Smn 04 08 15

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

April 8-14, 2015 Vol. 16 Iss. 45

Evergreen undergoes costly clean-up Page 4

Jackson jail death sparks investigation Page 7

CONTENTS

STAFF

On the Cover: White-nose syndrome is plaguing bat species along the eastern seaboard.

Scientists are working to find a way to fight back before the fungal disease wipes out more populations. (Page 36) Holly Kays photo

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News Evergreen undergoes costly clean up ..................................................................4 Jackson jail death sparks investigation ................................................................7 Sylva considers two-way traffic on Main Street ................................................8 SCC celebrates 50 years ....................................................................................10 SCC plans for Macon campus expansion ........................................................11 Break-in reported at Swain election office ........................................................12 Businesses bustling in downtown Waynesville ..............................................14 Macon commissioners pass noise ordinance ..................................................16 Bill introduced for Possum Drop ........................................................................21

Opinion Living in fear is no way to live at all......................................................................22

Outdoors Bats fight white-nose syndrome ..........................................................................36

April 8-14, 2015

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Evergreen undergoes costly clean up of coal stacks under new air pollution rules

BY B ECKY JOHNSON STAFF WRITER he smokestacks at Evergreen Packaging paper mill in Canton will be significantly cleaner within four years thanks to $50 million in pollution upgrades.

The plant’s four coal-powered boilers don’t have state-of the-art pollution controls.

But new federal rules are forcing hundreds of older coal-powered factories nationwide to reduce their emissions and come up to par with the highest of industry standards. The bar is indeed high: every factory will be expected to match the air pollution controls used by today’s best emissions performers.

“It’s like a super average,” explained Dane Griswold, the manager of Evergreen operations in Haywood County.

The mill is taking a two-prong approach to come into compliance with the tough federal rules by 2019. Two coal boilers will be outfitted with top-notch emission Dane Griswold control technology. The other two will be converted to natural gas.

Converting boilers to natural gas posed a challenge, however. Existing natural gas lines through Haywood County couldn’t deliver the volume the mill would need. To increase capacity, the lines needed intermittent compressors to increase the pressure and in turn push more natural gas through.

PSNC, the natural gas provider in the region, has agreed to do the necessary line upgrades — an upfront cost it hopes to make back from the natural gas it sells the mill over time.

The $50 million capital investment of the boiler upgrades at the mill will improve the environment, preserve jobs and help the mill stay competitive, Griswold said.

“Our community will benefit over both the short term and long term from these improvements,” Griswold said.

The work, in part, is being funded by state taxpayers. Mill officials had claimed they couldn’t afford the emission upgrades otherwise.

The state pledged $12 million toward the cost of the upgrades, tapping a special fund earmarked specifically for this purpose: to aid large factories with required environmental upgrades in order to save jobs. The grant was approved by the General Assembly last year under the so-called Job Maintenance and Capital Development Fund.

Mill officials asserted in the application the mill would close if they didn’t get the grant to help with the cost.

“The facility would not be allowed to operate without complying with these environmental regulations,” mill officials wrote in a grant application to the state. “The facility will thus be forced to shut down which would 4 impact approximately 1,200 jobs and a pay-

Smoky Mountain News

April 8-14, 2015

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Evergreen Packaging makes paperboard used for drink cartons and to-go coffee cups, as well as regular office, printer and writing paper. It is undergoing a $50 million upgrade of its boilers to significantly lessen air pollution. Becky Johnson photos roll of $90 million a year.”

But the application couldn’t make things seem too dire, or the state may have simply seen the grant as all for naught.

“The current business at the mill is good,” mill officials stated.

Once it cleared the hurdle of the new federal emission rules, the mill would be sustainable, according to the application.

Diligent lobbying by the local and regional business community, elected leaders, economic development officials and state legislators from the region — including N.C. Sen. Jim Davis, R-Franklin, and N.C. Rep Michele Presnell, R-Burnsville — managed to garner the requisite support from the General Assembly and governor.

Griswold said the mill is “extremely grateful” for the support.

“Evergreen worked collaboratively and constructively with state lawmakers to find a solution that includes a shared investment in pollution upgrades at the Canton mill,” said Griswold.

At one point, the state had also committed a $2.1 million grant to aid with the natural gas line upgrades by PSNC. The grant required a local match, and Haywood County commissioners dutifully pledged $700,000 to make it happen, claiming the mill might shut down if the county didn’t do its part.

But PSNC ultimately turned down the grant due to terms and conditions of the funding, so the county will get to keep its money, and the line upgrades will happen anyway.

THE DEMISE OF GRANDFATHERED COAL BASTIONS This is hardly the first time the mill has been forced to fork out big bucks to rein in pollution.

By the numbers Cost of air pollution upgrades

.............$50 MILLION Portion covered by state grant

.............$12 MILLION Haywood County jobs at stake

........................1,100 Countdown to completion

....................4 YEARS It’s spent $330 million since 1990 on environmental upgrades and measures. But the majority has been aimed at water quality in the Pigeon River. This project will be the single biggest investment in air quality improvements.

“With the investment the mill’s environmental footprint will be much improved,” mill officials wrote in the grant application to the state. “The project will dramatically reduce the plant’s greenhouse gas, SO2, particulates and metals.”

Evergreen paper mill is currently the largest industrial air toxin polluter in Western North Carolina and one of the largest in the state, according to federal emissions reporting. As a result, Haywood County has some of the highest levels of industrial air pollution in the state. It ranked fourth out of 100 counties statewide in toxic air emissions, according to EPA emissions data for 2010.

American factories have gradually been cleaning up their emissions over the past three decades. Typically, expansions or major equipment overhauls trigger federal emission rules, forcing factories to upgrade their pollution controls.

While Evergreen’s current pollution controls aren’t antiquated, they aren’t the gold standard either, simply due to their age.

“Old mills aren’t required to put state-ofthe-art emissions equipment on their boilers,” said Heather Sands, an environmental engineer who oversees air pollution permits with the N.C. Division of Air Quality.

Tom Mather, a spokesperson with the N.C. Division of Air Quality, favors the newcar versus old-car analogy. A newer car pollutes less than older ones, but “You can’t go back and require everybody who owns an old car to put on the advanced technology that new cars have,” Mather said.

These older coal-fired factories like Evergreen have finally reached the end of the line, however, and can’t cling to their grandfathered status anymore. The new federal rules will impose the latest-and-greatest pollution controls regardless.

“They have upped the ante,” Sands said.

The EPA estimated about 1,000 boilers nationwide didn’t meet the impending rules.

And like Evergreen, “They are either replacing coal with natural

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Two workers take a pause during a workday at the mill. Becky Johnson photo

POWERHOUSE OF POWER

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Meticulous planning must ensure the mill doesn’t skip a beat during the upgrades and replacements of its boilers, said Matt Claypool, director of environment, health and safety for Evergreen.

Claypool said the mill is used to humming along despite an almost constant cycle of maintenance and repairs to machinery. The work is currently in the engineering phase and construction will begin by late next year, with completion by 2019, according to Claypool.

The Canton mill churns out a dizzying 1,700 tons of paper a day. Lines of train cars piled high with wood chips chug into the mill at one end, and giant rolls of paper — bigger than a school bus — emerge on the other side.

It takes a massive amount of energy, and that’s where the fleet of boilers come in.

The mill makes a lot of its own power, but not enough to run the entire plant. It buys the rest from Duke Energy.

The paper mill is Duke Energy’s largest customer in Western North Carolina, in fact.

The mix of energy — what it makes inhouse versus what it buys from Duke — fluctuates constantly.

The mill can adjust its power generation up or down, depending on what its own coal costs are running compared to Duke’s wholesale power rates that day.

“We swing back and forth between what is most economical, but in general, we make as much as we buy,” Griswold said.

The mill’s boilers are used in the papermaking process as well.

“We use steam and heat in the manufacturing process, quite a bit of it, in several different areas,” Griswold said.

The mill will see long-term benefits from the two boilers converted to natural gas.

Natural gas is cheaper than coal and maintenance costs on the boilers are lower. A full switch to natural gas — converting all four coal boilers instead of just two — wasn’t feasible, however, Griswold said.

“The upgrade it would take to supply that much natural gas was much larger than anyone wanted to tackle,” he said.

Nor was it feasible to simply put better pollution controls on all the coal-powered boilers.

“For the two boilers we chose to replace with natural gas, it wasn’t economically feasible to add pollution controls to,” Griswold said.

Meanwhile, it could behoove the mill not to have all its energy in one basket. The combination of coal and natural gas — with two boilers of each — is a nice hedge to have, in the event of price spikes for one or the other.

In the long run, natural gas will cost less than coal, and the maintenance on natural gas boilers is less. So it’s a win-win in the end: a cleaner environment, shared public-private investment and jobs for the future.

“You will continue to see the cars and trucks going in and out of the employee entrance gates,” Griswold said.

April 8-14, 2015

gas or upgrading with pollution control devices,” Griswold said.

A study by the American Forest and Paper Association in 2010 warned that the new industrial air pollution limits could threaten pulp and paper mills nationwide, forcing as many as 30 mills to close, although the predictions were likely a worst-case scenario.

While the federal rules have been decried as a death knell to some factories — pitting the environment against jobs — compliance is overdue, according to Avram Friedman, director of the Canary Coalition, a statewide air quality advocacy group based in Sylva.

“When the Clean Air Act was passed in 1970, the intention was clearly that we would be phasing out the older coal-burning facilities and they would be replaced by new modernized equipment. That was clearly the intention of the law, but there are a lot of plants that managed to avoid that,” Friedman said.

Friedman said the greater good is served by ending the grandfathered status of older coal polluters.

“That will significantly improve air quality for all Americans,” Friedman said.

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Protocol not followed in second Jackson jail suicide this year, records show

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DEJA VOUS

checks weren’t done very thoroughly, because when he saw the strangulation markings he had a hard time believing they could come from a bed sheet unless the person had plenty of time to prepare the pieces. The autopsy report, done by the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, said the rope was made of a “torn segment from a bed sheet that had been twisted/folded into a thin ligature.”

Hall, however, said that’s not true and that the proper procedures were followed.

The sheriff ’s office did request an SBI investigation at the time. The SBI declined to investigate but expects that witnesses interviewed during the investigation into Ross’ death will talk about both incidents, SBI spokesperson Teresa West said. The current criminal investigation does focus solely on Ross’s death, though.

Kays said the family plans to take legal action.

“I have no respect for anybody that goes hunting money on somebody else’s life and somebody passing away, but we want to get this out in the open so it doesn’t happen again,” Kays said. “Well unfortunately, it did happen.”

If a lawsuit resulted in a monetary award, Kays said, he’d donate it to charity.

A TIME OF TRANSITION The suicides come at a time of transition for the sheriff ’s office. When Moose hung himself on Nov. 21, Hall was a few weeks past the election that had delivered him a landslide victory for the sheriff ’s seat but wouldn’t be sworn in for another 10 days.

Technically, the jail was still under the command of outgoing Sheriff Jimmy Ashe.

By March 13, Hall was four-and-a-half months into the job. Long enough to have much of the day-to-day under him, especially considering that his 25-year career with the Jackson County Sheriff ’s Office had most

Following Ross’s suicide, the department will be working toward developing protocol to better predict when someone is at risk of suicide. Neither Ross nor Moose were on suicide watch, according to Sheriff Hall.

Smoky Mountain News

March was not the only time in the past year that a suicide occurred in the Jackson County Jail. The same thing happened last November, when Charles “Chuckie” Moose, 36, was also found hanging.

“At the time it happened, I was up here in North Dakota,” said Moose’s stepfather Joe Kays, who works on the oil fields there. “I received a call from one of my other stepchildren, and he’s kind of callous. He’s not a real emotional type. He was just, ‘You hear what Chuckie did?’ ‘No, now what?’ ‘Oh, he hung himself.’ ‘No really, what did he do?’ ‘No really he hung himself.’”

Once the line went dead, Kays was calling his office, looking up flights to get home to Robbinsville and heading to the airport.

Moose was on life support for a week before doctors deemed him brain dead. He was the second son his mother had lost that year — the other had suffered from a terminal illness.

As it happens, the same three jailers on duty during Ross’s hanging staffed the jail when Moose was found, part of a total staff of 19 jailers. Just like in March, Leamon was the jailer tasked with checking on the male inmates in November. According to the jail logbook, he had last looked in on the inmates at 3:13 p.m., 33 minutes before beginning the check that revealed Moose’s hanging body.

Following Ross’s death, the two male jailers — Leamon and Brian Wellmon — were given five days’ leave without pay. Danielle Wittekind, the county’s human resources director, said she has not received any communication as to whether the men would see a change in position upon their return to work next week.

Kays said the family is still grieving for Moose who, despite being a repeat offender with a drug problem he couldn’t seem to shake, was generally happy and well-received in the jails where he stayed.

“He preferred to be in jail because he did have an issue with drugs, and he knew it.

There was no denying it and he would tell people if he was there, he was straight,” Kays said. “He wasn’t into anything. He was healthier, he was happier — you could look at him and see the difference.”

Jail staff was generally happy to see Moose too, Kays said, because he was well-behaved and a great cook. At the time of his suicide, Kays said, Moose hadn’t been on drugs for about a year.

For Kays, several parts of the story he was told by the sheriff ’s department don’t add up.

He believes Moose’s death should have merited an SBI investigation.

For instance, he believes that the gap between checks could have been longer than the 33 minutes recorded or that maybe the

According to the jail log from March 13, Leamon did not check inmates at all between 3:51 p.m. and 5:18 p.m., when he found Ross — a period of 85 minutes. Other intervals between checks that day had ranged from 20 minutes, between 6:55 and 7:15 a.m., to 106 minutes, between 11:39 a.m. and 1:25 p.m., the log showed.

recently included four years as chief deputy, a position he held up to his swearing-in as sheriff.

But not long enough to have made all the institutional changes he’d run on. For instance, it was January when Hall first told commissioners that he needed to hire a jail captain to oversee things, pronto.

The appointment was made last week, five months into Hall’s tenure but three months before the first budget he’d propose as sheriff would go into effect. Hall hired John Buchanan, a veteran law enforcement officer with more than 21 years’ experience in the Jackson County Sheriff ’s Office and Sylva Police Department, for the job. Buchanan’s charge will be to make sure that jailers are adhering to protocol, to develop needed policies and procedures and to push for the jail to have the latest technology.

Hall will be part of that revamp process too. He spoke at length during the campaign about how the jail desperately needed a technology update — the facility uses the original equipment installed in 2000 and 2001, including analog cameras — Ashley Welch and said that one of his first acts as sheriff was to start work on a new policy and procedure manual. Following Ross’s suicide, the department will also be working toward developing protocol to better predict when someone is at risk of suicide. Neither Ross nor Moose were on suicide watch, Hall said.

“I’ve asked our administrative staff to do a complete review of our intake procedures, our screening process,” Hall said. “Our jail supervisors will report back to me what direction needs to go forward in the future.”

When the SBI investigation concludes, the report will land on Welch’s desk. If charges should result from the findings, Welch said, the case would be handled at home.

“At this point we’re not farming it out to another DA’s office,” she said, “unless there’s something I’m just not aware of at this point.”

April 8-14, 2015

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER t was about 5:15 p.m. on March 13 and Mark Leamon, a jailer at the Jackson County Jail, was in the midst of his routine visual check of the male inmates incarcerated there. It’s an oft-repeated exercise, a quick check to make sure that everybody’s safe and obeying the rules.

This time, everybody wasn’t safe. Steven Allen Ross Jr., 38, was hanging in his cell.

A call went out to 911 at 5:17 p.m.

“We need an ambulance,” the officer, who identified himself as Sean, told dispatch according to a 911 transcript. “We’ve got one that hung himself and no pulse.”

The ambulance whisked Ross away to Chip Hall Harris Regional Hospital, but it was too late. The father of five eventually died of his injuries.

Ross, a Sylva resident, had a long history with the courts in Jackson County, as evidenced by the plastic tote in the clerk’s office devoted entirely to his past brushes with the law. Most recently, Ross had been arrested for allegedly possessing a laundry list of illegal drugs and a stolen motorcycle.

His injuries were self-inflicted, but it’s possible the outcome could have been averted. State regulations require jailers to visually check on inmates at least twice per hour, increasing the frequency if an inmate is suicidal, mentally ill, intoxicated, violent or dealing with some other issue.

According to the jail log from that day, Leamon did not check inmates at all between 3:51 p.m. and 5:18 p.m., when he found Ross — a period of 85 minutes. Other intervals between checks that day had ranged from 20 minutes, between 6:55 and 7:15 a.m., to 106 minutes, between 11:39 a.m. and 1:25 p.m., the log showed.

Two state investigations — one from the State Bureau of Investigations and another from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services — surrounding the incident are under way. The DHHS began its investigation shortly after the incident occurred, with the SBI investigation following when District Attorney Ashley Welch requested one on March 26.

“Anytime that something is going on with a law enforcement agency, you don’t want them investigating themselves, so that’s what the SBI’s there for,” Welch explained. “The sheriff ’s office can call themselves, the DA’s

office can call, we can call together. It just depends on the situation.”

In this case, Welch made the call, though Sheriff Chip Hall said he “welcome[s] the investigation.”

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Jail death sparks state investigations

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Sylva considers two-way traffic on Main Street Board wants public input before making decision

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER own commissioners are once again mulling over the question of two-way traffic in downtown Sylva with the conclusion of a traffic study from Waynesvillebased J.M. Teague Engineering this month.

Reuben Moore, a consultant for the company who also explored the issue in 2014 when he worked for the N.C. Department of Transportation, presented the 44-page document at last week’s town meeting. In a sense, commissioners’ consensus was clear in that there will need to be a lot more thought and public input invested in the idea before a consensus can emerge.

But in another sense, opinions varied.

“I think there’s some advantages to having a two-way Main Street,” said Mayor Maurice Moody, though qualifying such a change would be expensive and slow traffic down.

“I think the idea is well worth the study,” he added, “so I think now we just have to continue with our homework and see what we can come up with.”

On the other hand, Commissioner Mary Gelbaugh said she’s having a hard time seeing how such a plan could work.

“I am trying to be objective when it comes to the two-way traffic study, yet after hearing last night’s presentation, I cannot see it working,” she wrote the day after the meeting. “Vehicles are much larger now, delivery trucks are a must to these small businesses and Main Street is a primary road, not secondary. While tourists may be able to better marvel at our library, safety is

April 8-14, 2015

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more of a concern to me.”

Currently, Main Street traffic travels eastbound, away from the historic courthouseturned-library, and the building is not very visible from westbound Mill Street. The town thinks it would be better for tourism to be able to see Sylva’s crown architectural jewel while driving through downtown, but that’s far from the only reason to investigate

Downtown Sylva. SMN photo

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Two-way travel allows people to access businesses from either direction, and it means that storefronts angled so as to be less visible to eastbound travelers, for instance, will be seen by westbound travelers. Two-way traffic can also be better for pedestrians, Moore said, because when traffic travels in two directions at once it tends to move more slowly, which can make walkers feel safer.

The benefits of two-way traffic are attractive enough that Sylva has revisited the idea several times since Main Street first converted to one-way travel in the 1950s. The DOT conducted a study on the topic in the 1970s, again in 1996 and met with Sylva once more on the issue in early 2014. In that meeting, the town was instructed to get an opinion from a traffic consultant, Town Manager Paige Dowling said, which is what the current study is. Sylva paid $10,000 for the study along with funds from a $10,000 grant from the Southwestern Commission.

But every time Sylva has looked into twoway traffic so far, something has thrown on the brakes. This is no exception.

It’s possible to do, Moore said. The question is whether it’s practical.

The main issues are cost and efficiency.

The final report pegged the cost of converting to two-way traffic at $75,000, but that was before the DOT decided that, were they to approve the project, the town would need to install a left turn lane at the intersection of Main and Mill streets as well as install new signal poles and arms at intersections.

Those two requirements would bring the price tag up to an estimated $375,000.

That makes it a much more expensive project than originally conceived, but even with those additions it’s not certain that DOT would approve it.

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Diane E. Sherrill, Attorney

Is a Will Enough?

the feasibility of two-way traffic on Main Street.

“We looked at case summaries from other locations that have converted streets from one-way to two-way,” Moore said, “and in all cases we found that the economic livelihood of the downtown increased, that the business community was happy with the effect of the two-way street.”

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to two-way or stays one-way.

Bernedette Peters, on the other hand, who owns Perk and Pastry as well as City Lights CafĂŠ, saw another side of the lane closure on Mill Street. â&#x20AC;&#x153;When backstreet [Mill Street] went down to one lane because of the fire and the construction, we got a taste of what it would be like to have that be one lane,â&#x20AC;? she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There were more people that rerouted themselves around, and that hurt business.â&#x20AC;?

Peters, a member of the townâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s traffic committee, is well aware of the statistics that say that two-way traffic is good for downtowns. But she questions how true that will hold in a town like Sylva, where downtown is sandwiched between two mountainsides and side streets, which could help take away some traffic pressure, are virtually nonexistent. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re a hot dog bun,â&#x20AC;? Peters said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re in the bun and thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s really not a lot of alternate routes, so itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s good and bad.

People have to come through here but at the same time youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re landlocked.â&#x20AC;?

There are still a lot of what-ifs in the equation. How will drivers adjust their routes if the traffic pattern changes? Will the projected cost change? What would be the net effect to parking capacity? Will the town board decide to move forward and will the DOT OK that decision?

Mooreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s advice is simple: if downtownâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economy is in rough shape, this could be a simple way to lift it up. But if things are somewhere above the level of economic distress, the town would probably be better served to step back and come up with a more comprehensive traffic plan for downtown seeking a higher-dollar budget.

But that decision will lie with the town board, and their choices, Moody and Gelbaugh said, will come from a community-wide conversation. â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is a decision, I really think, that needs to be made by the public,â&#x20AC;? Moody said.

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;The delay going through town would be close to double what it is now and congestion would be about a 75 percent on average increase,â&#x20AC;? Moore said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think the DOT will probably look at it and say, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Boy, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a pretty big increase.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;?

Though all statistics and case studies point to two-way traffic as medicine to create a bustling downtown, merchants interviewed for this story didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t come across as cheerleaders for the idea. By and large, they were cautious about expressing too strong an opinion either way and overall seemed more concerned with parking availability than any potential reroute of downtown traffic. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think it would be better to be able to drive down to see the courthouse,â&#x20AC;? said Betty Gates, owner of B&B Gifts and Interiors. However, she was worried about whether Sylvaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s side roads could handle the overflow traffic and made clear that â&#x20AC;&#x153;The parking is the main thing that I worry about.â&#x20AC;?

Parking was also the main concern for Sheryl Rudd, president of Heinzelmännchen Brewery.

Heinzelmännchen is on Mill Street, not Main, so if westbound traffic did not have to use Mill Street exclusively, businesses on that street could have less exposure. Rudd wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t too worried about that â&#x20AC;&#x201D; â&#x20AC;&#x153;people seek us out because of the kind of business we areâ&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but said her customers hate parallel parking. When one lane of Mill Street closed and become angled parking after a fire damaged several downtown buildings last fall, good things happened. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Having angled parking was just huge,â&#x20AC;? she said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It made it lively back here.â&#x20AC;?

Shannon Messer, manager of the Orvis fly fishing store at Blackrock Outdoors, agreed that more traffic on Mill probably helps out the fly shop, which opens to Mill.

But because Blackrock has entrances on both Main and Mill streets, he doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know that â&#x20AC;&#x201D; in terms of business, at least â&#x20AC;&#x201D; it will much matter whether traffic goes

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news April 8-14, 2015

SCC plans for Macon campus expansion

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR Dr. Don Tomas likes to be ahead of the curve.

As Southwestern Community College celebrates 50 years, Tomas, who has been SCC’s presidents for three years, continues to look ahead and plan for the future.

“It’s an important thing for us to be visionary — to plan ahead,” said Tomas. “It allows us to stay ahead of the curve instead of coming Dr. Don Tomas from behind.”

Consolidating and expanding the Macon County SCC campus is part of that future vision and plans are in the works to make it happen.

It’s something Macon County officials and Tomas are both excited about. Macon County plans to present a memorandum of understanding at the commissioners’ meeting on April 14 that will allow SCC to use county property free of charge for its expansion on Siler Road in Franklin.

“I’ve been very much in favor of that action,” said Macon County Commission Chairman Kevin Corbin.

He added that the original plan was to deed the land to the school based on today’s values, but after talking to the county attorney, the county decided to wait until SCC receives state

Smoky Mountain News

EXISTING FACILITIES SCC opened its first facility in Macon County in 1990. Even with three buildings being used now, the need continues to grow.

The majority of curriculum classrooms are located at the 28,000-square-foot Grove Center on Siler Road. The agreement with the county would give the community college 22 more adjacent acres to use. That property will give SCC the space to move its other two Macon facilities to the Siler Road location.

Tomas said the Jerry Sutton Public Safety Training Center, located at the Macon County Industrial Park, is quickly outgrowing its 16,000-square-foot building. The facility is also landlocked by the industrial complex.

The other SCC building — referred to as the annex — is located at the Macon County Courthouse and mostly used for GED classes and basic skills training. Consolidating all these facilities to one location will form the base for a growing Macon County campus.

“We’ve been working on this for a little over a year now,” Tomas said. “It’s part of our 30-year master plan, but we can’t do all at

SCC celebrates 50 years Public invited to learn about programs

10

funding for the expansion to convey the land.

“It would be more valuable to tie it up with the MOU — saying we’re not going to use it for another purpose — and convey land at the time SCC can get state funding. That way they can use the land value as grant matching money.”

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR outhwestern Community College is celebrating its 50th year by inviting the public to see all the programs being offered to students.

An anniversary celebration will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday, April 10, at SCC’s Jackson County campus. Tyler Norris Goode, SCC director of public relations, said the event would be the first time the community could see firsthand how much the community college has grown in its first 50 years.

SCC started as a satellite campus of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College and became an independent community college in 1966 — about the same time as Haywood Community College and Tri-County Community College in Murphy.

“We started with one building, 60 students and seven employees,” Goode said.

S

“And look where we’re at now. We have 9,000 to 10,000 students and more than 80 programs.”

Each program offered through SCC will have a display table at the event to showcase the career options available through the curriculum and certifications. For example, SCC has 14 health science options that will prepare students to continue on with a four-year degree or receive a certification that will allow them to enter a career that is in high demand.

Dr. Don Tomas, president of SCC, said the college is also strong in law enforcement training through its public safety facility in Macon County as well as preparing students to attend a four-year university through its general education associate’s degree.

“People always ask ‘what is your marquee program?’ but we don’t have just one.

We do everything well,” he said. “Our general education transfer students meet and exceed the GPAs of university students who started there.”

Students or potential students who

Southwestern Community College is moving forward with plans to expand its Macon County campus on Siler Road. Donated photo one time. It will grow with the population and the need.”

FUTURE NEEDS The public safety training complex gets tremendous use with training programs for law enforcement, fire and rescue personnel and for the National Park Service. Tomas said people come from all over the nation to take these training programs because there are fewer than 10 of these training facilities in the country.

“It houses law enforcement training and continuing education for certification for law enforcement agencies,” Tomas said. “It’s a really exciting program and they’ve really outgrown their facility with the amount of requirements for additional programs that the Park Service has requested.”

Phase one of the Macon County expansion

plan would build an additional curriculum building at the Grove Center. Tomas said the campus specifically needs more dedicated space for science lab classes. At the same time, work would begin to build a new 48,000square-foot public safety and training facility.

“We’re going to double and triple the size of what they have now — we’re looking at 48,000 square feet,” Tomas said.

ENROLLMENT

Tomas said Macon County students make up a significant portion of the curriculum, continuing education and certification student population. SCC’s service area includes Macon, Jackson and Swain counties.

Curriculum students — those pursuing a two-year associate’s degree — make up about 3,500 of the

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The first classes of Southwestern Community College were held in this building in 1965. Donated photo

attend the open house event may walk away with a scholarship. Goode said there would be a scholarship scavenger hunt where people would get stickers for visiting three different program displays and would then be entered into a drawing. Winners of the drawing could receive bookstore gift certificate or scholarships of $1,000 or more.

“It’s a wonderful gift for people getting ready to start college,” Goode said.

Goode has also helped put together a SCC history book capturing the community college’s journey through each decade.

Sticking with the decade theme, SCC’s Auto Club will be displaying cars from each decade the college has been open and the cosmetology program will showcase hairstyles from each decade.

Sen. Jim Davis, R-Franklin, Brian McMahan, chairman of Jackson County’s Board of Commissioners, and Webster Mayor Nick Breedlove will read resolutions commemorating Southwestern’s history and impact on its service area of Jackson, Macon, Swain counties and the Qualla Boundary.

Tomas said the community participated in putting together a strategic plan for the college when he first became president in 2012. He said one thing that came out of that process was the realization that SCC was the “best-kept secret in the mountains.” “People know who we are but they don’t know what we do,” he said. “We need to take our message to the community so they can gain a greater understanding of everything we provide.”

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school’s total annual population.

The community college has about 10,000 students annually when counting those seeking certifications, continuing education and public safety training programs. When looking at a three-year average, about 430 students come from Macon County to the Jackson County campus in Webster for classes.

While it is possible for Macon County students to take all the classes needed to transfer to a four-year college at SCC’s current Macon County facilities, Tomas said it could be difficult because of the limited number of classes offered any given semester. Some classes are also offered online, but otherwise, students have to travel to Jackson to get all their credits.

“The intent is for students to get an associate’s degree there without having to come over to Jackson County,” he said.

FINDING FUNDING

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Smoky Mountain News

Tomas said it is too early to know exactly where the funding will come from to expand the Macon County campus. A state-issued bond is a likely option — the same type of bond that helped SCC pay for the construction of the Burrell building at the Jackson campus.

The $8.8 million building was completed in 2012 and features 10 classrooms, a campus bookstore, a conference center with a 400-person seating capacity and administrative offices.

“The ideal situation is that the state would pass another bond in the future to build those facilities,” Tomas said. “But it’s far too early to estimate what the requirements would be.

There’s also other sources from grants, but we’ll take it one step at a time.”

In 2013, Macon County contributed $17,500 to developing a 30-year plan for SCC’s Macon campus.

Macon County and the other counties SCC serves also make annual contributions to SCC based on population. Swain County Manager Kevin King said the county contributed $155,000 last year plus $15,000 for a Swain County campus custodial position that is a part of the county operations.

In 2013-14, Macon County contributed a total of $448,563 to SCC — $200,000 went to support the Jackson County campus while the rest supported the Macon campus.

Corbin said the county began contributing $200,000 to SCC more than 20 years ago when Macon didn’t have a campus and most Macon students travelled over the mountain to Sylva to attend classes.

“It’s something we did because all our kids were going there,” he said.

But during last year’s budget process when looking for places to cut, County Manager Derek Roland asked commissioners if they wanted to continue to fund $200,000 to the Jackson campus when they are now contributing to the Macon campus.

Corbin said the cut in funding didn’t mean Macon County didn’t want to continue to support the college, which he said is apparent in the county’s plan to deed 22 acres to SCC for the expansion. Whether Macon County will restore the $200,000 in SCC funding is still up in the air.

“Nothing’s off the table,” Corbin said.

“We are just starting the budget process and getting preliminary budget requests.”

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Break-in reported at Swain election office No personal information believed to be taken

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR o personal voter identification information was found missing following a break-in at the Swain County Board of Elections Office in Bryson City.

Swain County Recycling Center employees reporting to work early on April 1 found that the elections office was broken into at some point during the night or early morning.

The sheriff ’s department was called to investigate as Elections Director Joan Weeks walked through the office to see if anything was noticeably missing.

“Someone broke into our facilities and ransacked through all of our stuff that wasn’t locked down,” said John Herrin, elections board chairman. “They might have accessed our file cabinet — probably more looking for money than information.”

But the only tangible cash on site was a small tin cash box that the recycling center stores in the office overnight. The board of elections occupies front office space to a warehouse building where the recycling center is located on Old U.S. 19 in Bryson City. For security measures, the recycling center employees have the box locked up in

The SBI ran audits to ensure there were no breaches in security and Weeks completed an inventory at the office. The elections office did not have an alarm system in place at the time, but the county had one installed at the office less than 24 hours after the incident was reported.

King said the interior of the office had video camera surveillance but footage didn’t reveal anything to help with the case.

The elections office did not have an alarm system in place at the time, but the county had one installed at the office less than 24 hours after the incident was reported.

Herrin said the camera was used to show interactions between employees and the public, which could protect them against liabilities.

“It shows the inner workings of the office — we don’t video the one-stop shop,” he said. “It was never intended for anything but monitoring our own staff.”

In addition to more security measures,

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Herrin said a new procedure was in place to make sure staff members file everything away in locked cabinets before locking up the office for the day.

“It’s been a good wake up call, but I wish it wouldn’t have happened liked that,” Herrin said.

It is somewhat ironic timing with the recent conflict between the elections board and the county. Just a few weeks ago, Herrin sat in front of commissioners and told them the county owed Weeks more than $78,000 in retirement benefits from her early years on the job.

The county contends that Weeks is not owed that retirement money because she was a part-time employee at the time and did not qualify for the retirement program.

With the threat of litigation, commissioners haven’t said much about the issue other than their attorney would look in it.

Herrin has since forwarded his documentation to the North Carolina State Board of Elections to see if the local board’s claim is valid. The state board could ask that the North Carolina Attorney General pursue a lawsuit or mediation with the county if it finds Weeks is owed the benefits.

Despite the timing, Herrin isn’t jumping to conclusions.

“I think it’s probably just a common burglary,” he said.

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Smoky Mountain News

April 8-14, 2015

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the secure office space instead of the warehouse.

County Manager Kevin King said the recycling center had locked up its petty cash box in the elections office for many years without any problems. The box rarely has more than $200 in it. Even though it wasn’t taken during the break in, King said the county would find a different place to store it in hopes of preventing this from happening again.

The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation also was on scene after the break in to assist with the sheriff ’s investigation. Teresa Vines, spokesperson for the SBI, said the SBI was asked to assist with the investigation but the sheriff ’s office was taking the lead on the matter.

According to a preliminary sheriff ’s report, the perpetrator busted through a piece of sheetrock to get into the building.

No other information has been made public since the incident is still under investigation.

Herrin said the elections office takes seriously its responsibility to keep voter information confidential, but if someone were breaking in with the intent of stealing identification information, “they would have hit a gold mine.”

“A breach of our office is a big deal,” he said. “But nothing was missing as far as we could tell.”

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April 8-14, 2015

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR ll tobacco products will soon be banned from being used on county-owned property in Haywood County.

Commissioners approved an amendment to the county tobacco-use policy prohibiting tobacco products, including smokeless tobacco and electronic cigarettes, from being used outside county buildings and in county vehicles. The only exception is at the Haywood County Fairgrounds.

Commissioners also made a bold statement about smoking in public by choosing not to designate a smoking area near the historic courthouse or justice center where people tend to migrate for a cigarette during court recess.

Commissioner Bill Upton said he could see the pros and cons of having a designated smoking area.

One problem the county faces now is that defendants and plaintiffs are gathering together in front of the Haywood County Justice Center for a smoke break. Designating a smoking area would only move that problem elsewhere.

“I say we go with what we got and see what happens,” Upton said.

Commissioner Mike Sorrells said it would be nice to have a designated smoking area, but thinks it might just cause more problems.

“I think we’re close enough to public right of ways where people can go smoke,” he said. “If we see a need to come back and have a designated area, we can do that.”

Commissioner Kevin Ensley said he didn’t see a problem with people just going to their vehicles to smoke. He said in the past he always heard from one particular person when issues came up about smoking policies. He didn’t hear from her this time.

“She’s no longer with us,” he said. “She passed away from lung cancer.”

Commission Chairman Mark Swanger said the days of people speaking out against smoking rules were gone and more people are accepting that smoking in public is not allowed.

“It’s just a way of life now,” he said.

County Manager Ira Dove told commissioners he hadn’t heard any other public comment on the subject since a public hearing was held two weeks ago. Even at the hearing only one person spoke against the ordinance prohibiting smokeless tobacco.

Swanger recommended passing the amendment as presented and examining the issue again in a few months to see if it is effective.

Commissioner Kirk Kirkpatrick said he was sure he would hear people’s thoughts about it since he is in and out of the justice center on a daily basis.

The motion to approve the amendment passed unanimously. The changes go into effect 60 days after it is passed.

news

Smoking now banned on Haywood property

13

news

Downtown Waynesville has had a flurry of changes lately. As previous tenants move out, new ones move in and improvements are made to the buildings lining Main Street.

While change and upgrades are always in motion, the most important thing is that the buildings are occupied. Buffy Phillips, executive director of the Downtown Waynesville Association, said downtown spaces are almost at 100 percent occupancy with the exception of a few office spaces within the downtown district. Full occupancy is an ideal situation going into the busy spring and summer tourism season.

FURNITURE BUSINESS TAKES O’MALLEY’S BUILDING

Business is bustling in downtown Waynesville

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR

HIGH COUNTRY EXPANDS ON MAIN STREET Pheasant Hill Gallery and Café closed late last year — leaving a large vacant storefront on Main Street. The furniture and antiques store occupied two stories and 16,000-square feet of space.

High Country Furniture will be taking over the space and

Smoky Mountain News

April 8-14, 2015

Max Cooper photo

Ron Holehouse purchased the former O’Malley’s building on Main Street in 2012 and has been in the process of gutting the building and putting it back together. Now he has found the perfect tenant to occupy 4,000 square feet of space.

Jeanie and Tim McBride plan to turn the building formerly occupied by a pub into a high-end furniture store and plan to open before summer. The couple owned the same type of buisness in Beaufort, South Carolina, for 10 years before selling it and retiring in Waynesville. But it turns out that retirement isn’t suiting Jeanie all that well and she’s decided to keep pursuing what she loves.

She and her husband Tim travel to Indonesia about every four months to select pieces for their store. They specifically look for antique farm tables, armoires and cabinets that are made by local crafters.

“Were always looking for the unique pieces that will nicely fit into a home,” she said. “We go into villages where locals make and sell their goods.”

Holehouse is still working on renovations, but the McBrides hope to open up shop in early summer.

Julie and Harry Katt of Maggie Maggie Valley purchased the former Thai Spice restaurant in downtown Waynesville (far left). They changed the name to Blossom On Main Thai Fusion but kept many of the old menu favorites. High Country Furniture is expanding into the former Pheasant Hill building (left) just across the street.

14

Jessi Stone photos

NEW BAR TO OPEN ON BRANNER

Cook’s Carpet and Flooring relocated two doors down into the former Movie Time Video Rental store. Smoky Mountain Sup Shop (below, left) will be expanding into the former Just Ducky building right next door on Miller Street. Mad Anthony’s Bottle Shop and Beer Garden will be opening on Branner Avenue in May. Jessi Stone photos • Donated photo

COOK’S CARPET EXPANDS Many were sad to see the Movie Time Video Rental at 178 S. Main St. go out of business a couple of months ago, but it gave Cook’s Carpet and Flooring a chance to expand their operation. Cook’s was formerly located two doors down from Movie Time with about 1,300-square feet of showroom space.

Now the locally owned business has 4,000 square feet of space that allows owners Barbara and Chuck Cook to offer their customers more carpet and flooring options available.

“The community has been so good to us there (in the former location) it allowed us to grow into a state-of-the-art

facility,” Chuck said. “Without their support we couldn’t have done it.”

Cook’s Carpets is a 40-year-old family business and is part of the Abbey Carpet franchise. Being a part of the larger franchise allows Cook’s to buy as a larger group and offer lower prices for customers. The Cooks moved the business from Murphy to downtown Waynesville about three years ago.

NEW DINING CHOICES New food options are always a welcome addition to downtown Waynesville. Boojum Brewing’s taproom opened last month, offering craft beer, a full bar and a pub-style menu that includes hot wings, homemade soft pretzels (using spent grain), salads, sandwiches and gourmet burgers.

While the Baker family serves food and beer at their downtown Waynesville location, they do their brewing in a building off of Dayton Drive in Waynesville. The taproom has been steadily busy since opening its doors, and the brew is receiving high praise.

Julie and Harry Katt of Maggie Valley recently purchased the former Thai Spice restaurant on Main Street and renamed in Blossom on Main Thai Fusion. The Thai fusion menu has been expanded but still includes customer favorites like Pad Thai, Thai curry dishes, spring rolls and more. The restaurant offers homemade recipes by Thai Chef Den, who ensures that his food is unique and authentic to his homeland.

SUB SHOP ADDS MORE SEATING Smoky Mountain Sub Shop on Miller Street will be adding more room for customers in the next couple of months. The local lunch post will be taking out a wall and expanding into the space next door. Just Ducky, a children’s clothing store, occupied the space but closed up shop a few weeks ago.

Sub Shop owners Robert Kuhhirte and Randy O’Quinn are excited to be able to add more seating for their loyal customers. Knocking down the wall in between the two spaces will allow the sub shop to add another 1,000-square feet to its business and about another 30 chairs.

“We’re going to to decorate it with the same feel as the space we have now,” O’Quinn said. “We want to keep it small and cozy.”

The sub shop is still waiting on approval from the town of Waynesville before the renovation plans can begin in the next couple of months.

April 8-14, 2015

New businesses are also blooming just off of Main Street, too. Cameron Corley and David Young are making improvements on the former Beverly-Hanks & Associates real estate office on Branner Avenue before opening a brand new business — Mad Anthony’s Bottle Shop & Beer Garden.

The bar will feature 40 craft beers and ciders on tap, more than 300 brands in stock, wine options and a new venue for live music in Waynesville. The colonial-style farmhouse, which was built in 1920, provides a unique floor plan, a large sun porch and various rooms where individuals or large groups can create their own atmosphere.

The property is located on nearly an acre of open land, providing ample room for our outdoor beer garden and

music venue. Corley said the enclosed beer garden would be able to accommodate more than 300 people, making it an ideal location for regional and national musical acts, wedding receptions or family gatherings.

Corley said the name Mad Anthony’s was chosen to honor the Revolutionary War general for whom Waynesville is named (Gen. Anthony Wayne). He hopes to have the business open in May. “We have a passion for great beer, great music and great entertainment,” he said. “Whether you’re a local, a tourist or just passing through, Mad Anthony’s will be the perfect place to stop in, take a load off and relax among new and old friends.”

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expanding its downtown presence. High Country Furniture’s main location is on Dellwood Road on the way to Maggie Valley, but it also has High Country West at 71 N. Main St., and a High Country Style clothing store at 121 N. Main St. Doug Worrell, president of High Country, said Pheasant Hill’s exit presented a perfect opportunity for his business to expand, and he can’t think of a better location than downtown Waynesville.

“We’re excited about what’s going on downtown — it continues to be a draw for people from all over the country,” he said.

Worrell expects to have the new location open sometime in April after some renovating and painting is completed.

The main floor will feature an expanded showcase of the High Country West store. With the extra space, Worrell said the store could now offer outdoor furniture, mattresses and pool tables.

High Country also plans to utilize the coffee and dessert bar that was popular when Pheasant Hill occupied the building. Worrell is currently seeking the right person to manage the café portion.

With the move to the new building, High Country West will close temporarily while Worrell works on something new for that space.

“It won’t be furniture though — maybe a home accents type of place but it’s still coming together,” he said.

Paper will cover the windows while that process is under way, and Worrell hopes to have it back open in June. The downstairs portion of the former Pheasant Hill building is also having some work done before High Country can utilize the space.

Smoky Mountain News 15

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Commissioners presented the Macon County Planning Board members with special Macon County pins to show appreciation for their work on the nuisance ordinance. Jessi Stone photo

QUESTION: When Ingles talks about offering “local” food what do you mean by that? Is there a certain area or geographic distance?

Smoky Mountain News

April 8-14, 2015

ANSWER: There is no legal definition for the

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word “local” so many retailers set a definition on their own. At Ingles all of our stores are within 250 miles of our Distribution Center in Black Mountain, NC so this is our first tier of our “local” region. From there many of our stores bring in products that are from “local” suppliers and farmers that may be in their immediate neighborhood. Some examples might be barbecue sauces and produce ( fruit and vegetable) items. Typically in our produce department you will see signage identifying locally grown produce or you can ask your Ingles Produce Manager or associate where the produce is coming from or has been grown.

Macon passes noise ordinance Commissioners try to balance person privacy and property rights

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR acon County commissioners realize they can’t make everyone happy, but they hope some residents can now get some sleep with a nuisance noise ordinance in place.

Commissioners directed the planning board in September to draft a noise ordinance to specifically address complaints from residents about neighbors who were intentionally making noise in the middle of the night to interrupt their sleep.

“Whether you’re for or against it, imagine living in your home and having 3-foot speakers placed at the edge of your property blaring music with filthy language,” said Sheriff Robbie Holland. “And there’s nothing we could do about it because we don’t have an ordinance. We don’t create laws, we just enforce the laws.”

After hearing public comment on the issue for an hour at a recent public hearing, commissioners approved the measure 4-1 with Commissioner Paul Higdon against.

Some residents wanted the ordinance to be stronger while others wanted it to be thrown out completely. The ordinance specifically prohibits nuisance noise, which was defined in the planning board’s draft as “loud, unnecessary and disturbing noise” that is intentionally created to disturb someone’s peace.

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Some people, including James Burch, said they thought the ordinance should include protection from barking dogs.

“When did dogs get more rights than human beings?” he asked. “Something’s got to be done.”

He said things had changed in Macon County — people are no longer miles apart from each other. With people living in such close proximity to each other, he said an ordinance was needed to allow everyone to live peacefully on their own property.

Kevin Champion said he had to deal with his neighbor firing up four-wheelers every afternoon and riding them back and fourth on the road near his home. On the weekends, he said his neighbor cranks up the radio in his truck as loud as it will go, which disturbs his peace and quiet inside his home. He urged the commissioners to address those problems in the ordinance.

Bob Kier said he had a similar problem with his neighbor playing loud music sometimes until 3 a.m. and law enforcement couldn’t do anything to stop it without an ordinance in place.

“Neighbors have a right to listen to music, but I have a right to privacy — he’s violating that privacy,” he said.

Kevin Tillot, Kier’s neighbor, said he purchased his property because it was unrestricted and all of the problems with his neighbor could have been avoided had he called him directly instead of calling the sheriff ’s office to complain about his loud music.

Tillot said the nuisance ordinance should be placed on the ballot to let the people decide whether it is needed. He also questioned whether the sheriff ’s office had the resources to respond to all the calls that would pop up because of the new ordinance.

“People will probably hire an attorney to try to overturn this ordinance,” he said.

Pat and Randall McCall, lifelong residents of Macon County, were both against passing any kind of noise ordinance.

“Y’all have been elected to represent 100 percent of the population,” Pat McCall said. “I have a problem

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Macon dodges insurance fund deficit

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EMPLOYEE HEALTH CLINIC Roland said the committee also recommended piloting an employee health care clinic to cut costs. County health director Jim Bruckner said the health department already had federal grant money to implement a clinic with a nurse practitioner on staff. It would be minimal to no cost for the county, according to Roland. Jackson County also has an employee health clinic. The clinic could offer quick and affordable access to health care for employees — $5 co-pay, $1 over-the-counter medications and $2 for lab services.

“Not only would it create a healthy workforce, it would contribute to the long-range plan to decrease costs,” he said.

Roland said the county could try operating the clinic for a year to see how it is utilized and get feedback from employees.

NEW ADMINISTRATOR Another recommendation — and probably the toughest transition — will be to change the county’s health insurance network property rights but understood the need for some type of nuisance ordinance in place.

“I think most of the time less regulation is better but unfortunately that doesn’t work all the time,” Corbin said. “But the last think I want to do is keep people from doing what they want to do on their property.”

Higdon said even though he appreciated the work done by the planning board, he couldn’t support the ordinance because it would probably become more restrictive as things get added to it in the future.

“It’s hard to regulate bad behavior and I can’t support any more ordinances,” he said.

“It’s just the way things are living in the country.”

County Attorney Chester Jones said there would need to be a second reading and approval of the ordinance at the next commissioner meeting before it could go into effect since the vote was not unanimous.

Macon County annual employee insurance contributions Coverage Employee only Employee/spouse Employee/child Employee/children Family

2008 $850 $1,220 $1,027 $1,220 $1,251

2009 $650 $1,020 $827 $1,020 $1,051

million. Blue Cross proposed offering the dual plans for about $3.7 million — the lowest of all the proposals.

Commissioner Ronnie Beale said he was concerned county employees wouldn’t have easy access to Blue Cross agents to deal with insurance problems like they do with Crescent.

Mike Decker, county human resources director, said Blue Cross assured the county it would have a team of representatives available to help county employees with insurance questions because they really wanted the county’s business.

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Smoky Mountain News

with one-tenth of the population dictating what’s best for the other 99 percent.”

She said she understood the plight of the people who have to deal with disturbing neighbors but would like to see the ordinance be decided on the ballot by the majority of residents.

“This country was founded on freedom, and I hate to see those freedoms disappear because of a few people,” she said.

Commissioner Gary Shields, the liaison to the planning board, made a motion to approve the ordinance as written with the understanding that the board would examine the ordinance in another six months to see if it was fulfilling its intended purpose.

After commissioner Ronnie Beale seconded the motion, the board further discussed the ordinance.

Commissioners Jim Tate and Kevin Corbin said they were huge supporters of individual

The county health insurance plan covers 90 percent of employees’ health costs.

“Right now we would have a platinum plan under the ACA,” Roland said.

The committee recommended offering the option of a gold- or silver-level plan. Employees would pay 30 percent of the cost under the silver plan and 20 percent under the gold plan.

However, to get the gold plan, Roland said, employees would have to participate in tobacco screenings and health-risk assessments. If an employee tests positive for tobacco use or a chronic condition like diabetes or heart disease, the employees must participate in a health management program to remain on the gold plan.

Roland said the change would place the county more inline with other public and private entities in the current marketplace.

and administrator. After receiving bids from 10 providers, Roland said Blue Cross Blue Shield had the best pricing. Offering the new dual plan through the county’s current network, Crescent/Arch, would cost about $4.2

April 8-14, 2015

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR ore than 400 Macon County employees and their families will see a reduction in health care coverage and an increase in their contributions beginning July 1 after commissioners agreed to change the county’s health insurance plan and provider.

County Manager Derek Roland told commissioners the recommended changes were needed in order to prevent a deficit in the county health insurance fund.

“I knew we would be experiencing an urgent need for changes in our health insurance fund — it’s been the number one issue since I started as county manager,” Roland said. “This will affect 408 employees and their families and children — they rely on this. And as the old saying goes, if you haven’t got your health, you haven’t got anything.”

Roland said he formed a committee of county employees to explore different options to determine how the county could increase revenues and decrease expenditures in the health insurance fund. Over the past three years, the average expenditures — including claims and administrative fees — for the county health fund has been about $4.2 million. Roland said he expects the costs to increase to $4.5 million in 201516 because of the new Affordable Care Act requirements.

The current contribution levels generate $3.2 million, which leaves the county with a $1.32 million deficit that has to be made up.

Roland said the county has a health insurance reserve account to make up for shortfalls, but even the reserve is down to $520,000 — not even half of the expected shortfall for next year.

In 2009, the health reserve fund had $5.9 million and has been slowly dwindling ever since as costs have gone up and employees continue paying the same contributions.

DECREASED COVERAGE

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County employee health coverage cut

TOTAL SAVINGS Roland said the county would have a net savings of $700,000 by making these changes to health care coverage while still providing a great benefit to its employees. The county will still have to budget an additional $529,000 for the 2015-16 fiscal year to fund the $3.8 million healthcare cost.

Commission Chairman Kevin Corbin said he’d rather budget $529,000 this year than budget $1.32 million to make up the health fund deficit next year.

Corbin, who is in the insur2010-current ance business, said the rec$500 ommended plans would $870 place the county more in $677 line with the current mar$870 ketplace. He said about 80 $901 percent of his clients were on a silver level plan.

“No one buys a platinum plan — even I’ve got a bronze plan,” he said.

Roland said there would be no lapse of coverage during the transition to Blue Cross Blue Shield and the process would begin as soon as possible.

Commissioner Paul Higdon said he was glad to see employees make concessions on insurance to help the county better manage its health costs.

The board unanimously approved authorizing Roland and staff to move forward with implementing the recommended changes. Open enrollment for employees will begin in May.

62 N. Main Street • Waynesville

828-454-1004 www.PinkRegalia.com 17

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Haywood exempt from emissions tests

The Terrace at Lake Junaluska Grand Opening Celebration

April 8-14, 2015

The grand opening celebration for The Terrace at Lake Junaluska is scheduled for 5 p.m. Thursday, April 16, in The Terrace Auditorium, located on the third floor.

This multi-million dollar renovation features upgrades to sleeping rooms, the addition of The Market, a 24-hour convenience center, the remodeled check-in lobby, and new carpet and paint in meeting spaces.

The Terrace at Lake Junaluska is open to the public for dining, parties, and events. For more information about The Terrace at Lake Junaluska, visit www.lakejunaluska.com/terrace.

Emissions tests for cars and trucks are no longer necessary to protect air quality in more than half the counties where state testing is currently required, including Haywood County.

That was the conclusion of the General Assembly last week following a study done by the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The elimination of emissions tests would save car owners $16.40 per vehicle each year in counties where tests are currently required after the first three model years, state officials estimate. Safety inspections are still required in all 100 counties.

The department’s report on the auto emissions testing program can be found at: www.ncair.org/news/leg/final_report_hb_74_im _study.pdf.

‘North Carolina in Dialogue’ symposium Harvey Gantt, an architect and civil rights activist who formerly served as mayor of Charlotte and was a candidate for the U.S. Senate, will be the keynote speaker for a daylong symposium at Western Carolina University — “North Carolina in Dialogue: Our Past, Present and Future.”

Set for 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, April 10, in the Blue Ridge Hall Conference Room and Grandroom at A.K. Hinds University Center, the

DR. TARA HOGAN, D.C.

Macon Health to host aging series “Just For the Health of It,” a free healthy aging series hosted by Macon County Public Health, continues at 4 p.m. on Thursday, April 16, at the Macon County Public Health, 1830 Lakeside Drive in Franklin.

Physical Therapist Randy Phillips talks about maintaining strength, flexibility and balance.

Free thera-bands and pedometers will be given to the first 50 participants.

Free C-Reactive Protein Tests, which measure inflammation in the body, and other Biometric screenings are available for first 50 participants.

Dr. Ed Morris will explain the body’s response to chronic inflammation and the relationship to disease development at 6 p.m.

828.349.2425.

County progress addressed April 16 Vicki Hyatt, editor of The Mountaineer, will describe Haywood County’s half-century of progress, present developments, and future prospects at Lake Junaluska at 2 p.m. Thursday,

April 16, in Gaines Auditorium of the Visitor Center.

Hyatt will specifically address local progress in the areas of education, health care, and social services. Hyatt will be seeking perspectives from her audience on all of these ventures, so will close her presentation with a time for give-andtake.

Park ranger to address Civil War Round Table Jim Ogden, Park Ranger and Chief Historian, will be the speaker at the Western North Carolina Civil War Round Table meeting at 7 p.m. April 13 in the Jury Room on the second floor of the Jackson County Justice Center in Sylva.

Ogden will give his insights and interpretation of the Battle of Chattanooga via a multimedia presentation. Join the speaker and other WNCCWRT members for dinner at 5 p.m. at Bogart’s in Sylva.

828.648.2488.

Libraries celebrate National Library Week A week-long celebration of America’s libraries will be observed April 12-18 with the theme, “Unlimited possibilities @ your library.”

Stop by your local library or www.fontanalib.org to see how far libraries have come since 1958, when the first National Library Week was celebrated.

Summer Camp Balsam Mountain Trust

Chiropractic saved us from years of suffering —

interdisciplinary symposium will provide a platform for the public to learn from scholars and public activists and intellectuals who will offer perspectives on North Carolina’s history, politics and culture.

Free. 828.227.3502 or rhferguson@wcu.edu.

Looking for a summer camp that’s jam packed with outdoor fun?!

We will be hosting two camps based out of our Nature Center, with the beautiful Balsam Mountain Preserve as our personal playground.

DR. MICHAEL HOGAN, D.C.

Smoky Mountain News

Chiropractic can save you from suffering too!

Many problems can start in early childhood and go undetected until we experience more severe problems in adulthood. Don't delay, get yourself or a loved one checked to see if Chiropractic can help you too!

Activation of health is just a phone call away Medicare and most insurance accepted

Animal Superheroes MICHAEL HOGAN, DC TARA HOGAN, DC Chiropractors

Balsam Mountain Trail Blazers 287-74

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Learn about the adaptations that give “super powers” to animals through fun crafts, outdoor activities, and live animal encounters.

Age: 5-7 years, June 22 – 26, 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m., Cost: $150

270 N. HAYWOOD ST. • WAYNESVILLE

Stomp through our streams, hike through our forests, and find where different organisms make their homes. When we are not hiking, we will be exploring Appalachian culture through arts and crafts, stories and music. Highlights include an adventure field trip and overnight camp out.

IN HAYWOOD SQUARE BETWEEN ZOOLIE’S AND THE MUSIC BOX

Age: 8-13 years old, June 29 – July 3, 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. (overnight July 3) Cost: $200

828-246-9555 • bluemtnchiro.com

Contact Education Coordinator, Rose Wall to register: rwall@bmtrust.org, 828.631.1061

Possum Drop returns to Raleigh

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Bookstore Saturday, April 11 • 3 p.m.

Jarett House owner and former WCU basketball coach

Jim Hartbarger will read from his new memoir On the Rim of the Basket.

3 EAST JACKSON STREET • SYLVA

828/586-9499 • citylightsnc.com

GRAND OPENING NEW LOCATION WALNUT VILLAGE SHOPPING CENTER

COME VISIT OUR NEW, LARGER STORE! 268-267

April 8-14, 2015

331 Walnut Street Waynesville

SHOP DONATE VOLUNTEER

Smoky Mountain News

or the third year in a row, opossums are making their way to the political scene in the N.C. General Assembly.

The bill — of which Rep. Roger West, RMarble, is a primary sponsor — would suspend all state wildlife laws related to possums between Dec. 29 and Jan. 2 each year. It’s currently awaiting hearing in the House Committee on Wildlife Resources.

The legislation is aimed toward Clay County, home of the annual New Year’s Eve Possum Drop.

Every year, the community of Brasstown comes together for an alcohol-free New Year’s celebration featuring events such as the Miss Possum cross-dressing contest, a reading of “Eulogy to a Possum” and, most notably, the midnight lowering of a live possum contained in a Plexiglas cage.

It’s this last part that’s raised the ire of animal rights activists, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PETA has launched multiple lawsuits regarding the event, most recently a suit taking issue with a 2014 law with very similar language to the one currently introduced in the House. Brasstown rang in 2015 without a live possum.

The 2014, law, however, applied only to Clay County and not to the state as a whole.

“You can’t just give your favorite people an exemption from having to comply with the law where everyone else has to comply,” Martina Bernstein, director of litigation for PETA, said of the Clay County-specific law.

Litigation over the issue is expected to finish up sometime this year, and Clay Logan, the Possum Drop’s organizer, fully expects to have a live possum as the event’s centerpiece for New Year’s 2015. He’s already submitted his permit application and welcomes the potential passage of this law, which he anticipates would make the process that much easier.

PETA isn’t applauding, though.

“Simply put, the 2014 law is unconstitutional. However, replacing one unconstitutional law with another does not solve the problem,” said David Perle, PETA’s social media coordinator.

“The new bill still unfairly exempts people from having to comply with animal-cruelty laws.”

PETA also fears the wide-open possibilities of possum treatment between the specified dates the bill would permit.

“Under this law, anybody in North Carolina would be able to harm opossums, release them from cages at zoos, lower them in boxes during the much-despised and ridiculed Opossum Drop, or interfere with the drop by removing the opossum,” said Jeff Kerr, PETA’s general counsel. “It spells chaos and is a return to the mid-1800s, when wildlife was not protected by law.”

Logan, however doesn’t see the problem. The Possum Drop is a “good family event” and “doesn’t hurt no possums,” he said.

“Ninety-nine percent of the people will never know what the law is,” he said. “Ain’t nobody tortures them. Ain’t nobody drives out on the road to try to run over one. I don’t see where it would have any effect on the possums.”

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BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER

287-31

828.246.9135 HaywoodHabitat.org 19

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Maggie Valley - 3BR, 3BA $275,000 #579803

Little Mountain - 3BR, 3.5BA $278,800 #580540

Waynesville Country Club 3BR, 3BA • $284,900 #580555

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Smoky Mountain News

April 8-14, 2015

Jackson County - 3BR, 2BA $267,000 #580481

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Balsam 4BR, 4BA $997,000 #572821 287-04

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Eagles Nest Mountain 4BR, 3BA, 1HBA $1,850,000 #580065 Waynesville Office 74 North Main Street (828) 452-5809

beverly-hanks.com for details on any property, enter the MLS # into quick search

Business

Smoky Mountain News

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• Excel for Beginners class will be held at 5:45 p.m. Monday, April 13, at the Jackson County Library in Sylva. A free Intermediate Excel class will be held at 5:45 p.m. Wednesday, April 15 at the same location. Register by calling 5862016. www.fontanalib.org.

• Wheels Through Time, a Maggie Valley museum showcasing rare and vintage motorcycles, is open for the season. The museum operates 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Monday.

MAIN STREET CHAMPIONS

FOR A JOB WELL DONE

The Feichter Family was named 2014 Main Street Champions at the North Carolina Main Street Annual Awards, chosen by the Downtown Waynesville Association for their contributions to downtown revitalization. Rex Feichter, who passed away in 2011, was a DWA board member and real estate developer known for rehabilitating distressed properties. His son Jon and wife Libba, a former town board member, now serve on the DWA.

Wells Funeral Homes, Inc. and the Downtown Waynesville Association received the Award of Merit in the category of Economic Restructuring as the Best Business Retention, Expansion or Recruitment Effort in the state of North Carolina. The award acknowledged Wells Funeral Homes renovation of the 12,000-square-foot Mountaineer newspaper press building into an event center. The building can accommodate receptions, celebrations, class reunions and business meetings.

WCU to host tourism conference The impact of successful festivals and events on the economy of the 26 westernmost counties of North Carolina will be the subject of a daylong tourism industry conference from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 21, in the Liston B. Ramsey Regional Activity Center at Western Carolina University.

Cost of attendance at the LEAD:Tourism conference is $149, which includes lunch.

Tourism.wcu.edu or 828.227.7397.

Roll the red carpet to Boojum The Downtown Waynesville Association “Rolls Out the Red Carpet” for Boojum Brewing Company at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 9, at its new taproom on Main Street.

As the newest business in downtown, other nearby merchants and DWA board members will be on-hand to welcome Boojum into the community. The red carpet ceremony is a recent tradition started by the

DWA to show support for new business in downtown Waynesville.

Small business series to kick off at HCC A three-part series to help small businesses better market themselves will kick off 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, April 15, at the Haywood Community College Student Center Auditorium with a session called “Perfecting Your Pitch.”

All three workshops will be given by Chisa Pennix-Brown, a professional with more than 11 years’ experience in business coaching, community outreach, social media insight and business ownership.

• “Perfecting Your Pitch,” 6 to 9 p.m. April 15. Participants will learn how to concisely articulate their vision, use best networking practices and introduce their business to the region.

• “Show up and Show Out,” 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Thursday, April 16. Participants will learn how to calm down during public speaking, breeze through question-and-answer periods and get the point across clearly.

• “Marketing for Nonprofits,” 11:30 a.m.

Jackson Chamber releases ‘Our Town’ The Jackson County Chamber of Commerce recently published its 10th annual “Our Town” magazine, a 44-page relocation and community information guide.

To order a free copy, visit www.mountainlovers.com and then hit “request information” or call 828.586.2155. www.mountainlovers.com.

Jackson County dining guide now out The Jackson County Chamber of Commerce recently published its first dining guide.

The new dining guide is available to view online at http://issuu.com/jcccourtown/docs/2015diningguidefinal. For a free

to 1:30 p.m. Friday, April 16. Participants will learn about marketing tools that are available exclusively to nonprofits.

Free. RSVP to 828.627.4512 or sbc.haywood.edu.

Harrah’s new casino hires leadership Harrah’s Cherokee Valley River Casino Hotel has named the people who will lead its human resources, marketing and casino operations upon the facility’s opening this fall.

Joshua Vaught, director of operations, has held positions of increasing responsibility with Harrah’s Cherokee since 2004 and resides in Cherokee County. Bryson City resident Bill Roland, marketing operations director, started with Harrah’s Cherokee in 2003 as VIP coordinator and worked his way to casino services manager. Nancy Rosenberry, human resources manager, has held HR positions with multiple organizations, including with Ronald McDonald House in Memphis and Ceaser’s Entertainment, Harrah’s parent company. The leadership team will report directly to General Manager Lumpy Lambert.

copy, stop by the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce Visitor Center at 773 West Main Street in Sylva. www.mountainlovers.com or 828.586.2155.

Bryson travel guide teams up with GSMR The Annual Travel Guide for Bryson City and the North Carolina Smokies includes a bonus in the 2015 edition of “All Aboard,” the official publication of the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad.

The 96-page 2015 Travel Guide is free. The print edition is available at area visitor centers in Western North Carolina, and at North Carolina’s nine welcome centers. It can also be ordered at www.greatsmokies.com or by calling 828.488.3681

• High Hampton Inn in Cashiers and The Swag in Waynesville have been selected for the invitation-only website Southern Living Hotel Getaways. Only 27 hotels are currently featured on the site, whose handpicked hotels are “all rigorously vetted by some of the most discerning eyes in the business.” www.slgetaways.com.

ALSO:

• An informational workshop about the everchanging world of social media will be held from 10 a.m. to noon Thursday, April 23, at Gaines Auditorium in Lake Junaluska. ashley@visitncsmokies.com or 828.452.0152.

• A workshop on customer service will be held from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. April 21 at Franklin Town Hall. A panel consisting of entrepreneurs will relay tips and best practices. The workshop is part of the BEE series. 828.339.4211 or t_henry@southwesterncc.edu.

• A networking workshop will be held from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Thursday, April 16, in the Haywood County Library conference room, 200 Building - Room 207, in Clyde.

• The Filling Station Deli & Sub Shop in Bryson City has been chosen for the inaugural ScaleUp WNC cohort. ScaleUp WNC focuses on high-growth small businesses that have been in operation in WNC for more than two years.

The Filling Station is the only business west of Candler, and the only restaurant in the 15 chosen for this cohort.

• The Swain County Chamber of Commerce annual banquet will be held from 6 to 9 p.m.

Thursday, April 16, at the Fryemont Inn in Bryson City. Tickets are $30/person, or $35/person the week of the event.

828.488.3681 or chamber@greatsmokies.com.

• “Crafting an Effective Blog for the Small Business Owner” will be the topic during a workshop with Tara Swiger from 6 to 8 p.m.

April 23 at the Creative Arts Building at Haywood Community College in Clyde. Free.

Register at SBC.Haywood.edu or 828.627.4512.

• A new restaurant, The Bowery, has opened in downtown Franklin for lunch, dinner and Sunday brunch. The farm-to-table southernstyle restaurant also offers special cocktails and craft beer. The Bowery is located at 77 East Main St., Franklin. 828.369.3663.

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Opinion

Smoky Mountain News

Living in fear is no way to live at all “M

An opportunity for Dillsboro, Sylva To the Editor: A representative from the N.C. Department of Transportation recently briefed Dillsboro board on plans to replace the bridge just west of Harold’s Supermarket.

One statement caught my attention: “with the existence of a professionally-drawn conceptual design, a pedestrian walkway linking the Monteith Park and downtown Dillsboro would be permitted beneath the bridge.”

I urge Jackson County to take advantage of this opportunity. Envision a county recreation center (serving northern Jackson) located at the 16-acre Monteith Park accessed by a greenway from both Sylva and Dillsboro.

Envision a two-mile, scenic, winding, mostly level “urban stroll” from downtown Sylva to the Tuckasegee River via the Mark Watson Park, the Monteith Park, and downtown Dillsboro.

Preservation, economic stimulation, and outdoor activity.

Tim Osment Sylva, Jackson County Genealogical Society, Appalachian Women’s Museum, North Carolina Museum Council

Teaching is not for everyone To the Editor: The letter from Deanna Lyles, “I quit teaching because I love children,” (April 1, The Smoky Mountain News) rocked me back on heels a bit. You state, Miss Lyles, you “quit teaching.” I prefer to believe, you didn’t leave

away, sitting there smiling and waiting for the next leg of her journey, I couldn’t help but take some fatherly pride in how mature my 23-year-old daughter had become. Here she was traveling through the Middle East alone, making her way through cities most Americans will never see. This was big girl stuff, and she was managing it with a cool, level head.

Not that I don’t worry about her.

Travel to exotic places entails a certain degree of risk, but seasoned travEditor elers learn how to minimize the potential problems and revel in the adventure of meeting people, seeing things, going places, and learning about different cultures first-hand. From time immemorial, the act of traveling or taking a journey has always been one of life’s big adventures. Whether that trip is to a new city in the U.S., a remote wilderness area or a foreign capital, those who love travel love the rush of the way your senses come alive during the journey.

Scott McLeod

any of us are not living our dreams because we are living in fear.” Not sure where I came across that line, but I pasted it into my folder for column ideas and then came across it last week when it suddenly seemed appropriate.

My daughter had just skyped us from the airport in Amman, Jordan. Amman is just a few hundred miles from where some of the most horrific violence in the Middle East is taking place. And there Megan was, smiling and laughing, on her way to Istanbul, Turkey, for a 10-day vacation from her teaching job in Dubai.

She relayed a somewhat remarkable story about the hospitality she had encountered during her 10-hour layover in Jordan. After departing the plane, an airline employee directed her and other passengers who were facing the long delay to a bus that would take them to a hotel. Megan figured she’d need the sleep to arrive fresh in Istanbul, so she decided to get a room. After resting, she went to check out and discovered the hotel was part of her ticket package. No charge, not for the room, the shuttle, or breakfast.

As she relayed the story to us from about 6,000 miles

LOOKING FOR OPINIONS The Smoky Mountain News encourages readers to express their opinions through letters to the editor or guest columns. Send to Scott McLeod at info@smokymountainnews.com. teaching, teaching left you. I would further choose to express, you had the courage and mettle to do what many men and women want to do but haven’t the grit to accomplish.

I applaud you, Deanna Lyles, and wish my 15 great grandchildren (all K-12 now) had you for a teacher.

Speaking only for myself, I wish I’d had your courage when I entered the professions of education and mental health in college in 1983 (at the age of 43) to follow my instincts that I was someplace I ought not to be. Being fired from responsible positions, in two different states, should have clued me also. Like the true “plugger” that I am, I soldiered on.

When I was hired by Jackson County Schools in February 2001, I could have used some of your bravery, Miss Lyles, because I knew after one week my days were numbered. I was informed by a social worker that I intimidated her by the way I was sitting. I’m sure I mumbled a politically correct, groveling apology in order to keep my job when I should have said, “I’ve been sitting this way for about 60 years, I hope you find some way to live with it.”

Likewise, when a school principal said to me, “David, don’t do so much, you’re making me look bad,” I should have said (but didn’t), “Sir, if I’m making you look bad, you’re not doing your job.” I lasted seven years.

The United States Navy believed me quali-

Today we live in a world that’s very dangerous, especially certain areas. So what’s new about that? I’d venture that travel to the cities my daughter is visiting were much more dangerous in the past than they are today. The difference is that now we are buzzed 24 hours a day by electronic information about killings and bombings and whatever horror of the day is making headlines. And so we live in fear and mark off a third of the world map as too dangerous to visit, a fourth of the world’s population as fanatical.

Look, the words at the beginning of this column probably weren’t meant to describe traveling. Someone who wants to be a writer but is afraid to put their efforts out there for others to judge is also living in fear, as is anyone who is too timid to live their dream of being an artist, a teacher or a doctor.

I don’t know about you, but I want my children to dream big and not be afraid to go for it. That’s the only way to live, or, as my first favorite philosopher Henry David Thoreau once wrote, “… and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

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

fied to assist Iranian naval instructors (which I did). When I applied for a lateral licensure through WCU to be an elementary school guidance counselor (I have an master’s degree in community-counseling-psychology), I was told I wasn’t qualified because I didn’t have “multiculturalism” in my college transcripts.

Miss Lyles, I commend you for quitting for all the right reasons, and I admire your courage and tenacity. I waited until I was told I wasn’t qualified to be a teachers’ aide before I gave up. All in all, Deanna, you did great.

David L. Snell Franklin

A birthday slap from Gov. Pat McCrory To the Editor: In March the North Carolina State Parks system celebrated its 100th anniversary with events, gathering and celebrations at the more than 40 state parks scattered across our state.

It was a proud day indeed to mark the time a century ago when our legislators at the time had the foresight and devotion to the people of North Carolina to take the bold steps in preserving our shared history and the many unique natural resources and special places we have been blessed with. We should be thankful to these wise people and honor them with our continued commitment and reaffirm our goal of protecting the many wonders our state holds within its borders.

But instead, Gov. Pat McCrory and his cronies marked the day by ramming through dramatic budget cuts to our state park system despite rising visitation rates and use of these spaces by residents and tourist alike, topping 15.6 million visitors in 2014.

Most of the folks that I have met across the

state and the country travel often to visit and explore our state's many gems, so why would the governor choose to chop off more of its very lifeline after having already cut 25 percent of their budgets in recent years? It’s a fact that businesses, tourists, investors, retirees and outdoorsmen are attracted to our state because of its natural attributes — as showcased by our state park system.

It would be difficult to attach a dollar figure to the values these attributes have in attracting others, not to mention the intrinsic value put on these places by those of us who live and work here.

And yet our legislators in their self-defined genius have chosen to reallocate those important park monies to fund efforts to promote hydraulic fracking, development of offshore oil and gas drilling and the degrading, encroachment and virtual sell off of these “golden eggs” that nature and creation have given to us all.

It’s alarming to me to see this blatant and obvious kick in the face to our state parks done in the name of job and wealth creation.

I’m sure that there are those chosen few who will benefit from this absconding of the public trust and our commonly owned property, but I'm left with the taste of boot heel in my mouth as a taxpayer.

At the very least these actions and budget cuts lack the foresight that our historical legislators of 100 years ago possessed, and the good will entrusted to those that followed to consider the future of all North Carolinians rather than a handful of special interests.

Perhaps it's time for the governor, his handlers and his blind supporters to take a long view of our great State — far from the mansion in Raleigh.

Please let him know your thoughts.

John Beckman Cullowhee

opinion April 8-14, 2015

Smoky Mountain News

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tasteTHEmountains Taste the Mountains is an ever-evolving paid section of places to dine in Western North Carolina. If you would like to be included in the listing please contact our advertising department at 828.452.4251 AMMONS DRIVE-IN RESTAURANT & DAIRY BAR 1451 Dellwwod Rd., Waynesville.

828.926.0734. Open 7 days a week 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Celebrating over 25 years.

Enjoy world famous hot dogs as well as burgers, seafood, hushpuppies, hot wings and chicken. Be sure to save room for dessert.

The cobbler, pie and cake selections are sure to satisfy any sweet tooth.

BLUE ROOSTER SOUTHERN GRILL 207 Paragon Parkway, Clyde, Lakeside Plaza at the old Wal-Mart. 828.456.1997. Open Monday through Friday. Friendly and fun family atmosphere. Local, handmade Southern cuisine. Fresh-cut salads; slow-simmered soups; flame grilled burgers and steaks, and homemade signature desserts.

Blue-plates and local fresh vegetables daily.

Brown bagging is permitted. Private parties, catering, and take-out available. Call-ahead seating available.

Smoky Mountain News

April 8-14, 2015

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BOGART’S 303 S. Main St., Waynesville. 828.452.1313.

Open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Carry out available. Located in downtown Waynesville, Bogart’s has been long-time noted for great steaks, soups, and salads. Casual family atmosphere in a rustic old-time setting with a menu noted for its practical value. Live Bluegrass/String Band music every Thursday. Walking distance of Waynesville’s unique shops and seasonal festival activities and within one mile of Waynesville Country Club.

BOURBON BARREL BEEF & ALE 454 Hazelwood Ave., Waynesville, 828.452.9191. Lunch served 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Dinner nightly from 4 p.m. Closed on Sunday. We specialize in hand-cut, all natural steaks, fresh fish, and other classic American comfort foods that are made using only the finest local and sustainable ingredients available. We also feature a great selec-

6306 Pigeon Road Canton, NC

(828) 648-4546

Hours:

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BREAKING BREAD CAFÉ 6147 Hwy 276 S. Bethel (at the Mobil Gas Station) 828.648.3838 Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Chef owned and operated. Our salads are made in house using local seasonal vegetables. Fresh roasted ham, turkey and roast beef used in our hoagies. We hand make our own eggplant and chicken parmesan, pork meatballs and hamburgers. We use 1st quality fresh not preprepared products to make sure you get the best food for a reasonable price. We make vegetarian, gluten free and sugar free items.

Call or go to Facebook (Breaking Bread Café NC) to find out what our specials are.

CATALOOCHEE RANCH 119 Ranch Dr., Maggie Valley.

828.926.1401. It’s winter, but we still serve three meals a day on Friday, Saturday and long holiday weekends. Join us for Breakfast from 8 to 9:30 a.m.; Lunch from 12 to 2 p.m.; and Dinner buffet from 6 to 7:30 p.m., with entrees that include pot roast, Virginia ham and herb-baked chicken, complemented by seasonal vegetables, homemade breads, jellies and desserts. We also offer a fine selection of wine and beer. And a roaring fire in the fireplace. So come enjoy mile-high mountaintop dining with a spectacular view.

Reservations are required.

CHEF’S TABLE 30 Church St., Waynesville. 828.452.6210.

From 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday dinner starting at 5 p.m. “Best of” Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator Magazine. Set in a distinguished atmosphere with an exceptional menu. Extensive selection of wine and beer. Reservations honored.

CITY BAKERY 18 N. Main St. Waynesville 828.452.3881.

Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Join us in our historic location for scratch made soups and daily specials.

Breakfast is made to order daily: Gourmet cheddar & scallion biscuits served with bacon, sausage and eggs; smoked trout bagel plate; quiche and fresh fruit parfait. We bake a wide variety of breads daily, specializing in traditional french breads. All of our breads

REGGAE WITH THE

are hand shaped. Lunch: Fresh salads, panini sandwiches. Enjoy outdoor dinning on the deck. Private room available for meetings.

CITY LIGHTS CAFE Spring Street in downtown Sylva.

828.587.2233. Open Monday-Saturday 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Tasty, healthy and quick. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, espresso, beer and wine. Come taste the savory and sweet crepes, grilled paninis, fresh, organic salads, soups and more.

Outside patio seating. Free Wi-Fi, pet-friendly. Live music and lots of events. Check the web calendar at citylightscafe.com.

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. Friday and Saturday serving freshly prepared small plate and tapas-style fare. Enjoy local, regional, or national talent live each Friday and Saturday night at 7 p.m. www.classicwineseller.com. Also on facebook and twitter.

CORK & CLEAVER 176 Country Club Drive, Waynesville.

828.456.7179. Reservations recommended.

4:30-9 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Tucked away inside Waynesville Inn, Cork & Cleaver has an approachable menu designed around locally sourced, sustainable, farm-to-table ingredients. Executive Chef Corey Green prepares innovative and unique Southern fare from local, organic vegetables grown in Western North Carolina. Full bar and wine cellar. www.waynesvilleinn.com.

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

828.926.1820 Open Daily 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., closed Tuesday. 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.

FILLING STATION DELI 145 Everett St., Bryson City, 828.488.1919.

Open Monday through Wednesday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Sundays (in October) 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Locals always know best, and this is one place they know well. From the highquality hot pressed sandwiches and the huge portions of hand-cut fries to the specialty

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tion of craft beers from local artisan brewers, and of course an extensive selection of small batch bourbons and whiskey. The Barrel is a friendly and casual neighborhood dining experience where our guests enjoy a great meal without breaking the bank.

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617 W. Main St. Sylva 828.586.3555 www.MadBatterFoodandFilm.com

828-456-1997 blueroostersoutherngrill.com

— Real Local People, Real Local Food — 207 Paragon Parkway, Clyde, North Carolina Monday-Friday Open at 11am

tasteTHEmountains frozen sandwiches and homemade Southern desserts, you will not leave this top-rated deli hungry.

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.

GUADALUPE CAFÉ 606 W. Main Street, Sylva. 828.586.9877.

Open 7 days a week at 5 p.m. Located in the historic Hooper’s Drugstore, Guadalupe Café is a chef-owned and operated restaurant serving Caribbean inspired fare complimented by a quirky selection of wines and microbrews. Supporting local farmers of organic produce, livestock, hand-crafted cheese, and using sustainably harvested seafood.

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

Lunch Sunday noon to 2:30 p.m., dinner Thursday - Sunday starting at 4:30 p.m.

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.

JUKEBOX JUNCTION U.S. 276 and N.C. 110 intersection, Bethel.

828.648.4193. 7 a.m. to 9 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.

wiches, gourmet coffee, deli sandwiches for lunch with homemade soups, quiches, and desserts. Wide selection of wine and beer.

Outdoor and indoor dining.

RENDEZVOUS RESTAURANT AND BAR Maggie Valley Inn and Conference Center 828.926.0201 Open Monday-Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Saturday 7:30 a.m. to 11 p.m and Sunday 7:30 a.m to 9 p.m. Full service restaurant serving steaks, prime rib, seafood and dinner specials.

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

828.926.1616. maggievalleyclub.com/dine.

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

SMOKY MOUNTAIN SUB SHOP 29 Miller Street Waynesville 828.456.3400.

Open from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. A Waynesville tradition, the Smoky Mountain Sub Shop has been serving great food for over 20 years. Come in and enjoy the relaxed, casual atmosphere. Sub breads are baked fresh every morning in Waynesville.

Using only the freshest ingredients in homemade soups, salads and sandwiches. Come in and see for yourself why Smoky Mountain Sub Shop was voted # 1 in Haywood County.

Locally owned and operated.

MOUNTAIN PERKS ESPRESSO BAR & CAFÉ 9 Depot St., Bryson City. 828.488.9561.

Open Monday through Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Friday 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. With music at the Depot. Sunday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Life is too short for bad coffee. We feature wonderful breakfast and lunch selections. Bagels, wraps, soups, sandwiches, salads and quiche with a variety of specialty coffees, teas and smoothies. Various desserts.

SPEEDY’S PIZZA 285 Main Street, Sylva. 828.586.3800.

Open seven days a week. Monday-Friday 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Saturday 3 p.m.-11 p.m., Sunday 4 p.m.-10 p.m. Family-owned for 30 years. Serving hand-tossed pizza made to order, pasta, subs, gourmet salads, calzones and seafood. Also serving excellent prime rib on Thursdays. Dine in or take out available.

Located across from the Fire Station.

ORGANIC BEANS COFFEE COMPANY 1110 Soco Road, Maggie Valley.

828.668.2326. Open 7 days a week 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Happily committed to brewing and serving innovative, uniquely delicious coffees — and making the world a better place.

100% of our coffee is Fair Trade, Shade Grown, and Organic, all slow-roasted to bring out every note of indigenous flavor. Bakery offerings include cakes, muffins, cookies and more. Each one is made from scratch in Asheville using only the freshest, all natural ingredients available. We are proud to offer gluten-free and vegan options.

PASQUALE’S 1863 South Main Street, Waynesville. Off exit 98, 828.454.5002. Open for lunch and dinner, 7 days a week. Classic Italian dishes, exceptional steaks and seafood (available in full and lighter sizes), thin crust pizza, homemade soups, salads hand tossed at your table. Fine wine and beer selection. Casual atmosphere, dine indoors, outside on the patio or at the bar. Reservations appreciated.

PATIO BISTRO 30 Church Street, Waynesville.

828.454.0070. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Breakfast bagels and sand-

TAP ROOM SPORTS BAR & GRILL 176 Country Club Dr. Waynesville 828.456.5988. 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week. Enjoy soups, sandwiches, salads and hearty appetizers along with a full bar menu in our casual, smoke-free neighborhood grill.

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.

Paper Town Grill Country Cookin' at its Best Breakfast served all day Daily Specials & Sunday Buffet 153 Main St. Canton

Monday - Saturday 7am - 8pm Sunday 7am - 3 pm

UPCOMING EVENTS 287-38

FRIDAY, APR. 10

Karaoke w/Chris Monteith

SATURDAY, APR. 11 SmokeRise

83 Asheville Hwy. Sylva Music Starts @ 9 • 631.0554 287-78

MEDITERRANEAN

April 8-14, 2015

JOEY'S PANCAKE HOUSE 4309 Soco Rd Maggie Valley.

828.926.0212. Winter hours; Friday through Sunday and Mondays, 7 a.m. to noon. Joey’s is a family style restaurant that has been serving breakfast to the locals and visitors of Western North Carolina since 1966.

Featuring a large variety of tempting pancakes, golden waffles, country style cured ham and seasonal specials spiked with flavor, Joey's is sure to please all appetites. Joey & Brenda O’Keefe invite you to join what has become a tradition in these parts, breakfast at Joey’s.

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

828.586.3555. Open Tuesday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Wednesday-Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Hand-tossed pizza, steak sandwiches, wraps, salads and desserts. All made from scratch. Beer and wine. Free movies with showtimes at 6:30 and 9 p.m. with a Saturday matinee at 2 p.m. Visit madbatterfoodandfilm.com for this week’s shows.

ITALIAN CUISINE

Enjoy Spring in the Smokies on Our Patio 1863 S. Main Street • Waynesville 828.454.5002 Hwy. 19/23 Exit 98

REEKSIDE COYSTER HOUSE & GRILL

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TUESDAY: 75¢ Oysters after 4pm WEDNESDAY: AYCE Fish & Shrimp THURSDAY: AYCE Crab Leg FRIDAY: Surf-N-Turf Special SATURDAY: Seafood Trio Special SUNDAY: Low Country Boil

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Smoky Mountain News

In search of the perfect word LITERARY FESTIVAL RETURNS TO WCU

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD STAFF WRITER writer looking at a blank page is a like a painter staring at a fresh canvas, a sculptor facing a block of clay or a woodworker holding a chunk of wood. The desire to grab words from thin air and construct them into sentences, notions and ideas comes from an internal fire to describe human emotion and situation. It is a calling, one that picks its creators when the time and place is prime. Writers are messengers, connecting the unknown cosmos to an everyday modern reality.

Western Carolina University will be once again play host to an array of writers during the 13th annual Spring Literary Festival, which runs April 13-16. The event is a celebration of written word, where finely aged veterans intermingle with the young faces of future generations eager to find their voice. It is a bountiful cross-pollination, one crucial to the perpetuation of the craft.

The Smoky Mountain News recently caught up with a couple of wordsmiths who will be presenting at the festival. They range from an Ivy League Pulitzer Prize-winning poet to a West Coast acclaimed fiction writer. Each is as unique as their genres, each as passionate about writing as they are about life itself.

A

after that I realized my poems could help me do more than just describe the world as I understood it to be — they could also help me to ask the questions that saddled me from moment to moment in my life, even the questions so big they had no discernable answer. It was a liberating discovery.

SMN: When you’re writing, where do you go in your head? What are you thinking?

TKS: I’m trying to create or re-create a world that feels real, something I can walk through and interact with, something that can reveal things to me that I didn’t know or suspect were there. Then I try to bring some of that palpable, visceral feeling into language.

Smoky Mountain News: How did you get into writing? How old and what sparked it?

Carter Sickels: I always loved reading — my mother encouraged it early on. As a kid, my favorite place to go was to the library. I read constantly, and I started writing at a pretty young age too, maybe sixth grade. Mostly, at that age, I was just imitating what I read. The magic of words on a page and the power of a story, the way a book could bring you into an imaginary but very real world so you could live with these characters for a while, always fascinated me.

SMN: For you, what’s the biggest misconception about being a writer?

Smoky Mountain News: How did you get into writing? How old and what sparked it?

Tracy K. Smith: I became serious about writing poetry while a sophomore at Harvard University. I fell under the spell of contemporary poetry, started attending poetry readings in Cambridge and Boston, and joined the Dark Room Collective, which hosted a reading series for established and emerging writers of color. I also started taking the poetry workshops offered at Harvard, and studied with Seamus Heaney, Lucie Brock-Broido and Henri Cole.

Poetry became a valuable tool in my life, something that helped me to make sense of the world around — and within — me.

SMN: Was there a specific moment you realized a piece of writing could be anything you wanted it to be?

TKS: It wasn’t until grad school or soon

Established and emerging authors of poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction will discuss and read from their works at Western Carolina University during the 13th annual Spring Literary Festival April 13-16 in Cullowhee.

All events are free and open to the public and held in the theater of A.K. Hinds University Center unless otherwise noted.

MONDAY, APRIL 13 • Noon — Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poets Series featuring Brent Martin and student poets.

• 4 p.m. — Nonfiction writer Rebecca McClanahan • 7:30 p.m. — Fiction writer Andre Dubus III TUESDAY, APRIL 14 • Noon — Poets Shanan Ballam and Tim Peeler • 4 p.m. — Poet Aaron Smith and songwriter Belinda Smith • 7:30 p.m. — Fiction writer Carter Sickels WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15 • 4 p.m. — Fiction writers Jeremy Jones and David Joy • 7 p.m. — Fiction/nonfiction writer Tiya Miles THURSDAY, APRIL 16 • 4 p.m. — Nonfiction writer Georgann Eubanks • 7:30 p.m. — Poet Tracy K. Smith (Coulter Recital Hall)

TRACY K. SMITH • Genre — Poetry/Nonfiction • Notable works — Ordinary Light: A Memoir, Life On Mars (2012 Pulitzer Prize), Duende (James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets), The Body’s Question (Cave Canem Poetry Prize) • Professor of Creative Writing, Princeton University

Want to go?

www.litfestival.org or www.wcu.edu.

SMN: Why is it important events like the WCU Literary Festival exist?

TKS: Literary festivals serve an important purpose in a world that, by and large, is driven by a glib use of language — words and phrases designed to sell us things, to convince us to look the other way while atrocity happens in our name, to lull us into a simplistic view of experience. Readers and writers hold language to a higher and more exacting standard, and that act also urges a deeper and more nuanced approach to experience. The world needs literature and the people who love it, now more than ever.

CARTER SICKELS • Genre — Fiction/Nonfiction • Notable works — The Evening Hour • Awards — Lambda Literary Emerging Writer Award, Finalist for Oregon Book Award • Professor of Fiction at West Virginia Wesleyan College, Eastern Oregon University

CS: That it’s something that happens quickly. Years go into a novel. Hours upon hours of revising and editing. You throw things out, and start again. Patience, and faith in the work itself, will help.

SMN: What do you see as the current state of reading/writing in the 21st century?

CS: That’s a hard question. On some days, it’s discouraging — it seems like people read less literary fiction. People read articles, blogs, tweets. The barrage of information makes it more difficult for people to just to get lost in a novel or to read with depth and concentration.

But, on other days, I feel encouraged — books are being published, people are reading them. Personally, I still like to read my books as books, something I can hold in my hands, with pages I can turn. But good writing will still prevail, no matter what the medium, and for many people, e-books seem to make sense.

Like many writers, I’m concerned about the domination of Amazon, and about the conglomeration of big presses. However,

more and more independent presses are appearing and growing stronger. I also feel quite inspired by the variety of work that is available. Although too often these authors or books don’t always get the recognition they deserve, there is a rich diversity of contemporary authors — people of color, queer people, women and other marginalized authors. They are underrepresented, but they keep writing, and by doing so, are making literature more engaging and interesting and diverse.

SMN: What advice would you give someone interested in starting to write?

CS: Read as much as possible. Go beyond your comfort zone — read work that challenges you. Read, and read more. And, write.

Push yourself as a writer, don’t give up. So much of writing is about tenacity and dedication and perseverance. For any young writer, it’s important to keep writing, despite the outside voices that might be undermining or censoring or doubting your work.

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD It’s my favorite place to

Garret K. Woodward photo

sit.

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“I decided the only way to cure my wanderlust was to feed it with adventure and experiences, and becoming a writer would be the vehicle to do so.”

WilD

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Smoky Mountain News

Seattle. Too many cups of rocket fuel to count, with innumerable internal questions solved at the hands of caffeine, bacon and egg plates, and periodically staring out the window to a horizon which was once the starting line of my youth.

I believe every one of the world’s problems are solved each morning at diner counters across the country, all lined with seemingly every member of society, bellying up for a meal and an open forum of discussion.

The dialogue is as unique and insightful as the voices putting thoughts into words for all to hear. Though humanity is rapidly changing as the years fly by, shelter can be sought at a greasy spoon diner, where neon lights glow proudly in the darkness of the open road, where those friendly folks ready to take your order and “top off ” your coffee haven’t changed one bit from those you encountered as a child.

So, somewhere at a diner around Western North Carolina, you can find me tucked away in a booth, with a pot of coffee and numerous blank pages eagerly waiting to be filled with the sentiments of the day.

That spot is where it all began for me, where I once stood with hopes and dreams, only to finally cross the threshold into my intent and purpose.

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

Spring

April 8-14, 2015

In a diner, tucked away in a booth, with a notebook, pen and endless cups of coffee. It’s where I feel most comfortable, and at peace, when immersing myself in society. While the organized chaos of the breakfast rush swirls around me, I am completely focused on writing, only to be pleasantly interrupted by a conversation or interaction nearby that has piqued my interest.

While attending college in Connecticut, I started to discover who I was as a person. For the first 18 years of my life, growing up in a rural Upstate New York farm town, I figured everything I wanted out of life, or thought I wanted, were the same things that everyone around me had — a family, nice house, two cars in the garage, and a 9 to 5 The inaugural “Banana Dash” will take place at 3 gig in hopes of retirement p.m. April 11 at Tonic Delivers in Sylva. at age 55.

Far away from home, some 300 miles down the “Peter Pan: The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up” road in Connecticut, I will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. April 16-18 and 3 crossed paths with people p.m. April 19 in the John W. Bardo Fine and and ideas I’d never been Performing Arts Center at Western Carolina University. exposed to prior. I realized Country/southern rocker Joe Lasher Jr. will perform I didn’t want the whole at 7 p.m. April 18 at the Colonial Theatre in John Mellencamp “Jack and Canton.

Diane” thing. I didn’t want to go to the Tasty Freeze The production of Civil War drama “The Actor and every Saturday night. I didThe Assassin” will be at 7:30 p.m. April 10-11, 14, n’t want to marry my high 17-18 and 3 p.m. April 12 and 19 at the Haywood school sweetheart. I didn’t Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville. want to do what my father The Smoky Mountain Oyster & Seafood Festival did, what my mother did, will be held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 18 at the what all my friends were Maggie Valley Festival Grounds. hoping to become. I wanted something more, something else.

During the summer after my sophomore And as I wrestled with that identity, a battle between a small town existence and year of college, it all clicked. I decided the only way to cure my wanderlust was to feed eternal cosmic exploration, I would find it with adventure and experiences, and refuge in many 24-hour diners around becoming a writer would be the vehicle to Southern Connecticut. These locations were a familiar childhood reminder to me, do so. Thus, I was told that the first thing in becoming a writer was to get a notebook where I’d feel at home in a space and and start writing down whatever came into establishment similar to the ones I’d freyour mind. I was also told to start writing quent with my father and grandfather down conversations overheard, to sketch every weekend as a kid.

2015

arts & entertainment

This must be the place

down details of people around you, and maybe write a fictional story about their lives. Practice makes perfect, right?

And with that, I started bringing my notebook into the diner with me, where I’d just sit, literally for hours, writing about nothing and everything that either entered into my mind or entered through the front door. These many years later, I still take a notebook with me when in search of the allmighty American diner. I still open up my eyes, ears and soul to the noises and faces of daily life commiserating around me in these culinary icons of the highways, bi-ways and back roads.

Following college graduation, I took off. I headed for the furthest corners of the United States, seeking out whatever it is I was in search of. I didn’t know it at the time, but what I was looking for was, well, myself.

And that person, who I’ve ultimately become, was tracked down within the hundreds of handwritten pages I brought to fruition in diners from San Francisco to Savannah, Boston to Denver, Chicago to

springwildflowerpilgrimage.org

twitter.com/SmokyMtnNews 27

On the beat arts & entertainment

Gypsy jazz, swing at Classic Wineseller

The 9th Street Stompers will play April 17 in Waynesville. Donated photo

CANTON CONCERT TO BENEFIT COMMUNITY KITCHEN

Smoky Mountain News

April 8-14, 2015

Country/southern rocker Joe Lasher Jr. will perform at 7 p.m. April 18 at the Colonial Theatre in Canton. Tickets are $7, with proceeds going to The Community Kitchen, a local MANNA FoodBank partner. The event is sponsored by Ingles Markets. www.cantonnc.com or 828.648.0014.

The 9th Street Stompers will perform at 7 p.m. Friday, April 17, at The Classic Wineseller in Waynesville.

Their sound brings to mind a musical era when the lines between blues, swing, gypsy jazz, rockabilly and tango weren’t nearly as hard and fast as the drinking and dancing. The group consists of three welldressed “Dapper Dan” man-types who play acoustic instruments and sing about life, death, love and liquor.

The band has toured throughout the U.S. and appeared on NPR’s Chattanooga-

based Scenic City Roots, sister show to the Nashville-based Music City Roots.

Influenced by the great gypsy jazz musician, Django Reinhardt, and other greats like Stephane Grappelli and Oscar Aleman, the band’s approach to the music is impressive.

Show tickets are $10 per person and can be purchased by calling 828.452.6000.

Seating is limited. The full dinner and drink menu will be available. www.classicwineseller.com or www.9thstreetstompers.com.

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Find us on Facebook. Federally Insured by NCUA *$100,000 will be divided between the public school systems in Haywood, Buncombe, Henderson, Jackson, Swain, Macon, Graham, Madison, and Transylvania Counties based on the number of students per system. **Loan approval based on JYLKP[^VY[OPULZZ *LY[HPU YLZ[YPJ[PVUZ HWWS` (WWSPJHISL [V SVHUZ ILPUN YLÄUHUJLK MYVT HUV[OLY SLUKLY )` \WSVHKPUN `V\Y picture to our social media pages, you give Champion Credit Union permission to use it in future promotions.

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Two locations to serve you ASHEVILLE 252.3005

WAYNESVILLE 251.9721

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On the beat

• Canton Armory will have “Pickin’ in the Armory” with live music by Rewind with the Stoney Creek Cloggers and Appalachian Mountaineers at 7 p.m. April 10. www.cantonnc.com.

• City Lights Café (Sylva) will have Karen “Sugar” Barnes & Dave McGill (blues/acoustic) at 7 p.m. April 17. www.citylightscafe.com.

9, The Hardin Draw (folk/string) April 10, Tail Light Rebellion (boogie/folk) and The Eisenhower Interstate Highway System April 11, D.S. Yancey & Brian Hartley (indie/country) April 13, Dustin Martin & The Ramblers (Americana/string) April 17 and Deltaphonic (southern rock) April 18. All shows are free and begin at 9 p.m. 828.586.2750 or www.nonamesportspub.com.

• Maggie Valley VFW Post 12132 will host SmokeRise (southern rock/country) at 7 p.m.

April 10.

• Oconaluftee Visitors Center (Cherokee) will have an old-time music jam from 1 to 3 p.m.

April 18. All skill levels welcomed.

• Classic Wineseller (Waynesville) will have ‘Round the Fire (Grateful Dead tribute) April 10 and Joe Cruz (pop/piano) April 11 and 18. All shows begin at 7 p.m. 828.452.6000 or www.classicwineseller.com.

• O’Malley’s (Sylva) will have SmokeRise (southern rock/country) at 9 p.m. April 11.

• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will have Craig Summers & Lee Kram (singer-songwriter) at 6 p.m. April 9 and 16, and Bobby G (rock/acoustic) 7 p.m. April 18. Free.

828.454.5664 or www.froglevelbrewing.com.

The Help For Homeless Concert will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 16, at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin.

The event will include performances

by Tom Quigley, Curtis Blackwell, Paradise 56, Blue Ridge, Johnny Webb and The JW Band. All proceeds benefit New Hope Center, Community Outreach Ministry, as they raise funds for a homeless shelter in Franklin.

Tickets are $15. www.greatmountainmusic.com or 866.273.4615.

ALSO:

• Haywood County Public Library (Waynesville) will host the Blue Ridge Big Band at 3 p.m. April 18. 828.456.4880.

• Jackson County Public Library (Sylva) will host a community dance at 2:30 p.m. April 12. Circle and contra dances. Laurie Fisher will be the caller, with live music by Out of the Woodwork. All styles will be taught and walked through beforehand. No previous experience needed. A community dinner will follow at 5 p.m. ronandcathy71@frontier.com.

• Mad Batter Food & Film (Sylva) will have the Natty Love Joys (reggae) at 9 p.m. April 10. $3. There will also be a one-year anniversary Burlesque Show at 8 p.m. April 15. $5. www.madbatterfoodandfilm.com.

• Nantahala Brewing (Bryson City) will have The Liz Nance Trio (Americana/bluegrass) April 10. OGYA World Music Band 8 p.m.

April 17 and Shane Meade & The Sound (Americana/soul). All shows are free and begin at 8:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. www.nantahalabrewing.com.

• No Name Sports Pub (Sylva) will have the Urban Pioneers (Americana/bluegrass) April

A GUARANTEED GRE AT NIGHT OUT

• The Strand at 38 Main (Waynesville) will have Pat Donohue (singer-songwriter) at 7:30 p.m. April 16 and The Hillbenders (bluegrass/Americana) 8 p.m. April 17.

Tickets for both shows are $18 in advance, $20 day of show. www.38main.com or 828.283.0079.

• Tipping Point Brewing (Waynesville) will have Kevin Fuller (singer-songwriter) April 10 and James Stinnett (singer-songwriter) April 17. Both shows are free and begin at 9 p.m.

• Water’n Hole Bar & Grille (Waynesville) will have Urban Pioneers (Americana/bluegrass) April 10, Deltaphonic (southern rock) April 17 and the Ryan Cavanaugh Duo (bluegrass/jazz) April 18. All shows begin at 9:30 p.m.

• Western Carolina University (Cullowhee) will have Travis Bennett (horn) April 8, Richard MacDowell (clarinet) April 9, Daniel Ball Senior Recital April 11, Alex Vaughn Senior Recital 5 p.m. April 18 and Civic Orchestra April 20 in the Coulter Building. All shows begin at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted.

The Inspirational Choir Spring Concert will also be at 3 p.m. April 19 at the University Center Grand Room. www.wcu.edu.

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• Lost Hiker (Highlands) will have Sidecar Honey (Americana/bluegrass) at 9 p.m. April 11. www.thelosthikersbar.com.

‘Help for the Homeless’ concert

April 8-14, 2015

• Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will have an Open Mic night April 8 and 15, and a jazz night with the Kittle/Collings Duo April 9 and 16. All events begin at 8 p.m. www.innovation-brewing.com.

arts & entertainment

• BearWaters Brewing (Waynesville) will have ClawHoss & Friends (Americana/bluegrass) 7 p.m. April 10, Trial By Stone (reggae/ska) 8 p.m. April 11 and Mark Bumgarner (Americana) 8 p.m. April 17. www.bwbrewing.com or 828.246.0602.

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On the street arts & entertainment

from Asheville Brewing and Green Man. There will also be Budweiser products, wine, malt coolers and other refreshments.

Live music will be provided by Al Coffee & Da Grind and The Mile High Band. There will also be a free interactive kid’s zone, which includes corn hole, mini-golf, face painting, bubbles and balloon twisting.

Tickets are $5 in advance (on Eventbrite), $8 at the gate. Children ages 12 and under are admitted free. www.smokymtnoysterfest.com.

Green Thumb Day Festival in Whittier Oyster, seafood festival returns to Maggie Valley

Smoky Mountain News

April 8-14, 2015

The Smoky Mountain Oyster & Seafood Festival will be held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Saturday, April 18, at the Maggie Valley Festival Grounds.

Oysters made everyway possible — raw, steamed, friend, etc. Shrimp, clams, barbecue, and more. Oysters and seafood will be prepared by J. Arthur’s Restaurant in Maggie Valley. The beer tent will feature selections

The 15th Annual Green Thumb Day Festival will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Saturday, April 11, in downtown Whittier.

Local artists, crafters, planters and farmers will be on hand. Live music will be provided by Keep on Pickin’, Joshua Grant, and Mountain Strings Dulcimer Club. There will wagon rides and other children’s activities.

Free tree seedlings and information on plants and planting will also be available. VFW Post 8013 and food vendors will also be onsite.

Vendor spaces are still available for $15.

Entry to the festival is free. Proceeds will go to benefit various community outreach projects, including the Grace House Food Pantry.

828.497.2393.

• The inaugural “Banana Dash” will take place at 3 p.m. April 11 at Tonic Delivers in Sylva. Celebrating North Carolina Beer Month, the craft beer market will host a dash from the Jackson County Courthouse through downtown to the front of Tonic Delivers. Patrons can purchase a banana suit and register for the event at www.tonicdelivers.com. Door prizes, live music, rare and local beers and more.

• There will be a tasting and cooking demonstration from 5 to 7 p.m. every Saturday at Country Traditions in Dillsboro.

Try a variety of wines while a chef prepares treats that are available for purchase.

Free. www.dillsborowineandgourmet.net.

ALSO:

• A Car Club Cruise-In will be from 4 to 7 p.m. April 10 at the Southwestern Community College campus in Sylva.

Celebrating SCC’s 50th anniversary celebration. Free. www.franklin-chamber.com.

• Disc Golf on the Greenway will be at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 11, in Franklin.

Demonstrating techniques and a round of play. Presented by the Franklin Disc Golf Club.

• A six-week beginners meditation class will start at 10:30 a.m. April 20 at the

Senior Resource Center in Waynesville.

Instructor will be Melissa Moss. Free, and open to all members of the community.

• There will be an oyster roast from 6 to 10 p.m. April 17 at The Bascom in Highlands.

The event will be in celebration of the center for visual art’s recent expansion. Free steamed oysters. Other food and drinks available. Live bluegrass by WellStrung from 7 to 9 p.m. www.thebascom.org.

• The Antique Car Franklin History Tour will be at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, April 19, at the Town Hall parking lot. Vehicles will leave from the lot and cruise the town, all in support of the Macon County Historical Museum. Free. To RSVP, email maconantiquecars@aol.com.

• A car show will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 18 at the Resurrection Lutheran Church in Franklin. $15 registration fee.

Food available. There will also be a bouncy house for children. All proceeds from the event will go toward resurfacing the Great Beginnings Preschool playground. www.franklin-chamber.com.

• The Macon County Senior Games Flea Market will be from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 18 at the Macon County Community Building in Franklin. www.franklin-chamber.com.

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Dwight Yoakam

Robert Earl Keen

The Avett Brothers

April 8-14, 2015

The Del McCoury Band

Lee Ann Womack

BĂŠla Fleck and Abigail Washburn

Trampled By Turtles

Hot Rize

North Mississippi Allstars

!LNEH MerleFest and WCC are 100% Tobacco Free.

The views presented are not necessarily those of Wilkes Community College or endorsed by the college.

-ANHA&AOP KNC [

The Earls of Leicester

Smoky Mountain News

The Marshall Tucker Band

arts & entertainment

13 Stages of "Traditional Plus" Music!

Plus many more performers!

7 E H G A O > K N K . K N P D # = N K H E J =

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arts & entertainment

On the wall

New art studio opens in Franklin

• Artwork by child survivors and their families will be on display from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 16, at the Cedar Hill Studios in Waynesville. The art show is a benefit for the Kids Advocacy Resource Effort (KARE), which is dedicated to preventing child abuse and advocating for those who have been abused. www.karehouse.org.

• A nature-inspired student art reception will be held at 6 p.m. April 21 at the Macon County Library in Franklin. Art from students at Cartoogechaye and East Franklin elementary schools. Hosted by the Nantahala Hiking Club. www.franklinchamber.com.

Colorful Creations, a “Paint Your Own Pottery” studio owned by Jimbo and Stacy Ledford, recently opened in Franklin.

The studio, located at 135 Highlands Road, welcomes and encourages all ages. No experience is necessary. The shop operates on a walk-in basis during regular studio hours. Select a piece of bisque to paint, then dip and fire it. Turn around is about four to seven days.

Every month there are scheduled monthly events and classes. Regular monthly events include Family Nite, Date Nite, Ladies’ Nite and Guys’ Nite. The studio stays open after hours for these events and a 15 percent discount is given off the cost of your pottery.

828.524.8028.

April 8-14, 2015

Dogwood chair seat weaving, caning class A two-day chair seat weaving and caning class will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Tuesday, April 20, at the Masonic Lodge in Dillsboro.

Junetta Pell, a member of Dogwood Crafters Cooperative, will be the instructor for the class. Pell is an accomplished craftsperson in many areas and has been teaching chair seat weaving and caning for many years.

Learn an old Appalachian craft and

revive an unused piece of furniture. Bring a chair or stool (repaired and refinished if it needs to be) that needs a new seat and you’ll take home a diagonally woven or caned bottom while learning the basics of chair seat weaving or caning.

Cost for the workshop will include any materials participants need to buy to finish their item of furniture plus a $6 class fee.

Register by calling 828.586.2435 or emailing junettapell@hotmail.com by April 13. Please let Pell know at that time if you need her to order materials for your chair or stool.

Jackson County students win Youth Art Month awards Smoky Mountain News

More than 60 Jackson County school students received awards for work exhibited at Western Carolina University during Youth Art Month.

The winners were chosen by a panel of judges that included WCU art education students and staff members of the John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center. Their art was among more than 300 student works selected by local art teachers for the display at the Bardo Center in March.

Youth Art Month is a national observance and WCU has hosted the exhibit for more than 30 years to celebrate and encourage school art programs.

Participating schools and the winners are: • Blue Ridge School – First place, Brittany Kinsey (grade seven); second place, Cazmarine Jones (grade nine); Teacher’s Choice Award, Jeffrey Burnette (grade 12); honorable mention, Cheyenne Bryson (grade 10).

• Cherokee Elementary School – First place, Patricia Armachain (grade five); second place, Kamia Wiggins (grade 32 four); Teacher’s Choice Award, Logan Biddix (grade one);

• A Stampin’ Up workshop will be held from 10 a.m. to noon April 15 at the Swain County Chamber of Commerce in Bryson City. Card-making class using Stampin’ Up products and techniques. $10. It’s half off the cost if you’re a first time student or if you bring another first time student with you. www.greatsmokies.com.

ALSO:

• The “Come Paint with Charles Kidz Program” will be at 4 p.m. April 9 and 23 at the Charles Heath Gallery in Bryson City. $20 per child. Materials and snacks included. 828.538.2054.

• The films “Wild” (6 p.m. April 8, 2 p.m.

April 9) and “Dead Reckoning” (2 p.m.

April 17) will be screened at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin.

• There will be an After-School Art Adventure for children and students from 3:15 to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 8 and 15, at The Bascom in Highlands.

Participants will work on individual and

honorable mentions, Hilarie Howell (grade two), Tyruss Thompson (grade two), Ahanu de los Reyes (grade two), Lilliann Bigmeat (grade three).

• Cullowhee Valley School – First place, Alex Noltensmeyer (grade three); second place, Enoc Alvarado (grade two); Teacher’s Choice Award, Aliya Mayton (grade seven); Claymates Award, Carter Pastoris (grade six); honorable mentions, Serenity Shook (kindergarten), Kyle Shanklin (grade seven), Sarah Grider (grade seven), D.J. Drakeford (grade eight), Sierra Galayadick (grade eight).

• Fairview School – First place, Tashi Hacskaylo (grade five); second place, Ty Howard (grade one); Teacher’s Choice Award, Cheyenne Clayton (grade eight); honorable mentions, Isabel Townsend (grade two), Coco Wells (grade three), Cole Stillwell (grade four), Brenan Martin (grade five), Jeff Stillwell (grade eight).

• Jackson County School of Alternatives – First place, Solomon Elam (grade eight); second place, Kenneth Maney (grade 11); Teacher’s Choice Award, Lakota Russell (grade two); honorable mentions, Kim Pannell (grade nine), Tyler Fisher (grade 11).

• Scott’s Creek School – First place, Chloe Ledford (grade four); second place, Landon Maloy (grade three); Teacher’s

collaborative art projects. There will also be a Franklin After-School Art Adventure from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. Wednesday, April 8 and 15, at the Uptown Gallery. Free. www.thebascom.org.

• A rapid fire raku class hosted by Rick Berman will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

April 17-18 at The Bascom in Highlands. $150 for members, $200 for non-members. www.thebascom.org.

• The Franklin Kid’s Creation Station will be from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 11 N and 18, at the Uptown Gallery. There will also be a station from 10 a.m. to noon N Saturday, April 11 at The Bascom in Highlands. www.thebascom.org or 828.349.4607 (Franklin) or 828.526.4949 (Highlands).

• A glass bird sculpture class will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 18 at the Jackson County Green Energy Park in Dillsboro. Each class that day is 30 minutes. $45 per person. 828.631.0271 or www.jcgep.org.

• “Wild” (April 9), “Into The Woods” (April 10), “Disney Nature: Earth” (April 11), “Blade Runner” (April 16), “Weird Science” (April 17) and “Rango” (April 18) will be screened at the Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. Screenings are free and begin at 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. There is also a 2 p.m. matinee on Saturdays. www.madbatterfoodandfilm.com.

• “Tinkerbell: The Legend of the Netherbeast,” “The Big Lebowski,” “Imitation Game” and “Serena” will be screened at The Strand at 38 Main in Waynesville. For screening dates and times, click on www.38main.com or call 828.283.0079.

Choice Award, Bethany Cartwright (kindergarten); honorable mentions, Kason Powell (kindergarten), Devlin Bright (grade one), Iriss B. Connoly (grade two), Cadence Medford (grade two), Ryland McCoy (grade three), Georgie Schweinler (grade five), Oswaldo M. Salano (grade six).

• Smokey Mountain Elementary School – First place, Laura Alich (grade four); second place, David Chiltowski (grade eight); Teacher’s Choice Award, Abby Branning (grade two); honorable mentions, Amarni Wachacha (grade one), Mason Napier (grade two), Teyha Price (grade six), Corbin Moore (grade seven), Hailey Carter (grade eight), Lucy Miller (grade eight).

• Smoky Mountain High School – First place, Heather Mangus (grade 10); second place and WCU School of Art and Design Director’s award, Morgan Carpenter (grade 10); Teacher’s Choice Award, Emily Miller (grade 10); honorable mentions, Morgan Carpenter (grade 10), Amelia Ray (grade 10), Kendall Rhymer (grade 11), Casey Owen (grade 12), Emily Miller (grade 12), Allie Smith (grade 12).

• Summit Charter School – First place, Megan Reihmeier (grade six); second place, Chase Coggins (grade eight); Teacher’s Choice Award, Ava Grace Kapdohr (kindergarten); honorable mentions, Benjamin Ball (grade two), Lalo Tepepa (grade three), Braden Collins (grade six), Leah Grace Craig (grade eight).

On the stage

Lincoln assassination drama at HART

‘Peter Pan’ will hit the stage April 16-19 at Western Carolina University. Ashley T. Evans photo from Seattle Opera and designed by Tony Award-nominated set designer and Asheville native Thomas Lynch.

Tickets are $16 for adults, $11 for seniors and WCU faculty and staff, and $7 (in advance) and $10 (day of show) for students.

828.227.2479 or www.bardoartscenter.wcu.edu.

On Tuesday night, April 21, Grammy winner Peter Rowan will appear with his Grammy-nominated bluegrass band in a special performance at Cataloochee Ranch. This will be the legendary singer-songwriter’s fifth appearance at the Ranch, and the performance is expected to be a sellout.

So come join us for a memorable evening of music, food and fun, with dinner at 6 pm and music beginning at 7:30. Tickets for dinner and the show are $60, and reservations are required.

To reserve your space for this not-to-be-missed event, just call the Ranch at 828-926-1401.

Cataloochee Ranch 119 Ranch Drive, Maggie Valley, NC 28751ɄɄƌɄɄwww.CataloocheeRanch.com

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ances, a special production will be given on Tuesday, April 14. That is the 150th anniversary of the night Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Theater. Each performance will be followed by post show talk back sessions with the actors and the production will kick off a series of commemorative events in the community in the coming weeks to recognize Waynesville’s distinction as being the location of the last shot fired east of the Mississippi River.

Tickets are $24 for adults, $20 for seniors and $11 for students. There will also be a $7 matinee price available. www.harttheatre.org or 828.456.6322.

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Want to learn puppetry?

There will be a four-week instructional class for puppetry from 4 to 5:30 p.m. on Wednesdays starting April 15 at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin.

Learn the age-old craft of foam puppet building and manipulation from start to finish. Each student will design and fabricate their own puppet based upon a specific style and personality. The class is open to all ages.

Cost is $35, which includes registration fee, all materials, patterns and instruction. www.greatmountainmusic.com.

If you were a kid when a phone was just a phone, it might be time for your colonoscopyy. Beginning at age 50, make a commitment to regular screenings for colorectal cancer. A colonoscopy is a screening that is done the e same dayy. And because colon cancer develops ps with few w, if any symptoms, a colonoscopy c can detect cancer symptoms at its earliest stage. A colonoscopy can save your life.

So pick up your phone and make an appointment today.

Smoky Mountain News

As part of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the production of “The Actor and The Assassin” will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m.

April 10-11, 14, 17-18 and 3 p.m. April 12 and 19 at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville.

HART will open its 2015 main stage season with a show near and dear to Executive Director Steve Lloyd’s heart, who wrote it, and toured in the award winning drama for nearly 17 years. In fact, it’s not an exaggeration to say that “The Actor and The Assassin” made HART possible. In 1990, when Lloyd approached HART about working for the theatre, HART had no financial resources to pay him. It was the income from “The Actor and The Assassin” that paid Lloyd’s bills in the early years.

Edwin and John Wilkes Booth were two of the most famous actors of the 19th Century, but it was their bitter rivalry that the drama focuses on. John was obsessed with fame and being remembered and his assassination of Abraham Lincoln insured that he would be. Drawing from letters and diaries “The Actor and The Assassin” makes the events of the era personal.

In addition to the usual weekend perform-

Photo by Bill Harbin

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Tuesday, April 21

April 8-14, 2015

he School of Stage and Screen will close its 2014-15 Mainstage season with a highflying production of the J.M Barrie classic “Peter Pan: The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up,” at 7:30 p.m. April 16-18 and 3 p.m. April 19 in the John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center at Western Carolina University.

The production follows the adventures of Peter, Wendy, Michael and John in Neverland. This new adaptation of the classic play that will be performed at WCU is based on the work of John Caird and Trevor Nunn, who researched and restored Barrie’s original intentions. The London Times considers the play “a national masterpiece.”

The WCU stage act of “Peter Pan” will feature special flying effects provided by Hall Associates Flying Effects, an Illinois-based company that will visit campus for three days to hang rigging and train actors and crew.

Bruce Frazier, WCU’s Carol Grotnes Belk Distinguished Professor of Commercial and Electronic Music, is composing original music for the show, and D.V. Caitlyn, associate professor of acting, directing and movement, is choreographing two dynamic fight scenes, including a lengthy sword fight on a pirate ship.

Susan Brown-Strauss, professor of costume design, is creating more than 50 costumes that will be worn in the show, including an original design for Nana the dog, Lilly said. The show also will feature eight sets designed by visiting assistant professor Andrew Mannion with a backdrop borrowed

Bluegrass Band

arts & entertainment

‘Peter Pan’ flies into WCU

The PETER ROWAN

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34

Books

Smoky Mountain News

Remembering the horrors of Europe’s wars any Americans — and I count myself among them — are often hard on Europeans when it comes to issues like national defense, appeasement, and willingness to stand up to enemies. We belittle their failure to resist recent Russian intrusions in the Ukraine, we urge them to take a stronger stand in the Middle East, and we shake our heads at their lack of military preparedness.

What we too often forget are the horrors Europe endured during the Second World War. We remember the sacrifices our own troops — what some have labeled the Greatest Generation — but we overlook Writer what the French, English, Germans, Italians, Poles, Russians, and others suffered during this deadliest of wars. We forget the bombed-out cities, the incinerators in the concentration camps, the jack-booted rule of dictators, the millions of lives lost to battle and brutality, the destruction of entire countries.

Let Poland serve as an example of what this war meant. The Nazis invaded that country on Sept. 1, 1939, an attack that drew Britain and France into the conflict. Quickly conquered, hundreds of thousands of Poles — Jews along with Polish elites like professors, doctors, lawyers, and priests — were exterminated both by the Nazis and by Russian communists. When the war ended with the defeat of the Nazis, Poland suffered another 40 years under Russian communists, as did many other Eastern European countries. Although it was Poland that had drawn the European powers into the war, those same powers allowed the communists to continue to

Jeff Minick

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oppress the Polish people.

For those who fail to remember what Europe suffered during this greatest and most horrendous of wars, readers need only turn to Anthony Doerr’s All The Light We Cannot See (Scribner Publisher, 2014, 531 pages, $27). In this novel, Doerr, who has won numerous literary prizes for his short stories and novels, gives us an unforgettable portrait of the madness and the brutality of the European war.

All The Light We Cannot Through See by Anthony Doerr. two characScribner, 2014. 531 pages. ters, he takes us inside this global conflict and shows us the horrendous cost behind the political and military struggles of the mid-twentieth century.

Marie-Laure LeBlanc is a blind French girl who lives with her father in Paris. He works for the Museum of Natural History. When she is 12, Marie-Laure and her father flee to the city of Saint-Malo and the home of her greatuncle, who is suffering mental problems incurred during the First World War. With them they carry a precious jewel that will eventually land them in trouble with a cancerstricken German who wants the jewel more than he cares for life itself.

Joy to present new book Writer David Joy will read and discuss his debut novel Where All Light Tends to Go at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 11, at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville.

Joy’s “Appalachian noir” is a coming of age story, where blood is thicker than water and Jacob McNeely is drowning in it. The book has already garnered in-house enthusiasm along with praise from authors Daniel Woodrell, Ron Rash, Tawni O’Dell and Ace Atkins.

Joy has lived in North Carolina his whole life and currently lives Webster. He is also the author of Growing Gills: A Fly Fisherman’s Journey, which was a finalist for the Reed Environmental Writing Award and the Ragan Old North State Award for Creative Nonfiction. www.blueridgebooksnc.com or 828.456.6000.

‘Coffee with the Poet’ continues Writer Katherine Soniat will read selections of poetry from her new chapbook The Goodbye Animals as part of the Coffee with the Poet series at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, April 16, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva.

Meanwhile, Doerr introduces us to a German orphan, Werner Pfennig, who has a talent for mechanics and electronics. These skills take him away from the orphanage and his sister Jutta, and land him in a Hitler Youth academy. Here he encounters a “gentle giant,” a young man who will eventually protect him when they go into combat together. Pfennig serves first in Russia and then in France just as the Allies invade, where he finally meets, for one day only, Marie-Laure.

All The Light We Cannot See does more than show us the impact of war on these two characters alone, the beautiful and lonely sightless Marie-Laure and the increasingly disillusioned Werner. It reveals how such a massive conflict of ideologies affect individual lives. Doerr lets us see how Werner reacts to the harsh realities of Nazism when one of his friends at the academy is beaten so badly that he loses his mind. He describes the rape of Jutta by the Russian soldiers for whom such violation was standard policy — the Russians used rape as a weapon and as an instrument of justice in revenge for the Nazi ravages in Russia. (See Cornelius Ryan’s The Last Battle).

Doerr gives us the effects on the individual during this vast conflict.

When they finally meet, for example, Marie-Laure and Werner find a can of peaches. Doerr then writes: “The girl leans forward; the freckles seem to bloom across her cheeks as she inhales. ‘We will share,’ she says. ‘For what you did.’ (Note: Werner has saved her life from a German after a jewel she posses).

“He hammers the knife in a second time, saws away at the metal, and bends up the lid.

‘Careful,’ he says, and passes it to her. She dips in two fingers, dips up a wet, soft, slippery thing.

Then he does the same. The first peach slips down

This collection won the 2014 Turtle Island Quarterly Chapbook Prize Award. Her work has been published in such journals as TriQuarterly, Poetry, Crazyhorse, Gettysburg Review, Antioch Review, New England Review, Kenyon Review, The Nation, New Republic, Georgia Review and The Southern Review. Soniat loves to travel and the sense of place plays a significant role in her work. The Grand Canyon, the Bavarian Alps, the Andes and Crete are a few areas she has included in her writing.

The Coffee with the Poet series meets the third Thursday of each month and is co-sponsored by the Netwest chapter of the North Carolina Writer’s network.

828.586.9499.

Thomas to present poems In celebration of National Poetry Month, poet Kirk Thomas will read from his new collection Miscellaneous Musings and Other Odd Thoughts: The Desert Poems at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 18, at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville.

Thomas volunteered for Army Special Forces during the Vietnam War. He got out of the army, but later returned to Special Forces,

his throat like rapture. A sunrise in his mouth.

“They eat. They drink the syrup. They run their fingers around the inside of the can.”

Few of us have ever experienced a can of peaches in this way. Yet for millions of Europeans from the steppes of Russia to the coastal beaches of Normandy, such small pleasures meant both survival and life. Few of us, too, have undergone the ordeal of having our dreams and our private lives smashed to pieces by history and savagery. What Doerr urges in his novel is an understanding of the cost of memory and what happens when we forget history and those who have gone before us. Near the end of the book, he writes of Marie-Laure near the end of her life, sitting in the Jardin de Plantes and thinking of those who died so long ago: “They flow above the chimneys, ride the sidewalks, slip through your jacket and shirt and breastbone and lungs, and pass out through the other side, the air a library and the record of every life lived, every sentence spoken, every word transmitted still reverberating within it.

“Every hour, she thinks, someone for whom the war was memory falls out of the world.

“We rise again in the grass. In the flowers. In songs.”

To remain ignorant of what happened before you were born, a famous Roman orator once said, is to remain always a child. With its attention to detail and its beautiful writing, All The Light We Cannot See reminds us that, whether we like it or not, the past shapes and haunts the present.

(Jeff Minick is a writer and teacher. His novel Amanda Bell is available in regional bookstores and online. He can be reached at minick0301@gmail.com.)

then worked as a military contractor in Saudi Arabia after his retirement. These poems come mainly from his time in Saudi Arabia.

Hartbarger to discuss coaching memoir Jim Hartbarger will read from his new memoir On the Rim of the Basket: The Memoirs of Coach Jim Hartbarger at 3 p.m.

Saturday, April 11, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva.

The memoir recounts his early childhood days, coaching high school and college basketball teams, owning the Jarrett House and his advice to others about recruitment and coaching.

Hartbarger was the head basketball coach at Western Carolina University from 1969-1975 and captured two National Association of Intercollegiate Athletic District 6 regular season titles and one tournament championship. His team advanced to the 1972 NAIA Championship Tournament. In 1975, Jim and his wife Jean became the owners of The Jarrett House, a southern bed and breakfast in Dillsboro.

828.586.9499.

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April 8-14, 2015 Smoky Mountain News 35

Outdoors

Smoky Mountain News

36

When the bats leave the belfry Biologist Sue Cameron swabs a hibernating bat as part of a study to understand white-nose syndrome, a disease that’s devastated bat populations over the past decade. Holly Kays photo

Fungus cuts down bat population, sparks speculation on species, ecosystem future

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER arah Davis loves bats. They’ve been the wintertime residents of Linville Caverns for as long as she can remember, a marker of the seasons she looks forward to each year. The cave, a commercial cavern near Marion, has been in Davis’ family since the 1940s — she and the bats go way back.

“There would be hundreds of them in the winter, and I absolutely loved them,” Davis recalls.

But the biologists who were climbing out of Tyvek suits and pulling off thick-walled rubber gloves as she spoke are afraid those memories might remain forever in past tense. Bat populations across the eastern United States have taken a nose-dive in recent years, all at the hands of a mysterious fungus that since 2006 has slowly made its way from a single cave in Schoharie County,

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New York to appear in 25 U.S. states and five Canadian provinces. In 2011, it arrived in North Carolina.

“When I started telling them [my staff] about it, it upset me so much I started crying,” Davis recalled.

This year, biologists counted just seven bats in the cavern, a far cry from the 95 they found in 2006, five years before white-nose syndrome, the disease the fungus causes, was found in North Carolina.

The numbers were low enough that Sue Cameron, wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, wasn’t even sure if there’d be enough in Linville Caverns to warrant data collection for the University of California study North Carolina is contributing to.

“If I can’t get three of one species, I probably won’t swab,” she told Katherine Caldwell, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission biologist who conducted the cave survey with her.

LET SLEEPING BATS LIE Finding bats in Linville Caverns was like seeking out the proverbial needle in the haystack. Mica and fool’s gold glittered in the dimly lit walls, smooth limestone formations gleamed with moisture and an underground stream chattered alongside the concrete walkway as Caldwell’s and Cameron’s headlamps searched the cave’s many nooks and crannies, hoping to spot something tiny, furry and alive. Last week, staff had found just six bats, manager Andrew Quinn told the scientists.

Finally, one of the little mammals appeared, a tri-colored bat hanging from the ceiling. Caldwell noted the bat and its species on her tally sheet, and Cameron got out her sampling supplies. North Carolina is gathering data for a University of California researcher, Winifred Frick, who’s trying to learn more about where the fungus causing

What is white-nose syndrome?

The fungus that causes white-nose syndrome, Pseudogymnoascus destructans, was new to science when it turned up in a cave in Schoharie County, New York, during the winter of 2006-07.

Since that debut, it spread rapidly across the eastern U.S. and Canada, spores most likely transmitted between bats and via cavers’ clothing and equipment. White-nose now reaches as far south as Mississippi, infecting 25 U.S. states and five Canadian provinces, arriving in North Carolina in 2011.

White-nose appears as a white fungus in hibernating bats, most commonly around their noses but also on the wings, ears or tail. Infected bats exhibit strange behaviors, such as flying outside during the day and clustering around the entrances to the caves and mines where they spend the winter, rather than moving further

back. Current research indicates that white-nose changes how bats’ bodies function in ways that lead to a faster metabolism and reduction in fat reserves. Bats with white-nose have higher levels of carbon dioxide in their blood, which leads to dehydration, electrolyte loss and more waking up during the winter. Some infected bats will even leave the cave in search of food or water.

In Eastern North America, white-nose has killed more than 5.7 million bats, with 90 to 100 percent dying in some caves and mines. Scientists are working to pin down the dynamics of infection and transmission in hopes of finding a way to stem the tide of bat deaths.

Complete background information and updates about whitenose syndrome is online at www.whitenosesyndrome.org.

white-nose exists and how it’s transmitted.

Gathering data for the study involves breaking the surveyors’ cardinal rule: thou shalt not wake the bats. Rousing during the winter months eats up valuable energy, burning through the fat reserves on which the bats must survive until springtime brings back the insects.

But white-nose syndrome is still a littleunderstood disease — the fungus, which scientists postulate originates from Europe, was new to science when it first showed up in New York — and the first step in quelling the dizzying rates of decline in affected species is knowing more about how it works. It’s an allhands-on deck sort of situation.

“It’s amazing the amount of research that’s going on, and it’s coming out so quickly,” Cameron said.

She pulled out a measuring tape, taking samples from rock surfaces 10 centimeters and 2 meters away

A tri-colored bat shows a snout displaying the tell-tale white fungus of white-nose syndrome. NPS photo

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HOLDING OUT HOPE The facts paint a grim picture for bats, but Caldwell isn’t quite ready to write the obituary.

“I’m reluctant to say they can’t recover,”

S EE BATS, PAGE 38

wrap so that white-nose spores would stay out but the equipment would remain functional. As it happens, it’s pretty hard to take photos when the buttons, dials and lens body are smothered in plastic. And I hadn’t even put on my gloves yet.

The wrapping done, I traded out my reporter’s notebook for a clipboard equipped with waterproof paper that could be wiped down when we left the cave. I caught the pair of gray sweatpants Caldwell tossed me to pull over my jeans and zipped up the Tyvek suit, size medium, she gave me next.

“What we usually do is wear one of the medium Tyveks on the bottom and a large on top of that,” she explained.

But even with rubber boots and two separate Tyvek suits, I still wasn’t ready to enter the cave.

“I’m going to put a piece of duct tape on that interior zipper because sometimes they can come down,” Cameron said, bringing over a roll. “And the hood, see how it’s Biologist Katherine Caldwell, left, annoying tapes up the joint between glove and you and sleeve Cameron. Holly Kays photo can’t see?

We usually N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission biolo- do a little tape dab on top so it keeps it off our eyes.” gist partnering on the survey, were there Feeling like some kind of HAZMAT-edifor one of the nine cave surveys the tion Barbie, I stood still while the two biolWildlife Commission conducted this winter to gauge how area bat populations were ogists finished me up. They wrapped the doing in the wake of white-nose syndrome, junction between my boots and interior suit with duct tape, handed me a pair of a disease caused by an invasive fungus that’s decimated bat populations across the thick orange rubber gloves and taped my sleeves to them. I took a plastic helmet Eastern seaboard. The fungus travels from with built-in headlamp and ditched the cave to cave when its spores — tiny dots string bag I’d brought along — anything that are the fungal equivalent of seeds — fabric I carried outside my suit would have hitchhike on the surface of an unsuspectto be immersed in bleach water before seeing person, animal or piece of equipment. ing the light of day again.

That’s why scientists traveling between There was just one thing left to do white-nose-positive and -negative caves before entering the cave: take the requisite must perform decontamination procelook-at-me-wearing-a-hazard-suit photo. dures — or “decon” — with a precision When else would I find myself dressed up bordering on reverence. Everything that like a cross between a beekeeper and goes into the cave must be thrown away, treated with bleach or scrubbed down with nuclear disaster responder?

But at this point, the three of us were Lysol and none of it can touch a person’s covered head-to-toe in rubber and Tyvek, bare skin or base layers before disappearand iPhones don’t respond to plastic fining into a plastic trash bag. gers. Caldwell, a veteran of frigid Indiana This includes notepads, cameras and winters, solved the problem — she took voice recorders, so while Cameron and the picture with her nose.

Caldwell suited up, I attempted to cover — By Holly Kays my camera and voice recorder with plastic ressing for a bat survey is something of a fine art. The rules are precise and the implications of improper attire significant.

As it turned out, I needed some schooling in the subject before following the pair of biologists I was meeting at Linville Caverns, near Marion, inside to count bats.

“I’ll tell you, it was hard to figure out this whole system the first time we did it,” said Sue Cameron, a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. She apparently had it figured out now, seemingly needing just seconds to don her entire getup, featuring a white jumpsuit that made her look fit to tour an active radiation site.

“It took a lot longer, too,” she added.

Cameron and Katherine Caldwell, the

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Smoky Mountain News

Of course, it’s hard to tell a whole lot just from the results of one cave, and that’s been one of the main questions ever since whitenose hit: Are the bats actually disappearing, or are they just changing their habitats or using different caves? The jury has reached an unfortunate verdict, Cameron said.

“All the evidence is showing the same thing, and that’s that these declines are happening,” she said.

The Wildlife Commission has done counts of hibernating bats since well before white-nose syndrome hit. Every year, they sample a different set of caves and mines in Western North Carolina, the goal being to accumulate a hefty dataset without disturbing the same caves year in and year out.

Since the fungus came to WNC in 2011, the declines have been staggering.

“People weren’t totally sure how it would play out in the southern states,” Cameron said. “I think people were hoping things would be a little bit different and bats would respond differently in Western North Carolina, and so far that hasn’t been the case.”

Just like in the northeast, southern bat populations have crashed, and crashed hard.

For example, a mine on Waynesville town property had pretty consistent counts of 3,000 tri-colored bats before white-nose

Dressing for the occasion

April 8-14, 2015

A RISING DEATH TOLL

syndrome arrived. This year, Caldwell counted nine. Another cave, located on Nantahala National Forest property near Nantahala Outdoor Center, housed 1,073 bats when it was last counted in 2013, a tally reflecting only small white-nose impacts. But the quadruple digits didn’t last — this year, biologists counted just 58 bats there. The crash is evidence of white-nose’s spread south, Caldwell said. Currently, the fungus has been spotted in 10 North Carolina counties.

Since white-nose’s arrival in WNC, little brown bat populations have dropped an estimated 92 percent, according to counts from summer captures, with that number sitting at 78 percent for northern long-eared bats and 77 percent for tri-colored bats.

Numbers are still trending down, Caldwell said, but there’s some evidence the death toll could be leveling off.

For example, in one Haywood County site whose bat count had dropped from 4,000 in 2011 to 55 in 2014, 30 bats were found this year. That’s still a hefty decline, but it’s a gentler rate than what’s been observed before now. Similarly, an Avery County site that housed 17 bats last year revealed 15 in 2015 — virtually the same number, as counts are more an indicator of population levels than an exhaustive census of every bat hiding in each remote corner of a given cave.

“Mostly what we just saw were small declines in hibernacula [bat caves] that had already experienced sharp declines and also steady numbers after sharp declines,” Caldwell said.

Another good sign, she added, is that none of the caves were devoid of bats and some of those bats were without visible signs of white-nose. That doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t have the disease, she clarified, but it’s at least encouraging to find bats that don’t appear sick.

Maybe, just maybe, they’re actually able to remain healthy even after encountering the white-nose fungus.

“We’re hopeful that if there are a few bats year to year that maybe some resistance could occur and potentially be passed on,” she said, “but it’s hard to say right now.”

Absent in this year’s surveys, though, was the northern long-eared bat. The species has never been especially abundant in Western North Carolina, but it’s always been present. One of the hardest-hit species since white-nose came to roost, its numbers have suffered in other parts of the country as well, leading the Fish and Wildlife Service to list it as a threatened species April 1.

outdoors

from the sleeping bat. Then she aimed at the bat with a yellow tool resembling a hybrid between a laser pointer and a drill, calling out the resulting body temperature reading for Caldwell to record. Finally, she set up a ladder and ascended to stroke the bat’s body, gently but firmly, with a scientist’s version of a q-tip. The bat wriggled, letting out a squeak like a fussy newborn. Cameron deposited the swab into the open container that Caldwell had waiting, and the pair rapidly moved themselves and their equipment away, letting the bat settle back to sleep as quickly as possible.

Toward the mouth of the cave, the numbers had seemed somewhat promising, with bat findings coming in close succession and only one of the animals showing the telltale dusting of the white-nose fungus around its snout. But as the group traveled deeper into the cave, bat sightings ceased. It’s hard to say for sure — hibernation behavior varies with the specific cave and type of bat — but that’s probably atypical, Cameron said.

“We’ve seen some odd behavior as a result of white-nose syndrome,” she said.

Such as bats sticking closer to the mouth of the cave than they otherwise might, taking daytime flights during the winter or waking up more frequently than usual during hibernation.

“It’s pretty complex.”

The group finished scouting the cave passages, and Cameron switched out the little device recording cave temperature and humidity, another contribution to Frick’s study, with a fresh one. The entire survey took only about an hour, a good bit shorter than in previous years.

“Now we’re not having to spend the time, sadly, counting a lot of bats,” Caldwell said.

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April 8-14, 2015

outdoors

BATS, CONTINUED FROM 37 she said. “I think I’m too much of an optimist to say that, and there are too many factors involved. I’d like to think that long after we’re gone, the bats are going to recover. It will be slow, slow recovery though.”

Bats are long-lived, slow-reproducing creatures. They can live as long as 40 years, with lifespans more commonly hovering around 20 years. They typically have just one pup per year, and the mortality rate for young bats is high.

Even if white-nose syndrome disappeared today, it would take a long time for bat populations to rebuild — assuming enough remain to find nearby mates and sustain genetic diversity.

But science isn’t a fully written book, Caldwell pointed out. There is still a lot we don’t know, and research turns up new information every day. For instance, a study out of University of North Carolina Greensboro detected northern long-eared bats — the ones the Fish and Wildlife Service just listed as threatened — living year-round on the coast without hibernating. Because of the environment the fungus requires to grow, white-nose syndrome infects bats only while they’re hibernating in caves, so no hibernation equals no whitenose mortality.

“There could be some remnant populations that may not be as hard-hit,” Caldwell said.

It’s also important to note that while white-nose is decimating populations of some of the most numerous bat species in the U.S., it doesn’t affect all of them. More than 40 bat species inhabit North America, about half of which hibernate, and whitenose affects only about seven.

INTELLIGENT TINKERING

Smoky Mountain News

Since white-nose was discovered, millions of research dollars have poured into defining and, hopefully, fixing the problem.

But why? Why, aside from a passing preference to keep all the species around, is it so important to save the bats?

If you were to ask Aldo Leopold, a renowned conservationist who died in 1948, he might repeat one of his better-known quotes: “To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.”

That is, pieces of the natural world have inherent value because we don’t know all their functions. Like a nondescript screw fallen out of a bicycle in the workshop, an ecological puzzle piece is something you better keep around in case you wind up needing it later.

“We don’t know for sure what it means,” Cameron said when asked what declines in bat populations might portend for the ecosystem at large. “We’ve never been faced with anything like this before.”

The research is just getting going on this question, but white-nose certainly has the potential to deliver a blow to agriculture.

Bats do a lot to control insect populations, with a single bat consuming between 3,000 and 6,000 insects per night. Favorite meals 38 include moths, beetles and mosquitoes; col-

lectively, bats eat thousands of tons of insects every year, many of them agricultural and forest pests.

“The concern is that this huge reduction in bat populations could result in an increase in these pests or some insect populations,” Cameron said.

A 2011 study by Justin Boyles of Southern Illinois University put the economic impact of the loss of bats in the U.S. at between $3.7 and $53 billion per year, with numbers based on the increased cost of applying pesticides on farmland to combat all the extra insects. The study did not account for the lost benefits of bat-controlled insect populations in forests or for the downstream environmental effects of increased pesticide use.

The study also assumes the complete disappearance of all bat species.

But white-nose does not affect all bats.

The fungus hasn’t been detected on tree-dwelling bats, and of those in WNC that hibernate in caves, Cameron prepares a Rafinefque’s bat and the Virginia bigsample to contribute to a eared bat — which is listed as endanlarger white-nose study. gered — don’t seem to be bothered by Holly Kays photo white-nose. The study points to other threats, such as death from windmills but would like to see agricultural and sciencollisions, as the rationale for quantifying tific communities continue forging relationthe impact of a total bat loss. ships on this issue.

There are other variables, too. For “It’s a tough industry, so I think if they instance, how might other species in the were potentially more aware of what a beneecosystem adjust to accommodate for a fit bats are and what it might look like if we dearth of bats? lost most of our bat population, maybe they “There could be an increase in some bat would be more open to doing things that populations that aren’t impacted by whitenose syndrome and that might help make up would benefit bats,” she said of farmers.

Whole-ecosystem health is important, for it,” Cameron postulated, “but we don’t agreed Steve Beltram of Balsam Gardens, an really know.” organic farm in Jackson County. Building a The effect of white-nose syndrome could healthy, balanced ecosystem on farmland is be much less than feared, or it could be a central principle of organic farming, so more. from that perspective the decimation of any species is concerning. But while Beltram’s MPACTS FOR AGRICULTURE certainly heard of white-nose syndrome and its effects on bats, he hasn’t considered the The conclusion of this saga will have implications for the agricultural landscape of issue as something that could affect his farm.

And though bat populations have taken a Western North Carolina. nosedive over the past several years, Beltram This corner of the state is a bastion of hasn’t noticed any difference in insect levels local produce, agritourism and farming, on his farm. adding more than 10,000 acres of farmland “Nothing out of the ordinary,” he said of between 2007 and 2012 while acreage insect populations. “What seems to affect it declined in the rest of North Carolina, more than anything else for us is whether we according to the Appalachian Sustainable get a cold enough winter to kill off a lot of Agriculture Project. Bats can take some of stuff, but I can’t say that I’ve noticed any the credit for those numbers. In their nightpest issues more than any other times and time flights, the winged mammals eat certainly can’t attribute it to bats.” extraordinary quantities of insects, many of In the agricultural sphere, declines in bat which are pest species to agricultural operanumbers are far from being an isolated varitions. As shown in Boyles’ study, substitutable. Farmers are contending with a host of ing pesticides for that natural predation other challenges to the lands they work — could prove expensive. honeybee shortages and colony collapse disBut so far, the issue doesn’t seem to be order, for instance. Between 2006 and 2011, much on farmers’ radars. about 33 percent of honeybee colonies dis“The only calls I usually get about bats appeared each year, a phenomenon which are about how to control bats that are probdoes not yet have any certain explanation lematic in their house,” said Christy but worries farmers, whose crops rely on bee Bredenkamp, horticulture agent for N.C. pollination to bear fruit.

Cooperative Extension in Swain and Jackson “Any kind of farmer is going to be equalcounties. ly affected by that, anyone who uses pollinaCaldwell, too, said she hasn’t had any tion,” Beltram said. personal dealings with concerned farmers

I

Bat protection prompts Smokies caving restrictions After closing the area in September to protect wintering bats, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park will reopen Whiteoak Sink — but with limited access through May 15.

The popular caving area is between Townsend, Tennessee, and Cades Cove, primarily accessed from the Schoolhouse Gap Trail. Hikers can still descend into Whiteoak Sink, but access to the waterfall and other areas is closed and marked by signs and fencing.

The park is home to 12 species of bats and is one of 13 places nationwide that the Fish and Wildlife Service has named as critical habitat for the endangered Indiana bat.

In some bat species, park biologists have reported white-nose-related declines of up to 98 percent.

This is not the first time caves in the Smokies have closed due to white-nose syndrome. In 2009, the park closed all 18 of its caves and mines to public entry.

Still, Caldwell thinks that as whitenose progresses — if, in fact, it does — the fungus will push closer and closer to the forefront of issues demanding farmers’ attention.

“I think as more and more people learn about white-nose and learn about the threats that bats face, they would be thinking along those lines,” she said.

FRONT-LINE SCIENCE It’s still hard to tell exactly who will be affected by the bat decline. Will the whitenose-susceptible species disappear? Or will they somehow stabilize and recover? If they disappear, will insect populations skyrocket?

Or will populations of other creatures adjust to feed on the abundant bugs? What about the animals that eat bats, the hawks and owls and snakes and fish? Will their diets shift somehow?

Sometimes, ecology is like a giant Rube Goldberg machine — each piece connected to another, the path from the initial shift in gravity to the final result nearly impossible to predict.

So, the knowledge-gathering continues.

The counts of hibernating bats, the data collection for scientists in far-flung states, the summertime tallies in bat boxes, the citizen science campaigns to track bat flights by detecting their inaudible calls.

It’s a wide-scale effort that extends far beyond North Carolina — and even beyond the United States — and everyone involved is keeping their fingers crossed that whitenose will expose its kryptonite, that all this stone-turning will yield that one vital clue unearthing the fungus’ fatal flaw.

The hope? That someday, Cameron said, research will find an answer, and American bat populations will bounce back from their brush with death stronger than ever.

The Southeast’s most grueling team race will take off from Pink Beds Picnic Area in the Pisgah National Forest near Brevard April 17, covering 212 miles before ending at Nantahala Outdoor Center April 18.

The sixth annual Smoky Mountain Overnight Relay will draw in runners from across the U.S. to cover a route that’s both beautiful and challenging. Teams of six or 12 people each run three or six legs of the race, at least one of which must be run overnight. The route includes a Forest Service Road around the granite dome of

Looking Glass Rock, spectacular views from the Blue Ridge Parkway and glimpses of the Appalachian and Bartram trails along the upper Nantahala River.

The runners will hold descriptive cards to stay on track while their teammates shuttle along to the next leg, and nurses riding on horseback will tend to any injuries.

Finish-line festivities at NOC will include live mountain music, costume contests and food and drink along the riverbank.

Registration for the race is open through April 10. www.smr.smokymountainrelay.com

Get your run on Consider stretching into spring with one of these run/walk events Saturday, April 25: ■ A 5K and 1K fun run will unleash a flood of superheroes on downtown Waynesville with the third annual 5Kare. The run, supporting Kids Advocacy Resource Effort, invites runners to

■ The Greening Up the Mountains 5K Run & Walk will celebrate springtime in the mountains, stepping off at 9 a.m. April 25 from Mark Watson Park in Sylva. The race is just one part of the all-day Greening Up the Mountains festival, which includes arts and crafts vendors, live music and children’s activities. $15 pre-registration includes a race shirt and is open through April 21 at www.imathlete.com or at the Cullowhee Recreation Center. $20 day-of registration starts at 8 a.m. with an option to buy a shirt at extra cost.

Registration open for summer camp in Waynesville

Racers hand off the baton during a previous Smoky Mountain Relay.

Donated photo

wear their favorite superhero costume to compete for the title of best costume.

The fun run starts at 8:30 a.m. followed by the 5K at 9 a.m. $10 for children under 13. $20 for registration before April 11 and $25 for late registration. Register at www.karehouse.org/2015-5Kare.html.

Registration is open for summer day-camp with Waynesville Parks and Recreation.

The camp, held June 8 to Aug. 14, will be based out of the Waynesivlle Recreation Center but will spend plenty of time outside. Campers will be divided into three groups: pre-K to first grade, second to fourth grade and fifth to seventh grade.

Limited space available. $655 for rec center members and $680 for nonmembers before April 30. Prices then increase to $700 and $725, respectively, with registration open through May 18.

828.456.2030 or tpetrea@waynesvillenc.gov.

WCU students win bass angling title

April 18 will be all about tennis at Waynesville Recreation Park, which just had its tennis courts resurfaced last year. The Saturday will feature two events, presented by tennis teaching professional Rumi Kakareka, to promote tennis programs that will continue through the spring: ■ Noon to 2 p.m., an introduction to a juniors program for players ages 6 to 12 will go over the basics.

■ 3 to 5 p.m., a short court masters shootout will give beginning and experienced players alike a chance to try their hand at the fast-paced, round-robin format.

Rumi Kakareka, 703.966.7138 or rkakareka@me.com.

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Smoky Mountain News

New tennis programs volley into Waynesville

April 8-14, 2015

Thinking of Enhancing Your Smile?

A pair of Western Carolina University students took first this spring, in the Carhartt Bassmaster College Series Eastern Regional, presented by Bass Pro Shops, bringing in a three-day total of 42 pounds, 6 ounces.

Austin Neary and Alex Frazier targeted spawning fish but also fished nearby docks and rocks in Lake Norman near Charlotte with dropshots and jerkbaits, putting up with chilly temperatures from a nasty cold front that swept through the second day of the competition. The combination of three fishing patterns helped the pair navigate changeable weather patterns to bring in the fish.

“I could probably run through a brick wall right now,” Frazier said following his and Neary’s win.

The anglers will go on to compete in the national championship in June.

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Spiffed-up shelter hits the Macon County AT to spur more people to try a long-distance hike themselves.

In addition to the tent pads, NHC volunteers worked on 100 yards of side trails leading off the AT to the shelter.

“This trail, like all others, suffer from erosion from rain and use,” Ho explained.

“This soil erosion can cause the trail to become unsafe for hikers to use and, if not addressed, will eventually make the trail impassable in areas.”

NHC funded the work.

Cherokee to weigh in on fish conservation The Watershed Association of the Tuckasegee River will hold its annual meeting celebrating Earth Month at 6 p.m. Monday, April 13, in the community room of the Ginger Lynn Welch Complex on Acquoni Road in Cherokee.

In addition to a potluck dinner and update on WATR activities, the meeting will feature Mike Lavoie, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians program director for Fisheries and Wildlife Management, speaking on fish conservation on the Tuck.

RSVP to Mary Jones, marywjones@gmail.com 931.205.1138.

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With a higher-than-normal volume of thru-hikers expected next season, the Nantahala Hiking Club is getting prepared with upgrades to the Rock Gap Shelter located near Standing Indian Campground in Macon County.

“We built four new tent pads to accommodate the expected increase in the number of hikers as a result of the movies ‘A Walk in the Woods’ and ‘Wild,’” said San Ho, the club’s trail manager.

The movies, which chronicle hikes along the AT and Pacific Crest Trail, are expected

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EBCI staff are involved in a variety of aquatic management projects. Donated photo

A study of lymphoproliferative disease virus, a malady affecting wild turkeys, is calling in help from hunters.

The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission is asking successful hunters to remove the unfeathered portion of a lower leg, place it in a sealable plastic bag labeled with the county where killed, date taken, beard length and spur length, sex of the turkey and the Big Game Harvest ID number.

Hunters should freeze the samples and then call 919.707.0050 for instructions on submitting them.

Though the virus does not affect humans, turkeys carrying it exhibit signs such as weakness, disorientation and nodules around the head and feet. The first documented case of the virus in North America occurred in 2009. In North Carolina, there have been six documented cases.

Tribe granted authority over water standards

Ozone season hits Ozone season is here, a time of year when hot temperatures can combine with air pollutants and fine particles to form the hazardous compound.

But things are looking good in North Carolina. Ozone levels in the state did not exceed any federal standard in 2014 and only once in 2013 due to lower emissions and relatively cool, cloudy, wet weather.

Regulations such as the Clean Smokestacks Act of 2002 have also played a role, requiring industry to reduce emissions.

Air quality forecasts are available at www.ncair.org or by calling 1.888.784.6224. A smartphone app, EPA AIRNow, also provides forecasts.

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The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is now able to administer its own water quality certifications, becoming the 49th tribe in the nation to gain authority from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to administer the Water Quality Standards Program.

Federal water quality standards, which are embedded in the Clean Water Act, aim to restore and protect integrity of water resources. The tribe will now be responsible for setting its own expectations for the reservation’s water quality. The standards will be the foundation of pollution control efforts and watershed management, guiding monitoring and assessment and the legal basis for permitting and pollution controls such as discharge permits.

The EPA would still have to approve whatever standards the tribe comes up with, however.

“EPA’s approval reflects the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ effort to build expertise and capacity to protect and restore water quality,” said EPA Regional Administrator Heather McTeer Toney. www.epa.gov/tribalportal/laws/tas.htm

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A Family Nature Summit participant inspects a moth during an event held in Maine.

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Smoky Mountain News

April 8-14, 2015

PARKS AND RECREATION 828.456.2030 or email tpetrea@waynesvillenc.gov

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Applications are open for teachers looking to attend the 2015 Family Nature Summit, based in Lake Junaluska.

The summit, scheduled for June 27 to July 3, will provide a week of age-appropriate outdoors activities for all members of the family, allowing adults and children alike to get their fill. Family Nature Summits are held each year in a different area of the United States.

The scholarship covers registration and room and board for the teacher and one guest, a total value of $2,500. One full scholarship is available and additional partial scholarships — covering registration fees for the teacher and possibly for one guest — may also be offered.

Awardees are expected to provide a written synopsis of the experience for use in educational and promotional materials. For an application, contact DeLene Hoffner, scholarship@familysummits.org or 719.310.7349. Deadline is May 1.

Wildflower pilgrimage celebrates spring The Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage will kick off its 65th year of outdoors programming Tuesday, April 21, with the five-day event lasting through April 25.

Most programs take place outdoors, exploring the Great Smoky Mountains National Park with walks highlighting wildflowers, wildlife and natural history; motorcades; photo tours and art classes, but some indoor programs will be included as well. Indoor offerings are scheduled in various venues throughout Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

Online registration is open through 9 a.m. April 20, and onsite registration begins at 5 p.m.

April 21. www.springwildflowerpilgrimage.org.

Monarchs to rein over greenway program Monarch butterflies and the food they eat will be the topics of discussion at “Monarchs and Milkweed Magic,” a program Friends of the Greenway will offer at 10 a.m. Tuesday, April 14, at FROG Quarters on Main Street in Franklin.

Volunteers will share their monarch-oriented experience and discuss the establishment and purpose of the Greenway’s butterfly garden. Monarch butterflies, which make a yearly, multi-generational pilgrimage from Mexico to the northern U.S. and back, are in decline. Their larvae feed exclusively on milkweed, packets of which will be

Holly Kays photo

available for purchase at the event.

828.369.8488.

Weather watchers wanted for citizen science program high-quality, accurate measurements, the observers are able to supplement existing networks and provide useful results to scientists, resource managers, decision-makers and other users.”

CoCoRaHS began in 1998 after a devastating flash flood hit Fort Collins, Colorado, in 1997. The flood caught many by surprise and spurred an interest in doing a better job of mapping and reporting intense storms.

The more volunteers participate, the more concrete patterns emerge. In recent years, drought observations have become an especially important function of CoCoRaHS;

its observations are included in the National Integrated Drought Information System.

North Carolina joined the network, which now encompasses all 50 states, in 2007.

“North Carolina has one of the most complex climates in the U.S.,” said Dr. Ryan Boyles, state climatologist and director of the State Climate Office, based at North Carolina State University. “Data gathered from CoCoRaHS volunteers are very important in better understanding local weather and climate patterns.”

To join the network, visit www.cocorahs.org and click the “Join CoCoRaHS” emblem on the upper right side.

Tuck River cleanup puts out call for volunteers

WCU students paddle the Tuck in search of litter. WCU photo

Shooting range closes for maintenance The Wayne E. Smith Shooting Range on Cold Mountain Game Land in Haywood County will close April 13-17 for routine maintenance.

The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission closes the range for one week each spring. Work will include repairing and grading the parking area and entrance road as well as replacing and repairing shooting benches.

The unstaffed range is open to the public during daylight Monday through Saturday, free of charge. Pistols, rifles, shotguns and muzzleloaders are all allowed.

The range is about 2 miles past Lake Logan off N.C. 215.

SPACE AVAILABLE

April 8-14, 2015

The nation’s largest single-day river litter removal will mark its 31st year Saturday, April 18.

The Tuckaseigee River Cleanup, hosted by Base Camp Cullowhee at Western Carolina University, will enlist volunteers 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the lawn at A.K. Hinds University Center, with the first 600 registrants receiving a T-shirt and energy bar.

Base Camp Cullowhee will transport volunteers to the river and provide them with life jackets and paddles. Volunteers can raft the river in search of trash or walk along the riverbanks. The cleanup will last two to three hours.

When the work concludes, a free cookout with live music, yard games and prizes with be held at the University Center lawn. Typically, the cleanup attracts 900 volunteers who remove tons of garbage from 27 miles or river.

The Hunter Community Garden near Canton is looking for gardeners to get growing in one of its available spots.

Plots, which cost $35 apiece, are 600 square feet and come with underground irrigation lines, an initial tilling already done and access to a tiller, garden tools, storage space for materials and free advice from Haywood County Cooperative Extension. The garden is located at 144 Johnson Farm Road.

Sarah Scott, 828.456.3575.

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A network of amateur rain and weather spotters are contributing to the scientific understanding of niche weather patterns on a local and regional level.

The Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow network — known as CoCoRaHS — is looking for volunteers to join its ranks.

It’s as simple as taking an online training, buying a $30 rain gauge and then submitting your reports.

“The process takes only five minutes a day, but the impact to the community is tenfold,” said David Glenn, National Weather Service meteorologist and CoCoRaHS coordinator for North Carolina. “By providing

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Smoky Mountain News April 8-14, 2015

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WNC Calendar COMMUNITY EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS • Southwestern Community College will host its 50th anniversary open house celebration from 4-6 p.m. on April 10, at the Jackson Campus. Scholarship giveaway/scavenger hunt contest; free food and t-shirts while supplies last; exhibitions from SCC’s 80-plus programs; and free cruise-in for cars, trucks and bikes. For questions about the open house celebration, contact 50th anniversary planning committee chairman Tyler Norris Goode at 339.4394 or t_goode@southwesterncc.edu.

• Western Carolina University’s Mountain Heritage Center is hosting a celebration to reflect on 36 years of education and service from 1-5 p.m. on April 11 in Cullowhee. 227.7129.

• The Town of Canton will host public meetings from 57:30 p.m. on April 13 at Canton Armory/Senior Center to get input for its master plan for Canton Recreation Park improvements. Seth Hendler-Voss at 648.2363 or shendler-voss@cantonnc.net.

• A kick-off for the HeartChase event will be held from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. and from 5-6 p.m. on April 15, at Haywood Regional Health & Fitness Center in Clyde.

Trial run for the May 16 HeartChase event.

• Swain County Chamber of Commerce’s annual chamber banquet is from 6-9 p.m. on April 16, at the Fryemont Inn. Early bird tickets are $30 per person. $35 week of event.

• The grand opening celebration for The Terrace at Lake Junaluska is scheduled for 5 p.m. April 16 on the third floor of The Terrace Auditorium. www.lakejunaluska.com/terrace.

• The Antique Car Franklin History Tour is set for 1:30 p.m. on April 19 starting at the Town Hall parking lot in downtown Franklin. For vehicles 50 years old and older.

RSVP to maconantiquecars@aol.com.

• Tours and informative sessions about Barium Springs, which merged with Grandfather Home for Children, will be held at noon on April 20 at Hawthorn Heights in Bryson City.

• Nominations are open for the 2015 Macon County Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, which will be presented on April 30. To submit a nomination, visit www.maconedc.com by April 21.

BUSINESS & EDUCATION • “Ideation: The Business Model Canvas” will be the topic of a seminar held from 6-9 p.m. on April 9 in the 1500 Building auditorium at Haywood Community College in Clyde. The course will change the way you think about traditional business idea development. sbc.haywood.edu or 627.4512.

• Harvey Gantt, an architect and civil rights activist, is the keynote speaker for a symposium entitled “North Carolina in Dialogue: Our Past, Present and Future” that will be held from 8 a.m.-8 p.m. on April 10 at Western Carolina University’ A.K. Hinds University Center. Free. pdp.wcu., 227.3502 or rhferguson@wcu.edu.

• Excel for Beginners class on April 13 at 5:45 p.m. at Jackson County Public Library. 586.2016

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 the IRS will be offered every Tuesday through April 14 at the Jackson County Public Library (3-6:45 p.m.) and the Jackson County Senior Center (10 a.m.-3 p.m.) - both in Sylva. For info, contact Donald Selzer (293.0074).

• A Student Success Seminar is set for 1-2 p.m. on April 15 at Haywood Community College in Clyde. Topic is Exam Preparation. Free. 627.4646 or drowland@haywood.edu.

• Learn how to master your elevator pitch in a small business seminar from 6-9 p.m. on April 15, in the 1500 Building auditorium at Haywood Community College in Clyde. sbc.haywood.edu or 627.4512.

• Strategic Marketing for Nonprofits, which need a different approach than typical for-profit organizations, will be the topic of a small business seminar set for 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. on April 16 at the Haywood County Waynesville Library. sbc.haywood.edu or 627.4512.

• A school enrichment embryology program will be offered for Haywood County teachers at 4 p.m. on April 16 by the Haywood County 4-H. Free. 456.3575.

• A small business owners roundtable, an opportunity to network and learn, will be held from 8:30-10 a.m. on April 16, at the Haywood Community College’s Library Conference Room. sbc.haywood.edu or 627.4512.

• A “Building Your Online Community Seminar,” designed to guide local businesses and non-profits with a hands-on, step-by-step approach to creating an online business presence, will be held from 1-4 p.m. on April 17 in Waynesville. https://manicsocial1.eventbrite.com./ • A school enrichment butterfly program will be offered for Haywood County teachers at 4 p.m. on April 20. Free.

456.3575.

• A small business seminar entitled “BEE on Top with Great Customer Service” will be presented by Southwestern Community College from 5:30-8:30 p.m. on April 21 at Franklin Town Hall. Free. Registration required at www.ncsbc.net. t_henry@southwesterncc.edu or 339.4211.

• A Business Enhancement Experience (BEE) seminar entitled “BEE on Top with Great Customer Service” is set for 5:30-8:30 p.m. on April 21 at Franklin Town Hall.

Free, but registration required: www.ncsbc.net. Tiffany Henry at 339.4211 or t_henry@southwesterncc.edu.

• A series of free lunch-and-learn workshops about the Cherokee language and current efforts to increase its use in North Carolina will be held from noon-1 p.m. on Tuesdays through April 21 at SpeakEasyPress in the Riverwood Studios/Oaks Gallery in Dillsboro. Learn about the Cherokee writing system. frank@speakeasypress.com.

• Western North Carolina Civil War Round Table’s April meeting will feature Park Ranger and Chief Historian Jim Ogden at 7 p.m. on April 13 in the Jury Room of the Jackson County Justice Center in Sylva. Dinner is at 5 p.m. at Bogart’s in Sylva. Ogden will present insights and interpretation of the Battle of Chattanooga. Paul Turner (648.2488).

• A 5K Zombie Run benefitting Relay for Life of Franklin will be held April 8, starting at the Frog Headquarters and ending at Southwestern Community College’s Macon Campus. $15 entry fee.

• Free tax preparation by trained volunteers certified by

• The Eighth-Annual Chocolate Cook-Off will be held

FUNDRAISERS AND BENEFITS

Smoky Mountain News

April 24 at the Swain County Chamber of Commerce.

Fundraiser for Friends of the Marianna Black Library.

Application deadline is April 10; applications available at Marianna Black Library, Friends of the Library Bookstore or at http://fontanalib.org/node/180.

• A baked goods sale, a fundraiser by the Franklin High School Nutrition Relay for Life Team, is currently accepting orders for “Pineapple Yummy Cake” ($20), Oreo balls dipped in chocolate ($10 or 15 for $6). Butter pecan pound cakes and cookies are also available. 3-4 day notice needed. Terrie Kemp at 342.6816.

• A Bubble Bunny 5K Fun Run/Walk will be held April 11 in The Village of Forest Hills. Proceeds support Mountain Discovery Charter School’s athletic, music and theater programs. $20 registration fee. Check-in at 8:30 a.m.; race starts at 9:30 a.m. Pre-register at www.active.com or www.mountaindiscovery.org.

• Nurture Wellness Studio is having a YOGA FOR CHANGE fundraiser for Placing Animals Within Society (PAWS) from 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. on April 11. Four donation-based Yoga classes: Gentle Yoga from 9 a.m.-10 a.m.; Intermediate Hatha Yoga from 10:30-11:30 a.m.; All-Levels Flow Yoga from noon-1 p.m. and All-Levels Hatha Yoga from 1:30-2:30 p.m.

• A trunk sale to support Franklin’s Friends of the Greenway will be held 9 a.m.-3 p.m. April 11, at the FROG headquarters in Franklin as part of the Franklin Trail Days event schedule.

• To raise community awareness, KARE is holding an artwork display by child survivors and their families from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on April 16 at the Cedar Hill Studio in Waynesville; • The Help For Homeless Concert will be held at 6 p.m.

April 16 at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin. The event will include performances by Tom Quigley, Curtis Blackwell, Paradise 56, Blue Ridge, Johnny Webb and The JW Band. All proceeds benefit New Hope Center and Community Outreach Ministry. Tickets are $15. www.greatmountainmusic.com or 866.273.4615.

• The Haywood Jackson Volunteer Center is looking for bakers to bake a chocolate or dessert recipe for the 16th annual Taste of Chocolate Plus sponsored by First Citizens Bank. This year’s event is on April 18 at Maggie Valley Country Club. 356.2833 or jchicoine@mountainprojects.org. Tickets are $12/$15 and can be purchased at Maggie Valley Club, Chocolate Bear, Blue Ridge Books and Quilters Quarters and The Better Bean Coffee House.

• The Joe Lasher Jr. Band performs at 7 p.m. on April 18 at the Colonial Theater in Canton as part of the “Down Home Tour.” Tickets are $7; proceeds benefit The Community Kitchen. 648.0014. www.joelasherjr.com.

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All phone numbers area code 828 unless otherwise noted. involvement with the Boy Scouts of Western North Carolina. $18 per person includes dinner. Register by April 20. Les Love at 658.1489 or lesrlove55@gmail.com.

• A WOOD CARVED SPIRIT by local artist Ron Yount will be raffled off by the Sylva Friends of the Library Used Bookstore on April 25. Tickets on sale now for $1 apiece or six for $5 at the bookstore in Sylva.

• 3rd Annual Birdhouse Bash & Silent Auction through the Daydreamz project and Open Door Community Gardeners. Create a birdhouse to donate for silent auction fundaiser hosted by Daydreamz project. Drop off birdhouses at Second Blessing Thrift Store (Waynesville) now till May 7. Birdhouses will be auctioned by silent bids at the Daydreamz booth during The Whole Bloomin’ Thing Festival in Frog Level in Waynesville on May 9.

476.4231, daydeamz_project@hotmail.com or 734.1570.

HEALTH MATTERS • The Red Cross will hold a blood drive from 10 a.m.2:30 p.m. on April 8 at the Cherokee Indian Hospital in Cherokee.

• The Red Cross will have a blood drive from 1-5:30 p.m. on April 10 at the Jackson County Department on Aging in Sylva.

• The Red Cross will hold a blood drive from 11 a.m.5:30 p.m. on April 14 at the Western Carolina University Hinds University Center in Cullowhee.

• A free tired-leg/varicose vein educational program will be offered at 4 and 5 p.m. on April 14 at Haywood Regional Medical Center in Clyde. For info, call 452.8346.

• A Red Cross Blood Drive is set for 11:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. on April 14 at HomeTrust Bank in Clyde.

• The American Red Cross and Western Carolina University have teamed up to offer a blood drive from 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. on April 14-15, in the Hinds University Center in Cullowhee. Donors are eligible for a variety of gift cards provided by Walmart, Bogart’s Restaurant and Tavern and Food Lion. To schedule an appointment, visit redcrossblood.org and enter the sponsor code “CATS,” call 800.RED.CROSS or download the Red Cross Blood Donor App. • The Red Cross will hold a blood drive from 11 a.m.5:30 p.m. on April 15 at the Western Carolina University Hinds University Center in Cullowhee.

• A car show will be held from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. April 18 at the Resurrection Lutheran Church in Franklin. $15 registration fee. Food available. There will also be a bouncy house for children. All proceeds from the event will go towards resurfacing the Great Beginnings Preschool playground. www.franklin-chamber.com.

• A six-week beginners meditation class will be offered starting at 10:30 a.m. on April 20 at the Senior Resource Center in Waynesville. Free.

• The third-annual “5KARE” 5K at 9 a.m. and Fantastic Fun Run 1K will be held at 8:30 a.m. on April 25 in downtown Waynesville. $10 for ages 12-under, $20 for all other ages who preregister by April 11; $25 after April 11. Wear your favorite superhero costume and compete for a best costume award or just run/walk for fun. Info: 456.8995. Register at www.Karehouse.org/2015-5kare.html. Day of race register at 8 a.m. at the Badcock parking lot. Proceeds benefit KARE, a nationally accredited Child Advocacy Center serving Haywood County.

• Registration for church softball in Jackson County is open through April 10. $375 fee includes bats. 293.3053.

• A spring barbecue/social will be held from 2:30-8:30 p.m. on April 25, at the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville. The program will be on the Carolina Mountain Club’s

RECREATION AND FITNESS • The Franklin Disc Golf Club will cover the game’s history, demonstrate and help with driving and putting techniques then lead a round at 1 p.m. on April 11 at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin. 524.3600.

• The Smoky Mountain Aquatic Club will offer a clinic to improve your swimming technique from 9-11 a.m. on April 11 at the Waynesville Recreation Center. For ages 16 and older. $20 for members; $25 for nonmembers.

Charlie McCanless atcoachmccanless@gmail.com.

• Registration for a Spring Golf League is open through April 14 at the Jackson County Parks and Recreation

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Department. Held at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesdays at Smoky Mountain Country Club. $10 to enter and $20 each week to the golf course. League starts with a meeting at 5:15 p.m. on April 14. 293.3053.

• An introduction to short-court tennis will be held on April 18 at the Waynesville Parks and Recreation’s courts. The introduction for juniors is from noon-2 p.m. while a “Masters Shootout” is from 3-5 p.m. Rumi Kakareka at 703.966.7138 orrkakareka@me.com.

• Registration is open April 20-May 1 for a Krav Maga Self-Defense Class in Jackson County. Classes meet from 8-9:45 a.m. on Saturdays starting May 2 at the Recreation Center in Cullowhee. Six weeks. $60. 16 and older.

• A Women’s Mountain Bike Skills Clinic, taught by former world cup racer Sue Haywood, is set for 9 a.m.noon on April 25 at the Western Carolina University picnic area in Cullowhee. $40 for Nantahala Area SORBA members; $50 for general public. nantahala.area.sorba@gmail.com or call 488.1988.

POLITICAL CORNER • The Swain County Democratic Annual Convention starts at 10 a.m. on April 11 at the Birdtown Gym Complex in Cherokee. For info, call Ginger Gaither at 736.3470.

• The Democratic Party of Macon County is holding its 2015 County Convention at 10 a.m. on April 11 at the Macon County Courthouse, Courtroom B. All Macon County Democrats welcome.

THE SPIRITUAL SIDE

Smoky Mountain News

April 8-14, 2015

• A spring women’s event will be held April 10-11 at Tuckasegee Wesleyan Church’s Fellowship Hall. Guest speaker Marie Shull will help participants discover their perfect place in the “Body of Christ.” Becky Carter at 508.8533 or call the church at 293.3322.

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SENIOR ACTIVITIES • Registration is under way through April 10 for participation in the 32nd Annual Haywood County Senior Games. Opening Ceremony (April 21) and AARP Ice Cream Social on April 29. 452.6789 or fill out form at www.haywoodnc.net.

• Registration period for the Smoky Mountain Senior Games will be till April 10. Fee: $15. Games are scheduled for April 24-May 15. For everyone ages 50up. Info: 293.3053, recjacksonnc.org.

• “Shifting Gears to Your Life & Work After Retirement,” a hands-on workshop, will be held from 5:30-8 p.m. on Thursdays from April 9-23, at Southwestern Community College’s Jackson Campus. $65. Register at www.southwesterncc.edu,339.4497 or j_williams@southwesterncc.edu.

KIDS & FAMILIES • The “Come Paint with Charles Kidz Program” will be at 4 p.m. April 9 and 23 at the Charles Heath Gallery in Bryson City. $20 per child. 538.2054.

• There will be an After-School Art Adventure for children and students from 3:15 to 4:30 p.m. April 8 and 15, at The Bascom in Highlands. There will also be a Franklin After-School Art Adventure from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. April 8 and 15. Free. www.thebascom.org.

• The Macon County Spring Break: Dream Weavers will be from 2 to 5 p.m. April 9-10 at The Bascom in Highlands. Two-day art class for children ages 5-10. www.thebascom.org.

• The Jackson County Bike Rodeo for Kindergarten through fourth grade will be held from 10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. on April 11 at the Jackson County Recreation Park in Cullowhee. 293.3053 or jenniferbennett@jacksonnc.org.

• Anime Night will be held for teens at 4:30 p.m. on

April 13, at Canton Branch Library. http://haywoodlibrary.libguides.com/teen or 648.2924.

• Book Buddies for ages 0-3 is held from 9:30-10:15 a.m. on April 14 at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville.

456.6000 or www.blueridgebooksnc.com.

• Page Pals, an opportunity for ages 3-5 to learn early literacy and school readiness skills, is held from 10:30-11:15 a.m. on April 14 at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville. 456.6000 or www.blueridgebooksnc.com.

• Drop-in information sessions for Shining Rock Classical Academy, a new charter school slated to open in Haywood County for the coming school year, will be held on the following days/times at 52 Walnut Street in Waynesville: 8:15-9 a.m. on April 14 and April 28 as well as 4-5:30 p.m. every other Thursday from March 5-April 30.

• A beginning baseball program for 3-4 year olds will be offered from 5:30-6:30 p.m. for seven consecutive Thursdays starting April 16 at the Waynesville Recreation Center. Donald Hummel at 456.2030 or dhummel@waynesvillenc.gov. Register at the Waynesville Recreation Center.

• Registration for sandlot baseball in Jackson County will be held from April 20-May 1. Must be between ages 5-7 on May 1. Starts week of May 11. 293.3053.

• Tennis lessons for ages 5-8 and 9-13 are offered through the Jackson County Recreation Center. $45.

293.3053.

• A new youth volleyball league for girls in grades fourth-through-eighth will be held on six consecutive Tuesday nights starting May 12. $40. Volunteer coaches needed. 293.3053.

• The Wee Naturalist program, which is for children ages 2-5 (with a parent or guardian), is held from 1011:30 a.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays at the North Carolina Arboretum. $7 cost per child; $3 more for additional child. Register at: www.ncarboretumregistration.org/Wee-Naturalists-for-Pre-K-2014-15-C264.aspx

• A Teen Advisory Group meets at 4 p.m. on the first Wednesday of each month to discuss YA books and teen program events.http://haywoodlibrary.libguides.com/teen or 648.2924.

KIDS CAMPS • Kids Clay in the Garden, a four-day class for youngsters during Spring Break, will be held by the Cowee Pottery School from 10 a.m.-noon on April 8 and April 10, at Macon County Heritage School north of Franklin. $56 plus clay and tools. 524.7690 or coweepotteryschool1@gmail.com.

• Registration for summer camp at Waynesville Parks and Recreation has started with early bird registration ending April 30. Camp dates are June 8-Aug. 14 at the Waynesville Recreation Center. 456.2030 or tpetrea@waynesvillenc.gov.

KIDS MOVIES • “Tinkerbell: The Legend of the Netherbeast,” will be screened each Saturday in April at noon and 2 p.m. for free at The Strand at 38 Main in Waynesville. www.38main.com or 283.0079 • “Rango” will be screened a 2 p.m., 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on April 18 at the Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. www.madbatterfoodandfilm.com.

• Saturday morning cartoons play for free at 11 a.m. at the Strand at 38 Main in Waynesville. 283.0079 or www.38main.com.

• Free family movies are shown at 3:30 p.m. each Tuesday at Marianna Black Library in Bryson City. Disney, Hallmark and other family-oriented movies. Popcorn is provided by Friends of the Library.

Each attendee receives one free movie check-out.

488.3030.

• Family movie time, 4 p.m. Mondays at Jackson

“We have had great reviews and response to our online ad in the business directory on The Smoky Mountain News website.

People have come in well informed of our business and said information was really easy to find online via the Smoky Mountain News online directory. Customers came in who had compared Permanent Makeup by Cassidy to the others doing the same kind of business in Waynesville, and the ad and info led them to our shop and a sale. Very pleased with the response and the job the site is doing.”

Thank You

SmokyMountain News!

CASSIDY MORGAN LANCE CASSIDY’S PERMANENT MAKEUP

County Public Library. Call for title of movie.

586.2016.

A&E FESTIVALS AND SPECIAL EVENTS • The inaugural “Banana Dash” will take place at 3 p.m. April 11 at Tonic Delivers in Sylva. Celebrating North Carolina Beer Month, the craft beer market will host a dash from the Jackson County Courthouse through downtown to the front of Tonic Delivers.

Patrons can purchase a banana suit and register for the event at www.tonicdelivers.com. Door prizes, live music, rare and local beers, and more.

• There will be an oyster roast from 6 to 10 p.m. April 17 at The Bascom in Highlands. The event will be in celebration of the center for visual art’s recent expansion. Free steamed oysters. Other food and drinks available. Live bluegrass music by WellStrung from 7 to 9 p.m. www.thebascom.org.

• The Smoky Mountain Oyster & Seafood Festival is set for noon-6 p.m. on April 18 at the Maggie Valley Festival Grounds. $8 for ages 13 and up. Free for ages 12-under. Smokymtnoysterfest.com or 926.0285.

ON STAGE & IN CONCERT • The First Thursday Old-Time and Bluegrass Concert and Jam Series at Western Carolina University’s Mountain Heritage Center will continue at 7 p.m. April 9 in Cullowhee with a concert featuring folk musician and storyteller Josh Goforth. 227.7129.

• Western Carolina University (Cullowhee) will have Alex Vaughn Senior Recital 5 p.m. April 18 in the Coulter Building. www.wcu.edu.

• Western Carolina University (Cullowhee) will host The Inspirational Choir Spring Concert at 3 p.m. on April 19 at the University Center Grand Room. www.wcu.edu.

• Western Carolina University (Cullowhee) will have a Civic Orchestra April 20 at 7:30 p.m. in the Coulter Building. www.wcu.edu.

• Vocalist Michelle Berting Britt, accompanied by a seven-piece Nashville band, re-create the sound of the Carpenters in “We’ve Only Just Begun: Carpenters Remembered” at 3 p.m. on April 26 at WCU’s Bardo Center in Cullowhee. Season subscriptions are $120/adults; $110/WCU faculty and staff; $45 students and children. Single-show tickets are $21/adults; $16/WCU faculty and staff; $15/person with groups of 20 or more; $7 students and children.

227.2479 or bardoartscenter.wcu.edu.

NIGHTLIFE • Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will have an Open Mic night April 8 and 15 at 8 p.m. www.innovation-brewing.com.

• Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will have a jazz night with the Kittle/Collings Duo April 9 and 16 at 8 p.m. www.innovation-brewing.com.

• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will have Craig Summers & Lee Kram (singer-songwriter) at 6 p.m.

April 9 and 16. Free. 454.5664 or www.froglevelbrewing.com.

• Joe Cruz (piano, vocals) plays The Beatles, Elton John and James Taylor at 7 p.m. on April 11 and 18, at The Classic Wineseller in Waynesville. Reservations: 452.6000.

• No Name Sports Pub (Sylva) will have Urban Pioneers (Americana/bluegrass) at 9 p.m. on April 9.

586.2750 or www.nonamesportspub.com.

• HART is presenting “The Actor and The Assassin” as part of the Civil War Anniversary from April 10-19 in Waynesville. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. on April 10-11, 14, 17-19 and at 3 p.m. on April 12 and 19. www.harttheatre.org or by calling 456.6322.

• BearWaters Brewing (Waynesville) will have ClawHoss & Friends (Americana/bluegrass) 7 p.m.

April 10. www.bwbrewing.com or 246.0602.

• Legendary country-music artist Loretta Lynn performs at 7:30 p.m. on April 11 at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort in Cherokee. Ticketmaster.com or 800.745.3000.

• Canton Armory will have “Pickin’ in the Armory” with the Stoney Creek Cloggers and Appalachian Mountaineers at 7 p.m. April 10. www.cantonnc.com.

• No Name Sports Pub (Sylva) will have The Hardin Draw (folk/string) at 9 p.m. on April 10. 586.2750 or www.nonamesportspub.com.

• Classic Wineseller (Waynesville) will have ‘Round the Fire (Grateful Dead tribute) on April 10 at 7 p.m.

452.6000 or www.classicwineseller.com.

• Mad Batter Food & Film (Sylva) will have the Natty Love Joys (reggae) at 9 p.m. April 10. $3. www.madbatterfoodandfilm.com.

• The Strand at 38 Main (Waynesville) will have The Hillbenders (bluegrass/Americana) at 8 p.m. on April 17. Tickets at www.38main.com or 283.0079.

• Nantahala Brewing (Bryson City) will have The Liz Nance Trio (Americana/bluegrass) at 8:30 p.m. on April 10. www.nantahalabrewing.com.

• The 9th Street Stompers (blues, swing, gypsy jazz, rockabilly, tango) perform at 7 p.m. on April 17 at the Classic Wineseller in Waynesville. Tickets: $10.

452.6000. www.classicwineseller.com or www.9thstree tstompers.com.

• Tipping Point Brewing (Waynesville) will have Kevin Fuller (singer-songwriter) at 9 p.m. on April 10. Free.

• “Peter Pan: The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up” will be staged April 16-19 by the Western Carolina University School of Stage and Screen at the Bardo Fine & Performing Arts Center in Cullowhee. Showtimes are

• Water’n Hole Bar & Grille (Waynesville) will have Urban Pioneers (Americana/bluegrass) on April 10 at 9:30 p.m.

Smoky Mountain News

• Pat Donohoe plays at 7:30 p.m. on April 16 at the Strand in Waynesville. Tickets at www.38main.com or 283.0079.

• The Blue Ridge Big Band presents a concert at 3 p.m. on April 18 at the Main Branch of the Haywood County Library on Haywood Street in Waynesville. The community is invited. Rhonda Wilson Kram at 456.4880.

April 8-14, 2015

• Western Carolina University (Cullowhee) will have Richard MacDowell (clarinet) on April 9 at 7:30 p.m. in the Coulter Building. www.wcu.edu.

• Western Carolina University (Cullowhee) will have the Daniel Ball Senior Recital on April 11 at 7:30 p.m. in the Coulter Building. www.wcu.edu.

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• Family movie time Thursdays, 3:45 p.m. at Albert Carlton, Cashiers Community Library. Free with popcorn. Call for title. 743.0215.

7:30 p.m. April 16-18 and at 3 p.m. on April 19.

Tickets: $16 for adults; $11 for seniors and WCU faculty/staff; and $10 (show day) for students. 227.2479 or bardoartscenter.wcu.edu.

• BearWaters Brewing (Waynesville) will have Trial By Stone (reggae/ska) 8 p.m. April 11. www.bwbrewing.com or 246.0602.

• Lost Hiker (Highlands) will have Sidecar Honey (Americana/bluegrass) April 11. www.thelosthikerbar.com.

• No Name Sports Pub (Sylva) will have Tail Light Rebellion (boogie/folk) and The Eisenhower Interstate

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Smoky Mountain News April 8-14, 2015

Includes event admission & live music

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Highway System at 9 p.m. on April 11.

586.2750 or www.nonamesportspub.com.

• Mad Batter Food & Film (Sylva) will have a one-year anniversary Burlesque Show at 8 p.m.

April 15. $5. www.madbatterfoodandfilm.com.

• Nantahala Brewing (Bryson City) will have OGYA World Music Band 8 p.m. April 17 and Shane Meade & The Sound (Americana/soul). www.nantahalabrewing.com.

• BearWaters Brewing (Waynesville) will have Mark Bumgarner (Americana) 8 p.m. April 17. www.bwbrewing.com or 246.0602.

• City Lights Café (Sylva) will have Karen “Sugar” Barnes & Dave McGill (blues/acoustic) at 7 p.m. April 17. www.citylightscafe.com.

• No Name Sports Pub (Sylva) will have Dustin Martin & The Ramblers (Americana/string) April 17 at 9 p.m. 586.2750 or www.nonamesportspub.com.

• Tipping Point Brewing (Waynesville) will have James Stinnett (singer-songwriter) April 17 at 9 p.m.

• Water’n Hole Bar & Grille (Waynesville) will have Deltaphonic (southern rock) April 17 at 9:30 p.m.

• Water’n Hole Bar & Grille (Waynesville) will have the Ryan Cavanaugh Duo (bluegrass/jazz) April 18 at 9:30 p.m.

• No Name Sports Pub (Sylva) will have Deltaphonic (southern rock) April 18 at 9 p.m.

586.2750 or www.nonamesportspub.com.

• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will have Bobby G (rock/acoustic) 7 p.m. April 18. Free.

454.5664 or www.froglevelbrewing.com.

• David Joy will present his debut novel “Where All Light Tends to Go” at 3 p.m. on April 11 at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville. 456.6000.

• The Beaverdam Community Center’s monthly meeting is set for 7 p.m. on April 13 at the Community Center. Guest speaker is local author Renee Mullinax, who’ll discuss publishing and her book: “Where the Wisteria Grows.”

648.0552.

• Writer Katherine Soniat will read selections of poetry from her new chapbook “The Goodbye Animals” as part of the Coffee with the Poet series at 10:30 a.m. April 16 at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. 586.9499.

• The book “How Cancer Transformed Our Lives” by Debra Dalton and Diana Kenney will be the topic of an event at 1 p.m. on April 18 at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville. 456.6000.

CLASSES AND PROGRAMS

• The Sylva Photo Club will feature Larry Thompson’s presentation on “Wildflowers in Western North Carolina” at 2 p.m. on April 11 at Cullowhee Methodist Church.

• The Second-Sunday Community Dance is set for 2:30 p.m. on April 12 on the second floor of the old courthouse in the Jackson County Library Complex in Sylva. Circle and contra dances. Ron Arps at ronandcathy71@frontier.com.

• A program about “Photographing Waterfalls” will be presented by Everette Robinson at the monthly meeting of the Cold Mountain Photographic Society at 7 p.m. on April 13 on the second floor of the Haywood Regional Health & Fitness Center in Clyde. coldmountainphoto.wordpress.com.

• Fanciful Vases and Boxes, a hand-building class taught by Hank Shuler, will be held from 6-9 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays from April 13-30 at Macon County Heritage School north of Franklin. $126 plus clay and tools. 524.7690 or coweepotteryschool1@gmail.com.

• The Smoky Mountain Quilters Guild will meet at 9:30 a.m. on April 13 in Tartan Hall of First Presbyterian Church in Franklin. Dianne Schickedantz at 524.4530 or dseverfall@yahoo.com.

• A four-week instructional class for puppetry will be held from 4 to 5:30 p.m. on Wednesdays starting April 15 at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin. Learn the age-old craft of foam puppet building and manipulation from start to finish. Each student will design and fabricate a puppet based upon a specific style and personality. All ages. Cost is $35. www.greatmountainmusic.com.

• A chair-seat weaving/caning workshop will be offered by Dogwood Crafters from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on April 20-21 at the Masonic Lodge in Dillsboro. 586.2435 or junettapell@hotmail.com by April 13.

• History of Extension, a Cane Creek Extension and Community Association craft club workshop, will be held April 21. 586.4009.

• The Mountain Writers Group meets at 1 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville. 456.6000 or www.blueridgebooksnc.com.

• The Haywood Community Band rehearses from 7-8:30 p.m. each Thursday at Grace Episcopal Church in Waynesville. Rhonda Wilson Kram at 456.4880.

ART SHOWINGS AND GALLERIES • The “Countdown to Ecstasy: A Faculty Biennial” art exhibit reception will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. April 9 in the Fine Arts Museum at Western Carolina University. Featuring professional and studio artwork from WCU faculty members, the exhibit will run April 9 to May 29. www.wcu.edu.

• Photography and folk art digital photography

by Candler sisters Barbara Sammons and Francine Menor will be showcased by the Haywood County Arts Council till April 28 at Gallery 86 in Waynesville. Artist reception set for 5-7 p.m. on April 10. Free. Proceeds benefit CarePartners Foundation and CarePartners Hospice in memory of the artists’ mother, Irene Holloway.

• A photography exhibit entitled “Seeing with New Eyes” by Sharon Mammoser will be on display through April 19 at The North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville. Parking fee. www.ncarboretum.org or sharenaturemore@gmail.com.

CALL FOR VENDORS / SPONSORS

• A Stampin’ Up workshop will be held from 10 a.m.-noon April 15 at the Swain County Chamber of Commerce in Bryson City. Cardmaking class using Stampin’ Up products and techniques. www.greatsmokies.com.

• Applications are being accepted through April 15 from fine artists, mountain crafters and food vendors who want booth space at Greening up the Mountains Festival on April 25 in Sylva. www.greeningupthemountains.com. 631.4587.

• Small Casserole Dishes, a class that allows students to create a variety of casserole dishes to take home from 1-4 p.m. on Wednesdays from April 15-May 13 at Macon County Heritage School north of Franklin. $105 plus clay and tools. 524.7690 or coweepotteryschool1@gmail.com.

• The Downtown Waynesville Association seeks heritage-themed vendors for the fifth-annual Appalachian Lifestyle Celebration, which is June 13. Applications are accepted until April 17.

456.3517 or www.downtownwaynesville.com.

• Beaded Spoons, a Jackson County Extension and Community Association craft club workshop, will be held from 1-2:30 p.m. on April 16, in the Conference Room of the Community Service Center in Sylva. 586.4009.

• A rapid fire raku class hosted by Rick Berman will be from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. April 17-18 at The Bascom in Highlands. www.thebascom.org.

• History of Extension, a Jackson County Extension and Community Association craft club workshop, will be held at noon on April 9 in the Conference room of the Community Service Center in Sylva. 586.4009.

• The Macon County Senior Games Flea Market will be from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. April 18 at the Macon County Community Building in Franklin. www.franklin-chamber.com.

• The Western North Carolina Woodturners, Inc., will meet at 6 p.m. on April 9 at the Blue Ridge

• A glass bird sculpture class will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 18 at the Jackson

• The Cashiers Area Chamber of Commerce is seeking financial sponsorships for its 23rd annual Tour de Cashiers Mountain Cycling Experience, which is set for May 2. http://tinyurl.com/qjpm8d5.

FILM & SCREEN • “The Big Lebowski” will be screened on April 10-11 and April 18 and 24 at 9:30 p.m. for free at The Strand at 38 Main in Waynesville. www.38main.com.

• “Imitation Game” will be screened on April 8 at 7 p.m., April 10 at 7 p.m. and April 11 at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. and April 12 at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. at The Strand at 38 Main in Waynesville. www.38main.com.

Haywood County Real Estate Agents Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Lifestyle Properties — vistasofwestfield.com Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Great Smokys Realty — BHHSGreatSmokysRealty.com • Eugene L. Strickland — Gene@4Smokys.com

Beverly Hanks & Associates • • • • •

beverly-hanks.com Michelle McElroy — beverly-hanks.com Marilynn Obrig — beverly-hanks.com Mike Stamey — beverly-hanks.com Ellen Sither — beverly-hanks.com Brook Parrott — beverly-hanks.com

Emerson Group • George Escaravage — gke333@gmail.com

ERA Sunburst Realty — sunburstrealty.com Haywood Properties — haywoodproperties.com • Steve Cox — info@haywoodproperties.com Keller Williams Realty kellerwilliamswaynesville.com • Ron Kwiatkowski — ronk.kwrealty.com

Mountain Home Properties mountaindream.com • Sammie Powell — smokiesproperty.com

Main Street Realty — mainstreetrealty.net McGovern Real Estate & Property Management • Bruce McGovern — shamrock13.com

Realty World Heritage Realty realtyworldheritage.com • Carolyn Lauter realtyworldheritage.com/realestate/viewagent/7766 • Martha Sawyer realtyworldheritage.com/realestate/viewagent/7769 • Linda Wester realtyworldheritage.com/realestate/viewagent/7771

RE/MAX — Mountain Realty • • • • • • •

remax-waynesvillenc.com | remax-maggievalleync.com Brian K. Noland — brianknoland.com Mieko Thomson — ncsmokies.com The Morris Team — maggievalleyproperty.com The Real Team — the-real-team.com Ron Breese — ronbreese.com Dan Womack — womackdan@aol.com Catherine Proben — cp@catherineproben.com

Smoky Mountain News

• In celebration of Poetry Month, Western North Carolina poet Kirk Thomas will read from his new collection entitled “Miscellaneous Musings and Other Odd Thoughts: The Desert Poems” at 3 p.m. on April 18 at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville. 456.6000

• Namita Wiggers will give an artist talk at 2:30 p.m. April 10, in the Bardo Arts Center at Western Carolina University. Wiggers is the director and co-founder of the Critical Craft Forum and teaches at the Oregon College of Art & Craft and the Pacific Northwest College of Art. www.wcu.edu.

• Sew Easy Girls will be held at 1 p.m. April 20 in the Conference Room of the Community Service Center in Sylva. 586.4009.

April 8-14, 2015

BOOKS & AUTHORS

• “A Trunkload of Trouble, The Do’s and Don’ts of Preserving Things,” will be the topic of the Jackson County Genealogical Society’s April program that starts at 7 p.m. on April 9 in the Community Room of the historic Jackson County Courthouse in Sylva. Free. 631.2646.

County Green Energy Park in Dillsboro.

631.0271 or www.jcgep.org.

wnc calendar

• No Name Sports Pub (Sylva) will have D.S. Yancey & Brian Hartley (indie/country) at 9 p.m. on April 13. 586.2750 or www.nonamesportspub.com.

School in Glenville. 526.2616.

The Seller’s Agency — listwithphil.com • Phil Ferguson — philferguson@bellsouth.net 287-23

TO ADVERTISE IN THE NEXT ISSUE 828.452.4251 | ads@smokymountainnews.com

49

wnc calendar

• “Do You Believe?” will be screened through April 9 at the Highlands Playhouse. Showtimes are at 2, 5 and 8 p.m. Tickets are $9. 526.2695 or www.highlandsplayhouse.org.

• “Wild” will be screened at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on April 9 at the Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. www.madbatterfoodandfilm.com.

• “Into The Woods” will be screened at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on April 10 at the Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. www.madbatterfoodandfilm.com.

• “Blade Runner” will be screened at 6:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on April 16 at the Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. www.madbatterfoodandfilm.com.

Education. 877.4423.

• “Serena” will be screened on April 18 at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., April 19 at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. and April 21-22 at 7 p.m. at The Strand at 38 Main in Waynesville. www.38main.com.

• An introduction to “Tenkara” - the newly popular form of traditional Japanese fly fishing – will be presented from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on April 11 at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education. 14 and up. 877.4423.

• A classic movie will be shown at 2 p.m. every Friday in the Macon County Public Library Meeting Room.

524.3600 or www.fontanalib.org/franklin.

• A Mountain Science Expo, featuring hands-on science demonstrations, live animal programs, guided nature hikes and a butterfly count, will be held from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on April 11, at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville. www.ncarboretum.org.

• A movie will be shown at 2 and 6 p.m. on Thursdays in the meeting room of the Macon County Public Library in Franklin. For movie title call: 524.3600.

Outdoors • A bird walk along the greenway will be held starting at 8 a.m. on April 8. Meet at Salali Lane. Parking is off Fox Ridge Road, just south of Franklin Flea Market on Highlands Road. http://franklinbirdclub.com/ or 524.5234.

April 8-14, 2015

• “Wild” – a chronicle of one woman’s 1,100-mile solo hike to recover from a recent catastrophe will be screened at 6 p.m. on April 8 and at 2 p.m. on Thursday, April 9, at Macon County Public Library in Franklin. Rated R. 1 hour, 55 minutes. 524.3600.

• Macon County resident Nancy Reeder will share anecdotes, photos and stories from her experience hiking the Pacific Crest Trail at 6 p.m. on April 9 at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin.

524.3600.

• ”Local Walks and Easy Hikes,” a presentation by Jack Blake and the Silver Striders of Macon County, will be held at 10 a.m. on April 10 at Macon County Public Library in Franklin. 524.3600.

• An evening of astronomy-inspired music will be held at 7 p.m. April 10 at the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI). Reservations are required and will be accepted until 3 p.m. the day of the event. www.pari.edu or 828.862.5554. cwhitworth@pari.edu.

• A “Birdhouse Basics” is set for 2-3:30 p.m. on April 11 for ages 7 and up at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife

Smoky Mountain News

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

• “Monarchs and Milkweed Magic” is set for 10 a.m. on April 14 at FROG Quarters in Franklin. 346.8488.

• A bird walk along the greenway will be held starting at 8 a.m. on April 15. Meet at Macon County Public Library parking area. http://franklinbirdclub.com/ or 524.5234.

• An Appalachian Trail documentary entitled “Hard Way Home” by Kori Feener will be screened at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. on April 16, at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin.

• “Dead Reckoning” starring Humphrey Bogart and Lizabeth Scott will be screened at 2 p.m. on April 17 at Macon County Public Library in Franklin. Runtime: 1:40. 524.3600.

• The fifth-annual Wilderness Skill Institute has been scheduled for May 18-22 and May 26-29 at the Cradle of Forestry on the Pisgah District of the Pisgah National Forest outside Brevard. Application deadline is April 18. www.trailcrews.org/wilderness-skillsinstitute. Leanna Joyner at 254.3708 or Brenna Irrer at 226.4320.

• Volunteers are needed for the 31st annual Tuckaseigee River Cleanup, which will begin with registration from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. on April 18 on the A.K. Hinds University Center lawn in Cullowhee. Free cookout and live entertainment afterward. Jeremiah Haas at 227.3625 or basecamp.wcu.edu.

• “Watching Warblers” will be screened, followed by a discussion led by artist and bird expert John Sill, at the Franklin Bird Club’s meeting at 7 p.m. on April 20 at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin.

• A SolariseWNC public forum will be held at 7 p.m. on April 21 at the First United Methodist Church in Waynesville. Canary Coalition at 631.3447 or info@canarycoalition.org.

• The Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage will be held April 21-25 in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Gatlinburg, Tenn.

• A bird walk along the greenway will be held starting at 8 a.m. on April 22. Meet at Salali Lane. Parking is off Fox Ridge Road, just south of Franklin Flea Market on Highlands Road. http://franklinbirdclub.com/ or 524.5234.

• Spring Wildflower walks are offered every Friday through May 15 (except April 3) by the Recreation Center in Cullowhee. $5 per person. 293.3053, recjacksonnc.org.

• Weekly Women’s Mountain Bike Rides are held at 6 p.m. every Tuesday during Daylight Savings Times.

Rides alternate weekly between Tsali and WCU trails.

Info: nantahala.area.sorba@gmail.com or 488.1988.

COMPETITIVE EDGE • Smoky Mountain Overnight Relay will be held on April 17-18. Registration is open through April 10. Teams comprised of six or 12 runners cover 212 miles of trails and country roads. 545.8156 or gavin.young@noc.com •Registration for Greening Up the Mountains 5K Run & Walk has begun. The event is April 25. Register at www.imathlete.com or at the Recreation Center in Cullowhee. $15 includes a short sleeve shirt. Info: 293.3053, recjacksonnc.org.

• The Nantahala Racing Club’s Slalom Series, an introduction to whitewater racing, is set for April 2526 at the Nantahala Outdoor Center. For more info or to register, visit www.nantahalaracingclub.com.

• Registration is open for the 23rd Tour de Cashiers Mountain Cycling Experience, which is set for May 2.

Info at www.tourdecashiers.com.

• Haywood Regional Medical Center, in collaboration with American Heart Association, will present HeartChase from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on May 16 at the Haywood Regional Health & Fitness Center in Clyde.

Registration starts at 9 a.m. HeartChase is an interactive event that moves teams of five through 12 heart-healthy activities. All funds raised go to the American Heart Association. Info:www.heartchasehaywood.org or 800.424.DOCS. Local businesses who wish to sponsor checkpoints at this game may call 800-424-DOCS to receive information.

FARM & GARDEN • The Hunter Community Garden in Haywood County is accepting gardeners. $35 per plot. Sarah Scott at 456.3575.

• A class on “Vegetable Gardening” starts at 1 p.m. on April 9 at the Macon County Cooperative Extension Center. Topics include selecting garden sites, soil testing and fertilizer, and more. Free. 349.2046.

• A free program on how to extend your garden’s production through the seasons is set for 5:30 p.m. on April 9 at the Canton Branch Library. 648.2924.

• The 2015 Appalachian Farm School holds a resource fair for area farmers at 7:30 p.m. on April 9 in the atrium of the Burrell Building at Southwestern Community College’s Jackson Campus. Free. RSVP to wncfpc@gmail.com. www.wncfpc.org.

• A Gardening for Success seminar is set for 2-4 p.m. on April 14 at the Swain Extension Center. Learn about site selection and preparation, proper soil and plant fertility needs, spacing and more. 488.3848 or Christine_bredenkamp@ncsu.edu.

• A free, introductory class about Square-Foot Gardening is set for 5:30 p.m. on April 21, at the Canton Branch Library. The technique allows for a high-level of yield from a small amount of space.

648.2924.

• The Jackson County Farmers Market will be on Saturdays from 9 a.m.-noon on at its Bridge Park location in Sylva. jacksoncountyfarmersmarket.org.

• A six-week spring wildflower class is being offered from 9 a.m.-noon on Wednesdays through April 29 at Southwestern Community College’s Jackson Campus.

Jenny Williams at 339.4497 or j_williams@southwesterncc.edu.

• The Macon County Community Garden Committee is now taking applications for garden space in the 2015 Community Garden. $25 per spot. 349.2046.

• The Jackson County Poultry Club will hold its regular meeting on the last Thursday of each month at the Jackson County Cooperative Extension Office 586.4009 or heather_gordon@ncsu.edu.

• The Sylva Community Garden and The Cullowhee Community Garden have individual plots available for adoption. Weekly volunteer workdays are from 4 p.m. until Dusk on Thursdays at the Sylva Community Garden (March through November) and from 3 p.m. to dusk Wednesdays and from 10 a.m.-noon Saturdays at Cullowhee (year round). sylvacommunitygarden@gmail.com or thecullowheecommunitygarden@gmail.com.

HIKING CLUBS • The Carolina Mountain Club will hold a 10.5-mile hike with a 3,350-foot ascent on April 8. Tish Desjardins at 380.1452 or desraylet@aol.com.

• Nantahala Hiking Club will hold a meeting from 7-9 p.m. on April 10 at Macon County Public Library in Franklin. Will cover common backcountry illness and injury recognition and care, and more. 524.3600.

• The Nantahala Hiking Club will take a strenuous 10-mile hike with elevation change of 2000 ft. on Standing Indian Loop from the Backcountry parking area on April 11. Don O’Neal, 586.5723, for reservations.

• The Nantahala Hiking Club will take a moderate 3.5-mile hike with an elevation gain of 500 feet on Wayah Bald Loop on April 12. Gail Lehman, 524.5298, for reservations.

287-52

Puzzles can be found on page 54.

These are only the answers.

Great Smokies Storage 10’x20’

92

$

20’x20’

160

$

ONE MONTH

FREE WITH 12-MONTH CONTRACT

828.506.4112 or 828.507.8828 50

Conveniently located off 19/23 by Thad Woods Auction

PRIME REAL ESTATE Advertise in The Smoky Mountain News

LEGAL NOTICES

MarketPlace information:

H & M CONSTRUCTORS Is requesting bids from Certified Female Contractors/Suppliers and Certified Minority Contractors/Suppliers for the following project: Additions to East Elementary School, Swain County, North Carolina.

Bids are requested by 12:00 pm, Tuesday, April 21, 2015.

Plans are available for review at our office and/or FTP Website.

See below for directions on how to access the website.

Please respond to: 187 Deaverview Road, Asheville, NC 28806 (828) 254-6145 - Phone; (828) 254-8696 - Fax

The Smoky Mountain News Marketplace has a distribution of 16,000 every week to over 500 locations across in Haywood, Jackson, Macon, and Swain counties along with the Qualla Boundary and west Buncombe County. For a link to our MarketPlace Web site, which also contains a link to all of our MarketPlace display advertisers’ Web sites, visit www.smokymountainnews.com.

Rates:

■ Free — Lost or found pet ads.

■ $5 — Residential yard sale ads, ■ $5 — Non-business items that sell for less than $150.

■ $15 — Classified ads that are 50 words or less; each additional line is $2.

If your ad is 10 words or less, it will be displayed with a larger type.

■ $3 — Border around ad and $5 — Picture with ad or colored background.

■ $50 — Non-business items, 25 words or less. 3 month or till sold.

■ $300 — Statewide classifieds run in 117 participating newspapers with 1.6 million circulation. Up to 25 words.

■ All classified ads must be pre-paid.

Open Internet Explorer In the “Address” line at the top of the screen type in:

Classified Advertising:

https://swft.exavault.com/login

Scott Collier, phone 828.452.4251; fax 828.452.3585 classads@smokymountainnews.com

and then hit “Enter” The “Log On As” box appears: Username is: hmdrawings Password is: hmdrawings Click on “Log In”

WAYNESVILLE TIRE, COO

R

Di

sC Ov E R E

ATR

LIVING ESTATE SALE 3 Bedroom House. All must be sold in 3 days! April 9th, 10th & 11th from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at 90 Icewood Drive, Clyde, NC. Furniture, Antiques, Tools.

No Early Sales.

INC.

PE

Serving Haywood, Jackson & Surrounding Counties

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Offering:

MAJOR-BRAND TIRES FOR CARS, LIGHT & MEDIUM-DUTY TRUCKS, AND FARM TIRES.

Service truck available for on-site repairs LEE & PATTY ENSLEY, OWNERS

MON-FRI 7:30-5:00 • WAYNESVILLE PLAZA

828-456-5387

REQUEST FOR AUDIT PROPOSALS Mountain Projects, Inc. is seeking proposals for audit services for the 2015 to 2019 years from qualified CPA’s. Fiscal year ends June 30. Due date for proposals is April 30, 2015 at 3:00 pm. For additional information call the CFO at 828.452.1447, Ext. 104.

ARTS & CRAFTS 287-71

ALLISON CREEK Iron Works & Woodworking. Crafting custom metal & woodwork in rustic, country & lodge designs with reclaimed woods! Design & consultation, Barry Downs 828.524.5763, Franklin NC

AUCTION AUCTION Granite Manufacturer Secured Creditor - (2) 2010 Park Industries Fusion 4200 Jetsaws, CNC Routers, Machine Centers, 60+ Vehicles & More! Bid 4/9-4/17, Silver Spring, MD. Motleys, 804.232.3300x.4, www.motleys.com/industrial, MD #SH-15-0048 AUCTION RV's, Campers, Motorcycles, ATV's, Boats, Accepting Quality Consignments Daily April 17 @ 1pm, Richmond, VA. Motleys Asset Disposition Group, 804.232.3300x.4, www.motleys.com/industrial, VAAL#16.

HARPER’S AUCTION COMPANY Friday April 10th @ 6:00 p.m.

Spring is Here; Join us for Lots of Great Deals: Cabin Decor, Primitives, Antiques, Advertising, McCoy, Tools, Dragon Ware, Bronze Flatware from Thailand, Coins, Oriental Dolls and More!!!

47 Macon Center Dr. Franklin,NC 828.369.6999. Debra Harper, NCAL #9659, NCFL #9671. harpersauctioncompany.com ONLINE REAL ESTATE AUCTIONS! US Marshals Service Forfeited Property Bid ONLINE starting April 14. Nominal Opening Bids: $500 LAND: French Broad, NC 0.78 Acres On Grandview Rd. LAND: Lake Lure, NC Lot 23, Grey Rock williamsauction.com 800.982.0425 NC Broker: Dean C. Williams Re Lic: 220266 Auctioneer: Williams & Williams Auc Lic: 7725 REAL ESTATE AUCTION April 25th. Historic Double Shoals Mill- 6 miles from Shelby, NC. 45,457sf+ 14.7 Acres+ 1,478ft River Frontage. $295,000 Reserve. www.ModernBrokerage.com 704.502.0388 NCAF#9792 ROLLING STOCK AUCTION. Live & Online Auction. CharlotteMecklenburg County. Vehicle & Equipment Surplus. April 18th, 10am. Preview April 17th, 8am4pm. Rogers Realty & Auction Co., Inc. 336.789.2926.

RogersAuctionGroup.com NCAL685

PAINTING JAMISON CUSTOM PAINTING & PRESSURE WASHING Interior, exterior, all your pressure washing needs and more.

Specialize in Removal of Carpenter Bees - Cedar or Log Homes or Painted or Siding!

Call or Text Now for a Free Estimate at 828.508.9727

BUILDING MATERIALS HAYWOOD BUILDERS Garage Doors, New Installations Service & Repairs, 828.456.6051 100 Charles St. Waynesville Employee Owned.

CONSTRUCTION/ REMODELING ACORN STAIRLIFTS. The Affordable solution to your stairs! **Limited time -$250 Off Your Stairlift Purchase!**Buy Direct & SAVE. Please call 1.800.211.9233 for FREE DVD and brochure.

ALL THINGS BASEMENTY! Basement Systems Inc. Call us for all of your basement needs! Waterproofing, Finishing, Structural Repairs, Humidity and Mold Control.

FREE ESTIMATES! Call 1.800.698.9217 DAVE’S CUSTOM HOMES OF WNC, INC Free Estimates & Competitive rates. References avail. upon request. Specializing in: Log Homes, remodeling, decks, new construction, repairs & additions.

Owner/Builder: Dave Donaldson.

Licensed/Insured. 828.631.0747 or 828.508.0316 SAFE STEP WALK-IN TUB. Alert for Seniors. Bathroom falls can be fatal. Approved by Arthritis Foundation. Therapeutic Jets. Less Than 4 Inch Step-In. Wide Door.

Anti-Slip Floors. American Made.

Installation Included. Call 800.807.7219 for $750 Off. SULLIVAN HARDWOOD FLOORS Installation- Finish - Refinish 828.399.1847.

R

WNC MarketPlace

CARS -

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

DONATE YOUR CAR, Truck or Boat to Heritage for the Blind. Free 3 Day Vacation, Tax Deductible, Free Towing, All Paperwork Taken Care Of. 800.337.9038.

TOP CASH FOR CARS, Call Now For An Instant Offer. Top Dollar Paid, Any Car/Truck, Any Condition. Running or Not. Free Pick-up/Tow. 1.800.761.9396 SAPA

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

HOME BASED BUSINESS Serious impact on retirement for self-motivated people. Create your own safety net. Flex hours. FREE online training! Escalating income potential! For more info visit: www.project4wellness.com SAPA

BE YOUR OWN BOSS! PT/FT No Exp Needed. Training Provided Not MLM No Cold Calling Earn Up to $5000 per month! Set Your Own Hours Schedule your Interviews Now at: www.bizpro104.com

ONLINE MILLIONAIRE’S Secrets Revealed! The internet has made thousands of millionaires!

Learn their secrets. FREE info at www.revealall.info or 1.305.515.6884. SAPA

GET PAID WEEKLY! FT and PT mail work from home.

For full details visit: www.750weekly.com or call 512.827.0060 (24/7) SAPA

EMPLOYMENT ASSOCIATE INNKEEPER BA in Hospitality, Business, Marketing or two years Hospitality Management Experience.

The Chalet Inn, 828.586.0251 ParadiseFound@ChaletInn.com

GRAYSON IS A BIG, HANDSOME, GREEN EYED KITTY. HE HAS BEEN DECLAWED SO CANNOT GO OUTSIDE.

April 8-14, 2015

MILEY IS ABOUT 7 MONTHS OLD AND IS A VERY STRIKING TRI-COLORED HOUND MIX. WE LOVE HER MARKINGS AND HER SOULFUL EYES.

$1,000 WEEKLY!!

Mailing Brochures From Home.

Helping home workers since 2001.

Genuine Opportunity. NO Experience Required. Start Immediately. www.MailingMembers.com SAPA 25 DRIVER TRAINEES NEEDED! Become a driver for Stevens Transport! NO EXPERIENCE NEEDED! New drivers earn $800+ per week!

PAID CDL TRAINING! Stevens covers all costs! 1.888.748.4137. drive4stevens.com AIRLINE CAREERS BEGIN HERE Get started by training as FAA certified Aviation Technician. Financial aid for qualified students. Job placement assistance. Call Aviation Institute of Maintenance.

877.300.9494.

www.smokymountainnews.com

BY OWNER

CNA NEEDED For On Call Position that includes administrative duties in the office. This is a full time position. Must be willing to travel throughout Jackson, Macon and Swain Counties as needed. CNA skills in home care a plus. Computer skills and knowledge of Microsoft Office products needed for administrative duties. Please apply at Home Care Partners, 525 Mineral Springs Drive, Sylva, NC 28779 or call Julie or Susan 828.586.1570 ATTN: DRIVERS $2K Sign-On Bonus. Make Over $55k a Year. Great Benefits + 401K. Paid Training/Orientation.

CDL-A Req 888.303.9731. www.drive4melton.mobi AVIATION GRADS Work With Jetblue, Boeing, Delta, And Others- Start Here With Hands On Training For FAA Certification.

Financial Aid If Qualified. Call Aviation Institute Of Maintenance 1.866.724.5403 CAN YOU DIG IT? Heavy Equipment Operator Career!

Receive Hands On Training And National Certifications Operating Bulldozers, Backhoes & Excavators. Lifetime Job Placement. Veteran Benefits Eligible!

1.866.288.6896 CDL-A DRIVERS: Earn up to $0.44 per mile, $2,500 Sign On Bonus PLUS up to $0.02 per mile in bonus! Call 866.291.2631 or SuperServiceLLC.com ATTN: DRIVERS $2K Sign-On Bonus Love Your Job and Make $55K+. Family Company/ High Miles 100% APU Equipped CDL-A Required 1.888.592.4752 www.drive4melton.mobi JOIN OUR TEAM! Guaranteed pay for Class A CDL Flatbed Drivers! Regional and OTR. Great pay/benefits/401k match.

CALL TODAY 864.299.9645. www.jgr-inc.com EOE

2723 Soco Road

Formerly Saratogas Restaurant

EMPLOYMENT FULL TIME ENERGETIC HOUSEKeeper. Saturday & Sundays required. The Chalet Inn, 828.586.0251 DRIVERS: CDL-A 1yr. exp. Earn $1200+ per week. Guaranteed Home Time.

Excellent Benefits & Bonuses.

100% No-Touch, 70% D&H. 855.842.8498

FINANCIAL FED UP WITH CREDIT CARD DEBT? Consolidated Credit Can Help Reduce Interest & Get You Out of Debt Faster. FREE Consultation.

Call Now: 888.262.5339.

SAPA REDUCE YOUR PAST TAX BILL By as much as 75 Percent. Stop Levies, Liens and Wage Garnishments. Call The Tax DR Now to see if you Qualify 1.800.396.9719

MONEY FOR SCHOOLPotentially get full tuition & great career with U.S. Navy. Paid training, medical/dental, vacation. HS grads ages 17-34. Call Mon-Fri 800.662.7419

SELL YOUR STRUCTURED Settlement Or Annuity Payments for CASH NOW. You don't have to wait for your future payments any longer! Call Now for more info 1.800.316.0271.

GTI - NOW HIRING! Top Pay for CDL A Drivers! Dry Van. No touch freight. Frequent time at home. Well-appointed trucks.

EOE. 866.646.1969. GordonCareers.com

SOCIAL SECURITY Disability Benefits. Unable to work? Denied benefits? We Can Help! WIN or Pay Nothing! Contact Bill Gordon & Associates at 1.800.371.1734 to start your application today!

NEED MEDICAL BILLING TRAINEES! Doctors & Hospitals need Medical Office Staff! No Experienced Needed! Online Training gets you job ready! HS Diploma/GED & Computer needed. Careertechnical.edu/nc.

1.888.512.7122 SUMMER SEASONAL ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT For the Balsam Mountain Trust.

Email Michael for Job Description

BEWARE OF LOAN FRAUD. Please check with the Better Business Bureau or Consumer Protection Agency before sending any money to any loan company.

SAPA

PETS HAYWOOD SPAY/NEUTER 828.452.1329

mskinner@bmtrust.org WELDING CAREERS Hands on training for career opportunities in aviation, automotive, manufacturing and more. Financial aid for qualified students. Job placement assistance. Call AIM 877.206.4006.

CLASS A CDL. Running mostly NC/SC/GA/VA. Home on average twice/week.

Great Pay & Benefits. 1yr. experience. Good MVR & PSP. 1.800.444.0585, x2 for Recruiting.

Online Application: https://intelliapp2.driverapponline.com/c/howell

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 - 5 pm or by Apt. 182 Richland Street, Waynesville

Office and Retail Building for Lease

INSPECTION: Saturday, 4/11/15 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

3,500 Sq.Ft. • Excellent Restaurant Location Startup Opportunity • Multiple Bars Large Commercial Kitchen • Walk-In Coolers

409 N. Haywood St. 2410 Sq.Ft. 12 parking spaces $2600 monthly for rent

$150,000 or Best Offer OWNER FINANCE

287-39

828.989.1402 • 2723SocoRd@gmail.com 52

EMPLOYMENT

419 N. Haywood St. 1780 Sq.Ft. 7 parking spaces $1500 monthly for rent

Call John Keith 828-550-2837 or Main Street Realty Waynesville

FURNITURE HAYWOOD BEDDING, INC. The best bedding at the best price!

533 Hazelwood Ave. Waynesville 828.456.4240

HEAVY EQUIPMENT SAWMILLS FROM ONLY $4397.00Make & Save Money with your own bandmill- Cut lumber any dimension. In stock ready to ship.

FREE Info/DVD: www.NorwoodSawmills.com. 1.800.578.1363 Ext.300N

LAWN & GARDEN HEMLOCK HEALERS, INC. Dedicated to Saving Our Hemlocks. Owner/Operator Frank Varvoutis, NC Pesticide Applicatorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s License #22864. 48 Spruce St. Maggie Valley, NC 828.734.7819 828.926.7883, Email: hemlockhealers@yahoo.com

REAL ESTATE ANNOUNCEMENT 67 ACRES CULLOWHEE Borders USFS, Includes 2/BR 2/BA 1,600 sq. ft. House & 480 sq. ft. Workshop. $399,000. www.918gapbranch.blogspot.com For More Details, or Call 828.586.0165

HOMES FOR SALE

PUBLISHERâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S NOTICE All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Fair Housing Act which makes it illegal to advertise â&#x20AC;&#x153;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 discriminationâ&#x20AC;? 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 an equal opportunity basis.

REAL ESTATE AUCTION April 25th. Historic Double Shoals Mill- 6 miles from Shelby, NC. 45,457sf+ 14.7 Acres+ 1,478ft River Frontage. $295,000 Reserve. www.ModernBrokerage.com 704.502.0388 NCAF#9792

HOMES FOR SALE BRUCE MCGOVERN A Full Service Realtor shamrock13@charter.net McGovern Property Management 828.283.2112.

FOR SALE BY OWNER Two Story House in Haywood Co. Master Bedroom, Living Room, Dining Room, Kitchen, Breakfast Nook, Family Room, 1 Full Bath, 2 Half Baths on First Floor. Second Floor Consists of 2 Bedrooms Bonus Room, TV/Computer Room 1 Full Bath and a Powder Room.

2-Car Enclosed Garage, Screened-In Back Porch and Large Front Porch. Approx. 3,196 sq. ft. on 4.5 acres. $527,500.

Call 828.456.4468 or 828.400.0076 (cell).

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Super

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CROSSWORD

75 Edifice extension 76 Debate side 77 - Khan (Islamic imam) ACROSS 78 Wide shoe spec 1 Emmy, e.g.

79 Building up to the 6 Explorer - Polo loudest point 11 Milne’s bear 88 Parliament’s House of 15 Hospital VIPs 19 Spanish man 89 “With a Little - Luck” 20 It’s made of milk, 90 Piece-of-cake class flour and butter 22 Sharing the secret of 94 Fold, spindle or mutilate 23 “The Matrix” star 97 Bottle near a salad Reeves bowl 24 Unit equal to 0.338 99 Smell fluid ounce 100 Cannonballs and 25 Knock off such 26 Stage muggers 103 Pro-learning union: 28 Beating the former Abbr. best 104 Healthful getaway 30 4x4, briefly 105 Backlash 32 Lousy 111 Banks of modeling 34 Ian Fleming’s alma 113 Catch with one’s mater ears 35 Jaded 114 “Viva Las Vegas” co36 Online comparison star shopping site 116 Ancient Greek colony 42 More nasty 119 - Stanley Gardner 43 Dance in Rio 120 Not trued up 44 Has a bawl 121 Kids’ caretaker 45 Prenatal chambers 122 Changed the color of 47 Locker, e.g.

123 Favorable votes 54 U.S. enlistees 124 Actor Mike 57 Arrest, as a perp 58 Tiddlywink or Frisbee 125 Meal blessing that’s 59 How- - (DIYers’ books) “mixed” and hidden in seven answers in this 60 Jurist Scalia puzzle 63 Novelist Graham 66 Camphor or fructose 69 Need-for-speed adage DOWN 1 Inquire adapted from the Bible 2 Itsy-bitsy 72 Road salt 3 Disneyland’s city 73 “It’s about time!”

4 Barrett of gossip 74 Separates after a 5 Snare sound multiplayer tackle MIXED BLESSING

6 DC doubled 7 Warlike deity 8 Thinker Descartes 9 Carrie Chapman 10 Drop 11 Latex, e.g.

12 Money spent 13 Sailor’s site 14 German man 15 Deny 16 Borrowed 17 Not smooth 18 - of Berlin (snack brand) 21 More crafty 27 Get less taut 29 Late film critic Roger 30 Happy times 31 - -la-la 33 Sitcom psychiatrist Frasier, to his patients 37 “2 Broke Girls” airer 38 Steed breed 39 Sizable 40 Comb insect 41 Key near F1 42 Sea, to Gigi 45 Flustered 46 Tic-toe link 48 Chilling, as champagne 49 Playwright Clifford 50 City in North Dakota 51 Star, in Nice 52 Having no service charge 53 - fly (African pest) 54 Congregate 55 Gobble down 56 - Artois 61 “... - will!” (threat ender) 62 - Geo Wild 63 Must, slangily

64 Holy artifact 65 José’s “that” 66 “- & Kel” (teen show) 67 Psychic skill 68 Prefix with light 70 Turf groups 71 Real aficionado 76 So-so link 77 Slip - (mess up) 80 Made a racket 81 Hulk of a wrestler?

82 Furiousness 83 Slugging stat 84 Essen “a” 85 Enhaloed Fr. lady 86 Deteriorating 87 Paddled tool 91 Girl told not to cry in song 92 “Uh-huh” 93 “I’m - loss for words” 94 Ran quickly 95 Carotid, e.g.

96 A pep talk may boost it 97 Outspoken 98 Receiving a pension: Abbr.

100 Golf’s Palmer, to pals 101 High-IQ crew 102 The - & the Papas 106 Like venison 107 Quick haircut 108 Punker Pop 109 Alençon’s department 110 At no time, in verse 112 Mimic a tiger 115 Saints’ stats 117 Yellow pages abbr.

118 Favorable vote

answers on page 50

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Answers on Page 50

Batting away undeserved prejudice

U

George Ellison

nfortunately, more undeserved prejudice exists about bats than any other animal, except, of course, serpents.

In European lore, vampires (a word derived from the Serbian “wampir”) were bloodsucking ghosts, dead men’s souls that siphoned blood from sleeping victims.

The name “vampire” was then applied by the French naturalist Buffon to bats observed taking blood from other animals in the South American tropics.

Before long, the gothic novelists back in Europe were depicting bat-like Columnist beings that sought out victims (usually beautiful damsels) in their bedchambers at night (where else?).

The bat species ranging from Mexico to Argentina that do feed on the blood of other mammals usually attack large animals like horses and cows. They land near the animal, climb up its leg, and select a sparsely haired spot into which they make superficial bites that allow them to gorge on oozing blood.

These bats can’t do much with dogs, which can also pick up high-frequency sounds and

BACK THEN hear them coming.

The real danger to the targeted animal is not the bite or the blood loss, but the fact that bats can transmit rabies. According to information compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are usually only one or two human cases per year in the United States. Species found in Western North Carolina tend to avoid human contact, and their jaws are so weak they could hardly break the skin of someone who attempted to hold one.

Bats are, in essence, mammals that can capture insects on the wing or feed on fruit high in trees. By evolving wing-like appendages, they were able to exploit a niche in the food chain other mammals couldn’t utilize.

According to Mammals of the Carolinas, Virginia, and Maryland (UNC Press, 1985), there are 13 bat species in Western North Carolina. Their days are mostly spent in old buildings, tree cavities and caves.

While a bat’s vision is notoriously poor, it navigates the nighttime skies with exquisite precision. A sophisticated echolocation system allows them to emit ultrasonic sounds through their mouth or nose. These are set at a frequency far beyond the limits

of human hearing. The lumps that can be observed on a bat’s nose are thought to aid in the production of these sound pulses.

Returning vibrations (echoes) received in oversized highly sensitive ears from trees, posts, fences, etc., warn them to navigate around or through these obstacles. But they instantly hone in on vibrations emitted by insects. Watch a bat circling your yard and you’ll notice that it sometimes pauses briefly in mid-flight with its hind parts directed ground ward. This is the moment at which the bat is capturing an insect by literally enfolding the prey into its mouth with the aid of its wing and tail.

The critters are insect-capturing machines almost without equal. Olaf Ryberg, a Swedish scientist, performed tests in which he determined that bats hear “a fly cleaning its wings or rubbing its legs together. Immediately the ears of the bat would be erected and pointed in the direction of the insect. Then the bat would dart in that direction and snap up the fly its ears had first discovered.” A little brown bat can capture and eat up 1,000 mosquitoes in an hour.

The ancient Cherokees weren’t sure how to categorize bats in the great scheme of things. Were they most closely related to the four-legged terrestrial animals who resided in the Middle World or to the ones

in the Upper World that had wings and could fly? They apparently concluded that bats have a place in both worlds.

When the animals were preparing for the great mythical stickball game, the mammals rejected the bats as members of their team because of their diminutive size. But they were accepted by the birds — which created wings for them from pieces of groundhog skin.

When they threw the ball to him, the bat dodged and circled so that it never touched the ground. In the great stickball game, the bat flew close to the ground, weaving here and there, until he threw the ball between the goal posts and won the game for the birds … even though he was a mammal.

George Ellison wrote the biographical introductions for the reissues of two Appalachian classics: Horace Kephart’s Our Southern Highlanders and James Mooney’s History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees.

In June 2005, a selection of his Back Then columns was published by The History Press in Charleston as Mountain Passages: Natural and Cultural History of Western North Carolina and the Great Smoky Mountains.

Readers can contact him at P.O. Box 1262, Bryson City, N.C., 28713, or at info@georgeellison.com.

April 8-14, 2015

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