Smoky Mountain News | October 19, 2022

Abuse complaint leveled against charter school

scholarship fund honors late theater director

CONTENTS

On the Cover:

Former NC-11 reps. Mark Meadows and Madison Cawthorn both left WNC underrepresented in Washington, D.C. Whether one of the candidates running to replace Cawthorn can bring transparency and accountability to the office remains to be seen. (Page 6)

News

Complaint to DPI alleges abuse at Shining Rock Classical Academy................4 Moody fails to appear for arraignment, taken back into custody..........................5 NC-11 seeks stability after Meadows and Cawthorn..............................................6

In-person early voting begins Oct.

Panhandling public hearing planned for Sylva............................................................9 Cherokee approves election law

Haywood Schools shuffles administration ahead of Nolte’s retirement............13 Pless, Remillard face off with GOP supermajority at stake..................................14

Following domestic violence charges, Taylor resigns Council seat....................16 Sylva awards contract for Allen Street

Beasley, Budd battle for U.S.

Scholarship to serve as final curtain call for prolific theatre

Opinion

Medicaid expansion would boost WNC

democracy is GOP’s

A&E

Smoky Mountain Heritage Center sparks inspiration, camaraderie..................26

lost poems of Wilma

Outdoors

Science education program blends indigenous and western methods..........36

from a plant nerd: The leaves don’t just fall,

Susanna Shetley.

. . . . susanna.b@smokymountainnews.com

Amanda Bradley. . .

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. . . . . . . . sophia.b@smokymountainnews.com

. . . . . . . . jc-ads@smokymountainnews.com Sophia Burleigh. . . . . .

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

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

WRITING: Holly Kays. .

McLeod.

Vaillancourt.

holly@smokymountainnews.com

hannah@smokymountainnews.com

cory@smokymountainnews.com

Ingles Nutrition Notes

written by Ingles Dietitian Leah McGrath

FOOD FIRST: SUPPLEMENTS SHOULD BE SECONDARY

In most cases it is better for us to get our vitamins and minerals and other nutrients from food first instead of relying on supplements.

• It is usually less expensive to eat food rather than to purchase hundreds of dollars in vitamin and mineral supplements.

• Nutrients, and especially vitamins and minerals, may be better absorbed from food than from supplements.

• Foods are less likely to interact with prescription medications than single vitamins and minerals.

• We are less likely end up in a situation of toxicity (getting an unnecessary and perhaps dangerous amount) when we eat food and more likely if we take supplements.

While popping a pill to get vitamin C or magnesium may be easy and there may be some cases when your family doctor recommends specific supplements; there are other benefits in eating food like other vitamins, minerals, and fiber in those food. Eating food also provides taste sensations and enjoyment. You could take a vitamin C supplement but eating an orange or some berries is probably more enjoyable. Magnesium can easily be found in nuts, seeds, beans and avocado – you don’t have to take a pill to get it!

Leah McGrath, RDN, LDN Ingles Market Corporate Dietitian @InglesDietitian Leah McGrath - Dietitian

Ingles Markets… caring about your health

Complaint to DPI alleges abuse at Shining Rock Classical Academy

BY HANNAH MCLEOD

STAFF W RITER

A parent at Shining Rock Classical Academy has filed an official complaint about discipline at the school with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.

The allegations, while disturbing, are not the first of such kind.

“A parent has filed a complaint with our office,” Ashley Baquero, director of the Office of Charter Schools at DPI, confirmed to The Smoky Mountain News. “The parent alleges that inappropriate discipline procedures have taken place and that the grievance process has not been followed, among other issues.”

Baquero said the parent has also contacted local law enforcement because the incidents allegedly involve the school resource officer, who is an officer of the Waynesville Police Department. Waynesville Police Chief David Adams did confirm that the parent had contacted him, but he denied the allegations.

The Office of Charter Schools does not have an investigatory arm, nor does it provide legal services. However, when a stakeholder has concerns that have not been resolved by

the charter school’s board and/ or administration, the office will try to facilitate the process to help parties resolve the matter.

According to Baquero, Shining Rock vehemently denies the allegations and has legal counsel involved. At this point in the process, the Office of Charter Schools at DPI is working to determine if and how the parent’s grievance was heard and whether the school followed its own policy. The Office of Charter Schools does have the ability to review policy violations.

ALLEGATIONS

The complaint asks that the Office of Charter Schools open an investigation into Joshua Morgan, head of school at SRCA, and asks that the parent be able to undergo the formal grievance process, which they allege has not been completed.

“Mr. Morgan has violated policy with my child and refuses to work toward resolution,” the complaint reads. “I have exhausted all means at school level. The SRCA board of directors did not offer a fair grievance process.”

The parent maintains that multiple people at the school have witnessed Morgan’s

mishandling of children or have been on the receiving end of bullying or intimidation themselves but have not reported these instances because they are afraid of retaliation.

The parent alleges child abuse, both physical and emotional.

“Mr. Morgan drags children, yanks children, leaves marks on children’s wrists,” the complaint states. “[Morgan] mocks children, mimics children or plays sounds, like high pitch noises to autistic children in order to agitate them, punish them, disturb them.”

In the complaint, the parent says that they have written accounts of these reported abuses. The complaint goes on to say that the head of school withholds food from children and has students handcuffed by the SRO at the school.

The parent also states that they believe their family is now the target of retaliation. They have received cease and desist letters from the board’s attorney.

“Morgan has used methods of corporal punishment which are against school policy, meant to inflict harm,” the parent says in the complaint. “Systematic and frequent bullying and intimidation, against our school policy.”

At fault in the complaint is also the school’s board of directors, which the parent alleges did not follow the proper procedure for a grievance process when these concerns were brought to its attention.

This is not the first time that Shining Rock parents have alleged inappropriate disciplinary action by Josh Morgan. In 2019, Morgan was serving as the interim head of school and the school’s board of directors was considering him for the permanent position. At that time, SMN reported that a group of concerned parents did not want Morgan for the position because they thought he was “a bully with anger management issues who physically intimidates students and recently placed one in a martial arts hold.”

The reporting details allegations of bullying by Morgan toward students in the form of yelling and several instances of putting hands on students in an attempt to provide disciplinary action.

During an August meeting of the Shining Rock Board of Directors a former teacher at the school came to speak during public comment about her treatment while working at the school. Because members of the public are not allowed to name individual students or staff during their comment, the teacher did not name Morgan. However, when speaking with the Smoky Mountain News later, the teacher gave more insight into their complaints.

“During my time at Shining Rock, I felt as though there was no one available to issue a complaint against Josh Morgan or other superiors,” the teacher told SMN. “I felt the working environment was toxic and supported the spreading of gossip about both students and other staff members.”

This former teacher would not discuss Morgan’s specific treatment toward them. Despite having left Shining Rock, they are still worried about possible retaliation and a possible lawsuit from the school regarding any disclosures made.

“Mr. Morgan does not follow our discipline policy which states that we use restorative justice, love and logic,” the parent’s complaint to DPI reads.

Shining Rock Classical Academy in Haywood County did not meet growth standards for the 2021-22 school year. It received a C grade and 54.9% of students passed state exams, above the state average of 51.2%.

Would Love To Host

A parent of a student at Shining Rock filed a complaint about “inappropriate discipline procedures” at the school.

Hannah McLeod photo

Moody fails to appear for hearing, taken back into custody

BY C ORY VAILLANCOURT

P OLITICS E DITOR

AHaywood County woman arrested by the FBI on Sept. 7 for making threats to public officials is back in custody after she failed to show up for her arraignment last week on 59 counts of interstate threats and conspiracy to kidnap.

On Sept. 12, Darris Moody was released on bond by Judge Carleton Metcalf at the conclusion of her detention hearing, during which FBI special agent Bill Gang testified that Moody told him she did not recognize the legitimacy of the United States government or legal system.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Don Gast had argued for Moody’s continuing detention at that time, telling Metcalf that there was no piece of paper anyone could put in front of Moody that would compel her to appear as directed to a court she repeatedly claimed she didn’t recognize. Moody’s attorney, Sean Devereux, had argued for her release, saying he’d made clear to Moody that she needed to follow the rules.

Metcalf said at the time that his decision could have gone either way but considering Moody’s lack of criminal history, Metcalf opted to release Moody to home confinement, albeit with a number of conditions to encourage her participation in the forthcoming proceedings.

When Moody’s 10 a.m. hearing began on Oct. 14, she was nowhere to be found. Metcalf moved onto another matter, giving Moody time to show up, but shortly before 11 a.m. it became clear she wouldn’t.

In addressing Metcalf, Devereux acknowledged the court’s previous concerns about Moody being an active participant in

Franklin announces next chief of police

Town Manager Amie Owens announced that Devin Holland will be appointed as Franklin’s next Chief of Police effective Dec. 1. Holland is currently serving as captain of patrol for the Town of Franklin. Soon-to-be Chief Holland is a veteran officer with over 25 years of experience in law enforcement, all of which has been with Franklin. He has served as patrol officer, sergeant, lieutenant and patrol captain. He holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Western Carolina University and an associate degree in criminal justice from Southwestern Community College.

In addition to his formal education, Holland graduated from the following programs or obtained certifications in:

• FBI Leadership Training from the Law Enforcement Executive Development Association with concentrations in Supervisor, Command and Executive Leadership

• Advanced Law Enforcement Certificate, N.C. Criminal Justice Training and Standards

• Various course offerings in leadership and law enforcement management from N.C.

her own defense and told Metcalf that he’d “bent over backwards” to ensure Moody understood that.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexis Solheim asked Metcalf to issue a warrant for Moody’s arrest and revoke her bond; however, Metcalf said he wanted to take things “one step at a time” and opted for the bench warrant.

Moody was arrested by the FBI at her home around 3 p.m. the same day of her missed hearing, and transported to the Buncombe County Detention Center, according to FBI-Charlotte PIO Shelley Lynch.

A status conference was scheduled for Monday, Oct. 17, to determine if Moody had violated the terms of her bond. However, as of press time on Oct. 18, court records show that the hearing was continued to Oct. 19 “to allow for additional time to address representation issues,” according to court documents.

Initially, Moody had asked to represent herself, but later changed her mind in retaining Deveraux. It’s not clear what the “representation issues” in the court records are referring to.

The grand jury indictment filed against Moody on Oct. 4 alleges that from April through early September of this year, Moody “served” dozens of phony writs from a sham court, offering bounties on elected officials who failed to acknowledge them.

Moody admitted to The Smoky Mountain News that she was behind the threats during a Sept. 2 phone call, five days prior to her arrest.

Moody is to remain in confinement pending further hearings.

Criminal Justice Academy, N.C. League of Municipalities and the Dolan Consulting Group

The Town received nine applications for the position and several qualified candidates were interviewed.

“Captain Holland has the education, experience and established relationships in Macon County and the region which will allow for a seamless change in leadership. His familiarity with department procedures and existing staff will ensure that the police department will continue to excel into the future,” said Owens.

Devin Holland.

A news release sent out by the Town of Franklin stated that Chief Bill Harrell and Captain Holland will work together to ensure that the staff, citizens and visitors continue to receive exemplary service during this transition period.

Harrell announced his retirement in August 2022. A reception will be held on Monday, Nov. 7 from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m. to honor his service.

A matter of trust: NC-11 seeks stability after Meadows & Cawthorn

BY C ORY VAILLANCOURT P OLITICS E DITOR

Western North Carolina’s last two Republican congressmen, Mark Meadows and Madison Cawthorn, have left behind them a combined decadelong legacy of deceit, inaction and possible criminal activity.

Now, as another hard-fought race in North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District nears its end, voters across the region will not only have to weigh the predictable partisan positions and the life experience of the candidates, but also whether those candidates can actually be trusted to do the job they’re sent to Washington to do without attempting to overthrow the government while they’re there.

“This election is about very stark choices,” said Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, a Buncombe County commissioner and Democratic nominee. “If there’s one thing that I could ask voters to think about as they prepare to make their decisions about who to vote for, it’s that

Western North Carolina deserves someone in Congress who understands that their job is to fulfill their oath of office and to represent every single person in our district.”

Meadows, a Florida native and former sandwich shop owner, burst onto the scene in 2012, entrusted by the voters of the 11th Congressional District to represent them after winning the General Election by nearly 15 points. In 2014 and 2016 he expanded those margins, with no opponent coming closer than 26 points. In 2018, his margin of victory slipped to a still-substantial 20 points.

Around that same time, Meadows had become something of a national figure, chairing the House Freedom Caucus and spending more time interacting with network TV talkers than with constituents and media in his own district.

In December 2018, it was revealed that Meadows had been somewhat less than truthful about his degree from the University of South Florida when his official bio was quietly edited to remove his bachelor’s degree

and instead reflect the two-year associate’s degree he actually earned.

A year later, on Dec. 19, 2019, Meadows stunned the political establishment just hours before the candidate filing deadline by saying he wouldn’t seek a fifth term. The move was seen as a way to box out other Republicans in favor of his preferred candidate, Maggie Valley realtor Lynda Bennett, whose flash filing and spectacular campaign implosion led directly to the rise of Cawthorn.

President Donald Trump tweeted on March 6, 2020 that Meadows would soon become his chief of staff. Three weeks later, Meadows resigned his seat in Congress, leaving Western North Carolina without a voice on Capitol Hill just as the federal government passed some of the largest spending packages in American history while at the same time attempting to manage an unprecedented global pandemic.

By September 2020, Meadows and his wife Debbie had registered to vote in a ramshackle Macon County mobile home that he

didn’t own and had probably never visited. Mark and Debbie Meadows have since been purged from the Macon County voter rolls, and the matter remains under investigation by the State Bureau of Investigation.

After Trump’s 2020 General Election loss to President Joe Biden, Meadows floated conspiracy theories that he ultimately couldn’t prove — including that the Vatican and the U.S. embassy in Rome conspired to use satellites to change Trump votes to Biden votes.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue called the theory “pure insanity.”

Throughout 2022, the bipartisan House Select Committee to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has shown Meadows to be a central figure in the insurrection. Former aide Cassidy Hutchins testified under oath that in the waning days of the Trump administration Meadows had unsuccessfully sought from the president a pardon for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Meadows’ successor, Hendersonville native Madison Cawthorn, left a trail of

Madison Cawthorn (center), Republican rep from the 11th District, lost a close primary to Sen. Chuck Edwards in May.

Jeffrey Delannoy photo

deception, desertion and possible criminality similar to that of his predecessor.

Although he briefly worked in Meadows’ office, Cawthorn’s only real job experience prior to serving in Congress was at a Chick-filA in Hendersonville. When he ran in 2020, Cawthorn was a charismatic unknown who finished second in a Republican Primary Election field of 12 — just above Macon County Republican Sen. Jim Davis — to make it into a runoff with Bennett.

Cawthorn went on to beat Bennett in the runoff by a 2-to-1 margin and then defeated Democratic nominee Moe Davis by more than 12 points, even after accounts of sexual harassment were first reported in The Smoky Mountain News and, on the very same day, in Christian conservative magazine The World.

Like Meadows, Cawthorn wasn’t honest about his educational background, telling multiple sources his plan to attend the U.S. Naval Academy had been derailed after a devastating car wreck left him paralyzed. In reality, he’d been rejected by the USNA before the wreck.

Cawthorn’s college career was less than stellar; after earning poor grades, he dropped out of Patrick Henry College before completing his second semester. His classmates were so disturbed by his antics there that more than 150 of them — nearly half the school — signed on to a scornful letter calling out his character.

Just three days after Cawthorn was formally entrusted to represent the people of the 11th Congressional District in Congress, he spoke at Trump’s now infamous “Stop the Steal” rally at the ellipse in Washington, saying the crowd “has some fight in it.”

Later that day, Cawthorn sequestered himself in a secure location as a mob he called “disgusting and pathetic” broke windows, breached the Capitol and left feces and urine in hallways while disrupting an official proceeding of Congress.

Late that night, Cawthorn voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election and subsequently repeated many of the debunked election fraud claims offered by Trump and Meadows.

During Biden’s inauguration two weeks later, Cawthorn told The Smoky Mountain News that in hindsight he wouldn’t have changed much about his ellipse speech, as some of his most ardent supporters began to distance themselves from him.

Throughout his first term, Cawthorn was criticized for his attendance record by nonprofit government watchdog ProPublica, which called him one of the most absent members of Congress.

He also carried a gun into an airport twice, received a number of traffic citations including for driving while revoked, brought knives onto school property, ran into FEC troubles, faced an ethics investigation over a cryptocurrency scheme and called Jan. 6 rioters “patriots.”

This past spring, Cawthorn’s own spectacular campaign implosion was reminiscent of Bennett’s as a nonstop barrage of salacious scandals provided near-daily speculation about his fitness for office.

A Nov. 11, 2021, statement from Cawthorn, premature in retrospect,

announced that he would run in a different congressional district in 2022. The decision was based on proposed maps that were still under court scrutiny. When the maps were struck down, Cawthorn had little choice but to return to the 11th and face the growing primary field, which included his former NC-11 GOP district director and apparent hand-picked successor Michele Woodhouse, along with a powerful three-term Republican senator from Hendersonville, Chuck Edwards.

All told, it wasn’t a huge surprise when Edwards slid past Cawthorn by 1.6% in the May 17 Republican Primary Election and avoided a runoff to become the Republican nominee from a field of eight.

Edwards shares more in common with Cawthorn and Meadows than just the “R” behind their names.

In August, Edwards refused to attend a forum hosted by The Smoky Mountain News and Blue Ridge Public Radio, choosing rather to spend the time with donors in Brevard. Edwards maintains he’d only agreed to do one forum throughout the entirety of the General Election campaign, after appearing at nearly a dozen during the Primary Election — during which he called out Cawthorn’s multiple absences.

Instead, Edwards chose to participate in a different forum hosted by a Sinclair-owned television station that didn’t even bother to invite the third candidate, Libertarian David Coatney. Up to that point, Edwards had previously spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising with the station.

Like Meadows and Cawthorn, Edwards hasn’t exactly been clear about his educational attainment. His campaign website says he “studied business at Blue Ridge Community College,” but doesn’t elaborate. Emails sent by The Smoky Mountain News to Edwards’ campaign on Sept. 1 and Sept. 16, asking for a detailed academic history, both went unanswered.

Fellow candidates Beach-Ferrara (BA, Brown University 1998; MFA Warren Wilson College 2001; M.Div Harvard University 2010) and Coatney (BA and MA, Arkansas Tech 1999-2006) both responded to SMN’s inquiry the day it was sent.

During an Oct. 14 interview, Edwards said he didn’t receive any sort of degree from BRCC, but that he had gone on to take various business classes with UNC-Asheville and other colleges on online.

Like Meadows and Cawthorn, Edwards’ life experience has its roots in selling sandwiches.

“My education came from behind the counter at McDonald’s, and knowing how to operate a business and learning how to serve people,” he said. Edwards began working at the fast-food establishment at the age of 16 and now owns several Western North Carolina franchises.

It was for those franchises that Edwards took a $1.12 million PPP loan in 2020.

Edwards came out strongly against Biden’s student loan forgiveness measure, telling The Smoky Mountain News on Sept. 7 that Biden’s proposal was “unfair to the millions of Americans who have paid back their debt and to the taxpayers who will now pay

the debts of those who haven’t.”

Two weeks prior, the GOP House Judiciary Committee’s official Twitter account said, “If you take out a loan, you pay it back. Period.”

But Edwards didn’t pay it back. He didn’t have to. His seven-figure loan was forgiven, along with all accrued interest.

After loan forgiveness, Edwards and other legislators managed to carve themselves out a tax break on the loan proceeds, which were to have been counted as taxable income until the 2021 Appropriations Act passed. WBTTV reported that the measure would net Edwards $40,000 to $50,000 in savings.

Similar to remarks made by House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland), Edwards brushed aside ethical concerns of the tax

break by telling WBT’s Nick Ochsner that he “wasn’t — and have not been — acting on my behalf” and that he “came here to Raleigh to represent the interests of business.”

Meanwhile, Edwards and fellow legislators in the Republican-dominated General Assembly did nothing when Gov. Roy Cooper called on them to waive state income taxes on student loan debt that would soon be forgiven.

Like Meadows and Cawthorn, Edwards holds a more benign view of the threat to democracy faced by Americans during the Jan. 6 insurrection.

During a Primary Election forum in February on WTQZ-AM, Edwards said, “It

Democrat Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, a Buncombe County Commissioner, became the first candidate to enter the race in March, 2021. Cory Vaillancourt photo

Republican Sen. Chuck Edwards officially joined the race in December 2021. Cory Vaillancourt photo

In-person early voting begins Oct. 20

BY C ORY VAILLANCOURT P OLITICS E DITOR

The 2022 General Election will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 8, but in-person early voting gets underway this 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 to bring it along just in case.

Vote-by-mail ballots are still 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 was Friday, Oct. 14. To check your registration, to find your polling place or to 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

If he’s elected and Republicans take control of the House of Representatives, Edwards recommends doing away with the Jan. 6 committee altogether.

“I would propose that it’s time for the U.S. House to turn its attention towards the future and make life better for the folks in America,” he said. “My intention is to help improve the lives of folks here in these mountains by reducing inflation, by unleashing American energy, by making America a safe place to live again and by reforming our education systems.”

A GOP-led House could, if it wished, rejigger or replace the committee under new Republican leadership, offering its own rebuttals and evidence. Edwards isn’t interested in presenting the GOP’s version of events.

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 Rd. 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.

to know about his priorities. He is part of the same extremist movement we’ve gotten from Madison Cawthorn and Mark Meadows and Western North Carolina needs and deserves a clean break.”

During the Aug. 31 forum that Edwards chose not to attend, Libertarian candidate Coatney offered his own view of the insurrection.

clearly was not an insurrection, it was a riot not brought under control by Nancy Pelosi when she would have had the opportunity to do that. It was a dark day for America but it was not an insurrection.”

Fact checking by the Associated Press shows that Edwards’ claim about Pelosi, also advanced by Trump, Indiana Rep. Jim Banks and Minority Leader McCarthy, is demonstrably false.

Footage recently screened by the Jan. 6 committee shows Pelosi, along with Sen. Chuck Schumer, desperately phoning Trump administration officials, pleading with them for help to stop the violence. Pelosi also called Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, asking for National Guard troops.

After 10 televised hearings from the Jan. 6 committee and the conviction of two Oath Keepers on charges of seditious conspiracy,

Edwards still doesn’t think it was an insurrection.

“I’ve said many times that Jan. 6 was not an insurrection. Jan. 6, began as a peaceful protest by hundreds of thousands of people exercising their First Amendment rights, and there were a few folks in the crowd that broke out into a riot,” he told The Smoky Mountain News on Oct. 14.

A running list of people charged in conjunction with the Jan. 6 insurrection shows that more than a few people, 928 to be exact, broke out into a riot.

Instead of focusing on the very real crimes committed by rioters, which have resulted in sentences ranging from probation to 10 years in the case of a man who assaulted a police officer, Edwards pointed a finger at the left.

“I don’t condone violence from anyone, including the groups that we’ve seen from the radical left side, such as Antifa and others that are never challenged and never held accountable and certainly should be,” he said.

“I’m looking in the windshield. We’ve got problems here in America that are affecting working families, particularly here in Western North Carolina,” he said. “My focus is going to be on serving the folks of these mountains and making sure that they’ve got a voice in Washington D.C.”

Beach-Ferrara has maintained a consistent position on the insurrection, which she reiterated during an Oct. 15 interview.

“Jan. 6 was an insurrection. it was one of the darkest days in our country’s history and we have to ensure that it never happens again. What we have learned through the Jan. 6 committee’s work is that the planning of that event and the coordination around it went all the way to the White House, including the involvement of Mark Meadows, a former representative from this district,” she said. “People lost their lives on that day. Brave members of the Capitol Police Force are still recovering from what happened that day. It was a direct assault on our democracy. The fact that Sen. Edwards fails to acknowledge that lives were lost, that members of law enforcement were injured, that it breached fundamental promises and how we protect our democracy tells us exactly what we need

“I would call it an insurrection as well. And I would also like to point out the difference between a riot and a protest — it is not dependent on your political persuasion. What I saw on Jan. 6 was I saw Trump supporters standing around the sidewalks just waving flags. Those are not rioters, those are protestors. At that exact same time, I also saw individuals breaking windows, busting through doors and storming government facilities. Those are rioters. This may be hard for some people to reconcile, but those two can coexist at the exact same time,” he said. “I witnessed the exact same thing in the summer of 2020 during the BLM protests. I saw individuals marching down the streets chanting. Those are not rioters, those are protestors. But at the exact same time I witnessed individuals that were burning down blackowned businesses and that were victimizing innocent people. Those are rioters. If it’s a riot when the other team does it, but a protest when your team does it, then perhaps it’s time to take the partisan goggles off.”

Despite the apparent similarities between Meadows, Cawthorn and himself, Edwards wants voters to trust him with the sacred duty of representing a mostly rural, somewhat impoverished district that’s lacked stable, transparent, efficient leadership for the last four years, if not more.

“I’ve clearly got a record. I’ve served in the North Carolina Senate for the last six years, and I’ve done exactly what the voters trusted me to do,” he said. “I think that’s why they’re ultimately going to make a decision to trust me with yet another public office.”

Republican Mark Meadows represented the 11th Congressional District until resigning in March 2020. Cory Vaillancourt photo

FROM

Panhandling public hearing planned for Sylva

BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF W RITER

Sylva plans to hold a public hearing on a panhandling ordinance after residents raised concerns about its growing prevalence at the Asheville Highway, NC 107 intersection during an August meeting.

“The board requested this after public comment Sept. 8, and commissioner Gelbaugh asked that this be placed on a future agenda,” said Town Manager Paige Dowling during the Oct. 13 meeting of the Sylva Board of Commissioners. “A lot of this language is standard in big cities, what would be called a panhandling ordinance.”

According to Dowling, the ordinance does carry a criminal charge. Ordinances that have criminal charges can’t be adopted on the day they are introduced. A public hearing has been scheduled on the ordinance for 5:30 p.m. Nov. 10.

At the Aug. 25 meeting, George Neslen addressed the board during public comment.

“I just wanted to come today and speak. An issue that’s been concerning me for a long time is some of the panhandling and begging that’s going on at the intersections in town. The one at the bottom of the hill that is the entrance to Sylva particularly bothers me because that’s also an area that the Rotary Club volunteers to beautify,” said Neslen.

Neslen asserted that he sees the same group of people there and that they seem to be taking shifts, “treating it much more like a business than somebody that’s in need of true help.”

“I’ve spoken to plenty of town officials and law enforcement, the biggest issue that I’ve been told is that there is no ordinance written, so I just wanted to voice my concern and ask the board to write that ordinance in some way to deal with this issue that I feel is only going to get worse,” said Neslen.

During that August meeting, Commissioner Mary Gelbaugh echoed Neslen’s concern.

“I work in a small business near the intersection that you’re referring to, and we’re having patients stressed out, coming into our establishment because it’s gotten out of

Hospice House Foundation receives grant awards

Hospice House Foundation of WNC (HHFWNC), whose mission is to construct an in-patient hospice facility in Franklin to serve the residents of far western North Carolina and northeastern Georgia, has been awarded grants totalling nearly $100,000 in the past four months. This brings the Foundation within $250,000 of its final fundraising goal, according to Foundation President Michele Alderson.

The Foundation’s most recent grant awards include:

hand,” said Gelbaugh. “So we intend to have this on the agenda very soon.”

Police Chief Chris Hatton concurred that his department had been seeing an increase in people without housing around Sylva.

“We have had a pretty significant increase in calls for service that are related to our homeless population,” said Hatton. “We’ve been in regular contact with HERE [of Jackson County] and some of our other community resources almost daily. We’re definitely working on solutions for that, not the easiest problem to solve, but we’re seeing a real increase just in the last month or two, definitely noticeable.”

Sylva does not currently have a panhandling ordinance. The creation of this ordinance will serve as an amendment to section 30 of the Town Code of Ordinances titled Streets and Sidewalks.

The proposed ordinance contains a list of prohibited acts. It would make it unlawful to beg, solicit or panhandle within 100 feet of any intersection of a public vehicular road or financial institution, within 15 feet of the edge of the pavement of any public vehicular road, within 20 feet of any commercial establishment open for business, while the person beings solicited is standing in line to for a commercial establishment, by touching the person being solicited without their consent, blocking the path of the person being solicited, following the person being solicited after that person has declined the request, by or with the use of threatening or profane language, between the hours of 8 p.m. and 6 a.m., while under the influence of alcohol or any controlled substance, using false or misleading information or indicating the solicitor or member of their family suffers from a physical or mental disability when the information is false.

The penalty for violation would be punishable as a misdemeanor.

Commissioner Mary Gelbaugh made the motion to add the ordinance public hearing to the agenda for the Nov. 10 meeting.

Commissioners Greg McPherson, Ben Guiney and Natalie Newman voted in favor of the addition, Commissioner David Nestler voted against.

• The Church of the Good Shepherd$10,000

• Highlands Cashiers Health Foundation - $31,420

• Mountain Findings - $25,000

• Philip L. Van Every Foundation$25,000

“SECU Hospice House of WNC, so named in recognition of and appreciation for an extraordinary $1 million lead gift from the State Employees’ Credit Union Foundation, is slated to open this time next year,” Alderson said.

An immediate funding need facing the Foundation is for architectural/engineering services, an estimated $35,000 expense that was not part of the original fundraising campaign budget.

Cherokee approves election law changes

Update loosens absentee ballot eligibility, eliminates chief term limits

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF W RITER

During a special called meeting Thursday, Sept. 29, the Cherokee Tribal Council passed an update to the tribe’s election ordinance that gets rid of term limits for executive offices and makes absentee voting available to all tribal members, regardless of residence or employment.

TERM LIMITS FOR CHIEFS

The term limit issue was previously discussed during Tribal Council Thursday, Sept. 1, when Yellowhill Rep. David Wolfe proposed an amendment striking language that limits chiefs and vice chiefs to two consecutive terms. He did so, he said, not because he doesn’t support term limits but rather because he believes the current law conflicts with the tribe’s Charter and Governing Document.

Attorney General Mike McConnell supported that position, saying that the attorneys in his office agree that enacting term limits would require a referendum vote changing the

charter. The existing law could be overturned in court, McConnell told Council.

During the Sept. 1 meeting, Wolfe’s amendment was narrowly defeated, with five councilmembers opposing it and three absent for a weighted vote of 31 in favor and 45 against. But when Wolfe put the amendment forward again Sept. 29, the vote came out differently. It passed with seven members in favor, three against and two absent.

Yellowhill Rep. T.W. Saunooke was the only member who changed his vote from opposition to support. Wolfetown Rep. Bo Crowe, who had opposed Wolfe’s amendment Sept. 1, was absent Sept. 29, while two members who were absent Sept. 1 — thenWolfetown Rep. Bill Taylor and Painttown Rep. Dike Sneed — were present and voted in favor Sept. 29.

Snowbird/Cherokee County Rep. Adam Wachacha, who seconded Wolfe’s move, said that approving a constitution for the tribe would help address issues like term limits, and that having more referendums on individual issues like this might help the tribe finally approve a constitution.

“I think that the public needs to have a voice in this, and I believe that in order to get the constitution established to an easier level, we need to start having referendum votes on subjects like this so it’s an easier leaping-off point from a charter to a constitution,” he said.

How they voted

Repeal chief term limits

• Yes: Dike Sneed (Painttown), David Wolfe (Yellowhill), Bill Taylor (Wolfetown), Adam Wachacha (Snowbird/Cherokee County), Boyd Owle (Birdtown), Bucky Brown (Snowbird/Cherokee County), T.W. Saunooke (Yellowhill)

• No: Teresa McCoy (Big Cove), Albert Rose (Birdtown), Richard French (Big Cove)

• Absent: Tommye Saunooke (Painttown), Bo Crowe (Wolfetown)

Loosen absentee voting eligibility

• Yes: David Wolfe (Yellowhill), Adam Wachacha (Snowbird/Cherokee County), Boyd Owle (Birdtown), Bill Taylor (Wolfetown), T.W. Saunooke (Yellowhill), Bucky Brown (Snowbird/Cherokee County)

• No: Teresa McCoy (Big Cove), Albert Rose (Birdtown), Richard French (Big Cove), Dike Sneed (Painttown)

• Absent: Tommye Saunooke (Painttown), Bo Crowe (Wolfetown)

In a March 3 meeting, Tribal Council approved a set of referendum questions for the Sept. 7, 2023, General Election that could result in term limits and staggered four-year

terms for Tribal Council members. However, no referendum proposal has been introduced that would impact term limits for chiefs.

ABSENTEE VOTING

Wachacha offered an amendment of his own, one that could dramatically impact voting patterns in Cherokee by allowing enrolled members who live off the Qualla Boundary easier access to absentee ballots.

The election ordinance lists five possible reasons for which an enrolled member who is a registered voter may request an absentee ballot. One category of absentee-eligible voters is “tribal members employed with the federal government assigned to duty other than the Cherokee Indian Reservation who are unable to return to Cherokee/polling place to cast their votes.” Wachacha proposed striking “employed with the federal government assigned to duty other than the Cherokee Indian Reservation,” opening up absentee voting to any tribal member who, for any reason, cannot return to Cherokee for in-person voting.

FWachacha said the current system disenfranchises tribal members who live away from the Qualla Boundary. The tribe counts them when applying for grant money from the federal government, he said, but treats them differently at election season.

“We’re restricting our people from participating in elections, and to me that is not right,” he said. “That is not fair.”

Prior to the Sept. 29 update, acceptable reasons to vote absentee included military service, college enrollment, physical inability or illness, and employment with the federal government. However, residents of tribal lands could vote absentee for essentially any reason, business or personal, that interfered with their ability to visit the polling place.

“We’ve got to give our people an opportunity to vote,” said Birdtown Rep. Boyd Owle. “They may never come back, but they’ve still got a stake in the Qualla Boundary here.”

Not everybody agreed with that point of view. Big Cove Rep. Teresa McCoy warned that approving the change could be “detrimental” to the tribe’s political system, leading to people who don’t know the local community and have never met the candidates having the largest electoral voice.

“This is going to impact the entire Boundary, because half of the tribe does not live here,” she said. “So what we’re doing is we’re opening up by doing this the other half of the tribe that doesn’t live here to cast ballots for people, and a lot of these people have never been here. They’re never going to come here. They check their mailbox twice a year, and that’s about it. But I believe that you do a disservice to the people who actually live here.”

McCoy, who earlier in the meeting argued against the position that the term limit conversation should be settled by referendum, said that absentee voting rules should be a constitutional issue.

“If we’re going to open it up to absentee voting, I think that’s an issue that should be addressed by the constitution,” she said. “And I think the public will let you know if they agree with that.”

Members of the audience had strong opinions on both sides.

Robert Osley Saunooke said that Wachacha’s amendment was an attempt to go “from exclusion to inclusion.”

“This idea of division needs to stop,” he said. “If you live off the reservation and you want to vote, you should be able to vote. You shouldn’t have to buy a plane ticket or spend thousands of dollars to come here.”

Ashley Sessions, who lost her bid to represent Birdtown on Tribal Council during a controversial runoff election in 2017, said that widespread absentee voting could make voter intimidation and vote-buying easier, citing a threatening letter a cousin in Oklahoma had received leading up to a previous election. But she also pointed out how, during the 2017 General Election, many of her out-oftown family members traveled to Cherokee to vote for her. When a run-off election was called, they couldn’t return in time to cast their ballots.

“I would say give it time and discuss this before you make a really quick decision, because really bad things can come from this,” she said.

Ultimately, Wachacha’s amendment passed with four members in favor and six opposed. The ordinance itself passed unanimously, and Principal Chief Richard Sneed has signed it into law.

ESTIMATES

HaywoodBuilders.com 100 Charles St. WAYNESVILLE

your friendly, local blue box — smoky mountain news

Community NOT Chaos, Votes NOT Violence, Laws NOT Lies.

Why does Mark Pless refuse to debate me on the issues?

Why has he joined forces with an extremist group?

Mark Pless is playing politics in Raleigh at our expense.

J OSH R EMILLARD

• Supports funding for education, restoring teacher pay, Universal Pre-K, free/reduced meals

• Supports securing affordable healthcare, bringing down prescription drug prices and combating the opioid crisis

• Supports 2A but also supports common sense gun safety-violent history checks, gun discipline, and safe storage

• Supports the protection of voting rights. Every citizen has the right to cast a ballot and should not be marginalized at the voting booth

• Supports the Infrastructure plan to protect western North Carolina’s natural beauty and agricultural community, preparation for natural disasters and creating good-paying jobs

• Supports veterans who have earned and deserve help when transitioning back into societysupport with medical issues, affordable housing and good-paying jobs

Mark Pless

• Was the subject of sexual harassment allegations by female coworkers and was subsequently fired from Haywood EMS

• Blindsided local officials by introducing legislation to make School Board and Town Board elections partisan

• Joined the extremist right-wing group NC House Freedom Caucus and has refused to debate me on the issues

• Introduced legislation that would strip Town Boards of their ability to exercise planning jurisdiction on parcels of land near their borders

• To align with the Conservative Political Action Conference and the Republican National Committee, he will vote the party line instead of listening to his constituents on the issues

• Viewed as a bully by female constituents “Arrogant,” “Out of Control” and “Power Hungry” are words community and business leaders use to describe Pless

PLEASE VISIT WWW.JOSHREMILLARD.COM for more information about Josh or to contribute to his campaign efforts.

DISCLAIMER: PAID FOR BY HAYWOOD COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

BY JOSH REMILLARD, CANDIDATE FOR NORTH CAROLINA STATE REPRESENTATIVE.

HANNAH MCLEOD

STAFF W RITER

Earlier this school year, Haywood County Schools Superintendent Dr. Bill Nolte declared his impending retirement. Shortly thereafter, the school board announced it had selected his replacement, Associate Superintendent Dr. Trevor Putnam. Now, the school system has chosen which administrators will fill in the positions left open down the chain of command.

“Mr. Chairman, members of the board, it’s a pleasure to number one, stand in front of you unofficially as the next superintendent, that’s very exciting to me, but also to name the first step in a replacement plan,” Putnan said during the Oct. 10 Board of Education meeting. “I’ve never had to replace myself, but it was pretty easy, because it’s pretty likely that they’re going to go up, you go up from there.”

Putnam went on to introduce Graham Haynes, who has been working as principal of Waynesville Middle School, as the next Assistant Superintendent. The replacement plan that Putnam referred to was divulged as the unofficial system for choosing new superintendents in Haywood County Schools during the meeting in which Putnam’s appointment was announced.

“Five or so years ago, we asked Dr. Nolte to put together an organizational structure that would prepare Haywood County Schools for success beyond his tenure as superintendent,” said Haywood County School Board Member Bobby Rogers during the Sept. 12 school board meeting. “During the five years that we’ve had the opportunity to work with Dr. Putnam as associate superintendent, we’ve always found his work to be exemplary, always exceeding our expectations, therefore I move that we forgo a search process and extend a four-year contract for superintendent of Haywood County Schools to Dr. Trevor Putnam.”

At the time of the appointment, school board Chairman Chuck Francis confirmed that the board did ask Nolte to come up with a succession plan when he was hired on as superintendent, and that Putnam was part of that plan. Searching for and hiring a superintendent is among the responsibilities of the elected school board.

Haynes has worked at Waynesville Middle School as a teacher, coach and principal. He also worked for a time as an assistant principal at Tuscola High School, where he was also Athletic Director.

“I’ve gotten to witness him grow and learn over the years and deal with some really tough situations, and he did so with class and dignity,” said Putnam.

“I’d like to thank my wife and my family first,” said Haynes in his address to the board. “I’d like to thank Dr. Putnam for giving me

this opportunity and for entrusting me in this role, for helping me be a better leader throughout the years and to be a better person as well. As assistant superintendent my goal is just to keep Haywood County Schools on that upward trajectory that we are on. Haywood County Schools is a great school system, Haywood County is a great county. To be able to serve in a role like this and to help lead a school system that helped shape you as a child, that you came through, and a community that you grew up in and are still a part of, it’s a dream come true and it’s amazing. I look forward to working with you all.”

Casey Conard will be filling the position of principal at Waynesville Middle. He was previously working as Assistant Principal at Pisgah High School.

“Casey is a one hundred percent go-getter. He has a lot of with-it-ness; I’ve never had to worry about Casey’s loyalty to kids, to me, to Pisgah High School. I’ll miss that,” said Pisgah Principal Clint Conner as he announced Conard’s new position. “He’s a hard worker. I’ve never ran across anyone that didn’t like his personality and what he stood for. I think Waynesville is getting a gem.”

Conard began his career in Haywood County eleven years ago at Hazelwood Elementary School. He has spent the last five years at Pisgah High School.

“I believe in and I love Haywood County Schools, and I appreciate the trust that you guys have put in me to lead,” said Conard. “I appreciate the opportunity. I won’t let you down.”

During the meeting, Chairman Francis thanked Nolte again for his service to Haywood County Schools, noting that it was under his leadership that the school system rose to seventh in the state.

“I noticed tonight the family atmosphere that we have here,” said Francis. “These young ladies are going to be charged with, when the men come home at night, tired and worn out and want to punch a hole in the wall, let’s hopefully not have to get the guy out there to repair the sheetrock. I know there’s going to be frustration, but I know that you’ve got tremendous support, not only here but at your churches and family gatherings as well.”

Casey Conard (from left), Trevor Putnam, Graham Haynes and Jill Barker pose at the Oct. 10 school board meeting. HCS photo

Pless, Remillard face off with GOP supermajority at stake

BY C ORY VAILLANCOURT P OLITICS E DITOR

Although it may look lopsided by the numbers, the race for North Carolina’s 118th House District could be a bit more competitive this cycle — not only because of the personalities involved in partisan political wranglings over an odd mix of local and national issues, but also because of the statewide implications of a potential Republican supermajority hanging in the balance.

“You know, a lot of people are fearful of a supermajority. To me, it’s a good thing, because it would give us the opportunity to do some things that are controversial but do need to be addressed,” said Mark Pless, a first-term Republican representative and former Haywood County commissioner.

Nonpartisan mapping resource davesredistricting.org uses a composite method to rank legislative districts by partisan performance, rather than by more deceptive voter registration statistics. The site puts Pless’ new district, comprised of Haywood and Madison counties, at 59.9% Republican.

Pless has a good bit of momentum behind him right now; along with Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers, a Democrat, Pless is widely viewed as the face of bipartisan flood recovery efforts after the devastation of 2021 and was responsible for nearly $20 million in direct appropriations from the General Assembly.

But Pless has also drawn the ire of elected officials and voters on both sides of the aisle with a pair of bills that some felt usurped municipal authority and ignored local sentiments.

In May, Pless introduced a bill that would have made all Haywood County elections partisan. Members of the school board and some municipal governing boards said that they weren’t consulted, that they didn’t want the bill and that they would pass resolutions saying so.

In June, Pless threatened to strip Haywood municipalities of their authority to act in ETJs, the extraterritorial jurisdictions located adjacent to municipal boundaries. Again, elected officials complained that they didn’t want the bill and weren’t consulted.

“They’re having a hard time understanding that I don’t answer to them,” Pless told The Smoky Mountain News on June 3. “They’re not my boss.”

Neither bill became law, but lingering resentment could cost him some support, especially if his opponent can capitalize on it.

Democrat Josh Remillard is a Goldsboro native who was raised by his grandparents in exotic locations like Egypt, Israel and Tunisia — a consequence of his grandfather’s job with the U.S. Department of State.

Remillard went on to join the Army, served two tours in Iraq, and is currently serving in another important role as a stay-athome dad to his two children.

In 2020, Remillard ran against Republican Tim Moffitt in the heavily Republican 117th District, losing by more than 20 points. Less than six months later, Remillard declared his intent to run in North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District against newly elected Congressman Madison Cawthorn (R-Henderson), citing the Jan. 6 insurrection as a major factor in his decision.

“You know, every single one of us knew what we were getting into in defense of our country,” Remillard said of his military service. “So to see what some representatives

Democrat Jasmine Beach-Ferrara (see TRUST, p. 6) had already gained substantial traction with her own campaign and Remillard opted instead to run against Pless.

Since then, two unexpected issues — national in scope, more or less — have returned to the discourse after a decades-long absence and could serve as rallying points that drive both Democrats and Republicans to the polls.

The first is abortion, settled law since 1973 but no longer. When the ruling was overturned in June, the debate over reproductive rights was returned to the states. North Carolina’s 20-week abortion ban remains in place, and conservative legislators like Pless want to see tighter restrictions.

“I’m concerned with dialing it back,” Pless said in support of a less lenient abortion policy. “There’s going to be a heartbeat bill introduced. That’s going to be the start of the conversation, and then it’s going to be a long process to reach a point to where we are able to do what’s in the best interest of North Carolina.”

Amendment, we get all up in arms, so to speak, when the government tries to come into our houses and take away our guns. To me, that same logic applies to telling a woman when she’s going to be ready to be a mother.”

Polling over decades shows voters side with Democrats on the issue of abortion, and some Dems in tight races have been using the issue to motivate undecided and unaffiliated voters to oppose Republicans that want to reduce or eliminate its availability.

Conversely, inflation can’t be ignored and is always blamed on the party in power nationally, which this cycle happens to be Democrats. Republicans are using that very tangible issue — call it “gas and groceries” if you like — to drive undecided and unaffiliated voters to the ballot box.

“My biggest issue right now is folks are in dire need,” Pless said. “The more I talk to people, they have trouble acquiring food, they have trouble acquiring gas, they have trouble acquiring food for their pets. I have spoken to several of the nonprofits in Madison County and in Haywood County and the ones who were handing out food are saying that they’ve had to cut back the box sizes because they can’t afford to stuff them with as much as they did.”

Pless did say that there’s not much a state government can do about a national or global problem like inflation, but he’s hoping to find some money in the next budget to provide some sort of relief for low-income people who rely on nonprofits for sustenance.

were willing to do in turning Americans against Americans and trying to trying to resist the peaceful overturning of power — to me, that was a slap in the face of all those of all the service members that gave their lives for this country.”

This is where things get a little wild; Cawthorn subsequently announced his intention to run in a Charlotte-area congressional district, leaving his 11th District seat open. Remillard quickly announced he’d follow Cawthorn to the Charlotte district.

However, that district never came to be, as statewide redistricting was still under court scrutiny. By the time Cawthorn announced he was coming back to the 11th District,

Republicans hold significant majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly, and that won’t change after the November elections. What could change, however, is their ability to override Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes.

Cooper came out in support of reproductive rights, which means he’s likely to veto any abortion bill that lands on his desk.

If Republicans can post a net gain of three House seats and two Senate seats, they’ll be able to override Cooper’s veto on abortion as well as issues like Medicaid expansion, guns and budgeting.

Remillard supports keeping the 20-week limit in place.

“I have an issue with government overreach,” he said. “When it comes to the Second

He’s also trying to find funding for educational infrastructure. Aging school buildings are becoming a bigger and bigger problem across Western North Carolina and in Haywood County, especially Waynesville and Canton’s middle schools.

“Both of those schools, they need to be replaced. They’re 100 years old, and they don’t serve their purpose anymore,” said Pless. “I’ve had some conversations with the school system. It’s their decision on what they want to do, but I’d love to be able to bring some money back to help get some of these buildings replaced and take that off of the county’s back.”

Then there’s the issue of Central Haywood High School, which was damaged during flooding last year. Pless wants to move it somewhere away from the Pigeon River, perhaps rebranding it as a cutting-edge tech school for students interested in blue-collar careers.

Perhaps the biggest issue the next representative from District 118 will have to deal with isn’t exactly a legislative one — it’s the Global Opioid

Mark Pless

Josh Remillard

“Thinking about the party that he’s a part of, I would assume that he’d be more about smaller government, and not about oppressive, larger government.”

— Josh Remillard

“The more I talk to people, they have trouble acquiring food, they have trouble acquiring gas, they have trouble acquiring food for their pets.

— Mark Pless

File photos

Settlement, and how regional leadership on a state and local level will influence the way that money will be spent.

Settlement funds will be distributed to North Carolina counties and municipalities over a period of approximately 20 years. It’s not a lot of money, but it’s better than what counties had been getting — nothing. Pless thinks a collaborative effort amongst western counties could have more of an impact than if each county were to go its own way.

“We have seven counties, including Haywood County, and we need a treatment facility. There are organizational plans being made and hopefully, we’re going to have a meeting by the end of this month,” he said. “The State of North Carolina is not in a position to do recurring funding, but we could build a building. So what we want to do is we want to get the counties together and have a conversation if this is something that the counties want to do.”

Remillard says he lost a close friend and fellow veteran to PTSD-induced heroin overdose, and that he’s since learned that local law enforcement agencies support the collaborative model.

“The issues that I was hearing from the police and from sheriffs was that not all counties are equipped to be able to handle these things and what they feel that would be better is to have a task force from the from the state that was applied in each county or certain regions of the state and help in establishing these centers so we can effectively work our way through this problem,” he said.

The real test of the collaborative model will be if state legislators can coax local leaders in seven very different counties with very different problems to agree on the who, what and where of the project in time to start saving lives.

Remillard doesn’t think Pless is the person for that job.

“Everywhere I go, be it a Republican or a Democrat, they’re concerned with the fact that he’s a bully. He’s oppressive,” Remillard said. “If he wants something done, instead of working with the appropriate people or communities to get it done, he just says, do this, or I’ll get the state do this to you. Thinking about the party that he’s a part of, I would assume that he’d be more about smaller government, and not about oppressive, larger government.”

Likewise, Pless doesn’t think Remillard has the relevant local experience to make an impact on the issues important to voters in the 118th District.

“I’ve spent my entire life in Haywood County, specifically, at 55 years old. I’ve worked in the church, I have been in the fire department, I was in EMS, I was a county commissioner. Each phase of that has brought me to a different understanding of the people of Western North Carolina. In order to be able to help folks, you have to understand the issues,” he said. “If you’re going to sit in this role, you can’t sit and wait for things to come up and try to figure out how to understand the situation and then address it. You have to have a good foundation within your community in order for you to be successful, and I think that is the thing that he’s missing.”

FIND US AT

Following domestic violence charges, Taylor resigns Council seat

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF W RITER

Wolfetown Rep. Dennis Edward “Bill” Taylor has resigned his seat on Tribal Council following an Oct. 6 incident that led to a trio of criminal charges and a domestic violence protective order.

Chairman Richard French relayed the news at the beginning of the Oct. 17 Annual Council session, reading an email he had received from Taylor the previous day.

“It has truly been an honor representing the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians as Tribal Council representative for nine years,” Taylor wrote, according to French. “At this time I have decided to step away from Tribal Council, take care of myself, my health and my family, so please accept my resignation Sunday, Oct. 16, as Tribal Council representative of Wolfetown and Big Y communities. Please keep me and my family in your prayers.”

Court documents allege that Taylor, 51, had been harassing his wife by constantly texting her while drunk, culminating in a domestic dispute Friday, Oct. 6. When she attempted to flee in her vehicle, court documents allege, Taylor got in his truck and struck her vehicle with such force that it was disabled, including damage to the rear passenger bumper and tire. Taylor’s truck was damaged as well. The collision allegedly jarred his wife’s body enough to cause physical harm. Afterward, court documents allege, Taylor fled the scene.

Taylor now faces three charges: assault on a female domestic violence, assault with a deadly weapon and reckless endangerment.

RESIGNATION AND RETIREMENT

At the time of his resignation, Taylor was serving his fifth term on Tribal Council. He was the body’s chairman 2015-2017, presiding over a tumultuous era in tribal government that included the impeachment and removal of former Principal Chief Patrick Lambert. Following an election loss in 2017, Principal Chief Richard Sneed hired him to represent the tribe in Raleigh and Washington, D.C., as its governmental affairs liaison.

During the Oct. 17 meeting, French said that Tribal Council will “promptly” fill the vacancy his resignation creates using the same special election process for the vacancy created when Painttown Rep. Tommye Saunooke passed away Sunday, Oct. 9, while serving her 12th consecutive term. According to French, the Board of Elections planned to meet the afternoon of Oct. 17 to discuss details for the special election. Tribal Council will most likely consider and vote on an election plan for the two

seats at its next meeting Monday, Oct. 24.

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 prescribe a timeframe for such an election.

In an interview following news of Taylor’s arrest, Wolfetown Community Club Chairman Jesse Sneed said that, should the situation result in a vacancy, the seat should

LEGAL PROCESS

Following his arrest Friday, Oct. 7, Taylor was incarcerated for 72 hours and pleaded not guilty at an arraignment hearing 9 a.m. Monday, Oct. 10. His attorney, Leo Phillips, referred to the alleged collision as an accident.

“He’s horribly sorry for this accident that’s occurred and trying to make things amend,” Phillips said. “And we do appreciate the community support and of course the way, very professional and fair, the court has handled him. So he’s very appreciative.”

Taylor was released on a $5,000 unsecured bond and outfitted with a Continuous Alcohol Monitoring Device. To operate his vehicle, he must have an alcohol breath testing device installed on it.

He is also subject to a bevy of restrictions outlined in the domestic violence protective order his wife secured against him. Until the order is vacated or the court approves a final protective order, Taylor’s wife will retain possession of the couple’s white Infiniti QX55 and will live in their home, with Taylor required to stay away from the residence. He is excluded from any personal property at the home outside of his own personal clothing, toiletries and tools. The court order allows his children to retrieve items from the home on his behalf.

Taylor is not allowed to come within 150 feet of his wife or any member of her family. He may not communicate with them or visit their home, workplace or school.

be filled as quickly as possible to ensure Wolfetown voters are adequately represented on Tribal Council.

“Our vote is going to be potentially weakened by this, and I would like to see a quick solution to the situation,” he said.

While Taylor is no longer a voting member of Council, he is still receiving retirement benefits from the tribe equal to about onethird of his final salary, according to the schedule outlined in Tribal Code. However, tribal law indicates those benefits should end.

The law states that any Council member who resigns “while under formal investigation by any tribal, state or federal entity for criminal activity or an impeachable offense, shall forfeit any and all rights to this Tribal Council retirement benefit upon resigning from office.”

But, said Attorney General Mike McConnell, the forfeiture is not automatic. As described later in the section, it requires Tribal Council to pass a resolution with threequarters of the body approving the action.

Additionally, he may not withdraw any money from the couple’s joint bank account. He is required to surrender any firearms, ammunition or gun permits to authorities. He may not receive, use, purchase or possess any guns while the order remains effective.

The order also requires Taylor to participate in an abuser treatment program, as well as drug or alcohol assessment or treatment. Phillips said Taylor is compliant with the order, completing the assessment and starting treatment.

During a court appearance Tuesday, Oct. 18, Legal Services Attorney Jamie Arnold told Judge Barbara Parker that both parties in the case had consented to request that it be continued until the next domestic violence court is held on Tuesday, Nov. 1. Parker consented but made it clear she wanted a timely decision as to where the case was headed, whether that be toward a plea deal, a bench trial or some other resolution.

“We will go to Nov. 1 with the understanding that on Nov. 1 we need to make a decision about where we’re going with this,” she said.

The Oct. 7 domestic violence protection order will remain in effect at least until Taylor’s next court date.

Dennis Edward

“Bill” Taylor

Sylva awards contract for Allen Street repair

HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF W RITER

Sylva has taken the next step in the long process of repairing Allen Street after slope failure destroyed parts of the road early in 2020.

“We’re excited to begin what’s going to be the most complicated and expensive project in the town’s history,” said Town Manager Paige Dowling.

On recommendation from Civil Design Concepts, Sylva’s engineering firm for the project, Sylva awarded the contract for the slope repairs and construction project to Wurster Engineering and Construction, INC. in the amount of $3,423,882 during its Oct. 13 regular meeting.

“This award approval is authorized under the emergency exemption,” said Dowling.

With the award approved by the board, the designs for the project will now go to the DOT for approval.

“I’m just excited after all these years that we’re going to be able to do something and fix this in a way that will hopefully be permanent,” said Mayor Linda Sossamon. “Thank you all.”

At the same October meeting, the town board approved amendments to both the Allen Street Landslide Capital Project Ordinance and the Bryson Park and Playground Equipment Grant Project Ordinance.

The Allen Street ordinance amendment includes $20,000 for rock exclusion, in case Wurster runs into mass rock during construction. Overhead utility relocation has been estimated at $141,000. Total expenditures for the construction project are estimated at $2,314,147. The town is paying for that amount with allocations from the general fund balance made over the last two years and a reimbursement from DOT.

The Bryson Park ordinance amendment increases construction and repair to match the latest cost estimates and offsets the cost by contingency. In order to meet the budget, the sidewalk along Chipper Curve Road that the town board had considered constructing had to be removed from the project.

Money for the Bryson Park upgrades and slope repair came in the form of a line item in the 2021 state budget entitled “Town of Sylva Playground Equipment,” which allocated $3 million for the project. The public park, between Chipper Curve Road and the base of the slope that failed causing damage to Allen Street, was damaged by the landslide.

Beasley, Budd battle for U.S. Senate

BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER

The race for United States Senate in North Carolina has been dubbed a sleepy one, but with Election Day now just three weeks away, things are heating up and both candidates are ramping up the attacks.

The United States Senate is currently made up of 50 Republicans, 48 Democrats and 2 Independents who tend to vote with the Democrats. Because the Vice President breaks ties in the Senate, Democrats hold a slim margin of control.

There are 35 seats up for election this fall. Twenty-one of those seats are currently held by Republicans, as is the case in North Carolina where, having held the seat since 2005, Richard Burr is not seeking reelection. Fighting to take his place are Democrat Cheri Beasley and Republican Ted Budd, as well as a slew of independent and write-in candidates.

Beasley has worked as a public defender and a judge, serving for four years on the Court of Appeals before being appointed to the North Carolina Supreme Court. She was elected to serve a full eight-year term in 2014 and was appointed Chief Justice by Gov. Roy Cooper in 2019. In 2020 Beasley narrowly lost the election for Chief Justice to Republican Paul Newby.

Ted Budd has been serving as a United States Representative for North Carolina’s 13th congressional district since 2017. He is also the owner of a shooting range and gun store and worked as an investment analyst prior to running for elected office.

Both Beasley and Budd told The Smoky Mountain News that the number one issue they are hearing from voters on the campaign trail is inflation. As gas and grocery bills rise, North Carolina families are fighting to keep up.

“People are struggling,” Beasley told SMN. “People are feeling everything from pain at the pump to the cost of prescription drugs and everything in between, and people are working two or three jobs to take care of their families. They want to know that the next senator is going to fight hard for a strong economy, that she’s going to fight hard to lower costs and that she’s going to stand strong for North Carolina. That’s exactly what I plan to do.”

“I’ve got parents, six weeks ago back to school and they don’t know how they’re gonna put gas in their car, groceries on their table and buy back-to-school clothes,” said Budd. “So it’s hitting home. We’re seeing 40year inflation that’s outpacing wages for about 18 months now.”

Budd has blamed the Biden administration for rising inflation.

“Starting with the so-called American Rescue Plan, he pumped $1.9 trillion of unnecessary spending into the economy, which we’re paying for in inflation now and then this so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which hires 87,000 more IRS agents to scrape money out of individuals’ and fami-

lies’ wallets,” Budd said. “I think that’s completely unfair, and it’s inflationary in itself.”

Beasley has accused Budd of not doing enough to stem inflation as a member of Congress.

“Congressman Ted Budd hasn’t stopped [inflation] and in fact he’s actually helping it. He voted against lowering drug prices and gas prices while taking corporate PAC money

determine abortion restrictions returned to the states and several have already enacted bans or have plans to do so. A recent story from the Asheville Watchdog reported that since the Dobbs decision, the proportion of out of-state patients seeking abortion at the Asheville Planned Parenthood clinic has risen to more than half.

At the October debate, Budd called Beaseley extreme in her stance on abortion and women’s reproductive healthcare. Budd cosponsored a bill that would create a

provide for protections and restrictions later in pregnancy and allow them only in the most severe cases, for instance when a woman’s life is at risk. It is the right thing to do, and women deserve that kind of freedom and protection.”

Following the debate, when asked what they were hearing from women on the campaign trail about their hopes for the future of reproductive healthcare, Budd said he was not hearing from women on the issue.

“They’re not talking about it,” Budd told SMN. “The women that come up to me, they’re worried about their children, they’re worried about inflation, they’re worried about woke socialist agendas.”

Beasley has been hearing another story from voters.

national ban on abortion in most cases after 15 weeks.

“I’ve always been pro-life, long before I was even in Congress, and I’ve been consistently there. But at the same time, I’ve always been about protecting the life of the mother, and I want to save as many unborn lives as possible,” Budd said during the debate. “My opponent is up for abortion;

“The majority of folks in North Carolina believe Roe vs. Wade should dictate reproductive freedom,” she said in her interview with SMN. “For nearly 50 years, women have had reproductive freedom to make the choice to have an abortion with their doctor and without government interference. I support Roe v. Wade, which provides for protections and restrictions to address abortion later in pregnancy, so that it only happens in the case where there are very serious problems like the risk of mother’s health.”

from oil and drug companies,” Beasley said at the October debate. “It is important that we fight hard to lower costs because that is exactly what everybody in North Carolina wants. Congressman Budd has not been doing that; he’s not working for us.”

Earlier this year, in Dobbs v. Jackson, the United States Supreme Court overruled the right to an abortion for people more than 15 weeks into their pregnancy. Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito argued that the right to an abortion was not a fundamental constitutional right. The power to

she’s a supporter of abortion at any time, for any reason, all the way up to the moment of birth, and she wants to do that at taxpayer expense.”

“The fundamental question really is, who makes the decision for a woman and her family? Is it you and your doctor, or politicians up in Washington? I know, having been a former judge and chief justice, that women have a constitutionally protected right to make this decision for themselves, with their physician, free from government interference. Congressman Budd has been very clear and has said that he supports and is leading the charge on absolute ban on abortion without exceptions for rape, incest or risk to a mother’s health,” Beasley said during the debate. “I will support the parameters outlined in Roe v. Wade, which

An important issue for both candidates is education. Teachers in North Carolina are paid well below the national average, even when accounting for local supplements. Several school districts in WNC continue to apply for needs-based grants from the state to supplement funding for much-needed capital improvements. Additionally, schools are still trying to make up for learning loss incurred during the COVID pandemic.

“We are coming out of a pandemic and so many children in these rural communities did not have access to broadband or to technology and a lot of the teachers didn’t either. So it meant that a lot of children unfortunately fell behind. We know that last year, about a third of our third graders were retained, that’s a lot of kids,” Beasley told SMN. “The Senate has an obligation to spend our values and to vote our values. I look forward to making sure that schools, teachers, parents and students have the support that we need to catch our students up, to make sure that

Cheri Beasley. Campaign photo

Ted Budd. Campaign photo

“I’ve always been pro-life, long before I was even in Congress, and I’ve been consistently there. But at the same time, I’ve always been about protecting the life of the mother, and I want to save as many unborn lives as possible.”

— Ted Budd

“The majority of folks in North Carolina believe Roe vs. Wade should dictate reproductive freedom. For nearly 50 years, women have had reproductive freedom to make the choice to have an abortion with their doctor and without government interference.”

— Cheri Beasley

Folkmoot USA hosts inaugural ‘Field Summit’

Folkmoot USA hosts the inaugural Field Summit in the Queen Auditorium, 112 Virginia Ave. Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., to provide education and resources to students across Western North Carolina.

Molly Dorgan, Field Summit organizer will lead the event. “Before graduation, I had no idea what the next steps were and I want to prevent other students from feeling this way. We want to acknowledge rural education inequities, kick start student journeys toward overcoming these challenges and provide plans to move forward to address these issues,” said Dorgan.

“I am totally impressed with what Molly Dorgan is doing with this Field Summit. Students often need help presenting themselves and their accomplishments in resumes

teachers have access to not just better pay, but also opportunities for advanced training, and schools have the resources that they need, regardless of zip code.”

Beasley is keen on supporting vocational and apprenticeship programs as well, which she accused Budd of voting against during his time in Congress.

Budd told the Smoky Mountain News that education is another one of the top issues he is hearing about from voters on the campaign trail.

“For the first time in history that I know of, we’re seeing 9-year-olds, as measured by reading and math, going backwards. We can’t have that. You push a social, aggressive, progressive agenda on these kids and you’re crowding out reading and math and things it takes to make them great citizens,” Budd said. “One of the things we’re seeing is that bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., Department of Education folks are paid twice the amount, on average, or more than twice the amount of our teachers. Let’s take money from the Department of Education in Washington’s bureaucracy, and let’s send it to the teachers here in North Carolina. That’s one of the things you can do to bring them in parity.”

While issues like inflation, reproductive healthcare and education are time-sensitive and tend to dominate the news cycle, climate change remains a top concern for young voters. In Haywood County, natural disaster struck with force just over a year ago when the remnants of Tropical Storm Fred caused severe flooding in the Cruso, Canton and Bethel communities.

When Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers, who has endorsed Beasley, was introducing her at an event with Haywood County Democrats last week, he spoke about how she was one of the first people to call after last year’s disaster.

“She made a phone call not as a candidate, not as a judge, she called because she cared about what we were going through,” said Smathers. “Because if you’re going to

and interviews. Molly sees the need and is addressing it. That takes character. Folkmoot USA is proud to support this endeavor,” said Evan Hatch, Director of Folkmoot USA.

Seminars will teach students relevant skills. Classes include building resumes, practicing for interviews, writing college essays, getting involved in volunteering, how to become a mentor and more.

High school students can expect a full day of programming and individual help on college and job prep from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Middle school students will receive age specific resources to help them discover interests, and how they can volunteer in their community, from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The summit challenges three big factors contributing to education inequity in rural communities: financial barriers, inadequate educational structure and cultural differences. It provides a high- impact opportunity to under resourced rural communities in North Carolina.

Learn more and sign up at fieldproject.substack.com

be a U.S. Senator from the great state of North Carolina, especially in these times, you better know how to deal with floods and hurricanes. Cheri’s here because she made that call when others didn’t, and that call will be answered not just for towns like Canton, but other towns and cities in the state when disaster hits, and it will during the next several years, there’s no doubt.”

Beasley and Budd both addressed the issue in their interviews with SMN.

“The climate crisis really is important, and yes we’ve had very difficult issues here on flooding, which resulted in loss of life,” Beasley said. “We’re seeing the sea level rising at the coast; we are experiencing drought and floods all over the state. It is a central issue to this campaign; it has to be. We know that as we’re rebuilding places like Haywood County and other areas that have been impacted by hurricanes and storms, we have to do that in a way that makes us climate resilient. The more we build our grids, the more climate responsible we are, the more we can incentivize farmers for being climate resilient in their work. All of us have a responsibility to do that, but it is important that the next senator really fight for policy to do that, and I’m really excited about that opportunity.”

“Supporting clean air and water doesn’t mean you have to hurt the economy and put people out of jobs and offshore those jobs to China,” Budd said. “We can’t unilaterally disarm compared to China. We talked about doing environmental clean air, clean water things now, but China talks about doing it in 2035 at the soonest. So when you produce energy here in the US, we’re safer and we’re cleaner than anywhere else in the world. If we want to talk about other ways to make sure that we can produce more energy with less emissions, I’m all for that discussion, but we can’t offshore our economy to China, because if we do that, that’s twice the unit of pollution per unit of economic output.”

Scholarship to serve as final curtain call for WCU professor

Although the footlights have fallen dark on an influential Western Carolina University theatre professor and director, a final curtain call for Stephen Michael Ayers is in the works behind the scenes through the establishment of an endowed scholarship in his memory.

Created by friends and family members led by daughter Maribeth Ayers Stickel of Denton, Texas, the Stephen Michael Ayers Endowed Scholarship will provide financial assistance to deserving students studying in the School of Stage and Screen within WCU’s David Orr Belcher College of Fine and Performing Arts.

Ayers, who died Jan. 4, 2022, was a faculty member and director at WCU for 22 years until his retirement in 2008. A prolific director, he mounted nearly 100 theatrical productions on campus stages during his tenure, taking several shows on the road to the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, Southeastern Theatre Conference and New York International Fringe Festival.

As the primary — often only — professor teaching acting at WCU, he had an impact on the lives of hundreds of students in the theatre arts program over the years,

said Claire Eye, director of what is now the School of Stage and Screen. Eye should know; she got her start as a WCU theatre minor while majoring in radio and television.

“He asked me to read a monologue from a play he was going to direct. I did. He asked me to read it with a Southern accent. I did. He then cast me in my first play ever, ‘Quilters, the Musical’ — a production I am currently directing as my last production before retiring at the end of this academic year,” she said. “Talk about full circle.”

Ayers also acted in numerous motion pictures and television programs, with roles in films including “Days of Thunder,” “Mr. Brooks” and “The List” and TV shows ranging from “Matlock” and “In The Heat of the Night” to “Dawson’s Creek” and “Savannah.”

When he returned to campus after working on movie and TV sets, he would bring invaluable insights into what would be required of students after they graduate and seek jobs in the entertainment field.

“Each opportunity I have to work with my colleagues in the entertainment industry at a national or international level, I am participating in and observing the very latest

techniques in acting, directing, editing, sound, lights, set and costumes,” Ayers once said. “Each time, I can’t wait to get back to my classroom and share these observations with my students.”

Eye can attest to that fact.

“When Steve was shooting ‘Days of Thunder’ with Tom Cruise and Robert Duvall, he arranged for a handful of us to come to set to watch them shoot and meet the stars. He always had headshots and a change of clothes in the trunk of his car, in case an audition opportunity came up. The first time I traveled to a professional audition, Steve called me on the way to make sure I knew the shortcuts. He helped me land my first agent,” she said.

“I could say without exaggeration that Steve started me on my career as an actor, which then led to my second career as a teacher of acting, and director,” Eye added. “Steve was a force in the lives of everyone who worked with him at WCU. I don’t know anyone from those years who doesn’t have a great Steve anecdote and who doesn’t remember him as having a significant impact on the development of their lives.”

Ayers earned his bachelor’s degree in drama from Maryville College, master’s degree in drama from the University of Houston and his doctoral degree in theatre history from Colorado University. Although he had several offers from universities around the country after receiving his doctorate, he decided to move his family across the country and start a life in Cullowhee in 1986.

Stickel and her brothers, Michael and Billy, spent hours of their childhoods in the theater at WCU, playing in the audience

while their father directed – and sometimes even put them in his plays as extras, she said.

“I watched him work and was always mesmerized. He was at home there. He was filled with joy and fire. His sacred church was the theatre, laughing and cursing and smoking and yelling from the back of the house, pushing his actors too hard, knowing he could get more out of them,” Stickel said. “He nurtured, in his own charming but aggressive way, so much talent in his career as a theatre professor.”

After an initial initiative via GoFundMe, fundraising efforts have moved to WCU’s Division of Advancement, which is seeking additional contributions from former students, colleagues, audience members and patrons of the arts to push the fund to the $25,000 mark necessary to begin awarding endowed scholarships.

Ayers continued to speak about his students right up to his final day, Stickel said.

“I think in the end, he finally realized and believed that his time teaching was his ultimate and greatest legacy. He was so proud of them all. So many of them have reached out to me upon hearing of the severity of his illness. I wish he knew that,” she said.

“Arts education was his life’s work, and I know he’d be so honored that he is still able to help a young actor find their feet,” Stickel added.

For information or to contribute to the Stephen Michael Ayers Endowed Scholarship Fund, visit givecampus.com/schools/westerncarolinauniversity/stephen-michael-ayers-memorialendowment.

Stephen Michael Ayers (from right), daughter Maribeth Ayers Stickel and Melody Huddleston, former costume shop supervisor and current budget officer for the Belcher College of Fine and Performing Arts, worked together at the Cherokee Mountainside Theatre in 2007. Donated photos

Stephen Michael Ayers as a pit crew member in the movie “Days of Thunder.”

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Community Almanac

Support Ukrainian humanitarian relief Oct. 31

The community is invited to a Gatsby-style event, with a cause — supporting humanitarian relief efforts in Ukraine. The fundraising event, from 6 to 9 p.m. Monday, Oct. 31, at Maggie Valley Club, will support the work of Bomb Techs Without Borders (BTWOB) and the organization’s goal of protecting Ukrainians from the thousands of unexploded munitions.

The evening will be festive, with a silent auction, music, dancing and 1920s era-costumes. Importantly, attendees will hear from Waynesville residents John and Donna Culp, who will share their experiences in Ukraine and work with BTWOB.

After reading about the Culps’ work in Ukraine, local residents Marilyn and David Lawson were moved to organize a fundraiser, which they did with the support of Maggie Valley Club and Grace Church in the Mountains.

John Culp went to Ukraine this spring as the in-country coordinator for BTWOB, working alongside the Ukrainian National Police to clear unexploded remnants of war. Donna joined him in Ukraine for several weeks, handling logistics for BTWOB.

“With the recent successful counteroffensive on the battlefield, Ukraine is recovering many villages and communities that have been occupied by the Russians for months,” John said. “Ukrainian citizens are anxious to return home, but one of our contacts there described that in some locations ‘the earth looks like biscuits’ from the quantity of buried landmines and other explosive remnants of war.”

The Culps are experts and humanitarians. John, a former Explosive Ordnance Disposal technician, retired from the U.S. Army as a Lt. Col. in Special Forces; he continued working for the U.S. government as an explosives specialist. Donna, also retired from the federal government, is a former U.S. Air Force Captain, and president of the WNC Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America.

Haywood County residents Donna and John Culp are helping humanitarian effort of Bomb Techs Without Borders. Attend the Ukrainian Fundraiser Oct. 31 at Maggie Valley Club and hear about their work. Donated photo

BTWOB works with the Ukrainian National Police and Ukrainian military in training, advising, networking and developing new references to share lifesaving information and techniques among the EOD units in the country

Tickets are limited; the $100 ticket includes hors d’oeuvres, one drink ticket, a raffle ticket and a donation to Bomb Techs Without Borders. To RSVP for the fundraiser, email marilynlawson054@gmail.com or mail a check for tickets or donations to Grace Church in the Mountains, 394 N. Haywood St., Waynesville, NC 28786, Attn: Ukraine Fundraiser; on memo line of check, write Ukraine fundraiser

Friends Used Book shop celebrates one yea

A year ago, the Friends of the Haywood County Public Library opened the Used Book Shop to replace the much beloved annual book sale. Instead of shopping for only one weekend, the community can now spread out the pleasure of browsing and buying books all year long.

While there was some anxiety associated with opening the store, changing a tradition and committing to rent payments, there is no doubt the new venture is a success.

“The store has been profitable from the very first month,” said Friends President Tess Thais, “and it is a welcome addition to the community. We have raised over $20,000 to support library programs while engaging with hundreds of patrons. We have been overwhelmed by the community support.”

The amount of money raised is even more impressive when you realize that no item in the store is more than $5 and many books are $1 or less. The shop is staffed by over 40 volunteers and the inventory is donated by the public or weeded from the library shelves. All proceeds benefit the Haywood County Public Library.

To celebrate the one-year anniversary, the Friends Used Book Shop will be having a spectacular two-day BOGO sale from Oct. 21-22. Every item in the store will be buy one, get one of the same price or less for free.

The Friends Used Book Shop is located at 101 W. Marshall St, Waynesville and is open Wednesday- Saturday 10 a.m.-4p.m.

RiddleFest 2022

The Traditional Voices Group is pleased to announce the headliners for RiddleFest 2022, which will be held on Oct. 22 beginning at 7 p.m.

in the Burnsville Town Center in Burnsville.

Blues brothers Rev. Robert Jones, Sr. and Matt Watroba will explore the blues through African American and American Roots music. The evening will open with some old-time gospel songs from the Griffith Chapel Singers. Tickets for this year’s concert are $20 for adults.

RiddleFest is produced annually by Traditional Voices Group as a tribute to Lesley Riddle, an African-American musician from Yancey County who influenced the development of early country music through his collaboration with A.P. Carter and the Carter Family. Riddle was an innovator who straddled the worlds of black and white mountain musicians in the early 20th century.

Rev. Robert Jones, Sr. is an inspirational storyteller and musician celebrating the history, humor and power of American Roots music. He shares his deep love for African American and American traditional music in live performances that interweave timeless stories with original and tradition-

al songs. Jones will be joined by his blues brother Matt Watroba, a veteran performer, teacher, radio host, song writer, community singer, song leader and educator. He is also a regular instructor at the Swannanoa Gathering near Asheville, teaching classes on performance and community singing. Matt is passionate about bringing community together through music and education.

For further information visit Traditional Voices Group’s website, traditionalvoicesgroup.org, their Facebook page, or the Burnsville Town Center, BurnsvilleTownCenter.com. Tickets are available at Eventbrite.com or at the Burnsville Town Center.

Waynesville VFW to hold ‘Poppy Boot Drive’

The Waynesville VFW Auxiliary will be out on Waynesville streets throughout November looking for donations for its Buddy Poppies. Members will be holding a military boot with poppies in the lace holes in which they will collect monetary donations.

The poppies are made by disabled veterans and veterans in need who are paid for their work in an effort to provide them financial assistance.

The poppies are not being sold for money, but donations are appreciated.

Golf tournament raises over $230,000 for health foundation

The 40th Annual Bob Jones Invitational Golf Tournament was held at Highlands Country Club on Aug. 13. The tournament is named after the legendary Bobby Jones and features Walker Cup players from the United States, Great Britain and Ireland. Jones was selected to play on the United States Walker Cup Team five times and twice served as its captain. Jones loved Highlands and was instrumental in the development of Highlands Country Club, where he christened the course by hitting the first ball when it opened in 1928.

This year the tournament raised more than $230,000 benefitting the Highlands Cashiers Health Foundation (HCHF). Proceeds will go toward the funding of the foundation’s initiatives, including the Blue Ridge Health Highlands Cashiers Health Clinic, the foundation’s number one priority project.

“We are pleased to dedicate the proceeds from the Bob Jones Invitational Golf Tournament to support the Highlands Cashiers Health Foundation,” said Jim Santo, Co-Chair of the Tournament Committee. Their important work supports health and well-being for families and neighbors across our Highlands and Cashiers area. Their commitment to Blue Ridge Health-Highlands Cashiers, and the local access to high quality, affordable health care is essential to all of us.”

Supporting healthcare on the plateau is not new to Highlands Country Club. The Bob Jones Invitational has contributed over $6 million to vital healthcare services and initiatives over the last 39 years.

Medicaid expansion would boost WNC economy

Astrong and healthy economy will benefit everyone in Western North Carolina, which is why we need Medicaid expansion. As both Republicans and Democrats in our General Assembly have acknowledged, going the route of 38 other states would be a tremendous boost in several key ways. Boosts that would almost immediately pay dividends for our families and businesses

North Carolina is now tantalizingly close to approving Medicaid expansion. The N.C. Senate, the N.C. House and our governor agree that it is a good idea. Only the final terms remain to work out. For the sake of our economic well-being, our elected leaders should not wait long to act.

At issue are the hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians who fall into what’s known as the health insurance coverage gap — folks who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but too little to qualify for a subsidy on the health insurance marketplace

Many North Carolinians clock into jobs day after day, but they don’t receive health insurance from their employers. And hundreds of thousands of working North Carolinians still fall below the federal poverty line, which is around $26,000 for a family of four. This means there are thousands of hard-working North Carolinians who cannot access basic health coverage

The Kaiser Family Foundation has estimated that if North Carolina took action to close its coverage gap, more than 600,000 people would gain health insurance and access to proper care. For now, they remain stuck in the gap

Working North Carolinians were top of mind for N.C.

Destroying democracy Is GOP’s agenda

To the Editor:

The MAGA Republican agenda has nothing to do with making America great. It has everything to do with making America an autocracy dedicated to the rich, powerful and vengeful. Republicans claim that Democrats are radical socialists (whatever that means), but the only political radicals are those in the current Republican leadership.

Their MAGA minions are working to take over voting at the local level and ignoring the vote of the people at state levels. For example, the Republican candidate for governor of Pennsylvania has stated that he would ensure that the electors for the next presidential election would be cast for a Republican irrespective of the popular vote.

When you look at the Republican agenda, you see that they intend to eliminate Social Security within five years and eliminate Medicare. They are not content to prohibiting abortion, they also want to make it impossible to get birth control. In Idaho access to birth control cannot be discussed on university campuses. Methotrexate is a great drug for treating arthritis, but some women with arthritis are being denied prescriptions for it because it can be used for abortions. Talk about controlling people’s lives.

Republicans are fighting against policies that would benefit regular Americans. Republicans voted against capping costs for

Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger (R-Eden) at a press conference in May during which he endorsed Medicaid expansion. “First,” he said, “we need coverage in North Carolina for the working poor. Second, there is no fiscal risk to the state budget moving forward with this proposal … This is the right time and the right thing to do.”

Indeed, closing the coverage gap is a good deal for everyone. The direct injection of additional federal spending within the state would, by conservative estimates, be $2.8 billion. These funds would create new jobs in the healthcare, construction, retail trade, administrative support and professional scientific industry sectors. The total number of new employment opportunities in North Carolina is estimated at 37,200. The Mountain West Region would see 558 new jobs

Medicaid expansion will support and stimulate small businesses, many of which can’t afford to offer insurance to employees while in the startup stage. Not being able to offer health insurance limits workforce development opportunities and therefore can cause businesses to fail. Even earlier in the process, some would-be entrepreneurs decide the insurance gap is too great a chasm to overcome and opt not to start a business at all.

In states that have expanded Medicaid, the percentage of

LETTERS

insulin, which affects millions of Americans. They are now trying to undo the ability of Medicare to negotiate the price of drugs, all to benefit the big pharmaceutical companies.

Republicans want to talk about inflation but deny that anything needs to be done about climate change. Inflation will become a minor issue when people are having trouble finding food because of climate change. If the droughts in the west go eastward, the breadbasket of the country will be affected.

Climate change is affecting the U.S. as I write this. Hurricanes are becoming stronger because the oceans are warmer. Sea levels are rising because the ice in the Antarctic is melting. We will be seeing more and more devastations along the coasts and low-lying areas due to climate change. Mother Nature does not care whether you believe in what she is doing, but you will suffer the consequences if you ignore the facts.

Republicans want to talk about crime, but the states with the highest crime rates are all red — run by Republicans. If Republicans are so concerned about crime, why are they not solving that problem where they have control of government?

When they want to cut programs another Republican talking point is always the deficit. The problem is that Republican administrations account for the bulk of the deficit. The Trump administration added trillions to the national debt with the tax break for billionaires.

small business employees covered by Medicaid increased from 9.1% to 13.4% from 2013 to 2016; the number of selfemployed individuals covered rose from 7.3% to 11.6% during the same time

Bigger businesses would also benefit from Medicaid expansion. Among their highest priorities is a healthy workforce. Many North Carolinians live with diabetes, heart disease and other chronic illnesses, but can’t access healthcare providers to manage these conditions. When workers are sick, they can’t be as productive

All of this makes it clear why the boards of six of the seven counties represented by my organization, Mountain West Partnership, have issued resolutions supporting Medicaid expansion. And why our state’s major metro chambers — including Asheville, Charlotte, Durham, Raleigh, WinstonSalem and Wilmington — are also advocating for the policy.

Former N.C. Secretary of Commerce Sharon Decker (who served in a Republican administration) wrote of Medicaid expansion, “North Carolina cannot afford to be left behind as the rest of the country guns its economic engines.”

Instead, let’s rev up North Carolina’s motor. Let’s improve everyone’s life and prospects in our region. Let’s close the coverage gap

(Josh Carpenter is director of Mountain West Partnership. The partnership is an organization of seven western counties that seeks to increase the economic well-being of the people who call Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Macon, Jackson, Swain, and Haywood counties home.)

Voters should not be distracted by the lies, fear mongering, and distractions put out by Republicans. Their party is driven by feelings of entitlement, fear of change and lust for power. There are no policies that benefit the American public in anything Republican elected officials are doing. They are intent on limiting citizens’ rights and freedoms and installing themselves as perpetual rulers in an autocratic state like the ones they admire in Hungary and other authoritarian countries. It is a sad situation when a vote for candidates from a once great party is a vote to destroy democracy as we know it.

Norman Hoffman Waynesville

Two candidates invited, only one likely to show

To the Editor:

The sheriff is our highest elected official in Jackson County and has the duty to “keep the peace and enforce laws.” Jackson County citizens deserve the opportunity to meet with both candidates to ask questions, so they can make an informed decision.

Both candidates were contacted with Doug Farmer accepting and Rick Buchanan requesting a neutral location, sponsor and moderator. Mr. Buchanan’s requests were fulfilled by using the Sylva Library and not having a sponsor or a moderator. After fulfilling Mr. Buchanan’s requirements, he continually requested changes and ultimately “respectful-

ly declined” to attend an open community forum for all Jackson County Citizens to have the opportunity to ask him questions. I sincerely hope Mr. Buchanan changes his mind and joins the Jackson County Sheriff’s Forum on Thursday.

Please join the Jackson County sheriff candidate(s) on Oct. 20 at 6 p.m. in the Sylva Public Library Community Room located at 310 Keener St. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., and the forum starts promptly at 6 p.m. This forum is not sponsored or moderated by any political party and is open to all citizens of Jackson County and to both candidates.

Keith Blaine Jackson County

Election deniers threaten democracy

To the Editor:

The office of secretary of state (not usually considered a high-profile post) this year may well represent the most critical vote cast in all 50 states in November. Secretaries of state perform the tedious role of election administration: training poll workers, managing each states voter registration database, authenticating the accuracy of voting machines and, perhaps most important, certifying election results.

It cannot be over-stated that this position requires a person in whom we have the utmost confidence and trust. As expressed by Lawrence Norden, sen-

Guest Columnist

Josh Carpenter F

ior director of the Elections and Government Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, “If you can’t have trusted, neutral people running our elections, then you don’t really have free and fair elections, then we’re not a functioning democracy anymore.”

Across America, election deniers, ardent promoters of Donald Trump’s baseless claim that the 2020 election was stolen through rampant voter fraud, are on the ballot for secretary of state, other key positions and state legislatures.

If any of these candidates win they will possess a plethora of powers to subvert future elections simply because they don’t like the result. These rogue election officials could attempt to prematurely stop the counting of ballots, turn the outcome over to a partisan state legislature, or simply refuse to certify the result (exactly what former President Trump hoped former Vice President Mike Pence would do).

In his speech September 1 in front of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, President Biden stated, “equality and democracy are under assault” (referencing to those who) “refuse to accept the results of a free election,” adding, “in state after state, they’re working to give power to decide elections to partisans, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself.”

I truly believe the threat to democracy is the single most important issue facing America today. Even though state and federal investigations found no evidence of widespread voter fraud and even though Trump’s own Department of Homeland Security, Justice Department and FBI vouched for the election’s integrity, people believed the lie so strongly they stormed the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a desperate attempt to stop the election’s certification, breaking a nearly 250-year tradition of peacefully transferring power.

When Benjamin Franklin left Independence Hall after the second drafting of the Constitution, he was confronted by a woman who asked him, “what manner of government have you bequeathed us, sir?” To which Franklin answered, “a Republic, madam, if you can keep it.”

Rest assured, democracy and our future are on the ballot this November. A recent Quinnipiac Poll found that: “Americans (67% to 29%) think the nation’s democracy is in danger of collapse.” We have cause to be concerned that a large number of Americans support Donald Trump, men and women who have put loyalty to one man above honor and above duty to truth, country and the Constitution.

Realistically, what can any conscientious voter with a sense of right and wrong do in a political environment seemingly leveraged against them by bought-and-paid-for politicians who very often act in a desultory manner giving rise to the commonly held perception they are elected to be served rather than to serve? First, voting a strict party line is probably counter-productive. It allows

politicians to campaign on sound bites and worn-out platitudes rather than being pinned down to what they actually believe and forced to declare their intentions. Voters have a right to know for whom they’re voting and, conversely, voters have a responsibility to do the legwork, to ask questions, to research, to satisfy themselves that a candidate merits their support and their vote.

Many voters don’t take their responsibility seriously enough. That’s how we ran into trouble in 2016. Joe Biden called Trump’s political philosophy, “semi-fascism.” I believe Biden to be correct. Trump

has been, is, and will continue to be, a grave threat to democracy and our nation.

David L. Snell Franklin

Stop voting by political affiliation

To the Editor:

I believe voting straight ticket, R or D, is this country’s downfall. Too many voters refuse to research the candidates’ background, experience, education and their position on issues. Why? Because too many are lazy.

This year I have researched the background of the two candidates running in the 11th District for the U.S. House of Representatives. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara will be my pick. She has the qualities that are important to me. She holds a Master of Fine Arts and completed her Master of Divinity degree at Harvard Divinity School and is an ordained minister. She supports the 2nd Amendment and does not want to take our guns away. However, she believes the 2nd Amendment needs a balance that protects the 2nd Amendment while also keeping the community safe.

She firmly believes that equal rights pertain to everyone. She is nationally known as an LGBTQ activist. She believes marijuana should be legalized and taxed. She believes the Child Tax Credit should be revived. She believes in improving healthcare for all. She believes in reducing drug prices. She is prochoice. Her opponent would only agree to one debate, even though she wanted to have more.

By the way, I am an unaffiliated voter and believe my right to vote requires that I spend the time to research and not vote straight ticket.

Ron Rookstool Maggie Valley

Preserving the past, perpetuating the future

Smoky Mountain Heritage Center sparks inspiration, camaraderie

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD

Cruising along Soco Road in the heart of Maggie Valley, one immediately notices the bright lights of the sign in front of the Meadowlark Motel. The retro fixture is a beloved sight along the roadside, with the next event happening at the Smoky Mountain Heritage Center, located on the property, proudly displayed on the marquee.

“I always envisioned something that had meaning, that would be successful,” said Joseph Franklyn McElroy, owner of the motel/center. “With the heritage center, we’ve worked to create this memorable experience. People come here and they learn about the culture of these mountains, and they come back again — it’s working.”

Although the motel has been in McElroy’s family for several decades, the heritage center only came to light in the summer of 2021. The idea for the center has been on McElroy’s mind for years, with it finally becoming a reality when he tapped the shoulders of acclaimed Appalachian historian/author Bob Plott, who is the general manager of the center.

“We started out doing the [Gateway to the Smokies] podcast. I handle the podcast, and

Want to go?

Located in the Meadowlark Motel in Maggie Valley, the Smoky Mountain Heritage Center hosts an array of live music, workshops, presentations and open jam sessions throughout the year.

Upcoming events include singer-songwriter Mike Ogletree 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct 22; Cherokee Scholars Summit Nov. 4-6; Americana act Pigeon River Messengers & Andrew Wakefield 6 p.m. Nov. 5; Mountain Heritage Festival from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12; and singer-songwriter Andrew Wakefield 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3.

For more information on the SMHC and/or a full schedule of upcoming activities, go to meadowlarkmotel.com and click on the “Events” tab or call 828.926.1717.

Joseph interviews guests from all walks of life here in Appalachia,” Plott said. “And then, we started kicking around the idea of heritage center, to put on concerts, open jam sessions, workshops, and storytelling. With all of the events we’ve put on just in this year, the word is getting out — this area needs a place like this.”

Since its inception, the center has weekly happenings, all of which on the motel property. Strolling the grounds of the Meadowlark,

there’s a peaceful vibe wafting through the large backyard and patio area. When the weather is nice, programs are held under the “Back Porch” pavilion, which also includes a bar/lounge area for patrons. Exiting the pavilion, one soon wanders over to the cozy campfire along the small creek running through the property.

“Our goal is to perpetuate Smoky Mountain heritage through shows, seminars, hikes and tours of this place we call home,” Plott said. “And we’re always looking at different ways to do a variety of programs for the community — we’re here for the enjoyment of anyone who wants to learn about the history and the beauty of this region.”

At one recent gathering, renowned Nashville singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale performed in the pavilion, backed by the talents of Songs From The Road Band, a rollicking string act based out of Asheville. The artists were part of a weekend workshop on songwriting, with Lauderdale and SFTRB’s Charles Humphrey leading the writing sessions.

“I like to sit there and get [the song] done, to show up with less instead of more, so there’s room to collaborate and create with others,” Humphrey said. “You’re coming up

with something right on the sport, and you’ve got several different first instincts to filter through when you’re creating — then, the spark of inspiration hits, and we’re off and running.”

Those sentiments were also held by Charlie Chamberlain, another hit Nashville songwriter who was invited by the heritage center to come and share his lyrical wisdom that weekend.

“It’s like anything in life, where you do the work. You put in the work with the tools you have,” Chamberlain said. “You learn to use the tools you’ve acquired over the years, and you’re constantly sharpening those tools, so you’re ready when inspiration strikes. And, when you’re in those ‘seat of your pants’ moments, you’re ready to go.”

With Lauderdale and SFTRB cranking away onstage in the pavilion, Plott leans against a nearby fence, a slight grin across his face as he looks towards the audience, all of which just in awe of the musicianship and intricate nature of the performance.

“This center is a gratifying thing for me. Sure, it’s a job, but it’s also a labor of love,” Plott said. “To see it grow from just an idea to something of value for the community? Well, that’s just such a great feeling.”

Joseph Franklyn McElroy

Bob Plott

The Meadowlark Motel in Maggie Valley is also home to the Smoky Mountain Heritage Center, which hosts weekly events for the public.

Songs From The Road Band. (Garret K. Woodward photos)

This must be the place

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD

while looking up at the endless branches. I felt such a serene sense of peace and serenity in doing so.

• Thursday, Oct. 13 (09:29 p.m.)

HOT PICKS

1Folkmoot Friendship Center (Waynesville) will host Darren Nicholson & Shawn Lane (Americana/acoustic) 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21.

2Appalachian/indie-folk artist Jackson Grimm will perform at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, at The Scotsman in Waynesville.

Editor’s Note: While on assignment for Rolling Stone out in Monterey, California, last weekend, Garret decided to hang out in San Francisco for a couple of days beforehand, just to hit the ground runnin’ and once again feel the vibe of the city he missed. The following is what he felt, and wrote about, in real time.

• Thursday, Oct. 13 (03:35 p.m.)

Went for a trail run up near Muir Beach toward the Muir Woods. It was warm and sunny on that north side of the Golden Gate Bridge, just above the Bay Area. Anyhow, my Bluetooth hasn’t been working with my rental car. No biggie, spin the ole radio dial and find some classic rock station.

As I made my way through Sausalito and back over the Golden Gate to San Francisco, the warm, blue skies quickly transitioned into crisp air and fog slowly overtaking the bridge.

And, in that exact moment, as my vehicle approached the Golden Gate and drove over it, windows rolled down, Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’” came over the radio station, the tune blasting out of the speakers. Chills rolling through my body, my soul vibrating happily. Sheesh, what a cosmically charged and beautifully surreal moment, eh?

Side note: I decided to head to Muir Beach, seeing as the parking lot was pretty much empty, with all the tourists overtaking the Muir Woods down the road. I wandered down to the beach, took off my trail running shoes and walked around the shoreline, the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean overtaking my toes and my soul. Ah, what an incredible feeling.

Thus, I hit the dirt trail around the corner. Not a soul around for miles. Jogged up the ridge toward the Muir Woods. At one point, I came around this curve in the thick brush and, all of a sudden, this single huge redwood tree appeared. All by itself, a mile or so away from the entrance into the Muir Woods. It’s been years since I’ve been in the presence of a redwood.

The redwood was just as captivating and mesmerizing as I remembered. I had the tree all to myself. No tourists around or cameras or noise. Just little ole me and this lone redwood. I placed my hand on it and just held it there for several moments, all

I’ve been wanting to stand in front of the legendary City Lights Bookstore since the moment I decided to become a writer. The motto painted on the wall inside the doorway reads, “A literary meeting place since 1953.”

Launched by the late, great Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who just passed away last year at age 101. City Lights was, and remains, the epicenter of the written word, at least as far as the Beats and the Beat movement goes.

And it was June 10, 2005, when I first cracked open a copy of Jack Kerouac’s seminal 1957 novel, “On the Road.” A solo road trip of my own from Upstate New York to the Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee. I was alone in my tent that morning and, just a few chapters in, a bolt of lightning hit my

3The 26th annual PumpkinFest will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, in downtown Franklin.

4Loss Pequeno Glazier will present his poetry book, “Transparent Mountain: Ecopoetry from the Great Smokies,” at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 23, at City Lights Bookstore in Syla.

5The 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.

• Friday, Oct. 14 (10:01 a.m.)

Woke up this morning and my immediate thought was, “I should go run across the Golden Gate Bridge.” It wasn’t even 9 a.m. yet, most of the tourists wouldn’t be out and about until the fog burned off. I’d have the bridge pretty much to myself.

I laced up my running shoes and headed for the bridge. Hitting the Golden Gate, the air was foggy and crisp, as expected. The over and back was about 3.4 miles. Only saw a handful of runners and cyclists. It was such a wild feeling to jog across one of the great technological creations of mankind. A true wonder of the world for all eternity.

soul from high above. I had an epiphany right then and there, “I want to wander America, seek adventure and curious souls, and write about it.”

The next semester, I changed my college major to journalism and creative writing. That was 17 years ago, and with a deep well of gratitude, I continue to seek adventure and curious souls, and all through the lens of the written word.

City Lights is where all my heroes ran amuck: Kerouac, Cassady, Snyder, Kesey, Corso, Bukowski, etc. They all roamed this building, these streets, and the depths of this city.

And, to stand there, in the here and now, I felt such immense joy, all while slightly misty-eyed with emotion. Whoever you are, wherever you may be, and whatever it is you do or wish to do, I hope someday you stand in a spot of sheer, genuine inspiration like I am right now, and just soak it all in.

I noticed so many things, too. Locks attached to the fencing to solidify a couple’s love. Netting underneath to catch the countless workers who maintain the integrity of the bridge on a daily basis. The Bridge Patrol cruising by to make sure there are no jumpers, to which I felt such a sense of place thinking of all those downtrodden souls who decided to take the leap.

And then, I noticed all the intricacies of the bridge: the bolts and rivets, cables and ladders. It is astounding to think of what it took to create this incredible structure. I also thought of all the workers who built the bridge during The Great Depression, a fulltime job in an uncertain time with little employment and hope for Americans.

One of my biggest inspirations is the late, great journalist Charles Kuralt, whose CBS “On the Road” series is at the core of my being. And one of my favorite clips of his, is when he interviews the men who built the Golden Gate Bridge, who, at that time, were old men, but still tough as nails (go on YouTube and track down the clip, it’s worth it). Endless thoughts, emotions, and gratitude this morning. I hope whenever you are right now, you know you’re loved.

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

Celtic Sunday's W/The Carter Giegerich Trio - 2-5pm Incredible Celtic Folk - Every Sunday Relaxation Along With Your Guinness! Live Music Every Thursday 8pm

Thursday, October 20th

Live Music with Jackson Grimm. 8-10pm - Songwriter - Bluegrass - Americana

Saturday, October 22nd Live Music with TranCend 9pm -12am - 90's-2000's Covers

Thursday, October 27 th Live Music with Chris Minick 8-10pm - Classic Rock

Friday, October 28th Live Music with J.J Hipps & The Hideaway9pm-12am • 3 piece Electric BluesPresented by ADAMAS Entertainment

The air was soft, the stars so fine, the promise of every cobbled alley so great

The Golden Gate Bridge. (Garret K. Woodward photo)

beat

Americana, folk rolls into Scotsman

Appalachian/indie-folk artist Jackson Grimm will perform at 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, at The Scotsman in Waynesville.

Grimm marries folk pop melodies with the lonesome sound of traditional Appalachian music. In a region with a strong music culture, it is no surprise that Grimm’s songwriting is representative of his musical birthplace: Asheville.

His songs run the gambit from an homage to a traditional country waltz in “If Not For You,” an unrequited love song driven by a Beatles-esque melody in “I’d Hold You (But I Don’t Wanna Hold You),” to a drunken party-grass song à la Old Crow Medicine Show in “Last Train Home.”

The performance is free and open to the public. For more information, click on scotsmanpublic.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.

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.

Reggae, soul at Frog Level

The Natti Love Joys will perform at 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21, at Frog Level Brewing in Waynesville.

A roots-rock-reggae band that has been playing live since 2003, the group consists of husband and wife duo Anthony “Jatti” Allen and Sonia “Marla” Allen (formerly Sonia Abel).

Jatti was previously the bassist for the

Smoky Mountain Bluegrass Festival

Hosted by the Haywood County Arts Council, the annual Smoky Mountain Bluegrass Festival will return from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29, at the Maggie Valley Festival Grounds.

Taking the stage will be Haywood County bluegrass legends Balsam Range, live sensation Sister Sadie, and The Amanda Cook Band.

Twice named International Bluegrass Music Association “Entertainer of the Year” amid numerous IBMA awards, Balsam Range has built their reputation not only on stellar live performances, but on countless number one radio singles and albums.

Sister Sadie is a three-time IBMA “Vocal

Group of the Year” and “Entertainer of the Year” (2020) and was nominated for “Best Bluegrass Album” at the 61st Grammy Awards.

The annual HCAC fundraiser, the festival brings all the organization’s programs and artists together for a truly one-of-a-kind music-themed experience. The event will also include music-themed vendors, raffles, artist member demonstrations/artwork, a child and adult playground, and local drinks/food.

Advance tickets start at $55 per person. Children ages 12 and under are admitted free. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, click on haywoodarts.org or call 828.452.0593.

Natti Love Joys. (File photo)

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.

reggae group The Congos, while Marla originates from the cult all female reggae group Love Joys, where she recorded two albums under the legendary Wackies label run by Lloyd Barnes (Bullwackie).

Free and open to the public. froglevelbrewing.com/events.

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, click on smokymountaingeekexpo.com. To learn more, email smokymountaingeekexpo@gmail.com.

Jackson Grimm. (File photo)

Sister Sadie. (Jon Roncolato 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, High Blue Heron Oct. 22, The Get Right Band (rock/soul) Nov. 4 and Nick Mac & The Noise Nov. 5. All shows begin at 9 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 828.246.0350 or boojumbrewing.com.

• Currahee Brewing (Franklin) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 828.634.0078 or curraheebrew.com.

• Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will host “Trivia Night with Kirk” from 7 to 9 p.m. every Tuesday, Open Mic Night every Wednesday, Tina Collins (singer-songwriter) Oct. 20-21 and Shane Meade (indie/soul) 4 p.m. Oct. 27. 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 Scary-Oke Oct. 21 and Skies Of Avalon 4 p.m. Nov. 5. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.349.2337 or lazyhikerbrewing.com.

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 traditional 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.

open to the public. 828.246.6292 or scotsmanpublic.com.

• SlopeSide Tavern (Sapphire) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. 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.

ALSO:

• 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 Darren Nicholson & Shawn Lane (Americana/acoustic) 7 p.m. Oct. 21. Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door. 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 Aubrey Eisenman & The Clydes (Americana/bluegrass) Oct. 21 and Ezra & Katie (singer-songwriter) Oct. 28 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 Chris Wilhelm 5:30 p.m. Oct. 20, Natti Love Joys (reggae/soul) Oct. 21, Los Gatos & Friends (indie/rock) Oct. 22, Syrrup 3 p.m. Oct. 23, Kind Clean Gentlemen 5:30 p.m. Oct. 25 and Mike Oregano 3 p.m. Oct. 30. 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 live music every Saturday. 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.

• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Sylva) will host Trivia Night at 6:30 p.m. every Wednesday, Old Time Jam 6:30 p.m. every Thursday, OktoberFest 2 p.m. Oct. 22 and Skies Of Avalon 5 p.m. Nov. 4. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.349.2337 or lazyhikerbrewing.com.

• 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, Shelly Garvin Vogler (singersongwriter) 3 p.m. Oct. 21 and 29, George Ausman (singer-songwriter) 3 p.m. Oct. 22, Twelfth Fret (Americana) 2 p.m. Oct. 23, Scott James Stambaugh (singer-songwriter) 3 p.m. Oct. 28 and The Dirty French Broads (Americana) 2 p.m. Oct. 30. Free and open to the public. 828.538.0115 or mountainlayersbrewingcompany.com.

• Nantahala Brewing (Sylva) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. 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.

• Quirky Birds Treehouse & Bistro (Dillsboro) will host Open Mic Night at 7 p.m. every Tuesday and semi-regular live music on the

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.

The mountain dulcimer, also known as a fretted dulcimer or a lap dulcimer, is a uniquely American instrument. It evolved from the German scheitholz sometime in the early 1800s in Appalachia and was largely known only in this region until popularized more broadly in the 1950s.

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

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 Vega Band (soul/rock) Oct. 22 and Laney & Friends (bluegrass) Oct. 29 at KelseyHutchinson 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, Jackson Grimm (Americana/bluegrass) Oct. 20, TrancEnd (rock) 9 p.m. Oct. 22, Chris Minick (folk/rock) Oct. 27 and J.J. Hipps & The Hideaway (rock/blues) 9 p.m. Oct. 28. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and

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

• 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 Tricia Ann (acoustic) Oct. 20, Outlaw Whiskey Oct. 21, Mile High Band (rock/oldies) Oct. 22, Blue Oct. 27, Brian Ashley Jones Oct. 28 and Jon Cox Band (country/rock) Oct. 29. 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 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 Laurel River Connection Oct. 20, Mile High Band (rock/oldies) 3 p.m. Oct. 23 and Savage Outlaws 3 p.m. Oct. 30. 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.

• Frog Quarters (Franklin) will host the “Frog Fair” from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5. Live music, vendors, snacks, and more. Free and open to the public. Located at 573 East Main St. littletennessee.org or 828.369.8488.

Plow Day & Harvest Festival

ALSO:

• “Movie Night on the Lawn” will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21, at the Waynesville Recreation Center. The film will be “Hocus Pocus.” Everyone should bring their own chairs, blankets, etc. The movie will start promptly at 7 p.m. on the lawn beside the pool. There will be popcorn, hot chocolate, and hot cider (free of charge). If you have any questions, please contact Sam Dunbar at the recreation center. 828.456.2030 or sdunbar@waynesvillenc.gov.

• “Halloween in the Park” will be held from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29, at the Parker Meadows Complex in Franklin. Children’s activities and more. Free and open to the public. franklin-chamber.com.

• “Monster Mash on Main” will kick off at 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29, in downtown Franklin. A family-friendly event. Trick-ortreat. Candy. Scary-fun music. Wear your Halloween costume. If your child has food allergies, please bring them downtown at 3 p.m. for the annual Teal Pumpkin event for non-food trinkets and treats. franklinchamber.com.

• “Haunted Corn Maze” will be held from 8 p.m. to midnight Oct. 20-22 and 28-31 at Darnell Farms in Bryson City. Admission is $15 per person. Ages 8 and under are not recommended. The walk takes between 3045 minutes. For more information, click on .facebook.com/darnellfarmsnc.

• “Bartram’s 1775 Travels” discussion will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin. Brent Martin, director of the Blue Ridge Bartram Trail Conservancy, will talk about botanist/explorer William Bartram’s 1775

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.

800.438.1601 or visitcherokeenc.com.

visit to this area. To learn more, click on blueridgebartram.org.

• 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.

• “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.

The annual Plow Day & Harvest Festival will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Oct. 22-23 at Darnell Farms in Bryson City.

This old-fashioned event features live music, food, craft vendors, pumpkin patch, hayrides, pumpkin pie eating contest, fall photo displays, canning competition, corn maze, old-time farming demonstrations, and much more.

There will be fresh made mountain barbecue, as well as pumpkin pies and apple pies for sale. Stock up on all our homegrown fall decorations, and choose from several different varieties of pumpkins, gourds, and decorative squash.

For more information, click on facebook.com/darnellfarmsnc.

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.

PumpkinFest returns to 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

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 us online at townoffranklinnc.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/pumpkinfestfranklin or call Franklin Town Hall at 828.524.2516.

Darnell Farms. (File photo)

Participants in the ‘Pumpkin Roll.’ (File photo)

the table

• The 16th annual “Chili Cook-Off” will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, at the Lewis Hall Center on The Village Green in Cashiers. Sponsored by Landmark Realty. Free and open to the public. 828.743.0510.

• “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.

Smoky Mtn

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 franklin-chamber.com.

• “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.

• “Cultivating Collections: Glass” exhibit will be on display through Dec. 9 in the Fine Art Museum at the Bardo Arts Center at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. 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.

Bledsoe at

Leaf Lookers Gemboree. (File photo)

On the stage

Are you ready for ‘Assassins’?

A production of Stephen Sondheim’s musical “Assassins” will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 20-22 and at 2 p.m. Oct. 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 Off-Broadway 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

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.

ALSO:

• “Calliope Shorts: Campfire Stories” will be held at 7 p.m. Oct. 27-29 and Nov. 3-5 on the Calliope Stage at the Full Spectrum Farm in Cullowhee. Admission starts at $16 per person. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, click on calliopestage.com.

• “Introduction to Comedy Improvisation” course will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 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 available per show. Performances are Thursday through Saturday, and Monday, Oct. 31. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, click on greatsmokies.com/events.

• Haywood Arts Regional Theater 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.

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 and Sam Rodd.

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

the shelf

The lost poems of Wilma Mankiller

Wilma Mankiller was the first female Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1985 to 1995. She was an activist for many Native American and progressive social causes and programs throughout her adult life and was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Born in 1945, her family moved from Stilwell, Oklahoma, to San Francisco as part of a government relocation program, where she lived from 1956 to 1976. It was during the later years of this period on the West Coast that she was studying literature in school and writing her own poetry. She lived in the Bay Area until she was 30, writing poems as a young activist and college student. During the 1970s she was involved in the American Indian Center there in San Francisco, with which I am familiar as I was also living in San Francisco during the 1970s. I never knew her personally, then, but I attended a few of the meetings of the American Indian Movement at the AIC when she would likely have been there, too. Since her death in 2010, biographies (“Wilma’s Way Home: The Life of Wilma Mankiller,” 2019) about her have been written and films have been made (“Mankiller,” 2017). After the 1985 tribal election, when asked how she wanted to be addressed as Principal Chief, she responded, humorously, saying “Just call me Ms. Chief or MissChief.”

She continued writing during her activist years with AIM and the AIC in San Francisco. This year a collection of her poems from this period has been published by Clyde Hill Publishing. These are poems that have been discovered by her family and the editors of this new collection (“Mankiller Poems: The Lost Poetry of Wilma Mankiller”) in old dusty boxes in a barn on the family property in Adair County, Oklahoma, and show us how an activist reflected on her life through art, and that art itself is activism.

The poems in this collection are presented in an order that indicates Wilma Mankiller’s personal and professional journey: from Native woman finding her identity, to the challenges of a forced move into a city, then into a journey home where she finds love and leadership. As former poet laureate of the U.S., Joy Harjo writes in her

New monthly book club

Preface to “Mankiller Poems,” “With the publication of Mankiller’s poems we are reminded of her presence when she walked among us. Her words are tracks made into songs on paper that still speak through the years of a life, a time, a generation.”

Many of us know Wilma Mankiller as a tribal leader and as an American icon. These poems give us more because they transport us to another time when she had yet to figure it all out. In seminal poems in this collection such as “Smoke Signals,” “Real People,” “Moving On,” “Freedom,” and “This Thing Called Love,” we get the full power of Mankiller’s early opus. In the poem “Real People,” she writes:

“In the time of the ancients/we called ourselves/Real People./After countless seasons of ‘civilization’/we remain/Real People./Do the blue-veined possess the ability to love?/Have they forgotten /how to/accept the friendship of the wind/or love deeply and radically?/Maybe they are another species/not/Real People.

”

This poem showing perceived differences between the Europeans and the First Nation peoples in the Americas. In a more vulnerably confessional vein, Mankiller writes in the poem “Moving On” about the hardships of her years living in San Francisco and away from nature and her original home in Oklahoma and her tribal peoples:

“cold, hard times have left me/wounded and scarred but.../i can still feel the warm lips of life/kissing my heart; stirring my mind/urging me to go on until i can/find the lies of my own making and/battle them in moonlit meadows.”

And continuing along these same lines in the poem “The Blues” she writes: “... hoping fantasies will rise/like the sweet smell of cedar/to touch the sleeepless mind.” In the poem “Sunlight and Dreams,” she writes of her memories of and her longing for the life of her earlier years living in a tribal social and cultural setting: “The People were in ceremony to acknowledge/changing seasons/offer thanksgiving prayers for life/and the generous gifts of the Earth.”

Always the activist, she was a role model and a voice for Native American women, much in the way that Gloria Steinem was for white women in the 1960s and 70s. She even has a poem in this collection titled “I Want To Be Reincarnated As Gloria Steinem,” in which she writes: “so I can be a sister to/all things in the creation/women, men, children/plants, animals, the stars,/water and the wind.”

“Where are your women?” tribal members asked during the first meeting with federal government officials concerning treaty negotiations with the Cherokee. On the Cherokee side, women were present. “How can any society negotiate or govern with only half its people, half its logic, half of its humanity?” Mankiller ponders.

In the last section of “Mankiller Poems,” we see Wilma Mankiller as someone who is pondering more spiritual questions and who is becoming, early on, more of a spiritual being and eventual leader. “Standing on the edge of twilight/looking for a sign/That the old medicine is not lost/to all mankind.” She writes.

Or in the poem “Waiting For May”: “I long to let/my feet touch the dirt/of the Earth’s calm ways/so I can be reminded again of/just why we are here.” And finally: “I dream into existence a universe/without hatred .... Or maybe I will just listen to/the messages from long ago/sent along pathways of the wind.”

(Thomas Crowe is a regular contributer to The Smoky Mountain News and author of the multi-award-winning non-fiction nature memoir “Zoro’s Field: My Life in the Appalachian Woods.”)

Now Accepting New Patients!

The Jackson County Public Library in Sylva is starting a new monthly program.

Each month, a library staff member will be discussing some of the new book titles that the library has received. Particular attention will be paid to “under the radar” titles and authors, new releases, and other books that the staff is excited about.

All are welcome and no registration is required. For more information on when the club will meet, please call the library at 828.586.2016.

This club is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Jackson County Public Library. The JCPL is a member of Fontana Regional Library (fontanalib.org).

Specializing in Pediatric Dentistry for Infants, Kids, Special Needs &Teens Asheville 828-274-9220

Waynesville 828-454-9156

828-586-9333

Chambers, Baechtold,

Orthodontic Specialists for Kids,Teens &Adults

Asheville 828-274-8822 Waynesville 828-407-4034 Sylva 828-586-9333 Reynolds Mountain 828-785-5825

reading & encouraging discussion on end

choices

WriterThomas Crowe

Our air, our water Science program blends indigenous and western methods

BY HOLLY KAYS OUTDOORS E DITOR

In January 2020, Sara Duncan was less than a year into her role as an assistant professor at Western Carolina University’s School of Health Sciences when she started talking to Lisa Lefler, director of WCU’s Culturally Based Native Health Program, about opportunities for kids to get involved in Cherokee science.

Lefler mentioned that youth on the Qualla Boundary experience higher asthma rates than the general population. Duncan — who studies air quality — was intrigued, because about 40% of asthma cases can be attributed to air quality issues. The conversation inspired her to create the Our Air program, a pilot project involving partnerships between multiple departments at WCU, Cherokee Central Schools and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Department of Natural Resources to engage students in a semesterlong project focused on air quality.

“Our approach is working with kids, impacting kids,” Duncan told Tribal Council’s Timber Committee during an Aug. 17 presen-

tation on the program’s first year. “We know that students learn better from inquiry-based learning, getting out into the field, taking their own measurements, talking to people — and they also learn better when they feel connected to what they’re learning.”

The program aimed to engage students at the intersection of science and culture, using both western science and culturally based methods to learn more about air quality on the Qualla Boundary.

After a long pandemic delay, the project, supported by a grant from the Cherokee Preservation Foundation, launched in spring 2022 with 12 students in a ninth-grade class taught by Ronda Denton.

It started out with classroom instruction about air quality, after which the students used a low-cost air monitor called AirBeam to measure the air quality of various areas around campus.

“I liked this project because we got to go outside and interact with our other classmates, and we got to get the fresh air,” Lupita Toineeta, one of the students in the class, told the Timber Committee.

Next, the students learned a set of Cherokee words related to air quality from Catuce Tiger, the Cherokee language teacher at CHS, and used the words to make posters describing both good and bad air quality. Sara Snyder, assistant professor of sociology and

anthropology at WCU, helped with translations.

Students then went on a field trip with Katie Tiger, air quality program supervisor for EBCI Natural Resources, to check out the air monitors tribal government had set up around town. They compared readings from these more expensive monitors with those from their own AirBeam monitors.

Afterward, the students took the monitors home overnight, keeping an activity log to correlate varying measurements with changes to the environment.

The project also included a cultural knowledge component, with students choosing a tribal elder to interview about their memories and knowledge surrounding air quality.

Andrew Bobilya, director of WCU’s Experiential and Outdoor Education Program and a qualitative storyteller, worked with students to develop the set of questions they used for the interviews.

“What we realized from this project, because this was the first year, we unfortunately were not able to gather enough data to have enough statistical power to be able to show exposure to air pollution caused asthma,” Duncan told Timber Committee. “What we were able to show is that students learned things.”

Assessments given at the beginning and end of the project clearly show that students shot from a low level of understanding about air quality issues to a much stronger one, Duncan said. Students also learned to relate their new understanding for an audience, giving a presentation at WCU’s Rooted in the Mountains conference Sept. 30 in addition to their August Timber Committee presentation.

Duncan considers the project a success, and a $11,352 award from the Cherokee Preservation Foundation will allow it to grow even further. The interdisciplinary team receiving the award includes Duncan, Bobilya and Frank Forcino, director of WCU’s Science Education Program. They’ll be working in collaboration with EBCI Natural Resources, Cherokee Central Schools and Swain County High School.

This school year, the program will see significant changes from its pilot year. While “Our Air” originally began F

Students visit an air quality monitoring site managed by the EBCI Air Quality Office during a February field trip.

Donated photo

Cherokee High School students visit a science lab at WCU during a campus tour after their Sept. 30 conference presentation. Sara Duncan photo

Look Rock Campground reopens after 9 years

After a nine-year closure, Look Rock Campground in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is open.

The 68-site campground opened Oct. 15 and will remain so through the end of the season Sunday, Nov. 13. It is expected to be open between May and October going forward.

The Look Rock Campground and Picnic Area closed in 2013 after the water utility systems failed. In 2019, the park received money to install a handicap-accessible vault toilet, which allowed the picnic area to reopen with limited services. The campground can now reopen after a complete replacement of the water system.

The campground is equipped with flush toilets and potable water, and all campground sites were rehabilitated, with new picnic tables

with the idea of using students’ observations to correlate asthma and air quality, it ended up focusing more on environmental education and the intersection of western science and indigenous knowledge. This year’s project will look at water quality, with students taking samples from the Oconaluftee River as it runs past the school.

In the future, Duncan hopes to take stu-

and fire rings installed. Ten sites were renovated to accommodate larger recreational vehicles, offering the campground’s first-ever electric and water hookups. The campground and picnic area were also repaved during the rehabilitation.

Donors to Friends of the Smokies were instrumental in raising the money needed for the renovations. The park received a total of $4.7 million for the project through donations, campground fees and federal funds, including a special federal fund source that requires matching funds from a philanthropic partner.

Look Rock Campground is located along the Foothills Parkway between Walland and Chilhowee Lake, both in Tennessee. Campground reservations are available through recreation.gov.

of which is happening now. In the second portion of the program, Duncan hopes to bring Cherokee elders into the classroom so students can interview them there about their environmental knowledge relating to air and water quality.

Brook and Beast returns

The annual Brook and Beast Feast will return at 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 28, at the Smoky Mountain Event Center in Waynesville, raising money for Haywood Community College fish and wildlife management technology students.

The event will feature prize drawings, a silent and live auction and live music. The menu will include pulled pork, fried fish and more. All money raised will provide financial assistance for students wishing to attend the Annual Southeastern Wildlife Conclave, sup-

port a wildlife student scholarship, and provide additional opportunities for students to learn from and network with natural resource professionals at state, regional and national meetings.

Tickets are $15 in advance or $20 at the door, and free for kids 12 and under. Buy advance tickets from the HCC Natural Resources office or online at eventbrite.com by searching “Brook and Beast.” The event is sponsored by Haywood Smokehouse, Sorrell’s Creek Trout Farm, the Haywood Wildlife Society and the HCC Foundation.

For more information, contact Shannon Rabby at 828.627.4560 or srabby@haywood.edu.

Celebrate Halloween the natural way

The annual Enchanted Forest Halloween bash will take over the Highlands Nature Center and Highlands Botanical Garden 6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 25.

Kids will go trick-ortreating through the garden’s forest trails, with a bonfire, hot drinks and face painting by Macon Faces waiting at the end. Costumes are encouraged.

The event is free, but weather-dependent, with no reservation required. Meet in the amphitheater behind the Highlands Nature Center. Call 828.586.2623 for more information.

dents out to more remote sites, which would involve hiking and time out in nature.

The spring pilot project involved only 12 students from CHS, but this year that impact will multiply. Instead of a semesterlong project, this year’s program is designed as a two-week intensive unit, the first week

This fall, about 40 CHS students will participate in the program, with even more in the spring. The program will also make its debut at Swain County High School, with a small program offered there this fall to be followed by a beefed-up version in the spring.

— Sara Duncan

“What we’re trying to accomplish is really focusing on the kids and their education, and their connection to their own environment,” Duncan said. “We’re working on a new title because ‘Our Air’ doesn’t work anymore. But helping students understand our relationship with our environment and how our environment impacts us and how we impact the environment — I would say that is the ultimate goal at this point.”

The freshly rehabilitated campground stands ready for visitors. NPS photo

Kids show off their costumes during a previous Enchanted Forest event.

Donated photo

Fontana Lake cleanup aims to remove 25 tons of litter

The nation’s largest trash cleanup effort in a national park will take place Nov. 4-6 at Fontana Lake, with 150 volunteers needed to do the job.

Volunteers can sign up for shift anytime between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on any day of the three-day event. The effort will be based at the Fontana Resort and Marina, involv-

in the country. Fontana Lake’s 238 miles of shoreline provide a natural landscape and unique habitats for wildlife such as black bears, bobcats, foxes, bald and golden eagles, ospreys, otters, turkeys and deer.

“Unfortunately, Fontana Lake is also a gathering place for garbage that’s dumped — both accidentally and knowingly — or collected from other water networks that carry the trash downstream,” said Tara Moore, the North Carolina Wildlife Federation’s director of conservation partnerships.  Left in the lake, the litter leaches deadly toxins into the environment, reducing the quality of Fontana Lake and the Little Tennessee River. Aquatic and terrestrial wildlife also suffer when they ingest or get caught in the litter.

ing at least 10 pontoon boats and six large dumpsters to transport and remove trash.

The goal is to remove at least 50,000 pounds of litter. For every 25 pounds of trash collected, the N.C. Wildlife Federation will plant a native tree, shrub or 10 pollinator plants.

Spanning 10,230 acres and reaching depths of 400 feet, the artificial finger lake is home to one of the most diverse fisheries

Scholarship available for NOC Guide School

A new, need-based scholarship is available for people with limited resources to launch a career in whitewater at the Nantahala Outdoor Center.

The Founders Scholarship, funded by The Wesser Foundation Inc, is open to applicants for the 2023 season and will cover the cost of training, equipment, housing and meal plans for NOC’s renowned Guide School. The Wesser Foundation was established by Jess Austin, who had to forego becoming a river guide in his twenties due to economic constraints. After completing law school and retiring from a career in the field, he made the dream from his younger years come true. He now works as a river guide at NOC.

“My wife and I established the Founders

Since 2019, staff and volunteers from the North Carolina Wildlife Federation, Fontana Village Resort and Marina, Mainspring Conservation Trust, Tennessee Valley Authority, National Park Service and Smoky Mountain Hiking Club have removed more than 170,000 pounds of litter from Fontana Lake through volunteer cleanup efforts.

Sign up at ncwf.org/events.

Scholarship as a way of removing systemic barriers for anyone attempting to access a career in the outdoors,” Austin said. “As someone who had to put aside outdoor aspirations due to financial barriers, I’m inspired to remove limitations and help more folks gain access to careers and training in the outdoors.”

Guide School participants spend five days in the field training with experienced instructors. Along with learning guide skills, scholarship recipients will also be outfitted with the essential river gear and equipment, take first aid and CPR training and certifications, and receive complimentary staff housing and meals while employed at Nantahala Outdoor Center during the river guide season.

The application is available at noc.com/about/founders-scholarship. The selection and interview process will begin in the winter, with winners announced in the spring.

WNC gets drier

Dry conditions in North Carolina expanded to include nine western counties following publication of the most recent drought map Thursday, Oct. 13.

Haywood, Jackson, Swain, Macon, Clay,

past 30 days, placing it 2.5 inches below average for that time period.

Celebrate NOCtoberfest

Enjoy leaf season in the mountains at Nantahala Outdoor Center’s annual NOCtoberfest event noon to 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22.

The day will begin with the Great Pumpkin Pursuit, a beloved event in which 200 pumpkins are released into the Nantahala River for participants to grab while paddling. Pumpkins will be numbered, with grand prizes for the most pumpkins collected and raffle numbers drawn for prizes to match numbered pumpkins.

The event will also feature trick or treating for kids noon to 2 p.m., a local artisan marketplace noon to 4 p.m., a kids and pet costume contest and parade 2 to 3 p.m., a bonfire and s’mores 2 to 3 p.m. and live music from Blues with Blue 1 to 4 p.m.

The event is free, with signup required for the Great Pumpkin Pursuit. It’s free, with a charge of $10 for a single ducky or $15 for a double to rent a boat. Space is limited. Register at noc.com/events/noctoberfest or on-site starting at 11 a.m.

Winter Lights tickets now on sale

Tickets are now on sale for Winter Lights, an open-air walk-through light show of more than 1 million lights running Nov. 18-Dec. 31 at the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville.

This year’s event will feature familiar favorites like the 50-foot lighted tree and quilt garden, along with enchanting new details designed to delight and surprise.

Ticket prices range from $30 to $60 per car depending on the date and entry time, with members receiving a $5 discount. Flex tickets are $75. For more information or to reserve tickets, visit ncarboretum.org/winter-lights.

Friends of the Smokies seeks new CEO

Friends of the Smokies is launching a national search for a new CEO following the departure of Tim Chandler, who had filled the role since November 2018.

“Tim left in early September to assume the duties of vice president of marketing of Flatrock Motorsports Park, an exciting new development on the Cumberland Plateau,” said Sarah Herron, director of marketing and communications for Friends of the Smokies. “We’re grateful that he continues to volunteer and is still very much part of the Friends of the Smokies family.”

Friends of the Smokies has retained Potrero Group, a national strategy and search firm, to facilitate the search for the nonprofit’s next leader. That person should have an extensive management background and passion for conservation, public lands

and partnership, said Friends of the Smokies’ board chair Sharon Pryse.

“Friends of the Smokies must continue to grow and reach for the next level of impact and success,” said Pryse. “We’re looking for an experienced visionary who can guide us forward in mission and impact.”

Friends of the Smokies is an official nonprofit partner of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, raising money, public awareness and volunteer labor to help the National Park Service in its mission to preserve and protect the Smokies. Since 1993, the organization has raised more than $75 million for historic preservation, wildlife management and environmental education.

Application information is online at friendsofthesmokies.org/Executive-Search, with a Nov. 11 deadline for priority consideration. Share recommendations with Cleveland Justis at fotsceosearch@potrerogroup.com.

Graham, Cherokee, Buncombe and Transylvania counties are labeled “abnormally dry,” while the rest of the state retains adequate moisture following a deluge from Hurricane Ian. On the Oconaluftee River, seven-day average streamflows have fallen to the historical 12th percentile, and Cullowhee has received less than an inch of rain in the

According to National Weather Service data, Asheville had received only .06 inches of rain for the month as of Oct. 14, well below the normal of 1.6 inches for that period, while Bryson City received 0.14 inches, down from the normal of 1.36 inches.

These dry conditions have contributed to some of the best fall color in years across the mountain region but also present a concern with the arrival of fall wildfire season.

Drought maps are published every Thursday at ncdrought.org based on data collected as of 8 a.m. that Tuesday.

Paddlers race to grab pumpkins.

photo

The N.C. Drought Advisory Council publishes an updated drought map every Thursday. N.C. Drought Advisory Council map

Puzzles can be found on page 46

answers.

Notes from a Plant Nerd

BY ADAM B IGELOW

W e have a tendency in our modern culture of celebrating only the young, youthful and new parts of our world, and not enjoying the old, aging and dying parts. We tend to fear death and growing old. Throughout the world, indigenous traditional cultures celebrate and venerate older members of their people as the carriers and imparters of wisdom, knowledge and how to live well on the earth. But not in this modern culture we live in. No, we send our old people off to live in homes, isolating them and separating them from the rest of the world. Culturally, we try to look and feel younger. As if there is no beauty in being old. No beauty to be found in dying.

And yet, every fall people flock to the Southern Appalachia Mountains to come watch the leaves as they die. Because they are so beautiful. Their colors sing out brightly in many different shades of reds, yellows, oranges and browns. They call to us, like a siren’s song, leading hapless tourists to cast off what they are doing and travel to the mountains to answer their call. And answer they do. Our regional economy depends on it. The colorful leaves and mountainsides are a major economic driver of the tourism-related money that dominates our local economy, and the many different businesses those tourism dollars support. My own, included.

And they are shining such colorful brilliance because they are dying. The leaves are aging and turning vivid in one last flush of beauty before their work is done for the year and they fall to the forest floor to return their nutrients to the system that produced them in the first place. All season long they have been green with chlorophyll, eating sunlight and turning it into sugar and carbohydrates. This is how solar energy moves through the ecosystem. Plants “eat” sunlight, insects (mostly caterpillars of moths and butterflies) then eat the plant leaves, and other critters eat those insects. This is the foundation of the food web.

Chlorophyll is a difficult and expensive chemical for trees to produce, and they can’t afford to just toss it onto the ground and waste it. So, they pull this green-col-

ored chemical back into the tree and store it in the roots for the long winter, reusing it in the spring to make new leaves. This allows the other chemicals that the plant’s leaves contain — and their resulting colors — their chance to shine. Anthocyanins give us the reds and purples of sourwood, viburnums and oaks (Oxydendron arboretum, Viburnum spp, and Quercus spp., respectively) while carotenoids provide the orange in sassafras, serviceberry and some maples (Sassafras albidum, Amelanchier spp. and

Acer spp. respectively). Yellow leaf color is produced in part by xanthophylls found in yellow buckeye, ash and tulip-poplar, which is also called yellow-poplar (Aesculus flava, Fraxinus heterophyllus and Liriodendron tulipifera, respectively.)

And, while the colors red and orange dominate the fall forest of the eastern United States, it wasn’t always that way. Many researchers say the functionally extinct American chestnut tree (Castanea dentata) made up more than 20% of the eastern forest — and more than 70% in some Southern Appalachian locations — before the chestnut blight decimated it in the early part of the twentieth century. And as chestnut trees have yellow leaves in the fall, much more of the fall forest used to be bright yellow at this time of year, resembling the Colorado Rockies or the Pacific Northwest more than what we see today here in Western North Carolina.

So, let us learn to celebrate the beauty of old things, of aging, death and dying once again. Celebrate them just as we do youth, birth and growth. And may we recognize that these cycles of our lives can be just as beautiful as the mountainsides in the fall. And can shine just as brightly, even as they fade.

(Adam Bigelow lives in Cullowhee and leads weekly wildflower walks and ecotours through Bigelow’s Botanical Excursions. bigelownc@gmail.com.)

The leaves don’t just fall, y’all. They’re pushed

O

O

A catbrier vine shows off its fall color. Adam Bigelow photo

B USINESS & E DUCATION

• Brent Martin, 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 County Public Library Meeting Room. Visit blueridgebartram.org to learn more.

• The N.C. Department of Transportation is inviting small and disadvantaged business owners to upcoming workshops where they can learn about how to work with the state agency. The meeting for divisions 13 and 14 will take place at 10 a.m. Oct. 22, at the division 14 office at 253 Webster Road in Sylva. For more information visit ncdot.gov/divisions/highways/Pages/highways-dbe-outreach.aspx.

• Folkmoot USA will host the first annual Field Summit 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, in the Queen Auditorium. The event is free, Folkmoot USA will provide all supplies, learning session and lunch to all participants. Students will learn how to build resumes, interview , write college essays, get involved in volunteering, become a mentor and more. Learn more and sign up at www.fieldproject.substack.com.

• 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

• 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.

• A fundraiser to support Ukranian humanitarian relief will take place 6-9 p.m Monday, Oct. 31, at the Maggie Valley Country Club. Proceeds will support the work of BombTechs Without Borders. The event is Gatsby-style, tickets are limited, $100 tickets include hors d’oeuvres, one drink ticket, a raffle ticket and a donation to Bomb Techs Without Borders. To RSVP for the fundraiser, email marilynlawson054@gmail.com or mail a check for tickets or donations to Grace Church in the Mountains 394 N. Haywood St., Waynesville, NC 28786, Attn: Ukraine Fundraiser; memo line: Ukraine Fundraiser.

• 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.

H EALTH AND WELLNESS

• Yoga at the library will take place 6-7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, in the Macon County Public Library Living Room. Bring your own mat. Contact Kristina Lynn Moe at know@fontanalib.org or 828.524.3600.

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.

• Indivisible Swain County, NC will meet at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 24, via Zoom. All are welcome to join and share concerns and ideas. If you are interested in attending, please email maryherr2017@gmail.com for a link or call 828.497.9498.

AUTHORS AND B OOKS

• Donna Corso will lead a discussion about her book “When the Wind Chimes Chime: ending the greatest fear of all,” from 1-3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, at Blue Ridge Books. For more information visit blueridgebooksnc.com or call 828.456.6000.

• Storyteller Donal Davis will perform at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 16, at the Folkmoot Friendship Center Queen Auditorium. The event is presented by Blue Ridge Books and Folkmoot USA. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door. Visit Blue Ridge Books in store or by phone at 828.456.6000 or Folkmoot USA at 828.452.2997 or at folkmoot.org.

K IDS & FAMILIES

• The Waynesville Parks and Recreation Department will host a movie night on the lawn at the Waynesville Recreation Center at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21. The movie will be Hocus Pocus, everyone should bring their own lawn chairs or blankets, there will be popcorn, hot chocolate and hot cider free of charge. For more information contact Sam Dunbar at the recreation center 828.456.2030 or sdunbar@waynesvillenc.gov.

• There will be fun for the whole family 2-4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29, at Cruso UMC, 11653 Cruso Road in Canton. Everyone is welcome. There will be treat bags, games, food and prizes.

• Treats on the Street will take place 5-7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 31, on Main Street in Waynesville, in conjunction with a “Trunk or Treat” event in the First Baptist Church parking lot. Contact Beth Gilmore 828.456.3517, ext. 2122.

• Downtown Trick or treat will take place 4-7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 31 in Bryson City. Dress up and get treats from local shops, get your photo taken and listen to the DJ. Contact Swain County Chamber of Commerce 828.488.3681.

• 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 call 828.356.2561.

• 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.

• Karaoke takes place at 7 p.m. every Friday at the Meadowlark Motel in Maggie Valley. Call 828.926.1717 or visit meadowlarkmotel.com.

• 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.

F OOD AND D RINK

• Landmark Realty Group will host its 16th Annual Chili Cook-Off 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, at Lewis Hall Center in Cashiers. For more information contact the Landmark Realty Office at 828.743.0510 or Cashiers Area Chamber at 828.743.5191.

• 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.

• “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 6-8 p.m. every Thursday and 2-5 p.m. every Saturday at The Wine Bar & Cellar in Sylva. 828.631.3075.

• 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

• 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.

• 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.

Visit www.smokymountainnews.com and click on Calendar for:

n Complete listings of local music scene

n Regional festivals

n Art gallery events and openings

n Complete listings of recreational offerings at health and fitness centers

n Civic and social club gatherings

ums 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.

• 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.

• Enjoy leaf season in the mountains at Nantahala Outdoor Center’s annual NOCtoberfest event noon-6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22. The event is free, with signup required for the Great Pumpkin Pursuit. It’s free, with a charge of $10 for a single ducky or $15 for a double to rent a boat. Space is limited. Register at noc.com/events/noctoberfest or on-site starting at 11 a.m.

• Highlands Biological Foundation will host Enchanted Forest, a family-friendly Halloween celebration with trick-or-treating along the forest trail of Highlands Botanical Garden, bonfire, hot drinks and more 6-7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 25, at the Highlands Biological Station. The event is free, costumes encouraged, call 828.526.2623 for more information.

• The annual Brook and Beast Feast will return at 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 28, at the Smoky Mountain Event Center in Waynesville, raising money for Haywood Community College fish and wildlife management technology students. Tickets are $15 in advance or $20 at the door, and free for kids 12 and under. For more information, contact Shannon Rabby at 828.627.4560 or srabby@haywood.edu.

A&E

• Darren Nicholson and Shawn Lane will perform at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21, at the Queen Auditorium in the Folkmoot Friendship Center. Food tricks and beer and wine will be available before the show. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door. For more information visit folkmootusa.org or call 828.452.2997.

• 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.

• 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.

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 medi-

• 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.

• MountainTrue is accepting orders for its 6th annual Fall Native Tree Sale Fundraiser through Sunday, Nov. 6. Place orders at mountaintrue.org/event/2022-fallnative-tree-shrub-sale.

• Tickets are now on sale for Winter Lights, an open-air walk-through light show of more than 1 million lights running Nov. 18-Dec. 31 at the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville. Visit ncarboretum.org/winter-lights.

Market PLACEWNC

Announcements

MarketPlace information:

Buncombe

FORECLOSURE AUCTION, The following units will be auctioned at 10:00 a.m. on October 20th, 2022. Located at 206 Willis Road, Canton, North Carolina 28716. R146C. Butler/ W118 - M. Jones/ E307, E273 - C. M. Okelly/ E255 - T. Owl/ E031 - N. Parton/ C80, C30, R149, R109 - J. Vecchio/ GS23 - C. Owens

DRINKING PROBLEM? Call Alcoholics Anonymous 24/7 (828) 254-8539 Find a meeting near you today: AAwnc80.com, AA.org/ meeting-guide-app Sobriety is a call or click away. (828) 254-8539 info@ ncmco.net

Employment

MEDICAL BILLING Train Online! Become fessional online at CTI! ready to work in months! Call 866-243-5931. (M-F 8am-6pm ET)

COMPUTER & IT TRAINING PROGRAM! Train ONLINE to get the skills Help Desk Professional now! Grants and Scholarships available for certain plicants. Call CTI for details! 1-855-554-4616 The Mission, Program Information and Tuition is located at CareerTechnical.edu/ consumer-information.

SHUTTLE BUS DRIVER Green Way Shuttles is a professional student transportation company. We are currently hiring PartTime Shuttle Bus Drivers. Drive local! Responsibilities: Transporting College Students from the College/University campus to off campus housing. Which is 15 minutes each way. Transporting College Students from off campus housing back to the College/University. Fueling the bus. Ensuring the bus is properly maintained. A CDL with Passenger Endorsement and Airbrakes is Required. (636) 577-1919 cheilandgws@yahoo. com

B. H. GRANING IS HIRING B.H. Graning Landscapes is hiring entry level crew members for Maintenance and Construction. FT and PT positions available. 13.00-20.00/hr. Apply in person or online at BHGLandscapes.com/landscaping-jobs Second chance employer. (828) 586-8303

HOME CARE PART-

work schedule with medical, dental, life insurance, 401K and paid time off. Mon. – Fri. NO nights or weekends. Full and Part time positions. Help someone remain independent in their home rather than be institutionalized. A

lot of people need a little help and you could be that someone who cares. Up to $12.50 per hour. Call Home Care Partners 828-586-1570 or 828-507-6065. Applications available at 525 Mineral Springs Drive, Sylva.

THE JACKSON COUNTY DEPARTMENT Of Social Services is recruiting for a Community Social Services Assistant. Duties primarily involve transporting foster children for a variety of purposes such as visits with parents, medical appointments, counseling, education, or training. Candidates for this position should be highly dependable, adaptable, have the ability to lift children and car seats, have completed high school, interact well with children, and have a valid NC driver’s license with a good driving record. The starting

salary is $28,078.19. Applicants should complete an application for Jackson County which is located at www.jcdss. org and submit it to the Jackson County Department of Social Services, NC 28779 or the Sylva branch of the NC Works Career Center. Applications will be taken until October 28, 2022.

THE JACKSON COUNTY DEPARTMENT Of Social Services is recruit ing for an Adult Services Social Worker. This position investigates reports of adult abuse and neglect, provides case management for at-risk monitors clients receiving Special Assistance In-home services. This position also provides ongoing case management for guardianships, payeeships, individual and family adjustments, in-home aide services,

and case management of substantiated adult protective service cases. Other duties include general intake and community outreach services. Requires limited availability after hours and on weekends as-needed. The starting salary is $43,558.50, if a four year degree in a Preference will be given to applicants with a Master’s or Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work and experience providing Social Work services. Applicants should complete an application which is located at www.jcdss. org and submit it to the Jackson County Department of Social Services, NC 28779 or the Sylva branch of the NC Works Career Center. Applications will be taken until October 28, 2022.

Pets

PITBULL TERRIER MIX, BROWN&WHITE, ED 3 year old, handsome boy who is happy, friendly, and very active. Loves to play. Asheville Humane Society (828) 761-2001 adoptions@ashevillehumane.org

BLACK MALE CAT, ARTU 10 year old, sweet house-panther; loves toys and high places. Sometimes lap cat, sometimes independent. Asheville Humane Society (828) 761-2001 adoptions@ ashevillehumane.org

Real Estate Announcements

PUBLISHER’S NOTICE

All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Fair Hous ing Act which makes it illegal to advertise ‘any preference, limitation or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin, or an in tention to make any such preference, 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 estate in violation of this law. All dwellings advertised on equal opportunity basis.

Rentals

TIMESHARE CANCELLATION EXPERTS. Wesley Financial Group, LLC Over $50,000,000 in timeshare debt and fees cancelled in 2019. Get free informational package and learn how to get rid of your timeshare! Free consultations. Over 450 positive reviews. Call 844-213-6711

Automotive

AUTO INSURANCE STARTING AT $49/ MONTH! Call for your fee rate comparison to see how much you can save! Call: 833-472-0580

Entertainment

HUGHESNET SATELLITE INTERNET – Finally, no hard data limits! Call Today for speeds up to 25mbps as low as $59.99/ mo! $75 gift card, terms apply. 1-844-416-7147

Health/Beauty

ATTENTION OXYGEN THERAPY USERS! Inogen One G4 is capable of full 24/7 oxygen delivery. Only 2.8 pounds. FREE information kit. Call 866579-0885

ATTENTION: Oxygen Users. Gain freedom with a portable oxygen concentrator. No more heavy teed lowest prices. Oxygen Concentrator Store 844-866-4793

Home Improvement

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Haywood Co.

Estate

Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate- Heritage

• Carolyn Lauter - carolyn@bhgheritage.com

Beverly Hanks & Associates- beverly-hanks.com

• Billie Green - bgreen@beverly-hanks.com

• Brian K. Noland - brianknoland.com

• Anne Page - apage@beverly-hanks.com

• Jerry Powell - jpowell@beverly-hanks.com

Catherine Proben - cproben@beverly-hanks.com

Ellen Sither - esither@beverly-hanks.com

Mike Stamey - mikestamey@beverly-hanks.com

Karen Hollingsed- khollingsed@beverly-hanks.com

Billy Case- billycase@beverly-hanks.com

Laura Thomas - lthomas@beverly-hanks.com

John Keith - jkeith@beverly-hanks.com

• Randall Rogers - rrogers@beverly-hanks.com

• Susan Hooper - shooper@beverly-hanks.com

• Hunter Wyman - hwyman@beverly-hanks.com

• Julie Lapkoff - julielapkoff@beverly-hanks.com

• Darrin Graves - dgraves@beverly-hanks.com

Emerson Group - emersongroupus.com

George Escaravage - george@emersongroupus.com

Chuck Brown - chuck@emersongroupus.com

Sunburst Realty - sunburstrealty.com

Amy Spivey - amyspivey.com

Rick Border - sunburstrealty.com

Randy Flanigan - 706-207-9436

Steve Mauldin - 828-734-4864

Williams Realty - kellerwilliamswaynesville.com

The Morris Team - www.themorristeamnc.com

Lakeshore Realty

Phyllis Robinson - lakeshore@lakejunaluska.com

Dreams Realty- maggievalleyhomesales.com

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