Smoky Mountain News | February 07, 2024

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February 7-13, 2024 Vol. 25 Iss. 37

Macon Schools approvep naloxone Page 12 Conservation groups file suit over timber project Page 28

CONTENTS

STAFF

On the Cover: Out of the dozens of candidates for statewide office, only three are from Western North Carolina, and none are from the far-western counties. The Smoky Mountain News talked with two candidates — who also happen to be two of the 11 women running for statewide office — as well as a local political expert, who explains why it is harder for candidates in this region to get their name out there. (Page 6)

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

JCPS studies health of schools as it plans for the future ........................................4 Primary Election voter registration deadline draws near ..........................................5 Downtown Waynesville Commission tunes up for ’24 ............................................8 EBCI approves applications to expand trust lands....................................................9 Haywood selected for teaching fellow pilot program ............................................11 Macon schools approve naloxone policy....................................................................12 Tribal member to lead Kituwah LLC ............................................................................13 Opposition to Haywood jail project, although minor, still lingers ........................14

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Outdoors

Smoky Mountain News

February 7-13, 2024

Conservation groups file suit over Plateau timber project ....................................28 Notes from a plant nerd: Barking up the right tree..................................................34

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Answer: It’s great that your mother is living independentlyy. Making it easy for her to get the food and nutrition she needs when n she doesn’ doesn’t feel like cooking IS very important. Some things that you could make sure she has on hand for those days:

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State of the schools Fairview School is a top priority for Jackson County. JCPS photo

JCPS studies health of schools as it plans for the future

BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER facilities study for Jackson County Schools that will help inform capital improvements for years to come found several schools in the county are overcrowded, something administration and school board members hope a traditional middle school will help alleviate.

“I’m going to remind you that the number one item on our priority list is the cafeteria and classroom space at Fairview; the number two item is a traditional middle school,” Superintendent Dana Ayers told the school board during its Jan. 23 meeting.

Over a year ago, in discussion with the county commission, the school board named a traditional middle school as a top budget priority, second only to expansion at Fairview School that would create space for a cafeteria.

In order to move that process along, the school system contracted with Clark Nexsen architectural firm for a facilities study to determine the health of schools in the county and create a plan for needed upgrades. The county funded the study in its 2023-24 budget.

And while a middle school is a top priority for the school system, the planning process was intended to investigate appropriate use of space for classrooms and labs for all students and develop a master plan for athletic facilities at Smoky Mountain High School. Other needs within the school system addressed in the study include a new bus garage, erosion control at Scotts Creek and Blue Ridge School gym and performance space.

Jackson County Schools is unique among The Smoky Mountain News’ four-county coverage area — Haywood,

Smoky Mountain News

February 7-13, 2024

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Jackson, Macon, and Swain counties, along with the Qualla Boundary — in that it does not have a typical middle school that exclusively serves sixth- through eighth-graders. Instead, there are four K-8 schools, serving almost 800 middle grade students — Fairview, Cullowhee Valley, Smokey Mountain Elementary and Scotts Creek.

“I’m very pleased with the quality of the infrastructure that you have here,” said Chad Roberson of Clark Nexsen in his presentation to the board. “Everything ranked average to above average [according to DPI standards] so I think that’s wonderful for the ages of the structures that you have in here.”

Part of the study included utilization scores for each school, which determines a percentage, based on how many square feet of a building are actually occupied by students.

Jackson County schools had very high utilization scores throughout the school system, with every school, besides Scotts Creek, scoring over 100%. This means that schools are utilizing spaces that weren’t originally intended to be classroom space as classroom space.

For instance, in an ideal calculation, student capacity at Cullowhee Valley School would never be over 529. There are currently 604 students enrolled.

“Consistently, what we saw was K-5 was super utilized,” said Roberson. “More K-5 classrooms than the space profile indicates, and 6-8 consistently are missing multiple science classrooms and CTE components that you would typically have in a middle school environment … you guys are using every square inch of a lot of these buildings.”

At Smokey Mountain Elementary, 100% capacity is 315 students, and there are currently 350 students enrolled.

Fariview has 137 more students than its total capacity.

“Fairview is definitely the [school] that is most challenged,” said Roberson.

Additionally, the study found that the cafeteria is under-

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sized by a minimum of 1,000 square feet, and the kitchen is roughly 40% of the size it should be.

Additionally, the Fairview school building scored below average in accessibility.

“Where the existing cafeteria is, the location of the utilities back there, drainage in that area, a lot of the extra components are difficult to get to. Accessibility is pretty much nonexistent in those areas,” said Roberson.

The county’s bus garage will also need to be replaced eventually as it is a very old structure and doesn’t have adequate space to work on the vehicles. However, the study did find that it could likely be replaced on its current site.

According to Roberson, Blue Ridge School and Early College needs upgrades to its kitchen area and serving line.

“That needs to be addressed some time in your priority list,” said Roberson. “You’re serving students in the egress corridor, and that’s generally not a good idea.”

Fairview School scored below average on handicapped accessibility.

Clark Nexson photo

As far as the athletic facility assessment, the school system has been looking at ADA upgrades to the football stadium, as well as improvements to the press box, accommodations for restrooms and concession stands.

The current stadium site is not large enough to accommodate an 8-lane track and field without substantial renovations to the stadium, so the study investigated where such a track could fit on campus.

Additionally, it looked at improvements

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schedule, in 2024 JCPS would need to fund design efforts for Fariview and Blue Ridge schools, and start due diligence on the middle school site, with the goal of tentatively starting design efforts for the middle school in 2025.

“The challenge with pushing these so they’re sequential is your middle school costs will become enormous,” said Roberson. “Basically, every seven to 10 years, the value of your schools are doubling to build new schools.”

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for the baseball field and incorporating a softball field on campus.

The existing baseball field resides in a floodplain and is situated about 20 feet lower than the football stadium.

The study found that a typical eightlane track could fit in the field on the north side of campus. Additionally, the baseball field could be reoriented to add a softball field just to the east. The field house over the football stadium could be renovated to include restrooms and concession stands to support the baseball field, as well as upgrades to the football stadium.

Overall, the study found that Fairview is the highest priority for the school system, with the need for a new kitchen, cafeteria and at least six classrooms, as well as ADA compliance throughout the school and site.

The Cherokee Indian Police Department has determined the identity of the person whose remains were found in an open field Tuesday, Jan. 2, but it’s not disclosing any information about the individual beyond that the person was male.

“The family has been notified and to respect their wishes, the Cherokee Indian Police Department will not be releasing the deceased’s name,” reads a Jan. 25 post to the CIPD Facebook page.

In responding to an email from The Smoky Mountain News, the CIPD declined to release other, non-identifying information about the

Roberson estimated that 10 years from now, JCPS would be looking at $200 million for a middle school.

“That’s a very big number to rationalize,” he said. “It was not long ago that we were building middle schools for $40 million and now they’re $100 million.”

The Jackson County School Board and the Jackson County Commission will hold a joint meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 8, to discuss JCPS operations and the school system’s budget needs for the coming fiscal year. The study by Clark Nexsen is intended to help inform those decisions. deceased as well, including his date of death, age, race or place of residence. The department also declined to answer whether the death is believed to be the result of a murder, suicide, accident, medical emergency or other cause, and whether any criminal investigation is ongoing associated with the death.

The situation was first made public in a CIPD Facebook post made at 5:42 p.m. Jan. 2 notifying the community that CIPD officers were on scene near the Casino Trail area on the Qualla Boundary, where human remains had been discovered in an open field earlier that afternoon. At that time, the CIPD said that the situation did not represent a threat to the community and noted that no identification had been made and the investigation was ongoing. Later that evening, the CIPD announced that the remains had been determined to belong to a male.

— Holly Kays, Staff Writer

Smoky Mountain News

Human remains found in Cherokee; police decline to release identity

The potential design scheme for Smoky Mountain High School athletic facilities includes an 8-lane track and other upgrades. Clark Nexson photo February 7-13, 2024

Renovations for the football stadium include the ADA upgrades, as well as additions to the press box to hold restrooms, concession stands, green room and coaches’ area.

Overall, the study found that Fairview is the highest priority for the school system, with the need for a new kitchen, cafeteria and at least six classrooms, as well as ADA compliance throughout the school and site.

Next, the school system has been recommended to address Blue Ridge School’s kitchen and serving line, study possible sites for a future middle school, develop a plan for backfilling existing schools and address Smoky Mountain High School athletics.

Clark Nexsen outlined a possible fiveyear timeline for the school system to address these projects. According to that

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Women and westerners rare on North Carolina’s statewide ballots

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS E DITOR orth Carolina’s Primary Election season is underway, and nearly five dozen candidates have filed to run for statewide offices from governor on down through the council of state. But as has been the case for decades, there are few women candidates and even fewer candidates from the western part of the state.

Former state Sen. Deanna Ballard (RWatauga), who is running for lieutenant governor, happens to be both. Ballard is one of just three non-judicial statewide candidates from Western North Carolina out of 57 who’ve filed for the November General Election.

She served as a senator from 2016 through 2022, when she lost her Primary race to fellow Republican Sen. Ralph Hise (RMitchell) because the two were drawn together after the most recent round of redistricting. During that time, Ballard worked in a governmental affairs role for Boone nonprofit Samaritan’s Purse, but recently left to start her own consulting firm.

Prior to that, she served in the George W. Bush White House doing advance work and scheduling both for Bush and First Lady Laura, while routinely interacting with the National Security Council, Secret Service, various ambassadors and foreign ministers — quite a resume for a North Carolina girl who grew up in a logging family.

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Ballard is the first woman from the west to run for lieutenant governor since then-Asheville Democratic Sen. Terry Van Duyn placed second in the 2020 Primary Election.

Smoky Mountain News

“I did spend a lot of time with dad, climbing up in the logging trucks and riding to the paper mills with him,” Ballard said.

“By the time I was 12, my dad had taught me how to sharpen the teeth of chainsaws.”

The White House is a long way from Watauga County, but so is Raleigh, where North Carolina’s governor and other statewide officials conduct business. It’s also worlds away, metaphorically speaking, from the mountain culture that dominates a vast swath of North Carolina.

“You’re dealing a lot more with multigenerational families that really kind of stay close-knit. Communities are very neighborly in a supportive way. When you have a need, there are folks that jump in and are willing to assist. So many small businesses, family 6 businesses and a lot of hard work rooted in

the concept [that] there’s dignity in work, putting your hands to use and getting up and going to a job every day,” said Ballard.

“There’s a lot of strength, maybe unassuming strength, underneath some of that, too.”

That kind of work ethic is critical to representing the needs of a rural, rugged region that sometimes feels overlooked.

western lieutenant governor since Walter H. Dalton, of Rutherford County, in 2008. She would also continue her advocacy for the west, she tells The Smoky Mountain News.

“I still think it’s important to keep telling the story,” Ballard said. “It’s also a story of resiliency and I think that’s a pretty powerful story to tell.”

extensively as a board member and committee chair for the NLC, does acknowledge the challenges that come with breaking into Raleigh’s somewhat chummy scene.

“I don’t like this word, but you’re not in the ‘clique,’ so you’re going to have to do extra work just to get people from Charlotte to the coast to even know who you are,” she said.

Running for statewide office means lots of meetings and events, mostly in the eastern part of the state, and that means lots of travel time — both Ballard and Booker can count on a four-hour drive to Raleigh.

“If I had to put a bottom line on it, I’ve had someone say to me, ‘You’re over there in that little tiny place,’ and they don’t just mean Tryon, they mean over here in the western part of North Carolina, kind of tucked away,” Booker said. “It’s hard to get visibility. The thing with Tryon … I have to actually say the word ‘Asheville’ for people to have an idea of where I am in North Carolina. That makes a difference to a lot of people in our state.”

Booker hopes to be the first western governor in nearly 50 years

Deanna Balllard “You have to kind of have an innate sense of urgency, you have to have a lot of good intuition and instincts about the people serving and what their real needs are,” she said. “That comes through listening and talking with them and being with them on the ground, and then going to Raleigh and really just saying, ‘Hey, here’s what’s going on. We need help with this.’”

That’s exactly what Ballard did when she was called upon to use her logging background to step in as an outside party to help with Haywood County’s response to the closing of Pactiv Evergreen’s paper mill in Canton last year. She coordinated with local leaders on weekly calls and helped compile what she called a coordinated ask that resulted in millions in funding for Canton and county institutions.

“Growing up a daughter of a logger, I understand the paper mill business and how that works, and how it’s also a domino effect on other sawmills and yards regionally,” she said. “I was honored to be asked to kind of come in and just help facilitate some conversations and manage a few projects here and there for them. Great people, great local leadership. Everyone came together in a unified effort and that was really sweet to be to be a part of.”

Ballard is the first woman from the west to run for lieutenant governor since thenAsheville Democratic Sen. Terry Van Duyn placed second in the 2020 Primary Election.

If Ballard wins her Primary Election and then the General, she would be the first

Chrelle Booker emocrat Chrelle Booker, a Polk County native, has been telling her town’s story as a member of Tryon’s governing board since 2017 and as its mayor pro tem since 2019. She also happens to be a woman, running for governor, and is the westernmost statewide candidate in this year’s Primary Election.

After studying radio and television broadcasting at Isothermal Community College, Booker now works as the school television station’s one-person legal and human resources department. She’s also a licensed realtor and is the immediate past president of the National League of Cities’ Women in Municipal Government caucus.

Booker said that as an elected official from the west, she’s had generally good results when working for Tryon with other elected officials on a state and national level, including locals like Rep. Jake Johnson (R-Polk) and Sen. Tim Moffitt (RHenderson).

“Personally, I haven’t had any issues,” she said. “I found that they have been very helpful and resourceful in my personal conversations with them, and not just the ones that are dedicated to our [Polk County] districts. You know, the entire General Assembly is supposed to work with all of us, in a sense, so I’ve talked to some that were not from this district. I’ve tested that, and it was a beautiful conversation. Even if they’re not in your district, you can still get the answers you need.”

But Booker, who’s traveled the country

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Since 1776, North Carolina’s 69 governors have served 75 terms. During that time, the west has been well-represented, although not lately.

David Lowry Swain was born near Asheville and served from 1832 to 1835.

Zebulon Vance, of Weaverville, served from 1862 to 1865 and then again from 1877 to 1879. Tod Robinson Caldwell, born in Morganton, served from 1872 to 1874.

Locke Craig, a Bertie County native who settled in Asheville, served from 1913 to 1917. Oliver Max Gardner, from Shelby, served from 1929 to 1933. Dan K. Moore, a Sylva lawyer and former counsel for Champion Paper in Canton, served from 1965 to 1969, James Holshouser, of Boone, was the last governor from the west and served from 1973 to 1977.

Booker hopes to be the first western governor in nearly 50 years, and knows what would be different about a governor from the West.

“Well, we probably have more of an accent,” she laughed. “I think that what I would bring is the fact that over here in the western part of the state, we are more hands-on, and we do try to help each other out as citizens. I think that the entire state itself will be a better place as far as getting what we need even outside of government.

If we take care of ourselves and our neighbors, in a sense it will put less stress on the government or our officials. So my platform is really about people, partnerships and unlimited possibilities.” hris Cooper, the Madison Distinguished Professor and Director of the Haire Institute for Public

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Prospective voters who haven’t registered can do so in person at their county board of elections office or at their local DMV before 5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 9, which is likewise the deadline to change party affiliation. It’s also a good time to update your address if it’s changed since the last election.

Online applications, with a North Carolina driver’s license, are also accepted. There is an option to register by mail; however, with the deadline at hand it’s perhaps best to find another way.

Visit ncsbe.gov/registering to learn more about how to register.

Take note of voter qualifications and have proper proof-of-identity documents ready, to make your registration process quick and easy.

For registered voters — check your address, party affiliation, polling place (some have changed) and preview a sample ballot by visiting vt.ncsbe.gov/reglkup.

The civilian voter registration deadline for the March 5 Primary Election is rapidly approaching, so now’s a good time to doublecheck your registration or register to vote if you already haven’t.

A slew of candidates seeking local and statewide offices — including governor and every member of North Carolina’s council of state — are up this year, along with congressional and presidential candidates from major parties.

Democrats, Libertarians and Republicans must vote in their party’s primary; however, unaffiliated voters may choose which party’s ballot to use.

Absentee ballots are already being mailed out to registered voters who’ve requested them; get yours at votebymail.ncsbe.gov before 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 27.

In-person early voting for the March 5 Primary Election begins on Thursday, Feb. 15, and continues through 3 p.m. on March 2.

Find your site at vt.ncsbe.gov/evsite.

North Carolina does provide the option to register to vote in person for some during the early voting period. Voters must have resided in the county no less than 30 days. There’s also an option to register and vote in person, on Election Day. Voters and members of the military who are overseas or away from home face different requirements and different deadlines.

For all election-related questions, visit ncsbe.gov.

Smoky Mountain News

Primary Election voter registration deadline draws near

February 7-13, 2024

We’ll kind of just sacrifice our own credit if means credit ernment. for someone else, because at the end of the day it’s like, The first woman was elected to Congress in 1917, but ‘Whatever, the good’s been done.’” there have been only 375 women elected to the 435-memThere’s also the influence of traditional gender roles — ber House of Representatives since then. The House didn’t which matter somewhat less today than they did when get its first female speaker, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, until Elizabeth Cady Stanton became the first woman to run for 2007 and didn’t even get its first female restroom until Congress in 1866, but still matter.

2011.

“It’s really kind of hard to find a balanced or civilized As of last November, there were 126 women serving in pace of life in this world and I think women do tend to the House, or about 29%. kind of carry more of the responsibilities and the load of There have only ever been 34 elected female state govkeeping the fires burning at home,” Ballard said. “I’m not ernors, including Palin and current GOP presidential conmarried. I have no kids. I really just put my whole heart tender Nikki Haley. An additional three women succeeded and my whole self into the work that I do and I think that’s their husbands, and 11 others took office through constitutional succession. As of late 2023, there were a record 12 why I feel like the Lord has called me into this line of service, because he knows I’m not necessarily wrestling all the women governors serving at one time. time with these other commitments. I’m really beholden North Carolina’s only female governor, Democrat Bev to the good of the people.”

Perdue, served from 2009 to 2013.

In state legislatures across the country, numbers are similar.

Western North Carolina has produced According to the its share of governors, but not lately.

Center for American File photo Women and Politics at Rutgers University, the percentage of women in state legislatures was just 10.8% in 1980 but has grown to 32.7% in 2024, with 2,420 women serving out of a total of 7,386 seats.

Nevada (60.3%) is the only state where the legislature is majorityfemale, but Arizona and Colorado are close.

North Carolina’s 16 female senators and 32 female representatives Booker said she hasn’t faced too many challenges as a put the 120-member General Assembly at 40%, still far woman in government, but in her experience, she thinks from the parity one might expect for a demographic that that the women she’s talked to and served with focus more makes up 54% of the state’s 6.9 million registered voters. on the ugliness of national politics to the detriment of That’s a bigger issue than it seems, according to state and even local opportunities.

Cooper, who cited it as the lack of a pipeline where future “They think that’s what all government is — get a candidates can gain the experience and the exposure they bunch of people together and just have an argument. It’s need to take their careers to the next level. hard to convince them otherwise,” she said. “I have to tell “There are other ways to run for statewide office, but them, ‘No, we’re talking about local here,’ or ‘We’re talking General Assembly is the best worn path,” Cooper said. about our state,’ and so you have to kind of not look at “And we’re sitting at about one in every four members of the General Assembly is a woman. So that’s a big problem. that [federal] level. It’s going to discourage you from getting into a race where you think you can make that town or There’s not a whole lot of folks there. The problem is they don’t run for office in the first place so part of it is political that city or that state better.”

It’s a vicious cycle, one that Booker says can be broken parties don’t tend to contact women as much. There’s if more women become involved. some just inherent sexism built into the system.”

“One of the things I advocate for is more women at Ballard mentioned the challenges women face in all least running,” she said. “And if even if you don’t win that industries, including government. office, you have other women that are looking at you and “Sometimes you work twice as hard just to get maybe they’re saying, ‘I’ll try that.’ if I’m not elected, I feel like I the recognition,” she said. “We’re less quick to own somestill have done my part.” thing than I think even some gentlemen are sometimes.

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Policy at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, believes there are some simple reasons why there aren’t as many statewide candidates coming from the west, and why it’s harder for them to win.

“It’s two things,” Cooper said. “It’s math and media.”

The math part is about lower population densities in the west.

“If you’re mayor of the city of Asheville, for example, you’ve been a mayor over roughly 100,000 voters,” he said.

“If you’re mayor of Charlotte, you’re mayor of over a million voters, so the incumbency advantage you have from being from a bigger place elsewhere is just very difficult to surpass.”

The media part, while similar to the math part, is also about spreading major campaign ad buys across multiple out-of-state television markets like Atlanta, Chattanooga and Knoxville in addition to those in Asheville, Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh.

“Even if you’re a Zeb Smathers [Canton’s mayor] punching above your weight for your size municipality, you’re just not getting in front of that many eyeballs,” said Cooper. “Whereas if Zeb Smathers were mayor of a similarly situated town near Raleigh or near Charlotte or even near Greensboro, a lot more eyeballs would be seeing his face and his aviator sunglasses.”

Smathers’ father, former Canton Mayor Pat Smathers, placed third in the 2008 Democratic Primary Election for lieutenant governor using the slogan, “Local leadership, statewide.”

Lacy Thornburg, of Whittier, served as North Carolina Attorney General from 1985 to 1992, when he lost the Democratic Primary for governor to Jim Hunt, who would go on to win his second non-consecutive term that November.

Former McDowell County Republican legislator Josh Dobson was elected labor commissioner in 2020 but isn’t seeking reelection in the current cycle.

Ballard and Booker are two of the three western candidates running for gubernatorial or council of state offices in North Carolina’s Primary Election this year, the third being David Wheeler, of Spruce Pine, for insurance commissioner.

Ballard and Booker are also two of the 11 women — six Republicans and five Democrats — running alongside 46 other candidates. Women, as a whole, have experienced a number of glass-ceiling moments since Democrat Geraldine Ferraro became the first major party female nominee for vice president in 1984.

Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor, was the female Republican VP nominee in 2008, but both Ferraro and Palin were unsuccessful alongside respective running mates Walter Mondale and John McCain.

In 2016, Democrat Hillary Clinton became the first major party female nominee for president, however it was fellow Democrat and current VP Kamala Harris who in 2020 became the highest-ranking woman ever elected in the United States.

But statistics show there are still a number of barriers to be broken for women, especially in lower levels of gov-

— Cory Vaillancourt, politics editor 7

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Downtown Waynesville Commission tunes up for ‘24

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS E DITOR he Downtown Waynesville Commission has had two years to get on its feet since its predecessor organization imploded. Now, after trying to “build the plane while flying it,” in the words of Chair Jay Spiro, the organization that administers the town’s municipal service district is setting goals and assessing its strengths and weaknesses to tune up for the coming year.

“I think we’ve made some big strides,” said Beth Gilmore, executive director of the DWC, during an annual planning workshop on Jan. 24.

The downtown municipal service district is a defined area where property owners have opted to pay an additional 19 cents per $100 in assessed value in property taxes to help fund beautification activities, which at their core are really economic development activities.

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Downtown Waynesville Commission special events for 2024 & 2025

operations. The DWC’s accrediting organization, the NC Main Street and Rural Planning Center, recently updated its best practices standards, so the DWC was tasked with a selfassessment in six areas.

The weakest of the six areas was about fostering a broadbased community commitment to revitalization. In this arena, creating a culture of inclusion through partnerships, collaborations, community outreach and engagement from all quarters of the community is critical to success.

Although the DWC clearly has strong partnerships with local government — it’s now town-affiliated, unlike its predecessor — it’s less so with private businesses as well as with the two churches that bracket the district, per discussions in the workshop.

One thing the DWC and its predecessor share, according to the self-assessment, is that demonstrating the result of their actions and their funding has been difficult.

The Downtown Waynesville Association administers property tax revenue collected from property owners.

Smoky Mountain News

February 7-13, 2024

File photo

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This year, the DWC appears to be taking a more aggressive approach to economic development — not just hosting the annual festivals for which they’re mostly recognized.

During the workshop, board members tweaked their three main goals to reflect that approach.

First, the DWC plans to increase sales tax revenue generated within the municipal service district by 10% through economic activity that directly or indirectly ties back to outdoor recreation.

Next, the DWC wants to establish criteria for designating an “Appalachian True” certification for locally or regionally made handcrafted goods. That could help with the goal of increasing sales tax revenues.

Finally, the DWC seeks to squash the assumption that there’s nothing for locals on Main Street by spending a minimum of 50% of the annual $20,000 advertising budget to highlight the availability of goods and services that can be purchased from a locally-owned small business instead of from a big box store or online retailer. That could also help with sales tax revenues, especially off-season.

Waynesville Town Council Member Jon Feichter, the town’s representative on the DWC board, pushed for 100%, reasoning that the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority already spends hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on regional or national advertising campaigns that bring visitors to the county and the town.

Those goals are ambitious, but to accomplish them, the DWC will first look inwards at its own organization and

“The community by and large doesn’t know a lot about us,” Gilmore said. “There are people who think we’re [just] here to put on special events. I think we have room to grow in a lot of areas.”

For fiscal year 2024, the town estimates it will appropriate a total of $106,400 in MSD property tax revenues to the DWC, along with a supplemental appropriation of $82,780.

The appropriation is discretionary, meaning it could increase, decrease or disappear based solely on the will of Council.

Tracking, packaging and demonstrating both the quantitative and the qualitative impact of the DWC is critical to maintaining funding.

To that end, a community forum will be scheduled for March, where DWC officials will both talk, and listen. A summer meeting of property owners was also discussed.

Two areas where the DWC fared better but could improve are in implementing more preservation-based economic development programs and diversifying its funding streams.

Preservation-based economic development utilizes a community’s place-based and cultural assets. Preserving those assets is important, and can be accomplished with preservation ordinances, design standards and incentives.

The forthcoming dedication of the new Waynesville arch, tentatively scheduled for June 1, will be a big step in augmenting that place-based development strategy, as will a grant-funded mural going into the narrow alleyway that

All events are tentative and subject to change.

January Downtown Waynesville Ice Stroll February Love the Locals April Appalachian Heritage Weekend First Fridays Art After Dark (monthly through December) May May Live Music Saturdays (monthly through October) June Mountain Street Dance (monthly through August) October Church Street Art & Craft Show October Apple Harvest Festival October Treats on the Street November Annual Tree Lighting December Waynesville Christmas Parade December A Smoky Mountain Christmas

connects Main Street to Wall Street.

Diversifying its funding streams, however, will be more difficult and could be a political decision.

Feichter said he would either push for an increase in the MSD’s property tax rate, or push to stay slightly above revenue-neutral when the next countywide property revaluation goes into effect in 2025. During the last revaluation, when values soared, the town actually lowered the MSD’s tax rate by a penny to maintain a relatively revenue-neutral budget.

Aside from property tax revenues and supplemental appropriations, the DWC spent last year developing a brand and expects to push it out more this year with the potential for merchandise sales.

No matter how successful the brand, it won’t suddenly become a major revenue center, so DWC wants to spend more time focusing on grants — especially now that the town has a dedicated grants administrator.

Gilmore also asked about the possibility of founding a non-profit, similar to the Haywood County Schools Foundation, that could accept donations and help with fundraising and volunteer recruitment.

Among the strongest areas of the DWC were in its inclusive leadership and organizational capabilities and in its strategy-driven programming.

Strategy-driven programming includes the periodic revision of medium- and long-range plans based on marketinformed input so the yearly work plan can be proactive, rather than reactive. Several issues from last year’s retreat — like expansion — remain in limbo, but others, like merchandising, are moving forward.

The DWC plans to increase sales tax revenue generated within the municipal service district by 10% through economic activity that directly or indirectly ties back to outdoor recreation.

On inclusivity, the DWC’s governing board is diverse in that it’s comprised of business owners, property owners, government officials and residents, but the board did lose some ethnic diversity with the recent departure of two board members.

As the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and its enrolled members are increasingly investing in areas outside the Qualla Boundary, the lack of Cherokee representation was also noted. Nothing was said about LGBTQ+ representation.

BY HOLLY KAYS lands. In addition to the two applications STAFF WRITER voted on last week, there are six other prophe Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians erties for which the tribe plans to submit will ask the federal government to take fee-to-trust applications, Lambert said.

38.2 acres in Graham and Swain counMost are smaller acreages and ready for the ties into federal trust following unanimous application process to begin, but a few of votes from Tribal Council Thursday, Feb. 1. them require further discussion.

The properties include a 32.45-acre tract One such property is known as Little in Graham County, located off Tapoco Road Snowbird Creek. At 794 acres, it’s much just southeast of Lake Santeetlah, and a larger than any of the other properties the 5.75-acre tract in the Charleston Township tribe is currently eyeing for fee-to-trust of Swain County, abutting the Qualla applications. At issue is whether the tribe Boundary at Birdtown. The Graham County should seek to have the entire parcel placed parcel is intended as the future site of a cultural and language facility.

The tribe owns many properties off reservation lands in the same way that the average property owner would — a property goes up for sale, a price is offered, and a contract signed.

Having a property taken into trust is something else entirely.

Essentially, it means that the federal government Located at the southeastern end of Lake Santeetlah, a 32.45-acre tract holds the land for in Graham County, shown here as the large parcel south of the river, the benefit of the will likely be the site of a new Cherokee cultural and language facility. tribe. The property Graham County GIS image becomes part of the tribe’s territory, where its own laws take precedence and its into trust or only part of it, as deeded land government has jurisdiction, not that of the could offer more flexibility depending on state or county where it is located. It is no what the tribe wished to do with the proplonger part of the city or county tax roll and erty in the future. cannot be sold to the highest bidder as is Another complicated case is the properthe case with deeded land. ty currently home to the Sequoyah The fee-to-trust process has historicalBirthplace Museum, Chota Memorial and ly been a long and arduous one, but a fedTanasi Memori in Monroe County, eral regulation change adopted in Tennessee. For years, the tribe has fought to December 2023 is expected to result in a have the property, much of which is owned much faster turnaround from the estimatby the Tennessee Valley Authority, returned ed 985 days fee-to-trust application decito tribal ownership through congressional sions had previously required. action. But those efforts have not been suc“Now with the new rules, it’s cut down cessful. to 120,” said Realty Law Clerk Nelson “We’ve got some tie-ups with TVA that Lambert. “So we should have all these we’re going to have to have further discusthings back to you fully in the tribe’s sions with on those,” Lambert told Council. name in trust for the tribe within four These efforts follow a pair of high-promonths.” file land-to-trust successes that followed That clock will start once the tribe fordecades of frustratingly fruitless efforts. In mally submits its application — the resoluOctober 2021, 309 acres at Kituwah in tions passed last week were just one part of Swain County, known as Mother Town to the application package, and the realty the Cherokee people, became part of the office still has more work to do before it can tribe’s federal trust lands — 25 years after submit a complete application. The legislathe EBCI had first purchased the deed and tion also requires a signature from Principal seven years after it submitted its initial Chief Michell Hicks, who submitted them application to place the land in trust. Soon for approval, to become effective. afterward, the tribe received approval to These properties are not the only ones bring 345 acres at Cooper’s Creek into trust. that the EBCI hopes to add to its trust As for Kituwah, the initial application had

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EBCI approves applications to expand trust lands

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February 7-13, 2024 Smoky Mountain News 9

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Haywood selected for Teaching Fellows pilot program

BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER tudents in Haywood County who want to be educators will have a new opportunity that could help pay for college after the school district was chosen for a new Teaching Fellows pilot program that emphasizes local recruitment.

“The hope is that we’ll get a bunch of kids that will come back, and they’ll teach in Haywood County,” said Haywood County Schools Assistant Superintendent Jill Barker.

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that want to be teachers.

As part of the pilot initiative, students will receive professional development support in conjunction with the Teaching Fellows program. The goal is to identify and train emerging teachers from pools including secondary schools, current employees, or non-traditional sectors.

“We could say, ‘hey, if you’ll come back and work in Haywood County, we can pay up to X amount of your school, as long as you come back and you give us three years after you graduate in Haywood County,” said Barker.

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HCS will recruit its own students to come back and teach in the district. File photo

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The North Carolina Teaching Fellows program was reinstated in 2018 after a seven-year hiatus. It allows North Carolina students the opportunity to study at one of 10 educator programs and receive financial aid in return for working as a public educator in North Carolina for the same number of years the financial award was given.

Now, the University of North Carolina system is running a pilot initiative for a more local, district-level teaching fellowship program. The Teaching Fellows Commission has selected 20 public school districts to receive $50,000 recruitment grants in 2024 to promote teaching fellows and the teaching profession.

The new program is part of an effort to create a pipeline of applicants and potential teachers to work in North Carolina districts that face recruitment and retention challenges. Districts were selected for the pilot program based on their interest in building a grow-your-own teacher program.

“Because rural districts and districts that have a hard time recruiting teachers because of districts nearby that pay more and have bigger supplements, they wanted to do some grow-your-own programs and try it out as a pilot,” said Barker. “We were interested in that.”

Haywood County schools will receive $50,000 a year for three years to be used within the high schools to recruit students

So while North Carolina Teaching Fellows receive financial aid in return for teaching anywhere in the state, this more localized program offers assistance in return for coming back to a student’s specific county to teach.

“We were accepted for [the program], so we are very thankful for that,” said Barker. “We’ll have to plan our grow-yourown program within our high schools, trying to identify kids that want to be teachers.”

Haywood County will have the opportunity to recruit students currently in high school, as well as students who previously graduated in the county and are already attending a college or university with sights on education. According to Barker, HCS will have a fair amount of freedom to design the program so that it best fits the needs of the county and its students.

“A lot of our kids want to be teachers, but they don’t apply to Teaching Fellows because none of our local universities have a Teaching Fellows program,” Barker said.

“They’re mostly in schools that are farther east, so a lot of our kids don’t apply to Teaching Fellows because if they don’t want to leave this area, they don’t do that. This is a way to try to give them some incentive.”

The only other county in the western district selected as part of the pilot program was Henderson County.

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Macon schools approve naloxone policy

BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER he Macon County School Board has approved a policy for emergency use of naloxone, an opioid inhibitor, within the school system. The board approved the policy on an expedited schedule due to the life-and-death nature of its content.

“It may be the difference between life and death for a possible student,” Chairman Jim Breedlove said during a December discussion on the issue.

The board first discussed a policy for the emergency use of naloxone during its December meeting. At the school board’s Jan. 22 meeting, Board Attorney John Henning brought a completed policy back before the board and presented board members with the opportunity to approve it more quickly than typical policy decisions.

“I can completely see the logic of, if we’re on board with this and we believe it’s a lifesaver and we want to go ahead and administer it in our schools when it’s required and necessary, I’d be completely comfortable with a motion to adopt it,” said Board Attorney John Henning. “Bypass our second reading and adopt this tonight.”

According to Henning, several parties have inquired with him over the years about whether the school system should have a policy for administering Narcan, a brand of

February 7-13, 2024

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Macon County School Board. File photo the medication naloxone which acts as an antagonist to opioids in the body. When someone is experiencing an overdose of opioids and their systems are failing, Narcan can be administered, interfering with the opioid’s ability to bind to neurons and quickly stopping the overdose process.

“There are two things that, from a legal standpoint, favor erring on the side of administering Narcan if you find somebody who you think is in need of it,” Henning told the board in December. “One, there’s a good Samaritan law, and if you’re in good faith trying to help somebody, you’re not really subject to civil process, you’re not going to be subject to the criminal process and all

that. Two, is that [Narcan] does not affect people that don’t have opioids in their system.”

Of the two policies Henning brought before the board at its January meeting, he said the Narcan policy was more fully developed. It was modeled after a policy that has been adopted by both Cabarrus County Schools and Jackson County Schools in North Carolina.

Jackson County Schools adopted its policy in spring of last year after the Jackson County Department of Public Health received a grant to prevent opioid use and overdose. The grant allowed for the purchase of naloxone and training for staff. According

to its policy, each school principal was responsible for designating one or more school personnel to receive training annually from a school nurse, or other qualified representative of the health department, on storage and emergency use. “[This policy is] a little more thorough in what it says we’re asking our administration to do in terms of defining who’s going to do it,” Henning told the board. “First off, it is still preferred that the school nursing staff administer it if possible.”

If nursing staff is not available, there will be other staff within the school who are trained to administer the medication.

“As I told you in December, I’m pretty comfortable with administration of it if it’s an emergency situation, especially if you have somebody who knows what it is and how to do it,” Henning said. “The downsides are pretty minimal compared to saving somebody’s life.”

According to Superintendent Josh Lynch, the proposed policy was discussed at a recent principals meeting, and no one had any qualms with the proposal.

“They knew training would then follow,” said Lynch.

Board member Melissa Evans inquired as to whether naloxone could be administered in the school system prior to the school board’s adoption of the

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Tribal member to lead Kituwah LLC

Samuel Owl. Donated photo “As we welcome Samuel, we are confident that his unique vision, coupled with his strategic thinking and proven leadership skills, will lead Kituwah LLC into a new era of growth and success,” reads a press release from Kituwah LLC. “His appointment comes after an extensive search process, and it reflects the Board’s commitment to driving the company’s strategic objectives and maximizing value for our tribe, employees and customers.”

Established in 2018, Kituwah, LLC is an economic development enterprise wholly owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Involved in property development, entertainment, hospitality and professional services. Kituwah, LLC has several subsidiaries including Kituwah Hospitality, Kituwah Marketing and Kituwah Projects.

around naloxone but made clear that by adopting a policy around its administration, school districts are in no way encouraging or even excusing drug use.

“You’re not encouraging anybody to use drugs,” Henning said. “That’s not what this is about. It’s about saving lives when they become endangered by those things that we certainly are against and have always been against and will continue to educate against.”

School board members agreed that the policy should be expedited so that more staff would be available and trained to administer naloxone within the school system.

Evans made the motion to approve the policy and it was accepted unanimously.

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“You’re not encouraging anybody to use drugs.

That’s not what this is about. It’s about saving lives when they become endangered by those things that we certainly are against and have always been against and will continue to educate against.”

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February 7-13, 2024

policy.

Henning told the board that naloxone was available through school resource officers, first responders and potentially through school nurses who are contracted through the school system but are not school employees. However, school nurses who are school employees don’t have marching orders to administer the medication.

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Following the departure of Mark Hubble, who has led Kituwah LLC as its CEO since it was formed in 2018, Kituwah Economic Development Board member Samuel Owl will take the reins. Owl, a tribal member from the Wolftown community, is a Certified Public Accountant with 20 years of experience in accounting, consulting and leadership. For the past six years, he has been employed with CliftonLarsonAllen, most recently serving as principal of the tribal services practice. Previous experience includes eight years as chief financial officer for the National Congress of American Indians in the Washington, D.C., area. In addition to being a Chartered Global Management Accountant, he holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s of accountancy, accounting and business management, both from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.

“I look forward to advancing the path to continued growth and prosperity for the EBCI set by the Kituwah staff and Board,” Owl said. “The success of our various companies will be instrumental in the long-term sustainability and benefit of our people. I am grateful to have the support and commitment of our team and community as we expand our boundaries and opportunities.”

Owl was hired following a “comprehensive” search to fill the position, according to a press release. He will step down from his seat on the KEDB Board, where he has served since the board’s inception, on March 1 to take on the CEO role.

— John Henning

The policy will make naloxone even more readily available when it is needed.

During the December meeting Henning noted that there can be a social stigma

brian noland@ brian.noland@ @allentate.com lentate com File photo

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Opposition to Haywood jail project, although minor, still lingers

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS E DITOR aywood County commissioners took another step toward their multi-million dollar jail expansion last week, and although much has changed since a report issued more than three years ago recommended the project, much has not.

“I wanted to state my opposition to the expansion of the jail,” said Joslyn Schaefer, a Haywood County resident. “I want to highlight the beginning benefits that we’re starting to see with the drug court, which I know isn’t under your jurisdiction but I’m hoping that that will continue to grow in its success. And I also wanted to note that as we struggle from time to time with a higher [jail population] census, I wonder if that couldn’t be kind of a bellwether for us to wonder what’s going on and other pockets of our community and how can we work together with community partners and strengthen families and schools.”

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“I wanted to state my opposition to the expansion of the jail. I want to highlight the beginning benefits that we’re starting to see with the drug court, which I know isn’t under your jurisdiction but I’m hoping that that will continue to grow in its success.”

February 7-13, 2024

— Joslyn Schaefer

Schafer, who spoke at the Feb. 5 commission meeting, was preceded by another Haywood County resident, Susan Trahan, who expressed deeper concerns over the long-term financial ramifications of borrowing for construction and of budgeting for staffing once it’s open.

“I feel strongly that the future growth in Haywood County should not be based on housing detained people, and I urge you to consider alternative solutions to this issue,” Trahan said.

Haywood sheriff: No foul play in Clyde crawlspace death

A Clyde man who’d been missing since Oct. 29 of last year and was found dead in a crawl space last month likely died of an overdose, Haywood County Sheriff Bill Wilke said.

On Oct. 29, 2023, Joshua Lee Wayne Seagraves was reported missing to the Haywood County Sheriff ’s Office. He was last seen on Oct. 14, 2023, and at the time of his disappearance, a probation officer was seeking him for a postrelease check. An investigation commenced, and several interviews took place to determine his whereabouts.

Multiple probation checks were attempted at the residence after Mr. Seagraves was reported missing.

A press release sent out by the sheriff ’s office states that investigators conducted a canvas of the neighborhood, along with multiple interviews with several persons of interest.

“The investigation to that point concerning the whereabouts of Joshua Seagraves was found to be based solely on rumors and speculation with no supporting evidence,” the release reads.

On Jan. 26, Seagraves was discovered deceased under the crawl space of his last known location at 167 James St., in Clyde, a duplex, by a maintenance worker. The area was sealed and vented to disperse moisture and air from under 14 the house to the outside in a way that made any odor unde-

Smoky Mountain News

The minor opposition is a far cry from when the possibility of jail expansion was first mentioned in a November 2020 report from the Haywood County Sheriff ’s Office that cited capacity concerns.

On Jan. 4, 2021, a small crowd gathered outside the Historic Haywood Courthouse to voice opposition to the jail, instead positing that it would be better to spend the money on treating mental health issues and substance use disorder.

The next month, speakers at a commission meeting again urged commissioners to consider combating the drivers of incarceration. Three months after that, speakers again asked that the $16 million be spent in other ways.

In the meantime, COVID-19 and inflation conspired to delay the project until April 2022, when commissioners moved forward by selecting an architect.

The amount of opposition, however, isn’t the only thing that’s changed since the project was first proposed. Vannoy Construction, the contractor selected for the project, advised the county that the guaranteed maximum price now stands at $27.5 million, well above the original $16 million estimate.

That $27.5 million doesn’t include so-called “soft costs” the county has already paid for, including approximately $1.8 million for the architect and additional fees for legal work and soil testing. County Manager Bryant Morehead said he’d have a firm number on those soft costs soon, but he estimated the total was under $2.5 million.

Morehead went on to address some of Trahan’s concerns about staffing cost but added that those costs were still years away from impacting the budget.

“We know that we’ll have to phase in employees,” Morehead said. “I haven’t talked with the sheriff yet … if we start and we’re hoping to start [construction] the end of or middle of March, that build is going to be about 18 months if everything goes according to plan, so it will actually be fiscal year 2026, maybe into 2027 as we start to fund operating [costs].”

An increase in utility costs and insurance will accompany the project, but those costs — in addition to staffing — will depend on jail population.

At least some of the $27.5 million cost also includes upgrades to the existing jail, including a new roof as well as security upgrades.

Sheriff Bill Wilke addressed members of the local media on Feb. 6. Kyle Perrotti photo tectable until the crawl space was opened.

“Once discovered, our office was contacted, and a search warrant was obtained,” the release reads. “A thorough processing of the scene revealed evidence that Mr. Seagraves was deceased in the crawl space for a period of time consistent with the last time he was seen. He had his wallet in his pock-

“Most of that’s for safety,” said Commission Chairman Kevin Ensley. “For employees, and then for the inmates.”

The jail discussion came in the context of a public hearing required for the county to craft an initial findings resolution for submission to the Local Government Commission, under the auspices of North Carolina Treasurer Dale Folwell’s office.

The LGC is an oversight body that provides resources and guidance to more than a thousand local government units in the state on issues like budgeting and borrowing.

In a nutshell, the initial findings resolution confirms that it is the will of Haywood commissioners to authorize staff to begin the process of borrowing the funds necessary for construction, as the county does not have the money laying around and can’t just whip out its checkbook and pay cash for the project.

At the next meeting of the Haywood County Board of Commissioners, scheduled for Feb. 19, the initial findings resolution will be on the agenda for approval. Morehead said that at that time, he’d have solid numbers on the out-ofpocket costs the county has already paid. et, and nearby was a small empty baggie, a straw, a lighter and a syringe with a small amount of clear liquid still in it. There is no evidence to indicate that Mr. Seagraves came into the crawl space by any means other than his own willful actions.”

An autopsy performed on Jan. 29 revealed there were no signs of blunt force trauma or inflicted wounds to the body of Mr. Seagraves, nor was there any other evidence of foul play. Toxicology results have not yet been determined, and during a brief press conference, Wilke said he did not yet know the specific cause and manner of death.

“Since elected Sheriff, my commitment to stopping the scourge of illicit drug use remains unwavering, in large part because of tragedies such as this. My heartfelt condolences go out to the family and true friends of Josh Seagraves, and I pray they may find peace in the near future,” Wilke said in the release. “As for those suffering from addiction, there is help. Reach out. We have a programs manager that can lead you to the road of recovery. We work and hope for happy and productive lives for all of our citizens.

“As for those engaged in the sale or use of illegal drugs, stop now, or stay out of Haywood County. We will find you.

We will prosecute you. You will spend as much time as I can get a court of law to place you in prison for, so that the pain and heartache of a loss such as this does not find its way into another Haywood County family.”

news February 7-13, 2024

Smoky Mountain News

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Education

Smoky Mountain News

Massage program clinic opens for spring semester The Therapeutic Massage program at Southwestern Community College has opened its learning clinic for the spring semester to allow its first-year students to practice their studies.

The clinic is open to the public, and a 50-minute massage by a student costs $20. Appointments are available on Tuesdays at noon, 1:15 p.m., 2:45 p.m. and 4 p.m.

To book an appointment, visit massagebook.com or call 828.339.4313. For information about the Therapeutic Massage program, visit southwesterncc.edu.

SCC Therapeutic Massage instructor Jennifer Burgess (left) offers guidance to student Stephanie Ortiz Ruiz of Franklin on proper shoulder massage techniques.

Donated photo

Jackson County NAACP announces scholarship The Jackson County Branch of the NAACP announces the 2024 Leroy Jackson Memorial Scholarship, which was established by the branch to honor the contributions of Mr. Jackson in promoting an equitable and inclusive society.

The Jackson County NAACP Diversity Scholarship is a one-time scholarship awarded to public high school seniors planning to attend a college or university in preparation for a professional career beginning in fall 2024.

Preference will be given to those who demonstrate that they are committed to promoting a diverse, equitable, inclusive and just society and who exhibit a financial need. In 2024, the Jackson County NAACP will award two winners.

The winning recipients will each receive $3,000 for first-year college expenses.

The application deadline is Feb. 28, 2024, and award notifications will be sent out by March 28, 2024.

A link to the online scholarship application can be found at the Jackson County NAACP website at jacksonncnaacp.org.

WCU spring enrollment shows positive growth, retention rate For the first time since 2020, total headcount enrollment climbed at WCU, with the spring semester total enrollment numbers topping out at 10,742, which is an increase of almost 200 students compared to spring 2023.

In the inaugural fall 2018 and 2019 terms of N.C. Promise, WCU enrolled its two largest firstyear cohorts ever and successive years of record-

setting enrollment elevated those levels, but then the COVID-19 pandemic ushered in a recruitment and retention drought.

Total spring enrollment crested in January 2020 and total fall enrollment crested in August 2020. Headcount enrollment began receding in 2021, fueled in part by the record-setting, prepandemic entering classes that began graduating in record numbers.

Fall first-year enrollment bottomed out in fall 2021 (1,745) but rose in Fall 2022 (1,947). In fall 2023, WCU enrolled the second largest first-year cohort ever (2,108), second only to the inaugural year of N.C. Promise which was fall 2018 with 2,237 students.

As the pandemic abated, the flow of new undergraduate enrollment tributaries began to swell.

WCU has experienced increases in transfer student enrollment for four successive fall semesters and four successive spring semesters. Fall-tospring, first-year retention rates have rebounded for successive spring semesters as well with spring 2022: 86.5%; spring 2023: 87.1%; and spring 2024 with about nine out of ten students returning at 89.9%.

Western Carolina University. He retired from the North Carolina public schools as the principal at Enka High and the South Carolina public schools as the chief operations officer in Lexington School District Two. Also joining the board is Paula Kahn of Bristol, Virginia. Paula Corbin Kahn attended Mars Hill on a basketball scholarship and graduated in 1979 with a degree in education. She subsequently attended Western Carolina University and received master’s and education specialist degrees. Kahn spent several years as a teacher, coach and school administrator. She was elected to the Halls of Fame at Mars Hill College and Franklin High School for playing basketball, and the Jackson County, North Carolina, Hall of Fame for coaching.

Trustees Wayne Higgins of Weaverville, and Gene Holdway of Greer, South Carolina, are beginning their second consecutive four-year terms, while Mike Cranford of Fuquay-Varina, and Mike Kelly of Mason, Ohio, are returning to board service.

Brent Townsend of Tyrone, Georgia, begins a term as chair of the board. Other officers are Anna Renfro of Gastonia, as vice-chair; Higgins as treasurer; and Paul Powell of Greensboro as secretary.

Mars Hill University STEAM receives grant for announces new trustees after-school program Mars Hill University begins 2024 with new leadership on its governing body. The university’s board of trustees welcomes two new trustees, two trustees serving their second consecutive term, and two former trustees returning to service following required time off the board.

Don Icenhower of Weaverville, North Carolina, is one of the new trustees. He is an alumnus of Mars Hill’s class of 1980 and was a standout on the basketball team, scoring more than 1,000 points. He also holds two master’s degrees from

The SkillSet program at UNC Asheville’s STEAM Studio received its largest grant to date from Dogwood Health Trust, amounting to $499,860 over five years, in order to expand the reach and impact of the program’s out of school-time programming.

SkillSet was founded in 2018 and hosted its first after-school programming in 2019, with the focus of addressing the gender gap in science, technology, engineering, arts and math (STEAM)

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fields and trades. The program has since expanded to include a wider audience of learners but is still underpinned by the idea that under-represented people should be taught STEAM skills so communities can be designed and built by the diverse people who live in them.

The grant will allow Skillset to expand off-site by funding the purchase of a cargo van for the purpose of bringing equipment and staff to local schools for classes and after-school programming.

SkillSet currently works with Partnership for Appalachian Girls Education at Madison County Middle, hosts an elective class at Hanger Hall Middle and works with In Real Life (IRL) afterschool programming at Asheville Middle.

The grant will also go toward funding a bilingual full-time employee to work in collaboration with SkillSet Coordinator Amanda Simons in expanding programming to migrant and Englishlearning communities.

Several student employees who will help develop curriculum and teach the classes will also be funded by the grant, with the hope of training future educators.

Being employed with SkillSet allows UNC Asheville students to solidify their own understanding of material relevant to them by engaging with younger students and learn short-term programming organization and teaching skills, all while being paid a competitive wage.

Having student workers assist with the classes not only engages college students with the community but also gives younger students someone to connect with and see their future in.

To find out more about SkillSet visit steamstudio.unca.edu/programs/skillset/.

Free tuition opportunity at SCC North Carolina residents from households making $80,000 or less may qualify for a new scholarship opportunity that covers all tuition and fees at Southwestern Community College starting this fall.

The Next NC Scholarship is a financial aid program that helps qualified individuals by providing $3,000 – enough to cover all tuition and fees for a full year at SCC with enough left over to assist with books, food or housing.

To become eligible, current and prospective students need only fill out the FAFSA form.

“One of the best things about this is students won’t have to repay any of the money they receive,” said Dr. Mark Ellison, dean of students at Southwestern. “It’s also nice that students aren’t required to complete any additional paperwork other than the FAFSA, which is something they’re required to fill out anyway. Upon filling out the FAFSA, if students are eligible, they will receive the Next NC Scholarship.”

Anyone interested in taking advantage of this opportunity can fill out the FAFSA at tinyurl.com/yr69t7pp.

To learn more about the Next NC Scholarship, visit nextncscholarship.org. To learn more about Southwestern and the career fields it offers, visit southwesterncc.edu, call 828.339.4000 or drop by your nearest SCC location.

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Opinion

Smoky Mountain News

Cherokee courts ‘underserve’ the EBCI’s members

BY RAYMOND D. LARGE G UEST COLUMNIST y name is Raymond D. Large III, Esq., known to most as Rady [Ray-Dee]. I am an Appalachian-American, an attorney in good standing with the North Carolina State Bar, a former assistant district attorney for the 43rd Prosecutorial District of North Carolina, a participating adjunct professor of business law at Western Carolina University concentrating in individual rights and liberties, and most importantly, an ardent and sworn defender of the Constitution of the United States and the North Carolina State Constitution.

I manage my own law practice — Raymond Large Law, PLLC — in my native home of Sylva in Jackson County. In 2018 I was admitted to the Tribal Court Bar and have practiced in that court to the best of my abilities to this date. I no longer have any pending cases or clients in the Tribal Courts of the EBCI. First and foremost, my words in this letter do not in any

M

Registering ‘Unaffiliated’ is a wise choice To the Editor: I am confused as to why anyone in a state like North Carolina, with semi-closed primaries, would affiliate with a party when registering. In the 2016 election cycle approximately 4.5 million North Carolinians voted in the General Election, while in the combined primaries only around 2.3 million of us participated. The math is straightforward: 2.2 million North Carolinians, many of them registered Democrats, didn’t find the 2016 primaries terribly consequential. Had those voters been capable of participating in the Republican primary, would they have?

Currently, registered Democrats and Republicans can only vote in their party’s primary, while unaffiliated voters can vote in either primary in a given election cycle. If you’re an 11th District Democrat who has been disenfranchised through gerrymandering, choosing “Unaffiliated” will allow you to participate in the Republican primaries when you feel it necessary, allowing you to vote for centrists, or at the least, against extremists or the wholly unqualified. An informed, thoughtful electorate capable of expressing themselves more vociferously at the ballot box is the bane of either party at this point in history and might force them to be more thoughtful about the candidates they push.

Affiliating with a party in North Carolina diminishes your voice by barring you from one party’s nomination process, which makes you entirely inconsequential in heavily gerrymandered districts. It also makes the work easy for those who created our gerrymandered districts in the first place by clearly documenting how you’re likely to vote and where

way represent my clients or my employer of Western Carolina University.

In my experience with the Tribal Court system, I have come to a conclusion that the current governmental system woefully underserves the citizens of the EBCI. There is no separation of the powers in the current charter and government of the EBCI that allows the courts, the judiciary, to function independently from the executive (chief and vice chief ) and the legislative (the Tribal Council) branches. As long as the EBCI Court is held to the whims of the Tribal Council and chief/vice chief, there cannot be a functioning court that imparts true justice to the EBCI. Tribal prosecutors, judges and court staff cannot make truly independent decisions while under the fear or threat of reprisal, sanction or termination of employment by the influence or direction of the legislative or executive branch.

It is my opinion that the people of the EBCI must demand a constitution that separates the branches of government in the interest of justice for the people of the EBCI.

LETTERS exactly you live. Registering as “Unaffiliated” allows you to participate more widely and anonymously in the election process and have greater influence over who ultimately wins office. Should it not be worth your time to vote in the Democratic primary in a given cycle, perhaps it’s worth your time to vote in the Republican. And vice versa.

Primary elections have consequences, and whoever is the next president, senator, U.S. or state representative or state auditor should serve us all, or at the least, not threaten half of us. Maintaining your party affiliation on paper both facilitates the delineation of gerrymandered districts and makes it more likely that thoughtless, plain dumb or overtly bigoted candidates will emerge from either side and win a General Election. Unaffiliating from either party puts pressure on both parties to do better. Feb. 9 is the last day you can switch your party registration to “Unaffiliated,” which might be necessary in order to meaningfully participate in the March 5 primary.

Jarred Tanksley Lake Junaluska

Let’s keep politics and religion separate To the Editor: This week a friend posted a Will Rogers quote from 1931 that is certainly relevant today. “Ten men in our country could buy the whole world and ten million can’t buy enough to eat.” I find it a fascinating fact that it was approximately 66 years between the Wright brothers’ first flight and man landing on the moon. In comparison, I find it horrifying that with all the advancements in our country dur-

I am just a white lawyer from Sylva and I claim no Cherokee ancestry. This change must come from the resiliency and the steadfast determination of the EBCI citizenry.

For my part, in protest of this continued injustice that I have witnessed and lived through: I pledge unto these good people of the EBCI that I will not practice in the EBCI court system nor intentionally of my own volition set foot upon the Qualla Boundary or other EBCI lands until the people of the EBCI demand and exact this change upon the tribal government as is their natural right.

I would be burdened and remiss if I did not take this opportunity to apologize on behalf of my ancestors that participated in and benefited from the forcible removal of the Cherokee from Appalachia. On behalf of myself and my line that stretches back to the beginning … we are truly ashamed and sorry for the genocidal struggle that we forced upon the Cherokee.

In continuing unity and peaceful co-existence: may justice and prosperity come upon all people of America and Appalachia like wildfire.

ing the 91 years after this quote, estimates found 44.2 million Americans did not have enough food to eat in 2022. That number has, of course, grown larger in the last two years. What does this say about us, the richest country in the world?

Let’s put aside discussions of the 1% and the fascinating trickle up for the moment.

Let’s go to church. We are constantly being bombarded lately by politicians’ talking points saying we are a Christian nation and using Christianity in order to push their agendas. Many churches are involved in the political process like I’ve never seen before. They are steadily pushing, and getting passed, changes in laws that affect every one of us, not just the people who share their beliefs. Some of these changes take away fellow citizen’s rights.

To maintain tax-exempt status, churches are not allowed to lobby and participate in politics, yet many are doing so. Their tax privilege was partially based on the fact they are expected to use those tax savings to help their fellow man with charity. You know, the kind of stuff Jesus talked about? Current estimates are that U.S. faith-based institutions account for a combined revenue of more than $378 billion per year. It is estimated that it would currently take $25 billion to end hunger in America.

That’s right, if we are looking at income from religious institutions as a group, only 7% of the annual faith-based, tax-free, income would do the job. I acknowledge this is a very complex problem that isn’t easily solved by just whipping out a checkbook. But aren’t those numbers embarrassing? They should be. That being said, I know that there are many churches and many individual Christians who do their part and so much more. There are also many non-Christians

that do their part and so much more. One role of the church is charity — politics is not and should not be.

I was raised in the Baptist church. There are dozens and dozens of Baptist denominations alone in America, each with their own tenets of belief, otherwise there wouldn’t be separate sects. Estimates say there are over 10,000 recognized religions worldwide and about 32% of those are Christian. In the U.S. approximately 74% of recognized religions are Christian denominations.

The separation of church and state in this country is to protect all of us and enable us, as Americans, our right to worship our beliefs as we choose. When that wall of separation falls, it endangers the privilege for all of us, regardless of our beliefs. Our country was founded to give people religious freedom. They were trying to escape those in power telling them how to worship. Not being allowed your choice of worship is the actual definition of religious persecution — a phrase which is frequently misused as a dog whistle for political purposes in today’s America. No one has been denied their legal right to be a Christian.

Most of our founding fathers considered themselves Deists, not Christian. They believed in God but not Revelations. They also believed, though not Christian themselves, that a true Christian should be free to worship as they wished. They created the Constitution using both the ideas of The Enlightenment and obviously the ideas concerning humanity and its framework of guidelines for morality, etc., largely based on the teachings of Christianity.

The Constitutional right to religious freedom has served as a beacon to the world since our country was founded. We find ourselves at a big crossroads today where some people

LOOKING FOR OPINIONS: THE SMOKY MOUNTAIN NEWS ENCOURAGES READERS TO EXPRESS THEIR OPINIONS THROUGH LETTERS TO THE EDITOR OR GUEST COLUMNS. ALL VIEWPOINTS ARE WELCOME. SEND TO SCOTT MCLEOD AT INFO@SMOKYMOUNTAINNEWS.COM., FAX TO 828.452.3585, OR MAIL TO PO BOX 629, WAYNESVILLE, NC, 28786.

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Christian Nationalist are two very different things. One of them is going to tell you what you are allowed to do based on their tenets of faith, not yours. I pray that enough people soon learn the difference before it’s too late.

Deb Rhinehart Waynesville

Chris Cox

are trying to destroy those religious rights for their fellow citizens. I want to clarify that I respect and honor everyone’s right to worship as they see fit. Or, the right to not worship, if that is the case. We all deserve the same privilege of that right as it is given in the Constitution. A Christian and a

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Smoky Mountain News

in addition to being an English teacher, things can get even weirder.

I have had people ask me on several occasions to proofread books that they have written, some of them hundreds of pages long, hundreds of handwritten pages that were not entirely legible. For all I know, it could have been the great American novel. Or it could have been a book about placentae.

Several others have asked me to write their books for them. One woman told me that she would be willing to just tell me stories about her family and I could just write them down. Sounds like a lot, but I will perhaps never forgive myself for not doing that very thing with my own grandparents.

Perhaps I am just being unrealistic or unfair. For all I know, this kind of thing may be much more common than I realize.

Maybe if you are a doctor, for example, you are accustomed to being asked to “have a look at this place on my back” the first time you meet someone?

Maybe if you’re a lumberjack, some person you just met at party will ask you if you mind popping over in the morning to fell a diseased oak?

If you’re an accountant, you may very well meet people regularly who ask for help filing their taxes within minutes of making your acquaintance.

I am not necessarily against moving toward a more transactional social compact, especially since I am not usually offered anything for whatever services have been requested of me.

Perhaps some kind of barter system would work. If you’re a massage therapist, I will proofread your letter to the editor in exchange for 30 minutes of deep tissue massage. Yeah, that could work.

On the other hand, I tried a variation of this recently with my neighbor, who not only let us use his truck, but helped us move a washer and dryer that we bought from some friends.

“Look, Steve,” I said. “If you ever get into a tough spot with a dangling participle or need any help sorting out indefinite pronouns, please give me a call.”

“Appreciate it,” he said. “I think I’m OK with that stuff, but I have been thinking about this idea I had for a book, a kind of genealogy of my family going back to the seventeenth century. Of course, I’m no writer.”

“I’d love to help, Steve, really I would, but this situation with my gall bladder …”

(Chris Cox is a teacher and writer who lives in Haywood County. jchriscox@live.com.)

February 7-13, 2024

I really don’t like telling people that I teach English for a living.

Maybe it’s different for you, but my experience has been that when I tell people what I do, it changes the way they treat me, and the way they talk to me and what they expect from me.

Invariably, when I tell people I am an English teacher, they’ll say, “Well, I guess I better watch what I say around YOU!” Suddenly, the budding relationship between us has subColumnist tly shifted. The world is suddenly a classroom and they are now defensive pupils, self-conscious and not fully prepared for the conversation we are having.

Very likely, this is a sub-conscious spasm of guilt for not having read “The Red Badge of Courage” in the eighth grade, but relying on the Cliffs Notes instead to eke out a “C” on their term paper.

Whatever it is, suddenly I am cast as the scold, the hall monitor, the custodian of sentence fragments and subject/verb agreement. Do people really believe that I am silently evaluating their dialogue, secretly assigning grades in my little mental gradebook, marking their errors in indelible red ink on the blackboard of my own mind?

“Oh, don’t you worry at all,” I’ll say. “I’m off the clock.”

Fairly often, when people find out I teach English, they see it as an invitation to make use of my services, as if I might appreciate the opportunity to get some extra practice doing what I do.

“My niece is taking this course called anatomy and something-or-other over at the college and has been busting her tail on a 15-page research paper on placenta,” they’ll say. “But she hates writing, thinks it’s stupid. Would you mind looking it over and giving her some tips?”

It’s not that I have any grudge against the niece, nor any objection to placenta per se. Some of my favorite people were formed in it. Even so, I would rather cut and stack a cord of wood than read one paragraph of that paper.

So, I do the honorable thing and lie about needing gall bladder surgery, while also recommending the “absolutely tremendous” tutoring program over at the college. `When people find out I am also a writer

-Ricky Joe G.

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A&E

Smoky Mountain News

‘Sing and Swing: Our American Songbook’ Renowned composers, musicians to play WCU S PECIAL TO SMN special production of “Jazz at Lincoln Center Presents” — a celebration of the Great American Songbook and iconic partnerships in jazz — with “Sing and Swing: Our American Songbook” will be performed Thursday, Feb. 29, at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee.

The North American tour will feature trumpeters and vocalists, as well as composers Bria Skonberg and Benny Benack III. The production will reach 45 cities across the United States and Canada, including major markets such as Los Angeles, California, and Toronto, Ontario.

“We’re both fans of the classic songbook era and the artists that made it possible. The fact that we’re still playing these songs 75 to 100 years after they were written is a testament to their quality,” Skonberg said. “Naturally, we gravitated towards the great pairings of trumpet players and vocalists, like Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald or Louis Prima and Keely Smith — we’ve listened to that music as long as we have played the trumpet.”

Benack and Skonberg will lead a talented group featuring Jocelyn Gould (guitar), Mathis Picard (piano), Mark Lewandowski (bass) and Charles Goold (drums) The repertoire, noted co-leader Benack, will include songs such as Duke Ellington’s classic “In a Mellow Tone,” a duet featuring Skonberg on trumpet and vocals, featured in his most recent album, “Third Time’s the Charm”; Comes Love,” a nod to the inimitable Louis and Ella; “Banana Split for My Baby,” a cheeky swinger by Louis Prima and Keely Smith; and “I’m Glad There is You,” a classic by Sarah Vaughan and Clifford Brown.

“There’re a lot of familiar songs that people know and love. But, we have put fresh arrangements on these songs. And Bria and I also have some of our brand-new original material inspired by this era’s music,” Benack said. “We wanted to have a modern take on the songwriting form, so we have some of that, as well — you keep the music fresh by adding your experiences and making it relatable to the audience before you.”

It is part of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s mission “to entertain, enrich, and expand a global community for jazz through performance, education, and advocacy.” As part of those efforts, the “Sing and Swing: Our American Songbook” tour will include an educational component in selected cities, with Cullowhee included on that list.

A

“I didn’t grow up in a big city. I grew up in a small town,” said Skonberg, a native of Chilliwack, British Columbia. “There was no way that anything from Jazz at Lincoln Center would come there. It will be a real pleasure to connect with people from different towns along the way — it’s going to be a joy to get to spread the word.”

U2 and Sun Ra Arkestra to the nation’s top symphony orchestras.

Skonberg’s music has also garnered tens of millions of streams worldwide. The Juno Award winner’s seventh studio album, “What it Means,” which was recorded in New Orleans, Louisiana, with the Crescent City’s finest, will be released in Fall 2024.

Western Carolina University will host an intimate evening of American standards on Feb. 29.

Benny Benack III. Matt Baker photo

Called “one of the most versatile and imposing musicians of her generation” by the Wall Street Journal, Skonberg is a singular talent, one who has performed with everyone from Jon Batiste, Wycliffe Gordon,

Camps.

In addition, Skonberg has presented hundreds of concerts and clinics for students of all ages, both independently and on behalf of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Jazz House Kids and the Louis Armstrong House Museum.

Benack, part of a family of Pittsburgh,

Want to go?

“Sing and Swing: Our American Songbook” will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, Feb. 29, in the Bardo Arts Center at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee.

Tickets for “Sing and Swing: Our American Songbook” are $25 for adults, $20 for senior citizens (age 65 and older) and WCU faculty/staff, $15 for students/children (nonWCU) and $5 for WCU students. Doors open at 7 p.m.

For more information on the event and/or to purchase tickets, click on arts.wcu.edu/sing-swing.

The daughter of teachers, Skonberg is deeply committed to education. She is the co-founder and director of the New York Hot Jazz Camp and has served as faculty at the Teagarden, Centrum, and Geri Allen Jazz

Pennsylvania, jazz notables, follows in the footsteps of his grandfather, trumpeter and bandleader Benny Benack, Sr. (1921-1986) and his father Benny Benack, Jr., a saxophonist and clarinetist who gave young Benny his first professional experience.

An Emmy-nominated trumpeter and vocalist, Benack (affectionately known as BB3) was recognized in the 2022 DownBeat Critics Poll as a “Rising Star Male Vocalist” and a top “Rising Star Trumpeter.”

Benack has also performed internationally as an emcee/host for Postmodern Jukebox and appeared as a trumpet soloist for Josh Groban, Diplo, fashion icon Isaac Mizrahi, as well as cabaret legends such as Marilyn Maye, Melissa Errico and Ann Hampton Callaway.

To that, Benack has been a featured guest with the Pittsburgh Symphony Pops Orchestra and the Columbus Jazz Orchestra.

His TV credits include appearances in the house band of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” as well as NBC’s “Maya & Marty.”

He achieved online notoriety for his vocal features with the Grammy Award-winning “8-Bit Big Band,” as well as his viral hit sensation music video of “Social Call” featuring Veronica Swift.

Benack has recorded four well-received albums, “One of a Kind,” “A Lot of Livin’ to Do,” “Season’s Swingin’ Greetings” and, mostly recently, “Third Time’s the Charm.”

To learn more about Bria Skonberg, click on briaskonberg.com. For more on Benny Benack III, go to bennybenackjazz.com.

HOT PICKS

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD

‘I cherish my intercontinental friendships, we talk it over continental breakfast’

T

hole. I was eager to get ID’d after numerous rejections prior to walking in. Sat down and ordered a beer. Bartender didn’t even ask for ID. Sheesh. I was ready to reach for my wallet and prove my place in the adult world.

Feb. 5, 2008. My 23rd birthday. I was a rookie reporter for the Teton Valley News in Driggs, Idaho. Community news journalist.

My first writing gig post-college in a town of 1,400 cattle ranchers and ski bums on the high desert prairie of the Grand Teton Mountains. Some 2,250 miles from my Upstate New York hometown.

I remember sitting alone at the bar counter of the Knotty Pine Supper Club not far from the TVN in Victor, Idaho. At the time, I was still new to town. All familiar and beloved faces in my life were somewhere across the country. The bartender said happy birthday to me, a fresh Pabst Blue Ribbon draft on the house soon sliding in my direction. I wondered just what the future held.

Skip head some 16 years and I still wonder just what the future holds. But, more so, it’s always been about living in the “here and

Vero Beach, Florida.

Garret K. Woodward photo

Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center (Franklin) will host the “Valentine’s Dessert & Dance” with The V8s 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 10.

2 3 4

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

Saturday, Feb. 10, at Innovation Brewing in Sylva..

A special production of the satirical comedy “An Act of God” will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 9-10 and 2 p.m. Feb. 11 at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville.

The Gem at Boojum Brewing (Waynesville) will host 5,000LB Tractor (southern rock) at 9 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 10.

5

of this life, what lies in the rearview mirror, what’s sitting next to me in the passenger seat and what’s just beyond the unknown horizon outside the windshield. I remain curious. I remain steadfast in my resolve to do what I want to do with my time on this planet and to do it well.

To that, once a year, ask yourself these three questions: “Do I love what I’m doing?

“Do I like where I live?” and “Am I happy with those I surround myself with?” I count myself lucky to once again answer “yes” three times, enthusiastically and with gratitude.

I’m also thinking of those I miss dearly who no longer walk this earth. My childhood best friend who was killed in a motorcycle accident at age 19. My high school and college friend who tragically passed away in a car wreck a couple years ago. My cousin, who was like the older brother I never had, who left us in 2021, where it’s weird to be catching up to him age-wise as time marches on.

The previous paragraph isn’t to sound morbid. Far from it. Rather, it’s those junctures in one’s journey that dictate the sentiments moving forward. Luckily, I’ve always chosen to use their memory as fuel to push further down the road of life — spirits held high, with a deep appreciation and eternal respect each time you get to blow out the candles on your birthday cake.

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

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Smoky Mountain News

now,” to be present and attentive to the world swirling around your position at any given moment in the grand scheme of things. In all honesty, I feel that the older I get, the more I realize just how young I am, or was looking back on it all thus far.

I think that getting older is a privilege.

Every second you exist is a miracle in itself, so why not choose to be grateful and kind to fellow humans? Walk outside your front door with a never-ending thirst for connection, compassion and camaraderie with others. As I believe wholeheartedly, to have a life well-lived, one of the main facets is to start at least one conversation each day with a stranger. You’ll be the better for it, trust me.

But, mostly today, I’m taking inventory

1

February 7-13, 2024

he smart phone dinged incessantly early this morning ‘round 8 a.m. at my small Waynesville apartment. Social media notifications and text messages. Then came the phone calls from my mother and father way up in the North Country. It’s my 39th birthday.

My girlfriend rolled over in bed and wished me a happy birthday, only to get up and make a fresh pot of coffee. Even if it’s my “special day,” it’s also a Monday and the newspaper still needs to be kicked out the door come Tuesday afternoon. I have a couple more things to submit to my editor, as well as this column to my publisher.

Peering out the bedroom window, there’s sunshine and blue skies. A bustling Russ Avenue filled with anonymous faces zooming back and forth to destinations unknown.

Neighbors from the down the block walking their dogs. Folks pulling up to the drive-thru bank teller across the street. Sip the cup of hot coffee with gusto.

It’ll be somewhere in the 50s today temperature-wise. I think of my earliest birthdays, at least the ones I remembered, where we’d go to the local McDonald’s on the Canadian Border in Champlain, New York, myself ordering a bevy of chicken nuggets and ice cream with some elementary school chums alongside.

Back then, Feb. 5 was most-often the coldest time of the year in the North Country. Either temperatures way below zero (-10 to -20), a massive snowfall, patches of black ice on the roadways or all of the above. Sometimes my peers weren’t able to even leave their driveways, so their parents would call our house for a raincheck.

Every other birthday was pretty much a blur through the rest of elementary and middle school. Nothing really sticks to the walls of my memory until I turned 16 and was able to get my driver’s license. Once that happened, I was gone every single weekend, usually chasing down live music in nearby Plattsburgh, New York, across Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont, or just over the border in Montreal, Quebec. Some things never change, eh?

Turned 18 years old in 2003. Onward back over the Canadian Border to drink beer legally. Rural Quebec with my riff raff crew of high school cronies, just a few miles or so past the immigration checkpoint to some shopping plaza in the small town Lacolle for cold Labatt Blue bottles at the Brasserie Du Mail or a poutine platter at the Witsend Pub along Route 202 in Hemmingford.

On Feb. 5, 2006, I turned 21. A junior in college at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. My riff raff crew and myself en route to Sidestreet, the off-campus watering

Haywood County rock/country act Outlaw Whiskey will hit the stage for a special album release party at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 10, at the Unplugged Pub in Bryson City.

arts & entertainment

This must be the place

DOWNTOWN WAYNE Y SVILLE 21

On the beat arts & entertainment

Blackberry Smoke returns to Harrah’s Southern rock juggernaut Blackberry Smoke will perform at 9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 16, at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort.

Since their debut in 2004, the Atlanta, Georgia-based band has independently released six full-length albums and toured relentlessly, building a strong and loyal community of fans. The band has also had unparalleled success with sales of each of their last albums.

In 2015, Blackberry Smoke released “Holding All the Roses,” which was the first independently released record to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Country album charts in modern history. “Like An Arrow” followed in 2016, again putting them at No. 1.

Most recently, in 2019, Blackberry Smoke released “Homecoming: Live in Atlanta,” a recorded performance from their annual show in the band’s hometown. It also debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Americana/Folk sales charts.

Tickets start at $59.50 per person. For tickets, click on caesars.com/harrahs-cherokee or go to blackberrysmoke.com.

Andrew Wakefield will play Sylva Feb. 10. File photo

February 7-13, 2024

Indie, folk at Innovation Singer-songwriter Andrew Wakefield will perform at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 10, at Innovation Brewing in Sylva.

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

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

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

The show is free and open to the public. For more information, click on innovation-brewing.com.

• Angry Elk Brewing (Whittier) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. All shows are free and open to the public.

828.497.1015 or facebook.com/angryelkbrewingco.

Smoky Mountain News

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

Free and open to the public. 828.631.1987 or balsamfallsbrewing.com.

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

• Blue Stage (Andrews) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends.

828.361.2534 or gm@thebluestage.com.

• Boojum Brewing (Waynesville) will host music bingo 7 p.m. Mondays, karaoke 8:30 p.m. Wednesdays, trivia 7 p.m. Thursdays, open mic night 10 p.m., 5,000LB Tractor (southern rock) Feb. 10 and Parlor Organ Trio. All shows begin at 9 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 828.246.0350 or boojumbrewing.com.

22

Blackberry Smoke will play Cherokee Feb. 16. File photo • Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center (Franklin) will host the “Valentine’s Dessert & Dance” with The V8s 6 p.m. Feb. 10.

Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the door.

For more information and/or to purchase tickets, click on coweeschool.org/music.

• Currahee Brewing (Franklin) will host “Music Bingo” 7 p.m. Thursdays and semiregular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 7 p.m.

Free and open to the public. 828.634.0078 or curraheebrew.com.

ALSO:

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

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

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

800.849.2258 or fontanavillage.com.

• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host its weekly “Tuesday Jazz Series” at 5:30 p.m., The Harry Frenchmen Feb. 9, Jon Cox & Ginny McAfee (country/folk) Feb. 10, Justin Moyar (singer-songwriter) Feb. 16 and Shane Meade (indie/folk) Feb. 18. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public.

828.454.5664 or froglevelbrewing.com.

• Frog Quarters (Franklin) will host live music from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays with Barry Roma Feb. 10 and Paul Linser & Charlie Simmons Feb. 17. Free and open to the public. Located at 573 East Main Street. littletennessee.org or 828.369.8488.

• Happ’s Place (Glenville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 6 p.m. Free and open to the public. happsplace.com or 828.742.5700.

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

• Highlander Mountain House (Highlands) will host “Blues & Brews” on Thursdays, “Sunday Bluegrass Residency” from noon to 2:30 p.m. and the “Salon Series” w/Stephen

Wilson Jr. (country/folk) Feb. 22. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, click on highlandermountainhouse.com.

• Highlands Performing Arts Center will host semi-regular live music on the weekends.

For tickets, click on highlandsperformingarts.com.

• Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will host “Trivia Night w/Kirk” from 7-9 p.m. every Monday, Andrew Wakefield (singer-songwriter) Feb. 10 and David Cheatham (singer-songwriter) Feb. 17. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. innovation-brewing.com.

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

• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Franklin) will host Karaoke on the second/fourth Friday of the month, Blue Jazz Feb. 10 and The V8s Feb. 17. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public.

828.349.2337 or lazyhikerbrewing.com.

On the beat

On the table

• SlopeSide Tavern (Sapphire) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.743.8655 or slopesidetavern.com.

Outlaw Whiskey will play Bryson City Feb. 10.

Garret K. Woodward photo

Outlaw Whiskey album release party the group is musicianship and fellowship.

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

Last year, Outlaw Whiskey guitarist/vocalist Gerald Scott took home the NACMAI award for “Songwriter of the Year.”

Admission is $5 at the door.

828.538.2488.

• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Sylva) will host “Music Bingo” 6:30 p.m. Mondays, Trailer Hippies Feb. 9 and Blue Jazz Feb. 16. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.349.2337 or lazyhikerbrewing.com.

and semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public.

828.586.1717 or facebook.com/quirkybirdstreehouse.

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

828.246.9264 or orchardcoffeeroasters.com.

• Quirky Birds Treehouse & Bistro (Dillsboro) will host Open Mic Night at 7 p.m. Tuesdays

• Salty Dog’s Seafood & Grill (Maggie Valley) will host “Karaoke w/Russell” every Monday and semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public.

828.926.9105.

• Santé Wine Bar (Sylva) will host semi-regular live music on Sundays. Free and open to the public. 828.631.3075 or facebook.com/thewinebarandcellar.

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

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

ALSO:

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

• Stecoah Valley Center (Robbinsville) will host a Community Jam 5:30-7:30 p.m. every third Thursday of the month and semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, call 828.479.3364 or click on stecoahvalleycenter.com.

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

• The Ugly Dog Pub (Highlands) will host “Bluegrass Wednesday” at 6:30 p.m. each week. 828.526.8364 or theuglydogpub.com.

• Unplugged Pub (Bryson City) will host Karaoke with Lori Feb. 8, Whiskey Mountain ($5) Feb. 9, Outlaw Whiskey (rock/country, $5) “Album Release Party” Feb. 10, Valentine’s Day Disco Party Feb. 14, Tricia Ann (singer-songwriter) Feb. 15, Mile High Band (classic rock, $5) Feb. 16 and Jon Cox (country/rock, $5) Feb. 17. All shows are $5 at the door and begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 828.538.2488.

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

828.944.0686 or valleycigarandwineco.com.

• “Chili Chowdown” fundraiser will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, Feb. 16, at the First United Methodist Church, located at 77 Jackson St. in Sylva. Presented by the Rotary Club of Sylva, the suggested donation is $10 and includes chili, all the fixings and a drink. Local nonprofit organizations will be present with information on their services.

Organizations include the Center for Domestic Peace, Circles of Jackson County, Disability Partners, Life Challenge, Mountain Projects, Rolling Start NC, Uncomplicated Kitchen, United Christian Ministries and Vecinos.

• Celebrate Mardi Gras by supporting Reach of Macon County with a special fundraiser to be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 13, at J.R. Chophouse in Franklin. Tickets start at $100 per person with table rates available.

New Orleans food and drink provided. All proceeds go to Reach of Macon County. For more information, call 828.369.5544 or click on reachofmaconcounty.org.

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

• “Take A Flight” with four new wines every Friday and Saturdays at the Bryson City Wine Market. Select from a gourmet selection of charcuterie to enjoy with your wines.

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

• “Uncorked: Wine & Rail Pairing Experience” will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on select dates at the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad in Bryson City. Full service all-adult first class car. Wine pairings with a meal, and more. There will also be a special “Beer Train” on select dates. For more information and/or to register, call 800.872.4681 or click on gsmr.com.

Smoky Mountain News

• Mountain Layers Brewing (Bryson City) will host an “Open Mic w/Frank Lee” Wednesdays, Mountain Gypsy (Americana) Feb. 9, Scott James Stambaugh (singersongwriter) Feb. 10 and Zip Robertson (singer-songwriter) Feb. 17. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.538.0115 or mountainlayersbrewingcompany.com.

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

• Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts (Franklin) will semiregular live music on the weekends.

All shows begin at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, click on smokymountainarts.com or 866.273.4615.

February 7-13, 2024

Haywood County rock/country act Outlaw Whiskey will hit the stage for a special album release party at 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 10, at the Unplugged Pub in Bryson City.

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

• Meadowlark Motel (Maggie Valley) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, click on meadowlarkmotel.com or call 828.926.1717.

arts & entertainment

• The Scotsman (Waynesville) will host a “Celtic Jam” 2-5 p.m., Christina Chandler (singer-songwriter) Feb. 8, Very Jerry Band (Grateful Dead tribute) Feb. 10, Bobby G. (singer-songwriter) Feb. 15 and Muddy Guthrie Trio (Americana) Feb. 17. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.246.6292 or scotsmanpublic.com.

23

arts & entertainment

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Smoky Mountain News

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On the stage

A special production of the satirical comedy “An Act of God” will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 9-10 and 2 p.m. Feb. 11 at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville.

Written by 13-time Emmy award winner David Javerbaum, known for his work on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” this laugh-a-minute play explores the human experience through the lens of a higher power.

In this divine comedy, the Almighty takes on the form of local beloved actor Pasquale LaCorte, who audiences recently saw as Patsy in “Spamalot.” He is joined by archangels Gabriel and Michael, played by two more HART veterans, David Spivey and Tom Bastek.

LaCorte proposed “An Act of God” as a dream role, originally performed on Broadway by Jim Parsons (“The Big Bang Theory”) and later by Sean Hayes (“Will & Grace”).

“In my opinion, this is a perfect show.

It’s a laugh a minute, but if you truly come with an open mind, it has the ability to change you for life,” LaCorte said.

“An Act of God” is rated PG-13 for

Peacock presents ‘Scribes on Stage’

Appointment with the Year Monger” written by Carrol S. Taylor, followed by “Money Doesn’t Grow on Trees” by Sue Brown. The third play is “Trace Elements” by Jeff Stewart and, lastly, “Canvas Caper” by Ryan Hunter.

Additionally, there will be a segment of improv lead by veteran Peacock actor Ryan Hunter. There will also be an opportunity for the audience to ask questions and get answers about the night’s plays with the playwrights.

Tickets are available by calling the box office at 828.389.2787 or by clicking on thepeacocknc.org. The playhouse is located at 301 Church St. in Hayesville.

‘An Act of God’ will play at HART on select dates.

Donated photo

strong language and suggestive content. To make reservations, go to harttheatre.org to make reservations online or call the HART Box Office at 828.456.6322.

February 7-13, 2024

Featuring four plays, the “Scribes on Stage” series will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 10, at the Peacock Playhouse in Hayesville.

The series was created to promote the local talent in the performing arts. The evening introduces the audience to four new plays and the works of new or experienced playwrights and actors.

The plays are performed in a “readers theater” format. First up of the plays will be “An

arts & entertainment

HART presents ‘An Act of God’

On the shelf

With a list of novels, five books of poetry and seven collections of short stories, Ron Rash has garnered a number of prestigious awards in his writing career. Now, a new designation celebrates his contribution to North Carolina letters.

Rash, the Parris Distinguished Professor in Appalachian Cultural Studies at Western Carolina University, has been named to the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame.

“We are thrilled that Ron Rash is being inducted in the NC Literary Hall of fame, a welldeserved honor,” said David Kinner, dean of WCU’s College of Arts and Sciences. “Like WCU,

Ron’s work is tied to our region, its history and its people, and through his writing, he has entertained us, moved us and made us think.

Ron is a prolific author, an integral part of our community and our students benefit from being able to learn from him.”

Inductions to the Hall of Fame are held every other year and is a program of the North Carolina Writers’ Network.

Rash said he was grateful to be placed among authors who impacted his journey as a writer.

This is the second WCU faculty member to be named to the North Carolina Hall of Fame.

Kathryn Stripling Byer was inducted in 2012.

She served as the university’s poet-in-residence from 1988-98.

Smoky Mountain News

Rash inducted into NC Literary Hall of Fame

25

arts & entertainment

On the wall • “Spark of the Eagle Dancer: The Collecting Legacy of Lambert Wilson” will run through June 28 in the Fine Art Museum at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. This exhibition brings together a selection of baskets, pottery, carving, painting, photography and more. To learn more about the exhibition and reception, please click on arts.wcu.edu/spark. The Fine Art Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday.

• CRE828 (Waynesville) will offer a selection of art classes and workshops at its studio located at 1283 Asheville Road. Workshops will include art journaling, watercoloring, mixed media, acrylic painting and more. For a full list of classes, click on cre828.com.

For more information on CRE828, email dawn@cre828.com or call 828.283.0523.

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

ALSO:

February 7-13, 2024

• Waynesville Photography Club meets at 7 p.m. every third Monday each month on the second floor of the Haywood Regional Health

Haywood Arts celebrates ‘Love’ As the first showcase of the year, the “Love” exhibition will run through March 3 at the Haywood County Arts Council’s Gallery & Gifts showroom in downtown Waynesville.

Through a diverse range of mediums such as paintings, glasswork, ceramics, quilting, jewelry and more, HCAC artists skillfully conveyed their personal interpretations of love.

This event not only marks the opening of an extraordinary exhibit, but also serves as the launch of the “Give a HeART” project. Dedicated artist members generously donated their time and art supplies to create unique pieces of art on wooden panel hearts.

These exquisite hearts will be available for purchase in the gallery until the end of February, with all proceeds directly benefiting the HCAC. The HCAC gallery is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays. For more information, click on haywoodarts.org.

& Fitness Center in Clyde. The club is a nonprofit organization that exists for the enjoyment of photography and the improvement of one’s skills. They welcome photographers of all skill levels to share ideas and images at the monthly meetings. For more information, email waynesvillephotoclub@charter.net or follow them on Facebook: Waynesville Photography Club.

• Haywood County Arts Council (Waynesville)

Yoour onee stop shop Y p ffoor Valleentin Va ne’’s Daayy giif ifts!

Wanda Ann Kinnaman is a featured artist at the HCAC ‘Love’ exhibit. Donated photo

will offer a wide range of classes, events and activities for artisans, locals and visitors. The HCAC gallery is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays. For more information and a full schedule, click on haywoodarts.org.

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

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

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

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Diplomate

On the shelf

Ann Bevilacqua

I

main characters.

The above-mentioned Harriet and her more conventional sister Belinda live together in a house near the vicarage. Belinda is supposedly modelled on the author, and we hear more of her thoughts than those of any other character. She seems the more sensible of the two sisters, but she worries too much, and, surprise, she has loved the Archdeacon for 30 years, since they were together at college. She defends his sermons and his behav-

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ior, but also sees some of the silliness, admitting at times “that he had very few of the obvious virtues that one somehow expected of one’s parish priest.” Her love for him has matured over the years, and though sometimes she talks herself into believing that she is content with her place in his life, as a special friend, sometimes she really is.

Author Pym makes fun of, or at least smiles at, every one of her characters, every one. That no one is spared, that none of the humor is mean, that we are shown good intentions and good deeds as well as foibles, makes it easy for the reader to find something of herself in every character. That’s what I did. Laughter can be freeing.

Harriet is the fun sister. She speaks her mind. She enjoys life. Her needlework consists of strengthening her corsets, because she loves to eat and she cares much for fash-

ion and how she looks. She won’t go to the train station with the others to meet the visiting Bishop Grote, an eligible bachelor, because the day is bitter cold, thus not conducive to appearing elegant. She puts men at ease with her attentive energy, which sometimes verges, so thinks sister Belinda, on the improper. Yes, that is a mild version of “improper.” But it’s no wonder the gentlemanly, courtly, gallant, romantic, prone-tomelancholy Italian Count Bianco loves Harriet. And she loves him, too, just not for marriage.

Several of the characters “love” someone they are not with. Some feel unrequited “love.”

Humans can’t define the word love and, to me, maturing means understanding love in ever broader, deeper ways. I think that is the main theme of Pym’s novel. The ability of a community to love, which I see as individuals caring for each other without being sanctimonious about it, is another theme. As for my favorite book being a comedy, I cannot imagine either love or the subject of love not including some measure of lightheartedness.

Life is not all fun and games. The author knows that.

We know she knows, because of how the book ends.

Something happens which causes us to worry. But the community acts in their usual and generally sincere church way, and we witness one beautiful display of light-heartedness. Will light-heartedness and strength of community win? We don’t know, but in Pym’s expert and nonsentimental yet compassionate hands, we have some faith that they will. They certainly have a chance. It’s my favorite ending of all endings.

Five years ago I did not know about Barbara Pym. If you haven’t tried her, and you like Jane Austen, she would be a safe bet.

You might even find yourself agreeing with British poet Philip Larkin, who said, “I’d sooner read a new Barbara Pym than a new Jane Austen.”

I hope you have a lovely day.

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

February 7-13, 2024

had a book in mind to review for Valentine’s Day, but was hesitant to reveal the choice to my mentor and fellow reviewer Jeff Minick. Would it fit his idea of what a Valentine’s Day book should be?

“It’s a comedy,” I said, with a shrug.

His answer was quick. “So’s love half the time.”

I took that as acceptance, even endorsement, and I didn’t think it necessary to disclose the rest, that there is no romance in my book choice.

Oh, well, sure, there’s a dash or two. A marriage happens, but it is between two minor characters, and we don’t see much of Writer that relationship.

Another two minor characters get engaged towards the end of the book. As the engagement is hasty and the two seem quite giddy for their age, we suspect that comedy lies ahead, but we can only guess. Romance, in this book, is not denigrated, but it is seen at a distance, which is an interesting perspective.

“Some Tame Gazelle,” published in 1950, still in print, by British author Barbara Pym, is not only my favorite comic novel, it’s my favorite novel, and it’s all about love, and also ordinary life.

It takes place in an English village. People walk. They walk to shop, they walk to church, and they meet each other on the street and talk. Or they avoid each other and don’t talk. Sometimes they are in a hurry.

Lively, middle-aged Harriet is in a hurry when she meets the always dramatic Archdeacon Hochleve, who is in a mood to toot his own horn for visiting the poor. He tilts his head to one side and quotes a suitable stanza from Gray’s Elegy. “’Oh, quite,’ agreed Harriet, annoyed at being delayed,” and she engineers her escape. Being polite is important in an English village, but there are many amusing edges to politeness.

It seems likely that the Archdeacon Hochleve achieved his high clerical rank thanks to good connections, his father-inlaw being a bishop. What else could explain it? He is haughty and complaining, and doesn’t care for his fellow clergy. “His letter in this month’s parish magazine, announcing the arrival of the new curate, had a peevish and condescending tone that a stranger might have thought not quite the thing for an archdeacon.” In someone else’s novel he might well be the villain. “But the village was used to it.” And that’s the thing. The villagers will roll their eyes and make their comments, but they don’t make too much of him. His wife Agatha, polished and capable, not thought of as warm, is a well-matched partner. Theirs is an entertaining marriage to observe, the only marriage among the

arts & entertainment

Different ways to look at love

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Smoky Mountain News

Logging under litigation

The Whitewater River, which borders the area proposed for logging, has been recommended for scenic designation under the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Will Harlan/Center for Biological Diversity photo

Conservation groups file suit over Plateau timber project

BY HOLLY KAYS OUTDOORS E DITOR n a newly filed lawsuit, a coalition of conservation organizations is alleging that a controversial U.S. Forest Service logging project on the Cashiers-Highlands Plateau violates federal law.

“The Southside Project is a case study of the Forest Service’s reckless resolve to push harmful logging onto exceptional landscapes,” said Nicole Hayler, director of the Chattooga Conservancy, one of the plaintiffs in the case. “Logging in this area along the Whitewater River is a prime example of the root of the problem: deeply flawed, perverse incentives driving the Forest Service to hit mandated timber targets, which is why the entire Southside Project should be dropped.”

The Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, MountainTrue and Sierra Club are also plaintiffs on the lawsuit, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, with the U.S. Forest Service and Nantahala District Ranger Troy Waskey, in his official capacity, named as defendants. The suit was filed Jan. 31 in the U.S. District Court of Western North Carolina. Hayler would like to see the entire Southside Project thrown out, but the lawsuit focuses on 15 acres within the 317-acre project.

“This particular stand, there was a real basic legal purchase in the new forest plan to

I

challenge it,” she said.

The plaintiffs want the court to stop logging on that stand, order the Forest Service to compensate them for the cost of their legal process and enter a declaratory judgement that logging the stand “is inconsistent with the 2023 Forest Plan, violates that National Forest Management Act, and that Defendants have a mandatory duty to update its ongoing projects to be consistent with the 2023 Forest Plan.”

EXCEPTIONAL ECOLOGY

received a bid for $55,600 to log 98 acres, including 37 acres along and atop Brushy Mountain. Many of the same conservation organizations involved in the new lawsuit fought to protect those tracts from logging, saying they contained exceptional old growth and vital habitat for the rare green salamander. However, their efforts were not successful.

Now, the organizations are disputing logging plans for a 15-acre stand along the Whitewater River, which is located on the Jackson-Transylvania county line about 5 miles southeast of Cashiers.

First proposed in 2017, the Southside Project garnered stiff oppoThe Southside Project would include harvesting sition from day one.

317 acres within a 19,000-acre project area in The project aims to use timber harJackson and Macon counties. USFS map vest to create 317 acres of young forest spread across 23 separate stands in a 19,000-acre project area, with the goal of improving wildlife habitat, species diversity, soil and water resources and forest health. Young forest is important habitat for many wildlife species, and it’s in short supply on the PisgahNantahala National Forest. But the Southside Project area isn’t the place to create such habitat, opponents say, claiming that many of the stands slated for harvest contain old-growth forest, “The landscape boasts stunning waterfalls, rare species and other special values that towering oak trees, and critical habitat for would be destroyed by the proposed logging. rare species,” reads a press release from SELC. Nevertheless, the Forest Service made its “Both the Forest Service and State of North final decision in 2019 and awarded the first Carolina have recognized the area slated for logging bid in 2022 after an initial bidding logging as an exceptional ecological commuprocess in 2021 failed to garner any responsnity with some of the highest biodiversity vales. The second time around, the agency

ues in the state.”

That recognition is at the heart of the organizations’ legal argument against the plan. Last year, the Forest Service approved the first new management plan for the Pisgah and Nantahala national forests since 1987.

The plan recommended the stretch of the Whitewater River bordering the 15-acre stand for congressional designation as a scenic river under the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, and it placed the stand itself in a management area called a Special Interest Area, a classification for “the most exceptional ecological communities that serve as core areas for conservation of the most significant and rare elements of biological diversity on the Forests.” Though maintenance activities may be needed to maintain their ecological integrity, these areas are “generally resilient and are not in need of active restoration,” the forest plan states.

Forest Service policy requires that rivers deemed eligible for National Wild and Scenic River designation be managed in a way that won’t disqualify them from ongoing eligibility. To protect these segments, the 2023 forest plan establishes a quarter-mile corridor from each riverbank where any forestry activities must be “carried out in such a way that there is no substantial adverse effect on the river and its immediate environment.” Similarly, the plan allows logging on land within a Special Interest Area management area for only a narrow set of reasons. These include improving habitat for imperiled species, benefiting rare plant communities, supporting historic fire regimes, providing for public safety and reducing hazards from insects and diseases.

The plaintiffs claim that the Southside plan does not comply with these parameters.

“When the new forest plan identifies these rivers as eligible, the Forest Service is supposed to take measures to preserve its eligibility,” Hayler said. “Well, this does not qualify.

This timber prescription, which is the nuts and bolts of what trees are actually going to be cut, did not meet the guidelines for Special Interest Areas or how you’re supposed to treat eligible Wild and Scenic River corridors.”

COMPLIANCE WITH NEW FOREST PLAN DISPUTED The Southside Project was approved years before the new forest plan was finalized, but the federal National Forest Management Act requires that the Forest Service review projects that bridge the divide between old and new forest plans to ensure they comply with the new plan. According to the lawsuit, the conservation groups “repeatedly” told the Forest Service that logging the Whitewater River stand wasn’t consistent with the new forest plan — but the agency disagreed.

“I have not identified the need to modify

— Nicole Hayler, Chattooga Conservancy director

SNAP customers to have more choices at WNC farmers markets Over the next three years, 40 sites across Western North Carolina are expected to be part of the WNC Double SNAP Network, which expands the ability of people receiving assistance from the federal SNAP program to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables from farmers markets.

The Double SNAP for Fruits and Vegetables program allows SNAP customers to swipe their EBT card for any amount and receive that amount in SNAP tokens as well as up to $20 in additional Farm Fresh Bucks, which can be used to buy fruits and veggies at the market.

The first phase of the project will focus on

strengthening 12 existing programs on sites operating from January through March, including the Jackson County Winter Farmers Market held 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays at Bridge Park.

More participating sites, including farmers markets and farmstands, will be announced in the spring. Over the next three years, the network is expected to include 40 sites across WNC. Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project is partnering with Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture and MountainWise to expand the program. Funding from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program is supporting the endeavor through a grant award to ASAP. Additional support comes from Alleghany Wellness Coalition, Dogwood Health Trust, MANNA Food Bank, Walnut Cove Members Association and other private foundations and donors.

SNOW REPO ORT An old tree towers within the project area.

Will Harlan/Center for Biological Diversity photo

IRONS IN THE FIRE The Southside Project is not the groups’ only argument with the Forest Service. In August, SELC represented a similar cadre of conservation groups — minus the Chattooga Conservancy, plus The Wilderness Society — in declaring its intent to sue the Forest Service over alleged violations of the Endangered Species Act in the new forest plan. If the Forest Service didn’t address the issues raised within 60 days, the groups said, they would file suit.

Sixty days has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean a lawsuit is off the table, said SELC spokesperson Eric Hilt.

“We’re still evaluating the most effective path for the ESA litigation but have not filed yet,” Hilt said. “We wanted to take a look at this really urgent need [with the Southside Project].”

The Forest Service declined an opportunity to comment on the Southside Project lawsuit. The agency has 60 days from the summons date of Feb. 1 to submit an answer to the complaint or a motion in response to it.

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The response went on to say that white pine was largely absent from slopes within 150 feet of the Whitewater River, and so, “if possible,” timber harvest in these areas “should be avoided,” as the forest there is of high quality.

“Ideally, timber harvest activities in this stand would be restricted to white pine,” the response reads.

The final decision for the Southside project does not mandate that harvest be limited to white pine, however. It merely states that harvest on the Whitewater River stand will use the two-age method, in which most trees are cut to regenerate a new stand while leaving a sparse overstory of older trees.

Additionally, a temporary 0.18-mile access road would be built to facilitate logging.

Improved SNAP benefits will soon be available at farmers markets across the region. File photo

February 7-13, 2024

“The Southside Project is a case study of the Forest Service’s reckless resolve to push harmful logging onto exceptional landscapes.”

Trees that contain dens or produce hard nuts would be prioritized as leave trees, so while white pines would be unlikely to be chosen as leave trees, nothing in the plan prevents other types of trees from being included among those to be logged.

The decision does contain one noteworthy stipulation for the stand: if the Whitewater River is found eligible for inclusion in the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, any logging on the stand along it “shall maintain the outstandingly remarkable values and free-flowing nature of the river.” The forest plan determined that the river was eligible for inclusion, with congressional action required to officially designate it.

outdoors

any pre-existing actions involving permits, contracts, or other instruments for the use and occupancy of National Forest System lands due to inconsistencies with the revised plan,” Forest Supervisor James Melonas wrote in the record of decision for the 2023 forest plan. “These actions will be implemented according to the terms of the applicable instrument. However, should the need arise, I have the discretion to modify these permits, contracts or other instruments for the use and occupancy of National Forest System land.”

Even before the new forest plan was in place, with its recommendation for Wild and Scenic River status and placement of the stand in a protective management area, the Whitewater River stand fell within a statedesignated Natural Heritage Natural Area.

More than 2,400 such areas have been identified statewide, qualifying as having “special biodiversity significance due to the presence of rare species, unique natural communities, important animal assemblages or other ecological features,” according to the program website. The Forest Service directly addressed public concern about the stand’s future in the “Response to Comments” section of its draft Environmental Assessment for the Southside Project, released in July 2018. It wrote that the stand was, in many areas, dominated by white pine as an “artifact of previous land use history,” and that in its natural state a montane-oak hickory forest type would cover the area.

“It would be beneficial to remove the white pines from this stand, and then manage the area after harvest in such a way to restore the natural community that would naturally be found here,” the response reads.

“This could be attained through prescribed fire, supplemental planting, or a mixture of the two.”

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Smoky Mountain News February 7-13, 2024

outdoors

GSMA announces name change

State parks to standardize camping check-in times

Americans and White settlers who lived here before the park’s creation in 1934.

This past December, Smokies Life opened its newest visitor center location, the Great Smokies Welcome Center in Townsend, Tennessee.

Smokies Life maintains a daily presence at seven other visitor centers and retail bookstores in and around the park in coordination with the National Park Service, local communities, and other partners. In Tennessee, these include Cades Cove Visitor Center, Gatlinburg Welcome Center, Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont Visitor Center and Sugarlands Visitor Center. North Carolina locations include Clingmans Dome Visitor Center, Oconaluftee Visitor Center and Swain County Visitor Center and Museum.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the new Smokies Life name, as well as the grand opening of the new Great Smokies Welcome Center in Townsend, Tennessee, is being planned. The event will take place at 7929 E. Lamar Alexander Parkway in Townsend, with details to be announced later this winter or in early spring.

The newly unveiled Smokies Life name and logo replaces the former Great Smoky Mountains Association brand identity. Smokies Life image port for both natural and cultural history. Made effective Feb. 1, the most recent name changed followed an intensive planning process that began in 2021, involving members of the staff and board of directors with input from regional stakeholders.

“Our new name is expansive — just like the

Today, Smokies Life is driven by the same vision that motivated the association’s founders: the desire to protect and preserve an ancient mountain range that supports more than 21,000 species of life and continues to carry deep cultural significance as the homeland of the Cherokee people as well as the home of African

exceptions will be overnight facilities at The Summit Environmental Education and Conference Center at Haw River State Park and the vacation cabins at Hanging Rock and Morrow Mountain state parks.

“We are looking to implement this change across state parks for consistency and an improved camping experience,” said Kathy Capps, deputy director of operations for the division. “Many of our campers expressed concerns that the current system is confusing and makes travel planning difficult. In the winter months, they are also finding that they often have to set up their campsites in the dark. The change will also allow park staff to develop a consistent cleaning schedule for all campsites.”

Wander through winter

Endangered Species Act decisions reached for hellbender, green salamander

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The eastern hellbender does not deserve listing under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has decided, but the Hickory Nut Gorge green salamander, which was first described as a unique species in 2019, warrants a status review to consider listing.

The findings followed a review of petitions the agency Hellbender. File photo had received requesting that these species be listed. The USFWS found that the petition seeking listing for the hellbender, a large, aquatic salamander that occurs in cool, permanent streams in 15 states, did not provide “substantial scientific or commercial information” indicating that listing is warranted.

“All of the information provided by the petitioner was already considered in our 2019 12-month finding for the species in which we determined that listing is not warranted (84 FR 13223; April 4, 2019),” the decision reads. “We are not initiating a status review of this species in response to this petition. However, we ask that the public submit to us any new information that becomes available concerning the status of, or threats to, this species or its habitat at any time.”

The agency came to a different decision regarding the Hickory Nut Gorge green salamander, which is found in hardwood and cove forests in the Hickory Nut Gorge of Western North Carolina. It determined that the salamander, along with eight other species from a variety of habitats and locations all over the U.S., warranted a status review to determine whether listing is warranted. The USFWS must decide whether listing is warranted within one year of the petition being received. If it decides the species deserves listing, this finding can be incorporated into a proposed listing or, if higher-priority listing activities prevent such prompt action, the species will be added to a list of candidates for listing.

These findings are now available in the Federal Register Reading Room at federalregister.gov/public-inspection/current.

Experience the backcountry during wintertime with a pair of hikes offered over the next week with Haywood Recreation and Parks.

• A moderate 5.5-mile hike taking in a portion of the Little East Fork Trail in Bethel will start with a meetup 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 11, at Jukebox Junction. Guides Lisa and Phyllis will lead the way on the trail starting just past Camp Daniel Boone in the Shining Rock

Wilderness.

• A moderate 4-mile hike from Soco Gap near Maggie Valley to the Plott Balsam Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway will commence following a meeting up at 10 a.m.

Wednesday, Feb. 14, at the Old Town parking lot. Jamie and Vickie will guide this hike, which will use the Mountains-to-Sea Trail to hike out and the closed Parkway to return.

Hike registration is $10. Sign up at haywoodcountync.gov/recreation.

February 7-13, 2024

Camping check-in times will be standardized throughout N.C. State Parks starting June 15.

State parks currently vary in check-in and check-out times, but this year all parks will have a check-in time of 3 p.m. and a checkout time of noon. The new hours apply to tent, trailer and/or RV campsites, group campsites, equestrian campsites, paddle-in campsites, walk-in campsites, backpacking campsites and camper cabins. The only

park, with its rich history, vast landscape, natural wonders and thousands of species,” said Geoff Cantrell, board chair. “Smokies Life, too, reflects the diversity of the park’s visitors, their inspirations for coming and the experiences they have while here.”

outdoors

After completing its 70th year supporting preservation in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Great Smoky Mountains Association has adopted a new name. The nonprofit will now be known as Smokies Life.

“Though GSMA was founded as an association, its work today surpasses what that word can convey,” said CEO Laurel Rematore. “Today, we move forward under the name Smokies Life, welcoming neighbors and visitors to engage in meaningful ways with all the park has to offer.

Guided by our organization’s ongoing mission of education, interpretation and research, our role as a partner to this incredible park is to encourage deeper connections to life in the Smokies.”

Since its founding, Smokies Life has provided more than $50 million in direct aid to the park, operating 11 visitor centers and contact stations, maintaining a roster of more than 29,000 members and publishing an array of park-related books and multimedia.

This is not the first name change in the organization’s history. Founded in 1953, Smokies Life was initially known as the Great Smoky Mountains Natural History Association. Its name was shortened to the Great Smoky Mountains Association in 2002 to better encompass its sup-

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outdoors

Paddle the Glacier Breaker Start off the year with an early-season slalom race Saturday, Feb. 17, on the Nantahala River at the Nantahala Outdoor Center.

Hosted by the Nantahala Racing Club, the Glacier Breaker Slalom is open to paddlers of all ages with course difficulty suitable for novice through intermediate paddlers. The course starts just above the NOC Founder’s Bridge and ends upstream of the highway bridge, consisting of 18A paddler navigates choppy water 20 slalom gates and running through the 2013 during a previous Glacier Breaker event.

Worlds Hole. Racers are encouraged to use slalomNOC photo specific boats and have at least class 2 river running skills.

Racing will take place 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Entry fee is $20 payable at check-in, with registration required by noon Feb. 26. Learn more at nantahalaracingclub.com/glacier-breaker.

Sign up for volleyball clinics Registration is open for youth volleyball clinics slated to begin the week of March 11 at the Cullowhee Recreation Center in Cullowhee.

Through Feb. 29, participants can register for Monday or Tuesday clinics,

which will meet one day per week for an hour for six weeks. No switching days is allowed.

Grades three through five will meet 5:45-6:45 p.m. and grades six through eight will meet 7-8 p.m.

Cost is $45. Volleyball league File photo registration opens in March.

Sign up at rec.jackson.org.

Contact Andrew Sherling with questions at 828.293.3053, ext.

6, or andrewsherling@jacksonnc.org.

Allens Creek Park reopens

Smoky Mountain News

February 7-13, 2024

After being closed for cleanup since Jan. 11, Allens Creek Park in Waynesville is open again.

The closure allowed county crews to complete maintenance in response to the aftermath of heavy rains and wind in early January.

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Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation appoints new board members New board officers, trustees and advisors have been appointed to the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, which partners with the National Park Service to preserve and enhance the most-visited national park unit.

• Charles Hauser, Marsha Ralls Hershman and Tim Maloney have joined the Board of Trustees after previously serving on the Board of Advisors.

Whitney Brown. BRPF photo • Whitney Brown of Meadows of Dan, Virginia, who is a dry-stone waller, folklorist and writer, was elected chair of the Board of Trustees. Saxapahaw resident Greg Andeck, who is director of partnerships for The Change Climate Project, was elected vice chair; Fincastle, Virginia resident Ken McFayden, who is director of economic development for Botetourt County, Virginia, was elected secretary; and Dahlonega, Georgia, resident Sam R. Johnson, who is an author and partner in the Atlanta practice of Newport, LLC, was elected treasurer.

The Council of Advisors welcomed three new members. These are Vivianette Ortiz Caraballo, cofounder of Latinos Aventureros en las Carolinas and supervisory case advocate for Disability Rights North Carolina; James Houchins, director of tourism & marketing for Patrick County, Virginia; and Elizabeth Skinner, an author, adventurer and retired deputy director of Forsyth County Public Library in Winston-Salem.

Since 1997, the Foundation has provided more than $22 million to support the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Learn more at brpfoundation.org.

Wildlife advocates eligible for award Nominations are wanted for people who have led the way in conserving nongame animals in North Carolina.

The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission is accepting nominations for the Thomas L. Quay Wildlife Diversity Award through March 31.

Nominations must include a completed form and detailed essay explaining the nominee’s contributions to nongame at-risk wildlife

species in North Carolina. Self-nominations are accepted.

The Nongame Wildlife Advisory Committee will recommend final nominees and wildlife commissioners will announce the winner at their February 2025. The award is named for the late Thomas Quay, a professor of zoology at N.C. State University and self-described “fulltime volunteer and unpaid environmental activist.”

Download the nomination form at bit.ly/3SBxBC0. Submit nominations to Melinda Huebner, melinda.huebner@ncwildlife.org.

Join the Great Backyard Bird Count

Birders and bird lovers worldwide are encouraged to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count Feb. 16-19, with several local events offered to mark the weekend.

• Walk the Jackson County Greenway 911 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 17, with Mainspring Conservation Trust and Birders of the Tuckaseegee Watershed for a bird-focused stroll. The event will start with a brief intro to the Great Backyard Bird Count initiative and e-Bird app, then commence with a walk along the greenway led by local birder David Nestler. Nestler will help the group identify the birds they see and hear, honing their birding skills along the way. Participants A northern cardinal perches in the snow. Steve Gifford/USFWS photo who contribute to the Great Backyard Bird Count after Launched in 1998, the Great Backyard the walk will receive a free embroidered patch. Free, with loaner binoculars and spot- Bird Count asks participants to count birds for as little as 15 minutes or as long as they ting scopes available. Weather-dependent.

Register at mainspringconserves.org/events. wish over one or more of the four days.

Each checklist submitted helps • From a bird mist netting demonstraresearchers learn more about how birds are tion to birding walks and crafts, the N.C. doing and how to protect them. To particiArboretum in Asheville will be celebrating pate, report sightings online at the Great Backyard Bird Count 10 a.m. to 4 birdcount.org. p.m. Saturday, Feb. 17. An introduction to

outdoors

the app eBird will be offered at 10 a.m., beginning bird walks at 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m., and a live raptor demonstration at 3 p.m. Indoor exhibits, bird crafts and bird mist netting demonstrations will be held during all or most of the event, with a bird mist netting demonstration livestreamed at 10 a.m. The program is free with the standard parking fee.

Drought maps are released every Thursday, based on conditions as of 8 a.m. the previous Tuesday. N.C. Drought Management Advisory Council map

N.C. declared drought-free For the first time since August, North Carolina is now drought-free. Some areas of Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Macon and Dare counties remain abnormally dry, but the remaining 95 counties are now at or above normal moisture levels.

Drought’s disappearing act comes less than two months after the state saw its peak extent of drought. In early December, almost 9% of the state was in extreme drought, which made this the state’s worst drought since the fall of 2016.

The mountains and western piedmont picked up more than 2 inches of rain during the last full week of January. Most of the state is at or above normal precipitation since Dec. 1, but some coastal areas have been trending drier in recent weeks. The heaviest rainfall totals during the last full week of January came across Henderson and Transylvania counties, with up to 7 inches observed.

Buy plants, support horticulture education

The Sylva Naturalist Club will meet 6:30-8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 8, at the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva.

The club meets on the second Thursday of each month. Over the course of the year, participants will read “The Forest Unseen,” find and make visits to their own special forest spot and journal findings in a way they find inspiring. Together, group members will share their observations with fellow club members and enjoy natural history tidbits and nature connection exercises they can try at home.

The group will also contribute valuable scientific observations to the National Phenology Network.

To sign up, contact Amy Duggins at aduggins@bmtrust.org. Duggins is community science coordinator with Balsam Mountain Trust and has spent time as a naturalist, field biologist, park ranger and nature connection mentor.

SHO OP NTEER VOLUN

WE ARE OPEN O • 10-4 Tues.-Sat. u Cl d Sunday Closed S d & Monday M d

WA ALNUT VILLAGE SHOPPING CENTER C 331 Walnutt Street Wayn nesville

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Join the Sylva Naturalist Club

DON NA ATE

February 7-13, 2024

The annual Haywood County Extension Master Gardener Plant Sale is now underway, with orders due pre-paid by Friday, March 8.

The sale offers edibles like berries and asparagus and hard-to-find native plants including pollinator-attracting perennials at exceptional prices. Edibles will be available for pickup on Saturday, April 13, and native plants will come in Thursday, May 16. Plant pickup will be drive-thru, with no need to get out of the car. Proceeds fund education-related horticulture projects in Haywood County.

Order forms are available online at go.ncsu.edu/haywoodplantsales or by email to hcmgplantsale@gmail.com.

They’re also in physical form at the Haywood County Cooperative Extension Office on Raccoon Road in Waynesville.

File photo 828.456.3575.

828 246 9135 haywoodhab 828.246.9135 bitat org bitat.or 33

outdoors

Notes from a Plant Nerd

BY ADAM B IGELOW

Barking up the right tree

o get through the winter, some plants go underground to take advantage of the earth’s insulation, while others stay above ground and protect themselves in other ways. These are the woody plants, and woody plants can be trees, shrubs or vines.

Often the lines between those three forms can be blurry, but their bark is a reliable way to identify woody plants and tell them apart.

Bark is the general term for the outer layer of all woody plants and is comprised of both living and non-living plant tissue.

It serves many functions, primarily as protection for the xylem, vascular tissue that transports water and nutrients up from the roots to the shoots, and for the phloem, which transports sugars and carbohydrates produced by the leaves during photosynthesis to the roots below the ground,. The way to remember the difference is with the phrase “xylem to the sky-em, and phloem to the floor-em.”

Bark protects the tree’s vascular tissue from insects, disease and even fire.

Often trees that live where there is frequent fire develop thick and platy bark to help keep them from getting burned or losing water to the heat. Trees like pitch pine (Pinus rigida), sourwood (Oxydendron arboretum), certain oaks (Quercus spp.), among others, have developed thick, platy bark that lowtemperature fires can’t damage.

The different colors, textures, patterns, thickness and shapes of bark can be very useful when trying to identify trees, especially in the winter. But learning these differences and relying on the bark characteristics alone can be tricky, especially when you learn that many trees change their bark as they mature, so much so that you would swear that you’re looking at two different trees when you see mixed-age examples.

Some trees have peeling, or exfoliating, bark that can be stripped off in layThe cinnamon-bark clethra (Clethra acuminata) is ers. The bark of trees like sycamore (Platanus occidentalis), yellow birch known for its exfoliating, cinnamon-colored bark.

Adam Bigelow photo (Betula allegheniensis) and shagbark hickory (Carya ovata) have distinctive And of course, you can always tell a dogpeeling bark. Among my favorites is the beautiful exfoliating bark of the shrub called wood by its bark…sorry, was that a ruff cinnamon-bark clethra (Clethra acuminata), joke? It used to be a corny joke, until the scientists changed the genus name of dogwith its multi-stemmed habit and the varywoods from Cornus to Swida, Benthemidia, ing, almost camouflage patterns of reddish brown and cinnamon-colored layers. Woody and/or Chamaepericlymenum. And there is nothing funny about Chamaepericlymenum. plants with attractive bark are sought after (Adam Bigelow lives in Cullowhee. He leads in landscaping for their winter appeal. And weekly wildflower walks most Fridays and offers while the bark of this clethra might look like consultations and private group tours through cinnamon, it does not taste like cinnamon. I Bigelow’s Botanical Excursions. did that work for you. You’re welcome. bigelownc@gmail.com.)

Cherry trees and others in the Prunus

Smoky Mountain News

February 7-13, 2024

T

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

genus have a distinctive horizontal line along their young to medium-aged bark that is called a lenticle. These cigar-shaped or lens-shaped lenticles are actually porous openings into the inner bark that allow for atmospheric gas exchange. They are also distinctive enough to be used in identification.

Sweet birch trees (Betula lenta) also have lenticels, which not only account for their specific epithet of “lenta” but also provide one of its other common names, cherry-bark birch. You can even make out the latent lenticles on mature cherry bark that has turned thick and platy with age.

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

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

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

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

BUSINESS & EDUCATION • The 21st annual Business of Farming Conference will take place Saturday, Feb. 24, at the A-B Tech Conference Center in Buncombe County. The conference focuses on the business side of farming, offering beginning and established farmers financial, legal, operational and marketing tools to improve farm businesses and make professional connections. Register at asapconnections.org. Cost is $75 by Feb. 1 before rising to $95, with a discount for farm partners registering together and scholarships for limited-resource and BIPOC farmers. Cost includes locally sourced breakfast and lunch.

FUNDRAISERS AND BENEFITS • Rotary Club of Sylva is hosting a “Chili Chowdown” fundraiser from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 16, at the First United Methodist Church in Sylva at 77 Jackson St. Suggested donation of $10 includes chili, all the fixings and a drink.

HEALTH AND WELLNESS • The Pollinators Foundation offers weekly Mindful Movement Qigong classes for all ages to reduce stress and improve health and well-being. Classes take place 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. on Wednesdays at the Folkmoot Center in Waynesville. For more information visit thepollinatorsfoundation.org or contact Marga Fripp at margacfripp@gmail.com 828.424.1398.

• The Pollinators Foundation and The Share Project host weekly Happy Hour Nature Walks 4:30-5:30 p.m. on Tuesdays at Lake Junaluska. The group meets at the Labyrinth. For more information visit thepollinatorsfoundation.org or contact Marga Fripp at margacfripp@gmail.com 828.424.1398.

AUTHORS AND BOOKS • Bookstore Date Night will take place 7-9 p.m. Feb. 16 at the Novel Escape Bookstore (60 E Main St, Franklin).

Enjoy a memorable evening with your loved one at the bookstore. Tickets are $50 for two people and includes a semi-private candlelit table, dessert for two, sparkling non-alcoholic beverage, and an activity to do together.

Space is limited. To reserve contact the bookstore at 828.369.9059.

KIDS AND FAMILIES • On Mondays, the Macon County Library will host Lady Violet, a King Charles Spaniel service dog, for children to practice their reading skills. Children who feel nervous reading aloud to an adult tend to feel more comfortable with a pet or a service animal. Sign up for a

Smoky Mountain News

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onsite. For more information visit folkmoot.org.

n All phone numbers area code 828 unless otherwise noted. n To have your item listed email to calendar@smokymountainnews.com time to read with Lady Violet or to one of the library’s reading friends at the children’s desk or call 828.524.3600.

• On Tuesdays, Kelly Curtis will offer reading services to families from 3:30 -5:30 p.m. at the Macon County Public Library. Families may sign up for a 30-minute time spot at the children’s desk or by calling 828.524.3600.

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

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

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

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

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

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

A&E

• There will be a lunchtime contra dance from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 7, at Bridge Park in Sylva. No partner or experience required. All are welcome. If temperature is below 40 degrees, the event will move to 505 Mill St. • The Pollinations Foundation at Folkmoot offers a creative playshop, “Love Letters, Cards, and Chocolate” from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 8. The class will inspire senses with poetry and chocolate, write love letters and make original cards for dear ones near and far.

More at thepollinatorsfoundation.org/events, or contact Marga at margacfripp@gmail.com or 828.424.1398.

• The Pollinators Foundation at Folkmoot offers creative arts playshops to reduce stress and cultivate joy and compassionate connection. More information at thepollinatorsfoundation.org/events, or contact Marga at margacfripp@gmail.com, or 828.424.1398.

• “An Evening of Eastern Culture” will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 22, at the Folkmoot Center in Waynesville. The event will feature “Asian Soundscapes,” with performances by Min Xiao-Fen on the Chinese pipa, Mari Ohta on the Japanese koto, Thom Nguyen on percussion and the Warren Wilson College Gamelan Ensemble with classical Javanese dancer, Dr. Siti Kusujiarti. Iron Wok food truck will be

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

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

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

Registration is required, $45.

• Mountain Makers Craft Market will be held from noon to 4 p.m. the first Sunday of each month at 308 North Haywood St. in downtown Waynesville. Over two dozen artisans selling handmade and vintage goods. Special events will be held when scheduled. mountainmakersmarket.com.

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

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

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

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

CLASSES AND PROGRAMS • Mixed Media Date Night will take place 5:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 8, at CRE828, located at 1283 Asheville Road in Waynesville. Bring your better half and create an 11x14 mixed media canvas together. Cost is $75 per canvas, all materials provided. Bring items that have special meaning to incorporate into the piece.

Preregistration is required. Email dawn@cre828.com or call 828.283.0523.

• “Brighten Your World With Alcohol Inks” will be held 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Feb. 10 at CRE828, located at 1283 Asheville Road in Waynesville. Learn all about alcohol inks. Cost is $55, all materials provided. Preregistration is required. Email dawn@cre828.com or call.

828.283.0523.

• “Date Night: Acrylic Pour Your Heart Out” will be held 5:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 14, at CRE828, located at 1283 Asheville Road in Waynesville. Explore this art technique with your significant other. $65 for 8x10 canvass, $75 for 11x14 canvas. Preregistration is required.

Email dawn@cre828.com or call 828.283.0523.

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

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

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

Adult workshops in watercolor, acrylic paint pouring,

Visit www.smokymountainnews.com and click on Calendar for: n Complete listings of local music scene n Regional festivals n Art gallery events and openings n Complete listings of recreational offerings at health and fitness centers n Civic and social club gatherings encaustic and glass fusing are also offered. Free painting is available 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Monday in the classroom. A membership meeting takes place on the second Sunday of the month at 3 p.m. All are welcome.

Call 828.349.4607 for more information.

Outdoors

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

• The Cat Classic is taking place now through Feb. 24.

Submit your best and most creative Cataloochee video (up to one minute), filmed only at Cataloochee, tag @thecatclassic on Instagram or email the clip to thecatclassic@gmail.com. Awards ceremony and prizes March 9 with cash prizes for first, second and third in men’s and women’s divisions, 14 and under and 15 and up.

• The Sylva Naturalist Club will meet 6:30-8 p.m.

Thursday, Feb. 8, at the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva. The club meets on the second Thursday of each month. To sign up, contact Amy Duggins at aduggins@bmtrust.org. Duggins is community science coordinator with Balsam Mountain Trust and has spent time as a naturalist, field biologist, park ranger and nature connection mentor.

• Prepare for gardening season with “Learn to Grow: Vegetable Gardening,” a workshop offered 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 8, in Waynesville. The $10 class fee will be accepted at the door, but pre-registration is required at go.ncsu.edu/haywoodgardeningclasses or by calling 828.456.3575. The class will be held at the N.C. Cooperative Extension’s Haywood County Center at 589 Raccoon Road in Waynesville.

• The 12th annual Plunge Benefiting Kids in the Creek and Environmental Education will take place 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 10, at the Lake Junaluska Pool in Waynesville. The cost to participate is $10 for youth under 18, $35 for adults or free by raising sponsorships. Walk-ins welcome. To register or donate, visit goplunge.org. For a hard copy registration form, contact Haywood Waterways at 828.476.4667 or info@haywoodwaterways.org.

• Ride the trails with an experienced mountain bike instructor at 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 10, at Chestnut Mountain Nature Park in Canton. Loaner bikes and helmets are available. Cost is $10, with online registration at bit.ly/haywoodrec.

• A moderate 5.5-mile hike taking in a portion of the Little East Fork Trail in Bethel will start with a meetup 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 11, at Jukebox Junction. Guides Lisa and Phyllis will lead the way on the trail starting just past Camp Daniel Boone in the Shining Rock Wilderness. Hike registration is $10. Sign up at haywoodcountync.gov/recreation.

Market WNC PLACE Legals

MarketPlace information:

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

Visit www.wncmarketplace.com to place your ad!

Rates: • • • •

•

• • • • • •

$15 — Classified ads that are 25 words, 25¢ per word after.

Free — Lost or found pet ads. $6 — Residential yard sale ads.* $1 — Yard Sale Rain Insurance Yard sale rained out? Call us by 10a.m.

Monday for your ad to run again FREE $375 — Statewide classifieds run in 170 participating newspapers with 1.1+ million circulation. (Limit 25 words or less) Boost Online — Have your ad featured at top of category online $4 Boost in Print Add Photo $6 Bold ad $2 Yellow, Green, Pink or Blue Highlight $4 Border $4

Note: Highlighted ads automatically generate a border so if you’re placing an ad online and select a highlight color, the “add border” feature will not be available on the screen.

Note: Yard sale ads require an address. This location will be displayed on a map on www.wncmarketplace.com

p: 828.452.4251 · f:828.452.3585 classads@smokymountainnews.com www.wncmarketplace.com

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17 Years

Experience Rob Roland 828-400-1923

Pets WHEN VETERINARY CARE ,V XQDYDLODEOH RU XQDIIRUGDEOH DVN IRU +DSS\ -DFN DQLPDO KHDOWKFDUH SURGXFWV )RU GRJV KRUVHV FDWV $W 7UDFWRU 6XSSO\ GOLDENDOODLE PUPPIES $1200 for CKC registered, microchipped, UTD vaccines/ GHZRUPHG SXSSLHV Born 11/10/23 they will be about +/-55 lbs as adults. Started on socializing, basic commands, leash training and potty training.

Located in Sylva, NC. References available.

Call/Text Catherine for more information (828) 506-5623 (828) 506-5623 2catherinebuchanan@gmail.com

38 North Main Street | Waynesville

THE #1 NAME IN HAYWOOD CO. REAL ESTATE!

RON BREESE

Broker/Realtor®

400.9029

(828)

ron@ronbreese.com

LANDEN K. STEVENSON

Broker/Realtor® (828)

734.3436

MELISSA BREESE PALMER Broker/Realtor®

734.4616

(828)

landen@wnchometeam.com melissa@ronbreese.com

WWW.RONBREESE.COM

“WORKING CATS” Asheville Humane Society has cats available who are best suited to life in a barn/farm, warehouse, etc. Fully vaccinated and spayed/ neutered. (828) 761-2001 adoptions@ ashevillehumane.org See Virtual Tours of listed homes at

LAB MIX DOG, BLACK&WHITE — ZOEY 5 year old spunky girl; enjoys hiking, swimming, and playing with toys.

Likes other dogs.

Asheville Humane Society (828) 761-2001 adoptions@ashevillehumane.org

Real Estate Announcements PUBLISHER’S NOTICE $OO UHDO HVWDWH DGYHUWLV-

February 7-13, 2024

MaggieValleyHomeSales.com Market Square, 3457 Soco Rd. • Maggie Valley, NC • 828-926-0400

Years of Experience. Reputation for Results.

Mary Hansen 828.400.1346 71 N. Main St., Waynesville office 828.564.9393

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37

THE SILVER SCREEN ACROSS 1 Guy in the Beatles' "I Am the Walrus" 7 Brand of bottled water 13 Holy places 20 Yacht basin 21 Old Missouri natives 22 Arranged, as a page for printing 23 2001 Josh Hartnett war film 25 Not macho 26 "-- little!" ("Have some fun!")

27 Vegas action 28 Darkens in the sun 30 Hammer, e.g.

31 Yalie 32 1971 Malcolm McDowell crime film 37 They're fed after parking 40 "Energy healing" technique 41 Artist Neiman and Jim Croce's Brown 42 1973 Charlton Heston thriller 46 Beginner, in gaming lingo 47 Use sandpaper on, informally 48 Ed. supporter 50 Brain wave tests, in brief 54 -- -Ball (carnival game) 57 Lubbock-to-Laredo dir.

58 1986 Isabella Rossellini neo-noir film 61 WWW page 64 Musical inaptitude 67 Having arrived tardily 68 Choose (to) 69 1984 Gene Wilder

romantic comedy 72 "-- said before ..."

73 "The Lion in Winter" actor 75 Dawned 76 Certain English student 78 1984 Prince musical film 80 Psychic "gift" 82 Table scraps 83 Graf -- (German warship) 84 Potent compound in marijuana: Abbr.

85 Sequence of episodes on the tube 89 Test of speed 92 1986 Molly Ringwald Cinderella story 96 6x9-inch book 99 Attach with cord, e.g.

101 Actor Patrick 102 1992 Wesley Snipes sports film 107 ABA mem.

108 Sol-do linkup 109 Meat spread 110 "Starpeace" singer Yoko 111 -- voce (quietly) 113 Smart speaker from Amazon 115 Photos not in shades of gray ... or what eight answers in this puzzle are?

120 Precisely, with "on" 121 Retaliate 122 Czar called "the Great" 123 More impertinent 124 Actor Dick Van -125 Evaluate DOWN 1 Tokens 2 Telescope pioneer 3 Newton topic

4 Rats' relatives 5 Crooner Paul 6 "Prob'ly not" 7 Carpentry rod 8 Invite out for 9 Hardly happy 10 Of yore 11 Unfamiliar 12 Fails to be satisfactory 13 Skulked 14 Sci-fi role for Harrison Ford 15 Cup edge 16 Muckraker who took on Standard Oil 17 "That's all wrong!"

18 Funeral speech 19 Fashion trends 24 Jackson 5 hit 29 Meyers of "Dutch" 32 Comes -- surprise 33 Tribe of Canada 34 Piercing 35 Come in first 36 Vintage auto 38 Someone -- problem 39 Sleep stage 43 "I fail -- the humor" 44 Some sporty autos 45 Orating skill 46 No, in Selkirk 48 Least ornate 49 Zig or zag 51 Major Taiwanese carrier 52 Implies 53 Pub mugs 54 Nosy sorts 55 Sustained 56 Automaker Bugatti 58 Part of N.B. 59 Lead-in to Cong or Minh 60 Lead-in to skeleton 62 "-- cost you!"

63 You, quaintly 65 "Sign me up!"

66 Rapper Lil -- X 70 Infant's cry 71 Reimburse 74 Surgeries 77 Like sexist jokes 79 Road map abbr.

81 Tennis unit 85 1982 film and arcade game 86 Steam hole 87 Ninny 88 Bump -- log 90 Road map abbr.

91 Write music 92 Pod veggie 93 Like Charlie Brown's kite, inevitably 94 Seine users, e.g.

95 Result of a very-lowcarb diet 96 Hooting baby birds 97 Latin dance 98 Gives 10% 99 Blast creator 100 Polar topper 103 Diner patron 104 1995-2011 Yankee Posada 105 Release, as from a corral 106 "Excusez- --!"

111 Holy Mlles.

112 Excuses 114 "-- have to?"

116 Female gametes 117 Allow to 118 Ottawa loc.

119 1040 pro

ANSWERS ON PAGE 34

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Great Sm Smokies mokies

STORAGE ST S TORAGELLLCLCL Call 828.506 6.4112

greatsmokkiesstorage e.com 434 Champion Drive, D Canton, NC 287 16 21 Hollon Cove R Rd, Waynesville, Waynesville NC 28786

February 7-13, 2024

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39

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Smoky Mountain News February 7-13, 2024