Smoky Mountain News | December 20, 2023

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

December 20-26, 2023 Vol. 25 Iss. 30

New leadership means new direction for Macon Page 12 Extreme drought leaves North Carolina Page 33

CONTENTS On the Cover: Trout fishing has long been a draw for a lot of folks around North Carolina, especially in the western part of the state. On the heels of a recent report detailing the economic impact of trout fishing, The Smoky Mountain News breaks down the numbers. SMN photo

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News Nationwide reduction in federal funding for victims hits home in WNC ............6 Partisan races for 2024 election set ..............................................................................7 Near to where her soul is: Missing hiker Melissa McDevitt is coming home ....8 Macon BOE to remain non-partisan ..........................................................................11 New leadership sees new direction for Macon ........................................................12 Cherokee adopts budget reflecting lower casino revenues ................................14 Jackson looks at Macon’s recommendations for library system..........................15 Jackson considers moving school board race to General Election ..................16 Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office answers police shooting lawsuit..................17 Sherriff to release footage of alleged Fourth Amendment violation ..................19

Opinion We of the pale blue dot never learn ............................................................................20 Christmas — finding beauty in the mess ....................................................................21

A&E Warren Haynes’ Christmas Jam returns to Asheville ..............................................22 Rock rolls into Unplugged Pub......................................................................................24

Outdoors

Smoky Mountain News

December 20-26, 2023

Extreme drought leaves North Carolina ......................................................................33 Notes from a plant nerd: Oh balsam tree, oh balsam tree ..................................34

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Scott McLeod. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . info@smokymountainnews.com Greg Boothroyd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . greg@smokymountainnews.com Micah McClure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . micah@smokymountainnews.com Jessica Murray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . jessica.m@smokymountainnews.com Jack Snyder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . jack.s@smokymountainnews.com Stefanee Sherman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . stefanee@mtnsouthmedia.com Susanna Shetley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . susanna.b@smokymountainnews.com Amanda Bradley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . amanda.b@smokymountainnews.com Sophia Burleigh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . sophia.b@smokymountainnews.com Scott Collier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . classads@smokymountainnews.com Kyle Perrotti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . kyle.p@smokymountainnews.com Holly Kays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . holly@smokymountainnews.com Hannah McLeod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . hannah@smokymountainnews.com Cory Vaillancourt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . cory@smokymountainnews.com Garret K. Woodward. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . garret@smokymountainnews.com Jamie Cogdill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . smnbooks@smokymountainnews.com Scott Collier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . classads@smokymountainnews.com Jeff Minick (writing), Chris Cox (writing), Don Hendershot (writing), Thomas Crowe (writing)

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news December 20-26, 2023 Smoky Mountain News

Reduced funding will affect a number of nonprofits in the coming year. File photo

Reduction in federal funding for crime victims hits home

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS E DITOR he holidays are often viewed as an opportunity for families to gather together and share seasonal cheer, but when there’s domestic discord, many seek help from nonprofit legal or social service organizations. Thanks to federal funding cuts in the coming year, some of the most vulnerable people in the region may find themselves left out in the cold.

“The cuts are very serious because they threaten the infrastructure in the state to help people get away from child abuse and domestic violence,” said Jim Barrett, executive director of Pisgah Legal Services. “People who are being abused kind of get a bad rap because they often have to go back, over and over, to the abuser for economic reasons or custody reasons. If you want to break the cycle of abuse, you need to make legal services available to people who can’t afford a lawyer.”

Founded by volunteer attorneys in the late 1960s as the Legal Aid Society of Buncombe County, Pisgah Legal Services

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Haywood gets financial reporting award

Haywood County has been recognized with the prestigious Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA).

Haywood County’s annual financial 6 report underwent a thorough evaluation by

provides various free civil legal assistance as well as housing and health care support across 18 Western North Carolina counties. Last year, the organization served more than 21,000 people, with 34% of civil cases involving child abuse, child custody or domestic violence issues.

Pisgah Legal operates on an annual budget of around $10 million, raised mostly from foundations, but a full 16% of revenue comes from federal funds. This year, the federal funding cuts will leave Pisgah Legal with a shortfall of more than $1 million.

Those cuts, Barrett said, mean that more than 1,900 people, mostly children and women, could end up with nowhere to turn when seeking help with safe housing, protective orders, child custody or support, divorce and division of assets.

“In the legal world, having access to an attorney is really important to getting away from an abuser, because the abuser holds child custody, housing, the car. Anything they can do to retain control over the person they’re abusing, they’ll use it,” said Barrett. “If you think about having an attorney to get custody established, to deal with who’s name is going to be on the lease, to deal with some of the property from the marriage, including transportation to a job, these are all critically important to keep someone who’s been abused from having to go back to the abuser.”

The cuts, to a federal program called VOCA, affect a broad segment of the nonprofit legal and social services sector.

The Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) of 1984 established the Crime Victims Fund (CVF), which is administered by the Department of Justice and funded not by taxpayer dollars but instead by fines and forfeitures collected from losing parties in federal cases. According to Court Appointed Special Advocates, a national support group, the CVF helps roughly 3.7 million Americans, in every state, every year.

Barrett touted the cost effectiveness of breaking the cycle of violence, especially for children who witness it. Abuse can have both mental and physical health consequences later in life, and some children who grow up in violent environments inadvertently turn to such behaviors as appropriate ways to resolve interpersonal conflicts. The National Institutes of Health says that one in six male inmates were victims of physical or sexual abuse before turning 18, and more than half had experienced physical trauma.

Over the past few years, however, deposits to the CVF have dwindled in the face of fewer federal fines and forfeitures.

In fiscal year 2018, the fund was capped at $4.4 billion. In 2019, it was $3.5 billion. In 2020, it was $2.5 billion. In 2021, the fund dropped to $2 billion. There was an increase in 2022 to $2.6 billion, but in 2023 it decreased again to a new low, $1.9 billion — a new low until fiscal year 2024, which began on Oct. 1, 2023. This year’s cap is $1.2 billion, a reduction of more than 70% since 2018.

According to the National Network to End Domestic Violence, the VOCA cuts are due to changing prosecutorial strategies “and are not a partisan issue.”

“What they’re saying is that in the heyday when we had a million dollars a year from that source, that was just an oddity because there had been so much penalty money in the system I guess from the Great Recession,” said Barrett. “When the banks were getting those big penalties for things they were doing to abuse people that led up to the Great

an impartial panel, meeting the high standards set by the GFOA program. The county’s report was commended for its open and honest communication of the county’s financial situation, encouraging readers to easily understand the information.

“The Finance Team’s unwavering commitment to transparency and accuracy is truly commendable. Their diligent work throughout the year, not just during year-end reporting, has been instrumental in achieving this prestigious award,” said Kristian Owen,

Recession, I guess there was kind of a bolus in the system and the Obama administration pushed that out to the states.

We got used to that money, and then it really dried up.”

Although the “VOCA Fix” act was enacted in 2021, increasing deposits to the CVF, the increased funding is mostly seen as “backfill” for previous years, leaving nonprofits with an uncertain future.

“They told us that the VOCA Fix that Congress did a couple of years ago was going to help replenish that pot of money and it hasn’t really done that,” Barrett said. “Nothing like they indicated it would.”

The cuts go much further than just Pisgah Legal.

KARE (Kids Advocacy Resource Effort) of Haywood County has provided services centering on child abuse, exploitation and neglect for more than 30 years. Right now, the organization has an annual budget of around $825,000, but that’s after a 33% cut in the 2020 grant cycle, and an additional 67% cut in the 2022 grant cycle.

“We also received a $16,000 cut to our mental health grant, which given the current trends appears to have the highest need and the largest impact,” said Savannah Anders, executive director of KARE. “Our numbers, however, have done the complete opposite. We are already 40 referred cases over our normal average for the year.”

Barrett, who’s been with Pisgah legal for 40 years and plans to retire in August, holds a dim view of what might happen if funding continues to dwindle.

“The way I’ve heard the Republican justices of the Texas Supreme Court describe it, they say democracy can’t exist if people don’t have a way to redress their grievances in court. So many things in a very complicated society need a lawyer to resolve and if you don’t have that outlet, if you don’t have that safety valve, if you will people take things in their own hands,” Barrett said. “Look at what happened when people couldn’t get Medicaid. They died prematurely. There were many times when we could appeal a denial of Medicaid and get somebody treatment that they needed. But if we weren’t there to do that, they don’t get their cancer treated or they don’t get their antidepressants, they can’t go to work, and things just spiral downhill from there.”

Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-Henderson) didn’t respond to an email requesting an interview for this story.

You can help Federal funding cuts will substantially affect the ability of nonprofits to provide affordable legal and social services for thousands of people in Western North Carolina this coming year. If you’re able, consider making a donation to one of these worthy organizations that provide services to the most vulnerable residents in our region.

Pisgah Legal Services pisgahlegal.org/give KARE kareinc-bloom.kindful.com

Haywood County’s Finance Director.

The Certificate of Achievement is a big deal in the world of government finance.

Haywood County has proudly received this recognition every year since 1995, showcasing the county’s consistent dedication to financial excellence.

County Manager Bryant Morehead added, “This achievement reflects the dedication of our Finance Team to ensuring accountability and transparency in our financial practices. Their efforts go beyond the

numbers, telling the story of responsible fiscal management that benefits our entire community.”

The GFOA started the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting Program in 1945 to encourage governments to go above and beyond the minimum requirements for financial reports. The goal is to make sure that these reports are not just meeting a checklist but are helping the community understand how well their local government is managing money.

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Cashiers and Canada.

In district three, Democrat Cody Lewis has filed to run against Republican Jenny Lynn Hooper. Lewis ran in the Democratic Primary Election for district three’s county commission seat in 2020 but lost to Susan Bogardus. Hooper currently serves as a member at large on the Jackson County GOP Executive Committee.

In district four, Democrat Sally Jennings Hudson has filed to run and will face Republican Michael Jennings in the November election.

There are two seats up for election on the Jackson County Board of Education, currently held by Wes Jamison and Elizabeth Cooper, board chair. Only Jamison has filed for reelection. With the board of education, a non-partisan race, there will be no primary contest.

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Jamison will face Clint Irons in the General Election to represent district three on the school board. In district one, previous County Commissioner Gayle Woody will face off against Rainy Brake.

In Macon County, there will be two seats up for election on the county commission.

Both incumbents Josh Young and Paul Higdon have filed for reelection. In district two, Chris Browning has filed to run against Young, and in district three, Barry Breeden has filed to run against Higdon.

Because both incumbents and their challengers are Republican, the race for both commission seats will be settled in the Primary Election this spring.

In Swain County, three candidates will vie for two county commission seats.

Republican Kenneth Parton will run as an incumbent; however, longtime commissioner and current Vice Chair Roger Parsons did not file to run. Facing off against Parton are two other Republicans, Tanner Lawson and Eric Watson. Because all three candidates are from the same party, there will be no General Election contest.

Candidate filing continues through noon on Dec. 15. The 2024 Primary Election will be held on Tuesday, March 5. The deadline to register to vote in the 2024 Primary Election is Friday, Feb. 9. For more information, visit ncsbe.gov.

— SMN Staff

Have a cold beer or wine and walk down memory lane

December 20-26, 2023

orth Carolina’s candidate filing period for the 2024 General Election ended last week, and after a slow start, a flurry of Western North Carolina candidates have qualified for federal, state and local races.

First-term Congressman Chuck Edwards (R-Henderson) has filed for reelection, as has Hayesville Republican Christian Reagan. A Buncombe County state legislator, Democrat Caleb Rudow, also filed.

Incumbent District 43 judges Justin Greene (D-Swain), Monica Hayes Leslie (DHaywood) and Kaleb Wingate (R-Haywood) have filed to retain their seats and drew no challengers. Virginia Hornsby (R-Macon) has also filed, and will face Jackson County Republican Andy Buckner in the Primary Election.

Sen. Kevin Corbin (R-Macon) and Sen. Ralph Hise (R-Mitchell) both filed for their seats, and neither will face Primary Election opposition. In the General Election, Hise will face Avery County Democrat Frank Hughes III, while Corbin will face Jackson County Democrat Adam Tebrugge.

Rep. Mark Pless (R-Haywood) is uncontested in the Primary Election for House District 118 but will face Democrat Evelyn Davidson of Madison County.

In District 119, Rep. Mike Clampitt (RSwain) also gets to take the Primary season off but come November he’ll face Brevard Democrat Mark R. Burrows.

House Majority Whip Karl Gillespie (RMacon) has filed for his District 120 House seat, as has Andrews Democrat Nancy Curtis.

On the Haywood County Board of Commissioners, incumbent Republicans Kevin Ensley and Brandon Rogers drew no primary challengers. Waynesville Democrat Tausha Forney will challenge them in November; Democrats could have fielded two candidates without having to hold a Primary Election, but apparently found no takers.

In Jackson County, there are two seats up for election on the county commission representing districts three and four. Those seats are currently held by Tom Stribling and Mark Jones respectively, neither of whom have filed for reelection. Four candidates have filed for the race, but with one Republican and one Democrat filing for each seat, none of the candidates will face competition in the Primary Election.

District three includes the Cullowhee, Webster and Savannah precincts, and while candidates must live within the boundaries of the district, all Jackson County voters help choose the winner. District four covers the southern end of the county, including

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Partisan races for 2024 election set

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Near to where her soul is

December 20-26, 2023

Melissa McDevitt (center) shown here with parents Tom and Maggie, went missing on Dec. 9, 2022. Maggie McDevitt photo

Missing hiker Melissa McDevitt is coming home

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS E DITOR lmost exactly a year after a hiker vanished in the backcountry of British Columbia the night before a trip home to Haywood County for Christmas, her remains have been located.

Melissa McDevitt will be remembered for far more than her fearless life and tragic disappearance.

She’ll more so be remembered for how she brought together from across North America a group of selfless volunteers who wouldn’t quit until, through a remarkable set of coincidences and chance encounters, they were able to help Melissa’s parents finally bring their daughter home.

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Smoky Mountain News

he daughter of Tom and Maggie McDevitt, Melissa, 38, was an avid hiker and naturalist who spent her life seeking solace in some of the world’s most untamed places.

A Tuscola High School grad, she enjoyed skiing, running, reading and photography; Melissa had an eye for beauty demonstrated aptly through the stunning pictures she took of the remote places she’d sought out, places no human foot had likely ever tread before hers.

Melissa also collected mementoes from her travels. Beach glass, sand dollars, various moths, cool rocks, shells and injured butterflies she just wouldn’t let die alone still adorn the walls of her bedroom in her parents’ home in Clyde.

Her life, however, was far less serene. Born with a rare genetic disorder called trisomy X, Melissa didn’t always fit in and endured no small measure of bullying due to her appearance and personality traits that made relationships difficult for her.

The great outdoors, Maggie explained, was the one place 8 where Melissa felt “just like everybody else.” Nature never

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judged her. Nature never let her down.

And she was smart as a whip, earning her bachelor’s degree in anthropology in Montreal, her mother Maggie told The Smoky Mountain News. But Melissa ended up spending much of her all-too-short life shuttling around as a seasonal hospitality employee in different scenic resorts where she could take full advantage of her days off by exploring nature.

That was what had brought Melissa to Vancouver Island, on Canada’s west coast.

On the afternoon of Friday, Dec. 9, 2022, Melissa headed out for one last hike before her transcontinental journey home for the holidays would begin. Melissa loved Christmas — the lights, the pageantry, the cherished family traditions.

Her father Tom became worried when she didn’t answer his phone calls later that night.

By morning, he and Maggie began to sense something was wrong.

SEARCHING FOR A SEEKER That morning, with Melissa’s phone now going straight to voicemail, Tom was able to reach an emergency contact at Melissa’s condo. Her car was gone. Her door was unlocked.

Her passport was sitting right there, on her bed. The ferry operator hadn’t seen her. Neither had the airline. Tom called the police.

He directed them to a small nearby town not so different from those of Melissa’s Western North Carolina home in the Great Smoky Mountains — modest settlements flanking vast, unforgiving areas of rugged wilderness — where they found her car parked near an entrance to Sooke Potholes Regional Park.

All her survival gear was still in the car.

Video cameras at the Jack Brooks Hatchery on the Sooke River captured Melissa’s steady gait near a trailhead just before 2 p.m., beneath overcast skies and with temperatures lingering in the mid-40s. She didn’t look like she was prepared for an extended journey, especially with the setting

winter sun racing toward the horizon and bags to be packed and ferries and planes to be caught. She wore only an olivegreen knit hat, a burgundy fleece jacket with no hood, dark blue hiking pants and boots.

The weather subsequently deteriorated as night fell.

Strong winds blew. Heavy rain crashed from the skies.

Temperatures dropped into the 20s.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police established a command center, and with other groups including Juan de Fuca Search and Rescue, began to look for Melissa.

Right around that time, Marsha van Rhyn Henderson was walking into a room in her Victoria, British Columbia home where her husband was watching the news. A story about Melissa was on the screen and featured the video footage from the hatchery.

“I was mesmerized,” Marsha said. “A solo female hiker had gone missing, and it struck something in me.”

Marsha said she couldn’t explain why.

“There was just something about watching her walk across the screen,” she recalls. “I said to my husband, ‘I have to do something. I don’t know what. I have to do something.

We have to do something.’”

An experienced solo hiker herself, Marsha had never been to Sooke but said it was on her list.

“Someone posted a question in an internet hiking group and said, ‘Does anybody else just want to go out there and start to look?’ And I read that and said, ‘Yes!’ So the two of us met out there,” she said. “The enormity of what we were thinking of doing was beyond ridiculous. You know the expression, ‘How do you eat an elephant?’ It’s one bite at a time.”

Two days after Melissa went missing, Sooke residents Heather and Vince McDonald were out for their regular Sunday hike when they happened past the hatchery, where the RCMP had set up their command post. It wasn’t until they returned home later that day that they found out what was going on, from the television, like Marsha had.

“It was sad to learn that,” Heather said. “We felt we could help, but we didn’t know how.”

As the Mounties and other professional search and rescue groups continued to come up empty, dozens, if not hundreds, of volunteers began to take their own small bites out of the elephant in what was called the largest search and rescue operation in Vancouver Island’s history.

By Dec. 19, 2022, nine days had passed since Melissa was spotted on the hatchery camera. Dogs and helicopters and Mounties and volunteers from as far as 400 miles away had spent more than 7,000 hours looking for her. The search was called off, but Melissa’s disappearance remained an active RCMP investigation.

The cold Canadian winter set in, along with its cruel reckoning, and Tom expressed the hope that Melissa’s remains would be found so that he and Maggie could in time be eternally reunited with her at the old family burial plot in Virginia.

Marsha estimates that once the snow melted in February, she’d taken the hour drive to Sooke weekly. Sometimes thrice weekly.

Like before, she wasn’t alone even though tips, leads and law enforcement activity had dwindled.

On March 12, Vince and Heather ran into Marsha on the trail. She was handing out flyers.

“We went home that night and joined the [Mindful of Melissa Instagram] group, talked with Marsha and made plans the following Sunday with Marsha to do our first hike together,” Heather said.

Back in Haywood County, Jamie Cogdill was monitoring the situation closely. Jamie, who at one time owned the Deja View gallery on Waynesville’s Main Street, had known Melissa since Melissa was a child and spent many an afternoon entertaining Melissa there as they waited for Maggie to finish work. The two were close and kept in contact even through Melissa’s college years, meeting up for an occasional hike or cup of coffee when Melissa came back through town.

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would occasionally spook deer that had bedded down calmly beneath it.

“We heard from a hunter that it was a good omen to see deer out in the wild like that,” Vince said. “The day we spotted the first one, a huge buck with a giant rack, was the day Heather found the cell phone.”

In a dim off-trail ravine, under a crown of western red cedar, Heather happened to look down and was astonished to see Melissa’s black cellphone laying on the ground, backdropped by and nearly indistinguishable from the dark brown soil.

“It was miraculous that she found it,” Vince said of the Nov. 12 discovery.

The phone, however, wasn’t much help

days later Heather found the other boot and an emergency whistle.

At work on Dec. 6, Heather removed her bracelet, weathered and worn, for the first time since she’d got it from Jamie. It was about to break, and she feared she would lose it.

A few hours later, Heather got the call.

Volunteers from SARDAV, the Search and Recovery Dog Association of Victoria, had found Melissa about two hours’ hike from the hatchery.

What really happened on that cold December night in Sooke will likely never be known, but suicide and foul play have been ruled out.

“I’m not quite sure if I’d use the word

daughter’s fate, while memories of the family’s traditional holiday trips to Gatlinburg, to James Island, to the old Shenandoah home place and to the family cemetery where Melissa’s grandmother had played became ever dearer.

Christmas gifts Melissa would never get the chance to open continued to arrive in the mail. Twinkling holiday lights, guarding with vigilance Melissa’s bedroom full of mementoes — the very proof that she had ever lived at all — waited to shine once more upon her.

They never will, yet they sparkle still.

Last week, well after Melissa had been located, Tom and Maggie took that holiday trip.

“We went to Charleston on Thursday and went to the same restaurant we would have gone to with Melissa, and then we went to the park, and then we waited until it got dark and drove around a couple of times seeing the James Island County Park festival of lights that Melissa just adored.

We did that, and we felt good about it,” Tom said. “It was a bit somber, but we enjoyed it because we felt we had Melissa with us.”

This week, Tom will travel to Virginia

other than the fact that it suggested they were close to finding Melissa. Eight days later, Heather found a sock, ratcheting up the intensity of the searches, along with the hopes of searchers. Everything they ultimately found, Heather said, was within a 200-meter radius.

On Thanksgiving Day, a dog brought in from the mainland by the Mounties found Melissa’s hiking poles and a lone boot. A few

‘happy’ to have confirmation of your daughter’s death,” Tom said. “But not knowing her status for 362 days, it was just such a relief to be able to know she hadn’t been abducted or whatever, just knowing that things that frankly are worse than death did not happen.”

Last Christmas was particularly painful for Tom and Maggie.

They fretted with uncertainty over their

Smoky Mountain News

Heather McDonald (left) and Marsha van Rhyn Henderson try to keep warm during the search for Melissa McDevitt. Donated photo

to complete arrangements for Melissa’s burial in the family plot. The funeral home operators, upon learning Melissa’s story, told Tom they would not take his money.

A few days after that, on Christmas, Heather and Vince and Clive and other volunteers involved with the search who came to feel they knew Melissa will hike back out into the wilds of Sooke. They’ll bring with them garland. Ornaments.

Twinkling holiday lights, powered by batteries. They’ll decorate trees. Recite poems. Read letters. They’ll share memories of the person who, at the culmination of her remarkable life, had both united them and changed them all forever.

Vince said they’d take a video for Tom and Maggie and send it to them as a Christmas present.

“Melissa would just be tickled, with the challenges she had making friends and keeping friends, to know that in her passing she brought together a collection of people from all different walks of life with a common bond of wanting to find out what happened. Little would she have known that they have formed lifelong bonds,” Tom said. “There’s nothing Melissa would have loved more than for someone to come out and decorate, near to where her soul is.”

December 20-26, 2023

What really happened on that cold December night in Sooke will likely never be known, but suicide and foul play have been ruled out.

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When the search began, Jamie served as an intermediary between the Canadians and Melissa’s parents, even sending friendship bracelets made of thin black twine to Heather and Marsha.

Melissa will be found, Jamie told them, the day the bracelet breaks.

Tom and Maggie spent a considerable amount of time on Vancouver Island through the spring and summer, helping volunteers continue to search for Melissa. The volunteers were so numerous that it became apparent a more systematic approach would be needed.

Clive Webber, another Victoria resident, was out on a trail run when he stumbled upon a poster noting Melissa’s disappearance, and her appearance.

“That’s an area where I like to do my hiking and trail running, so I have to say It bothered me quite a bit to find out that someone was missing up there because it is a large area, but to me, it feels kind of small, because I’m just so used to being out there,” he said. “But it is an easy place to get lost.”

Like most on the Vancouver Island, Clive already knew about the case.

One thing on the poster, however, caught Clive’s eye.

“It was Melissa’s activity-tracking watch, which I also wear and was wearing at the time. I know a lot about how these watches work,” he said. “I noticed that [a group of hikers] had been going on their unofficial searches, and I asked, ‘Well, have you been taking tracks of your hikes and then putting it into like a comprehensive map so you’d be able to tell where you’ve been and where you have not been?’”

They hadn’t, so Clive helped everyone get set up to track their hikes and forward the data to him. He created a digital map, so that the various waves of volunteers — many of whom had never met each other — didn’t inadvertently follow in each other’s footsteps.

All they knew at the time was where Melissa went in, and what direction she was heading. Data in hand, volunteers spotted areas that hadn’t been searched and embarked with renewed hope.

In the end, Webber had collected 229 individual tracks totaling more than a thousand miles.

Eventually, searchers were able to access the data on Melissa’s watch. Although it didn’t provide an exact location, it did reveal some patterns in Melissa’s prior hiking activity, including average distances and times of day.

It also revealed that Melissa had been in the same area the day before her disappearance — a tantalizing hint that she may have been exploring a specific spot within the park.

The spot was hilly, pierced with exposed rock covered by thick green moss. Douglass fir and western hemlock towered above.

Below, large dense patches of a shrubby evergreen called salal formed a canopy of their own, often taller than a person.

Sumptuous ferns unfurled feathery fronds, making it difficult to see one’s own feet. So dense with vegetation was the area that Heather and Vince, using Clive’s maps,

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Smoky Mountain News December 20-26, 2023

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Macon BOE to remain non-partisan D

The Macon County Board of Education was unanimously opposed to a partisan school board race. File photo

Haywood Chamber of Commerce gains rare accreditation The Carolinas Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (CACCE) recognized the Haywood County Chamber of Commerce as one of two recipients of the 2023 Carolinas Accredited Chamber designation at their annual management conference awards ceremony held at the Hilton Garden Inn in Summerville, South Carolina.

The CACCE Carolinas Accredited Chamber program sets

rather than as apolitical citizens acting only in the interest of local schools, students and our community. There is the potential of political gridlock if you decide to push for a partisan board of education.”

“I’m against making the board of education a partisan office. If you change it, it will inject party primaries into local school issues whereas now there may be none ... there is the potential of political gridlock ...”

— Bob Scott, former mayor of Franklin

In addition to heightened partisanship, several residents and commissioners wanted input from the board of education, all of whom came out opposed to the change.

Chairman Jim Breedlove, Hillary Willkes and Diedre Breeden spoke to the board at

standards of excellence for chambers in North Carolina and South Carolina. It recognizes chambers that have met those standards while offering guidelines for others to improve their effectiveness. The program follows the U.S. Chamber model, showing that a chamber has gone through a detailed analysis of what and where they are as an organization.

Adding these Chambers brings the total number of Carolinas Accredited Chambers to 35.

CACCE is the professional development organization dedicated to providing educational opportunities for chamber of commerce executives and staff members in North Carolina and

when it comes to how the school system actually operates.”

The motion to terminate the resolution in support of a partisan school board race passed, 4-1, with Shearl being the lone dissenting vote.

South Carolina. CACCE equips chamber of commerce professionals with leadership skills and tools to build innovative chambers.

Being a Certified Chamber of Commerce places the Haywood County Chamber in a higher plateau of achievement, said CeCe Hipps, president of the Haywood County Chamber of Commerce.

“Achieving the accomplishment of becoming a CACCE Certified Chamber has been a work in progress for several years,” she said. “It takes determination, patience and a good team to achieve to the highest standards set forth by the CACCE organization.”

Smoky Mountain News

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December 20-26, 2023

At the Macon County Commission’s December meeting, a delegation of school board members came to speak to the commission about their opposition, and still more members of the public spoke during public comment with the same position.

“Personally, I do oppose the resolution to make our school board a partisan race,” said Macon County resident Linda Tyler.

“We will learn a lot more about the candidates’ views and ideas by talking to them or reading what they have to say about the school board and what they think should be done for our citizens here than by looking at a letter that follows their name.”

“I’m against making the board of education a partisan office,” said former Franklin Mayor Bob Scott. “If you change it, it will inject party primaries into local school issues whereas now there may be none.

Then you will have school board members acting as traditional partisan politicians

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BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER espite the intention by some commissioners to make the school board race partisan in Macon County, it will remain non-partisan, in part due to an outpouring of opposition from both the public and members of the current school board.

“Our goal is to do what is in the best interest of Macon County students,” said School Board Chairman Jim Breedlove.

“That’s all we’re trying to do.”

The Macon County Commission first considered a resolution in support of making the election for Board of Education a partisan race during its November meeting.

However, Macon County alone does not have the power to change the format of that election. The change would have to be made through the General Assembly. Therefore, the resolution requested the legislature establish that “henceforth the party affiliation of candidates for the Macon County Board of Education be identified on any/all primary and general election ballots.”

In November, opponents to the plan cited heightened partisanship and division, as well as lack of input from the school board regarding the resolution as the main reasons to keep the school board elected on a non-partisan basis. While commissioners John Shearl, Paul Higdon and Danny Antoine all voiced support for the change, the commission decided to table the resolution until it could garner more input.

Just a few weeks later, the school board took up the issue at its November meeting and resolved to sign a resolution opposing the change from a non-partisan to partisan school board race.

the December meeting to explain their opposition and ask them not to sign the resolution.

“Because of the way this was presented, I felt like there was some more professional courtesy needed in terms of us discussing this, especially because it involves your board,” said Antoine.

While Antoine was originally in favor of the resolution in support of a partisan race for school board, he said that after hearing input from the public and the school board, he changed his mind.

“After listening to you guys, I’m definitely supportive of what you all have stated tonight,” Antoine said after listening to input from school board members at the December meeting. “My position has changed because of being able to hear your side of this.”

Shearl remained in support of a partisan school board race, saying that politics is “in every breath that we take.” He said that the board took up the issue without input from the school board originally because the issue was beyond Macon County Schools and that the school board has “very limited power

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New leadership sees new direction for Macon

BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER acon County will see a change of leadership for the coming year after the county commission unanimously voted to appoint a new member to the chairmanship.

The shift in leadership came with a call for the commission to implement stricter protocols for both professionalism from commissioners and participation from the public after a lengthy and rowdy meeting last month that resulted in heated comments from Commissioner John Shearl, who at one point even called for County Manager Derek Roland’s resignation.

“We think it’s a good thing maybe to change leadership every year,” said outgoing Chairman Paul Higdon.

While there is no precedent for installing a new chairman annually — most boards select a chairman who serves for their entire four-year term — Macon commissioners all agreed with the change. At its December meeting, the board replaced Higdon with Gary Shields. Higdon had served as chairman since his reelection to the commission in November 2022.

Prior to Shields’ appointment, Commissioner Danny Antoine nominated Josh Young for the position; however, the motion failed for lack of a second. Then, Higdon made the motion for Shields to serve as chairman.

“Mr. Gary Shields expressed a great interest in serving as chairman of this board. I’ve known Gary for 60-something years; we’re both veterans, we have a lot in common. I respect him greatly,” said Higdon. “As chairman, it gives me great pride to nominate Mr. Gary Shields as chairman of the board for the coming year.”

Shearl seconded the motion, and it was approved unanimously.

Shields’ first action as chairman was to nominate Young as vice chair. That position was also approved unanimously.

With the change in leadership the commission also looks to implement stricter protocols for professionalism from commissioners and participation from the public.

“We feel like we need to go back and look at the public comment period that’s in our book and make sure that we’re going by the rules or the policy that’s in there,” said Shields.

December 20-26, 2023

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us feel that publicly, John, you owe Derek an apology,” said Hazel Morris. “We need to be pleasant. Whether we like one another, whether we agree with one another, whether we don’t agree with one another, we still need to be pleasant and civil and respectful.”

Shields responded to Morris by saying he had spoken one-on-one with commissioners and that they “will agree to disagree in a respectful manner.”

“That’s what you’re alluding to there, and we all agree on that,” he said, adding that Shearl had come to the meeting with a prepared statement which Shields would permit him to read after the public comment period.

Shearl responded to Morris with an anecdote about tone of speech versus content of speech and said “if you back me in a corner, when I come out of that corner it’s going to get ugly. I’m not going to crumble, I’m not going to bow down to whatever, but I assure you that when I come out of that corner it’s not going to be pleasant. And in my mind, I was backed in a corner and that’s not where I want to be.”

Along with Morris and two other residents, former Sheriff Robbie Holland also spoke during public comment to ask Shearl to apologize. Holland called the November meeting “embarrassing,” and touted Roland’s work as county manager. As sheriff, Holland worked with Roland in his capacity as manager for over 20 years.

“I’ve had the opportunity to work with five county managers, and I want you to know, Mr. Roland, of all the county managers I’ve ever worked with … there’s no county manager that I’ve ever worked with that worked harder for the citizens of Macon County, which include the employees that work for you, that work for these men. You stood up for us; you stood by us,” said

unity, and his belief that all commissioners love the county, their communities and want the best for Macon. He said that while he doesn’t “want conflict to define Macon County,” he did want to define where he stands “as an elected official and a taxpayer of Macon County.”

Shearl acknowledged that he misspoke about the budget increasing by $25 million under Derek Roland’s management but went on to complain about the increase in fund balance over the years, as well as the media and its “twisting the narrative instead of reporting on the bigger picture.”

“The spin can be put on any topic when information is purposely left out because some journalists have a history of making judgements on something without having a clue what had transpired behind the scenes to cause the friction in the first place,” Shearl said.

Shearl was adamant that he is not against county employees but is against using ARPA funds to pay county employees, saying he would rather see those funds used for capital improvements. Use of ARPA funds for premium pay for county employees was approved by the previous county commission, before Shearl was elected, when the funds were disseminated.

“Mr. Gary Shields expressed a great interest in serving as chairman of this board. I’ve known Gary for 60-something years; we’re both veterans, we have a lot in common. I respect him greatly.”

— Commissioner Paul Higdon

Smoky Mountain News

He said there would be a total of 45 minutes allotted for the public comment period with each speaker limited to five minutes. Topics must be related to Macon County, and no immediate action by the board on issues brought up in public comment should be expected. Furthermore, Shields said that board members would not interact with speakers or the questions they may bring to the board, but that the board would listen to what speakers have to say.

“Any outbursts will not be tolerated, we’re going to keep this civil,” said Sheriff Brent Holbrooks. “I spoke to Mr. Shields prior to this meeting; if that does continue like it has in months past, you’ll be asked to leave.”

Directly following the change in leadership, several Macon residents took to the podium during public comment to ask that Shearl publicly apologize for his comments toward the county manager, including his calling for Roland’s resignation, during the November meeting.

“On behalf of a lot of citizens in Macon County … a lot of 12

Holland. “I hope that by the end of the night you get a public apology.”

Holland said that he was speaking not only for himself, but on behalf of several The outgoing chair, Commissioner Paul Higdon (right), congratulates county employees who the new chair, Commissioner Gary Shields. Bob Scott photo called him and asked that he speak up on their behalf.

At the end of his diatribe, Shearl began to talk about “Thank you for the hard work you do, Derek. You’re a why he had called for Roland’s resignation, stating that it great county manager,” said Holland. “You’re a native of had nothing to do with ARPA funds. But after several minthis community, you have this community at heart, and if your family is listening, I hope that they hear what I have to utes of monologue, Shields cut him off, telling him it was time to wrap it up. say tonight because a whole lot of people feel the same way “Mr. Shearl shared his thoughts with you and that’ll be I do, and they listened to how you were treated last month, the last time,” said Shields. “He said what you asked him to, and it was embarrassing. I appreciate you.” made his response, we won’t be revisiting those types of However, when it came time for Shearl to read his prethings.” pared statement, he made no such apology. He spoke to

December 20-26, 2023

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Smoky Mountain News

December 20-26, 2023

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Cherokee adopts budget reflecting lower casino revenues

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER fter more than two months of operating under a continuing resolution, Tribal Council has approved a new budget for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

Budget approval was delayed from the typical deadline of Sept. 30, which aligns with the end of the tribe’s fiscal year, to allow the incoming administration of Principal Chief Michell Hicks to have a say in the process and to make adjustments for declining casino revenue projections for fiscal year 2024.

In April, an estimated $515 million was expected to flow back to tribal government and per capita distribution from the Tribal Casino Gaming Enterprise in fiscal year 2024, but by the end of August that prediction had fallen to $438.3 million. By the first week in October, it had dropped to $422.6 million.

“If we would not have made any changes to the budget, we would have ended up being budgeted at 97.5% of what the projected gaming was, which we were not comfortable with that,” said Finance Director Brandi Claxton. “The goal from Council was to get to 85% of that projected gaming. So to do that, to meet that, between the tribal government and the school we needed to cut $24 million from the budget.”

Cuts include $2.1 million from eliminated vacant budgeted positions; $4.7 million from tribal operations achieved primarily through contracts, training, travel and office supply reductions; $2.5 million from a decrease in pension contribution; shifting $5 million from the Capital Investment Plan fund balance to the General Fund; reappropriating $5.5 million in American Rescue Plan funding to cover general operating costs under the law’s lost revenue category; using $2.5 million from fund balance for housing and decreasing Cherokee Central Schools funding by $1.8 million, achieved by decreasing raises from 15% to 7.5% and increasing fund balance use by $250,000.

“The word ‘cuts’ is being used, but it’s not only that,” Hicks said. “It’s also adjusting some of the budgetary line items. I just want to make sure that language is clear.”

The final budget totals $842.3 million, of which $181.3

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The tribe’s Cannabis Control Board has begun issuing medical cards that will enable marijuana sales for medical use once those logistics are figured out. In a September referendum vote, tribal members voiced overwhelming approval for legalized recreational use for adults 21 and over, a change that would vastly expand the potential customer base if implemented.

Also by fiscal year 2026, Kituwah LLC is forecast to return $5.3 million to the tribe and EBCI Holdings LLC is forecast to return $18.9 million. Each entity has a different distribution plan, with tribal operations to receive anywhere between 35% and 50% of those distributions.

After discussing the budget on air for about 10 File photo minutes, Tribal Council held a 20-minute off-air discussion before coming back for a vote.

Snowbird/Cherokee County Council Member Adam Wachacha started the seven-minute discussion that followed by asking for a delay before the vote.

“I would rather have more time to be able to vet this,” he said. “I would like to actually compare it to the last two budget years so I can see what’s moving.”

However, other Council members disagreed. Big Cove Rep. Richard French offered thanks to the executive and finance offices for their hard work, saying that they’ve often been in the office after hours bringing the budget to the finish line.

“These people’s been working on this budget, and I don’t think that they would bring this budget in here if it hadn’t been vetted out through all the programs and ready to go,” he said.

Painttown Rep. Sean “Michael” Stamper applauded the Finance Department’s work in tracking the changes, While the tribe’s forecast predicts that proceeds from the saying that although he’s “very upset” that the Tribal casinos in Cherokee and Murphy will decline over the next Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission did not take any three years, total distributions from tribal business entercuts, he’s satisfied with the rest of the document. prises are expected to grow more than 50% between fiscal “The rest of the budget I’m comfortable with, so that’s years 2024 and 2026. That’s mainly due to explosive growth why I’m going to make a second to pass this budget,” he anticipated from Qualla Enterprises, which is predicted to said. send $260 million back to the tribe in fiscal year 2026. The A move to table the budget failed, with only Wachacha business began growing cannabis this year and has millions and Big Cove Rep. Perry Shell voting in favor. A subsequent of dollars’ worth of product in storage. However, because it move to adopt the budget passed with all present Council does not yet have a way to legally transport it for sale to the members except Wachacha in favor. Birdtown Rep. Jim Owle dispensary on the main Qualla Boundary, the business does was absent. not yet have any revenues. million is for per capita distributions. The next biggest categories are salaries and personnel costs, which will increase by $611,00 compared to the original FY24 proposal to $180.4 million, and internal transfers, which will decrease by $12.8 million to $148.5 million. Also up from the original FY24 proposal are entity transfers at $83 million; contracts, services and fees at $60.5 million; other program operating costs at $52 million; reserves or unused lines at $50.6 million; capital, equipment and leases at $33.3 million; and member services at $20.2 million. Debt decreased by $1.2 million from the original proposal to $33 million.

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Macon County commissioners proposed several changes to the Fontana Regional Library system.

File photo

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Changes for FRL Jackson looks at Macon’s recommendations for library system

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December 20-26, 2023 Smoky Mountain News

BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER fter Macon County proposed several changes to the Fontana Regional Library system agreement, Jackson County commissioners are taking a look at the recommendations to determine what will work, and what won’t.

“I think this is a good start, but we do really need to put a careful eye to any potential negative ramifications of the language that is in here as it affects the liability of Jackson County or any county that is involved in this agreement,” said Board Attorney John Kubis.

The Fontana Regional Library system governs libraries in Jackson, Macon and Swain counties. The regional agreement is currently undergoing its 10-year renewal process and this time around, county commissions are looking to make some changes.

During their December work session, Jackson County Commissioners went through all the proposed recommendations from Macon County commissioners.

“One of the recommendations that I have is to have your county attorney review this,” said County Manager Don Adams.

Most of the recommended changes have to do with how the Fontana Regional Library board runs its meetings and sets standards for adherence to open meetings laws as well as allowing for input from the public. The proposals also address appointment to the FRL board, which is recommended to change hands from local library advisory boards to the county commissions, as well as how the withdrawal process from the FRL system should work.

Adams asked the board to consider whether those changes for open meetings laws regarding recording meetings and permitting public comment will apply to just

the main regional board or the local advisory boards as well.

“The reason I mention that is because if you turn around and make the direct appointments and control the regional board, the regional board is the legal authority,” said Adams. “The advisory boards, other than their appointment authority, they really have no legal authority in making policies and so forth. So, I would just ask you to consider that when you’re talking about public comment, are you making it for all boards, or do you focus on the regional board which has all the legal authority?”

Adams also recommended the board and its attorney look at the recommendations pertaining to property ownership in the case of one county withdrawing from the system.

The recommendation from Macon County is that the withdrawing county would be able to keep all property in the library, even that which was purchased by FRL. “At the end of the day here’s what I recommend Jackson County do,” said Adams.

“You make sure you’re not paying for anything other counties do.”

He noted that a lot of the equipment within the FRL system was paid for with grants that were issued to the FRL system itself.

“If a county wants to peel off and keep those computers, [for example], and the granting agency comes back and basically tells Fontana Regional Library that they owe those grant funds back, the remaining counties should not be responsible for that,” said Adams. “There just needs to be some more conversations.”

Adams also recommended that commissioners reach out to the state to understand how state funding may be impacted as the counties move forward with changes to the system.

All changes recommended by Macon County commissioners can be found at tinyurl.com/yckfu353.

The Jackson County Commission was set to review the changes to the FRL system again during its Dec. 19 meeting, after press time.

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Jackson considers moving school board race to General Election

BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER he race for Jackson County Board of Education is unique in that it is decided during the Primary Election, despite being non-partisan. Now, the Jackson County Commission is considering changing the date of that race to the General Election in hopes of involving more of the electorate.

“We are all in consensus that it should be moved to the General Election in November versus March, so we get a better grouping of people that are voting,” said Chairman Mark Letson.

Letson said that while there are pros and cons to having the school board elected during the Primary, the biggest downside is that a portion of voters don’t know that is the time to vote for their school board representative.

In the 2022 election cycle, the last with a school board race in Jackson, there were 7,246 ballots cast in the Primary Election versus 15,094 in the November General Election.

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If the board can draft a resolution and get it to the General Assembly quickly enough, the change could go into effect for the 2024 election cycle.

There are two seats up for election on the Jackson County Board of Education in the coming year, currently held by Wes Jamison and Elizabeth Cooper, board chair. Only Jamison has filed for reelection. Because the board of education is non-partisan, there will be no Primary contest.

Jamison will face Clint Irons in the general election to represent district three on the school board. In district one, previous County Commissioner Gayle Woody will face off against Rainy Brake.

While there wasn’t much controversy over the issue of moving the election to the General, there was some discussion among commissioners about whether this would warrant making the race for school board a partisan one.

“I think keeping it non-partisan is probably the best thing because then you could get a better group [of candidates],” said Letson.

Currently, in The Smoky Mountain News’ four-county coverage area, Swain County is the only partisan-elected school board. Jackson, Haywood and Macon are all elected on a non-partisan basis, meaning candidates for Board of Education do not identify with a political party on the ballot.

Just last month Macon County commissioners considered a resolution in support of changing its school board race from non-partisan to partisan, but after an outpouring of opposition from school board members and the public, the resolution did not pass.

The Jackson County Commission may have further discussion about also changing the race from non-partisan to partisan, but for now, the board only directed its attorney to draft a resolution in support of moving the school board election to November and keeping it non-partisan.

It will eventually send that resolution on to Jackson County’s representatives in the General Assembly, who will have to pass a local bill in order to make the change happen.

Jackson TDA announces new cycle for tourism capital project fund

Smoky Mountain News

December 20-26, 2023

Jackson County Tourism Development Authority (JCTDA) will reopen its cycle for tourism capital projects Jan. 1, 2024. $600,000 is available for projects that benefit visitors and residents alike. Applications for this cycle are due June 1, 2024.

Under state legislation, the JCTDA may expend one-third of its annual budget on brick-and-mortar capital projects to include convention and conference centers, arenas and stadiums, sports facilities, performing

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arts venues, museums and other attractions, parks, greenways, trails, other placemaking initiatives like streetscapes and public art, wayfinding and more.

With the new TCPF, funds are available for projects that are owned and operated publicly or by nonprofits. A one-to-one match is required. Eligible projects include: • New construction, expansion, renovation, or a replacement project for an existing facility or facilities. The project must have a total

cost of at least $25,000 over the life of the project and a useful life of at least 10 years.

• A purchase of major equipment (assets) costing $25,000 or more with a useful life of at least 10 years.

• A major maintenance or rehabilitation project for existing facilities with a cost of $25,000 or more and a useful life of at least 10 years.

In 2023, the JCTDA awarded funding to the Town of Sylva ($367,757) for Bridge Park

improvements and the Town of Dillsboro ($125,000) for Monteith Park improvements.

Full details of the TCPF program and an application is available on JacksonCountytda.com under the ‘TCPF’ tab.

Projects recommended by the JCTDA full board will have to be approved by Jackson County commissioners.

For more information on the TCPF, contact JCTDA Executive Director Nick Breedlove by email at Director@DiscoverJacksonNC.com or by telephone at 828.339.1160.

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deputies on scene, began obstructing the closed-circuit surveillance cameras Kloepfer had outside. Later, he reported that he had done so because “I don’t want that f—-er watching me.”

However, the defendants denied allegations that covering up the cameras — an action that according to the timeline alleged in the lawsuit took place before any search warrant had been granted — violated Kloepfer and Mahler’s Fourth Amendment rights to be free from unlawful search and seizure. Kloepfer also had security cameras inside his home, which Dore did not have an opportunity to obstruct prior to the shooting, and that’s the footage he later published to contest the CCSO’s version of events.

“defendants lack sufficient knowledge or information to form a belief as to the allegations of this paragraph” — to the statement that “In a press release published on Facebook on December 13, 2022, Sheriff Smith claimed he was not present at the scene of the shooting on the Property when the shooting actually took place.” In that publicly available press release, Smith had written “Neither myself nor Chief Deputy Justin Jacobs were on the scene at the time of the shooting.”

After the shooting, the defendants admit, Mahler was “transported” to the sheriff ’s office and later released. The lawsuit has claimed their treatment of Mahler amounted to unlawful detention, which the defendants deny.

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The CCSO’s answer to Kloepfer’s complaint was filed Dec. 15 following U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn Jr.’s Dec. 4 ruling granting some parts of the CCSO’s motion to dismiss and denying others. Of the 31 defendants named in the lawsuit, which is seeking millions in damages, 17 were affiliated with the CCSO. In their answer, the CCSO says that public official immunity protects the defendants from the individual capacity state tort claims against them, and that qualified immunity protects them from individual capacity claims under U.S. Code Section 1983 claiming their constitutional rights were violated. Defamation claims against Smith are barred by absolute and qualified privilege, the defendants say, and to the extent the plaintiffs did suffer damages, those damages were caused by people or entities other than the CCSO defendants.

In an order filed Dec. 18, the court ordered attorneys for all parties in the lawsuit to hold a conference discussing whether they might consent to a magistrate judge having jurisdiction in the case. A report on the outcome of the conference is due by Jan. 8.

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The defendants also had a surprising answer to Kloepfer’s claim that, contrary to a statement Sheriff Dustin Smith issued after Kloepfer published video of the shooting saying that neither he nor Chief Deputy Justin Jacobs were present at the scene, both men were in fact there.

“Defendants lack sufficient knowledge or information to form a belief as to the truth of the allegations in this paragraph,” the answer reads.

This comes despite the CCSO’s admission in a different part of the document that Jacobs rode to the hospital with Kloepfer after the shooting, and agreement from all EBCI defendants that Smith was present at the scene. Additionally, a radio exchange that took place following the shooting has Captain David Williams telling Smith that one of the tribal units is asking Smith to stand by so they can follow him back to the sheriff ’s office, indicating that they were coming from the same location.

However, it appears that the CCSO is sticking with a simple answer when it comes to questions of Smith’s whereabouts that night. It gave the same response —

December 20-26, 2023

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER n a 65-page answer to an extensive lawsuit filed in response to the December 2022 police shooting of Jason Harley Kloepfer in Cherokee County, the Cherokee County Sheriff ’s Office emphasized that it was officers with the Cherokee Indian Police Department, not CCSO deputies, who fired the shots, and denied allegations that its deputies and supervisors mishandled the case from the beginning.

Kloepfer was seriously injured in the Dec. 13, 2022, shooting that occurred after a neighbor called 911 claiming she was concerned that he had hurt his wife, Alison Mahler, and threatened the whole neighborhood. She also claimed she had video evidence of these allegations. Citing a potential hostage situation, the Cherokee County Sheriff ’s Office requested assistance from the Cherokee Indian Police Department’s SWAT team, which arrived in the early morning hours. Despite the CCSO’s initial statement to the contrary, home security video shows Kloepfer coming to the door with his hands up, in compliance with police orders. However, as he stood there three CIPD officers fired their weapons at him, severely injuring him and narrowly missing Mahler.

The CCSO does not contest these basic facts. It admits that the neighbor’s 911 call prompted the law enforcement response, and that none of the three deputies stopped by the neighbor’s house to see the video she had claimed to have before entering Kloepfer’s property. Similarly, the lieutenant who filed the affidavit did not view the video before requesting a search warrant. It was nearly 2 a.m., about three hours into the response and with eight CCSO employees on scene, before anybody knocked on the neighbor’s door.

In response to Kloepfer’s assertion that the videos did not even support the neighbor’s initial accusations, the defendants said they “lack sufficient knowledge or information to form a belief as to the truth of the allegations.”

The CCSO defendants also admitted that the officers who initially responded to the call did not pull their vehicles up the driveway, turn on flashing lights or sirens, or use any other signal to announce their presence as officers. Though they said they knocked on the door multiple times, they did not deny Kloepfer’s claim that they did not announce themselves as CCSO officers or state the purpose of their visit when knocking. Instead, the defendants said they “lack sufficient knowledge or information to form a belief as to the truth” of these allegations.

But the officers did take action to prevent Kloepfer from observing their activities. The defendants admit that Sergeant Dennis Dore, one of the three initial

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there was no court order mandating the office provide the footage and audio, it could not be turned over at that time. A week later, Miller submitted the petition to the court.

Also included as evidence in the petition is a series of messages between Miller and Wilke from the evening of Nov. 9. In those messages, Miller alleges the deputies’ violated his rights.

“You have made serious, unfounded allegations about my deputies and any further contact will need to be from your legal counsel to ours,” Wilke replied. “Your multiple public information requests will be handled in as reasonably prompt manner as possible.”

Miller’s chief complaint is that he and Ramey were “forced to remain outside” while the others had “full run” of his home.

The petition also notes that the order for a law enforcement escort during the survey

for this visit. He took a Haywood County Sheriff ’s Deputy off-line for no good reason, therefore interfereing (sic) with the operation of a law enforcement agency by hindering and obstructing the second law enforcement officer in the performance of his duty.”

According to court documents, Miller submitted a complaint against Melrose to the North Carolina Bar Association, something he has done in the past against multiple local attorneys. For his part, in an email to Bleynat, Melrose alleged that Miller behaved inappropriately and without an understanding of proper procedure when he showed up at Melrose’s office seeking a signature for the receipt of a $5,000 check he was ordered by a judge to provide to cover administrative costs related to the dispute over the estate.

“Your client just came to my office trying

The Haywood County Sheriff’s Office was ordered to turn over recordings from Nov. 9. File photo to get my staff to sign a document indicating receipt of a check,” the email reads. “I did not speak with him. He was instructed by my staff to call your office. Please advise Mr. Miller to never come to my office again, and advise him that I am not legally permitted to talk to him nor is my staff.”

In court on Dec. 14, Wilke was accompanied by members of his command staff, as well as Zachary. While Ramey didn’t accompany Miller, he did show up a few minutes after the hearing began. Neither side was represented by an attorney that morning.

The hearing was the first of the day in Haywood County Superior Court, and when Warren took the bench, he brought Miller and Wilke up to argue their positions, noting that while he was called in the day

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said that one deputy would be present, but two showed up.

“In order to keep the peace and allow a thorough inspection of the property the presence of a uniformed law enforcement officer would be helpful,” that order reads.

The order also says that Overcash and Melrose should be allowed “adequate space to engage in private conversations during the inspection” and that Miller, Ramey and Bleynat “shall remain 50 feet or more from the Petitioners and their attorneys while the Petitioners and their attorneys are outside the dwelling during this inspection.”

“The two deputies violated my Fourth Amendment rights,” the petition claims.

“There was no reason, nor was Mark Melrose authorized, to bring two deputies

December 20-26, 2023

BY KYLE PERROTTI N EWS E DITOR he Haywood County Sheriff ’s Office has been ordered by a judge to provide dash and body cam footage to a man who claims his Fourth Amendment rights may have been violated.

Monroe A. Miller Jr. petitioned the court on Nov. 22 to obtain the footage. On Dec. 14 following the hearing and his review of the recordings, visiting Superior Court Judge Steve Warren, of Asheville, published his order granting permission, albeit with some noteworthy restrictions.

On Nov. 9 at about 1:25 p.m., two Haywood County Sheriff ’s deputies visited Miller’s property along with the plaintiff in an ongoing civil dispute — his sister, Linda Overcash — as well as her attorney, Mark Melrose. Their civil dispute is over how to split up their late father’s estate. Monroe Albert Miller, who passed away on Jan. 20, 2017, is assumed to have left behind a good deal of money, along with a Haywood County home appraised at over $1 million dollars. “… he was co-founder of one of the earliest Computer Companies, Electronic Associates, Inc., a NYSE listed company located in New Jersey, where he designed and manufactured many of the first electronic computers used in industry and the early space program,” his obituary reads.

“In 1955, he founded Milgo Electronic Corporation, a company heavily involved in tracking and communication in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs. He and the company were also instrumental in the development of the first, and subsequently, the high speed modem. He served as President and Chairman of the Board until all its NYSE listed stock was acquired in 1977. Milgo’s Miami, Florida facility employed more than 2500 and also carried out world- wide manufacturing and marketing operations in many foreign countries.”

The group was there to survey the property. Also present on Nov. 9 was Terry Ramey, a Haywood County commissioner and staunch ally of Miller, as well as Miller’s attorney, Ed Bleynat.

The petition notes that after the visit, on that same day, Miller requested the recordings from Wilke. That communication was entered into evidence as part of the petition.

“Deputies appeared indoctrinated by Mark Melrose on the aspects of the order issued,” the initial request reads.

“Deputies kicked Terry Ramey, Haywood County Commissioner, out of the dwelling also, even though he was acting as my agent, which was allowed in the Order,” it later reads.

A Nov. 15 response from Haywood County Sheriff ’s Office Public Information Officer Gina Zachary notes that because

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Haywood sheriff to release footage of alleged constitutional violation

before to review a case he wasn’t familiar with, he’d made time to review the petition.

He went through state law outlining the procedure for a person to obtain law enforcement agency recordings.

That statute dictates that the court must consider a few things.

First, the person requesting the recording must be authorized to receive it. In this case, because Miller is depicted in the recording — as stipulated by Wilke in court — he is authorized. Next, the judge asked whether the recording may contain confidential information. It was acknowledged by both parties that it likely included conversations covered by attorneyclient privilege. Miller agreed that audio in such segments could be redacted, which Warren said rendered that issue moot.

Other concerns were whether the recording could reveal information that is highly sensitive or personal; if the disclosure could create a serious threat to the “fair, impartial, and orderly administration of justice”; or if its disclosure could jeopardize an active or inactive internal or criminal investigation. It was agreed that none of those would be an issue.

Wilke voiced concern that it could be technically cumbersome to redact the audio from the recordings while maintaining their integrity. In addition, according to statute, the disclosure of the recordings can’t jeopardize the safety of a person, nor can it harm anyone’s reputation. Wilke said that Miller frequently uses a blog he has maintained for several years to launch personal attacks against numerous individuals.

While the sheriff said he’d love the recordings to be made public because they’d “refute the claim that we violated Mr. Miller’s Fourth Amendment Rights,” he was concerned that Miller would use parts of the recording out of context to attack his deputies’ character and reputation. Warren addressed this in the order. First, he listed specific segments of the video that contain conversations covered by attorney-client privilege for which the audio must be redacted. He also gave Miller strict orders for how he can use the recording, once released to him.

“No portion of the released videos may be published other than in a pending court proceeding,” it reads, “or to any party to any current or future lawsuit or witness is (sic) said lawsuit who are all hereby ordered not to publicly disclose the contents of said video. Said Order is punishable by contempt.”

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Opinion

Smoky Mountain News

We of the pale blue dot never learn M

Acts of kindness are always welcome To the Editor: Believe it or not, there was a time within my life – and I’m 87 years old – that Republicans and Democrats actually spoke to each other in a civilized manner. A time when genuine accomplishments were produced by working together.

In the fifties and sixties I lived in Maryland. The Potomac River was so polluted that the U.S. Public Health Service had posted signs along the river corridor warning that the river was unsafe for swimming and fish taken from those waters would “be eaten at your own risk.” Some stretches of river had no biological population whatsoever.

We – a group of local canoeists – began to take our congressmen from Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia on “get-to-knowyour-river” outings by canoe to see firsthand the condition of their river. They were appalled and wanted to act.

And they did. A healthy environment was embraced as an obligation of all, not regarded as a hot-button issue. Maryland Rep Gilbert

dled up their camels to follow the star as a new ruler of the people of Israel was predicted.

That “Star in the East” remains an astronomy puzzle of the first Christmas. Something beyond the laws of physics.

But not beyond the laws of astronomy.

Bob Scott

y Christmas wish is that every artificial light on earth gets turned off for 24 hours between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. We can look up and see the enormity of the universe without light pollution.

The beauty of the Milky Way galaxy could be seen again from cities. Even from Franklin’s Main Street. Not just by those fortunate to travel to isolated mountain tops or deserts.

Children in Gaza and Israel would look up and see the same colossal show. The child who arrives in the private family jet to their vacation home for Christmas will see the same heavenly show as the emaciated child crawling in mud in search of food.

We live on a pale blue dot of a spinning rock. Little more than 0.12 pixel in size in a photo sent back to Earth by Voyager 1 on February 14, 1990, as the spacecraft was leaving our planetary neighborhood for the fringes of the solar system. Voyager was turned around to snap earth’s photo from 4 billion miles away.

“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar,’ every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.” Carl Sagan’s description of earth should be read on Christmas Eve as is the “Christmas Story.”

Perhaps if we turned off all the outdoor lights for a while, we might see the “Star of Wonder.” It no doubt is still out there. Three wise men, motivated by a star in the east, sad-

Guest Columnist

The Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of Earth taken Feb. 14, 1990, by NASA’s Voyager 1. The image inspired the title of scientist Carl Sagan’s book, “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space,” in which he wrote: “Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us.”

NASA photo Astronomer Michael Molnar points out that “in the east” is a literal translation of the Greek phrase en te Anatole, which was a technical term used in Greek mathematical astrology 2,000 years ago. It described, very specifically, a planet that would rise above the eastern horizon just before the sun would appear. Then, just moments after the planet rises, it disappears in the bright glare of the sun in the morning sky. Except for a moment, no one can see this “star in the east.”

The Star of Bethlehem may have been some sort of astronomical event. It heralded what has become a sacred religious holiday and a worldwide cultural and commercial phenomenon. It is a time filled with traditions and practices that are both religious and secular. Popular customs include exchang-

LETTERS Gude — a Republican — from one of our river trips, introduced the first National River legislation for the Potomac. Years later, the Potomac is in relatively good health and we all are the beneficiaries of the Clean Water Act and Wild and Scenic Rivers legislation that occurred in the following decades, benefitting rivers and lakes wherever we live.

Could we not work together on other issues as we once did? Not a chance, you say?

Agreed, few of us are in a position to impact our nation or the world directly. However, our day-to-day interactions with others can have an effect far beyond what we imagine.

When one of my sons was in college, he wrote to the family prior to his birthday, saying, “I want no gifts. Instead, I would like each of you to do something kind or good for someone less fortunate than yourself and it must not involve money.”

Now that was stimulating for our brains.

These acts multiply — the pass-it-forward syndrome. It doesn’t have to occur at Christmas. There is always someone less fortunate than yourself. And it could be someone more fortunate. Everyone, every day, needs a

ing gifts, decorating Christmas trees, attending church, sharing meals and awaiting Santa Claus during a federal holiday — invented in the United States in 1870.

Christmas has, for two millenia, meant the icon of peace.

Now the world is at war in more than 110 armed conflicts.

War is as sure as the sun rises and sets. What happened to the Prince of Peace?

Is peace and understanding no longer applicable to the rulers on this dot? We are but one of the billions of trillions of such dots floating around in the universe. I wonder if there are other earths out there with the same problems we have on our pale blue dot?

I want to recapture my Christmas beliefs of childhood.

War, climate change, famine, inequality of wealth, all these are dimming my Christmas spirit of early years. Sometime, in these two thousand years since the Star of Bethlehem rose, we earthlings lost our way, lost our civility, lost peace, and the true meaning of Christmas.

Two things are infinite to me as a jaded old man: the universe and human warfare. I'm not sure about the universe. I am sure about warfare. We of the pale blue dot never learn.

(Bob Scott is a Franklin writer and photographer. He can be reached at scoopscott@aol.com.)

small act of kindness, even it’s just a door held open, a smile or a touch on the hand. Such acts will have a far-reaching effect, perhaps all the way to our leaders and legislators.

Doug Woodward Franklin

A sickness in the soul of America To the Editor: The Eagles rock band has interpreted life in America over the last five decades. Yet, the lines that fit the last two decades best may be: “Now it seems to me some fine things have been laid upon your table. But you only want the ones that you can’t get.”

Don’t those lines pretty much describe Donald Trump? Born rich. Never vowed to serve anyone/anything other than the Trump brand. Elected President in 2016. Think of that! One of only forty-six people who have ever occupied that office.

Yet, he is constantly angry. Bitter.

Ungrateful. Vowing to seek retribution if reelected. Why? Unbridled greed. Unsatiable desire for more and more power. And! And!

And, desperation! Yes, desperation.

Desperation to return to the most powerful position on earth. To serve? Absolutely not.

He is desperate to sway some of the legal battles that are hounding him. Don’t be fooled by his front, though. These cases are eating at him. He has a troubled look etched on his face. If his legal perils were not dogging him what kind of man would he be? These cases would eat at any American who has never been President. Yet, Trump clings to the illusion that he can return to power and, thereby, alter the course of his future.

Trump, and especially his supporters whom he has fooled, would do well to memorize these words of wisdom given to us by Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Nothing can work damage on me except myself; the harm that I sustain I carry about with me and never am a real sufferer except by my own fault.”

America must find a way to heal the sickness that Trump has spread. He must be provided fair trials. Still, he must also be awarded proper punishment for his violations of the presidential oath, as well as with other illegal acts. The Constitution must prevail.

Dave Waldrop Webster

Christmas – finding beauty in the mess

Susanna Shetley

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and I had all the songs memorized. I was finally able to watch the movie this year for the first time since my mom died. I introduced it to my two boys. At first they weren’t overly enthusiastic about watching such an old movie, but by the end, they enjoyed it and could certainly see why the women in my core family loved it. Not only are the song and dance numbers phenomenal in that film, but the story of the beloved General Tom Waverly and the faithful men of his infantry embraces all the feel-good emotions of this season. That final scene when they all show up for him on Christmas Eve makes me cry every single time.

I want to end today’s column by telling you the story of a dog named Max and asking for your help in finding him. My younger son and I were leaving our neighborhood last Friday, Dec. 15, when we saw a beautiful black and white medium-sized dog in our neighborhood running up a grassy hill toward our neighbor's house. Even though we’d never seen the dog before, we didn’t think much of it, assuming he belonged to someone nearby and would eventually find his way back home.

Two days later at Mast General, we saw a missing dog poster with a picture of this sweet dog. His name is Max and he’s been missing since November 18.

He is a mini Australian shepherd, weighing 27 pounds. I called the owner and she was overjoyed to hear he’d been spotted. She was brought to tears knowing he was OK. Another neighbor saw Max the next day near Four Seasons Florist, but when he was approached, he ran off. The owner told me the dog was a rescue, is very skittish and responds better to females than males.

She and I have been communicating and I really want to help get Max home for Christmas. If you see this cute dog running around town, please email susanna.b@smokymountainews.com and I’ll be sure to let the owner know.

If I’ve learned anything over the past couple years, it’s the more you give the more you’ll receive, and this doesn’t necessarily pertain to money. It can also mean time, love, energy and prayers. As we continue through this last week before Christmas, let’s remember the most important thing about this time of year is that we’re all inherently connected so why not reach out and help one another? I hope you and yours have a very merry Christmas and that you take some time for the small moments which often matter the most.

And, keep those eyes out for Max! (Susanna Shetley is a writer, editor and digital media specialist for The Smoky Mountain News, Smoky Mountain Living and Mountain South Media. susanna.b@smokymountainnews.com.)

December 20-26, 2023

t’s hard to believe Christmas is less than a week away. With more gifts to buy, a Christmas puzzle partially finished and cards yet to be mailed, I still have plenty to do, but I’m not letting the stress get to me.

Gifts will get bought. The puzzle may remain unfinished. The cards may arrive a day late, and all of that is perfectly fine. In my opinion, there’s something kind of electrifying about the mess and chaos of the holidays. If everything flowed smoothly, would it even feel like the holiday season?

Many years ago Columnist when I was a member at Long’s Chapel (formerly a United Methodist Church), Pastor Chuck Wilson was the pastor. His tenure at that church had a wonderfully profound impact on me. So much so that when he was reassigned to Matthews United Methodist Church in 2016, I was devastated. I didn’t grow up going to church, although I knew both my parents believed in God. They didn’t have very good experiences in church when they were young so they didn’t make traditional church a part of our weekly routine.

I found my own type of spirituality through organizations like Young Life, but it wasn’t until those years learning from Pastor Chuck that I really felt the spirit of the Christmas season as more than gifts, parties and festive decorations. Through the celebration of Advent, I learned that this season doesn’t have to be all hustle-bustle. The true magic lies in the quiet moments, reconnecting with family and friends and the slowing down of humanity.

Making a homemade Advent wreath, lighting the weekly candles and honoring a weekly Advent message has become an important yearly tradition for me. Since I was a little girl, I’ve loved the glow of a candle flame. One of my favorite childhood holiday memories was putting all of the candles in the house on our coffee table and watching my dad light them one by one then observing the flames dance in their own unique way. It seems like a simple thing— lighting a bunch of candles — but it affected me deeply for some reason. Now, when we light the Advent wreath, there’s a special connection with my younger self that so loved watching all those candles burn at the same time.

My mom’s favorite Christmas movie was “White Christmas.” We watched that movie so much when we were little that my sister

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Over the hills and far away Warren Haynes’ Christmas Jam returns to Asheville

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD ARTS & E NTERTAINMENT E DITOR t’s been some 43 years since John Bonham, iconic drummer for rock gods Led Zeppelin, tragically passed away at age 32. But, in the decades since his death, his son, Jason, has been getting behind the kit and holding his father’s legacy up high for all to see and hear.

“I look out [in to the crowd] and you’ve got generation after generation coming to the show — when you’re [playing] it right, you can just forget you’re actually playing,” Bonham told The Smoky Mountain News.

Backstage at the recent Warren Haynes’ Christmas Jam at the Harrah’s Cherokee Center in Asheville, Bonham was one of the headliners alongside Haynes’ Gov’t Mule, Slash & Myles Kennedy, Billy F. Gibbons, Karina Rykman, American Babies and more.

“To be invited back and be able to play sets of my own original music is almost beyond words what that means to me,” Rykman said of her second appearance at the gathering.

For its 32nd chapter, Xmas Jam once again partnered with Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity and BeLoved Asheville in its annual holiday musical extravaganza. To date, the fundraiser has garnered over $2.8 million, resulting in dozens of new homes built and given to local families in need.

An array of special guests also jumped onstage at Xmas Jam, an all-star cast that included George Porter Jr., Bill Evans, Mike Barnes, John Medeski, Greg Morrow and others. “[We’re] doing this for the humanities and housing [to help others],” Porter said. “It’s a great cause and Warren [Haynes] is good people — when Warren calls, I’m coming.”

Before the doors opened for Xmas Jam on Saturday, Dec. 9, pre-show festivities were held throughout the “Jam by Day”

I

Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience played Asheville on Dec. 9. Stephan Pruitt Photography at venues around downtown Asheville. Kicking off at noon, a slew of live music from local, regional and national acts got behind the microphone at the Asheville Music Hall, One Stop and Jack of the Wood.

Artists at the AMH and OS were Sneezy, Red Clay Revival, Andrew Scotchie, Paper Crowns, Mike Barnes & Friends, The Snozberries, Empire Strikes Brass and more. At JOTW, the “Songwriters in the Round” put a spotlight on Ashley Heath, Leigh Glass, Kevin Fuller, Christina Chandler, Ray Sisk, Morgan Greer, Aaron “Woody” Wood, Kevin Smith and more.

“This is always when I get to see all the local musicians.

Most of the time, we’re all out and about doing our own thing — this is the only time of the year I get to see them and hear them play,” said Heath.

For Heath, a native of Marshall and rising Americana/rock act in Western North Carolina and greater Southern Appalachia, “Jam by Day” provides a platform for hardworking, local acts to gain national attention.

“As a musician, the biggest thing that we’re looking for is exposure — a way to get out [in front of big crowds],” Heath said. “And I feel like Warren has supplied the whole community with a way to connect with each other, artists and audiences — that’s everything to me.”

In the moments right before jumping onstage at the JOTW, Smith, a Candler-based singer-songwriter, remembers first attending the Xmas Jam back in the early 1990s, all when the now-massive performance was still in small clubs around downtown Asheville. And, from then to now, it’s not lost on Smith in how not only Xmas Jam has flourished and evolved, but also the city itself. “[Even] at that point in time, you could tell that Asheville

was growing, that something special was happening here,” Smith said. “It’s amazing to see how many people come here for [Xmas Jam]. We live in a special place. There’s so much talent, music and beauty here. All of that adds up together — it’s a cauldron for this creative explosion [we’re continually experiencing].”

A few blocks away at the AMH, blues-rocker Andrew Scotchie hops off the stage after a raucous set in front of his hometown crowd. A longtime fixture in the local/regional scene, the singer/guitarist recalled when he was a young kid just wanting to see and be part of the wild-n-out melodic festivities at Xmas Jam. “When we were kids, my dad would take us to the ‘Jam by Day’ at Jack of the Wood and we’d stand in the doorway and watch the musicians play,” Scotchie said. “[Xmas Jam] reminds me why I love this area. It reminds me why I refuse to move elsewhere — there’s magic here and I don’t ever want to miss out on it.”

For Scotchie, whenever December rolls around on the calendar, he gears up for another rendition of the Xmas Jam, this opportunity to connect and collaborate with other artists from around the corner or across the globe — all of which coming together for one day in the heart of Asheville’s vibrant musical realm, the effects of that day reverberating throughout the coming year.

“There’s been a buzz at this year’s ‘Jam by Day’ that I’ve never felt before. And that’s because Asheville is really coming into its own in recent years as one of the great music cities in America,” Scotchie said. “[Xmas Jam] speaks volumes to the community we have here, also what we have here in the water — everyone wants to see each other get better at what they do, expand at what they do [musically].”

HOT PICKS

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD

Singer-songwriter Andrew Wakefield will perform at 7 p.m.

Friday, Dec. 22, in The Speakeasy at the Meadowlark Motel in Maggie Valley.

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Singer-songwriter Wyatt Espalin will hit the stage at 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 22, at Mountain Layers Brewing in Bryson City.

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Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will host Calico Bear (Americana) at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 22.

EVENTS

Celtic Sunday ys W/The Carter Giegerich Trio - 2-55 pm Incredible Celtic Folk - Every Sunday Relaxation along with your Guinness! n

TRIVIA TUESDA AY YS Every Tuesday 7:30pm-9:30ppm

FREE TO PLAY

Gift Certificate prizes for 1st & 2nd place teams

Thursday, December r 21`st Bridget Gossett • 8pm-10pm • Blues and a Rock

Friday December 22 2 nd An Evening of Christmas Jazz w/ We Three Swing • 8pm - 11pm m Prohibition Era Cocktail specials all night

Christmas Eve Dinner Special Prime Rib Dinner $29 Available at 4pm until Sold Out

Sunday December 24th • 5pm--Close

ScotsmanPublic.ccom • 37 CHURCH STREET • DOWNTOWN WAYNESVILLEE @thescotsmanwaynesvillee

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RETAIL WIINE NE TA ASTINGS STINGS & WIINE NE DIINNERS NNERS

Smoky Mountain News

whose love knew no bounds.

Skip ahead some 17 years later and here I stand in a lobby of a hotel on the Vegas Strip, coffees and breakfast sandwiches to bring back to my girlfriend on the 12th floor. “Reelin’ In the Years” on the sound system. Me stopped in my tracks in the middle of the busy corridor. Thinking of a time and place thousands of miles away geographically, the distance that much more and vast emotionally.

Take the Starbucks order up to Room 1263. Hand the goods over to this smiling face of the opposite sex, of reciprocated love and respect in a world gone mad, either on the bustling Strip outside our window or merely the planet itself, this whirlwind of humanity in constant flux — the eternal quest of understanding the human condition in its most pure and honest form.

With the inevitable fate of Sarah’s father now entering its final days after a long illness, she remains steadfast and resilient.

Through sporadic tears, she smiles when fondly rehashing some dusty memory of her, her father and little brother. That’s what’s left and it’s all you can really carry with you in the grand scheme of things.

Thus, it’s a somber holiday season of sorts, which, for many, including myself, seems to be par for the course as you get older and loved ones either drift away or disappear mysteriously into the cosmos.

Christmas is right around the corner. Sarah is keeping her head up. And we’re aiming to make the most of it, together.

As with anything in one’s existence, the future is uncertain, somewhat out of focus.

But, the present, the here and now, remains clear and persistent. Always be curious, kind and compassionate. Embrace gratitude. Be aware of moments occurring in real time.

Remember who you were with and how you felt. Smile. Repeat.

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

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party y

December 20-26, 2023

immediately went to that time, many years The cell phone erupted to life on the ago, when my late cousin, Nate, and I sat in nightstand in the pitch-black bedroom. It was 9:30 a.m. in North Carolina. But, for my his driveway and listened to this song until its completion on the radio. girlfriend, Sarah, and I, we were three hours It’s funny the moments you hold onto as behind in Las Vegas, Nevada. you continue down the road of life, those Half-asleep, Sarah picked up the phone slices of time and space that felt, perhaps, and said, “Oh, no.” I shuddered because I seemingly insignificant in real time. But, as knew what that meant. It was her stepmothtime itself marches on, that exact instance er. And the only reason she’d be calling that become more precious and held tightly to early would be to inform Sarah that her sick father had either passed away or was close to. the beating muscle in your chest.

Back then, probably around the summer She was hesitant to answer the call and of 2006 or so, I was home in Rouses Point, let it go to voicemail. I turned over and told New York, from college in Connecticut. Nate her she had to call back immediately, “You was living in a quaint apartment in a small have to know what the latest is.”

With a big, deep sigh, Sarah returned the house a mile from the Canadian Border along Route 276. He and I went for some call and spoke her stepmother. Her beloved father was “still with us, but the nurse is say- pizza in town and returned to his humble ing he maybe has a week left at best.” A little abode. Approaching his street, “Reelin’ In the Years” came over the radio on 106.7 FM. while later, Sarah hung up and questioned The song was about halfway done when I her next move. We knew we weren’t going put the truck into park. As I reached for the back to bed, so time for some coffee. door handle, Nate goes, “Wait, leave the Sarah still had to call her little brother radio on — let’s listen to the rest of this.” I back in her hometown of Goldsboro, North agreed. So, we sat in joyous silence, the yacht Carolina. I made sure to grab her Starbucks order of a grande oat milk latte (hot) with an rock beauty of Steely Dan blaring out of the extra shot of espresso and whip cream to boot.

Fremont Street in Las Vegas is known as ‘Glitter Gulch.’

Heading down the silent Garret K. Woodward photo hallway and lonely elevator of the 12th floor of the Circus Circus hotel, I emerged on the ground level to the bright lights and absolute chaos of people, incessant noise and gambling at the heart of Sin City.

It was only the early morning hours and yet a multitude of faces were already stuffing money into gaming slots, foots tapping impatiently for the nearby frozen daiquiri booth to open to acquire the first adult drinks of the day in massive plastic cups — no open container laws within sight as one leaves the hotel and wanders down Las Vegas Boulevard and the greater Strip area.

Walk down the endless corridors of shops and restaurants. Up the escalator. speakers, out the open windows of the vehiAround the indoor theme park (with rollercle and into the ether. coaster) to the Starbucks. Carefully place Nate passed away unexpectedly in June Sarah’s order. Cold brew for me. Return back 2021 at 42 years young. As stated in previaround the theme park, down the escalator, down the endless corridors by the shops and ous columns, he was the older brother I never had. Our time together is deeply valrestaurants. ued in my heart and soul, especially that At some point near the bagel shop and moment in the driveway listening to “The the stairs to the onsite wedding chapel, I Dan.” I think of him often, usually with a could faintly hear the seminal 1972 rock hit slight grin and head shake in awe of his larg“Reelin’ In the Years” by Steely Dan echoing er-than-life personality and heart of gold out of the hotel sound system. My mind

The Haywood County Arts Council’s (HCAC) “Small Works” exhibit will run through Dec. 31 at the HCAC Gallery & Gifts showroom in downtown Waynesville.

arts & entertainment

Haywood County rock/country act Outlaw Whiskey will hit the stage at 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 23, at the Unplugged Pub in Bryson City.

1 ‘Are you reelin’ in the years? Stowin’ away the time’ 2 This must be the place

DOWNTOWN WAYNE Y SVILLE 23

arts & entertainment

On the beat

Espalin returns to Mountain Layers

Wyatt Espalin will play Bryson City Dec. 22.

File photo

Singer-songwriter Wyatt Espalin will hit the stage at 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 22, at Mountain Layers Brewing in Bryson City.

Born and raised in Hiawassee, Georgia, Espalin has been entertaining audiences since he was eight years old. A blend of Americana, bluegrass and indie-roots music, he’s a beloved fixture on the Southern Appalachian live music circuit.

Free and open to the public. For more information, call 828.538.0115 or go to mtnlayersbeer.com.

To learn more about Espalin, go to wyattespalinmusic.com.

• Angry Elk Brewing (Whittier) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows are free and open to the public. 828.497.1015 or facebook.com/angryelkbrewingco.

• Frog Quarters (Franklin) will host live music from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays.

Free and open to the public. Located at 573 East Main St. littletennessee.org or 828.369.8488.

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

828.631.1987 or balsamfallsbrewing.com.

• Happ’s Place (Glenville) will host The Remnants Dec. 23 and Doug Ramsey (singer-songwriter) Dec. 30. All shows begin at 6 p.m. Free and open to the public. happsplace.com or 828.742.5700.

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

• Blue Stage (Andrews) will host semiregular live music on the weekends.

828.361.2534 or gm@thebluestage.com.

• Boojum Brewing (Waynesville) will host music bingo 7 p.m. Mondays, karaoke at 8:30 p.m.

Wednesdays, trivia at 7 p.m. and semiregular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 9 p.m. unless otherwise noted.

828.246.0350 or boojumbrewing.com.

ALSO:

Outlaw Whiskey will play Bryson City Dec. 23. Garret K. Woodward photo December 20-26, 2023

• Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center (Franklin) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, go to coweeschool.org/music.

• Currahee Brewing (Franklin) will host “Music Bingo” 7 p.m. Thursdays and Gavin Byrd (singer-songwriter) Dec. 23.

All shows begin at 7 p.m. Free and open to the public. 828.634.0078 or curraheebrew.com.

Smoky Mountain News

• Farm At Old Edwards (Highlands) will host the “Fireside at the Farm” sessions on select weekends. For more information, go to oldedwardshospitality.com.

• Folkmoot Friendship Center (Waynesville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. For a full schedule of events and/or to purchase tickets, go to folkmoot.org.

Rock rolls into Unplugged Pub

Haywood County rock/country act Outlaw Whiskey will hit the stage at 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 23, at the Unplugged Pub in Bryson City.

Formed in Haywood County seven years ago, Outlaw Whiskey has emerged as a popular band in Western North Carolina and greater Southern Appalachia. A blend of original country and rock songwriting amid a bevy of cover tunes from the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and other marquee acts, the essence of the group is musicianship and fellowship.

In March, Outlaw Whiskey was recognized as “Band of the Year” (New Country: 50 & Over Category) by the North America Country Music Association, Int’l (NACMAI). The ensemble accepted its honor at the NACMAI award show at the Country Tonite Theatre in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Last year, Scott took home the NACMAI award for “Songwriter of the Year.”

Admission is $5 at the door. 828.538.2488.

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• 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.

• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host its weekly “Tuesday Jazz Series” at 5:30 p.m., Simple Folk Quartet (Americana) Dec. 22, Andrew Rickman (singer-songwriter) Dec. 28, Rene Russell (singer-songwriter) Dec. 29 and Rhythm Tryst Dec. 30. Free and open to the public. 828.454.5664 or froglevelbrewing.com.

• Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort (Cherokee) will host Styx (classic rock) 9 p.m. Jan. 19. For a full schedule of events and/or to buy tickets, caesars.com/harrahs-cherokee.

• High Dive (Highlands) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. highlandsdive.com or 828.526.2200.

• Highlander Mountain House (Highlands) will host a Sunday Bluegrass Residency noon to 2:30 p.m. and semi-regular live music on the weekends. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, go to highlandermountainhouse.com.

• Highlands Performing Arts Center will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. For tickets, go to highlandsperformingarts.com.

• Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will host “Trivia Night w/Kirk” from 7-9 p.m. every Monday and Calico Bear (Americana) Dec. 22. 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” on Wednesdays 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 “Music Bingo” 6 p.m. Tuesdays, trivia 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Open Mic 6:30 p.m. Thursdays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.349.2337 or lazyhikerbrewing.com.

• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Sylva) will host trivia 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, an Old Time Jam 6:30 p.m. Thursdays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.349.2337 or lazyhikerbrewing.com.

• Lineside at Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, go to

On the beat • Meadowlark Motel (Maggie Valley) will host Andrew Wakefield (singer-songwriter) Dec. 22, Jeff Gaff Dec. 23, Ginny McAfee (singersongwriter) Dec. 29 and Frank Lee (Americana/old-time) Dec. 30. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, go to meadowlarkmotel.com or 828.926.1717.

• Mountain Layers Brewing (Bryson City) will host an “Open Mic w/Frank Lee” Wednesdays, Wyatt Espalin (singer-songwriter) Dec. 22, Frank Lee (Americana/oldtime) Dec. 23, Terry Haughton (singer-songwriter) Dec. 29 and Liz Petty (singer-songwriter) Dec. 30. All shows begin at 6 p.m unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.538.0115 or mountainlayersbrewingcompany.com.

• Nantahala Brewing Outpost (Sylva) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public.

828.641.9797 or nantahalabrewing.com.

unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.246.6292 or scotsmanpublic.com.

Indie, folk at Meadowlark

• SlopeSide Tavern (Sapphire) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public.

828.743.8655 or slopesidetavern.com.

Andrew Wakefield will play Maggie Valley Dec. 22.

• Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts (Franklin) will semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, go to smokymountainarts.com or 866.273.4615.

• Stecoah Valley Center (Robbinsville) will host Appalachian Smoke (Americana/bluegrass) Dec. 16. All shows begin at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, call 828.479.3364 or go to stecoahvalleycenter.com.

• 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 “Bluegrass Wednesday” at 6:30 p.m. each week. 828.526.8364 or theuglydogpub.com.

• Quirky Birds Treehouse & Bistro (Dillsboro) will host Open Mic Night at 7 p.m. Tuesdays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public.

828.586.1717 or facebook.com/quirkybirdstreehouse.

• Unplugged Pub (Bryson City) will host Mountain Gypsy (Americana) Dec. 21, Rock Holler Dec. 22, Outlaw Whiskey (classic rock) Dec. 23, Karaoke w/Lori Dec. 28, Kayla McKinney (singer-songwriter) Dec. 29, Mile High Band (classic rock) Dec. 30 and Chris Key Band (reservations required, $30 per person) Dec. 31. All shows are $5 at the door and begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted.

828.538.2488.

• Salty Dog’s Seafood & Grill (Maggie Valley) will host “Karaoke w/Russell” every Monday and 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.

• Sauced (Waynesville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 828.246.9585 or saucedwnc.com.

• The Scotsman (Waynesville) will host a “Celtic Jam” 2-5 p.m., Bridget Gossett (singer-songwriter) Dec. 21, We Three Swing (jazz) Dec. 22, Christina Chandler (singersongwriter) Dec. 28 and TracEnd (altrock/pop) Dec. 29. All shows begin at 8 p.m.

• Valley Cigar & Wine Co. (Waynesville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public.

828.944.0686 or valleycigarandwineco.com.

• Valley Tavern (Maggie Valley) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. 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. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 828.743.6000 or whitesidebrewing.com.

• Yonder Community Market (Franklin) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, go to eatrealfoodinc.com.

Singer-songwriter Andrew Wakefield will perform at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 22, in The Speakeasy at the Meadowlark Motel in Maggie Valley.

Wakefield is an Asheville artist with an extensive and eclectic catalog of compositions ranging from guitar-driven bluegrass to folk, old-time, newgrass, rock, Americana, and more.

Boasting an exceptional knack for songcraft and a boundless passion for the guitar, Wakefield has fast become a local fixture, while word of his talent continues to spread throughout the Southeast and beyond.

Smoky Mountain News

• Santé Wine Bar (Sylva) will host Syrrup (Americana) 5 p.m. Dec. 23. Free and open to the public. 828.631.3075 or facebook.com/thewinebarandcellar.

December 20-26, 2023

• Orchard Coffee (Waynesville) will host semiregular live music on the weekends.

828.246.9264 or orchardcoffeeroasters.com.

• 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.

File photo

arts & entertainment

froglevelbrewing.com.

Wakefield is also a contributing member of The Well Drinkers and a former member of Supper Break and Cynefin.

Career highlights include appearing at Merlefest, performing with Molly Tuttle and Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show, members of Billy Strings, Town Mountain, Fireside Collective, Songs From the Road Band, Jon Stickley Trio, Larry Keel & Natural Bridge, George Clinton and Jeff Sipe, among others.

The show is free and open to the public. For more information, go to meadowlarkmotel.com or 828.926.1717.

25

arts & entertainment

On the wall

HCAC ‘Small Works’ exhibit

Smoky Mountain News

December 20-26, 2023

‘Small Works’ will be showcased at HCAC through Dec. 31. File photo

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• “The Santa Clause 2” will be screened outdoors at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 21, at Sorrells Street Park in Canton. The event is free and open to the public. Bring chairs, blankets and movie snacks. cantonnc.com.

• Jackson County Green Energy Park (Dillsboro) will be offering a slew of classes, events and activities for artisans, locals and visitors. For more information and a full schedule, go to jcgep.org.

• Gallery Zella (Bryson City) will be hosting an array of artist receptions, exhibits and showcases. The gallery is open from noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. For more information, go to galleryzella.com or call 517.881.0959.

• Southwestern Community College Swain Arts Center (Bryson City) will host an array of workshops for adults and kids. For more information on the upcoming classes and/or to sign-up, go to southwesterncc.edu/scclocations/swain-center.

ALSO:

Climate Control

The Haywood County Arts Council’s (HCAC) “Small Works” exhibit will run through Dec. 31 at the HCAC Gallery & Gifts showroom in downtown Waynesville.

The annual exhibit that expands the types of work for sale in the downtown Waynesville gallery, as well as who can display their work. Other than specially curated exhibits, which occur a couple times annually, this exhibit is the only one that allows any artist within the western mountain region to participate for a small fee.

With dozens of artists participating, the exhibit promises to be eclectic. Although the only requirement is that the pieces be 12 inches in any dimension or smaller, HCAC challenged participants who are making holiday themed works to consider artistic expressions that are multicultural in nature and celebrate the many different holidays, ways of celebrating, and ways of experiencing holidays.

For more information, go to haywoodarts.org.

• Waynesville Photography Club meets at 7 p.m. every third Monday each month on the second floor of the Haywood Regional Health & Fitness Center in Clyde. The club is a nonprofit organization that exists for the enjoyment of photography and the improvement of one’s skills. They welcome photographers of all skill levels to share ideas and images at the monthly meetings.

For more information, email waynesvillephotoclub@charter.net or follow them on Facebook: Waynesville Photography Club.

• Haywood County Arts Council (Waynesville) will offer a wide range of classes, events and activities for artisans, locals and visitors. The HCAC gallery is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays. For more information and a full schedule, go to haywoodarts.org.

• Dogwood Crafters in Dillsboro will offer a selection of upcoming art classes and workshops. For more information and a full schedule of activities, go to dogwoodcrafters.com/classes.html or call 828.586.2248.

On the street

20+ + YEARS

B k online Book li at: t

arts & entertainment

OF SERVICE S

Polar Express. File photo

MassageW Waynesville.com m 828.456.3585 Haywood Square | 288 N. Haywood St. | Waynesville

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Custom Christmas Card & Calendar Special 5 1/2“ x 4 1/4” folded • Color C both sides Comes with blank enveloopes • “Enchanted Island of Lights” will be held nightly from 5-10 p.m. through Jan. 3 at the Oconaluftee Island Park in Cherokee.

There will also be an ice-skating rink near the Art Market Area from 3-8 p.m. Dec. 2223 and 29-30. Free admission. Skates available in all sizes.

• “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.

(12 or 13 of your favorite photos)

SSiince 1982 Educational classes and other events are also available. For more information, call 828.538.0420.

• “Uncorked: Wine & Rail Pairing Experience” will be held from 11 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. There will also be a special “Beer Train” on select dates. For more information and/or to register, call 800.872.4681 or go to gsmr.com.

641 North Main St. • Waynesville, NC

509 Asheville Hwy., Suite B • Sylva, NC

828.456.HAUS (4287)

828.586.HAUS (4287)

(3/10 Mile North of the CCoourthouse)

(Loccaatteed iin the NAPA PA Auto to PPaarts Cent Ce teer)

Openn Ch Ope C Christmas h r i st stma mass EEv Eve v e 11-4 -4 PPMM !

Phyllis Vaughn

Smoky Mountain News

Art by

December 20-26, 2023

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ALSO:

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

(Bring in 1 or 2 of your favoritee photos or artwork)

• “Polar Express” train ride will resume rides on select dates from the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad depot in downtown Bryson City. For a complete listing of departure dates and times, call 800.872.4681 or go to gsmr.com.

WHERE ART RT D ANCES W ITH N AT AT URE Bosu’s wine shop in Waynesville. File photo

98 N. MAIN ST. • WAYNESVILLE NC • MON-SA AT : 10-5:3 30 SUN: 1-4 828.456.1940 • W W W.T WIG SAN DLEAVE S.COM

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arts & entertainment

On the wall

‘Spark of the Eagle Dancer’ extended Western Carolina University is delighted to announce its recent exhibition “Spark of the Eagle Dancer: The Collecting Legacy of Lambert Wilson” will now be extended through June 28 in the Fine Art Museum at WCU in Cullowhee.

It is the museum’s hope that with the exhibition remaining open, it will give people in and around Western North Carolina and beyond the opportunity to experience one of the Fine Art Museum’s most visited exhibitions and allow people to be inspired by Wilson’s collection.

In conjunction with the exhibition extension, the museum will also host a new program series titled Spark Talks that invites the WNC community to learn from exhibiting artists about their artwork, process, and the relationships they formed with Lambert Wilson. Dates will be announced shortly regarding this programming.

The exhibit features works of contemporary Native American art from the collection of one of Western North Carolina’s most notable art enthu-

siasts, the late Lambert Wilson.

He devoted his life to supporting and encouraging Native artists, amassed an extensive collection of objects during his lifetime, focusing primarily on artists of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Cherokee Nation and sovereign nations of the Southwest.

This exhibition brings together a selection of baskets, pottery, carving, painting, photography, and more that tell the story of the relationships Wilson built and the impact that he made by dedicating himself to this remarkable collection.

“Spark of the Eagle Dancer” gives visitors a glimpse into this vast collection built over 47 years and features work by 83 artists of various tribal affiliations.

To learn more about the exhibition and reception, please go to arts.wcu.edu/spark. The Fine Art Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Thursday.

Smoky Mountain News

December 20-26, 2023

‘Purple Basket’ by Vivian Garner Cottrell (Cherokee Nation). Tim Burleson, Frontier Photography

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chores at home. The only problem was homesickness, complicated by the situation back home. Essinger, by now known as “Tante Anna,” was convinced that the teachers needed to do all they could to foster an atmosphere of “warmth and security.” They all met daily for tea and discussed this.

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other, the devotion of the staff, and the fact that all the children were in the same situation — all these things worked wonders. The schooling itself was “an incongruous mixture of informality and discipline.”

The children’s emotional well-being was first in Tante Anna’s mind, but it was far from the only problem. As autumn approached, the deficiencies of an old manor house, very little heat and very little water and no lights, became more apparent. The crucial need to fit into British culture required much effort. Only English was spoken at school, except on Fridays. Fundraising was always a necessity. Desperate parents in Germany were calling one after another to beg for a space for their children. Food was never plentiful. A case of polio broke out.

For “a foreigner in a foreign country with no money,” the problems could seem overwhelming. But the children were doing well, and not just emotionally. Several passed the British exams and Bunce Court, as the school became named, finally passed the elu-

sive inspection process.

Meanwhile, the situation in Germany deteriorated, as Essinger had foreseen. The year 1933 brought 42 new anti-Jewish laws, and formerly assimilated Jewish families were suddenly shunned.

By 1935, there was “a marked increase in anti-Semitic violence, not just from Nazi officialdom but from the grassroots. It was as though Hitler had given ordinary people permission to turn on their Jewish neighbors.” Arrests were common, and concentration camps, originally built to imprison Hitler’s political enemies, became more brutal, especially toward Jews.

In 1938, the German army marched into Austria and took over the country without firing a shot. Tens of thousands were arrested within days and Jewish shops were burned.

Austrian parents joined those who were trying to get their children to England. Then Czechoslovakia, then Poland, then war. The book alternates between life at the school in England and life in areas under German control. There are stories of children who eventually ended up at Bunce Court, children who went through what is barely imaginable.

What saves from despair here are the people who gave so much to help the students. Tante Anna, foremost, but also the German cook with the fiery temper and huge heart, the Englishman Norman Wormleighton (“Wormy”) who could entrance a class with his reading of sonnets, the motherly Gwynne. Refugee William Marckwald was hired to stoke the “dreaded boiler,” and children would gather to hear him sing tenor as he worked. He turned out to be a renowned director.

Leslie Brent, student, spoke these words as an adult about Bunce Court: “All the violence I had experienced before felt like a bad dream. It was paradise. I think most of the children felt it was paradise.”

I read this book and wrote most of the review before October 7. The war in Gaza is complex. The story of Tante Anna’s school, with both its sad and uplifting aspects, is not complex. To me, it is a simple story of faith, faith in human goodness, embodied in children, which compelled Anna Essinger to create something magnificent.

(Anne Bevilacqua is a retired veterinarian who lives in Haywood County. abev1@yahoo.com.)

December 20-26, 2023

n 1933 Germany, headmistress Anna Essinger was ordered by the newly-elected Nazi party to fly a Nazi flag above her school. Refusal would have meant imprisonment and the closing of the school. She quickly organized a 3-day camping trip for her students, and put the flag up when they were away.

Essinger understood the implications of the order. Jewish, though not overtly religious, she decided to get her school out of the country. Her friends thought her over-reactive, but she had read “Mein Kampf ” and knew there was no moderation in Hitler.

Deborah Writer Cadbury, author of “The School That Escaped the Nazis” (Public Affairs Press, 2022, 440 pages), describes Essinger’s philosophy. “It came down to one issue: freedom. Freedom to think, to question, to challenge, to live without fear; freedom of spirit — this was her life’s work.” In other words, she valued exactly what the Nazis would not tolerate.

The decision to leave Germany was easily made, and then began the work of finding a place to start a new school, finding teachers willing to leave and talking with every parent. All talk had to be in secret. Most of the Jewish parents wanted to let their children go, and some of the non-Jewish parents did as well. Essinger scouted countries, chose England, and found backers in London. She returned to Germany to complete the plans of escape, instructed parents to pack for two years, then left with 6 of the older students and 6 teachers. They were to prepare the school for the others.

The rest, 65 students divided into 3 groups, each group led by a teacher, followed two weeks later. The groups took separate routes out of the country. Children and parents were warned to show no emotion on the railway platforms. On the trains, everyone was tense as they approached the border.

Everyone made it. Everyone escaped Nazi Germany.

When they arrived at their English destination, a three-story manor house in Kent, they could have been looking at a palace in a fairy tale. Inside the large assembly hall were three long tables “gaily covered in yellow tablecloths and set ready for dinner.” Up the wide staircase “a hundred beds were ready and the children found rooms with their friends.” It didn’t take long before “the house swarmed with children,” as one of the teachers recalled years later.

Schoolwork was secondary for a few weeks as everyone explored and pitched in to work. There was no money for domestic workers, but the children were used to

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Because trout require clean, cold water, trout fishing goes hand-in-hand with environmental conservation. NCWRC photo

Billion-dollar catch Report reveals economic impact of N.C. trout fishing industry

BY HOLLY KAYS OUTDOORS E DITOR he economic impact of trout fishing in North Carolina has more than tripled since 2014, clocking in at $1.38 billion in 2022 according to a report just released by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.

It’s a big number that’s caught even those who work in the industry by surprise.

“Anything outdoors dealing with the pandemic just exploded, but it’s all kind of relative, so I wouldn’t have thought it would have been an exponential increase like that,” said Dale Collins, co-owner of Tuckasegee Fly Shop.

The report shows that trout fishing represents a significant chunk of the $14.6 billion value-added impact that a different study, published by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, estimated for the state’s overall outdoor recreation economy in 2022. For every dollar spent on trout fishing in North Carolina, the Wildlife Commission study found, there was a $1.93 return to the state’s economy.

T

years,” the report states, “As the world shifts back to pre-pandemic activities, it is possible anglers are returning to their pre2020 fishing activity, which may explain the anglers reporting their trout fishing decreasing.”

The report is based on the results of a survey emailed to a simple random sample of more than 25,000 people who had an active fishing license in 2022. Of those respondents, 510 said they fished for trout, and their responses formed the basis for this report.

TRIPLE THE IMPACT The 360% surge in impact since the last report published in 2015 far outstrips the 29% cost-of-living increase that occurred over that timeframe and has been pushed along by a significant rise in fishing license sales. The number of people holding freshwater fishing licenses in North Carolina increased by 53% between 2014 and 2023, clocking in at 1.2 million this year.

Compounding the effect, trout fishing became an increasingly popular way to enjoy North Carolina’s freshwater streams. The percentage of freshwater fishing license holders who fished for trout grew from an estimated 18.5% in 2015 to 32% in 2022.

The report did offer one caveat to this picture of growth.

While half of respondents said their level of trout fishing activity had not changed in the past five years, 30% said it had decreased — a much larger proportion than the 18% who said it had increased.

“This jump may be explained by the increase in recreational fishing due to the COVID-19 pandemic within the last five

Data from a new N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission report shows the economic impact of trout fishing. NCWRC table More of these anglers are coming from inside the state than was in the case a decade ago. The 2015 study found that 82% of North Carolina trout anglers were residents and 18% were nonresidents, while this year’s study found that 87% were residents and 13% nonresidents. This shift in proportion may also contribute to the overall increase in economic impact, because equipment expenditures for nonresidents are not reported as having

any economic impact in the state of North Carolina. With a larger proportion of in-state anglers comes a larger proportion of in-state expenditures.

Covering 26 counties, the region involved in trout fishing is large, and the study did not break down economic impact estimates by any more specific geographic area. However, there’s reason to believe the far western counties are getting a significant proportion of the benefit.

One series of questions in the survey asked anglers to name their first, second and third most-fished counties. While Ashe, Avery and Watauga counties — all of which are closer to the Charlotte metro area than counties in the far western region — took prominent spots in all three questions, Jackson, Haywood, Transylvania, Cherokee and Swain counties also proved to be favorite fishing spots.

Jackson County tied with Avery County for third place mostfished county, while Haywood was fifth and Transylvania eighth.

Transylvania County was the second most common answer when anglers were asked for their second most-fished county, while Cherokee County was fifth and Haywood tied for sixth. When anglers were asked for their third most-fished county. Swain was third, Cherokee was fifth and Transylvania tied for sixth.

“We do know that 72% of all the spending that happens in relation to trout fishing happens in the county where people are fishing,” said Cristina Watkins, lead social scientist for the Wildlife Commission. “We found that in the survey, so there is a good amount of the economic impact that is happening very local to where people are actually fishing.”

The survey found that local anglers averaged $112 per trip, while non-local anglers spent $276 per trip, a difference largely due to lodging and fuel costs.

Campers, RVs, ATVs and trucks led the way in accounting for trout fishing’s overall economic impact, responsible for $406.3 million of the total, followed by lodging at $158 million. Other big categories were vehicle and boat fuel at $84 million, motorized boats at $79.3 million, restaurants at $75.7 million and groceries, camping supplies and rods and reels at $44.5 million, $44.2 million and $41.1 million, respectively.

Collins posited that overall growth in North Carolina’s tourism industry since 2015 has contributed to the impact of trout fishing.

“We’ve got a better service industry in Western North Carolina now than I think we did in 2015, so there’s more restaurants to choose form, there’s more breweries to choose from, there’s more choices here now than there were in 2015 for the last study,” he said. “There’s more places for anglers to spend their money.”

Anglers also help fill the gaps when other species of tourists aren’t biting.

“With trout fishing it kind of extends a little bit beyond leaf season or even the summer travel season,” Collins said. “For example, we’ll be busy in April before other tourism-related sectors would be, like restaurants and cabin rentals and such.”

Julie Spiro Donaldson, executive director of the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce, agreed with that assessment and said she’s seen trout fishers start to come for longer stays than the day or two that used to be typical.

“This has been helpful to our economy, particularly during less busy times of the year,” she said. “Fishing is often at its best when the temperatures are cooler, or maybe when it’s raining a bit. The fish certainly don’t mind because they are already wet, so planning a trip during a cooler month is perfect.”

NAVIGATING ACCESS Rising interest in fly fishing is good for the economy but does appear to create some issues for anglers. The report showed that 59% of anglers surveyed believe crowding on Public Mountain Trout Waters has gotten “much worse” over time — to the point that many are adjusting their behavior.

To account for crowding, 72% of survey respondents said they’re avoiding weekends and holidays, 60% said they’re avoid-

Endowment Fund.

“The new facility will provide new technologies and process operations that will allow for more efficient production and ensure we can maintain the program,” said Fairley Mahlum, director of communications, marketing and digital engagement for the Wildlife Commission. “Some increases in production will be possible but those numbers are difficult to estimate until the facility is operational.”

After ground breaks on the project in late 2024, construction is expected to take 18-24 months. During that time, existing hatchery facilities will close. The hatchery currently produces about 420,000 pounds of fish each year, nearly double the 225,000 pounds produced by the Armstrong State Fish Hatchery in Marion.

It’s unclear how the state will compensate for this shortfall during construction.

“The Setzer State Fish Hatchery renovations will result in a substantial reduction in the number trout that the agency can produce during construction,” said Anna Gurney, public relations manager for the Wildlife Commission.

“Staff are looking at all options to mitigate

the reduction and impact to trout stockings.”

After Tropical Storm Fred depleted twothirds of the hatchery’s trout weeks before fall stocking was to begin in 2021, the Wildlife Commission was able to adapt and continue fall stocking mostly as normal, though with a different mix of trout species and with no stocking of Hatchery Supported Reservoirs. It accomplished this with replacement trout and eggs from a combination of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hatcheries, neighboring state hatcheries and some private hatcheries in North Carolina.

Collins said he’s glad the economic impact study is coming out now, ahead of the closure.

“I hope it gets the attention of state leaders to say, ‘OK, this is a serious industry. We need to find a way to support this industry while that hatchery is being renovated,’” he said.

Stocked fish play an important role in keeping anglers invested in the sport, and more fly fishers not only means more money for the local economy — it means more champions of environmental stewardship in the years to come.

“The biggest thing is we’ve got a lot of environmental advocates because typically anglers are going to advocate for a pretty clean environment,” Collins said, “so I think that’s something that’s an ace in the pocket there for us, because we’ve got to have clean water. At the end of the day, trout can’t live in dirty water.”

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public restroom locations near rivers. ing certain times and 58% said they’re avoid“In early tourism brochures from the miding certain streams.

1900s, we touted the crystal-clear trout fishGoing hand-in-hand with crowding are ing streams,” he said. “So, encouraging peoconcerns about access, with 38% of responple to visit here for fly fishing is nothing new, dents saying that public fishing access has but our efforts to ensure we are good stewgotten worse over time. While the net numards of the rivers are a more recent effort, one ber of miles open to trout fishing has not which will pay great dividends to future genchanged appreciably in recent years, access is erations.” a “consistent issue,” said Jacob Rash, coldwaThe survey also helped paint a picture of ter research coordinator for the Wildlife who is fishing for trout in North Carolina Commission. This is especially true on hatchand how their preferences have changed ery-supported waters, which tend to be surrounded by privately owned land that anglers over time. can access only if the landowner agrees to participate in the trout fishing program.

“One of the big challenges that we face as an agency is maintaining public access to these resources on private land,” Rash said.

Both changes in ownership and problems landowners encounter with members of the public play a role, he said. So do changes in angler preference. The This fall, 67,000 pounds of hatchery-raised trout percentage of anglers were stocked in North Carolina. NCWRC photo who say they primarily fish hatchery-supported waters jumped from 38% in 2015 to 58% this Results indicated that trout anglers are year. heavily older, White, educated males.

“The number one thing that landowners Survey respondents were 97.6% male and are interested in is to feel respected,” Rash 96.4% White. Only 21% had a high school said. “They cite trash as a significant issue.” diploma or less, while three-quarters had a Issues with crowding and access aside, bachelor’s degree or higher. Just 12% had a 76% of anglers surveyed said they were satishousehold income under $40,000, and 38% fied with their trout fishing experience in had a household income over $80,000.

2022, with only 15% saying they were dissatis- Sixty-five percent of respondents were 55 fied. years or older.

Survey respondents felt the Wildlife The 2015 report did not include demoCommission could take action to effectively graphic information. However, Donaldson address access issues. They rated securing said she’s seen anecdotal evidence of a shift more land for public fishing and boating in those trends, at least in Jackson County. access, online information and maps showing “One of the things we’ve noticed is an access areas open to the public, signs clearly increase in the number of female anglers, marking fishing access areas, land cooperaas well as younger anglers,” she said. “It tives through which anglers would share has been terrific to help our guests plan access and maintenance responsibility, and fishing weekends that revolve around wedmore information on laws and regulations for ding nuptials. We’ve enjoyed getting to fishing waters on or near private land as the assist in the planning of girlfriend getactions most likely to be effective. aways, where ladies of all ages are getting Collins hopes to see local governments together to spend time on the water.” play a role, as well. He noted that very few public access sites for trout fishing have restATCHERY RENOVATION room facilities, contributing to tension with landowners who aren’t pleased when people A WILD CARD answer nature’s call on their property. Trash Though trout fishing has been on an cans are also rare at these sites. upward swing the past eight years, chal“I’d love to see that from all the counties where trout fishing is a big factor, to see those lenges wait in the immediate future — most notably, the impending closure of the county leaders kind of step in and say, ‘OK, Bobby N. Setzer Fish Hatchery in Brevard. we need to respond to this. If it’s this big of a The 1950s-era hatchery, by far the largdeal economically, then we need to have some er of the state’s two trout-producing hatchbetter infrastructure,’” he said. eries, was already at the end of its useful Nick Breedlove, executive director for the life when it was severely damaged during Jackson County Tourism Development Authority, said his organization is working on the August 2021 flood from Tropical Storm Fred. This year, the General Assembly some such initiatives. The TDA collaborates appropriated $20 million toward a $37 with Trout Unlimited for line disposal conmillion renovation that will also be funded tainers, supports the Tuck River Cleanup to from the Wildlife Commission’s Wildlife remove litter and provides a map showing

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A significantly expanded bear hunting season and loosened rules about bait usage are among the rule changes the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission is proposing for 2024-2025.

“The Mountain bear population is increasing annually, and current levels of harvest are not meeting the objective established in the Black Bear Management Plan, which is to stabilize the population,” reads the Wildlife Commission’s explanation of the proposed rule changes.

The proposal seeks to add nine days to the mountain region’s bear season, and to create Saturday openers for each of its two segments.

Currently, bear season runs from the Monday on or nearest to Oct. 15 through the Saturday before Thanksgiving and from the third Monday after Thanksgiving through Jan. 1. Under the rule change, the first segment would start on the Saturday immediately prior to Oct. 9 and the second segment would start on the third Saturday after Thanksgiving.

The Wildlife Commission expects this change to shift the composition of the bear harvest, slow population growth and help meet population objectives while providing additional bear hunting opportunities. Since the Wildlife Commission approved a plan to keep population growth at 0% in 2012, the mountain black bear population has grown from an estimated 4,400 to 8,000 bears and is still growing at 3-4% annually.

Season dates for the mountain bear hunting season have not changed since 1977, when the regional population was estimated at fewer than 900 bears.

Other changes to bear hunting rules include removing the prohibition on hunting bears with unprocessed bait during the second segment of the mountain bear season and updating some rule text to reflect last year’s shift in terminology from “bear sanctuary” to “designated bear management area.”

Additional proposed changes include: • Shift the western blackpowder and gun seasons so that blackpowder season starts two Saturdays before Thanksgiving and runs two weeks until gun season, which will begin the Saturday after Thanksgiving and run through Jan. 1 and shift the one-week and one-day blackpowder anterless seasons to start the second Saturday of the season. Currently, most antlered buck harvest starts before peak breeding, so shifting the seasons later in the year will help boost the population. Shifting the blackpowder anterless dear season will offer more hunting opportunity during the holiday.

• Introduce one-day antlerless gun season on private lands; increase antlerless blackpowder season from one day to one week on lands in Cherokee, Clay, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties; increase antlerless blackpowder season

/bigelows_botanical_excursions/ /BigelowBotanicalExcursions 828.226.0398 • bigelownc@gmail.com

The Wildlife in North Carolina Photo Competition is now open, accepting entries until 5 p.m. Jan. 31, 2024.

Sponsored by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, the contest is open to amateur and professional photographers of all ages, except employees of the Wildlife Commission and their immediate families. Entrants must subscribe to

from one week to two in Buncombe and Henderson counties where antlerless deer harvest is allowed during gun season. The Wildlife Commission says that continued herd growth is expected, and that increased antlerless harvest is sustainable, and will balance the buck to doe ratio while providing hunters with additional opportunities.

• Clarify when dogs can be used to take invasive feral swine on game lands and expand opportunities for dogs to be used outside of open deer and bear seasons.

• Clarify that tributaries to the Hatchery Supported Trout Waters section of the West Fork Pigeon River in Haywood County on Pisgah Game Land are classified as Wild Trout Waters. These tributaries have never been stocked but have been misidentified as Hatchery Supported Trout Waters in the state’s administrative code.

• Update a rule prohibiting hunting on designated game lands “under the influence of alcohol or any narcotic drug” to prohibit hunting “under the influence of an impairing substance.”

This change responds to officers encountering people impaired due to marijuana use, which is not a narcotic drug, preventing officers from charging these individuals for hunting while under the influence.

• Make the most serious fisheries-related crimes eligible for the Wildlife Poacher Reward Program, which rewards people who offer information on these crimes. Despite the large percentage of criminal activity reported by the public, no inland fisheries crimes are currently eligible for the program. These violations represent a significant loss of inland fishery resources as well as substantial replacement cost to the Commission.

A record 4,056 bears were harvested in North Carolina during the 2022 bear season.

NCWRC photo

• Remove the Wild Trout Natural Waters/Natural Bait classification and reclassify several waters from Wild Trout Waters/Natural Bait to Wild Trout Waters: the game land portions and their tributaries of Bald Creek and Dockery Creek in Cherokee County, Long Creek in Graham County, the Chattooga River in Jackson and Macon counties, Kimsey Creek and Park Creek in Macon County, North Fork French Broad River in Transylvania County and the Thompson River in Transylvania County. Bait anglers rarely use Wild Trout/Natural Bait streams. The classification never expanded regionally beyond District 9, is not requested by anglers and adds unnecessary regulatory complexity, the Wildlife Commission says.

• Prohibit fishing in the Pleasant Grove floodplain slough in Henderson County connected to the French Broad River March 1 through May 31 to protect muskellunge spawning.

• Reaffirm the Wildlife Commission’s authority over certain species designated as inland game fish in all public fishing waters and clarify various fishing rules. There had been confusion as to the Wildlife Commission’s authority over inland game fish in Joint Fishing Waters.

• Make several changes pertaining to dog training and field trials, including removing the requirement to band domestically raised game birds and allow people training bird dogs outside of hunting seasons and controlled hunting preserves to release up to six domestically raised game birds per day.

• Amend several rules pertaining to controlled hunting preserves for domestically raised game birds and game bird propagation rules to get rid of outdated rules, simplify regulations and bring them into alignment with how controlled hunting preserves are currently used.

• Prohibit a wildlife control agent with a suspended or revoked license from obtaining a wildlife control technician certification, closing a loophole in the current regulations.

Written comments on these proposals can be submitted through Tuesday, Jan. 30. A public hearing will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 11, at the Haywood Community College Auditorium in Clyde, and virtually at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 18.

Read the regulations, submit comments or register for the virtual hearing at ncwildlife.org/proposed-regulations.

the Wildlife in N.C. Magazine or be younger than 18.

Photographs taken since Sept. 15, 2019, are eligible. Categories are birds, invertebrates, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, animal behavior, outdoor recreation, wild landscapes, wild plants and fungi, and youth categories in age divisions 13 to 17 and 12 and under.

Photos of captive native animals are allowed but not photos of captive, non-native animals.

Photos of domestic animals participating in an outdoor activity with people are acceptable.

A panel of professional photographers and staff from the Wildlife Commission will judge the entries. In each category, first prize is $100, second is $75 and third is $50. The grand prize-winner receives $200 and his or her photo on the cover of the July/August 2024 issue of the magazine.

Submit entries online at ncwildlife.org/contest.

— Holly Kays, Outdoors Editor

Last WNC wildfires contained

Go behind the scenes with snowmaking at Cataloochee Ski area with field trips offered Tuesday, Jan. 23, and Tuesday, Feb. 13.

The program is designed to offer STEM, science and math principles within a twohour period and will include a lecture, guided tour and visual experience looking at the world of snowmaking. Topics will include what snowmaking is, what elements it requires, what results it provides and a chance to ask questions.

The program is open to six adults and 12 youth, with online registration required by Saturday, Dec. 23. There is no cost, but the

Updated drought maps are released every Thursday. U.S. Drought Monitor of North Carolina map

Extreme drought leaves North Carolina Drought conditions are the best they’ve been in a month, according to the latest map from the Drought Management Advisory Council, with recent rains wiping out the extreme drought conditions that had affected 13 western counties.

Currently, 24 counties are in severe drought, 39 are in moderate drought and 33 are abnormally dry, with the driest conditions in the western counties. Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Swain, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Henderson and Transylvania counties all fall under the severe drought designation. The map, released Dec. 14 based on data gathered as of 8 a.m. Dec. 12, is the first since Nov. 14 that doesn’t have any counties in extreme drought.

Heavy rains over the weekend Dec. 9-11 were largely responsible, with many places receiving 2-3 inches of precipitation. According to the National Weather Service, over those three days Cullowhee got 2.19 inches, Franklin 2.43 inches, Oconaluftee 2.12 inches and Waynesville 2 inches.

While significantly more rain is needed to restore groundwater, soil moisture and reservoir levels in the western region, above-average rainfall is expected to arrive this winter with the coming El Niño weather pattern.

Cataloochee Ski Area opened for the season Nov. 29. File photo December 20-26, 2023

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For the first time since Oct. 23, Western North Carolina is free of active wildfires.

The Black Bear Fire on the Pisgah National Forest in Haywood County, as well as the Clear Creek and Locust Cove #2 fires in the Pisgah National Forest in McDowell County, were brought to 100% containment last week.

“Rain over the weekend helped firefighters complete containment of the fire,” reads a Dec. 14 press release announcing containment of the Black Bear Fire. “However western North Carolina is still in our worst drought since 2017, so residents are advised to abide by any restrictions and exercise caution if burning debris, and while driving or towing vehicles.”

The Black Bear Fire burned 2,008 acres, while the Clear Creek and Locust Cove #2 fires burned 124 acres and 180 acres, respectively.

Despite its size, the Black Bear Fire did not destroy any structures or result in any injuries. The response was managed by the U.S. Forest Service and the Southern Area Blue Incident Management Team, with help from a variety of agencies: Haywood County Emergency Services; Haywood County Sheriff’s Office; Fines Creek Volunteer Fire The Black Bear Fire sparked Nov. 16 Department; a variety of local fire following a tractor-trailer crash. USFS photo departments in Tennessee; N.C. Highway Patrol; state forestry and transportation agencies from both states, the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service.

The section of the Appalachian Trail between Brown Gap Road and I-40 has now reopened to hikers, and Brown Gap Road is now open to vehicles.

field trip does not include a lift ticket.

Learn more or register at cataloochee.com/programs/adult.

A namesake has been chosen for the $2 million greenhouse the Southern Highlands Reserve in Lake Toxaway is building to propagate red spruce trees for replanting on the landscape.

Thanks to a $500,000 grant from the Gerard B. Lambert Foundation, the greenhouse will be named for the late horticultural designer Rachel “Bunny” Mellon. With an eye for simplicity and elegance, Mellon created gardens — including the White House Rose Garden, at the request of Jacqueline Kennedy — to keep the beauty and natural growth of plants center stage, without hint of the helping human hand. She established the Gerard B. Lambert Foundation in 1976 to honor her father, whose business acumen contributed to the success of the Gillette Safety Razor Company as well as Listerine mouthwash, which Lambert’s father invented in 1879.

The red spruce, the largest conifer indigenous to the Southern Appalachians, is central to the region’s ecosystem, but populations have been impacted by more than a century of logging, fire, pollutants and parasites. The Reserve is a founding member of the Southern Appalachian Spruce Restoration Initiative, a group of organizations, agencies and institutions working to preserve, protect and restore the region’s imperiled spruce-fir ecosystem.

Ground broke on the greenhouse project in November, at which time the Reserve was three-quarters of the way to its fundraising goal with hopes of reaching the finish line in early spring.

Smoky Mountain News

Namesake chosen for red spruce greenhouse

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Notes from a Plant Nerd

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Puzzles can be found on page 38 These are only the answers.

Why use “he” and “she” to describe the tree needles? The needles of the feminized Fraser firs are rounded at the tip and are therefore soft and inviting like a mother’s touch. This is why they are the most popular holiday tree on the east coast of the U.S., as there is no pain while placing ornaments on their branches, while the pointed needles of the masculinized red spruce are a bunch of little pricks. Every ornament hung would hurt, but there is no penalty for putting a star on the soft fir trees.

The balsam trees have been dealing with a lot of stresses way up on the mountaintops that go far beyond the extremes of temperature and weather they normally experience living above 5,000 feet in elevation. Acid rain and pollution have weakened their defenses. They have survived the attack of the balsam wooly adelgid (Adelgis piceae), a cousin to the insect killing hemlock trees, the hemlock wooly adelgid (Adelgis tsugae).

The greatest threat to these forest ecosystems is the increasing impacts of humancaused climate change, especially the general trend towards warmer nighttime temperatures, which the balsams can’t survive.

t the highest elevations of the Southern Appalachians grow two evergreen trees that give the Balsam Mountains their name — red spruce (Picea rubens) and Fraser fir (Abies fraseri). Both of these tree species hold onto their leaves all winter long, leaving the mountaintops covered in a dark green hue. This high-elevation forest is representative of the boreal forest that rings the globe just below the Artic Circle, across Canada, northern Europe, Siberia and then southward into Southern Appalachia. It is a remnant from the last ice age.

Leaves of coniferous, or cone-bearing, trees are referred to as “needles.” Pines (Pinus spp.), cedars (Cedrus spp.), hemlocks (Tsuga spp.) and bald cypress (Taxodium spp.) are but a few examples of trees that have needles for leaves. An advantage to having needles is a highly reduced surface area that limits water loss through evapotranspiration, which is a fancy word for how plants move water up from the roots and out through the leaves.

Leaves with a smaller surface area will retain a lot more water than plants with broad leaves. This helps many evergreen trees survive the harsh cold and dry conditions of winter.

The red spruce, like all spruces, has needles that are sharp and end in a point. In school, I learned to emphasize the “s” in spruce, as in Fir trees like these have rounded needles that are soft to the touch, “Ssspruces are unlike the pointed ends of the spruce. Adam Bigelow photo sssharp.” Whereas the As someone who is always curious about Fraser fir has needles that are rounded at the use and history of words, I often wonthe tip and soft to the touch. The way to dered about the connection between the balremember this is that “fir is soft” like the sam trees and balsamic vinegar. Prior to soft fur on your animals as you pet them. I still use this mnemonic when teaching these researching this, I figured that the vinegar was made in barrels made of balsa wood. plants, but I’ve learned another way to Turns out that the connection is from the remember their differences that is based on root word “balm” which is a healing ointthe colloquial names for these species used ment that historically was created using the in Southern Appalachia.

Mountainfolk refer to both of these trees resinous sap of coniferous trees, like the balas balsams or firs. And they have split them sams.

Whether or not you celebrate the season up into a male and female dichotomy that by bringing a tree into your home, or like can be helpful when trying to identify them and tell them apart from each other. Known me enjoy walking among the balsam trees in their natural habitat, I hope that the sight of locally as “he-balsam” and “she-balsam”, or these trees is a balm for your soul. “he-fir” and “she-fir” the red spruce and (Adam Bigelow lives in Cullowhee. He leads Fraser fir (respectively) can be identified partly by the shape and feel of their needles. weekly wildflower walks most Fridays and offers consultations and private group tours through And while there are other differences that Bigelow’s Botanical Excursions. set them apart, the difference in their neebigelownc@gmail.com.) dles is distinctive and easy to remember.

A

WNC Calendar COMMUNITY EVENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS • The Jackson County Farmers Market meets every Saturday November through March 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and April through October 9 a.m. to noon at Bridge Park in Sylva, 110 Railroad St. Special events listed on Facebook and Instagram.

• The Jackson Arts Market takes place from 1-5 p.m. every Saturday at 533 West Main St. in Sylva with live music and an array of local artists.

• Cowee School Farmer's Market is held Wednesdays from 3-6 p.m., at 51 Cowee School Drive in Franklin.

The market has produce, plant starts, eggs, baked goods, flowers, food trucks and music. For more information or for an application, visit www.coweeschool.org or call 828.369.4080.

BUSINESS & EDUCATION • The Museum of Haywood County History will open its doors to celebrate ‘A Christmas of Old’ from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 30, in the historic Shook-Smathers House, built in 1795, at 178 Morgan Street in Clyde. The house is decorated for the holidays and docents will be present to give tours and provide interpretation for the exhibits. There will be children’s activities and refreshments. The event is free, but donations are gratefully accepted.

• Cataloochee Ski area will offer two field trips on snowmaking Tuesday, Jan. 23, and Tuesday, Feb. 13.

The program is designed to offer STEM, science and math principles within a two-hour period and will include a lecture, guided tour and visual experience looking at the world of snowmaking. The program is open to six adults and 12 youth, with online registration required by Saturday, Dec. 23. There is no cost, but the field trip does not include a lift ticket. Learn more or register at cataloochee.com/programs/adult.

HEALTH AND WELLNESS • The Pollinators Foundation offers weekly Mindful Movement Qigong classes for all ages to reduce stress and improve health and well-being. Classes take place 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. on Wednesdays at the Folkmoot Center in Waynesville. For more information visit thepollinatorsfoundation.org or contact Marga Fripp at margacfripp@gmail.com 828.4224.1398.

• The Pollinators Foundation and The Share Project host weekly Happy Hour Walks 5-6:15 p.m. on Tuesdays at Lake Junaluska. The group meets at the Labyrinth. For more information visit thepollinatorsfoundation.org or contact Marga Fripp at margacfripp@gmail.com 828.4224.1398.

• Mountain Area pregnancy Services and the WIC Breastfeeding Peer Counselor work together to provide a casual support group for prenatal and breastfeeding individuals from 1-2 p.m. on Tuesdays at Mountain Area Pregnancy Services, 177 N Main St. Waynesville, NC. All are welcome, registration is recommended. For more information, please call 828.558.4550.

CLUBS AND MEETINGS • The Western Carolina Cribbage Club meets every Monday at 6 p.m. An eclectic group of young and old, male and female. The group supplies boards, cards, pegs and are always willing to help those still learning the finer points of the game. For more information contact kei3ph@bellsouth.net.

• Chess 101 takes place 3:30-4:30 p.m. every Friday at the Canton Branch of the Haywood County Library. For more information, email Ashlyn Godleski at

Smoky Mountain News

35

fontanalib.org or call 828.524.3600.

n All phone numbers area code 828 unless otherwise noted. n To have your item listed email to calendar@smokymountainnews.com ashlyn.godleski@haywoodcountync.gov or call 828.356.2567.

• The Canton Branch of the Haywood County Public Library Creative Writing Group meets 10:30 a.m. to 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.

• Knit Night takes place at 5:30-7:30 p.m. every second Tuesday of the month at The Stecoah Valley Center. The event is free and open to the public. RSVP is recommended: 828.479.3364 or amber@stecoahvalleycenter.com.

• Sylva Writers Group meets Wednesday mornings at City Lights Books. If interested contact sylvawriters@gmail.com.

• A Novel Escape Book Club takes place at 6:30 p.m. on the first Tuesday of every month at the Novel Escape Bookstore (60 E Main St, Franklin). Every other month one book is selected for discussion. On alternate months the meeting is round-table discussion in which participants share what they’ve read lately. For more information call the bookstore at 828.369.9059 or visit anovelescapefranklin.wordpress.com.

KIDS AND FAMILIES • The Jackson County Public Library in Sylva will host a kids’ program about moon exploration on Wednesdays at 3 p.m. Randi Neff will lead these activities focused on NASA’s Artemis program, with aims to one day establish a base on the Moon. Co-sponsored by Friends of the Jackson County Public Library. For more information call 828.586.2016.

• Creative Writing Club will take place at 3:30 p.m. on the fourth Wednesday of every month at the Macon County Public Library. The writing club is intended for ages 8-12. For more information visit fontanalib.org or call 828.524.3600.

• Move and Groove Storytime takes place 10:30-11 a.m. every Thursday, at the Canton branch of the Haywood County Public Library. Exciting, interactive music and movement story time ideal for children 2-6 years old.

For more information contact Ashlyn at ashlyn.godleski@haywoodcountync.gov or at 828.356.2567.

• Mother Goose Storytime takes place 10:30-11 a.m. every Wednesday, at the Waynesville branch of the Haywood County Public Library. Ideal for children from birth to 2 years old. For more information, contact Lisa at lisa.hartzell@haywoodcountync.gov or call 828.356.2511.

• Wiggle Worms Storytime takes place 10:30-11 a.m. every Tuesday, at the Waynesville branch of the Haywood County Public Library. Ideal for children 2-6 years old. For more information contact Lisa at lisa.hartzell@haywoodcountync.gov or call 828.356.2511.

• 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.

• Storytime takes place at 10 a.m. every Tuesday at the Macon County Library. For more information visit

• 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.

• Culture Talk takes place at 2 p.m. on the first Wednesday of every month at the Macon County Public Library. Travel the world from inside your library. This event features guest speakers and food sampling from the location being discussed. For more information visit fontanalib.org or call 828.524.3600.

• Art afternoon takes place at 3:30 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month at the Macon County Public Library. For more information visit fontanalib.org or call 828.524.3600.

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 market.com.

• Smoky Mountain Event Center presents Bingo Night with doors opening at 4:30 p.m. and games starting at 6 p.m. on the second Tuesday and fourth Monday of the month. For more information visit smokymountaineventcenter.com.

THE SPIRITUAL SIDE • Grace Church in the Mountains will hold a special service for people living with grief during the holidays at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 21, located at 394 N. Haywood St. in Waynesville. The Liturgy of the Longest Night is a contemplative service including poems, prayers and readings. All are welcome. For more information, contact the church office at 828.456.6029 or email admin@gracewaynesville.com.

SUPPORT GROUPS • The National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI, offers a monthly support group at 6:30 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month at Clyde Central United Methodist Church. For more information visit NAMIHaywood.com or NAMI.org.

• The National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI, offers a monthly support group from5:30-6:30 p.m. on the first and third Thursday of each month. For more information visit NAMIHaywood.com or NAMI.org.

• Highlands Mountain View Group holds open A.A. meetings in at the First Presbyterian Church, 471 Main St., at 5:30 p.m. on Monday and at noon on Wednesday and Friday. The Cashiers Valley Group holds open meetings at the Albert Carlton Cashiers Community Library at 7 p.m. Tuesday, 5 p.m. Friday and Sunday, and at 9 a.m. Saturday. Zoom meetings are available at noon on Monday, at 7 p.m. on Wednesdays (ID# 921 817 2966, password CVG2020). For more information, please visit www.aawnc80.org or to speak with a member of AA 24/7 at 828.349.4357.

• The SHARE Project and RISE Resources in Support of Empowerment bring you Smart Recovery Friends and Family at 6:30 p.m. on the third Tuesday of every month in the Haywood Regional Health and Fitness Center Upstairs Classroom.

A&E

• Trivia Night is hosted 6:30-8:30 p.m. every Thursday evening at the Meadowlark Motel in Maggie Valley. For more information visit meadowlarkmotel.com.

• Paint and Sip at Waynesville Art School will be held every Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 7-9:30 p.m.

To learn more and register call 828.246.9869 or visit PaintAndSipWaynesville.com/upcoming-events.

Registration is required, $45.

• Mountain Makers Craft Market will be held from noon to 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. mountainmakers-

FOOD AND DRINK • Roll Up Herbal Bar, a mobile cocktail bar, will be stationed at Frog Level Brewing for Cocktail Mondays every Monday in January, serving non-alcoholic beverages from 2-8 p.m.

• “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.

• Take a trip around the world with four different wines every Friday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Bryson City Wine Market. Pick from artisan Charcuterie Foods to enjoy with wines. 828.538.0420 • Cooking classes take place at the McKinley Edwards Inn from 6-8:30 p.m. on Thursday nights. To reserve your spot call 828.488.9626.

CLASSES AND PROGRAMS • Chess 101 takes place from 3:30-4:30 p.m. every Friday in the Canton Branch of the Haywood County Public Library. No registration required, for more information call 828.648.2924.

• Wired Wednesday, one-on-one technology help is available at 3-5 p.m. every Wednesday at the Canton Branch of the Haywood County Library. For more information or to register, call 828.648.2924.

• Uptown Gallery, 30 East Main St. Franklin, will be offering Children’s Art Classes Wednesdays afternoons.

Adult workshops in watercolor, acrylic paint pouring, encaustic and glass fusing are also offered. Free painting is available 10 a.m. to 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.

Outdoors

• A turkey shoot will be held 9 a.m. Saturdays at the American Legion in Waynesville, continuing weekly through mid-April 2024. Breakfast food will be available for sale, with cash prizes offered. The event is weather-dependent. The American Legion is located on 171 Legion Drive in Waynesville.

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The Smoky Mountain News Marketplace has a distribution of 16,000 copies across 500 locations in Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties, including the Qualla Boundary and west Buncombe County.

Visit www.wncmarketplace.com to place your ad!

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36

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STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE DISTRICT COURT DIVISION COUNTY OF SWAIN FILE NO. 18 CVD 114

APRIL L. BLANTON Plaintiff vs.

NOTICE OF SERVICE OF ESAU MARTINEZ Defendant PROCESS BY PUBLICATION TO: ESAU MARTINEZ 84 Jujon Drive Maggie Valley, NC 28751 Take notice that a pleading seeking relief KDV EHHQ ¿OHG LQ WKH above-entitled action. The nature of the relief being sought is as follows: The Plaintiff, APRIL L. BLANTON is seeking to Modify Custody of the above named, ESAU MARTINEZ, biological father pursuant to the Order entered on the 15 th day of June, 2018 concerning the parties’ minor child, CAMILLA AUDRI MARTINEZ-FISHER, born January 17, 2015.

You are required to make defense to such pleading not later than JANUARY 30, 2024 being forty (40) days after the date of the ¿UVW SXEOLFDWLRQ RI WKLV QRtice, and upon your failure to do so the party seeking service against you will apply to the court for the relief sought.

This 15th day of December, 2023.

DONALD N. PATTEN, PLLC Attorney for Plaintiff 46 South Main Street Waynesville, NC 28786 828-452-1454 By: Donald N. Patten

NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE SALE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF HAYWOOD IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION BEFORE THE CLERK 23 SP 194 IN THE MATTER OF THE FORECLOSURE OF A DEED OF TRUST from Duane D Seeley to Meritha Browning, Trustee, dated October 4, 2002, recorded in Book 533, Page 2048, Haywood County Registry Pursuant to an order entered October 26, 2023, in the Superior Court for Haywood County, and the power of sale contained in the captioned Deed of Trust (the “Deed of Trust”), the Substitute Trustee will offer for sale at auction (the “Sale”), to the highest bidder for cash on: DECEMBER 21, 2023, AT 11:00 A.M. HAYWOOD COUNTY COURTHOUSE 285 N MAIN STREET, WAYNESVILLE NORTH CAROLINA 28786 the real estate and the improvements thereon secured by the Deed of

December 20-26, 2023

Trust, less and except any of such property released from the lien of the Deed of Trust prior to the date of said sale, lying and being in Haywood County, North Carolina, and being more particularly described as follows (the “Property”): All that certain lot or parcel of land situate in Canton, Beaverdam Township, Haywood County, North Carolina, and more particularly described as follows: Being all Lots 86 through 95, together with a small triangular shaped and unnumbered tract of land located on the Southeast side of Lot 86 and extending to the intersection of two streets of the Ellis Burnett Highland Park addition to Canton, North Carolina, as shown on the Plat Book duly recorded in Plat Book B, Page B-8, LQ WKH RI¿FH RI WKH UHJLVWHU of deeds of Haywood County.

Less and except from the above described property that tract of land described in Deed dated February 15, 1960, from Fannie Conley widow to P.H. Rogers, recorded in Deed Book 181, Page

670, Haywood County Registry.

By fee simple deed from Tracey J. Seeley, as set forth in Deed Book 489, Page 2423, dated 04/10/2001 and recorded 04/10/2001, Haywood County Records, state of North Carolina.

The record owner(s) of the Property not more than ten (10) days prior to the date hereof is Daunne D Seeley (aka Duane D Seeley). PIN: 8656-78-8675 In the Trustee’s sole discretion, the sale may be delayed for up to one (1) hour as provided in Section 45-21.23 of the North Carolina General Statutes. $ ¿YH SHUFHQW FDVK deposit, or a cash deposit of $750.00, whichever is greater, will be required of the last and highest bidder. The balance of the bid purchase price shall be due in full in cash or FHUWL¿HG IXQGV DW D FORVLQJ to take place within thirty (30) days of the date of sale. The Substitute Trustee shall convey title to the property by non warranty deed.

This sale will be made subject to all prior liens of

Painting America c

WNC MarketPlace

record, if any, and to all unpaid (ad valorem) taxes and special assessments, if any, which became a lien subsequent to the recordation of the Deed of Trust. This sale will be further subject to the right, if any, of the United States of America to redeem the above-desc ribed property for a period of 120 days following the GDWH ZKHQ WKH ¿QDO XSVHW bid period has run.

The purchaser of the property described above shall pay the Clerk’s Commissions in the amount of $.45 per $100.00 of the purchase price (up to a maximum amount of $500.00), required by Section 7A-308(a)(1) of the North Carolina General Statutes. If the purchaser of the above-described property is someone RWKHU WKDQ WKH %HQH¿FLDU\ under the Deed of Trust, the purchaser shall also pay, to the extent applicable, the land transfer tax in the amount of one percent (1%) of the purchase price.

To the extent this sale involves residential propHUW\ ZLWK OHVV WKDQ ¿IWHHQ (15) rental units, you are KHUHE\ QRWL¿HG RI WKH following: (a) An order for possession of the property may be issued pursuant to Section 45-21.29 of the North Carolina General Statutes in favor of the purchaser and against the party or parties in possession by the clerk of superior court of the county in which the property is sold; and (b) Any person who occupies the property pursuant to a rental agreement entered into or renewed on or after October 1, 2007, may, after receiving the notice of sale, terminate the rental agreement upon 10 days’ written notice to the landlord. Upon termination of a rental agreement, the tenant is liable for rent due under the rental agreement prorated to the effective date of the termination.

The 26th day of October 2023.

Jeff Williams-Tracy, Attor-

ney for John W. Fletcher III, Substitute Trustee North Carolina State Bar Number 15503 100 Queens Road, Suite 250, Charlotte, North Carolina 28204 MÀHWFKHU# ÀHWFKHUW\GLQJV FRP NOTICE OF ADMINISTRATION Case No.2023E 000631 Joey Robison, having TXDOL¿HG DV WKH $GPLQistrator of the Estate of William Roy Robison of Haywood County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons having claims against the Estate to present them to the undersigned on or before Mar 06 2024, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery.

All persons indebted to said Estate, please make immediate payment.

Administrator 95 Nevada Avenue Asheville, NC 28806 NOTICE OF ADMINISTRATION Case No.23-E-731 Clayton Aaron Scruggs, KDYLQJ TXDOL¿HG DV WKH Administrator of the Estate of Jill Suzanne Scruggs of Haywood County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons having claims against the Estate to present them to the undersigned on or before Feb 29 2024, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery.

All persons indebted to said Estate, please make immediate payment.

Administrator 918 Willis Cove Road Canton, NC 28716 NOTICE OF ADMINISTRATION Case No.2023 E 000766 Cynthia R. Rickman, KDYLQJ TXDOL¿HG DV WKH 7KH ¿GXFLDU\ LV IXOO\ authorized by the laws of North Carolina to receive and administer all the assets belonging to the Estate of Sandra Kay Rhinehart of Haywood County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons having claims against the Estate to present them to the undersigned on or before Mar 7, 2024, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery.

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828.452.4 4251 ads@smokyymounttainneew ws.com December 20-26, 2023

WNC MarketPlace

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LOVE OF SOLVING ACROSS 1 Picked instrument 6 Type of small grocery store 12 Blobby light source 20 Viva voce 21 Spoil, as "my parade" 22 Roast joke 23 Like baggy clothes 25 Winter wreath ornament 26 Gave away temporarily 27 Money, informally 29 Jagger of the Stones 30 "Raggedy" doll 31 Monty Python tune about a logger 37 Addams who created Morticia 40 Quick attack 41 Cover girl Macpherson 42 "-- gratia" ("by the grace of God") 43 Dwell in the company of 46 Outer: Prefix 47 "-- the Night" (2007 Joaquin Phoenix film) 49 Had to admit a goof-up 50 "Behold!," to Caesar 53 Totally bummed out 55 Stuff in a sty 56 Avian hooters 58 Texas banner 61 Big twitch 63 Safari sight 65 Envoy's asset 66 "There -- comparison" 67 Chinese black tea with a smoky flavor 72 Anita of jazz 75 Env. notice 76 Estrada of TV 77 Ones staring

81 Best Actress winner for "The Farmer's Daughter" 84 Grammy winner Bareilles 87 "And how!"

88 German city on the Elbe 89 With 115-Down, "Piece of cake!"

91 Web page 93 Slacks 94 Extra charge 96 Pea-souper in England 98 Anticavity gp.

99 Supreme Norse god 101 "I love you," to Luisa 103 Jane in an 1847 novel 104 Go bankrupt, say 108 Del.-to-Vt. direction 110 Bakery treats 111 Snootiness 112 Noisy tigers 116 Cite famous people as friends 120 Method for calculating a quotient ... or what occurs eight times in this puzzle?

123 Accepted, as conditions 124 Made flush 125 Maggot, e.g.

126 Sailor's dining place 127 Shows as an "encore" 128 Clifflike DOWN 1 Tennis need 2 Skin soother 3 Lunch hour 4 "Be right there" 5 Classic theater 6 Liverpool or Leeds native 7 Horse bit 8 Morse bit

9 Conundrum 10 Of yore 11 Trig measure 12 Slice (off) 13 Zoo attraction 14 Gondola city 15 Smart -- (cocky sort) 16 Guitar riffs 17 Year, in Brazil 18 Roughly half of all adults 19 Beginning to mature?

24 Amusement 28 Frightful dino 31 Chilling Chaney 32 Strong desire 33 "Selena" actress, to her fans 34 Nonalcoholic beer brand 35 Georgia city near Atlanta 36 Ornamental street tree 37 Bivalve mollusks 38 Ask for moola 39 Brand of skin care and cosmetics 40 Turkey, e.g.

44 Pleasant odor 45 Do some yard maintenance 46 Poet's twilight 47 Major battle 48 Crude model of a despised person 51 Choke up 52 Give the OK 53 Strong desire 54 Big mil. alliance 57 Dull, dark bluish-gray 59 Decorative sewing case 60 Burlap bags 62 Most cunning 64 -- uncertain terms

68 Pricey liver spread 69 Superhero creator Lee 70 Agcys., e.g.

71 "Nifty!"

72 Chum from way back 73 El -- (treasure city) 74 Vying venues 78 Uplift 79 Whirlybird blade 80 Drawn-out battle 82 Six-pt. scores 83 Driver's 180 85 Year, to Caesar 86 Garnet, e.g.

90 Ladd of "Shane" 92 Shows lip-curling contempt 94 Holiday tree 95 "Orinoco Flow" vocalist 97 Texter's "I'm shocked!"

99 Carry to excess 100 Spanish explorer Hernando 101 Grew vigorously, oldstyle 102 Former Disney exec Michael 105 Sword types 106 Duck type 107 Mosaic maker 108 Autumn mo.

109 Manicurists file them 112 Divests (of) 113 Ireland, in Ireland 114 Be a drifter 115 See 89-Across 116 "Rambo" setting, briefly 117 Era or eon 118 "-- Doubtfire" 119 Fluffy lap dog, for short 121 Safari sight 122 Safari sight

ANSWERS ON PAGE 34

All persons indebted to said Estate, please make immediate payment.

7KH ¿GXFLDU\ LV IXOO\ authorized by the laws of North Carolina to receive and administer all the assets belonging to the estate 92 Sellers Rd Clyde, NC 28721 NOTICE OF ADMINISTRATION Case No.2023 E 000724 Kaleb Rice, having TXDOL¿HG DV WKH ([HFXWRU of the Estate of Donald Zade Rice of Haywood County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons having claims against the Estate to present them to the undersigned on or before Feb 29 2024, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery.

All persons indebted to said Estate, please make immediate payment.

Executor 115 Spotted Horse Trail Canton, NC 28716

Auction 28TH ANNUAL Absolute Construction-Truck Auction Weds Dec 27th 8AM Lumberton, NC City of

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SUDOKU Here’s How It Works: Sudoku puzzles are formatted as a 9x9 grid, broken down into nine 3x3 boxes. To solve a sudoku, the numbers 1 through 9 must fill each row, column and box. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and box. You can figure out the order in which the numbers will appear by using the numeric clues already provided in the boxes. The more numbers you name, Answers on 34 the easier it gets to solve the puzzle!

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December 20-26, 2023

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December 20-26, 2023

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Smoky Mountain News December 20-26, 2023