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

May 18-24, 2016 Vol. 17 Iss. 51

Rangers euthanize bear after hiker bitten Page 4 Relaxing in the wilds of the Ecuadorian jungle Page 34

CONTENTS

STAFF

On the Cover: Downtown Sylva has been transformed into Ebbing, Missouri, for its role in a big-budget film currently being shot in the county seat of Jackson County that stars Francis McDormand, Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell, among others. Downtown has been taken over by the filming, but locals are taking it all in stride as some work as extras and others hangout hoping to catch a glimpse of the celebrities. (Pages 6-9) Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell tussle on Sylva’s Main Street during filming for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” Photo by Kelly Donaldson, Jackson County Chamber of Commerce

News Cherokee decides to use reserves to pay off massive debt ..................................3 Hiker attack on A.T. prompts rangers to euthanize suspected bear ....................4 Improving economy takes pressure off Haywood’s budget ................................10 Time to vote — again — in congressional primary ....................................................12 Haywood’s model dropout prevention program saved ..........................................14 Waynesville prepares ordinance for food trucks ......................................................16

Opinion Have we reached the “who cares” point for legal pot? ........................................20

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Tales from the Ecuadorian jungle ..................................................................................34

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Cherokee pays off millions of debt

After opening an $82 million hospital in October 2015, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians voted to pay off all remaining debt for the hospital, as well as for its wastewater treatment plant, in a lump sum to the tune of $96 million. Holly Kays photo

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I wouldn’t have been doing that,” Jones said.

Lossiah made a similar observation, but both she and Jones acknowledged that, as interest rates are wont to change without warning, it’s not necessarily a bad plan to go ahead and pay the loan off, either.

“You will have more money in the end once these loans are paid off if you leave it in there and pay it on the payment plan,” she

“We’ve been able to pay off our school system, now a hospital and a wastewater treatment plant that will take us 20 years down the road. We are a very fortunate group of people.”

— Principal Chief Patrick Lambert

said, “but based on our work sessions we also have to incorporate the possibility of volatility on our investment.”

As far as the withdrawal from the debt sinking fund goes, Jones agreed, “it’s kind of a wash.”

And the overall impact of dissipating the tribe’s debt, all councilmembers agreed — even those who voted against the resolution — is nothing if not positive.

“I feel very secure that the tribe is in a very

Smoky Mountain News

councilmembers saw merit in keeping up the slower, steadier pace of debt payoff.

Ultimately, two of them — Vice Chairman Brandon Jones, of Snowbird, and Councilmember Anita Lossiah, of Yellowhill — stuck with their opposition to the resolution, voting against its passage.

“I’m totally for paying off the debt,” Jones said. “The reason I didn’t support it was because the budget stabilization fund was set up so that if we had lean times again we would have a fallback plan. I didn’t agree with using that money to pay off the debt.”

The resolution essentially wiped out the budget stabilization fund, transferring the $66 million in that account to the debt service sinking fund. Combined with $30 million from the debt service fund, that made the $96 million needed to pay off the debt.

“Now we don’t have any reserves for a rainy day,” Jones said.

However, a vote to increase the floor for the debt service sinking fund could help allay that concern. Council unanimously approved a resolution from Councilmember Tommye Saunooke, of Painttown, to increase the required minimum for the account from $25 million to $100 million. That money could, conceivably, be used in case of emergency.

There were also some questions about the wisdom of depleting the debt service sinking account itself. With a current interest rate of 7.2 percent, Jones said, the account earned enough interest to make the scheduled payments on the hospital and wastewater treatment plant without depleting the principal.

“If it was my personal money in the bank

May 18-24, 2016

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER massive load of debt left the shoulders of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians last week following enactment of legislation to pay off $96 million in loans accrued for the new Cherokee Indian Hospital and the tribe’s wastewater treatment plant.

“It’s a pretty exciting time,” said Principal Chief Patrick Lambert, who introduced the legislation. “It’s something that I always wanted to Patrick Lambert try to get accomplished on behalf of the tribe and I knew coming into office that would be one of my top priorities.”

On May 10, Lambert and Tribal Council Chairman Bill Taylor, of Wolfetown, signed the official papers to pay the $70 million left on the hospital loan and the $26 million remaining on the wastewater treatment plant loan.

“This is a very big day for the tribe,” Taylor said. “A very big day.”

Councilmembers had nothing but positive, hopeful comments to cap off the signing, but the road to a decision was anything but smooth. It came after months of discussion and disagreement and consensus.

“We had some pretty hard discussions on this from the beginning,” said Councilmember Travis Smith, of Birdtown.

Cherokee tribal members often talk about the debt and a desire to reduce it, but some

strong financial position right now,” Lossiah agreed. “We are all very fortunate to be here.”

And while you could make the argument that current interest rates make maintaining debt more lucrative than paying it off, Lambert said, at the end of the day the tribe is a government, not a business. Getting out of debt should be the goal.

“If I’m a private business owner, perhaps I could think that way, but we’re here to take the security and safety of our tribal members,” he said. “Getting us out of debt adds to that safety and security.”

That’s a sentiment shared by many tribal members, said Councilmember Alan “B” Ensley, of Yellowhill.

“Even though it might be prudent to take the revenue off the investment,” he said, “they (tribal members) still feel like if we can pay something off and put it in the tribe’s hands, that’s something we ought to do.”

“This was a good time to do it,” agreed Councilmember Teresa McCoy, of Big Cove.

“It’s a great time to recover, and I’m just looking forward to us being debt-free and reaccumulating a lot of money.”

While the tribe has paid off two major loans, it’s not quite correct to say that it’s completely debt-free. There are still notes to pay on the Harrah’s Cherokee and Valley River casinos, around $600 million between the two.

But going forward, both Lambert and councilmembers said, the goal will be to pay for future projects out of pocket whenever possible, without taking loans.

“I think that’s what people would prefer, and that’s how I try to operate always, even in my personal life,” Lambert said.

There are plenty of projects on the horizon, which councilmembers alluded to again and again even as they praised the debt payoff. There’s talk of building an adventure park that would cost $100 million or more, as well as an athletic training park for seniors, a senior center in Snowbird and retail development — among a list of others.

“There’s a lot of things that we’re working on,” Lambert said.

Lambert pointed to his track record over the last seven months as proof that his administration is one that can be trusted with such work.

“Just in the last six months alone, over $1.1 million was saved just in a reduction in the waste and reducing resources,” Lambert said.

Fuel use has been reduced by 45 percent and credit card charges by 63 percent, for starters. In a preliminary report on an audit of tribal spending during the previous administration, delivered in April, Lambert announced initial results showing thousands in ATM cash withdrawals, spending at clothing and lingerie stores and travel to luxury resorts.

“Paying down the debt I think is a natural fit,” Lambert said, in the overall effort to reduce waste.

“I think our tribe is very fortunate,” Ensley said. “We’ve been able to pay off our school system, now a hospital and a wastewater treatment plant that will take us 20 years down the road. We are a very fortunate group of people.”

3

Bear euthanized following backcountry bite

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER ampers at the Spence Field Appalachian Trail Shelter in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park spent a harrowing evening in the backcountry May 10, huddling together for protection as a big black bear roamed the site. Around 11:16 p.m. that evening, it had approached a tent occupied by 49-year-old Bradley Veeder, of Las Vegas, biting the man’s leg through the canvas, then repeatedly returning to the area to snuffle through the then-empty tents.

Veeder is OK, having been released from Blount Memorial Hospital in Tennessee after suffering what park management assistant Dana Soehn termed a “pretty significant” puncture wound. The bear, however, is not.

After the incident, the park closed the shelter and sent its wildlife biologists out to monitor the area, putting two Appalachian Trail Ridgerunners on duty to guide hikers to the special accommodations made for camping during the closure. Thru-hikers will not have to hike the full distance from Russell Field to Derrick Knob in one day.

By Friday, May 13, they’d found a large, male bear returning to the area, which they darted, tranquilized and ultimately euthanized.

“We tried to minimize the possibility that an uninvolved bear was euthanized, but there is always that risk,” Soehn said.

The park is still waiting on DNA results to come back, giving the final word as to whether the euthanized bear was the one that bit Veeder.

In a perfect world, Soehn said, they’d hold the bear in captivity until the results were delivered, but because of the size of the bear and the location of the incident, that simply wasn’t possible.

“If we were beside the road, I think it would have been a lot clearer decision,” she said. “We would have hauled the bear out and held it in captivity until we had some DNA match.”

But the Spence Field Shelter is 6 miles away from any road. And to further complicate matters, the bear was exceptionally large — a 400-pound male. The wheeled litters that search and rescue teams use for emer-

too small,” Soehn said. “The staff tried to adjust it with a leather belt they had to rig it to where it would stay on securely, but the neck of this bear was wider than its head and there was no way they could secure it.”

So, there they were in the backcountry, left with an enormous bear that might have been the culprit behind the bite but also may not have. Because of the darkness, nobody at the shelter that night had actually seen the bear. But the ultimate decision to euthanize, Soehn said, was based on four factors that led to the conclusion that this bear is likely the one responsible.

For one thing, she said, it was found within 75 yards of the spot where the incident occurred, and there’s a “high likelihood that a bear involved in an attack will return to the scene.” The euthanized bear was a large,

Smoky Mountain News

May 18-24, 2016

C

BLUE MOON

A 400-pound black bear, much larger than the one pictured here, was euthanized after a man was bitten by one while camping in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Bill Lea photo gencies are good only for loads up to 300 pounds, so getting the bear out of the backcountry would have required a helicopter airlift. That’s an expensive endeavor, and dealing with a load that large also places risk on the rescue crew.

And once the bear was extricated from the backcountry, it would have to be transported even further, to the Knoxville Zoo. The park doesn’t have a facility capable of holding a

bear within its boundaries, and keeping an animal that large euthanized for the length of time required would be difficult.

Wildlife managers also thought about collaring the bear. If it wore a GPS tracker, the thought process went, they could keep an eye on its whereabouts and find it, if necessary, when DNA results came back.

“That was complicated because the bear was so large the largest collar we had was still

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The Spence Field Shelter is 6 miles away from any road. And to further complicate matters, the bear was exceptionally large — a 400-pound male.

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dominant male, and while nobody who was at the Spence Field Shelter that night saw the animal, Soehn said, park officials say large males are typically the ones involved in such incidents. Thirdly, the odds of another large, adult male roaming the same area are low, she said, as they tend to be territorial.

Finally, the bear in question had two broken canine teeth. The damage was “very consistent” with the injury to Veeder’s leg, Soehn said.

“We never make that decision lightly,” Soehn said. “Bears are iconic symbols of the Smokies.”

Park personnel are likely holding their breath for a positive DNA match, though, as this incident comes less than one year after a case of mistaken identity led to wrongful euthanization of a bear

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— Bill Lea, wildlife photographer

“The fact that the bear came back and tore apart both tents shows to me that he smells food and he was seeking food in the tent and not seeking to prey upon a human,” Lea said.

The moral of the story, Lea said, is that there are not man-eating bears roaming the woods and that hikers have a responsibility to double and triple-check themselves for possible sources of food smells. He doesn’t necessarily take issue with the decision to euthanize, assuming of course that it was the same bear.

“We can’t have bears tearing apart tents,” he said. “As much as I hate it, I can understand them needing to take some action.”

As public as these incidents are, they’re still quite rare. The park is home to about 1,600 bears, but over the last 10 years there have been only nine instances of bear bites.

“In order for us to best provide visitor safety, this decision to euthanize bears responsible for aggressive attacks is the best decision,” Soehn said.

— By Holly Kays, staff writer

impossible.

“In the winter season we’ve been building our community to help us better go through situations like this,” she said.

For instance, park officials reached out to the Knoxville Zoo and discovered that they had facilities capable of holding an adult bear for a short period of time, a resource the park had not had available before.

The park is also working with Western Carolina University to start getting DNA tests processed there. Currently a lab in Pennsylvania does the tests. That lab is adept at the procedure, but its distance slows down delivery of results. This time, the Smokies sent DNA samples to both labs as a trial to see if the two can get the same results.

Soon, Soehn said, “We’re going to know if we have a lab right here, literally in our backyard, that will be able to process samples for us.”

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Smoky Mountain News

in the Hazel Creek area. In that June 6, 2015, bear attack, a father and son were hammock camping when a bear pulled the 16-year-old boy from his hammock and scratched him.

Park personnel shot a bear believed to be responsible, but when DNA evidence came back a week later it proved to have been the wrong bear. It’s likely that the bear responsible had been caught, though, as a bear shot and wounded earlier in the search — but never found afterward — revealed a positive, though inconclusive, DNA match.

Following the wrongful euthanization, Superintendent Cassius Cash said he’d work to develop new protocols for this type of situation, in the future looking to hold bears suspected of injuring humans in captivity until a DNA match could be confirmed.

That’s not an aspiration that’s been cast aside, Soehn said. In this case, the bear’s size and the location’s remoteness simply made it

“The fact that the bear came back and tore apart both tents shows to me that he smells food and he was seeking food in the tent and not seeking to prey upon a human.”

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he Great Smoky Mountains National Park is terming an incident that left a Las Vegas man with a puncture wound in his leg a predatory bear attack, but Bill Lea, a renowned wildlife photographer who’s spent years observing bears in the wild, says he’s not buying it.

According to Dana Soehn, communications director for the park, it’s pretty clear.

Bradley Veeder was sleeping in a tent at a designated shelter, his food hung properly on cables. The bear came to the tent and bit Veeder’s leg through the canvas, returning to the area intermittently throughout the night.

“It wasn’t a casual, curious nip,” Soehn said, “but it was an aggressive attack where he repeatedly came back to the tent.”

“It is not normal wild bear behavior to look at humans as prey items,” she added.

But Lea says it’s not that simple.

“If that hiker had been hiking and all of a sudden the bear came out of nowhere and attacked that human, that would be a totally different story, but it’s a case of mistaken identity,” he said.

Maybe Veeder’s food was hung, but it’s not hard to imagine that some smell of food still lingered around his tent. In fact, according to park spokeswoman Jamie Sanders, Veeder did have his pack in the tent with him.

“Definitely I believe there was some kind of food smell,” Lea said. “It can be something as simple as having chapstick in your possession. Bears have an extremely keen sense of smell.”

And this year, he said, they’re more likely than ever to exercise it. May and June are already the most likely months for humanbear conflicts to occur, as the bears are on the move but the heartier foods like berries and nuts have not yet matured. And the past year hasn’t been a good one for the bears’

food supply. Low rainfall last summer meant a poor crop of berries, and the fall nut crop pretty much failed completely.

“The bears are up and extremely lean, thin and hungry,” Lea said. “So if they see a potential food source, they’re going to go for it.”

Inside his tent, Veeder’s human form was invisible, so what makes sense to Lea is that the bear smelled something yummy, took a bite, and then was startled to encounter a very much alive Bradley Veeder. To Lea, the bear’s behavior afterward, when campers vacated their tents, confirms that analysis.

news

Predatory attack or ill-fated dinner search?

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Camera crazy

May 18-24, 2016

Downtown Sylva comes alive during filming of big-budget movie

lar experience to McMahan, at least as far as Evolution is concerned. Numbers for that business are lower than they were at this point last year — though in April 2015 Evolution newly rebranded itself from being Perk ‘n’ Pastry, so other factors could account for some of the difference in numbers.

“I have talked to other business owners in this end of downtown,” Peters said, “and they have the same challenge with traffic rerouting, and people are just avoiding downtown unless they’re here to see the filming.”

City Lights, on the other hand, which is a half-block away from the set and offset from the traffic detours, has been doing well — better than this time last year. Patronage from cast and crew could be part of that.

“During filming time we’ll see them get coffee or something to eat before or after they come down,” Peters said. Cast and crew get their meals catered, but when it comes to snacks and coffee, they rely on local businesses. With about 150 people on site at any given time, that’s a lot of coffee pours.

John Bubacz has been sharing the burden of caffeine provision over at Signature Brew.

“We’ve had a good number of the crew and the cast, and we’re very grateful,” Bubacz said.

Sam Rockwell has visited the store, he said, and he’s a man who likes his liquids. A single visit resulted in an order for a double shot of espresso, a smoothie and chai tea — Rockwell brought in his own water bottle as well, Bubacz said.

But it’s not just been people working with the film who have been boosting his sales.

IMPACTS ON Celebrity selfies, like this one SMN advertising representative Amanda Bradley took with Woody Harrelson, have been a popular pursuit in Sylva over the past week. Right: An Ebbing police officer waits to go on scene. Donated photo • Holly Kays photo

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER n air of excitement and expectation reigned over downtown Sylva last week as crews and stars alike rolled in to film streets transformed into the fictional town of Ebbing, Missouri.

Crowds gathered on street corners, craning their necks for a view during scenes filmed outdoors on Sylva’s Main Street or keeping a more laidback watch during indoor scenes, hoping for a glimpse of the Hollywood A-listers cast in the big-budget film, called “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.”

“Woody Harrelson walked down the street in his white T-shirt, got in a car and left,” reported Sylva resident Mary Moody, after an hour of watching from the corner of Spring and Main Streets Wednesday (May 11) afternoon.

“That was the most exciting thing we’ve seen today,” said her friend Geri Browning.

Worth the wait, the two agreed. And there were plenty of others around to concur with 6 that sentiment.

A

Smoky Mountain News

Advertising Agency and, most notably, Sassy Frass Consignment has been remade as the Ebbing Police Department.

“I was amazed every single time I went in on how much work they had done and how realistic,” said Tammy Fuller, Sassy Frass owner. “It looks like it has always been a police station. They did an incredible job.”

The transformation drew an ever-growing following of spectators as filming progressed, giving the crew another task — moving everyone around from corner to corner so as to keep spectators out of the shot.

With the scene getting ready to shift, Coleman Terrell — key set production assistant for the film — told the group watching across Spring Street from Sassy Frass that they’d all be in it if they didn’t move.

“As much as we would like for that to happen, we can’t have it happen,” he said, herding the group over toward Blackrock Outdoor Company.

While happenings outside were about as far from the norm as it gets in Sylva, a step into In Your Ear Music — next door over from Sassy Frass — represents a return to business as usual.

“We’ll peek outside for a minute, but other than that it’s just another day,” said Jason McMahan, manager at In Your Ear. Though that assessment comes with a caveat. Sometimes sounds from the filming filter through the walls, such as one in which Francis McDormand did take after take of a scene in which she yells, “You will f***ing die!” at the top of her lungs. Then there was the time when Woody Harrelson himself wandered into the store. He and McMahan played some guitar together — even for an even-keeled guy like McMahan, that was pretty cool.

“It’s Woody Harrelson. Duh,” laughed Anna Hance, of Sylva, watching the proceedings with her 14-year-old son Michael Tarlton, when asked why she’d come out. The two are big Harrelson fans, having loved him in movies such as “Zombieland” and “Now You See Me,” and Hance recalling older appearances such as “Cheers” and “White Men Can’t Jump.” They were all camped out in hopes of catching a Harrelson autograph before he left town. He’d been generous with those, they’d heard.

“Even if we don’t, this is still pretty cool,” Hance said. “When the movie comes out, you can say, ‘I was there.’”

Take a walk down Main Street Sylva now, and it’s certainly easy to feel like you’re somewhere quite different than the place that existed before set crews arrived at the end of March. Cones and traffic guards have been moderating travel down the eastward block of Main Street during filming, and vehicles full of equipment can be spotted all around town. In Your Ear Music now bears a sign dubbing it the Music Emporium, Jackson’s General Store has been rebranded Ebbing

DOWNTOWN BUSINESS The level of business at In Your Ear has also been different than it would on a “normal” day in mid-May — it’s slower.

But McMahan isn’t complaining about that.

“Overall I think it’s a good thing, definitely bringing more attention to downtown, which is needed,” he said. “I think the town needed a little kick in the butt overall. Not many people get a chance to experience this, especially not in a small town in Western North Carolina.”

With traffic blocked off or regulated differently than usual, and parking a bit more scarce, some people are avoiding that east block of Main Street, McMahan said.

Especially the area that’s directly part of the set — it can be confusing to see what’s open for business, what’s restricted and where it’s OK to walk.

But businesses in that area of direct impact have been compensated for the inconvenience, the loss of business, and the “general hassle,” McMahan said. So monetarily, it’s OK. And once the movie comes out, that hassle is likely to pay out dividends in people coming to see the places shown in the film.

Bernadette Peters, owner of City Lights Café and Evolution Wine Bar, has had a simi-

N “It seems like a lot more locals have been in,” he said. Downtown has been full of people who live nearby but never seem to make it downtown, Bubacz said. During the latenight filming this week (May 18-20), he’s planning to keep his shop open late to take advantage of that fact. Bubacz hopes that this event will serve as a catalyst to drive spectators closer to regular status.

“See those people?” he said, pointing out the window at a family walking along the opposite sidewalk. “I don’t know who they are.”

Hopefully, they’ll be back.

Bubacz owns another downtown business as well — the relatively new Sylva Convenient Mart — and that one hasn’t been doing so well.

S EE FILMING, PAGE 8

Sassy Frass Consignment is unrecognizable since being transformed into the Ebbing Police Department for shooting of the big-budget movie “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” in Sylva. Holly Kays photo

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri • Key cast: Woody Harrelson, Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, Peter Dinklage, Caleb Landry Jones.

• Synopsis: A mother frustrated with police inaction in finding her daughter’s killer buys three billboards to publicly condemn the department’s handling of the case.

• Main filming location: Sylva, with other locations in Buncombe County.

• Anticipated release: In theaters in 2017. transformation. For Fuller, that process began March 30, when she closed her store and began moving everything into storage.

The crew started building the set, transforming her furniture store into a police station and the upstairs into an interrogation room.

“They worked a few weeks on all of that,” Fuller said. “They worked their tails off from early in the morning till late at night, every single day to get ready.”

In the meantime, Fuller stayed in the background, relishing the time off to stay home with her 22-month-old daughter. The movie was paying her to stay closed, cutting

— Tammy Fuller, Sassy Frass Consignment

This week, the crew will shoot a scene in which the Sassy Frass building burns up.

Fuller said she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t a little nervous, but she trusts that they know what they’re doing and her building will be turned back over, good as new, in time for her scheduled June 3 reopening.

The reopening will be a lot of work itself, Fuller said, but “I cannot complain at all.

They (the crew) have been more than helpful and more than accommodating.”

It’s been amazing, she said, to see just how hard they work. When you watch a movie all you see is the cast acting out their lines, but there’s an incredible amount of effort that goes on behind the scenes.

“I never dreamed of how big of a job they have and how hard they worked,” she said. “They’re usually up there rolling at 7 o’clock in the morning and work until 7 or 8 o’clock at night. They don’t quit — it’s just go, go, go.”

It’s been go, go, go for Sylva, too — for its leaders, its business owners and anybody who frequents downtown. But the consensus is that it will be more than worth it.

“We’re very grateful to them for choosing Sylva,” Dowling said. “We all know what a wonderful community this is and a pretty downtown, and I think that says a lot that a movie of this size thinks so, too.”

Smoky Mountain News

Sylva,” Dowling said.

But it did.

Tammy Fuller, owner of the main filming location, Sassy Frass Consignment, could hardly believe the news.

“I was just like oh my goodness. This has got to be nothing but the Lord,” she said.

It wasn’t long after the decision was made that crew began to have a presence in Sylva. As Foulkes said at a town meeting Feb. 22, “it would be wrong of us to sit here and say you’ll never know we’re here.”

Dowling began to meet with crew, determining what permissions and information they would need to make the movie happen and who they should be in touch with to get all the hurdles cleared. She sat in meeting after meeting, including one with Foulkes and leaders at the Sylva Police Department, during which Foulkes asked about the possibility of turning Main Street to two-way traffic during filming. Given Sylva’s decadeslong debate over that very issue, Dowling said, she and Police Chief Davis Woodard “looked at each other and thought, ‘Oh my goodness.’” That concept, predictably, proved too cost-prohibitive to enact.

Traffic detours had to be worked out, and the stoplight at Main Street’s intersection with Spring Street had to disappear. Trees planted outside Sassy Frass had to go, the dirt covered over with brick pavers — the crew will replace the bed and trees when filming is complete.

And Sassy Frass itself had to undergo a

“I never dreamed of how big of a job they have and how hard they worked. They don’t quit — it’s just go, go, go.”

May 18-24, 2016

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER Getting a movie to come to town isn’t something that happens overnight.

Robert Foulkes, location manager for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” embarked on the road to Ebbing in 2014, traveling through four states in search of the perfect town. But the movie got scrapped, and he moved on. Until November 2015, that is, when the project resurRobert Foulkes rected and he contacted Sylva for the first time.

He talked to Jackson County Chamber of Commerce Director Julie Spiro, going through the film criteria to see if Sylva had what was needed. When he came back in December, to speak with Spiro and Town Manager Paige Dowling, it was to say that Sylva had made the short list of locations.

Dowling said she didn’t have much expectation the movie would actually come to Sylva, though. She’d had similar meetings with three other film representatives in her four years as town manager.

“We were really excited that we found out it was Francis McDormand and Woody Harrelson, but knowing that they’re looking at 22 towns I thought it was a small possibility that it would end up being

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The long road to the big screen

checks not only to Fuller but also to her employees and the booth vendors who typically set up shop there. She’d visit the building only occasionally, to pick up paperwork or messages.

“They’ve kind of let me go behind scenes and watch how the movie takes and the recording goes, and you put on the headsets and get to hear the directors record,” she said. “That has been crazy.”

She, her husband and some of her employees even got to be extras in the movie — Fuller wound up in a scene with McDormand.

Arledge Armenaki, a cinematography professor at Western Carolina University, also saw an opportunity in the filming. After Sylva was announced as the location, he got in touch with the production company to see about possibilities for collaboration. His upperclassmen got a field trip to the set for a behind-the-scenes look, and some students even landed jobs on set.

“It’s been a great learning experience for them,” Armenaki said. “They had the ability to interface with a professional movie company. They could see how their training led them to give them the confidence and understanding that they too could work in this industry.”

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FILMING, CONTINUED FROM 6 news

“Sales have been devastatingly bad,” he said.

Bubacz said that, as the convenient mart isn’t directly in any of the shots — though it is on the same downtown block as shops that are — he hasn’t received compensation for the loss in business, but plans to ask for some.

He’s hopeful.

“Everyone associated with this film has been so nice,” he said. “Very generous, polite.”

The staff at Humanité Boutique have been enjoying the interactions as well.

“I thought we were going to be dead while it happened,” said the store’s web manager Carley Birch, but that’s not what transpired.

People have been walking in and out of the store as a distraction while sticking around for the filming, and business has swung between really busy and kind of slow.

CAMERA CRAZY

Smoky Mountain News

May 18-24, 2016

Besides, added Birch’s coworker Katie Brandt, the store’s marketing coordinator, can you put a price on working across the street from your favorite star? She’s not a “bandwagon” Harrelson fan — she made that clear. She loves the star. And after making friends with a crew member, Brandt found herself with a chance to look around Harrelson’s bus, which is equipped with a rotary phone, Persian rug and yoga swing.

Then, she got to meet him.

“It was the highlight of my life,” Brandt said.

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THE DELAYED REACTION

Clockwise from top: Sylva is made over as Ebbing, Missouri.

Woody Harrelson is filmed in a stretcher en route to an ambulance. Crowds line the streets to take in the filming. The crew prepares for a scene.

Holly Kays photos Holly Kays photos

From a business perspective, though, the highlight will likely come after the movie is released. And that’s what has the downtown business community holding its collective breath.

“Once the movie is released and Sylva is recognized as the small town in this movie, visitors will rediscover Sylva,” said Julie Spiro, executive director of the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce. “That will bring new customers through the doors, into our shops and our restaurants. I do remain optimistic that there will be a long-term positive economic impact in the area.”

Because “Three Billboards” isn’t a lowbudget, barebones film. It’s written by Martin McDonagh, who wrote the Oscarnominated film “In Bruges,” and it stars big names such as Francis McDormand, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Peter Dinklage and Caleb Landry Jones. In early December, Sylva Town Manager Paige Dowling was told the movie would have a budget of $15 million, though the amount has been reported to have increased since then.

When presenting the project at a town meeting in February, the movie’s location manager Robert Foulkes described “Three Billboards” as “a passion project,” flat-out predicting that McDormand would get an Oscar nomination for her role.

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‘Dirty Dancing,’ ‘Three Billboards,’ and economic ripples

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER “Three Billboards” isn’t the only major filming project going on in Jackson County this month. Last week, ABC wrapped up a week of shooting for its remake of “Dirty Dancing,” turning the High Hampton Inn and Country Club into Kellerman’s Resort, circa 1963.

“I’ve been watching the monitor for four days, and it is nothing short of awesome,” said Clifford Meads, general manager at High Hampton.

The project was the perfect fit for Cashiers and High Hampton to begin with, Meads said, as it’s about a family returning to the same resort, year after year, to vacation in the mountains — exactly what makes High Hampton tick. And with the high-quality cast the remake commanded — Debra Messing plays Baby’s mother, and Abigail Breslin plays Baby — Meads is excited to have High Hampton represented in the resulting film.

Like the “Three Billboards” project, Dirty Dancing isn’t something that materialized overnight, though at first it looked like it might be that way.

Five years ago, Meads decided to send in updated photos and information about High Hampton to the N.C. Film Office, to go on file for projects looking for locations. Two weeks later, he got a call back about the “Dirty Dancing” project, then envisioned as a full-blown feature film. But two months away from filming, project leaders decided they weren’t pleased with the cast and dropped it altogether. It’s only recently resurrected, this time as a TV mini-series slated for a spring/summer 2017 release.

“This has been a five-year relationship,” Meads said.

The end result is going to be a good one though, Meads anticipates, not least because of the influx of spending the 350 to 400 people associated with the film have brought to Cashiers with them. High Hampton had about 85 rooms set aside for people working

on Dirty Dancing, with others spread around a variety of area hotels.

“The economic impact has filtered out throughout this county in a big way,” said Meads, who is also a member of the Jackson County Tourism Development Authority board.

According to Guy Gaster, director of the Film Office, “Dirty Dancing” has spent $16 million in North Carolina, and “Three Billboards” has spent $12.8 million.

Granted, those numbers incorporate salaries paid for work done in North Carolina, including for top-tier talent, and both projects include filming locations outside of Jackson County. Salary typically accounts for at least 50 percent of a production’s overall spending, Gaster said, but he believes that each project would cause at least a couple million dollars of spending in Jackson County.

“The immediate economic impact is evident with our hotels and restaurants both seeing at-capacity crowds and overnight visitors during filming,” said Nick Breedlove, the executive director of the Jackson County TDA. Working with Smith Travel Research, Breedlove said, the TDA determined that the past month has seen a 10 percent increase in occupancy rates over the same period last year, a “great trend.” However, the previous month — before the projects really got going

— saw a 7 percent increase.

“It’s difficult to tell if more people are falling in love with Jackson County and staying overnight or whether it’s related to the film, but it’s likely a combination of both,” Breedlove said.

The real economic impact, though, is expected to arrive after the films are released. If they find success and develop a following, tourists could make pilgrimages specifically to see the areas where their favorite movies were shot. Or, those who were planning to come this way anyway could prolong their stay to take in the cinematic angle too.

“We wouldn’t have enough advertising dollars in 10 years to put out what these two films will do when they come out. It’s just huge,” Meads said. “And the benefit of it is we will find people coming up here because they discovered the beauty of it through the film, and it has a huge economic impact.”

The other side of the coin is that, if the film companies wrapping up production in Jackson County leave with a positive impression, more such projects may look to locate there.

“We want to put out a warm welcome mat for them, and hopefully they’ll come back in the future,” said Stephanie Edwards, director of the Cashiers Chamber of Commerce.

“Our goal here was to have Lionsgate (Movies) walk out of there and say, “That was a terrific filming location,” which they will,” Meads agreed.

That’s not only true in a professional sense. Cast and crew are leaving Cashiers and Sylva with announced intentions to come back as vacationers. Which, to those who live here, is not surprising.

“Face it, there are very few places in the country that are as beautiful as the environment that we have here in this county,” Meads said. “People spend a lot of money to come visit where we live.”

Spiro is already starting to think about how to piggyback the chamber’s marketing onto the film’s anticipated success. The chamber’s 2017 magazine will feature “Three Billboards,” and its website will soon include a permanent page dedicated to filming in Jackson County.

“We’ve had numerous films before this, and we hope we’ll have more after this,” she said.

Though, in terms of major films, the 1993 movie “The Fugitive” is about it for Sylva. But

its impact is nothing to sneeze at. Starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones, it was a popular movie, and 23 years later it’s still bringing people to Jackson County.

“People are still visiting Jackson County wanting to go to the (train wreck) site,” Spiro said. “We can hope for that same type of longterm and positive lasting publicity from this movie.”

“There are still people that call town hall and want to know where “The Fugitive” was filmed,” Dowling agreed. “It could be years

down the road that were still seeing the impacts of it.”

There’s some hard data to back that up.

After the movie “Max” was shot at Crowders Mountain State Park, the N.C. Film Office measured a 100,000-person increase in visitors to the park, which it attributes to the filming. DuPont State Forest experienced record attendance after “The Hunger Games” was filmed there, and searches on the Film Office’s site for Wilmington locations increased by 131 percent after “The Choice”

was made there.

So, for those playing the long game in Sylva’s business community, the recent ruckus downtown is but the start of good things to come.

“My hunch is that it puts us on the map a little bit more, and eventually we’ll have more tourist traffic here, more people aware of Sylva,” Peters said.

And besides, McMahan added, “It’s not every day you get to look outside and see Sam Rockwell doing a scene.”

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Dirty Dancing • Key cast: Abigail Breslin, Colt Prattes, Debra Messing.

• Synopsis: Baby, a young woman on vacation with her family, falls in love with the resort’s dance instructor as her father forbids her from seeing him.

• Main filming location: High Hampton Inn and Country Club in Cashiers.

• Anticipated release: Late spring 2017, airing as a TV mini-series on ABC.

Dirty Dancing cast, including Debra Messing (left) take a break from filming at High Hampton.

The daughter of High Hampton’s chef gets a chance to sit in the director’s chair.

Debra Messing photo • Donated photo

May 18-24, 2016 Smoky Mountain News

BY B ECKY JOHNSON STAFF WRITER aywood County commissioners were greeted with silence at their meeting Monday night when they asked if anyone in the audience wanted to speak during a public hearing on the county’s $72 million proposed budget.

After a long pause with no takers, commissioners trucked along to the next item on their meeting agenda.

This year’s budget doesn’t call for a property tax increase, nor does it call for painful budget cuts in order to make ends meet.

That’s in contrast to the recession-era budgets the county had been faced with the past several years.

The county will net an additional $550,000 next year thanks to additional sales tax revenue, a 7.7 percent increase over last year due to an uptick in consumer spending.

The county will also bring in an additional $340,000 in property tax due to new construction that’s been added to property tax rolls.

While crafting a county budget could never be called easy, the natural growth in sales and property tax gave the county a little breathing room, and as a result fewer tough choices.

“As the economy recovers, it makes it less of a struggle to provide those services that citizens expect,” County Manager Ira Dove said.

Despite the cushion afforded by growth in the sales tax and new construction added to

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the property tax base, the county isn’t exactly flush with a surplus. The additional revenue coming in has a lot of heavy lifting to do.

It has to cover a slew of obligatory line items, like higher health insurance costs for employees or election costs that the county can’t do anything about.

It is also going toward projects classified as “should-do’s,” like installing ADA compliant hand-rails on the ramp leading to the courthouse or hiring an additional sheriff ’s detective.

In the same vein are those “have-been-puttingoff-until-things-improved-and-can’t-wait-anylonger” expenses, like a major IT upgrade.

The budget even includes projects you might call “want-to’s,” like a new animal shelter.

Paying for it all wasn’t possible based on the additional sales tax coming in and growth in the property tax base alone. The county plans to take $800,000 out of savings, known as the fund balance, to help cover it.

The county’s fund balance will still be healthy even after dipping into it, Dove said.

After spending down its reserves during the recession, the county has systematically built it back up over the past few years.

This has been possible thanks to department heads spending less than their allocated budget from year to year, holding the line as much as possible in order to end the year with a surplus rather than spending everything they were allocated, Dove said.

“We have continued to apply lessons

A rendering of the planned $3.5 million Haywood County Animal Shelter, one the capital projects which is partially funded in the 2016-17 budget.

learned during the recession,” Dove said, citing a fiscal-minded mentality.

The county’s reserves have more than doubled in the past four years, making it possible to dip into the fund balance this year without making a major dent.

Here are some areas of the county budget seeing an increase: • $290,000 for health and human services, partly because the cost of delivering services exceeds the level of reimbursement the county gets for state and federal assistance programs.

• $320,000 for public education, however, it’s not exactly a windfall for the school system, which has its own obligatory budget increases to cover, including state-mandated

salary increases and additional charter school funding to pay out.

• $223,000 in additional operating expenses for Haywood Community College, in large part to help cover the staffing and operation of the new fire and rescue training center.

• $350,000 for a major IT upgrade, including an additional network technician.

• $200,000 for capital projects like new handicapped ramps and rails leading to the historic courthouse, window replace in the historic courtroom (which should pay for themselves in lower energy costs over time) and major maintenance in the justice center.

• $60,000 set aside in an economic development kitty to use as

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May 18-24, 2016

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For a change, Haywood isn’t facing a dire budget year

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BY B ECKY JOHNSON STAFF WRITER aywood County could be turning a corner after a slow, stubborn climb out of the recession, according to some obscure tidbits of data hidden in the bowels of the county’s budget for the coming fiscal year.

“The economy appears it is recovering,” County Manager Ira Dove said during a budget presentation this week. “That’s the good news.”

The most notable good news is a 7.7 percent increase in sales tax collections, a sign of increased consumer spending. While the state keeps most of the sales tax, a portion is kicked back to counties.

Sales tax coming back to Haywood County reached a high of $13.8 million in 2007, and then dropped steadily to a low of $9.9 million in 2010, before beginning to climb again. This year, sales tax will bring in $13.7 million — almost back to the prerecession level of 2007.

Economists typically lean on old-fashioned labor statistics — like the unemployment rate and average income — as their goto benchmarks of how the economy is doing.

Those are indeed telling figures.

Unemployment in Haywood County hit a high of 12 percent in 2010. Now the unemployment rate is just 5 percent — also back to pre-recession levels.

But economists wanting to put a little more zip in their punditry should try plying the 300-plus pages of the county budget for factoids like this: the number of citizens on food assistance came down from 10,700 in 2014 to 10,300 in 2015.

“Those food and nutrition services are a bellwether of how the economy is going.

This is the first time I have seen since 2007 that the number has gone down,” said Dove who was director of Haywood County’s Department of Social Services prior to taking over as county manager.

There are still far more on food assistance than before the recession — the number was 6,000 in 2007 — but the number is at least moving in the right direction.

“There was a significant increase for several years and it flatlined and now has started to go back down,” Dove said.

The number of children in foster care has also dropped for two years in a row. Child neglect typically spikes in a bad economy, leading to a rise in children needing foster care. Four years ago, the county scrambled to allocate emergency funding for foster care to handle rising numbers.

incentives in courting new industry, something commissioners had previously determined as a budget priority.

• $312,000 for the purchase of seven new law enforcement vehicles, in hopes of returning to a regular vehicle replacement schedule, which got off track during the recession.

• $220,000 to launch construction of a controversial $3.5 million animal shelter proposed to break ground in the coming year, plus $260,000 for a new emergency services base breaking ground this year. The first year costs are substantially higher than annual debt payments would be going forward, and will be offset by other debt coming off the county’s books.

• $500,000 in increased healthcare benefit costs for county employees.

• Small increases here and there run the gamut from $20,000 increase to roll out countywide property revaluations next year to an additional $26,000 in additional election costs

associated with presidential year elections.

• In the public safety venue, budget increases include another bailiff to handle increase court load and another sheriff ’s detective to handle increased case load.

Dove warned that commissioners may be getting off easy this year, there are some issues on the horizon that may need to be addressed next year.

For example, state lawmakers passed a law requiring a certain type of voting machines be installed, which will carry a sizeable price tag in the hundreds of thousands.

Dove also pointed out that some county services cut during the recession have never been restored to their former levels, including the Haywood County library.

“They have not returned to their pre-2008 levels. Some of the other departments have.

We need to take a hard look at that for next year,” Dove said.

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“Those food and nutrition services are a bellwether of how the economy is going. This is the first time I have seen since 2007 that the number has gone down.”

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Obscure budget stats a ‘bellwether’ of economic recovery

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Last year, foster care was provided for 149 children, compared to 163 children in 2013.

The county’s budget also tracks construction through its collection of building permit fees, and those numbers were up, too. The first three quarters of the current fiscal year saw 365 building permits, compared to 351 during the same period the prior year.

The county has seen an even larger spike in the number of septic tank permits, which can be a precursor to construction or an indicator land is about to be put on the market. The number of septic tank applications the first quarter of 2016 is up 34 percent over the first quarter of 2015.

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Democratic candidates face off in congressional election

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR wo Democratic candidates will face off in the June 7 election for a chance to unseat U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-Cashiers, in the general election and represent Western North Carolina in Washington, D.C. Tom Hill, D-Zirconia, and Rick Bryson, DBryson City, have been campaigning for more than a year heading into the March 15 North Carolina election, but a court ruling extended their primary campaign into June. Though the two candidates vying for the 11th District Congressional spot appeared on the March Mark Meadows 15 primary ballot, votes were not calculated for that particular race.

A federal court order forced the state to reschedule the congressional election for June 7 as a result of four lawsuits working their way through the courts. The cases are all challenging North Carolina’s district maps that were redrawn in 2011 and used during the 2012 and 2014 elections — claiming Republican legislators gerrymandered the maps. The state Supreme Court upheld the maps twice but federal judges threw out the 1st and 12th congressional districts on Feb. 5.

A new sign-up period for candidates was held but no one new signed up to run with Hill and Bryson. Rep. Meadows has held the office since first being elected in 2012.

May 18-24, 2016

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Smoky Mountain News

TOM HILL DEMOCRAT, ZIRCONIA

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• Age: 78 • Hometown: Flat Rock • Background: Graduated in 1956 from Hendersonville High School, bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest University and Ph.D. in physics from UNC-Chapel Hill. He worked in the aerospace field with the U.S. Department of Defense.

• Political experience: Third time running for Congress Why are you running for Congress?

I intend to replace the obstructionism led

by Rep. Mark Meadows and his fraternity of ‘do nothing, block everything’ simpletons in Congress. Their right-wing ideology pushes people’s buttons on emotional and religious issues, but it is non-workable. For example, like (Donald) Trump and (Ted) Cruz, Mark supports rounding up all undocumented Hispanic workers and sending them back to

Mexico, but then untruthfully promises farmers that they will have workers to harvest their crops. My positions on matters are forthright, and I will work to pass legislation in the best interests of the people as a whole.

My only ideology is common sense.

What are your top three goals if elected?

1. To provide legal status for undocumented farm and domestic workers. The workers must (a) have no felony convictions, (b) learn English, (c) pay Social Security and income taxes, and also make monthly contributions to a government-managed health insurance program to pay for their medical care. Paul Ryan, Republican Speaker of the House, supports legalization (but not citizenry); however, Mark Meadows is committed to returning all undocumented Hispanic workers to Mexico.

2. To close offshore and other tax loopholes and require multinational corporations, hedge funders, and other ultra-rich entities to pay their just taxes. The offshore scam is easily rectified by a simple principle: If you make profits in the USA, you pay federal income taxes, and we do not care where your home office is located or what you may declare as intellectual property. Tax credits and similar handouts to corporations and other businesses, known as corporate welfare, must be eliminated. Capital gains must be taxed at the same rate as ordinary income, and the cap on Social Security contributions must also be eliminated. After all, Social Security tax has become a de facto income tax and the funds have been “borrowed” by the federal government with the intention to avoid repayment of the $2.75 trillion surplus in the Social Security Trust Fund.

3. To clean up the coal ash and nuclear waste throughout the US and place fracking under the purview of the EPA. The Democrats have twice submitted legislation to place fracking under EPA control, but Republican-dominated committees killed the proposals both times.

Why are you the best person to represent the people on WNC in Washington?

I am a native Western North Carolinian. I grew up on an apple farm in WNC, graduated from high school and universities in the state, and am now living modestly on a farm south of Hendersonville. I have the values of the preponderance of people of my constituency, and am a Franklin Roosevelt Democrat who believes that government should work for the people and not be artificially constrained by some archaic ideology. My opponent Mark Meadows was born in Verdun, France, spent most of his life in Florida and moved to WNC to cash in on the real estate boom for expen-

What you need to know about the June 7 election • Even if you voted in the March 15 primary, you need to vote again — Congressional primary candidates for the 12th District did appear on the March 15 primary ballot. However, votes for that particular office were not calculated due to an ongoing court case, and North Carolina has to hold new election June 7 for the U.S. Representative seat.

• Vote early — Early voting will be held from Thursday, May 26, through Saturday, June 4.

(Early voting will not be held Monday, May 30, in observance of Memorial Day) • Absentee voting — Voters may request an absentee ballot by mail through Tuesday, May 31.

• Sick and disabled voters may request an absentee ballot June 1 through June 6.

• Call your local election office for more information and early voting hours in each county.

“I intend to replace the obstructionism led by Rep. Mark Meadows and his fraternity of ‘do nothing, block everything’ simpletons in Congress.

Their right-wing ideology pushes people’s buttons on emotional and religious issues, but it is non-workable.”

— Tom Hill

sive homes during the 1990s and early 2000s.

He is a millionaire living in a gated community in south Jackson County, and adheres to an ideology which favors the gain and retention of wealth by the top 1 percent of our society.

What would you do to ensure Swain County receives the Road to Nowhere settlement money from the National Park Service before time runs out on the agreement?

They said payments are “allocated” but they fall below the cutoff line for funding in the budget appropriations. They must be moved above the cutoff line to become an actual payment. Meadows knows this, and while claiming that he supports the payment of the money, he fights against the allocation of funds in the budget. He supports virtually unlimited funds for fighting unwinnable wars in the Middle East, but will not support payment of the settlement money.

What could you do in an effort to bring more jobs and industry to the region?

The taxes paid by closing the loopholes

described above must be used to rebuild and repair the infrastructure of our nation. The amount involved will exceed $50 billion per year. For example, Exxon-Mobil and GE by themselves evaded taxation on a combined total of about $20 billion profits in 2012, and there are more than a hundred such corporations with profits in the billions of dollars per year. North Carolina’s share of the $50 billion would be at least $1 billion per year, which would immediately create thousands of jobs in the state.

U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows has voted repeatedly to repeal the Affordable Care Act. If elected, what is your solution to the national health care crisis?

We must replace the Affordable Care Act (“ACA” or “Obamacare”) by a simple public option comparable to Medicare wherein everyone who does not have health care insurance pays into a Social Security type of fund that pays basic health care costs. This is what was promised in 2008 but was not provided. Instead, the

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What is your stance on current tax policy?

Taxes on small businesses and individuals should not be raised. The claim that corporation taxes are too high is nonsense. None of them is paying the said rate. Most are instead using various loopholes and scams to pay less than half of the legally required rate.

What is your stance on current education policy?

Traditionally, pre-college education is by and large a local and state responsibility, and the decision to use or not use Common Core standards should be left to them.

However, the Department of Education should not be abolished. A very small transaction tax should be placed on Wall Street trades, and the taxes used to build up community colleges across the nation to the academic level of four-year state colleges. The DOE should oversee this process. Students should be able to live at home with their parents to age 25 and attend the improved community colleges tuition-free. The tax would not affect small traders such as those with IRAs, but would produce substantial revenues for the millions of transactions per day by large traders.

RICK BRYSON DEMOCRAT, BRYSON CITY

What are your top three goals if elected?

1. I have four daughters so I’m strong on women’s issues. We probably ought to revitalize the Equal Rights amendments because there’s no reason a woman should get 75

cents for the same work I make a dollar for doing. Women have special health issues that don’t apply to men — prenatal care is critical.

There are agencies that supply that care to women of limited means and we shouldn’t think about tearing those agencies down, including Planned Parenthood.

2. Social Security — there’s been a lot of conversation about privatizing Social Security and it must not be allowed to be put into the hands of Wall Street. We need to strengthen Social Security by lifting the ceiling on the taxable income. There’s no reason rich people should be paying less for Social Security than someone working a blue-collar job. Privatizing it would wind up making a lot of people on Wall Street rich at the expense of the people who need it. Social Security is your money you’ve put into it that you use when you retire — it’s not a gift and it’s not a socialist program.

3. Veterans in this country are the reason we don’t speak German or Japanese as our national language. Yet when it comes to their care they’re often treated as second-class citi-

What would you do to ensure Swain County receives the Road to Nowhere settlement money from the National Park Service before time runs out on the agreement?

If you have a problem with a product you buy, you don’t go back to clerk at the store. If you want action, you go to the top. The first thing I would do is visit 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and talk to the boss. Meadows has written letters, held a hearing to generate more noise, but I think we should go talk to

What could you do in an effort to bring more jobs and industry to the region?

By the mid 70s we started giving away industry to Mexico, Malaysia, China and Korea and we lost a huge chunk of our manufacturing. These jobs I’m proposing through the WNC Generation Now will be manufacturing types of jobs, just a different kind of manufacturing. Instead of smokestack jobs, these people could find the material capable of expanding and retracting like a heart does to create an artificial heart.

U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows has voted repeatedly to repeal the Affordable Care Act. If elected, what is your solution to the national health care crisis?

As of January, Republicans have introduced bills to repeal Obamacare 62 times.

Albert Einstein put it best when he said ‘if you continue to do the same thing over and over and expect a different result, that’s the definition of insanity.’ What else could Meadows have been paying attention to and what else could he have done if he wasn’t busy trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act? ACA is by no means perfect — it’s too new. It stumbled out of the gate and embarrassed the government because they did a bad job of rolling it out, but the fact is for most people it’s given a huge chunk of the population insurance they didn’t have before. We need to continue to fine-tune it certainly.

We’ve looked at the payers but not the people who are charging for these services.

We don’t look at the cost and what is driving it up — it’s not salaries of doctors — it’s the cost of equipment and pharmaceuticals.

Someone needs to take a look at controlling the ever upward spiraling cost situation.

I have no problem with someone earning a profit, my problem is with someone making a 200 percent profit.

What is your stance on current tax policy?

The take from corporate taxes is drastically less now than it was 20 or 30 years ago.

They use all sorts of dodges. In terms of taxing people, I’ve been on side of having to think about it. It’s the most cautious decision an elected official can make — luckily we haven’t had to raise taxes in Bryson City. We need to do everything we can to hold it to a minimum, and you make damn sure you get performance from what you spend.

What is your stance on current education policy?

Public education is the great leveler of our democracy. Meadows introduced a bill to defund the public education system in Washington, D.C. Washington had a history of poorly performing schools but they’ve brought it up in the last seven years so his bill to defund was an attack on a problem that did not exist. We can’t privatize our education.

We must hold to a strong public education system because it’s the best and most reliable leveler we have in our society.

Smoky Mountain News

Why are you running for Congress?

Western North Carolina has a tremendous power of place and it has tugged on me my whole life. When a man (Mark Meadows) goes to Congress to represent us and shuts us down and hurts us to the tune of $23 million, something has to be done. I started thinking in 2013 that somebody needs to do something about this and the more I thought about it, I figured that someone was going to be me. It was an act of conscience. (Editor’s note: Bryson is referring to Meadows’ involvement in a budgetary stalemate that resulted in a government shutdown for 23 days. The closure resulted in a $23 million revenue loss according to the National Park Service).”

— Rick Bryson

Why are you the best person to represent the people on WNC in Washington?

I am an engineer, so by instinct or intuition I’m someone who gets things done. I have a working sense of government having been an alderman in Bryson City. I’ve led the way in getting our water system modernized by purchasing digital water meters to prevent us from losing 50 percent of our water. I led the way for Bryson City getting named Trout City USA by the North Carolina Wildlife Commission. And it may sound small, but I led the charge for us to have a smaller fire truck because of our narrow streets and that lets us get our insurance premium reduced. That’s the ‘let’s get things done’ approach I plan to take to Washington. I’m driven by the thought that we have reached a level of being adversaries in government that precludes getting anything done. I’ve used a scripture from Isaiah, “Come now let’s reason together.” If someone goes to Congress getting a check for $174,000 a year, they need to put bricks and mortar into this district instead of creating chaos.

the boss and explain that this has put the federal government in a position of being a deadbeat dad — they agreed to these payments, pushed for this agreement and has reneged on their own agreement.

May 18-24, 2016

• Age: 71 • Hometown: Born in Franklin, family moved to Bryson City when he was a baby.

• Background: Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from North Carolina State University. He spent most of his career as a public relations writer for an industrial manufacturing publication in Ohio before retiring and moving back to Bryson City.

• Political experience: Currently serving his first term as a Bryson City alderman.

“I’m driven by the thought that we have reached a level of being adversaries in government that precludes getting anything done. I’ve used a scripture from Isaiah, ‘Come now let’s reason together.’ If someone goes to Congress getting a check for $174,000 a year, they need to put bricks and mortar into this district instead of creating chaos.”

zens. I plan to give them a greater voice in their care. The problem is the Veterans Administration itself gets in the way — vets get good care when they can be seen at the VA hospitals but it’s been backed up. I do want to keep the VA intact but I want to help clear the obstacles.

4. The Research Triangle Park (in the Piedmont area of North Carolina) has become a model of economic development.

It occurred to me one day, why can’t we have something like that in Western North Carolina? There was no place for me to work with a mechanical engineering degree in Western North Carolina when I graduated and I wound up in the Ohio for 50 years. We send our best and brightest to get educated and then they have to leave to find work in these science and high technology fields. We could so something like the Research Triangle here — there’s a number of universities in this area with academia that could develop products that are potentially commercially viable. We could create a foundation _ I’ve been calling it WNC Generation Now — and we funnel money from various existing agencies and pick embryotic companies at N.C. State, WCU, UT, Clemson, etc., and bring them to WNC and basically start these businesses with seed funding. They don’t have to be located in one place so we don’t have to shop for 500 acres. We can sprinkle these businesses from Lenoir to Murphy so when someone graduates with degree they can find work and keep their families here.

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non-insured were forced to buy insurance from private companies who have been raising their premiums at will. We must also require hospitals and care providers to form aggregates like Kaiser-Permanente in order to control care costs.

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Haywood’s dropout program rescued

BY B ECKY JOHNSON STAFF WRITER n innovative high school dropout program in Haywood County was rescued from the chopping block this week after county commissioners and school officials agreed to go halves on the $61,000 needed to keep it open.

Despite serving as a statewide model for how to re-engage high school dropouts and turn them into graduates, the Haywood Community Learning Center got caught up in the carnage of a $2.4 million budget shortfall facing the Haywood County School System.

School leaders appealed to county commissioners at the county’s meeting this week to pitch in and help save the program.

“We are here to ask, if there is any way possible, if we could ask for help,” School Board Chairman Chuck Francis pleaded to commissioners.

Commissioners asked how the dropout program ended up on the chopping block in the first place.

“This is one of the better, if not the best, dropout prevention program in the state. If it is such a successful program, why was it cut in the first place?” Commissioner Mark Swanger asked.

School leaders replied that they were forced to look under every rock given the budget shortfall they faced.

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May 18-24, 2016

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“It hit every single program that we had,” program, Kyle Ledford, could use grant funding to make up the difference, and while Superintendent Anne Garrett said. “This he closed the gap some, he still came up was just a very unfortunate situation.”

School leaders said they never intended to jeopardize the learning center by including it in the budget cuts, however.

“We initially thought the portion of the funding we are talking about could be covered with grants,” said Francis. “Later we found that that was not the case.”

Haywood School Superintendent Anne Garrett, School Board Chairman The school system cut the Chuck Francis and Haywood Community Learning Center Director Kyle budget for the Ledford appeal to Haywood County commissioners this week for money learning center to fund a dropout recovery program. by $91,000, which pays the short by $61,000. salaries of four part-time instructors who That landed the school system on the make up its core teaching staff. county commissioners’ doorstep seeking The program is largely grant-funded.

Garrett said they assumed the director of the help. Commissioners agreed to pay for half

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the deficit if the school system picked back up the other half.

“We will be able to backfill, with your help, the complete program,” Francis said.

Swanger asked if the school system was committed to the program going forward.

“It would almost be a waste if we give the money now and you cut the program in two years anyway,” Swanger said.

School leaders replied that the program was indeed something they were committed to.

County commissioners universally praised the learning center for its role not only in improving the lives of its students, but also for the greater long-term benefits to the entire community.

“It is money well spent,” Commissioner Mike Sorrells said.

The program has helped more than 550 would-be dropouts earn their high school diplomas since its inception in 2007, lowering the county’s dropout rate to only 1 percent.

“Your results speak for themselves. I don’t think anybody in the state can match those numbers,” Commissioner Bill Upton said.

Without the program, many of those dropouts would have no doubt ended up on public assistance or in the court system, Sorrells said.

Commissioner Kevin Ensley said many of the students served

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11TH-HOUR ASK

While the Haywood Community Learning Center is no longer facing an imminent threat of closure, the long-term

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LONG-TERM FIX

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May 18-24, 2016

The 11th-hour request from the school system deviated from its normal budgeting procedure — namely by asking the county for more money after initially agreeing to a school funding level. The county and school system have a standing gentlemen’s agreement that has become known over the past 15 years as the “funding formula.”

It was the first time since the funding formula’s inception that the school system came calling for more money over and above the agreed on funding formula level.

Francis assured commissioners it was an outlier.

“We will not be in the habit of coming up here each week or each month to ask for more money,” Francis said, calling the current funding from the county “very generous.”

Haywood County ranks in the top 20 percent statewide when it comes to local funding for education. While schools get the majority of their funding from the state, counties kick in a significant share, funding everything from bus drivers to teachers to school security. How much to give schools is up to each individual county, however.

The discretionary system in North Carolina sets the stage for an annual tug-ofwar between commissioners and school leaders — school leaders strong arm commissioners to give them more and commissioners counter by playing hardball.

In hopes of rising above the politics of the annual school funding dance, Haywood County commissioners and school leaders struck a deal nearly 15 years ago known as the “funding formula,” which pre-determines local school funding based on head count, with a modest increase built in yearover-year to account for inflation.

The funding formula provides budget security for the school system, and in exchange keeps commissioners out of the hot seat.

While commissioners agreed with the merits of the dropout program and the rationale behind the ask, they made it clear they didn’t particularly like the school system’s 11th-hour request that fell outside the funding formula agreement.

Francis called this case “an extenuating circumstance,” however.

“We are thankful the commissioners were willing to work with us to backfill the funding for this program,” Francis said following the meeting. “It’s nobody’s fault. It just happened.”

challenge of how to fund the program remains an issue.

The problem is that many students in the program don’t get counted as students when it comes to per-pupil funding allocations from the state and county. While most of the students eventually earn their diplomas through the program, they are considered dropouts in the meantime and aren’t counted in the student tally that determines state and county funding.

Sorrells said that needs to change.

“I would like to see these kids counted into the ADM,” he said, referring to the student head count known as “average daily membership.”

Figuring out how to count students in the dropout program for funding purposes isn’t easy, however.

“Determining the exact appropriate and fair amount is a little difficult,” County Manager Ira Dove said.

While the center may serve 150 students in a given calendar year, they aren’t fulltime traditional students.

The school day doesn’t have a start and stop time. Exams aren’t held on a set schedule. Instead, students work at their own pace, with teachers serving more as tutors to help students master subjects and earn credits.

Since the students aren’t full-time, it’s unclear how to count them when it comes to per-pupil funding.

“It needs to be pro-rated in some way so we can get a real number,” Swanger said.

The program director, Kyle Ledford, said that is something they are currently trying to arrive at.

At the county meeting this week, Commissioner Kirk Kirkpatrick drilled down on exactly how the current per pupil funding calculations work — or don’t work — when it comes to the dropout program.

Kirkpatrick pointed out that the school system captures funding for at least some of the dropout students — namely those who begin the school year on the rolls of another high school in the county and were counted in the school system’s ADM before transferring to the learning center.

But some begin the school year already at the learning center, and those aren’t counted at all when it comes to funding allocations.

Garrett said another problem is that the state’s per-pupil funding allocation isn’t paid in real money. Instead, it’s paid in warm bodies — the state allocates teaching positions commiserate with head count, and teaching slots can’t be shuffled around once the school year starts to follow the students across town to the learning center.

The learning center offers students critical flexibility and a safe setting to give school another try.

For some, it’s a refuge from the merciless social pressures of traditional high school.

For others, it’s a lifeline for food and housing assistance. And for others, who are working and may have babies of their own, the school is like a whole team of mentors helping teach them how to make it in the world.

“You have created a solution,” Ensley told Ledford.

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by the program didn’t have the same advantages of a stable home and supportive parents that he did as a child, and that this program is a last chance for them.

“You have made a change in young people’s lives, and it helps the community,” Ensley said. “You have opened up opportunities for them to have a strong education and become members of the community.”

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Waynesville rolls out compromise in ongoing food truck debate

BY B ECKY JOHNSON STAFF WRITER ew rules for where and how food trucks can set up shop in Waynesville attempt to balance the popular and growing food truck movement with the signature small-town character and established economy already here.

The new food truck rules are laxer and more flexible, making it easier for food trucks to join the party. But the new rules stop short of a food truck free-for-all.

“Mobile food vendors, whether in the form of a food truck, trailer or cart, should enhance the local business economy and be suitable to its surroundings, and should not detract or create a negative impact,” explained Elizabeth Teague, Waynesville’s development services director who guided the planning board in crafting new rules.

The new food truck rules have been massaged and debated over the past four months and are now headed for a public hearing before the Waynesville town board of aldermen next Tuesday evening (6:30 p.m. on May 24 at town hall.)

Until now, food trucks weren’t mentioned by name in the town’s ordinances.

But their rise in popularity as a cheaper, onthe-go alternative to sit-down restaurants and hipper, more fashionable alternative to fast food was finally being seen in Waynesville.

To date, food trucks have been shoehorned into the town’s existing ordinance for temporary uses and special events, like yard sales and carnivals.

With food trucks starting to show up

May 18-24, 2016

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around town, the planning board set out to tailor a set of rules specifically for food trucks — from ensuring they have their health inspections to keeping them off public sidewalks without permission.

The biggest question in the food truck debate has been how long a food truck should be allowed to set up in one spot.

Early in the discussion, the planning board tossed out the idea of letting food trucks set up shop as permanent fixtures anywhere they wanted within commercial districts.

The planning board later pulled back from that stance, and arrived at a 180-day limit in any one spot in a calendar year.

The 180-day limit doesn’t have to be consecutive days, however. A food truck could spread out its 180 days in whatever sort of schedule it wants to over the course of the year, as long as the total days operating in one spot don’t exceed 180.

“That will give them a lot of flexibility to work with,” Teague said.

Food truck operations avoid the start-up investment and overhead that comes with a bonafide restaurant, and don’t have to follow the same regulations.

If a food truck parks in one spot permanently, is it really a food truck? Or is it simply masquerading as one to avoid the costs and regulations that go with brick-and-mortar restaurants?

That’s the question planning board members wrestled with.

“Mobile food units should not be used as ‘work-arounds’ to avoid building, safety and zoning regulations,” Teague said.

This stance poses a conundrum for Mad

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Anthony’s Bottle Shop & Beer Garden, a taproom on the outskirts of downtown that recently set up a food truck out back as an alternative to an in-house restaurant. Mad Anthony’s wants its food truck to be a per-

manent fixture on its property.

Food trucks by definition are mobile and not temporary. Mad Anthony’s food truck is even tied into the building with a water line and electrical connections.

“If you permanently park it somewhere and permanently connect it to your building, when does it come under the building codes?” Teague posed. “If they want to be there on a permanent basis we have to figure out how to handle that under the building code. While you can change a zoning ordinance locally, you cannot change the state building code.”

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David and Amanda Young, owners of Mad Anthony’s Bottle Shop & Beer Garden, in front of MA’s Kitchen food truck that serves patrons in the absence of an inhouse restaurant. Becky Johnson photo

More To read the draft food truck regulations and their explanation by town planning staff, go to www.smokymountainnews.com and click on this story.

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Another question the planning board wrestled with was whether to allow foods trucks to set up on public streets and sidewalks, or public town parking lots.

The door is left open under the new rules to allow case-by-case permission but not as a matter of course.

Last year, a barbecue food truck occa-

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WHAT ELSE THE RULES SAY

sionally set up on the street outside Frog Level Brewing — serving food on the public sidewalk and from a public parking space.

It did so illegally since it lacked a permit or permission from the town to set up on public property.

“When you allow someone to park on the street, such as a public parking place or sidewalk, you are actually ceding over property in the public domain for personal gain,” Teague said. “If you are taking away a parking space, which has a value associated with it, it is reasonable to expect for some sort of compensation to the public for the use of that space.”

The new rules don’t ban food trucks from public parking areas, but do require a lease agreement with the town and likely some sort of fee, as well the blessing of the adjacent businesses.

Food trucks are not allowed on public property in the Main Street vicinity under any circumstance, however, a caveat that was included at the request of the Downtown Waynesville Association.

Another condition in the new rules is that food trucks cannot set up within 50 feet of an existing brick-and-mortar restaurant during its normal hours.

Food truck fans claim the free market should dictate food choices, not rules that protect the restaurant industry and limit the public’s choices. On the flip side, some feel food trucks have an unfair advantage — they have fewer regulations, less taxes and less overhead — creating an unequal playing field that hurts traditional restaurants.

While food trucks add to a community’s street scene and vibrancy, the restaurant industry is critical to the economy, from providing jobs to paying property taxes.

Here are a few lesser points contained in the new food truck rules: • Food trucks have to get a permit from the town, but the permit is free.

• Food trucks have to have a health department inspection to get a permit, a condition the county health department actually requested be built into the town’s permit process.

• Food trucks that set up in conjunction a festival or special event are exempt. If there’s a street festival on Main Street, for example, each cotton candy, frozen lemonade and polish sausage vendor doesn’t have to get a food truck permit, nor does a barbecue wagon brought in for a church summer fun day.

“Local government isn’t here to micromanage,” Teague said.

• Accommodations must be made with adjacent businesses to allow food truck workers to use the bathroom.

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Aside from the logistical issue of how to classify a permanent kitchen masquerading as a food truck when it comes to building codes, the Mad Anthony’s situation presents a philosophical conundrum as well.

While Mad Anthony’s shiny, new, classy-looking food truck parked behind its building is not an aesthetic eyesore, any loophole created for Mad Anthony’s could be seized on by other food truck operators elsewhere in town. That would open the door for makeshift restaurants serving food out of truck windows to become permanent fixtures of any parking lot in town.

“There are people who believe Waynesville has worked very hard to create a town with a quaint, historical character and they don’t think that a modular mobile structure being used as a permanent building is part of that,” Teague said. “The other side of that is that a rising tide lifts all boats, and the more activity you have, you draw more people in, and everyone benefits from that.”

Still, Teague and the planning board recognized that Mad Anthony’s on-site food truck is a positive addition not only for beer garden patrons, but for Waynesville’s nightlife scene.

So Teague set out to craft a loophole as narrowly as she could to allow for Mad Anthony’s unique situation, without opening the barn door so wide the town would regret it later.

She came up with a commissary loophole. Food trucks are required under public health rules to have a designated commissary where they stock their food trucks from, whether it’s storing refrigerated perishables overnight or prepping ingredients.

Teague proposed a loophole that would allow a food truck to setup one location on a permanent basis, as long as it was located on the same property as its commissary.

This would keep a food truck from setting up shop permanently in a random parking lot, but allow for cases like Mad Anthony’s where there’s an existing establishment the food truck is essentially part of. The proposed loophole would require food trucks to be parked behind or to the side of the building.

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May 18-24, 2016

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For further information, contact Marge Stiles at 452.8343 or info@HaywoodHealthcareFoundation.org 18

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Must be 21 years old to gamble.

will portray Bishop Walter Lambuth and his work as a missionary. Born to missionary parents in China, Lambuth made a significant difference in early Methodism around the world.

Birthday cake, with lemonade and other beverages, will be served in the Susanna Wesley Garden.

“Our past principles help us to better face the future. The treasures which are located in the Museum call on us to assure that our children and grandchildren have an opportunity to know about the sacrifices made in the 17th and 18th centuries so that we may practice our faith today,” said Museum Director Jackie Bolden. “People are always surprised at very rare artifacts, from the handwritten letters of John Wesley to the Geneva Bible printed in 1594, to the Holy Land exhibits that contain items as far back as the time of Abraham, and thousands of other one-of-a-kind items.”

All ages are invited with face painting and a special coloring book being offered for children. For information contact the museum at 828.456.7242, email jbolden@worldmethodistcouncil.org, or visit at 575 North Lakeshore Drive.

SARGE’S ANNOUNCES PET PHOTO CONTEST WINNERS

All former Central Elementary School staff members are invited to a “walk down memory lane” event from 2-4 p.m.

Wednesday, May 18, at Central Elementary in Waynesville. Drop by to celebrate with food, stories and each other. 828.456.2405.

Tope Is REACH volunteer honoree The Friends of REACH recognized Gretchen Tope, a long-time volunteer with the REACH of Haywood Helpline, in a ceremony and reception April 13 at the agency’s office.

REACH Board President Pat Janke and Friends of REACH Chairwomen Susan Smith presented Tope with an engraved crystal paperweight in recognition of and gratitude for her service from 2007 through 2015. Over her eight years as a volunteer, she served 443 Helpline shifts, which resulted in 5,361 donated hours.

REACH’s mission is to serve survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating abuse and elder abuse.

828.456.7898 or www.reachofhaywood.org.

Free leg pain program offered Haywood Regional Medical Center is holding a free tired leg/varicose vein educational program at 4 and 5 p.m. Thursday, May 19, at the Vein Center at Haywood Regional Medical Center on the second floor (enter behind the hospital) led by Dr. Al Mina, MD, FACS and Dr. Joshua Rudd, D.O. There will be sessions at 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. Interested community members are asked to register for this session by calling 828.452.VEIN (8346). Space limited — RSVP required.

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Smoky Mountain News

Sarge’s Animal Rescue Foundation announced the winners of its 10th Annual Pet Photo Contest. The winners received gift certificates, and the winning photos will be reproduced as Sarge’s note cards and displayed at Sarge’s ACatemy Awards cat video event May 14 at The Strand in Waynesville. Pictured is the Sarge’s 10th Annual Pet Photo Contest first place-dog category winner, ‘Blue Ridge Parkway Daze,’ by Christy Rowe. 828.246.9050 or www.sargeanimals.org.

Reunion to celebrate former Central employees

May 18-24, 2016

A celebration will be held May 22 to mark the 60th birthday of the World Methodist Museum, which is located on the grounds of Lake Junaluska Assembly.

The museum will be open from 1 to 4 p.m. with tours of it and the adjacent Susanna Wesley Garden. Informal presentations and discussions will be offered by three featured speakers: • Bishop Ivan Abrahams, General Secretary of the World Methodist Council, will speak at 1:30 p.m. as he shares stories about his native South Africa, the renowned late Nelson Mandela, and how people are all called to treat each other as a neighbor.

Born in South Africa, his life was forged on the anvil of apartheid.

• Accomplished musician and Scottish folklorist Flora MacDonald Gammon will perform at 2 p.m. on the dulcimer, sharing music that would have been played in the late 1700s and early 1800s as Bishop Francis Asbury and circuit riders took the word throughout the eastern U.S. Dulcimers were one of the instruments used then as they could be made and carried by early settlers.

• At 2:30 p.m., The Rev. Ashley Calhoun

Rod Harkleroad has been named as the new chief executive officer of Haywood Regional Medical Center.

Harkleroad most recently served as CEO of Riverview Regional Medical Center and Trousdale Medical Center, both of which are part of a four-hospital regional healthcare system in Tennessee that is part of LifePoint Health.

He replaces Harold Siglar, who has served as interim CEO of Rod Harkleroad HRMC since April, when former CEO Phillip Wright abruptly resigned.

“We are excited to welcome Rod to the Haywood Regional family and know that under his leadership we will be able to advance our mission of ‘Making Communities Healthier,’” said James Carter, chief operating officer of Duke LifePoint Health’s Eastern Group, which includes HRMC. “Rod has extensive knowledge and experience leading hospitals, and his com-

mitment to delivering high-quality care close to home will help guide the hospital as it continues to explore ways to enhance patient care.”

Harkleroad is a seasoned healthcare administrator with a background in nursing.

During his time with RRMC, Harkleroad led the hospital to earn designation as a Duke LifePoint Quality Affiliate through LifePoint’s National Quality Program.

Riverview became the second facility within LifePoint Health to achieve this designation, which recognizes hospitals within LifePoint that have succeeded in transforming their culture of safety and achieved high standards of quality care, performance improvement and patient engagement.

Prior to his role as CEO, Harkleroad served in a number of leadership roles within RRMC and other LifePoint Health facilities, including administrator of RRMC and associate chief nursing officer of Sumner Regional Medical Center in Gallatin, Tennessee. Harkleroad began his career in healthcare as a registered nurse.

He has a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and a master’s of management in health care from Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management in Nashville.

Harkleroad and his wife, Mindy, and three sons, Austin, Sam and Alex, will live in Haywood County.

Haywood Regional Medical Center is a 169-bed full-service hospital. www.myhaywoodregional.com.

news

World Methodist Museum to mark 60 years

Seasoned administrator to take helm at HRMC

A new guardian-training course will begin on June 15, and the Guardian ad Litem program is currently accepting applications for child advocates in Swain, Macon and Jackson counties.

In Swain, Macon and Jackson counties, the rights of the most vulnerable children are being lost in the shuffle of a strained system.

Last month, of the 176 children currently before the court for having been abused or neglected in these counties, 27 of those children had no volunteer advocate to speak up for them before the court.

Call 828.587.2087 or visit www.volunteerforgal.org.

19

Opinion Are we near the ‘who cares’ point for legal pot?

T Smoky Mountain News

he last couple of years have brought a sea change in attitudes about marijuana. I’m convinced pot will be legal in most of the U.S. within the next decade, and I think it will do a lot more good than harm.

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is a conservative tribe.

Yet its Tribal Council voted two weeks ago to start drafting legislation that would allow marijuana to be produced on tribal land and prescribed for medicinal uses. Such a move would, of course, spawn a whole subset of economic development possibilities for growing and processing cannabis.

Back in November 2015, the Tribe had considered a resolution that would have legalized recreational uses. Fearing that such a move would cause tribal lands to become a magnet for users and worsen an already devastating drug problem on the Qualla Boundary, that measure was replaced by the recent decision to consider only medicinal uses.

Good move. With pot still illegal everywhere in the South, I think that fear was very real — at least for now.

Back when that first resolution came up, I remember wondering what would happen if Cherokee did legalize marijuana.

Soon after that, I did what I do at least a couple of nights a week — channel-surfed through an hour or so of cable news to get caught up on national political issues.

That particular night I watched as several outlets were airing New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s heartfelt story of a successful lawyer friend’s descent from the heights of success to prescription opioid addiction and, finally, suicide (if you haven’t seen Christie tell this story, it’s worth a few minutes on You Tube).

The man left a wife and three daughters grieving, and Christie — a GOP presidential candidate at the time — wanted

Trump cares only about being the winner To the Editor: For one who has never held an elected office, Donald Trump is a brilliant politician.

His TV persona and his high profile media ventures have served him well. No one should be surprised, it was all laid out in his best seller, The Art of the Deal.

But, make no mistake, what he is selling is why he may be our next President. Historians call this view of the world “nativism.” Its core message is simple: America first. But the America he is referring to is very limited. That America belongs to those who consider themselves here first, and whose culture is dominant. Every other race, ethnicity, sexual preference, or religion is considered inferior. This is a powerful message to those of the dominant culture. Many of them feel economically left out; threatened by cultural changes, or betrayed by our government and our political system.

Dictators and totalitarian leaders throughout history have used this message to consolidate their power. Putin with his desire to bring back the glory of old “Mother Russia” is a classic example of the power of nativism.

Many politicians and public figures throughout U.S. history have railed against immigrants, and those that are different. The Catholics, the Jews, and now the Muslims; all

to know why we as a society aren’t doing more to help those who are addicted to the powerful prescription drugs.

As local law enforcement officials have been pointing out for several years, we have a huge problem with this type of prescription drug abuse, one that has had tragic consequences like those described by Gov. Christie. The opioid family of painkillers — Vicodin, OcyContin, Percocet and others — are extremely addictive and too easy to get.

They are stolen or obtained through illeEditor gal prescriptions and subsequently make it into the hands of dealers.

What if some kind of synthetic pot pill could replace a substantial portion of these addictive opiates, a pill that could ease pain but never kills anyone? Medicinal pot is available in 24 states but is still illegal under federal law.

Things are moving fast in this arena. Mexico’s Supreme Court cleared the way for that country to at least consider legalizing marijuana by giving four plaintiffs the right to grow it for personal use. The recently elected Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has vowed to support legalization of marijuana for recreational use. Latin American countries, like Chile and Colombia, have legalized marijuana for medical use. And in Uruguay, pot is also legal for recreational use. Five states and Washington, D.C., have legal recreational pot, and California may do the same before year’s end.

What happens to the illegal marijuana trade from Mexico if pot becomes legal all along the U.S. west coast, even for recre-

Scott McLeod

20

whom, at one time or another, have been labeled as a threat to our “American way of life.” The Blacks, the Asians, and now the Mexicans have all been seen as a danger to the purity of the dominant culture. And now the LGBT community is in the bull’s eye simply because their very existence calls into question some of the most sacred religious beliefs of the dominant culture.

All these “others” are convenient diversions from the real challenges we face today.

But as any good politician knows, it’s not your policy positions that really score votes, it’s the emotional appeal that drives people to the poles. Those in the dominant culture are deeply troubled by the future they see. Mr. Trump has tapped into that fear and anger.

I doubt that Donald Trump has any idea of the historical context for the movement he now leads. I doubt that he is a racist or he even cares about these issues. As he has said many times, it is all about winning. If he wins, all the “others” may lose.

Louis Vitale Franklin

HB2 could be called ‘Hate Bill 2’ To the Editor: Recent letters have provided more smoke than light regarding HB2, also known as House Bill 2, which concerns itself with bath-

ational use? Drug gangs making millions off the illicit pot trade while infiltrating the highest levels of government won’t have a market and so won’t have any money. No money equals no influence and no power. Things would change in Mexico.

As a society, we’ve spent billions of dollars fighting something that’s less harmful than tobacco or alcohol. So much has changed over the last 50 years since pot was decried as the gateway to far more dangerous and addictive drugs.

Finally, there is the incarceration-law enforcement-judicial side of the issue. How many people are still in jails for relatively minor marijuana charges? How many millions of dollars are spent every year as these cases work their way through the court system, and how much of law enforcement’s resources do we spend in this area each year? How much money is wasted in Mexico and other Latin American countries as the Drug Enforcement Agency and other entities tried to eradicate marijuana fields and arrest dealers.

All of this takes me back to, oh, sometime around 1975 or thereabouts. I remember how shocking it was listening to one segment of my mom’s live Barbra Streisand albums (I don’t know when the album was made) and you can hear Streisand between songs bantering with the audience about overcoming the anxiety of performing, about how she doesn’t like liquor and can’t take pills, so she lights up what we presume is a joint, and asks, “It’s still illegal?” while you can hear her taking a huge toke.

Right now, the hodgepodge of laws across the country probably adequately represents how the country feels about this issue.

But now, more than 40 years after I first listened to that album, the question is perhaps even more relevant. It’s still illegal?

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

LOOKING FOR OPINIONS The Smoky Mountain News encourages readers to express their opinions through letters to the editor or guest columns. All viewpoints are welcome. Send to Scott McLeod at info@smokymountainnews.com., fax to 828.452.3585, or mail to PO Box 629, Waynesville, NC, 28786. room use, unfunded mandates, setting wages, hours or working conditions, micromanagement from the state, discrimination in employment and housing, and lack of ability to sue in cases of discrimination.

For the record, this was an overwhelmingly Republican-passed bill, signed by the Republican governor.

The introduction states that the General Assembly finds that consistent statewide laws “will improve intrastate commerce” and “attract(s) new business” to North Carolina. A cursory view of national headlines reveals that the impact of HB2 has been just the opposite — large companies are leaving North Carolina in droves.

One reason for the exodus is in Part I, the bathroom clause. While common sense and decency would suggest that we not put males and females together in showers, etc, the devil is in the details.

The key is how the Assembly defines ‘biological sex,’ which they order be determined by what is on one’s birth certificate.

Enforcement is all but impossible as the Assembly provided no money to hire people to guard all the public restrooms and check birth certificates.

Also, not everyone has the same genitalia that they were born with. HB2 mandates that someone with female genitalia but has male on her birth certificate to use the boys shower. Either the Republicans didn’t think this through, or they consciously ignored the reality on the ground to punish, humiliate and endanger people.

Part II prevents local governments from setting their own (higher) minimum wage.

The worst part is that this states that private profit (business and industry) is more important than “the general welfare of the people.”

Part III allows discrimination against LGBTQ citizens in employment, housing, and other public accommodations. When an amendment was added to protect these and veteran residents, the Republicans voted it down.

It also prevents a civil suit against those who illegally discriminate, but instead mandates using a state agency whose purpose is to “effect an amicable resolution,” not seek justice.

For these reasons, HB2 can also be called Hate Bill 2.

Dan Kowal Franklin

That’s us, using our children as ‘escape goats’ M

Chris Cox

@SmokyMtnNews

APPLE CREEK CAFE 111 N. Main St., Waynesville.

828.456.9888. Tuesday through Thursday 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday 10:30 a.m. to midnight. Sunday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. We are excited to be on Main St. serving lunch and dinner with a full bar.

Our menu includes items such as blackberry salmon, fettuccine alfredo, hand-cut steaks, great burgers, sandwiches, salads and more. Join us for live music every Friday and Saturday nights. Friday 6 to 9 p.m. live piano music. Saturday 6 to 9 p.m. live jazz music. No cover charge.

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.

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

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

CATALOOCHEE RANCH 119 Ranch Dr., Maggie Valley.

828.926.1401. Family-style breakfast seven days a week, from 8 am to 9:30 am – with eggs, bacon, sausage, grits and oatmeal, fresh fruit, sometimes French toast or pancakes, and always all-you-can-eat.

Lunch every day from 12:00 till 2 pm.

Evening cookouts on the terrace on weekends and Wednesdays, featuring steaks, ribs, chicken, and pork chops, to name a few. Bountiful family-style dinners on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, with entrees that include prime rib, baked ham and herb-baked chicken, complemented by seasonal vegetables, homemade breads, jellies and desserts. We also offer a fine selection of wine and beer. The evening social hour starts at 6 pm, and dinner is served starting at 7 pm. So join us for mile-high mountaintop dining with a spectacular view.

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BREAKFAST & DINNER DAILY SUNDAY LUNCH by reservation

456.9498 • www.balsaminn.net 345-11

Sign Up Today for Our

REWARDS PROGRAM! 6306 Pigeon Road Canton, NC

(828) 648-4546 MON.-SAT. 11 A.M.-8 P.M.

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

Smoky Mountain News

the car with your hose, spraying it down with soap or rinse, there is some demonic force on the other side spattering it with handfuls of mud or grape jelly or Nutella, and that you move at exactly the same rate of speed, like two planets orbiting the sun. You can keep washing all of your life, but your car will never, ever be more than halfway clean.

If you’ve never had kids but always wondered what it is like, this is what it’s like.

You may think that we are using our children, as one of my students put it so fetchingly in a recent composition, as “escape goats.” Then again, you haven’t seen their rooms, have you? We have a miniature dachshund who is not allowed in their rooms for fear that he may never be seen again, although his chances of survival in those waste lands are good due to the food rations that are scattered about, and yet so cleverly and artfully concealed in the chaos of clothes, clutter, and contraband.

I admit that it is not entirely their fault.

We, the alleged adults, also deserve a fair portion of blame, inasmuch as in addition to the overwhelming nature of house and grounds upkeep, there is also this — the list of things that we would sometimes rather do, which includes reading a good book, watching a good movie, drinking a good bottle of wine, or taking a good nap, and might, on other occasions, also include reading an average book, watching a tolerable movie, drinking a bottle of anything that is not toxic, or hiding under the covers until the day gives up and goes away.

When it gets to be just too, too much — the dishes trembling in towering piles, the leaves devouring the yard completely, and the kids’ bathroom requiring a hazmat suit to enter — we throw a party. In fact, we have already scheduled one for later in the summer, and just like that a spreadsheet has materialized on the kitchen counter, one that outlines six weeks’ worth of daily projects, assigned tasks, and measurable outcomes.

We have already put down the flooring in the guest room and cleared out the storage area under the deck. Next up — pausing now, to mourn that bottle of wine — is the basement. There simply are no words to describe what that will be like — think “Apocalypse Now” with cobwebs and boxes instead of napalm and helicopters and you’ve basically got it.

If there is an escaped goat on the premises, I bet he’s hiding in there.

(Chris Cox is a writer and teacher who lives in Haywood County. He can be reached at jchriscox@live.com.)

Taste the Mountains is an ever-evolving paid section of places to dine in Western North Carolina. If you would like to be included in the listing please contact our advertising department at 828.452.4251

May 18-24, 2016

y wife and I like to host small parties or entertain our friends every three years or so, not because we love people so much as the discovery we made some years ago that throwing a party is the only surefire way to get us to clean our home.

I mean, we do clean. If you ask us, we’re always doing the dishes, or throwing in a load of laundry, or sweeping up some unidentifiable crumbs of something or other from the crevices and darkened corners of our kitchen floor and pantry. We are forevermore raking and burning leaves, sometimes to the Columnist considerable consternation of our neighbors. Or we are clearing out two weeks’ accumulation of junk mail, Burger King wrappers, half-chewed pencils (who is chewing the pencils?), scratched-up DVDs, a mostly empty bag of gummy worms, and an array of crumpled menus, church bulletins, and leaflets from two or more area schools.

Or we are scrubbing tubs and toilets, the kids’ bathroom in particular, which can only be attacked by the four of us at once, armed with scouring pads and bristled instruments that look like weapons from “The Game of Thrones.”

As the entire area is prepped for battle with a layer of Comet, someone mutters bitterly, cursing the uncertain aim of the resident menfolk, while, simultaneously, thanking the Lord Almighty that the resident menfolk are not hunters, since if their aim is as poor in the woods as it is in the bathroom, how many manslaughter charges might now be pending, how many neighbors felled while hiking or picking wildflowers or looking for ginseng?

Since we moved into a larger home several years ago, the prospect of keeping it clean has been, to be absolutely forthright, a bit overwhelming, so we are more apt to spend an hour or two on those days when we have an hour or two — which are not many, given our various and sundry extracurriculars — tackling one room, one project, one task.

The trouble is, as we throw ourselves into completing the chosen room/project/task, all of the many other rooms/projects/tasks remain unattended, very often increasing in dirtiness/complexity/size all the while.

It is a perplexing problem, to say the least. Imagine that you are washing your car, and that every time you make a circle around

tasteTHEmountains

MON-SAT: 7 A.M.-8 P.M. SUN: 8:30 A.M.-3 P.M.

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tasteTHEmountains CHURCH STREET DEPOT 34 Church Street, downtown Waynesville.

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

THE CLASSIC WINESELLER 20 Church Street, Waynesville.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

GANKO EXPRESS 1896 S. Main St., Waynesville 828.246.9099 Monday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Serving a variety of Hibachi, Chinese, Thai and Sushi dishes.

J. ARTHUR’S RESTAURANT AT MAGGIE VALLEY U.S. 19 in Maggie Valley. 828.926.1817.

Winter hours: Thursday through Dunday 12 to 4 p.m. for lunch and 4 p.m. to closing for dinner. Daily luncheon special at $6.99.

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

nchbox Café The Lu SATURDAY, MAY 21 • 7 P.M.

Eric Hendrix & Todd Davis

Reunion Tour Kickoff Sunday Brunch: 9a–3p 3 E JACKSON ST. • SYLVA, NC

www.CityLightsCafe.com

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Breakfast Sandwiches Served All Day Daily Specials!

100 SPICEWOOD DR. CLYDE Behind Mountain Medical 828.246.6296 Hours: Mon-Fri 9am-4pm

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May 18-24, 2016

breakingbreadcafenc.com • 828.648.3838

Smoky Mountain News

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APPÉTIT Y’AL N L BO

LIVE MUSIC TUESDAY NIGHTS! 7-9 P.M. Upcoming Bands: May 24 — Tonology May 31 — Smokerise Acoustic SAGEBRUSH OF CANTON 1941 Champion Dr. Canton

828-456-1997 22

blueroostersoutherngrill.com

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

828-646-3750 Sun-Thur 11 AM - 10 PM Fri-Sat 11 AM - 11 PM

tasteTHEmountains 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.

THE LUNCHBOX CAFE 100 Spicewood Dr., Clyde, 828.246.6296 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Serving up scrumptious breakfast, lunch and dinner all made with care in a welcoming environment. Subs, salads, sandwiches and more.

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

828.586.3555. Open Monday through Wednesday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Handtossed pizza, steak sandwiches, wraps, salads and desserts. All made from scratch.

Beer and wine. Free movies with showtimes at 6:30 and 9 p.m. with a Saturday matinee at 2 p.m. Visit madbatterfoodandfilm.com for this week’s shows.

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.

PAPERTOWN GRILL 153 Main St., Canton. 828.648.1455 Open 7 days a week 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Serving the local community with great, scratch-made country cooking. Breakfast is served all day. Daily specials including Monday meatloaf, chicken and dumplings on Thursdays and Friday fish.

PASQUALE’S 1863 South Main Street, Waynesville. Off exit 98, 828.454.5002. Open for lunch

Grab a bite & take home dinner.

Cottage Pie, Sausage Rolls & More!

Available all week from our kitchen

(828) 452-7837 WaynesvilleCatering.com

Travel to Thailand without leaving Main Street

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

Family oriented business.

SMOKEY SHADOWS LODGE 323 Smoky Shadows Lane, Maggie Valley 828.926.0001. Check Facebook page for hours, which vary. Call early when serving because restaurant fills up fast. Remember when families joined each other at the table for a delicious homemade meal and shared stories about their day? That time is now at Smokey Shadows. The menus are customizable for your special event. Group of eight or more can schedule their own dinner.

TAP ROOM BAR & GRILL 176 Country Club Drive, Waynesville.

828.456.3551. Open seven days a week serving lunch and dinner. 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Tucked away inside Waynesville Inn, the Tap Room Bar & Grill has an approachable menu designed around locally sourced, sustainable, farm-to-table ingredients. Full bar and wine cellar. www.thewaynesvilleinn.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.

Spicy, Mild or Sweet

Wed. & Sat. in the HART Parking lot

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.

SAGEBRUSH STEAKHOUSE 1941 Champion Drive. Canton 828-6463750 Sunday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Carry out available. Sagebrush features hand carved steaks, chicken and award winning BBQ ribs. We have fresh salads, seasonal vegetables and scrumptious deserts. Extensive selection of local craft beers and a full bar. Catering special events is one of our specialties. Local acoustic music on Tuesday nights.

128 N. Main St., Waynesville

WINE • BEER • SAKE Open Daily 11:30-9:00 (828) 454-5400

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Smoky Mountain News

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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.

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enters second act

With the original HART building (left) opened in 1997, the new second stage structure (right) is expected to open in late June.

New stage to open next month

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD STAFF WRITER itting on a bench one recent sunny afternoon, Steven Lloyd gazes to his right, a big smile immediately rolling across his face.

“When I look over there, I see potential — a lot of potential,” he said.

Executive director for the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville, Lloyd is situated underneath the large awning of the 10,000square-foot building. To his right, numerous construction workers are Steven Lloyd putting the final touches on the brand new second stage structure, the Daniel & Belle Fangmeyer Theatre, which sits proudly mere feet from its older sibling.

“It’s the potential for a lot of concert events, theatre events, community events, outdoor events with people sitting on the hillside, and the restaurant, which will make it possible for people to come and eat before a show,” he said. “This new stage will catapult our theatre into one of the best production companies in the Southeast.”

The 9,000-square-foot second stage (with around a 140 person capacity) has been years in the making. Breaking ground in 2014, the building is expected to open to the public the weekend of June 25-26, with the production of

S

A&E

Smoky Mountain News

“All My Sons” aiming for an Aug. 5 opening. Of the $1.2 million price tag, HART was able to raise around $1 million of that through the generous support of many longtime donors and supporters along with a few new ones.

“The more people you have, the better off you are,” Lloyd said. “The truth is that you’re building a foundation of support. All of those people who have given thousands of dollars all the way down to $10, whether it’s large or small, are invested in what you’re trying to do, so you’ve got this army of people behind you.”

Lloyd pointed to the fact of how strong the foundation of the theatre is — in its vision and its run of sold-out productions — which gives supporters a piece of mind in knowing just what their donations are going toward.

“People like giving to things that are stable, and all along I’ve been clear that this is my home and I don’t want to go anywhere else,” he said. “You’re building a legacy and people have faith in what you say, and know you’ll stick around to follow through with it.”

And stick around he has. At 62, Lloyd has been executive director of the theatre for the last 26 years. As part of a (now defunct) statewide initiative (Edwin Gill Theatre Project) that brought plays and productions to every school district every year, Lloyd came to Western North Carolina as a visiting artist at Haywood Community College. At that time (1990), HART was being run out of The Strand in downtown Waynesville.

“HART didn’t really have anybody running it that knew how to run a theatre. They kind of went from show to show without any real planning,” Lloyd said. “We were in The Strand until

Want to go?

The new second stage building of the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville will open to the public all day on Saturday, June 25. There will be a private reception for donors on Sunday, June 26. The first production in the new facility will be “All My Sons,” which is expected to open on Friday, Aug. 5.

The upcoming HART productions are as follows: “Legally Blonde — The Musical” (May 20-June 12), “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” (June 17July 3), “Jesus Christ Superstar” (July 831), “All My Sons” (Aug. 5-21), “One Slight Hitch” (Aug. 26-Sept. 11), “Into The Woods” (Sept. 16-Oct. 16), and “The Mystery of Irma Vep” (Oct. 21-30).

For more information on HART and showtimes, click on www.harttheatre.org or call 828.456.6322 or email boxoffice@harttheatre.org.

1993, when the fire marshal kicked us out because the building was not up to code and we were just renting the space. We moved to HCC and started fundraising for the new building [which was opened in 1997].”

In the decades since the current building opened, HART has proven itself not only an artistic hub of Western North Carolina, but also an economic driver for Waynesville and greater Haywood County. With a $2.5 million a year impact on the local economy, HART continues

to grow, physically and financially, which is due in no small part to Lloyd’s day-in-day-out vigor to put his theatre on the national map.

“In this day and age, the arts are being chopped out of communities, out of classrooms, and out of the national dialogue, and yet there’s still this many people that want to support HART,” Lloyd smiled. “We’ve grown in a very steady way, never putting anything out there that was too outrageous to achieve. It’s been very slow, very consistent, and we’ve proven that we’re good for the economy of the community. We make money for everybody.

We have a lot of tourists that come here and are drawn to the theatre. They spend the night here, eat here, and spend a lot more money here — we’ve been able to make the economic argument that the arts are good for business.”

A top-notch theater, though, does not necessarily ensure financial viability. Sure, you might have captivating productions hit the stage, but how do you get people in the door, how do you keep the books and costs balanced in order to ensure a future?

“I’m a very good businessman. My grandfather owned a carnival, so I grew up in a carnival family,” Lloyd smiled. “I was kind of like ‘Toby

“You’re building a legacy and people have faith in what you say, and know you’ll stick around to follow through with it.”

— Steven Lloyd

Tyler’ as a kid growing up, and that meant every night we were sitting down and counting money. I grew up in the business side of show business. I also never got seduced into expecting a lot of grants and government support. I’ve always operated this theater by promoting ideas and productions that can pay for themselves.

Any project we take on has to pay for itself, anything from the town and state is extra, but we’re not dependent on it, which helps us when cuts are made at those government levels.”

With the second stage just weeks away from opening, Lloyd is looking forward to the new space and what it will bring, in terms of productions and opportunities, one of which being the creation of a youth drama program.

And yet, one wonders, after 26 years and counting at the helm, if Lloyd is getting ready to hand off the torch to the next generation of HART. He chuckled at the query.

“God willing, I expect I’ll still be doing this in 10 years. I have no desire to retire — this is what I love to do,” he said. “And I’m looking forward to getting a bigger staff as we grow financially, so then I’ll have a little more freedom to come and go and not be locked into being here 60 hours a week, with rehearsals every evening, shows every weekend. I don’t know what I’d do with myself if I didn’t have this place, and I think I’ll always feel that way.”

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Smoky Mountain News

I awoke to yelling outside.

“Everybody get up, get up!

It’s time to graduate,” the obnoxiously inebriated voice bellowed Lazy Hiker Brewing (Franklin) will host a “Craft from three stories below the Beer Week” party with Porch 40 (funk/rock) dorm room window. The guy and PMA (reggae/rock) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, , was still drunk, and still awake, May 21. though most of us partying around campus the night prior The Classic Wineseller (Waynesville) will host had only been asleep a few hours The Russ Wilson Trio (jazz/swing) at 7 p.m. before we got up, grabbed our Saturday, May 21. cap and gown, and headed to The new documentary “The Sad & Beautiful the quad for the commencement World of Sparklehorse” will be shown at 2 p.m. ceremonies. and 6 p.m. Thursday, May 26, at the Macon It was May 2007, the present County Public Library in Franklin. and unknown future, that I stood in, now a freshly minted Mary Ann Enloe will discuss her life and graduate, two degrees in-hand, memories of Haywood County at 11 a.m. with Sallie Mae soon-to-be Tuesday, May 24, at the Hazelwood Baptist knocking on my financial door.

Church in Waynesville.

My eye creaked open in the tiny twin bed. The girl lying next to Local reggae/rock act PMA (Positive Mental me was still asleep, a picturesque Attitude) will host an album release party for its soul, who I think is a teacher in latest record, “Through the Spaces,” at 7:30 Upstate New York these days. I p.m. Friday, May 20, at Innovation Brewing slowly woke her up into the day. in Sylva.

My two best collegiate chums It was hot out, around 90 degrees. Too rose from their beds in the other corners. hot for all-black gowns and dehydrated figThe school had let the seniors back on camures sporting them. I decided against the full pus for one last week, and by the looks of it, suit underneath, in favor of shorts, sandals would be cleaning up the aftermath for at and a T-shirt. I was sitting way in back, in an least another week. open aisle underneath the only shade at the Head for the nearby communal bathend of the alphabet. Sucks to be up in the room. Brush your teeth, wash your face, rid “A” through “M” section under the scorching yourself of any evidence that would lead Connecticut sun, as seen by a handful of your parents to believe you did anything folks running off during the ceremony in but study in your four years at Quinnipiac search of the closest bathroom.

University. Bodies like zombies staggered Soon, I was handed two pieces of paper. up and down the hallways, all trying to One read “History,” the other muster the energy to get their shit together “Communications.” Four years of allbefore they were thrown into the “real nighters, exams, finals, boozing and girls, world,” as they say.

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arts & entertainment

This must be the place

forgotten nights and lost inhibitions, a ball of constructive chaos culminating into a pair of items I’d eventually hang on my wall somewhere in Idaho, in New York, in Western North Carolina, gathering dust with nobody really taking notice of them and of their value in my life.

Celebratory drinks were to be had with the parents at some nice Italian restaurant in New Haven. We saluted to the past, and to the next step, which, in hindsight, was a lack of job opportunities amid a worldwide financial crisis only a year or so down the road.

But, at that time and place, everything still looked pristine and for the taking.

I was the last to leave our house the next day and also had the furthest drive back to my hometown. My other roommates were long gone, and there I was, alone in a silent home, one whose sticky floors and punchedin walls still stunk of cheap beer spilled during Friday night keggers and Saturday night after-parties from the dance clubs.

I packed the back of my 1998 Isuzu Hombre pickup with four years of photographs, textbooks and vinyl records. Pictures of ex-girlfriends, freshman year shenanigans, and of cronies I never thought I’d ever (but did) lose touch with, foggy memories I still dust off from time-to-time.

As my flip-flops stuck to the kitchen floor with every step, I grabbed the last of my beer from the fridge and threw it behind the bench seat of the truck. Pulling the last of my bedroom furniture to the curb for disposal, I looked back at the old house, creaking with a sigh of relief, at least for now, from the destruction within its walls at the hands of millennial offenders looking to take over the world once they were unleashed onto it.

Merging onto I-91 towards Western Massachusetts and Eastern Vermont, my childhood bed lay at the end of the trip home. I still didn’t know how I felt about the whole thing. I spent four years trying to escape from my adolescence, and yet, there I was, back at square one. I’d tasted freedom, here and abroad, and now I must head back to the starting line, with no destination in sight, once the 12-pack behind the bench seat was gone, once the boxes were either unpacked or thrown into the barn attic “for safe keeping” (where they still reside).

And nine years later, the images of those last days at the “Q” flood my field of vision, especially when I find myself alone, in my truck, driving around the back roads of Southern Appalachia. It is a song coming on the radio that sparks something in my subconscious — a face, a situation, a landscape, and a purpose of youthful intent.

I can still smell that cheap beer, and still feel myself peeling my flip-flops from the dirty floor. I can still hear the voices, loud and excited and boisterous, who now stand in front of classrooms, on Wall Street, in front of patients, on the forefront of tomorrow, and everywhere in-between. I think of them, and wonder how they’re doing, and if they also take a moment to step back from the hurtling force of “here and now,” to remember where it all began, and just how fast time flies.

Life is beautiful, grasp for it, y’all.

Flexible Hours 16 years experience Owner: Medea Sharp

3330 Broad St Clyde | 828.734.5334 25

arts & entertainment

On the beat The true story of Sparklehorse

The Freeway Revival will play Sylva on May 27.

The new documentary “The Sad & Beautiful World of Sparklehorse” will be shown at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. Thursday, May 26, at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin.

Written by Angela Faye Martin and directed by Alex Crowton and Bobby Dass, the film is about former Hayesville resident Mark Linkous, singer-songwriter and founder of the alternative rock band Sparklehorse.

A cult and hugely influential figure in the alternative music scene, the critically-acclaimed Linkous had a dramatic life that saw him battle with drug and alcohol addiction, paralysis, and debilitating depression that resulted in his eventual suicide.

Photography

A Sparklehorse documentary will be screened in Franklin.

Danny Clinch Photography

Laura Sparks

The seventh annual Concerts on the Creeks series will kick off the 2016 season with The Freeway Revival at 7 p.m. Friday, May 27, at the Bridge Park Pavilion in Sylva.

Other shows include: Bobby Sullivan Band (classic rock) June 3; Sundown (rock) June 10; Whitewater Bluegrass Company (bluegrass) June 17; Terri Lynn Queen & The Stingers (rock) June 24; Dashboard Blue (rock) July 1; Colby Deitz Band (Americana) July 8; Robertson Boys (bluegrass) July 15; PMA (reggae/rock) July 22; Darren Nicholson Band (Americana/bluegrass) July 29; Buchanan Boys (rock) Aug. 5; Ol’ Dirty Bathtub (Americana) Aug. 12; Porch 40 (rock/funk) Aug. 19; surprise band on Aug. 26; and Erica Nicole (country) Sept. 2.

Concerts are free, with donations accepted. Chairs and blankets allowed. www.mountainlovers.com or 828.586.2155.

May 18-24, 2016 Smoky Mountain News

Karen “Sugar” Barnes and Dave Magill will perform at 7 p.m.

Thursday, May 26, in the Community Room of the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva.

Barnes was born in Washington D.C., the daughter of lap-steel player, Three-Finger Dean Young. It was Young who first introduced her to a Harmony guitar and from that point, Barnes focused on learning music and theater.

She attended the North Carolina School of the Arts, taught theater, and performed in other parts of the state. In 1999, Barnes began researching and performing traditional women’s blues. She also learned to play a single-string slide guitar. Barnes has been a featured musician at MerleFest and many local festivals including.

Magill began his musical career playing folk music in Boston coffeehouses. He played in several New England bands before heading to Austin, Texas in 1973. For the next 25 years he traveled the Southwest performing classical and contemporary country music on bass, guitar, and piano. Magill now divides his time between engineering and being resident studio musician at the Music Room in Webster.

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Local reggae/rock act PMA (Positive Mental Attitude) will host its album release party for its newest record, “Through the Spaces,” at 7:30 p.m.

Friday, May 20, at Innovation Brewing in Sylva. There will also be a special craft beer release at the event. Bender will open the show. www.facebook.com/pmamusic. Brave Sir Media

Concerts on the Creek returns

Sylva library hosts country, blues act

Linkous’ music was heralded by his peers and critics as a mix of delicate pop, discordant punk and melodic odyssey. It has been described as defiantly surrealist with references to smiling babies, organ music, birds, and celestial bodies.

The film mines Linkous’ life and music and navigates the sacrifices and highs and lows of his art.

There will be a “Q & A” session with writer/narrator Martin following the screening.

KEEP IT POSITIVE AT INNOVATION BREWING

828.456.3211 smokymtneye.com

This program is free and open to the public. The event is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Jackson County Public Library. For more information, please call the library at 828.586.2016. www.fontanalib.org.

‘Songwriters’ welcomes Mascitti, McLaughlin and Camp

The “Songwriters in the Round” series will continue with Lauren Mascitti, Pat McLaughlin and Shawn Camp at 6 p.m. Saturday, May 21, at the Balsam Mountain Inn. The Balsam Mountain Inn began the “Songwriters in the Round” series 15 years ago and modeled it after similar performances at Nashville’s Bluebird Cafe. Balsam’s performers are most often the Nashville-area songwriters who pen lyrics performed by country music stars. Many performances feature Grammy and CMA award winners, and all include writers of many top-ranked songs.

A buffet dinner is included in the $49 ticket price, and seating begins at 6 p.m. For more information or to make a reservation click on www.balsammountaininn.net or call 828.456.9498.

On the beat

• Apple Creek Café (Waynesville) will host an evening of piano music on Fridays and jazz on Saturdays. Both events are free and run from 6 to 9 p.m. 828.456.9888 or www.applecreekcafe.com.

• BearWaters Brewing Company (Waynesville) will host Pierce Edens (Americana/alt-country) 8 p.m. May 21. 828.246.0602 or www.bwbrewing.com.

• The City Lights Café (Sylva) will host Eric & Todd at 7 p.m. May 21. 828.587.2233. www.citylightscafe.com.

• The Classic Wineseller (Waynesville) will host Joe Cruz (piano/pop) May 20 and 28, and James Hammel (Americana) May 27, which are each free and begin at 7 p.m.

828.452.6000 or www.classicwineseller.com.

ALSO:

• The Cut Cocktail Lounge (Sylva) will host the “Honky Tonk Stud” contest with The Jon Hatchett Band at 8 p.m. May 21.

828.631.4795.

• Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will have an Open Mic night May 18 and 25, and a jazz night with the Kittle/Collings Duo May 19 and 26. All events begin at 8 p.m. www.innovation-brewing.com.

• The Iotla Baptist Church (Franklin) will host The Chuck Wagon Gang (gospel) at 7 p.m.

May 19. 828.524.7167.

• Marianna Black Library (Bryson City) will hold community music jam from 6 to 7:30 p.m. May 19. Free. 828.488.3030.

• Nantahala Brewing Company (Bryson City) will host Ogya World Music Band on May 20, The Stump Mutts (alternative/rock) May 21, Shane Meade & The Sound (folk/rock) May 27 and The Mike Rhodes Fellowship (Americana) May 28. All shows are free and begin at 8 p.m. www.nantahalabrewing.com.

• No Name Sports Pub (Sylva) will host Humps & The Blackouts (psychobilly) and

• The Oconaluftee Visitor Center (Cherokee) will host a back porch old-time music jam from 1 to 3 p.m. May 21.

• The Rathskeller Coffee Haus & Pub (Franklin) will host Dear Brother (bluegrass) May 20, Twelfth Fret (Americana) May 21, Gary Allan (singer-songwriter) and Nick Prestia (singersongwriter) May 28. All shows are free and begin at 8 p.m. www.rathskellerfranklin.com.

• Sagebrush Steakhouse (Canton) will host Tonology (rock/jam) May 24 and Smokerise (rock/acoustic) May 31. All shows begin at 7 p.m. 828.646.3750.

• Salty Dog’s (Maggie Valley) will have Karaoke with Jason Wyatt on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with Mile High (rock) at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesdays. Andrew Rickman (rock/acoustic) will also perform on Saturdays. All events begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted.

• Satulah Mountain Brewing (Highlands) will host “Hoppy Hour” and an open mic with Jimandi at 5:30 p.m. on Thursdays, “Funky Friday” with Bud Davis at 7 p.m. on Fridays and Isaish Breedlove (Americana) at 7 p.m. on Saturdays. 828.482.9794 or www.satulahmountainbrewing.com.

• Sneak E Squirrel Brewing (Sylva) will host the “Funk to What?” open jam every Thursday at 8 p.m. 828.586.6440.

• Soul Infusion Tea House & Bistro (Sylva) will host a jazz evening with the Tyler Kittle & Michael Colling Duo (with special guests) every other Tuesday starting at 7 p.m. with the next performance on May 24. www.soulinfusion.com or 828.586.1717.

• The Stompin’ Ground (Maggie Valley) is now open for live mountain music and clogging at 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

828.926.1288.

• Tipping Point Brewing (Waynesville) will host Kevin Fuller (Americana/folk) May 20 and Redleg Husky (Americana) May 27. Both shows are free and at 9 p.m. www.tippingpointtavern.com.

• The Ugly Dog Pub (Highlands) will host a weekly Appalachian music night from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Wednesdays with Nitrograss.

828.526.8364 or www.theuglydogpub.com.

• Water’n Hole Bar & Grill (Waynesville) will host DJ Night May 20, Tony LaFalce (singersongwriter) May 21, My Brother Bear (folk/rock) May 27 and Fat Cheek Kat (funk/rock) May 28. All shows begin at 9 p.m. 828.456.4750.

Last year, to celebrate our 82nd anniversary, we invited you to come back with us to the very beginnings of the Ranch. This year, by popular demand, we’re making that journey again.

Twice a month, all summer long, a wagon ride across Ranch grounds will bring you to our authentic re-creation of Mr. Tom and Miss Judy Alexander’s f irst f ishing camp, where we’ll be serving up “Way Back When” dinners of mountain trout and all the fixings. Along with a heaping helping of old-time mountain music. For reservations, just give us a call at 926-1401.

Then come travel back in time with us. Again.

“WAY BACK WHEN” SCHEDULE FRIDAY, MA AY 2 0

FRIDAY, JULY 2 9

FRIDAY, JUNE 3

FRIDAY, AUG. 1 2

FRIDAY, JUNE 2 4

FRIDAY, AUG. 2 6

FRIDAY, JULY 8

FRIDAY, SEPT. 2

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Smoky Mountain News

• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Franklin) will host a “Craft Beer Week” party with Porch 40 (funk/rock) and PMA (reggae/rock) at May 21 and The Remnants (rock) May 28. Both shows begin at 7:30 p.m. www.lazyhikerbrewing.com.

Way Back When is back again.

May 18-24, 2016

• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host Jimi McKenzie (singer-songwriter) 6 p.m. May 20, Sandra Hess (singer-songwriter) 7 p.m.

May 27 and The Maggie Valley Band (Americana) 8 p.m. May 28. All shows are free.

828.454.5664 or www.froglevelbrewing.com.

Rickett Pass (psychobilly) May 20, The Colby Deitz Band (Americana) May 21, Fat Cheek Kat (funk/rock) May 27 and My Brother Bear (folk/rock) May 28. All shows are free and begin at 9:30 p.m. www.nonamesportspub.com.

arts & entertainment

• Andrews Brewing Company will host Heidi Holton (blues/folk) 6 p.m. May 20, Gold Rose (Americana/folk) 7 p.m. May 21, Andrew Chastain (singer/songwriter) 6 p.m. May 27 and Blue Review 7 p.m. May 28. All shows are free. www.andrewsbrewing.com.

Cataloochee Ranch 1 19 Ranch Drive, Maggie Vaalley , N C 2875 1 www.CataloocheeRanch.com ( 828) 926-1401 27

On the beat

May 18-24, 2016

arts & entertainment

Voices in the Laurel celebrate 20 years

A G U A R A N T E E D G R E AT N I G H T O U T

Stecoah bluegrass festival CHIPPENDALES

Smoky Mountain News

JUNE 11 TWO SHOWS

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Voices in the Laurel will be winding up its season with festivities to include current choristers and alumni during the 20th Anniversary Spring Concert to be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, May 29, at the First Baptist Church of Waynesville.

The concert is sponsored in part by the NC Arts Council’s “Grassroots Arts Program” through the Haywood County Arts Council. Other events for the weekend include an informal get-together on Friday, May 27, for adult alumni, current and past staff, board members, and parents; rehearsal for all current choristers and alumni on Saturday, May 28, as well as an alumni coffee hour and lunch; a Saturday evening reunion dinner highlighting Voices in the Laurel — past, present and future, for adult alumni, current and past staff,

JAMEY JOHNSON AUGUST 27

GAB RIEL IGLES IAS JUNE 17

BREW BQ

CAROLINA’S BEST BARBECUE AND BEER AUGUST 27

Visit ticketmaster.com or call 1-800-745-3000 to purchase tickets.

The Heritage Bluegrass Music Festival is from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 21, at the Stecoah Valley Cultural Arts Center.

Performances by the Stecoah JAM Kids (Junior Appalachian Musicians), Jackson County 4-H Music Competition, Graham County Line and Jonah Riddle & The Carolina Express. There will also be jam sessions with Larry Barnett. Arts, crafts and food vendors onsite. The Schoolhouse Café will be open all day.

The music competition is co-produced by Jackson County 4-H and Catch the Spirit of Appalachia. www.stecoahvalleycenter.com.

Rascal Flatts to play Harrah’s Renowned country group Rascal Flatts will perform at 9 p.m. Friday, May 27, at Harrah’s Cherokee.

Since its debut in 2000, the band has sold over 22.5 million albums, 28 million digital downloads, and delivered 15 number one sin-

board members and parents.

Voices in the Laurel is a nonprofit organization catering to young singers in Western North Carolina by giving them the opportunity to study, rehearse, and perform quality choral literature.

Founded in 1996 by Martha Weathers Brown, Voices in the Laurel has touched the lives of over 650 choristers in its 20-year existence. These choristers have come from five counties in Western North Carolina for weekly rehearsals, ticketed concerts and performances for many benefits, businesses, church and civic groups.

For ticket information for the concert, which is open to the public, please visit the website at www.voicesinthelaurel.org or contact Suzy Bernardi at 828.734.9163.

Rascal Flatts.

gles. Rascal Flatts is the most awarded Country group of the past decade, earning over 40 trophies from the ACAs, ACMs, AMAs, CMAs, People’s Choice Awards, and more. www.harrahscherokee.com.

‘Mouth of the South’ returns to Wineseller

The Russ Wilson Trio will perform at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 21, at The Classic Wineseller in Waynesville.

Known as the “Mouth of the South,” Wilson is one of the most renowned jazz, swing and gypsy jazz singers in Southern Appalachia. Tickets are $34.99 per person, which includes a five-course dinner.

828.452.6000 or www.classicwineseller.com.

On the street

The Dirty Soul Revival will perform during the “Block Party” in Waynesville on May 28.

Get down at the ‘Block Party’ The Memorial Day weekend “Block Party” will be held from 7 to 10 p.m. Saturday, May 28, on Main Street.

Tipping Point Brewing will host The Dirty Soul Revival (rock/blues), who will play on the north end of Main Street. The Blue Ridge Big Band, an 18-member Swing Band, returns to the south end of the street. Merchants on that

Franklin rock concert, street dance

Resources. For details contact the Macon Council, call 828.524.ARTS or email arts4all@dnet.net.

Bryson City craft beer, barbeque A “BBQ & Brews Dinner Train” will depart at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 28, from the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad depot in Bryson City.

The dinner features slow-cooked barbeque prepared fresh and beer tastings showcasing Nantahala Brewing Company.

The train travels to the Fontana Trestle and arrives just around sunset for a spectacular view, then arrives back to the depot at 9 p.m.

The event is ages 21 and over. Tickets start at $69. Additional beer will be available for purchase onboard the train.

Admission to the Smoky Mountain Trains Museum is included with ticket purchase.

800.872.4681 or www.gsmr.com.

• There will be a fundraiser for Catman2 and ARF on Tuesday, May 24, at the Sneak E Squirrel Brewery in Sylva. The brewery will also have a kitchen takeover by gourmet Cajun Chef Kelly Theriot Bye on Saturday, May 28. 828.586.6440.

• A bingo night will run at 5:45 p.m. on Thursdays from May 26 through Sept. 1 at the Maggie Valley Pavilion. Cash prizes and concessions by Moonshine Grill. Sponsored by the Maggie Valley Civic Association.

828.926.7630.

• A wine tasting will be held from 2 to 5 p.m.

May 21 and 28 at Papou’s Wine Shop in Sylva. $5 per person. www.papouswineshop.com or 828.586.6300.

ALSO:

• A free wine tasting will be held from 1 to 5

The 22nd annual Swain County Heritage Festival is May 27-28 at Riverfront Park in Bryson City.

The festival will feature a variety of live music including gospel, country and bluegrass. Dozens of crafters and vendors will be on hand to sell their products, with plenty of

p.m. May 21 and 28 at Bosu’s Wine Shop in Waynesville. www.waynesvillewine.com or 828.452.0120.

• A wine tasting will be held from 6 to 8 p.m.

May 18 and 25 at The Classic Wineseller in Waynesville. Free with dinner ($15 minimum). 828.452.6000.

• The Secret Wine Company will have a “Grand Opening Dinner” at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 28, and Tuesday, May 31, at Bosu’s Wine Shop in Waynesville. The four-course meal by Executive Chef Jackie Blevins of Perfectly Seasoned will also include wine pairings

Smoky Mountain Sk8way Summer Camp — offered in conjunction with Fun Zone — once again offers youth a unique experience with an opportunity to meet new friends and discover new interests.

The camp is offered by Smoky Mountain Sk8way and Fun Zone, Western North Carolina’s largest roller-skating rink and family entertainment center.

The nine-week day camp includes activities like hula hooping, K9 demonstrations, bee keeping, trips to Cherokee, movies, roller skating, swimming, crafts and more.

The summer camp is for kids ages 6 to 13 years old with a daily drop in or weekly schedule. Camp hours are 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. with drop off times on Tuesday and Thursdays by 9:30 a.m. to make the bus for field trips.

Daily attendance is $30 a day or $110 a week.

The camp staff is made up of local teachers, experienced coaches and returning counselors. For more information visit www.smokymountainsk8way.com or call 828. 246.9124.

Cataloochee ‘Way Back When’ dinner The “Way Back When” trout dinners at the Cataloochee Ranch in Maggie Valley will open its 2016 season at 5:30 p.m. Friday, May 20.

The dinner showcases music, storytelling and re-creates the atmosphere of the 1930s Appalachian trout camp operated by Mr. Tom and Miss Judy Alexander, the founders of Cataloochee Ranch.

Cost is $39.95 per person, plus tax and gratuity. The dinners will be held June 3 and 24, July 15 and 29, Aug. 12 and 26, and Sept.

2 and 16.

To RSVP, call 828.926.1401 or 800.868.1401 or www.cataloocheeranch.com.

with each dish. $69 per person, all-inclusive.

To RSVP, call 828.452.0120.

• There will be a “Tasty Tuesday: Winter Seasonals” at 7 p.m. May 24 and 31 at Mad Anthony’s Bottle Shop & Beer Garden.

Smoky Mountain News

• The Franklin High School FFA Rodeo will be at 8 p.m. May 20-21 at the Wayne Proffitt Agricultural Center at the Macon County Fairgrounds in Franklin. Gates open at 6 p.m. Tickets are $12 for adults, $6 for kids ages 5-10, and free for kids under age 5. For advance tickets, call 828.524.6467.

Bryson City celebrates Appalachian heritage

Sk8way Summer Camp is enrolling now

May 18-24, 2016

The “Freedom Rocks the Square” Memorial Day Weekend outdoor rock concert and street dance will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, May 27, on Franklin’s Town Square Gazebo, weather permitting.

The award-winning C-Square performs vintage hits from the 1950s on, spanning the pop music era from The Everly Brothers “All I Have To Do Is Dream” to The Doobie Brothers’ “Takin’ It To The Streets,” plus some classic country and patriotic numbers.

The gazebo is on the corner of Main and Iotla Streets, across from the Macon County Courthouse. Attendees should bring a lawn chair. Donation cans will be passed for the Arts Council of Macon County’s Artists-in-the-Schools Program.

This event is sponsored by the Arts Council, with support from the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural

end invite you to join the Gatsby Gold party.

Come see the classic cars and join the swing dancers. The 96.5 House Band will return to the center stage.

The “KIDS on MAIN” Art & Craft Hour will be from 6 to 7 p.m. Please note, Main Street closes to vehicles at 4:30 p.m. for setup. www.downtownwaynesville.com.

The Haywood Healthcare Foundation will host Casino Night at 6 p.m. Saturday, May 21, at Laurel Ridge Country Club in Waynesville.

The event includes live music, dancing, gaming tables, auctions and food.

For 2016, a portion of the Casino Night proceeds will provide more AEDs (defibrillators) for Haywood County law enforcement vehicles. The officers are trained and prepared to use these defibrillators to save lives when they are first to arrive on the scene of a cardiac emergency. Ten more defibrillators are needed to add to the 14 the Foundation provided last year.

Proceeds from Casino Night will also be used to support CEV — Children Exposed to Violence. HHF, in partnership with the 30th Judicial Alliance and healthcare professionals, will address this critical need in Haywood County.

The 30th Judicial Alliance, in collaboration with the Pigeon Center, offers a summer camp with enrichment programming for county youth. An important component of the camp is that specialized mental health programming is provided for at-risk school-aged youth.

HHF will provide scholarships to support children who need to be in a safe environment for summer. Proceeds will also be used to help provide staffing for the summer program.

Tickets are $100 per person. Sponsoring a table allows guests to bring co-workers and friends together to enjoy the evening.

Sponsorship information and reservations are available at www.haywoodhealthcarefoundation.org or by calling 828.452.8343.

Gaming chips have no monetary value and no currency will be used for gaming or prizes.

activities for children. Friday night entertainment runs from 6 to 9 p.m., with Saturday acts from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The event is free and open to the public.

828.488.3848

arts & entertainment

‘Gambling’ for a good cause

• The S.T.I.R. Networking Event will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday, May 26, at Lazy Hiker Brewing in Franklin. Sponsored by the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce, Franklin Chamber of Commerce, and the Macon County EDC. The “STIR” is: Socialize, Talk, Interact and Remember. RSVP by calling the Franklin Chamber at 828.524.3161. 29

arts & entertainment

On the wall Want to make a bark basket?

A bark basket workshop will be held from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 26, in the Mountain Heritage Center at Western Carolina University.

Taught by biologist Jeff Gottlieb, the workshop will involve participants in all phases of bark basket-making, from peeling poplar bark to constructing and finishing a basket. Each participant will leave the event with a finished basket.

The workshop will be held at the museum’s gallery in the Hunter Library. The workshop fee of $25 includes all materials, and the reservation deadline is Monday, May 23.

828.227.7129 or pkmillard@wcu.edu.

Smoky Mountain News

May 18-24, 2016

Want to learn basket-weaving?

30

The Arts Council of Macon County will sponsor a one-day basket-weaving class from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 28, at the Macon County Cooperative Extension Building in Franklin.

Master weaver Joanne Nolen will instruct participants in the construction of a sturdy double-nut basket, which combines two open-top baskets into one, designed for holding nuts and shells but suitable for many uses. Overall dimensions are 14” L, 6” W, and 5” H. Class is for adult basket makers; no prior experience is needed.

Pre-register by May 23 with the Arts Council, 828.524.ARTS or arts4all@dnet.net. There is a fee to cover

• The “DIY @ the Library” will present a handmade paper seed embedded gift card class from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 24, at the Waynesville Library Auditorium.

Learn to make the cards, which then can be planted. All materials provided. Sign up required. 828.356.2507 or kolsen@haywoodnc.net.

• The High Country Quilt Guild will meet and discuss tools for quilting at 6:30 p.m.

Thursday, May 19, at the First Methodist Church in Waynesville. Members are asked to bring in any tools or gadgets that they have found helpful to share with the group. If you have any tools or rulers that you haven’t been able to figure out, bring those to the meeting and maybe you can find some help.

Newcomers are welcome. www.highcountryquilters.wordress.com.

instruction and materials; participants bring a few common household tools and a bag lunch. The Cooperative Extension Building is on Thomas Heights off Highlands Road.

This project is supported by the Grassroots Arts Program of the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

For more information contact the Arts Council at www.artscouncilofmacon.org.

QuickDraw at Laurel Ridge

Want to learn pastel painting?

Catch the Spirit of Appalachia’s cofounder Doreyl Ammons Cain will be offering a wide variety of opportunities to those desiring to learn about the basics of pastel painting while enjoying the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Upcoming workshops include: • 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. May 19: Sylva Senior Center, Outside Wildflower Pastel Painting.

• 2 to 5 p.m. May 20: Stecoah Valley Center, Outside Wildflower Pastel Painting.

• 2 to 5 p.m. May 25: Southwestern Community College in Sylva, Outside Wildflower Pastel Painting.

• 2 to 5 p.m. June 4: Hooper Homestead in Tuckasegee, Outside Wildflower Pastel Painting.

• 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. June 7: SCC in Sylva Outside Wildflower Pastel Painting.

• 10: a.m. to 2:30 p.m. June 14: Cashiers Senior Center, Outside Wildflower Pastel Painting.

• 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. June 30: Sylva Senior Center, Outside Birds Pastel Painting.

828.293.2239.

with stamped card maker, crafter and instructor Candy Meyers. This fun class will be held from 10 a.m. to noon Thursday, May 19, at the extension office in Sylva. Several different creative cards will be made during the craft club. Please call the extension office in Sylva at 828.586.4009 to register or if you have further questions. The $7 class fee is due at time of registration.

ALSO:

• The “Come Paint with Charles Kidz Program” will be at 4 p.m. May 19 and 26 at the Charles Heath Gallery in Bryson City. $20 per child. Materials and snacks included.

828.538.2054.

Painter Jenny Bucker will one of the artists at the WNC QuickDraw event.

The WNC QuickDraw will be from 4:30 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday, June 4, at Laurel Ridge Country Club in Waynesville.

The cocktail social will include an hourlong QuickDraw Challenge, silent auction and refreshments. Live artists will be working in the public eye, creating timed pieces, which will then be auctioned off.

• 4:30 p.m. — Cocktail Social. Register your bidder number and watch artists prep before the shotgun start.

• 5 to 6 p.m. — Artist Stopwatch Challenge. Hour of live creation. Stroll and marvel at the motivated live-action artists painting to beat the clock. Stroll and chat with demonstrator artists using fiber, clay, metals, glass, wood and more, all processintensive mediums that enable them to work and talk. Each demo artist offers a finished original work at silent auction while they

Methodist Church in Franklin. Hosted by the Cartoogechaye Christian Fellowship. There will also be food and craft vendors onsite.

828.369.5834 or www.franklin-chamber.com.

• The Adult Coloring Group will meet at 2 p.m. on Fridays in the Living Room of the Macon County Public Library in Franklin. An afternoon of creativity and camaraderie. Supplies are provided, or bring your own. Beginners are welcome as well as those who already enjoy this new trend. kmoe@fontanalib.org or 828.524.3600.

• There will be a “Raku Beadmaking” workshop from 6 to 8 p.m. May 19-20 and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 21 at Riverwood Pottery in Dillsboro. Cost is $120 per person.

828.586.3601 or www.riverwoodpottery.com.

• The Spring Into Summer Craft & Art Show will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 27 and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 28 at the Macon County Fairgrounds in Franklin. Over 25 local crafters. Free admission and parking.

Donations of Friskies or 9 lives cat food will be accepted for the Catman2 No Kill Shelter. www.franklin-chamber.com or 828.349.4324.

• After-School Art Adventure will be on from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. on Tuesdays at The Bascom in Highlands. For ages 5 to 10, Art Adventure is a class that explores the creative process of drawing, painting, printmaking, clay, sculpture, fiber art, and crafts by utilizing a variety of media. The students will investigate some of the most popular techniques and theories in art history and will be exposed to contemporary as well as folk art traditions. Tuition is $40 for a fourclass package. www.thebascom.org.

• Jackson County Cooperative Extension’s May Craft Club will be all about Card Making

• A craft fair and auto show will be held at 10 a.m. May 21 at the Memorial United

• “Stitch,” the gathering of those interested in crochet, knit and needlepoint, meet at 2:30

showcase techniques on a piece in process.

• 6 p.m. — Breather. Snacks and conversation and live music while artists frame the pieces and set up the auction preview.

Art teachers show off student works.

• 6:30 p.m. — Live Art Auction. Bid on fresh, original art, ready to hang.

Become a collector who saw the artist make it. Team with artists to inspire students and creative classrooms, put supplies on teacher shelves, and send kids to college. The featured item of the auction will be a South African vacation for two.

• 7:30 p.m. — Heavy hors d’oeuvres meet and greet. Meet your artist over delicious food and monitor your silent auction bids.

Tickets are $60 per person. Proceeds go to art teaching in local schools. www.wncquickdraw.com.

p.m. every first Sunday of the month at the Canton Public Library. All ages and skill levels welcome. www.haywoodlibrary.org.

• The film “Brooklyn” will be screened the May 18-29 at The Strand at 38 Main in Waynesville. Show times are 7 p.m. on weekdays, 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturdays, and 1:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. Sundays. There will be a free screening of “The Lion King” at noon and 2 p.m. May 21 and 28. For more information or to purchase tickets, click on www.38main.com.

• The films “Deadpool” (May 19), “The Lego Movie” (May 20), “The Secret of Nimh” (May 21), “How To Be Single” (May 26), “Zoolander 2” (May 27) and “The Finest Hours” (May 28) at Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva.

Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Fridays; and 2 p.m., 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Saturdays. All screenings are free. www.madbatterfoodfilm.com.

• The film “A Hologram for the King” will be screened at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. May 20-24 at the Highlands Playhouse. For more information and tickets, call 828.526.2695 or click on www.highlandsplayhouse.org.

On the wall

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RHONDA VINCENT & THE RAGE (Friday, 3rd)

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SPBMA - 7 Time Bluegrass Gospel group of the Year CGMG - 4 Time Country Gospel Quartet of the Year

BAND OF RUHKS

GENE WATSON & The Farewell Party Band (Friday, 3rd)

THE LITTLE ROY & LIZZY SHOW (Friday, 3rd)

(Thursday, 2nd)

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“ IBMA - Entertainer of the Year 2014”

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GOLDWING EXPRESS

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SHOWTIMES: Ticket Prices Do Not Include Camping ADVANCE: AT GATE: THURSDAY, 12 Noon ‘til 10:30 p.m. (Open Stage 11:00 a.m.)................$40.00 ..........$45.00 FRIDAY, 12 Noon ‘til 10:30 p.m. (Open Stage 11:00 a.m.)..................... $40.00 ..........$45.00 SATURDAY, 11: am ‘til 10:30 p.m. (Open Stage 10:00 a.m.)................ $40.00 ..........$45.00 3-Day Advance (Weekend Ticket Special)* ............................................. $90.00 ..........$95.00 Children Ages 7-13, $15.00 per day, ........................................ 3-days $45.00 ..........$50.00 Children Under 7 ...................................................................................FREE with Parent

*Order Tickets Online at : adamsbluegrass.com * FOR CAMPING RESERVATIONS PLEASE CALL 828-497-9204 OR 1-877-782-2765

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Security Guards On Duty NO Alcoholic Beverages or Pets Allowed in Concert Area

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Tickets not mailed: processing fee on credit cards: ($3.00 per 3-day ticket, $2.00 per 1-day ticket)

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Smoky Mountain News

The Cashiers Rotary Arts & Crafts Show is from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 28-29 at The Village Green.

Over 80 of the finest artisans from throughout the Southeast will once again converge for this event. On display will be some returning favorites from past shows, as well as some new faces making their debut this year.

From unique ironwork and woodcraft to handthrown pottery, hand-stitched textiles and homemade cakes, pies, jellies and jams, there’s something to please every artistic palate.

Entrance to the Cashiers Rotary Arts and Crafts Shows is free to attend, but all donations are accepted and greatly appreciated.

All funds raised during the shows go to benefit the Cashiers Rotary Club Charities fund, which supports area charities that perform good works and advocate on the behalf of the under-served and underprivileged within our community. www.cashiersrotary.org.

Do you need a professional to market and show your property?

May 18-24, 2016

Cashiers Rotary Arts & Crafts Show

The best prices everyday! arts & entertainment

The Haywood County Tourism Development Authority, who manages the Haywood County Quilt Trail (HCQT), is holding a raffle for a 4-foot-by-4-foot quilt block.

The designated block is the “Gateway to the Smokies” spring edition, which features a trio of trillium blossoms and two bear paws situated below the mountains and an arch, representing the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains.

Raffle tickets can be purchased through the Haywood County TDA by calling 828.944.0761 or by stopping by the TDA visitor center at 1110 Soco Road in Maggie Valley.

The block is currently on display at the visitor center as well. The cost is $25 per ticket or five for $100 and are capped at a total of 10 tickets per person. The drawing will be held on Thursday, June 2, as part of the TDA’s open house at their new location in Maggie Valley.

The TDA does want to emphasize that because the block will be featured on the Haywood County Quilt Trail, it is required to remain in the county and must be installed on a building or structure that can be accessed or viewed by the public year-round.

All proceeds from the raffle will go to benefit the future development and enhancement of the Haywood County Quilt Trail, which means the addition of more blocks and merchandise to promote this popular trail. www.haywoodquilttrails.com.

345-50

Tickets Available At The Gate During Festival

...........................................................

31

arts & entertainment

On the stage

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Smoky Mountain News

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32

Comedy/mystery comes to Highlands

The production of the comedy/mystery “The Game’s Afoot” will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m.

May 19-21, 26-28, and at 2:30 p.m. May 22 and 29 at the Highlands Performing Arts Center.

An actual person is featured in the play, William Gillette, famous actor of yesteryear, who created the stage persona of Sherlock Holmes with deer stalker cap and curved pipe and played the role for 30 years.

It’s 1936. Gillette has invited actor friends to his mansion for Christmas Eve, but festivities are marred when one of the guests is murdered. Like his stage character Sherlock Holmes, Gillette attempts to solve the crime with many hilarious situations along the way and many laughs for the audience.

Tickets are $23.50. For more information or to purchase tickets, call 828.526.8084 or www.highlandscashiersplayers.com.

Unto These Hills opens for summer

reviews plays and writes about the arts for The Mountaineer’s entertainment section.

Public welcome.

The Unto These Hills outdoor drama will run at 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday from May 28 to Aug. 13 at the Mountainside Theater in Cherokee.

General admission tickets are $20 for adults, $10 for children ages 6-12 and free for children under age 5. Reserved tickets also available.

866.554.4557 or www.visitcherokenc.com.

HART presents ‘Legally Blonde’

Enloe discusses Haywood history Mary Ann Enloe will discuss her life and memories of Haywood County at 11 a.m.

Tuesday, May 24, at the Hazelwood Baptist Church in Waynesville.

Enloe is a lifelong resident of Hazelwood and was its mayor from 1983 to 1995. She was the second woman to be elected a Haywood County commissioner in the county’s 200-year history, and served eight years. She also worked 37 years at Dayco Corporation and was a senior purchasing agent, the first woman in the company’s history to hold that position.

Enloe serves as vice chairman of the Haywood Community College Board of Trustees and sits on the county’s board of tax equalization and review. She attended Brevard College and Shaw University, and is music director at Faith United Methodist Church. She reports on local government for The Mountaineer newspaper and her recent story on county commissioner meetings won first place in the 2015 North Carolina Press Association competition. A charter member of the Haywood County Arts Council, she

The summer kicks off at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville with the Broadway musical smash “Legally Blonde the Musical,” which opens on May 20.

The production is based on the popular 2001 film that made a star of Reese Witherspoon as the quintessential sorority girl Elle Woods. She enrolls at Harvard Law School to win back her ex-boyfriend Warner. Woods discovers how her knowledge of the law can help others and successfully defends exercise queen Brooke Wyndham in a murder trial. Throughout the show no one has faith in Woods, but she manages to surprise them when she defies expectations while staying true to herself.

Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. May 2021, 27-28 and June 2-4, 9-11, and also at 2 p.m. and May 22, 29 and June 5,12. Special discount tickets are available for the Thursday performances and special discount tickets are also available for all performances for students.

To make reservations call the box office at 828.456.6322 or click on www.harttheatre.org.

• The “Talent in the Mountains” communitywide talent show will be held at 7 p.m.

Saturday, May 21, at The Grove Church in Bryson City. Sponsored by the Friends of the Marianna Black Library. Call the Friends of the Library Used Book Store for more information at 828.488.5655.

ALSO:

Books

Smoky Mountain News

33

Teaching children how to succeed at life

ear the end of The Collapse of Parenting: How We Hurt Our Kids When We Treat Them Like Grown-Ups, Dr. Leonard Sax visits Shore, a private school in Sydney, Australia. In a conversation with the headmaster, Dr. Timothy Wright, Sax asks, “What is the purpose of school?”

“Preparation for life,” Wright answers immediately.

Sax then asks, “OK, preparation for life. So what’s the purWriter pose of life?”

Dr. Wright again answered without hesitation. “Meaningful work, a person to love, and a cause to embrace.”

Though he tells us that we needn’t accept Wright’s formula as an answer we “must all accept,” Sax is impressed by the headmaster’s vision. Sax goes on to point out that when a child asks us, “Why should I work hard at school?” that child needs a more comprehensive answer than “I want you to make a good living” or “I want you to go to Harvard.”

The main theme behind The Collapse of Parenting is that a shift has occurred in American culture. We have gone from a parent-oriented culture to a peer-oriented culture. Sax, a family physician and psychologist who has spent his life working with families, children, and teenagers, contends that all too often parents relinquish control of their children by allowing them to make too many of their own decisions at too early an age and by allowing their children’s peers, particularly through social media, to exert a weightier influence than in the past.

Combining data and personal experiences, Sax looks at what he labels “the culture of disrespect” among children and teens, and then in a series of chapters raises and examines such questions as “Why Are So Many Kids Overweight?” and “Why Are So Many Kids So - Fragile?” (In this latter chapter, I learned a

Jeff Minick

N

new term. Apparently some faculty and staff at various colleges now refer to today’s students as “teacups — beautiful but liable to

Not so with The Collapse of Parenting. Sax spends the second half of his book offering advice to parents on how to help their child “to grow up to be a kind person, an honest person.” Here he especially recommends that parents teach their children humility, enjoy the time spent with them, and give them grounding in the meaning of life, none of which has much to do with their academic success.

Sax’s thoughts on humility particularly fascinated me, as I have mentioned this virtue many times to my own children and students. What he writes here is worth repeating. The bold print is a part of the original text:

The Collapse of Parenting: How We Hurt Our Kids When We Treat Them Like Grown-Ups by Dr. Leonard Sax. Basic Books, 2015. 304 pages. break with the slightest drop.”)

Many books examine the problems of parenting, and then offer few, if any, solutions.

“Why humility?

Because humility has become the most unAmerican of virtues.

And partly for that reason, humility today is the most essential virtue for any kid growing up in the United States.

Because so many American parents have confused virtue with success. The only real sin, for many middleincome and affluent parents today, is failure.”

Sax goes on to explain that many of us today lack humility. We think humility means

Herin work discusses Nazis, poetry

received an honorable mention at the Florida Book Festival, and has been invited to the Alabama Book Festival. www.miriamherin.com.

Local writer Miriam Herin will discuss her book, A Stone for Bread, at 3 p.m. Saturday, May 28, at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville.

In this new novel, enterprising graduate student Rachel Singer in 1997 decides to talk to disgraced North Carolina poet and former Duke University professor Henry Beam. She’s intent on learning what really happened 34 years earlier, when Beam published a group of poems that he claimed were written by a prisoner in the Nazi concentration camp Mauthausen in Austria.

Herin recently earned a starred Kirkus Review and was featured as one of Kirkus’ Indie Books of the Month for March. She has also

Panel to discuss Gawande work There will be a guided discussion of Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande from 4 to 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 26, at the Waynesville Library Auditorium.

There will be a refreshment break at 5 p.m. and ample time for questions. Leading the discussion will be Michael Pass, M.D., Medical Director of Haywood Hospice and Palliative Care and the Homestead, and William Everett, PhD, Ethics Professor Emeritus at Andover Newton Theological School.

pretending to be humble or denigrating our own talents. But as Sax explains, “humility simply means being as interested in other people as you are in yourself. It means that when you meet new people, you try to learn something about them before going off on a spiel about how incredible your current project is.”

The opposite of humility, Sax tells us, is inflated self-esteem. (Think of the leading contenders in the 2016 presidential race.) Sax points out that inflated egos and high selfesteem are not the same as self-confidence, and can lead to resentment when reality doesn’t match our own opinions of our talents.

••• In How To Raise An Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare You Kid for Success (Henry Holt and Company, 2015, 355 pages, $27), Julie Lythcott-Haims tackles the subject of “helicopter parents,” those adults who do far too much for their children, particularly as teenagers, so that they go off to work or college unprepared to take care of themselves. We see the results of such parenting in some of today’s universities, where “safe zones” and “trigger warnings” have become all the rage. Like Sax, Lythcott-Haims not only analyzes this problem, but also offers some solutions.

How To Raise An Adult may seem to offer an opposite point of view from The Collapse Of Parenting, but such is not the case. In How To Raise An Adult, Lythcott-Haims quotes the German poet and philosopher Goethe: “There are two things children should get from their parents: roots and wings.” Sax is chiefly concerned with giving children roots, while Lythcott-Haims focuses on giving them wings.

In chapters with such titles as “Teach Them How To Think,” “Prepare Them For Hard Work,” and “Normalize Struggle,” she gives specific and often wise advice about encouraging our young people without smothering them or stealing from them the ability to stand on their own two feet and face the world.

Thumbs up on both these books.

Copies of the book are available for purchase at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville.

Kautz releases inspirational novel Franklin author James Kautz will read from his inspirational work Digger at 3 p.m. Saturday, May 28, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva.

In Digger, respected biblical archaeologist and professor Paul Gartin has a dream — to prove the existence of the elusive Old Testament kingdom of David with scientific, objective facts.

Educated in theology, Kautz did archaeological fieldwork in Palestine’s West Bank, Jordan, and Israel for nine summers. He taught biblical studies and church history for three colleges.

828.586.9499.

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Outdoors

Smoky Mountain News

Not your average tourist Waynesville man reflects on decades of travel in the jungles of Ecuador

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER hen life gets hectic, most people have a vacation spot where they go to unwind — perhaps a family cabin on the lake, a favorite campground or a sandy beach.

David Burns, 73, finds that place somewhere in the depths of the Ecuadorian Amazon.

“For me, it’s an escape,” said Burns, who moved to Waynesville from Key West, Florida, 4 years ago. “For years and years I ran a private investigation agency, and I’m also a pianist. This is just so far away from the world that I lived in that just the dichotomy was interesting to me.”

Over the last 27 years, he’s made just short of 20 trips to the Ecuadorian Amazon, a tradition that started by happenstance back in 1989. Burns had been planning to visit Scotland that year, but he realized he couldn’t make it happen given his bank account. Then he learned that a friend of his, an emergency room doctor, was headed to Ecuador. Burns tagged along. He loved the country. And he kept going back.

“It was like my second home,” he said.

Though Ecuador, at least the way Burns does it, is substantially less luxurious than most second homes. He avoids “rich Americans” “like the plague,” setting his sights on the smallest, most remote villages in the jungle, occupied by native people whose dayto-day experience of life is far removed from the buildings and banks and fast-paced trans-

W

An exhausted David Burns stands for a photo with his host Daga after an excursion in the jungle.

Donated photo

portation that govern so much of the world.

His trips south include little luxury but plenty of bushwhacking, backcountry paddling and sweaty battle with the multitude of insects that inhabit the jungle.

was going to be a pirate, but then I saw that movie and the world changed,” Burns said.

The Shuar don’t shrink heads anymore.

Once Burns met a man — the oldest in the village — whose father had done it, but that’s the closest he came. His fascination with the Amazonian people remained, however. He RAVEL WITH RISK kept returning, though he eventually shifted When Burns first began to explore his focus to the Huaorani people, a smaller Ecuador, his travels focused on the Shuar peo- but fiercer tribe occupying land adjacent to ple. He’d been fascinated with them since the the Shuar. He’d read a series of articles about age of 10, when he saw the documentary the Huaorani in The New Yorker — they Jungle Headhunters, which highlighted the would later be compiled as the book Savages Shuar practice of shrinking a deceased — and was inspired to go visit himself. enemy’s head to incapacitate its soul.

By the next year, 1994, he’d made it hap“Up until that time I was absolutely sure I pen, though he now terms that particular venture “foolhardy.” The guide he hired had traveled the rivers before, but he wasn’t Huaorani, and he didn’t speak Huaorani. They made it to the village after a sevenhour river trip, and stayed a week. But the peace there was uneasy, Burns recalls.

“After a week I was kind of glad to be leaving,” he said.

“You know when you go to somebody’s house and they have a big dog and you keep giving them treats? You keep saying, ‘What happens when An Amazonian woman takes a rare moment of I run out of treats?’” rest inside her house. David Burns photo Burns has come through his travels mostly unscathed, but when traveling the Amazon injury and even death aren’t out of the question.

In February, for instance, Burns found out that a guy he knew had been killed by the Huaoranis. After a “minor massacre” two years before, two girls had been abducted.

The Huaoranis thought Burns’ friend Kaiga Baiwa, had been involved.

“He was ambushed down there and killed.

His wife survived,” Burns said.

To travel with some degree of safety, you’ve got to be connected enough to find a good guide who knows the place and its people, and you’ve also got to be flexible in your itinerary. Sometimes, intertribal conflicts make travel to the initial destination impossible.

“There are times when you can go there and times when you can’t go there,” Burns said. “So if you can’t go there, there are a million places in Ecuador that are beautiful.”

T

WITNESSING CHANGE It’s a beautiful country, but it’s also changing. Usually, Burns plans each trip to take in a different village, a different group of people.

Adventurers wanted David Burns is considering taking some companions on his next trip to the Ecuadorian Amazon in September.

“I think there’s probably a niche of folks who really would like to do something like that and don’t have language skills, maybe don’t even have a passport yet and would like to see something more basic than going down the line and booking a cruise,” he said.

Burns reserves the right to be somewhat picky about his travel companions, as it’s important to travel with people who will be respectful to the native people encountered along the way and plucky enough to deal with the inherent inconveniences of life in the jungle.

The trip would likely cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,500 — covering the traveler’s expenses and a share of Burns’ — and take place over two weeks or so in September.

Contact Burns at davekwf@hotmail.com or 305.304.5990.

The cultures are as diverse as the villages that house them, with each group of people distinct from the others. He enjoys the novelty of going somewhere new each time.

But in 2014, the 20th anniversary of Burns’ first trip to the Huaorani region of Ecuador, he decided to return to the village he’d seen on that first visit.

“A lot had changed,” he said.

Government buildings, hotels and medical clinics can now be found deeper in the jungle than they once could. The village that Burns first witnessed as being made out of more traditional building materials is now composed of board-built buildings.

After his first trip to the Huaorani, a little dirt road leading to this “nasty oil town” led Burns to write an essay about the 8.5-hour drive. Today the drive takes more like four hours. The hotel he’d stayed at the first time there was “very basic to say the least,” but these days it’s a bonafide hotel.

“Wait 20 years and things change,” Burns said.

One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is the respect Burns has for the native people of Ecuador.

“They’re so stoic and they are so strong that it’s just amazing,” Burns said.

That realization began during one of his first trips, with his friend the ER doctor. A man in the village had injured his eye while preparing a blowgun dart before the group arrived, a “horrible-looking” injury that must have caused extreme pain.

When it was communicated to him that one of the newly arrived Americans was a doctor and could help him, the man simply lay down on the floor and waited as the doctor peeled his eyelid back and dressed the injury.

“This guy did not flinch, did not make a sound. Absolutely stoic. That is a strong dude,” Burns recalled. “After spending time in the jungle with

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Flipping through a file of photographs on his computer, Burns comes to image after image that reinforces that assessment.

There’s one of a much-shorter Huaorani man standing placidly next to a red-faced Burns. They’d just come out of the jungle after an excursion that tested Burns’ limits more than just about anything else he’d done in the past.

“I’d never been that hot in my life, and of course he’s fresh as a daisy,” Burns said.

Then there’s a picture of the woman of the house where Burns stayed on his 20th anniversary visit back to that original village. In the photo, she’s lifting — quite effortlessly — a pig she’d just killed. The women there are incredible for their capable strength, he said.

“Any macho dude who thinks he’s like Superman, I would take him down there and match him up with a lady,” Burns said.

A typical day for an Amazonian woman involves getting up before daybreak to light a fire, cook breakfast — likely while shepherding a couple kids and carrying one on her back — and then walking two hours through the jungle barefoot to dig up some yucca, all the while taking her chances on getting a snakebite. After making it back

home, it’s time to cook again.

For Burns, experiencing the people and experiencing the landscape are one and the same. They’re inextricably linked. Seeing the scenery requires getting to know the people.

“You just can’t go traipsing around the jungle by yourself,” Burns said. “People live there. It’s their home. As a white guy, if you think you’re going to put a pack on and get a bunch of cans of tuna fish and go exploring in the jungle, it’s not going to happen for you.”

You need someone to go with you, to introduce you to people and walk you through the requirements of entering onto their lands. And you also need someone who can see the landscape with a native’s eye.

“You can look at the jungle and see a green wall, but they’ll look at the jungle and see 100 different things,” he said. There is a plant that will cure stomach problems if boiled in water. Here are the leaves that will heal an infection if made into a paste.

Traveling with a native guide is like gaining access to a multitude of otherwise invisible labels and road signs.

Which, for Burns, gets down to the heart to why the Amazon continues to exert such an inescapable pull on him.

“It’s just seeing the way people live,” he said. “So basically and close to the earth, and knowing so much about what’s around them.”

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them and seeing what they do, it’s just amazing. They have physical strength, they have strength of character.”

outdoors

science. “This project was unique in that it A nature-based sculpture project wasn’t what most people would think of as launched by Western Carolina University’s a sustainability project.”

Fine Art Museum aims to feature outdoors However, the use of natural materials as art while promoting discussion of sustainwell as the project’s location on the campus ability and aesthetics on campus. trail system, which adds to the aesthetic Funded by the WCU Sustainable Energy appeal, meet requirements perfectly, while Initiative with support from various other departments, the project brought a team of artists with Camp Little Hope to create an art experience inspired by the Great Smoky Mountains on the university’s multi-use trail.

The artists arrived April 8 and will be on campus through May 21.

The project was The sculpture project’s supporters — Claire Lippy (from left), Taylor made possible by a $5Stack, Jeremiah Haas, Denise Drury Homewood, Lauren Bishop, per-semester fee stuMonica Suarez and Cole Sutton — stand at the public art project’s dents began paying in future site. Donated photo fall 2014. The studentcomprised promoting environmental consciousness Sustainability Energy Initiative Committee and heritage, he said. began taking proposals last year for enviTitled LUNG, the outdoor sculpture will ronmentally friendly ideas from WCU sturepresent the intimate relationship between dents, faculty and staff, to put the fee the lungs of park visitors and the lungs of toward. This is the second project to be the earth. Winding contraptions represenfunded with the fee, the first being a solartative of pipelines, nurse logs, ear horns and powered hammock study lounge. old gramophone speakers will twist along “We were thrilled to receive the proposal the paths, created using reclaimed wood. for the nature-based sculpture,” said Zack www.fineartmuseum.wcu.edu or Waldroup, a member of the committee and www.energy.wcu.edu. a WCU senior majoring in environmental

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outdoors

The Southern Appalachians have the world’s greatest diversity of salamander species. Donated photo

Waterfalls and wildflowers come to Lake Logan A lively discussion highlighting the region’s most stunning waterfall hikes will deliver some valuable tips to outdoors lovers in a presentation at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 24, with author, botanist and professor Timothy Spira at Lake Logan Episcopal Center in Haywood County.

Attendees will learn about the seasonal plant species they’ll encounter on each hike to waterfall destinations.

Timothy Spira Spira’s books include Waterfalls and Wildflowers in the Southern Appalachians: Thirty Great Hikes and Wildflowers and Plant Communities of the Southern Appalachian Mountains and Piedmont: A Naturalist’s Guide to the Carolinas, Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia. $25 registration includes lunch. Part of the Lake Logan Lecture Series, which brings regional storytellers, naturalists, historians and thought leaders to Lake Logan Episcopal Center. Register at www.lakelogan.org.

828.648.4547.

Salamander Meander returns to Highlands Search for salamanders — while armed with new knowledge about what they are and how they function — at the 13th annual Salamander Meander 9 p.m. Friday, May 27, at the Highlands Nature Center.

More salamanders live in the Southern Appalachians than anywhere else on earth, but because they’re most active at night many people never see them in the wild. The evening will begin with a short presentation on salamander biology and species identification, and then the group will leave for an interpretive night hike to search for salamanders along trails in the botanical gardens. $5, with advance registration required. Space is limited. Minimum age is 6.

Rain or shine.

Patrick Brannon, 828.526.4123.

Bogs, Bugs and Beavers — oh my!

Guided walks will showcase the natural history of beavers, their wetlandcreating activities and the changing habitats they make during the Bogs, Bugs and Beavers program Saturday, May 28, at the Cradle of Forestry in America.

Two walks of 1.75 miles will be offered along the Pink Beds Trail, one at 10:30 a.m. and one at 2 p.m., with each program lasting 90 minutes. Each excursion will begin at the Forest Discovery Center for a talk about beavers before heading out. $5 for ages 16 and up; free for youth, with full access to exhibits and trails included along with event admission. Located along U.S. 276 about 25 miles south of Waynesville.

828.877.3130.

Summer day camp looking for adventurers A day camp for Jackson County middle schoolers with a hankering to try outdoor activities ranging from hiking to snorkeling is looking for participants July 11-14.

Camp WILD — Wilderness, Investigating, Learning, Discovery — is open to students entering seventh or eighth grade and is organized by Jackson County Soil and Water Conservation District. It’s designed to connect kids to nature while instilling a lifelong love of the outdoors. The emphasis will be on environmental learning as well as hands-on fun, with an overnight camping trip included in the itinerary. $25, with spaces limited. Registration open through June 3. Jane Fitzgerald, 828.586.5465 or janefitzgerald@jacksonnc.org.

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Michal Smolen paddles through choppy water.

NOC paddler to appear in summer Olympics

Backpack Hazel Creek A backpacking trip through one of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s most remote, yet historic, areas will give the adventurous an in-depth appreciation of the Smokies June 17 to 19.

Starting with a boat shuttle to Hazel Creek from Fontana Marina, the first day of the trip will include a 7-mile hike on the Hazel Creek Trail with 500 feet of elevation gain taking in the Proctor and Bone Valley cemeteries, Proctor Historic sites and the Calhoun house. The second day will involve a variety of possible excursions from the campsite, where the group will stay that night as well. The hike out will be 6 miles long using the Hazel Creek Trail, passing the Proctor Historic District and exiting via boat on Fontana Lake. $225 with space limited. The trip is part of the Great Smoky Mountains Association’s lineup of Branch Out events designed to enhance knowledge and appreciation of the park. membership@gsmassoc.org or www.smokiesinformation.org/info/backpacking.

Tagged trout worth $10,000 in prize money will swim Cherokee waters during the Cherokee Memorial Day Trout Tournament May 27 to 29, sponsored by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

All ages and legal fishing methods are welcome to participate in the event, which requires an $11 entry fee and a Cherokee fishing permit for all anglers 12 and older.

The Qualla Boundary is home to 30 miles of privately stocked, freestone streams overseen by Cherokee Fisheries and Wildlife Management. Fishing is allowed daily from one hour before sunrise to one hour after sunset. Creek limit is 10 trout per day per permit holder. Each year, nearly 250,000 rainbow, brook and brown trout of various sizes are added to the existing fish population.

Contact 828.554.6110 or www.fishcherokee.com.

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Smoky Mountain News

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Help Panthertown trails stay beautiful A trail work day in Panthertown Valley — a Cashiers-area backcountry recreation area affectionately known as the Yosemite of the East — will be hosted by Friends of Panthertown from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Friday, May 20.

The group will hike a maximum of 5 miles on easy to moderate trails, pruning and moving earth to fix trails along the way.

Meet at the Cold Mountain Trailhead.

Group size is limited. RSVP to the event page at www.facebook.com/panthertown or contact friends@panthertown.org or

Fish away Memorial Day in Cherokee

May 18-24, 2016

When Team U.S.A. marches into the Olympic stadium this summer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympic Games, Michal Smolen will become Nantahala Outdoor Center’s 23rd Olympian in the sport of Whitewater Canoe Slalom, entering in the kayak category — but it will be his first time competing in the Olympics.

After delivering a bronze medal for the U.S. in the Men’s Kayak category at last year’s Canoe Slalom World Championships in London, England, and earning critical points towards his Olympic Team selection, Smolen, 22, punched his ticket to the Olympics in Rio with a decisive victory at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Charlotte.

“The day I walk into the Olympic Stadium, dressed in my uniform, and have the U.S. flag on my back will be the proudest day of my life,” Smolen said.

Smolen, born in Poland, first learned to paddle at NOC, where he started at age 9, keeping up the sport through the 13 years to follow and developing his skills to those of an Olympian.

He is an NOC-sponsored athlete and longtime member of the Nantahala Racing Club.

“Michal’s pursuit of excellence personifies the spirit of the entire NOC community and we are honored to support his efforts,” said Sutton Bacon, CEO for NOC.

Memorial Day weekend will be abuzz with activity on water and land in the Nantahala Gorge west of Bryson City.

Whether obstacle courses, whitewater or family time on the flatwater is your thing, the weekend will offer a chance to partake.

■ Dash through an array of obstacles toward the finish in the Merrell Adventure Dash along the Nantahala River Saturday, May 28, at Nantahala Outdoor Center.

The race, which includes a 5K with categories based on age and gender, as well as a single-category 1K fun run, will kick off at 4:30 p.m., with an awards ceremony and live music to follow lasting through 8 p.m. $20, or free for kids 12 and under with a participating adult. Register online at www.ultrasignup.com through May 25 or day-of starting at 1 p.m. 828.785.5082.

■ Families and youth will gather in the Nantahala Gorge May 28-29 for a weekend of flat and whitewater activities, games and camaraderie, with encouragement to develop new skills and try their hand at all three competitive whitewater disciplines: slalom, freestyle and downriver. Participants should be confident with a wet exit, and whitewater roll skills are a plus but not required.

$30, with $10 fee for races. Lodging and food not included. Equipment loans available. Organized by the Nantahala Racing Club. Register online at www.nantahalaracingclub.com.

NantahalaRacingClub@gmail.com.

outdoors

Donated photo

Nantahala Gorge revs up for Memorial Day

Affairs of the Heart

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outdoors

See migrating birds up close A chance to see migrating birds up close while helping with nationally recognized research work will welcome volunteers of all ages 7-11 a.m.

Saturday, May 21, and Wednesday, May 25, at sites along the Little Tennessee River in Macon County.

Volunteers will work with field biologists from Southern Appalachian Raptor Research to band birds and collect data for the nationwide program Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship, coordinated by the Institute for Bird Populations.

The May 21 event will be at Cowee Mound, owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and located off Rose Creek Road 7.5 miles northwest of Franklin. The May 25 event will be at Mainspring Conservation Trust’s Tessentee Preserve, located off Hickory Knoll Road about 10 miles south of Franklin.

For those who can’t make either date, a schedule of eight monitoring A young participant touches an American goldfinch days is planned between May and early at a previous biomonitoring event. Donated photo August, with the calendar online at bigbaldbanding.org/calendar.

Mark Hopey, bigbaldbanding @gmail.com or 828.736.1217.

May 18-24, 2016

Kickball league forming in Waynesville Kickball will kick off in Waynesville with an organizational meeting for a new summer adult co-ed kickball league, 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 26, at the Waynesville Recreation Center.

Players 18 and older as of July 1 are welcome to participate, with games to be played Tuesdays and Thursdays in June, July and August. Entry fee will depend on the number of teams showing interest at the organizational meeting. dhummel@waynesvillenc.gov or 828.456.2030.

Gardeners unite to green Sylva Armed with trowels, gloves and a desire to make Sylva beautiful, the Sylva Green Thumbs will begin meeting 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month, May 25 through Aug. 24.

Volunteers should meet at the Sylva Garden Club shed located at Bridge Park in downtown Sylva ready for two hours of gardening in the downtown area. nballiot@gmail.com.

Smoky Mountain News

Dinner will support community gardens

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A dinner and silent auction aims to raise money for Maggie Valley Community Gardens from 67:30 p.m. Saturday, May 21, at the Maggie Valley United Methodist Church.

Items are still sought for the silent auction, and dinner will entail soup and cornbread.

The community garden project began in 2013 and now comprises four separate gardens that produce healthy food for people in need.

June Johnson, 704.577.8928 or givinggardensnc@gmail.com.

Vanquish garden pests — organically A seminar for gardeners looking to learn more about organic controls for the pests that plague their vegetables will be offered next week in Sylva and Bryson City.

■ 6-8 p.m. Thursday, May 26, at the Jackson County Extension Center in Sylva.

■ 10 a.m. to noon at the Swain Extension Center near Bryson City.

The Organic Pest Management Seminar, offered through N.C. Cooperative Extension, will cover topics ranging from companion plants to soil amendments and farmscaping to organic sprays.

Free. Register with Christy Bredenkamp, 828.586.4009, 828.488.3848 or clbreden@ncsu.edu.

WNC Calendar COMMUNITY EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS • A former staff drop-in and walk down memory lane for former Central Elementary School staff is scheduled for May 18, at the Central Elementary Library. RSVP by May 16: 456.2405.

• A Harry Potter Trivia Challenge is scheduled for 4 p.m. on May 18, at the Canton Library. 648.2924 or www.thehpalliance.org/asheville_harry_potter_alliance _chapter.

• The Franklin High School FFA Rodeo will be at 8 p.m.

May 20-21 at the Wayne Proffitt Agricultural Center at the Macon County Fairgrounds in Franklin. Gates open at 6 p.m. Tickets are $12 for adults, $6 for kids ages 510, and free for kids under age 5. For advance tickets, call 524.6467.

• The Old Armory will host an indoor flea market from 7 a.m.-2 p.m. on May 21, in Waynesville. 456.9207.

• “Back Porch Old-Time Music Jam,” two hours of traditional Appalachian music at 2 p.m. on May 21 at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center. Visitors with an acoustic instrument to play are welcome to join this old-time jam.

• Community Pet Day is from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on May 21 at the overflow parking lot across from Sarge’s Adoption Center in Waynesville. Presented by Sarge’s Animal Rescue Foundation, Haywood Spay/Neuter and The Haywood County Animal Shelter. Free pet food, leashes/halters/collars; tick/flee meds and spay/neuter appointments. 246.9050 or sargeanimals.org.

• Mary Ann Enloe, former Hazelwood mayor, will offer a presentation on Haywood County history at Hazelwood Baptist Church at 11 a.m. on May 24. Potluck to follow.

• A groundbreaking ceremony for the Haywood County Emergency Medical Services/Emergency Management base is scheduled for 4 p.m. on May 25, at 141 Hemlock St. in Waynesville.

• Bingo is scheduled for 5:45 every Thursday from May 26 through Sept. 1 in the Pavilion next to Maggie Valley Town Hall. Cash prizes, including a $50 coverall prize each week. Concessions by Moonshine Grill. Sponsored by the Maggie Valley Civic Association. 926.7630.

• The ceremonial Cherokee bonfires will kickoff the summer season on Friday, May 27, at Ocoaluftee Island Park in Cherokee. The bonfires run from 7 to 10 p.m.

Friday and Saturday from May 27 through Oct. 1. Guests sit by the fire near the Oconaluftee riverside enjoying a unique and entertaining experience. The events are free and open to the public. www.visitcherokeenc.com.

• Western Carolina University is accepting nominations for the Mountain Heritage Award. Nominations for the awards will be accepted through Thursday, June 30.

Nomination letters may be hand-delivered to the Mountain Heritage Center at its new location in the Hunter Library building, Room 240; mailed to Mountain Heritage Center, 1 University Drive, Cullowhee N.C. 28723; or emailed to Pam Meister at pameister@wcu.edu.

• Coloring Club will be hosted on the second Wednesday of the month at 4 p.m. at Canton Library.

Color pencils and color pages supplied. For ages 8 to 108. 648.2924.

• Beginners Chess Club is held on Fridays at 4 p.m. at the Canton Public Library. Ages 8-108 invited to participate. 648.2924.

BUSINESS & EDUCATION • Connect Up WNC business networking meeting is from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. on May 18, at City Bakery.

316.8761 or wayne@woodmen.org.

All phone numbers area code 828 unless otherwise noted.

• A creative business plan series, offered by Southwestern Community College’s Small Business Center, will be held from 2-5 p.m. on Thursdays through May 26. Each seminar is aimed at addressing needs and challenges of craft artists who have, or are thinking about starting, a business. Registration required: www.southwesterncc.edu/sbc. Info: t_henry@southwesterncc.edu or 339.4211.

• Issues & Eggs is set for 8-9 a.m. on June 1, at Laurel Ridge Country Club in Waynesville. Guest speaker is Tonya Wilson Snider, owner of TenBiz. Topic is “Customer Service is not a Department, It’s an Attitude.”

FUNDRAISERS AND BENEFITS • Swain County Public Schools Foundation Fundraiser is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on May 18, at Pasqualino’s Restaurant. Dinner will honor scholarship recipients.

Tickets for sale at the school administration office for $25. Prime rib or vegetarian option.

• Cartoogechaye Christian Fellowship will hold a craft fair and auto show from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on May 21 at Memorial United Methodist Church in Franklin. Proceeds will fund CCF community projects. Bake sale, crafts, antique cars on display, sale items, hot dog and hamburger dinners, $50 cash prize drawing for car show participants and door prizes. Artists, crafters and antique auto enthusiasts interested in participating must call 369.5834 by May 18.

• The Lake J 5K Night Glow Run/Walk begins at 8:45 p.m. on May 20, at Clyde Elementary School. Kids activities with prizes will start at 7:30 a.m., when walk-up registration opens. Proceeds support the missions group at Lake Junaluska First Baptist Church. $15 kids; $35 adults. www.active.com.

• Jackson County Relay for Life is from 6 p.m.-midnight on May 20, at the Recreation Park in Cullowhee.

• A day of trail maintenance to benefit Panthertown Valley is set for 9:30 a.m.-2 p.m. on May 20, at the Cold Mountain Trailhead. RSVP: www.facebook.com/panthertown, friends@panthertown.org or 269.4453.

• Bethel United Methodist Church will hold a Game Night at 6:30 p.m. on May 20, in Franklin. Games for all ages; pizza and drinks. http://main.acsevents.org. All proceeds benefit the Bethel Church Relay for Life team.

• The Bryson City Lions will hold a wine-tasting fundraiser for the visually impaired, seniors and the needy from 6-8 p.m. on May 20, at Country Traditions Wine and Gourmet Market in Dillsboro. $10 donation collected at the door. Five wines will be served by Michael from Empire Distributors. Snacks provided. Ten percent of sales also go to the club. Info: 586.1600.

• Haywood Healthcare Foundation will host Casino Night on May 21 at Laurel Ridge Country Club in Waynesville. A portion of proceeds provides defibrillators for Haywood County law enforcement vehicles as well as to support Children Exposed to Violence. Tickets are $100 each. 452.8343.

• Maggie Valley Community Gardens will hold a Silent Auction and Soup and Cornbread Supper from 6-7:30 p.m. on, May 21, at the Maggie Valley United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall. Proceeds benefit the group’s gardening efforts. Info: 926.1568, 743.0156 or 926.9794.

• United Christian Ministries is holding a fundraiser from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. on May 26-27, at Krismart Fashions in Sylva. Make a $10 donation and receive $50 off any

Smoky Mountain News

39

one item at Krismart. Refreshments. Purchase tickets at UCM or at Krismart Fashion. 586.8228.

• Art for a Cause, Rotary Club of Cashiers Valley’s annual spring event and fundraiser, is set for 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on May 28-29 at The Village Green in Cashiers.

Ironwork, woodcraft, hand-thrown pottery, handstitched textiles, homemade cakes, pies, jellies and jams. Live performances by classics singer Steven Johannessen. www.cashiersrotary.org.

• A seed money fundraiser is underway to benefit the new Marianna Black Library in Bryson City. The library furnishings fund receives 50 percent of sales receipts for each packet sold directly or 25 percent sold at SowTrueSeed.com; use the code MBL2016. 488.3030, ext. 128, jdelfield@fontanalib.org.

VOLUNTEERS • STAR Rescue Ranch is seeking volunteers to help with horse care, fundraising events, barn maintenance and more at the only equine rescue in Haywood County.

505.274.9199.

• Volunteer Opportunities are available throughout the region, call John at the Haywood Jackson Volunteer Center today and get started sharing your talents. 3562833 • Phone Assurance Volunteers are needed to make daily or weekly wellness check-in calls for the Haywood County Senior Resource Center. 356.2816.

VENDORS • The town of Dillsboro will be hosting arts and craft shows open to vendors from the surrounding region.

Saturday, Aug. 20 — The Dillsboro Summer Arts & Crafts Market showcases local art and fine crafts, with a focus on family and children activities. Application due by June 1. Saturday, Oct. 1 — The 8th annual ColorFest will line Front Street with colorful art and fine crafts. Application due by July 1. Vendors may apply for these shows by downloading an application from the town’s website, www.visitdillsboro.org or directly from www.visitdillsboro.org/specialevents.html. For more information, call Connie Hogan at 586.3511.

HEALTH MATTERS • An event to commemorate Brain Tumor Awareness Month will be held from 6-7:45 p.m. on May 19, at Western Carolina University’s instructional site at Biltmore Park Town Square in Asheville. http://WNCBrainTumor.org.

• A tired leg/varicose vein educational program is scheduled for 4-5 p.m. on May 19, at the Vein Center at Haywood Regional Medical Center in Clyde. Register: 452.8346; RSVP required.

• A health talk about sustainable health and sustainable living is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on May 19 in the Jackson County Library conference room in Sylva.

506.6141.

• Deadline to register for the Survivor and Caregiver Dinner hosted by the American Cancer Society and the Franklin Relay for Life event leadership team is May 20.

Event is at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 26, and features a guest speaker. RSVP: 866.227.7798 (option 3, push 0 for operator) or Valerie.Norton@cancer.org.

• “Life, Medicine and Death” will be presented at 11 a.m. on May 22, at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Franklin.

• A Lunch and Learn event entitled “Fortifying Your Framework – a Fall and Fracture Free Future” is scheduled for noon-1:30 p.m. on May 23, at the Haywood Regional Health and Fitness Center. Led by Kate Queen,

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 M.D., of Mountain Medical Associates. RSVP required: 800.424.3267.

• Participants are being sought for a clinical trial for those overweight with knee pain. Directed by Dr. Kate Queen of Mountain Medical Associates. wecan@wfu.edu or 558.0208.

• A Ladies Night Out program on “Looking Good” is scheduled for 4 and 6:30 p.m. on May 24 at Angel Medical Center in Franklin.

• A men’s Night Out program on “Everything You Want to Know About Physical Therapy” will be held at 6:30 p.m. on May 24 at Angel Medical Center in Franklin.

• A guided discussion of “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End” by Atul Gawande from 4-6 p.m. on Thursday, May 26, at Haywood County Public Library in Waynesville. Led by Dr. Michael Pass, medical director of Haywood Hospice and Palliative Care and the Homestead, and William Everett, Ph.D., ethics professor emeritus at Andover Newton Theological School.

RECREATION AND FITNESS • Registration is underway for an Open Adult Summer Soccer League through the Haywood County Recreation and Parks Department’s Open. Deadline is May 19. $390 per team. Games are June 6-July 31 at Allens Creek Park. 452.6789, drtaylor@haywoodnc.net or www.haywoodnc.net.

• Jackson County Cooperative Extension’s May Craft Club is all about Card Making with stamped card maker, crafter and instructor Candy Myers from 10 a.m.-noon on May 19. Cost is $7. Info and registration: 586.4009.

• A Ballroom Dance sponsored by the Haywood Dancer Club is scheduled for 8-10 p.m. on May 20, at Angie’s Dance Academy in Clyde. Variety of dance music.

Refreshments are free; admission is $10. Info: 734.8726.

• A short bike ride geared to new or inexperienced cyclists will leave Clyde on May 21. Led by BicycleHaywoodNC members. bobclarklaw@gmail.com.

• The third cornhole qualifying event for the 2016 Championships of Bags (COBS) will be held on May 21.

It’s part of a Qualifying Series for players to earn points and automatic bids into big cash tournaments. Last Qualifying Series date is June 11. The championship events are July 21-24 with a minimum guaranteed prize pool of $50,000. Info: www.iplaycornhole.com/cobs or info@iplaycornhole.com.

• A lunch-and-learn seminar on nutrition for bone health will be offered by Haywood Regional Medical Center Osteoporosis team from noon-1:30 p.m. on May 23. For info on nutrition or developing an individualized meal plan, call dietitian Lauren Teague at 452.8092.

• An organizational meeting for a summer adult coed kickball league is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on May 26, at the Waynesville Recreation Center. League runs on Tuesday and/or Thursday evenings in June, July or August. 456.2030 or dhummel@waynesvillenc.gov.

wnc calendar

• Pickleball is from 1-3 p.m. on Tuesdays through Thursdays at First Methodist Church in Sylva. $1 each time you play; equipment provided. 293.3053.

POLITICAL • Dr. Don Tomas, president of Southwestern Community College, and Dr. Mike Murray, superintendent of Jackson County Public Schools, are expected to speak during the monthly meeting of the Jackson County Republican Party at 6:30 p.m. on May 23, at the North Jackson County Republican Headquarters in Sylva. 743.6491 or jacksonctygop@yahoo.com.

• Occupy WNC General Assembly meets at 7 p.m. on May 24, at the Sneak E Squirrel Community Room in Sylva.

AUTHORS AND BOOKS • Doug Wingeier will review “Coming Out Together: The Journey of a Gay Minister’s Wife Through Love, Divorce and Remarriage” at 10 a.m. on May 18, in the Susan Todd Lounge of the Harrell Center at Lake Junaluska.

• New York Times bestselling author Sharyn McCrumb will discuss her new novel, “Prayers the Devil Answers” on May 19, at First United Methodist Church in Waynesville. Tickets: $10, available at all Haywood County Public Library branches and Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville. 456.6000 or www.blueridgebooksnc.com. Info on Haywood County Friends of the Library: 452.5169.

• An opportunity to meet the author of “Go in Joy! An Alphabetical Adventure” is set for 3 p.m. on May 21, at Blue Ridge books in Waynesville. 456.6000 or www.blueridgebooksnc.com.

May 18-24, 2016

• Nine authors who have written about the Appalachian outdoors will participate in the third annual Writers on the Rock from 1-4 p.m. on May 22 at Chimney Rock State Park. Chimneyrockpark.com.

• Author Miriam Herin will read from her book “A Stone for Bread” at 3 p.m. on May 28, at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville. 456.6000 or www.blueridgebooksnc.com.

• Franklin author James Kautz will read from his inspirational work Digger at 3 p.m. May 28, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. 586.9499.

SENIOR ACTIVITIES • Eat Smart, Move More North Carolina – an effort to help area residents commit to a healthier lifestyle, will meet from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. on Wednesdays at the Haywood County Senior Resource Center in Waynesville.

Smoky Mountain News

• Haywood County Senior Resource Center is looking into starting a weekly Euchre Card Group. If interested, contact Michelle Claytor at mclaytor@mountainprojects.org or 356.2800.

• A Silver Sneakers Cardio Fit class will meet from 10-11 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Waynesville Recreation Center. For ages 60 and above.

Cost is regular admission fee to the rec center or free for members. 456.2030 or tplowman@waynesvillenc.gov.

• Book Club is held at 2 p.m. on the third Wednesday of the month at the Haywood County Senior Resource Center in Waynesville. 356.2800 • Senior croquet for ages 55 and older is offered from 9-11:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Vance Street Park in front of Waynesville Recreation Center.

Free. For info, contact Donald Hummel at 456.2030 or dhummel@waynesvillenc.gov.

KIDS & FAMILIES 40

• Smoky Mountain Sk8way is offering a nine-week summer camp The summer camp is for kids ages 6

to 13 years old with a daily drop in or weekly schedule.

Camp hours are 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. with drop off times on Tuesday and Thursdays by 9:30 a.m. to make the bus for field trips. Daily attendance is $30 a day or week 4-5 days $110. The camp staff is made up of local teachers, experienced coaches and returning counselors. For more information, visit www.smokymountainsk8way.com or call 246.9124.

• The “Come Paint with Charles Kidz Program” will be at 4 p.m. May 19 and 26 at the Charles Heath Gallery in Bryson City. $20 per child. Materials and snacks included. 828.538.2054.

• Crazy 8s Math Club for grades 3-5 is scheduled for 3:30-4:30 p.m. each Monday through May 23 at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin. cdando@fontanalib.org or 524.3600.

• A SciGirls program called “Habitat Connections” is scheduled for 6-8 p.m. on May 24 at the Transylvania County Extension Office in Brevard. Learn about bird habitat. Co-hosted by the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI) and the Transylvania County 4-H. $10 participation fee per student. Info and register at www.pari.edu/programs/students/scigirls.

• Family Fly Fishing for participants ages 8-up is scheduled for 9 a.m.-noon on May 27 at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Transylvania County.

Pre-registration required: 877.4423 or www.ncwildlife.org/Learning/EducationCenters/Pisgah /EventRegistration.aspx.

• Nature Nuts: Life Cycles is scheduled for ages 4-7 from 9-11 a.m. on May 28 at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Transylvania County. Learn about the life cycles of various critters. Pre-registration required: 877.4423 or www.ncwildlife.org/Learning/EducationCenters/Pisgah /EventRegistration.aspx.

• Eco Explorers: Archery is scheduled for ages 8-13 from 1-3 p.m. on May 28 at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Transylvania County. Learn the basics. Pre-registration required: 877.4423 or www.ncwildlife.org/Learning/EducationCenters/Pisgah /EventRegistration.aspx.

• Kids Zumba four-week class is at 3 p.m. on Thursdays June 2-23 at the Jackson County Recreation Center. Register by May 31. $25 for members; $35 for nonmembers. 293.3053.

KIDS MOVIES • “The Lion King” will be shown for free at noon and 2 p.m. on Saturdays throughout May at the Strand in Waynesville.

• The film “The Lego Movie” will be screened at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on May 20 at Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. Free. www.madbatterfoodfilm.com.

• A family movie will be shown at 3:30 p.m. on May 24, at Marianna Black Library in Bryson City.

Animated movie is about a rat that grows up beneath a five-star Parisian restaurant. 488.3030.

A&E FESTIVALS AND SPECIAL EVENTS •A Strawberry Jam festival is set for May 21, at Darnell Farms in Bryson City. Hayrides, storytelling and fishing. Pick strawberries and listen to bluegrass music. 736.8047.

• Bluegrass Festival is from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. on May 21, on Stecoah Valley Center’s outdoor stage. Arts, crafts and food vendors.

• The 22nd annual Swain County Heritage Festival will be May 27-28 at Riverfront Park in Bryson City.

Friday night entertainment runs from 6 to 9 p.m., with Saturday acts from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. 488.3848 • The Downtown Waynesville Association Memorial Day weekend “Block Party” will be held from 7 to 10 p.m. May 28, on Main Street. The “KIDS on MAIN” Art & Craft Hour will be from 6 to 7 p.m. Please note, Main Street closes to vehicle at 4:30 p.m. for setup. www.downtownwaynesville.com.

FOOD & DRINK

• A performance by comedian Chonda Pierce is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on May 21, at Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets: $20. www.GreatMountainMusic.com or 866.273.4615.

• The “Talent in the Mountains” community-wide talent show will be held at 7 p.m. May 21, at The Grove Church in Bryson City. 488.5655.

• The Russ Wilson Trio performs swing, jazz and blues at 7 p.m. on May 21, at the Classic Wineseller in Waynesville. 452.6000.

• Liam Matthews (piano) performs jazz, pop and easy listening at 7 p.m. on May 25, at the Classic Wineseller in Waynesville. 452.6000.

• The “Way Back When” trout dinner will open its 2016 season at 5:30 p.m. May 20, at the Cataloochee Ranch in Maggie Valley. The dinner showcases a recreation meal, music, storytelling and atmosphere of a 1930s Appalachian trout camp. Enjoy a wagon ride across the ranch property amid the authentic re-creation of Mr. Tom and Miss Judy Alexander’s first fishing camp. $39.95 per person, plus tax and gratuity.

The dinner will also be held June 3 and 24, July 15 and 29, Aug. 12 and 26, and Sept. 2 and 16. To RSVP, call 828.926.1401 or 800.868.1401 or www.cataloocheeranch.com.

• Karen “Sugar” Barnes and Dave Magill will perform at 7 p.m. on May 26, in the Community Room of the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva. 586.2016.

• A “BBQ & Brews Dinner Train” will be departing at 7 p.m. May 28, at the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad depot in Bryson City. The event is ages 21 and over.

Tickets start at $69. Additional beer will be available for purchase onboard the train. Admission to the Smoky Mountain Trains Museum is included with ticket purchase. 800.872.4681 or www.gsmr.com.

• James Hammel (guitar, vocals) performs jazz, pop and originals at 7 p.m. on May 27, at the Classic Wineseller in Waynesville. 452.6000.

ON STAGE & IN CONCERT • Liam Matthews (piano) performs jazz, pop and easy listening at 7 p.m. on May 18, at the Classic Wineseller in Waynesville. 452.6000.

• An Adelsheim Wine Tasting and Food Pairing with guest Bill Blanchard from the winery is scheduled for May 19, at the Classic Wineseller in Waynesville.

452.6000.

• A presentation of Ken Ludwig’s “The Game’s Afoot” by the Highlands Cashiers Players will be on stage starting May 19, at the Highlands Performing Arts Center. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. on May 19-22 and May 26-29 with Sunday matinees at 2:30 p.m.

526.8084 or http://highlandscashiersplayers.org.

• Singer-songwriter Pat McLaughlin (rhythm guitar) and his son, Jamie McLaughlin, will perform at 8:30 p.m. on May 20, at Cataloochee Ranch in Maggie Valley. Dinner at 7 p.m. Show is included with dinner price of $34.95; show-only tickets are $25 each.

926.1401.

• “Disney’s The Lion King JR.” will be presented by MusicWorks! Studio of Performing Arts students on May 20-22, in Clyde. Showtimes are 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Tickets: $8 and available at 565.0381.

• Local reggae/rock act PMA (Positive Mental Attitude) will host their album release party for their latest record, “Through the Spaces,” at 7:30 p.m. May 20, at Innovation Brewing in Sylva. There will also be a special craft beer release at the event. Bender will open the show. www.facebook.com/pmamusic.

• Tickets are on sale now for a show by Rascal Flatts, which performs at 9 p.m. on May 27, at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort Event Center. 800.745.3000.

• Concerts on the Creek are from 7-9 p.m. each Friday from May 27 to Sept. 2 at Bridge Park in Sylva. First up on the schedule is Freeway Revival on May 27 see www.facebook.com/JacksonRecreationandParks for the rest of the schedule.

• Voices in the Laurel will wind up its 20th season with festivities from May 27-29 in Waynesville. The spring concert is at 3 p.m. on May 29, at First Baptist Church of Waynesville. www.VoicesintheLaurel.org or 734.9163.

• Joe Cruz performs music of the Beatles, Elton John, James Taylor and Simon & Garfunkel at 7 p.m. on May 28, at the Classic Wineseller in Waynesville. 452.6000.

• The Unto These Hills outdoor drama will run at 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday from May 28 to Aug. 13 at the Mountainside Theater in Cherokee.

General admission tickets are $20 for adults, $10 for children ages 6-12 and free for children under age 5.

Reserved tickets also available. 866.554.4557 or www.visitcherokenc.com. .

CLASSES AND PROGRAMS • High Country Quilt Guild will hold a meeting at 6:30 p.m. on May 19, at the First Methodist Church in Waynesville. www.highcountryquilters.wordpress.com.

• There will be a “Raku Beadmaking” workshop from 6 to 8 p.m. May 19-20 and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 21 at Riverwood Pottery in Dillsboro. Cost is $120 per person. 828.586.3601 or www.riverwoodpottery.com.

• A woodturning demonstration by Kim Winkle is scheduled for 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on May 21, at the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville.

712.6644 or www.carolinamountainwoodturners.org.

• A craft fair and auto show will be held at 10 a.m.

May 21 at the Memorial United Methodist Church in Franklin. 369.5834 or www.franklin-chamber.com.

• Joe Cruz performs music of the Beatles, Elton John, James Taylor and Simon & Garfunkel at 7 p.m. on May 20, at the Classic Wineseller in Waynesville. 452.6000.

• The Adult Coloring Group will meet at 2 p.m. on Fridays in the Living Room of the Macon County Public Library in Franklin. An afternoon of creativity and camaraderie. Supplies are provided, or bring your own.

Beginners are welcome as well as those who already enjoy this new trend. kmoe@fontanalib.org or 524.3600.

• “Legally Blonde the Musical” will be on stage the next four weekends starting May 20 at HART in Waynesville. Showtimes are at 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays (June 2 and 9), Fridays and Saturdays and at 2 p.m. on Sundays). www.harttheatre.org or 456.6322.

• A three-day mediation training will be offered by Mountain Mediation Services from 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. on May 24-26. $195. Learn how to resolve conflicts in your neighborhood, at work or with family. Register: 631.5252 or mmssylva1@dnet.net.

• The film “A Hologram for the King” will be screened at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. May 20-24 at the Highlands Playhouse. 526.2695 or click on www.highlandsplayhouse.org.

• Artist and jeweler Sarah Rachel Brown will be holding a class at Haywood Community College in Clyde.

“Introduction to Lost Wax Casting: Carved Band Rings” will explore the fundamentals of the lost wax

• A program on “Handmade Paper Seed Embedded Gift Cardsâ€? is scheduled for 5:30-6:30 p.m. on May 24, at Waynesville Library Auditorium. Sign-up required: 356.2507 or kolsen@haywoodnc.net. • The Spring Into Summer Craft & Art Show will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 27 and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

May 28 at the Macon County Fairgrounds in Franklin.

Over 25 local crafters. Free admission and parking.

Donations of Friskies or 9 lives cat food will be accepted for the Catman2 No Kill Shelter. www.franklin-chamber.com or 349.4324. • The Cashiers Rotary Arts & Crafts Show will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 28-29 at The Village Green. All funds raised go to benefit the Cashiers Rotary Club Charities fund. www.cashiersrotary.org.

ART SHOWINGS AND GALLERIES • Acrylic paintings by 94-year-old Denise McCullough and photographs by Helen Geltman are on display through August at the Canton Library’s Visual Arts Exhibit. www.haywoodarts.org. • An exhibition entitled “This is a Photograph: Exploring Contemporary Applications of Photographic Chemistryâ€? is on display at Penland School of Crafts near Spruce Pine. 765.6211 or penland.org/gallery. • An art exhibition by James Smythe is on exhibit through June 9. at Signature Brew in Sylva.

• A showcase of work from painter Lucien Harris III will run through May 22 at The Bascom in Highlands. The works will be exhibited for free. www.thebascom.org.

FILM & SCREEN • The film “Brooklynâ€? will be screened the May 17-29 at The Strand at 38 Main in Waynesville. Show times are 7 p.m. on weekdays, 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturdays, and 1:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. Sundays. www.38main.com. • Adult movie time, 6:30 p.m. Mondays at Jackson County Public Library. 586.2016.

• A new movie starring Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Robert DeNiro (Rated PG-13) will be shown at 9:30 a.m. on May 18 at the Canton Library.

Coffee and doughnuts provided. 648.2924. • “Suffragettesâ€? will be shown at 2 and 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 19, at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin. • A PBS film about the elusive Harpy Eagle of South America will be shown at 7 p.m. on May 23 at Hudson Library. www.highlandsaudubonsociety.org. • The film “Deadpoolâ€? will be screened at 7:30 p.m on May 19 at Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. Free. www.madbatterfoodfilm.com. • The film “The Lego Movieâ€? will be screened at 6:30

• The film “The Secret of Nimhâ€? will be screened at 2 p.m., 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on May 21 at Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. Free. www.madbatterfoodfilm.com. • The film “How To Be Singleâ€? will be screened at 7:30 p.m. on May 26 at Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. Free. www.madbatterfoodfilm.com. • A new documentary entitled “The Sad & Beautiful World of Sparklehorseâ€? will be shown at 2 and 6 p.m. on May 26, in the Macon County Public Library’s Meeting Room. Film is about former Hayesville resident Mark Linkous, singer-songwriter and founder of the alternative rock band Sparklehorse. 524.3600.

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• A classic World War II drama starring Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones and Shirley Temple will be shown at 2 p.m. on May 27, at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin. 2:57. While her husband is away during the war, Anne Hilton copes with problems on the homefront. 524.3600. • The flim “Zoolander 2â€? will be screened at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on May 27 at Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. Free. www.madbatterfoodfilm.com. • The film “The Finest Hoursâ€? will be screened at 2 p.m., 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on May 28 at Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. Free. www.madbatterfoodfilm.com.

Outdoors • The Franklin Bird Club will have a bird walk along the greenway at 8 a.m. on May 18. Meet at Big Bear Shelter parking area. 524.5234. • A Friday Hike will be offered on May 20 through the Jackson County Recreation Department. $5 per person.

Register by at 293.3053 or in person at the Cullowhee Recreation Center. $5. • An Introduction to Tenkara (traditional Japanese fly fishing) class will be offered from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on May 21 at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Transylvania County. Pre-registration required: 877.4423 or www.ncwildlife.org/Learning/Education Centers/Pisgah/EventRegistration.aspx. • Biomonitoring surveys of breeding birds is scheduled for 7-11 a.m. on May 21, at Cowee Mound in Macon County and Wednesday, May 25, at Mainspring Conservation Trust’s Tessentee Preserve in Macon County. bigbaldbanding@gmail.com or 736.1217. • Beginner Outdoor Photography class will be offered for ages 14-up from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. on May 21 at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Transylvania County. Pre-registration required: 877.4423 or www.ncwildlife.org/Learning/EducationCenters/Pisgah /EventRegistration.aspx. • The second annual Jonathan Creek Clean-up starts at 9:30 a.m. on May 21. Meet at Maggie Valley Town Hall. Wear closed-toed shoes.

Smoky Mountain News

• A Morning Movie about runner Jesse Owens and the 1936 Olympics will be screened at 9:30 a.m. on May 18 at the Canton Library. Coffee and doughnuts served. 648.2924. www.madbatterfoodfilm.com.

• A classic 1953 thriller starring James Stewart will be shown at 2 p.m. on May 20, in the Macon County Public Library’s Meeting Room in Franklin. A bounty hunter trying to bring a murderer to justice is forced to accept the help of two less-than-trustworthy strangers. 524.3600.

No Need to go to a Big Box Store.

We Have Lower Prices, Higher Quality and Experienced Staff.

May 18-24, 2016

• A nature-based sculpture project launched by Western Carolina University’s Fine Art Museum will feature outdoors art while promoting discussion of sustainability and aesthetics through Saturday, May 21, on the university’s multi-use trail. Work is by artists Walker Tufts, Greg Stewart and Aislinn Penetecost-Farrin. www.wcu.edu/museum, ddrury@wcu.edu or 227.2550. For info about the Sustainable Energy Initiative, visit energy.wcu.edu, email lbishop@wcu.edu or 227.3562.

p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on May 20 at Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. Free. www.madbatterfoodfilm.com.

wnc calendar

process as students carve a band ring out of wax and utilize surface techniques to add pizzazz to the final cast metal ring. The class will run from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on June 3-4 and from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. June 5. Register by May 20. creativearts.haywood.edu.

Please call 565.4240 to register.

• Swain Clean Clean-up is at 9 a.m. on May 21. Meet at Ingles. Rain date is June 4. • An “Introduction to Tree Identificationâ€? class will be offered on May 21, at Oconaluftee Visitor Center in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. $79. Taught by Mac Post as part of the Smoky Mountain Field School. www.conferencesandnoncreditprograms.utk.edu/smoky

41

wnc calendar

• A Wilderness First Aid Course will be taught May 2122 in Arden and May 26-27 in Hendersonville.

Fundamentals of first aid in remote areas. Register: 293.5384 or main@landmarklearning.edu.

• A Swiftwater Rescue: Level 4 program is scheduled for May 21-22 in Cullowhee. 293.5384 or main@landmarklearning.edu.

• An Emergency Medical Technician and WMI Wilderness Upgrade for the Medical Prrofessional will be offered May 23-June 11 and June 13-17 – as well as July 11-30 and Aug. 1-5 - in Cullowhee. Register: 293.5384 or main@landmarklearning.edu.

• On the Water: Davidson River, a program for participants ages 12-up to practice fly-fishing skills, is scheduled for 9 a.m.-noon on May 23 at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Transylvania County.

Pre-registration required: 877.4423 or www.ncwildlife.org/Learning/EducationCenters/Pisgah/ EventRegistration.aspx.

• “Jungle Eagle” film will be presented at 7:30 p.m. on May 23 at Hudson Library in Highlands. A PBS production, the film features the elusive Harpy Eagle of South America.

• An Introduction to Fly Fishing: Lake Fishing class will be offered for ages 12-up from 7 a.m.-noon on May 24 at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Transylvania County. Pre-registration required: 877.4423 or www.ncwildlife.org/Learning/EducationCenters/Pisgah/ EventRegistration.aspx.

• An Evening Stroll with the Walker Sisters will be offered from 6-11 p.m. on May 24, through the Smoky Mountain Field School. Fee: $79. Register: www.smfs.utk.edu or 865.974.0150.

May 18-24, 2016

• Lake Logan Lecture Series continues with a presentation by author, botanist and Clemson University professor Dr. Timothy Spira at 10:30 a.m. on May 24. Topic is Waterfalls & Wildflowers of the Southern Appalachians.

Registration fee: $25. Includes lunch. Advance registration required at www.lakelogan.org/2016-lecture-series.

Info: 648.4547.

• A Pesticide Collection Day for residents of Macon and surrounding counties is scheduled for 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on May 25, at the Macon County Environmental Resource Center. 349.2049.

• The Franklin Bird Club will have a bird walk along the greenway at 8 a.m. on May 25. Meet at Salali Lane.

524.5234.

• A STIR (Socialize, Talk, Interact, Remember) event is scheduled for 5:30-7 p.m. on May 26, at Lazy Hiker Brewing Company in Franklin. RSVP by May 23: 586.2155 or 524.3161.

Smoky Mountain News

• A Birds of Prey program is scheduled for 11 a.m. on May 26, at the Oconaluftee Multipurpose Room near Cherokee. Presented by Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Balsam Mountain Trust. Led by Michael Skinner, executive director of the Balsam Mountain Trust. 497.1904 or www.nps.gov/grsm.

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 • In-depth Organic Pest Management seminars are scheduled for 6-8 p.m. on May 26 at the Jackson Extension Center in Sylva and from 10 a.m.-noon on May 27 at the Swain Extension Center in Bryson City.

586.4009 or 488.3848.

• Cherokee’s Memorial Day Trout Tournament is May 27-29. $11 entry fee plus $10 per day permit to compete for $10,000 in tagged fish in rivers on the Qualla Boundary. 788.0034.

• The ‘Whee Farmer’s Market is open from 4 p.m. to dusk every Tuesday at the corner of the N. Country Club Drive and Stadium View Drive in Cullowhee, behind the entrance to the Village of Forest Hills off Highway 107 across from Western Carolina University. 476.0334.

• Franklin Tailgate Market is from 8 a.m.-noon every Saturday at 203 E. Palmer Street in Franklin. Info: collins230@frontier.com.

• The Cashiers Tailgate market is open from 1 p.m.- 5 p.m. on Wednesdays starting June 1 at the United Community Bank on N.C. 107 South. 226.9988 or blueridgefarmers@gmail.com.

• The Franklin Farmers Tailgate Market is from 8 a.m.noon on Saturdays on East Palmer Street across from Drake Software in Franklin. 349.2049 or alan_durden@ncsu.edu.

• “Salamander Meander,” an opportunity to find salamanders roaming on the forest floor, is scheduled for 9 p.m. on May 27, at the Highlands Nature Center. $5 per person. Advance registration required: 526.4123.

• Cowee Farmers Market is open from 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesdays starting May 24 at Old Cowee School located at 51 Cowee School Drive. ediescookies@mail.com or www.coweefarmersmarket.com

• A Smoky Mountain Field School Course entitled “Historic Cataloochee Valley, Smoky Mountain Elk & More” is scheduled for 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on May 28.

Instructor is Esther Blakely. $79. Register: www.smfs.utk.edu or 865.974.0150.

• Swain County Farmers Market will be open from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. on Fridays starting May 6 through Oct. and Tuesdays starting June 14 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. through Aug. 16 at the barn on Island Street in Bryson City. 488.3848 or Christine_bredenkamp@ncsu.edu.

• “Bogs, Bugs and Beavers” guided walks along the Pink Beds Trail will interpret the natural history of beavers, their wetland-creating activities and the changing habitats they create at 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. on May 28 at the Cradle of Forestry’s Forest Discovery Center. $5 for ages 16 and up. Free for youth. www.cradleofforestry.org or 877.3130.

• The Sylva Pool will be in operation from May 28-Aug. 21. 586.3565 or 631.2022.

• A program entitled “Skins and Skulls of Gorges State Park” will be offered at 2:15 p.m. on May 30, at Gorges State Park in Sapphire. Ranger McGraw will show and discuss the skins and skulls of rarely seen creatures at the park. 966.9099 or ej.dwigans@ncparks.gov.

FARMERS MARKET • Haywood Historic Farmers Market is held from 8 a.m.-noon on Wednesdays and Saturdays in the parking lot of HART Theatre in Waynesville. 280.1381 or haywoodfarmersmarket@gmail.com or waynesvillefarmersmarket.com • The Original Waynesville Tailgate Market is from 8 a.m.-noon on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 171 Legion Drive in Waynesville (behind Bogart’s). 456.1830 or vrogers12@att.net.

COMPETITIVE EDGE • The second annual Run for the Park 5K is scheduled for 9 a.m. on May 28, in Highlands to benefit KelseyHutchinson Founders Park and local athletic scholarships. Register at www.active.com; race-day registration starts at 7:45 a.m. Pre-registration: $30 for adults, $20 for students 13 and older and $10 for 12under. Race day cost is $35, $25 and $15. Info: 526.4280 or stmas4280@gmail.com.

HIKING CLUBS • The Nantahala Hiking Club will take a moderate 6mile hike, with an elevation change of 600 feet, to Park Creek – Park Ridge on Saturday, May 28. Call leader Mary Stone, 369.7352, for reservations. Visitors welcome, no dogs please.

• Friends of the Smokies hikes are offered on the second Tuesday of each month. www.friendsofthesmokies.org/hikes.html.

• Nantahala Hiking Club based in Macon County holds weekly Saturday hikes in the Nantahala National Forest and beyond. www.nantahalahikingclub.org • High Country Hikers, based out of Hendersonville but hiking throughout Western North Carolina, plans hikes

every Monday and Thursday. Schedules, meeting places and more information are available on their website, www.highcountryhikers.org.

• Carolina Mountain Club hosts more than 150 hikes a year, including options for full days on weekends, full days on Wednesdays and half days on Sundays. Nonmembers contact event leaders. www.carolinamountainclub.org • Mountain High Hikers, based in Young Harris, Ga., leads several hikes per week. Guests should contact hike leader. www.mountainhighhikers.org.

• Smoky Mountain Hiking Club, located in East Tennessee, makes weekly hikes in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park as well as surrounding areas. www.smhclub.org.

• Benton MacKaye Trail Association incorporates outings for hikes, trail maintenance and other work trips.

No experience is necessary to participate. www.bmta.org.

• Diamond Brand’s Women’s Hiking Group meets on the third Saturday of every month. For more information, e-mail awilliams@diamondbrand.com or call 684.6262.

OUTDOOR CLUBS • The Jackson County Poultry Club will hold its regular meeting on the third Thursday of each month at the Jackson County Cooperative Extension Office. The club is for adults and children and includes a monthly meeting with a program and a support network for those raising birds. For info, call 586.4009 or write heather_gordon@ncsu.edu.

• The North Carolina Catch program, a three-phase conservation education effort focusing on aquatic environments, will be offered through May 15. The program is offered by the Waynesville Parks and Recreation Department. Free for members; daily admission for non-members. 456.2030 or tpetrea@waynesvillenc.gov.

• An RV camping club, the Vagabonds, camps one weekend per month from April through November. All ages welcome. No dues or structured activities. For details, write lilnau@aol.com or call 369.6669.

• The Tuckaseigee River Chapter No. 373 of Trout Unlimited meets at 6:30 p.m. on second Tuesday of the month at United Community Bank in Sylva. Dinner is $5.

• The Cataloochee Chapter of Trout Unlimited meets the second Tuesday of the month starting with a dinner at 6:30 p.m. at Rendezvous restaurant located on the corner of Jonathan Creek Road and Soco Road in Maggie Valley. 631.5543.

• Pigeon Valley Bassmasters Club will meet at 7 p.m. on the second Monday of each month at J&S Cafeteria, Enka, Exit 44 off I-40. 712.2846.

• Macon County Horse Association meets at 7:30 p.m. the third Tuesday of each month at the Macon County Fairgrounds Alumni Building. Education program and business meeting. ddoster@fs.fed.us.

345-15

Great Smokies Storage 10’x20’ $

92

20’x20’ $

160

ONE MONTH

FREE WITH 12-MONTH CONTRACT

828.506.4112 or 828.507.8828

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• The Jackson County Farmers Market will be on Saturdays from 9 a.m.-noon at Bridge Park located in Sylva. Info: 393.5236. jacksoncountyfarmersmarket@gmail.com or website jacksoncountyfarmersmarket.org.

Conveniently located off 19/23 by Thad Woods Auction

Puzzles can be found on page 46.

These are only the answers.

PRIME REAL ESTATE Advertise in The Smoky Mountain News

ANNOUNCEMENTS

MarketPlace information:

FRANKLIN FARMERS MARKET Saturdays 8am - 12Noon.

Fresh Local Produce, Plants, Preserves, Baked Goods, Honey, Botanicals, Eggs - 200 Block Palmer Street, Franklin, NC.

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.

HOOPER FAMILY REUNION July 9th, Hiawassee Fair Grounds, Hiawassee, GA. Covered Dish Luncheon at Noon. All relations of brothers, Absolum and Clemmons Hooper and Susan Hooper Stephens requested to come and share stories, pictures and discuss books on family. Any questions text or call Barbara at 706.581.2016.

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.

MOVING DOWNSIZING SALE 214 Cobblestone Dr., Waynesville (Bethel Community off Peters Cove). Fri., May 19th 9am-4pm & Sat. 10am-4pm. Furniture, Antiques, Garage full of Tools.

No Early Sales Presented by Frog Pond Estate Sales

Classified Advertising: Scott Collier, phone 828.452.4251; fax 828.452.3585 classads@smokymountainnews.com

AUCTION

WAYNESVILLE TIRE, COO

INC.

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Serving Haywood, Jackson & Surrounding Counties

78+/-ACRES LAND AUCTION Carteret County, NC, Excellent Timber & Waterfront Tracts, offered divided, frontage on Dumpling Creek, abundant highway frontage, OnLine Bidding May 13 - May 26. www.HouseAuctionCompany.com.

252.729.1162. NCAL#7889

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

345-26

AUCTION Saturday May 21st, 9am. 3180 Kennedy Road, Burlington, NC 27215. 1929 Model-A Truck, Jeep, Trucks, Cars, 8N Tractor, Tools, Equipment, Farmall Cub, Household. Auctionzip ID# 14226.

ParkAuctionRealty.com Grady Park 336.263.3957.

NCFL# 8834.

ABSOLUTE AUCTION 69.92 acres offered as tracts or whole. Wilkesboro, NC (Boomer).

Saturday, May 21, 10am. Info: Jerry King 828.230.2075. King Auction Realty. www.BidKingAuctions.com.

NCFIRM7551. Lewis Harrison 844.316.1056 Walnut Grove Auction, www.WalnutGroveAuction.com NCFIRM 233.

AUCTION AUCTION Construction. Truck. Trailer. Farm.

Container. Tues. May 24 @ 9am.

Swansea, SC. 10% BP. www.meekinsauction.com.

SCLN 272/NCLN 858

CONSTRUCTION/ REMODELING 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 HAYWOOD BUILDERS Garage Doors, New Installations Service & Repairs, 828.456.6051 100 Charles St. Waynesville Employee Owned.

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. FIND THE RIGHT CARPET, Flooring & Window Treatments. Ask about our 50% off specials & our Low Price Guarantee. Offer Expires Soon. Call now 888.546.0135 SAPA 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 DOES YOUR AUTO CLUB Offer no hassle service and rewards? Call American Auto Club (ACA) & Get $200 in ACARewards! (new members only) Roadside Assistance & Monthly Rewards.

Call 800.867.3193. SAPA DONATE YOUR CAR, Truck Or Boat To Heritage For The Blind. Free 3 Day Vacation, Tax Deductible, Free Towing, All Paperwork Taken Care Of. Call 1.800.416.1496 SAPA WE BUY DAMAGED VEHICLES! Top Dollar Offer. From Anywhere.

All Makes/Models 2000-2015 Wanted. America’s Top Car Buyer!

Call Now: 1.800.761.9396 SAPA

MOTORCYCLES CRAZY BOB’S BIKER STUFF Jackets, Chaps, Vests, Helmets, Rain Gear, Saddlebags, Sissy Bar Bags, Tool Bags, Stickers, Patches. We also got you covered with 50 Sizes of Tarps: Heavy Duty Silver, Brown & Green, Blue & Silver, Blue & Camo.

1880 Dellwood Rd., Waynesville 828.926.1177

R

WNC MarketPlace

EMPLOYMENT - HOUSEKEEPING Full Time or Part Time: Maggie Valley Cabin Resort Seeks an Energetic & Experienced Housekeeper. Valid Driver’s License Required. Call 828.926.1388 ACCOUNTING & PAYROLL CLERKS In demand! Train at home to process invoices, payroll & A/P! Online Career Training Program gets you ready! Call for free info! HS Diploma/GED required.

1.888.407.7063

May 18-24, 2016

ADULT SERVICE POSITIONS AVAILABLE We are currently recruiting for the following positions in Adult Services: • Psychiatric Nurses, Vocational Specialist, and Clinicians for ACTT Services (Assertive Community Treatment Team) • Employment Support Profes sionals and Employment Peer Mentors for Supported Employment Services • Clinicians for REC Services (Recovery Education Center) • Peer Support Specialists for PACE (Peers Assisting in Community Engagement) • Clinicians for Integrated Care • Clinicain/Team Leader for CST (Community Support Team) Please visit the employment section of our website for further information about any positions listed and apply directly by submitting an application and resume. www.meridianbhs.org

EMPLOYMENT

EMPLOYMENT

BE A PART OF THE TEAM THAT BRINGS BACK STEAM IN 2016!

Great Smoky Mountains Railroad in Bryson City is currently hiring for Retail Sales Lead & Rear Brakeman in Train Operations.

Earn train passes, retail & food discounts, passes to area attractions and more! Applications are available at the Bryson City Depot or online at: www.gsmr.com/jobs

CIRCLES OF HOPE COORDINATOR HAYWOOD COUNTY BS Degree in Human Services related field preferred. Experience working with diverse populations. Up to 30 hours per week, must be flexible. For Job Description see Mountain Projects web page. Apply online at: www.mountainprojects.org or Mountain Projects, Inc. 2251 Old Balsam Rd., Waynesville or 25 Schulman St., Sylva.

EOE/AA

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 CENTER SUPERVISOR KNEEDLER CHILD DEVELOPMENT - WCU Must have BS Degree in Early Childhood Education or related field and Administrative Level III Credentials, Basic Computer Knowledge, 2-3 yrs. Exp. in NC Day Care Regulations, 2-3 yrs.

Supervisory Exp. and Good Judgment Skills. This is an 11 month position with benefits. Applications will be taken at Mountain Projects, 2251 Old Balsam Rd., Waynesville or 25 Schulman St., Sylva or you may go to website: www.mountainprojects.org and fill out an application online Pre-Employment drug testing req EOE/AA ATTN: DRIVERS $2K Sign-On. Make Over $60,000 your first year! Cool, Comfortable Miles. 100% APU Trucks.

CDL-A Required - 877.258.8782. drive4melton.com

www.smokymountainnews.com 44

PLUTO A REDTICK COONHOUND MIX BOY ABOUT TWO YEARS OLD. HE IS VERY POLITE AND SWEET NATURED, AND EVEN KNOWS THE SIT COMMAND. HE IS USED TO BEING A COMPANION DOG, NOT A HUNTING DOG, AND IS VERY GENTLE AND FRIENDLY.

- FRONT DESK Full Time or Part Time: Maggie Valley Cabin Resort Seeks a Versatile, Energetic & Experienced Front Desk Employee. Customer Service & Computer Exp. Req. Weekends, Nights & Holidays a Must! Call 828.926.1388 MAD BATTER In Beautiful Downtown Sylva is hiring for the front & back of the house. Experience is a bonus.

Please come by Tues.-Fri. between 2-4p.m.

HAYWOOD HABITAT FOR HUMANITY

CHILD SERVICE POSITIONS AVAILABLE We are currently recruiting for the following positions in Child Services: • Clinicians for Outpatient Services • Clinicians for Day Treatment Services • Clinicians for Intensive In-Home Services • Qualified Professionals for Day Treatment Services • Qualified Professionals for Intensive In-Home Services Please visit the employment section of our website for further information about any positions listed and apply directly by submitting an application and resume. www.meridianbhs.org DRIVER TRAINEES Paid Cdl Training! Stevens Transport Will Cover All Costs! No Experience Needed! Earn $800 per week! Local CDL Training!

1.888.748.4137 or visit: drive4stevens.com EXPERIENCED AUTO MECHANIC Wanted for on-site Motor Repair.

Applicant must have Tools. Up to $12.50 per hour based on exp.

Labor Rate Bonus available for experienced person. Please call 828.631.1957

DAWN A PERFECT NAME FOR THIS KITTY BECAUSE SHE HAS THE COLORS OF A SUNRISE IN HER BEAUTIFUL COAT. WE THINK SHE IS ABOUT SIX MONTHS OLD, SO STILL A KITTEN WITH PLENTY OF PLAYFUL SPIRIT. SHE IS FRIENDLY AND LOVES TO BE PETTED.

EMPLOYMENT

HEAD START CENTER SUPERVISOR- JACKSON COUNTY Must have an AA degree in Early Childhood Education; prefer someone with a BS Early Education or related field. Must have Administration levels l & ll, good judgment/problem solving skills, experience in a classroom and the ability to work with diverse families. Prefer someone with two year supervisory experience; Part time 29 hours of less must be flexible. Applications will be taken at Mountain Projects, 2251 Old Balsam Rd, Waynesville or 25 Schulman St, Sylva, NC or www.mountainprojects.org EOE/AA

A non-profit organization located in Waynesville is seeking a Construction Manager. Experience in all areas of residential home building and rehab, capability to work with volunteers, and current General Contractor’s License required. For a full job description or to submit resume please email: hr@haywoodhabitat.org No Phone Calls Please.

HEAD START CENTER SUPERVISOR HAYWOOD COUNTY Must have an AA Degree in Early Childhood Education; prefer someone with a BS Early Education or related field. Must have Administration levels I & II, good judgment/problem solving skills, experience in a classroom and the ability to work with diverse families. Prefer someone with two year supervisory experience.

Applications will be taken at Mountain Projects, 2251 Old Balsam Rd., Waynesville or 25 Schulman St., Sylva or www.mountainprojects.org EOE/AA FTCC Fayetteville Technical Community College is now accepting applications for the following positions: Director of Financial Aid. For detailed information and to apply, please visit our employment portal: https://faytechcc.peopleadmin.com /. Human Resources Office. Phone: (910) 678.8378 Internet: http://www.faytechcc.edu.

An Equal Opportunity Employer.

HEAD START PRESCHOOL TEACHER - HAYWOOD COUNTY Must have BK or BS in related field. This position requires computer skills, ability to work with diverse populations/community partners, 2 yrs. experience in classroom, responsible for classroom/paperwork and have good judgment/problem solving skills and time management skills.

This is a 10 month position with benefits. Applications will be taken at Mountain Projects, 2251 Old Balsam Rd., Waynesville or 25 Schulman St., Sylva or www.mountainprojects.org EOE/AA

EMPLOYMENT HEAD START PRESCHOOL TEACHER - JACKSON COUNTY A BS or Birth-K Degree in Early Childhood Education is Mandatory for this Position. Also required for this position are: computer skills, responsible for classroom paperwork, good judgment/problem solving skills and time management skills. Candidate must have the ability to work with a diverse population and community partners. Two years classroom exp. is preferred. This is a 10 month position with full time benefits. Applications will be taken at Mountain Projects, 2251 Old Balsam Rd., Waynesville 28786 or 25 Schulman St., Sylva 28779 or you may go to our website: www.mountainprojects.org and fill out an application.

Pre-Employment Drug Testing EOE/AA NEED MEDICAL BILLING TRAINEES! Doctors & Hospitals need Medical Office Staff! No Experience Needed! Online Training gets you job ready! HS Diploma/GED & Computer needed. Careertechnical.edu/nc.

1.888.512.7122 NUCLEAR POWER Paid Training, great salary, benefits, $ for school. Gain valued skills. No exp needed. HS grads ages 17-34. Call Mon-Fri 800.662.7419.

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

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 LOWEST HOME MORTGAGE Rates & Fast Approvals by Phone!!!! Programs available for Good & Bad Credit. Call 910.401.3153 Today for a Free Consultation.

SOCIAL SECURITY Disability Benefits. Unable to work? Denied benefits? We Can Help! WIN or Pay Nothing! Contact Bill Gordon & Associates at 1.800.670.4805 to start your application today! SAPA STRUGGLING TO PAY THE BILLS? FDR could reduce your CC debt.

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REAL ESTATE ANNOUNCEMENT PUBLISHER’S NOTICE All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Fair Housing Act which makes it illegal to advertise “any preference, limitation or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin, or an intention, to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination” Familial status includes children under the age of 18 living with parents or legal custodians, pregnant women and people securing custody of children under 18 This newspaper will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate which is in violation of the law. All dwellings advertised on an equal opportunity basis.

NICOL ARMS APARTMENTS NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS Offering 1 & 2 Bedroom Apartments, Starting at $400 Section 8 Accepted - Handicapped Accessible Units When Available

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

REAL ESTATE ANNOUNCEMENT

NESTLED IN BLUE RIDGE Mtns of NC. 2 bed/2 bath cabin on 2.25 wooded acres, $154,900 Huge loft, stone fpl, lg deck. EZ access. 866.738.5522. Broker.

REAL ESTATE WANTED TO BUY WANTED: OLD BARN - HOUSE To Salvage Rough Cut Lumber, Flooring, Antiques, Vintage Materials, Etc. Terms Negotiable.

Licensed & Insured. Call or Text John at: 828.380.1232 ashevillepropertyservices.com

HOMES FOR SALE

ROOMMATE ROOMMATES WANTED: Coolest house in Cullowhee on the river. Looking for 2 great people to share 3/BR, 1.5/BA next to WCU. Lots to offer for $500/mo. plus electric, 3 month minimum. Prefer 2 women but will consider couple.

Available May 8th. Call or Text John at 828.269.3050.

STORAGE SPACE FOR RENT 1 Month Free with 12 Month Rental. Maggie Valley, Hwy. 19, 1106 Soco Rd. For more information call Torry

828.734.6500, 828.734.6700 maggievalleyselfstorage.com GREAT SMOKIES STORAGE Conveniently located off 19/23

by Thad Woods Auction. Available for lease now: 10’x10’ units for $55, 20’x20’ units for $160.

Get one month FREE with 12 month contract. Call 828.507.8828 or 828.506.4112 for more info.

GROUP

George Escaravage BROKER/REALTOR

147 WALNUT STREET • WAYNESVILLE

PETS

7 BEAVERDAM ROAD - SUITE 7

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CROSSWORD

KEEPING TO ONE SIDE ACROSS 1 Blazing 7 Greek vowel 12 Alternative to “mac” or “bud” 20 One offering hush money 21 Tons 22 Mayonnaise, butter or mousse 23 Thing pushed by a flight attendant [left hand] 25 Unimportant matter 26 Atop, to poets 27 Not keep in 28 Plant that’s a drug source [right hand] 30 Dog-paddles [left hand] 35 Upfront stake 36 Date steadily 37 “How Do I Live” singer Rimes 38 Full of frost 40 - chi 43 Sore 46 Mama’s man 48 One on the same squad 53 Ziploc product [left hand] 56 Fashion designer with the “3.1” label [right hand] 58 Greene of “Bonanza” 59 People hauled in 61 Dial and Zest 62 “That’s -” (“Negative”) 63 Minnelli of “Cabaret” 65 “... - gloom of night ...”

66 Double curve 67 Hand over formally 69 Typing (and the theme of this puzzle) 74 Orient

78 Charlotte of sitcoms 5 Sea, in Nice 80 Telecast 6 History topic 81 Excavates 7 Sci-fi hominid 83 “No noise!”

8 Lawful 84 Rigging poles 9 Entrée holder 87 Spike heels 10 The woman 91 Autumn bloomer 11 Re 93 University in San 12 Country in West Africa Marcos [left hand] 13 Folder’s call, in poker 95 Hit song from a Leslie 14 Dull bluish-gray color Caron film [right hand] 15 Freak (out) 97 Recorded in advance 16 Bygone U.S. gas brand 98 Light beams 17 Some speech flaws 100 English Channel swim- 18 Jeweler’s magnifier mer Gertrude 19 Not bat 101 Vote in favor 24 Ball dress 102 Fast WWW hookup 29 With 133-Across, 103 Astronomer Tycho amounts that rise with who coined the term raises “nova” 31 Non-earthling 105 Tennis unit 32 Actor Washington 108 Manage OK 33 Very wise 111 “What I think is ...”

34 Put a tear in [right hand] 39 Hostage holder, e.g.

117 Strike zone, say [left 41 Wrong hand] 42 Force (upon) 121 Boat blades 43 Insurer with a duck 122 Livy’s 1,006 icon 123 Software clients 44 Witchy woman 124 American violet [right 45 Judean king hand] 46 Hole number 129 Diverges 47 Epoch 130 Develop 48 Cravat, e.g.

131 Bassett of 49 Lofty trains “Notorious” 50 Carte lead-in 132 Thin quality 51 Gratuity 133 See 29-Down 52 Letters before ens 134 Limy cocktail 54 Bulldoze 55 Donkey’s cry DOWN 57 Bovine bunch 1 Chief monk 60 Kind of drum 2 More relaxed 64 1950s prez 3 Book, in Nice 66 Nest nugget 4 1860s prez 68 Galley goofs

70 Angling need 71 NHL team 72 Revered one 73 Not yet final, in law 75 In motion 76 Snail coverer 77 Piercing pain 79 Appraise 82 Gave a quick greeting 84 Indy sponsor 85 Part of mpg 86 Log chopper 87 - -Foy, Que. 88 Iota 89 “Love - neighbor ...”

90 “- a shame” 92 Actor Martin 94 Watch a sports event 96 Vault 99 Liston fighter 102 Poor grade 103 “77 Sunset Strip” actor Edd 104 Optimistic 105 Earring types 106 Studio prop 107 Fountain in Rome 109 Caravan layover sites 110 Iron 112 Perfectly pitched, in baseball 113 Parson’s estate 114 Motivate 115 Future seed 116 Bite gently on 118 Forbidding 119 “My People” writer Abba 120 Partially open 125 “... - mouse?”

126 Spree 127 One: Prefix 128 “Gigi” studio

answers on page 42

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Answers on Page 42

Plant defenses are not-so-pleasant for us humans

L

George Ellison

ike poisonous serpents, some plants developed toxic properties in order to protect themselves against predators.

Besides insects, the major plant predators are herbivores: bison, deer, rabbits, mice, caterpillars, aphids and any other critters — including humans — that devour plant matter above or below ground. Other “herbivore defenses” include spines, stinging hairs that detach in a predator’s skin like a bee’s stinger, thorns and spinyedged leaves. Honey locust is perhaps the Columnist thorniest plant in our flora. Osage orange was used in the mid-West to fence out cattle before the invention of barbed wire.

In turn, numerous animals have evolved the ability to tolerate or detoxify plant defense compounds. Beavers, for instance, feed heavily on aspen bark or other plants that contain salicin, which negates the defense compounds devised by many of the other plants they eat. Insects and mammals generally prefer to feed upon leaves and shoots of plants, as they are tender, digestible and contain the least concentra-

BACK THEN tions of the defense compounds.

The Cherokees still harvest and cook a number of mushrooms each fall. But they learned early on — no doubt by trial and error — to avoid all of the species of Amanitas, a genus that does contain some choice edible species. But Amanitas are one of those critical plant-gathering categories in which an identification mistake can mean death.

The destroying angel, a strikingly beautiful Amanita mushroom, has acquired a reputation as the deadliest member of the genus, but it’s the aptly named death cap that’s responsible for the most fatalities each year. As little as half a fresh death cap can be fatal to an adult. Children ingesting that amount have a mortality rate of 50 percent.

A period of nausea and shock six to 24 hours after ingestion is followed by a fourday period of “false recover,” after which death occurs within seven to 10 days due to liver, kidney and heart failure.

We can’t discuss poisonous plants and their defenses without considering poison ivy. I used to joke about poison ivy until several years ago when I inadvertently chainsawed a huge vine growing on a black locust tree I’d cut down for firewood. I got the juice all over myself in some very sensitive places.

juice from seven blossoms of jewelweed.

The early white settlers applied a poultice of crushed jewelweed stems and leaves.

Other old-time antidotes included the use of boiled milkweed, a potentially powerful concoction comprised of buttermilk and gunHoney locust thorns. Donated photo powder, a mixture of vinegar and salt, and a mixture of soap and wood ashes.

Many still swear by jewelweed, but the best antidote, for me, is Dawn dish detergent. Something in that brand of detergent, which is also a degreaser, completely neutralizes the effects of urushiol on my skin.

I apply the detergent liberally to the irritated area and let it dry. After just a few minutes there’s almost immediate The culprit is urushiol, a sap-like oil relief. And after an hour or so the irritation found in the roots, stems, leaves, flowers is eradicated. and fruits of poison ivy that evolved as a Accordingly, a modern-day dish deterchemical defense mechanism against browsgent has become my counter defense to ing herbivores and, perhaps, insects. It’s so another defense mechanism evolved eons powerful that one part mixed with 60,000 ago by poison ivy. parts olive oil is said to still cause infection.

(George Ellison is a naturalist and writer.

The Cherokees either rubbed on the He can be reached at info@georgeellison.com.) beaten flesh of a crawfish or applied the My attitude was immediately adjusted — no more poison ivy jokes. Before that incident, I was pretty much immune, but these days even a casual encounter can bring on the itching and scratching.

May 18-24, 2016

FALL SPORTS GAMES ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING The sports that are available for State Competition in the Fall are as follows: Basketball • Bocce • Golf Roller Skating • Soccer • Tennis All of these sports are possible with volunteers!

Smoky Mountain News

Tuesday, June 7 • 6 p.m. @ Waynesville Rec Center

All people that are interested in Coaching, starting up a local sport for our Special Olympics, or assisting athletes in attending the Fall State Tournament will need to be in attendance at this meeting.

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2016 GMC CANYON

Smoky Mountain News

May 18-24, 2016

2016 GMC SIERRA SLT

819 Patton Avenue, Asheville | Sales: (828) 348-0616 | Service: (828) 348-0873 48