Haywood gets almost $400k for more flood mitigation

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS EDITOR

As the one-year anniversary of deadly flooding from Tropical Storm Fred approaches, Haywood County officials are still busy chasing down funding that will prevent or reduce the impact of future storms.

Although the county was not selected for a recent USDA emergency watershed protection grant, Haywood’s Soil and Water Conservation District Director Duane Van Hook did have some good news for commissioners on Aug. 1 — nearly $400,000 for dike repair.

“When this opportunity for the state flood mitigation program came about, we applied for funding to address three sites, and luckily we were awarded this grant,” Van Hook said.

In the immediate aftermath of the Aug. 17, 2021, flood, Haywood’s soil and water district gathered damage reports to determine where improvements could be made through debris removal, flood mitigation projects or watershed repair in the Pigeon River watershed.

North Carolina Emergency Management (NCEM) released a funding opportunity on Feb. 21, 2022, noting the availability of $15 million in funding for between five and 30 no-match emergency management disaster relief and mitigation grants.

On June 8, Haywood County was notified of the $379,400 award.

According to the notice of award, the funding can be used for flood mitigation efforts that stabilize areas and reduce future damage or for pre-development assistance to provide small and underserved communities with technical assistance to identify and design shovel-ready projects related to disaster relief and flood mitigation.

The project has a total timeline of 36 months, with the first year spent on acquiring designs and permits, and the second and third years focusing on construction and landscaping. The scope of work includes erosion control and stream bank repair to prevent flooding in the future.

One site, off Riversedge Way near hard-hit Cruso, is called Hidden Valley. According to the grant application, a dike washed out at a weak point, and downstream houses could flood if water rises above the lowest point in the breach.

Another site, off Pisgah Drive near Mountain View Church of God, experienced a similar dike failure that washed rocks and sediment into a field. Sediment could affect ecological conditions in the river, and lingering debris could make future flooding far more dangerous than in 2021.

Photos of the third site, Sunburst Trout Farm located on Cruso Road near Howell Cove Road, show absolute devastation. Figures included in the grant application estimate millions in damages, and the application also mentions that at least one of the six flood victims who lost their life was found in the vicinity.

The state grant is actually a reimbursement; NCEM will repay the county after it expends the funds, so long as the funds are used as outlined in the award letter.

“The state has stepped up big,” said Commissioner Tommy Long. “I’m very proud of the State of North Carolina for what they’ve done to help folks after the tropical storm.”

Due to excessive rainfall, the Pigeon River

slipped its banks. File photo

‘Call Me MISTER’ holds orientation at WCU

An instrumental program for educating future K-12 teachers while more accurately reflecting real world demographics began its second year at Western Carolina University.

Call Me MISTER, an acronym for Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models, aims to increase the pool of available male teachers of color in the country’s classrooms. The program originated at Clemson in 2000. WCU is the only institution in North Carolina to offer the program.

Kyle Baldwin was an early participant at Claflin in 2001 and was keynote speaker for this year’s kickoff, held at the N.C. Center for the Advancement of Teaching in Cullowhee. He now teaches fourth grade at Chattahoochee Middle School in Duluth, Georgia.

“The camaraderie that I got to build with the other MISTERS, the servant leader principles and other principles that were taught to us by those in leadership, were crucial,” said Baldwin.

Some of the requirements to be a MISTER include pursuing a degree in elementary, inclusive or middle grades education, or music, art or health and physical education with an elementary or middle grades focus; attending all scheduled seminars and activities; and, upon graduation, teaching one year in an elementary or middle school for each year they received funds from the program.

“Call Me MISTER is the beginning of our efforts in the College of Education and Allied Professions to support and involve minority men of color who will serve and lead in the field of education,” said Charmion Rush, WCU’s program director.

WCU looks to add three to five participants from racially or ethnically diverse backgrounds each year. For more information on the Call Me MISTER program, contact Rush at cbrush@wcu.edu.

From left to right, Call Me MISTER’s Montgomery Moore, Anthony Freeman and Andrue Smith, with

Kyle Baldwin. WCU photo

SCC’s Project SEARCH program has openings

For most of his life, John Beaulieu hardly spoke.

Years ago, a neurologist diagnosed him as having a frontal lobe that didn’t develop all the way, and he struggled with human interaction. His mother, Cynthia Reed, spent countless hours, days, weeks and months searching the Internet for a program that could help.

Then came Project SEARCH. Beaulieu enrolled last fall, spent a year in studies and internships at Southwestern Community College’s Jackson Campus then graduated in May. He recently landed a job washing knives at Creekside Oyster House & Grill in Sylva.

No one noticed the change more clearly than his mom.

“It’s been a total personality transformation,” Reed said. “You couldn’t get him to say a word before, but now I can’t get him to shut up — and it’s wonderful! He’s very outgoing now, and he’s always looking for ways to help others.”

Launched in 2014, SCC’s Project SEARCH program allows men and women from ages 18-30 with disabilities to gain marketable employability skills through hands-on internships matched to their individual interests, strengths and abilities. The program has a limited number of openings for this fall, and admission is free. Reed said it’s by far the most-effective option she ever found for helping improve her son’s life.

In addition to becoming more comfortable in social situations, Beaulieu credited the program with helping him improve his time-management and organizational skills.

“What helped me the most at the start was just diving in head-first and getting it all situated in my head,” he said. “Project SEARCH has helped me in a lot of ways that I really don’t have words for.”

Devonne Jimison oversees the program at SCC and said last year’s interns looked up to Beaulieu.

“Leadership is one thing we saw in him that he seemed surprised about,” Jimison said. “If I needed to place someone at the last minute in the café, or if there were other jobs that came up at the last minute across campus, I knew I could count on him — even if I couldn’t be there with him. That kind of flexibility really makes for a good employee.”

For more information about Project SEARCH or to start the enrollment process for this fall, contact Jimison at devonnej@southwesterncc.edu or 828.339.4486.

Rural-urban student teacher exchange awarded grant

Carolina University and North Carolina A&T State University.

Engagement Scholarship Consortium, a nonprofit education organization, announced the grant this July. The funding will support a review meant to strengthen the Transformative Rural Urban Exchange the two universities launched about 20 years ago.

TRUE allows eight to 10 education students from WCU, a rural and predominantly white university, to spend time at NC A&T, a historically Black university in urban Greensboro, and an equal number of students from NC A&T to spend time at WCU.

During the visits, students participate in campus activities and spend time in local schools, interacting professionally with people from different ethnic, racial, language and socioeconomic backgrounds.

The TRUE program has been funded by the deans of the colleges of education at both UNC system universities since the early 2000s.

With the ESC grant, a multidisciplinary TRUE faculty team will interview program alumni who are now in-service teachers in North Carolina, as well as their school administrators, to learn more about their knowledge, implementation and support of culturally responsive teaching methods.

The goal is to identify the professional, personal and community assets that TRUE alumni leverage to support culturally responsive teaching methods and then plan and implement a guided, virtual professional learning community for alumni. The review will also help inform future iterations of TRUE to enhance educator preparation and produce graduates who are well-prepared to teach diverse children across the state.

TRUE plans to return to a fully in-person format in spring 2023 after two years of pandemic challenges with hybrid and virtual formats.

Allied Health Quick Training Programs Career Day

Haywood Community College’s Career Services and Continuing Education Departments and Haywood County NCWorks Career Center will hold an Allied Health Quick Training Programs Career Day Aug. 10, 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. The event will be held at Haywood County NCWorks Career Center, located at 1170 N. Main St., in Waynesville.

The purpose of Career Day is for students and the community to learn about and pre-register for HCC Allied Health quick training programs, including pharmacy technician, certified nursing assistant, medication aide and phlebotomy. Local employers will also be available to speak with participants about available career opportunities now and in the future. The Nurse Aid Program is a short-term training program that prepares students to work as caregivers in a health care setting such as a nursing home or hospital. Certified nursing assistants (CNAs) are caregivers who help patients of all ages perform the most basic day-to-day tasks. CNAs work under the supervision of a nurse, and since they have extensive daily contact with each patient, they play a key role in keeping the nurse up-to-date on vital information about the patient’s conditions.

Medication aides provide service to patients by providing them with guidance and support for their medication needs. Adult care facilities need these workers to help administer medications according to individual patient needs. This NC Board of Nursing-approved course meets the training requirements to become qualified as a medication aide.

Through Phlebotomy courses, students can become an integral part of the healthcare industry by learning valuable skills related to collecting and labeling specimens for testing. Establishing relationships with donors and patients and ensuring their safety, coupled with the ability to obtain and process samples, are a vital part of a healthcare facility. A phlebotomist plays an important role in healthcare by collecting blood specimens from patients for laboratory testing, which is used in diagnosing and treating disease.

A career as a pharmacy technician prepares students to assist the pharmacist in dispensing medications and advancing patient safety. The HCC Pharmacy Technician Training Program is fully online and prepares students with entry-level pharmacy knowledge in community, compounding, and hospital settings. The Program is a PTCB Recognized Education/Training Program.

For further questions or information, please call 828.627.4669 or email vldevore@haywood.edu.