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April 24-30, 2019 Vol. 20 Iss. 48 Western North Carolina’s Source for Weekly News, Entertainment, Arts, and Outdoor Information www.smokymountainnews.com

Markers sought for victims of Cowee Tunnel disaster Page 6 Greening Up the Mountain kicks off festival season Page 28

Youth summer camps planned for Waynesville park

CONTENTS On the Cover: It took several years for Waynesville native Jared Lee to get the town to see the benefits of constructing a pricey skate park, but it was finally completed in 2013 and has proved to be a successful public recreation project. Now Lee hopes to grow its success by offering summer skate camps for local youth.

(Page 4) Cory Vaillancourt photo

News Canton adopts long-term bike and pedestrian plan ................................................3 Markers sought for victims of Cowee Tunnel disaster ............................................6 Sexual assault cases present complex challenges ..................................................8 Macon sheriff, deputy sued for wrongful death ......................................................10 Community college leader works to hike salaries ..................................................11 Waynesville shows off draft land use map ................................................................12 Health building contract approved in Jackson ........................................................15 DOT’s N.C. 107 plan ‘best option’ planners say ....................................................16 WNC leaders oppose Catawba casino bill ..............................................................19 Community Almanac ........................................................................................................23

Opinion Nikwasi Initiative can proceed without deed ............................................................24

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

A&E Greening Up the Mountain kicks off festival season ............................................30

Outdoors Nodding Trillium Garden opens in Cullowhee ........................................................42

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April 24-30, 2019

Bald eagles, gators and manatees, oh my ................................................................55

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Canton adopts long-term bike and pedestrian plan

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT STAFF WRITER here are a number of reasons to walk or bike to work, to play or to shop — saving money on gasoline, experiencing the health benefits of regular physical activity, or just a general desire to stop and smell the roses — but that’s especially so in the compact, walkable communities that dot much of Western North Carolina.

With the recent adoption of a comprehensive and voluminous long-term bike and pedestrian master plan that’s as much about recreation as it is about economic development and safety, the town of Canton hopes to become the very model of what a bikeand pedestrian-friendly 21st century community looks like.

“Some of these projects will outlive my time as mayor, and that’s OK,” said Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers. “Any time we do improvements from here on out, our goal is to align those with what our bike and pedestrian plan lays out.”

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Read the plan Learn more about the Town of Canton’s recently adopted bike and pedestrian master plan by reading the comprehensive 311-page report at www.cantonnc.com/proposed-bike-andpedestrian-plan.

Based on that scale, a list of projects was developed. The highest scoring project was to install bike lanes on a section of Reed Street, followed closely by pedestrian and bicycle improvements to Canton’s downtown Sorrells Street Park.

And those are just the top three — there are 65 more projects, ranked and covering all quarters of the town, from Old Clyde Road to Champion Drive.

“I think what it lays out at the end of the day is that we have a short-term, long-term plan of what people want,” Smathers said.

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Smathers said that paying for the myriad facilities would be challenging, but not impossible. Even before the recent establishment of the Cruso Trust, which makes beautification funds available to the town, funds appropriated for infrastructural improvements have long been seen in town budgets.

“Even when I was an alderman [prior to 2017] we started investing in infrastructure — streetscape, sidewalks, paving,” he said.

“These improvements will be limited based on funding, but it will be a long term initiative.”

Any improvements made by the town, however, wouldn’t just be a luxury — they’re becoming a necessity. As bikers and walkers grow in number, so do their interactions with automobiles, thus a safer environment for them is something that doesn’t really have a cost.

“The thing I have raised at many meetings is we need to do a better job with safety, especially downtown,” Smathers said.

“We’ve worked very hard getting to people to come to Canton. I want them to slow down and see what we have and stick around.”

Between 1997 and 2015, a dozen pedestrians and one bicyclist were involved in crashes, according to figures provided by the Town of Canton. Two other bicyclists were involved in crashes just outside of town limits, as were several other pedestrians.

One of those incidents involved a pedestrian being fatally struck, and two of them resulted in “disabling injury.” Two crashes occurred in crosswalks, and 40 percent of all crashes involved victims over 60 years of age.

The majority of them occurred during daylight hours in alleys, driveways or parking lots and the vast majority occurred during clear weather.

“Biking has risen in popularity, and you have people using the walking trails, but if you can’t keep them safe, they’re not going to use them,” Smathers said. “I think out of all of these projects, I did not see one thing that did not make things safer for our citizens and our drivers.”

ow that the plan’s been adopted, it’s been forwarded to decision makers across the state and the region like the French Broad River MPO and the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s division office. It’s also been provided to every local government in Haywood County, as well as Asheville and Candler in Buncombe County. Smathers, though, is adamant the plan doesn’t simply gather dust on some bookshelf somewhere.

“One of the hallmarks of my administration has been that we do not need more plans, we need to act on the plans we have,” he said.

A big next step is to identify shoulderwidening projects and begin advocating for them before DOT, but there are also a few “low hanging fruit” opportunities that offer a chance to demonstrate Smathers’ resolve right out of the gate.

Some of the projects are more feasible and more easily accomplished than others, despite scoring slightly lower on the steering committee’s scale. For example, the Sorrels Park improvements that came in at numbers two and three, respectively, are relatively cheap and would have an immediate impact.

The first, constructing 335 linear feet of a 6-foot wide sidewalk on the east side of Sorrells Street from Main to Park streets would only cost about $12,000. The second, a 10-foot wide paved path on the west side of the same stretch of road would cost about $20,000.

Another recommendation of the report is for the town to establish a capital improvement plan for its sidewalks that would replenish budgeted appropriations on a yearly basis.

There’s also talk of a regional task force focused on integrating intelligent bike and pedestrian planning with neighboring jurisdictions.

While all that takes shape, Smathers said, he’s focused on getting results people can see, and use, whether in Sketchers or on Schwinns.

“Bit by bit,” Smathers said, “We’ll start knocking these off, one by one.”

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ithin the realm of government, few things are more expensive than roadway and sidewalk projects, so Canton’s ambitious plan will come with a huge price tag, even if done piecemeal over the next 18 years, as the plan suggests.

For cycling improvements, a new bike lane costs an astronomical $450,000 per mile. Even reconfiguring existing pavement markings — removing old lane markings and painting new ones — costs $18,000 per mile.

A 10-foot wide paved multi-use trail built on existing sidewalk or railbed costs $800,000 per mile, new construction of a multi-use trail runs $400,000 more than that, and pedestrian bridges are so expensive they’re priced by the linear foot — $1,800 per, in this case.

Then there’s the signs, the poles, the bike racks, the crosswalk striping and everything else that comes with a robust bike and pedestrian transportation system.

Forthcoming improvements to Canton’s bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure could help cut down on the number of accidents around town. NCDOT photo

April 24-30, 2019

he plan — more than 300 pages — was constructed over the span of almost three years with the idea of making Canton’s existing network of roads and sidewalks more amenable to walkers and bicyclists, but Smathers gives due credit to Assistant Town Manager Nick Scheuer, who came to Canton about a year ago from the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Division.

“Nick earned his biscuit,” said Smathers.

“We had very high expectations for him, not just in this realm, but Nick arrived and said, ‘Give me the ball on this,’ and I think he put it in the end zone.”

The 2009 American Community Survey says that almost 3 percent of commuters are bicyclists, and about half a percent are pedestrians; those numbers will likely grow in the coming decades, especially when plans like Canton’s begin to materialize to support those commuters.

Largely assembled by the DOT’s Division of Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation, the plan also took into consideration substantial input from town officials and staff, consultants and stakeholders when prioritizing facility improvements and addressing what the plan calls the “disconnected nature of the existing pedestrian network.”

The first steering committee meeting was held in November 2016 and included representatives from Bicycle Haywood NC, the French Broad River Metropolitan Planning Organization and Haywood County’s Parks and Recreation department, among others.

Days later, eight cyclists of varying skill levels rode all over town, while around a dozen others walked it — one with a baby, another with a dog; the overarching concern was how dramatically conditions could vary along the route.

Once winter had passed, in April 2017, stakeholder interviews were conducted by Asheville-based planning firm Chipley Consulting. Around the same time, a community workshop was held at the Colonial Theatre.

The steering committee then set to work, with all of the knowledge gleaned through the process up to that point, and established criteria by which to score proposed bicycle and pedestrian improvements.

The committee decided that the most valuable factors for any proposed improvement would be proximity to a school or church. Ease of implementation, proximity to downtown and safety upgrades were all second-tier factors, while proximity to parks or natural areas, segments that fill gaps and serve needy populations ranked third.

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ings and do it the right way.’”

So Lee began attending meetings of the Town of Waynesville Board of Aldermen while still a freshman in high school.

“I went to town meetings for years,” he said. “Finally, we gained some traction and sometimes other skaters would show up, but it was hard, because those town meetings, when you’re young kid, you sit for a couple hours and you listen to everybody else speak and say what they would like to see in the community, and then you get up and speak for your couple minutes.” ee said there wasn’t a lot of outright opposition to the skate park, but like any other budgetary ask, it’s a tough sell in the face of other priorities and emergencies that end up in municipal budgets every year.

“And then you don’t hear anything, and there’s no progress, and you show up the next month, any kind of the same thing happens again until finally they have to take notice of you,” said Lee. ‘We started getting bigger numbers showing up, and then [Alderman] Gary Caldwell was the one guy that finally took us under his wing and said, ‘I will make this my project.’”

A design was procured from a California firm at a cost of more than $28,000 in 2010, and in September of 2013, the $400,000 park located just off Vance Street within the town’s sprawling park system finally opened, after the town committed $300,000 to its construction.

“The park has been like a blessing to all of us. For the skaters to have a place to come, and this is a fantastic facility, it’s so awesome that a small town like Waynesville has a place like this,” he said. “And it’s got to be great for police. I remember for years, police chased us around town.”

At the time, there was — and, actually, still is — a ban on skateboards on sidewalks as well as on most town streets. Violators could face fines up to $50 and also see their boards taken away.

“The cops would call my mom at like midnight say, “We just caught Jared skating uptown,’ and she would be like, ‘When he’s committing a crime, call me, but as long as he’s just riding a skateboard, don’t wake me up. If that’s the worst thing he’s doing in his high school age, please.’”

He also thinks the town’s com-

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April 24-30, 2019

GROWING UP GRINDING

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Waynesville skate park takes on new importance

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT STAFF WRITER When the Town of Waynesville’s skate park opened in 2013, it was a welcome addition to the suite of recreational opportunities then available to area residents — especially to the small but zealous group of diehards like Jared Lee who grew up grinding around town.

Although skating has always been a niche activity, the skateboarding industry is now poised for a major boom, just as one of the park’s biggest proponents prepares to bring up the next generation of local skaters.

hen Waynesville native Jared Lee began skating in eighth grade, things were much different for skaters than they are today.

“Skateboarding was way more counterculture here than it is even now,” said Lee. “I remember having people yell at me out of windows, I had a beer bottle thrown at me one day skating down the street. You were definitely looked at as like, the riffraff.”

The stereotype of troublemaking kids on skateboards has long persisted, but for Lee, skating was always a way out — he became sponsored by the time he was 16, and by the age of 25 he’d been paid to skate in Canada, Ecuador, Fiji and Spain alongside legendary skaters like Lance Mountain, Christian Hosoi and Tony Hawk’s son, Riley.

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“When I wasn’t doing trips, I would come back here,” he said. “I started working at [Maggie Valley outfitter] Skis and Tees when I was 16. They offered me a job there selling skateboards.”

Despite his involvement, there was still no real place for him and his friends to practice the latest tricks without drawing unwanted attention, until a little guidance from his mom pushed him in the right direction.

“I’d sit around with my teenage friends and everybody complained that we needed a skate park and the cops would kick us out of everywhere and nobody wanted us — because we looked bad to businesses I guess,” he said. “But my mom was like, ‘You can sit around and complain to your friends, or you can start showing up at these meet-

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was more accepted. We’re a year away from that.”

That’s why Lee, along with Dolman and fellow skater Shelby Mihalevich are working hard to offer a series of summer “skate camps” at the Vance Street skate park, beginning in June.

“I just felt like there was a void that was not helping the new generation get into it,” said Lee. “Having camps would bridge that gap.”

Details on the camps are still coming together, but Lee is nonetheless eager to get started.

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mercial establishments are happy with the park as well.

“It’s a win-win,” he said. “I feel like it’s got to be great for business owners. We are not in front of their stores near as much as we used to be, and when you come here, you make friends. You meet other people with the same likes and interests.”

That, according to Lee, is the most important effect of the park to date — making friends. In fact, if it weren’t for a local skater a few years older than him, Lee, and the park itself, might not even be here today.

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Rob Dolman (left to right), Jared Lee and Shelby Mihalevich have been skating together for years.

Cory Vaillancourt photo

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— Jared Lee

“It’s been a hectic last few months trying to get everything going before summer,” he said of the camps. Hopefully if things go well, the park will host a contest sometime in August.

“This skate park’s been here for so many years, and the town spent a lot of money on this, and there’s never anything going on here,” he said of the contest, which could draw skaters from as far as Charlotte and Atlanta. “They don’t do that with the soccer fields, or with the swimming pool. Let’s maximize this.”

Increasing the level of activity at the skate park will not only ensure the town gets its money’s worth, but also that the area’s current crop of skaters will have a richer, fuller experience than he and Dolman had growing up.

“I want to see another generation love and take care of this skate park, like I’ve loved and taken care of this skate park,” said Lee. “I want them to be the guardians of it, just to nurture the scene.”

For more information on Jared Lee’s summer skate camps, email him at bigbrotherboardscamp@gmail.com.

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ust as Dolman introduced Lee to the world of skateboarding, Lee’s looking to help the next generation get involved — and there’s really no better time; skateboarding will, for the first time ever, become an Olympic sport in 2020.

“It’s going to change a lot of things with skateboarding,” said Lee. “I saw it when snowboarding entered the Olympics. We saw a big boom in the shop. It went from a counter-culture thing to a something that

“I want to see another generation love and take care of this skate park, like I’ve loved and taken care of this skate park.”

April 24-30, 2019

“He was like the one older guy who took me under his wing when I was young,” said Lee of Rob Dolman. “He was like a big brother to me.”

“I grew up in this town skateboarding in the 1980s,” said Dolman, 45. “I didn’t really realize how big a deal skateboarding was going to be, and Jared was one of the kids that was always hanging around.”

Having a mentor, or a role model to look up to in the skating community, was all the more important in a small town where skaters hadn’t yet achieved the acceptance they had in larger cities on both coasts.

“This is typically considered a rural community,” said Dolman, “and there’s not much to do outside of standard sports — football, baseball, basketball soccer, which are not bad — but if there’s anybody that doesn’t see themselves fitting into that or whatever, skating has a strong subculture, and these kids now have plenty of local skate parks that I didn’t have.

Skateboarding kept me from getting into trouble, but people thought that skateboarding was the trouble!”

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Cowee Tunnel They say that you‘re cursed to this day Cowee Tunnel Thanks to old Anderson Drake

Writer, historian and storyteller Gary Carden speaks to the Jackson County Branch of the NAACP on April 11. Cory Vaillancourt photo

ary Carden’s great-great grandfather first came to Western North Carolina from Tennessee looking for work. His family’s been here ever since, and Carden, accordingly, has spent most of his 80 years collecting the songs and the stories of this place. He says the Cowee Tunnel disaster is something he’s grown up always knowing.

“It was always there. I never questioned the local historians, and right away, it was, ‘Gee whiz, 19 men drowned there,’ and as far as I knew they were felons all — and dangerous — and they were indeed buried on top of the tunnel and that’s what they tell these tourists on the railroad,” said Carden.

The Great Smoky Mountains Railroad runs regularly from Dillsboro to Bryson City, and passes through the tunnel with carloads of sightseers.

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April 24-30, 2019

The tears of these poor men: Victims of Cowee Tunnel disaster deserve recognition

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT STAFF WRITER n a region as rich in local lore as this, it may seem like every story’s been told to death, including that of the infamous Cowee Tunnel disaster.

North Carolina, though, is also home to the old-world tradition of telling stories through song and has an ample supply of musicians like Balsam Range frontman Buddy Melton and his buddies, Haywood native Milan Miller and Piedmont bassist Mark W. Winchester, who on their 2010 album Songs From Jackson County relate the incident about as well as anyone else ever could.

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Anderson Drake was a convict back in 1883 A two-timin’ felon with a shady disposition and a troublesome history Every morning he crossed the Tuckasegee River with a boatload of other inmates Spent his days on a chain gang building railroads for the state

That much is true — after the Civil War, convict labor was utilized by all manner of industry, including the Western North Carolina Railroad.

Under grueling conditions, convicts like Drake — African-Americans likely not fully deserving of a chain gang sentence — laid miles and miles of railroad track. They were 6 fed well to keep them healthy and working,

but other than that, they were little more than easily disposable pieces of state-owned property.

Now the task at hand was digging out a tunnel through the Cowee mountainside Every swing of the hammer brought him a little closer to the other side Inch by inch just chipping away through 836 feet But it never seemed fast enough for the warden ‘cuz he had a schedule to keep Just up from the Tuckasegee River, about 2 miles west of Dillsboro in Jackson County, a 30-man chain gang was working in the area. They slept, chained together, in a boxcar-like shed that was locked each night. In the morning, they were walked down to the river to begin their workday.

The evening before, rain, snow and slush fell from the skies, some of it pooling up in the bottom of the boat. As it sloshed around, the inmates became alarmed, thinking the boat was about to sink. The convicts, still chained together, weren’t from the mountains, so they had little experience in fording its sometimes-raging rivers.

On a dreary dark mornin’ five days after Christmas the river had overrun Still the prisoners headed out across the water cuz the work had to be done

They were almost there when trouble came, 10 feet from the bank The boat capsized, water rushed in, and a few seconds later it sank Each time one man went overboard, the chains that bound them together in life also bound them together in what was surely a terrifying and painful death.

Nineteen men shackled together met their maker on that day no they never stood a chance on the icy water as they were swept away Anderson Drake had saved himself when he heard somebody shout He jumped back in to the Tuckasegee River and helped the guard get out As the story goes, Drake rescued a guard named Fleet Foster, but as night fell, Foster discovered he was missing his wallet. Upon searching Drake’s belongings, Foster found his wallet. Drake was given 30 lashes with a cat o’ nine tails, and another 30 years on the chain gang.

Whether or not Drake did steal Foster’s wallet will never be known. Perhaps he did.

Perhaps he was framed. Perhaps it was all a big misunderstanding. Either way, Melton’s haunting refrain provides the epitaph the 19 deceased chain gang laborers never received.

“This was an age when all of those prisoners where unable to read and write, so they couldn’t send a postcard and no one could write them.

When they arrested them, they vanished. There was not a trace of them left.

Somewhere, there was a mother saying, ‘What happened to Roger?’ And she died never knowing.”

— Gary Carden

“They go through the tunnel and say, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, there’re 19 prisoners buried on top of this tunnel, and this moisture that you see coming down the walls are the tears of those poor men,’ and I believed that,” he said.

As Carden tells it, 30 prisoners and several guards boarded the boat, utilizing a cable strung across the river to pull themselves across to the work site. The precipitation that had pooled in the boat worried the prisoners, who suspected a hole. As they crowded to one end of the boat, away from the water, it tipped over.

“It scared the hell out of those guys,” said Carden. “They got up and began to retreat from it, and the guards tried to force them back and the consequences were that they capsized the boat. When the boat capsized they went zoop, zoop, zoop, zoop, because they were chained together. Every time one went he pulled the next one, and they pulled them all into the river.”

Some 10 or 11 were swept downriver and survived, albeit wet and cold, among them Drake. The rest, 19 of them, never had a

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April 24-30, 2019

arden related the story of the Cowee Tunnel disaster to the Jackson Branch of the NAACP at Liberty Baptist Church in Sylva April 11; few had heard it before, but a few had.

“I think it has to do with the whole area and I think everybody living in the area needs to be aware of what has happened,” said Selma Sparks, a native New Yorker and African-American who’s lived in Franklin for more than a decade. “Some of the history of this area is fascinating, and I think they need to know it, and need to recognize what

Cowee Tunnel and the inmates that lost their lives in that drowning,” Cochran said.

“Being an artist myself, we can sense the urgency of a story that’s a hundred years old needing to be acknowledged, but it takes time. It takes time for people to see the importance of something, and to see the best way of bringing a story to light. I have lots of optimism because that desire has never died.”

She likes the idea of a play as well, but to her it’s a larger issue that still has roots in systemic racism.

“It’s a disconcerting story that goes beyond this specific issue to the legacy of slavery that’s continuing to devalue people who are deemed to be powerless, who don’t have a voice,” she said. “People who find themselves in the prison system are very often seen as no longer of value in one way, but then their labor is used to make other people wealthy. So I think as people hear Enrique Gomez, Ph.D. and president of the Jackson NAACP, would like to see the victims at this story, it’s more than just Western North Cowee memorialized. Cory Vaillancourt photo Carolina folklore.”

Dr. Enrique Gomez is a physics professor at Western Carolina University, and has Dillsboro,” he said. “I don’t want it buried this means today. I think it needs to be also served as the president of the Jackson up there on top of the hill. Nobody’s going spread further.”

Branch of the NAACP for several years now. to climb that hill to read a little plaque. We Much of the Cowee Tunnel disaster is “The work of the NAACP historically entangled in the so-called “black codes” of a need an acknowledgement down in and at the present time is to bring stories Dillsboro, right there where the railroad is, post-Reconstruction South where Africanforward, so that they inform our choices, so it is appropriate and something that Americans were routinely denied due inform our policy and inform the stories we acknowledges that these men died in what process and regularly convicted of petty tell about each other about who we are as a actually turned out to be a shameful incicrimes through a far lower standard of nation,” said Gomez. “Ultimately, what we dent of railroad corruption.” proof than applied to whites. It’s entirely need to do is converge into a much more Sparks also thinks a monument would feasible that many of the convicts on that important story, a much more inclusive be a fitting way to remember the men. chain gang didn’t deserve to be there at all. story that tells about all the different “That would make people aware of Even if they did, said Sparks, they didn’t Americas that there are, and all the commuthem, something to let it be known that deserve to be treated in death the same way nities that make up this nation.” their lives did matter,” she said. “They tell they were treated in life — marginalized Gomez admits the incident was an acciand without a second thought given to their me a 15-year-old was part of that chain dent, with no one really at fault; however, gang, and these were men who were arrestcommon humanity. Mothers, fathers, siswhat happened in the Tuckasegee River that ed for misdemeanors and they were probaters, brothers and children were left only to cold December day is really only a wonder, as Carden said, what happened to symptom of a larger problem in Roger.

“Being an artist myself, we can society — then, and now.

Carden said that several years ago, he “We want to tell a much more advanced the idea of memorializing the men sense the urgency of a story complicated story about the through a play, but had a hard time getting that’s a hundred years old region,” he said. “You have conit produced. victs that essentially lost their “That would be a good way to do it,” needing to be acknowledged, lives. What Carden came and said Sparks. “To make people aware of what but it takes time. It takes time for stressed in his research is that happened, and why Black Lives Matter is so these were men that were imprisimportant, because for much of the history people to see the importance of oned by petty offenses and they of this country, black lives did not matter.” were brought here from their Carden also appealed to then-Chancellor something, and to see the best homes as cheap labor — essentialof Western Carolina University David way of bringing a story to light. I ly, as slave labor.”

Belcher for help.

Like Carden, Cochran and “When I told him about this, he immedihave lots of optimism because Sparks, Gomez would like to see ately started calling department heads. He some recognition of the men got the English department, the history that desire has never died.” beyond the stories circulated by department, he called the sociology depart— Marie Cochran tour guides or musicians like ment, called forensics, he told them all, ‘I’ve Buddy Melton. got a project. I want you people to organize “Certainly a memorial would be wonyourself into a crew who will help Gary with bly very small because black men were derful, but the thing about this is that arrested — if you looked at a white woman this project, to immortalize, or moralize, or memorials at the end should be conversayou could be arrested, you could be hanged acknowledge the existence of these 19 dead tions that help tell deeper stories about — so these are things that are important men,” said Carden. “And he meant it. He who we are as a people,” he said. and I think everybody, including the black was very much given to it.”

“Something that will advance the conversapopulation here and around the country, Sadly, Belcher’s battle with brain cancer, tion about how we should treat each other needs to know about these things.” to which he ultimately succumbed in 2018, and everybody in our community from this Marie Cochran, also an Africaninterfered with that effort. point forward — knowing that we need to American, made the trip from Georgia to Still, Carden wants to see something be mindful of each other, treat each other listen to Carden’s presentation in Sylva. materialize to commemorate the men and with respect, and with the dignity that cor“I came to hear Gary because I was part their tragic death. responds to being an American citizen and of that early task force, the early group “I’d like to see some kind of memorial, a human being.” working on documenting the story of the and I’d like to see it in downtown

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chance, manacled as they were.

Drake, though, turned around and jumped right back in to the raging Tuckasegee and pulled Foster out.

“It looked like he was a hero until Fleet Foster found he was missing his pocketbook, and he claimed to have gone back to where Drake slept and found his pocketbook. Had 30 bucks in it,” Carden said. “He called the men into the yard and gave [Drake] 30 lashes and sentenced him to additional 30 years. So much for rewarding good deeds. That story smacks of all kinds of rotten folklore, and it’s probably not true.”

The story of their deaths, though, is completely true.

“Well, they left them in the river for at least one day. The river was up, and the water was rough, and they had trouble retrieving them. So they stayed in there one whole day,” said Carden. “The next day, they got them out and laid them on the bank and one newspaper gave an account of seeing the bodies laid out, rigor mortis, frozen stiff. They were beginning to pick them up and put them in a sled and he didn’t know what they did with them after that, but they put them in the sled and they stacked them in just like cordwood.”

This is where Carden’s research deviates from the official storyline — the 19 men weren’t dragged across the river, and up the mountain, to be buried atop the tunnel.

“I found an old lady who lives across the river, her name’s Sutton, and when I made a reference to the convicts that were buried on the top of the tunnel according to tradition and popular myth she says, ‘Why t’ain’t no such thing, they’s buried behind my house.’”

Carden says despite a shotgun-wielding neighbor, he and another man were able to locate — through the use of dowsing rods, no less — three trenches right where the woman said they’d be. He attributes the misunderstanding to the attitudes of the day, which dictated the prisoners should be buried as quickly as possible, and never mentioned again.

“No monument, no marker and no attempt to notify anybody,” he said of the ultimate end of the 19 men. “Of course, this was an age when all of those prisoners where unable to read and write, so they couldn’t send a postcard and no one could write them. When they arrested them, they vanished. There was not a trace of them left.

Somewhere, there was a mother saying, ‘What happened to Roger?’ And she died never knowing.”

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Sexual assault cases present complex challenges DA says state data is flawed

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR recent analysis of sexual assault prosecutions in North Carolina conducted by Carolina Public Press showed a shockingly low number of convictions in the western counties, but District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch says these types of cases shouldn’t be reduced down to a number.

“Sexual assault cases are not just numbers on a page. A victim is not a number. Reducing sexual assault cases to statistical numbers ignores the humanity of victims,” she said.

“Every sexual assault case involves a human being who has suffered one of the most tragic and traumatic ordeals possible. One cannot possibly lump all sexual assault cases together because every case and every victim has a different experience.”

While Welch says Ashley Hornsby the analysis — which Welch can be read in its entirety at carolinapublicpress.org — was not a fair representation of the complex nature of prosecuting sexual assault cases, she said the criminal court record data CPP collected from the Administrative Office of the Courts to use for the analysis contained several flaws.

In some instances, the data attributed offenses to people never charged with a sexual assault crime in addition to including cases with child victims — something the analysis was trying to exclude. ”In our system, the information is being entered correctly so somewhere between here and Raleigh it’s getting lost,” Welch said.

Welch said she’s worried about the state not keeping factual records of cases, but she’s even more concerned about how the analysis may impact victims and cases in the future. If people think sexual assault convictions are a rare occurrence, they may be less likely to report a sexual assault in the future.

“Sadly, this statistical analysis could also have the unintended result of discouraging

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those who have suffered sexual violence from coming forward and seeking justice,” she said.

THE ANALYSIS The analysis examined defendants charged with any of the six rape-related felony crimes in the last four and a half years, including first-degree rape, first-degree forcible rape, second-degree rape, seconddegree forcible rape, first-degree forcible sex offense and second-degree forcible sex offense. Child or statutory rape charges were not included.

During that time period, there were 247 sexual assault convictions and about 60 percent of those convictions were the result of plea deals. Carolina Public Press concluded that North Carolina has a 24.2 percent conviction rate for both sexual assaults and reduced pleas. Based on the statewide conviction rate, any counties with a conviction rate 8 percentage points below 24.2 percent were labeled with “low” conviction rates and those below the state average by a less amount amount were labeled “below average.”

Counties with conviction rates 8 percentage points or more above the state average were evaluated as “high” counties. Those that were above the state average by a lesser amount were “above average.”

More than 30 of the state’s 100 counties — including several western counties — showed no sexual assault or reduced-charge convictions at all, but Welch said that wasn’t factual. Her records indicate several cases in counties where the state data showed none, something she chalks up to an administrative error on the state’s part.

The state data showed zero sexual assault cases in Macon County, but Welch counted three cases — two cases resulted in convictions while the other was dismissed because the victim refused to cooperate.

Swain and Graham counties showed zero cases, which Welch confirmed was accurate.

Jackson County showed a zero conviction rate. Welch explained that she only had one case in Jackson during the four and a half years. In that case, she said a man was charged with domestic violence and rape against his girlfriend.

“He sat in jail for a year and a half but ultimately she (the girlfriend) didn’t want to pro-

‘Take A Walk In Her Shoes’ To highlight April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month, the DV/SA/EA Task Force is sponsoring the “Take A Walk In Her Shoes” event at noon Saturday, April 27, in front of the Historic Courthouse in downtown Waynesville.

Walkers may furnish their own shoes, if they wish, or shoes will be available at the event. There will also be signs to carry, toenail painting, makeup and accessories to wear, optional.

“This is a light-hearted way to involve the young men and male adults in our county in an exercise to create

HOW N.C. PROSECUTORIAL DISTRICTS RATE Carolina Public Press obtained court data from the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts covering cases from Jan. 1, 2014 through June 30, 2018. From that data, CPP analyzed what happens when defendants are charged with a rape crime, looking at what percentage of these cases ended in conviction, whether through a plea or trial. CPP then evaluated how prosecutorial districts rate when compared to the state’s average conviction rate of 24.2%. CPP analyzed only cases which began and ended during the data’s time period. Graphic by Cassandra Sherrill/BH media

“It’s a long process and we can’t always get the indictments from a grand jury — sometimes it’s her word against his. And sometimes juries just don’t want to believe these kinds of things happen.”

— District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch

ceed,” Welch said. “We did get him to plead to misdemeanor cruelty to animals for a related incident.”

Haywood County only showed an 11 percent conviction rate. Welch said CPP received info on nine sexual assault defendants during the time period, but two of those cases involved children and should have been excluded. Either way, out of the nine cases, three defendants were convicted of sexual offenses that led to prison sentences while the other six involved victims that refused to cooperate or probable cause was not established.

Using the CPP’s own analysis, that would put Macon and Haywood’s conviction rate above the statewide rate.

PROSECUTION CHALLENGES Since she was elected DA in 2014, Welch said prosecuting violent offenders and those

awareness of what women may experience on a daily basis: sexual comments, harassment, crude name-calling and whistling, gender-based pressure to look or act a certain way and sexist touching and attacks,” said Buffy Queen, facilitator for the Task Force. “By fostering understanding in our masculine population, we hope that those who come walk on Saturday will be more willing to each step in as an active bystander to stop this kind of behavior and to vow to never personally behave in any sexualized violent way. As the #MeToo Rally last year showed, it’s time for men to step up and literally ‘walk the talk’.”

Walkers are urged to invite their support persons to cheer them on. The route will be around the sidewalks of

who prey on children have been her top priorities. However, there are many frustrations and challenges associated with trying to prosecute sexual assault cases and the DA’s office often has to make difficult choices to get the best outcomes.

“It’s a long process and we can’t always get the indictments from a grand jury — sometimes it’s her word against his,” Welch said.

“And sometimes juries just don’t want to believe these kinds of things happen. Jurors expect injuries because of what they’ve seen on TV. They want DNA proof, which makes it very difficult.”

As prosecutors know, sexual assault cases often don’t have that type of concrete evidence. A majority of victims don’t come forward with allegations immediately out of fear, shame, embarrassment or because they don’t consider what happened to them to be sexual assault.

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the courthouse lawn and down Main Street. There is no requirement for how far to walk; it is up to each walker (and his feet).

The Task Force is asking leaders of teen groups (school, church, or civic), as well as men’s organizations, to coordinate and bring their members to participate.

REACH and other member agencies of the Task Force are also collecting large-sized women’s shoes (heels, sandals, flip-flops, etc.), so if you have some to donate, drop them at the REACH office, 627 North Main Street in Waynesville.

For more information or to register your group, call REACH of Haywood at 828.456.7898.

Sexual assault/ domestic violence resources • 30th Judicial District Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Alliance: 828.452.2122 • Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Domestic Violence Program: 828.359.6830 HAYWOOD COUNTY • REACH of Haywood (domestic violence shelter, support and advocacy): 828.456.7898.

• KARE House (child advocacy): 828.456.8995.

JACKSON COUNTY • Center for Domestic Peace (domestic violence services): 828.586.8969 (24/7 hotline) • AWAKE Child’s Advocacy Center: 828.586.3574 MACON COUNTY • REACH of Macon: 828.369.5544 • KIDS Place: 828.524.3199 SWAIN COUNTY • Swain/Qualla Safe: 828.488.6809

Even when the state data is correct, Welch said the numbers don’t paint an accurate picture of the challenges associated with prosecuting sexual assault cases and how important just one conviction can be under the unique circumstances each case presents.

With all the factors that have to be taken into consideration when prosecuting a sexual assault case, Welch and her team have to take the victories where they can. Despite the setbacks and challenges of prosecuting sexual assault cases, Welch said she would continue to make it a priority. She said she understands why rape victims don’t feel like justice is always served when they look at the statistics, the reduced charges and the plea bargains, but she also knows all the factors that can play out in any given case.

“Individuals are different. Justice is different for everyone. We have to look at the big picture — even when there’s a reduction in charges from a first-degree sex offense to indecent liberties they still have to register as a sex offender. And that may be what the family asked for or it may be what’s in the best interest for the victim,” she said. “We have to evaluate cases based on what we can prove.

We have to look at the evidence objectively to see what we can prove.”

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SMALL VICTORIES

The state data showed zero sexual assault cases in Macon County, but Welch counted three cases — two cases resulted in convictions while the other was dismissed because the victim refused to cooperate.

AMERICAN LEGION POST #47 th

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That leads to the issue of defining consent in North Carolina. An outdated legal precedent says a person cannot revoke consent to a sex act after it’s been given, which means it’s not a crime for someone to continue having sex with someone if he or she is told to stop.

North Carolina is the only state in the country still using this kind of legal precedent.

So, when Welch asked a grand jury for an indictment on a teenage male who had allegedly raped a teenage girl, she was denied three times because the jury sided with the male’s story that it was consensual sex. The jury also found no probably cause, stating the girl had gotten drunk at a party before the incident occurred.

Even though the girl reported the rape immediately, there were injuries and she had a rape kit performed immediately — all the elements Welch looks for in a solid case — she still wasn’t able to prosecute the case. It was devastating news to deliver to that young woman’s family.

“Our consent laws need to change — they are archaic,” Welch said.

House Bill 393 — Modernizing Sexual Assault Laws — would remove the legal precedent language from the state law. Rep. Queen is one of the many sponsors of the bill, which is still being reviewed in committee.

Maybe there were only two convictions in Macon County in the last four and a half years, but one conviction was a marital rape case, which is something that’s often hard for prosecutors to prove.

“With these types of cases the victim will usually recant or there’s not enough evidence, but we got a conviction,” she said. “It was a domestic violence situation and she went back and forth but when he realized we we’e going to try him, he entered a plea and went to prison. She’s now safe and that’s the goal.

He’ll be a registered offender when he gets out.”

Welch said her office had another big win in Haywood County when they got a conviction in their case against Luis Gomez, a certified nursing assistant who had worked at the Brian Center in Waynesville. Gomez was charged with four counts of second-degree forcible rape and four counts of sexual offense by a custodian after Brian Center patients made accusations against him. After a week-long trial, Gomez was found guilty of two counts of forcible rape, one count of forcible sex offense and three counts of sexual activity by a custodian. He will spend 23 to 42 years in prison.

Two victims — current patients at the Brian Center — were able to tell their stories and were willing to testify against Gomez, which makes all the difference to a jury.

“These two women had been consistent in their stories and they did a great job on the stand. They were believable,” Welch said.

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“It’s pretty rare for people to come forward right away. It may take a few days to process they’ve been raped or figure out what to do, especially with intoxication or date rape,” she said. “But I think juries expect someone would report it right away.”

It’s also important for prosecutors to understand the trauma a victim is going through after a sexual assault and must be respectful of the victim’s wishes, putting their mental and emotional health first. Taking the stand to testify against an abuser can re-traumatize the victim.

“When dealing with someone who’s been sexually assaulted and traumatized, you have to be incredibly sensitive to their needs and getting them through the system,” Welch said. “If we have an adult and they’ve been raped and don’t want to proceed, unless it’s an instance where others are in danger, we have to take that into consideration. As prosecutors we have to respect that.”

Many sexual assault cases also involve domestic violence charges as well, which means the defendant and plaintiff have been in a romantic relationship. While the victim might come forward and be willing to cooperate, circumstances change. Welch has seen many victims change their minds and change their minds about prosecuting once they get back together with their alleged abuser.

Without the victim as a witness, the case will usually result in a plea bargain or a dismissal.

“We’re not going to drag them in when they don’t want to be there and cooperate,” she said. “Sometimes we know it happened but we don’t have the proof we need.”

Welch said society has come a long way in - recent years, but victim blaming still occurs s when it comes to sexual assault.

- “It’s getting better but not as fast as I e want. People still have a mentality that she e asked for it. They ask, ‘what was she wearing’ or ‘how much did she have to drink?’ It’s hard t to overcome and the only thing I know fixes - that is education and time,” she said.

Other challenges include a massive backo log of rape kits and North Carolina’s current s consent laws — two things Welch said can be n corrected. t With more than 10,000 untested rape kits in the entire state, N.C. Attorney General s Josh Stein announced a $10 million plan in - January that would aim to get rid of the backlog and bring decades of unsolved sexual f assault cases to a close. The Standing Up for y Rape Victims Act would put $6 million toward processing old kits and would require law enforcement to submit kits to the state crime lab within 45 days. Another $4 million would come from U.S. Department of Justice and the Governor’s Crime Commission grants to hire more forensic scientists for the crime lab.

The bill was filed Feb. 5 with Rep. Kevin Corbin, R-Franklin, and Rep. Joe Sam Queen, D-Waynesville, as sponsors. It passed first reading before being referred to a host of different committees to be reviewed.

“I have high hopes that’s going to dramatically improve soon,” Welch said. “But there will still be issues because when you have suspects that claim consent, the rape kit doesn’t really matter — only when the suspect denies sexual contact.”

Call 452-5039 for info 43 Bowman Dr, Waynesville All services are free.

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Family sues Macon sheriff, deputy for wrongful death

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR acon County Sheriff Robert Holland is being sued for wrongful death after his deputy Anthony Momphard Jr. shot and killed Scott Knibbs in his home a year ago.

According to the civil lawsuit filed in federal court last week, Scott’s widow Melissa Knibbs is seeking $75,000 in damages against the sheriff, the deputy and Western Surety Company, the sheriff ’s liability bond provider, for wrongful death and violations of Scott’s constitutional rights under the Second, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.

Since Scott’s death, the family has been represented by Waynesville attorneys Adam and Mark Melrose with Melrose Law Firm.

The tragic incident shook the community last April with different stories coming from Holland and testimony from family witnesses. Momphard shot Scott several times around midnight April 30 through the front window of his home. Momphard was cleared of any wrongdoing last August

by District Attorney Greg Newman following a review of the State Bureau of Investigations findings.

While Melrose painted Knibbs as a good man with a history of community involvement and even completed law enforcement training, the sheriff ’s department reported that Scott had been confrontational and refused to lower his weapon when Momphard approached the house in response to a 911 call from a neighbor.

On April 29, Scott was at his Pheasant Drive home with his wife, his 21-year-old daughter, his 13-year-old son and his 5month-old grandchild. According to the complaint, the Knibbs neighbor up the road was having a party and around 10 p.m. one of the neighbor’s visitors mistakenly pulled into the Knibbs’ driveway. Scott and the visitor exchanged words and Scott directed him to leave.

It was allegedly not the first time the Knibbs had taken issue with the renters hosting parties and people driving too fast down the narrow dirt road. Scott had placed wooden boards in the road as “makeshift speed bumps” to slow down the vehicles so they wouldn’t be a hazard for his children and grandchildren playing in the yard. Around 11:40 p.m. the neighbors called 911 reporting the boards in the road had nails in them and their visitors couldn’t leave. Momphard was dispatched and parked his patrol car on the road before he approached the Knibbs’ home at 11:55 p.m.

The lawsuit states the vehicle couldn’t be seen from the house and that the deputy didn’t trigger any sirens, lights or horns to announce his arrival.

After meeting with the neighbors and getting the boards removed from the road so people could leave, Momphard and one

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of the neighbors approached the Knibbs’ home.

“Upon information and belief, Momphard, without regard for the late hour or the fact that the entirety of the dispute was, as he described it, a civil ‘right of way dispute,’ decided to roust the Knibbs family out of bed,” the lawsuit states.

Since Momphard didn’t move his patrol car, activate lights or sirens or otherwise “adequately” announce his presence on the Knibbs’ property at such a late hour, the lawsuit claims the deputy acted recklessly and created a dangerous situation.

However, in Newman’s report clearing the deputy of wrongdoing, he stated Momphard did announce himself at the door and didn’t get a response. Newman also reported Momphard heard someone rack a round in a shotgun inside the home Scott Knibbs and yelled for the person to put down the weapon three times. When he shined the flashlight into the home, Momphard allegedly saw Scott pointing the shotgun at him before he opened fire.

The complaint also points out that it’s not unusual for a rural Macon County homeowner to answer the door with a firearm in hand for his own protection.

After hearing two unknown voices on his front porch, Scott got out of bed and grabbed his shotgun before heading to the front door. Scott allegedly couldn’t see who was on the porch because the deputy was shining a flashlight through the window and still didn’t identify himself.

“As soon as Scott rounded the corner from his bedroom to the living room to answer the door, Defendant Momphard opened fire through the front window of the Knibbs’ residence,” the lawsuit stated.

It goes on to say Scott didn’t point his shotgun at Momphard or threaten him in any way. He then allegedly broke open the door and stood over Scott with his gun still drawn. The suit also claims the deputy pointed the gun at Melissa when she came into the living room crying and wouldn’t let her give aid to her husband.

“Momphard directed Melissa and Megan (his daughter) into a corner. The only thing they could do was watch helplessly as Scott bled out and died on his own living room floor,” it stated.

The complaint states Holland is also responsible in Scott’s death because he hired a “substandard” officer that wasn’t properly trained and because he went on TV and defended the deputy’s actions to the press immediately following the shooting.

orth Carolina Community College President Peter Hans says his main goal is to advocate for more funding for the state community college system, including working to boost the salaries.

“We are fighting for additional compensation for faculty and staff,” Hans told those attending a reception for him at Haywood Community College in Clyde on April 22.

“We need to move toward the national average, although that is really hard to compute.”

Hans explained that since no two states have exactly the same community college systems, then comparing salaries is difficult.

Regardless of how the averages are computed, “our folks need to be better compensated,” he said.

Hans’ stop at HCC was his 52nd visit to community colleges in the state, well on his way to making good on his vow to tour all 58 within his first year in office. He was slated to visit Southwestern Community College in Webster that afternoon.

He was hired in May 2018 with bipartisan support after a career as a political adviser and turns on the the UNC Board of Governors where served as chairman and the state Community College Board, where he

was vice chairman. According to the Raleigh News and Observer, he is not an educator but is widely regarded as a problem solver.

Last fiscal year the community college system received a 4 percent funding increase, and Hans says he hopes to get at least that amount again this year and for years to come.

“Last year we got the 4 percent, but we need to keep that up. We serve more than 700,000 students across the state. That’s 7 percent of the state’s population that’s enrolled in community colleges,” he said.

He says the system has an ambitious legislative agenda that includes additional funds for workforce training.

“I’m optimistic that our community college family is united, and we are taking our message to the difference-makers with unison. I feel like we have a lot of bipartisan support,” Hans said.

He cautioned that the bipartisan support for the community college system could be derailed, however, if a partisan rift breaks down legislative budget “The biggest storm cloud we fear is that a budget impasse on other matters could affect our funding,” he said.

N.C. Community College President Peter Hans speaks during a visit on April 22 to Haywood Community College.

HCC President Barbara Parker gave Hans an overview of HCC, including the initial plans for what she hopes will be a new health sciences building which could help address the region’s nursing shortage. She

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Community college leader works to hike salaries N

also touted how the HCC Foundation has pledged a tuition free education for all students from Haywood County who attend the college.

— By Scott McLeod

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Waynesville shows off draft comprehensive land use map

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT including Ginger Hain, Anthony Sutton and STAFF WRITER Danny Wingate, as well as Mark Clasby on ince late 2017, the Town of Waynesville behalf of the county’s Affordable Housing has been deeply involved in the cretask force, and downtown business owner ation of a successor to the current com- and Realtor John Keith. prehensive plan that was adopted in 2002 But a contingent from the Bethel Rural and slated to last until 2020.

Community Organization showed up After months of steering committee expressing significant concerns after reading meetings, visioning workshops and stakethat the plan would affect their rural comholder interviews, Waynesville’s munity, located far from Waynesville’s town Development Services Director Elizabeth limits. Once they were informed that they Teague has been The changes are important, as the urban showcasing the results of that services boundary defines where the town effort in a series of presentations will consider providing services like water of a proposed and sewer. land use map.

“This is the kind of thing that will be done when it’s done,” Teague were misled, the focus of the meeting turned told a packed room at the Waynesville to the proposed map and what it spells out Recreation Center on Vance Street, noting for Waynesville’s next 20 years. that she hoped for a “finalized draft” by That shows expansion of the town’s mid-May. After that, and further public urban services boundary in three major information sessions, the plan will have to areas, giving clues to how and where town be approved by the Waynesville Board of growth might be expected or encouraged Aldermen after it passes the town’s planning over that period of time. board.

The first is around Lake Junaluska, north Among the attendees were several memand east of the lake itself. Currently, bers of Waynesville’s planning board, the boundary includes areas north-

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April 24-30, 2019

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Several changes in where the Waynesville may offer services are proposed in the new comprehensive plan. Town of Waynesville photo

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Cemetery decorations begin news

The North Shore Cemetery Association will begin decorating cemeteries along the North Shore of Fontana Lake this weekend.

The first decoration will be held Sunday, April 28, at Noland Creek followed by the Woody and Hoyle Cemeteries on Forney Creek on May 5.

Decorations begin the fourth Sunday in April and continue through the second Sunday in October.

Meet the boat at Cable Cove at 7:45 a.m. or Wilderness Marina at 9:30 a.m. There are no charges for any participation. Wear sturdy shoes and clothing suitable for hiking. You may bring your own lunch and drinks, or a dish to share. The association provides plates and tableware. For more information and a complete schedule, visit www.northshorecemeteries.com or facebook.com/northshorecemeteries.

Haywood Habitat accepting new applicants Haywood Habitat for Humanity is seeking qualified homeowners for homes located in Haywood County.

Applicants must attend one mandatory information session prior to application scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday, April 27, at Haywood County Public Library-Waynesville; 2 p.m. Sunday, April 28, at Canton Central United Methodist Church; or 6 p.m. Thursday, May 2, at Long’s Chapel United Methodist Church.

Houses are sold at the organization’s cost with an affordable mortgage.

Families are required to invest 300-400 hours of volunteer “sweat equity” into the construction of their home (depending on family size), and complete homebuyer education classes.

All applicants must be residents of North Carolina for a minimum of 12 months and living in Haywood County at the time of application. Applicants must exhibit need for affordable housing, have the ability to pay a monthly mortgage payment, and be willing to partner with Haywood Habitat in the building and homeowner education process.

For more information, visit haywoodhabitat.org or call 828.452.7960.

April 24-30, 2019 Smoky Mountain News

west of the lake, and east of the lake proceeding north along N.C. 209, but not directly north of it; the proposed boundary now completely encircles the lake.

The second is a major new lobe southwest of town; currently, the town’s urban services boundary runs southward along the west side of town until it hits Old Balsam Road, from whence it turns east.

Under the proposed plan, it would instead jog west for about 2 miles, following the great Smoky Mountain Expressway to the vicinity of Balsam Ridge Road.

The final major change shrinks the town’s urban services boundary on the south end of town; right now, that boundary flows eastward up toward Lickstone Road, but the proposed map shows that tightening up a bit to basically follow Allens Creek toward a southern terminus near Rocky Branch Road.

The changes are important, as the urban services boundary defines where the town will consider providing services like water and sewer.

The Lake Junaluska addition and the westward jaunt along the expressway are both outside of town limits, and outside the town’s extra-territorial jurisdiction.

However, when customers not already within town limits request services like sewer and water, they must also voluntarily petition for annexation from the town. That means if successful, those customers’ parcels would become forever part of the town, thus paying property taxes to the town instead of Haywood County.

For those who wish to learn more about the proposed plan — or provide some input of their own — there’s still one more presentation of the proposed plan scheduled from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 25, at the Folkmoot Friendship Center, 112 Virginia Avenue, in Hazelwood.

That’s won’t be the last opportunity for the public to weigh in, but as Teague’s timeline for the plan’s adoption gets closer and closer, it’s not wise to wait much longer.

For more information on the Waynesville Comprehensive plan and the process being used to create it, visit the Town of Waynesville’s website at www.waynesvillenc.gov/comprehensive-plan-update or call Development Services at 828.456.8647.

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Health building contract approved in Jackson

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Renovations are overdue at the Community Services Building in Sylva, constructed in the 1960s. Holly Kays photo

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Smoky Mountain News

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER ork will soon begin on renovations to the Community Services Building in Sylva — which houses the Jackson County Health Department — following commissioners’ unanimous vote April 16 to accept a bid on the project from Western Builders of Sylva and approve a project ordinance.

“It’s a great day as a local politician that we can approve a bid to a local company and use local people,” said Commissioner Mickey Luker. “A lot of that money is spent right back into our community.”

The contract amount totals $6,101,000, the lowest of the five bids the county received on the project, with companies hailing from Hickory, Asheville, Flat Rock, Canton and Dillsboro. Architect Brandon Benzene said that the five bids reflected “healthy bid participation” and that the numbers were all fairly close, which is a good sign.

“A lot of people are busy now, and it’s good to see this kind of coverage,” he said.

The $6.1 million low bid represents a 15.12 percent increase over the $5.3 million the county had planned to spend on construction. In total, the project is expected to cost the county $7.95 million, a figure that includes other costs such as architecture and engineering fees, furnishings and technology for the renovated building, and costs for the

temporary space the health department is occupying while the project takes place. The $7.95 million is 13.56 percent higher than the placeholder number of $7 million the county had used when planning the project in 2017.

County Manager Don Adams said that the capital expenditure plan should still be workable even with the cost increase.

“I think we’re still within the ballpark of unencumbered monies and getting things accomplished, but obviously we’ll just have to work things out as they come to us,” he said.

“I believe we do still have the capacity to move forward with this project.”

Adams did ask commissioners to consider expanding the project budget slightly beyond the $7.95 million, as that amount allows for only 5 percent contingency funding. Adams said that was a low figure in his experience and that he’d recommend upping it to 7 percent, a $120,000 increase.

However, commissioners opted to leave it at 5 percent, saying that they could always approve additional funding later if it proved necessary.

“There might not be the need for a bigger contingency,” said Commissioner Ron Mau. “I don’t have a problem with approving this now the way it’s written.”

Construction is expected to take one year to complete, meaning that the renovated building should be ready in late spring of 2020. That timing works out well given that the county’s lease on temporary health department facilities at 154 Medical Loop Road will end in June 2020.

(828) 508-4527 | billycase@naibeverly-hanks.c com

15

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No magic solution DOT design for N.C. 107 ‘best option’ volunteer planners say

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER he Asheville Design Center will soon complete its final recommendations for the N.C 107 project in Sylva, but the document is unlikely to provide any drastic departure from the plan already put forward by the N.C. Department of Transportation.

“We know this community has been looking at this project since the 1990s, and I know the town has been in this particular planning process for eight years,” ADC Director Chris Joyell told those attending a public meeting on the issue April 17. “So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I don’t think we’re turning over any new stones at this point.”

Joyell — and the community at large — had hoped the conclusion would be different when the town of Sylva first accepted the ADC’s pro bono services in August.

Preliminary plans for the N.C. 107 project released last spring outlined an undertaking that would have massive, far-reaching impacts for the local economy, requiring 54 businesses, one nonprofit and five residences to relocate to make way for an expanded right-of-way. The figure is equivalent to about one-sixth of Sylva’s business community. A public forum to take input on the plans held Aug. 6 drew a crowd so large that the town’s meeting room could not hold all the people, with latecomers spilling into adjoining rooms to stand and listen to the goings-on in the main chamber. None of the 23 speakers supported the project as proposed.

The ADC used a team of seven volunteer professionals — including a traffic engineer, transportation planner, urban designer and multi-modal specialist — to gather community input and take a second look at the plans in search of a solution that might improve the road as needed without having such a drastic impact on local businesses. The process involved site visits, a focus group meeting, two community meetings, and a work session with the town and DOT as well as utilities.

During the public meetings, residents put forth a variety of suggestions to improve the plan, which the ADC looked into. However, in nearly every case they found the proposed solution to be unworkable.

“We’re in a tricky situation where we’re like, ‘Hey, community, bring us all your ideas,’ and I feel like we’re coming to you having swatted down most of those ideas,” said Kristy Carter, an urban and transportation planner on the ADC team. “The plan, as impactful as it is, really is probably the best 16 option of all the options that are out there.”

Smoky Mountain News

April 24-30, 2019

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The Asheville Design Team takes questions from community members present at the April 17 meeting.

Holly Kays photo

“The plan, as impactful as it is, really is probably the best option of all the options that are out there.”

— Kristy Carter, Asheville Design Center urban and transportation planner

The N.C. 107 project will run from the fire department on West Main Street all the way out to Ingles, also including a one-third mile section of U.S. 23 from McDonald’s to the intersection with 107. The plan is to get rid of the existing “suicide lane” that runs for most of that length and replace it with a grassy median that would force drivers to turn only at designated locations. The design also calls for bike lanes and improved sidewalks to encourage non-vehicular transportation.

MULTI-MODAL While the ADC team felt that, overall, the DOT’s plan is as good as can be expected considering the complexity of the project, they spent some time April 17 talking further about bike lanes and pedestrian facilities.

In terms of bike lanes, the current plan calls for nothing but a stripe of paint to separate the bikes from the cars. According to transportation planning specialist Rachel Bronson, that’s not a good idea. Federal guidelines that relate road volume to speed limit in order to determine the most appropriate bicycle facility would show that the 107 project falls well within the range of requiring a separated, greenway-like path.

“The challenge with this recommendation, even though it is the federally accepted recommendation, is it has so many constraints that really value it out,” Bronson said.

Increased right-of-way, additional costs and an extended timeline to complete the project are just some of the reasons Bronson said a separated path isn’t feasible. However,

she said, the DOT should consider a buffered bike lane — a bike lane that has a strip of notravel area to separate bikes and cars. She believes this could be done without requiring additional right-of-way if the vehicle lanes were built slightly narrower.

“What we don’t recommend, which is what is in the plan, is just a standard striped bike lane,” said Carter. “It may end up that’s what you get, but if we’re giving our professional judgment we have a hard time saying that’s an OK suggestion.”

Carter also suggested extra care be taken with designing intersections to be pedestrianfriendly.

“The advantage of a bike lane is instead of having this 4.5-foot buffer between cars and the sidewalk, you actually have 4.5 feet of grass, 2 feet of curb and gutter and the bike lane,” she said. “It’s really quite a wide buffer between the pedestrians and traffic, and that’s great. We don’t really have any improvement suggestions.”

However, she said, some of the intersections — especially the N.C. 107/U.S. 23 crossing — would benefit from pedestrian medians, signage and construction aimed at slowing down turning cars in order to make them more approachable for pedestrians.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS During the question-and-answer period following the presentation, some community members made it clear that they’d hoped to hear less about bike lanes and sidewalks and more about suggestions for reducing the project’s overall impact. Was the team going to

go through the map with suggestions, one attendee asked?

“We don’t have any magic solution to make that better,” said Carter. “We feel like that’s a pretty good solution for the type of corridor that it is. So the short answer is no.”

“It seems like with almost every alternative we’re just shifting the burden from one property owner to another property owner, and we’re not really in the business of picking sides,” Joyell said earlier in the meeting. “At each one of these intersections it’s going to require some form of acquisition of property or condemnation of property.”

Transportation engineer Christy Staudt told attendees that their best chance of changing the course of their individual destinies would be negotiation during the rightof-way acquisition process, expected to begin in 2020.

“There’s room for negotiation, but it occurs during that right-of-way take aspect, and as a community there are some bigger, broader items that are more safety and enhancement that you might want to consider,” she said.

While it could be possible to trim a couple of feet off the road footprint, she said, the community might do better to focus its attention on getting the best long-term result possible from the road project — improved landscaping, lighting and other upgrades.

Those conclusions weren’t satisfactory for everybody.

“Some of us are worried about our business. We’re not as worried about the bicycle lanes,” said Jeannie Kelley, leader of the group Say No To The Road whose family owns three businesses within the project area.

“My question is, is this process going to be such that Asheville Design is going to address fundamentally flawed engineering design that has been presented to this community by the Department of Transportation and suggest alternatives that would work very easily?” said J.K.

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Coward, a Sylva attorney who heads up the Jackson County Smart Roads Alliance and has been outspoken against the plans presented.

For example, said Coward, the preliminary plans called for two bridges to be rebuilt in slightly different places than their current locations. If they were rebuilt in the exact same place, he said, at least a dozen businesses would be saved.

DOT Division Engineer Brian Burch, who attended the April 17 meeting, spoke up to say that, since the preliminary plans have been released, engineers determined that the bridge closest to town could be rehabbed within its existing footprint. However, he said, the other bridge would need to be replaced.

“Right, but is it something you could put back there in that same place?” asked Coward.

“They have to maintain traffic flow during this entire process,” said Joyell. “It has to function as a road while you’re trying to make it a better road.”

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Sylva attorney J.K. Coward questions the

Smoky Mountain News

Asheville Design Center’s conclusions. t Holly Kays photo f - “Ethically we can’t just shut a road like n that down,” agreed Staudt.

In response to Coward’s initial comments s about the scope of the project, she said that a the ADC hadn’t been engaged to do the full r engineering study that would be required to t say whether DOT had made a mistake in any of its plans. e “There are so many levels to this that e unless you hire a firm to do a full engineering - analysis, you can’t say DOT is doing this - wrong,” she said.

- The new road is needed, community members agreed. But apprehension remains r as to what the project might ultimately cost the town.

- “I feel like it’s going to be a loss for us as a e town,” said Sylva resident Stacy Munn. “A lot p of these businesses, I don’t see how they’re e going to make it.”

The ADC team is in the process of finalizo ing its recommendations and will deliver o them during a final presentation to town g commissioners, with a date not yet set.

- Updated plans considered 65 percent comn plete are expected in June. These plans should more accurately reflect expected impacts to businesses along the corridor.

April 24-30, 2019

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If approved, the casino would be built on a 16-acre property in Cleveland County, employing an anticipated 3,000 people. Catawba rendering

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Phyllis Robinson

than 2,600 jobs, the resolutions say.

The documents also speak to the casinos’ tax contributions — the state’s share of casino revenues reaches $11 million annually, with other benefits to state and local coffers approaching $80 to $90 million.

Finally, they state each entity’s opposition to the bill, known as S790, and call for North Carolina Senators Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, both of whom are cosponsors, to withdraw their support.

“They’re our constituents. It’s great for our county and North Carolina, and we’d be foolish not to support them,” Jackson County Commissioner Boyce Deitz said when that board discussed the resolution in an April 9 work session.

Tillis’ and Burrs’ offices did not reply to a request for comment on this story.

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CRITICISM FROM CHEROKEE The bill in question was introduced by South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham on March 13, with Burr and Tillis signing on in support.

“The Catawba Nation has been treated unfairly by the federal government, and our legislation rights that wrong,” Graham said in a press release issued March 14. “I hope this legislation will be quickly passed through the Congress and signed into law so we can once and for all bring resolution to this issue.”

The bill itself is quite short, consisting of only five paragraphs. It states that the Catawba Indian Nation is authorized to own a gaming facility on the 16.5-acre piece of land in Cleveland County, that the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to take the property in question into trust for the tribe, and adds that the facility must comply with the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act — except for section 20 as it relates to the particular piece of land described.

The section from which the tribe would be exempt relates to gaming on lands acquired

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BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER owns and counties across Western North Carolina are considering resolutions to oppose a Congressional bill that would pave the way for a casino to be built in Cleveland County, likely delivering a blow to profits at Harrah’s Cherokee casinos in Cherokee and Murphy.

“What we’re trying to shine some light on is yes, this will definitely have a negative economic impact, but it’s not just the Eastern Band it’s going to impact,” said Principal Chief Richard Sneed. “We employ 4,000 North Carolinians; $179 million goes into the surrounding counties.”

The spate of county and municipal resolutions followed statements Sneed made at a Southwestern Commission Governing Board meeting in March. Sneed spoke to the assembly of regional leaders to ask for their support in making the region’s displeasure at the prospect known, providing a sample resolution for them to consider passing. So far, Haywood County, Swain County, Jackson County, Waynesville, Bryson City and Murphy have passed variations of that resolution.

The resolutions focus heavily on Harrah’s significant contribution to the region’s economic landscape, especially its impact on unemployment and job opportunities. About one-third of the casinos’ patrons come from places that would be closer to the site in Kings Mountain than to Cherokee or Murphy.

The two casinos together employ about 5 percent of workers in North Carolina’s six westernmost counties — about 3,069 people — and had an estimated $750 million regional economic impact in 2018, the resolutions say. Prior to the casinos’ establishment, seasonal fluctuations in unemployment sometimes peaked at 17 percent, but now fluctuations range from 2 to 4 percent. The casinos contribute about $129 million in direct wage and salary income and about $276 million in indirect wage and salary income to the local economy, and they generated close to $90 million in local spending while creating more

19

April 24-30, 2019

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CATAWBA, CONTINUED FROM 19 after Oct. 17, 1988. The section says that gaming may not take place on lands taken into trust after that date unless those lands are contiguous to the boundaries of the reservation, or if the tribe had no reservation on that date.

The prohibition can be lifted if the Secretary of the Interior determines that a gaming establishment on newly acquired lands “would be in the best interest of the Indian tribe and its members, and would not be detrimental to the surrounding community.”

However, even in that case the governor of the state where gaming is to occur would need to agree with the secretary. The prohibition can also be lifted if lands are taken into trust as part of a settlement of a land claim, are part of the initial reservation of a tribe or are part of a restoration of lands for a tribe that has been restored to federal recognition.

According to Sneed, passage of the bill would set a sweeping precedent for Indian Country.

“It would really open the floodgates for any tribe anywhere in the country to say, ‘We don’t have to follow the process anymore. We have to find a senator who will introduce a bill,’” he said.

Because of the way the gaming laws are written, the Eastern Band can’t buy a piece of property any old where — whether that be a couple hours away in Cleveland County or across state lines in Tennessee, Georgia or California — and go through the lengthy and costly process of having it taken into trust with the expectation of building a casino there. The

bill would make an exception to existing laws for a specific tribe and a specific property — if it were a bill that affected all tribes equally, he said, his opinion would be different.

“There’s 30 years of Indian gaming law that we all have to abide by, and this bill would seek to create a special exception for one tribe,” Sneed said.

Further, he said, the land where the Catawba want to build was historically Cherokee, not Catawba — in a statement issued the day after the bill was introduced, he called the bill “nothing more than a modern day land-grab by the federal government of Cherokee aboriginal lands.”

SETTING PRECEDENT, OR CORRECTING AN OVERSIGHT? The Catawba, meanwhile, dispute most of Sneed’s claims about what they’re trying to do and the potential implications.

For one thing, the tribe said in a statement issued in response to Sneed’s, the land in question is indeed aboriginal to the Catawba.

“A quick look at the website for the Charlotte Museum of History documents the Catawba Nation being in this area over 10,000 years ago,” the statement reads. “The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is simply trying to protect their own economic interests based on inaccurate historical information.”

The tribe also disputes Sneed’s claims as to the implications of the bill’s passage, and its likely impact on business at Harrah’s.

“Chief Sneed doesn’t have a good under-

“What we’re trying to shine some light on is yes, this will definitely have a negative economic impact, but it’s not just the Eastern Band it’s going to impact. We employ 4,000 North Carolinians; $179 million goes into the surrounding counties.”

— Principal Chief Richard Sneed

standing of our current settlement agreement,” said Elizabeth Harris, tribal administrator for the Catawba. “I think he’s trying to make some generalities to scare Indian Country into feeling like this is something unusual and it’s going to set new precedent.”

The Catawba Indians gained federal recognition during the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration, but that recognition was terminated in 1959, according to the tribe’s website. However, in 1973 the tribe filed a petition to regain recognition. It took 20 years to attain that goal, when a land claim settlement was reached on Nov. 20, 1993. The 21-page agreement covers a lot of ground,

defining the existing reservation as a 630-acre tract in York County, South Carolina, laying out the process for expanding the reservation and stating that with the agreement the tribe agrees not to make any future land claims based on events and treaties occurring previous to the agreement.

The settlement document also defines the tribe’s service area to mean the entire state of South Carolina as well as Cabarrus, Cleveland, Gaston, Mecklenburg, Rutherford and Union counties in North Carolina.

According to Sneed, Cleveland County’s status as part of the tribe’s service area should have little to no bearing on the outcome of any application to take land into trust, or to build a casino. “Service area,” he said, is simply a designation that means enrolled members living in that area are eligible for Indian Health Services benefits regardless of whether they live on the reservation.

“We have a five-county service area, but that doesn’t mean I can build a casino in Sylva,” Sneed said. “They’re playing on the ignorance of the general public, because the general public, they are mostly unaware of Indian Country and the relationship that exists between tribal nations and the federal government.”

The Catawba, meanwhile, argue that the bill simply seeks to correct an oversight in the 1993 agreement. The agreement lays out step-by-step how land in South Carolina can be taken into trust but says nothing about how the process should work in North Carolina. In order for a gaming operation to be approved, the land on which it is to be built must be part of tribal trust land — get-

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The event will begin at 5 p.m. with a reception, followed by a dedication cere-

mony at 5:30 p.m. that will include the unveiling of a model of a sculptured bust of David Belcher, who served as WCU chancellor from 2011 until his death in June 2018 after battling brain cancer for more than two years.

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It’s an agreed-upon fact that the casino, if built, would impact Harrah’s bottom line, and therefore the Eastern Band’s. Casino profits make up the lion’s share of the tribe’s budget, which tops half a billion dollars annually — half the profits go to tribal coffers while the other half are distributed to tribal members as per capita payments.

How big a dent the competition might make, though, is an open question.

“At this point we’re not looking at a specific dollar value, but we do recognize it could be a significant impact on the business if it comes to be,” said Brian Saunooke, regional vice president of marketing for Harrah’s.

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IMPACT TO HARRAH’S

While one-third of the casino’s customers are closer to the Kings Mountain site than to Harrah’s, a significant portion of them would likely travel to Cherokee anyway.

“When we talk about our customers, it’s not a one-size-fits-all category,” said Saunooke.

VIP customers, for instance, typically have access to comp airfare and can take their pick of destinations. It’s also a question of amenities. Harrah’s has been continually expanding since it opened in 1997, with various enhancements adding fine dining, retail, hotel rooms and additional gaming opportunities. A major expansion currently underway is expected to be complete in early 2021, featuring an additional 150 hotel rooms as well as retail, conference and convention space. If a bill currently under consideration in the state legislature passes, Cherokee could add sports wagering to its list of offerings by late summer. The bill — which passed the Senate 43-7 April 9 and now awaits action in the House — applies specifically to Cherokee, so the Catawba would need to secure separate legislation should the Kings Mountain casino become a reality.

“What we have learned in our studies talking about gaming patrons is if they find something that they like, they don’t want any change … if they are happy with Cherokee they’ll bypass Catawba to go to Cherokee,” said Bill Harris.

Bill Harris said Catawba estimates it would end up siphoning 5 to 10 percent of Harrah’s existing customers.

Nevertheless, a hit to Harrah’s won’t just be a hit to the tribe — it will impact Western North Carolina as a whole. The casino is an important player in the regional economy, both on and off Cherokee land.

“It’s not just this casino and their revenue,” said Saunooke. “It’s not just the tribe and their revenue. It really is Western North Carolina. We’re all in this a little bit together.”

The Catawba, meanwhile, say they’d like to see a “we’re all in this together” attitude emerge between their tribe and the Cherokee.

A partnership between the two tribes, they say, would be a “win-win.”

“Catawba’s only looking to do what Cherokee has already done,” said Bill Harris.

“As a matter of fact we wish to mirror exactly what they’ve done.”

Sneed, however, maintains that they should work toward that goal at home in South Carolina.

“We don’t have an issue with the Catawbas doing economic development or even a casino, but they need to do it on their tribal trust land in South Carolina,” he said.

news

e ting it there is a years-long process that goes g far beyond simply holding a deed. n “Bill 790 goes back and puts in the lane guage that should have been put in 1993,” s said Catawba Chief Bill Harris. “So when dec- larations are being made that Catawba is land-grabbing or reservation-shopping, we e are setting a legal precedent within Indian f Country — those are all false accusations.”

The lack of clarity surrounding land-tod trust procedures for North Carolina spelled trouble when Catawba put forth its applicas tion to take its 16 acres in Cleveland County d into trust, Bill Harris said. f “They can do it now but there would be some gray area,” said Elizabeth Harris. “It - (the bill) clears up the gray area as to how that - process for taking land into trust is done.” n North Carolina has already approved f gaming in the state, while South Carolina — despite multiple efforts by the Catawba — t has not. Therefore, to the Catawba establishing a casino in North Carolina seemed like e the better bet.

The Catawba first applied to take the y property into trust in 2013 but then withdrew l and resubmitted the application in December 2018. e According to Bureau of Indian Affairs e spokesperson Nedra Darling, the BIA is curt rently reviewing the application for environn mental compliance and other regulatory t requirements. If it’s found acceptable, the h application will go to the Secretary of the Interior for final approval. e According to plans released in 2013, the proposed facility would be 220,000 square feet with 750 guest rooms split between two hotels, requiring a capital investment of $339 million. It would employ 3,000 people and support an additional 1,330 jobs in the Cleveland County area.

21

news

A Year from the Naturalist’s Corner VOLUME 1

————————————————————————————————————————————————

Smoky Mountain News columnist Don Hendershot’s first collection of columns “Whether in the field observing the natural world directly — with exceptionally sharp eyes — or at his desk recording experiences in the easygoing informative manner readers of his weekly Naturalist's Corner columns have learned to anticipate, Don Hendershot is the real deal. This selection of his columns in book form is long overdue.”

A Year from the Naturalist’s Corner VOLUME 1

DON HENDERSHOT FOREWORD BY THOMAS RAIN CROWE

— George Ellison, naturalist and author

Available at Blue Ridge Books 428 HAZELWOOD AVE. WAYNESVILLE

828.456.6000 · BLUERIDGEBOOKSNC.COM ————————————————————————————————————————————————

April 24-30, 2019

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Community Almanac Community Table holds fundraiser The Community Table of Jackson County is hosting its annual Empty Bowl Fundraiser from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday, April 26, at 23 Central St., Sylva.

Local potters and artisans donate their beautiful work to this event, and patrons pay $20 to come and enjoy fabulous home-cooked soups, and receive a handmade bowl or other pottery piece. The event also features a raffle of locally donated goods, from gift certificates to crafts and art and books. Raffle tickets cost $3 for one, $5 for two, $10 fo five, and $20 for 12.

The Community Table is a nonprofit whose mission is to provide nutritious meals to our neighbors in need. Meals are served from 4 to 6 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.

For more information, visit communitytable.org.

Free safety fun in Franklin Safe Kids Macon County and Franklin Daybreak Rotary will be teaming up for the third annual Safety Town from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 27 at the Robert C. Carpenter Community building in Franklin.

The event will feature all things kids and all things safety — car seat checking station, K9 demonstration, bike rodeo, emergency vehicle car show, and much more.

Officers with the Macon County Sheriff ’s Office and Franklin Police Department will be on hand to collect any unwanted medications from the community. Certified Car Seat technicians with Safe Kids Macon County will be available to make sure your child’s seat is installed as safely as possible. Bring your bicycle and try out the obstacle course. Franklin Daybreak Rotary will be providing free bike helmets while supplies last and Active Routes to School will be providing safety information for families.

HCC to hold job fair Haywood Community College will hold a Job Fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, April 24, at the College’s library.

Representatives from local companies will be present, including Andy Shaw Ford, Asheville Police Department, Cherokee Head Start, Haywood Regional Medical Center and the Irene Wortham Center. Attendees should bring a resume to the event.

For more information or for resume assistance, contact Joshua Hilbert at 828.627.3613 or jhilbert@haywood.edu.

Concealed carry class for women A concealed carry class for women will be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 27,

Smoky Mountain News

Photo by Alex Ribeiro.

HCC celebrates Sara Queen Brown’s birthday Haywood Community College’s cosmetology program celebrated the 97th birthday of Sara Queen Brown. A salon patron since the inception of the program, Brown is an emeritus member of the College’s board of trustees. She served on the board from 1983 until 2003 and also served as the first female chairperson. Brown has strong ties to the College spanning back to serving as a member of the planning committee that guided the development of HCC. In addition, she served on the College’s Foundation board of directors.

Pictured are HCC cosmetic arts program manager Cathy Gilchrist, (from left) Sara Queen Brown and cosmetology student Taylor Smith. at Waynesville Police Department, 9 S. Main St., Waynesville.

The cost is $50 per person. The class will go out to lunch together somewhere downtown.

The class trainer will be Waynesville PD officer Brian Beck. Each attendee will receive a certificate that is used to complete the application for the conceal carry permit with the Haywood County Sheriff ’s Office.

RSVP to Pat Caldwell at 828.246.3538 or email Patricia Caldwell at thundercaldwell@gmail.com.

Critter camp in Cashiers The Cashiers-Highlands Humane Society introduces Critter Camp, a brand new summer camp program for rising first-graders through rising sixth-graders.

Three weeks of Critter Camp will be offered from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 17-21, July 15-19, and Aug. 5-9. Each week of Critter Camp features fun, immersive experiences with animals at the no-kill shelter, humane education programs, animal-themed arts and crafts, dog obedience demonstrations, and exciting guest presentations by visiting veterinarians, wildlife biologists and law enforcement K9s.

Each week of Critter Camp is $300 per child. A limited number of scholarships are available. There will be a maximum number of 12 children in each Critter Camp.

For more information, call 828.743.5752 or email info@chhumanesociety.org.

Jackson Dems elect new officers New officers were recently elected at the annual Jackson County Democratic Party convention.

Frank Burrell will serve as chairman; Cynthia Burke as first vice chair; Lorna Barnett as second vice chair; Penny Smith as third vice chair; Drucilla Russell as secretary; Bill Burke as treasurer.

The JCDP holds monthly meetings at 6:30 p.m. the third Tuesday of each month at the JCDP headquarters located at 500 Mill Street in Sylva.

Spring Into Fashion with REACH REACH of Haywood County invites you to upgrade your warm weather wardrobe at their upcoming “Spring Into Fashion” Social and Luncheon to be held at 11 a.m. Thursday, May 9, at Laurel Ridge Country Club.

Check out the latest trends during a live runway show, and then shop for the looks you love at pop-up boutiques from local retailers. Also featuring mimosas, a plated lunch, a raffle, and a silent auction of gently-used designer accessories.

Tickets are $75, and proceeds go to benefit REACH and their services to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and elder abuse. Buy tickets at www.reachofhaywood.org, or by calling the REACH office at 828.456.7898.

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Grants awarded to Haywood charities

Thirteen grants totaling $70,008 were recently awarded to Haywood County nonprofits from The Fund for Haywood County, the J. Aaron and Adora H. Prevost Endowment Fund and the Mib and Phil Medford Endowment Fund.

Nonprofits that received funds include: The Arc of Haywood County Inc.; Clothes To Kids of Haywood County; The Community Kitchen; Fines Creek Community Association; Haywood County Meals on Wheels; Haywood Pathways Center, Inc.; HIGHTS Inc.; KARE (Kids Advocacy Resource Effort); NC International Folk Festival/Folkmoot; No Boundaries: Integrated Services for Independent Living, Inc.; North Carolina Arboretum Society; STAR Ranch and Town of Waynesville.

With goals to inspire philanthropy and to strengthen charitable organizations in Haywood County, The Fund for Haywood County is an affiliate of The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina (CFWNC) established in 1994 by a group of local residents.

To make a gift, visit www.FundforHaywoodCounty.org or by mail to P.O. Box 627, Waynesville, NC 28786-0627.

Learn more at www.cfwnc.org.

Poor Man’s Supper

Waynesville Lion’s Club will be hosting a Poor Man’s Supper fundraiser from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 16, at the Family Life Center, First Baptist Church in Waynesville.

Plates are $8 for adults and $5 for children under $10. Carry out is available.

Free seminar on ‘Living After Loss’

Four Seasons, Wells Funeral Home, and First United Methodist Church of Waynesville will host an event titled “Living After Loss: a Grief Discussion” from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday, May 4, at Wells Event Center in Waynesville.

The event will focus on bringing light to stories of grief, learning about the nature of grief, and connecting with others journeying through grief. Lending his expertise is Dan Yearick, MS, LPC-S, Bereavement Coordinator with Four Seasons, who has extensive experience in professional grief counseling. Yearick will lead an open discussion around the many ways individuals process grief and how to access resources during the grieving process.

Based on the needs of attendees, subsequent grief discussion groups will be planned and scheduled within the community to ensure residents feel supported and cared for as they grieve.

The event is open to the public and is free of charge. Light refreshments and coffee will be served. No RSVP is necessary.

For more information, contact Four Seasons at 828.692.6178 or email dyearick@fourseasonscfl.org.

24

Opinion

Smoky Mountain News

Nikwasi Initiative can proceed without deed A

REAL ID required

by Oct. 1, 2020 To the Editor: Do you know that by Oct. 1, 2020, you must have a REAL ID driver license in order to board flights in the United States or get into federal facilities, military bases and federal prisons? On that date, the Transportation Security Administration will begin enforcing REAL ID requirements at airport security checkpoints. Federal agencies will begin requiring REAL ID-compliant licenses and IDs for admission to a variety of federal facilities.

To apply for an N.C. REAL ID driver license or identification card, go to a N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles driver license office with the following documents: birth certificate with full name and date of birth or a valid passport, one document with full name and full Social Security number, and two documents with current address.

If your name is different from the name on the birth certificate, passport or other U.S. government documents, one of the following is required: certified marriage license/certificate, divorce decree, document from the courts or Register of Deeds or Name Change Affidavit.

The cost for a North Carolina REAL ID driver license or ID card is the same as a renewal if the REAL ID is obtained within six

What has yet to be explained to the public is why turning over the deed is key to revitalization of the area these groups are promoting? What do they want to do? Mainspring has bought some property near the mound and the EBCI has bought a building adjacent to the mound, but so far nothing has been done with either of these properties. It is time to see some action and concrete plans before the town turns over the deed.

I know there has been an extraordinary letter writing campaign to the news media and members of the town Guest Columnist council. I have been copied on these and I have noted the vast majority of these letters, supporting transfer of the deed, are from people affiliated with one or more of the above groups. The divisiveness is increasing daily with those against turning over the deed being told to look beyond the “misinformation,” and “grandstanding taking place around this issue .…” only because they are opposed to the town giving up the deed. The issue has gotten ugly and emotional.

Another point that is being alluded to by those groups wanting the deed is that somehow giving up the deed to the Initiative will right some wrong done to the EBCI over 200 years ago. What I have yet to see is any thanks to the residents of Franklin and Macon County for saving the mound.

Rationality and practicality should be the issue. Not emotionality.

I have reached out to the last three principal chiefs and

Bob Scott

s mayor of Franklin, my duty and loyalty is to the town.

With that being said, I will be blunt. Turning the town’s Nikwasi deed over to the Nikwasi Initiative — in my opinion after 17 years’ service to Franklin’s Town Council — is not in the best interest of the town at this time.

A better solution is for the town to become a partner in whatever it is the Initiative wants to do in East Franklin. Then, after a reasonable length of time, when the Initiative establishes a track record and the public sees actual progress, the issue of the deed could be raised again. It may be a year or two for this to take place.

But there should be no rush to turn the deed over to the Initiative, which is a relatively new organization when compared to the town which has been around since 1855 and has preserved and protected the mound since 1946.

This would be an acceptable compromise to those wanting the town to hold off on handing over the deed. This nation was founded on compromise, and there is no reason this deed deal cannot be settled with a compromise. I have repeatedly called for such an agreement.

The issue over the deed is dividing the community and that should not be the case. I warned Vice Mayor Barbara McRae and Stacy Guffey, both members of the Initiative, that bringing up the deed transfer would split the community.

And it has. Unfortunately, some friends of mine in the groups wanting the deed to be transferred have given me side glances and stated their anger at me for taking the stand I have.

These groups are the Women’s History Trail, Mainspring, Cowee School Arts and Heritage Center, and to some unknown degree, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

months of expiration. If the REAL ID is obtained outside of the renewal period, the cost is the same as a duplicate ($13).

For more information, go to Official NCDMV:N.C. REAL ID Requirements website or contact your local Department of Motor Vehicles office.

Mary A. Herr Cherokee

Tax on guns helps wildlife, public lands To the Editor: In the early 1900s, sporting organizations and state wildlife agencies, concerned with declining wildlife populations in the United States due to years of market hunting enacted the Federal Aid And Wildlife Restoration Act. This act, better known as the PittmanRoberson Act, provides funds for wildlife restoration. Laws were also enacted banning market hunting and setting seasons and bag limits, thus creating our modern day wildlife management plans. With no grocery store on every corner and no factory farms, the masses, just like today, had to be fed.

The P-R Act generates funds through an 11 percent excise tax on long guns, ammunition, and archery equipment and a 10 percent excise tax on handguns. The revenue from this tax goes into the Wildlife Restoration Account administered by the U.S. Fish and

offered — by a 2014 town council resolution — for the EBCI to work with the Town in maintenance and other matters involving the mound. To date, I have had no luck and just for information, I have approached Chief Richard Sneed on three occasions to ask if I might meet with him. He has not committed to meet with me.

The Nikwasi Initiative started out as something called Mountain Partners. Since then several charter members have resigned. Then an outfit called Catalpa Partners entered the picture. Now Mainspring seems to be pulling most of the weight in this. All of these groups are intertwined and interconnected. What is the real reason behind the deed transfer?

Why is their reason so secretive?

In my earlier life, as a journalist and law enforcement officer, we had an old saying we lived by, “Follow the money.” Is there significance to this old saying in this deal?

Before a vote is taken by the town council, there should be a disclosure of any connection any council member may have with any of these groups. If there could be any conflict of interest by any council member it should be disclosed. There should be an avoidance of even the appearance of a conflict of interest.

It is past time for this to simmer down and give the Nikwasi Initiative the chance to come forward and put into action, on the ground, their ideas. Then we can take another look at the deed deal.

(Bob Scott is in his third term as Mayor of Franklin. He served 11 years on the Town Council. He is a member of a number of environmental organizations and is Chair of the North Carolina Mayors Association.)

Wildlife Service (USFWS). Funds are then apportioned annually to state wildlife agencies. The money is used for the restoration and improvement of wildlife habitat, and wildlife management research. The act was amended in 1970 to include funding for hunter education programs making hunting one of the safest outdoor activities.

According to public records, since 1939 the Wildlife Restoration Account has generated over $10 billion which has funded the purchase of approximately 4 million acres of land to support wildlife with another 40 million acres being managed for wildlife under agreements with land owners.

Funds from the P-R Act, along with a similar tax on fishing equipment, fees from the sale of licenses and permits, help from private organizations such as National Wild Turkey Federation, Ruffed Grouse Society, and Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation to name just a few, have paved the way for the abundance of

wildlife on the additional millions of acres they have helped preserve.

Currently, funds are being used in our

national forests in WNC for road maintenance, wildlife openings and food plots. With less than one percent of our national forests in early successional habitat, and with declining populations of ruffed grouse, deer and song birds that depend on this type of habitat, this is much-needed funding. As a proud outdoor sportsman, I am glad to help fund this worthy cause.

Mark B. Rogers Canton

A bucket list full of dreams

Susanna Barbee

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April 24-30, 2019

it were his last, defending those in desperate need.

My dad’s bucket list makes me smile. It’s kind and unique to his very special personality, but it’s also do-able. He’s already purchased the RV he references in item number four and as soon as he can sell his house, he’ll be on the road no doubt. I bought him a Cataloochee Ranch gift certificate at Christmas so he and I can go horseback riding. Now that the weather is nice, I have a feeling it will happen soon, maybe over Father’s Day weekend.

He hasn’t gotten his tattoo yet, but he has it sketched out on a piece of paper.

Numbers five and six come easy to him.

They don’t really need to be on a bucket list because he does them all the time anyway.

He’s the sweetest, most generous man and would do anything for anyone.

Number three involves my mom’s former tour company. Another item on her bucket list was to own a tour company.

After retiring from 35 years in public education, she became an entrepreneur. My dad, also a retired educator, drives for Young Transportation. My mom used this company for her trips and my dad was always the driver. That way, the two of them would be together on these excursions. One of their favorite trips was one they took out west, but apparently my dad felt they never had enough time to fully enjoy the itinerary stops. I have a feeling that number three will happen easily once he gets on the road in his RV. I’ve only made one bucket list for myself. I found it several months ago. It was dated July 8, 2013. It’s includes items such as get a book published, run a half marathon, take the boys to Disney, take the boys to New York City, tour the vineyards in California wine country, go on a mission trip, further explore Europe and so on. I’ve completed some of these items and others are waiting in the wings.

Some people think bucket lists are silly and maybe they are, but I come from a family of dreamers and we believe the sky is the limit. The other day my dad was telling some of my friends about the trip to Africa.

His eyes twinkled as he spoke. The Africa trip was not something he wanted to do at first. It was on my mom’s list, not his, but he went for her and ended up enjoying it thoroughly.

Whether it’s a bucket list or something else, I think it’s important to reflect on life and dream big. It’s a beautiful world out there. We can’t allow the daily grind to shield our true sight. I know I can’t.

The late Mary Oliver said, “Tell me, what it is you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

Well, my friends, what’s your answer?

(Susanna Barbee wears several hats for The Smoky Mountain News, Smoky Mountain Living and Mountain South Media. susanna.b@smokymountainnews.com)

opinion

ate in life, my mom created a bucket list. It wasn’t in response to her cancer diagnosis, but once she passed away, the list became serendipitous.

One item on her list said, “Take a trip to Africa.”

My mom, Brenda, had been enamored with Africa since childhood. Born in 1940, TV wasn’t common and going to the movies was a big deal. “Tarzan” was a popular movie series during much of the 20th century. My grandmother and mom loved these movies and watched them faithfully. Brenda Joyce was the actress who played Jane durColumnist ing the 1940s string of “Tarzan” movies.

Brenda Joyce was also my mom’s namesake.

From an early age, my mother adored Africa and desired to see this beautiful land in person.

In 2012, she and my dad finally went for a two-week stay. To watch my mom bring this bucket list item to fruition was very inspiring. She saved money and planned for several years before they made the long trek to a faraway continent she’d only dreamed of as a child. She wrote in a journal every day during that trip. The journal is a treasured keepsake of mine, especially now that she’s no longer here on earth.

My mom was a dreamer and loved adding and deleting items to her bucket list.

She always encouraged my dad to create one, but he never did while she was alive.

Shortly after she died, he was traveling for work and checked into his hotel late.

Typically, he’s not one to flip on the TV but for whatever reason, he switched on the tube in his hotel room that night and the channel was on HBO. The movie “The Bucket List” with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman had just started. He felt like it was a wink from my mom, so he sat there and watched the entire movie. He then created his own bucket list.

The next time he and I were together, he told me the story about the movie and shared his bucket list with me. Here it is: 1) Get a tattoo in memory of Brenda.

2) Go horse-back riding (did a lot as a kid; been 61 years since being on a horse).

3) Follow the trail out west from Brenda’s tour company and spend more time at The Cowboy Museum and other places that were so fabulous.

4) Get a camper to travel to places I’ve seen and loved, but didn’t get to stop or spend enough time touring.

5) Hug and kiss my beautiful family every chance I get.

6) Every day try to help others in need, similar to the actor Ben Gazarra in the 1960s series “Run for Your Life,” where he was doomed to die soon and lived each day as if

WAYNESVILLE

PARKS AND RECREATION

828.456.2030

or email lkinsland@waynesvillenc.gov

25

Wine • Port • Champagne Cigars • Gifts

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

828-452-6000

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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.

BOOJUM BREWING COMPANY 50 N Main Street, Waynesville.

828.246.0350. Taproom Open Monday, Wednesday and Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday & Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 12 p.m., Sunday 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Gem Bar Open Tuesday through Sunday 5 p.m. to 12 a.m. Enjoy lunch, dinner or drinks at Boojum’s Downtown Waynesville restaurant & bar. Choose from 16 taps of our fresh, delicious & ever rotating Boojum Beer plus cider, wine & craft cocktails. The taproom features seasonal pub faire including tasty burgers, sandwiches, shareables and daily specials that pair perfectly with our beer. Cozy up inside or take in the mountain air on our back deck."

BOURBON BARREL BEEF & ALE 454 Hazelwood Ave., Waynesville, 828.452.9191. Lunch daily 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; dinner nightly at 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Closed Sunday and Monday. Wine Down Wednesday’s: ½ off wine by the bottle. We specialize in hand-cut, all natural steaks from local farms, incredible burgers, and other classic american comfort foods that are made using only the finest local and sustainable ingredients available.

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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.

CHURCH STREET DEPOT 34 Church Street, downtown Waynesville.

828.246.6505. 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Mouthwatering all beef burgers and dogs, hand-dipped, hand-spun real ice cream shakes and floats, fresh handcut fries. Locally sourced beef. Indoor and outdoor dining. facebook.com/ChurchStreetDepot, twitter.com/ChurchStDepot.

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.

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

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

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

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

EVERETT HOTEL & BISTRO 16 Everett St.,Bryson City. 828.488.1934.

Open daily for dinner at 4:30 p.m.; Saturday & Sunday Brunch from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; dinner from 4:30-9:30 p.m. Serving fresh and delicious weekday morning lite fare, lunch, dinner, and brunch. Freshly prepared menu offerings range from house-made soups & salads, lite fare & tapas, crepes, specialty sandwiches and burgers. Be sure not to miss the bold flavors and creative combinations that make up the daily Chef Supper Specials.

Followed by a tempting selection of desserts prepared daily by our chefs and other local bakers. Enjoy craft beers on tap, as well as our full bar and eclectic wine list.

FERRARA PIZZA & PASTA 243 Paragon Parkway, Clyde.

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

FIREFLY TAPS & GRILL 128 N. Main St., Waynesville 828.454.5400. Simple, delicious food. A must experience in WNC. Located in downtown Waynesville with an atmosphere that will warm your heart and your belly! Local and regional beers on tap. Full bar, vegetarian options, kids menu, and more.

Reservations accepted. Daily specials. Live music every Saturday from 7 to 10 p.m.

Open Mon.-Sat. 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Sunday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday brunch from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

FROGS LEAP PUBLIC HOUSE 44 Church St., Downtown Waynesville 828.456.1930 Serving dinner 5 to 9 p.m.

Tuesday through Thursday. 5 to 9:30 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.

Reservations accepted. .

HARMON’S DEN BISTRO 250 Pigeon St., Waynesville 828.456.6322. Harmon’s Den is located in the Fangmeyer Theater at HART. Open 5:309 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday (Bistro closes at 7:30 p.m. on nights when there is a show in the Fangmeyer Theater) with Sunday brunch at 11 a.m. that includes breakfast and lunch items. Harmon’s Den offers a complete menu with cocktails, wine list, and area beers on tap. Enjoy casual dining with the guarantee of making it to the performance in time, then rub shoulders with the cast afterward with post-show food and beverage service. Reservations recommended. www.harmonsden.harttheatre.org HAZELWOOD FARMACY & SODA FOUNTAIN 429 Hazelwood Avenue, Waynesville.

828.246.6996. Open six days a week, closed Wednesday. 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday; 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Breakfast until noon, old-fashioned luncheonette and diner comfort food. Historic full service soda fountain.

JOEY’S PANCAKE HOUSE 4309 Soco Rd Maggie Valley.

828.926.0212. Open seven days a week! 7 a.m. to 12 p.m. Joey’s is a family-friendly restaurant that has been serving breakfast to locals and visitors of Western North Carolina for decades. 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. Join us for what has become a tradition in these parts, breakfast at Joey’s.

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

828.648.4193. 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday; Sunday 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Serving breakfast, lunch, nd dinner.

The restaurant has a 1950s & 60s theme decorated with memorabilia from that era.

KANINI’S 1196 N. Main St., Waynesville.

828.452.5187. Lunch Monday-Saturday from 10:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., eat in or carry out. Closed Sunday. A made-from-scratch kitchen using fresh ingredients and supporting the local food and local farm-to-table program. Offering a variety of meals to go from frozen meals to be stored and cooked later to “Dinners to Go” that are made fresh and ready to enjoyed that day. We also specialize in catering any event from from corporate lunches to weddings. Menus created to fit your special event. kaninis.com MAD BATTER FOOD & FILM 617 W. Main Street Downtown Sylva.

828.586.3555. Open Monday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. with Sunday Brunch from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Handtossed pizza, house-ground burgers, steak sandwiches & fresh salmon all from scratch.

Casual family friendly atmosphere. Craft beer and interesting wine. Free movies Thursday through Saturday. Visit madbatterfoodfilm.com for this week’s shows & events.

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

828.926.1616. maggievalleyclub.com/dine.

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

tasteTHE mountains MAGGIE VALLEY RESTAURANT 2804 Soco Road, Maggie Valley.

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

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

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

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.

PIGEON RIVER GRILLE 101 Park St., Canton.

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

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

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

SAGEBRUSH STEAKHOUSE 1941 Champion Drive, Canton 828.646.3750 895 Russ Ave., Waynesville

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.

TAP ROOM BAR & GRILL 176 Country Club Drive, Waynesville.

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

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

VITO’S PIZZA 607 Highlands Rd., Franklin.

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

WAYNESVILLE PIZZA COMPANY 32 Felmet Street, Waynesville.

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

Order Online for Takeout Pay online and pick up with no waiting!

Menu at CityLightsCafe.com 3 E JACKSON ST. • SYLVA, NC

www.CityLightsCafe.com

828-246-6996 429 Hazelwood Avenue Waynesville Monday, Tuesday Wednesday Thursday, Friday Saturday, Sunday

7:30am to 8pm Closed 7:30am to 8pm 8am to 8pm

Mon/Wed/Thurs 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

Friday/Saturday 11 a.m.-10 p.m.

Closed Tuesday

Sunday 12-9 p.m.

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

THURSDAY 5-9 P.M.

SUNDAY 11 A.M-3 P.M.

Rib buffet, fried chicken, vegetables, and a twenty-three item salad bar!

Piano Man & Angie

Buffet Brunch

$11.95

Country Buffet

$11.95

featuring turkey and dressing

Daily Specials: Soups, Sandwiches & Southern Dishes

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

Breakfast : Omelets, Pancakes, Biscuits & Gravy!

$12.95

At the Maggie Valley Inn • 70 Soco Road, Maggie Valley

FOR VOTING US

#1 BURGER! facebook.com/ChurchStreetDepot

AT BEARWATERS BREWING Sunday: Noon-6 p.m. • Tue-Thurs 3-8 p.m.

Fri-Sat: Noon-9 p.m. • Monday: Closed

101 PARK ST. CANTON 828.492.1422 PIGEONRIVERGRILLE.COM

Real New Yorkers.

Real Italians. Real Pizza.

Dine-In ~ Take Out ~ Delivery

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Wednesdays 3-9 p.m.

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243 Paragon Parkway | Clyde

828-476-5058

172 Sylva Plaza | Sylva

828-492-0641

All location hours: Mon-Sat 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Closed Sundays Breakfast served all day!

828.926.0201

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THANK YOU, HAYWOOD COUNTY,

OPEN SATURDAY & SUNDAY, 9AM-4PM CALL FOR MORE INFORMATION 2804 SOCO RD. • MAGGIE VALLEY 828.926.0425 • Facebook.com/carversmvr Instagram- @carvers_mvr

Smoky Mountain News

WEDNESDAY 5-9 P.M.

MAGGIE VALLEY RESTAURANT

MON.-SAT. 11AM- 8 PM

34 CHURCH ST. WAYNESVILLE 828.246.6505

April 24-30, 2019

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

828.452.5822. Sunday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Carry out available.

Sagebrush features hand carved steaks, chicken and award winning BBQ ribs. We have fresh salads, seasonal vegetables and scrumptious deserts. Extensive selection of local craft beers and a full bar. Catering special events is one of our specialties.

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27

Jackson County Tourism photo

Jackson County Tourism photo

he 22nd annual Greening Up the Mountains Festival will be held Saturday, April 27, in downtown Sylva.

The festival includes more than 200 vendors who will be spread throughout two locations — on Main Street and Railroad Avenue.

A project of the Town of Sylva, this is the town’s largest annual event and brings in an estimated 12,000 residents, visitors and exhibitors to the downtown area.

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This year’s celebration will kick off with the annual GUTM 5K run at 9 a.m. at Mark Watson Park and the Mountain Youth Talent Contest at 9:30 a.m. at the Main Street Stage. There will be several bands performing on two stages throughout the day.

The Greening Up the Mountains annual 5K run will begin with an 8 a.m. registration, race start at 9 a.m. and the awards ceremony at 10 a.m. in Mark Watson Park. Registration is $15 and can be completed online or by completing a paper form available at the Jackson

No Travel Charge Financing Available Credit Cards Accepted

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Music Schedule Bridge Park Stage • 10 to 11 a.m. — The Maggie Valley Band • 11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. — Shane Meade & The Sound • 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. — Darren & The Buttered Toast • 1:45 to 2:45 p.m. — Ol’ Dirty Bathtub • 3 to 4 p.m. — Swim in the Wild

Main Street Stage

County Recreation Center in Cullowhee.

All proceeds support the Jackson County Parks and Recreation Department During the festival, shuttle service is available from the Justice Center (spill over at Jackson Plaza) during the hours of 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. $1 per boarding, including children.

There will be a drop off area for patrons with disabilities, as well as parking in front

April 24-30, 2019

• 9:30 to 11 a.m. — Mountain Youth Talent Contest • 11 to 11:45 a.m. — Nick Prestia • Noon to 12:45 p.m. — Bird in Hand • 1 to 1:45 p.m. — Troy Underwood • 2 to 2:45 p.m. — Geoff McBride & Scott Baker • 3 to 3:45 p.m. — Fuzzy Peppers • 3:50 to 4 p.m. — Catamount School Dancers

of the Sylva Police Station on West Main Street. Festival-goers can park and walk, or ride the shuttle, to the festival from two locations. The shuttle is $1 per person, each way.

Several downtown businesses and organizations are offering “pay to park” locations closer to the festival, and we encourage the patronage of these local businesses.

For more information, click on www.greeningupthemountains.com.

Smoky Mountain News

We turn trash into treasure, garbage into gas and problems into opportuni es.

Open for tours & classes Rental studios for glass & metal

www.jcgep.org (828) 631‐0271

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29

30

A&E

Smoky Mountain News

The beauty of simplicity

A conversation with Bird in Hand

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD STAFF WRITER hese days, Megan and Bryan Thurman call a 31-foot Airstream home. The iconic silver travel trailer is currently parked on a picturesque property in the rural southern edge of Sylva.

It’s a lush 6-acre mountain paradise named Ivory Hollow Farmstead. With a large focus on organic growing, the Thurmans harvest the land and sell the produce to customers within Jackson County.

The young couple also works at Innovation Brewing in downtown Sylva, many-a-time alongside each other, slinging some of the finest craft beer in Western North Carolina on busy evenings filled with locals and tourist alike.

But, when they’re not farming or pouring pints, the duo performs music together as Bird in Hand — a sound and tone located at the intersection of Americana and old-time folk music.

And whenever there is a free moment to tour, Bird in Hand continually hits the road, playing small clubs and raucous venues around Southern Appalachia. Later this year, the act will release its second album.

Witnessing Bird in Hand live, it’s a stripped-down stage setup, one where the focus is on the melodic harmonies created between the two musicians — their songbird voices and acoustic notes swirling around whatever space they and the audience may happily occupy.

Bird in Hand.

Want to go?

Bird in Hand will be performing at the Greening Up the Mountains at noon Saturday, April 27, on the Main Street Stage in downtown Sylva. For the complete band lineup and more information on the festival, see pages 28-29. For more information on Bird in Hand, visit www.birdinhandmusic.com.

T

Smoky Mountain News: What can folks expect with this upcoming album?

Megan: This year, we’re focusing on both writing and living a life worth writing about.

We’re trying to play out as much as we can while juggling the creation of a small farm at our property. Even though this has proved to be a scheduling issue at times, it's proved to be a major source of inspiration for us.

Bryan: Our first album, “Due North,” had a rhythm section, drums and bass — it directly reflected my punk rock beginnings. In these new songs, I'm settling into my writing, finding new inspirations that will change our sound, going for a much more raw feel in the sound. Everything is being recorded live on one microphone, just the two of us — exactly how you'd see us play.

SMN: What is it about Americana and folk music that speaks to you?

Bryan: Folk music has been here since the

Europeans arrived and has stayed through every other genre that has come and gone. It's remained essentially the same in its core, but has had all that time to evolve — and it has, subtly.

Megan: I feel like folk music is this common ground that people can meet on. So much of the storytelling aspect relates all types of people together, emotions that we all feel, current situations we’re all exposed to, and with a strong backbone in this region. To me, it's what these mountains sound like — warm and worn, full of secrets and celebration.

SMN: In terms of your interest and love of music, at what point did you decide to make a go at it?

Bryan: Record labels might not even be that necessary in this new age. So, as an artist, I

have to find a reason to keep doing it other than that. I focus on the art. I try to keep the career part of things sustainable. I only work as hard as I can handle, and I try to find a feeling of success in the less obvious moments that other artists may see as just a stepping stone.

Megan: Since moving to Sylva, Bryan and I have strived to simplify almost every area of our lives. Camper living. Growing food. Trying not to work too hard. Stripping down our instrumentation was not only necessary, but offered a deeper musical chemistry amongst ourselves and with our crowd. This style of music fits perfectly with our love of travel and ease, and we’re trying to live a life that’s worth singing about. I never really felt it more strongly until we moved here — into the woods and also around such a supportive community.

Fuzzy Peppers.

A warm fuzzy feeling One of the newest additions to the Sylva music scene, the Fuzzy Peppers are a blend of indie-rock and psychedelic-soul sensibilities.

The band will perform during Greening Up the Mountains at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 27, on the Main Street Stage in downtown Sylva. Later that evening, the group will hit the stage at 7 p.m. at Frog Level Brewing in Waynesville.

“From the get-go, it’s just been about making good music together. I think fun is undervalued in adulthood, and creating music is a ton of fun,” said guitarist/vocalist Nathan Folse. “It’s exciting because it feels like any musical idea is fair game, so long as we can all agree — it’s a good tune. What we end up with is music we’re proud of and excited to share.

The quintet is currently working on its debut EP, which will be released later this year. A full feature on the Fuzzy Peppers will be in a future issue of The Smoky Mountain News.

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD

With your chrome heart shining in the sun, long may you run

Country star Trace Adkins will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 1, at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin.

Folk duo Somebody’s Child will perform at 7 p.m.

Thursday, April 25, in the Community Room of the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva.

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Smoky Mountain News

Last Saturday marked the 20th anniversary of the shootNantahala Brewing (Bryson City) will host ing massacre at Columbine Andrew Scotchie & The River Rats (rock/blues) High School in Littleton, at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 27.

Colorado.

Boojum Brewing Company (Waynesville) will host It’s been on mind all this Joey Fortner & The Universal Sound week, between new reports (Americana/folk) at 9:30 p.m. Saturday, April 27. remembering that day and also my own personal The grand opening celebration of Waynesville thoughts. I was 14 years old Art School will be from noon to 5:30 p.m. and in eighth grade on April Saturday, April 27, at 303 North Haywood Street 20, 1999. It was spring break. in Waynesville.

My parents, little sister and I piled into the old minivan in Even with the Atlantic Ocean right outUpstate New York and headed for Cape Cod, side my window, and a slight breeze cascadMassachusetts. ing into the room, I couldn’t really sleep that Checking into the bed and breakfast, I night. I kept thinking about what the news remember sitting in the lobby and watching would say tomorrow, once the fire and TV with my little sister. Suddenly, “Breaking smoke dissipated and the full story of “who, News” appeared across the screen. A what and where” would be revealed. moment later, I’m seeing (and in real time) The next morning, I learned that one of teenagers who look like my friends and I the shooters, Eric Harris, had actually lived running out of some school in Colorado. in my hometown of Plattsburgh, New York, Some bloody. Some screaming. All frightwhere his father was in the U.S. Air Force at ened. It looked like a war zone. the (now defunct) base there, only to move Then, the immortal image of that kid the family to Colorado just as Harris was being pulled out of the second story class room through a broken window by rescuers. becoming a teenager.

And like most folks my age at that time, The dead: 12 students, one teacher, two gunwe had never really given a second thought men. It was shocking, especially to my little to imminent danger in our classrooms. But, sister and I. Gun violence, let alone a shootnow it was in the forefront of our daily minding at a school, was beyond our comprehenset, even more so today following Virginia sion. A lot of us “came of age” watching that Tech, Sandy Hook, Aurora, Orlando, Las shooting unfold on TV.

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arts & entertainment

This must be the place

Vegas and Stoneman Douglas High School — a new and still current reality had been set into motion.

Columbine was a line the sand between childhood innocence and adulthood.

Coming back from spring break, nothing was the same. New rules. Locked doors.

Every odd, weird, outcast and loner kid was thought to be a threat. Whispers and rumors. Fear. The possibility that the same thing could happen in your school. Everyone now seemed capable of something terrible.

I remember kids being teased and some kid in the bullying group going, “Don’t fuck with him too much. He might shoot us,” as they laughed down the hallway. Though in recent years, the very nature of bullying in the school system has come into the national spotlight and is currently being addressed.

That said, there will — sadly — always been kids (and adults) who feel on the fringe of society — misunderstood, harassed, and vulnerable to destructive acts as a last resort.

When a tragedy like Columbine comes to pass, we tend to think, “How can this happen?” And yet, we either forget or don’t seem to have a frame of historical reference, where — in all actuality — these things do happen, and more than you might think or recall.

Following Columbine, America was forced to remember the massacres at the Kileen Luby’s (1991), Edmond Post Office (1986), San Ysidro McDonald’s (1984), Kent State University (1970) and the University of Texas at Austin (1966), amongst countless other tragedies.

Though the frequency of these mass shootings has increased, the motives of anger, frustration and alienation remain the same. But, like everything that becomes the past, the images and memories eventually gather dust. Our hearts and feelings slowly get repaired.

The tragedy eventually fades into the rearview mirror, at least until the next similar event happens, something that triggers a flood of deep and real emotion, once again trying to make sense of why bad things happen to good people.

So, where does this leave us? Well, I’d say it puts emphasis on the simple notion of when you see something, say something. If someone you know appears to be going through a rough patch, engage that person, try to find common ground and let them know they aren’t alone in this sometimes cruel and unjust world. The simple act of giving another human being the time of day is the greatest gift we can give each other in this day and age.

Myself, I remain optimistic as to where we were in 1999 and where we currently stand in 2019. Sure, the stale attitudes may seem to never wane. But, there are good people out there doing great things to combat the dark and evil side of human nature in the 21st century (or any century, for that matter).

Be one of those people who reaches out to help another, to bridge any emotional gaps felt from those around you. If you seek help, ask for it. If you want to help, go and be the change. There will never be a lack of people, places and things to identify, embrace and bring back to life.

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

Weekends April 26 - May 12 The Performing Arts Center on the Shelton Campus 250 Pigeon St. in Waynesville, NC

For More Information and Tickets:

828-456-6322 | www.harttheatre.org This project was supported by the N.C. Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural & Cultural Resources, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

31

arts & entertainment

On the beat Three sisters, one harmonic tone

Catamount Singers.

The musical group Sisters will present “Dynamic Harmonies & A Deep Love For Christ” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 27, at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin.

Raised in a loving home by parents committed to teaching them to serve the Lord and to make Jesus the motivation for sharing their talents with the world, Kim Ruppe Sheffield, Heather Ruppe Bennett and Valerie Ruppe Medkiff — all sisters — have embarked on a new endeavor that is taking the music world by storm.

The trio has received numerous honors including: Gospel Music five-time “Female Group Of The Year,” “Progressive Album Of the Year” and “Female Vocalist Of The Year,” as well as a Fan Award, Dove Award and multiple Grammy nominees.

Tickets start at $15. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, visit www.greatmountainmusic.com or call 866.273.4615.

Smoky Mountain News

April 24-30, 2019

Americana, folk at Jackson Library Folk duo Somebody’s Child will perform at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 25, in the Community Room of the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva.

Both of these Tuckaseegee troubadours have spent most of their lives singing and sharing the gift of music, and their mutual joy shines through on stage.

They are educators, students, and eternal advocates of the freedom to express, create and evolve in a world that can often seem fraught with hard times, but also affords us the opportunity to come together and share in the triumphs and tribulations we all experience.

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

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

Catamount Singers, Electric Soul to perform classic hits The Catamount Singers and Electric Soul, a Western Carolina University student ensemble, will present the spring concert “Made in America” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 25, at WCU’s John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center.

The concert will feature songs best known from performances by Aretha Franklin, The Pentatonix, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Sam Cooke, Pink, and Earth, Wind and Fire.

WCU music faculty members Bruce Frazier and Jon Henson lead the student performers.

“In picking this year’s musical selections, we wanted to tie into the campus theme of ‘Defining America,’” said Henson. “Bruce and I thought it would be great to take our students through some of the music that has influenced today’s top artists. An artist like Aretha Franklin has had such an impact on the music industry that we just had to perform a piece that pays tribute to her life as an entertainer. We know everyone will enjoy the variety this show brings.”

Admission to the show is $10 for WCU faculty and staff, $5 for students, and $15 for all others. Tickets are available by calling the Bardo Arts Center box office at 828.227.2479.

All proceeds from the event benefit student scholarships in WCU’s School of Music.

For more information, contact Frazier at 828.227.2400 or Henson at 828.227.2711.

Quality Trailers, Quality Prices

Trace Adkins to play Franklin Country star Trace Adkins will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 1, at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin.

Adkins is a county music singer who is widely known for his distinctive bass-baritone singing voice. He is a member of the Grand Ole Opry, an author, an actor, and a SiriusXM Radio host. He has won multiple awards, has earned multiple gold, platinum, and multi-platinum certifications for his albums, and has sold over 11 million albums worldwide.

In 1996, Adkins made his debut with his album, “Dreamin’ Out Loud.” Since then, he has released 19 studio albums and compilations. He has charted more than 20 singles on the Billboard country music charts including, “(This Ain’t) No Thinking

Thing,” “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” and “You’re Gonna Miss This.”

Throughout the years, Adkins has won many awards including Association of County Music Awards for “Top Male Vocalist,” “Vocal Event of the Year” for “Hillbilly Bone’ with Blake Shelton, and “Single of the Year” for “You’re Gonna Miss This.”

He has also won Country Music Television Awards for “Male Video of the Year” for “I Got My Game On,” and “Collaborative Video of the Year” for “Hillbilly Bone.” He has also been nominated for four Grammy Awards.

Tickets start at $53 each. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, visit www.greatmountainmusic.com or call 866.273.4615.

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On the beat

• Balsam Falls Brewing (Sylva) will host Troy Underwood (singer-songwriter) April 26 and Nikki Forbes (singer-songwriter) May 3. All shows start at 8 p.m. Free and open to the public. www.balsamfallsbrewing.com.

• Blue Ridge Beer Hub (Waynesville) will host an acoustic jam with Main St. NoTones from 6 to 9 p.m. April 25 and May 2. Free and open to the public. www.blueridgebeerhub.com.

• Boojum Brewing Company (Waynesville) will host a bluegrass open mic every Wednesday, an all-genres open mic every Thursday, Joey Fortner & The Universal Sound (Americana/folk) April 27 and Grayson Jenkins & The Resolutions (Americana/alt-country) May 11. All shows begin at 9:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. www.boojumbrewing.com.

ALSO:

• Currahee Brewing (Franklin) will host Dirty Dave 11 a.m. April 27. Free and open to the public. www.curraheebrew.com.

• Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will have an Open Mic night April 24 and May 1, and a jazz night with the Kittle/Collings Duo April 25 and May 2. All events are free and begin at 8 p.m. www.innovation-brewing.com.

• Isis Music Hall (West Asheville) will host Bird in Hand (folk/Americana) 7 p.m. April 24 (in the lounge), Gypsy & Me (Americana/alt-country) 7 p.m. April 24 (main stage), Erin McKeown (blues/folk) 7 p.m. April 25, Mile Twelve w/Zoe & Cloyd (Americana/bluegrass) 8:30 p.m. April 25, Micah Scott & Chris Wilhelm (Americana/folk) 7 p.m. April 26, Jonathan Edwards (singer-songwriter) 8:30 p.m. April 26, Rod Picott & Rachel Sage (Americana/folk) 7 p.m. April 27, Queen Bee & The Honeylovers (jazz/swing) 8:30 p.m.

April 27, Beth Sapp Band & Greg Klyma

• Mad Anthony’s Taproom & Restaurant (Waynesville) will host The Turbos 5:30 p.m.

May 12. All shows are free and open to the public.

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Friday, May 3 at 7:00 p.m.

• Mountain Layers Brewing (Bryson City) will host the “Stone Soup” open mic night every Tuesday, Shayler’s Kitchen April 26, Somebody’s Child (Americana) April 27 and Twelfth Fret (Americana/folk) May 4. All shows are free and begin at 7 p.m. www.mountainlayersbrewingcompany.com.

• Nantahala Brewing (Bryson City) will host Shane Meade & The Sound April 26, Andrew Scotchie & The River Rats (rock/blues) April 27, Fwuit May 3 and PureFyah (reggae) May 4. All shows are free and begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. www.nantahalabrewing.com.

• Pub 319 (Waynesville) will host an open mic night from 8 to 11 p.m. every Wednesday. Free and open to the public. www.pub319socialhouse.com.

• Salty Dog’s (Maggie Valley) will have Karaoke with Jason Wyatt at 8:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays, Mile High (classic rock) 8 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays, and a Trivia w/Kelsey Jo 8 p.m. Thursdays.

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

• Southern Porch (Canton) will host Stone Crazy Band (classic rock/country) from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday, April 27. 828.492.8006 or www.southern-porch.com.

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

• The Water’n Hole Bar & Grill (Waynesville) will host an “Open Mic Night” on Mondays, karaoke on Thursdays, semi-regular music on Fridays and Saturdays and Scoundrel’s Lounge April 27. All events at 10 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 828.456.4750.

Team Check-in at 6:15 p.m.

First United Methodist Church of Waynesville For Questions Contact Marti Peithman 828.734.9003 martipeithman@aol.com

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• Innovation Station (Dillsboro) will host Tina Collins Duo April 27 and A. Lee Edwards May 4. All events are free and begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. www.innovation-brewing.com.

• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Franklin) will host an open mic night at 6:30 p.m. every Thursday, Social Insecurity April 26, Nick Prestia Band April 27 and Quatro de Mayo w/Sol Rhythms 7 p.m. May 4. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. For more information and a complete schedule of events, visit www.lazyhikerbrewing.com.

April 24-30, 2019

• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host Swamp Rabbit Railroad April 26, JR Junior 6 p.m. April 27, Fuzzy Peppers 7 p.m. April 27, The MYXX May 3 and Ronnie Call & The Waters Edge Band May 4. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. www.froglevelbrewing.com.

(Americana/folk) 7:30 p.m. April 28, Tuesday Bluegrass Sessions w/Thomas Cassell Band 7:30 p.m. April 30,The Hollands (Americana/indie) 7 p.m. May 1 and Jeff Mix & The Songhearts (Americana/folk) 8:30 p.m. May 1. For more information about the performances and/or to purchase tickets, visit www.isisasheville.com.

arts & entertainment

• Andrews Brewing Company (Andrews) will host the “Lounge Series” at its Calaboose location with Blue April 26, Andrew Chastain (singer-songwriter) 7 p.m. April 27 and Melissa Ellis (singer-songwriter) May 3. All shows are free and begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. www.andrewsbrewing.com.

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arts & entertainment

On the street Interested in model railroads?

Reception to close out World War I exhibit

The Smoky Mountain Model Railroaders Club will host an open house from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, April 28, at Buffalo Creek Vacations above the Pigeon River on Riverside Drive in Clyde.

The display is a 30’x50’ railroad station with huge three-rail O Gauge layout deputizing the Western North Carolina mountains and the railroads. The event hosts have a herd of American Bison, some llamas, alpacas, miniature horses, goats, bunnies, and other animals to see as well. There are also several real cabooses to add to the atmosphere.

Address is 13 Caboose Way in Clyde.

Photography is welcome and asking a $5 donation at the door. For more information, call Sam Hopkins 828.550.5959 or Harold Clackett 828.593.0394.

A World War I centennial exhibit at Western Carolina University’s Mountain Heritage Center will conclude Friday, April 26, with the public invited to a closing reception scheduled for the evening before.

“I Want You! How World War I Transformed Western North Carolina” has been on display since November in the museum’s first floor gallery, located in Hunter Library. The reception will take place 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 25, in the gallery with light refreshments served.

The exhibit examines how the war changed Western North Carolina, including the roles of women in the workplace and Native American and AfricanAmericans in the military, and features wartime images and artifacts, as well as examples of propaganda used to build support for the war effort. It was created by Mountain Heritage Center staff with support from the Library of Congress, WCU’s Special Collections and the “Defining America” theme committee on campus, as well as the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

828.227.7129.

April 24-30, 2019

Waynesville historic speaker series Presented by The Town of Waynesville Historic Preservation Commission, the final installment of the “Haywood Ramblings” series will take place at 4 p.m. Thursday, May 2, in the courtroom of The Historic Courthouse in downtown Waynesville.

The topic, “The History of Lake Junaluska,” will be presented by Nancy Watkins. Learn about the fascinating history of Lake Junaluska, including the early decision to locate the Assembly in Haywood County, and its considerable influence on the local economy, tourism and culture.

In case of snow, the event will be automatically rescheduled for the second Thursday of the month. For more information, call 828.456.8647.

• The 25th annual Southeastern Mini Truckin’ Nationals will be held April 26-28 at the Maggie Valley Festival Grounds.

Open car and truck show. Gates are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday. Part vendors, food vendors with a DJ booth. Contact Bell’s Rod Shop at 865.742.7403, email minitruckinnats@gmail.com or visit www.minitruckinnats.com.

ALSO:

‘Airing of the Quilts’ The annual “Airing of the Quilts” will take place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 4, at the Appalachian Women’s Museum in Dillsboro.

The “Airing of the Quilts” is a mountain tradition where women would take family quilts off the beds and hang them in the spring sunshine to freshen.

This year’s featured quiltmaker is Laura Nelle Goebel, a nationally known quiltmaker and teacher. She will be at the museum throughout the day with an exhibit of traditional quilt methods and an ongoing demonstration for visitors to observe and ask questions.

There will also be children’s quilting activities, the popular fabric scrap exchange, a quilt pattern and book exchange, raffle and music.

The event is free event and open to the public. For more information, visit www.appwomen.org.

Smoky Mountain News

WOW Kentucky Derby Gala

34

Women of Waynesville, a nonprofit organization that supports the needs of women and children in Haywood County, will present the third annual Kentucky Derby Gala from 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday, May 4, at Elevated Mountain Distilling in Maggie Valley.

Guests should come dressed in their best derby attire to participate in the Best Hat and Best Bowtie contests for a chance to win an amazing gift basket. An array of heavy Kentucky Derby-inspired hors d’oeuvres will be provided and a cash bar featuring craft beer, wine and mint juleps.

Attendees can watch the derby race on big screen TV and will have an opportunity to place bets on races with a chance to win amazing prizes.

“We’re really excited to be moving our Kentucky Derby Gala to Elevated Mountain Distilling to give the fundraiser a new ‘down home’ feel,” said WOW President Jessi Stone.

“Owner Dave Angel has been such a great supporter of WOW and has offered up his amazing facility for a worthy cause.”

Proceeds from the event will benefit Sharin Care, a fund designated to help relieve the financial burdens associated

with medical and dental needs for people in Haywood County.

The fund was established in memory of Sharon Queen Rathbone, a lifelong Haywood resident, mother of two children Kali and Tyler Putnam and wife to Ken. In June 2011, Sharon was diagnosed with a rare cancer but like so many she was unable to afford the treatment. Her family rose to the occasion and immediately began raising the money for her treatment.

Unfortunately, Sharon died before enough funds were raised for the treatment. The family then decided to honor her memory by using the funds they’d raised to start a fund for medical expenses so other families wouldn’t have to experience the same heartbreak.

Learn more about Sharin Care at www.opendoor-waynesville.org/sharin-care. Tickets for the Kentucky Derby fundraiser are $40 each and include two drink tickets.

Purchase tickets from a WOW member, a Sharin Care member or follow the link on the Facebook event: www.facebook.com/events/1087074268167457.

WOW is also seeking business sponsors for the event. For more information, email womenofwaynesville@gmail.com or call 828.550.9978.

On the street

pring activities are in full swing at the Folkmoot Friendship Center in Waynesville. Southern Storytelling leads the way in April, followed by an longrunning quilt show, a senior expo and an Open Streets event and bike rodeo.

• Folkmoot’s 2019 Southern Storytellers Series continues at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 25, with guest speaker Lee Woods, author of Growing Up on Hazel Creek and in the Fontana Basin. Tickets are $18 for adults, $10 for students, and include dinner.

Woods is a descendant of families who lived in Hazel Creek, a community now both submerged by Lake Fontana and absorbed within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. She’ll talk about the rich legacy of towns lost and people displaced she so vividly captures in her books.

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Hosted by Folkmoot and co-sponsored by Blue Ridge Books, the Haywood County Public Library and The Smoky Mountain News, the Southern Storytellers Series brings southern culture and our region’s authors and musicians together for a unique night of food, fun and discussion.

An educational exhibit, provided by WCU Mountain Heritage Center explores Decoration Day, a tradition throughout the region, with special focus on the North Shore of Fontana Lake in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The ticket price for each event includes a unique southernthemed meal.

• The CommUnity Barn old time Square Dance, a longtime fixture in Jackson County’s Webster Community, pays a visit to the Folkmoot Center from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday, April 27. Everyone is welcome. Called by Aaron Ratcliff, of Boone, with stringband music by Cullowheezer (William Ritter, Pan Riggs and Brett Riggs). Admission is free. A

food truck will be on hand and beer, wine and other beverages will be available.

• The 16th annual Shady Ladies Quilt Art Show will take place May 3-5. Hours will be 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Friday-Saturday, and noon until 4 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $5 in benefit of the Pigeon Street Multicultural Development Center.

More than 100 quilts will be on display, including art quilts, modern and traditional quilts, wall hangings and bed quilts. Many will be for sale, and an antique quilt exhibit and sale will also take place.

In addition, a boutique will complement the show, with quilting-related items, fabric, notions, supplies and more.

• The second annual Haywood County Senior Expo for WNC area seniors will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, May 3.

There will be BINGO opportunities and lunch for fun, many resource booths and speakers, including Julie Goodwin from the Better Business Bureau on arming ourselves against scams; Larry Reeves about different levels of long-term care and what to seek in care facilities, the Haywood County Sheriff ’s Dept. with a Senior Self-defense class, and more.

More information is available at www.haywoodseniorexpo.com.

• Strive Beyond and Folkmoot USA are teaming up to open up Brook Street to walking, biking and healthy movement of all kinds at an Open Streets event from 3 to 8 p.m. Saturday, May 11.

This car-free event invites you to make the street your playground for the day. The fun includes: Bike Skills Rodeo, live music, bike raffles, Anything-That-Rolls Races, 9-Square and other street games. Food and drinks will be available.

Brook Street, behind Folkmoot USA, will be closed to car traffic and opened to activities between Virginia Avenue and South Main Street, with additional activities and a marketplace in and around Folkmoot USA. In addition, Bicycle Haywood is leading a family-friendly bike ride from Whole Bloomin’ Thing to Virginia Avenue along a safe 1.5 mile route. The ride rolls out at 3 p.m.

If you prefer to drive, you can park in designated satellite parking areas, all within a quarter-mile walk of the Folkmoot Center.

Those interested should bring favorite things that roll — bikes, skates, skateboards — and discover a lot of fun activities like yoga in the street and chalk art.

More information is available at the “Open Street Folkmoot” event page on Facebook, at www.folkmoot.org and at www.openstreetsproject.org.

Folkmoot’s year-round programs are supported by the Cherokee Preservation Foundation and Community Foundation of Western North Carolina.

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

arts & entertainment

Early spring events at Folkmoot Center

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arts & entertainment

On the wall HCC Professional Crafts graduate show The graduating class of Haywood Community College’s Professional Crafts program will exhibit their best work at the 2019 Graduate Show.

The show will be held May 5 through June 23 at the Southern Highland Craft Guild Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville. The Folk Art Center is open daily from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m.

A reception will be held from 3 to 5 p.m.

Saturday, May 4, at the Folk Art Center. It is open to the public. At the reception, attendees will have the opportunity to meet the graduating artists.

This year’s show has work in clay, jewelry, fiber and wood. This exhibit marks the professional debut for many exhibiting craftspeople. The College makes involvement in the installation, organization, and publicity of this exhibit as part of the coursework for the professional crafts students.

The Professional Crafts program is a twoyear commitment, focusing on all aspects of becoming an independent craft professional.

In addition to sharpening their technical and

Smoky Mountain News

April 24-30, 2019

Cowee School master potter class

36

Artist Joel Queen will host a Master Potter Series class from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 27, at the Cowee Pottery School in Franklin.

Queen will guide the class in hand building pots the traditional way. He will demonstrate his carving style and teach about the Cherokee stamped pottery tradition. Stamped pottery is the oldest of the Cherokee pottery traditions and dates back thousands of years.

Pots are hand coiled, burnished and fired.

Participants will need to bring a bowl to use as a form when building their pots.

The 2019 Master Potter Series is made possible through North Carolina Arts Council support provided through the Cowee School Advisory Board.

• The Museum of the Cherokee Indian has recently opened a major new exhibit, “People of the Clay: Contemporary Cherokee Potters.”

It features more than 60 potters from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and Cherokee Nation, and more than one hundred works from 1900 to the present. The exhibit will run through next April.

• The Macon County Art Association and the Uptown Gallery “Featured Artists Alcove” will host a special invitational exhibit by the Art League of Highlands-Cashiers. The show will be on display through April 27. For more information, call the Uptown Gallery at 828.349.4607.

• The exhibit “Outspoken: Paintings by America Meredith” will be on display through

artistic skill in their chosen medium, students also create a marketable line of production work, plan a studio, and become familiar with the craft market. Mandatory coursework includes photography of finished pieces for gaining entrance into craft shows, creating a business plan, and designing and building a studio tailored to fit production needs.

For more information, call 828.627.4673 or visit creativearts.haywood.edu.

To register for the class, email contact@coweepotteryschool.org or visit www.coweepotteryschool.org.

‘Inspired Art Ministry’ exhibit The Haywood County Arts Council (HCAC) latest showcase, “Inspired Art Ministry,” will run through April 27 at the HCAC Gallery & Gifts in downtown Waynesville.

This exhibit features the work by Inspired Art Ministry instructor, Char Avrunin and her students. Art work in oil, acrylic, watercolor, color pencils, graphite, charcoal and ink will be featured. A variety of subject matter will be presented, from landscapes to still lifes to portraits. www.haywoodarts.org.

May 3 at the Fine Art Museum Gallery B in the Bardo Arts Center at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. This showcase draws particular attention to the importance of language in Meredith’s work, bringing together paintings that incorporate Cherokee syllabary, reference Cherokee oral histories, and pair found-object text with visual imagery. www.facebook.com/americameredithart.

• The Western Carolina University Fine Art Museum at Bardo Arts Center is pleased to present the School of Art and Design Faculty Biennial Exhibition 2019, which will be on display through May 3. All WCU Fine Art Museum exhibitions and receptions are free and open to the public. Visit arts.wcu.edu/biennial or call 828.227.3591.

Waynesville Art School grand opening The grand opening celebration of Waynesville Art School will be from noon to 5:30 p.m. Saturday, April 27, at 303 North Haywood St., in Waynesville.

Bring your family and friends and drop in for some afternoon fun. Meet the faculty, tour the school, and find out about spring classes. There will be face painting, snacks, refreshments, as well as art stations, so that you can take home your first work of art. There is ample free parking available in the shopping center parking lot across the street.

Waynesville Art School offers children’s classes, adult classes, paint nights, kids parties, workshops, and art camps. Classes are available for all levels, beginner to advanced. Registration for classes is available at the grand opening or online at www.waynesvilleartschool.com.

Waynesville Art School is a member of the Haywood Chamber of Commerce.

Lioubov (Luba) Petrova, the founder

• There will several local artisans on display at the Waynesville and Canton libraries through March. Artists at the Waynesville Library will include Patty Johnson Coulter (painter), Linda Blount (painter), Jason Woodard (painter) and Mollie Harrington-Weaver (painter). Artists at the Canton Library will include Russell Wyatt (photographer) and Ashley Calhoun (painter). For more information, visit www.haywoodarts.org.

ALSO:

• A “Beginner Step-By-Step” painting class will be held at 7 p.m. on Thursdays at Frog Level Brewing in Waynesville. Cost is $25 with all supplies provided. To RSVP, contact Robin Arramae at 828.400.9560 or paintnitewaynesville@gmail.com.

and director of Waynesville Art School, trained at the prestigious Saint-Petersburg Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture (St. Petersburg, Russia), with focus on painting and drawing with acrylic, gloss, pastels and mixed media.

After coming to the United States in 1992, she was awarded a full scholarship to The Cooper Union School for the Advancement of Science and Art (New York City), and graduated in 2001 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in photography. She has lived and worked in Western North Carolina since 2002.

“I believe that we are all born creative, and somewhere along the way many of us lose touch with this intrinsic part of who and what we are.” Petrova said. “It has always been my dream to pass on the training I have received and to coach each individual to express their innate creativity.”

For more information, visit www.waynesvilleartschool.com.

• The Western Carolina University (Cullowhee) Campus Theme, the “Defining America” exhibit brings together artists with different perspectives on the concept of “America” and asks visitors to reflect on the values, definitions, and assumptions attached to this concept. The exhibition will be on view through May 3 at the Bardo Arts Center. Regular museum hours at the BAC are Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Thursdays until 7 p.m. For information, call 828.227.ARTS or visit bardoartscenter.wcu.edu.

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

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April 24-30, 2019 Smoky Mountain News 37

arts & entertainment

On the table

On the wall

Bosu’s tastings, small plates

Underwater photography exhibit

Now under new management with Stephanie Strickland and Genevieve Bagley, Bosu’s Wine Shop in Waynesville will continue to host an array of wine tastings and small plates.

• Mondays: Free tastings and discounts on select styles of wine that changes weekly.

• Thursdays: Five for $5 wine tasting, with small plates available for purchase in The Secret Wine Bar. • Saturdays: There will be a free wine tasting from 1 to 5 p.m.

Dog friendly patio and front garden open, weather permitting. 828.452.0120 or visit www.waynesvillewine.com.

• Free cooking demonstrations will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. on Saturdays at Country Traditions in Dillsboro.

Eat samples and taste house wines for $3 a glass. All recipes posted online. www.countrytraditionsnc.com.

ALSO:

Smoky Mountain News

April 24-30, 2019

• A free wine tasting will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. April 27 and May 4 at Papou’s Wine Shop in Sylva. www.papouswineshop.com or 828.631.3075.

38

Photographer and Clyde dentist John Highsmith presents “Breathless,” a metal-print series of underwater people and waterborne fabrics. The photo exhibit will run through July 15 at Green Sage Café Westgate in Asheville.

Highsmith worked in pools with students, swimmers, dancers, and scuba divers. He digitally retouches images to remove air bubbles, sometimes replacing the black bedsheet backdrop with classical art backgrounds.

It’s a challenge to hover in a swimming pool while a photographer captures moving forms, hair and fabric.

The exhibit features dye sublimation prints on metal, using inks that transform from liquid to gas state (sublimation), suspended at varying depths in a coating on the metal. This lets in a little bit of light behind the inks, creating an illuminated look. The pigment suspension permits a depth of tone and color

that’s hard to achieve with paper.

The prints are produced in a repurposed former furniture plant in Lexington.

Prints are on 94 percent recycled aluminum. The coating process does not emit VOCs or harmful chemicals into the air.

Highsmith’s prints are on exhibit through July 15 at The Green Sage Café Westgate location, Westgate Plaza in Asheville. For more information, call Highsmith at 828.734.6301.

Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition The “Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition” showcase will run through May 3 in the Fine Arts Museum at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. There will also be a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, April 25, at the museum.

The exhibition displays work in a variety of media and surveys a range of conceptual themes and creative approaches that characterize the global cultural landscape and contemporary art practice.

Featuring three graduating artists, Chelsea Dobert-Kehn, Lauren A. Medford, and David Skinner, this exhibition represents a synthesis of each student’s experience in the Master of Fine Arts Program in Studio Art from the WCU School of Art and Design.

The WCU Fine Art Museum is always free and open to the public with free parking on site, located at 199 Centennial Drive in Cullowhee.

Regular museum hours are Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Thursdays until 7 p.m. For information, call 828.227.ARTS or visit arts.wcu.edu/mfathesis.

On the stage

HART’s opens 35th year with ‘The Foreigner’

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A scene from ‘The Foreigner.’

‘An Evening of One-Acts’

and/or to purchase tickets, visit www.greatmountainmusic.com or call 866.273.4615.

Presented by the Overlook Theatre Company, “An Evening of One-Acts” will hit the stage at 7 p.m. Friday, April 26, at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin.

Four different shows, four different directors and one evening of entertainment. “An Evening of One-Acts” presents a quartet of scenes and plays that will make you laugh, remember your childhood and enjoy every aspect of putting on and seeing a show, right before the eyes of the audience.

Tickets are $12. For more information

• There is free comedy improv class from 7 to 9 p.m. every Thursday at Frog Level Brewing in Waynesville. No experience necessary, just come to watch or join in the fun. Improv teacher Wayne Porter studied at Sak Comedy Lab in Orlando, Florida, and performed improvisation with several groups. Join Improv WNC on Facebook or just call 828.316.8761.

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Smoky Mountain News

director leading a cast that includes: Tom Dewees, Douglas Dean Savitt, Maggie Rowe, Clara Ray Burrus, Adam Welchel, Scotty Jones Cherryholmes and Maximillian Koger.

HART will be spending the year looking back on its 35 years. Since its founding in 1984, HART has produced 217 main stage plays and musicals, 115 studio shows and eight Kids at HART productions.

The theatre has made its home in the Strand Theater, the HCC Auditorium, the Balsam Mountain Inn, Maggie Valley Country Club, and the Performing Arts Center at the Shelton Campus.

The theatre has helped numerous young people pursue careers in the arts and currently has numerous alumni performing professionally around the country.

In addition, Harmons’ Den Bistro will be open for pre-show dining before all performances. To make reservations for the show or the Bistro call 828.456.6322, Tuesday through Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m. or visit www.harttheatre.org.

The Endocannabinoid System is perhaps the most important physiologic systerm involved in establishing and maintaining human health. Although the endocannabinoid system affects a wide variety of biological processes, experts believe that its overall function is to regulate homeostasis.

April 24-30, 2019

To celebrate its 35th season, the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre will present “The Foreigner” at 7:30 p.m. April 26-27, May 3-4 and 9-11, and at 2 p.m. April 28, May 5 and 12 inside the Daniel and Belle Fangmeyer Theatre in Waynesville.

The play tells the tale of two travelers to the deep South, Charlie and Froggie. Charlie is depressed over situations back home in England and doesn’t feel like being sociable, so his friend tells their host that he is from an exotic country and speaks no English.

This leads to many comic turns as those who encounter Charlie assume he can’t understand a thing they say.

The play is considered to be one of the funniest ever written and helped launch playwright Larry Shue into the limelight.

Shue was heralded as the new Neil Simon, but he was tragically killed in a plane crash at the age of 39.

HART originally produced the play in 1990 and that production featured Jeff Messer who is now taking on the role of

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arts & entertainment

What Are Cannabinoids?

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Smoky Mountain News April 24-30, 2019

arts & entertainment

Books

Smoky Mountain News

When love is illuminated arah Hall, born in the Lake District of the Cumbria region of northwestern England in 1974, began to take writing seriously at the age of 20. First as a poet, then as a fiction writer. She studied and earned English and Creative Writing degrees at both Aberystwyth University in Wales and at St. Andrews University in Scotland before moving to North Carolina where she lived for several years before moving back to Norwich, England, where she Writer now makes her home.

Now 44 years of age, in her 15-year career as a published author she has won many literary awards both n the U.S. and Europe. In 2004, at the age of 30, her second novel — The Electric Michelangelo — was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize for the best original novel written in the English language and published in the United Kingdom. A high honor nomination for any author from any English-speaking region of the globe.

The Electric Michelangelo is something of a Bildungsroman in the vein of Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man and Dylan Thomas’s Portrait of the Artist As a Young Dog and set on the windswept front of Morecambe Bay in the northwest of England where Cy Parks spends his childhood years first in a guesthouse for consumptives run by his mother, then as apprentice to alcoholic tattoo artist Eliot Riley. Thirsty for new experiences he departs for America and finds himself in the riotous world of the Coney Island boardwalk in the early years of WWII, where he sets up his own business as “The Electric Michaelangelo.” In this carnival environment of roller-coasters and freak shows, Cy becomes enamored with Grace, a mysterious immigrant and circus performer who commissions him to cover her entire body in tattooed eyes. Hugely atmospheric, exotic and familiar, The Electric Michelangelo is a love story and an exquisitely rendered portrait of seaside resorts on opposite sides of the Atlantic and reads like a game of literary hop-

Thomas Crowe

S

scotch working detail and time to perfection and at a pitched pace.

Before going into any more detail from the

text, I am going to say right up front that this is maybe the best book of fiction that I have ever read. Not only is the story compelling and deeply evocative, but Sarah Hall’s writing skills are, for lack of a better word, stellar. Her writing is intelligent, imaginative, knowledgeable, experiential, and super loquacious. Her vocabulary and knowledge of the places and subject that she is writing about in the literary world would be the equivalent in the culinary world as being haut cuisine. And this book is like going to a five-star restaurant of the mind. I have listed no less than twenty passages while reading The Electric Michaelangelo that are truly poetic and rivals

New nature collection Blue Ridge Books and The Smoky Mountain News are excited to announce a meet and greet/book signing by author, naturalist and Smoky Mountain News columnist Don Hendershot at 3 p.m.

Saturday, April 27 at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville.

Hendershot’s book, A Year from the Naturalist’s Corner Volume I, is a compilation of 52 columns from his long-running Naturalist’s Corner column in a January through December format. The Naturalist’s Corner column has been in print since 1994 and has been published in The Smoky Mountain News since 1999.

anything I’ve read by any writer one could name from the international canon. I realize that this is very high praise and would probably cause questions and concern in academic quarters, but I feel this strongly about this book.

Sarah Hall’s novel is essentially a love story. It’s a story about love of craft and love of a woman/women and about place/places. We get a glimpse of this from about half way into the book beginning with Cy Park’s arrival and first impressions in America and his taking up residence in New York on the Coney Island boardwalk.

“Within weeks he had secured a rental tattoo booth on Oceanic Walk, one of the honky-tonk alleys that ran through the catacombs of amusement facilities on the Island. A cacophony of technology was employed to make people rapid and exhilarated. The Steeplechase ride made Morecambe’s ghost train look like a caterpillar crawling beside a great wooden and iron python. There was the buzz, buzz, buzz of adrenalin everywhere, from the loss of gravity on the spinning rides, to the awe-invoking tattoo guns and the shrieking commotion over the freaks, the spectacle of a three-headed cow. Who had sold the Americans those magic beans that when planted would grow a city overnight, crushing myopic imagination upwards as it grew so that visions elongated and defied limit?

Sword-swallowers guzzled blades, firebreathers spat flaming rings, twisted females were pierced on beds of nails, shrunken heads hung from walls and adorned pikes, wrongly made people were revealed behind curtains of shame. The crowds could choose their indelicate pleasure or poison. They came, they paid, they saw, and they were entertained.”

The descriptions of Coney Island are followed by long narrative scenes that describe

Hendershot will talk about what set him on his “natural” journey and why that journey is as fresh today as it was in 1994. There will be time for questions from attendees plus readings and he will be happy to sign copies for anyone interested.

Teen Poetry Night in Franklin The annual Teen Poetry Night, an open-mic event for high school-age poets and poetry lovers, will be held at 7 p.m. Monday, April 29, at the Rathskeller Coffee Haus in Franklin.

To celebrate National Poetry Month, young poets are invited to

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Cy’s actual tattooing procedures as well as those in metaphysical terms like this: “There were instances when Cy’s needle unwittingly delved down into a soul and struck upon meaning, then confidential matter came up, unstemmable as arterial blood or gushing oil, and customers confessed the reason behind the art.” And then, finally, we meet Grace.

“Her brows were dark but her face was pale and vividly sloped, with prominent, Tartar cheekbones. This woman made him want to be very sure of himself, to stretch his brain an inch more and grasp what was going. And in that sense she was magnetic, pulling in thought and concentration, bringing him to her without moving herself.”

In a story that does have some imaginative and unusual conflict and violence, in the end love, or at least the illusion of love, prevails in what one would have to describe as a “happy ending.” And how rare is that these days? It’s about as rare as trying to find a love poem in any collection of contemporary verse. And, as Thomas Wolfe has written, you can go home again, and Cy does. To his roots on Morecambe Bay in the U.K. and after a somewhat debauched life on Coney Island to a sober and somewhat idyllic life in his elder years, coming full circle and taking on an earpierced young teen-aged girl apprentice not at all unlike Grace from his earlier American experience who has remained a stalwart inhabitant of his consciousness.

“He thought of Grace on the walk, the dark borders of her against which the lighter colors and aspects shone. He thought of her dark hair with its red undertraces, her hands gently pushing against the tattooed ship on his stomach as if she was launching what it carried, a heart pierced by a tall mast, and the way she always called him by his moniker, as if identity was only a matter of choice. She was subjective and brief and random in his life, but she was still strong in him, and interlocking, like crystal in stone, like roots in the earth.”

Thomas Crowe is a regular contributor to Smoky Mountain News. His historical novel The Watcher/Like Sweet Bells Jangled was published in 2015. He lives in the Tuckasegee community of Jackson County and can be reached at newnativepress@hotmail.com

read or recite their original works, as well as their favorite works by other poets, earning RAT Bucks to be spent at the event on the Rathskeller’s beverages, sandwiches, snacks and desserts.

There’s no pre-registration; participants are given stage time in a round-robin format. Family members and friends are invited to come and cheer their teens on.

The Rathskeller Coffee Haus is at 58 Stewart Street, a half block south of Main Street behind Books Unlimited. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. There is no admission charge.

For more information, contact the event sponsor, the Arts Council of Macon County, at 828.524.ARTS or arts4all@dnet.net.

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Outdoors

Smoky Mountain News

Flowers with stories Nodding Trillium Garden opens in Cullowhee Trillium catesbaei is one of seven trillium species that grows on the property.

Holly Kays photos

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER o matter what scale of time you’re using, the newly opened Jean Pittillo Nodding Trillium Garden in Cullowhee has deep roots.

“Let’s go back about 400 to 700 million years,” said landowner Dan Pittillo as he began his explanation to the group gathered to experience the wildflower trail’s grand opening April 17.

Back then, collisions between tectonic plates resulted in the earth getting pushed up — high, high up — to form towering mountains that eventually eroded down to the rounded peaks that are today’s Appalachian Mountains.

“When we were pushed up on this mass between the town of Webster and the town of Addie, this became a dome that stayed intact, and this was down close to the mantle,” said Pittillo, gesturing to the green and blooming cove behind him. “Pieces of the mantle called olivine were squirted out.”

Olivine is a key character in the drama that unfolded to create Nodding Trillium Garden. It’s a rock that was once mined for various industrial uses. But it’s good for plants too. The rock is composed mainly of nickel, chromium and magnesium, and it breaks down to form a fertile soil that’s neutral to basic in pH — a sharp contrast to the acidic soils that prevail in the Southern Appalachians.

The wildflowers love it.

“As a matter of fact there’s 50 species in bloom here right now, which is a pretty good mass of plants,” said Pittillo.

N

WILDFLOWER HAVEN Geologic history has a lot to do with the diversity of plants in the 20-acre garden. But so does human history. Pittillo, 80, is a botanist who spent his career traveling to various mountain coves and summits for research. Sometimes he’d end up with a root or a seed from some native plant or another and take it home with him.

“I’d stick it in the woods,” he said. “If it

lived, it lived. If it died, it died.”

A lot of them died, but a lot of them lived. Over the course of 40 years, Pittillo ended up with an impressive collection of plants, many of them blooming plants that are their best selves in the flower-ridden spring months. There’s wild ginger, mayapple, fraser sedge, azalea. There’s fire pink, phlox and horehound. And of course, there are the trilliums — at least seven species of them, including the nodding trillium for

Trust in 2012.

“We own Dan’s development rights, which means he can’t build houses up there,” said Gary Wein, executive director of the land trust. “He can build trails, he can harvest the trees if he wanted to. But no houses, forever.”

Pittillo still owns the land, and he never wanted to build houses on those alkaline acres leading up to Henson’s Ridge.

“We’re here for only a while,” he said. “My while is getting near the end, and I thought this place may be appreciated later.”

It’s park-like, he said, and a good place to do various types of research. It’s close to WCU, a resource for both academic and recreational pursuits. To that end, Pittillo not only wanted to conserve the property — he wanted to open it to the public.

Pittillo and the Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust celebrated the grand opening of the Nodding Trillium Garden last week, Wednesday, April 17, leading groups of visitors along the newly completed trails that loop from the bottom of the property, within sight of Pittillo’s home, up toward the top of Henson Ridge. The land is visible from 46 named peaks and from sites up to 18 miles away.

The first section of trail was built a few years ago by Cullowhee resident Henry Kornegay, but the remainder was constructed using volunteer labor from WCU stu-

BEYOND THE BLOOM It doesn’t take a botanist to see the garden’s beauty, especially in April. Flowers dot the forest floor in a seemingly endless carpet, with trilliums so plentiful that photographing each one that lines the path would turn what should be a 30-minute walk into an all-day excursion.

But to Pittillo, the garden is more than a pretty picture. Each bloom is a story, each plant the current chapter of a book that began long ago.

Take the trilliums, for example. He knows where he planted them originally.

“They didn’t stay there. They got up the hill,” he said. “Not only did they get up the hill, they exploded up the hill. Not only did they explode up the hill, they went all the way around the fence and across the road and across the creek and made it to the other side.”

Most people would probably observe the explosion of trilliums, count themselves lucky, and think no further about the reason for the spread. But not Pittillo. One way trilliums spread is through ants that collect their seeds, eat away the delicious fatty parts and then discard the rest — which can then grow into a new plant in a new location, courtesy of antpowered transportation.

But as Pittillo was mowing his lawn, he

Visit Nodding Trillium The Nodding Trillium Garden is a 20-acre property located at 601 Cane Creek in Cullowhee, featuring about a mile of trail through a rich alkaline cove featuring 34 rare plant species in addition to a tremendous diversity of more common plants.

The property is open to the public sunrise to sunset year-round. Picking flowers or other plant parts is not allowed and visitors are asked to stay on trail. Pets on leash are allowed but owners are asked to pick up after them.

Dan Pittillo stops along the trail to talk about the plants growing there. which the garden is named. It’s believed to be the highest concentration of trillium species anywhere in the world.

According to a report from the HighlandsCashiers Land Trust, 34 rare plant species are confirmed to grow on the property.

Now, all those flowers are growing on grounds that the public is invited to explore.

Pittillo, a retired Western Carolina University botany professor, protected the 20.5-acre property as a conservation easement through the Highlands-Cashiers Land

dents and land trust volunteers. The result is a pair of loop trails, one about 200 yards long circling the bottom of the cove and another that covers about 1 mile with 140 feet of elevation gain. With the exception of chainsaws, no machinery was used to build the path.

About 60 people came out to the first of two guided hikes Pittillo held at 9:30 a.m.

April 17, so many that the group had to be divided in two. An additional 15 people attended the second hike, at 12:30 p.m.

found himself getting into a nest of yellow jackets at one particular place. When the yellow jackets departed, a pile of trilliums came up where the nest had been. The yellow jackets, Pittillo concluded, must have been helping to spread the trilliums.

“You think yellow jackets have no function? Now you know,” he told the group.

Other plants in the Nodding Trillium collection are more stationary.

“Pass this around,” said Pittillo, pausing to pluck a short, green stalk

F

Input sought on reservoir management

Landslide closes Jackson trail system

Paddle sports available to the WCU community range from mild to wild, with placid lakes to serious whitewater close by.

outdoors

A public meeting to discuss fisheries management on reservoirs in Western North Carolina will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 2, at the Southwestern Community College campus in Swain County.

N.C. Wildlife Commission biologists will begin with a series of short presentations on agency hatchery production and stocking in reservoirs, black bass genetics research and management, crappie research and walleye management. Afterward, an open discussion period will allow anglers to discuss reservoir management issues, concerns or ideas.

SCC’s Swain campus is located a 60 Almond School Road in Bryson City.

WCU photo

The landslide has resulted in closure of the Wayehutta OHV Trail System.

A landslide on Forest Service Road 4650 in Jackson County has resulted in closure of the Wayehutta OHV Trail System.

FSR 4650 is the road used to access the 27-mile trail system. The system will remain closed until the road can be repaired. Other OHV trails are listed at go.usa.gov/xmW9F.

Donated photo

WCU takes adventure college title

topped with a fuzzy white flower shaped like a microphone. “This is fraser sedge.”

The plant came from one of two creeks — he took specimens from, but he didn’t label which was which when he planted them.

“There’s another big batch up the hill here that came from Clay County, and they survived,” he said. “So the plants just stayed put. I’ve seen one or two seedlings, but they don’t produce much in the way of seedlings.”

For Pittillo, each plant is a story.

Take shortia galacifolia, for instance, a

For the fifth time, Western Carolina University has been voted the top adventure college in Blue Ridge Outdoors’ online readers’ poll.

The contest began Feb. 25 and featured head-to-head matchups against regional colleges and universities. WCU and last year’s title-holder, Lees-McRae College, made it to the championship final. More than half a million votes poured in over the course of the contest, the most in its seven-year history, BRO

editor Will Harlan said.

“Western has a dedicated, outdoorminded campus community that promotes and celebrates adventure,” Harlan said. “It’s not surprising that WCU has captured its fifth ‘Top Adventure College’ title. They’ve definitely earned it.”

The university’s many outdoor opportunities include an on-campus multi-use trail system, the Tuckaseigee River, the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Pisgah and Nantahala national forests. WCU has a dedicated outdoor adventure program, Base Camp Cullowhee, and offers academic programs related to outdoors careers.

Fire pink, Silene virginica.

PRESERVING MEMORY

Wild geranium, Geranium maculatum.

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Smoky Mountain News

rare plant that’s related to galax and is known more commonly as Oconee bells.

It was first collected by the French botanist Andre Michaux in 1788, Pittillo said, and sent back to Paris. Later, Harvard botanist Asa Gray came across the plant and realized it was as yet unnamed. He called it “Shortia” after his friend Charles Short and “galacifolia” due to its shiny leaves. But he could never find it in the wild due to Michaux’s mistaken notation that it grew in the high mountains of the Carolinas — it actually prefers the lower elevations in the mountains.

“It was found by somebody who didn’t know what it was, named by someone who didn’t know where it was, found by someone who didn’t know what it was either,”

In discussing plants, memories can operate through several different magnitudes of time. There’s the timeline of geology, the timeline of human history and the timeline of one’s own life experiences. All three scales are evident at Nodding Trillium, but for Pittillo perhaps the one that looms largest is the memory of the woman for whom the garden is named — his late wife, Jean Pittillo. Jean passed away in 2011 following a battle with cancer. The Nodding Trillium property was an important place for her.

“We didn’t know what was going to happen with Jean when she got cancer and was close to death, and she didn’t like a cemetery,” said Pittillo. “So (our daughter) Heather said, ‘Why don’t we put a memorial for her here?’”

So now, in addition to being the place where Pittillo’s plants are rooted, Nodding Trillium is the place where his wife’s ashes are scattered and her memory preserved.

It’s been a special place for the family, and Pittillo wants to pass that gift along to the larger community with the trail’s opening.

“If it’s a value to somebody beyond me, I’d like to see that happen,” said Pittillo. “I like the idea of the Indians. If the seventh generation later can appreciate it, then it’s the right thing to do.”

April 24-30, 2019

said Pittilllo.

haywoodchamber.com

ventureasheville.com/microgrant

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outdoors

The state’s largest collection of peonies will soon be in bloom. Donated photo

Longtime Lake Junaluska landscaper retires Roddy Ray (right) stands beside her successor in managing Lake Junaluska’s grounds, Melissa Tinsley. Lake Junaluska photo

See peonies in bloom The Festival of Peonies in Bloom will return to Wildcat Ridge Farm Saturday, May 4, providing a daily opportunity for the public to witness the state’s largest collection of peonies, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. through May 31.

Herbaceous and intersectional peony plants, and peony flowers, will be available for sale — just bring a bucket. A new riverfront yurt is also available as lodging.

The farm is located at 3552 Panther Creek Road in the Crabtree area of Haywood County. 828.627.6751 or www.wildcatridgefarm.com.

Roadside wildflower displays win awards

known as exit 27 — won first place in the contest for best wildflower planting in the western region.

Division 14 — which covers Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Swain, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Henderson, Polk and Transylvania counties — won second place in the competition for best overall division wildflower program, coming in second to Division 13, which oversees the next block of counties east.

Smoky Mountain News

April 24-30, 2019

Wildflower displays along Western North Carolina highways have earned local N.C. Department of Transportation offices statewide recognition.

A wildflower planting on I-40 where it intersects U.S. 74 in Haywood County — also

FACES

OF

HAYWOOD

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s both an author and business consultant I rely on building . relationships. The Haywood Chamber has provided a unique opportunity to be part of a passionate team of members who believe in supporting one another and our community.

The staff is caring and dedicated to helping us help one another within our community. The monthly speakers offer valuable information we can use to make better informed decisions.

Partnership with the Asheville Chamber offers the possibility of greater synergy for creating a much stronger economy throughout the region.

“Helping management improve workforce performance for fun and profits!”

Land of Sky Advisors

A native of Haywood County, Ray grew up attending Bible school and youth events at Lake Junaluska. She developed her passion for horticulture while gardening with her grandmothers Myrtle Massie Ray and Marie McCracken.

Melissa Tinsley, a landscaper for the lake, stepped into the manager position upon Ray’s retirement. Like Ray, she is a graduate of Haywood Community College’s horticultural program.

“This was my calling,” said Ray. “God meant for me to work at Lake Junaluska, and I am forever blessed by the relationships I have made here. ‘Surely the Presence of the Lord is in This Place’ is my favorite hymn and it describes how I feel about Lake Junaluska.”

Gifts given in honor of Ray’s retirement will go to construct a gate for the Biblical Garden, which incorporates plants mentioned in the Bible such as herbs, figs, pomegranates and vines.

Make a gift at lakejunaluska.com/support or call 828.454.6749. Add “Roddy” to the memo line when giving.

Grow a bountiful garden Learn the secrets to improving a garden’s yield during a program offered 1 to 2 p.m. Tuesday, April 30, at the Waynesville Public Library.

Master Gardener Volunteer Jim Janke will teach this class covering site selection, soil preparation and more. Free, and sponsored by Friends of the Library and the Haywood County Cooperative Extension. 828.356.2507.

Plant sales coming to Lake Junaluska

Ron Robinson

828.456.3021 HaywoodChamber.com 44

After 27 years of service, legendary Lake Junaluska landscaper Roddy Ray has retired.

Ray, a horticulturist, is a longtime force of nature behind the landscaping and curation of more than 800 acres of the lake’s grounds and gardens.

“I’ve seen many beautiful sunrises in my years as a landscaper at Lake Junaluska, but now I’m looking forward to seeing some beautiful sunsets,” said Ray, whose retirement plans include staying involved at the lake, spending more time with family and traveling with her husband.

Ray’s responsibilities included tending the renowned Rose Walk, and creating gardens and parks such as the Biblical Garden, Inspiration Point, the Susanna Wesley Garden, the Gattis Meditation Garden and Weatherby Park. Her career highlights include a feature article in the 2003 American Rose Society Magazine, the 2011 Marketing Association for Rehabilitation Centers Award from Haywood Vocational Opportunities, and the 2013 Haywood Community College Outstanding Alumni Award.

Gear up for growing season with a handful of plant sales coming to Lake Junaluska in the next two weeks. n The Lake Junaluska Plant Sale will be held 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 26-27 and May 3-4 at the Lake Junaluska Greenhouse located at 82 Sleepy Hollow Drive. A variety of annuals and perennials ranging from pack-

ages of six to hanging baskets will be available, with proceeds supporting grounds and gardens maintenance at the lake.

Checks and credit cards accepted. mtinsley@lakejunaluska.com or 828.454.6774. n The Corneille Bryan Native Garden Plant Sale will be held 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Saturday, May 4, at the garden located at the intersection of County Road and J.B. Ivey Lane. Perennials will be the main offering, with some shrubs and trees as well.

Cash or check only. 828.778.5938.

This year’s opening schedule for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is now final, with most facilities having opened in time for Easter and the remaining facilities resuming operations by Memorial Day. “Our staff has worked diligently over the last several weeks to complete the hiring process for our seasonal workforce and ready facilities for openings across the park,” said Superintendent Cassius Cash.

“In addition to de-winterizing water treatment and waste-water systems, crews have been busy clearing fallen trees and limbs from multiple wind events this winter. I’m proud of our staff for their exceptional efforts in preparing the park for the upcoming season.”

Roads. Clingmans Dome Road, Rich

Most facilities are open as of Easter weekend. NPS photo

Mountain Road, Forge Creek Road, Little Greenbrier Road, and Round Bottom/ Straight Fork Road are open. Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail will open May 1, and Balsam Mountain Road and Heintooga Ridge Road May 17. Parsons Branch Road will remain closed due to road damage and Cades Cove Loop Road will be open to bicycles only through 10 a.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays, May 8 to Sept. 25.

Campgrounds. Cades Cove and

SAWS director steps down

Smokemont campgrounds are open year round, and Big Creek, Cataloochee, Cosby, Elkmont and Deep Creek have opened for the season. Abrams Creek will open April 26. Balsam Mountain will open May 17.

Picnic Areas. Picnic areas save Heintooga and Look Rock are now open. Heintooga will open May 17 and Look Rock will be open by late summer with limited services. www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/calendar.htm.

Go back in time at Cataloochee Step back in time with the Smoky Mountain Field School class “Historic Cataloochee Valley: 100 Years of Legends & Tales,” offered Saturday, April 27.

Esther Blakely will teach this class on the ground in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, walking through the homes, sitting in the pews of the chapel, visiting the schoolhouse and hearing the poignant stories of the Cataloochee people to get a glimpse of this once thriving community. $69, with registration available at aceweb.outreach.utk.edu. The Smoky Mountain Field School is a partnership of the University of Tennessee and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, offering classes throughout the year at various locations in the park.

Bill Hodge, longtime executive director of the Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards, is stepping down from the organization.

“For years, Bill has inspired the people of the Southern Appalachians with his creativity, his credibility and his compassion. His hard work connecting with forest users of all stripes has made SAWS the nationally-recognized stewardship organization it is today,” said Anders Reynolds, who serves as board chair for SAWS. “We have big hiking boots to fill, but are grateful Bill leaves behind a well-built and high-powered organization for our next leader.”

Hodge founded SAWS in 2010 to supplement existing public lands stewardship efforts in the Southern Appalachians. In 2018, the organization generated more than 35,000 stewardship hours, employing six full-time staff, 39 seasonal trail crew members and engaging hundreds of volunteers.

Hodge is leaving at the end of April for a position as executive director of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation.

Applications in the search for a new director will be accepted through Monday, May 6. Information is available at www.wildernessstewards.org.

outdoors

Facilities reopen in the Smokies

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April 24-30, 2019 Smoky Mountain News 45

outdoors

Rise to the citizen science challenge Western North Carolina is one of three regions in the state competing in the 2019

A young citizen scientist documents a find. N.C. Arboretum photo

City Nature Challenge, a global citizen-science competition held April 26-29.

Throughout the four-day event, WNC residents are encouraged to get outside and celebrate their region’s biodiversity by taking photos of plants and animals found in their communities and uploading them to iNaturalist, an app that collects images of nature taken by citizens the world over. The region or city that makes the most observations, finds the most species and engages the most people

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April 24-30, 2019

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will be named the winner of the 2019 City Nature Challenge.

While people can participate without even leaving their backyards, several events across the region offer organized efforts to gather data. n The Highlands Biological Station will host events 10 to 11 a.m. Friday, April 26, and 9 to 10 a.m.

Saturday, April 27.

All ages are welcome, with participants encouraged to bring a smartphone with iNaturalist downloaded to record observations.

828.526.2623 or paige@highlandsbiological.org. n Observations are encouraged during the Mountain Science Expo, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Saturday, April 27, at the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville. In addition to submitting observations, attendees can see programs on native reptiles, amphibians, birds and mammals, and interact with a variety of exhibitors. www.ncarboretum.org/event/mountain-science-expo. n A bioblitz will be held 9:30 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 27, at the Cradle of Forestry in America. Fun citizen science activities will follow from 1 to 3 p.m. 828.877.3130.

Volunteers get to work during a previous Pisgah Pride Day. Donated photo

Give back to the national forest Pisgah Pride Day 2019 will give folks across the region a chance to give back to the Pisgah National Forest Saturday, April 27.

Most work crews will convene at the Pisgah District Ranger Station on U.S. 276 near Brevard and then disperse to various locations to do trail work, treat invasive species, pick up trash and help geolocate threatened ash trees. Work locations

include the U.S. 276 corridor, trails in the Bent Creek area, Mt. Pisgah Trail, Looking Glass Falls, Avery Creek Trail and Sycamore Flats.

A variety of local organizations are supporting the effort, from recreation and sportsman’s clubs to local businesses and nonprofits. Pre-registration is required at www.pisgahconservancy.org/how-you-canhelp/pisgah-pride-day.html.

Walk the Little Tennessee greenway A family fun walk to raise money for Friends of the Greenway will be held 8:30 to 10 a.m.

Saturday, May 4, on the Little Tennessee River Greenway in Franklin.

Tickets are $5 apiece and available at FROG Quarters, 573 E. Main Street in Franklin, from 9 am to 2 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and onsite the day of the walk. The event will be held at Big Bear Park, with a drawing at noon for four Dollywood tickets.

May the Forest be With You

Smoky Mountain News

A day focused on forest resources and conservation will incorporate a guided walk, film screening and more, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 4, during May the Forest be With You at the Cradle of Forestry in America.

A guided forest walk led by Cradle naturalists will be offered at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., with a speaking session featuring a variety of presenters held 1 to 3 p.m. in the amphitheater. A film screening of Hidden

Rivers, about the vibrant yet little-known life of Southern Appalachian rivers, will be 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., with a panel discussion featuring the filmmakers and partner organizations 4:30 to 5 p.m. Exhibitors will have their displays up from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Cradle is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Nov. 10. Admission is $6, $3 for youth 4 to 12 and free for children under 4 and holders of America the Beautiful and Golden Age passes.

The Cradle is located along U.S. 276 near Brevard. 828.877.3130 or www.cradleofforestry.com.

Celebrate migratory birds

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A World Migratory Bird Day celebration will be held in Sylva for the third year running, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 4, at Bridge Park.

The event will feature live bird of prey demonstrations, informal bird walks for kids and adults, Cherokee storytelling and partner displays that will host information, games and crafts for all ages.

World Migratory Bird Day is a global initiative that seeks to connect people to nature through birds and help them understand the importance of bird conservation. This year’s festival theme is “Helping Birds: Be the Solution to Plastic Pollution,” highlighting ways to reduce plastic consumption.

Free. Hosted by the Balsam Mountain Trust.

MAGAZINE READ, SUBSCRIBE & LEARN MORE

smliv.com

WNC Calendar COMMUNITY EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS • Haywood Community College will hold a job fair from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Wednesday, April 24, in Clyde.

627.3613 or jhilbert@haywood.edu.

• The Town of Waynesville will hold their last community meetings at 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. on April 25 to get input in the 2035 Comprehensive Land Use Plan at Folkmoot Center.

• Public comments are being accepted through April 25 for a prescribed burn proposed for Panthertown.

Proposed authorization will be effective for one-to-three burning cycles for up to 10-12 years; Treatments would be conducted between Oct. 15-April 15 of a given year.

Send comments: comments-southern-north-carolinanantahala-nantahala@fs.fed.us or fax: 369.6592, or mail: USDA Forest Service, 90 Sloan Road, Franklin, N.C. 28734. Info; 837.5152.

• Safe Kids Jackson County and Andy Shaw Ford will host a Safe Kids Day from 2:30-6:30 p.m. on April 26 at Andy Shaw Ford in Sylva. Learn how to prevent injuries and take steps to make kids safer. 587.8225.

• An Easter Celebration featuring an Eastern Bonnet Contest and Easter Egg hunt has been postponed to 11 a.m.-3 p.m. on Saturday, April 27, at Cornerstone Wesleyan Church, 495 Franklin Grove Church Road in Bryson City. Raffle, fire trucks, games, music, prizes and more. Spaghetti dinner: $10 adults/$5 kids. Sponsored by RENEW Bryson City for Drug Awareness. 863.698.4417.

• A Drug Take Back Event will be held from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturday, April 27, at Ingles Supermarket, 201 Barber Blvd., in Waynesville.

• Haywood Habitat for Humanity is accepting homeowner applications and holding information sessions at 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 27, at Haywood County Public Library in Waynesville; at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 28, at Canton Central United Methodist Church; and at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 2, at Long’s Chapel United Methodist Church in Waynesville. 452.7960 or haywoodhabitat.org.

• As part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, the DV/SA/EA Task Force is sponsoring “Take A Walk In Her Shoes” event at noon on Saturday, April 27, in front of the Historic Courthouse in Waynesville. Shoes will be available. 456.7898.

• The Fines Creek Community Association will hold its annual Ramp Dinner from 5-8 p.m. on Saturday, April 27, at the Fines Creek Community Center, 190 Fines Creek Road in Clyde. Cost: $8 for adults; children 6under free with paying adult. 593.7042.

• April 27 is Safe Kids Macon County’s Safety town event, featuring Operation Medicine Drop (10 a.m-2 p.m.), baby car seat check (10 a.m.-1 p.m.) and bicycle rodeo (11 a.m.-1 p.m.) at the Robert C. Carpenter Community Building in Franklin.

• “National Day of Prayer: Pray for Haywood” will be held at 6 p.m. on May 2 at Calvary Road Baptist Church in Maggie Valley. With Sheriff Greg Christopher.

• Reservations are being accepted for a six-night package, Nov. 23-29, to join Western Carolina University’s Pride of the Mountains Marching Band as it participates in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Nov. 28 in New York City. Cost: $2,199 (based on double occupancy), includes roundtrip airfare, transportation to the hotel, six nights lodging at Marriott Marquis in Times Square, two Broadway shows, admission to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, a two-day hop-on, hop-off sightseeing ticket on a double-decker bus and Thanksgiving dinner with the band. Bmarkle@superholiday.com. Donate to help the band make the trip: givemacys.wcu.edu.

All phone numbers area code 828 unless otherwise noted.

• Registration is underway for Marriage Enrichment Retreats that will be offered three more times over the next year at Lake Junaluska. Led by Ned Martin, an expert in marriage counseling. Price is $699 per couple. Dates are Aug. 18-20 of 2019 and Sept. 29-Oct. 1 in 2019. Registration and info: www.lakejunaluska.com/marriage or 800.222.4930.

BUSINESS & EDUCATION • Haywood Community College is holding registration for its summer and fall semesters. 627.4500, haywood.edu or hcc-advising@haywood.edu.

• The Small Business Center at Southwestern Community College will offer a wide variety of seminars for aspiring and existing entrepreneurs throughout Jackson, Macon, Swain Counties and the Qualla Boundary through May. For a complete listing: tinyurl.com/y46uqeo9.

• Registration is underway for a “Jump-Start Series” offered by Haywood Community College’s Small Business Center from 4:30-6:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, April 30-May 14. SBC.Haywood.edu or 627.4512.

• Haywood Community College will hold a commencement ceremony for graduates of its High School Equivalency Diploma, Adult High School and Career College at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 3, in the Charles Beall Auditorium in Clyde. 627.4700 • Registration is underway for an “Intro to Content Marketing” course that will be offered by Western Carolina University’s Office of Professional Growth and on Friday, May 3, at WCU Biltmore Park in Asheville.

Instructor is Scott Rader, Ph.D., associate professor of Marketing and Entrepreneurship. Cost: $119. Register: pdp.wcu.edu or 227.7397.

• Registration is underway for Boating Safety Courses that will be offered from 6-9 p.m. on May 15-16 at Haywood Community College, Building 3300, Room 3322, in Clyde. Preregistration is required: www.ncwildlife.org. Additional offerings: June 26-27.

• Registration is underway for a workshop entitled “Communicating Change Effectively in the Workplace” that will be offered by Western Carolina University from 9 a.m.-3:30 p.m. on Friday, May 17, at WCU Biltmore Park in Asheville. Taught by WCU Communications Professor Betty Farmer. Advance registration: $139 (through May 1). Pdp.wcu.edu or 227.7397.

• Reservations are being accepted for a non-credit travel course that will take students to Valencia, Spain, from June 23-July 2. Price: $1,969 for single occupancy or $1,859 for double occupancy. Includes: three-star hotel, meals, transportation within Spain, admission to sites, a Spanish cooking class and all excursions. Price does not include airfare. 227.2769 or lfoxford@wcu.edu.

FUNDRAISERS AND BENEFITS • The Community Table of Jackson County will host its annual Empty Bowl Fundraiser from 4-8 p.m. on Friday, April 26, at 23 Central St. in Sylva. $20 for homecooked soups and a handmade bowl or other pottery piece donated by local potters and artisans.

Communitytable.org.

• A “Rock-a-Thon” to raise money for the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation is scheduled for 2-8 p.m. on April 27 at the Balsam Fire Department. Hot dog meal for national competition: $8. Bounce houses, face painting, silent auction and cake auction.

Smoky Mountain News

• Women of Waynesville, a nonprofit organization that supports the needs of women and children in Haywood County, will present the third annual Kentucky Derby Gala from 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday, May 4, at Elevated Mountain Distilling in Maggie Valley. Tickets are $40 each and include two drink tickets. Proceeds from the event will benefit Sharin Care, a fund designated to help relieve the financial burdens associated with medical and dental needs for people in Haywood County. www.opendoor-waynesville.org/sharin-care. www.facebook.com/events/1087074268167457. WOW is also seeking business sponsors for the event. womenofwaynesville@gmail.com or 550.9978.

• “Steppin’ Out on the Greenway” – a family fun-walk fundraiser – is scheduled for 8:30-10 a.m. on Saturday, May 4. Wristband tickets are $5 each and available at Friends of the Greenway Quarters, 573 E. Main in Franklin.

• The third annual golf classic to benefit Full Spectrum Farms will be held at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, May 5, at Trillium Links and Lakes Club in Cashiers. Proceeds from this 18-hole tournament will benefit Full Spectrum’s work to serve people with autism spectrum disorder in Western North Carolina. Cost is $100 per person, with lunch available for purchase. Pre-registration required. Contact 828.293.2521 or fsfvolunteer@gmail.com.

• REACH is seeking donations of gently used accessories for its silent auction at the “Spring into Fashion” Social and Luncheon, which is on Thursday, May 9, at Laurel Ridge Country Club. Donations accepted through Friday, April 19, at 627 N. Main St. in Waynesville.

456.7898.

• Ticket reservations are being accepted for two fundraisers that will benefit the Cashiers-Highlands Humane Society this summer: Bark, Beer & Barbeque on Thursday, June 20, at The Farm at Old Edwards; and Pawsitively Purrfect Part on Monday, Aug. 19, at Country Club of Sapphire Valley. Cost for each event: , $195 per person, $390 per couple or $1,800 for a table of 10. To request an alert once tickets are available, call 743.5769 or write shannon@CHhumanesociety.org.

HEALTH MATTERS • The Alzheimer’s Association is offering a “Healthy Living for Your Brain” program from 2-3 p.m. on Thursday, April 25, in the Waynesville Library Auditorium. Info: 356.2507.

• The Center for Domestic Peace will host an open house from 3-6 p.m. on Thursday, April 25, at 26 Ridgeway Street in Sylva. Guest speakers include chairman Brian McMahan and Chairman Ali Laird-Large; topics include history of domestic and sexual violence services in Jackson County. Info: 586.8969.

• David-Dorian Ross will offer an in-person meet-andgreet and interactive talk on Tai Chi and Healthy Aging at 6 p.m. on Friday, April 26, at Haywood Regional Health & Fitness Center in Clyde. 904.377.1527 or mattjeffs@comcast.net.

• Four Seasons, Wells Funeral Home and first United Methodist Church of Waynesville will offer “Living After Loss: A Grief Discussion” from 9-11 a.m. on Saturday, May 4, at Wells Event Center in Waynesville. Led by Dan Yearick, MS, LPC-S, Bereavement Coordinator with Four Seasons. 692.6178 or dyearick@fourseasonscfl.org.

RECREATION AND FITNESS • The CommUnity Barn old time Square Dance is scheduled for 7-9 p.m. on Saturday, April 27, at Folkmoot Center in Waynesville. Called by Aaron Ratcliff; stringband music by Cullowheezer.

• Registration is underway for the fifth annual Battle at

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Visit www.smokymountainnews.com and click on Calendar for: ■ Complete listings of local music scene ■ Regional festivals ■ Art gallery events and openings ■ Complete listings of recreational offerings at regional health and fitness centers ■ Civic and social club gatherings the Creek Golf Tournament, which will be held at 10 a.m. on April 27, at Mill Creek in Franklin. Two-person scramble. $75 per player, includes mulligan and lunch.

Sign up or get info: 524.4653, 342.7491, fefesha@gmail.com, 371.1141 or ryan.raby@macon.k12.nc.us.

• A “Forest Bathing” class will be offered from 1-4 p.m. on Sunday, April 28, through the Waynesville Yoga Center. $25 in advance; $30 day of. Led by Raymond Johnson.

Register: 246.6570 or WaynesvilleYogaCenter.com.

• A Yoga Basics five-week series starts on April 28 at Waynesville Yoga Center. Class meets for five consecutive Sundays. $65 for entire series. Register: 246.6570 or WaynesvilleYogaCenter.com.

• A belly dance and yoga four-week series starts on April 28 at Waynesville Yoga Center. Meets for four consecutive Sundays. $55 for entire series. Register: 246.6570 or WaynesvilleYogaCenter.com.

SPIRITUAL • Registration is underway for Guided Personal Retreats, on July 22-24, Sept. 16-18 and Oct. 21-23 at Lake Junaluska. Lakejunaluska.com/retreats or 800.222.4930.

• Registration is underway for Lake Junaluska’s Summer Youth Events, which run from June 15-July 14.

Morning and evening sessions with worship, guest preachers and workshops for sixth-through-12th graders. www.lakejunaluska.com/summeryouth or 800.222.4930.

• Registration is underway for Music & Worship Arts Week, which is from June 23-28 at Lake Junaluska.

Multi-generational educational event including arts, praise and renewal. For ministry leaders or those who want to sing, dance or act all week.

Musicartsweek2019.wordpress.com.

• Registration is underway for Native American Summer Conference, which is June 28-30, at Lake Junaluska.

Speakers, Bible study and workshops.

Lakejunaluska.com/sejanam or 800.222.4930.

AUTHORS AND BOOKS • Folkmoot’s Southern Storytellers Series will feature Lee Woods, author of “Growing Up on Hazel Creek and in the Fontana Basin” at 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 25, at Folkmoot in Waynesville. Tickets: $18 for adults, $10 students. Southern-themed dinner included.

• Blue Ridge Books and Smoky Mountain News will present a meet and greet/book signing by author, naturalist and Smoky Mountain News columnist Don Hendershot at 3 p.m. on April 27 at Blue Ridge Books, 428 Hazelwood Ave., in Waynesville. Book is “A Year from the Naturalist’s Corner Volume 1.”

SENIOR ACTIVITIES • Mind the Music, an introductory piano class for adults ages 55-and-up, will begin a five-week session

wnc calendar

in May. $60 plus a music book fee. Register by April 25: 452.0593.

• The second annual Haywood County Senior Expo for WNC-area seniors is scheduled for 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on Friday, May 3, at the Folkmoot Center in Waynesville.

BINGO, lunch, activities, resource booths, speakers, self-defense class and more. Haywoodseniorexpo.com.

KIDS & FAMILIES • The Haywood Community College Wildlife Club will hold the sixth annual Fish Fest Youth Fishing Clinic and Tournament on Saturday, April 27, at the HCC Mill Pond in Clyde. Youth clinic for ages 6-12 is 1-4 p.m.; tournament is 4-6 p.m. Entry fee for tournament is $8.

Info or register: 627.4560 or jcarver@haywood.edu.

• A Nature Nuts: Raising Trout program for ages 4-7 will be offered from 9-11 a.m. on April 29 at the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Brevard. Registration required: http://tinyurl.com/yb28fpz8.

• An Eco Explorers: Mountain Habitats program will be offered to ages 8-13 from 1-3 p.m. on April 29 at the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Brevard. Registration required: http://tinyurl.com/yb28fpz8.

• “Nature Nuts: Stream Investigation” will be offered to ages 4-7 from 9-11 a.m. on May 6 and May 13 at the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Brevard. Online registration required: https://tinyurl.com/y5o3owwp.

• “Eco Explorers: Compass” will be offered to ages 813 on May 6 and May 13 at the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Brevard. Online registration required: https://tinyurl.com/y5o3owwp.

April 24-30, 2019

• The Haywood County Arts Council will hold a JAM (Junior Appalachian Musicians) for fourth through sixth graders from 3:30-5 p.m. on Tuesdays through May at Shining Rock Classical Academy. Cost: $85.

452.0593 or bmk.morgan@yahoo.com.

• Registration is now open for a new PGA Junior League golf team forming at Lake Junaluska Golf Course for ages 17-under. Season runs from through July 31.

Registration fee: $190. Includes team practice sessions, matches, merchandise. Register: pgajrleague.com/signup. Info: www.lakejunaluska.com/golf, 456.5777 or ctcarswell@lakejunaluska.com.

SUMMER CAMPS

Smoky Mountain News

• Registration is underway for the Cashiers-Highlands Humane Society’s Critter Camp, which is offered from June 17-21, July 15-19 and Aug. 5-9. Camp hours: 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Fun, immersive experiences with animals at no-kill shelter for rising first-graders through sixthgraders. $300 per child for each week. 743.5752 or info@CHhumanesociety.org.

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• Registration is underway for Discovery Camp with weekly camps available June 10-Aug. 16 at the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville. Open to pre-K through rising eighth graders. Register: www.ncarboretum.org/education-programs/discovery-camp.

• Registration is underway for a summer volleyball camp that will be offered to rising third-through-12th graders from 9 a.m.-noon on June 17-20 at the Waynesville Recreation Center. Cost: $85 before June 1 or $100 after. Register or get more info: amymull@bellsouth.net.

• Registration is underway for two basketball shooting and dribbling camps that will be offered from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. on June 24-27 and July 15-18 at the Waynesville Recreation Center. Led by former Appalachian State University coach Kevin Cantwell.

Cost: $150 per person; deposit of $25 required.

Register or get info: 456.2030 or academy7@live.com.

• Registration is underway for a pair of two residential camp programs scheduled for this summer at Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute in Rosman: Astro Camp, for ages 11-14, from Aug. 4-9; and Camp Above and Beyond, for grades 9-12, from June 16-28.

For info, scholarship opportunities and to register: www.pari.edu or 862.5554.

ONGOING KIDS ACTIVITIES AND CLUBS • A Lego club will meet at 4 p.m. every fourth Thursday of the month, at Marianna Black Library in Bryson City. Library provides Legos and Duplos for ages 3 and up. Free. 488.3030.

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

• “Art Beats for Kids” will be held from 4 to 5 p.m. on Thursdays at the Charles Heath Gallery in Bryson City.

A new project every week. $20 per child, with includes lesson, materials and snack. To register, call 828.538.2054.

• A program called “Imagine,” an art program for children 8-12 meets at 2 p.m. on Tuesdays at the Jackson County Public Library. Program contains art, writing, and drama. 586.2016.

• Rompin’ Stompin’, an hourlong storytime with music, movement and books, is held at 11 a.m. on Fridays at the Canton Library. For ages zero to six.

648.2924.

• Library Olympics will be held at 2 p.m. on Fridays at Jackson County Public Library. Children age 5 and up get active through relay races, bingo, mini golf.

586.2016.

• Family Story Time is held on Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m.

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at the Canton Public Library. Ages 0-6. Stories, songs, dance and crafting. 648.2924.

Main in Waynesville. See website for times & tickets.

283.0079.

• Storytimes are held at 10 and 10:40 a.m. every Thursday at Hudson Library in Highlands.

⦁ “Bumblebee”, will be shown at 6:30 p.m. on April 26 at Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. Free.

586.3555.

• Fun Friday, everything science, is held at 4 p.m. on Fridays at Jackson County Public Library. 586.2016.

• Teen Coffeehouse is at 4:30 p.m. on the first, third, and fourth Tuesday at Jackson County Public Library.

Spend time with other teens talking and sharing. 12 and up. 586.2016.

⦁ “AWAKE”, will be shown at 6 p.m. on April 30 at Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. Free. Fundraiser 10% night for Children’s Advocacy Center. 586.3555.

• Rock and Read is at 11 a.m. on Tuesdays at Jackson County Public Library. 586-2016.

•A community breastfeeding information and support group meets from 10:30 am.-noon on the first Saturday of each month in the main lobby of the Smoky Mountain OB/GYN Office in Sylva. Free; refreshments provided. For information, contact Brandi Nations (770.519.2903), Stephanie Faulkner (506.1185 or www.birthnaturalwnc), or Teresa Bryant (587-8223).

• Science Club is held at 3:30 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. on the fourth Thursday of each month for grades K-6 at the Macon County Public Library. 524.3600.

• A Franklin Kids’ Creation Station is held from 10 a.m.-noon on Saturdays at uptown Gallery in Franklin.

Snacks provided. $20 tuition. 743.0200.

• A Lego Club meets the fourth Thursday of the month at 4 p.m.- 5:30 p.m. at the Macon County Public Library. 526.3600.

• A Lego Club meets the fourth Thursday of the month at 4:30 p.m. at Jackson County Public Library. 5862016.

• Teen time 3:30-4:30 p.m. Thursdays at Waynesville Library. A program for teens and tweens held each week. Each week is different, snacks provided. 356.2511.

• The American Girls Club meets at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. The club meets one Saturday a month, call for details. Club is based on a book series about historical women. Club members read and do activities. Free. 586.9499.

• Crazy 8 Math Adventure Club on Tuesdays 3:30 p.m.

- 4:15 p.m. for grades K-2 at the Macon County Public Library. 524.3600.

• Children’s craft time, fourth Wednesday, 3:45 p.m. at Cashiers Community Library. 743.0215

KIDS FILMS

⦁ “A Dog’s Way Home”, will be shown at 7:30 p.m. on April 25 at Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. Free.

586.3555. ⦁ “Avengers: Engame”, will be shown at 7 p.m. on April 25-29 & May 1-3, 12 p.m. April 26, 11:30 a.m. & 3:15 p.m. on April 27-28 and May 4-5 at The Strain on

A&E SPECIAL EVENTS & FESTIVALS • The 20th annual Taste of Chocolate is from 6-8 p.m. on Thursday, April 25, at the Waynesville Inn Golf Resort. Proceeds benefit Haywood Jackson volunteer Center. Tickets: $12 in advance; $15 at the door.

Available at Quilters Quarters, Blue Ridge Books Waynesville Inn and the Haywood County Senior Resource Center.

• The 25th annual Southeastern Mini Truckin’ Nationals will be held April 26-28, at the Maggie Valley Festival Grounds. Open car and truck show. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday; 8 a.m.-2 p.m. on Sunday. Part vendors, food vendors, DJ. 865.742.7403, minitruckinnats@gmail.com or www.minitruckinnats.com.

• The Haywood County Jazz Festival featuring area middle and high school bands as well as the Blue Ridge Big Band and Western Carolina University is scheduled for 4-9 p.m. on Saturday, April 27, at Tuscola High School.

• The 22nd annual Greening Up the Mountains Festival will be held Saturday, April 27 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., in downtown Sylva. The festival includes more than 200 vendors who will be spread throughout two locations — on Main Street and Railroad Avenue. www.greeningupthemountains.com.

• Tickets are on sale now for Thunder in the Smokies Rally, which is May 3-5 in Maggie Valley.

Handlebarcorral.com.

• The Balsam Mountain Trust will host its third annual Migratory Bird Fest from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. on May 4 at Bridge Park in Sylva. www.bmtrust.org or 631.1061.

• The American Legion Post No. 47 presents the 89th Ramp Convention starting at noon on Saturday and Sunday, May 4-5, in Waynesville. Advance tickets: $8 for Saturday and $10 on Sunday (meal included) or $5 for event only on Sunday. Free hot dog to children under 12. Food, vendors, raffles, bounce house.

Vendors: 734.2234.

Puzzles can be found on page 54 These are only the answers.

FOOD & DRINK

• A free wine tasting will be held from 1-5 p.m. on April 27 and May 4 at Bosu Wine Shop in Waynesville.

452.0120 or www.waynesvillewine.com.

• A free wine tasting will be held from 2-5 p.m. on April 27 and May 4 at Papou’s Wine Shop in Sylva. www.papouswineshop.com or 631.3075.

• “Brown Bag at the Depot” – an opportunity to gather with neighbors – is at noon every Friday at Sylva’s newest park at the corner of Spring and Mill Street along Railroad Ave. For info, contact Paige Dowling at townmanager@townofsylva.org.

• Graceann’s Amazing Breakfast is 8-10 a.m. every Tuesday in the Sapphire Room at the Sapphire Valley Community Center. $8.50 for adults; $5 for children.

Includes coffee and orange juice. 743.7663.

• Free cooking demonstrations will be held from 5-7 p.m. on Saturdays at Country Traditions in Dillsboro.

Watch the demonstrations, eat samples and taste house wines for $3 a glass. All recipes posted online. www.countrytraditionsnc.com.

• A wine tasting will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesdays The Classic Wineseller in Waynesville.

Free with dinner ($15 minimum). 452.6000.

ON STAGE & IN CONCERT • The Catamount Singers and Electric Soul will present their production of “Made in America” at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 25, in Western Carolina University’s Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Hall in Cullowhee. Tickets: $15 for adults, $10 for faculty/staff and $5 for students.

• “An Evening of One-Acts” will hit the stage at 7 p.m. Friday, April 26, at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin.

Tickets are $12. www.greatmountainmusic.com or call 866.273.4615.

• The musical group Sisters will present “Dynamic Harmonies & A Deep Love For Christ” at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, April 27, at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin. Tickets start at $15. www.greatmountainmusic.com or 866.273.4615.

• Highlands Performing Arts Center will have the fulllength play “Calendar Girls” by Tim Firth on May 2326 and May 31-June 2. Highlandscashiersplayers.org.

CLASSES AND PROGRAMS • The Gem & Mineral Society of Franklin meets at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 25, at the Robert C. Carpenter Community Building at 1288 Georgia Road in Franklin.

• Smoky Mountain Model Railroaders Club will have an open house to introduce a Lionel-type Model Train display from 1-4 p.m. on Sunday, April 28, at 13 Caboose Way in Clyde. $5 donation requested at the door. 550.5959 or 593.0394.

• Registration is underway for a Bladesmithing Basics class that will be taught by Brock Martin of WarFire Forge from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on April 28 at Green Energy Park in Dillsboro. Cost: $200 (includes materials). Preregistration required: 631.0271.

• Fiber Sunday is from 2-5 p.m. on Sunday, April 28, in Room 104 of the Cowee School Heritage Center at 51 Cowee School Heritage Center, 51 Cowee School Dr., in Franklin. Bring a textile project you’re working on. 349.3878 or bouchonnet@coweetextiles.com.

• The Haywood Arts Council will present a Travel Sketching Art Class with Haidee Wilson from 10 a.m.12:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 4, at the Haywood County Arts Gallery on Main Street in Waynesville. $30 for members; $35 for nonmembers. 452.0593 or haywoodarts.org.

• A comic book illustration class with James Lyle is scheduled for 2-4 p.m. on Saturday, May 4 at Haywood County Arts Council, 86 N. Main Street in Waynesville.

452.0593. Digital art. Class fee: $25 for nonmembers; $20 for members.

• An Artist Demonstration of sculpting, molding and dying with handmade paper featuring Caryl Brt is set for 1-4 p.m. on Saturday, May 4, at Haywood County Arts Council, 86 N. Main Street in Waynesville.

452.0593.

• Registration is underway for entries for the Appalachian Women’s Museum’s second annual “Airing of the Quilts” that will be on display from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday, May 4, at 100 W. Hometown Place between Sylva and Dillsboro. $10 suggested donation per quilt.

Online registration: www.appwomen.org/quilts. Info: 421.3820 or cabeck@ncsu.edu.

• Registration is underway for an Intro to Blacksmithing Class that will be led by Brock Martin of WarFire Forge from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Sunday, May 5, at Jackson County Green Energy Park in Dillsboro.

Cost: $225 (materials included). Preregistration required: 631.0271. Info: www.JCGEP.org.

• A talk about art with Melba Cooper is scheduled for 10 a.m.-noon on Tuesday, May 7, at Haywood County Arts Council, 86 N. Main Street in Waynesville. Artcriticism models for talking about and making aesthetic evaluations of art. 452.0593.

• An artist coffee and chat is set for 10-11:30 a.m. on Thursday, May 9, at Haywood County Arts Council, 86 N. Main Street in Waynesville. 452.0593.

• The UNC Asheville Visiting Writers Series will present students sharing their own works as part of the Senior Seminar in Creative Writing at 4 p.m. on April 27, in Karpen Hall, Laurel Forum. english.unca.edu.

• A comic book illustration class with James Lyle is scheduled for 2-4 p.m. on Saturday, May 11 at Haywood County Arts Council, 86 N. Main Street in Waynesville. 452.0593. Backgrounds and perspective drawing. Class fee: $25 for nonmembers; $20 for members.

• Registration is underway for a “Women’s Conceal Carry Class” that will be offered from 8 a.m.-5 p.m.

• Registration is underway for “Bladesmithing: Forging a Kukri” class that will be offered from 9

Smoky Mountain News

• Haywood Arts Regional Theatre starts its 35th anniversary season on April 26 with the opening of the Larry Shue comedy “The Foreigner” in the Daniel and Belle Fangmeyer Theatre in Waynesville. Performances at 7:30 p.m. on April 26-27, May 3-4, 9-11; and at 2 p.m. on April 28, May 5 and 12. Reservations: 456.6322 or www.harttheatre.org.

• Artist Joel Queen will host a Master Potter Series class from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, April 27, at the Cowee Pottery School in Franklin. Queen will guide the class in hand building pots the traditional Cherokee way. Participants will need to bring a bowl to use as a form when building their pots. For more information and/or to register for the class, email contact@coweepotteryschool.org or www.coweepotteryschool.org.

April 24-30, 2019

• Folk duo Somebody’s Child will perform at 7 p.m.

Thursday, April 25, in the Community Room of the Jackson County Public Library in Franklin. This program is free and open to the public. 586.2016. (www.fontanalib.org).

• Chimney Rock State Park will offer a “Dusk-toDawn” Photography Workshop on Saturday and Sunday, April 27-28. Led by professional photographer Chuck Hill. Cost $250. www.chimneyrockpark.com.

wnc calendar

• Bosu’s Wine Shop in Waynesville will host five for $5 Wine Tasting from 5 to 9 p.m. on April 25 and May 2.

Come taste five magnificent wines and dine on Chef Bryan’s gourmet cuisine. 452.0120 or www.waynesvillewine.com.

on Saturday, April 27, at the Waynesville Police Department, 9 South Main Street in Waynesville. Cost: $50. RSVP by April 15: 246.3538 or thundercaldwell@gmail.com.

49

wnc calendar

a.m.-5 p.m. on May 18-19 at the Jackson County Green Energy Park in Dillsboro. Cost: $380; includes materials. Pregistration required: 631.0271 or www.JCGEP.org.

ART SHOWINGS AND GALLERIES • The Haywood County Arts Council (HCAC) latest showcase, “Inspired Art Ministry,” will run through April 27 at the HCAC Gallery & Gifts in downtown Waynesville. www.haywoodarts.org.

• “Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition” showcase will run through May 3 in the Fine Arts Museum at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. There will also be a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, April 25, at the museum. Regular museum hours are Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Thursdays until 7 p.m. 227.ARTS or arts.wcu.edu/mfathesis.

• Haywood Community College is currently hosting a Professional Crafts Faculty Exhibition in the Mary Cornwell Gallery on campus in Clyde. Through April, the public is invited to view the exhibition 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. 565.4240 or clschulte@haywood.edu.

• Grace Church in the Mountains is hosting “Icons in Transformation,” a traveling exhibition of icons by artist Ludmila Pawlowska, from 1-3 p.m. on Wednesdays and from 3-5 p.m. on Saturdays from April 28-June 16.

Smoky Mountain News

April 24-30, 2019

• The Museum of the Cherokee Indian has recently opened a major new exhibit, “People of the Clay: Contemporary Cherokee Potters.” It features more than 60 potters from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and Cherokee Nation, and more than one hundred works from 1900 to the present. The exhibit will run through next April.

• The 16th annual Shady Ladies Quilt Art Show is scheduled for 10 a.m.-5 p.m. on Friday through Sunday, May 3-5, at Folkmoot Center in Waynesville.

Admission: $5 (benefits Pigeon Street Multicultural Development Center).

• The Haywood County Arts Council will have an Elemental: Wood, Metal, Glass, Fiber & Clay Exhibition from May 3-June 1 with an opening reception from 6-9 p.m. on May 3 at the gallery, 86 N. Main Street in Waynesville. 452.0593.

• Haywood Community College’s Professional Crafts Students will have a “Graduate Show” to exhibit their best work from May 5-June 23 at the Southern Highland Craft Guild Folk Art Center. Reception is from 3-5 p.m. on Saturday, May 4. Info: 627.4673 or creativearts.haywood.edu.

• The exhibit “Outspoken: Paintings by America Meredith” will be on display through May 3 at the Fine Art Museum Gallery B in the Bardo Arts Center at Western Carolina University. The WCU Fine Art Museum is free and open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday. Free parking is available on site. www.facebook.com/americameredithart.

• The Western Carolina University Fine Art Museum at Bardo Arts Center is pleased to present the School of Art and Design Faculty Biennial Exhibition 2019, on display through May 3. All WCU Fine Art Museum exhibitions and receptions are free and open to the public.

For further information, visit arts.wcu.edu/biennial or 227.3591.

• An exhibition entitled: “Ebb and Flow, Bloom and Fade: Dynamic Rhythms From Hambidge Fellows” is on display through June 16 in the Bunzl Gallery at The Bascom in Highlands. Info: www.thebascom.org.

• Photographer and Clyde dentist John Highsmith presents “Breathless,” a metal-print series of underwater people and waterborne fabrics. The photo exhibit will run through July 15 at Green Sage Café 50 Westgate in Asheville. 734.6301.

⦁ “Glass”, will be shown at 7:30 p.m. on May 2 & 4 at Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. Free. 586.3555.

• Alarka Expeditions will offer an opportunity to view early arriving migrating birds at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 27, at Alarka-Laurel. Cost: $40. https://tinyurl.com/y2pmkslr.

⦁ “Hidden Rivers of Southern Appalachia”, will be shown at 6:30 p.m. on May 3 at Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. Free. MAINSPRING Fundraiser. 586.3555.

• Great Smoky Mountains Association will hold a “Birding Cataloochee by Bus” program on Monday, April 29. Info: dana@gsmassoc.org.

• Tickets are on sale now for “Great Art on Screen” – a series of 90-minute documentaries featuring some of the worlds’ greatest artists presented by The Highlands Performing Arts Center and The Bascom: A Center for the Visual Arts. Upcoming topics: Klimt & Schiele on Friday, May 10; and Monet on June 7. All shows at 5:30 p.m. at Highlands PAC, 507 Chestnut Street in Highlands. Tickets: $16; available at www.highlandspac.org or at the door.

• Registration is underway for a “Leave No Trace Master Educator course, which will be offered by Landmark Learning later this year in Cullowhee.

Frontcountry/basecamp training is set for April 29May 3 while Backpacking will be from June 24-28, Aug. 12-16 and Oct. 21-25. www.landmarklearning.org.

FILM & SCREEN

Outdoors

• Submissions are being accepted through May 10 for the sixth annual “Birdhouse Bash” that will be auctioned by silent bids during the Whole Bloomin’ Thing festival on May 11 in the Frog Level area of Waynesville.

Birdhouse creations can be delivered to Second Blessing Thrift Store in Waynesville. Proceeds benefit Daydreamz’ community art projects and the Open Door ARTS program. Info on DayDreamz: 476.4231; info on Open Door Community Garden: 734.1570.

• The Waterrock Knob Visitor Center is now open for the season on Mile 451.2 of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Open daily from April 26-Nov. 11. www.nps.gov/blri/planyourvisit/hours.htm.

• The Highlands Nature Center is open from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. through late May. www.highlandsbiological.org or 526.2623.

• The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission will open Hatchery Supported Trout Waters from 7 a.m. on the first Saturday in April until one-half-hour after sunset on the last day of February the following year. Info: https://tinyurl.com/yae8ffqn.

• The City Nature Challenge and Cradle BioBlitz are scheduled for Friday through Monday, April 26-29, at the Cradle of Forestry in America near Brevard. Using iNaturalist and BioBlitzing apps, participants will record as many plant and animal species as possible.

828.526.2623, paige@highlandsbiological.org or www.cradleofforestry.com.

• The Highlands Plateau Greenway will conduct its monthly work day from 9 a.m.-noon on Saturday, April 27, on the Greenway Trail. If interested: highlandsgreenway@nctv.com or 342.8980.

• A Tackle Rigging for Fly Fishing program will be offered for ages 12-up from 9 a.m.-noon on April 27 at the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Brevard. Registration required: http://tinyurl.com/yb28fpz8.

• The National Park Service will hold its second-annual Project Parkway for potential volunteers on Saturday, April 27, at a variety of campgrounds – including Mount Pisgah, Milepost 408.8. If interested, write to BLRI_Volunteers@nps.gov.

• Pisgah Pride Day 2019, the fourth-annual volunteer work day, is scheduled for April 27 in the Pisgah Ranger District. https://tinyurl.com/y24tze68.

• Haywood Waterways will have a Richland Creek Clean-up from 9-10:30 a.m. on April 27 at the Waynesville Recreation Center/Vance Street Park pavilion. RSVP: 476.4667, ext. 11, or Christine@haywoodwaterways.org.

• The Smoky Mountain Field School will present a class entitled “Historic Cataloochee Valley: 100 Years of Legends & Tales” on Saturday, April 27. Cost: $69.

Register: aceweb.outreach.utk.edu.

• Haywood Waterways and Haywood County Environmental Health Department will have a presentation entitled “All about Septic Systems” from noon-2 p.m. on April 29 at Agriculture Research Station, 589 Racoon Road in Waynesville. RSVP: 476.4667 or info@haywoodwaterways.org.

• A discussion on “Pigeon River State of the Watershed” is set for 6:30-8:30 p.m. on April 30 at The Strand movie theater in downtown Waynesville. $5(free for 10-under). Tickets: haywoodwaterways.org/membership-donations-andconservation-goods, 476.4667 or info@haywoodwaterways.org.

• A rain barrel construction workshop is set for 6:30-8 p.m. on May 1 at Agriculture Research Station, 589 Racoon Road in Waynesville. Cost: $50; participants leave with a 55-gallon rain barrel. RSVP: 476.4667 or info@haywoodwaterways.org.

• The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission will hold a public meeting to discuss fisheries management on reservoirs in Western North Carolina at 6:30 p.m. on May 1 at Southwestern Community College’s Swain Center in Bryson City. www.ncwildlife.org/fishing.

• A program on peregrine falcons will be offered to ages 10-up on May 1 and May 22 at the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Brevard. Online registration required: https://tinyurl.com/y5o3owwp.

• “Intro to Fly Fishing” will be offered to ages 12-up from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on May 7 and May 21 at the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Brevard. Online registration required: https://tinyurl.com/y5o3owwp.

COMPETITIVE EDGE • The Smoky Mountain Relay is scheduled for April 26-27. Teams of six or 12 runners will jog overnight for 212.5 miles along trails and country roads from Brevard to the Nantahala Outdoor Center. Register: www.smokymountainrelay.com.

• Registration is underway for the annual Greening Up the Mountains 5K Run, which is set for 9 a.m. on Saturday, April 27, at Mark Watson Park in Sylva. www.greeningupthemountains.com. Registration ends April 24. Info: 293.3053, ext. 7 or jeniferpressley@jacksonnc.org.

• The Fire Mountain Inferno will be held from April 2728 on the Fire Mountain Trail System in Cherokee.

Enduro and cross-country mountain bike racing for all experience levels. Preregister by April 25: www.gloryhoundevents.com. Onstite registration: 5-8 p.m. on April 26 at Cherokee Fairgrounds.

• Registration is underway for the inaugural Hotshots 5K, which is May 4 in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. http://tinyurl.com/y426mud4.

FARM AND GARDEN • Applications are being accepted for the N.C. Cooperative Extension’s Master Food Volunteer program. Deadline is April 25; training starts May 9.

Designed to provide volunteers the opportunity to support Family and Consumer Sciences agents with food-

related programming. $30. To apply: go.ncsu.edu/emfv or Julie_sawyer@ncsu.edu.

• The Haywood Community College Career & College Readiness Horticulture Class will hold a plant sale from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, April 2526, in Clyde. Info: 627.4618 or dhshalosky@haywood.edu.

• A workshop on worm and backyard composting is scheduled for 1-4 p.m. on Thursday, April 25, at the Macon County Cooperative Extension Center in Franklin. Speaker is Rhonda Sherman, extension specialist in the Department of Horticultural Science at N.C. State University. Register: 349.2046.

• “Get More From Your Garden” will be taught by Master Gardener Volunteer Jim Janke from 1-2 p.m. on Tuesday, April 30, at the Waynesville Library Auditorium. 356.2507.

• Applications are being accepted for garden space in the Macon County Community Garden in Franklin. Fee: $25. To apply: 349.2046. Available for use by May 1.

FARMERS MARKETS • The Swain County Farmer’s Market is held from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. every Friday starting May 3 through October at the barn on Island Street in downtown Bryson City. 488.3848 or www.facebook.com/SwainCountyFarmersMarket.

• Jackson County Farmers Market runs from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesdays at Bridge Park in downtown Sylva. jacksoncountyfarmersmarket@gmail.com or www.jacksoncoutyfarmersmarket.org.

• The ‘Whee Farmers Market is held from 3-6 p.m. on Tuesdays through the end of October at the entrance to the village of Forest Hills off North Country Club Drive in Cullowhee. 476.0334 or www.thewheemarket.org.

• Haywood Historic Farmers Market on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon at the HART Theater parking lot and Wednesdays from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the First Baptist Church overflow parking lot beside Exxon. waynesvillefarmersmarket.com or haywoodfarmersmarket@gmail.com.

• Franklin Farmers Tailgate Market runs from 10 a.m. to noon, Saturdays in April and 8 a.m. to noon from May to October, on East Palmer Street across from Drake Software. 349.2049 or www.facebook.com/franklinncfarmersmarket.

HIKING CLUBS • The Nantahala Hiking Club will take a moderate-tostrenuous eight-mile hike with an elevation change of 1,300-feet on Saturday, April 27, on a new section of the N.C. Bartram Trail. Info and reservations: 369.1983.

• The Nantahala Hiking Club will take a moderate-tostrenuous 7.5-mile hike on Saturday, April 27, on the Sweat Heifer/Kephart Prong in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Elevation change: 800 feet.

Info and reservations: 456.8895.

• Carolina Mountain Club will have a 10.3-mile hike with a 1,600-foot ascent on Saturday, April 27, at Lakeshore Loop. Info and reservations: 460.7066 or barbc129@gmail.com.

• Carolina Mountain Club will have an eight-mile hike with a 1,000-foot ascent on Sunday, April 28, at Upper Whitewater Falls. Info and reservations: 684.7083, 606.7956 or dblanning@bellsouth.net.

• Nantahala Hiking Club holds monthly trail maintenance days from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on every fourth Saturday at 173 Carl Slagle Road in Franklin. Info and to register: 369.1983.

• Hike of the Week is at 10 a.m. every Friday at varying locations along the parkway. Led by National Park Service rangers. www.nps.gov/blri or 298.5330, ext.

304.

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UPBEAT ADS

MarketPlace information: 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.

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If your ad is 10 words or less, it will be displayed with a larger type.

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Classified Advertising: Scott Collier, phone 828.452.4251; fax 828.452.3585 classads@smokymountainnews.com

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74 N. Main St., Waynesville, NC

828.452.5809

52

REAL ESTATE ANNOUNCEMENT

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REAL ESTATE ANNOUNCEMENT

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PARAPROFESSIONAL POSITION Full Time, Benefits. Provides Supports for Adults with Disabilities, Assists Residents with Daily Living Skills, Meds Administration, Overnights Required. High School Diploma & Auto Insurance also Required.

Training Provided. Waynesville Area. For more information call 828.778.0260

Haywood Co. Real Estate Agents

April 24-30, 2019

CAROLINA MOUNTAIN CABLEVISION, Inc. Located in Waynesville, NC, is a privately-owned telecommunications company and is currently seeking resumes for an Installer Technician. We are looking for experienced cable TV or FTTP Installer or Cable Technician to help us grow our network and subscriber base.

The applicant must: • Have experience installing TV, phone, and internet services for residential and commercial accounts • Have experience with hand tools, power tools, hydraulic equipment, ladders, etc.

• Have a good driving record • Be self-motivated and dependable with the ability to work independently • Be quality and service focused • Be able to deal with difficult customers and members of the public in a professional, courteous manner • Be available for "On Call" Duty on weekends and overtime as needed with little notice • Live in the Waynesville area of Haywood County, NC • Be able to pass a drug test and background check This person will be responsible for the installation of telephone, cable, and internet service from the utility pole into a customer's home, will install and set up modems, digital equipment, etc. in a customer's home, and be able to detect, troubleshoot, and fix problems as they occur with the services offered to a customer. We will be accepting resumes until May 3, 2019. Salary range is $24,500 to $35,000 per year but dependent on level of experience. Anyone interested should e-mail their resume to: sanders@ccvn.com or fax it to: 828.536.4510.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and encourage veterans to apply.

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TO ADVERTISE IN THE NEXT ISSUE 828.452.4251 | ads@smokymountainnews.com 53

WNC MarketPlace April 24-30, 2019 www.smokymountainnews.com 54

SUPER

CROSSWORD

PICK A CARD ACROSS 1 Firing sound 6 Frog sound 11 Kerfuffles 15 Soldiers of Seoul 19 Old Aegean region 20 Singer with the 2013 #1 hit “Royals” 21 Typesetter’s option 22 Saber’s kin 23 Film that’s both funny and gloomy 25 Thin material used in painting and baking 27 Bulls scores 28 Putt-putt 30 Yard sale proviso 32 With 40-Across, classic grape drink 33 Step inside 34 “Mirage” actor Edward James -38 Boolean logic operator 40 See 32-Across 42 Opening bets 45 Overhead air circulator 48 Films, TV, hit songs, etc.

51 Fancy snack 52 -- McAn 54 See 50-Down 55 Chilly powder 56 “The Simpsons” shopkeeper 57 Clock setting in NYC 59 “... man -- mouse?”

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90 Equal: Prefix 91 Subpar mark 92 High cards 94 FBI agent 96 Bulky brass 98 Michigan county or its seat 101 Important biblical meal 104 Clownish type 106 Really bug 107 Give and take 109 -- chi 110 Sales talk 111 Of Tehran 114 Fish story 116 Pulitzer winner William 118 Dictionary, e.g.

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66 Epochs

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123 Additionally 124 Think deeply and at length 125 Under the covers 126 IDs for the IRS 129 “Xanadu” rock gp.

ANSWERS ON PAGE 48

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SAPA

The naturalist’s corner

BY DON H ENDERSHOT

Bald eagles, gators and manatees, oh my t was another great Spring Break along the Gulf Coast of Central Florida. We stayed in Homosassa Springs on the Halls River.

The Halls River is the main tributary of the Homosassa River and both are designated as “Outstanding Florida Waters.”

The Halls is only about 2.5 miles long from its headsprings to its confluence with the Homosassa. We booked our stay online through VRBO, mainly based on the photos and the knowledge there were kayaks and river access right from the property and we got more than we anticipated. The Riverlake Cottage sits on two wooded acres and is one of only 10 private properties on the Halls.

The easy launch site on a small canal is less than a minute’s walk from the cottage. Well, it could be lass than a minute unless you happened to have two 13-year-old girls in tow who created a morning ritual of sharing the rinds from our fresh-squeezed Florida orange juice, banana peelings and other assorted leftovers with the two pigs, various chickens and ducks plus the emus belonging

I

to our generous, accommodating and knowledgeable hosts Gary and Joanne Bartell who live adjacent the cottage.

We slide our kayaks into the mullet-filled canal, say goodbye to the menagerie and in a few short strokes we glide into one of the open ponds along the Halls. The Halls is a series of narrow channels through a lush brackish marsh with a backdrop of lowland hardwoods and palmetto punctuated by open ponds and the occasional hardwood hammock.

Riverlake Cottage is probably a half-mile or so downstream of the headsprings, and on the afternoon we arrived Denise and the girls took a short paddle upstream. But this more developed stretch wasn’t as appealing as “Old Florida” downstream so we focused our daily paddles in that direction.

Denise and I paddled solo, Maddie, our daughter, and her friend Lily paddled tandem and generally left us in their wake. The Halls is an easy paddle, the gentle current will keep you drifting downstream but is no great obstacle on the return trip. The wind can be more problematic, especially in the open ponds but if it gets too strong you can always hug the marsh where the tall grass gives relief. Plus we found the prevailing

wind usually comes in from the Gulf, thus was blowing us back upstream on our return paddle.

I was drifting along, the first morning out, taking some photos while Denise and the girls decided to explore one of the ponds. They were around a bend out of sight and when they didn’t return for a while I decided to investigate. When I rounded the bend, I saw the boats together

Lily Seymour and friend.

Don Hendershot photo

and they were waving and pointing at the water in front of the boats. They had been discovered by three friendly manatees.

It’s important to remember manatees are endangered and the Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act of 1978 states: “It is unlawful for any person, at any time, intentionally or negligently, to annoy, molest, harass, or disturb any manatee.” So there are rules of manatee engagement in the wild. Mainly, do not pursue them. They are big ole curious critters and if they are in the mood they will approach you. If you are in the water,

they might nudge or bump you; if you are in a kayak they might rest against it. If they do, you may touch them lightly with one hand — it’s illegal to put two hands on a manatee.

These three manatees were definitely in the mood for some interaction, they would come right up against the kayak and roll over for a belly rub. That was the first morning and we were really fortunate. We saw manatees the next two mornings as well but they did not approach, so we watched from a distance then went on our way.

We paddled three mornings, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Saturday was the only day we encountered other kayaks; Thursday and Friday we were completely alone on the river — alone as far as human contact. But animal-wise it was a different story. Along with manatees, we encountered mullet, gar, sheephead and other fishes plus one alligator. River otter was the only mammal we saw in the river but avian species were well represented — herons, egrets, cormorants, anhingas, wood ducks and more. Saturday was a four bald eagle morning.

We also slipped away one evening for a Gulf sunset. The Halls, Riverlake Cottage, manatees and the Gulf made for a great spring break. And we even discovered a little unique Homosassa history … more later.

(Don Hendershot is a naturalist and a writer who lives in Haywood County. He can be reached at ddihen1@bellsouth.net

April 24-30, 2019 Smoky Mountain News 55

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Smoky Mountain News April 24-30, 2019