Smoky Mountain News | October 12, 2022

Supreme Court race heats

Amanda Bradley. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . jc-ads@smokymountainnews.com

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C LASSIFIEDS: Scott Collier. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . classads@smokymountainnews.com

N EWS E DITOR: Kyle Perrotti. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . kyle.p@smokymountainnews.com

WRITING:

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Cory Vaillancourt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . cory@smokymountainnews.com

Garret K. Woodward. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . garret@smokymountainnews.com

ACCOUNTING & O FFICE MANAGER: Amanda Singletary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . smnbooks@smokymountainnews.com

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C ONTRIBUTING: Jeff Minick (writing), Chris Cox (writing), George Ellison (writing), Don Hendershot (writing), Susanna Shetley (writing)

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MAGGIE VALLEY

More misinformation: Miller’s ‘missing’ millions

BY C ORY VAILLANCOURT

P OLITICS E DITOR

After a marathon misinformation

session at an August Haywood County Commissioners meeting during which commissioners fought back against comments from the public that were not based in fact, the misinformation hasn’t stopped — and neither has county government’s fight against it.

Back in 2007, the county purchased a 22acre parcel off Jonathan Creek with the intent of turning it into some sort of recreational amenity. During the auction, a number of upset bids drove the price to $1.1 million, leaving some to complain that the county had paid too much.

Then, the Great Recession set in, and as other localities constructed ball fields and sporting complexes, the idea of a large park became moot. The county sat on the parcel for years, renting it out for cattle grazing. Once the county started trying to sell the parcel, commissioners decided to add dirt to some areas, moving them out of the flood plain and increasing the usable area.

When dirt for the project was taken from the Waynesville site that is now home to the Publix grocery store on Russ Avenue, it was found to be unsuitable, so the county dumped more money into finding better dirt.

Throughout the process, local government gadfly Monroe Miller ridiculed the county’s handling of the parcel, derisively calling it the “James Weaver ‘Kirk’ Kirkpatrick III Super-Duper sports complex” and the “David Francis dirt spreading project,” after Community and Economic Development Director David Francis.

Finally, this past June, the county received an offer of $1.8 million on the troublesome parcel from Quiet Creek Properties LLC. The developer plans to construct around 80 residential units once closing occurs in early November.

Francis told commissioners at the time that the county purchased the parcel for $1,120,611 and spent another $462,722 on it, for a total of $1,583,333.

With the $1.8 million offer, the county will turn a small profit on the deal, although when adjusted for inflation, it’s pretty much a wash or even a small loss.

Regardless, once sold the parcel will not only provide some badly needed housing inventory, but also will rejoin county tax rolls after a 15-year absence, netting the county around $100,000 a year in tax revenues, in perpetuity.

Miller, however, has apparently been haranguing commissioners with public records requests meant to prove that there’s some nefarious scheme — he calls it a “rabbit hole” — to hide the parcel’s true cost to the county, a figure he puts at an astonishing $6 million.

“This request was simple. How much had the county poured into the money pit called the Jonathan Creek property since the county purchased it in 2008,” Miller told commissioners during public comment on Oct. 3. “The result I received multiple times was a little over $462,000.”

Miller claims that during a recent meeting, Terry Ramey, a candidate for county commission in this year’s election, brought up “multiple instances of expenses” that Commissioner Brandon Rogers “could not explain.” Miller also claimed that Rogers offered to set up a meeting between him, the county’s finance director, Ramey and Rogers.

Near the end of the Oct. 3 meeting, Rogers explained that he wouldn’t let Miller waste any more taxpayer money by demanding time with county staff.

“A lot of our conversation revolved around whether or not he had evidence of the money he was asking about, which I think was close to $6 million,” Rogers said. “We’ve asked for the evidence to be brought forward. No evidence has been brought forward as of yet. I would like to see that evidence if you’ve got it, Mr. Miller. Before I waste a lot more of our county staff’s time, if he can bring the evidence forward, we’ll set up a meeting.”

On his blog, Miller claimed that Rogers was trying to implement a new public records policy by demanding evidence before scheduling a meeting, but this claim conflates two separate issues, public records and private meetings with elected officials.

Public records laws are quite specific about document production obligations by public bodies; however, elected officials are under no mandate to meet with anyone, ever,

except at their own discretion.

Another of Miller’s claims — that the county accounting system only goes back three years — is false. Francis said that when he went back through the system, year by year, he found an additional $17,000 expended on the parcel that had been inadvertently left off the total provided to Miller.

Unfortunately for Miller, $1,583,333 plus the waylaid $17,000 doesn’t quite equal $6 million.

When given the opportunity by The Smoky Mountain News to participate in an interview and present evidence supporting his $6 million claim, Miller declined to do so.

Miller also claimed on his blog that the county failed to include a $385,000 expenditure to settle lifetime dowry claims on the parcel, and also failed to include a $106,000 expenditure for legal fees, which would have pushed the total cost of the parcel to more than $2 million — if it was true.

On Oct. 6, Francis emailed settlement documents to The Smoky Mountain News

and commissioners, showing that the legal fees were actually $36,376.24.

These fees were not paid by the county, but rather by the estate of the man who sold the parcel to the county.

The documents also show that the $375,000 dowry claim on the property — not $385,000 as Miller alleged — was paid by the estate, not by the county.

Miller and Francis have a long history of animosity, as alluded to by Francis in closing his email.

“I’ve seen you struggle with accounting and legal issues for over a decade, as the County at no time paid $385,000 as you stated or the correct amount of $375,000 to Ferguson as that was paid by the estate of William Lucius Jones. The County did not pay any attorney fees in the amount of $106,000 or the actual amount of $36,376 as that was paid by the estate of William Lucius Jones as well. There are no expenses in 2007,” Francis said. “Goodness gracious, the rabbit hole is closed.”

Bookstore

Frances FIGART

Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church is a canonical Eastern Orthodox Church meeting in Waynesville. Our services are in English, all are welcome to worship with us, and we have a special outreach to the poor and the lost, and to those who seek to love God by loving others.

A dump truck spreads dirt on the Jonathan Creek parcel in January, 2018.

Cory Vaillancourt photo

Defamation suit filed in North Carolina against Colorado congresswoman Lauren Boebert

BY C ORY VAILLANCOURT

P OLITICS E DITOR

American Muckrakers, the North Carolina political action committee that has hounded Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-Henderson) throughout his tenure, filed suit in North Carolina today against Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) for defamation and malicious prosecution, alleging the controversial congresswoman made damaging statements to radio and television host Sean Hannity and others about the PAC and one of its members.

“Our PAC and I are going to finally hold Boebert accountable,” said David Wheeler, co-plaintiff and president of American Muckrakers. “We look forward to seeing Boebert in a North Carolina court room and a conference room for a deposition.”

In June, the PAC published scandalous allegations against Boebert, accusing the Christian conservative of formerly being an unregistered escort, and of having had two abortions — allegations, according to the lawsuit, that Wheeler and American Muckrakers believe to be true.

The four-count lawsuit alleges that Boebert told Hannity days later that there was no evidence to back up Wheeler’s claims, that the claims are false and that

Wheeler knew the claims were false when he published them. Boebert also threatened legal action, called Wheeler a “hack” and blamed “radical Democrats” for an effort to remove her from office.

Boebert made similar claims to a reporter at the Washington Examiner, and to television entertainer Tomi Lahren.

According to Wheeler’s suit, the PAC suffered a 92% decrease in fundraising revenues following Boebert’s comments, dropping from an average of $20,000 a month to around $3,800 a month.

Wheeler is a resident of North Carolina, and asserts in the suit that the Mitchell County courtroom is a proper venue for the proceedings not only due to his residency, but also due to Boebert’s activity in the state, including a September appearance in Charlotte.

The suit, filed in Mitchell County Superior Court, asks for damages in excess of $25,000.

The press release regarding the suit, along with other actions taken by Wheeler against Boebert, can be found on the American Muckrakers website.

An email from The Smoky Mountain News to Boebert’s media representative wasn’t returned.

Ingles Nutrition Notes

written by Ingles Dietitian Leah McGrath

WHEN WEIGHT LOSS CAN BE A SERIOUS ISSUE

Unplanned weight loss any time in our lives may be a signal of illness and should be addressed with a primary care physician. For older adults, unplanned weight loss may cause a variety of problems:

• Result in weakness and problems with balance, putting someone at greater risk for falls.

• Compromise the immune system making it easier to get sick or have a harder time recovering from illness or surgery.

• Result in dehydration causing urinary and kidney problems, affects blood pressure and heart rate.

One of the side effects of Covid19 and other viruses can be loss of taste and smell and parosmia (changes in taste and smell) that may last long periods of time and result in unintentional weight loss. Please keep an eye on older friends, neighbors, and family members and look for signs that they may be unintentionally losing weight:

• Clothing seems more baggy and ill-fitting

• Complaints that “nothing tastes good” or they have “no appetite”.

• Reduced physical activity or unwillingness to be physically active citing they have no energy.

• Observed poor food and beverage intake or refuses foods and beverages when offered.

Source:

Leah McGrath, RDN, LDN Ingles Market Corporate Dietitian

@InglesDietitian Leah McGrath - Dietitian

Rep. Lauren Boebert appears to be in a tight reelection battle this year. Wikipedia photo

Boys and men walk in pairs on the grounds of the Cherokee Boarding School on the Qualla Boundary.

Library/WCU photo

Away from home

Indian boarding schools leave lasting legacy

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF W RITER

Mary Smith Sneed was just four or five years old the day a wagon rolled up as she played outside near the family home at Mingo Falls. The wagon stopped, and a Cherokee man named John Crowe greeted her. Crowe, who also happened to be a truant officer employed by the Cherokee Boarding School, invited her to get in the wagon.

“Without looking for her mom, who was doing her own work, they just took her on the wagon and took her to school,” Roseanna Belt, Mary Sneed’s daughter, said during a Sept. 29 talk on the Indian Boarding School experience at Western Carolina University’s Rooted in the Mountains Symposium, which she gave together with her sister Sarah Sneed.

The school was only 10 or 12 miles away from Mary’s home at Mingo Falls, but it may as well have been 100 miles. It was right around 1920 in Western North Carolina — roads were rough, automobiles uncommon, and travel slow.

The transition to boarding school was a terrifying experience for Mary, a small child who spoke only Cherokee and was used to sleeping in a trundle bed, curled up with her pet chicken. At Cherokee Boarding School, the children slept in tidy, white-sheeted beds arranged in straight rows. The first time Mary was served macaroni for dinner, she vomited all over the other students— she’d never seen macaroni before, and to her it looked like worms. Speaking Cherokee was a punishable offense.

“I also remember her telling me that she had her mouth washed out with soap when

she was caught speaking Cherokee,” Belt said, “How in the world could a 4 or 5 year old learn English overnight?”

ERASURE AS THE AIM

Mary Sneed’s experience was far from unique. Over the course of the federal government’s century-long effort to “kill the Indian, and save the man,” it was the rule — not the exception — for Native American children.

“It’s a bad story,” said Pam Meister, director of WCU’s Mountain Heritage Center. “It’s a horrible story. It was fueled by greed.”

An exhibit on display at the Mountain Heritage Center through Oct. 20 tells that story in detail, using words, photos, artifacts, audio and art to help visitors understand what the Indian Boarding Schools were, why they existed and what happened

A chair like the ones where Native children would have their hair cut off upon arrival to boarding school (left) is an anchor of the exhibit on display at WCU’s Mountain Heritage Center through Oct. 20. Holly Kays photos

inside their walls. Titled “Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Stories,” it’s a traveling exhibit adapted from a permanent display at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, its arrival at WCU made possible by NEH on the road, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The boarding school movement began in the late 1800s, but in her presentation Sept. 29 Sarah Sneed began all the way back in the 1400s, when European explorers first began arriving in North America and observed the “doctrine of discovery” when dealing with the land’s native inhabitants. That doctrine, Sarah Sneed said, stipulated that inhabitants could remain on the land for the duration of their lives but could not pass it down to their children — once they died or abandoned the land, the title was clear for the colonizing nation to take possession.

See the exhibit

“Away from Home: American Indian Boarding School Stories,” remains on display at the Mountain Heritage Center at Western Carolina University through Thursday, Oct. 20.

This traveling exhibit was adapted from the permanent exhibition at the Heard Museum in Phoenix. Its arrival at WCU is made possible by NEH on the Road, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Mountain Heritage Center is located in the Hunter Library Building at 176 Central Drive in Cullowhee and open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, as well as noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15. Admission is free and special tours for groups are available with advance notice. For more information, call 828. 227.7129.

When the United States of America was formed, that philosophy gave way to “Civilization Policy,” an idea put forth by President George Washington that prevailed through 1830. Washington’s motto was “expansion with honor.” This meant that the United States would foster a government-togovernment relationship with Native Americans — with the ultimate goal of acquiring their land. Washington’s government undertook an effort to “civilize” tribal nations, promoting domestic work like weaving for women and farming for men.

“It flipped traditional Cherokee society on its head, where the women farmed and the men took care of activities outside the home,” Sarah Sneed said.

But the Cherokee adapted to the federal government’s demand, she said, shifting their traditional lifestyles to become the “yeoman farmers” the U.S. government desired. Then Andrew Jackson became president, ushering in the era of removal.

Jackson’s actions would cause tens of thousands of Native Americans, including the Cherokee, to be forced from their homelands and along the Trail of Tears to barren reservations out west. Thousands died along the way.

Thus began allotment policy, under which the boarding school era began. This policy focused on

breaking reservations into allotments granted to individual tribal members — a typical method of land use in European culture, but not in native ones. The policy was fueled by the idea that if Native Americans adopted “white” lifestyles, they would assimilate into the prevailing culture, relieving the federal government of the need to oversee Indian welfare.

This idea dovetailed nicely with the philosophy espoused by Richard Henry Pratt, the U.S. Army officer who founded the infamous Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania. Over the course of his career, during which he worked closely with the regiment’s Indian scouts and was tasked with maintaining order on government Indian reservations, Pratt developed a sympathy for Native Americans and their plight. He eventually concluded that assimilation was their only option for survival, birthing the nowinfamous rallying cry of “kill the Indian, save the man.”

LIFE AT BOARDING SCHOOL

Carlisle Indian School opened in 1879 in a building that originally served as an army barracks. Over the next 40 years, more than 10,000 children from more than 142 Indian nations would attend — and not by choice. Uniformed police would forcibly remove children from their homes. Authorities would coerce parents and kidnap children to maintain enrollment numbers, placing them on trains bound for strictly regimented schools hundreds or even a thousand miles away from home.

Once they got there, their hair would be cut — something that in many Native cultures is a sign of mourning or cowardice — and their traditional clothes confiscated in exchange for Western-style uniforms. They’d be given new, English names, and forbidden from speaking their native language — for most, the only language they knew.

“Then they were sent to dormitories and divided up by age and by gender,” said Meister. “So even if you were with a sibling, you wouldn’t be with them. You were totally, totally cut off.”

Life at the boarding schools — especially early in the movement — often had a military flavor, with uniformed children marching in formation as they moved through the day’s structured schedule. A boarding school schedule on display at the Mountain Heritage Center gives the outline for a typical Monday, starting at 6 a.m. with the rising bell and reveille and ending at 9:30 p.m. with taps and lights out. In between, students participated in school, band rehearsal, work, religious instruction, roll call and prayers.

“There was a feeling that, we are going to teach you to drill because that’s just the right thing to do, and then we’re going to give you a trade, and forget about trying to be a doctor or a lawyer or anything like that,” said Meister. “We’d like you to be a carpenter or a housekeeper, or those sorts of things.”

Children suffered horribly from the boarding school experience. Aside from the trauma of separation from family, language and homeland, health conditions at Indian

schools in the late 1800s and early 1900s were deadly.

The schools were overcrowded, the diet poor, conditions unsanitary. In the late 1800s, hundreds of students died from communicable diseases like tuberculosis and influenza. In 1915, the rate of tuberculosis at boarding schools was nearly four times the non-Indian rate, and three out of 10 students had a contagious eye infection called trachoma, according to the exhibit.

Nearly every school had its own graveyard.

Schools also had their own jails, and one of their functions was to confine students who attempted to run away — a frequent occurrence. Chilocco Indian School had a standing agreement with the local police department, offering bounties for captured students that ranged from $1.50 to $5.

At Fort Mojave Indian School in Arizona, a group of kindergarteners tried to run away, got caught, and were imprisoned in the jail. Their classmates then went outside,

found a dead tree to use as a battering ram, and freed their imprisoned classmates. They all ran away together, though they were later caught once more.

Freedom and capture were not the only outcomes of students’ escape attempts. Others died of exposure as a result of their attempts to flee. A painting on display at the exhibit commemorates an 11-year-old girl who died alone, despite being very close to home when the elements overpowered her.

In the later decades of the boarding school era, which stretched into the 1970s, conditions did get better. Enrollment was more often by choice than coercion, health conditions improved, and the establishments became less militaristic, offering expanded educational opportunities and extracurricular programs like clubs and athletic teams.

This was partially due to the increasing numbers of former boarding school gradu-

Students sketch during an art class at Carlisle Indian School, around 1901. Cumberland County Historical Society photo

A group of people watch a blowgun dart move toward a target during a blowgun competition on the grounds of the Cherokee Boarding School on the Qualla Boundary. Hunter Library/WCU photo

“The ones that really were academically inclined left the boarding schools and sought higher education, then came back and said, ‘Okay, we’re going to run boarding schools now and change them,’” Meister said.

Mary Sneed and her sister Rose S. Curley were two such students.

Mary Sneed spent most of her career as an instructional aide and counselor at the Intermountain Indian School in Utah, where Rose was an administrator. However, their shared ancestry didn’t mean they always agreed about exactly how the boarding school experience should change.

“In the 1960s when Mom worked there, she filed a complaint with the ACLU because cutting of hair with a restrained student was a continued disciplinary practice at Intermountain School,” Sarah Sneed said. “And so she filed a complaint with the ACLU and they took the complaint on.”

However, said Sarah Sneed, Rose wasn’t happy about that.

“They were both products of this school program. They were both successful. They were also sisters,” she said. “So naturally disagreements arise at times.”

SCHOOL IN CHEROKEE

Like her siblings Roseanna and Woody Sneed, Sarah Sneed would go on to earn a post-graduate degree at Harvard University. She became a lawyer, but also a student of the boarding school experience, and its impact on the people from whom she descended.

In 2008, she interviewed more than 30 Cherokee elders about their experiences in the boarding school system, and what she heard surprised her.

“The people of my mom’s generation said without exception that they are grateful to the Cherokee boarding school,” she said.

In 2017, Beloved Man Jerry Wolfe, who was Mary’s half-brother and passed away in 2018, told The Smoky Mountain News that he credited boarding school with teaching him the marching skills that caused him to succeed in the U.S. Navy upon his enlistment during World War II. He was reticent to criticize what had to have been an extremely difficult experience.

“The discipline part was so rugged, but to look at it in the way that they were, they were trying to teach us so we could learn English, to get the Cherokee language out of the way. They wanted us to speak English language because that’s what was used nationwide,” Wolfe said.

Nevertheless, he allowed, “they didn’t have to punish us like that.”

“They shouldn’t have tried to make us stop using our language, because that’s our language,” he said. “And so the federal government were going at it in the wrong way.”

That’s the type of perspective the Cherokee elders often adopt, Sarah Sneed said.

“Those beautiful Cherokee elders, none

of them is the type of person, or was the type of person, who wanted to dwell on the negative,” she said.

Though most of the stories they told her were “sweet and interesting,” Sarah Sneed

said, she’s heard rumblings of a dark side. Someone once told her there was a case of sexual assault at the school, and she recently learned that one of her relatives died there — a cousin said the boy had been stabbed.

“Those kinds of stories never came up in the interviews that I did,” she said. “It could have been so traumatic for children that as elders they wouldn’t want to talk about those things. You just don’t know.”

It’s also true that the experience at Cherokee Boarding School would have been less isolating than at major off-reservation schools like Carlisle or Albuquerque. Children from diverse tribes traveled hundreds of miles from home to attend these schools, with many of them never returning. The schools typically hired them out during summer and holiday breaks rather than encouraging family visits.

By contrast, Wolfe said he’d go home to Sherrill Cove over the summer, and for Christmas and Thanksgiving breaks. The school was located not in some distant city but in the heart of Cherokee, and starting in 1914 the Cherokee Indian Fair was held each year on fairgrounds adjacent to school property. According to an exhibit at the Mountain Heritage Center, boarding school students likely participated in the blowgun, archery and stickball events offered as regular features of the fair.

PAST IN THE PRESENT

The boarding schools are all gone now, at least in their original form. Some of them, like Haskell Indian Nations University — formerly U.S. Indian Industrial Training School — survive as institutions of higher learning. But gone are the rigid rows of dormitory beds, the mandatory haircuts, the beatings, the ban on Native languages.

The legacy, however, remains. Sarah Sneed sees it in the social problems roiling tribal communities today, and in the vanished and vanishing Native languages. Despite widespread enthusiasm about learning the Cherokee language, the number of fluent speakers gets smaller with each passing month — not larger.

“You had children who were not raised

by their parents, and if that is not a potential source of grief and trauma, I can’t imagine what would qualify,” she said. “That kind of grief and trauma was a matter of federal law. The source was federal law.”

The boarding school era was a harsh one for Native communities, but like any resilient culture does, they capitalized on the opportunities it presented even as they handled the harm. The schools gave children from families living on far-flung rural allotments the opportunity to get an education, to receive knowledge in a language the prevailing culture would understand. Many of them left these schools to become leaders and changemakers in ways they would not have been able had the schools not existed.

Separated from their families, they formed lifelong bonds with their classmates and forged a common Native culture to speak across 574 nations now represented on the roster of federally recognized tribes.

Mary Sneed, who passed away in 2011 at the age of 95, spent her final years of life at Tsali Care Center in Cherokee. When she was admitted, she “immediately fell in” with another resident, a woman who had been her classmate when they were both kindergarteners at Cherokee Boarding School, Sarah Sneed said. The woman, whose name was also Sarah, looked after Mary Sneed as her mental state declined. If Mary’s sweater was unbuttoned, Sarah would wheel herself over and button it up.

“That was an effect that Cherokee Boarding School had on this community, that kind of lifelong kinship and concern for one another,” Sarah Sneed said.

It’s hard, she said, to hold it all in tension — the trauma, the pain and the cultural erasure the boarding schools brought, together with the kinship they fostered and the opportunity for achievement they unlocked. By highlighting the silver linings, do you ignore the raincloud? It’s a question that looms in Sarah Sneed’s mind anytime she talks about the boarding school era.

“It’s human nature, to succeed and to be happy, and to be happy for people who succeed,” she said. “And boarding school students achieved that. But let’s not forget what all they had to overcome in order to achieve

Tom Torlino, a Navajo. looked markedly different at his entrance to the Carlisle Indian School in 1882 compared to 1885, after three years at the school. Cumberland County Historical Society photos

The student body of the Carlisle Indian School gathers in March 1892.

Cumberland County Historical Society photo

Chief Sneed to

re-election

BY HOLLY KAYS

STAFF W RITER

Just four days after the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ election season officially began, Principal Chief Richard Sneed announced his intention to seek reelection.

The one-minute video, posted to Sneed’s official Facebook page Tuesday, Oct. 4, cites his leadership team’s “solid record and many victories to stand upon” and asks voters who want “principled leadership for the Principal People” to support him for chief in 2023.

“It’s time for our people, the Principal People, to take charge, stake our claim and show this region, this state, and this country that we are still here, and we are a force to be reckoned with,” he says in the video. “It’s time to show them who we are and what we are made of and how we lead.”

September 2023 is a major election for the EBCI, in which the offices of principal chief and vice chief, all 12 Tribal Council seats and three School Board seats will be up for election. Sneed is seeking his second full four-year term in office, but so far he has served more than five years as principal chief.

Sneed was first elected in 2015 as vice chief but was sworn in as principal chief following the May 2017 impeachment and removal of former Principal Chief Patrick Lambert. He won a decisive electoral victory in 2019, receiving 55.1% of the vote

against opponent Teresa McCoy and securing a majority in every community save McCoy’s home of Big Cove.

Filing for the 2023 election doesn’t start until Monday, March 6, so there is still plenty of time for additional candidates to announce their intentions. A Primary Election Thursday, June 1, 2023, will whittle the list of candidates down to two per seat, with a General Election Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023, determining the winners.

Principal Chief Richard Sneed.

photo

Reluctant politicking

Supreme Court candidates navigate partisan campaigning and judicial integrity

BY KYLE P ERROTTI N EWS E DITOR

They may be the most consequential races in North Carolina this year, yet most people don’t even know who’s running.

North Carolina Supreme Court races aren’t traditionally on voters’ collective radar, but as the public has begun viewing the courts as more politicized, and with all that may be at stake in the coming years, those on the bench and those in the two major parties are doing what they can to bring the elections to the fore.

There are two associate justice seats open on the seven-person court in 2022. Right now, Democrats control four of the seven seats, but the party needs to win both elections to maintain that advantage. But as Election Day nears, Republicans are looking more like they’ll end up flipping the court by winning at least one of the two seats.

A recent WRAL poll had both Republican candidates up on their Democratic opponents (although one race is within the margin of error), but they both also had a substantial

percentage of undecided voters at 24-31%. So while it seems Republicans may have an advantage, there’s still plenty of hope for Democrats to retain the majority.

And there’s reason for the parties to fight as hard as they can to win over undecided voters. Given the political gravity of some of the cases recently heard by the court, shifting that balance could be pivotal for Republicans, who are highly likely to maintain control of the House and Senate and may even gain a veto-proof supermajority.

But with how many crucial political cases may be on the line in the coming years and candidates now running partisan races, the question many are asking is this: are the courts becoming too politicized?

The North Carolina Code of Judicial Conduct prohibits judges from weighing in on the “merits of a pending proceeding” in any court regarding a case that involves any North Carolina law at all. This means that in their interviews with The Smoky Mountain News, candidates didn’t speak on specific issues. However, they did offer insight into their backgrounds, their philosophies and their reasons for seeking a seat on the state’s highest court. Here’s a look at the candidates.

Justice Robin E. Hudson, who has held it since 2007 but is nearing age 72, at which point state law dictates she must retire.

The Democrat running to replace Hudson is Lucy Inman.

Inman’s love for the court was cultivated during her first, brief career as a print reporter, which led her to cover the cops and courts beat.

“It gave me, a young woman, not just permission but responsibility to ask questions of all kinds of people — powerful people, not powerful people,” she said.

Lucy Inman

began thinking about a spot on the bench when her law school classmate and now Congresswoman Deborah Ross encouraged her to run for a judge’s seat. After applying for multiple vacant Superior Court seats, she was appointed to one by Gov. Bev Perdue in 2010.

In 2014, she won a seat on the Court of Appeals. January 2019 marked the midpoint in Inman’s term on the Court of Appeals, and it’s also the month that Chief Justice Mark Martin announced he was retiring. While Inman didn’t consider seeking that appointment, once Cheri Beasley was appointed to that seat, an associate chief justice seat opened up. Inman decided to make a run for the seat in the 2020 election, but ultimately lost to Republican Phil Berger Jr. by a narrow margin.

Richard Dietz

Inman decided to go to law school, and her first job after graduating in 1980 was clerking at the North Carolina Supreme Court under Chief Justice James G. Exum. When Inman’s husband went to graduate school in Los Angeles in 1992, she accompanied him and took a job with a firm where she handled commercial civil litigation and First Amendment work.

But in 2000, Inman was called back to the Tarheel State and as early as 2006, she

“I didn’t feel like I had been denied a position that I was entitled to,” she said. “I love my work at the Court of Appeals. I took some time to do nothing but shore up all my work at Court of Appeals and reconnect with my family and those things you do after a tough election.”

It wasn’t long before she decided to give it another go and announced her candidacy once Hudson said publicly that she wouldn’t seek reelection.

Inman’s opponent for the soon-to-bevacated seat is Republican Richard Dietz.

Dietz is from the mountains of Central

Pennsylvania but attended Wake Forest Law School, after which he clerked under a U.S. District Court judge in West Virginia. After spending some time in Washington, D.C., he began practicing in North Carolina, becoming a partner at Winston-Salem’s Kilpatrick, Townsend & Stockton, where he handled high-profile, complex appellate cases. Along with writing briefs and researching case law, Dietz said he spent much of his time “up at the podium answering judges’ questions.”

“When you do that for your whole career, for a lot of appellate lawyers, it’s the dream to put on the robe and decide these cases,” he said.

In 2014, as Dietz was coming off arguing Abramski v. United States, a prominent gun control case, in front of the United States Supreme Court, Gov. Pat McCrory appointed him to the Court of Appeals to fill a vacancy. Dietz said the appointment felt natural given his established history handling appellate cases. He successfully defended his seat in 2016.

Something Dietz prides himself on that he’s repeated on the campaign trail is his record of having never authored a dissent while on the Court of Appeals. Court of Appeals cases are heard by three-judge panels, and consensus is never a guarantee. However, dissent may be more likely on the seven-person Supreme Court.

“There are more voices, but the skill is the same,” Dietz said. “It really doesn’t matter how many people are part of the group to persuade, it’s about collaborating.”

SEAT 5

The only incumbent in either race is Sam Ervin IV, a Democrat who has held a spot on the Supreme Court since winning a seat in 2014.

It’d be fair to say donning the robe is in Ervin’s blood. His grandfather was a judge before becoming a U.S. Senator, his father was a state and federal judge for about 30 years and his brother is a sitting Superior Court judge.

Ervin, who knew from a young age that he was interested in public service, said his decision to become a judge was directly influenced by his father. However, it was also influenced by his time with the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, which he said operates quite a bit like a court that handles complex cases.

“It gave me some exposure to what being a judge is like,” he said. “I enjoyed being on the Utilities Commission very much, but … I wanted to get back in, for lack of a better word, the regular court system, and ran for the Court of Appeals for that reason in 2008.”

Ervin won that race and began his appellate career.

In addition to being interested in the kinds of cases that come before the state Supreme Court, Ervin thought his talents might serve the state’s highest court well. Along with being able to digest a tremendous amount of written material, weeding out invalid arguments and understanding the law, he also mentioned his ability to work collaboratively to build consensus.

“You have take what other folks say into

account, hopefully persuade them of the merits of your positions, and try to come up with the best decision you can collectively,” he said. “So an appellate judge has to have the ability to work with others, in addition to doing all these other things.”

With that in mind, Ervin ran and won a seat on the Supreme Court in 2014.

This go-round, Ervin is facing off against Trey Allen to retain his seat.

Allen, the only candidate tested with a primary race, had a strong showing back in May. Allen, who’d never previously run for any elected office, said he’s learned a lot about the campaign process as he’s traveled the state and talked to voters.

“It’s been really encouraging to meet so many good people across North Carolina who care about the future of our state and the future of our courts,” he said.

Allen cut his teeth as a Marine Corps Judge Advocate General and deployed to Iraq. He is currently the general counsel for the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Court (AOC), which is charged with running the judicial system statewide. Prior to assuming his role with AOC, Allen was an associate professor of public law and government at University of North Carolina’s School of Government.

Although Allen is the only candidate for either seat who doesn’t have any time on the bench, he feels his experience in academia will translate well, especially given the unique role the School of Government plays.

“Local governments and judges turn to faculty for unbiased legal opinions,” he said, adding that he felt he worked well with his colleagues despite his conservative views putting him in the political minority. “We all had the same commitment to giving our best assessment of what the law was with regard to any issue brought to us.”

Allen has never sought a spot on the bench or run for any other elected office. But as he began to consider what that might look like, he said he had “lots of people” urge him to run for the Supreme Court, and with that encouragement, he felt that would be his best step forward. But he added that he felt even a stronger pull.

“I appreciate their encouragement, but the primary reason is the Supreme Court is where the real problem is now,” he said. The problem I have in mind is the problem of political judgments, or at least what are perceived by the public as political judgments.”

POLITICS AND THE BENCH

Last week, The Assembly published a story titled “The Most Important Election You Know Nothing About” that posed two broad questions: Are our courts too politicized? And is there a better way to decide who

becomes a judge than partisan elections? The in-depth story quotes Rep. Joe John, a Wake County Democrat who introduced a bill to again make judicial elections nonpartisan.

“I strongly feel that it is just wholly inconsistent to expect judges to be fair, objective, impartial, etc., on the one hand, and then, on the other, require them to conduct themselves as partisan politicians,” John, a former Court of Appeals judge, said in that story. “As the kids say, does not compute.”

The move to partisan races happened in 2017 when the Republican supermajority in the General Assembly overrode Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto to enact the law. Dr. Bobbi Richardson is currently the chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, but when that bill was passed she was a member of the General Assembly.

“It was very disappointing, and it was also a very visible show of power,” she said.

Western North Carolina University’s Chris Cooper, who heads up that school’s Political Science department, had an opinion on exactly when things changed for Republicans.

“Mike Morgan’s election shocked a lot of Republicans,” he said. “Morgan is an African American Democrat who won under a nonpartisan ballot in some counties where that seemed to be unlikely. That was the moment the Republican Party decided to switch to partisan.”

Currently, North Carolina is one of seven states to run partisan judicial elections. Add to this the fact that public trust in both the United States Supreme Court and state supreme courts has fallen, and it’s clear that the judiciary is facing a crisis of perception.

The courts’ politicization has increasingly been a topic of conversation for a few years now but has heated up even more over the last year. At the heart of some of those conversations have been Justice Phil Berger Jr., still early in his term, who endorsed Allen in his primary. Likewise, North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby also voiced his support for Allen in a tweet that was not technically an endorsement. This prompted an ethical debate among those interested in the integrity of the bench.

While some argued the support Allen received in the primary pushed the envelope, there’s no doubt the General Election is looking more like a full-on political campaign. The super PAC Results for NC, Inc., which is tied to Sen. Thom Tillis, amid a slew of pin-pointed donations, bolstered Republican Supreme Court candidates with donations of $5,600. In addition, former Rep. Mark Walker launched winthecourts.com, a website that supports Republican candidates for the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court. Walker has occasionally promoted the effort on social media, showing off a bus bearing the likeness of each candidate on its exterior.

And while the most recent round of fundraising data isn’t available until later this month, the numbers so far are up across the board compared to what’s typically seen.

“It used to be state Supreme Court races didn’t have a lot of money behind them. They

weren’t divorced from politics, but they were to the side of normal politics,” Cooper said.

“Those days are over.”

Bob Orr spent much of his career practicing law in Western North Carolina before serving as an appellate judge and eventually an Associate Supreme Court justice from 1995-2004. Orr said the state has seen judicial races change significantly over recent years as they’ve become more politicized.

Orr also noted that the uptick in challenges to legislation that have come before the court has also increased the number of cases that are perceived as political.

“It’s hard not to evaluate a politically charged piece of litigation, whether that’s redistricting, voter ID, or separation of powers,” Orr said.

In his NC Tribune, Colin Campbell opined that even before he opened the court’s ruling on a legal challenge to two 2018 constitutional amendments, he knew how each justice would rule. Likewise, Mitch Kokai from the conservative Carolina Journal wrote about how frequent party-line decisions have become. Orr noted that with the way the conversation is going, with so many fervent debates over whether the courts are politicized, at some point, that may just become a “self-fulfilling prophecy.”

“The media is a contributing factor, whether it’s mainstream or ideological media,” he said. “The more you categorize a decision as politically driven, the more the public accepts that they are politically motivated decisions.”

THE STRATEGISTS’ TAKE

Richardson, in her role as state Democratic Party chair, understands the strategic importance of judicial races. As her party’s candidates are down slightly in the limited polling available, she said Democrats are fighting to keep the majority on the Supreme Court.

“We are committed to making sure our judicial branch is covered, and we have put resources toward them and developed a yearround organizing program,” she said.

Richardson noted that it’s tough to compare the work put in on a national campaign like Cheri Beasley’s Senate run to a state Supreme Court race because the national race draws fundraising efforts from far and wide, which leads to far more resources. All the same, Richardson said she features Ervin and Inman at any statewide event she can. At a “Building the Blue” block party two Saturdays ago, there were plenty of candidates that did not talk — but both Ervin and Inman did. Richardson said the party also has a staffer assigned to the judicial candidates to make sure the party is up to speed on what those campaigns need.

“We’re working hard, even if it may not seem like it,” she said. “Of course, we don’t have competitive money to keep them on the air all the time, but we are going to put all the resources we can, some will be people knocking on doors, making phone calls and texting.”

Trey Allen

Sam Ervin IV

NCGOP Chairman Michael Whatley described his party’s strategy and the importance he has placed on judicial races since he took up his role in 2019. Whatley, who has a law degree and clerked for a federal judge in Charlotte for a time, noted that when he stepped up to chair the party, Democrats held a 6-1 majority on the court.

“Literally the first meeting I had as party chair was with Paul Newby to talk about our Supreme Court races and what kind of a campaign we needed to put together to win our statewide judicial races,” Whatley said.

“What we did was two things,” he added. “First, we put all of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals candidates together as a slate. We want to build brand recognition as conservative judges because North Carolina voters overwhelmingly support conservative judges over activist judges.”

The party also created the Judicial Victory Fund, which Whatley said invested $1.2 million into judicial races in the 2020 cycle, which brought Newby a narrow victory over Beasley for the Chief Justice seat.

In his interview with SMN, Chris Cooper said a problem in what are generally lowinformation races is simply ensuring voters get to know candidates so they can make informed decisions, adding that he’s encountered plenty of folks who don’t understand that North Carolina Supreme Court races are state and not federal and that their job is to apply the law is it pertains to the North Carolina Constitution.

“People don’t know a lot about these candidates still, despite the fact we may see record sums spent,” Cooper said. “Your average voter couldn’t pick any of these candidates out of a lineup.”

Cooper believes that means the national parties’ “moods” will take an outsized role. And in a midterm election which typically favors the party not holding the White House, that could be bad news for Democrats, who are already behind in polling.

Despite what may be a built-in advantage for Republicans this year, Whatley said he’s still doing what he can to ensure interested voters know the party’s judicial candidates.

“What we want to do is build recognition for the conservative judges slate because that will have a chance to break through,” he said. “Also, we are working hard with all 100 county parties to get them to push judicial slate cards and highlight the judicial candidates at their party events.”

Whatley said winning judicial races is one of NCGOP’s highest priorities, if not its highest, and if that means using the advantages that may present themselves due to these being partisan races, so be it. After all, you have the play the game to the best of your ability under the current rules, no matter what those may be.

CANDIDATES’ CONCERNS

While candidates’ commercials for any office tend to either hammer their oppo-

nent or convey a message they know will resonate with their base, Lucy Inman went a different direction. Her ad shows the different “hats” justices wear — judge, truth seeker, referee — all black and white. Then she shows the hats justices should never wear — a red MAGA hat and blue “Joe” hat. The message was simple; Inman was appealing to voters who perceive the courts have been politicized by simply saying she wouldn’t go along to get along.

Inman acknowledged she’s a lifelong Democrat, but she added that she’s never been too active in the party. And it seemed like that’s the way she wished it could still be. She fondly recalled running in 2014 when her Court of Appeals race was nonpartisan and she could have the ear of all voters, donors and potential endorsements.

But after running a partisan race in 2020, she said it’s hard to gain that same kind of traction with folks who harbor different beliefs.

“When it was changed to partisan, asking someone of a different political party to support your campaign comes off a little bit like asking someone to cheat on their spouse or be disloyal,” she said.

Inman and the other judges all firmly said they would rule based on their interpretation of the law and not their political party or what may conform with anyone else’s agenda. In addition, while the candidates can’t express what they feel toward certain issues, three of four openly lamented the partisan judicial elections.

Dietz said campaigning in a partisan judicial election puts more of a spotlight on those candidates within their own parties.

In this tweet, Chief Justice Paul Newby expressed his support for Trey Allen but didn’t technically offer an endorsement.

“The Public sometimes looks at judges as candidates and says ‘this person seems to be on a political mission. They’re hanging around with politicians and that sort of thing.’ Then when the candidates become a judges and rule, the public has that perception,” Dietz said. “The whole point of judges is that we can’t do that. In every case, we set aside our personal views and look at the case fresh.”

Dietz, calling back to the fact he hasn’t authored a dissent in his time on the Court of Appeals, said the nature of recent decisions and the way some majority opinions and dissents have been written like “they’re shouting at each other” can create greater public skepticism of the courts. This can lead to an erosion of trust toward a body that must be perceived as independent.

“I think that over the last year or two, I have encountered more voters who have said the courts seem so political,” Dietz

said. “I don’t remember it being like this in the past.”

While Dietz spoke about how the political process may harm people’s perception of the court, Allen didn’t go quite that far. He agreed there’s reason to be concerned about the erosion of trust but believes there are pluses and minuses to both partisan and nonpartisan judicial elections.

“One plus is that party affiliation gives voters at least some additional information about some judicial candidates to the extent they associate certain party labels with certain judicial philosophy,” he said.

Along with some states having nonpartisan judicial elections or merit selections, some other states only fill spots on the bench by appointment. But Allen believes judicial elections are a good method of picking judges since it allows voters to hold them accountable at the ballot box.

“It’s not a perfect system by any means,”

he said. “But there needs to be some mechanism of accountability.”

Ervin said that since he’s been on the court, the number of split decisions has noticeably risen. He added that part of the way to defeat the politicization narrative is to work well and be collegial with colleagues, even while disagreeing. Either way, he said he tends to find common ground and avoid dissenting.

“I haven’t done the math, but I suspect that I’ve probably been in majority, as much, if not more than anybody else on court during my time in office,” he said.

Ervin said that while there has always been interest from the parties in judicial elections, their level of involvement has intensified.

“You’re involved in activities that you probably wouldn’t have been, in the sense of getting invited to things and getting information for canvassers,” he said. “I don’t remember being the case in the past.”

Ervin shared the overall concern many have. Whether or not justices are ruling in ways that would advance their party’s agenda, the perception alone is damaging. He said it’s understandable that the average voter would believe judges are more political based on the partisan elections alone. Ultimately, he has a fear similar to Orr’s.

“I’m concerned that over time that decision is going to make judges look more political,” he said. “And if that perception develops, I don’t see how there is any likelihood that it would not impair public confidence in the courts. I haven’t done a study of survey data to see what the status of the situation is now, but I’m very concerned that the continued use of this new method for electing judges will impair the concreteness of the court.”

ON THE LINE

Democrats and Republicans both seem to understand how much is at stake when it comes to protecting their values — and agendas — through the courts. Richardson said she understands how important these Supreme Court seats are for her party, saying hypothetically that she could see controversial bills like HB-2 getting upheld in a Republican-majority court.

“Those rights can be protected as well if we do not elect the right people,” she said.

Richardson noted that with the Dobbs decision, more restrictive abortion laws are likely to end up before the state’s highest court. Through the Dobbs decision, the United States Supreme Court overturned the precedent established in Roe v. Wade that constitutionally guaranteed a woman’s right to an abortion.

In-person early voting begins next week

BY C ORY VAILLANCOURT

P OLITICS E DITOR

The General Election will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 8, but in-person early voting will take place beginning Thursday, Oct 20.

Through Saturday, Nov. 5, sites across Western North Carolina will be open to those who want to cast their ballots in advance of Election Day. No reason is needed for those who wish to use what is called “In-Person Absentee Voting” or “One-Stop Absentee Voting,” and voters can alternatively make their selections by mail as well.

To vote early, voters must appear at the designated early voting site in their home county between those dates. Most voters don’t need to show identification, but those who are voting for the first time or the first time in a new residence might, so it’s probably best just to bring it along just in case.

Vote-by-mail ballots are currently available through Tuesday, Nov. 1. Request yours by calling your county board of elections office, or by visiting ncsbe.gov/voting/votemail.

The last day to register to vote or to change party affiliation is Friday, Oct. 14. To check your registration, find your polling place — some may have changed — or view all the races you’re eligible to vote in, visit vt.ncsbe.gov/RegLkup.

EARLY VOTING LOCATIONS

Haywood County

Haywood County Senior Resource Center, 81 Elmwood Way; Canton Public Library, 11 Pennsylvania Ave.; Clyde Town Hall, 8437 Carolina Blvd. All locations open from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 5. To request an

absentee ballot, call the Haywood County Board of Elections at 828.452.6633.

Jackson County Jackson County Board of Elections, 876 Skyland Drive, open 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 29, and Saturday, Nov. 5; Cashiers Recreation Center, 355 Frank Allen Road, open 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 29, and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 5; Cullowhee Recreation Center, 88 Cullowhee Mountain Road, open 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 29, and Saturday, Nov. 5; Qualla Community Building, 181 Shoal Creek Church Loop, open 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 29, and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 5; Western Carolina University, 245 Memorial Drive, open 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 29, and Saturday, Nov. 5. To request an absentee ballot, call the Jackson County Board of Elections at 828.586.7538.

Macon County

Macon County Community Building, 1288 Georgia Road; Highlands Civic Center, 600 N. 4th St. Both locations open 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays. To request an absentee ballot, call the Macon County Board of Elections at 828.349.2034.

Swain County

Swain County Board of Elections, 1422 Hwy. 19 South; Birdtown Community Center, 1212 Birdtown Road. Both locations open from 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Oct. 22 and Saturday, Oct. 29, and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 5. To request an absentee ballot, call the Swain County Board of Elections at 828.488.6463.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER

Since then Republican state representatives across the country have begun to consider what they want restrictions to look like.

In addition, there are several consequential elections-related cases that will probably come before the court, especially after new elections maps are drawn prior to the 2024 cycle. At the heart of many of these issues is the overarching question of whether checks and balances in the state will shift power one way or the other, specifically from the executive and judicial branches to legislative.

“We have been fortunate in North Carolina because we have had the judicial branch that could rule on maps that were drawn, unlike some other southern states,” Richardson said. “The judicial branch ruled the gerrymandering of the last maps unconstitutional. Those maps would have given 10 congressional districts for Republicans and four for Democrats, and also would have

given Republicans a supermajority in the General Assembly.”

The stakes for the Supreme Court races will prove to be even higher if Republicans manage to secure supermajorities in the House and Senate, meaning they could overturn any veto Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper may issue. If that happens and Republicans are able to move their agenda forward with no resistance, some of these cases are highly likely to face litigation that will end up before the Supreme Court.

Cooper said that while he believes Republicans won’t likely gain enough seats to secure those supermajorities, people can expect see some serious changes if Republicans pull it off while also flipping the court.

“Make no mistake,” he said, “it will be a different state if Republicans are able to achieve those things.”

Clampitt, Platt look to gain new ground in 119th District

BY C ORY VAILLANCOURT P OLITICS E DITOR

In North Carolina politics, some things change, while others stay the same.

For the first time in the past five elections, Swain County Republican Mike Clampitt will not face Waynesville architect Joe Sam Queen in the 119th House District.

For the first time in the past five elections, Haywood County is not part of the 119th House District.

For the first time in the past five elections, Transylvania County is, joining Jackson and Swain counties.

That also means that for the sixth straight election, Clampitt’s General Election opponent is an architect.

Brevard Democrat Al Platt has a chance to take back a seat that Western Carolina University professor Dr. Chris Cooper recently said had been passed “back and forth like a loose joint at a Phish concert.”

Clampitt, a Swain County native and retired fire captain, lost to Queen in 2012 and 2014, defeated him in 2016, lost to him in 2018, and defeated him in 2020.

Republicans are again eyeing a supermajority in the General Assembly, which will be needed to accomplish some of their legislative goals so long as Democrat Roy Cooper remains in the governor’s mansion. They need to flip five seats, two in the Senate and three in the House, but most importantly, they need to hold on to every other seat they currently have.

Mapping site davesredistricting.org says Republicans can expect about 54.5% of the vote in the newly drawn 119th District, but that’s far from comforting for them — it’s the lowest percentage of any Republican-held House seat west of Charlotte.

Clampitt, however, seems buoyed by his party’s recent successes and his own performance. He’s a strong public safety advocate, and with fellow Haywood Republican Rep. Mark Pless played a tremendous role in getting millions in flood relief after last summer’s unexpected tragedy.

Clampitt also serves as chair of the Indian affairs committee and co-chairs the wildlife committee, two important jobs for any Western North Carolina representative, but his top priority remains education.

“We have a lot of school districts with aging facilities,” Clampitt said, mentioning Swain and Transylvania counties. “There are also security issues with those aging facilities. Schools don’t have perimeters now and limited access, like is being recommended now because of some of the nationwide problems we’ve had.”

Clampitt said he’s looking for funding, but the bad news is, even if he finds it, it will still take four or five years for them to come online.

Housing, another top priority, is a touchy issue, because people — Republicans in particular — don’t much like to see the government competing with private industry. But the free market hasn’t solved the problem, which is why much of the west is still bogged down in an affordable housing crisis.

“Where we’re at now I think, is working with infrastructure to solve those needs,” Clampitt said. “Water and sewer would make it a lot better for free enterprise to come in and put housing in. That’s not really calling it ‘government subsidized housing,’ but everybody benefits from better water and sewer projects.”

WCU to host District 119 forum

In conjunction with Blue Ridge Public Radio and The Smoky Mountain News, Western Carolina University will host a debate featuring Republican Rep. Mike Clampitt and Brevard Democrat Al Platt at the A.K. Hinds University Center Theater in Cullowhee on Tuesday, Oct. 25. The event is free and open to the public and begins at 6:30 p.m. Moderators include BPR’s Lilly Knoepp, SMN’s Hannah McLeod and WCU’s Dr. Chris Cooper.

The final point on which Clampitt is focusing is the regional economy, which today can’t be discussed without mentioning inflation.

“We have encouraged businesses by reducing the corporate income tax, and we are looking at going to zero,” he said. “That’s a real incentive for companies to come here, because that allows them a more of an opportunity to hire more people, and they don’t have to have that burden on them to pay the corporate tax, so they can pay their employees and hire more people.”

Clampitt remains a familiar name in his home county of Swain, and has run (and won) enough in Jackson County to warrant recognition, but the real battle for Clampitt will be in turning out votes in Platt’s home base of Transylvania County.

“I’ve likened it to getting transferred to a new fire station. New people, new faces. I’ve been down in Transylvania County about three days a week, usually at night for meetings,” he said. “I have gone to the town board of Brevard and have introduced myself to them, and the school board. I’ve introduced myself to them at the Quebec Community Center earlier this week. They don’t know my name, they don’t know my face, so I’m getting down there at every opportunity to address these folks.”

Platt faces a similar situation. He’s a wellknown businessman and philanthropist in his home county, but must make inroads, especially in Swain, if he’s to win.

Born in New Jersey, Platt grew up in Decatur, Georgia but finished his final year of high school in New York. He spent two years at Notre Dame before transferring to UNC-Chapel Hill, and has been in North Carolina ever since. He taught in North Carolina public schools until attending N.C. State and graduating with a Master of Architecture degree in 1975. Not long after, he opened his architecture business.

“I have built a lot of things that are complex and that have involved a lot of different people with different viewpoints and different skills and different ideas of what the outcome ought to be,” he said. “I accept that as the world that we live in. And I’m prepared

to be effective in it and open-minded and cooperative.”

Platt credits his late wife with sparking his interest in community affairs, especially once she was elected to the Brevard city council. He’s served on the board of Brevard College for much of the past 30 years, and was named a Main Street Champion for his work in saving the town from what would have been a devastating one-way street proposal several years back.

He filed for the 119th District race relatively late, but cited a sense of urgency and a need for balance in the General Assembly as reasons to run. A personal phone call from Gov. Cooper didn’t hurt, either.

“He encouraged me to do it and said that he thought that I could accomplish it. The other thing that happened that was central to my decision was that the district changed,” Platt said. “I have many years of experience working in southern Jackson County as a transplant so I have a lot of connections and friends.”

As a product of public schools and a former teacher, Platt places a high priority on education.

“I’m not sure we have a shortage of teachers, but we sure have a shortage of people that are willing to be underpaid, overworked and disrespected,” he said.

Platt touched on the outdated facilities and thinks safety can be factored into new designs, “without having to throw concertina wire around the schools.” He also thinks it’s shortsighted to assume that the threat from airborne pathogens is over, and wants so see better ventilation systems.

Although the Senate has teed up Medicaid expansion by passing its desired version, it hasn’t yet happened in the House. Platt’s a proponent, unsurprisingly.

His top two issues, education and health care, also factor into his third priority, which he said was a sandwich made of good paying jobs and a healthy environment. The final piece of that sandwich would be housing, something he knows a bit about.

“We know how to build them, we know how to design them, what we don’t know is how to pay for them and close the gap between what it costs to put them on the ground and what people can afford,” Platt said. “The inhibitors to these housing things, some of them are regulatory. Some of them have to do with land use. I think the state could incentivize to some degree, some amount of toolmaking for local governments — tax incentives and things for densities and stuff like that.”

Platt may be onto something with the whole sandwich idea, because it wouldn’t be a true 119th District race without a little salt sprinkled in — both are skeptical of who, exactly, the other would be advocating for in the General Assembly.

Clampitt said he expected “Joe Platt” — a dig at longtime nemesis Joe Sam Queen — would simply be a yes man for Cooper, while Platt said he’d been told that when community leaders reached out to Clampitt about a certain issue, Clampitt told them that Republican leadership in Raleigh wouldn’t go for it, prompting those leaders to ask Platt, “Well, who is he representing?”

Al Platt

Mike Clampitt

Sarge’s

Hero Calendar’

Sarge’s Animal Rescue Foundation is introducing a new way to help furry friends in its care by creating the first annual “2023 Furrst Responder Hero Calendar.” The new wall calendar will showcase 13 of Haywood’s First Responder Heroes, posing with their favorite adoptable Sarge’s cat or dog.

“We looked for new ideas for fundraising to support Sarge’s work saving homeless dogs and cats, but wanted to go beyond photos of our animals,” said Pamela Wilcox Smith, Sarge’s interim executive director. “We wanted to feature something that makes us proud of our community, and decided to honor Haywood County’s first responders, Haywood businesses and Sarge’s adoptable dogs and cats.”

The public is encouraged to ‘vote’ for the nominated hero responders from Oct. 14-28.

Voting can be via social media, Sarge’s website or in-person at Sarge’s Adoption Center. The top hero vote-getter will be featured on the calendar’s cover page and the next top vote-getters will be featured on a 2023 month.

Local businesses are being sought to serve as the photographic backgrounds for each month. The first 12 businesses donating $400 or more to Sarge’s will be chosen as photo backgrounds.

“Tying in local sponsor business as backdrops for the monthly photos will give the businesses great exposure during the year,” Smith said.

When the voting ends, professional photographer Allison Frost will come to the donors’ businesses with the first responder hero — and the hero’s choice of Sarge’s animal — to take pictures for the calendar.

The 2023 ‘Furrst Responder Hero’ calendars will be sold in November and December at Sarge’s Adoption Center, on Sarge’s website, at the sponsor’s places of business, as well as throughout Haywood County.

“There are just a few spots left to get your businesses’ picture in the Sarge’s 2023 calendar,” Smith said.

Report claims NC law enforcement interference with syringe service programs, including in Haywood

BY C ORY VAILLANCOURT

P OLITICS E DITOR

AGeneral Assembly-backed initiative to prevent opioid overdoses, provide linkages to care and stem the spread of communicable diseases through the use of syringe service programs (SSPs) is being undercut by local law enforcement officers, according to a recent report published by the Harm Reduction Journal.

“Harm reduction efforts, such as syringe services programs (SSPs), are scientifically proven to reduce overdoses and communicable diseases without exacerbating drug use,” said Dr. Jennifer Carroll, lead researcher and assistant professor of anthropology at North Carolina State University. “SSPs are also effective at linking people to substance use treatment, but harm reduction services are only effective if people feel safe using them.”

The report, published Sept. 27, is titled “They don’t go by the law around here: law enforcement interactions after the legalization of syringe service programs” and was created after a seven-county study conducted between January and November 2019.

The enabling legislation became effective in North Carolina in 2016.

A total of 441 people accessing SSPs in Cumberland, Durham, Haywood, Johnston, New Hanover, Vance and Wake counties completed a survey, with some of them then participating in interviews.

The report’s conclusion states that negative experiences with law enforcement are still “widely reported,” and that such experiences “undermine evidence-based policy interventions to reduce fatal overdose.”

“Our findings suggest NC residents, and those that enforce these laws, may benefit from clarification as to what is required of the documents which identify participants of the registered SSPs where they may legally obtain syringes,” the report reads. “Likewise, commensurate trainings for law enforcement officers may be merited.”

The question of efficacy has been a heated one of late, especially in Haywood County, where residents have complained about needle litter they believe has increased since third-party nonprofit SSPs began operating in the county. County government itself does not participate in such programs.

Monies from the Global Opioid Settlement are or soon will begin appearing in local government coffers, and many local government boards have already begun discussing what to do with the funds.

While some legislators and county-level elected officials favor pooling resources to fund treatment centers, a segment of the population believes that SSPs are a small but critical component of any settlement expenditures, by local governments or by independently operated nonprofits.

Whether that investment would produce positive results is a pertinent question, especially if law enforcement agencies are inter-

fering with SSPs, as the report alleges.

Independently operated nonprofits, however, have also come under increasing scrutiny for their compliance with reporting guidelines established in statute. Every 12 months, SSPs must report to state health officials the number of individuals served by the program, the number of syringes and supplies distributed or received, the amount of naloxone handed out, and the number and type of referrals made.

On Sept. 6, Haywood County Commissioner Kirk Kirkpatrick first announced that Haywood County was exploring its ability to regulate such thirdparty SSPs within the county — something currently beyond its powers.

A month later, commissioners passed a resolution asking the state to allow all 100 counties to regulate SSPs.

Haywood County Commission Chairman Kevin Ensley has expressed support for SSPs in the past. During an Oct. 3 commission meeting, Ensley relayed statistics provided by Nidhi Sachdeva, the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners director of strategic health and opioid initiatives, about the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition’s activities in Haywood County with mobile and peer-based SSPs this year.

“In addition to providing syringes and sterile supplies to participants in Haywood County, NCHRC has made 39 linkages to mental health and substance use disorder treatment and they have had 336 linkages to care to a variety of other wraparound health and social services such as medical care, housing including rental and utility assistance, employment assistance and food and nutrition services,” Ensley said.

Last year, NCHRC reported 100 referrals to mental health and substance use disorder treatment providers, and 26 referrals to primary care.

“Importantly,” Ensley said, “they had three referrals to HIV treatment and seven referrals to Hepatitis C treatment. They had 59 referrals to housing, they had five referrals to employment and 132 referrals to other health and social resources.”

However, 51.2% of survey respondents statewide reported negative experiences with law enforcement officers.

The leading complaint, at 28.6% of respondents, was that officers claimed they were unfamiliar with the SSP identification cards that recognize people who are immune from liability for possession of items that would otherwise be considered paraphernalia.

Almost 20% reported confiscation of syringes they’d legally obtained from SSPs, and almost 13% said they’d been arrested for possession of syringes obtained from SSPs.

A Haywood County woman cited in the report said she felt targeted by law enforcement because of her drug use, that she’d been pulled over for minor or non-existent

reasons and that a generally “judgmental attitude” by law enforcement cast undue aspersions on any information she provided to them.

“As illustrated by this and other incidents, reports of especially antagonistic interactions with law enforcement were relatively common in interviews conducted in Haywood County,” the report reads.

“Reports of coercive experiences were markedly more common in Haywood County (47.7% of respondents) compared to all other counties (range 11.8–34.7%). In Haywood County, 81.5% of respondents are Caucasian. This raises the clear possibility that this finding is a result of unique policing practices in Haywood County — a hypothesis that is further supported by qualitative findings.”

When Haywood County’s law enforcement agencies were contacted by The Smoky Mountain News, they all said that officers are trained and instructed to comply with the law.

“All our officers are provided information about G.S. 90-113.27 and the limited immunity afforded by it, and new officers are provided the information during their initial field training,” said Scott Sluder, Canton’s police chief.

Sluder added that he happened to be with one of the department’s younger, newer officers when he was reached for comment, and that he pulled the officer aside to administer an impromptu quiz on their knowledge of the SSP law. The officer, Sluder said, was indeed well aware of the law’s

parameters.

“If an instance should occur where an officer fails to adhere to the limited immunity offered by this statute, it would be corrected by the officer’s supervisor through training and education, to assure it will not happen again,” Sluder said. “Our officers strive to operate within the parameters of the law while conducting law enforcement operations and interactions.”

Haywood County Sheriff’s Office Chief

— Dr. Jennifer Carroll

Deputy Jeff Haynes offered a similar answer, stating that the department conducts an annual in-service training on a variety of issues including but not limited to the SSP law.

“We have spoken to each Patrol Division supervisor,” Haynes said. “They in turn have read and discussed many topics, to include the above.”

David Adams didn’t become Waynesville’s police chief until January 2020 — after the survey was conducted — however he said he was certain his officers had been trained on the General Assembly’s initiative, and on what officers can and cannot do when they encounter SSP supplies.

Adams also said that he didn’t think anyone had been charged for needle possession since he’d been in office, and that he wasn’t aware of any complaints against officers improperly seizing needles or injection supplies.

“If I got wind of something like that, we’d put a stop to it,” Adams said.

Maggie Valley Police Chief Russ Gilliland was unavailable for comment.

“Harm reduction services are only effective if people feel safe using them.”

The efficacy of syringe service programs (SSPs) has come under scrutiny, despite 30 years of published research.

Wikipedia photo

Council Rep. Saunooke dies in office

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER

Painttown Rep. Tommye Saunooke, 82, passed away on Sunday, Oct. 9, in the midst of her 12th consecutive term on the Cherokee Tribal Council.

Principal Chief Richard Sneed announced the news with a Facebook post shortly before 8 p.m. that evening.

‘My thoughts and prayers go out to the Saunooke family, and I ask that each citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians take time to offer prayers and support for Miss Tommye’s family,” he wrote.

About an hour later, a post on the EBCI Tribal Council Facebook page said that members had received the news with “a heavy heart.”

“She served her Tribe and her community proudly, ‘Painttown the most prominent community,’” the post read. “She sure was proud of Painttown and loved being your representative. During her service to the Eastern Band, Ms. Tommye Saunooke was serving her 12th consecutive term as Painttown Council Representative. She will be missed by everyone.”

NC-11 Rep. Madison Cawthorn also expressed his sympathy.

“I am deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Paint Town council member Tommye Saunooke,” he posted on Twitter Oct. 10. “She will be fervently missed. My condolences go out to the Saunooke family

and their community as they mourn their loss.”

Virginia Lee “Tommye” Bradley

Saunooke was born Aug. 22, 1940, to the late Thurman and Martha Sneed Bradley. A widow, she raised three children: Brad, Gerena and Kirk. Kirk Saunooke currently serves as Chief Justice of the Cherokee Tribal Court.

Saunooke prioritized education throughout her life, graduating from Sylva High

School in 1957 and receiving an associate of arts degree from Brevard College in 1969.

She later returned to school, earning a Bachelor of Science degree from Western Carolina University in 1996 and, a decade later, a master’s in public affairs in 2006.

After that final graduation, she served on the WCU Board of Trustees by the appointment of former Gov. Beverly Purdue. Saunooke also created the Painttown Scholarship Fund, awarded to a resident of the Painttown Community for attendance at a four-year college. She funded the scholarship herself and gave out more than $26,000

Painttown Rep. Tommye Saunooke was serving her 12th consecutive term on the Cherokee Tribal Council when she passed away Sunday, Oct. 9. EBCI photo

since its inception.

In 2018, Gov. Roy Cooper presented her with the prestigious Long Leaf Pine Award, awarded to individuals with a proven record of extraordinary service to the state.

Saunooke began her first term on Tribal Council Oct. 4, 1999, at the age of 59. Her 23 years as a member of the body have been a

time of unprecedented change for the tribe as the casino enterprise, established in 1997, grew from a small operation that did not offer table games, hotel rooms or alcohol sales to a sprawling resort totaling more than 2.5 million square feet and bringing the tribe hundreds of millions of dollars in profits each year.

Saunooke’s death comes midway through her term, with nearly a year left before the winner of the 2023 election would ordinarily be seated. The tribe’s Charter and Governing Document states that, in case of a Council member’s death, resignation or disability, the township in question elects a new member “under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by Council or election rules.” Cherokee law does not state a timeframe for such an election.

“The election to fill the seat could happen soon or the Tribal Council could wait,” said Attorney General Mike McConnell.

Sneed ordered tribal offices closed Oct. 10-11 for a period of bereavement following Saunooke’s death, with all flags on tribal lands to be flown at half-staff through Sunday, Oct. 16.

Saunooke’s family will hold a visitation at Cherokee Central Schools Joyce Dugan Cultural Arts Center 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13, with the funeral to be held at that same location 11 a.m. Friday, Oct. 14. In observance of the funeral, tribal officers will be closed Oct. 14 as well.

“She served her Tribe and her community proudly.”

— EBCI Tribal Council

faces domestic

Dennis Edward “Bill” Taylor, who currently represents Wolfetown on the Cherokee Tribal Council, has been arrested on domestic violence charges, according to an arrest report from the Cherokee Indian Police Department.

Taylor, 51, was booked on Friday, Oct. 7. He faces three charges: Assault on a female domestic violence, assault with a

Dennis Edward “Bill” Taylor

SCC’s Boots, Blue Jeans & Bling annual gala sets records

For the last two years, Southwestern Community College’s Boots, Blue Jeans and Bling gala had to be canceled due to the pandemic. This year, however, the gala was able to come back – and this time bigger than ever before.

On Saturday, Sept. 24, more than 425 guests flooded the new ballroom at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort as the annual event sold out for the first time. The event raised a record $122,913 before an anonymous guest committed an additional $10,000 for an annual scholarship.

“Every year, I am humbled to see the generosity and passion people in our area have for providing our students a hand up,” said Dr. Don Tomas, SCC’s President. “Even during the years we couldn’t have the gala in person, we still raised almost $100,000 annually. On behalf of our students, I am extremely thankful to everyone who supports and helps organize this wonderful event.”

SCC’s gala planning committee was cochaired by Wendy LeMay, a member of the SCC Foundation Board of Directors, and Lambert Wilson, Chair of SCC’s Board of Trustees.

“This was such an amazing event, and everything we raised supports students,” Wilson said. “We have the best community college in the nation right here in Western North Carolina, and I am thrilled that we can assist more students than we ever have before.”

The gala was buzzing with excitement as various performers and presenters took the stage. Dr. Tomas recognized distinguished guests and thanked the crowd for their support. During his remarks, Dr. Tomas bestowed the inaugural SCC IMPACT Award on Brooks Robinson, Regional Senior Vice

charges

deadly weapon and reckless endangerment.

According to Attorney General Mike McConnell, Taylor was incarcerated for 72 hours following his arrest and has been released with restrictions pending trial, including a domestic violence protection order filed against him by his wife.

Tribal offices, including the Clerk of Court, were closed Oct. 10-11 to honor the passing of Painttown Rep. Tommye Saunooke, who died Oct. 9, so no additional documents pertaining to Taylor’s case were available as of press time.

Taylor is currently serving his fourth term on Tribal Council.

President and General Manager for Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort.

“Brooks Robinson and his team at Harrah’s have demonstrated an unprecedented level of generous and sustained support of SCC and the community,” Dr. Tomas said. “We are extremely grateful for everything they do to benefit our students.”

of Directors, made presentations dedicated to Dr. Tomas and his wife, Allison Tomas.

Wilson presented a framed photo of the new Health Sciences Center and announced that SCC’s Board of Trustees unanimously agreed to name the building after Dr. Tomas.

Holland recognized and celebrated Mrs. Tomas by announcing the Allison Tomas Endowed Scholarship fund, which will be awarded to Teacher Preparation or Emergency Medical Science students in need of assistance. Donations were made towards the scholarship on the night of the gala, and gifts are still coming in.

“Every new scholarship we endow means another student can enroll and get started on a fulfilling career pathway,” Wendy LeMay said. “I am so proud of, and grateful to, everyone on our planning committee who made this evening a success.”

Two scholarship recipients, Elizabeth Cartwright and Logan Walker, closed out the program by telling their stories about how receiving scholarships changed their lives for the better.

Wilson and Jenny Holland, committee member and Chair of the Foundation Board

SMAC brings in two new coaches

BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF W RITER

Smoky Mountain Aquatic Club has not one, but two new coaches at the helm that know a thing or two about swimming, leadership and working together. The newly married couple, Dan and Sydney McGuire took the reins of the now 20-yearold team this September.

“It has been a fun environment so far,” said Sydney. “Everyone has been so kind.”

Because his family moved around quite a bit when he was younger, Dan first learned to swim while living in England. When he was around the age of 6 the family moved back to Raleigh and Dan followed in his sister’s footsteps and joined a local year-round swim team. While the sport didn’t stick for his sister, Dan was hooked.

“My sister found out she did not like swimming, and I found out I loved swimming,” said Dan.

S

ydney McGuire started swimming at the age of 12 in Greenville, South Carolina — where she spent summers with her father — after her stepmom signed her and her siblings up for the sport.

“I’d never really done sports before and I wasn’t terrible at it,” said Sydney. “Swimming helped my self-confidence go up and it helped me make friends. I had been spending summers in South Carolina since I was eight and just hanging out with my siblings. Swimming gave me a friend group, a community to latch onto.”

Anyone who has spent time around competitive swimming knows that there are two distinct categories of the sport, summer swim and year-round swim. Sydney dove into yearround swimming after that first summer and has been engrossed in the sport ever since. She progressed throughout middle school and high school and eventually went on to swim for George Mason University in Virginia.

After her freshman year of college, Sydney began coaching summer swim teams in addition to furthering her own career in the pool.

“I realized how much fun it was and how much I wanted to help the kids improve and help build an inviting atmosphere,” said Sydney.

During her time at George Mason, Sydney swam at elite national meets and in 2016 she competed at the Olympic Trials in the 50meter freestyle. Her love of swimming didn’t fade after university. She graduated with a degree in kinesiology that advanced her understanding of the sport at a fundamental level.

“It helps give me an understanding of the human body,” said Sydney. “It was nice not knowing just how to write a set, it was nice knowing OK, this is how your body functions and this is how we can apply different things to make people better swimmers.”

After college Sydney spent five years as a private instructor in the D.C. area, also coaching club teams like SMAC, but much larger.

Dan McGuire likes to joke that his swimming career wasn’t as prestigious as his wife’s. If you google either of them, he notes, you will find photos of Sydney during her swimming days, but not him. Still, the sport is an important cornerstone of his experience and one that continues to fascinate him.

The family relocated again when Dan was 13, this time to Virginia, and though Dan kept swimming, unfamiliar team environments and unruly coaches stole some of the joy from the sport. But by 16, he had found the right team and the right coach that kept him inspired and connected to swimming.

“I found a new love for swimming when I was around 15 or 16,” Dan said. “That coach spurred me to want to stay in swimming. He was super supportive, the perfect blend of being hard on me, being funny and getting to know us, not just looking at us as pieces of meat in the pool.”

competitive swimming world that is Northern Virginia, they think it is likely they had crossed paths before, but when they met at Swim Box in 2018, there was an instant connection.

While most kids and adolescents participate in one sport or another during their school years, whether to appeal to college admissions offices or overbearing parents, few of those young athletes go on to coach the sport in which they grew up competing.

For Dan and Sydney, coaching is about something larger than the sport of swimming — it’s about connection. Throughout their swimming careers, both have been inspired by the highs and lows of coaching they experienced.

their first swim meet with SMAC. At that competition, one of the younger boys on the team did not want to swim. Sydney made sure to impress on him that the meet was not meant to be solely competitive, but an opportunity to hang out with friends, watch other athletes, be a good teammate and have fun.

“It’s meant to be an environment which is helping people grow as individuals, not just as athletes,” said Sydney. “That’s something that’s very important to me.”

Being part of the swimming world for so many years, Dan has also seen the good and the bad of coaching. He has been on deck with those types of coaches that will list off the names of fast swimmers they’ve coached as if they were trophies to be collected.

Dan also went on to swim in college, and he also coached summer swim teams on the side. But, during his time at university he prioritized studies and travel over swimming.

“I didn’t go as hard into swimming as Sydney did in college,” Dan joked.

After college Dan continued to work in the swimming world for a few years before taking off again to explore the world — this time in Thailand. When he came back to the United States he began co-coaching a club team and quickly fell into the role of head coach.

It was around this time that the couple met. They both were working for Swim Box, a swimming video analysis company. Because both Dan and Sydney had been part of the highly

“I had a phenomenal coach growing up,” said Sydney. “I swam for a YMCA in Richmond, Virginia, during the school year and I had a very close relationship with my coach. Then my senior year he left to coach in a different country and my new coach and I did not have a good relationship at all. I actually ended up quitting swimming my senior year because of that relationship.”

Though she went on to have a successful college swimming career, the importance of that negative relationship stuck with Sydney and made the easy relationship with college coaches all the more special.

“The coach who I had [in college] was really, really kind to me,” said Sydney. “I think just knowing that the coaches were there to help me not only build myself in the sport and become better, but also continue my love for the sport, I think it was something I wanted to share with other people and share with kids to help them realize, this is a fun thing to do.”

Just last weekend Dan and Sydney had

“What I realize keeps me coming back is the different levels of success that I can see,” said Dan. “There isn’t really a word for the look on a kid’s face when they talk to you about something they thought they couldn’t do or thought was really far off, and then they accomplish it. Maybe it’s qualifying for a really big meet, or maybe it’s completing their first 50 freestyle.”

During the COVID Pandemic, Dan worked with kids who were struggling to maintain mental health through all the unknowns.

“That was not an easy time to be coaching kids. When pools were shut down up in Virginia, we were swimming outside in the winter, it was like 27 degrees out. But to be able to get through that and watch these kids’ faces when they finally succeed, it makes me feel like it’s all worth it,” said Dan.

“Ultimately, it’s all about making sure that we can give these kids that feeling of success and happiness that Sydney and I have both felt in swimming our-

Sydney and Dan McGuire have taken the helm at Smoky Mountain Aquatic Club and are excited to get to work. SMAC photo

“I think just knowing that the coaches were there to help me not only build myself in the sport and become better, but also continue my love for the sport, I think it was something I wanted to share with other people and share with kids to help them realize, this is a fun thing to do.”

— Sydney McGuire

BPR announces ‘Big Switch’

Blue Ridge Public Radio announced an upgrade to its services that will expand its capacity to provide 24/7 news and cultural and public affairs programming to an additional 250,000 people in Western North Carolina.

“The need and demand for trusted news in our region continues to grow steadily,” said Jeffrey Pope, BPR’s General Manager and CEO. “High-quality, fact-based journalism has never been more important to help people make informed decisions for themselves and their communities. With the Big Switch, BPR is investing in our news department and programming so new and longtime listeners can look forward to a stronger, more reliable radio signal for BPR News.”

BPR will swap the 20 frequencies of its two channels, BPR News and BPR Classic, during overnight hours on Monday, Oct. 31. BPR’s “Big Switch” will increase the coverage area of its news-only programming channel to a reach of 525,000 people — from 275,000 — in 14 counties across the region. BPR Classic’s new coverage area will reach 275,000 people in Western North Carolina.

“This strategic decision is a win-win for BPR and listeners in our region,” said BPR Board of Directors chair John Noor. “BPR News gains stronger reach, and residents gain greater access to lifesaving information and crucial world-class journalism from BPR’s local news team, as well as NPR, the BBC, and other public media outlets.”

Due to the mountainous terrain of Western North Carolina, some BPR listeners will not be able to receive the channel of their choice after BPR’s Big Switch on October 31. Listeners can locate the 13 new frequencies for BPR News and seven new frequencies for BPR Classic at bpr.org/bigswitch, and they can listen online at BPR.org, on the free BPR mobile app, and on smart speakers.

For community members who are interested in BPR’s programming and public service, BPR will open applications for its Community Forum later this fall. The Community Forum is

selves. I just want to make sure that these kids are experiencing those same things and realize that it’s nothing to live or die by, but it can be an outlet for stress, and it can be a community rather than just a competitive sport. It can be more than that.”

After years of coaching in an ultra-competitive, big team environment, both Dan and Sydney realized they were ready for a change. They wanted to continue in the swimming world somewhere besides the crowded suburbs of North Virginia. When an opportunity came up to coach in the mountains of Western North Carolina, they jumped at the chance.

The relocation to WNC has been a whirlwind of new, different and exciting experiences. The couple moved here at the beginning of August, got married before the month’s end, jetted off for a two-week honeymoon in Thailand and started swim practice at the Waynesville Recreation Center pool just two days later.

a volunteer advisory group that represents different backgrounds, geographic regions, and needs and interests of the communities BPR serves and provides feedback to the Board of Directors on whether the station’s programming and other significant policies are meeting the specialized educational and cultural needs of the community. To apply and learn more, email feedback@bpr.org or call 828-210-4800.

Haywood County Animal Services offers ‘Free ride home’ for lost pets

Haywood County Animal Services is offering a free ride home for lost pets they find wandering the county if there is proper identification on the animal.

While only dogs are required to wear a metal identification tag with the owner’s name, address and telephone number securely attached to the collar, field officers do carry microchip scanners and will scan dogs and cats for identification. Upon identifying and locating the owner, field officers will now take the animal home free. This applies to first time lost pets. Picked up more than once, the animal may face impoundment and the owner a citation and fees for roaming.

Pet owners need to provide proper identification on their pets.

Too many strays are ending up in the shelter causing overcrowding conditions which leads to stress and disease. Even using an indelible marker to put a telephone number on a collar will help get a pet returned quicker.

The number of lost strays coming into the shelter rose to 907 Jan. 1-Aug. 31, 2022, from 751 the same period in 2021. That’s more than a 20% increase, and the year isn’t over yet. More than 85% of these strays could have been returned quickly to their owners if they had identification.

While some cats will wear collars with tags, most will readily shed them as soon as possible. This is why microchipping cats becomes a necessity.

“It was really great to see all the kids who showed up and all the varying ability levels, it’s just been a great, great start,” said Sydney. “I have loved it down here. Everybody is so nice.”

There are currently 55 swimmers on the SMAC team, and new members are always welcome. For two coaches that came from large programs, Dan and Sydney are relishing the ability to coach fewer swimmers of differing levels.

There is also the adjustment to living in a new town and a more rural environment. While at their old team swimmers may have shown up late for practice because of traffic, Dan was recently told by a late swimmer that the family’s pig had escaped and had to be chased down before leaving the house.

“[The transition] has been fun for me and Sydney,” said Dan. “Swimming can touch so many different communities. We’re just happy to be here and super happy that SMAC has welcomed us with open arms.”

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Democrats face uphill battle for Corbin’s seat

BY C ORY VAILLANCOURT

P OLITICS E DITOR

North Carolina’s 50th Senate District remains a bastion of Republican power in the west; nonpartisan mapping site davesredistricting.org puts it at more than 62% red, utilizing a composite of actual vote counts from 2016 through 2020, rather than simple voter registration totals.

Combine that geographical advantage with a sensible, experienced legislator who has friends across the aisle and that makes for yet another difficult election cycle for Democrats in Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Swain and Transylvania counties — but it won’t stop them from trying to unseat incumbent Sen. Kevin Corbin (R-Franklin).

“I remember when George Bush the first was running, and we watched the Democratic and Republican conventions on TV and I just loved the patriotism at those rallies,” said Karen McCracken, a Jackson County Democrat running against Corbin. “I was like, wow, that seems like fun.”

McCracken was born and raised in Sylva. In seventh and eighth grade, she was elected to student council, and in high school she participated in something called Girls State, a civic leadership program hosted by the American Legion.

“Those helped me understand that when we work together, we can plan and organize and we can do great things,” McCracken said.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in religious education from Gardner-Webb University and then a Master of Divinity at Campbell University’s Divinity School. After a few years teaching, McCracken worked at ConMet and now sells radio ads for Sylva-based WRGC radio.

According to McCracken, her top three priorities are education, inflation and Medicaid expansion.

“What’s going on is the House and the Senate each keep passing bills, but they won’t agree on a bill,” she said. “With more folks going to Raleigh who are committed

ports a living wage, prescription drug price caps, stronger estate taxes and subsidized childcare to free up family caregivers.

Corbin, meanwhile, has been dealing with many of these issues throughout a lifetime of public service that began when he

by an overwhelming bipartisan majority.”

In both the House and the Senate, Corbin has been one of the key players in pushing for the expansion of rural broadband.

“We started the great GREAT (Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology) grants about four years ago, and we’ve been putting $10 to $15 million a year into that,” he said. “This year, we put $400 million into it, so that has grown exponentially.”

to getting it passed, we have a better chance of actually putting the bill across the finish line to go to the governor.” On education, McCracken wants to see full funding of the Leandro plan, the recruitment of

was elected to the Macon County School Board at just 22 years old. He went on to serve 20 years there, including 16 as chairman. After four years out of politics, he was appointed to the Macon County Commission and then won a full term, and also chaired that body. From there, he served two terms in the House, and has since completed his first term in the Senate.

His primary concern right now is Medicaid expansion, a cause he took up before it became fashionable for General Assembly Republicans to do so.

Serving in the General Assembly isn’t just about staking out philosophical positions or producing pragmatic solutions to the problems that plague dogging this overwhelmingly rural district; Corbin said an equally important function of the office is to provide constituent services.

“I take that very seriously. So when people call our office, Cindy [Hobbs] is the one that fields the calls. When she went to work for me six years ago, I told her that when a constituent calls and has an issue, drop whatever you’re doing, we’re going to take care of it,” Corbin said.

more diverse teachers and a better pay scale to promote teacher retention.

To combat inflation, McCracken sup-

Man pleads guilty to crimes in two-county, high speed chase

A homeless man who stole a pickup truck in Bryson City and led officers on a two-county, high-speed chase pleaded guilty this week in Swain County Superior Court, District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch said.

On the afternoon of June 23, 2020, James Caviness, 52, stole an unoccupied pickup truck that was idling in front of a service station. He sped west out of Bryson City onto U.S. 19, then exited U.S. 19 for U.S. 74.

During the approximately 30-minute chase, in rainy conditions, he drove at speeds that at times exceeded 100 miles per hour.

In the Nantahala Gorge with state Highway Patrol Trooper T.S. Cochran in pursuit, Caviness ignored the double-yellow line, passing a truck hauling large, round hay bales. A short distance later, he turned around into the eastbound lanes, speeding back toward Bryson City.

The tires on the pickup truck disintegrated as Caviness drove over stop sticks officers placed on the road. He continued to drive on the rims. At one point, he drove in the westbound lanes, facing oncoming traffic.

Caviness turned toward Sylva at Exit 85. He entered the down-

“I was one of the first Republicans in the building to favor Medicaid expansion and begin to share that with my colleagues and in the end the Senate did put it to a vote, and we did it with just two ‘no’ votes,” Corbin said of the Senate bill that’s currently awaiting House action. “Two years ago, most people would have found it impossible to believe that the North Carolina Senate would even hear Medicaid expansion, much less pass it

town area and, driving on Haywood Road, went into Dillsboro. The chase ended in a restaurant parking lot.

In addition to the Highway Patrol, officers from Bryson City, Swain County, Sylva and Jackson County assisted in the pursuit.

In court, Superior Court Judge Todd Pomeroy ordered Caviness to serve a minimum prison sentence of 120 months and a maximum prison sentence of 166 months.

He pleaded guilty to felony larceny, felony flee to elude, six counts of injury to personal property, driving while impaired and habitual felon.

Habitual felons are sentenced four classes higher than the underlying felony convictions, based on North Carolina’s structured sentencing law.

Cherokee man sentenced for second-degree murder

A Cherokee man convicted of second degree murder was sentenced to 168 months in prison last week, announced Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Yalegwo Ki Sadongei, 21, an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, was also ordered to serve five years of supervised release after he completes his prison term.

Constituent issues usually concern the three D’s — the DOT, the DMV, and the DOR — and Corbin says his office has been able to solve about 95% of them.

Inflation remains a concern and Corbin thinks North Carolina is already in a recession, however a recent ranking by CNBC as America’s top state for business and his party’s relentless pursuit of lower taxes, both corporate and personal, will do a lot to blunt the impact of rising prices.

“I think just keeping our own house in order, you have to recognize what you can and can’t do and we can’t control what they do in Washington,” Corbin said. “We can control what goes on in Raleigh, and that’s what we’ve done.”

Michael C. Scherck, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Charlotte Division, and Chief Carla Neadeau of the Cherokee Indian Police Department joined U.S. Attorney King in making the announcement.

According to filed court records and court proceedings, on Dec. 13, 2019, Sadongei and the victim were at the residence of a family member of the victim, located on the Qualla Boundary. Over the course of the evening, Sadongei and the victim argued before Sadongei shot the victim in the chest, and the victim died as a result of the gunshot wound. Court records show that, after shooting the victim, Sadongei fled the scene, then visited the home of another member of the victim’s family to explain his version of what happened. On the way, he attempted to dispose of the firearm. Law enforcement later recovered the firearm Sadongei used to shoot the victim, a Hi-Point 9mm handgun, and a magazine.

Sadongei is in federal custody. He will be transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility.

In making today’s announcement U.S. Attorney King thanked the FBI and the Cherokee Indian Police Department for their investigation of the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Pritchard of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Asheville prosecuted the case.

Karen McCracken.

Kevin Corbin.

“When we work together, we can plan and organize and we can do great things.”

— Karen McCracken

“We can control what goes on in Raleigh, and that’s what we’ve done.”

— Kevin Corbin

Keeping politics out of public schools

Education and public schools have never been completely immune from the shifting winds of politics, but events of the last few years have created a new level of interest among voters that — in most cases — is unprecedented.

It remains to be seen, however, what the public’s newfound scrutiny of local school board politics will mean for students and staff. Will it improve the decision-making process of these locally elected boards, or will it further divide communities along partisan lines and erode support for one of the great egalitarian institutions of American society?

I tend to think the latter is what will occur, that school boards would be better off if we can keep the rancor of partisan politics out of their decision-making process.

Chris Cooper — who is the Madison Distinguished Professor and director of the Public Policy Institute at Western Carolina University — says controversial issues related to the Covid pandemic put schools and school boards squarely into the partisan crosshairs.

“The masking issue and the school shutdown issue clearly were an accelerant to a fire that was already burning. We’ve been becoming increasingly partisan. Our school boards are becoming increasingly partisan, and the pandemic absolutely contributed to that,” Cooper told The Smoky Mountain News last week in a story about how school boards are becoming politicized.

As those Covid-related issues became political, normally

GOP ad made baseless claims

To the Editor:

The print ad published by the Haywood GOP in the 2022 Haywood County Fair Guide was full of disinformation and “dog whistle” claims designed to evoke anger.

It’s true that rights and freedoms are under attack, but President Biden and Democrats are not the attackers. It’s the Republican leadership in Congress and state governments who are working to limit rights. Voting is a constitutional right, but Republicans across the country are trying to restrict the right to vote for those they feel are likely to vote for Democrats.

The Supreme Court justices appointed by Republican presidents are poised to take away many of our rights. They want to abolish any “right” not explicitly stated in the Constitution, such as the right to privacy, access to contraception, voting rights, and anything else not in the Constitution.

The ad also claims there is “Chinese Communist style indoctrination in schools.” There is no such thing and it’s a baseless attack on Haywood County teachers.

Another claim that Democrats want to “control your health care” is the opposite of what Democrats stand for. Democrats believe health care decisions should be between doctor and patient. Republican leaders have stated they intend to do away with Medicare and

boring school board meetings became a platform for spirited public comment and partisan bickering. Throw in a few other controversial education issues — critical race theory, transgender and sex education — and it’s easy to understand how the heat got turned up.

During the most recent session of the General Assembly, Rep. Mike Clampitt (R-Swain) and Rep. Mark Pless (R-Haywood) introduced a bill that would have made all local elections in Haywood partisan, including the school board. The bill, thankfully, didn’t go anywhere.

EditorScott McLeod

I’ve lived in Wake, Bladen, Durham, Halifax and Haywood counties during my professional career as a reporter and editor. Each of those counties has a distinct personality, faces unique challenges and has its own positive attributes. When considering the uniqueness of those school systems and their communities, there’s just no way an ideology based on the national or state Democratic or Republican platform should be a factor in making local education decisions. Tell me how party politics could help make decisions such as: Can we afford a new gym at this school?

Should we offer teachers a supplement? Should we replace books with ipads? How can we offer more Advanced

Placement classes? How do we improve test scores at our lowperforming elementary schools?

Those questions require thoughtful deliberations, not fealty to some national party or national leader. If someone simply follows a party ideology, then the context and local knowledge that make school systems work go out the window. We don’t need school board members looking to Donald Trump or Joe Biden for examples of how to vote on a local issue.

And how would it affect teachers and students if they knew the school board cared more about politics than education, if educators were looking over their shoulder every time they taught concepts and ideas in history, civics, English and art? It just won’t work.

And there’s this reality to consider: approximately onethird of North Carolinians are registered as independents. independents are the fastest-growing segment of voter registrations. Many of those Independents are simply tired of the partisan divide and the affect it is having on civic life.

We will all vote our conscience, which may mean the only consideration for some is party affiliation. More power to those folks. But local school boards are best served by people who care more about education and their community than politics. Here’s hoping we keep these races nonpartisan for the foreseeable future.

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

Medicaid and Republican lawmakers have voted against setting price limits on medications, such as insulin. What kind of health care do you think you will have if Republicans take control of Congress?

The biggest whopper in the ad is home invasions by 87,000 armed, hostile IRS agents. The actual plan is to hire 87,000 IRS workers over a 10-year period, many of whom will be replacing workers who are retiring. The agents will not be using “deadly force” to invade homes to conduct audits — that’s nonsense.

The Republicans don’t have positive policies supported by the public. Thus, they’re making up all kinds of distractions in an attempt to get folks riled up about deceitful, nonsensical issues. Democrats are trying to govern for the benefit of Americans. Republicans are preoccupied with hate, divisiveness, and a lust for power

Myrna Campbell, Chair Haywood County Democratic Party

Time to ‘Man up for women’

To the Editor:

Men, especially young men, need to speak out and vote for a woman’s right to a safe, legal abortion.

Quick story: When I was in graduate school in New York City, a 19-year-old buddy

and his girlfriend came for a visit — and a secret abortion. Abortions were illegal in their home state in 1967, as well as in New York, but a stealthy network of doctors and health professionals in NYC made it an underground mecca for a safe procedure. Still, they were both terrified about the possible medical consequences and risk of getting caught.

My buddy was in the Army, on his way to Vietnam before being drafted. He told me he

wasn’t ready to be drafted into the responsibilities of fatherhood. So he took action and helped his girlfriend commit a crime.

Today, a man should be as worried as a woman about an unwanted pregnancy. It’s time to “Man Up for Women.” Tell your buddies to vote for candidates who will protect a woman’s access to a legal abortion.

Bob Hall Durham

Inspired by Haywood’s assistant superintendent

The cool thing about elementary students is they still get excited about the events and activities going on at their school. Once they roll into junior high the hormonal indifference sets in and even if they are thrilled about something, it’s hidden behind a veil of adolescent angst.

I’ve got one child left in elementary school, and I’m trying to soak up all of the cuteness and eagerness that seems to evaporate once they leave the lower grades. My fifthgrade son recently applied to be on the safety patrol at his Haywood County elementary school.

This group performs tasks such as putting up and taking down the flag, assisting the office staff in the mornings and afternoons, helping younger students as they get in and out of vehicles in the car line, and opening doors for staff and students.

My son completed the application and then talked about it for weeks, anticipating when names would be announced. When the day finally came, I attended the program. As an aside, I want to highlight how wonderful it is to be back in schools watching sporting events, attending programs and volunteering. After the dark days of the pandemic, these special opportunities are not taken for granted.

Haywood County Assistant Superintendent Jill Barker gave the introduction speech at the program. Her talk was titled ‘Five Characteristics of a Good Leader.’ I was pulled in by her words and impressed with the attentiveness of the gym-full of kids.

In fact, I was so moved by her advice that I jotted notes down. At the end of the program, I asked if I could share them in my column in an attempt to spread the wisdom to a broader audience. Throughout my life, I’ve been empowered by various individuals in leadership roles and have served in leadership roles myself, whether those be professionally, socially or within a family unit. All leaders would do well to follow the tips below.

1. Build relationships: Building a relationship is different from networking. A true relationship involves trust and shared commitment. Relationships you build today may come into play a decade later. You just never know; that’s why it’s integral to be a good listener, a good person and nurture all relationships in your life.

2. Take risks: Good leaders are constant-

ly teaching, learning and searching for ways to grow and change. Sometimes this involves a little risk-taking. As long as your intention is true and authentic, being bold is a positive. Innovation and creativity drive success, and it’s hard to be creative and innovative without a little risk.

3. Be kind: Even if you have different beliefs than someone or you are offering a reprimand or criticism, you can always be kind. Leaders who are kind also tend to be supportive, honest, fair, and the type of people who set clear expectations. A collective sense of support and positive morale goes a long way in any type of group activity or organization.

4. Celebrate others: American culture is known to be power-driven and competitive, but this type of mentality does nothing for success and ingenuity. Researchers are finding that people who celebrate others tend to be happier, more grateful and experience lower levels of stress. Within the workplace, celebrating others can boost confidence and motivation.

5. Find your passion: This piece of advice is critically important. It’s hard to be a good leader if you don’t feel passion toward the entity or industry in which you’re assigned to lead. The people you are leading will sense this and anything else you do will be ineffective. Before you can be a good leader, you must find your passion.

While Mrs. Barker's speech was written for an elementary school program, her words resonated with the adults in the room as well. Looking around, there were many familiar faces, including teachers, coaches, other parents, grandparents, musicians, political officials, law enforcement agents and others.

Life is a constant pendulum swing of leading and following. We need to lean into both with purpose. At the conclusion of her speech, Mrs. Barker said that if something doesn’t challenge us, it doesn’t change us. We’re here on earth to grow, evolve and contribute our talents to improve the world. If you’re passionate about what you do, grasp leadership opportunities when they come your way. If challenges arise, be confident you’ll be better because of them.

By the way, my son is officially a member of the safety patrol. They not only announced the safety patrol but also student council, media assistants, choral assistants and art assistants. It was an incredible, thoughtful program, and when members of the Waynesville Police Department handed my son his safety patrol vest, the smile on his face was priceless.

(Susanna Shetley is a writer, editor and digital media specialist with The Smoky Mountain News. susanna.b@smokymountainnews.com)

Columnist

Located at 66 Sweeten Creek Road in Asheville, 7 Clans Brewing recently opened its Buncombe County taproom (above, left), which will also pour ales from Frog Level Brewing, its sister operation. (Donated photo) Julia Bonomo and Morgan Crisp (above, right), co-owners of 7 Clans Brewing, one of the only female-owned breweries of its kind in Western North Carolina. Live music on the back patio of Frog Level Brewing in Waynesville (below) is a regular occurrence, with blues rockers J.J. Hipps & The Hideaway a popular returning act. (Garret K. Woodward photos)

Hopping right along

Waynesville brewery expands Frog Level footprint, opens Asheville location

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD ARTS & E NTERTAINMENT E DITOR

Grabbing the last empty picnic table behind Frog Level Brewing in Waynesville one recent afternoon, Frank Bonomo gazed along the nearby Richland Creek, only to shift his attention to the buzz of people, conversation, and live music swirling around the vast patio area.

“We’re trying to redevelop Frog Level to be a very exciting, dynamic place — where new businesses can thrive, where people can come and enjoy the area,” Bonomo said. “It’s not just a location, but a zone — friendly to the riverfront, friendly to downtown. This could be another part of Waynesville that gets utilized.”

Bonomo and his business partners in CCB Beverage, LLC — which includes his wife, Julia, and another couple, Morgan and Travis Crisp — have been making some big moves over the last few years in the Frog Level District, with many dormant buildings now finding a new lease on life.

To bring one up to speed on everything transpiring in the district, Frog Level Brewing was sold and changed hands to CCB Beverage on March 17, 2020, the exact day of the quarantine and shut down due to the pandemic.

“We were in our lawyer’s office signing the documents to purchase the brewery just as the governor was saying everything was going to shut down,” Frank said in a humble tone. “We couldn’t even get together to have the party to

celebrate the purchase.”

And although it might have seemed ominous to enter the food/beverage industry at that uncertain moment, the transition did just the opposite — it fueled not only the fire within CCB to move ahead with its plans, the large outdoor space behind the brewery became a refuge for folks looking to interact with others, all while adhering to social distancing guidelines and protocols.

“Frog Level has always been about the people — this is a community brewery, and that’s how we’ve always seen it,” Morgan said. “We wanted to create a space where people could come after work, bring their kids, this family atmosphere that welcomes everybody.”

Before Frog Level Brewing was purchased, Morgan was already at the helm of 7 Clans Brewing, one of the only female owned/operated breweries in Western North Carolina. An enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Morgan looks at craft ales as a vehicle to bring forth and share the proud heritage of her ancestors.

“Seven Clans is keeping on doing what we’re doing — we’re telling our story through craft beer, and also trying to incorporate Indigenous ingredients in our products,” Morgan said. “Agriculture is really important for Cherokee women, and it’s important for me to incorporate that into our beer-making.”

With Frog Level Brewing under the CCB banner, 7 Clans now had a home base to con-

coct and sell its products. The sister businesses are thriving and continually growing, with constant expansions of its brew house equipment, riverside patio, and taproom, which includes an onsite restaurant.

To note, CCB has a long-term lease on the current brewery building, as well as the former thrift store and soup kitchen next door. The soup kitchen was recently renovated and reopened as The Green Room, a multi-purpose event space that’s already hosted several gatherings since it launched this past summer.

With the massive thrift store structure between the brewery and The Green Room, the wheels are in motion to turn the property into a larger multi-purpose event space — the hope to eventually bring in live music, an artisan market, and, perhaps, create another food/beverage component.

Looking down toward the corner of Commerce and Depot streets in Frog Level, CCB has also purchased a handful on buildings in the district, including the structures from the

other side of the alley of The Green Room all the way to the stoplight, and the former Village Furniture building next to the railroad tracks.

“Everything is going to grow organically,” Morgan said. “It’s part of business model, to listen to what our customers tell us what they want, what they like, and what ideas we can incorporate into these properties.”

And lastly, at least for the time being, CCB recently put roots down in Buncombe County, with its new 7 Clans taproom on Sweeten Creek Road in Asheville, a picturesque property that will also serve Frog Level products. Even with everything going on from both sides of the Haywood/Buncombe line, the focus for CCB remains on the continued development of the Frog Level District.

“If you look at Asheville, it has the River Arts District. We feel like Frog Level could be just like the [RAD],” Frank said. “Everything we’re doing here is a team effort, whether it’s my business partners or our great staff — it’s a team effort that is this catalyst for change.”

This must be the place

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD

I’ll eat when I’m hungry,

I’ll lay

Emerging from his merchandise table at The Grey Eagle in Asheville last week, legendary troubadour Ramblin’ Jack Elliott moseyed on over to where I stood in the lobby. With a signature grin rolling across his face, the 91-year-old folk hero extended his hand and said he was looking forward to our interview backstage.

Ever since he was 15 years old and ran away from home in Brooklyn to join a touring rodeo on the carnival circuit — learning guitar from a rodeo clown named Brahmer Rogers — Elliott has roamed the high peaks and low valleys from California to Maine, Alaska to Florida, and seemingly everywhere in-between.

Elliott’s travels and exploits are deeply inspiring to me. He’s in the same boat of heroes of mine, including the likes of Jack Kerouac, Hunter S. Thompson, Woody Guthrie, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, John Prine, etc. These larger-than-life characters of the written word, eternally wandering and pondering, something at the heart of my continued journey.

I’ve been an endlessly curious and innocently mischievous individual as far back as I can remember. When I was able to walk as a toddler, I’d run away from my mother at the department store to check something out somewhere else. So much so, I got strapped with a child harness for a time to keep me within reach.

Once I could ride a bike, I’d be gone all day, pedaling around my small town on the Canadian Border, peeking into abandon buildings and cruising down dirt roads through vast cornfields. Heck, we even had an old rundown 19th century military fort on Lake Champlain that we’d waltz into on occasion.

Once I got my driver’s license, I never looked back, never once into the rearview mirror of my life before McDonald’s paychecks working grill in the summer to pay for gasoline, concert tickets and a bag of weed. Then, I took off to college in Connecticut, some 300 miles from my Upstate New York starting line.

From there, I wandered around New England and the Mid-Atlantic states. Live shows. Hiking. Dive bars. Beloved dining establishments. Visit other colleges and party in other dorms. Maybe a night game at Fenway Park in Boston, perhaps take the Metro-North down to Manhattan and catch the Yankees. Who knows? Who cares? Life is meant to be lived.

Now, at age 37, I’m on the road with a

reckless abandon as much as ever before, and all while writing it all down. Forty-nine states under my belt as of last check, with just the elusive Alaska in my crosshairs to be knocked off soon enough. In college, I lived abroad in Ireland and bounced around Europe for a period. But, these days, the unknown corners of America remain enticing and tantalizing.

Hanging out with Ramblin’ Jack Elliott the other day conjured such vivid memories of my first real deal disappearing act into the heart of America. Sure, my first solo road trip was from Upstate New York to East Tennessee to attend Bonnaroo 2005. And, yes, I’d seen parts of the West before. But, I’d never driven cross-country until I was 22 years old and just accepting my first writing job at the Teton Valley News in Driggs, Idaho.

HOT PICKS

1Rising bluegrass stars Unspoken Tradition will perform at 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, at the Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center in Franklin.

The day after Christmas 2007, I packed up my rusty GMC Sonoma pickup and pulled out of the driveway of my parents’ farmhouse in Plattsburgh. Whatever didn’t fit in the back of the truck didn’t come with me.

Three garbage bags of clothes and bedding. Two boxes of books. One cooler. Skiing equipment. Running shoes. And a handful of precious mementos, of which was a small brass elephant named “Hubert,” purchased at a Puerto Rican flea market in New Haven, Connecticut.

Just before I exited the North Country, I rolled into the small hamlet of Wadhams, New York, swinging by my ole buddy Rob’s parents’ farmhouse. He wanted to leave town, too, so I left just enough room in the bed of the truck for his guitar case and duffle bag of clothes.

Rob said goodbye to his family and we hit the highway, making our way along Interstate 90 through the Midwest, down to Kentucky via I-64, merge onto I-70, Missouri, Kansas and Colorado, up through Wyoming, eventually over the Teton Pass and into Eastern Idaho by the following Friday night, only to start work at the newspaper come Monday morning.

2

A production of Stephen Sondheim’s musical “Assassins” will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 14-15, 20-22 and at 2 p.m. Oct. 16 and 23 at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville.

3The annual ColorFest will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, in downtown Dillsboro.

4

Frances Figart will present her book, “A Search for Safe Passage,” at 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva.

5

Pickin’ On The Square (Franklin) will host Michael Reno Harrell (singer-songwriter) 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15.

Some excerpts from my journals during that road trip:

“Dec. 31, 2007 (2:37 p.m. Burlington, Colorado)

Crossing into Colorado, a sense of unknown freedom crept up my spine. I was finally West. The ground and sky was a blur of wind, snow, and cloud cover. The only way one could tell where the horizon ended and the heavens began was from innumerable oil derricks dotting the endless prairie, as if time itself was frozen until spring.”

“Jan. 2, 2008 (2:31 p.m. Togwotee Pass, Wyoming)

It was a steady run through Lander and the Arapahoe & Shoshone Tribe reservation. Native children played in quiet front yards, holding their ragged jackets against the crisp winds rolling along the valley floor. Deep canyons and steep buttes exposed the natural history of the land. The ancient rock, colored in bright red, pink, and brown, resembled juicy steaks piled high and far into the distance. The truck huffed and puffed through the mountains. Ascending the Togwotee Pass and sliding towards Moran, the immense peaks of the Teton Range came into view. Rays of sunshine seemed to collide with the range, sprinkling down upon the ruffled blanket of dirt that surrounded Jackson Hole like a welcoming doormat to the gates of heaven. They were as breathtaking as I remembered. Rob was speechless. I pulled over. ‘Man, would you look at that,’ he said. ‘You were right, you were right. It is the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen. I don’t know what to say.’ ‘Say ‘cheers’,’ I replied, handing him the bottle of bourbon from the back seat. We sat on the tailgate and saluted to the Tetons, the unknown strangers in the valley below who will soon make our acquaintance, someday become friends, perhaps even soulmates.”

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

Rural Quebec, Canada. (Garret K. Woodward photo)

Blues, roots at Mountain Layers

Americana/folk singer-songwriter Woolybooger will perform at 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, at Mountain Layers Brewing in Bryson City Dubbed “music to grow your hair out to,” the Murphy musician is well-regarded for his mix of blues and roots music into a unique Southern Appalachian tone. Free and open to the public. 828.538.0115 or mountainlayersbrewingcompany

Cowee School welcomes Unspoken Tradition

Rising bluegrass stars Unspoken Tradition will perform at 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, at the Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center in Franklin.

Mountain Home Recording Artist Unspoken Tradition is about new, original bluegrass. Inspired by their own influences and the roots of traditional and newgrass music, this North Carolina-based quintet brings a sound that is both impassioned and nostalgic, hard-driving and sincere. Their 2020-21 singles have all charted in the

Unspoken Tradition. (File photo)

Bluegrass Today top 20, including “California” (No. 1) “Irons in the Fire” (No. 2) and “Carolina and Tennessee” (No. 4).

Their 2019 release, “Myths We Tell Our Young,” debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard Bluegrass charts and has seen five top-charting radio singles, including a No. 1 spot on the Bluegrass Today chart for “Dark Side of the Mountain.”

Tickets are $15. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, call 828.369.4080 or click on coweeschool.org/music.

Interested in learning the dulcimer?

The Pic’ & Play Mountain Dulcimer Players will be resuming in-person jam sessions at the St. John’s Episcopal Church basement fellowship hall in Sylva.

The group welcomes all beginners and experienced dulcimer players, including mountain (lap) dulcimer and hammered dulcimer players. Songs played include tradi-

tional mountain tunes, hymns, and more modern music. The group meets at 1:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturday of every month in the basement of St. John’s.

Pic’ & Play has been playing together since 1995. The more experienced members welcome new players, help them navigate their instruments, and guide them through some of the basics of tuning, strumming, and playing.

For more information, call Kathy Jaqua at 828.349.3930 or Don Selzer at 828.293.0074.

Woolybooger. (File photo)

On the beat

• Balsam Falls Brewing (Sylva) will host an open mic from 8 to 10 p.m. every Thursday. Free and open to the public. 828.631.1987 or balsamfallsbrewing.com.

• Blue Ridge Beer Hub (Waynesville) will host a semi-regular acoustic jam with the Main Street NoTones from 7 to 9 p.m. every first and third Thursday of the month. Free and open to the public. For more information, click on blueridgebeerhub.com.

• Boojum Brewing (Waynesville) will host karaoke at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, trivia at 7 p.m. on Thursdays, “Glow Party” Oct. 14, The Maggie Valley Band (Americana/indie) Oct. 15 and High Blue Heron Oct. 22. All shows begin at 9 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 828.246.0350 or boojumbrewing.com.

• Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center (Franklin) will host Unspoken Tradition (bluegrass) 5 p.m. Oct. 15. Tickets are $15. 828.369.4080 or coweeschool.org/music.

• Currahee Brewing (Franklin) will host Isaac Corbit (indie/rock) 7 p.m. Oct. 14. Free and open to the public. 828.634.0078 or curraheebrew.com.

• Farm At Old Edwards (Highlands) will host the “Orchard Sessions” on select dates. Tickets start at $25 per person. For tickets, click on oldedwardshospitality.com/ orchardsessions.

• Folkmoot Friendship Center (Waynesville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. For tickets, click on folkmoot.org.

• Fontana Village Resort Wildwood Grill will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 800.849.2258 or fontanavillage.com.

• Friday Night Live (Highlands) will host Southern Highlands Band (Americana) Oct. 14 and Aubrey Eisenman & The Clydes (Americana/bluegrass) Oct. 21 at Town Square on Main Street. All shows begin at 6 p.m. Free and open to the public. highlandschamber.org.

• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host J.R. 5:30 p.m. Oct. 12 and semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.454.5664 or froglevelbrewing.com.

• Frog Quarters (Franklin) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows are free and are held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Located at 573 East Main St. littletennessee.org or 828.369.8488.

• Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort (Cherokee) will host semi-regular live music and entertainment on the weekends. For a full schedule of events and/or to buy tickets, caesars.com/harrahs-cherokee.

• Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will host “Trivia Night with Kirk” from 7 to 9 p.m. every Tuesday, Open Mic Night every Wednesday, Robbie Rasado (singer-songwriter) Oct. 13, “Nine Year Anniversary Party” 5 p.m. Oct. 15 and Tina Collins (singer-songwriter) Oct. 2021. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. innovation-brewing.com.

• Innovation Station (Dillsboro) will host “Music Bingo” with Hibiscus Sunshine every Wednesday and semi-regular live music on the weekends. All events begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. innovation-brewing.com.

• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Franklin) will host OktoberFest 3 p.m. Oct. 15 and Scary-Oke Oct. 21. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.349.2337 or lazyhikerbrewing.com.

Bryson City community jam

A community jam will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, at the Marianna Black Library in Bryson City.

Anyone with a guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, dulcimer, anything unplugged, are invited to join. Singers are also welcomed to join in or you can just stop by and listen. The jam is facilitated by Larry Barnett of the Sawmill Creek Porch Band.

The community jams offer a chance for musicians of all ages and levels of ability to share music they have learned over the years or learn old-time mountain songs. The music jams are offered to the public each first and third Thursday of the month — spring, summer, fall.

Of Avalon Oct. 13. Free and open to the public. 828.743.8655 or slopesidetavern.com.

• Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts (Franklin) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, click on smokymountainarts.com or 828.524.1598.

• Southern Porch (Canton) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.492.8009 or southern-porch.com.

• Stecoah Valley Center (Robbinsville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.479.3364 or stecoahvalleycenter.com.

• The Ugly Dog Pub (Cashiers) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. 828.743.3000 or theuglydogpub.com.

• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Sylva) will host Trivia Night at 6:30 p.m. every Wednesday, Old Time Jam 6:30 p.m. every Thursday and OktoberFest 2 p.m. Oct. 22. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.349.2337 or lazyhikerbrewing.com.

This program received support from the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency funded by the State of North Carolina and the National Endowment of the Arts.

828.488.3030.

ALSO:

• Marianna Black Library (Bryson City) will host a Community Jam 6 p.m. Oct. 20. Free and open to the public. 828.488.3030 or fontanalib.org/brysoncity.

• Moss Valley (Franklin) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. Food trucks and beverages available onsite. Bring a lawn chair. Presented by Drake Software.

• Mountain Layers Brewing (Bryson City) will host Open Mic Night with Ivor Sparks every Wednesday, Twelfth Fret (Americana) Oct. 14 and Woolybooger (blues/folk) Oct. 15. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.538.0115 or mountainlayersbrewingcompany.com.

• Nantahala Brewing (Sylva) will host The Get Right Band (soul/indie) 6 p.m. Oct. 28. Free and open to the public. 828.641.9797 or nantahalabrewing.com.

• Nantahala Outdoor Center (Nantahala Gorge) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows behind at 5 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. noc.com.

• Orchard Coffee (Waynesville) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. 828.246.9264 or orchardcoffeeroasters.com.

• Pickin’ On The Square (Franklin) will host Michael Reno Harrell (singer-songwriter) Oct. 15. All shows begin at 6 p.m. at the Gazebo in downtown. Free and open to the public.

franklinnc.com/pickin-on-the-square.html.

• Quirky Birds Treehouse & Bistro (Dillsboro) will host Open Mic Night at 7 p.m. every Tuesday and semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 828.586.1717 or facebook.com/quirkybirdstreehouse.

• Rathskeller Coffee Haus & Pub (Franklin) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Shows begin at 8 p.m. Free and open to the public. 828.369.6796.

• Salty Dog’s Seafood & Grill (Maggie Valley) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 828.926.9105.

• Satulah Mountain Brewing (Highlands) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.482.9794 or satulahmountainbrewing.com.

• Saturdays On Pine (Highlands) will host Picante (Latin/jazz) Oct. 15 and Vega Band (soul/rock) Oct. 22 at Kelsey-Hutchinson Park on Pine Street. All shows begin at 6 p.m. Free and open to the public. highlandschamber.org.

• The Scotsman (Waynesville) will host The Carter Giegerich Trio (Celtic/bluegrass) from 2 to 5 p.m. every Sunday, Kevin Dolan & Paul Koptak (blues/country) Oct. 13, Jackson Grimm (Americana/bluegrass) Oct. 20 and Chris Minick (folk/rock) Oct. 27. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.246.6292 or scotsmanpublic.com.

• SlopeSide Tavern (Sapphire) will host Skies

• The Ugly Dog Pub (Highlands) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.526.8364 or theuglydogpub.com.

• Unplugged Pub (Bryson City) will host Southern Rush Oct. 13, Ricky Gunter (country/rock) Oct. 14, Carolina Freighshakers (rock/oldies) Oct. 15, Tricia Ann (acoustic) Oct. 20, Outlaw Whiskey Oct. 21 and Mile High Band (rock/oldies) Oct. 22. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.538.2488.

• Valley Cigar & Wine Co. (Waynesville) will host Tricia Ann Band Oct. 16 and Rene Russell (singer-songwriter) Oct. 23. All shows are at 2 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.944.0686 or valleycigarandwineco.com.

• Valley Tavern (Maggie Valley) will host Keil Nathan Smith (singer-songwriter) 6:30 p.m. Oct. 13, Tricia Ann Band Oct. 14, Contagious (rock) 3 p.m. Oct. 16, Laurel River Connection Oct. 20 and Mile High Band (rock/oldies) 3 p.m. Oct. 23. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.926.7440 or valley-tavern.com.

• Water’n Hole Bar & Grill (Waynesville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 9:30 p.m. 828.456.4750 or facebook.com/waternhole.bar.

• Whiteside Brewing (Cashiers) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.743.6000 or whitesidebrewing.com.

• Wine Bar & Cellar (Sylva) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. 828.631.3075 or facebook.com/thewinebarandcellar.

• Yonder Community Market (Franklin) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. Donations encouraged. 828.200.2169 or eatrealfoodinc.com.

Ready for Apple Harvest Fest?

The 35th annual Haywood County Apple Harvest Festival will be held 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, in downtown Waynesville.

Hailed as one of the “10 Best Fall Harvest Festivals in the Nation,” the annual festival is a celebration of the autumn harvest and Haywood County’s agricultural heritage. The event features over 140 handmade arts and crafts vendors, locally

grown apples and apple products for sale.

In addition, the festival will feature food vendors of all types, educational and information booths, authentic mountain music, dance groups, and a children’s fun area. The event is free and open to the public.

Sponsored by the Haywood Chamber of Commerce. For more information, click on haywoodapplefest.com.

Smoky Mountain Geek Expo

The inaugural Smoky Mountain Geek Expo will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, at the Smoky Mountain Event Center in Waynesville. Waynesville’s first comic and geek convention, the event will host a wide variety of artists and vendors, comics, toys, video games, original artwork, collectible card gaming, anime, and more.

Concessions will be onsite. Dressing up in your favorite superhero or fandom is highly recommended. Admission is $5 per person. Children ages 12 and under are free.

For a full schedule of activities, vendors and artists, click on smokymountaingeekexpo.com. To learn more, email smokymountaingeekexpo@gmail.com.

ColorFest returns to Dillsboro

The annual ColorFest will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, in downtown Dillsboro.

Come spend the day in a walk-about mountain town filled with color and history. Enjoy a day of fun, food, live music, artisan demonstrations, entertainment and shopping.

Over 40 artisans will be displaying authentic Cherokee art, pottery, jewelry, photography, loom beading, handmade soaps, many kinds of needle work, Christmas ornaments, pine cone wreaths, candles, rustic furniture, chair caning, baskets and much more. visitdillsboro.org.

Stecoah Harvest Festival

The annual Stecoah Harvest Festival will return Oct. 14-15 at the Stecoah Valley Center in Robbinsville.

6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14: Enjoy the 6 p.m. campfire and marshmallow roast. Hot dogs, hot cocoa and soft drinks for sale. Old fashioned campfire entertainment. Free admission.

10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15: Live music, food, art/crafts vendors, antique farming demonstrations, clogging, country fair and quilt exhibit. Admission is $5 per adult. Students K-12 are free. The lineup includes local musicians and dancers.

For more information, click on stecoahvalleycenter.com or call 828.479.3364.

PumpkinFest rolls into Franklin

The 26th annual PumpkinFest will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, in downtown Franklin.

The centerpiece event of PumpkinFest is the “World Famous PumpkinRoll.” Who can roll a pumpkin the greatest distance down Phillips Street and vying for bragging rights? One past winner rolled 1,021 feet.

Sign up for the “Pumpkin Roll” is from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. with the actual “roll” from

10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Pumpkins will be available for purchase at the event or bring your own.

Other highlights of the day include a costume parade and contest, pumpkin pie eating contest, along with dozens of vendors featuring arts and crafts, festival food, and more.

PumpkinFest is sponsored by the Town of Franklin. For more information on the festivities visit townoffranklinnc.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/pumpkinfestfranklin or call Franklin Town Hall at 828.524.2516.

An artist demonstration at ColorFest.

photo)

Stecoah Harvest Festival. (Donated photo)

On

street

Cherokee Bonfire & Storytelling

The Cherokee Bonfire & Storytelling will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays through Oct. 31 at the Oconaluftee Islands Park in Cherokee. 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. There will be no bonfire events in September. For more information, call 800.438.1601 or click on www.visitcherokeenc.com.

• Friends of the Greenway will host its annual arts and crafts fundraising event, FROG Fair, which will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5, at FROG Quarters, located at 573 East Main St. in Franklin. Vendor spaces are available. Only registration fees go to FROG. For registration forms, click on littletennessee.org or stop by FROG Quarters. For more information, email frog28734@gmail.com.

ALSO:

• “Scare-Okee Haunted Island Light Show” will be held from dusk to 10 p.m. through Oct. 31 at the Oconaluftee Islands Park in Cherokee. Walk around the island and enjoy the music and array of lights (including flashing lights), haunted talking trees, and an interactive skeleton keyboard. Fun for all ages. No pets allowed. Free admission.

On the table

• “Flights & Bites” will be held starting at 4 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays at Bosu’s Wine Shop in downtown Waynesville. For more information on upcoming events, wine tastings and special dinners, click on waynesvillewine.com.

• A free wine tasting will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. every Thursday and 2 to 5 p.m. every Saturday at The Wine Bar & Cellar in Sylva. 828.631.3075.

• “Take A Flight” with four new wines every Friday and Saturdays at the Bryson City Wine Market. Select from a gourmet selection of charcuterie to enjoy with your wines. Educational classes and other events are also available. For more information, call 828.538.0420.

• “Uncorked: Wine & Rail Pairing Experience” will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on select dates at the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad in Bryson City. Full service all-adult first class car. Wine pairings with a meal, and more. For more information and/or to register, call 800.872.4681 or click on gsmr.com.

some people, a 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) is part of a process of reflection. YTT can provide direction, clarity, and insight about your life trajectory, even if you never teach, and help you get on track if you’re not satisfied with where you’re headed. It will challenge you, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

On the stage

Sondheim musical at HART

A production of Stephen Sondheim’s musical “Assassins” will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 14-15, 20-22 and at 2 p.m. Oct. 16 and 23 at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville.

A multiple Tony Award-winning theatrical tour-de-force, the musical was created with the late Stephen Sondheim’s signature blend of intelligently stunning lyrics and beautiful music.

“Assassins,” a story about our nation’s culture of celebrity and the violent means some will use to obtain it, opened OffBroadway in 1990 and ran for 73 performances, before transferring to Broadway in 2004 and winning five Tony Awards, including “Best Revival of a Musical.”

From John Wilkes Booth to Lee Harvey Oswald, writers Sondheim and John Weidman take us on a rollercoaster ride, in which assassins and would-be assassins of presidents of the United States from different historical periods meet, interact and inspire each other to harrowing acts in the name of the American Dream. Intersecting in unexpected ways, they create a powerful, yet unnervingly funny look at some of the most shocking moments in U.S. history.

Directed by Mark Jones, “Assassins” will feature the amazing talents of local performers and several Western Carolina University

students, including Riley Anderson, Leif Brodersen, Holly Caldwell, Bryan Campbell, Javan DeLozier, Charles Dunn, Alexa Edelman, William Tyler Ezzell, Daniel Gainey, Dillon Giles, Grizel Gonzalez-Jeuck, Hogan McLamb, Eric Martinez, Lilly Mills

Saturday,

Vendors, Food & Entertainment

DILLSBORO, NC

• “Introduction to Comedy Improvisation” course will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 18, 25 and Nov. 1 and 8 at the Folkmoot Friendship Center in Waynesville. For more information and/or to sign up for the workshop, click on folkmoot.org/courses.

• “Dracula: The Failings of Men” will be performed on select evenings in October at the Mountainside Theatre in Cherokee. This is an outdoor show. Kids under 12 are not recommended. Join Ada Van Helsing as she pursues something that’s part-myth, part-legend, and fully evil. Only 199 seats are avail-

All guns used during this performance are replicas that were provided, checked, and rendered inoperable by a weapon’s specialist for the safety of our artists and audiences. All gunshot sound effects are prerecorded. “Assassins” is for mature audiences only and is not suitable for all ages.

To make reservations, call 828.456.6322 from 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday or click on harttheatre.org.

able per show. Performances are Thursday through Saturday, and Monday, Oct. 31. There will be no show on Oct. 14. greatsmokies.com/events.

• Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville is currently offering a wide variety of classes in the theater arts for all ages, young and old. Whether you are just starting out or want to hone your skills, HART has opportunities for you. Classes run through Nov. 4. Browse the selection of fall classes at harttheatre.org. For more information, contact Artistic Director Candice Dickinson at 646.647.4546 or email candice@harttheatre.org.

and Sam Rodd.

A cast member of ‘Assassins.’ (Donated photo)

Gemboree

The annual Leaf Lookers Gemboree will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Oct. 22-23 at the Macon County Community Building just south of Franklin along U.S. 441.

Gem and mineral dealers from across the country will be on hand displaying and selling their products against the backdrop of spectacular fall color.

The Gemboree will feature a wide variety of items including fine finished jewelry, rough and cut gems, lapidary equipment, minerals, fossils and collectibles. Dealers will also be available to custom make pieces.

Admission is $2 and those under 12 will be admitted free.

For more information, contact the Franklin Chamber of Commerce at 828.524.3161 or click on franklinchamber.com.

Open call for art grants

The Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center is currently seeking applications for Artist Support Grants for 2022–2023.

These grants support artists in all disciplines with funding for projects that will have a significant impact on the advancement of their professional artistic careers. The Artist Support Grant program is managed through a partnership with local arts councils to serve artists in Clay, Cherokee, Graham, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties. Funding is provided by the North Carolina Arts Council.

Artists at any stage of their careers, emerging or established, are eligible to apply for grants in all disciplines, such as visual art and craft, traditional art forms, music composition, film/video, literature and playwrit-

ing, and choreography and dance. Types of fundable projects include the creation of new work, purchase of equipment and materials, and professional development workshops.

Complete funding guidelines and applications are available online at coweeschool.org. Grant awards generally range from $500$1,000. Applications must be received by Oct. 15.

Informational workshops for interested artists will be offered online and in person. Please visit coweeschool.org for updated workshop dates and times. For more information, contact Laura Brooks at maconheritagecenter@gmail.com or call 828.369.4080.

• “Our Mountain Music Traditions” exhibit will be showcased through Nov. 13 at the Haywood County Arts Council in downtown

Waynesville. Works of art that use music as its inspiration, with a focus on bluegrass, Appalachian and mountain music. For more information, click on haywoodarts.org.

• The Dogwood Crafters Co-Op will host a handful of upcoming art classes at the Dillsboro Masonic Lodge. “Chrismon Ornaments,” led by Junetta Pell, Cheryl Beck, and Andrew Beck, will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27. “Chrismon” means Christ monograms. Participants will make ornaments from white pearls and gold beads in the shapes of Christian symbols. Cost is $12, register by Oct. 20. Register to attend by calling 828.586.2248.

• “Leaf Monoprints” workshop will be held

from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14, at the Haywood County Arts Council in downtown Waynesville. Instructor will be Lauren A. Medford of Showgirl Press. Students will learn the basics of monoprinting with Gelli plates, ultimately incorporating everyday objects and leaves to create one-of-a-kind fall prints and greeting cards. Cost is $50 per person. To register, click on haywoodarts.org/creation-classes.

• “Cultivating Collections: Glass” exhibit reception will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13, in the Fine Art Museum at the Bardo Arts Center at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. The glass showcase will be open to the public through Dec. 9. Regular museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and until 7 p.m. on Thursday. 828.227.ARTS or visit bardoartscenter.wcu.edu.

Leaf

On the shelf

Heroes, misfits, and men: two reviews

In “Sexual Personae,” controversial feminist Camille Paglia wrote, “When I cross the George Washington Bridge or any of America’s other great bridges, I think: men have done this. Construction is a sublime male poetry…. If civilization had been left in female hands, we would still be living in grass huts.”

which places does a man now feel most comfortable speaking his mind, a university classroom, or a bar?”

Make mine a Coors Light, please.

energy are truly amazing.

‘Ethics in Philosophy’ lecture series

WriterJeff Minick

Professor and writer Anthony Esolen agrees. In “No Apologies: Why Civilization Depends on the Strength of Men,” (Regnery Gateway, 2022, 204 pages) Esolen assesses the value of men and manliness — that word will make some people cringe — in chapters like “Strength,” “The Team,” and “The Family.” Like Paglia, he understands that construction, not only of bridges, cities, and tall buildings, but of all sorts, is quintessential to the meaning of manhood. A man builds everything from houses and bookshelves, founds governments and laws, makes music and books and paintings, and a thousand other things. He is by nature homo faber, a maker and creator.

While stressing their complementarity, Esolen also examines the physical and mental differences between men and women. In his chapter “Strength,” for example, he points out the obvious physical attributes of both sexes that distinguish them one from the other, differences driven home by the success of transgender competitors in the modern female sports arena. In “Agency” and “The Team,” among other items he looks at the dissimilarities between men and women in planning and problem-solving.

In “The Family,” Esolen notes what objective commentators have long reported, that absentee fathers contribute to gang violence, greater drug abuse among boys, and failure in school. For those willing to abide by statistics, these points are not up for debate. As he writes, “When fathers are missing, do not expect women to take their place,” an observation which cuts both ways. After my wife died, a female acquaintance said to me within earshot of my 9year-old son, “Well, you’ll have to be mother and father now.” On our drive home, I told him, “I’ll always be here for you. I’m your dad. But no one can take the place of your mom.” Take away one member of the mom-and-dad team, and the dynamic changes.

As readers by now will surmise, Esolen is not averse to offending our current cultural directives. “Iron niceness rules the land,” he writes. “Not moral virtue, but niceness — a soft and fluffy cover for vindictiveness, resentment, and hatred. In

For decades, our culture has demeaned males and manhood. From” toxic masculinity” to the failure rates of our young men in school and in life, those cruel attacks have damaged men young and old. To rebut this squelching of manhood is the entire focus of “No Apologies.” As Esolen writes in the very first sentence, “I am writing a book that should not have to be writ-

But “focuses” is perhaps a misnomer, for in “Natural Born Heroes” McDougall is all over the place. He discusses Greek mythology, the vital importance of bodily fascia to human power and strength, various fighting arts like Wing Chun and pankration, edible weeds you can gather from city sidewalks, and enough other topics to fill a small encyclopedia. The names of so many characters flitting in and out of the narrative also confused me, so much so that I finally abandoned keeping track of them.

And yet “Natural Born Heroes” fascinated me.

Why was I so taken with this book? Why did I find such delight in a narrative that on the surface seemed so tangled? Why do I intend to replace the copy I borrowed from my public library with a copy of my own and come back to it again and again?

I have no idea.

Maybe it’s because I’m an old guy, and I was fascinated by the physical feats some of these men and women performed, both then and now. Maybe because each half an hour or so of reading “Natural Born Heroes” left me feeling pleasantly stuffed with new information and wild ideas. Maybe because, as happens every once in a while, the right book came along at the right time.

The Jackson County Public Library will continue its series of lectures/discussions on “Ethics in Philosophy,” which will be led by Clemson professor Todd May, at 6 p.m. Oct. 18 and 25 in the Community Room at the library in Sylva.

May is the Class of 1941 Memorial Professor of the Humanities at Clemson University. He is the author of 16 books of philosophy and was an advisor to the philosophical sitcom “The Good Place.” He is a collaborator with “The Good Place” showrunner Mike Schur on a book of ethics, “How To Be Perfect.”

“A series of four presentations on classical Western ethical theories. We’ll look at Aristotle’s virtue ethics, utilitarianism, deontology, and then Nietzsche’s critique of morality,” May said. “No background in philosophy is necessary — just come as you are. Discussion will be encouraged and enjoyed.”

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

The Jackson County Public Library is a member of Fontana Regional Library (fontanalib.org).

ten, to return to men a sense of their worth as men, and to give to boys the noble aim of manliness, an aim which is their due by right.”

My son-in-law recommended Christopher McDougall’s “Natural Born Heroes: How a Daring Band of Misfits Mastered the Lost Secrets of Strength and Endurance” (Vintage, 2016, 352 pages).

Centered on the Nazi occupation of Crete during the Second World War, the story focuses on the exploits of a small band of British and Cretan guerillas who tied down thousands of German troops, escaped capture again and again, and committed daring raids and acts of heroism. The history of these warriors and the odds they faced every day, their disguises, their shrewd tactics, and their sheer physical and mental

At any rate, I don’t really know why McDougall struck such a chord with me.

But this I do know. As Sancho Panza sings in “Man of La Mancha:”

I like him

I really like him

Pluck me naked as a scalded chicken

I like him

So, it’s a mystery to me. But then, the older I get, the more mystery brings me pleasure. Add that pleasure to the enjoyment I’ve taken from “Natural Born Heroes,” and you’re left with a happy reader.

(Jeff Minick reviews books and has written four of his own: two novels, “Amanda Bell” and “Dust On Their Wings,” and two works of nonfiction, “Learning As I Go” and “Movies

the Man.”

ALSO:

• Author Carly Robbins will host a meet and greet wine tasting from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, at the Bryson City Wine Market. Robbins’ vampirethemed books are sure to pair perfectly with a Vampire Cabernet. Her latest book is “Secrets of the Unforgiven.” For more information, call 828.538.0420.

Figart reading in Sylva

Frances Figart will present her book, “A Search for Safe Passage,” at 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva.

This compelling, accessible narrative introduces readers to the problems and solutions around the global issue of roadway ecology, animal migration, and the “barrier effect.”

Best friends Bear and Deer grew up on the North side of a beautiful Appalachian gorge. In generations past, animals could travel freely on either side of a fast-flowing river, but now the dangerous Human Highway divides their home range into the North and South sides. On the night of a full moon, two strangers arrive from the South with news that will lead to tough decisions, a lifechanging adventure, and new friends joining in a search for safe passage.

Figart grew up in Eastern Kentucky, where she learned to love living near wildlife. Always a writer and editor, she now directs the Creative Services department at the Great Smoky Mountains Association and edits Smokies Life magazine, the premier benefit for GSMA members.

She is also the editor of the 2019 GSMA title, “Back of Beyond: A Horace Kephart Biography,” which won the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award that same year. “A Search for Safe Passage” is her first book for young readers.

To reserve copies, please call City Lights Bookstore 828.586.9499.

Spread of the Joro

Non-native spider may not be cause for concern

BY HOLLY KAYS OUTDOORS EDITOR

The sun was still high in the sky on a perfect October day last fall when I finished setting up my campsite in the Chattahoochee National Forest outside Helen, Georgia. Wandering through the woods to explore my new surroundings, I came to a sudden halt at the sight of an enormous spider, perched in the center of a giant web stretched across my path.

Roughly three inches across, its legs were banded yellow and black, those same colors intertwining in an intricate pattern atop its

bulbous body. A swatch of bright red splashed across it. I’d never seen anything like it before.

Later, I would discover that I’d found my first Joro spider.

MARCH OF THE JORO

Native to Asia, the Joro spider was first spotted in the United States in 2013, between Athens and Atlanta in northeastern Georgia.

Researchers at the University of Georgia investigated those sightings and found that they’d occurred very close to interstate highways.

“We sort of inferred that these spiders hitched a ride on a shipping container, or something to that effect,” said Andy Davis, assistant research scientist at University of

Georgia’s Odum School of Ecology.

Since then, the spiders have become a common sight in northern Georgia, with some yards, especially in the Atlanta area, housing hundreds of the creatures. Eventually, Joro spiders will probably inhabit most of the country, said Davis.

“They’re great hitchhikers, really,” he said. “They’ll get on your car, in your wheel well. I’ve had one on my driver’s side, rearview mirror.”

Davis attributes the spider’s hitchhiking capabilities to sightings recorded in places far away from northern Georgia — Tulsa,

Keep watch for Joros

Through Saturday, Oct. 15, a Joro spotting contest is offering rewards for most verified accurate joro reports, most counties with verified reports and first report in county.

To enter the contest, report sightings or to find up-to-date information on the spider’s life cycle and current spread, visit jorowatch.org.

Oklahoma; Baltimore, Maryland; Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

The spiders can travel significant distances even without help from people. When Joro eggs hatch in the spring, the young spiders use their silks to ride the wind to someplace new, traveling much farther than they could using their legs alone — a behavior called “ballooning.” Users of the species observation app iNaturalist have logged Joro spider observations throughout the portion of Georgia north of Macon, stretching east to Greenville, South Carolina, with a smattering of observations in the Chattanooga, Tennessee, area too.

Last fall, Western North Carolina saw its first documented Joro spider observations. On Sept. 18, 2021, iNaturalist user flathat_wanderer found one at Gorges State Park in Transylvania County and a week later on Sept. 26, 2021, a Joro spider was found at A-B Tech in Asheville. A few days later, there was a sighting at Chimney Rock State Park, and a Joro spider was spotted along an old logging road in the Tuckasegee area of Jackson County on Oct. 12, 2021. So far this fall, there have been sightings in Macon County and downtown Weaverville.

“Whenever you see a sighting on iNaturalist, usually that means that there’s probably 100 more that haven’t been seen,” said Davis. “So it’s very likely that there’s populations being established right now, as we speak, in North Carolina.”

CONTINUED SPREAD LIKELY

Recent research suggests that the spider could ultimately thrive well beyond the confines of the Southeastern U.S.

The Joro spider is not the only member of its genus to find a home in North America. The closely related golden silk spider, also from Asia, has been present in the Southeast

for 160 years, integrating itself to the ecology such that most people don’t even realize it’s not native. However, cold weather has always precluded the golden silk spider, which hails from the tropics, from spreading beyond the Southeast.

A paper that Davis and undergraduate researcher Benjamin Frick published this February in the Royal Entomological Society’s research journal Physiological Entomology suggests that won’t stop the Joro.

By measuring the physiological traits of captured female spiders, which are much larger and showier than the males, Davis and Frick found that the Joro spider has a shorter reproductive season than the golden silk spider, meaning that it can complete its lifecycle in regions where the summer season is short. Its metabolism is double that of the golden silk spider and its heart rate is 77% higher when exposed to low temperatures. In a brief freeze, 74% of Joro spiders survive compared to 50% of golden silk spiders.

“These findings suggest the Joro spider can exist in a colder climatic region than the southeastern USA,” the paper reads.

“This species is going to spread through most of the country because its physiology seems perfectly suited to live here, and also because it's a really good hitchhiker,” said Davis. “I mean, there's no reason that it's not going to spread.”

The question is what that spread will mean for the rest of the organisms that call North America home. At this point, Americans are used to hearing dire warnings about new invasives threatening to destroy the balance of life as we know it. The hemlock wooly adelgid is killing the once-mighty hemlocks, the fungus behind white-nose syndrome is decimating bat populations, and Burmese pythons are destroying wildlife in the Florida Everglades.

“That’s the million-dollar question, is what is this thing going to do to our native fauna,” he said. “The short answer is, we don’t really know yet.”

Researchers are studying that question, but it will take years to find the answer. However, the early news on Joros is pretty good, Davis said.

“It’s not really destroying anything,” he said. “It builds webs. The webs just blow away at the end of the season, so it's not really destroying the trees that it makes webs on. At most, it's eating some of our native bugs. But on the other hand, it's also eating some of the non-native bugs too, which is kind of a good thing.”

Davis contrasted the Joro’s observed impact with that of the spotted lanternfly, another invasive species native to Asia. The spotted lanternfly appeared in September 2014, around the same time as the Joro. Now it’s rampant throughout the Northeast, defoliating trees and “literally destroying the ecosystem,” Davis said. It was first detected in North Carolina last year.

“The Joro isn’t really in that category,” he said.

Report flags wildlife crossing hotspots

A recently released report from Wildlands Network and the National Parks Conservation Association identifies 20 priority sites for wildlife crossings in North Carolina — including four busy thoroughfares west of Asheville.

These include: Interstate 40 through the Pigeon River Gorge, U.S. 19 at the Blue Ridge Parkway, I-40 east of Canton and U.S. 441 through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The list also includes I-26 at the Appalachian Trail and I-40 at Kitsuma Peak between Black Mountain and Old Fort.

Human and wildlife interactions are on the rise on North Carolina’s roadways due to a rapidly growing human population and associated increased pressures from development. From 2017-19, the N.C. Department of Transportation reported nearly 57,000 wildlifevehicle collisions, resulting in more than $156 million in damages — a gross underestimate that does not account for collisions with small mammals, reptiles and other species. Wildlife crossing structures can help reduce this toll.

“Constructing or enhancing wildlife crossing structures can be costly, and the funds to do so come largely from competitive grant

AN UNFOLDING STORY

Up north, governments are urging citizens to kill spotted lanternflies on sight. But Davis asks the opposite of those who encounter Joros. Killing one or even 10 won’t make any difference at the population level — egg sacs, laid mid-October through November, contain 400-500 eggs apiece.

programs,” said Dr. Ron Sutherland, Wildlands Network’s Chief Scientist. “This means North Carolina needs to be strategic about investing in crossing projects that will have the greatest impact on wildlife and travelers’ safety. So, the question of the moment is: where do we need wildlife road crossings in North Carolina? This report is our answer to that question.”

Priority road segments were identified based on daily traffic counts; road characteristics; wildlife-vehicle collision numbers; proximity to protected lands, wetlands or rare species habitat; and connectivity models for black bears, timber rattlesnakes and box turtles. The team combined this information with special attention to wildlife-vehicle collision hotspots and important wildlife connectivity corridors to create a list of 179 priority crossing sites statewide. Input from a panel of more than 40 North Carolina wildlife experts allowed them to select the top 20 sites described in the report.

The report comes at a critical juncture, as sources of state and federal funding to build wildlife crossings and retrofit existing structures are expanding. The U.S. Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, passed by Congress in late 2021, includes $350 million for wildlife crossing infrastructure projects through a competitive grant program.

The full report is available at bit.ly/3f2yVwf.

handling them. Their venom is weak, so when bites do occur they are less painful than a bee sting and don’t require medical attention.

Cherokee storybook trail opens in the Smokies

A new storybook trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park celebrating Cherokee culture will be on display through Friday, Nov. 4, on the Oconaluftee River Trail near Cherokee.

The award-winning children’s book “We Are Grateful Otsaliheliga” allows readers to follow the seasons with a Cherokee family who celebrate each season with an expression of gratitude. This dual-language storybook trail is the first of its kind to be translated in both Cherokee and English, with each panel including phonetic pronunciation for Cherokee words and the full Cherokee syllabary translation.

“I encourage you to enrich your fall Smokies visit by taking this walk through ancestral Tribal lands and immersing yourself in the Cherokee language, culture, and the thoughtful ways we can all celebrate the gifts of the seasons,” said Superintendent Cassius Cash.

Education Program, and Museum of the Cherokee Indians.

This is the sixth book to appear as part of the Storybook Trail of the Smokies series, a partnership between the park, EBCI, University of Tennessee Extension Cocke County Office

Instead of squishing them, he said, people should use them as a tool to overcome their fear of spiders.

“Don't kill it, and maybe even get to know it,” he said. “Give it a name, because you're going to be seeing it for the next three months. Use it to teach your kids about what spiders do. They're really gentle, and they’re not going to hurt you, and they’re striking to look at.”

Despite their size, Joro spiders have small fangs that don’t easily pierce human skin. According to PennState Extension, the spiders themselves are reluctant biters, and it can be hard to make them bite even when

Due to trade, travel and similar climates between the two countries, many of the invasive species currently thriving in the United States are native to China, as is the Joro — meaning that its new home is populated not only with species native to North America but also with an increasing list originating from Asia. There’s not yet any evidence that the Joro will harm native species, but there are indications it could help control invasive ones. The brown marmorated stinkbug, for instance — a universally detested invasive native to Asia.

“No other spiders will eat that thing, but the Joro will,” said Davis. “And it’s probably because they’re from the same region originally.”

The spotted lanternfly is also present in the Joro’s native range, said Davis, and it will be interesting to see how those species interact should their introduced range someday overlap. But only time will tell.

“Non-native species have a way of integrating themselves into the ecosystem after some time, and we don't really know how long that would take,” he said.

Language translations for the book were made possible by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Speakers Council, Traci Sorrell, Bo Lossiah and Laura Pinnix with support from New Kituwah Academy, Cherokee Central Schools, Kituwah Preservation and

and Great Smoky Mountains Association to encourage literacy, promote healthy living and inspire stewardship in nature. The “We Are Grateful Otsaliheliga” Storybook Trail will move to the Tennessee side of the park later this fall. The book is available for purchase at any park visitor center or online at smokiesinformation.org.

Susan Hooper done a fantastic job staying on top of things and keeping me informed along the way! This was my first land purchase so this was a new process for me and I couldn't have asked for a better person than Susan to help me along the way! I am excited about

would

Susan to anyone in

of a realtor,

A young reader examines a panel in a previous Storybook Trail of the Smokies display. NPS photo

Trail stewardship training taking applications

A training course in trail stewardship skills is coming to Panthertown Valley Nov. 2-4.

“Sustainable Trail Design and Layout, Construction, and Maintenance” will be taught by Tim Johnson, winner of the 2019 Advancing Trails Award for North Carolina from American Trails. It includes 9.5 hours of lecture, to be delivered in a classroom in Cashiers, and 14.5 hours of lab and fieldwork in Panthertown Valley.

Applications are now being accepted, with anyone 18 and older encouraged to apply. No previous trail work experience is required. Priority consideration will be given to underrepresented people ages 18-35.

Friends of Panthertown is covering course

tuition, valued at $500 per student, in part through a 2022 grant from the American Trails Fund. Apply at panthertown.org.

Benton MacKaye Hike Fest coming up

The Benton MacKaye Trail Association will hold its 2022 Annual Meeting and Hike Fest Nov. 3-6 at Fontana Village Lodge and Resort, featuring an awards banquet Saturday, Nov. 5, and a full schedule of hikes throughout the weekend.

All hikes are limited to 15 hikers, with destinations including the Hangover, Yellow Creek Ridge and Nichols Cove.

The 288-mile Benton MacKaye Trail crosses through Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina, including 93 miles in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. A bill seeking to name it a National Scenic Trail is currently sitting in the House Committee of Natural Resources in Congress.

For more information, visit bmta.org/events/2022-annual-meeting-andhike-fest. Banquet registration closes Oct. 21.

Bike club starting at Hazelwood Elementary

A mountain bike skills club will meet at Hazelwood Elementary School in Waynesville after school on Wednesdays through Nov. 2.

Coaches from Kid Cycle Club will help participants improve their basic bike skills starting Wednesday, Oct. 12, with the club meeting weekly 3-5 p.m. Limited loaner bikes and helmets are available.

Sign up at bit.ly/haywoodrec.

Contact Caitlin Bledsoe at

Hike through October

It’s color season, and a suite of six October hikes is on the schedule through the Haywood Recreation Department, exploring a range of altitudes.

will lead a point-to-point hike on the Little Cataloochee Trail taking in 5.4 miles of history over moderate terrain.

■

On Wednesday, Oct. 12, Phyllis and Vickey will guide a hike from Newfound Gap in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to Charlies Bunion, with a total mileage of 8.6 miles and a 2,050-mile elevation gain.

■ A moderate 6.6-mile hike to Sam Knob via Flat Laurel Creek Trail will step off on Saturday, Oct. 15, with Tara leading the group to great views of multiple peaks over 6,000 feet.

■ Kathy will lead a hike to Max Patch via the Appalachian Trail on Sunday, Oct. 16. This easy 2.2-mile hike offers a view of the highest peaks in the eastern U.S.

■ On Wednesday, Oct. 19, Phyllis and Vickey will lead a hike on the Smokemont Lodge Trail, a 6.5-mile moderately challenging hike with 1,500 feet of elevation gain.

■ On Saturday, Oct. 22, Jamie and Ruffin

CMC kicks off 100 years

■ A hike to Grogan Creek Falls on Saturday, Oct. 29, will start behind the

Pisgah Hatchery in Transylvania County for an easy-to-moderate 4.3-mile hike with an elevation gain fo 510 feet.

All hikes are $10. Sign up at bit.ly/haywoodrec.

The Carolina Mountain Club will hold its Very Special CMC Annual Meeting Friday, Oct. 28, at the Hilton Asheville Biltmore Park, kicking off its 100th year of existence. Founded in 1923, the club will celebrate its 100th birthday next year.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Cassius Cash will be the guest speaker for the event, which will also feature a video of an on-trail interview with Lew Blodgett, who is also in his 100th year and still does trail maintenance each week with his buddy Roy Davis.

Registration is open to CMC members with a deadline of Oct. 15. To RSVP or become a member, visit carolinamountainclub.org.

Boat with Bigelow

Botanist Adam Bigelow will lead a paddle tour of the Little Tennessee River through the Needmore State Game Lands at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22.

Bigelow will introduce participants to the extremely high biodiversity awaiting them on a route that host Alarka Expeditions describes as a “sublimely highlonesome, northbound southernAppalachian vein of gold.”

Cost is $85 with full gear and kayak

rental or $50 for those who bring their own boat and gear. Sign up at alarkaexpeditions.com.

Show off your sharpshooting

An archery competition at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, at Cullowhee Recreation Center in Jackson County will give archers of all ages a chance to win some bragging rights.

This team competition will allow for up to three people per team with divisions for ages 10-12, 13-17 and 18-plus.

Bows will be available for loan, with each age group shooting at a different range. The competition is open to recurve and compound bows, but crossbows and broadheads are not allowed.

$50 per team. Register at cprd.recdesk.com.

Adam Bigelow. Donated photo

River cleanup to honor Cherokee’s Long Man

Honor Long Man with a river cleanup event 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 19, in Cherokee.

The Cherokee have always viewed the river as Long Man, Ganvhidv Asgaya, whose head lay in the mountains and feet in the sea. A revered figure among the Cherokee, Long Man provided water for drinking, cleanliness, food and numerous cultural rituals tied to medicine and washing away bad thoughts and sadness.

This day honoring Long Man will begin with breakfast presented by the North American Indian Women’s Association, 8 a.m. at the Yellow Hill Community Center, followed by blessings of the river and river cleanup. The event goes beyond litter pickup to serve as a cultural reawakening. It will include educational activities and tree planting at Island Park for students from Cherokee Central Schools and New Kituwah Academy.

For more information or to sign up, visit ebci.com/government/news/honor-long-man-rivercleanup.

North Carolinians hang 7,500 ornaments on Capitol Christmas Tree

In the six months after the National Forests in North Carolina announced that the 2022 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree would come from North Carolina, more than 7,500 ornaments were donated to adorn “The People’s Tree” in Washington, D.C., this Christmas.

The influx of ornaments significantly exceeded the goal of 6,000. Schools, communities and civic organizations across the state decorated and donated ornaments, as well as partner agencies, organizations and hundreds of members of the public. Dozens of outreach and education events featured forestry lessons and ornament-making activities, and artists donated ornaments or provided materials and expertise to make them.

“I am amazed that we reached our goal early, but I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised that North Carolinians, and our friends and neighbors, rallied for the cause,” said Sheryl Bryan, U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree ornaments coordinator. “I am immensely proud of the people of North Carolina and of the ornaments on this year’s trees. Each one of them has been touched with love and pride of the ‘Old North State.’”

With the ornaments all collected, the Forest Service is preparing to start the tree’s tour through North Carolina and north to D.C. The voyage kicks off with a Harvest Celebration 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5, at the Western North Carolina Agricultural Center in Fletcher. The tree will also stop at the Cherokee County Courthouse in Murphy 1 to 3 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6, followed by a visit to Oconaluftee Island Park in Cherokee 6 to 8 p.m. the same day. On Monday, Nov. 7, it will be at the Pisgah Forest Ranger Station and Visitor Center noon to 1:30 p.m.

The U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree initiative is a 50-year tradition in which one of the country’s 154 national forests provides a tree for the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol. This is the third time North Carolina’s national forests have provided the tree, previously doing so in 1998 and 1974.

For more information, including a full list of tour stops, visit uscapitolchristmastree.com.

Cathey Bolton & the Health Benefits of Olive Oil

SUSANNA SHETLEY·

Whether it’s creating beautiful handmade pottery, developing recipes for her restaurant or curating a vast selection of high-quality olive oils, Cathey Bolton is truly a talented artist, as well as a successful business person.

BENEFITS OF OLIVE OIL

Packed with polyphenols: Polyphenols are powerhouse antioxidants we obtain through plant-based foods. They boost heart health and immunity, and the fresher, more organic the olive oil, the higher the polyphenols.

Reduces risk of certain cancers: Several recent studies suggest that a component called oleocanthal, found in certain extra-virgin olive oils, kill human cancer cells with no obvious effect on normal cells. A peppery taste in the back of the throat is a good indication the olive oil you're consuming is high in oleocanthal. Other cancer fighting properties in olive oil include oleic acid, hydroxytyrosol, phytosterols and squalene.

Anti-inflammatory properties: Olive oil is widely known for its anti-inflammatory properties. Monounsaturated fats have been shown to reduce levels of c-reactive protein, an inflammatory marker that’s shown to be elevated in conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis. Further, oleocanthal has shown similar anti-inflammatory properties to ibuprofen.

Protects against heart disease: Olive oil is considered heart-healthy for many reasons. Oleic acid and various polyphenols are likely to thank for this health benefit of olive oil because they have an ability to reduce inflammation and oxidative stress, and modify cholesterol levels in the bloodstream.

In 2018, Cathey and her mom, Katy Bolton, opened Corner Station Olive Oil Company to bring the world’s finest and largest selection of olive oils, balsamic vinegar, specialty vinegar, spices, seasonings and rubs to Western North Carolina. The store is located in their family’s service station that was built by Katy’s grandfather almost 100 years ago. It sits alongside Cathey’s pottery studio and Third Bay Filling Station Café.

Although we could write on many topics when it comes to Cathey this article focuses on Corner Station Olive Oil Company and how the quality of her oils far exceeds anything found in a regular grocery store and how the quality of the oils greatly impacts the wellness of an individual.

Supports positive mood: Several studies indicate that following a Mediterranean diet, which includes the consumption of high-quality olive oil, can help treat depression. Olive oil’s beneficial fats support the central nervous system which can increase levels of mood-supporting neurotransmitters.

Supports a healthy gut: The polyphenols in olive oil act like prebiotics in the gut, and because of its healthy fat content, it enhances the digestive tract’s nutrient absorption. Olive oil lubricates the gut, greatly helping with consistent elimination.

Helps balance blood sugar: Healthy fats are a key component when it comes to stabilizing blood sugar and preventing or managing type 2 diabetes. Contrary to what people once thought, olive oil does not contribute to weight gain. In fact, several studies have shown that it helped participants lose weight.

After a recent visit to Cathey’s store, I listened to several podcasts on olive oil and learned the majority of olive oil sold in commercial grocery stores is adulterated with other lower-quality oils and is made with less-than-fresh olives that have either already fallen from the tree or are past their picking stage. This is why connoisseurs suggest trying a generic, storebought version with a small batch version. The taste difference is unbelievable.

Olive oil has been called the OG of oils. It's been around for thousands of years, not only as a staple for cooking but also for religious, cultural, cosmetic and health reasons. Also, if you’re a foodie, like me, don’t believe the myth that olive oil can’t reach a high temperature. In fact, it actually has a moderate-to-high smoke point of 350 to 410 degrees fahrenheit, and the better the quality, the more even the smoke point.

If you’re curious about moving to higher quality olive oil, Cathey and her staff are knowledgeable and well-versed on all things related to olive oil. You will also be able to taste test the products and allow your palette to experience its own delight. Corner Station Olive Company is located in downtown Waynesville at 136 Depot Street, or you can visit them online.

Rumble is a weekly e-newsletter created by women, for women and about women. It is published by The Smoky Mountain News and delivered to your inbox each Thursday. The goal is to offer readers a beautifully curated email that will inspire and motivate women to live their best lives. By hearing the challenges and successes of other women, we hope you will find an opportunity to live, love, learn and grow in your own unique way.

Western N.C. dries out as fall wildfire season begins

Heavy rains from Hurricane Ian eradicated dry conditions that spread through the eastern half of North Carolina throughout September, but the hurricane’s lighterthan-anticipated impact in the western region led to action on the state’s Oct. 4 drought report.

Cherokee, Clay, Graham and Swain counties are now marked abnormally dry based on data collected through 8 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 4, after receiving little to no rain from Ian. The storm dropped as much as 6 inches of rain on some locations in North Carolina, with the heaviest totals along the southern Outer Banks. With no rain falling in the western region since the last drought map published Oct. 6 — and little substantial rainfall in the ten-day forecast — that area could expand when the new map comes out Oct. 13.

“Fall weather and the beautiful changing foliage in North Carolina draws people outdoors to take in activities such as camping, hiking or working in their yards to dispose of leaves and other yard debris,” said Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. “When choosing to build a campfire, grill out in your yard or eliminate leaves by burning, it is important that you remain vigilant and safe with any outdoor fire to protect our forests. You are our best defense against wildfires.”

October marks the start of fall wildfire season in North Carolina, which typically runs through early December. During fiscal year 2021-22, 6,887 wildfires burned 26,958 acres in North Carolina, and only 1% of those fires were the direct result of a natural ignition source such as lighting. The remaining 99% were caused by human activity.

Livestock Hall of Fame gets new members

Two Buncombe County men have been added to the N.C. Mountain State Fair Livestock Hall of Fame in recognition of their longtime support to the fair and livestock industry in Western North Carolina.

Jerry Plemmons, of Leicester, spent his career as a teacher and principal while also raising beef cattle through his late 70s, still participating in the WNC Beef Cattle Commission. Jerry Roberts, a third-generation farmer and 25-year employee of the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Resources, is a cow-calf producer with a commercial Angus herd. He serves on a variety of agriculture-related boards and committees, including the N.C. Cattleman’s

Association Board of Directors. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler

inducted Plemmons and Roberts to the Hall of Fame during the opening weekend of the Mountain State Fair in September.

Inductees Jerry Plemmons and Jerry Roberts stand with Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. Donated photo

Puzzles can be found on page 46

These are only

Up Moses Creek

BY B URT KORNEGAY

Mr. Plume, Part Two

(Continued from Sept. 14)

The first time we saw the skunk, Becky and I were in the yard after supper throwing a frisbee. It’s something we started doing at the start of the COVID pandemic as a relaxing way to end still another shut-in day. Becky pointed, I turned — and there was “Mr. Plume.” He was 30 feet away eating seeds that had fallen to the ground under the birdfeeder. We watched him for awhile, admiring his pure white stripes and fluffy

That’s when I blurted out, “Well, where did you come from!” Since we were used to seeing each other down at the house, I tried to put a little welcome in my voice.

tail. Then, seeing that all he wanted to do was eat, we went back to throwing the frisbee.

And everything was fine until one of Becky’s throws sent the orange disk sailing towards the feeder. When I went to get it, the skunk stopped eating and fixed his eyes on me. He had the steady look that told me he was from a long line of expert hunters — a Daniel Boone who practiced “one bullet, one buck” — and he was judging the range. I could tell he was not going to waste a perfectly good “bullet” on me — unless I came too close.

It got to be a regular thing after that: the skunk would show up at the feeder every evening at about the same time we went out with the frisbee.

But then, one morning while I was on the ridge behind the house with my binoculars trained on a hooded warbler, I heard a faint sound to my right, and there was Mr. Plume. He was frozen mid-step looking at me, and he was close.

Since I’d been standing perfectly still while watching the bird, my first thought was that the skunk might not have seen me until I turned my head. But then I thought that maybe he had seen me and kept coming anyway. When you’re packing like a skunk and are as conspicuous as a blackand-white cop car, you get used to going wherever you want. Everything moves out of your way. Then a thought that made me nervous came to mind: what if Mr. Plume not only knew me, what if he had given me a name? Wham-O Frisbee, perhaps.

Hearing me speak, the skunk started raising his tail. He raised it so gradually and yet so deliberately that it reminded me of times when, as a boy, I watched a bad guy in a black hat face off against Marshal Matt Dillon in “Gunsmoke” and slowly bring his hand closer, ever closer to his six-shooter. But Plume’s tail stopped just halfway up. His tail was curved like a cat that arches its back when a dog gets close. A naturalist once told me that skunks have to stick their tails straight up to spray, and I hoped he was right. He also told me that a skunk’s spraying apparatus is made up of two scent glands flanking its anus, and that when a skunk sprays, it sticks up its tail, curls its body in a “U” to aim his rear end at the target, and “everts” the two glands — which means he pokes them out like little nozzles. Skunks can spray from one nozzle or the other, or they can shoot both. Their range is good to about 15 feet. Mr. Plume was closer than that.

Trying to inject a little humor into the situation, I spoke again: “Hey, buddy, put that tail back down!” At the same time I slowly took a step back, then another and another. The skunk kept his tail half cocked. Once I’d made some breathing room between us, I pointed past him and said: “You go on now, you go on.” And the skunk did! He turned and ran down the trail.

I’d read in a book that skunks can “gallop” at speeds of up to 10 miles per hour. But Mr. Plume didn’t gallop; his little feet didn’t pound the ground. Instead, he scooted along lightly. It looked like he was clicking his heels together, as if our standoff had made his day.

I was surprised at the size of his tail. It was as big as a white-tailed deer’s. And the skunk kept it straight up as he ran, like a gun sight. I knew that below the tail, two “barrels” were pointed straight at me.

We didn’t see the skunk at the feeder after supper that day. But the next evening, when Becky and I headed out to throw the frisbee, our eyes opened doubly wide. There were Mr. and Mrs. Plume!

(Burt Kornegay ran Slickrock Expeditions in Cullowhee for 30 years, and he is the author of

“A Guide’s Guide to Panthertown Valley.” He lives with his wife Becky up Moses Creek in Jackson County. Read part one at smokymountainnews.com/archives/item/34314-up-mosescreek-mr-plume.)

Skunks are equipped with two scent glands that they can deploy to a range of 15 feet. Fred Coyle photo

COMMUNITY EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

• The Jackson Arts Market takes place from 1-5 p.m. every Saturday at 533 West Main St. in Sylva with live music and an array of local artists. Matt Beckler will play Oct. 8, Jared Smith ‘Blue’ will play Oct. 22, Taylor Knighton will play Oct. 29, Wooly Booger will play Nov. 5, Clayton Justice will play Nov. 12.

• Cowee School Farmer’s Market is held Wednesdays from 3-6 p.m., at 51 Cowee School Drive in Franklin. The market has produce, plant starts, eggs, baked goods, flowers, food trucks and music. For more information or for an application, visit www.coweeschool.org or call 828.369.4080.

B USINESS & E DUCATION

• Tech Tuesday will take place 9-11 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 18 at the Waynesville Branch of the Haywood County Public Library. Staff will be available to answer question and assist you in the use of computers, smartphones, tablets and e-readers.

• Tour a fire truck and learn fire safety and prevention from the Canton Fire Department 3:30-4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 12, at the Canton Branch of the Haywood County Public Library. The program will be held outside, for more information contact Ashlyn at ashlyn.godleski@haywoodcountync.gov or at 828.356.2567.

• Axe and Awl Leatherworks will host its one-year brick and mortar birthday celebration to ring in its first full year of business in a physical store front from 10 a.m.5 p.m. Oct. 15. There will be special deals, complimentary beer from Boojum Brewing Company and Ice Cream Sandwiches from the High Test Deli in Bryson City.

• Brent Martic, director of the Blue Ridge Bartram Trail Conservancy will talk about botanist/ explorer William Bartram’s 1775 Travels to this area during an event at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, in the Macon Count Public Library Meeting Room. Visit blueridgebartram.org to learn more.

• Legal Aid will host clinics in October to assist those affected by Tropical Storm Fred. Storm survivors interested in Legal Aid’s services should call 866.219.5262, extension 2657 to learn more about how Legal Aid may be able to help and schedule an appointment for an upcoming clinic. Events will take place 1-5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 16, at Cruso Community Center; 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 17, at Fines Creek Library; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 18, at Transylvania County Library; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 19, at Cruso United Methodist Church.

• The Environmental Leadership Club at HCC will host a STEM Speaker Series from noon-1 p.m. Thursdays Oct. 27 and Nov. 10. Speakers Baker Perry, Tanya Poole and Tommy Cabe will each give a 30-minute presentation and answer questions for 20 minutes. For more information contact Susan Roberts sroberts@haywood.edu or 828.565.4218.

FUNDRAISERS AND B ENEFITS

• MountainTrue will celebrate its 40th anniversary 5:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 12, at The Salvage Station in Asheville, with a 1982 throwback-themed gathering. Free, with RSVPs requested at mountaintrue.org.

• Walk the Little Tennessee River Greenway in Franklin for the First Annual Warriors Walk 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, organized by the 828 Vets. The 828 Vets group is run by veterans to assist their fellow veterans, meeting Thursday mornings at CareNet on Bidwell Street. 828vets.com.

• Friends of the Greenway will hold its Fall Arts & Crafts fundraising event FROG Fair 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Nov. 5, at the Town Bridge in Franklin. For more information, email frog28734@gmail.com.

CLUBS AND M EETINGS

• The Canton Branch Creative Writing Group meets 10:30 a.m.-noon on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month. For more information, email Jennifer at jennifer.stuart@haywoodcountync.gov or call 828.356.2561.

AUTHORS AND B OOKS

• Poet, essayist, novelist and educator Dana Wildsmith will be the featured speaker at Writers’ Night Out 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14, via zoom. Writers’ Night Out is an opportunity for local writers and anyone interested in literature to gather for an evening of discussion and sharing. For more information or to join, email Glenda Beall at glendabeall@msn.com.

K IDS & FAMILIES

• The Lake Junaluska Golf Course will launch a weekly junior golf program on Wednesday, Oct. 12. The program will continue weekly 4-5 p.m. $25 per child, all ages are welcome, limited to the first 10 participants. Call the Lake Junaluska Pro Shop to RSVP 828.456.5777.

• Next Chapter Book Club Haywood is a fun, energetic and highly interactive book club, ideal for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The group meets every second and fourth Monday of the month. For more information, email Jennifer at jennifer.stuart@haywoodcountync.gov or 828.356.2561.

• Storytime takes place at 10 a.m. every Tuesday at the Macon County Library. For more information visit fontanalib.org or call 828.524.3600.

• Toddler’s Rock takes place at 10 a.m. every Monday at the Macon County Library. Get ready to rock with songs, books, rhymes and playing with instruments. For more information visit fontanalib.org or call 828.524.3600.

• The Festival and Craft Show will take place 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Oct. 14-15, at the Macon County Fair Grounds. There will be crafters, food trucks, raffles, kettle corn, live music, face painting and more. Admission is free.

• Blue Ridge Artists and Crafters presents Autumn Leaves Craft Show 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Oct. 15-16, at Smoky Mountain Event Center. Admission and parking are free. For more information call 828.246.7745 or visit www.bracahaywood.com.

F OOD AND D RINK

• Food Truck Boot Camp will take place Nov. 7-10, at multiple locations in Cherokee, North Carolina. For more information contact Laura Lauffer at 828.359.6926 or lwauffe@ncsu.edu.

• BBQ and Live Music takes place at 6 p.m. every Saturday at the Meadowlark Motel. Call 828.926.1717 or visit meadowlarkmotel.com.

• A free wine tasting will be held from 6-8 p.m. every Thursday and 2-5 p.m. every Saturday at The Wine Bar & Cellar in Sylva. 828.631.3075.

• Take a trip around the world with four different wines every Friday 11 a.m.-8 p.m. and Saturday 11a.m.-6 p.m. at the Bryson City Wine Market. Pick from artisan Charcuterie Foods to enjoy with wines. 828.538.0420

• Cooking classes take place at the McKinley Edwards Inn from 6-8:30 p.m. on Thursday nights. To reserve your spot call 828.488.9626.

CLASSES AND PROGRAMS

• Artist Mary DeHart will teach the history and traditions of henna tattooing at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 12, in the Meeting Room of the Macon County Public Library. For more information call 828.524.3600.

• Dogwood Crafters Co-op will host the workshop “Beaded Serving Pieces — Spoons and Forks” 10 a.m.noon Thursday, Oct. 13, at the Dillsboro Masonic Lodge. Register to attend by Oct. 6 by calling Dogwood Crafters at 828.586.2248.

• Dogwood Crafters Co-op will host the workshop “Hammered Ornament Class” 10 a.m-noon Thursday, Oct. 20, at the Dillsboro Masonic Lodge. Register to attend by 13 by calling Dogwood Crafters at 828.586.2248. Cost is $12.

• Dogwood Crafters Co-op will host the workshop “Chrismon Ornaments” 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, at the Dillsboro Masonic Lodge. Register to attend by Oct. 20 by calling Dogwood Crafters at 828.586.2248. Cost is $12.

Complete

Regional

gallery events and

Complete listings of recreational

health and

Civic and social club gatherings

ART SHOWINGS AND GALLERIES

• “Thursday Painters” group will be held from 10 a.m.3 p.m. on Thursdays at The Uptown Gallery in Franklin. Free and open to the public. All skill levels and mediums are welcome. Participants are responsible for their own project and a bag lunch. 828.349.4607 or pm14034@yahoo.com.

Outdoors

• Highlands Biological Foundation will offer Autumn Amble Leaf Tours 4-5 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays in October. The tours are free, for more information contact Paige Engelbrektsson at 828.526.2623 or paige@highlandsbiological.org.

• Hike the Waynesville Watershed during a guided hike offered 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 13, starting at the Waynesville water treatment plant on Rocky Branch Trail. No dogs. Space limited. Free for Haywood Waterways members with a $5 suggested donation for nonmembers. Sign up with Christine O’Brien at Christine.haywoodwaterways@gmail.com or 828.476.4667, ext. 11.

• Take a hike with Tara 8:30 a.m. Oct. 15, to Sam’s Knob via Flat Laurel Creek Trail. Offered through Haywood County Recreation, register at https://secure.rec1.com/NC/haywood-county-nc/catalog

• The Clawhammer Mountain 50k will take place Oct. 15, starting along U.S. 276 near the Davidson River Campground in Transylvania County. The Front Range Five Miler will take place the same weekend, at the same location and cover 5.75 miles. Visit shiningrockadventure.com to sign up, apply for a scholarship, become a sponsor, or learn about volunteer opportunities.

A&E

• Smoky Mountain Geek Expo will take place 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Oct. 22 at the Smoky Mountain Event Center. The event celebrates comic books, sci-fi, anime and pop culture. smokymountaingeekexpo.com.

• Karaoke takes place at 7 p.m. every Friday at the Meadowlark Motel in Maggie Valley. Call 828.926.1717 or visit meadowlarkmotel.com.

• Paint and Sip at Waynesville Art School will be held every Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 7-9:30 p.m. To learn more and register call 828.246.9869 or visit PaintAndSipWaynesville.com/upcoming-events. Registration is required, $45.

• Mountain Makers Craft Market will be held from noon-4 p.m. the first Sunday of each month at 308 North Haywood St. in downtown Waynesville. Over two dozen artisans selling handmade and vintage goods. Special events will be held when scheduled. mountainmakersmarket.com.

• Community dance classes for all levels and ages will take place this fall, September through November at the Wortham Center for Performing Arts. For more information and tickets visit stewartowendance.com/classes or worthamarts.org/classes.

• Chess 101 takes place from 3:30-4:30 p.m. every Friday in the Canton Branch of the Haywood County Public Library. No registration required, for more information call 828.648.2924.

• Wired Wednesday, one-on-one technology help is available at 3-5 p.m. every Wednesday at the Canton Branch of the Haywood County Library. For more information or to register, call 828.648.2924.

• Uptown Gallery, 30 East Main St. Franklin, will be offering Children’s Art Classes Wednesdays afternoons. Adult workshops in watercolor, acrylic paint pouring, encaustic and glass fusing are also offered. Free painting is available 10 a.m.-3 p.m. every Monday in the classroom. A membership meeting takes place on the second Sunday of the month at 3 p.m. All are welcome. Call 828.349.4607 for more information.

• Take a hike with Kathy at 12:30 p.m. Oct. 16, to Max Patch via the Appalachian Trail. Offered through Haywood County Recreation, register at https://secure.rec1.com/NC/haywood-county-nc/catalog.

• An archery competition at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, at Cullowhee Recreation Center in Jackson County will give archers of all ages a chance to win some bragging rights. $50 per team. Register at cprd.recdesk.com.

• Botanist Adam Bigelow will lead a paddle tour of the Little Tennessee River through the Needmore State Game Lands at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22. Cost is $85 with full gear and kayak rental or $50 for those who bring their own boat and gear. Sign up at alarkaexpeditions.com.

• A mountain bike skills club will meet at Hazelwood Elementary School in Waynesville after school on Wednesdays through Nov. 2. Coaches from Kid Cycle Club will help participants improve their basic bike skills starting Wednesday, Oct. 12, with the club meeting weekly 3-5 p.m. Limited loaner bikes and helmets are available. Sign up at bit.ly/haywoodrec.

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Real Estate

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PUBLISHER’S NOTICE

All real estate advertising in this newspaper is sub ject to the Fair Housing Act which makes it illegal to advertise ‘any prefer ence, limitation or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin, or an intention to make any such prefer ence, limitation or discrimination’. Familial status includes children under 18 living with parents or legal guardians and pregnant women. This newspaper will not knowingly accept any advertising for real es tate in violation of this law. All dwellings advertised on equal opportunity basis.

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Haywood Co. Real Estate Agents

Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate- Heritage

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