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

August 23-29, 2017 Vol. 19 Iss. 13

Bush, Skaggs to headline Canton Labor Day Festival Page 24 Balsam uses dye to thwart ginseng poachers Page 42

CONTENTS On the Cover: Whether or not to remove the South’s confederate monuments has become a hot topic following the violent demonstrations in Charlottesville. Gov. Roy Cooper recently called for their removal in North Carolina, but statue proponents say they are a symbol of history — not hate. (Page 6) A Confederate monument in Sylva stares out over the town. Cory Vaillancourt photo

News Total solar eclipse in WNC ..............................................................................................3 Tribal Council candidates speak ..................................................................................11 Paulus accuses Blue Cross of using bullying tactics ............................................12 Mission rolls out transition plan for BCBS patients ..............................................13 Jackson leaders debate health department construction ....................................14 Transportation plan for Jackson nears completion ................................................16 Clingmans Dome Tower closed for 2017 ................................................................17 Missing teen walks himself out of the Smokies backcountry ..............................17 Education News ................................................................................................................19

Opinion Civil War monuments don’t stand a chance ............................................................20

A&E

Smoky Mountain News

August 23-29, 2017

Canton Labor Day Festival returns ..............................................................................24

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Outdoors

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Balsam uses dye to thwart ginseng poachers ........................................................42

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Eighty-six seconds of sunlessness Eclipse viewers throng to Clingmans Dome

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A day with two sunrises

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Children pass time at Clingmans Dome waiting for the eclipse to begin. Holly Kays photo Mel Feit, 66, of Long Island, New York, had a better idea of what he was in for. As a 12-yearold kid, he’d almost experienced a solar eclipse.

The people he was with at the time decided to stop just short of totality, at 97 percent — 54 years later, the same eclipse had returned to the U.S. and he had another chance to see it.

“For me this is a repeat of something that I missed as a child,” Feit said. “It’s a science and poetry combined for me.”

Science and poetry both took the stage at

belied its impending disappearance. The roads remained miraculously clear all the way to the media parking lot on Clingmans Dome Road, and even at eight-something in the morning the place was abuzz with ticketholders and park staff. Before long, beach blankets, hammocks and fold-up chairs covered the sidewalks and grassy spots of the parking-area-turned-event-center, every conversation full of anticipation of the solar event to come and worry, accentuated by necks craned upward, that the clouds flirting with the sky could eclipse the eclipse.

I expected something dramatic to happen the instant the clock turned to 1:06 p.m., when the eclipse was to begin. Nothing felt different, at least not immediately, but my camera — set up at the top of Clingmans Dome Tower — showed proof of the cosmic event now unfolding. I could see it on the screen, the rounded edge of the moon butting into the sun’s smooth disc, making it look like a partially eaten cookie.

It was a little after 2 p.m. when the coolness set in — not the cool of shade on a hot day, but rather the calming coolness of evening, complete with deepening shadows in the mountains and pinkish hues in the clouds.

There was sunset, and then there was

Clingmans Dome that day, with talks from multiple NASA scientists, stories from various Cherokee storytellers, musical performances and words from Southwestern Community College President Don Tomas and Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Cassius Cash, among others.

“It’s just like a carnival,” said Danny Bernstein, an Asheville-based writer and hiking enthusiast, praising the planning that went into the event.

flutist Emlyn Johnson of Rochester, New York, who’d come to perform at the event as part of Music in the American Wild. “That corona sparkle around the moon was really just wild.”

For Lamine and Macciomei, the trek was worth it, 100 percent.

“You just kind of sit there afterwards for like 15 minutes, like wow,” Lamine said. “It just kind of takes your breath away.”

Douglas Morton, Ph.D. and a NASA physical scientist, would agree. Morton’s been excited for years about the scientific opportunities the eclipse would afford. The moon covers the sun better than do NASA’s best filters, giving the clearest possible view of the sun’s corona.

S EE CLINGMANS, PAGE 5

Holly Kays photo

“There was sunset, and then there was night. A strange night, hung not with a moon but with a shimmering, light-encircled black disc — the rare, unearthly sight of the moon covering the sun.” night. A strange night, hung not with a moon but with a shimmering, light-encircled black disc — the rare, unearthly sight of the moon covering the sun.

It takes a lot to impress a roomful of journalists. We’re trained to be skeptical, evenminded and maybe a little jaded. But there wasn’t one person on the Clingmans Dome Tower media post that day who didn’t let out repeated gasps and words of awe, or feel their heartbeat quicken, or just stand in dumbstruck silence as totality passed.

The corona was gone, it seemed, almost

Smoky Mountain News

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER acking to watch the sun disappear felt like packing for work, camping and an emergency evacuation all at once.

There were the camera bag, computer, notebook and array of reporter paraphernalia that I’d bring to any big assignment, but I also had enough food to last for a day or two, a couple gallons of water and a pack filled with camping gear should the worst forecasts of vehicular gridlock prove true.

My gas tank was full to the brim, and for an event that didn’t start until noon 50 miles away, I was leaving town at 7 a.m.

All that because on this day — Aug. 21, 2017 — the sun was going to disappear for 86 seconds from the sky above Clingmans Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and nobody could predict what sort of craziness might ensue.

As I drove sun rose with a brilliance that

TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE

August 23-29, 2017

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER xpectation reigned at Clingmans Dome the morning of Aug. 21 as buses rolled in carrying the 1,325 people lucky enough to snag tickets for the solar eclipse event at the highest point in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Some had driven hours, while others had been traveling for days, and all had woken up early to guarantee their timely presence at the bus stop against forecasts of heavy traffic.

But despite all that preparation, few of the people sitting on blankets and fold-up chairs along the perimeter of the Clingmans Dome Parking Lot truly knew what they were in for when the day began.

“I’m not sure what it will look or be like, but I’m told it’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing having a solar eclipse coming this close to where we live,” said Paul Lamine, 21, of Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Unlike most of the people at Clingmans that day, Lamine hadn’t gotten a ticket to the event. He and Allie Macciomei, also 21 and also from Michigan, had opted to hike instead. They’d planned to take the Mountains-to-Sea Trail up from Smokemont Campground near Cherokee but got lost en route and wound up hitchhiking to Newfound Gap, where they took the Appalachian Trail to the Mount Collins Shelter. They camped there the night before the eclipse and planned to return for a second night afterward.

The carnival ceased, though, as the eclipse neared totality. Ever since 1:06 p.m., the moon had been taking steadily larger bites out of the sun as it wended its way in front of our closest star, and by 2:20 p.m. the impending darkness had become palpable, skies dimming as though sunset had suddenly decided to fall midday.

For many at Clingmans Dome, the world changed in the course of the minute-and-ahalf totality that plunged the landscape into twilight and revealed the sun’s corona shimmering around the edge of the moon.

“It was really amazing. Words can’t really describe it,” said Jennifer Cox, 34, who had driven 11 hours from Maryland with her husband and 4-year-old son.

“I knew it would get dark, I knew all that, but there was this kind of eerie half-sunset that happened and half-sunrise,” added

as soon as it had appeared, the first shaft of sunlight creeping around the moon sufficient to erase the quasi-night that the eclipse had caused. Suddenly it was sunrise, previously silent birds singing morning greetings from the trees down below.

I could still feel the wonder of what I’d seen glowing somewhere in my chest, awe of creation resonating within me. This whole day had been billed from the start as a oncein-a-lifetime experience, but there was one thing I knew with certainty — I wanted to see it again.

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‘Just wait a while, for the right day’

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD STAFF WRITER overed in sweat, I could feel the slight trickle of ice water dripping down my leg.

Hauling a backpack cooler filled with beer and wine up the steep mountainside, along an abandoned logging road covered in tall overgrowth, I wondered if this trek to a clearing in a nearby cow pasture would be worth it, in terms of catching the solar eclipse.

We reached the side of the ridge, high above Bethel. The sun was hot as we laid out a few blankets, sliced some cheese, cracked beers, poured wine, and saluted to a peaceful, serene view and impending cosmic event, all in the presence of friends and family.

Every few minutes someone would announce how many minutes remained until “totality” or what phase of the eclipse we currently were witnessing. But, those reminders faded into the background. I kept focusing on the smiles all around me, the smell of the wide open field and mooing by the herd of cows watching us.

When 2:36 p.m. arrived, the sky darkened, the air temperature dropping by several degrees. A slight breeze swirled around us. I looked up, through my solar glasses, and stood there in utter awe of the universe.

It was a surreal feeling, almost as if I was under the influence of psychedelic drugs or something, perhaps even entering a state of consciousness far beyond my own comprehension, one where you start to question

Smoky Mountain News

August 23-29, 2017

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anything and everything you ever considered “reality.”

Everyone in our viewing group went silent, heads pointed upward to the heavens.

You could hear the sound of crickets, and of birds chipping when the sun reemerged, as if Mother Nature thought it was morning and not mid-afternoon.

In the midst of the eclipse, my friend played the Pink Floyd song “Fearless” on his smart phone. The haunting guitar chords and daydream vocals of the melody echoed in our small corner of the pasture, “You pick the place and I’ll choose the time / And I’ll climb / The hill in my own way / just wait a while, for the right day / And as I rise above the treeline and the clouds / I look down hear the sound of the things you said today…”

It was nice to “unplug” from the daily distractions and anxieties were often attribute to

Taking in the eclipse from the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute. Jessi Stone photo

Game of chance

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR t was like watching the slowest sporting event ever. Spectators with their eyes toward the sky shouted in excitement and booed with disappointment as the clouds passed over the sun.

“Come on, come on,” I said to the clouds. “Get out of the way! Move!”

It was a beautiful clear day when I arrived at the PARI — Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute — in Rosman that morning, but by the time we got shuttled to the top of Optical Ridge around 1 p.m. the clouds were getting thicker and darker.

But still, they were moving quickly across the sky and hundreds of people attending the special PARI event were still hopeful for a chance to see the once-in-alifetime solar event.

Everyone put their wine glasses down and put their eclipse glasses on just around 1:07 p.m. as the moon began to move in front of the sun on the right side. We all knew at that point seeing the diamond ring effect NASA scientists had been talking about all morning was going to be hit or miss.

I as “important,” where we tend to forget just how incredible it to simply exist, and being aware of how precious and surreal that existence is, especially in this modern era where we need to use reason, and also compassion, in dealing with the matters of the day.

What I took away from the eclipse was the mere fact we (everything on this planet) are simply a grain of sand on an endless beach of unknown knowledge, whether physical or spiritual. And there’s a lot of eternal beauty in that, knowing that you possess that cosmic wisdom (in and around you) as you interact with the world, and also everything beyond our home — the more you interact with the cosmos, the more it interacts with you.

CLINGMANS, CONTINUED FROM 3 But for all his expertise, Morton had never seen a total solar eclipse before Aug. 21.

The experience was unforgettable.

“I’m still kind of processing it,” he said about an hour after totality ended. “But I’ll be honest and say during the totality and during the time when everything seems other-worldly, I think it’s just a powerful set of emotions that comes along with the idea that we don’t often feel our connection to the sun, but it’s undeniable in a moment like that.”

Science knows surprisingly little about the sun and about its corona, and the helio-

Everyone got great views of the crescent shape of the sun as the moon eclipsed but those clouds just weren’t moving fast enough for us to get the entire picture of totality. Next thing we knew we had a 360degree view of what seemed like a sped-up time-lapse sunset/sunrise video. The brutal heat gave way to a cool evening breeze at 2:37 p.m.

We all laughed and gasped in awe and before I could even comprehend what was

TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE happening it was daylight again — just like it had never happened. No one seemed too disappointed with their experience at PARI even though the clouds didn’t cooperate. On the other hand, who could complain with the views we had from Optical Ridge in the middle of the Pisgah National Forest?

As I fought the traffic back to Waynesville through Brevard, I couldn’t help but think how incredible it was scientists could pinpoint down to the exact minute when all of this would take place.

This was the first eclipse to happen directly over PARI’s scientific equipment, but PARI’s campus looks like it’s been preparing for this event since the site was first developed in 1962. Even though I still couldn’t explain in clear terms what kind of data PARI’s 26 telescopes were collecting during the event, it was still amazing to see it all in action.

physics community is hopeful that posteclipse data will shed new light on these mysteries. NASA deployed a jet to chase the moon’s shadow across the country, launched balloons to look at it from the atmosphere and is using citizen science to learn more about how the sounds of nature change during an eclipse.

“Scientists today don’t have all the answers, so hopefully some of those answers are out there today in this group (at Clingmans) that will be inspired today by the amazing beauty of a total solar eclipse to be a part of solving those outstanding mysteries,” Morton said.

Cameras set up on Clingmans Dome Tower to capture the eclipse. Holly Kays photo 4

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M ONDAY-F RIDAY 7:30-5:00 • WAYNESVILLE P LAZA 828-456-5387 • WAYNESVILLETIRE . COM Eclipse chasers paid $35 to $50 each to park in a farm field just north of the Andrews downtown district. Cory Vaillancourt photo

We shall go on playing

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“The casual joys many of us possessed as children or young adults today seem so far away, until the moon and sun conspire to remind us of their import.”

Dear Leah, I need some snack ideas for my classroom that are dairy-free and shelf stable - Back to School Teacher

• 100% fruit and vegetable juices (low sodium) • Fruit cups and pouches with no added sugar • Shelf-stable hummus with whole wheat/whole grain crackers • Dried fruit like raisins or low sugar craisins • Nuts and peanuts (lightly salted) • Popcorn • Cereals •Trail-Mix

Smoky Mountain News

gazebo; a family from Asheville sprawled on a blanket; a photographer from New Jersey tweaked an antique camera.

The casual joys many of us possessed as children or young adults today seem so far away, until the moon and sun conspire to remind us of their import.

Gasps, squeals and shouts accompanied totality, along with a few tears and perhaps some personal resolutions to act more in a manner befitting the only known species of intelligent life in the universe graced with both the knowledge of astronomy and the aesthetic sense to appreciate the beauty of an eclipse.

Stranger days will track us down, of that I’m certain. However, that brief, dim Utopia will forever serve as a reminder to millions that there is more to it all than conflict, strife and hate.

We shall go on playing, Morrison said, or find a new town.

Dear Teacher, While you may have to double check individual items for ingredients, here are some ideas for products that are generally dairy-free or may have dairy-free options:

August 23-29, 2017

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT STAFF WRITER trange days, as Doors front man Jim Morrison famously sang, have found us.

President Donald Trump, a megawealthy real estate mogul-turned-reality TV star, now lords over one of the most incompetent, inefficient, tactless administrations since Warren G. Harding’s.

Concerns over Russian election meddling and North Korean nuclear testing compete for headlines with prickly domestic issues like the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and the fate of Confederate monuments.

They’re going to destroy, Morrison said, our casual joys.

Our nation is now more divided than at any time since a disastrous civil insurrection fought more than 150 years ago began to define more clearly the line between left and right and black and white, but not between right or wrong.

But when the black of night broke the light of day during the nation’s momentous total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, we were all the same color — for a few minutes, at least.

In that surreal darkness, we weren’t black, or white. We weren’t Carolinians or Georgians, Americans or Canadians, Christians or Muslims, Africans or Asians — as some of the tourists in Andrews were.

We were humans.

If only for one brief moment, we were humans, as the likes of Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, Barack Obama, Robert E. Lee and indeed President Trump slipped from top-ofmind to somewhere near the bottom, beneath a dusty old pile of half-remembered tasks belonging to the workaday world awaiting our return.

In the small town of Andrews — located at the center of totality — children from Pennsylvania danced to trance music in a

TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE

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A MONUMENTAL ISSUE

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT STAFF WRITER ost in the ugliness of the recent Charlottesville violence is the fact that the demonstration was originally centered around the proposed removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. But after protesters toppled a similar statue in Durham, new scrutiny has come to the nation’s 1,503 Confederate memorials – plaques and parks, statues and schools, cities and counties, highways and holidays, and even national forests.

Proponents revere these monuments as a reminder of a common history and heritage, but detractors revile them as perpetuating the glorification of slavery.

Now, governments across the country must grapple with a monumental issue that is already tearing open centuries-old wounds that have never fully healed, especially in the post-bellum American South.

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THE LOST CAUSE

Smoky Mountain News

August 23-29, 2017

On Friday, Aug. 11, a protest in the college town of Charlottesville, Virginia, over the proposed removal of a Confederate statue turned violent, as white supremacists, neoNazis, and other far-right groups availed themselves of the opportunity to showcase their views to the country and the world.

Counter-protesters from the left similarly availed themselves of the opportunity; clashes were reported that Friday, but the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer on Saturday, allegedly at the hands of a 20-year-old Ohio man said to hold right-wing views, shocked and horrified many from both sides.

One day later, on Aug. 14, demonstrators in Durham pulled down a statue depicting a generic, anonymous Confederate soldier.

As it fell, in all likelihood so fell with it the hopes of achieving a systematic and intelligent cultural conversation leading to a satisfactory resolution of the issue. Further complicating the situation was President Donald Trump, who on Aug. 13 failed to call out white supremacists, instead saying, “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.”

Despite relentless social media mocking, Trump doubled down on that non-statement days later with a contentious press conference described by The Washington Post as “off the rails” and by CNN as “a meltdown for the ages,” where he again blamed all sides.

Left unanswered are a litany of questions; 22-year-old Takiya Thompson was 6 arrested for the incident in Durham along

with three others charged with felonies related to inciting and participating in a riot and damaging property.

In a nation of laws such as this, the destruction of public or private property has never been tolerated, except when it has — like during the Boston Tea Party.

What makes Thompson’s act, for that matter, any different than those of Paul Revere, who committed more than his fair share of tea to the briny waters of Boston Harbor?

And in a nation of laws such as this, it has long been held that violence instantly delegitimizes any protest, except when it doesn’t — like during the Boston Massacre, where mixed-race runaway slave Crispus Attucks became one of the first casualties of the American independence movement.

And more specifically to this issue, what level of culpability in slavery is sufficient for a person to have their memorial removed? Is it the hapless, slaveless Western North Carolina Confederate conscript who died fighting for that which what he knew not — the complicated issue of states’ rights?

Or is it instead Lee, who was by all accounts an honorable man with decades of heroic military service to these United States upon which he would one day treasonously turn his back?

Is it none of them? Or, is it all of them?

FIDDLE-DEE-DEE According to a now-widely circulated report by the Southern Poverty Law Center called “Whose heritage? Public Symbols of the Confederacy,” North Carolina’s 140 — now 138 — monuments place it fourth among states with monuments, following only Virginia, Texas and Georgia.

In 2015, North Carolina’s Republican Gov. Pat McCrory signed a law that prevents the alteration, relocation or removal of plaques, memorials and monuments on public property without the permission of the North Carolina Historical Commission.

It’s ironic, but not uncharacteristic of McCrory’s administration — purportedly a conservative, small-government administration — to take out of the hands of local lawmakers the ability to decide what is best for their own communities, as with his controversial bathroom bill, HB2.

But on Aug. 15, North Carolina’s Democratic Governor Roy Cooper did the same in calling for the removal of all publicly maintained Confederate memorials, asking the Republican-controlled legislature to repeal the 2015 law.

An op-ed authored Aug. 17 by President Pro Temp of North Carolina Senate Phil Berger, R-Eden, called Cooper’s request “reac-

High atop a gilded pedestal, Lady Justice has since 1915 weighed her scales above the head of an anonymous Confederate infantryman overlooking the town of Sylva. Cory Vaillancourt photo tionary and divisive.”

President Trump on Aug. 17 called such removals “foolish.”

Cooper also asked the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources to assess the cost of transporting Confederate monuments to museums.

That cost could certainly add up, but at this point, can the state afford not to remove them?

The City of Wilmington leads North Carolina — the state that furnished the Confederacy with more soldiers than any state besides Virginia — with 14 monuments, roads or holidays dedicated to Confederates; Charlotte, Salisbury and Raleigh have six, Mebane has five, Kinston and Spencer have four.

Durham now has none.

Rep. Michele Presnell, R-Burnsville, voted in favor of the 2015 measure, and says she

still supports it.

“Now more then ever,” Presnell said via email Aug. 17. “ALL MEMORIALS [emphasis hers] should stay just like they are currently.”

In a further statement Aug. 18, Presnell decried the “cultural cleansing” she compared to the Nazi destruction of Poland in the 1940s, the Soviet obliteration of Christian churches in the 1960s, the Al Qaeda dynamiting of 1,400-year-old Buddhist statues in Afghanistan in 2001 and the ISIS annihilation of Iraq and Syria’s cultural antiquities that continues today.

Bryson City Republican Rep. Mike Clampitt wasn’t in the North Carolina General Assembly in 2015, but says he also doesn’t believe in removing or relocating Confederate monuments or any other publicly owned articles of history.

“Everyone should respect the beliefs, rights

news Left: A Confederate monument in Franklin was the site of a demonstration Aug. 18. Right: A screenshot from a Smoky Mountain News video shows Franklin Mayor Bob Scott (left) confronting demonstrator Joey Tonegas (right) August 18 near Franklin’s Confederate statue. File photo • Cory Vaillancourt photo

The first Confederate memorials began to appear before the war had even really begun.

MONUMENTAL PROBLEMS After that, a great lull occurred until the beginning of the civil rights era in the late 1950s. Monument erection then slowed to a trickle, although as recently as 2014, a plaque was placed in Fredericksburg, Virginia, to commemorate the 846 casualties of Maj. General Jubal Early's division killed in the defense of the city in 1863.

The very existence of such monuments at all is curious.

Objectively, the presence of mementoes honoring vanquished rebels in the country that outlasted and eventually overwhelmed the rebellion is a unique instance, to say nothing of the promulgation of the defeated army’s imagery, like the Stars and Bars.

But that probably traces to the liberal surrender terms President Abraham Lincoln dictated to Commanding General of the U.S. Army, Ulysses S. “Unconditional Surrender” Grant.

Grant conveyed those terms to Lee at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865, while Sen. Jim Davis’ ancestors presumably

“My last name is Davis, and Jefferson Davis was the President of the Confederacy. Am I supposed to change my last name to make people feel better?”

— Sen. Jim Davis, R-Franklin

Confederate symbols in the United States • Symbols of the Confederacy in public spaces.................................1,503* • Confederate monuments on public property ....................................700 • Public schools named after Confederates.......................................109 • Major military bases named after Confederates.........................................10 • States with official Confederate holidays or observances ........................................9 • States with publicly supported Confederate flags ...................................6 *Data does not reflect removals after August 10, 2017 Source: Southern Poverty Law Center contemplated their 375-mile walk home.

Two days later, Lincoln — from the candle-lit North Front of the White House — gave his final public address.

“We meet this evening, not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart,” he told an assembled crowd outside. “The evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, and the surrender of the principal insurgent army, give hope of a righteous and speedy peace whose joyous expression can not be restrained.”

If Davis’ ancestors were officers, they would have been allowed to keep their hors-

es, to help with the late planting and grim harvest that would soon ensue.

The fact that they were allowed to keep their lives, like Lee and Jefferson Davis and every other major Confederate commander, is also indicative of the generous terms Lincoln felt would speed reunification; neither reprisals nor show trials nor torture nor mass executions nor imprisonment occurred — also a curious, unique instance in the ancient global history of war.

Confederates were simply asked to refrain from taking up arms against the United States again, and sent home to their families.

“Nor must those whose harder part gives us the cause of rejoicing, be overlooked,” Lincoln told the crowd. “Their honors must not be parceled out with others.”

Lincoln was assassinated by a member of that crowd just six days later.

THE MISERIES OF THE WORLD “My family came here in the late 1700s.

They were just farmers,” said Alex McKay, one of Haywood County’s most prominent preservationists and history buffs.

Inside the old Haywood courthouse, McKay runs the Haywood County History Museum, which contains several pieces of Confederate memorabilia.

“Having an old family from this area, I grew up around it,” he said of the hundreds of other local relics — like old signs from Dayco and menus from area lodges long since vanished — contained in the tiny former jury room on the second floor. “I grew up hearing stories about the Civil War that my grandparents told my parents and I had family in the Revolutionary War as well.”

Among his prized possessions, he said, was a belt worn throughout the war by the man who delivered the news of Lee’s surrender to Waynesville, D.M. Killian.

Few have called for the outright destruction of Confederate monuments; even the most ardent removalists have suggested museums like McKay’s as the proper place for

Smoky Mountain News

A DREAM REMEMBERED

Baker County, Florida, was founded in 1861 and named for James McNair Baker, a Confederate senator.

Blakely, Georgia, is home to the last remaining Confederate flagstaff in the United States, which has stood in Court Square since it was carved from a lone local longleaf pine, hauled a mile and erected in May 1861.

Bartow (formerly Cass) County, Georgia was in 1861 re-named after Confederate politician Francis S. Bartow, who lived in Savannah 200 miles away and had never even been to the county but was far more popular than the unionist Gen. Lewis Cass, who served as President Andrew Jackson’s Secretary of War. According to the SPLC report, from the 1860s on, memorials began appearing with ever-increasing frequency until the early 1900s, at which point they tripled or quadrupled in volume through the Jim Crow era of the early 1920s.

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and privileges of others,” he said Aug. 17. “By not doing so, it is as reprehensible as the acts of violence. Let us embrace all our nation’s history, and by remembering it, our future will not be doomed by repeating it. May we respect and honor Confederate soldiers, their courage, their sacrifices, and that they, too, were Americans and are recognized by the federal government as honored veterans.”

Sen. Jim Davis, R-Franklin, said he too was against the removal of North Carolina’s Confederate monuments.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” said Davis, adding that those who don’t remember their history are doomed to repeat it.

“I’m not willing to let people tell us what they think the Civil War was about,” he said.

“Certainly slavery was part of the conversation, but so was states’ rights.”

As an example, Davis said that his greatgreat-grandfather, along with three of his brothers, was present at the Confederate surrender at Appomattox Court House in 1865, and then walked home to Western North Carolina.

“They were conscripted into the Confederacy and none of them owned slaves,” he said. “They weren’t fighting for slavery. I don’t support slavery. I never have.

I think it’s a blight on our country.”

The fact that the very existence of those monuments may make some people, particularly African-Americans, feel unwelcome in their own communities didn’t sway Davis, who wanted to know where, exactly, it would end — echoing comments made by President Trump Aug. 15, when he asked if founding fathers and slaveholders George Washington and Thomas Jefferson would be next.

Creating policy based on who gets offended, Davis said, would “paralyze” government.

“My last name is Davis, and Jefferson Davis was the President of the Confederacy.

Am I supposed to change my last name to make people feel better?”

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Regional reactions Governments across the nation consider removing Confederate monuments

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT STAFF WRITER he demonstrations in Charlottesville are already shaping up to be a watershed moment in American history; consequently, local governments across the United States — and even Canada — have begun reacting to the monumental issue of Confederate memorials in varying ways, and to varying degrees.

Beginning in the Civil War border state of Maryland, where Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh ordered the removal of four Confederate monuments including those honoring Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson Aug. 16, proposals to eradiate Confederate imagery have not only surfaced, but in some cases been enacted.

Duke University President Vincent E. Price approved the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee that had been literally defaced by protestors days prior.

A statue in Gainesville, Florida, was removed from the grounds of a county administration building to a private cemetery Aug. 15.

In St. Petersburg, Florida, a marker for the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Highway was also removed Aug. 15 along with a Confederate monument in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Forever cemetery and a plaque in Montreal, Quebec, commemorating Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ post-

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On Aug. 14, the Memphis, Tennessee, city council again called for the removal of a statue of Nathan Bedford Forest, a brilliant military strategist who was also a slave trader and a high-ranking member of the postwar Ku Klux Klan. The town was thwarted in a similar 2015 attempt by the Tennessee Historic Commission.

Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam has likewise called for the removal of a bust of Forrest in the state capitol.

Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger asked UNC Chancellor Carol Folt Aug. 16 to request approval from the North Carolina

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August 23-29, 2017

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war residence there.

On Aug. 16, the San Diego City Council removed makers denoting the Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway just as two markers honoring Robert E. Lee were being removed from a Brooklyn, New York, park.

A Franklin, Ohio, monument was removed Aug. 17, as was one in Madison, Wisconsin.

One day later, Helena, Montana’s Confederate Memorial Fountain was removed.

Although the number of Confederate monuments being removed and relocated grows by the day, there are still almost 1,500 remaining. In the jurisdictions that play home to them, calls for removal greatly outnumber the actual removals that have already taken place — for now.

U. S. Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said last week he intends to introduce legislation proposing the removal of several Confederate statues in the Capitol; House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi also supports the notion.

Charlottesville, Virginia, Mayor Mike Signer recently changed his position and called for the removal of the statue of Robert E. Lee at the center of his town’s demonstrations Aug. 12.

Richmond, Virginia, was the Confederacy’s capital until it fell to Union forces on April 3, 1865, but the Confederacy is alive and well on Monument Avenue, where imposing statues of major Confederates Lee, Jackson, J.E.B Stuart and Confederate Naval Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury stand prominently. Mayor Levar Stoney has called for their removal.

Richmond, Virginia, was the Confederacy’s capital until it fell to Union forces on April 3, 1865, but the Confederacy is alive and well on Monument Avenue, where imposing statues of prominent Confederates Lee, Jackson, J.E.B Stuart and Confederate Naval Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury stand prominently. Mayor Levar Stoney has called for their removal.

The Historic Haywood Courthouse is home to one of two Waynesville-area Confederate memorials. Cory Vaillancourt photo

such articles, that they might remain part of our nation’s history and be used as educational tools for future generations.

Just outside McKay’s window, in front of the courthouse on county-owned land, sits one of two Confederate memorials the SPLC report says are in Waynesville.

The 20-by-28-inch bronze rectangular plaque, set in a 5-by-6-foot granite boulder, was dedicated on July 12, 1940 and reads “To honor and commemorate the Confederate veterans of Haywood County. Erected by the Haywood Chapter United Daughters of the Confederacy 1940.”

Haywood County Commissioner Mike Sorrells said that it’s a sensitive issue, with high emotion on all sides; but unless and until the legislature repeals McCrory’s 2015 law, Sorrels said any discussion of the Haywood plaque is premature.

“I’m a local control advocate. I think that’s one of the ways they’ve taken power from local governments to decide what’s best in their own communities,” Sorrells said.

“It’s part of history just like Vietnam was or World War I,” McKay said. “We’ve got sev-

Historical Commission for the removal of “Silent Sam,” the campus’ Confederate monument.

At the same time, commissioners in Hillsborough County, Florida, said that a Tampa statue could only be removed if half of the cost was raised from private sources within 30 days; former Tampa Bay Buccaneers football Coach Tony Dungy immediately pledged $5,000 towards the estimated $140,000 needed. A day later, he was joined by the area’s professional sports teams, MLB’s Tampa Bay Rays, the NHL’s Lightning and the NFL’s Buccaneers.

Savannah, Georgia Mayor Eddie DeLoach told city council Aug. 17 he thought that the city should reassess the towering Confederate in the city’s sprawling Forsyth Park and also ask the state to rename a bridge into South Carolina originally named for a segregationist former governor, Eugene Talmadge.

A Kansas City, Missouri, Confederate memorial that was vandalized is now scheduled to be removed, as are busts of Lee and Jackson at Bronx Community College’s Hall of Fame for Great Americans.

Jacksonville, Florida’s city council president called for removal of the city’s three monuments, but the town also has several highways, parks and schools named after Confederates.

Lexington, Kentucky leaders also called for the relocation of two Confederate statues from the town’s historic courthouse.

And although protestors tried to pry a plaque from a rock in Asheville’s Pack Square, it will remain for now, as will the two others in the square.

Asheville Mayor Esther Mannheimer said that Asheville’s City Council looks forward to hearing from the community about removing, renaming or otherwise contextualizing the monuments.

eral monuments out there on the courthouse lawn. I don’t know why this would be any different.”

The fact that the plaque is intended to honor generic and anonymous veterans rather than a particular slaveholder may be what makes it different; less ardent removal-

MONUMENTAL PROBLEMS ists — especially in mountainous Southern Appalachia, where extreme poverty and lack of plantation-style agriculture conspired to keep slave populations far lower than in other parts of the South — recognize that the plight of Confederates like Sen. Davis’ and McKay’s ancestors was probably little better than the millions of Midwestern farm boys they were forced to fight.

“A lot of people are looking at that time with modern eyes,” said McKay, who also serves on Waynesville’s Historic Preservation Commission, which has of late been tireless in efforts to bring greater recognition to the town’s historic African-American community along Pigeon Street.

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ZOE & CLOYD

Saturday, August 26th • 7 p.m. • Tickets $15 / $7.50 for Children Formly known as Red June, Zoe & Cloyd spring from deep roots in American music. Founding members of the acclaimed Americana trio, Red June, and long-time veterans of the Asheville, NC music scene, Natalya Zoe Weinstein and John Cloyd Miller are set to release their second full-length album, Eyes Brand New, in spring of 2017.

Highlighting their emotive songwriting and signature harmonies, this new recording finds the duo returning to a full band sound with Kevin Kehrberg on bass, and special appearances from Will Straughan of Red

A 125-acre memorial forest honors Confederate veterans in southern Haywood County. File photo

June on dobro and Jens Kruger of the Kruger Brothers on banjo. Eyes Brand New showcases the breadth of their collective musical spirit, seamlessly combining original folk, country, old-time and bluegrass

“A lot of people are looking at that time with modern eyes.”

with sincerity and zeal. Zoe & Cloyd’s debut recording, Equinox (2015), met with high acclaim and the pair have continued to gain momentum with a 1st place win at the prestigious FreshGrass Festival Duo Contest along with performances at MerleFest, Music City Roots and more.

Dinner is Barbeque at $8 per plate.

— Alex McKay, Haywood County historian

U.S. public schools named after Confederates • • • • • •

Robert E. Lee ........................................52 Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson ................15 Jefferson Davis ......................................13 P.G.T. Beauregard ....................................7 Nathan Bedford Forest ............................7 J.E.B. Stuart.............................................5 Source: Southern Poverty Law Center

S EE MONUMENTS, PAGE 10

Smoky Mountain News

of McKay’s museum.

Out in front of the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva — at what was once the county’s courthouse — has stood since 1915 a colossal column topped with a copper statue of an anonymous, generic Confederate infantryman.

“To our valiant fathers: champions of reconciliation with justice, of union with manhood, of peace with honor; they fought with faithfulness, labored with cheerfulness, and suffered in silence,” reads a plaque on the west face. “To our heroic mothers: Spartan in devotion, Teuton in sacrifice, in patience superior to either and in modesty and grace matchless among womankind.”

The monument stands on county-owned land; Brian McMahan, chairman of the Jackson County Board of Commissioners, said he thinks it’s a teaching tool that can be used to illuminate the past, present and future.

“The monument in Sylva is meant to honor the average Civil War soldier who came from Jackson County,” McMahan said.

“It doesn’t honor any specific person. It’s a reminder of an era in our history.”

August 23-29, 2017

“My family members, my ancestors that were here in Haywood County in the Hemphill section, they didn’t have slaves, but they fought for the Confederacy.”

Not every white Southerner was as eager to rush off to war as Margaret Mitchell’s Tarleton twins were in her 1936 novel Gone With the Wind, but like Mitchell’s iconic Scarlett O’Hara, many instead saw the war come to them.

“When you’ve got Kirk’s raiders coming in to Waynesville, burning homes, raping women and taking everything they had, you’d fight against it,” McKay said.

Col. George Washington Kirk’s 3rd North Carolina Mounted Infantry was an all-volunteer force that terrorized Western North Carolina — including Waynesville — with what were at the time unconventional guerilla tactics.

“They burned the jail and released all the prisoners,” said McKay. “The Thomas Legion of our local regiment was made up of Cherokee Indians and mountain men. They saved Waynesville from being completely burned.”

The 69th North Carolina Regiment — sometimes known as Thomas’ Legion of Cherokee Indians and Highlanders — also fired the last shots of the Civil War east of the Mississippi River almost a full month after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox and shortly before negotiating the surrender of Union Colonel William C. Bartlett's 2nd North Carolina Mounted Infantry.

Bartlett’s forces had been pillaging and plundering in and around Waynesville.

Far outside Waynesville, near Devil’s Courthouse in southern Haywood County, is another monument of sorts — a 125-acre forest with 125,000 balsam and red spruce trees, spaced at 6-foot intervals.

Planted from 1941 to 1943, the trees are meant to symbolize the 125,000 North Carolinians who served as Confederate soldiers.

Called the North Carolina Confederate Veterans Memorial Forest, the site is on U.S. Forest Service land in Pisgah National Forest.

Federal jurisdiction over the forest prevents county officials from doing anything about it — even if they wanted to — and McCrory’s state law prevents them from changing the status of the plaque out in front

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August 23-29, 2017

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Swain County isn’t listed as having any Confederate monuments on publicly-maintained land and instead has a World War IIera statue honoring local dead from World War I, World War II, Korea and Vietnam in front of the Swain County Courthouse in Bryson City.

But in Macon County, perhaps the most prominent Confederate memorial in the area stands conspicuously in an immaculatelymaintained park near the heart of Franklin’s quaint downtown retail district.

It was there on Aug. 18 that about a halfdozen supporters of Confederate imagery gathered — for the third night in a row — to clear up what they say is confusion about their cause.

“They’re trying to say it’s a symbol of hate,” said Joey Toneges, one of the demonstrators at the 25-foot-tall marble statue. “It’s not about hate.”

Tonegas and several others arrived around 7:15 p.m. that night, setting Confederate and U.S. flags atop their cars, then waving Confederate flags in the park and on the sidewalk near the monument, upon which is inscribed a paean to “the sons of Macon County who served in the Confederate Army during the war period.”

Another man donned a Confederate flag and wore it as a cape while he waved a pair of large Confederate flags at traffic, shouting “All lives matter!” to the encouraging honks of several cars.

The event wasn’t marred by violence

and was mostly without incident, but for one; an unidentified white male walked by, exchanged vulgarities with three of Toneges’ companions, and then attempted to engage in a profanity-laced history debate with them.

“I’m born and raised, North Carolina, boys, born and raised,” the man shouted.

“Mountain people didn’t have slaves! We didn’t want to fight for those fucking people … they sent us up to die!”

“It’s about the history,” said a woman with the demonstrators. “If you’re not going

MONUMENTAL PROBLEMS to support, then you need to walk away.”

“I’m a Southerner! We lost! And it was right that we lost!” he shot back. “If you’re God-fearing people you don’t need to be with any of this shit.”

The man departed without further incident, but by that time, Franklin police and Macon County Sheriff ’s personnel began assembling at the scene. They were soon joined by Franklin Mayor Bob Scott, who directly addressed Toneges and those gathered with him.

“You can stay here and do it, but let me tell you — you’re hurting the town and everyone that’s in it,” Scott told Toneges as one of several children who came with them waved the Confederate flag nearby.

“I’m sorry, but that’s what you’re doing,” Scott continued. “It’s on your plate.”

Children wave Confederate flags near Franklin’s Rankin Square, site of a Confederate statue, on Aug. 18. Cory Vaillancourt photo “I’ll eat it,” Toneges said.

“OK,” Scott seethed. “Because I believe you’re going to have to.”

Scott explained that the monument stands on county-owned land but is maintained with help from the city and volunteers from a local garden club; no government funds, to his knowledge, went into the creating it. He also added that although state law would again prevent any alteration to the monument, there are no plans to do so anyway.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “But what this is doing is drawing attention to it. I have asked them not to do it, but I can’t tell them not to do it, because they’re in their First Amendment rights to do it.”

That the demonstration took place on a

busy Friday night just as tourists chasing a once-in-a-lifetime solar eclipse streamed in from Atlanta, Charlotte and points beyond to bask in the town’s totality seemed particularly to perturb Scott.

“I don’t like it at all. It’s an embarrassment to the town,” he said. “We’ve got people here from all over the United States, and they’re here in a prominent place.”

Still, the solution to this monumental issue remains elusive for Scott, Franklin, Western North Carolina and the rest of the United States.

“Cooler heads need to prevail,” he said.

But are there any left?

“I think so,” he laughed. “The question is, are they being heard?”

General Election is two weeks away

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER he 2017 General Election will choose the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ next slate of Tribal Council representatives following Election Day on Thursday, Sept. 7.

The Smoky Mountain News reached out to each of the 24 candidates running for one of the 12 Tribal Council seats, asking why they decided to run and what they’d hope to bring to the tribe’s legislative body if elected. The first installment of responses ran in SMN’s Aug. 16 issue and is online at www.smokymountainnews.com/news/item /20565-tribal-council-candidates-speak.

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Richard French, 55 Big Cove Tribal Council

Save the date

In each community, voters will elect two of four General Election candidates to serve a twoyear term on Tribal Council. The following list of candidates is ordered based on the number of votes received in June’s Primary Election.

BIG COVE • Richard French* • Perry Shell** • Lori Taylor • Fred Penick BIRDTOWN • Albert Rose* • Travis Smith* • Boyd Owle • Ashley Sessions PAINTTOWN • Tommye Saunooke*

• Sam “Frell” Reed • Bill Taylor*

• Terri Henry** • Lisa Taylor • Yona Wade SNOWBIRD/CHEROKEE COUNTY • Janell Rattler • Bucky Brown • Adam Wachacha* • Larry Blythe*** WOLFETOWN/BIG Y • Bo Crowe* • Jeremy Wilson

YELLOWHILL • David Wolfe** • Tom Wahnetah • Charles Penick • Anita Welch Lossiah*

* denotes incumbent ** denotes former Tribal Council member *** denotes former vice chief

Yona Wade, 36 Painttown Tribal Council

Boyd Owle, 62 Birdtown Tribal Council

tion of unity or division of its people.”

Reason to run: “While ever appreciative of those who have come before us, it’s time Cherokee moves beyond a simple tourist destination and takes its place as a leader of change and innovation for Western North Carolina.”

Background: Wade holds a master’s in performing arts management from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and has served on a variety of boards and committees. He is a member of the Arts N.C. Board and chaired its Arts Day effort, is on the Sequoyah Fund’s board of directors and has chaired the Painttown Community Club. He works as director of cultural arts center and public relations at Cherokee Central Schools.

Top priorities if elected: Create a strategic plan outlining goals and direction for Tribal Council and the tribe as a whole, particularly regarding the opioid issue, efforts to create a more diverse financial portfolio, affordable childcare for working families and renewable/sustainable energy.

Opinion on 2015-2017 Tribal Council: “While Tribal Council has worked to do what they feel is in the best interest of our tribe, I don’t feel we are where we need to be. If we were, we wouldn’t be seeking the same answers to the same questions that are presented every election.”

Reason to run: “I’m running for Tribal Council to bring back unity and collaboration between the legislative and executive branches for the betterment of the tribe and its people. My campaign strategy is simple: being open minded, honest and fair at all times.”

Background: Owle will retire from a 43year career with the tribe in September, having worked for the Cherokee Boys Club, Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort and the EBCI Sanitation Department in frontline and upper management positions. He holds a master’s degree in leadership and management from Montreat College and is currently a supervisor in the sanitation department.

Top priorities if elected: Improve housing opportunities. Improve health care. Boost employee rights and security. Diversify business activities.

Opinion on 2015-2017 Tribal Council: “The current Tribal Council has made both positive decisions as well as questionable decisions within the past two years but we must keep in mind any decision made will not be popular amongst everyone. Tribal Council members are elected to make decisions they feel are right for the people and the tribe and at times, and as the past has shown, some decisions can be the founda-

Bucky Brown, 52 Snowbird/Cherokee County Tribal Council Reason to run: “We have two communities over here, and I just wanted to help both communities and saw a great need to help both communities. It’s just to get this thing back to the unity part between the people and the councilmembers.”

Background: Brown is a resident of Snowbird and has worked for the Snowbird Recreation Department for 15 years, currently as a recreation aide. The position puts him in regular contact with a diversity of people in the community, and he currently serves as vice chairman of the Snowbird Community Club.

Top priorities if elected: Improve unity between community members and councilmembers.

Increase transparency and communication.

Increase services to elders and youth.

Opinion on 2015-2017 Tribal Council: “I think overall performance was pretty poor. I think it’s because Tribal Council didn’t listen to the people. They took things upon themselves and they acted upon it and didn’t include the people at all.

That’s where it’s left us in the state we’re in right now.”

find us at: facebook.com/smnews

Smoky Mountain News

The General Election will be held Thursday, Sept. 7, with several important dates coming up beforehand.

• Early voting will be open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Aug. 23-26 and 28 in the Commerce Conference Room next to the EBCI Election Board office in the Ginger Lynn Welch Complex on Acquoni Road.

• Voters can apply for absentee ballots in person through Friday, Sept. 1, provided they meet one of six criteria for needing such a ballot.

• The last day to register to vote for the General Election is Friday, Sept. 1.

828.359.6361.

Also on the ballot

August 23-29, 2017

Reason to run: “In 2015, I ran for Tribal Council because I wanted to put government back on the side of the people, and I still believe that today. Over the past two years, I have kept myself busy fighting for Big Cove families and voting for a better future for all of us.”

Background: Before winning election to Tribal Council in 2015, French spent 15 years working for the N.C. Department of Transportation before beginning an 18-year career as a tribal employee. His most recent

position was as a supervisor for Tribal Transit.

Top priorities if re-elected: Combat the opioid epidemic. Reduce the cost of childcare services. Create a tribal constitution.

Build homes for people. Highlights of the last two years were creation of the per capita loan program, progress toward constructing a drug addiction rehabilitation center and reinvesting cuts from unnecessary spending to tribal programs.

Opinion on 2015-2017 Tribal Council: “This past council we started out really well.

We secured some major accomplishments that help Cherokee people and use the full weight of tribal government for the betterment of our tribal membership. Moving forward, I would like to see Tribal Council come together, focus less on politics, and get back to why the people sent us here in the first place: To make tribal government work for all people and make their lives a little better and a little easier.”

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Tribal Council candidates speak

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CEO answers concerns about Mission/BCBS contract Paulus accuses Blue Cross of using bullying tactics

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR ission Health Chief Executive Officer Dr. Ron Paulus took to social media last week to answer questions from patients regarding the health care system’s ongoing contract battle with Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina.

Paulus spent an hour on Facebook live talking about the position he says BCBS put Mission in by not being willing to negotiate payment rates for patients. Mission notified BCBS in early July its intent to terminate its contract when it expires Oct. 5, 2017, but Paulus said he felt it was his only choice.

After six months of negotiating with Blue Cross, Paulus said it came down to Mission having to accept a new contract with a reduction in payments for the next three years or just let the current contract renew automatically Oct. 5 and accept a zero increase in payments for the next several years.

“Imagine never getting a pay increase at work while the costs of living continue to rise,” he said, adding that drug costs have increased 12 to 16 percent, medical supplies are up 8 percent and Mission gave employees a 3 to 4 percent raise last year.

“That only left us with one choice — to say to them we don’t want to leave your network, but we can’t live with zero or below — and we gave them a deadline to negotiate,” Paulus said. “They literally won’t speak to us about a contract until Oct. 5 or later — it’s a quote ‘corporate policy.’ They say it’s a matter of policy and in my opinion it’s a matter

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Mission Health CEO Ron Paulus answers questions from people on Facebook regarding the contract termination with Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina. screenshot of punishment — it’s not normal.”

Paulus equated BCBS’s lack of negotiating and its advertising campaign against Mission as a bullying tactic. Knowing it has a 72 percent market share in the region, Paulus said BCBS is using intimidation to get Mission to renew its contract. For example, BCBS has already removed all Mission Health providers from its online directory, creating confusion for patients. Paulus assured people that BCBS members will still be in-network until midnight Oct. 4.

“We all have trigger points and things that drive us — the thing for me my whole life is I don’t like bullies — I can’t stand people being picked on and I always sought to fight back,” Paulus said.

However, he said it was important for Mission to refrain from responding to BCBS’s attack ads in the newspapers and on the radio.

“This should be an issue of decorum

between us and Blue Cross Blue Shield. We are incredibly focused stewards of our assets — our resources are incredibly restrained. We just can’t justify doing radio and newspaper ads,” Paulus said. “We’re just going to take those blows.”

Mission has in fact advertised in many of the newspapers covering Western North Carolina to address the BCBS contract. Back in July, Mission had full-page ads in newspapers that read, “Our Mission is to heal the sick, not arm wrestle insurance companies. Yet that’s exactly what Blue Cross is forcing us to do.” The ad also directs people to a website, www.standwithmission.org.

While Blue Cross ads have contended Mission’s costs are higher than other hospitals in the region, Paulus said Mission’s prices are 23 percent lower that similar hospitals in the state and 7 percent lower than other local hospitals. Truven Health Analytics/IBM Watson Health also recognized Mission Health as a “Top 15 Health Systems” for the last five of the last six years.

Mission hasn’t made all this happen without sacrifice either — Paulus said Mission has cut $70 million in costs in the last year.

And if BCBS wants to point out Mission’s finances, Paulus said patients needed to examine the big insurance company’s bottom line. Just in one quarter of 2017, he said BCBS made $300 million — more than six times what Mission Health made all of last year. He added that BCBS had a 13.1 percent operating margin compared to Mission’s 2.5 percent margin over five years.

Paulus said he visited BCBS headquarters months ago in an effort to explain Mission’s challenges and successes. He understands that Mission needs BCBS and vice versa, but said communication is crucial to be able to come to an agreement. BCBS’s unwillingness to communication shows the insurer is unwilling to compromise.

Paulus used an orphanage as an analogy for how the health care system works — the federal government drops off 50 kids at the orphanage (Medicare patients) but only provides enough food to feed 90 percent of

them; the state drops off 20 kids at the orphanage (Medicaid patients) and only pays enough to feed 80 percent of them; then five kids show up in the middle of the night with no money for food (uninsured patients).

Somehow Mission and other hospitals have to make up the difference and feed all the children. Paulus said the difference is usually made up through the remaining group of children — or the private, commercial insurance carriers.

“They give us extra food knowing we have the burden of supporting all the children,” Paulus said. “It’s nothing new — not unique to Mission — every hospital loses money on Medicare and Medicaid.”

Despite the challenges, Paulus said he was still hopeful the two parties would reach an agreement — even if the agreement comes after the Oct. 4 deadline when BCBS will discuss the contract again. In the meantime, he said different sets of patients would experience various impacts moving forward.

First and foremost, it’s important for patients to know that emergency room visits are always considered in-network whether BCBS and Mission have a contract or not.

Secondly, if you are a BCBS carrier in your second or third trimester of pregnancy, you can qualify to continue treatment innetwork after the Oct. 4 deadline — the same goes for cancer patients and other specialized care.

There are also circumstances where BCBS may have to accept in-network costs for treatment at Mission affiliates if Mission is the only hospital that can provide the service in the region.

“They can’t create an undue burden on patients — if Mission is the only provider of that service in the region, they must by law provide payment for those patients with similar payment reimbursements,” Paulus said.

The remaining group of Blue Cross patients not covered in these scenarios will still be able to access Mission services after Oct. 4 but will have to pay higher costs because the hospital will be out-of-network.

Paulus couldn’t tell patients how much more they might have to pay for out-of-network services at Mission because Blue Cross won’t provide that information.

During this transition, Paulus said Mission staff would work closely with patients to help them get the best care possible whether it’s through Mission or another health care system.

“I apologize for you being in this situation — I’ve tried everything I can,” Paulus said in closing. “Although I’m asking you to stand with Mission, Mission stands for you — we’re here for you, we’re fighting for you.

I’m doing this because if we accept that below zero or forever zero option, we can’t take care of you.”

If you are a BCBS patient and have questions about services through Mission, call the helpline at 828.417.0480.

To reduce harm to consumers, Mission will provide a prompt payment discount to the balance of a patient’s bill after taking into account the patient’s personal financial responsibility. That discount will be applied when patients send their explanation of benefits (EOB) and any check received from BCBSNC to Mission Health within 10 days.

Paulus said this process is designed to manage the possibility of BCBC sending benefit payments directly to the patient rather than to Mission Health as the service provider. While that practice is already illegal in the majority of states in America, Paulus said it’s something that BCBSNC has routinely threatened to do.

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through this transition, BCBSNC can help their customers by honoring each patient’s assignment of benefits election,” said McDowell. “There’s no reason whatsoever for BCBSNC to send checks to patients once Mission Health is out of network — other than trying to harm Mission and unduly worry consumers. Burdening sick or injured individuals and their families who are under duress with the myriad complexities of medical billing and asking them to sort through BCBSNC’s nearly impossible to understand reimbursement methods is simply wrong.”

Employers who provider BCBS insurance for their employees will have to decide whether to continue their plan with BCBS and lose in-network access or look for another provider that is still in-network.

Mission recently renewed contracts with Cigna and Aetna and now offers its own employer group policies through Healthy State.

Mission Health will work collaboratively with any employer considering a switch from BCBSNC to another insurer to make the transition as easy and seamless as possible for them and for their employees.

“This is a sad situation. Not only do we wish this issue didn’t exist at all, we also wish it was simple; but it’s very complicated,” McDowell said. “Mission will do everything it can, within the boundaries of the law and an employer’s benefit plan, to ease this unnecessary transition burden on consumers.”

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August 23-29, 2017

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR Mission Health’s contract with Blue Cross Blue Shield North Carolina will expire Oct. 5, leaving thousands of patients to find another in-network provider or pay more out of pocket to see a Mission provider.

While Mission leaders are still hopeful a deal can be struck — even if it comes after the deadline — the nonprofit health care system has announced a plan to help patients through the transition. According to a press release from Mission, the transition plan will cover everyone with BCBSNC insurance coverage, including consumers with commercial insurance coverage and Medicare Advantage plans.

Mission CEO Dr. Ron Paulus has said Mission is willing to continue negotiations with BCBS even though Mission sent a letter to the insurance provider in early July saying its intent to terminate its contract in October.

However, Paulus said BCBS wouldn’t even discuss the contract with Mission until after it expires on Oct. 5 per corporate policy.

The absence of Mission Health hospitals and physicians from BCBSNC’s network may have serious financial, logistical and clinical access impacts on consumers who need vital healthcare services. It will also affect the many self-insured employers who pay for their employees’ and dependents’ care expecting access to Mission providers.

“Now that we know BCBSNC’s final decision is to refuse to even speak with Mission, we are completing plans and associated logistics for this important transition,” said Paul McDowell, deputy chief financial officer for Mission Health.

“Mission Health is committed to helping consumers through this difficult change to the degree humanly possible, and we will have the final details worked out in the next few weeks.”

State law prohibits BCBSNC from financially penalizing fully insured patients when a participating provider is not available without unreasonable delay. Because Mission is the only provider of certain services within the region, including but not limited to some heart surgical services, pediatric specialty services, certain highrisk maternity services and others, Mission will be assisting impacted patients to make full use of this important law’s consumer protections. Unfortunately, the law does not apply to consumers with self-funded employer coverage.

Macon RentalCo.

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Mission rolls out transition plan for BCBS patients

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Jackson debates health department construction No decision yet on whether to renovate, lease or build new

Granite, Quartz & Marble

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER hen the Jackson County Commissioners met to discuss construction needs in the health department Aug. 8, the goal for the afternoon was clear.

“We’re going to leave here with a decision today,” Commissioner Boyce Deitz said as Chairman Brian McMahan called the meeting to order.

“That’s our mission,” McMahan agreed.

“I would love to be able to make some kind of decision to give staff a direction to move.

This is a topic that has been on the table far too long.”

However, the meeting closed with no decision, and the issue was still not settled after a follow-up discussion during an Aug. 15 work session. Commissioners hope to reach a conclusion during another specialcalled meeting slated for 4 p.m. Monday, Aug. 28, at the Jackson County Justice and Administration Building in Sylva.

The decision in question is what the county should do to address the aged health department headquarters off of Hospital Road in Sylva. The 1960s building has an ailing HVAC system, cramped clinic space that doesn’t afford patients much in the way of privacy and a lack of elevators required to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. In fact, said Director Shelley Carraway, one section of the building has a broken HVAC system that can’t be repaired, so

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August 23-29, 2017

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Sustainable Haywood, an initiative created by Simple Solutions Specialist Tatia Childers, is inviting members of the community to join in the effort to reduce the amount of trash that goes into landfills.

Many things can be recycled if taken to the proper facility, but many times these items are simply thrown into the trash because there is no convenient drop-off point, or people may not be aware that they cannot be included in the “regular” recycling. Sustainable Haywood would like to offer to place a collection box in a convenient location at your business or home that would be labeled with a clear list of collectable items. This box would be collected once a month, or more often if needed.

Some of the items that would be collected are used/empty ink pens, Earth’s Best baby food pouches, Bausch & Lomb contacts and blister packs, Bear Naked snack pouches, old binders, Brita filters, Dawn dishwashing liquid soft packs, Honest Kids drink pouches, Clif and Larabar energy bar wrappers, Febreze aerosol cans and plug-ins, instrument strings, and more.

If your organization would like to participate in this new program, call 828.550.7573.

Granville Younce , CFP® Financial Advisor 52 Walnut Street, Suite 6 Waynesville, NC 28786 Office: (828) 456-7407 granville.younce@wfadvisors.com www.home.wellsfargoadvisors.com/granville.younce

HCC retiree receives highest state honor

Investment and Insurance Products: NOT FDIC Insured NO Bank Guarantee MAY Lose Value Wells Fargo Advisors is a trade name used by Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC, Member SIPC, a registered broker-dealer and non-bank affiliate of Wells Fargo & Company. © 2016 Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Granville Younce , CFP® Financial Advisor 52 Walnut Street, Suite 6 Waynesville, NC 28786 Office: (828) 456-7407 granville.younce@wfadvisors.com www.home.wellsfargoadvisors.com/gran

Larry East CFP® First Vice President – Investments 52 Walnut St., Suite 6 Waynesville, NC 28786 Office: (828) 456-7407 larry.east@wellsfargoadvisors.com https://home.wellsfargoadvisors.com/larry.east

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everyone working there is just resigned to enduring the heat.

“Our building is deteriorating rapidly as we speak,” she said.

Something has to be done. But commissioners have yet to decide whether that something is renovating the existing building or starting from scratch with new construction.

A 2017 study from McMillan Pazden Smith Architecture determined that the existing building could accommodate the health department’s future space needs and that renovation would cost between $4.7 and $5.6 million, depending how commissioners decided to phase the project and the cost of temporary office space while renovations took place.

The same study estimated the cost of a new building at $5.6 million, though that figure does not include the price of land. In February, commissioners voted to pay $424,350 for a 3.9-acre piece of property on Skyland Drive, not far from the existing health department. According to an evaluation from McMillan Pazden Smith, the parcel would be large enough to fit a new health department building and associated parking. Commissioners could decide to build there, but they could also renovate and keep the parcel for another use.

During his presentation to commissioners Aug. 8, County Manager Don Adams stressed that none of the estimates are set in stone and expressed his belief that the renovation option could prove less expensive than estimated, depending on what kind of temporary office space the county discovered.

“It’s going to be dictated on what kind of space we can find,”

Haywood Community College retiree Linda Caldwell was awarded The Order of the Long Leaf Pine.

This award is among the most prestigious awards conferred by the governor of North Carolina. It is awarded to persons for exemplary service to the state of North Carolina and their communities that is above and beyond the call of duty and which has made a significant impact and strengthened North Carolina.

According to a letter from Gov. Roy Cooper to Caldwell, “You may reflect with pride that you have positively impacted the lives of countless people. North Carolina is honored to have residents like you that are committed to doing their utmost. Your work ethic, commitment and dedication serve as a role model for us all.”

The building off of Hospital Road that houses the Jackson County Health Department is no longer up to snuff, and commissioners are trying to decide how best to address the department’s future needs. Holly Kays photo moving its Sylva offices to a smaller building.

Adams replied that he had discussed the possibility with the building’s owner, but that it was unlikely the county would be able to buy the building outright — any agreement would be more likely to end in a longterm lease situation. Commissioners were split on whether they’d even be interested in considering a lease but agreed to give Adams time to find some more solid numbers.

By the time the Aug. 15 meeting rolled around, Adams had some more information about the Vaya building. It is 20,800 square feet, substantially smaller than what the

McMillan Pazden Smith study said the health department would need. In addition, the space it did offer would require substantial remodeling to accommodate labs and clinical space. The building would offer the benefit of proximity to the Department of Social Services building, whose employees often collaborate with the health department. But it would be much further from the hospital than the existing building is, and that could make the clinical side of health department operations tougher.

“From a customer base standpoint, you’re getting some tradeoff there,” Adams said.

The building’s significant shortcomings

related to the health department’s needs make it unlikely commissioners will decide to move in there.

“This option for me is not an option. I’ve heard enough at this point without having to pay for another study to be done,” McMahan said. “I think it’s back to the point we need to make a decision on whether to remodel the existing facility or build a new facility.”

Mau agreed that the building probably wouldn’t wind up working but asked Adams to give Ron Smith, the architect working on the project, a call asking his opinion before tossing out the option for good.

“I think it’s worth a conversation to talk to Ron Smith,” agreed Commissioner Mickey Luker. “At the end of the day he can say, ‘$15,000 and I’ll tell you the answer,’ or he may be very candid with you and say, ‘It’s a possibility,’ or ‘I think y’all have lost your mind.’”

Adams has reached out to Smith with some questions on the topic and expects to discuss the issue sometime this week.

Either way, the Vaya building could still play a role in the future of the health department. Depending on the timing of the vacancy, it could prove valuable temporary office space should commissioners decide to go with the remodeling option.

The Aug. 15 meeting adjourned with, yet again, no decision, but commissioners are hopeful they’ll be able to nail down a direction following a special meeting scheduled for 4 p.m. Monday, Aug. 28, to discuss the issue.

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Adams said. “It’s going to be dictated by cost and things of that nature.”

The other variable in the mix is whether any construction or renovation related to the health department should be aimed at streamlining the permitting process for construction. Getting a permit to build typically requires visits to the planning, code enforcement and environmental health offices.

Environmental health is located in the health department, on a different campus from the administration building that houses the other two.

Adams told commissioners they could choose to build or renovate the health department as it exists now, or plan a solution that would allow environmental health, planning and code enforcement to exist under the same roof. That could mean building a one-stop shop within the health department building or moving environmental health employees out to a new location elsewhere.

“The perfect solution is to build a larger administration building here to where I can move everyone into this campus and get rid of everyone running around, but that solution is not going to be mandated for another 10 years,” Adams said. “I’m not really considering that an actual solution today.”

The Aug. 8 meeting stopped short of reaching a conclusion when Commissioner Ron Mau brought up another option — moving into the Vaya Health building near Southwestern Community College. Vaya announced earlier this year that it would be reducing its presence west of Asheville and

August 23-29, 2017 Smoky Mountain News 15

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Transportation plan for Jackson nears completion Commissioners will consider approval Aug. 28

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER fter more than two years of meetings and mapping and analysis, the comprehensive transportation plan intended to guide Jackson County through the year 2040 will be sent on for regional and state approval if county commissioners give it the green light at their Aug. 28 meeting.

The plan analyzes where shortcomings in the county’s various transportation systems will likely arise over the next 25 years, making recommendations from road widening to bicycle lane construction to greenway development in order to address them.

“What this document helps us do is to give us a jumping-off point for identifying projects by putting them into one planning document that helps us as we start to move through the next stage of transportation development,” explained Mike Poston, the county’s planning director.

With the comprehensive plan in hand, county leaders will be able to more easily assess what projects need doing and from there search for funding to bring them to fruition. The comprehensive plan itself does not prioritize projects or guarantee funding.

Of the bigger projects recommended in

the plan, at least one won’t be a surprise to Jackson County residents. The widening of N.C. 107 to a four-lane boulevard from U.S. 23 Business to just east of Fairview Road —

Smoky Mountain News

August 23-29, 2017

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the project also includes upgrading U.S. 23 Business to Skyland Drive — has already been identified as a priority project by the

SMART START BASKETBALL PROGRAM

Smart Start Basketball is open to children ages four and five with age as of October 1, 2017.

Parents or another adult must be able to attend one parent meeting on October 9 at 5:45 pm and six one-hour sessions with all players. No teams. No games. Just skill-building between parents and their child.

Twenty spots available on a first come, first serve basis. Deadline to register is Monday October 9, at 5:45pm $55 registration includes: mini basketball for dribbling, teslon basketball for passing/catching and shooting, practice cones, equipment bag, participant manual, and free t-shirt. Begins October 26 at the Waynesville Recreation Center and will be held from 5:45 to 6:45 pm every Thursday night for six weeks.

Register at the Waynesville Rec Center

WAYNESVILLE

PARKS AND RECREATION For more ino please email Donald Hummel 16

828.456.2030 at dhummel@waynesvillenc.gov

N.C. Department of Transportation and is slated for construction between fiscal years 2021 and 2023.

Other project concepts, meanwhile, are closer to their infancy. The plan recommends widening U.S. 441 to a four-lane boulevard in the Qualla area, from U.S. 74 to Casino Trail, a recommendation due not to a lack in road capacity but to the proliferation of businesses — and driveways — along the way. This disrupts the flow of traffic, creating an issue that the plan hopes to address.

The plan would also bring improvements

to U.S. 64 and N.C. 107 on their way through the Village of Cashiers, as well as new roads connecting the two routes in the northeast and southeast areas of Cashiers.

However, the exact nature of those improvements is yet to be determined, Poston said.

“Sometimes we in the recommendations don’t know exactly what the exact solution is because we hadn’t had it studied yet,” Poston said. “We know there’s a problem but we don’t know what the best type of project would be until we start going through the project evaluation. This is kind of the kickoff to that whole discussion.”

The plan calls for widening projects on a host of smaller roads as well, in many cases asking that bike lanes and sidewalks be added at the same time. Monteith Gap and Ledbetter roads in Cullowhee both fall into that category. The draft plan had recommended a new extension connecting the roads in an attempt to alleviate pressure from increased student housing on Ledbetter, but that recommendation is no longer in effect following public comment that the DOT would do better to first focus on improving bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure on the existing roadway.

Additionally, the plan sets its sights on extending the existing mile-long Jackson County Greenway in Cullowhee north to Dillsboro. Multi-use paths should also be built to

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After 11 days missing in the remote backcountry of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Chilhowee Lake, 18year-old Austin Bohanan walked out on his own about 2:30 p.m.

Tuesday, Aug. 22.

Bohanan, of Blount County, had last been seeAustin Bohanan. ing hiking Donated photo off-trail in the park’s remote southwestern corner Friday, Aug. 11, and was reported missing at 6:30 p.m.

Sunday, Aug. 13, with the ground search

Clingmans Dome Tower closed for 2017

The work is funded through a $250,000 grant the park received last year when Friends of the Smokies worked to get the public to vote for the project online, earning it funding through the Partners in Preservation grant offered as a partnership of American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Through the remainder of the 2017 season, visitors will not be able to climb the tower for views of surrounding treetops, but the Clingmans Dome parking lot, visitor contact station, store and trails will remain open.

However, visitors can expect some construction traffic in the vicinity of the contact station and along the trail.

“Neither town wants to impact businesses by widening the facility,” the plan reads.

“It is also desirable to keep the on-street parking on Main Street and Mill Street in Sylva.”

There are some potential solutions to improve traffic flow without impeding parking, and while the plan suggests they’re worth the town’s consideration, none would fully address capacity deficiencies.

All four Jackson County municipalities have thus far approved the transportation plan, and its last stop locally is the Jackson County Board of Commissioners. The plan will then need approval from the Rural Planning Organization and N.C. Board of Transportation before taking effect.

Commissioners will vote on whether to adopt the plan during a meeting at 6 p.m.

Monday, Aug. 28, in the Jackson County Justice and Administration Building.

Adoption does not require a public hearing, but all commissioner meetings allow opportunity for public comment at the start of the meeting.

The draft plan is online at www.planning.jacksonnc.org/pdfs/2017-jackson-county-comprehensive-transportation-plan.pdf.

Demonstration by Featured Artist

Sarah Sneeden September 1 6-9 P.M.

“WHERE ART DANCES WITH NATURE” 98 NORTH MAIN ST. • WAYNESVILLE, NC • 828.456.1940 MON.-SAT.10-5:30 • SUN.1-4 • WWW.TWIGSANDLEAVES.COM

WOMEN in BUSINESS Join us as we welcome President/ceo of Hoyle office solutions

Kathy Hoyle Kathy Hoyle, President/CEO of Hoyle Office Solutions founded by her father in 1945 is now a Woman Owned business that has been serving the WNC area for over 72 years.

Providing office supplies, janitorial supplies, office furniture and design services, with two locations in South Asheville and Brevard.

Her newest acquisition under the Regency 360 franchise group includes Custom Printing, Promotional Products and Branded Apparel.

The Women in Business series consists of luncheon meetings with topics of current interest for both men and women in the areas of business, leadership, entrepreneurship, and economic development.

Media SponSorS:

Smoky Mountain News & The Mountaineer HoSt SponSor:

Wells Events & Reception center

PRESENTING SPONSOR:

GOLD SPONSOR:

Smoky Mountain News

Scotts Creek Elementary School, Cullowhee Valley School Summit Charter School, Blue Ridge School, and the High Hampton community, the plan says.

Public transportation is also considered.

A new transit route should connect Dillsboro, Webster, Forest Hills and Cullowhee, the plan says, with another route serving Cashiers.

Most of the funding for any recommended projects would come from the State Transportation Improvement Program, which awards dollars following a prioritization process in which the mostneeded projects are identified locally and then sent on to the region and finally the state for prioritization of need and funding.

However, the state legislature can also approve special allocations for transportation projects, so some money could come from that pot.

One needed project was not recommended in the plan, and that’s increased capacity on Mill and Main streets through Sylva into Dillsboro. The streets are approaching their capacity of 10,100 vehicles per day and expected to exceed that capacity by 2040.

beginning Monday, Aug. 14. At the time he emerged on his own near Tabcat Creek, six search teams from a variety of state, federal and local agencies — including dog search teams — were combing a 6,700acre search area comprised of dense vegetation, steep slopes and trees fallen from windstorms.

After leaving the forest, Bohanan was transported by Rural Metro to Blount Memorial Hospital in Maryville, Tennessee.

Organizations supporting the search were the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Backcountry Unit Search and Rescue, Blount Special Operations Response Team, Tennessee State Parks, Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, and Obed Wild and Scenic River. Eastern National Incident Coordination Center and Virginia’s Black Diamond Search and Rescue assisted with the overall management of the search.

August 23-29, 2017

The Clingmans Dome Observation Tower in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is closed for the season as rehabilitation work begins on the 58-year-old structure.

Over the decades, the tower’s structure has deteriorated — work crews will restore those problem areas. Rehabilitation will include stabilizing support walls at the base of the ramp, repointing some stone masonry and repairing deteriorated areas on the concrete columns and walls.

ART AFTER DARK:

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Teen walks out of Smokies after 11 days missing

WellS eventS & reception center

thursday, aug. 24 • 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. $25/Chamber Members

$35/Non-Members 17

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Smoky Mountain News August 23-29, 2017

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Education SCC Foundation to host gala at Harrah’s The Southwestern Community College Foundation will hold its annual “Bluegrass, Blue Jeans & Bling” gala at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 16, at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort just as the Student Success Campaign nears the completion of its “March to a Million” fundraising effort.

The campaign is less than $53,000 shy of establishing the first $1 million scholarship endowment in SCC’s history. With enough support, the gala could push the campaign past the seven-figure mark.

This is the fourth straight year the SCC Foundation has held a gala in an effort to close the wide gap between the number of students that qualify for scholarships and the actual number of students that receive scholarships each year.

Frogtown will provide the bluegrass music for the evening, and classics singer Steve Johannessen will perform as well. There will also be a wine pull, silent auction, cornhole and a best dressed “Blue Jeans and Bling” contest along with the meal prepared by the chefs of Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort.

Tickets are $150 each, and table sponsorships begin at $1,500.

828.339.4227 or visit www.southwesterncc.edu/gala.

Record freshman class moves in at WCU Smiles and tears were in abundance at Western Carolina University on Friday, Aug. 18, as the university welcomed what is expected to be a record freshman class to campus.

WCU’s freshman class is expected to number around 2,000 students. They are part of a total student enrollment that is expected to be an alltime record for WCU – around 11,000 students.

WCU also unveiled the newly renovated Brown Hall, a historic building on campus that has been transformed into a modern dining facility in a “mountain lodge” style.

Orientations planned for Macon schools Mountain View Intermediate — Fifth grade orientation will be held at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24; sixth grade drop-in will be held from 8:30 a.m. to noon Wednesday, Aug. 23 n Highlands School — Open House for students will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24 n Cartoogechaye — Open house drop in from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24 n East Franklin — Open house drop in from 8:30

a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 23 Nantahala — Open House drop in from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Thursday, Aug. 24 n South Macon — Open house and orientation from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24 Franklin High School — Freshman orientation will ne held at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24 at the Fine Arts Center n Iotla Valley — An open house and orientation will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24 n Macon Middle School — Seventh grade and new student orientation will be held at 5:30 p.m.

Thursday, Aug. 24 and eighth grade open house drop in will be from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24

Nursing scholarship started at HCC The Sue A. Morgan Nursing Scholarship was recently established through the Haywood Community College Foundation.

Cynthia Bowen, Rosemary Hooper and Vaughn Hooper donated funds for the scholarship in memory of Sue Morgan. Morgan was employed by Haywood County Hospital for almost 20 years and Haywood Community College for 15 years.

Throughout her career, Morgan touched many lives in Haywood County and the region.

For more information on the Sue A. Morgan

Smoky Mountain News

Nursing Scholarship or how to support the HCC Foundation, call 828.627.4544, visit haywood.edu or email pahardin@haywood.edu.

Entegra donation yields $22,000 for SCC Entegra Bank recently offered to match up to $10,000 in gifts to Southwestern Community College’s Student Success Campaign, and the SCC Foundation quickly found a group of donors who fully leveraged the match and pushed the fundraising effort to within $58,000 of the sevenfigure milestone.

Including the $10,000 matching gift, Entegra Bank has now contributed more than $68,000 to the campaign. Pepsi Cola of Whittier gave $6,000 toward the effort. Allison Outdoor Advertising gave $2,000, and Leo James donated $1,000 to the effort. Debora and Michael Lindsay of Epic West in Bryson City added $3,000 to help SCC get closer to its goal of providing scholarship assistance to more students than ever before.

The campaign now has crossed the $940,000 threshold, and five students will each receive $4,000 Student Success scholarships to help them attend SCC in the upcoming academic year.

828.339.4227 or k_posey@southwesterncc.edu.

HCC students compete in SkillsUSA NC Haywood Community College students recently competed in SkillsUSA NC, where they brought home four awards. HCC electrical systems technology student Cory Ross won first place and secured a spot in the national competition.

At the state level, other HCC top finishes included building construction technology student Wesley Sears with a second place finish, building construction technology student Damon McDaniels with a third place finish and electrical systems technology student Luke Lamar with a fifth place finish.

SkillsUSA NC is the largest showcase of Career and Technical Education in North Carolina.

HCC students enhance Learning Support Center Haywood Community College’s Learning Support Services at the tutoring and testing center are making use of the skills and expertise of HCC students to enhance the tutoring and testing experience.

Instructor Amy Putansu and professional crafts fiber students, with the assistance of Building Construction Technology instructor John Mark Roberts, created sound suppressor boards out of woven material mounted on plywood for the tutoring room to mute sound and improving the look of the area.

Doug Cabe, instructor for Computer-Integrated Machining, and students provided Learning Support Services with plastic, numbered key tabs for lockers used in the testing area.

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• Bridgit McCarthy of Shining Rock Classical Academy in Waynesville was named TeamCFA’s 2017 Teacher of the Year.

McCarthy has taught at two of TeamCFA network schools and was chosen from among literally hundreds of her peers. She teaches middle school students and works tirelessly to engage her students.

• Retired educator Lambert Wilson of Bryson City was recently appointed to Southwestern Community College’s board of trustees for a third consecutive term. He has been on SCC’s board since 2009, and his current term expires in July of 2021.

ALSO:

• Jeff Cloer of Franklin was sworn in for a second term as a member of Southwestern Community College’s board of trustees. He originally joined SCC’s board of trustees in 2013, and his current four-year term runs through June 30, 2021.

• Macon County Schools recently hired Andy Pyle to serve as principal of Nantahala School. Contact Pyles at 828.321.4388 or andrew.pyle@macon.k12.nc.us.

Wiggins start scholarship at HCC Sam and Carolyn Wiggins have established an endowment for the Sam L. and Carolyn P. Wiggins Scholarship at Haywood Community College.

Sam was an executive at Dayco Corporation and served as director of the HCC’s Regional High Technology Center for over 10 years beginning in 1986 before the center opened. Sam also served on the HCC board of trustees and the HCC Foundation board of directors.

The scholarship will be awarded to a graduate of Tuscola High School within the last five years of application. Preference will be given to full-time students. Students must have at least a 2.5 GPA. The scholarship will be used to cover tuition and fees at HCC. Call 828.627.4544, visit www.haywood.edu or email pahardin@haywood.edu.

Wijewickrama named ‘Master Teacher’ Haywood Community College program manager and instructor of medical office administration Jodi Wijewickrama was named master teacher at the college.

This award is a distinguished teaching award presented to the full-time curriculum faculty member who most exemplifies excellence in teaching by demonstrating excellent teaching, leadership and service to the College and the community.

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Opinion

Smoky Mountain News

Civil War monuments don’t stand a chance his oft-trotted out line from William Faulkner’s novel Requiem for a Nun has perhaps never in recent decades seemed more apropos than at this very moment in our history.

The Civil War, slavery, the Jim Crow South, the Civil Rights era, racism, bigotry and the First Amendment are suddenly all part of a national conversation. The South — and in fact all of this nation — is struggling to deal with a tortured past that undoubtedly manifests itself in the Civil War statues and emblems that still adorn public places.

In my entire life as a Southerner, I’ve never held so many meaningful, thoughtful and sometimes troubling conversations about how to handle the harsh history of that war and the issue of slavery that was the catalyst for it. The Charlottesville protest and killing has propelled so many vitally important issues into the forefront that many of us are still trying to wrap our heads around what we believe.

There’s no doubt that Confederate leaders were fighting for slavery. Call it “states’ rights” if you will, but the right those states most coveted was to continue slavery and not be told by President Lincoln and others that they could not own blacks.

On the other hand, nearly all conscripted Confederate soldiers were not slaveholders and were patriotic in the same way as the Founding Fathers. Remember, the Civil War started less than 100 years after the Revolution. Some of these 18- and 19-

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There’s somethin’ happenin’ here To the Editor: Donald Trump has vowed to build a wall between the U.S.A. and Mexico. He even claims that Mexico will pay for it. Top Mexican leaders disagree. This wall is envisioned in spite of the fact that Mexico has never attempted to manipulate any of our elections. They are good neighbors of long standing. Trump has basically blamed Mexicans for corrupting Americans with drugs and other crimes. This is a pretty good explanation for domestic problems if you are one who prefers to shift the blame for your behavior onto someone else.

On the other hand, Trump initiated discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin about working with Russia on cybersecurity. Remember, this conversation is in the midst of several investigations of Russian meddling/effecting the outcome of the 2016 election. Bear in mind as well that this reckless move by Trump was made on his first official meeting with the president of a longterm adversarial nation.

Meanwhile, on the home front Trump is making every move he can imagine to disenfranchise certain voters in America. This is despite the fact that very little domestic voter fraud has been reported by any voting precinct in America.

What is Trump’s real motive? Some say he is

year-old draftees had grandfathers who fought the British, and probably most of them had never traveled far from home.

They were Southerners and, in their world view, absolutely had to support the war.

But now the situation is completely different. Is it possible for someone who is not racist to support keeping statues of Gens. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson in public squares? I think so, at least that’s what my heart tells me. For many people those statues are memorials to the dead and stark, physical reminders of a mistaken cause instead of adulatory symbols of the Confederate leaders.

When it comes to the memorials, are we going to recognize the differEditor ence between memorials to Civil War dead and statues to its leaders? If my great-great grandfather fought for the South and died in battle, them I wholeheartedly believe that his sacrifice is worth honoring and the politics, rights and beliefs of others be damned.

This conversation could have gone a different direction.

However, with the current divider-in-chief at the helm, our differences are exacerbated and disagreements blow up into fullscale battles. By emboldening the haters, Trump has heightened the fears of those who may have stayed on the sidelines.

This debate goes much deeper than Trump could ever fathom,

Scott McLeod

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

— Nobel prize winning author William Faulkner

trying to carry out a coup and seize absolute power over America. Russian leader Nikita Kruschev boasted several years back that Russia would “Take America without firing a shot … we will bury you.” Americans laughed at that prospect then. Does anybody believe it is now possible? Congress needs to pay very close attention to Trump’s foreign relations fiascos.

As Buffalo Springfield sang, “Somethin’s happenin’ here. What it is ain’t exactly clear.”

This Republican Congress has a responsibility to make matters of national security clear to the people. Have they asked Trump to brief them on his discussions with Putin?

They should. They have all pledged allegiance to the United States of America. To my knowledge no one in the White House (including congressmen/women) has pledged allegiance to Russia.

Dave Waldrop Webster

Robert E. Lee deserves respect To the Editor: There was a man who was born at Stratford Hall, Virginia, and his boyhood home was in Alexandria, Virginia. He finished second in his graduating class at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He went on to be the only man in history to be sought after to be the commanding general of both sides of opposing armies in a bloody war.

but as president he could have helped when he instead fanned the flames.

Speaking of the sidelines, I’m reminded of how we treated the haters when I was a young reporter back in the late 1980s.

Informed that the KKK was holding a march in the small North Carolina town where I worked, we chose to simply not cover it. A few years later in another small North Carolina town, we did the same. We ignored them, like you do a 5-yearold whining for attention. So, while they donned robes and waved rebel flags, we sat in our air-conditioned offices, not giving the hate-fueled fearmongers what they wanted most. It felt fantastic.

Symbols, though, do matter. A Confederate flag can mean just one thing to black Americans — hatred, servitude, brutality and death — and I completely understand that. It took South Carolina lawmakers including former Gov. Nikki Haley no time to remove the flag from state capitol grounds a couple of years ago after Dylan Roof ’s murder rampage in black church. They knew how important it was.

Racism and bigotry are repugnant, and so are the people who espouse it. Those haters are the ones who have decided this issue once and for all: the statutes and obelisks (yes, including the Vance Monument in Asheville) are coming down or will be renamed. Some will end up in museums, others forgotten in basements or defaced and destroyed. It may be a slow march to that future, but it’s where we are headed.

In my heart, I’m OK with that future. Symbols matter.

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

There is a mansion he lived in that is a memorial to this man that stands guard over the graves of the heroes of The United States of America in Arlington Cemetery. This man loved his country, the United States, but was also dedicated to his Southern heritage. The man was Robert E. Lee. Will we burn down the memorial to him known as Lee-Custis Mansion where in the front yard of his home is the grave of John F. Kennedy Jr. and the eternal flame as well as the thousands of war heroes buried there?

Why do you not report this so the citizens of our country can get a brief history lesson?

Will Gettysburg be next?

John Thornton (Tommy) Thomas, Jr. Waynesville

Don’t let mobs distort history To the Editor: How many times have we heard or said “history repeats itself?” I’d say often regarding everything from politics, to family, to world events or even everyday life.

In the U.S today we are seeing the repeat of Hitler’s Nazi Germany where thugs systematically destroyed German history … books were burned, commemorative monuments were torn down and the culture was demeaned to bolster the Hitler regime. The same actions occurred in communist China during the Red Guard Cultural Revolution,

during the Russian Revolution and by ISIS terrorist who are destroying much of the centuries old Middle East history.

Is that who we are? In our country the reason given for the destruction of our public monuments is that they are offensive to some in our society. These heinous acts are not committed just because someone is offended.

No, it is a concentrated attempt to negate our history and replace it with the culture and ideology of radical far left progressives.

Someone is offended? There is another side to that coin … those who are offended by the idea that a group of thugs can march onto public property and knock down any statue, plaque or monument they claim is offensive. Where do these radical leftists get so emboldened to think they and they alone can make a decision of what goes or stays in the public square?

Where are our elected officials and public leaders who we expect to stand up to mob rule and to halt law breakers? Where is the community outrage that demands to say yea or nay to the fate any public display? The mobs that are executing destruction now in public places have already destroyed private property throughout the nation …. Ferguson, Berkeley, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore to name only four locations where buildings and automobiles were burned, windows and anything in their way was destroyed in general rampages by these criminals.

Law-abiding citizens must make their voic-

S EE LETTERS, PAGE 21

Chris Cox

I

Get insurance out of health care To the Editor: Can we please stop referring to access to health care insurance as “access to health care” and health care insurers as “health care providers”?

Health care insurers are “middlemen” taking a cut of your health care dollars and betting against us needing many health care services. Removing the middleman means that our health care dollars will go to doctors and other actual providers of health care instead of to insurance premiums.

The current situation of insurers raising premiums and dropping out of the Affordable Care Act is our wake-up call to get the insurance industry out of routine health care. The insurance industry says it is losing money having to pay out more claims and if the government doesn’t help consumers pay premiums they might actually go out of business. A look at insurance company investments and holdings shows they are not hurting, but profits will be diminished if they are unable to

Christians will not be silenced To the Editor: In response to Editor Scott McLeod’s column about public prayers (www.smokymountainnews.com/archives /item/20540), secular society would like nothing better than for Christians to be quiet about their faith in Jesus Christ. It’s OK if we do it silently or in the privacy of our own homes, just not in the public square. Many early Christians lost their lives because of this and are still dying today on the mission field.

The Pharisees told Jesus in Luke 19:40 to ask his disciples to stop teaching and preaching in his name. Jesus said “If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

Christians, let’s not make the stones have to cry out because of our silence.

Judy Kirkpatrick Iron Duff

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SHOP VOLUNTEER WALNUT VILLAGE SHOPPING CENTER 331 Walnut Street Waynesville

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Smoky Mountain News

parking lot, there was a band playing covers of classic rock songs, though I chided the guitarist, another friend of mine who also happens to be a vice president at the college, for not playing an eclipse-appropriate setlist: “Bad Moon Rising,” “Total Eclipse of the Heart,” “Black Hole Sun,” and so forth.

“Yeah, I know,” he said. “My favorite would have been ‘Cheap Sunglasses.’”

We wandered around the front of campus getting different vantage points as the moon cut bigger and bigger slices out of the sun, creating an ethereal kind of hue, an encroaching darkness that softened and polished the sharp edges of every visible thing.

“This is weird, Daddy,” Kayden said. “I wonder if the dogs are noticing back home?

Whoa! Now look!”

There was little more than a sliver of the sun left now. It was dusk at 2:30 on a hot August afternoon, and the breeze now carried in a slight chill that settled amongst us.

We were now just minutes away from totality. There was still some light chatter, but for the most part people had grown quiet, watching with a stunned intensity. I found a seat near the entrance to the Balsam Center, the very first building I entered when I came to apply for a job here almost exactly twenty-six years ago.

As I sat there, the past flashed like a train, faces barely registered in each passing window. I have seen a lot of history unfold on this campus. I watched live footage of OJ Simpson in a Ford Bronco followed by a bunch of police cars. I watched the Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas hearings. I watched a plane fly into the World Trade Center. And now I was about to watch a total eclipse with my daughter and my large extended family of friends and co-workers.

Like everybody else, I had my glasses on and my eyes on the sun when the moon finally locked into place, leaving only a giant dark ball, with a glowing ring around it, a ring that danced and shimmered in the darkness. At the very instant of the total eclipse, a spontaneous gasp lifted up from the crowd, followed by wild cheering.

Everyone pulled away their glasses, and I took a few precious seconds to look around me and take it all in, imagining at the same time people all over the country, differences set aside for the moment, united in awe at the wonder and beauty of this world.

I felt awe, yes, but I also felt something else beginning to stir inside me, something wholly unexpected. I was surprised to find myself feeling hopeful. It is something I have not felt much of in quite some time.

It felt like we — all of us there, all of us around the country — had shared something important, even if it was just a fleeting moment of joy, a glimpse of the possibility that something, anything can still unite us. And it felt good.

(Chris Cox is a writer and teacher. jchriscox@live.com.)

August 23-29, 2017

can admit now that by the time the day of the eclipse finally arrived, I was so tired of the hype that I just wanted it to be over. For months and months, the eclipse has been written about, talked about, planned for, and so eagerly anticipated by so many people that I was just weary of hearing about it. I was even mildly and irrationally irritated that classes would be canceled and trafColumnist fic here in “the path of totality “— a phrase that could have served as the title of one of those dreadful post-Roger Waters Pink Floyd albums — would be miserable.

In short, I had adopted a ridiculous stance of near indifference toward the eclipse, so much so that I had not even procured a pair of eclipse glasses right up until Monday morning, just hours before the big event. My wife, on the other hand, had been doing voluminous research for weeks and had booked a campsite in Andrews because it had nearly a full extra minute of totality, compared to where I would be — the campus of Southwestern Community College, where I am a member of the faculty. On Sunday, she took my son and two of his buddies to Andrews to camp with some friends of hers at work.

Unfortunately, my daughter and I both had to work on Sunday, so I took her with me to Sylva on Monday to experience the eclipse there. When we arrived on campus, people were already setting up tents and chairs, and there was a large area in the front of Balsam Center devoted to all manner of telescopes, where people could get an even better view of the eclipse.

By noon, a decent-sized crowd had begun to form. People had their eclipse glasses ready to go, and were either sitting at large folding tables enjoying Sunkist sodas and Moonpies (and hot dogs) or standing around in clusters chatting, while keeping a wary eye on a band of clouds that had the potential to make trouble later on if they thickened and spread.

It had been quite some time since I brought my daughter over to campus. One of my friends there has a daughter almost the same age. They had once played together in the campus daycare. Now they are both driving cars and looking at colleges.

“Hey, look, look, Daddy!” Kayden suddenly said, her head tilted back as she peered through her eclipse glasses. “It is starting, it is starting! You can see it now.”

I put my glasses on and looked. Yes, there it was, a tiny indentation in the sun, barely noticeable, but there nonetheless.

We walked over to “telescope square” and checked out larger images of it there.

On the other side of the large, roped-off

es heard to elected and other public officials who in our country are in their positions to execute the will of the people who elected them and pay their salaries.

Carol Adams Glenville

place unreasonable restrictions on what they will cover.

The insurance industry has convinced us that we are unable to have health care without their “help.” This is why a single payer system, like Medicare for all, is the best plan, removing middlemen’s profits and directing health care dollars to doctors and others who have actually earned them by providing the services.

Judy Stockinger Franklin

opinion

Eclipse reveals glimmer of unity, and it feels good

LETTERS, CONTINUED FROM 20

828.246.9135 HaywoodHabitat.org 21

WAYNESVILLE’S BEST BURGERS

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

MON.-SAT. 11 A.M.-8 P.M.

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

We’re open every evening for dinner until 9 p.m.

Join us for tasty burritos, tacos, quesadillas or crepes!

3 E JACKSON ST. • SYLVA, NC

August 23-29, 2017

www.CityLightsCafe.com

Real New Yorkers.

Real Italians. Real Pizza.

Smoky Mountain News

Dine-In ~ Take Out ~ Delivery

An Authentic Italian Pizzeria & Restaurant from New York to the Blue Ridge.

Just to serve you!

BLUE ROOSTER SOUTHERN GRILL 207 Paragon Parkway, Clyde, Lakeside Plaza at the old Wal-Mart. 828.456.1997. Open Monday through Friday. Friendly and fun family atmosphere. Local, handmade Southern cuisine. Fresh-cut salads; slow-simmered soups; flame grilled burgers and steaks, and homemade signature desserts.

Blue-plates and local fresh vegetables daily.

Brown bagging is permitted. Private parties, catering, and take-out available. Call-ahead seating available.

BOURBON BARREL BEEF & ALE 454 Hazelwood Ave., Waynesville, 828.452.9191. Lunch served 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; Monday through Saturday. Dinner 5 to 9 p.m., Monday through Saturday.

Closed on Sunday. We specialize in hand-cut, all natural steaks from local farms, incredible burgers, and other classic american comfort foods that are made using only the finest local and sustainable ingredients available.

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

CATALOOCHEE RANCH 119 Ranch Dr., Maggie Valley.

828.926.1401. Family-style breakfast seven days a week, from 8 to 9:30 a.m. – with eggs, bacon, sausage, grits and oatmeal, fresh fruit, sometimes French toast or pancakes, and always all-you-can-eat. Lunch menu every day from 12 to 2 p.m. Dinner becomes a gourmet experience this year with the arrival of our new Chef CJ, whose training and skills include French, Mediterranean, Asian, Middle Eastern and, of course, New Age Southern cuisine. Saturday night will feature an evening cookout on the terrace, with choices such as steak, salmon, ribs and shrimp. On other nights of the week, the chef will prepare gourmet dinners with locally sourced vegetables, homemade breads, jellies and desserts. We also offer a fine selection of wine and beer. The evening social hour starts at 6 p.m., and dinner is served starting at 7 p.m. Please join us for milehigh mountaintop dining with a spectacular view. Reservations are required.

CHEF’S TABLE 30 Church St., Waynesville. 828.452.6210.

From 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday dinner starting at 5 p.m. “Best of” Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator Magazine. Set in a distinguished atmosphere with an exceptional menu. Extensive selection of wine and beer. Reservations honored.

CHURCH STREET DEPOT 34 Church Street, downtown Waynesville.

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

CITY LIGHTS CAFE Spring Street in downtown Sylva.

828.587.2233. Open Monday-Saturday 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Tasty, healthy and quick. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, espresso, beer and wine. Come taste the savory and sweet crepes, grilled paninis, fresh, organic salads, soups and more.

Outside patio seating. Free Wi-Fi, pet-friendly.

Live music and lots of events. Check the web calendar at citylightscafe.com.

THE CLASSIC WINESELLER 20 Church Street, Waynesville.

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

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

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

828.926.1820 Winter hours: Wednesday through Sunday 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Family Style at Country Vittles is not a buffet.

Instead our waitresses will bring your food piping hot from the kitchen right to your table and as many refills as you want. So if you have a big appetite, but sure to ask your waitress about our family style service.

EVERETT HOTEL & BISTRO 16 Everett St.,Bryson City. 828.488.1934.

Open daily for dinner at 4:30 p.m.; Saturday & Sunday Brunch from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; dinner from 4:30-9:30 p.m. Serving fresh and delicious weekday morning lite fare, lunch, dinner, and brunch. Freshly prepared menu offerings range from house-made soups & salads, lite fare & tapas, crepes, specialty sandwiches and burgers. Be sure not to miss the bold flavors and creative combinations that make up the daily Chef Supper Specials. Followed by a tempting selection of desserts prepared daily by our chefs and other local bakers. Enjoy craft beers on tap, as well as our full bar and eclectic wine list.

FERRARA PIZZA & PASTA 243 Paragon Parkway, Clyde.

828.476.5058. Open Monday-Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday 12 to 8 p.m. Real New Yorkers. Real Italians. Real Pizza. A full service authentic Italian pizzeria and restaurant from New York to the Blue Ridge. Dine in, take out, and delivery. Check out our daily lunch specials plus customer appreciation nights on Monday and Tuesday 5 to 9 p.m. with large cheese pizzas for $9.95.

NEW LOCATION OPEN! 499 Champion Drive | Canton

NOW OPEN SUNDAYS NOON to 8 P.M. Monday-Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

243 Paragon Parkway | Clyde 22

BLOSSOM ON MAIN 128 N. Main Street, Waynesville.

828.454.5400. Open for lunch and dinner from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Sunday. Mild, medium, to hot and spicy, our food is cooked to your like-able temperature.

Forget the myth that all Thai food is spicy.

Traditional Thai food is known to be quite healthy, making use of natural and fresh ingredients, paired with lots of spices, herbs, and vegetables. Vegetarians and health conscious individuals will not be disappointed as fresh vegetables and tofu are available in most of our menu as well as wines and saki chosen to compliment the unique flavors of Thai cuisine.

roasted ham, turkey and roast beef used in our hoagies. We hand make our own eggplant and chicken parmesan, pork meatballs and hamburgers. We use 1st quality fresh not preprepared products to make sure you get the best food for a reasonable price. We make vegetarian, gluten free and sugar free items.

Call or go to Facebook (Breaking Bread Café NC) to find out what our specials are.

828-476-5058

Mon.-Fri. 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

Saturday 12 p.m.-10 p.m.

Closed Tues.

Sun. 12-9 p.m.

Sandwiches • Burgers • Wraps 32 Felmet Street (828) 246-0927

Serving Lunch & Dinner at BearWaters Brewing 101 PARK ST. CANTON 828.492.1422 PIGEONRIVERGRILLE.COM

tasteTHEmountains

JUKEBOX JUNCTION U.S. 276 and N.C. 110 intersection, Bethel. 828.648.4193. 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Monday through Saturday; Sunday 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Serving breakfast, lunch, nd dinner. The restaurant has a 1950s & 60s theme decorated with memorabilia from that era.

LOS AMIGOS 366 Russ Ave. in the Bi-Lo Plaza.

828.456.7870. Open from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for lunch and 5 to 10 p.m. for dinner Monday through Friday and 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Enjoy the lunch prices Monday through Sunday, also enjoy our outdoor patio.

MAGGIE VALLEY CLUB 1819 Country Club Dr., Maggie Valley.

828.926.1616. maggievalleyclub.com/dine.

Open seasonally for lunch and dinner. Fine and casual fireside dining in welcoming atmosphere. Full bar. Reservations accepted.

PATIO BISTRO 30 Church Street, Waynesville.

828.454.0070. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Breakfast bagels and sandwiches, gourmet coffee, deli sandwiches for lunch with homemade soups, quiches, and desserts. Wide selection of wine and beer. Outdoor and indoor dining.

Real Local Families, Real Local Farms, Real Local Food

Monday-Friday Open at 11am

Rob Ickes & Trey Henslley SATURDAY, S EP PTEM BER 2

SPEEDY’S PIZZA 285 Main Street, Sylva. 828.586.3800.

Open seven days a week. Monday-Friday 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Saturday 3 p.m.-11 p.m., Sunday 4 p.m.-10 p.m. Family-owned for 30 years. Serving hand-tossed pizza made to order, pasta, subs, gourmet salads, calzones and seafood. Also serving excellent prime rib on Thursdays. Dine in or take out available. Located across from the Fire Station.

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

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

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

VITO’S PIZZA 607 Highlands Rd., Franklin.

828.369.9890. Established here in in 1998. Come to Franklin and enjoy our laid back place, a place you can sit back, relax and enjoy our 62” HDTV. Our Pizza dough, sauce, meatballs, and sausage are all made from scratch by Vito. The recipes have been in the family for 50 years (don’t ask for the recipes cuz’ you won’t get it!) Each Pizza is hand tossed and made with TLC. You’re welcome to watch your pizza being created.

WAYNESVILLE PIZZA COMPANY 32 Felmet Street, Waynesville.

828.246.0927. Open Monday through Friday; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 10 p.m.; Sunday noon to 9 p.m.; closed Tuesdays. Opened in May 2016, The Waynesville Pizza Company has earned a reputation for having the best hand-tossed pizza in the area. Featuring a custom bar with more than 20 beers and a rustic, family friendly dining room. Menu includes salads, burgers, wraps, hot and cold sandwiches, gourmet pizza, homemade desserts, and a loaded salad bar. The Cuban sandwich is considered by most to be the best in town.

Trey Hensley was an up-and-coming musical po owerhouse.

Rob Ickes was already the t most-awarded instrum mentalist in the eir debut bluegrass album earned history of the IBMA. The e them a 2015 Grammy nomination. And, on September 2, th hey make their first appearance at the R Ranch. Tickets for the 8pm show are $35, with a gourmet cookout, priced separately, availab ble before the show. For reservattions, just call (828) 926 6-1401.

Cata taloochee Ranch 119 Ranch Drive, Maggie Valle ey, North Carolina 28751 | CataloocheeRanch.com

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Smoky Mountain News

MOUNTAIN PERKS ESPRESSO BAR & CAFÉ 9 Depot St., Bryson City. 828.488.9561.

Open Monday through Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Friday 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. With music at the Depot. Sunday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Life is too short for bad coffee. We feature wonderful breakfast and lunch selections.

Bagels, wraps, soups, sandwiches, salads and quiche with a variety of specialty coffees, teas and smoothies. Various desserts.

828-456-1997 blueroostersoutherngrill.com

August 23-29, 2017

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

828.586.3555. Open Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.; Sunday brunch 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Handtossed pizza, steak sandwiches, wraps, salads and desserts. All made from scratch.

Beer and wine. Free movies Thursday trought Saturday. Visit madbatterfoodfilm.com for this week’s shows.

SAGEBRUSH STEAKHOUSE 1941 Champion Drive, Canton 828.646.3750 895 Russ Ave., Waynesville 828.452.5822. Sunday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Carry out available.

Sagebrush features hand carved steaks, chicken and award winning BBQ ribs. We have fresh salads, seasonal vegetables and scrumptious deserts. Extensive selection of local craft beers and a full bar. Catering special events is one of our specialties.

207 Paragon Parkway, Clyde

Photo by Wayne Ebinger

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

Open for dinner at 4:30 to 9 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday. World-famous prime rib, steaks, fresh seafood, gorgonzola cheese and salads. All ABC permits and open yearround. Children always welcome. Take-out menu. Excellent service and hospitality.

Reservations appreciated.

RENDEZVOUS RESTAURANT AND BAR Maggie Valley Inn and Conference Center 70 Soco Road, Maggie Valley 828.926.0201 Home of the Maggie Valley Pizzeria. We deliver after 4 p.m. daily to all of Maggie Valley, J-Creek area, and Lake Junaluska. Monday through Wednesday: 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Thursday: 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. country buffet and salad bar from 5 to 9 p.m. $11.95 with Steve Whiddon on piano. Friday and Saturday: 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Sunday 11:30 to 8 p.m. 11:30 to 3 p.m. family style, fried chicken, ham, fried fish, salad bar, along with all the fixings, $11.95. Check out our events and menu at rendezvousmaggievalley.com

newsdesk crafts

FROGS LEAP PUBLIC HOUSE 44 Church St., Downtown Waynesville 828.456.1930 Serving lunch 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; Dinner 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday. 5 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Closed Sunday and Monday. Frogs Leap is a farm to table restaurant focused on local, sustainable, natural and organic products prepared in modern regional dishes. Seasonal menu focuses on Southern comfort foods with upscale flavors. www.frogsleappublichouse.com.

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Smoky Mountain News

grass music like New Grass Revival, J.D. Crowe & The New South, The Seldom Scene.

GKW: When you came up, you were considered maybe a threat to bluegrass because maybe you didn’t “look the part.” But, you were a man of the times [back then]…

SB: Well, we were just playing and dressing like people our age. But, one of the things is that people were aware how much we respect the bluegrass tradition. Even the band I have now, when we play a bluegrass style number — it’s bluegrass. We know the bluegrass rules. The musicians always treated us great in the [1970s and 1980s], because they knew we loved bluegrass. I mean, Bill Monroe himself didn’t really expect everyone to play just like him.

Bluegrass legend Sam Bush will perform on at 8 p.m.

Sunday, Sept. 3, during the Canton Labor Day Festival.

PLAY

BY YOUR OWN RULES

GKW: And [Bill] was a rebel, too, at heart.

SB: Totally. I would’ve loved to have been standing around in 1946 when [Bill] hit the Grand Ole Opry with Flatt & Scruggs and Chubby Wise on fiddle. That must have been like string band jazz to the audience who only ever heard old-time string bands like The Skillet Lickers and The Possum Trotters. What Monroe was playing must’ve been hillbilly jazz for those people.

GKW: What is your definition of bluegrass?

SB: The music that Bill Monroe started in 1946 with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, and Chubby Wise, and later Benny Martin on the fiddle. That is your classic style bluegrass ensemble. And as you and I are doing this interview, a few walls away from us, The Del McCoury Band is playing. Del is a direct descendant of the Blue Grass Boys from 1963 as Bill’s guitar player then. Del’s quintet is the classic bluegrass quintet that Bill Monroe started. Nobody has done more for Bill Monroe’s music in the last 30 years than Del McCoury.

Shelly Swanger Photography

A conversation with Sam Bush

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD STAFF WRITER n iconic mandolin and fiddle player, Sam Bush has rewritten the game of bluegrass, especially when it comes to live performance within the genres of string, acoustic and rock-n-roll music.

Among his many accolades and awards was his 2001 “Album of the Year” Grammy as part of the “O Brother, Where Art Thou” film soundtrack. With his early days as a member of the groundbreaking New Grass Revival, to his current role fronting the endless touring juggernaut that is the Sam Bush Band, he continues to be an open book — in inspiration and in conversation.

A

Garret K. Woodward: One of the themes I’ve been writing a lot about over the years with bluegrass is [about] these two camps — the

neo-traditional and the progressive. You as a performer have always been able to straddle that line and be accepted by both camps. What do you see right now when you look at where bluegrass is? And if the lines are getting blurry, is that a good or a bad thing?

Sam Bush: I mean, what is and what isn’t bluegrass? I know what I think bluegrass is.

Our band can have an appeal to bluegrass style audiences, as well as progressive audiences who have never heard bluegrass before. So, to a young rock-n-roll style audience, they see us come on. We’ve got a banjo, acoustic guitar, mandolin, up right bass, then, as far as they’re concerned, no matter what we play, we’re a bluegrass band. You put us in a traditional bluegrass situation, and we play like we normally play, we’re a rock band to them. As far as the lines being blurred, maybe that is true. But, if you take a listen to satellite radio and the bluegrass channel on Sirius XM, it’s a wide variety. But, it’s funny how what is now kind of accepted more as “what bluegrass is” amongst younger bands — and by younger I mean under 40 years old — they sound a lot like new-

GKW: What do you see with the IBMAs (International Bluegrass Music Association)?

Some people might seem [like] it’s a little too rigid…

SB: I think bluegrass can be a sensitive issue for some people. [They] want it to grow, but

Celebrate Labor Day in Canton The 111th Canton Labor Day Festival will be Sept. 3-4 in downtown.

Sunday, Sept. 3, at Sorrells Street Park. $10 at gate, $8 in advance at Ingles Markets.

• 1 p.m. - Grey Wolfe • 1:30 p.m. - Running Wolfe and Renegades • 2 p.m. - Cold Mountain Cloggers • 2:15 p.m. - Smoky Mountain Stompers • 2:30 p.m. Fines Creek Flatfooters • 3 p.m. - McKayla Reece • 5 p.m. - Lyric • 6:30 p.m. - Joe Lasher Jr. • 8 p.m. - Sam Bush

they also want it to stay their own little club that we’re the only ones that are in it. So, for someone like me, that always made a living with a mandolin and a fiddle, it’s just an interesting dance you do to accomplish that. But, with IBMA and satellite radio, that’s done nothing but help all of us musicians, give us more opportunities to work. As we look (points to nearby corner), there are two Fender mandolins on stands and my slide mandolin.

I’m a boundary stretcher, obviously.

GKW: Is it weird, in a good way, being that boundary stretcher, now you’re looked at as part of the pillars of the genre these days rather than just an outsider?

SB: Oh, yeah. It’s kind of an interesting situation. In less than a month, I’ll be 65 years old and I’m the “establishment.” But, that’s the great part — there’s room for all of it. Del is 75

“Even the band I have now, when we play a bluegrass style number — it’s bluegrass. We know the bluegrass rules.”

— Sam Bush

[years old] or more. So, it’s a great time, because we have youngsters that are playing progressively and doing their own thing, and you have youngsters that are doing their own thing and they’re playing really traditionally, and they’re influenced by Del. I think it’s a pretty healthy time. I saw Alison Krauss last night on a late night show. It wasn’t with Union Station. She’s made a country record. She’s been great for the genre of bluegrass music, and has really influenced a lot of ladies to sing and play, and get out there and do it. Now Alison is “establishment,” and I’m sure somebody might criticize her for what she did last night, when, in fact, I applaud her. You know, you just want to try new things throughout your career.

Sunday, Sept. 3, at Historic Colonial Theatre.

Free.

• Mountain Gospel Experience featuring: The Kingsmen, Ila Knight, The Porter Family, and Emcee Tyler Nations Monday, Sept. 4, at Sorrells Street Park. Free.

• Noon - Vintage Country and J Creek Cloggers, Green Mountain Cloggers, Southern Appalachian Cloggers • 1:30 p.m. - Mars Hills Cloggers • 2:30 p.m. - Chatham County Line • 4 p.m. - David Holt • 5:45 p.m. - Balsam Range • 7:30 p.m. - Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder www.cantonlaborday.com.

Balsam Range turns 10 atop IBMA nominations

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD STAFF WRITER eading this year’s International Bluegrass Music Association awards with eight nominations, Haywood County group Balsam Range is atop the mountain of bluegrass.

Winning IBMA “Entertainer of the Year” in 2014 solidified Balsam Range’s place in the bluegrass world as one of the most important and innovative acts of its kind out there. But, awards aside, the quintet broke

L

arts & entertainment

Top of the mountain Dedication to presenting the greatest music we can create to the world.

SMN: Balsam Range has been nominated for eight IBMA awards this year, leading the pack with Earls of Leicester. You guys have literally won every award possible already in the IBMAs. But, what does leading in nominations this year mean to you? And how do you avoid losing the enthusiasm for the nominations and awards when some might look at it as “old hat”?

CS: I don’t think any of us take for granted the nominations. It’s a great honor to be nominated by our peers year after year. It says to me that we continue to do something

Ricky Skaggs hroughout the 1980s, Ricky Skaggs was the toast of country music. Twelve #1 hits, eight CMA and ACM awards, a member of the Grand Ole Opry, and fronting one of the most successful touring acts around, he was a true ambassador of the genre, onstage and in the studio. And yet, as that country sound became more engineered and polished, Skaggs become more enamored with the bluegrass roots of his career, where the legends of Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs and Dr. Ralph Stanley reign supreme.

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Balsam Range will perform during the Canton Labor Day Festival at 5:45 p.m. Monday, Sept.

4, at Sorrells Street Park. The Monday show is free and open to the public. David Simchock photo

Smoky Mountain News: 2017 marks the 10-year anniversary of Balsam Range. What does that number – 10 – mean to you, personally and professionally? As well, how does this decade period measure up against other long-term projects and groups you’ve been part of?

Caleb Smith: You can look historically at any genre of music and 10 years in the business is a huge feat, much more with the same five members. It’s a testament of dedication and reward. Balsam Range has accomplished more than I would’ve ever imagined possible due to dedication.

right. We strive to find great lyrics to set our music apart in the genre, in that when someone hears our music on the airwaves there’s no doubt that they know it’s Balsam Range.

SMN: The IBMA has vocally mentioned its mission to ensuring its future by becoming more inclusive towards others either on the fence of bluegrass or just outside the lines of the genre. What are your thoughts on that? What does that say about the direction of the IBMAs, of trying to straddle traditional values and sounds, but also keeping one foot in the inevitable progressing of the genre?

CS: It’s a must. All music evolves and grows with each new generation. It keeps the tradition healthy for everyone. I feel that there needs to be more awards geared toward the newer generation of bluegrass.

Newgrass awards. Jamband awards.

Jazzgrass, and so on. I know a lot of traditional minded bluegrass fans would never adhere to it, but I believe it would strengthen the genre and make it more healthy and solid.

SMN: Now that Balsam Range is entering its second decade, a decade where y’all are at the top of your game, in recording and touring, where do you see the ship moving towards?

CS: We’ll continue to strive to create great music and reach new ears at any level possible.

Chatham County Line ormed in Raleigh in 1999, Chatham County Line has emerged as one of those unique branches of tone and approach in bluegrass. Whereas other popular groups may focus on lightningfast finger pickin’ or a thunderous footstomp, Chatham County Line adheres more to the songwriting, ballad roots of the genre.

F

Smoky Mountain News: And what is the importance of bluegrass and string music, in sound and tradition, as we push further into a modern world of

technology and distraction?

Dave Wilson (vocals/guitar): Folk music was always a well to tell a story and an excuse to spend time together making music and singing. All those ages ago before the 78 rpm, the music they made was the music a family had to dance to on a Saturday night. I feel there will always be a part of the population that experiences music through creation rather than Memorex so as long as they continue to make strings this will continue.

Smoky Mountain News

new ground with their 2016 album “Mountain Voodoo,” a step in the right direction, especially in terms of blurring the lines between bluegrass, country, and Americana sounds.

This “catch me if you can” attitude has always been part of the identity of Balsam Range. But, these days, that attitude has become something of a feather in their caps, especially when the possibilities are wide open for them moving forward.

Though the IBMA award showcase is next month in Raleigh, Balsam Range guitarist Caleb Smith is already reflecting on not only the nominations, but also where his band stands after its first decade together.

Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder will perform at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 4, at Sorrells Street Park in Canton.

August 23-29, 2017

CANTON LABOR DAY

Smoky Mountain News: What about the

notion that a lot of real deal country fans are drifting over to bluegrass these days with its recent rise again in popularity?

Ricky Skaggs: Well, every time country music loses its way, loses its step, there seems to be a spike in bluegrass, and that’s what we’re seeing today. Bluegrass has that country music feel in its honest sound and earthy tone. The foundations of bluegrass are more folk, more mountainous and old-time, with sounds and characteristics that immediately take you back to the mountains.

Chatham County Line will perform at 2:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 4, at Sorrells Street Park in Canton. 25

arts & entertainment

The ‘Canton Comeback’

BearWaters Brewing in downtown Canton.

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD STAFF WRITER hen the Town of Canton relaunched its Labor Day Festival a couple years ago, it was in a crucial move to reinvent the century-old event — and also the downtown itself.

The story of Canton is something of a template for countless small towns in America looking to find a new footing and identity to navigate an uncertain economic future. For a downtown that was — by most accounts — seemingly written off by the rest of the region as “dead” and “abandoned,” things sure have changed for Canton in recent memory.

“Of course, I think everyone is becoming aware of the growth and updated identity that Canton is taking on,” said Kevin Sandefur, co-owner of BearWaters Brewing, which recently opened its new brewpub on the Pigeon River in downtown. “Soon, there will be a whole new age demographic in leadership positions. The pride that comes from a town that continues to make American products now has a serious music festival and a contender of a craft brewery.

It’s like the ultimate Bruce Springsteen town — things are only going to get better.”

Just the last couple years, several new businesses have popped up in Canton.

Anchoring both ends of downtown are the Southern Porch and BearWaters Brewing.

The restaurant and the brewery have each become beacons of commerce, social hubs of energy and enthusiasm, where locals and visitors alike find themselves not just passing through Canton anymore, but actually stopping and enjoying themselves.

“The Town of Canton has put forth the effort, and it really shows everyone — locally and regionally — that they really care about the people of Canton,” said Nathan Lowe, co-owner of Southern Porch. “Our goal when

Smoky Mountain News

August 23-29, 2017

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we opened was to help get the ball rolling in the Town of Canton, so that other businesses would consider opening in Canton. And since we opened in April 2016, we’ve seen several new businesses come to Canton — that in itself is exciting.”

CANTON LABOR DAY And with national bluegrass headliners lined up for this year’s Labor Day Festival, town officials will be the first to say that though the road is long, it’s also bountiful, especially with the right attitudes and folks ready to make something of pride and progress for their community.

“To have Sam Bush and Ricky Skaggs join Balsam Range and others at Labor Day is fur-

“Of course, I think everyone is becoming aware of the growth and updated identity that Canton is taking on.”

— Kevin Sandefur, co-owner of BearWaters Brewing

ther proof of the ‘Canton Comeback.’ The whole celebration is a dedicated effort to show the whole region that a small mill town can fight its way back,” said Canton Town Alderman and mayoral candidate Zeb Smathers. “With the opening of many new businesses including the success of our first brewery, BearWaters, we are excited to show off our success through great music and food. We hope by doing so that we encourage people to move to Canton, open businesses, and join us as we keep pushing forward.”

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD

‘Tired, but wiser for the time’

Dark Star Orchestra at Pisgah Brewing.

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Smoky Mountain News

The trifecta.

Americana/bluegrass icon Peter Rowan will By this past Monday mornperform at 8 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 27, at the ing, I was running on fumes Cataloochee Ranch in Maggie Valley. heading back to my humble Popular Western North Carolina funk/soul act abode in downtown Waynesville Lyric will perform during Concerts on the in preparation for the solar Creek at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25, in Sylva. eclipse. Three nights. Three bands. Three genres of music — Kentucky Americana honky-tonk act Nick and also attitudes — that shaped Dittmeier & The Sawdusters will perform at 7 who I ultimately am today. p.m. Friday, Aug. 25, at BearWaters Brewing It all started late Friday afterin Canton; and at 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26, at noon. Sneaking out of the newsNantahala Brewing in Bryson City. room early, I jumped into my old rusty, musty pickup truck and The next Creating Community Workshop will bolted for Knoxville, Tennessee. be “Fluid Watercolors” with Allan Grant at A recently opened large-scale 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 26, in the Atrium of venue in the Old City, The Mill & the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva.

Mine is similar to The Orange Soul Infusion Tea House & Bistro (Sylva) will Peel in Asheville, but you can host The Maggie Valley Band (Americana) 8 actually move around during a p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26. filled-to-the-brim event.

Southern California punk so from the Canadian Border in Upstate New rock legends Social Distortion turned The York, my cronies and I would skip across the Mill & Mine into a scene I haven’t really international barrier and shoot up to been immersed in since I was a teenager. It Montreal less than 45 minutes north. A was a crowd of beautiful chaos, wrinkled punk rock haven, we’d pig-pile into these faces forever young in the presence of songs shady mechanic’s garages turned rock clubs. immortal, and the decades-old melodies of A cloud of cigarette smoke billowing over one of the great, innovative bands of the the restless crowd. Cheap Canadian pilsners 1990s.

You see, back in the 1990s, this journalist poured out for any and all within reach. And the sounds of some of the loudest and most was a punker. Still am, in many ways. I had wildly vivacious bands I’ve ever had the the blonde mohawk atop my black hair. pleasure of witnessing live.

Scuffed Converse shoes. Studded belt.

Heading back to Waynesville this past Snarky t-shirt two sizes too small. And, most Saturday morning, the memories of my importantly, an attitude of anarchy in its purest form: You do you. I do me. It’s as sim- mohawk and studded belt were quickly swapped out for ripped tie-dye shirts and ple as that. sandals as the nose of the pickup was aimed Back in high school, which was a mile or

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August 23-29, 2017

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arts & entertainment

This must be the place

for Dark Star Orchestra at Pisgah Brewing in Black Mountains. With 2,300 in attendance, the sold-out performance conjured another 33-percent of my adolescent musical and social DNA: The Grateful Dead.

What DSO does is not only play the beloved Dead tunes, they aim to seamlessly recreate the ambiance of love and freedom solely unique to a Dead show. It’s one of those things where if you closed your eyes and just suspended your imagination, you’d swear Jerry and Bobby were right up there, radiated the band’s message of hope and compassion — something in far too much demand these days.

Growing up within an hour of Burlington, Vermont (and on the Vermont border itself ), the music of the jam-band scene was always there, as a kid and even now. I swear, those born in the North Country come out of the womb and are handed a copy of Strangefolk’s “Weightless in Water,” Phish’s “Lawn Boy” and the Dead’s “Skeletons from the Closet” as parting gifts from the hospital.

It was finding a ride to the nearest Ratdog or Assembly of Dust gig, or driving 12 hours straight to see Phish play a weekend festival on an abandoned Air Force base in northern Maine (which my best friend and I did on a last-minute whim in 2003). It was wandering into a crowd of tens of thousands, all strangers soon to become fast friends over a friendly joint being passed on down the line. Puff, puff, pass, my brothers and sisters. It was standing in the mud of an extended encore jam, smiles all around, and realizing you could do or be whatever you wanted to do or be in your life, so long as you never forget the most important voice — your own.

By the time this past Sunday night rolled around, I was headlong into a set by The Magpie Salute at the Diana Wortham Theatre in Asheville. Emerging from the ashes of The Black Crowes (who broke up in 2015), co-founder Rich Robinson and former members Sven Pipien and Marc Ford have found new, fertile footing in one of the premier rock acts out there — anywhere — with this ever-evolving project.

The Magpie Salute is a juggernaut of pure rock-n-roll swagger, the shock and awe of a triple-guitar assault on the audience, fueled by thunderous kick-drums and songbird backup soul singers. It’s not only a “salute” to the Crowes and their legacy as one of America’s greatest rock acts, it’s also a wave goodbye — and also hello — to those legions of folks (myself included) whose lives are forever impacted by the music created by the Crowes, melodies that make up a good chunk of the soundtrack of my life (“Wiser Time,” my all-time favorite song, was the show opener Sunday).

“To me, the thing that is most humbling … is that there literally is a generation or two of people that have grown up, and the music that I got to make with my friends is their music,” Ford recently told The Smoky Mountain News. “Meaning, that’s the music that they came of age to, which is the music that stays your music forever — until the day you die.”

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

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On the beat arts & entertainment

Americana at Marianna Lee Knight will play Bryson City on Aug. 31.

Serving traditional theater snacks alongside local craft beverages and ice cream.

Ever-changing mix of first-run movies, independent and classic films, and live music.

Kids and Family Love The Strand!

For Latest Movie Times:

38main.com

38 N. Main Street • Waynesville (828) 283-0079

August 23-29, 2017

VisitNCSmokies.com

Central Asia, Columbia and the Amazon region of Peru and has recently released his third album, “An Untraditional Journey.”

Knight currently works as a folk singer, storyteller and outdoor leader, performing at concerts, workshops, Elderhostels, festivals, camps and schools. He leads hikes, canoe trips and guides whitewater rafts. He plays various instruments, including the fretless five-string banjo, various guitars, the Appalachian dulcimer, the mouth bow, the Cherokee flute and the Cherokee rattle, as well as the Native American drum.

This program is free and open to area residents and visitors. The library is located in Downtown Bryson City at the corner of Academy and Rector.

828.488.3030 or www.fontanalib.org/brysoncity.

The Haywood Community Chorus will begin its fall season on Monday, Aug. 28, at the First Methodist Church in Waynesville.

Registration begins at 6:30 p.m. followed by a full chorus rehearsal from 7 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. Rehearsals, which take place at the church, will continue each Monday evening at 7 p.m. through November, culminating with the chorus’ annual Christmas concert, scheduled for Dec. 3.

The main piece planned for this season’s concert is “Magnificat,” by John Rutter; in addition, the chorus will perform traditional and contemporary songs for the Christmas season. Membership dues are $30, which covers the cost of music (scholarships available upon request,) and no audition is required. Basses and tenors are in great demand.

Founded in 1997, HCC is supported by a grassroots grant through the Haywood Arts Council and by the continued support of their founders, The Junaluskans. Kathy Geyer McNeil directs the chorus and is also Director of Music for Grace Church in the Mountains and Associate Director of the Junaluska Singers.

Singing together is a wonderful experience of community. Joining together with fellow music lovers, learning new music, singing familiar pieces, and making friends are what choral music and HCC is all about.

For questions, call Laura Schnabel at 828.557.9187.

Smoky Mountain News

Christian Folktronica in Franklin

a website to take you to places where there are no websites.

Log on. Plan a getaway.

Let yourself unplug.

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As part of a summer series of music, the Marianna Black Library is proud to present the traditional music and storytelling of Lee Knight at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 31, in Bryson City.

Raised in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York, Knight became interested in traditional folk music as a young man and soon found himself to be an amateur folklorist. During college, he became familiar with the music and stories of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, as well as of the Adirondacks.

Knight wanted to learn the music and stories from traditional sources--people who had them as part of their culture and community for generations. He also collected songs and stories from other parts of the world, including England, Scotland,

Haywood Chorus kicks off new season

An American Christian Folktronica musician, Crowder will perform at 7:30 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 1, at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin.

David Wallace Crowder was the lead singer of the David Crowder Band for several years before it disbanded in 2012. As a group, the David Crowder Band released 16 singles, six studio albums, two live records, four EPs, and one compilation album.

When the band called it quits, Crowder immediately began his solo career. His first solo album, “Neon Steeple,” was released in 2014. His first solo single from that album, “I Am,” rose to number three on the Billboard Christian Songs chart. Another song from that album, “Come As You Are,” earned Crowder a Grammy nomination in 2015 for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance or Song. Crowder’s second album, American Prodigal, was released in 2016. It includes songs such as, “Run Devil Run,” “Forgiven” and “Back to the Garden.”

Crowder was born and raised in Texarkana, Texas. He lived there until he began his solo career. At that time, he and his

wife, Toni, relocated to Atlanta, Georgia. It was then that Crowder began thinking a lot about his roots, his home, and his sense of belonging. He had grown up listening to country and western, bluegrass, and southern gospel music and he had relocated where country music was born. His first solo album embraced that. His second album, however, embraces the other part of his newly found Atlanta roots. Atlanta was not only where country music was born, it was also where

freedom was born.

Crowder is quite a philosopher and his thoughts, feelings, and words span beyond his music. He has also authored two books, Praise Habit: Finding God in Sunset and Sushi and Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven, but Nobody Wants to Die, which he coauthored with Mike Hogan.

Tickets start at $26 each. To purchase tickets, visit www.greatmountainmusic.com or call 866.273.4615.

On the beat

Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen will play Aug. 26 at Pisgah Brewing.

Bluegrass, Americana at Pisgah Nick Dittmeier & The Sawdusters will play Canton (Aug. 25), Bryson City (Aug. 26) and Brevard (Aug. 27).

Louisville rock, blues returns to WNC

Smoky Mountain Folk Festival

Americana/bluegrass icon Peter Rowan will perform at 8 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 27, at the Cataloochee Ranch in Maggie Valley.

Grammy-award winner, six-time Grammy nominee, and 2015 IBMA Award winner for “Recorded Event of the Year,” Rowan is a singer-songwriter with a career spanning over five decades.

From his early years playing under the tutelage of bluegrass veteran Bill Monroe, to his time in Old & In the Way and breakout

‘Open Door Meal & Sing’ The First United Methodist Church Sylva will hold an “Open Door Meal & Sing at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 30, at the church’s Christian Life Center.

The community is invited to enjoy a delicious meal which will be prepared by church members, musical entertainment, and fellowship.

The Cancel Choir of First United Methodist Church Sylva will provide the musical entertainment. Their program will feature a wide variety of gospel and traditional church hymns. The choir is under the direction of Tommy and Anna Ginn.

A brief devotional will precede the meal. The Open Door and Sing event is held on the fifth Wednesday in those months which have one. All are welcome and invited to attend.

For more information, please call the church office, 828.586.2358.

as a solo musician and bandleader, Rowan has built a devoted, international fan base through a solid stream of records, collaborative projects, and constant touring.

Tickets for the intimate fireside solo performance are $35.A gourmet mountain dinner will be available for purchase before the show. Reservations are highly suggested. This show will sellout.

To RSVP, call 828.926.1401 or click on www.cataloocheeranch.com.

Marianna rocks out

Lake Junaluska photo

packages available.

For more information, to see the full performance schedule and/or to purchase tickets, call 828.452.2881 or visit www.lakejunaluska.com.

As part of a Summer Music Series, the Marianna Black Library presents an evening of acoustic classic rock with Twelfth Fret at 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24, in Bryson City.

From Jackson County, Twelfth Fret are an acoustic duo that performs vintage rock, retro classic rock and pop with Americana flair. The duo’s music includes covers versions of The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, John Prine, Eagles, REM, and Tom Petty.

This program is free and open to area

‘An Appalachian Evening’

Smoky Mountain News

The 48th annual Smoky Mountain Folk Festival will be held Sept.

1-2 at the Stuart Auditorium in the Lake Junaluska Conference & Retreat Center.

Two nights of the finest traditional music and dance of the Southern Appalachian region. The main shows begin at 6:30 p.m. both Friday and Saturday on the grand stage of Stuart Auditorium overlooking beautiful Lake Junaluska. Both nights will include a rich variety of the region's finest fiddlers, banjo players, string bands, ballad singers, buck dancers, and square dance teams as well as the marvelous sounds of dulcimer, harmonica, jew's harp, bagpipes, spoons, saws, and folk ensembles.

Tickets are $12 per person, with lodging

Peter Rowan returns to Cataloochee Ranch

August 23-29, 2017

Beloved Kentucky Americana honky-tonk act Nick Dittmeier & The Sawdusters will perform at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25, at BearWaters Brewing in Canton.

The band will also hit the stage at 8 p.m.

Saturday, Aug. 26, at Nantahala Brewing in Bryson City; and 3 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 27, at Oskar Blues Brewing in Brevard.

“I get a lot of inspiration from my hometown and the area we’re from. It’s a unique

place with a lot of history. Louisville is regarded either as the northernmost southern city or the southernmost Midwestern city,” Dittmeier told The Smoky Mountain News last year. “I also like to take small almost mundane things and try to make them much larger. A good example of that is our song ‘Rhythm of the Train.’ There are a lot of trains passing through my neighborhood on the river. Most people tune those noises out or don’t ever think much about them, but there’s more to that and it facilitates way more connectivity than people give thought to. With my music, I feel I rarely try to tell people what to think. Instead, I try to hold a mirror up to a subject.”

All three shows are free and open to the public. For more information on the group, click on www.nickdittmeier.com.

The Jam In The Trees festival will take place Aug. 25-26 at Pisgah Brewing in Black Mountain.

The lineup includes Tim O’Brien & Jan Fabricius, The Infamous Stringdusters, Acoustic Syndicate, Peter Rowan, Larry Keel Experience, Jim Lauderdale, Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen, and more.

Tickets start at $25. There are two-day and VIP passes also available. For more information or to purchase tickets, click on www.jaminthetrees.com.

arts & entertainment

residents and visitors. Plus, snacks and refreshments will be provided by the Friends of the Marianna Black Library.

The library is located in downtown Bryson City at the corner of Academy and Rector. For more information or driving directions, call the library at 828.488.3030 or click on www.fontanalib.org/brysoncity.

The “An Appalachian Evening” summer concert series will continue with The Kruger Brothers at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26, at the Stecoah Valley Center.

Tickets for performance are $30 for adults, students and grades K-12 $10.

Tickets are a pre-show dinner are also available for purchase. www.stecoahvalleycenter.com.

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August 23-29, 2017

arts & entertainment

On the beat

Beadle presents poetry collection Poet and former Haywood County journalist and teacher Michael Beadle will be reading from his latest poetry collection, Primer, at 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26, at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville.

The book features poems about childhood and family, discovery and disappointment, triumph and heartbreak. Primer was a national finalist in the 2016 Cathy Smith Bowers Chapbook Contest, sponsored by Main Street Rag. Bowers, a former NC Poet Laureate who served as the judge for the contest, writes, "With courage and a kid's heart, Michael Beadle brings to life the rites of passage of a small-town boy inching toward the threshold of adulthood."

Beadle is the author or co-author of four books on Haywood County history, including the local history Arcadia series books Waynesville, Haywood County and Canton.

A former reporter with The Smoky Mountain News and The Mountaineer, Beadle was active in the Haywood County arts community for nearly two decades, performing poetry at downtown Waynesville festivals, acting on

• Andrews Brewing (Andrews) will host Liz Nance (singer-songwriter) Aug. 25, Frank & Allie (bluegrass) Aug. 26, The Blacktop Laurels (bluegrass/Americana) Sept. 1 and a “Bluegrass Festival” from 1 to 6 p.m. Sept. 2.

All shows are free and begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. There will also be a “Bluegrass Jam with Heidi” at 6 p.m. on Tuesdays. www.andrewsbrewing.com.

ALSO:

Smoky Mountain News

• BearWaters Brewing (Canton) will host Nick Dittmeier & The Sawdusters (honky-tonk) Aug. 25. All shows are free and at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. www.bwbrewing.com.

30

• Bogart’s Restaurant & Tavern (Waynesville) will host Eddie Rose & Highway 40 (bluegrass) Aug. 24 and Bull Moose Party (bluegrass) Aug. 31. All shows are free and begin at 6:30 p.m.

• The Classic Wineseller (Waynesville) will host Dulci Ellenberger & Kevin Williams (piano/guitar) Aug. 25 and Joe Cruz (piano/pop) Aug. 26. All shows are free (unless otherwise noted) and begin at 7 p.m.

828.452.6000 or www.classicwineseller.com.

• Concerts on the Creek (Sylva) will host Lyric (rock/soul) Aug. 25 and Sundown (classic rock) Sept. 1 in Bridge Park. All shows are free and begin at 7 p.m. 828.586.2155 or www.mountainlovers.com.

Michael Beadle.

stage at Haywood Arts Regional Theatre, emceeing events at Folkmoot festivals, and teaching creative writing courses through Haywood Community College.

As a writer-in-residence based in Raleigh, he teaches poetry and creative writing workshops throughout the state and serves as the director of the NC Poetry Society's student contests and the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poets Series. www.blueridgebooksnc.com or 828.456.6000.

• Currahee Brewing (Franklin) will host Ryan Sheley (singer-songwriter) Aug. 26. Shows are free and begin at 7:30 p.m. www.curraheebrew.com.

• The Cut Cocktail Lounge (Sylva) will host an open mic night at 8 p.m. on Mondays. All welcome. 828.631.4795.

• Derailed Bar & Lounge (Bryson City) will have music at 7 p.m. on Saturdays.

828.488.8898.

• Friday Night Live (Highlands) will host Mountain Dulcimer Group (traditional/bluegrass) Aug. 25 and Silly Ridge Round Up (Americana) Sept. 1. All shows are free and begin at 6 p.m. www.highlandschamber.org.

• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host Jimi McKenzie (singer-songwriter) Aug. 25, Paul H. Davis (singer-songwriter) Aug. 26, Marc Keller (singer-songwriter) Sept. 1, Mack McKenzie (singer-songwriter) 2 p.m. Sept. 2 and Good Direction Sept. 2. All shows are free and begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. www.froglevelbrewing.com.

• Groovin’ on the Green (Cashiers) will host Sundown (classic hits) Aug. 25 and Hurricane Creek (rock/blues) Sept. 2 at The Village Green. All shows are free and begin at 6:30 p.m. www.visitcashiersvalley.com.

• Guadalupe Café (Sylva) will host Folks’ Songs (world/fusion) from 7 to 9 p.m. on Fridays. Free.

On the beat

• Music on the River (Cherokee) will host AM Superstars (alternative) Aug. 25, Aaron Jones (honky-tonk) Aug. 26, Eastern Blues Band (jazz/blues) Sept. 1 and Will Hayes Band (country/rock) Sept. 2 on the Oconaluftee River Stage. All shows are free and begin at 7 p.m. www.visitcherokeenc.com.

ALSO:

• Nantahala Brewing (Bryson City) will host Nick Dittmeier & The Sawdusters (honkytonk) Aug. 26, Plankeye Peggy (rock/Americana) Sept. 1 and Jordan Okrend Experience (Americana) Sept. 2. All shows are free and at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. www.nantahalabrewing.com.

• The Nantahala Outdoor Center (Nantahala Gorge) will Supertight (funk) Aug. 26 and Sept. 3, and The Freeway Revival (rock/jam) Sept. 2. All shows are free and begin at 6 p.m. www.noc.com.

• No Name Sports Pub (Sylva) will host Karaoke with Chris Monteith Aug. 25 and Pullin’ Strings (Americana) Aug. 26. All shows are free and begin at 9:30 p.m. unless

• Soul Infusion Tea House & Bistro (Sylva) will host The Maggie Valley Band (Americana) 8 p.m. Aug. 26. 828.586.1717.

otherwise noted. www.nonamesportspub.com.

• The Oconaluftee Visitor Center (Cherokee) will host a back porch old-time music jam from 1 to 3 p.m. Sept. 2. All are welcome to come play or simply sit and listen.

• The Strand at 38 Main (Waynesville) will host an “Open Mic” night from 7 to 9 p.m. on Saturdays. 828.283.0079 or www.38main.com.

• Pickin’ in the Park (Canton) will be held at 7 p.m. Aug. 25 and Sept. 1 at the Recreation Park. Free and open to the public. www.cantonnc.com.

• Pickin’ on the Square (Franklin) will host Paradise 56 (blues/variety) Aug. 26 and Charlie Horse (western swing) Sept. 2. All shows are free and begin at 7:30 p.m. www.townoffranklinnc.com.

• Pub 319 (Waynesville) will host an open mic night from 8 to 11 p.m. on Wednesday with Mike Farrington of Post Hole Diggers. Free and open to the public.

• Salty Dog’s (Maggie Valley) will have Karaoke with Jason Wyatt at 8:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays, Mile High (classic rock) 8 p.m. Wednesdays, and an Open Jam with Rick 8 p.m. Thursdays.

• Satulah Mountain Brewing (Highlands) will host “Hoppy Hour” and an open mic with Susan at 6 p.m. on Thursdays and live music on Friday evenings. 828.482.9794 or www.satulahmountainbrewing.com.

CONCERTS ON THE CREEK Popular Western North Carolina funk/soul act Lyric will perform during Concerts on the Creek at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25, in downtown Sylva. The event is free and open to the public. Sundown (classic rock) will play Sept. 1. www.mountainlovers.com.

arts & entertainment

• Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will have an Open Mic night Aug. 23 and 30, and a jazz night with the Kittle/Collings Duo Aug. 24 and 31. All events are free and begin at 8 p.m. www.innovation-brewing.com.

• Tunes on the Tuck (Bryson City) will host Twelfth Fret (acoustic/rock) Aug. 26 and The Caribbean Cowboys (beach/pop) Sept. 2 at Riverfront Park. All shows are free and begin at 7 p.m. www.greatsmokies.com.

• The Water’n Hole Bar & Grill (Waynesville) will host The Fumblebuckers (rock/bluegrass) Aug. 25. All shows begin at 10 p.m.

• Waynesville Pizza Company will have an open mic night at 7 p.m. Sept. 4. Free and open to the public. 828.246.0927 or www.waynesvillepizza.com.

• Saturdays on Pine (Highlands) will host Log Noggins Aug. 26 and Darren & the Buttered Toast (funk/soul) Sept. 2. All shows are free and begin at 6 p.m. www.highlandschamber.org.

• The Waynesville Public Library will host Pyramid Brass at 3 p.m. Aug. 26. The show is free and open to the public. www.haywoodarts.org.

• Sneak E Squirrel Brewing (Sylva) will host line dancing every Friday at 7 p.m. and contra dancing every other Friday at 8 p.m.

828.586.6440.

• Western Carolina University will host a Faculty Saxophone Recital at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 29 in the Recital Hall of the Coulter Building. www.wcu.edu.

August 23-29, 2017 Smoky Mountain News 31

arts & entertainment

H A Y WO O D • C O U N T Y Haywood Count

y Fair

August 24th-27th, 2017

10 a.m-6 p.m.

Fair Exhibits Accepted Vendor/Booth Set-Up

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Closed for judging 5 p.m.-10 p.m. Carnival rides only, no parking fee

6:00 pm K-9 Demo 7:00 pm Horse Show SATURDAY, AUGUST 27 9:00 am - 10:00 pm Open to the Public 10:00 am - 2:00 pm “Family Fun Day at the Fair” 9:00 am - 10:00 pm Carnival Rides Open Richland Creek Meadow

APPLE ORCHARD EVENT CENTER

APPLE ORCHARD EVENT CENTER 4 p.m.-10 p.m.

Vendor booths & Exhibits

DOGWOOD EVENTS CENTER

4 p.m.-6 p.m.

Fish Fry - Pigeon

4 p.m.-5:30 p.m. Variety Music Show 5:30 pm-6:30 pm Military Appreciation & Opening Ceremonies 7:00 pm Bingo

9:00 am - 5:00 pm Open for the Public 9:00am - 9:00 pm Local Artisan Demonstration 12:00 pm and 3:00 pm Chainsaw Wood Carving 12:30 pm-1:30 pm God Science 1:00 pm Watermelon Eating Contest 2:00 pm Ice Cream Eating Contest

DOGWOOD EVENTS CENTER

LIONS CLUB BARN

9:00 pm - 2:00 pm Open for Seniors 4:00 pm - 8:00 pm Open for the Public to view 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm Chainsaw Wood Carving

10:00 am - 10:00 pm Farm Animal Viewing Exhibit

9 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Senior Citizens Day 55 and older 4 p.m.-10 p.m.

Open to the Public

5 p.m.-10 p.m.

Carnival Rides Open

Community Center

August 23-29, 2017

GREAT SMOKIES ARENA

9:00 am - 10:00 pm Vendor booths and exhibits 10:00 am Entries for King Arthur Flour Baking Contest 10:30 - 11:30 am Flour Baking Contest and Prize Bake Goods Auction 1:00 pm Natural Beauty Pageant 4:00 pm Haywood County FFA BBQ 4:00 pm - 8:00 pm Heritage Hoedown

THURSDAY, AUGUST 24

GREAT SMOKIES ARENA 6:00 pm Firemen’s Competition Drinks and Snacks on sale by Fairgrounds Volunteers

LIONS CLUB BARN 4:00 pm - 10:00 pm Farm Animal Viewing Exhibit

FRIDAY, AUGUST 26

GREAT SMOKIES ARENA 9:00 am Tractor Pull Registration 1:30 pm - 5:00 pm Horseshoes (1st and 2nd Prizes) 6:00 pm Lawn Mower Pull Registration

SUNDAY, AUGUST 28

Haywood ‘Golf & Gala’

APPLE ORCHARD EVENT CENTER

The annual Haywood Healthcare Foundation “Golf & Gala” will be held Aug. 29-30.

This will be the 26th year of hosting this two-day event. Proceeds from this event will be for Substance Abuse and Unrestricted Endowment Funds.

On Tuesday, Aug. 29, men’s and women’s tournaments will take place at Maggie Valley Club. On Wednesday, men’s tournaments will be at Waynesville Inn Golf Resort and Spa and Laurel Ridge Country Club.

The evening will end with a celebration of dinner, dancing and awards at Waynesville Inn Golf Resort & Spa. Tickets for golf and gala are $150. Tickets for gala only are $75. If the golfer prefers to play in two tournaments, the cost is $250, which includes two tickets to the gala.

For more information, call 828.452.8342 or email marge.stiles@haymed.org.

APPLE ORCHARD EVENT CENTER

9:00 am - 5:00 pm Vendor booths and exhibits 10:30 am Smokey Mountain Cowboy Church 1:30 pm - 5:00 pm Smoky Mountain Jubilee emceed by Joe Sam Queen

4:00 pm - 10:00 pm 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm 7:00 - 9:00 pm

9:00 am - 5:00 pm Open for the Public 12:00 pm and 3:00 pm Chainsaw Wood Carving

9:00 am - 2:00 pm 4:00 pm - 10:00 pm 5:00 pm - 10:00 pm

School Day for 4th Graders Open to the Public Carnival Rides Open Vendor booths and exhibits New Generation Jamboree Rock n’ Roll Dance Party

DOGWOOD EVENTS CENTER

DOGWOOD EVENTS CENTER

GREAT SMOKIES ARENA

4:00 pm - 8:00 pm Open for the Public to view exhibits, Local Artisan Demonstrations 6:00 pm and 8:00 pm Chainsaw Wood Carving

1:00 pm Truck Pull

BURLEY LIVESTOCK BARN

MONDAY, AUGUST 29

6:30 pm Sheep Show

10 a.m.-6 p.m. Pick-Up and Take Down

LIONS CLUB BARN

There will be a barbecue and craft beer tasting from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 2, on the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, departing from Bryson City.

Slow-cooked barbecue and ribs, with beer tastings from Hoppy Trout Brewing Company (Andrews) for the adults, age 21 and up. The age 20 and under crowd will enjoy a uniquely crafted root beer by Happy Trout. The train will take you to the Fontana Trestle for a spectacular sunset.

For more information and/or to purchase tickets, call 800.872.4681 or visit www.gsmr.com.

9:00 am - 5:00 pm Open to the Public 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm Carnival Rides Open

4:00 pm - 10:00 pm Farm Animal Viewing Exhibit

OTHER ATTRACTIONS Thursday-Sunday-Animal Viewing Zoo (Burley Livestock Barn)

Subject to change Call 828.400.1704 for information www.haywoodcountyfairgrounds.org

$5/vehicle Other Attractions Wednesday-Sunday: Farm Animal Exhibit (Livestock Barn) 32

All aboard the BBQ, craft beer train

Haywood County Fairgrounds TUESDAY, AUGUST 22

Smoky Mountain News

Fair

On the street

• Sneak E Squirrel Brewing (Sylva) will host the Jackson County Corn Hole Association on Monday evenings ($5 buy in, 100-percent payout), Karaoke with Captain Moose from 7 to 11 p.m. on Tuesdays, Trivia at 7 p.m. on

Wednesdays and a Guitar Hero Tournament at 7 p.m. on Thursdays. 828.586.6440.

• There will be a free wine tasting from 1 to 5 p.m. Aug. 26 and Sept. 2 at Bosu’s Wine Shop in Waynesville. www.waynesvillewine.com or 828.452.0120.

• A free wine tasting will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. Aug. 26 and Sept. 2 at Papou’s Wine Shop in Sylva. www.papouswineshop.com or 828.631.3075.

• Free cooking demonstrations will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. on Saturdays at Country Traditions in Dillsboro.

Watch the demonstrations, eat samples and taste house wines for $3 a glass. All recipes posted online. www.countrytraditionsnc.com.

ALSO:

• The Cherokee Bonfire & Storytelling will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays through Oct. 28 at the Oconaluftee Islands Park. Sit by a bonfire, alongside a river, and listen to some of Cherokee’s best storytellers. The bonfire is free and open to the public. www.visitcherokeenc.com.

On the street

The annual Grace Church in the Mountains “Tablescaps Luncheon” will be held from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26, at the church in Waynesville.

Hosted by the Episcopal Women’s Group (ECW), the event will take place in the church’s Thatcher Hall as well as on the covered deck. The luncheon is a long-standing tradition and once again is expected to be a sold-out afternoon. The tickets are $20 per person. The net proceed will benefit ECW mission projects.

The program this year will feature renowned local artist Margaret Roberts who will have the attendees create a collage, which she will later complete, to be won by one of the lucky ticket holders. Gift baskets will be raffled off during the event with proceeds going to the homeless youth of Haywood County.

Tickets may be purchased from the church office, which is open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The office phone number is 828.456.6029.

The Haywood County Fair will be held Aug. 24-27 at the fairgrounds in Lake Junaluska.

Alongside the usual fair activities, livestock viewing, games and rides, there will also be new events, including the Garden Tractor Pull at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26.

Fair favorites include Senior Citizens Day with bingo and exhibits (9 a.m. to 2

p.m. Aug. 24), Pigeon Community MultiCultural Center Fish Fry (4 to 6 p.m. Aug. 24), Fireman’s Competition (6 p.m. Aug. 24), New Generation Jamboree (4 to 7 p.m. Aug. 25), Horse Show (7 p.m. Aug. 25), Haywood County FFA BBQ (4 p.m.

Aug. 26), Heritage Hoedown (4 to 8 p.m.

Aug. 26), Smoky Mountain Jubilee (1:30 to 5 p.m. Aug. 27) and Truck Pull (1 p.m.

Aug. 27).

For more information or to view a full schedule of the fair events, visit www.haywoodcountyfairgrounds.org.

Smoky Mountain News

Grace Church’s ‘Tablescraps Luncheon’

Haywood County Fair returns

August 23-29, 2017

At retirement, Rev. Greenwaldt and her The Rev. Karen A. Greenwaldt will be the keynote speaker at the Annual banquet of the husband, Russell J. Harris, moved to Lake Friends of the World Methodist Museum at Junaluska. They attend Waynesville First 6:30 p.m., Friday, Aug. 25, in the Auditorium United Methodist Church. The couple is active at Lake Junaluska Assembly, she has of The Terrace at Lake Junaluska.

During her remarks at the Friends Dinner recently served as the co-chair of an Interfaith for the World Methodist Council, Peace Conference there, and serves on that Greenwaldt will tell stories and share experiences of her encounters with Rev. Karen A. Methodist people who live in far-flung Greenwaldt. places of the world. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, stated, “The world is my parish.” Greenwaldt’s perspective is that his statement was true for him and holds truth for all of us.

While her remarks will be personal reflections, she hopes that they will spark memories in all listeners and will result in deepened conversations about the impact of Methodism in individual lives and communities of faith.

This will be the 61st anniversary of the World Methodist Museum, a ministry of the World Methodist Council which was formed in 1881, with its international headquarters located at Lake Junaluska.

Rev. Greenwaldt is a Retired Elder in the Central Texas Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. For most of her ministry, she served at the General Board of Discipleship, UMC, group’s Executive Committee. She is the curNashville, Tennessee. She held a number of rent finance committee chair of the positions there – Director of Church Leader Intentional Growth Center. She is an active Development, Director of Young Adult and fabric artist and enjoys exploring various Single Adult Ministries, Team Leader of the expressions of art and creativity that can be Laity in Ministries Stream, Associate General fashioned from cloth, needle, and thread.

Special music will be provided by Scott Secretary for the Discipleship Ministries Taylor. Mary Funderburk chaired a Division, and General Secretary (CEO).

She was an active member of the World Committee of Friends who planned the meal Methodist Council for 13 years and served on and related activities for the evening. Tickets its Education Committee. She attended many are available for $20 each at the Museum at World Methodist Conferences prior to and 575 North Lakeshore Drive. They may also be during her membership on the Council. As a purchased on the web page at part of her work at GBOD (now named www.methodistmuseum or by calling Discipleship Ministries), she traveled exten- 828.456.7242 with a credit card. The musesively both in the USA and in numerous um is free and open to the public year- round, Tuesday through Saturday. countries.

arts & entertainment

Greenwaldt to speak at Museum Banquet

33

On the wall arts & entertainment

‘Fluid Watercolors’ workshop

Quilt show in Cruso

August 23-29, 2017

The Cruso Quilt Show will be held Aug. 25-26 at the Cruso Community Center. The two-day event includes the following: FRIDAY, AUG. 25 • 10 a.m. — Opening Ceremonies of the 28th Annual Cruso Quilt Show • 10:30 a.m. — Antique Bed Turning • 11 a.m. — Moda Cake Mix Patterns, Demonstration by Lisa Mann, Lisa’s Quilting Shed • 12:30 p.m — Quilts and Their Stories, Lecture Presentation by Levi Henson, A Cruso Quilter • 1:30-3:30 p.m. — Quilt Olympics • 3:30 p.m. — Antique Bed Turning • 4 p.m. — Moda Cake Mix Patterns, Demonstration by Lisa Mann, Lisa’s Quilting Shed • 5 p.m. — Antique Bed Turning • 6 p.m. — Exhibit Area & Vendors Close for Day

SATURDAY, AUG. 26 • 10 a.m. — Doors Open • 10:30 a.m. — Antique Bed Turning • 11 a.m. — Moda Cake Mix Patterns, Demonstration by Lisa Mann, Lisa’s Quilting Shed • Noon — Antique Bed Turning • 12:30 p.m. — Creative Grids Presentation

by Deb Heatherly, Deb’s Cats N Quilts Studio • 1:30-3:30 p.m. — Quilt Olympics • 3 p.m. — Antique Bed Turning • 3:30 p.m. — Moda Cake Mix Patterns, Demonstration by Lisa Mann, Lisa’s Quilting Shed • 3:55 p.m. — Exhibit Area & Vendors Close • 4 p.m. — Drawing for 2017 Donation Quilt • 4:30 p.m. — Release of Exhibits For more information, call 828.400.7323.

Diane E. Sherrill, Attorney

Smoky Mountain News

Is a Will Enough?

FREE LUNCHEON SEMINAR

Concealed Carry Class: 80/BYO gun 90/gun & ammo provided $

$

Pre-concealed carry & post-concealed carry classes also available

and England. He currently paints in a gallery that he shares with his wife at their home in Webster.

The class is limited to 12 people. For fur-

ther information and to sign up for the class, call the library at 586-2016. This program is free of charge.

This event is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Jackson County Public Library. The Jackson County Public Library is a member of Fontana Regional Library (www.fontanalib.org).

Women's Wednesdays Half OFF lane rental and rental guns.

September 13 & October 18 11:30 AM

Best Western River Escape Inn Dillsboro • Reservation Suggested

828.586.4051

nctrustlawyer.com 34

The next Creating Community Workshop will be “Fluid Watercolors” at 10:30 a.m.

Saturday, Aug. 26, in the Atrium of the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva.

Local artist Allan Grant will be the instructor. In this Allan Grant. workshop, Grant will show how he paints watercolor images using very liquid paint in fully loaded brushes to build up the image and produce definite outlines by flooding the area of color with water rather than sketching and then filling in areas with color. Participants will practice these techniques and hopefully produce images for sharing and keeping.

Grant started painting in London, England, in 1964.

Like many seekers in the late 50s and early 60s, he explored Eastern thought, Zen Buddhism in particular. He was greatly attracted by oriental drawing and painting, admiring its simplicity, open approach, and use of black and white.

Encouraged and influenced by his wife Shirley and sister-in-law Lucienne, both fine artists, he stared painting sumi-e, Japanese ground ink, with images from nature drawn by brush against the white background of the paper.

Later he started painting in watercolors, using many of the techniques of sumi-e.

Allan has exhibited in shows and galleries in Michigan, Texas, North Carolina, Canada,

28 Maple St. • Sylva

DAY PASS 20 Lane Rental

$

& a large selection of rental guns.

W K INDOOR SHOOTING RANGE & FULLY STOCKED GUN SHOP

17 Palmer Rd. Waynesville | 828-452-7870

New Hours: M:9-5 • Tu, Wed, & Thur: 9-7 • Fri:9-5 • Sat:10-6 • Sun:1-5

www.mountainrangewnc.com

On the wall

The Highlands Village Square Art & Craft Show will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Aug. 26-27 at the Kelsey-Hutchinson Founders Park in downtown.

The event features over 70 local and regional artisans with fine art, pottery, rustic furniture, and more. Demonstrations, live music and food onsite. Free admission.

Sponsored by Rotary of Highlands Mountaintop.

For information, call 828.787.2021.

arts & entertainment

Art and craft show in Highlands

Open call for art grants

August 23-29, 2017 Smoky Mountain News

The Haywood County Arts Council is now accepting applications for North Carolina Arts Council Regional Artists Project Grants (RAPG) through Oct. 6.

The grants will fund artists in Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Jackson and Macon counties at any phase of their professional development. Grants may cover equipment purchases, professional development training, marketing, and more. Projects must occur between Dec. 1, 2017 – June 30, 2018. The deadline for applications is Oct. 6. Grantees will be notified by Oct. 31.

There will be a grant workshop at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 30, in the HCAC office at 86 North Main Street in Waynesville. Applications and instructions will be available at the workshop. It is recommended that all new applicants attend.

Those interested should RSVP by emailing the Lindsey Solomon, RAPG administrator at info@haywoodarts.org. For application information, visit www.haywoodarts.org/regional-artist-project-grant. In the west, grant awards to artists generally range from $500 to $1,200 and follow a competitive application and review process.

The Haywood County Arts Council is supported in part by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources. The Regional Artists Project program is managed through a partnership with the North Carolina Arts Council and local arts organizations throughout western North Carolina working as a consortium. Consortium partners include the Art League of HighlandsCashiers & the Greater Plateau, Cherokee County Arts Council, Clay County Historical & Arts Council, Haywood County Arts Council, Jackson County Arts Council, and the Stecoah Valley Arts, Crafts & Educational Center, Inc. Since 1985, the North Carolina Arts Council has provided funds for the Regional Artists Project program to support professional artists. The regional consortium of western North Carolina arts partners matches the N.C. Arts Council to create a pool of funds for the artists.

35

arts & entertainment

399-20

Loungewear, Backpacks & Accessories

August 23-29, 2017

NOW IN STOCK!

On the wall

Interested in bladesmithing, Viking shield?

A six-course “Start to Finish” bladesmithing class with Brock Martin from WarFire Forge will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Aug. 24 and 31 and Sept. 7, 14, 21 and 28 at the Jackson County Green Energy Park in Dillsboro.

In this course, students will learn the process of forging blades, producing a basic blade before forging a higher carbon blade with more attention on fit and finish. Students will be able to select their handles from various exotic woods and other materials. They will cover metallurgy: grain properties, annealing, heat treating of knives, and use differential hardening to temper our blades.

Leather sheaths will be made to accompany students’ blades. No prior experience necessary.

Cost is $295 per person, which includes materials, due at registration.

Martin will also be holding a “Viking Round Shield Class” from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Aug. 26-27 at the JCGEP. In this course, students will focus on forging a shield boss (raised center) and assembly/construction methods of creating a Viking round shield. Students will have a few different options on how their shield is

• Local artist and crafter, Lawrie Williams will host a “Hammered Wire Art Jewelry” class from 12:30 to 3 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 31, at the Jackson County Extension Office in Sylva. The technique creates texture, form and toughness in the wire, producing unique effects. Class project will feature a lovely pair of earrings and matching pendant in attendees' own free form organic design. The cost is only $10 and you'll need to bring your jewelry pliers if you have them, otherwise all materials and tools will be supplied. Class size is limited. To register, please call the Sylva Extension Office at 828.586.4009.

Smoky Mountain News

ALSO:

36

• The “Meet the Artist” reception with Brian Hannum (pianist), Drew Campbell (photographer) and Jon Houglum (painter) will be from 3 to 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25, at Gallery Zella in Bryson City. 828.488.3638 or visit www.galleryzella.com.

• The Waynesville Fiber Friends will meet from 10 a.m. to noon on the second Saturday of the month at the Panacea Coffee House in Waynesville. All crafters and beginners interested in learning are invited. You can keep up with them through their Facebook group or by calling 828.276.6226.

assembled and finished. Riveting and some leather work will be discussed as well.

Students will be able to choose between different sizes, ranging from 26” to 34” in diameter. No prior experience required.

Cost is $285 per person, which includes materials, due at registration.

For both classes, students must wear closed toe shoes (preferably leather), long pants, and cotton clothing, and should bring a lunch. Pre-registration is required. www.jcgep.org.

• Acclaimed Bryson City painter Elizabeth Ellison’s newest exhibit, “Spirit of Place,” will run through Sept. 4 at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville. Exhibit support is provided by The North Carolina Arboretum Society and Smoky Mountain Living magazine. www.smliv.com.

• “Paint Nite Waynesville” will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursdays (Aug. 31 and Sept. 14) at Frog Level Brewing in Waynesville. Sign up for either event on the Paint Night Waynesville Facebook page or call Robin Arramae at 828.400.9560. paintnitewaynesville@gmail.com.

• There will be a “Thursday Painters Open Studio” from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. at the Franklin Uptown Gallery. Bring a bag lunch, project and supplies. Free to the public. Membership not required. For information, call 828.349.4607.

• A “Youth Art Class” will be held from 10:30 a.m. to noon every Saturday at the Appalachian Art Farm on 22 Morris Street in Sylva. All ages welcome. $10 includes instruction, materials and snack. For more information, email appalachianartfarm@gmail.com or find them on Facebook.

On the wall arts & entertainment

‘Paint & Sip Workshop’ The “Paint & Sip Workshop” will be held from noon to 2 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25, at Gallery Zella in Bryson City.

Enjoy learning to paint with a buddy, daughter, son or even your sweetheart. Take home an incredible memory of your trip to the mountains — your own original painting on canvas. Enjoy a glass of wine (or soft beverage) and a light snack. Your painting instructor Jon Houglum is known as the area's best oil painting teacher. Students will be presented with various visual tools for suggesting background, middle ground and foreground colors which will give the sense of great depth in their paintings.

Cost is $50, which includes all materials.

For more information, call 828.488.3638 or visit www.galleryzella.com.

Do you like Legos?

SPACE AVAILABLE

Smoky Mountain News

@Smoky MtnNews

August 23-29, 2017

The next Lego Club meeting will be held at 4 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24, at Marianna Black Library in Bryson City.

The library provides Legos and Duplos for ages 3 and up. The only thing area children need to bring is their imagination. This program provides an excellent opportunity for children to learn how to develop fine motor skills. It also develops problem-solving skills, organization, planning through construction, and improves creativity.

All area children are invited join in and let your creativity shine. This month, the theme will be “Transportation.” The Marianna Black Library is also requesting that you consider donating your gently used Legos and Duplos to the library, to help expand the Lego Club.

For more information, call the library at 828.488.3030. The Marianna Black Library, a member of the Fontana Regional Library, is located in downtown Bryson City at the corner of Academy and Rector.

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Auditions for kids at HART Kids at HART will hold auditions for “Shuddersome: Tales of Poe” at 4 p.m. Aug. 25 and 27, the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville. All middle and high school age students are invited to audition.

Specters, ghosts and ghouls come alive in this vivid theatrical adaptation of some of Edgar Allen Poe’s best-known works.

Included are The Tell-Tale Heart, The Bells, The Oval Portrait, The Raven, and The Masque of the Red Death. This is a large cast with parts for many.

One of the exciting aspects of this productions is the opportunity for students to work with five directors who are all focused on making this a positive experience for everyone: Holly Cope, Anna Denson, Tom Dewees, David Yeates and Shelia Sumpter.

Technical personnel for lights, sound, costumes, and stage management are also needed. Please bring your calendar with your schedule to determine conflicts to the audition. Most rehearsals will be held on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Audition sides are available at the Hart Box Office.

The production will be held at times to be determined on Oct. 21.

If you would like more information, please contact Sumpter at 828.456.6322 or email at srsumpter@charter.net.

August 23-29, 2017

arts & entertainment

On the stage Highlands Cashiers Players opens 23rd season The delightful New York romance “Crossing Delancey” (made into a movie starring Amy Irving in 1988) will open the Highlands Cashiers Players’ 23rd season through Sept. 3.

Directed by veteran actor/director Dr. Ronnie Spilton, the women in the cast include Lynleigh McLain playing Isabelle, a single young career woman, Faye Siegel, her grandmother, and Barbara Jamison, a new actor to HCP, playing the matchmaker hired to find a young man for Isabelle.

Lance Trudel plays Sam Posner, presented to Isabelle as a candidate, while Chris Hess plays Tyler Moss, the self-centered author with whom Isabelle is besotted.

Though Isabelle is not at all pleased when she learns that Sam is the owner of a pickle business, who lives on the “wrong side” of New York’s Delancey Street, further acquaintance with him changes her mind.

The regular season begins Aug. 24, with evening shows beginning at 7:30 p.m. and the two Sunday matinees at 2:30 p.m.

Aug. 27 and Sept. 3.

For tickets, call 828.526.8084 or click on www.highlandscashiersplayers.com.

Meet Charlotte Figi.

Charlotte didn’t have a single seizure during the first seven days of treatment, which was a clear sign that the Figis had stumbled onto something extraordinary.

Smoky Mountain News

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The comedy production of “Unnecessary Farce” will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 2526 and Sept. 1-2, 7-9, and at 2 p.m. Aug. 27 and Sept. 3 and 10 at the Haywood Art Regional Theatre in Waynesville.

Two Cops. Three Crooks. Eight Doors.

Go! “Unnecessary Farce,” winner of nine regional theatre awards, is the comedy by Paul Slade Smith that combines all the elements of classic farce with a contemporary American plot.

In a cheap motel, the embezzling Mayor Meekly is supposed to meet with Karen Brown, his female accountant. In the room next door are two undercover cops, bookish officer Eric Sheridan and overeager officer Billie Dwyer. Both of whom are supposed to

catch the Mayors sketchy meeting on videotape. But, there's some confusion as to who's in which room, who's watching the video, who's taken the money, who's hired a crazed Scottish hit man, and why the accountant keeps taking her clothes off.

Harmons’ Den Bistro will be serving dinner before the show with the first seating time at 5:45 p.m. and it’s second at 6:15 p.m. A Sunday “Brunch Buffet” will also be available at Harmons Den Bistro from 12:15 p.m. onward. The bistro will remain open after the show providing drinks and snacks on selected performance nights for the audience, cast, and crew.

For tickets, call 828.456.6322 or visit www.harttheatre.org.

Harrah’s welcomes Ron White At just 3 months old, she experienced her first seizure, an experience that would send her family on a path that would change the world. Charlotte was suffering from 300 grand mal seizures per week when they met the Stanley Brothers, who had been developing proprietary hemp genetics. Together they created a hemp oil extract that was introduced into Charlotte’s diet in hopes of providing her relief.

Today she is a nine year old who is thriving and enjoying life. The Stanley brothers assure consumers that the oil maintains a 30:1 ratio of CBD to THC. THC is the psychoactive compound that produces the “high” effect in marijuana. Thanks to Charlotte’s Web, Charlotte can now live life like a normal child. She is able to feed herself and sleep through the night. Her autistic symptoms have virtually disappeared. As such, her mind is clear, and her attention is focused. Her brain is recovering, and she is happy.

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HART cops, crooks comedy

Standup comedy legend Ron White will return to the stage at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, Aug. 26.

White first rose to fame as the cigar-smoking, scotch-drinking funnyman from the Blue Collar Comedy Tour phenomenon.

Today, he is an established star in his own right as a chart-topping Grammynominated comedian and a feature film actor.

White has always been a classic storyteller. His stories J relay tales from his real life, ranging from growing up in a small town in Texas to sharing stories of his daily life to becoming one of the most successful comedians in America.

All four of his comedy albums charted number one on the Billboard Comedy Charts. He has sold over 14 million albums (solo and with the Blue Collar Comedy Tour), been nominated for two Grammys (since 2004) been one of the top three grossing stand-up comedians on tour in America.

For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.harrahscherokee.com.

On the stage

Open call for HCP play

Smoky Mountain News

Auditions will be held for the Highlands Cashiers Players production of “Guilty Conscience” by William Link and Richard L. Levinson from 3 to 5 p.m. Aug. 26-27 at the Highlands Performing Arts Center.

The play is a clever murder mystery, scheduled to run Oct. 12-15 and 19-22.

Director is Michael Lanzilotta.

Two men and two women are needed for the play. One man is a famous, successful self-confident, defense attorney, 40 to 60.

The other man is “The Prosecutor,” a mature man of any age, knowledgeable about criminal law, seen only in the imagination of the defense attorney. The two women are Louise Jamison, wife of the defense attorney, a patrician-looking woman, 40s to 50s, with a cool, composed manner, and Jackie Willis, a pretty, somewhat flustered woman, 20 to 30, mistress of the defense attorney.

Scripts for Guilty Conscience may be read in the libraries in Highlands or Cashiers, but cannot be checked out.

For more information, call 828.526.8016 or email mlanzilotta@gmail.com.

August 23-29, 2017

The Haywood County Arts Council (HCAC) will host “Spark: An Evening to Benefit Dance ARîS” Aug. 25-26 in Waynesville.

This year’s artists in residence will be Nicholas Young, Bessie award-winning and sought-after star of STOMP (tap), technically stunning Terpsicorps dancers Gavin Stewart and Carly Hambridge (contemporary ballet), Tisch up-and-comer Morgan Lamb (modern), and, back by popular demand, Aparna Keshaviah (contemporary Indian).

Performances will take place in the evening at the Fangmeyer Theater at Haywood Arts Regional Theatre (HART).

Friday, Aug. 25 will offer a performance at 8 p.m. and Saturday, Aug. 26 will include a preshow gala at 6:45 p.m. catered by Harmon’s Den before the 8 p.m. performance.

Tickets are $25 (plus tax) for the performance only and $60 (plus tax) for the gala plus performance package (available Saturday only); a $10 discount will be offered on all tickets for students 18 and under (or with valid ID). On Saturday, the Terpsicorps dancers and Nicholas Young will offer master classes at Folkmoot’s Friendship Center.

The events are part of the HCAC dance artist residency program called Dance ARîS (Artist Residency in the Smokies, pronounced “arise”). As a new platform for professional classical and contemporary dance, the residency includes performances as well as classes and outreach activities to schools and underserved communities in the region.

If you would like to be involved in planning and future growth, please email director@haywoodarts.org. You can also click on www.haywoodarts.org.

arts & entertainment

HCAC dance performance, classes

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Books

Smoky Mountain News

None too likeable characters, but a good story strong a need for affection that she inevitably cheats on those who do love her. The next is Anna, uptight but willing to steal away a woman’s husband, a loving wife and mother

Jeff Minick

Alcohol, alcoholism, and alcoholics appear frequently in literature.

Shakespeare’s Falstaff is a son of Bacchus.

Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder and James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux are both detectives who emerge from the dark, beerdamp bars of New York and New Orleans, respectively, to join AA and battle their demons as well as murderers and thieves. In Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Writer Also Rises, so many glasses are hoisted and so many bottles emptied that alcohol nearly becomes a character in and of itself.

Jack London, Jack Kerouac, Stephen King, and dozens of other writers have written memoirs and novels about their affinity for juice. In Under The Volcano, considered by many one of the great novels of the twentieth century, Malcom Lowry gives us the penultimate picture of an alcoholic, Geoffey Firmin, an Englishman and ex-consul living in Mexico, cuckold and drinker extraordinaire.

Now we can add another book to this list: Paula Hawkins’ The Girl On The Train (Penguin Group, 2015, 323 pages).

Off on a road trip 10 days ago, I snatched up an audio copy of The Girl On The Train from the public library. The title rang a bell, the description on the casing grabbed my attention, and I gave it a shot. For approximately six hours, I listened to the story while driving on my trip and about town, but impatience turned me once again to the library, where I checked out the book, brought it home, and read in a frenzy to its finish.

Three female characters narrate this tale of murder, lies, wishes, and love. One is Meagan, a woman in her late twenties with a checkered past, haunted by ghosts of regret, driven by so

who is plagued by the ex-wife.

Which brings us to Rachel, “the girl on the train,” whose drinking has cost her both her job and the husband she loves. While traveling to and fro by train between her flat and London, pretending to go to work to fool her

New bluegrass book

Diving into the rich, vibrant and controversial history of bluegrass music, If You Can’t Play, Get Off the Stage: Bluegrass in Western North Carolina and Beyond is the debut work from Garret K. Woodward, arts/entertainment editor for The Smoky Mountain News.

Woodward will be holding a reading, bluegrass discussion and book signing at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 24, in the Community Room at the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva. The event is free and open to the public.

The book features interviews, profiles, quotes and conversations with the biggest names in bluegrass, mountain and string music, including: Balsam Range, Bobby Osborne, Claire Lynch, David Grisman, David Holt, Del McCoury, Doyle Lawson, Jesse McReynolds, John Cowan, Larry Sparks, Marty Stuart, Peter Rowan, Raymond Fairchild, Rhiannon Giddens, Rhonda Vincent, Ricky Skaggs, Sam Bush, Tim O’Brien, and many more.

In 2015, Woodward won first place in the North Carolina Press

landlord and friend Cathy, Rachel daily watches for Meagan and her husband Scott, strangers to her who spend a great deal of time on their terrace. Seeing that the couple appears madly in love, Rachel obsessively fantasizes about her ex-husband, Tom, who has married Anna. She makes drunken phone calls to Tom in the middle of the night, sends him emails full of rage and despair, and threatens Anna and her baby.

And then Meagan goes missing.

Her disappearance brings all of the novel’s main characters — Rachel, Tom and Anna, Scott, a psychiatrist named Kamal, a red-haired man who once rescued Rachel while she was drunk — together in a series of clashes and revelations. When the police become involved, the reader is as mystified as they are about Meagan’s fate.

To tell more of the story would be to destroy the ending. The last 30 pages packed a powerful punch, and even to the last few pages I was reading without a clue as to what might happen.

Some comments on the book in general, however, are in order.

First, the characters are none too likeable.

I came away with distaste for all of them. Too many lies, too many stupid moves. At one point, when I was listening to the book on CD, Rachel lies to the police in front of her

Association awards for “Arts & Entertainment Reporting” for his cover story “Bless Your Heart — The State of Women in Bluegrass.”

In 2016, Woodward was nominated for “Bluegrass Print/Media Person of the Year” by the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA). The NCPA also recognized him with another first place in 2016 for “Lighter Columns” for his weekly column in The Smoky Mountain News, “This must be the place.”

For more information on the book and where to purchase it, click on www.facebook.com/yobrodobro.

‘Books & Bites’ welcomes bestseller Bestselling author Lisa Wingate will discuss her newest book, Before We Were Yours, during “Books & Bites” at noon Friday, Sept.

1, at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin.

Based on one of America’s most notorious real-life scandals—in

friend Cathy, and I audibly moaned, turning off the disc for a while and wondering whether continuing the book was worthwhile.

(It was.)

In addition, several of the characters come across as obsessively jealous or psychotic.

Scott’s brief imprisonment of Rachel; Tom’s behavior toward women; Anna’s adultery and marriage; Meagan’s yearning for men; Rachel’s drinking and lies: only a newborn baby and a detective in A Girl On The Train seem innocent of borderline psychosis.

That said, the depiction of Rachel’s drinking by Hawkins should strike home for anyone who is an alcoholic or who is close to someone who drinks heavily. Whenever she encounters stress, Rachel turns to wine or stronger stuff, preferably gin and tonics. She falls down from drink, suffers bruises on her legs from bumping into furniture, becomes angry and violent while drinking (or does she?), and worst of all, suffers from blackouts.

Hawkins finely dissects a drunkard’s blackout. A blackout is not forgetfulness. It is not waking up and having trouble remembering some incident, only to have the light click on when a friend or a loved one tells you what you did. Thorough Rachel, Hawkins gives us a true blackout: a hole in the memory beyond forgetfulness, a gap of time beyond replacement. Rachel really doesn’t remember until late in the book what took place on a crucial night because those events are gone, rubbed away by alcohol.

Though we eventually learn that her blackouts are partly contrived by another party, who lies to her about her behavior while drinking, Hawkins does give us what the drinker feels, the confusion, the absence of all memory, the knowledge that something has gone wrong without knowing what that something is.

Looking for a book to keep you up and reading late at night? The Girl On The Train may do the trick.

which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country — Before We Were Yours is a riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong.

Wingate is a former journalist, inspirational speaker, and bestselling author of more than twenty novels. Her work has won or been nominated for many awards, including the Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize, the Oklahoma Book Award, the Utah Library Award, The Carol Award, and the RT Booklovers Reviewer’s Choice Award.

The group Americans for More Civility, a kindness watchdog organization, selected Wingate along with six others as recipients of the National Civics Award, which celebrates public figures who work to promote greater kindness and civility in American life. Booklist summed up her work by saying, “Lisa Wingate is, quite simply, a master storyteller.”

Light refreshments will be provided by Friends of the Library, and books will be for sale at the event from Books Unlimited.

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Outdoors

Smoky Mountain News

Protecting mountain gold Balsam uses dye to thwart ginseng poachers

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER rian McMahan and Johnny Nicholson can both remember boyhood days spent in the mountains, hunting the elusive ginseng plant.

Coveted for its myriad medicinal uses, ginseng root harvest is an Appalachian tradition stretching back through generations.

McMahan and Nicholson were both taught to

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dig it in such a way that its numbers would stay strong for generations more — leaving small plants to grow and planting the seedcontaining berries of harvested plants in the earth around the dig.

“Most of the time we would ginseng dig to get money to buy a hunting license or something like that,” Nicholson said. “But the oldtimers never dug it before the berries got ripe.”

These days, both men work for the Balsam

Mountain Preserve in Jackson County — McMahan as chief security officer and Nicholson as operations manager — and they’ve spent untold hours working to protect the Preserve’s wild ginseng from poachers who aren’t interested in harvesting the plant legally or responsibly.

“Today, these poachers just take everything,” McMahan said. “They take the big stuff, they take the little stuff. They even take it before it has berries that are available to plant.”

A HELP FOR PROSECUTION

Homeowners tramp through the woods to assist with the ginseng marking process. Brian McMahan photo

A small ginseng plant shoots up a few early berries on the grounds of the Balsam Mountain Preserve. Holly Kays photo

McMahan’s hoping that a new effort underway at the Preserve will soon keep the poachers at bay. Working with homeowners in the community and the Balsam Mountain Trust, the Preserve is attempting to apply chemical markers to as many of the ginseng plants growing on the Preserve’s 4,400 acres as possible.

It’s been a labor-intensive process, involving a systematic canvass of the rugged property to map where the biggest communities of ginseng grow so that the team can apply the dye to each plant found. The dye is absorbed through the roots. It doesn’t hurt the plant or change the appearance of its above-ground portion, but it does remain in the plant through the rest of its life.

A poacher digging up a treated root would quickly see that it looks different from a typical ginseng root — and that variation in color would make the find virtually worthless to sellers. Licensed ginseng sellers are monitored to ensure their activities are legal, McMahan

A freshly dyed root waits to covered with soil. Brian McMahan photo

The facts on ‘sang Ginseng — of which there is one American and one Asian species — has a history of medicinal use on both continents that goes back centuries.

The plant’s root is said to have a wide variety of medical benefits, though not all of these have been substantiated through scientific studies. Its alleged effects include boosting the immune system, improving concentration and learning, and treating a spectrum of medical conditions.

American ginseng, Panax quinquefolius, is native throughout the Appalachian Mountains and in states as far west as Minnesota. Its leaves grow in sets of five — hence, its Latin name — and in the fall it displays a stalk of bright red berries.

However, the plant’s almost mythic place in the world of herbal medicine — and its high-dollar market value — has led to widespread poaching and population declines. In North Carolina it’s classified as a species of special concern, and in recent years the U.S. Forest Service has restricted the number of permits it issues each year for legal harvesting in the Pisgah-Nantahala National Forest.

Since 2013, permit numbers have decreased by 75 percent and are granted through a lottery system.

Harvesting ginseng illegally is considered theft and prosecuted accordingly. Poaching plants from federal land carries a fine of up to $5,000, a six-month federal prison sentence, or both.

said, and while your average ginseng root tells no tales as to whether it was harvested legally or illegally, it’s obvious at a glance that a dyed root was stolen.

The dye also features a chemical marker that is identifiable under a microscope, making it easy to prove in court that the root in question originated on the property of the Balsam Mountain Preserve.

For McMahan and his team, that’s pretty important. It’s illegal to harvest ginseng on private land like Balsam Mountain Preserve without permission from the landowner. But, while it’s easy to prove that someone was trespassing on the Preserve’s private property, it’s often hard to prove that someone caught poaching actually dug the ginseng they’re carrying on the property and didn’t just bring it with them from somewhere else. The chemical markers will make that a lot easier.

“If we catch a poacher and he has a bagful of ginseng, unless we actually see him digging it we can’t prove he got it on our property. But when he’s got it in his bag and it has dye in it, then we know it came from Balsam and we can prosecute. That’s going to be a great help,” Nicholson said.

AN ONGOING PROCESS The ginseng-marking project,

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Tree removal to impact Smokies roads

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N O I AUCT

September 7th 6-9PM HART Theater

outdoors

A single-lane closure will affect three roads in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park through Sept. 29 for a tree removal project.

During daylight hours, there will be single-lane closures on Cherokee Orchard Road, Gatlinburg Spur and Gatlinburg Bypass. Roads will be open from 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday evening and on holidays. www.nps.gov/grsm.

George E. Shackelford Scholarship Gala Park crews begin tree removal. NPS photo

Fontana algal bloom keeps growing A potentially harmful algal bloom continues to grow in parts of Fontana Lake, and state officials are warning people to avoid touching it.

First seen in the Tuckasegee arm of the lake in early August, the bloom was reported below the Bryson City 288 boat ramp, mostly along the shoreline but visible in open water. Blooms may be present in other parts of the lake as well.

The plant is a filamentous bluegreen algae of two species — Aphanizomenon and Anabaen. It may produce toxins that pose a health risk. Water quality specialists out of Asheville will continue monitoring conditions.

No adverse health effects have been reported, and while it’s safe to boat and fish in affected areas, people should prevent children and pets from swimming or ingesting water in an algal bloom. http://bit.ly/2tnhmyn.

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{Celebrating the Southern Appalachians}

Smoky Mountain Living celebrates the mountain region’s culture, music, art, and special places. We tell our stories for those who are lucky enough to live here and those who want to stay in touch with the place they love.

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“In most cases, most of these people are doing other things other than stealing ginseng,” McMahan said. “We’re catching people who may be in possession of drugs and illegal substances. Who knows what else they tack on when they catch some of these people. People who break the law to do ginseng will be breaking the law to do other things.”

The drug epidemic has contributed to the prevalence of ginseng theft. The roots can sell for hundreds of dollars per pound.

Drug users in need of drug money sometimes see ginseng as a source of quick cash.

“The worst crowd to deal with are those who are trying to dig it for money to buy drugs,” McMahan said.

These poachers dig plants of any size, in any season — the goal is to get as much money as possible as quickly as possible, not to harvest with an eye toward allowing the species to propagate.

“Here in Jackson County we have received a lot of help from our local sheriff ’s department,” Nicholson added. “They have really been good to help us anytime we call them.”

The Preserve is tapping into additional anti-poaching technologies as well, setting up trail cameras in some locations to take pictures anytime a poacher moves in the vicinity. Those images can become evidence in court.

“The technology has come a long ways, and the price of that stuff has gone down,” McMahan said.

The jury’s still out on how effective the dye markers will be for combating poaching on the Preserve, but the same method has been used in other places, with substantial success, Nicholson said.

Hopefully, that success will translate to Balsam.

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August 23-29, 2017

now in its first year, has been a long time in the making. Before Balsam Mountain Preserve was created 15 years ago, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission managed the property as gameland, which meant it was open to the public.

When Balsam Mountain bought the land and it became private property, poaching problems soon ensued. McMahan has found himself on many a stakeout over the years, waiting at some forest edge where it’s expected a poacher will eventually emerge.

About three or four years ago, Balsam Mountain began collaboration with N.C. State University toward securing its ginseng population. The university studied the ginseng population within the Preserve’s boundaries, identifying the places where it grows best and determining the health of those various populations. From there, the Preserve worked with the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to come up with a proactive plan for ginseng protection — root-marking.

Some of the homeowners on the property got excited about the idea and lent their hands to the arduous task of traversing the property in search of ginseng to protect. It’s not easy. The forests of the Balsam Mountain Preserve grow on steep slopes with a lush understory that makes travel slow and ginseng hunting sometimes a search for a needle in a haystack. To further complicate matters, ginseng doesn’t sprout every year — some years, plants will lie dormant, with the roots resting hidden underground.

“This is an ongoing process,” Nicholson said.

“It’s tough. It involves a lot of manpower,” McMahan added.

They expect it to be worthwhile in the long run, though — for the Preserve, for the ecosystem and for the community at large.

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Rev. David Wilkinson. # 314 - free hat

Donated photo

Smoky Mountain News

August 23-29, 2017

Astrophysicist turned theologian to speak on faith and science

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Astrophysicist and theologian Rev. David Wilkinson, Ph.D., will discuss God, cosmology and the Big Bang during a series of upcoming talks at Western Carolina University and Long’s Chapel United Methodist Church in Waynesville. n Wilkinson will lecture on “The Big Bang, Multiverse and Stephen Hawking: The Search for God in Contemporary Cosmology” from 7-8:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25, at the A.K. Hinds University Center at WCU, with a reception to follow. n Wilkinson will speak at all services Sunday, Aug. 27, at Long’s Chapel. Service times are 8:20, 9:40 and 11 a.m. n Wilkinson will give the message “The God of the Bible and Answered Prayer,” at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 28, at Long’s Chapel.

Wilkinson is a principal of St. John’s College, Durham University in England and a professor in the Department of Theology and Religion. His research experience includes the study of star formation, the chemical evolution of galaxies and terrestrial mass extinctions, and he is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. Following his work in theoretical astrophysics, Wilkinson trained for the Methodist ministry, serving a variety of appointments before beginning his present work at Durham University on the relationship of Christian faith to contemporary culture.

Long’s Chapel, 828.456.3993.

Foray with fungi A mushroom foray through the Standing Indian Campground will seek to collect and identify native fungi 1-5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 27, near Franklin.

James Pader will lead the excursion, which will reveal the fact that mushrooms are everywhere, and that they are a crucial part of the ecosystem. The group will gather mushrooms and work to identify as many as possible.

Free, and part of the UU Fellowship’s Skill Share where local folks share their skills with others. Register at 828.342.0873.

A 310-acre conservation easement has been established at the watershed feeding the Town of Weaverville in Buncombe County, protecting the headwaters of Reems Creek, forest habitat and scenic views from Reems Creek Valley.

The tract, protected by the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, includes 4.2 miles of stream corridor, its conservation protecting tributary streams of the French Broad River from pollution.

Weaverville purchased the property in 1911 and used it as the sole source of drinking water until 1993, when the source changed to the Ivy River.

The town will continue to own the property and hopes to eventually open it to the public for hiking and birding. The land is less than 1 mile west of the Blue Ridge Parkway at Bull Gap. A $275,000 N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund grant and philanthropic gift from Fred and Alice Stanback made the easement possible, with the town donating a portion of the conservation easement value.

Kephart documentary screening offered An 80-minute documentary on Horace Kephart, one of the strongest proponents for creating the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, will be Horace Kephart in his Hazel screened 6-9 p.m.

Creek cabin, circa 1906.

Thursday, Aug. 24, in the Donated photo H.F. Robinson Administration Building auditorium at Western Carolina University.

Following the film, Libby Kephart Hargrave — the documentary’s producer and Kephart’s great-grandaughter — will give a brief talk.

Laurel Rematore, executive director of the Great Smoky Mountains Association, will give the introduction.

Free.

outdoors

Conservation easement created in Weaverville

Pharr Davis to speak at WCU Long-distance hiker Jennifer Pharr Davis, of Asheville, will take a break from her thru-hike of the 1,175-mile Mountains-to-Sea Trail to speak at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 30, at the A.K. Hinds University Center of Western Carolina University.

Pharr Davis is hiking the MST to “encourage a love of the outdoors and help people experience this amazing trail that’s right outside our back doors,” and to raise money in support of the trail.

A question-and-answer panel discussion will follow Pharr Davis’ presentation, involving members of the university community who have completed difficult outdoor excursions. They include Dale Brotherton, who hiked 500 miles of the Appalachian Trail and completed several bike tours; A.J. Rowell, a Webster resident and WCU alumnus who completed a self-supported 10,000mile bike tour from Alaska to Cullowhee; Al Smith, climbing wall manager at WCU who thru-hiked the A.T. in 2012; and Jamy Suminsky, a parks and recreation management major who hiked the A.T. in 2015.

A pond on the Weaverville tract.

Build your own leader Learn how to build a fishing leader during a workshop offered 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25, at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Brevard.

Participants will learn how to choose the weight and length of leaders, under which conditions to use each leader and methods for constructing both furled and hand-tied leaders that they can take home with them.

Free, with materials provided. Open to ages 12 and up. Registration required at www.ncwildlife.org/Learning/EducationCenters/Pisgah/EventRegistration.aspx.

Cast for cash

Reduce your utility bill Small businesses of all stripes can get a better handle on their energy use with free energy assessments offered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

These energy-use reviews provide a financial analysis of ways to reduce energy bills by up to 20 percent. Participants will also receive information on any utility financial incentives and USDA grants for energy efficiency upgrades they may be eligible for.

Russ Jordan, rjordan.wrp@wrpnc.org or 828.251.7477. wastereductionpartners.org

Smoky Mountain News

Anglers will compete for $20,000 in tagged fish during the Qualla Country Trout Tournament Sept. 1-3 in Cherokee.

During the tournament, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ 30 miles of privately stocked streams will be stocked with a variety of tagged trout and smallmouth

bass. Tagged fish are redeemable for cash prizes based on the color of the tag. $11 registration with a $10 Cherokee fishing permit required for all anglers 12 and older. Permits and registration available at a variety of Cherokee businesses and online at www.fishcherokee.com.

Paula Price, 828.359.6110 or paprice@nc-cherokee.com.

August 23-29, 2017

Donated photo

45

outdoors

Record-breaking hiker embarks on the MST — with kids in tow

facebook.com/smnews

on Foot.

Having already claimed the record for Pharr will catalogue her adventures at the fastest thru-hike of the Appalachian jpdhikesthemst.org. Though not everyone is Trail, Jennifer Pharr Davis, of Asheville, is capable of embarking on an MST thru-hike, now attempting to hike the 1,200-mile Mountains-to-Sea Trail with Jennifer Pharr Davis and her her husband Brew and their two children, ages 4 and 11 family set off from Clingmans months, supporting and hikDome. Friends of the MST photo ing with her along the way.

Davis set out on her adventure Aug. 15 from Clingmans Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and plans to finish in November at Jockey’s Ridge in the Outer Banks. Her hike is part of an effort to raise money for the trail’s maintenance and continued construction in recognition of its 40th anniversary.

Though Pharr’s 2011 A.T. record was surpassed in 2015, she is still renowned in the hiking world. She was everyone can be part of a statewide effort to named National Geographic Adventurer of hike the entire trail in a single day Saturday, the Year following her record-breaking hike Sept. 9. Sign up at mstinaday.org. and recently published the book Families

Smoky Mountain News

August 23-29, 2017

Pair beer and hiking

46

A guided hike in the Deep Creek area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park will be accompanied by snacks and beer, 4-7 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 29, in Bryson City.

The event is the Great Smoky Mountains Association’s first-ever Hike and Brew. The event will begin with a two-hour hike along the Deep Creek waterfall loop trail guided by Bryson City Outdoors, returning to the Bryson City Outdoors building by 6 p.m. to enjoy a tasting of assorted brews from Currahee Brewing in Franklin and snacks from Mountain Perks in Bryson City.

Open only to ages 21 and over. $35 for Buckeye members; $45 for non-members, with one-year Buckeye membership included. Free for Hemlock members. Register at http://conta.cc/2fStvWf.

New trail established at Grandfather Mountain There is now a new way to access the Profile Trail at Grandfather Mountain State Park in Avery County following the Aug. 11 dedication of a 0.7-mile extension of the existing trail.

The $1.7 million project, paid for through the N.C. Parks and Recreation Trust Fund, also includes a new road, ample parking and new restroom facilities. The land for the new access is made up of two tracts. The new development is located on a

32.6-acre tract purchased in 2012 with $1.1 million from the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund, and a 33.3-acre tract adjoining the new access was donated to the park by The Nature Conservancy in 2015.

Bulla Smith Design Engineering, P.A., of Charlotte, designed the project, and Garanco, Inc. of Pilot Mountain was the general contractor.

Grandfather Mountain State Park was established in 2009 and encompasses 2,687 acres of Grandfather Mountain’s backcountry, offering stunning views of the iconic mountain from eight trails ranging from leisurely to rugged and camping at 13 sites.

Get smart on the A.T. The history of the Appalachian Trail will come alive during a class that doubles as a day hike on Saturday, Sept. 16.

The group will hike from Clingmans Dome to Siler Bald Shelter with instructor Liz Domingue of the Smoky Mountain Field School, learning along the way about the trail’s 2,175-mile route from Georgia to Maine.

The Smoky Mountain Field School is a partnership of the University of Tennessee and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to promote learning in the natural world. Courses take place outdoors at various locations inside the park. $79, with registration at smfs.utk.edu.

WNC Calendar COMMUNITY EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS • Nominations are being accepted through Sept. 1 for “Humanitarian of the Year” awards through the Jackson County Branch of the NAACP. One organization and one individual will be chosen for those doing work in Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Jackson, Macon or Swain Counties. Forms available at www.jacksonncnaacp.org or write to P.O. Box 788, Sylva, NC 28779.

• The Haywood County Fair is Thursday through Monday, Aug. 24-28, at the fairgrounds in Waynesville.

Competition, entertainment, carnival rides, fish fry, chainsaw woodcarving demonstrations, firemen’s competition, farm animals, K9 dog demo, horse show, tractor pull, ice cream eating contest and more. Schedule and exhibit entry info: www.haywoodcountyfairgrounds.org or 400.1704.

• Library Card Sign-Up Month is September at Haywood County Public Libraries. www.haywoodlibrary.org, 452.5169 or visit any branch.

• Reservations are being accepted for the induction ceremony for the Fly Fishing Museum of the Southern Appalachians Hall of Fame, which is set for Aug. 26 at the Southwestern Community College Swain Center in Bryson City. $35 per person includes lunch and weekend admission to the Fly Fishing Museum of the Southern Appalachians. info@greatsmokies.com or 488.3681.

•The Cherokee Bonfire & Storytelling will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays through Oct. 28 at the Oconaluftee Islands Park. Sit by a bonfire, alongside a river, and listen to some of Cherokee’s best storytellers. The bonfire is free and open to the public. www.visitcherokeenc.com.

• Cruise in Maggie Valley event is held from 1-5 p.m. every Sunday at 2771 Soco Road. Vendors: $10 per space. Cruising@MaggieValleyAntiques.com.

• Qualla Boundary Historical Society meets at 6:30 p.m. on the fourth Tuesday of each month. Everyone is welcome.

BUSINESS & EDUCATION • Registration is underway for a lifeguarding class that will be offered for ages 15-up at 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 7 at the Waynesville Recreation Center. Course is through the American Red Cross. $165. Register: 456.2030 or lkinsland@waynesvillenc.gov.

• Haywood Community College’s Small Business Center will host a seminar on “How to Start a Business” from 5:30-8:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 24 at the Regional High Technology Center in Clyde. For info or to register: SBC.Haywood.edu or 627.4512.

• Haywood Community College’s Small Business Center will host a “Financing Your Business” seminar from 4-6 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 31, at the Regional High Technology Center in Clyde. Part of the Business Startup Series. For info or to register: SBC.Haywood.edu or 627.4512.

• Small business owners can find materials and services to support business growth at Fontana Regional Library’s locations in Macon, Jackson and Swain Counties. Computer classes and one-on-one assistance also available. 586.2016 or www.fontanalib.org.

• A meeting of current and former employees of the Waynesville plant of Champion/Blue Ridge/Evergreen is held at 8 a.m. on the first Monday of each month at BoJangles near Lake Junaluska’s entrance.

• One-on-one computer lessons are offered weekly at the Waynesville and Canton branches of the Haywood County Public Library. Lesson slots are available from 10 a.m.-noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays in Canton and

All phone numbers area code 828 unless otherwise noted. from 3-5 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Waynesville Library. Sign up at the front desk of either library or call 356.2507 for the Waynesville Library or 648.2924 for the Canton Library.

FUNDRAISERS AND BENEFITS • Tickets are on for the Cashiers Historical Society’s “2017 Cashiers Designers Showhouse™ that will be held through Aug. 27 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Monday through Saturday and 1-4 p.m. on Sundays. One-day tickets are $40 in advance or $45 at the entrance; multi-day tickets are $70 in advance or $75 at the entrance. Tickets available at www.cashiershistoricalsociety.org. Three newly constructed cottages will be featured.

• Tickets are on sale now for a 3 Doors Down performance as a fundraiser for the Better Life Foundation on Oct. 21 at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort. Tickets available at ticketmaster.com or 800.745.3000.

• Tickets are on sale now for “Spark: An Evening to Benefit Dance ARIS,” presented by the Haywood County Arts Council. Featuring three distinct dance styles, the program will be offered on Aug. 25-26. Tickets: $25 for the performance or on Saturday, $60 for the gala plus performance. director@haywoodarts.org.

• Tickets are available now for the 26th annual Golf and Gala, which is Aug. 29-30 at Maggie Valley Club and Waynesville Inn Golf Resort and Spa and Laurel Ridge Country Club. Dinner, dancing and awards are Saturday evening at Waynesville Inn Golf Resort & Spa. Golf and gala tickets: $150; gala only: $75. To play in two tournaments: $250 (includes two tickets to gala). haywoodhealthcarefoundation.org/event/2017-golf-and-gala.

• Sponsorships are available now for the Haywood Community College Shine & Dine Gala, which benefits the Haywood Community College Foundation. The event is from 6-8:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 15, at the Laurel Ridge Country Club in Waynesville. Dinner, music by Juan Benavides, demonstrations, silent and live auctions. Sponsorships range from $250 to $5,000.

627.4544 or pahardin@haywood.edu. Info: www.hccgala.events.

• Tickets are on sale now for the Rock FUR The Cats benefit for Feline Urgent Rescue of WNC. Event is from 2-5 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 16, at the Grey Eagle in Asheville. Music by Pleasure Chest, master of Blues and Soul and Rock n’ Roll. $20 per person; sponsorships are $75. www.furofwnc.org or www.thegreyeagle.com. Info: 770.861.2994.

• Tickets are on sale now for the Southwestern Community College Foundation’s annual “Bluegrass, Blue Jeans & Bling” fundraising gala, which is at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 16, at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort. It’s the school’s fourth annual gala. Frogtown will perform bluegrass. Activities include cornhole, wine pull, silent auction and a “Best Dressed Blue Jeans & Bling” contest. Tickets are $150 each, and table sponsorships start at $1,500. 339.4227 or www.southwesterncc.edu/gala.

VOLUNTEERS & VENDORS • The Good Samaritan clinic of Haywood County seeks volunteers to help uninsured patients receive medications, vision care and other health and spiritual-related services in Waynesville. Clinic is open from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. on Monday through Thursday and from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. on Friday. 454.5287 or crocco@gcshaywood.org.

Smoky Mountain News

• Great Smoky Mountains National Park is seeking volunteers to assist rangers with managing traffic and establishing safe wildlife viewing areas within the Cataloochee Valley area. To register for training or get more info: karl_danforth@nps.gov.

• Haywood Regional Medical Center is currently seeking volunteers of all ages for ongoing support at the hospital, outpatient care center and the Homestead. For info and to apply: 452.8301, stop by the information desk in the lobby or volunteer@haymed.org. Anyone interested in becoming a hospice volunteer can call 452.5039.

• STAR Rescue Ranch is seeking volunteers to help with horse care, fundraising events, barn maintenance and more at the only equine rescue in Haywood County.

505.274.9199.

• Volunteer Opportunities are available throughout the region, call John at the Haywood Jackson Volunteer Center today and get started sharing your talents. 3562833 • Phone Assurance Volunteers are needed to make daily or weekly wellness check-in calls for the Haywood County Senior Resource Center. 356.2816.

HEALTH MATTERS

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Visit www.smokymountainnews.com and click on Events for: ■ Complete listings of local music scene ■ Regional festivals ■ Art gallery events and openings ■ Complete listings of recreational offerings at regional health and fitness centers ■ Civic and social club gatherings Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. 587.8225.

• A Food Addicts Anonymous Twelve-Step fellowship group meets at 5:30 p.m. on Mondays at Grace Church in the Mountains in Waynesville. www.foodaddictsanonymous.org.

• Big Brother/Big Sister, a one-evening preparation class for children who are about to greet a new baby into their family, is offered for children ages 3-10 at Haywood Regional Medical Center. 452.8440 or MyHaywoodRegional.com/ParentClasses.

• A “Walk With A Doc” program is scheduled for 10 a.m. each Saturday at the Lake Junaluska Kern Center or Canton Rec Park.

MyHaywoodRegional.com/WalkwithaDoc.

• Mothers Connection, an ongoing social gathering for mothers and their babies, meets from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. on Thursdays excluding holidays at Haywood Regional Medical Center. 452.8440 or MyHaywoodRegional.com/ParentClasses.

• The American Red Cross will hold a blood drive from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Aug. 23 at Haywood Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Waynesville. redcrossblood.org or 800.733.2767.

• A support group meeting for those with Parkinsons Disease and their caregivers will be held at 2 p.m. on the last day Wednesday of the month at the Waynesville Senior Resource Center.

• A blood drive is scheduled for 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Aug. 23 at Haywood Community College in Clyde. $10 Walmart gift card and 200 TBC reward points.

• A support group for anyone with Multiple Sclerosis, family and friends meets twice each month: at 2 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month in the Heritage Room at the Jackson County Senior Center in Sylva and at 5:30 p.m. on the second Thursday at the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva. Info: 293.2503.

• The Macon County Cancer Support Group meets at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 24, in the cafeteria of Angel Medical Center in Franklin.

• The American Red Cross will hold a blood drive from 9:30 a.m.-2 p.m. on Aug. 25 at Lowe’s in Franklin. redcrossblood.org or 800.733.2767.

• The American Red Cross will hold a blood drive from 1-6:30 p.m. on Aug. 31 at First United Methodist Church in Waynesville. redcrossblood.org or 800.733.2767.

•”Breastfeeding A-Z” will be offered for expectant mothers from 7-9 p.m. on Thursdays Aug. 31 and Nov. 9 at Haywood Regional Medical Center. Taught by BoardCertified Lactation Consultants.

MyHaywoodRegional.com/ParentClasses or 452.8440.

• Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional Families (ACA) meets at noon on Saturdays at the First United Methodist Church Outreach Center at 171 Main St. in Franklin. 407.758.6433 or adultchildren.org.

• “Your Amazing Newborn” classes will be offered for new parents from 7-9 p.m. on Thursdays, Sept. 7 and Nov. 16 at Haywood Regional Medical Center.

MyHaywoodRegional.com/ParentClasses or 452.8440.

• Western Carolina University’s student-run, Mountain Area Pro Bono Physical Therapy Clinic will be open from 6-8:30 p.m. on the first and third Wednesdays of each month. 227.3527.

• The Haywood County Health & Human Services Public Health Services Division is offering a Night Clinic from 4-6:30 p.m. on the third Monday of every month in Waynesville. Services include family planning, immunizations, pregnancy testing, STD testing and treatment. Appointments: 452.6675.

• The Jackson County Department of Public Health will offer a general clinic from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. on

• A monthly grief support group sponsored by The Meditation Center meets at 7 p.m. on the first Wednesday of each month at The Meditation Center at 894 East Main Street in Sylva. Info: www.meditatewnc.org or 356.1105.

• Inner Guidance from an Open Heart will meet from 68 p.m. on the second Wednesday of each month at The Meditation Center at 894 East Main Street in Sylva.

Info: www.meditate-wnc.org or 356.1105.

• Dogwood Insight Center presents health talks at 6:30 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month.

• A free, weekly grief support group will meet from 12:30-2 p.m. on Thursdays at the SECU Hospice House in Franklin. 692.6178 or mlee@fourseasonscfl.org.

• “ECA on the Move!” – a walking program organized

by Jackson County Extension and Community Association – meets from 9-10 a.m. on Mondays through Thursdays. It’s an effort to meet the American Heart Association’s recommendation of 10,000 steps per day. 586.4009.

• A Tuesday Meditation Group meets at 6:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Franklin.

RECREATION AND FITNESS • An organizational meeting for an upcoming fall adult coed volleyball league is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 6, at the Waynesville Recreation Center. Open to players 18 and older as of Oct. 1.

Season starts Oct. 11. Fee will be based on number of teams. Payment due Sept. 20. 456.2030 or dhummel@waynesvillenc.gov.

wnc calendar

• Adult coed volleyball open play time for play/practice is at 6 p.m. on Wednesdays through Sept. 27 at the Waynesville Recreation Center. Group rate of $4 per person; members play free. 456.2030 or dhummel@waynesvillenc.gov.

• Pickleball, a cross between tennis, badminton and ping-pong, will be offered from 9 a.m.-noon on Mondays and Wednesdays at the Old Hazelwood Gym in Waynesville. $3 per visit, or $20 for a 10-visit card.

452.6789 or drtaylor@haywoodnc.net.

• Open play and practice for adult coed volleyball will be offered at 6 p.m. on Tuesdays through September at the Waynesville Recreation Center. $4 per person for nonmembers; free for members. 456.2030. dhummel@waynesvillenc.gov or 456.2030.

• The Rev. Karen A. Greenwaldt will be the keynote speaker at the annual banquet of the Friends of the World Methodist Museum at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 25, at the Auditorium of The Terrace at Lake Junaluska. Tickets available at the museum, www.methodistmuseum.com or call 456.7242.

• Tai chi is offered from 10:45-11:45 a.m. every Tuesday and Thursday at Haywood Regional Health and Fitness Center. It’s also offered from 1-2 p.m. on Thursdays. Taught by Bill Muerdter. For info about the classes or HRHFC memberships and offerings, call 452.8080 or visit MyHaywoodRegional.com/Fitness.

• Ultimate Frisbee games are held from 5:30-8 p.m. on Mondays at the Cullowhee Recreation Park.

Organized by Jackson County Parks & Recreation.

Pick-up style. 293.2053 or www.rec.jacksonnc.org.

• The Wednesday Croquet Group meets from 10 a.m.noon at the Vance Street Park across from the shelter.

For senior players ages 55 or older. 456.2030 or dhummel@waynesvillenc.gov.

August 23-29, 2017

SPIRITUAL • Divine Healing Conference is Aug. 24-27 at the Cherokee Indian Fairgrounds in Cherokee.

727.439.8010.

• ZUMBA! Classes, are offered from 6-7 p.m. on Tuesdays, at the Canton Armory. $5 per class.

648.2363 or parks@cantonnc.com.

Smoky Mountain News

• Pickle ball is offered from 8 a.m.-noon on Mondays through Fridays at the Waynesville Recreation Center.

456.2030 or www.waynesvillnc.gov.

• Jackson County Rec Department will have disc golf tournament at 10 a.m. on Aug. 19. Cost is $5 for singles or $10 for doubles. www.rec.jacksonnc.org.

• Yoga is being offered at the Fitness Connection in Waynesville. First class is free. Info: 476.0179.

48

• The Canton Armory is open to the public for walking from 7:45-9 a.m. on Monday through Friday unless the facility is booked till spring. 648.2363. parks@cantonnc.com.

• Pickleball is from 1-3 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays and from 6-8 p.m. on Thursday nights at First Methodist Church in Sylva. $1 each time you play; equipment provided. 293.3053.

• Cardio Lunch class will meet from noon-1 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Waynesville Recreation Center. For ages 16 and above. Cost is regular admission fee to the rec center or free for members.

456.2030 or tplowman@waynesvillenc.gov.

• Rev. Dr. David Wilkinson, a theologian and astrophysicist, will offer lectures Aug. 25, 27 and 28 as part of the Summer Speakers Series presented by Long’s Chapel United Methodist Church. Dr. Wilkinson will speak about “The Big Bang, Multiverse and Stephen Hawking” at 7 p.m. on Aug. 25 at the A.K. Hinds University Center Theater at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee; at 8:20, 9:40 and 11 a.m. at Long’s Chapel in Waynesville and at 6:30 p.m. on Aug. 28 on the topic of “The God of the Bible and Answered Prayer” at Long’s Chapel.

• Grace Church in the Mountains will have its annual Tablescapes Luncheon from 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 26, in Waynesville. Hosted by the Episcopal Women’s Group. Tickets: $20 per person.

Local artist Margaret Roberts will gave guests how create a collage, which she’ll later complete. Tickets: $20. Proceeds benefit ECW mission projects.

456.6029.

• The First United Methodist Church of Sylva will hold an Open Door Meal & Sing at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 30, in the church’s Christian Life Center.

586.2358 or www.firstumcsylva.org.

POLITICAL

• Flexible Fitness class will meet from 4:30-5:15 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays at the Waynesville Recreation Center. For ages 16 and above. Cost is regular admission fee to the rec center or free for members. 456.2030 or tplowman@waynesvillenc.gov.

• The Jackson County Board of Commissioners will hold a public hearing at 5:55 p.m. on Aug. 28 at the Justice and Administration Building in Sylva to receive input concerning amendments to the “Cashiers Commercial Area Land Development Ordinance.”

Copies available at jacksonnc.org/planning or at the Planning Department at the Justice Center. Citizens invited to make written or oral comments.

• Pump It Up class will meet from 6:30-7:30 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays at the Waynesville Recreation Center. For ages 16 and above. Cost is regular admission fee to the rec center or free for members. 456.2030 or tplowman@waynesvillenc.gov.

• The Swain County Democratic Party WhittierCherokee precinct meeting will be held at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 31, at the Birdtown Gym in Cherokee.

Agenda includes listening sessions, Roaring on the River and voting absentee ballots. 488.1118.

Puzzles can be found on page 54.

These are only the answers.

• The Haywood County Libertarian Party is now meeting at Blue Ridge Books on Main Street from 4:30-6 p.m. every second Monday of the month. These meetings will be for discussion on current events, and are open to the public.

• A lunch-and-discussion group will be held by the League of Women Voters at noon on the second Thursday of each month at Tartan Hall of the First Presbyterian Church in Franklin. RSVP for lunch: lwvmacon@wild-dog-mountain.info or 524.8369.

AUTHORS AND BOOKS • Ben Anderson will hold book signings for “Smokies Chronicle: A Year of Hiking in Great Smoky Mountains National Park” on Thursday, Sept. 21 at 2 p.m., at the Waynesville Public Library. parthemore@blairpub.com or 800.222.9796.

• Applications are being accepted through Thursday, Aug. 24, for the Homegrown Author Fair. Include brief author’s bio and book description: kolsen@haywoodnc.net.

• Poet and former Haywood County journalist and teacher Michael Beadle will be reading from his latest poetry collection, Primer, at 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26, at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville. www.blueridgebooksnc.com or 456.6000.

• Long-distance hiker Jennifer Pharr Davis, National Geographic’s 2012 “Adventurer of the Year” will give a presentation at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 30, at Western Carolina University’s A.K. Hinds University Center in Cullowhee. 227.3751.

• Author Lisa Wingate will discuss her new book “Before We Were Yours” at a “Books and Bites” events at noon on Friday, Sept. 1, in the Macon County Public Library Living Room in Franklin. Light refreshments; books will be available for sale. 524.3600.

•The “Coffee with the Poet” series gathers at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva the third Thursday of each month and is co-sponsored by the North Carolina Writers Network. 586.9499.

• Canton Book Club meets at 3:30 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month, at the Canton Library.

648.2924.

• Cookin’ the Books will be held at noon on the last Wednesday of the month at the Waynesville Public Library. A book club focused on cookbooks. All members choose a recipe from the book and bring it to share. The group will discuss the good and bad aspects of the chosen cookbook. 356.2507.

• Banned Book Club meets from 10 a.m.-noon on Saturdays at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville. For those who enjoy literature and intellectual conversation. 456.6000, blueridgebooks@ymail.com or www.blueridgebooksnc.com.

• Waynesville Book Club at 5:30 p.m. on the first Monday of each month at Waynesville Library Meet to

discuss books, which are chosen by each member (taking turns) and provided by the library. New members are welcome. For more information, 356.2507.

SENIOR ACTIVITIES • The Mexican Train Dominoes Group seeks new players to join games at 1:30 p.m. each Tuesday at the Senior Resource Center in Waynesville. 926.6567.

• Eat Smart, Move More North Carolina – an effort to help area residents commit to a healthier lifestyle, will meet from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. on Wednesdays at the Haywood County Senior Resource Center in Waynesville.

• Haywood County Senior Resource Center is looking into starting a weekly Euchre Card Group. If interested, contact Michelle Claytor at mclaytor@mountainprojects.org or 356.2800.

• A Silver Sneakers Cardio Fit class will meet from 10-11 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Waynesville Recreation Center. For ages 60 and above.

Cost is regular admission fee to the rec center or free for members. 456.2030 or tplowman@waynesvillenc.gov.

• Book Club is held at 2 p.m. on the third Wednesday of the month at the Haywood County Senior Resource Center in Waynesville. 356.2800 • Senior croquet for ages 55 and older is offered from 9-11:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Vance Street Park in front of Waynesville Recreation Center.

Free. For info, contact Donald Hummel at 456.2030 or dhummel@waynesvillenc.gov.

• A Hand & Foot card game is held at 1 p.m. on Mondays at Haywood County Senior Resource Center in Waynesville. 356.2800.

• Senior Sale Day is on the third Friday of every month at the Friends of the Library Used Bookstore. Patrons 60 and older get 20 percent off all purchases.

Proceeds benefit the Sylva Library.

• Pinochle game is played at 10 a.m. on Wednesdays at Haywood County Senior Resource Center in Waynesville. 356.2813.

• Hearts is played at 12 p.m. on Wednesdays at Haywood County Senior Resource Center in Waynesville. 356.2813.

• Mah Jongg is played at 1 p.m. on Wednesdays at Haywood County Senior Resource Center in Waynesville. 356.2813.

KIDS & FAMILIES • Open House and orientation is scheduled for the following Macon County schools: 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 24 for Mountain View Intermediate (5th grade); 8:30 a.m.-noon on Aug. 23 for sixth grade drop in at Mountain View Intermediate; 4-6 p.m. on Aug. 24 at Highlands; 8 a.m.-4 p.m. on Aug. 24 at

activities. Program open to the first 15 participants, at 4 p.m. on the third Tuesday of the month at Canton Public Library. 648.2924.

• Kids at HART will hold auditions for “Shuddersome: Tales of Poe” at 4 p.m. on Friday and Sunday, Aug. 25 and Aug. 27. Open to middle school and high school students. Production will be held on Oct. 21. 456.6322 or srsumpter@charter.net.

• After-School Art Adventure will be on from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. on Tuesdays at The Bascom in Highlands.

For ages 5 to 10, Art Adventure is a class that explores the creative process of drawing, painting, printmaking, clay, sculpture, fiber art, and crafts by utilizing a variety of media. The students will investigate some of the most popular techniques and theories in art history and will be exposed to contemporary as well as folk art traditions. Tuition is $40 for a fourclass package. www.thebascom.org.

• A “Youth Art Class” will be held from 10:30 a.m. to noon every Saturday at the Appalachian Art Farm on 22 Morris Street in Sylva. All ages welcome. $10 includes instruction, materials and snack. For more information, email appalachianartfarm@gmail.com or find them on Facebook.

• As part of the “Build a Better World” summer reading program, Marianna Black Library will have movies at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, story time for ages 3-5 at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesdays and a summer learning program each Thursday. www.fontanalib.org or 488.3030.

• Family Story Time is held on Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m. at the Canton Public Library. Ages 0-6. Stories, songs, dance and crafting. 648.2924.

• Storytimes are held at 10 and 10:40 a.m. every Thursday at Hudson Library in Highlands.

wnc calendar

Cartoogechaye; 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. on Aug. 23 at East Franklin; 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on Aug. 24 at Nantahala; 67:30 p.m. on Aug. 24 at South Macon; 7 p.m. on Aug. 24 at Franklin High School (freshman orientation); 5:30-7 p.m. on Aug. 24 at Iotla Valley; 5:30 p.m. seventh grade and new student orientation on Aug. 24 at Macon Middle School; 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. on Aug. 24 for eighth grade open house droop in at Macon Middle School.

• Wednesdays in the Stacks, “WITS”, a new program for children in grades 3-6, on the third Wednesdays of the month from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Macon County Library. WITS will include lots of fun games, prizes, and hands-on activities. This club replaces book club previous held on the third Thursdays of the month. 526.3600.

• Fun Friday, everything science, is held at 4 p.m. on Fridays at Jackson County Public Library. 586.2016.

ONGOING KIDS ACTIVITIES AND CLUBS • The Canton Library offers a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, mathematics) program each month. At 4 p.m. on third Tuesday. Children ages 612 are welcome to attend. Please call 648-2924 for more information.

• A Tuesday Library Club for ages 5-12 meets at 4 p.m. each Tuesday (except for the fifth Tuesday on months that occurs) at the Canton Library. Hands-on activities like exercise, cooking, LEGOs, science experiments and crafts. 648.2924 or kpunch@haywoodnc.net.

• Stories, songs and a craft are offered for ages zerosix (and caregivers) at 10:30 a.m. each Tuesday at the Canton Library. 648.2924.

• A program called “Imagine,” an art program for children 8-12 meets at 2 p.m. on Tuesdays at the Jackson County Public Library. Program contains art, writing, and drama. 586.2016.

• Rompin’ Stompin’, an hour-long storytime with music, movement and books, is held at 10:30 a.m. on Thursdays at the Canton Library and at 11 a.m. on Thursdays at the Waynesville Library. For ages zero to six. 648.2924.

• Crafternoons are at 2:30 p.m. on the second Tuesday of every month at Hudson Library in Highlands.

• Library Olympics will be held at 2 p.m. on Fridays at Jackson County Public Library. Children age 5 and up get active through relay races, bingo, mini golf.

586.2016.

• Get Moving, a program for children ages 5-12 to encourage children to live a healthy life through exercise and healthy eating, will be held on the first Tuesday of the month at 4 p.m. at the Canton Public Library. 648.2924 • Full STEAM Ahead, a program for children ages 5-12 to allow them to explore science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics through fun hands-on

• WNC Martial Arts will hold karate classes from 67:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at the Old Armory in Waynesville. For more info, contact Margaret Williams at 301.0649 or mvwilliams39@gmail.com.

• Story time and kids can make their own piece of art from 10 a.m.-noon every Saturday during the Family Art event sponsored by the Jackson County Arts Council at the Jackson County Farmers Market located at the Community Table, downtown Sylva. On the first Saturday of each month, there is a scavenger hunt with prizes. 399.0290 or www.jacksoncountyfarmermarket.org.

• Art classes are available for kids 10 and older from 4:15-5:30 p.m. on Wednesdays at the Bascom in Highlands. $15 per class. 787.2865 or www.thebascom.org.

• Art Adventure classes are taught for ages 5-10 from 3:30-4:45 p.m. on Wednesdays at the Bascom in Highlands. Theme: metal. Instructor: Bonnie Abbott. $20 per month. 787.2865.

• Free, weekly, after-school enrichment classes are offered by the Bascom and MCAA from 3-5 p.m. on Thursdays at Macon Middle School through a grant from the Jim McRae Endowment for the Visual Arts. To register, contact Bonnie Abbott at 743.0200.

•A Lego club will meet at 4 p.m. every fourth Thursday of the month, at Marianna Black Library in Bryson City. Library provides Legos and Duplos for ages 3 and up. Free. 488.3030.

•A community breastfeeding information and support group meets from 10:30 am.-noon on the first Saturday of each month in the main lobby of the Smoky Mountain OB/GYN Office in Sylva. Free; refreshments provided. For information, contact Brandi Nations (770.519.2903), Stephanie Faulkner (506.1185 or www.birthnaturalwnc), or Teresa Bryant (587-8223).

Smoky Mountain News

• Rompin’ Stompin’, an hourlong storytime with music, movement and books, is held at 11 a.m. on Fridays at the Canton Library. For ages zero to six.

648.2924.

• Rock and Read is at 11 a.m. on Tuesdays at Jackson County Public Library. 586-2016.

August 23-29, 2017

• “Art Beats for Kids” will be held from 4 to 5 p.m. on Thursdays at the Charles Heath Gallery in Bryson City.

A new project every week. $20 per child, with includes lesson, materials and snack. To register, call 828.538.2054.

• Teen Coffeehouse is at 4:30 p.m. on the first, third, and fourth Tuesday at Jackson County Public Library.

Spend time with other teens talking and sharing. 12 and up. 586.2016.

• Science Club is held at 3:30 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. on the fourth Thursday of each month for grades K-6 at the Macon County Public Library. 524.3600.

• Macon County 4-H Needlers club, a group of youth learning the art and expression of knitting and crochet

49

wnc calendar

crafts, meets on the second Tuesday of each month.

For information, call 349.2046.

• A Franklin Kids’ Creation Station is held from 10 a.m.-noon on Saturdays at uptown Gallery in Franklin.

Snacks provided. $20 tuition. 743.0200.

• SafeKids USA Blue Dragon Tae Kwon Do School offers defense training with after-school classes Monday through Friday and Saturday mornings.

627.3949 or www.bluedragontkd.net.

• A Lego Club meets on the third Tuesday of each month from 3:30-5 p.m. at Waynesville Library.

452.5169.

• A Lego Club meets the fourth Thursday of the month at 4 p.m.- 5:30 p.m. at the Macon County Public Library. 526.3600.

• A Lego Club meets the fourth Thursday of the month at 4:30 p.m. at Jackson County Public Library. 586.2016.

• A Lego Club meet the second Wednesday of the month at 5 p.m. at Cashiers Community Library.

743.0215.

• A Lego Club meets at 4 p.m. on the fourth Thursday of the month at Marianna Black Library in Bryson City.

Legos and Duplos provided for ages three and up.

488.3030.

• Teen time 3:30-4:30 p.m. Thursdays at Waynesville Library. A program for teens and tweens held each week. Each week is different, snacks provided. 356.2511.

• Homework Help, 3 to 5 p.m. Mondays for students in grades 2 through 6, Canton Branch Library. Former schoolteacher turned Youth Services Librarian Katy Punch offers homework help on a first-come, firstserved basis. Katy, 648.2924.

August 23-29, 2017

•Teen Advisory Group, first Wednesday of each month at 4 p.m. For ages 13-18. Teens can enjoy snacks while discussing popular young adult books, help plan events and displays for children and teens at the library, and participate in community service projects.

Canton Library, 648.2924.

• The American Girls Club meets at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. The club meets one Saturday a month, call for details. Club is based on a book series about historical women. Club members read and do activities. Free. 586.9499.

• Crazy 8 Math Adventure Club on Tuesdays 3:30 p.m.

- 4:15 p.m. for grades K-2 at the Macon County Public Library. 524.3600.

• Culture Club on the second Wednesday of the month, 1 to 2 p.m. for K-6 graders. Guest speakers, books, photos, crafts and food from different countries and cultures. Macon County Public Library. 524.3600.

Smoky Mountain News

• Children’s craft time, fourth Wednesday, 3:45 p.m. at Cashiers Community Library. 743.0215 • The Wee Naturalist program, which is for children ages 2-5 (with a parent or guardian), is held from 1011:30 a.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays at the North Carolina Arboretum. Age-appropriate activities such as nature walks, garden exploration, stories, crafts and visits from classroom animals $7 cost per child; $3 more for each additional child in a family. Register at: www.ncarboretum.org/education-programs/youthfamily-programs/wee-naturalist

KIDS FILMS • “Guardians of the Galaxy 2” will be shown on Aug. 25-26 and Aug. 31 at 7:30 p.m. by Mad Batter Food and Film in Sylva for free.

• A family movie will be shown at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 29, at Marianna Black Library in Bryson City. Animated adventure tracing the origins of conflict between Angry Birds and Green Pigs. Info, including movie title: 488.3030.

• “Born in China” will be shown on Sept. 1 at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. & Sept. 2 at 7 p.m. by Mad Batter 50 Food and Film in Sylva for free.

A&E ON STAGE & IN CONCERT • “Unnecessary Farce,” a comedy by Paul Slade smith, will open a three week run on Aug. 25 at HART Theatre in Waynesville. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays through Saturdays and at 2 p.m. on Sundays through Sept. 10. Tickets: www.harttheatre.org or 456.6322.

• Total Eclipse of the HART dance events will be held Aug. 25-26 at HART Theatre in Waynesville. Ballet, contemporary modern and classical Indian. Info, updates and tickets: www.HaywoodArts.org/dance.

• Auditions for the Highlands Cashiers Players production of “Guilty Conscience” will be held from 3-5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 26-27, at the Highlands Performing Arts Center. Show opens Oct. 12. 526.8016 or mlanzilotta@gmail.com.

Highlandscashiersplayers.org.

• The Waynesville Public Library will host Pyramid Brass at 3 p.m. Aug. 26. The show is free and open to the public. www.haywoodarts.org.

• The Haywood Community Chorus begins its fall season with rehearsals from 7-8:30 p.m. on Aug. 28 at Waynesville First United Methodist Church.

Registration at 6:30 p.m. Membership dues are $30 and cover the cost of music; no audition required.

557.9187.

• Standup comedy legend Ron White will return to the stage at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, Aug. 26. www.harrahscherokee.com.

•Americana/bluegrass icon Peter Rowan will perform at 8 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 27, at the Cataloochee Ranch in Maggie Valley. Tickets for the intimate fireside solo performance are $35.A gourmet mountain dinner will be available for purchase before the show.

Reservations are highly suggested. This show will sellout. To RSVP, call 926.1401 or click on www.cataloocheeranch.com.

• Western Carolina University will host a Faculty Saxophone Recital at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 29 in the Recital Hall of the Coulter Building. www.wcu.edu.

CLASSES AND PROGRAMS • Registration is underway through Aug. 30 for a scarecrow-making workshop, which is from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on Sept. 6 at the Dillsboro Masonic Lodge.

Instructor is Bernice Spitzer. Finished scarecrow will be 14 inches tall. $12. Register: 586.2248.

• Applications are being accepted through Oct. 6 for Regional Artist Project grants through the N.C. Arts Council. Eligible projects include creation of new work, purchase of equipment, professional development workshops, travel and development of promotional materials. Application available at: www.haywoodarts.org, or email director@haywoodarts.org.

• Waynesville Fiber Friends welcomes fiber artists of every kind: crochet, knitting, cross-stitching and more, from 10 a.m.-noon on the second Saturday of each month at Panacea Coffee House in Waynesville.

276.6226.

• A weekend of quilts from around the area and beyond will be held Friday and Saturday, Aug. 25-26, at the Cruso Community Center. Challenge competition, display, “Basket Mania” and more. Events start at 10 a.m. each day concluding at 6 p.m. on Friday and 4:30 p.m. on Saturday. www.crusonc.com/2017quiltshow or 400.7323.

• Creating Community Workshop will be “Fluid Watercolors” with Allan Grant at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 26, in the Atrium of the Jackson County Public Library.

• The Qualla Arts & Crafts Open Air Indian Market is

Aug. 26 at the Qualla Arts and Crafts Coop in Cherokee. 497.3103.

The next Creating Community Workshop will be “Fluid Watercolors” with Allan Grant at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 26, in the Atrium of the Jackson County Public Library • A hammered Wire Art Jewelry Class will be offered from 12:30-3 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 31, at the Jackson County Extension Office in Sylva. Create texture, form and toughness in the wire, producing unique effects. $10. Register: 586.4009.

• A Paint & Pour session is scheduled for 6:30-8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 5, at the Mad Batter in Sylva.

Presented by Appalachian Art Farm. $25 covers all materials, demonstration, painting and step-by-step instructions. Preregister: www.appalachianartfarm.org. Info: appalachianartfarm@gmail.com.

ART SHOWINGS AND GALLERIES • The “Meet the Artist” reception with Brian Hannum (pianist), Drew Campbell (photographer) and Jon Houglum (painter) will be from 3 to 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 25, at Gallery Zella in Bryson City. For more information, call 828.488.3638 or click on www.galleryzella.com.

• Haywood County Arts council “ArtShare” exhibit – a showing of fine works of art. Exhibit runs from through Aug. 26. 33rockyknob@gmail.com or 452.0593.

• Anne Fariello “Signs of the Times” exhibit of documentary photography is currently on display at the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva.

• Several exhibitions are on display this summer at the Western Carolina University Fine Art Museum at the Bardo Arts Center. “Water Portraits: Barbara Tyroler” is on exhibition until Aug. 25. “Ancient Forms, Modern Minds: Contemporary Cherokee Ceramics” is on display through Nov. 10. 227.ARTS or bardoartscenter.wcu.edu.

FILM & SCREEN • “The Glass Castle” will be showing at the Strand on Main on Aug. 23-24 at 7 p.m. in Waynesville. www.38main.com.

• Registration is underway for the screening of “America Divided,” an EPIX Original Documentary Series, which will be shown at 2 p.m. on consecutive Thursdays through Sept. 24, at the Waynesville Library. Features narratives around inequality in education, housing, healthcare, labor, criminal justice and the political system. Registration required: 356.2507 or kolsen@haywoodnc.net.

• “Alien Convenant” will be shown on Aug. 24 at 7:30 p.m. by Mad Batter Food and Film in Sylva for free.

Highlands Nature Center in Highlands. www.highlandsbiological.org, 526.2221 or highlandsbiological@gmail.com.

• Registration is underway through Aug. 25 for a class on building and restoring fly rods at Haywood Community College. The class will meet from 7-9 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays starting Sept. 12 and running through Nov. 7. Instructor: Tommy Thomas.

Tuition and materials: $350. Sign up: 565.4240 or clschulte@haywood.edu.

• A Leader Building workshop for fly fishing anglers of all skill levels is scheduled for 9 a.m.-2 p.m. on Aug. 25 at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Brevard. Learn how to choose the weight and length of leaders. Sign up: http://tinyurl.com/jq4r6x3.

• The Franklin Mushroom Foray is from 1-5 p.m. on Aug. 27 at Standing Indian Campground. Collect and identify mushrooms. Part of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship’s Skill Share. Register: 342.0873. Info: SandiDonn2@yahoo.com.

• “The American Bald Eagle” – a PBS Nature Series film – will be shown at 7 p.m. on Aug. 29 at the Hudson Library in Highlands. www.highlandsaudubonsociety.org or 526.1939.

• Tickets are on sale now for the Friends of the Smokies’ Fontana Lake Overnight Experience, which is Aug. 28-29. Fundraiser includes guided hikes, a campfire presentation and more. $350 per person or $500 for a couple/partner room. Register by Aug. 18.

Hike.FriendsOfTheSmokies.org.

FARM AND GARDEN • Garden tours are available on the first Tuesday of each month (through October) at Southern Highlands Reserve, a nonprofit native woodland garden dedicated to sustaining the natural ecosystems of the Blue Ridge Mountains. www.southernhighlandsreserve.us.

• A seasonal native plant sale is scheduled for 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 25, at the Southern Highlands Reserve in Lake Toxaway. www.southernhighlandsreserve.org.

• An “All About Tomatoes” program will be offered from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. on Aug. 29 at the Jackson County Cooperative Extension in Sylva. $8; registration required. Demonstration and opportunity to make and process a pint of salsa to take home. Register: 586.4009 or kerri_rayburn@ncsu.edu.

• “More in My Basket at the Market” classes are offered in September at the Cooperative Extension Service in Waynesville. Learn benefits of shopping at the farmer’s market. Info and to register: 456.3575.

• A Master Gardener Plant Clinic is offered every business day through Sept. 22. 456.3575.

HIKING CLUBS • Carolina Mountain Club will have a seven-mile hike with a 2,200-foot ascent on Aug. 23 to Big Butt from the Blue Ridge Parkway. 864.607.2645 or gabechtel@yahoo.com.

Outdoors • “Take in the View with a Ranger” program is held from 4:30-6:30 p.m. on the first and third Thursday of each month on the deck of the Pisgah Inn. Ask questions and learn about the Blue Ridge Parkway’s natural and cultural history.

• Blue Ridge Parkway rangers will lead a “Getting Loopy on the Parkway” hike at 10 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 25. Easy, 1.4-mile hike starts at Milepost 348.8 on the Visitor Center Loop Trail. 298.5330, ext. 304.

• Carolina Mountain Club will have a nine-mile hike with a 2,400-foot ascent on Aug. 26 at Silers Bald.

Info and reservations: 460.7066 or barbc129@gmail.com.

• The Wedge at Foundation will hold outdoor educational pint nights at 6 p.m. on consecutive Thursdays Aug. 24 in Asheville. Each beer sold will benefit Friends of the Smokies. FriendsOfTheSmokies.org.

• Carolina Mountain Club will have an 11-mile hike with a 1,400-foot ascent on Aug. 27 at Upper Snowbird Creek. Info and reservations: 371.0347, 524.7400 or alarkaexpeditions@gmail.com.

• A Zahner Lecture entitled “Woodpeckers and Hoover Chickens in the Southern Piney Woods” will be presented by Robert Abernethy, president of the Longleaf Alliance” at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 24, at the

• Nantahala Hiking Club will take an easy, 1.4-mile hike with an elevation change of 300 feet on Aug. 27 to historic Warwoman Dell and Becky Branch Falls.

Reservations and info: 772.233.7277.

PRIME REAL ESTATE Advertise in The Smoky Mountain News

UPBEAT ADS

MarketPlace information: The Smoky Mountain News Marketplace has a distribution of 16,000 every week to over 500 locations across in Haywood, Jackson, Macon, and Swain counties along with the Qualla Boundary and west Buncombe County. For a link to our MarketPlace Web site, which also contains a link to all of our MarketPlace display advertisers’ Web sites, visit www.smokymountainnews.com.

Rates:

■ Free — Lost or found pet ads.

■ $5 — Residential yard sale ads, ■ $5 — Non-business items that sell for less than $150.

■ $15 — Classified ads that are 50 words or less; each additional line is $2.

If your ad is 10 words or less, it will be displayed with a larger type.

■ $3 — Border around ad and $5 — Picture with ad or colored background.

■ $50 — Non-business items, 25 words or less. 3 month or till sold.

■ $300 — Statewide classifieds run in 117 participating newspapers with 1.6 million circulation. Up to 25 words.

■ All classified ads must be pre-paid.

Classified Advertising: Scott Collier, phone 828.452.4251; fax 828.452.3585 classads@smokymountainnews.com

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DAYCO PICNIC For all former employees and spouses. Sat. Aug. 26th, 11:00a.m. til 3:00p.m. Located at Allen’s Creek Park. Bring covered dish, Drinks & plates will be furnished.

For more information call 828.456.6211 BEAUTY DIRECT Licensed Cosmetologist willing to 'Come to You’ for All you Hair & Nail needs. Half the Cost of regular salon. Great for Disabled, Homebound or Nursing Homes. For more information call 828.507.4980.

Have a Blessed Day!

AUCTION ONLINE ONLY Note Auction Mortgage on 176+ Acres 2555 N US 29 Hwy, Spencer Aug. 23rd 1PM. Julian E Howell 770.841.9924 www.AMCbid.com NCAL 7410 RESTAURANT EQUIPMENT AUCTION Wednesday, August 23 @ 10am, 699 West Cone Blvd., Greensboro, NC. New, Used, & Scratch n Dent.

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WNC MarketPlace

BUSINESS FOR SALE

EMPLOYMENT

RETAIL/RESTARAUNT BUSINESS For Sale, located in Maggie Valley, NC. Call 828.734.1665 for more information.

EMPLOYMENT BUSY DOWNTOWN WAYNESVILLE Insurance Office Seeking Licenesed Customer Sevice Rep. Must be P&C Licensed with Experienced Customer Service skills. Please send Resume to: Georgi.InsuranceGroup@ outlook. com

www.smokymountainnews.com

August 23-29, 2017

GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS RAILROAD IN BRYSON CITY Is currently hiring! We have Full Time Vacancies for Retail Sales Associates and Reservationists.

Earn train passes, retail and food discounts, passes to area attractions and more!

Full Job Descriptions and Applications are Available at: www.gsmr.com/jobs You may also get an Application from the Bryson City Depot Located at 226 Everett Street in Bryson City.

- FRONT DESK Full Time or Part Time: Maggie Valley Cabin Resort Seeks a Versatile, Energetic & Experienced Front Desk Employee. Customer Service & Computer Exp. Req. Weekends, Nights & Holidays a Must! Call 828.926.1388 HELP WANTED For Wait Staff and Grill Worker.

Call 828.926.0734 or stop in.

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HEAD START/NC PRE-K TEACHER-HAYWOOD COUNTY Must have a Birth-K or BS related field with course work, and teaching license. This position also requires computer skills, the ability to work with diverse population/community partners, good judgment/problem solving skills, lead role in classroom and time management skills.

Candidate will be responsible for classroom/paperwork. 2 yrs. experience in Pre-K classroom preferred. Full-time with benefits. EOE/AA. Please apply at Mountain Projects, Inc 2251 Old Balsam Rd, Waynesville, NC 28786 or www.mountainprojects.org - HOUSEKEEPING Full Time or Part Time: Maggie Valley Cabin Resort Seeks an Energetic & Experienced Housekeeper. Valid Driver’s License Required. For more info Call 828.926.1388

GILES CHEMICAL IS GROWING

And Recruiting for Full-Time!

• INVENTORY CONTROL COORDINATOR • PACKING & FORKLIFT OPERATORS • CUSTOMER SERVICE REP • MAINTENANCE TECH • SHIFT LEADERS Apply at: 102 Commerce Street Waynesville. Or Email: contactgiles@gileschemical.com GILES is an EEO Employer

EMPLOYMENT

ROTATING ASSISTANT TEACHER Jackson County - Candidate must have High School Diploma/ GED, Child Care Credentials I & II, be able to assume the responsibilities of teacher when absent, work well with all staff members, have good judgement/problem solving skills and the flexibility to work with diverse families.

Computer skills and 2 yrs.

Exp. in Child Care preferred.

Full Time with Benefits.

Applications will be taken at Mountain Projects, 2251 Old Balsam Rd, Waynesville or 25 Schulman St, Sylva, NC or www.mountainprojects.org EOE/AA FTCC Fayetteville Technical Community College is now accepting applications for the following positions: Department Chair Industrial Systems Technology. For detailed information and to apply, please visit our employment portal at: https://faytechcc.peopleadmin.com Human Resources Office Phone: 910.678.7342 Internet: http://www.faytechcc.edu EOE CHILD CARE DIRECTOR: BA or BS in Child Development or E.C. Education or C.D. W/ 3yrs.

Exp. in Licensed Child Care. $32K - $45K DOE. Cover Letter & Resume to: officemgr@longschapel.com

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Approved For Military Benefits.

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ADVERTISE YOUR EMPLYMNT. OPP. In over 100 newspapers across the state for only $375. Call Lyndsey Clevesy at NC Press Services, 919.516.8009.

HOUSING SPECIALIST SECTION 8 Jackson County - High School Education or GED required, Business Degree preferred. Effective written, oral, communication, record keeping & computer skills.

Ability to work effectively with the public and diverse populations. Must be able to read and understand HUD Guidelines. Full Time with Benefits. Apply online: www.mountainprojects.org or Mountain Projects, Inc. 2251 Old Balsam Rd., Waynesville or 25 Schulman St., Sylva.

EOE/AA

NICOL ARMS APARTMENTS NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS

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MAPLE TREE VETERINARY Hospital is seeking FT Veterinary Technician. Bring Resume & Cover Letter for Brief Interview with Management Team next Thurs.

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BEWARE OF LOAN FRAUD. Please check with the Better Business Bureau or Consumer Protection Agency before sending any money to any loan company.

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CAVALIER ARMS APARTMENTS NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS

Section 8 Accepted - Handicapped Accessible Units When Available

Handicapped Accessible Units When Available

OFFICE HOURS: Monday, Wednesday & Friday 8:00am - 5:00pm 168E Nicol Arms Road Sylva, NC 28779

Phone# 1.828.586.3346 TDD# 1.800.735.2962

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Equal Housing Opportunity

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52

EMPLOYMENT

828-734-4644

Section 8 Accepted - Rental Assistance When Available -

OFFICE HOURS: Tuesday & Thursday 8:00a.m. - 5:00p.m.

50 Duckett Cove Road, Waynesville

Phone # 1-828-456-6776 TDD # 1-800-725-2962 Equal Housing Opportunity

Steve Mauldin

828.734.4864

smauldin@beverly-hanks.com

74 N. Main St.,Waynesville

828.452.5809

beverly-hanks.com

REAL ESTATE ANNOUNCEMENT

GOT LAND? Our Hunters will Pay Top $$$ To hunt your land. Call for a Free info packet & Quote. 1.866.309.1507 www.BaseCampLeasing.com

PUBLISHER’S NOTICE

HOMES FOR SALE FOR SALE BY OWNER

BRUCE MCGOVERN A Full Service Realtor, Locally Owned and Operated mcgovernpropertymgt@gmail.com McGovern Property Management 828.283.2112.

BUYING A HOME And need a mortgage? Or, have a home and want to lower your monthly fees and refinance? Getting a mortgage is quicker and easier than ever. Call now!

844.251.5563

ESCARAVAGE BROKER/REALTOR

—————————————— 28 WOODLAND ASTER WAY

ASHEVILLE, NC 28804

828.400.0901

Haywood County Real Estate Agents

GESCAR@BEVERLY-HANKS.COM

BEVERLY-HANKS.COM

STORAGE SPACE FOR RENT CLIMATE CONTROLLED STORAGE FOR YOU

Mike Stamey

1 Month Free with 12 Month Rental. Maggie Valley, Hwy. 19, 1106 Soco Rd. For more information call Torry

mstamey@beverly-hanks.com

828-508-9607

828.734.6500, 828.734.6700 maggievalleyselfstorage.com 74 NORTH MAIN ST. • WAYNESVILLE, NC

GREAT SMOKIES STORAGE Conveniently located off 19/23

by Thad Woods Auction. Available for lease now: 10’x10’ units for $55, 20’x20’ units for $160.

Get one month FREE with 12 month contract. Call 828.507.8828 or 828.506.4112 for more info.

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ITEMS FOR SALE

kellerwilliamswaynesville.com • Julie Lapkoff - 828-273-6607 • Yvonne Kolomechuk - yvonneksells.yourkwagent.com • The Morris Team - www.themorristeamnc.com

Lakeshore Realty • Phyllis Robinson - lakeshore@lakejunaluska.com

Mountain Home Properties SFR, ECO, GREEN

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mountaindream.com • Cindy Dubose - cdubose@mountaindream.com

McGovern Real Estate & Property Management

BEAUTY SERVICES

WELLNESS ADVOCATE

beverly-hanks.com Pam Braun - pbraun@beverly-hanks.com Pauletter Childers -paulettechilders@beverly-hanks.com Ann Eavenson - anneavenson@beverly-hanks.com George Escaravage - gescar@beverly-hanks.com Billie Green - BGreen@beverly-hanks.com Michelle McElroy - michellemcelroy@beverly-hanks.com Marilynn Obrig - marilynnobrig@beverly-hanks.com Brian K. Noland - brianknoland.com Anne Page - apage@beverly-hanks.com Brooke Parrott - brookeparrott@beverly-hanks.com Jerry Powell - jpowell@beverly-hanks.com Catherine Proben - cproben@beverly-hanks.com Ellen Sither - ellensither@beverly-hanks.com Mike Stamey - mikestamey@beverly-hanks.com Pamela Williams - pamelawilliams@beverly-hanks.com

Keller Williams Realty

BORING/CARPENTER BEE TRAPS No Chemicals, Poisons or Anything to Harm the Environment.

Handmade in Haywood County. 1 for $20, 2 or More for $15 each.

828.593.8321

MEDICAL

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

ERA Sunburst Realty - sunburstrealty.com • Amy Spivey - amyspivey.com • Rick Boarder - sunburstrealty.com

METAL ART & HOME DECOR SALE Yard/Garden Art, Signs, Flags, Suns & Other Collectibles. Everything must be Sold. Whole Sale Buyers Welcome. Ping Pong & Foosball Table, Michelob Tiffany Lamps, Neon Signs, Displays, Birdhouses & Chimes. 828.734.1665.

BEAUTY DIRECT Licensed Cosmetologist willing to 'Come to You’ for All you Hair & Nail needs. Half the Cost of regular salon. Great for Disabled, Homebound or Nursing Homes. For more information call 828.507.4980.

Have a Blessed Day!

Beverly Hanks & Associates

147 WALNUT STREET • WAYNESVILLE

828.506.7137

aspivey@sunburstrealty.com

www.sunburstrealty.com/amy-spivey

• Bruce McGovern - shamrock13.com

Realty World Heritage Realty realtyworldheritage.com • Martha Sawyer realtyworldheritage.com/realestate/viewagent/7769

RE/MAX — Mountain Realty

RE/MAX

EXECUTIVE

Mieko

Thomson BROKER/REALTOR®

Cell (828) 226-2298 www.ncsmokies.com homes@ncsmokies.com

WAYNESVILLE NORTH CAROLINA

find us at: facebook.com/smnews

• • • • • •

remax-waynesvillenc.com | remax-maggievalleync.com Holly Fletcher - hollyfletcher1975@gmail.com Judy Meyers - jameyers@charter.net Mieko Thomson - ncsmokies.com The Real Team - the-real-team.com Ron Breese - ronbreese.com Dan Womack - womackdan@aol.com

smokymountainnews.com

4/BR, 1.5/BA 2,650sq. ft. House in Desirable Location 1 Mile from Lake Junalaska. Mountain Views, Privacy, Level Fenced Backyard, Covered Front & Back Porches, Hardwood & Carpet, Circular Oak Staircase, 2 Fireplaces, New Roof, Large Family Room, Plenty of Storage & More! Move-in Ready - $250,000. For more info 828.298.7287 or 828.337.5699

GEORGE

August 23-29, 2017

All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Fair Housing Act which makes it illegal to advertise “any preference, limitation or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin, or an intention, to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination” Familial status includes children under the age of 18 living with parents or legal custodians, pregnant women and people securing custody of children under 18 This newspaper will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate which is in violation of the law. All dwellings advertised on equal opportunity basis.

PROFESSIONAL MEETING SPACE Located in Waynesville, Holds up to 90 People. Suitable for Seminars, Family Gatherings, Worship, Ect. Kitchen Area, Wifi/ Screen. For More Information and Rates for ROOM 1902 Call 828.454.7445 or 828.551.8960

—————————————— WNC MarketPlace

LEASE TO OWN 1/2 Acre Lots with Mobile Homes & Empty 1/2 Acre + Lots!

Located Next to Cherokee Indian Reservation, 2.5 Miles from Harrah’s Cherokee Casino.

For More Information Please Call 828.506.0578

COMM. PROP. FOR RENT

Rob Roland Realty • Rob Roland - rroland33@gmail.com

TO ADVERTISE IN THE NEXT ISSUE 828.452.4251 | ads@smokymountainnews.com 53

www.smokymountainnews.com

August 23-29, 2017

WNC MarketPlace

Super

54

CROSSWORD

CHOW TIME ACROSS 1 Last letter, to Brits 4 Peeve 8 Family car 13 Scenic views, as of sea or land 19 Schooner fill 20 State boldly 21 Put forth, as energy 22 Nook 23 All-points bulletin, e.g.

26 Little laugh 27 Bits 28 Pulitzer Prize category 29 “Great” title film role for Robert Duvall 30 Politico Kefauver 31 Pellets of precipitation 32 Raising false alarms 35 Low grade 36 Barnyard feed 37 CEO’s “C” 38 Broadway honors 39 Candid 41 Mer liquid 43 San — (California county or city) 45 Distinctive barnyard sound 50 Stephen of “Angie” 51 Cat’s gripper 55 28-Across set to music 56 Actress Maryam or Olivia 57 Makes whole 59 Facts and figures 60 Snail as food 62 — Bator, Mongolia 64 Dangler on a grad’s cap

66 201, to Ovid 67 Storm flash 71 Antique 72 Soapsuds 74 Brain flash 75 “The Creation” by Haydn, e.g.

77 Spots in la Seine 78 Boogie, e.g.

81 Warty animal 83 Rear- — (car crash) 84 Irksome sort 85 Adam’s madam 86 Decorative cloth laid atop a bureau 89 Wide-ranging 91 Lyrical verse 92 Per-unit cost 93 Big foil maker 97 See 89-Down 99 Sneaking 100 Needlefish 103 A team often punts on it 105 Really slow 107 Berry of “X-Men” films 109 Emu and ostrich 110 Hopping mad 112 Indemnified 113 Sneaker part 114 Richard Belzer’s “Homicide: Life on the Street” role 117 Lined the roof of 118 15% taker 119 1492 ship 120 AFL partner 121 Actor James of “Gunsmoke” 122 Sapheads 123 Not hidden 124 What the ends of 23, 32-, 45-, 67-, 86-, 103-

and 114-Across are synonyms of

51 They made vinyl passe 52 Former Dodgers manDOWN ager Tommy 1 Gave an electric jolt 53 Artist’s workplace 2 “The River” actress 54 Statler’s Muppet sideMumford kick 3 Backspace over, say 58 Leeds loc.

4 Spiked clubs 61 Building beam 5 Currier’s art partner 63 Big fish story 6 Grazed, e.g.

65 Verify 7 TGIF’s “F” 68 Habitual idiosyncrasy 8 Neighbor of a petal 69 Snake types 9 Quiz’s cousin 70 Tidy 10 Cut off, e.g.

73 33rd U.S. prez 11 Bow shape 76 In time past 12 Indefinitely large 79 Eschews 13 The enemy below?

80 “Groovy!”

14 Hold firmly 82 Sugar suffix 15 Second play section 87 Turn bad 16 Magical drink 88 Sunshine bit 17 Fair way to divvy 89 With 97-Across, has a things huge fight 18 Small letter flourishes 90 — Jones Industrials 24 Drink cubes 93 Benin locale 25 Lanka lead-in 94 Auto shop courtesy 29 Strained 95 Interrupts rudely 31 Shamefaced 96 Blue Jay rival 33 Top of a cup 98 As one 34 Pine (for) 99 Flying flocks 36 “You there!”

100 Look quickly 37 — -de-sac 101 Keys of song 39 Gumbo soup veg102 Fiery etable 104 Is mindful of 40 Big name in eye care 105 Alliances 41 Die away 106 Homer hitter Mel 42 Was plentiful 107 Macho type 44 Neighbor of Boyle 108 “The Simpsons” Hts., California storekeeper 45 Bicycle pedal add-on 111 City with lots of slots 46 Affluent 112 Painter Magritte 47 Lists orally 114 Pops 48 Cussword 115 Self-esteem 49 Arose (from) 116 “C’est la —!”

answers on page 48

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TERMITE ABOUT 3 MONTHS OLD, AND HE'S OUR RESIDENT "CHARACTER CAT". WE ALWAYS HAVE ONE THAT IS SO FULL OF CHARM AND MISCHIEF THAT HE KEEPS US LAUGHING. TERMITE WILL PROVIDE TONS OF JOY AND ENTERTAINMENT TO HIS LUCKY ADOPTERS. CURACAO - A BIG, HANDSOME, REDBONE COONHOUND BOY, ABOUT SIX YEARS OLD. HE IS FRIENDLY AND HAS A LAID BACK PERSONALITY, AND WOULD LOVE TO CURL UP BY YOUR FIREPLACE OR MORE LIKELY BESIDE YOU ON THE COUCH TO WATCH TV WITH HIS HEAD IN YOUR LAP!

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WEEKLY SUDOKU Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each small 9-box square contains all of the numbers from one to nine.

Answers on Page 48

Time to enjoy the bounty of your flower garden

••• his season of the year is a good time to enjoy the flowering and fruiting plants in our “yard garden.” Many of the more showy species are just now coming into their own. Every once in a while, it seems the perfect thing to do. Just sit down and watch the plants. It’s therapeutic.

Dominating and defining our “yard gar-

T

BACK THEN den” between the house and the creek are some of the larger flowering shrubs: buddleia, swamp rose mallow, oak-leaved hydranger and a beautiful ornamental hydrangea that bears long cone-shaped clusters of snow white flowers.

The rosy pink flowers of the mallow are delightful because they are large — the size of small dinner plates.

On the other hand, I don’t usually like ornamental hydrangeas because Columnist the flower heads are often so large they look top-heavy, awkward and artificial. But the hydrangea I purchased in Highlands during the early 1990s has compact flower clusters that look just right, even when they’re going to seed.

Beds of garden phlox glow in the soft evening light. Observe phlox throughout the day and you’ll notice that individual flowers often shift the intensity of their colors throughout the day. Biologists call this “color morphing” and theorize that the plant is doing so in order to attract different

pollinators under different light conditions.

Trumpet vine and cross vine grow on trellises that lead to the front deck or to the footbridge. The gaudy trumpet vine is attracting an unusual number of hummingbirds this year. We normally have just one or two pairs, but in the last three or four weeks there have

False dragonhead.

George Ellison

[Before moving on to the primary subject of this column (yard gardens), I’d like to share some impressions with you of the eclipse, which (as I’m writing this) took place yesterday. For several weeks before the celestial event (as I grew weary of all the commercial hoopla), I shifted into my “Bahhumbug” mode. When asked where I was going to watch it from, I’d roll my eyes and announce: “My bedroom … it’ll be a good time to take a nice nap.” In actuality, I had an excellent viewing platform on the upper deck of a neighbor’s house all lined up. Even as the shadow of the moon began slowly moving across the surface of the sun, I was still making smug remarks. But suddenly as the lunar body blotted out the sun for perhaps 90 seconds, if that, I shut up and just watched. There’s really no way I could write a description that would do justice to the kaleidoscopic burst of numinous colors and delicate lines. It was just fabulous.]

been dozens of males, females, and immature birds zooming here and there.

Sometimes a male will perch deep in the trumpet vine foliage and come storming out when another hummingbird dares to feed at a nearby blossom.

One day, we saw something that seemed incredible. A praying mantis that lived in the

trumpet vine had captured a ruby-throated hummingbird. There was nothing we could do as the unfortunate bird was already half ingested.

One plant we have that’s somewhat unusual is obedient plant (Physostegia virginiana), sometimes called false dragonhead.

Elizabeth rescued a few of them 30 or so years ago from a wet meadow on Toot Hollow near Bryson City that was going to be drained and converted into dry pasture. It now grows about five feet high in several beds that currently number upwards of 100 plants.

They are called obedient plants because the attractive pale purple or pinkish flower heads remain bent in whichever direction you turn them. If you’re looking for a new plant to propagate next year and then sit on your deck or porch to observe, you could do a lot worse than obedient plant.

Cosmos, tall meadow rue, delphinium, Mexican subflowers, alligator grass, cardinal flower, and so forth. Just typing their names makes me feel better.

(George Ellison is a naturalist and writer.

He can be reached at info@georgeellison.com.)

August 23-29, 2017 Smoky Mountain News 55

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