SMN 03 28 18

www.smokymountainnews.com

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

March 28-April 3, 2018 Vol. 19 Iss. 44

Swain sheriff responds to candidate challenge Page 4 Expanded FM service begins for local AM stations Page 6

CONTENTS

STAFF

On the Cover: Despite its bad reputation as a smothering, invasive plant, Zev Friedman and Justin Holt in Jackson County are trying to show others the many ways to utilize kudzu leaves, vines and roots through their annual Kudzu Camp. (Page 32) Kudzu (left) grows along a Western North Carolina roadside. Zev Friedman carries a load of freshly dug kudzu roots for processing. Kudzu Culture and Holly Kays photo

News SCC sues over damaged building ................................................................................3 Swain sheriff responds to candidate challenge ........................................................4 Loud and clear: local radio rejuvenated ........................................................................6 Mission Health could become for-profit system ........................................................8 Haywood Pathways on a roll ........................................................................................10 TWSA votes down expanded allocation rental ......................................................12 Cherokee bail bondsman pleads guilty ......................................................................12 Former Haywood manager rehired to lead HHS ....................................................14 Haywood Christian Academy gets room to grow ..................................................14 School threats continue in mass shooting aftermath ............................................15

Opinion Student protestors deserve gratitude ........................................................................18

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Scott McLeod. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . info@smokymountainnews.com Greg Boothroyd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . greg@smokymountainnews.com Micah McClure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . micah@smokymountainnews.com Travis Bumgardner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . travis@smokymountainnews.com Kevin Fuller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . kevin.f@smokymountainnews.com Susanna Barbee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . susanna.b@smokymountainnews.com Amanda Bradley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . jc-ads@smokymountainnews.com Hylah Birenbaum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . hylah@smokymountainnews.com Scott Collier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . classads@smokymountainnews.com Jessi Stone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . jessi@smokymountainnews.com Holly Kays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . holly@smokymountainnews.com Cory Vaillancourt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . cory@smokymountainnews.com Garret K. Woodward. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . garret@smokymountainnews.com Amanda Singletary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . smnbooks@smokymountainnews.com Scott Collier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . classads@smokymountainnews.com Jeff Minick (writing), Chris Cox (writing), George Ellison (writing), Gary Carden (writing), Don Hendershot (writing), Susanna Barbee (writing).

CONTACT WAYNESVILLE | 144 Montgomery, Waynesville, NC 28786 P: 828.452.4251 | F: 828.452.3585 SYLVA | 629 West Main Street, Sylva, NC 28779 P: 828.631.4829 | F: 828.631.0789 INFO & BILLING | P.O. Box 629, Waynesville, NC 28786

A&E Pulitzer Prize winner to headline WCU Literary Festival ......................................22

Books Maybe we’ll never know just what women want ....................................................31

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The Naturalist’s Corner

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March 28-April 3, 2018

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Smoky Mountain News

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SCC sues DOT, construction company over damaged building S

which DOT received in September 2012, was not shared with SCC. It also claims that the alleged trespass of the helical anchors outside the project right-of-way amounts to taking of a “compensable interest” of SCC’s property and that SCC is due compensation for this taking, as well as recovery of court, attorney, appraisal and engineering fees.

In its response to the lawsuit filed March 8, DeVere denied many of the central claims in SCC’s complaint. DeVere denied the assertion that the right-of way was limited to the parking lot area, as well as the claims that no fill or grout was placed in the holes when the anchors were removed, that DeVere did not use proper desaturation protocol, that DeVere failed to adhere to its own plans and specifications and that damage to the Balsam Center Building was the result of DeVere’s negligence.

“Due to NCDOT’s and DeVere’s actions and/or omissions, the subsurface soil underneath the Balsam Center Building’s foundation was disturbed and compromised, leading to soil settlement and shifting underneath the Balsam Center Building and is the direct and proximate cause of the Balsam Center Building’s settlement-related damages.”

— From lawsuits filed by Southwestern Community College

attached to its response, bringing in the DOT, CALYX Engineers and Consultants Inc. and engineer Dave Wissell as thirdparty plaintiffs in the case.

According to this complaint, the DOT and the engineering firm CALYX knew or should have known about saturated soils and subsurface water under the Balsam Center. These entities “were negligent and breached their duties of care owed to the College by preparing drawings, plans and specifications that were defective, and those defects were the proximate cause of any property damage alleged by the College,” DeVere said. The plans were defective, DeVere said, because they required stone to be placed around the subgrade culvert, which would have allowed water to migrate from the Balsam Center’s foundation, creating voids underneath and causing the building to settle.

DeVere also pointed the finger at engineer Dave Wissell, who it says designed the temporary shoring that SCC alleges ultimately created the problems, saying that the “alleged but denied property damage arises from and relates to the acts and/or omissions of Wissell.” DeVere states that its agreement with Wissell included a provision that Wissell would reimburse DeVere for any costs it should be required to pay for settling claims related to the work.

DeVere closed by asking that SCC’s claims against it be dismissed and that any costs or liability associated with the case by covered by DOT, CALYX and Wissell.

DOT has not yet filed a response to either SCC’s lawsuit or DeVere’s third-party complaint. When asked about the case, a DOT spokesman said that the department has a policy against commenting on ongoing lawsuits.

“CALYX was only recently added to the lawsuit by DeVere, and as such, it is too soon to offer any detailed response,” said Candace Austin, communications manager for CALYX. “Based on what we know at this time, CALYX strongly denies any and all liability in this matter.”

A request for comment sent to Wissell was not immediately returned.

This is not the first time that DOT and DeVere have been at loggerheads. In January 2016, the company walked away from DOT projects across the state, including its $15.9 million contract for the R-5000 project.

Despite warnings from the DOT, DeVere defaulted on the project, initiating a bonding procedure that resulted in DeVere’s bonding agency, Liberty Mutual, suing the company in federal court. Liberty sued the company for $12.5 million, saying that it had “willfully breached” its duty to Liberty in the way it spent funds from the bonding company, and that DeVere “intentionally submitted false, misleading and/or inaccurate information contained in the financial statements submitted to Liberty.”

For example, said Liberty, financial statements submitted in 2013 to assure Liberty that there was enough collateral to protect Liberty from harm claimed more than $20 million in total assets, but when the statements were resubmitted two years later they reported just about $7.5 million in total assets. DeVere, meanwhile, blamed its problems on a “cash flow issue caused by the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s intentional and improper failure to timely pay DeVere for projects it had completed.”

The case was dismissed in August 2017, but the claims themselves were not resolved. U.S. District Judge Thomas L. Ludington wrote that the case was dismissed because the individuals named in the lawsuit had entered bankruptcy, so proceedings against those defendants were administratively stayed.

“But the complaint includes a number of unresolved claims against the company Defendants (DeVere),” Ludington wrote.

“Proceedings related to those were not stayed because those Defendants have not entered bankruptcy.”

The case was dismissed without prejudice, meaning that it could be re-filed at some point in the future.

Smoky Mountain News

The DOT approved all of the construction plans, DeVere said, and any damages that occurred “were caused by defects in the plans and specifications provided by NCDOT and were not caused by DeVere.” In addition, the company said, because it did its work in accordance with the specifications from DOT, it can’t be held liable for any damages resulting from performance of that work. If damage did result from the work, the response said, SCC should seek compensation by suing DOT for compensation for property taken — which, as it happens, SCC is doing.

DeVere further expounded on its complaints against DOT in a third-party lawsuit

The $30 million R-5000 road project resulted in a 0.7-mile road connecting N.C. 107 and N.C. 116 alongside Southwestern Community College’s campus. A Shot Above WNC photo

March 28-April 3, 2018

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER outhwestern Community College is seeking compensation for damage to the Balsam Center building that it believes resulted from the R-5000 road project, a 0.7-mile connector road between N.C. 107 and N.C. 116 that wound up costing $30 million.

A three-way finger-pointing contest over the damage has been ongoing since 2015, with SCC blaming DeVere Construction Company Inc. and the N.C. Department of Transportation, and DeVere and the DOT each claiming that the other is responsible for the mess.

That saga continues with a pair of lawsuits that the SCC trustees filed in December. In the lawsuits — one against DOT and another against DeVere — SCC claims that DeVere was negligent in its construction practices, resulting in damage to the building, and that underground anchors associated with the project extended beyond the DOT’s right-of-way, amounting to an uncompensated taking of property. In each suit, SCC is seeking damages in excess of $10,000, with the exact amount to be decided following a jury trial.

In the suits, SCC claims that DOT’s construction easement for the culvert project associated with the R-5000 project was limited to the Balsam Center parking lot, but that the easement stopped at the concrete sidewalk in front of the building. However, the suits say, when DeVere installed helical anchors to secure metal sheeting for the project, those anchors extended under the Balsam Center’s foundation. In January 2015, the suits say, DeVere began removing the metal sheeting and the helical anchors, but no fill or grout was placed in the holes created when those anchors came out. This caused holes in the ground under the building’s foundation. As a result, the suit said, vertical and horizontal cracks appeared in the Balsam Center’s interior and exterior walls and floors.

“Due to NCDOT’s and DeVere’s actions and/or omissions stated above, the subsurface soil underneath the Balsam Center Building’s foundation was disturbed and compromised, leading to soil settlement and shifting underneath the Balsam Center Building and is the direct and proximate cause of the Balsam Center Building’s settlement-related damages,” both suits read.

SCC claims that DeVere failed to adhere to its own plans and specifications, charging the company with negligence and trespass to real property. In its complaint against the DOT, SCC further states that a copy of a subsurface report commissioned for the project,

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Swain sheriff responds to candidate challenge Military record shows he was discharged after two months

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR ven though the Swain County Board of Elections can’t proceed with hearing a candidate challenge filed against Sheriff Curtis Cochran, Cochran’s lawyer recently filed a response to the challenge asking for it to be dismissed.

Jerry Lowery, a longtime Swain County resident and unaffiliated voter, challenged the Republican sheriff ’s eligibility to serve in the office Feb. 28 after Cochran had signed up to run for his fourth term. Lowery claims Cochran was dishonorably discharged from the military, an action he says carries some of the same repercussions as being convicted of a felony, and therefore is ineligible to serve as sheriff.

Though Lowery has no evidence other than what he’s heard from others in the community, the law places the burden of proof on the person charged. That means Cochran must provide evidence to prove his innocence and eligibility. In this case, Cochran has been asked to provide his DD-214 form — a military document showing his dates of service and reason for discharge.

During a preliminary hearing before the local board of elections, Cochran’s lawyer David Sawyer said he didn’t have the form in his possession but had requested it be expedited to him from the National Personnel Records Center in Missouri. While Sawyer said he would hand the document over to the Board of Elections when he received it, he said he reserved the right to argue its relevance as it relates to the challenge.

Under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, The Smoky Mountain News also requested a copy of Cochran’s military record. Media and members of the public don’t have access to his DD-214 form but they can access certain basic information in someone’s military file, including the branch they served in, dates of entry and separation, place of entry and separation, assignments, any awards they received, rank and duty status.

According to information obtained from the National Personnel Records Center, Cochran served in the U.S. Marine Corps — he was in reserve service from June 12, 1975, until June 26, 1975, and he was listed as active duty from June 27, 1975, until Aug. 30, 1975. His duty status is simply listed as “discharged” — not honorably or dishonorably.

Cochran’s only listed assignment was Parris Island, S.C., and Charlotte, N.C., and the same places were listed for his place of entry and separation.

The information does lay to rest the question of Cochran’s service; he was not dishonorably discharged as Lowery claimed, but Lowery said he’s still suspicious about the 4 details of the sheriff ’s two months of service.

Smoky Mountain News

March 28-April 3, 2018

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Swain County Sheriff Curtis Cochran and his supporters make their way into a packed Board of Elections Office for a preliminary hearing on the candidate challenge. Jessi Stone photo He said it’s “common knowledge” around town that Cochran went AWOL (absent without official leave) from the military.

COCHRAN’S EXPLANATION Cochran had refused to comment on the candidate challenge or whether the accusations against him had any validity until he learned SMN had obtained the details of his service from the National Archives.

On June 12, 1975, Cochran said he volunteered for the Marine Corps and went through the processing center in Charlotte for enlistment. He said the reserve status listed on the FOIA form was for a two-week period prior to reporting back to Charlotte.

He said he was sent to Parris Island for basic training and reported there on June 27, 1975.

“My oldest son had a medical emergency and the chaplain of the base called me into his office and said we are sending you home for the surgery. This was on August 30, 1975,” Cochran recalled. “Some time after this date — I don’t remember the exact date — I received a letter from the military stating that if I would sign a form releasing them from any VA or medical benefits, they would send me a discharge. I never thought anymore about the need to have a discharge paper, since by the military rules should be an ELS (entry level separation) because I was there for less than 180 days.”

Cochran said during that time he was doing quite a bit of traveling for different construction jobs and doesn’t remember ever receiving the discharge form from the military. He’s not sure if it was sent or if it just never found him while he was on the road.

“I am in no way stating that a discharge was not sent, but I don’t remember receiving one,” he said.

Brandon Wilson, a combat Marine who has held many positions within the North

According to information obtained from the National Personnel Records Center, Cochran served in the U.S. Marine Corps — he was in reserve service from June 12, 1975 until June 26, 1975, and he was listed as active duty from June 27, 1975, until Aug. 30, 1975. His duty status is simply listed as “discharged” — not honorably or dishonorably.

Carolina Department of Military and Veterans Affairs and served as the Director of Veteran Services in Haywood County, said a dishonorable discharge does not automatically mean an enlisted member is guilty of a felony. As for Cochran’s story, he said it’s not unlikely — separations happen often before someone even reports for duty.

However, until the complete information included in the DD-214 form is available, Cochran’s explanation and Lowery’s accusations are just speculation.

As of March 23, Cochran still hadn’t received his DD-214 form.

RESPONSE TO CHALLENGE In the response filed with the Swain County Board of Elections, Cochran’s lawyer

David Sawyer stated that Lowery’s challenge should be dismissed because the challenge is based on hearsay with no oral or written evidence to support it.

“Respondent denies the allegation that he has received a dishonorable discharge.

Respondent further states that there is no requirement found in the North Carolina Statutes that a candidate for Sheriff receive a certain form of discharge from the United States military,” the response states.

The response also included an affidavit from Janet Lynn Cochran, an employee with the Swain sheriff ’s office that conducts background checks through the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation and the N.C. Division of Criminal Information.

“Within the last week, I submitted a request for a background check on Curtis A. Cochran through DCI, which includes records maintained by the NCIC and those found in the III (Interstate Identification Index),” Janet Cochran stated. “This report states that Cutis A. Cochran has not been charged with, or convicted of, a felony in the state of North Carolina, any of the 49 states in the United States or in the United States federal court system.”

In the motion to dismiss, Sawyer claims Lowery’s protest came too late since Cochran has been elected in 2006, 2010 and 2014 and no protest was filed during the canvassing period.

“In this case, the protest was filed approximately 11 years, 7 years and 3 years after the respective canvasses,” he stated.

“Such a protest is untimely as to 2006, 2010 and 2014 and may not be considered by this panel.”

While the response calls on the Board of Elections to dismiss the protest and challenge against the sheriff, the local board can’t conduct any business until the State Board of Elections makes appointments to local boards to make them whole.

Swain elections staff prepares for May 8 primary without sitting board

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Franklin forum discusses homeless

Get help with business plan Southwestern Community College’s Small Business Center will be hosting a free Rocket Business Plan workshop from noon to 4 p.m. Monday, April 2, and again on Wednesday April 4, at the Franklin Chamber of Commerce in Franklin.

The workshop will take place over two days in a one-week period with fast-paced

Wake up rally in Sylva To mark the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, a Wake Up Rally will be held from noon to 1 p.m.

Wednesday, April 4, at the fountain on Main Street in downtown Sylva.

Everyone is invited. If possible, bring signs with inspiring words and ideas from Dr. King to share with passers-by. Rain, snow, or shine.

This event is planned to celebrate Dr. King’s life and to advocate his legacy. King was in Memphis supporting sanitation workers, one of the initial actions for his Poor People’s Campaign proposed to end the poverty of 15 million Americans. Today, 40 million Americans live in poverty and Dr. King’s national campaign has been revived. In Sylva, a kickoff for the current Poor Peoples Campaign in WNC was held March 24.

JOIN US FOR OUR ANNIVERSARY SALE

Mark your calendars! April 2-8 Storewide plant sale, drawings and fun gifts!

1 8 5 6 & 1 8 8 0 D E L LWO O D ROA D • WAY N E S V I L L E , N C

828-944-0665

What’s in a Glass of Milk?

Often underappreciated, a simple glass of cow’s milk is a nutritional powerhouse.

What’s in a glass of milk?

8 ounce glass of Low Fat Milk • 100 calories • 2.5 grams of fat • 12 gram of carbohydrates (13 grams of sugar) • 8 grams of protein • 300 mg calcium Milk is also a good source of many vitamins and minerals including vitamin A, vitamin D and potassium.

Why does the label on milk list sugar?

Milk contains lactose or milk sugar, which occurs naturally in the milk, Unflavored and unsweetened milk has no added sugar.

Can my dog drink milk?

Like humans, a dog may or may not have lactose intolerance. If your dog enjoys milk that’s great as it is nutritious for them. If you pup has lactose intolerance you will be able to tell pretty quickly as they may have mild symptoms like gas or more severe symptoms like diarrhea. If your dog can’t tolerate milk they still may be able to eat yogurt or cheeses without any problems as these are fermented/aged products with less milk sugar.

SOURCE: http://www.akc.org/expert-advice/nutrition/naturalfoods/can-dogs-drink-milk/

Smoky Mountain News

"Are the homeless becoming a permanent subculture in America?" will be the topic at the next Franklin Open Forum, which will be held at 7 p.m. Monday, April 2, at the Rathskeller Coffee Haus & Pub, located downtown at 58 Stewart St., Franklin. Those interested in an open exchange of ideas (dialog, not debate) are invited to attend. For more information, call 828.371.1020.

sessions covering the following topics: marketing, operations, financials, role of the entrepreneur, capital funding and business planning.

To register, visit http://bit.ly/ncsbcn.

45 YEARS IN BUSINESS!

March 28-April 3, 2018

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR he Swain County candidate challenge against Sheriff Curtis Cochran is at a standstill until a new Swain County Board of Elections is seated in the coming weeks.

When Jerry Lowery filed the challenge against Cochran on Feb. 28, the local board only had two members remaining — its third member had moved away and a fourth member hadn’t been appointed by the State Board of Elections because there was no state board to make such an appointment.

The hang up in Raleigh was due to Gov. Roy Cooper’s legal challenge to reverse the Republican-majority’s recent legislation that created the North Carolina State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement.

The legislation removed the governor’s power to appoint a majority of board members from his respective political party.

Instead, the newly formed board shall be comprised of equally appointed Republicans and Democrats.

The court shot down Cooper’s challenge a couple of weeks ago and a three-judge panel removed a temporary order that allowed two-member local boards like Swain to continue to operate, which is why Swain can’t rule on the candidate challenge just yet.

But Joan Weeks, Swain County elections director, said she is hopeful the local appointments will be forthcoming.

While Gov. Cooper petitioned the N.C. Supreme Court on March 6 to review the lower court’s order and strike down the legislation, he finally agreed to make appointments to the state board. On March 16, Cooper appointed four Democrats, four Republicans and one unaffiliated member to the board.

Now the state board can begin making local appointments. The Republican and Democratic parties in Swain County have now made their recommendations to the state board and are just waiting for the official appointments. The Swain Republicans have recommended that John Herrin and Bill Dills — the current two board members — be reappointed for another term. The Swain Democrats have recommended Rick Bryson, Ginger Gaither and Chuck McMahan.

A seated four-member board can then proceed with hearing evidence from Lowery and Cochran before making a ruling on the candidate challenge.

Not only does the challenge need to be taken care of but also the Swain County Board of Elections has a May 8 primary election to plan for, which can be difficult without a local board in place to make decision and sign off on expenses. Weeks told the county commissioners recently that she may need County Manager Kevin King to sign off on some documents until a board is in place.

“Hopefully it will be in place within two weeks,” she said. “We’ll do what we can without the board’s approval.”

THE RED BARN GARDEN CENTER news

Cooper makes appointments to state elections board

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news

LOUD AND CLEAR Local radio rejuvenated

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT STAFF WRITER n almost every living American resides at least one sepia-toned memory embellished with song — that perpetual score to a first kiss, or a last dance.

For many, those touchstones transpired before a tinny AM radio in granddaddy’s pickup, or a tube console set in a neighbor’s basement, or later, a heavy plastic portable unit with retractable antenna perched atop a Styrofoam cooler at a family picnic out by the pond on a warm summer’s night.

Both the range and affordability of AM radio stations made them, for a time, an intensely local affair, further burnishing those recollections with a sense of place; radio itself was once a destination, an impermanent, fleeting thing to be sought.

Now, in an on–demand world of devicedriven digital downloads, that’s no longer the case, but after years of dwindling market advantage, one of the first real forms of electronic mass media is in the midst of a makeover that signals a new era for the hundreds of small-market AM radio stations that dot rural America and rural North Carolina.

Smoky Mountain News

March 28-April 3, 2018

I

OLDIES BUT GOODIES

Back in 1963, most AM radio stations, with the exception of the largest in the largest markets, were doing something called block programming — say, popular music from 6 to 9 a.m., easy listening till noon, country from noon to 3, and rock n’ roll in the afternoon. Sandwiched betwixt were local weather and news.

Such was the case for Vernon Presley’s WPTL, which began broadcasting in Canton in 1963 and featured blocks of country, rock and gospel.

With the advent of television, radio began to specialize into specific formats, like Top 40 — playing the same records over and over, 6 every two or three hours.

Top 40 did mark a resurgence in AM radio, until the advent of stereo rocked the FM market.

Presley’s WPTL signal covered Asheville, all of Haywood County, and into Henderson County, but as time went on, AM signals began to degrade with the ever-increasing leakage of RF signals from new technology and new infrastructure like cable television and data lines.

Due to flagging health, Presley sold WPTL in 1975 to Asheville’s Price McNabb Advertising, but the station suffered under non-local ownership, until on March 1, 1978, it was purchased by a man named Bill Reck, who’d owned a station just north of Orlando, Florida, in Sanford.

“We sold it, and had a non-compete in place for 500 miles,” said Reck. “This is about 575.”

Around the time Reck bought the station, FCC regulations had limited WPTL to daytime broadcasting only, but eventually allowed stations like Reck’s to broadcast at night, albeit at a greatly reduced power.

“Well that was fine, but that wasn’t where the people lived. They did like everybody else did and moved out to the suburbs. So we broadcast to the closed-up stores, doctors offices and banks in downtown Canton, and people still couldn’t hear the Pisgah Bears games,” he laughed.

Sometime in the late 1990s a man walked into the small WPTL studio on Pisgah Drive to drop off some paperwork. With him was 10-year-old Andy Rogers.

“That trip to the radio station sparked my interest in wanting to be a part of that,” said Rogers, now 31 and station manager at Sylva’s WRGC and Bryson City’s WBHN, both AM stations owned by Roy Burnette.

Rogers has spent more than half his young life working in radio, getting his start at the age of 14 with WQNS; he credits Betty Jo Nichols, who passed away in 2004, with opening the door.

“They started me out running church services, but I got my big break hosting a three-hour southern gospel music program on Sunday mornings,” Rogers said.

After studying film and video production at Haywood Community College, Rogers got right back into radio, hosting a morning show on Reck’s WPTL before he was even 20 years old.

While bouncing around in the tight-knit world of Western North Carolina radio — both corporate and locally-owned — Rogers got a call from Burnette around 2011.

WRGC, then under ownership of the Georgia-Carolina Radiocasting Company, went off the air for a brief period due to financial difficulties, and Burnette needed technical help getting it back up and running under his ownership.

What Burnette had bought was a storied outlet, founded in Sylva in 1957 as WMSJ, with the “MSJ” standing for Macon, Swain and Jackson.

When the owner’s son Ronnie G. Childress was electrocuted while working on a piece of equipment during a thunderstorm in 1975, the call sign was changed to his initials, RGC.

age of Pisgah High School’s football, basketball, softball and baseball games, and even some soccer, as well as Tuscola High School’s basketball, softball and baseball games — exactly the type of treasured tailgate memories that bolster the generational fiber of small-town America.

Other finely-tuned local programming, including a flea market segment, obituaries, gospel hymns and Bible teachings, begins at 6 a.m. and continues through 10:30; that’s followed by Westwood One’s Real Country network.

“Real country is defined as classic country,” said Reck. “George Jones. Conway Twitty. Loretta Lynn.“ That old gold is augmented by popular contemporary artists like Brooks and Dunn, Miranda Lambert, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill and Reba McEntire.

“We have the best of the new, true country without getting into rock n’ roll country, and the best of the old country without getting very deep into people like Porter Wagoner and Hank Williams Sr.,” Reck said. “We play some of their music, but we’ll play a lot more Hank Jr. than Hank Sr., and we’ll play a lot more Kenny Chesney than we will Porter Wagoner.”

Despite larger, better-known media conglomerates cornering the market, small-market local radio stations still fill a valuable niche. The warm glow of a 1970s-era Panasonic portable radio (top) may have dimmed for most, but the future of terrestrial radio still appears bright.

Cory Vaillancourt photos

“The simple answer is two words. Local service.”

— Bill Reck, WPTL

Much like Sylva’s WRGC, Canton’s WPTL found itself of late competing for attention and advertisers not only with other local radio, television and print outlets but also with international corporate behemoths like iTunes, SiriusXM, Spotify and YouTube.

Reck, who’s been in radio for 58 years, explains how a small 500-watt AM station in rural Southern Appalachia remains viable today, 40 years and 27 days after he purchased it.

“The simple answer is two words,” he said. “Local service.”

WPTL’s local service includes live cover-

Things are slightly different with WRGC’s adult contemporary format and WBHN’s classic country stylings, but the one similarity between all three stations is that local service angle.

“We broadcast Smoky Mountain High School football, boys and girls basketball, and some baseball,” Rogers said of the Sylva Station. “We have carried Swain County football, and we’re hoping to do a lot more with the Bryson City station.”

And then, of course, there’s Western Carolina University football and basketball.

“WRGC is a valuable and long-time partner of Western Carolina University. The station is a cornerstone of the Catamount Sports Network and, through its news operations and ‘540 Focus’ programming, regularly shares information about university activities, programs and people with residents of

“The FM translators are going to breathe some new life into local radio. I think it’s going to give us a little more of a viable edge than we’ve had in the past.”

— Andy Rogers, WRGC

Listen local WPTL Canton www.wptlradio.net AM 920 • FM 101.7 WRGC Sylva www.wrgc.com AM 540 • FM 105.7 WBHN Bryson City AM 1590 • FM 94.1 (coming soon) clearer than ever on 94.1 FM, possibly as far as Robbinsville.

“The FM translators are going to breathe some new life into local radio,” Rogers said. “I think it’s going to give us a little more of a viable edge than we’ve had in the past.”

ON THE AIR

Smoky Mountain News

The increasing availability of FM translators to small-market AM stations levels the playing field somewhat; according to Maryland-based media relations services company News Generation, 93 percent of Americans listen to AM or FM radio, 4 percent more than watch television.

Digital listenership has increased from 12 percent of Americans in 2007 to more than 50 percent last year, with 40 percent of cellphone owners using the device to play audio in their cars.

The global reach of the internet means one needn’t be within antenna range of Canton to stay connected to music, news and sports; Reck mentioned a local West Point grad who listens to the station from Afghanistan.

“There are people with ties to the community that listen to us and then there are people that are just out there, everywhere,” he said.

“We have a group in Finland that just found us, likes us, and listens to us. There’s another in Ukraine. It’s crazy.”

While most if not all local stations broadcast over the internet — as well as serve up digital content of their own on social media platforms — Rogers warns against getting carried away with it.

“The radio market as a whole has spent so much money building these digital plat-

March 28-April 3, 2018

Jackson County and surrounding communities,” said Bill Studenc, chief communications officer at WCU. “We applaud these improvements to WRGC’s broadcast capabilities and welcome the opportunities that they present in providing a broader swath of listeners across the region with access to information about Western Carolina University.”

Worsening AM signal degradation in a heavily mountainous region and dusk power curfews have made all that local content increasingly difficult to find, but recent actions by the Federal Communications Commission already have local listeners tuning on and tuning in to a new twist on an old favorite.

“The FCC recognized the problem, but deemed it impractical to give the already-saturated AM radio market a power increase,” Reck said, adding that such a move would cause widespread interference from Sevierville to Sunburst to Salisbury, and everywhere in between.

The solution was what’s called a translator, which basically rebroadcasts one radio frequency’s output onto another.

In this case, WPTL’s 920 AM frequency can now be heard on 101.7 FM; Reck applied for a license from the FCC last July and was quickly approved. He began construction on the Chambers Mountain site this past January, was given final approval by the FCC Feb. 7, and began full-time broadcasting at 7 p.m. that same night.

“Now it’s just a matter of putting that service back to work and we’re looking to tell people all about it and give them a chance to rediscover WPTL,” Reck said.

Rogers isn’t far behind his old boss with WRGC and WBHN. “Both stations applied for and have received a translator frequency,” he said.

“The station in Sylva, 540 AM, is also now on 105.7 FM. We just got it up this week. It’s still in a test phase, and we’re awaiting final license approval any day now.”

With that project out of the way, construction was slated to begin on the WBHN translator the week of March 26; soon, Bryson City’s 1590 AM will also be heard louder and

WWIT and WPTL in Canton, and finally WQNS in Waynesville. Reck’s WPTL is the only one still under local management.

Sitting in the WPTL studio amidst stacks of dusty old LPs and 45s in yellowed jackets — there isn’t even a turntable in the building anymore — Reck sees the industry as remaining viable for the foreseeable future.

“I think that as times progress, some of the smaller stations will go off the air, and more of them will continue to adapt,” he said.

“But I think you’ll see more selective stations like mine becoming actually stronger. We have to continually look for ways to serve our community and be visible, and be relevant.”

And although he can still recount the instudio appearances there by everyone from Country Music Hall of Fame inductee Jim Ed Brown to contemporary bluegrass juggernaut Balsam Range, his forward-looking perspective on the industry suggests WPTL and stations like it will continue to create those cherished memories, from Canton to Finland.

“It’s kind of like restaurant row,” he said.

“McDonald’s builds next to Hardee’s who builds next to Taco Bell who builds next to Bojangles’ who builds next to Wendy’s, and on it goes. It’s easier to get a bigger piece of the pie than it is to try to be the pie.”

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Heather Hyatt (left) and Andy Rogers host the morning show on Sylva’s WRGC. Donated photo

forms, they’ve lost sight of the backbone of their operation, which is local terrestrial radio,” he said.

According to Rogers, those digital platforms are “everything but terrestrial radio” — things like mobile apps, on-demand content and even event production.

“I guess [with the recent iHeartMedia bankruptcy], you can see the effects of that,” said Rogers.

Instead, local service delivered by a local presence is far more important than syndicated regional or national talent appearing on local radio in dozens of markets.

“That’s still something that holds weight,” he said. “We’re your neighbors.”

Rogers says you can see the impact on the bottom line.

“Businesses that advertise with local radio get results, or they wouldn’t remain.

Sometimes it’s difficult to convince a new client to advertise on radio, but once they see the return on investment, 95 percent of our clients remain regular advertisers,” he said. “Obviously there’s still something viable there.”

At its peak, there were four locally operated radio stations in Haywood County, the first being WHCC in Waynesville, followed by

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Mission Health could become for-profit system Negotiations underway to join HCA Healthcare

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR ission Health, the largest health care provider in Western North Carolina, could soon become a for-profit health care system if plans to be acquired by Nashville-based HCA Healthcare come to fruition.

Mission announced last week that its board of directors signed a letter of intent to enter into exclusive discussions to join HCA (Hospital Corporation of America), a forprofit network that includes 177 hospitals and 119 surgery centers in 20 states and the United Kingdom.

According to a press release from Mission, the board’s unanimous decision reflects its long-term vision and commitment to expanding Mission’s “word-class quality of care within a rapidly consolidating healthcare industry.”

With extensive resources to strengthen hospitals and deliver patient-focused care, Mission said signing the LOI was a pro-active step to ensure it remains well-positioned to meeting the unique health care needs of the region.

“The Board, all of whom are community members who care deeply about ensuring access to high quality care for the people of Western North Carolina for generations to come, is confident that HCA Healthcare is the right and best choice for Mission’s team members and providers, its patients and the communities we are privileged to serve,” said Mission Health Board Chairman John R. Ball.

“HCA Healthcare is a leading healthcare operator that offers advantages on a scale that would be difficult, if not impossible, to achieve otherwise.”

March 28-April 3, 2018

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HCA recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. With over 200,000 employees and 37,000 active physicians, HCA Holdings — the largest investor-owned hospital system in the U.S. — was ranked No. 63 on Fortune’s list of top 500 companies in 2017.

In making the announcement, Mission Health’s Board Vice Chair John W. Garrett noted that even though HCA Healthcare is one of the nation’s leading health system operators, it does not currently have operations in North Carolina.

“HCA Healthcare is attracted to Mission Health for many reasons, including the reputation of Mission Health clinicians and broader team to deliver best-in-class care and patient outcomes and our shared commitment to innovation,” he said.

Mission leaders are also excited that the HCA agreement could include the establishment of a new foundation that would provide substantial annual investments dedicated to improving the health and well being of patients.

“As important, the newly formed foundation will be life-changing for the residents of our region, providing tens of millions of dollars annually in new support for the most vulnerable,” Ball said.

“When combined with the ability of the newly formed foundation to enhance access in underserved communities and to invest in solving some of healthcare’s most complex and intractable problems — health risks that are beyond the reach of traditional medicine — it’s an ideal opportunity for our community,” Garrett said.

Milton Johnson, HCA Healthcare’s chairman and CEO, stated in the press release that he is excited to formalize discussions with Mission about how HCA can help continue its impressive legacy in this region.

“As a healthcare provider founded by

Diane E. Sherrill, Attorney

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physicians 50 years ago, we appreciate the way Mission Health has served Western North Carolina with a level of excellence that has earned national recognition as one of the top 15 healthcare systems in the country,” he said.

Dr. Ron Paulus, president and CEO of Mission Health, said it was a testament to Mission’s board and staff that the health care system is in such a strong position to have the option of joining HCA — a decision he said would be the best choice for patients.

“HCA Healthcare appreciates that Mission Health has the capacity to continue its work alone, and yet we both recognize that meeting our core missions could be achieved more effectively together,” Paulus said. “We are excited to be considering joining HCA Healthcare and benefitting from its caliber and exceptional capabilities in research, clinical trials, data analytics, graduate medical

education and more.”

For the past nine years, HCA Healthcare has been ranked as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by the world leader in business ethics, the Ethisphere Institute.

“It is important to us that HCA Healthcare expresses a commitment to supporting our clinical best practices and our communities’ values,” Paulus added. “The recognition HCA Healthcare continues to earn for being one of the world’s most ethical companies is compelling.”

HCA’S PAST While Mission leaders are confident they will be joining a reputable health care system, HCA has not operated without controversy over the last 20 years.

According to a New York

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Smoky Mountain News

Many people in the community experienced an “ah-ha” moment when Mission made the acquisition announcement. All of a sudden Mission’s cuts to personnel and services over the last couple of years all made sense — Mission was trying to make itself more attractive for a buyer. In the last year, Mission has discontinued the labor and delivery units at Angel Medical Center in Franklin and Blue Ridge Regional Hospital in Spruce Pine because they were losing money.

Some have expressed concerns about Mission joining HCA specifically because of its financial past and the concern over increased costs associated with for-profit trauma centers.

Others seem to be in favor of the nonprofit transitioning into a for-profit operation if it will increase resources and investments for WNC facilities. That was the case when Duke LifePoint acquired Haywood Regional Medical Center, Harris Regional Hospital and Swain Community Hospital in 2014. The deal came with Duke LifePoint’s promise to invest $43 million in capital improvements at Harris and Swain and another $36 million in Haywood over eight years.

Another plus of a nonprofit health care system becoming for-profit is the additional property tax revenue local governments could collect from Mission facilities.

All those details have yet to be worked out. For more information and updates, visit www.missionhealthforward.org.

March 28-April 3, 2018

COMMUNITY RESPONSE

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Times article from December 2000, HCA paid $840 million in criminal penalties and pleaded guilty to charges of obtaining money by cheating government health care programs. That settlement — the largest Medicare fraud settlement in American history — was reached after an extensive Department of Justice investigation into HCA’s business practices that became public in 1997.

Criminal complaints filed against the company included accusations that it intentionally misidentified marketing expenses as reimbursable patient costs, striking illegal deals with home care agencies, lying on reimbursement forms about how much hospital space was being utilized for patient care, inflating the seriousness of an illness on Medicare billing and more.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott was the CFO of HCA when the investigation was made public and resigned several months later. Scott’s company, Columbia, originally purchased a couple of Texas hospitals in 1987 and over the next decade bought up hundreds of hospitals and surgery centers. Columbia purchased HCA’s 100 hospitals in 1994 and the companies merged.

The Tampa Bay Times published a multipart investigation in 2014 regarding HCA’s trauma center operations in Florida. The newspaper articles alleged that HCA’s trauma centers were charging injured patients tens of thousands of dollars more than others in the state, according to the newspaper’s analysis of state records.

For more on HCA and its finances, visit www.hcahealthcare.com and fortune.com/fortune500/hca-holdings/.

9

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Stuart Auditorium at Lake Junaluska Worship time 10:25 am • Coffee and connection at 9:00 a.m.

• Childcare for children 4 and under • Free photo booth

March 28-April 3, 2018

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WOMEN In BUSINESS Women In BusIness Luncheon 2018 BIrchWood haLL southern KItchen Chef Nicolas Peek & Mary Grace Samardzia Tuesday, April 10, 2018 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM EST Birchwood Hall Southern Kitchen 111 N. Main Street Waynesville, NC 28786

Join the Chamber and Birchwood Hall's own Chef Nicolas

Smoky Mountain News

Peek for a relaxing luncheon featuring his unique farm to

Haywood Pathways on a roll

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT STAFF WRITER aywood County’s only homeless shelter — and one of the very few in North Carolina west of Asheville — continues to advance its mission of transforming the most vulnerable among us by filling in some of the potholes on their road to recovery.

Working with elected officials, law enforcement, other nonprofits and county residents, Haywood Pathways Center has recently taken several steps to broaden scope and service, helping more people get in, as well as get out.

H

table culinary delights. Chef Nicolas & Restaurant

GETTING PEOPLE

Manager, Mary Grace Samardzia will share their belief of

OFF THE STREETS

keeping ingredients local, while showcasing the talent and necessity of local farmers.

Media SponSorS:

Smoky Mountain News & The Mountaineer

PRESENTING SPONSOR:

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Birchwood hall Southern kitchen

tuesday, april 10 • 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.

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Ceremonial ground was broken March 15 for a new women and children’s facility at Haywood Pathways. Cory Vaillancourt photo

$25/Chamber Members

$35/Non-Members

Although it’s much more, Haywood Pathways is best known as a place where men and women can get a plate to eat and a place to sleep.

Bringing minors into the mix, however, has always presented a problem — but not for much longer.

“What I love about this community is that we have government officials, businesses, nonprofits, and the faith community all working together,” said Rev. Nick Honercamp, immediate past chair of the Pathways board. “Without that partnership, you’re never going to solve the kind of problems we’re seeing in our community today.”

Since its creation in 2014, Pathways — with a men’s dorm and a women’s dorm

— hasn’t been set up to accommodate children, meaning homeless women or families had to rely on partnerships social service agencies had established with local budget hotels.

Those rooms aren’t as cost-effective as housing at Pathways, and they’re getting harder and harder to find.

The solution is a new two-story 5,400square-foot modular building that will feature 10 bedrooms and house women with children exclusively; some of the rooms feature jack-and-jill bathrooms and can be configured to host a few larger families, or several smaller ones.

Groundbreaking on the project was March 15, with a projected opening date in late August, just in time for families to get settled in before school starts.

“There is nowhere else,” said Pathways Executive Director Mandy Haithcox. “We got a call from a grandmother with grandkids, and they don’t have anywhere else to go and it’s 28 degrees tonight. Instead, we’re paying $56 for them to stay somewhere.”

Both floors of the new building will come complete with common areas, a laundry room and a kitchenette, but the ground floor will also feature 24-hour security, a caseworker office, and a trauma-informed playroom meant to be orderly and calming.

“Most people have trauma of some sort, and it’s more complicated if you’re three years old and homeless,” Haithcox said.

Pathways’ annual budget is on the order of $330,000, almost all of which comes from individuals in the faith community.

The cost for the new building, including fixtures, some furnishings, a year’s worth of operating costs, programming and staffing comes in around $800,000.

“We have enough at this moment to construct the building debt-free, and so we’re raising the rest of the funds,” Haithcox said.

Pathways is also looking for furnishings, and hopes to set up a “bridal registry” of sorts, whereby donors can purchase items like, dressers, beds or even laptops for use by families in the building.

GETTING PEOPLE While the lack of public transportation in Haywood County serves as an impediment to economic development, it also disproportionately affects the poor, the unemployed and people trying to get back on their feet — like the residents of Haywood Pathways.

“Because of this, some people can only work within walking distance,” said Mandy Haithcox, executive director of Pathways.

As the old joke goes, everything is within walking distance if you have the time, but many people don’t — the average person walks about two miles per hour, and in the past, Haithcox said, some Pathways residents have walked to jobs on Russ Avenue or even in Ratliff Cove, some four miles distant.

But Pathways Community Liaison Deb Isenberg said that once some local bicycle club members got their wheels turning, they came up with a solution that has Pathways residents pounding the pedals instead of the pavement.

“The folks from BicycleHaywoodNC had the idea, so I met with them and we just kind of brainstormed,” Isenberg said. “They wanted to do something where they could utilize old bikes, provide our residents with wheels, and use that whole process to promote bicycle safety.”

BicycleHaywoodNC is the local chapter of the Blue Ridge Bicycle Club, an Asheville-based 501 (c) 3 that promotes both fitness and fun through cycling.

COUNTRY INN

Members of BicycleHaywoodNC and residents of Haywood Pathways roll through the parking lot March 17. Pathways photo Foremost, however, is safety.

“We’ve seen a number of people walking to work through town, and others who looked like they were using their bicycles for transportation,” said Bob Clark of BicycleHaywoodNC. “No lights, no helmets, riding on the wrong side of road … we thought Pathways would be a good place to reach out and start a program.”

Members of the group refurbished and donated five bicycles, bought helmets, pumps, tube repair kits and tools and constructed a small storage shed.

“Everything was donated,” Isenberg said.

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You’re invited to our Annual job fair!

Wednesday, March 28th Come join us!

8:30 a.m. until 6:00 p.m.

Free tax seminar at HCC Residents that want to borrow a bike must first pass a safety class, and can then sign one out for business, or for pleasure; BicycleHaywoodNC also plans to organize a monthly ride at Pathways with residents.

“Part of it is not just to get to work, but also to promote healthy living and also being part of another community of people,” said Haithcox. “So when they leave here, there’s another source of support and another source of relationships.”

The first safety class was conducted March 17 and celebrated with an inaugural ride.

The Small Business Center at Haywood Community College will offer a free seminar called, “Your Small Business Taxes,” from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, April 3, at the HCC Regional High Technology Center Auditorium.

In this seminar, attendees will gain a solid understanding of taxes required for small-business owners and develop the best tax strategy for their business.

Visit SBC.Haywood.edu or call 828.627.4512 to register.

RE-ELECT ANN D.

CLERK OF COURT

Come and meet our department heads! We will be available to assist you with the application and interview process.

See the property and enjoy homemade cookies!

Open seasonal positions include:

Kitchen and culinary staff Prep cooks and dishwashers Dining Room servers Housekeepers and Housemen

Day, evening, nightshift and weekend shifts are available For more information call us at (828) 926-0430 or email us at careers@theswag.com

Smoky Mountain News

MELTON

March 28-April 3, 2018

——————————————————

The town of Canton has hired Robert “Shawn” Gaddis as its new chief of police effective March 31.

Gaddis, who most recently held the rank of lieutenant within the department, will be taking over for retiring chief Bryan Whitner.

Gaddis is a lifelong resident of Haywood County and possesses 25 years of law enforcement experience — 18 of those years were spent serving Canton.

Before that he served as a Haywood County Sheriff ’s deputy.

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Canton hires new police chief

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Experience Matters Paid for by Ann Melton Campaign Fund

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TWSA votes down expanded allocation rental Members say timing not right to change policy

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER proposal to extend the allocation rental option to all Tuckaseigee Water and Sewer Authority users hit a dead end March 20 when board members voted 5-1 against a proposal to loosen the policy.

But that doesn’t mean that appetite for change is nonexistent. Two board members — Mike Byers, a nonvoting member who is Western Carolina University’s vice chancellor for administration and finance, and Ron Mau, a Jackson County commissioner — expressed support for the suggestion from fellow board member David Nestler, a Sylva town commissioner. They just felt that the timing was off.

“I’m sympathetic to what you’re saying, David, but if you start thinking about the timeline of getting everything done — even if we said, ‘Let’s fix it now,’ I’m thinking it would probably take the same timeline as 436,” Mau said.

That’s House Bill 436, a law the state legislature passed last year requiring any water or sewer utility charging up-front fees like the impact fees TWSA currently levies to go through a prescribed method to calculate the maximum amount they can legally charge.

After June 30, this fee will be known as a system development fee, and in the coming months TWSA members will have to wrangle with how high those fees should be.

An initial presentation of the report calculating those legal maximums showed that TWSA could actually set its upfront fees well above the current levels, but in recent years those current levels have met criticism for being too high already. Last month, Sylva restaurant owner George Neslen came before the board to say that the nearly $50,000 in fees required to move his business to a new

Smoky Mountain News

March 28-April 3, 2018

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location would prevent him from expanding in Sylva. TWSA later allowed Neslen to take advantage of the rental option, developed in 2015, due to the fact that the property he plans to use has existing — though much smaller than needed — water and sewer taps.

That decision allowed Neslen to move forward with this plans, but the incident has left some seeing the need for a more widespread solution.

“We had two members of the community come in two weeks in a row with pretty huge issues with the impact fee and exposed a lot of the problems with this system,” said Nestler. “We have the framework in place to alleviate those problems, if not solve them.”

The rental option, which allows users to pay a monthly fee in perpetuity rather than cutting a large one-time check, is currently available only to customers with existing connections who wish to increase their allocation. Nestler would like to see it expanded to all users, including new construction, though he said he’d see the sense in requiring a baseline upfront impact fee, with rental payments taking care of allocation above that baseline amount.

While Nestler is strong in his opinion on the issue, others on the board don’t feel the same way. When the proposal came through the Policy Committee — that includes Nestler, Webster Mayor Tracy Rodes and Tom Sawyer, a businessman who was appointed by the county commissioners — Nestler was the only one who voted to recommend it for adoption.

According to TWSA Executive Director Dan Harbaugh, the rental policy was developed for a specific audience — existing users looking to upgrade their allocation — and opening it to all customers would have negative ramifications.

“Taking this away from the target audience and applying it to all of our customers will have an impact on revenue,” said

Sylva resident Cliff Faull tells the Tuckseigee Water and Sewer Authority Board how he believes impact fees are harming development in town. Holly Kays photo

Public hearing planned The Tuckaseigee Water and Sewer Authority plans to hold a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 17, to take input on the supporting analysis driving recommendations for the legal maximum it will be able to charge new users to tap on to the system.

A draft of the analysis was presented during the Feb. 13 meeting. It is available online under the “Forms and Documents” tab at www.twsanc.us under the link for “TWSA System Development Fee Study.”

The direct link is bit.ly/2pGFM1W. Harbaugh. “The underlying issue is how TWSA collects the needed revenue from customers.”

Harbaugh added that the other two Policy Committee members felt the timing wasn’t

right to consider such a change.

“H.B. 436 is already forcing us to look if we’ll be able to charge rental fees in the future, because they’re based on impact fees,” said Harbaugh.

Other TWSA members concurred with Rodes’ and Sawyer’s concerns about timing.

“Our staff is already taxed with what they’re doing with the House bill, and to come in and do what might be a temporary fix for a change and then in two months or three months have to change it again — I think it’s creating work,” said Brenda Oliver, a former Sylva mayor appointed by the Town of Sylva.

“When we switch to some kind of monthly charge as opposed to an upfront charge, it’s going to change in those first few years what the cash flow is for the organization, so it could have short-run impacts on making ends meet, and we would need to study that,” Byers concurred. “To think we’re going to do all that in a hurry in April just so we can get it done before this House bill mess is done in June seems like a heavy lift.”

Cherokee bail bondsman pleads guilty in sexual extortion case Mother of abused minor admits guilt for failure to report

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER bail bondsman who the FBI accused of accepting sexual favors in lieu of monetary repayments pleaded guilty to one count of forced labor, a felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years and a $250,000 fine.

Phillip Armachain, of Cherokee, was 12 arrested following a May 2017 complaint

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alleging that three women had come forward to say that they had paid their bond fees or loan repayments by having sex with Armachain, who was known to charge 100 percent interest rates on loans. A fourth victim, the complaint said, was a girl between the ages of 12 and 16 whose mother borrowed money from Armachain. According to the complaint, Armachain would give her the money only if she sent her daughter in alone to get it. During those visits, according to an investigator’s testimony in a court transcript, Armachain would digitally penetrate the girl and touch her breasts under the shirt.

The girl’s mother was later charged in the case as well, with a second superseding bill

of indictment issued in December 2017 charging Armachain and the mother with three counts of sexual abuse of a child 12 to 16 years old, a crime that includes either committing the sexual acts or aiding and abetting another in commission of those acts. In addition, Armachain faced two charges of forced labor for “obtaining the labor and services of (the victims) by means of the abuse and threatened abuse of law and legal process.”

However, the cases were later separated, with the mother in January pleading guilty to misprision of felony, a crime that occurs when a person has knowledge of a felony being committed but does not alert authorities as

soon as possible. The crime comes with a maximum prison sentence of three years.

In her confession, the mother said that she had borrowed money from Armachain multiple times before August 2016, when the abuse began, and that he’d lend her the money if she agreed to pay him back twice the amount of the loan. However, in or about August 2016, Armachain insisted that the mother bring her daughter to get the cash from him, repeating this request on at least three occasions in August and September.

The mother believed that Armachain was attempting to engage in some kind of sexual activity with her

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daughter, her admission reads, and the daughter told her mother that Armachain said he wanted to have sex with her and would feel her breasts and buttocks when she went in to get the money from him. However, the mother never notified the authorities, and the abuse came to law enforcement’s attention only when the mother’s three children went to live with their father in Yancey County. The daughter told her father what had happened, and he reported the abuse.

Before this report, the mother’s admission reads, the FBI had interviewed the mother in its investigation of Armachain, and in those interviews the mother concealed her knowledge of the crimes, saying that her daughter had never told her about any abusive sexual contact.

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Phillip Armachain, of Cherokee, was arrested following a May 2017 complaint alleging that three women had come forward to say that they had paid their bond fees or loan repayments by having sex with Armachain, who was known to charge 100 percent interest rates on loans.

March 28-April 3, 2018 Smoky Mountain News

Armachain’s admission does not mention his abuse of the minor, but rather concerns his conduct after bailing a woman out of the Cherokee Tribal Detention Facility in November 2016. After bailing her out, the admission reads, Armachain offered to give her a ride home but instead drove her to his own house in Cherokee. Once inside, he started kissing the woman and removing her clothes, telling her that if she had sex with him he would forgive the fee she owed for having executed the bond. The woman feared that if she didn’t do as he asked he would surrender her back to custody, the admission says, and so she “felt pressured to engaged in actions that she otherwise would not have done.”

The investigation, conducted by the FBI and the Cherokee Indian Police Department, stemmed from information that Armachain, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, had been receiving per capita checks — semiannual payments tribal members receive from casino profits — in the mail as collateral for loans he’d issued to tribal members doing business with him.

During 2015, more than 150 enrolled members listed Armachain’s address as the delivery address for their per capita check, according to the affidavit from FBI Special Agent Andrew Romagnuolo, on which the criminal complaint is based.

The mother of the minor who was abused is not named in this report to protect the privacy of the minor.

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Haywood Christian Academy gets room to grow

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT STAFF WRITER ext fall, students at Haywood Christian Academy will all attend classes together in a new building that brings the two campuses together but still leaves them room to grow.

“It has always been our vision to unite the campuses under one roof,” said Head of School Kelly Herbert. “The school has always been on two campuses from the very beginning, and we’re 11 years old now.”

Currently, the school owns the former Woodland Baptist Church at 1400 Old Clyde Road, where students in grades four through 12 receive instruction; the school also leases space from New Covenant Church at 767 Lee Road for pre-K through third grade classes.

But after the Town of Waynesville issued a special-use permit earlier this month, HCA is on its way toward purchasing the former Old Cavalry Road Baptist Church, which lies just off Dayton Drive in Waynesville.

Herbert said the school plans to close on the 7.07-acre property May 31.

Around that same time, Old Cavalry Road Baptist Church will begin hosting services at its new facility, just down the road in Maggie Valley; the church purchased the

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Haywood Christian Academy will close on the former Old Cavalry Road Baptist Church property May 31. Haywood GIS photo long-disused 800-seat Eaglenest events center on Soco Road for $2.4 million last month.

That move by Old Cavalry Road, Herbert said, made HCA’s move possible; HCA had been looking for land, and had considered building a new structure to house the 120 or so students enrolled. The school needs more classroom space according, to Herbert, and outdoor space as well.

“We have always wanted to have our own athletic facility, so there’s definitely room on the property for that,” she said, noting that

athletics were not an immediate goal.

“Our goal is to develop students into Christian leaders by providing an excellent educational experience built on a foundation of Biblical truth,” she said. “That sets us apart from any other educational institution in this county.”

As for HCA’s current building on Old Clyde Road, Herbert said the school would likely put it up for sale; Providence Presbyterian Church currently rents a portion of the building for its services and may be a viable buyer.

Former Haywood manager rehired to lead HHS

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT STAFF WRITER Many people were surprised by the sudden resignation of Ira Dove from his position as Haywood County manager last October, but just as surprising was an announcement last week that Dove would rejoin the county in a role that is different, but not new to him.

“I think it’s great to be back,” Dove said.

“There are a lot of familiar faces.”

As of March 26, Dove now heads the county’s Consolidated Health and Human Services Agency after receiving unanimous approval March 20 by the Health and Human Services Agency Board.

Dove was hired as county manager May 5, 2014, and served in the $144,000-a-year job until Oct. 3, 2017, but prior to that, he served as an attorney for the county’s Department of Social Services for nine years. After that, he

headed the department for four years.

A press release issued by the county March 21 said that the county had received almost 40 applications, but none from within the ranks of current employees. Five applicants were selected, three were interviewed, and Dove was ultimately chosen for the $105,000 job.

“We all agreed that Ira was the best qualified and best suited person for the position,” said Interim County Manager Joel Mashburn in the release.

Dove said that interim director Patrick Johnson has done “a great job holding things down” since the departure of former HHS director Talmadge “Stoney” Blevins in January. Blevins, who for a brief period also served as Haywood’s assistant county manager under Dove, left to take a job in Buncombe County.

“They served over 13,000 people on Medicaid last year, and had a great year,” Dove said of HHS. “And they continue to engage in innovative programming, like giving out pack-and-play cribs to help ensure safe sleep.”

Community engagement by HHS will continue under Dove’s direction, including addressing the opioid epidemic, but the bread-and-butter of the department’s daily operations continues to be providing services and support to people in need in Haywood County.

“We still have some capacity in Meals on Wheels, and I would say that if people are in need of services, we’re still there to provide those,” he said. “The economy is recovering, and we’re grateful for that, but if people are still in need of economic supports, we can do that.”

School threats continue in mass shooting aftermath

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR School systems in Western North Carolina continue to deal with a multitude of threats in the aftermath of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 people dead.

A student made a bomb threat Monday, March 26, at Cullowhee Valley School that forced Jackson County Schools to evacuate the school and dismiss class for the day.

Students at Scotts Creek Elementary in Jackson County had to be evacuated March 15 due to a bomb threat. A bomb threat written on a restroom wall prompted the evacuation and early dismissal of Tuscola High School in Waynesville on March 7.

Swain County Schools were placed under lockdown Feb. 22 because of a threat made on social media.

Swain County Sheriff Curtis Cochran and Assistant District Attorney Jason Arnold recently took the time to talk to students at Swain County’s schools about the seriousness of making such threats and the consequences they could face for making them.

“Whether it’s a real or false threat, we

take each one seriously — don’t think your social media post threats won’t be seen,” Cochran said.

Once a threat is made, Cochran said his deputies would take their probable cause to the magistrate judge to obtain an arrest warrant.

“If we get that warrant we’re gonna come get you, put you in handcuffs, arrest you, take you down to the jail to process you and put you in a green jumpsuit,” he said.

Cochran also warned students of the costs associated with securing a bond to get out of jail, paying for a lawyer to defend them and hefty court fines trying to discourage them from making any kind of threat against others.

“I can’t beg you enough not to make these threats,” he said.

Arnold then explained to students that if they are 16 and older, North Carolina will treat them as an adult in the court system.

Even if they are under 16, they can end up in a juvenile detention center. And even if they aren’t convicted, the charges will be on their record forever.

“Even if it’s a hoax, it’s still a felony. My office and the elected DA takes that extremely serious and we’re going to prosecute you and do what’s right to keep the schools safe,” Arnold said.

Students were then allowed to ask the sheriff and ADA questions about school safety. Some students echoed their parents’

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everyone’s cooperation. However, he did hear afterward that some students were making light of the situation and making jokes about shooting each other.

“It’s not funny,” he said.

“We’re at a point in our society where we’re on edge.

Don’t joke about these issues when students are nervous to be here.”

Some students said they didn’t feel safe in certain classrooms where there are a lot of glass windows or in Swain County High School rooms that don’t have a secPrincipal Mark Sale (from ondary exit. left) Sheriff Curtis Cochran Sale told students he is and Assistant District aware of the safety issues at Attorney Jason Arnold speak Swain High and while he’d to students about the love to invest money into seriousness of making threats renovations to improve at school. Jessi Stone photo safety, he told students the funding just isn’t available.

“The quarter-cent sales tax referendum was denied last year — we ing the lockdown, Cochran said many parcould have used that money to better secure ents would have been trying to come onto our school, which will take $8 million,” Sale the school campuses to pick up their kids said. “I would love to give y’all a new high and law enforcement resources would have school, but that would take $60 million.” to be diverted to deal with that issue instead Sale did tell students there are discusof the lockdown. sions about installing one-way vision protec“The more people we can keep off camtors on the entranceway windows, a pushpus the better off we are,” he said. button lock entry at the school and getting a Principal Mark Sale said the lockdown new PA system for better communications. process went smoothly and he appreciated concerns over not being notified when the schools were under lockdown Feb. 22, but the sheriff explained it was a matter of safety. If a notification was sent to parents dur-

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Swain sheriff, DA tell students threats will be prosecuted

70 Soco Road, Maggie Valley 828.926.0201

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Smoky Mountain News March 28-April 3, 2018

news

Upcoming paving projects in Waynesville

Tourism industry resources available Tourism-related businesses in the region will have an opportunity to meet with Visit North Carolina staff April 11 to learn about its research, development and marketing services, and discuss best practices in reaching travelers, the media and increasing tourism visitation and spending.

Over the St. Patrick’s Day holiday weekend, local, tribal, state and federal law enforcement agencies conducted an operation that was focused on the exploitation of children and the predators involved.

This operation netted four arrests, three of which had the intention of having sex with a minor. The subjects arrested are all from Western North Carolina and traveled at different times to an undisclosed location with the intention of meeting the minors.

Law enforcement agencies taking part in this operation were the Cherokee Indian Police Department, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Swain County Sheriff ’s Office, Jackson County Sheriff ’s Office, North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement, Drug Enforcement Administration Asheville Post of Duty, Asheville Police North Carolina's Tourism Resource Assistance Center (TRAC), a communitybased training program designed to help small tourism-related businesses, will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Lake Junaluska’s Harrell Center Auditorium.

There is no charge to attend, no reservation is required, and there are no PowerPoint presentations. This is a come-when-youcan/stay-as-long-as-you'd-like event opportunity for all tourism-related businesses to meet one-on-one with program managers to

Department, Hendersonville Police Department, Cherokee County Sheriff ’s Office, Homeland Security Investigations and the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Jeffrey Scott Shelley of Sylva was arrested and charged with Attempted Statutory Sex Offense with a Child 11 years old by an adult; Solicit by Computer and Appeared and Possession of Methamphetamine.

Harvey William Carpenter of Hendersonville was arrested and charged with Attempted Statutory Sex Offense with a Child 15 years old or less by an adult; Solicit by Computer and Appeared and Solicit for Prostitution.

Darwin Kerry Albright of Canton was arrested and charged with Solicit for Prostitution. discuss better ways to promote their property or event.

Walk with a Doc Haywood Regional Medical Center will host the first of its 2018 Walk With a Doc walking program at 10 a.m. April 7 at Lake Junaluska Kern Center featuring David

news

The Town of Waynesville has two major paving projects occurring at the beginning of April.

The town will temporarily close the public parking area in Frog Level on Commerce Street beginning Monday, April 2, for the preparation and paving of the lot. Sections of the parking area will be unavailable for at least one week. The area where work will occur will be roped off and signs will be in place.

Paving of Hazelwood Avenue and the placement of an elevated crosswalk will be completed the week of April 9 through April 13. There will be detours in place and the public parking area and restrooms will remain open during this time.

Both projects are contingent upon weather conditions. If there is rain, the project dates may have to be adjusted.

For questions, call 828.456.3706.

Agencies make child predator arrests

Peterson, cardiologist, speaking on “Risk Factors for Heart Attacks.”

“According to WebMD, a healthy lifestyle may prevent 80 percent of heart attacks. So being able to talk with community members about heart attacks while also helping them lower their chances by walking, it’s just a wonderful program to be a part of,” said Dr. Peterson.

This is a free program and pre-registration is not required. Haywood Regional will be hosting a Walk with a Doc event on the first Saturday of every month April through October at Lake Junaluska Kern Center.

ALE training in Maggie A free Alcohol Law Enforcement training course will be offered at 10 a.m. Tuesday, April 10, at Maggie Valley Inn and Conference Center.

Be a Responsible Seller (BARS) is an educational program offered to licensed ABC and N.C. Education Lottery permit holders and their employees free of charge. These programs educate employees on the criminal laws and administrative regulations governing responsible business operation. Topics include how to spot underage and intoxicated people, how to properly check IDs, and how to tactfully refuse sales and service to intoxicated individuals.

Register by April 2 to the Maggie Valley Chamber of Commerce at 828.926.1686 or teresa@maggievalley.org.

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Opinion

Smoky Mountain News

Student protestors deserve gratitude participating in a uniquely American privilege: the yearning for a better country and the sincere belief that we as citizens can make it so. If this country is indeed a grand experiment, then events such as these over the last couple of weeks leave me hopeful for our future.

This outpouring came from young Americans whose civic life is in its fledgling stage. They took the initiative, spurred on by their desire for Editor change, to march and speak out. I saw posts from many young ladies from this region, and I was proud of them for making the effort.

On the other hand, I was angered by all those who found

Scott McLeod

I’ve always admired those who speak out, those who have opinions and feel compelled to share them.

I’ve been to countless county and town board meetings and covered many political events and rallies over my career as a journalist. The speakers who stand and deliver passionate and sometimes poetic arguments on heartfelt issues always win my admiration, even those whose points I disagree with.

This past weekend, hundreds of thousands of students and adults marched, made signs, and gave speeches to support safer schools and reasonable gun control measures. And last week, students from across the country marked the one-month anniversary of the Parkland, Florida, shootings with walkouts and vigils for the dead.

Sure, some of those youthful marchers made naïve remarks, but that is to be expected. All of them, though, were

Leaders need to do more to stop carnage

Stephen Wall

I was disappointed to read Interim Superintendent Bill Nolte's post on the Haywood County School website (www.haywood.k12.nc.us/blog/2018/03/20/scho ols-and-political-protests/). I think he misunderstands why tens of thousands of young people have raised their voices to protest the carnage inflicted by the 18 school shooting that have occurred so far just this year, over 200 in the past decade.

Mr. Nolte (who I know and respect) has gone too far when he accused these thoughtful young people of being “pawns” of some secret plot led by a mysterious organization — which he doesn’t care to name. There is no secret plot or secret organization.

This is fear mongering and character assassination in the tradition of McCarthyism. Back in the 1950s even President Eisenhower was accused of Guest Columnist being a dupe of mysterious and secret “Communist manipulators” in the U.S. State Department.

The truth is there is a conspiracy in this country but it’s not the one Mr. Nolte is worried about.

In the 1930s the NRA led the legal battle to ban public possession of machine guns. As late as President Reagan's time the NRA stood for gun safety and limiting access to semi-automatic weapons as well, which were banned until 1996.

But in the past 30 years the NRA has transformed into a lobbying group to ensure that gun manufacturers make lots of cash by spreading the ridiculous lie that the government will soon be taking your guns away, or that people who don’t look like you will threaten and harm your loved ones.

One million and four hundred thousand Americans have died since 1968 from firearms.

That’s more than all our wars combined. We have no more mental illness or crime than other developed countries but 5 to 10 times the number of

More: Another letter writer responded to Haywood Schools Interim Superintendent Bill Nolte’s post on the Haywood Schools website. Visit the opinion section of www.smokymountainnews.com to read that letter.

gun deaths. Must be a secret conspiracy behind it, right?

As my late dad used to say, if you want to know who is behind the mess, follow the money. The NRA has given our two U.S. senators — Richard Burr and Thom Tillis — about $10 million to ensure there are no brakes on anyone’s access to an AR or a 30-clip. And that is even if they are domestic violence offenders or on the no-fly terrorist list. This dirty money flows through Congress and down Pennsylvania Avenue like a polluted stream.

Members of Congress — and our local officials — need to listen to these young people and do a whole lot more than they have to stop the carnage.

And, to have our leading school administrator suggest that some of our most thoughtful young people are being secretly manipulated is very sad indeed.

I speak as someone who has been a gun owner my whole adult life. In my medical practice here in Haywood County for three decades I have always encouraged folks who hunt or have guns for sport to make sure their children take an NRA or lawenforcement sponsored gun safety class and learn to respect firearms. But there is something deeply wrong with our society when we fear going into a movie theater or mall or worry about making eye contact with strangers who cut us off on the road.

For some sobering facts about gun violence in the USA, visit www.vox.com/policy-andpolitics/2018/2/21/17028930/gun-violence-usstatistics-charts.

(Stephen Wall is a pediatrician who lives in Waynesville.)

ways to demean them. Much of that criticism came from those who don’t support stricter gun laws, and it’s OK to have different views. But I heard too many adults laughing and snickering at the marchers as if they were just uninformed and ignorant.

And perhaps those youths were ignorant to the reality that too many politicians are bought and paid for by groups like the NRA, that too many politicians are more worried about staying in office rather than voting for what their heart may tell them is the right course of action. I’ll take that naivete any day over the cynicism of most of their critics.

The truth is that taking to the streets in peaceful protest to stand for safety in our schools is quite simply a very meaningful and courageous thing to do. More power to them, and here’s hoping we get to the future they’re hoping to create.

(Scott McLeod can be reached at info@smokymountainnews.com.)

And the children shall lead To the Editor: In the wake of school shootings and #NeverAgain, school administrators are faced with the issue of how to respond when school walkouts are planned. Some will react by supporting students, while others take a very different tack.

Take for example the position of Dr. Bill Nolte, interim superintendent of the Haywood County Schools. I select him because he has chosen to make his position clear on the county school webpage; I suspect many other school administrators might agree with him.

Nolte identifies a “new tool being applied,” namely politicizing the issue. He credits “divine intervention” in the form of a snow storm that served to offer his agenda protection from a potential face-off. His game plan reads, “We will continue to redirect or completely avert activities we believe are politically motivated” and asks the school community to not allow “this new political tool designed to use our students as political pons (sic).” He goes on to ask students, staff and parents to “avoid actions or behaviors that link our schools with political activities ... designed solely to sway political opinion.”

These types of statements are troubling because what the students initiated was organic — on their own. Nolte is espousing a right-wing talking point that the left is using students and the media for political purposes. Not coincidently, this is an NRA talking point designed to push back on gun control. More importantly, it is not true.

While it is true that the students invited adults to pitch in with money and ideas, the walkout and outrage came from the children. Strong-arming children into silence and effectively shutting down their voices is dangerous in a democracy.

Moreover, the “new tool being applied” is not new, but a very old one. It’s a tactic that is taken right out of the conservative playbook. We remember when they “swiftboated” John Kerry; weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (there were none); the 2008 financial crisis (consumers’ fault, not the greed of banks); the Affordable Care Act (more people having health insurance is bad for the economy); liberals are out to destroy the nation (while conservatives cut food stamps, school budgets, Medicaid and the mental health programs in our state); and now, little more than token actions on gun safety. The real “political agenda,” unlike the one mentioned on the Haywood Schools’ website, is a constant and steadfast attack on our government and its citizens by rich individuals (and now corporations thanks to Citizens United). All of these actions combine to undermine the very fabric of what our great country stands for.

“Bring me your tired, your poor …” and we will give them a better life.

I just ask you to think about it. Do you really want to be complicit in muting the voices of our children? We all have heard the clear, pure, compassionate and articulate message of the children of Parkland. During their Washington, D.C., speeches and interviews, did you hear the words Republican or Democrat uttered? Did they sound like the political pons (sic), as Nolte accuses?

Although he did not make clear what he intends by his words “redirect or completely avert activities,” it does not sound like Nolte plans to support students who would use their First Amendment rights and elect to walk out. I, on the other hand, choose to support students. And you?

Brenda Donargo Swain County

Susanna Barbee

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Smoky Mountain News

grow and are more and more weathered by life, it’s hard to get back to simple pleasures we enjoyed as kids.

Jumping waves, throwing baseball in the backyard, putting on talent shows for one another, reading multiple books in a day, catching fireflies, roasting marshmallows.

At 38, I sometimes feel really old. Last weekend, I was around some college kids and they made me feel ancient.

I’ve felt the weight of many things on me recently. I miss my mom terribly for so many reasons. Grief is funny like that. I’ll be OK for a good long while and then wham, my chest feels like it’s going to break open with the pressure of sadness.

I’m also experiencing a lot of mom guilt lately because of my marital separation. It’s hard being away from my little boys, but I’m so proud of the way they are adjusting to everything. They inspire me with their strength and resiliency.

My family has only been back to Ocean Lakes campground one time in a decade and that was to send my mom’s ashes out to sea in August 2016.

She’d never told us what she wanted to happen when she passed away, but then through a completely organic conversation about a month before her death, she told me she wanted to be cremated and her ashes scattered over Surfside Beach where the four of us made so many wonderful memories.

At that point, she was very sick, so while this was hard to hear, it felt good to know what she wanted.

Easter is this Sunday. The boys and I have created our own traditions with our closest friends. Every year, we go to Long’s Chapel’s big worship service at Lake Juansluska and then we spend the rest of the day at someone’s house eating brunch, toasting with mimosas, hosting an Easter egg hunt and just being together and letting the kids run wild and have fun.

Various people come each year.

Sometimes grandparents or family members are in town and join us. The group of friends often grows or shrinks, although a core group of us always attends.

I know my boys are happy and they are enjoying their childhood Easters as much as I enjoyed mine. I work every day to be grateful for the blessings I have and to not think about the grief and guilt.

As I continue through this holiday week, I’ll be thinking fondly of those seashore memories. And I’m hopeful for some moments where I can eat a little watermelon and catch a few fireflies.

(Susanna Barbee is the digital media specialist for Mountain South Media and The Smoky Mountain News and an associate editor for Smoky Mountain Living magazine. susanna@mtnsouthmedia.com.)

Easter Buffet

March 28-April 3, 2018

rowing up, we had a little blue and white camper at Ocean Lakes Campground in Surfside Beach, South Carolina. It was our go-to place for every vacation.

My parents were teachers with second jobs, so we didn’t go on too many extravagant trips during my youngest years. When I got older, we traveled more extensively.

We went to New York City a couple of times, took a threeweek cross country trip, and went to Hawaii and Europe, among other things.

I completely credit my mom and dad for my adventurous spirit and love of travel, but as a small Columnist girl, my fondest vacation memories were spent in a tiny camper where my sister and I slept on bunk beds built into the side of a wall.

We had no phone or TV, but we ate a lot of watermelon and played board games for hours on end. I couldn’t have been happier.

With Easter and spring break on the horizon, I’ve got those beach trips on my mind. Easter week was always spent at Ocean Lakes. With all four of us following the school system schedule, spring break was full-on family time where we cold relax without a care in the world other than avoiding sunburn and mosquito bites.

When school let out on Friday, we loaded up the station wagon — including our two banana-seat bicycles — and headed south. Our first stop when we arrived at Surfside was Kroger. We three girls would hang out in the car while my dad ran inside to get drinks, chips, deli meat, bread, cereal and milk. I’m sure he was also getting some Coors Lite for himself and wine coolers for my mom. We were on vacation, after all.

We would then get everything in our camper ready for the week. For seven days straight we relaxed, read books, played in the sand, laughed, grilled out and enjoyed the simple joy and excitement of a middleclass family vacation.

There were occasional minor catastrophes. Like one time I fell asleep and a wad of gum fell out of my mouth and stuck in my hair. We couldn’t get it out so a haircut ensued. Another time I got into a bike accident that badly scraped my entire left side, so sand and salt water were miserable that year. Then another time we forgot to spring our clocks forward so we missed a sunrise Easter egg hunt which mortified my mother and devastated my sister and me.

But for the most part, those beach trips were utterly wonderful. I feel like as people

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THE CLASSIC WINESELLER 20 Church Street, Waynesville.

828.452.6000. Underground retail wine and craft beer shop, restaurant, and intimate live music venue. Kitchen opens at 4 p.m.

Wednesday through Saturday serving freshly prepared small plates, tapas, charcuterie, desserts. Enjoy live music every Friday and Saturday night at 7pm. www.classicwineseller.com. Also on facebook and twitter.

1196 N Main St Waynesville NC 828.452.5187 Kaninis.com Serving lunch Monday-Saturday 10:30-2:30 Open Easter Sunday!

Open Daily 11:30-9 Sunday Brunch 10-2 Closed Wednesdays

COUNTRY VITTLES: FAMILY STYLE RESTAURANT 3589 Soco Rd, Maggie Valley.

828.926.1820 Winter hours: Wednesday through Sunday 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Family Style at Country Vittles is not a buffet.

Instead our waitresses will bring your food piping hot from the kitchen right to your table and as many refills as you want. So if you have a big appetite, but sure to ask your waitress about our family style service.

DELLWOOD FARMHOUSE RESTAURANT 651 Dellwood Rd., Waynesville.

828.944.0010. Warm, inviting restaurant serving delicious, freshly-made Southern comfort foods. Cozy atmosphere; spacious to accommodate large parties. Big Farmhouse Breakfast and other morning menu items served 8 a.m. to noon. Lunch/dinner menu offered 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Come see us.

You’ll be glad you did! Closed Wednesdays.

FERRARA PIZZA & PASTA 243 Paragon Parkway, Clyde.

828.476.5058. Open Monday-Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday 12 to 8 p.m. Real New Yorkers. Real Italians. Real Pizza. A full service authentic Italian pizzeria and restaurant from New York to the Blue Ridge. Dine in, take out, and delivery. Check out our daily lunch specials plus customer appreciation nights on Monday and Tuesday 5 to 9 p.m. with large cheese pizzas for $9.95.

FRANKIE’S ITALIAN TRATTORIA 1037 Soco Rd. Maggie Valley.

828.926.6216 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Monday-Saturday. Father and son team Frank

dellwood

FarmHouSe reSTauranT

Homemade daily SpecialS monday - chicken pot pie Tuesday - meatloaf Thursday - chicken & dumplings Friday - Fried Fish or Grilled pecials s h is fried f ays! on Frid

Breakfast Served daily 8am-12pm (Sat. 7am-12pm) lunch & dinner Served daily 11am-8pm cloSed WedneSday 2651 dellwood rd.

Waynesville 828.944.0010

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828.454.5400 | 128 N. Main | Downtown Waynesville | FireflyTapsAndGrill.com

now Hiring experienced cooks!

tasteTHEmountains and Louis Perrone cook up dinners steeped in Italian tradition. With recipies passed down from generations gone by, the Perrones have brought a bit of Italy to Maggie Valley. frankiestrattoria.com FROGS LEAP PUBLIC HOUSE 44 Church St., Downtown Waynesville 828.456.1930 Serving lunch 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; Dinner 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday. 5 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Closed Sunday and Monday. Frogs Leap is a farm to table restaurant focused on local, sustainable, natural and organic products prepared in modern regional dishes. Seasonal menu focuses on Southern comfort foods with upscale flavors. www.frogsleappublichouse.com.

HARMON’S DEN BISTRO 250 Pigeon St., Waynesville 828.456.6322. Harmon’s Den is located in the Fangmeyer Theater at HART. Open 5:30-9 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday (Bistro closes at 7:30 p.m. on nights when there is a show in the Fangmeyer Theater) with Sunday brunch at 11 a.m. that includes breakfast and lunch items.

Harmon’s Den offers a complete menu with cocktails, wine list, and area beers on tap.

Enjoy casual dining with the guarantee of making it to the performance in time, then rub shoulders with the cast afterward with post-show food and beverage service.

Reservations recommended. www.harmonsden.harttheatre.org

JUKEBOX JUNCTION U.S. 276 and N.C. 110 intersection, Bethel. 828.648.4193. 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Monday through Saturday; Sunday 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Serving breakfast, lunch, nd dinner. The restaurant has a 1950s & 60s theme decorated with memorabilia from that era.

MAGGIE VALLEY CLUB 1819 Country Club Dr., Maggie Valley.

828.926.1616. maggievalleyclub.com/dine.

Open seasonally for lunch and dinner. Fine and casual fireside dining in welcoming atmosphere. Full bar. Reservations accepted.

MAGGIE VALLEY RESTAURANT 2804 Soco Road, Maggie Valley.

828.926.0425. 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.

Daily specials including soups, sandwiches

VITO’S PIZZA 607 Highlands Rd., Franklin.

828.369.9890. Established here in in 1998. Come to Franklin and enjoy our laid back place, a place you can sit back, relax and enjoy our 62” HDTV. Our Pizza dough, sauce, meatballs, and sausage are all made from scratch by Vito. The recipes have been in the family for 50 years (don't ask for the recipes cuz’ you won't get it!) Each Pizza is hand tossed and made with TLC. You're welcome to watch your pizza being created.

WAYNESVILLE PIZZA COMPANY 32 Felmet Street, Waynesville.

828.246.0927. Open Monday through Friday; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 10 p.m.; Sunday noon to 9 p.m.; closed Tuesdays. Opened in May 2016, The Waynesville Pizza Company has earned a reputation for having the best hand-tossed pizza in the area. Featuring a custom bar with more than 20 beers and a rustic, family friendly dining room. Menu includes salads, burgers, wraps, hot and cold sandwiches, gourmet pizza, homemade desserts, and a loaded salad bar. The Cuban sandwich is considered by most to be the best in town.

Breakfast : Omelets, Pancakes, Biscuits & Gravy!

New Hours: Open Friday, Saturday & Sunday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Breakfast served all day!

2804 SOCO RD. • MAGGIE VALLEY 828.926.0425 • Facebook.com/carversmvr Instagram- @carvers_mvr

MON.-SAT. 11 A.M.-8 P.M.

34 CHURCH ST. WAYNESVILLE 828.246.6505 twitter.com/ChurchStDepot

facebook.com/ChurchStreetDepot

Retail Restaurant LIVE Music Join us for an evening of magic, comedy + baloon art

RENDEZVOUS RESTAURANT AND BAR Maggie Valley Inn and Conference Center 70 Soco Road, Maggie Valley 828.926.0201 Home of the Maggie Valley Pizzeria. We deliver after 4 p.m. daily to all of Maggie Valley, J-Creek area, and Lake Junaluska. Monday through Wednesday: 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Thursday: 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. country buffet and salad bar from 5 to 9 p.m. $11.95 with Steve Whiddon on piano. Friday and Saturday: 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Sunday 11:30 to 8 p.m. 11:30 to 3 p.m. family style, fried chicken, ham, fried fish, salad bar, along with all the fixings, $11.95. Check out our events and menu at rendezvousmaggievalley.com TAP ROOM BAR & GRILL 176 Country Club Drive, Waynesville.

828.456.3551. Open seven days a week serving lunch and dinner. 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Tucked away inside Waynesville Inn, the Tap Room Bar & Grill has an approachable menu designed around locally sourced, sustainable, farm-to-table ingredients. Full bar and wine cellar. www.thewaynesvilleinn.com.

Featured Dishes: Fresh Fried Chicken, Rainbow Trout, Country Ham, Pork-chops & more

Events begin at 7:15pm unless otherwise noted. Dinner and Music reservations at 828-452-6000.

Friday, March 30 @ 6:30 Reservations Recommended $1/person Children under 3 free Mad Batter Food & Film Located in Beautiful Downtown Sylva, NC 828.586.3555

FRI. AND SAT. MARCH 30-31 Retail OPEN, 10am-6pm.

Restaurant CLOSED FRIDAY, APRIL 6 Joe Cruz piano, vocals. Beatles, Elton John, James Taylor + More.

SATURDAY, APRIL 7 “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”

Music from the award-winning film featuring Dulci Ellenberger (guitar, vocals) and Kevin Williams (piano, vocals).

FRIDAY, APRIL 13 Musical Tribute: Carole King Living Room Tour. Sheila Gordon piano, vocals.

We’re open every evening for dinner until 9 p.m.

Join us for tasty burritos, tacos, quesadillas or crepes!

3 E JACKSON ST. • SYLVA, NC

www.CityLightsCafe.com

Mon.-Fri. 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

Saturday 12 p.m.-10 p.m.

Closed Tues.

Sun. 12-9 p.m.

Sandwiches • Burgers • Wraps 32 Felmet Street (828) 246-0927

SATURDAY, APRIL 14 Joe Cruz piano, vocals. Beatles, Elton John, James Taylor + More.

THURSDAY, APRIL 19 Wine Pairing Dinner + Jazz, $49.99++ per person. Dinner features four beautiful wines and four delicious courses by Master Chef Michelle Briggs. Jazz piano by Richard Shulman at our Steinway. Music begins at 6:30pm, reservations required.

828-452-6000 • classicwineseller.com 20 Church Street, Waynesville, NC

Sunday: 12pm-6pm Tue-Thurs 3pm-8pm Fri-Sat: 12pm-9pm Monday: Closed

Smoky Mountain News

MAD BATTER FOOD & FILM 617 W. Main Street Downtown Sylva.

828.586.3555. Open Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.; Sunday brunch 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Handtossed pizza, steak sandwiches, wraps, salads and desserts. All made from scratch.

Beer and wine. Free movies Thursday trought Saturday. Visit madbatterfoodfilm.com for this week’s shows.

PIGEON RIVER GRILLE 101 Park St., Canton.

828.492.1422. Open Tuesday through Thursday 3 to 8 p.m.; Friday-Saturday noon to 9 p.m.; Sunday noon to 6 p.m.

Southern-inspired restaurant serving simply prepared, fresh food sourced from top purveyors. Located riverside at Bearwaters Brewing, enjoy daily specials, sandwiches, wings, fish and chips, flatbreads, soups, salads, and more. Be sure to save room for a slice of the delicious house made cake.

Relaxing inside/outside dining and spacious gathering areas for large groups.

Daily Specials: Soups, Sandwiches & Southern Dishes

WAYNESVILLE’S BEST BURGERS

March 28-April 3, 2018

J. ARTHUR’S RESTAURANT AT MAGGIE VALLEY U.S. 19 in Maggie Valley. 828.926.1817.

Open for dinner at 4:30 to 9 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. World-famous prime rib, steaks, fresh seafood, gorgonzola cheese and salads. All ABC permits and open year-round. Children always welcome.

Take-out menu. Excellent service and hospitality. Reservations appreciated.

and southern dishes along with featured dishes such as fresh fried chicken, rainbow trout, country ham, pork chops and more.

Breakfast all day including omelets, pancakes, biscuits & gravy. facebook.com/carversmvr; instagram @carvers_mvr.

MAGGIE VALLEY RESTAURANT

AT BEARWATERS BREWING

101 PARK ST. CANTON 828.492.1422

PIGEONRIVERGRILLE.COM

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A&E

Smoky Mountain News

IN HIS OWN WORDS Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, Academy Award nominee Tony Kushner

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD STAFF WRITER Smoky Mountain News: When you look at American society today, what do you see?

Tony Kushner: Oh, my god. [Laughs]. Well, I’m not sure what you mean by “American society.” The news in the last 24 hours is so horrifying, it’s hard to talk about anything but that.

When I look at American society, I see a country that the majority of which voted for Hillary Clinton for president. It’s increasing ethnically diverse. And it’s struggling to emerge from the last, very long period of political misadventures, which began with Ronald Reagan in 1980. And, of course, has roots going back before that, but has come to its full flowering

with this monster in the White House. I feel like the country is a complicated and extraordinary place, full of really remarkable people.

And it’s very important for us to hang onto the truth of the situation, which is that Donald Trump doesn’t represent a majority of Americans. And the majority of Americans still respect democracy — still respect the idea of government by law. Even some people who voted for Donald Trump are patriots, who actually believe our country has sovereignty and integrity worth guarding against foreign interference, whereas the evidence is mounting to staggering proportions that Donald Trump and the people that surround him in the White House are traitors — without any hyperbole at all — who are basically doing the bidding of Vladimir Putin.

SMN: President Abraham Lincoln is one of the few characters both political parties point to as a voice of reason. With your screenplay and research [with the Steven Spielberg film “Lincoln”], what’s your takeaway on Lincoln?

TK: I think Lincoln is inarguably our greatest president. And I think he understood some fundamental things, that bigotry and slavery was antithetical to democracy, that equality under the law was the absolute bottom line for a democracy to function. There were speeches that he made where he talks about “equality of opportunity,” too. He believed in capitalism.

He wasn’t an early socialist by any means. But,

Pulitzer Prize winner to headline WCU Spring Literary Festival

estern Carolina University’s annual Spring Literary Festival has a 15-year history of hosting local and national writers and showcasing established and emerging literary talent, all part of an open-to-thepublic community celebration.

The 16th annual festival, to be held Monday, April 2, through Thursday, April 5, will provide opportunities for audience members to interact with a variety of local, regional and nationally acclaimed authors, said Pamela Duncan, associate professor in WCU’s Department of English and event director.

“We are especially excited about campus collaborations that made it possible to bring such talent and diversity to campus,” she said. “We’ll have Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, a Cherokee fiction writer and journalist, which ties in with this year’s interdisciplinary learning theme at WCU — ‘Cherokee: Community. Culture.

Connections.’ There also will be Lorraine Lopez of Nashville, Tennessee, an author of six novels, as part of the WCU Latina/o Speaker Series. She is a winner of the Independent Publisher Book Award for multicultural fiction, finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Prize in fiction and an advocate for women in literature.”

This year’s festival features Tony Kushner, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for drama and the

W

Tony Award for best play for “Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes.” He also was nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplay for “Lincoln,” a 2012 movie directed

by Steven Spielberg and starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field.

Other wordsmiths appearing are Glenn Taylor, the West Virginia Frank X Walker author of “A Hanging at Cinder Bottom” and “The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart,” and poet and essayist Michael McFee, an Asheville native known for incorporating the mountains and a sense of family into his works. Also scheduled is poet, editor Annette Saunooke and multidisciplinary artist Frank X Walker, an Clapsaddle associate professor at the University of Kentucky and former poet laureate of Kentucky whose “Affrilachia” is considered a classic of Appalachian and African-American literature.

Tony Kushner.

Joan Marcus photo

“I think Lincoln was very aware that vast economic disparity is a great danger to democracy.”

— Tony Kushner

“‘Affrilachia,’ a collection of poems once deemed the most stolen book in Kentucky prison libraries, has been in print for 18 years and it’s still the personal favorite out of my nine published collections,” said Walker. “It is also still one of my bestsellers. I want to believe it’s because of the ease with which people connect with the poems that focus on family, identity, place and social justice. And, I also know that universities and Appalachian Studies departments in the region have done a better job acknowledging, teaching and discussing the true diversity of the region.”

Walker has taken his self-invented term “Affrilachia,” referring to blacks living in the Appalachian Mountains, and expanded its application beyond a book title to other ethnocentric and regional arts and cultural items, including a journal of poetry, prose and visual art published twice a year and a collective of writers, the “Affrilachian Poets,” who have done readings throughout the region and nationally.

“But, the largest, warmest most appreciative audience are always at colleges and universities in the mountains,” Walker said.

Presentations are free and take place in the theater of A.K. Hinds University Center, with the exception of the Kushner appearance, which will be held in the John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center’s performance hall with admission charged for the general public. A schedule of festival events: Monday, April 2 • Noon — Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poets Series featuring Pat Riviere-Seel and stu-

he was a centrist. I think Lincoln was very aware that vast economic disparity is a great danger to democracy. When people evoke him in that way, it makes sense. Because I don’t think anyone who has ever sat in the White House — or really any human being who has ever lived — has spoken more beautifully and had a deeper understanding of what democratic government is and what it means. And the fact [Lincoln] developed this understanding as president during a time of very grave national crisis makes it all the more impressive. When somebody like Donald Trump mentions [Lincoln], it’s obscene. It’s as obscene as when Donald Trump mentions God. This man has absolutely no understanding of Lincoln, I’m sure he’s never read a word that Lincoln wrote.

The Republican party has always tried to claim Lincoln, this whole history going back to Reagan of just making up quotes that “Lincoln said” about free markets — this sort of nonsense. But, then of course, they shy away from one thing that Lincoln said, “The problem with conservatives, in general, is that they’re too interested in power to the exclusion of everything else, this makes them susceptible to the virus of succession.” Whereas the radicals, [Lincoln] called them the “unhandiest devils in the world to work with, but we need them because their eyes are facing Zionward.” They want power for a purpose that is a recognizable social good. And I think we’re in that same situation today. dent poets Donna Glee Williams, Karen Jackson, Victoria Tran and Morgan Guynn.

• 4 p.m. — Fiction writer Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle.

• 7:30 p.m. — Fiction writer Glenn Taylor.

Tuesday, April 3 • 4 p.m. — Fiction and nonfiction writers Dana Wildsmith and Jim Minick.

• 7:30 p.m. - Fiction writer Crystal Wilkinson and poets Frank X Walker and Ricardo Nazario-Colon.

Wednesday, April 4 • 4 p.m. — Nonfiction and fiction writers Jessie van Eerden and Jesse Donaldson.

• 7:30 p.m. — Fiction writer Lorraine Lopez.

Thursday, April 5 • 2 p.m. — Poet Rose McLarney and poet and nonfiction writer Michael McFee. • 7:30 p.m. — An evening with playwright Tony Kushner.

WCU sponsors include the Campus Learning Theme Committee, College of Arts and Sciences, Division of Student Affairs, Department of English, Hunter Library, Office of Communications and Public Relations, Office of Research Administration, Office of the Chancellor, Office of the Provost, Office of Residential Living and the Visiting Writers Series. Community sponsors are City Lights Bookstore, Fontana Regional Library and the N.C. Poetry Society. The festival also receives support from the N.C. Arts Council, a division of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources.

For more information, visit litfestival.org or call 828.227.7264.

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD

Tailgate talks with Verlon Thompson. Garret K. Woodward photo

Legendary banjo player Raymond Fairchild will be part of a special bluegrass jam starting at 6 p.m. Saturday, March 31, at Elevated Mountain Distilling Company in Maggie Valley.

s I awoke in my hammock, I Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host could see the branches and Darren Nicholson (bluegrass) at 7 p.m. Friday, leaves swaying above, sprinMarch 30. kling small bits of the early The drama “Mass Appeal” by Bill C. Davis will morning light down upon me. hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. March 30-31 and 2 For a moment, I didn’t know if I p.m. April 1 in the Feichter Studio at the was still dreaming. Heck, for two Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville. moments, I didn’t remember where I was. But, it soon dawned Nantahala Brewing (Bryson City) will host on me, I was back at Suwannee, Shane Meade & the Sound at 8 p.m. Friday, this time for the “Spring March 30.

Reunion.”

Tucked away in rural north Acclaimed painter Jo Ridge Kelley will host a Florida, the festival grounds are relaxing afternoon of painting colorful tulips, more than legendary. It’s a place wine sipping, laughter and creativity from of magic, of curiosity and child1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, March 31, at Bosu’s like wonder, shared melodically Wine Shop in Waynesville. between folks on both sides of the microphone. And, almost like That said, there are times where the clockwork, I tend to find myself there when internal fire is getting low, in need of some I’m, well, trying to find myself. logs thrown on it to keep the warmth, to Sometimes you just wonder, “Is what I’m keep the blaze bright and glowing. So, as I doing actually worth the time? Does anyrolled into the Suwannee, I was feeling a litbody even care about the work put forth? Is tle off-center, a tad in the “What does it all this my true path?” Now, first and foremost, mean?” camp. what I do is what I love, wholeheartedly.

And just when I felt myself falling into Writing, interviewing, traveling, etcetera. It the trappings of that mindset, I found myself does something within my soul that I can’t sitting backstage on a tailgate with iconic really explain, except you know it when you Oklahoma singer-songwriter Verlon feel it, this buzzing within your billions of Thompson. Someone who has literally seen cells — a vibration of happiness, gratitude it all, I suppose. At 64, Thompson is one of and one-ness with the cosmic universe.

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HOT PICKS 1 2 3 4 5

LIVE MUSIC

March 28-April 3, 2018

‘And live the way I said I would, but somehow never did…’

CASUAL FINE DINING WITH

arts & entertainment

This must be the place

those folks you’ll always remember, even if you just met him once. His music, attitude and vibe is totally unique and completely captivating. We cracked a beer and talked about life, death, getting older, his longtime friendship/collaboration with the late Guy Clark, the grand scheme of things, and so forth.

“The playing is the payoff. When I get a roomful of people and an hour or two to do my thing, I get refueled and recharged — it’s very much a spiritual thing,” Thompson said.

And as we got to talking about Guy Clark, Thompson spoke at length about his dear friend, with Thompson being at his bedside when Clark left this earth in 2016.

“It makes you look at your own path, where you’ve been, where you’re going and how you want to get there. Suddenly, there’s a magnifying glass on everything that happens,” Thompson said. “It really drove it home, the fact that when it comes down to that last breath, all you’ve got are those memories, those moments and those feelings that you’ve shared with people. That’s all you’re going out with, man — there’s nothing else. It just makes you reflect, makes you want to do good, act right, be nice and love people.”

After our chat, I shook his hand and thanked him for taking some of his time to talk with me. He looked me in the eye, smiled, and said, “Well, it was a great talk.

You ask great questions and it was really comfortable. I can tell you really love what you do, and that you truly care about this music. That says a lot, and it’s important.

And now we’re friends.” I walked away with several new logs on the fire.

Come Sunday afternoon, Thompson was scheduled to take the Porch Stage for a short 45-minute set. A few ominous clouds and a stiff breeze soon flowed into Suwannee.

About halfway through his solo set, heavy raindrops splashed down on the audience, sitting and standing in the dirt, now muddy rain puddles. Thompson stopped midway through a song and said, “Heck, how ‘bout y’all come back here and we’ll finish the set where it’s dry?”

Thompson then turned around and headed backstage into the large barn.

Security stepped aside for the wet masses huddling into the building saying, “It’s your stage, Verlon. Do what you want,” to which the crowd roared with joy.

Around the end of the intimate performance, Thompson was now surrounded by people, all silent and hanging on his every word. He launched into his song “I Love You More Than Anything.” A sing-along soon erupted, the words echoing out of the barn and into the festival grounds, “I love you more than anything/I love you more than everything/It’s the stars that hang up in the ding-dang sky/It’s the folk tunes/It’s the butterflies.”

Thompson plucked his last guitar string.

The audience gave a standing ovation. I clapped and gave a head nod to Thompson.

He nodded back. Walking out of the barn, I looked up into the cloudy sky. Feeling the raindrops hit my face, I smiled in gratitude.

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

Stonegate Office Park Downtown Waynesville

Call Ted Prosser 828-201-3423

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arts & entertainment

On the beat Americana icon Jim Lauderdale will play March 29 in Asheville.

Smoky Mountain News

March 28-April 3, 2018

Lauderdale to headline music benefit

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Legendary singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale will perform during a benefit for the Lloyd Johnson Foundation at 8 p.m.

Thursday, March 29, at the Isis Music Hall in West Asheville.

Two-time Grammy-winning singer and master songwriter Jim Lauderdale is both a “songwriter’s songwriter,” who’s written/cowritten many modern classics for iconic

artists, as well as an intuitive sideman, who’s enhanced the music of a bevy of esteemed musicians. As a solo artist, since 1986, he’s created a body work spanning 28 albums of imaginative roots music, encompassing country, bluegrass, soul, R&B and rock.

Other performers will include Sarah Burton, The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys and numerous special guests. All proceeds will go the newly established Lloyd Johnson Foundation.

The foundation is a nonprofit organization created to honor the memory of music lover Lloyd Johnson. By providing education and career advancement opportunities, the foundation’s mission is to grow and nurture the musical spirit of Western North Carolina.

Tickets are $20 per person in advance, $25 day-of-show. Purchase tickets at www.isisasheville.com.

Karaoke at HART As a part of the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre “Winter Studio Season,” the theater has opened up its bistro Harmons’ Den for karaoke performance on Saturday nights.

The theater began offering karaoke in January and it has proven so popular that HART has decided to continue to offer karaoke on Saturdays beginning at 8 p.m. throughout the year. It is also open mic night.

On nights when there’s a theater performance in the Fangmeyer Theater, karaoke begins after the show is over. You don’t have to sing to enjoy being a part of the fun, and the theater atmosphere inspires a variety of musical styles, from pop to jazz to country to Broadway. www.harttheatre.org.

Bryson City community jam A community jam will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 5, at the Marianna Black Library in Bryson City.

Anyone with a guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, dulcimer, anything unplugged, are invited to join. Singers are also welcomed to join in or you can just stop by and listen. The jam is facilitated by Larry Barnett of Grampa’s Music in Bryson City.

The community jams offer a chance for musicians of all ages and levels of ability to share music they have learned over the years or learn old-time mountain songs. The music jams are offered to the public each first and third Thursday of the month — yearround. This program received support from the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency funded by the State of North Carolina and the National Endowment of the Arts.

828.488.3030.

On the beat

Raymond Fairchild.

Legendary banjo player Raymond Fairchild will be part of a special bluegrass jam starting at 6 p.m. Saturday, March 31, at Elevated Mountain Distilling Company in Maggie Valley.

Tucked away in the Maggie Valley Opry House for the better part of the last 30 years, Fairchild, at 79, has been performing and touring since he was a teenager.

Once crowned “The Fastest Banjo Player in the World,” Fairchild has played from Timbuktu to Kalamazoo and everywhere in-between, selling millions of records and captivating audiences every night of the week. In 2015, he was elected into Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Hall of Fame in Bean Blossom, Indiana.

Free to attend, listen and participate. Bring a chair and/or an instrument if you would like to join the jam. www.raymondfairchild.com or www.elevatedmountain.com.

• Balsam Falls Brewing (Sylva) will host Alma Russ (Americana/folk) March 30, Logan Watts (singer-songwriter) April 6 and Thomas Yon (singer-songwriter) April 13. All shows begin at 8 p.m. www.facebook.com/balsamfallsbrewing.

• The Classic Wineseller (Waynesville) will host Joe Cruz (piano/pop) April 6 and Dulci Ellenberger & Kevin Williams doing music from the film “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”

April 7. All shows are free and begin at 7 p.m. 828.452.6000 or www.classicwineseller.com.

• Currahee Brewing (Franklin) will host Cola Williams (singer-songwriter) March 31 and Eric Hendrix (singer-songwriter) April 7. All shows are free and begin at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. www.curraheebrew.com.

• The Cut Cocktail Lounge (Sylva) will host

A Shot Above photo

the jam sessions, which also are open to those who just want to listen.

The First Thursday Old-Time and Bluegrass Series will resume next October with a new slate of artists for 2018-19.

For more information, call the Mountain Heritage Center at 828.227.7129.

open mic night at 6:30 p.m. every Thursday. www.lazyhikerbrewing.com.

rock) 8 p.m. Wednesdays, and an Open Jam with Rick 8 p.m. Thursdays.

• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host Darren Nicholson (bluegrass) March 30, ‘Round The Fire (jam/rock) March 31 and Kevin Fuller (Americana/folk) April 6. All shows are free and begin at 7 p.m. www.froglevelbrewing.com.

• Mountain Layers Brewing (Bryson City) will host Twelfth Fret during its “One-Year Anniversary” party March 30-31. All shows are free and begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. www.mountainlayersbrewingcompany.com.

• Satulah Mountain Brewing (Highlands) will host “Hoppy Hour” and an open mic at 6 p.m. on Thursdays and live music on Friday evenings. 828.482.9794 or www.satulahmountainbrewing.com.

• Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will have an Open Mic night March 28 and April 4, and a jazz night with the Kittle/Collings Duo March 29 and April 5. All events are free and begin at 8 p.m. www.innovation-brewing.com.

• Mountain View Intermediate School (Franklin) will host an a cappella choir spring term from 6:30 to 8 p.m. April 4 through May 30. New members welcome.

828.524.3691.

The Phantom Playboys (rockabilly) March 31.

All shows are free and begin at 8 p.m.

ALSO:

• Isis Music Hall (West Asheville) will host Marbin 8:30 p.m. March 28, Drew Gibson 6 p.m. March 29, a benefit for the Lloyd Johnson Foundation w/Jim Lauderdale 8 p.m.

March 29, Opera Tic Cello 7 p.m. March 30, Sister Ivey 9 p.m. March 30, Sarah Potenza 7 p.m. March 31, Jen Hartswick & Nick Cassarino 9 p.m. March 31, Dwight & Nicole 5:30 p.m. April 1, Tuesday Bluegrass Sessions 7:30 p.m. April 3 and Clint Alphin & Mary Beth Koplin 7 p.m. April 4. For more information about the performances and/or to purchase tickets, click on www.isisasheville.com.

• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Franklin) will host The Ramcats March 31. There will also be an

• Nantahala Brewing (Bryson City) will host Shane Meade & the Sound March 30 and Rhyan Sinclair March 31. All shows are free and begin at 8 p.m. www.nantahalabrewing.com.

• Soul Infusion Tea House & Bistro (Sylva) will host Dylan Streuber (singer-songwriter) April 7. Both shows begin at 7 p.m.

828.586.1717 or www.soulinfusion.com.

• The Strand at 38 Main (Waynesville) will host an “Open Mic” night from 7 to 9 p.m. on Saturdays. 828.283.0079 or www.38main.com.

• The Ugly Dog Pub (Cashiers) will host Siamese Sound Club (R&B/soul) March 30.

All shows begin at 9 p.m.

• O’Malley’s Pub & Grill (Sylva) will host Humps & The Blackouts (psychobilly) March 31 and Caribbean Cowboys (rock/pop) April 7. All shows are $3 and begin at 9 p.m.

• The Ugly Dog Pub (Highlands) will host Shane Meade & The Sound (Americana/rock) March 31. All shows begin at 9:30 p.m.

• Pub 319 (Waynesville) will host an open mic night from 8 to 11 p.m. on Wednesday with Mike Farrington of Post Hole Diggers. Free and open to the public.

• Water’n Hole Bar & Grill (Waynesville) will host Chicken Coop Willeye (Americana/bluegrass) March 30 and Modern Strangers (rock) March 31. All shows begin at 9:30 p.m.

• Salty Dog’s (Maggie Valley) will have Karaoke with Jason Wyatt at 8:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays, Mile High (classic

• Zoller Hardware (Cashiers) will host Hurricane Creek from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

March 31. Free.

Smoky Mountain News

• Blue Ridge Beer Hub (Waynesville) will host an acoustic jam with Main St. NoTones from 6 to 9 p.m. March 29 and April 5. Free and open to the public. www.blueridgebeerhub.com.

The 2017-18 First Thursday Old-Time and Bluegrass Series at Western Carolina University will conclude with a concert featuring the bluegrass band Charleston Township on Thursday, April 5.

The group’s performance at 7 p.m. in the ground-floor auditorium of H.F. Robinson Administration Building will be followed by an 8 p.m. jam session in which local musicians are invited to participate.

“Charleston Township promises to deliver a fine experience for all who attend,” said Ashton Woody, a WCU student and intern in the university’s Mountain Heritage Center, which sponsors the series. “The sound of Charleston Township is a marriage of the best traditional music with bluegrass, sealing the vows with their innovative personal style. Band member Mikel Laws says they are creating music in a traditional way, but expanding their craft to be ‘traditional with a personal twist.’”

Members of the group hail from Bryson City, and the name of the ensemble reflects the town’s historical name from the 19th century. In addition to

Laws, who plays the banjo, the band includes Mark Cable, guitar; Will Howell, bass; John Morgan, guitar; and B.J. Taylor, mandolin.

The traditional music concerts and jam sessions at WCU are free and open to the public. Pickers and singers of all ages and experience levels are invited to take part in

March 28-April 3, 2018

• Andrews Brewing Company (Andrews) will host the “Lounge Series” with Tom Edwards March 30 and Bill Vespian March 31. All shows are free and begin at 5 p.m. www.andrewsbrewing.com.

WCU music series features bluegrass

arts & entertainment

Fairchild bluegrass jam in Maggie

25

arts & entertainment

On the street Haywood history speaker series

Youth Powwow at WCU on April 4

The popular “Haywood Ramblings” series presented by the Town of Waynesville Historic Preservation Commission will return.

The speaker series will focus on the historic resources and rich heritage of Waynesville and Haywood County. Each event runs from 4 to 5 p.m. in the Town Hall Board Room on Main Street and is free to the public.

• “Prominent Waynesville Families,” presented by Sarah Sloan Kreutziger. Thursday, April 5.

• “History of Main Street, Waynesville,” presented by Alex McKay. Thursday, May 3.

Open call for Greening Up

Students from the New Kituwah Academy language immersion school in Cherokee will be visiting the campus of Western Carolina University on Wednesday, April 4, to present their annual Youth Powwow for the university’s students, faculty and staff and for local residents.

The event, featuring traditional Cherokee songs and dances, will be hosted

by WCU’s Cherokee Center and take place

from 10 a.m. until noon on the lawn at WCU’s A.K. Hinds University Center.

Booths will be set up to sell authentic Cherokee crafts and food.

In case of inclement weather, the event will be held in the Grandroom at the University Center.

WCU’s interdisciplinary learning theme for 2017-18 is “Cherokee: Community.

Culture. Connections.” A number of events

March 28-April 3, 2018

There is an open call currently underway for artisans, vendors and environmentallythemed booths at the 21st annual Greening Up the Mountains, which will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 28, in downtown Sylva.

Applications can be downloaded at www.greeningupthemountains.com and will be accepted through April 1.

For more information, call 828.554.1035 or email greeningupthemountains@gmail.com.

Junior Miss Cherokee Dvdaya Swimmer dances during the New Kituwah Academy’s 2017 Youth Powwow held in Cherokee. Scott McKie Brings Plenty/Cherokee One Feather

have been held on campus during the academic year to provide the university community with an opportunity to learn about Cherokee traditions, history and culture.

“Our hope in hosting this signature theme event is to expose our students, faculty and staff to an accurate depiction of both our Cherokee culture and other contemporary cultural aspects of powwow celebrations,” said Sky Sampson, director of the Cherokee Center and an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

“WCU has the honor of working with over 55 Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian students every semester and more than 100 Native students across other tribal affiliates. This is why it is so important to educate others about the culture on campus,” Sampson said.

New Kituwah Academy, established by the Eastern Band for preschool through fifth-grade students, works to preserve the Cherokee language through the teaching of children. “While the numbers of fluent Cherokee speakers have dwindled, our language advocates from all three Cherokee tribes refer to the language as ‘the fire that represents the center of our nation,’” Sampson said.

For more information, contact Sampson at snsampson@wcu.edu or 828.497.7920.

Smoky Mountain News

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On the street

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Folkmoot will host the Appalachian Friendship Dinner from 6 to 8 p.m.

Saturday, April 14, at Elevated Mountain Distillery in Maggie Valley.

The Appalachian dinner will Ol’ Dirty feature pulled pork, baked beans, Bathtub. coleslaw, dinner rolls and dessert.

Musical guests are Americana string band Ol’ Dirty Bathtub.

“Moonshine,” quite naturally, will be offered by Elevated Mountain Distilling and beer by Bearwaters Brewing.

Elevated Mountain Distilling is a craft distiller of top-shelf whiskeys and spirits. Located in the heart of Maggie Valley, at 3732 Soco Road, Elevated Mountain Distillery chose its name as a reflection of the fact that Haywood County has the highest average median elevation of any county east of the Rockies.

Tickets for this Friendship Dinner are $25 for adult, $20 for students and $30 at the door. Tickets can be purchased at www.folkmoot.org or by calling 828.452.2997. Seating is limited, so advance purchase is advised.

Folkmoot’s year-round programming initiatives have been made possible by Haywood Regional Medical Center, the

Community Foundation of Western North Carolina and the Cherokee Preservation Foundation.

Eastern Band of Cherokee chief to speak

tural perspective and share his experiences with leadership and education.

Members of WCU’s Native American Students Association and Tonya Carroll, director of the Ray Kinsland Leadership Institute in Cherokee, will join Sneed for a panel discussion on leadership.

The program is a signature event of the current campus learning theme of “Cherokee: Community. Culture. Connections.” The goal is to foster campus conversations and connect students with collaborative opportunities on a variety of topics from a Cherokee perspective.

For more information, contact WCU’s Office of the Provost at 828.227.3014.

• “Laughing Balsam Sangha,” a meeting for Mindfullness in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, meets will meet from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Mondays at 318 Skyland Drive in Sylva.

Included are sitting and walking meditation, and Dharma discussion. Free admission.

828.335.8210, and “Like” them on Facebook.

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Folkmoot is a nonprofit organization dedicated to celebrating many cultures in one community. The Folkmoot Friendship Center is located in the Historic Hazelwood School at 112 Virginia Avenue in Waynesville. Staff can be reached by phone at 828.452.2997 or by email at info@folkmoot.org.

• There will be a free wine tasting from 1 to 5 p.m. March 31 and April 7 at Bosu’s Wine Shop in Waynesville. www.waynesvillewine.com or 828.452.0120.

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• A free wine tasting will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. March 31 and April 7 at Papou’s Wine Shop in Sylva. www.papouswineshop.com or 828.631.3075.

• Free cooking demonstrations will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. on Saturdays at Country Traditions in Dillsboro. Watch the demonstrations, eat samples and taste house wines for $3 a glass. All recipes posted online. www.countrytraditionsnc.com.

Smoky Mountain News

• Line Dance Lessons will be held on Tuesdays in Waynesville. Times are 7 to 8 p.m. every other Tuesday. Cost is $10 per class and will feature modern/traditional line dancing.

828.734.0873 or kimcampbellross@gmail.com for more information.

Trailer Center

March 28-April 3, 2018

Richard Sneed, principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, will deliver a keynote address and take part in a panel discussion on Tuesday, April 3, at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee.

The public program begins at 1:30 p.m. in the Grandroom of the A.K. Hinds University Center. Sneed, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who formerly taught at Cherokee High School, will speak on leadership from a cul-

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Smoky Mountain News

March 28-April 3, 2018

arts & entertainment

On the wall

Interested in blacksmithing?

Brock Martin.

Haywood Arts Council ‘Watercolor & Wax’ The Haywood County Arts Council (HCAC) is excited to announce that the “Watercolor & Wax” exhibit will run through April 28.

The exhibit features eight local artists, including Barbara Brook, Melba Cooper, Mary Decker, Joan Doyle, Jo Ridge Kelley, Chelsea Summers, Ann Vasilik and Maureen Simon.

The exhibit will include two- and threedimensional works of art. The juxtaposition of these two very different mediums will capture imaginations in multiple ways, with works ranging from the ethereal to the corporeal.

Visit the Haywood County Arts Council at 86 North Main Street in Waynesville to view the variety of art for sale. For more information about the HCAC, visit www.haywoodarts.org.

There will be a “Blacksmithing Fundmentals Class” with Brock Martin from WarFire Forge from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

March 31 and April 1 at the Jackson County Green Energy Park in Dillsboro.

This course is designed to introduce students to the art of blacksmithing.

Fundamental techniques that will be covered: general shaping/squaring/drawing out, scrolling, twisting, planishing, the relationship between heat and force of striking, and more.

Students will make simple decorative pieces (such as wall hooks) while incorporat-

• Gallery 1 Sylva will celebrate the work and collection of co-founder Dr. Perry Kelly with a show of his personal work at the Jackson County Public Library Rotunda and his art collection at the gallery.

All work is for sale. Admission is free.

Children are welcome.

Gallery 1 has regular winter hours from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday and Friday, and noon to 4 p.m. Saturday. art@gallery1sylva.com.

ALSO:

• Mad Batter Food & Film (Sylva) will host a free movie night at 7:30 p.m. every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. For the full schedule of screenings, visit www.madbatterfoodandfilm.com.

• The Waynesville Fiber Friends will meet from 10 a.m. to noon on the second Saturday of the month at the Panacea Coffee House in Waynesville. All crafters and beginners interested in learning are invited. You can keep up with them through their Facebook group or by calling 828.276.6226 for more information.

• “Paint Nite Waynesville” will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursdays (April 5 and 19) at Frog 28 Level Brewing in Waynesville. Sign up at

ing these techniques in a progressive manner. After the first project is complete, students can choose their next project from various examples provided, reapplying those techniques. Expect to learn about metallurgy, misconceptions associated with the art, and how to develop proper technique.

Students must wear closed toe shoes (preferably leather), long pants, and cotton clothing, and should bring a lunch. Cost is $275 (materials included), and is due at registration. Pre-registration is required.

To register, call 828.631.0271. www.jcgep.org.

Dillsboro ‘Airing of the Quilts’ The mountain tradition of “Airing of the Quilts” will be held from noon to 4 p.m.

Saturday, April 21, at the Appalachian Women’s Museum in Dillsboro.

The public is invited to be a part of this special day by exhibiting quilts — old or new.

Register quilts online at www.appwomen.org/quilts by April 2.

Include a photo of your quilts and as much of

the history of your quilts as you know.

For more information, contact Cheryl Beck at 828.421.3820.

Meadows announces Congressional Art Competition Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) has officially announced his annual Congressional Art Competition for 2018.

The Artistic Discovery Contest is open to all high school students who reside in the 11th District. All entries must be original in design, concept, and execution, with open categories such as painting, drawing, print, and more.

Winners will be chosen by a panel of art professionals and there will be a reception for all the students who enter, as well as their teachers and families, on April 28. The overall winner of our district’s competition will receive two round-trip tickets to the National Reception in Washington, D.C., a $3,000 scholarship to a prestigious southeastern art college, and their art will be displayed for one year in the U.S. Capitol.

The deadline to enter this year’s competition is Friday, April 13. Entries may be dropped off earlier, but all entries must be received by 5 p.m. April 13 at Rep. Meadows’ main district office located at 200 North Grove Street, Suite 90, Hendersonville.

For more information, visit Congressman Meadows’ website at meadows.house.gov.

Paint Night Waynesville Facebook page or call Robin Arramae at 828.400.9560. paintnitewaynesville@gmail.com.

• There will be a “Thursday Painters Open Studio” from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. at the Franklin Uptown Gallery. Bring a bag lunch, project and supplies. Free to the public. Membership not required. For information, call 828.349.4607.

• A “Youth Art Class” will be held from 10:30 a.m. to noon every Saturday at the Appalachian Art Farm on 22 Morris Street in Sylva. All ages welcome. $10 includes instruction, materials and snack. For more information, email appalachianartfarm@gmail.com or find them on Facebook.

• Free classes and open studio times are being offered at The Uptown Gallery in Franklin. Join others at a painting open studio session from 6:30 to 9 p.m. every Tuesday or from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Thursday. Bring your own materials and join an ongoing drawing course led by gallery artists from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Friday.

For information on days open, hours and additional art classes and workshops, contact the gallery on 30 East Main Street at 828.349.4607.

Paint & Sip at Bosu’s Acclaimed painter Jo Ridge Kelley will host a relaxing afternoon of painting colorful tulips, wine sipping, laughter and creativity from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, March 31, at Bosu’s Wine Shop in Waynesville.

Step-by-step instruction with palette knife, no experience necessary and all professional supplies are included to craft your own masterpiece, a four-by-four cradled wood panel/mini-bookshelf painting.

Fee is $45, which includes small plates featuring gourmet cheeses. Cash wine bar and non-alcoholic beverages. To register, call Bosu’s at 828.452.0120.

On the stage

Lopi Cape Cod

the Outer Critics Circle. The play was later adapted as a film starring Jack Lemmon.

HART’s production is being directed by Wanda Taylor and will star Stephen Gonya and Adam Lentini in the lead roles. Tickets to the winter Studio are $10 for adults and $7 for students. Reservations are encouraged as seating is limited and productions often sell out.

Harmons’ Den Bistro at HART is also opening with a new menu on March 23, and will feature karaoke on Saturday night after the performance. To make reservations for the show and the Bistro, call 828.456.6322 or visit www.harttheatre.org.

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As part of the “Winter Theater Festival,” the drama “Mass Appeal” by Bill C. Davis will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. March 30-31 and 2 p.m.

April 1 in the Feichter Studio at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville.

The comedy-drama focuses on the conflict between a complacent Roman Catholic pastor and the idealistic young deacon who is assigned to his affluent, suburban parish.

“Mass Appeal” opened at the Booth Theater on Broadway in November 1981 starring Milo O’Shea and Michael O’Keefe.

It went on to be nominated for two Tony Awards, three Drama Desk awards and Fitzgerald won a best director award from

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arts & entertainment

The ‘Mass Appeal’ of HART

Lower Heating Costs With A Wood Burning Stove

The Buttered Buscuit 1226 Dellwood Road, Waynesville (828) 246-6446

Specializing in large homemade biscuits made every morning. Serving breakfast all day.

The Highlands Performing Arts Center will screen “Live via Satellite” the MET Opera’s production of Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte” at 12:55 p.m. Saturday, March 31.

A winning cast comes together for Phelim McDermott’s clever vision of Mozart’s comedy about the sexes, set in a carnival-esque environment inspired by 1950’s Coney Island.

Manipulating the action are the Don Alfonso of Christopher Maltman and the Despina of Tony Award–winner Kelli O’Hara, with Amanda Majeski, Serena Malfi, Ben Bliss, and Adam Plachetka as the pairs of young lovers who test each other’s faithfulness. David Robertson conducts.

Tickets are available online at www.highlandspac.org, at the door or by calling 828.526.9047.

All students will be admitted free of charge.

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Smoky Mountain News

‘Highlands ‘Live via Satellite’

29

March 28-April 3, 2018

arts & entertainment

On the season

Lake J Easter celebration Easter returns to Lake Junaluska on March 31-April 1.

• Lake Junaluska’s Easter festivities kick off with a 5K road race and walk on Saturday, March 31.

All proceeds go toward the annual maintenance and improvement of the walking trail and other recreation opportunities at Lake Junaluska. The annual cost of maintaining the grounds and recreation facilities at Lake Junaluska is more than $250,000. The course begins at the Nanci Weldon Gym and will take participants on a route that showcases the beauty of Lake Junaluska’s grounds.

Registration begins at 7:30 a.m., and the race starts at 9 a.m. A kid’s fun run with the Easter bunny will take place at 10 a.m. Registration is required. To register, call 828.454.6680 or visit www.lakejunaluska.com/run.

• All are invited to join a children’s Easter egg hunt at Lake Junaluska on Saturday, March 31.

This egg hunt features more than 10,000 Easter eggs. The Easter egg hunt

will take place near Stuart Auditorium beginning at 11:30 a.m. Youth between the ages of 1-12 will find eggs filled with candy or a small toy. The hunts are separated into three different age categories. The ages 1-3 hunt begins at 11:30 a.m., the ages 4-7 hunt begins at 11:45 a.m. and the ages 8-12 hunt begins at noon.

• Early on Easter morning, before the sun has risen, a group of worshipers will gather at the amphitheater beneath the iconic Lake Junaluska Cross to celebrate the miracle of Jesus’ resurrection. The service begins at 7 a.m. on Sunday, April 1, and will be led by Bishop Charlene Kammerer. The Sunrise Service has become an integral part of the Easter Celebration at Lake Junaluska and is directly followed by a buffet breakfast at the Lambuth Inn. • Long’s Chapel United Methodist Church combines its four distinct services into one unique and dynamic Easter worship experience. They welcome everyone to join them at 10:25 a.m. Sunday, April 1, in Stuart Auditorium.

• The Easter Lunch Buffet at The Terrace will be from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 1. To make a reservation, call 828.454.6662.

For more information about Easter events at Lake Junaluska, visit www.lakejunaluska.com/easter.

th 30ANNUAL

Dillsboro

Smoky Mountain News

EASTER HAT PARADE Easter Egg Saturday March 31

MAKE A HAT 10:30-1:30 at Dogwood Crafters

2 pm. beginning at Town Hall

Hunt Noon at Dogwood Crafters

Don your finest, funniest or biggest hat. Bring the kids and the dog! Join is along with a caravan of antique cars and the Easter Bunny!

Easter Bunny throughout the town for photo ops. Face painting and other fun!

Dillsboro, NC is located at the crossroads of 441 & Business 23 30

VISITDILLSBORO.ORG

Easter in WNC

W

ith the celebration of Easter around the corner, below are several events in communities around our region, from church gathering to Easter egg hunts, brunch to live music.

Bryson City • The Easter Eggstravaganza will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 31, at Darnell Farms. Easter Egg Hunt, egg dying, games and baby bunny rabbit photo booth.

• The Peanuts Easter Beagle Express Train will be at 11 a.m. March 30-31 at the Bryson City Train Depot. Enjoy the characters of Charlie Brown, Snoopy and crew. Easter Egg Hunt, crafts, snacks, and more.

800.872.4681 or www.gsmr.com.

• The Easter Bunny will be available for photos from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 30-31 around downtown.

Cashiers • The Village Green will host the annual Easter Egg Hunt at 11 a.m. Saturday, March 31.

The egg-stravaganza is for children 10 years and younger. Children will be divided according to age in three separate areas near the Gazebo on U.S. 64. Be on time and bring your own basket. As always, the Easter Bunny will make a visit for photos, so plan to also bring a camera. On Easter Sunday, churches in Cashiers will conduct the Community Easter Sunrise Service at 7 a.m.

Sunday, April 1, at the Gazebo and Lawn of The Village Green. The service features live music, scripture and an uplifting message with the backdrop of a beautiful sunrise over the mountains. Those attending are encouraged to bring a lawn chair. 828.743.3434 or visit www.villagegreencashiersnc.com.

Fontana • The Easter Family Festival weekend will be March 30-April 1 at Fontana Village Resort.

A full weekend of fun including scenic lake tours, sunrise church service, history films, corn hole tournament, egg dying, water balloon toss, scavenger hunt, campfire, marshmallow roast, and more, including an Easter feast at the Mountview Restaurant.

800.849.2258 or www.fontanavillage.com.

Maggie Valley • An Easter Sunrise Service is scheduled for 6:30 a.m. Sunday, April 1, in the Maggie Valley Pavilion next to Town Hall on Soco Road. Pancake breakfast to follow.

Sponsored by the Maggie Valley Civic Association.

Sylva • First United Methodist Church of Sylva will hold its Easter Sunrise Service at 8 a.m.

Sunday, April 1, in front of the church.

828.586.2358.

Waynesville • The Shelton House will host an Easter Craft and Egg Hunt at 9 a.m. Saturday, March 31.

Bring your own basket. Special prizes in certain “lucky eggs.”

Dillsboro ‘Easter Hat Parade’ turns 30 The 30th annual “Easter Hat Parade” celebration will be held on at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 31, in downtown Dillsboro.

The day begins with a hat making at 10 a.m. at Dogwood Crafters, with an Easter Egg Hunt to follow at noon (also at Dogwood Crafters), all while the Easter Bunny will be in attendance for photos. The parade will be at 2 p.m. at Town Hall.

The prizes for the hat contest are simple and mostly handmade. The categories include the largest, smallest, most outrageous, best use of fresh flowers, hat that traveled the farthest, youngest, and best dog.

828.506.8331 or www.visitdillsboro.org.

Books

Smoky Mountain News

31

Maybe we’ll never know just what women want

Jeff Minick

“What do women want?”

Sigmund Freud’s famous question crosses the lips of most men at one time or another.

Goaded by desire, love, frustration, or failure, we open our investigation, searching for clues to the conundrums of womanhood, some fingerprint, some bit of DNA, that will unveil the mysteries of the female heart and mind. Often, however, our sleuthing leads only to greater confusion.

Writer Like Churchill’s Russia, the female of the species remains for many men “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”

The great difficulty with Freud’s question lies with the question itself. Its imprecision and broad scope makes reckoning the origins of the universe a simple task by comparison.

Women are individuals, and attempts to reduce their nature to universal formulae run into trouble.

We can, of course, acknowledge as self-evident some common desires of women.

Like men, they want respect.

Like men, they want equal opportunity and equal pay.

Like men, they want their political rights.

Like men, they want to be loved.

After that, I’d say all bets are off.

The recent explosions caused by Harvey Weinstein and his ilk have demonstrated that women themselves disagree on what they want and what it means to be a woman. Some feminists, for instance, have condemned men and called for more protection for women, while others have retorted that such protection is demeaning, that women need to be strong and defend themselves. These fractures

in feminism are natural. To expect half the world’s population to march in lockstep under any kind of banner simply won’t work.

Feminism has many faces. Take, for example, some of the romance novels now in circulation.

Once upon a time, readers identified a romance novel by its cookie-cutter plot and paperback cover, which featured a ruggedly handsome man, shirt open to the navel, holding in his arms a beautiful, windblown — or bed-blown — woman. The story ran along these lines: girl meets boy, girl loses boy, girl undergoes various trials and temptations, girl gets boy in the end.

Today that storyline may remain the same, but a recent encounter with some “romance” novels in my public library has revealed a drastic change in the details.

While browsing, I noticed a number of novels by a certain Sylvia Day and opened one titled Entwined With You. (Allow me to note, book at hand but unread, which is how it will remain, that I have just noticed, on the back cover, the discrete warning: “Mature Audience.”) Entwined With You delivers two characters, Gideon Cross and Eva Tramell, who must overcome some obstacle I never bothered to discern, all while bonking each other’s brains out.

On page after page, Gideon and Eva tremble, gasp, glisten, glide, kiss, fondle and pump, exploring boudoir topographies as numerous and complex as those depicted in the Kama Sutra. Day’s breathless descriptions of tangled flesh prevent direct quotation in this review, but I can offer this mild sample of the book’s spice: “I burrowed into his body, moaning when he shifted … half over me. I caught his lower lip between my teeth and stroked the curve with the tip of my tongue.”

Written by a woman, Entwined With You gives us, we may assume, one woman’s vision

Bordeaux debuts poetry book Merrilee Bordeaux has just released her first work A Song of Life and Other Poems. She will hold a book signing from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, March 31, at Books Unlimited in Franklin.

Her poems have won several Editor’s Choice awards on poetry.com and are published in anthologies by the International Library of Poetry. A Song of Life and Other Poems is divided into two sections: Fond Memories and Family Poems. Take a journey and visualize the beauty of Western North Carolina, humorous moments, faith, and moments that bring a tear to your eye. Family Poems might start you down memory lane about your own family.

The book will be sold at Books Unlimited also for $10.50. April is poetry month, which means that Bordeaux will also hold a reading and book signing event from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, April 23, at the meeting room in the Franklin Public Library. Light refreshment will be provided.

Short stories at the Sylva library Wanda Mills will present a multimedia short story program at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 29, in the Community Room of the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva.

Mills began writing in her early 20s and has recently started writing poetry and short stories again. A lot of her writings reflect her experiences living with cerebral palsy. Mills has found, because of her difficulty in speaking, she is able to convey her thoughts and ideas through her poems and stories.

Mills feels writing is a way to express herself in a short and concise way. For more information about

of what some females want, though I doubt her philosophy would pass muster with the women’s studies department in a major university.

Then there’s Helen Hardt’s Obsession, also lolling about promiscuously on my public library’s shelves. (I wonder: Is Hardt a pseudonym?

Hardt calls to mind both hard and heart. Dear Dr. Freud, please email me the ramifications of my conjecture. Oops. Email me, as well, the meaning of my use of the word ramifications.)

Obsession features Jade Roberts and Talon Steel — oh, come on, you have to love those names — whose frolics of the flesh cause more explosions than the Fourth of July at Lake Junaluska. Like Entwined, such passages from Obsession must remain in the book’s bedroom, but I will include one relatively innocent sample that brought a burst of laughter in my very quiet public library: “She gripped me with sweet suction, as she always did. Every time with her was like the first time. She was a drug I could no longer live without. The noises she made, the way she smelled, tasted, like fresh apples from my orchard…

“God, Talon. I need to come …”

She shattered around me, her walls grasping me.”

Can women smell and taste like fresh apples? If so, why do they wear perfume? And what sort of apples do they conjure up? Gala?

Golden Delicious? Granny Smith? Will they

taste even better sprinkled with salt?

Now, back to the question: What do some women want? Do boatloads of women dream of being Jade Roberts or Eva Tramell? Do they lust after domination by men named Talon and Gideon?

Some of them must. How do I know? Because someone’s buying these books, someone’s putting them in libraries and bookstores, and I think I can guarantee that these readers are not male, as the XY chromosomal crew prefers to seek out its pornography online rather than in literature.

Looking at these books — and looking is all I did; the librarians here know me well, and even if I cared to read these novels, I would be embarrassed to bring them to the checkout desk — reinforces the above observations. All women are not alike. Some clearly love such stories. Some would be offended. Some might be amused.

A few conclusions: If such novels constitute “romance,” then romance is toe-tagged in the morgue.

Some women clearly fantasize about being dominated.

The difference between hard-core pornography and soft-core pornography: the former adheres to “slam bam thank you ma’am” while the latter offers a plotline and characters with names.

Women, like men, are complex creatures who can never be lumped into a single entity.

Finally, men and women will always remain mysteries one to the other. Instead of being upset by this mutual inscrutability, why not just settle back and enjoy the show?

Mills, visit her at www.rollingintothefuture.com.

This program is free and open to the public. The event is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Jackson County Public Library.

For more information, call the library at 828.586.2016. The Jackson County Public Library is a member of Fontana Regional Library (www.fontanalib.org).

March Madness continues Blue Ridge Books and the Mountain Writers of North Carolina group invite you to join them for their March Madness of book signings with local authors.

The last events will feature Darryl Bollinger from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 31, at Blue Ridge Books in its new location at 428 Hazelwood Ave., in Waynesville.

Bollinger is an award-winning author of six medical thrillers. In the latest release, The Cure, when the FDA denies approval for a new flu vaccine, Dr. Eric Carter desperately searches for a way to save the drug and the company. Little does he know, others are crafting a man-made virus. When the virus appears, Cater must race to find a solution before it’s too late.

Mountain Writers of North Carolina is an informal group of creative writers. Membership is open to anyone interested in honing their writing skills, regardless of experience. Meetings are free and open to the public. Meetings are held at 1 p.m. on the second Tuesday of every month at Trailhead Cafe & Bakery in Waynesville.

828.456.6000 or www.blueridgebooksnc.com.

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Outdoors

Smoky Mountain News

From enemy to ally

Justin Holt samples a cup of sumac honey tea with kudzu.

Holly Kays photo

Kudzu Camp seeks to overturn misconceptions

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER t was 1983 when Avram Friedman first rolled into Sylva, driving the repurposed school bus that was home for him, his wife and their 18-month-old son during their cross-country trek from California. They were looking for a more permanent living situation, and while most would have passed over the 3-acre property that is still the Friedman family home, to Avram it was perfect — mainly because the land and the house combined cost only $12,000.

“We didn’t have any money,” Avram laughed. “We were just poor hippies.”

There was a reason the land was so cheap.

It was steep, and covered in kudzu.

Smothering, invasive, fast-growing, evil kudzu.

Or, at least, that is the prevailing perception. But after a childhood spent growing up in the kudzu patch, Zev Friedman — the 18month-old who accompanied his parents in the school bus — is working to change that attitude.

“I look at that hill of kudzu, and instead of seeing a problem, I see this huge bank full of food and medicine,” said Friedman, now 36.

“It’s a felt sense of that. It’s like looking out and seeing a field full of peaches or a field full

I

of corn, or cows. It’s a transformation of consciousness and relationship to the plant.”

It’s common knowledge that kudzu, often referred to as “the vine that ate the South,” is a dangerous invasive, its vines growing up to a foot per day during the summer, strangling trees and transforming otherwise diverse natural ecosystems into monocultures of tangled vines full of snakes and ticks. Native to Asia, it’s estimated to cover more than 7 million acres in the Southeastern United States.

But nearly a decade of investigation into the vices and virtues of kudzu has led Zev, a permaculture designer by trade, to challenge that narrative. As it turns out, kudzu is useful for all kinds of things — animal fodder, starch, medicine, basketry and papermaking, for starters — and its doesn’t spread nearly as aggressively as most folks believe.

The plants can be killed by cutting off the top of the root — called the crown — and discarding the associated vines. Its seeds have extremely low germination rates, meaning that, while kudzu patches will certainly expand if left unchecked, new kudzu patches are typically created only when somebody plants them.

“With some concentrated human labor and knowing how to do it, it’s actually really easy to eliminate a patch of kudzu,” said

Check out vine camp During Kudzu Vine Camp July 20-22, students will learn how to process young kudzu vines into beautiful fiber for weaving, also exploring kudzu cuisine and kudzu paper-making. The group will work at a scale similar to the traditional Japanese method, sharing meals and responsibilities for camp.

Free, with a suggested daily donation of $15 to $30 per person. Register with Justin Holt, kudzuculture@gmail.com.

More information at www.kudzuculture.net.

Kudzu-covered landscapes like this are a common sight in the South. Donated photo

Justin Holt, 32, Zev’s partner in all things kudzu.

Planting is exactly how kudzu got here in the first place — during the dust storms of the 1930s, the United States enlisted kudzu in its war on soil erosion, with the Soil Erosion Service giving about 85 million of the fastgrowing plants to Southern landowners and the Civilian Conservation Corps planting kudzu throughout the South. By 1946, about 3 million acres had been planted. Many of these initial plantings didn’t survive, but those that did eventually took off, multiplying their reach. By the 1950s kudzu’s reputation had flipped from flawless solution to formidable problem.

But, according to Zev, that’s not kudzu’s fault. In its native Asia, he said, human use and harvesting keeps the plant in check, but here harvesting was never part of the equation.

“It got brought here without bringing the culture of use with it,” said Zev. “That’s why it got out of control.”

FROM SOIL TO STARCH In mid-March, the steep hillside that’s home to the Friedman’s kudzu patch is still brown, the dead vines from last year not yet usurped by the new growth set to overtake them in the coming weeks. Zev and Holt, coorganizers of the annual Kudzu Camp event — now in its seventh year — lead the way up earthen steps carved into the slope and stop when they’ve reached the site of this year’s excavation. Holt gets to work raking the dead vines away as Zev jams his shovel into the ground.

“This is what you’re looking for here,” Zev says, pointing out the

F

“We’re trying to do this as a form of ecological activity. If you had 200 groups around the Southeast harvesting kudzu like this, that starts to be a serious control for kudzu.”

— Zev Friedman

CHANGING THE MINDSET Holt and Zev first processed kudzu together in 2011, an experiment prompted by necessity. At the time, Holt was new to

S EE KUDZU, PAGE 34

Smoky Mountain News

From those 315 pounds, Holt is hoping to get about 13 pounds of starch. But he doesn’t yet know the final count, because even though kudzu camp took place March 16 to 19, the refining process takes weeks to complete.

It starts, however, with a chop and a bang.

The first step is to give the roots a good cleaning, rinsing them off, cutting off any parts that were damaged in the digging process and then rinsing them again. Next the roots get chopped up into disks, weighed and transferred to a cauldron to be pounded into mush with a sledgehammer.

The pounding releases the distinctive kudzu smell, earthy and green.

What follows next is a long process of rinsing and wringing and waiting for the starch to settle and re-smashing and re-rinsing and re-wringing and re-waiting for the starch to settle — and so on, until it’s all extracted and, finally, dried.

Suffice it to say, kudzu processing isn’t something you can do in an afternoon. It’s not even something to be done solo, at least not efficiently.

“Properly done, it’s a communal work process where different people are carrying out different parts of the process,” Zev explained.

Even as I parked my car at the bottom of a steep and weedy hill that Friday morning, I wasn’t quite sure what I’d signed up for by electing to participate in Kudzu Camp.

Kudzu, according to all my past understanding, was an aggressive invasive, a noxious weed responsible for smothering millions of acres of Southern landscape under a blanket of leafy vines with a seemingly supernatural ability for rapid growth. Kudzu was not something to celebrate.

Rather, it was something to be despised as yet another example of a non-native plant hopping continents to destroy our Southern Appalachian ecosystems.

But when I arrived at Kudzu Camp, I found a very different perspective living among those gathered on the plateau cut into a vine-covered hillside in Sylva.

Here, kudzu was a celebrated resource, the centerpiece of a weekend spent sitting around a campfire, sipping coffee, sharing food and participating in the hard, hard work of digging and processing kudzu.

Kudzu Camp organizers Justin Holt and Zev Friedman were quick to extol the many virtues of kudzu — as a food thickener, a cure for hangovers and headaches, a medium for basketry and papermaking and protein-rich livestock fodder, among others — injecting me full of enthusiasm for experiencing the goodness of this “evil” plant.

I followed the line of other campers up the earthen steps cut into the steep slope that resumed uphill Reporter Holly Kays holds up from the manmade her freshly dug kudzu root. plateau, carrying Donated photo some tool or another I’d grabbed from the pile of shovels, trowels and post-diggers laid out at the bottom of the hill, and watched Friedman’s extended demonstration on how to dig a kudzu root.

It seemed easy enough. Find root. Dig hole. Retrieve root. How hard could it be?

Pretty hard, as it turns out. Maintaining a foothold on the angular slope proved difficult, and my root wound up being a gnarled, twisting thing roughly 3 feet long and about as deep underground.

I did my best to follow the instructions, making decent progress until the hole became so deep that every shovelful of soil resulted in a seemingly equal volume of dirt tumbling down to cover the just-excavated bottom. Lighthearted chatter filled the air around me, but I struggled to participate through my frustration at this seemingly irretrievable root.

I might have stayed there all weekend, fruitlessly attempting to uncover the stubborn thing, if it weren’t for a helping hand from fellow Kudzu Camper Justin Ellis, a guy who’s accumulated quite a bit of kudzu-digging experience over the years. With a few well-placed scoops and twists, he managed to get the root loose, pulling up an undulating tuber that looked something like a bizarre sweet potato, its color reddish under the brown of its skin and its thickness and orientation shifting with every inch. I held it up like a hunter would a trophy kill, posing for a photo with the thing spread across my arms.

But that success was just the beginning of the work ahead, I’d soon find out. By the end of the weekend, 27 campers would haul out a full 315 pounds of fresh kudzu roots, which they then processed into roughly 13 pounds of starch over the course of a painstaking, 20-plus-step process of smashing, soaking, siphoning and waiting.

For my prize root, held aloft in the sun of a warmish March morning, the road to starch-hood would be long, involving the expertise and willingness of many hands other than my own. But for that moment, my fingernails full of dirt and my clothing smelling of soil and campfire smoke, I chose to feel the joy of accomplishment, and to give in to the lure of the kudzu patch.

March 28-April 3, 2018

bulb-like root top he’s just unearthed. “See this? This is a crown.”

The crown is the heart of a kudzu plant.

It’s the very top of the root system, the point from which all new growth sprouts.

Without the crown, the plant would die.

While Zev dug out the crown in a matter of seconds, the kudzu campers are charged with a much more daunting task than simply chopping off the top. They’re asked to dig out the entire root, from crown to tip, damaging it as little as possible along the way.

“They tend to be these clusters,” says Zev, and sure enough, as he continues to dig, one crown pops up alongside his hole, and then another, and another. Before long, the entire group has found a root to dig in that concentrated area of slope, piercing the rich soil with all manner of trowels and shovels.

The work goes on for hours, spread over two days, but by the end of it the crew has harvested 315 pounds of kudzu root, far more than the typical Kudzu Camp range of 200 to 250 pounds. Holt attributes the elevated take to the fact that the groups focused its digging on a single area, while before they’ve dug along a contour or spent time excavating the larger roots along forest edges. In the past, they’ve found roots weighing as much as 70 pounds.

“It’s not an archeological dig,” said Holt.

“You’ve got to move a little soil to get these roots.”

Digging out a kudzu root is hard work, but getting it out of the ground is only the first step in the complex process that is kudzu processing.

Hunting for kudzu outdoors

Zev Friedman chops up kudzu roots in preparation for processing. Holly Kays photo

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permaculture and working as Zev’s apprentice. One of their clients wanted some crops planted on her land, and Zev found himself eyeing the kudzu-covered portion of the property.

“I was digging around one of the roots one day in her yard, and the soil was so beautiful next to that kudzu root,” said Zev. “I dug about one-and-a-half feet from that plant, and the soil was red clay. I knew it was nitrogen-fixing, but I hadn’t considered how profound the effect was on the soil.”

He and Holt set to work digging all that kudzu out, and their planting grew beautifully in the first season, with follow-ups needed for just a couple years afterward to get rid of kudzu plants they’d missed on the first go-around. Zev, remembering his childhood on the kudzu patch, wanted to try doing something with all those kudzu roots they’d dug up. Kudzu Camp was born.

That first year, they got only a couple tablespoons of starch for their efforts. But the next year they took the kudzu harvesting idea to Avram’s home. Avram joined Zev and Holt, and since then kudzu processing has become an annual tradition, growing to the point that this year 27 people participated over the course of the weekend.

It’s a tradition that Avram has been happy to join.

Even back in 1983, when he bought the land, he knew that there was more to kudzu than the demon-plant of popular culture.

He’d read The Book of Kudzu — a 1977 tome that hails kudzu as “the world’s finest cooking starch, a healing herb more versatile than ginseng” — and while he’d experimented somewhat with kudzu processing, he’d always intended to do more to use the countless vines on his 3 acres.

“Life kind of gets in the way, and you have to make the mortgage payments, so we sort of let that go on the backburner until seven years ago Zev and Justin (Holt) started digging up roots to experiment with,” said Avram. “It’s grown from that because of their efforts, and now I’m fired up again about the whole thing.”

If you ask kudzu enthusiasts, it’s something of a miracle plant. It’s useful as a thickener for cooking anything from curry to pudding. Its purported medicinal uses range from treating hangovers and alcoholism to curing colds, upset stomachs and countless other ailments. The leaves are high in protein, making them excellent fodder for livestock, and they can also be dried and ground into flour. The vines can be twisted into baskets, the pulp processed into paper. Kudzu is nitrogen-fixing, meaning that it adds nitrogen to the soil instead of taking it away, and its prolific leaves decompose to create a rich topsoil layer.

“I learned a lot more about kudzu than I knew there was,” said first-time Kudzu Camp participant Jacob Boland.

“Every year we do this, we’re like, ‘Wow.’ The list of potential uses gets larger and larger and larger,” said Zev. “I just become more aware of how much of a resource it is.”

Using kudzu Kudzu starch is a versatile thickener, similar to cornstarch but with medicinal properties as well. For one cup of liquid, here’s how much kudzu starch you’ll need to do the job: n ½ to ¾ teaspoon for clear soups n 3/4 to 1 teaspoon for thickened beverages n 2 teaspoons for thin sauces and soups n 1-1/2 to 2-1/4 tablespoons for thick sauces n 2 tablespoons for jelled liquids and glazes All ratios from The Book of Kudzu by William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi.

Smoky Mountain News

March 28-April 3, 2018

outdoors

KUDZU, CONTINUED FROM 33

34

This root starch has been leached 10 times in cold water over a period of two weeks before reaching the final drying stage. Donated photo

Zev Friedman demonstrates proper kudzu digging technique. Holly Kays photo So much so that the digging in the Friedman’s kudzu patch isn’t aimed at eradicating kudzu from the property. They’re working to control it — keep it from spreading, perhaps reduce its area a bit — but definitely not to destroy it.

Long-term, Zev’s hoping to develop a permaculture system on the land of which kudzu will be a key component. He envisions a landscape featuring wineberry, nettles, honey locust, burdock, and of course his beloved kudzu.

“It’s actually a highly productive emergent ecosystem,” he said. “Most of those plants aren’t native, but they grow well together, and they’re all foods for people.”

For Zev and Holt, most of their kudzurelated efforts are of a trial-and-error nature. Kudzu is a mainstream agricultural crop in Asia — in fact, the Eastern world has agricultural varieties of kudzu just like we do of tomatoes and peppers, Zev said — but very little of that research is in English.

And in the United States, kudzu research is scant. While WebMD features a long list of potential medical uses for kudzu, all of them are listed as having insufficient evidence for effectiveness and dosing.

After years of use and observations, Zev and Holt can both attest to the realness of kudzu’s purported medical benefits, and to the ins and outs of growing and harvesting it. But they’re hoping to elevate that knowl-

edge from the realm of observation to the realm of research, having recently applied for a grant that would allow them to do some actual quantitative research on kudzu agriculture.

Because, for the kudzu enthusiasts of Western North Carolina, the ultimate goal is to build a movement that extends far beyond the boundaries of this immediate region. Currently, about eight people are members of a kudzu co-op led by Holt and the Friedmans. The group meets every two months, putting kudzu through its various stages of harvest and processing and organizing two separate Kudzu Camp sessions — the March root camp and the July vine camp.

Ideally, said Zev, the co-op would be about twice as big — roughly 15 adults — and work on a system that could be replicated elsewhere.

“We’re trying to do this as a form of ecological activity,” he said. “If you had 200 groups around the Southeast harvesting kudzu like this, that starts to be a serious control for kudzu.”

Such a revolution could result in countless vine-covered acres reclaimed by native plants. But it could also cause a second, equally important shift.

“It’s changing the mindset,” said Zev, “changing the attitude, thinking of kudzu as an ally instead of an enemy.”

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A volunteer pauses while working on a Smokies trail. NPS photo

Spruce up Smokies trails able to safely hike while carrying tools up to 4 miles per day and be prepared to perform strenuous, manual labor. Participants must be at least 16 years old, with those under 18 accompanied by an adult. The park will provide tools, safety gear and instruction, and volunteers must come prepared with food and clothing for a full day in the woods.

Sign up with Trails and Facilities Volunteer Coordinator Adam Monroe at 828.497.1949 or adam_monroe@nps.gov.

Monroe will be coordinating volunteers for additional workdays throughout the year as well.

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March 28-April 3, 2018

A series of volunteer workdays in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park will kick off at 9 a.m. Thursday, April 5.

The workdays, all of which will last from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., will focus on heavily used trails and nature loops as the park prepares for its busy summer season. People interested in learning more about the park and the trails program will get to do so as they volunteer, providing hands-on service alongside experienced park staff.

North Carolina workdays are April 5, April 7 and April 19. Workdays on the Tennessee side of the park will be April 12, April 21 and April 28. Volunteers must be

outdoors

“FFaacelifftt� Dennttures by Drr.. Joohhn Higghhsmith Can a T Tuurn Bacckk Time!

Step into Bartram’s world Acclaimed poet and novelist Philip Lee Williams will present his epic poem about botanical pioneer William Bartram 6 to 7 p.m. Thursday, April 5, at the Macon County Library in Franklin.

Bartram’s book Travels, published in 1791, remains a seminal book for understanding the American South, its flora, its fauna and its people. Williams’ long poem “The Flower Seeker� celebrates Bartram’s life and work, which Williams has known almost since childhood.

Williams is the author of 14 books and has written about the natural world for most of his career, teaching nature writing at the University of Georgia.

A first-of-its-kind effort to rally all who love the Blue Ridge Parkway to prepare its eight campgrounds for the May opening will be held during Project Parkway: Campground Cleanup, 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 21. “It is support in the form of partnerships and donations of time by those who love the Parkway that make projects like this one possible,� said Superintendent J.D. Lee. “We are excited to meet new Parkway enthusiasts

and proud to have the support of Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation on this special day.�

This single-day project, with locations including Mount Pisgah Campground, will complete much-needed work across the park, with tasks appropriate for all ages and ability levels. Tasks may include leaf blowing, limb clearing, painting and trail work.

When the work is done, volunteers will enjoy a lunch with Parkway staff, provided by the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation and Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Tools and safety gear will be provided.

Register by April 6 with Project Manager Natalie Lester at 828.348.3419 or BLRI_Volunteers@nps.gov.

Smoky Mountain News

Volunteer day to prepare for Blue Ridge Parkway opening

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outdoors

Farmers market season is here

“As members of the Haywood County Chamber of Commerce since 1984, we have received and welcomed the support received from the Chamber. The Chamber of Commerce works tirelessly to give business members an opportunity to connect and derive the greatest benefit possible from their association. Overbay Insurance Services is proud to support the Chamber and its mission of making Haywood County an economic powerhouse in Western North Carolina.”

Flowers are blooming, birds are nesting and farmers market season is soon to arrive in Western North Carolina. These weekly, and sometimes bi-weekly, gatherings of local growers pop up in even the tiniest of communities, giving locals the chance to stock their kitchens with the freshest food and meet the people who fuel the region with homegrown veggies, honey, jellies and more.

HAYWOOD COUNTY Haywood Historic Farmers Market, Waynesville Getting there: 8 a.m. to noon Saturdays and 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, April 14 through the end of October, at 250 Pigeon St. in the parking lot of the HART Theatre.

What’s happening: Local produce; meats, eggs, honey, dairy, value-added products, heritage crafts and more for sale by 30 to 40 vendors at the height of the season, all of whom produce their wares in Haywood or an adjacent county.

Ways to pay: Credit and debit card, SNAP/EBT benefits, cash.

Contact: haywoodfarmersmarket@gmail.com.

Online at www.waynesvillefarmersmarket.com or www.facebook.com/HaywoodHistoricFarmersMar ket.

- Stacy Overbay, Co-Owner Overbay Insurance Services

Smoky Mountain News

“

March 28-April 3, 2018

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“I chose to work with Catherine Proben because I trusted that she had my best interests at heart. She was professional, knowledgeable, and added a personal touch to the entire process. She always was available by phone or text to inform me of the progress of the sale of my home.

I am so impressed with the professionalism, dedication, and innovative ways that she used to sell my home. I highly recommend her & the Waynesville office to all the sellers and buyers in the area.”

- Dr. Sherry Manburg, Waynesville, NC (Seller)

Catherine Proben 74 N. Main St.,Waynesville

828-734-9157

cproben@beverly-hanks.com

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pottery, soaps, jewelry, journals, toys, candles, bird feeders, note cards and more for sale by 20-35 vendors. Family Art at the Market offered some Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon. A Taste the Market fundraiser occurs on the second Saturday of each month.

Ways to pay: Cash, credit, debit and SNAP benefits accepted.

Contact: Lisa McBride, 828.393.5236 or jacksoncountyfarmersmarket@gmail.com. Online at www.facebook.com/TheGloriousJacksonCountyFa rmersMarket/, or www.jacksoncountyfarmersmarket.org.

The ‘Whee Farmers Market, Cullowhee Getting there: 3 to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through the end of October, at the University Inn on 563 North Country Club Drive.

What’s happening: Meats, eggs, cheeses, vegetables, cut flowers, milk, ice cream and valueadded products and crafts sold by an average of eight vendors. New vendors welcome. $5 per market or $25 for the season.

Ways to pay: Cash/check, with some vendors accepting credit and debit cards.

Contact: Curt Collins, 828.476.0334. www.facebook.com/CullowheeFarmersMarket.

MACON COUNTY Franklin Farmers Tailgate Market

The Original Waynesville Tailgate Market, Waynesville Getting there: 8 a.m. to noon Wednesdays and Saturdays, May 16 to the end of October at 171 Legion Drive in Waynesville.

What’s happening: Vegetables, fruits, eggs and cut flowers sold by Haywood County growers.

New vendors are wanted.

Ways to pay: Cash, check, WIC and senior coupons from the Haywood County Department of Health and Human Services.

Contact: Vicky Rogers, 828.456.1830 or vrogers12@att.net.

Getting there: 10 a.m. to noon, Saturdays though April — and then 8 a.m. to noon Saturdays through the end of October, on East Palmer Street across from Drake Software.

What’s happening: Variety of homegrown products, including fruits and vegetables, cheese, plants, eggs, trout, preserves, honey and artisan breads sold by an average of 25-30 vendors.

Contact: Alan Durden, 828.349.2049 or alan_durden@ncsu.edu. www.facebook.com/franklinncfarmersmarket.

SWAIN COUNTY

JACKSON COUNTY

Swain County Farmer Market, Bryson City

Jackson County Farmers Market, Sylva

Getting there: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Fridays May 4 through Oct. 26 at the barn on Island Street in Bryson City.

What’s happening: Local produce, nursery plants, herbs, trout, eggs, honey and artisan crafts such as jewelry, wood carvings and gourds sold by anywhere from eight to 15 vendors.

Ways to pay: Cash/check.

Contact: Christine Bredenkamp, 828.488.3848 or christine_bredenkamp@ncsu.edu. www.facebook.com/SwainCountyFarmersMarket.

Getting there: Saturdays, 9 a.m. to noon, and Wednesdays, 4 to 7 p.m., at Bridge Park — 110 Railroad Road in Sylva — April 4 through the end of October; Saturdays 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Community Table November to March.

What’s happening: A variety of locally produced vegetables, meats, honey, plants and crafts.

Plant starts, native plants, mushrooms, greens and other in-season veggies, spices, eggs, baked goods, occasional brick-oven fired pizza, goat cheese, flowers and local crafts such as

Jackson Farmers Market celebrates opening The Jackson County Farmers Market will debut its new Wednesday Evening Market 4 to 7 p.m.

Wednesday, April 4, at Bridge Park in Sylva, and the market will hold a season opening celebration the following Saturday, 9 a.m. to noon April 7.

The Saturday market will feature live music by Geoff McBride and wood-fired pizza from Backwoods Bakery. Backwoods will donate 10 percent of its sales to the market. www.jacksoncountyfarmersmarket.org.

Grow some Shiitakes

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5K ROAD RACE & WALK, 9 A.M.

Am ount per Serving

Register at lakejunaluska.com/run. Kids Fun Run starts at 9:45 a.m.

CHILDREN'S EASTER EGG HUNT, 11:30 A.M. Children ages 12 and under are invited to join us for our annual Easter Egg Hunt located near Stuart Auditorium.

% Daily Value * Tot al Fat 0g

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Easter AT LAKE JUNALUSKA

Sunday, April 1 SUNDAY MORNING SUNRISE SERVICE, 7 A.M. A powerful Sunrise Service at the amphitheater near the cross.

EASTER BREAKFAST BUFFET AT THE TERRACE, 7:30 - 9 A.M.

March 28-April 3, 2018

Tickets available at the The Terrace front desk on Easter morning. $10

EASTER LUNCH BUFFET AT THE TERRACE, 11:30 A.M. - 2:30 P.M. Call 828-454-6662 to make a reservation.

Smoky Mountain News

The Southern Highlands Reserve has launched a digital database to advance its ability to research native plants from its perch atop 4,500-foot Toxaway Mountain.

The database is a powerful tool for SHR to conduct research on more than 10 years of plant observation data, weather data and plant accession records. It will further SHR’s ability to conduct research on native plants in the Southern Appalachians, one of the world’s most biologically diverse regions.

With the onset of shifts in weather patterns such as storm intensity, drought and other extreme conditions, SHR can now monitor and analyze how plants respond to these long-term changes using phenology reports and information in the database.

A $20,000 grant from the Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust made development of the database possible. This seed money, awarded in January 2017, was essential to completing the project successfully. Local firm Sounds Essential designed the database in collaboration with SHR Executive Director Kelly Holdbrooks.

SHR is open April through October for garden tours, by reservation only. www.southernhighlandsreserve.org.

serving size : ab out 50 p ag es

Calories 0

Saturday, March 31

Database boosts plant research on Toxaway Mountain

Nutrition Facts outdoors

A “Grow Your Own Shiitake Mushroom” workshop will be held the morning of Friday, April 6, at the Highlands Biological Station.

The program will cover the basics of fungi biology and show how to inoculate hardwood logs with spores of the Shiitake mushroom.

This mushroom has been grown in Japan for more than 2,000 years, with its health benefits and flavor making it a staple in the kitchen. $50 covers all materials, with participants leaving with a Shiitake log all ready to grow mushrooms.

Sign up at www.highlandsbiological.org/workshops.

828.526.2221.

lakejunaluska.com/easter | 828-452-2881 37

outdoors

Runners brave the Assault on BlackRock This year’s Assault on BlackRock drew 105 runners and brought in more than $4,000 for the Jackson County Shop with a Cop Program.

First place finisher Canyon Woodward hurries to descend the trail. Donated photo

The March 17 event asked competitors to run a 7-mile roundtrip on a trail that

gains 2,770 feet of elevation over the course of 3.5 miles, only to lose it all again on the way down.

Canyon Woodward, 25, of Franklin, crossed the finish line first with a time of one hour, 10 minutes and 39 seconds, less than 50 seconds shy of a course record. He was followed by second-place finisher John Pack, 22, of Dobson, with a time of one hour, 14 minutes and 38 seconds, and third-place Jurdan Mossburg, 23, of Spartenburg, South Carolina, whose time was one hour, 18 minutes and 13 seconds.

On the women’s side, the firstplace finisher was Kimzey Ellis, 28, of Asheville, with a time of one hour, 37 minutes and 12 seconds.

She was followed by second-place Kit Hayes, 39, of Weaverville, with a time of one hour, 40 minutes and 45 seconds, and third-place Stephanie Wallace, of Asheville, with a time of one hour, 43 minutes and two seconds.

Bicycle shop coming to Cherokee

March 28-April 3, 2018

The success of Cherokee’s 10.5-mile Fire Mountain Trail System has spurred Motion Makers Bicycle Shop to open a new location in Cherokee, expected to be operational by early May. The Fire Mountain Trails, opened last year, have quickly grown to become a popular destination.

The new shop will sit at the trailhead to the River Trail, a low-key family ride leading to the Oconaluftee Visitor Center, and is near the southern terminus of the Blue Ridge Parkway and the starting point for several legendary gravel bike routes into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The store will be in downtown Cherokee on the corner of Big Cove and Acquoni Roads with an address of 17 Big Cove Road. Hours will be announced soon. Founded in 1986, Motion Makers already has stores in Sylva and Asheville.

A young volunteer learns how stocking is done. Holly Kays photo

Stock the Pigeon Fish fans are invited to help the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission and Trout Unlimited Cataloochee chapter stock the West Fork of the Pigeon River, 10:30 a.m.

Thursday, April 5.

Volunteers are invited to bring a clean 5gallon bucket and a friend to help stock around 1,500 pounds of fish. Waders are also recommended. The job will take about three hours to complete, with at least 25 volunteers needed.

It’s the N.C. Wildlife Resources

Input wanted on bird seasons Public comment is wanted on proposed season dates for upcoming migratory game bird hunting seasons.

The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission will select season dates at its April 26 business meeting in Raleigh, based on public comment received. Comments can be submitted at www.ncpaws.org/PAWS/WRC/PublicComments/PublicEntry/PublicComments.aspx.

Information on 2017-18 migratory game bird seasons is online at www.ncwildlife.org/Hunting/Before-the-Hunt/What-to-Hunt.

Smoky Mountain News

Trout waters to reopen Did you know Kim's Pharmacy delivers to your door? If you cannot easily get to our store, we're happy to deliver your prescriptions to you. Give us a call or stop by to set up your delivery service.

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366 RUSS AVE. WAYNESVILLE BiLo Shopping Center 38

Commission’s responsibility to stock the river, but having a volunteer force to help allows the fish to be dispersed more evenly along the river, resulting in a more enjoyable fishing experience.

The group will meet at a parking lot that’s past Lake Logan and before Sunburst Campground off of N.C. 215, across from the shooting range. Volunteers are encouraged to bring a rod for fishing afterward.

Ron Gaddy, tucataloochee427@gmail.com.

Hatchery-supported trout waters will open once more at 7 a.m. Saturday, April 7.

These waters closed March 1 to give the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission a chance to restock them with trout from state fish hatcheries. Hatchery-supported waters are marked by green-and-white signs.

Staff will continue to stock certain streams through June, stocking many of these waters monthly and heavily fished waters more frequently. Over four months,

nearly 916,000 trout will be stocked, 96 percent of which will average 10 inches in length and the remaining 4 percent of which will be longer than 14 inches.

When the waters reopen, anglers will be able to harvest a maximum of seven trout per day, with no minimum size limits or bait restrictions.

The stocking schedule is available online at ncpaws.org/rsreports/fishstock/weeklystockingform.aspx, and daily updates on waters stocked that day are posted at www.ncwildlife.org/fishing/hatcheriesstocking/ncwrcstocking.aspx.

Disc golf for a cause A disc golf tournament slated for noon Saturday, April 14, will break in new tee pads at the improved Lake Julian Park in Arden.

All ages and abliity levels are welcome to participate in the 18-hole tournament. $25 per player, with proceeds benefiting the Green Built Alliance’s community initiaives and resources. Register at www.greenbuilt.org/event/green-built-alliance-disc-golf-fundraiser.

WNC Calendar COMMUNITY EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS • The 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War will be commemorated with a ceremony at 9 a.m. on March 29, in front of the Haywood County Courthouse.

Vietnamwar50th.com.

• Nominations are being accepted for the Haywood Community College Outstanding Alumni of the Year Award. Deadline is Thursday, March 29. Recipient will be recognized at May graduation ceremonies on May 11.

565.4165 or trobertson@haywood.edu.

• Students from the New Kituwah Academy language immersion school in Cherokee will present their annual Youth Powwow from 10 a.m.-noon on April 4 on the lawn of Western Carolina University’s A.K. Hinds University Center in Cullowhee. 497.7920 or snsampson@wcu.edu.

• Wednesday Wake-Up Rally will be held from noon-1 p.m. on April 4 at the fountain on Main Street in downtown Sylva. Observation of the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination.

• Volunteers will be available to assist with federal and state income tax preparation and filing from through April 13 in Jackson County. The service is available from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays on a firstcome, first-serve basis at the Jackson county Senior Center in Sylva. It’s also available from 3-6:45 p.m. on Tuesdays by appointment (586.2016) at the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva. Info: 293.0074, 586.4944 or 586.2016. For tax prep sites in other counties: www.aarp.org.

• The popular “Haywood Ramblings” series presented by the Town of Waynesville Historic Preservation Commission will return in the Town Hall Board Room on Main Street.. “Prominent Waynesville Families,” presented by Sarah Sloan Kreutziger. Thursday, April 5.

“History of Main Street, Waynesville,” presented by Alex McKay. Thursday, May 3. All events are from 4 to 5 p.m.

In case of snow, the event will be automatically rescheduled for the second Thursday of the month.

• The Town of Waynesville is accepting applications from nonprofit organizations for consideration of special appropriations in the upcoming fiscal year 2018-19 budget. Applications available at www.waynesvillenc.gov/government or at the municipal building. Applications due by March 31. Info: 452.2491 or aowens@waynesvillenc.gov.

BUSINESS & EDUCATION • The Western North Carolina Civil War Round Table meets at 7 p.m. on the second Monday of each month at the HF Robinson Auditorium at the Western Carolina University Campus in Cullowhee.

• Southwestern Community College’s Small Business Center will host a free Rocket Business Plan workshop from noon-4 p.m. on April 2, and Wednesday, April 4, at the Franklin Chamber of Commerce in Franklin. http://bit.ly/ncsbcn.

• Richard Sneed, principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, will deliver a keynote address and take part in a panel discussion on perspectives of leadership at 1:30 p.m. on April 3, in the A.K. Hinds University Center at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. 227.3014.

• A seminar entitled “Your Small Business Taxes” will be offered from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. on April 3, at Haywood Community College’s Regional High Technology Center Auditorium in Waynesville. SBC.Haywood.edu or 627.4512.

• The Swain County Chamber of Commerce meets at 10 a.m. on April 5, at the chamber in Bryson City.

All phone numbers area code 828 unless otherwise noted.

• Southwestern Community College’s Small Business Center will host an email marketing seminar from 3-5 p.m. on April 5, at the Franklin Chamber of Commerce in Franklin. Register: http://bit.ly/ncsbcn.

• Registration is underway for a workshop on “Sales & Use Tax Workshop” offered by the N.C. Department of Revenue from 2-4 p.m. on April 10, in Room 303 of the Burrell Building at Southwestern Community College in Sylva.

• The Swain County Tourism Development Authority will hold a workshop at noon on April 11 at the Chamber of Commerce. No requests; no voting.

• Tourism-related businesses will have an opportunity to meet with “Visit North Carolina” staff from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on April 11, at the Lake Junaluska Harrell Center Auditorium.

• “Reduce the Risk of Sexual Harassment: Know How to Act and React” will be offered for employers from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. on April 12, at Western Carolina University’s instructional site in Biltmore Park in Asheville. Cost: $79 (register by April 1) or $95 (after April 1). Register: pdp.wcu.edu or 227.3070.

• The Waynesville Branch of the Haywood County Public Library will have an open house from 5-7 p.m. on April 12. Tour the facility, meet new Library Director Kathy G. Vossler and attend the second annual Presidential Volunteer Service Awards ceremony. Cal Shepard, state librarian, will be keynote speaker.

• Western Carolina University will offer a one-day workshop on “Contract Negotiations, Liability and Risk Factors in Business” from 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. on April 13, at the university’s instructional site in Asheville. $119.

Lunch included. Register: pdp.wcu.edu or 227.3070.

• “Walking the Tracks: A Conversation about Old Hazelwood-Waynesville” will be hosted by Alex McKay, Curator of the Waynesville Archive Museum, from 1-3 p.m. on April 14, at the Waynesville Library Auditorium.

• Registration is underway through April 6 for a job fair that will be held from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on April 14, at the Albert Carlton-Cashiers Community Library. 743.5191.

• Registration is underway for “Bizweek 2018” through the Macon County Economic Development Commission in Franklin. April 16-20. Registration required. For info/schedule and to register: www.maconedc.com or 369.2306.

• Registration is underway for a two-day seminar on financial reporting for public higher education at Western Carolina University’s instructional site at Biltmore Park in Asheville. Led by Marty Fischer, professor of accounting at the University of Texas at Tyler.

Open to accounting staff from public colleges and universities. Seminar is from 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. on April 2324. Cost: $249 for those registering by April 1; $349 after April 1. Includes lunch each day. Pdp.wcu.edu and click on “Financial Reporting for Higher Education” or 227.3070.

• Concealed carry handgun is offered every other Saturday 8:30am-5pm starting at Mountain Range indoor shooting range. Lunch provided. Class $60.

452.7870 or mountainrangenc@yahoo.com.

FUNDRAISERS AND BENEFITS • Donations are being accepted for the Southwestern Community College Foundation’s Student Emergency Fund through a fundraiser by Matt Kirby, college liaison for the Jackson County Early College, who’s competing the Georgia Death Race (70 miles) on March 31.

Smoky Mountain News

Student Emergency Fund helps deserving SCC students who encounter financial emergencies that might otherwise keep them from attending and completing classes.

Info: @KirbyRunsLong. Make donations: www.southwesterncc.edu/Foundation and follow listed directions.

Assistance: k_posey@southwesterncc.edu or 339.4227.

• The Canton Senior Center holds a fundraiser for operation by selling concessions during Canton’s Picking in the Armory starting at 5 p.m. on April 6. 648.8173.

• “Spring Fling” vendor event is April 7 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Lifeway Church is Sylva. The event is free to attend. Over 20 vendors, snacks, raffle tickets, and yard sale (weather permitting) will be offered at the event.

Vendor fees and other money raised at the event will go to support the Encore! Performing Arts Studio and Royals Dance Company families with their competition fees, costumes, dancewear and provide scholarships. Vendors who are interested in being a part of the Spring Fling are encouraged to contact Crystal Akers at 507.0452.

• Tickets are on sale now for a fundraising gala to support Western Carolina University’s University Participant Program. The event is set for April 7, at Laurel Ridge Country Club in Waynesville. $50 for students; $100 for all others. Program addresses the need for inclusive services beyond high school for individuals with disabilities. For info or tickets: 575.6495 or upgala2018@gmail.com.

• Registration is underway for the “Casino Royale” Autism Awareness Golf Tournament, which is set for 9:30 a.m. on April 9, at Maggie Valley Club. $400 per foursome; single-player tickets are $100. All proceeds benefit Richie’s Alliance for Autism. Sign up: www.richiesallieance.org/event/autism-awareness-golftournament or 421.2408.

• Entries are being accepted for the Feline Urgent Rescue’s second-annual Cat Photo Contest. $15 per photo. Deadline is April 7. Categories: Diva cat, funniest cat, cutest cat, laziest cat, “Cat-i-tude” and “Cats and Friends.” Instructions: www.furofwnc.org. Info: 844.888.CATS (2287), furofwnc1@gmail.com or www.facebook.com/furofwnc.

• Tickets are on sale now for the Richie’s Alliance for Autism’s “Taste” event at 4:30 p.m. on April 11, featuring the region’s top culinary talent, award-winning wines and local craft beer. Proceeds benefit Richie’s Alliance for Autism. Silent auction, live band and dancing. VIP tickets are $100; General admission ($45) starts at 5:30 p.m. Tickets: www.richiesalliance.org/event/taste.

• A disc golf tournament is scheduled for April 14, at Lake Julian Park in Arden. Fundraiser for Green Built Alliance. https://tinyurl.com/ybwqy8kl.

• Folkmoot will host the Appalachian Friendship Dinner from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, April 14, at Elevated Mountain Distillery in Maggie Valley. Tickets for this Friendship Dinner are $25 for adult, $20 for students and $30 at the door. www.folkmoot.org or 452.2997. Seating is limited, so advance purchase is advised.

• Tickets are on sale now for Feline Urgent Rescue of WNC’s WineTasting and appetizer buffet, which is from 5:30-8 p.m. on April 21, at HART’s Daniel & Belle Fangmeyer Theatre in Waynesville. Tickets: $35 per person; includes three wine tastings or beers.

Sponsorships are $125. www.furofwnc.org.

VOLUNTEERS & VENDORS • Sign-ups are underway for participants and volunteers for “Walk MS: Fletcher,” a fundraising walk for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. The event is set for April 15 at Bill Moore Park. Info or sign up: walkMS.org, 855.372.1331 or fundraisingsupport@nmss.org.

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Visit www.smokymountainnews.com and click on Calendar for: ■ Complete listings of local music scene ■ Regional festivals ■ Art gallery events and openings ■ Complete listings of recreational offerings at regional health and fitness centers ■ Civic and social club gatherings • Senior Companion volunteers are being sought to serve with the Land of the Sky Senior Companion Program in Henderson, Buncombe, Transylvania and Madison Counties. Serve older adults who want to remain living independently at home in those counties.

• There is an open call currently underway for artisans, vendors and environmentally-themed booths at the 21st annual Greening Up the Mountains, which will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, April 28, in downtown Sylva. Applications can be downloaded at www.greeningupthemountains.com and will be accepted through April 1. For more information, call 554.1035 or email greeningupthemountains@gmail.com.

HEALTH MATTERS • A grief support group, GriefShare, will be held from 67:30 p.m. on Wednesdays through May 23 at First Alliance Church in Franklin. Topics include grief’s challenges, guilt, anger, relationships with others, being stuck and what to live for now. $15 cost covers materials; scholarships available. Register: www.franklincma.com. Info: 369.7977, 200.5166, scott@franklincma.com or www.griefshare.org.

• A Women’s Circle in Conversation: Awareness will be offered from 2-5 p.m. on March 31, at Waynesville Yoga Center in Waynesville. Opportunity for growth, connection and loving yourself. $44 in advance or $49 day of.

Register: 246.6570 or WaynesvilleYogaCenter.com.

• “Open Heart Journey: Cacao and Self-Love” will be offered from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on April 6, at Waynesville Yoga Center. $35 in advance; $40 at the door. 246.6570 or WaynesvilleYogaCenter.com.

• “Restorative Gentle Yoga + Essential Oils + Healing Touch” will be offered from 2-4 p.m. on April 7, at Waynesville Yoga Center. $35 in advance; $40 at the door. 246.6570 or WaynesvilleYogaCenter.com.

• Goode oils will be hosting a doTERRA essential oil Make & Take at the Spring Fling on April 7 from 9 a.m. to 1 pm at Life Way Church in Sylva. If you have digestive issues, spring related issues, tension, and sleep issues then you won’t want to miss the chance to make up a solution to your health issues. Each essential oil roller is $5, make as many as you want. The Spring Fling is a vendor event that supports the Encore!

Performing arts Studio & Royals Dance Company families with their expenses. 246.2256 or goodeoils@gmail.com or my.doterra.com/goodeoils • Western Carolina University’s student-run, Mountain Area Pro Bono Physical Therapy Clinic will be open from 6-8:30 p.m. on Wednesdays of each month. 227.3527.

RECREATION AND FITNESS • The High Mountain Squares will host their “Hip Hop to Golden Oldies Dance” from 6:15-8:45 p.m. on March 30, at the Robert C. Carpenter Community Building in Franklin. Western-style square dancing, mainstream and levels. 342.1560, 332.0001, 706.746.5426 or www.highmountainsquares.com.

wnc calendar

• Registration is underway for a course in Women’s Police Judo Tactics that will be offered for ages 15-up from noon-1:15 p.m. on Saturdays, April 28-May 19, at the Waynesville Recreation Center. $60 per person. waynesvillejudo@gmail.com.

• Pickleball is offered from 9 a.m.-noon on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at the Old Armory in Waynesville. 456.2030 or dhummel@waynesvillenc.gov.

SPIRITUAL • The “Living Last Supper” – a reenactment of da Vinci’s famous painting, is scheduled for March 29, at First Presbyterian Church in Waynesville.

• “Labyrinth Walking as Transformative Practice” will be offered from 10:30 a.m.-noon on April 5 in Memorial Chapel at Lake Junaluska. Learn ways for joy, celebration, processing grief, seeking healing and enrichment of everyday prayer. Led by Rev. Mitzi Johnson. www.lakejunaluska.com/support.

POLITICAL • The Bryson City Town Board of Aldermen meet at 6 p.m. on April 2, at the town office. To get on the agenda, call 488.3335 by Thursday.

• The Otto Business Alliance meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on April 5, at the Otto Community Center.

AUTHORS AND BOOKS • Trail expert Jim Parham will present his new book Wildflower Walks & Hikes: North Carolina Mountains at 6:30 p.m. March 30, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. To reserve copies of any of Parham’s guides, please call City Lights Bookstore at 586.9499.

• Wanda Mills will present a multimedia short story program at 6:30 p.m. March 29, in the Community Room of the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva. www.rollingintothefuture.com. 586.2016 or www.fontanalib.org.

• Blue Ridge Books and the Mountain Writers of North Carolina group invite you to join them for their March Madness of book signings with local authors. The last event will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. March 31, Darryl Bollinger, “The Medicine Game, A Case of Revenge, The Pill Game, The Care Card, Satan Shoal, The Cure” at Blue Ridge Books in its new location at 428 Hazelwood Avenue in Waynesville. 456.6000 or www.blueridgebooksnc.com. Mountain Writers of North Carolina meetings are held at 1 p.m. on the second Tuesday of every month at Trailhead Cafe & Bakery in Waynesville.

SENIOR ACTIVITIES • Sign-ups are underway through March 30 for the Haywood County Arts Council’s “Mind the Music!” piano classes for ages 55-up. Classes run from April 9-May 7. director@haywoodarts.org or 452.0593.

• The Waynesville Recreation Center will offer additional courts for pickleball for seniors from 7 a.m.-noon on Mondays through Fridays. For ages 60-up. Free for members; $3 for nonmembers. 456.2030 or dhummel@waynesvillenc.gov.

• The Mexican Train Dominoes Group seeks new players to join games at 1 p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays at the Haywood County Senior Resource Center in Waynesville.

356.2800.

KIDS & FAMILIES • A kid’s introduction to fly-fishing will be offered for ages 8-15 on April 3 at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Brevard. Registration required: https://tinyurl.com/yb28fpz8.

• Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) has officially announced his annual Congressional Art Competition for 2018. The Artistic Discovery Contest is open to all high school students who reside in the 11th District. All entries must be original in design, concept, and execution, with open categories such as painting, drawing, print, and more. Winners will be chosen on April 28. The overall winner of our district’s competition will receive two round-trip tickets to the National Reception in Washington, D.C., a $3,000 scholarship to a prestigious southeastern art college, and their art will be displayed for one year in the U.S. Capitol. The deadline to enter this year’s competition is Friday, April 13.

Entries may be dropped off earlier, but all entries must be received by 5 p.m. April 13 at Rep. Meadows’ main district office located at 200 North Grove Street, Suite 90, Hendersonville, NC. meadows.house.gov.

• A tracking course will be offered for ages 8-13 from 9-11 a.m. on April 4 at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Brevard. Registration required: https://tinyurl.com/yb28fpz8.

• A Pisgah hike will be offered for ages 8-13 from 8 a.m.-noon on April 5 at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Brevard. Registration required: https://tinyurl.com/yb28fpz8.

• Registration is underway for a Spring Break Adventure Camp for ages 6-14. Camp is scheduled for 8 a.m.-5 p.m. on April 9-13 at the Piked Antler Project in Waynesville. Hiking Skills & Safety, map and compass navigation and more. Pricing info: Find Piked Antler Project on Facebook or call 558.1004 or 989.0209.

• “You Took the Kids Where? Adventuring While Your

Children Are Young” will be presented by author Doug Woodward on April 11 at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin. 524.3600.

A&E FESTIVALS AND SPECIAL EVENTS • Raymond Fairchild’s Bluegrass Jam is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Saturday, March 31, at Elevated Mountain Distilling Co. in Maggie Valley. www.facebook.com/events/134987257332802.

• Western Carolina University’s annual Spring Literary Festival will be held April 2-5 in Cullowhee. For schedule and authors appearing, visit www.litfestival.org or call 227.7264.

• 21st annual Greening Up the Mountains is scheduled for 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday, April 28. www.greeningupthemountains.com. 554.1035 or greeningupthemountains@gmail.com.

EASTER • The Easter Family Festival weekend will be March 30-April 1 at Fontana Village Resort. A full weekend of fun including scenic lake tours, sunrise church service, history films, corn hole tournament, egg dying, water balloon toss, scavenger hunt, campfire, marshmallow roast, and more, including an Easter feast at the Mountview Restaurant. 800.849.2258 or www.fontanavillage.com.

• Lake Junaluska will host a children’s Easter Egg Hunt at 11:30 a.m. on March 31 near Stuart Auditorium. Easter Bunny will be available for photos.

Smoky Mountain News

March 28-April 3, 2018

• Merrilee Bordeaux has just released her first work A Song of Life and Other Poems. She will hold a book signing from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 31, at Books

Unlimited in Franklin. The book will be sold at Books Unlimited also for $10.50. April is poetry month, which means that Bordeaux will also hold a reading and book signing event from 6 to 8 p.m. April 23, at the meeting room in the Franklin Public Library. Light refreshment will be provided.

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Puzzles can be found on page 46.

These are only the answers.

• Appalachian Ace Hardware will host an Easter Pet Adoption Day from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on March 31, in Franklin. Easter activities for kids. 524.0502.

• The Peanuts Easter Beagle Express Train will be at 11 a.m. March 30-31 at the Bryson City Train Depot.

Enjoy the characters of Charlie Brown, Snoopy and crew. Easter Egg Hunt, crafts, snacks, and more.

800.872.4681 or www.gsmr.com.

• The Easter Bunny will be available for photos from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 30-31 around downtown Bryson City.

• The 30th annual Easter Hat Parade is scheduled for March 31, in Dillsboro. Create your own hat 10 a.m. at Dogwood Crafters; parade registration is at 11 a.m., and Easter egg hunts will start at noon at Dogwood Crafters.

• The Shelton House will host an Easter Craft and Egg Hunt at 9 a.m. March 31. Bring your own basket.

Special prizes in certain “lucky eggs.”

• Churches in Cashiers will conduct the Community Easter Sunrise Service at 7 a.m. April 1, at the Gazebo and Lawn of The Village Green. The service features live music, scripture and an uplifting message with the backdrop of a beautiful sunrise over the mountains. Those attending are encouraged to bring a lawn chair. 743.3434 or visit www.villagegreencashiersnc.com.

• An Easter Sunrise Service is scheduled for 6:30 a.m. on April 1 in the Maggie Valley Pavilion next to Town Hall on Soco Road with a pancake breakfast to follow.

Sponsored by the Maggie Valley Civic Association.

• An Easter Sunrise Service is scheduled for 6:30 a.m.

April 1, in the Maggie Valley Pavilion next to Town Hall on Soco Road. Pancake breakfast to follow. Sponsored by the Maggie Valley Civic Association.

• Long’s Chapel United Methodist Church combines its four distinct services into one unique and dynamic Easter worship experience. They welcome everyone to join them at 10:25 a.m. April 1, in Stuart Auditorium.

• Lake Junaluska will host a sunrise service at 7 a.m. on Easter April 1, at the amphitheater near the Lake Junaluska cross. www.lakejunaluska.com/events/worship/easter.

• Lake Junaluska will host an Easter Sunday Lunch Buffet from 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. on April 1 at The Terrace. Reservations required: 454.6662. $29.95 for adults; $13 for ages 4-11; free for ages 3-under. www.lakejunaluska.com/events/worship/easter.

ON STAGE & IN CONCERT

• Legendary singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale will perform during a benefit for the Lloyd Johnson Foundation at 8 p.m. March 29, at the Isis Music Hall in West Asheville. Tickets are $20 per person in advance, $25 day-of-show. You can purchase tickets by clicking on www.isisasheville.com.

• Magician Tom Hoghes, Professor Whizzpop will be performing at 6:30 p.m. on March 30 at the Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. $1 admission, reservations recommended. 586.2016.

• Tickets are on sale now for “The Cirque,” which will offer performances at 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on May 1, at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. Sphere of Fear, Triple Wheel of Death, Human Slingshot, juggler and more. Tickets start at $12.50 (for first 100 adult tickets) at www.TheCirque.com.

CLASSES AND PROGRAMS • “Paint Nite Waynesville” will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursdays (April 5 and 19) at Frog Level Brewing in Waynesville. Sign up for either event on the Paint Night Waynesville Facebook page or call Robin Arramae at 828.400.9560. paintnitewaynesville@gmail.com.

• Registration is underway for a “Blacksmithing Fundamentals Class” that will be led by Brock Martin of WarFire Forge from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on March 31-April 1 at Jackson County Green Energy Park in Dillsboro.

Cost: $275; materials included. Preregistration required: 631.0271. Info: www.JCGEP.org.

• The Gem and Mineral Society of Franklin meets at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 29, at the Robert C. Carpenter Community Building in Franklin. Dr. Cheryl Waters-Tormey, associate professor of Geology at Western Carolina University, will be guest speaker.

• Acclaimed painter Jo Ridge Kelley will host a relaxing afternoon of painting colorful tulips, wine sipping, laughter and creativity from 1 to 3 p.m. March 31, at Bosu’s Wine Shop in Waynesville.

• Rock the Paint with Zoller Hardware and Hurricane Creek is from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on March 31, at Cashiers Commons, Highway 107 North, in Cashiers.

• The Haywood County Arts Council is accepting applications for its “Freedom: an Artist’s Point of View” exhibit scheduled for June. Applications due April 2. director@haywoodarts.org or www.haywoodarts.org.

• “Are the Homeless Becoming a Permanent Subculture in America?” will be the topic for the Franklin Open Forum at 7 p.m. on April 2, at Rathskeller Coffee Haus & Pub in Franklin. Dialog, not debate. 371.1020.

• Deadline to submit quilt applications for the Appalachian Women’s Museum Airing of the Quilts is April 2. The event is from noon-4 p.m. on April 21.

Register: appwomen.org/quilts. Info: 421.3820.

• The Haywood County Arts Council is accepting applications for its “Handcrafted Clay Mugs” exhibit scheduled for May. Applications due April 2. director@haywoodarts.org or www.haywoodarts.org.

• A Paint & Pour is being hosted by Appalachian Art Farm at 6:30 p.m. on April 3 at the Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. $25. 586.2016.

Smoky Mountain News

• HART in Waynesville presents a festival of plays in its intimate 60-seat Feichter Studio. Shows include: ““Mass Appeal” (March 28-April 1) and “In the Next Room or the Vibrator Play” (April 6-15).

Tickets are only $10 with general admission seating, but reservations are recommended as many shows regularly sell out. Season tickets are also available for the winter season. A complete schedule is available on the HART website at www.harttheatre.org.

• First Thursday Old-Time and Bluegrass Series at Western Carolina University conclude on April 5 from 7 to 9 p.m. with Charleston Township featured. For more information, call the Mountain Heritage Center at 227.7129.

March 28-April 3, 2018

• The 63rd annual Easter Sunrise Service is scheduled for 7 a.m. on April 1 at Chimney Rock. Inspiring message and bagpipes. ChimneyRockPark.com or 625.9611.

• The Highlands Performing Arts Center will screen “Live via Satellite” the MET Opera’s production of Mozart’s “Cosi fan tutte” at 12:55 p.m. March 31. www.highlandspac.org or 526.9047. All students will be admitted free of charge.

wnc calendar

• The Easter Eggstravaganza will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 31, at Darnell Farms.

Easter Egg Hunt, egg dying, games and baby bunny rabbit photo booth.

• Legendary banjo player Raymond Fairchild will be part of a special bluegrass jam starting at 6 p.m.

March 31, at Elevated Mountain Distilling Company in Maggie Valley. Free to attend, listen and participate.

Bring a chair and/or an instrument if you would like to join the jam. www.raymondfairchild.com or www.elevatedmountain.com.

• Winter Song Community, an acapella choir, will have its spring term from April 4-May 30. Sing world music in the oral tradition. No audition; no music to read.

524.3691.

• Dr. Gail Palmer will make a presentation on “Stories from Researching Smoky Mountain Cemeteries” during

41

wnc calendar

the Swain County Genealogical and Historical Society meeting at 6:30 p.m. on April 5 at the Swain County Regional Business Education and Training Center in Bryson City. www.swaingenealogy.com.

• Registration is underway for an “Intermediate Bladesmithing Class” that will be led by Brock Martin of WarFire Forge from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on April 7-8 at Jackson County Green Energy Park in Dillsboro. Cost: $340; materials included. Preregistration required: 631.0271. Info: www.JCGEP.org.

• Registration is underway for a “Warhammer Class” that will be led by Brock Martin of WarFire Forge from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on May 26-27 at Jackson County Green Energy Park in Dillsboro. Cost: $400; materials included. Preregistration required: 631.0271. Info: www.JCGEP.org.

• Registration is underway for a “Kukri Making Class” that will be led by Brock Martin of WarFire Forge from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on May 12-13 at Jackson County Green Energy Park in Dillsboro. Cost: $400; materials included.

Preregistration required: 631.0271. Info: www.JCGEP.org.

FILM & SCREEN • “Lady Bird” will be shown at 7:30 p.m. on March 29 at the Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. Free. 586.2016.

• “Tomb Raider” will be shown at 7 p.m. on March 2829 at The Strand on Main in Waynesville. See www.38main.cc for ticket prices.

• “Ready Player One” will be shown at 7 p.m. on March 30 & April 2-5 and 1 p.m., 4 p.m., 7 p.m. on March 31April 1, and 7 p.m. April 2-5 at The Strand on Main in Waynesville. See www.38main.cc for ticket prices.

March 28-April 3, 2018

• A biographical comedy about a medical doctor named Hunter “Patch” Adams, starring Robin Williams, will be shown at 2 p.m. on April 4, in the Macon County Public Library Meeting Room in Franklin.

PG-13; 1:55. Info, including movie title: 524.3600.

• A 1939 drama starring Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins will be shown at 2 p.m. on April 6, in the Macon County Public Library Meeting Room in Franklin.

Movie’s about a chain of events set off by the arrival of an ex-lover on a young woman’s wedding day. 1:35.

Info, including movie title: 524.3600.

• “The Shape of Water” will be shown at 7:30 p.m. on April 5 at the Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. Free.

586.2016.

• A panel of experts will discuss the future of the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests from 6-7:30 p.m. on March 29, at the Andrews Community Center in Andrews. Mountaintrue.org.

Smoky Mountain News

• The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission and Trout Unlimited Cataloochee chapter are seeking volunteers to help stock the West Fork of the Pigeon River at 10:30 a.m. on April 5. Meet at the parking lot past Lake Logan and before Sunburst Campground off N.C. 215 across from the shooting range.

Tucataloochee427@gmail.com.

• Bartram Author Philip Lee Williams will offer a presentation on “The Flower Seeker” from 6-7 p.m. on April 5 at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin. www.facebook.com/events/136206057048744.

• The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is seeking volunteers to assist with maintaining trails and nature loops from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on April 5, 7 and 19.

497.1949 or adam_monroe@nps.gov.

• Volunteers are being sought for a spring clean-up of campgrounds on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Deadline to sign up is April 6. Clean-up is the morning of April 21 at a number of campgrounds including Mount Pisgah (mile marker 408.8). Sign up: 348.3419 or BLRI_Volunteers@nps.gov.

• An advanced fly-tying class will be offered for ages 12-up on April 2 at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Brevard. Registration required: https://tinyurl.com/yb28fpz8.

• Great Smoky Mountains National Park is recruiting volunteers to assist park visitors by roving the Oconaluftee River Trail, Mountain Farm Museum and fields along Newfound Gap near the Oconaluftee Visitor Center. A mandatory training for new volunteers is scheduled for 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on April 3, at the Oconaluftee Administration Building near Cherokee.

Info: 497.1914 or kathleen_stuart@nps.gov.

• The Tuckasegee River Chapter No. 373 of Trout Unlimited will meet at 6:30 p.m. on April 3, at United Community Bank in Sylva. Dinner is $5. Fly fishing in Russia is the topic.

• Veterinarian Elizabeth DeWandeler will make a pres-

• Registration is underway for the eighth annual “Valley of the Lilies” Half Marathon and 5K, which is April 7, at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. $80 for half marathon and $30 for the 5K on race day. http://halfmarathon.wcu.edu or valleyofthelilies@wcu.edu.

Registration for the annual Greening Up the Mountains Festival 5K is now open. The race will begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday, April 28 at Mark Watson Park in Sylva, North Carolina. Registrants who enter before April 20th will receive a t-shirt. All proceeds from the race support the Jackson County Parks and Recreation Department. www.greeningupthemountains.com Registration ends on April 25. jeniferpressley@jackonnc.org.

FARM AND GARDEN • A workshop on “Managing your Home Orchard” will be offered by the NC Cooperative Extension Service at 10:15 a.m.-noon on April 3, at the Cashiers Library.

Register: 586.4009 (Sylva), 488.3848 (Bryson City) or clbreden@ncsu.edu.

• Currahee Brewing will host a Hiker Bash on April 7 in Franklin. www.facebook.com/curraheebrew.

• “Beekeeping 101: Basic Information for the Beginner” will be offered from 1-3 p.m. on March 29, at the Waynesville Library. Registration required: 356.2508 or kolsen@haywoodnc.net.

• “Hiking: Just Getting Started” will be presented by 900-mile hiker Joey Holt from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. on April 7, in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. $69. https://tinyurl.com/ya3uvm7g.

• A Fruit Tree Workshop will be offered by NC Cooperative Extension Service from 10:15 a.m.-noon on April 3, at the Cashiers Library. 586.4009 or clbreden@ncsu.edu.

• A birding hike will be offered for ages 12-up from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on April 7 at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Brevard. Registration required: https://tinyurl.com/yb28fpz8.

• Sign-ups for seed trays will be held from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. on April 2-7 at the Old Armory in Waynesville. $5 per tray; limit of five trays per person. 456.9207 or oldarmory@waynesvillenc.gov.

• An introduction to fly fishing will be offered for ages 12-up from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on April 10 at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Brevard. Registration required: https://tinyurl.com/yb28fpz8.

• The Jackson County Farmers Market will add a Wednesday evening market from 4-7 p.m. starting April 4 in the Bridge Park Paved Lot. Opening market celebration is from 9 a.m.-noon on April 7. www.jacksoncountyfarmersmarket.org or jacksoncountyfarmersmarket@gmail.com.

• An “On the Water: East Fork French Broad” fishing program will be offered for ages 12-up from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on April 12 at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Brevard. Registration required: https://tinyurl.com/yb28fpz8.

• A backyard birding by ear class for beginners will be offered for ages 12-up from 9 a.m.-noon on April 14 at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Brevard.

Registration required: https://tinyurl.com/yb28fpz8.

• “Introduction to Orienteering” will be presented by Neal Buckingham on April 14, in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. $69. https://tinyurl.com/ycddjexg.

Outdoors

42

entation entitled “Hiking With Dogs” at 6 p.m. on April 4 at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin. www.facebook.com/events/136206057048744.

• “Appalachian Trail: An American Legacy” – a documentary by Sam Henegar – will be shown at 2 p.m. on April 12 in the Macon County Public Library in Franklin.

524.3600.

• A Chimney Rock Naturalist Niche Hike, Spring Wildflowers – moderate, is scheduled for 9:30 a.m.12:30 p.m. on April 14. $23 per adult; $8 per annual passholder; $13 for ages 5-15 and $6 for “Rockin’ Discovery” passholders. Advance registration required: www.chimneyrockpark.com.

• Franklin’s AT110 Hikerfest will be hosted by Rathskeller Coffee Haus at 5 p.m. on April 14 in Franklin. Live band, bonfire and parade. 369.6796.

COMPETITIVE EDGE

• The Highlands Biological Station will host a “Grow Your Own Shiitake Mushroom” workshop on April 6 in Highlands. $50; materials provided. www.highlandsbiological.org or 526.2221.

HIKING CLUBS ⦁ A moderate, five-mile hike on the Bartram Trail in Macon County with Bartram experts Brent Martin and James Kautz is scheduled for Thursday, March 29. To RSVP or get more info: info@ncbartramtrail.org or 524.7400. ⦁ An easy-to-moderate hike is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on Friday, March 30, through the Deep Creek area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. $20 for members of the Great Smoky Mountains Association; $35 for nonmembers. Register: http://bit.ly/2FGixzi. ⦁ The Nantahala Hiking Club will continue its tradition of spreading “trail magic” to Appalachian Trail hikers with “Easter on The Trail” starting at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 31, in Franklin. To volunteer: 369.8915 or marsh67@frontier.com.

• Carolina Mountain Club will have a 10.8-mile hike with a 1,900-foot ascent at 8 a.m. on Sunday, April 1, at Haywood Gap. Info and reservations: 458.1281, mcornn@aol.com, 458.1281 or katherinekyle@gmail.com.

⦁ The Nantahala Hiking Club will take a moderate, three-mile hike with an elevation change of 800 feet on Sunday, April 8, in Tellico Valley. Info and reservations: 524.5234.

• Carolina Mountain Club will have a six-mile hike with a 1,000-foot ascent on Sunday, April 8, at Twin Falls. Info and reservations: 707.6500 or chrispallen@icloud.com.

• Carolina Mountain Club will have a 6.6-mile hike with a 1,550-foot ascent on Sunday, April 8, at Hyatt Ridge. Info and reservations: 628.6712 or knies06@att.net.

• Carolina Mountain Club will have a 5.4-mile hike with a 1,150-foot ascent on Saturday, April 14, at Courthouse Falls. Info and reservations; 505.0471, 860.798.9905 or mwbromberg@yahoo.com.

• The Nantahala Hiking Club will take a moderate-tostrenuous eight-mile hike with an elevation change of 1,000 feet, on Saturday, April 14, on the Georgia Bartram Trail. Info and reservations: 772.263.3478.

• The Nantahala Hiking Club will take an easy, threemile walk on Sunday, April 15, through the Highlands Botanical Gardens in Highlands. Info and reservations: 369.7352.

• Carolina Mountain Club will have a 16-mile hike with a 500-foot ascent on Sunday, April 15, at Asheville Camino Walk. Info and reservations: 450.0747 or danny@hikertohiker.com.

• Carolina Mountain Club will have a 5.3-mile hike with a 900-foot ascent on Sunday, April 15, at Baxter Creek.

Info and reservations: 989.0480 or ddlzz@yahoo.com.

• Nantahala Hiking Club holds monthly trail maintenance days from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on every fourth Saturday at 173 Carl Slagle Road in Franklin. Info and to register: 369.1983.

• Hike of the Week is at 10 a.m. every Friday at varying locations along the parkway. Led by National Park Service rangers. www.nps.gov/blri or 298.5330, ext.

304.

• Friends of the Smokies hikes are offered on the second Tuesday of each month. www.friendsofthesmokies.org/hikes.html.

• Nantahala Hiking Club based in Macon County holds weekly Saturday hikes in the Nantahala National Forest and beyond. www.nantahalahikingclub.org

OUTDOOR CLUBS • The Jackson County Poultry Club will hold its regular meeting on the third Thursday of each month at the Jackson County Cooperative Extension Office. The club is for adults and children and includes a monthly meeting with a program and a support network for those raising birds. For info, call 586.4009 or write heather_gordon@ncsu.edu.

• The North Carolina Catch program, a three-phase conservation education effort focusing on aquatic environments, will be offered through May 15. The program is offered by the Waynesville Parks and Recreation Department. Free for members; daily admission for non-members. 456.2030 or tpetrea@waynesvillenc.gov.

• An RV camping club, the Vagabonds, camps one weekend per month from April through November. All ages welcome. No dues or structured activities. For details, write lilnau@aol.com or call 369.6669.

• Friends of the Lake 5K is at 9 a.m. on March 31 at Lake Junaluska. Registration: $30. Student rate is $15 (ages 18-younger). www.lakejunaluska.com/events/worship/easter.

• Carolina Mountain Club will have an 11-mile hike with a 1,800-foot ascent on Wednesday, April 4, from Lemon Gap to Max Patch. Info and reservations: 404.731.3119 or Djones715@aol.com.

• The Cataloochee Chapter of Trout Unlimited meets the second Tuesday of the month starting with a dinner at 6:30 p.m. at Rendezvous restaurant located on the corner of Jonathan Creek Road and Soco Road in Maggie Valley. 631.5543.

• The third-annual Go Tell It On the Mountain 5-K run and 1-mile walk is set for March 31, in Otto.

Registration at 9 a.m., $35 for runners and $25 for walkers. Proceeds go to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. bringittolife@gmail.com or 342.5047.

⦁ The Nantahala Hiking Club will take a moderate, sixmile hike with an elevation change of 800 feet on Saturday, April 7, on a section of the Appalachian Trail in the Standing Indian area. Info and reservations: 524.5298.

• The Cherokee Runners meets each month on the 1st and 15th of the month (if the first falls on Sunday, the group meets on the 2nd), at the Age Link Conference Room.

Group runs are being held each Tuesday and Thursday at 6 p.m. starting at the Flame. www.cherokeerunners.com.

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FTCC Fayetteville Technical Community College is now accepting applications for the following positions: Criminal Justice Instructor, Dean of Corporate and Industry Training & Instructional Lab Technicial-Culinary Arts. For detailed information and to apply, please visit our employment portal at: https://faytechcc.peopleadmin.com/ Human Resources Office Phone: 910.678.7342 Internet: http://www.faytechcc.edu An Equal Opportunity Employer MAD BATTER In Downtown Sylva is Seeking Full-Time Line Cook/Food Truck Team Member. Ideal Candidates will have High Volume Line Exp. & Be Service Oriented. Candidate Must be 18+ & Have Reliable Transportation. Stop by Between Tuesday - Thursday 2:00-4:00pm or Email Your Resume to: madbatterevents@gmail.com No Phone Calls Please

AIRLINES ARE HIRING – Get FAA approved hands on Aviation training. Financial aid for qualified students - Career placement assistance. CALL Aviation Institute of Maintenance 866.441.6890 BUSY DOWNTOWN WAYNESVILLE Insurance Agency Seeking Career-Oriented Licensed P&C Sales Agent. Full-Time, Competitive Pay, Commission, Incentives & Bonus. Must Posses Excellent Customer Service Skills, be Confident, Friendly & Professional.

Email Resume to:

oggiejonny@gmail.com DRIVE WITH UBER. No experience is required, but you'll need a Smartphone. It's fun and easy. For more information, call: 1.800.655.7452

UNABLE TO WORK Due to injury or illness? Call Bill Gordon & Assoc., Social Security Disability Attorneys! FREE Evaluation. Local Attorneys Nationwide 1.800.371.1734 [Mail: 2420 N St NW, Washington DC. Office: Broward Co. FL (TX/NM Bar.)] EARN $500 A DAY: Lincoln Heritage Life Insurance Wants Insurance Agents • Leads, No Cold Calls • Commissions Paid Daily • Agency Training • Life License Required. Call Now 1.888.713.6020

CAVALIER ARMS APARTMENTS NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS

44

828-564-9393

GOT YOUR EARS ON? Find your next driver by advertising statewide in over 100 newspapers for only $375. Call Wendi Ray at NC Press Services for more info 919.516.8009. SAPA

FINANCIAL BEWARE OF LOAN FRAUD. Please check with the Better Business Bureau or Consumer Protection Agency before sending any money to a loan company. SAPA HAVE 10K IN DEBT? National Debt Relief is rated APlus with the BBB. You could be debt free in 24-48 months. Call 1.844.240.0122 now for a free debt evaluation.

SAVE YOUR HOME! Are you behind paying your MORTGAGE? Denied a Loan Modification? Is the bank threatening foreclosure? CALL Homeowner's Relief Line! FREE CONSULATION! 855.995.4199 SERIOUSLY INJURED In An Auto Accident? Let us fight for you! We have recovered millions for clients! Call today for a FREE consultation! 855.324.5256

HEMLOCK HEALERS, INC. Dedicated to Saving Our Hemlocks. Owner/Operator Frank Varvoutis, NC Pesticide Applicator’s License #22864. 48 Spruce St. Maggie Valley, NC 828.734.7819 828.926.7883, Email: hemlockhealers@yahoo.com

REAL ESTATE ANNOUNCEMENT PUBLISHER’S NOTICE All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Fair Housing Act which makes it illegal to advertise “any preference, limitation or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin, or an intention, to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination” Familial status includes children under the age of 18 living with parents or legal custodians, pregnant women and people securing custody of children under 18 This newspaper will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate which is in violation of the law. All dwellings advertised on equal opportunity basis.

NICOL ARMS APARTMENTS NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS We Are Offering 2 Bedroom Apartments, Starting From $465.00

Section 8 Accepted - Rental Assistance When Available Handicapped Accessible Units When Available

Section 8 Accepted - Handicapped Accessible Units When Available

OFFICE HOURS:

OFFICE HOURS:

Tuesday & Thursday 8:00a.m. - 5:00p.m.

50 Duckett Cove Road, Waynesville, NC 28786

Monday, Wednesday & Friday 8:00am - 5:00pm 168E Nicol Arms Road Sylva, NC 28779

Phone# 1.828.456.6776 TDD# 1.800.725.2962 Equal Housing Opportunity

BROOKE PARROTT BROKER ASSOCIATE 828.734.2146 bparrott@beverly-hanks.com to see what others are saying!

MOUNTAIN REALTY

LAWN & GARDEN

Offering 2 & 3 Bedroom Apartments, Starting at $420.00

Visit beverly-hanks.com/agents/bparrott

71 N. Main St. • Waynesville, NC

EMPLOYMENT HOME WORKERS!!

Easy Legitimate Work, Great Pay! Assemble Products At Home And Other Mystery Shopping Opportunities Galore - No Experience Needed.

For More Details, Send $2.00 With A Self-Addressed, Stamped Envelope to: Publishers Market Source, P.O. Box 1122, Merrillville, IN Zip Code 46411. SAPA

Phone# 1.828.586.3346 TDD# 1.800.735.2962 Equal Housing Opportunity

REAL ESTATE ANNOUNCEMENT

SAVE YOUR HOME! Are you behind paying your Mortgage? Denied a Loan Modification? Is the bank threatening foreclosure? CALL Homeowner’s Relief Line now! 844.359.4330

HOMES FOR SALE

BRUCE MCGOVERN A Full Service Realtor, Locally Owned and Operated mcgovernpropertymgt@gmail.com McGovern Property Management 828.283.2112.

HOME IMPROVEMENT AUCTION Saturday, March 17th @ 10am.

201 S Locust Ave. Locust, NC Cabinet Sets, Doors, Carpet, Tile, Hardwood, Bath Vanities, Windows, Lighting, Patio Sets, Trim, Appliances, Name Brand Tools.

Check our website for details.

Phone: 704.507.1449; ncaf5479 www.ClassicAuctions.com

LOTS FOR SALE

OWNER/BROKER

(828) 712-5578

lakeshore@lakejunaluska.com

The Only Name in Junaluska Real Estate 91 N. Lakeshore Dr. Lake Junaluska 828.456.4070

www.LakeshoreRealtyNC.com Conveniently located in the Bethea Welcome Center

FURNITURE HAYWOOD BEDDING, INC. The best bedding at the best price!

533 Hazelwood Ave. Waynesville 828.456.4240 KILL BED BUGS! Buy Harris Bed Bug Killers/KIT Complete Treatment System. Available: Hardware Stores, The Home Depot, homedepot.com SAPA

FOR SALE BORING/CARPENTER BEE TRAPS No Chemicals, Poisons or Anything to Harm the Environment.

Handmade in Haywood County. 1 for $20, 2 or More for $15 each.

828.593.8321

Haywood County Real Estate Agents

Catherine Proben Cell: 828-734-9157 Office: 828-452-5809

cproben@beverly-hanks.com

74 N. Main St., Waynesville, NC

828.452.5809

WANTED TO BUY FREON R12 WANTED: CERTIFIED BUYER will PAY CA$H for R12 cylinders or cases of cans.

312.291.9169; www.refrigerantfinders.com

Berkshire Hathaway www.4Smokys.com

Beverly Hanks & Associates • • • • • • • • • • • • •

beverly-hanks.com Ann Eavenson - anneavenson@beverly-hanks.com George Escaravage - gescar@beverly-hanks.com Billie Green - bgreen@beverly-hanks.com Michelle McElroy michellemcelroy@beverly-hanks.com Marilynn Obrig - mobrig@beverly-hanks.com Steve Mauldin - smauldin@beverly-hanks.com Brian K. Noland - brianknoland.com Anne Page - apage@beverly-hanks.com Brooke Parrott - bparrott@beverly-hanks.com Jerry Powell - jpowell@beverly-hanks.com Catherine Proben - cproben@beverly-hanks.com Ellen Sither - ellensither@beverly-hanks.com Mike Stamey mikestamey@beverly-hanks.com

ERA Sunburst Realty sunburstrealty.com • Amy Spivey - amyspivey.com • Rick Border - sunburstrealty.com

- WANTED TO BUY U.S./ Foreign Coins! Call Dan

828.421.1616

Keller Williams Realty kellerwilliamswaynesville.com • The Morris Team - www.themorristeamnc.com

Steve Mauldin

Lakeshore Realty

smauldin@beverly-hanks.com

Mountain Home Properties

828.734.4864

• Phyllis Robinson - lakeshore@lakejunaluska.com

March 28-April 3, 2018

EXECUTIVE HOME SITES Waterfront or View- Improved Home Sites, By Owner, State Rd., Gated, Sites are Prepped, Well, Electric, 3/BR Septic In, Dock, Southern Exposure & Private.

For More Information Call 828.788.6879

GREAT SMOKIES STORAGE Conveniently located off 19/23

by Thad Woods Auction. Available for lease now: 10’x10’ units for $55, 20’x20’ units for $160.

Get one month FREE with 12 month contract. Call 828.507.8828 or 828.506.4112 for more info.

Phyllis Robinson WNC MarketPlace

LEASE TO OWN 1/2 Acre Lots with Mobile Homes & Empty 1/2 Acre + Lots!

Located Next to Cherokee Indian Reservation, 2.5 Miles from Harrah’s Cherokee Casino.

For More Information Please Call 828.506.0578

STORAGE SPACE FOR RENT

mountaindream.com • Cindy Dubose - cdubose@mountaindream.com 74 N. Main St.,Waynesville

828.452.5809

beverly-hanks.com

SAMPSON - A SUPER CUTE LITTLE JACK RUSSELL TERRIER ABOUT THREE YEARS OLD. HE'S A NICE PORTABLE SIZE OF 15 LBS. HE'S GOT THE WIRY COAT THAT GIVES HIM A SCRUFFY LOOK. HE'S A VERY SMART LITTLE GUY AND FIGURE HIS WAY OUT OF PLACES, SO HIS NEW FAMILY WILL HAVE TO BE ABLE TO KEEP HIM SAFE AND SECURE AT HOME.

• Bruce McGovern - shamrock13.com

——————————————

GEORGE

ESCARAVAGE

RE/MAX Executive

28 WOODLAND ASTER WAY

• • • •

828.400.0901

•

BROKER/REALTOR

—————————————— ASHEVILLE, NC 28804

GESCAR@BEVERLY-HANKS.COM

remax-waynesvillenc.com remax-maggievalleync.com Holly Fletcher - hollyfletcher1975@gmail.com The Real Team - TheRealTeamNC.com Ron Breese - ronbreese.com Landen Stevenson Landen@landenstevenson.com Dan Womack - womackdan@aol.com

smokymountainnews.com

MEET NEW SARGE KITTY DOODLE A MALE KITTY ABOUT EIGHT MONTHS OLD. HE IS A SWEET LITTLE GUY, AND AS SOON AS HE IS NEUTERED HE'LL BE READY TO MOVE IN WITH HIS NEW FAMILY. DOODLE IS FRIENDLY AND SOCIABLE, STILL A PLAYFUL KITTEN, AND WELCOMES HUMAN ATTENTION.

McGovern Real Estate & Property Management

BEVERLY-HANKS.COM

find us at: facebook.com/smnews

TO ADVERTISE IN THE NEXT ISSUE 828.452.4251 | ads@smokymountainnews.com 45

CROSSWORD

www.smokymountainnews.com

March 28-April 3, 2018

WNC MarketPlace

Super

46

SILENT DUO ACROSS 1 Watchful 8 Abjectly submissive 15 Floral shop receptacles 20 More candid 21 Fingernail surrounder 22 Novelist Munro 23 Bands of fibrous tissue enclosing muscles 24 Inept warrior in armor?

26 Like escaped convicts 28 See 17-Down 29 Slaughter of the diamond 30 Member of a certain antelope fraternity?

34 Plasma particle 36 “Hurlyburly” playwright David 37 Med. drips 38 Certain book of liturgy 43 Anti-DUI ad, e.g.

46 Ending for Alp or salt 47 Concept, to Jean-Luc 49 Activity when shopping for sweaters?

51 Person who repositions tiny flies?

54 “Life of Pi” novelist Martel 55 Something easy-peasy 56 Apia resident 57 “Nothin’ —!” (“Easypeasy!”)

59 In the dossier, e.g.

60 First-class 63 Sword stopper 67 Bireme tool 68 Shoelace snarl of note?

73 Young male, urbanstyle 74 Like many offshore rescues

75 Outdoor enclosure for tabbies 76 In a mischievous way 79 Inside: Prefix 81 Beautiful guy 85 Persian-founded faith 86 “That feels go-o-od!”

89 “ ‘One-l lama’ poet, grind your teeth!”?

92 Had some friends south of the border?

95 Poker cost 96 Norma — (Field role) 97 Horse’s kin 98 Call halfway to a walk 99 “Delish!”

100 Wound, after a few days 101 Twisty letter 102 Far northern city inhabited by trolls?

106 Sheep’s hair 109 Wear down 114 Convenient kind of shopping 115 Confession after hitting your physician with your leg joint?

118 Angel, musically 122 Big rig, e.g.

123 Lava spewer 124 Automaker Maserati 125 Impetuosity 126 Very vivid 127 Totally faded DOWN 1 Out of whack 2 Pro-gun org.

3 Auto fluid 4 Set free 5 Spitz variety 6 Province 7 More moony

8 Singer Boz 9 Light unit 10 — glance 11 “La Dolce —” 12 Chilled 13 Pivot 14 Wife of Zeus 15 With 90-Down, actor Jean-Claude 16 Foreign 17 With 28-Across, ink the contract 18 Canyon reply 19 Puts (down) 25 — light (lamp on a film set) 27 Ominous bird 30 Prudish sorts 31 — -Barbera 32 Flanged girder 33 News svc.

35 Like Mork, per his planet 39 Reaping tool 40 Alias lead-in 41 Maya of architecture 42 Cable TV’s Spike, once 43 Rack-and- — steering 44 Camp for Colonel Klink 45 According to 47 “But is —?”

48 Faye of films 49 NBAer, e.g.

50 Rubber check abbr.

52 Food-order option 53 French political units 58 “What a piece of work —” 59 Aromatic substance 61 “Where — start?”

62 Bungle 64 Wearing a disguise, informally 65 Airport info

66 Illuminated 68 Holy books of Islam 69 Cubbyholes 70 Bray sound 71 Slight push 72 A party to 73 Easter cake 77 Hem and — 78 Bird perches 80 Toledo “two” 82 User busters 83 Rockabilly singer Chris 84 “Come Back, Little —” 86 Rocker Rose 87 Be laid up 88 Drama unit 90 See 15-Down 91 Got tangled 93 Slacked off 94 Eggy quaff 99 Marilyn of “The Misfits” 100 Depleted 101 Opt 103 Lunchtimes, often 104 Early name in arcades 105 “Bonanza” star Greene 106 Among 107 Creole pod 108 Difficult task 110 Shankar of Indian music 111 Take too much, briefly 112 Knucklehead 113 Nero’s “Lo!” 116 Stretch (out) 117 Almond-hued 119 Prefix for “equal” 120 Erwin of films 121 Young kid

answers on page 40

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Call 855.969.8854 SAPA MEDICARE DOESN’T COVER All of your medical expenses. A Medicare Supplemental Plan can help cover costs that Medicare does not. Get a free quote today by calling now. 1.877.212.8839 STRUGGLING WITH DRUGS Or Alcohol? Addicted to Pills?

Talk to someone who cares. Call The Addiction Hope & Help Line for a free assessment. 800.511.6075

MEDICAL A PLACE FOR MOM. The nation’s largest senior living referral service. Contact our trusted, local experts today! Our service is Free/no obligation. 855.401.6444.

BATHE SAFELY And stay in the home you love with the #1 selling Walk-in Tub in North America. For an in-home appointment, call: 844.294.5707 UNABLE TO WORK Due to injury or illness? Call Bill Gordon & Assoc., Social Security Disability Attorneys! FREE Evaluation. Local Attorneys Nationwide 1.800.371.1734 [Mail: 2420 N St NW, Washington DC. Office: Broward Co. FL (TX/NM Bar.)]

PETS/SERVICES HAYWOOD SPAY/NEUTER 828.452.1329

Prevent Unwanted Litters!

The Heat Is On! Spay/Neuter For Haywood Pets As Low As $10.

Operation Pit is in Effect!

Free Spay/Neuter, Microchip & Vaccines For Haywood Pitbull Types & Mixes!

Hours:

Tuesday-Friday, 11:00 am - 5:00 pm 182 Richland Street, Waynesville

PET SUPPLIES & SERVICES HAPPY JACK® XYLECIDE® Is a Fungicidal Shampoo to treat Ringworm & Allergies. For Dogs & Horses. At Tractor Supply, or: fleabeacon.com

SERVICES

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Bundle AT&T Digital TV or Phone Services & Internet Price Starts at $30/month. Call 1.800.950.1469 SAPA CHANGE THE WAY YOU WATCH TV Get rid of cable and get DIRECTV! You may also qualify to receive $100 VISA gift card when you sign up today- Limited time Only.

CALL NOW! 855.901.5470 CHEAP FLIGHTS Call Now! 1.844.787.9808 SAPA DISH NETWORK. 190+ Channels. FREE Install. FREE Hopper HD-DVR. $49.99/month (24 mos) Add High Speed Internet $14.95 (where avail.) CALL Today & Save 25%! 1.877.920.7405

VACATION RENTALS BEACH VACATION SPECIAL Ocean Isle Beach, N.C. Mention ad to receive an extra $25 off all vacation rentals. Near Myrtle Beach/Wilmington. Golf, fishing.

Family beach 800.622.3224 www.cookerealty.com SAPA

WEEKLY SUDOKU Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each small 9-box square contains all of the numbers from one to nine.

Answers on Page 40

Tree swallow at Lake Junaluska.

Don Hendershot photo

The naturalist’s corner

BY DON H ENDERSHOT

Spring has sprung t doesn’t take a calendar to know spring is here. Spring is surely in the air but it’s also in the trees; it’s clawing through the dirt; it’s singing from vernal pools, streams and lakes; it’s even in the heavens.

Orion is chasing Taurus out of sight as we turn away from the bright stars of the winter nights. Ursa Major (big dipper) and Ursa Minor (little dipper) will become prominent features and can serve as pointers for finding the North Star, Polaris, plus a number of summer constellations.

And while we are losing the bright stars of winter, two of summer’s warm lanterns are ascending. By mid-summer Vega, the North Star of eons ago, and Deneb, a bright giant thousands of light-years away in deep space, will take their place almost directly above us.

And if you get out on a warm early spring evening (and there will be warm, early spring evenings) to wave goodbye to Orion and Taurus, you are likely to hear the musical chirping of spring peepers and/or the long, loud trill of the American toad. A chorus of peepers and toads is reason enough to be out on a spring evening.

I

The satin-white petals of bloodroot are beginning to push through the grey-brown winter leaf litter. Hepatica, violets, anemones and spring beauty are all showing their pretty heads. Trilliums and the cascading pallet of spring ephemerals will soon be beckoning. And don’t forget, the 2018 Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is just around the corner – April 24-28.

We spent last weekend in Greensboro at the Tarheel States swim meet, where we were snowed on all evening Saturday. But on the ride home Sunday, it was 50 degrees and the roadsides were awash in the reds and oranges of maples, the deep pink of redbuds and the wispy white of serviceberry.

Migration has picked up at Lake Junaluska. There was a recent sighting of a white-winged scoter, a rarity for the lake, plus common loon, blue-winged teal, redbreasted mergansers, Bonaparte’s gull and others. Swallows and purple martins are also once again skimming the waters of the lake.

I saw a post on Facebook from Brent Martin, owner, along with his wife Angela Faye, of Alarka Expeditions noting that the first blue-headed vireo of the season had

been heard at Alarka. And I have been seeing photos from Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge in northeast Louisiana of black-and-white warbler, northern parula and prothonotary warbler.

And birds aren’t all that are a flutter over spring. Journey North noted, on March 22, observers along the Gulf Coast of Texas were recording hundreds of arriving monarch butterflies. And, closer to home, there have been reports of West Virginia whites,

mourning cloaks, falcate orangetips and eastern-tailed blues around the region.

Spring is here, believe it or not. I know, I know, we’ve still got dogwood winter and blackberry winter and “it’s too cold to go for a walk around the lake” winter etc. etc. But these harbingers don’t lie — it’s spring, and don’t blink or you’ll miss it.

(Don Hendershot is a naturalist and a writer who lives in Haywood County. He can be reached at ddihen1@bellsouth.net)

March 28-April 3, 2018 Smoky Mountain News 47

2018 MODELS ARE HERE

2018 ESCAPE

2018 FUSION SE W/TECH PKG.

$209/mo. for 36 mos.

$199/mo. for 36 mos.

Ford Credit Red Carpet Lease $2784 Cash Due at Signing

Ford Credit Red Carpet Lease $2599 Cash Due at Signing Security deposit waived, taxes, title and license fees extra. With Equipment Group 200A. Not all buyers will qualify for Ford Credit Red Carpet Lease. Payments may vary: dealer determines price. Residency restrictions apply. Cash due at signing is after $2,500 total cash back including $2,000 Special Pkg. Customer Cash (PGM #50436) + $500 Bonus Cash (PGM #13158). Take new retail delivery from dealer stock by 4/2/18.

See dealer for qualifications and complete details. Vehicle shown may have optional equipment not included in payment.

March 28-April 3, 2018

Security deposit waived, taxes, title and license fees extra. With Equipment Group 200A. Not all buyers will qualify for Ford Credit Red Carpet Lease. Payments may vary: dealer determines price. Residency restrictions apply. Cash due at signing is after $3,500 total cash back including $2,500 Customer Cash (PGM #50434) + $1,000 Bonus Cash (PGM #13200, #13158). Take new retail delivery from dealer stock by 4/2/18.

See dealer for qualifications and complete details. Vehicle shown may have optional equipment not included in payment.

2017 FIESTA Smoky Mountain News

$199/mo. for 36 mos.

Ford Credit Red Carpet Lease $1499 Cash Due at Signing Security deposit waived, taxes, title and license fees extra. With Equipment Group 200A. Not all buyers will qualify for Ford Credit Red Carpet Lease. Payments may vary: dealer determines price. Residency restrictions apply. Cash due at signing is after $2,250 Customer Cash (PGM #50434). Lessee has option to purchase vehicle at lease end at price negotiated with dealer at signing. $395 lease disposition fee waived at lease end if vehicle is purchased or customer leases/purchases another new Ford/Lincoln vehicle. Take new retail delivery from dealer stock by 4/2/18. See dealer for qualifications and complete details. Vehicle shown may have optional equipment not included in payment.

I-40 EXIT 31, CANTON, NC

828-648-2313 1-800-532-4631

www.kwford.com kenwilsonford@kwford.com

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