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BY HOLLY KAYS S TAFF WRITER
Jackson County commissioners voted unanimously Sept. 15 to ask for the N.C. Association of County Commissioners’ support for state legislation to give counties more control over state and federal construction projects within their borders.
The vote came in response to 14 months of continued environmental violations at Western Carolina University’s Millennial Campus, where the private developer Zimmer Development Corporation is under a long-term lease to build and operate student housing. Since June 17, 2019, the company has received 16 notices of violation from the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality, all regarding erosion issues. The most recent violation was issued Aug. 7, but just a week later, students moved into the newly completed apartments and began paying rent.
Contractors have repeatedly failed to contain mud on the site, causing departing dirt to color nearby waterways various shades of brown, especially during heavy rainfall. In October 2019, runoff from the site caused a landslide that prompted evacuations at the student housing neighborhood downhill, and one of the 12 small houses located there was condemned.
BID FOR LOCAL CONTROL
Jackson County leaders have spoken out against the violations on an ongoing basis, but local government has little power to do anything about them. Because the land is owned by the WCU Endowment Fund, it’s considered a state project — county inspectors have control only over local and private projects.
“NCDEQ does not have the personnel to visit sites like these on a daily basis,” reads a letter the county sent to the NCACC. “Jackson County’s daily involvement in this project eventually aided NCDEQ in issuing multiple notices of violations and monetary fines. But damage to our environment has occurred during the construction period. Jackson County believes that if this project fell under our jurisdiction then our ability to enforce regulations on a daily basis could have prevented some of the environmental damage that occurred.”
Currently, state law allows the N.C. Sedimentation Control Commission to delegate erosion control authority to counties for private projects, and Jackson County has held this authority since 2000. However, the law does not offer that same option for state and federal projects, something that Jackson County would like to see change.
“I still maintain the problem happened
Erosion issues have plagued construction of the 500-bed Husk Apartments in Cullowhee.
Holly Kays photo
here because they (Zimmer and DEQ ) had a preconstruction meeting there in February 13 of 2019, and the next time the state was on site was in June when we got the first complaint,” said Building and Code Enforcement Director Tony Elders during a Sept. 8 work session. “I’m not picking on any person there — they’re short-staffed, they’re an hour and a half away and they cover 22 counties with about three people.”
However, said Elders, if the county had the authority to inspect the work site and issue violations and stop work orders, the site would have been monitored much more closely and the problems would not have been allowed to spiral like they did.
“It was so many months before they (the state) even came and looked at the one in Cullowhee,” said Commissioner Gayle Woody. “If this would pass as a resolution or change, that would address that. We would have local inspections going on, which is our goal.”
“That really would have helped up there,” Elders agreed. “The problems are well documented. The erosion control plan has a construction sequence, and that particular contractor skipped to about step number five. He cleared the entire site rather than the couple of acres at a time he was supposed to because he didn’t want to bring the stump grinder twice. That was his excuse. Once he did that, it was all over then. You can’t hardly catch up on those once you start out wrong.”
The letter was sent to the NCACC Steering Committee, Legislative Goals Committee and Board of Directors. These are the three groups within the NCACC that the request will have to go through before members have the chance to vote on it at the Legislative Goals Conference in January. If the measure is adopted as a goal, it will be included in an official document presented to each member of the General Assembly as well as to the governor and other executive branch leaders.
CHANGE AT THE COUNTY LEVEL
The county is taking action on the local level as well, with a public hearing slated for 5:55 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 6, on a proposed ordinance change that would require developers to install erosion control measures prior to receiving building permits for multifamily developments. Currently, developers can apply for building permits before they finish grading the site.
“These standards are not dependent on which agency is administering or has oversight over the permit,” Planning Director Michael Poston told commissioners during the Sept. 1 meeting when the hearing was scheduled. “It simply states F
A public hearing on proposed changes to the county’s Unified Development Ordinance will be held at 5:55 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 6, during a mixed virtual meeting of the Jackson County Board of Commissioners.
The proposed changes would require developer of multifamily housing projects to have erosion control measures in place before obtaining building permits. To speak at the hearing, call 828.631.2213 by 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 6. Comments will be accepted via phone or video. Members of the public can also send written comments to angiewinchester@jacksonnc.org.
The meeting will be livestreamed via the Jackson County North Carolina Local Government channel on YouTube.
that whatever erosion control measures are called for in the approved plans — whether the state approves the plan at the state level or whether we do that at the local level — these items must be taken care of before we’ll issue a building permit to go vertical.”
The ordinance change singles out multifamily developments because those are typically the types of projects in which develop
Unless a new agreement is signed, patients with Blue Cross, Blue Shield Medicare Advantage Plans will have to pay out-of-network prices for services at Duke LifePoint hospitals beginning Jan. 1, 2021.
In Western North Carolina, this would impact patients at Haywood Regional Medical Center, Harris Regional Hospital and Swain Community Hospital. The hospitals contacted impacted patients a month ago about the announcement and to assist them if they wanted to find another in-network plan.
HRMC issued the following statement Thursday, Sept. 17:
“Haywood Regional Medical Center deeply values the trust our patients have placed in our team of caregivers. We are working with BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina’s
House 120 candidates to debate online
Western North Carolina voters are invited to participate in the first-ever online candidate forum featuring two candidates who are running to represent House District 120 in the North Carolina General Assembly: Karl Gillespie (R) of Franklin and Susan Landis (D) of Murphy.
The forum will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. Sept. 22. This online candidate forum is co-sponsored by the Public Policy Network of western North Carolina and north Georgia (PPN), in concert with Mountain True and the Hinton Center. Emcee for this event is Hayesville’s own Harry Baughn, host of “Mountain Mornings” on WJRB 95.1 and WJUL ers try to grade the site and build the structures simultaneously, Poston said.
The ordinance text states that prior to obtaining building permits for multifamily developments, all building pads must be established, roadways into and throughout the development should have an initial layer of compacted stone in place, all slopes must be seeded with ground cover established and all sediment basins and erosion control devices shown on the approved erosion control plan must be in place.
When commissioners first discussed the concept for the ordinance amendment during an Aug. 4 meeting, Commissioner Mickey Luker told Elders that “you can’t get the wording to us fast enough.” The Sept. 1 vote to schedule a public hearing honored that wish. While the planning board had expressed support for the measure, as of Sept. 1 it had not yet taken a formal vote, a step that usually happens prior to commissioners scheduling their own public hearing and subsequent vote. However, scheduling the public hearing ahead of the planning board’s vote saved four to six weeks on the timeline toward final approval, said Poston. When the ordinance did finally come before the planning board on Sept. 10, the body voted to recommend approval by unanimous vote.
Medicare Advantage plans to ensure patients continue to have access to high-quality care for years to come. Our current agreement with BCBS Medicare Advantage plans runs through the end of 2020. We are working directly with BCBS Medicare Advantage patients to ensure they can continue to have in-network access to the doctors they know and trust in 2021. We encourage any BCBS Medicare Advantage patients who have questions about their health insurance options to call our free helpline at 855.582.5181. Representatives are available Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST.”
BCBC issued the following statement Friday, Sept. 18:
“Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina’s Medicare Advantage agreement with Duke LifePoint is in good standing. Our Medicare Advantage members may continue to receive care at Duke LifePoint. If Blue Cross N.C. members have questions about their coverage, they may contact us at the number on the back of their ID card or call their local insurance agent.”
97.7 radio stations.
Candidates will have the opportunity to share their views on many issues that are critical to the voters in District 120, including access to health care; financial security (jobs, affordable housing and economic development), and the environment.
Please plan to join the forum via Zoom to hear these candidates make their case for why they would be the best choice to represent the residents of western NC in the House of Representatives.
The ZOOM Log-In information for the NC House District 120 Candidate Forum will be posted on both the PPN and Mountain True websites (www.publicpolicynetwork.net or (www.mountaintrue.org) on Tuesday morning, Sept. 22.
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Ingles Nutrition Notes written by Ingles Dietitian Leah McGrath
SUPERMARKET LINGO
Every industry, including the supermarket world, has their own lingo. How many of these supermarket terms and abbreviations do you know or have you heard when you are in your local Ingles store? Best-By Date - This is the date that applies to QUALITY that a manufacturer will put on a product that indicates to the consumer that the product is "best by" that date, i.e. for the best taste/quality ...but it is NOT an expiration date. End Cap - This is the display at the end of the aisle or shelving - often where special sale or seasonal items are displayed. J-hook - a hook attached to the front of a shelf to display items. PLU - Price Look Up code this is the 4 or 5 digit number on the sticker on your fruits and vegetables. This code helps our cashiers link a product with a price when that number is entered into our registers. RTE - Ready-to-Eat a food item that is able to be consumed upon opening the packaging. (Ex: granola bar) Sell-by Date - This is a date a manufacturer will put on a product aimed for the retailer for stocking purposes to tell us that this product should be sold on or before a specific date or should be removed from sale for best quality. This is NOT an expiration date and a product in your home past that date is typically still safe to consume. UPC - Universal Product Code. This is a bar code on packaging that is uniquely assigned to a product. Use-By Date - This is a date put on a product by a manufacturer to indicate to consumers that the product should be used by a specific date. After that date the quality may be lessened. This is not a safety date except for infant formula. Wand - a hand-held code reader for price checking and ordering. (You may see Ingles associates and manager using a wand to figure out which products to order.) Sources: Food Industry Association FMI | Food Industry Glossary USDA Food Safety and Inspection Services Food Product Dating
Leah McGrath, RDN, LDN Ingles Market Corporate Dietitian @InglesDietitian Leah McGrath - Dietitian 800.334.4936
Future of Folkmoot Festival uncertain
All the international dance groups come together on Main Street in Downtown Waynesville each summer for Folkmoot’s International
Day Parade. A Shot Above WNC photo
BY JESSI STONE N EWS EDITOR
The Folkmoot International Festival has overcome many obstacles in its 36 years of existence, but it couldn’t withstand the pressures of a global pandemic.
The nonprofit’s board of directors made a tough call back in March to cancel the 2020 summer festival, which would have marked the 37th anniversary of a 10-day folk dance event that has taken place in Western North Carolina since 1983. During that time, more than 8,000 international performers from 125 countries have traveled to the Folkmoot home base in Waynesville to perform at venues from Cherokee to Hickory.
After considering the costs, complications and growing consequences of the public health crisis, the board made the call to cancel on March 25 — just a week after Gov. Roy Cooper issued stay at home orders and other COVID-19 restrictions.
There are a lot of logistics involved in planning and orchestrating a 10-day festival with numerous performances, a variety of venues and artists coming from around the world. Folkmoot Executive Director Angie Schwab said by the time the board had to cancel the festival, plans were already in motion.
“By March, we had all of our groups lined up and we were collecting their rosters, along with promotional information. Most were prepping to purchase their flights. Folkmoot hosts groups of 20 to 30 people, and if you estimate their airfares, that’s upwards of $20,000 they had already invested in us. We were wondering at that time whether the festival was still possible, but international travel had already become more complicated,” she said.
In April, Folkmoot switched gears and started contacting U.S. ethnic groups, thinking a meaningful early-fall event could still be possible. Schwab said the condensed Folkmoot festival would have been called “All Y’all” Festival and would be a combination of international and U.S.-based performers.
By May, it became clear that any kind of in-person festival wasn’t going to be possible. Even with the main event and the backup event canceled for 2020, Folkmoot is more than the summer festival. The organization has spent the last several years working toward expanding Folkmoot to offer year-round cultural programming and events for the community.
The goal was two-fold — to make the organization more sustainable throughout the year and to utilize the old Hazelwood School facility — now known as the Folkmoot Friendship Center.
“I was tasked with redeveloping the festival, building year-round programming and rehabilitating the building, with a very small staff. It was a huge challenge and our workers gave it their all,” Schwab said.
She said staff continued to work on the year-round programming with hopes that events like the second annual Folkmalt Beer Festival and Mootenanny Appalachian heritage event could still happen in the fall. In July, the Folkmoot board voted to cancel all other programs as well, including the All Y’all Festival scheduled for Aug. 29, the Folkmalt International Beer Festival scheduled for Sept. 26, Mootenanny musical festival scheduled for Oct. 10, and the
Folkmoot Values
n Folkmoot finds strength in diversity and embraces differences. n Folkmoot recognizes the importance of cultural exchange to create peace, prosperity and understanding. n Folkmoot is inclusive and does not represent any one political or religious perspective. n Folkmoot honors and celebrates creative expression. n Folkmoot preserves cultural heritage and cultivates opportunities for community education and prosperity. n Folkmoot recognizes that a community’s arts and cultural assets are a strong tool for economic development and an essential element of sustaining and improving quality of life.
Songwriters in the Round performances scheduled for September and November. “Until the end of July those events seemed theoretically possible if we implemented proper Covid protocols. However, when efforts to fight the virus faltered on the state and national levels, it became clear that those events, too, were risky,” Schwab said. After a host of festival cancellations, many of the CIOFF (International Council of Organizations of Folklore Festivals and Folk Arts) partners started planning online festivals. Folkmoot has been streaming some of those events on its Facebook page, but the board of directors chose not to do their own online festival. “Canceling groups involved emails, Facebook messages and What’s App calls.
Patrick Parton photo
Most organizations have started to focus on 2021 and 2022, but the online collaborations are catching some momentum,” Schwab said. “We will try to keep people apprised. Many of the online events have gotten exponential attendance, but that doesn’t mean the organizations are generating ticket sales.” Now with six months in the rearview since North Carolina began shutting down, it’s clear the board made the right decision as COVID-19 restrictions are still in place. Not only would people not be able to gather for the festival, but international dance groups would not have been able to travel to the U.S.
“Folkmoot’s mission is to celebrate diversity and foster cultural understanding through our festivals and programs,” Schwab said in a press release at the time. “With the ongoing risk of COVID, we can’t reasonably host any gatherings in the near future, and now we must prepare for the ramifications that come with no festival revenue. We are adjusting to this reality and will find other ways to represent our vision as an organization.”
But with no festival and no ongoing programming for the remainder of 2020, Schwab wasn’t sure what her future with Folkmoot would look like going forward. The board furloughed all Folkmoot employees and offered Schwab a part-time contract for the remainder of the year, but Schwab chose not to accept the contract to stay on as a part-time director. Her last day as director was Aug. 21 and she’ll continue to do some contract work as needed.
The Folkmoot board hasn’t made any formal decisions on whether there will be a festival next year. The F
planning process takes so much time that Schwab said at this point, it might be too late to have an international festival next year. However, that doesn’t mean a multicultural festival still isn’t possible.
If international groups are still unable to travel to the U.S. next year because of COVID-19 restrictions, the board could decide to book ethic groups that are already located in the U.S. It’s been done before — a California-based group of dancers representing the Philippines participated in the Folkmoot Festival several years ago. A Scottish Highlands dance group that performed actually traveled from Canada.
“I’m sure Folkmoot will survive COVID,” Schwab said. “The world is taking this situation one step at a time, and the Folkmoot board will have to do the same.”
There’s still the question of whether a scaled-back festival would generate enough ticket sales to make the effort worth all the work. Ticket sales have been declining over the past several years even before the pandemic and grant funding has been harder to come by since Folkmoot is such a wellestablished festival.
“The festival hasn’t generated grant income during my tenure as director, except for specific work with Cherokee cultural partners. However, the festival generates ticket sales, sponsorship and Friends of Folkmoot contributions that support costs,” Schwab said. “The new year-round programming and the building are the aspects of Folkmoot that have grant potential.” Over the last six months, Schwab said the staff worked on several grants that could support Folkmoot’s COVID resiliency and upgrades to the building that would help to sustain the organization financially. Because Folkmoot had been building year-round programming for several years, the staff was in a rolling process of development and design and in a good position to pivot to online programming. “At the time staff was furloughed, we had five grants in process that were due at the beginning of August,” Schwab said. “We started year-round programs in 2015. The income from those programs and events helped pay for staffing and without the programs, we were in a financial bind. The year-round programs were helping to give new dimension to Folkmoot. We were developing a new identity and bringing new audiences to the organization. I thought we had made incredible progress in that regard.”
Another challenge for Folkmoot has been trying to adjust to the changing landscape over the last decade. Before the internet age, being able to witness live international dance performances in rural Appalachia would have been a rare and treasured spectacle.
With the impact of globalization, 24- hour global news networks and the internet, a majority of Americans now have access to other cultures at their fingertips. Yet, Schwab said, something is lost in translation online. Watching a video on YouTube will never compare to the intimate interactions that Folkmoot brought to our region.
Not only do these groups bring their culture to Appalachia, but hopefully the hospitality afforded them during their visit gives them a piece of our culture to take home with them. Just as Americans have negative stereotypes of other countries, those countries have limited and sometimes negative stereotypes of us as well.
As the political climate has changed in the last few years, it’s been a challenge to get international groups here. In July 2016, Folkmoot announced that two of the groups scheduled to appear — from Ghana and Romania — would not make it because the the United States Embassy said the Nkrabea Dance Ensemble was not eligible for a nonimmigrant visa to enter the U.S. because they hadn’t “demonstrated that [they] have the ties that will compel [them] to return to [their] home country” after their scheduled appearances in North Carolina.
Knowing these kinds of issues would continue to happen, Folkmoot began overbooking groups assuming that a few may have to cancel at the last minute. Schwab said three groups had to cancel their trip to the festival last year because their visas weren’t approved. According to an economic impact study conducted by Tom Tveidt of SYNEVA Economics, Folkmoot USA had a $9.2 million impact on Western North Carolina in 2013. The study included the region but focused on Haywood County, showing that Folkmoot’s overnight visitors spent $6.6 million during their visit. Outside day-trippers spent an additional $89,000 in Haywood County. The economic activity generated from Folkmoot supports 100 jobs in Haywood as well as $1 million in additional tax revenues.
While Folkmoot has had a major impact on summer tourism dollars flowing into the region, funding the festival each year has always been difficult. Relying on donations, grant funding and ticket sales is volatile, but somehow the organization has managed to pull it off.
Folkmoot has meant so much to so many different people — locally and internationally. Friendships, relationships and even marriages have formed out of Facebook. Schwab said she will take so many great memories with her.
“The rewards were the relationships, both local and international; a sense of accomplishment and of course a paycheck to do work that we loved. I will always remember the walk down Main Street in the parade of nations, feeling proud of our team and feeling appreciated by the community,” she said. “I’ll also remember the Candlelight Closings. There were lots of tears from everyone on those nights. Such a huge effort to make the international festivals happen and the sense of love, community and collaboration is palpable at the Closing. I’ll miss that a lot, because I’ve never felt community like that before.”
Rolf Kaufman reflects on Folkmoot USA
BY HANNAH MCLEOD S TAFF WRITER
“Dr. Border was a neighbor of mine. He called me one day in 1983 and asked me to come to his house for a meeting but didn’t tell me what it was all about.”
That is the very first memory Rolf Kaufman, a member of the founding board of Folkmoot, had of what would become Folkmoot USA, the International Festival of North Carolina.
As it turns out, Dr. Border had been traveling to folk festivals for 10 years by 1983. One of Borders’ patients had been the director of a local dance group. The patient said he would be traveling to England for a folk festival, and though Border told the patient he wasn’t well enough for that kind of travel, the director said it didn’t matter, he was going anyway. So, Kaufman said, Border decided he would just go with them.
“He got bit by the international folk dance fever, which I later on caught,” Kaufman said.
After that meeting at his neighbor’s house, the first board of directors of Folkmoot USA was formed. Kaufman said that when they had the meeting, Border had already done most of the preparatory work with the state and the county, that he was driven by a passion from what he’d seen and experienced over the course of 10 years of attending folk festivals.
“What drew me in was the fact that I felt that our local population, especially the younger generation, were not sufficiently aware of the world around us. Our young people were not focused on the world around us and I felt that they needed to be broadened,” said Kaufman. Rolf Kaufman
Rolf Kaufman is an immigrant. He was born in Germany and “inherited the Jewish faith, though not religious” as he puts it.
His family was being persecuted by German Nazis in the 1930s. They left Germany in 1933 when Kaufman was not yet 4 years old.
“We were chased about by Nazis,” said Kaufman.
The family settled in Belgium, then had to flee from there. Caught in the war in Europe they ended up in hiding in France, using false identities, until arriving in the United States in 1945.
It is easy to understand why Kaufman was interested in broadening the outlook of local young people.
That first festival in 1983 was housed in the old school building that is now part of Waynesville Middle School. From that point on the festival grew, gaining traction and recognition. The festival is a member of CIOFF, the International Council of Organizations of Folklore Festivals and Folk Arts.
Kaufman says his favorite aspect of being a part of the festival was the opportunity he got to travel. In 1996 Kaufman retired from full-time work. For 20 years straight, from 1996 until 2016, Kaufman attended the world congress of CIOFF every year. The CIOFF congresses were the place to build contacts in the folk festival world. From 1996 onward those contacts became the primary way of recruiting groups to attend Folkmoot USA.
In 2016, the congress took place in Italy. By this time Kaufman had become handicapped.
“It was a small town, but it was big enough,” said Kaufman. “There was a distance to travel every day to go to meetings and so forth and they had to push me around in a wheelchair. And that’s when I decided I wasn’t going to be able to continue doing that. So, 2016 was the last one I went to, and it was the first one Angie went to.”
Folkmoot executive director Angie Schwab took over his group of contacts and continued to add to it. Official contacts aren’t the only ones made at Folkmoot. Stories abound of newfound understanding, lifelong friendships and even marriages from people meeting at the festival.
“In many ways it has taught me that we all have a lot in common. That our younger generation certainly can get together and get along in a great way, under circumstances such as a festival,” said Kaufman. “We’ve never had any serious friction at the festival.”
During the Cold War era groups from the Soviet Union even came and performed at the festival. Kaufman said that despite the icy political relations, there were no problems in personal relations once the groups arrived in Waynesville.
“It’s a great way of bringing people together,” said Kaufman. “I think one of the best ways to minimize future clashes between nations is to recognize the international cultural heritage.”
Over the years Kaufman has been a major individual contributor to the festival, not only with money, but time too. Though programming has been canceled for the rest of this year, Kaufman hopes to see the international festival return in 2022. He says he will fiercely back any effort to keep the festival alive, to keep the public aware of its existence.
