Smoky Mountain News | September 8, 2021

Sept. 8-14, 2021 Vol. 23 Iss. 15 www.smokymountainnews.com

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Cawthorn responds to recent insurrection comments Page 6 Alcohol referenda pass in Cherokee Page 12

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CONTENTS On the Cover: Downtown Sylva has been the place to be this summer season with plenty of live music, exciting festivals and new restaurants and businesses popping up everywhere despite the challenges and uncertainty of the pandemic. (Page 8) WCU students Kinley Cook, Laila Figaroa and Megan Gorman stand in front of Sylva’s new mural by Worth LaRose. Hannah McLeod photo

News Cawthorn responds to recent insurrection comments ............................................6 Sylva shows community ‘Pride’ ....................................................................................10 Two incumbents defeated in Cherokee Council elections ..................................12 Alcohol referenda pass in Cherokee ..........................................................................12 WCU opens $110.5 million science building ........................................................14 Waynesville homeless task force floundering ..........................................................16 Katie Dean promises ‘blue collar’ campaign in NC11 ..........................................19

Opinion Reflections of a 9/11 mental health volunteer ........................................................20 Finding an antidote in baseball ......................................................................................21

September 8-14, 2021

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Scott McLeod. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . info@smokymountainnews.com Greg Boothroyd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . greg@smokymountainnews.com Micah McClure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . micah@smokymountainnews.com Travis Bumgardner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . travis@smokymountainnews.com Jessica Murray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . jessica.m@smokymountainnews.com Susanna Shetley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . susanna.b@smokymountainnews.com Amanda Bradley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . jc-ads@smokymountainnews.com Hylah Birenbaum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . hylah@smokymountainnews.com Sophia Burleigh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . sophia.b@smokymountainnews.com Scott Collier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . classads@smokymountainnews.com Jessi Stone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . jessi@smokymountainnews.com Holly Kays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . holly@smokymountainnews.com Hannah McLeod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . hannah@smokymountainnews.com Cory Vaillancourt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . cory@smokymountainnews.com Garret K. Woodward. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . garret@smokymountainnews.com Amanda Singletary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . smnbooks@smokymountainnews.com Scott Collier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . classads@smokymountainnews.com Jeff Minick (writing), Chris Cox (writing), George Ellison (writing), Don Hendershot (writing), Susanna Shetley (writing) Boyd Allsbrook (writing)

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Infamous Stringdusters to play Salvage Station ....................................................22 Books: Good folks and a wicked man ........................................................................29

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Conservative firebrand Cawthorn responds to furor over insurrection comments

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS E DITOR estern North Carolina Congressman Madison Cawthorn is known for making controversial statements, but video footage from a recent Macon County Republican Party that showed him speaking about insurrectionists and another possible rally in Washington has the internet up in arms, and people from both parties again calling for his removal.

Cawthorn took a moment on Sept. 1 to speak with The Smoky Mountain News about what he said, what he meant to say and what he thinks was misconstrued.

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September 8-14, 2021

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The Smoky Mountain News: Back on Jan. 7, I spoke to you right after the insurrection and you called some of the people who stormed the capital disgusting and pathetic. Last weekend in Macon County, a woman asked what you were doing to support those currently incarcerated for their actions on Jan. 6 and you referred to them as “political hostages.” What has changed, in your mind, to drastically alter that definition of these folks?

Rep. Madison Cawthorn: I want to be very clear that the people that I’m specifically talking about, those people were there causing violence or they were causing some kind of vandalism, I want them to be charged to the full extent of the law. Even the people who were actually just around the Capitol, I want them to be charged to the full extent of law.

What I really truly want is due process for these people because I’m starting to understand that people whose only crime was just simply trespassing — not the people who were busting down the doors or fighting against the Capitol police, but the people who literally their only crime was just trespassing in the Capitol — they’re now going to be charged for seven years. I mean, there’s a gentleman, Anthony Griffith from Oklahoma, he walks into the U.S. Capitol building through open doors and he was telling agents he did not see any police officers as he entered the building and he went to a nearby office where

Madison Cawthorn speaks in Sylva during the 2020 campaign.

Cory Vaillancourt photo

he interacted with some individuals, but instead he meandered around the halls. And this is an actual reporting from Fox News after talking to justice department officials. And now he’s going to be held for seven years?

When I started hearing this, I think, wow, these people I don’t believe are getting due process under the law. And I don’t want you to take my word for it, Cory. I mean, Michael Sherwin, an official from the Justice Department, who’s the prosecutor, the lead prosecutor on this, he literally said the reason we’ve gone and rounded up 400 people, it wasn’t because they broke actual laws [but] because I wanted to have shock and awe,

SMN: We can say that these people were trespassers at the very least, but you certainly

remember the security around your office on Jan. 20 and 21. Some of the folks in there on Jan. 6 endangered not only the safety of other elected Members of Congress, but your own safety. Do you understand how this is a little more significant than just trespassing?

MC: I think it needs to be pretty specific about the actual people we’re talking about.

Because you know, there was definitely, I believe, a group of people within the Jan. 6 protestors, a small minority who literally were the ones that endangered people’s lives, ones who got very aggressive, who were the ones busting down the doors, were going bare-knuckle fisticuffs

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because they had the Inauguration coming on the 20th and these people were thumbing their nose at the public, meaning the Democratic Party and those officials, and they wanted to cause a shock and awe factor.

So I definitely just want people to be treated fairly under the law. I’m starting to hear lots of reports of people not getting due process, not being provided bail, not being provided the proper representation. I heard most of that from Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and a few other reporters.

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SMN: One of the specific people that I would refer you to is Ashli Babbitt, who was shot by a Capitol Police officer. Do you believe that that shooting was warranted to keep Members of Congress who were in an adjacent corridor safe?

MC: I really do not have many of the details when it comes to Ashley Babbitt. I don’t actually know much of what happened in that instance, so I don’t feel comfortable speaking on that.

SMN: In the video a man offscreen says, “When are you going to call us to Washington

SMN: In that context, people have seen your close relationship with former President Trump. People have commented that he’s operating kind of a “shadow cabinet” with some former advisors — people like Mark Meadows, people like yourself. I think it gives people pause when you say things like this, and they ask, “Is there some sort of cabal, or is this group that Madison is part of actively plotting further measures to overturn the results of the 2020 election?” Can you characterize what that group of folks that you’ve been hanging out with, along with former President Trump, are talking about or working on or trying to accomplish?

MC: The first time I ever heard about QAnon was from, I think it might have actually been from you, asking how I felt about it, and I really didn’t know anything about it.

But, when we start using the terms like “shadow cabinet” and “cabal,” I mean, that starts to sound really Q-ish. I can assure you we’re a part of no shadow cabinet. I do consider myself a close confidant of President Trump, who I know quite well. We get to talk, and converse regularly. I’m very interested in the 2020 election audits. I want those to be done everywhere. I’m more than happy to have my election results audited. I think it would just mean that I won by more votes.

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September 8-14, 2021

SMN: Another comment on the video from Macon County was about these “political prisoners,” and you said “… if we we’re actually able to go and try to bust them out …” Can you better explain your real motives in terms of making sure that these people are being fairly incarcerated if they in fact deserve to be?

MC: If anybody interpreted what I said, “bust them out,” as me getting out of my wheelchair and going Rambo mode and getting these guys out through some kind of illegal action — that’s by no means what I meant.

I absolutely mean that I just want to make sure these people are having due process under the law. I want to make sure people are allowed to have bail that’s set at a reasonable number. I want them to be tried by their peers. I just want normal due process. Our entire Justice Department is supposed to be blind to political affiliation, but I feel like these people are being targeted specifically because their affiliation. I want due process under the law.

again?” You said “We’re working on that. We are actively working on that one, I don’t have an answer to that one right yet.” Again, in light of the insurrection, do you see a way that you could better clarify your actual intentions?

MC: The way it was actually reported, I can see how it could be misconstrued, but I think through the context of the video, the young woman who was asking about the political prisoners who were locked up and what we’re doing for them — I was in the middle of that answer, and the gentleman behind her yelled out the whole, “When are you calling us back up to Washington?” I then take a pause and then I point directly back at the woman. I didn’t even respond to that gentleman.

We have no plans, and no one is trying to start any form of a protest or anything in Washington. When I said I was actively working on it, I meant I was actually working on getting answers about the political prisoners following Jan. 6. By no means is anyone actively that I know of trying to plan some political protest going on in Washington. My office has no plans of that at all.

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with the Capitol Police. Those people, I believe are dangerous individuals, but the overwhelming majority of the people of the Jan. 6 thing were just normal people, there for a normal protest to redress their government.

And then they saw an open door at the top of the Capitol, and they were just kind of wandering in. I will admit they were trespassing and that was wrong. We’re not advocating for trespassing, but I think there’s just needs to be a delineation between the vast majority of people who have been arrested as Michael Sherman was saying, it was 400 people he arrested not because they broke any actual laws, [but because] he wanted a shock and awe factor.

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These are steps to protect yourself: • Be skeptical of anyone promising immediate cleanup and debris removal.

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• Guard your personal information. Only scammers will say they’re a government official and then demand money or your credit card, bank account or Social Security number.

• Know that FEMA does not charge application fees. If someone wants money to help you qualify for FEMA funds, that’s probably a scam.

• Be wise to rental-listing scams. Steer clear of people who tell you to wire money or ask for security deposits or rent before you’ve met or signed a lease.

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What’s new in downtown Sylva?

BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER ike the rest of the world, Sylva has had to grapple with the ongoing Coronavirus Pandemic and the ensuing economic fallout. However, Sylva not only maintained a healthy, downtown business district, it has added new businesses and new elements to the downtown scene throughout the course of the pandemic.

“We knew opening a business during a pandemic was a risk, but we also knew people need community, connectivity, movement and expression,” said Crystal Snover, coowner of Studio 505. Snover and Taisir ElSouessi opened Studio 505 in October 2020.

According to town records, since January 2020, at least 35 new businesses have opened in Sylva. Those openings occurred across 14 months, and the new businesses provide a spectrum of services in Sylva which is now home to a host of new, independently-owned restaurants.

Ilda, at the confluence of Main and Mill streets, combines fine Italian food and fresh Appalachian ingredients. Owners Crystal Pace and Santiago Guzzetti moved to Sylva from Brooklyn to open the restaurant.

Lucy in the Rye, owned by Constantinos Mitsides, serves breakfast and lunch, offering diner classics as well as chef creations.

Mitsides also owns The Yoga Mill, housed just above the restaurant. Both businesses opened in October 2020.

Jame, a Mediterranean style restaurant, was opened by Don Panicko and Cecilia White in April. Panicko and White also own White Moon coffee shop and Dark Moon cocktail bar. While Jame is open for dinner, The Market at Jame is open each day 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. offering ready-made salads, sandwiches and other lunches, as well as grocery items. The market also has an outdoor patio for customers to enjoy their food.

Celebration Saturday, Sept. 4, complete with live music, a parade and a family-friendly drag show. Over 500 people attended the festivities in celebration and support. Several businesses around Sylva decorated doors and windows for the event and some restaurants even had specials themed for Pride.

Rountree has plans for an annual pride event in the years to come, as well as educational and entertainment LGBTQ opportunities for Jackson County.

September 8-14, 2021

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HOMEGROWN BUSINESS

Everything Bagel opened in September 2020. Jessica DuBoise owns this breakfast and lunch spot which offers New York bagels, sandwiches, salads, coffee and pastries.

ARTS & CULTURE Visitors to Sylva may have noticed a new mural on Mill Street. The side of Dixie Mae, an antique store, is now adorned with panels painted the colors of the rainbow and a soft, sloping mountain range. In the middle are the words “You Belong Here.”

Economic Development Director Bernadette Peters and Sylva Pride founder

Smoky Mountain News

Sylva wraps up summer festival season

BY J ESSI STONE N EWS E DITOR lanning events during the COVID-19 Pandemic has been no picnic. Just as businesses and agencies make plans for their next festival or fundraiser, the virus takes another unexpected turn.

Even during the height of the pandemic in 2020, the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce was still hopeful it could pull off the beloved Concerts on the Creek summer series given that the Friday night event could be outside and socially distanced.

“Last year, 2020, we tried so hard to make it work. These events typically run on Fridays, Memorial Day through Labor Day. When 8 COVID started, we postponed the series but

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we hoped we could maybe ‘clear the hurdle’ so to speak by July 4, 2020,” said Kelly Donaldson, assistant director of the chamber. “Of course, we did not. We rescheduled the entire lineup two to three times and even began doubling up concerts to be on Friday and Saturdays or to have two concerts in one day to fit them all in. We even tried going past Labor Day into October. It just never got better as far as COVID numbers went.”

After pushing back the dates for as long as it could and consulting with county officials, the chamber finally called off the 2020 season and started focusing on rescheduling the bands for the 2021 season. As COVID numbers started to decrease nationally, regionally and locally with the roll out of the vaccine in

Travis Rountree coordinated with the owners of the building in the effort to get the mural done. Artist Worth LaRose and her wife Sarah LaRose collaborated on the design and creation of the mural.

“We felt the need to include mountains because, obviously, we’re in Appalachia and then the phrase ‘You belong here.’ That’s a pretty common phrase that you’ll see in different areas to demonstrate inclusivity and belonging. So it’s for LGBTQ folks, but it’s also for people of different races, people with different genders, all of those types of things,” said Rountree.

Sylva celebrated its inaugural Pride

Among the other 35 new businesses in Sylva are Studio 505, The Blue Hippie, Lola’s Gifts, Blue Ridge Forage, Salon 1718, Pinnacle Relief and Snake Song Plant Apothecary, providing culinary and medicinal herbs, plants, pottery and flowers.

“Owning a business in Sylva is amazing,” said Snover. “We love our local community.

At Studio 505, we offer group classes as well as individual lessons and the studio is also available as a private rental space. So, the nature of our vision is community.”

The Jackson Arts Market continues to offer a space for businesses outside the confines of a brick and mortar storefront. The market takes place every Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. with a host of local vendors, craft makers and musicians. That’s where Blue Ridge Forage, established in February of this year, sells its wares, in addition to farmers markets in the region. Owned

by Chloe Burnette-Turner, Blue Ridge Forage offers Appalachian-foraged edible and medicinal herbs and mushrooms.

Organizations such as the Jackson Arts Market, Sylva Pride, Jackson County Farmers Market and Concerts on the Creek demonstrate a community interested in not only attracting visitors, but also in creating a sustainable, quality experience for its residents.

the spring, restrictions also started to lift quicker than expected, Donaldson said. Still, staff proceeded with caution.

“For safety’s sake, we originally delayed the start of the Concerts on the Creek season until July 2, 2021. But as restrictions dropped, we felt a little push from the community to start earlier, because people wanted to get out and have fun,” he said. “It also felt OK for the first time in a long time. So we scrambled and hosted two events prior to the July 2 start date for Concerts on the Creek.”

Donaldson said a Beach Night concert held June 19 and an ‘80s Night concert June 26 were “so incredibly well-received.” The chamber had hand sanitizer available and encouraged non-vaccinated people to wear masks and to social distance. Staff didn’t know what kind of crowds to expect this summer, but the response made it clear people were ready to get out of the house.

“From that point on, as we held July 4 fireworks and its concert, and then our normal schedule through Labor Day, we’ve seen

probably the most consistent crowds ever,” he said. “Typically during any given year, one night will be extra large, the next Friday might just be OK, and the next mediocre or large again, and so on. But this year they were consistently well-attended across the board. I think everyone was ready to get out and put on their dancin’ shoes.”

Concerts on the Creek has a loyal following of community members that love to sit outside and enjoy the local array of musical talent, but the event attracts tourists visiting the area as well. Donaldson said the growing attendance is also encouraging during a time when downtown Sylva has so much more to offer when it comes to live music.

“We think what is different from years past, or when Concerts on the Creek started 11 years ago, is our downtown has become so eclectic. There are so many great dining options and more live music options at our local breweries than we’ve ever had in Sylva on any given night,” he said.

“I think everyone has more

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Labor shortage will be focus for Sylva’s new downtown director

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Hook, Line & Drinker Festival at Bridge Park in Sylva.

students to get paid while also receiving academic credit.

Peters is on the steering committee for the CREATE BRIDGES Initiative funded by N.C. State University as well, and that project’s goals line up nicely with the challenges Peters faces in leading downtown Sylva. It aims to pilot a process for helping rural communities build capacity and strengthen the retail, tourism, hospitality and entertainment sectors. The committee is working on plans for a virtual event to connect business owners to resources and ideas for success in the current economic climate.

In a tourism economy, bridging the labor gap is paramount.

than one option for what kind of live music they’d like to hear on any given summer weekend or date night in Sylva. That’s incredibly refreshing. If you don’t like bluegrass, you can go down the street and hear a jam band. If you don’t like beach music, this brewery has a jazz band tonight. It’s hard to believe this is really little ol’ Sylva sometimes. It’s amazing.”

Donaldson said it felt good to be able to have Fourth of July activities this year in Sylva, though some regular features didn’t return this year due to COVID, including the bouncy house, inflatable slides and bungee activities for kids. Otherwise, it was business as usual for July 4 as the chamber staff encouraged people to social distance, wear masks and sanitize.

“It was just so much fun to see everyone singing, dancing and laughing again in Bridge Park,” he said.

By the time the fourth annual Hook, Line & Drinker Festival rolled around Aug. 21, the region was seeing COVID-19 cases

spiking again and vaccination numbers locally weren’t as high as expected.

Donaldson said the turnout was great, even though more folks were wearing masks and being cautious.

“It’s just been a summer of releasing pentup positive energy after so many months of angst, fear and hibernation to a degree. I think we were all just tired of everywhere you love to go and everything you love to do being closed or restricted. We were back for the summer. Who knows what this fall and winter will look like but for these last few months, it felt good to be back,” Donaldson said. “I think overall, people feel safe here in Sylva and Jackson County. We have less crowds and traffic than larger cities. We have the outdoors, the dining, the breweries, the music, the arts and crafts, the mountains, the unique shops, etc., but you can do it all and not feel overly worried about large crowds and the common ‘hot spot’ threats of the pandemic. Sylva has always been a hidden gem.

She just gets brighter with age.”

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Bernadette Peters started her new job as the Main Street Sylva Association’s executive director on July 1. Donated photo

“I’m super excited to be doing this. It’s definitely lifted my spirits to be working with the community again.”

— Bernadette Peters

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September 8-14, 2021

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER ernadette Peters arrived in Western North Carolina in 2011 as a novice in the world of food service and an outsider to the tight-knit Sylva community.

That changed quickly. That same year, she opened City Lights Café, which soon became a local fixture, and started volunteering with the Main Street Sylva Association. One of the most enduring projects she’s been part of during her decade of involvement has been the years-long quest to l fund an MSSA director — a priority for the MSSA board since 2013.

“That was a vision that we as a board had back then,” said Peters. “I never imagined that I would be doing the job.”

But “the timing and the desire” worked out, and she’s been leading the organization since July 1. l Town Manager Paige Dowling had served as the Main Street Program coordinator since September 2011. When she was hired as town manager in 2012, Dowling retained her Main Street duties, but as the town grew the dual responsibilities became too large for one person. Finally, in the 2020-21 budget the Sylva Board of Commissioners appropriated funding for a half-time MSSA director position, and Dowling granted the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce a one-year y contract to fill the role.

When that contract ended, the town went through a competitive hiring process

“We still want to bring folks in, but it’s challenging because our merchants are so short on labor that they have closed certain days of the week,” Peters said. “They’ve cut their hours back, and that is less appealing for travelers.”

Peters thinks the town might be able to draw on lessons learned during the solar eclipse of 2017 in order to lessen the shortage’s effect on visitor experience. Hundreds of thousands of people traveled to Western North Carolina to witness the cosmic event, inundating small towns like Sylva so thoroughly that merchants found themselves running short on supplies to feed them all.

Businesses in Sylva ended up coordinating their hours to ensure visitors would always have open places to go.

“We may have to start communicating to that level now with some of these events that are going on so we have enough places for people to eat,” said Peters.

The situation also calls for caution in event promotion, she said.

“You’ve got to be careful about doing too good a job promoting an event where it overwhelms the merchants,” she said. “We want to have folks downtown, but we don’t want them to get a bad taste in their mouths.”

If the region meets success in solving the labor issue, it will have another problem to contend with — lack of workforce housing.

For the most part, Sylva and the land immediately around it are either already developed, on steep slopes or in a floodplain.

Tackling the housing issue will require partnerships outside town government.

“The vision I see for Sylva is to continue to grow in a smart way that allows us to continue to accomplish our goals without overwhelming and getting into this situation that we’re in right now with labor, not having places that are affordable and that they can live,” said Peters.

That’s a tall order, but it’s one that she looks forward to filling.

“I’m super excited to be doing this,” she said. “It’s definitely lifted my spirits to be working with the community again.”

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Meeting the challenge

instead of renewing the Chamber’s contract.

Dowling had originally asked Peters to be on the hiring committee, but then Peters realized she might want to apply. She’d dropped out of the MSSA the previous year to care for her aging parents, but now she was ready to be part of it again.

“I really missed being involved with the town, and when the job came available, I thought, ‘What a better way for me to get involved in the town than this?’” said Peters.

Now in the midst of a three-year transition plan to hand City Lights over to her business partner, Peters found it was the right time to take a half-time job focused on lifting up the town she loves. Downtown Sylva has changed a lot in the past 10 years, and for the better, Peters said. There are fewer vacancies, more restaurants, and a significant number of residential units and Airbnbs downtown or within walking distance of it. It’s been exciting to see.

Even amid a global pandemic, the town has continued to grow — but with new challenges to overcome. Namely, the labor shortage. According to the National Federation of Independent Businesses’ August report, 50% of all small business owners said they had job openings they could not fill — a record high reading that’s far above the 48-year historical average of 22%.

“It’s all hands on deck everywhere to try to solve this problem,” said Peters.

She’s busy brainstorming ways to solve it in Sylva.

One idea is to tap into the talents of younger retirees, of whom there are more than ever before in both the local community and the nation as a whole. Once cases from the Delta variant slow down, Peters hopes to host a senior job fair in partnership with the Jackson County Department on Aging.

She’s also looking into partnering with WestBridge — formerly Webster Enterprises — to develop a program to train and find local employment for people with disabilities, and into working with Southwestern Community College to create a downtown internship program that would allow college

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Sylva shows community ‘Pride’

Smoky Mountain News

September 8-14, 2021

Pride Parade participants march down Main Street in Downtown Sylva. Hannah McLeod photo

BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER nder bright blue skies filled with hot sun, Sylva hosted its inaugural Sylva Pride celebration this past Saturday.

Over 500 people nested into the small, burgeoning mountain town to celebrate and show support for the queer community.

Sylva Pride, the group that put the event together, was created by Western Carolina University professor Dr. Travis Rountree.

“When Sylva Queer Support and Education was forming, I noticed that a lot of our youth — high schoolers and middle schoolers — and folks of all ages, it’s one of the first things they wanted here in Sylva was a pride,” said Rountree.

Sylva Queer Support and Education is a group that formed over the summer in an effort to provide support and education to queer people and allies of Jackson County.

“We’re aiming to make Sylva a better place and create a welcoming environment,” said founding member Chris Bryan.

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PRIDE CELEBRATION

The celebration was a day-long affair.

Setup began at 10 a.m. with live music by Shell Lang. More than 20 businesses, nonprofits and organizations arranged tents around the perimeter of Bridge Park in downtown Sylva, including Sylva Queer Support and Education, WNC Aids Project, Southwestern Community College, Western Carolina University, Jackson County Public Health Department and Nudale Adantedi.

These groups and several others provided information for attendees and activities like 10 face painting and T-shirt screen printing.

In order to keep attendees safe and comfortable, Sylva Pride strongly encouraged masks and used a wristband system. At the check-in table, everyone was offered a free wristband. A green band indicated handshakes and hugs were welcome, yellow indicated people should keep their distance when interacting and red indicated people should be vigilant in keeping six feet away.

WCU and BlueRidge Pride were under one of the tents at Bridge Park. Together, they have been working to collect and archive the experiences of the LGBTQ community in Western North Carolina in the form of oral history. The groups not only had a station where people could sit and listen to these collected stories, they also had a booth where people could record their own experiences for the archive.

Another group in attendance, Nudale Adantedi, is dedicated to the fight for equal rights for LGBTQ people of the Cherokee Qualla Boundary. Nudale Adantedi is a tsalagi word meaning “different hearted,” or “different spirited.” According to the group, these members “held special roles in our community, were loved, and respected. The EBCI has strayed far from our traditional values of matriarchy and embracing our nudale adantedi kin.”

Following another set of live music at 11 a.m. by the Swing Low Trio, the Pride Parade took place through downtown Sylva at 12:30. Organizers, performers and attendees marched from Bridge Park, up Schulman street, down Main Street and back toward the park on Spring Street.

Before the crowd stepped off, Rountree took a moment to recognize the work and sacrifices made by the LGBTQ community

that allow events like Sylva Pride to take place. He noted that pride started as a police riot in Stonewall Tavern in New York City in 1969 as a reaction to police brutality.

Rountree says the lives lost and the people hurt during Stonewall, gay bashings, nightclub bombings and the AIDS epidemic paved the way for celebrations like the one in Sylva.

“Pride is gathering here together in this space, in this moment to show love to ourselves and our community. It’s giving voice and space to those who have felt the darkness or oppression that comes with our identities.

It’s not only belonging here, but staking a claim that this town and that these mountains are ours too, that we can and will hold ourselves up high and be visible in this place,” said Rountree. “We walk in the street today in celebration, but also to acknowledge all those who came before us. Let’s now move forward in tribute to them and in joyous and steadfast determination and celebration to show visibility and pride for our past present and future LGBTQ community members.”

Drag Queen Danielle Mayes performs at the family-friendly drag show. Hannah McLeod photo

When the parade turned onto Main Street, it encountered the only two hecklers of the day. One man stood with a sign around his body that read, “Turn to Jesus, Study the Bible.” As marchers rounded the corner onto Main Street, the man began to yell at the crowd, but his remarks were quickly drowned out by the excited shouts and cheers of the parade participants.

Following the parade was a family-friendly drag show at Bridge Park. Despite direct sun and technical difficulties, a crowd of several hundred people waited patiently for the show to begin.

“In being from the mountains, in being queer, in being a trans woman, I never thought that this would happen. The gay rights movement has just exploded, like never before,” said drag show host Buelah Land. “We are here celebrating love and diversity in all forms. In all shades of the rainbow, we are here making a difference, changing hearts and minds.”

As each drag queen sashayed to the stage for her performance, she was met with the cheers and clapping typical to a good drag show. However, new for the queens and perhaps something unique to this show in Sylva, were the obstacles in place for the queens. As they did high kicks, cat walks, floor work and vogued their way around the stage, the queens had to dodge all the children sprinting to the front, eager to dance and hand the queens a dollar.

COMMUNITY SUPPORT The inaugural Sylva Pride Celebration relied heavily on community support.

Rountree has plans for Sylva Pride to

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THAI MASSAGE Expires Sept. 30, 2021.

Children jump at the chance to go onstage and give drag queens a dollar. Hannah McLeod photo

“Pride is gathering here together in this space, in this moment to show love to ourselves and our community. It’s giving voice and space to those who have felt the darkness or oppression that comes with our identities.”

— Sylva Pride organizer Dr. Travis Rountree

461 MOODY FARM ROAD, MAGGIE VALLEY

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smooth sloping mountains adorn the bottom of the building with the words “You Belong Here” in the center. Main Street Economic Development Director Bernadette Peters and Travis Rountree coordinated with the owners of the building in the effort to get the mural done. Artist Worth LaRose and her wife Sarah LaRose collaborated on the design and creation of the mural.

“I’m here at pride today because this is a monumental moment. It’s the first Pride of Sylva. And I recently also came out as bisexual, so I figured I might as well come and celebrate,” said Megan Gorman, a student at WCU. “I was super excited about pride because I’m here supporting my two best friends and it is so important to them, so it’s important to me,” said Gorman’s friend, Leila Figaroa.

After the event, as participants drifted out of the park to eat, drink or return home, there seemed to be a collective sigh rippling through downtown — success, support, love. Not only had the first Pride celebration in Sylva’s history gone off without a hitch, it had gone better than imagined. Activists say that change moves at the speed of trust. The inaugural Sylva Pride celebration may have taken place long after some would have wanted it, but it took place right when organizers trusted the community to make it work, right when the community was ready to make it happen.

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September 8-14, 2021

become a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in order to be able to pay performers and put on entertainment and educational events throughout the year. However, this year, everyone who helped out, performed and attended was donating their own time and energy.

Several businesses in Sylva created displays in their doors and windows as a sign of support and celebration.

Ilda Italian Restaurant promoted a cocktail special, “il Primo,” meaning “the first,” in celebration of Sylva’s first Pride event. White Moon Coffee Shop created the “Divine’s Matcha” drink special for the occasion.

The crowd at the celebration spanned all ages. Toddlers and young children danced alongside drag queens at the family-friendly drag show at Bridge Park following the parade. Parents held even younger children under the shade of umbrellas and tents, safe from the hot sun. Students and teachers from WCU and SCC showed their support as well.

“I’m here because it just feels awesome to be supported by the community that I go to school in. I just think it’s lovely that they’re doing this and it’s awesome that it’s the first annual one,” said Kinley Cook, a student at WCU. Cook and her friends took pictures in front of the new mural in downtown Sylva.

Across the street from Bridge Park, panels painted the colors of the rainbow and

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Alcohol referenda pass in Cherokee

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER n a historic vote, Cherokee voters said yes to expanded alcohol sales on the Qualla boundary following a Sept. 2 referendum.

With 42.9% of registered voters participating in the referendum questions — well above the 30% threshold required for the results to be valid — all three proposed measures met approval from the majority of voters. The results will allow for beer sales in grocery and convenience stores, beer and wine sales at restaurants and hotels, and establishment of a package store run by the Tribal Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission.

While all three measures passed, some had a higher rate of approval than others.

Nearly two-thirds — 62.7% — of voters endorsed allowing beer and wine sales at “qualified establishments” such as restaurants and hotels. Measures permitting retail beer sales and an ABC package store, meanwhile, had slightly lower rates of approval with 57.6% and 59.3% of voters, respectively, answering yes to those proposals.

The referendum results come following decades of failed attempts to secure such approval from tribal members. Harrah’s

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September 8-14, 2021

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Cherokee Casino was dry for the first 12 years of its existence after a 1992 referendum seeking approval for alcohol sales in the then-hypothetical casino was soundly defeated. A 2009 referendum reversed that decision, but voters gave approval only for alcohol sales on casino grounds, with such sales still prohibited elsewhere on the Boundary.

Subsequent referendum votes in 2012 and 2018 sought to expand availability, but both efforts failed. However, alcohol did start becoming more available in recent years due to the combination of a 2011 tribal law and a 2015 state law, which together meant that the TABCC could grant permits to establishments located within 1.5 miles of a Blue Ridge Parkway on-ramp, and for onetime events such as festivals, among other select situations.

That law’s implementation was extremely controversial at the time. To many, it felt like an end-run against the public’s long and sustained opposition to alcohol expansion.

During a November 2017 public meeting on a topic, tribal member after tribal member spoke against it, saying that alcohol consumption is a “slow death,” that the substance is often difficult for Native people to “handle,” and that using the state’s Blue

Two incumbents defeated in Cherokee Council elections

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER hree current Tribal Council members will not return in October following the Sept. 2 General Election, but the 202123 government will feature only one new face — unless a potential recount should change the results in Painttown.

Sitting Council members Wolfetown Rep. Chelsea Saunooke and Yellowhill Rep. Tom Wahnetah lost their bids for re-election, while Big Cove Rep. Perry Shell declined to run for a new term. However, the seats vacated by Saunooke and Shell will be filled by faces well known to those who follow tribal government, according to unofficial results.

Bill Taylor, who was chairman of Tribal Council during the impeachment of former Principal Chief Patrick Lambert, will take Saunooke’s seat after securing 22.8% of the vote in the Wolfetown race, making him the second-highest vote-getter behind incumbent Bo Crowe, who received 42.2% of the vote in that community. Taylor lost his bid for re-election in 2017 following the impeachment, and again in 2019, but his share of the vote inched up each time since the low point in 2017.

Meanwhile, Teresa McCoy — a longtime Council member who announced her retirement from the horseshoe in 2017 and then ran an unsuccessful campaign for principal chief in 2019 — will fill Shell’s seat after

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coming in second in the Big Cove race, behind incumbent Richard French.

If the unofficial results stand, the only new face around the horseshoe will be that of T.W. Price Saunooke, who beat out Wahnetah to take second place in the Yellowhill race, behind incumbent Vice Chairman David Wolfe.

However, Bentley Tauquette came within 2% of second-place finisher Rep. Tommye Saunooke in the Painttown race, making him eligible to request a recount of that race.

Unofficial results put Tauquette six votes behind Saunooke.

As of press time, neither Tauquette nor the EBCI Board of Elections had responded to inquiries as to whether a recount had been requested.

Tribal law states that any candidate eligible for a recount must submit a written request to that effect within two business days after the closing of polls for that election, and that the Board of Elections must conduct the recount within three business days of the request being filed. Polls closed Thursday, Sept. 2, but closures lengthened the timeline for a recount request.

Tribal Council members will be sworn in for the new term on Monday, Oct. 4.

On the Cherokee School Board, none of the three seats up for election this year will be filled by incumbents. Current Birdtown representative Gloria Griffin opted to run for

Ridge Law as the basis for permitting cheapens tribal sovereignty.

But leaders in tribal government have supported alcohol expansion as a necessary tool for economic development, a key to energizing a downtown area that has been criticized as too stagnant and old-fashioned to entice modern visitors.

“In order to have the food and beverage anchors that we need for a sustainable tourism economy, then we have to have alcohol sales — be that if that’s going to be package sales in an ABC store run by the TABCC and/or beverages sold at restaurants,” Principal Chief Richard Sneed said during the July 7 session when Tribal Council approved the referendum questions.

Voter turnout in the election — which also featured Tribal Council and Cherokee School Board races — varied significantly between communities, but in every community it came in above 30%, according to data posted by EBCI Communications. Cherokee County had the lowest participation, with just 34.01% of 397 registered voters casting a ballot, followed by Yellowhill with 39.28% of registered voters. The highest turnout levels came from Snowbird, where 53.39% of 501 registered voters participated, and

Election results Tribal Council The top two vote-getters in each community after election certification will serve a two-year term.

Birdtown Boyd Owle*, 31.3% Albert Rose*, 29.9% Cyndi Lambert, 24.3% Gloria “Punkin” Griffin, 14.6% Turnout: 50.14% of 1,737 voters; total 1,599 votes Wolfetown Bo Crowe*, 42.2% Bill Taylor, 22.8% Chelsea Taylor Saunooke*, 17.8% Jesse Sneed, 17.3% Turnout: 45.2% of 1,587 voters; total 1,344 votes Yellowhill Dave Wolfe*, 34.6% T.W. Price Saunooke, 25.7% Tom Wahnetah*, 22.6% Stephanie Saunooke French, 17.1% Turnout: 39.28% of 919 voters; 627 votes Big Cove Richard French*, 38.8% Teresa McCoy, 32.2% Patrick Hill, 29% Turnout: 45.86% of 761 voters; 634 votes;

a Council seat this year, and so did not seek re-election to her seat, and incumbent Big Cove member Karen French-Browning did not survive the Primary Election. Wolfetown Member Isaac “Ike” Long succumbed to a

Referendum results n Do you support expanding the sales of malt beverages (beer) at retail establishments (grocery or convenience stores) within the Qualla Boundary?

Yes: 1,657 (57.6%) · No: 1,219 (42.4%) n Do you support allowing the Tribal ABC Commission to operate an ABC package store to permit the sale of alcoholic beverages on tribal lands?

Yes: 1,708 (59.3%) · No: 1,170 (40.7%) n Do you support expanding the sales of malt beverages and wines at restaurants, hotels and other qualified establishments within the Qualla Boundary?

Yes: 1,804 (62.7%) · No: 1,072 (37.3%)

Birdtown, which drew 50.14% of 1,737 registered voters. All other communities came in between 41% and 47%. Overall voter participation was 45.29%, slightly higher than turnout specific to the referendum.

Meanwhile, in the May 2018 alcohol referendum, overall participation was just 25.56%.

That was a standalone election set up only to pose the referendum question to voters — this time, the elected offices sharing the ballot likely attracted more people to participate.

Painttown Dike Sneed*, 40.2% Tommye Saunooke*, 30.4% Bentley Tahquette, 29.4% Turnout: 41.68% of 799 voters; 579 votes Cherokee County/Snowbird Adam Wachacha*, 35.6% Bucky Brown*, 30.7% Janell Rattler, 20.9% William A. “Billy” Brown, 12.7% Turnout: 44.9% of 898 voters; 722 votes

School Board The top vote-getter in each community after election certification will serve a four-year term.

Big Cove Kristina Hyatt, 56.1% Lavita Hill, 43.9% Total votes: 344 Birdtown Melanie Lambert, 53.1% Ashford Smith, 46.9% Total votes: 802 Wolftown Berdie Toineeta, 60% Isaac “Ike” Long*, 40% Total votes: 520

General Election challenge from Berdie Toineeta in the Sept. 2 unofficial results, which also showed Melanie Lambert as the winner in Birdtown and Kristina Hyatt as the top vote-getter in Big Cove.

WCU waives application fees for 2022

HAPPY LANDINGS. We have amazing openings in our casino and new convention center.

And many come with hiring bonuses up to $3,000. Join us September 21, 10 a.m.–4 p.m., in our Hotel Ballroom. Then let the celebrations begin. Details at HarrahsCherokeeJobs.com.

Select positions eligible for hiring bonus. Restrictions apply. Please see Talent Acquisition department for details. Applicants must be 18 years of age or older and have a valid photo ID. An Enterprise of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Harrah’s Cherokee Casinos value diversity and inclusion, and are equal opportunity employers. ©2021, Caesars License Company, LLC.

Smoky Mountain News

Western Carolina University officials are waiving admission application fees for both undergraduate and graduate programs for students wanting to enter the university during spring 2022, summer 2022 and fall 2022 academic semesters.

“Because of the economic impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on many households across the state, we thought it was important that WCU waive these fees for next year,” said Mike Langford, director of undergraduate admissions. “Especially during these trying times, we want to ensure that the doors of opportunity to higher education are open to all students, regardless of their economic situations.”

The $65 waiver does not apply to additional fees that university programs may require to be accepted into their programs.

Students wishing to enter undergraduate or graduate programs can receive more information by visiting in person on campus Oct. 30 or Nov. 20. Students are also encouraged to meet WCU admissions staff during several “Western on Tour” events scheduled throughout the next couple of months. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

To register for any of the Western on Tour events go to go.wcu.edu/reg-events.

IN ONE HIRING EVENT, YOU COULD LAND UP TO $3,000.

September 8-14, 2021

A man who sped in a stolen vehicle through Franklin last year in a botched attempt to evade law enforcement will spend 51 to 74 months in the N.C. Division of Adult Correction, District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch said.

Joshua Faulk, 35, of Lakeland, Florida, pleaded last week in Macon County Superior Court to: Felony flee to elude arrest; two counts breaking and entering motor vehicle; two counts misdemeanor larceny and possession of a stolen vehicle.

Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Bill Coward handed down the judgement, with his sentence reflecting Faulk’s habitual-felon status. This status enhances punishment decisions and can apply after a defendant is convicted of three felonies. Habitual felons face sentencing at a felony level four classes higher than the underlying felony convictions.

After stealing a vehicle in Tennessee, Faulk on Aug. 20, 2020, drove into North Carolina and entered Macon County via U.S. 23/441. As he topped Cowee Mountain in his vehicle and began to descend the steep grade, an N.C. Highway Patrol trooper clocked the vehicle at 105 mph along the 55-mph highway.

The trooper attempted to stop Faulk; however, he fled.

“He drove carelessly and recklessly down the road and through the town, with the car chase ending near Baird Cove Road,” said Jason Arnold, the assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case.

Faulk again attempted to escape, this time on foot. He broke into two vehicles, stealing money in the process, before being found and arrested.

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A rooftop terrace offers sweeping views of campus, native plant gardens and a convenient spot for astronomy observations. Holly Kays photos

Training tomorrow’s scientists WCU opens $110.5 million science building

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER ntil 2016, then-Chancellor David O. Belcher spent much of his time and energy as leader of Western Carolina University in Cullowhee telling anyone who would listen that WCU’s future was in danger. Specifically, the future of its engineering, science and nursing programs.

The reason for that danger was an aging natural sciences building that was too small to accommodate the growing number of students pursuing science careers, vibrated so significantly when the air conditioning units kicked on that using sensitive scientific equipment was impossible, and dealt constantly with mold, plumbing and storage issues.

Last week, the university community celebrated the grand opening of a $110.5 million, 189,000-square-foot building that serves as the ultimate answer to the questions Belcher began asking years ago.

“It truly takes a village for a project such as this,” current Chancellor Kelli R. Brown told a crowd of more than 250 people gathered under sunny skies Friday, Sept. 3, to dedicate the brand new Tom Apodaca Science Building, now home to the university’s biology, chemistry, physics and forensic science programs.

how we do science,” said College of Arts and Sciences Dean David Kinner.

Science is an active, collaborative and inclusive process, he said, so it was important for the building to offer students the chance to learn, study and research along-

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INSIDE THE BUILDING Sunshine — both physical and metaphorical — is a key component of the new building’s design.

“Our goal in building the Apodaca Science Building was not only to replace the old natural sciences building with a safer building with updated systems and amenities, although we really needed that, but to create a building that better represented

Former Sen. Tom Apodaca stands with his grandson Rio in front of the new science building bearing his name. side professors, graduates and undergraduate students.

“Many of our WCU students will come here to study diverse topics from the magnificence of the universe to the complexity of the human body,” Kinner said.

“Hopefully students will also be able to understand the scientific process, the continued work of asking and answering ques-

tions, always moving steadily closer to truth. Students will also hopefully know the ability of science, and even our student scientists, to provide important information and breakthroughs for society which when leveraged effectively, conserve us all.”

As the dedication ceremony unfolded, clouds swirled above reflected mountain curves on the building’s many glass panels.

Indoors, that natural light illuminated study nooks, classrooms, labs and even hallways — many labs and classrooms have glass on both sides, allowing the sun to reach interior spaces.

The coming years will be even brighter, as the old science building still stands next to the new one, in places just a handful of feet away from the windows.

Demolition is scheduled for October.

“I come here before class every morning to do homework,” said senior English and biology student Melissa Rogers, gesturing toward one of the couches lining the inside walls of the bright, curved lobby area, as she led a tour of the new building.

The building’s largest room is a 150-person auditorium on the ground floor.

The chairs are removable, so the space can also be used for receptions and other gatherings when class isn’t in session. A large piece of artwork outside the auditorium honors the Cherokee legacy of the site, while historical photos of WCU and the Cullowhee area line the hall.

A set of stadium-style concrete steps pay homage to another one

While Belcher started beating the drum signifying the “dire straits” Western was in with its former science building, Brown said, it was the voters of North Carolina, the N.C. General Assembly and especially then-Sen. Tom Apodaca (R-Hendersonville) who made the solution possible. The building was funded through the Connect N.C. Bond, which voters approved in a March 2016 referendum vote.

At $110.5 million, the science building was by far the biggest-ticket item funded through the $2 billion bond, and according to those gathered on the science building’s courtyard Friday, Sept. 3, Apodaca had a lot

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APODACA’S CONTRIBUTION

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rounded by flowerbeds containing a cacophony of native plants. The terrace will also prove useful for astronomy observations, and a greenhouse nestled in among the beds takes further advantage of the sunlight.

“This building will serve generations of students,” said Kinner, “but it also serves as a reminder of what we can collectively accomplish as a campus.”

to do with that outcome.

“Senator Tom Apodaca, in partnership with the late Chancellor Belcher and an understanding of our needs, stood fast over the course of the next 18 months (leading up to the referendum), at times in the teeth of great political pressure, to ensure that Western Carolina University’s sorely needed science building not only remained in the Connect N.C. Bond, but that the full project cost was sustained and not reduced before the bond was included on the ballot in March of 2016,” Brown said. “It is for that reason, and for the countless initiatives that Senator Apodaca shepherded to the benefit of WCU that we honor him with his name permanently associated with this beautiful and transformative building.”

Himself a WCU alum — as are his wife and two sons — Apodaca comes by his dedication to the university honestly. In the years since he graduated in 1980, Apodaca has served on the WCU Board of Trustees and established multiple scholarships.

“Perhaps the most impactful contribution Tom has made to this university was in his support of WCU during his time in the N.C. Senate,” said Board of Trustees Chairman Bob Roberts at the ceremony.

During his 14 years in state government, Apodaca Large windows on the fifth floor supported of the Apodaca Science Building various offer a panorama of campus and pieces of the mountains framing it. legislation to build and renovate campus facilities — including the infamous steam plant — and, perhaps most notably, was a vocal proponent of the N.C. Promise Tuition Program, which reduced the price of undergraduate tuition for instate students to $500 per semester at WCU and two other University of North Carolina schools.

Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger said that it’s no surprise that Apodaca’s getting a building named after him — but that he is surprised by which building it turned out to be.

“A lot of us were looking at each other and saying, ‘We’re going to name a building after Tom. We’d like to see the trustees name a building after Tom,’” he said.

“Nobody said science building. Everybody said steam plant.”

The comment drew a sustained laugh from the crowd, but when he followed Berger at the podium Apodaca said he’s proud of the entirety of the work he’s done on WCU’s behalf.

“Every path I’ve taken in my life started here at WCU,” he told the crowd. “And I feel that with all my heart.”

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of the site’s former uses — a pre-Whitmore football stadium — and lead up to the third of the building’s five floors of public space.

The first through fourth floors also feature an interior connection to the adjacent Stillwell Science Building.

There’s an instrumentation lab featuring an NMR machine that Rogers refers to as “the spaceship,” pointing out the red posts surrounding it to keep people away from its magnetic field, as well as labs for ancient DNA analysis, molecular biology and more, with organismal studies concentrated on the fifth floor. The fifth floor is also home to a rotating display featuring a subset of the 47,000 items in the university’s collection of plant and animal specimens.

Collaboration is central to the building’s design. Professors have workstations in shared labs, and student study space is intentionally placed near faculty offices — something that Rogers said she particularly loves about the building.

The crown jewel, though, is undeniably the fifth-floor terrace that offers a sweeping view of WCU’s campus and the mountains surrounding it, all within walkways sur-

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Waynesville homeless task force foundering

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS E DITOR aynesville’s homeless task force, now rocked by resignations and dissention, failed to meet a deadline to present recommendations to the board of aldermen and now appears adrift and rudderless without a consensus or a clear direction forward.

“We joined this Task Force to help the homeless population in Waynesville, but as it appears to me this has now ‘gone south,’ if you will,” wrote task force member Dale Burris in a Sept. 4 email to task force members. “My time is up, so I will now go back to work and help people here in Haywood County that had a home and the force of nature took it away.”

Back in July, the task force issued a set of recommendations after 18 months of interviewing nearly 400 stakeholders to include businesspeople, law enforcement officials and behavioral health providers, among others.

An Aug. 5 meeting to gather community input was canceled due to COVID-19 exposure of one of the task force members, but feedback was gathered through an online survey and an in-person drop-in presentation on Aug. 26.

When the task force met on Sept. 5 to consider the feedback to the task force’s recommendations, survey data and member

Smoky Mountain News

September 8-14, 2021

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Waynesville’s Board of Aldermen considers the formation of the homeless task force in December, 2019. Cory Vaillancourt photo feedback showed there was anything but consensus on the recommendations.

One task force member speaking on background said that there was “resounding opposition” from the public and much of the task force to certain elements of the plan.

Indeed, one of the recommendations — a series of options on increasing shelter capacity — was voted down and won’t appear in the final recommendations, whenever those do arrive.

In addition to Burris’ apparent resignation, another task force member, Nate

Cartwright, resigned during the meeting, and Mountain Projects Executive Director Patsy Davis followed suit a day later.

“I have given all I can, and I did not feel like it was productive,” Davis told The Smoky Mountain News Sept. 7. “I wish the task force much success, but I felt like my energy could be better used in other ways in the community. Had I felt I could have made a difference moving forward, I would have continued to serve, but I didn’t feel that I could.”

Davis is a prominent figure in the local nonprofit ecosystem, serving as the execu-

tive director of social services agency Mountain Projects for 31 years. She’s also been active on similar boards dealing with homelessness, drug abuse and especially affordable housing.

Waynesville Alderman Anthony Sutton, who serves on the task force, said he didn’t attend the meeting because he felt that voting on the recommendations would be a conflict of interest, since he’d eventually have to entertain the recommendations as an alderman.

Sutton did say he felt it was OK to serve on the board and help steer it but has been cautious about inserting his opinions into the mix. He also pushed for the task force to be more adherent to Robert’s Rules of Order.

The Sept. 2 meeting was supposed to be the final meeting of the task force, but since recommendations weren’t approved for presentation to town aldermen, there will be at least one more.

Task force members voted to extend their service by 45 days, as Chair Dr. Amy Murphy-Nugen now attempts to find something the task force can agree on and send to aldermen for deliberation.

The delay will likely push town consideration of recommendations to late October, almost two years after a forum hosted by SMN revealed homelessness to be a major campaign issue for Waynesville’s elected representatives.

SPONSORED CONTENT

5 Core Benefits of Community

C

· SUSANNA SHETLEY ·

ommunity is essential to the human experience. We are social beings with an innate yearning to connect with and support one another.

The recent floods in Western North Carolina reminded us what it means to be part of a true community. The minute the

others gets us through it. Likewise, it feels good to support other people when they are experiencing significant life changes.

INFLUENCE

KNOWLEDGE/RESOURCES

Being part of a tribe can be empowering. With empowerment comes confidence, and confidence leads to influence. You can have positive influence over others when you trust in the community backing you. Similarly, you can be

We listen to people we trust. A lot of what we know comes from the brains of community members. We offer one another advice, tips, suggestions, ideas and inspiration. Further, people in a community share tangible resources to make life more fulfilling and interesting.

Whether you’re borrowing a kayak for a weekend adventure or a few bucks so you can try a new microbrew, other people are the best resources we have.

PASSION

influenced positively from other people in your community. Much of our behavior comes from the influence of others, so ensure you’re surrounding yourself with strong communities.

CONNECTION/ENGAGEMENT

SUPPORT

Think about how many friends and relationships you have from your various communities. Whether it’s work, family, school, a club, sport or other circle, the important people in our lives come from our networks. These support groups

Giving and receiving support during life’s ups and downs is paramount to survival. Whether it’s a good change like a new job or a big move or a very stressful situation like a death in a family or a house fire, the support we receive from

Rumble is a weekly e-newsletter created by women, for women and about women. It is published by The Smoky Mountain News and delivered to your inbox each Thursday. The goal is to offer readers a beautifully curated email that will inspire and motivate women to live their best lives. By hearing the challenges and successes of other women, we hope you will find an opportunity to live, love, learn and grow in your own unique way.

mountain

s uth media

Smoky Mountain News

waters receded, folks of all ages and walks of life showed up to offer a genuine smile and a helping hand. When considering community as a concept, studies show it offers a number of benefits.

One of the most rewarding things about a community is collectively embracing a passion. Often times, members are likeminded and share hobbies. Topics may include yoga, running, wine, trivia, writing, music or movies. It doesn’t really matter; it’s just fun to have a group of people who get rallied as much as you do when it comes to certain interests.

At the end of the day, community is everything. Humans are not meant to live in an isolated world. If you’re grateful for one thing today, let it be the communities in your life and the positive energy they offer you.

Graphic Designer Jessica Murray (from left), SMN News Editor Jessi Stone, Staff Writer Hannah McLeod, Digital Media Specialist Susanna Shetley and Amanda Singletary (not pictured)

September 8-14, 2021

allow us to engage with others and for them to engage with us. Authentic relationships make life more meangingful and enjoyable.

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Subscribe: smokymountainnews.com/rumble Want to know more about newsletter advertising, sponsored content or advertising on this page email Susanna Shetley at susanna.b@smokymountainnews or call 828.452.4251

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Smoky Mountain News September 8-14, 2021

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Katie Dean is one of six Democrats competing in the 2022 NC11 Democratic Primary. Donated photo

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SMN: It’s a state decision, but it’s funded by the feds at 90% of the expansion population.

The boogeyman is that, oh, the feds might take that funding away and then we’re going to be on the hook for it. How do you plan to go Congress and advocate that this 90% funding level remains the same?

KD: Uh, you know this is where it gets difficult in terms of framing your argument,

— Katie Dean

because we right now live in a time where data and facts no longer convince people. So it’s a matter of understanding those data, facts and figures, as well as being able to have some sort of human component that brings people to your side in terms of how you frame your arguments. I would work very hard at the local level within our district to understand the data and what we’re up against, and then reach out across the aisle with my Republican colleagues who live in similar metric districts to understand their constituents and try and find some common ground in that capacity and then build from there.

SMN: You just said an interesting phrase — common ground — and there’s another issue that people are always looking for common ground on, but it seems to be difficult to find and that is common sense gun reform. It’s a term that’s thrown out all over the place. There seems to be support for some aspects of it, but not others. What does common sense gun reform mean to you?

KD: Universal background checks.

SMN: Some people have advocated for strengthening red flag laws. Is that something that’s part of your worldview on firearms?

KD: My opinion on the red flag laws is still developing. To put it broadly, my worldview on the Second Amendment and firearms is to paraphrase [late Supreme Court Justice Antonin] Scalia when they ruled that every American had the right to arm themselves, but that did not grant any individual whatsoever a right to carry any weapon whatsoever in any sort of capacity wherever they would like. And I agree with him in that sentiment.

You have people that are fighting to uphold the Second Amendment, which is fine and fair. The Second Amendment is written into the Constitution, just like all of the other amendments, and then you have the gun violence epidemic and those are two parallel issues that we’re trying to solve simultaneously. You’ll hear me consistently throughout our campaign talk about education and responsible gun ownership, and right now what we have is a United States Congressman who doesn’t even know where his weapons are when he goes to board a plane.

SMN: Cawthorn’s internal poll — and take that for what it is — suggests 90% approval among his people. He’s going to outspend you ten-to-one. He gets national exposure seemingly at will. He’s got an establishment and a network. If you win this Primary Election, how do you beat Madison Cawthorn in the General Election?

KD: A boots-on-the-ground working class campaign. Whoever the [eventual Democratic] candidate is, is going to need additional resources that they wouldn’t normally have in a race in this district with these metrics. It’s going to be very similar to how we’re organizing to win the primary and that is keeping it local, keeping it about the people, meeting people where they’re at and compounding your network in that capacity. I know a lot of people who are switching their voter registration status, who voted for Madison in the last election who will vote for me in this next primary.

And that’s not to say I’m a conservative Republican or a progressive Republican in any sort of capacity. It’s just a testament to how vitriolic he is. And I think that while he has that large national presence, his local support is waning on both sides of the aisle and he’s vulnerable.

Smoky Mountain News

SMN: Medicaid expansion is something we’ve talked about here in North Carolina for years and years. Is Medicaid expansion the answer for North Carolina?

KD: For the immediate need. Yes, I think that it’s a piece of low-hanging fruit and there’s no justification to withholding that access to care.

“I know a lot of people who are switching their voter registration status, who voted for Madison in the last election who will vote for me in this next primary.”

SMN: You seem to have a tremendous amount of experience in infrastructure and although that infrastructure is water, and we do have our problems with water here, our bigger infrastructure problem is broadband.

What’s the real solution?

KD: Navigating the red tape so that the federal funding is used effectively. Because of the nature of our region and how our environment is built naturally and physically, the cost per linear foot to expand broadband makes it reasonably undesirable for any sort of competition to come in and install it. We also know that in 2021 high-speed internet is not a luxury. It is a necessity for any given economy to not only survive, but to be able to thrive. Pardon my pun, but there’s a large disconnect there. Navigating the red tape, it’s more complicated than throwing a bunch of money at the wall to see what sticks, like Congress has been doing.

September 8-14, 2021

BY CORY VAILLANCOURT POLITICS E DITOR orn and raised in North Georgia, Katie Dean has taken a different path to the NC11 Democratic primary than most.

Calling herself “upper-middle-class privileged,” Dean pursued competitive horseback riding throughout her youth, but hit a rough patch during high school and ended up not graduating. She then worked in the equestrian industry, earned her GED, and did stints at Young Harris College and Brevard College while working as a martial arts instructor, raft guide and sanding finisher at a timber frame construction company.

After becoming engaged to her now-husband Zach, she applied to the University of Georgia and ended up with a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering while her husband went to Athens Technical College to become a mechanic. She now runs their auto repair shop in Arden, but first spent several years working at an engineering firm.

“We did water and wastewater infrastructure design for rural municipalities,” Dean said. “Any sort of subsurface infrastructure, water lines, sewer lines, water plant, wastewater plant work, pump stations, capital improvement, plans, stormwater infrastructure for municipalities, very similar to where we’re sitting right now in Waynesville.”

Dean now finds herself in a crowded field of Democrats (and Republicans, and at least one Libertarian) all looking to unseat freshman Rep. Madison Cawthorn.

“The heart and soul of our campaign is to address a broken and faltering economy that does not work for the working and middle class,” she said. “That goes well beyond just one singular piece of legislation, with comprehensive tax reform, turning some of our upside-down trade policies right-side up so that we can not only survive but thrive and hold corporate CEOs accountable for driving one of the largest income-to-wealth disparity gaps that our country has ever seen.”

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Katie Dean promises ‘blue collar’ campaign in NC11

SMN: What you said about Scalia — all of these Amendments in the Constitution have limits. The First Amendment has limits as to the time, place and manner of your speech.

The Second Amendment has limits that we already observe. People talk about limiting the ability to purchase assault weapons, or limiting the ability to purchase high-capacity magazines. Do you support limiting either of those things?

KD: Yes, with the caveat that the way our policy is designed to understand that the limitations and parameters that they set and we saw from 1994 to 2004, with the assault weapons ban, that it’s very easy at this point to engineer around those pieces of legislation.

So my concern is, what is going to solve the gun violence epidemic that face in our country? And as of right now, I think if we instituted an assault weapon ban today, if they just at the stroke of a pen passed that piece of legislation, I think that we would still have a lot of the same issues that we face.

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Smoky Mountain News

Reflections of a 9/11 mental health volunteer T

Psychiatrists were onsite to administer medicines for people who were overstressed or could not sleep. NYPD officers were assigned to me to help with logistics. One officer had bandages on his arms and neck from debris hitting him while on duty at Tower Two. Hundreds of extra stuffed bears that had been warehoused following the Oklahoma City bombing were sent to us to distribute to the families we were working with. As small as these tokens appeared to be, I would often see people clutching a bear tight to their chest, knowing that this donation from another devasted city was comforting.

About five days into processing the 1,013 families I personally worked Guest Columnist with, we began escorting groups of 50 family members down the Hudson River by boat to Ground Zero to memorialize lost loved ones with donated flowers, letters, and photographs. Each time we brought a group to the area, the workers would turn around, face the families, remove their helmets, and bowed their heads in respect for about 30 seconds — then it was back to searching through the pile.

During my time in NYC immediately following the terrorist attacks, I had many experiences that 20 years later seem as if they were yesterday. Flying in a passenger jet with only two people on board, seeing Ground Zero’s devastation from a bird’s eye view, hearing my footsteps echo off the empty walls

Scott Hinkle

wenty years ago on September 14, I was one of only two passengers on a U.S. Airways flight from North Carolina to LaGuardia Airport in New York City to volunteer for the American Red Cross Disaster Mental Health Team, assisting families with processing the deaths of their loved ones. As part of the initial team to develop a rapid death certificate response, we met in Brooklyn and planned our program for completing the official certificates of death for grieving families.

This was an unusual endeavor in that typically a death certificate cannot be administered without a body. For each family, I completed a computer check of the lost family member’s name to see if the loved one could be found in the hospital database — sadly, every time the screen reflected “no match for entry.”

Over the next two weeks, I trained fresh mental health volunteers on how to coordinate family assistance and set up appointments with our 70 pro bono lawyers who were doing the paperwork to move the death certificate process forward as seamlessly and quickly as possible. Each family member was instructed to bring in a DNA sample from a comb, brush, or preferably underwear so that this evidence could be filed with the death certificate application. Once the death certificate was in hand, the family could process life insurance claims and collect other benefits.

On my first day setting up the space for the families and the legal process of filing for the death certificate of a loved one without a body, we set up counseling spaces for people to process their grief and reflect on what had happened.

of one of the busiest airports in the world, and walking through an empty, unlit Times Square. As unreal as these moments were, more profound was the pain and fear in the family’s eyes that I worked with for about 17 hours per day.

One mother lost her husband and only son, two sisters each lost their husbands, and one young mother with three children had lost their father. Over the days, similar stories were repeated over and over. Unbelievable loss for families who also were dealing with the daily rumors of further attacks. In fact, a SWAT team accompanied us to Ground Zero so the families had some sense of safety.

As a professional psychologist, I have given several talks around the country as well as interviews about my 9/11 experience. Twenty years later, there are numerous memories including NYC chefs volunteering to cook for us at the Family Assistance Center, organizing people to watch after children, counseling people who were literally scared to death, helping people accept the loss of their loved ones, and assisting some of the hundreds of first responders with their own level of grief and fatigue.

My job was to help as best I could, holding it together all day and into the long evenings. But at night, I would go back to my hotel and cry harder than I ever had. Yet, my most indelible memory is simply the hollow and sullen look in the eyes of the people we worked with, as well as my admiration for all the volunteers that helped NYC’s families cope with an event that none of us could have imagined.

(Dr. J. Scott Hinkle is a Waynesville psychologist. jscotthinkle@gmail.com.)

The time to act on climate change is now

BY STEVE WALL G UEST COLUMNIST The place — Canton; the time — 7 a.m.; the date — September 9, 2004.

Mayor Pat Smathers and I walked down Park Street in disbelief. Colonial Theater, Canton Medical Office, police and city offices had all flooded with up to seven feet of water from the Pigeon River. Hurricanes Ivan and Frances hit within a week and left a grim mark on Haywood County. That was 2004.

The previous record flood was back in 1916, when two hurricanes also dumped about 20 inches of rain on WNC. The 1916 and the 2004 disaster were each called a “100-year event.” But here we are only 17 years later. The loss of life and property in Haywood County has been terrible.

Quick responses from heroic rescue teams and communities pulling together have helped Haywood County survive.

But six of our neighbors did not.

A positive outcome of the 2021 flood was the success of the flood plain “escape valve” created along the river in Clyde after the 2004 event. I drove along Thickety Road after the recent flooding and saw the power of the water that had rushed through. Trees that had been planted — many by Haywood Waterways volunteers — were at a 4-degree angle.

Mud covered much of the parkland. Yet the project helped.

Clyde suffered far less damage than in 2004.

2020 was the most active storm season ever. There were 30 named storms, and we ran out of alphabet letters to name them. Letters from the Greek alphabet were needed. We are barely halfway through this hurricane season and the rapid global warming that causes increased storm intensity contin-

ues.

Up to now, it may have seemed hard to believe that global climate changes affect us right here.

We cannot afford to ignore the fires and 100-degree heat in faraway Siberia. The havoc this wreaks on the jet stream is real. This globally circulating river of air affects our climate patterns dramatically and is becoming more volatile as the Arctic region heats up four times faster than the rest of the planet.

We cannot afford to ignore the first warming rainfall ever atop the 10,000-foot thick Greenland ice sheet. It is melting away and contributing to the rising and heating of the oceans and increasing the conditions that cause hurricanes to intensify.

And can we in Western North Carolina simply turn the channel and ignore the drought and inferno in the Western U.S.? Is there not a risk of drought and fire here in our beautiful mountains, as occurred only a few years ago?

New Orleans suffered 1,800 deaths after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But, after $15 billion were invested in reengineering the levees, this year’s even more powerful storm, though terribly destructive, was far less deadly than Katrina.

This demonstrated that we can as a society take steps — as was done in Clyde on a modest scale and in New Orleans on a massive scale — to prepare for and lessen the impact of the next “100-year event.”

How our fields are planted, how our homes, businesses and roads are built, how our rivers and streams are managed, how we obtain electric power, will all play a critical role in the ability of Western North Carolina to prepare for and lessen

the impact of the next, inevitable climate challenge. It will not take another 100 years — perhaps not even 17 years — to happen.

We have many organizations and experts in the management of waterways, agriculture, construction and sustainable energy in our region. Perhaps it is time for Haywood County commissioners to establish a panel of experts — an Environmental Advisory Taskforce — to guide our county into a future of preparedness. This is being done in communities across America.

The steps we take in Haywood County will be part of a growing worldwide effort that can have an impact on the 24 billion tons of carbon being dumped into the earth’s atmosphere by the burning of coal, gas and oil products every year.

And proper soil and forest management actually helps pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.

Worldwide, the wholesale destruction of the oxygen-producing and carbon absorbing rain forests continues. Vast fields of oceanic plankton produce about 50% of the oxygen on this planet. They are being decimated by increased sea water temperatures. These are just two of the serious challenges to our planet’s livability. We must do what we can — and soon — to prevent the death and destruction that will inevitably come with increasing climate catastrophes.

Steps we can take now at the federal, state and local levels will lessen the future misery experienced by our neighbors, our children, grandchildren, and ourselves. The time is now.

(Dr. Wall practiced pediatrics in Haywood County for 30 years.

He is a member of the Western North Carolina Climate Action Coalition.)

Finding an antidote in baseball

Susanna Shetley

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RE/MAX Executive Is Grateful To Be a Part of the Haywood County $400,000 Relief Initiative By: RE/MAX Executive Staff

RE/MAX Executive joins the Canopy Realtor® Association and Canopy MLS boards in their great compassion for those affected by the recent flooding in Haywood County on August 17 from tropical storm Fred. By a unanimous vote, both The Board of Directors of the Canopy Realtor® Association and Canopy MLS donated $200,000 each for flood relief efforts making a total of $400,000 given in aid. Canopy Board member and current candidate for President-Elect, Tiffany Johannes shared, "We are proud to be in the business of homeownership, and that isn’t limited to helping our communities buying and selling homes. Being able to provide immediate and necessary assistance to our neighbors in Haywood County that were impacted by this true tragedy that has cost lives and homes means a lot to all of us."

RE/MAX Executive is grateful to be a part of this initiative. Having four board members on the Canopy Realtor® Association and Canopy MLS Board (From left to right, Lee Allen, Tiffany Johannes, Kourosh Sharifi, and David Willet) we are thankful to be able to help Haywood County and our own RE/MAX Executive Waynesville office, whose family members have lost their homes due to this disaster.

“

We are privileged and honored to work alongside so many wonderful and generous brokerages in the area.

Coming together to help those impacted is the right thing to do and we are grateful to be a part of this vibrant community.

- President-Elect, Lee Allen

”

The $400,000 will be distributed with seventy-five percent going to the United Way of Haywood County and twenty-five percent being donated to Mountain Projects. Within these projects, there will be housing and repair for some homes in the Haywood County area.

If interested in donating please go to United Way of Haywood County, 81 Elmwood Way, Suite 140, P.O. Box 1139, Waynesville, NC 28786.

Call 828-356-2832. Visit uwhaywood.org.

Smoky Mountain News

heavy, like it’s felt lately, I have to intentionally focus on small everyday joys. In fact, before writing this column, I set a timer for three minutes and wrote down anything that’s made me smile or feel happy in the past several weeks.

The number one item on my list was baseball. Over the past several months, baseball has emerged as a favorite family hobby. Matthew played in college and initially he was only working with two of our three boys because both of them are interested in the sport. Over time, the entire family got involved, even to the point where I bought my own baseball glove. We ventured to the D-Bat batting cage in Asheville last weekend, but mostly we enjoy backyard ball or visiting one of the local fields to hit, throw and field.

There is something comforting about this all-American sport. Maybe it’s because it’s so engrained in our collective psyche and spun into the fabric of our ancestral DNA. Whatever the reasons, I love the sound of a bat hitting a ball, the sight of dirt flying in the air, the quiet spans of time between plays, the intense expression on a pitcher’s face and the unexpected turn of events that can happen in a split second.

My younger son, Case, started Little League this year. I’m secretly hoping he’ll get hooked. I’d love to be spitting sunflower seeds and scrubbing baseball pants for many years to come.

When we were visiting Matthew’s family this week in the wake of his grandmother’s passing, the kids were outside throwing.

One of the balls hit Case on the head and he entered the living room with tearful eyes and an ice pack on his face. When Case told everyone what happened, Matthew’s grandpa said, “You’ll be OK. It’ll teach ya to put your glove up.” I saw a little smile turn up at the corner of Case’s mouth. Getting hurt always feels better when you learn a good lesson from it.

In that moment, when a brief bit of advice was passed from old to young, I thought about the circle of life and the beautiful gifts that are woven into human connection. No one can stop bad things from happening. Sometimes all we can do is lean into a circumstance and find any amount of good that comes from it. My hope is that there are better days ahead. But no matter what the future holds, I’ll continue to look for happiness in the day-to-day and I’ll be sure that, when necessary, I’ll keep my glove up.

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

September 8-14, 2021

side from the global darkness of a pandemic, political strife, natural disasters and the impending anniversary of 9/11, there is grief on a local and personal level as well.

Last Friday I learned about the passing of Steve Ledford, longtime teacher and basketball coach at Canton Middle School. Many years before I came to The Smoky Mountain News, I was employed by the Haywood County school system, first as a school psychologist, then a classroom teacher then a lead teacher/instructional coach.

My first position as a school psychologist was split between Pisgah High School and Canton Middle School. I only held this position for two years at which point I decided teaching in the classroom was where I wanted to be, but during that short stint, I became attached to the genColumnist uineness and altruism of the Canton community.

Steve was on staff during that time at Canton Middle and even though he and I didn’t work in the same department, he always had a smile and friendly word when I passed him in the halls or saw him at a ballgame. I’ve been on the Waynesville/Tuscola side of things for many years now, but I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for Pisgah Nation.

Just when I was processing Steve’s death and thinking of his sweet family, we received the awful news that my boyfriend’s grandmother unexpectedly passed. She was 83years old and was as spritely as a person could be. A couple days before her death, she called my boyfriend, Matthew, to wish him a happy birthday. She was an integral part of his life, and I felt grateful to have known her for the past four years. She was smart, witty, unique and creative. She was a model matriarch who put her family first and ensured they knew how much they were adored.

As I spent time with the family this week, my heart kept going to Matthew’s dad and uncle. They lost their mom. From losing my mom, I know what an awful feeling that is. It’s a combination of deep sadness and abandonment. It feels strange to be walking the earth without your mom. No matter what age you are when it happens, you’re transported back to childhood at the loss of a parent. You feel little and vulnerable but at the same time you have to be brave and strong for the young people in your own life.

When the world begins to feel extremely

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Travelin’ this lonesome road Jeremy Garrett of The Infamous Stringdusters

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD ARTS & E NTERTAINMENT E DITOR ith its latest album release, “A Tribute to Bill Monroe,” The Infamous Stringdusters pay homage to the long gone, yet dearly beloved “Father of Bluegrass” himself.

And it’s quite poignant in doing so, seeing as the Dusters are one of the current torchbearers of that “high, lonesome sound.” It’s a torch also blazing bright and radiant in the hands of the group’s 21st century contemporaries, including the likes of Billy Strings, Greensky Bluegrass, Steep Canyon Rangers and Molly Tuttle.

Nowadays, Monroe’s bluegrass would be considered “traditional” (and is closely held as so by purists in the scene), especially in the face of modern acts with larger-than-life lighting rigs and an onstage presence blurring the lines between acoustic showcase and rock show.

But, the irony is that Monroe was initially considered a “rebel,” someone looking to break the rules and try, well, something new. You see, Bill Monroe set out to change the game, to shift the perception of what was considered music in the 1940s onward. He pulled deeply from Dixieland jazz, Appalachian folk and Southern Gospel music, ultimately combining the genres into an intricate, fast-paced and extremely catchy tone he dubbed “bluegrass.”

Though many purists may point to Monroe as the gold standard of bluegrass (which he is), most often forget how much Monroe continued to soak in influences from every direction (blues, rock, country), and was always aiming to push the boundaries of the music further and farther out into the universe — something at the core of Dusters’ ethos.

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Smoky Mountain News: I’m curious about your take on Bill Monroe. With someone like yourself who grew up in the bluegrass world and raised in the music industry, you must’ve crossed paths with him at some point.

Jeremy Garrett (fiddler/singer, The Infamous Stringdusters): Oh, yeah. You know, my dad was actually the first president of the Idaho Bluegrass Association. And one of his jobs was to hire bands to come through. The Bluegrass Cardinals. The Stanley Brothers. But, he also hired bill Monroe to come through.

And I was pretty young when he came through. But, I do remember seeing him onstage, and seeing Kenny Baker, one of my favorite fiddle players of all-time play with him. I was definitely interested since I started picking at age three. I was kind of always interested in music.

The Infamous Stringdusters.

So, probably more than most kids, I was paying attention as much as I could to them. It definitely had an impact on me, and my dad was a huge influence on me as well, [both of us] influenced by Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, and such.

Traditional music has always been a part of my scene. My dad and I had a band together for about eight years called The Grasshoppers.

We traveled all over the United States.

[Traditional bluegrass] was a huge part of my growing up. I feel like I had a full career before I even met the Dusters when I moved to Nashville, you know? [Laughs].

SMN: And that’s what you bring to the Dusters, that traditional background, whereas each member of the band has their own influences to contribute.

JG: Definitely. [Guitarist Andy] Falco has the blues and electric guitar thing. [Bassist] Travis [Book] has more of a new age thing, and he was into Yonder Mountain String Band, String Cheese Incident, those kinds of folks. [Banjoist Chris] Pandolfi was really into Phish and bringing that sort of sound to the table. And [dobroist] Andy Hall was into the Grateful Dead.

And I didn’t know much about the fringe scenes. I was really steeped in the [bluegrass] tradition at the time when I met these guys. So, I learned a lot about some of those other genres, the periphery of what was happening. And

Want to go?

Americana/bluegrass act The Infamous Stringdusters will hit the outdoor stage at 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 12, at the Salvage Station in Asheville.

Red Clay Revival will be the opening act.

Doors open at 5 p.m. General admission is $30 in advance, $35 day of show. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, go to www.salvagestation.com and click on the “Events” tab. then, you bring all those things to the table, which is such a cool thing — this [musical] melting pot.

SMN: And that’s great. It also plays into what Bill Monroe was initially trying to do, which was take all of these influences and create something new with bluegrass.

JG: Well, you know, I think he gets pigeonholed a lot by people who want to hold to the traditions of the music. A lot of time people want to hold down that tradition. But, the thing about Bill Monroe, he was one of the most innovative people of his time, bringing these things from gospel into the scene, from jazz and old country — creating this music he called bluegrass.

People like to kind of talk trash about having drums in bluegrass or an accordion or something like that, but Bill Monroe was hip to trying some of these things. He didn’t get away from what was his sort of focus, but that was the thing about him — what he did was already innovative.

So, how can you as an artist — whether you’re talking about painting or whatever — hold somebody in a box forever, unless you become a preservation society?

And if you’re a sort of new age musician, especially at our age coming up through the ranks, where I was literally learning how to play fiddle with a needle on the record of Kenny Baker solos. I would move the needle back to hear his solo 10 times, so I could try to copy it — all the way up to the point where I have the same Internet that everyone has.

We’re in that age group where all of these things can’t help but influence us, you know?

And, when I was growing up, my band was probably Guns N’ Roses in my teens. So, I let all these things just sort of influence who I was.

And I took that cue from Bill Monroe as a way to do that because he was an innovator — I think a lot of people forget that.

You almost can’t help it, you know? And art is supposed to be that way. Why would we ever want to hold it into a box? That’s the whole point about art — to expand and to be creative.

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD

Matthew Shepard. (photo: Gina van Hoof)

Ode to Sylva Pride, ode to all the colors of the rainbow

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The legendary musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” will hit the stage through Sept. 19 at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville.

2 3

Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host A. Lee Edwards & The Drag at 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 11.

Beloved comedian Jeff Allen will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, Sept. 16, at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin.

4

Led by Clemson Professor Todd May, a discussion on existentialism will continue from 6 to 7 p.m. Sept. 14, 21 and 28 at the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva.

dren of the 1940s and 1950s, they both came of age in the 1960s and 1970s, a time period of great social and cultural upheaval — for civil rights, for women, for LGBTQ+ folks, for any and all that felt wrongly displaced or discriminated against in society.

My mother was (and remains) a vibrant Flower Child of the 60s, while my father, although rough around the edges in his oldschool ways, has a heart of gold when it comes to standing up for others who are being treated unfairly, and for what is right in the grand scheme of things.

He will be signing his books which include the award winning

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Nantahala Outdoor Center (Nantahala Gorge) will host Pioneer Chicken Stand at 6 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 11.

CHARLEY PEARSON

September 8-14, 2021

udos to the town of Sylva for hosting its inaugural Pride celebration this past Saturday in downtown. A day filled with activities, a parade and drag shows all in the name of showcasing and uplifting the LGBTQ+ community that lives and works (and thrives) in our mountain communities.

A week prior to the Pride celebration, I found myself at the Innovation Station in Dillsboro for a concert to memorialize a dear friend who unexpectedly past away in a car accident earlier this year. That said, as I — sipped my beer and mingled with any and all within reach, I found myself in conversation with one of the organizers of the Pride celebration.

He and I chatted at-length about how great it is to see local residents, whether f long-time or new to the area, coming together in solidarity of others who are simply wanting to not only be heard and accepted by their peers, but also, well, loved and embraced as an equal — something at the core of what it means to be human.

On the drive back to my humble abode in Waynesville from Dillsboro, I kept thinking about how amazing it is to be living in a time when we are not only having a Pride celebration, but also how excited a rural Southern town is to do so, and in plain sight on Main Street and in Bridge Park. This is a far cry from where we stood as a society just a couple of decades ago.

As a 36-year-old white heterosexual male, I was lucky to be raised in a progressively-minded household. Although my parents were chil-

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Growing up in the rural North Country, most people around me were the same — white, French or Irish, with many not really ever being exposed to people, places and things different from their daily lives and realities of blue-collar work, drinking at the same neighborhood bar with the same faces on the weekends, and the sporadic spring trip to a beach town either named Myrtle or Daytona.

Rev up the snowmobile when a winter storm hits. Load up the deer rifle for hunting. Sort out the tackle box for fishing. Buy the 12-pack of Labatt Blue. Cheer on the New York Giants come Sunday. And, most importantly, don’t rock the boat when it comes to being different, let alone someone who is gay and perhaps living in fear of being outed.

Truth? If you were gay in my Upstate New York hometown, you kept your mouth shut until high school graduation (this was during the late 1990s/early 2000s), where you’d leave town a day later to start a new life in another town, city or state. And always with the thought in mind that maybe someday you’d circle back to that cow town as your true, beautiful self — in hopes the mindset of all who were familiar as a child and teenager had changed for the better.

As a kid and teenager of the 1990s/2000s, I think of Matthew Shepard, the 21-year-old college student who was beaten, tortured and killed in Wyoming in 1998, how I saw the fence he was tied to on the evening news, and it impacted me. It was this sense of deep sadness and sick-to-yourstomach feeling when you’d watch the interviews with his grieving mother, the question of “Why?” posed to such a horrible thing happening to a kind, innocent soul.

I think of when Ellen DeGeneres came out on national television in 1997 on her sitcom, “Ellen,” and how groundbreaking that was. And then, there was “Will & Grace,” and how pop culture started to (finally) normalize the presence of gay actors and entertainers in the industry.

And that same could be said about gay musicians/artists (back then Melissa Etheridge, nowadays Lil Nas X) and political entities (back then Barney Frank, nowadays Pete Buttigieg), who finally felt the courage to come out of the darkness and into the light.

I think of when Massachusetts became the first state to legalize gay marriage in 2003, and how the divisive issue was all the mainstream news was talking about (or arguing about) for years (and to this day, to be honest). And how, one-by-one, we’re currently at 37 states who have also legalized gay marriage (13 still have a same-sex marriage ban). Society is shifting, albeit slowly, and all for the betterment of humanity to come together as one.

But, mostly, I think of all of my LGBTQ+ friends that I’ve made thus far. These cosmic beings of personality, perspective and passion. Each has walked a long, hard road, with a lot left to travel. And yet, the progress is real, and tangible. We are so many steps ahead of where we used to be (still so many to go). But, the voices of the disenfranchised are being heard, and being supported — more and more with each passing day.

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

Asheville 828-274-8822 Waynesville 828-407-4034 Sylva 828-586-9333 Reynolds Mountain 828-785-5825

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arts & entertainment Smoky Mountain News

September 8-14, 2021

Sturgill Simpson

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Melissa Etheridge

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and many more performers!

On the beat

Andrea & Mud.

• Boojum Brewing (Waynesville) will host karaoke at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, trivia at 7 p.m. on Thursdays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 9 p.m. unless otherwise noted.

Free and open to the public. 828.246.0350 or www.boojumbrewing.com.

• The Classic Wineseller (Waynesville) will host Nathan Hefner (piano/vocals) Sept. 11 and Kevin Williams (piano/vocals) Sept.

18. All shows begin at 7 p.m. Limited seating. Reservations required. Ticket price and dinner menu to be announced.

828.452.6000 or www.classicwineseller.com.

ALSO:

• Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. 828.369.4080 or www.coweeschool.org.

Bryson City community jam A community jam will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 16, at the Marianna Black Library in Bryson City.

Anyone with a guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, dulcimer, anything unplugged, are invited to join. Singers are also welcomed to join in or you can just stop by and listen. The jam is facilitated by Larry Barnett

• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host Pleasantly Wild Sept. 10, A. Lee Edwards & The Drag Sept. 11, Sugar Lime Blue Sept.

17, Shane Meade Sept. 18 and Bohemian Jean 2 p.m. Sept. 19. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 828.454.5664 or www.froglevelbrewing.com.

• Innovation Station (Dillsboro) will host Stephen Horvath Sept. 19. All events are free and begin at 2 p.m. unless otherwise noted. www.innovation-brewing.com.

• Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. www.innovation-brewing.com.

• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Franklin) will host Yard Karaoke 7 p.m. Sept. 10, Dustin Martin (singer-songwriter) Sept. 11 and Medicate Sunfish Sept. 18. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.349.2337 or www.lazyhikerbrewing.com.

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of the Sawmill Creek Porch Band.

The community jams offer a chance for musicians of all ages and levels of ability to share music or learn old-time mountain songs. The music jams are offered to the public each first and third Thursday of the month — year-round.

This program received support from the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency funded by the State of North Carolina and the National Endowment of the Arts.

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Folk, indie at Frog Level Singer-songwriter A. Lee Edwards will perform at 6 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 11, at Frog Level Brewing in Waynesville.

Edwards has been a songwriter for 30 years, and became the main singer, guitarist, and songwriter for the band Lou Ford, not long after the breakup of his previous band, Chocolate USA (which also boasted Julian Koster of The Music Tapes and Neutral Milk Hotel).

In recent years, the Western North Carolina artist has garnered fans and regional acclaim with his seamless blend of folk, indie and country tones.

The show is free and open to the public.

828.454.5664 or www.froglevelbrewing.com.

• Elevated Mountain Distilling Company will host semi-regular live music on the week-

• Friday Night Live (Highlands) will be held at the Town Square from 6 to 8:30 p.m. with Curtis Blackwell Sept. 10 and Southern Highlands Sept. 17. Free and open to the public. www.highlandschamber.org.

September 8-14, 2021

Popular surf-western/indie duo Andrea & Mud will hit the stage at 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 10, at the Water’n Hole Bar & Grill in Waynesville.

Surf-western music is a vigorous elixir, blending spaghetti westerns with rough-edged, honky-tonkin’ classic country. Atlanta-based duo Andrea & Mud draw upon genre stalwart Junior Brown, who coined the “surf-western” term, into their own special mix, tossing in heartier blues stock ala Shovels & Rope.

Their songwriting is uniquely potent, and with their new album, “Bad News Darlin’,” they extract parts of themselves to cope, mend, observe, and grow. www.andreaandmud.com.

• Currahee Brewing (Franklin) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends.

828.634.0078 or www.curraheebrew.com.

ends. Free and open to the public.

828.734.1084 or www.elevatedmountain.com.

arts & entertainment

Do you like real-deal country?

• 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.

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arts & entertainment

On the beat • Lazy Hiker Brewing (Sylva) will host Dustin Martin (singer-songwriter) Sept. 10 and Medicated Sunfish Sept. 17. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.349.2337 or www.lazyhikerbrewing.com.

• Maggie Valley Pavilion will host the Haywood Community Band at 6:30 p.m.

Sept. 19. The concert theme will be a tribute to the “Jeopardy” show. Free and open to the public. Donations accepted.

• Mountain Layers Brewing (Bryson City) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public.

828.538.0115 or www.mtnlayersbeer.com.

• Nantahala Brewing (Sylva) will host semiregular live music on the weekends and Shane Meade (rock/soul) 7:30 p.m. Sept. 17.

828.641.9797 or www.nantahalabrewing.com.

• Nantahala Outdoor Center (Nantahala Gorge) will host “Bluegrass with Blue” Sept.

10 and Pioneer Chicken Stand Sept. 11. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public.

888.905.7238 or www.noc.com.

Smoky Mountain News

September 8-14, 2021

• “Pickin’ on the Square” (Franklin) will host Cornbread Creek (old-time) Sept. 11 and

26

Curtis Blackwell & The Dixie Bluegrass Boys Sept. 18. All shows start at 7 p.m. Free and open to the public. Located on Main Street. www.franklin-chamber.com.

• Rathskeller Coffee Haus & Pub (Franklin) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Shows begin at 8 p.m. Free and open to the public. www.rathskellerfranklin.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 Full Circle Sept. 11 and Will Thompson Trio Sept. 18. Free and open to the public. www.highlandschamber.org.

• Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts (Franklin) will host singer-songwriter Craig Morgan at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 17. Tickets start at $30, with priority seating available. www.smokymountainarts.com.

Learn to play 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.

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.

The mountain dulcimer, also known as a fretted dulcimer or a lap dulcimer, is a uniquely American instrument. It evolved from the German scheitholz sometime in the early 1800s in Appalachia and was largely known only in this region until popularized more broadly in the 1950s.

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

8 p.m. Sept. 10. 828.743.3000 or www.theuglydogpub.com.

• The Ugly Dog Pub (Highlands) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends.

828.526.8364 or www.theuglydogpub.com.

• 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 Tricia Ann Band Sept. 24. All shows begin at 8 p.m. Free and open to the public.

828.538.2488.

• The Ugly Dog Pub (Cashiers) will host Sirsy

• Valley Tavern (Maggie Valley) will host semi-

regular live music on the weekends.

828.926.7440 or www.valley-tavern.com.

• Water’n Hole Bar & Grill (Waynesville) will host karaoke on Thursday nights and Andrea & Mud (western/folk) 9 p.m. Sept. 10.

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

• Whiteside Brewing (Cashiers) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends.

828.743.6000 or www.whitesidebrewing.com.

On the street

Pretty Little Goat.

Live music, clogging in Glenville Singin’, strummin’, pickin, and cloggin’ will fill the rooms of the Glenville Community Center (formerly the Jimmy Dillard VFW) from 11 a.m to 3 p.m.

Saturday, Sept. 18.

Presented by the Glenville Area Historical Society, the annual Fall Historical Discovery Event “Appalachian Mountain Music” will feature Pretty Little Goat, a grassroots band that are lovers/performers of old-time music.

As well, equally talented and well-known artists also performing at the event are musicians who play and educate on instru-

ments that make up the true Appalachian music sound. These instrumentalists include harmonica, banjo, mandolin, washboard, guitar, dulcimer, fiddle and vocalists.

“Grillin’ in Glenville,” a monthly free burger and dog roast sponsored by the Glenville Community Club, will serve plates from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Community Center.

The Glenville History Museum is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday from May to September.

For information about the “Appalachian Mountain Music,” the Glenville History Museum and Society membership, call 828.507.0322, email historicalsocietyglenvillearea@yahoo.com or find the organization on Facebook.

Fly Your Fall Colors William H. Turner.

Renaissance, Turner profoundly revises early histories which often ignored the complex cultural interactions that created the distinctive folkways the region is known for today.

He served as distinguished professor of Appalachian Studies at Berea College in Kentucky, among other academic positions, and now resides in Houston.

“Working with Dr. Turner and co-host Dr. Ted Olson to produce this podcast series has been a privilege in more ways than one,” said Aaron Searcy, publications associate with GSMA. “I’ve essentially been granted a backstage pass to live performances and candid stories from some of the greatest living performers and scholars of Southern Appalachian music – and Turner and Olson share that special access with listeners, too.”

For more information and updates, go to www.mountainheritageday.com.

• Mountain Makers Craft Market will be held from noon to 4 p.m. the first Sunday of each month at 308 North Haywood Street in downtown Waynesville. www.mountainmakersmarket.com.

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Smoky Mountain News

• The Cherokee Blue Ridge Run will be held Sept. 10-12 at the Cherokee Indian Fairgrounds. Motorcycle rally, races, bike show, live music, food vendors, and much more. Admission is $15 per day or $30 for the weekend. Kids ages 16 and under are free. www.blueridgerun.com.

longtime residents, newcomers, or visitors, to come join us.”

The 2021 individual honors go to William H. Turner, an author, educator and co-host of the “Sepia Tones: Exploring Black Appalachian Music” program, distributed through Great Smoky Mountains Association’s Mountain Air podcast and available through Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher and other major streaming services.

A Harlan County, Kentucky, native, Turner became one of the first to combine African American studies and Appalachian studies, ultimately reshaping both fields.

Starting with books Blacks in Appalachia in 1985, and most recently The Harlan

September 8-14, 2021

When Mountain Heritage Day returns on Saturday, Sept. 25, to the campus of Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, so will the presentation of the annual Mountain Heritage Awards.

Honoring an individual and an organization for contributions to Southern Appalachian history, culture and folklore, recipients are chosen by a committee of regional and campus representatives. The awards recognize an individual and an institution or organization for distinguished service, accomplishments, influence or expertise in maintaining the cultural viability of the region.

For 2021, the organizational honors go to the Western North Carolina Historical Association, founded in 1952 and based in Asheville. The regional nonprofit group has a mission of preserving and promoting the history and legacy of Western North Carolina through interpretation, collection and collaboration, as well as operating the Smith-McDowell House as a center of history education.

Over the past 18 months, WNCHA has placed specific emphasis on inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility in all the work the nonprofit does. They have adopted justice and land acknowledgement statements to tell a more complete story, especially to highlight voices that have been traditionally marginalized in depictions of heritage and history. WNCHA is working to specifically amplify voices of African Americans, Native Americans, and other ethnic or cultural groups in WNC in current and future programming, exhibits and museum interpretation.

“The Western Carolina Historical Association is grateful to Western Carolina University for awarding it the prized Mountain Heritage Award for 2021,” said Ralph Simpson, president of the association’s board of trustees. “Beginning in early 2020, we made a commitment to tell a more complete, inclusive history of Western North Carolina. Although primarily rural, this region has a rich diversity, and its history is complex. So much of our history has been untold.

“Under the guidance of executive director Anne Chesky Smith, WNCHA is telling a more complete history through programming and interpretation. Our trustees are fully engaged in this work, and our program participants are welcoming the educational journey with enthusiasm,” Simpson said.

“We encourage anyone who has an interest in Western North Carolina history, whether

arts & entertainment

WCU’s Mountain Heritage Awards

Affairs of the Heart

————————————————————————————— 120 N. Main St. • Waynesville 828.452.0526 • affairsoftheheartnc.com

27

arts & entertainment

On the wall • An art contest (ages 5 years and up) will be held Sept. 13 through Oct. 14 at the Marianna Black Library in Bryson City. A fun night complete with face painting for children and other activities will also take place during the “Gallery Night” event from 5 to 7 p.m.

Tuesday, Oct. 19. The theme of the contest is “It’s a Beautiful World.” To register for the contest, pick up an application on Monday, Sept. 13, at the library.

• An educational workshop will be offered by Dogwood Crafters Co-Op, which will be held at the Dillsboro Masonic Lodge.

“Painting on Glass, Wood, or Metal” will be from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 16. Patricia Cowen, a charter member of Dogwood Crafters, will help participants turn glass, wood, or metal items into beautiful decorative objects for one's home or gifts. Participants need to bring materials to paint. Cost is $1. Register by Sept. 9. To register, call 828.586.2248.

Smoky Mountain News

September 8-14, 2021

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On the stage

• 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. For more information, call 828.349.4607 or contact Pat Mennenger at pm14034@yahoo.com. www.franklinuptowngallery.com.

• 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. Her portfolio includes drawing, painting, sculpture, illustration, graphic design, murals, and set prop painting.

Broadway classic at HART From legendary theatrical team Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, a production of the legendary musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” will hit the stage through Sept. 19 at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville.

This show features songs that have gone on to become pop and musical theatre standards, including “Any Dream Will Do,” “Close Every Door,” “One More Angel In Heaven” and “Go Go Go Joseph.”

The biblical saga of Joseph and his coat of many colors jumps off the page into vibrant life in this musical comedy. Told almost

entirely through song, it’s a story of family, betrayal, perseverance, forgiveness and redemption.

This beloved tale has mesmerized audiences for decades through its wide variety of musical styles, from country to calypso to rock-n-roll, as we follow Joseph and his incredible series of adventures.

Performance dates are at 7:30 p.m. Sept.

9-11, 16-18, and at 2 p.m. Sept. 12 and 19.

For more information and/or to purchase tickets, visit www.harttheatre.org or call the HART box office at 828.456.6322. This show is suitable for all ages.

Lectures on existentialism

two centuries. It asks deep questions about what it means to be alive and how to cope in a universe that seems indifferent to our existence. We will discuss thinkers like Dostoyevsky, Sartre, Beauvoir, and recent post-existentialist developments. Rather than simply a lecture, we are hoping for lively discussion of important life issues,” said May. The series will be in the Community Room, is free to attend and requires no registration. Per Jackson County regulations, attendees will be required to wear a mask.

For more information, call the library at 828.586.2016. This seminar is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Jackson County Public Library.

The Jackson County Public Library is a member of Fontana Regional Library (www.fontanalib.org).

Led by Clemson Professor Todd May, a discussion on existentialism will continue from 6 to 7 p.m. Sept. 14, 21 and 28 at the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva.

May is Class of 1941 Memorial Professor of the Humanities at Clemson University in South Carolina. He is the author of 16 books of philosophy and was an advisor to the philosophical sitcom “The Good Place.”

He is currently advising “The Good Place” showrunner, Mike Schur, on a book of ethics that is due out next spring with Simon and Schuster.

“Existentialism is one of the most enduring philosophies to emerge out of the past

FREE

FRANKLIN WELCOMES JEFF ALLEN Beloved comedian Jeff Allen will hit the stage at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 16, at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin. Tickets start at $20 with priority seating available. www.smokymountainarts.com.

Want to learn theatre?

This fall, there will be a slew of theatre classes offered by the HART Arts Academy from Sept. 13 through Nov. 3 at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville.

Adult classes include directing, beginner tap and musical theatre vocals. Kids classes include a wide-range of dancing, acting, singing, directing, and improvisational courses.

Learn more about these opportunities and sign up for classes by visiting www.harttheatre.org, clicking on the “Kids at Hart” tab and scrolling to “Classes & Camps” page. Masks and social distancing will be required for all courses.

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work full-time in the fields, ship Robert off to a mental institution, and fire Little George and Corinthia.

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After he finished the last line, Alvin Earl clapped and asked, “You can train a monkey or dog to do tricks. Which one is he?”

Granny jerked her pale fingers off the keys and froze. Alvin Earl’s question hung in the air like a bad note and silence filled the room.

When no one answered, he asked again, “Is he a trained monkey or a circus dog doing tricks?”

Glancing at Robert, I knew he didn’t catch the sarcasm in Alvin Earl’s voice or understand his question. He thought it was funny and laughed. “I’m not a monkey. I’m not a dog. I’m your brother.”

“I don’t get a word he’s saying. He talks like he’s got a mouthful of grits.”

But Paw Paw thwarts these plans. Just before he dies, he changes his will, establishing an education fund for Lucas and leaving 40 acres to Little George. When the will is read, Alvin Earl explodes, drinks even more heavily, and soon finds himself threatened by loan sharks.

One bit of light shines for Lucas when Amelia Weinstein from New York arrives as a new student in school. She’s a slender, nononsense, bright girl, and she and Lucas become study partners and then best friends.

To further describe the plot would ruin this novel’s ending.

In addition to her finely told coming of age story, Anderson gives readers several other gifts in Crooked Truth. She has a real ear for dialogue and dialect, which is difficult for many writers. Her characters are as memorable by what they say and the way they say it as by their actions.

Moreover, the descriptions of farm life and rural Georgia — the poverty, the good and the bad relations between blacks and whites, the joy of going to the movie theater

and watching a Hopalong Cassidy film, the simple pleasures of fishing or playing hideand-seek — give us a memorable picture of a world that today sometimes seems as far away in time as Babylon. (One quibble here: At one point, one of Robert’s beloved chickens has died.

He starts sobbing, and to comfort him Lucas promises to help bury the hen, saying, “We’ll find a place near the roses. The ground’s real soft back there.

We can dig a hole deep enough to keep the coyotes away.” If I’m not mistaken, coyotes didn’t appear in Georgia until the 1970s.)

Finally, this family — and there’s a surprise in store near the end of the novel regarding one family relative — feels real. In another writer’s hands, Granny and Paw Paw, for example, could easily have become stereotypes, ignorant or calloused, what some might derogatorily call “Georgia crackers.”

Instead, both of them possess an innate nobility, giving love to those around them and acting with justice and compassion in their defense of family and friends.

Near the end of Crooked Truth, Lucas tells us the main lesson he’s learned from his ordeals: “There’s no such thing as the perfect truth or absolute right. And sometimes families have to pull and twist the truth to survive and move forward.”

Crooked Truth has been nominated for the 2021 Willie Morris Southern Fiction Award. Winners will be announced in October. But whatever the outcome of that contest, here is a writer who has done herself proud.

(Jeff Minick reviews books and has written four of his own: two novels, Amanda Bell and Dust On Their Wings, and two works of nonfiction, Learning As I Go and Movies Make the Man. minick0301@gmail.com.)

September 8-14, 2021

ears ago, a friend and I were watching some news show like 60 Minutes about juvenile murderers. The point of the report was that these young criminals showed little or no remorse for their shootings and stabbings, and in fact seemed to lack any sort of moral compass that most of us take as a given. When I wondered aloud about a solution, what might be done to change these stonehearted murderers, my friend looked at me and said, “Some people just need killing.”

I thought of that remark when I encountered Alvin Earl, the 46-year-old Writer drunk, gambler, and good-for-nothing scumbag who appears in Kristine F. Anderson’s novel Crooked Truth (Mercer University Press, 2020, 214 pages).

It’s 1948, and 15-year-old Lucas Webster, orphaned when his parents died in an automobile accident, is living with his grandparents on their farm near the fictional town of Crisscross in South Georgia. Besides going to school, Lucas helps with chores around the farm and tends to his Uncle Robert.

Born with Down Syndrome, Robert is loved by those around him — Paw Paw, Granny, and two hired workers, the cook and housekeeper Corinthia and her husband Little George, who keeps the farm up and running.

Lucas doesn’t mind the farm work, but dislikes Robert tagging along all the time and dreams of the day he can leave his uncle and the farm behind him. The real bane of his life, however, and of Robert’s, is Robert’s half-brother, Alvin Earl. Every time he shows up, Alvin Earl makes a point of tormenting Robert. In one scene, for example, Granny is playing the piano and Robert is singing “Clementine.”

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Good folks and a wicked man Y

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Outdoors

Smoky Mountain News

River’s Edge Park in Clyde — designed to survive frequent flooding — was coated with several inches of mud the morning after the flood. Cory Vaillancourt photo

Below the waterline Fred’s impact on aquatic life remains to be seen

BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER ric Romaniszyn had been Haywood Waterways Association’s project manager for less than six months when the legendary floods of September 2004 tore through Clyde and Canton, challenging him to execute his new role addressing watershed health and education in the face of a once-ina-lifetime weather event.

It took just 17 years for such flooding to prove itself at the minimum a twice-in-a-lifetime occurrence.

While testing is still needed to determine how the Aug. 17 floods in Haywood County have impacted water quality and aquatic ecosystems in the Pigeon River, Romaniszyn — Haywood Waterways’ executive director since 2010 — has some experience to draw on.

The 2004 flood happened right when Haywood Waterways was planning to hold its annual Kids in the Creek outdoor education event for Haywood County eighth graders.

Due to severe weather, the organization postponed the field trip and relocated it from Canton to Lake Logan.

“It was hard to find organisms because the substrate had been so scoured,” Romaniszyn recalled. “Everything got washed downstream.

Organisms can find refugia — places to hang out while the flooding is happening and be protected — but a lot of them floated, were scoured and washed downstream.”

E

This summer’s floodwaters associated with Tropical Storm Fred rose remarkably high and flowed remarkably swiftly. A gauge located on the East Fork Pigeon River about 5 miles downstream of the worst flooding reported waters that spiked from 8 feet to 16 feet in just two hours, peaking at 16.15 feet — an incredibly high reading for a river that’s commonly less than a foot deep.

When the water ripped through, it carried away entire houses, tore open propane tanks, mangled vehicles. It scoured soil from rock, transported boulders and stripped away grass.

In the aftermath, search and rescue, then disaster relief, have been the top priorities.

Romaniszyn hasn’t investigated water quality in the most-affected portions of the river yet, because he’s been trying to stay out of the way of those critical operations. But in the weeks and months to come, assessing those impacts and then addressing them will be critical tasks.

Romaniszyn expects to see profound changes to the numbers and types of creatures inhabiting the Pigeon — at least for a while.

“The system will recover of course over time,” he said. “Fish will come out of the tributaries. Bugs will hatch out from other tributaries, fly over and lay their eggs back in the Pigeon.”

But for now, the river is likely to be less lively than the stream anglers are used to fishing.

It also might be less clean. The chocolate brown floodwaters carried more than sediment, which has long been Haywood County’s number one pollutant. They also carried

Clean the streams Help clean up Haywood waterways during Big Sweep 2021, 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

Saturday, Sept. 18.

Organized by Haywood Waterways Association, this year’s event will include four locations for stream and roadside cleanups.

Volunteers will meet at the town halls of Clyde and Maggie Valley, as well as at Vance Street pavilion and the PetSmart parking lot in Waynesville. Special events will be scheduled soon to help with cleanup efforts in the Canton, Bethel and Cruso areas.

Big Sweep is an annual countywide cleanup event that removes tons of trash from local waterways and roadways. Volunteers should be prepared to work in the sun and to get wet and dirty. Wear closed-toed shoes and long pants, and bring plenty of water. Trash bags, grabbers, gloves and refreshments will be provided.

Sponsored by Haywood Waterways, Haywood Community College, Town of Waynesville, Town of Clyde, Town of Maggie Valley, Haywood County Solid Waste and Tennessee Valley Authority.

RSVP by Sept. 15 to Christine O’Brien at christine.haywoodwaterways@gmail.com or 828.476.4667, ext. 11. For information about volunteering to help with immediate needs in flood-stricken areas, visit www.recoverhaywood.com.

along whatever substances they picked up as they burst through walls and tore away soils — propane, sewage, motor oil and livestock waste are all likely to have swirled in the floodwaters.

“I heard of the banks eroding so badly that it got up close to septic systems,” said

Romaniszyn. “It would not surprise me to hear of some septic systems that got completely taken out altogether.”

While he suspects that many of the pollutants are now sitting downstream in Waterville Lake, some could still be hanging out closer to Cruso.

“A lot of the nutrients, bacteria could get bound up in the sediments between Cruso all the way to Waterville Lake, so the issue might still be around for a few years as that material flushes its way down the system,” he said.

“Same with any petroleum products that might have come from fuel tanks, propane tanks, things like that.”

How all that affects the fish — and the safety of eating them — is an open question.

Trout, a favorite catch from the East Fork, are top predators in freshwater stream ecosystems, which means that any toxic materials eaten by their prey or their prey’s prey eventually end up accumulating in their own bodies.

But whether that’s happening at unhealthy levels as a result of the flood is unknown.

Getting the answer would require collecting and testing fish tissue, and doing so at the right time. Even if such toxins are making their way into the trout’s organs, it’s possible that not enough time has passed since the flood for the magnitude of that impact to be measured accurately, Romaniszyn said.

Or, it might not be a big issue for Cruso, but rather more of a problem for downstream anglers.

“That material might not even be in Cruso,” said Romaniszyn. “It might be in Waterville Lake right now, in which case Cruso fish might be alright to eat, but Waterville Lake fish might not be.”

The short answer is that there is no answer yet — more testing is needed.

Meanwhile, Haywood Waterways is developing a to-do list to assist in the water quality side of flood recovery.

Debris collection is perhaps the most obvious, in-your-face item on the to do list.

In addition to environmental impacts, trash deposits are a liability for a region that depends as heavily as Western North Carolina does on outdoor tourism. Over the coming months, Haywood Waterways plans to organize many river cleanups.

“We get a lot of volunteers and resources to help with that all throughout the county,” Romaniszyn said. “So we’ll do some walking cleanups around bridges and places we can access but also plan on getting boats and floating down the river, grabbing what we can and what we can’t grab just marking it somehow to bring in some other resources to bring it out.”

By “what we can’t grab,” he means refrigerators, washing machines, fuel tanks, mattresses, trampolines — any of the countless unwieldy artifacts of the lives changed forever by the force of the now-docile Pigeon.

The other, longer-term, priority will be to restore the streambanks

A draft plan for managing air tours in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is now available for public comment, with a virtual public meeting on the topic planned for 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 16.

The draft plan would authorize up to 946 air tours per year on defined routes. That number is the average number of air tours conducted by two operators from 2017 to 2019.

The Smokies is one of 24 national parks currently developing an air tour management plan in cooperation with the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA and the National Park Service hope to complete all 24 plans by the end of August 2022. The schedule is part of a plan approved by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for the agencies to comply with the National Parks Air Tour

Holly Kays photo

scoured by the floodwaters. The timeline and magnitude of those efforts will depend largely on the level of emergency funding that comes through. As of press time, a federal disaster declaration had not yet been

Great Smoky Mountain Helicopter photo

sion of the plan. The Sept. 16 meeting will be livestreamed at youtu.be/BIIt8gzNVVA, as well as on the FAA’s Facebook, Twitter and YouTube pages.

Explore the geography of Cherokee history Hear an expert speak on the Cherokee geography embedded within the Western North Carolina region at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 10, at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin.

Lamar Marshall, research director and historical graphics designer for Southeast Heritage, will be the speaker. Marshall has 30 years of experience in nonprofit conservation and cultural heritage work and has spent the last 13 years researching and mapping Cherokee trails, ecology and geography in conjunction with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the N.C. Trail of Tears Association. He specializes in recreating cultural landscapes by integrating archives, early surveys and historical maps.

The presentation is offered as part of Nantahala Hiking Club’s September meeting. Membership not required to attend. Contact the library at 828.534.3600 for current COVID-19 guidelines.

September 8-14, 2021

Become A Member Today!

Contact Membership Director Caitlin Bledsoe for more info — 828-926-4831

Smoky Mountain News

signed.

“A lot of people like to build their home close to waterways and like access to the water, like to see the water. And that’s where we see a lot of issues,” said Romaniszyn. “You replace those trees with grass. Grass just does not do a good job of holding stream banks together. So out of this whole flood recovery I hope to see a lot more trees planted.”

That’s what Haywood Waterways helped

do at Rivers Edge Park in Clyde. FEMA funding following the 2004 floods allowed the Town of Clyde to buy the 4.5-acre property after those floodwaters destroyed the homes that once stood there. In the years since, the park has been transformed into to a hedge against future flooding, planted with river cane and tree species chosen specifically for their ability to stabilize the soil and help absorb excess water.

According to Romaniszyn, the park did its job well on Aug. 17.

“They had a number of trees get pushed over, but there are also a lot of trees that withstood the damage, withstood the forces,” he As the river rose Aug. 17, said. “And the water turned an they’re doing angry, chocolaty brown. just fine. I think that’s a Sunburst Trout photo good testament to just the importance of trees.”

Fred will leave scars on the landscape for years to come, but the plant and animal communities that cover that landscape will recover, Romaniszyn said.

“When I’ve driven up into East Fork before all this flooding happened, every time I think back to the hurricanes, back to 2004, and you can’t even tell they were there,” he said. “The system has recovered so well.”

Management Act of 2000 within two years.

View project documents and submit comments through Sunday, Oct. 3, at parkplanning.nps.gov/greatsmokymountainsatmp.

These comments will help inform the final ver-

outdoors

Smokies proposes air tour plan

The floodwaters transported entire structures from their foundations to the riverbank.

1819 Country Club Drive Maggie Valley, NC

M AG G I E VA LLEY C LU B . CO M 31

outdoors

Join BugFest BugFest at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh will go virtual once more this year — meaning that there’s no need to leave the mountains to partake in online programs from Monday, Sept. 13, through Thursday, Sept. 16.

Over the course of the week, participants can find out how Good of the Hive founder Matt Willey became inspired to hand-paint 50,000 honeybees in murals around the world, watch spectacular slowmotion flying insect videos, learn about the Bumble Bee Watch citizen science program, find out more about the 4,000 bee species native to North America, investigate several species of bees and wasps — as well as lookalikes and predators — and enjoy a competitive episode of bug-centered trivia.

All events are free, with a full schedule and registration links at www.bugfest.org.

Moderate fall color season predicted Western Carolina University students gather beneath autumn leaves. WCU photo

A “reasonably colorful” fall leaf season with a less pronounced peak than usual is predicted for Western North Carolina, according to Western Carolina University fall color forecaster Beverly Collins.

While warm, wet weather this summer and fall combined with tropical storms

moving through the area could put something of a damper on fall colors, warmerthan-average temperatures could mean fall colors last longer overall. The National Weather Service is predicting near normal temperatures and a wetter-than-average September, with warmer than average tem-

peratures through November.

“All the above may combine to bring on color a little earlier in some species and a little later in others, with spottier bright reds and yellows, and a less pronounced peak in late October at WCU’s elevation,” Collins said. “On the bright side, the midand late fall colors may last longer, into November around campus, and later in October at higher elevations.”

This could mean a color season running from late September well into November when accounting for both the higher and lower elevations — though a late storm knocking leaves off the trees could change that.

Trees’ leaf colors are a mixture of yellow, orange and red pigments that are revealed as photosynthesis and chlorophyll production wind down. These pigments, especially the yellow and orange, play a role in photosynthesis and, along with the red pigment, help protect the plant from stresses, such as drought, heat or high UV conditions.

Trace the evolution of Appalachian music

Smoky Mountain News

September 8-14, 2021

Learn about the history and evolution of Appalachian music with a Blue Ridge Parkway Ranger during this week’s Fridays at the Folk Art Center session, 6:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 10, at the Folk Art Center in Asheville.

This evening of cultural and song study will follow the tracks of the original people of these hills, the Cherokee, through European and African immigration to the present-day understanding and misunderstanding of Appalachian folk music.

The Folk Art Center is located at Milepost 382 on the Parkway. No restrooms will be available during this outdoor program. Bring a chair or blanket to sit on.

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Highlands Falls is visible from the Kelsey Trail.

The Mountains-to-Sea Trail turns 44 this month, and Friends of the MST offers four ways to join the celebration. n Complete the 44-Mile Challenge by hiking 44 miles anywhere on the MST this month — an average of just 1.47 miles a day. Those who complete the challenge will have a chance to win one of six prize packs from REI. Track miles and compete for prizes using the phone app MST Guide by Pocket Trails. n Invite friends, family, colleagues and neighbors who have not experienced the MST to join you on an adventure this month. To understand why invitation is the first step to inclusion, watch the “Inclusivity and Joy on the MST” panel from this year’s UnGathering of Friends at www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMSozIwVv4c.

n Give a special gift to support the trail.

Those who give $44 or more will receive a new HIKE N.C. MST patch before it’s available in the MST store. n Raise funds for the MST using the peer-topeer campaign system Friends has created.

Funds help build, maintain, protect and promote the trail.

The MST runs for 1,175 miles across North Carolina, from Clingmans Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to Jockey’s Ridge on the Outer Banks. For more information about the trail’s 44th birthday festivities, visit www.mountainstoseatrail.org.

outdoors

MST celebrates 44 years

Highlands Plateau Greenway photo

Experience the historic Kelsey Trail pleting the road after 500 work days. The first wagon made its journey on July 10, 1883.

For the next 60 years, the trail was one of the most popular excursions for Highlands residents, but it was closed to the public in the late 1950s.

During this nostalgic walk on the original trail, small groups will be led to Leila’s Rock, Garnet Rock, the Cullasaja Club Overlook and Highlands Falls. Participants should bring good hiking shoes or boots, rain gear, water, a daypack and a camera.

Registration is $75 and includes a picnic lunch and Highlands Plateau Greenway membership. Sign up at www.highlandsgreenway.com/biennial-kelsey-trail-hike or leave a message at 828.482.2346.

Explore DuPont’s waterfalls

A pair of free webinars for deer hunters will be offered 7-8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 14, and Thursday, Sept. 16, just after bow season opens Sept. 11.

The Tuesday program is titled “Introduction to Deer Hunting,” and the Thursday program is “Practical Deer Processing: From Field to Freezer.” The sessions are offered by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission and the N.C. Wildlife Federation, with a 30-minute question-and-answer session following each main session. Open to all regardless of hunting experience, including those who have never hunted before.

Deer season dates for the western region are Sept. 11-Oct. 3, Oct. 17-Nov. 21 and Dec. 12Jan.1 for archery; Oct. 4-16 for blackpowder; and Nov. 22-Dec. 11 for gun.

Register at www.ncwildlife.org/learning/skills-based-seminars. For more information, contact 984.202.1387 or walter.james@ncwildlife.org.

September 8-14, 2021

A rare opportunity to hike the historic Kelsey Trail in Highlands is coming Saturday, Sept. 18.

Shuttles will leave from the KelseyHutchinson Park at 8:30, 9 and 9:30 a.m. for the 5-mile walk from Whiteside Mountain to the Highlands Founders Park.

Mostly downhill, the walk takes about four hours and will end with a picnic at the park.

When Highlands was founded in 1875, there was no road to Whiteside Mountain.

So in 1881 Samuel Kelsey began building one that would end a quarter mile from the top of Whiteside. The usefulness of the road was questioned, with one resident arguing it was “of no earthly use to the town, that it goes nowhere and ends in nothing,” but Kelsey persisted, recruiting help and com-

Get ready for hunting season

Take a walking tour of the majestic waterfalls at DuPont State Recreational Forest at 9 a.m.

Wednesday, Sept. 15.

Tour leader Shawn McMurry will provide a slow-paced walk to High Falls and Triple Falls, along the way discussing the rich history of the forest and how the waterfalls were saved from development 20 years ago.

Space limited. RSVP at www.dupontforest.wildapricot.org/event-4308668.

Take a hike from the Mt. Pisgah Trailhead to Frying Pan Tower starting at 1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 12.

This moderate hike is 6.2 miles long and varies in elevation between 4,268 feet and 4,972 feet. Lisa Cook and Jamie Shackleford will guide it.

The hike is part of an ongoing program from Haywood County Recreation and Parks. Other hikes this month will include a Sept. 15 hike from Beech Gap to Devil’s Courthouse, a Sept. 18 hike on the Buck Spring and Mt. Pisgah Trail loop, a Sept. 22 hike from Devil’s Courthouse to Pisgah Inn, a Sept. 25 hike on the Bridges Camp Gap Trail and a Sept. 29 hike on the Black

Smoky Mountain News

Hike Haywood

Balsam Tennent Mountain loop.

Cost is $10 per hike. Register with Ian Smith at 828.452.6789 or ian.smith@haywoodcountync.gov.

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outdoors

Volunteers work to repair trail tread. NPS photo

Lend a hand in the Smokies September 8-14, 2021

Volunteers will have a chance to give back to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park during several workdays planned throughout the month of September.

Workdays will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesdays, Sept. 8, 15 and 22 at various locations in North Carolina and Sept. 9 in Tennessee. A special opportunity Saturday, Sept. 25, in North Carolina will honor National Public Lands Day. Volunteers will help repair erosion control features, cut back overgrown vegetation and perform general trail tread maintenance on

portions of the park’s 848 miles of maintained trails.

Volunteers must be at least 16, and those under 18 must be accompanied by a responsible parent or guardian.

Participants must be able to safely hike up to 4 miles per day while carrying tools and be prepared to perform strenuous manual labor. After proper training, volunteers will be expected to safely use hand tools such as shovels, rakes, loppers and hand picks.

Registration required, and space limited. Sign up with Adam Monroe at 828.497.1949 or adam_monroe@nps.gov.

Smoky Mountain News

Arboretum to host fall plant sale

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

Shop an outstanding collection of trees, shrubs, cut flowers and more at the N.C. Arboretum Plant Sale and Vendor Market, Sept. 17-18 in Asheville.

The weekend will begin with priority access for people with memberships of the Rhododendron level or higher, from 10 a.m. to noon Friday, Sept. 17. The sale will then continue through 3 p.m. and resume the following day from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Learn more at www.ncarboretum.org/event/fall-plant-sale.

Hay the Smokies Harvest hay in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park through a new opportunity accepting applications through Wednesday, Sept. 15.

Holders of an agricultural Special Park Use permit will be able to hay the fields adjacent to the Oconaluftee Visitor Center and along Newfound Gap Road near Smokemont Campground. The fields, comprised of five parcels totaling 53 acres, are

kept open to preserve the cultural landscape of the early 1900s.

Permit holders will be able to sell, trade or barter hay harvested under the permit’s authority. Haying operations are the only agricultural use of the fields allowed under the permit. Contact Jamie Sanders for more information at jamie_sanders@nps.gov or 865.436.1296. Applications and permit conditions are available at the Agricultural Permitting Office. Application deadline is Sept. 15.

WNC Calendar COMMUNITY EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS • The Food Ministry at Live forgiven Church will host a Curbside Grocery Giveaway at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept.

12 at 45 Crown Ridge Road in Sylva.

HEALTH AND WELLNESS • Waynesville Yoga Center will host a Meditation Weekend Workshop Sept. 24-26. The workshop will be hosted by Lynda Saffell and will present the historical, philosophical, and fundamental components of meditation. For more information, or to register, visit www.waynesvilleyogacenter.com/event/300-hour-module-meditation.

• The Macon County Public Library and Beyond Bending Yoga are teaming up to offer free yoga during the pandemic. All classes at the library are free to the public and will be held outdoors as weather permits. Please register to help ensure safe social distancing. This class is accessible to new and seasoned yogis.

n All phone numbers area code 828 unless otherwise noted. n To have your item listed email to calendar@smokymountainnews.com theme will be a tribute to the “Jeopardy” show. Free and open to the public. Donations accepted.

• Nantahala Brewing (Sylva) will host Shane Meade (rock/soul) at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 17. 828.641.9797 or www.nantahalabrewing.com.

• Nantahala Outdoor Center (Nantahala Gorge) will host “Bluegrass with Blue” Sept. 10 and Pioneer Chicken Stand Sept. 11. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public.

888.905.7238 or www.noc.com.

• “Pickin’ on the Square” (Franklin) will host Cornbread Creek (old-time) Sept. 11 and Curtis Blackwell & The Dixie Bluegrass Boys Sept. 18. All shows start at 7 p.m.

Free and open to the public. Located on Main Street. www.franklin-chamber.com.

• Saturdays On Pine (Highlands) will be held at the Kelsey-Hutchinson Park from 6 to 8:30 p.m. with Full Circle Sept. 11 and Will Thompson Trio Sept. 18. Free and open to the public. www.highlandschamber.org.

A&E

• The Cherokee Blue Ridge Run will be held Sept. 10-12 at the Cherokee Indian Fairgrounds. Motorcycle rally, races, bike show, live music, food vendors, and much more. Admission is $15 per day or $30 for the weekend.

Kids ages 16 and under are free. www.blueridgerun.com.

• Mountain Makers Craft Market will be held from noon to 4 p.m. the first Sunday of each month at 308 North Haywood Street in downtown Waynesville. Over two dozen artisans selling handmade and vintage goods.

Special events will be held when scheduled. www.mountainmakersmarket.com.

• The Classic Wineseller (Waynesville) will host Nathan Hefner (piano/vocals) Sept. 11 and Kevin Williams (piano/vocals) Sept. 18. All shows begin at 7 p.m.

Limited seating. Reservations required. Ticket price and dinner menu to be announced. 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 Curtis Blackwell Sept.

10 and Southern Highlands Sept. 17. Free and open to the public. www.highlandschamber.org.

• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host Pleasantly Wild Sept. 10, A. Lee Edwards & The Drag Sept. 11, Sugar Lime Blue Sept. 17, Shane Meade Sept. 18 and Bohemian Jean 2 p.m. Sept. 19. 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 Stephen Horvath Sept. 19. All events are free and begin at 2 p.m. unless otherwise noted. www.innovation-brewing.com.

• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Franklin) will host Yard Karaoke 7 p.m. Sept. 10, Dustin Martin (singer-songwriter) Sept.

11 and Medicate Sunfish Sept. 18. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.349.2337 or www.lazyhikerbrewing.com.

• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Sylva) will host Dustin Martin (singer-songwriter) Sept. 10 and Medicated Sunfish Sept. 17. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.349.2337 or www.lazyhikerbrewing.com.

• Maggie Valley Pavilion will host the Haywood Community Band at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 19. The concert

• Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts (Franklin) will host singer-songwriter Craig Morgan at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 17. Tickets start at $30, with priority seating available. For more information and to purchase tickets, click on www.smokymountainarts.com.

• The Ugly Dog Pub (Cashiers) will host Sirsy 8 p.m.

Sept. 10. 828.743.3000 or www.theuglydogpub.com.

• Water’n Hole Bar & Grill (Waynesville) will host Andrea & Mud (western/folk) 9 p.m. Sept. 10.

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

FOOD AND DRINK • 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 all-adult first class car. Craft beer pairings with a meal, and more. For more information and/or to register, call 800.872.4681 or click on www.gsmr.com.

• “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. Full service all-adult first class car. Wine pairings with a meal, and more. For more information and/or to register, call 800.872.4681 or click on www.gsmr.com.

Outdoors

• In lieu of its ever-popular Guest Appreciation Festival, the Nantahala Outdoor Center in Swain County will instead move to a Guest Appreciation Month (September) of Celebration for 2021. Stay tuned for details at www.noc.com/events.

Smoky Mountain News

• Wildlife through the lenses of local photographers will be on display at the Macon County Public Library through the month of September. Library hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

• Volunteers will have a chance to give back to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park during several workdays planned throughout the month of September.

Workdays will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Wednesdays, Sept. 8, 15 and 22 at various locations in North Carolina and Sept. 9 in Tennessee. A special opportunity Saturday, Sept. 25, in North Carolina will honor National Public Lands Day. Registration required, and space limited. Sign up with Adam Monroe at 828.497.1949 or adam_monroe@nps.gov.

• The final installment of the Zahner Conservation Lecture Series will feature a presentation on the convergence of conservation and culture at 6:30 p.m.

Thursday, Sept. 9 in the Highlands Biological Station Meadow. For more information, visit www.highlandsbiological.org.

• Learn about the history and evolution of Appalachian music with a Blue Ridge Parkway Ranger during this week’s Fridays at the Folk Art Center session, 6:30 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 10, at the Folk Art Center in Asheville. The Folk Art Center is located at Milepost 382 on the Parkway. No restrooms will be available during this outdoor program. Bring a chair or blanket to sit on.

• Hear an expert speak on the Cherokee geography embedded within the Western North Carolina region at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 10, at the Macon County Public Library in Franklin. Contact the library at 828.534.3600 for current COVID-19 guidelines.

• The Mast Store celebrates Friends Day on Saturday, Sept. 11, by choosing a nonprofit partner to promote during this important day. This year, Mast is pleased to count Friends of the Smokies (Friends) in its circle of friends. On Friends Day, Mast will give 10% of the day’s sales to Friends of the Smokies. Guests may also “round-up” their purchases between Sept.10 – 12 to benefit the organization. To donate, volunteer, or learn more about the many activities of Friends of the Smokies, visit www.friendsofthesmokies.org.

• The annual Little Tennessee River Cleanup will take place Saturday, Sept. 11, in Franklin. Volunteer are needed to work a variety of litter zones that day, but on their own schedule following supply pickup throughout the week Sept. 7-10 at Mainspring Conservation Trust’s office on 557 East Main Street in Franklin or from 9-10 a.m. Sept. 11 on Mainspring property across the street from its office.

• The N.C. Mountain State Fair will return to Fletcher Sept. 10-19 following last year’s pandemic-induced hiatus. For more information, including a complete schedule and admission prices, visit www.mountainfair.org.

• BugFest at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh will go virtual once more this year — meaning that there’s no need to leave the mountains to partake in online programs from Monday, Sept. 13, through Thursday, Sept. 16. All events are free, with a full schedule and registration links at www.bugfest.org.

• A pair of free webinars for deer hunters will be offered 7-8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 14, and Thursday, Sept. 16, just after bow season opens Sept. 11. Register at www.ncwildlife.org/Learning/Skills-Based-Seminars. For more information, contact 984.202.1387 or walter.james@ncwildlife.org.

• A 13-week online naturalist program starts Wednesday, Sept. 15, with registration now open. Class will meet 6-8 p.m. Wednesday nights via Zoom, with classes covering everything from climate to plant communities. The $30 program fee includes on year of

35

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 unlimited access to all course materials, including recorded sessions. Register at bit.ly/2WFFjRa. • Take a walking tour of the majestic waterfalls at DuPont State Recreational Forest at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 15. Space limited. RSVP at www.dupontforest.wildapricot.org/event-4308668.

• Shop an outstanding collection of trees, shrubs, cut flowers and more at the N.C. Arboretum Plant Sale and Vendor Market, Sept. 17-18 in Asheville. Learn more at www.ncarboretum.org/event/fall-plant-sale.

• Hike the historic Kelsey Trail in Highlands Saturday, Sept. 18. Shuttles will leave from the Kelsey-Hutchinson Park at 8:30, 9 and 9:30 a.m. for the 5-mile walk from Whiteside Mountain to the Highlands Founders Park.

Registration is $75 and includes a picnic lunch and Highlands Plateau Greenway membership. Sign up at www.highlandsgreenway.com/biennial-kelsey-trail-hike or leave a message at 828.482.2346.

• Take a hike from the Mt. Pisgah Trailhead to Frying Pan Tower starting at 1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 12. This moderate hike is 6.2 miles long and varies in elevation between 4,268 feet and 4,972 feet. Lisa Cook and Jamie Shackleford will guide it. Cost is $10 per hike. Register with Ian Smith at 828.452.6789 or ian.smith@haywoodcountync.gov.

• Hike Beech Gap to Devil’s Courthouse with Haywood County Parks and Recreation at 9 a.m. Sept. 15. Rated as easy to moderate with a distance of 2.9 miles, guided by Kathy Odvody and Steve Szczepanski. betty.green@haywoodcountync.gov, 828.452.6789.

• Hike Buck Spring and Mt. Pisgah Trail Loop with Haywood County Parks and Recreation at 9 a.m. Sept.

18. Rated as easy with a distance of 2.71 miles, guided

by Phyllis Woolen and Jamie Shackleford. betty.green@haywoodcountync.gov, 828.452.6789.

• Haywood County Parks and Recreation will host a beginner fly fishing course 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Sept. 10, 17, 18, 24. betty.green@haywoodcountync.gov, 828.452.6789.

• Haywood County Parks and Recreation will host an intermediate fly fishing course 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Sept.

10, 17, 18 , 24. betty.green@haywoodcountync.gov, 828.452.6789.

• Haywood County Parks and Recreation will host fly fishing expeditions at 8 a.m. Sept. 11, Sept. 25, Oct. 9, Oct. 23 and Nov. 6 at the West Fork of the Pigeon River. betty.green@haywoodcountync.gov, 828.452.6789.

• Enjoy an easy 2-mile walk in search of birds starting at 8 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 11, at Haywood Community College. Birding tours are $10, paid at registration.

Sign up with Ian Smith at ian.smith@haywoodcountync.gov or 828.452.-6789.

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Market MarketPlace information:

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Employment

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ATTENTION ACTIVE DUTY/MILITARY 9HWHUDQV %HJLQ D QHZ FDUHHU

Old Edwards Hospitality Group Highlands NC NOW RECRUITING FOR: Retail Sales Associate, Catering & Conference Services Mgr, Sales Mgr, Asst F&B Mgr, Banquet Captain, Banquet Supervisor, Banquet Server, Host, Server, Busser, Bartender, Sous Chef, Cook, Asst Pastry Chef, Dishwasher, Reservations, Front Desk Supervisor, Front Desk, Bellman, Night Audit, Housekeeping, Laundry, Cosmetologist, Spa Attendant, Massage Therapist, Spin Instructor, Graphic Designer, P/T Marketing Asst.

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www.smokymountainnews.com

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September 8-14, 2021

WNC MarketPlace

ADVERTISING DIRECTOR- TWO REGIONAL MAGAZINES Smoky Mountain Living and Blue Ridge Motorcycle Magazine are looking for a Full-Time Advertising Director. Person will sell for both magazines over a 5 state area.

Sales experience necessary. Must be self-motivated, independent & persistent.

Knowledge in both print and digital/ social components.

Position is based in KRPH RI¿FH ORFDWHG in Waynesville. Salary + Commission, 401k.

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Haywood Co. Real Estate Agents Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate- Heritage • Carolyn Lauter - carolyn@bhgheritage.com

Beverly Hanks & Associates- beverly-hanks.com

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828.506.7137

aspivey@sunburstrealty.com

www.sunburstrealty.com/amy-spivey

R E A DY T O B U Y O R S E L L?

C A L L T O DAY !

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BROKER

828-571-0515 jeannesellswnc@gmail.com

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SaraShermanRE.com

Call for FREE HOME VALUE EVALUATION GREEN, SRES , RENE, RSPS, C2EX

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Pamela P Williams

RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL BROKER ASSOCIATE

71 NORTH MAIN STREET

CELL: (803) 528-5039 OFFICE: (828) 452-5809

WAYNESVILLE

EMAIL: PAMELAWILLIAMS@BEVERLY-HANKS.COM

CELL:

www.wncmarketplace.com

EXP Realty • Jeanne Forrest - ashevillerealeat8@gmail.com

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

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• Bruce McGovern - shamrock13.com

RE/MAX Executive - remax-waynesvillenc.com

828.558.1912CALL/TEXT

®

Amy Spivey - amyspivey.com Rick Border - sunburstrealty.com Steve Mauldin - smauldin@sunburstrealty.com Randy Flanigan - 706-207-9436

Mountain Dreams Realty- maggievalleyhomesales.com

BROKER, REMAX EXECUTIVE

BROKER, REALTOR®, ABR®, SRS, E-PRO®,

• • • •

• Lyndia Massey- buyfromlyndia@yahoo.com

SARA SHERMAN

DAVID WILLETT

• Rob Roland - robroland@beverly-hanks.com

ERA Sunburst Realty - sunburstrealty.com

Lakeshore Realty

Ready to Serve You

D

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 - esither@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

• Phyllis Robinson - lakeshore@lakejunaluska.com

A Top Listing Agent & A Top Producer

SOL

• • • • • • • • • • • • • •

September 8-14, 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 David Rogers- davidr@remax-waynesville.com Judy Meyers - jameyers@charter.net

Smoky Mountain Retreat Realty • Tom Johnson - tomsj7@gmail.com • Sherell Johnson - Sherellwj@aol.com

TO ADVERTISE IN THE NEXT ISSUE

828.452.4251 ads@smokymountainnews.com WNC MarketPlace

37

SUPER

CROSSWORD

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38

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September 8-14, 2021

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September 8-14, 2021

WNC MarketPlace

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1970-2020

1970-2020

Annual Charitable Golf Classic

Celebrating its 50 th Anniversary of serving Haywood County residents in crisis!

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2021 Laurel Ridge Country Club & Springdale 12:30 p.m. Shotgun Start · Lunch 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.

Modified Step Aside Scramble · Teams: Foursomes: 4 Women, 4 Men, Mixed Foursomes Sponsorship or $150 per golfer. Register now while space is available! Entry Deadline: Friday October 8 Entry forms available at www.haywoodministry.org or the Ministry

Smoky Mountain News

September 8-14, 2021

WE ASK EVERYONE TO CONSIDERED A SPONSORSHIP $5000 + UNDERWRITER $500 + GOLD

$2500 + PLATINUM $350 + SILVER

$1000 + DIAMOND $250 + BRONZE

Sponsorships: Bronze = 1 golf entry · $350-$2500 = 2 golf entries · Underwriter = 4 golf entries

Why Haywood Christian Ministry needs your support: God has richly blessed HCM for 50 years.

The Ministry has a proven record of caring for Haywood residents in crisis and/or poverty.

Thrift Store sales of donated items provide 100% of the funds required for administrative costs.

100% of your donations go to client services. HCM IS DEBT FREE!

50th Anniversary Celebration Dinner THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2021 · 5:30 P.M. REGISTRATION Laurel Ridge Country Club Pavilion

Reservations Required. Please indicate on golf entry form or call the Ministry to make a reservation or for more information.

SPONSORSHIPS INCLUDE:

Underwriters: 8 dinner reservations · Diamond-Platinum: 4 dinner reservations · Bronze-Gold: 2 dinner reservations Sponsors must confirm the number of dinner attendees in their party Non-Sponsors $40 per Person (tax & gratuity included)

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Information: 828-456-4838 · Registration: www.HaywoodMinistry.org