog, a type of habitat that has decreased by an estimated 90 percent over the past 200 years. The largest functioning wetland complex in the Georgia headwaters of the Little Tennessee, the property is an important amphibian breeding and haven for birds, mammals, reptiles and insects. So far, 272 plant species have been inventoried there. www.ltlt.org.
A senior engineering class from Georgia Tech will present its findings from a study on flooding along the Frank Allen Road area of Cashiers Creek at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, April 21, at the Cashiers-Glenville Recreation Center. The goal of the study was to identify the cause of the flooding and to propose solutions to it.
Water ordinance nabs Jackson state award Jackson County snagged one of eight statewide awards given to individuals and organizations that protect public drinking water sources. The county won the inaugural 2015 N.C. Source Water Collaborative award in the groundwater planning category, recognizing its water recharge ordinance, adopted in July 2013. The ordinance established standards to ensure that groundwater is replenished as well as withdrawn. “The Planning Board worked hard on the Water Recharge Ordinance with the help of the public and Board of Commissioners. We are happy to see it being recognized at the state level,” said Gerald Green, Jackson County Planning Director. Nominations for next year are being taken at www.ncswc.org.
This Appalachian brown butterfly is just one of the species calling a newly conserved wetland home. Donated photo
Event to welcome migratory birds back to the mountains A celebration of globe-trotting birds will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 25, at the Cradle of Forestry. Migratory birds are just now returning from their tropical winter homes to spend the summer in the mountains. The event will begin with a birding outing with naturalist Bill Sanderson and include a 3 p.m. live raptor program. Games and crafts relating to bird diversity and ecology will continue throughout the day. The Cradle of Forestry is located on U.S. 276, 25 miles south of Waynesville. $5 adults, free for children under 16. 828.877.3130 or carlisle@cfaia.org. www.cradleofforestry.com
April 15-21, 2015
JOIN US FOR ARTS EVENTS AT WCU APR. 16-19 | THU.-SAT. THU.-SAT. 7:30PM, SUN. 3PM | BARDO ARTS CENTER | $
Performance:: Peter Performance Peter Pan, Pan, or The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up APR. 22 | WED. 7:30PM | COULTER COULTER | FREE
Concert: Gamelan Ensemble Concert:
APR. 24 | FRI. 4:30-7:50PM | BARDO ARTS CENTER | FREE
Smoky Mountain News
FOA FOA Benefit: Benefit: Silent Auction
APR. 24 | FRI. 8PM | BARDO ARTS CENTER | $
Are you ready for spring time grillin’ and chillin’?
Performance Performance:: Catamount Singers and Electric Soul & Guest SAVE THE DATE: APR. 25 | SAT. SAT. 12:30-5PM, 7:30-8:30PM | COULTER COULLTTER | FREE
MUSIC: JAZZ FESTIV FESTIVAL IV VAL A
Turn your grill into an oven, roaster, and a smoker
VISIT THE FINE ART MUSEUM FOR ONGOING EXHIBITS | FINEARTMUSEUM.WCU FINEARTMUSEUM.WCU.EDU .EDU
S. MAIN ST., WAYNESVILLE
EVENTS ARE BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE COLLEGE OF FINE AND PERFORMING ARTS AT AT WCU. JOIN FRIENDS FRIENNDS OF THE ARTS TODAY! TODAAYY!
828-333-5456 • cleansweepfireplace.com 288-53
42
Chimney Inspections, Repairs & More
FOR MORE INFO – 828.227.7028 | ARTS.WCU.EDU
sites across the Eastern seaboard, where they hiked, paddled and explored using the Street View Trekker. The Google mapping tool allows anyone with a screen and Internet connection to take the journey virtually. “Conservation means including people, not excluding them. Google Trekker enables
Swain County students got creative on the theme “Wetlands are Wonderful” this spring, sending in their bookmark designs for a contest hosted by Swain Soil and Water Conservation District. After learning about wetlands in class, third- through fifth-graders sent their designs in competition for cash prizes, with the first place winner from each school getting their bookmark printed off and distributed school-wide. The winners were: ■ Swain East Elementary — First place, Hailey Strickland; second place, Aiyana Toineeta; third place, Emma Chimney Rock. Donated photo McCoy. ■ Grace Christian Academy people everywhere to experience the beauty — First place, Brixton Reed; second place, and significance of the places we protect — Tazanna Jones; third place, Kirsten Lee even if they aren't able to travel there,” said Walters. The Conservation Fund’s president and CEO, Larry Selzer. “As we become more of an urban nation, and as the demographics of our country continue to change, reconnecting people — especially young people Virtual views of some of America’s most — with nature will be less about bringing iconic places are now online, with Chimney kids to nature, and more about bringing Rock, Grandfather Mountain and DuPont nature to the kids.” State Forest among their number. www.conservationfund.org/what-weThe Conservation Fund visited a host of do/conservation-acquisition/google-trekker
Data & Security Seminar
11:30 AM - 1PM
4/29/15
Registration Below
outdoors
Swain students illustrate wetlands
http://bit.ly/0429-2015 810 Acquoni Road, Cherokee
Mapping project brings natural landmarks
April 15-21, 2015
SUMMER CAMP YOUNG EXPLORERS: Pre-K to First Grade
YOUNG NATURALISTS:
ADVENTURE CHALLENGERS: Fifth to Seventh Grade
JUNE 8-AUG. 4 MON.-FRI. 7:30 A.M.-5:30 P.M.
Early Bird (on/before April 30): $655 members; $680 non-members After April 30: $700 members; $725 non-members
LIMITED ENROLLMENT — REGISTRATION NOW OPEN
Smoky Mountain News
Second to Fourth Grade
WAYNESVILLE
PARKS AND RECREATION 828.456.2030 or email tpetrea@waynesvillenc.gov
288-33
43
44
Smoky Mountain News April 15-21, 2015
outdoors
WNC Calendar COMMUNITY EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS • A kick-off for the HeartChase event will be held from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. and from 5-6 p.m. on April 15, at Haywood Regional Health & Fitness Center in Clyde. Trial run for the May 16 HeartChase event. • Swain County Chamber of Commerce’s annual chamber banquet is from 6-9 p.m. on April 16, at the Fryemont Inn. • The grand opening celebration for The Terrace at Lake Junaluska is scheduled for 5 p.m. on April 16 at 5 pm on the third floor of the The Terrace Auditorium. www.lakejunaluska.com/terrace. • The Antique Car Franklin History Tour is set for 1:30 p.m. on April 19, starting at the Town Hall parking lot in downtown Franklin. For vehicles 50 years old and older. RSVP to maconantiquecars@aol.com. • Tours and informative sessions about Barium Springs, which merged with Grandfather Home for Children, will be held at noon on April 20 at Hawthorn Heights in Bryson City. • The Silas McDowell Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution will meet at 6 p.m. on April 20, at the Boiler Room Steak House in Franklin. Tom Long at 321.3522 or tomeaglenc@aol.com or www.ncssar.org/chapters/Silas.htm. • Nominations are open for the 2015 Macon County Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, which will be presented on April 30. To submit a nomination, visit www.maconedc.com by April 21. • The Haywood Tourism Authority is hosting an informational workshop from 10 a.m.-noon on April 23, at the Bethea Welcome Center in Lake Junaluska. RSVP, contact Ashley Rice at ashley@visitncsmokies.com or 452.0152. • A public hearing will be held by the Mayor and Board of Aldermen at 6:30 p.m. on April 23 in the Board Chambers of the Canton Town Hall to consider the adoption of the Proposed Text Amendments (Part 8, Chapter 2, Section 8-2001, 8-2003, and 8-2004) to the Town of Canton Zoning Ordinance to Update Requirements For Keeping Fowl And Domestic Animals Inside The Corporate Limits To Promote Responsible Urban Farming Practices. • The Jackson County Board of Commissioners will hold a public hearing at 6 p.m. on April 23 at the Jackson County Recreation Center in Cullowhee. The purpose of the meeting is to hear public comments regarding the proposed Cullowhee Planning Area Development Standards and District Map. • The Holly Springs Community Development Club meets at 7 p.m. on the third Monday of each month at the community building at 2720 Cat Creek Road, Franklin. 369.2254.
BUSINESS & EDUCATION • A Student Success Seminar is set for 1-2 p.m. on April 15, at Haywood Community College in Clyde. Topic is Exam Preparation. 627.4646 or drowland@haywood.edu. • Learn how to master your elevator pitch in a small business seminar from 6-9 p.m. on April 15, in the 1500 Building auditorium at Haywood Community College in Clyde. sbc.haywood.edu or 627.4512. • Strategic Marketing for Nonprofits, which need a different approach than typical for-profit organizations, will be the topic of a small business seminar set for 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. on April 16, at the Haywood County Waynesville Library. sbc.haywood.edu or 627.4512.
Visit www.smokymountainnews.com and click on Calendar for: ■ Complete listings of local music scene ■ Regional festivals ■ Art gallery events and openings ■ Complete listings of recreational offerings at regional health and fitness centers ■ Civic and social club gatherings • A school enrichment embryology program will be offered for Haywood County teachers at 4 p.m. on April 16 by the Haywood County 4-H. 456.3575. • A small business owners roundtable, an opportunity to network and learn, will be held from 8:30-10 a.m. on April 16, at the Haywood Community College’s Library Conference Room. sbc.haywood.edu or 627.4512. • A “Building Your Online Community Seminar,” designed to guide local businesses and non-profits with a handson, step-by-step approach to creating an online business presence, will be held from 1-4 p.m. on April 17, in Waynesville., https://manicsocial1.eventbrite.com./ • A school enrichment butterfly program will be offered for Haywood County teachers at 4 p.m. on April 20. 456.3575. • A small business seminar entitled “BEE on Top with Great Customer Service” will be presented by Southwestern Community College from 5:30-8:30 p.m. on April 21 at Franklin Town Hall. Registration required at www.ncsbc.net. t_henry@southwesterncc.edu or 339.4211. • “Would you like to increase your bottom line?” – a free seminar for entrepreneurs – is set for 6:15-8 p.m. on Tuesday, April 21, at Franklin Town Hall. Register at www.ncsbc.net. Tiffany Henry at 339.4211 or t_henry@southwesterncc.edu. • A Business Enhancement Experience (BEE) seminar entitled “BEE on Top with Great Customer Service” is set for 5:30-8:30 p.m. on April 21 at Franklin Town Hall. Free, but registration required: www.ncsbc.net. Tiffany Henry at 339.4211 or t_henry@southwesterncc.edu. • A series of lunch-and-learn workshops about the Cherokee language and current efforts to increase its use in North Carolina will be held from noon-1 p.m. on Tuesdays through April 21 at SpeakEasyPress in the Riverwood Studios/Oaks Gallery in Dillsboro. frank@speakeasypress.com. • A small business seminar from 6-8 p.m. on April 23, at Haywood Community College’s Creative Arts Building will help owners craft an effective blog. sbc.haywood.edu or 627.4512. • Western Carolina University’s School of Nursing and its Nursing Network-Careers in Technology Mentoring Program will host their second annual nursing diversity conference in Asheville on April 24 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with registration beginning at 8:30 a.m. nursinged.wcu.edu or 227.7397. • An advance beginner Cherokee language class is held from 6:30-9 p.m. on April 27, May 4 and May 11, at the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum in Vonore, Tenn. 423.884.6246. • The Macon County Economic Development Commission will kick off Bizweek with Entrepreneur Networking Night V at 6 p.m. on April 28. Special guest is Justin Belleme, 2014 Asheville Entrepreneur of the Year. Registration required at www.maconedc.com or by calling 369.2306. Nominations are open for Young Entrepreneur of the Year at www.maconedc.com; finalists will be announced at this event.
Smoky Mountain News
FUNDRAISERS AND BENEFITS • To raise community awareness, KARE is holding an artwork display by child survivors and their families from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on April 16, at the Cedar Hill Studio in Waynesville;
45
All phone numbers area code 828 unless otherwise noted. the bookstore in Sylva.
• The Help For Homeless Concert will be held at 6 p.m. April 16, at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin. The event will include performances by Tom Quigley, Curtis Blackwell, Paradise 56, Blue Ridge, Johnny Webb and The JW Band. All proceeds benefit New Hope Center and Community Outreach Ministry as they raise funds for a homeless shelter in Franklin. $15. www.greatmountainmusic.com or 866.273.4615 or 866.273.4615
• Camp Hope in Canton Volunteer Clean-Up Day will be held from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. on April 25. Lunch provided.
• The Macon County Academic Foundation’s annual Academic Auction is set for May 2 at Cartoogechaye Elementary gym. Donations will be accepted on April 18. brian.aulisio@macon.k12.nc.us.
• The American Red Cross and Western Carolina University have teamed up to offer a blood drive from 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 15, in the Hinds University Center in Cullowhee. To schedule an appointment, visit redcrossblood.org and enter the sponsor code “CATS,” call 800.RED.CROSS or download the Red Cross Blood Donor App.
• The Joe Lasher Jr. Band performs at 7 p.m. on April 18 at the Colonial Theater in Canton as part of the “Down Home Tour.” Tickets are $7; proceeds benefit The Community Kitchen. 648.0014. www.joelasherjr.com. • A car show will be held from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. April 18 at the Resurrection Lutheran Church in Franklin. $15 registration fee. Food available. There will also be a bouncy house for children. All proceeds from the event will go towards resurfacing the Great Beginnings Preschool playground. www.franklin-chamber.com. • A “Giving Them Hope” breakfast, a fundraiser for the foster-care program Hawthorn Heights, is set for April 23. RSVP, contact Katie Henry at kenry@bariumsprings.org or 231.5413. Donation checks can be mailed to Barium Springs, Attention: Katie Henry; P.O. Box 99; Webster, NC 28788. • The Community Table’s Empty Bowl 2015 is scheduled for 4-8 p.m. on Friday, April 24, at the Community Table in Sylva next to the Sylva Pool. Tickets: $20 for your choice of hand-crafted ceramic bowl donated by local potters. Includes choice of soup, bread and desserts. communitytable.org. • A benefit for KARE will be hosted at Frog Level Brewing from 6-11 p.m. on April 24. Tickets for the benefit include a beer and a bratwurst plate, and are $12 in advance and can be purchased at the brewery or at Clean Sweep The Fireplace Shop in Waynesville. $15 at the door. www.karehouse.org. • Western Carolina University’s Friends of the Arts organization will hold its annual benefit fundraiser, with a silent auction, raffle and performance, starting at 4:30 p.m. on April 24. “All Night Long” performance will feature WCU’s Catamount Singers and instrumental group Electri Coul as well as WCU graduate/singersongwriter Jeanne Jolly. 227.2479 or foa.wcu.edu. • The third-annual “5KARE” 5K at 9 a.m. and Fantastic Fun Run 1K will be held at 8:30 a.m. on April 25 in downtown Waynesville. $10 for ages 12-under, $25. Wear your favorite superhero costume and compete for a best costume award or just run/walk for fun. Info: 456.8995. Register at www.Karehouse.org/20155kare.html. Day of race register at 8 a.m. at the Badcock parking lot. • A spring barbecue/social will be held from 2:30-8:30 p.m. on April 25, at the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville. The program will be on the Carolina Mountain Club’s involvement with the Boy Scouts of Western North Carolina. $18 per person includes dinner. Register by April 20. Les Love at 658.1489 or lesrlove55@gmail.com. • A WOOD CARVED SPIRIT by local artist Ron Yount will be raffled off by the Sylva Friends of the Library Used Bookstore on April 25. Tickets $1 apiece or six for $5 at
• Clyde Elementary PTO is selling Asheville Tourists baseball tickets for $6 each. This is a discount of $2/adult and $1/child. ptoclydeelementary@gmail.com or 627-2206.
HEALTH MATTERS
• The Red Cross will hold a blood drive from 11 a.m.5:30 p.m. on April 15 at the Western Carolina University Hinds University Center in Cullowhee. • “Just for the Health of It” – a free healthy aging series hosted by Macon County Public Health – continues Thursday, April 16, at Macon County Public Health. At 4 p.m., physical therapist Randy Phillips discusses maintaining strength, flexibility and balance. At 5 p.m., free C-Reactive Protein Tests will be available to the first 50 participants. At 6 p.m., Dr. Ed Morris explains the body’s response to chronic inflammation. 349.2425. • A six-week beginners meditation class will be offered starting at 10:30 a.m. on April 20 at the Senior Resource Center in Waynesville. • “Dementia: Get the Facts” is the topic of a presentation by Dr. Lisa Verges from 2-3 p.m. on Wednesday, April 22, at the Waynesville Library Auditorium. 356.2507 or www.haywoodlibrary.org. • Western Carolina University’s annual Earth and Wellness Celebration will be hosted on April 22. $5 lunch. Info: Lauren Bishop (227.3562 or lbishop@wcu.edu). • Hospice volunteer orientation and training will be offered from 8:30 a.m.-noon on April 27, and from 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. on April 28, and May 4-5. Eric at 452.5039. • Kidney Smart Classes are held from 4:30-6 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month in the third-floor video conference room at Angel Medical Center in Franklin. 369.9474. • Kidney Smart Classes are held from 7:30-9 a.m. on the third Thursday of each month at DaVita Sylva Dialysis Center. Call Sue (631.0430) for more info. • Kidney Smart Classes are held from 3-4:30 p.m. on the third Monday of each month at EBCI Health and Medical in Cherokee. For info, call Sue at 361.0430. • A health-centered lunch and learn will be held at noon on the third Thursday of every other month starting in February at Swain Medical Park. Free light lunch will be served. 586.7734 or info@westcare.org
RECREATION AND FITNESS • A Ballroom dance is set for 8-10 p.m. on April 17 at Angie’s Dance Academy in Clyde. $10. 734.8726. • An introduction to short-court tennis will be held on April 18 at the Waynesville Parks and Recreation’s courts. The introduction for juniors is from noon-2 p.m. while a “Masters Shootout” is from 3-5 p.m. Rumi Kakareka at 703.966.7138 orrkakareka@me.com.
wnc calendar
• The Smoky Mountain Chess Club meets to play chess from 1-4 p.m. on Thursdays at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville. 456.6000 or www.blueridgebooksnc.com. • Registration is open April 20-May 1 for a Krav Maga Self-Defense Class in Jackson County. Classes meet from 8-9:45 a.m. on Saturdays starting May 2 at the Recreation Center in Cullowhee. Six weeks. $60. 16 and older. • “Yoga with Beyond Bending Yoga’s Jennifer McIntee is set for 6 p.m. on April 23, at Macon County Public Library in Franklin. 524.3600. • Catamount Community Dance will be held from 7-9 p.m. on April 23, at Western Carolina University’s Reid Gym in Cullowhee. Circle, line and contra dancing. $10 for admission; $5 for students. Fundraiser for Phipps-Tholkes-Singleton PRM scholarship. Debby Singleton at singleton@email.wcu.edu. • A Women’s Mountain Bike Skills Clinic, taught by former world cup racer Sue Haywood, is set for 9 a.m.noon on April 25 at the Western Carolina University picnic area in Cullowhee. nantahala.area.sorba@gmail.com or 488.1988.
POLITICAL CORNER • The Democrats of Jackson County will hold their annual convention from 10 a.m.-noon on April 18, in the community room of the historic Courthouse Library Complex in Sylva. Registration starts at 9:30 a.m. Carolyn Cagle at 918.645.1973. • The Jackson County Patriots, a grassroots group of citizens promoting Constitutional government, free markets and responsible personal liberty, will meet at 5 p.m. on the third Monday of each month at Tuck’s Restaurant in Cullowhee. Ginny Jahrmarkt at Box547@aol.com.
THE SPIRITUAL SIDE • Healing Mass and Anointing of the Sick is held at 2 p.m. on the third Sunday of each month at Saint Margaret of Scotland in Maggie Valley. Individual prayers over people after Mass by Charismatic Prayer Group members. Don or Janet Zander at 926-0106. • Unitarian Universalist drum circle and potluck dinner is scheduled for 6 p.m. on April 17, at 90 Flatrock Dr. in Franklin. Bonfire if good weather. sanmardan@yahoo.com or 332.7118. • “Skill Share: Make Your Owen Veggie Burgers” is set for 4 p.m. on April 25, at Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Franklin. 524.3691.
SENIOR ACTIVITIES • Opening Ceremony of the 32nd Annual Haywood County Senior Games will be held on April 21. 452.6789 or www.haywoodnc.net. • The Smoky Mountain Senior Games will be held April 24-May 15. 293.3053, recjacksonnc.org. • “Shifting Gears to Your Life & Work After Retirement,” a hands-on workshop, will be held from 5:30-8 p.m. on Thursdays till April 23, at Southwestern Community College’s Jackson Campus. $65. Register at www.southwesterncc.edu, 339.4497 or j_williams@southwesterncc.edu.
KIDS & FAMILIES • There will be an After-School Art Adventure for children and students from 3:15 to 4:30 p.m. April 15, at The Bascom in Highlands. There will also be a
April 15-21, 2015
• North and South Jackson County Republicans will
meet at 6 p.m. on April 27, at Ryan’s in Sylva. Republicans and unaffiliated voters welcome. Ralph Slaughter at 743.6491, jacksonctygop@yahoo.com or www.jacksoncountygop.com.
Smoky Mountain News
• The “Come Paint with Charles Kidz Program” will be at 4 p.m. April 23 at the Charles Heath Gallery in Bryson City. $20 per child. 538.2054. • Drop-in information sessions for Shining Rock Classical Academy, a new charter school slated to open in Haywood County for the coming school year, will be held on the following days/times at 52 Walnut Street in Waynesville: 8:15-9 a.m. on April 28 as well as 4-5:30 p.m. every other Thursday from March 5April 30. • A beginning baseball program for 3-4 year olds will be offered from 5:30-6:30 p.m. for seven consecutive Thursdays starting April 16 at the Waynesville Recreation Center. Donald Hummel at 456.2030 or dhummel@waynesvillenc.gov. Register at the WRC. • Registration for sandlot baseball in Jackson County will be held from April 20-May 1. Must be between ages 5-7 on May 1. Starts week of May 11. 293.3053. • Tennis lessons for ages 5-13 are offered through the Jackson County Recreation Center. $45. 293.3053.
KIDS CAMPS • Registration for summer camp at Waynesville Parks and Recreation has started with early bird registration ending April 30. Camp dates are June 8-Aug. 14 at the Waynesville Recreation Center. 456.2030 or tpetrea@waynesvillenc.gov. • A Summer Day Camp experience for ages 6-to-11 will be offered by Cullowhee United Methodist Church from June 19-Aug. 7. 293.9215 or http://www.cullowheeumc.org/summer-camp-2015/. • A TetraBrazil Soccer Camp will be offered for Academy, Challenge or Classic Level players from ages 8-15 from June 22-26 at the Waynesville Recreation Center. 456.2030 or dhummel@waynesvillenc.gov.
KIDS MOVIES
MAY 2, 2015 7:30 am START The inaugural Gateway to the Smokies Half Marathon starts in beautiful downtown Waynesville and finishes three blocks away in the historic Frog Level community in front of Frog Level Brewing Co. Sponsored by the Haywood County Chamber of Commerce, this race wanders through the neighborhoods of Waynesville and onto scenic rural roads before finishing in Frog Level.
smokieshalfmarathon.com 46
Franklin After-School Art Adventure from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. April 15. Free. www.thebascom.org.
Presented by Haywood Regional Medical Center
A&E FESTIVALS AND SPECIAL EVENTS • There will be an oyster roast from 6 to 10 p.m. April 17 at The Bascom in Highlands. The event will be in celebration of the center for visual art’s recent expansion. Free steamed oysters. Other food and drinks available. Live bluegrass music by WellStrung from 7 to 9 p.m. www.thebascom.org. • The 16th annual Taste of Chocolate Plus is set for 6-9 p.m. on April 18 at Maggie Valley Country Club. Proceeds go to The Haywood Jackson Volunteer Center. Silent Auction. Tickets are $15 at the door or $12 in advance and can be purchased at Maggie Valley Club, Chocolate Bear, Blue Ridge Books and Quilters Quarters and the Better Bean Coffee House. • The Smoky Mountain Oyster & Seafood Festival is set for 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on April 18 at the Maggie Valley Festival Grounds. $5 in advance or $8 at the door for ages 13 and up. Free for ages 12-under. Smokymtnoysterfest.com or 926.0285. • The Nantahala Outdoor Center will host its Spring Fling from April 24-26. Weekend festivities include NOC’s World Kayak Hometown Throwdown on April 25, a vendor fair, gear demos, live music, kids’ surf and the chance to race a pro. • The 18th annual Greening Up the Mountains spring kickoff street festival is set for 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on April 25, in downtown Sylva.
ON STAGE & IN CONCERT • Pat Donohoe plays at 7:30 p.m. on April 16, at the Strand in Waynesville. Tickets: $18 in advance; $20 on show day.www.38main.com or 283.0079. • HART is presenting “The Actor and The Assassin” as part of the Civil War Anniversary in Waynesville. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. on April 17-19 and at 3 p.m. on April 19. www.harttheatre.org or 456.6322.
• “Tinkerbell: The Legend of the Netherbeast,” will be screened each Saturday in April at noon and 2 p.m. for free at The Strand at 38 Main in Waynesville. www.38main.com or 283.0079
• The Strand at 38 Main (Waynesville) will have The Hillbenders (bluegrass/Americana) at 8 p.m. on April 17. Tickets are $18 in advance, $20 day of show. www.38main.com or 283.0079.
• “The Lego Movie” will be screened at 7 p.m. April 17, at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin. The show is presented by the East Franklin School. $4.
• The 9th Street Stompers (blues, swing, gypsy jazz, rockabilly, tango) perform at 7 p.m. on Friday, April 17, at the Classic Wineseller in Waynesville. Tickets: $10. 452.6000. www.classicwineseller.com
• “Rango” will be screened a 2 p.m., 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on April 18 at the Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. www.madbatterfoodandfilm.com.
• The Blue Ridge Big Band presents a concert at 3 p.m. on April 18, at the Main Branch of the Haywood County Library on Haywood Street in Waynesville. The community is invited. Rhonda Wilson Kram at 456.4880.
• “Goonies” will be screened at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on April 24 at the Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. www.madbatterfoodandfilm.com. • “Wall-E” will be screened at 2 p.m., 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on April 25 at the Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. www.madbatterfoodandfilm.com. • Saturday morning cartoons play for free at 11 a.m. at the Strand at 38 Main in Waynesville. 283.0079 or www.38main.com. • Free family movies are shown at 3:30 p.m. each Tuesday at Marianna Black Library in Bryson City. Disney, Hallmark and other family-oriented movies. Popcorn is provided by Friends of the Library. Each attendee receives one free movie check-out. 488.3030.
• “Peter Pan: The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up” will be staged April 16-19 by the Western Carolina University School of Stage and Screen at the Bardo Fine & Performing Arts Center in Cullowhee. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. April 16-18 and at 3 p.m. on April 19. 227.2479 orbardoartscenter.wcu.edu. • Western Carolina University (Cullowhee) will have Alex Vaughn Senior Recital 5 p.m. April 18 in the Coulter Building. www.wcu.edu. • Balsam Mountain Inn will have Tomi Lunsford, Tommy Goldsmith and Tom House as part of their Songwriters in the Round series ($47 per person) at 6 p.m. on April 18. Includes a buffet dinner. www.balsammountaininn.net.
• Family movie time, 4 p.m. Mondays at Jackson County Public Library. Call for title of movie. 586.2016.
• Haywood County Public Library (Waynesville) will host the Blue Ridge Big Band at 3 p.m. April 18. 456.4880.
• Family movie time Thursdays, 3:45 p.m. at Albert Carlton, Cashiers Community Library. Free with popcorn. Call for title. 743.0215.
• Haywood County Public Library (Canton) will host pianist Richard Shulman (jazz/world) at 3 p.m. April 19.
• Western Carolina University (Cullowhee) will host the The Inspirational Choir Spring Concert at 3 p.m. on April 19 at the University Center Grand Room. www.wcu.edu.
• A medley of songs from “Pirates of the Caribbean” and the “Russian Easter Overture” by Nikolay RimskyKorsakov will highlight the program as the Western Carolina Civic Orchestra performs at 7:30 p.m. on April 20, at Western Carolina University’s Coulter Building recital hall. Free. 227.7242. • The Moon Show, a theme-based variety show performed by a small cast, will be held at 7:45 p.m. on April 23, at The Strand Theatre at 38 Main in Waynesville. PG-13. $10 at the door; $8 in advance at www.38main.com. • Vocalist Michelle Berting Britt, accompanied by a seven-piece Nashville band, re-create the sound of the Carpenters in “We’ve Only Just Begun: Carpenters Remembered” at 3 p.m. on April 26, at WCU’s Bardo Center in Cullowhee. This show is part of the Galaxy of Stars Series. 227.2479 or bardoartscenter.wcu.edu. • Balsam Mountain Inn will have Annie Sellick & The Hot Club of Nashville (gypsy jazz, $49 per person) at 6 p.m. on April 26 Includes a buffet dinner. www.balsammountaininn.net.
NIGHTLIFE • Mad Batter Food & Film (Sylva) will have a one-year anniversary Burlesque Show at 8 p.m. April 15. $5.www.madbatterfoodandfilm.com. • Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will have an Open Mic night April 15 and 22 at 8 p.m. www.innovation-brewing.com. • Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will have a jazz night with the Kittle/Collings Duo April 16 and 23 at 8 p.m. www.innovation-brewing.com.
• Chris Minick (singer-songwriter/folk) will play at 6 p.m. on April 16 and 23 at Frog Level Brewing in Waynesville. Free. 454.5664 or www.froglevelbrewing.com. • Nantahala Brewing (Bryson City) will have OGYA World Music Band 8 p.m. April 17 and Shane Meade & The Sound (Americana/soul). www.nantahalabrewing.com. • BearWaters Brewing (Waynesville) will have Mark Bumgarner (Americana) 8 p.m. April 17. www.bwbrewing.com or 246.0602. • Andrews Brewing Company will have Rob Alwine (singer-songwriter) at 6 p.m. April 17. Free. www.andrewsbrewing.com.
• No Name Sports Pub (Sylva) will have Dustin Martin & The Ramblers (Americana/string) at 9 p.m. on April 17. 586.2750 orwww.nonamesportspub.com. • Tipping Point Brewing (Waynesville) will have James Stinnett (singer-songwriter) April 17 at 9 p.m. • Water’n Hole Bar & Grille (Waynesville) will have Deltaphonic (southern rock) April 17 at 9:30 p.m. • Andrews Brewing Company will have The Dirty Soul Revival (blues/hard rock, $5) at 7 p.m. on April 18. www.andrewsbrewing.com. • Water’n Hole Bar & Grille (Waynesville) will have the Ryan Cavanaugh Duo (bluegrass/jazz) April 18 at 9:30 p.m. • No Name Sports Pub (Sylva) will have Deltaphonic
• Andrews Brewing Company will have Rob Tiger (singer-songwriter) at 6 p.m. on April 24 Free. www.andrewsbrewing.com. • Dan Shearin (folk/Americana) plays the Classic Wineseller at 7 p.m. on April 24 in Waynesville. 452.6000 or www.classicwineseller.com. • Kabin Fever Party plays at 6 p.m. on April 24 at Frog Level Brewing in Waynesville. 454.5664 or www.froglevelbrewing.com. • ‘Round the Fire (Grateful Dead tribute) plays at 8:30 p.m. on April 24 at Tipping Point Brewing in Waynesville. Free. • The Dirty Soul Revival (blues/hard rock) plays at 9 p.m. on April 24 at No Name Sports Pub in Sylva. Free. 586.2750 or www.nonamesportspub.com. • Skunk Ruckus (hillbilly rock) plays at 9 p.m. on April 25 at No Name Sports Pub in Sylva. 586.2750 or www.nonamesportspub.com. • Andrews Brewing Company will have Porch 40 (funk/rock, $5) 7at p.m. on April 25. www.andrewsbrewing.com. • Soldier’s Heart (Americana/soul) plays at 7:45 p.m. on April 25 at The Strand at 38 Main in Waynesville. www.38main.com or 283.0079.
BOOKS & AUTHORS • Writer Katherine Soniat will read selections of poetry from her new chapbook “The Goodbye Animals” as part of the Coffee with the Poet series at 10:30 a.m. April 16, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. 586.9499. • In celebration of Poetry Month, Western North Carolina poet Kirk Thomas will read from his new collection entitled “Miscellaneous Musings and Other Odd Thoughts: The Desert Poems” at 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 18, at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville. 456.6000 or www.blueridgebooksnc.com. • Steven Harvey, author of “The Book of Knowledge and Wonder,” will lead a discussion on why monstrous memories are, in fact, our friends at 3 p.m. on April 18 at City Lights Bookstore. To reserve a copy, call 586.9499. • The book “How Cancer Transformed Our Lives” by Debra Dalton and Diana Kenney will be the topic of an event at 1 p.m. on April 18, at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville. 456.6000 or www.blueridgebooksnc.com. • Student poet Alison Howe will be featured at 6:30 p.m. on April 23 at the Jackson County Library in Sylva. 586.2016.
CLASSES AND PROGRAMS • Fanciful Vases and Boxes, a hand-building class taught by Hank Shuler, will be held from 6-9 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays till April 30 at Macon County Heritage School north of Franklin. $126 plus clay and tools. To preregister, 524.7690 or coweepotteryschool1@gmail.com. • A four-week instructional class for puppetry will be held from 4 to 5:30 p.m. on Wednesdays starting April 15 at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin. All ages. Cost is $35. www.greatmountainmusic.com. • A Stampin’ Up workshop will be held from 10 a.m.noon April 15 at the Swain County Chamber of Commerce in Bryson City. $10. www.greatsmokies.com.
NEED A RIDE TO CLASS? Get to Work, College, Shopping, Medical Appointments, & more for as low as
2
$
Getting you there is what we do. Operational Hours Mon-Fri 6am - 5:30 pm Reservations are required — Call 24 hours in advance
828.565.0362
All trips are coordinated with others while in the general area. We are not a last minute taxi service! Wheelchair Services are available. 288-30
Do you Experience Exper
LEG P PAIN? A AIN?
Even a short walk up the stairs o or doing some shopping can be painful inful for m many people.
Problems oblems with veins can ca cause: • Aching, cramping or burning • Leg numbness or tingling • Skin changes anges or d discoloration • Restless legss • Varicose Varicose veins If you are suffering from from pain or discomfort in your legs, s, join us for fo a
FREE REE
Vein ein Education ation Session Ses , April 14 at 4:00 pm and nd at 5:0 5:00 pm
Event ent location location: Haywood od Regional terr, Health & Fitness Cent Center, eorge Dr., Dr., Clyde 75 Leroy George
To register egister call c
828-452-VEIN VEIN N (8346) (
Smoky Mountain News
• City Lights Café (Sylva) will have Karen “Sugar” Barnes & Dave McGill (blues/acoustic) at 7 p.m. April 17.www.citylightscafe.com.
• Joe Cruz (piano, vocals) plays The Beatles, Elton John and James Taylor at 7 p.m. on April 18 and 25, at The Classic Wineseller in Waynesville. Reservations: 452.6000.
April 15-21, 2015
• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will have Craig Summers & Lee Kram (singer-songwriter) at 6 p.m. on April 16. Free. 454.5664 or www.froglevelbrewing.com.
• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will have Bobby G (rock/acoustic) 7 p.m. April 18. Free. 454.5664 orwww.froglevelbrewing.com.
wnc calendar
• Western Carolina University (Cullowhee) will have a Civic Orchestra April 20 at 7:30 p.m. in the Coulter Building. www.wcu.edu.
(southern rock) at 9 p.m. on April 18. 586.2750 orwww.nonamesportspub.com.
47
48
Smoky Mountain News April 15-21, 2015
wnc calendar
GALLERIES • The “Countdown to Ecstasy: A Faculty Biennial” art exhibit runs till May 29 in the Fine Arts Museum at Western Carolina University. Featuring professional and studio artwork from WCU faculty members. www.wcu.edu.
• “Playing With Shakespeare” – a free 90-minute workshop for area actors who’d like to learn more about performing Shakespeare – is set for 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 18, in the Feichter Studio at HART in Waynesville. 456.6322 or harttheater@gmail.com. • A rapid fire raku class hosted by Rick Berman will be from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. April 17-18 at The Bascom in Highlands. www.thebascom.org. • Variations on Accordion Book-Making will be the topic of a Creative Community Workshop at 11 a.m. on Saturday, April 18, in the atrium of the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva. Free. 586.2016. • The Macon County Senior Games Flea Market will be from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. April 18 at the Macon County Community Building in Franklin. www.franklin-chamber.com.
• Sew Easy Girls, a Jackson County Extension and Community Association craft club workshop, will be held at 1 p.m. on April 20, in the Conference Room of the Community Service Center in Sylva. 586.4009.
• A photography exhibit entitled “Seeing with New Eyes” by Sharon Mammoser will be on display through April 19 at The North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville. Parking fee. www.ncarboretum.org or sharenaturemore@gmail.com.
CALL FOR VENDORS / SPONSORS • The Downtown Waynesville Association seeks heritage-themed vendors for the fifth-annual Appalachian Lifestyle Celebration, which is June 13. Applications are accepted until April 17. Info: 456.3517 or www.downtownwaynesville.com.
• History of Extension, a Cane Creek Extension and Community Association craft club workshop on April 21. 586.4009.
• The Cashiers Area Chamber of Commerce is seeking financial sponsorships for its 23rd annual Tour de Cashiers Mountain Cycling Experience, which is set for Saturday, May 2. It’s the chamber’s priority event for raising funds to protect and improve the quality of life in the Cashiers area and surrounding mountain communities. Sponsorship form available at http://tinyurl.com/qjpm8d5.
288-17
RESIDENTIAL HOUSECLEANING
FILM & SCREEN • “The Big Lebowski” will be screened on April 18 and 24 at 9:30 p.m. for free at The Strand at 38 Main in Waynesville. www.38main.com or 283.0079. • “Blade Runner” will be screened at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on April 16 at the Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. www.madbatterfoodandfilm.com. • Cherokee Phoenix Theatres will show the following on April 16: “Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2” (PG) 7:15 & 9:40 p.m.; “Unfriended” (R) 8 & 10:15 p.m.; “The Longest Ride” (PG-13) 3:30, 6:45 & 9:50 p.m.; “Furious 7” (PG-13) 3, 4, 5, 6:30, 7, 8, 9:30 & 10 p.m.; “Get Hard” (R) 4:30 p.m.; Home (PG) 4:40 p.m. • “Big Eyes,” based on the true story of one of the most successful painters of the 1950s and early 1960s, will be screened at 7 p.m. on April 17 by The Groovy Movie Club at Buffy Queen’s home in Waynesville. RSVP at 926.3508 or 454.5949 or email JohnBucklyX@gmail.com. • “Weird Science” will be screened a 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on April 17 at the Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. www.madbatterfoodandfilm.com. • “Serena” will be screened on April 18 at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., April 19 at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. and April 21-22 at 7 p.m. at The Strand at 38 Main in Waynesville. www.38main.com or 283.0079.
Outdoors • A bird walk along the greenway will be held starting at 8 a.m. on April 15. Meet at Macon County Public Library parking area. http://franklinbirdclub.com/ or 524.5234. • Rain barrels are for sale throughout spring for $80.25 each at the USDA Agriculture Service Center in Waynesville. 476.4667 or info@haywoodwaterways.org. • An Appalachian Trail documentary entitled “Hard Way Home” will be screened at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 16, at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin. Documentary is by Kori Feener. • “Dead Reckoning” starring Humphrey Bogart and Lizabeth Scott will be screened at 2 p.m. on April 17, at Macon County Public Library in Franklin. Runtime: 1:40. 524.3600. • The fifth-annual Wilderness Skill Institute has been scheduled for May 18-22 and May 26-29 at the Cradle of Forestry on the Pisgah District of the Pisgah National Forest outside Brevard. Application deadline is April 18. (www.appalachiantrail.org). Tuition: Free upon acceptance. Application: www.trailcrews.org/wilderness-skills-institute. Leanna Joyner at 254.3708 or Brenna Irrer at 226.4320.
• “Riverwebs” will be screened at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on April 22 at the Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. www.madbatterfoodandfilm.com.
• Volunteers are needed for the 31st annual Tuckaseigee River Cleanup, which will begin with registration from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. on April 18 on the A.K. Hinds University Center lawn in Cullowhee. Jeremiah Haas at 227.3625 or basecamp.wcu.edu.
• “Take 3” will be screened at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on April 23 at the Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. www.madbatterfoodandfilm.com.
• A volunteer work day to upgrade East Street Park in Waynesville will be held from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on April 18.
• “Wild” will be screened on April 24 at 7 p.m., April 25 at 4 p.m., April 26 at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m, April 28 and 29 at 7 p.m. and May 1 at 7 p.m. at The Strand at 38 Main in Waynesville. www.38main.com or 283.0079.
• “Watching Warblers” will be screened, followed by a discussion led by artist and bird expert John Sill, at the Franklin Bird Club’s meeting at 7 p.m. on April 20 at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin.
@e_d ki \eh j^[ Óhij WddkWb
7
Call Tanya for a free estimate—828-734-0671 BONDED & INSURED
# Smoky Mountain News
Serving Haywood County
.
April 15-21, 2015
• “31,” a Jackson County Extension and Community Association craft club workshop, will be held at 2 p.m. on April 23, in the Conference Room of the Community Service Center in Sylva. 586.4009. • A workshop on Permaculture will be held from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on April 24 at Dovecote Porch and Gardens in Cashiers. Pre-registration required: 743.0307 or mpdargan@dargan.com.
• Photography and folk art digital photography by Candler sisters Barbara Sammons and Francine Menor will be showcased by the Haywood County Arts Council till April 28 at Gallery 86 in Waynesville. All photography and art for sale with prices ranging from $35125. Proceeds benefit CarePartners Foundation and CarePartners Hospice in memory of the artists’ mother, Irene Holloway.
• A nature-inspired student art reception will be held at 6 p.m. April 21 at the Macon County Library in Franklin. Art from students at Cartoogechaye and East Franklin elementary schools. www.franklin-chamber.com.
• A glass bird sculpture class will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 18 at the Jackson County Green Energy Park in Dillsboro. 631.0271 or www.jcgep.org.
• The films “Danny Collins” (April 17-23) will be screened at the Highlands Playhouse. Tickets are $9. For show times, go to www.highlandsplayhouse.org.
• A limited number of arts and crafts vendor spots are available for the 2015 Sweet Corn Festival, set for Saturday, July 11, at St. Cyprian’s Church in Franklin. valerieniskanen@gmail.com or 369.6997.
ART SHOWINGS AND
• Beaded Spoons, a Jackson County Extension and Community Association craft club workshop, will be held from 1-2:30 p.m. on April 16, in the Conference Room of the Community Service Center in Sylva. 586.4009 to register.
• A “Front Street Arts & Crafts Show” will premiere on June 20 in Dillsboro. Silent auction will benefit Community Table of Sylva. Food and entertainment. Vendors can apply at visit dillsboro.org or www.visitdillsboro.org/specialevents.html. 954.707.2004.
wnc calendar
• The Jackson County Arts Council will hold its annual membership meeting at 6:30 p.m. on April 27 in the Community Room of the Jackson County Library Complex in Sylva. 507.9820 or www.jacksoncountyartscouncil.org.
• Small Casserole Dishes, a class that allows students to create a variety of casserole dishes to take home, will be taught by Carmen Holland from 1-4 p.m. on Wednesdays from April 15-May 13, at Macon County Heritage School north of Franklin. $105 plus clay and tools. Preregister at 524.7690 or coweepotteryschool1@gmail.com.
April 26, 2015, '(#* fc >_]^bWdZ 8h[m[ho" 7i^[l_bb[" D9
CekdjW_d9^[[i[<[ij$Yec
49
wnc calendar
• An invasive plant species removal is set for 2-4:30 p.m. on April 21 at the Vance Street Park in Waynesville. Meet at pavilion on Richland Creek by the Waynesville Recreation Center.
• International Migratory Bird Day Celebration will be held from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. on April 25, at the Cradle of Forestry in America in Pisgah Forest. $5; 15-under free. 877.3130 or carlisle@cfaia.org.
• A senior engineering class from Georgia Tech will present their findings from a study on flooding along the Frank Allen Road area of Cashiers Creek at 9:30 a.m. April 21, at the Cashiers-Glenville Recreation Center.
• Boating safety courses will be offered by Haywood Community College’s Department of Arts, Sciences and Natural Resources and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commissioner from 6-9:30 p.m. on April 27 in Building 3300 on HCC’s campus. Free. Pre-registration required at www.ncwildlife.org.
• The Hunter Community Garden in Haywood County is accepting gardeners. $35 per plot. Sarah Scott at 456.3575.
• “Spring at Kituwah” bird walk led by naturalist Don Hendershot will be held April 27. Hendershot is a columnist for the Smoky Mountain News. 524.5234. Meet at 8 a.m. at Bi-Lo parking lot in Waynesville or at 8:30 a.m. at Huddle House in Dillsboro to carpool. 524.5234.
• “Get More From Your Vegetable Garden” will be the topic of a free program from 1-2 p.m. on April 23, at Waynesville Library Auditorium. 356.2507.
• A SolariseWNC public forum will be held at 7 p.m. on April 21, at the First United Methodist Church in Waynesville. Canary Coalition at 631.3447 or info@canarycoalition.org. • The Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage will be held April 21-25 in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Gatlinburg, Tenn. • A bird walk along the greenway will be held starting at 8 a.m. on April 22. Meet at Salali Lane. Parking is off Fox Ridge Road, just south of Franklin Flea Market on Highlands Road. http://franklinbirdclub.com/ or 524.5234. • “Bootleggers and Baptists in the Garden of Good & Evil” will be the subject of an Earth Day lecture presented by Bruce Yandle at 4:15 p.m. on April 22, at Western Carolina University’s Killian Building, Room 102. Free. ejlopez@wcu.edu. • “History of the Greenway” will be offered by Friends of the Greenway at 10 a.m. on April 23 at Big Bear Shelter. 369.9488. • A stream clean-up of Richland Creek is set for April 25. Meet in Bi-Lo parking lot in Waynesville. RSVP by April 23 to Christine O’Brien at Christine.haywoodwaterways@gmail.com or 476.4667. • Cheoah Ranger District is offering free camping, breakfasts and suppers to volunteers who participate in “Trail-A-Thon” trail maintenance week on April 1924. Dick and Margaret Evans at 479.2503 or bmta@frontier.com.
• The inaugural Gateway to the Smokies Half Marathon is set for May 2, in downtown Waynesville. All proceeds go toward an initiative to build a greenway along Richland Creek in Waynesville. Register by searching “Gateway to the Smokies” on www.active.com.
COMPETITIVE EDGE • Smoky Mountain Overnight Relay will be held on April 17-18. Teams comprised of six or 12 runners cover 212 miles of trails and country roads. 545.8156 or gavin.young@noc.com •Registration for Greening Up the Mountains 5K Run & Walk has begun. The event is April 25. Register at www.imathlete.com or at the Recreation Center in Cullowhee. $15 includes a short sleeve shirt. 293.3053, recjacksonnc.org. • The Nantahala Racing Club’s Slalom Series, an introduction to whitewater racing, is set for April 2526 at the Nantahala Outdoor Center. www.nantahalaracingclub.com.
• Registration is open for the 23rd Tour de Cashiers Mountain Cycling Experience, which is set for May 2. www.tourdecashiers.com.
FARM & GARDEN • A free, introductory class about Square-Foot Gardening is set for 5:30 p.m. on April 21, at the Canton Branch Library. 648.2924.
• A native plant sale is set for 9 a.m.-1 p.m. on April 25 at Corneille Bryan Native Garden in Lake Junaluska. 778.5938. • The Macon County Poultry Club meets the third Tuesday of each month at the Macon County Cooperative extension office in Franklin. 369.3916. • The Jackson County Poultry Club will hold its regular meeting on the third Thursday of each month at the Jackson County Cooperative Extension Office. 586.4009 or heather_gordon@ncsu.edu.
HIKING CLUBS • A 6.4-mile spring hike from Smokemont Campground to the Smokemont Loop near Cherokee is set for 9 a.m. on April 16. Meet at the General Store. • A four-mile Big Creek Spring Flower Hike is set for April 18, in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Must RSVP by April 16 to Christine.haywoodwaterways@gmail.com. • The Nantahala Hiking Club will take an easy-tomoderate hike, elevation change 600 ft., to High Falls/ Thurston Hatcher Falls in Jackson County on April 18.
• The Nantahala Hiking Club will take a moderate-tostrenuous 5-mile hike to Windy Falls on April 18. Elevation change is 700 ft. with steep descent the last ¼ mile. Mike Kettle, 743.1079, for reservations. • The Carolina Mountain Club will hold an 8.5-mile, all-day weekend hike starting at 8 a.m. on April 19. Jim Reel at 738.0751, 443.2532 or jimr57@yahoo.com. • The Nantahala Hiking Club will take an easy-onemile hike on April 19 around the lake at Black Rock Mt. State Park, drive up to the Visitor Center for views of Clayton and surrounding mountains and visit a small nature museum. Share a parking fee of $4. Meet at Westgate Plaza in Franklin at 2:00 p.m., drive 15 miles round trip. Kay Coriell, 369-6820, for reservations. • Bill and Sharon Van Horn will share tips for hikes around Franklin with a one-hour program at 6 p.m. April 22, at Macon County Public Library in Franklin. 524.3600. • Carolina Mountain Club will hold a 5.5 mile hike with a 1,000-foot ascent on April 22. Jack Fitzgerald at 685.2897 or suejackfitz@bellsouth.net. • The Nantahala Hiking Club will take a moderate-tostrenuous 9.5 mile hike, with an elevation change 1200 ft., on April 25, to Palmer Creek in the Smoky Mtns. Park in the Cataloochee area. Keith Patton, 456.8895. • The Nantahala Hiking Club will take a very strenuous 10.6 mile hike, elevation change of 2,700 ft., on April 25, to Cold Mountain in the Shining Rock Wilderness. Bill and Sharon Van Horn, 369.1983, for reservations. Limit of eight hikers. • Carolina Mountain Club will hold a 5.4-mile hike with a 750-foot ascent on April 26. For info, contact leader Bobbi Powers at 667.5419 or bobbipowers23@gmail.com.
Puzzles can be found on page 54.
April 15-21, 2015 Smoky Mountain News
Jody Burtner, 788.2985, for reservations. Hike limited to 10 people.
These are only the answers.
288-56
Great Smokies Storage a website to take you to places where there are no websites.
10’x20’
92
$
20’x20’
160
$
Log on. Plan a getaway. Let yourself unplug.
ONE MONTH
FREE WITH 12-MONTH CONTRACT
828.506.4112 or 828.507.8828 50
Conveniently located off 19/23 by Thad Woods Auction
PRIME REAL ESTATE Advertise in The Smoky Mountain News
LEGAL NOTICES
MarketPlace information:
H & M CONSTRUCTORS Is requesting bids from Certified Female Contractors/Suppliers and Certified Minority Contractors/Suppliers for the following project: Additions to East Elementary School, Swain County, North Carolina. Bids are requested by 12:00 pm, Tuesday, April 21, 2015. Plans are available for review at our office and/or FTP Website. See below for directions on how to access the website. Please respond to: 187 Deaverview Road, Asheville, NC 28806 (828) 254-6145 – Phone; (828) 254-8696 - Fax
The Smoky Mountain News Marketplace has a distribution of 16,000 every week to over 500 locations across in Haywood, Jackson, Macon, and Swain counties along with the Qualla Boundary and west Buncombe County. For a link to our MarketPlace Web site, which also contains a link to all of our MarketPlace display advertisers’ Web sites, visit www.smokymountainnews.com.
Rates:
■ Free — Lost or found pet ads. ■ $5 — Residential yard sale ads, ■ $5 — Non-business items that sell for less than $150. ■ $15 — Classified ads that are 50 words or less; each additional line is $2. If your ad is 10 words or less, it will be displayed with a larger type. ■ $3 — Border around ad and $5 — Picture with ad or colored background. ■ $50 — Non-business items, 25 words or less. 3 month or till sold. ■ $300 — Statewide classifieds run in 117 participating newspapers with 1.6 million circulation. Up to 25 words. ■ All classified ads must be pre-paid.
Open Internet Explorer In the “Address” line at the top of the screen type in: https://swft.exavault.com/login and then hit “Enter” The “Log On As” box appears: Username is: hmdrawings Password is: hmdrawings Click on “Log In”
Classified Advertising: Scott Collier, phone 828.452.4251; fax 828.452.3585 classads@smokymountainnews.com
WAYNESVILLE TIRE, COO
R
Di
sC Ov E R E
ATR
REQUEST FOR AUDIT PROPOSALS Mountain Projects, Inc. is seeking proposals for audit services for the 2015 to 2019 years from qualified CPA’s. Fiscal year ends June 30. Due date for proposals is April 30, 2015 at 3:00 pm. For additional information call the CFO at 828.452.1447, Ext. 104.
INC.
PE
Serving Haywood, Jackson & Surrounding Counties
ANNOUNCEMENTS
ARTS & CRAFTS Offering:
MAJOR-BRAND TIRES FOR CARS, LIGHT & MEDIUM-DUTY TRUCKS, AND FARM TIRES.
Service truck available for on-site repairs LEE & PATTY ENSLEY, OWNERS
MON-FRI 7:30-5:00 • WAYNESVILLE PLAZA
828-456-5387
ALLISON CREEK Iron Works & Woodworking. Crafting custom metal & woodwork in rustic, country & lodge designs with reclaimed woods! Design & consultation, Barry Downs 828.524.5763, Franklin NC
AUCTION 287-71
AUCTION RV's, Campers, Motorcycles, ATV's, Boats, Accepting Quality Consignments Daily April 17 @ 1pm, Richmond, VA. Motleys Asset Disposition Group, 804.232.3300x.4, motleys.com/industrial, VAAL#16.
AUCTION AUCTION Construction Equipment & Trucks, Excavators, Dozers, Dumps & More! April 23rd, 9 AM, Catlett, VA. Accepting Items Daily thru 4/17. Motleys Asset Disposition Group, 804.232.3300x.4, www.motleys.com/industrial, VAAL #16. HARPER’S AUCTION COMPANY Friday April 17th @ 6:00 p.m. Join Us for Another Great Auction Loads of Tools, Loads of Craft Items (Woodworking, Stained Glass, Fabric, Paints and a lot More), Furniture, Glass and Box Lots and So Much More!!! 47 Macon Center Dr. Franklin,NC 828.369.6999. Debra Harper, NCAL #9659, NCFL #9671. harpersauctioncompany.com ONLINE PREMIER AUCTION! Tues., Apr. 21, 4pm EST. Asian, Art, Glass, Coins, Sterling, Furniture, Jewelry, More! Preview Mon., Apr. 20, 3-7pm or by appointment. Shelley's Auction Gallery (NCAL6131) 429 N. Main St., Hendersonville, NC, J. Humphrey, Auctioneer (NCAL6556) www.shelleysauction.com 828.698.8485 REAL ESTATE AUCTION The Highlands Estate, Stanleytown, Virginia. Thurs., May 7, 4 pm. 13+/- acre English-style estate with a 4075± sq. ft., five-bedroom Flemish bond brick home constructed in 1938. The luxuriously appointed and meticulously maintained home has the original leaded glass windows, flooring, moldings, mantels and paneling. The spectacular professionally-designed gardens and home have been featured in the Virginia Historic Garden Week. Property also has woodlands and a small branch. The minimum bid is only $525,000. Address: 510 Edgewood Dr., Stanleytown, VA 24168. Contact Jonna McGraw (VA#2434), Woltz & Associates, Inc., Real Estate Brokers & Auctioneers (VA#321), 800.551.3588 or visit woltz.com.
AUCTION HOME IMPROVEMENT AUCTION Saturday, April 25 at 10am, 201 S. Central Ave., Locust, NC. Cabinet Sets, Doors, Carpet, Tile, Hardwood, Bath Vanities, Windows, Lighting, Patio Sets, Name Brand Tools. NC Sales Tax applies. www.ClassicAuctions.com 704.507.1449. NCAF5479
BUILDING MATERIALS HAYWOOD BUILDERS Garage Doors, New Installations Service & Repairs, 828.456.6051 100 Charles St. Waynesville Employee Owned.
CONSTRUCTION/ REMODELING ACORN STAIRLIFTS. The Affordable Solution to your stairs! **Limited time -$250 Off Your Stairlift Purchase!**Buy Direct & SAVE. Please call 1.800.211.9233 for FREE DVD and brochure. SAPA ALL THINGS BASEMENTY! Basement Systems Inc. Call us for all of your basement needs! Waterproofing, Finishing, Structural Repairs, Humidity and Mold Control. FREE ESTIMATES! Call 1.800.698.9217 DAVE’S CUSTOM HOMES OF WNC, INC Free Estimates & Competitive rates. References avail. upon request. Specializing in: Log Homes, remodeling, decks, new construction, repairs & additions. Owner/Builder: Dave Donaldson. Licensed/Insured. 828.631.0747 or 828.508.0316 ACORN STAIRLIFTS. The AFFORDABLE solution to your stairs! **Limited time -$250 Off Your Stairlift Purchase!** Buy Direct & SAVE. Please call 1.800.291.2712 for FREE DVD and brochure. SAFE STEP WALK-IN TUB. Alert for Seniors. Bathroom falls can be fatal. Approved by Arthritis Foundation. Therapeutic Jets. Less Than 4 Inch Step-In. Wide Door. Anti-Slip Floors. American Made. Installation Included. Call 800.807.7219 for $750 Off.
R
WNC MarketPlace
CONSTRUCTION/ REMODELING SULLIVAN HARDWOOD FLOORS Installation- Finish - Refinish 828.399.1847.
PAINTING JAMISON CUSTOM PAINTING & PRESSURE WASHING Interior, exterior, all your pressure washing needs and more. Specialize in Removal of Carpenter Bees - Cedar or Log Homes or Painted or Siding! Call or Text Now for a Free Estimate at 828.508.9727
CARS TOP CASH FOR CARS, Call Now For An Instant Offer. Top Dollar Paid, Any Car/Truck, Any Condition. Running or Not. Free Pick-up/Tow. 1.800.761.9396 SAPA
CARS -
EMPLOYMENT
DONATE YOUR CAR, Truck or Boat to Heritage for the Blind. Free 3 Day Vacation, Tax Deductible, Free Towing, All Paperwork Taken Care Of. 800.337.9038.
EMPLOYMENT $1,000 WEEKLY!! Mailing Brochures From Home. Helping home workers since 2001. Genuine Opportunity. NO Experience Required. Start Immediately. www.MailingMembers.com SAPA 25 DRIVER TRAINEES NEEDED! Become a driver for Stevens Transport! NO EXPERIENCE NEEDED! New drivers earn $800+ per week! PAID CDL TRAINING! Stevens covers all costs! 1.888.748.4137. drive4stevens.com
ATTN: DRIVERS $2K Sign-On Bonus $$ Make $55,000 your first year~ $$ Quality Equipment W/APU’s. Pet/Rider Program CDL-A Required 1.888.592.4752 www.drive4melton.mobi SAPA ASSOCIATE INNKEEPER BA in Hospitality, Business, Marketing or two years Hospitality Management Experience. The Chalet Inn, 828.586.0251 ParadiseFound@ChaletInn.com AVIATION GRADS Work With Jetblue, Boeing, Delta, And Others- Start Here With Hands On Training For FAA Certification. Financial Aid If Qualified. Call Aviation Institute Of Maintenance 1.866.724.5403 SAPA “CAN YOU DIG IT?” Heavy Equipment Operator Training! 3 Week Program. Bulldozers, Backhoes, excavators. Lifetime Job Placement Assistance with National Certifications. VA benefits Eligible! 1.866.985.1448. SAPA
www.smokymountainnews.com
April 15-21, 2015
CAN YOU DIG IT? Heavy Equipment Operator Career! Receive Hands On Training And National Certifications Operating Bulldozers, Backhoes & Excavators. Lifetime Job Placement. Veteran Benefits Eligible! 1.877.591.1544
COPPER A 3 YEAR OLD TREEING WALKER COONHOUND. HE IS SUCH A LOVE BUG, ALL HE WANTS TO DO IS ROLL OVER AND GET HIS BELLY SCRATCHED!
LITTLE ZIVA AND HER LITTERMATES ARE NOW FIVE WEEKS OLD, SO IN ABOUT 3 MORE WEEKS, THEY'LL BE READY TO ADOPT. WE HAVE SEVERAL LITTERS, SO APPLY NOW!
CNA NEEDED For On Call Position that includes administrative duties in the office. This is a full time position. Must be willing to travel throughout Jackson, Macon and Swain Counties as needed. CNA skills in home care a plus. Computer skills and knowledge of Microsoft Office products needed for administrative duties. Please apply at Home Care Partners, 525 Mineral Springs Drive, Sylva, NC 28779 or call Julie or Susan 828.586.1570 ATTN: DRIVERS $2K Sign-On Bonus $$ Make $55,000 your first year! $$ Quality Equipment w/APU's. Pet/Rider Program. CDL-A Req. 888.303.9731. www.drive4melton.mobi
Office and Retail Building for Lease
DRIVERS: CDL-A 1yr. exp. Earn $1200+ per week. Guaranteed Home Time. Excellent Benefits & Bonuses. 100% No-Touch, 70% D&H. 855.842.8498 FULL TIME ENERGETIC HOUSEKeeper. Saturday & Sundays required. The Chalet Inn, 828.586.0251 HOME TIME WEEKLY! Company & Owner Operators. Regional Lanes. Verifiable Experience, CDL-A. Apply: www.driveforbrown.com, Contact Doug: 704.927.6440 (Charlotte/Western NC) Bryan: 864.430.5235 (Eastern NC) NEED MEDICAL BILLING TRAINEES! Doctors & Hospitals need Medical Office Staff! NO EXPERIENCED NEEDED! Online Training gets you job ready! HS Diploma/GED & Computer needed. Careertechnical.edu/nc. 1.888.512.7122 THE NAVY IS HIRING Top-notch training, medical/dental, 30 days vacation/yr, $ for school. HS grads ages 17-34. Call Mon-Fri 800.662.7419 WANTED: LIFE AGENTS; Earn $500 A Day: Great Agent Benefits; Commissions Paid Daily; Liberal Underwriting; Leads, Leads, Leads; Life Insurance, License Required. Call 1.888.713.6020. WELDING CAREERS Hands on training for career opportunities in aviation, automotive, manufacturing and more. Financial aid for qualified students. Job placement assistance. Call AIM 877.206.4006. AIRLINE CAREERS BEGIN HERE Get started by training as FAA certified Aviation Technician. Financial aid for qualified students. Job placement assistance. Call Aviation Institute of Maintenance. 877.300.9494.
FINANCIAL BEWARE OF LOAN FRAUD. Please check with the Better Business Bureau or Consumer Protection Agency before sending any money to any loan company. SAPA FED UP WITH CREDIT CARD DEBT? Consolidated Credit Can Help Reduce Interest & Get You Out of Debt Faster. FREE Consultation. Call Now: 888.262.5339 SAPA REDUCE YOUR PAST TAX BILL By as much as 75 Percent. Stop Levies, Liens and Wage Garnishments. Call The Tax DR Now to see if you Qualify 1.800.396.9719 SELL YOUR STRUCTURED Settlement or annuity payments for CASH NOW. You don't have to wait for your future payments any longer! Call 1.800.316.0271. SOCIAL SECURITY Disability Benefits. Unable to work? Denied benefits? We Can Help! WIN or Pay Nothing! Contact Bill Gordon & Associates at 1.800.371.1734 to start your application today!
PETS HAYWOOD SPAY/NEUTER 828.452.1329
Prevent Unwanted Litters! The Heat Is On! Spay/Neuter For Haywood Pets As Low As $10. Operation Pit is in Effect! Free Spay/Neuter, Microchip & Vaccines For Haywood Pitbull Types & Mixes! Hours: Tuesday-Friday, 11 - 5 pm or by Apt. 182 Richland Street, Waynesville
NICOL ARMS APARTMENTS NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS Offering 1 & 2 Bedroom Apartments, Starting at $400
409 N. Haywood St. 2410 Sq.Ft. 12 parking spaces $2600 monthly for rent
419 N. Haywood St. 1780 Sq.Ft. 7 parking spaces $1500 monthly for rent
FURNITURE COMPARE QUALITY & PRICE Shop Tupelo’s, 828.926.8778. HAYWOOD BEDDING, INC. The best bedding at the best price! 533 Hazelwood Ave. Waynesville 828.456.4240
LAWN & GARDEN HEMLOCK HEALERS, INC. Dedicated to Saving Our Hemlocks. Owner/Operator Frank Varvoutis, NC Pesticide Applicator’s License #22864. 48 Spruce St. Maggie Valley, NC 828.734.7819 828.926.7883, Email: hemlockhealers@yahoo.com
HOMES FOR SALE FOR SALE BY OWNER Two Story House in Haywood Co. Master Bedroom, Living Room, Dining Room, Kitchen, Breakfast Nook, Family Room, 1 Full Bath, 2 Half Baths on First Floor. Second Floor Consists of 2 Bedrooms Bonus Room, TV/Computer Room 1 Full Bath and a Powder Room. 2-Car Enclosed Garage, Screened-In Back Porch and Large Front Porch. Approx. 3,196 sq. ft. on 4.5 acres. $527,500. Call 828.456.4468 or 828.400.0076 (cell).
REAL ESTATE ANNOUNCEMENT PUBLISHER’S NOTICE
Section 8 Accepted - Handicapped Accessible Units When Available
Call John Keith 828-550-2837 or Main Street Realty Waynesville 52
EMPLOYMENT
OFFICE HOURS: Tues. & Wed. 10:00am - 5:00pm & Thurs. 10:00am- 12:00pm 168 E. Nicol Arms Road Sylva, NC 28779
Phone# 1.828.586.3346 TDD# 1.800.725.2962 Equal Housing Opportunity
All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Fair Housing Act which makes it illegal to advertise “any preference, limitation or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin, or an intention, to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination” Familial status includes children under the age of 18 living with parents or legal custodians, pregnant women and people securing custody of children under 18 This newspaper will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate which is in violation of the law. All dwellings advertised on an equal opportunity basis. 67 ACRES CULLOWHEE Borders USFS, Includes 2/BR 2/BA 1,600 sq. ft. House & 480 sq. ft. Workshop. $399,000. www.918gapbranch.blogspot.com For More Details, or Call 828.586.0165 NEAR ASHEVILLE, NC. New custom built 1,328 sf log cabin on 2.2 ac. $79,900. Features mtn views, pict windows, loft, decks EZ to finish. 828.286.1666.
HOMES FOR SALE
VACATION RENTALS CAVENDER CREEK CABINS Dahlonega, GA. GAS TOO HIGH? Spend your vacation week in the North Georgia Mountains! Ask About Our Weekly FREE NIGHT SPECIAL! Virtual Tour: www.CavendarCreek.com Cozy Hot Tub Cabins! 1.866.373.6307 SAPA NORTH CAROLINA MOUNTAINS Spring Special. Stay 3 nights get the 4th night FREE! Call now. Rentals for all size families. Pets are welcome! Foscoe Rentals 1.800.723.7341. SAPA
STORAGE SPACE FOR RENT CLIMATE CONTROLLED STORAGE UNITS FOR RENT 1 Month Free with 12 Month Rental. Maggie Valley, Hwy. 19, 1106 Soco Rd. For more information call Torry
maggievalleyselfstorage.com GREAT SMOKIES STORAGE Conveniently located off 19/23 by Thad Woods Auction. Available for lease now: 10â&#x20AC;&#x2122;x10â&#x20AC;&#x2122; units for $55, 20â&#x20AC;&#x2122;x20â&#x20AC;&#x2122; units for $160. Get one month FREE with 12 month contract. Call 828.507.8828 or 828.506.4112 for more info.
MEDICAL
MEDICAL GUARDIAN Top-rated medical alarm and 24/7 medical alert monitoring. For a limited time, get free equipment, no activation fees, no commitment, a 2nd waterproof alert button for free and more - only $29.95 per month. 1.800.615.3868. ACORN STAIRLIFTS. The AFFORDABLE solution to your stairs! **Limited time -$250 Off Your Stairlift Purchase!** Buy Direct & SAVE. Please call 1.800.291.2712 for FREE DVD and brochure.
0DLQ /HYHO 2IÂżFH 5HWDLO QG /HYHO %' %$ $SW Z 2IÂżFH UG /HYHO %' %$ $SW
CHAMPION SUPPLY Janitorial supplies. Professional cleaning products, vacuums, janitorial paper products, swimming pool chemicals, environmentally friendly chemicals, indoor & outdoor light bulbs, odor elimination products, equipment repair including household vacuums. Free delivery across WNC. www.championsupply.com 800.222.0581, 828.225.1075.
%UXFH 0F*RYHUQ P F J R Y H U Q S UR S H U W \ P J W # J P D L O F R P
â&#x20AC;˘ Eugene L. Strickland â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Gene@4Smokys.com
Beverly Hanks & Associates â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘
DISH NETWORK Get MORE for LESS! Starting $19.99/month (for 12 months.) PLUS Bundle & SAVE (Fast Internet for $15 more/month.) CALL Now 1.800.405.5081.
SCOTTISH TARTANS MUSEUM 86 East Main St., Franklin, Open 10am- 5pm, Mon - Sat. Come & let us find your Scottish Connection! 828.584.7472 or visit us at: www.scottishtartans.org. SWITCH & SAVE EVENT From DirecTV! Packages starting at $19.99/mo. Free 3-Months of HBO, STARZ, SHOWTIME & CINEMAX. FREE GENIE HD/DVR Upgrade! 2015 NFL Sunday Ticket Included with Select Packages. New Customers Only. IV Support Holdings LLC. An authorized DirecTV Dealer. Some exclusions apply. Call for details. 1.800.849.3514
beverly-hanks.com Michelle McElroy â&#x20AC;&#x201D; beverly-hanks.com Marilynn Obrig â&#x20AC;&#x201D; beverly-hanks.com Mike Stamey â&#x20AC;&#x201D; beverly-hanks.com Ellen Sither â&#x20AC;&#x201D; beverly-hanks.com Brook Parrott â&#x20AC;&#x201D; beverly-hanks.com
Emerson Group â&#x20AC;˘ George Escaravage â&#x20AC;&#x201D; gke333@gmail.com 286-134
James R. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Randyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Flanigan Broker, Licensed Auctioneer, RealtorÂŽ
MAINSTREET REALTY Experienced in auctions, conventional listings and vacation home sales.
101 S. Main St. Waynesville Randy@Mainstreetrealty.net Cell:706.207.9436 Office:828.456.2227
ERA Sunburst Realty â&#x20AC;&#x201D; sunburstrealty.com Haywood Properties â&#x20AC;&#x201D; haywoodproperties.com â&#x20AC;˘ Steve Cox â&#x20AC;&#x201D; info@haywoodproperties.com Keller Williams Realty kellerwilliamswaynesville.com â&#x20AC;˘ Ron Kwiatkowski â&#x20AC;&#x201D; ronk.kwrealty.com
Mountain Home Properties mountaindream.com â&#x20AC;˘ Sammie Powell â&#x20AC;&#x201D; smokiesproperty.com
Main Street Realty â&#x20AC;&#x201D; mainstreetrealty.net
Committed to Exceeding Expectations
Marilynn Obrig
Residential Broker Associate
(828) 550-2810
mobrig@Beverly-Hanks.com
www.Beverly-Hanks.com
SCHOOLS/ INSTRUCTION
McGovern Real Estate & Property Management â&#x20AC;˘ Bruce McGovern â&#x20AC;&#x201D; shamrock13.com
Realty World Heritage Realty realtyworldheritage.com â&#x20AC;˘ Carolyn Lauter realtyworldheritage.com/realestate/viewagent/7766 â&#x20AC;˘ Martha Sawyer realtyworldheritage.com/realestate/viewagent/7769 â&#x20AC;˘ Linda Wester realtyworldheritage.com/realestate/viewagent/7771
RE/MAX â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Mountain Realty
COMPUTER CERTIFICATION ONLINE Train at home to become a Help Desk Professional or MCSA certified! NO EXPERIENCE NEEDED! Call CTI for details! 1.888.734.6712. Visit us online at MyCTI.TV EARN YOUR High School Diploma at home in a few short weeks. Work at your own pace. First Coast Academy. Nationally accredited. Call for free brochure. 1.800.658.1180, extension 82. www.fcahighschool.org SAPA
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Lifestyle Properties â&#x20AC;&#x201D; vistasofwestfield.com Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Great Smokys Realty â&#x20AC;&#x201D; BHHSGreatSmokysRealty.com
ENTERTAINMENT
GET THE BIG DEAL From DirecTV! Act Now- $19.99/mo Free 3-Months of HBO, STARZ, SHOWTIME & CINEMAX FREE GENIE HD/DVR Upgrade! 2014 NFL Sunday Ticket Included with Select Packages. New Customers Only IV Support Holdings LLC- An authorized DirecTV Dealer. Some exclusions apply - Call for details 1.800.413.9179 SAPA
Haywood County Real Estate Agents
â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘ â&#x20AC;˘
remax-waynesvillenc.com | remax-maggievalleync.com Brian K. Noland â&#x20AC;&#x201D; brianknoland.com Mieko Thomson â&#x20AC;&#x201D; ncsmokies.com The Morris Team â&#x20AC;&#x201D; maggievalleyproperty.com The Real Team â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the-real-team.com Ron Breese â&#x20AC;&#x201D; ronbreese.com Dan Womack â&#x20AC;&#x201D; womackdan@aol.com Catherine Proben â&#x20AC;&#x201D; cp@catherineproben.com
smokymountainnews.com
ATTENTION VIAGRA USERS: Viagra 100MG and Cialis 20 MG! 40 pills + 4 Free, Only $99. No prescription needed! Satisfaction Guaranteed! 1.800.491.8751 SAPA
April 15-21, 2015
828.734.6500, 828.734.6700
BORING/CARPENTER BEE TRAPS No Chemicals, Poisons or Anything to Harm the Environment. Handmade in Haywood County. 1 for $20, 2 or More for $15 each. 828.593.8321
WNC MarketPlace
BRUCE MCGOVERN A Full Service Realtor shamrock13@charter.net McGovern Property Management 828.283.2112.
$FURVV IURP &RXUWKRXVH LQ :D\QHVYLOOH
MERCHANDISE
The Sellerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Agency â&#x20AC;&#x201D; listwithphil.com â&#x20AC;˘ Phil Ferguson â&#x20AC;&#x201D; philferguson@bellsouth.net 288-19
find us at: facebook.com/smnews
TO ADVERTISE IN THE NEXT ISSUE 828.452.4251 | ads@smokymountainnews.com
53
www.smokymountainnews.com
April 15-21, 2015
WNC MarketPlace
Super
54
CROSSWORD
74 Assembly with all members present 76 Language of Bangkok ACROSS 77 Pastor’s talk 1 Musical pace 79 WASHINGTON 6 - -you note 82 Wren’s home 11 Looker’s leg 83 “Mike & Molly” airer 14 LaBelle with a 86 Adams of photography Grammy 87 Small carpet 19 Oak seed 89 “Ulysses” star Milo 20 Perfume queen 91 Cumulative pay abbr. Lauder 93 JEAN 21 Pal, to Gigi 97 Cuba’s Fidel 22 One of the Three 101 Some jeans, familiarMusketeers ly 23 LOUIS 105 “No, mein Herr” 26 Painter Dufy 106 Peruvian of long ago 27 Co. heads 107 CONAN 28 Zero in (on) 29 What a white flag sig- 109 Tropical grassy plains nifies 111 Kettle output 30 Speed 112 Brand of fat replacer 35 LLOYD 37 Make - out of (tough- 113 University in North Carolina en up) 114 1836 siege setting 38 Jogger’s gait 115 CARLOS 39 Pre- - (bump, so to 122 Justice Ruth speak) Ginsburg 40 Candle blowers’ 123 Highway with a no. secrets 124 Leek relative 41 CAROL 44 Caesar of old comedy 125 With 59-Down, crude oil, in slang 45 Severe 126 Deep pit 46 Hides from view 127 Sun - -sen 51 Swan’s kin 128 “- Hope” (old ABC 56 Copy a bunny soap) 57 “Nuts” director 129 Build, as a building Martin 61 CHRISTIAN DOWN 63 Pep rally cry 65 Tarot card reader, e.g. 1 Paving gunk 2 Prefix with car or war66 Singer Donny rior 67 Folk knowledge 3 Unruly throng 70 JESSICA 4 District police station 73 In the matter of TAKING OUT THE MIDDLE
5 How right turns are often allowed 6 Mosaic tile 7 DDE’s forerunner 8 Lunched, e.g. 9 It’s east of Calif. 10 Painter Georgia O’11 It’s removed for a fillup 12 Total number 13 Capital of Belarus 14 Pheasants’ cousins 15 1980s video game consoles 16 Despite the fact that 17 “Clever comeback!” 18 Florida keys, e.g. 24 The Lone Ranger’s companion 25 Par for the course 30 Hindu prince 31 Mobil rival 32 Settle the tab 33 Boozing sort 34 Fr. ladies with haloes 36 Early 20th-cen. conflict 42 Architect Saarinen 43 “Stop talking!” 44 IRS ID 47 More like a hoarse voice 48 High on the draft list 49 Online folks 50 Grow dim 52 Financial tipster Suze 53 Bears, in Buenos Aires 54 Faxed, say 55 Prefix with spore 58 Response to “Who’s there?” 59 See 125-Across 60 Dentists scrape it off 62 Houses for students
63 Music style 64 Skier Phil 67 Women’s links org. 68 Steinhauer who wrote the 2009 bestseller “The Tourist” 69 Antique cars 71 “- Nagila” 72 Sooner than 75 Nasty bits of dirt 78 Nebraska Sioux 80 Ill-bred guy 81 Barbecue spice mix 83 Beijing’s land 84 Judge’s seat 85 Epic tales 88 Cotton deseeders 90 Less chubby 92 Ontario’s capital, on scoreboards 94 Grassland 95 Resident maids 96 Wholly 97 Melon type 98 Place to sculpt in school, say 99 Dependable 100 English river 101 “Blaze” actress Davidovich 102 Tennis shoe hole 103 Israel’s flag carrier 104 12th grader 108 Bride’s property 110 Nick of “Cape Fear” 116 - old way 117 Actress Wasikowska 118 Gained 119 Firefighter’s tool 120 Freddie 121 Onetime jet-set jet
answers on page 50
PERSONAL A UNIQUE ADOPTIONS, Let Us Help! Personalized Adoption Plans. Financial Assistance, Housing, Relocation And More. Giving The Gift Of Life? You Deserve The Best. Call Us First! 1.888.637.8200. 24 hour HOTLINE. SAPA HERO MILES To find out more about how you can help our service members, veterans and their families in their time of need, visit the Fisher House website at www.fisherhouse.org SAPA STRUGGLING WITH DRUGS Or Alcohol? Addicted to PILLS? Talk to someone who cares. Call The Addiction Hope & Help Line for a free assessment. 800.511.6075. SAPA YOUR AD COULD REACH 1.6 MILLION HOMES ACROSS NC! Your classified ad could be reaching over 1.6 Million Homes across North Carolina! Place your ad with The Smoky Mountain News on the NC Statewide Classified Ad Network- 118 NC newspapers for a low cost of $330 for 25-word ad to appear in each paper! Additional words are $10 each. The whole state at your fingertips! It's a smart advertising buy! Call Scott Collier at 828.452.4251 or for more information visit the N.C. Press Association's website at www.ncpress.com
PERSONAL A CHILDLESS MARRIED COUPLE Seeks to adopt. Will be hands-on mom/work-from-home dad. Financial security. Expenses PAID. Lucy & Adam 1.844.275.0355. SAPA A LOVING, HANDS-ON, Childless couple seeks to adopt. Warm, laughter filled home. Financial security. Expenses PAID. Judi & Jamie at 1.888.492.6077 SAPA MAKE A CONNECTION. Real People, Flirty Chat. Meet singles right now! Call LiveLinks. Try it FREE. Call now 1.888.909.9978 18+. SAPA
SERVICES *REDUCE YOUR CABLE BILL* Get a 4-Room All-Digital Satellite system installed for FREE! Programming starting at $19.99/MO. FREE HD/DVR upgrade for new callers. CALL NOW 1.800.795.1315 SAPA DISH TV RETAILER - SAVE! Starting $19.99/month (for 12 months.) FREE Premium Movie Channels. FREE Equipment, Installation & Activation. CALL, COMPARE LOCAL DEALS! 1.800.351.0850. SAPA MEDICAL GUARDIAN Top-rated medical alarm and 24/7 medical alert monitoring. For a limited time, get free equipment, no activation fees, no commitment, a 2nd waterproof alert button for free and more - only $29.95 per month. 1.800.615.3868.
SERVICES LITTLE BUCKS CLEANING SERVICE Serving Western North Carolina! Commercial Cleaning, NC Licensed Bonded & Insured. We Clean... So You Don’t Have Too! Call for more information
828.371.1371 DISH TV Starting at $19.99/month (for 12 mos.) SAVE! Regular Price $34.99 Call Today and Ask About FREE SAME DAY Installation! CALL Now! 1.855.866.9941. SAPA GET THE BIG DEAL From DirecTV! Act Now- $19.99/mo Free 3-Months of HBO, STARZ, SHOWTIME & CINEMAX FREE GENIE HD/DVR Upgrade! 2014 NFL Sunday Ticket Included with Select Packages. New Customers Only IV Support Holdings LLC- An authorized DirecTV Dealer. Some exclusions apply - Call for details 1.800.413.9179 SAPA SWITCH & SAVE EVENT From DirecTV! Packages starting at $19.99/mo. Free 3-Months of HBO, STARZ, SHOWTIME & CINEMAX. FREE GENIE HD/DVR Upgrade! 2015 NFL Sunday Ticket Included with Select Packages. New Customers Only. IV Support Holdings LLC. An authorized DirecTV Dealer. Some exclusions apply. Call for details. 1.800.849.3514
WEEKLY SUDOKU Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each small 9-box square contains all of the numbers from one to nine. Answers on Page 50
The naturalist’s corner BY DON H ENDERSHOT
The swamp a ghost saved ay! Spring break! That special time to be sequestered with adolescents and/or pre-adolescents in about 50 square feet while hurtling down the highway at 70 m.p.h. “What?” “Take the ear buds out.” “What?” “He said you have ear bugs.” “I do not have ear bugs, and nobody asked you.” “Who needs to pee?” “What?” “He said move your knee.” “Daddy, tell her to leave my knee alone.” And so it goes, that wonderful non sequitur called family time. School had a noon dismissal on the Friday preceding spring break. Our ultimate destination was Cumberland Island National Seashore, but we thought we would take advantage of the early dismissal and breakup the six to seven hour drive. We decided to drive just beyond Columbia, South Carolina, and take a short side trip to Congaree National Park. It was a wonderful
Y
decision. Congaree is about 26,000 acres of bottomland hardwood floodplain adjacent to the Congaree and Wateree rivers. More than 11,000 acres of Congaree are classified as old growth – make that tall old growth. Sometimes characterized as the tallest bottomland hardwood forest on the planet, Congaree is home to 15 “tallest” species records — they include a 167-foot tall loblolly pine, 157-foot sweetgum, 154-foot cherrybark oak, 135-foot American elm, 133-foot chestnut oak, 131-foot overcup oak, a possum-dizzying 127-foot persimmon and a 125-foot laurel oak. The park is home to 81 species of trees. We didn’t have time for an extended trek in the park, but that was OK because the wonder begins as soon as one walks into the forest. We did a loop, between two and three miles, starting and ending at the Harry Hampton Visitor Center. Part of the hike was on boardwalks through the swamp and part on a sandy/loamy trail through the woods. Hundred-foot tall loblolly pines were within a stone’s throw of the visitor center and before we knew it we were among large bald cypresses — their knees surrounding them like an army of minions — and big-
buttressed tupelo gums were rising from the frequently flooded earth. My Loosiana soul was glowing, I was home. And if I needed any convincing, the cottonmouth we saw cruising up Weston Lake, riding high in the water, fat triangular head raised, tongue flicking, checking out it’s surroundings sealed the deal. And Congaree was in line to follow the fate of the bottomland hardwoods of northeastern Louisiana where I grew up. The chainsaws were gassed and oiled, engines revving when, in 1971, a young lawyer, state representative and environmental activist (my how times have changed) named Alex Sanders invited other environmentalists, members of the media and an Audubon representative to meet him for a tour of Congaree. According to Dick McMichael, a news journalist working for WIS-TV in Columbia, in his book The Newsman: “We came to a predetermined spot in the swamp and all outboard motors stopped and everyone was told to be real quiet. All of a sudden we heard the recording of the Ivorybilled Woodpecker crashing the silence. Then we heard all sorts of birdcalls coming back to us. Out of that symphony of swamp birds, the Audubon Society declared that he heard the vory-billed woodpecker answering back. I was in another boat shooting the event with a sixteen-millimeter Bolex movie camera. My audio recorder was running when the bird racket broke out. Alex, who could see the bird man’s face from his boat, said that tears rolled down
his cheeks as he claimed he had heard the bird. After we got back to the boat dock, I interviewed the expert and Alex. Monday night the report ran. Timbering in the Santee Swamp stopped.” Jack Hitt wrote a piece for the New York Times in May 2012, reflecting on ivorybilled woodpecker claims after the mysterious disappearance of any ivory-billed signs following the mysterious announcement by
Bald cypress and tupelo gum at Congaree. wikimedia commons photo
Cornell Lab of Ornithology that the ivorybill had been rediscovered in Arkansas — in the piece, he said he asked Sanders abut the bird’s whereabouts and Sanders replied, “I don’t know where he is now, but I know where he was when we needed him.” In a couple of weeks before returning to the Nantahala and Pisgah national forests, we will look at another unique forest type — the maritime forest of Cumberland Island National Seashore. (Don Hendershot is a writer and naturalist. He can be reached a ddihen1@bellsouth.net.) 288-64
April 15-21, 2015
Bill focuses on a holistic approach and specializes in:
We are excited to now have Bill Morris, pharmacist & nutritionist with us full time! Fibromyalgia Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Adrenal Fatigue Sub-Clinical Hypothyroidism Osteo & Rheumatoid Arthritis Gout ADDHD Poor Immune System/Shingles Ulcerative Colitis Acne Pain Relief
Smoky Mountain News
• • • • • • • • • • •
366 RUSS AVE | WAYNESVILLE | 828.452.0911 BiLo Shopping Center Find us on facebook: www.facebook.com/kimspharmacy
55
Ken Wilson Ford
Smoky Mountain News
April 15-21, 2015
Canton NC â&#x20AC;˘ I-40 at Exit 31
2015 Ford Fusion Lease this vehicle for NC1179
$
298
2015 Ford Escape Lease this vehicle for N1477
2015 Ford Mustang
338
Lease this vehicle for NC1129
per month
per month
Featuring: 1.5L I4 EcoBoost Engine, Reverse Sensing System, Rear View Camera, Bluetooth Phone Remote Keyless Entry, EPA Estimated Fuel Economy 24-City / 36-Highway / 28-Combined Plus tax, tag, and registration Security Deposit Waived $439 due at signing 36 month lease
$
Featuring: 1.6L I4 EcoBoost Engine, Intelligent 4WD, Rear View Camera, Bluetooth Phone, Remote Keyless Entry EPA Estimated Fuel Economy 22-City / 29-Highway / 25-Combined Plus tax, tag & registration Security Deposit Waived. $489 Due at Signing, 36 Month Lease
349
per month
Featuring: 2.3L I4 EcoBoost Engine, Intelligent Access Key , Push Button Start, Rear View Camera, Bluetooth Phone EPA Estimated Fuel Economy 22-City / 31-Highway / 26-Combined Plus tax, tag & registration Security Deposit Waived. $447 Due at Signing, 36 Month Lease
I-40 EXIT 31, CANTON, NC
828-648-2313 1-800-532-4631 www.kwford.com kenwilsonford@kwford.com
56
$
Dealer retains all factory rebates. Leases based on 10,500 miles per year. Must finance with Ford Credit. Offers with approved credit. Not all buyers will qualify. Sale prices: NC1179 - $25,667; N1477 - $27,612; NC1129 - $26,078. Due to advertising guidelines, some vehicles may be sold. Offers valid through April 30, 2015. Fuel Economy ratings are estimates only; actual fuel economy may vary. See dealer for details.