July 21-27, 2021 Vol. 23 Iss. 08 www.smokymountainnews.com
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Opioid settlement could result in treatment facility Page 04 Exclusive: Karl Rove talks Cawthorn, NC 11 Page 16
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CONTENTS On the Cover: After taking a year off during the COVID-19 Pandemic, Folkmoot USA, North Carolina’s Official International Festival, returns this week with a festival that focuses on American cultural diversity in music and dance. (Page 6) Dancers from El Alma de La Luna. Arts + Science Council
News Opioid settlement could result in drug treatment facility ........................................4 Maggie Valley residents concerned for safety ........................................................11 COVID-19 cases back on the rise ..............................................................................11 Jackson approves $7 million for school security ....................................................13 Hillbilly Jam returns to Maggie Valley ..........................................................................14 Karl Rove talks Trump, Cawthorn, NC 11 ................................................................16 Parents oppose Pride Month display at Macon library ........................................19 Candidates sign up for municipal elections ............................................................19
Opinion Chickens make a stand despite our efforts ..............................................................20
A&E Everclear to perform in Black Mountain ....................................................................22 Ken Follett’s tribute to Notre Dame..............................................................................29
Outdoors MountainTrue protects A.T. ash trees against invasive threat ..............................30
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Scott McLeod. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . info@smokymountainnews.com Greg Boothroyd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . greg@smokymountainnews.com Micah McClure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . micah@smokymountainnews.com Travis Bumgardner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . travis@smokymountainnews.com Jessica Murray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . jessica.m@smokymountainnews.com Susanna Shetley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . susanna.b@smokymountainnews.com Amanda Bradley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . jc-ads@smokymountainnews.com Hylah Birenbaum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . hylah@smokymountainnews.com Sophia Burleigh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . sophia.b@smokymountainnews.com Scott Collier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . classads@smokymountainnews.com Jessi Stone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . jessi@smokymountainnews.com Holly Kays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . holly@smokymountainnews.com Hannah McLeod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . hannah@smokymountainnews.com Cory Vaillancourt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . cory@smokymountainnews.com Garret K. Woodward. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . garret@smokymountainnews.com Amanda Singletary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . smnbooks@smokymountainnews.com Scott Collier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . classads@smokymountainnews.com Jeff Minick (writing), Chris Cox (writing), George Ellison (writing), Don Hendershot (writing), Susanna Shetley (writing) Boyd Allsbrook (writing)
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Healing in Haywood
The opioid epidemic has spared no corner of the United States. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention photo
Smoky Mountain News
July 21-27, 2021
Opioid settlement could result in drug treatment facility
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BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS E DITOR illions in opioid settlement money is coming to the state, to most counties and even to some municipalities. Now, elected officials like Rep. Mark Pless, R-Haywood, are looking for ways to use the windfall to undo some of the damage wrought by the deceptive marketing practices of pharmaceutical companies that fueled the nation’s opioid epidemic by burying risks associated with the powerful painkillers.
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n May 2018, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein filed a lawsuit against Purdue Pharma, alleging “deceptive and misleading statements” meant to downplay the concerns of patients and prescribers of opioid analgesics, like OxyContin. Almost three years later, a settlement has been reached that will result in preliminary payments of more than $4.5 billion across the nation. Last week, Stein told Capitol Tonight’s Tim Boyum that North Carolina could expect $100 million over the next decade, not including future settlements with other pharmaceutical supply chain participants that would push the nationwide total to $26 billion. An agreement between the state and the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners lays out not only how the
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money must be spent — there are many options, however all relate to remediation of the epidemic — but also what proportion of the settlement each of the local governments that signed onto the lawsuit will receive. The state will take 15 percent off the top, and 5 percent has been earmarked for a special incentive fund, leaving 80 percent of the settlement for distribution to counties and cities. Every Western North Carolina county is in line for some of that money; Buncombe will receive the most in the region, Mark Pless around 2.5 percent, while smaller counties like Haywood will see less than 1 percent. Only 17 municipalities signed onto the lawsuit, so they’ll all receive additional allotments. Asheville will claim another quarter-percent. The Haywood County town of Canton — the only municipality west of Asheville eligible for the additional funds — can expect another one-onehundreth of a percent. Rep. Pless, who like many of his fellow WNC legislators ran on bringing a treatment center to the area, has his sights set on the state’s pool of money. He said he’s asking for $4 million to fund a treatment center with detox capabilities in Haywood County. “I had looked all over the state for something like this, specifically looking for something that did provide detox,” Pless said.
What he eventually found was closer than he knew — just a few miles from the General Assembly, in Raleigh. ounded in 2001, Healing Transitions claims its unique, peer-based recovery services for people with substance abuse disorder “rekindle a person’s desire and ability to return to a meaningful, productive life.” The model is a replication of the Healing Place in Louisville. Healing Transitions is always open, presents no financial barriers and serves everyone — including people experiencing homelessness, the uninsured and the underserved — as many times as it takes to get them on the road to recovery. “I think there are some distinguishing features about our model,” said Chris Budnick, executive director of Healing Transitions. “One is our ability to serve a range of people, like people under the influence. We don’t say, ‘You gotta sober up before you get help.’ We call it ‘services on demand.’ That’s helpful for first responders looking for options other than jail.” There’s a men’s campus and a women’s campus that provide emergency shelter and non-medical detox services as entry points to the long-term recovery program. The only caveat is that entrants must be 18 years of age or older and a resident of Wake County, although proof of residency is less important than proof of a tie to the community. Long-term recovery begins with motivation; entrants to the program attend classes and meetings in exchange for a bed and a place to keep their things. After motivation comes commitment,
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“We don’t say, ‘You gotta sober up before you get help.’ We call it ‘services on demand.’ That’s helpful for first responders looking for options other than jail.” — Chris Budnick, executive director of Healing Transitions
n July 14, Pless organized a “field trip” of sorts for elected officials from local governments in Haywood County. If Pless is successful in acquiring funding, a facility here wouldn’t be a “franchise” of Healing Transitions, but rather, a brand-new start-up. The only government not represented was the Town of Canton, due to schedulAnthony Sutton ing conflicts, but Pless is planning another expedition in the near future. Waynesville Alderman Anthony Sutton was among the group that toured Healing Transitions. “I think it is a very good facility in that it meets the individual where they are,” said Sutton. “It’s not a low-barrier shelter in that people can do whatever they want. There is a structure to it. It requires people to take personal responsibility.” Sutton said administrators indicated that these types of facilities don’t work as well amidst bustling downtowns, and he thinks that there are a few good locations outside of municipal limits, near the hospital or down U.S. 23/74, toward the Balsam community. He also thinks municipal funding isn’t out of the question, and the cost savings to local governments — namely, in emergency services and incarceration — would balance out the cost. Haywood County Board of Commissioners Chairman Kevin Ensley wasn’t on the trip, but said he’d heard good things about the facility and wasn’t opposed to chipping in eventually on the operating costs. “I think it might be able to do something for our jail population,” Ensley said. “You either fund it there, or you fund it in the jail.”
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Once recovery program participants become alumni, they return to the campus and remain connected to resources while also encouraging others who aren’t as far along in the program by teaching classes. Governed by a board that includes local attorneys, bankers, broadcasters, businesspeople, educators and physicians, the facility’s total expenses for 2020 were just over $5 million, on revenues of $4.9 million. Of that, 53 percent comes from government sources, including the Wake County Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, Wake County government and the City of Raleigh. A further 24 percent comes from private donors, 9 percent comes from in-kind donations and almost 12 percent comes from contracting out 10 percent of beds to an area managed care organization for about $500,000 a year. In 2020, the facility served 2,200 people, provided almost 240,000 meals and more than 82,000 bed-nights, despite temporary closures and capacity restrictions due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. The average daily census in 2020 was 348 pre-COVID, and 224 post-COVID. Total operations in 2020 cost $55 per person, per night, an increase from $37 in 2019, however the overall revenue and expense figures for 2020 weren’t dramatically different from 2019. By comparison, Haywood Pathways Center served 202 people, provided almost 42,000 meals and roughly 18,000 bed-nights over that same time period. The numbers, though, are not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison. Wake County has an estimated population of more than 1.1 million people, while Haywood County counts just over 60,000. There are also some important differences between the Healing Transitions model and the Pathways model. Pathways doesn’t have the capacity to provide demand-based detox services, and Pathways is stricter with its Haywood County residency requirement. Much like Pathways, however, Pless envisions the facility as a nonprofit outside of direct government control.
“The first thing is to find the proper person to administer it,” he said. “It’s going to take somebody really special to follow the [Healing Transitions] model, so that’s the first priority. Once we find that person, then we can kind of work on where we’re going to put it.” Pless said it’s not out of the realm of possibilities to construct a new building to house the program, but the facility needs to start small with the potential to be scalable. Utilizing an existing building would expedite the timeframe in which badly needed services could begin to be delivered, and would also allow for the facility to be wellfunded before ramping up fundraising to pay for ongoing operational expenses. “We’re going to need churches to help us. We’re going to need individuals to help us. If local governments choose to help us, then that’s fine,” said Pless. “The county is going to get money from the drug settlement. The state’s going to get more money, so we’re going to try to get enough money in there to get them five or 10 years before they have to worry about fundraising, so that they can concentrate on [providing services].”
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when participants pitch in to help with the operations of the campus while engaging in peer accountability. They also take job readiness and life skills classes from Wake Technical Community College, while focusing on finding employment and housing and formulating a plan to transition back into the community at large.
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FOLKMOOT USA
Celebrating diversity of the United States
Deeksha School of Performing Arts.
BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER olkmoot USA, North Carolina’s Official International Festival, returns with Folkmoot Summerfest July 22-25. The theme of this year’s festival is focused on American cultural diversity in music and dance. “It’s all the different cultures that make up the melting pot that is America and the immigrant cultures that have come to this country to make it what it is,” said Executive Director Glenn Fields. Folkmoot returns after a year off during the Coronavirus Pandemic. During that time, leadership changed hands when Glenn Fields took over as executive director after Angie Schwab departed the organization in 2019. “We are determined to continue our mission of fostering understanding of cultural differences and celebrating the human experience through music and dance,” said Fields. Festival events will take place on Main Street in downtown Waynesville, at the Folkmoot Friendship Center, and at Lake 6 Junaluska.
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Popular groups from years past, such as El Alma De Luna, Warriors of Anikituwha and The Bailey Mountain Cloggers, will be returning for Folkmoot Summerfest 2021. There will also be a host of new artists, including Grammy-nominated Cajun Swamp-Rock Band, The Revelers, and 2018 Grammy Award-winning Tejano Band, Los Texmaniacs.
EL ALMA DE LUNA El Alma de Luna is a family dance academy. Selena Stafford and her siblings started the academy in 2007 to create a space where all people are welcome to preserve tradition and explore Latin American culture. The academy places importance on language, teaching classes in English and Spanish. “We are very happy to see that some kids who are not very familiar or don’t want to practice their Spanish, after they take our classes, they feel more confident about their culture because now they are more familiar with it and they are proud of their heritage,” said Stafford. “I have noticed so many kids
who don’t like to speak Spanish at all when they start, and then they feel so secure because this is a space where they can feel secure and where they can feel that they have an identity where their identity is celebrated.” The Charlotte based Dance Academy has over 150 students and studies, teaches and performs dances from throughout Latin America and Spain. Latin American folk dances often tell a story or represent an important part of life. When performing these dances, costumes are an important aspect of the final product. “We have costumes from these countries and people that are in the studio, usually travel back to their countries and they bring us costumes from there. So our academy is completely international. We have kids and teenagers from all Latin America and Spain,” said Stafford. Stafford and her siblings have a varied and diverse dance education, from ballet to jazz and everything in between. While in Mexico though, they developed a passion for folk dance. They have spent a lot of time learning the folk dances of Spain and coun-
tries around Latin America from the people of those nations. “We embrace this country, but we also like to celebrate our culture and celebrate our differences,” said Stafford. “These dances have a big background and a big, beautiful story to tell about the traditions and all the history of the country.”
TRINITY IRISH DANCE COMPANY English born, Chicago-raised Mark Howard founded Trinity Irish Dance Company in 1982 at the ripe age of 19. Just five years later, Howard had led the group to win the World Championships of Irish Dance. Since that time the group has morphed into one of the largest and most recognized Irish Dance programs in the world. Trinity performs traditional Irish dance but has also been pushing the boundaries into modern Irish dance. The group has done several collaborations with modern choreographers, as well as folk dance groups from
Suah African Dance Theatre.
Los Texmaniacs.
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Schedule
Trinity Irish Dance Company. Lois Greenfield photo India and Africa. Typical Irish dance is done with arms down, clinging to the side of the body and feet movements contained to directly beneath the body. Audiences can expect to see a version of Irish dance that branches out from this “buttoned up” style. According to the group’s Associate Artistic Director Mackenzie Holland, there are two theories for why Irish dancers keep their arms at their sides. One is that by keeping arms down, more people could dance in small spaces, like the common areas of a house or narrow streets. The other is that during the British occupation of Ireland dur-
SUAH AFRICAN DANCE THEATRE Suah African Dance Theatre is an African dance group based out of Greensboro, North Carolina. Wesley Williams started the group in 1993 as a student group at North Carolina Central University. Since 2012, when the group became an independent dance company, Suah has hired five part-time artists, three dancers and two musicians. The group performs traditional West African and modern African dance. Specifically dances from Mali, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Senegal and The Gambia. Most of the
DEEKSHA SCHOOL OF PERFORMING ARTS Anupa Thakurta moved from India to the United States in the early 2000’s to continue her passion for dance and art. Thakurta had been a trained Bharatanatyam dancer since childhood. Upon moving to the United States, she opened the Deeksha School of Performing Arts to pursue and propagate the artform into the mainstream Atlanta community, and pass it on to the next generation. “While we perform the Indian classical dance form of Bharatanatyam, we celebrate the universality of dance — and draw inspiration from all cultures,” said Thakurta. “When
THE BAILEY MOUNTAIN CLOGGERS
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ing the 18th Century, Irish dancing was banned, and dancers would keep their arms down so that British soldiers, passing by the window of a house or pub, wouldn’t be able to tell the occupants were dancing. “It’s very entertaining,” said Holland. “A lot of people are impressed by the precision and the variety of steps they see and how much work goes into that.”
we dance, we may be portraying a particular theme or notion from the Indian culture, but our celebration is towards human life and emotions.” Deeksha performs the Indian classical dance form of Bharatanatyam, which is one of the oldest and the most popular dance forms in India. Bharatanatyam has been nurtured in the temples and courts of southern India since ancient times. The art form is believed to be over 2,000 years old, codified and documented as a performing art in the 19th Century. The art was handed down as a living tradition from generation to generation under which women were dedicated to temples to serve the deity as dancers and musicians forming part of the elaborate rituals. “Due to its wide range of movements and postures and the balanced mélange of the rhythmic and mimetic aspects, the dance form, while inherently ancient, lends itself well to experimental and fusion choreography,” said Thakurta. One of the dances the group will present at Folkmoot is called “Shambho Natanam.” Shambho is the other name for Lord Shiva, who is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hinduism. According to Hindu scriptures, Shiva is the “supreme lord who creates, protects and transforms the universe.” He is also known as the “lord of the dance” or “Nataraja.” “When he dances, he expresses the rhythmic movement of the world with the ‘hand drum’ in one hand and ‘fire’ in the other. Nothing is more representative of the Hindu culture than Lord Shiva and this dance piece is an ode to him, his supremeness and the belief that with the dance, his devotees can achieve salvation,” said Thakurta.
July 21-27, 2021
• Thursday, July 22: Opening night will take place at the Folkmoot Friendship Center in Waynesville. The festival will begin with food and drinks in the cafeteria, with musical entertainment provided by Los Texmaniacs. Then, from 7 to 9 p.m. in the auditorium, guests will get a sneak peak of some of the groups performing throughout the weekend. The night will end with a performance by The Revelers. • Friday, July 23: On Friday night there will be a performance at the Nanci Weldon Open Air Gym at Lake Junaluska. Families are invited to set up blankets or chairs in the lawn where kids can play. It will be free for children 12 and under to attend. There will also be food trucks on site. The event will run from 6 to 10 p.m. • Saturday, July 24: Saturday will see the return of International Day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Main Street in Waynesville. Both Haywood Community College (Clyde) and John C. Campbell Folk School (Brasstown) will be at the festival doing demonstrations of different arts and crafts they teach. There will be three stages on which different dance and musical groups will be performing throughout the day. • From 4:30 to 6 p.m. on Saturday there will be a stickball demonstration at Lake Junaluska by one of the Cherokee stickball teams, where attendants can watch and learn about the sport. • Saturday evening, beginning at 6 p.m. there will be live music and international foods. Dance performances will begin at 7 p.m. • Sunday, July 25: Stuart Auditorium will once again be home to the closing ceremony performance from 2 to 5 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. Due to the ample seating available, social distancing will be possible. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.folkmoot.org.
dances in the group’s repertoire are celebratory dances of the Malenka people, a population that lives across West Africa. Williams has been studying these dances from artists and villages across West Africa for almost 20 years. There are two important types of African dance, performance style dance which is considered ballet, or city dancing, and village style dancing, which is used as communal expression in everyday life and is not intended for performance. “Village style dancing and ballet dancing are very, very different,” said Williams. “One is for the stage and one is for the community.” Village style dancing is used in situations such as prayer, weddings or baby-naming ceremonies, during which there is specific dance and music for each occasion. Such dances can become disrespectful or offensive if performed for an audience. Ballet style dance, while it may use movements originating from a village dance, is intended for entertainment. Suah African Dance Theatre studies the intricacies of both styles. The word Suah, the name of the dance group, comes from the Tio tribe in Liberia. It is reserved for individuals who are creative, people who have innovative ideas in art, science or culture. Williams and his son created a dance to go along with the word Suah, as there is no traditional West African dance to accompany the word. “The dance itself is designed to motivate and to push those who are gifted and advancing new ideas,” said Williams.
In 1974, students at Mars Hill University organized the Bailey Mountain Cloggers. Since that time the group has performed throughout the United States and Internationally. The Bailey Mountain Cloggers are one of the few college-based per-
S EE FOLKMOOT, PAGE 8 7
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FOLKMOOT, CONTINUED FROM 7 forming clog teams in the nation. They have received performance art grants and created college credit courses and serve as ambassadors of goodwill for Mars Hill University and the folk-dance traditions of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. During the 1950s there was another championship dance team at Mars Hill College called the Bailey Mountain Square Dance Team. Young adults from both the college and the town made up the team that toured the Southwest with founder Bascom Lamar Lunsford. By the late ‘50s, precision clogging had entered the Mountain Dance & Folk Festival in Asheville with James Kesterson and the Blue Ridge Mountain Dancers. Until then, only Smooth Big Circle Dance, called Mountain “Square” Dance, and freestyle clog dancing were part of the folk festival. During the 1980s Bailey Mountain Cloggers began competition clogging and expanded its repertoire to include Big Circle Smooth, Freestyle, Country Hoedown, Kentucky Running Set, Line Dance, Show, and Percussive dance routines in addition to the original precision clog routines.
Warriors of Anikituhwa. Bailey Mountain Cloggers.
Nathan Bugh.
Smoky Mountain News
July 21-27, 2021
LOS TEXMANIACS Los Texmaniacs is a conjunto band founded by Max Baca in 1997, in an effort to create a sound that espoused the traditions of the Tejano music he grew up with, combined with the elements of blues, rock, country and jazz. Tejano literally translates to “Texan,” and is a popular musical style that arose from centuries of cultural fusing of Mexican and United States influences, both indigenous to Texas. A conjunto band is a group or ensemble that includes elements from MexicanSpanish vocal traditions, Czech and German button accordion, dance tunes and rhythms that migrants brought to Texas during the 19th Century. Mexican migrants and farm workers who came to the United States over the last century have made conjunto music a central part of social gatherings and a valuable force of social unity. The genre combines the storytelling and vocals of Mexico with the distinct Texas rhythm and music. In 2010, Los Texmaniacs won a Grammy Award for Tejano Album of The Year, “Borders y Bailes.” Their most recent album, “Cruzando Borders” was prompted by negative public rhetoric about the U.S.-Mexican border and Mexican culture, and inspired by the transcendent brotherhood and exquisite beauty of the border life they have experienced.
THE REVELERS
The Revelers, founded in 2010, play all styles of Cajun, zydeco, Swamp Pop and Americana music. Folkmoot USA Executive Director Glenn Fields is drummer for this Southern Louisiana band. Zydeco originally evolved from Cajun, an old-world style of music brought over from Europe more than 200 years ago. Cajun is composed of syncopated, a cappella religious 8 songs, containing mostly French lyrics, and
was molded by a wide range of Southern musical influences. The word Zydeco comes from the FrenchCreole colloquial expression for poverty “les haricots sont pas salés,” or “the snap beans are not salty.” This fusion of musical styles came to be popularly recognized as zydeco during the early 1960s.
The Revelers. With no leader, everyone in The Revelers sings and writes music. The Revelers have toured the U.S., Canada, the UK, Ireland, Denmark and are a festival mainstay in the South and are in-demand in the music education scene about cultural components that make up traditional music of southern Louisiana.
CHEROKEE There will be several groups representing the Cherokee at this year’s Folkmoot Summerfest, Warriors of Anikituhwa, Hoop Dancing by Eddie Swimmer, storytelling with
Jarrett Wildcatt and Big Cove Stickball Team “Kolanvyi.” “A big part of this year’s event includes involving the Eastern Band of Cherokee,” said Fields. The Warriors of Anikituhwa began in 2003 when Tribal Councilwoman Marie Junaluska wanted to offer a welcoming ceremony and dance for visiting tribes and dignitaries. The group gives new life to Cherokee dance by recreating the War Dance and Eagle Tail Dance, as they were described in 1762. Hoop Dancing, another type of Cherokee dance, performed by solo dancers, will also be showcased at the festival. Big Cove Stickball Team “Kolanvyi,” is a group of Cherokee men and boys practicing the traditional, contact game. Knowledge of the game has been passed down from generation to generation of Cherokee people. “On behalf of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians I want to extend the hospitality of our tribe. I think our homelands are the most beautiful in the world. Our people have long shared our culture with visitors to the region and hosting Folkmoot is an honor. We welcome the performers and look forward to providing our community with the opportunity to experience their talents,” said Vice Chief Alan B Ensley.
LINDY HOP Lindy Hop was created by African American dancers in Harlem in the late 1920s. It is the culmination of several forms
of early 20th Century American dance and has components of many folk-dance traditions including Scottish Step Dancing, Gioube Juba Dance, English Clog Dancing and Irish Jigs. Lindy Hop is an incredibly energetic and entertaining jazz style dance. Performing the Lindy Hop at Folkmoot Summerfest will be Giselle Anguizola and Nathan Bugh, a duo who have each made their impact in American Dance, both in their hometowns and nationally. Giselle Anguizola has been a pioneer and a unique voice in the Lindy community for over a decade. She has appeared at New Orleans Jazz Fest with Miss Sophie Lee and was featured on the television show, “After The Catch.” Giselle is also the founder of Girl Jam, the first dance festival devoted to honoring women in jazz music and dance. She spends her weekends performing on the streets of New Orleans, captivating passersby with her distinctive, rhythmic style. Nathan Bugh is known worldwide for his intimately rhythmic style of Lindy Hop and vernacular jazz. He “rocked the stage” at Carnegie Hall, dancing Lindy Hop with the New York Pops Orchestra and has performed in Harlem’s famous Apollo Theater in Swingin’ Frankie’s Way. As a national jazz-dance competitor, Nathan has taken 1st place in Lindy, Slow Dancing, Solo Charleston, Team, Jill&Jack, and Cabaret divisions. He is one of the most eminent solo-jazz contestants in the world, having won both the Ultimate Lindy Hop Showdown (2012) and International Lindy Hop Championships (2014).
Land approved for Tuscola Farm
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The Haywood County School Board has unanimously approved over 10 acres of land, adjoining Tuscola Road for use as a working farm. The school system recently purchased the parcel in hopes to use it as a working farm for Tuscola students, as well as other students around Haywood County. The board thanked Sherman Holt, agriculture mechanics/horticulture teacher at Tuscola High School, as well as Elizabeth Ross, future alumni president for Future Farmers of America, and Heather Blackmon, Tuscola principal. “Ms. Blackmon gave a very good overview of the program that they have,” said board member Bobby Rogers. “This working farm at Tuscola, when completely realized, will be one of the largest working farms in the state of North Carolina.”
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Haywood County Health officials urge people to avoid contact with potentially harmful algal blooms that have shown up in Waterville Lake recently due to North Carolina’s hot and dry weather. N.C. Department of Environmental Quality-Division of Water Resources personnel notified Haywood County Health & Human Services Agency about an algal bloom on July 11. Predominant bloom species has been identified as Microcystis, which belongs to the algal group cyanobacteria (also known as blue-green algae). The bloom was observed in the Laurel Branch and White Oak Creek tributaries. Field samples showed levels of toxins to be 440 parts per billion. While it is safe to boat or fish in the affected areas, health officials routinely encourage the public to avoid contact with large accumulations of the algae and to take precautions to prevent children and pets from swimming or ingesting water in the algal bloom. For further information call: Garron Bradish, Environmental Health Supervisor, at 828.356.2111.
July 21-27, 2021
Sylva joins over 50 cities as part of March for Medicare for All in a national day of action to demand Congress pass improved and expanded Medicare For All. March for Medicare for All — a volunteerled, grassroots movement — encourages people from across the country to stand in solidarity and to continue to apply pressure on all fronts. The Sylva event will take place at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 24, at 76 Railroad Avenue, at the Bridge Park, in downtown. Able and willing attendees will march at noon through downtown Sylva, regroup at Bridge Park to hear and share healthcare stories, network, and plan future action.
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Maggie Valley residents concerned for safety
Haywood reports two nursing home outbreaks BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER ew coronavirus cases were down to nearly nothing in Western North Carolina by the close of June, but in the past three weeks seven-day totals have multiplied in the four-county area. Cases are also climbing fast statewide. While three weeks ago the daily new case tally was hovering around 300, now the seven-day rolling average sits around 1,000. Hospitalization numbers are rising too, with 612 COVID-19 patients hospitalized statewide as of July 18, up from a low of 373 July 3. The 17-county mountain area had 33 COVID-19 hospitalizations as of July 18. However, deaths have thus far remained low, with daily statewide counts remaining in the single digits for the past month. Anna Lippard, Jackson County’s deputy director of public health, said the local increase could be attributed to virus spread during the Fourth of July holiday weekend
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“I am a single mom, and I have two, very young boys who love their neighborhood and the dynamics of the neighborhood have changed drastically.” — Joanie Hancock
Main Street. In April, the resource center was cited for zoning violations. Bates would not confirm or deny the allegation that the encampment had simply relocated to the property adjoining Bethel Village. Another resident told the board of aldermen that although residents of Bethel Village development were speaking up now, the issues had started over two months ago. According to Town Manager Nathan Clark, the town was aware of the situation in
Bethel Village by the end of June when they began receiving complaints. Chief of Police Russ Gilliland said that prior to the July 13 meeting, Maggie Valley Police had responded to incidents of suspicious people, as well as one case of property damage that led to the arrest of Michael Irons. Gilliland also confirmed that there were several tents, as well as a portable toilet on the property. “We increased our patrol in the area, we’ve got direct lines with people living down there they can call us, get with us. You either call 9-11 at any time, or if they wanted to call me directly, they can. I give them my number, my cell number to give me a call, if it’s a non-emergency type thing,” Gilliland said. “We have done some profiles on the people that we know have been coming in and out just to get an idea of, you know, sort of what we’re dealing with.” The next step, according to Clark, is for the town to decide if this is an allowable use of land, based upon the town’s current zoning ordinance. “I think it’s kind of a strange thing to allow people to set up on your property,” said Clark. “Those are the issues that we’re kind of looking at. It’s just something that we know we don’t really have a lot of experience in. And the zoning ordinance is just not necessarily, as far as I can tell at least, explicit on how to handle that. So the town attorney and the legal team will help guide us through those more complex issues.”
Vaccination by the numbers June 28 July 19 Percent partially New cases Percent partially New cases vaccinated (last 7 days) vaccinated (last 7 days) Haywood .....................46 ..........................2...............................47 ..........................46 Jackson.......................39 ..........................0...............................39 ..........................22 Swain .........................32 ..........................3...............................32 ..........................2 Macon.........................47 ..........................3...............................48 ..........................12 Four-county area ........47.8 .......................8...............................48.7 .......................82
* Data from NCDHHS COVID-19 Dashboard. Four-county area vaccination figures include vaccines distributed by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, which are not recorded in the state system. Emergency Services Public Information Officer Allison Richmond. However, overall “their symptoms are mild in comparison to what we have seen in the past.” “These events bring to light that COVID is still prevalent in our community,” said Haywood County Public Health Director Sarah Henderson. “COVID-19 is not gone and this is not over. We continue to see an uptick in positive cases as people gather together in large groups and remain unvaccinated.” While it is possible for vaccinated people to test positive for COVID-19 or to become seriously ill with the virus, vaccination offers effective protection against adverse outcomes. In a July 8 press release, the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services
reported that since May, more than 99% of new COVID-19 cases in North Carolina occurred in people who were not fully vaccinated. Current vaccinations appear to be effective against the Delta variant as well. However, vaccination has slowed to a crawl since reaching its peak this spring. In the three weeks between Feb. 22 and March 15, the share of partially vaccinated people in the fourcounty area of Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain grew by 6%. Meanwhile, the three-week period ending June 20 saw the partially vaccinated population grow by less than 1%. Statewide, 49% of the total population and 57% of the population age 12 or older is vaccinated with at least one dose. However, 86% of people 65 and older — the most vulnerable age group — have received the shot. 11
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COVID cases surge
and also acknowledged the probable impact of the Delta variant. None of the public health officials contacted for this story said the Delta variant had been confirmed present in WNC. However, few samples are specifically tested for the variant. According to the Centers for Disease Control, it is now the dominant strain in the United States. “It’s safe to say Delta is here,” said Lippard. Haywood County logged 46 new cases over the seven-day period ending July 20, up from 13 the week before. The spike is driven by three new outbreaks and clusters the county reported last week. On July 16, Haywood County reported a cluster at Camp Daniel Boone, in which three out-of-state campers tested positive; an outbreak at Haywood Nursing & Rehabilitation in which two staff members tested positive; and, most significantly, an outbreak at Haywood Lodge & Retirement Center’s Spicewood Cottages in which eight residents and three staff members tested positive. In a statement, the facility said it was notified July 11 that a visiting family member had tested positive for COVID-19. All residents and staff are vaccinated, but nevertheless testing began the next morning. “Much to our surprise and disappointment several tested positive. Most of which were asymptomatic,” read the statement. A few of the vaccinated individuals at Haywood Lodge did require hospitalization to fight the virus, said Haywood County
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“I have had experience with the person that owns the property, it has not been great,” said Patsy Wells in public comment. Wells stated that the encampment of people now living at the end of the Bethel Village development had relocated there from the Bethel Resource Center on South
July 21-27, 2021
have two, very young boys who love their neighborhood and the dynamics of the neighborhood have changed drastically.” Mayor Mike Eveland told the women that he had been made aware of the situation and that there were two avenues to address the situation. “One of course is the police department and what legally is being done there in terms of trespassing, those kinds of things. That’ll be something that the police department will handle, and I’m sure that over the next X amount of days, that you will probably be seeing some presence, maybe some police coming by to talk to you, all that kind of thing, just to make sure that we understand what’s happening there,” said Eveland. “There is a second thing that we already have in the works, that’s the ramifications and stuff like that with the property and the person that owns the property, what their rights are. So we are aware of this and y’all are coming to the right place to talk. We’re going to be there with you and we’re going to do what we can do to help.” The land that is home to the encampment is owned by Camp Bethel, the same nonprofit that helped create the affordable housing development. The nonprofit is still run by Richard Bates. Bates declined to comment on the situation or respond to the comments made by the women who live in Bethel Village.
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BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER ast week’s Maggie Valley Board of Aldermen meeting was riddled with complaints from residents of a development on Jonathan Creek Road about an alleged encampment of people in the neighborhood. Several women took to the podium during the public comment section of the meeting to raise concerns about their safety within the Bethel Village neighborhood, as well as the safety of those taking up camp. The first woman to speak from the group, Lindsey Ebaugh, complained of property damage, trespassing, increased traffic in and out of the neighborhood and men walking up and down the road day and night. Bethel Village is within the town limits of Maggie Valley. While Richard Bates’ nonprofit Camp Bethel started the development in 2012, it was later taken over by Mountain Projects’ Smoky Mountain Housing Partnership. The small, affordable homes were built with volunteer labor and donated projects to keep costs down for residents. “I have had trespassing on my property. I have addressed these individuals. I’ve also made phone calls to the individual who owns the land with no response, that’s been three or four times,” said Joanie Hancock during public comment. “The scary part about it for me is I am a single mom, and I
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bomb threats came down to children that were hurting,” said Buchanan. What followed was one of Buchanan’s “proudest moments” as a school administrator — when high school students from across the district invited school and community leaders to an event they organized to discuss the issue. The students had two main requests: more mental health support in the schools, and improved physical security in the buildings. Months later, commissioners approved an election-year tax increase that allowed them to hire six school counselors, four school resource officers and one juvenile detective. Addressing the physical security issue proved more complicated. In 2018, commissioners appropriated $400,000 for additional security cameras and monitors, as well as $27,000 for single-point-of-entry architectural designs. In October 2019, Buchanan told commissioners that he expected the project to go out to bid that December, with construction starting in January 2020 and wrapping in mid-2021. However, delays in bidding the project and an intervening pandemic pushed the timeline back. The N.C. Department of Public Instruction had to sign off on the plans before they could go out to bid, and planning also involved heavy collaboration with local emergency management, law enforcement and fire personnel. And on top of all those discussions, the final plan had to meet state building codes. The entire process took about 18 months. “Nobody had ever done this before,” said Buchanan. “Most of the codes for schools have to do with fire. So that’s why the majority of these are a wall project, because we still have to meet fire code to get kids out of the building and far enough away from the building, but we have to keep them in a safe location inside the wall. And so it took a lot of hand-holding and a lot of trips down to Raleigh.” After discussing the bid results, commissioners went into closed session to go over the particulars of the project, as is allowed under an open meetings exception pertaining to school safety planning. Back in open session, County Manager Don Adams delivered what he described as “extremely good news” about funding. Sales tax receipts are strong in Jackson County, and sales tax funds mandated to fund school projects currently contain $4.8 million. By fiscal year 2022 they’re expected to hold $7.3 million, reaching $10.1 million by 2023. The project will run over multiple fiscal years, so the money is there to fund it. “It would obviously take up all of our capital capacity in regards to regular construction items,” said Adams.
July 21-27, 2021
BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER ackson County will spend $7 million to convert four public school campuses to a single-point-of-entry system after commissioners voted unanimously July 20 to fund the project from sales tax proceeds. The price named in the winning bid is nearly three times higher than the $2.5 million estimated in a 2018 report from architect John Cort, but it’s the lowest bid the school system received for the job. Scotts Creek Elementary School, Cullowhee Valley Elementary School, Jackson Community School and Jackson County Early College have already been converted to single-point-of entry facilities. Those schools required only minor work to secure, and the school system completed the jobs prior to the pandemic using its own funds and contractors. However, the four other campuses — Smoky Mountain High School, Fairview Elementary School, Smokey Mountain Elementary School and Blue Ridge School/Blue Ridge Early College — pose a greater challenge. “The trend in the ‘60s and ‘70s and ‘80s was actually to have kids going outside between classes,” said Assistant Superintendent Jake Buchanan during a July 13 commissioners’ work session, addressing the era when those schools were built. “The idea was when we go from this building to that building, let’s get some fresh air. Which makes for a nightmare when you’re trying to secure it.” Jackson schools bid each school as a separate project, hoping to attract more bids. However, only two companies entered any bids at all. Whittier-based Buchanan and Sons Inc. bid on all four, with a second company bidding on two of the four projects. Buchanan was the low bidder on all counts. Of the four projects, SMHS is by far the most expensive with a price tag of $2.55 million. Fairview is bid at $1.87 million, Blue Ridge at $1.75 million and SMES at $850,000. Those costs include a total of $97,300 for planters in the walls to be constructed at SMES and Fairview. The planters would be installed in locations where kids normally sit. “We were adamant from the very beginning, these are schools. They are not prisons,” said Buchanan. “We want them to feel like forts, but we don’t want them to feel like prisons.” Jackson County has been discussing — and spending money on — school security upgrades ever since the Valentine’s Day 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead. In the two months after the shooting, Jackson Schools dealt with seven bomb threats, and “all of those
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Rock on: Hillbilly Jam returns to Maggie Valley
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BY CORY VAILLANCOURT STAFF WRITER If you think it’s hard to sum up what, exactly, Hillbilly Jam is, you’re not alone. “Hillbilly Jam is a place where you can come, everybody meets everybody, and when they leave, we’re all family,” said Becky Ramey, the driving force behind the popular annual event. “We have a car and a bike show, we have the Hatfields and the McCoys in a tug-of-war, we have 14 bands, we have vendors, we have food, and we have a ball.” More than just a festival, Hillbilly Jam takes over Maggie Valley twice a year — once in summer, and once in winter — and represents a celebration of “hillbilly” culture. On the two main festival days, the Wade L. Reece Memorial Stage will be packed morning, noon and night with performers like local favorites Mile High Band, up-and-comer Tricia Ann Pearl and WarnerChappell Music Nashville recording artist (and Weaverville native) Joe Lasher Jr. But no self-respecting hillbilly celebration would be complete without acknowledging the ancient art of moonshining, and the contributions that illicit white corn liquor has made to the cultural identity of Maggie Valley and Western North Carolina. Well-known television moonshiners Roy Grooms, Mark and Digger, Chico, Mark Rogers, Garmer and Butch are all scheduled to appear. Indeed, the festival has its roots in the name of one of the world’s most iconic shiners, Maggie Valley native Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton. Hillbilly Jam was originally known as the Popcorn Sutton Jam, until a falling out with the late Sutton’s family forced Ramey to find a different name. She settled on Hillbilly Woodstock, which quickly earned the festival a letter from a New York law firm representing the owners of the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival, who claimed trademark infringement. Finally settling in on the name “Hillbilly Jam,” the festival has retained its outlaw character throughout those early speedbumps, and draws attendees who rush to fill Maggie Valley’s restaurants, hotel rooms, gift shops, taverns and cash registers, year after year. Terry Frady, Ramey’s partner and partner in crime, said he’s met people from across the country at Hillbilly Jam. “People from 23 states come to Maggie Valley for the summer Jam,” Frady said. “We marked the board last year, and we had people from Oklahoma, California, Texas. We’re bringing all those people into Maggie Valley.” Before the party starts, Jammers will meet at the relatively new Valley Tavern, located inside the Smoky Falls Lodge, on Thursday at 2 p.m. and receive a police escort to the Maggie Valley Nursing and Rehabilitation home. There, they’ll lift the spirits of residents with hot cars and cool gifts, like books and candy.
Hillbilly Jam 2021 schedule of events The 12th annual Hillbilly Jam will take place in and around Maggie Valley from Thursday, July 22, through Sunday, July 25. Featuring live music, comedy, crafts, television moonshiners and a car and bike show, the festival runs from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. (or so) on Friday and Saturday. Tickets are $10 per day. Children ages 10 and under are free. For more information, visit www.thehillbillyjam.com.
Thursday, July 22 – Valley Tavern, 1550 Soco Rd., Maggie Valley • 6 p.m. pre-party featuring Ricky Gunter Band. No cover. Friday, July 23 – Maggie Valley Festival Grounds, 3374 Soco Rd., Maggie Valley • 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 8th annual Hillbilly Show & Shine car and bike show • 2:30 to 4 p.m. Wayne Buckner & the Shooting Creek Band • 4:15 to 5:45 p.m. Mile High Band • 6 to 7:30 Ricky Gunter Band • 7:45 to 9:15 Ryan Perry Band • 9:30 to 11 p.m. Crocodile Smile Saturday, July 24 – Maggie Valley Festival Grounds, 3374 Soco Rd., Maggie Valley • 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. 8th annual Hillbilly Show & Shine car show • 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Jon Cox Band • 12:45 to 2:15 p.m. Ali Randolph • 2:30 to 4 p.m. Tricia Ann & the Wolfpack • 4 to 6 p.m. Hatfields vs. McCoys tug-ofwar, car and bike show awards • 6 to 7:30 p.m. Kaitlyn Baker • 7:45 to 9:15 p.m. Dirty Grass Soul • 9:30 p.m. Joe Lasher Jr. Sunday, July 25 • 10 a.m. Old-time Gospel singing. No cover. This year’s jam kicks off at 6 p.m. on Thursday with a free pre-party at the Valley Tavern, featuring a performance by Ricky Gunter Band. From there, the merriment moves to the spacious Maggie Valley Festival Grounds for two more days of revelry and winds up on Sunday as any celebration of hillbilly culture should — with old-time Gospel singing on Sunday morning. A scaled-down indoor version of the summer Jam, still based mostly around live music, will take place from Feb. 23-26, 2022. “The reason we started that one is that Terry and I, we’re so busy during the summer Jam that we wanted to be able to meet all the people that come and be able to enjoy them,” Ramey said. “We just can’t do that at the summer Jam.”
news July 21-27, 2021
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The Haywood Chamber of Commerce is currently accepting applications for the 2021 class of Leadership Haywood. This 9-month program takes an intensive look into the social, economic, and political dynamics and their impact on our community. This leadership development program is geared towards equipping both rising and experienced leaders with tools, information, and training to be successful. Participants are selected through an application process based upon their civic involvement, leadership potential/experience, and commitment to the leadership program and community.
Start Date: Sept. 15
Application Deadline: Sept. 1
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July 21-27, 2021
Contact CeCe Hipps, President, if you have questions or would like more information about the program. Chipps@HaywoodChamber.com or 828.456.3021 ext. 1004
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Karl Rove talks Trump, Cawthorn, NC11 BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS E DITOR nown mostly to the current generation as a political pundit and frequent television/radio/newspaper commentator, Karl Rove has roots in Republican advocacy that predate the Nixon administration. Rove is probably best recognized for his close association with the Bush family dynasty, which more or less began when George H.W. Bush appointed Rove as chairman of the College Republicans in 1973. Rove went on to advise George W. Bush during an unsuccessful congressional bid in 1978, and proceeded to work on H.W.’s failed 1980 presidential bid. That relationship ultimately culminated with Rove accepting an offer to serve as a senior adviser to President George W. Bush. Since then, he’s worked on behalf of conservative candidates across the nation, earning a reputation as an astute strategist. His company, Karl Rove & Co., is based in Austin. A few weeks ago, Rove spoke via Zoom to around 200 Republicans gathered for the NC11 executive committee meeting in Hendersonville, including Rep. Madison Cawthorn. Earlier this week, Rove took some time to talk with The Smoky Mountain News about the issues, personalities and particulars of the upcoming 2022 election.
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The Smoky Mountain News: You’ve had a long career as a Republican strategist, and during that time there’s been a tone shift in the Republican Party to more populist ideals. How long do you think that will last? Karl Rove: We’ll see. Populism tends to transmute itself into something else and fade away. The populist strains fade away. I suspect that’ll be here, but the question is what kind of policies are going to be left behind if it does? What’s interesting to me is the populism of the last administration has resulted in language supported by both major political parties regarding China. There’s a much different attitude towards China, at least from public policy perspective today than there was, say 10 years ago. I think in part that’s because the populist expression inside the Republican Party was the rise of Donald Trump. But I think it’s also sort of a reaction of people in both parties to the rhetoric and actions of Xi [Jinping, president of China] and 2012 represents a real hinge point in China. It was going one direction before, and it’s gone in a distinctly different direction since the rise of Xi as first the vice president and now the head of the Communist Party. SMN: We’re starting to get into the 2022 election season. We’ve already seen almost 30 states tighten up laws regarding voting. Do you think it’s the responsibility of the government to make voting easier?
KR: I’d take a little bit of a disagreement with you that they tightened them up. For example, here in Texas, HB 3, the bill that’s before the House of Representatives, expands the number of hours that are available for early voting in Texas on weekdays and expands the number of hours dramatically on weekends. Used to be, the rules for weekend early voting applied to counties with 100,000 population. Now they apply as to counties with 55,000 or more population, and they also expanded the number of hours that are available in those counties. The measures that the Democrats call voter suppression are reaffirmations of existing state law. SMN: We can probably disagree on the semantics of whether the laws are tightening things up or making things more difficult or not but I think we can agree that this is an issue that Democrats are going to push in 2022. What’s the single largest issue for Republicans outside of the voting debate for 2022? KR: My hope is that the voting debate is not a big part of the 2022 election. If it is, it’ll be to the advantage of the Republicans because Democrats oppose things, like voter ID, which are universally supported. The Republicans do need to be able to say, “We want to make it easier to vote and tougher to steal.” That that ought to be their slogan. The big issues are going to be the economy, they’re going to be inflation, they’re going to be the growth of government and they’re going to be taxes. I suspect also there’s going to be a big component of international in there, whether it is the fall of Afghanistan or the threats represented by China or the circumstances in the Middle East. And then healthcare is going to be an issue. It always tends to be, in recent elections, and my sense is immigration is continuing to be an issue. This problem, along the border — I live in Texas. I’m pro-immigration. I believe that immigrants come to the United States and make our country better, but what I see in the uncontrolled migration on the border is a real problem and it’s not going to go away. SMN: Speaking of Texas, were you at CPAC in Dallas the other week? KR: No, there was a couple hundred people there. I had better things to do that weekend. Like take my wife to Italy. SMN: That is a better thing to do than visit Dallas in July. But at CPAC there was an informal straw poll gauging support for President Trump that put support for him at 70 percent of Republicans. My work in this district suggests that number could be much higher. What’s your take on that? KR: There were like, several hundred people at Dallas. We
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Karl Rove. Andy Bailey illustration
— Karl Rove
SMN: Full disclosure, Trump did say some pretty nasty things about you in a March 4 Reuters story. When he spoke at the NC GOP convention in June, we thought we were going to see the beginning of the Trump dynasty with Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara maybe jumping into that primary for Sen. Richard Burr’s seat. We didn’t see that. What we saw instead was a Trump endorsement of Congressman Ted Budd. How much do you think that helps Budd? KR: Certainly it helps him, but you know, you can’t win on an endorsement alone. It’s an advantage. Let’s see if he takes advantage of it and turns it into something. The fundraising numbers were not particularly good. He got the endorsement and then his fundraising I think was $1 million or thereabouts, including a loan. And then of course, Mark Walker was at $156,000 and the former governor [Pat McCrory] was
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had several thousands of people at CPAC in Florida in February and 97 percent of the attendees approved of the president, 60 some-odd percent expected him to run in 2024 and 55 percent would support him. That’s not exactly where I’d want to be among CPAC attendees if I were the former president. But look, we’ve got a lot of time and I think it is better for our party to stay focused first and foremost on 2022 and then a distant second, I think it is useful if people want to offer themselves as a potential candidate in 2024. I think that’s healthy for our party for two reasons. One is, I want those people out there working to help us frame a great message for 2022. And second of all, I want to see what they got. So I think it’s a mistake for us to put all of our eggs in one basket regarding 2024. Let’s let a lot of people go out and show us their stuff.
SMN: Winding up on that same note, I’m going to make some bold claims here, and I’d like to hear your thoughts. Because North Carolina is the most purple state, and because NC11 does produce that huge surplus of Republican votes, I’m going to go ahead and argue that NC11 is the most electorally important Congressional District in the most electorally important state in the union. KR: Well, I agree with you that North Carolina is a deeply purple state. They are like four districts or five districts in the state — Rep. Patrick McHenry has got one of ‘em — that turn out bigger margins. I don’t want to pick out just one district because you know, it really does boil down to everybody in North Carolina has got to do better next time around, particularly those four or five districts. But yeah, North Carolina is a purple, purple state, and the Republicans in order to be winners in 2022 statewide need to recognize that, and in order to make the state more secure long-term they need to recognize that as well. That’s why my advice to your congressman was, “Don’t get too far over into campaigning nationwide. Don’t neglect the people back home.” Sophomore victories are really important to cementing a district, and he can play a huge role. The bigger he runs up his numbers in the 11th, the better the chances are the Republicans win the senate race and keep the state legislature.
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“In order to win North Carolina next year, the grassroots army of the 11th Congressional District is going to have to put everything they can into registering, identifying, persuading and getting out the vote.”
SMN: And that’s a great point. You may know that our congressman, Madison Cawthorn, was not the Trump-endorsed candidate. Now, Madison Cawthorn has grown to become very closely tied to President Trump. You recently spoke at a North Carolina 11th Congressional District executive committee meeting. What did you tell the people that watched you there? KR: I talked about how the 11th District has a big responsibility. The president I think had a margin of about 58,000 votes coming out on the 11th last fall. In order to win North Carolina next year, the grassroots army of the 11th Congressional District is going to have to put everything they can into registering, identifying, persuading and getting out the vote. We’ve got to do a better job next year than we did in 2020. If we’re going to win, the margin in the 11th District needs to be as big as possible. That means lots and lots of work.
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at $1.2 million, but we’ll see. I mean, you’d rather have the endorsement than not, you certainly would rather have the endorsement than have it go to somebody else, but endorsements alone don’t win. Luther Strange had President Trump’s endorsement in the Alabama senate primary, and lost to Roy Moore. Roy Moore had the President’s endorsement in the Special Election and lost. Really, we invest these endorsements with more [power] than they actually might have. It’s good to have the president’s endorsement, but you got to make something of it by being a strong candidate with a positive message and a compelling argument.
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Parents oppose Pride Month display at Macon library
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books being available at the library as a resource, she said they shouldn’t have been openly displayed to be “celebrated and championed” in the children’s section. She said she has an 8-year-old daughter and wouldn’t feel comfortable with her picking up a book about a San Francisco activist named Harvey Milk. Tipton said showcasing such material could initiate awkward conversations parents aren’t ready to have with their children on the very sensitive issues of gender, sexuality, politics, philosophy and religion. “Transgender has become popular since 2015 with Caitlyn Jenner. I don’t want that forced on my child. The transgender agenda has been pushed uncritically — a lot of the darker aspects of it are masked in the culture and glossed over,” she said. “It’s made to look very pretty and easy for people to change their genders but it really is not. I respect others’ rights to live as they choose but I’m against medical malpractice of doctors changing genders of children with hormones and surgeries.” Steve Connell echoes sentiments made by Tipton and Gaston. He asked commissioners to consider adding stipulations to the funding the county provides to the library every year. “I know you can’t tell them how to spend the money but maybe you can tell them what not to do with it,” he said. Brittney Lofthouse, a reporter with Macon County News and The Southern Scoop, told commissioners she came to talk
While there aren’t any state or federal elections being held this year, there are a number of municipal governing board elections that will draw the attention of voters in November – especially across Western North Carolina — and now that the filing period has closed, the fields are set.
Haywood County
Of the eight municipal races to be held in Jackson County this year, only one will be competitive following the end of filing July 16, with the Webster commissioners race garnering so few candidates that the Jackson County Board of Elections must extend the deadline for another week. Five people will run for two seats on the Sylva Board of Commissioners. Three town residents will run against incumbent commissioners Mary Gelbaugh and Barbara Hamilton — Carrie McBane, Natalie Newman and Luther Jones. All three ran in the 2019 election that seated David Nestler, Greg McPherson and Ben Guiney. After holding the seat since 2015, Lynda Sossamon will run uncontested for another four years as the town’s mayor. For the first time in 12 years, Mike Fitzgerald is not on the ballot for the Dillsboro mayoral race after a move out of county disqualified him for the seat. David Jones, a current town alderman who was sworn in as mayor last month when Fitzgerald vacated the seat, will run uncontested to keep it for another four years. Three of the current aldermen will run for re-election — David Gates, Tim Hall and Tim Parris. Alderman John Chinners did not file for re-election, but Joseph Riddle and James Cochran will round out the ballot. In the Village of Forest Hills, James Wallace Jr. will run an uncontested race to keep the mayor’s seat. Incumbent Ronald Yount will also run again, but Carl Hooper, who was appointed last month to fill a seat vacated by Jerry Rice III, will not. Daniel Shields will run uncontested to fill the second seat. In Webster, Mayor Tracey Rodes and Commissioners Leigh Anne Young and Danell Moses will run uncontested for new terms. However, the list is still one candidate short. Incumbent
Commissioner Allan Grant did not sign up to run again, and no other candidate had come forward by the close of filing. Filing for that seat will be extended five days and is now set to end at noon June 23 to allow more candidates time to come forward.
Macon County Jack Horton, a member of the Franklin Town Council, is virtually assured of becoming Franklin’s next mayor, as incumbent Bob Scott announced weeks ago that he wouldn’t seek a fifth term. Horton, 70, served as the manager of Macon County from 19851991 and from 2008-2013 and as Haywood County’s manager in between. Councilmember David Culpepper has signed up to run for a second term. Councilwoman Barbara McRae passed away last year, leaving her seat vacant. Stacey Guffey, Jimbo Ledford Rita Salain and Frances Seay have all signed up to run for a council seat. Horton was elected in 2019 and his seat will need to be filled by appointment once he’s sworn in as mayor.
Swain County The Town of Bryson City also has two board position up for election, currently held by Ben King and Janine Crisp. King, owner of Bryson City Outdoors, filed to retain his seat, but Crisp didn’t. No other candidates joined the race, so the filing deadline will be extended by five days to allow any other candidate to jump into the race. The General Election will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 2. Eligible residents must be registered 25 days before the election in order to vote. For a complete list of candidate filings, or to register to vote, visit www.ncsbe.org. — Staff reports
Smoky Mountain News
In Canton, Mayor Zeb Smathers was the only candidate to file for mayor, meaning he’ll coast unopposed to his second term. Alderwoman Kristina Smith seeks her second term and Alderman Tim Shepard, who was appointed to fill the seat of an alderman who left town two years ago, will seek his first full four-year term. Smith and Shepard are joined in the race by Matt Langston, former lead singer of pop-punk band Eleventyseven. Langston, 35, is a former music business instructor at Montreat College and is currently a music producer. The top two vote-getters will claim seats on the board. Clyde aldermen Diane Fore and Frank Lay both filed for reelection to their seats. Also filing was Melinda Parker, who didn’t return a call from The Smoky Mountain News seeking biographical information. The top two candidates will be seated. Maggie Valley Alderman Twinkle Patel seeks her first full fouryear term after her January 2020 appointment to fill the unexpired term of Alderman Mike Eveland, who was elected mayor. Alderman Clayton Davis did not file for re-election, however three others — John Hinton, Jeff Lee and Jim Owens — will also seek a seat. Two of the four candidates will join Eveland, Phillip Wight and Tammy Wight on the board.
Jackson County
received a total of 34 positive comments and 24 negative comments about the display that she said included about a dozen age-appropriate books and other materials. The library had a total of 21 circulations from the display and all items have since been returned. “The display was up during June to coincide with Pride month, a nationally recognized month that appreciates the contribution, work, and participation of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and intersex Americans in our culture and society. The display was up for two weeks before we began to hear objections,” she said. “We routinely highlight this and other national initiatives throughout the year by way of our displays. Such displays are not a promotion on behalf of the library, but rather an effort to raise awareness about our resources and to ensure that the community will recognize the library as a safe, inclusive place to access information and services that meet the needs of a diverse community.” Wallace alerted both the local and regional library boards about the complaints and said both boards support the library staff ’s efforts to provide resources to everyone. “I think we all recognize that some of what we have available will not resonate with every individual. Over the past 30 years, I’ve had a few objections to the library’s books, movies, programs and displays. When that happens, we encourage people to choose something that the library offers that will be more in line with their values and interests.”
July 21-27, 2021
Filing period closes for 2020 municipal elections
to them in her official capacity about a different topic but after hearing the parents that spoke before her, she felt the need to address the Pride Month display as a resident and a parent to three young children. “I didn’t know about the library display. I’m sad I didn’t see it because I would have taken my son to see it and help celebrate the people who just want to be included and welcomed and loved,” Lofthouse said. “Unlike the other people who have spoken tonight, I have absolutely no fear of any of my three children being subjected to that type of book on a shelf or having that kind of conversation with them at any point as a parent.” To say something shouldn’t be on public display because they don’t agree with it would go against everything a public facility is supposed to offer in the community. She agreed with Gaston’s statement that most people in Macon County would be opposed to such a display, which she said was more reason it needed to be shown. As LGBTQ youth are more likely than their peers to commit or attempt suicide because they have nowhere else to turn, education and understanding of these issues was important for the community. “This is one month where people can feel included and loved somewhere in this county. I’m proud of our library for what they did. Don’t go there that month if you don’t like it,” she said. Karen Wallace, the director of Fontana Regional Library System, said the library
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BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR he Macon County Public Library provides a number of diverse educational opportunities for youth, but a book display promoting Pride Month in June led to several parent complaints at the last board of county commissioners’ meeting. Jim Gaston of Cowee told commissioners during public comment that the display of LBGTQ related books in the children’s section of the Franklin Library was unacceptable. “I’m not going to try to persuade all of you to the reasons why this type of celebration of confusion is wrong and unacceptable but if you truly know your constituents throughout Macon County, I’m confident you already know the vast majority of people would be against glorifying anal sex and gender confusion to our children and grandchildren,” he said. Gaston went on to say he didn’t want to see the children of Macon grow up in a place that looks more like California or New York. “We all love the library and appreciate its services to community, but it’s not in the best interest of Macon County to do something so devastating for children even thought he tiny minority that would support gay pride tends to be the most obnoxiously vocal,” he said. “Keep Macon County free of all the moral decay and cultural calamity that is attacking our entire country.” Rebecca Tipton said she heard about the display from friends and went to check it out for herself. While she wouldn’t mind those
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Smoky Mountain News
Chickens make a stand despite our efforts F
Letter’s claims illustrate our current problems To the Editor: As I read the letter about unemployment insurance in last week’s edition of The Smoky Mountain News (“Stop the checks, get to work”), I recognized a tone that has come to dominate and pollute our civic discourse. The letter had all the elements of our current malaise. It was nasty and brutish. It was selfish and self-centered, devoid of charity. It was ignorant of fact or reason. It fed on bile and grievance, displaying both cruelty and accusation that serve less as observation than confession. We’ve come to a place where a significant portion of the population idolizes a narcissistic con man and liar; a man whose only accomplishment and purpose is banal selfaggrandizement; a man who knows no humanity; a man who despises even his own followers treating them as marks and rubes. What point would there be in refuting the factual errors and general misanthropy contained in the letter? There exists now a separate reality based on grudges, grievances, and conspiracy. Facts don’t matter. And so we are treated to hysterical and hyperbolic diatribes designed not to illuminate but to foster fear and division. Where is the space for civic dialogue that is so essential to our representative
crossed the road, but I guessed they’d get bored pecking around in our driveway and mosey on back home by the time I showered, dressed, finished breakfast, and came back outside in another hour or two. Nope, the chickens were still there, skittish but just a touch calmer than before. I went out town to attend to some errands and go to the gym, and when I got back hours later, the chickens had taken shelter from the glare of the midday sun under some hedges in front of our house. “Looks like we have chickens,” I said, upon entering the house. Columnist “Yeah, I saw one a little while ago,” Tammy said. “There’s more than one?” “There are five,” I said. “We have enough for a basketball team.” “Well, they’re not ours,” she said. “Try telling that to them,” I said. “They seem to have asserted themselves.” Two or three days passed, and the chickens stuck around, roaming the property, including the pasture adjacent to our lot. Every time we went outside, they popped up in a new place, but never far away. Of course, it wasn’t very long before our three dogs (two miniature dachshunds and a chihuahua) became aware of — and then obsessed with — the chickens. “Trouble is brewing,” I said. My son and I decided to escort the chickens off our property for their own good. We walked them down the driveway, the chickens beside us more or less in single file, more obedi-
Chris Cox
ive chickens appeared one bright summer morning in our driveway. I was still half asleep, stumbling through my morning routine of grinding and brewing the coffee, and then stepping out onto the front porch to water the fuchsias in matching hanging baskets on either side of the front steps. I had no more than opened the door when this assembly of chickens scattered in every direction in a great burst of clucking, thrashing, and flying feathers, and then reassembled at a safer remove some twenty steps away, their heads bobbing like little boxers dodging invisible punches. I stood there and they stood there, all of us seeing what would happen next, each taking the measure of the other. A moment passed, and then another. There were two white chickens — brilliantly white — and three rust-colored chickens, although upon closer inspection their feathers glinted red and gold in the morning sun, really quite lovely. I stood there, unlovely, in some SpongeBob SquarePants boxer shorts my kids bought me for Christmas 10 years ago and a pair of torn flip-flops, trying to figure out where in the world these chickens came from. You see, we have a very strict provision in our homeowners’ agreement that precludes us from owning anything other than your garden variety domestic pets — your Schnauzers, your golden retrievers, your calico cats, and what have you. No goats or pigs are permitted to live among us. No turkeys, no peacocks, and certainly no chickens. I thought the chickens might be Roger’s, a neighbor up the road who has some beautiful farmland, or maybe the folks across the ridge who keep cattle in the pasture that borders our property. I didn’t know why these particular chickens
LETTERS democracy? When one side sees life as a zero sum game, is unable to engage in civil discourse but rather revels in tossing epithets, accusation, and insults then the project that is America is on a descent to authoritarianism. America was not conceived in perfection. Our country has always been one of aspiring, of coming into being, improving, reaching for justice and the equality of humankind. These aspirations are not well served by mythology, denial, or grasping for supremacy and privilege. A country that was meant to work for everyone works for no one except a small slice who hoard economic benefit while stoking resentment as a means of creating disunion and division among the populace. Scripture enjoins us to love our neighbor, to stand as equals before God. My grandmother acknowledged that idea by often observing, “There but for the Grace of God go I.”, recognition of the call to humility in Micah 6:8. The Israeli philosopher Avishai Margalit asks: “What is a decent society?” He answers: “A decent society is one whose institutions do not humiliate people. I distinguish between a decent society and a civilized one. A civilized society is one whose members do not humiliate one another, while a decent society is one whose institutions do not humiliate people.”
ent than any of our dogs have ever been, and said our goodbyes as the chickens continued to amble on down the road. The next morning, they were back again. I was in the bedroom getting dressed and heard a terrible commotion outside, my wife screaming about something. I ran outside to find my son holding the older dachshund and Tammy holding one of the rust colored chickens, small and trembling, in both arms. A little while later, as I was packing my car for a trip to the landfill, I heard more shrieking around back, and I found that the younger dachshund and the chihuahua had cornered and pinned one of the white chickens under two bicycles parked near our storage shed. We were able to rescue both chickens. Tammy carried each of them up toward Roger’s and turned them loose, hoping they could get on home well enough from there. She said they were walking fine and seemed okay, considering the circumstances. The other three had vanished and we thought, well, that’s the end of our chicken experience. It was no more than a few days later when the other three returned, and now they’ve taken to the trees when the dogs are out. They will huddle together on a branch twenty feet off the ground and stare at those yapping dogs without flinching or any apparent concern whatsoever. As far as I know, we are not in violation of our homeowner’s policy. We didn’t choose these chickens. We didn’t name them. We didn’t build a coop or buy them feed. They chose us. I don’t know how the story ends, but I do know that when I got home yesterday, the white chicken came racing across the yard to greet me. We’ve come that far. (Chris Cox is a writer and teacher who lives in Haywood County. jchriscox@live.com.)
For 245 years we have struggled with fits and starts to create both a decent and civilized society. Diatribes like the one that appeared in these pages last week show how far we’ve strayed from our most fundamental principles and aspirations. Mark Jamison Whittier
Real data about the job market To the Editor: The letter by Ms. Subic “Stop the checks, get to work” in the July 14 issue of The Smoky Mountain News starkly illustrates the importance of an informed citizenry in a robust democracy. Although rambling — and including apparently self-bemusing racial comments — apparently her intent was to argue that unemployment benefits, particularly the $300 supplement, were a key factor in firms’ current challenges in filling vacant positions. The facts actually show a much more complicated situation. For instance, the data show that 6 million more Baby Boomers in the U.S. retired from October 2020 to March 2021 than in the same period in the previous year. These retirements sharply reduced the workforce. Perhaps Ms. Subic wants your retired grandma to get a job. Also, Moody Analytics examined four sets
of data: weekly unemployment claims, Google mobility data, job search trends, and small business payrolls. The results showed that there had been no meaningful change in the job market since some states blocked the $300 supplemental jobless benefits. Although some people are out of the job market because of unemployment benefits, a Morning Consult survey indicated that these people only constitute about 13 percent of those unemployed. This number is comparable to the results recently reported by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Childcare obligations (and the cost and limited availability of external childcare), fears of COVID in the workplace, health limitations, and “lousy work options” largely instead explain why many are not currently in the job market. Contrary to Ms. Subic’s claim, there are many reports of firms reconsidering their human resource management policies in order to attract and retain employees. That’s what successful businesses do; they adapt to address market conditions. Ultimately, as recent situations show, meeting the nation’s challenges requires thoughtful consideration of facts, not the thoughtless recitation of partisan talking points, nor opinions based on assumptions, biases or conspiracies. Our responsibility as citizens is to be informed. This includes consideration of a workplace that is being altered by demographics and
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the economics of COVID-19. Speaking of economics, Ms. Subic, exactly what “taxes are going up?” Wayne Stewart, Ph.D. Franklin
Rep. Cawthorn’s rhetoric is dangerous To the Editor: As a former Public Health Director in his district with over 30 years of public health experience, I’m appalled at Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s recent misleading
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statements made in an interview by the Right Side Broadcasting Network at CPAC and aired on NBC nightly news Friday, July 9, as part of their COVID story. His lack of understanding regarding public health science is obvious the more he speaks. Community vaccination programs have been in practice long before he was born!
Effectively dealing with small pox, polio, measles and other preventable childhood diseases. Before running his mouth with fearful rhetoric, he needs to look closer at the issue for knowledge and educate himself with the science. Why not reach out to local and state public health resources for the science and plans instead of assuming a plan is established that is not in evidence. I’m sure the public health professionals would be willing to educate him with facts! Vaccines work! People don’t need him to lie about door-to-door vaccination programs designed to offer lifesaving medicine. This public health approach is not going to lead to taking guns or Bibles in the future as he stated. Rep. Cawthorn needs to be a responsible public servant by helping others know the facts instead of the typical Republican tactic of fear mongering that confuses the issue. It would appear he learned nothing by speaking in support of “the big lie” regarding the election results or his addressing the mob on January 6 before the insurrection. Words matter. He has been nothing but a major disappointment to me since day one. His reckless comments need to stop or he needs to go. Carmine F. Rocco Waynesville
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We could leave them behind in the sparkle and fade A conversation with Art Alexakis BY GARRET K. WOODWARD ARTS & E NTERTAINMENT E DITOR f the old adage, “obstacles are opportunities,” rings true, then Art Alexakis might just be the definition of an opportunist. Lead singer of multi-platinum rock act Everclear, Alexakis has been at the helm of the one of the most successful and beloved bands of the last 25 years. Millions of records sold. A handful of hits that still ring loudly on radio stations the world over. Not to mention, a loyal fan base that continues to follow the group down its ever-evolving melodic path. The foundation of Everclear three decades ago in Portland, Oregon, came from the ashes of a troubled past for Alexakis. A victim of childhood abuse and trauma, his teenage years were a blur of tragedy and heartbreak (atop a failed suicide attempt), ultimately manifesting itself into a battle overcoming drug addiction in his early adulthood. Whereas Alexakis could have just been another statistic and faded into the background, perhaps even ending up six feet under before his life even got off the ground, he turned his experience into several massive singles (“Santa Monica,” “Everything To Everyone,” “AM Radio,” “Father Of Mine,” “I Will Buy You A New Life,” “Wonderful”). And, some 30 years later, these songs still represent a lot of things to an awful lot of people — conjuring memories (creating new ones), making your soul shine, and ultimately providing a musical portal (within your stereo, in your car, in your headphones) to somewhere, anywhere. At 59, Alexakis is facing quite possibly his biggest obstacle yet, with a recent diagnosis of multiple sclerosis. And yet, Alexakis continues to do what he’s always done — write timeless songs and play raucous music with his signature freewheelin’ spirit, all in a lifelong effort to uplift and embrace any and all within earshot.
Art Alexakis. (photo: Andrei Duman)
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Smoky Mountain News: Where does that old soul mentality come within you? Because when you talk about the past, whether it was good or bad, you still talk about it with such reflection and awe. Art Alexakis: Well, you know, man, because I love history — everybody's history. I love [that] everybody has a story. I love a good story. I write from the first person a lot, if not all the time, and it makes people think all my songs are autobiographical. [But], about a third of them are about [characters that I cre-
to be confrontational or to be able to be confrontational, but not be triggered by anger.
SMN: To try and find common ground, instead of being angry. AA: I'm in school right now, learning to get my certification as a life coach. So, I'm learning all these skills — not just to teach other people, but to work on myself as well. But, it's also growing and having success. I've had an enormous amount of success, and I'm very grateful for it. I'm doing what I love to do, which is kind of living the dream, right? I've been very fortunate, I know that. Even with [multiple sclerosis], all the adversities, all the bankruptcies, broken marriages, and all that shit, I'm still extremely grateful for everything in my life — it's brought me to where I'm at now.
Want to go? Everclear will hit the stage with its annual “Summerland” national touring showcase at 7 p.m. Friday, July 23, at Silverados in Black Mountain. Joining Everclear will be opening acts Hoobastank, Living Colour, and Wheatus. General admission is $45 per person, with VIP and “Meet & Greet” packages available. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, go to www.silveradoswnc.com.
ate], a third of them are from different places in my life, and a third of the songs are just stories.
The Stanley Brothers. Bill Monroe. I grew up with it and it’s very natural for me.
SMN: Your mother grew up in Swannanoa and your parents met in Asheville. And even though you were born and raised in California, you have that Southern Appalachian blood within you, and storytelling is a big part of these mountains. AA: Absolutely, dude. I'm half-hillbilly. I'm mostly Irish on my mom's side, [and they came to America] during the Potato Famine of 1845. Before the Civil War, they got embedded deep in those [Appalachian] hills — Irish, Scottish, and they loved that area because it looks like home. There’s a lot of culture in [Western North Carolina]. That [Irish, Scottish] culture became hillbilly culture. And it’s deep for me. I’ve always loved the music [of those mountains]. I love bluegrass. The Louvin Brothers.
SMN: I grew up in an Irish family, and one of the big things is that it's always been about making a connection, whether it's family or a stranger. AA: Absolutely. That's a really good point. I love connecting. I don't shy away from it. You know, my wife has a problem with confrontation. People have problems with confrontation. I don't. But, I’ve read a lot of that comes from [youthful trauma] — growing up rough, getting beat up, being abused when I was 8 years old, raped and abused by older teenagers. It was just really a bad situation when we lived in the projects [in California]. So, a lot of that is triggered and [emotional] scar tissue. As far as confrontation goes, I'm learning now not
SMN: When you talk about being a life coach, what’s interesting is that it’s the same way it is to be a musician, this two-way street of growth and interaction. AA: And that's why I think it’s a natural fit, because I've been doing that for years. I really wanted to be of service, and I feel like I have been in service in my band. I'm clean and sober 32 years. So, I've been in the program for years, and being of service is a big deal. That's a big step. And I want to do that for the last part of my life. I'm still going to do the band. I'm still going to play shows, and I might make music. But, I want to be of service and connect with people for the rest of my life. I’m very grateful for where my life is right now and where it's been — I wouldn't be where I'm at if it hadn't been for it.
SMN: It's pretty wild, though, because when I look back at your history, you have every reason in the world to be angry at the world. But, you never made excuses — you did whatever it took to move forward. AA: I learned that from my mom, that tenacity. [If] there's a wall in front of you, you got to get over it, around it, under it, or through it. One way [or another], you’ve got to get through it. Sometimes it's by force. Sometimes it's by concession. Sometimes you’ve got to become fluid and work your way around it, you know? There's always a way forward. You just have to find it. And the way you do that is by not giving up — you don't give up.
BY GARRET K. WOODWARD
The heart has its seasons, its evenings and songs of its own
Budweiser draft. Cigarette smoke swirling above the heads of those at the bar counter or playing pool at the nearby table. That odd feeling of being in a smoking bar in the 21st century. Aside from sporadic cities still holding out in the Southeast, you don’t really see or experience that much anymore (same goes for Bud on draft, too). Brush aside those initial thoughts and gaze at your reflection in the mirror behind the counter. Earlier that morning, there I was in the
S
HOT PICKS The Folkmoot international festival will return with “Summerfest” July 22-25 in Lake Junaluska, downtown Waynesville, and the Folkmoot Friendship Center in the Hazelwood district of Waynesville.
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Country-rocker Joe Lasher, Jr. will perform at “Concerts on the Commons” at 6 p.m. Friday, July 23, at The Village Green Commons in Cashiers.
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Boojum Brewing (Waynesville) will host Sanctum Sully (rock/jam) at 9 p.m. Saturday, July 24.
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The Maggie Valley Band will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday, July 24, at Nantahala Brewing in Sylva.
Americana/country act The Malpass Brothers will perform at 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 23, at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin.
ing by downtown Scranton, a blood-red sun falling behind the mountains in the distance. The “Without A Net” album was blaring out of the speakers. Windows rolled down. A steady breeze swirling around me. “Eyes of the World,” the incredible version with Branford Marsalis on saxophone (Nassau Coliseum, 1990) roared on. It was a moment of pure bliss. Behind the driver’s seat, my late cousin’s old, ragged Dead shirt (size XXL) and his well-worn Boston Red Sox hat (which still smells like his trademark Marlboro Red 100s). Even though he passed away and such, I felt him there with me — in spirit, in that moment, enjoying that sunset and that melody, together. Life is beautiful, grasp for it, y’all.
July 21-27, 2021
tepping into the lobby of the Days Inn just north of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, last Wednesday evening, I was immediately hit with the faint smell of cigarettes. The sign next to the front desk of the lodging establishment said “No Smoking: $150 Charge.” Days Inn. Carlisle, Pennsylvania. But, just before I thought (photo: Garret K. Woodward) to mention the irony to the front desk clerk, I heard some boisterous noise from down the hallway to the right. The sign on the wall said “Polo Lounge” with an arrow pointing in the direction of the latenight shenanigans. “Hey man, what’s going on in there?” I asked the clerk. He chuckled and replied, “Ah, it’s just the motel bar. It’s open for another hour, that is unless the bartender wants to stay open until 2 a.m. You can smoke in there, too, if you’d like.” The clerk handed me the keys to Room 118. Back the truck up to the patio area of the shabby room. Unlock the front door, absorb the musty smell of a $54-a-night motel room in southdriveway of my parents’ farmhouse in central Pennsylvania. Unlock the patio slidPlattsburgh, New York. Packing up the ing glass door. Pull the bicycle and cooler Tacoma pickup with whatever was needed to out of the truck bed. Grab the toiletries, bring back to Haywood County. Clothes. extra change of clothes, guitar case, etc. Guitar. Bike. Cooler. And several items that Twenty minutes later, I washed my face, were my once owned by my late cousin, threw on a fresh shirt (I was about eight Nate, now in my possession following his hours or so into an 18-hour solo trek from funeral on July 9 (his untimely passing my native Upstate New York to my occurring on June 28). Waynesville apartment) and wandered down My aunt, who flew to New York from her to the Polo Lounge. current home in Montana, had to clear out Open the door. Find a seat. Order a cold Nate’s storage unit after the celebration of
trailers flying by in the cool summer night. The entire ride from Plattsburgh to Carlisle, the stereo was blasting the Grateful Dead, all of which from my late cousin’s CD booklet. Though I’m a lifelong Dead Head, I tossed my CD booklet in the backseat of the pickup truck in favor of his collection. Right around sunset, I found myself drift-
arts & entertainment
This must be the place
his life at the American Legion in our hometown (Rouses Point). All kinds of stuff, either of personal value or simply junk that he just didn’t get around to getting rid of. Going through the last few boxes of Nate’s things, my aunt gifted me an array of trinkets that will forever remind me of him, someone who was like an older brother to me, a kind, yet troubled, soul who passed away far too early (at age 42). She handed me one of his old, ragged Grateful Dead tour shirts (his favorite band). The shirt was XXL and is now safely folded up in my apartment closet. There was also the Boston Red Sox bottle opener (he was a die-hard Sox fan). There was the air-conditioner nobody needed, except for the “Damn Yankee” (me) who, in nine years living in Western North Carolina, had yet to get around to purchasing one. Lastly, she dropped a large box of CDs at my feet, mumbling in a humble, sad tone, “He’d want you to have these.” I dove deep into the box, unearthing dozens of live Dead recordings, Phish recordings, Dave Matthews Band recordings, and so on (and on). A treasure trove of shows and melodies for a lifelong music freak and audiophile like myself. Music was the core of the bond between my cousin and I. When I was a little kid in the 1990s, he introduced me to all of those bands noted above. He’d play me all of those recordings on his badass stereo in his bedroom in that house on Liberty Street in Rouses Point. That was many moons ago, as they say. And yet, the memories are as vivid as ever, more so following his passing. Hopping into the Tacoma, I waved goodbye to my mother standing in the driveway. I honked twice as I pulled away — in solidarity to family, to hitting the road again, to destinations unknown, and to dreams held high and in earnest. With the North Country in my rearview mirror, it was down below the Mason-Dixon Line via Interstate 81. Pulled into the Blue Ridge Truck Stop at Exit 155 in Dorrance, Pennsylvania (just south of Scranton). Middle of nowhere. A bright oasis on the lonely highway. I pop in there each time I pass through, mostly for the gut-busting deli sandwiches, freshly-made onsite. Sit at the picnic table in front of the truck stop. Eat the sandwich with gusto. Rambling thoughts like tractor-
Smoky Mountain News 23
Smoky Mountain News
July 21-27, 2021
arts & entertainment
On the beat
Sylva welcomes Grammy winner Graham Sharp.
Presented by Adamas Entertainment, Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Graham Sharp (of Steep Canyon Rangers) will perform on Saturday, Aug. 7, at Nantahala Brewing in Sylva. When not on the road headlining festivals and selling out theaters across the country with the Rangers, Sharp is currently touring his debut solo album, “Truer Picture,” a blend of Americana, indie, blues and folk music. There will also be a special late-night performance by rising psychedelic/indie-rock act Pink Beds. Based out of Asheville, the
group has been making big waves in Western North Carolina and beyond since forming last year. Opening the event will be Shane Meade & The Sound (Americana/folk) and cloud_circuit (soul/lounge). The performance schedule is as follows: Shane Meade & The Sound (2:30 to 4 p.m.), cloud_circuit (4:45 to 6:15 p.m.), Graham Sharp (7 to 8:30 p.m.) and Pink Beds (9:15 p.m. to 10:45 p.m.). The show is for all ages. Admission is $20 per person. Cash/credit cards accepted at the door. For more information, go to www.nantahalabrewing.com.
The show is free and open to the public. For more information, click on www.themaggievalleyband.com.
The “An Appalachian Evening” series will return with up-and-coming string acts and bluegrass legends to the Stecoah Valley Center in Robbinsville. Ticketed shows will include Darin & Brooke Aldridge July 24 ($25). Shows will be live streamed at 7:30 p.m. on YouTube, with a link available at www.stecoahvalleycenter.com prior to the concert. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, call 828.479.3364 or click on www.stecoahvalleycenter.com.
‘The Roots of American Folk Music’
The Maggie Valley Band will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday, July 24, at Nantahala Brewing in Sylva. A blend of old-time mountain, Americana and psychedelic folk music, the Haywood County group is fronted by siblings Whitney 24 and Caroline Miller.
Joe Lasher, Jr.
Country-rocker Joe Lasher, Jr. will perform at “Concerts on the Commons” at 6 p.m. Friday, July 23, at The Village Green Commons in Cashiers. Opening the show will be Commodore Fox, an Asheville act playing rock and dance hits from the 1970s and 1980s. The night will also include a performance by singer-songwriter Kaitlyn Baker. Her debut single “Burn” charted on Music Row’s Breakout Chart in 2015. This concert is sponsored by Ingles. Ingles will be collecting canned goods for Manna Foodbank. Concertgoers are encouraged to bring a donation of canned food items and
‘An Appalachian Evening’
Americana, indie at Nantahala
Country, rock in Cashiers
A performance titled “The Roots of American Folk Music” with acclaimed musician Marshall Ballew will take place at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 22, at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin. Ballew’s concert will be a musical and historical journey through the many years and forms of American Folk Music, with its roots in both the Scotch-Irish ballads and tunes of the British Isles which gave rise to old-time, folk and bluegrass; and the Mother Church of African-American Gospel which birthed jazz, swing, ragtime, and the blues. Ballew will trace the roots and hybrids of all these forms like rockabilly, hokum, rock and roll, and rhythm and blues on a variety of stringed instruments. The program is free and open to the public. For more information on Ballew, click on www.reverbnation.com/marshallballew.
Concerts on the Creek Concerts on the Creek continues with Dashboard Blue from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, July 23, at Bridge Park in Sylva. Held most Fridays from through Labor Day at the Bridge Park, these free, familyfriendly events are organized by the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce, the Town of Sylva, and the Jackson County Parks & Recreation Department. Bring a chair or blanket. Donations are
The Malpass Brothers Acclaimed Americana/country act The Malpass Brothers will perform at 7:30 p.m. July 23, at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin. The Malpass Brothers fell in love with classic country music while listening to their grandfather’s records. They have toured with the late Don Helms and have
place them at the bins located at the Commons venue. Tickets for reserved box seating are $10 per person, with advance general admission seating $5 per person. www.villagegreencashiersnc.com/concerts.
greatly appreciated. No coolers. No smoking. No alcohol. Well-behaved dogs only. All dogs must be on a leash. Please observe Covid safe protocols in place by the State of North Carolina and Jackson County. The Jackson County Department of Public Health will offer free COVID-19 vaccines in partnership with the music series, featuring Johnson & Johnson’s Jansen vaccine. Open to all, 18 years and older. These will be available from 6:30 to 9 p.m. For more information, visit www.mountainlovers.com, the Concerts on the Creek Facebook page or call 828.586.2155.
opened for music legend Merle Haggard on multiple tours. They are also welcomed guests at Dollywood and the Grand Ole Opry. The duo has also shared billing with artists such as Willie Nelson, Doyle Lawson, Rhonda Vincent, Marty Stuart, and many others. Tickets start at $18 per person. To purchase tickets, click on www.greatmountainmusic.com.
On the beat
• Concerts on the Creek (Sylva) at Bridge Park will host Dashboard Blue (oldies/beach) July 23. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. Sponsored by the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce. www.mountainlovers.com. • Friday Night Live (Highlands) will be held at the Town Square from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Sycamore Flats July 23 and Byrds & Crows July 30. Free and open to the public. www.highlandschamber.org. • Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host Syrrup July 24, Bohemian Jean (soul/hits) 2 p.m. July 25, Open Drum Circle July 27 and AcousticENVY July 30. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.454.5664 or www.froglevelbrewing.com.
ALSO:
• Innovation Station (Dillsboro) will host Jason Lyles July 25. All events are free and begin at 2 p.m. unless otherwise noted. www.innovation-brewing.com.
• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Sylva) will host Anna Victoria (singer-songwriter) July 23 and Ol’ Dirty Bathtub (Americana/bluegrass) July 30. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.349.2337 or www.lazyhikerbrewing.com.
• Nantahala Brewing (Sylva) will host a “Jazz Night” from 7 to 10 p.m. on Wednesdays and The Maggie Valley Band (Americana/indie) 8 p.m. July 24. Free and open to the public. 828.641.9797 or www.nantahalabrewing.com. • Nantahala Outdoor Center (Nantahala Gorge) will host “Bluegrass with Blue” July 23 and 30, and Log Noggins July 24 and Pioneer Chicken Stand July 31. All shows
begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 888.905.7238 or www.noc.com. • “Pickin’ on the Square” (Franklin) will host Darren Nicholson Band (Americana/country) July 24 and The UpBeats (oldies/variety) July 31. All shows start at 7 p.m. Free and open to the public. Located on Main Street. www.franklin-chamber.com. • Rathskeller Coffee Haus & Pub (Franklin) will host Joe & Ivan (singer-songwriter) July 24. Shows begin at 8 p.m. Free and open to the public. www.rathskellerfranklin.com.
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• Saturdays On Pine (Highlands) will be held at the Kelsey-Hutchinson Park from 6 to 8:30 p.m. with Silly Ridge Roundup July 24 and The Wobblers July 31. Free and open to the public. www.highlandschamber.org. • Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts (Franklin) will host The Malpass Brothers (Americana/bluegrass) at 7:30 p.m. July 23. Tickets start at $18 per person. www.greatmountainmusic.com. • Stecoah Valley Center (Robbinsville) “An Appalachian Evening” series will host Darin & Brooke Aldridge July 24. All shows at 7:30 p.m. 828.479.3364 or www.stecoahvalleycenter.com. • Unplugged Pub (Bryson City) will host Carolina Freightshakers July 23, The UpBeats (oldies/variety) July 24 and Tricia Ann July 31. All shows begin at 8 p.m. Free and open to the public. 828.538.2488. • Valley Tavern (Maggie Valley) will host Scoundrel’s Lounge 3 p.m. July 25. 828.926.7440 or www.valley-tavern.com.
Smoky Mountain News
• Mountain Layers Brewing (Bryson City) will host Aces Down July 23 and 30, Somebody’s Child (Americana) July 24, Wyatt Espalin (singer-songwriter) July 25 and The Dirty French Broads July 31. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.538.0115 or www.mtnlayersbeer.com.
The Pic’ & Play Mountain Dulcimer Players will be resuming in-person jam sessions at the St. John’s Episcopal Church basement fellowship hall in Sylva. The group welcomes all beginners and experienced dulcimer players, including mountain (lap) dulcimer and hammered dulcimer players. The group meets at 1:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturday of every month in the basement of St. John’s. The mountain dulcimer, also known as a fretted dulcimer or a lap dulcimer, is a uniquely American instrument. It evolved from the German scheitholz sometime in the early 1800s in Appalachia and was largely known only in this region until popularized more broadly in the 1950s. For more information, call Kathy Jaqua at 828.349.3930 or Don Selzer at 828.293.0074.
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• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Franklin) will host Troy Underwood (Americana/soul) July 24 and Arnold Hill (rock/jam) July 31. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.349.2337 or www.lazyhikerbrewing.com.
Want to learn the dulcimer?
arts & entertainment
• Boojum Brewing (Waynesville) will host karaoke at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, trivia at 7 p.m. on Thursdays, Darren Nicholson Band (Americana/bluegrass) July 23 and Sanctum Sully (rock/jam) July 24. All shows begin at 9 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.246.0350 or www.boojumbrewing.com.
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arts & entertainment
Thursday July 22 • 5:30 pm - 10:00 pm Folkmoot Summerfest Gala: Opening Night Folkmoot Center | Queen Auditorium (112 Virginia Ave., Waynesville, NC 28786)
2021 Festival
performers
Folkmoot Summerfest Nanci Weldon Gym Lake Junaluska
Saturday July 24 • 10:00 am - 4:00 pm Many Cultures Day Main Street Downtown Waynesville
Saturday July 24 • 4:30 pm - 10:00 pm Folkmoot Summerfest: Night Two Nanci Weldon Gym Lake Junaluska
Sunday July 25 • 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Folkmoot Summerfest: Closing Ceremony Stuart Auditorium Lake Junaluska
Smoky Mountain News
July 21-27, 2021
Friday July 23 • 6:30 pm - 10:00 pm
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purchase tickets on folkmoot.org or call 828.452.2997
On the street
Ready for the Gemboree?
Earl Lanning and Charles Miller. rary headquarters of the center. “This place is about a passion for the heritage of this region — art, music, storytelling, the outdoors,” said Bob Plott, general manager of the SMHC and a well-known Appalachian historian/author. “The hope is to start with these initial programs and then move towards building a permanent building to house our events.” For more information on the heritage center and a full schedule of upcoming events, go on www.meadowlarkmotel.com and click on the “Events” tab or call 828.926.1717.
‘Wet Your Whiskers’ fundraiser The Feline Urgent Rescue (FUR) will host the “Wet Your Whiskers” fundraiser and wine tasting from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July
54th Annual Macon County
ALSO:
• The Cherokee Blueberry Festival will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 24, at the Cherokee Indian Fairgrounds. Admission is free. www.visitcherokeenc.com/events/detail/blueberry-festival1. 828.497.2717.
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Smoky Mountain News
July 23-25 • Fri-Sat: 10-6 • Sun: 10-4
• The “Christmas in July’’ celebration will be July 23-24 at Innovation Station in Dillsboro. In collaboration with Nancy Tut’s Christmas shop in Dillsboro, Innovation Station will transform into a summertime Christmas destination. There will also be a sneak peek for the town’s winter event, and lighting luminaries both nights. 828.226.0262.
July 21-27, 2021
In an effort to preserve and perpetuate the heritage arts and lore of the Great Smoky Mountains and greater Southern Appalachia, the Smoky Mountain Heritage Center has now come to fruition at the Meadowlark Motel in Maggie Valley. Next up will be the Earl Lanning & Charles Miller tribute weekend on Saturday, July 31, which will include a full day of activities and presentations in honor of the beloved artists. All events will take place in the “Back Porch Pavillon” on the property, an elaborate structure that will serve at the tempo-
The 54th annual Macon County Gemboree will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 23-25 at the Robert C. Carpenter Community Building in Franklin. Rough and cut gems, minerals, fine jewelry, supplies, beads, door prizes, dealers, exhibits, demonstrations, and more. Daily admission is $2 and free for ages 12 and under. For more information, call 828.524.3161. Sponsored by the Franklin Chamber of Commerce and the Macon County Gem & Mineral Society. www.franklin-chamber.com.
arts & entertainment
Heritage program in Maggie Valley
31, at the Wells Event Center in Waynesville. The wine selection and appetizers are by Bosu’s and beer selections are donated by Boojum Brewing. Outside tables are available, weather permitting. There will be many silent auction and drawing items donated by local businesses, artists and FUR supporters. Tickets are $50 per person for appetizers and unlimited tastings. Tickets are available at Bosu’s, Smoky Mountain Dog Bakery, The Dog House, and at www.furofwnc.org. Sponsorship tickets are $150 (includes two event tickets, sponsor gift, event recognition and listed in acknowledgement advertisement). You can purchase those tickets at www.furofwnc.org. Feline Urgent Rescue is a nonprofit, lastchance sanctuary for abandoned, abused and neglected cats located in Waynesville. All event proceeds go for the care of FUR’s felines. www.furofwnc.org or www.facebook.com/furofwnc or call 844.888.CATS.
admission
828.524.3161 • www.visitfranklinnc.com Robert C Carpenter Community Building • 1288 Georgia Rd. Franklin, NC
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arts & entertainment
On the wall Skate, snow, wake film premier “Unviral,” the brand new skate, snow and wake film will be screened at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 24, at Mad Anthony’s Taproom in downtown Waynesville. The work features a slew of local riders, including Haywood County native Zeb Powell, an XGames gold medalist. There will be a parking lot of skate jam before the screening. Cash/prizes for 16 and under (and 17 and up). For more information, call 828.400.1252. • The Cherokee Gourd Artists Gathering will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. July 29-Aug. 1 at the Cherokee Indian Fairgrounds. Gourd artists from the United States and Canada gather to collaborate on gourd art, which will be for sale. Watch them work carving, painting and sculpting. Classes are available for a fee. www.visitcherokeenc.com or 410.392.0003.
ALSO:
A work by Gosia Babcock.
BABCOCK ART SHOWCASE IN FRANKLIN
July 21-27, 2021
A showcase of art by Gosia Babcock will be on display in the Meeting Room through the end of August at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin. Visit to take a closer look, but call ahead to make sure the Meeting Room is open to the public when you plan to visit. 828.524.3600.
Smoky Mountain News
• The “Thursday Painters” group will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursdays at The Uptown Gallery in Franklin. Free and open to the public. All skill levels and mediums are welcome. Participants are responsible for their own project and a bag lunch. 828.349.4607. • The Haywood County Arts Council’s “Art Works @ The Library,” a collaborative program between the Haywood County Public Library system and the HCAC, is currently showcasing works by artist Cayce Moyer at the Canton Library.
Triple-win Climate Solutions Nature never did betray the heart that loved her. —William Wordsworth, 1798
T
his month is Plastic Free July, a perfect time to conserve for the sake of your health as well as all Creation. One way to do this is to bring your own bag (BYOB) every place, every time you shop.
THE PROBLEM
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• The Folk Art Center in Asheville has opened its Main Gallery exhibition showcasing the Graduating Class of 2021 of Haywood Community College’s Professional Crafts Program. The showcase will run through
Aug. 22. It is free and open to the public. www.craftguild.org or 828.298.7928.
According to Waste Management Inc., only one percent of plastic bags are returned for recycling, meaning the average family only recycles 15 bags a year. Not even blue “recycling bags” are recycled. Families in Haywood County are probably like the average American family, taking home about 1,500 plastic shopping bags a year. Bags are used for an average of 12 minutes but take at least 500 years to decompose. That process does more damage. Plastics don't break down completely; instead, they photo-degrade, becoming microplastics. Microplastics absorb toxins, continue polluting, and damage the health of people and other living creatures. See the PBS.org Frontline documentary on our pollution crisis and the fossil industry’s push to sell more: “The Plastic Wars” https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/plastic-wars/ Chemicals in plastics or used in their manufacture pose a serious human health risk. Recent research confirms that exposure to a component
called BPA lowers men’s sperm counts. Plastics also contribute to women’s infertility, increased diabetes in fetuses, birth defects and miscarriages. See “Plastics, Plastics Everywhere! Should We Be Worried?” by Steve Wall, M.D., pediatrician, in The Mountaineer April 23, 2021 https://www.themountaineer.com/outdoors/plastics-plastics-everywhere-should-we-be-worried/article_05d08130-a 46e-11eb-9348-e70df73a6b62.html About 46,000 pieces of floating plastic clog every square mile of ocean. Most it enters from land. Plastics kill millions of animals every year, from birds to fresh water fish to marine organisms. Nearly 700 species, including the most endangered, are being driven toward extinction. To survive, we humans need those species to keep ecosystems healthy. Burning plastic, made from fossil fuels, releases greenhouse gases that heat the air, making extreme weather worse and more frequent. The current tragedies from wildfires and record heat waves in the Northwest U.S. are typical of the levels of suffering that can eventually engulf us all unless we change our ways. Remember the wildfires in eastern Tennessee and here in WNC a few years ago? People died. North Carolinians have to pay the bill for plastic-related medical problems and maintaining plastics landfills. Officials in Madison County reported spending as much on solid waste management as on public education. Haywood County has three times as many residents as Madison.
BE PART OF THE SOLUTION, STARTING NOW: The answer lies not in recycling, but avoiding plastics to the extent possible. BYOB! Bring Your Own Bags to all stores, shops, and markets. When: Always Where: Everywhere RSVP: Invite family and friends to join you during Plastic Free July.
• Ask stores without recycling bins to add them. Publix, Lowe’s and Wal-Mart already provide bins.
WIN-WIN-WIN: • Tax savings if landfill space is reduced • More money for education and other efforts to improve standards of living • Your improved human health and conservation of our fellow creatures
WHAT YOU CAN DO: • When you cannot avoid plastic bags or packag ing materials, take them to grocery or other store recycling bins. Even bags used to package vegetables, bread, and other food might be accepted. Any clean bag labeled #2 or #4 is recyclable. • Stash washable cloth bags in your car so you’re ready whenever you shop. Buy and take mesh bags for fresh produce, too. See Judy Covin’s Triple-win article in The Mountaineer, Oct. 4, 2020. Note: paper bags are not recyclable, but you can compost them at home. • Ask stores to sell or give away reusable bags with their logos for advertising.
The Western North Carolina Climate Action Coalition https://WNCClimateAction.com “What You Can Do” https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/get-involved/what-you-can-do/ “Plastic Bag Facts” https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/sustainability/plastic_bag_facts.html https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/ madison/2021/03/23/madison-county-rethinkswaste-disposal-fees-after-community-scrutiny/4749755001/ https://www.themountaineer.com/opinion/col umns/triple-win-climate-solutions-say-no-toplastic-bags/article_5cb3a91c-ff66-11ea-832c573729aa2f29.html
On the shelf
LEAVING THE
“I believe that a novel is successful to the extent that it touches the emotions of the reader. And something similar may be true of all works of art. It is certainly true of cathedrals. Our encounters with them are emotional. When we see them we are awestruck. When we walk around we are enraptured by their grace and light. When we sit quietly we are possessed by a sense of peace. “And when one burns, we weep.”
Jeff Minick
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Almost immediately, Follett flew to Paris, where he spoke on a French television show of his love for these churches and the place they held in his heart. Just before returning to England, he also met with his French publisher, who asked if he would write a book about Notre-Dame, with the profits going to the rebuilding fund. Follett replied, “I’ll start tomorrow,” and by April 26 he had finished his tribute to Notre-Dame. Into this slim volume Follett jams an enormous amount of information about this great cathedral, its decades-long construction, periods of repair, particularly the damage done by radicals in the French Revolution, and its place as a symbol of freedom when the Allies occupied Paris in 1944. He also gives us thumbnail sketches of other authors entranced by these ancient places of worship, like Victor Hugo whose Hunchback of Notre-Dame was not only a best selling novel but also “has been made into at least thirteen films, five television series, five plays, fifteen stage musicals, five ballets, two BBC radio series, and a video game.” Here, too, Follett recounts the dramatic entry of French leader Charles De Gaulle into Notre-Dame to attend Mass when Germans were still offering sporadic resistance to Allied troops. De Gaulle was under fire as he rode in a French-made luxury car to the church. A brief firefight broke out around Notre-Dame on his arrival, and as one observer noted of the congregation, most of whom were on the floor to avoid the gunfire as De Gaulle slowly marched down the nave, “One could see more bottoms than faces.” Reading Notre-Dame caused me to think of all the art we have lost down through the ages from natural and accidental disasters,
iconoclasm, and vengeful destruction. The eradication of the ancient city of Troy, the Christian vandalism of Roman religious shrines, the sack of that most famous of ancient libraries in Alexandria, the Muslim rape of Constantinople, the attacks on Catholic churches during England’s Reformation, the Nazi book burnings, the Chinese cultural Revolution of the 1960s, the Taliban’s looting of Afghanistan’s museums and libraries, even our own toppling of statues in this country: this list barely scratches the surface of artifacts, artwork, and buildings demolished in the name of politics and religion. As Follett tells us, Notre-Dame was erected in a time when building techniques and available equipment were primitive compared to today, a time, too, when wars, famine, and plague ran rampant. Building “Notre-Dame de Paris took almost one hundred years … and it required hundreds of workers and it cost a fortune. The modern equivalent would be a moon shot.” And whatever gave life to those flames on April 15th — a worker’s cigarette, a faulty electrical connection, a terrorist’s match, we’re still not really certain — destroyed that monument to beauty in a single day. That fire drives home this lesson: to destroy is always easier than to create. We should hold that lesson in mind not just in regard to a building, a painting, or a book, but also in our work, our relationships, and our lives. At the end of his homage to Notre-Dame, Follett reminds us of the power of such a magnificent work of art:
July 21-27, 2021
n April 15, 2019, Notre-Dame de Paris, one of the world’s most beloved architectural landmarks, caught fire. The blaze started in the roof, incinerating the enormous ancient wooden beams located there and causing the collapse of the central spire, which “leaned sideways, snapped like a matchstick, and crashed through the flaming roof of the nave.” That description comes from Ken Follett’s Notre-Dame: A Short History of Writer the Meaning of Cathedrals (Viking, 2019, 62 pages). Many readers have become fans of this prolific author’s novels over the years, particularly his thrillers and his historical novels, including the bestselling Pillars of the Earth trilogy centered on an English cathedral and its place in the fictional village of Kingsbridge from medieval to Elizabethan times. A prequel set in 997 A.D., The Evening and the Morning, was released in 2020. During his research for Pillars of the Earth, Follett visited many European cathedrals, studying everything from the building materials used in their construction to all the laborious tasks performed by those who built these incredible structures. After a friend called on the evening of April 15th and told him to turn on his television, Follett describes his emotions as he watched the catastrophe unfolding in Paris:
WHAT COULD POSSIBLY
arts & entertainment
Ken Follett’s tribute to Notre Dame O
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MOUNTAINS
The Friends of the Albert Carlton Cashiers Library will present USA Today bestselling author Susan Meissner at 3 p.m. Friday, July 30, at The Village Green Commons Hall in Cashiers. She is the author of several award-winning historical fiction books such as Bright As Heaven, Secrets of a Charmed Life, and Fall of Marigolds. Her most recent release is The Nature of Fragile Things, highlights a significant moment in San Francisco’s history, the destructive Great Earthquake of 1906 and one woman’s journey of rebuilding in its wake. Books will be available to buy and the author to sign. These events are by reservation as seating is limited. For reservations, call the Cashiers library at 828.743.0215. For more information, visit The Village Green website at www.villagegreencashiersnc.com.
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“The scene dazed and disturbed us profoundly. I was on the verge of tears. Something priceless was dying in front of our eyes. The feeling was bewildering, as if the earth was shaking.”
(Jeff Minick reviews books and has written four of his own: two novels, Amanda Bell and Dust On Their Wings, and two works of nonfiction, Learning As I Go and Movies Make the Man. minick0301@gmail.com)
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Outdoors
Smoky Mountain News
Emerald ash borer larvae create tunnels called ‘galleries’ as they chew through the tree’s living tissue. Donated photo
STAYING ALIVE MountainTrue protects A.T. ash trees as research progresses against invasive threat BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER or millions of years, ash trees have grown tall and strong across the landscape today known as the United States — but for now, keeping them alive requires regular treatment with expensive chemicals and $2,000 worth of specialized equipment. “We’ve been using a stem injection technique that requires you to actually drill holes into the stem of the tree,” said Josh Kelly, public lands biologist for MountainTrue. Just last week, MountainTrue’s crew was treating trees along the Appalachian Trail near Max Patch, inserting small plastic plugs into the tree trunks. They then filled the plugs — which contain a gasket to keep liquid inside — with $500-per-liter insecticide using a $2,000 injector equipped with an air hose and pressurized air tank. MountainTrue first treated ash trees in 2017 using an insecticide guaranteed to pro-
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tect the trees for one year, but in 2018 switched to a more expensive chemical that offers three years of protection. Now they’re revisiting all the trees they treated in 2018. “So much of the time is just hiking out to get to the trees, so labor is real expensive,” he said. “The chemical is super expensive as well, but we did the math and figured out that even though it was a more expensive chemical, the longer time between treatments made it economical.” The treatment appears to work. The ash trees that didn’t receive injections are all dead.
EXPENSIVE PROTECTION MountainTrue’s efforts are keeping more than 1,000 ash trees in Western North Carolina safe from the invasive emerald ash borer, a beetle that was initially discovered in the U.S. in 2002. Since it was first found chewing through Detroit-area trees, the metallic green insect has spread throughout the eastern half of the U.S. and Canada, arriving in North Carolina in 2013. Originally from Asia, the beetle typically kills trees within five years of infestation. Adult insects lay eggs on the tree’s bark, and when the eggs hatch, the larvae bore down and feed on the layers responsible
different areas. And often, when the beetles kill the above-ground portion of the ash tree, the roots will sprout up again. The larvae can’t inhabit trees that are less than an inch in diameter, but if the beetles are still around when the sprouts reach that size, there could be a reinfestation. “Probably the best thing that people can do right now if they have an ash tree they want to save is to use chemicals, but there are some longterm sustainable management approaches that are being researched,” said Kelly Oten, an assistant professor and extension The invasive emerald ash borer has decimated specialist in N.C. State North American ash populations since its first University’s Department detection in 2002. APHIS photo of Forestry and Environmental Resources. One of those approaches? Fighting fire with fire. After the emerald ash borer arrived in the United States, researchers traveled to Asia and brought back 12 species that prey on the beetle in its native range. After extensive testing, four of MountainTrue to treat 890 ash trees along the those 12 species were approved for release in the U.S. All four are wasps — “really, really trail in North Carolina. Not only would their death impede the aesthetic beauty and ecolog- tiny wasps” said Oten, that don’t sting people — that lay their eggs on or in the ash borer, ical functionality of the forest, but it would create a safety hazard and maintenance issues eventually killing it. The first wasps were released in 2007 when they inevitably fell across the trail. where the ash borer made its earlier appearMountainTrue also treats a couple hundred ances in the Midwest and New England, and other trees in backcountry areas of the mounthe species are becoming established there, tain region. said Oten. North Carolina has hosted such Currently in the midst of giving all 1,000wasps since 2013, with nearly 100,00 being plus trees an additional three-year reprieve, Kelly expects to do it again in 2024, and possi- released since then. Current N.C. State research is evaluating whether those releases bly yet again in 2027. But soon, he hopes, the were successful. injections won’t be necessary. While there are native species that eat “If we’re lucky,” he said, “the emerald ash emerald ash borers, they’re not as effective as borer starves itself to death by killing all its host trees and we may be able to stop treating the beetle’s natural predators. “We have woodpeckers that attack trees at some point.” that are infested with emerald ash borers,” said Oten. “We also have many native paraRING ON THE WASPS sitoids that attack some of our native woodborers and as opportunities presented themThe future of the ash tree is an uncertain selves, they also started attacking emerald ash one, and experts say there are multiple possiborers. In both cases, though, it’s simply not ble endings to its story. The emerald ash borer feeds exclusively on enough to keep the population low enough to save trees, which is why we’re looking for the ash species — though not the mountain ash, natural enemies.” which is not a true ash and belongs to an entirely different family — and the white fringetree. In its native Asia, it has multiple INGERING ASH effective natural predators to keep its populations in check, but that’s not the case here. So, Perhaps the greatest hope for the ash tree, once it completes its ravage of the North though, may lie within the tree itself. In places American ash population, its numbers could like Michigan, where the ash borer hit first crash down to nothing. and has already swept through virtually the Of course, timing and the effectiveness of entire ash population, some trees still stand. rules limiting its ability to travel from state to “Those have been termed ‘lingering ash,’” state will impact how that plays out. said Oten. “In areas where the emerald ash Infestations in different regions are occurring borer have been infesting for quite some time, on different timelines, and the same mechathey have determined that about 0.1% of ash nisms that allowed the beetle to spread initial- might have resistance.” ly could let it jump back and forth between If that’s the case, then the ash tree for moving water and nutrients through the tree. Eventually, they girdle the tree, killing it. Right now, the only surefire way to keep an ash tree from succumbing is to use the expensive treatment method that Kelly’s team is carrying into backcountry areas around the region. Including labor, one year of protection for a 20-inch-diameter tree costs $25-30. Most of the funding comes from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, which is using money from its N.C. license plate program to pay
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Conservancy marks land protection achievements
Christmas in July!
outdoors
The Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina celebrated a pair of conservation achievements in recent months that together protect more than 650 acres of land in Rutherford and Caldwell counties. n One of the most notable transactions in the conservancy’s 25-year history was an Earth Day gift April 20 of a 322-acre tract within a corridor of the National Wild and Scenic Wilson Creek in Caldwell County. The donation fills in a missing segment of protected public lands along the river, bordered on three sides by the Pisgah National Forest. It includes 2.3 miles of river that is designated for recreation under the Wild and Scenic River System. n On June 29, a donation of 222 acres in the Thermal City area of Rutherford County marked the first of a two-part planned gift by the Cameron family. In their estate, David and Martha Cameron will bequeath their remaining 101 acres to the conservancy, with their son Rob Messick also participating in the 222-acre donation now completed. The property includes unique features such as a balanced rock the size of a van and various rare plants. n On July 13, the conservancy purchased 118 acres in the Globe area of Caldwell
2020 Burntfield Branch flows through the heart of a recently conserved property in Caldwell County. Foothills Conservancy photo County along N.C. 90 and Johns River. The property is surrounded on three sides by the Pisgah National Forest and will soon be officially added to the national forest. It contains an undeveloped portion of the existing Johns River Valley Camp property and a stream called Burntfield Branch. The acquisition will bring new public fishing and access opportunities to the area as well as a wildflower trail and protection for a section of the Johns River that starts near Blowing Rock.
and, hopefully, repopulating the landscape — will be a time-consuming process lasting decades. “It takes some time for them to grow, and if the way we establish (resistance) is to subject them to the pest, then we’re looking at a very long time,” said Oten. If scientists establish that the trees are resistant to the ash borer, the next step will be determining which genes control resistance and then using that knowledge to spur the ash population on to a new life — similar to current research aimed at resurrecting the American chestnut. Though, unlike in the case of the chestnut, this approach would not require mixing the native species’ genes with that of a nonnative species. Chestnut and ash are far from being the only trees under threat from invasive pests. Disease has devastated the American elm and the white walnut, with the hemlock wooly adelgid decimating hemlock A crewmember inoculates an populations and emerging disash tree near Max Path. ease boding ill for black walnuts Donated photo and oak trees. Just as the approaches being used to save the ash tree borrow from lessons learned by 32 of those trees will remain following infeschestnut researchers, so might the solutions tation — the results will indicate whether to the emerald ash borer problem have the 0.1% figure observed further north implications for the future of other tree holds true in the South. While those northspecies facing invasive foes. ern areas have a significant number of pure “Every time we work with a new invasive ash stands, in North Carolina ash tends to and come up with solutions for how to grow mixed in with other species, making manage it,” said Oten, “those solutions survivors harder to spot and the Raleighbecome models for how we might manage area stand important to study. similar pests once they are reintroduced.” Nevertheless, confirming resistance — may eventually rebuild its population after the ash borer completes its initial ravage. About 20 years ago, a stand of about 32,000 ash trees was planted just outside of Raleigh. If the 0.1% resistance figure holds true in North Carolina, Oten expects that
July 21-27, 2021
We are gearing up for our second annual HOLIDAY COOKBOOK and we need your recipes!
Submit recipes at www.tastethemountains.com
Smoky Mountain News
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Smoky Mountain News
July 21-27, 2021
outdoors
Take the farm tour
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The Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project’s annual farm tour will return for 2021, from noon to 5 p.m. Sept. 18-19 offering a chance to check out guided tours, demonstrations and hands-on activities at approximately 20 family farms in Haywood, Buncombe and Henderson counties. The weekend will let the public experience firsthand how food is grown and raised in the mountains, sample farmfresh products and meet local farmers. All farms are located within an hour of Asheville, with a full list of participants to be released later this summer. Hand-washing facilities or hand sanitizer will be available at all farms. Visitors who are not vaccinated should wear a mask and maintain social distancing while on the tour. Passes are on sale now, with one $35 pass admitting a carload of visitors to all farms on both days. If still available at that time, passes purchased the weekend of the tour will be $45. Volunteer opportunities are also available, which come with the opportunity for a free pass. Purchase passes at www.asapconnections.com or by calling 828.236.1282.
Lecture will explore ecosystem connectors Learn about salamanders and the important but often unseen ways they connect ecosystems during a virtual lecture at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 29. Philip Gould, a Ph.D. candidate in the lab of Dr. Bill Peterman at Ohio State University, will discuss “Density, Distribution and Diet: How Salamanders Connect Ecosystems.” The presentation will delve into current research on how animals connect ecosystems, with a particular focus on the role of salamanders in Appalachia. It will include results from recent work done in Macon County with the support of the Highlands Biological Foundation and the Highlands Biological Station. The presentation is the third installment in this year’s Zahner Conservation Lecture Series, offered weekly on Thursday evenings in a mix of virtual and in-person presentations. Free, with registration required at www.highlandsbiological.org.
The mountains of Western North Carolina contain an incredible diversity of salamander species. Donated photo
Do the Creek Week scavenger hunt It’s Creek Week in Haywood County July 24-30, and in addition to the full schedule of daily events planned by Haywood Waterways Association, the Nature Scavenger Hunt encourages participants to find “cool nature things” all around Haywood County. The list includes 18 items ranging from an aquatic insect to the Junaluska Dam. Participants submit photos of each item found, and the first team to submit all 18 items will win a prize. Everyone who finds all 18 items will be entered into a prize drawing. Learn more about the scavenger hunt at bit.ly/3z4LYlF. For a full schedule of Creek Week activities, visit bit.ly/3xROprK.
Highlands Biological announces annual soiree
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‘Faraway’ was first built in 1898 and was home to internationally recognized physician Dr. Mary Lapham. Donated photo
Journey through Appalachian music history Look at the history of Appalachian music with a Blue Ridge Parkway ranger to guide the way at 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 23, during this week’s Fridays at the Folk Art Center session, 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 2, at the Folk Art Center in Asheville. Follow the tracks of the original inhabitants of these hills — the Cherokee — and then the arrival of European and African people to the presentday understanding of Appalachian folk music. The Folk Art Center is located at Milepost 382 on the Parkway. No restrooms will be available during this outdoor program. Bring a chair or blanket to sit on.
Conservation leaders from Asheville and Brevard were among the 16 people and organizations to earn recognition during the N.C. Wildlife Federation’s 57th annual Governor’s Conservation Awards. “For nearly 60 years, this annual awards program has brought together a diverse group of conservationists to highlight the good news about wildlife conservation across the state,” said T. Edward Nickens,
NCWF awards committee chair. “We hope it inspires others to take a more active role in protecting North Carolina’s natural resources for future generations.” Jonathan Marchal, director of education at the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville, was named Environmental Educator of the Year for his work. Marchal has exponentially increased youth involvement by developing a curriculum that applies science to outdoor learning, using partnerships and resources to expand educational programming for school children. His work positively impacts teachers and students across the state by applying the outdoors as a classroom and ensuring that programming includes tradi-
tionally underserved audiences. Black Folks Camp Too, a Brevard-based business founded by entrepreneur Earl B. Hunter Jr., won the Conservation Organization of the Year Award for its mission to increase diversity in the outdoor industry by making it more accessible and enjoyable for minorities to go camping. Their core principles of sincerity, meaningfulness, measurability and sustainability help break down barriers and create more inclusive and stronger communities. Award recipients will be honored during a ceremony on Saturday, Sept. 11, in Cary. Learn more at www.ncwf.org/governorsconservation-achievement-awards.
A new website uses GIS, aerial imagery and field work data to create a landslide mapping tool that provides critical hazard data for North Carolina communities. The Landslides in Western North Carolina Project, completed by the Department of Environmental Quality’s N.C. Geological Survey, allows users to explore current and historical information about landslides in North Carolina. The resources can help users plan for and build resilience to landslide hazards and are designed for use by community planners, emergency management personnel, design consultants, educators and real estate professionals. Currently, the site contains information on more than 4,500 landslides, as well as a Landslide Hazard Ranking that displays areas raked at moderate or high risk of landslide occurrence in response to an extreme precipitation event. It also identifies potential landslide initiation locations and flow pathways. Data is available for download and updated as landslides occur. NCGS worked with the National Environmental Modeling & Analysis Center at UNC Asheville to create the website, which is at www.landslidesncgs.org.
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July 21-27, 2021
Local conservationists earn statewide recognition
outdoors
The Highlands Biological Foundation will hold its biggest fundraiser of the year with its annual summer soiree, 6 p.m. through dark Monday, Aug. 2, atop Satulah Mountain in Highlands. The festivities will be held at “Faraway,” the beautiful, historic home of Julia and Bill Grumbles. Last month, Julia concluded 10 years of service as HBF’s president, and her home — which boasts spectacular views and amazing gardens — was deemed the perfect location to inspire the Highlands community to support the Foundation’s work. Built in 1898, the original structure was a Highlands landmark and home to internationally recognized physician Dr. Mary Lapham, who specialized in treating tuberculosis in the early 1900s. Proceeds will benefit HBF’s work to educate the community about the Highlands Plateau’s unique biodiversity. Parking is limited, and shuttle service will be provided. Tickets are $250 and available at www.highlandsbiological.org or 828.526.2221.
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Display shows how plastic bag use adds up the importance of using reusable bags, to be featured 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, July 24, at Grace Church in the Mountains’ annual fair in Waynesville. The 1,500 bags in the display equate to the average number of bags used annually per U.S. household. Plastic bags placed in the trash or in recycling bins end up in the landfill, where they take up to a millennium to Judy Covin (from left), Brian Caffrey, Judi Crane and Laura Armour dis- degrade into play 1,500 bags collected for an educational display. Donated photo microplastics. Free reusable bags will be provided at Grace Church to package 1,500 plastic bags from collection bins at items bought at the fair. local grocery stores for a display illustrating Members of the Western North Carolina Climate Action Coalition recently retrieved
Help keep the trails tidy
Smoky Mountain News
July 21-27, 2021
Volunteers are needed to help the Carolina Mountain Club maintain secondary trails in the area. Ideally, two maintainers are needed per section in order to be most efficient during maintenance trips. A Section Rovers Crew that meets weekly on either Tuesday or Saturday is an option for section adopters who want to meet each other, learn about trail maintenance and get work done on alternating sections. Sections are available in the Pisgah and Appalachian ranger districts of the Pisgah National Forest, and on the Blue Ridge Parkway. To learn more about becoming a volunteer, contact Les Love at lesrlove55@gmail.com.
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Hit the trail
Puzzles can be found on page 38 These are only the answers.
Take a hike on Big Creek in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park starting at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, July 28. Phyllis Woollen and Vickey Watson will lead this 5-mile roundtrip excursion, rated as moderate in difficulty. It includes an elevation gain of 766 feet, with an ending elevation of 2,411 feet. It’s offered through Haywood Parks and Recreation, which has a full schedule of guided hikes stretching throughout the season. Hikes are $10 per person, and registration is required. Sign up by calling 828.452.6789.
Become a Master Gardener The next Master Gardener class in Haywood County starts Tuesday, Aug. 3, so now is the time to apply. During training sessions, to be held Tuesday mornings, participants will learn about soils, fertilizers, pesticide use and selection, insect and disease diagnosis and management, and plant propagation. Participants in the program must agree to complete each module of the training course and volunteer at least 40 hours in approved program activities within 12 months of the class, and they must reside in Haywood County. Extension Master Gardener Volunteers help the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service by providing research-based information to Haywood County residents about various gardening-related topics. Cost of $150 covers all course materials. Class limited to 20 students, with social distancing and masks required. 828.456.3575 or mgarticles@charter.net.
WNC Calendar COMMUNITY EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS • Indivisible Swain County NC, a non-partisan group engaging in peaceful, persistent discussion with government officials to act for the common good, will meet at 7 p.m. Monday, July 26, via Zoom. All are welcome to join us and share your concerns and ideas. Email maryherr2017@gmail.com for a link or call 828.497.9498. • The Glenville Area Historical Society Annual Ice Cream Social will take place Saturday, July 31, at the Historic Glenville Wesleyan Church. Call 828.850.7022 or email historicalsocietyglenvillearea@yahoo.com.
FUNDRAISERS AND BENEFITS • The Parish Fair at Grace Church in the Mountains will take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, July 24, at the church, 394 N. Haywood Street, Waynesville. • Feline Urgent Rescue of WNC (FUR) will hold its Fourth annual “Wet Your Whiskers” wine tasting event 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 31, at Wells Event Center in Waynesville. Tickets are $50 per person or $150 for a sponsorship ticket. Purchase at www.furofwnc.org. furofwnc.org or facebook.com/FURofWNC or call 1.844.888.CATS. • Sarge’s 16th annual Downtown Dog Walk will take place at 9 a.m. Aug. 7 at the Waynesville Courthouse Lawn. The $30 registration fee includes a t-shirt and dog bandana. Register at www.sarges.org.
HEALTH AND WELLNESS • There will be an information session with John Chicoine, SHIIP Counselor held at 2 p.m. Friday, July 30, at the Waynesville Library. He will cover the fundamentals of Medicare, why choosing the right plan matters and how to know the best option for you. No registration is required. For more information, contact John at 828.356.2800.
THE SPIRITUAL SIDE • First Baptist Church will host its annual Vacation Bible School, Aug. 2-6. A child-friendly meal will be served at 5:30 p.m. followed by activities 6-8 p.m. Visit www.fbcwaynesville.org for online registration or stop by the church office located at 100 South Main Street to complete a registration form. • Truth seekers meetings take place from 6 to 8 p.m. every 2nd and 4th Friday of the month at the Franklin library meeting room to have a short video or other presentation by a member followed by discussion and Bible reading. Contact jjurban55@gmail.com for more information.
SUPPORT GROUPS • Alcoholics Anonymous meets every Monday night from 7-8 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 77 Jackson St., Sylva. Enter at front of church through the door to the left of the sanctuary; meeting is first door on the right. The Church requests that you wear a mask if you are not vaccinated. • Narcotics Anonymous meetings are back "live" in-person after a year of being on Zoom only. Local meetings are 12 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays at Sylva First United Methodist Church in downtown Sylva. Entrance at back of building. Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. at Cullowhee Methodist Church and Saturdays 6 p.m. at Cullowhee Methodist Church. Meetings in Haywood County, Macon County and Swain County have re-opened as well. For more details visit ncmountainna.org.
Smoky Mountain News
n All phone numbers area code 828 unless otherwise noted. n To have your item listed email to calendar@smokymountainnews.com
A&E
• The 54the Annual Macon County Gemboree will be held July 23-25, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. There will be gold, silver gemstones minerals, jewelry repair and demonstrations. 828.524.3161, visitfranklinnc.com. • Boojum Brewing (Waynesville) will Darren Nicholson Band (Americana/bluegrass) July 23 and Sanctum Sully (rock/jam) July 24. All shows begin at 9 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.246.0350 or www.boojumbrewing.com. • Concerts on the Creek (Sylva) at Bridge Park will host Dashboard Blue (oldies/beach) July 23. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. Sponsored by the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce. www.mountainlovers.com. • Friday Night Live (Highlands) will be held at the Town Square from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Sycamore Flats July 23 and Byrds & Crows July 30. Free and open to the public. www.highlandschamber.org.
• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host Syrrup July 24, Bohemian Jean (soul/hits) 2 p.m. July 25, Open Drum Circle July 27 and AcousticENVY July 30. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.454.5664 or www.froglevelbrewing.com. • Innovation Station (Dillsboro) will host Jason Lyles July 25. All events are free and begin at 2 p.m. unless otherwise noted. www.innovation-brewing.com. • Lazy Hiker Brewing (Franklin) will host Troy Underwood (Americana/soul) July 24 and Arnold Hill (rock/jam) July 31. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.349.2337 or www.lazyhikerbrewing.com. • Lazy Hiker Brewing (Sylva) will host Anna Victoria (singer-songwriter) July 23 and Ol’ Dirty Bathtub (Americana/bluegrass) July 30. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.349.2337 or www.lazyhikerbrewing.com. • Mountain Layers Brewing (Bryson City) will host Aces Down July 23 and 30, Somebody’s Child (Americana) July 24, Wyatt Espalin (singer-songwriter) July 25 and The Dirty French Broads July 31. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.538.0115 or www.mtnlayersbeer.com. • Nantahala Outdoor Center (Nantahala Gorge) will host “Bluegrass with Blue” July 23 and 30, and Log Noggins July 24 and Pioneer Chicken Stand July 31. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 888.905.7238 or www.noc.com. • Rathskeller Coffee Haus & Pub (Franklin) will host Joe & Ivan (singer-songwriter) July 24. Shows begin at 8 p.m. Free and open to the public. www.rathskellerfranklin.com. • Saturdays On Pine (Highlands) will be held at the Kelsey-Hutchinson Park from 6 to 8:30 p.m. with Silly Ridge Roundup July 24 and The Wobblers July 31. Free and open to the public. www.highlandschamber.org. • Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts (Franklin) will host The Malpass Brothers (Americana/bluegrass) at 7:30 p.m. July 23. Tickets start at $18 per person. www.greatmountainmusic.com.
• Stecoah Valley Center (Robbinsville) “An Appalachian Evening” series will host Darin & Brooke Aldridge July 24. All shows at 7:30 p.m. 828.479.3364 or www.stecoahvalleycenter.com. • Unplugged Pub (Bryson City) will host Carolina Freightshakers July 23, The UpBeats (oldies/variety) July 24 and Tricia Ann July 31. All shows begin at 8 p.m. Free and open to the public. 828.538.2488. • Valley Tavern (Maggie Valley) will host Scoundrel’s Lounge 3 p.m. July 25. 828.926.7440 or www.valley-tavern.com. • The “Christmas in July'' celebration will be July 23-24 at Innovation Station in Dillsboro. In collaboration with Nancy Tut's Christmas shop in Dillsboro, Innovation Station will transform into a summertime Christmas destination. There will also be a sneak peek for the town's winter event, and lighting luminaries both nights. 828.226.0262. • The Cherokee Blueberry Festival will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 24, at the Cherokee Indian Fairgrounds. Admission is free. www.visitcherokeenc.com/events/detail/blueberry-festival1. 828.497.2717.
35
Visit www.smokymountainnews.com and click on Calendar for: n n n n
Complete listings of local music scene Regional festivals Art gallery events and openings Complete listings of recreational offerings at health and fitness centers n Civic and social club gatherings unseen ways they connect ecosystems during a virtual lecture at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 29. Free, with registration required at www.highlandsbiological.org. • The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is taking input on a forthcoming management plan for the Laurel Falls Trail, with public comment accepted through Aug. 7 with a virtual public meeting planned for 5 p.m. Thursday, July 22. Submit written comments or learn more at www.parkplanning.nps.gov/LaurelFalls. • Experience a half-day nature immersion with wildcrafter Cara-Lee Langston, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, July 24, in Macon County. Cost is $55. Register at www.alarkaexpeditions.com/upcoming-events.
• Bryson City Wine Market will host weekly wine flight tasting events from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The market will also serve wine by the glass from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
• Tour the Mountain Medicine Farm in Jackson County at 1 p.m. Saturday, July 24, as part of the Farmer-toFather Collaborative series. Participants will tour the forest farming plots at David Collins’ and Sara Steven’s farm and observe forest management practices that encourage access and medicinal plant growth while fostering the tree canopy as the forest matures. Plant identification and the use of test plots in farming will also be discussed. Sign up at bit.ly/2UxFVqK.
• The “BBQ & Brews Dinner Train” will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. on select dates at the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad in Bryson City. Full service all-adult first class car. Craft beer pairings with a meal, and more. For more information and/or to register, call 800.872.4681 or click on www.gsmr.com.
• Streambank Stabilization Tour, noon to 2 p.m. Monday, July 26, at Vance Street Park in Waynesville. During this drop-in event, take a guided tour of the Shelton Branch Stream Restoration Project with Haywood Waterways Association Executive Director Eric Romaniszyn.
FOOD AND DRINK • There will be a free wine tasting from 6 to 8 p.m. every Thursday and 2 to 5 p.m. every Saturday at The Wine Bar & Cellar in Sylva. 828.631.3075.
CLASSES AND PROGRAMS • CRE828 (Waynesville) will host Alcohol Ink Mug Workshop from 2-4 p.m. July 22. Learn how to make a gorgeous, unique mug with Alcohol Inks. Cost $20 - all materials are included. Seats are limited. To reserve your seat, email dawn@cre828.com. • CRE828 (Waynesville) will host an OPEN STUDIO from 2-4 p.m. July 23. Come in and create your own personalized sign. Cost $20 - $45 depending on size of sign all materials are included. Seats are limited on a first come basis. • CRE828 (Waynesville) will host Art Journal Cover Workshop from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. July 24. This workshop will get you started by providing the materials and instruction needed to embellish your cover for your art journal. Cost $35 - all materials are provided. Seats are limited; email dawn@cre828.com.
Outdoors
• Look at the history of Appalachian music with a Blue Ridge Parkway ranger to guide the way at 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 23, during this week’s Fridays at the Folk Art Center session. The Folk Art Center is located at Milepost 382 on the Parkway. No restrooms will be available during this outdoor program. Bring a chair or blanket to sit on.
• Learn about salamanders and the important but often
• Littles in the River, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday, July 27, at Canton Town Park. Join Base Camp on the Go and Haywood Waterways for a fun day of games and activities during this drop-in event. • Littles in the River, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, July 28, at Fines Creek Community Center. Join Base Camp on the Go and Haywood Waterways for a fun day of games and activities during this drop-in event. • Littles in the River, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, July 29, at Junaluska Elementary School in Waynesville. Join Base Camp on the Go and Haywood Waterways for a fun day of games and activities during this drop-in event. • Streambank Stabilization Tour, 1-3 p.m. Thursday, July 29, at Vance Street Park in Waynesville. During this drop-in event, take a guided tour of the Shelton Branch Stream Restoration Project with Haywood Waterways Association Executive Director Eric Romaniszyn. • Rain Barrel Workshop, 6:30-8 p.m. Thursday, July 29, in Haywood County. All materials will be provided for attendees to make their own upcycled rain barrel for home use. Space limited. RSVP by July 27 to Mia McDowell at miamcdowell11@gmail.com or 828.476.4667, ext. 12. • Creek Cleanup, 9-10 a.m. Friday, July 30, at Haywood Community College. All equipment will be provided for this pickup along HCC’s waterways. Space limited. RSVP by July 28 to Mia McDowell at miamcdowell11@gmail.com or 828.476.4667, ext. 12. • Haywood County Parks and Recreation will guide a birding tour at the Rough Creek Watershed at 8 a.m. July 24. The tour will be led by Kevin Burke. Contact Haywood Parks and Rec to register at 828.452.6789 or Ian.smith@haywoodcountync.gov.
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Employment THE JACKSON COUNTY DEPARTMENT Of Social Services is recruiting for an Income Maintenance Caseworker. This position is responsible for intake, application processing and review functions in determining eligibility for Family and Children’s Medicaid. Above average communication, computer and work organizational skills are required. Work involves direct contact with the public. Applicants should have one year
of Income Maintenance Casework experience. Applicants will also be considered who have an Associate’s Degree in human services, business or clerical related ¿HOG RU JUDGXDWLRQ IURP high school and an equivalent combination of training and experience. The starting salary is $28,496.34 – $31,417.21 depending on education and experience. The application for employment is available online at: www.jcdss.org or www. jacksonnc.org and should be submitted to the Jackson County Department of Social Services *ULI¿Q 6WUHHW 6\OYD NC 28779 or the Sylva branch of the NC Works Career Center. Applications will be taken until July 30, 2021.
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Military Business Center. Carpentry Instructor (10 month). For detailed information and to apply please visit our employment portal at: faytechcc. peopleadmin.com Human Resources Ph: 910-6787342, www.faytechcc.edu THE JACKSON COUNTY DEPARTMENT Of Social Services is recruiting for an Adult Services Social Worker. This position investigates reports of adult abuse and neglect and provides case management for substantiated adult protective services cases. This position also provides ongoing case management for guardianships, payeeships, individual and family ad-
justment services. Other duties include general intake and community outreach services. Requires limited availability after hours and on weekends on an as-needed-basis. Starting salary is $36,369.35, if fully TXDOL¿HG 0LQLPXP TXDOL¿FDWLRQV LQFOXGH D IRXU year degree in a Human 6HUYLFH ¿HOG 3UHIHUHQFH will be given to applicants with a Master’s or Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work and experience providing Social Work services. The application for employment is available online at: http:// www.jcdss.org or https:// www.jacksonnc.org/employment-opportunities. Applications will be taken until July 26, 2021.
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THE JACKSON COUNTY DEPARTMENT Of Social Services is recruiting for a Social Worker in Child Protective Services. This position provides inhome services to families when needs have been LGHQWL¿HG 5HTXLUHV limited availability after hours and on weekends on a rotating basis. The starting salary is $42,102.07, if fully qualL¿HG 0LQLPXP TXDOL¿cations include a four year degree in a Human 6HUYLFH ¿HOG 3UHIHUHQFH will be given to applicants with a Master’s or Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work and/or experience providing Social Work services. The application for employment is available online at: http:// www.jcdss.org or https:// www.jacksonnc.org/employment-opportunities. Applications will be taken until July 26, 2021. ELIGIBILITY/OUTREACH SPECIALISTHAYWOOD CO– PT Eligibility Specialist recruits, screens for eligibility, and conducts intake services for low-income individuals and families for the purpose of educating those families about availability of resources to meet their needs. Data entry, complete reports, DQG PDLQWDLQV ¿OHV 0XVW be able to work with diverse populations. Associates degree in human service preferred but not required. Experience in 0LFURVRIW RI¿FH VWURQJ customer service skills required. To be considered please apply at www.mountainprojects. org AA/EOE
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Legal Notices REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS/BIDS TO: Interested Bidders FROM: Mountain Projects Inc., Housing Div. SUBJECT: Self-Help Housing Development. Date: July 12, 2021 COPIES TO: Joey Massie Construction Supervisor REFERENCE: Request for Proposal - All trades for complete construction Mountain Projects Incorporated is seeking proposals from Framers, Plumbers, Electricians and HVAC Installers to construct single family homes for moderate to lower income self-help clients through the USDA Self Help program. Our location is Second Avenue in 6\OYD 1RW OHVV WKDQ ¿YH (5) homes are to be constructed there. Families will owner build choosing IURP WKUHH ÀRRU SODQV with technical assistance provided by Mountain Projects, Inc. Framing contract will be for labor only for all framing, window, door and vinyl installation. All framing materials will be supplied by the owner. Plumbing contract shall include all pipe, shutoff valves and connectors to connect ¿[WXUHV WR EH VXSSOLHG E\ the owner and installed by the contractor. Electrical contract shall include all Wire, Breaker Panel, Breakers, Cans, Switches, Receptacles and cover plates. All lighting ¿[WXUHV DQG DSSOLDQFHV will be furnished by the owner and installed by
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71 N. Main St. • Waynesville, NC
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Randall Rogers BROKER ASSOCIATE —————————————
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Amanda Cook Williams RESIDENTIAL BROKER ASSOCIATE —————————————
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828.452.5809
WNC MarketPlace
37
SUPER
CROSSWORD
BACKWARD WORD-BUILDING ACROSS 1 Really ruffle 6 Bozo 9 They may fly at half-mast 14 "-- Mia" (Abba hit) 19 Sao -20 Sway to and -21 TV's Greene or Michaels 22 Ovine sign 23 S 26 Asinine 27 "-- -Dick" 28 -- -Ball 29 2007 Disney princess 31 Add a letter before that to spell ... 37 Above, to bards 38 "How dumb of me!" 39 Fearless 40 Orbit, e.g. 42 Foliage unit 44 In the manner of 45 "The Zoo Story" playwright Edward 50 Bozo 52 Add a letter before that to spell ... 57 Close amigo 59 Really ruffle 60 Wet-weather headgear 61 Hay fever explosion 62 Former Israeli PM Golda 64 Big fusses 66 Capitol's top 67 Add a letter before that to spell ... 71 "I know! Pick me!" 74 Novelist Jaffe 75 Two before X 76 Deadly
80 Fruity, sourish dessert 82 The Cowboys, on a sports ticker 83 Falsify 85 Add a letter before that to spell ... 89 Pear, apple and quince 90 Main artery 91 Essen "a" 92 He married Lucy 94 Moor growth 95 Tennis great Jennifer 99 Young -- (toddlers) 101 '60s Pontiac muscle car 102 Add a letter before that to spell ... 109 Alveolar trill, as in Spanish speech 110 Tofu source, to Brits 111 Long stretch 112 Perfect little kid 113 Add a letter before that to spell ... 120 Gettysburg victor George 121 C-3PO, e.g 122 Stanley Cup gp. 123 In snazzy clothes 124 Media biggie 125 Tabby cries 126 Dems' rival 127 Bergen dummy Mortimer DOWN 1 Rival of FedEx 2 With 6-Down, yield a profit 3 Hot stretch 4 Macaroni shape 5 "Such a pity" 6 See 2-Down 7 Popped up
8 Two-pronged vehicle 9 Well-spoken 10 E-giggle 11 Dog's yap 12 Wildebeest 13 Composer Prokofiev 14 En -- (as one) 15 1989 Disney princess 16 Metric "thousandth" 17 -- Yello (soft drink) 18 Thus far 24 Germ killer in a can 25 Connery of film 30 "-- be an honor" 31 Subjects 32 In direct confrontation 33 "Trauma: Life in --" (old TLC series) 34 Guzzled, e.g. 35 Ill-gotten gains 36 Shimmery gem 41 Bride-to-be's clothing drawer 43 Lumberjack, at times 45 Nickname of Onassis 46 Phyllis' last name on the old sitcom "Phyllis" 47 -- -chic (hippie-inspired fashion) 48 Mild cheese 49 Italy's Villa d'-51 Brand of tea 53 Jacob of social reform 54 Part of ETA 55 "No --!" ("Sure thing!") 56 Studio tripods 58 Old-time actress Dolores 63 Water quality org. 64 Onetime ring king 65 Longtime soap actress Hall
68 Movie mogul Marcus 69 Bird beak 70 Tonto player Johnny 71 Gymnast Korbut 72 Seat of Hawaii County 73 Sharif of "Che!" 77 Uniform liquid suspension 78 Zend- -- (Zoroastrian scripture) 79 Rent check collector 81 Org. with putters 82 Levi's fabric 84 Subject 86 Univ. division 87 Hidden mike 88 Uplifting spiritually 93 Like King Atahualpa 95 Movie dancer Charisse 96 Aviation branch of the military 97 Great traits 98 Traffic noise 100 Yarn units 102 Intense ache 103 Real introvert 104 Tank slime 105 Vehicles near igloos 106 Tennis great Monica 107 Cantina chip 108 Grown gal 114 Boot part 115 "Vice" airer 116 Dejected 117 Swiss peak 118 Env. insert 119 Guitarist Barrett
ANSWERS ON PAGE 34
the contractor. HVAC contract shall include the entire rough in and ¿QLVK DV ZHOO DV VWDUWXS for the entire system to be installed in the house to include Manual J computations. Electricians, Plumbers and Mechanical contractors must hold a valid NC License for the appropriate trade. Digital versions (.pdf) of the two blueprints that will be bid on will be available online at mountainprojects. org. then click on About, then click on Bids & Procurement. The plans will be listed as Plan 1 and Plan 2. Contact Joey Massie if a printed copy of the blueprints will be needed to provide bids or with questions about the blueprints. Proposals may be hand delivered or mailed to: Mountain Projects Inc., 2177 Asheville Road, Waynesville NC, 28786, Attn: Joey Massie. Proposals must be received no later than 5:00 PM close of business on July 26, 2021. Proposal submitted via email should be mailed to the following address: jmassie@mountainprojects.org.
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38
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July 21-27, 2021
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Real Estate Announcements PUBLISHER’S NOTICE All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Fair Hous-
TOWNHOUSE IN THE HEART OF MAGGIE
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Smoky Mountain News July 21-27, 2021
