OUR 27TH YEAR OF WEEKLY INDEPENDENT NEWS, ARTS & EVENTS FOR WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA VOL. 27 NO. 26 JAN. 27 - FEB. 2, 2021
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C O NT E NT S
NEWS
FEATURES 12 FAILING ARITHMETIC Asheville City Schools on path to budget deficit
OF ANTIQUES, UNIQUES & REPURPOSED RARITIES!
NEWS
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18 VACCINE LOGISTICS Buncombe preps new systems for vaccine rollout
PAGE 26 THE DOCTOR IS IN (YOUR PHONE) Both locally and across the country, telehealth has become the new normal, as patients ditch waiting rooms en masse, opting to talk to their providers from the privacy and comfort of their home. But how well is it working in Western North Carolina? COVER PHOTO Getty Images
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20 GIFT OF LIFE Local comedian’s story highlights need for organ donors
5 LETTERS 5 CARTOON: MOLTON 6 CARTOON: IRENE OLDS 7 CARTOON: BRENT BROWN
GREEN
8 COMMENTARY
A&C
Best of WNC since 2014!
12 NEWS 18 BUNCOMBE BEAT 19 BIZ BRIEFS 20 COVID CONVERSATIONS
3 Drawer Inlay Dresser TRS inventory on Nova Ln.
32 DIRTY WATERS? Canton’s paper mill seeks new wastewater permit; activists disagree
36 EAT, DRINK AND BE WARY Boredom, stress and confinement lead to weight gain during pandemic
22 COMMUNITY CALENDAR 23 CLUBLAND 26 WELLNESS 32 GREEN SCENE 36 ARTS & CULTURE
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38 CREATIVITY DURING COVID Artists respond to pandemic challenges in their own ways
41 FREEWILL ASTROLOGY 41 CLASSIFIEDS 42 NY TIMES CROSSWORD
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STAFF PUBLISHER: Jeff Fobes ASSISTANT TO THE PUBLISHER: Susan Hutchinson MANAGING EDITOR: Virginia Daffron ASSISTANT EDITOR: Daniel Walton ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR: Thomas Calder OPINION EDITOR: Tracy Rose STAFF REPORTERS: Able Allen, Edwin Arnaudin, Thomas Calder, Molly Horak, Daniel Walton COMMUNITY CALENDAR & CLUBLAND: Madeline Forwerck CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: Peter Gregutt, Rob Mikulak REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS: Mark Barrett, Leslie Boyd, Bill Kopp, Cindy Kunst, Alli Marshall, Gina Smith, Kay West ADVERTISING, ART & DESIGN MANAGER: Susan Hutchinson LEAD DESIGNER: Scott Southwick GRAPHIC DESIGNER: Olivia Urban MARKETING ASSOCIATES: Sara Brecht, David Furr, Tiffany Wagner OPERATIONS MANAGER: Able Allen INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES & WEB: Bowman Kelley BOOKKEEPER: Amie Fowler-Tanner ADMINISTRATION, BILLING, HR: Able Allen DISTRIBUTION: Susan Hutchinson, Cindy Kunst DISTRIBUTION DRIVERS: Gary Alston, Tracy Houston, Henry Mitchell, Tiffany Narron, Kelley Quigley, Angelo Santa Maria, Carl & Debbie Schweiger
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OPINION
Send your letters to the editor to letters@mountainx.com.
CARTO O N BY R A N D Y MOLT O N
City Council should focus on more urgent priorities According to an article in the Mountain Xpress, “Campbell Discusses Next Steps on Asheville Street Renaming, Police Budget” [Jan. 20], it appears that “ranking high among” the Asheville City Council’s priorities for 2021 are: 1. Reducing the police budget. Is this a good idea? Asheville is in the top 10% of U.S. cities for high crime and is second worse for crime among large cities in North Carolina. Additionally, there is a racial disparity, with seven out of the nine Asheville homicides in 2020 impacting the minority communities (while 84% of the community is white). 2. Renaming Asheville streets that are named after documented slaveholders. “City staff have identified 120 streets that share the name of a documented slaveholder.” This appears to be both time-consuming and costly, not only to the city but also to businesses. As businesses point out, the rebranding and change to their marketing materials will be costly. 3. Removal of the Vance Monument. This includes a task force and bids from companies regarding the cost to remove; consequently the expense will not be immaterial. I would have thought that it would be more advantageous for the City Council to redirect the resources and money that are being used on the street renaming and Vance monu-
ment removal projects to address more immediate issues caused by the pandemic: 1. Vaccine distribution. In particular, providing education and information to the minority community to help reduce the reluctance regarding taking the vaccine. Also, helping lower-income communities with limited access to health care, Wi-Fi and internet to apply for vaccine appointments. 2. Economic hardship caused by the pandemic. Help those in financial hardship due to loss of employment by providing rent and mortgage subsidies to avoid an eviction crisis later in the year. Also, support restaurants, music and arts businesses by providing support with rent and business loans. In summary, it appears that there are more urgent priorities for the City Council to focus on and better usages of city funds. — Cliff Moss Asheville
Neighbors should have say in land use I am writing to express grave concern regarding the potential rezoning of 6 acres of land in Asheville bordering Woodfin to multiuse high density. I am a resident of the Richmond Hill neighborhood and have been for the past 10 years. My husband and I moved to Asheville in 2009 after going to graduate school and wanting to settle in an area that values the
beauty and necessity of wild spaces for people’s mental and physical health. We bought our home on Richmond Hill Drive after renting for a year and a half, knowing that we wanted to live here for a very long time. We both attained jobs in community mental health, using our degrees to help support those with some of the highest mental health needs in our area. In 2015, we had a daughter, making us further appreciate the quiet and safety of our neighborhood. We looked forward to her growing older and more independent, getting to walk and bicycle down to the park to explore the wild spaces on her own. She is now a kindergartner at Isaac Dickson. This dream is now in danger. Although Asheville is constantly being sold as a beautiful outdoors paradise, the city and county continue to sell more and more of its wild outdoor spaces to developers. These developers cut down trees, raze the land and demolish natural wildlife habitats. They increase vehicle use, add light pollution and overcrowding. Being in nature is a balm, a soothing healing. In addition, the added traffic from this development [would be] dangerous. Pearson Bridge Road and Richmond Hill Drive are not equipped for the increase in vehicular traffic that will result from adding over 1,500 homes and their cars to the area. As the developer, John Holdsworth, must get permission from Silverline to build a bridge directly to the development from Riverside Drive, traffic concerns are legitimate. With traffic lights and turn lanes, this neighborhood shifts from just that, a neighborhood, to an urban egress. We chose to buy our homes in this neighborhood and should have a voice in how the land is used. Please consider our and our neighbors’ thoughts and ideas on this matter. — Katie Clay-Wakefield Asheville
they had become totally uninhabitable and beyond repair. (Does this sound familiar?) The interiors of many of the Charleston houses had been divided up into tiny little living units, literally slums. Among the buildings eventually saved from bulldozers was a group of 13 houses (as is the number of the Charlotte Street project slated for demolition). That particular group of East Bay houses was saved and is today probably the most iconic grouping of houses in the city of Charleston. It’s now called Rainbow Row; anybody who has visited Charleston or has simply seen pictures of Charleston would immediately recognize Rainbow Row. However, a hundred years ago, they were slated for demolition with much the same rationale that the Killian/RCG developers are using to destroy historic houses (and mature, old-growth trees) for their Charlotte Street project. Surely, Mr. Killian can find a more sensitive way to divest himself of this property. I am 1,000% in favor of mixed use, but not the needless destruction of land and history, only to
A better solution for Charlotte Street Asheville’s Charlotte Street is dear to my heart and an intrinsic part of my life. I grew up at 392 Charlotte St., the home of my late parents, Henry and Marie Colton. (My parents lived in that house for 51 years.) Later, I spent 35 years in Charleston, S.C., returning to WNC about 10 years ago. While living in Charleston, I served a while as president of the Preservation Society. I mention this because The Preservation Society of Charleston was founded (in the 1920s) to prevent demolition of old houses. The reason given during that period for destroying most houses was that MOUNTAINX.COM
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OPINION
Send your letters to the editor to letters@mountainx.com.
be replaced by a traffic-clogging, mediocre, Anywhere USA development. — Marie Colton Woodard Asheville
Voice your concerns about Woodfin development I am commenting on the conditional use request for property adjoining Richmond Hill Park. I have owned a home in this area for 10 years, and my wife and I have raised our 5-yearold daughter here. We were originally drawn to the area for the natural beauty and solitude of Richmond Hill Park. I am deeply saddened by the prospect of the forest near the park being destroyed for the planned apartments, homes, office complex, church and hotel. This would instantly move the area from being wild and forested to completely urban. Our small neighborhood and hundreds of daily Richmond Hill Park visitors do not want a Reynolds Mountain-type development here. If you care about Richmond Hill Park, please attend a Woodfin Town Hall meeting on Monday, Feb. 1, at 6:30 p.m. and voice your concerns. — Joey Werner Asheville
C AR T O O N B Y I R E N E O L DS Eisenhower wrapped up his two terms in office, preceded by a military career that included being supreme commander of Allied forces in Western Europe during World War II, with a farewell address to the nation. Much of the speech came from his heart and with knowledge, experience and wisdom in warning us about the military-industrial complex, which was just emerging at the time. His words, with my emphasis, follow. “This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American
Ike’s timely warning and our current reality Sixty years ago this month, Republican President Dwight
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experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society. “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. “We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.” Sixty years ago, he spoke those words to our nation. Some 60 days ago, we witnessed the seductive economic, political and spiritual influence of the military-industrial complex when the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to give an economic development package worth $27 million to war profiteer Pratt & Whitney/Raytheon. Some 30 citizens passionate about peace and justice made public comments against this deal. The commissioners heard but did not listen. We also should understand the cost of war in terms of lost opportunities. President Eisenhower said, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies,
in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” War drains our national treasure away from our real needs, such as providing health care, especially in this time of pandemic, investing in a Green New Deal in order to address climate change and providing reparations for our African American brothers and sisters in order to address the huge economic inequities in this country. Using tax incentives to bring Raytheon’s jobs here is a clear example of a lost economic opportunity. We know that more and better jobs are created by spending on clean energy, health care, education and infrastructure than are created by the military-industrial complex. Why invest in a multinational industry that depends on fossil fuels and a war economy when we could be investing in our own people and getting a better return on our investment? And working toward a more sustainable future? We Veterans for Peace know from firsthand experience the causes and costs of war and war profiteering. We are all the alert and knowledgeable citizenry that President Eisenhower warned would be necessary to prevent what we see happening in Buncombe County and we say: “No more, reject Raytheon!” — Gerry Werhan President/Veterans For Peace, Western NC Chapter Asheville P.S.: Further evidence of the unwarranted influence of the military-industrial complex in these times: According to Bloomberg News, retired Gen. Lloyd Austin, President Joe Biden’s pick for defense secretary, may get as much as $1.7 million in payments tied to the board seat he’d be giving up at defense contractor Raytheon Technologies Co.
Bringing shame on the people of WNC Who were these people who attacked the Capitol? Were they Moms Demand Action? Were they progressive socialists? Were they LGBT militants? Were they Mexican gangs? Were they Black Lives Matter? No. They were white Trump supporters. They gathered at the Stop the Steal staging rally to protest Trump’s claim of a stolen election. The enraged mob was further riled by a team of agitators including Madison Cawthorn, who along with Don Jr. and Eric Trump and others pushed the mob to a frenzy. ... President Trump then urged them to head to the Capitol
CARTOON BY BRENT BROWN to what became a violent, seditious uprising against our Congress. “Fight like hell,” Trump said. After all the horrors of that day, the murder, the desecration and the rape of our democracy, Madison Cawthorn had the impudent lack of any regard or respect for our country to vote to overturn the will of the people and make Donald J. Trump a dictator. Madison Cawthorn has brought great shame on the people of Western North Carolina. — John H. Fisher Hendersonville
Dangerous encouragement of violence I have to assume that members of Congress are reasonably intelligent people, many having law degrees, M.D.s and Ph.D.s. And, as such, I also have to assume that they do not believe the lies and conspiracy theories about the election that Joe Biden has won. After all, if they are intelligent, they can readily see through these false claims, which have already been denied by the courts for lack of evidence. Yet, 147 of them voted to object to the confirmation of Biden’s victory, seven of whom are from our state. So, the only conclusion that I can come to is that those who have
objected are aiding and abetting the lies. By advancing their objections for their own personal political gain, they are dangerously encouraging the acts of violence that we have seen on Jan. 6. — Howard Jaslow Asheville
Mutually assured monument destruction It seems to be lost on a lot of us on the left that the right is taking its cue from us. Our mobs trash their monuments, so their mobs trash ours. The left-wing vandalism and violence against public symbols of the Confederacy that many progressives are cheering on has been followed like night after day by rightwing vandalism and violence against public symbols of democracy like the Capitol. No surprise: When we open the door on destruction, our opponents race through it right behind us. There’s a reason that a balance is the defining symbol of justice: The law — natural and moral, if not always legal — applies to both sides. We’re right to rectify long-standing racial inequities such as the dearth of Black American iconography in the public square. But when we let frustration and fury drive us to demand retribution by destruction,
we’ve moved beyond healing historic wounds to pushing the balance hard toward harm against others — and it’s bound to snap back as harm against us. Our City Council is poised to entrench that vicious cycle in Asheville by demonizing the obelisk named for Vance as a “Confederate monument” (in contradiction to its builders’ intent) and demolishing it — rather than repurposing our city’s central landmark, as so many citizens are imploring it to do, by updating its name and signage to align with its actual historic role as
Asheville’s Washington Monument, a symbol of our unity in diversity. Bulldozing the historic signpost for our ostensibly tolerant city’s signature free-speech zone under the legal pretense of “public safety” wouldn’t only be an act of shameful (and seemingly unconstitutional) hypocrisy — it would also provoke escalating eye-for-an-eye destruction as white supremacists wreak revenge on the public symbols they demonize. It’s time to back off from this symbolic civil war before it pulls us into a real one. — Steve Rasmussen Asheville
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OPINION
Full circle
“We cannot avoid the hidden phantom side effects of the desecration of the monument, held so dear by so many.”
Can repurposing the Vance Monument help heal the divide in Asheville?
BY SANDRA KILGORE
The first recorded obelisks date back to the 11th century B.C., and to the ancient Egyptians, they symbolized the sun god Ra. That makes the architectural form 13,000 years old. It symbolized the concept of duality and balance. Obelisks are thought to represent good energy and dispel negative forces. These works of art are known all over the world, and many are located throughout the United States. Among the most notable are the Washington Monument, Cleopatra’s Needle in New York’s Central Park and the Newkirk Monument in Philadelphia. Those monuments will always have a place in history. Asheville’s obelisk itself does not represent the Confederacy. Many of the Confederate statues
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removed thus far were made in the image of Confederate soldiers, not stand-alone obelisks. Asheville is known to be a city of the arts, and the monument represents one of Asheville’s oldest art structures in downtown Asheville. Many people in the community have strong feelings about our ancestors being sold in a public space, Pack Square. Truth be told, our ancestors were sold — and killed — in many public places, as well as in barns throughout the country. Do we hide our truth, or do we embrace it and use it as a reference to become stronger? RECLAIMING THE MONUMENT An alternative is to reclaim the monument, recapturing its positive and inspirational meaning. Over 150 years ago, the Confederacy attached itself to positive symbols. Proponents wanted to give their movement relevance. One symbol they used was the cross — a symbol that is still being used today by white nationalists and white supremacists to intimidate. For decades, our ancestors had to bear witness to the burning of crosses left at the scenes of property destruction, public lynchings and murders of all sorts. Removing the monument is an emotional and reactionary response, providing an apparently easy answer to a complicated issue. We need to be mindful as to how we show up. The African American community in Asheville is on the radar. Decisions we make may affect other communities. We cannot avoid the hidden phantom side effects of the desecration of the monument, held so dear by so many. Those effects fall squarely on the backs of Blacks, like many lashes from the past. The scars are hidden beneath the civil courtesy and liberal ideals, while the shirts we wear hide the scars and the bloodstains. For example: when a landlord decides not to rent to a Black family; an employer overlooks a qualified Black employee; or a health care worker offers lesser services to a Black patient. Let’s also address the well-intentioned individuals who fervently support such actions as removing the mon-
MOUNTAINX.COM
— Asheville City Council member Sandra Kilgore
SANDRA KILGORE ument while never experiencing the consequences. The Vance Monument Task Force was commissioned by Asheville City Council and the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners to consider removing the monument, born out of a group call arising from the George Floyd protests last summer. But African Americans are not a monolith; just because a group takes a stand on an issue does not mean it is the decision or consensus of the entire Black community.
BLACK CONTRIBUTIONS TO ASHEVILLE
For far too long, African American history has been ignored, forgotten and suppressed. This is an opportunity to educate and to provide a better understanding of the many contributions African Americans have made to Asheville. Richard Sharp Smith, the supervising architect of the Biltmore House, was the same architect who designed both the obelisk and the YMI Cultural Center. The Blue Ridge National Heritage Area website notes that the YMI was “built by and for the several hundred African American craftsmen who helped construct and furnish the Biltmore House.” With that being said, I think it is safe to assume that our ancestors played a role in the obelisk’s construction. In 2015, when a time capsule was discovered in the base of the monument that contained The Colored Enterprise newspaper from 1897, I felt proud. African Americans are not given credit for their contributions to society because many people do not
know the history. We have been stigmatized and stereotyped with negative labels. We now have an opportunity to do something special with the monument by honoring those who gave their lives to build Asheville, which includes the railroad. No one can deny what our people went through. The monument that wears Vance’s name is absolutely a testament to a history of discrimination, which still exists. However, we are doing ourselves a disservice if we are destroying the evidence of our history, and thus, the stories of those who suffered and sacrificed.
A NEW NARRATIVE
Asheville’s history could be told full circle as we address the dark stains of slavery and the impact of urban renewal and institutional racism in the once-robust Black community. Lifting the monument up and using the power of the obelisk could provide a new narrative that unites us all to create the desired results of unification, equity and inclusion. The obelisk would provide a platform to begin to have those difficult conversations that bring us together. Asheville as a city has acknowledged our dark past and chosen not to ignore those injustices and crimes against humanity. Rather than honoring the perpetrators of these crimes, we could honor our ancestors, whose memories would otherwise have been lost. It would be a great opportunity to educate our visitors as well as locals in the community. We could call it the Unity Tower that is located in Freedom Park. We could create a legacy that will be a centerpiece for our growing city. We could offer a positive road map for other cities all over the country that are dealing with similar issues. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr inspired the human race to strive for harmony. He realized that no man, woman or child is truly free until all men are free. Asheville native Sandra Kilgore was elected to Asheville City Council in 2020. X
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JAN. 27 - FEB. 2, 2021
9
OPINION
How much has Asheville really changed?
“I remember when the old passenger rail depot, now a restaurant, had a segregated waiting room.” the center of a thriving commercial area, still stands, as do many other now repurposed structures.
The Gospel According to Jerry
BY JERRY STERNBERG
As some of you already know, my speedometer rolled over to 90 on Dec. 7. It was the most exciting birthday I ever had — except for the first one, of course, but I was too young to have any memory of that. This time around, people showered me with cards, letters and well-wishes; I’m particularly grateful to those who honored me by making a charitable donation in my name. Many people have said to me, “I’ll bet Asheville has changed a lot since you were born.” After thinking about it, though, I would have to answer “Yes — but really, not so much.” Sure, our population has doubled, and the transportation corridors have been modified and expanded to accommodate the automobile. Like me, however, the city’s bones remain much the same, even if they’ve been fleshed out considerably.
CONTINUITY AND CHANGE
I was born in Biltmore Hospital, which is no longer a hospital, though the structure still stands. Biltmore Village has been well preserved, and while it’s now home to a large hotel and a McDonald’s and has survived numerous floods, the area retains the same character envisioned by George Vanderbilt’s architects. Yet I remember when the old passenger rail depot, now a restaurant, had a segregated waiting room: The only Blacks allowed in the white section were porters and the nannies who tended to children. To the north, Biltmore Avenue is still home to McCormick Field and assorted shops. The majestic Asheville High School still stands on McDowell Street, accessed through the narrow tunnel. And despite Mission Health’s massive expansion, from the street, the St. Joseph’s campus looks much the same.
Downtown, meanwhile, is a mix of old and new, with a high-rise hotel now towering over our first great skyscraper, the Jackson Building. In 1977, a whole block of deteriorating buildings on the north side of Pack Square was purchased and demolished, replaced by an I.M. Pei-designed office building housing the world headquarters of Akzona Inc. It is now the Biltmore Building. The beautiful City Hall and the county courthouse still dominate the east end of Pack Square Park. The old Pack Library, the former Plaza Theatre and the shops on the west side still look the same; indeed, the square itself seems little different than when we kids joined the joyful crowd celebrating V-J Day, the end of World War II, in 1945, cheering and dancing around the soon-to-beremoved Vance Monument. Of course, the separate Black and white drinking fountains and segregated bathrooms are long gone. Patton Avenue hasn’t changed much except for a couple of big new banks. The facade of the S&W Cafeteria building seems about the same as it did when we high school kids used to change buses and socialize across the street in Pritchard Park. Most of the stores on Haywood Street remain, though with different tenants. The former George Vanderbilt Hotel building looms over the now modernized and expanded Civic Center, where the community gathered for patriotic rallies during World War II. The old Battery Park Hotel and the adjacent Grove Arcade both testify to E.W. Grove’s considerable impact on downtown. But those structures, as well as the nearby federal courthouse, appear no different to me than they did when my mother used to take me to the arcade for ice cream and to see the floats, bands and baby parade during the weeklong Rhododendron Festival.
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WAR AND PEACE
Heading west toward Haywood County back then, one would follow Haywood Road down to Clingman Avenue, passing a large bakery and various residences till you came to the massive Dave Steel Co. on your left. Near the bridge a string of buildings housed the Farmers’ Federation co-op operated by Jamie Clarke’s family. To the northwest, one could see the Main Auto Parts junkyard, several tobacco warehouses, the Asheville Stockyards and the J.A. Baker Packing Co. in the valley. Thanks to the New Belgium Brewing complex, this area still has an industrial look. As you proceed up the hill to Beacham’s Curve and on down Haywood Road, there’s little obvious change in the structures. In those days, most folks living in East Asheville had little reason to visit West Asheville, which consisted of a mill town and farmland. Today, those former mill worker dwellings have been restored and it’s considered a very chic neighborhood. My most vivid memory of West Asheville is going to the ISIS Theater with my friends for my 11th birthday party on Dec. 7, 1941. We watched the black-and-white movie Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, starring Spencer Tracy. As we rode home in the car, we heard that the Japanese had attacked the American base at Pearl Harbor. Because the French Broad River has been flowing through the valley forever, what’s now the River District has not so much changed as it has evolved. The coming of the railroad created huge coal-burning industries and thousands of jobs. Many of those old buildings, including part of the burnedout cotton mill, have been restored and are now entertainment and tourist venues. The picturesque old passenger depot has been demolished, but the more pedestrian Glen Rock Hotel, once
RENOVATION, RECREATION AND COMMERCE
The sizable part of town bounded by Depot Street, Southside Avenue, South Charlotte Street and The Block, which was mostly an African American area, contained many substandard houses that lacked central heating and indoor plumbing. Many of the residents were subsequently moved into public housing, but a large portion of Stephens-Lee High School still stands, a poignant reminder of what this outstanding institution meant to the community. One of my great memories is our periodic Sunday visits to the timeless, superexciting Recreation Park. For us kids, holding your breath while passing through the tunnel en route to the park was obligatory. Merrimon Avenue has seen considerable commercialization, but there are residential neighborhoods on both sides that have been there as long as I can remember. Claxton School, which I began attending in 1936, still serves the community’s children. Small trading areas like Woolsey Dip and Grace still retain recognizable features. Beaver Lake remains the crown jewel of Lakeview Park, and the Beaver Lake Golf Club, now the Country Club of Asheville, still contributes to the ambience created by the many stately homes that dominate the landscape. E.W. Grove and Fred Seely would have no problem recognizing the Grove Park neighborhood that they helped develop. The golf course there and the surrounding houses are largely unchanged. I recently saw kids sledding down the sixth hole, just as I did 80 years ago. The iconic Grove Park Inn still overlooks the neighborhood. It has grown wings, but I have never seen it fly. So has Asheville changed? Well, it has modernized, infilled and expanded transportation corridors, but it’s basically the same wonderful little mountain town I’ve known all my life. Asheville native Jerry Sternberg, a longtime observer of the local scene, can be reached at gospeljerry@aol.com. X
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JAN. 27 - FEB. 2, 2021
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NEWS
Failing arithmetic
Asheville City Schools on path to budget deficit BY DANIEL WALTON dwalton@mountainx.com Negative numbers are a concept that, per Common Core educational standards, students should encounter by sixth grade. Those middle-school skills could come in handy as members of the Asheville City Schools administration and Board of Education sharpen their pencils to work out their budget for the coming school year. According to the school system’s most recent comprehensive annual financial report, its available cash reserves totaled just over $5 million at the end of June, with over $1 million in previously available reserves having been spent toward operations for fiscal year 2019-20. Of that fund balance, $3 million was allocated to cover the gap between expected revenues and expenses for the current fiscal year, which ends Wednesday, June 30. Assuming that money is spent and the same fund balance allocation is needed next fiscal year, ACS would face a roughly $1 million deficit for 2021-22. That scenario drew the attention of the system’s external auditor, Michael Wike, during a Dec. 7 work session of the school board. “You can’t keep doing that year in and year out. You need to keep an eye
GARDEN SALE: The 4.6-acre Asheville Primary School campus, including its educational garden, could be sold as a cost-cutting measure by Asheville City Schools. Photo courtesy of Asheville Primary School on that,” Wike told the board about its spending. “What happens when you don’t have a fund balance is almost like an individual living paycheck to paycheck: You can’t plan for the future whatsoever.” Wike’s words were an extraordinary rebuke, says Pepi Acebo, president of the parent-teacher organization at Montford North Star Academy.
“Usually, whoever the external auditor is praises the assistance they got from the internal staff, thanks the board and basically says everything looks good to us,” he notes, based on his observations over six years of attending school board meetings. Later in the same work session, Superintendent Gene Freeman also signaled that the system could be in for rough times ahead. “It’s going to take some people thinking differently and understanding that there’s no place to go when this money’s gone,” he said. “We really have got to look at our expenses and how we’re spending money.”
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HEY, BIG SPENDERS
What that budgetary self-examination will involve, however, has been difficult to determine. ACS spokesperson Dillon Huffman declined multiple Xpress requests for an interview with Georgia Harvey, the system’s chief finance officer, and required all questions to be submitted by email. In response to a query about the main drivers of school expenses in excess of revenues, Harvey sent a portion of the external auditor’s report that did not explain that point. Harvey also said the system had no formal fund balance policy, in contrast with Buncombe County Schools, which adopted such a policy in 2011. The N.C. Local Government Commission, a state agency that oversees city and
county finances, issues warnings to governments with an unassigned fund balance below 8% of annual general fund income. Both the city of Asheville and Buncombe County have set and currently meet fund balance targets of at least 15%; for ACS, the current fund balance percentage works out to just under 9%. ACS is among the most expensive school systems in North Carolina on a per capita basis. According to the N.C. Department of Public Instruction, ACS spent over $13,000 per pupil last fiscal year, placing it eighth among the state’s 115 public school districts and well above the state average of $9,950 per pupil. By comparison, Buncombe County Schools spent just over $10,000 per pupil last fiscal year and ranked 52nd in the state. Also considered on a per capita basis, ACS has one of the largest central office staffs of any local school system. The NCDPI lists 19 “official administrators and managers” for an average daily student attendance of about 4,100 in the Asheville system, compared with 17 administrators for 22,560 students — well over five times as many — for Buncombe County. Henderson County Schools has 23 admins for 12,756 students, while Transylvania County Schools has 9 admins for 3,175 students. Asheville’s ratios are most locally comparable with those of the Madison County (11 admins for 2,133 students) and Yancey County (12 admins for 1,958 students) systems. ACS spent 9.3% of its budget on “central expenses” for fiscal year 201819, compared with an average of 5.7% across the state. And 16 of Asheville’s administrators are paid entirely using local tax revenues, the most of any area system. By some metrics, that spending powers a system that outperforms its peers throughout North Carolina. Per the NCDPI’s School Report Cards for 2018-19, the latest year for which data is available, ACS students had a slightly higher four-year graduation rate than the state average, as well as higher college enrollment and better scores on the ACT and SAT exams. But ACS has also been plagued by long-standing disparities between its white and Black students. As previously reported by Xpress (see “‘Beat back this monster,’” Jan. 30, 2019), the system’s racial achievement and discipline gaps were the worst in the state for the 2018 school year.
UNKINDEST CUTS
Xpress asked the five members of Asheville’s school board for comment regarding their plans to handle the system’s budget crunch. Of Chair
Shaunda Sandford, Joyce Brown, James Carter, Martha Geitner and Patricia Griffin, only Brown, Geitner and Sandford responded; none addressed the issue. Brown only answered questions regarding her desire to be reappointed to the school board. Geitner referred budget questions to Sandford and Harvey. And Sandford, who also serves a social worker for the Housing Authority of the City of Asheville, said that “the responsibilities of my career, as well as the children and families I serve,” took priority over responding to the inquiry. The most substantial public discussion so far of next year’s budget, which must be approved by June 30, came from Freeman during the board’s Dec. 7 work session. He indicated a reluctance to fix the deficit by seeking extra funding from the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners — “That would be a bad thing for us to have to do,” he said, without providing further explanation — and instead targeted the local supplement, additional money paid from local tax revenue to teachers and staff on top of their state-mandated salaries. That spending accounts for over $4.3 million of the ACS budget.
“One of the easiest places to look is our supplement,” Freeman said. “I love the supplement, but we spend more than the county gives us by $1 million.” Freeman’s comments during the board meeting, at which Harvey was present, directly contradict Harvey’s response when asked if the district had discussed cutting the supplement due to budget constraints. “Absolutely no discussions or mentions of this,” she wrote in a Jan. 21 email to Xpress. Daniel Withrow, president of the Asheville City Association of Educators, says school administrators haven’t yet discussed such a cut with his organization. But he does not believe that reducing the salary of front-line school employees, including approximately 430 teachers, is appropriate, particularly given the area’s high cost of living. Withrow points out that the average annual ACS teacher supplement of about $4,600 is significantly lower than that for teachers in the CharlotteMecklenburg ($8,101), Wake County ($8,720) and Durham County ($7,005) systems. All three regions have lower housing and health care costs than does Asheville. And according to an analysis of 021 U.S. Bureau 2of Labor Statistics
data conducted by moving website HireAHelper, Asheville ranks 79th out of 88 midsize U.S. metropolitan areas in median annual teacher pay adjusted for cost of living. That figure is roughly $51,200 for the Asheville metro; the national average exceeds $60,000. “Improving the quality of our public schools is a community priority. We can’t do so if we’re cutting wages for the workers who care for our children every day,” Withrow says. “Instead, the district should work with local government leaders to adequately fund our system.”
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CAPITAL IDEAS
Another controversial ACS budget proposal involves the closure and sale of the Asheville Primary School in West Asheville. During a Dec. 14 special meeting, the school board unanimously accepted Freeman’s recommendation to explore unloading the 4.6-acre campus, which currently houses the Asheville City Preschool and an elementary program based on the Montessori method. A subsequent
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Kids Issues
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N EWS petition to “Save Asheville Primary School” on Change.org had gathered nearly 2,500 signatures as of press time. According to an email distributed to ACS parents and staff by spokesperson Ashley-Michelle Thublin on Jan. 5, the sale would prevent the need for roughly $6 million in capital spending over the next two years to “bring the building up to minimum standards.” Listed upgrades include over $2.7 million for a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, $940,000 to replace electrical systems and $712,000 for new windows. Since August 2017, the district has spent roughly $500,000 on repairs to the building. Any proceeds from the sale would go toward the district’s capital fund, which can only be spent on facility improvements. Harvey said ACS was still compiling data to determine what operational savings might result from distributing the preschool and primary students among Hall Fletcher Elementary and other buildings in the system with vacant space. At the end of last fiscal year, the capital fund balance sat at roughly $4.3 million; over $2.5 million from those reserves was allocated for projects in 2020-21, indicating that the district could not
pay for the primary school upgrades it claims are necessary without additional revenue. But Stacy Claude, co-lead of the Asheville Primary School Parent Teacher Collective and parent to two children at the school, says the district hasn’t been transparent about its cost calculations or decision-making process. “In different meetings, I’ve heard anything from $5 million to $7 million to $9 million,” she explains, regarding the varying figures ACS has offered for the school’s required upgrades. “Every single school building except the two brand-new ones could use a fully new HVAC, but that’s not what has to be done to keep kids in that building.” And according to schools advocate Acebo, ACS leaders haven’t reached out about Asheville Primary’s needs to Buncombe commissioners, who control the primary source of school capital project funding through Article 39 sales tax revenue. “One commissioner said to me, ‘I had to read about [the sale recommendation] in the newspaper,’” he says. “They were shocked, because they know that they’ve been putting money into this building.”
MAKING CHANGE
The ultimate decisions on the primary school sale and other matters regarding the system’s nearly $72.7 million overall budget lie with the school board, whose members are appointed to four-year terms by Asheville City Council. That arrangement is nearly unique in North Carolina; besides ACS, only Thomasville City Schools in Davidson County has an appointed board, with the remaining 113 school boards elected by voters. Kate Fisher, a longtime ACS volunteer and parent currently seeking appointment to the school board, argues that this setup has failed to hold board members responsible for their budgetary decisions. Because the board doesn’t answer directly to voters, she says, and Council’s only oversight is a relatively brief appointment process heavily influenced by school system staff, there’s little incentive for transparency or fiscal discipline. “The fact that there is no accountability answers the question as to why nobody knows how the money is spent, because they don’t have to tell any-
body,” Fisher says. “We have misspent the money for a really long time.” All three of the Council members elected last year — Sandra Kilgore, Kim Roney and Sage Turner — said at an Xpress candidate forum in February that they favored converting the school board to an elected body. But at Council’s Jan. 12 meeting, members decided it would be impossible to make that change before the Thursday, April 1, deadline set by state law for appointing three school board seats. The three appointees will therefore vote on next fiscal year’s budget. Those seats are currently held by Brown, Carter and Griffin. All three are eligible for reappointment; Brown was the only one to directly confirm with Xpress her interest in serving another term. However, Council member Sheneika Smith has said all three are interested in the role. “I think that there are pros and cons to this but will not go into details at this time,” Brown said, when asked about her position on electing the school board. “In the meantime, I encourage our community to get to know the board members that have been appointed and have real and respectful conversations with them.” X
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Dr. Brent Steele, MD/BC-HIS
Locally owned and operated Did you know sound can be reduced by up to 10-12db with the use of a face mask? Speech audibility and pitch will be impacted for both the speaker and the listener. Here are some suggestions on how to improve this. If you already wear hearing aids, be sure to see your professional for an adjustment and ask them to create a “mask mode� program. Always face The one you Are talking to.
Communicate Where there Is good light*.
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Sit close to Each other, Within the Required Safety limits.
Never have a Dialogue about Important Matters while Walking side By side.
Use clear speech Techniques**. Do not shout or Over-articulate1.
Rephrase your Questions or Input rather Than repeating The same words.
Have information Ready in written Form to minimize Communication Errors.
Minimize Environmental Noise.
1. Liu S, Zeng FG.Temporal properties in clear speech perception https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16875238 *make sure light falls on your face so your face is not is in a shadow. This will also facilitate eye contact. **speak slightly more slowly and clearly and insert occasional pauses into your speech.
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JAN. 27 - FEB. 2, 2021
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BUNCOMBE BEAT
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As Buncombe County continues to grapple with distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine, its leaders are taking a cue from the paragon of American logistical efficiency: the fast-food drive-thru. “Everybody’s familiar with the Chick-fil-A lines and how they move,” explained Van Taylor Jones, the county’s emergency services director, during a Jan. 19 presentation to the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners. “We’re looking to set up that kind of model that will move people through fast.” The drive-thru site at A.C. Reynolds High School, which started distributing the required second vaccine dose to people who have already received a first shot on Jan. 25, was among several efforts announced on Jan. 19. The county has also developed a waitlist that allows residents to pre-register for a vaccine and be scheduled for an
MOUNTAINX.COM
STEP IN LINE: The county’s A-B Tech vaccination site, shown here, will soon be supplemented by a drive-thru location at A.C. Reynolds High School. Photo by Molly Horak appointment at a later time by county health staff. The new system marks an aboutface for Public Health Director Stacie Saunders, who had opposed the waitlist model during a Jan. 12 special meeting due to its logistical demands on her already burdened employees. But the county’s previous approach, which required residents to schedule appointments directly as vaccines became available, drew criticism for creating long phone queues and online technical difficulties. ‘“We have heard our community — we have heard our leaders — that scheduling is not the easiest thing in the world with limited doses,” Saunders acknowledged at a Jan. 19 briefing to the commissioners. The system launched the morning of Jan. 21; less than an hour after launch, according to the county’s Twitter account, 10,000 people had signed on. Health care workers and those age 65 or older can continue to join the waitlist by calling 828-2505000 or visiting buncombeready.org. Fletcher Tove, Buncombe’s emergency preparedness director, cautioned residents not to expect a quick appointment upon joining the list. Based on current allotments of vaccines from the state, he said, shots may be scheduled as far out as April. “I just want to make sure you guys are aware there’s going to be some consternation from that,” he added to the commissioners.
Saunders and Tove noted that Buncombe has been working to secure more vaccine doses for the community beyond its regular state allotment. HCA Healthcare, the parent company of Mission Hospital, has agreed to give the county 975 doses that had previously been reserved for its employees and is in talks for further allocations. And 500 extra doses have come from the WNC Regional Collaborative, a joint organization of county health departments, community health centers and hospitals. Saunders explained that those shots had been redirected by state officials from a federal program meant to vaccinate residents and workers at long-term care facilities through partnerships with Walgreens and CVS. As of mid-January, she said, those pharmacies in North Carolina had received 169,000 doses but had only deployed about 40,000, so they did not need further supplies. Even with those additional vaccines, Tove said, the county remains well below its capacity for distribution. After the Reynolds drive-thru site for second doses becomes operational, Buncombe’s main site at A-B Tech will be able to administer the first vaccine dose to roughly 1,000 people each day. The full COVID-19 presentation from the Jan. 19 commissioners’ briefing is available at avl.mx/8wj.
— Daniel Walton X
BIZ BRIEFS by Xpress Staff | news@mountainx.com MOUNTAIN BIZWORKS, DOGWOOD HEALTH TRUST TEAM UP FOR PPP 2.0 Help is at hand for qualifying local businesses seeking to access federal pandemic relief funding. In partnership with Dogwood Health Trust, Mountain BizWorks has opened the application process for a second round of Paycheck Protection Program awards. As with the first round of funding, DHT is committing $2 million to enable Mountain BizWorks to finance loans in advance of the loans’ forgiveness by the federal Small Business Administration. According to a press release, Mountain BizWorks made 426 loans totaling over $11.6 million in the first round of PPP funding. Those loans contributed to the retention of 2,334 jobs in the region, and 72% of the money benefited rural businesses. Women-led enterprises obtained 56% of the funding, while 25% went to businesses or nonprofits led by people of color. For more information about eligibility and to apply, visit avl.mx/8wg.
BUSINESS COMPLAINTS INCREASE IN 2020
The Better Business Bureau of Southern Piedmont and Western North Carolina released its 2020 annual report. Covering a 37-county service area, the report shows that consumers filed more than 22,000 complaints against area businesses, an increase of 36% compared with 2019. “The large increase in customer complaints certainly coincides with the year we saw as a whole. With many businesses struggling financially and fighting to remain open, there was much more room for error,” said Tom Bartholomy, the regional BBB president. Banks generated the most complaints of any business category, followed by home improvement providers, gun dealers, auto repair businesses and new car dealers. The BBB said
HEMP & HEALTH Celebrate the last week of National CBD Month & stock up on essentials for your wellness regimen CLIMBING PARTNERS: Pisgah Climbing and Outdoor Guides partners, from left, Peter Dickson, Rick Wagner and Melissa Adamo, purchased the outdoor climbing service component of Asheville-based Climbmax Climbing. Photo by Jessie Davis it had been able to resolve 92% of the complaints submitted. For more information and statistics, view the report at avl.mx/8wh.
BIZ BITES
• System Logistics Corp. announced plans to invest $3 million in renovations and new technology and machinery at its Arden facility. This project expansion will sustain 124 jobs with an average wage of $34.61 per hour and create 47 additional jobs with an average wage of $32.17 per hour. The company first established a local presence in 2017. • Earth Equity Advisors launched ALIGN DIGITAL, one of the first entirely sustainable, responsible and impact robo-advisers, to create custom portfolios designed to reflect any investor’s values. • Gaia Herbs of Brevard was named a 2021 Top Impact Company by Real Leaders. • Walnut Cove Realty and BeverlyHanks, Realtors announced a partnership to market The Cliffs at Walnut Cove, a luxury real estate community, beginning Monday, Feb. 1.
NEXT GENERATION: Parker Platt, left, takes over as president of PLATT, an architecture, construction and interior design firm in Brevard. Company founder Al Platt, right, remains with the firm as principal architect. Photo courtesy of PLATT
• Separately, Cliffs Realty expanded to offer real estate operations services at The Cliffs at Walnut Cove. With the expansion, Cliffs Realty now serves all seven of The Cliffs’ communities. • Asheville-based Lost Paddle Media announced the acquisition of the Kansas City Boat and Sportshow, Chicagoland Fishing Travel & Outdoor Expo, Suffern New York’s World Fishing & Outdoor Exposition, and the Saltwater Fishing Expo in Edison, N.J. Referencing growth across the entire outdoor industry over the past year, CEO Sutton Bacon said, “Investing in the fishing industry synchronizes well with our background in paddling, cycling, climbing and camping markets.”
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• David Harris, the fire chief for the town of Black Mountain, was appointed to the Biltmore Advisory Council of the Local Government Federal Credit Union, representing Madison, Haywood, Buncombe, Yancey and McDowell counties. • Parker Platt was named president of PLATT, an architecture, construction and interior design firm located in Brevard. Platt is the son of founder Al Platt, who remains with the company as principal architect. • Brandon Miller was named general manager of Aloft Asheville Downtown by McKibbon Hospitality. • Climbing guide Richard Wagner launched Pisgah Climbing and Outdoor Guides. With partners Peter Dickson and Melissa Adamo, Wagner recently purchased the outdoor climbing component of Asheville-based Climbmax Climbing from owner Stuart Cowles. • M ike Pugliese with the Hendersonville office of Terminix Service was named the 2020 residential technician of the year by Pest Control Technology. X
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F E AT UR E S
COVID CONVERSATION
Gift of life
Local comedian’s story highlights need for organ donors
CLOSER THAN SISTERS: Childhood friends Michele Scheve, left, and Marie Smith Lacey share an even more profound bond since November, when Lacey donated one of her kidneys to Scheve. Photo courtesy of Scheve When drivers get or renew their licenses, they are asked a simple question: Would you like to be an organ donor? And while 90% of U.S. adults say they support organ donation, according to the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, only 60% actually register to do so. Both North Carolina and the nation as a whole are experiencing a dramatic shortage of organ donors. According to Penn Medicine, over 112,000 people nationwide were on the waiting list for a lifesaving transplant as of May 2020. An average of 22 people die each day in the U.S. awaiting an organ transplant, or over 8,000 people per year. North Carolina is no exception. In 2019 alone, although 437 state residents donated organs and 1,135 received a lifesaving transplant, 114 died due to a lack of donors. Asheville’s Michele Scheve was one of the lucky ones. The local comedian, radio personality and podcaster recently shared the story of her unlikely kidney transplant with Xpress to highlight the good an organ donor can do. Scheve’s need for a new kidney traces back to the mid-2000s, when a
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pregnancy triggered a rare latent condition called Moyamoya disease, which targets the carotid artery and slows the flow of blood to the brain. She then had a major stroke while visiting California and was immediately hospitalized. Numerous surgeries followed — requiring the use of a contrast dye that slowly started to attack her kidneys. Years after returning to her daily life in Asheville, Scheve learned that she had developed renal failure from her body’s reaction to the contrast dye. She was immediately placed on the lengthy kidney donation list and began the tiring regimen of dialysis three times a week. At the same time, around four years ago, Marie Smith Lacey started to have recurring thoughts about Scheve. The two had been close friends through high school, part of a class of only 20 girls in Mobile, Ala., but had drifted apart after graduation; they hadn’t been in contact for over 25 years when Lacey reached out through a mutual friend via texting and Facebook. Although Scheve didn’t tell Lacey much about her medical issues at first, things changed when Scheve broke her
leg about two years ago. After Lacey learned of that development, Scheve opened up about her past trials, including her ongoing wait for a kidney. Four prospective donors, she explains, had all been denied by medical staff for missing different requirements. With a blood type of O negative, Lacey knew she was a universal blood donor, and she began to explore the possibility of giving Scheve one of her kidneys. In July 2019, Lacey started a series of compatibility tests in Mobile as Scheve faced her own tests in Asheville, Wake Forest and Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. They seemed to be a match, but the process was slow going. And in January 2020, COVID-19 put the process on indefinite hold. The two waited months for the phone to ring with news of any kind. Finally, Scheve and Lacey got the green light for the transplant to take place before Christmas. At the beginning of November, the two friends pulled up to Emory at almost the same time; it was the first time they had seen each other in 30 years. And on Nov. 12, doctors successfully replaced Scheve’s kidneys with one of Lacey’s healthy ones. Both are now recovering nicely, and Scheve no longer needs any dialysis. The ordeal has made the two closer than sisters. Says Lacey of Scheve: “She is the strongest, kindest, and most resilient person I know. She fought her way through devastating illnesses and health complications that would have crushed anyone’s spirit. Michele is a part of me now, and she has forever changed my life.” “She is forever my family,” Scheve says of Lacey in turn. “There is nothing I can ever really do to repay her. I think of Marie with love and thankfulness every single day as I plan the rest of my life.”
— Brendan Conture X
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COMMUNITY CALENDAR JAN. 27-FEB. 5, 2021 For a full list of community calendar guidelines, please visit mountainx.com/calendar. For questions about free listings, call 828-251-1333, ext. 137. For questions about paid calendar listings, please call 828-251-1333, ext. 320.
All Community Calendar events are virtual unless otherwise indicated.
ART
MUSIC
Asheville Art Museum: In Conversation Featuring American artist Robert Longo. TH (1/28), 7pm, Registration required, $10, avl.mx/8w8
St. James Candlemas Concert Featuring bluegrass artist Aaron Burdett. Proceeds benefit Interfaith Assistance Ministry. SA (1/30), 6:30pm, $20, avl.mx/8wu
Slow Art Friday: Observation or Hidden Meaning Discussion led by touring docent Shana Hill at Asheville Art Museum. FR (1/29), 12pm, Registration required, $10, avl.mx/8w7
John McCutcheon in Concert Presented by Madison County Arts Council. TH (2/4), 7:30pm, $20, avl.mx/8wt
Slow Art Friday: Threads of History Discussion led by touring docent Kathy Seguin at Asheville Art Museum. FR (2/5), 12pm, Registration required, $10, avl.mx/8wv
Malaprop's Author Discussion Bob, Pam and Ashby Gale present A Beachcombers Guide to Fossils. TH (1/28), 6pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8vz
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LITERARY
Kids CAMP this summer?
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MIND THE GAP: As part of its annual Martin Luther King, Jr. commemoration, UNC Asheville will present Dr. Whitney Pirtle in COVID-19 Death Gaps: Understanding How Race and Class Inequities Shape Pandemic Health Outcomes. An assistant professor of sociology at the University of California, Merced, Pirtle will demonstrate how racialized exploitation contributes to health inequities. Thursday, Jan. 28, 7 p.m. Free. avl.mx /8u2. Photo courtesy of UNC Asheville Half Way There: Live & Annotated Comedy and storytelling with Cliff and Wiley Cash. SU (1/31), 8pm, $25, avl.mx/8xa Malaprop's Book Launch Alan Gratz presents Ground Zero: A Novel of 9/11. MO (2/1), 2pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8wx Firestorm Visionary Readers Group Discussion on Lectures on Liberation by Angela Davis. MO (2/1), 7:30pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8um Malaprop’s: Love Letters Between Authors Featuring Joan Frank and Peg Alford Pursell. TH (2/4), 6pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8wy Firestorm: Stranger than Fiction Author panel on writing during a pandemic. TH (2/4), 7pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8wl
Fill out the form at mountainx.com/camp-listings or contact Madeline Forwerck at mforwerck@mountainx.com by February 22 22
JAN. 27 - FEB. 2, 2021
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THEATER & FILM The Magnetic Theatre: A Very Modern Marriage A farcical comedy directed by John Baldwin. FR (1/29), 7:30pm, By donation, avl.mx/8vy A Hole in My Heart Film on gun violence by Hendersonville-area actors and activists. Donations benefit the Riley Howell Foundation Fund. Available to stream thru 2/7. MO (2/1), avl.mx/8x6
CIVICS & ACTIVISM Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense: Asheville Chapter Monthly meeting. Register to get Zoom info: moms4actionavl@ gmail.com. MO (2/1), 6pm Vance Monument Task Force Special meeting. TH (2/4), 4:30pm, avl.mx/8wa
BUYING OLD PAPER MONEY 10 yrs WNC/ETN notes, bonds, maps, currency etc. Member SPMC, NCNA, SCNA, TNS
msg/ txt 865-207-8994 or email papermoneybuy@gmail.com
BUSINESS & TECHNOLOGY Explore Asheville: Oneon-One Wednesday 30-minute Q&A sessions on marketing, promotion and group sales initiatives. WE (1/27), 9am-5pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8tc Goodwill Career Quest: Manufacturing Quality Job search workshop featuring Amanda Nix and John Russler of Eaton Corp. TH (1/28), 10am, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8wq SCORE: Creativity & the 50+ Brain Entrepreneurship workshop for women 50 and older. WE (2/3), 10am, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8wo
CLASSES, MEETINGS & EVENTS Leadership Asheville: Winter Buzz Breakfast Featuring Mitch Landrieu, author of In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History. WE (1/27), 8:30am, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8vx
Asheville Wisdom Exchange On grief with Dr. Kelly Rhoades. WE (1/27), 7pm, Free, avl.mx/8u5 Warren Wilson: That's (Not) My Home Music, racism and the railroad's arrival in Buncombe County. TH (1/28), 1pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8wp UNCA: How Race & Class Inequities Shape Pandemic Death Gaps Talk by Dr. Whitney Pirtle, professor of sociology at UC Merced. TH (1/28), 7pm, Free, avl.mx/8u2 UNCA: Who's Your Mummy? Mummification as a business in late and Roman period Egypt, presented by archaeologist Jessica Kaiser. WE (2/3), 7:30pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8wm Pack Library: Spanish Conversation Group For adult language learners. TH (2/4), 5pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8ty Astronomy Club of Asheville Monthly meeting featuring science journalist Robert P. Naeye. TH (2/4), 7pm, Free, avl.mx/8wr
ECO & OUTDOOR Creation Care Alliance Symposium Workshops on climate change, land stewardship, eco-justice and more. TH (1/28), 10am, Registration required, $20, avl.mx/8wn
Feed Our City: Free Meal Pop-up Featuring Gypsy Queen Cuisine. SA (1/30), 10:30am-1pm, Free, Asheville Masonic Temple, 80 Broadway
WELLNESS
OLLI Fab Friday: The Crucial Role of Pollinators Led by wildlife biologist Bryan Tompkins. FR (1/29), 11:30am, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/8w3
Let’s Talk COVID-19: The Vaccine Town hall hosted by YWCA and Buncombe County HHS. WE (1/27), 5:30pm, avl.mx/8x9
Organic Growers School: Farm Dreams Workshop on sustainable farming practices, planning and resources. SA (1/30), 10am, Registration required, $55, avl.mx/8wk
Council on Aging: Introduction to Medicare How to avoid penalties and save money. TH (1/28), 2pm, Registration required, Free, coabc.org
Best Practices in Pruning Led by John Murphy. Register: avl.mx/8ws. FR (2/5), 1pm, $12, Bullington Gardens, 95 Upper Red Oak Trail, Hendersonville
FOOD & BEER Blue Ridge Educational Foundation: Beer Tasting Led by brewmaster Bryan McMahan. Pre-order and pickup required. FR (1/29), 7pm, $45, avl.mx/8vw
Steady Collective Syringe Access Outreach (in-person) Free naloxone, syringes and educational material on harm reduction. TU (2/2), 2pm, Firestorm Books, 610 Haywood Rd Us Too Prostate Support Group Featuring radiation oncologist Eric Kuehn. TU (2/2), 7pm, Free, wncprostatesupport.org
CLUBLAND
Online Event= q WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27 HIGHLAND BREWING CO. Woody Wood (folk, blues), 6pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. French Broad Valley Mountain Music Jam, 6pm SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Witty Wednesday Trivia Night, 6:30pm THE PAPER MILL LOUNGE Karaoke X, 7pm SOVEREIGN KAVA q Poetry Open Mic, 8pm, avl.mx/8uc
THURSDAY, JANUARY 28 TRISKELION BREWING CO. Jason's Technicolor Cabaret: Music & Comedy, 6pm
FRIDAY, JANUARY 29 ONE WORLD BREWING WEST UniHorn (funk), 5pm ISIS MUSIC HALL Bygone Blues w/ Peggy Ratusz & Aaron Price, 7pm LAZY HIKER BREWING SYLVA Curtis & Kim Jones (Appalachian roots), 7pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Derek McCoy Trio (rock), 7pm
SATURDAY, JANUARY 30 BURNTSHIRT VINEYARDS Owen Grooms (solo acoustic), 2pm
WEHRLOOM HONEY MEADERY Music & Mead w/ Phantom Pantone DJ Collective, 4pm BATTERY PARK BOOK EXCHANGE Dinah’s Daydream (jazz), 5pm ISA'S FRENCH BISTRO James Hammel (solo acoustic), 5pm ISIS MUSIC HALL Kristy Cox (Australian bluegrass), 7pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. ALR Trio (blues, rock), 7pm
SUNDAY, JANUARY 31 SWEETEN CREEK BREWING The Lads (acoustic originals), 2pm
SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Billy Litz (solo multi-instrumentalist), 3pm
OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Human Ladder Trio (rock), 4pm
ONE WORLD BREWING WEST In Flight (jazz, experimental), 4pm
ISIS MUSIC HALL q Steve James & Friends (roots, blues), 7pm, avl.mx/8x2
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1 THE JOINT NEXT DOOR Blues Monday w/ Mr Jimmy, 6pm
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3 OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. French Broad Valley Mountain Music Jam, 6pm SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Witty Wednesday Trivia Night, 6:30pm THE GREY EAGLE q Travis Book Happy Hour w/ Steve McMurry & Mike Ashworth, 7pm, avl.mx/8ww SOVEREIGN KAVA q Poetry Open Mic, 8pm, avl.mx/8uc
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4 OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Collin Cheek (solo acoustic), 6pm
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WELLNESS
Game changer
Telehealth popularity soars during pandemic BY MOLLY HORAK mhorak@mountainx.com
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Mark Kevern of the Ardenbased Compass Physical Therapy logs on to his computer as his next patient appears on screen, sitting at home. Watching carefully, Kevern coaches the person through a series of exercises. Simply by pressing a few buttons, Kevern then pulls up a video from the secure database’s library. The patient watches as the video outlines each step in a new exercise that’s being added to the regimen. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kevern admits he was skeptical: Could telehealth really become a viable alternative to in-person care — especially for physical therapy, a notoriously hands-on form of medicine? The answer has been a resounding yes. Heralded as the future of medicine, telehealth was already on the rise pre-pandemic, but COVID-19 has made it the new normal. Patients are ditching crowded, potentially germ-infested waiting rooms en masse, opting to talk to their providers from the privacy and comfort of their home. Whether it involves primary care, specialty consultations, therapy or follow-up appointments, practitioners are embracing virtual care as the next best alternative to a clinical setting. “We’ve all had to adjust and adapt,” says Kevern, reflecting on the changes of the past year. “For some people, it’s either telehealth or they don’t get any services. Through this shift, we’ve found that telehealth was actually quite effective and quite productive.” PANDEMIC PRIORITIES
An estimated 7 million Americans used a telehealth service in 2019; as of April 2020, telehealth visits in the United States were on track to top 1 billion by year’s end, according to analysts at the Massachusetts-based Forrester Research. A September report by the physician network Doximity ranked North Carolina second in the United States for telehealth service expansion. Before the pandemic, most insurance companies wouldn’t consider paying for online visits, says Shane
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HEALTH FROM HOME: Nicole Drake, a physician assistant with AdventHealth Medical Group Family Medicine at Biltmore Park, uses telehealth to connect with patients for whole-person care. Photo courtesy of AdventHealth Hendersonville Lunsford, administrative director of the department of psychiatry at the Asheville-based Mountain Area Health Education Center. If a telehealth visit was covered, both doctor and patient had to be at a licensed medical facility during the virtual appointment. But as it has with so many other aspects of daily life, COVID-19 has reshaped both the industry’s attitude toward telehealth and the way it’s provided. As soon as the United States entered a federal state of emergency on March 13, 2020, major insurance companies altered their reimbursement policies to treat tele-
health visits conducted from policyholders’ homes the same as in-person appointments. Strict guidelines concerning what constitutes telehealth are loosening too, says Lunsford: Phone conversations with a health care practitioner have also gained at least temporary acceptance. According to the American Hospital Association, 35 states plus the District of Columbia have enacted laws requiring health insurers to provide the same coverage for telehealth visits and in-person services. North Carolina hasn’t done so, notes Lunsford, though in 2018, state lawmakers did open the door to enabling
COVID-19 has reshaped insurers’ attitude toward telehealth. Medicaid patients with behavioral health and addiction issues to receive telehealth care from a licensed mental health professional. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, the state’s largest private health insurer, expanded telehealth coverage last year and will continue to cover such visits the same as in-person medical appointments through June 2021, said company spokesperson Jami Sowers. In the initial months of the pandemic, the company saw telehealth claims increase by a staggering 7,000%, she said.
HOSPITALS HOP ON BOARD
Last winter, AdventHealth Hendersonville was just starting to plan for a jump into the waters of virtual care, recalls Christy Sneller, vice president of physician services. Within two weeks of the first diagnosed COVID-19 cases in North Carolina, the hospital’s parent company launched a live telemedicine platform bringing primary, pediat-
ric and behavioral health care into patients’ living rooms. Now, roughly 10% of all daily visits at AdventHealth Hendersonville are conducted virtually. Many of the specialties on offer — including neurology, cardiology, endocrinology and rheumatology — have embraced telehealth for follow-up appointments. Meanwhile, a group of critical care physicians based elsewhere in the state is on call to consult virtually with staff working in the intensive care unit, Sneller adds. Moving forward, the hospital system is looking at ways to tap into the hospital chain’s national network of specialists for virtual consultations on individual cases. “Access is so important to patients’ receiving good quality care. If telehealth is increasing that access, I hope insurance companies will see how valuable that is,” notes Sneller. “This kind of access to preventative care is the key to keeping people from getting really serious condi-
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WELLN ESS
ONLINE CHECK-IN: Mountain Area Health Education Center psychiatry resident Joseph Maxwell sees a patient virtually using MAHEC’s telehealth platform. Photo courtesy of MAHEC tions that end up costing the insurance companies a lot more money.” The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has long been a leader in virtual care. In 2015, VA hospitals provided 2.1 million telemedicine consultations to more than 677,000 veterans, according to a December 2018 article in the Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine. Between February and May of 2020, the number of telehealth visits conducted via the national VA Video Connect platform increased by more than 1,000% per week, the federal agency reported in June. In the Asheville area, telehealth appointments are available in almost
all specialties offered at the Charles George VA Medical Center, including orthopedics, urology, neurology and an increased volume of mental health visits, says telehealth coordinator Brittany Brannigan. “A number of our veterans have found that virtual care removed barriers in ways they didn’t expect,” she explains. “Some of our veterans have transportation issues, or they can’t take time off of work to come to their appointments. With virtual care, they can have an appointment with their provider on their lunch break, or while they’re at home taking care of their children, and they’re not having to find a
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ride through an organization like Mountain Mobility.”
EXPANDING ACCESS
The chaos and uncertainty of 2020, says Lunsford, resulted in more mental health visits and substance-use concerns than any other year on record. Because virtual appointments tend to be shorter and offer greater flexibility, more people can receive therapy and mental health support, he points out. MAHEC’s psychiatry department is now conducting 97% of its visits remotely, Lunsford estimates. The VA has seen a similar trend, says Brannigan. The hospital’s social services department, she notes, has a program that gives iPads to veterans who can’t afford to buy a device. Some of the recipients have never used a tablet before, and the Department of Veterans Affairs offers technology consultations, both remotely and in person, to teach newbies how to use online platforms. Veterans can also bring their own devices to the local VA facility for digital literacy coaching by a staff member.
Over at Compass Physical Therapy, virtual appointments have accounted for anywhere from 5% to 25% of the office’s caseload, says Kevern. Some practices, such as dry needling and joint mobilization, can’t be done virtually, but those limitations are offset by some surprising benefits. One is the ability to see the physical layout of a patient’s home. “We can observe them doing their exercises in their own space and talk them through their activities,” he says. “Maybe while you’re sitting in your living room you’re reminded that your shoulder hurt while putting away dishes last night, and that brings up a talking point on how to modify that activity. That link to the home environment can be really beneficial.” Telehealth can also help when folks relocate but continue receiving care from their Asheville-based doctors, notes Lunsford. As the pandemic has dragged on, a handful of MAHEC patients have moved out of the area to be closer to family, he reports. Virtual appointments can also more readily include multiple
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says THANK YOU Western Carolina Medical Society thanks HCA/Mission Hospital and the more than 700 Project Access® physicians in the region for $4.7 Million of free care they provided to almost 2,100 Project Access® patients last year.
Thank you to all the Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants, nurses, CMAs, CNAs and other medical staff at our participating practices.
Special thanks to Dr. Susan McDowell for her dedicated service as the Project Access® Volunteer Medical Director. Thank you to all the local Safety Net Clinics and our many Community Partners. SPECIAL THANKS to Digestive Health Partners for the WNC Colorectal Cancer Screening Initiative. Find out more about the Western Carolina Medical Society’s Project Access® at (828) 274-6989 or www.mywcms.org/projectaccess or email projectaccess@mywcms.org To make a donation, visit us online: www.mywcms.org/donate MOUNTAINX.COM
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WELLN ESS practitioners in a single session. He cites a recent visit involving several members of a family, two psychiatrists, a psychotherapist and a family health practitioner, saying, “It becomes easier to have these conferences with a patient, and not everybody has to be in the same location.” Still, there are trade-offs, stresses Erin Stefanacci, a chiropractor at Carolina Holistic Health. Although patients may feel more comfortable at home, she’s noticed a “different energy” when people are speaking through a computer. This, she believes, has resulted in lower quality physician/patient relationships. In addition, equipment that’s commonly found in doctors’ offices isn’t typically available in people’s homes. “If someone has a condition like high blood pressure, there is no way to see that through a video conversation,” she points out.
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UNSTABLE CONNECTION
In Western North Carolina, however, telehealth’s biggest obstacle is the lack of consistent broadband connectivity. Both Lunsford and Brannigan say unreliable cellular service in parts of the region significantly limits those residents’ access to digital services. “As soon as you leave the major highways and get out in the rural areas, coverage becomes spotty, and it’s hard for patients to connect,” says Lunsford. In December, state legislators agreed to set aside $30 million to
support broadband availability in rural North Carolina. The funding will support 18 infrastructure projects with the goal of connecting 15,965 homes and 703 businesses to high-speed internet. Broadband aside, though, a bigger question remains: Post-pandemic, will insurance companies still see telehealth as a viable — and even essential — medical delivery system? For disciplines such as physical therapy, the answer may depend on the success rate of virtual appointments. “Right now, we’re trying to do our best to provide value for the patient during these sessions,” says Kevern. “Hopefully, if that happens with regularity and the patient can convey feedback to the insurance companies that these services are beneficial and effective, that will likely affect coverage moving forward.” Sneller of AdventHealth Hendersonville, however, believes the financial benefits of readily accessible preventive care may be enough to point insurance providers toward lasting policy changes: Access to quality care will ultimately save those companies a lot of money. “If we don’t keep people healthy through their blood pressure checks, their congestive heart failure checks, through behavioral care and screening for dementia, we’re going to end up in a really big crisis down the road,” she predicts. “And virtual telehealth platforms are what has allowed us to keep all these services going.” X
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GREEN SCENE
Dirty waters?
Canton’s paper mill seeks new wastewater permit; activists disagree BY MOLLY HORAK mhorak@mountainx.com At its Haywood County headwaters, the Pigeon River is just what the words “mountain stream” call to mind: cool, clear waters teeming with aquatic life. But roughly 40 miles downstream — after some of that water flows through the Evergreen Packaging paper mill in Canton — it’s a different story. Just across the Tennessee border, the water is the color of sweet tea, says Deborah Bahr, director of the environmental advocacy group Clean Water Expected in East Tennessee. More often than not, she adds, the water looks foamy and has a chemical smell that sticks in the back of the throat, “almost like you can taste it.” Canton’s paper mill, long a source of local environmental concern, is back in the spotlight as advocacy
DOWN AND DIRTY: Hartwell Carson, the French Broad riverkeeper for the Asheville-based nonprofit MountainTrue, assesses the Pigeon River by kayak near the Evergreen Packaging paper mill in Canton. Photo courtesy of Carson
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cheted down the pollutant levels haven’t happened. It’s not nearly as dramatic of a fight as it was 20 years ago, but it’s worth noting that we’re not moving in the right direction.” In 2014, Evergreen Packaging applied for and received a renewal of its NPDES permit, wrote spokesperson Erin Reynolds in a statement provided to Xpress. Since that time, the mill has worked closely with the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality and the EPA to develop limits for the new permit that will protect the river and allow the Canton mill to continue operating, she added.
groups and state agencies debate changes to the facility’s wastewater discharge permits, which are on track for renewal later this year. At the request of Tennessee state environmental officials, an online public hearing to review the draft permit, originally scheduled for Jan. 20, was pushed back to mid-April. For environmentalists, the move is a blessing in disguise: In the coming months, increased attention on the plant could result in tighter pollution restrictions. “There’s a lot of emotion tied up in this river,” Bahr says. “Progress has been made, but there’s still a significant difference in water quality above and below the mill. And we feel there’s still more to be done to make the Pigeon River cleaner.”
A CONTROVERSIAL HISTORY
For better or worse, the history of the Pigeon River is intricately tied to that of the Canton paper mill. Now the home of Evergreen Packaging, the former Champion Paper site was built in 1908 to process and bleach pulp for paper and paperboard production. Wastewater is treated
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on-site before being returned to the Pigeon River. For years, Bahr explains, the river was known to locals as the “dead Pigeon” due to the sheer amount of debris and chemical contamination discharged by the paper mill. A series of lawsuits in the 1990s prompted a $300 million modernization project to reduce the mill’s environmental impact; environmental groups, along with the states of North Carolina, Tennessee and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, eventually reached a settlement in 1998. The mill is required to renew its wastewater discharge permit with the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System every five years, with each renewal intended to gradually impose stricter water quality regulations. However, the last permit negotiation occurred in 2010, notes Hartwell Carson, French Broad riverkeeper with the Asheville-based nonprofit MountainTrue. “This is probably the biggest pollution permit in our area,” Carson explains. “We’re now two permit cycles behind, so the incremental improvements that would have rat-
COMMUNITY CONCERNS
The draft discharge permit currently on the table eliminates a “color variance.” In layman’s terms, Bahr explains, that step would remove a technical designation showing that water quality standards are not being met. But the term “color” is in itself somewhat misleading, says Axel Ringe, an environmentalist who serves on the Water Quality Committee of the Tennessee Sierra Club. The dark color, he says, is a symptom of the many chemicals left in the mill’s wastewater discharge, including fecal coliform bacteria and chloroform. The NCDEQ Division of Water Resources agrees with the proposal to remove the color variance, says spokesperson Anna Gurney. A recent reevaluation found “significant improvements to instream concentration of color,” she said in an email. And Reynolds of Evergreen emphasized that the color in the Pigeon River at the North Carolina/ Tennessee state border is consistent with that of other rivers in the area, including the French Broad. Meanwhile, Carson’s main concern with the latest draft permit is water temperature. The mill must maintain a monthly average water temperature of 29 degrees Celsius (about 84 degrees Fahrenheit) from October through July and 32 degrees Celsius (roughly 90 degrees Fahrenheit) in the summer. Upstream and downstream water temperatures must be within 8.5 degrees Celsius (15 degrees Fahrenheit) of this average, but the permit sets no daily maximum temperature. That’s a problem for aquatic life, Carson says. He points to an incident in 2007 when the mill released a large quantity of hot water, killing more than 8,000 fish. Most coal burning power plants are required to maintain a tem-
Responsible Automotive Service & Repair perature differential of just 1 or 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), Ringe points out. “Why should a paper plant be any different?” he asks. The proposed permit changes also allow the mill to discharge 34 million gallons of water per day, up from the 29.9 million gallons per day allowed in the 2010 iteration. Some of the additional capacity will allow for anticipated growth and water usage in the town of Canton, which uses the mill’s wastewater processing facility to treat its own water. The company is also asking for additional water to be used for unspecified “environmental improvements,” Reynolds said.
DELAYS, GRATIFICATION
Past repermiting cycles for the mill have been vicious affairs, fought with legal action and extensive public comment. But the intention of the process isn’t to pit Evergreen against the community, Carson emphasizes. “We’re not at all interested in closing the mill — it provides a ton of good-paying jobs and it is fairly efficient, as far as paper mills
around the country go,” he says. “But things like a temperature limit are not unreasonable. We’re pushing for that incremental progress.” And Bahr is quick to point out that the economic impacts of water quality aren’t siloed in Canton. The Pigeon River has become a major rafting and kayaking destination in recent years, fueling a robust paddling industry just over the Tennessee border. Cleaner water means more tourists and with them, more money. For advocacy groups, the hearing delay provides additional time to educate and engage community members ahead of a final decision on the permit. As of Jan. 19, 120 people had submitted comments to NCDEQ, Gurney said. The public comment period will now close on Friday, April 30. “Right now, people are trying to figure out how to pay their power bills and rent and get their kids through online learning — and then you add this curveball about standing up for the water,” Bahr says. “A lot of folks are in survival mode, but having clean water is a matter of survival, too.” X
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ARTS & CULTURE
Eat, drink and be wary
Boredom, stress and confinement lead to weight gain during pandemic BY KAY WEST kwest@mountainx.com
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There’s COVID-19. And there’s the COVID 19. Blame the sourdough bread craze, the pandemic cookie-baking obsession, stress, boredom, closed gyms, working from home and stretchy leggings and sweatpants that have made zippers, belts and buttons practically obsolete in what now passes for “professional” wardrobes. Over the past year, physicians and dietitians have seen weight gain become an issue for existing and new patients. And they’re not surprised. “Eating healthier and losing weight is always a hot topic, even when we’re not in a public health crisis,” says Laura Tolle, an independent registered dietitian nutritionist who works with Biltmore Medical Associates and the Biltmore Center for Medical Weight Loss. “But the last year has eliminated a lot of outlets and support for managing our health and weight.” Dr. Gus Vickery, founder and practicing physician with Wild Health Asheville, could not agree more. “We have seen weight gain in patients,” he says. “They come in and know they’ve gained weight. It’s not always a lot, but it’s a creep that adds up.” Vickery rapidly ticks off a list of the hows and whys behind the COVID 19: overeating, overdrinking, increased stress, decreased sleep, more confinement, less movement. It’s an equation, he explains, that adds up to weight gain and regression in overall health. “Stress creates a kind of restless discomfort, and one of the easiest ways to address that is to go eat or drink something,” he says. “It brings immediate comfort at a time we are seeking comfort and pleasure.” BOOZE BLUES
And just as easy as going from one cookie to two or three is stretching that one glass of wine a night to two or more, says Vickery. Alcohol, he points out, is not only high in calories but a major sleep disruptor,
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TO YOUR HEALTH: Dr. Gus Vickery with Wild Health Asheville feels your weight gain pain and has some advice. Photo by Jim Petersen, Melto Photography which is a known contributor to weight gain. If Buncombe County alcohol sales are any indication, imbibers may be tossing and turning those extra pounds in bedrooms all over Asheville. According to Jason Thacker, operations manager for the Asheville ABC Board, while sales to restaurants and bars declined significantly last year, retail sales to the public averaged a 30%-40% increase since spring 2020. Metro Wines general manager Zach Eidson says that though he can’t speculate on people’s pandemic drinking habits, he can address their buying habits. “Around the same time as the toilet paper panic buying and hoarding began, we started seeing the same thing with wine,” he recalls. “There was not an increase in the number of customers, but increased buying from our regular customers stocking up due to the unknown.” Because ABC stores and wine stores were deemed “essential businesses,” they were permitted to stay open, but Metro Wines closed
its Charlotte Street storefront to customers and moved to phone orders and curbside pickups. “We had to get three more phone lines to meet the demand,” he says with a laugh. “Instead of coming in and buying one or two bottles, people were calling in and building a case to pick up.”
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
Drinkers and teetotalers alike can attribute added pandemic poundage to increased time confined at home. “Being in our houses rather than an office or classroom, we’re just steps from the refrigerator or the cupboard, so it’s easy access,” Tolle points out. Her advice to clients is to create what she calls a “nutrition environment.” People typically reach for the first thing they see, she says. “You don’t want a bag of chips staring at you. Put a bowl of oranges or apples on the table in plain sight,” she suggests. “In the fridge, the vegetable drawers should be where
your treats go and put cut up celery sticks and carrots in baggies at eye level.” Creating an optimal environment for healthy eating begins at the “grocery gateway,” she adds. So, if you know you won’t be able to resist plowing through a big bag of chips, don’t bring one into the house. Kathy Whorley, a dietitian with her own practice in West Asheville, says clients are often in denial, not necessarily about the higher number on the scale but how it got there. “People come in and tell me they’ve gained 5 or 10 pounds in the last year and don’t know how it happened,” she says. “Once we go through some questions about their eating — and drinking — habits, it becomes pretty clear how it happened.” Mindless eating, she says, has real consequences. “Working from home, being cooped up [with] no outside stimulation leads to boredom, and boredom frequently leads to eating just for something to do,” Whorley explains. “I tell my clients, the only thing they can have at their desk is water, and they have to take their meals at a table.” She also reminds them that people should feel hunger every four to five hours, so if two hours after breakfast you find yourself searching the cupboard for a snack, that’s not hunger, it’s boredom or stress. “Walk around the house, around your yard or around your block instead,” she advises. “It will keep you from eating and bring oxygen to your brain.”
NEW YEAR, NEW YOU
Vickery strongly recommends being mindful about moving. “I tell people when they get in that bored, restless, uncomfortable, stressed state, pause to recognize that your brain and body are looking for something to make you feel better, but you have choices,” he says. He suggests consciously choosing to take five minutes for an intentional substitute, such as a short walk, yoga, light calisthenics, playing with a pet or breathwork. “Make sure it’s something you actually enjoy,” he says. “Don’t do pushups if you hate them.” Eidson says Metro Wines has seen New Year’s resolutions and the popular practice of eschewing alcohol for a “dry January” affect sales since the start of the year. So has chef Dustin Orofino, founder of Asheville Pro Kitchen, a healthy prepared meal delivery service.
“Right after the new year we had our biggest jump in sales since we started this business four years ago,” he says. “It was the most orders we have ever had.” Every meal on the Pro Kitchen menu carries a nutritional breakdown of carbohydrates, fat, protein, sodium and, of course, calories, which is helpful for people keeping track. Maintaining a healthy weight, says Vickery, is not easy, but it’s less complex than the process that leads to weight gain. “It’s really simple: Balance the equation by burning more calories than you’re taking in,” he says. “If you find yourself eating more, exercise more.” X
Snack attack Following Laura Tolle’s advice to create a nutrition environment is easier when you have healthy items on hand and ideas for what to do with them. Tolle’s children, ages 6, 10 and 12, are all schooling — and eating three meals a day — at home. Whether packing a lunch or putting one on the table, she says, when kids help make it, they’re more likely to eat it. And she encourages parents to think outside the sandwich with options like peeled cucumbers with yogurt dip, cheese sticks and unsweetened applesauce. Tolle also suggests spreading a whole-wheat wrap spread with hummus, topping it with fresh spinach, rolling it up, then cutting it into pinwheels. Old-school ants on a log — a celery stick stuffed with peanut butter and topped with raisins — is another idea that’s tried and true. “My kids like to snack on frozen fruits like blueberries and strawberries,” she adds. “And I tweak a recipe I found online for a frozen banana ice cream that they love.” Dietitian Kathy Whorley uses fresh flour or corn tortillas to make her own tortilla chips, avoiding the extra sodium, fat and chemical additives in storebought bags. Many recipes can be found online for making tortilla chips using air fryers, the oven or the microwave. Tortilleria Molina, operated by Jesus Molina Sr. and Jesus Molina Jr. on Patton Avenue in West Asheville, sells a paperwrapped package of 34 corn tortillas for $3.25. X
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Creativity during COVID Artists respond to pandemic challenges in their own ways
The ways in which creatives deal with the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic vary widely, but many of them serve not only to entertain, but to inspire. Here’s a look at three Asheville-based artists and their approaches to what current times have brought us.
Bonnie Antosh
ONLINE SUCCESS: Ceramist Akira Satake has found success during COVID-19 through online sales and virtual workshops. Photo courtesy of Satake
EMBRACING THE FANTASTICAL Bonnie Antosh is a playwright, actor and literary manager who — in normal times — is based both in Asheville and New York City, a concept she jokingly calls “dual citizenship.” But since the pandemic began, Antosh — who was born in Spartanburg, S.C., but grew up in Brooklyn — has stayed put in Asheville and Spartanburg. “I came back to the Carolinas because I wanted to interrogate a few of the seductive and terrifying contradictions that exist in the many Souths,” Antosh explains. But staying here is now “a practical decision about safety for myself, my neighbors and the people I love,” she explains. Time was, Antosh could often be found at Odd’s Cafe in West Asheville, a place she describes as “my office in spirit. We all generated a hum of noise and life around each other.” But for now she’s ensconced at home. As a playwright, Antosh finds herself thinking more about the challenges of that medium in a COVID and post-COVID world. “I’ve been thinking a lot about why audiences
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Deutsch. “That one’s a reimagining of the Cassandra and Trojan War myths,” Antosh says. She has also written a short play to be performed via Zoom. Quarantining has made Antosh more productive, she says. Commitments and deadlines explain some of it, but at its core her productivity is a coping mechanism. “Write for many hours, make sure other artists and neighbors have resources to survive the pandemic, use routine to travel from one day to the next,” she explains. “And then repeat.”
STAYING BUSY: Since the pandemic began, playwright and actor Bonnie Antosh has authored two plays. She also finds herself thinking more about the challenges theater will face in a post-COVID world. Photo by R. Antosh do or don’t go to the theater,” she says. She asks herself, “How can the theater feel simultaneously more accessible and more itself, in terms of what it can offer in conversation”
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with other spaces of culture like movie theaters, bars or even basketball games? Antosh endeavors to address that and other open-ended questions in her plays; she believes that a “sense of imaginative, generative conspiracy” can be key. “So I’ve been writing a lot of unbelievable and fantastical elements into my plays: time jumps across centuries and continents, animal puppets, songs in dead languages, characters who can see the future.” Since the pandemic began, Antosh has authored two plays. One is Lemuria, which she describes as “an inheritance drama about queer anthropologists. Think a very loose, playful adaptation of King Lear, set in a North Carolina lemur research lab.” The other, I Told You It Would End Like This, was co-written over Google Docs and Zoom with Avery
Akira Satake ONLINE CONVERGENCE
Like many artists, Akira Satake’s creative rhythms suffered an interruption in March 2020. “My domestic and overseas workshops got canceled,” says the ceramist. At first, he panicked but then centered himself and began to think about the future. “This is a time for me to focus, to create something very new, a little bit more adventurous,” he decided. “I thought that would be kind of a wonderful idea, because I always wanted to have a little bit more time to focus on my art.” But he felt a responsibility toward the six people working for him. So with his gallery in Asheville’s River Arts District closed to the public, he shifted to online sales. “We put out 500 pieces of work,” Satake says. Between his mailing list and social media, he was able to reach a wide audience. “And surprisingly,” Satake says, “that did well.” He also decided to be adventurous, launching Convergence, an
online workshop in collaboration with Ken Matsuzaki, a potter based in Japan. The three-day workshop attracted students from around the globe. “We sold out in four hours,” Satake says, with amazement in his voice. The success of online sales and the Convergence workshop may or may not point the way toward his post-pandemic future, Satake admits. “The experience really opened up the possibilities,” he says. “But I don’t want to be too busy, too stressed out for the next year. I like to progress every moment, and if I’m too busy, it’s not good.” He was even able to negotiate with his landlord to acquire a significantly larger space. “Right now, I’m not making money from that studio, but I’m preparing,” he says. “When this pandemic is over, I have a much better place to do workshops or concerts or exhibits.” His new ventures — and their effectiveness at allowing him to keep his staff employed — give Satake increased optimism about what may lie ahead. “Nobody had to go,” he says. “I think we got even better as a team after we went through this time together.” Asked if the darkness of current events shows up in his work, Satake is emphatic. “No,” he says. “I’m a very happy guy.”
Chris Tullar CHARTING A COURSE OF A DIFFERENT COLOR
Asheville multi-instrumentalist Chris Tullar has been crafting his genre-defying, quirky pop for years now. His
debut release as Carpal Tullar, Antidisestablishmentarianism, was released in 2000. Album No. 8, Ore, continues his creative path, one characterized by music that’s equal parts complex, challenging, tuneful and accessible. Some artists labor over the creation of a new album for years, tinkering endlessly with the results. Others — like Robert Pollard’s Guided by Voices — seem to record and release every musical idea they have. But Tullar takes a more unhurried and stress-free approach. “I tend to come up with a random assortment of things, so nothing ever really seems like, very cohesive,” he says. “To be completely honest, I get to 40 minutes [worth of music], and I’m like, ‘OK, that’s enough.’” But that description belies the quality of the music created under the Carpal Tullar banner. Back when live performances were a thing, Carpal Tullar gigged regularly around town. And that lineup — featuring Tullar, guitarist/ keyboardist Dave Baker, bassist Rob Heyer and John McKinney on drums — expects to return to live shows in the future. But when it comes time to make albums, Tullar tends to work alone. “I’m a little bit of a control freak, maybe,” he admits. And most of Ore was recorded before the pandemic began. “All I really did during the pandemic was mix it,” he says. Meanwhile, Tullar is already at work — alone again, naturally — on his next album. But he doesn’t know what it will sound like. “I kind of enjoy the unknown,” he says. “That’s when I’m most creative.”
— Bill Kopp X
ONE-MAN JAM: With live performances on hold, musician Chris Tullar has stayed busy working on new songs. Photo by Chris Frye
Sense of urgency Artist Lara Nguyen continues to create amid her battle with cancer
SCARS AND SCULPTURE: The Center for Craft’s latest exhibit, Mirror/ Mentor, features works by Warren Wilson College art professor Lara Nguyen and three of her former students. Featured here is Jess Self’s sculpture “Portal Ave” and Lara Nygugen’s photography series “Un-Broken.” Photo by Black Box Photography; courtesy of Center for Craft What does it mean to live a full life? That is the question Warren Wilson College art professor Lara Nguyen raises in the new exhibit Mirror/ Mentor, now on display at the Center for Craft’s John Cram Partner Gallery. Spoiler alert — there is no definitive answer. But as the exhibit’s title suggests, part of the process involves reflecting on one’s own experiences and sharing new insights with family, friends and strangers alike. Joining Nguyen in the exhibit are three former students: Steven Horton Jr., Jess Self and Sather RobinsonWaters. Like their erstwhile instructor, each artist contributes to the show’s central question through works reflecting their individual experiences confronting racial injustice, coping with sexual trauma and celebrating art for the sake of art, respectively. For Nguyen, who was diagnosed with uterine leiomyosarcoma in 2018, the majority of her most recent works are framed by the reality she now faces: stage 4 cancer. “This diagnosis has become a motivator in terms of making meaningful work whenever I have the energy to do it,” she says. “We all have an end point. Mine is just more heightened in terms of an awareness of when or how it might happen.” Comprising various mediums, one of Nguyen’s pieces, “Brushes with
Death,” is a set of three bamboo-handled brushes with bristles made from hair she lost during chemotherapy. A family effort, Nguyen’s 11-year-old son harvested the bamboo from their backyard, and the artist’s 9-year-old daughter contributed a poignant moment when she used one of the finished brushes to dust her mother’s bald head. “She tells me I’m her favorite bald person and that I look great bald,” Nguyen says with a deep laugh that eventually trails off. “But I know every time she says it there is a tinge of pain.” Another piece, “Un-Broken,” is a series of photographed scars embellished with gold paint. Friends and family volunteered their bodies for the project. Nguyen says as she decorated their scars, the stories behind each mark inevitably came out. With permission, Nguyen wrote down each account and later turned the collection into an essay that now accompanies the photography series. At its core, Mirror/Mentor encourages viewers to remove the self-imposed barriers that often restrict conversations. The work reminds audiences that meaningful connections can occur in unexpected ways. “My daughter was listening to a podcast recently and she asked me: ‘What is the most important thing about being human?’” Nguyen recalls. In that moment, Nguyen remembers being both surprised and moved by her 9-year-old’s curiosity and depth. “It’s relationships,” Nguyen answered. Her daughter agreed. “Relationships teach you so much about life,” says Nguyen, her voice gaining strength as she recounts the exchange. “When you have a friendship, it allows you to see things through [another person’s] eyes. It allows you to empathize with their causes. It allows you to show love and receive love.” It’s this message, continues Nguyen, that she hopes audiences take away from Mentor/Mirror. “With everything you can have in your life, what do you cherish most?” she asks. “It’s got to be relationships. All of them — whether they’re long or brief or for a lifetime.”
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— Thomas Calder X
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A RTS & CU L T U R E
Breaking skin and stereotypes One Arm Willie makes his mark on the local tattoo industry
“I live in a very weird land,” says local tattoo artist One Arm Willie. “I don’t consider myself disabled, but I recognize others do.” OAW, who has been tattooing at Sacred Lotus Tattoo on New Leicester Highway since 2019, sports a striking look accentuated by his rugged beard. His personal style favors a darker side, with beanies, denim vests and plaid button-downs creating a mountain-man-meets-biker vibe — somewhat intimidating at first glance until the verbose tattooist starts talking. Warm, congenial and forthcoming, OAW doesn’t shy away from tough topics, including the fact that his left arm ends just below the bend of the elbow. But he never tells the same story twice. In one version, he lost his extremity in a car accident; in a later edition, a bear ran off with his appendage. Whatever the true story may be seems beyond the point and counter to the public persona he’s created — one that is intentionally mysterious. Get him talking long enough, though, and you’ll pick up pieces of a past riddled with obstacles that still drive OAW to this day.
RAMBLIN’ MAN
Born in Albuquerque, N.M., OAW spent much of his childhood bounc-
ing around the country with his family. But no matter the location, he always ended up skateboarding and hanging around local tattoo shops. This early exposure to the tattoo industry, in tandem with his grandmother’s encouragement to pursue a career in the arts, proved inspirational. But early naysayers, who insisted he couldn’t learn the skill with only one hand, led OAW to initially pursue other vocations. He first considered translating for the military before earning degrees in hospitality management and biblical studies. Despite these credentials, OAW often felt potential employers couldn’t see past his missing limb. “It’s extremely debilitating to go into a job interview and immediately get turned down because all they look at is my arm instead of me,” OAW says. Things changed in 2015, when OAW offered to help his longtime friend Darcy Del Priore renovate the space for his new business, Sickle and Moon Tattoo in Columbia, S.C. Recognizing OAW’s passion for the industry, Del Priore offered his friend an apprenticeship. OAW endured the phases of grunt work and practiced on tattooing grapefruits before breaking actual skin. “That motherf**ker threw me in the deep end,” remembers OAW. “He understood me enough to give me the freedom to play with things but would tell me if I was straight up doing it wrong.”
EXCHANGE OF ENERGY
Trained in traditional-style tattooing, OAW has since developed his personal flair, favoring a darker style with lots of black. “It’s refreshing to have someone with a more old-school outlook,” says Kimi Leger, owner of Sacred Lotus Tattoo. “But he still prioritizes his own style.” Because of his missing limb, OAW works from the bottom up, which helps him avoid smudging the stencil. 40
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BOTTOM UP: Because of his missing limb, local tattoo artist One Arm Willie works from the bottom up. The technique, he says, helps him avoid smudging the stencil. Photo by Will Belue “Working with someone with a physical challenge like that is really inspiring,” Leger continues. But when it comes to his work, he never focuses on having one arm, she notes — his portfolio speaks for itself. Reapers, skulls and spiders are among the designs OAW enjoys tattooing the most. However, his favorite pieces are those that have a deeper meaning for clients, since he considers his work an exchange of energy between himself and the individual. “I tell them, ‘This isn’t your tattoo, it’s ours,’” he says. OAW also views each new piece he works on as a direct challenge to the biases people often hold about people with disabilities. “A lot of times, people want things done in a certain way, and when others physically can’t do it that way, they don’t consider us valuable in their system,” he says. “If people were given the freedom to be creative in the way they did things, we would be more successful.” Not that any naysayers are slowing him down. OAW says he intends to continue tattooing and challenging misconceptions for the rest of his life. “Tattooing is my first love,” he says. “Everything else is a mistress.” To learn more about OAW, visit avl.mx/8we.
— Sarah Owens X
MOVIE LISTINGS Bruce Steele’s and Edwin Arnaudin’s latest critiques of new films available to view via local theaters and popular streaming services include: MY REMBRANDT: A fascinating documentary that chronicles what it’s like to own paintings by the Dutch master — and how vastly different the lives of the very rich are compared to average folk. Grade: A. Not rated LOCKED DOWN: Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor are delightful in this London-set pandemic comedy, which relatably depicts the numerous pros and cons of life during quarantine. Grade: B-plus. Rated R ROCK CAMP: THE MOVIE: This entertaining documentary on Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy Camp conveys the joys that the experience brings to music legends and attendees alike, but it all feels a bit too much like an infomercial. Grade: B-minus. Not rated
Find full reviews and local film info at ashevillemovies.com patreon.com/ashevillemovies
FREEWILL ASTROLOGY ARIES (March 21-April 19): In the 1950 film Harvey, James Stewart plays a middle-aged man named Elwood whose best friend is a tall invisible rabbit named Harvey. The relationship causes problems with the people in Elwood’s life. At one point a psychiatrist tries to convince him to “struggle with reality.” Elwood replies, “I wrestled with reality for 40 years and I am happy to state that I finally won.” I’m happy to tell you this story, Aries, because it’s a good lead-in to my counsel for you: I suspect that one of your long wrestles with reality will yield at least a partial victory in the coming weeks. And it will be completely real, as opposed to Elwood’s Harvey. Congratulations! TAURUS (April 20-May 20): The light of the North Star takes a long time to reach us, even though it’s traveling 186,000 miles per second. The beams it shows us tonight first embarked when Shakespeare was alive on Earth. And yet that glow seems so fresh and pure. Are there any other phenomena in your life that are metaphorically comparable? Perhaps an experience you had months ago that is only now revealing its complete meaning? Or a seed you planted years ago that is finally ripening into its mature expression? The coming weeks will be an excellent time to take inventory of such things, Taurus. It will also be a favorable phase to initiate innovations that will take some time to become fully useful for you. GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In 1971, astronaut Alan Shepard had the great privilege of landing on the moon in a spacecraft, then walking on the lunar surface. How did he celebrate this epic holy adventure? By reciting a stirring passage from Shakespeare or the Talmud? By placing a framed photo of Amelia Earhart or a statue of Icarus in the dirt? By saying a prayer to his God or thoughtfully thanking the people who helped put him there? No. Shepard used this sublime one-of-a-kind moment to hit a golf ball with a golf club. I’ll ask you not to regard him as a role model in the coming weeks. When your sacred or lofty moments arrive, offer proper homage and honor. Be righteously appreciative of your blessings. CANCER (June 21-July 22): William Shakespeare worked with another playwright in creating three plays: Henry VIII, The Two Noble Kinsmen and Cardenio. The lucky collaborator was John Fletcher, who was popular and influential in his era. I propose that we name him one of your role models in 2021. Here’s why: You will have an enhanced potential to engage in fertile partnerships with allies who are quite worthy of you. I encourage you to be on the lookout for opportunities to thrive on symbiosis and synergy. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Canadian journalist Nick Ashdown is amazed that white people in North America are so inhibited about revealing their real feelings. He writes, “How bizarre that in English, the word ’emotional’ is used pejoratively, as though passion implies some sort of weakness.” He marvels that the culture seems to “worship nonchalance” and regard intense expressiveness as uncool or unprofessional. I’m going to encourage you to embody a different approach in the coming days. I don’t mean to suggest that you should be an out-of-control maniac constantly exploding with intensity. But I do hope you will take extra measures to respect and explore and reveal the spirited truth about yourself. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Virgo actor Ingrid Bergman appeared in three movies directed by Alfred Hitchcock. In *Notorious*, set after the end of World War II, she played the daughter of a Nazi spy. During the filming, Bergman had trouble with a particular scene. She explained her doubts to Hitchcock, saying, “I don’t think I can do that naturally.” Hitchcock seemed receptive to her input, but in the end had an unexpected response: “All right,” he told her. “If you can’t do it naturally, then fake it.” I’m going to suggest that you follow Hitchcock’s advice during the next two weeks, Virgo. “Fake it till you make it” is an acceptable—probably preferable—approach.
MARKETPLACE
BY ROB BREZSNY
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The 17th-century Libran polymath Thomas Browne had a brilliant, well-educated mind. He authored many books on various subjects, from science to religion, and was second only to Shakespeare in the art of coining new words. He did have a blind spot, however. He referred to sex as the “trivial and vulgar way of union” and “the foolishest act a wise man commits in all his life.” Most of us have pockets of ignorance like that — aspects that qualify as learning disabilities or intellectual black holes. And now and then there come times when we benefit from checking in with these deficiencies and deciding whether to take any fresh steps to wisen them up. Now is such a time for you. SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “There is no sunrise so beautiful that it is worth waking me up to see it,” declares actor and comedian Mindy Kaling. Is that an unromantic sentiment? Maybe. But more importantly, it’s evidence that she treasures her sleep. And that’s admirable! She is devoted to giving her body the nurturing it needs to be healthy. Let’s make Kaling your patron saint for now. It’s a favorable time to upgrade your strategies for taking very good care of yourself. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): All of us go through phases when our brains work at a higher level than usual. I’m guessing that you’re about to enjoy one of these times. In fact, I won’t be shocked if you string together a series of ingenious thoughts and actions. I hope you use your enhanced intelligence for important matters — like making practical improvements in your life! Please don’t waste it on trivial matters like arguments on Facebook or Twitter. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Today the Capricorn artist Paul Cézanne (1839–1906) is regarded as an important and influential painter. Early in his career, though, he was rejected and even ridiculed by critics. One reason was that he loved making still-life paintings, which were considered low art. Of his 584 works, about 200 of them were of inanimate, commonplace objects. Fruit was his specialty. Typically he might spend 100 separate sessions in perfecting a particular bowl of apples. “Don’t you want to take a vacation from painting fruit?” he was asked. In response, he said that simply shifting the location of his easel in relation to his subject matter was almost more excitement than he could bear. That’s the kind of focused, detailed attitude I hope you’ll cultivate toward your own labors of love during the coming weeks, Capricorn. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “We all want everything to be okay,” writes author David Levithan. “We don’t even wish so much for fantastic or marvelous or outstanding. We will happily settle for okay, because most of the time, okay is enough.” To that mediocre manifesto, I reply, okay. I accept that it’s true for many people. But I don’t think it will apply to you Aquarians in the coming weeks. According to my assessment of your astrological potentials, you can, if you want, have a series of appointments with the fantastic, the marvelous and the outstanding. Please keep those appointments! Don’t skip them out of timidity or excess humility. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): DON’Ts: Don’t keep scratching an old wound until it bleeds. Don’t try to snatch away the teddy bear that belongs to the 800-pound gorilla. Don’t try to relieve your tension by pounding your head against a wall. Don’t try to convince a stone idol to show you some tenderness. DOs: Do ask supposedly naive questions that may yield liberating revelations. Do keep in mind that sometimes things need to be a bit broken before you’ll be motivated to give them all the care they need and deserve. Do extinguish the fire on a burning bridge, and then repair the bridge.
REAL ESTATE & RENTALS | ROOMMATES | JOBS | SERVICES ANNOUNCEMENTS | CLASSES & WORKSHOPS | MIND, BODY, SPIRIT MUSICIANS’ SERVICES | PETS | AUTOMOTIVE | XCHANGE | ADULT EMPLOYMENT GENERAL
MOUNTAIN XPRESS IS LOOKING TO ADD A NEW MEMBER TO OUR SALES TEAM. Ideal candidates are personable, organized, motivated, and can present confidently, while working within a structure. Necessary skills include clear and professional communications (via phone, email, and in-person meetings), detailed record-keeping, and working well in a team environment. While no outside sales experience is required, experience dealing with varied and challenging situations is helpful. The position largely entails account development and lead generation (including cold-calling), account management, assisting clients with marketing and branding strategies, and working to meet or exceed sales goals. If you are a high energy, positive, cooperative person looking to join an independent, community-minded organization, please send a resume and cover letter (no walk-ins, please) explaining why you are a good fit for Mountain Xpress to: advertise@mountainx.com JOB OPPORTUNITY FOR SECTION 3, LOW-INCOME PERSONS Minority Participating Commercial Contractor seeking to offer Section 3, Low- Income and Very-Low Income eligible Businesses, Vendors, Subcontractors, or individuals’ economic opportunities of job training, employment, and contracting work to promote local economic development and individual self-sufficiency. We will provide economical units to allow for minority participation as well as provide assistance for bonding and insurance for Section 3 businesses. Also, quick payment policies to help minority suppliers and contractors participate will be available. We are committed to satisfy Section 3 obligations and our goal is to provide opportunities for Section 3 Businesses throughout this entire housing project. If you are a Section 3 Business or resident in the County area and seeking work, please contact us at 828-548-3675, email to ad949@bidsec3.com, or via fax at 828-548-3682 to become part of our HUD-assisted project and help promote quality housing and community development in this area. Plans are available at: https://parker.box.com/v/ Jasper-Section-3.
SKILLED LABOR/ TRADES
CONSTRUCTION LABORERS - CEDAR CLIFF JOB, TUCKASEGEE Barnard Construction
is hiring Construction Laborers. Essential Duties and Responsibilities: Must possess competence in the following areas in order to perform his/her role in a safe, productive and effective manner: • Digging, spreading, shoveling and leveling dirt and gravel, • Using a pick and shovel, • Lift, carry and support construction material, • Mix, pour, and spread concrete, gravel and other materials, • Excavation, trenching, erect scaffolding, remove rubble and debris, • Perform clean-up work in connection with the above work. EOE, E-Verify Employer. Please go to http:// www.barnard-inc.com/careers to apply. Contact Recruiter J. Kanehl at 406-586-1995 for more information. http://www. barnard-inc.com/careers.
GREAT PAY AND BENEFITS! ConMet is growing its team of employees in Canton, NC. Ready to work now and wish to be considered for employment? You could qualify for a $500 stay bonus after 30 days of employment. Call us at 828-454-6000 today! PEST CONTROL TECHNICIAN NELON-COLE now hiring local individual for pest route in Asheville, NC. Experience preferred, training available. Benefits, vacation & holidays offered. Apply at 2595 NC Hwy. 108 E., Columbus, NC 28722.
MEDICAL/ HEALTH CARE
management, oxygen therapy, tracheostomy care, ventilator management, and infusion nursing services - We train you on each individual client to ensure your competency in his/her care. A New Hope Home Care is a locally owned and operated home care agency. We strive to provide excellent clinical care while helping our clients to live to the fullest regardless of any limitations they may have. We offer flexible scheduling, continuing education, CPR, PTO, 401K and Medical Benefits. A New Hope Home Care.....where no one is beyond HOPE! web site: www.anewhopehomecare.com email: info@anewhopehomecare.com phone: 828-255-4446
TEACHING/ EDUCATION YWCA OF ASHEVILLE IS HIRING! Early Learning Program Teachers. Empowerment Child Care Counselors. All staff receive a free membership to our Fitness and Aquatics Center. Full-time staff receive health insurance and paid time off. YWCA staff enjoy flexibility, community, and an opportunity to serve a greater mission: Eliminating Racism and Empowering Women! Phone: 828-254-7206 Website: http:// www.ywcaofasheville.org E-mail: humanresources@ ywcaofasheville.org
XCHANGE WANTED BUYING OLD PAPER MONEY Asheville, WNC, ETN over 10 years. Fair, open, and responsive. Buying currency, bonds, maps, documents, etc. Email papermoneybuy@gmail.com, or call/ text 865-207-8994. Member SPMC, NCNA, SCNA, TNA.
WHAT IS THE ULTIMATE STATE OF WELLNESS?
70% of adults are STUCK in a life of YUCK? As a Life and Laughter Coach I help adults achieve their professional and personal goals and to live the life of their dreams. This is THE ULTIMATE STATE OF WELLNESS! I’m offering a complimentary consultation for the first 10 respondents. For more info, please email your full name & cell number to: howard@laugh4wellness.com/ Certified Life and Laughter Coach
4G LTE HOME INTERNET NOW AVAILABLE! Get GotW3 with lightning fast speeds plus take your service with you when you travel! As low as $109.99/ mo! 1-888-519-0171 (AAN CAN)
HOME IMPROVEMENT HANDY MAN HIRE A HUSBAND • HANDYMAN SERVICES Since 1993. Multiple skill sets. Reliable, trustworthy, quality results. Insured. References and estimates available. Stephen Houpis, (828) 280-2254.
ANNOUNCEMENTS ANNOUNCEMENTS BECOME A PUBLISHED AUTHOR! We edit, print and distribute your work internationally. We do the work… You reap the Rewards! Call for a FREE Author’s Submission Kit: 844-511-1836. (AAN CAN) DO YOU OWE OVER $10K TO THE IRS OR STATE IN BACK TAXES? Our firm works to reduce the tax bill or zero it out completely FAST. Let us help! Call 855-955-0702. (Hours: Mon-Fri 7am-5pm PST) DONATE YOUR CAR TO CHARITY Receive maximum value of write off for your taxes. Running or not! All conditions accepted. Free pickup. Call for details. 855-978-0215 (AAN CAN)
AUDIO/VIDEO
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OVER $10K IN DEBT? Be debt free in 24-48 months. Pay a fraction of what you owe. A+ BBB rated. Call National Debt Relief 877-590-1202. (AAN CAN)
SERVICES
IMMEDIATE NEED - RN/LPN FOR PEDIATRIC HOME CARE Come work at A New Hope Home Care and be part of a family of caregivers dedicated to helping others live life to the fullest regardless of any limitations they may have. We are seeking to hire a Registered Nurse (RN) and/or Licensed Professional Nurse (LPN) to join our team. If you're a hard-working nursing professional looking for a job that makes a daily positive impact on another's life, A New Hope Home Care is the place for you. We have immediate DAY and NIGHT Needs in Asheville, Brevard, Fletcher, Hendersonville, Marion, Mars Hill and Pisgah Forest areas. In Home Skilled Nursing Care involves all client's care - the needs of our client's range from medication administration, g-tube feeding, seizure monitoring and
HOME
CAREGIVERS COMPANION • CAREGIVER • LIVE-IN Alzheimer's experienced • Heart failure and bed sore care • Hospice reference letter • Nonsmoker, with cat, seeks live-in position • References • Arnold, (828) 273-2922.
FINANCIAL AUTO INSURANCE STARTING AT $49/ MONTH! Call for your fee rate comparison to see how much you can save! Call: 855569-1909. (AAN CAN) SAVE BIG ON HOME INSURANCE! Compare 20 A-rated insurance companies. Get a quote within minutes. Average savings of $444/year! Call 844-712-6153! (M-F 8am-8pm Central) (AAN CAN) SAVE YOUR HOME! Are you behind paying your MORTGAGE? Denied a Loan Modification? Is the bank threatening foreclosure? CALL Homeowners Relief Line NOW for Help 1-855-439-5853 MonFri : 8:00 am to 8:00 pm Sat: 8:00 am to 1:00 pm(all times Pacific) (AAN CAN)
MOUNTAINX.COM
MIND, BODY, SPIRIT BODYWORK FEELING WHACKED? Let Kaye's revive you back! Incall/ Outcall 280-8182
COUNSELING SERVICES ASTRO-COUNSELING Licensed counselor and accredited professional astrologer uses your chart when counseling for additional insight into yourself, your relationships and life directions. Stellar Counseling Services. Christy Gunther, MA, LCMHC. (828) 258-3229.
AUTOMOTIVE AUTOMOTIVE SERVICES CASH FOR CARS! We buy all cars! Junk, high-end, totaled – it doesn’t matter! Get free towing and same day cash! NEWER MODELS too! Call 866-5359689 (AAN CAN)
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T H E NEW Y O R K T IM E S C R O S S W O R D P UZ Z L E 1
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1 Mint ___ 6 Franz who wrote “I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us”
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23 Westernmost country in continental Afr. 24 Quick haircut
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MOUNTAINX.COM
40 Carriers of meteorological instruments … as suggested by this puzzle’s theme? 43 Immediately following 44 Cloth that goes to waist? 45 Overindulger of the grape 46 Beginnings 47 Lawless figure with legendary fighting skills 49 Office linkup
No. 1223
50 Repeated things in “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers” 52 Worker for a hosp., maybe 54 Gradually faster, in mus. 57 Rend 63 Wonder-ful product? 65 Locale of 1974’s Rumble in the Jungle 66 ___ Honor 67 Absinthe flavorer 68 Kind of account 69 “___-hoo!” 70 Speeches that go off the rails 71 Smooth and lustrous
DOWN 1 Malarkey 2 Pioneering computer operating system 3 Word with dance or chance 4 High rollers? 5 World
puzzle by Juliana Tringali Golden 6 Place for a firing 7 Stands up for dustpans, say: Abbr. 8 Inspiration for “Damn Yankees” 9 Family 10 Like a newspaper’s morgue files 11 Puts back in its original state, as a videotape 12 Barbra Streisand collection? 13 Does a landscaper’s job 19 ASDFGHJKL;’, on a keyboard 21 More or less 25 Premium movie theater seat 26 Long-running sci-fi show, for short 27 Contestant on “RuPaul’s Drag Race” 28 Roebuck’s onetime business partner 30 Bang up, e.g. 31 Alternative to a street address
33 Grease up again 34 Ingredient in some medicinal teas
54 Like most fireplace grates 55 Royal role for Liz 56 Enemy of Antony, in ancient Rome
35 Director Welles 37 Saturated (in) 41 Where drinks may be charged to a room
58 From Eden to the land of Nod, e.g. 59 Fruit drinks
42 Lisa Simpson’s grandpa
60 Product offering “round the clock protection”
48 Wows
61 Composer Satie
51 Writer Gertrude
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53 Scary cry on a beach
64 Aid in protein synthesis
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS NY TIMES PUZZLE A S G A R D
C M I N O R
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We are excited that the French Broad Pediatric team is growing while continuing to provide the same excellent, personalized care that you have always experienced
Dr. Kristina Beardsley MD, FAAP
Holly Mason FNP-C, IBCLC
Molly McDonough-Leota FNP-C, IBCLC
Gladly accepting new patients and Proudly providing excellent lactation support to new mothers by our Board Certified Lactation Consultants. Thank you for voting Dr Carlisle, Dr Templeton and French Broad Pediatrics Best Of WNC winners for 2020
40 North Merrimon Ave, Suite 117, Asheville, NC 28804 * 828-348-8232 * frenchbroadpeds.com MOUNTAINX.COM
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