OUR 27TH YEAR OF WEEKLY INDEPENDENT NEWS, ARTS & EVENTS FOR WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA VOL. 27 NO. 43 MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2021
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FEATURES 8 TAKE ME TO THE RIVER What’s next in the RAD?
17 ‘MOST UNHAPPY CONTROVERSY’ In this week’s Asheville Archives: The three burials of Zebulon Vance
PAGE 12 BLOCK BY BLOCK Zebulon Baird Vance was a Buncombe County native, slave owner, North Carolina governor and U.S. senator who fervently supported the Confederacy. On May 17, a crew began demolishing a monument to Vance that has stood in downtown Asheville for 123 years. The city estimated the removal would take two weeks. COVER PHOTO Andrew Celwyn COVER DESIGN Scott Southwick
22 QUALITY OF CARE Patients, staff challenge HCA management at Mission Hospital
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26 HELP WANTED Restaurants permitted to open at full capacity, but staffing is a challenge
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3
OPINION
Send your letters to the editor to letters@mountainx.com.
The occupancy tax and the soul of the city When my wife and I moved here in 2007, we were both so impressed with what Asheville had to offer. We still feel that way, as I do not want to sound like, “It’s Over” (Asheville has officially lost its soul). In fact, that last word, “soul,” is what we kept saying about Asheville upon moving here. The town had an earthiness — a soul. But in more recent years, it became apparent that the developers, the hoteliers and the construction companies building these hotels all had their “eyes on the prize” here. Don’t get me wrong. Asheville really did need hotels, but how many and just as importantly, where they would be located (don’t dwarf the historical buildings people come here to see in the first place) could have been planned better. The occupancy tax (here), once everyone learned just where the money would only go, seems to have created a vicious circle that especially benefits the building of more hotels. It’s ironic (I can think of different words here) that there are these really nice upscale hotels downtown that tourists will come and pay big bucks to stay in — and to get there, they have to traverse roads on the way into town that have potholes and nearby highways (I-26 and 240) littered with trash. When same tourists are walking about downtown, they have to also be careful where they step on certain sidewalks.
C A RT O O N B Y R AN DY M O L T O N Ben Williamson’s recent Opinion article [“Rampant Tourism or True Progress? Buncombe Commissioners Must Rein in the TDA,” May 12, Xpress] really hits it on the head when he wrote, “Other cities have used their occupancy taxes to direct millions to infrastructure and social programs while still supporting vibrant tourism industries. Why can’t we?” Yes, why can’t we? He also accurately states, “Let’s be clear: Turning off that money tap won’t signal the end of tourism here.” Indeed, it is not (and hasn’t been for
quite a while now) a news flash that Asheville and the surrounding area are one of the East’s hot spots to vacation in. The secret was out long ago. So, just how many millions do we need to promote, to advertise this town? Like Ben Williamson, I hope that the county leaders do the right thing, too. Otherwise, the soul of Asheville will keep slipping away. — Brad Dawson Weaverville
Perplexed by shortsighted, myopic opinions Reading the letters in the Xpress Opinion section only amplifies the conflicts of people’s myopic focus or agenda. One letter laments the out-of-control cost of housing in Asheville — an example, $1,500 for a one-bedroom basement apartment [“A Gentrified
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and Homogenized Asheville,” May 19] — followed by a letter advocating protesting the Raytheon plant, which will provide many well-paying jobs [“Demonstrate for Peace, Justice and a Green Transition,” May 19]. Does no one see these things affect each other? If somehow these people were able to stop this production at Raytheon, it will only shift these good-paying jobs to another state and completely fail to have any effect on their ultimate goal. Want to stop the production of weapons of war? That is done in Washington, not on the livelihood of locals seeking a job they can support their families on. How utterly selfish on the already well-heeled. Next, an opinion piece regarding the “save Charlotte Street” gang. OK, I get it: Those are some majestic old homes, but run-down and possibly a hazard or soon to be [“Future Vision: 101 Charlotte St. Deftly Balances Conflicting Priorities,” May 19]. Solution? Restore them to their original glory. What will that accomplish? Ah yes, homes worth well north of $1 million, which will only further worsen Asheville’s housing costs and shortages, which again is addressed in the first letter. Oh, by the way, this is also my neighborhood; I am not an outsider mocking the NIMBYs. I feel confident that the most vocal on the latter two issues already have an income that exceeds the income necessary to live in Asheville and are secure in their housing. To deny a well-paying job to local families because you disagree with Washington, D.C., and the military-industrial complex is selfish and futilely ignorant. To deny a development of more affordable housing because you don’t approve of the aesthetics of the view or the assumed inconvenience of traffic is again just a selfish interest. — Miles Bosworth Asheville
CARTOON BY BRENT BROWN
ACS should fix two-tiered enrollment system The current budgetary crisis at Asheville City Schools is one of the ACS Board of Education’s own making, driven by overcorrections in the face of rising enrollment projections. These overcorrections greatly reduced the number of students ACS is serving. Instead of growing as expected from about 4,500 students in 2016 to nearly 5,000 students in 2021, the district shrank to 4,400 students pre-COVID and 4,100 today. At about $12,000 per student per year, the difference in per-student revenue from federal, state and local funds between the current enrollment and the previously projected enrollment is more than $10 million annually. The ACS Board of Education overcorrected with policies to curb “out-of-district” enrollment, while restricting attempts to expand capacity. The board hardened the distinction between those who can afford to live within the legacy school district boundaries and those who can’t, selecting against struggling families who have been pushed out of district due to the explosion of vacation rentals and our skyrocketing housing costs.
More than half the population of the city of Asheville now resides outside the legacy Asheville City Schools district boundaries but still lives within the city limits. These Asheville residents are treated as second-class citizens through restricted enrollment and educational resources. It is past time to significantly update or eliminate the two-tiered enrollment system and officially recognize and figure out transportation for “out-ofdistrict” students who live in Asheville Housing Authority projects and economically depressed areas in the city of Asheville that are locked out of the legacy district boundaries. In addition to (1) preserving all pre-COVID classrooms in the Asheville Primary School building at 441 Haywood Road, (2) allowing APS to add fourth and fifth grades (they already have the teacher) and (3) declaring a two-year moratorium on school closings and consolidations (to provide the stability that students and teachers need), I also ask that the ACS board to strongly consider (4) ending the two-tier enrollment system for out-of-district families, (5) eliminating the out-of-district fee for city of Asheville residents and (6) offering transportation for families who are economically displaced and nominally
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OPI N I ON
Send your letters to the editor to letters@mountainx.com.
“out of district” as a matter of policy. This will help Asheville City Schools serve all of its students, even those facing housing insecurity. I live inside the legacy Asheville City Schools district boundaries, where it is an ongoing challenge to find rental housing. I do not have a child at Asheville Primary School. I am advocating for all our students as a member of the community who has attended almost all ACS public school board meetings for nearly seven years, more than any current board member. — Pepi Acebo Asheville
Asheville and Buncombe schools should be all one Who are the Democratic racists who continue to stifle the critical need for a consolidated government school system? We all know that a streamlined allone system for all the children and the taxpayers is the only equitable way to have true inclusion and diversity! The bloated Asheville City Schools needs to be heavily doctored and combined into Buncombe County Schools for the desired all-one effect. It’s humiliating when these controlling bureaucrats refuse to ever mention this. From Brownie Newman, Avril Pinder, Esther Manheimer, Council and commissioners — none of them will utter a word about it. How many millions of taxpayer $$$ can be saved per year with a truly all-one system? Who will study this to give us the answers to move forward? Who are these evil human equity deniers in our midst? Why do they want so much Democratic government school control? Call them out. Say their names. Embarrass them. — F. Caudle Asheville
County government spending is an election issue I was shocked when I received the letter indicating the value of my home increased by almost 20% in a single year. I am pleased the county decided to decrease the rate. What I would like to see is, when this bubble is over, the valuation decrease. Somehow, I doubt this will happen. As to use of the funds, I view this as an “election” issue. Elections have consequences. If we elect good stewards of our county, they will use the money wisely, as they have in the past. If we elect spendthrifts, the funds 6
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will be wasted. We need to be careful about who we vote for. — Ed Rothberg Weaverville
Buncombe County: cog in wheel of death or prize winner? Let’s all hope that peace can prevail between Israel and Palestine. But from Asheville, the situation in that region seems more dire every day. Meanwhile, it seems that our media predominantly slant their reports toward the Israeli side of the conflict, even though at the time of this writing (May 19), more than 21 times more Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s modern weapons than by Hamas’ attacks. Many of the weapons Israel employs are manufactured by powerful war profiteers here in the USA. And within a year, Buncombe County, where Pratt & Whitney has recently broken ground, will become another cog in the wheel of death. It will be manufacturing bomber engine components for the hungry military-industrial-congressional complex that sells weapons like local breweries sell beer on holiday weekends. In Asheville, we are continuously reminded about the dangerous intentions of Israel’s neighbors, including Palestine. Some might say that’s all the more reason to accept a war profiteer in our midst. And Raytheon will bring good jobs, improve our economy and benefit local charities. However, we aren’t told about why such companies like Raytheon continue to thrive. It’s through war, many accusing the company of even making national policy itself, ensuring a need for more bombers, weapons, even nuclear bombs and their delivery systems. Thus, too often the media burrow messages like these into our souls: • “Israel has a right to defend itself,” and • “Buncombe County and North Carolina have won the prize by Pratt & Whitney choosing us, and our leaders shower them with grateful incentives, most recently funding a new $5 million training facility for A-B Tech.” But many intelligent citizens see it all in the light of the banality of evil, saying: • “Palestinians are victims of a policy of apartheid,” and • “Asheville and Buncombe County can survive without prostituting itself to war profiteers.” Whom do you believe? — Rachael Bliss Asheville
Mountain Xpress 27th Annual
The way forward
X AWARDS
2021
Conservation proposal protects Buncombe’s future
BY JOHN ROSS
Buncombe County’s farmland has changed a lot since I first got to know it more than 50 years ago. Gone are dairy herds and milking parlors. And when willow leaves were the size of squirrel’s ears a few weeks ago, it marked the time when farmers would have been planting tobacco back then. Yet despite all the changes, thousands of tranquil acres still surround Asheville’s suburban sprawl. They look so pastoral, but each is performing a vital task that supports the 263,000 county residents and welcomes 12 million tourists per year. Grasslands filter groundwater, ensuring that those dependent on wells have an ample supply of pure drinking water. Pastures strain runoff into the streams that feed the French Broad, long the lifeblood of Buncombe. Grasslands are also natural carbon sinks. They sequester carbon in their roots. Forests capture carbon too, storing it in their branches, bark and leaves. Grasslands and woodlands are natural hedges against climate change. Meanwhile, in the last decade, demand has exploded for produce grown locally without chemical stimulants, pesticides or herbicides. The market for naturally raised vegetables and meats has given small family farms new life: They now supply scores of restaurants and supermarkets in the area. For these farms, the future is looking brighter and brighter. While
researching my new book — Through the Mountains: The French Broad River and Time — I interviewed economists who study sustainability. The picture they painted amazed me.
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Imagine that each farm installed a small solar field, an acre or so, and batteries to store the electricity that’s generated. Besides powering its own farm equipment, passenger cars and home, each family could sell surplus power to the rural cooperatives that provide energy to small communities like Leicester. Like the old half-acre tobacco allotments of my grandad’s day, that additional income could help farmers hold onto their land and continue to live on it sustainably. Commissioner Terri Wells has proposed that Buncombe County commit $750,000 per year — less than 0.2 percent of the county’s annual operating budget — to support self-sufficient rural sustainability. The funds would be used to help farmers and others in the county place their grasslands and forests under conservation easements to preserve them for future generations. Some folks claim that these easements prevent development, but that’s not true. Easements can allow the construction of new buildings if they’re consistent with the conservation goals and safeguards. The big, water-dependent industries like American Enka and Beacon Manufacturing that once were mainstays of the local economy are long
JOHN ROSS
“Grasslands and woodlands are natural hedges against climate change.” gone. Tourism and outdoor recreation are what has replaced them. The fresh vistas of rolling farmland rising into rugged mountains are foremost among the various reasons that Buncombe County, Asheville, Weaverville, Black Mountain and a host of small villages have attracted our residents as well as those millions of annual visitors. Commissioner Wells’ proposal is a minuscule price to pay for securing our future. Local author John Ross’ latest book — Through the Mountains: The French Broad River and Time — will be released by The University of Tennessee Press in June. Based on a half-century of subsequent research, the book extends Wilma Dykeman’s 1955 classic, The French Broad, and considers how evolving trends may affect the watershed in the decades ahead. X
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7
NEWS
Take me to the river
What’s next in the RAD?
BY MARK BARRETT markbarrett@charter.net Russ Towers might just be on to something. The co-owner of Second Gear started the business selling used outdoor equipment on Haywood Road in 2004, during what he calls the “early stages” of West Asheville’s renaissance. Since then, the area has seen a tremendous rise in activity along Haywood Road and demand for housing in the adjacent neighborhoods. Now Second Gear is moving to a location in the River Arts District, and all signs indicate Asheville’s urban riverfront on the east side of the French Broad River is already well on its way to a transition similar to what has occurred in the neighborhood Second Gear is leaving. The most recent catalyst is completion of city government’s RADTIP project, which brought greenway paths, improved streets, additional park space, more parking, landscaping, sidewalks, public art, seating, measures to handle stormwater, swings and much improved facilities for bicycles to the roughly 2-mile stretch of riverfront between the Amboy Road/Lyman Street/Meadow Road intersection to the south to a point just north of the railroad bridge over Riverside Drive. Construction of RADTIP — the River Arts District Transportation Improvement Project — began in 2018, greatly aided by a federal grant. Completion, officially celebrated with a series of activities in late April and early May, is a major milestone in the decadeslong process of returning life to an area once dominated by industrial buildings, many empty and decaying, and weedy vacant lots. Locals and tourists alike have embraced the new paths, with a steady stream of people walking, running, bicycling, skateboarding, inline skating and pushing or being pushed in wheelchairs or baby buggies. The RAD “is clearly emerging and growing in popularity and growing in the variety of things to do,” says Towers, who is also a real estate investor and former broker. The question now is what comes next for an area that attracted artists partly because of its gritty feel and cheap studio space. Some predict high demand for residential and retail space, as illustrated by several development projects planned or under construction. There are also fears that 8
MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2021
YOU CAN GET THERE: When visitors to Riverview Station on the southern end of the River Arts District asked how to get to other parts of the RAD, “We used to have to say, ‘Get in your car,’” says Lindsey Mudge, director of operations at The Village Potters. Now people have the option of going on foot on sidewalks, a greenway path or the city’s first protected bike lanes. Photo by Mark Barrett rising real estate prices may eventually push out some of the artists who have helped make the RAD a magnet.
‘WE HAVE ALL DREAMED TOGETHER’
So far, the reviews of RADTIP itself and its centerpiece Wilma Dykeman Greenway from greenway users and others in the RAD generally amount to two thumbs up — way up, in fact. “It’s fabulous. … It’s going to draw people here,” says Patricia Hargrove, a portrait artist whose Roberts Street studio has a view of the greenway. “I see tons of people using it all the time.” North Asheville resident Wesley Culpepper says he runs on the greenway practically every day: “I love it.” Getting close to the river was a daunting prospect when Helaine Greene and her sister, Trudy Gould, moved part of their candle-making business into a mostly vacant industrial building that subsequently became Riverview Station in 1990. “If you wanted to walk by the river you literally took your life into your own hands,” Greene recalls. “The traffic was intense and speeding by.”
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Greene and Gould now co-own the building at 190 Lyman St., and it is full of artist studios and other businesses. The neighborhood has changed, too. Now, Greene said in remarks to an April 23 online celebration of RADTIP’s completion, “It is just beautiful and so peaceful to walk right by the river. … It is a beautiful project that we have all dreamed together.” The RAD was changing well before RADTIP was finished. From 201020, the number of restaurants in the area grew from three to 15, recreation businesses increased from two to five, and the number of artists grew from about 140 in 16 buildings to more than 250 in 19 buildings, Mayor Esther Manheimer said at the April 23 event. City government leaders for years have considered the area one of Asheville’s next logical areas for growth, particularly after state legislators early last decade made it much harder for the city to annex land along its outskirts. The nonprofit RiverLink has encouraged people to come to the French Broad and Swannanoa rivers for recreation, housing and commerce since the 1980s. Parks and paths developed on the French Broad along Amboy Road and the arrival of New Belgium Brewing Co. on Craven Street in 2016 are among
several factors that focused attention on the RAD. Developers have dreams of their own for the district. Construction is underway on Radview, offering 24 studio apartments and some artist studios off Roberts Street, and on The Landings, comprising 40 upscale condominiums near New Belgium. RiverLink hopes to sell property it owns on Riverside Drive to a developer planning 150-170 housing units in a mixed-use building, but those plans are contingent on approval by Asheville City Council. Work has begun to convert a former grocery warehouse on Roberts Street into a 70-room hotel. Radview developer Jeremy Goldstein says he bought the property three years ago because “I thought it would be an amazing place for people to live and work.” Knowing RADTIP was on its way was among the reasons he picked the site. He expects high demand because “almost nobody lives in the River Arts District” due to a lack of housing, he says. Access to the French Broad and the greenways beside it is “a great
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9
N EWS
KEEPING THE ARTS: Painter Mark Harmon, shown working in his studio in the River Arts District, says he is “generally hopeful” about the impact of the new greenway along the French Broad River. But he says it’s important for the life of the city to keep the cost of studio space in the RAD reasonable even as the area becomes more popular. “We need to be not priced out of spaces,” he says. Photo by Mark Barrett amenity” for The Landings, says Cheri Bomar, an official with the Pennsylvania company developing the project. Without them, “I’m not sure we would have” made the investment, she adds. THE RAD ‘WANTS TO BLOW UP’ Artists in the RAD praise the greenway and other improvements the city has completed, and several expect the upgrades will bring more art buyers to their studios. But the “G word” —
gentrification — comes up frequently in their comments about what may happen next. “I’m concerned that we’ll get gentrified out,” says Sarah Wells Rolland, owner of The Village Potters. “If real estate investors start coming in and buying up [space now used for studios], artists could face potential cost increases that we couldn’t shoulder.” Growth in the district will help some artists and businesses, but “a rising tide does not lift all boats,” says painter Mark Harmon.
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At present, it is difficult to find any signs that large numbers of artists are being pushed out over cost issues. Karen Maugans, a photographer who heads the nonprofit River Arts District Artists group, says there is high demand for studio space in the RAD and the number of artists in the area is still increasing. She says that worries about gentrification are nothing new, but many building owners are “deeply invested in the success of the artists” and are keeping rents reasonable. Some in the real estate industry say the area is a logical place for residential and business growth. Restrictions imposed because of the danger of flooding will make it harder to convert artists’ studios to other uses, they point out. “I think (the RAD) wants to blow up” with new investment, says Eddie Dewey, principal at Dewey Property Advisors, a real estate brokerage and management company that handles several properties in the district. “That’s where people are going to want to be.” He says Asheville must figure out ways to manage change brought about by increased popularity with tourists that don’t harm the interests of those already living here. The RAD’s central location means residents will be able to use alternative means of transportation instead of adding to auto traffic congestion, says Goldstein, noting that he sees that reflected in comments from prospective tenants: “I’ve already had a few people who are saying, ‘I don’t have a car. I don’t want a car.’”
Most property between the railroad tracks and the French Broad in the RAD is in the regulated flood plain. Government rules require that any extensive renovations of existing structures include expensive measures to avoid flood damage — a significant disincentive for a property owner to convert cheap artist studio space in an old industrial building or warehouse to another use. Similar rules apply to new construction, requiring occupied floors be above the 100-year flood level or that buildings be constructed so that floodwaters can’t get inside. Neither approach is cheap, and an elevated building is a particular challenge for new retail space, as shoppers often resist climbing to upper floors. Two housing projects planned in the RAD propose to meet the requirements by building parking on lower levels and living space above. That raises affordability issues, since the stacked configuration is more expensive than plopping a building down at ground level in a cow pasture on the edge of town. But it eats up less green space than a more spread-out development in suburbia would and places more people in positions where they have short commutes that can be made by means other than driving. Given Asheville’s popularity, Goldstein sees growth in the RAD as inevitable and more desirable than construction on the city’s fringes. “The cat’s out of the bag. … We are known. People are going to move here,” he says. “All we can do now is figure out how to manage that change.” X
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ON THE HORIZON: Construction workers on The Landings, a 40-unit condominium building on Craven Street near New Belgium Brewing Co., look at plans or take a breather. Cheri Bomar, executive vice president and general counsel at the project’s developer, Hardy World, says the site’s “access to the river and the greenway I think are great amenities. … That’s something that we are marketing to our buyers as an attraction.” Photo by Mark Barrett
Coming soonish Here are some of the larger projects in the works in or near the River Arts District. Delays are common in real estate development and construction, and expected completion dates may change. Information is from public sources and interviews with people involved with the projects. HOUSING Radview. A four-story building to hold 26 studio apartments, 5,500 square feet of office space and five artist studios is under construction at 20 Artful Way, a short distance southeast of the Haywood RoadRoberts Street roundabout. Jeremy Goldstein, managing partner for local developer Radview Asheville, said the building should open during the second half of this year. Apartments range from about 410 to 550 square feet, and most will rent for a little less than $1,100 a month. The Landings. Construction on this 40-unit condominium building at 68 Craven St. is to be completed late this year or in early 2022, said Cheri Bomar, executive vice president and general counsel at Pittsburgh-area developer Hardy World. The studio, one- and two-bedroom units range from 550 to 1,490 square feet and are priced, approximately, from $275,000 to $650,000. Stoneyard Apartments. The city approved in late 2017 AltInvest Partners’ plans for 133 apartments in four new buildings and a restaurant in an existing one at 175 Lyman St. Developer David LaFave says his company paused work when the pandemic hit and construction is now scheduled to begin next year. 144 and 159 Riverside Drive. A Florida-based company plans a mixed-use building on the mostly empty lot at 159 Riverside to include 150-170 units of housing and about 14,000 square feet of commercial space. Some parking would be located across the street at 144 Riverside. City government is reviewing plans, and the project is expected to come before City Council in late summer or fall, a spokesperson said. No construction date has been set. RAD Lofts. The project proposed by local developer Harry Pilos has been planned, changed and argued over for more than seven years. So far, weeds are the only thing coming out of the ground on the site of a former steel fabricating plant on Roberts Street, and no date for the start of construc-
tion has been announced. RAD Lofts would contain 243 housing units plus space for retail, offices and parking. The Bluffs at River Bend. A Florida developer has proposed 1,500 upscale condominiums on land in the Richmond Hill area close to the French Broad River. Neighbors object, and the project has yet to get approval from Woodfin town government, leaving its future uncertain. BUSINESSES The Radical. Atlanta-based developer Hatteras Sky is turning the former grocery warehouse at 95 Roberts St. into a 70-room hotel called The Radical. It will include a restaurant, rooftop bar and café. Amy Kelly, a principal in the company, projects a fall 2022 opening. The hotel would be the first in the RAD in decades. Hatteras Sky also controls the former Phil Mechanic Building a few steps to the south at 109 Roberts St. Kelly said Hatteras officials “are evaluating a few different options” for the building’s long-term use. Hi-Wire Brewing. The local company plans a third Asheville location in an existing warehouse at 282 Lyman St., behind Mountain Energy. The site will include a taproom and an outdoor beer garden that will seat about 350 people in recycled shipping containers, although most of the space will be a distribution center. Hi-Wire plans a July opening, co-owner Chris Frosaker says. Second Gear. The shop selling used outdoor gear on consignment and new accessories will move from Haywood Road in West Asheville to 99 Riverside Drive in late summer, founder Russ Towers says, roughly doubling its space. Sugar and Snow Gelato, as well as outdoor tour provider Asheville Adventure Co., will also locate there.
ROADS, PATHS AND PARKS
French Broad River Greenway West. City Council approved a nearly $3.6 million contract in March to build a 1-mile greenway path along the west side of the river between French Broad River Park on Amboy Road and Haywood Road. It will connect with an existing greenway that runs to the north of Haywood Road past the New Belgium brewery. Workers were fencing off the site in mid-May. Construction was expected to begin shortly and take about a year. A short
FUTURE VISION: The Landings, a 40-unit condominium building on Craven Street near New Belgium Brewing Co., is scheduled to be completed late this year or in early 2022. Rendering courtesy of Hardy World dirt path beneath an Amboy Road overpass will also be paved. Nasty Branch Greenway. From its western end at Depot Street near Green’s Mini Mart, a paved greenway path will run three-quarters of a mile to the northeast. The other end will be at Phifer Street near Phifer’s intersection with Asheland Avenue, McDowell Street and Southside Avenue. Interpretive signs about the neighborhood’s history will go up along the path. Construction is to begin this fall. Woodfin greenway, parks and whitewater wave. Construction has begun to create Silver-Line Park between the French Broad and Riverside Drive near its intersection with Woodfin Avenue. Planning is underway to expand the town’s Riverside Park and build a whitewater wave beside it in the river, with completion of construction scheduled for late 2022 or early 2023. Buncombe County plans a 5-mile greenway beside the river from near the Broadway/Riverside Drive interchange north to Beaverdam Creek, then east beside the creek to near Reynolds Village. The county recently awarded a design contract and hopes to begin construction on some or all of the route after that work is completed next year. Karen Cragnolin Park. The nonprofit RiverLink has been using natural processes to remove contaminants at the 5.3-acre former junkyard at the corner of State Street and Amboy Road. A master plan has been drawn up, and remediation appears to be almost complete, but results of new
soil tests will dictate the timing of next steps, says RiverLink Executive Director Garrett Artz. Amboy and Meadow roads. The state Department of Transportation has proposed widening this 2.6-mile stretch of road between Biltmore Village and Interstate 240, but the agency’s cash-flow problems mean timing of the work is uncertain. DOT has suspended planning on the project, project manager Beverly Robinson said, and has not decided how many lanes the wider road will be and what other changes will be included. The project will include replacing the bridge over the French Broad River at French Broad River Park, which currently offers little space for pedestrians and bicyclists, and could include bicycle lanes and sidewalks. DOT’s master plan says construction is to begin in 2029. I-26 Connector. This huge project includes improved vehicle, pedestrian and bicycle links between West Asheville and downtown. Just how it will affect the RAD remains to be seen. DOT will build new bridges across the river north of Bowen Bridge and add space for pedestrians and bicycles to the current bridge. DOT also plans improvements, including facilities for people on bike or foot, on Riverside Drive between Hill Street and Broadway. Other project components include widening Interstate 240 in West Asheville to six lanes and reconfiguring the I-26/I40/I-240 interchange on the west side of town. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2024. X
MOUNTAINX.COM
MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2021
11
NEWS
Block by block Vance Monument removal begins
BY BROOKE RANDLE brandle@mountainx.com After months of debate, planning and input from the community at large, the first piece of the towering Vance Monument was removed from Pack Square May 17. Demolition of the 123-year-old monument to Zebulon Baird Vance in downtown Asheville is expected to take two weeks, says city spokesperson Polly McDaniel. Costs to take down the structure block by block will reach roughly $114,000, while an additional $25,500 has been allocated for site restoration following the monument’s removal. Sidewalks around the area will remain open, but the surrounding streets will be closed to traffic. The final decision on the structure came on March 23, when Asheville City Council members voted 6-1 to remove the 75-foot obelisk. “I’ve come to realize that the Vance Monument no longer reflects, and probably never reflected, the values of our community,” Mayor Esther Manheimer said during the meeting, in reference to Vance’s record of racism toward Black people. “I’m looking forward to the day we can have a centerpiece in our city that reflects Asheville today.” McDaniel says there are no plans to make portions of the Vance Monument available to the public. The Ashevillebased demolition contractor, Chonzie, is required to provide the city with a written disposal plan.
HISTORY LESSON
Controversy surrounding the monument is not new, but the city’s 2020 protests over the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis reignited debate over the structure based on its namesake’s racist views. Vance was a Buncombe County native, slave owner, North Carolina governor and U.S. senator who fer-
vently supported the Confederacy. In an 1860 speech addressing the U.S. House of Representatives, Vance denounced Northern abolitionists and adamantly opposed emancipation. “Common sense says keep the slave where he is now — in servitude. … Treat him humanely, teach him Christianity, care for him in sickness and old age, and make his bondage light as may be; but above all, keep him a slave and in strict subordination; for that is his normal condition; the one in which alone he can promote the interest of himself or of his fellows,” Vance said. In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, Vance was arrested by federal troops. Held in prison for just two months, he was released in July 1865 and placed on parole. He was later pardoned in 1867 for his role in the Confederate army, and although initially prohibited from serving in public office due to his past disloyalty to the United States, he continued to be active in politics and argued against civil rights for African Americans. Vance died on April 14, 1894. Just four years later the cornerstone for a granite obelisk honoring him was laid at Pack Square in downtown Asheville.
TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT
During demonstrations in June 2020, the monument was repeatedly vandalized, leading city officials to deem the structure “a public safety threat.” Council and the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners then authorized the appointment of a volunteer task force to determine if the obelisk should be removed or repurposed. In August, the Vance Monument Task Force began meeting weekly to discuss the monument’s fate, explains co-chair Oralene Simmons. The team held engagement sessions with community members most impacted by the marker’s presence and read through over 1,000 emails, texts and
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CHIP OFF THE OLD BLOCKS: The capstone was the first piece of the Vance Monument to be removed as demolition started May 17. Photo by Matt Henson voicemail messages as they considered different options. The task force ultimately voted 11-1 on Nov. 19 in favor of removal, with the county commissioners voting unanimously to accept that recommendation and Council voting 6-1 in support. Council member Sandra Kilgore, one of the body’s three Black members, was the sole vote against the removal of the monument. She had repeatedly pleaded with her colleagues to consider repurposing instead. “Asheville’s obelisk itself does not represent the Confederacy. Many of the Confederate statues removed thus far were made in the image of Confederate soldiers, not stand-alone obelisks,” Kilgore argued in a letter to the editor published Jan. 23 in Xpress. “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,” she wrote.
WHAT’S NEXT?
As the monument continues to come down, Council is considering possibilities for the future of the site. In February, the Vance Monument Task Force offered ideas for Pack Square in its final recommendations to Council and the Board of Commissioners, including recognition of the Cherokee presence on the site before 1792 and commemoration of the Asheville Student Committee on Racial Equality. In April, the city and county entered an agreement to split the $70,000 cost of hiring a consultant to facilitate that revisioning. The process is expected to last through fall and will include a community engagement component, which could begin as early as June, to answer questions about possible replacements and designers for the monument. Results of that process are expected by the end of 2021. The cost of actually conducting any renovations remains to be determined. X
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MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2021
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BUNCOMBE BEAT
Libraries proposal would transform Buncombe system
PLANNING BY THE BOOK: A proposed reworking of Buncombe County’s library system could lead to fewer — but larger — facilities. Photo courtesy of Buncombe County Time may be ripe for a new chapter in the story of the Buncombe County Public Libraries. If Buncombe’s Board of Commissioners follows the recommendations outlined in a May 18 presentation by Maureen Arndt, principal of 720 Design, the next 15 years would see a new Pack Memorial Library, the consolidation of several smaller branches and more resources distributed to outlying areas of the county. Rather than the current “hub and spoke” model, in which there are many small branches but most services are based at the downtown Pack Library, the reimagined system would shift to a more distributed regional network. By maintaining fewer, larger facilities, Arndt suggested, the county could save on operating costs while offering more comprehensive service at each branch. The Skyland/South Buncombe Library, for example, would be expanded from 4,296 to 25,000 square feet to include a bigger children’s area, study rooms and tutoring spaces. Meanwhile, the Oakley/South Asheville Library — the system’s smallest branch and located within a 10-minute drive of the newly renovated East Asheville Library — would be closed. 14
MAY 26 - JUNE 1, 2021
But the downtown library would also get a reboot, expanding from 51,776 to at least 65,000 square feet in a new location. Rachel Nilson, an architect working on Buncombe’s comprehensive facilities plan, flagged county-owned land on Coxe Avenue as an option for the new building, which could be paired with a 360-space parking garage and up to 120 units of affordable housing. Some regions of the county with lower population density, Arndt added, could get access to library materials through self-service vending machines or locker systems. Candidate locations include the Stocksville community north of Weaverville and South Hominy. Projected capital investment costs for implementing the library plan total at least $81 million over the next 15 years, including nearly $18 million for a new 25,000-square-foot facility in Enka/Candler and over $16 million for a new building of the same size in West Asheville. That expense doesn’t include the proposed Pack relocation, but Arndt presented a recent library and parking garage project of a similar size in Round Rock, Texas, with an estimated cost of $30 million.
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Several commissioners noted that the proposal had already drawn community criticism, particularly from Black Mountain residents worried that their downtown library would be closed in favor of a larger building in a less walkable location. Commissioner Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, whose District 2 includes Black Mountain, advised Arndt to take those concerns into consideration as planning continued. “It reminds me of conversations about potentially closing schools or churches. Libraries play this other role in our community that’s not about nostalgia: It’s about a rootedness,” Beach-Ferrara said. “I’d be interested what it would look like to play out some scenarios where there were some remodellings. … It’s something that’s really important in our community that we find ways to recognize and preserve those places that hold that meaning for people.”
IN OTHER NEWS
Buncombe County’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout continues to make promising progress, said Public Health Director Stacie Saunders in a May 18
briefing to the commissioners. “You can see us there out in the west, bold and darker and bright,” she said, pointing to Buncombe on a map of North Carolina counties shaded according to vaccination status. More than 75% of Buncombe residents aged 65 or older had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of May 18, Saunders said. The same was true for roughly 49% of the county’s overall population, higher than the statewide vaccination rate of about 41%. The county will now focus on vaccinating residents aged 12-17, of whom less than 18% had received at least one dose. Saunders noted that the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine was only approved for use in children aged 12-15 on May 12. Shots are currently available for free without an appointment at A-B Tech from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays-Fridays. Commissioner Amanda Edwards shared that she’d recently taken her own teenage son to be vaccinated at A-B Tech. “I’ve never seen a kid so excited to get a needle stuck in his arm,” she quipped.
— Daniel Walton X
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The Asheville City Schools system faces tough decisions for the next fiscal year. After Superintendent Gene Freeman clashed with the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners during a budget presentation on May 11, County Manager Avril Pinder proposed a budget on May 18 that would give the district over $2.1 million less than Freeman had requested. To balance the books, school administrators have said that cuts to personnel spending are on the way, potentially including reductions in the local supplement paid to ACS teachers and staff on top of their state-mandated salaries. But specifics on how the system spends its local allocation (at over $5,800 per student, the second-highest in North Carolina) and its plans to reduce costs have been hard to come by — and may have been concealed in violation of North Carolina open meetings law when the Asheville City
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COST CENTER: Asheville City Schools has budgeted roughly $1.9 million of local money — over 7% of the district’s local funding allocation for fiscal year 2020-21 — on central office employees. Photo by Virginia Daffron Board of Education held a special closed session meeting on May 18. Board members met with Freeman, Assistant Superintendent Mark Dickerson and Executive Director of Finance Georgia Harvey to discuss unspecified personnel matters out of the public eye. In a May 17 message to Xpress, board member Jacquelyn Carr McHargue said that meeting would not involve general discussion of hiring freezes or budget cuts. But in May 18 remarks to the Citizen Times, she appeared to contradict her earlier statement: “We’re looking at all of our staffing and needs and everything within particularly [the Asheville Primary School] and all of our schools to get a picture of where we all are now and what anything in the future could look like,” she was quoted as saying about the closed session. “Sure sounds to me like an open meetings violation,” said Amanda Martin, attorney for the N.C. Press Association, when asked to comment on McHargue’s characterization. “The only [personnel-related] justification for closed session is to discuss particular employees. The law is clear — it says it right there in the open meetings law — that general discussions must be had in open session.” Xpress has asked the school system for the complete minutes from the May 18 meeting, as well as all notes
taken and messages exchanged by its participants. “With the assistance of counsel, during a closed session, the board discusses the topics that are permissible under the open meetings law. The public portion of any minutes can be reviewed after the minutes are prepared and adopted by the board. Minutes are typically prepared and adopted by the board the following month,” wrote spokesperson Ashley-Michelle Thublin in response to the inquiry. The school system has previously pushed back against requests for information about other aspects of its finances. Thublin claimed that the sources of funding for the district’s central office employees were confidential, and Harvey transmitted budget information as a view-only file rather than in an editable spreadsheet format that would allow further analysis. Xpress obtained those documents and data after repeated inquiries that referenced state public records law. The information answered some questions raised by parents and officials about the system’s use of local funds versus state and federal monies. For example, Xpress’ analysis shows that ACS supports nearly $1.9 million of over $2.9 million in central office payroll using local money, representing roughly 7.2% of its local funding allocation in fiscal year 2020-21.
— Daniel Walton X
FEA T U RE S
ASHEVILLE ARCHIVES by Thomas Calder | tcalder@mountainx.com
‘Most unhappy controversy’ If you live in Buncombe County, you’re probably familiar with the controversies surrounding the legacy of former North Carolina governor and outspoken white supremacist Zebulon Vance and the recent decision to remove the Vance Monument in downtown Asheville. But how familiar are you with the dispute surrounding Vance’s final resting place in Riverside Cemetery? The controversy began shortly after his April 14, 1894, death, when The Asheville Daily Citizen reported in its June 7, 1894, edition that Vance’s second wife, Florence Steele Martin Vance, had removed the former North Carolina governor’s body from its original plot “to the spot on the highest part of Riverside cemetery.” At the time, Florence had visions of a monument to her late husband placed at the site of his new burial (as opposed to its eventual 1898 placement in Pack Square). The problem, however, was Zebulon’s grown children claimed no foreknowledge of their stepmother’s plans and disapproved of her actions. On June 11, 1894, The Asheville Daily Citizen informed its readers that the former governor’s son Charles N. Vance had had his father’s body once again disinterred and relocated to its original plot. Furthermore, the paper reported, “Special officers Sam and Howell have been guarding the grave day and night[.]” Included in the article was a letter Charles wrote to the public, condemning his stepmother’s decision and decrying “the opening of the casket … for what purpose we do not know.” Charles continued: “This violation of a sacred obligation was to me so revolting that I felt that it was my imperative duty to the memory of my dead father to replace the remains in the original place. This has been done and I trust and pray they may there remain in peace. Sad as has been this duty it was rendered necessary by the promise I repeatedly made my father. It is also humiliating and mortifying to me that all this has occurred and this publication made necessary, but I see no escape from it.” Part of Charles’ promise to his late father was to bury Zebulon next to Harriette Vance — Charles’ mother and Zebulon’s first wife, who died in 1878. Interestingly, because Harriette’s death occurred before the 1885 development of Riverside Cemetery, her body remained interred
The three burials of Zebulon Vance
THIRD TIME’S A CHARM: Zebulon Vance died on April 14, 1894. For a brief six weeks, his remains lay peacefully inside Riverside Cemetery. But by early June, a dispute among surviving family members resulted in his remains being exhumed and relocated before eventually being returned to his original resting place. Photo by Thomas Calder at a separate site, although a plot for her remains had been purchased at Riverside Cemetery. In yet another strange twist, Charles did not realize at the time of his June 11 letter that his mother had not yet been relocated to Riverside — a point Florence raised in her own letter, first published on June 17, 1894, by The Observer in Raleigh (and subsequently reprinted in the June 18, 1894, edition of The Asheville Daily Citizen). In her missive, Florence defended her actions, claiming she’d received permission from her late husband’s surviving siblings to relocate his body. She also asserted that Zebulon “often expressed his determination to leave his [first] wife where she was buried, in the Presbyterian church, as he thought she would have preferred.” At the end of her letter to the paper, Florence declared: “I shall most certainly not disturb his rest again, or appeal to the law for what I supposed all civilized people conceded — the right of a man’s wife to have her husband properly buried. The unsuitableness of the present place is apparent.” Enraged by his stepmother’s claims, Charles penned a response, printed in the June 22, 1894, edition of The Asheville Daily Citizen. In it he refuted
her claims and reasserted his own, with a particular emphasis on his father’s final wishes. “The remains of my mother have never been removed to the family plot in Riverside cemetery at Asheville, but my father had so frequently talked with me about it that I was confident it had been done,” he wrote, explaining his earlier confusion. “My mother’s remains will be placed by his side at the first convenient opportunity.” Noting his displeasure in the ongoing public dispute, Charles added, “I hope my father’s friends throughout
the State will understand and appreciate my position in this, to me, most unhappy controversy, and pardon the earnestness and filial affection which impel to me strive to carry out his wishes and often expressed desire.” According to Joshua Darty, director of the Riverside Cemetery, Harriette’s remains were relocated to the plot adjacent to Zebulon, shortly thereafter. Charles died in 1922, joining the family plot. Two years later, Florence departed as well. She, too, is interred at Riverside Cemetery, albeit inside the Martin family plot. X
Undertaker’s response On June 14, 1894, The Asheville Daily Citizen featured a short letter from J.H. McConnell, the undertaker who participated in the initial relocation of Zebulon Vance’s remains. Though unidentified in Charles N. Vance’s June 11 letter denouncing the move, McConnell still felt compelled to defend his actions, writing: “As the undertaker employed by Mrs. Vance to remove Senator Vance’s remains to the new lot, I will say that the body was moved with as much care and respect as any body was ever moved, and was not interfered with in any respect. “As to the opening of the casket, I will say that I simply removed the wooden cap — not the glass at all — exposing the face to view (not to the air) a few seconds. This was done with the utmost reverence and care and at Mrs. Vance’s request.” X
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COMMUNITY CALENDAR MAY 26 - JUNE 4, 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.
In-Person Events = Shaded All other events are virtual
ART Center for Craft: Virtual 25th Anniversary Celebration & Benefit Featuring internationally renowned artist, Magdalene Odundo, Craft Futures Award Honoree, Michael Sherrill, and the opportunity to hear from craft artists and scholars. WE (5/26), 6pm, $25, avl.mx/9dn Desire Paths Exhibition Register to attend a virtual tour of this exhibition. In-person visitors have access to unguided visits as well as tours. FR (5/28), Registration required, Center for Craft, 67 Broadway Westside Creative Market Local handmade goods and artwork. SA (5/29), 11am, Haywood Quick Stop, 495 Haywood Rd
Monthly Art Pop Up at The Pub Live music, food truck, artisans and beer. SU (5/30), 2pm, Green River Brew Pub, 26 Church St, Saluda Soul of Place: Images Inspired by the Places We Love Featuring the landscape paintings of Karen Keil Brown and Cathyann Burgess. WE (6/2), Asheville Gallery of Art, 82 Patton Ave Performance: Coco Villa A performance by multidisciplinary artist Coco Villa, filmed on-site at the historic Black Mountain College campus at Lake Eden. TH (6/3), 7pm, avl.mx/9em
SPOKEN & WRITTEN WORD Kevin McIlvoy presents One Kind Favor, in conversation with Steve Almond Hosted by Malaprop's. Based loosely on a tragic real-life incident in 2014, One Kind Favor explores the
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DOWN BY THE RIVER: The Magnetic Theatre hosts an outdoor variety show on June 1, featuring live music, stand-up comedy, theater, magic, dance and more. The event will be held at the Smoky Park Supper Club (350 Riverside Drive), and both food and drinks (adult and otherwise) will be available for purchase. Bring your own chair, sit back and take in the motley talent Asheville has to offer. Tuesday, June 1, 7 p.m. $15 members, $18 non-members. Photo courtesy of Smoky Park Supper Club
Student Film Screening Seating is limited and socially distanced. Seats are first come,first served. TH (5/27), 4pm, Free, Asheville Pizza
& Brewing Co., 675 Merrimon Ave
ANIMALS Blue Ridge Humane Society: Pet Loss Peer Support Group A safe space for community members to come together to support one another through the loss and grief of their beloved pet(s). WE (6/2), 6pm, avl.mx/9dl
CLASSES, MEETINGS & EVENTS Pisgah Legal’s Run for Justice Virtual 5K Outdoor activity that raises awareness
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and funds for a local nonprofit providing free legal aid and anti-poverty services to neighbors in need. SA (5/29), Online, avl.mx/9e8 Annual Small Business Awards Ceremony Virtual celebration and networking event will recognize and honor small businesses for their contributions to North Carolina’s economy during Small Business Month. TH (5/27), 8:30am, $15, avl.mx/9ev Money Visioning & Goal Setting OnTrack Financial Education & Counseling WNC hosts a webinar. TH (5/27), 12pm, Registration required, Free, avl.mx/9b5
WNCHA Lecture Series: Tuberculosis & Tourism Featuring local historian Kieta Osteen-Cochrane on Asheville's Von Ruck Sanitarium. TH (5/27), 6:30pm, Registration required, $5, avl.mx/98h Memorial Day Ceremony The ceremony will serve in place of both the City and the State Veterans Cemetery in-person events. MO (5/31), 11am, avl.mx/7gm Sunrise Asheville Monthly Hub Meeting Connect with other hub members and hear updates. MO (5/31), 7pm, avl.mx/9ep
Magnetic in the (Smoky) Park Variety show. TU (6/1), 7pm, $18, Smoky Park Supper Club, 350 Riverside Dr The Laurel Chapter of the Embroiderers' Guild of America meeting Business meeting followed by the program. TH (6/3), 10am, Cummings United Methodist Church, 3 Banner Farm Rd, Horse Shoe Fun Friday for Families: Abstract Monoprints Make abstract monoprints inspired by Beauford Delaney’s Metamorphosis into Freedom. FR (6/4), 1:30pm,
Asheville Art Museum, 2 S. Pack Square
FARM & GARDEN 2021 Arboretum Plant Sale & Tailgate Market North Carolina Arboretum’s annual outdoor Plant Sale. WE-TH (5/26-27), 10am, NC Arboretum, 100 Frederick Law Olmsted Way Extension Gardner: Woody Ornamentals Class Topics include choosing plants, planting, mulching, fertilizing and watering, a sampling of trees for WNC and tree and shrub identification tools. 2 hour Zoom class.
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(8 2 8) 6 9 7-7 3 0 0 WWW.FRANNYSFARMACY.COM HONORING THOSE WHO SERVED: A private dedication ceremony takes place at Violet Hills Cemetery, 454 Hazel Mill Road, on Monday, May 31. Guy Fisk, commander of the American Legion, Post 70, will present a plaque honoring the 245 African American veterans interred at the site. Dr. L.O. Miller established the cemetery in 1932, during Jim Crow, to provide a burial ground for the community’s Black residents. Featured here is Miller’s grandson, Quentin Miller, the site’s superintendent. Photo by Allan Perkal TH (5/27), 10am, Registration required, $10, avl.mx/9f0 Garden Jubilee Nurseries & Orchards Tour Garden centers and nurseries will sell annuals, perennials, shrubbery, herbs, trees, vegetables and hard-to-find plants. FR (5/28), 12pm, 301 S. Main S., Hendersonville
FOOD & BEER Flat Rock Farmers Market Local farmers and artisans. TH (5/27), 3pm, 1790 Greenville Hwy, Hendersonville Hendersonville Farmers Market Local produce and vendors. SA (5/29), 8am, Historic Hendersonville Train Depot, 650 Maple St Mills River Farmers Market Local farmers, vendors and artisans.
SA (5/29), 8am, Mills River Elementary School, 94 Schoolhouse Rd, Mills River
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WELLNESS
Quality of care
Patients, staff challenge HCA management at Mission Hospital
BY BARBARA DURR
and HCA employees,” the statement said. “With HCA heavily focused on the bottom line, there have been numerous, aggressive staff cuts over the past year, putting patient safety at risk. Certified nurse assistants and unit secretaries have been cut dramatically or eliminated, putting new pressure on nurses. Patient to nursing staff ratios have also increased and some departments have seen an exodus of nurses, further stressing the remaining nurses.” Contacted last week by Asheville Watchdog, Manheimer said, “I continue to have concerns regarding the level of care provided by HCA.” None of the patients who shared their complaints about quality of care at Mission with Asheville Watchdog said they blamed the staff. They said they found nurses, doctors and other hospital workers there to be “terrific” and “caring” and highly skilled.
Asheville Watchdog Forrest Johnson fell in her garden on April 22 and broke her leg in two places. Her husband and stepdaughter rushed the 68-year-old former nurse to the Mission Hospital emergency room in Asheville from their home near Burnsville, about an hour’s drive. They arrived around 8 p.m. Having spent 20 years in nursing, Johnson said, “I sort of knew what to expect.” But what she did not expect was that she would lie for nearly six hours in the emergency room without water, ice, a blanket, a pillow to elevate her leg, food or pain medication. “I just had a very busy nurse,” Johnson said. The nurse quickly apologized that he would not be able to check on her every 15 minutes, as he normally would be expected to do, she said. Because of understaffing at Mission, “He just didn’t have the time to care for me,” she said. Lynn Blass of Asheville had surgery at Mission for a broken hip May 10. Unable to get to the bathroom without assistance, she rang the call button for help. And rang and rang. By the time a nurse finally arrived an hour and 20 minutes later, she said, she had already soiled her bed. Karen Sanders, who holds a master’s degree in nursing and worked at Mission Hospital for 16 years, said she has been “horrified” to witness what she said is a recent decline in Mission’s quality of care. Now a professional patient advocate, Sanders said she has observed a rise in Mission’s nurse-topatient ratios — meaning each nurse is required to care for more patients than before — and a decline in the number of housekeeping and security workers.
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WHAT AILS THEM: Staffers at Mission Hospital’s emergency department have shared stories of staffing shortages and dangerous work conditions since the hospital’s takeover by for-profit HCA Healthcare. Photo courtesy of Asheville Watchdog Their stories are just a few of a cascade of complaints from patients, nurses, doctors and other health care professionals interviewed by Asheville Watchdog in recent weeks. Since investor-owned HCA Healthcare bought nonprofit Mission Health System in 2019, stories are increasingly common of long waits in the emergency room, unsanitary conditions, broken or missing equipment, patients having to lie in their own urine and feces, doctors leaving because of pay disputes and nurses weeping in the hallways because of stress and chronic understaffing.
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’HCA CAME IN WITH A HATCHET’
COST-CUTTING OR UNAVOIDABLE SHORTAGE?
Critics, including local officials, say the understaffing is a result of HCA’s deliberate cost-cutting, which has contributed to record profits for the Nashville-based hospital chain despite
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the pandemic. Others say doctors and nurses are quitting Mission because of what they say is HCA’s profit-motivated management. HCA officials noted that the shortages of registered nurses and nursing assistants are not unique to Mission, but rather a nationwide problem. Yet complaints of declining patient care and safety began soon after HCA took over. Fifteen months ago, in February 2020, Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer and Buncombe County Commission Chair Brownie Newman, along with four other North Carolina elected officials, signed an open letter to the independent monitor overseeing HCA’s compliance with terms of the sale, stating, “We are writing with deep concern regarding the state of Mission Hospital Systems since the purchase by Hospital Corporation of America last year.” “Concerns have been pouring in from distressed patients, practitioners
Janet Moore, who left Mission Health in 2011 after 16 years as a senior executive for the hospital system, was back at Mission in October as a patient, for an epidural in her spine. Thirty-six hours later, she developed a serious staph infection, she said. Although staphylococcus bacteria infections can occur for a variety of reasons, the most serious cases frequently occur as a result of inadequate presurgical skin preparation and instrument sterilization, which Moore said she believes was the cause of her infection. As a result of the staph infection, Moore then spent six days in an observation unit at Mission, where, she said, “No one cleaned my room.” Moore said the bedside care and attention she received from Mission doctors and nurses was “tremendous,” but she said staffing cuts affected the quality of care. “HCA came in with a hatchet,” she said. In an email to Asheville Watchdog, Nancy Lindell, director of public and media relations for HCA’s North Carolina Division and Mission Hospital, denied that HCA had cut any jobs for housekeeping, security or unit clerks. [Xpress editor’s note: Lindell objects to the wording “denied that HCA had cut …” Asheville Watchdog stands by its characterization.] “We have not reduced nursing staff and are actively hiring,” she wrote. The Mission Hospital job board recently listed approximately 300 open nursing positions.
“Every hospital across the country is struggling with the recruitment and retention of nurses,” Greg Lowe, president of the North Carolina Division of HCA Healthcare, told an audience at Asheville’s Council of Independent Business Owners on May 7.
RATINGS DECLINE
Although Mission Hospital is not unique in reporting shortages of nurses and nursing assistants, it was the only local hospital to be downgraded in the latest safety ratings. In late April, two of the leading national agencies that assess a hospital’s quality of care — including such factors as safety, accidents, injuries, infections and readmissions — lowered their ratings of Mission Hospital. The Leapfrog Group, an independent agency, downgraded Mission Hospital to “B” from “A.” According to Leapfrog, the hospital fell short in various measures, including blood and surgical site infections, high-risk baby deliveries, some cancer procedures and the experience of patients for elective surgeries. UNC Health Care’s Pardee Memorial Hospital in Hendersonville, AdventHealth Hendersonville and
“HCA came in with a hatchet.” — Janet Moore, former Mission Health executive Duke LifePoint’s Haywood Regional Medical Center in Clyde all retained their “A” grades from Leapfrog for the latest period. All are not-for-profit hospitals. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services also downgraded Mission to four stars from five. CMS uses surveys of patients’ experiences, including how responsive hospital staff were to their needs and the cleanliness of the hospital environment. On the lower ratings, Lindell wrote in an email to the Watchdog, “We were disappointed in the report from Leapfrog and CMS and are working diligently to improve.” She said that the hospital is “using the feedback from both of these scores to implement improvements.” As reported April 30 by Asheville Watchdog, HCA rewards its senior executives with bonuses and stock grants based on a formula weighted 20% on meeting standards for quality of patient care and 80% on hitting profit and share price targets. Critics, including some HCA shareholders, say the formula gives HCA executives an
incentive to cut costs, often by reducing payrolls, at the expense of patient care. A shareholder proposal to study the feasibility of increasing the impact of quality metrics on executive compensation was rejected at HCA’s annual stockholder meeting last month, the company reported. “HCA Healthcare’s primary objective is to provide the highest quality health care to our patients, and our executive compensation philosophy is centered around creating a strong, positive link between our performance and compensation,” Lindell told the Watchdog. She said executive compensation is determined by the board of directors and is based on comparisons with other comparably sized health care companies.
’MONEY IS ALWAYS GOING TO WIN’
“I think there is an inherent conflict in for-profit hospitals like HCA, which has a responsibility to its shareholders
to maximize profits but also has a responsibility for quality patient care,” said Jacob Blass of Asheville, who spent 23 years as a senior executive in the health care industry. “Money is always going to win.” Blass’ own experience of this conflict at Mission came May 9 when his wife, Lynn, fell off her bicycle and broke her hip. She was taken to Mission’s emergency room in an ambulance, Blass said, and “everyone on the staff level was terrific.” But her stay in the hospital after a successful surgery on May 10 was marred by lapses in medical staff attending to her, Jacob Blass said, including the bathroom incident. “The reason Lynn had to wait so long was because of the lack of CNAs or other staff,” Blass said, referring to certified nursing assistants. Blass also said the device intended to assist blood flow in his wife’s legs was broken and not repaired, and when she was discharged from the hospital, the Mission staff didn’t give him any wound dressing supplies or order a bedside commode to be sent to their home, as promised. “Mission gave me zip for home care,” he said.
CONTINUES ON PAGE 24
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WELL NESS Forrest Johnson’s six-hour wait for even the most basic care was far above the norm. While wait times in emergency rooms have generally increased in recent years, the average wait time nationally for treatment of those admitted to an emergency room is just over an hour, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Her ordeal didn’t end there. “They splinted my leg and sent me home,” she said, recalling that she didn’t think doing so was a wise decision for her care because “I was in so much pain.” She was called back to Mission Hospital for surgery on the morning of April 24, nearly 36 hours after arriving at the emergency room. This time, Johnson said, her care improved, and she praised the nursing staff and surgeon as excellent. She is now recuperating at home.
AN AWARD FOR NURSING EXCELLENCE
Just six months ago, nurses at Mission won the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s “Magnet” award for nursing excellence. Chad Patrick, chief executive officer of Mission Hospital, touted the award at
that time as “tangible evidence of our nurses’ commitment to providing the very best care to our patients, of which we are extremely proud.” Yet, some nurses at Mission said they do so despite what they described as being undercut and demoralized by HCA management. Asheville Watchdog interviewed six nurses and two other health care professionals at Mission who were willing to talk about what they are experiencing inside the hospital. All of them requested their names not be used, for fear of retribution, including losing their jobs. (See Asheville Watchdog’s policy on anonymous sources and confidentiality at avl.mx/9ft.) All of the health care professionals contacted for this story cited staffing levels as the critical issue for quality of care at Mission. They said there are fewer registered nurses and certified nursing assistants to attend to patients since HCA took over, and fewer administrative assistants, housekeepers and security staff. Staffing is a key item in initial contract negotiations for National Nurses United, which was elected last year to represent nurses at Mission Hospital despite strenuous opposition from HCA.
As a sign of Mission Health’s deep demand for nurses, it is now offering up to $15,000 in signing bonuses for select nursing roles. It is also trying to lure housekeepers with signing bonuses of up to $1,000, starting a CNA training program to help fill nursing support positions and creating a new training program for first-year nursing graduates to assist with the transition from the classroom to bedside nursing, Lindell said. “We’re going to have some exciting news about our own plans” to address the nursing shortage, Lowe said last week. Yet Karen Sanders, the former Mission nurse now working as a patient advocate, said conditions at Mission are prompting high turnover rates. “I have colleagues that are leaving there every day,” she said. Mission has tried to bridge the nursing gap using traveling nurses, who are often contracted for approximately 13 weeks. Staff nurses say that once many “travelers” experience working conditions in the hospital, they do not return. Nursing leadership has also been affected, health care professionals said. Six of the 11 directors of nursing, who oversee three to five nursing units
each, resigned recently. They include the director of the behavioral health unit of the emergency department, which has suffered a broad depletion of staffing and some violent incidents. “Too many patients and not enough nurses is the most frightening thing for a nurse, and that is the thing I hear over and over again,” Sanders said. “Do I want to go there if I am sick? No.” NURSES BREAK DOWN SOBBING On one unit at Mission Hospital, with several dozen beds, nurses are assigned six or seven patients each — double their normal workload — and provided a single CNA, where protocols call for four. “It’s just not safe. It’s led to an increase in falls, and I believe people are getting sicker,” said a nurse in the unit. “Patients are lying in their own feces for up to an hour,” she said, “and they are not getting their meds for hours.” Patients can see how short-staffed the nurses are and “feel guilty calling for help,” she said, while nurses are so frustrated that they are sometimes seen sobbing in the hallways. Yet, despite the strain, she said, “My team is amazing. They’re all trying to make it work. They work so hard.”
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HAPPIER DAYS: Mission nurses celebrate the hospital’s November achievement of Magnet designation, an award of excellence from the American Nurses Credentialing Center. Photo courtesy of Asheville Watchdog The anonymous reports are corroborated by multiple signed postings to the private Facebook group Mission Maladies, which has attracted more than 11,000 followers since it was formed after the HCA takeover. There has been an exodus of staff in Mission’s 95-bed emergency department, one department nurse said, “and we’ve had no replacements. People with critical issues are left unattended, and we have pressure to move patients out as quickly as possible.” She said this included inappropriately discharging and moving patients to other units “in order to improve ED metrics.” In addition, the nurse said, “Security cuts have resulted in assaults on staff and attacks on other patients.” One recent incident involved an assault on an experienced ED technician when a patient broke into the nurses’ station from the locked behavioral health unit. “There were only two RNs, one other tech and a clinician present — no security,” the nurse recounted. The injured ED technician confirmed the account to Asheville Watchdog. In another incident, the nurse said, “A tech was beaten after escorting a patient to the restroom. She was left unconscious, sustained a broken jaw and was unable to return to work for many months.” Because of housekeeping cuts, “There’s urine on the floor. There’s no cleanliness to the environment,” the ED nurse said. “Can we promote excellence of care? No. And it’s all tied up with staffing,” the ED nurse said. “People think that it’s because of the pandemic, and that’s not it. Our community is suffering at the hands of HCA.”
NO QUALITY-OF-CARE COMMITMENTS
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein approved the 2019 purchase agreement between for-profit HCA and nonprofit Mission Health but ordered HCA to adhere to 15 commitments — none of them specifically about quality of patient care. “We sometimes hear concerns about quality, safety and staffing” at HCA’s Mission hospitals and clinics, said Ronald Winters, principal of Gibbins Advisors, the firm hired to monitor HCA’s compliance with the purchase agreement. “Certainly, meeting standards in those areas can have an impact on HCA’s ability to provide required health care services, but many of those concerns also may fall outside of the 15 commitments.” Winters recommended instead that community members with quality-of-care or safety complaints contact regulatory and oversight entities. The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, the state’s hospital regulator, receives care and safety complaints through its Division of Health Service Regulation, but Catie Armstrong of the DHHS Office of Communications said that complaints are confidential and declined to specify how many have been made since HCA’s purchase of the hospital in 2019. Armstrong said the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services assesses complaints about hospitals and instructs DHSR to conduct investigations. If an investigation finds that regulations for patient care and safety were violated, the hospital can provide a corrective action plan, which
CMS can accept or reject. If the plan is not accepted, the ultimate CMS reprimand is to cut off its contract for Medicare and Medicaid payment. Six months ago, Mission Hospital’s contract with CMS was under threat after a CMS investigation in July 2020 found three instances of noncompliance with federal standards. In one case, a patient fell off a table and was injured because the hospital “failed to provide care in a safe setting.” In another, the hospital “failed to monitor the condition of a patient” in restraints for violent behavior. And in a third, the emergency department failed to accurately assess a patient’s suicide risk. Mission kept its contract after submitting a plan to correct the issues, and the plan was accepted, saving the hospital’s Medicare and Medicaid contracts. More recently, DHHS completed a complaint investigation of sexual misconduct in the behavioral health unit, again citing a failure to provide care in a safe setting. In February, according to DHHS documentation, video monitoring caught a male patient inappropriately touching a mentally challenged female patient in a dayroom. Security staff was called in from another area of the emergency department to separate them. The hospital’s follow-up step was to separate male and female behavioral health patients in different rooms, but that practice has not been followed consistently, an ED technician told the Asheville Watchdog. Given her knowledge of hospital protocols, Janet Moore filed a complaint with DHHS in November about her care. Moore said that the regulator
investigated her complaint but found her claims to be “unsubstantiated.” “Although your allegations may not have been substantiated, it does not mean that they may not have had some validity,” the DHHS report read. “At times, it is extremely difficult for us to substantiate allegations unless we are witnesses to what has been charged or there is corresponding documentation in the records.” Moore has now had a flareup of her previous infection and is currently on intravenous antibiotics for six to eight weeks, to be followed by four to six months on oral antibiotics, she said. Winters, the independent monitor, also suggested filing complaints with The Joint Commission, previously known as the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals. Concerns can also be relayed to North Carolina’s Office of the Attorney General, which has received complaints about the quality of care at Mission since the purchase, said office spokesperson Laura Brewer. However, she declined to specify how many. She said Mission Hospital complaints are passed to DHHS. For more information about ways to file a complaint or concern about quality of care at Mission Hospital, please visit avl.mx/9fq. This story has been shortened from its original version. Read the full text at avl.mx/9fu. Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Barbara Durr is a former correspondent for The Financial Times of London. Contact her at bdurr@ avlwatchdog.org. X
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Restaurants permitted to open at full capacity, but staffing is a challenge
In theory, Gov. Roy Cooper’s May 14 announcement lifting mandatory capacity and gathering limits and allowing fully vaccinated diners to leave their masks at home should allow North Carolina restaurants to get back to a pre-pandemic normal. But in practice, Cooper’s announcement doesn’t change much for many local restaurateurs. “What is driving restaurants’ decisions right now is the ability to staff front and back of house,” says Jane Anderson, executive director of Asheville Independent Restaurant Association. “That’s the biggest challenge right now.” Chef Katie Button, who owns Cúrate and Le Bodega by Cúrate with husband Felix Meana, concurs. Before COVID-19, Katie Button Restaurants employed 140 people; the company is currently at 85. Getting back to pre-pandemic numbers, Button says, “will not happen overnight.” If anything, Cooper’s announcement seems only to have added further pressure to restaurateurs buffeted by constantly changing health and safety protocols. “It would have been helpful to have had both the CDC and the governor give a little more notice so businesses could prepare for the sudden shift,” Anderson explains. Ultimately, she believes staffing will dictate local capacity and operating hours.
NOW HIRING
Local restaurants seek staff through multiple platforms — their own websites and social media, industry groups’ social pages, Craigslist, Indeed and AIR’s online job board. But right now, food businesses from fast casual to fine dining are all scrambling simultaneously to hire from the same pool of potential employees. “This year, to go from 18 people to 42, it took almost a month to reach what usually takes a couple of days,” says Robert Tipsword, operating partner at Zia Taqueria in West Asheville. Joe Scully, who co-owns Corner Kitchen in Biltmore Village and Chestnut in downtown Asheville with partner Kevin Westmoreland, has had a similar experience as they
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BEFORE TIMES: Chestnut’s dining room was full — and fully staffed — in April 2019. With full indoor capacity permitted by the state, restaurateurs are scrambling to staff up to meet demand. Photo courtesy of Chestnut attempt to become fully staffed in anticipation of an influx of returning tourists and fully vaccinated people eager to dine out — and in. “Hiring did not used to be an expense,” he explains. “But if you’re going to be on Indeed for three to four weeks, it adds up. We had to hire 17 people in the course of three weeks, so it was a big deal.” Competition is especially heated right now, says Laura Bogard Taylor, general manager of WellBred Bakery & Café, which has locations in Biltmore Village and Weaverville and a production kitchen and permanently parked food truck on Reems Creek Road.
“Everybody needs people, but we can’t compete with other local restaurants and businesses paying dishwashers $20 an hour and offering a $500 signing bonus,” she points out. “I think we offer decent starting wages, but we can’t afford to do a full benefits package.” She adds that the projected Wednesday, June 2, opening date of Well-Bred’s first downtown location in a 420-square-foot space in the Grove Arcade will depend on the availability of a sufficient workforce. “We have not been able to open inside our other stores, because a big part of the Well-Bred experience is our beautiful display cases. Those
take a lot of hours and people to set up, and we just don’t have the staff for that right now,” she explains.
RETURN POLICY
Restaurateurs say that while they have reached out to 2020 staff members who were laid off when the pandemic first hit, not all are coming back for a variety of reasons. “It’s been a very hard, arduous year for everyone in this industry,” Tipsword says. “I think it’s not surprising we have seen a lot of people get burned out and disillusioned. I can connect the dots and see people decide they want to do something different.” Button sees the same. “If there is anyone in this world who didn’t reevaluate their life, their priorities, their work and what they want, then they didn’t feel this past year,” she says. “I don’t know anyone who hasn’t, including all of our employees — particularly those with children. Whatever systems people had in place to be able to work are not in place anymore.” Though much has been written in the press and debated among federal and state government leaders about people not wanting to relin-
quish their unemployment benefits to return to work, Scully says he has not seen that himself. “It’s a hard industry, and there are employers and customers who do not have the appreciation they should for the people who work in it. But I have a hard time with some politicians saying people don’t want to work. I think most people want a sense of engagement and that they are useful in the world.”
CHANGE AGENTS
Concurrent with the flurry of punches that landed on the hospitality industry last year, there has been an acknowledgement among many that as the world begins to open up, a return to business as usual is not a viable business decision. “I believe there are things in our industry that needed fixed,” Anderson admits. “Are there positive things coming out of this crisis? Absolutely. Restaurant owners need to have conversations on how to make a better work environment, to produce a healthier work environment.” Many restaurant owners who began those conversations during
COVID-19 are doing their best to walk the talk. Tipsword says Zia will keep the popular parking lot dining area it created last summer, which is 65 seats and counter service only. The indoor dining areas, which reopened on Cinco de Mayo with 45 seats — less than 50% capacity — will be full service, at tables. The two areas combined bring him to his overall city-determined capacity, spread out to suit his guests’ preferences and not overwhelm staff. Navigating 2020, Corner Kitchen went from serving breakfast, lunch and dinner five days a week and brunch and dinner on weekends to one daily menu that covered lunch and dinner. With more people hired, the restaurant will transition in June to separate shifts and menus for lunch and dinner and drop breakfast and brunch entirely. “We did breakfast in Biltmore Village because we thought we had to be as many things to as many people as possible,” Scully explains. “Kevin and I decided it was not serving our employees, so we decided we don’t need to do it.” Brunch will also be eliminated at Chestnut, which is moving to dinner only, seven nights a week. Despite
what the state is allowing in terms of capacity, Scully states, “We will increase our capacity as we see fit, not by what the governor says. I don’t feel a huge amount of pressure to jam as many people as I can into our restaurants. I don’t want to shock the systems.” Cúrate has been operating six dinner and three lunch services since mid 2020, but lunch will end June 1. “What we know is, as we go back towards full capacity opening, we have to do it slowly, intentionally and well,” Button says. “The demand for tables is there, but our plan is to rebuild dinner slowly and keep checking in with our team, what they are comfortable with, what is the right move for us and our team.” Staffing a business may be a game of numbers, but Scully takes a geometrical approach. “We want to be sure we can maintain the equilateral triangle. That is the balance between what we offer our guests, the environment and support we have for our employees, and the interests of the ownership of the restaurant. If those three things are balanced and stay balanced, then we have achieved our goal.” X
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ASHEVILLE-AREA
EATS & DRINKS GUIDE
AR T S & C UL TU R E
MUSIC
One by one
The art of the single
2021
EDITION
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SPICE OF LIFE: Clockwise from top left, Asheville-based singer-songwriters Anya Hinkle, Amanda Anne Platt (with her band, The Honeycutters) and Heather Taylor are experimenting with focusing on singles, but for different reasons. Hinkle photo by Rose Kaz; Platt photo by Sandlin Gaither; Taylor photo by Cindy Kunst
BY EDWIN ARNAUDIN earnaudin@mountainx.com First there was deconstructed food, then deconstructed cocktails. Now Amanda Anne Platt & The Honeycutters bring us the “deconstructed album” — a fancy phrase for a series of paired singles released each month through December in the buildup to their double album, The Devil/The Deep Blue Sea. While musical artists have long dropped a single or two in advance of a full record release to build anticipation and drive sales, this purposeful, elongated approach is a more recent phenomenon, and one that the Ashevillebased Americana band’s frontwoman sees as largely beneficial. Platt compares studio sessions for past projects as being “almost like an assembly line,” where tracks would get
laid down over the course of a week in a highly ordered manner. But for The Devil/The Deep Blue Sea, the songs are based more on guitar and vocal demos that Platt recorded and brought to the band, which changed the recording process itself, arguably for the better. “I feel like each song gets more attention,” Platt says. “It’s just a different approach. We never sat down to do all of them at once, so it feels more like each song is kind of getting its own day in the sun.” In lieu of touring, which hasn’t been possible during the COVID-19 pandemic, Platt and fellow local artists are reconsidering how they present their music and approach full-length albums. And while various challenges arise with deviating from the long-held industry standard of releasing a record and hitting the road to promote it, enough perks are evident that it could prove to be the new norm.
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TAYLOR-MADE Like Platt, Heather Taylor is focusing on releasing singles, but without conscious thought toward putting out an album. The Asheville-based singer-songwriter is as surprised as anyone to be in this position — as this writer can attest, being Taylor’s partner and housemate for the past year as she’s embraced this new direction. An Xpress advertising consultant from 2017-20, Taylor was figuring out how to expand her music career during that time, had recently invested in a new home studio setup and was steadily growing her performance footprint. Then the pandemic hit, and a week later, Taylor became one of seven Xpress employees who were laid off for budgetary reasons. Though the sudden unemployment gave her more opportunities to focus on music, all of the venues she’d lined up for gigs over the next few months temporarily closed. Largely confined to her house in compliance with the statewide stay-athome order, Taylor did a few Facebook Live mini-sets, but otherwise turned her attention to recording. Having hands-on experience with the time, financial investment and pressures of studio albums, she sought the freedom (and reduced cash outlay) possible via self-producing, mixing and mastering, while also acknowledging the patience required to achieve even a baseline understanding of those skills. “As a musician, you’re always making an investment of time, money and energy into yourself or someone else,” Taylor says. “Ideally, you’re investing
in both so you can help grow the music community and yourself and hit that sweet spot. There’s a balance, but sometimes you have to invest in yourself first.” While tinkering with the digital audio workstation Logic and researching solutions when issues arose, she stumbled upon an ad for Sync Songwriter’s “The Art of Song Pitch” online course and quickly enrolled. Prompted by course assignments, she soon began experimenting with different genres (for example, an organ-heavy funk jam) and songwriting traditions (such as a breakup song from a fictional character’s perspective). While those early attempts are still being workshopped, the risks she took with them and developed in subsequent songs have resulted in the most diverse and prolific year of her music career, plus steady improvement on the engineering side. “That class triggered my long-held goal of having one of my songs used in a movie or TV show,” Taylor says. “Sometimes, the music industry can feel bleak — and it certainly did starting last year. This kind of saved my future relationship with music.”
AHEAD OF HER TIME
Still, the enhanced focus on singles is in its infancy, and wrinkles continue to be ironed out. While testing out that approach, Platt’s Organic Records label mate Anya Hinkle is experiencing a fair amount of pushback from media outlets that, for various reasons, have long eschewed singles coverage in lieu of waiting until a full album is available. That attitude extends to radio stations, and though WNCW and others have come around to playing her singles, she says certain broadcasters are sticking to the old ways. “I think a lot of radio stations are in that mode where they used to just cover albums. They don’t want to just do a single, but so many [stations] are doing that now, they’re going to miss the boat,” Hinkle says. “They’re going to be the last people playing that song. And the artists are counting on that radio play for charting purposes and royalties and all that other stuff, so it’s not helpful to not play the singles from the artist’s perspective.” Radio spins also provide an important bridge between artist and listener as both sides anticipate the day that a physical copy of the eventual album may be experienced on a turntable or CD player. Hinkle and Platt point out that while a good amount of their fans are internet-savvy and use streaming services to access their digital singles, a fair number of Americana listeners remain analog and are potentially being left out.
“On the one hand, we have a label saying, ‘[Streaming] is the only way.’ And I’m like, ‘OK, that’s fine.’ But I’ve got these people that are my supporters that are like, ‘I don’t stream. What do I do?’ And I’m in the middle,” Hinkle says. “That’s something that we’re navigating. We’re figuring out ways to continue to engage people.”
ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVES
Over the past year, Hinkle has released six singles off her forthcoming 11-track July album, Eden and Her Borderlands, allowing her to “get some buzz through radio play and other media.” She also feels that the plan is helping make the transition from her former band Tellico to sharing music under her personal moniker much easier. “If I just put an album out under my own name, nobody knows who I am, even if they were interested in Tellico,” Hinkle says. “That’s been really helpful to have a lot of opportunities to talk about what I’m doing and my new direction.” The press releases for each single (or, in Platt’s case, paired singles) additionally allow the artists to contemplate the inspirations and intentions behind the songs. Platt notes that the extended timeline has often imbued her reflections with greater introspection than they otherwise might have had, and also gives the collection’s B-sides “a little extra push,” whereas usually such songs would receive less attention. For her and Hinkle, Platt additionally sees the potential for a “snowball effect,” where any one of the singles could catch someone’s attention and pull them into the overall projects. Pulling in listeners with a standalone song instead of expecting them to sit with a full album is also proving true for Taylor. And the independence that’s come from not focusing on compiling sufficient material for a cohesive LP or EP has encouraged her to take some of her original tunes in directions far different from their initial acoustic renderings. Both “Love Will Keep Us Here” and “Goofy Life” morphed into soulful, full-band rock anthems, helped by collaborations with full bands she connected with through Sync Songwriter and an audio engineering course. And those tunes could eventually form the backbone for an album if complementary songs arise. “I can decide month to month how I’m feeling and what kind of vibe I want to create for myself and my audience,” Taylor says. “It’s not as taxing to record and release this one thing. I’m not putting my everything into one album, then feeling drained for a year. They’re sprints instead of marathons.” X
Hazel Robinson Amphitheatre Concert Schedule
Presented by Plugged-In Productions
Jerry Douglas Band June 3 @ 6pm W/ FIRESIDE COLLECTIVE
Chris Knight | June 17 @ 6PM W/ TAYLOR MARTIN & WOODY WOOD PLUS CHRISTY LYNN BAND (DUO)
Upcoming Shows!
The Travelin’ McCourys Grateful Ball | June 30 @ 5:30PM
MOLLY TUTTLE | July 7 SAM BUSH | August 5 DEL MCCOURY BAND | August 11
W/ JON STICKLEY TRIO
Tickets and Information
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ARTS & C U L T U R E
HISTORY
Stepping outside the box Asheville Middle School tackles the past
BY THOMAS CALDER tcalder@mountainx.com “Why are we doing this?” It’s a common question students raise, says Caroline Scerbin, seventh grade English language arts teacher at Asheville Middle School. Another routine inquiry: “How am I going to use this in my life?” Such doubts and resistance are nothing new to educators. But amid COVID-19 and the transition to virtual learning, such disinterest proved more difficult to manage. As the 2020 school year came to a close, Scerbin and fellow teacher Elaina Portugal (then of AMS but now at Rugby Middle School in Hendersonville) worked to address these challenges in advance of the 2021 school year. Over the summer, the two teachers brainstormed ways to keep their online classes engaged come the fall. Finding inspiration from the local and national demonstrations for racial justice, the pair devised an inquiry-based unit exploring historical events, individuals and systems that shaped Western North Carolina and continue to influence the region today. Dubbed the AMS Challenge Project, students have worked throughout the current school year to research the region’s past and consider how this information can inspire present-day change.
NATURAL CURIOSITY
Part of that change, explains Scerbin, is the project itself. Currently, the N.C. Standard Course of Study mandates coverage of historical events and artifacts, but the specifics around which individuals and incidents are highlighted are left up to the instructors. The AMS Challenge Project provided students with broader choices. The course’s three available research topics included the history of the region’s Native American, European and enslaved populations. Providing options and allowing students to adjust their focus throughout the research process were critical to the project’s success, believes Portugal. “Kids have a natural curiosity,” she explains. “When they start feeling like they own it and have some control over what they’re learning and how 30
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this country cannot be abolished without greater endangering our country. … If it is an evil in the abstract, it would be a greater evil to abolish it here.” Uncovering this passage and other information about the region’s history had a profound impact on Rhodes. “I was extremely surprised to find out that so many of the people I was taught to look up to were actually pro-slavery and even slave owners themselves,” she says. “Learning our history unfolds the mistakes and achievements of our past and helps us figure out exactly what led to where we are today.” Fellow classmate Kai Gilmer shares a similar experience. Whereas Rhodes produced a short film, Gilmer conducted a Zoom interview with Gail Thomas, a Cherokee elder. Speaking with Thomas offered insights into the Eastern Band’s history that Gilmer might not have otherwise learned. This included the role of the Doctrine of Discovery, which was used first by Spanish explorers and later European Christian settlers to justify the confiscation of lands from Native peoples. “History teaches us that a lot of how we treat each other today is just about following what our ancestors did and not thinking for ourselves about how we actually want to treat one another,” Gilmer says. “We inherit biases and don’t work to change them.”
CHALLENGE MET: Throughout the 2020-21 school year, seventh grade ELA teacher Caroline Scerbin has worked with students on researching the region’s past and presenting the information through modern means. Photo by Thomas Calder they’re learning it, they’re willing to go deeper and do more.” Beyond the subjects, students were also permitted to select how they presented their findings. Poems, short films, podcasts, interviews, art projects and traditional reports were all in the mix. Identifying and building upon a student’s strengths and interests, says Portugal, are also essential to success. “When you do this, they become more willing to take risks in other areas where maybe they’re not as confident.”
justice of the N.C. Supreme Court (and for whom Merrimon Avenue is named), described slavery as a “divine appointment.” Later he added: “I am thoroughly convinced that Slavery in
INHERIT BIAS
For pupil Ashni Rhodes, the project’s flexibility resulted in a short documentary that examined all three topics. Among the greatest surprises during her research was an 1853 diary entry by Augustus Summerfield Merrimon, later included in his 1894 publication, A Memoir. In the passage, Merrimon, who served as a U.S. senator and chief
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FILMMAKER: As part of the AMS Challenge Project, seventh grade student Ashni Rhodes created a short documentary exploring the history of the region’s early development through the exploitation of Native Americans and enslaved Africans. Photo courtesy of Rhodes
FINDING EMPATHY
Not taking the summer off, Scerbin says she is contemplating ways to improve next year’s project. One idea is to partner with other area schools to foster a broader dialogue. “I think it’s just invaluable when students get to know their [hometown] and own those facts and share them,” she says. “One thing we’ve been talking about all year in the class is this idea of a single story and how there’s no such thing,” she continues. “We all have different life experiences and backgrounds. It only helps us as humans to really expand our thinking about that, rather than just putting people into little boxes.” Portugal agrees, adding that one of the greatest rewards from the project has been “watching that empathy grow” within her students. Exemplifying this point, Rhodes shares a change she’d like to see in Western North Carolina, based on her research. “There is so much that needs to be done in order for us to achieve full equality,” she says. “We need to inform other people that racial discrimination is still a thing, and that you can help change this by doing something as little as informing a friend about our history or stepping in someone else’s shoes for a day.” X
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Mountain Xpress 27th Annual
AR T S & C UL TU R E
FOOD ROUNDUP
X AWARDS
Last Week to Vote!
Voting ends May 31 mountainx.com/bestofwnc
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What’s new in food
2021
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Local makers, bakers and visionaries are on a roll Chef Gwendolyn Hageman introduced Darë Vegan Cheese at area tailgate markets in September 2019 with Game Changer Gouda — a melty, smoky cheese — and cultured cream cheeses. As Darë’s reputation grew, she added more cheeses and accounts, including West Village Market, Mother Earth Food, South Slope Cheese Co. and Dobra Tea West, which features her cheeses on two sandwiches and its cheeseboard. This spring, thanks to a nudge early this year from the Elevate mentorship program at Venture Asheville — an entrepreneurship initiative of the Economic Development Coalition for Asheville-Buncombe County and the Asheville Chamber of Commerce — Hageman was named one of eight recipients of a NC IDEA SEED grant that will allow her business to continue expanding. Hageman was not a vegan when she began a nine-month experimentation and development process in the kitchen of Chestnut restaurant, where she was a server. “I just couldn’t give up cheese,” she says. “Because I’m a chef, I took a chef approach rather than a vegan approach. Texture and taste were what I was going for, and I think I hit the nail on the head.” She believes many vegan cheeses on the market simply shove starches and oils together and call it cheese. “I’m old school, and don’t think you can call something cheese unless you do the process of cheesemaking, which is a matter of time,” she explains. The application process for the SEED grant took place in three rounds over three months, with
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ON BOARD: Gwendolyn Hageman, founder and owner of Darë Vegan Cheese, poses with some of products featured at Dobra Tea West Asheville. Photo by Scott Anderson the final round a 10-minute pitch presentation (via Zoom in April) to NC IDEA, followed by 10 minutes of questions and answers. “Then I disappeared from the screen,” she says with a laugh. On May 11, Hageman got the business-changing call that she would be awarded a $50,000 grant, which she describes as “the most money I’ve ever seen!” She intends to use it for a branded van to deliver the cheeses she now carts in coolers in her Honda CR-V. The money will also pay for a packaging overhaul and new equipment to allow for the increased capacity Hageman will need to accept a recent offer from Whole Foods to carry Darë. Since starting Darë, the company has added a full-time production
manager and sales manager and is hiring a packaging manager. “I started this company with money I saved from my job in the service industry,” says Hageman. “I did it all. It’s been my baby for so long, and now it’s time to let go and let it grow.” To learn more about Darë Vegan Cheese, visit avl.mx/9f5.
Rise up
On Jan. 31, High Top Bread Co. made its entrance on Instagram with the post, “This is Juliet and Ben, and we’re starting a bakery!” On April 14, business partners/bakers Juliet Ramirez and Ben Engebretson sold their first loaf of naturally leavened
sourdough bread at the Weaverville Tailgate Market. The two met in Asheville as co-workers at a local outdoor program, then Ramirez spent four years in Yosemite, Calif., where she started a cottage bread-baking business. When she moved back to Western North Carolina, the pair teamed up again to bake bread, leasing kitchen space in the former Dynamite Roasting Co. building in Black Mountain. “We saw a niche for sourdough bread the way we make it,” says Engebretson. In addition to the Weaverville Tailgate Market, High Top is at the East Asheville Tailgate Market and Mills River Farmers’ Market. Featured items include baguettes; classic sourdough loaves; olive and rosemary, lemon-lavender and turmeric-lemon bread; a seeded, wholegrain and sourdough chocolate chip cookie; and gluten-free brownies. “The lemon-lavender is one of those big, chewy, crusted, moist, open breads,” says Ramirez. “We grate lemon zest into the dough and use dried organic lavender; it’s so aromatic, it’s almost romantic.” Follow High Top at avl.mx/9f3.
Free market
Erik Mills Christenson, former-chef-turned-Marshall-cattleman, is clear that he has no beef with farmers’ markets in WNC and applauds the work of the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project. He just wanted to do things his way, so he started his own market. On May 11, Maverick’s Freedom Market in Weaverville welcomed about 20 vendors and 200 visitors for its first day of operation. Among the sellers set up in the parking lot behind the Sonopress Building on Monticello Road were his own Maverick’s Cattle Beef, Carolina Bison, Carolina Elk, Outer Banks Seafood, local produce vendors and Bonny Bath organic body care owned by Heidi Vasone, Christenson’s partner at the market. “I found it was hard to get into established markets, so I decided to start one,” he explains. “We call it the ‘freedom market’ because people are free to come in and sell their stuff. If we have 100 people who want to sell watermelon during watermelon season, we won’t turn you away.” Maverick’s Freedom Market, 3-6 p.m. Tuesdays, 108 Monticello Road, Weaverville. avl.mx/9f2
Smart cookie
Less than a year since debuting her “thick and pudgy, chewy and gooey”
Morsel Cookies, baker Caroline Dockery has signed the lease on a 600-square-foot production kitchen in Woodfin that will help her meet her business’s cookie-monstrous growth. Her eight standard flavors and one monthly special can now be picked up from a dozen locations. Schedule updates are posted on her Instagram account. Popping out of the oven in June will be Morsel cookie cakes – 9-inch by 13-inch, 1½-inch thick and 4 pounds of chocolate chip goodness with the option of adding a Nutella or peanut butter swirl. The cookie cakes will be available by custom order only. avl.mx/89s
House party
Raise a glass of bubbles to concept/ design duo Drew Wallace and Leila Amiri, architect Brent Campbell, landscape architect Joel Osgood and Drom Construction — the team behind the Leo’s House of Thirst building on Haywood Road, which this month received a 2021 Griffin Award from the Preservation Society of Asheville Buncombe County. In recognizing the 900-square-foot cinder-block structure built in 1949 as winner in the Adaptive Reuse category, PSABC noted that the “modest beauty” has been everything from a residence to a dentist office. Wallace — who owns Leo’s as well as The Admiral and Bull & Beggar — signed the lease in 2018. “I’m kind of a sucker for stand-alone, cinder-block, economical buildings; the funky quirkiness of this was similar to The Admiral,” he says. Campbell was also seduced. “I was pretty excited when Drew found this neglected supper club building in West Asheville,” he says. “Given his track record and vision for the project, I knew we would be able to transform the former gem-mining shack into a little jewel. For a relatively small building, there are a variety of spaces and experiences.” The team’s love was tested when the extent of the construction and rehabilitation necessary became clear, turning into a nearly two-year project before Leo’s opened under COVID-19 restrictions at the beginning of September. “Adaptive reuse is a celebrated preservation practice put to good use in this project,” says PSABC Executive Director Jessie Landl. “We love a rehabilitation that shows that even simple buildings can be saved and turned into something special.” Leo’s House of Thirst, 1055 Haywood Road, avl.mx/9f1
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— Kay West X MOUNTAINX.COM
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ROUNDUP
Around Town
Local musicians cast in ‘Yacht Stops’ reality series
rain, the tour will be postponed to Sunday, June 6. Mask-wearing and social distancing are required. For more information and to reserve your ticket, visit avl.mx/9d1.
Asheville-based artists April Bennett (rhythm guitar), Jaze Uries (drums) and Brennan Dugan (bass) may be seen on the new reality series “Yacht Stops.” The show, described as “if ‘Below Deck’ was recast with the finalists of ‘The Voice,’” premiered May 24 on Amazon Prime Video, and episodes will air each week through Sunday, July 4. The local musicians are joined by Charleston, S.C.-based guitarist Kelly Morris, who busked in Asheville throughout 2020, and Austin, Texasbased vocalist Angelyn Iturbide. Bennett, who learned about the opportunity from fellow local artist Josh Blake, says that Iturbide’s original songs compose the bulk of the band’s set, which they’ll perform at docks from Mount Pleasant, S.C., to the Florida Keys, on the deck of the boat they’re also living on. While at sea between gigs, the bandmates serve as the boat’s crew and have to fish to eat. “All of these boating experiences are new and exciting to me,” Bennett says. “When I’m in the ocean, I generally don’t go much further than where my feet can touch the bottom. We’ve been in some very deep water on this voyage. This has definitely been a humbling trip.” Bennett adds that she’s been “drawing from the successes and failings of past tours” and applying them to her “Yacht Stops” experiences. “I’m also trusting myself more on a personal, interpersonal and a musical level,” she says. “That is what growth is to me.” Learn more at avl.mx/9f6.
Dig it
After a 17-year hiatus, the Historic Montford Garden Tour returns Saturday, June 5, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. The event includes self-guided walks through 12 distinct neighborhood gardens and live performances by local bluegrass, folk, jazz and classical musicians. Tickets are $25, and funds raised seek to compensate for the canceled 2020 Holiday Tour of Homes, the Montford community’s major source of annual revenue to fund vital neighborhood initiatives. In the event of
New tricks
Swannanoa-based country music legend Billy Edd Wheeler can now add “published novelist” to his resumé. Set in the 1880s and inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s Captains Courageous, Wheeler’s The Boston Cowgirl centers on a bratty 16-yearold Massachusetts girl who, after falling from a cross-country train out West, must adapt to the tough life of cattle driving. A native of West Virginia, Wheeler wrote such songs as “Jackson” (made popular by Johnny Cash and June Carter) and “Coward of the County” (covered by Kenny Rogers), and holds degrees from Berea College and Warren Wilson College. Find out more at avl.mx/9f9.
Spielberg Jr.
Asheville School of Film presents its first student film screening in over 18 months when it reconvenes at Asheville Pizza & Brewing, 675 Merrimon Ave., on Thursday, May 27, 4-6 p.m. The eight short films were created in ASoF classes from summer 2018-spring 2021. The screening is free to attend, but socially distanced seats will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. For more details, go to avl.mx/9fa.
Black Appalachian music Great Smoky Mountains Association’s podcast “Smoky Mountain Air” has launched a new miniseries called “Sepia Tones: Exploring Black Appalachian Music.” Hosted by William Turner and Ted Olson, the six-episode series will be released throughout 2021 and, according to a press release, explore “the complex history of Black music in East Tennessee, Black sacred music, Black women musicians and the diverse landscape of music communities in Southern Appalachia.” “We look forward to conversations with some of the leading luminaries of Appalachian studies and Appalachian music,” Olson says.
SALT LIFE: Asheville-based musicians Brennan Dugan, left, April Bennett, second from left, and Jaze Uries, far right, are part of the new reality series “Yacht Stops.” The show premiered May 24 on Amazon Prime Video and new episodes air each week through July 4. Photo courtesy of “Yacht Stops” “These people will be from many walks of life [and] many different backgrounds, but what we all share in common is a love for Appalachia and belief that African American musicians and African American culture need to be part of the conversation.” To listen to the first episode, visit avl.mx/9fb.
& Twyla Money, Cornbread, Liz Sullivan and Jim Gary Phillips. The show will be on display daily, 11 a.m.5 p.m., through Thursday, June 24. Mask-wearing and social distancing are required. For more information, visit avl.mx/9fc.
— Edwin Arnaudin X
Liquid delights
American Folk Art & Framing opens its “WATER: Beautiful Powerful Shimmering” show online Tuesday, June 1, and in its gallery on Thursday, June 3. Works explore various ways that water can be depicted in art via pieces by Kent Ambler, Joe Engel, Michael Banks, Doug Frati, Ellie Ali, Shawn Ireland, Lonnie
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: STREET GANG: HOW WE GOT TO SESAME STREET: Take an emotionally rich trip down memory lane with this informative and entertaining documentary about the beloved children’s TV show. Grade: A-minus. Rated PG DREAM HORSE: Keep a box of tissues handy for this fact-based story of Welsh neighbors who become unlikely racehorse owners. Toni Collette and Damian Lewis play two of the townsfolk. Grade: B-plus. Rated PG
Find full reviews and local film info at ashevillemovies.com patreon.com/ashevillemovies MOUNTAINX.COM
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CLUBLAND ASHEVILLE-AREA
EATS & DRINKS GUIDE 2021
EDITION
Coming This Summer
LOL OUTDOORS: Fallout Art Space in Alexander hosts a live outdoor stand-up show, followed by a night of live music and camping. LA-based comedian Sean Patton headlines the show; he’ll be joined by Cameron Davis, Morgan Bost and Hunter Roberts. Gates open at 6 p.m., and the show starts around 9 p.m. Those who pay the extra $10 camping fee are welcome to party into the wee hours, and food and beverages will be available for purchase. Saturday, May 29, 6 p.m. $20 show only, $30 camping and show. avl.mx/7bc. Photo courtesy of Modelface Comedy WEDNESDAY, MAY 26 SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN BREWERY Jazz Night at SAB w/ Jason DeCristofaro (jazz), 5:30pm HIGHLAND BREWING CO. Well Crafted Wednesdays w/Matt Smith, 6pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. French Broad Valley Mountain Music Jam (folk), 6pm SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Witty Wednesday Trivia, 6:30pm
THURSDAY, MAY 27 FLEETWOOD'S Terraoke! Karaoke with Terra, 6pm SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Open Mic, 6pm
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RABBIT RABBIT Rooftop Stand-up Comedy Show, 7pm TYRON FINE ARTS CENTER Quentin E. & Marcus Amaker (jazz), 7:30pm HARRAH’S CHEROKEE CENTER - ASHEVILLE Bela Fleck & The Flecktones (bluegrass), 8pm
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FRIDAY, MAY 28 ORANGE PEEL Nevermind (tribute To Nirvana), 6pm SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Record Prophets (roots, funk, soul), 6pm ODDITORIUM Rhinestone Pickup Truck, Tan Universe, The Kindest People (garage rock, queer punk), 7pm WXYZ BAR AT ALOFT Chandler Trio, 7pm SLY GROG LOUNGE Timbr Amps Unveiling, 8pm
SATURDAY, MAY 29
FALLOUT ART SPACE Comedy Campout featuring Sean Patton & Philo Reitzel, 6pm
OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. It Takes All Kinds Open Mic Night, 7pm
ODDITORIUM Party Foul Outdoor Drag Show, 7pm
THE JOINT NEXT DOOR Blue Monday w/Mr Jimmy (blues), 7:30pm
WXYZ BAR AT ALOFT DJ Phantom Pantone & Friends (dance), 1pm DJ Molly Parti, 7pm
SUNDAY, MAY 30 ASHEVILLE CLUB Mr Jimmy at the Asheville Club (blues), 3pm SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Perry Wing Combo (Appalachian, Americana), 3pm
BATTERY PARK BOOK EXCHANGE Dinah's Daydream (jazz), 5pm
HIGHLAND BREWING CO. Pleasure Chest (blues, soul, rock), 3pm
ISA’S FRENCH BISTRO James Hammel (solo acoustic), 5pm
RIVERSIDE RHAPSODY BEER CO. Thinkin' & Drinkin' Trivia w/Allie, 5:30pm
SLY GROG LOUNGE Asheville Throwdown: Nova Omega/Dying Oath/Haymaker/A War To Win/Strike The Tower (heavy metal), 5pm SWEETEN CREEK BREWING Knotty G’s (Mountain music, Soul), 5pm
SLY GROG LOUNGE Sly Grog Open Mic, 7pm
MONDAY, MAY 31 HIGHLAND BREWING CO. Totally Rad Trivia, 6pm
TUESDAY, JUNE 1 MAD CO. BREW HOUSE Open Mic Night, 6pm OKLAWAHA BREWING CO. Team Trivia, 7pm
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2 SLY GROG LOUNGE Wildstreet/John Kirby and the New Seniors/ The Analog Playback (metal, hard rock), 8pm
THURSDAY, JUNE 3 HAZEL ROBINSON AMPHITHEATRE Jerry Douglas Band w/ Fireside Collective (bluegrass), 6pm
FRIDAY, JUNE 4 FLEETWOOD'S Lavender Blue w/Computer Science (indie, alternative), 8pm
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FREEWILL ASTROLOGY ARIES (March 21-April 19): “Open your mouth only if what you are going to say is more beautiful than silence,” declares an Arab proverb. That’s a high standard to aspire to. Even at our very best, when we’re soaring with articulate vitality, it’s hard to be more beautiful than silence for more than, say, 50% of the time. But here’s a nice surprise: You could exceed that benchmark during the next three weeks. You’re primed to be extra expressive and interesting. When you speak, you could be more beautiful than silence as much as 80% of the time. TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Here’s the definition of an emotional support animal: “a companion animal that provides therapeutic benefit to a person with a mental or psychiatric disability.” I don’t mean to be flippant, but I think every one of us has at least one mental or psychiatric disability that would benefit from the company of an emotional support animal. If you were ever going to acquire such an ally, the coming weeks would be prime time to do so. I encourage you to also seek out other kinds of help and guidance and stimulation that you’d benefit from having. It’s the resource-gathering phase of your cycle. (P.S. Cesar Chavez said: “You are never strong enough that you don’t need help.”) GEMINI (May 21-June 20): A blogger named Valentine Cassius reports, “A tiny old woman came into the deli where I work and ordered a ’wonderful turkey sandwich.’ When asked what she wanted on the sandwich other than turkey, she said ’all of your most wonderful toppings.’” Here’s my response to that: The tiny old woman’s approach usually isn’t very effective. It’s almost always preferable to be very specific in knowing what you want and asking for it. But given the current astrological omens, I’ll make an exception for you in the next three weeks. I think you should be like the tiny old woman: Ask life, fate, people, spirits and gods to bring you all of their most wonderful toppings. CANCER (June 21-July 22): “I am tired of trying to hold things together that cannot be held,” testifies Cancerian novelist Erin Morgenstern. “Tired of trying to control what cannot be controlled.” Here’s good news for her and all Cancerians. You have cosmic permission to surrender — to no longer try to hold things together that can’t be held or try to control what can’t be controlled. Maybe in a few weeks you will have gained so much relaxed new wisdom that you’ll be inspired to make fresh attempts at holding together and controlling. But that’s not for you to worry and wonder about right now. Your assignment is to nurture your psychological and spiritual health by letting go. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Philosopher Georges Bataille wrote, “The lesson of Wuthering Heights, of Greek tragedy and, ultimately, of all religions, is that there is an instinctive tendency towards divine intoxication which the rational world of calculation cannot bear. This tendency is the opposite of Good. Good is based on common interest, which entails consideration of the future.” I’m going to dissent from Bataille’s view. I agree that we all have an instinctive longing for divine intoxication, but I believe that the rational world needs us to periodically fulfill our longing for divine intoxication. In fact, the rational world grows stale and begins to decay without these interludes. So the truth is that divine intoxication is crucial for the common good. I’m telling you this, Leo, because I think the coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to claim a healthy dose of divine intoxication. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Virgo actor Ingrid Bergman (1915–1982) won the most prestigious awards possible for her work in films, TV and theater: Oscars, Emmys and a Tony. She was intelligent, talented, and beautiful. Life was a challenge when she was growing up, though. She testified, “I was the shyest human ever invented but I had a lion inside me that wouldn’t shut up.” If you have a sleeping lion inside you, Virgo, I expect it to wake up soon. And if your inner lion is already wide awake and you have a decent relationship with it, I suspect it may soon begin to come into its fuller glory.
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LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran author Antonio Tabucchi described the frame of mind I recommend for you in the coming days. I hope you’ll be eager to embrace his far-reaching empathy. Like him, I trust you will expand your capacity to regard the whole world as your home. Here’s Tabucchi’s declaration: “Like a blazing comet, I’ve traversed infinite nights, interstellar spaces of the imagination, voluptuousness and fear. I’ve been a man, a woman, an old person, a little girl, I’ve been the crowds on the grand boulevards of the capital cities of the West, I’ve been the serene Buddha of the East. I’ve been the sun and the moon.” SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Author James Frey writes, “I used to think I was tough but then I realized I wasn’t. I was fragile and I wore thick armor. And I hurt people so they couldn’t hurt me. And I thought that was what being tough was, but it isn’t.” I agree with Frey. The behavior he describes has nothing to do with being tough. So what does? That’s important for you to think about, because the coming weeks will be an excellent time to be tough in the best senses of the word. Here are my definitions: Being tough means never letting people disrespect you or abuse you, even as you cultivate empathy for how wounded everyone is. Being tough means loving yourself with such unconditional grace that you never act unkind out of a neurotic need to over-defend yourself. Being tough means being a compassionate truth-teller. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Fragile intensity or intense fragility? Ferocious gentleness or gentle ferocity? Vulnerable strength or strong vulnerability? I suspect these will be some of the paradoxical themes with which you’ll be delicately wrestling in the coming days. Other possibilities: sensitive audacity or audacious sensitivity; fluidic fire or fiery fluidity; crazy wisdom or wise craziness; penetrating softness or soft penetration; shaky poise or poised shakiness. My advice is to regard rich complexities like these as blessings, not confusions or inconveniences. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Birds that live in cities have come up with an ingenious adaptation. They use humans’ abandoned cigarette butts to build their nests. Somehow they discovered that nicotine is an insecticide that dispels pests like fleas, lice and mites. Given your current astrological aspects, I’m guessing you could make metaphorically comparable adjustments in your own life. Are there ways you could use scraps and discards to your benefit? AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): A blogger named Raven testifies, “My heart is a toddler throwing a tantrum in a store, and my brain is the parent who continues to shop.” I’m pleased to inform you, Aquarius, that your heart will NOT act like that toddler in the coming weeks. In fact, I believe your heart will be like a sage elder with growing wisdom in the arts intimacy and tenderness. In my vision of your life, your heart will guide you better than maybe it ever has. Now here’s a message to your brain: Listen to your heart! PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): The Voyager 1 space probe, launched by NASA in 1977, is now more than 14 billion miles from Earth. In contrast, the farthest humans have ever penetrated into the ground is 7.62 miles. It’s the Kola Superdeep Borehole in northwest Russia. Metaphorically speaking, these facts provide an evocative metaphor for the following truth: Most humans feel more confident and expansive about exploring the outer world than their inner realms. But I hope that in the coming weeks you will buck that trend, as you break all previous records for curious and luxurious exploration into your deepest psychic depths.
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EMPLOYMENT GENERAL CUSTODIAN (FULL-TIME, SECOND SHIFT) Evergreen Community Charter School Responsibilities: care and maintenance of school buildings and facilities, general custodial and light groundskeeping work. For more information, go to http:// www.evergreenccs.org/ careers. FLORAL DESIGNER AT CAROLINA FLOWERS Carolina Flowers is seeking a professional Floral Designer with 2+ years experience to work at our headquarters in Marshall, NC. Focused on wedding and event work, including installations. Learn more and apply at carolinaflowers.com/jobs • www.carolinaflowers.com/jobs. PART-TIME GARDENER WANTED Looking for reliable, experience gardener for planting, weeding, digging, and garden maintenance. West Asheville, 5 - 10 hours a month, depending on season. Neighbor interested in adding hours as well. 828-779-2550.
HUMAN SERVICES
TALISMAN CAMP KITCHEN CREW Join a fun crew running our camp kitchen, serving kids with autism, ADHD. Prep, serving, sanitation. Reliable schedule, meals, possible boarding. South of HVL. Linda Tatsapaugh 828-779-2635. www.talismancamps.com.
PROFESSIONAL/ MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR OF EARLY CHILDHOOD PROGRAM OPERATIONS The JCC's Director of Early Childhood Program Operations is half of a co-director team leading Shalom Children's Center, a licensed 5-star program. This position manages personnel, scheduling, budget, and licensing. www. jcc-asheville.org/category/ employment/
TEACHING/ EDUCATION
COMPUTER/ TECHNICAL
A-B TECH IS HIRING A-B Tech is currently taking applications for a full-time position Communication Instructor. For more details and to apply: https://abtcc.peopleadmin.com/postings/5608
ACF TECHNOLOGIES, INC. SEEKING A TECHNICAL LOGISTIC SPECIALIST The Logistics Specialist will be responsible for shipping, receiving, and inventory of ACF equipment as well as setup/configuration and repair of equipment. tisa.bishop@ acftechnologies.com • https:// www.acftechnologies.com/
PART-TIME MUSIC TEACHER Hanger Hall is hiring a part-time music teacher to facilitate a fun, dynamic, choral based music class for 6th-8th grade girls for the 2021-2022 school year. Approximately 12 hours per week starting mid August 2021. Pay range 12-15K. Email a cover letter and resume to employment@hangerhall.org.
WARREN WILSON COLLEGE SEEKS ADJUNCT INSTRUCTOR FOR GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY Fall 2021 semester. Course must be taught on campus 2-3 days/ week. For more details and to apply, send cover letter and CV to jmozolic@warren-wilson. edu.
WILDERNESS THERAPY FT POSITION Blue Ridge Therapeutic Wilderness is hiring fulltime staff. Live and work in the wilderness. Teach outdoor living skills, mindfulness, and traditional therapy tools. For more information: nateo@ blueridgewilderness.com or www.blueridgewilderness. com.
ARTS/MEDIA
NEWS REPORTER WANTED Mountain Xpress is seeking an experienced reporter to join our team. You should have the chops to cover a wide range of issues of community concern, including local government and politics, the environment, community activism, education, economic issues, public safety, criminal justice and more. You must be able to craft stories that convey important, timely information and empower readers to take part in meaningful civic dialogue and effect change at the local level. Qualified applicants will have experience in news-writing, have social-media skills, write efficiently and enjoy a fast-paced news-gathering environment. Must have knowledge of Asheville and WNC, be community-minded, have a keen sense of fairness with respect for differing points of view and be committed to Xpress’ mission of community-based journalism. Flexible availability required to cover some after-hours meetings and weekend events. This is a full-time position with benefits. Send cover letter, resume and clips/links to xpressjob@ mountainx.com.
HOTEL/ HOSPITALITY The Room Keeper will be responsible for the general upkeep and cleaning of guest rooms and common areas of a 6-room property in Marshall. Our ideal team member would be a friendly, detail-oriented person with the ability to see the "small things", manage tasks and able to step in when needed. Learn more at oldmarshalljail.com/ jobs.
XCHANGE ESTATE SALES
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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.
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LEGAL STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF BUNCOMBE NOTICE TO CREDITORS State of North Carolina County of Buncombe IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE SUPERIOR COURT DIVISION BEFORE THE CLERK FILE NO.: 21 E 644 In the Matter of the Estate of Jann Morton Nance, Deceased. NOTICE TO CREDITORS James Lewis Nance, having qualified as Personal Representative of the Estate of Jann Morton Nance, deceased, hereby notifies all persons, firms or corporations having claims against the decedent to exhibit same to the said James Lewis Nance at the address below on or before August 16, 2021 or this Notice may be pleaded in bar of any payment or recovery of same. All persons indebted to said decedent will please make immediate payment to the undersigned at the address set out below. This is the 18th day of May, 2021. James Lewis Nance, Personal Representative Estate of Jann Morton Nance c/o KINCAID & ASSOC., PLLC 5215 Junction Circle, Suite 100 Wilmington, NC 28412
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 ARE YOU BEHIND $10K OR MORE ON YOUR TAXES? Stop wage & bank levies, liens & audits, unfiled tax returns, payroll issues, & resolve tax debt FAST. Call 855-955-0702 (Hours: Mon-Fri 7am-5pm PST) (AAN CAN) 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) DONATE YOUR CAR TO KIDS Your donation helps fund the search for missing children. Accepting Trucks, Motorcycles & RV’s , too! Fast Free Pickup – Running or Not - 24 Hour Response - Maximum Tax Donation – Call 877-266-0681 (AAN CAN)
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LEGAL NOTICES LAND OF SKY REGIONAL COUNCIL Land of Sky Regional Council shall hold a public hearing at the Council’s offices at 339 New Leicester Hwy, Suite 140, Asheville, NC 28806 at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 23 on the Council’s budget for the fiscal year-ended June 30, 2022. The preliminary budget has been submitted to the governing board and is available for public inspection at the Council’s offices. May 27, 2021
NOTICE OF PUBLICATION NOTICE TO Larry John King, heir of Mazie Chisolm King: In the above-styled civil action, it appearing by sworn complaint that your address is unknown and cannot be ascertained upon diligent inquiry, you are hereby given notice that on or before thirty (30) days following June 16, 2021, the last publication of this notice, you are hereby required to answer the Petition to Remove the Administrator and Petition to Sell Real Estate by filing your answer with the Chancery Court for Maury County, Tennessee and serving a copy on Plaintiff’s attorney, Ellen Zhang, 310 Great Circle Road, Nashville, TN 37243. Otherwise, NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Plaintiff will seek judgement by default against you and request that the Court
declare that you have been duly noticed and had no objection. A copy of this notice will be published four (4) times in the weekly newspaper, Mountain Xpress. This is the 26th day of May 2021. Ellen Zhang # 035713, Attorney for Plaintiff, Office of General Counsel, Division of TennCare, 310 Great Circle Road, Nashville, Tennessee 37243, (615) 532-1457.
MIND, BODY, SPIRIT 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) 2583229.
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edited by Will Shortz | No. 0421
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1 Put to shame 6 Muppet with a unibrow 10 Sci-fi sidekick … or a hint to 20and 34-Across 14 Sacrifices at the plate 15 Iris holder 16 Setting for a hootenanny 17 Lisa of “High Fidelity” 18 Like old wood in new furniture, maybe 20 Star of the “Deadpool” films 22 “Yippee!” 23 Sch. in Greenwich Village 24 Web portal with the Bing search engine 27 Singer/songwriter DiFranco 29 Some do-si-do partners 32 Goddess and ruler of the witches in “Macbeth” 34 Postmodern novelist who wrote “White Noise” 37 Plains tribe members 38 Trig ratio 39 Little Jack Horner’s Christmas treat 40 Director Eastwood 41 Stink 42 Fashion icon with a numbered fragrance 44 Dive deep 46 K, in the NATO alphabet 47 Test for a future Ph.D. 48 “___ out!” 49 Switch positions 51 Popular holiday gift of 2001 53 Stand-up comedian who voiced Remy in “Ratatouille” 58 “Nice wheels!” 61 Winner of seven Tonys in 1977 62 Hole punchers
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DOWN 1 E.g., e.g. 2 Hearten 3 Likely inspiration for Meryl Streep’s character in “The Devil Wears Prada” 4 Shorthand writer, for short 5 Hormone administered in some transgender therapies 6 Suppress, as a negative story 7 Deadlocked 8 Fact-finding mission, informally 9 Fox hunter’s cry 10 Stat for a D.H. 11 When clocks “spring forward” for daylight saving time 12 Beats by ___
13 Silver medalist’s place 19 Together, in music 21 And others, in a list 24 Birds of paradise do a spectacular one 25 Type who’s prone to “the munchies” 26 Spoon, say 27 Promotional text 28 Noggin 30 T’ang dynasty poet 31 Nifty 33 Pop variety 35 “Rats!” 36 First of 13 popes 40 Heavy-duty cutters 42 Innermost
43 Muse of history 45 Best ever, acronymically 50 Michael of R.E.M. 52 Embrace something embarrassing 53 100 centavos 54 Some are Sapphic 55 Coming right up 56 Problems that come to a head? 57 Color on Jacksonville Jaguar uniforms 58 Anatomical pouch 59 Conflict in many postapocalyptic narratives, for short 60 Rapper who’s half of Run the Jewels
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS NY TIMES PUZZLE C A M R A M E O P E R B O N E M A L T
O B O E
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Waste Management is
Now Hiring a Heavy Construction Equipment Mechanic Located in Arden, NC $5,000 Retention Bonus MOUNTAINX.COM
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