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May 31-June 6, 2017 Vol. 19 Iss. 01

Tribal Council removes Cherokee chief from office Page 6 Emergency planners brace for solar eclipse crowds Page 11

CONTENTS On the Cover: The Macon County community mobilized quickly last week to pull together a huge celebration for Garland Bolding’s 94th birthday. Bolding, who has lived in Otto since 1979, served in the U.S. Navy for six years during World War II and he and his wife Nancy still finds ways to give back to his country and his community. (Page 4) Garland Bolding, a World War II veteran living in Otto, celebrates his 94th birthday on May 24. Jessi Stone photo

News Bryson City to maintain tax rate, increase service fees .......................................... 3 Waynesville pulls from fund balance to hold tax rate .............................................. 3 Cherokee chief removed from office ............................................................................ 6 Lambert defends against impeachment charges ...................................................... 7 Mission closes Sylva women’s and children’s practices ........................................ 9 Jackson schools superintendent leaving for Cherokee ........................................ 10 Emergency planners brace for solar eclipse crowds ............................................ 11 Haywood tourism authority reports robust growth ................................................ 14 Haywood’s economic growth starts with a visit ......................................................15 High hopes for Ghost Town sale ................................................................................ 19

Opinion In redrawing districts, a chance to end gerrymandering ...................................... 20

A&E Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver roll into Cherokee ...................................................... 24

Outdoors

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May 31-June 6, 2017

New DNA technique boosts salamander science ................................................ 34

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Waynesville budget follows county trends W

posed, two in the police department to help field more and more complex phone calls and one in the finance department.

The town’s water fund is billing about 5 percent higher than usual because of prompt repairs by town staff and newer water meters, meaning no change to the rates will be needed.

The sewer fund has seen similar revenue trends, but with looming repairs on the

Waynesville Parks and Recreation Director Rhett Langston (right) presents his plans to town administration Feb. 24. Cory Vaillancourt photo horizon for the town’s 1950s-era waste treatment plant, a 5 percent increase that had been previously scheduled will remain.

Waynesville is one of few North Carolina municipalities that resells electricity from producers to municipal customers, and won’t raise rates this year, even though the town’s electric fund saw a roughly 5 percent revenue decrease over 2016-17, probably due to the warm winter.

Hites said that the town has been able to avoid a health insurance rate increase, largely due to the shrewd negotiation skills of Assistant Town Manager Amie Owens; health care costs have become a thorn in the

side of many municipalities — and ordinary citizens — in recent years.

As regular costs increase even without new spending, Waynesville’s revenue neutral tax rate would have been 49.07 cents — just half a cent greater than the current and proposed 48.57 cent rate.

Instead of raising taxes that amount to keep the budget leveled, the town has opted to utilize $314,040 in general fund balance even though Waynesville’s property tax base increased very slightly to $1.174 billion during the countywide revaluation completed earlier this year.

Waynesville’s Municipal Service District — which levies an extra 20 cents of property tax within the downtown core that is administered by the Downtown Waynesville Association and spent on marketing the district — is assessed at $48 million in value and will not see a rate increase, but will see a small decrease in tax revenue. The revenue neutral rate for the MSD is 21.29 cents.

Aside from the ever-increasing costs of doing regular business, a litany of departmental requests made town Finance Director Eddie Caldwell the most popular guy in town for a brief time; as the budget continues to develop and requests are granted or denied, that may change.

As of today, Police Chief Bill Hollingsed will get that replacement Dodge Charger for patrol duties, but won’t get the body cams he wanted.

After a 2016 tax increase to fund the hiring of eight additional firefighters, however,

2016 Career Fire Chief of the Year Joey Webb won’t get a nickel of his $330,000 in requests for vehicles. Same goes for the Streets and Sanitation department, which requested $243,000 for new trucks.

Rhett Langston’s Parks and Recreation Department will see $128,000 in new spending, including $112,000 for an adaptive playground in Recreation Park.

Waynesville’s water, sewer and electrical operations will see almost $700,000 in capital improvements, including new vehicles, new lab equipment, pumps and a paint/preservation job on the Big Cove water tank.

Hites’ approach to the budget aims to forestall a catastrophic decrease in fund balance that would occur were spending not checked.

“The town was in the practice of appropriating about a million dollars a year in fund balance, which would leave us broke in a matter of years,” Hites said.

Waynesville’s fund balance is around $5.4 million, or about 39 percent of yearly expenditures. If adopted, this year’s budget would trim that number slightly to around 36 percent. Similar-sized cities have an average balance of 52 percent.

“My approach is to look at the budget in five-year increments, and this is how it’s going to be until revenues begin to increase again,” he said.

A public hearing on the 2017-18 Town of Waynesville proposed budget will be held at 1 p.m. on Friday, June 9, in the Town Hall Board Room located at 9 South Main Street; after addressing citizen concerns, the budget will be presented for final approval at the Town of Waynesville’s regular board meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 27.

Bryson City to maintain tax rate, increase service fees

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR

but Simons is recommending an increase this year to the water and sewer base rates, which haven’t been increased since 2013.

An inside residential base rate would increase by $2 per month and an inside commercial base rate would increase by $3.40 per month. An outside residential base rate would increase by $4 per month. With ConMet — one of the county’s largest employers — planning to shut down its Bryson City plant in January 2018, Simons said the town stands to lose about $35,000 in revenue annually.

“We are expected to lose our largest industrial user mid-way through fiscal year 2017-2018,” he said. “The proposed rate increases will not only enable the town to adjust to the losses and additional expenses, but will provide the town an opportunity to make larger transfers to the capital reserve fund.”

The proposed budget also includes a 3.5 percent increase to the town’s payroll by giving pay increases to certain positions that Simons says are “well below the minimum salary range.” He added that getting those salaries up will help the town in recruiting and retaining employees as well as move it toward a merit-pay system rather than relying on annual cost-of-living increases.

The town’s next meeting will be at 6 p.m. Monday, June 5, at Town Hall located on Everett Street. The town has to approve the 2017-18 budget before July 1 per state law.

Smoky Mountain News

With an annual budget of only about $2.9 million, the town of Bryson City doesn’t have much wiggle room when it comes to cutting expenses or allocating funds for major projects.

Town Manager Chad Simons told the board that the town’s income has stayed about the same except for a $25,000 increase in property tax revenues.

“The increase in ad-valorem will fund our police department’s transition into a new facility at the old Federal Courthouse Building,” Simons said in his budget message. “This transition will not occur until the board of aldermen approves a lease agreement with Swain County.”

The county is scheduled to close on the federal building property in May 31 with plans to relocate several county offices, school administrative offices and the Bryson City Police Department in the underutilized building on Main Street. While the county is obtaining the property for free from the federal government, there will be additional costs for upgrades. The county, town and school system will also split the costs of utilities.

“The $20,000 increase in the Public Buildings Fund should cover the utility costs associated with the move, should the board opt to approve it,” Simons said.

Simons also recommended keeping the same property tax rate

of 35 cents per $100 of assessed value, which brings in about $455,000 to the town coffers.

When comparing to other towns, Bryson City’s tax rate falls in the middle — Sylva’s tax rate recently increased to 42 cents, Waynesville’s rate is 48 cents and Franklin’s is 28 cents.

Simons is recommending the board use $8,943 from its fund balance to balance the proposed 2017-18 fiscal year budget in addition to increasing fees for water, sewer and garbage services.

The proposed budget would increase residential trash service from $8 to $10 per month and commercial would increase from $18 to $24 per month. Even with the increase in fees, the sanitation fund still won’t bring in enough revenue to break even, but will help the town purchase a new truck.

“The proposed revenue increase is approximately $31,000, which will leave a deficit of $30,000 in the sanitation fund,” Simons said. “The additional revenue will help finance a new freightliner. The current 1997 garbage truck is past its life cycle.

This budget allocates $40,000 for the financing of a new garbage truck, should the current garbage truck need to be replaced.”

State law requires municipalities to operate their water and sewer accounts as an enterprise fund, meaning they have to be self-sustaining and ideally should generate enough revenue to also pay for future infrastructure needs. The town increased its water and sewer usage rates last year to help fund capital needs,

May 31-June 6, 2017

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT STAFF WRITER aynesville Mayor Gavin Brown opened the town’s February budget retreat — his 17th or 18th, by his own reckoning — by setting the direction with a poignant quote.

“I find it odd we call it a retreat, because we’re not retreating,” Brown said. “We’re moving forward.”

Alderman Jon Feichter — participating in just his second — joined Brown, other aldermen and assembled department heads in preparing an initial draft of the town’s 2017-18 fiscal year budget, which was presented to the public for the first time on May 23.

That budget proposes no increase in taxes, but like every other local government unit in Haywood County has to utilize fund balance to account for a disappointing countywide property revaluation.

Economic realities, said Waynesville Town Manager Rob Hites — who is participating in his first budget cycle with the town — forced the town to craft a budget with reduced general fund expenditures over 2016-17.

“The actual budget is 3 percent lower than last year,” said Hites.

The biggest casualties of the belt-tightening are the town’s career development program and the merit pay program; although retaining an experienced workforce and bolstering worker morale were major factors cited in the firing of former Town Manager Marcy Onieal in early 2016, the town hopes the cuts aren’t permanent and still plans to issue $500 Christmas bonuses to most fulltime employees.

Three new town employees are pro-

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news

B-Day Victory!

Carlie Nichols presents WWII veteran Garland Bolding with a Quilt of Valor. Jessi Stone photos

Community celebrates WWII veteran’s birthday, service

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR hey say “Ask and thou shalt receive,” but Nancy Bolding of Otto probably received way more than she bargained for when she reached out for help to plan her husband’s 94th birthday party.

Nancy, 71, made a call to Macon County News reporter Brittney Burns on Tuesday, May 23, wanting to have something special done for her husband Garland Bolding’s birthday on Wednesday, May 24 — which happened to be just five days before Memorial Day. As one of the few remaining World War II veterans in Macon County, Nancy just thought maybe the newspaper would want to take his picture and publish it. However, Burns had more in mind when she found out the Boldings didn’t have any special plans to celebrate.

Without much hesitation, Burns took on the challenge of giving Bolding the birthday party he deserved with less than 24 hours to pull it off.

“People call the newspaper for so many things that aren’t always headlines. We are a resource. I am happy to know that more than just a weekly newspaper covering county meetings and public events, people turn to us when they need the blanks filled in,” Burns said. “Anytime I can help someone else, regardless of what it is, I want to take that opportunity to do so. My dad always told me that it doesn’t matter how bad your day is or how little you have, there is someone who is having a harder day and is doing it with a little less. So if I am ever able to help someone, I want to do that.”

Burns posted a call to action on Facebook through her personal account and the newspaper’s account and it wasn’t long before the community answered the call.

The senior center offered free space for the party, restaurants donated food, teachers had their students make birthday cards and businesses donated gifts.

The Huddle House — Garland’s favorite restaurant — gladly donated chicken fingers for the party and also provided the Boldings with two free meals a month for a year.

Since Garland mentioned he had lost a pocketknife he had for 30 years, Ace Hardware in Franklin donated a brand new one with a ship etched on it especially for the Navy veteran.

Community leaders, firefighters, law enforcement officers, county officials and students filled up the senior center room for a chance to wish Garland a happy birthday and thank him for his service to the country.

Nancy was overwhelmed by everyone’s 4 generosity and willingness to make it a spe-

Smoky Mountain News

May 31-June 6, 2017

T

cial day for Garland.

“This is the biggest birthday he’s ever had and I want to thank you all,” she said as she fought back tears.

The acts of kindness from strangers didn’t go unnoticed or unappreciated. While interviewing Garland, he kept saying how thankful he was for everyone who came to celebrate his birthday with him. He enjoyed a piece of his favorite cake — pineapple upside down cake — and was happy to strike up a conversation with everyone who shook his hand. He and younger generations of veterans who served in Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan and Iraq exchanged war stories with pride as Memorial Day was just around the corner.

Burns said she wasn’t surprised with how quickly Macon County residents and businesses were able to mobilize to make the day special for the WWII vet because she’s seen the community come together many times to help others in need.

“I had no doubt that our community would want to help, and of course they did. I was flooded with dozens of messages from people wanting to make finger foods, bring decorations, even bake the cake,” she said.

“In reality, I did very little. All I did was get the ball rolling. Everything was able to happen in less than 24 hours because the people of Macon County love their neighbors and would do just about anything to help, even if its someone they have never met.”

Another emotional moment came when Carlie Nichols from the Smoky Mountain Quilters Guild presented Garland with a quilt from the Quilts of Valor Foundation for his service in the U.S. Navy during WWII

A class from Union Academy dropped by to say happy birthday to Garland Bolding, who turned 94 on May 24.

from 1941 to 1947. The grassroots effort to provide veterans with quilts when they return home started when one mother needed something to keep her distracted when her son was deployed and has now spread nationwide. Since forming in 2003, Nichols said 160,000 quilts have been made and given to veterans — Garland makes 160,001.

“Our mission is to cover all service members touched by war with comforting healing quilts — we’re not about politics, we’re about people. And if you’ve never heard it before, welcome home,” she said before ceremonially wrapping Garland up in his Quilt

of Valor.

Garland, originally from Pickens, South Carolina, enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1941, not long after his 18th birthday. He was aboard four ships during his six years of service in the Atlantic, including USS Tuscarora, a fleet tugboat. He also was aboard the USS ATR-4, which was assigned first to the Europe-Africa-Middle East Theater and later to the Asiatic-Pacific Theater and participated in the Invasion of Normandy.

“That was also a rescue tugboat — we made the invasion with it in

F

Custom & Colored

news

WE MAKE ALL OUR MULCH! Large Load delivery 50 to 80 yards.

Mon- Fri 8-5 Sat 9-3 Franklin, NC Josh Patrick with Ace Hardware in Franklin gives Garland Bolding a new pocketknife with a ship etched into it.

(2 Miles Out on Hwy 28 N)

Mulch starting at

$12/yard Pickup or Delivery

That’s one thing I learned during this process — that Garland Bolding isn’t just a WWII veteran that we threw a party for because of his service to our country — he and his wife Nancy are active members of the community that do everything they are willing and able to for others.”

— Brittney Burns

Question: What is used to mist the produce in the Produce Section and why do they need to be misted?

Answer: Ingles uses city water that (in most of our stores) is then is run through 3 different filters before being used to mist plants. There are no other ingredients in the water.

Without misting, many vegetables, especially leafy greens, would dry out quickly and begin to wilt and break down.

Individuals tend not to purchase wilted greens and this could lead to an increase in food waste. When buying produce that has been misted make sure you shake it gently to remove excess water before bagging it up. When you return home store it in the “crisper” drawer or the drawer for vegetables in your refrigerator and plan on using it within a couple of days.

Smoky Mountain News

for anything, but I had had people who weren’t able to attend the party ask if there was any other way to help the couple, so the mattress came to mind,” Burns said.

So with a good deal from Big Lots in Franklin and help from the community, Burns said $600 was raised to purchase a new mattress set for them. It was delivered over the weekend. She said the son of another WWII veteran dropped by the Macon County News office and left a donation and several others donated as well.

Bonnie and David Pickartz not only donated money for the mattress, but they also helped Burns deliver it.

“And while I was there setting up their new bed, the couple was asking for contact information for the Quilts of Valor so they could make a donation,” she said. “That’s one thing I learned during this process — that Garland Bolding isn’t just a WWII veteran that we threw a party for because of his service to our country — he and his wife Nancy are active members of the community that do everything they are willing and able to for others.”

The Boldings grow vegetables to donate to those in need, they collect jackets in the winter for veterans and the homeless, Nancy makes silk flower wreaths for people and Garland used to volunteer on construction projects at Newman Chapel.

“When they heard about a young mother who found out she was pregnant well into the pregnancy, Nancy collected all the baby girl things she could for that family,” Burns said. “They do so much for others, it was only fitting to do something for them.”

The Boldings extended an invitation to people in the community to write them letters or come visit with them anytime. They can be reached at 828.524.6039 and their address is 10602 Georgia Road, Otto, N.C., 28763.

May 31-June 6, 2017

Europe,” Garland recalled. “We went in with the armada — about 4,000 ships.”

He was discharged from the Navy as a Chief Boatswain.

“Someone earlier asked me if I liked being in the Navy — I said I liked it good enough to give them six years but not enough to make a career out of it,” Garland said.

Garland said he didn’t really have a plan when he left the military, but he knew he couldn’t stay in South Carolina much longer.

“You couldn’t find a job there in those days — I even considered re-enlisting,” he said.

But with his experience working on ships and with the construction battalion in the Navy, Garland ended up in Charleston working on a ship traveling back and forth from New York City. He then got into construction with a company out of Greeneville, South Carolina, and got to travel around the U.S. Garland found his way to Franklin in 1979 when he came with his construction business to build a facility for CNR Industries. As luck would have it, a hard freeze hit when he arrived and the project wasn’t able to start for another two months.

It was during that time he met Nancy. The two married in 1980 and have been living in Otto ever since.

“Franklin’s been good to me — I love it here,” he said.

Franklin’s kindness didn’t stop once the birthday party was over. People kept reaching out to Burns to see if there was something they could do whether it be sending a belated birthday card or making some kind of donation.

“At the party Garland mentioned his back hurting because of his mattress. He never asked for a new bed, he never asked

5

news

Cherokee chief removed from office

Tribal members listen to testimony during the impeachment hearing May 24. Holly Kays photo

Smoky Mountain News

May 31-June 6, 2017

Lambert’s impeachment causes anger as primary election draws near

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER fter three full days of testimony and four hours of waiting for a verdict, silence reigned at the Cherokee council house May 25 as Tribal Council convened to deliver its final decision on whether to remove Principal Chief Patrick Lambert from office.

Nobody spoke as Chairman Bill Taylor explained how the voting would be conducted, or as councilmembers rose, one by one, to announce their decision of guilty or not guilty on the first article of impeachment, or the second, and so on through the 12 articles. The room was quiet as Taylor explained that being found guilty on even one count would have been enough to remove Lambert from office — Tribal Council had voted him guilty on eight of the 12 charges.

A

CALLS FOR A SPECIAL ELECTION

The resolution to remove Lambert was read into the record, along with a provision to immediately swear in Vice Chief Richie Sneed as principal chief. As had been the case throughout the impeachment issue, nine of the 12 councilmembers voted to pass the resolution, with Councilmembers Teresa McCoy, Richard French and Tommye Saunooke opposing. Taylor announced a 10-minute break before Sneed’s swearing-in, and things 6 stayed quiet in the council chambers as the

audience waited for the meeting to resume.

But when council reconvened and Sneed prepared to take the oath of office, emotions that had been buried beneath that silent exterior burst to the surface. Lambert supporters began to stand, asking Sneed for the chance to speak before he took his oath.

Such a reaction had been strictly forbidden, with Taylor making it clear throughout the impeachment proceedings that any disruptive audience members would be removed.

“They said no outbursts,” said Taylor, banging his gavel. “No. No. Take us off the air, please.”

At that point, the tribe’s video recording of the meeting ceased — though The Smoky Mountain News took its own video, which is posted at www.facebook.com/smnews — as tribal members continued to call for a special election to fill Lambert’s seat instead of passing that seat on to Sneed.

Council directed the police officers who had been present throughout the proceedings to throw out the tribal members disrupting the swearing-in, but the officers soon abandoned the effort. The handful of officers were faced with a whole room of angry people, not just one or two unruly individuals.

“Listen up!” yelled Taylor, to no avail.

Tribal members began chanting, “Special election! Special election! Special election!”

Eventually, it was the councilmembers who wound up leaving, taking a police escort to the EBCI Justice Center to conduct the swearing-in in a quieter locale. Several councilmembers did remain in the room, however, including Adam Wachacha, Bo Crowe and French. Saunooke and McCoy, who along with French had been consistently anti-impeachment, left out the front door,

not joining the majority at the Justice Center. Members of the crowd continued to plead with those who stayed, reiterating their requests for a special election.

REACTIONS TO REMOVAL Finally, the room emptied and tribal members left to gather in groups outside the council house — most of them Lambert supporters, and most of them hanging around for more than an hour before leaving the property.

“All this was, was a retaliation because he called the feds in for them stealing like they have,” said Heather Singletary, 41, of Birdtown, referencing the forensic audit Lambert ordered early in his term, resulting in what is still an active FBI investigation.

“And he did what he promised he was going to do, and every one of them have their hand in the cookie jar and he put a stop to it. And this is retaliation to it. He’s the most honest man I know.”

Richard “Twidge” Welch, a former councilmember, also saw the impeachment as a set-up to retaliate for Lambert’s efforts to root out corruption, and he worried about the wider repercussions of the decision to remove Lambert.

“The office of the chief should be held in a little more reverence,” Welch said. “It should be upheld, kept on a strong foundation rather than wishy-washy. Outside this tribe, who would want to do business with a government as wishy-washy as this one? It reflects badly on the whole community out here.”

Some Lambert supporters, meanwhile, believe that this situation will ultimately work out for good.

“What we’re going through right now is birthing pains,” said Amy Walker. “This is right before the new baby is born, and this new baby that’s going to be born out of this labor has already got a name — and it’s called the Eastern Band of Cherokee Constitution.”

However, the crowd included some Lambert opponents as well, a group gathered in the parking lot away from where the pro-Lambert folks had congregated.

“I think it’s a great day that he’s gone, because I used to work for him for six years,” said Katina Ledford, 44, of Birdtown. “He was corrupt then and he’s still corrupt. He was doing the exact same things, and he’s just a little bit better than most to cover stuff up. But it caught up with him.”

Within minutes of the decision to remove Lambert, his access to tribal information systems was cut off. The photo of Lambert that had anchored the tribe’s webpage was swiftly removed, and Sneed was listed as the tribe’s principal chief. But if the reaction when Lambert came outside to address his supporters was any indication, their regard for him isn’t shifting along with his change in title.

“I still think he’s the keeper of the stars,” said Barbara Waldroup, 60, of Birdtown, as Lambert spoke. “We’re his stars. He’s been a good chief, an excellent chief, and he’s still our keeper.”

Lambert said he wasn’t angry about the

S EE CHEROKEE, PAGE 8

A timeline of impeachment week Impeachment hearings to consider charges against Principal Chief Patrick Lambert stretched on for three days last week, with Tribal Council holding four hours of closed-door deliberations before voting to remove Lambert from office. To view the impeachment hearings in their entirety, visit http://bit.ly/2rB4eED. MONDAY, MAY 22 • 9 a.m. The hearing begins with prosecuting attorney Rob Saunooke and defense attorney Scott Jones making their opening statements.

• 10 a.m. Saunooke begins to make his case, calling Secretary of Finance Erik Sneed as his first witness. Subsequent prosecution witnesses are Chief of Staff Sage Dunston, Purchasing Manager Megan Yates, Sharon Blankenship and Rebecca Claxton of the Office of Internal Audit, Vice Chief Richie Sneed, Councilmembers Albert Rose and Bo Crowe, and former Cherokee Recreation Life Manager Tosh Welch.

• 5 p.m. Testimony ends for the day.

TUESDAY, MAY 23 • 9 a.m. The hearing resumes with testimony from prosecution witness Curtis Wildcatt, interim manager for the Tribal Employment Rights Office.

• 10 a.m. The defense begins its case, calling Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Revenue Manager Melanie Foreman as its first witness.

Subsequent witnesses are Erik Sneed, Secretary of Human Resources Marsha Jackson, Tribal Planning and Analysis Manager Angie Votaw, Harrah’s Cherokee Regional Vice President for Finance Adele Madden and Albert Rose.

• 2 p.m. Principal Chief Patrick Lambert takes the stand as a witness.

• 5 p.m. The defense finishes questioning Lambert and the hearing recesses for the day.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 24 • 9 a.m. The hearing resumes with Saunooke’s cross-examination of Lambert. Following a brief redirect from Jones, Tribal Council members then ask their own questions.

• 2 p.m. Final arguments are heard.

• 3:45 p.m. Tribal Council begins its closedsession deliberation toward a verdict.

• 5 p.m. Deliberation ends for the day.

THURSDAY, MAY 25 • Noon. Tribal Council resumes deliberation • 3 p.m. Deliberation concludes and Tribal Council members cast their votes on a verdict. Lambert is found guilty on eight of 12 counts, and Council votes 9-3 to remove him from office and swear in Vice Chief Richie Sneed as the new principal chief.

• 4 p.m. The swearing-in for Richie Sneed is set to begin at the council house when an angry outburst from the crowd prompts Sneed and most councilmembers to evacuate for a more private swearing-in at the EBCI Justice Center.

• 5 p.m. Lambert exits the council house to address supporters waiting outside.

During seven-hour testimony, Cherokee chief maintains that he’s done nothing impeachable

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER n the three days of testimony that comprised Principal Chief Patrick Lambert’s impeachment hearing, Lambert himself was by far the most prominent witness, spending a total of seven hours on the stand spread over two days.

“This whole proceeding is about you,” said defense attorney Scott Jones once Lambert had been sworn in. “And what I want this to be this afternoon primarily is a chance for you to go through and address each of these articles.”

Throughout the months of Tribal Council meetings leading up to the impeachment, Lambert had repeatedly stated that councilmembers had never given him an opportunity to publicly explain any apparent wrongdoing or answer questions about his conduct while in office. Upon taking the stand, he went through the 12 articles of impeachment one by one, making his case that he had not committed any offense worthy of impeachment.

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“We offered the best price that we could (for the room contract), and I think it was the best price the casino’s ever seen,” Lambert testified.

He further testified that the final contract came to him in August 2015, before the election, but that he didn’t find time to sign until mid-September, after the election.

During her testimony earlier that morning, Harrah’s Cherokee Regional Vice President for Finance Adele Madden had said that neither Lambert nor his wife attempted to threaten or intimidate anyone to grant the contract.

“You just testified that Mr. and Mrs. Lambert at no time came before the TCGE (Tribal Casino Gaming Enterprise) Board pushing for a contract with Harrah’s? And at no time after Mr. Lambert was chief did he come back before the board and request that that contract continue?”

Councilmember Teresa McCoy had asked during Madden’s testimony.

“Correct,” Madden replied.

Another much-discussed article of impeachment, the one alleging that Lambert had intentionally restricted the Office of Internal Audit’s access to tribal records, Lambert presented as a misunderstanding stemming from his efforts to protect private information.

What happened, he said, is that his administration learned that there were 167 people with global access to the tribe’s financial records system — a much larger number than necessary — and some of them were former, An hour after his impeachment, Patrick Lambert addresses supporters waiting outside the council house. not current, employees. He Holly Kays photo directed Secretary of Finance Erik Sneed to take care of the think he would get caught, and he did.”

Furthermore, Lambert testified, nothing problem, and Sneed decided to deal with the “There’s no question that conflicts of he’s done has been intended to enrich his issue by cutting off global access for everyinterest arose with Patrick and his actions,” personal wealth. one and have those who needed it reapply Saunooke continued. “No question. There “The only thing I’ve gained other than a for the access. According to Lambert, any should be no debate about that.” lot of love and respect from my people in access that OIA had requested was granted, In Jones’ closing arguments, however, this tribe and having gained some more lifethough OIA Director Sharon Blankenship he contended that Lambert hadn’t commitlong friendships that I believe will be there had testified May 22 that the office is still many more days is only what is in that budg- ted any impeachable offenses and argued without full access. that impeachment should not be “a game et book for my compensation,” Lambert “I think in the process of better protecof gotcha.” said. “That’s all. I’ve never been to a concert tion of tribal records perhaps their access “When you treat the person who holds since I’ve been chief. I’ve never played a was restricted the same as everyone else, but the most powerful elected office in the tribe round of golf. I’ve never taken a personal every request that’s been made they’ve been the way you treated this chief — without vacation on the tribal credit cards.” given the access as needed,” Lambert said. fairness — the average tribal member canLambert’s testimony resumed the next “So the short answer is no, there has been no not and will not expect fairness from tribal morning, May 24, under cross-examination access denied them.” government,” Jones said. “This process is from prosecuting attorney Rob Saunooke.

He went through the remaining charges wrong. Removing the chief is wrong. I just in much the same way. The pre-inauguration Exchanges between Lambert and Saunooke ask that each of you before you vote honestwere often contentious, with Saunooke conlegal bills were for help drafting six pieces of ly search your conscience before you do this tending that Lambert had been in the habit legislation that Tribal Council — the same to your tribe.” of “picking and choosing” which laws he body seated now — passed unanimously on 7

Smoky Mountain News

According to the tribe’s Charter and Governing Document, there are two types of offenses that can be considered impeachable, Lambert testified. One would be committing a crime that would make someone ineligible to run for office — committing a felony or defrauding the tribe. The second would be violating the oath of office, in which elected officials swear to uphold tribal laws to the best of their ability.

“I’ve done that to the best of my ability. I take advice, I work hard every day, and I’ve done everything within my power to uphold the laws of this tribe,” Lambert said.

Lambert faced 12 different impeachment charges, some comprised of multiple parts.

He spent three hours on the stand May 23 discussing each one in detail.

Regarding the first article of impeachment, which alleges that he illegally entered his hotel into a $5.6 million contract with the casino following his September 2015 election, Lambert said that he’d been negotiating the deal since January 2015, when the bid packets were released. He and his wife Cyndi had bought the hotel out of foreclosure in 2012, and by 2015 the hotel had been renovated, debts had been paid off and the business had begun to turn the corner.

should follow in order to favor himself and his friends.

Saunooke pointed out that the $628,000 contract to renovate tribal executive offices went to a company owned by Erik Sneed, who later became Lambert’s secretary of finance, and contended that Lambert had enforced a double standard by refusing to release payments for Tribal Council’s special impeachment prosecutor while continuing to pay Jones’ law firm. Lambert, meanwhile, pointed out that Jones was his regular executive counsel just like attorney Carolyn West is Tribal Council’s regular counsel, and therefore using Jones didn’t require the act of Tribal Council that Lambert was waiting on to release funds for the special prosecutor.

“This is an educated man who has plenty of time, experience, knowledge in gaming and business,” Saunooke told Tribal Council during his closing arguments. “He knew exactly what he was doing. He just didn’t

May 31-June 6, 2017

Video of the entire impeachment hearing is available online at www.livestream.com/accounts/10717024/ events/6836196. To read more about the individual charges and Lambert’s responses to them, visit www.smokymountain news.com/news/item/19987-the-charges.

Lambert’s first day in office. The changes to the organizational chart were approved by Tribal Council, just not before they were enacted. According to Lambert, that had been the process under the former administration and in absence of a law stipulating otherwise, he had followed suit. He contended that he had followed human resources policies and contracting procedures, giving detailed accounts of each of the instances in which the articles of impeachment alleged he had not.

“If this body wants to vote me out this evening or tomorrow or the next day, that’s within their power to do, and I will accept this,” Lambert said as he wrapped up his answers to Jones’ questions. “However, is that fair, is that due process, is that the right thing to do whenever I give you full answers to everything I’ve been accused of and it’s the God’s honest truth? Is that the right thing to do? I think not.”

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Lambert defends against impeachment charges

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How they voted

vote worth between six and 12 votes depending on the population of the representative’s community.

For a full list of charges and Lambert’s responses to them, visit www.smokymountainnews.com/news/item/19987-the-charges.

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER ollowing three days of impeachment hearings, Tribal Council deliberated for four hours before returning to vote in open session. Each of the 12 charges against Principal Chief Patrick Lambert were announced individually, with councilmembers then standing up one by one to cast their vote as guilty, not guilty or abstained.

The body found Lambert guilty on eight of the 12 charges. Seven of the 12 articles followed the 9-3 voting pattern that has pervaded the entire impeachment process, with Councilmembers Teresa McCoy, Richard French and Tommye Saunooke voting not guilty on all 12 articles. The only charge on which Lambert was found guilty that did not follow the 9-3 voting pattern was the charge involving changes to the tribe’s organizational chart. Councilmember Bo Crowe joined the other three in voting not guilty on this charge.

Votes in Tribal Council are calculated on a weighted scale, with each councilmember’s

Article I: Hotel contract entered into illegally • Not guilty: Teresa McCoy, Richard French, Tommye Saunooke • Guilty: Travis Smith, Alan “B” Ensley, Anita Lossiah, Brandon Jones, Bill Taylor, Bo Crowe, Adam Wachacha, Albert Rose, Marie Junaluska • Weighted vote: 80-20, guilty

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CHEROKEE, CONTINUED FROM 6

Smoky Mountain News

May 31-June 6, 2017

impeachment, but that he was angry that Sneed had chosen to leave for the courthouse rather than hearing out the tribal members in attendance before taking his oath. He also took issue with Sneed’s automatic swearingin, pointing out that the Charter and Governing Document says the vice chief can assume the principal chief ’s title in the case of “death, disability or resignation” — impeachment is not mentioned.

Sneed has not yet replied to a request for comment concerning these criticisms.

“I think I’m standing here in full capacity,” Lambert said. “Unless we’re all in heaven I’m not dead … They impeach me saying I violated some sections of the code. But what they are going to do in their very first act is violate the charter.”

Lambert pointed back to the FBI investigation as the root of the impeachment effort.

“That’s what y’all elected me for is to clean up the corruption and mess in this tribe,” he said. “What does it boil down to? Corruption, greed and money. That’s it.”

Lambert promised to remain active in tribal politics, even if not holding office. All 12 Tribal Council seats are up for election this year, with primary elections June 1 and the general election Sept. 7. Lambert said he intends to champion candidates who will help create a better government in Cherokee.

“What we’re going to do is we’re going to get together and we’re going to organize.

We’re going to beat them this fall at the polls,” Lambert said.

He reiterated the promise in a May 27 post to his public Facebook page.

“I'm going to use every ounce of my edu8 cation, experience and heart for Indian peo-

Article II: Official actions taken prior to swearing-in • Not guilty: McCoy, French, Saunooke • Guilty: Smith, Ensley, Lossiah, Jones, Taylor, Crowe, Wachacha, Rose, Junaluska • Weighted vote: 80-20, guilty Article III: Contracts executed without Business Committee approval • Not guilty: McCoy, French, Saunooke • Guilty: Smith, Ensley, Lossiah, Jones, Taylor, Crowe, Wachacha, Rose, Junaluska • Weighted vote: 80-20, guilty Article IV: Unauthorized changes made to tribe’s organizational structure

ple to ensure we have a Tribal Council and a Tribal Government that works for you,” Lambert wrote. “I want you to join me in making this place more open, transparent and free of corruption. I may not be sitting in the office right now, but I will be working hard every day for justice for our Cherokee Families and our elders just like I did when I was sitting in the office!”

• Not guilty: McCoy, French, Saunooke, Crowe • Guilty: Smith, Ensley, Lossiah, Jones, Taylor, Crowe, Wachacha, Rose, Junaluska • Weighted vote: 68-32, guilty Article V: Resources withheld from the Tribal Employment Rights Office • Not guilty: McCoy, French, Saunooke, Ensley, Lossiah, Jones, Taylor, Crowe, Wachacha, Rose, Junaluska • Guilty: Smith • Weighted vote: 88-12, not guilty Article VI: Human resources decisions made without Vice Chief’s approval • Not guilty: McCoy, French, Saunooke • Guilty: Smith, Ensley, Lossiah, Jones, Taylor, Crowe, Wachacha, Rose, Junaluska • Weighted vote: 80-20, guilty Article VII: Legal expenses incurred before inauguration • Not guilty: McCoy, French, Saunooke • Guilty: Smith, Ensley, Lossiah, Jones, Taylor, Crowe, Wachacha, Rose, Junaluska • Weighted vote: 80-20, guilty Article VIII: Attempt made to bribe two councilmembers • Not guilty: McCoy, French, Saunooke • Guilty: Smith, Ensley, Lossiah, Jones, Taylor, Wachacha, Junaluska

• Abstained: Crowe, Rose • Weighted vote: 56-20, not guilty Article IX: Cutting off Office of Internal Audit’s record access • Not guilty: McCoy, French, Saunooke • Guilty: Smith, Ensley, Lossiah, Jones, Taylor, Crowe, Wachacha, Rose, Junaluska • Weighted vote: 80-20, guilty Article X: Withholding payment for Council’s impeachment attorney • Not guilty: McCoy, French, Saunooke • Guilty: Smith, Ensley, Lossiah, Jones, Taylor, Crowe, Wachacha, Rose, Junaluska • Weighted vote: 80-20, guilty Article XI: Through Grand Council, impeding Tribal Council’s ability to impeach • Not guilty: McCoy, French, Smith, Ensley, Lossiah, Jones, Taylor, Crowe, Wachacha, Rose, Junaluska, Saunooke • Weighted vote: 100-0, not guilty Article XII: Using tribal resources for personal benefit during Grand Council • Not guilty: McCoy, French, Ensley, Lossiah, Jones, Taylor, Crowe, Wachacha, Rose, Junaluska, Saunooke • Guilty: Smith • Weighted vote: 88-12, not guilty

Election Day is June 1 All 12 Tribal Council seats are up for reelection this year, and polls will be open 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday, June 1, for the primary election.

Currently, 45 candidates are running for the 12 seats to represent Cherokee’s six townships, with three incumbents choosing not to seek reelection. After the primary election, the top four vote-getters from each township will advance to the General Election slated for Thursday, Sept. 7 — 24 candidates in total.

Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Election Board, 828.359.6361.

PROMISES FROM THE SNEED ADMINISTRATION Before the impeachment verdict was delivered, Lambert had declared administrative leave for Friday, May 26, meaning that with the Memorial Day weekend Tuesday, May 30, was the first day of work under the Sneed administration. May 30 also happened to be the day of Tribal Council’s monthly budget session, and Sneed took a few minutes to address the recent events as the meeting kicked off. He said that the tribe has heard enough “legal speak and posturing over the last 18 months” and that “it’s time to get back to the business of this tribe, and that cannot mean business as usual.”

“My commitment to you is deliberate and it is direct,” Sneed said. “The right way, right now. The promise to do the right thing cannot be simply empty campaign rhetoric. It must be the guiding principle that we uphold and model as leaders, as parents, as neighbors and as friends.”

While a list of interview questions sent to Sneed had not been answered as of The Smoky Mountain News’ press time, the Facebook page for Councilmember Travis Smith, of Birdtown, displayed the text of a letter Sneed had written to tribal employees.

“I recognize that you, our tribal employees, have been under a tremendous level of stress over the course of the last 20 months, and the last three in particular,” the post reads. “With that in mind, I wanted to quell any rumors that there will be employees who are losing their jobs. There will be NO Tribal Employees dismissed, terminated or otherwise removed from their respective employment as a result of the change of administration at the Executive level, period.”

Lambert’s political appointees will not necessarily keep their jobs, the post continues, as those jobs are understood to last only as long as the administration that hired them.

However, the post says, many political appointees will get to keep their jobs under the Sneed administration.

“Those appointees not asked to remain on staff will be offered employment elsewhere within the tribe,” the post reads. “Their employment ended through no fault of their own and we will make every effort to accommodate them, for they are our family members, neighbors and friends and they will be treated with dignity and respect.”

With the impeachment over, many things are still up in the air. As of press time, no vice chief had been selected, and if that person

comes from the ranks of Tribal Council a new vacancy will be created on that body. And with all 12 Tribal Council seats up for election this year, there’s potential for October to bring a substantial shakeup around the horseshoe.

Then there’s Lambert’s path forward.

Before the impeachment hearing, he was the plaintiff in a lawsuit awaiting hearing in Tribal Court, contesting the legality of the impeachment process. He has not yet decided if he will proceed with that lawsuit, file a new complaint to reflect recent events, or abandon the legal process altogether.

In addition, the much-talked-about FBI investigation is ongoing, but it’s unknown when or if indictments will be filed — or who those indictments will name. Lambert had announced the FBI’s potential involvement in April 2016, when in a Budget Council meeting he summarized preliminary results of the audit he’d conducted, telling Tribal Council he’d sent that information on to the FBI. In October, the U.S. Department of Justice notified the Qualla Housing Authority that it was under investigation for misuse of the $3.2 million in annual federal grants it handles. Six members of Qualla Housing’s seven-member board also sit on Tribal Council, the same body that presided over the impeachment hearing.

Mission Health has announced it will close it women’s and children’s practices in Sylva and consolidate the services into one practice on the Angel Medical Center campus in Franklin.

Jessi Stone photo

The new consolidated practice, which Mission is referring to as a “Rural Health Center,” will be located in Franklin at 56 Medical Park Drive on the lower level of the current physician office building. It will be a combined women’s health and pediatric practice. Both of the clinics in Franklin are owned by the hospital and the Sylva location is rented, but Gorby said rental costs were not a driving factor for the decision to consolidate the practices.

Everything You Need for a Perfect Summer

Grill-out!!

Smoky Mountain News

Prior to a merger in late 2015, two separate OB practices handled deliveries at Harris — privately owned practice Smoky Mountain OB GYN and the hospitalowned practice Harris Women’s Care.

May 31-June 6, 2017

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ing closely with impacted employees who are interested in transferring to Franklin or another position within Mission Health, but the exact number of employees who will transfer or leave Mission Health is unknown at this time.

Currently, Mission has four OB/GYN physicians, three nurse midwives and one pediatrician in Franklin. Two of the OB/GYN physicians and the nurse midwives also rotate into the Sylva office.

ll l ri il g gr ee h se! fr it a a r w ch et e r g ov pu c

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR n an effort to consolidate women’s and children’s services in Franklin, Mission Health has announced it will be closing those practices in Sylva.

Mission Children’s-Sylva and Mission Women’s-Sylva, which came under Mission’s umbrella four years ago, will likely close in September as the consolidation is completed.

This news comes just weeks after Mission made the announcement it would discontinue labor and delivery services at Angel Medical Center in Franklin, forcing women to have to travel 25 minutes to an hour and a half to deliver their babies.

While the labor and delivery unit will shut down as of July 14, Angel Medical will continue to provide prenatal and postnatal services in Franklin.

“We recognize the obvious fact the majority of a woman’s care occurs before and after the delivery itself, which is one very important but nonetheless small part of the pregnancy and post-childbirth continuum. It is essential that women in Franklin have access to pre- and post-natal services as close to home as possible,” said Karen Gorby, president and Chief Nursing Officer at AMC. “Other similar services already exist in Sylva, and by converting the four existing practices into a single, integrated Rural Health Center practice, Angel will be better positioned to provide women and children with the services they need, close to home.”

Mission’s closures will impact eight providers and 12 support staff members who currently provide services in Sylva. Gorby said Mission and Angel Medical were work-

was asked to help keep those physicians in the local area, so Mission agreed to employ those doctors as well.”

Prior to a merger in late 2015, two separate OB practices handled deliveries at Harris — privately owned practice Smoky Mountain OB GYN and the hospital-owned practice Harris Women’s Care. Harris then acquired Smoky Mountain OB GYN and brought all their providers under the Harris umbrella.

Now that Duke LifePoint’s acquisition of Harris is complete and the Sylva hospital is in a better position, Mission’s presence isn’t as critical.

Harris was already in the process of a $5.5 million renovation to its labor and delivery unit — New Generations Birthing Center — when Mission announced last month the closure of its labor and delivery unit in Franklin. Harris saw it as an opportunity to reach out to female patients in Macon County since many of them will now being looking to drive to Sylva to have their babies.

Lucretia Stargell, vice president of business and service line development for Harris, said the hospital has plans to expand services this summer by offering a full-time pediatrics practice in Franklin. The expansion will mean that Harris will have pediatric care in Jackson, Macon and Swain counties.

Harris Pediatric Care in Sylva currently has three pediatricians on staff and is in the process of recruiting a fourth to begin this summer. Stargell said Harris is still unsure how many employees will be working at the practice in Franklin.

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Mission closes Sylva women and children’s practices

“This integration of services will provide one stop access to women of all ages for prenatal, postnatal and GYN care along with pediatric care for their infants and children,” she said.

Mission Health and Harris Regional have battled it out for years to corner the OB and pediatric care market in Sylva, but it appears Mission is now pulling out of Jackson County, leaving Harris as the sole health care provider.

As Mission Health expanded further west a few years ago, the not-for-profit health care system made a commitment to ramp up services in the western counties. Mission brought Sylva Pediatrics — now Mission Children’s Sylva — under its umbrella in 2012 and signed a management contract with Angel Medical in 2013.

At the time, Harris was still on unsteady financial footing as a nonprofit hospital but has been able to invest more in infrastructure and services since being bought by for-profit Duke LifePoint Health in 2014.

Gorby said it was the uncertainty of health care in Jackson County at the time that got Mission involved.

“Because of that history and the significant uncertainty and concern surrounding the acquisition of Harris Regional by Duke LifePoint, Mission agreed to employ several providers who had expressed concerns about the acquisition of Harris Regional and we agreed to maintain an OB practice in Sylva for them,” she said. “Similarly, the pediatricians affiliated with Harris had considered ending their practice and Mission

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BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER fter six years at the helm of Jackson County Public Schools, Superintendent Mike Murray will be leaving for a new position at Cherokee Central Schools this summer.

“I had very mixed emotions about leaving, because it’s hard to leave a job that you love and I’ve had a wonderful amount of support in Jackson County from all the county commissioners to the government leaders to especially the different support services,” Murray said.

“All of the entities that Mike Murray are involved in Jackson County have gone out of their way to support the school system in the six years I’ve been here.”

However, Murray said, with the fiveyear plan he set out to accomplish when he started the job mostly complete, he found himself wondering if he should “just go home and fish” or look for another challenge to tackle before retirement — he’s had a 35-year education career in Western North Carolina. When Cherokee Central Superintendent Scott Penland announced his upcoming departure, Murray couldn’t help but be interested in the position.

“I prayed about it and thought I’m going to try for the Cherokee school system, because I think it’s a very good school system,” said Murray. “I’m very interested in what they’re doing with their language and their culture. It’s just fascinating to me.”

As superintendent at Jackson Schools, Murray has certainly had exposure to the Cherokee language and culture — after all, 52 percent of students at Smokey Mountain Elementary School are Native American. But he’s looking forward to learning more, understanding more and helping to improve the school system while he’s at it.

Murray’s goals for Cherokee Central include boosting the graduation rate, which now sits in the 70 percent range, and helping the system to continue raising the bar academically. He believes that the school system is overall a good one but wants to help it get even better. However, he plans to spend the first year being more of an observer than a mover and shaker.

“My whole goal this first year is to get to know everybody,” Murray said. “I’m going to build relationships with the parents and

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Jackson County Schools superintendent to leave for Cherokee the community and with the staff at the schools, and with the kids.”

To that end, Murray is excited about the fact that Cherokee Central Schools are all located on a single campus. That works for Murray’s hands-on approach, promising him greater opportunity to see students and teachers in action without having to drive anywhere.

“I can drive to Asheville on a good day quicker than I can drive to Blue Ridge School (in Cashiers) if I get behind the wrong farm equipment, so it’s exciting to me that I’m going to be under one roof with an elementary school, middle school, high school and a central office,” Murray said.

However, he emphasized, he will miss Jackson County, though he’s confident he’s leaving it in good hands. Associate Superintendent Kim Elliott will take Murray’s place as superintendent for six months to a year while the school board decides who should fill the position. The board could decide to hire Elliott permanently, or it could bring in someone new.

“I had very mixed emotions about leaving, because it’s hard to leave a job that you love and I’ve had a wonderful amount of support in Jackson County.”

— Mike Murray

“I think that’s a good opportunity for the board to let the process work, and the board can certainly interview and talk to stakeholders,” Murray said.

Since coming to Jackson Schools, Murray has been a visible face in the community, over the last several years campaigning hard to improve the school system’s crumbling facilities. Roofs were leaking, pipes were breaking, and Murray could often be seen at county meetings explaining the need to commissioners. Currently, facilities are in much better shape, and the school system is in the midst of completing $9 million worth of county-funded maintenance and repairs.

“We’ve made some major strides,” Murray said.

Murray’s last day at Jackson Schools will be June 30, and he will start his new job in Cherokee July 10.

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Breedlove, the emergency management director in Swain County.

Preparing for the eclipse has been a whole-cloth affair.

“We didn’t have a plan on the shelf for an eclipse,” Dillard said.

The last one to touch U.S. soil skirted through Oregon in 1979.

CALL TO DUTY Now, with less than three months to go, the countdown to the big day is in full force.

Eclipse task force meetings are the new normal for emergency responders, law enforcement, the National Park Service and the N.C. Department of Transportation.

Nearly 60 people from more than three dozen agencies across a six-county area participated.

“It gave us all a chance to sit down and think about the additional resources we need to have in place and how we could set up a communication network with the other counties,” said David Breedlove. “The ability for us to work together that day should we need to, that was the biggest thing we gained out of it.”

For example, a designated VIPER radio frequency will be set up for the eclipse, allowing agencies across the region to communicate with each other in real time.

The mass influx of eclipse spectators not only means a lot more people to keep safe,

MANAGING THE ROADS Sgt. Wike doesn’t expect widespread gridlock, but “you will have pockets that can’t handle excess traffic,” he said.

Wike will pull about two dozen additional troopers from other counties across the mountains to work the roads in the eclipse totality zone.

“It is just a matter of redirecting your manpower,” he said.

A top concern is the two-lane roads that serve as major arteries — like N.C. 107 to Cashiers or U.S. 19 through the Nantahala Gorge. The terrain is rugged and shoulders

A tabletop exercise held in Swain County brought together a regional cadre of emergency planners, law enforcement, fire chiefs, road crews and more to prepare for the mass influx of tourists expected for the total solar eclipse Aug. 21. Nick Breedlove photo In mid-May, a tabletop emergency exercise was convened to facilitate regional coordination. It put federal, state and local agencies through the paces of handling the unprecedented masses — and more importantly, what they would do if a disaster occurred in the thick of eclipse day.

“The whole idea is to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. That’s what any drill is about,” said First Sgt. Matt Wike for the N.C. Highway Patrol’s mountain region.

The tabletop exercise was funded through a Homeland Security grant and conducted by Specialized Consulting Services.

“This was their very first solar eclipse exercise,” quipped Dillard, commending them on the job.

but also clogged roads, which could hamper emergency response times.

During the tabletop exercise, participants were confronted with various scenarios, and acted out their possible response strategies.

What if a tractor-trailer jack-knifed and shut down a major road? What if there was a severe weather warning? What if there was a bomb threat and thousands of tourists had to be evacuated quickly?

While extreme and unlikely, the exercise proved invaluable.

“We are really showing how federal, state and local agencies are working hand in hand with this,” Dillard said.

While much work has been done, emergency planners are still in the fine-tuning stage.

sometimes non-existent, making it impossible for traffic to pull around a wreck.

A unit of motorcycle troopers from Charlotte will be called in to help for the day.

“They are real effective at negotiating through congested or stopped traffic,” Wike said.

Meanwhile, the DOT is pulling in extra units of its Incident Management Assistance Patrol, which helps get broken-down cars moving again by fixing flats, jump-starting engines and filling gas tanks.

“We want to get them going again and completely off the roadway. We don’t even want them sitting on the shoulder if we can

Smoky Mountain News

BY B ECKY JOHNSON STAFF WRITER odd Dillard isn’t the kind of guy who leaves anything to chance. What-ifs are his forte, as they should be for the Jackson County emergency management director.

But the latest scenario to invade his white board is a first, to say the least. A massive influx of visitors will swarm the far western mountains this August for the once-in-a-lifetime chance to witness a total solar eclipse.

The Great American Eclipse will pass over 12 states, but the path of totality is only 70 miles wide. It will go right over Jackson, Macon and Swain counties shortly after 2:35 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 21 — making the region ground zero for tens of thousands of eclipse-chasing tourists.

“Some are calling it July Fourth on steroids,” Dillard said.

How many to expect, what roads they’ll use, where they’ll be going and even when they’ll come — the weekend before or the day of? — is a big mystery.

“The biggest problem we are having is the unknowns. We don’t know how many people will come. People ask me ‘How many people are you expecting?’ And I have to say ‘I don’t know,’” Dillard said.

Dillard was first summoned to an eclipse meeting last summer by Nick Breedlove, the Jackson County tourism director.

“My perspective is you can always be overprepared but you should never be underprepared,” said Breedlove.

Breedlove put out a countywide call over a year ago to set the planning wheels in motion. While tourism players had a big todo list of their own to get ready for the celestial debut, Breedlove realized the eclipse would effect everyone — from the school system grappling with an afternoon dismissal time in the thick of the eclipse to ambulance drivers needing contingency routes in case of traffic jams.

“We brought everyone to the table who might be impacted in some way,” said Breedlove. “The stakeholders’ meetings have been invaluable and everyone has taken ownership of their individual sectors.”

Dillard admits he was initially perplexed why Breedlove had invited him to an eclipse meeting last year. But once the light bulb went off, Dillard quickly reached out to his counterparts in neighboring counties to make sure they knew about it, too.

“This could be a huge event. You cannot plan for it as an island,” Dillard said.

When Dillard convened an eclipse meeting with emergency planners in neighboring counties, he got a taste of his own medicine at first.

“They looked at me like I had two heads,” Dillard recalled.

But the import soon sunk in.

“It put the flag up for us that we needed to do a little planning, too,” said David

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Emergency planners brace for crowds during total solar eclipse

“Now we need to develop tactics on these plans and figure out how to put the rubber to the road,” Dillard said.

For example, ambulances and fire trucks will be strategically stationed at satellite locations to counteract potential traffic jams.

Jackson County has even drafted a state of emergency plan and is ready to execute should the need arise, Dillard said.

S EE ECLIPSE, PAGE 12 11

May 31-June 6, 2017

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ECLIPSE, CONTINUED FROM 11 help it,” explained Chad Franklin, deputy division traffic engineer for DOT’s westernmost division.

Quick clearance protocols will be in effect on eclipse day as well.

“If there is an accident, we basically take a picture and jerk them out of the road,” Franklin said.

Franklin is also working out the stoplight timing for major roads. He will monitor major thoroughfares, like N.C. 107 in Sylva, with real-time cameras and will activate the stoplights with pre-programmed signal plans to expedite traffic flow based on actual conditions. In some locations, signal technicians will be on stand-by to make changes manually.

“We can plan so much but the biggest part of our reaction is responsive,” Franklin said. “We are trying to prepare for the unknown.”

In a worse-case scenario, people should make sure their gas tanks are full on eclipse day.

“If we dump 6,000 cars into Hayesville, there’s not a whole lot I can do about. They’re just going to be sitting there,” Franklin said.

Franklin is also pondering where to set up digital signboards. And he’s not alone. Every agency — from sheriff ’s departments to emergency managers — is counting up the number of digital road signs they can beg, borrow and steal from elsewhere in the state, and then figuring out where to put them and what they should say.

Meanwhile, the Nantahala National Forest is also laying plans for an inundation.

“We will have everybody out and about that day,” said Mike Wilkins, district ranger with the Nantahala National Forest.

The U.S. Forest Service’s biggest challenge will be managing roadside parking at hotspots like Wayah Bald and Whiteside Mountain.

“We already have to man those at busy times of year because we just don’t have enough parking spaces. It gets so plugged up,

people can’t get in or out,” Wilkins said.

Wilkins said attending the tabletop eclipse exercise provided an outlet to learn how other agencies planned to gear up.

“We got to hear what everybody was doing and got to tell them what we are doing and think of options to be prepared for,” Wilkins said.

ECLIPSE FRENZY While emergency planners have been puzzling out eclipse-day strategies for months now, the spectacle of the Great American Eclipse hasn’t fully dawned on the general public yet.

“It is sort of like the Power Ball. Most people don’t care until it gets up to about 400 million,” said Nick Breedlove, Jackson County tourism director.

While a partial eclipse will be visible everywhere in America on Aug. 21, millions will journey to the path of totality — a 70mile swath traversing the country from Oregon to South Carolina — to the catch the full experience.

“You really want to be in totality. If you can get yourself to totality, that’s where you want to be, because this is such a cool experience,” explained Susan Sachs, an education ranger in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Skies darken, stars come out, birds nest, shadows elongate and the sun’s spectacular corona — visible only during totality — dances around the rim of the moon.

“People may think I’ll be where it’s 99 percent and that’s good enough, but that’s not good enough,” explained Knox Warde, an astronomer who lives in Nantahala.

The last time a total solar eclipse traversed the country was in 1918. The last eclipse to grace the Smoky Mountains region was in 1506. The next one will be in 2153.

Those in the know have wasted no time laying plans. Rooms began booking a year out, with special eclipse packages and state

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Todd Dillard, the emergency management director for Jackson County, has been in planning mode for August’s solar eclipse for a year already. Becky Johnson photo

“This could be a huge event. You cannot plan for it as an island.”

— Todd Dillard, Jackson County Emergency Management Director

park campgrounds in the path of totality long since sold out.

When the Great Smoky Mountains National Park went live with tickets to a special Clingman’s Dome viewing event, the 1,325 slots sold out in just four minutes. In Jackson County, about 75 percent of the overnight lodging in the county is already booked for the night before the eclipse.

Tourists making a weekend pilgrimage aren’t the only ones who will be jockeying for viewing sites on the day of the eclipse.

People across WNC who live just outside the path of totality — like Waynesville and Asheville — will press into neighboring counties for the day.

For tourism communities in the path of totality, the eclipse is a true gift from the heavens.

“People are coming for the eclipse but we want them to experience what we have to offer here — the waterfalls, the hikes, the craft breweries, farm-to-table restaurants — and we think they’ll fall in love with the area,” said Breedlove. “I think the economic impact will be huge for Jackson County.”

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Congressman Mark Meadows, R-NC, recently introduced the Revamping American Infrastructure Act, a bill he says will provide a better path forward for modernizing the nation’s infrastructure through a targeted outcome and performance-based approach to reduce regulatory obstacles in the transportation sector.

The bill would require the Department of Transportation to perform a comprehensive review of its regulations and develop a detailed strategy to replace the most outdated or unnecessary regulations with outcome, performance-based alternatives to the most rigorous regulations on the books.

“Developing the nation’s transportation infrastructure is a critical driving force of the economy,” Meadows said. “I’m confident this bipartisan bill will allow for a thorough review of regulations by the Department of Transportation and pave the way for a more efficient system of regulatory outcomes focused on revamping our nation’s infrastructure system for Americans.”

# 28

May 31-June 6, 2017

The late Willard Cleveland Davenport of Sylva (June 18. 1946 – June 18, 2013) was recently one of 400 Vietnam veterans be inducted into the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund’s (VVMF) In Memory Program in 2017.

The program honors Vietnam veterans whose lives were cut short as a result of their service in Vietnam, but are not eligible for inscription on The Wall under Department of Defense guidelines. On June 17, VVMF will host more than 2,000 attendees at the annual ceremony on the East Knoll of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, where each In Memory honoree’s name will be read aloud.

This year, 411 service members will be honored during the ceremony. The master of ceremonies will be Capt. Denis Faherty.

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On Sunday, May 28, Great Smoky Mountains National Park Rangers received a report that a 37-year-old male fell from the top of the 100-foot tall Ramsey Cascades waterfall late that afternoon.

The man, who was hiking alone, was observed climbing across the top of the waterfall before he fell. Park rangers immediately responded to the scene and determined the individual, who had fallen about 80 feet, was deceased. Rangers recovered the body on Monday, May 29. The name of the individual is being withheld until family notifications have been made.

The 4-mile hike to Ramsey Cascades begins from the Ramsey Cascades Trailhead located in the Greenbrier area of the park.

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Haywood tourism authority reports robust growth

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT STAFF WRITER A lagging recovery from the Great Recession and the continuing loss of a major tourist attraction in Maggie Valley haven’t slowed growth of the tourism industry in Haywood County.

“It’s good,” said Lynn Collins, executive director of the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority. “Our year-to-date budget is up 17 percent over last year.”

Collins said the growth was due to a combination of factors, including increased marketing efforts by the TDA as well as some establishments raising their rates.

The TDA collects a 4 percent nightly room occupancy tax from businesses that provide lodgings; revenue from that tax is a key indicator of the vitality of the industry, as those who spend a night or two in Haywood County also purchase goods and services and pay sales taxes.

All five of the TDA’s jurisdictions posted double-digit growth. Year-to-date revenue in Maggie Valley and in Canton is up 11 percent.

In Waynesville, it’s up 20 percent.

Maggie Valley collects about 50 percent of all TDA revenue, and Waynesville collects about 30 percent, so increases in those two areas account for much of the overall increase and demonstrate not only stability, but expansion.

The surprising story, however, continues to be the progress of Lake Junaluska and Clyde.

Although tiny Clyde only collects 2 percent of TDA revenues, its revenue is currently up 70 percent.

“When you look at such a small area, small increases can have a huge impact,” said Lyndon Lowe, chairman of the TDA. Lowe cited two local establishments — the 200-acre Majors Estate and Buffalo Creek Vacations — as driving that growth.

Buffalo Creek Vacations, off N.C. 209 and Riverside Drive, has since 2007 offered rustic accommodations on a bison ranch, ranging from $145 to $325 a night, but since purchasing and renovating two retired cabooses from Seaboard Coast Lines, they’ve attracted major media attention, including articles from both ABC News and financial website The Street.

“Because it’s such a unique location, they have gotten a lot of publicity,” said Lowe.

At Lake Junaluska, recent improvements and a change in the tax-exempt status of the accommodations have propelled revenue upward by just over 100 percent.

“They also just have a phenomenal team that keeps growing under the leadership of [Director of Advancement] Ken Howle,” Lowe said. “He’s phenomenal in leading that group to continue to grow.”

Collins says that continuing to grow TDA revenue involves simply staying the course.

“We have to continue our marketing, with good strong companies like (S.C.-based) Crawford Strategy, where we get good return on investment,” Collins said. “That has helped us tremendously, know where we’re getting our best value for marketing dollars.”

Vintage Harleys sit neatly in a row at the Wheels Through Time Motorcycle Museum, a major tourist attraction in Haywood County. Cory Vaillancourt photo

It all starts with a visit

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STRONG GROWTH A May 2017 report by the N.C. Department of Commerce said that final numbers for tourism in the state in 2016 were up more than 4 percent over the previous year.

But this isn’t news to Haywood County; since 2004, tourist spending has climbed almost 70 percent.

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT STAFF WRITER here’s an old adage in business that says, simply, “If it isn’t measured, it isn’t managed.”

Although that may be disputed by some, the basic truth of the statement is that grasping the entirety of economic production by a city, a county, a state or a nation requires some degree of recordkeeping wherein meaningful statistics can be collected and analyzed by elected officials, economic developers and other decision-makers.

“If you asked the average person on the street here, ‘Is Haywood County doing well?’ it’d be fascinating to know how they would

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make that call,” said Tom Tveidt, a Haywood County economist whose Syneva Economics conducts economic data analysis for governments and corporations.

Tveidt’s stock-in-trade is a mind-boggling array of data products like that which the North Carolina Department of Commerce’s Labor & Economic Analysis Division (LEAD) produces and makes available online, for free.

One of those products, the quarterly census of employment and wages, contains sortable, searchable data on the activity levels of nine broad economic sectors as defined by their NAICS code: goods-producing; manufacturing; service-providing; trade,

transportation and utilities; professional and business services; education and health services; leisure and hospitality; public administration; and, “other.”

communities try to chase ‘the next big thing.’

For a lot of years, that was green technology.

A couple years before that, it was biotech. A couple years before that, it was nanotech.

Believe it or not, I was on an internet task force at the [Asheville] Chamber, which just sounds cuckoo now, but at that time, everybody wasn’t using it and it was new.”

Economic developers in Haywood County are still trying to discern what, exactly, is in the cards for the county’s vitality as a whole, but sector information at least gives them an idea how to play their hand.

Probably the most valuable information contained in the data is the total wages paid by each sector, as it directly represents the amount of money the overwhelming majori-

DOING BUSINESS Almost every business fits into one of the above categories, which contain hundreds of subcategories.

Some industries, like agriculture, collect data differently and are not included in the survey; while not perfect, the data that is collected — number of establishments, number of employees, that sort of thing — is tracked over time and measures trends than can then be managed.

“Every place is good at something,” Tveidt said. “Or a couple of things. A lot of

Gatlinburg, Tennessee, lends further concern to the product development argument; the victim of devastating wildfires in 2016, Gatlinburg stands poised to rebuild from the ashes a more modern, attractive set of tourism-related products, all paid for by insurance company money.

Nevertheless, Collins still touts Haywood’s heavies.

“We do still have some good attractions here, whether it’s Wheels Through Time, the Cataloochee Ski Area — there’s still plenty of things for people to see and do here,” she said. “But I think one of the most important things in addition to all the nat-

S EE VISITORS, PAGE 16

S EE M EASUREMENT, PAGE 17

Smoky Mountain News

Management by measurement

It’s helpful to think of local tourist offerings as “products.” Consumers have a finite budget, evaluate options and decide what they’d like to purchase.

May 31-June 6, 2017

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT STAFF WRITER ince before the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was chartered in 1934, Western North Carolina has been a sought-after destination for tourists from across the country and across the world.

Although it may be a bit of a stretch to call naturalist Horace Kephart a “tourist,” that’s in essence what he was; searching for the “wildest part of these regions” he left Ithaca, New York, in 1904 and like many who would come after him took solace in the pristine beauty of a region nearly untouched by European settlers.

By the 1950s and 1960s, a modern, commercialized tourism industry sprung up

across Haywood County, bolstering a region that was, like much of America, losing manufacturing jobs in scads.

Today, tourism still accounts for a substantial part of Haywood County’s economy, and has earned the eyes of economists hoping to bolster or expand the industry.

Challenges, however, persist, and as the county competes against bigger, betterfinanced competitors for every tourism dollar it can, the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority plays a central role in that competition.

“That’s on both sides, whether it’s attraction-related or accommodation-related,” she said.

Lyndon Lowe has owned and operated Cabins at Twinbrook in Maggie Valley for almost 12 years now; his 16 cabins run from around $159 for a one-bedroom to $400 for a four-bedroom.

In addition to working in the field, Lowe also serves as the chair of the TDA, giving him a unique perspective on Haywood County’s tourism industry, especially as he bore witness to the sputtering demise of the former tourism goldmine known as Ghost Town in the Sky (see page 19).

“We’re situated between Cherokee, which clearly has unlimited funds for all of their expansion, and we have Buncombe County on the other side of us that dwarfs us by six times our TDA fund,” Lowe said. “We have to keep moving forward or we’re going to be left behind.”

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What’s in the cards?

“If you look at all of our towns, we have lots of new shops and new restaurants. We really have a lot of good new product that’s coming in,” said Lynn Collins, executive director of the TDA. “A lot of that is entrepreneurship — new people moving in.”

Haywood’s TDA is the authority charged with collecting the county’s room occupancy tax, which is then spent on marketing the county as a destination. In 2016, the TDA reported revenues of about $1.2 million.

The sales tax these tourists pay when they purchase goods and certain services in the county also has a substantial effect on the local community, saving residents an average of $260 each year in additional taxes that would be needed to pay for amenities residents couldn’t enjoy without higher tax rates.

Those residents employed in the leisure, hospitality and tourism industry earned almost $41 million in wages in 2016, up from $38 million in 2015 and $28 million in 2005.

Thus, investing in Haywood County’s tourism industry is a no-brainer; although it doesn’t quite pack the economic punch of the manufacturing sector, it’s a much more visible industry and is often the first step in turning tourists like Kephart into residents.

“We work closely with Mark Clasby at the Economic Development Council in talking to developers, and people who are looking to perhaps do some investing here in the county,” Collins said. “We’re seeing more interest in the area than we have been in a long time.”

Collins said that those investments could take the form of both attractions and accommodations, each of which are necessary to draw and retain tourists. Talks, she said, have been ongoing with one or two developers who could present “major” developments, possibly within the next year.

It’s helpful in this scenario to think of such local tourist offerings as “products.”

Consumers have a finite budget, evaluate options and decide what they’d like to purchase, whether it’s budget or luxury accommodations, outdoor activities, dining or theater.

“You have got to have product to attract consumers,” said Clasby, executive director of the Haywood County Economic Development Council.

Accordingly, Collins sees product development as the biggest challenge to her industry.

15

VISITORS, CONTINUED FROM 15 news

ural resources we do have is our partnerships and working with all the different organizations here. Together, we make things happen.”

What they couldn’t make happen, however, was a proposed hike in the TDA’s room occupancy tax rate.

Despite earning widespread support from the EDC and the Haywood Chamber of Commerce as well as the near-unanimous support of governing boards of the county and all its municipalities, proposals to increase the room occupancy tax from 4 to 6 percent in 2013 and 2016 have fallen flat due to state-level opposition by anti-tax advocate Rep. Michele Presnell, R-Burnsville.

“If we had gotten the TDA tax increase, you can only imagine how much further along we would be now,” Lowe said. Last week, the TDA announced that year-to-date revenue was coming in 17 percent higher than the previous year (see TDA story, page 14).

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“At 17 percent, we’ve lost probably a million dollars worth of opportunity right now,” Lowe said, referring to revenue that would have been collected had the 2013 effort been successful.

Presnell, for her part, has been consistent in her position that without the 2-point tax increase — or even the existing 4 percent tax itself — business owners could lower their prices to remain competitive, or raise them and choose for themselves how to invest the money that would have gone to the TDA and its overhead.

As for another go-round on the occupancy tax hike, Collins remains upbeat.

“You know what they say, ‘Third time’s a charm,’ right?” she laughed. “We will continue to keep plugging away at that, but in the meantime, we do have a lot of new products coming into the county.”

One she cited was the newly opened Elevated Mountain distillery in Maggie Valley — a good example of economic development incentives that could bring major returns.

Owner Dave Angel won the Haywood County Chamber of Commerce’s business start-up competition a few years back, and he has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money into the outfit, which many see as having the potential to become a huge attraction due to its unique location (the heart of moonshine country), unique product (artisanal spirits) and unique ingredients (all local).

Given the immense popularity of craft breweries, Elevated Mountain hopes to be guiding thousands of visitors a year on tours of their craft distilling operation — some of whom will return to their homes with bottles of Angel’s product.

And as they do, some of them will sip on that whisky, look down at the bottle, and get to thinking.

“People come here and visit and fall in love with the area and want to move here to live, to retire or to open a business,” said Collins. “What I always say is, it all starts with a visit.”

2016 SNAPSHOT

$

299.58 $40,950,091 Average Weekly Wage

Total Wages Paid

170 2,679 Establishments

Employees

NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES

NUMBER OF ESTABLISHMENTS

Figures are as of 2016.

“If you asked the average person on the street here, ‘Is Haywood County doing well?’ it’d be fascinating to know how they would make that call.”

— Tom Tveidt, Syneva Economics

are sitting there, and I’m the outsider in a suit and tie, and I say to these people who have grown up in that community, ‘You probably don’t know what’s really going on.

How do you make your decisions? Seat of your pants? Watching the national news?’”

Tveidt said.

As this Smoky Mountain News series on economic development progresses by delving deeper into Haywood’s various economic sectors, look for apples-to-apples LEAD data on each sector from the quarterly census of employment and wages to appear alongside subsequent stories.

AVERAGE WEEKLY WAGE TOTAL WAGES

Smoky Mountain News

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IN HAYWOOD COUNTY, 2000-2016

ty of Haywood County residents earn and spend on goods and services of their own.

Not surprisingly, the sector that pays the most total wages according to LEAD’s data is the service industry, followed distantly by the education and health services sector.

Rounding out the top three is the production of goods.

But the total wages paid are a factor not only of the amount of employees, but also of the average wage.

As of the third quarter of 2016, Haywood County Consolidated Schools and Evergreen Packaging were the county’s largest employers, both employing more than a thousand people.

HCS fits into the education and health services category, which has an average weekly wage ($745.10) that ranks fourth of the nine sectors, which is why that sector is ranked second in total wages paid — lots of employees, above-average weekly wages.

Evergreen Packaging is a member of the manufacturing category, which ranked first in average weekly wage ($964.18) and accounts for probably half the manufacturing jobs in the county. However, there are about twice as many jobs in HCS’s category as there are in Evergreen’s, which is why manufacturing is ranked fourth in total wages paid — few employees, great weekly wages.

The leisure and hospitality sector actually employs more people than manufacturing, but suffers from the worst weekly wage

May 31-June 6, 2017

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HOSPITALITY AND LEISURE

($299.58), earning it eighth place on the total wages paid scale — above only the “other” category.

Many of the revelations contained in the data, like the manufacturing employment numbers, are counter-intuitive.

“What’s fascinating to me, and this isn’t necessarily a local thing, is going to other communities — the city fathers and mothers

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M EASUREMENT, CONTINUED FROM 15

SOURCE: N.C. Department of Commerce

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High hopes for Ghost Town sale O

but did see increases in his business during the sporadic re-openings of the park under the ownership of Alaska Presley.

“We still get requests every single week about Ghost Town,” he said May 25. “I just had someone check in yesterday who asked what time Ghost Town was opening up.”

Haywood TDA Executive Director Lynn Collins said she continues to hear about the park regularly as well — a testament to its Ghost Town in the Sky is almost fivenow on the market. decade A Shot Above WNC/Allen Newland photo impact on families far and wide.

“We still get those people in the Visitors Center who have stories to tell about how they went there on their honeymoon, or their parents and grandparents brought them here as children,” she said.

Any buyer would inherit these memories, along with the brand, the trademark, the warehouse and several homes on the 200-plus acre parcels — along with the cremains of “several” people whose last wishes

included having their ashes spread at the cherished park.

Case said he hasn’t had any showings yet despite the “national” interest generated by his listing, but has three lined up for the coming month, including with one

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BY CORY VAILLANCOURT STAFF WRITER pened atop Buck Mountain in 1961, Wild West-themed Ghost Town in the Sky used to draw as many as 600,000 visitors a year to Maggie Valley, but after a combination of maladministration, mechanical difficulties and even a landslide, the park began opening intermittently, and then not at all, leaving a gaping hole in the local tourism economy.

But on April 25, Beverly-Hanks real estate broker Billy Case listed the property for sale at $5.95 million, sparking hopes that the park might one day soon contribute to the already-solid tourism sector in Haywood County and return to its former glory.

“It never really was performing well since I’ve been here,” said Maggie Valley Town Manager Nathan Clark, who’s been with the town since 2005 and has served as manager since 2013. “But obviously it’s been a tremendous loss to our tourism-based economy.”

Lyndon Lowe, chairman of the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority, agrees.

“Having another family-oriented attraction in the county would certainly be a benefit,” he said.

Lowe — who also owns 16 rental cabins in Maggie Valley — wasn’t in business when Ghost Town was at its most full-throated,

unnamed businessman who had fond memories of the park as a child.

“They’re all extremely well-qualified buyers,” Case said. “We want a buyer with both the resources and background to operate the park.”

Case said he was surprised last month to see how good the park still looks. Many of the buildings have new roofing; a Smoky Mountain News reporter who visited the site last summer also noted the condition of the buildings.

“It looks like it could be open within 30 to 60 days if a buyer is found,” Case said, citing improvements Presley made to the park under her ownership. Presley purchased the park out of foreclosure in 2012 for $2.5 million and poured several more million into improvements to the electrical system, water and sewer, an evacuation route under the chairlift and the chairlift itself.

While Presley couldn’t seem to get enough water up the mountain every summer and had problems overcoming annual inspections, Case said those problems had been solved — potable water is now available, the roller coaster and the chairlift have been inspected and have the necessary permits to begin operating after minor repairs.

The 90-plus year old Presley is “still mentally very sharp” according to Case, but probably doesn’t have the stamina to run the operation like it needs to be run; she does, however, want to see the park flourish.

“Were it to open, it would be a tremendous catalyst for further development,” Clark said.

May 31-June 6, 2017 Smoky Mountain News 19

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Opinion

Smoky Mountain News

In redrawing districts, a chance to end gerrymandering

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petrators claim with straight faces that their purpose is to hurt Democrats, not blacks.

In not so few words, that’s exactly what they told the threejudge federal court that forced the General Assembly to redraw two of the most grotesquely gerrymandered congressional districts. And it’s what they told the Supreme Court in a Guest Columnist vain attempt to overturn the lower court decision.

The court has never faced squarely the question of whether purely political gerrymandering violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. In the eyes of the Supreme Court, whether you are a Republican or a Democrat has not mattered.

The Voting Rights Act addressed only the most glaring problem of the day — race as a barrier to the ballot box.

North Carolina’s 10th and 11th congressional districts are an equally glaring example of a non-racial gerrymander. Parts of Asheville, a Democratic enclave, were extracted from the 11th to make the district even safer for Mark Meadows and linked to Gastonia, a city 100 miles away with which Asheville has less in common economically than it does with Waynesville, Sylva, or Franklin.

The court has implied that it might deal with such political discrimination too if there

Fighting against money in politics To the Editor: Scott McLeod’s opinion piece “If it’s all about money, we’re in big trouble” was right on target. And unfortunately it exists not only in North Carolina but all over the country. It continues to be especially pervasive in the U.S. Congress.

From 1975-1984 I served as executive director and chief lobbyist for the Broward County (Florida) League of Cities.

My primary responsibility was to represent the interests of municipal government before the Broward County Commission, the Florida Legislature, and the U.S. Congress.

I had to compete with other lobbyists who represented various special interest groups such as Associated Industries of Florida, the Florida Chamber of Commerce, Florida Power and Light, Bell South, the cable television industry, and the list goes on.

Each of these interest groups had a bottomless budget to wine and dine commissioners, legislators, and members of Congress. The number and variety special “legislative” functions like BBQs and other events crammed the typical legislative calendar. And the no limits on campaign contributions only served to guarantee “‘access” to these elected officials whenever the need arose.

I, on the other hand, worked on a limited salary (paid for by taxpayer funded dues of the member cities), never bought

Martin Dyckman

he people of North Carolina won a nationally significant victory in the Supreme Court last week against the politicians in Raleigh who have been treating them as subjects rather than citizens. The 5-3 decision in the congressional redistricting case, Cooper v. Harris, is “a really big deal,” as one expert put it.

Although we tell ourselves and the world that America is a democracy, you won’t find that word in the Constitution. We are a republic, functioning in practice as a representative democracy. Or so we like to think.

But we don’t really choose our representatives. With a few notable exceptions, they choose us. That is, the party in power does so when it designs the voting districts to determine whose candidates will win them.

Gerrymandering, as the scheme is known, is almost as old as the Republic. It has been taken to new extremes with the use of computers that transform voting records and demographic data into block-by-block predictions of how people will vote.

North Carolina is one of those extremes.

Here, as in other states with substantial minority populations, the 1965 law that was intended to assure their right to vote has been weaponized against them and against the political party that they tend to favor.

Republican legislatures use the Voting Rights Act as a pretext to pack targeted districts with many more black voters than they actually need to elect representatives of their choice.

This makes the surrounding districts more white and more Republican.

And when they’re caught doing it, the per-

were a “workable standard,” as Justice Anthony Kennedy put it, to define gerrymandering. Political scientists have since devised suitable formulas. Now, the court needs a suitable case.

In the meantime, last week’s decision is a powerful blow, in North Carolina and other Southern states, against the cynical use of race to carry out something as undemocratic as a political gerrymander.

“A plaintiff succeeds ...,” Justice Elana Kagan wrote for the court, “even if the evidence reveals that a legislature elevated race to the predominant criterion in order to advance other goals, including political ones .... In other words, the sorting of voters on the grounds of their race remains suspect even if race is meant to function as a proxy for other (including political) characteristics.”

Those remarks were in footnotes to the opinion. Footnotes are not precedents. But they are a powerful warning to power abusers like North Carolina Senate President Phil Berger that the game is up.

The General Assembly grudgingly redrew the congressional districts after the lower court ruled, still aiming outspokenly to preserve the existing Republican advantage. That decision is on appeal to the Supreme Court.

So is a case involving state legislative districts that remain to be redrawn. There is a hugely important Wisconsin case on appeal that addresses partisan gerrymandering directly.

What’s at stake is apparent in North Carolina’s 2016 election results. In the 13 congressional contests, Republicans took 54 percent of the votes cast for the two parties, but

a drink or paid for an elected official’s meal, was prohibited from making campaign contributions, and had to rely solely on my powers of persuasion to counter proposed legislation favoring these special interests. It was a struggle, but we won our share of arguments by testifying in committee meetings and pursuing our case with individual elected officials.

My most gratifying win came during the administration of then Florida Gov. Bob Graham. The cable television industry, represented by a well-known lobbyist, proposed rescinding existing cable TV contracts with all Florida city and county governments in order to renegotiate new contracts more favorable to the industry. The legislation was drafted, flew through committees in both the House and Senate despite strong arguments, and passed both houses.

Not to be outdone, I did some research and found a small clause in the Florida Constitution which prevented such actions. I then prepared a veto argument for the Governor which cited the clause. Gov. Graham used my argument in vetoing the legislation and there were not enough votes for an override. Chalk up one for the little guy!

The struggle to compete with the big money interests at the state and federal levels of government continues to this day. And I wholeheartedly urge NC voters to contact their legislators in support of House Bill 453 which seeks to counter the 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing unlimited contributions to political campaigns.

Kurt J. Volker Otto

wound up with 10 of the 13 seats — 69 percent.

The Democrats in Districts 1, 4, and 12 — the ones that were “packed” for the benefit of Republican candidates elsewhere — won with 67 to 68 percent of the votes. Among them, they polled 407,243 more votes than their Republican opponents. That was more than the total turnout in any of the districts. Not only were those excess votes essentially “wasted,” but it meant that no Republicans in those districts had even a remote hope of electing someone of their choice. Their party had sacrificed them.

Before the GOP took advantage of Democratic non-voters in 2010 to gain control in Raleigh, legislators of both parties began introducing a bill to adopt Iowa’s model redistricting formula, which entrusts the design of districts to a professional, nonpartisan staff whose recommendations can only be voted up or down but not amended. There are strict anti-gerrymandering standards. The courts can still intervene, but they no longer need to.

The North Carolina bill (H 200, S 209) is still languishing in Raleigh, pigeonholed in both rules committees, neither of which has held a hearing or apparently intends to.

There is a hearing on redistricting procedures set for June 5 in Raleigh, but no thanks to the legislature. It’s sponsored by Common Cause, which in this regard represents the people of North Carolina much better than the General Assembly cares to.

(Martin A. Dyckman is a retired journalist who lives in Western North Carolina. dyckmanm@bellsouth.net)

We need to keep Wright School open To the Editor: As most know by now, the House budget includes cuts to mental health programs including a cut to Wright School in Durham. As an informed constituent who retired in 2015 from a career in teaching young people from ages 6 through university over nearly 30 years, I understand the concerns some House members have with this funding.

For one semester in Birmingham, Alabama, while getting a master’s in special education, I taught at a residential school for middle and high school kids. It was the most stressful work I ever did, and part of that stress had to do with the way the school was run. It had inadequate funding, so it could not attract or keep enough qualified teachers, resulting in toolarge classes; and the buildings were sub-standard, to say the least. We had to make our own teaching materials.

However, thanks to North Carolina’s historic support of education, Wright School is a different, far better school altogether. It has a success rate that is admirable, with little staff turnover. It is returning children who had severe problems back to their families and regular schools to function successfully, with continued counseling as needed. Also, Wright School does serve children from as far away as here in the mountains. For these reasons, I hope lawmakers will change the current budget funding allotted

for Wright to provide what it needs to expand and continue to help our most desperate children and their families. Three million dollars is a small price to pay for the vast service Wright is doing to children, their families and their neighborhoods. It is pennies compared to the costs of arresting, trying, and incarcerating or putting to death an adult who didn’t get help in childhood.

Here is one example of a family’s story, this told in an interview of the mother:

and had a plan for suicide … He was a ticking time bomb.”

When R came home after seven months at the school, Wall described him as “being in a better place.” He attends local schools now.

“They were able to get his medications correct, and on point, which is a difficult task, unless someone is watching him 24 hours a day, which a regular psychiatrist can’t do,” she said. “He learned coping skills through the Wright School that he still uses today.”

[Mrs.] Wall said it’s likely she would have spent two or three times that cost out-of-pocket for a private residential center because her insurance would not cover it.

“It was going to cost me anywhere from $530 to $680 a day to put my son in private therapeutic treatment,” she said. R has diagnoses of ADHD, oppositional defiance disorder, major depression and anxiety.

“This was a 10-year-old that had two previous hospitalizations … and was threatening

Many of the staff have been at the school for decades and several people noted the low turnover. Principal Pete Rich, who has been there two decades, makes $81,796, according to data from the Office of the State Controller. Clinical staff, who have master’s degrees and years of experience, make around $60,000. Lower level counselors make about $40,000.

Dr. Mary Curry Haywood County

Chris Cox

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Smoky Mountain News

ting their vote, second-guessing it, or holding on to a sliver of hope that he will “get the hang” of this presidency thing, and might yet deliver on many, if not all, of his campaign promises.

What I am suggesting is that these incidents — as varied and randomly chosen as they may seem and in some sense are — cannot simply be dismissed as anecdotal.

They represent expressions of confrontational hatred, an anger that was inflamed rather than quenched by the election of Donald Trump.

This is exactly what Trump — and the Republican Party — must answer for: exploiting people’s fears, anxieties, and frustrations by convincing them that the real enemy is not a complex network of factors, including globalization, automation, and a ruling class that battles viciously to keep profits up and wages down, but a whole litany of people who don’t look like them — the blacks, the Hispanics, the Muslims, and so on.

The result of nearly 40 years of supply side (or trickle down) economics is that the rich have gotten incomprehensibly richer, and the poor have gotten poorer and more desperate. Tax cuts for the wealthy do not trickle down, it turns out. The money simply accumulates at the top, while the middle class continues to shrink and the have-nots are left to fight it out in a hopeless — and false — battle that has been framed for them by haves. If you are struggling, they want you to believe that your problems are the fault of various minorities. Or the government.

They use the word “entitlements” as a rallying cry, but it is really a parlor trick. You see, government funds used for school lunches or food stamps, that’s an entitlement. But, cutting $800 million from Medicaid, as Trump has proposed — that would in part fund more huge tax cuts for the wealthy — well that’s just good busi-

May 31-June 6, 2017

friend of mine is in line at the drive-thru of a local fast food restaurant, and a guy with Trump decals all over the back of his truck pulls into the wrong lane, facing those who are trying to “drive through,” realizes his error, lifts his middle finger to all of those waiting in line, and then races off shouting out his window, “Trump, Trump, Trump! Like it or get out of my country!”

My daughter is in line at a local gas station buying a pack of gummy worms when a guy walks in wearing a “Make American Great Again” hat. The door hasn’t even closed behind him before he lifts both arms in the air and proclaims, loudly enough so that Columnist everyone in the store stops what they are doing to look at him, “Hallelujah! It is a great day in America! Donald Trump is president and he is going to make this country great again.” He looks around to see if any snowflakes want to disagree, but all he gets is a half-hearted “yep” from a guy inspecting the rotisserie hot dogs.

Two men in Portland, Oregon, are minding their own business, going about their day, when they encounter a man verbally abusing two women who appeared to be Muslim (one was wearing a hajib). When they and a third man attempted to intervene and calm the man down, he stabbed all three of them, killing two and badly injuring the third.

Just to be clear, I am not suggesting that these three examples are all representative of the typical Trump supporter. I sincerely believe that there are many people who voted for Trump who are now either regret-

Law Center, there have been 1,064 reported incidents of hate-provoked attacks and “acts of intimidation” since the election of President Trump. Of those, 13 have since been debunked and another 26 were directed at Trump supporters, which leaves well over a thousand reports of hate-fueled acts perpetrated on others. Then think back on Trump’s campaign rallies, when he incited violence on several different, well-documented occasions.

Of course, these examples cited and tracked by the SPLC do not include the more casual, but nonetheless toxic, examples that infect every nook and cranny of our national discourse. How strange it is to view self-proclaimed Christians attacking another faith and spewing hatred in the ugliest possible terms, and then invoking Jesus in the next sentence.

It took Donald Trump three days to comment on the Portland attack — by tweet, of course — in a statement almost astonishing in its blandness: “The violent attacks in Portland were unacceptable. The victims were standing up to hate and intolerance. Our prayers are with them.”

My prayer is that our President will also stand up to hate and intolerance, rather than fomenting it. And that all Americans will ultimately reject all of this hatred, choosing instead to fight for justice and put a stop to this cruel and inexcusable war on the poor.

Before America can be made great again, it must first be made just and compassionate.

(Chris Cox is a writer and teacher. jchriscox@live.com)

opinion

Shouldn’t there be compassion before greatness?

ness. Any type of help for poor folks, including children and the elderly, is bad, but corporate welfare that further enriches CEOs and the biggest shareholders is good. Good for the economy, and good for America.

Never you mind that this amounts to a boon for the wealthy, while being practically worthless for the average worker. The economy may or may not be “stimulated,” but the working class most definitely does not come along for the ride in either case.

In those alt-right echo chambers, you will hear talk of the liberal plan to “redistribute the wealth,” when 10 minutes of objective research outside the alt-right dismal swamp would reveal that in fact the wealth has already been redistributed, from the bottom and the middle to the top. In the 1970s, the top 1 percent of America’s wealthy took home about 10 percent of all income. Today, that percentage has doubled to 20 percent. In the meantime, half of the American population — the bottom half — took home only 20 percent of all income in the 1970s, but that number is now down to a depressing 12 percent.

Take a minute and let that sink in, and then consider this: the top 1 percent of the population earns 81 times more than the bottom 50 percent. These are staggering numbers, so why aren’t we talking more about them?

Needless to say, there is good reason for the fear, anxiety, and frustration in America. There is even a good reason for the anger, but that anger is tragically misdirected. According to the Southern Poverty

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tasteTHEmountains Taste the Mountains is an ever-evolving paid section of places to dine in Western North Carolina. If you would like to be included in the listing please contact our advertising department at 828.452.4251 BLOSSOM ON MAIN 128 N. Main Street, Waynesville.

828.454.5400. Open for lunch and dinner from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Sunday. Mild, medium, to hot and spicy, our food is cooked to your like-able temperature. Forget the myth that all Thai food is spicy. Traditional Thai food is known to be quite healthy, making use of natural and fresh ingredients, paired with lots of spices, herbs, and vegetables. Vegetarians and health conscious individuals will not be disappointed as fresh vegetables and tofu are available in most of our menu as well as wines and saki chosen to compliment the unique flavors of Thai cuisine.

May 31-June 6, 2017

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.

BOURBON BARREL BEEF & ALE 454 Hazelwood Ave., Waynesville, 828.452.9191. Lunch served 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; Monday through Saturday.

Dinner 5 to 9 p.m., Monday through Saturday. Closed on Sunday. We specialize in hand-cut, all natural steaks from local farms, incredible burgers, and other classic american comfort foods that are made using only the finest local and sustainable ingredients available.

Smoky Mountain News

BREAKING BREAD CAFÉ 6147 Hwy 276 S. Bethel (at the Mobil Gas Station) 828.648.3838 Sunday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday-Saturday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Chef owned and operated. Our salads are made in house using local seasonal vegetables. Fresh roasted ham, turkey and roast

beef used in our hoagies. We hand make our own eggplant and chicken parmesan, pork meatballs and hamburgers. We use 1st quality fresh not pre-prepared products to make sure you get the best food for a reasonable price. We make vegetarian, gluten free and sugar free items. Call or go to Facebook (Breaking Bread Café NC) to find out what our specials are.

CATALOOCHEE RANCH 119 Ranch Dr., Maggie Valley.

828.926.1401. 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 menu every day from 12 to 2 p.m.

Dinner becomes a gourmet experience this year with the arrival of our new Chef CJ, whose training and skills include French, Mediterranean, Asian, Middle Eastern and, of course, New Age Southern cuisine.

Saturday night will feature an evening cookout on the terrace, with choices such as Korean barbecue and shrimp. On all other nights of the week, the chef will prepare gourmet plated dinners with locally sourced vegetables, homemade breads, jellies and desserts. We also offer a fine selection of wine and beer. The evening social hour starts at 6pm, and dinner is served starting at 7 p.m. Please call for reservations.

CHURCH STREET DEPOT 34 Church Street, downtown Waynesville.

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

CITY LIGHTS CAFE Spring Street in downtown Sylva.

828.587.2233. Open Monday-Saturday 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tasty, healthy and quick. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, espresso, beer and wine.

Come taste the savory and sweet crepes, grilled paninis, fresh, organic salads, soups and more. Outside patio seating. Free WiFi, pet-friendly. Live music and lots of events. Check the web calendar at citylightscafe.com.

THE CLASSIC WINESELLER 20 Church Street, Waynesville.

828.452.6000. Underground retail wine and

Joey’s Pancake House will close on Wednesday and Thursday.

NEW schedule of operation is Friday – Tuesday • 7:00 a.m. – Noon.

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Any day is a great day when it starts with Joey’s Pancakes!

4309 Soco Rd., Maggie Valley (828) 926-0212

tasteTHEmountains craft beer shop, restaurant, and intimate live music venue. Kitchen opens at 4 p.m.

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

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

828.926.1820 Winter hours: Wednesday through Sunday 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Family Style at Country Vittles is not a buffet. Instead our waitresses will bring your food piping hot from the kitchen right to your table and as many refills as you want. So if you have a big appetite, but sure to ask your waitress about our family style service.

FERRARA PIZZA & PASTA 243 Paragon Parkway, Clyde. 828.476.5058.

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

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

Open for dinner at 4:30 to 9 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday; serving lunch and dinner beginning at 12 p.m. on Sundays. Worldfamous prime rib, steaks, fresh seafood, gorgonzola cheese and salads. All ABC permits

and open year-round. Children always welcome. Take-out menu. Excellent service and hospitality. Reservations appreciated.

JOEY'S PANCAKE HOUSE 4309 Soco Rd Maggie Valley. 828.926.0212.

Winter hours: 7 a.m. to 12 p.m., closed Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Joey’s is a family style restaurant that has been serving breakfast to the locals and visitors of Western North Carolina since 1966. Featuring a large variety of tempting pancakes, golden waffles, country style cured ham and seasonal specials spiked with flavor, Joey's is sure to please all appetites. Join us for what has become a tradition in these parts, breakfast at Joey’s.

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

828.586.3555. Open Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.; Sunday brunch 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Hand-tossed pizza, steak sandwiches, wraps, salads and desserts.

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

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

828.926.1616. maggievalleyclub.com/dine.

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

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

Open Monday through Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to

5 p.m.; Friday 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. With music at the Depot.

Sunday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Life is too short for bad coffee. We feature wonderful breakfast and lunch selections. Bagels, wraps, soups, sandwiches, salads and quiche with a variety of specialty coffees, teas and smoothies.

Various desserts.

RENDEZVOUS RESTAURANT AND BAR Maggie Valley Inn and Conference Center 70 Soco Road, Maggie Valley 828.926.0201 Home of the Maggie Valley Pizzeria. We deliver after 4 p.m. daily to all of Maggie Valley, JCreek area, and Lake Junaluska. Monday through Wednesday: 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Thursday: 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. country buffet and salad bar from 5 to 9 p.m. $11.95 with Steve Whiddon on piano. Friday and Saturday: 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Sunday 11:30 to 8 p.m. 11:30 to 3 p.m. family style, fried chicken, ham, fried fish, salad bar, along with all the fixings, $11.95. Check out our events and menu at rendezvousmaggievalley.com SAGEBRUSH STEAKHOUSE 1941 Champion Drive, Canton 828.646.3750 895 Russ Ave., Waynesville 828.452.5822. Sunday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Carry out available. Sagebrush features hand carved steaks, chicken and award winning BBQ ribs. We have fresh salads, seasonal vegetables and scrumptious deserts. Extensive selection of local craft beers and a full bar. Catering special events is one of our specialties.

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

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

Located across from the Fire Station.

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

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

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

WAYNESVILLE PIZZA COMPANY 32 Felmet Street, Waynesville.

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

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

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

3 E JACKSON ST. • SYLVA, NC

www.CityLightsCafe.com

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

34 CHURCH ST. WAYNESVILLE 828.246.6505 Mtwitter.com/ChurchStDepot C facebook.com/ChurchStreetDepot

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

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

Real New Yorkers.

Real Italians. Real Pizza.

Closed Tues.

Sun. 12-9 p.m.

Dine-In ~ Take Out ~ Delivery

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

Featuring: Calzones · Stromboli Subs · Pasta and More 207 Paragon Parkway, Clyde

828-456-1997 blueroostersoutherngrill.com Monday-Friday Open at 11am

Real Local Families, Real Local Farms, Real Local Food

Smoky Mountain News

APPÉTIT Y’AL N L BO

An Authentic Italian Pizzeria & Restaurant from New York to the Blue Ridge.

Just to serve you!

May 31-June 6, 2017

WAYNESVILLE’S BEST BURGERS

NOW OPEN SUNDAYS NOON to 8 P.M. Monday-Saturday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

243 Paragon Parkway | Clyde

828-476-5058

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Smoky Mountain News

Light on my feet, ready to fly

SMN: Well, Bill was a rebel…

DL: Of course. You talk about defining lines, [Bill] didn’t define lines. [They] did big band and jazz tunes.

Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver roll into Cherokee

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD STAFF WRITER To say Doyle Lawson has had a full career would be an understatement.

Nowadays, Lawson is regarded as a pillar of the bluegrass world. But, at 73, he still feels as if he’s just getting started, where a never-ending reservoir of creativity and enthusiasm spills out onto the stage each night.

Raised in Sneedville, Tennessee, Lawson learned how to play music first-hand from bluegrass legend Jimmy Martin, whose brother-in-law was Lawson’s next-door neighbor.

The friendship that emerged with Martin eventually led to Lawson being asked to join his Sunny Mountain Boys in 1963. A few years later, Lawson joined banjo icon J.D. Crowe and formed the Kentucky Mountain Boys (later renamed New South), only to parlay that into several years playing with The Country Gentlemen.

But, by the late 1970s, Lawson wanted his own thing, which became Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver. And in the decades since, the band has become a mainstay and solid foundation of tradition and progression that all bluegrass acts who have come thereafter have looked to

Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver will perform Thursday, June 8, in Cherokee.

Sandlin Gaither photo

SMN: I was curious about you, about when people can be purist about the whole thing…

DL: I agree that there’s an integrity and a tradition in our music. I think it’s vitality important that we hold on to those values, but that’s not to say that you can’t explore and you can’t be innovative. I’ve never done anything in my music that my peers didn’t do before I came along. With what I do, I step out wide of the mark, so to speak, with other types of songs, just like they did. There’s a big difference between 1946 and 2017. There’s a difference in the peoples’ outlook on the music. They don’t relate to that life in those days. So, you have to bring the music along. My only hope, and I’ve always said it, is that we not lose the integrity, the boundaries and traditions that were always there. But, they were innovative, Bill [and the band] were burning everybody up — they did it their way.

SMN: Do you grow more from your limitations, or do you draw your own lines?

DL: I try to have an awareness of how far I want to go with it. I don’t know if I’ve ever drawn a line, but I try to be mindful of the integrity and core of the music. If you take any kind of music you play, and you take it so far away you can’t recognize what you call it, [you can lose it]. We have bluegrass because there’s a sound that defines that.

Want to go?

The Cherokee Bluegrass Festival will be held June 8-10 at the Happy Holiday RV Village & Campground at 1553 Wolfetown Road in Cherokee.

The lineup includes Dailey & Vincent, Doyle Lawson & Quicksiler, Rhonda Vincent & The Rage, Gene Watson, The Crowe Brothers, and many more. Tickets are $40 per day in advance, $45 per day at the gate. The three-day advance ticket is $90, with the three-day at the gate ticket $95.

For more information on the daily lineup or to purchase tickets, visit www.adamsbluegrass.com (click on “Festivals” tab). for guidance and inspiration in their own endeavors.

Alongside his numerous International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) awards, Lawson was also inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame in 2012, an honor well-deserved for one of the marquee names of the genre — past and present.

Smoky Mountain News: I was watching the “State of Music” interview you did with David Holt recently. You talked a lot about not restricting the creative process of an artist. I agree with what you had said, but it seems like an interesting statement when

applied to bluegrass, which can be very defined in its lines…

Doyle Lawson: Well, I really don’t think that it is defined to its lines. I think that there are some people that have maybe a preconceived notion of what it should be. But, if you go back and think about from the very get-go [in 1946]. When Bill Monroe was a star on the Grand Ole Opry, and when he assembled the first authentic bluegrass band (Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, Lester Flatt, Chubby Wise and Cedric Rainwater) as we know it today, that was the nucleus, that was the core, right there. But, here’s the deal — they were innovative.

SMN: When I talk to people that are purists about [bluegrass], I say I think Bill [Monroe] would be proud of how far it’s grown.

DL: I knew Mr. Bill, I knew him pretty good. And Bill wasn’t as nearly closed-minded as people thought he was. He wasn’t. He approved of a lot of stuff that people might have thought he didn’t. Everybody used to say, “Oh, he hated the dobro.” I never once heard Bill tell me he didn’t like a dobro. Back in the day, when they called them “hippies,” these “longhairs” or whatever, he delighted in the fact that they loved his music. He thought that was great — he did. He certainly had the utmost respect for Sam Bush and New Grass Revival. He didn’t play that kind of music, but he respected Sam’s talent and ability.

SMN: A lot of people went through the “hub” of Jimmy Martin and created careers for themselves, and similarly there are people going through the “hub” of Doyle Lawson as you’ve gotten older. What are some of the things you learned from Jimmy that you’ve applied to what you’ve been doing?

DL: Well, the first thing I learned, and it wasn’t hard to adapt to it, was discipline. He was a very disciplined person back in the early [1960s] when his career was going full bore. He knew exactly what he wanted in a banjo player or a fiddle player or whoever we had in the band. He had a great ear for lyrics and songs, for phrasing and song delivery.

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD

Andy and Ashley.

The inaugural Cold Mountain Music festival Editor’s Note: After heading to (bluegrass/Americana) will be held on his native Upstate New York last Saturday, June 3, at the Lake Logan week to give the eulogy at his aunt’s Conference Center. funeral, Garret was also asked to marry off his best friend, Andy, this Acclaimed Americana act Zoe & Cloyd will past weekend in Knoxville, perform at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, June 4, at The Tennessee. Andy and Garret crossed Strand at 38 Main in Waynesville. paths almost five years ago when The Canton Public Library will host Richard both relocated to Waynesville for Hurley (Americana/traditional) at 3 p.m. work at the same time. Being Sunday, June 11. strangers in a new town (Andy moved from Knoxville), with no The Ugly Dog Pub (Highlands) will host The familiarity nearby, they became fast Colby Deitz Band (Americana/rock) on at 9:30 friends, ultimately best friends. p.m. Saturday, June 10.

About a year later, Andy met and began dating Ashley, the love of his No Name Sports Pub (Sylva) will host The life. He then relocated to Knoxville, Captain Midnight Band (rock) at 9:30 p.m. with Garret visiting the couple often.

Friday, June 2.

When Andy proposed to Ashley, he Love — true love — does exist. decided, being an only child, to ask his father to But, in a modern world, one filled with be his best man. With that, Andy and Ashley then asked Garret to be the officiant, who would endless distraction, selfish priorities and instant gratification, love can seem like bring them together in holy matrimony in front something distant, perhaps something unatof their closest friends and family members. tainable, and, maybe even some dream you Below is the speech Garret wrote and gave in keep waking up from when all you wanted to front of the congregation before the rings were do was fall back asleep and keep chasing it, exchanged ...

@SmokyMtnNews

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May 31-June 6, 2017

Get me to the church on time

returned back to Waynesville, North Carolina, he immediately told me about “this girl” and how “there is just something about her,” something he couldn’t shake. He had to see her again, and he did, almost every single weekend until he relocated back to Knoxville not long into their relationship.

During these past four years, it’s been of one the great joys of my life seeing my best friend find love. And with that, I’ve also found in Ashley the support and encouragement that resides in the foundation of the greatest of friendships. They are soulmates, in the truest sense of the word.

I, and all of you here today, can attest to that notion as fact.

Watching the two of them together is seeing true love in action. This isn’t some cheesy made-for-TV movie or sappy pop song aimed to hold true love over your head like some carrot you can’t seem to reach.

With Andy and Ashley, you knew you weren’t just in the presence of some cookie cutter pairing, you were witnessing the blossoming love, support and passion between two like-minded souls, both as giddy and excited to see what each new day would bring to their world, which was once two circles, now joined into one that will be remain unbroken for all eternity.

You both are here today, standing in a room, surrounded by those who you know the best and love you the most. We celebrate your love, now and every day thereafter, and thank you for showing us that true love is alive and real, so long as we look to you as inspiration in our own lives.

arts & entertainment

This must be the place

wherever it would take you until you held it within your fingertips.

Love is a scary thing, especially when both sides of a relationship ante up the most valuable thing they possess — their hearts.

And yet, the only way to win at the game of love is to go “all in,” to cast aside any doubt or foolish pride, in exchange for a lifetime of an elusive emotion that has the power to raise the sun, to move mountains and overcome even the roughest of seas.

I, myself, was even skeptical of what “love” is, and how can it exist in such a time and place where everything seems to be chaos and confusion, in seemingly every direction. It’s almost enough noise and exhaustion to keep you from ever getting out of bed in the morning. But, when you see love in its physical form, and hopefully are lucky enough to feel its emotional power, then you realize just how real and attainable it actually is, especially to those who keep the flame alive, just bright enough to catch the attention of your lover in the darkest of times.

I remember the first time Andy ever mentioned Ashley. I remember it vividly. I remember it because they met at a time when Andy was at a crossroads in his life. He would give anything to help his friends and family, to show them the love and support they deserved. But, was he also deserving of that same love and support in return? He was, and he is, even if at that time he felt love was something so far off, was it even in the cards to get up and try again?

He met Ashley at a Halloween party in this same city four years ago. And when he

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On the beat arts & entertainment

Summer music camps for trombone, saxophone

Eddie Ray.

Smoky Mountain News

May 31-June 6, 2017

Music industry discussion, exhibit Eddie Ray will share stories from his years in the music industry at 7 p.m.

Thursday, June 8, at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin.

Macon County historian and former press editor Barbara McRae will be introducing Ray. As a teenager in the early 1940s, Ray left Franklin in order to finish high school. He went on to become a record company executive, record producer, songwriter, author, and is currently a consultant to the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame Museum in Kannapolis.

During the months of June and July, pieces from the N.C. Hall of Fame will be exhibited in the library. They’ll showcase Eddie Ray and other Western North Carolina musicians. www.northcarolinamusichalloffame.org.

Western Carolina University’s School of Music will host concurrent summer music camps in trombone and saxophone on campus Sunday, June 11, through Friday, June 16, for high school and undergraduate college students.

Camp activities include instruction in solo performance and chamber and ensemble music settings, the study of jazz and contemporary techniques, and private lessons, along with classes in improving individual musicianship and performance.

Group activities will include student performances and a rafting trip through the nearby mountains. Deadline for registration is Monday, June 5.

Faculty for the trombone camp will be the American Trombone Quartet, made up of Jemmie Robertson of Eastern Illinois University, Bill Mann of Georgia State University, Nathaniel Lee of University of Virginia and Zsolt Szabo of WCU. Faculty for the saxophone camp will be the Assembly Quartet, made up of Adam Estes of the University of Mississippi, Jeff Heisler of Oakland University, Matt Younglove of Wayne State University and Ian Jeffress of WCU. The cost of each camp is $599, which includes accommodations. Undergraduates may choose to pay a commuter/day student rate of $400. Scholarships are available, with details and applications available by contacting Szabo at zszabo@wcu.edu or Jeffress at jeffress@wcu.edu.

For more information, go to camps.wcu.edu or call 828.227.7397.

Zoe & Cloyd will play June 4 in Waynesville.

Acclaimed Americana act Zoe & Cloyd will perform at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, June 4, at The Strand at 38 Main in Waynesville.

The first place winners of the 2015 FreshGrass Duo Contest, their debut duet album “Equinox” was named one of the “Outstanding Duo Albums of 2015” by No Depression Magazine.

John Cloyd Miller’s foundation in traditional bluegrass and old-time music coupled with his modern sensibility combine to make him a natural musician and performer. A 12th generation North Carolina native and

the grandson of pioneering bluegrass fiddler and N.C. Folk Heritage Award winner Jim Shumate, his Appalachian roots run deep.

Natalya Zoe Weinstein also comes from a musical family: her father is master jazz pianist and her grandfather, originally from Russia, was a professional klezmer musician. She is an accomplished fiddler in a variety of styles as well as an inspired singer and songwriter.

Tickets are $15 per person. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.38main.com.

Are you a fan of Journey?

The premier Journey tribute band Departure will perform at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 2, at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin.

Departure has been performing together for more than 10 years and book more than 100 shows each year. They replicate the look, sounds, and feel of the original 1980s rock super-group who are best known for hits “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Faithfully” and “Open Arms.”

Tickets are $18. To purchase tickets, visit www.greatmountainmusic.com or call 828.273.4615.

Beer + Baseball America’s Greatest Pastimes Tour Thursday, June 1st

Stroll the Galleries the First Friday of Each Month 6-9 p.m. • May through December Winter Arts Smoky Style Saturdays 4-7 p.m. Jan. 13 • Feb 17 • March 17, 2018 Participating Galleries BURR STUDIO · CEDAR HILL STUDIO · EARTHWORKS GALLERY · HAYWOOD CO. ARTS COUNCIL GALLERY & GIFT JO RIDGE KELLEY FINE ART & EARTHSTAR STUDIO · MOOSE CROSSING BURL WOOD GALLERY THE JEWELER’S WORKBENCH · TPENNINGTON ART GALLERY · TWIGS AND LEAVES GALLERY · VILLAGE FRAMER

WAYNESVILLEGALLERYASSOCIATION.COM 26

Strand welcomes Zoe & Cloyd

Funded in part by Haywood County Tourism Development Authority • 1.800.334.9036 • visitNCsmokies.com

Join us during Asheville Beer Week for two of the greatest American pastimes, beer and baseball! We will begin with a baseball themed beer and food pairing at UpCountry Brewing Company. Then we will head to historic McCormick Field for an Asheville Tourists Baseball Club game where you will experience Thirsty Thursday, a legendary Asheville tradition. Craft beers are $2 per 12 ounce pour at the park!

Round trip transportation and baseball ticket are included. Seating is limited to 24 people.

Departure from Aloft Asheville Downtown Hotel (corner of Aston St and Biltmore Ave).

Two experiences leaving from Leap Frog Parking Lot, Waynesville: 2:45 pm (tour and game) • 5:30 pm (shuttle/baseball game only) Call ahead for reservations.

#wncbeer #craftbeer #drinklocal

Call 828-507-1421 or book direct at http://tinyurl.com/kezoezj to reserve your seat today.

On the beat

• Bogart’s Restaurant & Tavern (Waynesville) will host Bull Moose Party (bluegrass) June 1 and Carolina Blue (bluegrass) June 8. All shows are free and begin at 6:30 p.m.

• The Canton Public Library will host Richard Hurley (Americana/traditional) at 3 p.m. June 11. Free. www.haywoodarts.org.

• The Classic Wineseller (Waynesville) will host Bob Zullo (pop/folk) June 2, Joe Cruz (piano/pop) June 3 and 10, and Dulci Ellenberger (guitar/vocals) June 9.

828.452.6000 or www.classicwineseller.com.

Billy Strings will play Lake Logan on June 3.

Cold Mountain Music festival The inaugural Cold Mountain Music festival will be held on Saturday, June 3, at the Lake Logan Conference Center.

Gates open at noon. Live music by some of the biggest names in bluegrass and string music, including Billy Strings (2 p.m.), Town Mountain (3:15 p.m.), Love Canon (4:45 p.m.), Balsam Range (7:15 p.m.) and a special surprise national act (8:30 p.m.).

There will also be food and craft beer vendors onsite. Tickets are $75 for adults, $30 for youth ages 13-18 and free for kids under age 12. www.coldmountainmusic.org.

• Concerts on the Square (Hayesville) will host Just Us (bluegrass) June 9. All shows are free and begin at 7 p.m. www.cccra-nc.org.

• Currahee Brewing (Franklin) will host Russ Moore Duo (singer-songwriter) June 3 and The Remnants June 10. Shows are free and begin at 7:30 p.m. www.curraheebrew.com.

• Derailed Bar & Lounge (Bryson City) will have music at 7 p.m. on Saturdays.

828.488.8898.

• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host Paul H. Davis (singer-songwriter) June 8 and Darren Nicholson & Caleb Burress (Americana/soul) June 9. All shows are free and begin at 7 p.m. www.froglevelbrewing.com.

• Groovin’ on the Green (Cashiers) will host Geoff McBride (pop/soul) June 2 and The Colby Deitz Band (Americana/rock) June 9 at The Village Green. All shows are free and begin at 6:30 p.m. www.visitcashiersvalley.com.

Malcolm Holcombe. www.malcolmholcombe.com The Balsam Mountain Inn began its Songwriters in the Round series 20 years ago, and modeled it after similar performances at Nashville’s Bluebird Café. Balsam’s performers are most often the Nashvillearea songwriters who pen lyrics performed by country and western stars. Many performances feature Grammy and CMA award winners, and all include writers of many top-ranked songs.

A buffet dinner is included in the $49.50 price. To purchase tickets, call 828.456.9498 or www.balsammountaininn.net.

• Heinzelmannchen Brewery (Sylva) will have live music and a potluck from 6 to 8 p.m. June 1 and 8. www.yourgnometownbrewery.com.

• Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will have an Open Mic night May 31 and June 7, and a jazz night with the Kittle/Collings Duo June 1 and 8. All events are free and begin at 8 p.m. www.innovation-brewing.com.

• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Franklin) will host Anthony Mossburg (singer-songwriter) June 2 and Woolly Adelgid (psychedelic/folk) June 3.

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

828.349.2337 or www.lazyhikerbrewing.com.

• Nantahala Brewing Company (Bryson City) will host The Freeway Revival (rock/jam) June 2 and Chalwa (world/fusion) June 10. All shows are free and begin at 8 p.m. www.nantahalabrewing.com.

• No Name Sports Pub (Sylva) will host The Captain Midnight Band (rock) June 2, The Freeway Revival (rock/jam) June 3, Jimmy & The Jaw Bones (punk/psychobilly) June 9 and Scott Low (indie/folk) June 10. All shows are free and begin at 9:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. www.nonamesportspub.com.

• The Oconaluftee Visitor Center (Cherokee) will host a back porch old-time music jam from 1 to 3 p.m. June 3. All are welcome to come play or simply sit and listen to sounds of Southern Appalachia.

• Pickin’ on the Square (Franklin) will host The Johnny Webb Band (country) June 3 and Gear Brothers (bluegrass) June 10. All shows are free and begin at 7:30 p.m. www.townoffranklinnc.com.

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

• Sneak E Squirrel Brewing (Sylva) will host line dancing every Friday at 7 p.m. and contra dancing every other Friday at 8 p.m.

828.586.6440.

• The Strand at 38 Main (Waynesville) will host an “Open Mic” night from 7 to 9 p.m. on Saturdays. All are welcome. Zoe & Cloyd (Americana) will also perform at 7:30 p.m.

June 4, with tickets at $15 per person.

828.283.0079 or www.38main.com.

• Tunes on the Tuck (Bryson City) will host Somebody’s Child (Americana) on June 3 and Lonesome Sound (traditional/mountain) June 10 at Riverfront Park. All shows are free and begin at 7 p.m. www.greatsmokies.com.

Smoky Mountain News

The “Songwriters in the Round” series will host Marshall Chapman, Malcolm Holcombe and Mark W. Winchester starting at 6 p.m. Saturday, June 3, at Balsam Mountain Inn. Chapman has released 13 critically acclaimed albums. Her latest, “Blaze of Glory,” was hailed a masterpiece. Chapman’s songs have been recorded by everyone from Emmylou Harris and Joe Cocker to Irma Thomas and Jimmy Buffett.

A North Carolina son of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Holcombe belongs to a tradition of bardic singer-songwriters that includes such legends as Townes Van Zandt, Blaze Foley, Gurf Morlix and David Olney. He is an acclaimed contemporary of Emmylou Harris and Steve Earle and has shared the stage with Merle Haggard, Richard Thompson, John Hammond, and Leon Russell.

An award-winning upright “slap” bass player (Emmylou Harris’ Nash Ramblers, Brian Setzer Orchestra, Planet Rockers), Winchester is an accomplished singer-songwriter. His songs have been covered by many artists including Randy Travis, Balsam Range, Brian Setzer, and Carlene Carter.

ALSO:

• Music on the River (Cherokee) will host Robert Wolfe & The Renegades (country) June 2, Stereospread (techno) June 3, Trippin Hardie Band (acoustic) June 9 and Aaron Jones (honky-tonk) June 10 on the Oconaluftee River Stage. All shows are free and begin at 7 p.m. www.visitcherokeenc.com.

May 31-June 6, 2017

‘Songwriters in the Round’

• Concerts on the Creek (Sylva) will host Grandpa’s Cough Medicine (bluegrass) June 2 and Darren & The Buttered Toast (funk/soul) June 9 in Bridge Park. All shows are free and begin at 7 p.m. 828.586.2155 or www.mountainlovers.com.

• Marianna Black Library (Bryson City) will host Larry Barnett & Blue Smith (Americana/traditional) at 7 p.m. June 8.

Free. Refreshments provided. www.fontanalib.org/brysoncity.

arts & entertainment

• Andrews Brewing Company (Andrews) will host an open mic “Jammin’ with Heidi” on Wednesdays from noon to 6 p.m. www.andrewsbrewing.com.

• The Ugly Dog Pub (Cashiers) will host Modern Strangers June 2 and High 5 June 9.

All shows begin at 9 p.m.

• The Ugly Dog Pub (Highlands) will host The Colby Deitz Band (Americana/rock) on June 10. All shows begin at 9:30 p.m.

27

arts & entertainment

On the street • There will be a “Steam Photo Special” at 8 a.m. Saturday, June 3, at the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad in Bryson City.

To learn more or to purchase tickets, 800.872.4681 or www.gsmr.org.

• The High Mountain Squares will host their "16th annual Great Watermelon Dance” from 2 to 5 p.m.

Sunday, June 4, at the Macon County Rec Park in Franklin. They will do Western Style Square Dancing, main/stream and plus levels. Everyone is welcome. 828.342.1560 or 828.332.0001.

ALSO:

• The Junaluska Flea Market will be held from 8 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday, June 10, at the Weldon Gym. • “The removal of Confederate monuments: Is history being rewritten?” will be the topic for the Franklin Open Forum, which will be held at 7 p.m. Monday, June 5, at the Rathskeller Coffee Haus & Pub. The FOF is a moderated discussion group.

Those interested in an open exchange of ideas (dialog, not debate) are invited to attend. 828.371.1020.

The Jackson County Cooperative Extension will be offering a relaxing class on make Aromatic Lavender Wands from 10 a.m. to noon Tuesday, June 6, in Sylva. The fee is only $5, which will cover all supplies, except the lavender. All participants must supply at least 15 fresh long stemmed lavender flowers. Cut stems no more than a day or two before the class. To register, call 828.586.4009.

Vendors needed for Mountain Heritage Day

• There will be a Casino Night fundraiser for Haywood Healthcare Foundation on June 3 at Laurel Ridge Country Club in Waynesville. www.haywoodhealthcare foundation.org or 828.452.8343.

• There will be a free wine tasting from 1 to 5 p.m. June 3 and 10 at Bosu’s Wine Shop in Waynesville. www.waynesvillewine.com or 828.452.0120.

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

Mark Haskett photo

The deadline for vendors to submit early applications for prime spaces at Mountain Heritage Day, Western Carolina University’s annual fall festival of traditional Appalachian culture, is rapidly approaching.

June 12 is the deadline for applications for arts, crafts and food vendors to participate in the event, recently named a “Top 20 festival in the Southeast” by the Southeast Tourism Society. The family oriented daylong celebration typically attracts more than 12,000 visitors who enjoy continuous music and dance, exhibitions of shape-note singing, a midway of juried arts and crafts, and home-style food.

Vendor and exhibitor information and applications are available at www.mountainheritageday.com.

May 31-June 6, 2017

• The “Highlands Motoring Festival” will be held June 8-11. Proceeds benefit REACH of Macon County. www.highlandsmotoringfestival.com.

Learn to make lavender wands

Smoky Mountain News

Antique tractor and engine show

28

The Ole Smoky Antique Tractor and Engine Association will be holding its 22nd annual tractor show from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

June 2-3 at the Haywood County Fairgrounds in Lake Junaluska.

Back in 1995, Gil Henry and Gus Ledford co-founded the club after many people expressed an interest in old farm tractors, hit and miss engines and other farm machinery.

Since that time, the club has had a spring show every year and countless displays of antique tractors at other events.

This year, the club chose to feature Massey Ferguson tractors, but all antique tractors, engines, and farm machinery are welcome. There is no charge to register your entries. There is no admission charge, however they do welcome donations.

There will also have an Antique Tractor Pull on Saturday morning in the arena beginning at 10 a.m. Over the course of the two-day show, there will be farm demonstrations, tractor train rides for the kids, tractor olympics, and various food and craft vendors.

There will also be a Massey Ferguson pedal tractor drawing. Tickets will be sold until Saturday afternoon. The proceeds from the raffle go to support a scholarship program for graduating seniors or current college students in Haywood County who are pursuing a degree in an agriculturally related field.

This year, they were able to award three scholarships, and over the last four years have been able to award 10 scholarships totaling $5,000.

If you have any questions, check out their Facebook page, or contact Darren Wade 828.593.8327, Courtney Smith 828.593.8330 or James Dickson 828.775.5773.

On the street

We specialize in farm & agriculture tires & repairs.

We handle several lines of farm tires.

548 STEPHENS RD. SYLVA N.C. 28779 LEE ENSLEY (828) 342-1796 PATTY ENSLEY (828)421-0146

Bookstore

Garret Woodward will present his book of bluegrass interviews on

THURSDAY

JUNE 1st • 6:30 P.M. 3 EAST JACKSON STREET • SYLVA

828/586-9499 • citylightsnc.com

May 31-June 6, 2017 Smoky Mountain News

Western Carolina University is accepting nominations for the Mountain Heritage Awards, an honor bestowed annually on one individual and one organization playing a prominent role in researching, preserving and/or interpreting Southern Appalachian history, culture and issues.

Nominations for the awards will be accepted through Friday, June 30. The awards are presented at Mountain Heritage Day, the university’s celebration of traditional Appalachian culture that takes place on the last Saturday each September.

The university instituted the Mountain Heritage Award in 1976, and the first recipient was the late John Parris, a Jackson County native, career newspaperman and author. Parris, who died in May 1999, was widely regarded for his long-running “Roaming the Mountains” columns in the Asheville Citizen-Times. He helped establish WCU’s journalism studies program and championed the establishment of a center to preserve the traditions and cultures of the WNC mountains, which led to the founding of WCU’s Mountain Heritage Center.

Letters of nomination should not exceed five pages and should include the full name of the individual or organization being nominated, with a website address if applicable; the mailing address of the nominee; the founding date for organizational nominees; a list of the nominee’s accomplishments; a list of the awards and other recognitions received by the nominee; information about the nominee’s influence in the relevant field of expertise, such as crafts, music or organizational cause; and information about the nominee’s role as a teacher, advocate, leader or preserver of mountain culture.

Nomination letters may be hand-delivered to the Mountain Heritage Center at its new location in the Hunter Library building, Room 240; mailed to Mountain Heritage Center, 1 University Drive, Cullowhee N.C. 28723; or emailed to Pam Meister, director of the Mountain Heritage Center, atpameister@wcu.edu.

Many of the icons of Western North Carolina’s traditional culture have received the award over the years, including Cherokee potter Amanda Swimmer and Clay County community leader Rob Tiger, and organizations such as the Jackson County Genealogical Society and the John C. Campbell Folk School. The university has given two awards annually, one for a person and one for an organization, since 2007.

One award was presented each year from 1976 to 2006.

Last year’s award winners were George Frizzell, who retired as director of WCU Special Collections after a 34-year career, and Dogwood Crafters, an arts and crafts collective established in Jackson County in 1976.

MOBILE TIRE SERVICE - WE COME TO YOU!

arts & entertainment

Nominations sought for Mountain Heritage Awards

ENSLEY TIRE SERVICE

29

On the wall arts & entertainment

June. Refreshments will be served. The event is free and open to the public. Cosponsored by the Friends of the Macon County Public Library.

May 31-June 6, 2017

‘Abstracted Portraiture’ at WCU Cullowhee Mountain Arts is hosting a special one-day workshop, “Abstracted Portraiture — A Photographic Water Journey,” with photographic artist Barbara Tyroler from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Thursday, June 15, at the WCU School of Art and Design in Cullowhee.

The workshop is offered in conjunction with the opening reception of Tyroler’s solo exhibit, “Water Portraits,” from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Western Carolina University Fine Art Museum.

This workshop will culminate in a reception at the University Fine Art Museum where Tyroler will share her work and talk about experiences working with various populations in the water environment.

The price is $45. Students need to bring: Cameras, lenses, tripods, portable flash devices, laptops, card readers, laptops.

To find out more and register, visit www.cullowheemountainarts.org or call 828.342.7899.

• There will be an art reception for Krista Skrede from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 6, at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin. Skrede, a Macon County resident, teaches art at The Mountain Discovery Charter School in Bryson City, and will be displaying her art throughout the month of

Summer arts series begins in Cullowhee Smoky Mountain News

The Cullowhee Mountain Arts sixth annual Summer Arts Workshop Series will begin June 18.

Offering 11 different five-day workshops, the Summer Arts Workshop Series is held annually in the Western Carolina University School of Art and Design’s beautiful studios.

Workshops are taught in ceramics, book arts, mixed media, painting, printmaking, photography and sculpture.

During these five-day workshops, they offer “Lunch and Learn” each day where these artist-instructors stage slide-presentations of their current work. Each Thursday afternoon students attend a “Museum Talk” where visiting instructors discuss and offer insights to current exhibits at the WCU Fine Art Museum. The workshops also include several group dinners plus evening opportunities for 30 students to enjoy local breweries and restau-

• Acclaimed Bryson City painter Elizabeth Ellison’s newest exhibit, “Spirit of Place,” will run through Sept. 4 at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville. Exhibit support is provided by The North Carolina Arboretum Society and Smoky Mountain Living magazine. www.smliv.com.

• “Paint Nite Waynesville” will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Thursdays at Frog Level Brewing in Waynesville. There will also be “Painting at the Porch” at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesdays at the Southern Porch in Canton.

Sign up for either event on the Paint Night Waynesville Facebook page (search event: Brush N. Brew) or call Robin Smathers at 828.400.9560. paintnitewaynesville@gmail.com.

• There will be a “Thursday Painters Open Studio” from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. at the Franklin Uptown Gallery. Bring a bag lunch, project and supplies. Free to the public.

Membership not required. The gallery will also present “Art Adventures,” a hands-on demonstration creating textures with Carol Conti, from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Sunday, May 21.

828.349.4607.

ALSO:

• The next “Art After Dark” will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, June 2, in downtown Waynesville. Each first Friday of the month (May-December), Main Street transforms into an evening of art, music, finger foods, beverages and shopping as artisan studios and galleries keep their doors open later for local residents and visitors. Free. www.waynesvillegalleryassociation.com. rants and share lively art conversations over dinner. Friday afternoon wrap-up critiques and a Studio Stroll brings the week to a close.

Several workshops still have openings.

Details can be found at www.cullowheemountainarts.org or call 828.342.7899 to register.

Shady Ladies quilt show There will be a Quilt Art show by the Shady Ladies from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 2-3 and noon to 4 p.m. June 4 at the Folkmoot Friendship Center in Waynesville.

An exhibition of 100 quilts ranging from artistic wall hangings to traditional bed quilts, as well as hangings created in response to the 2017 challenge: “Haywood Manmade Angles.”

Admission is $5, with proceeds donated to Folkmoot. A quilt created by the Shady

Printmaking, photography and pottery With a handful of new exhibitions now open and on view throughout the summer, the Western Carolina University Fine Art Museum at Bardo Arts Center presents art in a variety of forms — printmaking, photography and pottery.

• In “Water Portraits: Barbara Tyroler,” this North Carolina artist visually transforms the people in her photographs through the reflective properties of water. This exhibition includes a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. June 15, with an artist talk beginning at 5 p.m. Also on June 15, Cullowhee Mountain Arts presents an all-day water photography workshop led

by Tyroler. The workshop begins at 9 a.m. and Ladies will be raffled during the show with proceeds going to three Haywood County charities: Hospice, Meals on Wheels and Pigeon Community Multicultural Development Center.

For more information, call 312.550.3280.

Learn to make pine needle basket Dogwood Crafters Co-Op will offer a Pine Needle Basket workshop from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday, June 8, at the Dillsboro Masonic Lodge.

Leading the class will be Joyce Lantz, a member of Dogwood Crafters, who is skilled in a variety of crafts. She has taught many classes using pine needles. The pine needle basket is not only utilitarian, it is an attractive home accessory using long pine needles and thread.

Cost for the workshop is $25. Register to

ends with the WCU Fine Art Museum reception. This exhibition runs through Aug. 25.

• In the museum’s main gallery space, patrons can explore “Print Plus One: Beyond the Glass Matrix,” which features vitreographs created by seventeen different artists at Harvey K. Littleton Studios in Spruce Pine.

Vitreographs are prints made using glass, rather than metal, wood, or stone, as a printing plate.

In this exhibition, vitreographs are paired alongside objects made in these artists' primary medium, curated from the collections of the WCU Fine Art Museum and Asheville Art Museum. Viewers will experience works by Dale Chihuly, Sergei Isupov, Shane Fero and Cynthia Bringle, to name a few. This exhibition runs through July 28, with a closing reception from 5 to 7 p.m. July 27.

• The exhibition “Ancient Forms, Modern Minds: Contemporary Cherokee Ceramics” offers a preview to Western Carolina University's 2017-2018 campus theme, "Cherokee: Connections.

Culture.

Community.” This exhibition features the work of 11 Cherokee artists including Joel Queen, Melissa Maney and Bernadine George and brings together both historic and contemporary pottery techniques. Ancient Forms, Modern Minds was organized by the Asheville Art Museum and made possible through the generous support of the Cherokee Preservation Foundation. On view through Nov. 10, the WCU Fine Art Museum will be the last venue to host this important touring exhibition.

All WCU Fine Art Museum exhibitions and receptions are free and open to the public; please note that hands-on workshops may have an associated cost. The museum is open year-round from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Thursday. The WCU Fine Art Museum at Bardo Arts Center is located at 199 Centennial Drive on the Western Carolina University Cullowhee Campus.

For more information, visit bardoartscenter.wcu.edu or call 828.227.ARTS.

attend by calling Dogwood Crafters Co-Op at 828.586.2248 by Friday, June 2.

Interested in woodturning?

There will be two upcoming meetings for the Western North Carolina Woodturners Club.

• Tuesday, June 6: Alternative School in Sylva. The school is located on Skyland Drive.

Drive to the back of the school to the woodworking shop. Visitors are always welcome.

The club meets the first Tuesday of every month.

• Thursday, June 8: Blue Ridge School in Glenville. The school is located on Bobcat Drive. Drive to the back of the school to the wood-working shop. Visitors are always welcome. The club meets the second Thursday of every month.

Both meetings are free and begin at 6 p.m.

On the stage Road Works, the Western Carolina University’s outreach program that offers free music, film and theatrical events to communities throughout the region, is presenting a musical variety show titled “Livin’ the Dream” this summer.

They will perform at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, June 3, at the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva; 7 p.m. Sunday, June 4, at the Highlands Performing Arts Center; and noon Saturday, June 10, at Bridge Park in Sylva.

The production features a cast of five student singers — Claire Lemke, Justin Gray, Marquita Someliana, Jacob Plaisted and Keely Smith — presenting an eclectic and exciting mix of tunes, some with musical accompaniment, according to Jon Henson, WCU’s assistant director of athletic bands.

Song selections range from Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Starting Something” to Aerosmith’s “Dream On” and Adele’s

“Someone Like You.” Other featured artists whose hits will be covered are James Brown, Justin Timberlake, Ella Fitzgerald and Pentatonix, and a couple of songs from the hit movie “Dreamgirls” are included.

For more information, contact Henson at jhenson@wcu.edu or 828.227.2711.

‘Unto These Hills’ outdoor drama

‘The Great Gatsby’ at HART

The Unto These Hills stage production will be held at 8 p.m. Monday-Saturday from June 3 through Aug. 19 at the Mountainside Theater in Cherokee.

This acclaimed outdoor drama traces the Cherokee people through the eons, through the zenith of their power, through the heartbreak of the Trail of Tears, finally ending, appropriately, in the present day, where the Cherokee people, much like their newly re-scripted drama, continue to rewrite their place in the world...a place based on traditional Cherokee values and modern sensibilities.

For more information and to purchase tickets, vsiit www.cherokeehistorical.org.

A stage production of the literary classic “The Great Gatsby” will be held at 7:30 p.m.

June 2-3, 8-10, and also at 2 p.m. June 4, 11 at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville. Tickets are $25.68.

There will also be a special evening in celebration of the production, with “Pizazz” taking place at 6 p.m. Saturday, June 3, in the Fangmeyer Theater. The evening will include food, libation and dancing in the theme of the Roaring 1920s. All proceeds from the event will go to support HART and efforts to retire the mortgage on the Fangmeyer Theater. Tickets are $125 per person.

To purchase tickets, visit www.harttheatre.org or call 828.456.6322.

Open call for actors

should be married, employs the services of her friend Hannah, the matchmaker, to come up with some candidates other than Tyler with whom Isabelle is smitten. Sam is suggested, but Isabelle doesn’t like the idea of a pickle vendor who lives on the “wrong side” of Delancey Street in New York City. When she finally gets acquainted with Sam, however, romance blossoms.

Auditions are open to everyone, including those who would like to come and watch. www.highlandscashiersplayers.org.

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• The Highlands Performing Arts Center will continue the “Live via Satellite” series with the National Theatre of London’s production of “Obsession” starring Jude Law at 1 p.m.

Saturday, June 3. Tickets are available online at www.highlandspac.org, at the door or by calling 828.526.9047.

At Haywood Community College, you can do more than sit in a classroom all day.

May 31-June 6, 2017

Auditions for Highlands Cashiers Players’ production of the romantic comedy “Crossing Delancey” will be held at 3 p.m.

Sunday, June 11, at the Highlands Performing Arts Center.

Scripts are available to read in the Highlands and Cashiers libraries.

Performance dates are Aug. 24-27 and Aug. 31-Sept. 3.

Directed by Dr. Ronnie Spilton, the play has a cast of three women and two men.

• The women: Isabelle, a single modern young woman, 20s to 30s. Bubbie, her grandmother, a feisty, sharp-witted woman, 70s to 80s. Hannah, 40s to 60s, a professional matchmaker.

• The men: Tyler, in his 40s, a writer, charming, self-involved. Sam, 30s to 40s, in fthe pickle business, appealing, intuitive, very wise for his years.

• The plot: Grandma thinks Isabelle

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Books

Smoky Mountain News

Understanding how to disagree and still respect National Review, which continues to speak to certain kinds of conservatives. Over the years, he spoke at hundreds of conservative gatherings

over the years. In 1965, Buckley ran for mayor of New York City on the Conservative Party ticket, quipping when asked what he would do if he won the election: “I’d demand a recount.”

But it was “Firing Line” that did most to propel Buckley and his conservative causes into the public eye. Buckley’s lanky figure, sprawled back in a chair, pencil or pen and clipboard at the ready, the drawling voice, the droll comments: these were his trademarks, and Americans who followed politics regarded him as the spokesperson for American conservatives.

What makes Open To Debate a valuable book at this point in our country’s history are Hendershot’s constant reminders that “Firing Line” regularly featured liberal guests, men and women ranging from Norman Mailer to Allard Lowenstein, from Betty Friedan to Black Panther Huey P. Newton. Many of these guests made multiple appearances, including ultraliberal professor John Kenneth Galbraith, who became close friends with Buckley. Though occasionally tempers flared during these discussions — and

that was Buckley’s aim, to discuss issues with people from the opposite camp, to try and understand why they believed as they did — for the most part these shows featured debate, real debate, rather than rage and insults.

In “Conclusion: In Praise of Honest Intellectual Combat,” Hendershot reminds us of the lessons we can learn from “Firing Line.” The show ran for 33 years, and its episodes, many of which can be found online in sites like YouTube, give us a fascinating look at those years: civil rights, feminism, the death penalty, the Soviet Union, Watergate, and a hundred other topics.

We can also see, as Hendershot points out, the turn of the country from left to right between the 1960s and 1980s.

Most important of all, Hendershot shows a style of debate rarely seen in our contemporary political wars. Regarding the “Firing Line” episodes, Hendershot writes, “You will also learn that political discussion is at its best when it brings with it a strong sense of humor and a willingness not to vilify the opposition as the Enemy. Politics is a serious business, but rage doesn’t improve the quality of your debating ….”

In our immediate present, perhaps especially in online communications, rage is king while real debate has become a scullery maid. The obscenities that pop up in public discourse, the mobs of recent months, our unwillingness to seek compromise on issues like health care and immigration, our inability to conduct civil, rational discussions in private debates with family or friends, our dismissal of those who disagree with us as The Enemy: this is the current state of discourse in America.

At the very end of Open To Debate, Hendershot takes us to a 1983 episode of Firing Line, where Buckley remarks to guest Mortimer Adler that conversation is either a meeting of minds or “the crystallization of differences.”

Adler replied: “Either understood agreement or understood disagreement, but understanding comes first. People who disagree with what they don’t understand are impertinent, and people who agree with what they don’t understand are inane. And inanity and impertinence rule the roost most of the time, I think.”

Adler makes an important point. Were he alive today, he might add that fury, violence, and deaf ears rule the roost as well.

(Jeff Minick is a writer and teacher.

Contact him at minick0301@gmail.com)

‘Let’s Talk About It’

program. It is a collection of autobiographical essays

by Eudora Welty, winner of the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Copies are now available for loan through the Waynesville Public Library. Please go to the library office for your copy.

Author Cathy Pickens will lead the discussion.

Pickens is a frequent mystery convention panelist, on topics ranging from Southern mysteries, to classic and true crime stories, to the use of poisons. A lawyer and professor in the McColl Graduate School of Business at Queens University of Charlotte, she grew

up in a small southern town in South Carolina where her family has lived for centuries.

No pre-registration is required. Refreshments will be served during this two-hour free program. If you would like further information, contact Bob Bahnsen, Friends Program coordinator, at 828.421.6798.

The Friends of the Library is a nonprofit group that raises money for the Library through its Annual Book Sale in July. Programming for adults and children, furniture, equipment and numerous materials are among the ways it supports the Haywood County Public Library.

Jeff Minick

Nineteenth century poet Walt Whitman once wrote “I hear America singing.”

Ah, those were the days.

What might Whitman write today? “I hear America screeching, screaming, and swearing.”

Whatever our personal politics, most of us would surely agree that the words “civil discourse” have in our time become an oxymoron.

Civility has thrown on a backpack and a pair of boots, and taken a long hike. Discourse now features people shrieking at one another. The citizen Writer with the bullhorn or the thug willing to punch somebody in the nose is the winner, truth and reason be damned.

Lately, on some of our college campuses, mobs shout down speakers or refuse them entry into a lecture hall. At recent town hall meetings, we saw this same mob mentality, with some elected representatives being heckled or even unable to speak because of hordes of shouting, crazed citizens. Instead of debating controversial ideas or reasoning their way through some political thicket, many of the talking heads in our media, depending on their politics, slant the news and show open contempt for those who disagree with them.

Now, I am going to sound like one of those geezers who are always touting the good old days, but there was a time when opponents in matters of politics, culture, and religion actually sat together and discussed an issue without need of fascistic bullying. And in case you think I am a nostalgic senior looking back at the past through rose-tinted glasses, then I suggest you pick up a copy of Open To Debate: How William F. Buckley Put Liberal America On The Firing Line (Broadside Books, 2016, 357 pages, $28.99).

In Open To Debate, author Heather Hendershot takes us on a tour of William F. Buckley’s life, exploring in particular his longrunning television show, “Firing Line.” Buckley, a Yale graduate from a privileged background, is credited by some as singlehandedly reviving American conservatism in the years after World War II. He first gained fame with God and Man at Yale, a book critical of that institution and its academic bigotry. He founded a magazine,

The Friends of the Library will again host “Let’s Talk About It,” a library discussion series that brings scholars and community members together to explore how selected books, films, poetry illuminate a particular theme.

This series, “The Journey Inward: Women’s Autobiography,” begins at 1 p.m. Saturday, June 3, at the Waynesville Public Library.

One Writer’s Beginnings will be the focus of this

New bluegrass book released Diving into the rich, vibrant and controversial history of bluegrass music, If You Can’t Play, Get Off the Stage: Bluegrass in Western North Carolina and Beyond is the debut work from Garret K. Woodward, arts/entertainment editor for The Smoky Mountain News. Woodward will be holding a reading, bluegrass discussion and book signing at 6:30 p.m.

Thursday, June 1, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva.

The book features interviews, profiles, quotes and conversations with the biggest names in bluegrass, mountain and string music, including: Balsam Range, Bobby Osborne, Claire Lynch, David Grisman, David Holt, Del McCoury, Doyle Lawson, Jesse McReynolds, John Cowan, Larry Sparks, Marty Stuart, Peter Rowan, Raymond Fairchild, Rhiannon Giddens, Rhonda Vincent, Ricky Skaggs, Sam Bush, Tim O’Brien, and many more.

For more information on the book and where to purchase it, visit www.facebook.com/yobrodobro.

A poem for D-Day “Normandy Invasion”

By Paul Willis

Across the sands of Normandy They came up from the sea.

For many days and nights, They fought to set a nation free.

To those who struggled there The hedgerows are where the Fires of Hell burned bright.

For the shell bursts without Letup continued day and night.

This brought the cries of “Medic!”

As the shrapnel spread far and wide, For many there were wounded.

Also, many died.

The horror of the Hedgerows will always haunt The ones there those summer days.

For no matter how hard you try to forget The memory always stays.

Now the evening hours are here for That fading generation, who so long ago Fought for a poor enslaved Nation. So may You who listen try to understand, and Remember those who lie in a far off land.

Reflections of a World War II Veteran: Poems About War and Life by Paul Willis is available at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville, City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, Malaprop’s Bookstore in Asheville, and several area retail stores.

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Smoky Mountain News

Sleuthing for salamanders New DNA technique boosts salamander science

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER new scientific tool developed at the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont will allow salamander-studying

A

scientists to trace the amphibians’ whereabouts without ever laying eyes on one of the slimy creatures.

“It’s kind of like a crime scene investigation thing,” said Gar Secrist, the teacher/nat-

Young citizen scientists hold up the salamanders they’ve found in the Smokies’ streams.

Donated photo

Get involved The Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont relies on a force of citizen scientists to monitor everything from seasonal changes to salamander populations.

Located in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Townsend, Tennessee, Tremont welcomes new volunteers to take data at sites throughout the park, with many other tasks in demand as well. Volunteer applications are online at www.gsmit.org/volunteer.

Students take samples as part of the year-long study to compare results of DNA and traditional salamander sampling.

Donated photo

uralist at Tremont who led the research.

“You’re looking for evidence of the salamanders that were there without ever seeing the salamanders.”

As salamanders move through the water, they leave parts of themselves behind — skin cells that slough off and remain in the environment. The DNA technique Secrist has been working on analyzes samples of stream water to determine which species of salamander the skin cells contained in the sample belong to.

Secrist just completed a yearlong pilot study of the technique, done in collaboration with Todd Pierson and Benjamin Fitzpatrick of the University of Tennessee. The goal was to see if observations obtained through the DNA analysis matched those gained through traditional salamander monitoring — that is, through actually capturing the creatures in the field. This effort enlisted help from the army of children, teenagers and adults who participate in Tremont’s citizen science programs.

“Part of our mission here is connecting people and nature, so one way we do that is with our citizen science program,” Secrist explained. “We’re basically involving people who aren’t professional scientists in collecting data for field science projects.”

When it comes to salamanders, Tremont has been running such programs for more than 15 years. Student groups and adult volunteers alike come through to help take the data, contributing to a record that shows how populations in the Smokies’ streams are changing over time.

This time around, volunteers took water samples of each of the streams where they captured salamanders, allowing scientists to compare the two results. As it turned out, the five salamander species captured in the field were the same five species that the DNA method identified.

That result is encouraging, Secrist said, as the new method has many exciting potential applications.

For one thing, it could allow scientists to learn more about the populations in a larger volume of streams, as volunteers who perhaps aren’t able to launch a full-scale salamander capture study could instead send in water samples from any given stream for analysis.

“One of the big reasons we started our salamander project over 15 years ago is because we study salamanders as an indicator of how healthy the streams are,” Secrist said.

“Even though we’re in a national park, there are still a lot of threats to these stream environments.”

With their porous skin, salamanders are

more sensitive to these threats than many other types of creatures, so monitoring their populations can indicate environmental issues before those issues become very advanced. And the park does face an array of known environmental issues, including acid rain and the loss of hemlock trees to the hemlock wooly adelgid.

It’s possible that the death of hemlock trees could adversely affect stream environments, as the disappearance of the shade those trees provide results in more sunlight on the water, in turn raising the stream’s temperature.

“We don’t know what kind of impacts those could have, so we use the salamander as an indicator of how healthy the stream is in response to some of these threats,” Secrist explained.

If, through salamander DNA sampling, scientists could get a genetic baseline on these streams before changes occur, they would be better equipped to understand how normal or abnormal later observations are.

In addition, the method could help scientists better understand the abundance of salamander species not commonly caught in stream sampling. The Great Smoky Mountains claim the title of Salamander Capital of the World, with more species living there than at any other one place on the globe. But it’s possible that some salamanders’ habits could make them less susceptible to capture than other species.

“This is another way of looking so we might be able to show a species is there without having to see it with our own eyes,” said Secrist.

That said, the new technique does have its limits. For instance, though it seems to reliably show which species inhabit a stream, it doesn’t show how many of those species exist.

With a traditional capture study, however, it’s much easier to estimate the size of the general population based on the frequency with which a particular species is captured. For that reason, the DNA method couldn’t be considered a replacement for more traditional surveying methods — rather, Secrist said, it’s a “complementary” technique.

“The genetic method isn’t going to replace everything we do,” he said.

However, it’s possible that the method could provide some indication of a species’ relative abundance, even if it’s not capable of rendering a count as to how many individual salamanders have passed through an area.

Secrist calls this figure “relative abundance.”

“We did notice some fluctuation in the genetic signatures of the salamander that seemed to correspond with the abundance caught,” said Secrist.

However, there’s more research to be done before scientists can draw any conclusions from those types of observations. In the meantime, Secrist is looking forward to getting Tremont’s force of citizen scientists started on using the DNA techniques that have been created thus far.

“We’re really excited that this is a new tool among scientists,” he said, “and we’re really excited to involve the public.”

Michael Skinner of the Balsam Mountain Trust holds a barn owl. NPS photo

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Drought-free in N.C. For the first time since March 2016, all 100 counties in North Carolina are free of drought or dry conditions.

Due to sustained spring rainfall, streams, groundwater levels and soil moisture have all rebounded and are now close to their long-term averages. However, conditions can change rapidly, especially during the hot summer months, when evaporation rates are higher.

The N.C. Drought Management Advisory Council monitors conditions closely and releases an updated drought map each Thursday at 9 a.m. Maps are posted at www.ncdrought.org.

Franklin resident Lisa Brown has been named the Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s Employee of the Year.

After starting her career in the Smokies 26 years ago as an administrative assistant in the Resource and Visitor Protection Division, Brown now handles a wide variety of administrative processes. In 2016 she processed more than 480 special use permits and 110 search and rescue report packets, oversaw the parkwide monthly visitation statistics, provided customer service and coordinated with park staff to ensure resources weren’t harmed by special events.

“To me, Lisa Brown sets the standard for all employees to strive to achieve,” said North Carolina District Ranger Joe Pond. “Lisa has a deeprooted love for the park, Lisa Brown. NPS photo the local community and a strong vision for how we, as public servants, should be serving the public. She is a relentless, unwavering professional.”

Smoky Mountain News

Smokies names Franklin woman employee of the year

Dr. John Highsmith

May 31-June 6, 2017

Birds of prey will swoop into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park during a special program at 11 a.m. Friday, June 2, at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center.

Presented by Michael Skinner of the Balsam Mountain Trust, the one-hour program will give visitors an up-close glimpse of some of the planet’s most-revered wild animals, including the Eastern screech owl and Northern bald eagle.

Balsam Mountain Trust is a Jackson County nonprofit that aims to steward the natural and cultural resources of the Blue Ridge Mountain region through land management, research and education.

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Trout waters open Delayed Harvest Trout Waters will open on Saturday, June 3, allowing trout harvest on the 34 streams and two lakes falling under the classification until Sept. 30.

From 6 a.m. to noon, the waters will be open only to anglers 15 and younger, with waters opening to everyone at noon.

Anglers can keep up to seven trout per day with no bait restrictions or minimum size limits.

Since last fall, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission has stocked more than 372,000 trout in these waters.

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World Oceans Day will come to the Highlands Nature Center Saturday, June 10, with activities focusing on the threats facing our oceans throughout the day, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Special activities will include a presentation about how a crew of lost rubber duckies taught scientists about ocean currents, contributing to ocean cleanup efforts. A miniature sand castle-building competition will be held noon to 3 p.m., and a workshop on making durable, reusable plastic yarn out of old grocery bags will start at 2 p.m.

Free.

Get certified in boat safety Learn to be safe on the water with a free certification course in boat safety, 6-9 p.m.

June 6 and 7 at Haywood Community College.

Participants must attend both sessions to receive certification. Certifications are required to get permitted for a variety of water-based activities in North Carolina.

The course is offered through a partnership between HCC and the N.C. Wildlife Resources commission.

The course will also be offered July 1718, Aug. 7-8 and Sept. 25-26.

No age limit. Pre-registration required at www.ncwildlife.org.

Sleep under the stars A summer kickoff campout will liven up the Ralph J. Andrews Campground near Lake Glenville June 3-4.

The festivities will begin at 3 p.m. June 3, with campers staying overnight through 11 a.m. June 4. The adventure will include a campfire, s’mores, stargazing, a nature hike and more. Cost includes dinner, breakfast, snacks, campsite and activities. Campers are encouraged to bring their own equipment, but loaners are available. $25, with space limited. Organized by Jackson County Parks and Recreation.

Register at www.rec.jacksonnc.org or call 828.293.3053.

Take a walk through Cherokee history

Grandfather Mountain offers a striking backdrop to blooming rhododendrons. Skip Sickler photo

Cowee Mound was once the economic center of the Cherokee people. Ralph Preston photo

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1478 Dellwood Rd., Waynesville NC 28786

828.926.8484

LEO Mondays & Women's Wednesdays

TheTubStore.com

20 Lane Rental & a large selection of rental guns.

WNC’S FINEST INDOOR SHOOTING RANGE & FULLY STOCKED GUN SHOP

Smoky Mountain News

The Hot Tub Store

Pre-concealed carry & post-concealed carry classes also available

The Cradle of Forestry In America will celebrate National Get Outdoors Day by offering free admission to the site Saturday, June 10.

In addition to accessing the Cradle’s interpretive displays and trails for free, visitors will also be treated to activities showcasing traditional and outdoor adventure sports, camp skills and trail skills.

The Cradle of Forestry in America is located along U.S. 274 in the Pisgah National Forest, 35 miles south of Waynesville.

828.877.3130.

May 31-June 6, 2017

A series of short, guided strolls will meander through the blooming rhododendrons at Grandfather Mountain State Park, at 1 p.m. daily June 1 to 11.

Grandfather Mountain is center stage for the vivid pink blooms of the Catawba rhododendron, and park naturalists will lead these explorations to teach visitors about the native plant, its history and the role it plays in the mountain’s ecological communities.

In addition to the Catawba rhododendron, the mountain laurel and flame azalea will also be starting to bloom, with the creamy-pink flowers of the rosebay rhododendron opening in late June into July.

Summer hours of 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. are now in effect, and the walks are free with price of admission.

800.468.7325 or www.grandfather.com.

Concealed Carry Class:

20%

Shopping at Mast General Store in Waynesville or Asheville will benefit the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy all day long Saturday, June 3.

Throughout the day, SAHC volunteers will be on hand to share information about the organization and the benefits of protecting land. Meanwhile, Mast will donate 20 percent of the day’s sales to support those efforts.

SAHC’s work spans the Southern Appalachians from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to the Highlands of Roan, forging and maintaining long-term conservation relationships with private landowners and public agencies. Since its founding in 1974, SAHC has protected more than 68,000 acres.

outdoors

A once-in-a-lifetime walk to historic Cowee Mound will provide a chance to go back in time, 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Thursday, June 8, in Macon County.

Tom Belt, a Cherokee elder and Western Carolina University faculty member, will lead this tour through the spot where the Cherokee town of Cowee’s council house used to sit. During the 18th century, Cowee was the principal diplomatic and commercial center of the mountain region of the Cherokee people. Agricultural activities in the area date back at least 3,000 years. Belt will discuss the mound’s cultural significance and Cherokee life prior to the 1838 removal.

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians purchased the 70 acres along the Little Tennessee River that includes Cowee Mound in 2007. Mainspring Conservation Trust and the N.C. Clean Water Management Trust Fund helped with the transaction. The property is permanently protected through a conservation easement. $5 per person with optional lunch purchase for an additional $10. Space limited.

RSVP with Sharon Burdette, 828.524.2711, ext. 301. www.mainspringconserves.org.

Land Trust Day comes to Mast

17 Palmer Rd. Waynesville | 828-452-7870 Hours: M-W:11-6 Th.& Fri:11-8 Sat.:10-6 Sun:1-5

www.mountainrangewnc.com

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outdoors

Opportunities for adventure will abound at the Highlands Nature Center this summer. Donated photo

Dive into summer at Highlands Nature Center Summer programs are here for the Highlands Nature Center, with garden tours, summer day camps and hands-on children’s activities available throughout the season.

Programs include: n Guided garden tours at 10:30 a.m.

Mondays n Live animal feedings at 11:30 a.m.

Tuesdays and Fridays n Inquiry investigations — which are hands-on scientific explorations for children — on Wednesdays.

n Exploration Hikes at 3 p.m. Thursdays to visit forests, streams and other locations on the Highlands Biological Station campus. n Creature Feature live animal programs on Saturdays. n Summer camps with spaces still available are Plants a Plenty, Aug. 1-4 for ages 46; Citizen Scientists June 13-16, ages 9-10; Eco-Trekkers June 20-23 and July 18-21, ages 11-14; Wildlife Warriors June 27-30, ages 11-14.

828.526.2623 or www.highlandsbiological.org.

May 31-June 6, 2017

Solar eclipse explained The science behind the upcoming solar eclipse will be up for discussion during a program beginning 6:30 p.m. Friday, June 2, at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Franklin.

Enrique Gomez, associate professor of physics and astronomy at Western Carolina University, will explain the peculiarities of solar eclipses of the Earth-Moon system, geometric and atmospheric effects to be expected during the event and observing techniques for a safe and memorable viewing. The talk is part of a series of lectures across Western North Carolina on how to best experience the eclipse.

The solar eclipse Aug. 21 will be the first total solar eclipse in the continental United States since 1979, and the westernmost counties in North Carolina will be in the path of totality.

Free, with a meet-and-greet at 5:30 p.m. and potluck dinner at 6 p.m. 828.524.3691.

Smoky Mountain News

Book intertwines gardening, friendship and faith

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After losing his wife to cancer, Dick Wall has been traveling the country to present her book on gardening, friendship and faith — and he will be speaking in Western North Carolina June 3-4. n Noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, June 3, at TJ Bailey & Joan Anderson Interiors in Cashiers n 2 p.m. Sunday, June 4, at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin The book, Mister Owita’s Guide to Gardening: How I Learned the Unexpected Joy of a Green Thumb and Open Heart, is Carol Wall’s story of graciously slipping into Plan B when the Plan A for life doesn’t work out. It tells the story of Wall’s unlikely

friendship with Kenyan-born landscape designer Giles Owita, who took on the arduous task of rehabilitating Wall’s neglected yard in Roanoke, Virginia, while simultaneously tending her wounded spirit.

Published in 2014, the book was named

Carol Wall and Giles Owita. Donated photo one of the top 10 books of the year by USA Today.

WNC Calendar COMMUNITY EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS • There will be an Open Door Meal & Sing at 5:30 p.m.

Wednesday, May 31, at the First United Methodist Church of Sylva. A brief devotional will precede the meal. The Open Door and Sing event is held on the fifth Wednesday in those months which have one. All are welcome and invited to attend. For more information, please call the church office, 586.2358.

•The Cherokee Bonfire & Storytelling will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays through Oct. 28 at the Oconaluftee Islands Park. Sit by a bonfire, alongside a river, and listen to some of Cherokee’s best storytellers. The bonfire is free and open to the public. www.visitcherokeenc.com.

• Franklin native and former recording artist Eddie Ray will share stories of his years in the music industry at 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 8, at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin. Northcarolinamusichalloffame.org.

• A Private Well Owner Workshop will be presented by the Southeast Rural Community Assistance Projects from 4-6 p.m. on June 15 at the Haywood County Library in Waynesville. For any well owner with questions or concerns about their well or water source. Info: jtatum@sercap.org or 984.222.4304.

• Nominations for Western Carolina University’s Mountain Heritage Awards are being accepted through Friday, June 30. Nomination letters may be hand-delivered to the Mountain Heritage Center at its new location in the Hunter Library building, Room 240; mailed to Mountain Heritage Center, 1 University Drive, Cullowhee NC 28723; or emailed to pameister@wcu.edu.

• Applications are being accepted for the Haywood County Farm Bureau Scholarship. Students must be graduating seniors, currently enrolled in a Haywood County school or enrolled in a two- or four-year school and a resident of Haywood County. 2.5 GPA or better.

452.1425 or Karen_greene@ncfbssc.com.

BUSINESS & EDUCATION • A meeting of current and former employees of the Waynesville plant of Champion/Blue Ridge/Evergreen is held at 8 a.m. on the first Monday of each month at BoJangles near Lake Junaluska’s entrance.

• A course in “Conversational French” will be offered from 6-7 p.m. on Tuesdays, May 30-June 27, in Room 139 of WCU’s Cordelia Camp Building in Cullowhee. $79. fjmalissen@wcu.edu or http://go.wcu.edu/speakfrench.

• A Roger Brooks webinar entitled “Economic Impacts: Downtowns & Tourism” will be shown at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, May 31, at the Town of Waynesville Municipal Building. Brooks is a tourism, branding and marketing expert who teaches stakeholders responsibilities for creating an outstanding downtown and community. info@DowntownWaynesville.com.

• A WordPress class will be offered at 5:55 p.m. on Wednesday, May 31, at the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva. 90-minute class will be led by Jim Geary; assisted by library staffer Laura Chapman.

Register: 586.2016.

• Haywood County Special Olympics will hold a board meeting at 5:30 p.m. on June 5 at the Waynesville Recreation Center. Topics include spring games, fall games and coach recruitment dates. 456.2030 or tpetrea@waynesvillenc.gov.

• Western Carolina University will host its second annual inclusion summit at 1 p.m. on June 9 in the Grandroom of the A.K. Hinds University Center in Cullowhee. Discuss education of students with disabili-

All phone numbers area code 828 unless otherwise noted. ties and special needs in regular classrooms. $25 per person. Deadline is Tuesday, June 6.

• Email for Beginners 1 will be offered on June 6 at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin. Registration required: 524.3600.

• Boating safety courses will be offered from 6-9 p.m. on June 6-7 in Building 3300, Room 3322, at Haywood Community College in Clyde. Participants must attend both evenings. Register: www.ncwildlife.org.

• “Poetry by Definition: A Poetry Workshop with Eric Nelson” will be offered from 4-6:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, June 6-27 and July 11 at Hanger Hall School for Girls in Asheville. Offered through UNC Asheville’s Great Smokies Writing Program. $152.50 for state residents. $20 nonrefundable application fee for new students.

Info or to register: http://unca.edu/gswp or 250.2353.

• A class on the basics of Microsoft PowerPoint will be presented at 5:55 p.m. on Wednesday, June 7, at the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva. 586.2016.

• “Get Real: A Creative Nonfiction Workshop with Marjorie Klein” will be offered from 6-8:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, June 7-July 5, at the Thomas Wolfe Memorial at 52 North Market Street in Asheville. Offered through UNC Asheville’s Great Smokies Writing Program. $152.50 for state residents. $20 nonrefundable application fee for new students. Info or to register: http://unca.edu/gswp or 250.2353.

• “Let It Flow: Genius Creativity Strategies for Writers, a Workshop with Linda Lowery” will be offered from 46:30 p.m. on Wednesdays from June 7 –July 5 at Hanger Hall School for Girls in Asheville. Offered through UNC Asheville’s Great Smokies Writing Program. $152.50 for state residents. $20 nonrefundable application fee for new students. Info or to register: http://unca.edu/gswp or 250.2353.

• “Networking Necessities: How to build and Engage Face-to-Face and LinkedIn Contacts” will be offered by Western Carolina University’s Division of Educational Outreach from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. on Friday, June 9, at WCU’s instructional site in Asheville. jcthompson@wcu.edu or pdp.wcu.edu.

• Registration is underway for the Western Women’s Business Center’s third annual conference entitled: “Her Story, Her Journey,” which will be held from 8:30 a.m.3:30 p.m. on June 22 at the U.S. Cellular Center in Asheville. Includes performance by Asheville artist Leeda “Lyric” Jones as well as a variety of speakers.

Register or get more info: www.carolinasmallbusiness.org/initiatives/wwbcconference2017 or 633.5065.

• Registration is underway for a personal branding workshop with author Nancy Blanton. The workshop is scheduled for 3-5 p.m. on Saturday, June 24, at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville. $39 registration fee includes refreshments and a signed copy of Blanton’s book: “Brand Yourself Royally in 8 Simple Steps: Harness the Secrets of Kings and Queens for a Personal Brand that Rules.” 456.6000.

FUNDRAISERS AND BENEFITS • Asheville Tourist tickets are currently being sold through June 8 at Clyde Elementary School. Each ticket cost $7 which is $1 below gate prices and the school profits half of each ticket sold. Tickets are good for the whole season so stock up and help the school raise money. Contact the school office at 627.2206 to purchase tickets.

Smoky Mountain News

• “Pizazz: A Gatsby Party to End All Parties” will be held as a fundraiser at 6 p.m. on June 3 at HART in Waynesville. $125 per ticket. 456.6322.

• Casino Night is scheduled for June 3 at the Pavilion at Laurel Ridge Country Club in Waynesville. Fundraiser for the Haywood Healthcare Foundation. Tickets: $100.

452.8343 or marge.stiles@haymed.org.

• Land Trust Day will be observed on Saturday, June 3, at Mast Stores in Asheville and Waynesville. Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy volunteers will answer questions, and 20 percent of the day’s sales will support SAHC’s conservation efforts. www.MastGeneralStore.com or www.Appalachian.org.

• Donate 10 cans of food for United Christian Ministries and enjoy free rafting from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Sunday, June 4, through Smoky Mountain River Adventures (586.5285) and Dillsboro River Company (586.3797).

• The Cherokee Cancer Support Group Fundraiser dinner is June 10 at the Cherokee Indian Fairgrounds.

843.385.3180.

• The second annual “Wild Art” event to benefit Appalachian Wildlife Refuge is scheduled for 1-5 p.m. on Sunday, June 11, at the Smoky Park Supper Club’s Boathouse at 350 Riverside Drive in Asheville. Art for sale and raffle to benefit Appalachian Wild. www.AppalachianWild.org/wands-for-wildlife.

• Donations are being accepted to help renovate the piano in the Elementary building of the old Fines Creek School. 593.7042.

VOLUNTEERS & VENDORS Fabric supplies needed for art camp being held at Waynesville Recreation Center in June. If you wish to donate fabric, please drop off at the Haywood County Arts Council at 86 North Main Street in Waynesville.

They will accept donations through June 14. 452.0593, info@haywoodarts.org or www.haywoodarts.org.

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Visit www.smokymountainnews.com and click on Calendar for: ■ Complete listings of local music scene ■ Regional festivals ■ Art gallery events and openings ■ Complete listings of recreational offerings at regional health and fitness centers ■ Civic and social club gatherings • T.H.E. Center for Disordered Eating will host its annual HEAL Conference from 8 a.m.-5:15 p.m. on Friday, June 2, at the DoubleTree Hotel in Asheville.

Registration: $159. thecenternc@gmail.com. Info: www.thecenternc.org.

• A TED talk discussion on “How to Make Stress Your Friend” will be offered on Wednesday, June 7, at the Waynesville Library. 15-20 minute talk followed by discussion. Registration required: 356.2507 or kolsen@haywoodnc.net.

• Registration is underway for a Youth Mental Health First Aid training, which is from noon-4 p.m. on June 26-27 at the Hurlburt Juhnson Homeless Shelter in Murphy. Learn the skills needed to help a young person who’s experiencing distress due to mental health or substance abuse. Register: http:/tinyurl.com/lec20yl.

•”Breastfeeding A-Z” will be offered for expectant mothers from 7-9 p.m. on Thursdays Aug. 31 and Nov. 9 at Haywood Regional Medical Center. Taught by BoardCertified Lactation Consultants.

MyHaywoodRegional.com/ParentClasses or 452.8440.

• Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional Families (ACA) meets at noon on Saturdays at the First United Methodist Church Outreach Center at 171 Main St. in Franklin. 407.758.6433 or adultchildren.org.

• The preferred application period ends June 12 for arts, crafts and food vendors who want to participate in Western Carolina University’s Mountain Heritage Day. www.MountainHeritageDay.com.

• “Your Amazing Newborn” classes will be offered for new parents from 7-9 p.m. on Thursdays, Sept. 7 and Nov. 16 at Haywood Regional Medical Center.

MyHaywoodRegional.com/ParentClasses or 452.8440.

• Coach recruitment for the Haywood County Special Olympics will be held at 6 p.m. on June 13 at the Waynesville Recreation Center. 456.2030 or tpetrea@waynesvillenc.gov.

• Western Carolina University’s student-run, Mountain Area Pro Bono Physical Therapy Clinic will be open from 6-8:30 p.m. on the first and third Wednesdays of each month. 227.3527.

• Town of Dillsboro will be hosting three arts and craft shows open to vendors from the surrounding region.

Over 40 artisans for each of these festivals are needed, artisans who will be displaying and demonstrating their hand made arts and crafts from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m.

Family entertainment and festival food will be available during each show. Second show is Saturday, Aug. 20 — The Dillsboro Summer Arts & Crafts Market showcases local art and fine crafts, with a focus on family and children activities. Application due by June 1. Vendors may apply for these shows by downloading an application from the town’s website, www.visitdillsboro.org. For more information, call Connie Hogan at 586.3511 or email festivals@visitdillsboro.org.

• The Haywood County Health & Human Services Public Health Services Division is offering a Night Clinic from 4-6:30 p.m. on the third Monday of every month in Waynesville. Services include family planning, immunizations, pregnancy testing, STD testing and treatment. Appointments: 452.6675.

• Great Smoky Mountains National Park is seeking volunteers to assist rangers with managing traffic and establishing safe wildlife viewing areas within the Cataloochee Valley area. To register for training or get more info: karl_danforth@nps.gov.

• Big Brother/Big Sister, a one-evening preparation class for children who are about to greet a new baby into their family, is offered for children ages 3-10 at Haywood Regional Medical Center. 452.8440 or MyHaywoodRegional.com/ParentClasses.

HEALTH MATTERS • Preparation for Childbirth classes will be taught by a certified childbirth educator from 7-9 p.m. on Thursdays June 1-June 22, Aug. 3, Aug. 24 and Oct. 12Nov. 2 at Haywood Regional Medical Center. 452.8440 or MyHaywoodRegional.com/ParentClasses.

• The Jackson County Department of Public Health will offer a general clinic from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. 587.8225.

• A Food Addicts Anonymous Twelve-Step fellowship group meets at 5:30 p.m. on Mondays at Grace Church in the Mountains in Waynesville. www.foodaddictsanonymous.org.

RECREATION AND FITNESS • The High Mountain Squares will host their 16th annual Great Watermelon Dance from 2-5 p.m. on Sunday, June 4, at the Macon County Recreation Park Pavilion in Franklin.

Western-style square dancing, mainstream plus levels.

342.1560, 332.0001 or www.highmountainsquares.com.

wnc calendar

• Open enrollment is underway for the 2017-18 school year for Haywood Christian Academy. www.HaywoodChristianAcademy.org. Info: 627.0229.

• An opportunity the Bellyak (prone paddling/lay-ontop kayaking) will be offered through the Jackson County Parks & Recreation department at 11 a.m. on June 24, July 8, July 22 and Aug. 20. $30. Rec.jacksonnc.org or 293.3053.

• Open play and practice for adult coed volleyball will be offered at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesdays in May and June at the Waynesville Recreation Center. $4 per person for nonmembers; free for members. 456.2030.

SPIRITUAL • A “Divine Design Conference” will be offered June 9-10 at Refuge Church, 200 Marsh Lily Drive in Sylva. $55. For anyone who’s wondered why God made you like you are and why other Christians are seemingly living the abundant life when you’re not. $55 per person; childcare and Saturday lunch provided. Tickets and info: 508.3559.

POLITICAL • The Haywood County Libertarian Party is now meeting at Blue Ridge Books on Main Street from 4:30-6 p.m. every second Monday of the month. These meetings will be for discussion on current events, and are open to the public.

• A lunch-and-discussion group will be held by the League of Women Voters at noon on the second Thursday of each month at Tartan Hall of the First Presbyterian Church in Franklin. RSVP for lunch: lwvmacon@wild-dog-mountain.info or 524.8369.

• Registration has begun for Youth Spring Soccer through the Jackson County Parks & Recreation Department. Open to players born between 2003-12.

Birth certificates required for first-time players. $55. www.rec.jacksonnc.org.

• A Youth Fishing Day will be offered for ages 5-12 through the Jackson County Parks & Recreation department from 9-11:30 a.m. on June 17, July 15, Aug. 19 and Sept. 16. Introduction to freshwater fishing. $5 per day. Rec.jacksonnc.org or 293.3053.

• The Children’s Day in the Garden will be held from noon-5 p.m. on Saturday, June 3, at the Cullowhee Community Garden at 65 S. Painter Road in Cullowhee.

Local artists will work with children on various naturethemed art projects throughout the day. 312.508.9404.

• A Kids Crew Summer Party is going on until 3 p.m. on June 3 at the Factory in Franklin. $19.99 for an hour of jumping, kids pizza buffet, unlimited video games and mini golf plus a $10 bonus.

• Kids Fishing Day will be held starting at 9 a.m. on June 3 at Cliffside Lake in Highlands and Rattler Ford in Robbinsville; and starting at 7 a.m. on the same day at Cherokee Lake. 524.6441.

• Marianna Black Library will present “Build a Better World” – a summer learning program – from June 5July 30 in Bryson City. Children will be awarded prizes for reading (or being read to) 15 minutes each day.

488.3030.

KIDS & FAMILIES • Registration is underway through June 2 for Sandlot baseball (ages 5-7 as of May 1). Meet from 6-7 p.m. on Mondays at Mark Watson Park in Sylva or from 6-7 p.m. on Wednesdays at the Recreation Park in Cullowhee. Rec.jacksonnc.org or 293.3053.

• Western Carolina University will hold a public information session at 6 p.m. on Monday, June 5, at Smoky Mountain High School in Sylva for parents interested in enrolling their children in the Catamount School – a new laboratory school being established for children in grades 6-8 in Jackson County. 227.7311.

SUMMER CAMPS • South Macon Baptist Church will have its Vacation Bible School on the topic: “Operation Arctic, Exploring the Coolest Book on the Planet” from 6-8 p.m. from June 4-9, at 2949 Clarks Chapel Road in Franklin.

524.0919.

• The first Lake Junaluska Summer Youth event is June 11-14 for grades six-12. Morning and evening worship sessions, guest preachers, mission components, focus on giving. Free afternoons. http://tinyurl.com/yalehcto • Western Carolina University’s School of Music will host concurrent summer music camps in trombone and saxophone on campus Sunday, June 11, through Friday, June 16, for high school and undergraduate college students. The cost of each camp is $599, which includes accommodations. Undergraduates may choose to pay a commuter/day student rate of $400.

There also are a limited number of scholarships available, with details and applications available by contacting Szabo at zszabo@wcu.edu or Jeffress at jeffress@wcu.edu. camps.wcu.edu or 227.7397. ‘

A&E FESTIVALS AND SPECIAL EVENTS • The 22nd annual Tractor and Engine Show is from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. on June 2-3 at the Haywood County Fairgrounds in Waynesville. 593.8327, 593.8330 or 775.5773.

• “Art After Dark” will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, June

2, in downtown Waynesville. Each first Friday of the month (May-December), Main Street transforms into an evening of art, music, finger foods, beverages and shopping as artisan studios and galleries keep their doors open later for local residents and visitors. www.waynesvillegalleryassociation.com.

• Franklin in Bloom is from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday, June 3, in Franklin. Children’s activities, garden tours, gardening demonstrations, hikes, fairy gardens and houses and more. 369.2590.

• The inaugural Cold Mountain Music festival will be held on Saturday, June 3, at the Lake Logan Conference Center. Gates open at noon. Live music by some of the biggest names in bluegrass and string music, including Billy Strings (2 p.m.), Town Mountain (3:15 p.m.), Love Canon (4:45 p.m.), Balsam Range (7:15 p.m.) and a special surprise national act (8:30 p.m.). There will also be food and craft beer vendors onsite. Tickets are $75 for adults, $30 for youth ages 13-18 and free for kids under age 12. www.coldmountainmusic.org.

• The Cherokee Summer Carnival is June 6-10 in Cherokee. 359.6113 • The “Highlands Motoring Festival” will be held June 8-11. Proceeds from the weekend of events will go to REACH of Macon County. For more information and a full list of events, click on www.highlandsmotoringfestival.com.

• The Cherokee Bluegrass Festival is from noon-10:30 p.m. on June 8-10 at the Happy Holiday RV Village and Campground at 1553 Wolfetown Road in Cherokee.

Lineup includes Jimbo Whaley & Greenbrier (Thursday); Breaking Grass and the Farm Hands (Friday) and Deeper Shade of Blue and Dailey & Vincent (Saturday). Tickets: $40 for adults in advance (until June 1) or $45 at the gate. Three-day adult ticket is $90 in advance or $95 at the gate. Children ages 7-15 are $15 per day or three days for $45 in advance

May 31-June 6, 2017

399-20

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or $50 at the gate. Children under seven admitted free with parents. www.adamsbluegrass.com. Info: 497.9204.

• The annual Appalachian Lifestyle Celebration will take place Saturday, June 10, on Main Street in Waynesville. 456.3517 or www.downtownwaynesville.com.

C u ltu ra l A dv e n tu r e From older

#4

generations come the most beautiful of things:

the secretts of the past.

wnc calendar

• The 20th annual Cherokee Voices Festival is June 10 at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian in Cherokee.

706.265.0655.

ON STAGE & IN CONCERT • The Canton Armory will host “Winter Pickin’ in the Armory” at 7 p.m. every first and third Friday of the month. The event includes mountain music, vintage country, clogging and dancing. Doors open at 6 p.m.

Free. www.cantonnc.com.

• Tickets are on sale now for a 3 Doors Down performance as a fundraiser for the Better Life Foundation on Oct. 21 at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort. Tickets available at ticketmaster.com or 800.745.3000.

• Bogart’s Restaurant & Tavern (Waynesville) will host Bull Moose Party (bluegrass) June 1. Free and begins at 6:30 p.m.

• “The Great Gatsby” will be on stage through June 11 at HART Theatre in Waynesville. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. on May 26-27, June 2 and June 8-10 and at 2 p.m. on June 4 and June 11. Reservations: 456.6322 or www.harttheatre.org.

20 th Annual A

Cherokee Voices o Festival e June 10, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

Discover ancient Cherokee craf ts, t dan nce, stor y tel ling, and more aas we e xplore “ Passing the Knowledge—the Risingg Generation,” the theme for o this year ’s Cherokee Voice oices o es Festival. ival It ’s free, and held heeld at the Museum of the C Cherokee Indian.

V isitCherokeeNC.com | 828.497.3481

• The premier Journey tribute band, Departure will perform at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 2, at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin.

Tickets are $18. www.greatmountainmusic.com or 273.4615.

• The Highlands Performing Arts Center will continue the “Live via Satellite” series with the National Theatre of London’s production of “Obsession” starring Jude Law at 1 p.m. Saturday, June 3. www.highlandspac.org or 526.9047.

May 31-June 6, 2017

• “Unto These Hills” drama will be performed at 8 p.m. nightly from June 3-Aug. 19 at 688 Drama Road in Cherokee. A reimagining of the Cherokee Story. http://tinyurl.com/ycm83jwv.

• The “Songwriters in the Round” series will host Marshall Chapman, Malcolm Holcombe and Mark W. Winchester starting at 6 p.m. Saturday, June 3, at Balsam Mountain Inn. A buffet dinner is included in the $49.50 price. To purchase tickets, call 456.9498 or www.balsammountaininn.net.

• The National Theatre of London’s production of “Obsession” starring Jude Law will be shown at 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 3, at the Highlands Performing Arts Center at 507 Chestnut Street in Highlands. www.highlandspac.org or 526.9047.

• Acclaimed Americana act Zoe & Cloyd will perform at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, June 4, at The Strand at 38 Main in Waynesville. Tickets are $15 per person. www.38main.com.

• Tickets are on sale for Leslie Jones’ comedy performance, which is July 1 at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino. www.ticketmaster.com or 800.745.3000.

• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host Paul H. Davis (singer-songwriter) June 8 and Darren Nicholson & Caleb Burress (Americana/soul) June 9. All shows are free and begin at 7 p.m. www.froglevelbrewing.com.

Puzzles can be found on page 46.

These are only the answers.

Smoky Mountain News

• WCU Road Works will perform “Livin’ the Dream” at 2 p.m. on Friday, June 9, at the Waynesville Library. To book Road Works: jhenson@wcu.edu or 227.2711.

• Auditions for Highlands Cashiers Players’ production of the romantic comedy “Crossing Delancey” will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday, June 11, at the Highlands Performing Arts Center. Scripts are available to read in the Highlands and Cashiers libraries. Performance dates are Aug. 24-27 and Aug. 31-Sept. 3. Directed

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wnc calendar

by Dr. Ronnie Spilton, the play has a cast of three women and two men. www.highlandscashiersplayers.org. The Canton Public Library will host Richard Hurley (Americana/traditional) at 3 p.m. Sunday, June 11.

College’s Professional Crafts program will exhibit their best work from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. daily through Sept. 24 at the Southern Highland Craft Guild Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Asheville. 627.4673 or haywood.edu.

• Tickets are on sale now for a performance by Laura Story (contemporary Christian), Balsam Range (bluegrass) and the Lake Junaluska Singers on July 3 at Lake Junaluska. www.lakejunaluska.com/concerts or 800.222.4930.

• A new exhibition titled “Within the Margins: Contemporary Ceramics,” curated by Steven Young Lee, will be on display with an opening reception from 4:30-6:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 3, at Penland Gallery off Penland Road near Spruce Pine in Mitchell County. 765.6211 or penland.org/gallery.

SUMMER MUSIC SERIES • Music on the River will continue with Robert Wolfe & the Renegades (country) performing on June 2 and Stereospread (techno) on June 3 at the Cherokee Welcome Center Kiosk in Cherokee. 7-9 p.m..

359.6490 or travel@nc-cherokee.com.

• The “Concerts on the Creek” series at Bridge Park in Sylva will host Grandpa’s Cough Medicine (bluegrass) on June 2 and Darren & The Buttered Toast (soul/funk) on June 9. Both shows are free and begin at 7 p.m. www.mountainlovers.com.

• Clay County Community Revitalization will host a Friday Concert Series with and Just Us (bluegrass) on June 9 and The Red Wine Effect (singer-songwriter)

May 31-June 6, 2017

• New artist and medium will be featured every month at the Haywood County Senior Resource Center in Waynesville. 356.2800.

FILM & SCREEN • “The Zookeeper’s Wife” will be shown at 7 p.m. on May 31-June 1 at The Strand on Main in Waynesville.

38main.com.

• “Get Out “will be shown at 7:30 p.m. on June 1 at Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. Free.

on June 18 at the Town Square in Hayesville. All shows begin at 7 p.m. www.ccra-nc.org.

• “Men in Black” will be show at 6:30 on June 2 at Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. Free.

• The “Friday Night Live” concert series at the Town Square in Highlands will host Southern Highlands on June 2 and Mountain Dulcimer Group on June 9. Free and begins at 6 p.m. www.highlandschamber.org.

• “Logan” will be shown at 8 p.m. on June 3 at Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva. Free.

• The “Groovin’ on the Green” concert series at The Village Green in Cashiers will host Geoff McBride (pop/soul) on June 2 and The Colby Deitz Band (Americana/rock) on June 9. Both shows are free and begin at 6:30 p.m. www.villagegreencashiersnc.com.

• The “Pickin’ On The Square” concert series will host The Johnny Webb Band (country) on June 3 and Gear Brothers (bluegrass). All shows are free and begin at 7:30 p.m. www.townoffranklinnc.com or 524.2516.

• “Saturdays on Pine” will host Granpa’s Cough Medicine on June 3 and Colby Deitz Band on June 10 at Kelsy-Hutchinson Park in Highlands. All shows are at 6 p.m. www.highlandschamber.org.

• The Oconaluftee Visitor Center (Cherokee) will host a back porch old-time music jam from 1 to 3 p.m. June 3. All are welcome to come play or simply sit and listen to sounds of Southern Appalachia.

• The “Tunes on the Tuck” concert series will host Somebody’s Child (Americana) on June 3 and Lonesome Sound (traditional/mountain) at Riverfront Park. All shows are free and begin at 7 p.m. www.greatsmokies.com.

• Larry Barnett and Blue Smith will kick off the Marianna Black Library’s summer music series at 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 8, in Bryson City. Traditional music. 488.3030.

Smoky Mountain News

• An art reception for Macon County resident Krista Skrede will be held from 5:30-7 p.m. on Tuesday, June 6, in the Macon County Public Library Meeting Room in Franklin.

ART SHOWINGS AND GALLERIES • “Spirit of Place: Artwork by Elizabeth Ellison” – an art exhibit – will be on display through Sept. 4. at the Asheville Arboretum.

• The inaugural Shelton House Crafter Showcase opens on June 1 at the Shelton House and the Museum of North Carolina Handicrafts in Waynesville. www.sheltonhouse.org or info@sheltonhouse.org.

• An exhibition of 100 quilts ranging from artistic wall hangings to traditional bed quilts will be on display from Friday through Sunday, June 2-4, at the Folkmoot Center in Waynesville. Quilt Art by the Shady Ladies. $5 admission; donated to Folkmoot.

312.550.3280.

42 • The graduating class of Haywood Community

• In international film starring Marion Cotillard will be screened at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, June 14, at the Canton library. Info: 648.2924.

• Free movies are shown every Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Mad Batter Food & Film in Sylva.

Madbatterfoodfilm.com.

Outdoors • An eco-forum on the Great American Eclipse will be held at 6:30 p.m. on June 2 at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Franklin. Featuring Dr. Enrique Gomez, associate professor of Physics and Astronomy at Western Carolina University. Meet and greet at 5:30 p.m.; covered dish share at 6 p.m.

524.3691 or SandiDonn2@yahoo.com.

• The Franklin Bird Club will have a bird walk along the Greenway at 8 a.m. on May 31. Meet at Salali Lane; parking is off Fox Ridge Road south of Franklin Flea Market on Highlands Road. 524.5234.

• A cycling ride leaves at 8 a.m. on Saturdays beginning in June from South Macon Elementary School.

Routes vary with distances typically 15-25 miles.

Road bikes only. A no drop ride. Organized by Smoky Mountain Bicycles, 828.369.2881 or info@smokymtnbikes.com.

• A “Wildflower Discovery and Identification – Andrews Bald” program will be offered from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. on Friday, June 2, starting at the Forney Ridge trailhead at Clingman’s Dome. Register: dana@gsmassoc.org or 865.436.7318, ext. 349.

• America’s Synchronous Firefly Event will be offered through Discover Life in America from 7-11 p.m. on June 2, 3 or 4. Learn about and experience the wonder and mystery of the flashing synchronous firefly phenomenon. Rain or shine. Tickets: $150 per person.

Reservations: todd@dlia.org or 865.430.4757.

• A “Birds of Prey” program will be presented by Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Balsam Mountain Trust at 11 a.m. on Friday, June 2, at the Oconaluftee Multipurpose Room near Cherokee. 497.1904 or www.nps.gov/grsm.

• Jackson County Parks and Recreation will hold a Summer Kickoff Campout from June 3-4 at the Ralph J. Andrews Campground. $25. Registration required: 200.3345, 293.3053 or http://rec.jacksonnc.org.

• A “Kids Learn to Fish” program will be offered from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturday, June 3, at the Recreation Park in Cullowhee. Preregistration required: http://rec.jacksonnc.org.

• The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission will open 34 trout streams and two lakes classified as “Delayed Harvest” to trout harvest on June 3. www.ncwildlife.org, 888.2HUNTFISH. • Birding for Beginners and beyond will be held at 7:30 a.m. on June 3 at Cashiers Commons. With Russ Regnery, president of the Highlands Audubon Society. www.highlandsaudubonsociety.org or 526.1939.

• A chapter potluck dinner will be held by the Highlands Audubon Society at 7:30 p.m. on June 6 at the Highlands Civic Center, 600 N. 4th Street in Highlands. www.highlandsaudubonsociety.org or 526.1939.

• Mainspring Conservation Trust will host a “A Walk Back in Time: Cherokee History on Cowee Mound” from 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. on June 8 in Macon County. http://tinyurl.com/l9zvte5.

• A Guided Tour of the Galaxy is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Friday, June 9, at Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute in Rosman. $20 for adults; $15 for students/seniors/military and $5 for children ages 6-11.

Free for ages 5-under. www.pari.edu, 862.5554 or schappel@pari.edu.

• A birding expedition to see the blue-headed vireo, nesting wood warblers and flycatchers is scheduled for 7:30-11:30 a.m. on Friday, June 9, at Newfound Gap Parking Area in Tennessee. 865.436.7318, ext.

349 or dana@gsmassoc.org.

• A birding experience with Brent Martin, Southern Appalachian Regional Director with the Wilderness society, will be offered by the Highlands Audubon Society at 7 a.m. on June 10 at the Cashiers Rec. Center. www.highlandsaudubonsociety.org or 526.1939.

• World Oceans Day will be observed from 11:30 a.m.4:30 p.m. on June 10 at Highlands Nature Center in Highlands. Weekly Creature Feature at 11:30 a.m. and activities.

• A “Sensational Salamanders” program will be offered through the Smoky Mountain Field School from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday, June 10, with several stops along Newfound Gap Road. $79. www.smfs.utk.edu.

• National Get Outdoors Day is from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturday, June 10, at the Cradle of Forestry in Pisgah Forest. Skills teaching, demonstrations. http://tinyurl.com/ya9cnvax.

• A “Leave No Trace: Wilderness Ethics Program” will be offered from 2-3 p.m. on Monday, June 12, at the Waynesville Library. Led by Hannah Redmon and Jim Taylor of Mast General. Seven basic principles will be covered. Info: 356.2507 or kolsen@haywoodnc.net.

• The Charlotte Raptor Rehab Center will present “Birds of the World” at 7 p.m. on June 13 at the Highlands Biological Station at 265 N. 6th Street in Highlands. www.highlandsaudubonsociety.org or 526.1939.

• North Carolina residents are invited to participate in the “NC’s Candid Critters” – the largest camera trap survey ever. Residents of Jackson, Macon and Swain Counties can participate in a brief online training process then borrow a camera trap from any Fontana Regional Library location. Info: NCCandidCritters.org or www.fontanalib.org.

• The Franklin Appalachian Trail Community Council meets at 10 a.m. every second Tuesday at Rathskeller Coffee House in Franklin. Franklintraildays.com.

• An exhibit chronicling the history of dugout canoes in the Americas will be on display through May 2 at

the Baker Exhibit Center of the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville.

• The Tuckaseigee River Chapter No. 373 of Trout Unlimited meets at 6:30 p.m. on first Tuesday of each month from September through May at United Community Bank in Sylva. Dinner is $5.

• A cycling ride leaves at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesdays from Smoky Mountain Bicycles in Macon County.

Routes vary with distances typically 15-25 miles.

Road bikes only. A no drop ride. Organized by Smoky Mountain Bicycles, 369.2881 or info@smokymtnbikes.com.

• A 25-mile cycling ride covering the back roads from Sylva to Balsam leaves at 6 p.m. Tuesdays from Motion Makers Bicycle Shop in Sylva. The route includes 1,600 feet of elevation gain. Organized by Motion Makers, 586.6925.

• An easy cycling ride aiming to help people ease into a healthier lifestyle through cycling is offered Thursday mornings in the Canton area, typically covering 8-10 miles. Road bikes are preferred and helmets are required. Nobody will be left behind. A partnership of Bicycle Haywood N.C., the Blue Ridge Bike Club and MountainWise. For specific start times and locations: mttrantham@hotmail.com.

• A ride for cyclists at the intermediate level and above will be offered at 6 p.m. on Thursdays, with starting points alternating between the Waynesville Recreation Center and the Canton Recreation Park.

The season starts April 27 with a ride leaving from Waynesville. Cyclists regroup as necessary and typically cover about 20 miles over the course of an hour and a half. Bob Clark, bobclarklaw@gmail.com.

• A beginner-friendly social cycling ride for women will begin at 6:15 p.m. on Mondays from the Bent Creek Ledford Parking Lot, covering 5-to-8 miles of mountain bike trails. Organized By Motion Makers Bicycle Shop. 633.2227.

• A training cycling ride for women who know how to handle a mountain bike but want to go faster will start at 6:15 p.m. on Wednesdays from the Ledford parking lot at Bent Creek. The rides will cover 8-to-12 miles and use more technical trails than the beginner’s ride. Organized by Motion Makers Bicycle Shop.

633.2227.

• New this year is the Sunday Gravel Ride, which will leave from Motion Makers in Asheville at 8 a.m. all summer for a 40-mile ride on paved and gravel roads to Oskar Blues Brewery in Brevard. Organized by Motion Makers Bicycle Shop. 828.633.2227.

FARM AND GARDEN • A Master Gardener Plant Clinic is offered every business day through Sept. 22. Call 456.3575 with any gardening question.

• Local farmers can stop by the Cooperative Extension Office on Acquoni Road from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. every fourth Friday to learn about USDA Farm Service Agency programs in the 2014 Farm Bill. Info: 488.2684, ext. 2 (Wednesday through Friday) or 524.3175, ext. 2 (Monday through Wednesday).

• The Macon County Poultry Club of Franklin meets at 7 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month at the Cooperative Extension Office on Thomas Heights Rd, Open to the public. 369.3916.

HIKING CLUBS • As part of National Trails Day, the following locations will host hikes on Saturday, June 3: Salt Rock Trailhead at the Panthertown Valley Backcountry Recreation Area (269.4453 or friends@panthertown.org); Joyce Kilmer Slickrock Wilderness (9 a.m.-5 p.m.; info@joycekilmerslickrock.org or www.joycekilmerslickrock.org) near Robbinsville; Chimney Rock State Park (7 a.m.-3 a.m.; $6 for youth under 16; $13 for adults; 625.9611).

PRIME REAL ESTATE Advertise in The Smoky Mountain News

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.

Rates:

■ Free — Lost or found pet ads.

■ $5 — Residential yard sale ads, ■ $5 — Non-business items that sell for less than $150.

■ $15 — Classified ads that are 50 words or less; each additional line is $2.

If your ad is 10 words or less, it will be displayed with a larger type.

■ $3 — Border around ad and $5 — Picture with ad or colored background.

■ $50 — Non-business items, 25 words or less. 3 month or till sold.

■ $300 — Statewide classifieds run in 117 participating newspapers with 1.6 million circulation. Up to 25 words.

■ All classified ads must be pre-paid.

Classified Advertising: Scott Collier, phone 828.452.4251; fax 828.452.3585 classads@smokymountainnews.com

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LEGAL NOTICES

LEGAL NOTICES

LEGAL NOTICES

LEGAL NOTICE Mountain Projects, Inc. is accepting written proposals for the purchase of the material and delivery portion of the North Carolina Low Income Weatherization Program for Haywood and Jackson counties. These funds are being provided NC Weatherization Assistance Program Department of Environmental Quality.

Materials must comply with State and Federal regulations, which govern the program. All work is to be completed by May 31, 2018. In addition, Mountain Projects, Inc. reserves the right to reject any or all proposals.

Proposals will be received no later than 5:00 pm Monday June 26, 2017. For a proposal package contact Vivian A. Bumgarner at 828.452.1447 Ext. 119.

Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. Discrimination is prohibited by Federal Law. Mountain Projects, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

LEGAL NOTICE Mountain Projects, Inc. is accepting written proposals from certified licensed electricians & plumbers for the NC Low Income Weatherization Program for Haywood and Jackson Counties.

These funds are being provided

by NC Weatherization Assistance Program Department of Environmental Quality. All work is to be completed by May 31, 2018. In addition, Mountain Projects Inc. reserves the right to reject any or all proposals. Proposals will be accepted until 5:00 p.m. Monday June 26, 2017. For further information or a proposal package contact Vivian A. Bumgarner at Mountain Projects, Inc. 828.452.1447 ext. 119.

Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. Discrimination is prohibited by Federal Law. Mountain Projects, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

LEGAL NOTICE Mountain Projects, Inc. is accepting written proposals for subcontracting of the labor portion of the North Carolina Low Income Weatherization Program for Haywood and Jackson Counties.

These funds are being provided

by NC Weatherization Assistance Program Department of Environmental Quality. Homes shall be weatherized in accordance with State and Federal regulations, which govern the program.

All work is to be completed by May 31, 2018.

Mountain Projects, Inc. will contract with a competent responsible contractor. In addition, Mountain Projects, Inc. reserves the right to reject any or all proposals. Proposals will be received no later than 5:00 pm Monday, June 26, 2017.

To schedule a bidders conference and receive a proposal package or for further information contact Vivian A. Bumgarner at Mountain Projects, Inc. 828.452.1447 ext.

119. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. Discrimination is prohibited by Federal Law. Mountain Projects, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

LEGAL NOTICE Mountain Projects, Inc. is accepting written proposals from certified heating contractors for the evaluation, cleaning, tuning, repairing or replacing of heating systems, and combustion safety analyzing if required, which is a portion of the NC Low Income Weatherization Program for Haywood and Jackson Counties.

These funds are being provided

by NC Weatherization Assistance Program Department of Environmental Quality. All work is to be completed by May 31, 2018. In addition, Mountain Projects Inc. reserves the right to reject any or all proposals. Proposals will be received no later than 5:00 p.m.

Monday June 26, 2017.

For further information or proposal package contact Vivian A. Bumgarner at Mountain Projects, Inc. 828.452.1447 ext. 119.

Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. Discrimination is prohibited by Federal Law. Mountain Projects, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

WEBSTER’S BOARD OF ADJUSTMENTS Will meet on Wednesday, June 14th at 5:40 p.m. at Town Hall (1411 Webster Rd.) to consider Southwestern Community College’s variance request regarding their proposed Health Science Building’s height.

For more information, call Webster Town Hall at 828.631.5103 WEBSTER’S TOWN COUNCIL Will hold a special meeting on Wednesday, June 14th at 5:15 p.m. at Town Hall (1411 Webster Rd.) for the purpose of a Public Hearing regarding Southwestern Community College’s variance request concerning the height and specifics of their proposed Health Sciences Building.

For more information call Webster Town Hall at 828.631.5103

find us at: facebook.com/smnews

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AUCTION

ABSOLUTE AUCTION. 101 Acres. Divided into 4 Tracts.

Saturday, June 3, 2017, 10:30am.

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Col. James R. Boyer NCAL1792.

336.572.2323 AUCTION: 85 Acres - Guilford Co. & 17 Acres Chatham County. Gorgeous Farm Estates. June 22. United CountryRogers Auctioneers, Inc. www.RogersAuction.com 919.545.0412.

NCFL7360

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May 31-June 6, 2017

LIZZY- A CROSS BETWEEN REDTICK COONHOUND AND GREAT PYRENEES, SHE WEIGHS IN AT 85 LBS. AND IS ABOUT FOUR YEARS OLD. SHE IS SWEET, FUN & PLAYFUL. IF YOU'VE GOT ROOM IN YOUR HOME AND IN YOUR HEART FOR EXTRA LARGE DOGGY LOVE, LIZZY COULD BE YOUR MATCH! LONDON - AN ELEGANT KITTY, DRESSED IN BASIC BLACK, WHO HAS RAISED A LITTER OF KITTENS, AND IS NOW READY TO FIND A HOME OF HER OWN WHERE SHE CAN BE PAMPERED AND ADORED. SHE IS ABOUT TWO YEARS OLD, AND IS A VERY PETITE 5.2 LBS.

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EMPLOYMENT

EMPLOYMENT

- HOUSEKEEPING Full Time or Part Time: Maggie Valley Cabin Resort Seeks an Energetic & Experienced Housekeeper. Valid Driver’s License Required. For more info Call 828.926.1388 AIRLINE MECHANIC TRAINING Get FAA certification to fix planes.

Approved for military benefits.

Financial Aid if qualified. Call Aviation Institute of Maintenance 866.441.6890 FTCC Fayetteville Technical Community College is now accepting applications for the following positions: Director of Facility Services, Instructional Lab Technician, Funeral Service Instructor, Music Instructor, Psychology Instructor, Registered Medical Assistant Instructor.

For detailed information and to apply, please visit our employment portal at: https://faytechcc.peopleadmin.com/. Human Resources Office Phone: 910.678.7342 Internet: http://www.faytechcc.edu.

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CAVALIER ARMS APARTMENTS NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS Offering 1, 2 & 3 Bedroom Apartments, Starting at $400 Section 8 Accepted - Rental Assistance When Available Handicapped Accessible Units When Available

OFFICE HOURS: Wednesday 12:30pm - 4:00pm & Friday. 8:00am- 4:00pm 50 Duckett Cove Road, Waynesville

www.smokymountainnews.com

Phone # 1-828-456-6776 TDD # 1-800-725-2962

CHEMICAL GROWING and HIRING Customer Service Supervisor Quality Auditor/Weekends Forklift Operators • Packing Operators Send Resumé to: contactgiles@gileschemical.com Or Complete an Application in Person at: 102 Commerce Street, Waynesville

44

GILES is an EEO Employer

Equal Housing Opportunity

NICOL ARMS APARTMENTS NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS Offering 1 & 2 Bedroom Apartments, Starting at $400 Section 8 Accepted - Handicapped Accessible Units When Available

OFFICE HOURS: Monday & Wednesday 8:00am - 4:00pm 168 E. Nicol Arms Road Sylva, NC 28779

Phone# 1.828.273.3639 TDD# 1.800.735.2962 This is an Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer

HOMES FOR SALE

BRUCE MCGOVERN A Full Service Realtor, Locally Owned and Operated mcgovernpropertymgt@gmail.com McGovern Property Management 828.283.2112.

BUYING A HOME And need a mortgage? Or, have a home and want to lower your monthly fees and refinance? Getting a mortgage is quicker and easier than ever. 844.251.5563 MOUNTAINS OF NC Chalet Style 1,340 sf cabin on 1.84 acres $159,900. Great views, lg loft w/ pict windows, fpl, huge deck. Call 828.286.1666

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APT. FOR RENT FURNISHED FOR RENT - 1/BR, 1/BA APTMT. Large Tastefully Furnished Apt. in the Laurel Ridge Community of Waynesville. HVAC, Large Brick, Patio, View of Pond, Fireplace. $950/mo. Includes Electric, Internet, Cable, Yard Maint. No Smoking/No Pets.

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STORAGE SPACE FOR RENT GREAT SMOKIES STORAGE Conveniently located off 19/23

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LAWN & GARDEN 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

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beverly-hanks.com Ann Eavenson - anneavenson@beverly-hanks.com George Escaravage - gescar@beverly-hanks.com Randy Flanigan - randyflanigan@beverly-hanks.com Billie Green - BGreen@beverly-hanks.com Michelle McElroy - michellemcelroy@beverly-hanks.com Marilynn Obrig - marilynnobrig@beverly-hanks.com Brian K. Noland - brianknoland.com Brooke Parrott - brookeparrott@beverly-hanks.com Catherine Proben - cproben@beverly-hanks.com Ellen Sither - ellensither@beverly-hanks.com Mike Stamey - mikestamey@beverly-hanks.com Pamela Williams - pamelawilliams@beverly-hanks.com

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TO ADVERTISE IN THE NEXT ISSUE 828.452.4251 | ads@smokymountainnews.com 45

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May 31-June 6, 2017

WNC MarketPlace

Super

46

CROSSWORD

PEOPLE OF THE PAST ACROSS 1 Ousts 7 Fig. on a new car sticker 11 Isle of Minos 16 Pro music providers 19 Lost lady in “The Raven” 20 “That clarifies it” 21 Saabs, say 22 Use scissors 23 Enron scandal figure was inactive?

26 Suffix of fruit drinks 27 — Pie (cold treat) 28 Sternward 29 Lucas of film 31 By way of, briefly 33 “Three’s Company” actor started dozing?

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er 67 Nutty candy 68 Misc. abbr.

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answers on page 46

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Answers on Page 46

A blemish by any other name Editor’s note: This column first appeared in a 2011 edition of The Smoky Mountain News.

S

George Ellison

ystems of mature trees and shrubs are covered with blemishes that signal age: cankers, seams, burls, butt scars, sterile conks, and protrusions in the form of bracket fungi.

Cankers are diseases in which lesions caused by a wide range of fungi and bacteria appear on the trunk and branches. When the infected tissue dies, the lesions then crack and split open, Columnist exposing underlying tissue to further infection. Some cankers grow on a perennial basis, forming concentric rings in trunk bark with each cycle. Because these patterns resemble targets they are referred to as “target cankers.” Other cankers – like the one now killing off the butternut tree – eat through the bark exposing darkened elliptical patches of the outer cambium.

Seams are long vertical or spiral cracks on tree trunks. They vary in size from a few feet to the entire length of the trunk. These are usually caused by wind, lightening, or

BACK THEN

An old road near Chunky Gal Mountain is still known as “the old burl road.”

Butt scars are triangular-shaped openings at the base of trees commonly caused by fire or logging injuries. Sycamores are often inflicted with butt scars, resulting in large openings that livestock and even humans have been reputed to take refuge in during hard times or while building cabins.

frost and occur in all species; however, they are observed most frequently on beech because of the smooth, thin, susceptible bark. Sometimes the seam will fold inward, forming a smoothly turned pattern like a carefully tucked blanket. At other times, it will remain opened like a knife wound.

Burls are round to semiround or elongate swellings of the trunk. They range in size from a few inches to several feet in length. Some are of unknown origin, but most are caused by either insect or fungi infestations. Fantastically shaped burls on birch trees in the higher elevations of the mountains lend an eerie touch to that often fogshrouded landscape.

For a while during World Bracket fungi War II — when the European on a tree. wood traditionally used to make briar pipes was not available — The largest butt scar opening I have seen is burls on the roots of laurel and rhododenone at the base of a tree on Bryson City dron in boggy places in the southern Appalachians were “grubbed up” as a substi- Island Park, which is situated in the middle of the Tuckaseigee River within the Bryson tute. The center of the industry in Western City town limits. Two people can sit inside North Carolina was around Hendersonville and Brevard, as well as Sparta. Another spot with relative ease.

Bracket fungi grow on tree trunks year was the White Oak Stamp in Clay Country.

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Smoky Mountain News

Today she is a nine year old who is thriving and enjoying life. The Stanley brothers assure consumers that the oil maintains a 30:1 ratio of CBD to THC. THC is the psychoactive compound that produces the “high” effect in marijuana. Thanks to Charlotte’s Web, Charlotte can now live life like a normal child. She is able to feed herself and sleep through the night. Her autistic symptoms have virtually disappeared. As such, her mind is clear, and her attention is focused. Her brain is recovering, and she is happy.

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around but become especially apparent during the winter months. Some are shaped like a horse’s hoof, others like a turkey's tail.

Some are as large as dinner platters, others as small as your fingernail. Also known as pore fungi, bracket fungi belong to a mushroom family (Polyporaceae) whose members grow attached to decomposing logs and tree trunks. Brackets are quite woody and hardened as compared with most soft-bodied mushrooms. Because of this woody nature they tend to last much longer than other mushrooms, providing the opportunity to observe them from year to year.

My favorites among the bracket fungi are the artist’s conks. These cracked, furrowed, knobby growths are really hard. Larger specimens have been made into stools. In Mushrooms Demystified (1986), author David Arora calculates that a large artist's conk (he found one monster weighing in at 26 pounds) “liberates 30-billion spores a day, 6 months a year – or over 5,000,000,000,000 (5-trillion!) spores annually.” Since the snowy-white pore surface on the underside of the bracket bruises easily and stains permanently brown when scratched, they have been used to leave messages in the woods or as a means for making sketches, hence the common name.

George Ellison is a naturalist and writer. He can be reached at info@georgeellison.com.

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