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May 7-13, 2014 Vol. 15 Iss. 49

Haywood County hires county manager Page 10 Farmers markets spring up in WNC Page 32

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CONTENTS On the Cover A new class of college graduates will talk the big walk this month. The books are closed, the tests have been taken. After receiving their diploma, graduates will embark on a new journey into the wilds of the job market. (Page 6) WCU photo

News Haywood commissioners pony up in hopes of a healthy lawn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 REACH searches Jackson for funding for a new domestic violence shelter . . 5 Ira Dove lands Haywood’s manager position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Macon’s elections director resigns, replacement suggested . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Public employees in Jackson stand to get a little extra in paychecks . . . . . . . . 13 With or without a permit, a new farmers market launches in Maggie Valley . . 14 Swain officials work with county commissioners to hammer out a budget . . . 15 Highlands residents get donation for pool upgrades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Jackson Manager Chuck Wooten ventures to Cashiers for sit-down . . . . . . . 18

A&E Soldier’s Heart reflects on a year of travels and tunes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

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Farmers markets are cropping up throughout the region. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

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The grass is always greener with a $28,000 irrigation system

wait, Mathews said.

“Right now everyone is mowing their grass like crazy,” said Mathews. “But when it gets into the heat of the summer, these coolseason fescues grow dormant. You can keep them lush and green if you start watering, but once you start you have to keep watering.”

Mathews hadn’t heard about the courthouse lawn irrigation system, but said he understands the motivation.

“I would consider that a high-value lawn because people see that. It is important to keep it looking good,” Mathews said.

Tall fescue needs two to three inches of water a week to be tip-top, and even though the mountains are moist, they don’t deliver consistently all summer, he said.

The courthouse lawn is the closest thing Waynesville has to a town square. It plays host to myriad festivities and gatherings during the year, ranging from ceremonies for veterans to political protests.

It’s lined with lawn chairs and filled with romping children during Friday night street dances in the summer. It’s packed with tourists seeking respite from the revelry during downtown festivals — and, previously, seeking a sliver of shade under the maples.

Parades start and end there, and quick marHaywood commissioners recently approved an automatic sprinkler system for the riages are performed there. courthouse lawn. Garret K. Woodward photo Swanger points to all that foot traffic as more ammunition for an irrigation system.

BY B ECKY JOHNSON The grass needs all the help it can get to stand fellow commissioners are coming from.

STAFF WRITER “They were attempting to make sure the up to the trampling. In a weakened state, it aywood County commissioners decid- grounds look nice,” Kirkpatrick said. can’t recover as well. ed this week to install an irrigation sysMathews concurred again.

But the lawn, newly seeded just last year tem for the lawn of the historic court- after the trees were cut down, hasn’t had a “When it gets really dry it gets brittle, and house to ensure the downtown Waynesville chance to prove itself on its own. with all the festivals it can damage the grass,” icon lives up to its landmark status.

The generous rainfall and temperate he said.

“The courthouse lawn is Americana. When weather of spring has the courthouse lawn Then the county would have the constant you stand in the street and look at the court- looking pretty lush and green right now. The expense of reseeding and patching worn areas. house you are seeing history, you are seeing 1,000 pounds of lime and 200 pounds of fer“The value of it was apparent to most justice, you are seeing the face of the county. If tilizer county maintenance crews have commissioners,” Swanger said. you are looking at a cow pasture, it doesn’t applied over the past two months probably The irrigation system will run underlook good,” said County Commissioner helped some, too. ground with concealed sprinkler heads that Chairman Mark Swanger. “I think it is imporBut spring is not the litmus test to judge lower into the lawn when not in use. It will tant we put our best foot forward.” cover the front lawn and both side lawns of by, Swanger said.

The price tag for the automated irrigation the historic courthouse. The prosystem will be $28,000, however. grammed system will be synced “I would consider that a highThe vote was 4 to 1, with Commissioner with a rain gauge so it will only run Kirk Kirkpatrick voting against the expense. when needed, and only enough to value lawn because people see “Basically, I didn’t think it was a priority reach that magic weekly rainfall that. It is important to keep it considering the other matters that need our need. It comes with a three-year attention,” Kirkpatrick said. He added that warranty. looking good. ” the mountains are largely spared from the The low bid for the irrigation sysextreme hot, dry conditions that can distress tem was $24,000. But Building and — Tim Matthews, horticulturalist lawns — and besides, he doesn’t really think Grounds Supervisor Dale Burris recthe lawn looks all that bad. ommended a $4,000 contingency in The courthouse lawn has been in the lime“Go out and look in July and August. If it case problems are encountered when running light since early last year following a contro- is a wet year, you are going to be OK, but if the pipes under the lawn, which includes burversial decision by commissioners to cut not, you will be constantly struggling to have rowing under the sidewalks. down the large, stately sugar maples that any kind of good-looking lawn,” Swanger “Nobody knows what is located undershaded it. Improper pruning in decades past said. “It is going to be brown.” ground out here,” Burris said. The current had compromised the trees and made them Still, lawn watering isn’t engrained in the courthouse, built in the 1930s, wasn’t the first vulnerable to disease and limb fall, according fabric of mountain life as it is in hotter, drier one to stand on that site, and he doesn’t know to an arborist. climes. The sprinkler may be a requisite tool if there’s remnants of an earlier foundation.

Commissioners also claimed the court- in the garden shed of a typical suburban Crews planting new trees on the lawn last house would look better without the giant home in the South, but here, irrigation is year came across a souvenir to that effect. trees engulfing and obscuring the façade. mostly something only golf courses do.

“I still have a red brick that we dug up from And, they argued, the patchy, thin grass For an expert’s take, we turned to Tim the old red brick courthouse,” Burris said. beneath the trees didn’t have a fighting Mathews, a horticulturalist with the Burris said the irrigation system will be chance with all that shade. Now, with the Haywood County Cooperative Extension. timed to come on during odd hours when trees gone, commissioners are determined to Cool-season fescues, the grass of choice in the there’s little fear of dousing the public. But, he have a prize lawn. mountains, are true to their name. The lawns added, as with any automated, electronic sysKirkpatrick said he understands where his might be in their element right now, but just tem, malfunctions are always possible.

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Macon domestic violence group requests money from Jackson

BY J EREMY MORRISON N EWS E DITOR or nearly a year, REACH of Macon County has been helping domestic abuse victims in Jackson County. The group has handled more than 400 cases in Jackson since last July.

“To be honest with you, we feel like that number should be higher,” Andrea Anderson, the group’s executive director, told the Jackson County commissioners recently. “We definitely have been talking and trying to figure out how to reach out to more victims.”

As it is, about 30 percent of Macon REACH’s work is in Jackson County.

Currently, Jackson contributes $50,000 annually to REACH’s $730,000 budget, and now the group is asking Jackson officials to kick in some funds toward a new domestic violence shelter.

“There’s definitely a need in this area for a new shelter facility,” Anderson explained during a commissioners workshop.

REACH is requesting a one-time amount of $25,000 from Jackson County. The sum

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would paired with other funds to pay for the estimated $1.2 million project.

“It’s really a low amount when you look at the overall cost of this project,” Anderson said, urging commissioners to consider the dollar value of sheltering the county’s abuse victims. “The $25,000 will easily pay for itself, easily within the first year.”

Currently, REACH operates a shelter out of an old farmhouse owned by the Baptist Children’s Home. The property’s age and condition have become an issue.

“It’s kind of like an old car, every time you turn around you have to fix something,” Anderson said.

Space has also become an issue. The farmhouse has six bedrooms and the organization often encounters more need than it can presently accommodate. Over the past two and a half years, the shelter has been at capacity more than half the time.

“Currently, we’ve been having to turn away people,” Anderson said. “We’ve had to turn 13 families away.”

REACH plans to build a 10-bedroom shelter adjacent to its offices on property the organization owns. The facility will have a kitchen and dining area, play room, conference room, laundry facility, counseling offices and a fenced backyard.

“The facility is being built in such a manner that it can easily be added on to,”

Anderson added.

REACH is seeking the bulk of the needed funding through a North Carolina Housing Finance grant of $908,555. The remainder is being sought via other grants and fundraising efforts.

REACH will learn if it has been awarded the NCHF grant by July. But Anderson — who said the project would go ahead regard-

Over the past two and a half years, the current facility has been at capacity more than half the time. less — seemed to feel pretty good about the group’s chances.

“They definitely know the need in this area for a new shelter facility,” she said when commissioners’ asked about the likelihood of the grant being approved.

The Jackson County commissioners asked Anderson if she thought the county might one day have its own domestic violence shelter. Jackson’s own domestic violence agency shut down in 2012 under financial duress.

“Do you see a smaller facility in Jackson

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REACH aims for new shelter

County?” asked County Manager Chuck Wooten.

“I knew this question was going to come up,” Anderson said. “I personally believe there should be a shelter in Jackson County.”

But that, she explained, was in the “long term.” Something to shoot for. Currently, the group is working with Western Carolina University to conduct a needs assessment to “determine the path forward.”

“But, in the meantime, the reality is it’s going to be a while before you’re up and running,” Anderson said, estimating at least three to five years before Jackson might have a local shelter.

“When would those funds be needed?”

Wooten asked about the $25,000.

Anderson explained that the funds were not needed immediately. She told commissioners that NCHF wanted to see that REACH had “made progress,” but the actual money could wait.

“We actually have a year to raise the entire balance,” Anderson said. “Commitment is really important this month.”

Commissioners will be considering REACH of Macon County’s request — among other funding requests — during the budget season. Wooten said the request will be included in the proposed budget he submits to commissioners May 19.

“REACH of Macon really stepped in and has provided a great service,” Wooten said.

“We could not have asked for a better partner to serve the residents of Jackson County that are involved in a domestic violence situation.”

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Graduation, and beyond One journey ends and another begins

BY J EREMY MORRISON N EWS E DITOR lumni Tower is enjoying a late-semester afternoon on the Western Carolina University campus. Its clock keeps watch over students as they hustle between exams or toss a Frisbee on the grass.

A short walk from the tower, a fountain has attracted two sophomores and a puppy named Emma.

The girls skip around the fountain, laughing at their dog and themselves and seemingly nothing in particular. Their carefree smiles are still a couple of years away from graduation and post-academia realities.

But even so, they’re acutely aware that the day is approaching. A time will come when they wrap up with the classes and the tests, and venture into everything that comes next.

“I’m already looking at internships,” said Gabby Berrios. “I’ve been looking at internships this summer just to kind of get my name out there.”

On the other side of Alumni Tower, on the patio of the A.K. Hinds student center, another WCU student is much closer to graduation.

He’s closing the book on his college career this month.

WCU Student Government Association President Ryan Hermance will join the school’s spring graduating class of 2014 as they wade into off-campus waters. His class enters a job market that can still be formidable, but is much more inviting than the barren wasteland of a few years ago.

“A lot of my friends have been pretty successful,” Hermance says of his friends’ jobhunting. “Not their dream job, but a job that interests them.”

May 7-13, 2014

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FIGURING IT OUT

Smoky Mountain News

Relaxing on the back patio of the student center, a few steps from his SGA offices, Hermance doesn’t appear stressed at all about the future, about his plans following graduation. He’s had it figured out for a while.

“A long, long time ago,” Hermance said. “I was a little kid. I knew when I got older I wanted to be a Marine. I decided I would go to college and go the officer route.”

WCU’s student body president isn’t sweating the traditional biggie: landing a job.

He’s getting married in July, then it’s off to Quantico, Va. “I’ve already finished officer training,” Hermance said. “So, I already have a little bit of job security after graduation.”

There will be an interim between graduation and Quantico, however, so Hermance is hunting for a job. But that’s only temporary, so it doesn’t carry the weight of a task directly tethered to a student’s professional future.

“It makes applying for the temp jobs a lit6 tle easier,” Hermance said, “because if I get

WCU senior Patrick O’Neal helped coordinate the recent Airport Assault cycling event. WCU photo rejected it’s not as big of a deal.”

Fellow WCU senior Krystal Cole has not had a plan hatched since she was a child. She figured it out much more recent.

“So, this was spring break,” Cole set the scene. “This was the middle of March.”

Like many students, the public history major wasn’t sure what she wanted to do with her life. Graduation was approaching, but what lay beyond remained a mystery.

“I really didn’t know what I was going to do,” Cole said. “I was actually really bogged down with ‘I’m going to graduate and I’m going to live at home.’ I was really stressed out about it.”

During spring break Cole took a trip to New Orleans with a service group from school. That’s where she figured it out.

“I believe things happen for a reason,” Cole recalled, making an argument for fate.

“If I wouldn’t have been placed in that van I would never have met that guy with AmeriCorps.”

After meeting an AmeriCorps worker, Cole was sold. She could pursue her passion — teaching — while continuing to consider her long-term options. She starts her new

adventure a few days after graduation.

“Now, how crazy is that?” Cole said.

GUIDING THEM OUT THE DOOR Cole is by no means alone in her lastminute decision about her post-graduation plans. It’s a pretty big decision, and not one that’s always easy or obvious.

Mardy Ashe, director of WCU’s Career Services and Cooperative Education department, sees a lot of students who aren’t quite sure what’s happening after graduation.

“Typically, if they’ve already been accepted to a job, we don’t see them,” she explained.

Ashe’s office helps students pursue internships and job opportunities. They get seniors seeking assistance with the hunt.

“Doing resumes, cover letters, practicing interviewing,” Ashe said.

For a few years there, the job market tended to be a nightmare. The economic recession resulted in fewer jobs across the board, including for recent grads. Ashe recalls job recruitment of college graduates dropping off by about half in 2008.

But the economy has improved a bit, and

with it comes a healthier job market. In 2011, recruitment jumped by 40 percent.

“I think the economy was on an upward trajectory, it was starting to recover for college graduates,” Ashe said.

Recruitment activity on college campuses has continued to increase each year, with the seniors that Ashe’s department helps this year facing better prospects than their immediate predecessors.

“They say the recruitment activity is up by 8.6 percent this year,” Ashe said, sighting numbers from the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

As always, some students in some fields face better odds than those in others. Liberal arts majors, for example, traditionally face a iffy market, while students graduating in the sciences tend to fare better.

“Healthcare — it’s a win-win,” Ashe began to tick off positive-outlook fields.

“Nursing, certainly. Physical therapy.

Engineering. IT, any kind of computer technology-related stuff. Anything coupled with language is good. Criminal justice in Spanish is very good, anything medical in Spanish is good, business in Spanish is good.”

Ashe has advised college students for a long time. She earned her counseling degree from WCU more than 30 years ago.

“So, I’ve seen some big changes,” Ashe said.

There have obviously been technological changes over the course of the counselor’s career. But while such changes have evolved the ways in which people search for a job, the technological advances in society haven’t necessarily resulted in a generation more adept at the hunt.

“If you’re simply just getting your degree and wondering why you’re not getting a job handed to you on a silver platter, it’s probably because you didn’t do anything.”

— Patrick O’Neal, WCU senior

“As technically savvy as they appear to be, many have no concept about how to job search online,” Ashe said. “They know Facebook and MySpace and their iPhones frontwards and backwards.”

But the changes go beyond technology.

Ashe has noticed a difference in the students themselves graduating over the years.

“I think 25 years ago students were a lot more mature,” she said. “They recognized they were going for a college degree and a job.”

EXTRA VALUE

Charles Turner has a pretty good gig lined up after graduation. The WCU biology major will be going to work for the National Institute of Health in Montana’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories.

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Cullowhee prepares for 2014 spring commencement ceremony

monies and the audiences that will attend.

About 1,290 students are expected to don caps and gowns for this year’s events. WCU commencements are open to everyone, with no limit on the number of family members and friends who can attend.

WCU Chancellor David O. Belcher will preside over all three ceremonies and deliver his charge to the degree candidates at each event. The Saturday afternoon commencement will include the presentation of an honorary doctor of business degree to David

WCU biology major Charles Turner will be going to work for the National Institute of Health in Montana’s Rocky Mountain Laboratories. The senior made his postgraduation plans following an NIH conference he attended in February. He made connections and decided to take a chance.

has found that employers tend to be just as interested in the extras as a student’s academic record.

“It definitely helps a lot,” O’Neal said.

“When I went into that interview, they were really interested in the extra things I had done.”

The communications major suspects that students having trouble lining up a job for after graduation may have found more favorable prospects had they engaged more during their time at college.

“If you’re simply just getting your degree and wondering why you’re not getting a job handed to you on a silver platter, it’s probably because you didn’t do anything,” O’Neal said.

“Take advantage of any opportunity that is presented to you.”

Looking back on his own few years of college, O’Neal appears satisfied. Satisfied, and ready to begin life’s next phase.

“I’ve enjoyed my time here,” he said, “and I’m ready to head out into the real world.”

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Smoky Mountain News

money before I start medical school,” he said.

Patrick O’Neal has also secured a job prior to graduating. The communications major will be going to work for the Black Mountain YMCA. He starts his job as a communications coordinator a few days after graduation.

“It’s a brand new position,” O’Neal said, “so I’ll be the first one stepping into that role.”

While at WCU, O’Neal handled public relations for the school’s cycling team. He established a website for the group and worked on the Airport Assault racing event.

“That was a ton of work,” O’Neal said.

Neither O’Neal nor Turner believe they lucked into their futures. The plans were laid purposefully and through sustained effort.

“People are getting out what they put in,” Turner said.

Turner stressed the importance of consciously mapping out one’s destiny. He began loosely charting his own course long ago. The 29-year-old has already lived life as an Army special operations combat medic in preparation for what was to come next.

“I picked medic because I was interested in it, but also because it’d give me options once I got out,” Turner explained.

In addition to planning, O’Neal stressed the value of experience — not just professional or academic experience, but experience in general. He suggested that students consider taking full advantage of the world of extra-curricular activities available to them during their college years. The senior

May 7-13, 2014

“It’s all going to be very useful and helpful,” Turner said.

The senior made his post-graduation plans following an NIH conference he attended in February. He made connections and decided to take a chance.

“Based on that conference I got a position in a lab doing genome research,” Turner said.

The NIH job may not be a long-term plan for Turner. Right now, it’s something to do before heading back to school. He intends to begin medical school in the fall of 2015.

“I wanted to do something to make a little

WCU commencement ceremonies will be May 9-10. WCU photo

A. Woodcock Jr., a Flat Rock resident who has earned a reputation as an icon of entrepreneurship during a career that has spanned more than 60 years. WCU faculty member Annette Debo, the university’s recipient of the 2014 University of North Carolina Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching, will deliver the primary address at the Friday night Graduate School commencement, and then she will be presented the award during the Saturday morning ceremony.

Traffic is always heavy for commencement on WCU’s campus. University officials urge those attending to plan on arriving at the Ramsey Center at least one hour before the events begin. On-campus shuttle services will be available for the Saturday ceremonies.

WCU police recommend that those attending the events consider using Route 1002 (Old Cullowhee Road) to access campus through the back entrance. Drivers also are asked to refrain from dropping off visitors while sitting in travel lanes around the Ramsey Center, as that endangers the visitors and creates traffic backups.

More driving and parking information, including a map of traffic patterns, is available at graduation.wcu.edu.

For more general information about WCU’s May commencement ceremonies, contact the university Registrar’s Office at 828.227.7216.

news

Western Carolina University will hold a trio of commencement ceremonies over a two-day period – Friday and Saturday, May 9-10 – to recognize the academic achievements of what is expected to be a recordbreaking spring class.

Commencement for WCU’s Graduate School will be held at 7 p.m. May 9.

Commencement for the colleges of Arts and Sciences, Education and Allied Professions, and Fine and Performing Arts will begin at 10 a.m. May 10, and that event will be followed the same day by a 2 p.m. ceremony for the College of Business, College of Health and Human Sciences and Kimmel School of Construction Management and Technology.

All the ceremonies will take place at Ramsey Regional Activity Center.

After all the scores from final exams are tallied and academic records are finalized, WCU’s spring class, including recipients of both undergraduate and graduate degrees, is expected to total about 1,385 graduates, which would be the largest class in university history and 45 more graduates than in last year’s record spring class. Boosted by surging enrollments, the size of WCU’s spring class has doubled in the last 11 years.

The university schedules three commencements on the Cullowhee campus in the spring to allow the Ramsey Center to accommodate the number of graduating students who will be participating in the cere-

news

Not so fast Counties struggle with new state social services computer system

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER t’s been over a year since North Carolina began the rollout of a new computer program called NC FAST, for North Carolina Families Accessing Services through Technology. The system was supposed to make it easier to process applications for social services like Food and Nutrition Services, Work First and Medicaid, but it’s not smooth sailing yet. Counties are still working to get the backlog from the FNS portion of the implementation under control — in January, the statewide backlog included 23,000 families, 8,300 of whom had waited more than three months for benefits — while facing the next hurdle: running Medicaid applications through the system.

“Any big system has problems rolling out, and we’re hopeful it will eventually be resolved, but we’re just needing commissioners to be aware of the issues and maybe help us put some pressure on the state program,” Bob Cochran, director of social services for Jackson County, told commissioners in a recent work session. “Slow it down and make sure that Medicare clients won’t go without

“I think additional staff time is going to be the new normal for us.”

— Teresa Allison, economic services director for Haywood County’s Department of Health and Human Services.

May 7-13, 2014

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their services and not roll it out any further until we get some of these problems resolved.”

The new system is significantly more laborintensive, with FNS applications taking twice the amount of time to process as they did under the old system and FNC recertifications taking 88 percent more time, Cochran said.

“When we started the NC FAST program, things changed after they started the implementation due to the federal health care,” Macon County Director of Health and Human Services Jane Kimsey said.

WORKING OVERTIME NC FAST had originally been slated to kick in during 2017, but the state sped up implementation to stay ahead of the implementation date for the Affordable Care Act.

Changes and rewrites to comply with the law as it came into effect further gummed up the works for NC FAST. But there were plenty of issues with the FNS portion of the program, which doesn’t fall under the Affordable Care Act umbrella.

The system changes almost by the day, Cochran said, and staff are constantly searching for workarounds to make it function.

“You have these workarounds that come about every couple of days, and they range from a three-step workaround to a 17-step workaround,” Cochran told commissioners.

“They can’t stay on top of it. It’s almost a worst-case scenario.”

Cochran’s staff has been working overtime in order to handle the transition as best they can, coming in about one weekend per month to fit in some extra hours. Haywood County is

also seeing reduced efficiency, and while Kimsey— said her county hasn’t been seeing much of a backlog, they’ve hired two temporary fulltime positions to absorb the extra workload.

None of that has come cheaply. Since 2011, Haywood County has spent nearly $240,000 on overtime, temporary workers, equipment and information technology upgrades related to NC FAST, $60,000 of that going to temporary workers. In Macon County, hiring temporary workers has cost more than $70,000 since July 2012. Between July 2013 and January 2014, Jackson County shelled out nearly $30,000 for overtime and temporary employees, also footing the bill for $43,000 worth of food vouchers requested due to slow-downs in processing state food stamp benefits with NC FAST. The federal government will reimburse counties somewhere between 50 percent and 75 percent of their extra labor expenses, depending on the type of application they’re associated with, but it’s still costing a pretty penny.

And those temporary positions aren’t necessarily remaining temporary.

“I think additional staff time is going to be the new normal for us,” said Teresa Allison, economic services director for Haywood County’s Department of Health and Human Services.

Rather than pay staff overtime and temp salaries indefinitely, Haywood DHHS concluded they simply needed additional inhouse staff to process NC FAST applications.

The agency eliminated an office assistant position — which they could do without following a consolidation of the social services and health department under one umbrella

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— Bob Cochran, director of social services for Jackson County

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services are down around 79 percent since the transition to NC FAST for Medicaid applications began in October.

“We have some system defects still that are hindering our productivity,” Allison said.

“We will experience some backlogs for awhile, quite honestly.”

However, counties still believe that the NC FAST system will be a success once it gets off the ground. The old system required entering the same information multiple times, for each of the up to 17 programs a family could apply for. For instance, if a family qualified for Medicare, FNS and child care, county employees would have to enter their information three separate times.

“The big positive is the promise is still there,” Cochran said. “I think every single one of us still believes that this will work out in the long run, that we will have a highly efficient system that is not so redundant.”

The process is getting better, Allison said, with the Medicaid rollout running a little smoother than the FNS rollout. But there’s still room for improvement.

“I think that we learned lessons from the first rollout,” she said, “that slowing down, taking time to make sure that the system is ready, that it’s been thoroughly tested, that as many issues as can will be worked out ahead of time, will be the best case scenario not only for the staff who do the work but for the people who get the services.”

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As more and more Medicaid cases are transferred from the old system to the new, the workload will only increase, so Cochran presented commissioners with a set of recommendations to pass on to the N.C. Association of County Commissioners.

“One of the reasons we want to come to the commissioners association is because there are some messages being given to the committee in Raleigh that the system is fine, there’s nothing wrong with it,” Cochran said.

On his end, though, that’s not the case.

Cochran’s recommendations advised that the state immediately suspend EPASS, the online portal clients can use to access NC FAST, and refrain from converting more programs into the system until those already in place are working. The counties and state should work together, he said, and come up with some hard metrics to measure success before new phases are rolled out. The state should develop a process to handle emergency Medicaid applications held up by NC FAST and work on Medicaid applications coming through the federal system itself rather than sending them to counties. Finally, Cochran told commissioners, the county should be held harmless legally for any errors NC FAST causes.

Though Haywood County hasn’t put together any comparable list of requests, Dove, who previously directed the social services department, agrees with the lion’s share of Cochran’s recommendations.

“I would agree that this system needs to be fixed and that applications for Food and Nutrition Services should be stopped until all the system issues are resolved,” Dove said.

“Also, as to bringing additional program areas beyond Medicaid, Work First and Food and Nutrition online, it would be best to wait until the work-around solutions and other issues are resolved before adding to the system.”

However, though Dove agrees that some short-term processing help with Medicaid applications coming through the federal system would be helpful, he would steer clear of asking the state to fully take on that role.

Kimsey agreed that the rollout has had its share of issues, particularly when it comes to the EPASS system, but she pointed out that the state has been putting forth some effort to identify and fix the issues. A survey sent to county directors had them rank the most pressing problems, and a soon-to-be-released list identifying the top 18 will provide the framework for the state’s response to the problem.

“One of the highest priorities has to do with EPASS,” Kimsey said.

In addition, the state has slowed down the rollout of integrating Medicaid into NC FAST, with only a specific subsection of Medicaid cases now being handled through that system.

As with any system as large as NC FAST, problems take time to address and work out. And until that happens, counties have to find their own fixes to ensure clients receive services.

“In Jackson County, we’ve had ten years up until NC FAST of 100 percent timely pro-

cessing and 100 percent accuracy on audits of our food stamp cases,” Cochran said. “This is a strange place for us to be where we’re not meeting basic timeframes and we’re having errors right and left.”

Many of those errors and backlogs are coming from blips in the system due to expedited cases. Cases that meet the criteria for “expedited” are emergencies that county departments are expected to turn around within seven days, a much shorter timeframe than the standard 30 days.

But the EPASS system has been flagging a good many cases as expedited that, in fact, do not meet those criteria. That eats up staff time that might be better prioritized on a different task and keeps people whose cases genuinely do qualify as “expedited” from getting the services they need on time.

“It’s causing a lot of problems on the local level,” Cochran said.

In Haywood County, Allison is seeing the same thing happen. Before NC FAST came online, the department was seeing rates of 98 to 99 percent for accuracy and timeliness.

After a dip downward, they’re now back up to 96 percent for FNS services, but health care

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— and reassigned that position to NC FAST. “It was determined the position would be better used in NC FAST,” said Ira Dove, Haywood County manager.

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Haywood taps compassionate thinker as new county manager

BY B ECKY JOHNSON STAFF WRITER f there’s a word that precedes Ira Dove, it’s smart — really smart, very smart, even super smart.

“He’s always the smartest person in the room,” said Haywood County Commissioner Mark Swanger. “He is intelligent, he is very organized, he is an excellent communicator, he is a good listener, he is a good leader and has good common sense.”

With that kind of package, Haywood commissioners unanimously named Dove as their new county manager this week after five months of him serving in an interim capacity.

For the past four years, Dove, 45, has been the director of the Haywood Department of Social Services. Now, he’s replacing former county manager Marty Stamey, who stepped down last fall after seven years to return to his preferred field of health care, taking a management position at Haywood Regional Medical Center.

While Dove isn’t dishing out his IQ score, he admits he is an analytical thinker.

“You have to ask a lot of questions, because when looking at situations or circumstances, you have to think, ‘What else could this mean?’” Dove said.

He’s got a knack for quickly assessing the lay of the land, predicting possible pitfalls and more importantly, a way around them.

“He is smart, he anticipates things very well, and makes good deductions when we are trying to interpret how something might go,” said Haywood Commissioner Kirk Kirkpatrick.

Take this scenario, for instance. A couple of months ago, county commissioners were lamenting the lack of buyers for three empty offices buildings the county no longer needs and wants to unload.

Commissioners decided they should get a Realtor. But picking one Realtor in a county that’s full of them would no doubt step on some toes, so commissioners decided the fairest, most objective approach was to go with the top-selling Realtor, and they asked Dove to find out who that was.

Within seconds, Dove came up with half a dozen variables: should it be the top seller by volume of sales or by sale prices? The top residential or commercial seller? The top in just Haywood, or in WNC? It’s a small example, but it’s the kind of on-his-feet analysis Dove is known for.

“He is very good at spotting a problem and spotting a solution. Whenever he presents me with options for a decision, it is well thought out and well organized with the pros and cons of each option,” Swanger 10 said.

Smoky Mountain News

May 7-13, 2014

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That’s important, considering the dozens of decisions, big and small, a county manager makes every day. When a department head comes to Dove with a question, he’s known to pull out a clean sheet of paper and draw a line down the middle, making notes on one side of the line or the other as the person talks, presumably cataloging the variables as he listens.

But Dove also understands people, and to him, that’s the biggest part of a county manager’s job. The mechanics of running the county come second. His most important role is supporting and cultivating the 500 or so employees who do the real work, he said.

“You help individuals to get the resources and training and support they need to help the organization reach its goals,” Dove said.

“You are constantly switching lenses between the organization and component units in the organization and the individuals.”

Swanger agreed.

“One person can’t run Haywood County,” Swanger said. “You have to be able to select good employees, manage them well and empower them.”

A DAY IN THE LIFE Take a gander at Dove’s bookshelf and you’ll quickly see his leisure time has been anything but these past few months while cutting his teeth as interim county manager.

Titles include the First 90 Days in Government, 151 Quick Ideas to Inspire Your Staff, and Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell to name a few.

“You have to constantly learn, you have to constantly read, you have to be a student of leadership and management,” Dove said.

And for good measure, he has a copy of The Lost Massey Lectures: Recovered Classics from Five Great Thinkers.

It’s a great tool when you need a fitting quote for a situation, Dove said.

Since January, Dove has doubled as the interim county manager and the director of the newly consolidated Department of Health and Human Services.

It’s been a huge workload, but the double tour of duty made sense — not wanting to forsake his old job until, and if, the county manager gig was official.

Dove even kept two offices in play, although he was occasionally spotted toting a box of belongings out of DSS over the past few months.

“Everyone was really, really sad the day he walked out with his plant under his arm,” said Candace Way, who was Dove’s executive assistant at DSS. “I mean really sad.”

She has since made the move to the coun-

ty manager’s office along with Dove and his office plant, however. The former county manager’s assistant recently left to take a new job as the Waynesville Town Clerk, opening up what Dove called a key position in the county, which he filled with Way. During the transition, Dove credited his old colleagues at DHHS for picking up extra workload, and his new colleagues in county administration for helping him acclimate, and he wanted to give them a shout-out in this article. He grabbed up a note pad, ripped off a page and began scribbling down names. He quickly filled the front, then flipped it over to the back, and even

Methodist in Waynesville.

“Actually, I really am,” he said.

Swanger said Dove is clearly vested in Haywood County and won’t be looking for the next job with better pay in a year from now. Dove also has an institutional knowledge of the place. Those are two things money can’t buy in a hire, Swanger said.

“He instinctively knows things it would take another person years to comprehend,” Swanger said.

County commissioners opted not to go through a formal talent search merely so they could check off that box.

“Whenever you hire someone from some place else you are never quite sure what you are getting. Even with the best search you could be getting somebody else’s problems,” Swanger said. “If we know we could not get a better quality candidate, why go through that?”

Kirkpatrick said the commissioners have had the benefit of watching him on the job over the past five months.

“We felt like he could lead the county in the right direction,” Kirkpatrick said.

AN UNUSUAL TRAJECTORY

Dove wasn’t made from the mold of most county managers. He didn’t go to school for public administration. He doesn’t have a degree in finance, human resources or management. Instead, he majored in anthropology as an undergrad and got a master’s in sociology before going on to law school at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Dove cut his teeth in government as the attorney for the “You have to constantly learn, Haywood Department of Social Services from 2000 to 2009, when you have to constantly read, he became the director of DSS. you have to be a student of In that capacity, he learned the ropes of budgeting, personnel, and leadership and management.” management, and regularly intersected with county departments.

— Ira Dove, Haywood County manager He oversaw a staff of 140 at DSS, compared to about 500 as county wrote up the margins before eventually manager. The county’s budget is four times handing it over. larger than that of DSS. When former County Manager Marty But his leadership philosophy is universal.

Stamey resigned, he partly cited the rigorous “Fundamentally, you have to learn to love workload of county manager, a non-stop the people you work with and the people you schedule of always being on call. Dove said serve,” Dove said. he’s prepared for that sacrifice. Although Luckily, that’s not too hard to do. when asked about his hobbies outside work, “There are a lot of great people here to there was a moment of silence. work with. This is a great community to live “You have to live life sequentially at and work in,” Dove said. times,” Dove replied.

Dove doesn’t see himself as the visionary His work-life balance since January has or course-setter for the county, but more of a been simple if nothing else. facilitator who makes ideas happen and proj“This six months, I work,” Dove said. ects work. Dove looks to the elected commisDove’s hobbies, it turns out, revolve sioners to set the county’s bearings, and never around his family. His wife, Angela, is an leaves a meeting without a clear to-do list to author. He has a son and daughter in ele- carry those goals out. mentary school and middle school, respec“I enjoy working with the commissioners tively, and has steadily been a coach and and helping bring out the goals that they set assistant coach for their soccer teams over for the community,” said Dove. the years. And, although he admits it sounds For Dove, that role extends trite, he is active in his church, First United beyond the borders of county gov-

F

Fontana libraries conduct survey of computer, internet use How important are computer and internet resources for library patrons, and how and why do patrons use them? To find out, all Fontana Regional Library branches in Macon, Jackson and Swain counties will conduct an online survey from May 5 to 24. The project is a vital tool in helping the library evaluate and improve services to members of the community.

Called The Impact Survey, the questionnaire takes 10 to 15 minutes to complete, is completely anonymous, and is available in English and Spanish. The questions deal with general use of library and online resources, as well as how patrons use these resources for specific purposes, such as education, employment, entrepreneurship, health and wellness, eGovernment, civic engagement, eCommerce, and socializing.

Access the online survey through the library’s website at www.fontanalib.org or through public computers at the library.

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“He is smart, he anticipates things very well, and makes good deductions when we are trying to interpret how something might go.”

— Kirk Kirkpatrick, Haywood commissioner

social apostle in Atlanta that helped the less fortunate, where Dove took a job when he was first out of college.

“I learned that regardless of the circumstances you may see you always have to have hope that you are going to pull through, and you have to treat everyone with compassion no matter who they are,” Dove said.

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ernment.

“I enjoy working with the various leaders within the county to bring out the best in each other so we can work together for the community and its citizens,” Dove said.

Haywood is in a golden age of sorts, with professional synergy among government leaders, education, business, nonprofits, community advocates and public safety, he said.

But Dove hasn’t lost sight of what he considers one of the biggest challenges facing the county.

“Although there are clear indications at the national level there is an economic recovery it is still filtering out in parts of North Carolina. There are signs things are getting better but we still have to be mindful of where we are in terms of economic recovery,” he said.

Dove said one of his most important philosophies, though, comes from his first mentor, Sister Mary Catherine, a nun with a

During the month of May the Jackson County Sew Easy Girls ECA group is collecting gently used children’s items such as books, toys, sheets, towels, and clothing for REACH. Items may be dropped off at the Sylva Extension Office during business hours. The Extension and Community Association (ECA) are volunteer educational leadership and community service organizations that work closely with NC Cooperative Extension.

There are currently several ECA groups around Jackson County.

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Three grants totaling $12,110 were recently awarded by The Fund for Haywood County.

The grants include: • $5,000 to Folkmoot USA to support the renovation of the kitchen and cafeteria space in the Folkmoot Friendship Center to create a functional, year-round facility to host international visitors and cultural and community events.

• $5,000 to Hazelwood Elementary School for The Leader in Me Initiative, a school-wide effort to improve student academic achievement and to create a culture in which students are challenged, encouraged and nurtured.

• $2,110 to the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation to enhance recreation and natufral resources at the Graveyard Fields Overlook.

“Haywood County is rich in culture, education and natural resources, and we’re fortunate to have these organizations in our community,” said John Keith, advisory board member. “The Fund for Haywood County is glad to be able to support them.”

The Fund for Haywood Country, an affiliate of The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, is a permanently endowed fund to meet local needs. Taxdeductible gifts are added to the principal, which is preserved and invested. The returns are used to make grants to support nonprofits in Haywood County. Since 1994, The Fund for Haywood County, in partnership with CFWNC, has awarded 79 grants totaling $672,640 to 42 organizations.

For more information about The Fund for Haywood County, contact Chair George Ivey at 828.648.2710. To make a tax-deductible donation to the Fund for Haywood County, donate online at www.cfwnc.org or by mail to The Fund for Haywood County, P.O. Box 627, Waynesville, NC, 28786. Contributions of any size are welcome and are tax-deductible.

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BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER ackson County employees could be seeing a little extra in their paychecks next year if commissioners approve County Manager Chuck Wooten’s recommendation for the upcoming budget. Wooten’s budget proposal will include a 1.5 percent cost of living increase and 20 additional hours of bonus leave.

The leave and pay combined would give Jackson County employees an increase of 2.5 percent relative to the time they spend on duty. The raises would cost the county $250,000 in salaries and benefits.

“I think we need to do what we can to try and keep our employees from getting farther behind the cost of living,” Wooten said. “There has only been one across-theboard cost of living increase for all employees since FY 08-09.”

In the current 2013-14 budget, all employees received a 2 percent raise, and in 2012-13, all employees making less than $40,000 per year were given a one-time increase of $650. The proposal for this year, Wooten said, would make county wages consistent with the 2013 Consumer Price Index.

Not every county in the region is doing the same. Macon County has no plans to offer a cost-of-living increase this year, and Swain County Commissioners won’t discuss the subject until their budget workshops begin May 12.

Haywood County, meanwhile, is taking the middle road. Though commissioners haven’t approved an across-the-board increase for four years, they have offered merit raises for the last five and could well do so again this year. Merit raises are given based on employee evaluations and capped at 2 percent, with enough money in the pot for each of the 500 county employees to receive a 2 percent raise, if their supervisor decides to award it. So, an employee with a very high evaluation might receive a 2 percent merit raise, while an employee with a slightly lower score might get a 0.5, 1 or 1.5 percent raise.

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BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER ore than three months after the State Bureau of Investigation started looking into $50,000 worth of embezzlement from the Macon County Board of Elections, a return to normalcy is in sight for the elections office.

Kim Bishop, the county elections director who was placed on paid investigative leave when the investigation launched, has submitted her resignation, and the county board has sent the state board its Luke Bateman recommendation for her replacement.

“It’s basically just a formality, but it is ultimately up to them,” said Luke Bateman, chairman of the Macon County Board of Elections.

The board has recommended Debbie George, who is serving as interim director, to replace Bishop. George has held the title since shortly after Bishop was placed on leave in January and has been working for the board of elections since 2003. In 2005, she was promoted from her original parttime job to the fulltime job of deputy direc-

tor, which she held until taking on the interim director job.

“She was already in the position, so she was the obvious choice,” Bateman said.

The final decision from the North Carolina Board of Elections is expected within the next few weeks. It’s a piece of mail that Bateman is looking forward to. Things have been topsy-turvy since the SBI investigation began, bringing a flurry of publicity to the “typically quiet” office as its leaders worked to make cuts and secure funds to cover the $50,000 vanished from its coffers.

The criminal investigation is still ongoing, but as far as Bateman is concerned the issue is basically wrapped up.

“We’re not investigators,” he said. “Our sole job is to run the county office to the best of our ability.”

The investigation involves 37 checks that Bishop had requested and signed, supposedly to pay contractors for part-time work, according to court documents. However, the people the checks were made out to never received them, the search warrant said, and the board members whose names appeared on the signature line said they had never signed the checks.

Bateman is glad for the chance to name a new director and move on — especially without the financial burden of paying Bishop her $42,000 while employing someone else to fill her position while she stayed home on leave.

“This will give us the chance to get back to business as usual,” he said. “That was our goal from the get-go.”

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Return to normal in sight for Macon Board of Elections

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Maggie’s Farm Coffee shop owner launches farmers market sans permit

BY B ECKY JOHNSON STAFF WRITER ustin Phillips narrowly avoided a standoff with Maggie Valley town hall last week, but rest assured, he was ready to go the distance if need be.

Phillips launched a new farmers market last week in a large grassy field beside his coffee shop, Organic Beans Coffee Co., along the main commercial drag of Maggie Valley.

He did so without a required special-use permit from the town, however. And that left Town Manager Nathan Clark in a quandary.

Phillips put Clark on notice earlier in the week that he planned to go forward with the farmers’ market last Friday and Saturday — permit or no permit. Phillips even advertised the opening day in local newspapers.

Shortly after the first tents and folding tables went up in the field beside Phillips’s coffee shop last Friday morning, Clark pulled into the parking lot and moseyed up to Phillips.

Phillips was prepared to make a scene if Clark shut him down for not having the permit.

“I just don’t back down very easily,” Phillips said.

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Phillips leveled heated words toward Clark, accusing the town of punitive and selective red tape and bureaucracy against certain business people.

For starters, Phillips philosophically detests the idea of a special permit in the first place.

“You are within your rights to use your property for any business-related activity,” Phillips said, relying on his own interpretation of the town’s zoning rules.

Technically, however, non-standard commercial endeavors — a flea market, swap shop, farmer’s market, artists fair, and so on — need a special-use permit to set up shop on a recurring basis. The town zoning board must consider each request in context, namely whether it would infringe on neighbors and whether it is in keeping with the community.

Without a permit, these outdoor sales are allowed only two days a month. Any more than that, and Phillips would need a permit — technically putting him in violation should he reopen the following Friday and Saturday without one.

Phillips said he had every intention of doing so, and threatened to take out radio ads and put up billboards lambasting the town for squashing progress if they stood in his way. And thus it seemed a showdown the next weekend was imminent.

But come Monday, Clark announced that Phillips will be allowed to keep the farmers

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Justin Phillips (left) recently kicked off a new farmers market in Maggie Valley, despite not officially being granted a special-use permit from the town. Becky Johnson photo

market going, even without a permit, until the Growers have been signed up, however, zoning board has a chance to formally consid- and will hopefully anchor the market as the er a special use request later this month. season progresses. But early May in the And here’s why. Phillips had in fact mountains isn’t exactly a cornucopia of local applied for a permit in early April. But Clark produce, given the later growing season here. has been stretched thin in recent months Still, even when crops start to come in, serving dual roles as both the town manager crafters and artists will likely comprise a good and town planner. And he failed to set the share of the Friday and Saturday market. wheels in motion for Phillips’ special-use per- Phillips envisions it as more than a farmers mit to come before the zoning board in a market, but a place for the local community more timely fashion. to engage and gather, while filling a niche for “Unfortunately, as a product of doing the tourists looking for something to do. job of both town manager and town planner, “The idea is to create not just a place for I lost track of the consumers to come application in my list buy things, but for The town zoning board of things to do,” Clark the community to said. come together and must consider each Clark said since he hang out. I perceive it request in context, was at fault for not getto be a positive thing ting the permit applifor the town,” namely whether it would cation on the zoning Capparelli said. board’s agenda soonOne thing the infringe on neighbors and er, it wouldn’t be fair town zoning board whether it is in keeping to make Phillips wait. will likely want to “It was not his know: is this really a with the community. problem. He turned in farmers market or a his stuff well in weekly flea market for advance,” Clark said. people to sell things?

Phillips initially accused the town of “That’s one reason for the special use perintentionally stymieing his application mit,” Clark said. “What is a good fit and what process. But Clark said that is not the case. is not a good fit? There is an interesting line “It is quite the opposite. We like anyone between what a farmers market is and what a who brings new and exciting ideas to make permanent yard sale is.” our Maggie Valley community better,” Clark Despite the rocky start that could be said. “By no means is the town trying to stall chalked up to miscommunication, it seems him. This is a fantastic use.” the town and Phillips are on the same page in On opening day of its first season, the that regard. farmers market was shy of any actual farmers Phillips said his own rules for the market selling produce. There were a few crafters sell- are pretty strict. Vendors are limited to artists, ing things like candles, a booth promoting hand-made items, produce and value-added the Haywood County Libertarian Party and a farm products. He doesn’t allow people to sell massage therapist giving chair massages. The used stuff, and he doesn’t want mass proonly farm fare was a load of wholesale pro- duced knick-knacks being marketed for resale. duce that was trucked in by Phillips.

“If you do what you really like, you are “It is a humble start,” admitted Adam going to be OK,” Phillips said.

Capparelli, who Phillips brought on as the The special-use permit request is on the market manager. agenda for the town zoning board on May 22.

School officials approach budget with commissioners

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ance and college preparation.

The district’s facility needs were also placed on the table. Some high school science classrooms are sans labs and there are overcrowding issues in the cafeteria. And although West Elementary had an addition built a couple of years ago, East Elementary has grown and now needs additional classrooms.

Patillo tied these needs to Swain’s students’ academic success.

“Decisions are going to have to be made about whether we can afford to do these,” the superintendent told the commissioners.

“But it’s almost to the point where we can’t afford not to do these.”

The current year’s school budget is a bit over $21 million. In recent years, Swain County has provided $750,000 to the school district for programs. Since 2012, the schools have received an annual $160,000 for capital expenditures.

“Our appropriations have been the same for a while now,” Patillo noted the stagnation a few days after the joint meeting.

At the same time, state and federal education dollars continue to decline.

“They are going to be spending less money, and they want the counties to pick it up,” Patillo said. “It’s getting hard.”

Swain doesn’t know what math will be handed down as of yet. But expectations are not optimistic.

“One thing to keep in mind is that the state and the federal always seem to be

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BY J EREMY MORRISON N EWS E DITOR wain County Superintendent Sam Pattillo is taking a new approach this year. He’s requesting that county commissioners participate in the school district’s budgetary process.

“I feel like we need to be more together in our planning process,” Pattillo told commissioners during a recent meeting during which a foundation was laid for future discussions. “The struggle and juggle is going to be between the facilities and our programs and the best way to educate our kids.”

During a meeting in April, the superintendent and school board members sat around a table with the commissioners.

They outlined the district’s needs and stats.

The bottom line wasn’t discussed. That’ll come later — at the end of this process, there will be a request for funds to continue fueling the county’s educational system.

Pattillo requested another three meetings with the commissioners.

“It’s pretty much a new approach,” said Swain Commissioner Robert White.

White hails from academia. He was a coach, a teacher and a principal.

The commissioner also used to be the superintendent. He’s familiar with approaching county leaders during budget season.

And he’s aware of Swain’s budgetary constraints.

“I never went and asked unless I needed,” White said. “They couldn’t give you pie in sky. But they always tried.”

The commissioner ventures that the board will try to do as much this year.

“We’re aware of their needs, and we’re going to help them out in any way that we can,” White said.

During the recent joint discussion, commissioners heard about enrollment numbers and per-pupil spending and cuts higher up the food chain. They heard about the crunches that beg for additional local dollars.

The student population in Swain has risen steadily over recent years. Then, last year it spiked sharply, increasing from 1,982 to 2,125 students.

“We don’t know where they’re coming from, but it seems to be increasing,” said Amanda Smith, calling the jump an incredible increase.

The growth comes at a time when the district is already facing needs. That wish list was laid before commissioners.

Pattillo outlined the need to hire three additional guidance counselors and a high school director of curriculum. He cited the requirement to institute a state-mandated third-grade summer reading program and the desire to start a kindergarten through second grade reading camp. The superintendent talked about the importance of focusing on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), stressing testing perform-

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Swain’s smart money

shrinking,” said Smith. “It’s gonna be big this year. That’s what they’re saying.”

In the face of declining revenue from state and federal sources, the Swain school district looks to local officials to up the county’s funding levels. The request is being made in a county that traditionally trails the pack where local funding is concerned.

According to Public Schools Forum of North Carolina, in 2010-11 Swain’s local contribution ranked dead last again among North Carolina counties, spending $420 per pupil, compared to the state average of $1,762. However, district officials pointed out during their initial meeting with commissioners, that per-pupil amount jumps — to $10,105 in 2013 — when state and federal allotments are calculated into the equation.

The current budgetary conversation between commissioners and the school district doesn’t appear to have concrete parameters yet.

“We are trying to determine our bottom line,” Pattillo explained.

Whatever the bottom line, the superintendent is hoping the discussion continues.

He’s calling the initial meeting “a pretty good educational talk.”

“We’re still going through the water,” Pattillo said. “And we think we’ve got a good approach.”

Commissioner White said that he’s interested in the conversation’s future. He said the board recognizes the district’s needs.

“We’ve got problems, but they’re not insurmountable,” the commissioner said.

“We’ll work together. We’ll try to help each other.”

White also stressed that the schools are but one of the commissioners’ concerns.

“We just have to look at our situation and see what we can afford and what we can’t,” he said.

But the commissioner understands the district’s needs and considers education of high importance. He talks about long-term needs like a new high school and additional elementary schools.

White said he knows the district has needs. Hopefully not ones that require a tax increase, but he doesn’t flinch when the subject comes up.

“We’ll do whatever we have to do to reach our objectives,” the commissioner said. “We can’t leave them struggling.”

Swain County Manager Kevin King is taking a similar stance — “education is the number one priority of Swain County” — but also gives a nod toward the realities of the budget season.

“They probably won’t get all of what they asked for, but they might get some,” King said.

Pattillo hopes the local officials will arrive at an amiable outcome, whatever that is.

He’s hoping to be able to afford a future he contends Swain students need.

“We’re either going to have to make a choice and say, ‘either public education is important or it’s not,’” the superintendent said.

So far, the district’s wish list sounds reasonable to White.

“That’s not pie-in-the-sky,” the commissioner said, “that’s honest-to-God needs.”

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Enclosed pool coming to Highlands

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER $1.1 million donation from residents Art and Angela Williams of the Old Edwards Inn will net the town of Highlands a retractable roof for its new swimming pool, a new floor and bleachers for the civic center gym and a jumpstart toward a revitalized recreation program. And, possibly, a half-cent property tax increase to fund it.

“All of this has kind of spearheaded a new assessment of our total recreation program,” said Mayor Patrick Taylor. “We had been spending a lot of money these last few years and had a lot to spend in the future on our existing capital facilities.”

Highlands was in the midst of building a new outdoor swimming pool, replacing a 30year-old facility that leaked water profusely, when the Williams made their donation.

Highlands had looked into pricing for a retractable roof when making their building plans, because an all-season pool had been a recurring request from town residents. In 2011, a survey the town solicited from an independent firm returned “enclosed pool” as respondents’ number one desire for their town.

“The cost of doing that seemed to be prohibitive, but with this donation it takes those construction costs out,” Taylor said, “and the funding year to year becomes more accessible for us.”

It’s still not cheap. Utilities and staff to operate the pool year-round will cost about $100,000, a large chunk in proportion to a typical recreation budget of $750,000 to $800,000. Macon County pays for $500,000 of that because more than half of the people who use the recreation department facilities live in the county, not the town. So, even with construction paid for, operating the pool would require an increase of roughly 33 percent in the town’s share of recreation funding.

May 7-13, 2014

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Highlands’ newly constructed outdoor pool is slated to open in June, and the retractable roof will be added over the winter in time for next season. Donated photo That money could come from a few different places — the schools paying a fee to have a swim team use the facility, perhaps, or the hospital using the pool for therapy — but a property tax increase emerged as the most viable option.

“If the majority of the people want the pool and are willing to support it with a property tax increase, that would not only support it but would pay for other facilities upgrades, so be it,” said John Dotson, town board member. “But if the people don’t want a property tax increase and are not willing to support the pool, I’m OK with that too.”

The town board will continue to discuss the possibility — and hear from the public — as it formulates a budget for the 2014-15 fiscal year. In its current form, the plan would be to earmark the extra half cent for recreation, using the funds for facilities upgrades, upkeep

“The cost of [enclosing the pool] seemed to be prohibitive, but with this donation it takes those construction costs out, and the funding year to year becomes more accessible for us.”

— Patrick Taylor, Highlands mayor

and increased programming. The half cent would increase the town property tax to 13.5 cents, which is in addition to the 28 cents per $100 of valuation county residents pay.

Taylor believes that’s a good route to go.

In such a seasonal town as Highlands, a strong recreation program is key to attracting more people to live there year-round and to keep those who already do. Fewer than 1,000 people live in the city limits of Highlands year-round, but that population multiplies in the summertime.

“I think if we have really good recreation programs, that will make people want to stay here,” Taylor said.

Program plans will have to wait, though, until after the facilities upgrades are taken care of, said Recreation Director Lester Norris.

“Till we get these facilities corrected, there’s not a lot that’s going to happen,” Norris said.

The newly constructed pool, sans cover, will open for the first time in June. The retractable roof would then go in over the winter, after the pool has closed for the season.

The civic center will also get a makeover during the upcoming fiscal year, with the donation funding a new floor and bleachers, while the town will foot the bill for some additional upgrades. Right now, the center includes a stage area that’s virtually never used, so the plan is to close it in and convert it to a dance room, complete with showers and dressing rooms. That upgrade would also support the center’s dual function as a Red Cross relief shelter.

“We’ve got restrooms out in the hallway, but we have no showers,” Norris said. “With this stage renovation, we’ll have the showers that will accommodate them and be handicapped-accessible.”

Other renovations, like new bathrooms on the main level and an exit ramp for visitors with disabilities, would also be part of the plan.

But capital improvements and the increased upkeep costs that accompany expansion cost money.

“I certainly hate to see a tax increase, but there seems to be enough public support for this across the board,” Dotson said. “People would be willing to have this and more in the recreation department.”

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Annie Burrell (center), co-owner of Rabbit Creek Pottery, won the $5,000 grand prize in the Town of Dillsboro Business Plan Competition. She’s pictured here with, from left: Dr. Don Tomas, SCC president; Sonja Haynes, dean of SCC’s Workforce Innovations program; Dr. David Belcher, WCU chancellor; and Lisa Potts, judge and co-president of the Dillsboro Merchants Association. Donated photo

Rabbit Creek Pottery wins Dillsboro business plan contest

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May 7-13, 2014

As part of the Dillsboro Business Plan Competition, roughly a half dozen aspiring entrepreneurs and existing small business owners transformed their ideas into business plans over the past four months while regularly attending free weekly seminars through Southwestern Community College’s Small Business Center in Webster.

Annie Burrell claimed the $5,000 grand prize during an awards banquet at SCC, but organizers said the town of Dillsboro will ultimately be the big winner as several viable business ideas emerged from the competition.

“We really hope everyone who participated will follow through and put the business plans they developed into action,” said Sonja Haynes, SCC’s dean of Workforce Innovations who spoke on behalf of the judges. “We feel like every single one of them has the potential to be very successful.”

Burrell, who opened Rabbit Creek Pottery in October with sister Jenny Patton, entered the competition to help formalize a business plan.

“I’m overwhelmed and overjoyed,” said Burrell, who lives in Franklin. “My sister and I are potters, and we’ve been struggling because we haven’t had a gas-fired kiln. I’ve had a kiln in the backyard covered up by a tarp because we couldn’t afford to get the gas hook-up, and this is going to make it possible.”

For more information about SCC’s Small Business Center, contact Henry at t_henry@southwesterncc.edu or 828.339.4211. To learn more about WCU’s Small Business & Technology Development Center, contact Dennison at trdennison@email.wcu.edu.

17

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Fly Fishing the South news

Jackson County Manager Chuck Wooten chats with Cashiers residents at a meeting in April.

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Jeremy Morrison photo

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The lowdown on the high end Jackson manager takes trip to Cashiers

BY J EREMY MORRISON N EWS E DITOR he vibe in the Cashiers library was thick with polite tension as Jackson County Manager Chuck Wooten recently stood before a roomful of curious skeptics.

The undertone was summed up by an audience member about halfway through the meeting.

“The feeling in this community is that we contribute a substantial amount in taxes and get very little back in services,” said a man a couple of rows back. “It seems to me that you all need to see how you can make this more equitable.”

The county manager had been invited up the hill to Jackson’s southern end by the Cashiers Area Chamber of Commerce. The meeting included niceties and formalities, but with an unmistakable whiff of contention.

“If there are services we’re leaving out, please let us know and we’ll see what we can

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Quid pro quo, or just due?

BY B ECKY JOHNSON STAFF WRITER ashiers area property owners have long complained that they pay more than their fair share when it comes to property taxes — ponying up 60 percent of the county’s total property taxes.

They claim they get little in return for what they pay in. They use few services: they

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do about that,” Wooten told the man.

In addition to the notion of taxes-to-services inequities, discussion during the meeting ranged from fire taxes to ABC store profits to planning board appointments. Other subjects brought up included residents’ perceived wealth and the possibility of getting a new stoplight near Ingles. The audience also had questions about county spending on education, social services and illegal immigrants.

“It looks like historically Cashiers has been doing the heavy lifting,” said a man in attendance.

The township of Cashiers, together with the township of Hamburg, brings in almost 60 percent of the property taxes collected in all of Jackson.

The two townships also produce the most real estate sales. Property transactions in Hamburg in 2013 totaled $46.2 million while Cashiers transactions totaled $71.6 million.

The next highest was Dillsboro, at a significantly lower $14.8 million.

“It is a truth, not a myth. It is what it is,” said Wooten, flashing up property value figures on a projection screen. “There’s absolutely no doubt what’s happening up

f here on the mountain is significant.”

This is the reason some Cashiers residents appear miffed at the amount of services the area receives from the county. They are paying plenty and wondering if they’re gettingf overlooked.

One man in attendance complained that there was a perception that services were not needed by the residents of Cashiers.

“I think there’s an assumption that all thev people on top of the hill are rich,” he told Wooten. “I assure you we are not.”

The county manager proceeded to lay outw a case to the contrary, mathematically illustrating a possible dearth in need. In additiong to having a wealth of high-end properties and sales figures, the area also boasts a lot of second-homeowners who live elsewhere.

While Cashiers and Hamburg do indeedf account for about 60 percent of the propertyw taxes in Jackson, they are home to only about 10 percent of the county’s population.

Wooten pointed to the 2010 Census, which indicated that 75 percent of the properties in Cashiers are not occupied by fulltime residents. Such property owners simply don’t require the amount

don’t have many kids in public schools, they don’t use social services, they aren’t committing crimes.

That claim is exacerbated if you consider this fact: about 75 percent of the houses in Cashiers aren’t occupied by year-round residents, according to 2010 Census statistics.

That poses a quandary for county government. Should services and amenities be doled out according to population needs, or by the property tax pay-in of one area compared to another?

“I think you have to look at both.

Probably population would drive it more than anything,” County Manager Chuck Wooten said.

p To get a better handle on the property f tax landscape, Wooten engaged an intern W from Western Carolina University last semester to conduct an analysis of exactly who was paying what, quantifying just how much the Cashiers area pays in.

Despite contributing more than half of the county’ total property tax collections, the area hardly accounts for half the county’s population — it’s more like 10 percent, when counting up full-time, year-round permanent residents.

County commissioners have funded some big ticket capital projects in Cashiers p in recent years, and while it may p help appease property owners

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amount of community interest and that she was familiar with some of the concerns voiced by attendees. She cheered for the “dialogue” and said it is important to “understand the facts and understand the process of involvement.”

“I think there’s always going to be issues we don’t agree on,” Edwards said. “That’s natural.”

Wooten shook hands and thanked people for their interest as the room emptied out. He noted something about “some great questions” and the evening going “well” as he packed up his presentation. At the next Jackson County commissioners meeting, he’d turn to words like “outstanding” and “positive” to describe the evening’s “back-and-forth.”

But before leaving the library in Cashiers, Wooten quietly summed up a message he hoped the evening’s attendees had heard.

“We have to look at the county as a whole,” Wooten smiled.

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there, residents elsewhere in the county have disproportionate share of our value,” questioned those expenses.

Wooten said.

The projects include: But Cashiers area property owners may • Constructing a new recreation center soon get some relief. A countywide property for $7.97 million. revaluation will hit the books in 2016, read• For a cost of $1.135 million the county justing the property values on the county’s constructed new dressing rooms and weight tax books with the real-life real estate marrooms at Blue Ridge School. ket. The values on the tax rolls today harkens • Jackson County renovated the house back to 2008 — the peak of the real estate formerly occupied by Southwestern market.

Community College and is using it as a senThe high-end homes and property in the ior center and sheriff annex. This project greater Cashiers area have fallen substantialcost $272,000. ly in recent years, however, and the revaluaWooten said government should not pro- tion coming in 2016 will reflect that. vide extra perks and amenities for wealthy At a recent community forum in citizens simply Cashiers, where because they are Wooten was invited “When 60 percent of the wealthy and pay more to talk shop with county’s revenue is in taxes. The role of plateau residents government is to about issues facing coming out of a particular serve society, and all the county, Wooten citizens, equally kicked the engagedistrict, you should look rather than offering ment off with some at the services that are or red meat: revaluafavoritism to the wealthy who pay tions. It was an issue aren’t being provided.” more in taxes. he described as — Chuck Wooten, Wooten defended “something a lot of Jackson County manager the recent projects in people are interested Cashiers as all warin” and a process that ranted, however. If anything, Cashiers had could “get a county manager fired every been getting short changed all these year eight years.” and not getting its due, Wooten said.

“Let’s face it, there’s going to be winners “I think the investments we are making and losers,” Wooten said. “That’s the in the southern end of the county are approdilemma we face. That’s the 800-pound priate,” Wooten said. “We get comments gorilla in the room that we have to deal from up there saying, ‘It is about time.’ with in 2016.”

When 60 percent of the county’s revenue is While property values will come down — coming out of a particular district, you particularly in Cashiers — that doesn’t mean should look at the services that are or aren’t property taxes will come down accordingly. being provided.”

With property values falling, the tax rate The county isn’t intentionally bilking will have to increase in order to offset what Cashiers property owners for more than would otherwise be a substantial hit to countheir fair share, however. It’s simply an ty coffers. It’s the first time the county has unavoidable side-effect of the high-end real seen property values come down over time, estate values there. Property taxes are calcuinstead of increasing year over year. lated based on property values. The luxury “In all likelihood we’re in a situation homes, golf resorts and gated second-home we’ve never seen before,” Wooten said. developments drive up the market value of The county manager pointed out, howevproperty in Cashiers, and thus lead to higher er, that Jackson’s property tax rate of 28 property taxes. cents per $100 is currently the second lowest “The southern end of the county has a in the state.

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fiscal muscle that populations elsewhere in the county do.

“A lot of tax base is being contributed by people that do not require a lot of services,” Wooten told the crowd in Cashiers. “Let’s face it.”

After explaining that certain services, such as a courts facility, would not be practical to offer in the area, and others, such as schools, seemed currently sufficient, the county manager asked attendees what services they were in need of.

An indoor pool topped this list — it was suggested that Wooten contact a pool designer involved with the 1996 Olympics, who has a home in the area.

“It’s perfect timing,” Wooten said, “because we’re right in the middle of budget preparations.”

After the meeting, Cashiers Chamber Executive Director Stephanie Edwards said the brimming room was indicative of the

Mountain Realty

Tickets & Information: 877.FolkUSA | www.folkmootusa.org

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Opinion

Smoky Mountain News

Steep slope issue headed for a November showdown

Obama’s socialist agenda has failed

To the Editor: It appears that Bob Wilson, a frequent letter writer, is stuck in a 1950’s time warp. He’s still fighting the Red Menace and the Cold War, and thinks the enemy is still communism and its little brother socialism. His rhetoric is full of old Cold War anti-communist propaganda and group-think.

In the last 50 years the United States has become more like old fascist Germany than arch-enemy Communist Russia. Yes, there is a ruling political class in our U.S.A. It’s the ultra-rich and the corporations they run! But don’t take my word for it. Facts provide all the proof necessary.

Will heavier taxation kill industry and push us into debt? Fact: a recent study shows that the effective tax rate for the 500 largest businesses in the U.S. is 13 percent, far lower than the rate you and I pay. If there is a problem with U.S. debt it’s because the lobbyists of corporate America have created a tax code riddled with loop holes, exemptions and tax havens putting the burden of taxes on the middle class, which is slowly going broke.

Is our so-called “socialist” government out to disarm ordinary citizens who may pose a threat? Fact: the United States has more guns per person than any other country. There are probably over 300 million guns in private hands, equaling almost one gun for every man, women and child. Last week armed vigilantes “out-gunned” federal officers trying to collect over a million dollars in grazing fees and penalties legally owed by a wealthy

speaker at the hearing supported the measure.

Let’s be honest. Many in Jackson County likely support weakening the measures or doing away with them altogether.

Some probably want a rewrite but still want measures to protect mountainsides and streams from overzealous developers. Those at the public hearing seem to be in a camp who fully support the ordinance currently on the books.

The political reality of this situation looks something like this: two of the commissioners who passed the original ordinance were voted out of office four Editor years ago. So was the county board chairman, who opposed the ordinance as too strict but was still swept out with the other incumbents.

Three commissioners who will be on the November ballot were the ones who beat them: Commission Chairman Debnam, Doug Cody and Charles Elders. All three of those candidates called for a rewrite of the steep slope ordinance, though they aren’t necessarily in lockstep as to what that rewrite should look like.

I want to be clear. This newspaper has come out in favor of stiff steep slope rules that will preserve the integrity of the mountains and the environment. We don’t support shackling

Scott McLeod

I think Jack Debnam was wise to delay action on the rewrite of the Jackson County steep slope rules until after the November election, but I don’t believe that will take politics out of the final decision on this issue.

No, to the contrary, the county board’s decision to delay action has provided voters with at least one issue to discuss and dissect ad infinitum in the coming election season. Sitting commissioners and candidates alike will be forced to stake out their position, and by the time voters step into the booth on Election Day, they will know where each candidate stands.

The rewrite of the steep slope ordinance in Jackson County has been an 18-month-long process by the planning board. For those who haven’t followed the issue, the first thing to know is that Jackson has one of the stiffest steep slope building ordinances in the state of North Carolina. That ordinance was crafted and passed by the former board of commissioners during the time before the current economic slowdown, back when the rural mountain areas of Jackson County were getting swallowed up by big-money developers from all over the country.

The current proposal crafted by the planning board would weaken those steep slope rules. After the rewrite, a public hearing in February to discuss the proposal revealed a very organized, very vocal group of citizens who were adamantly opposed to what the planning board was presenting. In fact, not a single

LOOKING FOR OPINIONS The Smoky Mountain News encourages readers to express their opinions through letters to the editor or guest columns. All viewpoints are welcome. Send to Scott McLeod at info@smokymountainnews.com., fax to 828.452.3585, or mail to PO Box 629, Waynesville, NC, 28786. landowner.

Do “socialists” pass more regulations to “keep a lid on things?” Fact: exactly what regulation on which “things” would we want to do away with? How about less regulation on Duke Power and their coal ash ponds? Less food inspectors? Fewer tests for prescription drugs? Would you want less of these regulations? I know, let’s take the air bags out of cars. Corporate profit margins would greatly benefit from those changes.

Are lawmakers attempting to pacify citizens with more freebies? Fact: the largest “freebies,” other than those handed to corporations, are Social Security and Medicare. All other “social welfare” programs are tiny by comparison. Any problem with Social Security can be cured by requiring the wealthy pay the same percentage we pay. And, if Medicare is out of control, unlike any other major industrialized country, our medical system is designed to make a profit for big insurance companies and medical providers.

If President Obama’s goal is to make this into a “socialist” country, he’s a colossal failure. The definition of socialism is to spread

development; to the contrary, we want to encourage smart growth that will benefit our region for generations and not just allow a few to reap immense short-term profits at the expense of those who have called this area home for generations.

So perhaps Debnam is right. Let’s just take a breather.

While taking a breath, though, the planning board deserves some credit. This all-volunteer group has been working diligently, developing an ordinance that — I suspect — the majority believed a majority of the county board wanted. After all, the planning board is filled with the county board’s appointees. Agree or disagree with the current proposal, this group has been working.

If Debnam is right, then so is Avram Friedman. The Jackson County resident and environmental activist had this to say about the delay: “You could say the process is working. People have real power. When they get organized and show up, it works. It influences government policy. That is the purpose of public comment and the democratic process.”

Call it politics, call it the democratic process, call it what you will, but this issue is headed for a November showdown.

And I believe Jackson County voters will demand to know where the candidates stand on the steep slope regulations. We will see then just where the chips fall.

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

the wealth. Exactly the opposite is happening.

The wealthy are doing better than any time in the past 100 years. The middle class is shrinking and the poor are getting poorer. Corporate power, especially in the wake of Citizens United and the recent McCutcheon decision, is at the point where they can now buy and sell politicians, just like corporate stock.

Shirl Ches Franklin

Raising minimum wage is a mistake To the Editor: On the way to Wilmington using the smaller roads off the interstate, I found it depressing to note so many of what appeared to have been small manufacturing businesses shut down.

Empty parking lots told the story of what was probably a previously bustling business and a source of jobs no longer there. In some of the smaller towns, one could see the effects of losing an industry, however small it may have been, with deserted stores and shops and gas stations out of business. Some of the factories still had identifying signs hanging on the building advertising a company I had never heard of but who obviously had been part of their community. A few of the buildings were pretty slick looking and probably built prior to the current recession.

One could only guess what hustle and bustle took place in these buildings. Even their empty parking lots seemed to be haunted by the ghosts of times past. Had we not been in a rush to get to Wilmington it might have been

worthwhile to take some pictures to document the empty buildings. Just what was the gizmo or gadget had they manufactured?

Tractor wheel rims, flashlights, dies for machines, plumbing, mothballs, diesel injectors, outdoor BBQs? In passing I could only guess.

Each company had a story to tell, not only about the entrepreneurial people who founded them but the lives and families of the people who labored there. At day’s end, they all went home to supper and watched the world unfold before them on their television just like the rest of us, filled with the satisfaction of having put in a good day’s work.

We can blame part of the recession on the government for requiring banks to make loans to folks who otherwise couldn’t afford to buy a home and no question that this played a part in our current economic dilemma when buyers discovered they couldn’t afford the monthly payments. We can blame the real estate professionals who sold the homes folks couldn’t afford, the appraisers who inflated the values of the homes and the mortgage brokers who bundled them up and sold them to the investment banks. In the end, it was a boom; but as with all booms, it inevitably collapsed.

But the story of these closed down small factories is a different story because the vast majority of them made things that we can now buy cheaper from China. Cheaper Chinese products probably played as much of a role as anything else in sinking our economy, closing down those small manufacturers.

Lower labor costs allow China to turn out cheaper goods which we buy knowing full well that we are costing American jobs. We are

Court rules in favor of clean air, water To the Editor: Human health, wildlife resources and sportsmen had a big win recently in the Federal Appeals Court. The court reaffirmed the EPA’s authority to set limits on mercury, arsenic, and other pollutants from power plants under the Mercury and Air Toxics standard. Big polluters and climate deniers in Congress have launched every attack in the book to stop the administration’s lifesaving safeguards on public health, and natural resources protections but once again the EPA’s authority, granted under the federal

Clean Air Act and upheld by the US Supreme Court, has been defended by the highest courts in the land.

Mercury is a neurotoxin that damages children’s cognitive thinking skills when consumed. We have fishery consumption advisories from the Great Smoky Mountains to the Outer Banks. Most of that mercury falls from the skies and are directly sourced to burning carbon products as fuel. North Carolina anglers and their families should be able to eat the fish they catch without fear of harm.

Big polluters and their allies are sure to continue their onslaught of obstruction as the administration works to set limits on the dangerous carbon pollution from power plants, the greatest contributor to climate change, but with the backing of average Americans across the country, the administration will continue to act.

G. Richard Mode Sportsmen Outreach Coordinator, National Wildlife Federation Morganton

facebook.com/smnews

tasteTHEmountains Taste the Mountains is an ever-evolving paid section of places to dine in Western North Carolina. If you would like to be included in the listing please contact our advertising department at 828.452.4251 A TASTE OF NEW ORLEANS 67 Branner Ave., Waynesville, 828.246.0885. 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., 7 days a week. Curtis Henry opened A Taste of New Orleans to cater to the locals and become the place that’s always open that you can rely on for different, flavorful dishes every day. Serving Cajun, French and Creole Cuisine in a lovingly restored space, Curtis looks forward to serving you up a delicious dish soon.

AMMONS DRIVE-IN RESTAURANT & DAIRY BAR 1451 Dellwwod Rd., Waynesville.

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

Enjoy world famous hot dogs as well as burgers, seafood, hushpuppies, hot wings and chicken. Be sure to save room for dessert. The cobbler, pie and cake selections are sure to satisfy any sweet tooth.

BLUE ROOSTER SOUTHERN GRILL 207 Paragon Parkway, Clyde, Lakeside Plaza at the old Wal-Mart. 828.456.1997.

Open Monday through Friday. Friendly and fun family atmosphere. Local, handmade Southern cuisine. Fresh-cut salads; slowsimmered 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.

opinion

doing it to ourselves, shooting ourselves in the foot by buying Chinese goods. With higher minimum wages here, we’ll buy even more Chinese goods, all very sad indeed.

We never seem to learn.

Bob Wilson Franklin

BOURBON BARREL BEEF & ALE 454 Hazelwood Ave., Waynesville, 828.452.9191. Lunch served 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Dinner nightly from 4 p.m.

Closed on Sunday. We specialize in handcut, all natural steaks, fresh fish, and other classic American comfort foods that are made using only the finest local and sustainable ingredients available. We also feature a great selection of craft beers from local artisan brewers, and of course an extensive selection of small batch bourbons and whiskey. The Barrel is a friendly and casual neighborhood dining experience where our guests enjoy a great meal without breaking the bank.

BREAKING BREAD CAFÉ 6147 Hwy 276 S. Bethel (at the Mobil Gas Station) 828.648.3838 Monday through Thursday 8 a.m to 5 p.m. (takeout only 5 to 6 p.m.) Friday and Saturday 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., closed Sunday. Deli and so much more. We roast our own ham, turkey and roast beef. Come try our new burger menu with topping choices from around the world.

Enjoy our daily baked goods: cinnamon & sticky buns, cakes, pies and cookies.

239-06

Bridget’s Bistro

Beef Tenderloin • Oven Roasted Ham Plus a wide selection of bufffet items and an assortment of our house made desserts

Bed & Breakfast and Restaurant

Special Mother’s Day Brunch

SID’S

Sunday, May 11

——————————————————

All mothers receive a free dessert

ON MAIN

Just one block from Main Street on the corner of East and Welch.

117 Main Street, Canton NC 828.492.0618 • SidsOnMain.com Serving Lunch & Dinner

at the

May 7-13, 2014

Join Us for Our Mother’s Day Brunch Buffet!

94 East St. • Waynesville 828-452-7837 For details & menus see herrenhouse.com LUNCH, WED.-FRI. 11:30-2 • SUNDAY BRUNCH 11-2

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Smoky Mountain News

We’ll feed your spirit, too.

Cataloochee Ranch 21

tasteTHEmountains

FRIDAY, MAY 9 • 7 PM

Liz & AJ Nance SUNDAY • 9-3

Mother’s Day Brunch S PRING S TREET, D OWNTOWN S YLVA CREPES, PANINIS, SOUPS, SALADS, GOURMET PASTAS WINE & BEER

CityLightsCafe.com

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Stop in and cool off with new organic lemonade or iced coffee!

1110 SOCO RD, MAGGIE VALLEY

(828) 668-BEAN

8 AM – 6 PM

239-127

CATALOOCHEE RANCH 119 Ranch Dr., Maggie Valley.

828.926.1401. Family-style breakfast seven days a week, from 8 to 9:30 a.m. – with eggs, bacon, sausage, grits and oatmeal, fresh fruit, sometimes French toast or pancakes, and always all-you-can-eat. Lunch every day from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Evening cookouts on the terrace on weekends and Wednesdays (weather permitting), featuring steaks, ribs, chicken, and pork chops, to name a few. Bountiful family-style dinners on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, with entrees that include prime rib, baked ham and herbbaked chicken, complemented by seasonal vegetables, homemade breads, jellies and desserts. We also offer a fine selection of wine and beer. The evening social hour starts at 6 p.m., and dinner is served starting at 7 p.m. So join us for mile-high mountaintop dining with a spectacular view.

CITY BAKERY 18 N. Main St. Waynesville 828.452.3881.

Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Join us in our historic location for scratch made soups and daily specials.

Breakfast is made to order daily: Gourmet cheddar & scallion biscuits served with bacon, sausage and eggs; smoked trout bagel plate; quiche and fresh fruit parfait. We bake a wide variety of breads daily, specializing in traditional french breads. All of our breads are hand shaped. Lunch: Fresh salads, panini sandwiches. Enjoy outdoor dinning on the deck. Private room available for meetings.

CITY LIGHTS CAFE Spring Street in downtown Sylva.

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

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

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

BRYSON CITY CORK & BEAN A MOUNTAIN SOCIAL HOUSE 16 Everett St.,Bryson City. 828.488.1934.

Open Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., Saturday and Sunday brunch 9 a.m. to 3p.m., Full Menu 3 to 9 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 starting at 5pm every day.

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.

CORK & CLEAVER 176 Country Club Drive, Waynesville.

828.456.7179. Reservations recommended.

4:30-9 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Tucked away inside Waynesville Inn, Cork & Cleaver has an approachable menu designed around locally sourced, sustainable, farm-to-table

ingredients. Executive Chef Corey Green prepares innovative and unique Southern fare from local, organic vegetables grown in Western North Carolina. Full bar and wine cellar. www.waynesvilleinn.com.

HERREN HOUSE 94 East St., Waynesville 828.452.7837.

Lunch: Wednesday - Saturday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday Brunch 11 a. m. to 2 p.m.

Enjoy fresh local products, created daily. Join us in our beautiful patio garden. We are your local neighborhood host for special events: business party’s, luncheons, weddings, showers and more. Private parties & catering are available 7 days a week by reservation only.

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

828.648.4193. 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Serving breakfast, lunch, nd dinner. The restaurant has a 1950s & 60s theme decorated with memorabilia from that era.

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

828.926.1616. maggievalleyclub.com/dine.

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

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

ORGANICBEANSCOFFEE.COM 239-152

May 7-13, 2014

Join Doug Peters for a song after dinner.

Reservations Required.

COUNTRY INN

Smoky Mountain News

SERVING BREAKFAST & LUNCH DOWNTOWN’S ONLY COVERED DECK

Café

Deli & So Much More

Dine at 5,000 feet.

For reservations, please call 828.926.0430 • TheSwag.com • Waynesville, NC

APPÉTIT Y’AL N L BO

NEW DINNER SPECIALS: Slow Roasted Prime Rib with au jus Boneless Pork Chops with buttered Apples Grilled Atlantic Salmon with Dill Butter Chicken Parmesan with Spaghetti

All dinners come with choice of soup or salad & starch and vegetable.

Dinners served on Friday & Saturday only, 5-8pm

6147 Highway 276 S. Bethel, North Carolina (at the Mobil Gas Station)

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452.3881 OPEN DAILY MAIN STREET WAYNESVILLE WWW.CITYBAKERY.NET

828-456-1997 blueroostersoutherngrill.com

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

bbcafenc.com

828.648.3838 Mon-Thr 8-5 • Fri & Sat 8-8 • Sun Closed

tasteTHEmountains 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.

ORGANIC BEANS COFFEE COMPANY 1110 Soco Road, Maggie Valley.

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

100% of our coffee is Fair Trade, Shade Grown, and Organic, all slow-roasted to bring out every note of indigenous flavor.

Bakery offerings include cakes, muffins, cookies and more. Each one is made from scratch in Asheville using only the freshest, all natural ingredients available. We are proud to offer gluten-free and vegan options.

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

PATIO BISTRO 30 Church Street, Waynesville.

828.454.0070. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Breakfast bagels and sandwiches, gourmet coffee, deli sandwiches for lunch with homemade soups, quich-

UPCOMING EVENTS

es, and desserts. Wide selection of wine and beer. Outdoor and indoor dining.

RENDEZVOUS RESTAURANT AND BAR Maggie Valley Inn and Conference Center 828.926.0201 Bar open Monday thru Saturday; dining room open Tuesday thru Saturday at 5 p.m. Full service restaurant serving steaks, prime rib, seafood and dinner specials.

FRIDAY, MAY 9:

Karaoke with Chris Monteith

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

THE WINE BAR 20 Church Street, downtown Waynesville.

828.452.6000. Underground cellar for wine and beer, served by the glass all day.

Cheese and tapas served Wednesday through Saturday 4 p.m.-9 p.m. or later. info@classicwineseller.com. Also on facebook and twitter.

SATURDAY, MAY 10:

Buchanan Boys

239-102

83 Asheville Hwy. Sylva Music Starts @ 9 • 631.0554 239-110

Nutrition Facts serving size : ab out 50 p ag es Am ount per Serving Calories 0 % Daily Value * Tot al Fat 0g

0%

Reg ional New s

100%

Op inion

100%

Outd oors

100%

Art s

100%

Entert ainm ent

100%

Classified s

100%

* Percent Weekly values b ased on Hayw ood, Jackson, M acon, Sw ain and Buncom b e d iet s.

ITALIAN

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STEAKS • PIZZA CHICKEN • SEAFOOD SANDWICHES OPEN FOR LUNCH & DINNER 7 DAYS A WEEK 1863 S. MAIN ST. WAYNESVILLE 828.454.5002 HWY. 19/23 EXIT 98

May 7-13, 2014

Sunday, May 11, 2014 11:30am - 3:00pm

Lunch is Back!

* Excludes Tax and Service Charge

Mother’s Day Brunch Call for Reservations Or visit Opentable.com

Call for Reservations 828.456.3551 Or visit Opentable.com

176 Country Club Dr. • Waynesville, NC

239-95

11:30 A.M.-2:30 P.M. DINNER NIGHTLY AT 4 P.M. MONDAY-SATURDAY Classic local American comfort foods, craft beers & small batch bourbons & whiskey.

Prime Rib Thursdays

Smoky Mountain News

Adults $29.95* Young at heart (70+) $19.95* Children under 12 $14.95* Age 5 and under Free

Lunch: 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. • Dinner Nightly at 4 p.m. • CLOSED ON SUNDAY 454 HAZELWOOD AVENUE • WAYNESVILLE Call 828-452-9191 for reservations 239-154

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A&E

Smoky Mountain News

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD STAFF WRITER What a difference a year makes.

For the last 12 months, Haywood County group Soldier’s Heart has been roaming Western North Carolina and beyond with their unique Appalachian porch-n-soul tone.

From opening for Shonna Tucker & Eye Candy to headlining packed houses at Highland Brewing and Jack of the Wood, the sextet has made large leaps in such a short period of time — a testament to their blue collar, nitty gritty sound that is a cosmic blend of Nashville alt-country, Bakersfield honky-tonk and backwoods Carolina folk.

Fronted by singer/songwriter Caleb Burress, the ensemble includes Joey Fortner (banjo), Zack Edwards (bass), Jeff Mendenhall (fiddle), Chris McElrath (guitar) and Rick Shore (drums). Over this past winter, Soldier’s Heart went into Solomon Mines Studios in Fletcher to record their debut album “Almanac,” which features appearances by Meg Profitt Heathman of The Petticoat Government and Darren Nicholson of Balsam Range.

The release party for the record will be May 17 at Frog Level Brewing Company in Waynesville.

And with their first year together coming to a close, the end of this chapter is hopefully only the beginning of a long and bountiful melodic journey.

When The Smoky Mountain News caught up with Burress and Fortner, they spoke of the whirlwind infancy stage of Soldier’s Heart, why the recording process solidified their intents, and how the camaraderie within the band has set an unbreakable foundation for incredible things to come.

Smoky Mountain News: Soldier’s Heart has been together a year. How has that time together affected you, personally and musically?

Caleb Burress: It has been kind of a blur. I think the thing I’m most proud of is the way in which the friendships within the band have grown. We kind of set out with this idea of “starting a family business,” and I think we’ve stayed true to those initial aspirations.

SMN: What was it like to bring your ideas and sound into a professional studio to see what would stick?

Joey Fortner: It was a little daunting to going into the stu-

Soldier’s Heart will hold their album release party/performance at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 17, at Frog Level Brewing Company in Waynesville. The show is free and open to the public. Americana group Owner of the Sun will play the release after-party at 10 p.m. at the Water’n Hole Bar & Grill in Waynesville. Garret K. Woodward photo dio because these recording engineer guys are professionals who hear music day in and day out. I was anxious of what they might think of us, but everything that turned out of the studio sounds amazing.

SMN: What’s your writing process like?

CB: It’s kind of feast or famine. I mean, I’ll go for maybe six to eight months without writing a song and then sit down in the evening and pull one out of the air, or a couple for that matter. I’m at the mercy of the muse, which can be frustrating at times, but it’s how I’ve learned to create. It’s more about hanging on to an emotion and holding it up to the light and inspecting it for a minute or two and doing that in the most engaging way you know how and being honest enough with yourself to be able to say, “This is a bad song” and throw some of them away. I’ve scrapped more songs than I’ve saved, and that element of honesty has to be

“I’ve scrapped more songs than I’ve saved, and that element of honesty has to be there — the listener knows when you’re telling the truth.”

— Caleb Burress

there — the listener knows when you’re telling the truth.

SMN: What does the title of the album mean?

CB: An almanac is kind of a snapshot of a year in a way. It sort of has that flavor of the past that we try to incorporate into our music. And we’re releasing it 364 days from our debut show, so it’s really come full circle on several levels.

SMN: How has this past year and the recording sessions changed the band?

CB: We all learned better how to communicate with each other, not just verbally, but through the act of playing together.

Personally, I’ve learned that a large part of being successful in your endeavors is simply growing accustomed to being tired.

I’ve waited my entire life to play in this band, and that’s nearly everyone’s attitude.

SMN: What do you want people to think or feel when they hear the album, and when they leave one of your shows?

JF: I truthfully want people to enjoy hearing it as much as we enjoy being a part of making it. When they listen to the album, I want them to know that what they are hearing are just six guys that love these songs and each other, and have become a family because of this music. We want the audience to become a part of that family, too, all over some good songs and good times.

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD

Garret K. Woodward and Tony Casey (right) in Asheville. Donated photo

SATURDAY MAY 10 9am-4pm Where Depot St. meets Commerce St.

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May 7-13, 2014

“Hey, Garret, what’s up, man?”

West (Idaho/Wyoming) and, now, Western I looked up from my notebook and there North Carolina. Though I always knew wanstanding in front of me was a familiar face. dering and grasping for my dreams was what Tony Casey, from the North Country. It was I was doing, it was (and still is in some ways) last Saturday evening and I was sitting at a a lonely road. picnic table at White Duck Taco in the River All of the faces, names, places, sounds, Arts District of Asheville. And there we were, smells, sights and foods I was familiar with two boys from the Champlain Valley of for the first 18 years of my life have, for betUpstate New York, crossing paths over a thou- ter or worse, become dusty memories in the sand miles from our hometowns. back of my mental closet, a box of images “Well, hey there, Tony,” I said. “It’s been and interactions I refuse to throw out. a long time, brother.”

And it really had been a while, probably around 12 years since we’d seen each other. Though we both had aged and specks of grey were noticed in our beards, we Hard rock/blues act The Hooten Hallers will were still the same teenagers who perform at 9 p.m. May 18 at No Name Sports ran crosscountry and track Pub in Sylva. against each other in high school.

Our mutual friends are too many The Whole Bloomin’ Thing festival will be held to name, with memories of home all day Saturday, May 10, in the Frog Level spilling out between every laugh district of Waynesville. and connection made.

Folk/rock band Pierce Edens & The Dirty Work Accompanying Tony was his will perform at 8 p.m. May 9 at BearWaters wife and a friend of theirs. Great Brewing Company in Waynesville. people. Turned out the threesome was in town to catch a show at The comic/drama “Painting Churches” hits The Grey Eagle. It also turned out the stage at 7:30 p.m. May 9-11, 16-19 at the that Tony was a journalist, too, Smoky Mountain Community Theatre in and worked in nearby Johnson Bryson City.

City, Tenn.

A bluegrass festival will be held from 11 a.m.

“What a small world, eh?” I to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 17, at the Stecoah remarked as we saluted the fading Valley Center in Robbinsville. sunset behind the Great Smoky Mountains to the west.

I grew up in the small Canadian border town of Rouses Point, population 2,209 With that said, running into someone residents. Positioned along the enormous Lake from your backyard, out in the chaos of Champlain, the town was the gateway to unrethe cosmos, is an exciting and relaxing lenting miles of cornfields, cows and countless feeling. It’s almost like exploring outer inches of snow in the winter. It was a quiet, space and coming into contact with anothcomfortable childhood, almost like something er astronaut. That person is a direct link to out of a Norman Rockwell painting. your past, a physical and emotional conAnd yet, I wanted more. So, I took off for nection to a world and existence that college 300 miles away in Connecticut. The seems oddly foreign to you when you finalschool became a springboard for a curious ly make that long, cathartic trek home for jaunt to Europe and career aspirations in the the holidays.

arts & entertainment

This must be the place

Then you run into those people who you Those sporadic encounters put this full cirdidn’t even know growing up, but they were cle spin on what it means to be part of this there, somehow, in some capacity. For great big universe that we barely know anyinstance, I was up in Bryson City doing a fea- thing about, but our thirst to know more ture article on The Filling Station Deli. The never ceases. owners, Barry and Helene Tetrault, sat down And as I bid goodbye to Tony, I got into with me for an interview. my truck, started up the engine and headed After the dots of conversation were conback for Waynesville, back towards that nected, we soon diswestern horizon line covered that Barry that I continue to “The further and farther was originally from chase with a reckless the North Country abandon. A smile you push out into the and went to high emerged, ear to ear, school and played as I shook my head in world, the closer you get sports with my awe of all of us, all of to your hometown, your uncles. To make us billions of tiny dots things more interestscattering about, past and yourself.” ing, Helene was from bumping into each Hamden, Conn. other, sometimes by (where I went to college), and I lived in a chance, sometimes by accident. house my senior year on the street she grew But we’re always grateful for the sentiup on. What the heck, you know? ment that we aren’t alone out here in the I guess the point of this week’s column is world, that somewhere, maybe around the the utter fascination I have with the simple nearest corner, you’ll run into your past, and notion that the further and farther you it’ll all make sense, all of your life’s choices, push out into the world, the closer you get as if you’re awakening from a foggy dream to your hometown, your past and yourself. and clarity now possesses you.

@SmokyMtnNews 25

arts & entertainment

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On the stage

On the wall

The comic/drama “Painting Churches” will kickoff Smoky Mountain Community Theatre’s 2014 production season at 7:30 p.m., May 9-11 and 16-19 in Bryson City.

Written by Tina Howe, the story focuses on Gardner Church, a famous poet, who is slipping in and out of senility. Fanny, his wife, is an eccentric lady. The Churches are preparing to move from their Boston townhouse to their summer cottage on Cape Cod. Their daughter, Mags, an aspiring artist, has come home to help with the move and at last paint a portrait of her aging parents.

Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students ages 6 to 18.

828.488.3489 or www.smctheatre.com.

Whole Bloomin’ Thing festival welcomes spring

The Smoky Mountain Model Railroaders Club will be holding an open house from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, May 11, at 130 Frazier Street in Waynesville. Large operating Lionel-type O-gauge Railroad with mountains, a city, passenger stations, log loader, an oil field operation, a subway, a freight yard, a farm, and more. Open houses held the second Sunday of each month, year-round. The club meets weekly on Tuesday evenings at 7 p.m. New members welcome. www.smokymountainmodelrailroaders.wordpress.com or 828.550.5959.

The Whole Bloomin’ Thing festival will be held all day Saturday, May 10, in the Frog Level district of Waynesville.

The festival serves as Haywood County’s annual spring kickoff. The event features numerous local growers, area artisans and a variety of nature-related professionals. Patrons can find fresh garden starts, ornamental plants and Mother’s Day gifts. There will also be local musicians, dancers, foods and kids activities.

Free. www.visitncsmokies.com.

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• Potter Hank Shuler will demonstrate his craft at the Macon County Art Association meeting at 1 p.m. May 12 at the Macon County Library in Franklin.

• The Cherokee Artistic Expression of the Trail of Tears presentation will be at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 8, at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin. The program will focus on Cherokee artwork from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina and from the Cherokee Nation in Talaquah, Oklahoma, and how their art expresses the Trail of Tears. www.fontanalib.org.

• A call for arts and crafts vendors is underway for Plottfest 2014, which will run June 21-22 at the Maggie Valley Festival Grounds. The event celebrates the storied Plott hound and serves as a benefit for the Head Start of Haywood and Jackson counties. www.plottfest.org or margieinthemountains@gmail.com.

• The Franklin Gem Show will be May 911 at the Watauga Festival Center. www.glwshows.com.

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Serving all of WNC

newsdesk crafts

Model railroaders host open house in Waynesville

• The films “Nut Job” and “Her” will be screened at The Strand at 38 Main in Waynesville. “Nut Job” will run May 910, with “Her” May 16-17. Screenings are at 7:45 p.m. on Fridays and 2 p.m., 5 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. on Saturdays.

Tickets are $6 per person, $4 for children. 828.283.0079 or www.38main.com.

May 7-13, 2014

On the street

• The Shelton House, which houses the Museum of North Carolina Handicrafts, opened for its 35th season on May 1 in Waynesville. The museum will conduct tours of the house and barn, its artifacts and crafts through October 31, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. The barn and the grounds can be rented for events and gatherings. Special group tours of the museum can be scheduled. www.sheltonhouse.org or 828.452.1551.

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Comedy-drama hits the stage in Bryson City

The Galaxy of Stars Series at Western Carolina University will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a lineup highlighted by a return engagement of country-western icons Riders in the Sky, a Grammy Awardwinning group that performed during the inaugural season of the series.

The only professional entertainment series in Jackson County, the series debuted in 2005, with all performances taking place in the 900-seat John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center.

The 2014-15 schedule will include the following: • The band Riders in the Sky will perform at 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 14. The group, founded in 1977 and featured in the motion picture “Toy Story,” is known for its awardwinning harmonies, wacky cowboy wit and high-yodeling adventures.

• “Broadway’s Next Hit Musical” will be at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24. A group of master improvisers gather made-up hit song suggestions from the audience to create a spontaneous evening of music and humor.

• Cinnamon GRITS: Christmas in the South will be at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 12.

arts & entertainment

WCU unveils schedule for Galaxy of Stars Series

This production is a mix of storytelling and music that provides a Southern-style look at the holidays.

• Elvis impersonator Travis Ledoyt will perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 31.

• Man 1, Bank 0 hits the stage at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 28. Patrick Combs tells the true story of a man who deposited a junk-mail check labeled “non-negotiable” into a bank account only to see things erupt into an adventure pitting a “David” regular guy against the “Goliath” of the banking industry.

• Ventriloquist Lynn Trefzger and comedian Glenn Singer will perform at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 27.

• We’ve Only Just Begun: Carpenters Remembered perform at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 26.

The Galaxy of Stars Series is presented by the WCU College of Fine and Performing Arts with support from the WCU Friends of the Arts organization.

Season subscriptions go on sale Monday, May 5. $120 for adults and $45 for students and children. Subscriptions for WCU faculty and staff are available for $110.

Single-show tickets for the 2014-15 series go on sale Aug. 12. Those prices are $21 for adults; $16 for WCU faculty and staff; and $7 for students and children. Ticket prices are $15 per person for groups of 20 or more.

828.227.2479 or www.bardoartscenter.wcu.edu.

27

arts & entertainment

On the beat Community dance in Sylva

Catamount Singers, Electric Soul come to Waynesville

Out of the Woodwork will perform at the community dance at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 11, in the Jackson County Library Complex in Sylva.

Dancing will include circle and square dances as well as contra dances. No previous experience is necessary and no partner is required.

There will also be a potluck dinner following the dance at 5 p.m. Please bring a covered dish, plate, cup and cutlery and a water bottle. Suggested donation of $5. ronandcathy71@frontier.com or www.dancewnc.com.

Sarge’s Dog & Suds benefit at Frog Level

May 7-13, 2014

The Dogs & Suds fundraiser for Sarge’s Animal Rescue Foundation will be held from 6 to 9 p.m.

Thursday, May 15, at Frog Level Brewing Company in Waynesville.

A 16 oz. beer, a “dog” with a side and a dessert will be served. This year the “dogs” will be a selection of locally produced, handcrafted sausages, hot links and bratwursts, provided by Haywood Smokehouse.

Music will be provided by the Sweet Claudette Band.

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

Ticket purchase is an automatic entry in drawing for $100 gift certificate to the Chef’s Table. Advance tickets can be bought at Sarge’s Adoption Center, Mountain Dreams Realty and Smoky Mountain Dog Bakery. www.sargeandfriends.org or www.froglevelbrewing.com.

Marshall Ballew.

Donated photo

Sylva library welcomes multi-instrumentalist Musician Marshall Ballew will perform at 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 13, at the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva.

Ballew is a singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose repertoire spans over a century of traditional music in an array of styles, from blues and ragtime to folk, old-time and bluegrass. He performs on a variety of stringed instruments, including guitar, banjo, fiddle, dobro, Hawaiian guitar and tiple. He has performed with such musicians as David Lindley, Jorma Kaukonen, Doc Watson, Dave Alvin and others.

This event is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Jackson County Public Library. Free.

828.586.2016 or www.fontanalib.org.

The Western Carolina University Catamount Singers and Electric Soul will kick off an East Coast tour of “Echoes of the Cotton Club,” a musical salute to the roots of jazz and the big band era, at 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 13, at Laurel Ridge Country Club in Waynesville.

“Echoes” follows significant musical developments through the decades to the present day – swing, blues, soul, rhythm and blues, Motown, funk, disco, hip-hop and modern singer-songwriters. Featured songs include hits by artists Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and Ella Fitzgerald, and the contemporary entertainers they inspire – such as Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson, Beyonce, Alicia Keys WCU photo and Bruno Mars.

The cocktail fundraiser and performance event at Laurel Ridge will benefit WCU’s Friends of the Arts, an organization that helps support the activities of the Bardo Arts Center and all of the university’s academic programs in the arts.

Tickets are $30 per person, which includes entertainment, small plates and desserts. For tickets, call the Laurel Ridge Country Club at 828-452-0545, extension 131.

Additional stops on the tour are scheduled for Wednesday, May 14, at Tuscola High School in Waynesville and Reynolds High School in Asheville.

828.227.7028.

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arts & entertainment

Chicago to hit the Harrah’s stage

Chicago will play Cherokee on May 16.

Donated photo

Classic rock icons Chicago will perform at 9 p.m. May 16 at Harrah’s Cherokee.

The Grammy and American Music Award-winning group is the first American rock band to chart Top 40 albums in five decades. They were recently ranked #13 in Billboard Magazine’s recent list of Top 100 artists of all time, making them the highest charting American band.

Tickets are $44.50, $5450 and $74.50.

800.745.3000 or www.harrahscherokee.com.

• Wade Baker, Dylan Riddle, S.S. Webb, Humps & The Blackouts and The Hooten Hallers will be performing at No Name Sports Pub in Sylva. Baker will play May 8, with Riddle May 9, Webb May 13, Humps & The Blackouts May 15-16 and The Hooten Hallers May 18. All shows are free and begin at 9 p.m. 828.586.2750 or www.nonamesportspub.com.

ALSO:

• Faith group Mercy Me will perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 17, at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin. Tickets are $30 and $35 per person. 866.273.4615 or www.greatmountainmusic.com.

• Jazz music by The Kittle and Collings Duo will be from 6 to 9 p.m. May 9 and 16 at Lulu’s On Main in Sylva. www.mountainlovers.com.

• Americana/folk group Red June will perform from 7 to 9 p.m. May 10 at the Historic Cowee School. The event is part of the Macon County Heritage Center concert series. $10 per person, $50 per person for a season ticket.

828.349.1945 or www.franklin-chamber.com.

• Ashli Rose, The Corbitt Brothers and Mile High will perform at the Rendezvous in the Maggie Valley Inn. Ashli Rose will play at 7 p.m. May 9, with The Corbitt Brothers at 9 p.m., May 10, and Mile High at 3 p.m. May 18. Pianist Steve Whiddon also plays every Thursday evening, and from noon to 3 p.m. on Sundays. 828.926.0201. • The Brasstown Ringers’ Springtime Celebration Concert will be at 4 p.m.

Saturday, May 10, at the First Baptist Church in Sylva. Free, with donations accepted. 828.524.4530 or dseverfall@yahoo.com • Call the Next Witness will perform at 8 p.m.

May 10 at Nantahala Brewing Company in Bryson City. Free. 828.488.2337 or www.nantahalabrewing.com.

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Smoky Mountain News

• A bluegrass festival will be held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 17, at the Stecoah Valley Center in Robbinsville. Arts, crafts, vendors and live music. Performers include the Stecoah JAM kids, Tori & Katie Jones, Grandpa’s Mountain Music. The Leftovers, Valley River Trio and Julie Nelms. www.stecoahvalleycenter.com.

• Eric Hendrix & Friends and the Franklin Ubuntu Choir will perform at the Sundays on the Square in Franklin. Hendrix will play May 11, with the choir May 18. All shows are at 3:30 p.m. Sponsored by the Macon County Arts Council. www.franklin-chamber.com.

• Pierce Edens & The Dirty Work, ‘Round the Fire and The Spontaneous Combustion Jam will be at BearWaters Brewing Company in Waynesville. Edens will play May 9 and ‘Round the Fire performs May 17. The jam runs from 8 p.m. to midnight every Monday, with all players welcome. Free. 828.246.0602 or www.bwbrewing.com. • Craig Summers & Lee Kram, Productive Paranoia, Ben Wilson and Soldier’s Heart will perform at Frog Level Brewing Company in Waynesville. Summers & Kram will play May 8 and 22, with Productive Paranoia May 9, Wilson May 16 and Soldier’s Heart May 17.

Free. 828.454.5664 or www.froglevelbrewing.com.

May 7-13, 2014

• Daniel Shearin, Joe Cruz, Jay Brown and Wendy Jones will perform at The Classic Wineseller in Waynesville. Shearin will play May 9, with Cruz May 10, Brown May 16 and Jones May 17. All other performances begin at 7 p.m. and are $10 minimum purchase per person. The Jones show will be a $34.99 per person four-course dinner.

828.452.6000.

• Joe Shain will perform at 7:45 p.m. May 15 at The Strand at 38 Main in Waynesville. $12. 828.283.0079 or www.38main.com.

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Books

Smoky Mountain News

The Jane Goodall of sea turtles s I write this, I am wondering if I should disqualify myself from writing a review about a book written by someone I know. But in this case I must write, and trying to be objective, let you know that something special has been born among us here in the mountains of Western North Carolina.

Alongside a rising tide of great books written by the likes of Charles Frazier, Ron Rash, Wayne Caldwell, Wiley Cash … there’s a new kid on the block. His name is Will Harlan and he lives in Barnardsville.

I met Will Harlan more than 15 years ago on Ossabaw Island, off the Georgia coast, at a gathering of Southern nature writers (see www.southernnature.org). For a long weekend retreat, we were paired up as roomates, which he had requested having Writer recently read my Walden Pond-like memoir Zoro’s Field: My Life in the Appalachian Woods.

Will was a force of nature even then, with his love of Thoreau and running several miles every day in training for his passion for running marathons. He was a couple of years or more into the writing of an environmentalist book of non-fiction about the fight for the preservation of Cumberland Island, which was only a stone’s throw to the south of Ossabaw. In the years to come, I read several versions of that manuscript as he struggled to “get it right.” That book was never published.

Instead, as the years flew by, Will became focused on the life of Carol Ruckdeschel, whom he had met and had spent significant time with as an apprentice to her self-sufficient life skills and her battle to protect and preserve the habitat and lives of ancient sea turtles there on Cumberland. Lord only knows how many days, weeks, months Harlan has spent on Cumberland Island with Ruckdeschel and running on the beaches. But the proof is in the pudding, as they say, and Harlan’s page-turner “pudding” is some of the best I’ve ever read.

While the title of this book is Untamed, it is the subtitle that tells the story of what is inside these pages — The Wildest Woman in America and the Fight for Cumberland Island.

The first lines of Harlan’s prologue give one a hint as to just who the book’s protagonist

Thomas Crowe

A

Carol Ruckdeschel is.

(Carol shot the wild hog roaming the dunes and gutted it on the beach. She cooked the meat over a campfire as the first pinpricks of starlight pierced the sky. She had not slept in two days, and her eyelids grew heavy as the food settled in.)

Harlan follows this little introductory story with a more objective biographical assessment of Ruckdeschel:

issues as land development and tourist traffic.

The plot line conflict of this book, then, is, as Harlan puts it, “… the fight over Cumberland Island that pits influential Carnegie and Rockefeller heirs against a scrappy turtle biologist who rides bareback in shark-infested waters. Will one of the wealthiest families in America be stopped by a dirt-poor naturalist with turtle guts beneath her fingernails?”

In a book ready-made for nature lovers and

Carol Ruckdeschel is the wildest woman in America. She eats roadkill, wrestles alligators, and dissects dead sea turtles that wash ashore.

She lives on a wilderness island in a ramshackle cabin that she built herself, and she eats mostly what she hunts, gathers, and grows. She is a hard-drinking, gun-toting, modern-day Thoreau who is even more outspoken in protecting her Waldenesque island.

From my perspective and after having read Untamed, I found that Ruckdeschel comes off as a combination of Jane Goodall and Annie Oakley. This is no exaggeration on my part. Harlan, too, refers to Ruckdeschel as “the Jane Goodall of sea turtles.” While living the life of an action hero, she is, as Harlan points out, “a selftaught scientist who knows more about sea turtles than most PhD biologists.” This is the story of a woman who “mostly prefers the companionship of wild creatures to human ones and who tromps the island in search of alligator dens and turtle nests.

She likes a hard drink every evening and is as tough as the sea turtle carapaces that Untamed (The Wildest Woman in America and line her museum. But beneath that hardthe Fight for Cumberland Island) by Will Harlan. ened shell is a soft, bruised being.” To furGrove/Atlantic, 2014. 307 pages. ther put things in perspective, in a conversation I had recently with a Southern writer friend of mine in an effort to describe this lovers of crime noir novels alike, Untamed book and its main character, I let slip with an delivers. With more internal and interchangeepithet saying, “Carol Ruckdeschel makes able plots and subplots than a Dan Brown Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eustas Conway (The Last filmscript, there is also a great love story. Bob American Man) look like a wimp.”

Shoop, who arrived on Cumberland Island and In these pages, Harlan reveals the kaleidowas enamored of living a self-sufficient life in scope of paradoxes that comprise his largerthe wild and had become Carol Ruckdeschel’s than-life real-life action hero. He says that she “apprentice,” falls in love with her and she is “brutal and benevolent, savage and sympawith him. For a number of years they live in thetic, cutthroat and compassionate.” These the same compound and are partners in the character traits are played out in a biography wild work that availed itself to them there on that reads like a good novel, in dramatic conthe island. In a lovely and wonderfully written trast to the lifestyles and world views of her snapshot of their love affair, on page 209 Will neighbors — the Carnegie and Rockefeller Harlan writes: families that have populated the island for several generations — in battles over such That night, they replayed the day’s adventures

Children’s author raising funds for next project

Local children’s author Anna Browning has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for her new project: a picture book titled A Special Family.

This book is about a little girl, Lacey, whose dad is about to be

deployed for a year. Lacey learns what “deployment” means and finds a way to be brave during such a hard time. Anna wrote this book in hopes that it would help parents in the military introduce this subject to their children.

Anna’s first picture book, Tanner Turbeyfill and the Moon Rocks, was released in May 2013 and has sold over 600 copies in the Western North Carolina region alone.

“The goal for this Kickstarter campaign is to raise enough money

over popcorn and margaritas on Carol’s porch.

Between their rocking chairs, an orb weaver spider had stretched an enormous silk web, an architectural work that rivaled a Carnegie mansion in its intricacy and Carnegie steel in strength. Carol wedged shims beneath the rockers to prevent them from disturbing the web. She and Bob sat in the unmoving rocking chairs and watched a strawyellow moon rise over the trees.

In direct contrast to the story of Carol and Bob Shoop is that of Louie McKee, a surveyor and real estate salesman and resident of Cumberland Island. Here, we have a tale of lust, alcohol and obsession that evolves and erupts into a murder mystery. Agatha Christie or her Inspector Poirot couldn’t have written a better script.

So, what can I tell you about this book without giving it all away? That Carol Ruckdeschel was a friend of Jimmy Carter?

That she is drop-dead gorgeous and highly intelligent? That she actually lived out what Thoreau only wrote about in his wildest dreams? That she is the target of hate mail and violent threats? That more than 53,000 sea turtles drowned in shrimp boat nets last year in the United States? That at age 72, Carol Ruckdeschel continues to study sea turtles, wade into gator holes, and fight for wilderness on land and in the ocean? As the old saying goes, the devil is in the details. Or maybe this sentiment is better put by Ernest Hemingway: “Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.”

In our case, the “he” is a “she” and the details of Carol Ruckdeschel’s life have distinguished her from most other humans. Yes, it’s in the details and the humor. Carol Ruckdeschel, while being extraordinary, is also very human with normal human desires.

From the book which is comprised of hours and hours and pages and pages of Will Harlan’s note-taking and interviews, this: “I never go hungry,” she said, “but what I wouldn’t give for some ice cream.”

(Thomas Crowe is the author of books of poetry, fiction and non-fiction, including his prize-winning memoir Zoro’s Field: My Life in the Appalachian Woods. He is the publisher of New Native Press and lives in the Tuckasegee community of Jackson County. He can be reached at newnativepress@hotmail.com or at his website: www.newnativepress.org.)

to help my publisher pay off the remaining production costs of Moon Rocks and the production costs of A Special Family,” Browning said.

“I’m hoping to raise at least $8,000 by the deadline, which is May 31.”

Kickstarter is an online organization that works specifically to fund creative projects. Kickstarter campaigns are all-or-nothing, meaning that if Anna does not receive at least $8,000 by May 31, no funds are received and donors are not charged for their pledge. www.anna-browning.com or anna@anna-browning.com.

Writer Louis-Virie Blanche will read from his works during the Coffee with the Poet series at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, May 15, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva.

Blanche will present his words that are “the gumbo of his Cherokee, Choctaw, Blackfoot, French Creole and African roots into a soulful, intriguing mix of creative wordplay.”

The series is co-sponsored by the NetWest chapter of the North Carolina Writer’s Network.

Free. www.mountainlovers.com.

Mary Crow series writer comes to Sylva Sallie Bissell, author of the critically acclaimed Mary Crow mysteries, will read from her latest installment, Deadliest of Sins, at 6:30 p.m.

Friday, May 9, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva.

Recently appointed special prosecutor, Mary Crow is sent to a rural county in North Carolina to investigate a possible anti-gay conspiracy between a recent murder and a homophobic preacher. But what starts as an effort to curb hate crimes turns into a nightmare of abuse and abduction. As Mary delves deeper into the community’s history, she uncovers menacing information about the infamous Highway 74, where people have either disappeared or been found dead. When she uncovers how it’s all connected, Mary is forced into a deadly world of stolen innocence — and she may become the next victim.

828.586.9499

books

Coffee with the Poet welcomes Blanche

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Sci-fi and fantasy at Sylva bookstore The Friends of the Library Used Book Store in Sylva has received a large number of sciencefiction and fantasy books in very good condition.

Visitors to the store who are fans of these genres stand to find some excellent bargains. The store is located at 536 West Main St. All proceeds from the Friends of the Library Used Book Store benefit The Jackson County Public Library.

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Smoky Mountain News

Franklin resident and author Tami Rasmussen will present her new book Murmur at 2 p.m., May 10, at Dalton’s Christian Bookstore in Franklin.

Located in Franklin, Murmur is the narrative of a horrific murder and the shocking mystery threatening a way of life in the remote location of White Rock Mountain and Hickory Gap. Murder, mystery, fear and great loss cloak this isolated mountain community.

The book is about the mountain folks who live here and their perseverance during the tumultuous 1970s. Without electricity, telephone service or running water, Sonny Branch is in her element. Resisting modern amenities and lifestyle, she is a strong and capable mountain woman.

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Outdoors

Smoky Mountain News

Susan Ervin, market manager of the soon-to-launch Cowee Farmers Market, bends to tend a bed at the old Cowee School, where the market will be held.

Holly Kays photos

Growing Season New farmers markets to bring local focus to Cowee, Maggie Valley

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER he grassy field is empty and the playground vacant as the sun sheds evening beams across the grounds of Cowee School. But when Susan Ervin looks at the unoccupied asphalt track and pavilion bare of coolers and tablecloths, she sees the busy community scene she’s hoping to experience on the long-awaited May 13.

It’s the day that will kick off the new Cowee Farmers Market, a goal Ervin and a core group of eight others have been working toward for months.

In the empty field of the decommissioned schoolturned-community-center, she sees vendors setting up displays of fresh produce, crafts, preserves, meats and plants. She sees a local band playing in the pavilion, tip jar open. She sees children playing on the swing set, teenagers tossing a football around in the field — just people having fun.

“We are trying to have this whole facility be a community resource, a place to bring people,” Ervin said of the old school. “We want to promote local agriculture and local foods and people eating well. We want to promote people coming out here and having a good time.”

The shutdown school, now reborn as the Macon County Heritage Center at Cowee School, seemed like the perfect venue to accomplish that.

The pavilion, lawn, playground and ballfields

T

make room for people to spread out and stay beyond the time it takes to simply pick out a head of lettuce or piece of pottery. Customers can use the school’s bathrooms, and vendors can buy time in its USDA-certified kitchen to prepare wares for sale. Studios teaching everything from pottery to textiles fill the old classrooms, giving opportunity for the missions of the school and the farmers market to spur one another on.

“The whole facility is just very inviting,” Ervin said.

A LONG ROW TO HOE It wasn’t hard to garner support for a new market among the circle of people already involved with restoring Cowee School and Rickman Store, which is just down the road. But the road to 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 13, has not been an easy one.

“There has been a lot of work,” said Beth Moberg, who has been working alongside Ervin.

The group of nine has been holding three-hour meetings since the fall to hash out the particulars of when the market would be held, how much vendors would pay to participate, what the bylaws should be — all the millions of decisions that go

S EE MARKETS, PAGE 33

Farmers Markets Haywood County Canton Farmers Market and Heritage Crafts Produce, plants, chicken and quail eggs, grass-fed beef and other naturally raised meats, natural soaps and body care products, chemical-free candles, woodwork and scroll saw art, preserves, pottery, paintings, iron work and other heritage crafts. Credit and debit accepted by some vendors. 3 to 7 p.m. Thursdays through Oct. 31 in the municipal parking lot of downtown Canton.

Robin Smith, 828.734.9071 or Michaelrobin07@yahoo.com. www.focusofcanton.com/farmers-market-canton-nc.html Haywood Historic Farmers Market Local produce; meats, seafood delivered overnight from Kitty Hawk, local mountain trout; cheese, eggs and honey; spring bedding, plants and flowers; pickles, preserves and sauces; baked goods; fresh pasta, cornmeal, mushrooms and beverages from the Waynesville Soda Jerks; birdhouses, feeders gourds and heritage crafts such as pottery, blacksmithing, furniture and soaps.

Live music and Kids’ Corner Market offered monthly. Crafters regularly give live demos.

Many vendors accept credit cards and coupons from Senior Nutrition Program and WIC; SNAP/EBT benefits will likely be accepted by early June. 8 a.m. to noon Wednesday and Saturday through midDecember at 250 Pigeon St, Waynesville in the parking lot of the HART Theatre.

828.280.1381 or haywoodfarmersmarket@gmail.com. www.waynesvillefarmersmarket.com.

Maggie Valley Farmers Market Local produce, arts and crafts, with vendor space still available at this new market.

Live music and children’s activities planned periodically. Cash only with PayPal plans in the works. 8 a.m. to dusk Fridays and Saturdays beside Organic Beans Coffee Co., 1098 Soco Rd. in Maggie Valley.

828.209.8061 or adam@organicbeanscoffee.com.

The Original Waynesville Tailgate Market Fresh fruits and vegetables, honey and plants from Haywood County farmers. A monthly Kids’ Corner event promotes healthy eating. Tables available for nonprofits to share information. WIC and Senior Nutrition Program coupons accepted. 8 a.m. to noon, Wednesdays and Saturdays through Oct. 29 at 171 Legion Dr., Waynesville, at the American Legion in Waynesville behind Bogart’s restaurant.

828.648.6323. www.facebook.com/pages/waynesvill-tailgate-market

Jackson County Cashiers Tailgate Market Fresh baked goods, pesticide-free vegetables and fruits, fresh trout, local beef and lamb, goat cheese, eggs, jellies, fruit pies and more. Community-supported agriculture memberships available. 9 a.m. to noon Saturdays from May through October.

Anglican Church parking lot next to Macon Bank on U.S. Highway 64 East.

828.226.9988 or blueridgefarmers@gmail.com.

Jackson County Farmers Market A variety of locally produced vegetables, meats, honey, botanicals, crafts and more.

Plant starts, green and other spring veggies, meats, eggs, baked goods, mozzarella, honey, jams and jellies, pickles and local crafts such as pottery, soaps, journals, scarves, toys, candles, kitchen accessories and more. SNAP benefits, credit and debit payments taken. Family Art at the Market offered 10 a.m. to noon; Storytime with City Lights at 11 a.m.; monthly fundraising brunches and occasional music. 9 a.m. to noon from April to October at Bridge Park in Sylva; 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. from November to March at Community Table 828.631.3033 or jacksoncountyfarmersmarket@gmail.com.

Macon County Cowee Farmers Market Fresh, local vegetables, fruits, botanicals, baked goods, eggs, prepared foods, arts and crafts and pasture-raised meats. Live music, junior vendor and education-focus booths, food tastings and arts and crafts planned. Vendor space still available at this new market. 3:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesdays May 13 through Oct. 28 at Old Cowee School, 51 Old Cowee School Dr. in Franklin. info@coweefarmersmarket.com or 828.524.8369. http://www.coweefarmersmarket.com.

Franklin Farmers Tailgate Market Variety of homegrown products, including fruits and vegetables, cheese, plants, eggs, trout, preserves, herbal soap, honey, artisan breads and more. 8 a.m. to noon Saturdays through November on East Palmer Street across from Drake Software.

828.349.2049 or alan_durden@ncsu.edu. www.facebook.com/franklinncfarmersmarket.

Swain County Swain County Farmers Market Organic and sustainably-grown produce, plants, herbs, trout and honey as well as locally crafted jewelry, quilts, pottery, gourds and more. 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Fridays through Oct. 31. 210 Main St., at the corner of Main St. and Everett St., in Bryson City.

828.488.3848 or christine_bredenkamp@ncsu.edu. www.facebook.com/pages/swain-countyfarmers-market.

MARKETS, CONTINUED FROM 32

BUILDING COMMUNITY

set up shop in just a few days.

Returned mail issues discovered at Cowee market

Maggie market seeking vendors

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A free introduction to square-foot gardening at 5:30 p.m. May 13 at the Canton Branch Library will teach participants how to get a high yield from a small space. Hughes Roberts, a certified square-foot gardening instructor, will give a program on the squarefoot gardening method created by Mel Bartholomew. The method uses only 20 percent of the space a conventional row garden does and takes less space, work and water.

And, it can be done on patios and decks.

This Giving Garden program is a joint initiative of the Haywood County Public Library, Haywood County Cooperative Extension Center and the Extension Master Gardener Volunteer Program, and it’s supported by the Friends of the Library and the Master Gardener Volunteer Association.

828.648.2924.

Gardening 101 just in time for planting From raised beds to garden tools to composting, participants in Master Gardener Kathleen Lamont’s gardening class held at 10 a.m. May 10 at the Waynesville Library will get the full story on gardening basics.

Segments include: get the low down on raised beds; how, where and what to grow; top 10 garden tools; composting for dummies; and dealing with pests and critters.

Refreshments and door prizes will be part of the morning, sponsored by Friends of the Library.

828.356.2507.

Volunteers needed for invasive species removal in Haywood An invasive species removal project originally scheduled for April 29 has been moved to for 2 to 5 p.m. May 7 at Vance Street Park in Waynesville. With tools and refreshments provided, volunteers will help Haywood Waterways Association remove invasive plants along Richland Creek and plant natives. Wear old clothes and bring boots and gloves. 828.476.4667 or info@haywoodwaterways.org.

Smoky Mountain News

That’s a conviction that’s leading Justin Phillips to start his own Cowee Farmers Market organizers have just learned that the new farmers market, this U.S. Postal Service has been returning their mail, so registrations one over in Maggie Valley. sent by mail may have gotten lost. The grand opening is set for Phillips, who owns May 13, and vendor space is still available. The schedule also has Organic Beans Coffee Co., space for musical talent and booths for nonprofits. Forms, by-laws has a love of both food and other information is available online at www.coweefarmersand face-to-face interacmarket.com. tion. The nearest farmers 828.524.8369 or info@coweefarmersmarket.com. market for Maggie residents was in Waynesville, and he wanted Maggie to The Maggie Valley Farmers Market is still looking for vendors, have something of its musicians and others who can help round out the farmers market own. experience.

“It was a little difficult 828.209.8061 or adam@organicbeanscoffee.com. to get good, fresh food in Maggie Valley,” Phillips said. “You either have to YNERGY NOT COMPETITION go to Waynesville to their farmers market or to Ingles to get it. I wanted some fresh Vendors have been getting a lot more of food closer by.” those chances in recent years. North So, around January, Phillips started takCarolina is in the top 10 states for number ing some solid steps for turning the twoof farmers markets, and its tally — like that acre lot next to the coffee shop into a full-on of basically every other state — is going up. market from 8 a.m. to dusk every Friday Just from 2012 to 2013 the number jumped and Saturday. He’s got about 20 vendors 13 percent, moving from 202 markets to signed up, but he’s got plans beyond even 229, according to the U.S. Department of that measure of success. Like Ervin, Phillips Agriculture. Since 2000, the nationwide

Unearth the secret of square-foot gardening

May 7-13, 2014

into creating a successful market. Then, of course, there was the time spent actually carrying out those decisions and the hours devoted to securing $3,300 in grant money from the Conservation Fund’s Resourceful Communities Program. Of that, $3,000 will go to pay Ervin a small salary for the time she pours into her leadership role as market manager, and $300 will go to the items and permits required to start the market up.

“Every penny of money taken in by applications [from vendors] will go back to the farmers market,” Moberg said.

Meanwhile, Ervin has been busy recruiting vendors, sending out press releases, organizing a raffle, handing out flyers … the list goes on. A lot of work has gone into getting the market going, but in Ervin’s mind, there’s no better cause. The more farmers markets, the more outlets people have to buy fresh food, the more connection they have to the people who grow it, the more excuses they have to get out and talk to their neighbors and the more money stays in the local economy.

“I think a lot of people have interest in local, healthy food,” she said.

Ervin, left, and “They like to think, ‘I Beth Moberg stand know the guy who grew on the empty these tomatoes, and they trout where the taste fantastic.’” farmers market will

number of farmers markets has nearly tripled from 2,863 to 8,144.

For those who recall those third grade lessons on supply and demand, that may seem to be an unsustainable trend. Won’t the new markets run out of customers to sustain them and vendors to supply them?

At some point, does the birth of a new market just mean the death of another?

The farmers market revolution isn’t a simple supply-and-demand model, though.

People will always need to eat, and both Ervin and Phillips believe that their preferred way to do so is changing.

“I think people in small towns are concerned about our economy,” Ervin said.

“We want to keep money in our community, and we also want to see the heritage of the area survive.”

By creating more markets, it becomes easier for the people already perpetuating that heritage to make a living and for people who are interested in giving it a try to get started. When large-scale wholesalers were the only game in town, Ervin said, people had to fully commit to producing a large crop in order to make money as a farmer, while now, “if you’ve got extra blueberries, you can bring them and sell them.”

Placing optimism in farmers markets is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“I think that farmers markets encourage people who want to grow stuff to know they will have a market,” Ervin said. “More growers make more markets be able to operate, and more markets make more growers be able to survive.”

That’s because it takes more than just one day at market for a grower to make it worth their while, especially during the thick of growing season. After all, a tomato picked ripe on Sunday won’t look so tasty by the time the next Saturday market rolls around.

“They’re picked ripe, so therefore they need to go to an outlet,” said Joyce Haas, treasurer of the Franklin Tailgate Market, who plans to sell plants at the Cowee Market, too. “For somebody in that area, if they can get a Tuesday in Cowee, a Friday in Bryson City and a Saturday in Franklin, that gives them several opportunities to move their products.”

Robin Smith, manager of Canton Farmers Market and Heritage Crafts, agrees. She manages the market, but she also sells beef and baked goods at Canton and twice a week at the Historic Haywood Farmers Market.

“That’s my livelihood, during the summer, is doing markets,” she said. “To me, that gives the farmers and growers in different places more opportunity in different places to sell their products.”

Which is another aspect that sets farmers markets apart from the rest of the business world. Increasing the number of markets doesn’t create competition so much as it does synergy.

“It just works in a nice circle,” Ervin said, “where people are getting fed and farmers have somewhere to sell their stuff.”

And the more rural corners like Cowee and Maggie Valley that have those outlets, the bigger that circle becomes.

outdoors

wants to see his market turn into a fullfledged community magnet, something greater than the equivalent of a collection of roadside produce stands.

“The problem with the roadside produce stand is it’s not a gathering place. Can you hear music from local musicians?

Probably not. Can you buy soap that was made by one of your neighbors? Probably not,” he said.

Maggie Valley may not be that far from Waynesville and its pair of biweekly farmers markets, but Phillips doesn’t see that as a problem. It’s about giving locals a place to gather and get fresh food and vendors another chance to sell their wares.

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outdoors May 7-13, 2014

Program to get close-up with flower photography A presentation and critique session entitled May Flowers and Close-ups, held from 3 to 5 p.m. May 10 at 318 Skyland Dr., Suite 1A in Sylva, will feature instruction from Larry Thompson, a photographer recently retired from 20 years as the National Audubon Society’s vice president of the Southeast Region and five years as executive director of the North Carolina Wildlife Federation.

In addition to the presentation, this meeting of the Sylva Photo Club will include a Q&A session and showing of members’ submissions for the May Flowers and Close-ups assignment.

Comments and suggestions for improving the images are welcome. The hour preceding the program will be dedicated to Camera Talk, a free discussion about any topic related to photography.

828.226.3840 or sylvaphotoclub@gmail.com.

Smokies to offer glimpse of park careers Anyone who’s wondered what a day in the life of a National Park Service employee looks like will get a chance to see at National Park Career Day, from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. May 10 in Great Smoky

Smokies home to rare synchronized lightning bugs Spots are going fast to view the unique synchronous firefly display in the Elkmont area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park June 4-11. Every year, thousands of visitors gather to watch the synchronized flashing of Photinus carolinus, a firefly species that puts on a natural light show. Parking passes are required to attend.

Reservations cost $1.50 each and cover a maximum of six people per vehicle. Shuttle buses will transport people from the designated parking area to the viewing area beginning at 7 p.m., for an additional $1 per person. A small number of passes will be held until the day before the event. www.recreation.gov or 877.444.6777.

Heritage Life Skills, an event offered through Carolina Readiness Supply, will give preppers and run-of-the-mill community members alike the chance to learn and practice the skills they would need to survive off the grid. The May 16-18 event at Haywood County Fair Grounds will include classes ranging from surveillance detection to yurt building to cheese making, with meals available for purchase from K & B Catering and BBQ. $50 per day or $110 for the weekend. Registration form online at www.carolinareadiness.com under the events category or at Carolina Readiness Supply, 72 Montgomery St. in Waynesville. 828.456.5310.

Thank you from the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce's

23rd Annual Stonewall Challenge Golf Tournament!

Platinum Partners: Smoky Mountain News

student volunteer days offer another option for interested students unable to make the May 10 event.

865.436.1713.

Event to help Haywood prep like pros

We appreciate our Partners and could not produce a successful event without you.

Champion Credit Union Harrah's Cherokee Casino Resort Stanberry Insurance

Diamond Partners: F.Patrick McGuide DDS, INNSights Internet & Social Media Marketing Pepsi Cola

Gold Partners: 34

Mountains National Park. Park employees will lead handson activities to demonstrate their job duties and dispense career-planning advice. Careers include wildlife management, law enforcement, archeology and more.

Participants will Students watch a also have a chance demonstration at a to Skype with previous National employees at Grand Park Career Day Canyon National event. NPS photo Park to hear their perspective.

The event is open to middle, high school and college students, though middle school students must be accompanied by a parent.

Participants should meet on the front porch of park headquarters, located behind Sugarlands Visitor Center on Newfound Gap Road, at 9:30 a.m. Long pants, sturdy shoes, layered clothing, rain gear, lunch and a notebook will all be necessary. Monthly

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outdoors

Tourism Economic Impact in Haywood County

PLEASE REMEMBER TO THANK OUR VISITORS FOR TRAVELING!

SOURCES: “The Economic Impact Of Travel On North Carolina Counties.” This study was prepared for the North Carolina Division of Tourism, Film and Sports Development by the US Travel Association.

Additional analysis by Dr. Steve Morse, Economist, Western Carolina University, and HT438- Hospitality and Tourism Strategy class, Spring Semester 2014.

Smoky Mountain News

MAY 3-11, 2014

As a result of taxes generated by tourist spending in Haywood County each of the 35,076 Haywood County households pays $325 less in local and state taxes.

May 7-13, 2014

• Generated $126.35 per year in direct tourist spending • Produced $23.71 million per year in worker income & paychecks • Created $5.04 million per year in local county tax revenues • Created $6.35 million per year in state tax revenue • Generated $11.39 million per year in combined state & local taxes • Generated 1,310 jobs per year • 2012 Tourist spending increased by 4.9% over 2011

U.S Census Bureau, Number of household units in NC counties, 2012; www.census.gov

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outdoors

Regional counties to form Mountain United Classic soccer teams

Matt Kolodzik, Macon and Rabun counties, 828.713.2664; Jonathan Parsons, Jackson County, 828.399.9614; Scott Cline, Swain County, 828.736.0455. www.maconsoccer.net.

Soccer players ages 11 to 18 looking for a challenge beyond their local leagues will have a chance to try out for a spot on the Mountain United Classic Soccer Teams May 17-18. The teams will travel to compete with some of the state’s top youth soccer teams.

The May 17 tryout will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Jackson County Recreation Center in Cullowhee. The May 18 tryout will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Macon County Industrial Park Soccer Fields.

Players vying for a spot on the U11 and U12 boys teams or U11-U18 girls team may attend one or both days. Teams for boys 18 and under will be organized in the spring.

Long-distance horseback ride planned at Biltmore Equestrians are wanted for a long-distance trail ride scheduled for June 6-8. The Biltmore NATRC Annual Competitive Trail Ride includes the French Broad Classic, a one- or two-day ride on the well-maintained trails of Biltmore Estate. Participants will have the chance to sharpen their trail-riding skills while camping with family and friends on the estate.

The first five people ages 10-18 who register are free. First-time riders will be assigned a mentor. Juniors will receive prizes for completion and placement. Adult award categories are novice, competitive pleasure and open. Sherry Garnes, 828.400.7402, www.natrc.org.

Boating safety course offered at HCC

May 7-13, 2014

A boating safety course, held from 6 to 9:30 p.m., May 19-20, at Haywood Community College, will give participants a certification in skills to enjoy the water safely. Both evenings are required in order to obtain the certification, though the course will be repeated at HCC June 2-3 and June 14-15. The class will be held in room 3322 of building 3300.

Free with no age limits, but pre-registration is required at www.ncwildlife.org.

SATURDAY, MAY 17 • 2014

Smoky Mountain News

10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Introduction to Falconry • 2:30 p.m.

Pete Kipp, Master Falconer, and Jeff Curtis of Curtis Wright Outfitters will be giving a demonstration involving interaction with red-tailed hawks

Fine dining , Lodging & Shopping await you!

Virtual Waterfall Tour Crafts for Kids Educational Programs Recreational Vendors & Demos All Programs & Events are Free!

Music by the Sliding Rockers at the Visitor Center, 5-7 p.m.

t of it!

Make a Weekend ou

Plan to visit Brevard & Transylvania County

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Traveling from Brevard, Take Us. 64 West to Sapphire North Carolina. Take a left onto 281 South. 1 mile on your left is the entrance to the park. Take a left into the park & you arrive at the Visitor Center. More information: 828-966-9099

Community College lead horticulture instructor, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. May 13 at HCC. This Great Smoky Mountains chapter of the Audubon Society program will cover elements of the bird-friendly yard, composting and vermiposting, which is composting with red worms. Refreshments served.

The chapter meets 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. the second Tuesday of the month through October for an hour of birding at the Paul Kern Youth Center in Lake Junaluska.

828.550.5449.

Karen Lawrence photo

Clay County bird walk

warblers. The group will meet at the Franklin Kmart at 8 a.m. to carpool. RSVP to 828.524.5234.

Haywood County naturalist Don Hendershot will lead a walk on May 10 at Tusquitee in Clay County for the Franklin Bird Club. Expected avian guests include the prairie warbler and red-headed woodpecker, and there will be a good chance of golden-winged, blue wings and Kentucky

Program to promote bird-friendly yards Bird-lovers will learn how to make their yards more inviting for birds at a presentation by George Thomas, Haywood

National Park Service photo

outdoors

Birders sight in during a walk in the Walnut Creek area of Macon County.

A Balsam Mountain Trust member displays a barred owl.

Bereavement program offers arboretum trip A day trip to the North Carolina Arboretum on May 15 through Wells Care Connections, a bereavement outreach program, will give participants a chance to take a guided tour of the grounds, eat lunch at Savory Thyme Café and stop by the farmers market on the way home. $20 with transportation included. Space limited to 15 people. RSVP to Jennifer at 828.456.3535 or Robin at 828.452.5039.

Birdhouse bids sought for community garden

Green Thumb Community Garden and Daydreamz Project are hoping to scare up some funds through a silent auction for handmade birdhouses crafted and donated locally The auction will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 11 at the Old Armory Recreation Center in Waynesville.

All proceeds from the auction, which will occur simultaneously with The Whole Bloomin’ Thing Festival in Frog Level, will benefit the community garden, now in its fifth season. The group is still taking birdhouse donations through May 9, to be dropped off at the armory during business hours. Winning bids will be selected at 2:30 p.m.

828.476.4231.

Birds of prey program swoops into Cherokee A Birds of Prey program planned for 1 p.m., May 9, at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center will give visitors an up-close look at birds ranging from the eastern screech owl to the northern bald eagle. Michael Skinner, executive director of Balsam Mountain Trust, will give the hour-long program in the trust’s third partnership with the National Park Service to provide it.

The program will be held in the Oconaluftee Multipurpose Room, adjacent to the visitor center on Newfound Gap Road.

828.497.1904 or www.nps.gov/grsm.

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Love

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Smoky Mountain News

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WNC Calendar

Smoky Mountain News

COMMUNITY EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS • Dedication service for “Sharin Care,” 2 p.m. Friday, May 9, The Open Door dining room, 32 Commerce Street, Waynesville. Sharin Care is a new fund available to assist those who qualify for help with certain dental procedures, pharmaceuticals and gas assistance for medical appointments.

• Smoky Mountain Model Railroaders Club Open House, 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, May 11, 130 Frazier St., behind Sagebrush Restaurant, Waynesville. http://smokymountainmodelrailroaders.wordpress.com/.

• “Radiation Today,” lecture by Perry Sprawls, Distinguished Emeritus Professor, Emory University, Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, 7 p.m.

Thursday, May 15, UNC Asheville’s Reuter Center. Open to the public, 251.6140 or olliasheville.com.

BUSINESS & EDUCATION • Basic introduction to Pinterest, 5:45 to 7:15 p.m.

Wednesday, May 7, Jackson County Public Library Complex, Sylva. Free, but limited to first 16 people to register. 586.2016.

• Fueling Your Business – a business owner’s guide to lending 6 to 9 p.m. May 8, HCC Student Center. https://www.ncsbc.net/workshop.

• Fueling Your Business – a business owners guide to lending, 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, May 8, Haywood Community Center Student Center, Clyde. Register at, www.ncsbc.net/workshop.

• Final Opt-In Project Check-In Regional Summit, Thursday, May 8, Cherokee. Hosted by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) and the Southwestern Commission Council of Governments organization. www.optinswnc.org.

• Commencement for WCU’s Graduate School, 7 p.m.

May 9; commencement for the colleges of Arts and Sciences, Education and Allied Professions, and Fine and Performing Arts, 10 a.m. May 10, followed the same day by a 2 p.m. ceremony for the College of Business, College of Health and Human Sciences, and Kimmel School of Construction Management and Technology. All ceremonies will take place at Ramsey Regional Activity Center. www.website graduation.wcu.edu, 227.7216.

• National Park Career Day, 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Saturday, May 10, front porch of Great Smoky National Park Headquarters, Sugarlands Visitor Center, about two miles south of Gatlinburg, Tenn. Emily Guss, 865.436.1713.

• “Meet Maggie” meet and greet other Chamber members, 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 13, Frankie’s Trattoria, Maggie Valley. Guest Speaker: Katy Gould, Small Business Center. RSVP to Teresa@maggievalley.org, 926.1686.

• Getting More Out of Social Media for the Business Owner, 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, May 15, SBC.haywood.edu, 627.4512, or email kmgould@haywood.edu.

• Young Professionals Networking Lunch, noon to 1 p.m.

Thursday, May 15, Fat Buddies Ribs and BBQ Waynesville.

• Young Professionals Spring Kickoff Cookout, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 15, Herren House Bed & Breakfast, 94 East St., Waynesville.

FUNDRAISERS AND BENEFITS • The American Cancer Society presents Relay For Life of West Haywood “Celebrating the Courage to Fight,” 6 p.m. May 9 to 6 a.m. May 10, Waynesville Recreation Center.

All phone numbers area code 828 unless otherwise noted.

• R.E.A.C.H.’s 6th annual American Girl Tea Party, 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 10, Cowee Baptist Church, Children, $10; adults, $25; table, $150. 369.5544 or 586.8969.

• Wine Tasting Fundraiser for FUR (Feline Urgent Rescue) Waynesville’s only feline-only shelter, drop-in 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, May 16, Bosu’s Wine Shop, 138 Miller St., Waynesville. $25 for four tickets. 452.0120.

BLOOD DRIVES Haywood • Blood Drive, 2 to 6:30 p.m. Friday, May 9, Clyde Elementary School Blood Drive, 4182 Old Clyde Road, Clyde. 627.9883.

• MedWest Harris Blood Drive, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Thursday, May 15, 68 Hospital Drive, Sylva. 586.7130 or 800.REDCROSS. • North Hominy Community Center Blood Drive, 2 to 6:30 p.m. Monday, May 12, 2670 Newfound Road (Exit 33), Canton. 648.3220.

• Smoky Mountain Healthcare Blood Drive, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, May 13, 1349 Crabtree Road, Waynesville.

454.9260.

• Senior Resource Center Blood Drive, 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 14, 81 Elmwood Way, Waynesville.

800.REDCROSS.

Macon • Keller Williams Realty Blood Drive, 1 to 5 p.m.

Thursday, May 8, 1573 Highlands Road, Franklin.

524.0100 or log onto www.redcrossblood.org to schedule an appointment.

HEALTH MATTERS • Breast Health Forums, 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 8, Waynesville branch library. Sponsored by Haywood County Health and Human Services Agency, American Cancer Society, MedWest Haywood and Mountain Projects, in celebration of Public Health Month. mhauser@haywoodnc.net or 452.6675, ext. 2272.

RECREATION & FITNESS • Registration through May 23 for Adult Basketball League at Cullowhee Recreation Center and Cashiers/Glenville Recreation Center. $425 per team. $100 deposit due at registration. Must be at least 14 years old and in high school. Play begins Monday, June 2. 293.3053.

THE SPIRITUAL SIDE • Paint Your Prayer Retreat with Sr. Fran Grady, SCL, Monday, May 19 – Sunday, May 24, Living Waters Catholic Reflection Center, Maggie Valley. 926.3833 catholicretreat.org.

• Life in the Spirit Seminar, 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesdays, through June 4, St. Margaret Catholic Church, Maggie Valley. Don or Janet Zander, 926.2654.

SENIOR ACTIVITIES • Senior trip, Wednesday, May 7, to 3rd Generation Barn Loft/historical tour of Canton. Leave Waynesville Recreation Center at 10 a.m. Cost is $6 for members of the Waynesville Recreation Center or $8 for non-members. Register, 456.2030.

• Beginners Meditation Class for seniors, 3:45 p.m.

Thursdays, through May 8, Senior Resource Center, Waynesville. Class emphasizes daily mental and physical exercise, 452.2370.

• MemoryCare Family Caregiver Education Program “Caregiver College,” a series of six, two-hour lectures for caregivers of persons with memory disorders, 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesdays, May 13 – June 17, Haywood county Senior Resource Center, 81 Elmwood Way, Waynesville. Instructor: Lisa Verges, MD, $85 (free to caregivers of those actively enrolled in MemoryCare), scholarships available.

Register at 771.2219, office@memorycare.org.

• Monthly Wellness Seminar entitled “Essential Oils,” 1 p.m. Wednesday, May 14, Department on Aging/Senior Center, 100 County Services Park, Sylva. Free, but reservations required. 586.4944.

• Silver Sneakers New Member Orientation, 10 a.m. to noon, Wednesday, May 14, Waynesville Recreation Center. 456.2030 or email recprograms@townofwaynesville.org.

• Senior Trip to see the Asheville Tourists, 5 p.m.

Thursday, May 15, Asheville. Depart time is 5 p.m. $10 for members of the Waynesville Recreation Center or $12 for non-members. 456.2030 or email recprograms@townofwaynesville.org.

KIDS & FAMILIES • Thursday Explorers hiking trip, 4:30 to 7:45 p.m.

Thursday, May 8, for third through sixth graders. Meet at Waynesville Recreation Center. $5 members, $8 nonmembers. 456.2030.

• Teen Athlete Safety Program “Overhead/throwing Athletes,” 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, May 15, MedWest Haywood Fitness Center, classroom.

• Nature Nuts: Reptiles, 9 to 11 a.m. May 10, May 16, May 24, Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Transylvania County. For ages 4-7. Learn the difference between a reptile and an amphibian. Register, 877.4423 or at ncpaws.org/reservations/pisgah/CalendarView.

• Eco Explorers: Archery, 1 to 3 p.m. May 16, May 24.

For ages 8-13. Topics covered will include safety, varieties of bows and arrows, and lots of time spent shooting at targets. Equipment and materials are provided.

Register, 877.4423 or at ncpaws.org/reservations/pisgah/CalendarView.

• Mountain United Classic Soccer try-outs, 4 to 6 p.m.

Saturday, May 17, Cullowhee Recreation Center, 88 Cullowhee Mountain Road, Cullowhee. All ages.

• Mountain United Classic Soccer try-outs, 2 to 4 p.m.

Sunday, May 18, Macon County Industrial Park Soccer Fields, 96 Industrial Park Drive, Franklin.

Science & Nature • Birds of Prey, 1 p.m. Friday, May 9, Oconaluftee Multipurpose Room, Newfound Gap Road, two miles north of Cherokee. Sponsored by Balsam Mountain Trust and the National Park Service. Speaker will be Michael Skinner, executive director of the Balsam Mountain Trust. 497.1904, www.nps.gov/grsm.

• Astronomy Club of Asheville offers free star gazes twice a month.www.astroasheville.org/star-gazes.

SUMMER CAMPS • Western Carolina University’s Division of Educational Outreach is hosting numerous camps for children this summer: www.wcu.edu/academics/edoutreach/conted/campsand-programs-for-kids/.

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 • Western Carolina University’s Athletics is hosting a sports camp for children this summer: www.catamountsports.com/camps/wcar-camps.html.

• Summer Day Camp for elementary school children, ages 6 to 12, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 12 to Aug. 8, Cullowhee United Methodist Church. One-time registration fee of $75 (or $10 per week if less than 8 weeks). $650 for the summer, $95 per week, or $25 per day.

Full payment for registered dates due before June 12.

293.9215, www.cullowheeumc.org/summer-camp2014/.

• Highlands Nature Center Day Camps now taking registrations for five different camps. “WOW! – a World of Wonder” (ages 4-6), “Amazing Animals” (ages 7-10), “NatureWorks” (ages 8-11), “Mountain Explorers” (ages 10-13), and “Junior Ecologists” (ages 11-14). Most camps offered more than once during the summer; sessions run from Tuesday to Friday each week. 526.2623 or, visit summer camps webpage at www.highlandsbiological.org.

• Waynesville Parks and Recreation Department Summer Camp for kids pre-K to 7th grade, 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday – Friday, June 23-Aug. 15. Deadline to register is May 19. 456.2030 or email recprogramspecialist@townofwaynesville.org • Haywood County Arts Council Jam Camp, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, July 8 – Friday, July 11, Canton Middle School, 60 Penland St., Canton. Classes in mountain instruments, mountain dance (clogging, buckdance, flat-footing and square dance) and mountain songs and storytelling. $75. For students in grades 4th through 8th. Limited financial assistance and loaner instruments available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Register at Haywood County Arts Council, 452.0593.

• The Jackson Soil and Water Conservation District Camp WILD (Wilderness, Investigating, Learning, Discovery) for rising 7th graders in public, private, charter or home schools. Hiking, swimming, snorkeling, and learning about the environment. 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. most days, July 28 through Aug. 1, Jackson County Recreation Center parking lot in Cullowhee. $25, register with Jane Fitzgerald, 586.5465 or email janefitzgerald@jacksonnc.org.

Literary (children) • Homework Help, 3 p.m. Wednesday, May 7 and Thursday, May 8, JCPL, Sylva. 586.2016.

• Thursday May 8 at 6 PM: The Write Ones. Adult Writing Group. JCPL 586-2016 • Children’s Story time: I’d Know You Anywhere, 11 a.m.

Friday, May 9, Jackson County Public Library, Sylva.

586.2016 • Saturday May 10 at 12 PM: American Girls Club.: noon Saturday, May 10, City Lights Bookstore, Sylva.

586.2016.

• Children’s Story time: Mother’s Day, 2 p.m. Saturday, May 10, Jackson County Public Library, Sylva. 586.2016.

• Children’s Story time: Rotary Readers, 11 a.m.

Monday, May 12, Jackson County Public Library, 586.2016.

• Homework Help, 3 p.m. Monday, May 12 and Tuesday, May 13, Jackson County Public Library, Sylva. 586.2016.

• Homework Help, 3 p.m. Wednesday, May 14, Jackson County Public Library, 586.2016.

ECA EVENTS • Extension and Community Association (ECA) groups meet throughout the county at various locations and times each month. NC Cooperative Extension Office, 586.4009. • Flower Arranging, Lunch and Learn ECA, noon, Thursday, May 8, Conference Room of Community Service Center, Sylva. • ECA Craft Club Workshop – Basket, 10 a.m., May 15-16, Conference Room of Community Service Center, Sylva, • Sew Easy Girls ECA, 1 p.m., Monday, May 19, Conference Room of Community Service Center, Sylva.

• Franklin Open Forum, 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 7, Rathskeller Coffee Haus & Pub, 58 Stewart St., Franklin. Topic: “Is the quality of a society inversely proportional to the number of rules and regulations it has?â€? Franklin Open Forum is a moderated discussion group, an open exchange of ideas (dialog not debate).

371.1020. • Jackson County Genealogical Society May Program “The 17 Jackson County National Register Properties and Their Stories,â€? 7 p.m. Thursday, May 8, Community Room, Jackson County Public Library Complex, Sylva. Speaker will be Jackson County native, Joe Rhinehart. 631.2646. • Drum Circle and Raw-Mazing potluck, Friday, May 9, at private residence, if weather permits. Call Tamera Nielsen for directions, 941.894.2898. Rain location, UUFF 89 Sierra Drive, Franklin. Bring raw dish to share.

Others

• Western North Carolina Civil War Round Table monthly meeting, 7 p.m. Monday., May 12, WCU Mountain Heritage Center. Speaker will be Johnathan Noyales, assistant professor of History and the Director of the Center for Civil War History at Lord Fairfax Community College in Middleton, VA. His topic will be “Jackson’s 1862 Shenandoah Valley Campaignâ€?.

• League of Women Voters will screen the film “Inequality for All,â€? featuring economist and former Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, noon Thursday, May 8, Tartan Hall, Franklin.

• The Shelton House, at the corner of Shelton and Pigeon Streets in Waynesville and home to the Museum of North Carolina Handicrafts, has opened for its 35th season. www.sheltonhouse.org, 452.1551.

POLITICAL GROUP EVENTS & LOCAL GOVERNMENT GOP • Haywood County Young Republicans meeting, 6 p.m.

Monday, May 12, Organic Beans Coffee, Maggie Valley.

• Occupy WNC, General Assembly, 7 to 8:30 p.m., Tuesday, May 13, Room 246 Jackson Justice Center 401 Grindstaff Road, Sylva.

SUPPORT GROUPS Jackson

Macon • Macon County Cancer Support Group meeting, 7 p.m. Thursday, May 8, cafeteria of Angel Medical Center, Riverview St., Franklin.

A&E • Mother’s Day Brunch, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, May 10, Department on Aging Senior Center, 100 County Services Park in Sylva. Women of all generations are encouraged to come. Free, but reservations necessary, 586.4944. • Gem & Lapidary Wholesalers Show, May 9-11, Watauga Festival Center, Franklin, featuring Barbara Garwood, jewelry designer from Atlanta and president of Barbara Garwood Designs • Mother’s Day Buffet at The Savory Thyme CafÊ, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, May 11, The Savory Thyme CafÊ of The North Carolina Arboretum, 100 Frederick Law Olmsted Way, Asheville. $21.95 per adult, $9.95 per child. Reservations strongly recommended. 665.2492. • Mother’s Day Weekend, May 11-13, Fontana Village Resort, Fontana Dam. www.FontanaVillage.com, www.FontanaVillage.com,498.2211.

• Sallie Bissell presents her new Mary Crow novel, Deadliest of Sins, 6:30 p.m. Friday, May 9, City Lights Bookstore, Sylva. 586.9499.

ON STAGE & IN CONCERT • Season subscriptions are now on sale for the 201415 Galaxy of Stars Series at Western Carolina University’s John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center. All seven shows, $120 for adults, $45 for students and children. $110, WCU faculty and staff.

Single-show tickets go on sale Aug. 12. 227.2479, www.bardoartscenter.wcu.edu. • Blue Ridge Orchestra Open Rehearsal, 7 p.m.

Wednesday, May 7 and May 9, UNC Asheville’s Reuter Center. Community orchestra directed by Milton Crotts.

251.6140 or olliasheville.com. • Symphony Talk with Daniel Meyer, director of the Asheville Symphony Orchestra, 3 p.m. Friday, May 9, Reuter Center, UNC Asheville. 251.6140 or olliasheville.com. • Moscow Festival Ballet’s “Sleeping Beauty,â€? 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 16, Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts, Franklin. Tickets start at $18.

GreatMountainMusic.com, 866.273.4615.

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• “Painting Churchesâ€? a comic/drama by Tina Howe, 7:30 p.m. May 9-11, May 16-19, Smoky Mountain Community Theatre, Main Street, Bryson City. Adults $10, students (6 to 18) $5. 488.3489, smctheatre.com. • Sunday Concert, 3:30 p.m. Sunday, May 11, Mother’s Day, Eric Hendrix & Friends, singer-songwriter-composer, Franklin Town Square gazebo, Main and Iotla Streets, across from the Macon County Courthouse.

Bring a lawn chair. www.artscouncilofmacon.org or 524.7683.

Smoky Mountain News

FESTIVALS, SPECIAL & SEASONAL EVENTS

LITERARY (ADULTS) • Samuel J. Fox, winner of the Gilbert-Chappell Distinguished Poet Award, and renowned local poet Dr. Richard Chess will read poetry at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 7, in the Community Room, Jackson County Public Library, Sylva. 586.2016.

Neighbors caring for neighbors

May 7-13, 2014

• Bereavement support group, 1 to 2:30 p.m. Mondays through May 19, LifePath office 26 WestCare Drive, Suite 301, Sylva. (WestCare Medical Park Upper Level).

Michelle Moore or Deanna Roberts, 631.1702.

wnc calendar

• Lego Club, 4 p.m. Tuesday, May 13, Jackson County Public Library. 586.2016.

• Sevierville’s Bloomin’ Barbeque & Bluegrass, 5 to 10 p.m. Friday, May 16 and 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, May 17, downtown Sevierville, Tenn. Admission and concerts are free. 888.889.7415 or www.BloominBBQ.com.

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wnc calendar

• Brasstown Ringers, 7 p.m. Friday, May 9, First Baptist Church of Blairsville, GA. Free, but donations appreciated. www.facebook.com/brasstownringers.

• Brasstown Ringers’ Springtime Celebration Concert, 4 p.m. Saturday, May 10, First Baptist Church of Sylva, 669 W. Main St., Sylva. Sacred and secular handbell music. Donations appreciated.

• Jon Shain, May 15, The Strand, 38 Main St., Waynesville.

• Concert featuring Marshall Ballew, singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist, 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 13, Community Room, Jackson County Public Library, Sylva. Free. 586.2016.

• “Echoes of the Cotton Club,” a musical salute to the roots of jazz and the big band era, 5 p.m.

Tuesday, May 13, Laurel Ridge Country Club. Benefit cocktail fundraiser and performance for WCU’s Friends of the Arts. Presented by Western Carolina University Catamount Singers and Electric Soul.

Tickets are $30 per person, which includes entertainment, small plates and desserts. Tickets, 452.0545, extension 131.

• Lady and the Old Timers, 11 a.m. Thursday, May 15, Macon County Public Library Meeting Room. Classic country and gospel music.

• Chicago, 9 p.m. Friday, May 16, Harrah’s Cherokee Event Center, 777 Casino Drive, Cherokee. www.Ticketmaster.com.

• Franklin’s Ubuntu Choir, 3:30 p.m. Sunday May 18, Franklin Town Square gazebo.

MUSIC JAMS Swain County

May 7-13, 2014

• Back Porch Old-Time Music, 1 to 3 p.m. Saturdays, May 17, porch of the Oconaluftee Visitor Center in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

DANCE • Second Sunday Community Dance, 2:30 p.m.

Sunday, May 11, Community Room on the second floor of the old courthouse in the Jackson County Library Complex in Sylva. Ron Arps, ronandcathy71@frontier.com.

ART/GALLERY EVENTS & OPENINGS • Macon County Art Association monthly meeting, 1 p.m. Monday, May 12, Meeting Room, Macon County Public Library, Franklin. Pottery-related demo by Hank Shuler, an award winning local artist.

• WNC QuickDraw Event and Auction, 4:30-9:30 p.m., Saturday, May 17, Laurel Ridge Country Club, 49 Cupp Lane, Waynesville. Silent and live auction, hors d’oeuvres buffet. Tickets $50, wncquickdraw.com or 456.6495.

• What? No Camera? Exhibit by Aaard-winning photographer Barbara Sammons. Sammons leaves her camera behind for a flatbed scanner. Through July 6 at The North Carolina Arboretum, 100 Frederick • Call to artists for PlottFest, June 21-22 at the Maggie Valley Festival Grounds. PlottFest is a fundraising event to benefit Head Start of Haywood and Jackson Counties. Organizers are accepting applications for artists, crafts people, and local producers of farm products and flowers. www.plottfest.org.

CLASSES, PROGRAMS & DEMONSTRATIONS • “Fewer Footprints and More Tears,” Cherokee Artistic Expressions of the Trail of Tears, 7 p.m. Thursday, May 8, Macon County Public Library Meeting Room.

• Sylva Photo Club’s monthly meeting, 3 to 5 p.m.,

un-moderation talk from 2 to 2:45 p.m., Saturday, May 10, Suite 1A, 318 Skyland Drive, Coggins Office Park, Sylva. Speaker, Larry Thompson

bers, $10 for non-members. No dogs. Directions and location given out after RSVP. 253.0095, Appalachian.org.

• Macon County Art Association monthly meeting, 1 p.m. Monday, May 12, classroom of the Macon County Library. Pottery demonstration by Hank Shuler.

• Friends of the Smokies Classic Hike with hiking guide and author Danny Bernstein, Tuesday, May 13,

• Art League of Highlands-Cashiers monthly meetings, 4:30 p.m. May 19, The Bascom in Highlands.

Guests welcome. www.artleagueofhighlands.com.

• Oil painting workshop with Jack Stern, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, May 24, Uptown Gallery, 30 W. Main St., Franklin. 369.9802.

FILM & SCREEN • New foreign film, 4:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 7, Meeting Room, Macon County Public Library, Franklin. An enterprising Saudi girl signs on for her school’s Koran recitation competition as a way to raise the remaining funds she needs to buy the green bicycle that has captured her interest.

Rated PG. In Arabic with English subtitles. 524.3600.

• Stream Walk, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, May 17, The North Carolina Arboretum, 100 Frederick Law Olstead Way, Asheville. www.ncarboretum.org.

• The Highlands Plateau Audubon Society (HPAS) weekly bird spotting trips beginning the first Saturday in May. All walks start at 7:30 a.m. www.highlandsaudubonsociety.org. Michelle, 743.9670.

• The Nut Job, 7:45 p.m. Friday, May 9, and 2 p.m., 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday, May 10, The Strand, 38 N. Main St., Waynesville. 38main.us4.listmanage.com/track/.

• Beginner’s fly fishing clinics, 4 to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 31, Cullowhee Recreation Center, and Saturday, June 7, Cashiers/Glenville Recreation Center. Registration through May 16. $20 per person. 631.2020.

• Family movie, 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 13, Marianna Black Library, Bryson City. Features a beautiful black horse based on Anna Sewell’s timeless Victorian novel.

488.3030.

• French Broad River Trips, http://wnca.org/paddle/french-broad-float-trips/.

PROGRAMS & WORKSHOPS

• New movie starring Brit Marling, Alexander Skarsgard and Ellen Page, 4:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Wednesday, May 14 Meeting Room, Macon County Public Library. Rated PG-13. 524.3600.

• Hydration & Supplementation, interactive demo for teen athletes, 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, May 8, MedWest Haywood Health & Fitness Center.

• Classic 1942 movie starring Ronald Colman, Greer Garson and Philip Dorn, 2 p.m. Friday, May 16, Macon County Public Library. 524.3600

• Spring Tree Identification, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Saturday, May 10, The North Carolina Arboretum, 100 Frederick Law Olmstead Way, Asheville. $35 members, $45 non-members. www.ncarboretumregistration.org.

• Her, May 16-17, The Strand, 38 Main St., Waynesville. 38main.us4.list-manage.com/track/.

Outdoors • Highlands Plateau Hiking Club, 7:30 a.m. Saturday, May 10, to Horse Cove and Chattooga River area to try to find the rarely seen Swainson’s Warbler. Brock Hutchins will lead. www.highlandsaudubonsociety.org.

Smoky Mountain News

• North Carolina Arboretum field trip, Thursday, May 15. Sponsored by Wells Care Connections, a bereavement outreach program through Wells Funeral Homes, in conjunction with the Bereavement Program at MedWest Haywood Hospice & Palliative Care. $20.

Space limited. Register 456.3535 or Robin at MedWest Hospice and Palliative Care, 452.5039.

• Classic 1937 movie starring Barbara Stanwyck, 2 p.m. Friday, May 9, Macon County Public Library, Franklin. 524.3600.

OUTINGS, HIKES & FIELDTRIPS

• Nantahala Hiking Club hike, Saturday, May 10, on the Greenway. Meet at 7 p.m. in the left rear parking lot at Macon County Library. Leader is Kay Coriell, 369.6820.

• Hiking Club Planning Meeting, 10 a.m. Tuesday, May 13, Waynesville Recreation Center Base Camp Room.

Hikers of all abilities and ages urged to attend.

• Nantahala Hiking Club, 7-mile hike, Saturday, May 17, to Panther Creek Falls. Meet at 9 a.m. at Westgate Plaza in Franklin. Leader Gail Lehman, 524.5298, for reservations.

• Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy Little Hump “For Love of Beer & Mountains” Partnership Hike, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 17, Little Hump Mountain in the Highlands of Roan. Very difficult.

Free, but registration required. Directions given out after RSVP. 253.0095, Appalachian.org.

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Ramsey Cascades, the tallest waterfall in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. $10 for current Friends of the Smokies members, $35 for non-members, includes one-year membership. Carpool details given upon registration. Register at outreach.nc@friendsofthesmokies.org or 452.0720.

• Yoga on the Mountain with Kim Drye, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, May 18. Moderate. Free for SAHC mem-

• Bicycle Safety Clinics, 9:30 to 11 a.m. Saturday, May 10, and Saturday, May 31, Clyde Elementary School. Sponsored by Bicycle Haywood NC and Haywood County Parks & Recreation. Free, must be 13-17 and accompanied by an adult. Registration required, 452.6789.

• Introduction to Fly-Fishing, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Tuesday, May 13, Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Transylvania County. For ages 12 and older. Bring a lunch. Limited to six participants. 877.4423, ncpaws.org/reservations/pisgah/CalendarView.

• Great Smoky Mountains Audubon Society (GSMAS) meeting, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 13, Paul Kern Youth Center at Lake Junaluska. Speaker is George Thomas, GSMAS conservation chair and Haywood Community College(HCC) Lead Horticulture Instructor, on “Bird Friendly Yards.”

• “Appalachian Spring,” a celebratory event recognizing more than 40 years of conservation, 6 to 8 p.m.

Thursday, May 15, Highland Brewing Company, Asheville. Hosted by Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy. Tickets $25 for SAHC members, $30 for non-members and include: music by Firecracker Jazz Band, dinner by Nona Mia Italian Kitchen, and one drink ticket. www.Appalachian.org.

• Casting: Level I, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday, May 15, Lake Imaging in DuPont State Recreational Forest.

All equipment, materials provided. Bring a lunch.

877.4423, ncpaws.org/reservations/pisgah/CalendarView.

• Introduction to Tenkara 101, 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday, May 17, Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education in Transylvania County. For ages 12 and older. Jason Sparks of Appalachian Tenkara will present a form of traditional Japanese fly-fishing. 877.4423, ncpaws.org/reservations/pisgah/CalendarView.

• Refresh Your Run, 6:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday, May 15, REI Asheville. Register at www.rei.com/event/56116/session/90719.

• Boating Safety Course, 6 to 9:30 p.m. Monday, May 19, Building 3300, Room 3322, Haywood Community College Campus. Must attend two consecutive evenings to receive certification. Free, no age limits.

Pre-registration required, www.ncwildlife.org.

FARM & GARDEN • Town of Waynesville compost and double-ground mulch available for pickup 8 a.m. to noon May 8-9, Town yard waste landfill, Bible Baptist Drive from Russ Avenue, near the bypass. Cancelled if raining.

456.3706.

• Invasive Plant Species Removal and Native Plantings, 2 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, May 7, Vance Street Park, Waynesville. Sponsored by Haywood Waterways.

Help remove Japanese knotweed, multiflora rose, oriental bittersweet, Chinese privet, and Japanese honeysuckle from the stream banks of Richland Creek at Vance Street Park. Bring boots and gloves. www.haywoodwaterways.org.

• National Public Gardens Day, Friday, May 9, The North Carolina Arboretum, 100 Frederick Law Olmsted Way, Asheville. 665.2492, www.ncarboretum.org.

• Dahlia Tuber Sale & Mum Plant Sale, Saturday, May 10, The North Carolina Arboretum, 100 Frederick Law Olmsted Way, Asheville. 665.2492, www.ncarboretum.org.

• Gardening program featuring Master Gardener Kathleen Lamont, 10 a.m. Saturday, May 10, Waynesville Library Auditorium. Learn how to start a garden from the bottom up, composting and more.

356.2507.

• Haywood County Beekeepers Association, 7 p.m.

Tuesday, May 13, featuring John Ambrose.

• “Advanced Seed Saving” with Lee Barnes, 5:30 p.m.

Thursday, May 15, Haywood County Public Library, auditorium, 678 S. Haywood St., Waynesville. Mostly hands on with some lecture time. 356.2507.

• Tuscola Garden Club meeting, 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 20, Gaines Auditorium at Bethea Welcome Center, Lake Junaluska. Speaker will be Master Gardener Peggy Hurt, long-time member of Sylva Garden Club.

• Haywood County Plant Clinic, 9 a.m. to noon MondayFriday, Haywood County Extension Center on Raccoon Road, in Waynesville. Master Gardeners will answer gardening questions. 456.3575.

• The Master Gardeners of Haywood County present their biennial garden tour: “Forests, Flowers & Food,” 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., rain or shine, Saturday, June 21.

Tickets, $15, at 456.3575.

preserves and sauces and more. Live music and Kids’ Corner Market offered monthly. Crafters regularly give live demos. 8 a.m. to noon Wednesday and Saturday through mid-December at 250 Pigeon St, Waynesville, parking lot HART Theatre. Carol James, 280.1381 or haywoodfarmersmarket@gmail.com.

ture-raised meats. Live music, junior vendor and education-focus booths, food tastings and arts and crafts planned. 3:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesdays May 13 through Oct. 28 at Old Cowee School, 51 Old Cowee School Dr., Franklin. Susan Ervin, info@coweefarmersmarket.com, 524.8369.

Maggie Valley Farmers Market Local produce, arts and crafts, with vendor space still available at this new market. Live music and children’s activities planned periodically. 8 a.m. to dusk Fridays and Saturdays through the first frost beside Organic Beans Coffee Co., 1098 Soco Road, Maggie Valley. Adam Capparelli, 209.8061 or adam@organicbeanscoffee.com.

Franklin Farmers Tailgate Market Variety of homegrown products, including fruits and vegetables, cheese, plants, eggs, trout, preserves, herbal soap, honey, artisan breads and more. 8 a.m. to noon Saturdays through November on East Palmer Street across from Drake Software. Alan Durden, 349.2049 or alan_durden@ncsu.edu.

The Original Waynesville Tailgate Market Fresh fruits and vegetables, honey and plants from Haywood County farmers. A monthly Kids’ Corner event promotes healthy eating. 8 a.m. to noon, Wednesdays and Saturdays through Oct. 29 at 171 Legion Dr., Waynesville, behind Bogart’s restaurant. Judy West, 648.6323. www.facebook.com/pages/WaynesvilleTailgate-Market/117024646020.

Swain County

Jackson County

FARMERS & TAILGATE MARKETS Haywood County Canton Farmers Market and Heritage Crafts Produce, plants, chicken and quail eggs, grass-fed beef and other naturally raised meats, natural soaps and body care products, chemical-free candles, woodwork and scroll saw art, preserves, pottery, paintings, iron work and other heritage crafts. 3 to 7 p.m.

Thursday through Oct. 31, municipal parking lot of downtown Canton. Robin Smith, 734.9071 or Michaelrobin07@yahoo.com.

Haywood Historic Farmers Market Local produce; meats, seafood delivered overnight from Kitty Hawk, local mountain trout; cheese, eggs and honey; spring bedding, plants and flowers; pickles,

Cashiers Tailgate Market Fresh baked goods, pesticide-free vegetables and fruits, fresh trout, local beef and lamb, goat cheese, eggs, jellies, fruit pies and more. 9 a.m. to noon Saturdays May through October. Anglican Church parking lot next to Macon Bank on U.S. Highway 64 East.

Donna Few, 226.9988 or blueridgefarmers@gmail.com.

Jackson County Farmers Market A variety of locally produced vegetables, meats, honey, botanicals, crafts and more. 9 a.m. to noon April to October at Bridge Park in Sylva; 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

November to March at Community Table. Jenny, 631.3033 or jacksoncountyfarmersmarket@gmail.com.

Macon County Cowee Farmers Market Fresh, local vegetables, fruits, botanicals, baked goods, eggs, prepared foods, arts and crafts and pas-

wnc calendar

• Map And Compass Navigation Basics, 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sunday, May 18, REI Asheville. $30 REI members, $50 non-members. Register at www.rei.com/event/43656/session/90720.

• Free class on square-foot gardening, 5:30 p.m.

Tuesday, May 13, Canton Branch Library. 648.2924.

Swain County Farmers Market Organic and sustainably-grown produce, plants, herbs, trout and honey as well as locally crafted jewelry, quilts, pottery, gourds and more. 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Fridays through Oct. 31. 210 Main St. at the corner of Main St. and Everett St. in Bryson City. Christine Bredenkamp, 488.3848 or christine_bredenkamp@ncsu.edu. www.facebook.com/pages/Swain-County-FarmersMarket/104853346226504.

BIKE RIDES • A weekly bike ride in Waynesville meets Thursdays at 5:30 p.m. at Rolls Rite Bicycles on the Old Asheville Highway. Beginner to intermediate rides led by Bicycle Haywood advocacy group. Eight- to 12-mile rides.

276.6080 or gr8smokieszeke@gmail.com.

• A weekly bike ride meets in Bryson City on Wednesdays around 6 p.m. Depart from the East Swain Elementary school in Whittier on U.S.19 off exit 69 from U.S. 23-74. All levels. 800.232.7238.

• A weekly bike ride in Sylva meets Tuesday at 6 p.m., departing from Motion Makers bike shop for a tough 25-mile ride up to the Balsam Post office via back roads and back into Sylva. 586.6925.

May 7-13, 2014 Smoky Mountain News

239-09

41

PRIME REAL ESTATE

INSIDE

Advertise in The Smoky Mountain News

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.

THE MAGGIE VALLEY SWAP MEET And Car Show is coming June 27, 28 and 29th to the Maggie Valley Festival Grounds. A swap meet, car show and craft show.

Come as a spectator or vendor.

Contact Rodney Buckner at 423.608.4519 www.maggievalleyswapmeet.com

Rates: ■ Free — Residential yard sale ads, lost or found pet ads.

■ Free — Non-business items that sell for less than $150.

■ $12 — Classified ads that are 50 words or less; each additional line is $2.

■ $12 — If your ad is 10 words or less, it will be displayed with a larger type.

■ $3 — Border around ad and $5 — Picture with ad.

■ $50 — Non-business items, 25 words or less. 3 month or till sold.

■ $300 — Statewide classifieds run in 117 participating newspapers with 1.6 million circulation. Up to 25 words.

■ All classified ads must be pre-paid.

THE SOUTHEASTERN GAS & PETROLEUM EXPO Is coming July 18 - 19th to the Maggie Valley Festival Grounds.

Gas station items, toys, tags/plates, old signs, gas pumps, etc. Come as a spectator or vendor. Contact Rodney Buckner at 423.608.4519. www.southeasterngasandpetroleum.com

Classified Advertising: Scott Collier, phone 828.452.4251; fax 828.452.3585 | classads@smokymountainnews.com

ANNOUNCEMNTS

WAYNESVILLE TIRE, COO

INC.

R

DI

SC OV ER E

ATR

PE

Serving Haywood, Jackson & Surrounding Counties

Offering:

MAJOR-BRAND TIRES FOR CARS, LIGHT & MEDIUM-DUTY TRUCKS, AND FARM TIRES.

Service truck available for on-site repairs

239-150

LEE & PATTY ENSLEY, OWNERS

MON-FRI 7:30-5:00 • WAYNESVILLE PLAZA

828-456-5387

LIVING ESTATE SALE Thursday, Friday & Saturday 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Furniture, Antiques, Primitives and Much More!! Located at 10 Commerce St., Waynesville.

AUCTION HARPER’S AUCTION COMPANY Spring is Here and Time to Start Those Pesky Spring Cleaning Projects. Need Some Help Cleaning Out Your Garage, Barn or Attic? Too Busy to do it All? Give us a Call, Liquidation = $$$ 828.369.6999, Debra Harper NCAL# 9659 NCFL# 9671 47 Macon Center Dr. Franklin, NC FLEET UPDATE AUCTION Saturday May 17th, 9AM. Justice Family Farms. 9988 Hwy 521 Greeleyville, SC 29056. Bid Online @ equipmentfacts.com. 20+ Truck Tractors. 20+ Hopper Bottom Trailers. JD Tractors. JD Combines. 5% Admin Fee Added. World Net Auctions. SCAL#3965F 843.426.4255

AUCTION ONLINE ONLY AUCTIONS. May 16th-June 10th. NC Commercial Land; Lots; Warehouse; Home.

Others in SC & FL. Rogers Realty.

Details: RogersAuctionGroup.com.

Facebook. 800.442.7906.

NCAL685 TAX SEIZURE AUCTION Catering, Restaurant & Bar Equipment. Wednesday, May 14 @ 10am. 196 Crawford Rd. Statesville, NC. Selling Several Restaurants & Bars for NC Department of Revenue for Unpaid Taxes. Refrigeration, Gas Cooking Equipment, Seating, Catering Equipment.

704.791.8825 ncaf5479. www.ClassicAuctions.com

BUILDING MATERIALS HAYWOOD BUILDERS Garage Doors, New Installations Service & Repairs, 828.456.6051 100 Charles St. Waynesville Employee Owned.

PAINTING JAMISON CUSTOM PAINTING & PRESSURE WASHING Interior, exterior, all your pressure washing needs and more.

Specialize in Removal of Carpenter Bees - Cedar or Log Homes or Painted or Siding!

Call or Text Now for a Free Estimate at 828.508.9727

CONSTRUCTION/ REMODELING

CONSTRUCTION/ REMODELING SULLIVAN HARDWOOD FLOORS Installation- Finish - Refinish 828.399.1847.

AUTO PARTS DDI BUMPERS ETC. Quality on the Spot Repair & Painting. Don Hendershot 858.646.0871 cell 828.452.4569 office.

CARS DONATE YOUR CAR, Truck or Boat to Heritage for the Blind. Free 3 Day Vacation, Tax Deductible, Free Towing, All Paperwork Taken Care Of. 800.337.9038.

TOP CASH FOR CARS, Call Now For An Instant Offer. Top Dollar Paid, Any Car/Truck, Any Condition. Running or Not. Free Pick-up/Tow. 1.800.761.9396 SAPA

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES HEATING AND VENTILATION Technicians In Demand Now! Fast Track Hands On Certification Training Provided. National Average is $18-22 Hourly. Veterans with benefits encouraged to apply!

1.877.994.9904 THE PATH TO YOUR Dream job begins with a college degree. Education Quarters offers a free college matching service.

CALL 1.800.893.6014

ALL THINGS BASEMENTY! Basement Systems Inc. Call us for all of your basement needs! Waterproofing, Finishing, Structural Repairs, Humidity and Mold Control.

FREE ESTIMATES! Call 1.800.698.9217

WELDING CAREERS Hands-on training for career opportunities in shipbuilding, automotive, manufacturing & more. Financial aid for qualified students.

Job placement assistance. Call Tidewater Tech Norfolk 888.205.1735

DAVE’S CUSTOM HOMES OF WNC, INC Free Estimates & Competitive rates. References avail. upon request. Specializing in: Log Homes, remodeling, decks, new construction, repairs & additions.

Owner/Builder: Dave Donaldson.

Licensed/Insured. 828.631.0747 or 828.508.0316

$1,000 WEEKLY!!

Mailing Brochures From Home.

Helping home workers since 2001.

Genuine Opportunity. NO Experience Required. Start Immediately. www.MailingMembers.com SAPA

EMPLOYMENT

R

MAST GENERAL STORE Is hiring PT sales associates for our Waynesville store. Prior retail experience strongly preferred; good communication, organizational skills, and night/weekend work required.

Partial benefits; 20-25 hours per week. Please email app/resume to Melanee@mastgeneralstore.com or apply in person at 63 N. Main Street, Waynesville by May 21.

No phone calls, please.

WELDING CAREERS Hands on training for career opportunities in shipbuilding, automotive, manufacturing & more. Financial aid for qualified students.

Job placement assistance. Call Tidewater Tech Norfolk 888.205.1735 AIRLINE JOBS BEGIN HEREGet trained as FAA certified Aviation Technician. Housing/financial aid for qualified students. Job placement assistance. Call Aviation Institute of Maintenance.

877.300.9494.

NEED MEDICAL BILLLING TRAINEES Obamacare creating a large demand for Medical Office Assistants! NO EXPERIENCED NEEDED! Online Training gets you job ready!

HS Diploma/GED & Computer needed. Careertechnical.edu/nc.

1.888.512.7122 NOW HIRING! Property Damage inspectors needed, no experience necessary. Will train. Full-time & part-time.

877.207.6716. www.aaronspa.biz/nowhiring NURSING CAREERS BEGIN HERE Get trained in months, not years.

Small classes, no waiting list. Financial aid for qualified students.

Apply now! Centura College Norfolk 888.893.3477 SAFETY-OPERATIONS COORDINATOR HAYWOOD PUBLIC TRANSIT Must have a high school Diploma/GED, degree preferred, have an outstanding driving record, computer skills in Excel, Word, and have the ability to understand policies and state/federal guidelines. Transit experience helpful. This person will be responsible for maintaining transit fleet, training personnel to meet federal and state requirements, maintain the state system safety plan, keep all records current, and maintain daily service of vehicles, equipment, building and lot. Work with vendors, following procurement policy and approval. Maintain orderly files, drug & alcohol testing, dot physicals and responsible for state reporting. Must have the ability to work well with others. This is a full time position with benefits.

Hours may vary 6:00 am-5:30 pm M-F, usually 8:00-5:00.

There may be situations calling for hours outside of the normal schedule. May also have to fill in as a driver or dispatch.

Applications will be taken at Mountain Projects, 2251 Old Balsam Rd., or 25 Schulman St, Sylva, NC or you may go to our website: www.mountainprojects.org and fill out an application.

Pre-Employment drug testing required.

EOE/AA.

PART TIME DRIVER, HAYWOOD PUBLIC TRANSIT Applicants are required to pass a DOT physical, drug test, criminal background check and have a clean driving record. A CDL license with a P-Endorsement will be required within 60 days of hire. Must be 21 yrs. of age to obtain CDL license. Must be able to bend, lift and push wheelchair, learn how to operate liftequipment, assist elderly and disabled passengers. High School Diploma/GED required.

Detailed paper work and good communication skills required.

Must be available M-F, 6:00 am - 5:30 pm. Applications will be taken at Mountain Projects, Inc., 2251 Old Balsam Rd., Waynesville, or 25 Schulman St., Sylva, NC. Or go to our website: www.mountainprojects.org and fill out an application.

Pre-Employment drug testing required. EOE/AA.

FINANCIAL BEWARE OF LOAN FRAUD. Please check with the Better Business Bureau or Consumer Protection Agency before sending any money to any loan company. SAPA INJURED? IN A LAWSUIT? Need Cash Now? We Can Help! No Monthly Payments to Make. No Credit Check. Fast Service and Low Rates. Call Now 1.866.386.3692. www.lawcapital.com (Not available in NC, CO & MD) SAPA

FURNITURE COMPARE QUALITY & PRICE Shop Tupelo’s, 828.926.8778.

HAYWOOD BEDDING, INC. The best bedding at the best price!

533 Hazelwood Ave. Waynesville 828.456.4240

Yes youcan!

Be a broker, sell houses and make a commission!

No more driving to Asheville…

Cross Country School of Real Estate StartWithUs@CrossCountrySchool.net www.CrossCountrySchool.net

828-338-8227 Waynesville, STAPLES® Plaza 239-132

PETS HAYWOOD SPAY/NEUTER 828.452.1329

Prevent Unwanted Litters!

The Heat Is On! Spay/Neuter For Haywood Pets As Low As $10.

Operation Pit is in Effect!

Free Spay/Neuter, Microchip & Vaccines For Haywood Pitbull Types & Mixes!

239-114

Cleaner, Clearer and Healthier water at every tap in your home

Hours: Tuesday-Friday, 12 Noon - 6 pm 182 Richland Street, Waynesville

An EcoWater Water System can remove

Lease to Own RALPH A SWEET, GENTLE LOVEBUG WHO REMINDS US OF WHY WE DO RESCUE WORK. HE CAME TO US VERY UNDERWEIGHT AND HAS BEEN SO HAPPY WITH ALL OF THE LOVE AND CARE HE HAS RECEIVED. MIRKO AND HIS BROTHER PASHA ARE MANX MIX KITTENS WHO WRESTLE, TUMBLE AND 'POP UP' WHILE PLAYING WITH EACH OTHER. ADOPT ONE OR BOTH FOR LOTS OF FUN!

Bad Taste & Odors Iron/Rust Sediment/ Silt Bacterias Harmful Chlorine Balance pH

smokymountainnews.com

HIGHLANDS-CASHIERS HOSPITAL Positions now available: Physical Therapist, Physical Therapy Assistant, Maintenance Mechanic, Communications Specialist, and Medical Records Manager.

Benefits available the first of the month following 60 days of full-time employment. PreEmployment screening required.

Call Human Resources.

828.526.1376, or apply online at: www.highlandscashiershospital. org

MILAN EXPRESS OTR CDL Class A DRIVERS. Home Weekly, Annual Increases & Bonuses.

No Hazmat. Vacation/Paid Holidays. Great Benefits. www.drivemilan.com 800.552.2591 x3133 or 3187.

COOK/TRANSPORTER Jackson County - Full Time position with our Food Service Division in Sylva. This job will consist of food preparation, cleanup, packing and transporting meals to designated sites.

Must be able to lift minimum of 50 lbs., have a valid NC driver’s license and clean driving record.

Full time benefits apply. Hours are early a.m. until 12:00 Noon M-F. Knowledge of the area helpful. Applications will be taken at Mountain Projects, Inc., 2251 Old Balsam Rd., Waynesville, NC or 25 Schulman St., Sylva, NC. Or you may go to our website at: www.mountainprojects.org and fill out an application.

Pre-Employment drug testing required. EOE/AA

EMPLOYMENT DRIVE-AWAY Across the USA even if you don't own a car. 22 Pickup Locations.

Call 866.764.1601 or go to: www.qualitydriveaway.com

May 7-13, 2014

COUPON CLIPPERS NEEDED! Trade extra grocery coupons for $$$$. All national brands requested! Free details. Send stamped, self-addressed envelope.

Cash For Cash Off, Box 18529, Milwaukee, WI 53225.

SAPA HEAVY EQUIPMENT Operator Career! 3 Week "Hands On" Vocational Training. Bulldozers, Backhoes, Excavators. Lifetime Job Placement Assistance. Fantastic Earnings! National Certifications. Veteran Benefits Eligible.

1.866.362.6497

MAD BATTER FOOD & FILM Located in Downtown Sylva, is looking for an experienced full time line cook. Pay based on experience.

To apply, come by between 2:30 5:00 pm, Tues. - Fri.

EMPLOYMENT

WNC MarketPlace

AIRLINE CAREERS BEGIN HERE Get FAA Approved Maintenance Training Financial Aid For Qualified Students - Housing Available Job Placement Assistance. Call Aviation Institute Of Maintenance 1.866.724.5403 WWW.FIXJETS.COM. SAPA

EMPLOYMENT

239-108

EMPLOYMENT ATTENTION DRIVERS: Be a name, not a number. $$$ Up to 50 cpm $$$. BCBS, 401k, Pet & Rider. Full Benefits. Quality Hometime. Orientation Sign On Bonus.

CDL-A Required 1.888.592.4752.

SAPA

828.452.3995 | americanwatercareinc.com

find us at: facebook.com/smnews

43

WNC MarketPlace

LAWN AND GARDEN

HEAVY EQUIPMENT

HEMLOCK HEALERS, INC. Dedicated to Saving Our Hemlocks. Owner/Operator Frank Varvoutis, NC Pesticide Applicator’s License #22864. 48 Spruce St. Maggie Valley, NC 828.734.7819 828.926.7883, Email: hemlockhealers@yahoo.com

REAL ESTATE ANNOUNCEMENT

SAWMILLS FROM ONLY $4397.00Make & Save Money with your own bandmill- Cut lumber any dimension. In stock ready to ship.

FREE Info/DVD: www.NorwoodSawmills.com. 1.800.578.1363 Ext.300N

NICOL ARMS APARTMENTS NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS Offering 1 & 2 Bedroom Apartments, Starting at $400 Section 8 Accepted - Handicapped Accessible Units When Available

OFFICE HOURS: Tues. & Wed. 10:00am - 5:00pm & Thurs. 10:00am- 12:00pm 168 E. Nicol Arms Road Sylva, NC 28779

Phone# 1.828.586.3346 TDD# 1.800.725.2962 Equal Housing Opportunity

PUBLISHER’S NOTICE All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Fair Housing Act which makes it illegal to advertise “any preference, limitation or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin, or an intention, to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination” Familial status includes children under the age of 18 living with parents or legal custodians, pregnant women and people securing custody of children under 18.

This newspaper will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate which is in violation of the law. Our readers are hereby informed that all dwellings advertised in this newspaper are available on an equal opportunity basis.

REAL ESTATE ANNOUNCEMENT LOANS FOR LANDLORDS! We Finance From 5-500 Units. As Low as 5.5%. 1-4 Fam, Townhome, Condos OK. Contact B2R 1.855.940.0227. www.B2RFinance.com NEAR BOONE, NC 2+/-ac. tract 350ft of rushing streams 3000ft elevation private and secluded underground utilities and paved roads from only $9900.

Call 1.877.717.5263, extension 93.

VA. SOUTHERN VIEW Mountain Land. (6) Lots up 2+/Acres. Hard top frontage on Squirrel Spur Rd. Near Olde Mill Golf. www.RogersAuctionGroup.com 800.442.7906.

VAAL#2.

LOANS FOR LANDLORDS! We Finance From 5-500 Units. As Low as 5.5%. 1-4 Fam, Townhome, Condos OK. Contact B2R Call Now 1.855.940.0227. Or Visit us at our website at: www.B2RFinance.com

REAL ESTATE ANNOUNCEMENT ONLINE ONLY AUCTIONS. May 16th-June 10th. NC Commercial Land; Lots; Warehouse; Home.

Others in SC & FL. Rogers Realty.

Details: RogersAuctionGroup.com.

Facebook. 800.442.7906.

NCAL685

LOTS FOR SALE 2 TRACTS AVAILABLE IN CLYDE #1 - 2.819 Acres, Has Great Building Lot, City Water, Has 2 1/2 Story Building. Property Near HCC. $69,500. #2 - Available in the Fall. Has 3 Acres and House. For more info call 828.627.2342.

HOMES FOR SALE BRUCE MCGOVERN A Full Service Realtor shamrock13@charter.net McGovern Property Management 828.283.2112.

HOMES FOR RENT UNFURNISHED 3/BR 2/BA HOUSE IN JACKSON County - Sylva Area. Creek Front Property. Great Fishing! $800/mo. For more information call or text 828.508.9727.

VACATION RENTALS FLAGLER BEACH FLORIDA Oceanfront Vacation Rentals.

Furnished Studio, 1, 2, & 3 Bedrooms, Full Kitchens, FREE WiFi, Direct TV, Heated Pool. Call 1.386.517.6700 www.fbvr.net SAPA NORTH CAROLINA MOUNTAINS Spring Special. Stay 3 nights get the 4th night FREE! Call now.

Rentals for all size families. Pets are welcome! Foscoe Rentals 1.800.723.7341. SAPA CAVENDER CREEK CABINS Dahlonega, GA. GAS TOO HIGH? Spend your vacation week in the North Georgia Mountains! Ask About Our Weekly FREE NIGHT SPECIAL! Virtual Tour: www.CavenderCreek.com Cozy Hot Tub Cabins!

1.866.373.6307 SAPA

239-134

Great Smokies Storage May 7-13, 2014

10’x20’

92

$

20’x20’

160

$

ONE MONTH

FREE WITH 12-MONTH CONTRACT

828.506.4112 or 828.507.8828

www.smokymountainnews.com

Conveniently located off 19/23 by Thad Woods Auction

44

Puzzles can be found on page 46.

These are only the answers.

STORAGE SPACE FOR RENT

1 Month Free with 12 Month Rental. Maggie Valley, Hwy. 19, 1106 Soco Rd. For more information call Torry

VIAGRA 100mg & CIALIS 20mg!

40 Pills + 4 FREE for only $99. #1 Male Enhancement, Discreet Shipping. Save $500! Buy The Blue Pill! Now 1.800.491.8751 SAPA

HEALTH & FITNESS HEALING ENERGY TREATMENTS Reiki, Restorative Yoga. Rose at 828.550.2051. Quantum Touch, Tapping, Pilates. Kim at 828.734.0305.

The Fitness Connection, www.fitnessconnectionnc.com

828.734.6500, 828.734.6700 maggievalleyselfstorage.storageunitsoftware.com/customers GREAT SMOKIES STORAGE Conveniently located off 19/23

by Thad Woods Auction. Available for lease now: 10’x10’ units for $55, 20’x20’ units for $160.

Get one month FREE with 12 month contract. Call 828.507.8828 or 828.506.4112 for more info.

MEDICAL CANADA DRUG CENTER Is your choice for safe and affordable medications. Our licensed Canadian mail order pharmacy will provide you with savings of up to 90 percent on all your medication needs. Call Today 1.800.265-0768 for $25.00 off your first prescription and free shipping.

SAPA

www.selecthomeswnc.com Residential and Commercial Long-Term Rentals 239-145

Mountain Realty

ANTIQUE WOOD BURNING STOVE Victorian, ‘Belmont’, 6 Burners. $600. For more information call 828.550.1302 CHAMPION SUPPLY Janitorial supplies. Professional cleaning products, vacuums, janitorial paper products, swimming pool chemicals, environmentally friendly chemicals, indoor & outdoor light bulbs, odor elimination products, equipment repair including household vacuums. Free delivery across WNC. www.championsupply.com 800.222.0581, 828.225.1075.

Ron Breese Broker/Owner 2177 Russ Ave. Waynesville, NC 28786 Cell: 828.400.9029 ron@ronbreese.com

Haywood County Real Estate Agents Beverly Hanks & Associates — beverly-hanks.com • • • • • • •

Michelle McElroy — beverly-hanks.com Marilynn Obrig — beverly-hanks.com Mike Stamey — beverly-hanks.com Ellen Sither — esither@beverly-hanks.com Jerry Smith — beverly-hanks.com Billie Green — bgreen@beverly-hanks.com Pam Braun — pambraun@beverly-hanks.com

ERA Sunburst Realty — sunburstrealty.com Haywood Properties — haywoodproperties.com

www.ronbreese.com

• Steve Cox — info@haywoodproperties.com

Each office independently owned & operated.

Keller Williams Realty kellerwilliamswaynesville.com • Ron Kwiatkowski — ronk.kwrealty.com

239-142

Mike Stamey

mstamey@beverly-hanks.com

Mountain Home Properties — mountaindream.com

828-508-9607

WRAP UP YOUR Holiday Shopping with 100 percent guaranteed, delivered-to-the-door Omaha Steaks! SAVE 67 PERCENT - PLUS 4 FREE Burgers - Many Gourmet Favorites ONLY $49.99.ORDER Today 1.800.715.2010 Use code “4937 CFW� or www.OmahaSteaks.com/holiday33 SAPA

• Sammie Powell — smokiesproperty.com

Main Street Realty — mainstreetrealty.net McGovern Real Estate & Property Management 74 NORTH MAIN ST. • WAYNESVILLE, NC

www.beverly-hanks.com

• Bruce McGovern — shamrock13.com

Preferred Properties • George Escaravage — gke333@gmail.com

Prudential Lifestyle Realty — vistasofwestfield.com

239-138

Your Local Big Green Egg Dealer

Realty World Heritage Realty

The Real Team

realtyworldheritage.com • Carolyn Lauter

Real Experience.

Real Service. Real Results.

• Thomas & Christine Mallette

JOLENE HOCOTT • LYN DONLEY MARLYN DICKINSON

realtyworldheritage.com/realestate/viewagent/7766/ BEST PRICE EVERYDAY

10-5 M-SAT. 12-4 SUN.

828.452.3727

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ON DELLWOOD RD. (HWY. 19) AT 20 SWANGER LANE WAYNESVILLE/MAGGIE VALLEY 828.926.8778

239-153

Michelle McElroy RESIDENTIAL BROKER ASSOCIATE E-PRO, CNHS, RCC, SFR

828.400.9463 Cell

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The Seller’s Agency — listwithphil.com • Phil Ferguson — philferguson@bellsouth.net

michelle@beverly-hanks.com

74 North Main St. • Waynesville 828.452.5809

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May 7-13, 2014

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Super

46

CROSSWORD

61 Prudish sort 64 - dish (lab container) 65 Not “Rocky,” but the 1974 parody ...

ACROSS 70 Celestial ram 1 Kingston’s country 71 Prefix with surgery 8 “Terrible” time for tots 72 Footed vase 12 Pep rally cry 73 Urban trains 15 La - Tar Pits 74 Film preview 19 Fragrant 76 Not “Blue Steel,” but 20 Headset half the 2004 satirical drama ...

22 “Act - age” 81 Commotion 23 Not “Five Easy Pieces,” but the 1994 fam- 84 Minorca, e.g.

85 Bring - to one’s eye ily film ...

86 African cobras 25 Shape 26 Problems for vain peo- 90 See 52-Down 91 Shih ple 92 Boats’ rears 27 Netman Arthur 93 Not “This Gun for 28 Pipe fittings Hire,” but the 1999 mon29 Really wreck ster movie ...

30 Scout group 99 Track legend Ashford 31 “This - be!”

100 Pianist Peter 33 “Zip- - -Doo-Dah” 101 Despot Idi 34 Gloom-filled 102 Bit of a bite 35 Not “Three Amigos,” 105 Multi-act show but the 1986 comedy ...

106 TDs or RBIs 39 Small vise in a wood 107 Sonar image shop 109 She left Ike 42 - standstill 110 Swift steed 43 Israel’s - Aviv 111 Not “Shine,” but the 44 Greek letters 1998 action comedy ...

45 She lived with TV’s 115 Sheehy or O’Grady Bradys 116 Troop group 46 Train travel 117 Old Buick 48 “The Pickle” star 118 Cover girl Danny 51 Not “Road to Rio,” but Macpherson 119 Engine fuel the 1998 romantic drama 120 Overdue ...

121 Main dishes 54 Compound of element #53 DOWN 59 Eyeball 1 Joshed 60 “Either you do it 2 Old truism will!”

WHAT THEY SHOULD HAVE STARRED IN

3 Numskull 4 Greek war god 5 It has a small charge 6 Baby lion 7 At an angle 8 The “T” of MIT: Abbr.

9 Stop dozing 10 Space ball 11 Stretchy swimsuit 12 Vegas game 13 Hill dwellers 14 “Yoo-hoo!”

15 Coercively 16 Extirpate 17 Russia’s landmass 18 Sleeve bands 21 More vigorous 24 Wine region of Italy 29 Ontario’s capital, on a scoreboard 31 Bit part 32 Abstract art pioneer Jean 33 “Caught you!”

34 Thousand: Prefix 35 Jungle knives 36 Finger’s tip 37 WWII battle town in France 38 Toon pic 39 Taxi 40 Cessation of operations 41 West African country 46 Air, as an old episode 47 Walk - line 48 Gillette brand 49 “The devil - the details” 50 “Klutzy me!”

52 With 90-Across, high muckety-muck 53 Cook’s wear 55 Discerned

56 Artist’s studio 57 Wagner’s “- und Isolde” 58 Berlin article 62 Cranium 63 Start a volley 65 Vampire 66 River in Belgium 67 Indian sage 68 Big hairdos, briefly 69 Opposite SSW 75 Emphasize gloatingly 77 Magnitude 78 “The rest - to you” 79 Like a - a cage 80 52-wk. spans 82 Apple on a desk 83 Ghosts 86 C-worthy 87 A handful of 88 Be the victor 89 Unlike oil in water 91 A boxing ref may call one 92 Poli 94 Humorist Bill 95 Like kale and endive 96 Crafty 97 Forest home 98 Medical vial 102 Weeper of mythology 103 Habituate 104 Peels, as an apple 106 Hypo liquids 107 “- ever so humble ...”

108 Suffix with electro109 “There’s gold in them - hills!”

111 Practical joke 112 Cell stuff 113 VIP in D.C. 114 FDR follower

answers on page 44

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YOUR AD COULD REACH 1.6 MILLION HOMES ACROSS NC! Your classified ad could be reaching over 1.6 Million Homes across North Carolina! Place your ad with The Smoky Mountain News on the NC Statewide Classified Ad Network- 118 NC newspapers for a low cost of $330 for 25-word ad to appear in each paper! Additional words are $10 each. The whole state at your fingertips! It's a smart advertising buy! Call Scott Collier at 828.452.4251 or for more information visit the N.C. Press Association's website at www.ncpress.com

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YARD SALES LIVING ESTATE SALE Thursday, Friday & Saturday 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Furniture, Antiques, Primitives and Much More!! Located at 10 Commerce St., Waynesville.

BIG MOVING SALE Furniture, Household, Electronics, Too Much to List! Located at 757 Country Club Dr., Auburn Park, Waynesville. Sat. May 10th, 8a-1p No Early Birds Please.

WEEKLY SUDOKU Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each small 9-box square contains all of the numbers from one to nine.

Answers on Page 44

Points of Light Try to remember whenever we meet and I have little or nothing to say that doesn’t mean I’m neither here nor there ... look for the random points of light in the hooded shadows of my eyes … listen to the rhythms in each of these lines beating slowly ... oh-so-slowly ... just for you.

Back then WITH

G EORGE E LLISON

A few poems as spring awakens the mountains

S

ince the year 2000, I have written going on 750 Back Then “columns” for The Smoky Mountain News. I am enormously proud of that association. Many of the “essays” in my books have been filtered through SMN to their benefit. Even though I have always thought of myself as a poet, only four or five of the BT pieces have contained verse. As SMN editor Scott McLeod has noted (for my benefit) on several occasions: “A little bit goes a long way.” Newspapers are not the vehicles of choice for poems.

Nevertheless, it’s that time again. These poems are part of a collection of 35 essays and 25 poems — as well as artwork by my wife, Elizabeth Ellison — that will be published this summer by The Natural History Press (a subsidiary of The History Press located in Charleston, S.C.). They are simple poems. But they are the best that I can do and I want to share them with you. I almost forgot to add that the title of the collection is Near Horizons.

Dark Angels Buzzards are not pretty and they cannot sing.

But their days are filled with clouds and sun – light and long dreams of landscapes seen in flight over which their shadows trace the contours of a folded terrain embedded in ancestral memory. Not having a voice box they can only hiss and growl. Neverthe-less at a high elevation overlook when they come close riding an updraft you will hear the music in their wings as they slice through the air and descend in circles until the last moment when suddenly they hold wings high and alight with well-timed awkward grace.

Spring & Branch & Creek Below the high divide water issuing from vertical rock gathers itself & becomes a branch … darting here & there … lingering in ornate asides as eddies that spiral one way coming & the other going in defiance of the Corialis … shining in sunlight & darkening in rain … moving on … gravity flowing … seeking confluence at a prong or a fork & becoming a creek … pursuing its own syntax to the ocean despite enjambments encountered along the way.

Evelyn Z. Smyth (May 1, 1815-December 3, 1909) Every Thing That Could Go Wrong Did And Pursued Me Over The Water And Into A Far Land Where I Now Reside In Dark Discontent Under This Cold Slab Of Nantahala Blue Marble Sardines at Whiteside Mountain (for Bob and Glenda Zahner) Usually they were there waiting for us because we brought sardines. Riding updrafts and swirling currents of air the ravens performed for their exotic fare by gliding steady as an arrow in full flight before adjusting wing or tail so as to execute sudden turns or dives with self-assured grace ... and then they ate their well-earned tin of sardines.

Rave on Shining Water!

Name the mountain ranges & rivers: Bald … Black … New Found … Balsam Smoky … Cowee … Nantahala … Fish Hawk Snowbird … Tusquitee … Unaka … Unicoi … Iron Cohutta … New … Nolichucky … Swannanoa French Broad … Oconaluftee … Tuckaseigee Cullasaja … Hiwassee … Little Tennessee Ocoee … Tellico …Tennessee Ohio … Mississippi.

Welcome vast slow-burning chemistry of stars!

Welcome sunlight galvanized by thermal waves!

Welcome comets a-blaze for 1,000,000 miles!

Welcome lightning connecting earth & sky!

Welcome raindrops strung on fence wire!

Welcome gold rings in a bitterns’ eyes!

Welcome iridescence of raven wing!

Welcome emerald fire from moss!

Welcome silvery flakes of mica!

Welcome silica glint in sand!

Welcome electron orbiting!

Welcome eyes gleaming!

Roar mountains with praise for your ancient rivers that begin here & find their way down to the Gulf of Mexico … rave on shining water & welcome the flame that resides within & flows through all things ... rave on!

George Ellison wrote the biographical introductions for the reissues of two Appalachian classics: Horace Kephart’s Our Southern Highlanders and James Mooney’s History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees. info@georgeellison.com.

LET’S BUILD NOW Your Land, Your our Sty Style Style,, Y Your o our Ho Home

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