Smoky Mountain News | June 16, 2021

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June 16-22, 2021 Vol. 23 Iss. 03

Waynesville puts brakes on DWA contract renewal Page 11 Former linebacker Gash looks to sack Cawthorn Page 14

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CONTENTS On the Cover: The Great Smoky Mountains is home to the highest density of black bears in North America. While the population increase is a conservation success story, it has also created more unwanted human-bear conflicts in the region.

(Page 28) A black bear walks down Hyatt Lane in the Cades Cove area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Warren Bielenberg photo

News Curatory creates space for contemporary art, community ....................................6 Cherokee joins three-tribe hotel partnership ..............................................................8 WCU outlines plans for Fall 2021 ................................................................................9 Local government budgets under budget scrutiny ................................................10 Waynesville puts brakes on DWA contract renewal ............................................11 Down Home NC makes misleading claims on jail project ..................................12 Super PAC formed to oppose Cawthorn ..................................................................13 Former linebacker Gash looks to sack Cawthorn ..................................................14 Macon commissioners narrowly approve budget ..................................................17

Opinion Schools need funds to grow creative thinkers ........................................................18 Juggling the five balls........................................................................................................19

A&E Jon Stickley Trio coming to Asheville ..........................................................................20

Books

June 16-22, 2021

Neanderthals were smarter than we thought ..........................................................27

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news June 16-22, 2021

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Curatory creates space for contemporary art, community

Smoky Mountain News

June 16-22, 2021

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what box do I fit into. When you fill out intake forms and don’t know which box to check — that’s always been a struggle in my life and for many others.”

She described the upcoming July exhibit as another heavy subject. Entitled “Chained to Perfection,” the exhibit takes on how societal pressure of beauty, image and lifestyle standards intertwines in the development of depression, self-harm and substance abuse.

“Addiction is a big part of what’s going on in Haywood County right now. Some of my artists struggle with it. Again, I’m about marginalized communities and bringing some of that to light,” McKinney said. “A lot of creatives with that kind of creative brain, it opens a vulnerability to heightened sensations that can lead to substance abuse.”

The exhibit will feature work by Callie Ferraro from Asheville and Corrie Hanson of Waynesville. The opening reception will be held from 4 to 9 p.m. July 3 at 62 N. Main Street.

McKinney plans to have a new curated show each month at Curatory. Her hope is that local artists who don’t have available space will reach out to her with their ideas and together they can create something beautiful.

“We’re going to curate shows each month and each one will tell a specific story of something going on — politically or a social movement,” she said. “It’s challenging but it’s so much fun.”

A big part of McKinney’s mission is to support up-and-coming artists in the community.

Over 80 percent of the artists showcased in the gallery are from Haywood County or curCuratory Gallery on Wall Street showcases local artwork from painted canvases, pottery, wall rently live in Haywood County. Most of them hangings and stickers. Jessi Stone photo she’s scouted out online or found through mutual friends. Many of them work in the

BY J ESSI STONE “I see so much potential in this beautiful downtown service industry as well.

“For many of the artists in here, it’s their N EWS E DITOR space — for art but also branching out with shten McKinney is the new kid on the serving as an open mic space and trying to first gallery. As an art dealer and buyer, it block, but already she’s making friends congregate and move other businesses to behooves me to find people young in their art with her neighbors and offering a wel- work together,” she said. “I view the arts as profession that I see who have raw talent, get coming, safe space for her community. very important — even if your business isn’t to know that person, see the work they conSitting outside her new gallery on Wall involved in the arts, the arts are behind every tinue to do and if I feel it’s a person that’s going to pursue the art world, who’ll keep Street in downtown Waynesville, the space is business.” just as curated as the art on the walls inside.

Curatory hit the ground running with its pushing the boundaries, making the weird Chairs, benches, art, potted and hanging grand opening in May and second exhibit for art and making a statement, then I buy their plants surround the entrance making it feel the month of June entitled, “I Am Not An art,” she said.

The other side of her mission is to support like a friend’s front porch.

Asterisk.”

A member of the Boojum Brewing’s It’s a statement that hits close to home for art in the community by getting involved with kitchen staff waves hello as he gets ready to many in the LGBTQ+ community who don’t other organizations working toward the same start his evening shift. Mike Coble and his fit neatly into any box that society has laid out mission — Haywood County Arts Council, kids come through carrying boxes through for them. The exhibit featured five artists, Waynesville Gallery Association, Downtown the gallery and up the stairs to his business, J. including McKinney, who celebrated Pride Waynesville Association and Waynesville Gabriel Home and Gifts. Jeannie Shuckstes, Month with paintings, photography and 3D Public Arts Commission. She wants to see a more concerted effort between those organizaowner of The Village Framer, waves goodbye installations. as she heads home for the day. A young wait“There is so much pressure on people to tions to keep Waynesville an arts destination.

McKinney plans to support the local servress stops by to purchase a 12-by-12 sleeved look and act a certain way — career and piece of artwork from a young local artist. lifestyle wise, clothes and fashion, gender and ice industry and arts in public schools with As McKinney sips her tea out of a hand- sexuality,” she said. “There’s a lot of pressure future exhibits. For example, this fall she thrown mug, she discusses her vision for the that leads people to try to fit into a mold plans to work with elementary and middle gallery, which goes far beyond the desire to instead of figuring out what their own mold is schools by providing art classes with tons of sell some local artwork. and that’s what leads them to the ‘I’m not an blank paper for student created work. She will collect all the artwork to mat, sleeve, label and “As a company and through the arts, we’re asterisk — I don’t fit in a box.’” creating spaces for multiple marginalized McKinney doesn’t necessarily have a prob- sell in the gallery. Half of the proceeds will go communities — whether that’s queer or lem with boxes — having a box makes her feel back to the school art program and the other whether that’s people of color — and utilize like she has a place to belong — but some- half will roll into an art scholarship fund.

The student artwork will also be featured the arts to tell stories and make that represen- times there aren’t enough boxes for everyone. tation,” she said.

“Especially in the trans community and in a junior and senior juried art show, which Contemporary art and designated queer those who identify as queer or nonbinary can will help those young artists build their space is something that’s been lacking in feel like they’re an asterisk because they don’t resume for college and career. Pearl Renken, downtown Waynesville even with a well- neatly fit into any box,” she said. “Maybe who is the treasurer of the River Arts District 6 established artist community and arts scene. you’re a cis male that does drag wondering in Asheville, will serve as one of the judges.

“Showing that you’ve been part of a juried exhibit is necessary when building an artist resume and when applying to colleges,” McKinney said. “We want to make sure we’re setting these kids up for success.”

The COVID-19 Pandemic hit the local service industry hard in Haywood County and across the country. McKinney started the Sound and Service Foundation as a way to build up a fund to help service industry folks with certain expenses, but it was hard to do any fundraising during the shutdown. Now, she’s looking forward to finding new ways to support that project.

“Many artists work at the restaurants up and down main Street, so it’s important for me to help the service industry and I think the gallery will provide a way for Sound and Service Foundation to gain momentum,” she said.

Part of the December exhibit this year will be a fundraiser for the foundation. McKinney plans to rotate a box of beverage napkins and markers between the downtown restaurants in hopes people will create art or share a quote on them. She’ll collect all the napkins and mount them at the gallery. Each napkin will be sold for $10-$15 a piece, and proceeds will go to the Sound and Service Foundation.

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“Especially in the trans community and those who identify as queer can feel like they’re an asterisk because they don’t neatly fit into any box.”

— Ashten McKinney

She is also now serving on the Blue Ridge Pride Board of Directors as the Haywood Outreach member. Outreach will be a big part of Curatory’s business because it’s McKinney’s passion, but also because she wants the community to see the gallery and the queer community as a force for good and not something to be feared.

“Especially as a queer space I need to be able to take people’s pride out of the equation. I need to be involved in the community and seen as bettering the community in any way I can so people will be accepting,” she said. “I’ve had a ton of support so far and I think a lot of people are just happy we’re here.

The queer community is pretty big here — and it has been — but there hasn’t been that defined space for them.”

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Pearl Renken.

Want to go?

The Curatory Gallery is showing the ‘I Am Not An Asterisk Exhibit’ now through June 30. Pearl Renken is one of five local artists in the exhibit. with the Spanish moss, thrift stores, just those comforts at home,” said Renken. “I started thinking about traditions and what’s expected of you, as a woman and these patterns and these rituals and these things that we’re supposed to follow. And then you’re not a complete woman, unless you have a baby, you’re not this, unless you do that.

And chairs always make me think of the home, of the body, of yourself.”

The netting that would have made up the seat of the chair extends wildly, in a haphazard column all the way to the ceiling. Renken describes it as controlled chaos.

Smoky Mountain News

“I thought I was going to be the next Faith Hill,” said Renken. “But, I ended up doing art instead.”

She drew incessantly as a teen, finding therapeutic escape in the activity as she moved through teenage angst. Not right after high school, but eventually the drawing, painting and creating pushed Renken to study the subject at the university level.

Following an undergraduate degree at the University of Central Florida, Renken headed to Boston to earn a Master’s in Fine Arts.

“After growing up in the South and just kind of being at odds with a lot of institutionalized ideas, it was amazing,” said Renken. “It was amazing to be around so many different kinds of people, so many different languages all the time. I went there and just felt like I knew I was on the right side of things in my mind. And I felt like I was for the first time around so many

like-minded people that weren’t my chosen friends or family.”

Massachusetts became the first state to legalize gay marriage in 2004, another indicator for Renken that she had landed in a space she wanted to inhabit, explore and in which she could create.

Even in a more progressive city like Boston, Renken found herself chafing against classical training and styles.

She recalls calling her father during grad school and sharing painting tips and other advice taught in her classes.

During one of these exchanges, he told Renken she had educated herself too much.

“You’re trying to stick to all these rules and there are no rules,” he told Renken.

“I was at war with the institution,” she said.

She created her signature style through connection to her southern roots. Playing in the dirt, thrift stores, flea markets, junk — old, glamorous junk. Making something out of nothing. This is where the idea for the frame, part of Renken’s senior thesis, came from.

“This is the idea of a museum style frame, institutionalized, bold frame, but it is a collage and a pile of my experiences, memories,” said Renken. “This is all emotionally corded stuff that lives in a drawer that you can’t throw away. I like to say, it’s too precious to throw away, but too heavy to drag along.”

As she talks about the giant, frameshaped object in the center of her gallery

June 16-22, 2021

BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER uring the pandemic, Asheville-based artist Pearl Renken wrestled with the pain, isolation and racial reckoning happening in the United States. Her first instinct during that time was to paint, very literally, the pain she was seeing, the hate that felt abundant.

After a conversation with her father, who is also a painter, she was encouraged to paint what was missing, instead of painting the hate and fear people were already inundated with every day.

“I’ve always wanted to make work about LGBTQ issues, racial injustices,” said Renken. “I just feel like that’s what I can do.

That’s what I can do with my voice, my privilege. That’s what I can contribute. So it has always been important to me to find a way to be a voice for the voiceless.”

Renken began painting more people of color, she began painting men’s bodies in the dismissive nature women’s bodies have been portrayed for centuries. She began painting non-heteronormative pairs embracing.

Renken wants these images to be seen and felt in the dominant culture until they are not surprising anymore, until the subject matter is dismissed.

“I think if you see enough imagery, it’s dismissive, and I’m not saying dismissive in a negative way. I mean dismissive in a ‘you don’t have angsty feelings about it’ way, because it is normal,” said Renken. “Why do we need to normalize what’s already normal?”

Renken uses old objects, with previous uses and lives to make original images that center those old objects in a more accepting, open and diverse world. She uses ancient objects to normalize what should have always been normal.

Her style and statements about society have fit perfectly into the mission of the new Curatory Gallery in downtown Waynesville.

This Pride Month, the Curatory is showcasing the exhibit “I Am Not An Asterisk.” This is a group exhibition that celebrates pride and LGBTQ+ artists and the community with contemporary art, photography and 3D installations.

The show features five artists — Renken, Jae Wagner, Gna Wyatt, Nicole Mackin, and Curatory curator Ashten McKinney — and supports the vision for the Curatory Gallery, which is to “feature artists pushing their creative limits, often speaking to social and political movements such as climate change, gender equality, and racial justice.”

Renken’s work was also displayed in Curatory’s previous exhibit, “Love is Love.”

Renken grew up in the Panhandle of Florida — primarily in Pensacola. She was an only child for her first 15 years. She adored music, especially ‘90s country music, prime country as she calls it.

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‘Why do we have to normalize what’s already normal?’

space, memories are abundant and easily accessible as they literally cover the frame beneath them. Braces, seventh grade yearbook, old loves, lost family members, questions about the past and whether it is regrettable or simply the path that led her to the space she now inhabits — a sunlit, corner studio on the second floor of an old River Arts District building, the love she relishes now and the works of art that surround her.

It is plain to see the continued repurposing in Renken’s art. Most of her paintings are collaged with old opera sheet music she found at a junk store in Miami.

The sheets are collaged onto canvas, then painted. They go with the flow of the bodies on the canvas, helping the eye fill in spaces and see form.

“It’s almost like an extra layer of trickery,” said Renken. “There’s something that this old paper does when you collage it all out and then paint on top of it.”

Though her art is deeply informed by the antique nature of her southern roots, Renken also deals with the institutionalized ideals she grew up learning in the South. At the Curatory in Waynesville, she has a piece of sculpture made from an old chair. She found the chair for $5 at a junk store because the netting of the seat was a gaping hole. As she began to crochet the netting back into a seat, things came up.

“I was in Boston, but I was missing parts of the Southern landscape, like the big trees

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Cherokee joins three-tribe hotel partnership

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER he Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians will partner with two other Native American tribes and a developer to build a 200-room hotel in Pigeon Forge, expected to open in summer 2023.

The Cherokee will have a 30% stake in the project, as will the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. The developer, Memphis-based DreamCatcher Hotels, will have a 10% stake.

The hotel would be the first to be constructed under the DreamCatcher brand, but it would not be the first hotel the company has developed. DreamCatcher intends to franchise a series of hotels over the next five years. The Pigeon Forge project, envisioned in a press release as a “high-end, AAA-rated Four-Diamond hotel,” will feature 12,000 square feet of meeting space and a rooftop restaurant and lounge.

“It is our hope that this will be but one of many economic development projects our tribes can partner on, helping to secure the financial future of our tribes,” Principal Chief Richard Sneed said in the release. “We are grateful for the opportunity as well as the partnership with DreamCatcher as the project developer.”

The project is expected to cost $54.5 million to build, said DreamCatcher Vice President Zeke Cooper during a June 1 Tribal Council discussion. Of that, 72% will be financed through debt and 28% will rely on equity. As a 30% partner, Cherokee will contribute $4.6 million of the equity portion.

June 16-22, 2021

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PARTNERSHIP APPROVED

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Tribal Council approved the historic partnership during a May 6 meeting, with four members voting against the resolution for a weighted vote of 57-43. The resolution allows the tribe to allocate up to $5 million for “equity investments into the legal entity that will own the project.” The resolution also states that all partners must agree to the final project documents, operating agreements and terms prior to expenditure of funds. The property will be held in the name of a newly created economic entity or entities.

The project is the first undertaking to stem from a March 11 resolution creating a new economic entity for the purpose of joint business ventures between the Seminole and the EBCI. The resolution states that the entity will have two representatives from each tribe. The Kituwah Economic Development Board will appoint one of the Cherokee representatives and the Sovereign Wealth Fund LLC will pick the second. Tribal Council approved that resolution unanimously.

While official approval of the resolution concerning DreamCatcher Hotel came on May 6, video of that discussion and subsequent vote is not available. During the June 1 meeting, Chairman Adam Wachacha said he’d received phone calls from representatives of the other members of the partner8 ship who were upset about allegedly slander-

ous statements made during the discussion.

While he’d originally just wanted parts of the discussion deleted that referred to litigation the tribe is involved with, the entire discussion was ultimately wiped, which Wachacha said was a good move.

“We’re going out and meeting all these different tribes and wanting support on issues we’re having, but we’re making statements in here that may push them away, and does that need to go on the air?” he said.

PROTEST RAISED The matter came before Tribal Council again when Birdtown Representative Albert Rose submitted a protest resolution seeking to overturn the decision. After consultation with Legislative Attorney Carolyn West, Wachacha chose not to place the protest on the agenda. The protest was denied, West said, because “it failed to state how the resolution directly impacted Representative Rose.” However, Rose moved to add the protest to the agenda, and that move carried with five members opposed — Vice Chairman David Wolfe, Big Cove Representative Perry Shell, Snowbird Representative Bucky Brown, Birdtown Representative Boyd Owle and Wachacha.

It was after 5 p.m. when Tribal Council began what would become a nearly twohour-long discussion of Rose’s protest and of the project in general. Rose contended that previous deals with DreamCatcher had “not been the best financially” for the tribe and that “EBCI should not continue to freely invest in DreamCatcher.” The project builds DreamCatcher’s brand and not the EBCI’s, Rose said, and the tribe would be better served if it used its own brand to establish a franchise.

“We don’t need anybody to hold our hand to do this,” he said. “We can do it.

We’ve got TERO vendors up there at the casino. They get the same furniture and the same pillows they (DreamCatcher) can get and can get designers to design a hotel.

They’re doing it right now.”

Rose pointed out that DreamCatcher is the developer on the casino expansion in Cherokee and on a hotel project at Sequoyah National Golf Club that has yet to break ground, though it had been expected to do so by now. In December, Tribal Council voted to remove Tribal Gaming Commission Enterprise Chairman Jim Owle following the TCGE’s request for an additional $80 million over the originally budgeted $250 million for the casino expansion project.

Principal Chief Richard Sneed told Council that neither situation is DreamCatcher’s fault. The cost overrun at the casino was due to “poor communication” between the TCGE and Tribal Council regarding the impact various design changes would have on the budget, and delays on the golf course project are due to delays in decision-making from the golf board, not due to DreamCatcher’s performance, he said.

Rose also took issue with the fact that the

hotel would bear DreamCatcher’s name, rather than a name related to any of the three tribes in on the partnership. In addition, the project wouldn’t have any brand recognition, he said, and would amount to nothing more than “a really nice mom and pop hotel.”

Cooper explained that branded hotels are mainly important when the establishment needs help attracting customers. The brand drives business from patrons who are loyal to that particular flag, but it also takes

with Seminole Tribal Council Chairman Marcellus Osceola Jr. about potential partnerships between the two tribes since first taking office in 2013. At the time, Wachacha said, he was a bit “naïve” about how difficult it would be to broker such an agreement.

Back in early 2020, Cherokee was lobbying the Virginia legislature to write its gaming bill in such a way that the tribe could build a casino on a proposed site just outside of Bristol. Originally, said Wachacha, the Seminole wanted to approach that project as partners with the Cherokee.

A rendering shows DreamCatcher’s vision for the “It was the finished 200-room hotel with 12,000-square-foot Seminole that conference center planned for Pigeon Forge. Donated photo came to us and asked if we wanted to be part of it,” he said. “It was our decision to go our own route, and we lost.”

The legislation was never amended to include the property the EBCI hoped to build on, and another developer got the contract.

The hotel project was the next opportunity to come along, and the Seminole are 12% of the top-line revenue, he said. feeling “like they’re burnt a little bit” in However, a market study DreamCatcher developing these partnerships, Wachacha commissioned shows that Pigeon Forge is a said. unique market, and that a brand is not necIf the EBCI backs out of the Pigeon Forge essary to drive visitation. deal, he said, “I don’t know if we have a partBesides, Cooper said, the land in quesner to move forward after this project. That’s tion is “the best piece of developable proper- what the Chairman (Osceola) has stated to ty left in Pigeon Forge that’s not on the me.”

Parkway.” It’s adjacent to the LeConte “I’ve got partners within this company, Center and the Cal Ripken Baseball/Softball and I’ve got partners in this project who Experience and will fill a niche for mid-size said, ‘We’re not interested in doing business events of 600-800 people that is lacking in with the Eastern Band, because look at the Pigeon Forge. way we have been treated for the past two “The goal of the project was not to do years,” Cooper added at a later point in the something necessarily with our name on it,” discussion. said Sneed. “As it was presented for all three However, he said, as someone who lives tribes, this is an investment opportunity in and is native to the area, he wanted to with double-digit return.” bring the project to the Eastern Band first If all goes well, said Cooper, this could be and give the tribe every opportunity to be just the first of many such endeavors. involved, should it wish to.

“There’s a long game here,” he said. “It’s Ultimately, Tribal Council voted to kill not, ‘We’re going to make one hotel and Rose’s protest in a similar split to the one we’re going to get rich and sit at home.’ that passed the original resolution in May. That’s not the goal.”

Wolfetown Representatives Chelsea Saunooke and Bo Crowe, as well as Rose, voted against killing the resolution and had ENSE DISCUSSION also voted against passing it. Yellowhill Representative Tom Wahnetah was the only Tensions got high at various points in the member to switch sides, voting against the long discussion, with some Council members expressing outright distrust of DreamCatcher resolution in May but voting to kill the protest in June. while others showed frustration at the some“This has been voted on and it passed, times circular discussions that members find and all I can say is let’s get the project done, themselves in when it comes to economic let’s get it built and see what happens, and development opportunities. hope there’s no change orders,” he said.

Wachacha said that he’s been talking

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‘As normal as possible’ news

WCU outlines plans for Fall 2021

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Ingles Nutrition Notes written by Ingles Dietitian Leah McGrath Q: Do "lactation cookies" work?

A: One of the newer food fads for a parent having difficulty with

Sources: https://www.whattoexpect.com/poor-milk-supplybreastfeeding.aspx?fbclid=IwAR3hstXZYNrVKnAS8bPl8dYTFrrSlmm2kc2RBkgIf0Lc tKLInZVYCnPmEoo https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/lactation-cookies-feed-on-breastfeedinganxieties/?fbclid=IwAR05X_u9TNOm9Dr43DlXGYCUWHG67cC979SYFJasjjP-ChW basyGoN4Iab0

Leah McGrath, RDN, LDN Ingles Market Corporate Dietitian

Smoky Mountain News

their milk supply are what are called "lactation cookies". In most cases these cookies don't look or taste much different than a regular cookie. Lactation cookies are often made with oatmeal and have additional ingredients like flaxseed or herbs (fenugreek). There is little to no research to support the fact that these cookies work to increase milk supply. As you might imagine, it would be difficult to do this sort of research since there are a variety of different types of cookies and recipes. There is also not a lot of good research on the efficacy of the herbs that might be added to these cookies and what sort of effect they might have on the infant.

These cookies may be quite pricey at $1-$2/per cookie.

Talk to a pediatrician if you have concerns about whether your child is receiving an adequate supply of milk. A lactation expert can also be consulted on ways to increase milk supply. These include: being adequately hydrated (drinking enough fluid), getting enough rest as well as food/calories and to try pumping more frequently to increase milk supply.

June 16-22, 2021

spaces, Health Services locations, the CatTran and on a case-by-case basis for “designated indoor spaces or gatherings where close contact is likely to occur as determined by the appropriate Executive Council

BY HOLLY KAYS member.” Face masks are still required for STAFF WRITER people who are not fully vaccinated. s the pandemic continues to recede, Additionally, most COVID-19-related Western Carolina University is plansignage has been or is being removed, and ning for a fall semester that “will look all water fountains and sinks are being more like fall 2019 around here than fall turned back on. Plexiglas dividers and hand 2020,” Chancellor Kelli Brown told trustees sanitizer stations will remain in place for during a June 4 meeting. now.

“In other words, it will — conditions “I am so very proud of how we have allowing — be as normal as possible,” she come together and managed the pandemic’s said, “and I know we are all looking forward consequences over the last year, and I thank to that.” you for all you have done to support WCU During a meeting of the trustees’ and our community at-large’s efforts,” Academic Affairs and Personnel Committee Brown wrote in the email. the previous day, Provost Richard Starnes Perhaps the biggest task campus staff painted a picture of what the semester has before it is moving WCU from its might look like, with the caveat that, from reduced-capacity state of 1,763 class“I think we will have a first-year class room seats available that’s not unlike what our first-year class to 4,220 seats. By July, Starnes said, was last fall. Maybe slightly above that.” staff will move more than 7,000 pieces of — Provost Richard Starnes furniture from storage and other locations to get classrooms back at full capacity. its start, the pandemic has been an evolving As to the likely size of next year’s stusituation. dent body, that’s still up in the air, Starnes Classrooms will be at full capacity, and said. move-in, opening assembly, athletic events, “Families are committing, but they’re marching band and International Festival having a more delayed response to commitwill all “look pretty close to what we are ting to attend,” he told the committee used to seeing,” said Starnes. The library June 3. will reopen to the public. In a March press However, he said “if I had to bet,” he’d release, WCU announced a return to fullsay that WCU will see between 1,750 and occupancy residential living and normal 1,850 first-time, full-time freshmen next hours and increased capacity for all buildyear. If that’s the case, first-time, full-time ings and facilities. freshman enrollment would be around the That doesn’t mean the campus will same level of last year’s 1,780 figure, which operate exactly as it did in 2019. Students represented a 14.5 percent drop from the will still be required to wear masks in some 2019 figure of 2,083. situations, including while in class, and “I think we will have a first-year class move-in will take place over a 10-day period that’s not unlike what our first-year class rather than as a single-day event. was last fall,” he said. “Maybe slightly above Orientation will occur partially online and that. It seems to us that this is true for a partially in-person. number of schools.”

Students will not be required to get vacDespite the dip in first-time, full-time cinated against COVID-19, but the universifreshmen last year, WCU saw an overall ty encourages them to take that step. increase in enrollment for the 2020-21 “We will continue to encourage students school year — even setting a new record and all members of our campus community due to an all-time high freshman retention as well to get vaccinated,” said Starnes. rate and increases in distance and graduate Looking further ahead, students applyenrollment. Distance and graduate enrolling for admission in fall 2022 will not be ment appears to be up for the coming year required to submit standardized test scores. as well, said Starnes.

In May, the University of North Carolina For the past six years, freshman-toBoard of Governor’s approved a one-year sophomore retention has been above 80%, extension a waiver it originally issued last but this year it will be just below that, with year. the figure sitting at 77.9% as of June 3.

On June 3, Brown sent an email to stuHowever, Starnes said he’s pleased with that dents, faculty and staff announcing that, in number given the circumstances. addition to a continued lifting of capacity “The fact that we were able to retain that limits and physical distancing requirements large a number of students out of what has in campus facilities, face coverings would be been just a class that has suffered through optional for fully vaccinated people — with so many challenges, that’s a really good exceptions. Masks are still required in classthing,” he said. rooms, lab settings, other instructional

@InglesDietitian Leah McGrath - Dietitian 800.334.4936 Ingles Markets… caring about your health

9

news

Revenue-neutral revolt

Local government budgets under scrutiny

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS E DITOR countywide property reappraisal earlier this year generated substantial increases in property value for many homeowners, who will now have higher tax bills despite lower tax rates. Taxpayers and elected officials on two local governing boards aren’t happy about that.

“I was hoping that we could balance the budget and stay revenue neutral, which looks like it’s gonna be tough to do, but I guess I’m still holding out that we could give it a little more time and possibly do that,” said Brandon Rogers, a Haywood County commissioner who voted against the proposed budget on June 7.

June 16-22, 2021

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For most local governments, property tax revenue is the single largest source of revenue each year. Property tax bills are generated by multiplying the tax rate, expressed in cents per $100 of assessed value, by the assessed value. Usually, tax bills rise and fall based on the rise and fall of the property tax rate, but when property values rise — and the rate stays the same — bills go up.

That’s why elected officials on all five local governing boards in Haywood County looked long and hard at needs and wants and ended up proposing lower property tax rates. Those rates, however, aren’t “revenue neutral,” meaning they’ll still generate more revenue than in previous years due to higher bills paid by property owners.

Haywood’s tax rate last year was 58.5 cents. A revenue neutral rate that would have kept tax bills the same for the next budget year is 50.7 cents. Haywood commissioners

opted to go with 53.5 cents, largely to fund the recommendations of a forthcoming pay study that all agree will show county employees as underpaid based on their experience and performance.

“It is because of my commitment to a neutral rate that I cannot vote for the proposed budget today,” said Haywood Commissioner Jennifer Best, who joined Rogers in opposing the proposed budget. “The need to increase wages for employees is one of our major driving factors in this year’s budget and unfortunately counties and municipalities often balance their budgets on wages, salaries and benefits.”

While Republicans Rogers and Best expressed support for the pay increases despite voting against the budget that would fund them, fellow Republicans Tommy Long and Kevin Ensley voted for it. Lone Democrat Kirk Kirkpatrick was the swing vote, pushing the measure over the top.

Best said it was the most difficult decision she’s had to make since being filling the seat of former Commissioner Mark Pless, who left to become a member of the N.C. House, but the new tax rate does mean that only 15 out of 100 counties in North Carolina have a lower rate than Haywood does.

A day after the Haywood meeting, the Town of Waynesville found itself in a similar situation.

Waynesville’s proposed budget looked to be a shoo-in for easy passage during the June 8 budget hearing, but a number of public comments opposing the tax increase derailed the vote.

Currently, the town’s tax rate is 49.57 cents. The revenue neutral rate would be 41.27 cents, but the budget proposal lists 45.45 cents as its preferred rate.

That, said Pigeon community resident Phillip Gibbs, would be a severe blow to people on fixed incomes.

“I want to make an appeal to the board to be conscious of the fact that we are mostly seniors and we are on fixed incomes,” Gibbs said. “I will not get any more money — next month, next week, next year — than I am getting right now. We’re having a hard enough time paying our taxes as they are. Now, I

Smoky Mountain News

Maggie Valley passes budget, lowers taxes

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BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER aggie Valley Town Board of Alderman passed the proposed 2021-22 budget on June 8.

The board accepted the balanced budget Town Manager Nathan Clark had presented, with the general fund increasing by 14.51 percent from FY 20-21 for a total of $3,068,510.

The budget contains a tax rate decrease of $.03, to 40 cents per $100 of assessed value.

This is the lowest tax rate since FY 16-17 and currently the lowest municipal tax rate within Haywood County. The town’s adjusted adjusted revenue neutral rate would be $.38.

Property tax is the town’s largest revenue source and is estimated to bring in $1,847,210 worth of revenue based on a 96.97 percent collection rate.

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Sales tax is the next biggest source of revenue for the town’s general fund. Sales tax revenue allocated from the county is estimated at 1.79 percent or $509,724. This is up 2.5 percent from FY 20-21. Sales tax allocation is based on population distribution within the county.

Expenditures in the budget include renovations for town hall, some of which were postponed last year due to the financial uncertainty of COVID-19. These include a side door replacement for $11,424 and new security cameras for $10,000. There is $25,000 within the Board of Alderman line item to promote economic development and placemaking.

The Maggie Valley Festival Grounds is getting $8,700 worth of upgrades to the Wi-Fi network, $4,600 to design a parking

lot on the old Sweet Briar Motel property, and $3,000 to continue the Holiday Movie Night at the festival grounds.

There is $50,000 in the Parks and Recreation budget for the Veteran’s Memorial to be constructed near the town hall flagpole, which may take more than one fiscal year to complete. Parks and Recreation will also be relocating the basketball court, $10,776, at town hall to make way for the construction of a new public works storage shed costing $158,290.

The Soco Road improvement project will likely be started this year following a delay due to COVID-19. The total cost for the project is more than $2 million, though the town has only had to pay $360,000 over the course of three years.

The police department is allocating

know the town needs money to operate, but please be aware of the fact that a lot of senior citizens can’t afford this.”

Waynesville resident Joey Reece also opposed the increase, but for different reasons than Gibbs.

“Let’s take a look at this budget from a 50,000-foot view. Tax revenue’s up dramatically, 13 percent or about 750,000 this year,” Reece said. “We’ll be the recipients of roughly $3 million in federal stimulus money, the Plott Creek apartments will add another $60,000 next year. Looks to me like the tax base increase is substantial and this has come about even during a global pandemic.”

Reece went on to lament local job loss, businesses closed, the $300 federal unemployment supplement likely ending soon, along with the federal foreclosure moratorium as reasons why now is no time for a tax increase.

“Do the right thing,” he said. “Cut the rate to a revenue neutral rate.”

Be heard The Town of Waynesville will conduct a special budget workshop meeting to reconsider its tax rate before entertaining the passage of its next budget. The meeting is open to the public.

• Time: 10 a.m.

• Date: Wednesday, June 16 • Location: Town hall, 16 S. Main St., Waynesville.

Aldermen Chuck Dickson and Jon Feichter then called for the budget vote with the 45.45 cent rate to be postponed and asked town administration to prepare a presentation on what a revenue neutral budget might look like.

They’ll entertain that proposal during a special called budget meeting that will take place on Wednesday, June 16 at 10 a.m. at town hall, 16 S. Main St., in Waynesville.

By law, local governments have until midnight on June 30 to pass their budgets for the upcoming fiscal year, which runs from July 1 through June 30. funds for two new vehicles and other equipment, $64,950 and $24,570 respectively.

The budget also provides funds for the purchase of a new K-9 officer in order to ensure each patrol shift has an active K-9 on duty.

Street maintenance is increased from $46,00 to $70,324 for the Rocky Top Road resurfacing project and other unidentified private streets. The budget includes $35,100 in Powell Bill funds to repair Spring Lake Road at Twinbrook Lane, though it is likely that Powell Bill Savings fund and the general fund will also be used for repairs.

While the town is in its second year without debt to the general fund, the sewer fund still has $187,00 worth of debt to cover repairs to the wastewater treatment plant. Sewer rates will increase by 6.25 percent for residential and commercial users. The sewer fund is $1,231,086 for FY 21-22, an increase of 35.84 percent from FY 20-21.

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Several DWA board members, including downtown business owner Teresa Pennington and Haywood County Commissioner Kirk Kirkpatrick, showed up to speak positively about the DWA, but aldermen also heard some criticism from Kirkpatrick over the DWA’s lack of direction.

They also heard criticism from downtown business owner Mike Coble, who voiced concerns about accountability, direction and transparency and said his nonprofit, Start Now LLC, would submit a proposal to be considered alongside that of the DWA for the ongoing management of the Municipal Service District.

At that time, Alderman Anthony Sutton called for five years’ worth of DWA records, and said he wouldn’t support the DWA’s contract renewal if his request — as well as that of SMN — wasn’t delivered.

Frayda Bluestein, the David M. Lawrence Distinguished Professor of Public Law and Government at the School of Government at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, maintains that the DWA is a public body subject to the same public records and open meetings laws as municipal governing boards.

The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural resources says that public records — meeting minutes, agenda packets and the like — are to be retained permanently by the custodial organization. Statutes provide criminal penalties for the destruction of records.

It’s not clear why the records haven’t yet been produced in full, but that didn’t stop Waynesville alderman from considering the issue of contract renewal at its June 8 meeting.

Per town staff, the RFP for management of the MSD was published on the town’s website on May 6 or 7, with a deadline of May 28.

After that three-week period, there was only one respondent — the DWA. Coble told SMN June 14 that he’d submitted a list of suggestions to the DWA, including shrinking the size of the board, term limits for board members and a clear resignation announcement from Phillips. Coble says the DWA agreed, and in turn he agreed not to submit a response to the RFP on behalf of Start Now. “This is not an us against-them-situation, but this is two different groups coming together for the betterment of the town,” Coble said June 14.

Additionally, Coble said that the Wall Street beautification project proposed by Start Now will proceed in league with the DWA, and Coble will soon join the DWA’s executive board, at their request.

The DWA’s renewal proposal was tendered on the very same day — May 27 — that Phillips formally announced she’d step down from DWA leadership, “effectively [sic] August 6.”

“For the board member partners, property and business owners with whom we have

June 16-22, 2021

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS E DITOR hat should have been a simple contract renewal process has turned into an all-out fiasco for the Downtown Waynesville Association, as the group continues to struggle with transparency and professionalism while submitting a contract renewal proposal riddled with errors, oversights and outdated information.

Longtime DWA Executive Director Buffy Phillips had been credited as the driving force behind the revitalization of Waynesville’s once-rundown downtown, but has come under increasing pressure over the past few years for a perceived lack of performance and poor communication.

Phillips narrowly survived an attempt by the board of directors to remove her as director in 2018, after complaints from downtown property owners prompted at least one to petition for removal from the Municipal Service District itself.

During a DWA meeting earlier this year, on March 23, Philips supposedly gave notice of her impending resignation. Multiple phone calls made by The Smoky Mountain News to Phillips from March 24 through 26 were ignored and have yet to be returned, almost 10 weeks later.

Board Chair Carolyn Brunk also refused to comment on the proceedings of the March 23 meeting when reached by SMN. The board’s secretary, charged with recording the proceedings of the March 23 meeting, said the matter of Phillips’ continuing employment had been discussed but declined to elaborate when reached by SMN and resigned from the board shortly thereafter.

Another then-board member, Leigh Forrester, told SMN around that time that she was present at the March 23 meeting and that there was no such discussion. The minutes from the meeting, produced by the secretary weeks later, confirm that the issue was discussed at the meeting.

Right after the March 23 meeting, SMN made a public records request asking for, among other things, meeting notices and minutes, financial reports and other public records that could shed light on the performance of the DWA in advance of a looming contract renewal deadline of June 30.

Those records still have not been produced in their entirety, frustrating attempts to keep the public appraised on the group’s management of taxpayer money.

Despite the veil of silence, members of the DWA including Phillips spoke to the Mountaineer newspaper for a March 27 story praising Phillips and announcing her impending resignation. Mountaineer Publisher Jonathan Key serves as vice chair of the DWA’s executive board.

On April 28, a public hearing on the DWA’s performance was held by Waynesville aldermen as part of the contract renewal process, which was to be competitive in nature.

Another was to have town staff compare the proposal with the RFP and recommend changes to align with the board’s goals. Yet another was to have town staff and one or more alderman review the proposal and negotiate a contract. The final option was to call for a joint meeting of the entire board of aldermen with officers of the DWA to work on a contract.

Alderman Sutton immediately made clear that the DWA would not, as it had hoped, be receiving an immediate renewal on that night.

“I have lots of questions about the proposal, also the fact that I still haven’t received all the minutes that were requested,” Sutton said. “I would propose that we do the joint meeting of the entire board of alderman and [DWA] officers and that we prepare questions and have them readily available for the executive staff to answer at the time of the meeting, because right now I do not feel comfortable proceeding with negotiations with them, as is.”

Aldermen Julia Boyd Freeman seconded Sutton’s motion for the joint meeting, which passed unanimously.

Under public meetings law, the town would have to provide appropriate notice of the joint meeting, which would be open to the public. Sutton requested that the meeting not take place until the town could iron out concerns over its own budget (see REVOLT, p. 10).

As of press time, the joint meeting between the Waynesville board of aldermen and the DWA had not yet been scheduled.

news

Aldermen put the brakes on DWA contract renewal

achieved much progress toward revitalization in downtown Waynesville,” reads a fragment from Phillips’ brief statement.

The rest of the application isn’t much better.

Financial summaries requested by SMN in March were included in the DWA’s application, despite never being delivered to SMN. Six recently penned letters of support were included with the DWA’s application, including one from Forrester.

Strangely, another 10 letters of support, all written in 2016, were attached to the May 27 application as well, including from the former director of the Haywood Arts Council Lindsey Solomon, former police chief Bill Hollingsed, two duplicate entries from Mast General Store General Manager Melanee Lester, and two duplicate entries from former Haywood economic development guru Mark Clasby, who passed away on May 8.

Clasby is also listed as the executive board’s “business vitality” member in the DWA’s application. Former Waynesville Mayor Gavin Brown, who was voted out of office in November 2019, and subsequently moved to Georgia, is listed as the Town of Waynesville’s institutional board member.

Forrester, the board member who told SMN that Phillips “didn’t resign,” is listed as the board’s bylaws member. Olivia Carver, the secretary who resigned earlier this year, remains listed as the board’s secretary.

Aldermen were presented with several options in regard to the DWA’s proposal.

One was to recognize the lone bidder’s RFP and begin contract negotiations.

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news

Misleading claim by Down Home North Carolina isn’t their first

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS E DITOR erhaps the only true statement in a June 7 Down Home North Carolina email is that the fight against jail expansion in Haywood County is far from over, but given the rest of the email’s misleading content, it’s no longer clear if the nonprofit activist group has the credibility to remain part of that fight.

“When I first opened the email, it just kinda took me aback,” said Haywood County Commissioner Brandon Rogers. “It’s definitely misleading.”

The email came hours after a June 7 Haywood County budget meeting; members of Down Home had organized against the possibility of Haywood County constructing a $16 million jail expansion almost as soon as it was first mentioned in late 2019, speaking out at meetings and holding demonstrations while demanding funding for mental health and drug treatment instead of incarceration.

When the Haywood budget was approved that morning, Down Home’s communications team seized on the fact that the budget did not list the $16 million jail expansion project.

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“Today, with a vote of 3-2 the Haywood County Commissioners chose not to include the $16.5 million dollar jail expansion project in the county’s budget,” reads the email, which had the subject line, “This morning, a win in Haywood!”

The email goes on to claim that “Having this costly project not be included in the budget should be seen as a big win for our community” and that “Our efforts prove that when we work together and build our power, we can and will win.”

There’s just one problem with that, though. The jail project will likely never appear in the budget, because that’s not how local governments pay for capital projects.

“The jail project has never been in the budget. It wasn’t even discussed to be in the budget, so I don’t know where they were coming from with that,” said Commissioner Tommy Long. “They didn’t talk anybody down from putting it in a budget or voting for it or voting against it, so the statement they made was just totally inaccurate.”

Large capital projects, like the jail expansion or Waynesville’s new sewer plant, are

June 16-22, 2021

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A social media post from April, 2018 shows another exaggerated claim of victory by Down Home North Carolina. Facebook photo usually funded through any combination of grants, fund balance allocation and/or loans — commercial or institutional — but are almost never budgeted as a line-item for the full amount.

Although the county is still very early in the process and has spent only a small sum on soil evaluation tests at the proposed site, Down Home’s role in the project’s progress is overstated, according to Commissioner Jennifer Best.

“When people come to the commissioners’ meetings and they speak, we definitely listen to their concerns. I met with some of the Down Home group right after I was seated,” said Best. “Many of them have come on different days and spoken at the commissioners’ meetings and we definitely listened to them, but their efforts did not stop us from proceeding with jail expansion.”

Commissioner Kirk Kirkpatrick said that there’s plenty more discussion to come on the jail project and that funding mental health and substance abuse treatment won’t entirely prevent the need for a new jail, but he agreed that the claims by Down Home weren’t accurate.

“Yes, the email is misleading, but how many things aren’t nowadays?” Kirkpatrick said.

Chairman Kevin Ensley said that at least two other media outlets asked him about the email and were under the impression the project had been mothballed.

“I said, ‘Look, this was a little bit of misinformation,’” Ensley told them.

When reached for comment, Vicente Cortez, a field organizer in Down Home’s Burlington office, couldn’t demonstrate an understanding of local government finance.

“I know that budgets have to be finalized

by July 1 and that’s what the spending will be for the next year and we were expecting the county commission to include some allocations for this jail expansion in their budget,”

said Cortez. “They did not, so we consider that a win.”

Confronted with comments from all five commissioners who called the email misleading, Cortez refused to back down from calling the event a victory.

“We won this arc of the campaign,” he said. “Commissioners passed their biggest spending package of the year, and there were no funds allocated to the jail.”

The misleading statements in the June 7 email aren’t the first made by Down Home, but they do contribute to a pattern of exaggerated claims of success.

In April 2018, almost 30 Down Home supporters showed up to a meeting of the Waynesville board of aldermen to ask that the town pay all its employees a living wage of at least $12.30 an hour.

They were quickly told that only seven out of 175 town employees earned less than that, and that the lowest-paid workers made $12.15 an hour, and that budget plans long in the works would soon elevate those remaining seven employees to at least $12.30 an hour.

When the group emerged from the meeting, they immediately took to Facebook, proclaiming, “Thanks to the efforts of our Haywood County chapter, the Town Council has committed to wage raises by July 1.”

A dubious claim, to be sure — considering the pre-existing budgetary plans to raise those seven employees from the $12.15 level.

“I’ll say I appreciate their involvement, their wanting to get involved, but when you’re not factual or you’re misleading, like they are, I don’t know that they have the credibility that they need to make you listen to what they’ve got to say,” Rogers said. “I’m always open to listening to what anybody has to say, but when they’re misleading and it’s a pattern, you take a little pause. It makes you not want to listen.”

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Davis and Wheeler are successful, they could help close that gap for the next election.

“We’re under no illusion that this is going to be easy. It’s going to be an extremely tough fight,” Wheeler said. “But let’s say we start with a 10-point advantage for Cawthorn out of the blocks. We’ve adopted The Lincoln Project’s strategy — if we can help the Dem nominee shave 3 to 5 points, it makes the race competitive. The Dem will carry the burden of getting over the top, but if we can siphon off 3 to 5 points, we’ll get a competitive race.”

Cawthorn held a June 9 town hall by

Smoky Mountain News

telephone, during which a caller asked him about the PAC. “When I first heard there was a PAC that was called the ‘Fire Madison Cawthorn PAC’ that was being funded by a lot of socialists all across the country I said, ‘Good.’ To know that I am taking fire, that just tells me that I am above my target and that is the socialist agenda that’s rising up in our country,” Cawthorn said. “I genuinely believe the people of Western North Carolina have my back because I have never forsaken them, and I never will. As long as the people of Western North Carolina are watching my back, it doesn’t matter what kind of money they spend against me, it doesn’t matter what they do.”

Wheeler has his own thoughts on that answer.

“Let’s think about this objectively,” he said. “If you’re doing your job, why would a group of people go to the work of forming an entity to fire you?”

June 16-22, 2021

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS E DITOR etired Air Force Col. Moe Davis may have lost to Madison Cawthorn in last year’s General Election, but that doesn’t mean he’s done speaking out against the young conservative firebrand.

“Since his first day in Congress, Madison Cawthorn has been a threat to our democracy. First, he peddled Trump’s big lie about the election being stolen. Then, he betrayed our country and helped incite the violent attack on our Capitol and our Constitution,” Davis said in a June 7 press release announcing the formation of Fire Madison Cawthorn, a Super PAC focused on defeating Cawthorn in 2022.

Davis, who won the fiveway March 3, 2020 Democratic Primary Election with 47 percent of the vote, is listed as chair of the PAC’s advisory board. David Wheeler, a two-time NC Senate candidate, will serve as the president.

Wheeler said that they’ve already confirmed one member of the advisory board, Andrew Aydin, a former strategist for the late Rep. John Lewis who happens to live in the district.

Right now, the group doesn’t anticipate spending money on either Republican or Democratic Primary Election candidates, according to Wheeler.

“We’ve got 18 months until the election,” Wheeler said. “We’re focused on raising money. We raised $25,000 in the first two days with an average contribution of $32. We want to make sure this is grassroots-driven, and we’ll keep up that grassroots fundraising work. In July, August and September, we’ll spend time on higher-dollar donors who have expressed interest in making 5- and 6-figure donations.”

Money, however, won’t be the final arbiter of whether or not Cawthorn ends up being re-elected in 2022. Davis raised about $2.2 million — far more than any NC11 Dem in recent memory — but still lost to Cawthorn by just over 12 points. Cawthorn raised almost $4.5 million.

There was also more than $1.9 million in outside money spent opposing Davis, with only $490,000 opposing Cawthorn. If

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Former linebacker Gash looks to sack Cawthorn

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS E DITOR ight now, life seems to be about fullcircle moments for Henderson County native Eric Gash, who describes himself as “a son of the soil.” A married father of three, Gash has been a pastor for 15 years, is a volunteer chaplain at the Hendersonville Police Department, a rescue scuba diver and recently became the principal of the elementary school he once attended.

“Yeah, it’s almost like a dream come true.

I remember, very vaguely, walking the halls of Bruce Drysdale Elementary,” Gash said.

“Of course, things have changed. It’s been remodeled and certain facilities have been added, but yeah, it’s kinda surreal walking through those halls, knowing that 45 years ago I was walking the same halls, only a little bit shorter.”

The June 1 entry of Gash into the 2022 Democratic Primary Election as a candidate for the 11th Congressional District seat currently held by Republican Rep. Madison Cawthorn presents the possibility of another full-circle moment for Gash — from following in the leadership of his coaches, his teachers and his mother to potentially representing them in the U.S. House.

“I’m trying to do the best I can to be a blessing to the community that was so great and gracious to me and my family growing up,” Gash said.

Gash joins what’s already become a crowded primary field, with fellow Democrats like Buncombe Commissioner Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, Mills River veteran Josh Remillard, Asheville social worker Bo Hess and small business owner Katie Dean launching their own campaigns in the first six months of Cawthorn’s term. Wendy Nevarez, an Asheville Republican, has also entered the field.

All of them will have an uphill battle against the freshman Cawthorn; a recent internal poll suggests Cawthorn’s Republican constituents are pleased with his service thus far, and his heavily Republican district isn’t likely to change much after redistricting takes place this year.

June 16-22, 2021

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Smoky Mountain News

The Smoky Mountain News: The other day on Twitter you said something like “I’m an elementary school principal and if Madison Cawthorn was my student, he’d be in detention” or something like that. Why? Eric Gash: Well, from his role in helping to spread “The Big Lie” to cheering on the Capitol riots to voting against pandemic relief, I knew I owed it owed it to my family, to my students, to my community, to my faith to do something about it. So I decided to run for Congress. From my playing days as a linebacker at North Carolina, as a teacher and the principal at my old school, from being a pastor of my own church and a volunteer chaplain, I’m prepared to lead this community because that’s what I’ve been doing my whole life. It’s important we real14 ize that we need leadership at every level

Henderson County educator Eric Gash is the latest candidate to announce an NC11 bid. Donated photo

here in our district and that’s the leadership deficit that I see.

The Smoky Mountain News: As we look at this congressional district over the past 10 or 12 years, there remain a number of issues that continue to come up every election cycle. One of those is guns. There’s a phrase out there you’ve probably heard, “common sense gun reform.” What does common sense gun reform mean to you?

Eric Gash: Common sense gun reform is just being responsible. It means having background checks and some sort of regulation on the internet [sales], you know, you can order any part and make anything. I think it’s just being mindful that we all live in a society and community together, and we have to look out for one another. The greatest call is to love your neighbor as yourself. I believe everyone has a right to own firearms to defend themselves in whatever way they see fit. I’m a concealed carry holder, but being responsible means handling with care.

SMN: Another component of that, that we’ve seen in Congress recently, is red flag laws. Do you support more comprehensive red flag laws?

EG: It’s important when we look at having the responsibility of owning a firearm

that the responsibility rests on individuals just being mindful of their neighbor. I’m not for taking guns from anyone. If you’re aware, for example that your family member is in distress, I think it is the responsibility of first and foremost those people who are close to you as your neighbor to maybe try and intervene and look out for you and help you out.

SMN: We started this conversation talking about persistent issues in NC 11 over the past decade or more. Another one of those is Medicaid expansion. Now, that’s a state matter for the legislature to decide and they continually decide against it and the reasoning that I always get is that the federal government is funding 90 percent of the expansion population right now, but there’s no guarantee that Congress continues that in perpetuity. Can you see yourself standing up there defending the federal funding for Medicaid expansion for people in North Carolina?

EG: That’s a good question. Some of my top priorities when elected would be to look at education and increasing STEM programs to help prepare kids for jobs that don’t even exist yet. Healthcare is one of those top-tier issues and it boils down to being able to take care of the least of these, and looking upon folks with love and com-

passion. That’s really my angle that I’m coming from, it’s gotta be common sense from top to bottom, whatever issues we look at, but being able to look upon our neighbors with compassion, because not everybody is as fortunate as we are, and just being able to aid folks where possible is definitely at the top of the list.

SMN: Another persistent issue, and this one goes back much further than just a decade or two, is abortion.

EG: When you look at that, it’s settled law. There’s no debate about it. But you know, I’m a pastor, minister of the gospel and that’s about the whole life. What I mean by whole life, there are those who are just focused on protecting the first nine months and then leaving you to yourself.

We have 75 or 80 years of life left. I’m conscious of the whole life and protecting not just the first nine months, but the next 75 to 80 years. Nobody’s pro-death, Cory, you know what I mean? But folks are seriously wanting to protect folks’ right to make decisions for themselves. Not everybody is where we are.

SMN: Over the past decade, we’ve seen marriage equality finally come to be the law of the land. What are your feelings on protecting that?

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EG: Once again, that’s settled law. I’m for folks being able to decide for themselves who they choose to love, how they choose to love.

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Smoky Mountain News

SMN: As a moderate how do you feel that you can win this primary when you’re going to be talking to Asheville voters, most of whom I would imagine are to the left of you?

EG: Over the last few weeks, I’ve had a number of conversations with folks and the biggest issues that we’re having now out of the current leadership in District 11 is, he’s about communications and not constituents. We need somebody who’s going to represent all of the voices of District 11 and that’s what I intend to do. I’ve received probably a couple dozen phone calls and voice messages and text messages from folks who are unaffiliated. I’ve had conversations with folks who are registered Republican. I was actually in the post office the other day and a gentleman comes up to me and he says, “Eric, I’ve been a registered Republican all of my life, but I know you, I believe in you. And I trust you, I’m switching my affiliation to independent or unaffiliated so that I can vote for you in the primary and then for you and the general.”

YES WE ARE

June 16-22, 2021

SMN: It sounds like you’re on a little bit more of the conservative side of the Democratic Party. Would you say that’s accurate?

EG: I would like to think of myself as a moderate. Just being common sense, not everyone will agree, I don’t think everyone ever has agreed with everything everyone’s believed or said, but it’s about giving everyone a voice at the table and hearing out everyone and just knowing that everyone’s opinion needs to be valued and heard.

Moving forward, um, we have to be able to work together and build bridges. There are far too many people that are hurting in our country and right here in our district because there’s too much fighting going on.

It’s important that we have folks that will represent the voices and the concerns of District 11. And that’s what I intend to do.

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Rodgers pleads guilty to felonies Deundra Lamarze Rodgers, 29, will spend at least two years in prison for breaking into multiple buildings in Sylva.

Rodgers, of no known address, pleaded guilty late last month (May 24) in Jackson County Superior Court to six counts of felony breaking and entering and six counts of felony larceny, District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch said.

Judge Thomas Lock handed down four consecutive active sentences of six-to-17 months, plus ordered Rodgers pay restitution.

Investigators believe Rodgers stole a van in Knoxville, Tennessee, then drove to Sylva.

Officers initially arrested the defendant last year in September in a residence on Weldon Hall Road. The door had been forced open. A string of illegal acts followed.

“Each time he was released on bond, he would immediately break in somewhere else,” said Andy Buckner, who prosecuted the case in Jackson County Superior Court.

“He finally was caught in a home where he had been squatting and had also broken into a nearby residence.”

On Oct. 19, 2020, police arrested and charged Rodgers with breaking into Southwestern Child Development

Commission and East Main Auto Sales.

He was arrested on March 9 of this year for breaking into two houses on Ridgeway Street and stealing food, alcoholic beverages and other various items.

Sylva Police Department and Jackson County Sheriff ’s Office investigated the cases.

Haywood reports 101st COVID-19 death Haywood County Health and Human Services received notice of another COVID19 death, bringing the total number now to 101.

This individual was between the ages of 70-75 and died at Haywood Regional Medical Center. COVID-19 pneumonia was listed as the immediate cause of death (disease or injury that initiated the events resulting in death). Several underlying issues were also noted.

“We at Haywood County Health and Human Services extend our deepest sympathies to the family and loved ones during this time of loss,” said Health Director Sarah Henderson.

“COVID-19 is a serious and sometimes deadly illness. We ask everyone to consider the pain and loss this virus can bring with it and do everything you can to help prevent its spread.”

Smoky Mountain News

June 16-22, 2021

www.smokymountainnews.com

FACES

OF

HAYWOOD

Haywood Chamber is a CONNECTOR for “T heall businesses.

Through my membership I have learned the value of the chamber and how much they are involved in all aspects of the community not only on a local level, but a state level as well. In addition, as a new resident to Haywood County I was able to get involved in ways that made me feel a part of the community.”

Rob Roland %HYHUO\ +DQNV 5HDOW\ 3PC3PMBOE!#FWFSMZ )BOLT DPN

828.456.3021 HaywoodChamber.com 16

Contractor offers to help Franklin build skatepark

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR JE Dunn Construction was hired by HCA Healthcare to build the new Angel Medical Center in Franklin, but Superintendent Steve Suttles recently told the town council the company wanted to be remembered for improving the town’s future in another way.

“We try to get involved in the community everywhere we go,” Suttles told council during a June 7 meeting.

The hospital is scheduled for completion in June 2022, but in the meantime, Suttles wants to help Franklin work on another important project. When he reached out to the town about the best way to be of service, town leaders talked to him about the recent support from the community to develop an outdoor skate park. At last month’s council meeting, dozens of people crowded town hall to express their support for a skate park to give teens a safe and legal place to skate within town limits. The town agreed to move forward with looking into possibilities.

Suttles said that project to help the youth sounded like a perfect partnership opportunity for JE Dunn.

“We can come and help raise money and help get our trade partners involved to volunteer their time and money,” he said, adding that whatever they’re able to help raise locally for the project, JE Dunn Corporate headquarters would match.

Suttles said the cost of materials would probably be around $100,000. He also said much of the time could be donated from HCA and JE Dunn partners.

“HCA spends a lot of money with Southern Concrete so I think we can get a good deal on that,” he said.

Suttles, who lives in Haywood County and is a Pisgah High grad, said he was familiar with Waynesville’s skate park and his

Macon closes vaccine call center On June 18, Macon County will be closing the COVID Call Center. The Macon County COVID Call Center opened Jan. 16 to handle the high volume of calls in response to the launch of public vaccination efforts for COVID-19.

With the closing of the call center, members of the public who wish to receive the COVID-19 vaccine or need testing for COVID-19 are encouraged to call the Macon County Health Department directly at 828.349.2081, where they can then schedule an appointment for either testing or vaccination.

With generous support from Drake Enterprises, Macon County was able to launch a dedicated call center that could

crew went to Highlands to look at its skate park as well.

After scouting out several potential locations in Franklin, Town Manager Summer Woodard suggested Jaycee/Franklin Memorial Park has the best location for the skate park.

“This would be an ideal one-time cost to use fund balance money and I would encourage maybe pursuing Jaycee park — it’s wellmaintained, there’s parking, it’s walkable from Franklin High School,” she said.

JE Dunn is recommending installing a permanent concrete structure for the skate park pad. A permanent concrete pad would hold up better to rain and potential flooding from the creek. Similar to Waynesville’s structure, the slope would be open on both sides so water doesn’t accumulate in the middle.

Project Engineer Anders Ike said he’d also reached out to the Western Carolina University Construction Management program and the construction classes at Franklin High to get them involved in the project as well.

“I’m interested and excited about this project because I’m part of the younger generation,” Ike told the board. “It would be great to see people outside and active, instead of sitting inside staring at a screen.”

Mayor Bob Scott said it sounded like a great plan and asked if Suttles and Ike would be willing to continue working with town officials and members of the skating community to put together a plan. Suttles and Ike agreed to keep moving forward on the project.

Until a permanent structure is completed, Franklin Police Chief Bill Harrell said he’s been in discussions with the First United Methodist Church about their skateboarding ministry and allowing skaters to use the church’s moveable skate park structure. handle the demand for lifesaving vaccines.

The call center was also able to hire temporary positions to staff the call center with funds made available by county commissioners, in addition to realignment of existing Macon County employees, and Macon County citizens who volunteered their time to help their community.

“The success we had at the call center would not have been possible without Mr. Phil Drake and his willingness to donate his facility, staff and equipment. In addition, the hard work and dedication of Sheriff Robert Holland, Tammy Keezer and all those employees and volunteers at the call center, whether it be disseminating information or registering individuals for vaccines, directly resulted in Macon County having one of the highest per capita vaccination rates in the state,” said County Manager Derek Roland.

Macon commissioners narrowly approve budget

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implementing the forthcoming recommendations of a pay study, increasing the Fontana Regional Library budget by $30,000 a year, a one-time investment for Nikwasi Initiative and a one-time $10,000 capital project at Cowee School.

The remaining funds will be placed into the county’s contingency fund to make sure the county has enough funds to implement the pay study. If the money isn’t needed to increase pay for county positions, it will be put toward capital needs for the school system.

County Manager Derek Roland didn’t include a 2 percent COLA raise for employees in the budget, anticipating the results of a pay study that will increase wages by an average of 6 percent depending on the position.

However, Commission Chairman Jim Tate recommended moving forward with a COLA this year, which will cost the county an additional $417,000 on top of the $1.8 million set aside in the budget to implement the pay study results when they come in later this summer.

Higdon said he wanted to apologize to taxpayers for increasing their property taxes for the second year in a row and during a time of financial hardship.

“Financially this county is flushed with money. Macon is getting $7 million in COVID relief funds and has $28 million in fund balance,” he said. “There’s no reason why we need more from taxpayers. Jackson County just reduced their tax rate to 36

(cents) after revaluation. I can’t vote for the commissioners’ budget.”

Even with increasing the property tax rate to 40 cents per $100 of value, Commissioner Ronnie Beale pointed out that Macon still had one of the lowest tax rates in the state.

Haywood County’s tax rate last year was at 58.5 cents and this year the county approved a rate of 53.5 cents. He also argued that the reasons for the increase were legitimate county needs.

“These are not pet projects — all of these are important. The pay study, raises for employees — out of the four pay studies we’ve done, none of them have been fully funded so we decided to do it this year,” Beale said.

He added that Nikwasi Initiative was doing important economic development work in conjunction with the Eastern Band of

Cherokee Indians and that the county should continue to support that effort.

Beale said Cowee School was a countyowned building that needed to be maintained by the county.

“We’re putting a new well in our own building. We own it and it’s been a desperate need for some time,” he said.

As far as the $28 million sitting in the county’s fund balance, Beale said it’s there for a reason and can’t be spent on reoccurring costs. Years ago, the board of commissioners passed a policy to keep 25 percent of the county’s annual expenditures in the balance even though the state requires only 8 percent in reserves.

“You’re not just voting against the tax increase, you’re voting against the budget — all of it,” he told Higdon and Young.

The budget passed by a 3 to 2 vote.

Jackson passes resolution to uphold the U.S. Constitution

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Stribling said during a follow-up discussion at the May 18 meeting.

In response, Chairman Brian McMahan told Stribling that the board had been discussing such a resolution before the pandemic redirected everybody’s focus. He then highlighted various sections of a proposed resolution that would affirm the entire Constitution rather than focusing solely on the Second Amendment.

“We wanted to make sure that we recognized the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, which is known as the Bill of Rights,” he said. “That’s the main focus of making sure that we honor and protect and highlight those 10 amendments, which includes Mr. Stribling’s Second Amendment.”

Unlike a similar resolution that the Haywood County Board of Commissioners passed in February 2020, Jackson County’s resolution does not specifically mention the right to bear arms except as part of a paragraph that lists all the rights outlined in the first ten amendments. The Haywood County resolution, meanwhile, devotes three para-

graphs to second amendment rights.

“I know some of the other counties adopted much larger resolutions that got into much more in-depth conversation, but this is very simple and to the point,” McMahan said May 18.

At just over 300 words, the resolution lists the individual rights outlined in the Bill of Rights, states that 17 other amendments were added later and says that “the Constitution has been and is under pressure and attack from foreign and domestic entities.” Jackson County residents have asked commissioners to resolve to protect their constitutional rights, it continues, before devoting three paragraphs to explaining commissioners’ commitment to the Constitution. Commissioners took an oath to uphold the Constitution, led fundraising efforts to install full-size replicas of America’s founding documents at Freedom Park — located within Mark Watson Park in Sylva — and have a “deep commitment” to protecting constitutional rights that places them “in opposition of any proposed law that infringes upon an

individual’s’ constitutional rights,” the resolution states.

“If ever in this country we need to pledge to ourselves to uphold the Constitution of the United States, it seems to be right now,” said Commissioner Boyce Deitz prior to the June 1 vote. “It seems that there’s been a move in this country to make the nation whatever you want it to be from day to day, but it’s solemnly not that.”

The Jan. 6 riot in Washington D.C. is an example of that move, said Deitz, and of the need to safeguard the U.S. Constitution.

“There is no area in this county that is untouched or left where there wasn’t somebody who gave their service and ultimately their life in service to this nation to preserve, protect and defend the founding documents that we stood right in front of,” said McMahan, reflecting on the Memorial Day celebration he’d attended the day before. “Some of them may have volunteered to go, some of them may have been drafted and didn’t really want to go, but they went because it was a call of duty for their country.”

Smoky Mountain News

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER y unanimous vote during their Tuesday, June 1, meeting, Jackson County commissioners passed a resolution that “calls upon the North Carolina General Assembly and the United States Congress to use all their powers and authority to protect our citizens’ freedom under the Constitution.”

Commissioner Tom Stribling originally suggested the resolution during an April work session, asking that commissioners consider a measure declaring Jackson County a constitutionally protected county, particularly regarding the second amendment and the right to bear arms. During the early months of 2020, the majority of counties in Western North Carolina passed resolutions opposing potential measures that might infringe upon the right to bear arms, but Jackson County had not yet considered such a resolution.

“I was just wanting to make Jackson County a constitutional carry county like our neighboring counties around us,”

June 16-22, 2021

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR acon County commissioners approved the 2021-22 fiscal budget, but two Republican commissioners opposed its passage because they disagreed with increasing the tax rate.

Commissioner Paul Higdon, who is serving his third term on the board, and newly elected Commissioner Josh Young both voted against the budget.

Higdon, who has voted against the budget several times during his tenure, said during the public hearing that he wanted to apologize to the county manager for disregarding his proposed budget and to the taxpayers of Macon County for raising taxes.

“The county manager did a great job along with his team bringing us a flat budget and I support it,” he said. “But last week, just like last year, we got into pet projects — the Nikwasi Initiative and Cowee School — those are charities and we have $75,000 set aside in a community fund pool and then off the cuff give $25,000 to a charity.”

At the last meeting, commissioners voted to increase property taxes from 37 cents per $100 of assessed value to 40 cents even though the county budget saw a significant increase thanks to a 19 percent increase in sales tax revenue. The additional revenue will generate about $2 million a year.

The $2 million gain will go toward providing a 2 percent cost-of-living raise for county employees ($400,000), $600,000 toward

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Opinion

Smoky Mountain News

Schools need funds to grow creative thinkers LEGISLATORS LATE FOR SCHOOL

volunteer with QuickDraw of WNC, an art auction where artists step up to help put supplies on classroom shelves in our public schools. We’re raising money right now.

Why? Because the school system is in pain. With state legislative cuts, art and other supply funds have shriveled.

QuickDraw’s local fundraiser launched 20 years ago to supplement class supplies to help kids learn more. It funded projects from 3-D clay stamping tools, nontoxic stained glass for architectural study, batik fabric dyes, and other projects to expand student learning.

These days, we — an outside citizen fundraiser – are also a basic supplies budget, funding ordinary items like scissors and glue.

Some Haywood County art teachers cover three schools.

Budget cuts forced some counties to axe school art programs altogether. We’re trying to save ours. Kids in every county deserve the same.

Supplies are for learning. Take one elementary school — that’s 1,000 kids a week in the art room, 1,000 pieces of paper to draw on, and 1,000 hands that need a crayon, brush or colored pencil.

Kids don’t get the resources they need and deserve. That’s why we have bake sales and QuickDraw, to put critical funds where they were lost. It’s not enough.

Compare legislative funding 10 years back, adjust for inflation and enrollment, and schools get less than half the money they got 10 years ago, a 56 percent cut. Schools need supplies if we want to grow resourceful thinkers and problem-solvers, the kind we all want to hire. Make students a priority, they are our state’s future.

The state legislature has not yet provided an education budget proposal to fund our public schools for a fiscal year that starts July 1. This is mandated by the N.C. State Supreme Court, and yet it still doesn’t exist.

What kind of future can we build for North Carolina without education?

Art is an important problem-solving curriculum. Art ed teaches the whole child. It’s a class kids look forward to and it helps students stay in school.

Let’s prioritize students so they can graduate and succeed.

Guest Columnist Art teachers spend dollars from their own pockets for their students. I asked Haywood teachers what’s the most they’ve personally spent in a year and one art teacher spent $350, another $800, another $1,500. Our teachers are paid $10,000 less than the national average. This is not sustainable.

Let’s prioritize students, so they can learn with supplies they need.

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Tillis should explain his vote To the Editor: The following is a letter I wrote to Senator Thom Tillis, R-N.C. This is in reply to your letter to your constituents titled “Remembering Our Fallen Heroes.” I find it disingenuous that you, senator, truly care about our fallen heroes when you voted “no” on setting up a commission to investigate the January 6 riot in the Capitol.

(You also voted “not guilty” on both of Trump’s impeachment trials.)

Five people died, 140 police officers were injured and approximately 500 of the rioters (many of whom were armed) were charged with federal crimes while trying to stop the Electoral College count! This insurrection by Trump supporters intended to overturn the will of the American voters.

Today many of your fellow Republicans continue to deny President Biden’s victory and threaten further violence if the election is not overturned. Many Americans fear the real possibility of a coup d’etat and the installation of a dictatorship.

Your office confers on you the sacred duty to protect us and the Constitution. On whose side do you stand, senator? How will history judge your perfidy?

Sandra Hayes

The Legislature is not helping

ART CREATES PROBLEM SOLVERS Creativity is more than making art, it helps all other aspects of problem solving. Art class ties together other subjects. If kids have it tough at home, art class is a haven and a respite.

Classrooms need better funding to make impactful thinkers of our students. Our students are our state’s future.

Please, help our students learn safely and well, with creativity.

Prioritize students, fund education. Invest now and let’s reap the benefits for our state’s future!

Why is school funding so poor? Legislators used to give 40 percent of education lottery funds to schools, now we get 11 percent. Our legislators want to entice companies to move here by dropping the state corporate tax rate to 0 percent.

What that means is fewer tax dollars generated and less money for schools.

To be industry-competitive, we need to offer employees who can solve problems in many areas, using their skills in analytics, business and design thinking. Business needs creative problem solvers and innovators.

I ask the General Assembly: where do you think that talent comes from? Do you think it springs up suddenly when a person turns 21? Creativity needs nurturing in our children, because creativity leads to confidence, which leads to innovation, which is what companies look for.

It stings to realize that our state representatives choose cut after cut after cut in education — when the future of our state’s thinkers, our students — is at stake. Will you all please consider the long-term effects of short-term thinking?

Please, representatives, put your money where your youth is. Prioritize education.

Legislators, getting the corporate tax rate down to zero is creating a race to the bottom. When the corporate tax rate is zero and companies are not moving to North Carolina, what will be your excuse then?

(Sandra Hayes is a volunteer with QuickDrawofWNC, a nonprofit whose mission is to highlight the importance of art education in the classroom. Buy art for education at https://wnc-quickdraw.myshopify.com from June 1-30, and donate all year at https://quickdrawofwnc.com. For information call 828.734.5747.)

LETTERS I look forward to an answer explaining the dissonance between your words and actions.

Caryl Brt Waynesville

Community colleges deserve support To the Editor: As North Carolina faces an economic crisis amidst a pandemic, our community colleges will be key to recovery efforts.

North Carolina will undoubtedly turn to our 58 community colleges to train and retrain our state’s workforce to meet the increasing demands of a recovering economy and changing business world. To do that, our colleges need to be able to retain and recruit the best faculty and staff who can provide the training our students and businesses need to be successful.

Many businesses face the challenge of recruiting qualified, in-demand employees and then keeping those employees from leaving to go to another employer. North Carolina’s community colleges are no different. Attracting and keeping highly qualified professionals to prepare North Carolina’s future workforce continues to be a significant

challenge – especially in high-demand, highskilled areas such as nursing, technology and trades. Although North Carolina has the third largest community college system in the nation, community college faculty salaries, as a whole, consistently rank near the bottom in national comparisons.

Each year, 700,000 students enroll in the state’s 58 community colleges to acquire valuable professional skills and knowledge in high-demand, highly-skilled occupations such as nursing, technology, and trades. In our area, we estimate that approximately 90 per-

cent of students graduating from Southwestern Community College with a certificate, diploma, or degree stay in the area to work and live. The faculty and staff at SCC work tirelessly to prepare local students for careers in our community, improving the lives of students and their families right here in Western North Carolina.

The fact that SCC was named the top community college in the nation by BestColleges.com is a testament to their hard work and dedication to each student’s success.

As lawmakers consider many important issues to our state during this legislative session, our North Carolina Community Colleges are supporting legislation asking for a 7 percent salary increase for faculty and staff. If community college faculty and staff were to receive this salary increase, it would be a significant step toward ensur-

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Juggling the five balls

ing that North Carolina has the professionals in place to train the workforce of the future to help business and industry emerge from the pandemic and rebuild the economy.

I encourage you to contact your representatives in the General Assembly and urge them to support the 7 percent salary

increase to help North Carolina community colleges recruit and retain the talented faculty and staff required to rebuild the state’s workforce and economy. Please support this investment in our community.

Lambert G. Wilson Chairman, Southwestern Community College Board of Trustees

Susanna Shetley

I

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Smoky Mountain News

taught middle school English language arts for five years and after that, moved into the roles of lead teacher, instructional coach and reading specialist. After several more years when I had my second son, the yearning to be a writer was so great, I could not ignore it. I researched journalism programs and discovered I did not have the time or money to earn an entirely new degree; however, I could obtain a journalism add-on degree.

While working on the journalism degree, I started a blog about being a mom. This was in the early days of influencer marketing and online media. Back then, blogs were a space where people shared personal stories and thoughts. They were not landing pages for ads, affiliate links and other revenue producing widgets and tools. It was a time when we actually read one another’s posts and commented, as opposed to worrying about social media likes or shares. It was a really cool phase in the blogging world and I’m grateful to have been part of it.

Almost five years after starting my blog my mom passed away and I got a divorce. I no longer felt like a perfect mom and wife who had the right to encourage others.

Further, all I wanted to write about was grief and sadness. Around that same time, I started freelancing as a columnist with The Smoky Mountain News. Eventually, the part-time gig turned into a full-time job and I became a member of the SMN staff. When January 2022 rolls around, I will have been writing this column for six years. I also write for many of our other publications and digital platforms.

I tell the story of my career path because somewhere deep within me, I’ve always known the lesson of the five balls. I’ve always known I want my work to be fulfilling but never more important than the people I love, my health or my integrity. If your work ball isn’t already rubber, you may have to make it that way. And once you do, you’ll wish you’d made that change sooner.

At the end of our lives, are we going to look back on emails, deadlines and meetings? No, we’re going to see the faces of those we loved, the adventures we experienced and feel pride for maintaining our integrity. Patterson’s book landed in my hands serendipitously. Leaving that beach trip, I not only felt rested and refreshed but also energized to remember the lesson of the five balls and pass it along to others.

(Susanna Shetley is a writer, editor and digital media specialist for The Smoky Mountain News, Smoky Mountain Living, and Mountain South Media. susanna.b@smokymountainnews.com)

June 16-22, 2021

recently went on a girls’ beach trip to Hilton Head Island. It’d been a while since I enjoyed surf and sun with my female tribe. The last all-female excursion was in August of 2016, the same week my mom passed away unexpectedly. She’d been battling cancer but was projected to live much longer, so her death came as a shock.

Every time I thought about a girls’ beach trip, my stomach knotted. I associated the timing of my previous experience with my mother’s passing.

Earlier this year when a close friend suggested we go on a beach trip this sumColumnist mer, I said yes. It was time to try again. For three days, we relaxed, read books, ate good food, went shopping, drank morning coffee on the balcony and took walks on the beach. I read two full novels during my time at the seashore, one of which was called Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson. It’s a very un-Patterson type book, opposite of his typical suspense, thriller and mystery genres. It’s a tale about the interwoven lives of three fragile humans, of love, hope and second chances.

One of the characters tells the story of the five balls. Life is like juggling five balls, which represent work, health, friends, family and integrity. Work is a rubber ball while the other four are glass balls. If you drop the rubber ball, it will bounce back or in a different direction. If you drop a glass ball, it will break, scratch, chip or otherwise be damaged. The lesson is if you have to choose a ball to drop, choose the rubber ball.

People, especially Americans, often place productivity and success ahead of more important things, and so often work gets in the way of authentic living. I’m fortunate to do work I love, but I haven’t always been in this place. I went to school for many years to be a school psychologist, earning a bachelor’s, master’s and a specialist degree, only a year or two away from a doctorate. Three years of being a school psychologist and I realized that career wasn’t for me. I was not working with kids and families in a counseling capacity.

Instead, I was testing students to see if they qualified for an IEP (individualized education plan). And while there is a place for an assessment specialist in our school system, it wasn’t what I bargained for.

I then ventured into the classroom and

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A&E

Smoky Mountain News

The Jon Stickley Trio. Hunter Deacon, (from left) Jon Stickley and Lyndsay Pruett. (Photo: Sandlin Gaither.)

Scripting the flip A conversation with Jon Stickley

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD ARTS & E NTERTAINMENT E DITOR blend of jazz-fusion, bluegrass and avantgarde folk music, the Jon Stickley Trio is at the core of the current acoustic movement that’s been roaring through the national and international scenes over the last decade.

Alongside the likes of Billy Strings, The Infamous Stringdusters, and Greensky Bluegrass — acoustic acts that resemble more of a rock show in presence and tone — the Asheville-based group has been making melodic waves of its own, where live performance and improvisation is the key to creativity and connection, something genuinely felt onstage and in the audience, too.

Fronting the trio is Stickley himself, this guitar virtuoso of unlimited scope and vision.

In conversation, Stickley is introspective and reflective, but always looking to the future, whether artistically or professionally — this not-so-faraway reality where his band will

A

“That was one of the most nerve-wracking things I’ve ever done — to just sit there and play guitar live to the internet. But you keep doing it and learning from it. And I grew a lot, I think, as a musician and a performer.”

— Jon Stickley

them, where normally I’d be on the road. I’m able to be home and be a good dad. It’s really brought a lot of clarity to my life and a lot of fresh inspiration.

rightfully be in big letters underneath the bright marquee lights.

Want to go?

Smoky Mountain News: After more than a year of no live music, you’re back performing again. For someone like yourself who’s constantly on the road, what was it like to have to stand still?

Jon Stickley: Our last proper trio gig [before the shutdown] was Feb. 28 [2020]. So, when we went past the year mark, it was honestly a little bit of a low point. It kind of floored me, you know? Just going on so long without playing live.

But, now that we’ve passed that mark and the vaccine is rolling out, I’ve got a lot of hope for what’s going to happen. And I’m keeping an open mind and staying flexible with what we want to do and can do.

and bigger, and you can kind of get lost in those endless cycles.

SMN: Aside from all the albums and projects you’re involved in, you’re a group who is wellknown for its live performances.

JS: Yeah, and that’s what we love about it, too. [Performing is] what we care about and it’s what we enjoy — it’s kind of why we’re doing this. We missed playing music with each other.

[The shutdown] kind of refocused our energy in a really cool way, where we’ve gotten to get a little more into the live stream thing. And then, we’ve also been in the studio.

[Throughout all of this], we were able to kind of step back from the momentum of the ever-increasing year after year cycle, where you just want to go harder and harder and bigger

SMN: The cycles get broken and you step back. I think we all got a lot of clarity on what we want to do when we return to “normalcy.”

JS: Well, it definitely is a silver lining.

Myself included, you’re always focused on the next thing to cover, next show to go to, and you get so wrapped up in it. You’re like, “Oh man, I haven’t been home in two years.”

We’ve been building the [Jon Stickley Trio] for years now. So, every year we’re doing more and more stuff focused on the future. And to have it just completely come to a stop — and I don’t want to use the silver linings cliché — but I did get a baby out of the deal.

[My wife] gave birth during the shutdown, where now I get to spend time with both of

Presented by Plugged-In Productions, Jon Stickley Trio will hit the stage with bluegrass legends Travelin’ McCourys for the “Grateful Ball” on Wednesday, June 30, at the Hazel Robinson Amphitheatre in Asheville.

Following sets by both bands, there will be a joint performance as the groups pay tribute to the Grateful Dead. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Show begins at 6:30 a.m.

Tickets start at $25. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, go to www.hazelrobinsonamphitheatre.com.

SMN: With the nature of live streaming and it becoming part of the music industry now, what’s been the biggest takeaway for the trio?

JS: I would say it was a growth thing. It’s been really good for us. It’s helped us in a lot of ways, to kind of re-examine our show. The first few streams that we did were extremely uncomfortable. You feel self-conscious with nobody there for an audience. It’s coming through the soundboard directly into the internet.

The first one I played I did a Facebook live stream solo from my backyard in April [2020].

That was one of the most nerve-wracking things I’ve ever done — to just sit there and play guitar live to the internet. But you keep doing it and learning from it. And I grew a lot, I think, as a musician and a performer.

With the streaming, you have this ability to reach your national and global audience in a single event, as opposed to having to carry as your gear from town to town on tour.

SMN: And the shutdown probably revitalized and justified why you love performing, and why it’s such an incredible space to inhabit, whether onstage or in the audience.

JS: [With the streaming], to lose that feedback and energy you get from live shows, that appreciation and connection, for that to all completely drop off, it made me really reflect on what I’m doing with my life.

Ultimately, I came back around to that [live music] just makes people happy. It makes people happy and it’s more of a family, more of a community than I realized it was.

Being able to reach out through a live stream to our nationwide audience, it’s like all our friends are coming out of the woodwork from all these cities that we’ve been to and all the friends we’ve made — it brought us all back together again.

And not just the music community, but humanity in general, being able to reconnect with each other [again]? It’s pretty heavy. It’s where I’m pretty mind-blown by the whole thing. I had a lot to focus on [during the shutdown], and I can’t wait to get onstage again.

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD

Somethin’ keeps him driftin’, miles and miles away, searchin’ for the songs to play

I

The Teton parlor acoustic guitar. (photo: Garret K. Woodward)

At first, it was all foreign to me, as is anything new that you’re looking to incorporate into your life. With the uke, it was figuring out simple chords and even simpler songs.

Slowly. Steadily. No expectations. And yet, completely into the process, wherever it would (and will someday) take me.

By June 2020, I was eager to make the transition from ukulele to acoustic guitar.

The ole six-string. I felt it was something that I not only really wanted, but also deeply, more so intrinsically, was drawn towards. I put the uke down and bought a 1966 Silvertone guitar off of Reverb.com and awaited its arrival.

A few days later, the UPS dude rolled up to my folks’ farmhouse and delivered the big box with the old guitar. It was intimidating

HOT PICKS The Jackson County Chamber of Commerce welcomes Steve Weams & The Caribbean Cowboys to “Beach Night” from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, June 19, at Bridge Park in Sylva.

1

The “An Appalachian Evening” series will return to the Stecoah Valley Center in Robbinsville with Buncombe Turnpike at 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, June 19.

2

Boojum Brewing (Waynesville) will host Positive Mental Attitude (rock/roots) at 9 p.m. Saturday, June 19.

3 4 5

The Natti Love Joys (roots/soul) will perform at 8 p.m. Friday, June 18, at Lazy Hiker Brewing in Sylva.

Americana/indie singer-songwriter Joey Fortner will perform at 6 p.m. Friday, June 18, at Frog Level Brewing in Waynesville.

I think back to a year ago, with this huge dreadnought guitar in my hands, not knowing a single damn thing about how to play it.

And yet, I couldn’t wait to learn, even if it was a couple of simple chords those first couple of weeks.

And though I’m still in the beginner stage of “it all,” I remain a sponge for any and all tips and tricks I may come across along the journey of life — musically, or just merely applied to an existence trying to find footing in this whirlwind of time and place, people and things.

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

June 16-22, 2021

was already 10 minutes late to my niece’s seventh birthday party some 20 minutes away last Sunday afternoon.

Though I was in a hurry, I noticed my Teton parlor acoustic guitar atop the guest bed at my parents’ farmhouse in the North Country of Upstate New York. Once I got my socks and shoes on, I couldn’t resist the urge to pluck a few strings and radiate whatever emotion I was feeling at that very moment.

June 15 marks exactly one-year since my first guitar arrived on the doorstep. At the time, it was in the midst of the national shutdown. Once the shelter-in-place was lifted in North Carolina, I took off to New York to spend the summer with my family, something I hadn’t done in years (and years).

In February 2020, my mother gifted me a ukulele for my 35th birthday. That previous Christmas, I had mentioned that my goal for the impending year was to learn an instrument again. Thus, she felt a ukulele was a good start — something easy to learn but without a huge financial obligation.

She handed me the $50 soprano uke towards the end of February 2020 when my folks were passing through Waynesville en route to Florida for the spring. I was thankful for the gesture, but with one thought in mind, “I hope that I’ll have time to sit down and learn this thing.”

A couple weeks later, the world came to a standstill and I found myself alone in my one-bedroom apartment amid a sea of books, vinyl records, Netflix account, and the uke sitting in its case in the corner nearest me. Eventually, I picked it up and started to learn a handful of chords, ultimately fully immersing myself in the small acoustic entity until further notice.

already 10 minutes late to my niece’s seventh birthday party some 20 minutes away.

And the craziest thing? I wish I had picked up the guitar years ago, all of those past New Year’s Eve resolutions to do so that never came to fruition. To all of you out there who have always wanted to finally learn to play an instrument? Do it. Do it now. You’ll never regret it, especially if the process (and growth) of it sticks happily to walls of your heart and soul.

arts & entertainment

This must be the place

at first, this huge dreadnaught guitar that was a few times bigger than my uke. I pulled it out of the old, beat-up case and tuned it up. I strummed the open chords and immediately connected to whatever cosmic magic resided within this instrument.

From there? It’s been just about 12 months of pure enjoyment, this whole new avenue of purpose, passion, and plucking. As a lifelong music freak and 15-year music journalist, it’s a real full-circle kind of thing to be able to (at least) play some chords and keep time/rhythm with friends of mine.

Some of these cronies are sheer guitar wizards, others legit industry professionals, the rest front porch pickers who’ll teach you several years of melodic knowledge over some beers and burgers on the grill on an otherwise quiet Tuesday night in Balsam Gap. Again, I have no expectations. I’m just, well, happy to be in the “here and now.”

Happy to learn a few new things in this ongoing journey with my trusty six-string. I find myself in constant awe of the littlest lesson I might scoop up by chance, or backstage at a show from a friend who just performed in front of a raucous audience.

The beauty of music, whether played live or learned on your own, is that it’s meant to be shared — with you, with me, with any and all willing to take a chance on a band or the idea of diving a little deeper in their own personal quests, especially in the timeless realm of instruments, and continually evolving as a beautiful, curious human being.

Now? I can’t walk by my guitar on the couch in my Waynesville apartment without picking it up. I can’t walk by it even when it’s atop the guest bed at my parents’ farmhouse in the North Country, even though I was

Smoky Mountain News 21

arts & entertainment

On the beat ‘An Appalachian Evening’ The “An Appalachian Evening” series will return to the Stecoah Valley Center in Robbinsville.

Buncombe Turnpike will hit the stage on June 19. The show is free and open to the public.

All June shows will be live streamed at 7:30 p.m. on YouTube, with a link available at www.stecoahvalleycenter.com prior to the show. A special online performance by The Kruger Brothers will be held June 26.

Ticketed shows will include The Jeff Little Trio July 10 ($25), Liam Purcell & Cane Mill Road July 17 ($15) and Darin & Brooke Aldridge July 24 ($25).

828.479.3364 or click on www.stecoahvalleycenter.com.

Reggae, soul at Lazy Hiker The Natti Love Joys will perform at 8 p.m. Friday, June 18, at Lazy Hiker Brewing in Sylva.

A roots-rock-reggae band that has been

playing live since 2003, the group consists of husband and wife duo Anthony “Jatti” Allen and Sonia “Marla” Allen.

The show is free and open to the public. www.lazyhikerbrewing.com.

PMA returns to Boojum Jackson County rock/reggae act Positive Mental Attitude (PMA) will perform at 9 p.m. Saturday, June 19, at The Gem downstairs taproom at Boojum Brewing in Waynesville Free and open to the public. www.boojumbrewing.com or www.facebook.com/pmamusic.

Fortner to play Frog Level Americana/indie singer-songwriter Joey Fortner will perform at 6 p.m. Friday, June 18, at Frog Level Brewing in Waynesville.

The show is free and open to the public. www.froglevelbrewing.com.

Smoky Mountain News

June 16-22, 2021

Want to learn the dulcimer?

The Pic’ & Play Mountain Dulcimer Players will be resuming in-person jam sessions at the St. John’s Episcopal Church basement fellowship hall in Sylva.

The group welcomes all beginners and experienced dulcimer players, including mountain (lap) dulcimer and hammered dulcimer players. Songs played include traditional mountain tunes, hymns and more modern music. The group meets at 1:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturday of every month in the basement of St. John’s.

Access to the hall is from the left side when facing the church. Due to construction at the church, parking may be limited next to the fellowship hall entrance but is available on Jackson and on Landis streets. If you are not fully vaccinated for COVID19, please wear a mask to protect yourself.

Pic’ & Play has been playing together since 1995. The more experienced members welcome new players, help them navigate their instruments, and guide them through some of the basics of tuning, strumming, and playing.

For more information, call Kathy Jaqua at 828.349.3930 or Don Selzer at 828.293.0074.

• Balsam Falls Brewing (Sylva) will host an open mic from 8 to 10 p.m. every Thursday.

Free and open to the public. 828.631.1987 or www.balsamfallsbrewing.com.

• Boojum Brewing (Waynesville) will host karaoke at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, trivia at 7 p.m. on Thursdays and Positive Mental Attitude (rock/roots) June 19. All shows begin at 9 p.m. Free and open to the public.

828.246.0350 or www.boojumbrewing.com.

• The Classic Wineseller (Waynesville) will host a special dinner show with Kevin Lorenz (guitar) June 19. All shows begin at 7 p.m.

Reservations required. 828.452.6000 or www.classicwineseller.com.

22 • Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center will

host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.369.4080 or www.coweeschool.org.

• Friday Night Live (Highlands) will be held at the Town Square from 6 to 8:30 p.m. with Johnny Webb Band June 18 and Trudition June 25. Free and open to the public. www.highlandschamber.org.

ALSO:

• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host Joey Fortner (Americana/folk) June 18, Bob Keel June 19, Zip Robertson 3 p.m. June 20, Laura Thurston 5 p.m. June 24, Scoundrel’s Lounge (blues/rock) June 25 and Space Granny June 26. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the

Caribbean Cowboys Band.

Ready for ‘Beach Night’?

Come celebrate summer in your flip flops, shorts and favorite beachwear as the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce welcomes Steve Weams & The Caribbean Cowboys to perform for “Beach Night” from 6 to 8 p.m.

Saturday, June 19, at Bridge Park in Sylva.

Steve Weams & The Caribbean Cowboys have been entertaining audiences for over 30 years. They perform primarily in Western North Carolina, but have traveled from Key West, Florida, to New York City and through the British Virgin Islands. They provide a wide variety of music from Jimmy Buffett to the best of classic/southern rock, rhythm and blues, reggae, surf rock, country and more.

This event is free, and everyone is welcome. Dogs must be on a leash. No coolers, no smoking and no alcohol. Bring a chair or blanket and happy coastal vibes.

public. 828.454.5664 or www.froglevelbrewing.com.

• The Haywood County Courthouse (Waynesville) will host the Haywood Community Band on the front lawn at 2 p.m.

July 3 during the Stars & Stripes Celebration.

Free and open to the public.

• Innovation Station (Dillsboro) will host Cam Cokas June 20, Silent Disco 7 p.m.

June 25 and Fitz N Dave June 27. All events are free and begin at 2 p.m. unless otherwise noted. www.innovation-brewing.com.

• Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will host Bird In Hand (Americana/indie) w/Rye Baby (Americana/indie) at 7 p.m. July 4. Free and

The chamber will provide some complimentary beach-themed items to hand out for spectators to enjoy during the show, including Hawaiian leis and a limited amount of “Bringing Summer Back,” tote bags, sunglasses and masks. The Kona Ice Truck will be there serving delicious cold refreshing treats as well.

The chamber asks that anyone who is not yet vaccinated practice social distancing, proper hand sanitizing and preferably to wear a mask. If you’ve been vaccinated, you are welcome to attend without a mask.

The live music at Bridge Park will continue with “80s Night” as Electric Circus will perform from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, June 26.

For more information, contact the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce at 828.586.2155 or visit www.mountainlovers.com.

open to the public. www.innovation-brewing.com.

• L’Italiana (Franklin) will host Bluejazz 6:30 p.m. June 25. Free and open to the public.

• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Franklin) will host The High Strangeness (rock) June 19 and Scoundrel’s Lounge (blues/rock) June 26. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public.

828.342.5133 or www.lazyhikerbrewing.com.

• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Sylva) will host Natti Love Joys (reggae/soul) June 18 and Unlimited Devotion (Grateful Dead tribute) June 25. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public.

828.349.2337 or www.lazyhikerbrewing.com.

On the beat

• Nantahala Outdoor Center (Nantahala Gorge) will host “Bluegrass with Blue” June 18 and 25, and Pioneer Chicken Stand June 19. All shows begin at 6 p.m. Free and open to the public. 888.905.7238 or www.noc.com.

arts & entertainment

• Nantahala Brewing (Sylva) will host a “Jazz Night” from 7 to 10 p.m. on Wednesdays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public.

828.641.9797 or www.nantahalabrewing.com.

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• “Pickin’ on the Square” (Franklin) will host Paradise 56 (variety) June 19 Michael Reno Harrell (singer-songwriter) June 26. All shows start at 7 p.m. Free and open to the public. Located on Main Street. www.franklin-chamber.com.

ALSO:

• Satulah Mountain Brewing (Highlands) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.482.9794 or www.satulahmountainbrewing.com • Saturdays On Pine (Highlands) will be held at the Kelsey-Hutchinson Park from 6 to 8:30 p.m. with Americana Jones June 19. Free and open to the public. www.highlandschamber.org.

• Southern Porch (Canton) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends.

828.492.8009 or www.southern-porch.com.

• Unplugged Pub (Bryson City) will host Crossfire June 12. All shows begin at 8 p.m. Free and open to the public.

828.538.2488.

• Valley Tavern (Maggie Valley) will host Scoundrel’s Lounge 3 p.m July 25.

828.926.7440 or www.valley-tavern.com.

• Water’n Hole Bar & Grill (Waynesville) will host karaoke on Thursday nights and Scoundrel’s Lounge (blues/rock) June 20. All shows begin at 3 p.m. 828.456.4750 or www.facebook.com/waternhole.bar.

Smoky Mountain News

• Stecoah Valley Center (Robbinsville) “An Appalachian Evening” series will host Buncombe Turnpike June 19. The three shows are free and open to the public. A special online performance by The Kruger Brothers will be June 26. Ticketed shows will include The Jeff Little Trio July 10 ($25), Liam Purcell & Cane Mill Road July 17 ($15) and Darin & Brooke Aldridge July 24 ($25). 828.479.3364 or www.stecoahvalleycenter.com.

June 16-22, 2021

• Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts (Franklin) will host Mark Lowry w/Endless Highway at 7:30 p.m. June 18.

Tickets start at $25 per person. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, go to www.greatmountainmusic.com.

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Smoky Mountain News June 16-22, 2021

arts & entertainment

On the street

Signing Event

Showcasing Cherokee and Scottish heritage in Western North Carolina, the Cherokee/Scottish festival will be held June 17-19, around downtown Franklin.

Aside from numerous activities around the community, Rainbows End will kick off the festival with live music from 7 to 9 p.m.

Thursday, June 17, at The Rathskeller. The Jacobites will perform at 5 p.m. Friday, June 18, at The Rathskeller. Rainbows End will also hit the stage at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 19, at the Town Gazebo in downtown.

The annual Braveheart 5K & Rob Roy Fun Run will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 19, in downtown.

Learn about the traditions of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the Scots, who developed the Appalachian Mountains of WNC, how they both worked together through the times and learned from each other.

There will be demonstrations, lectures from local historians of the Eastern Band of Cherokee and the Scottish Tartans Museum & Heritage Center and performers. There will also be a variety of vendors sharing art and merchandise from Scottish/Appalachian descent and the Eastern Band of Cherokee.

The event is a benefit for the Scottish Tartans Museum & Heritage Center, Inc. For information, email bringingit2life@gmail.com or call 828.524.7472.

Artisans, crafters and food vendors are invited to submit their application for the Greening Up the Mountains festival, which will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 28, in downtown Sylva.

Sponsored by the Town of Sylva, GUTM is the premier spring festival for Western North Carolina. This year’s festival seeks artisans and crafters selling their own handmade products.

Visit www.greeningupthemountains.com to review the 2021 Vendor Policies and download your application, which will be accepted through June 30.

signing his new book,

Swift Justice: Murder on Scott's Creek Saturday, June 19th at 1 o'clock

your

Hometown Bookstore since2007

Clogging lessons at Lake J.

Summer at Lake Junaluska Lake Junaluska’s Summer Activities Program, which offers free and low-cost activities that celebrate faith, recreation, arts and education, kicks off the season on Thursday, June 24, with an outdoor concert by the Jacksonville Children’s Chorus.

Now in its eighth year, Lake Junaluska’s Summer Activities Program features special events such as birding tours and guided hikes as well as weekly activities including morning devotions, clogging lessons, community bonfires, yoga sessions and outdoor movies.

Program activities start in late June and continue through early August.

Summer Activities Program weekly activities start the week of June 28, with morning devotions, movie nights on Mondays, game nights on Tuesdays and community bonfires on Thursdays.

Evening yoga sessions on Tuesdays, morning yoga sessions on Wednesdays and clogging lessons on Fridays, all offered outdoors, are $10 per person.

Special events include a free outdoor clogging performance by the J. Creek Cloggers on Friday, July 2, at the lakeside white tent. Those with a competitive spirit are invited to participate in the Shuffleboard Shuffle play on July 2, or play in Firecracker Fast Four Tennis on July 3. Less physically demanding leisure activities also include bird tours guided by Christine Boone Gibson and summer book reading and review with Diana Foederer and friends.

The Summer Activities Program is made possible through charitable giving.

For more information about the program and a calendar of events, visit www.lakejunaluska.com/summeractivities.

Taste of Scotland returns The Taste of Scotland celebration of the Ceilidh will be held from 5 to 9 p.m.

Saturday, June 19, at The Rathskeller in Franklin.

A Ceilidh is a social gathering, which will feature Scottish and Irish music and singing. Scottish hand food will be provided

by Rockin’ Rollie Pollie and Scottish beverages will be available from The Rathskeller.

All are welcome to attend.

• The “BBQ & Brews Dinner Train” will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. on select dates at the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad in Bryson City. Full service alladult first class car.

Craft beer pairings with a meal, and more. 800.872.4681 or www.gsmr.com.

ALSO:

• “Dillsboro After Five” will take place from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Wednesdays in downtown Dillsboro. Start with a visit to the Jackson County Farmers Market located in the Innovation Station parking lot. Stay for

dinner and take advantage of late-hour shopping. www.mountainlovers.com.

• There will be a free wine tasting from 6 to 8 p.m. every Thursday and 2 to 5 p.m. every Saturday at The Wine Bar & Cellar in Sylva. 828.631.3075.

• The “Uncorked: Wine & Rail Pairing Experience” will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on select dates at the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad in Bryson City.

Wine pairings with a meal, and more.

800.872.4681 or www.gsmr.com.

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June 16-22, 2021

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On the stage

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HART’s first outdoor show The Haywood Arts Regional Theatre will present “Billy Goat Gruff ” as their first outdoor musical June 18 through July 4.

Audiences are invited to bring a blanket or chair, relax in the summer sun, and enjoy this one act musical featuring that Appalachian sound we all love.

“Billy Goat Gruff ” tells a tale of adventure, believing in yourself, and not judging others. Actors play instruments, create sound effects and scenery, and sing soaring melodies that fill the HART outdoor amphitheater.

Amongst the band of actors, you’ll hear fiddle, stand-up bass, auto-harp, ukulele, djembe and HART will have the composer of “Billy Goat Gruff,” Ben Mackel, on guitar. “Billy Goat Gruff ” is suitable for all ages and would be a great first show for your grandkids or a lovely afternoon outside with your sweetheart.

“Billy Goat Gruff ” will have matinee performances with Fridays at 10 a.m., Saturdays at 2 p.m., and Sundays at 4 p.m.

While you are encouraged to bring a blanket or picnic, HART will have chairs available and will be offering their usual concessions. Tickets are $15 for adults and

On the wall $8 for students and will only be sold at the door for all outdoor performances.

You can check HART’s Facebook or Instagram for updates if you are worried about rain cancellations. Groups of 10 or more get $2 off per ticket, so bring the whole family or friend group. www.harttheatre.org.

‘Sister Act Jr.’ at HART Presented by “Kids at HART,” a production of “Sister Act Jr.” will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. June 19, and at 2 p.m. June 20, at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville.

The musical tells the story of Deloris Van Cartier, a high-spirited aspiring singer, who witnesses a murder and is forced to enter the Queen of Angels convent under witness protection.

Based on the hit film of the same name, “Sister Act Jr.” features music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Glenn Slater, a book by Cheri and Bill Steinkellner, and additional book material by Douglas Carter Beane.

Tickets are available now. For more information, contact the box office at 828.456.6322 or click on www.harttheatre.org.

“Red Wolf” by Sarah Sneeden.

QuickDraw art sale QuickDraw, a local art initiative that funds art supplies in rural Western North Carolina schools, is selling art for education online now through June 30. The fundraiser presents art to buy or bid on, and a giveaway basket opportunity for donors.

QuickDraw’s mission is to keep focus on art education’s importance in the face of shrinking school budgets. Proceeds fund art education in Haywood County through teacher classroom supply grants and student scholarships.

Artists step up for education and present their work in an online art market and art auction that runs now through June 30.

Artists donate 50 percent or more of the sale to QuickDraw to support art education through funding for teacher supply grants and student scholarships.

QuickDraw’s sale is live for shoppers and donors through June 30. The online art

market and art auction can be accessed at: wnc-quick-draw.myshopify.com.

Fifty regional artists are represented in the sale and the auction. One-of-a-kind art includes fine art paintings, jewelry, fine craft decor and fashion pieces by local artisans, premium bamboo fly rods for fishing enthusiasts and rod collectors.

The auction features collectible work by prominent artists including Luke Allsbrook, Jenny Buckner, Nina Howard, Allen Davis, Joyce Schlapkohl, Grace Cathey, Erin Tapley, Margaret Roberts and the late Nick DePaolo.

Local businesses contributed to stock a thank-you basket for donations. Donors can contribute online, or in person at Bosu’s Wine Store at 138 Miller Street in Waynesville.

For more information, visit www.quickdrawofwnc.com or call 828.734.5747.

• “Faces,” an exhibit of drawings by the late Ron Hunnicutt, who passed away in February, will be held through the end of June at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin. 828.524.3600.

• The Haywood County Arts Council’s “Art Works @ The Library,” a collaborative program between the Haywood County Public Library system and the HCAC, is currently showcasing works by artist Cayce Moyer at the Canton Library. Working in traditional and mixed media, Moyer blends the worlds of high-brow and low-brow work.

• The “Thursday Painters” group will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursdays at The Uptown Gallery in Franklin. Free and open to the public. All skill levels and mediums are welcome. Participants are responsible for their own project and a bag lunch.

828.349.4607 or contact Pat Mennenger at pm14034@yahoo.com.

• The Marianna Black Library (Bryson City) will be offering a free craft for adults. The library’s adult services staff will walk you through simple instructions to start creating an Americana star. The star craft will be from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, June 19. All crafts are limited, so call 828.488.3030 to reserve your spot. www.facebook.com/mariannablacklibrary.

ALSO:

• Farmer’s Market (with artisans) will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays through October at 117 Island Street in Bryson City. Stop by the old barn by the river for local, homegrown produce, as well as baked goods, jellies and preserves, authentic crafts, and more. Food truck, picnic tables and a strolling musician. Leashed pets are welcome. Outdoor event. 828.488.7857.

• Open call for artists to sell their work in the Carriage House Gift Shop at the historic Shelton House in Waynesville. 757.894.2293.

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through their leaves. For Neanderthals, as with many indigenous cultures, the land itself may have been conceptualised not as something upon which to tread, but as someone with whom a relationship or communication was possible.”

Since hunting was more or less Neanderthal’s full-time employment, Sykes spends much time detailing, archeologically and socially, how that job looked. “To survive on the bounty of the earth means constant attention to the land. As hominins lacking the claws, teeth or great speed of other carnivores, mastering hunting would mean practice, collaboration and most particularly knowledge and planning.”

Continuing on this train of thought, Sykes expands: “Neanderthal existence was a major upgrade to hominin life. They lived in more complex ways than anything before.

Whatever the ecosystem, they were top-level hunters and canny foragers. Their lithic technology was more efficient and specialised and they pioneered new ways of using organic materials.”

And then she expands yet further to talk about Neanderthal’s relationship with time and space in creative ways. “One might even

claim that the first revolution imbuing land with social meaning belonged to Neanderthals, not Homo sapiens.” This is a big departure from what we have been taught by the academics in the field for several generations.

Sykes sums this section up by stating: “The things they collected, took apart, carried and brought back together were about more than survival.

They also mark an amplification in communication, an inexhaustibly rich channel to express connections and meanings beyond the mundane.

The Neanderthals were experimenting, combining substances to create different visual effects. What we would now refer to as ‘pigments,’ colors.”

In concluding this line of thought, Sykes says: “The weight of evidence from more and more cases of pigment use and mark making is increasingly leading even skeptics to accept that Neanderthals had an aesthetic, symbolic element to their lives.

Neanderthal’s artistic oeuvre, even in the creation of their clothing, is the same as that created by cultures across the globe today. It was always about more than function.”

All of the quoted lines above seem to indicate to Sykes that the Neanderthals and our ancient aesthetic heritage was a shared legacy from deep in the Homo sapien lineage. All of this has gotten me excited enough to want to do the ancestry testing to see just how much Neanderthal I have in my own family tree and how much Neanderthal DNA I have flowing through my own veins.

More to the point, the message on the inside of Kindred’s dust jacket reads: “At a time when our species has never faced greater threats, we’re obsessed with what makes us special. But, much of what defines us was also in Neanderthals, and their DNA is still inside us. Planning, co-operation, altruism, craftsmanship, aesthetic sense, imagination ... perhaps even a desire for transcendence beyond mortality.”

Thomas Crowe is a regular contributor to The Smoky Mountain News and author of the multi-award-winning non-fiction nature memoir Zoro’s Field: My Life in the Appalachian Woods.

June 16-22, 2021

oward the end of 2020, I reviewed a book here titled The Last Neanderthal

by Claire Cameron. This was fiction and a novel based on actual anthropological research giving the reader a camera-eye look into the lives of the last full-blood Neanderthals to inhabit Europe.

Cameron had done her homework and had written a captivating story. Now, on the heels of that book, a new non-fiction book has been written by Dr. Writer Rebecca Wragg Sykes, an archaeologist, author and Honorary Fellow in the School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology at the University of Liverpool.

Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art (Bloomsbury Sigma, London, 2020) is a critically acclaimed and an award-winning bestseller and scientific confirmation for the earlier novel by Claire Cameron. In Kindred — her first book — Sykes takes us on a deep dive blending 21st century cutting edge science and technology with a lyrical storytelling writing style to paint a detailed portrait of these ancient relatives of ours. For anyone interested in the history of humanity, Kindred is an exciting history of how we came to know our ancient cousins and how we’re still getting to know them, even better, today.

As someone who majored in anthropology in college and was and still is curious about the truth of human history, Dr. Sykes 400-page book kept me quite literally on the edge of my seat. From her extensive knowledge of this subject, she reveals the heretofore secrets of an extinct species who, for 350,000 years before Homo sapiens became dominant, inhabited a world larger than almost all of Eastern and Western Europe, Russia and Eurasia. Since their discovery more than 160 years ago, Neanderthals have metamorphosed from the losers of the human family tree to A-list hominins. Using her experience at the cutting edge of Palaeolithic research, the author reveals Neanderthals to be curious, clever, technologically inventive and ecologically adaptable, (including times of massive climatic upheaval) and successful survivors for more than 300,000 years.

In a section on adaptability, Sykes writes: “Dramatic changes after 150,000 years — from full interglacial to deep glacial and everything in between — were very likely part of the reason for Neanderthal’s growing flexibility, as well as specialisation.

Landscapes for Neanderthals weren’t abstract spaces, but a continuous flow of lived encounters, both new and remembered.” More generally, Sykes paints a landscape portrait of Neanderthal’s relationship with the land(s) they inhabited. “They knew

arts & entertainment

Neanderthals were smarter than we thought

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Outdoors

Smoky Mountain News

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is home to 1,909 black bears, according to a recent study.

LIVING IN BEARADISE

Warren Bielenberg photo

Encounters highlight need for human responsibility in bear country

BY HOLLY KAYS OUTDOORS E DITOR fter flying into town and renting a car for their Memorial Day Weekend visit to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, three adults visited Cades Cove on Saturday, May 29.

Located on the east side of the park in Tennessee, the scenic valley is popular with tourists, wildlife and tourists who like to see wildlife. The three tourists had at least one notable wildlife sighting — a 100-pound male bear, which one member of the group, a 27year-old woman, decided to feed. According to Smokies rangers, she stood up through the vehicle’s sunroof window and threw peanut butter balls toward the animal.

This particular bear was well known to the park’s wildlife biologists. He had been hanging out along Cades Cove Loop Road for several weeks eating walnuts. But then he started to show food-conditioned behavior, leading biologists to believe people had fed him. So, they captured the bear, tranquilized him and marked him with an ear tag before re-releasing him in the same general area.

Aversive conditioning techniques such as this seek to discourage bears from frequenting areas where they might be tempted to approach vehicles in search of food. However, shortly after its release, the bear received a tasty reward for its dangerous behavior when peanut butter balls rained upon him from the rented vehicle.

Often, such incidents occur out of rangers’ sight and it’s difficult to hold anyone accountable. In this case, however, witnesses caught the incident on video and provided that video

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to rangers, who investigated. The woman was issued a citation on Thursday, June 5, which carried a fine of $100 plus $30 for processing.

Federal regulations prohibit feeding wildlife on public property, and federal law states that violating an NPS regulation is a Class B federal misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $5,000.

“Managing wild bears in a park that receives more than 12 million visitors is an extreme challenge, and we must have the public’s help,” said Smokies Wildlife Biologist Bill Stiver. “It is critical that bears never be fed or approached — for their protection and for human safety.”

When bears get too used to human presence — and in particular to the idea that human presence means food presence — they lose their fear of people and may become bold and aggressive. This leads to situations that can result in harm to humans, or force biologists to euthanize or relocate bears exhibiting dangerous behavior. Fortunately, park staff have not yet had cause to take such measures with the bear that received the peanut butter balls.

BOLD BEARS So far this year, Smokies biologists have captured eight bears and relocated three of them outside the park, said Smokies spokesperson Dana Soehn. A typical year sees 10 relocations. Through May 31, there have been several reports of bears approaching people for food or searching campsites and other developed areas. Park managers have issued one warning related to bear activity on

a trail and four warnings at backcountry campsites and issued seven site closures due to bear activity.

“Human-bear conflicts peak in late May and June,” Soehn said. “Bears are hungry and actively searching for natural foods. However, high-quality natural foods such as berries are not available yet, so bears are attracted to the smell of food and garbage in our developed areas. The level of activity this year is in alignment with what we expect this time of year.”

The Smokies has perhaps the highest density of black bears in North America, but bear issues affect the region outside park boundaries as well.

On June 10, the U.S. Forest Service announced a camping closure on the Appalachian Trail between Grassy Fork Road and Max Patch Road following multiple reports of bear encounters, also urging caution on miles 92.5-96 in the Southern Nantahala Wilderness and miles 246-248 on Snowbird Mountain.

The announcement came on the heels of a June 2 camping closure in the Cherokee National Forest that includes 13 miles of the A.T. from Double Springs Shelter to Backbone Rock Trail in northeast Tennessee.

On June 4, the Forest Service sent out a warning related to bear encounters in the Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness in the Nantahala National Forest. And on May 4, a Henderson County woman came away with a bite after a bear encounter that involved her unleashed dogs. She didn’t incur any serious injuries and was released from the hospital the same morning she sought treatment there.

“This year has definitely been very busy

Be BearWise When living in or visiting bear country, it’s important to do your part to keep bears wild.

This means keeping bears away from human food, whether that’s keeping the garbage locked up at home or properly hanging a bear bag in the backcountry.

The six basics are to never feed or approach bears; secure food, garbage and recycling; remove bird feeders when bears are active; never leave pet food outdoors; clean and store grills; and alert neighbors to bear activity.

More information, including best practices for backcountry recreation, is available at www.bearwise.org.

for bear activity,” said Justin McVey, District 9 wildlife biologist for the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. “What I call my ‘nuisance bear season,’ the season people start calling and complaining about bears, usually that starts around Memorial Day. But this year, I have basically been getting phone calls since mid-March, right around the time when bears — especially male bears — were coming out of their hibernation.”

Many of those interactions are the result of human actions that inadvertently — or, in some cases, purposefully — encourage bears to approach people, said Wildlife Commission Black Bear Biologist Colleen Olfenbuttel.

“I can think of two different neighborhoods in Asheville where there’s purposeful feeding, and we have bears that are following people or even bluff

A CONSERVATION

A sow and her yearling amble through the forest in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Warren Bielenberg photo

A density map resulting from Clark’s study shows that the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has by far the greatest concentration of black bears in the region. Donated map

SUCCESS STORY

CENSUS TIME FOR BEARS Key to meeting those metrics is knowing how many bears there are to start with.

Wildlife managers in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina now have better bear population information than they ever have before thanks to a recently completed study from the University of Tennessee Knoxville, the largest-scale black bear population study ever done.

Lead researcher Joe Clark, Ph.D., collected data for the project in 2018 within a research area that included 16.5 million acres across four states, including 8 million

acres in Western North Carolina. Using a grid system, researchers set up hundreds of “traps.” These consisted of two lines of barbed wire wrapped in a circle around several trees with donuts suspended in the center, and the goal was to snag bear hair on the wire for DNA analysis. They checked each trap weekly for six weeks and then tested the hair to determine if each sample belonged to a new individual or to a bear that had already visited a trap. This allowed Clark’s team to estimate population sizes and densities across the research area.

The resulting data, released to partners in September 2020, provided the most reliable bear population estimate ever completed, and the good news is that the results aligned closely with the number Olfenbuttel had been working with based on the less labor-intensive estimation tool her office has been using for decades.

“It helped us compare what he did to the tools we’re currently using, and it validated the current tool we use to monitor trends in the bear population, which was a huge relief to me,” she said. “All this data we’ve been collecting since the ‘70s and ‘80s till now, it showed we are collecting the right data.”

Clark only analyzed hair samples belonging to female bears. He made that

Smoky Mountain News

of bear sanctuaries, and a lot of hunting regulations, and that worked really, really well. Bears have been a conservation success story. Now we’ve gone from having hardly any bears to having a whole lot of bears.”

At one time, North Carolina bear populations were expanding by 10% per year.

Now that increase sits between 5 and 7%.

Managers are now shifting their focus from growing the bear population to stabilizing it so that annual growth hovers between 0 and 1%.

June 16-22, 2021

Safe coexistence with bears is possible, but it requires the human residents of bear country to do their part to keep bears wild.

Such practices are more important than ever, because both human and bear populations are on the rise in the greater Smokies region.

By 2020, the human population in Sevier County, Tennessee, had grown to 240% of what it was in 1980. During that same year, Buncombe County’s population was 164% of the 1980 census and North Carolina’s was 180%. Add in increasing numbers of seasonal residents and tourists, and the number of people in the mountains these days is incredibly high compared to what it was just a few decades ago.

Meanwhile, the bear population is also increasing. In Western North Carolina, the bear population was estimated at just 1,000 individuals in 1980, but now that figure exceeds 6,000.

Over the 30 years Stiver has worked in the Smokies, the black bear population has nearly quadrupled while annual visitation has increased by 47%.

“As human population continues to grow and visitation continues to grow and we have this really high bear density, we have to work together to solve human-bear conflicts,” he said. “It can’t just be the National Park Service or the City of Gatlinburg or the Town of Waynesville.”

Toward that end, wildlife managers throughout the Southeast are working to push a unified message about life in bear country through the BearWise program, which seeks to provide sound information and solutions to help people, neighborhoods and communities prevent bear conflicts. The six basics are to never feed or approach bears; secure food, garbage and recycling; remove bird feeders when bears are active; never leave pet food outdoors; clean and store grills; and alert neighbors to bear activity. More information is available at www.bearwise.org.

While life with bears can be challenging, managers say, it’s important to remember that not too long ago the charismatic creatures were a rarity in North Carolina.

“Back in the ‘70s there were hardly any bears,” said McVey. “We started the system

choice as a money-saving measure and because female home ranges are more stable than those of males, making the data easier to handle. Knowing the female population makes it fairly easy to extrapolate the overall population.

The study showed a total of 5,949.8 female bears in the 16.5-million-acre study area, with just over half of those — 2,983.4 — residing in North Carolina. Georgia has an estimated 1,181.1 female bears, Tennessee has 1,522.1 and South Carolina 263.2. Of the total, 733.9 reside in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Extrapolating that data out yields a total estimated abundance — including males and cubs — of 14,616 bears in the region, of which 7,318 live in North Carolina. The estimate puts 3,753 total bears in Tennessee, 2,897 in Georgia and 648 in South Carolina. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is home to an estimated 1,909 bears.

However, it’s important to note that bears do not claim state residency. Females have a home range of up to 50 square miles, and males wander through a much larger home range that can reach 300 square miles. That’s why it was so important to do a regional study that looks at the landscape as a whole.

Research indicates that 95% of male bears and 50% of female bears in the Smokies leave the park at some point, Stiver said, which makes it all the more important for communities and jurisdictions to work together when it comes to bear management.

For Olfenbuttel, the next step will be to drill into the density component of Clark’s results. Right now, the Wildlife Commission manages the 25 westernmost counties as a single bear management unit, enforcing the same hunting seasons and bag limits throughout that area. Clark’s density results might indicate a need to break that management unit up, said Olfenbuttel, because areas with low bear densities require a different management approach than those with higher densities.

She’s also working with another scientist, Dana Morin, Ph.D., of Mississippi State University, to conduct an analysis in Eastern North Carolina similar to the one Clark conducted in the western part of the state. In addition, Morin will take a look at the model Olfenbuttel currently uses for population estimates and determine if there are any ways to tweak it and improve the results.

The end result, she hopes, will be better numbers that beget better policies and better understanding from the public that bears are their neighbors — and that responsible coexistence is crucial to keeping that situation sustainable for everyone.

“North Carolina’s landscape has changed tremendously over the past 100 years, and it continues to change, and these bears continue to adapt to that,” she said. “It’s fascinating. They’ve shown a higher tolerance than expected for human disturbance and development. The key now is, they adapted to us.

Are we willing to adapt to living near them?

I hope the answer is yes.”

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charging people,” she said.

Overall, in the last few years Olfenbuttel has seen an increase in the bears’ boldness.

Many of them are habituated to human presence to the point that they sometimes try to get into occupied homes and open the doors while the homeowners are on the other side, yelling at the bear to leave. The root cause, she said, is human food — habituated bears pass that knowledge on to their cubs, resulting in an escalation in problems over time.

“People just underestimate what a bear is,” said McVey. “They think they’re cute and cuddly and don’t realize they’re a wild animal. While they look docile, they’re still a dangerous wild animal, and feeding them causes a ton of problems.”

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A yard sale slated for 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Saturday, June 19, at the Maggie Valley United Methodist Church in Maggie Valley will raise money for a garden whose produce helps feed the hungry.

Any gently used items are welcome for donation to the sale. Place them under the covered area at the barn on 4192 Soco Road by Thursday, June 17.

Since 2014, Maggie Valley Community Gardens has been growing and distributing nutritious fruit and vegetables to meet the needs of food insecure people in Haywood County. Volunteers plant, tend and harvest the produce and then deliver it to organizations such as Meals on Wheels, McCracken Nursing Home, Haywood Pathways Center and Maggie Valley United Methodist Church food ministries.

The garden is located on the grounds of Maggie Valley United Methodist Church, First

Baptist Church of Maggie Valley and land provided by the family of Ernestine Upchurch. For information about the yard sale, contact Barb Planchock at 828.400.3144.

ACCEPTING NEW PATIENTS

Golf to fight hunger and homelessness Sign up for the second annual Unified Charitable Golf Tournament benefitting Haywood Pathways Center and The Community Kitchen ahead of the June 18 deadline.

The tournament will be held starting at 9 a.m. on Friday, July 2, at Springdale at Cold Mountain. The golfer package includes breakfast by Holy Cow Food Truck, 18 holes of golf, cart rental and lunch immediately after the tournament. The format is captain’s choice. $150 per golfer or $600 per team until the registration deadline on June 18. Advantage packages and raffle tickets will be available with registration or on the day of the event.

Register online at www.haywoodpathwayscenter.org or in person at Haywood Pathways or The Community Kitchen.

Smokies car crash results in fatality A teenager is dead and two other people injured following a car crash on Monday, June 7, in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Rangers responded to a single-vehicle collision on the southbound Spur between Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg at 11:45 p.m. that Monday after a 2012 Honda sedan left the right side of the roadway and collided with a rock hillside. The front seat passenger, Elizabeth Marie Parker, 19, of Centerville, Ohio, was pronounced dead after being transported to LeConte Medical Center. The driver and additional passenger were flown to the University of Tennessee Medical Center for treatment.

Rangers are investigating the incident. Gatlinburg Police Department, Gatlinburg Fire Department and Sevier County EMS also responded to the scene.

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Yard sale will raise money for food pantry garden

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Cashiers StoryWalk to make its debut The first book of the new StoryWalk at the Cashiers Village Green, Cashiers, Come Play With Me!, will soon be installed with a dedication ceremony and family picnic planned for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, June 19, near the Village Play.

Cashiers, Come Play With Me! is the story of how the Cashiers Village Play came to be and is written at a second-grade reading level. This original, bilingual book was written

by Village Green Executive Director Ann Self, illustrated by local artist Kat Ford and translated into Spanish by Ana Crespo. It will be posted on 18 standards along the path.

The dedication will occur at 11 a.m., with a picnic lunch served from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Attendees are encouraged to bring blankets and folding chairs. Reading lists and activity sheets will be available for children.

The StoryWalk was made possible through a collaboration between Vision Cashiers, The Village Green, The Albert Carlton-Cashiers Library and The Literary Council of Cashiers.

Ann Self, director@cashiersgreen.com or 828.743.4487.

Summer reading program celebrates animal life

June 16-22, 2021

The 2021 Summer Learning Program at Marianna Black Library in Bryson City will celebrate all things related to books and animals this season, with a fish-centric event slated for 2 p.m.

Thursday, June 17.

Shelby Cook from Swain Soil & Water Conservation District will present “Fashion a Fish,” discussing how different adaptations help fish to survive in different habitats. Using features like coloration and body shape, attendees will get to design their own special fish, complete with reallife adaptations for survival in the environment.

The program is open to all ages but limited to 25 people, so arrive early. The next program in the lineup is 10:30 a.m. Thursday, June 24, a virtual in-house program viewing Red Yarn’s Backyard, in which family performer Red Yarn and his colorful crew of critters create an inclusive space through high-energy folk-rock songs and tender, funny puppet skits.

The free “Tails and Tales” Summer Learning Program is free, open to ages 0-17 and runs through the first week of August. Register at the library or online at www.mariannablacklibrary.readsquared.com. 828.488.3030.

MAKE YOUR PORCH WELCOMING for Everyone!

Cars progress slowly through Cades Cove on a busy day at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. File photo

Smokies, Parkway spared drop in park visitor spending Visitor spending in national park communities during 2020 was just over twothirds the amount spent in 2019, but parks in Western North Carolina were spared that drop, according to a new report from the National Park Service. Together, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Blue Ridge Parkway accounted for more than 10% of visits to national park units in 2020.

The report showed that nationwide, 237 million visitors spent $14.5 billion in communities within 60 miles of a national park in 2020, down from $21 million in 2019.

Visitors in 2020 supported 234,000 jobs, of which 194,400 were located within 50 miles of a park. Visitor spending in 2020 resulted in a $28.6 billion benefit to the nation’s economy.

Visitors to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park accounted for about 5 percent of total visitation to the country’s 423 national park units last year and 6.9 percent of total visitor spending in parkside communities. Despite COVID-related closures,

the $1 billion Smokies visitors spent in 2020 was more than the $953 million spent in 2018 and just under the $1.1 billion recorded in 2019. Lodging was the largest spending category, accounting for 33% of total spending and followed by restaurants at 18.7% In the Blue Ridge Parkway — the busiest sections of which are located in Western North Carolina — visitor spending was even with that recorded in 2019, with the NPS reporting $1.1 billion both years.

Lodging accounted for 43.8% of that amount and restaurants for 21.3%. Parkway visitation accounted for 5.9% of total NPS visits.

The annual peer-reviewed economics report was prepared by economists from the U.S. Geological Survey and National Park Service. An interactive tool that offers information broken down by state and park is available at www.nps.gov/subjects/socialscience/vse.ht m.

— By Holly Kays, outdoors editor

Learn more about gardening Smoky Mountain News

Sign up by June 19 for a gardening class slated for 1 to 3 p.m. Tuesday, June 22, via Zoom.

Part of the “Gardening in the Mountains” series offered through the Haywood County Cooperative Extension Center, “Gardening Potpourri” will fall vegetable gardening, composting and organic and biorational pesticides.

Hosted by Horticulture Agent Sam Marshall with presentations from Master Gardener Volunteers. Cost is $10 with registration available under the “Gardening in the Mountains” menu at www.haywood.ces.ncsu.edu or via email to mgarticles@charter.net.

Spend an evening in the garden

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ArborEvenings is back at the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville, offering opportunity to spend Thursday and Friday evenings strolling through the gardens through Oct. 1.

From 5:30 to 8 p.m. each night, visitors will be able to purchase food and beverages, and sip and stroll through the gardens

while experiencing the Wild Art outdoor sculpture showcase and listening to live music from a variety of local and regional artists.

Free with standard $16 parking fee, and free for Arboretum Society members.

Proceeds support the N.C. Arboretum Society. Event will be canceled in case of rain — announcements will be posted on Facebook and at www.ncarboretum.org by 3 p.m.

A portion of the Black Mountain Trail on the Pisgah Ranger District will be closed through approximately Aug. 15 for maintenance.

The closure is in effect from Maxwell Cove Road (FS 5099) to Turkey Pen Gap Trail (No. 322). During that time, a trail rebuild will take place in partnership with Pisgah Area Southern Off Road Bicycle Association and The Pisgah Conservancy. It aims to enhance resource protection and improve trail sustainability.

A map is available at bit.ly/3xqd06n.

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Friends of the Mountains to Sea Trail received its largest individual gift ever when an anonymous donor gave $100,000 to establish the MST Forever Fund.

The fund will support improvements to the physical trail. This includes bridges, boardwalks, land acquisition and easements, trailheads, campsites and wayfinding signs throughout the trail’s 1,175-mile route across North Carolina.

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Smoky Mountain News

respect and kindness.”

In 2020, the 12,489-acre DuPont State Recreational Forest witnessed a recordbreaking influx of 1.1 million visitors, even Friends of DuPont Forest’s new Share the with two months of closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Alongside the influx of Trails Campaign aims to help visitors share and care for the forest’s 80-plus miles of trail visitors, the forest saw accompanying vandalism, trash, overuse and user conflict in this summer and beyond. the area.

“There appears to be a lot of confusion Currently, the forest has a multi-use, over trail etiquette in the outdoor communimulti-directional trail system that includes Tripe Falls is a popular cyclists, equestrians, attraction at DuPont State hikers, anglers and Recreational Forest. File photo more. Due to this mix of user types, it’s important to understand right-of-way rules.

Mountain bikers should yield to all other users, hikers and trail runners should yield to equestrians, and equestrians should be mindful of other users.

Other important principles for visitors to keep in mind ty,” said Executive Director Sara Landry. include: pack it in/pack it out, keep dogs on “Our hope with the Share the Trails campaign is that all trail users will educate them- leash, stay off of the waterfalls and don’t park on the roadside. selves so that everyone can enjoy themselves Learn more at www.dupontforest.com. and treat each other and the Forest with

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Delve into Cowee history Brent Martin will speak on the history behind the beautiful and storied Cowee Mountains in the Nantahala National Forest during a talk at 6:30 p.m.

Monday, June 21, at Cowee School arts and Heritage Story.

The talk, titled, “My daddy sold all that land to the government for a dollar and acre,” is part of the center’s “Where we Live: History, Nature and Culture” Brent Martin series and results from Martin’s research into forest ownership in Cowee.

Martin and his wife Angela Faye own Alarka Expeditions, and the Alarka Naturebook Store will be open across the hall from the gym the night of the presentation.

Free.

Peregrine falcon story gets an airing Dive into the fascinating world of one of the largest, fastest, most powerful falcon species at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 18, at the Folk Art Center in Asheville.

A Blue Ridge Parkway ranger will speak on peregrine falcons, and how this predator of the sky was nearly lost but has now returned to its original aerial hunting grounds in the mountains of Western North Carolina.

The program is part of the “Fridays at the Folk Art Center” series held at 7:30 p.m. each Friday this season at the Folk Art Center, located at Milepost 382 of the Parkway. It will be held outdoors, and participants should bring a chair or blanket to sit on. Bathrooms will not be available.

828.298.5330, ext. 302.

June 16-22, 2021

Great Smokies

Smoky Mountain News

ties. Tracks will include “Sustainable Outdoor Recreation Tourism,” “Outdoordriven Economic Development,” “Balancing Conservation and the Outdoor Economy,” and “Responsible Outdoor Product Innovation.”

Cost for the full conference is $300 through June 30, with excursions billed separately. The price rises to $500 July 1. www.outdooreconomy.org.

STORAGE LLC Call 828.506.4112

Tickets are now on sale for the 2021 Outdoor Economy Conference, which will be held in person Oct. 12-15, in the new conference center at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino in Cherokee. Early bird prices end June 30.

The theme this year will be “Stewards of Opportunity,” with sessions focusing on how those in the outdoor industry can work together to ensure a vibrant future for the outdoor economy and outdoor communi-

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Puzzles can be found on page 38 These are only the answers.

Landmark Learning is now enrolling for summer and fall courses in wilderness medicine, Leave No Trace education and more.

Most courses are located at Landmark’s main campus in Cullowhee, though some are planned for other locations in the region. Course lengths and costs vary depending on the certification sought.

Landmark Learning is a nationally accredited school of higher education dedicated to professional development for those in the outdoor industry. Scholarships are available through The Landmark Foundation. For a list of available courses, visit www.landmarklearning.org/course-calendar.

Forest service seeks to re-engage regarding Macon County projects The Nantahala Ranger District is resuming work on two projects in Macon County whose timelines were affected by position turnover and COVID-19, with plans to combine them into a single Environmental Assessment process.

The Turkey Pen Project analysis area was released in February 2016, and the Redbird Project Analysis area was released in September 2017. The projects aim to con-

duct forest management treatments to manage multiple resources, including timber, watershed, fuels and vegetation.

In the coming weeks, District Ranger Troy Waskey and his staff plan to conduct site visits with interested individuals and to facilitate access to the project area for stakeholders who prefer to visit on their own. A new, synthesized proposed action for the two projects and a formal scoping letter, record and maps is expected in July under the name “Nantahala Mountains Project.”

For more information, including to arrange a site visit, contact Steverson Moffat at steverson.moffat@usda.gov or 828.837.5152, ext. 108.

WNC Calendar COMMUNITY EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS • The Smoky Mountain District of the United Methodist Church will host a Conference-wide JUNETEENTH Freedom Celebration from 2 to 6 p.m. on Saturday, June 19, at Lake Junaluska.

• The Juneteenth Journey to Freedom Together 5K and 1K Fun Walk will step off at 9 a.m. Saturday, June 19, at Mark Watson Park in Sylva. It is organized by the Jackson County NAACP and will raise money for student scholarships and to bring the Harriet Tubman Journey to Freedom Sculpture to Sylva. In addition, a virtual bike ride will be held June 14-19. Cost is $30 for the 5K or bike ride and $20 for the 1K. Register by June 6 at www.jacksonncnaacp.org.

BUSINESS & EDUCATION • SCC’s Macon Campus will host an informational event on June 21, at Southwestern Community College’s Macon Campus in Franklin. For more information about the Macon Campus event, contact Kristan Blanton at 828.306.7017 or k_blanton@southwesterncc.edu. For info about Jackson Campus info events, stop by anytime or contact Dr. Mark Ellision 828.339.4229 or m_ellison@southwesterncc.edu.

• Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey and the Seniors’ Health Insurance Information Program or SHIIP invites new Medicare beneficiaries to participate in a virtual “Welcome to Medicare Fair” to help with initial enrollment. The virtual fair will take place from 3 to 7 p.m. June 23. To register, visit www.shiphelp.org.

FUNDRAISERS AND BENEFITS • The Maggie Valley Community Gardens will hold a yard sale from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, June 19, at the barn at the Maggie Valley United Methodist Church, 4192 Soco Road. All proceeds will be plowed back into the gardens.

• With Heart Projects will host its first Annual Charity Golf Tournament at 12 p.m. Saturday, June 19, at the Waynesville Inn and Golf Resort. For more information, contact Gabriel Frazier at 229.315.4240 or on With Heart Projects Facebook and Instagram.

Smoky Mountain News

n All phone numbers area code 828 unless otherwise noted. n To have your item listed email to calendar@smokymountainnews.com www.waynesvilleartschool.com/register-online • Waynesville Art School will host “Cardboard Animals” drop-in class from 3-5 p.m. Saturday, June 19, for ages 4-13. Registration is required, cost is $25, parents may accompany children free of charge. 828.246.9869 or www.waynesvilleartschool.com/register-online • Waynesville Art School will host “Squishy Fishy” dropin class from 2-4 p.m. Friday, June 25, for ages 4-7.

Registration is required, cost is $25, parents may accompany children free of charge. 828.246.9869 or www.waynesvilleartschool.com/register-online • Waynesville Art School will host “Magic Potions” drop-in class from 3-5 p.m. Saturday, June 26, for ages 4-13. Registration is required, cost is $25, parents may accompany children free of charge. 828.246.9869 or www.waynesvilleartschool.com/register-online • Waynesville Art School will host Relax & Paint! Night for Adults from 7-9:30 p.m. Thursday, June 17. Cost is $35, no experience necessary. Easy to follow step by step instructions are provided. 828.246.9869 or www.waynesvilleartschool.com/register-online • Waynesville Art School will host Relax & Paint! Night for Adults from 6-8:30 p.m. Saturday, June 19. Cost is $35, no experience necessary. Easy to follow step by step instructions are provided. 828.246.9869 or www.waynesvilleartschool.com/register-online • Waynesville Art School will host Relax & Paint! Night for Adults from 7-9:30 p.m. Thursday, June 24. Cost is $35, no experience necessary. Easy to follow step by step instructions are provided. 828.246.9869 or www.waynesvilleartschool.com/register-online • Waynesville Art School will host Relax & Paint! Night for Adults from 6-8:30 p.m. Saturday, June 26. Cost is $35, no experience necessary. Easy to follow step by step instructions are provided. 828.246.9869 or www.waynesvilleartschool.com/register-online

THE SPIRITUAL SIDE HEALTH AND WELLNESS • Waynesville Yoga will host a restorative session with Amber Kleid and Shutri Nadis from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 23. Cost is $25 plus donations for musicians. For more information, call 828.246.6570 or email hello@waynesvilleyogacenter.com.

KID’S ARTS • Waynesville Art School will host Quirky Birds of A Feather art camp from 9 .M. TO 12:30 p.m. June 21-25, for ages 8 and older. Cost is $195. A half day option 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. is available for ages 5-7, cost is $105. 828.246.9869 or www.waynesvilleartschool.com/register-online • Waynesville Art School will host a Fantasy Worlds & Mapmaking art camp from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. June 28 - July 2, for ages 10 and older. Cost is $245.

828.246.9869 or www.waynesvilleartschool.com/register-online • Waynesville Art School Art Sparklers class for ages 89 meets on Tuesdays from 5 to 6:30 p.m. 828.246.9869 or www.waynesvilleartschool.com/register-online • Waynesville Art School Shining Minds art class for ages 10 and older meets on Wednesdays from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. 828.246.9869 or

• Truth seekers meetings take place from 6 to 8 p.m. every 2nd and 4th Friday of the month at the Franklin library meeting room to have a short video or other presentation by a member followed by discussion and Bible reading. Contact jjurban55@gmail.com for more information.

(Americana/folk) June 18, Bob Keel June 19, Zip Robertson 3 p.m. June 20, Laura Thurston 5 p.m. June 24, Scoundrel’s Lounge (blues/rock) June 25 and Space Granny June 26. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.454.5664 or www.froglevelbrewing.com.

• Innovation Station (Dillsboro) will host Cam Cokas June 20, Silent Disco 7 p.m. June 25 and Fitz N Dave June 27. All events are free and begin at 2 p.m. unless otherwise noted. www.innovation-brewing.com.

• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Franklin) will host The High Strangeness (rock) June 19 and Scoundrel’s Lounge (blues/rock) June 26. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public.

828.342.5133 or www.lazyhikerbrewing.com.

• Boojum Brewing (Waynesville) will host karaoke at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, trivia at 7 p.m. on Thursdays and Positive Mental Attitude (rock/roots) June 19. All shows begin at 9 p.m. Free and open to the public.

828.246.0350 or www.boojumbrewing.com.

• The Classic Wineseller (Waynesville) will host a special dinner show with Kevin Lorenz (guitar) June 19. All shows begin at 7 p.m. Reservations required.

828.452.6000 or www.classicwineseller.com.

• Friday Night Live (Highlands) will be held at the Town Square from 6 to 8:30 p.m. with Johnny Webb Band June 18 and Trudition June 25. Free and open to the public. www.highlandschamber.org.

• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host Joey Fortner

Visit www.smokymountainnews.com and click on Calendar for: n n n n

Complete listings of local music scene Regional festivals Art gallery events and openings Complete listings of recreational offerings at health and fitness centers n Civic and social club gatherings Asheville. It will be held outdoors, and participants should bring a chair or blanket to sit on. Bathrooms will not be available. 828.298.5330, ext. 302.

• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Sylva) will host Natti Love Joys (reggae/soul) June 18 and Unlimited Devotion (Grateful Dead tribute) June 25. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public.

828.349.2337 or www.lazyhikerbrewing.com.

• Sign up by June 19 for a gardening class slated for 1 to 3 p.m. Tuesday, June 22, via Zoom. Hosted by Horticulture Agent Sam Marshall with presentations from Master Gardener Volunteers. Cost is $10 with registration available at www.haywood.ces.ncsu.edu or via email to mgarticles@charter.net.

• Nantahala Outdoor Center (Nantahala Gorge) will host “Bluegrass with Blue” June 18 and 25, and Pioneer Chicken Stand June 19. All shows begin at 6 p.m. Free and open to the public. 888.905.7238 or www.noc.com.

• Brent Martin will speak on the history behind the beautiful and storied Cowee Mountains in the Nantahala National Forest during a talk at 6:30 p.m.

Monday, June 21, at Cowee School arts and Heritage Story. Free.

• “Pickin’ on the Square” (Franklin) will host Paradise 56 (variety) June 19 Michael Reno Harrell (singer-songwriter) June 26. All shows start at 7 p.m. Free and open to the public. Located on Main Street. www.franklinchamber.com.

• Learn about the Smokies Herbarium during a Zoom presentation 1 to 3 p.m. Friday, June 18, presented by Janie Bitner, a volunteer with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Natural History Collection.

Free. Register for the Zoom link at www.dlia.org/sas.

• Saturdays On Pine (Highlands) will be held at the Kelsey-Hutchinson Park from 6 to 8:30 p.m. with Americana Jones June 19. Free and open to the public. www.highlandschamber.org.

• Help clean up Richland Creek from 9 to 10:30 a.m.

Saturday, June 19, in Waynesville. Organized by Haywood Waterways Association. RSVP by June 17 to Christine O’Brien at Christine.haywoodwaterways@gmail.com or 828.476.4667, ext. 11.

• Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts (Franklin) will host Mark Lowry w/Endless Highway at 7:30 p.m. June 18. Tickets start at $25 per person. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, go to www.greatmountainmusic.com.

• Stecoah Valley Center (Robbinsville) “An Appalachian Evening” series will host Buncombe Turnpike June 19.

The three shows are free and open to the public. A special online performance by The Kruger Brothers will be June 26. Ticketed shows will include The Jeff Little Trio July 10 ($25), Liam Purcell & Cane Mill Road July 17 ($15) and Darin & Brooke Aldridge July 24 ($25).

828.479.3364 or www.stecoahvalleycenter.com.

• Water’n Hole Bar & Grill (Waynesville) will host karaoke on Thursday nights and Scoundrel’s Lounge (blues/rock) June 20. All shows begin at 3 p.m.

828.456.4750 or www.facebook.com/waternhole.bar.

ON STAGE & IN CONCERT

A&E

35

• HART Theater and Kids at HART present Sister Act Jr. at 7:30 p.m. June 19, and 2 p.m. June 20. www.harttheatre.org or 828.456.6322.

ART SHOWINGS AND GALLERIES • The exhibit “Inspiration: The Creative Muse at Work” will run June 4-26 at the Haywood County Arts Council in downtown Waynesville. www.haywoodarts.org.

Outdoors

• Dive into the fascinating world of peregrine falcons at 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 18, at the Folk Art Center in

• Black Balsam Knob in the Pisgah National Forest is one of seven spots nationwide that Sierra Designs ambassadors have chosen to celebrate National Trails Day. On Saturday, June 19, ambassadors will be at Black Balsam to host a trailside happy hour and hand out Sierra Designs swag as part of the Toasts on Trail program, designed to encourage people to get out and hike. www.sierradesigns.com/toasts-on-trail.

• Haywood County Parks and Recreation will guide a hike to Frying Pan Tower at 1 p.m. June 20. The hike will be led by Lisa Cook and Steve Szczepanski. Hikes are $10 per person, paid at registration. Contact Haywood Parks and Rec to register at 828.452.6789 or Ian.smith@haywoodcountync.gov.

• Haywood County Parks and Recreation will guide a hike along Flat Creek Trail at 9:30 a.m. June 26. The hike will be led by Phyllis Woollen and Vickey Watson.

Hikes are $10 per person, paid at registration. Contact Haywood Parks and Rec to register at 828.452.6789 or Ian.smith@haywoodcountync.gov.

Market WNC PLACE

MarketPlace information:

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Employment THE JACKSON COUNTY DEPARTMENT Of Social Services is recruiting for a full-time Community Social Services Assistant. Duties primarily involve transporting foster children for a variety of purposes such as visits with parents, medical appointments, counseling, education, or training. Candidates for this position should be highly dependable, adaptable, have the abil-

ity to lift children and car seats, have completed high school, interact well with children, and have a valid NC driver’s license with a good driving record. The starting salary is $24,168.16. The application for employment is available online at: www. jcdss.org or www.jacksonnc.org and should be submitted to the Jackson County Department of 6RFLDO 6HUYLFHV *ULI¿Q Street, Sylva, NC 28779 or the Sylva branch of the NC Works Career Center.

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June 16-22, 2021

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THE JACKSON COUNTY DEPARTMENT Of Social Services is recruiting for an Adult Services Social Worker. This position investigates reports of adult abuse and neglect and provides case management for substantiated adult protective services cases. This position also provides ongoing case management for guardianships, payeeships, individual and family adjustment services. Other duties include general intake and community outreach services. Requires limited availability after hours and on weekends on an as-needed-basis. Start-

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Keller Williams Realty - kellerwilliamswaynesville.com • The Morris Team - www.themorristeamnc.com • Julie Lapkoff - julielapkoff@kw.com • Darrin Graves - dgraves@kw.com

Lakeshore Realty • Phyllis Robinson - lakeshore@lakejunaluska.com

Mountain Dreams Realty- maggievalleyhomesales.com Mountain Creek Real Estate • Ron Rosendahl - 828-593-8700

McGovern Real Estate & Property Management • Bruce McGovern - shamrock13.com

RE/MAX Executive - remax-waynesvillenc.com

Pamela P Williams

RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL BROKER ASSOCIATE

CELL: (803) 528-5039 OFFICE: (828) 452-5809 EMAIL: PAMELAWILLIAMS@BEVERLY-HANKS.COM

www.wncmarketplace.com

Billie Green - bgreen@beverly-hanks.com Brian K. Noland - brianknoland.com Anne Page - apage@beverly-hanks.com Jerry Powell - jpowell@beverly-hanks.com Catherine Proben - cproben@beverly-hanks.com Ellen Sither - ellensither@beverly-hanks.com Mike Stamey - mikestamey@beverly-hanks.com Karen Hollingsed- khollingsed@beverly-hanks.com Billy Case- billycase@beverly-hanks.com Laura Thomas - lthomas@beverly-hanks.com John Keith - jkeith@beverly-hanks.com Randall Rogers - rrogers@beverly-hanks.com Susan Hooper - shooper@beverly-hanks.com Hunter Wyman - hwyman@beverly-hanks.com

ERA Sunburst Realty - sunburstrealty.com

Call for FREE HOME VALUE EVALUATION Ellen Sither

• • • • • • • • • • • • • •

June 16-22, 2021

• • • • • • •

remax-maggievalleync.com The Real Team - TheRealTeamNC.com Ron Breese - ronbreese.com Landen Stevenson- landen@landenkstevenson.com Dan Womack - womackdan@aol.com Mary & Roger Hansen - mwhansen@charter.net David Willet - davidwillet1@live.com Sara Sherman - sarashermanncrealtor@gmail.com

TO ADVERTISE IN THE NEXT ISSUE

828.452.4251 ads@smokymountainnews.com WNC MarketPlace

37

SUPER

CROSSWORD

CITY HITS ACROSS 1 Shoe statistic 6 ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron and such 12 "Lemme think about that ..."

15 "This looks bad" 19 New Olds in 1999 20 Get excited 21 Lead-in to classical 22 Cuban money 23 1964 Elvis Presley hit 25 Native of France's capital 27 Retired NBA star Ming 28 Ellipsis part 29 Article in many rap song titles 30 Printer insert 31 1974 Paper Lace hit 35 Copy and Paste setting 37 Demand (of) 38 '60s prez 39 Horn blast 40 Stocking-holding band 44 "It's my turn now" 45 Throw softly 48 Rear target in bowling 51 1985 Jan Hammer hit 55 Equine animal 56 -- Moines 58 World Series org.

59 Cry of epiphany 60 Pie's place 61 Zest and Coast 63 Dangling bit of jewelry 65 Tip over 66 1959 Freddy Cannon hit 69 Battle reminders 71 Missionary "Mother" 72 "Sands of Iwo Jima"

73 74 75 77 78 81 85 87 88 89 91 92 93 95 98 105 106 107 108 111 112

115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122

director Dwan Raines of old films Riverbed sand Suffix with duct or project Big klutz Pig's place 1969 Glen Campbell hit Rich Italian ice cream Rescue request Note after fa Time pieces?

Noted times Move to and -Droop down Carrier to Milan 1975 Elton John hit Atlas feature showing altitude Former big record gp.

Ultrasecret govt. org.

Big klutz Quick web ordering option 1986 John Cougar Mellencamp hit that summarizes this puzzle?

Friendly bat of the eye Mr. --! (Clue-like board game) Cry of epiphany Some upscale hotels Some jeans G.P.'s field Looks hard Occupy, as a desk

DOWN 1 Like tildes 2 Figure skater Kulik 3 Private prayers 4 "----la-la"

5 6 7 8

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 24 26 30 32 33 34 35 36 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 49 50 52 53 54 57 61 62 64 65

Poker variety Moistening while cooking Hip-hop mogul Gotti "Pride -- before destruction" 9 Need (to) Son of Abraham Guitar maker Paul Empty a suitcase Comic Anne Home loan offerer Good aspect Klum on many covers Inedible type of orange Fine-tuned Top-caliber Asimov classic Lead-in to gender URL lead-in Apra Harbor locale Mata -Bluesy James Performs Cup part Writer Gay or editor Nan Diplomats' residences Winter fight projectile Flood barrier Ill sign, say Be flexible Huge heroes Sci-fi writer Stephenson Sensed feeling Land in the water, in Livorno Cabbie's cry Of positional relations Wife of Abraham Turtle topper Purviews Consumption

66 67 68 69 70 74 76 78 79 80 82 83 84 86 90 92 93 94 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 109 110 112 113 114

Shower powders Intro drawing class, maybe Wallop Embroiders, e.g.

Ad biz award Didn't waver Water, to Henri Of utmost importance And the like: Abbr.

Prone to pry Haifa's home Close to Close to Jared of "Mr. Nobody" "Burnt" hues Movies, informally Quenched, as thirst Instagram, for one Breather Baking potatoes Be on the hunt Skating legend Sonja Graff of "Ladybugs" Pageant VIP Folder's call Ghana port Phony sort Thai's home Swift Where one lives: Abbr.

'50s prez Former big record gp.

ANSWERS ON PAGE 34

ing salary is $36,369.35, LI IXOO\ TXDOL¿HG 0LQLPXP TXDOL¿FDWLRQV LQFOXGH D four year degree in a HuPDQ 6HUYLFH ¿HOG 3UHIerence will be given to applicants with a Master’s or Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work and experience providing Social Work services. The application for employment is available online at: http://www.jcdss.org or https://www.jacksonnc. org/employment-opportunities or may be obtained at the Jackson County +XPDQ 5HVRXUFHV 2I¿FH or the Sylva branch of the NC Works Career Center.

Applications will be taken until June 18, 2021.

Home Goods GENERAC STANDBY GENERATORS Don’t Wait! The weather is increasingly unpredictable.

Be. prepared for power outages. FREE 7-yr ext. warranty ($695 value!)

Schedule your Free InHome assessment today.

1-833-953-0224, special ¿QDQFLQJ IRU TXDOL¿HG customers.

Livestock BRING YOUR HORSES TO HIGHLANDS NC. 4 STALLS IN FIRST CLASS BARN FOR

Farm & Garden

CASTILLO

Tree Service, Etc, Inc.

• Dangerous Tree Removal • Pruning • Creating Views

ROTARY GAS MOWER New Unused Poulan Pro 550, 158cc, 22” cut. $75.

(828) 488-6970

FREE ESTIMATES • INSURED

RENT. TWO PASTURES. TRAILER PARKING. SERVICES PROVIDED. ACCESS TO MILES OF FOREST TRAILS IN BEAUTIFUL HISTORIC HORSE COVE. TXT 828.200.3217

Medical

LIFE ALERT. 24/7. One press of a button sends help FAST! Medical, Fire, Burglar. Even if you can’t reach a phone! FREE Brochure. CALL 844-9022362

OXYGEN - Don’t Wait!

Anytime anywhere. No WDQNV WR UH¿OO 1R GHOLYeries. The All-New Inogen One G4 is only 2.8 pounds! FAA approved!

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ATTENTION SENIORS AGES 40-85 Great Deal!

Low Cost Life Insurance to help pay for funeral cost and more! Everyone 4XDOL¿HV $SSO\ 7RGD\ DW 407-960-4782

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saulcastillo7212@gmail.com

SUDOKU Here’s How It Works: Sudoku puzzles are formatted as a 9x9 grid, broken down into nine 3x3 boxes. To solve a sudoku, the numbers 1 through 9 must fill each row, column and box. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and box. You can figure out the order in which the numbers will appear by using the numeric clues already provided in the boxes. The more numbers you name, Answers on 34 the easier it gets to solve the puzzle!

38

www.smokymountainnews.com

June 16-22, 2021

WNC MarketPlace

Pets HOUND MIX – BLACK&TAN, CAROLINE 2-yr old; sweet, shy. More social with other dogs around.

Want understanding home to take time warming up. (828) 761-2001 publicrelations@ashevillehumane.org USE PARACIDE® shampoo on cats and GRJV WR WUHDW ÀHDV ticks. Relieve secondary dermatitis. N.C. Clampitt Hardware 488-2782. (www.kennelvax.com) SOLID WHITE CAT, BOOBOO 10 years old; sweet, beautiful lady. Sometimes plays with toys; likes to snuggle or just hang out near you.

(828) 761-2001 publicrelations@ashevillehumane.org

Real Estate Announcements NEVER PAY FOR HOME REPAIRS Again! Complete Care Home Warranty, Covers All Major Systems & Appliances.

30-Day Risk Free. $200 Off! 2 Free Months!

1-866-501-1596 PUBLISHER’S NOTICE All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Fair Housing Act which makes it

illegal to advertise ‘any preference, limitation or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin, or an intention to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination’. Familial status includes children under 18 living with parents or legal guardians and pregnant women.

This newspaper will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate in violation of this law. All dwellings advertised on equal opportunity basis.

Recreational Vehicles BOAT FOR SALE 14’ Orlando Clipper aluminum boat with trailer and 25hp Johnson motor. Lots of accessories.

(828) 524-8573

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Home Improvement

Yard Sales

The Original Home Town Real Estate Agency Since 1970

CALL EMPIRE TODAY To schedule a Free InHome estimate on Carpeting & Flooring. Call 855-404-2366 Today!

ENERGY SAVING NEW WINDOWS! Beautify your home! Save on monthly energy bills with NEW WINDOWS from 1800Remodel! Up to 18 months no interest. Restrictions apply. 1-877-287-8229 JAMISON CUSTOM PAINTING-PRESSURE WASHING Interior, exterior, all needs & more.

Specializing in Removal of Carpenter Bees-New product Guaranteed Success! Call/Text for Free Estimate at 828508-9727

Painters

ESTATE SALE SATURDAY, 8AMNOON Sat Jun 19th, 2021 from 08:00 AM - 12:00 PM Little Savannah Baptist Church parking lot, Sylva.2390 Little Savannah Road.

Family heirlooms, crystal, china, African artifacts, home decor, Christmas ornaments, linens, household items, women’s clothing, shoes, and handbags, books and CDs.Get your Christmas shopping done early ! No early sales please .

LIFETIME WOOD REFINISHING SPECIALIST/PAINTER for Hire! All Hardwoods, Floors, Doors, Kitchens & More - Brought Back to Life. Pictures Available.

863-517-8390

Wanted to Buy FREON WANTED: We pay $$$ for cylinders and cans. R12 R500 R11 R113 R114. Convenient. CerWL¿HG 3URIHVVLRQDOV &DOO 312-291-9169 or visit RefrigerantFinders.com

147 Walnut St. • Waynesville 828-456-7376 • 1-800-627-1210

www.sunburstrealty.com

Real Experience.

Real Service. Real Results.

828.452.3727 www.TheRealTeamNC.com

RE/MAX

EXECUTIVE

71 N. Main Street Waynesville

Dan Womack BROKER

828.

243.1126 MOUNTAIN REALTY

71 N. Main St. • Waynesville, NC

828-564-9393

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS SELLER’S MARKET TODAY.

Jeanne Forrest BROKER

828-571-0515

ashevillerealeat8@gmail.com

www.wncmarketplace.com

June 16-22, 2021

WNC MarketPlace

39

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Smoky Mountain News June 16-22, 2021