13 minute read
Swain commissioner candidates weigh in on affordable housing
BY KYLE PERROTTI NEWS EDITOR
Swain County’s Board of Commissioners will have two new members this year, at least one of whom will emerge from the upcoming Republican Primary Election.
This year, incumbent commissioner Kevin Seagle is vacating his seat to run for the Chairman of the Commissioners against Democrat Ben Bushyhead, who currently holds it. In addition, Democrat Roger Parsons is retiring at the end of his current term, so his seat will be open. Facing off in the General Election against the lone Democrat, Deborah Smith, will be the top two vote-getters between Republicans Isaac Herrin, Donna Cole, David Loftis and Phillip Carson.
The only candidate who’s run for any political office in the past is Carson, who has even served on the commission in the past, including two terms as chairman. He also ran again in 2020 but lost in the General Election. Carson ran every race prior to 2022 as a Democrat but is running as a Republican this go-round. Carson did not respond to requests for an interview.
COMMON CONCERN
When asked what the key issue facing Swain County is, each candidate interviewed went immediately to affordable housing, noting that while tourism is an essential industry and they welcome visitors, the housing market has become slim as prices climb and properties get snatched up within days of going on the market.
“I remember when Deep Creek was all farmland and when you went up Alarka you were way out in the country,” Loftis said.
Herrin made a point of defending the tourism industry — an industry that allows many Swain County businesses to thrive.
“The number one thing that happens is when we’re short on money, we attack our tourism industry,” he said. “I have a hard time with that.”
However, Herrin said he still realizes the nature of the bigger problems that have come with the lack of affordable housing.
“People that are making above the median income are still having a hard time finding a place to live,” he said.
Cole differed slightly, noting that while she doesn’t think tourism is inherently bad, she believes county government has focused too much on out-of-towners.
“In Swain County, we absolutely need to start focusing on our local residents more than we do the tourism,” she said. “We are becoming totally tourism and the prices are high and things are just getting out of hand for locals out here working on a daily basis in a low wage community to afford to be able to live here.”
While the candidates seem to have similar views on some specific issues, their backgrounds vary greatly.
DAVID LOFTIS
Loftis, 61, owns the Nantahala Village Riding Stable. He spoke with pride regarding his family’s ownership of that business over the years.
“The Lord’s been good to us,” he said.
Loftis acknowledged that his business thrives when tourism is strong and said he welcomed everyone, but he also lamented that out-of-towners have moved in and “reaped the harvest” of the hard work locals have put in building Swain County up to what it is.
“I believe the people that’s lived here generation after generation are getting an unfair shake,” Loftis said.
“The more the merrier, but we have to watch what we do. We don’t want our town to be a Gatlinburg,” he added.
Loftis admitted that he’s “not a politician” and hasn’t ever had a desire to run for public office but noted that after some prayer, he felt called to run.
“I’m a religious man, and if the good Lord wants me to have it, I’ll be a commissioner,” he said. “And if I lose, he knows I don’t need it anyway.”
“I will do the very best I can for every citizen of Swain County. I want to keep our living expenses low,” he added. “I would like to see our kids be able to buy an acre of land to live on. I would like to get our small town feel back.”
ISAAC HERRIN
At 26, Herrin is the youngest of the bunch by a good deal but has been involved in regional politics since 2016.
“I founded the college Republicans at Western Carolina University, and that kind of sparked an interest in working in the Republican Party a little deeper,” he said. Herrin served as the vice chair of the district party from 2017-21 before choosing not to run for a third term in that role. He said he shifted his attention toward running for office in his home county.
“I wanted to focus local,” he said. “I wanted to kind of work on how I can help where I live more so than the whole region.”
Being the only candidate with a background in real estate, Herrin said he felt qualified to bring the issue of affordable housing to the forefront as a commissioner.
“It is a real problem. You hear stories from the education system in our county where we have teachers having to drive in from 30-minute commutes to make less money than they could at other schools,” he said, adding that other public servants, such as those in law enforcement, face similar issues. “But I believe we can put a dent in it.”
Affordable housing is a focus for Herrin, who currently serves on the county’s affordable housing committee, but he also had another general concern. He said he’s taken issue with the county’s “wasteful spending” that doesn’t go to “improve everyday lives of people who live here year-round.”
Isaac Herrin
DONNA COLE
In her interview with The Smoky Mountain News, Cole, 67, focused largely on how her faith influences her life and how it would guide her in her decisions as a commissioner.
“I am a Christian, but no the word Christian means Christlike and I’m not that, I’m striving to be a Christian,” she said. Cole said that she was “semi-retired” but spends three days every week at the Cherokee Justice Center in the kitchen cooking for inmates.
“I find it very interesting,” she said. “It gives me a chance to witness to these young men and grandmother them.”
Cole also occasionally cooks for the folks living at Hope Springs Eternal, a residential faith-based facility that serves men in recovery who are looking to transition back into society after battling addiction.
“We’ve had young men come out of this place who’ve married local women, and now they’re holding jobs and having babies and doing well,” she said.
Cole said that while she’s never wanted to run for office up to this point, she feels that the times have called her to jump into this race. She noted that while tourism is needed, locals have been neglected.
Now she’s looking for a chance to serve the community that’s given her so much in an even greater way.
“I’m not native to Swain County, but I have lived here for 30 years,” she said. “The community has been wonderful to me in hard times, like when I had breast cancer and my husband had a stroke … I owe these people.”
Donna Cole
WNC Civil War Roundtable presents talk on the Civil War
The Western NC Civil War Roundtable will begin its 2022 series of programs in person on Monday, May 9, at 7 p.m. with Dr. Aaron Astor speaking about the Civil War as it occurred along the North Carolina and Tennessee border. The program will take place at the Haywood County Library in Waynesville at 678 S. Haywood St. It is free and open to the public.
Aaron Astor will explore how the Civil War along the border of Tennessee and North Carolina grew to become another front in the overall conflict. As East Tennessee was successfully occupied by Union armies during 1863, this changed the dynamic for those supporting the confederacy in western North Carolina. Cross border raids, escapees from prisoner of war camps, enslaved people seeking freedom, and general economic deprivation for residents on both sides of the geographic boundary are all aspects of this conflict brought down to the local level.
Dr. Astor is an associate professor of history at Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee, where he has lived and taught since 2007. Astor earned his PhD in history at Northwestern University in 2006. He has served as the president of the East Tennessee Civil War Alliance and on the board of the Tennessee Civil War Preservation Association, Blount County Historical Museum and the Blount Historic Trust. Astor has written extensive articles and published two books including Rebels Along the Border: Civil War, Emancipation, and the Reconstruction of Kentucky and Missouri.
The WNC Civil War Roundtable meetings will continue in person on June 13 at 7 pm with Dr. Philip Gerard who will share material from his recent book, The Last Battleground: The Civil War Comes to North Carolina. On July 11, the Roundtable will welcome Dr. Steve Nash who will speak about Reconstruction in western North Carolina.
More information on these programs can be found at wnccwrt.com.
BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER
Since July 2021, institutions across the University of North Carolina system have been experiencing massive increases in employee turnover — and Western Carolina University is no exception.
“WCU has experienced an increase in turnover similar to what has been documented across the UNC System,” said WCU Associate Vice Chancellor for Human Resources and Payroll Cory Causby. “For the period of July 2021 to January 2022, the number of voluntary turnovers has nearly doubled when compared to the prior fouryear average.”
The category of “voluntary turnover” does not include retirements, deaths, disability or employer-driven separations such as firing or labor force reductions. It refers specifically to employee-driven separations such as resignations, including transfers to other institutions.
“The system office staff attributes a great deal of this to the COVID-19 event and the so-called ‘Great Resignation,’ which is a nationwide challenge for many private and public-sector employers,” Kellie Hunt Blue, who chairs the UNC Board of Governors Committee on Personnel and Tenure, said during the board’s April 7 meeting in Cullowhee. “While it is not clear how long these trends will continue, it is an area of great concern to our UNC system human
resources professionals, and we’ll be monitoring it very closely.”
Over the four-year period spanning fiscal years 2017 through 2021, system-wide rates for faculty and staff ran slightly lower than the median benchmark of 9.4% for public institutions set by the College and University Personnel Association. At WCU, turnover was below that figure for all four years save for fiscal year 2021, when it drew even. Systemwide, turnover dropped significantly for the first five months of the pandemic and then remained consistent with previous years until June 2021. That’s when it began to increase dramatically. While the fouryear average for July through January was 2,467 system-wide separations, July 2021 through January 2022 yielded 4,155 separations — a 68% increase. The surge affected both faculty and staff positions, though the increase was higher among staff positions, where turnover came in 69% above the four-year average as opposed to 61% for faculty positions.
During a press conference after the April 7 meeting, UNC System President Peter Hans said his office recognizes the pressures inflation is placing on employees and is advocating for higher salaries.
“We were successful in advocating for a 5% increase in salaries for faculty and staff in the legislative session that concluded last November,” he said. “But when inflation is running close to 8%, obviously that’s a challenge for us.”
However, the turnover surge is not just about salary. According to a report prepared for the Committee on Personnel and Tenure, the pandemic’s impacts on workforce include not only voluntary job changes and retirements, but also parents temporarily leaving the workforce to care for school-age children due to ongoing childcare challenges.
“These trends are not unique to the university and employers in many sectors are experiencing substantial and transformational workforce challenges, including widespread expectations for continued teleworking arrangements by employees,” the report reads.
Tribal LLC pursuing bid for two new casinos
BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER
In a special-called meeting Wednesday, April 13, Tribal Council approved a plan from EBCI Holdings, Inc., to bid on an opportunity to build two new out-of-state casinos.
That’s according to reporting from The Cherokee One Feather, which was able to view and report on the meeting despite it not being advertised ahead of time or broadcast via livestream, as is typically the case for Tribal Council meetings. Tribal offices were closed April 14-18 for the Easter holiday.
The One Feather reported that the resolution EBCI Holdings proposed passed by a vote of 8-2, with Wolfetown Reps. Bill Taylor and Bo Crowe opposed and Cherokee County/Snowbird Rep. Adam Wachacha and Big Cove Rep. Teresa McCoy absent.
The resolution outlines a “new business and investment opportunity” dubbed Project Thoroughbred, in which EBCI Holdings would make a “relatively modest” investment of $25 million for an equity stake of about 44% in expanded commercial gaming interests. If EBCI Holdings is selected as the winning bidder, the resolution states, it will make a deposit from its own accounts of about $2.5 million. Then, the tribe will provide $25 million from its endowment and investment accounts — plus or minus 10% — “all or a portion of which will be contributed or otherwise invested, directly or indirectly, in the Project, which is calculated at this time to provide a 44% equity stake.”
The total cost of the project is estimated at $90 million, with EBCI Holdings planning to obtain about $62 million in debt financing, guaranteed by the tribe.
According to The One Feather’s reporting from the April 13 meeting, the project would involve building and owning two new casinos. The resolution did not specify a revenue allocation plan. Council could later vote to roll proceeds into per capita payments or designate them for some other use, The One Feather reported.
The meeting came less than a week after Tribal Council’s regular monthly meeting, but members did not know about the proposal until April 12, the day before the special-called meeting, the resolution stated. The One Feather reported that Secretary of Finance Cory Blankenship, who is also a board member of EBCI Holdings, stated that EBCI Holdings had been working on the project for 10 days before the April 13 meeting.
“Due to the short time between when EBCI Holdings, LLC first learned of the opportunity and the impending deadline for submitting a bid, EBCI Holdings, LLC was first able to discuss the Project with Tribal leaders at the conclusion of the Business Committee meeting held on April 12, 2022,” the resolution states. “The Tribal leaders present at the time were the Principal Chief, Vice Chief, the Chairman and Vice Chairman of Tribal Council and most Tribal Council members.”
EBCI Holdings was created in December 2020 during another special-called Tribal Council meeting in which major spending decisions were made in an off-air discussion. At that time, Council approved the controversial decision to purchase casino operations — though not the property itself — at Caesars Southern Indiana Casino for $250 million. The LLC was created to oversee the operation and serve as a vehicle to reinvest profits into additional commercial gaming enterprises in the future — such as the one Tribal Council voted on last week.
JustDoOils.com
