Like much of Western North Carolina, when Hurricane Helene hit last September, Canton was left with a layer of mud on everything. Unlike the rest of the region, the town was also hit hard when Tropical Storm Fred rolled through in 2021. Now, as costs mount, Canton and other local governments are wondering when the money they need to recover will show up. (Page 13) Cory Vaillancourt photo
News
Legislators tag-team proposal for professional wrestling museum......................4 Sylva aims to maintain current tax rate..........................................................................4
DA rebukes Cherokee County deputy after new filings in 2022 shooting........6 Jan. 6 participant speaks to Macon Republican Women’s Club..........................8 Macon Early College to field its own athletic teams..............................................19 Sylva selects new commissioner..................................................................................19
Opinion
When it comes to libraries, let’s keep the faith........................................................20 Letters to the editor..........................................................................................................20
A&E
New way to fly: The Sentimental Gentlemen roll into WNC................................22 Blow the tannery whistle: Scarecrows in the rain....................................................25
Outdoors
In the fight against litter, volunteer organizations are key......................................30 The Joyful Botanist: Up Moses Creek........................................................................34
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SYLVA | 629 West Main Street, Sylva, NC 28779 P: 828.452.4251 | F: 828.452.3585 I NFO & B ILLING | P.O. Box 629, Waynesville, NC 28786
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Legislators tag-team proposal for professional wrestling museum
Ning a professional wrestling museum, hoping to pin down the state’s rich sports entertainment history before the final bell rings on funding.
“The idea actually originated a few years ago based on my experience growing up in Fayetteville, watching professional wrestling and recognizing that we actually don’t have a museum or a place to visit that reflects the long and deep history of professional wrestling in the state of North Carolina,” said Sen. Jay Chaudhuri (D-Wake).
In an era of extreme political polarization and divisiveness, Chaudhuri was able to reach across the aisle and tap two veteran senators, Sen. Danny Britt (R-Robeson) and Sen. Ralph Hise (R-Mitchell) who also represents a portion of Haywood County. Chaudhuri said they were eager to support the bill.
“All three of us share a love for professional wrestling, so I did not have to engage in the claw or figure-four to get them on board,” he said.
Senate bill 404, titled the “RIC FLAIR Act,” was filed in the
report its findings and recommendations to the joint legislative oversight committee on agriculture and natural and economic resources by July 1, 2026. As of March 25, the bill had been rereferred to the committee on appropriations/base budget.
The title is, of course, not only a nod to one of North Carolina’s favorite grapplers but is also a clever acronym that implores the state to “Remember Iconic Combatants through Fostering Learning, Awareness and Interest in Rassling.”
A larger-than-life personality known as much for his signature figure-four leglock as for his outrageous, self-aggrandizing monologues, Flair had a 50-year career that netted him at least 16 world championships in the WWE, the NWA and the WCW.
Originally from Minnesota, Flair began wrestling in 1971 as part of the legendary Verne Gagne’s American Wrestling Association stable, which at the time also included such luminaries as “Jumpin’” Jim Brunzell, Greg Gagne, Ken Patera and the Iron Sheik. In 1974, Flair left the AWA for Jim Crockett’s NWA, then based in North Carolina. Over the ensuing decades,
fans in Charlotte, Greenville, High Point and Raleigh were treated to regular shows that established North Carolina as an important magnet for wrestling afficionados, and for wrestlers like Flair.
Advertisements in Western North Carolina media also show regular wrestling shows in Haywood and Buncombe counties from the early 1970s through the late 1980s, including at the Asheville Civic Center, Waynesville Junior High and the Canton YMCA — where Flair battled Patera and arch-rival Paul Jones.
Other ads show a who’s who of future wrestling superstars fighting in these Haywood County matches, including “Haystack” Calhoun, Ivan Koloff, Jay Youngblood, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and Randy Poffo, who would later become known as “Macho Man” Randy Savage.
Ric Savage, no relation, is a Sylva native and Army veteran who in the 1990s wrestled for pretty much every independent organization on the east coast at one time or another, including ECW, WCW, NWA and the USWA out of Memphis, Tennessee.
An advertisement in the June 25, 1981, issue of the Waynesville Mountaineer shows a professional wrestling event, including Ric Flair, scheduled for the Waynesville Junior High School. The Mountaineer photo
“There’s so many places that are really deep in wrestling culture, and North Carolina is one of them because of Jim Crockett promotions being based out of Charlotte,” Savage said. “That’s where Ric Flair came up, that’s where the Rock ‘n’ Roll Express came up, the Andersons, Tully Blanchard. When you look back now, some of the greatest in-ring and microphone technicians of all time came out of the NWA, came out of that Charlotte territory. You could make an argument that Charlotte would be one of the four or five places in the country that would make absolute sense to put a museum dedicated to the professional wrestling business.”
Savage thinks that if the museum’s collections had a wide enough scope, perhaps concentrating on the global phenomenon while paying special respect to North Carolina’s place in it, a museum could be a huge boost to tourism.
“We get tunnel vision thinking it’s just the USA. Wrestling is huge all over the planet, in Japan, in Europe, England. It would become a destination thing for wrestling fans from all over the world,” said Savage.
Chaudhuri said he’s not married to the idea of locating the museum in Charlotte and that many parts of the state could benefit from the tourism spending that would be associated with such a facility.
“I would say that it could be a real economic development tool in different parts of the state. There is a rich history of professional wrestling tied to the western part of the state and I have heard from eastern North Carolina lawmakers that have talked about the wrestling matches and tours that came through that part of the state. Greensboro holds probably the record for the for the most number of matches, or the largest attendance, so I think the great thing about a professional wrestling museum is that different parts of the state can make an argument to be a home for it.”
Ric Flair was not immediately available for comment, probably because even at 76 years of age Flair is a still a limousineridin’, jet-flyin’, Rolex wearin’, kiss-stealin’, wheelin’-dealin’, son of a gun.
Andre the Giant (left) a French-born wrestler whose ashes were spread on his 160-acre ranch in Ellerbe, North Carolina, poses with fellow Tar Heel State grappler Ric Flair, probably in the early 1980s. @RicFlairNatrBoy/X photo
Sylva aims to maintain current tax rate
BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER
As Sylva closes in on a final proposed budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year, it looks like the town will be able to achieve its top budget priorities without an increase to the tax rate, due in part to growth in its taxable value from the 2025 tax revaluation in Jackson County.
“We are balanced based on our current tax rate,” said Town Manager Paige Dowling in a budget work session March 27.
Jackson County is undergoing a property revaluation in 2025, something that is required by North Carolina Law at least every eight years. Real property taxable value in the county stood at about $11.45 billion in 2024. As of Jan. 1, that number has increased by almost $7 billion, or 60%, to about $18.4 billion.
As of March 27, Sylva was estimated to see the second lowest overall property value increase in the county, at about 28%. This number does not include any appeals, which could lower the percentage increase.
“The only way we can budget for an increase of our property tax collection is if we collected it at 100% the previous year,” said Finance Officer Lynn Bryant. “That doesn’t typically happen. I just wanted to point that out to indicate that it shows 28%, but there’s other factors that are taken into consideration when you actually go to budget.”
Tax revaluations represent an important growth factor for the Town of Sylva, considering that since 2021, the town has seen an average annual natural growth rate in its tax base of just 0.18%.
“That is a very low growth rate that we are realizing in between budget years,” said Bryant. “That’s low. Most of the time the way we’re able to gain value is during the revaluation because we don’t have growth in between.”
The average home within city limits is worth a little less than $300,000. For each cent on the property tax, someone living in a home with a taxable value of $300,000 would pay about $30 per year.
One cent on the tax rate for Sylva currently equals about $57,362. The current tax rate sits at $0.45 cents per $100 of assessed property value.
During its last budget work session, town board members ranked their priorities, one of which was the funding of a fulltime social worker within the Sylva Police Department to continue the Community Care Program. While that position has previously been funded through grants, it will become the responsibility of the town in the coming fiscal year. Four commissioners on the board ranked this role as a budget priority.
All five commissioners listed both a skatepark and revisiting sidewalks that
need repair as top budget priorities. While town staff was able to include funding for sidewalk repair in the preliminary budget, it did not budget for the skatepark.
“We did not put the skatepark in the budget because the county at some point will decide where that’s going to be and if the town is able to contribute, we can do that at that time,” said Dowling. “But I didn’t feel like it was final enough until they’ve got more concrete plans to build that into this budget, even though that one was a high priority for the board.”
Staff also included funding for painting crosswalks in town and repairing pavers on Mill Street, as well as renovating Poteet Park bathrooms. Each of those projects were priorities for three and two commissioners respectively.
Another budget priority that three board members put forth was a Main Street police officer, full or part-time. Specific funding for that role was not included in the budget.
The total preliminary proposed budget is $7,525,677.
“So, we’re looking at an increase of $1,556,458,” said Dowling. “As we’ve talked about, we’re buying a lot of equipment this year. That’s primarily the bulk of the increase.”
The police department has a proposed increase of $211,399, of which $87,000 will fund the Community Care employee. The rest of the increase will pay for wages and benefits, liability insurance, workers comp, auto maintenance needs, training and vehicle replacement.
Sanitation has a proposed increase of $263,193, which will continue to pay for the new garbage truck. In its non-departmental miscellaneous appropriations, the town has a proposed increase of $257,725. That money will continue to pay for the Scotts Creek Stabilization Project and cover increasing costs of operating the swimming pool.
The fire department has the largest proposed increase of any department in the coming fiscal year at $727,405. This is funding that the town is requesting from the county to pay for two additional employees, as well as continued payment on its new pumper truck. If the county approves the request the money will be appropriated to the town, which will then pay the fire department.
“At this point, we need direction from the board if you want to make changes, if there are additional things you want to fund, discussing where money would come from, or if you’re happy with this version of the budget and providing the same level of service,” said Dowling.
Board members will receive a draft version of the budget on April 18, and will hold their next budget meeting on April 24, where it will also review the fee schedule for the coming fiscal year.
DA rebukes Cherokee County deputy after new filings in 2022 shooting
BY KYLE PERROTTI
N EWS E DITOR
New filings in the civil suit Jason Harley Kloepfer filed seven months after he was shot by police in the doorway of his own home cast a new shadow over the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office.
The new documents, filed March 21 in federal court, include several sworn affidavits that offer new information that could impeach the credibility of multiple current and former deputies. One claims that Lt. Milton “Sport” Teasdale, the head of the sheriff’s office’s investigative unit, outright lied to a magistrate, District Attorney Ashley Welch and one of her assistant district attorneys in the hours after the shooting — the time before word worked its way up the chain of command that Kloepfer had a camera in his house that caught the whole incident and debunked what for a little while would be the official narrative.
ing all of this, but I was just gonna let it go. But I just heard his wife screaming ‘stop it,’ and then a bunch of shots went off and now I can’t hear her over there at all.”
Kloepfer wasn’t a stranger to local law enforcement. In one exchange with dispatch that night, a sheriff’s office employee said he was in the office to get some background on Kloepfer, adding, “I think we’ve dealt with him before.” “Yes, multiple times,” the dispatcher replied. Records previously provided by Cherokee County show that in the two years prior to the shooting there had been 11 calls to Kloepfer’s address, mostly related to noise, fireworks and civil process.
Deputies who initially responded didn’t drive their patrol cars up to the house — instead they parked down the road without turning on their flashing lights, walked up to the property and began to “snoop around,” Kloepfer’s initial complaint in the civil suit says. They knocked on Kloepfer’s door several times but didn’t identify themselves.
they called up the Cherokee Indian Police Department for assistance. Further delaying action, there wasn’t an active memorandum of understanding between the two agencies that would allow for mutual aid since one hadn’t yet been approved with Cherokee County Sheriff Dustin Smith’s signature; at that time, Smith had only been in office about two weeks. A new agreement was approved in the early hours of Dec. 13, 2022.
The CIPD SWAT team deployed a robot to enter the home and record live video and audio so the operators outside could know what was going on. Kloepfer and his wife, Ali Mahler, were asleep. He woke up and grabbed the robot, opened the door and stood facing officers with his hands up, a robot in one and a cigarette in the other. Seconds later, three CIPD officers opened fire, discharging a total of 15 rounds. They barely missed Mahler but struck Kloepfer twice, causing serious injuries — injuries
Justice that she believed she would be interviewed by the SBI as part of the ongoing investigation and would therefore become a witness. A special prosecutor was assigned to the case, but he declined to charge any officers.
THE LATEST FILINGS
On June 20, 2023, a civil suit was filed against a number of defendants, including the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and dozens of deputies and officers.
“Jason and Ali [sic] lives are forever upended by these events,” the suit reads.
“They live in fear that the powerful government forces will finish the job, and murder them, to complete the cover up. The physical scars on Jason’s body are obvious, but the mental and emotional scars cut even deeper, and have not begun to heal.”
The latest filings in that suit include five sworn affidavits which basically serve to impeach the credibility of certain witnesses by saying they’ve lied. Some of these affidavits allege that Floyd, the neighbor who called 911, was involved in an intimate relationship with former Cherokee County Sheriff’s Deputies Adam Erickson and Dillion Daniels.
On the night of the shooting, when a dispatcher asked Floyd to send the videos alleged to show the behavior that spurred her to call 911, she said she had already sent them to two deputies: Erickson and Daniels. Daniels was not named in the lawsuit and was not on scene that night, according to call records, but Erickson was the first deputy dispatched.
One affidavit was from another woman who says she was also romantically involved with Erickson at the time of the shooting. She claims she found out Erickson was also in an extra-marital relationship with Floyd when in June 2023 she received a text message from Erickson intended for Floyd that was “sexual in nature.”
“As a result of the text message, I stopped seeing Adam Erickson, he repeatedly apologized to me for not being up front and honest with me for having an affair with Emily Floyd, and that he lied about his marital status,” the woman stated in the affidavit.
In addition, the affiant said Erickson texted her after the Kloepfer shooting saying that the CIPD SWAT team members had gotten “trigger happy” but that he had to “back [his] brothers right or wrong.”
SHOTS FIRED
Kleopfer was shot in the early morning hours of Dec. 13, 2022, after his neighbor, Emily Floyd contacted law enforcement.
“My neighbor about an hour ago started shooting off fireworks, screaming yelling he’s going to kill the whole neighborhood, yada yada, he’s discharging a firearm,” Floyd told dispatchers the night of Dec. 12, according to previous SMN reporting. “I’ve been video-
Nobody answered — the lights were off and the blinds were drawn, the lawsuit says.
Deputies stuck around and about 15 minutes later, Teasdale applied for a search warrant. The initial complaint alleges Teasdale did so based only on the neighbor’s 911 call and did not speak with any of the deputies who had been on scene.
The search warrant was approved at 2:14 a.m., but since the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office didn’t have a SWAT team,
that were initially left untreated by the first officers who entered the home.
Initially Kloepfer was charged with communicating threats and resisting officers; however, a month and a half after footage from a camera inside the home was publicly released on Jan. 18, 2023, those charges were dropped. District Attorney Welch subsequently recused herself from the case, saying in a March 27, 2023, letter to the criminal bureau chief for the N.C. Department of
In another affidavit, Dillion Daniels, the other deputy Floyd texted that night, admitted that he was also in a romantic relationship with her at that time. Daniels’ affidavit states that he believed Erickson also had a sexual relationship with the neighbor “due to the number and frequency of messages and phone calls he exchanged with her.”
Erickson was fired from the sheriff’s office after he was charged with a DWI in the early morning hours of Aug. 24, 2023. Prior Smoky Mountain News reporting states that, in his affidavit following Erickson’s arrest, Cherokee County Sheriff’s Deputy Hunter Wood said he found Erickson “passed out at F
Jason Harley Kloepfer stands at the door with his hands up one second before officers fired. Jason Kloepfer video
the wheel” with “red glassy eyes, slightly unsteady on feet, slurred speech, odor of alcoholic beverage about person,” at Bellview United Methodist Church, located east of U.S. 19 about half a mile north of the Georgia state line. A breath test yielded a blood alcohol content of 0.12, one-and-ahalf times the legal limit.
The affidavit from the woman who alleged she was in a romantic relationship with Erickson states that on the night he was charged with the DWI, Erickson had texted her “numerous times” trying to get her to meet him at the church.
“He lied and told me he was on duty that night,” the affidavit reads.
A BAD ‘SPORT’
District Attorney Welch’s affidavit states that she received a phone call from Teasdale in the early morning hours of Dec. 13, 2022. According to the affidavit, Teasdale told Welch that Kloepfer was known to deputies and had been “causing problems in the neighborhood.” Welch adds that Teasdale told her Kloepfer had made a threat to law enforcement officers, had a “history of violence with law enforcement officers” and that a “hostage situation” had taken place over several hours, he said.
“Detective Teasdale told me that when Jason Kloepfer came to the door of his home, there was a verbal altercation between him and law enforcement and that Kloepfer had come to the door with a gun,” the affidavit reads.
Welch said Teasdale ultimately asked her if Kloepfer could be charged with attempted murder, something she didn’t believe there was probable cause for.
“I was surprised to later learn that Kloepfer was charged with communicating threats and resisting,” she said in the affidavit, adding that she later found out that Teasdale had previously called one of her assistant district attorneys who typically handles cases in Cherokee County, John Hindsman, before calling her and had a similar conversation.
A few weeks later, once Kloepfer made his home surveillance footage public, Welch watched video. It showed no indication of a hostage situation or a verbal altercation with law enforcement. When Kloepfer came to the door, he was unarmed and quiet, seemingly still shaking off the cobwebs of slumber. That’s when she moved to dismiss the charges that were initially filed against Kloepfer.
Welch’s affidavit states that during the investigation, she was also able to watch and listen to the videos the neighbor claimed to have recorded on the night of the
shooting.
“After I reviewed Ms. Floyd’s four videos, I did not see or hear any evidence of Jason Kloepfer shooting a gun, threatening the neighborhood or threatening law enforcement,” Welch stated. “I heard loud music, a motorcycle engine revving, yelling and a few fireworks being shot off. The four videos that Ms. Floyd claims to have recorded of Jason Kloepfer and Allison Mahler’s property between 10-11 pm on December 12, 2022, provided no credible evidence of any criminal activity by either Jason Kloepfer or Ali Mahler, or anyone else.”
Welch said that the SBI confirmed later that Floyd was in a relationship with Erickson after she’d initially suspected that Floyd was “overly familiar” with Cherokee County deputies.
ously been untruthful.
Part of what helped Welch get a clearer picture of Teasdale’s truthfulness was that Ellis Boyle, Kloepfer’s attorney, provided her with transcripts of the lieutenant’s initial SBI interview after the shooting and then his deposition. While SMN hasn’t yet viewed copies of either document, Welch said the difference between the two narratives was shocking.
“It allowed me to be able to do what I needed to do ethically,” she said.
Welch said Teasdale hasn’t been brought in as a witness in a criminal case since she became aware of how egregious his false statements were. However, that can be difficult considering there are some important and complicated cases in the county, and — for now — he’s the head of the sheriff’s
“After I saw the video and became aware of what the SBI had uncovered about Emily Floyd, it became clear to me that the information Detective Teasdale provided to both Assistant DA Hindsman and me within a few hours after the
shooting was not accurate.”
District Attorney Ashley Welch
her affidavit, Welch said that when she spoke with Smith during the investigation about a week after the shooting, he also told her he was not on the scene.
However, in its response to the initial complaint filed by Kloepfer, The Eastern Band, which itself is a defendant in the suit, claimed that Smith was on the property at the time of the shooting. The three shooters’ attorneys wrote that Smith and Teasdale were both present at the church along N.C. 294 where the team assembled before riding to Kloepfer’s property. While the two did not ride there in the same vehicle as the SWAT team, as alleged in Kloepfer’s complaint, they were present on the property, as well. Boyle said previously he has seen video from that night, not yet released to the public, that proves Smith was on the scene.
This aligns with a radio exchange after the shooting that was also previously reported by SMN. In that exchange, Capt. David Williams tells Smith, identified by his call number, 401, that one of the tribal units was asking Smith to stand by so they could follow him back to the sheriff’s office.
“After I saw the video and became aware of what the SBI had uncovered about Emily Floyd, it became clear to me that the information Detective Teasdale provided to both Assistant DA Hindsman and me within a few hours after the shooting was not accurate,” Welch said in the affidavit.
In an interview with SMN, Welch said that while she couldn’t comment on pending litigation — even in a case where her office isn’t representing the state — she admitted that she’s never dealt with something of this “magnitude.”
She said she’s reviewed statements Teasdale made to her that she believed were false and is considering whether a Giglio order would be appropriate.
A Giglio order, known in police circles as “the career killer,” is issued by a district attorney when a law enforcement officer has compromised their credibility to the degree that their character could be impeached. Basically, they can’t be trusted to testify during a trial. Welch has previously issued one Giglio Order in 2018.
“I’m in the process of forming my Giglio committee, for lack of a better word,” Welch said, adding that whether she issues a letter for Teasdale, she is ethically required to turn the information regarding Teasdale’s allegedly false statements over so that parties and juries in criminal cases know that he’d previ-
KARE hosts events to recognize child abuse prevention month
In recognition of April as child abuse prevention month, KARE is inviting the community to join in celebrating the strength and hope that help families thrive. The KARE House, a nationally accredited child advocacy center in Haywood County, is committed to creating a supportive environment where children can grow —
office’s criminal investigative division. For example, the district attorney’s office is currently prosecuting a double-murder case where a mother allegedly killed her four-year-old twin sons. Welch is seeking the death penalty in that case.
“We’re reviewing all of the documentation that we’ve been provided, and we will be making a determination before we decide to call him as a witness in a major case,” Welch said. “We are going to fulfill our ethical obligations, and whether or not the public understands that or agrees with it, we have an ethical obligation.”
DID SMITH LIE?
Despite what’s depicted on the video from inside Kleopfer’s home during the shooting, the initial press release posted to the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page at 11:42 a.m. Dec. 13, 2022, painted Kloepfer as an antagonist whose actions forced CIPD to fire.
But two days after Kloepfer posted his video, Sheriff Smith issued a new press release blaming CIPD and County Attorney Darryl Brown for the apparently false information contained in the original release. In the second release, Smith said that neither he nor Chief Deputy Justin Jacobs were on the scene when the shooting occurred. In
free from abuse, neglect and exploitation in a collective effort involving parents, caregivers, community leaders and advocates. Research shows that positive childhood experiences, such as nurturing relationships and safe environments, are crucial for healthy development and resilience. KARE encourages everyone to get involved in strengthening families by offering resources that prevent abuse before it starts.
“If we have anything up there, maybe some drinks or anything, they could unwind a little bit,” Williams adds. “I don’t know what we got available, but they’re welcome to anything in my office.” “10-4,” Smith responds. “I’ll take care of it.”
According to state law, a sheriff can be removed from office for one of six reasons: willful or habitual neglect or refusal to perform the duties of the office, willful misconduct or maladministration in office, corruption, extortion, conviction of a felony and intoxication or conviction of being intoxicated. Initiating a removal requires a petition from the county attorney, district attorney or five qualified electors from the county where the person serves, upon approval from the county attorney or district attorney. The county or district attorney must then prosecute the proceeding in superior court.
While Welch wouldn’t say for sure one way or the other, she seemed disinclined to seek Smith’s removal. He will be up for election again in November 2026.
Ultimately, Welch lamented how a situation like this hurts the public trust of all law enforcement. She added that she hates this not only for law enforcement agencies that do things the right way, but also Kloepfer, Marler and the people of Cherokee County.
“When people read stories like this, it can paint all law enforcement this way, but they’re not,” she said. “That’s the other part that’s so uncomfortable. Almost all the time people are in those roles their doing it for all the right reasons.”
This month, KARE is hosting several events to raise awareness and promote prevention: wear Blue Day on April 4, and tag social media photos with #WearBlueDay2025 and/or #PCANC; join KARE on April 30 for a gathering at the old courthouse steps to raise awareness in Haywood County and dine at participating restaurants during April Percentage Days. Contact KARE for free trainings to help adults recognize and respond to child abuse. Learn more at karehouse.org.
Jan. 6 participant speaks to Macon Republican Women’s Club
OWashington, D.C. On April 26, 2023, he was arrested in Asheville and hit with numerous charges. On April 5, 2024, he pleaded guilty to one felony and was sentenced to four months in federal prison. On Jan. 21 of this year, he was pardoned by President Donald Trump and released from incarceration. On March 19, he spoke to the Macon County Republican Women’s Club in Franklin.
While Baer, 45, was only supposed to talk for about an hour to allow time for regular business, he shared his story and his viewpoints over the course of almost two hours. Baer, a classically trained vocalist who for about two decades lived in New York City as he sought a breakthrough in his stage career, also sang for the group, his bass-baritone voice seeming to fill the room as if coming from a surround-sound stereo system. Baer opened with “America the Beautiful” and closed with a verse from the hymn “How Great Thou Art,” both of which brought emotional reactions from those in the crowd, some of whom sang along quietly and some of whom shed some tears.
Baer focused on his role in Jan. 6, how he perceived the system had targeted him unfairly and what he learned about himself and his fellow man during his three months in incarceration. Throughout, Baer hinted at intense libertarian leanings that bordered on anti-government sentiment. While he talked about Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and others he considered corrupt, his ultimate target wasn’t any individual; it was the “military industrial complex,” to which he believes they’re all beholden.
Baer went into detail explaining his reasons for being at the Capitol on Jan. 6, saying that while he wanted to support
ing to take a stand against the cabal he perceives has corrupted the whole political system. His talk, which seemed at some times like an academic lecture and others like a sermon, verged into moral philosophy and religion.
Some topics, like how Mike Pence was a “turncoat” for certifying what Baer, like Trump, considers a stolen election, elicited widespread verbal agreement; some topics, like how Wikileaks leader Julian Assange should be pardoned seemed to receive mixed results; some more obscure topics, like how a corrupt economic system based off the model used for the Bank of London has undermined the United States’ Hamiltonian economic system, seemed off people’s radars entirely.
While Baer made it clear that he didn’t consider Trump to be any kind of savior and that he didn’t agree with everything his president has said or done, he did mention one man by name — the great hero of American libertarians — whom he exalted.
“It was Ron Paul … who showed me what godly courage means,” Baer said.
IN THE TUNNEL
Baer’s retelling of the events of Jan. 6 almost directly refuted claims laid out by federal prosecutors in press releases and in the FBI’s probable cause affidavit. Baer recalled that the day was cold and overcast. While he thought the dreary weather would keep some people at home, he was shocked by the size of the crowd at the Stop the Steal rally that preceded the Capitol riot.
“I said, God, help me; help me do your will. I don’t know
attracted to go toward the west side of the Capitol, where there was a standoff between police and all the protesters. I climbed the scaffolding and got a huge American flag and held it as high as I could, high as I could.”
Shortly after that, about 20 minutes after rioters broke through police barricades and overwhelmed the officers on the front line, Baer walked over to the tunnel entrance on the lower west terrace of the Capitol, the infamous location where rioters broke glass and pushed against a phalanx of Capitol Police officers in an attempt to enter the building.
“Here, at the Tunnel, some of the most violent attacks against law enforcement on January 6th occurred,” an FBI press release reads.
“Baer participated in this effort, pushing his body against the rioters in front of him with so much force that he had to brace himself by putting his hand on the tunnel wall.”
— FBI affidavit
Around the time Baer got to the tunnel, officers used pepper spray on the riotous crowd, dispersing many.
But Baer stayed, despite having the “capability to leave the premises,” according to the probable cause affidavit. The rioters in the tunnel began a “heave-ho” motion to apply more pressure to the line of offi- F
Nathan Baer is seen here near Officer Fanone in the now infamous photo. From FBI affidavit
cers blocking the entrance to the building.
“Baer participated in this effort, pushing his body against the rioters in front of him with so much force that he had to brace himself by putting his hand on the tunnel wall,” the affidavit reads.
Baer said that while he felt a “pull” to leave the tunnel, everyone was packed so tight, like “sardines,” that he couldn’t make his way out. He claimed that he wasn’t part of the heave-ho motion, but that he just moved as the crowd did.
“I turned to leave, and as I turned to leave, I got a couple of steps, and suddenly we were all being pushed hard from behind,” Baer said. “When you’re in a crowd like that, you don’t have much agency on where you’re going. You’re just trying desperately not to fall.”
Another round of pepper spray was deployed; however, Baer stayed inside the tunnel and, according to the affidavit, participated in another heave-ho effort. The affidavit also claims Baer passed multiple riot shields up to the front line and includes one photograph of him holding a shield over his head. Baer said his intention with the shields wasn’t to cause more violence but to prevent violence, even though rioters were using the shields both offensively and defensively against law enforcement.
police … or keeps someone else’s skull from getting crushed, I’m fine with it. I want less violence. I want more peace. And twice I touched police shields.”
Baer eventually made it to the front of the line.
“Now, to say that I was in my own mind as clearly as I’m now, would not be true. I’ve never been in a place that seems so electric, and yet I wanted to be a peaceful energy there, regardless of what happened. And so towards that, I wanted to get as close to the police line as I could,” Baer said.
Baer and the other rioters were eventually pushed back as police finally gained the advantage. Once he left the tunnel, Baer lingered in the area for a bit, and according to the affidavit, continued to “obstruct” officers. Baer said that in the tunnel, the rioters were actually less violent than the photos, videos and testimonies show.
“There’s a police officer who fell at that gate was getting crushed just because we were all like sardines in that little space,” Baer said. “He fell, and a door was pinching him, and he screamed for his life.
Immediately the whole crowd backed up. It was very clear that these people were saying, ‘we have a right to stand here and be heard, but we’re not trying to hurt you. We’re not here to tear anything down.’”
“Now, to say that I was in my own mind as clearly as I’m now, would not be true. I’ve never been in a place that seems so electric, and yet I wanted to be a peaceful energy there, regardless of what happened. And so towards that, I wanted to get as close to the police line as I could.”
— Nathan Baer
“I had the opportunity to touch police shields that were going over my head, and from a very meditative prayer kind of action in my body, I almost got like a cartoon character when I looked at some of the videos of what I was doing,” Baer said. “Suddenly I move, and I touch [a shield]. And in that moment, I remember thinking, God helped me, and God helped those people. I said, whether or not this shield goes back to the
INDIVIDUAL AFO-112
Just a few days after the riot at the Capitol, Baer received news he didn’t quite expect. He was on the front page of newspapers across the country.
In the photo, Baer is charging forward
Baer passes a riot shield to the front of the line. From FBI affidavit
as, almost face-to-face with Michael Fanone, the officer who suffered a heart attack and traumatic brain injury during the attack. Since then, Fanone has been a vocal opponent of Trump and those who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. Baer claimed that in the photo, which has been largely interpreted as a depiction of a vicious assault, he was trying to help Fanone. In a 2023 interview with the Asheville Citizen-Times, Fanone agreed — at least partially — saying that although Baer was close to him, he didn’t think Baer assaulted him.
But either way, the horse was out of the barndoor, and it was just a matter of time before the authorities could put a name to the face. According to the FBI’s affidavit, agents saw the widely circulated photograph and assigned the man, then unknown, the identifier “AFO-112” and began searching.
Between Jan. 17, 2021, and April 12, 2021, the Federal Bureau of Investigation received 15 tips identifying the man in the photo with Fanone as possibly being 14 different individuals.
One such tip, submitted electronically three weeks after the riot, read “Photo 112AFO looks like [different individual]. I have not seen him since high school some 40 years ago but he was a big tea party supporter and very pro Trump.” Another electronic tip submitted a couple of weeks after that read, “The guy in photo Photograph #112-AFO looks suspiciously like my ex-husband. Maybe it’s not him but it is very uncanny.”
The FBI investigated 13 of the individuals in these tips and determined that they either were not present at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, or their physical appearance didn’t match the man in the photo. Then, on Feb. 8, 2021, a tipster provided a photograph of a performer from a Brooklyn theatre’s webpage. Further interviews and investigation determined the man was Baer. A complaint was filed on June 23, 2023, and three days later, he was arrested.
Initially, Baer tried to retain the services of an attorney he said was “well known for defending delinquents and roustabouts,” but before long, he was saddled with a public defender in Washington, D.C. Baer said he thought the attorney was annoyed to have him as a client and that he provided a maliciously inadequate defense.
Around that time, Baer was subject to FBI interrogation.
“They were hoping that I would be a ‘pal’ and just expose people and things,” Baer told members of Macon County Republican Women’s Club and the few male auxiliary members in attendance. “I said, ‘I’m here to be honest about whatever you need me to be honest about, but I’m not going to pretend something and then throw someone under the bus.’ I was [at the Capitol] of my own volition as an individual. I wasn’t there because I was brainwashed, or because I was a supporter of someone or because I was with this group or that group. I’m me, and they didn’t like that … then they threw a whole bunch of charges at me.” Baer was initially charged with obstruct-
ing a law enforcement officer during civil disorder, trespassing, disorderly conduct, engaging in physical violence in the Capitol grounds and more. He lamented much about his due process. First, he was upset that, like most, his case wasn’t transferred out of Washington, D.C., to a friendlier jurisdiction. At the time, he lived with his sister in Asheville, so he was hoping to have his case heard in the Western District of North Carolina. He was also angry about the number and severity of charges, which could have theoretically led to a de facto life sentence and/or over a million dollars in fines.
Mostly, he was frustrated with the convoluted road to resolution in a serious criminal case — the delays, the seemingly arbitrary hearings, the whole process.
The federal government offered a plea agreement.
“They said, ‘If you decide you’re guilty of sneezing in the wrong direction because you were present, it means that you are violating all kinds of things … And if you agree that you were there purposely to hurt the police, then I’ll tell you what, we’ll take away all these fines and all this prison time, and we’ll say you were a good boy,’” Baer said.
Baer’s biggest problem with the plea arrangement is the sort of allocution the prosecutors wanted to see — an admission that the defendant was at the Capitol that fateful day in support of Donald’s Trump’s quest to challenge what he and his supporters thought was a stolen election. His attorney at the time wanted to go along to get along, and Baer spent what he said was a lot of money (although didn’t say where it came from) on a high-powered law firm. His attorney’s initial advice was to take the plea.
Baer refused, and eventually another plea arrangement came along. He pleaded guilty to one felony and received a fourmonth sentence.
THE ROAD TO HERE
Toward the end of October 2024, mere weeks before Donald Trump won a second term in office, Baer reported to the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in Granville County, North Carolina, about four and a half hours east of Franklin. Prison.
“My mom was afraid for me; my friends were afraid for me,” Baer said.
Men would dominate others they perceived as weak. Some correctional officers were crooked and some were territorial. The thing Baer seemed to dislike most about prison was the lack of human connection; even looking someone in the eye is a faux pas worthy of immediate conflict. Callousness is a virtue and loneliness is the byproduct.
because of the fraud, again, where they should have only been charged state and not federal. There are a whole lot of people in federal prison that don’t belong in federal prisons.”
On Jan. 21, following President Trump’s inauguration, Baer was pardoned. He’d lived with his sister between the January 6 riot and his incarceration, but once he was
He told the crowd, now rapt, that he spent more time in prayer but was also able to find comfort in one of his truest loves: singing. While incarcerated, he even gave some inmates voice lesson including a man convicted of a child sex offense, something he said some inmates took issue with. There was one heated argument that Baer feared was nearing violence but never reached that point. Baer’s point to the angry inmate and to the crowd last month was that even someone who had done something so heinous may be able to find redemption.
“They might need to be there their whole life … ‘I hate what you’ve done, but I love you, but God loves you even more,’” Baer said.
In many ways, prison was what Baer expected. There were cliques and gangs.
Baer also hated living by the penal system’s rules. Nothing was his own. His cell was subject to search; his phone calls were screened. Since parcels can contain papers with liquid narcotics spread thinly across them, Baer received only photocopies of his letters. During his time with the Macon County Republican Women’s Club, he frequently called for prison and justice system reform.
“I’d read several books on the need for justice reform prior to that, but now I was living it,” Baer said. “But again, this isn’t just for those of us that you think are on your side. This means we need to support those who we think we are not on our side. They’re being held in federal prison unjustly
released, he moved to Macon County and started a business doing heavy duty landscaping.
Following his event where he spoke before Republicans in his new home county, in an interview with The Smoky Mountain News, Baer said he wasn’t sure exactly what he hoped to do in Western North Carolina with his freedom and his platform. When asked where he falls on the political spectrum, Baer didn’t offer a concrete response.
“I don’t know exactly,” he said. “I mean, I’m happy to be called Republican. I’m happy to be called Libertarian. I’m happy to be called nothing, really. I’m happy to be called someone who’s trying to follow Christ. That’s the compass.”
Baer holds a note while singing America The Beautiful. Kyle Perrotti photo
Six months after Helene, local governments still haven’t been paid
BY CORY VAILLANCOURT
POLITICS E DITOR
Most days, Brandon Rogers has dirt under his fingernails — a badge of honest labor. Owner of a small auto repair shop on the outskirts of Canton, Rogers usually wakes up, puts on some sturdy workwear and heads to the shop to support his family, one customer at a time. Last Tuesday, his day began not with the percussive whir of impact wrenches or the earthy aroma of motor oil, but instead with a crisp suit and a trip to the airport.
After meetings with senators, members of Congress and federal administrators, Rogers wound up hearing his name echo off the walls of one of America’s most hallowed residences.
“I never thought that I would ever be at the White House when I signed up to run for commissioner,” said Rogers.
For Rogers, vice chair of the Haywood County Board of Commissioners, it was his second White House visit in the past few months — a poignant return on the six-month
anniversary of Hurricane Helene, which saddled his rugged Appalachian county with tens of millions of dollars in damages.
His first visit, along with a delegation of elected officials and administrators from other rural Western North Carolina communities, was to lobby for urgently needed disaster recovery funding. It was moderately successful, with a $110 billion aid package passing through Congress late last year, expected to send between $9 billion and $15 billion to the state against estimated needs of roughly $60 billion.
“As far as going up to Washington to fight for my county,” Rogers said, “that’s the whole reason I’ve done this deal anyway.”
His second visit, however, was a fight that never needed to happen, a fight to get the money they’d already been promised.
In the six months since Helene dropped nearly three feet of water on parts of the region, flooding homes and businesses, washing out bridges, destroying an interstate highway, causing landslides that erased entire neighborhoods and killing 106 people, most local governments still haven’t seen a nickel.
“When somebody pulls into my shop with a flat tire, we
fix it right away,” said Rogers. “I don’t tell them to come back six months later. We fix it right away.”
PROMISES, PROMISES
Rogers and the delegation wouldn’t have been in Washington at all were it not for the American Flood Coalition, a nonpartisan nonprofit that promotes smart flood policy on both state and federal levels. The AFC, which has 470 members in 22 states, recently formed an advocacy group called the Western North Carolina Recovery and Resilience Partnership, a coalition of roughly 20 communities ravaged by what many call the most destructive extreme weather event in recent memory.
“We’re supporting the coalition, ensuring in particular that the smaller communities have an opportunity to be at the table in both Washington and in Raleigh and that they have access to the depth of knowledge that the American Flood Coalition has,” said Tony McEwen, Carolinas director for the AFC. “We’ve been trying to be helpful to them throughout this process.”
More than six months after Hurricane Helene ravaged Western North Carolina, most local governments like Canton haven’t seen a nickel of promised recovery funding. Cory Vaillancourt photo
McEwen has maintained that the role of the AFC is not to lead these communities to specific conclusions, but rather to amplify their existing concerns and lived experiences at the highest levels of government. Over the three days of meetings with Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd; North Carolina Reps. Chuck Edwards, Tim Moore and Deborah Ross; FEMA’s director of public assistance; and the White House intergovernmental affairs team, some startling problems were revealed.
“First off, there was an appreciation expressed for the $100-plus billion dollars that had been appropriated by Congress, but then there was a prompt to the elected officials that had traveled in from Western North Carolina to raise your hand if you hadn’t received any funds yet,” McEwen said. “It was a pretty eye-opening experience, I think, for the folks that weren’t intimately familiar with that situation. A vast majority of the hands went up.”
A Smoky Mountain News survey conducted March 25-31 paints a picture of assurances unkept, and the growing chasm between promises and performance. Out of 23 local governments units claiming more than $1.7 billion in damage, only nine had received any funding from FEMA — totaling just $67.2 million, or less than 4% of needs. Fourteen of those local governments have received nothing at all.
“I raised my hand every single time,” Rogers said. “None of the counties or municipalities that were represented there at our meeting from WNC has received any funding. That was one of the main purposes for us going on the trip to begin with.”
Wedged between the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Blue Ridge Parkway, Haywood County has just over 60,000 residents and a general fund budget of more than $122 million. County officials said they aren’t finished calculating the damage to county-owned infrastructure, but it could be around $15 million by
this point.
The county has received exactly $0 from FEMA as of March 28.
That same day, Rogers had just emerged from a three-plus hour meeting with county administrators and other commissioners, part of the county’s routine annual budget planning process that for this year is anything but routine.
“Sure, it makes it tougher,” Rogers said. “Fortunately, our finances are in order, and the board’s done a great job along with our staff to create a good, healthy fund balance. If we didn’t have that, we’d be in trouble, especially in times like this when you have to front the money and then sit and wait on reimbursements. So again, that was the
says the town is still owed more than $1 million from Fred and that she submits invoices for payment every quarter but has only ever received two payments.
“People are hearing promises, especially about FEMA buyouts, while we’re still waiting for money from 2021,” said Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers, who like Rogers was part of the Washington delegation. “There are people that are counting on that buyout to make decisions. I took a letter from our school system — over a million dollars is still owed to our school system from 2021.
Haywood County Commissioner Brandon Rogers (far right) looks on as Sen. Thom Tillis speaks to the American Flood Coalition’s Washington delegation. Tony McEwen photo
question that kept coming up time and time again — whose desk is it on, and what do we need to do to get the funding sent to us?”
Haywood County wasn’t hit nearly as hard by Helene as other counties in the region, but the damage was still substantial, especially for its four incorporated municipalities. Maggie Valley is looking at paying for $3.8 million in damages with a $4.3 million annual budget. Waynesville has $4.7 million in damage against a $19.7 million budget. Clyde, with a budget of $4.2 million, is the only Haywood municipality that thus far received FEMA money, $46,000 towards $1.7 million in damage. The payment came one day before the six-month anniversary of Helene.
NEIGHBORS
HELPING NEIGHBORS
One-third the population of Haywood County and just to the northeast, neighboring Madison County sits perched upon the spine of the Blue Ridge Mountains, where 80-mile-per-hour wind gusts from Helene ripped over ridgetops as the French Broad River tore through municipalities far below, killing four people. Madison County’s government operates on an annual budget of $33 million but has an estimated $196 million in damage.
“When somebody pulls into my shop with a flat tire, we fix it right away. I don’t tell them to come back six months later. We fix it right away.”
Canton, in the eastern part of the county, was hit with deadly flooding from Tropical Storm Fred in August 2021, making Helene the town’s second extreme weather event in just over three years.
— Brandon Rogers, Haywood County commissioner
“The initial subtotal for Helene is $11,322,000,” said Natalie Walker, Canton’s assistant town manager and CFO. The town’s annual budget is $9.7 million. But Walker has another problem. She
“The only funds we received so far is a $1.6 million cash flow loan that is zero interest for five years,” said Rod Honeycutt, Madison County’s manager. “Our hope is that that will be forgiven.”
The loan mirrors the approach taken by the North Carolina General Assembly, which has to date appropriated roughly $1.5 billion in recovery funding over the course of four relief bills. Two governors now, Roy Cooper and Josh Stein, have advocated for far more, but it’s
S EE H ELENE, PAGE 16
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beyond the capacity of a state with a $35 billion budget to bear another $60 billion.
While there are plenty of cheap loans available to local governments, direct support to counties, municipalities and small businesses that aren’t in a position to take on more debt has been nearly nonexistent — a major reason communities are looking to Washington.
Matt Wechtel, chair of the Madison County Board of Commissioners, said the lack of funding has left the county practically at a standstill in terms of recovery projects.
“I don’t know how many of them would be completed, but we definitely would be a lot further along,” Wechtel said. “You know, we’re the only county that I know of that lost a courthouse, lost two town halls, one in Marshall, one in Hot Springs, we lost the public library in Hot Springs, we’ve lost two sewage treatment plants, one in Marshall, one in Hot Springs. Obviously, in a perfect world, the sewage treatment plants probably would have been priority number one.”
systems. We also sent Weaverville about 700,000 gallons of water and another million gallons by tanker to community drop points in Asheville, Swannanoa and Burnsville.”
Bennett said a damaged fence in the watershed might cost about $20,000, but he hopes to get much of that reimbursed through insurance. Extra payroll costs probably total around $50,000. Mars Hill hasn’t yet received any money from FEMA reimbursements, but the costs likely won’t have an outsized impact on the town’s $3.2 million budget.
As in Haywood County, civic leadership in Madison County had to step up to support the small business community, absent meaningful help from state and local governments; Wechtel said that the county seeded a grant program for businesses in Hot Springs and Marshall with $100,000 from its economic development budget. In conjunction with nonprofit small business lender Mountain BizWorks, that figure grew to more than $300,000.
“It’s nowhere near what they need,”
tabulation.
“I don’t know exactly because we’re still working on our damage inventory, but I would say it’s probably right around $370 million,” said Mayor Carol Pritchett.
Pritchett has much to be thankful for, especially that no one was killed in Lake Lure. Damage to homes was relatively minor, as the steep slopes necessitate building on higher ground. Businesses were likewise relatively unscathed, mostly because there aren’t many.
“Our major damages here from Hurricane Helene were infrastructure damages,” she said. “Damage to our dam, damage to our wastewater treatment plant, damage to our sewer collection system and also to our lake. The town right above us on the Rocky Broad River, Chimney Rock village — all of Chimney Rock village, almost, is in Lake Lure.”
Like others, Lake Lure hasn’t received any money from FEMA. In fact, Pritchett said, the town had to spend its own money to clear a 20-foot debris pile on the Memorial Highway Bridge.
“To be sure that people in our town actually had an entrance and exit from the town if they needed health care or whatever they needed, we hired local contractors,” Pritchett said. “Clearly, small contractors like that have to be paid, they can’t wait for reimbursements, and so we did. We paid them $1.5 million out of our general fund.”
The receipts for the work were submitted in October, but the lack of federal response has put Lake Lure in a corner, so to speak.
Abigail Norton, mayor of Hot Springs in Madison County, said her small town estimates just over $700,000 in damages that will come from the town’s general fund and water/sewer fund that together operate annually on less than $1.1 million. Norton said Hot Springs had yet to receive any FEMA money.
Marshall Town Administrator Forest Gilliam said his town, with its $1.2 million general fund, has damages of between $15 million and $40 million, depending on the final design and placement of its new sewage treatment plant. But like other towns, Marshall has yet to receive any FEMA funding, leaving folks to do what these isolated communities have been doing for centuries — rely on each other.
“We did not have a lot of Helene damage,” said Nathan Bennett, Mars Hill’s town manager. “We didn’t get the [heavy] rainfall, which left us in a place to respond. We sent public works crews to Marshall and Hot Springs to help them stabilize their water
to help jump start the process and let them know that they’re not being forgotten. At least by local government, they’re not being forgotten.”
PUT IN A CORNER
Nearly 35 miles to the southeast, Rutherford County and its municipalities experienced what can only be called catastrophic damage. County Manager Steve Garrison said the county, with a budget of almost $81 million, had at least $23 million in damages but had only received $7.7 million from FEMA thus far.
That’s far better than in Lake Lure, a picturesque lakeside community probably best known as the setting for the 1987 blockbuster film, “Dirty Dancing.”
Including the town’s hydroelectric fund and water/sewer fund, it operates on about $9 million a year, but the staggering amount of devastation from Helene almost defies
“When you have a town this small — we have 1,400 residents here — so with that sort of tax base, you have a limitation as to how much you could say, ‘Well, let’s just raise the taxes.’ We can’t,” Pritchett said. “So we really cannot commence any other projects until we are obligated by FEMA, because honestly, if they decided that they were not going to obligate us, we couldn’t pay for it.”
Chimney Rock Village Administrator Stephen Duncan said his town lost more than a third of its businesses and homes.
The town recently welcomed its first residents back. On an annual budget of just under $650,000, Chimney Rock has roughly $4 million in damage and has only received about $300,000 from FEMA.
Buncombe County, with a $411 million general fund, has submitted $82 million in FEMA projects and received $34 million. Other Buncombe County municipalities have fared about as well.
Asheville, the largest population center in the region, has a large property tax base but much larger needs. A spokesperson for the city said it had incurred about $1 billion in damage, with a general fund of not quite $180 million. To date, the city has received $17.6 million.
Biltmore Forest has a budget of $6.8 million, $9.7 million in damages and has received $4 million. Black Mountain has a budget of $13 million, approximately $30 million in damages and has received $861,000. Weaverville has a budget of $9.3 million, $2.5 million in damages and has received $1.8 million. F
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Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers (left, facing away) makes a point with Sen. Ted Budd. Tony McEwen photo
Woodfin has a budget of $10.8 million, $12.6 million in damages and has received $824,000. Montreat has a budget of $2.2 million, $12-15 million in damages and has received nothing.
“I think what we accomplished [in Washington],” Wechtel said, “was we made them understand that what they think they have accomplished in getting us the help that we need has not made it to the boots on the ground. I think they were very satisfied in their minds with what they had done to help us, but I don’t think they realized that what they had done hasn’t actually made it to the end user yet.”
RETHINKING RESPONSE
Although the focus of the Washington trip was recovery — immediate money for pressing needs — the glaring disconnect between rhetoric and reality has plenty of people wondering aloud if the country’s entire disaster response system needs to be rethought. Chief among them is President Donald Trump.
But like a lot of things Trump says, there’s a significant amount of ambiguity and conflicting messaging coming from other administration figures.
On Jan. 24, at Asheville Regional Airport, Trump said he thought FEMA was “not good,” a “disaster,” a “very big disappointment” and that he thought it might “go away.”
fers and we didn’t have the capability to share information like we do today,” said Honeycutt, a retired Army colonel specializing in logistics. “I think that the Act needs to be rewritten, and I would very much advocate for moving the funds and the recovery to the tip of the spear at the state level. Six months in, and we have received zero federal dollars from FEMA. That speaks for itself.”
Honeycutt, who continues to wait on Madison County’s $196 million, still sees a need for federal oversight of the process, as does Pritchett, who is waiting on Lake Lure’s $370 million. Pritchett, though, has significant concerns about state control.
“I think we need to recognize the fact that the states are probably not as well equipped as they need to be, because they haven’t needed to be the sole distributors of this money,” she said.
The North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency, a disaster management agency conceived after Hurricane Matthew in 2016, has faced intense criticism over massive budget overruns and claims of mismanagement dating back to Hurricane Florence in 2018.
Both Smathers and Rogers — a Democrat and a Republican, respectively — seem to agree that county government would be the best place for recovery monies to be handled. More local know-how. Less red tape. Fewer quick trips to the airport.
“I think I have reached the point with it
“I would very much advocate for moving the funds and the recovery to the tip of the spear at the state level. Six months in, and we have received zero federal dollars from FEMA. That speaks for itself.”
—
In an executive order issued that day, Trump said the federal response to Helene and other disasters “demonstrate the need to drastically improve the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s efficacy, priorities and competence.” The order goes on to establish a review council of no more than 20 members, chaired by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. In a subsequent executive order March 19, Trump said, “preparedness is most effectively owned and managed at the state, local and even individual levels, supported by a competent, accessible and efficient federal government.” Seven days later, Tillis told NOTUS that abolishing FEMA was “stupid,” right around the time Noem said she would abolish it.
While the elimination of FEMA may or may not be on the table, members of the AFC’s Washington delegation who spoke with SMN didn’t seem overly supportive of the agency simply “going away.” All, however, strongly support the idea of sending federal recovery funds directly to lower levels of government.
“The Stafford Act [which enables federal disaster recovery] was enacted at a time where there were no electronic funds trans-
Rod Honeycutt, Madison County manager
now being my second storm that I agree FEMA needs major, major changes,” said Smathers, still waiting on $1 million from 2021, still waiting on $1 million for local schools from 2021, still waiting on $9.7 million from six months ago. “Do I think that FEMA needs to cease to exist? No, I do not. I think they have a major role to play at the federal level. I think Brandon [Rogers] said this, and I agree with him — you give the people of Western North Carolina the resources, we’ll do our job. You can hold us accountable, but get us the money that we were promised. It’s just sitting there.”
Rogers says he told FEMA Director of Public Assistance Robert Pesapane that the entire disaster recovery process could, and should, and must, be simpler.
“Hold us accountable. We’re held accountable every day for federal and state dollars. This is no different. I feel like direct funding is what needs to happen. Each county knows what they need to do with that funding. We’ll prove that we can do the job. I’m not saying you have to totally do away with FEMA,” said Rogers, who’s presumably keeping that crisp suit pressed, “but it definitely needs to be reformed and restructured.”
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Macon Early College to field its own athletic teams
HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER
The Macon County Board of Education approved funding to permit Macon Early College in Franklin to apply to become a member of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association and field its own sports teams. Previously, MEC students had participated in athletics at Franklin High School.
“We’ve got more interest from students now than what we currently have playing sports,” said MEC Principal Caleb Parham. “We’re looking to have at least five sports as it is right now, moving forward in an independent capacity.”
According to Parham, while there are currently 22 MEC students participating in high school athletics, with the school’s new independent status on the horizon, surveys show interest from 50 students. There has been particular interest in track, diving, swimming, volleyball and basketball.
In order to participate in high school athletics for the 2025-26 school year, MEC had to submit an application to the North Carolina High School Athletic Association by April 1, along with a $1,000 application fee and a plan for how it will proceed with which sports.
The impetus to create MEC athletics independent from Franklin High School came last summer, when the Macon County Board of Education voted to require students to play sports at the school they are enrolled, rather than allow MEC and Bartram Academy students to be eligible for FHS athletics.
The board made this decision in the wake of a move by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association to expand high school athletic classifications from four divisions to eight divisions. Currently, Franklin High School is a 3A school, placing it in the second highest division within the NCHSAA. Divisions are based on the average daily membership (ADM), a way of measuring a school’s enrollment.
The realignment to expanded classifications was not set to take effect until the
2025-26 school year, but data from the first 20 days of the 2024-25 school year was going to be used to determine the classifications.
Prior to the school board’s decision, there were 20-25 MEC students participating in high school athletics at Franklin High School. For this reason, the entire student body of MEC had to be counted in the population of FHS when determining the school’s classification within NCHSAA.
School administration estimated that FHS would move up one or two classifications within the new classification system if MEC and or Bartram Academy students were included in the school’s ADM. This would have become a problem if students had to travel farther to play in playoff games in order to compete with schools in their new classification.
Bartram students were able to play sports at FHS for one last year during the current school year, thanks to permission from NCHSAA that their student bodies would not count in the ADM of FHS as long as the board decided those students would not be participating for the 2025-26 school year.
The reality of having new independent sports teams at MEC could pose a logistical challenge for the school system as far as transportation and access to activity busses, but Parham says, they’ll work it out.
“It is difficult, but we’ll make it happen,”
Volleyball is one of several sports popular among MEC students.
least a boys and a girls team for something in this fall, winter and spring.”
School administration will have to consider how best to help fund MEC athletics. According to Gibbs, the school doesn’t have uniforms, and they probably won’t see a lot of income from athletic events throughout the year.
The schools will also have to consider how to pay for officials for any home games they can field, as well as coaching supplements for MEC coaches.
“Bottom line is, we’ll play schools around here during the regular season, but then if we have that larger ADM number, we’ll go much farther and play schools with similar ADM counts for playoffs,” said Todd Gibbs at the time.
To avoid moving up in classifications, which could require students to travel great distances for playoff games, the school board decided Macon Early College and Bartram Academy students would not be able to play sports at Franklin High School beginning in the 2025-26 school year. However, MEC and
said Parham. “If they have sports and they’ve got to get somewhere, we’ll juggle it and figure it out. You may have to put two different teams like middle school and MEC team if they’re going close to the same place on one bus.”
Because the deadline to be accepted into the local conference has already passed, only athletes participating in individual events will be eligible for conference playoffs in the coming year.
“In order to be in a conference, you have to field a boys and girls team in each season,” said Parham. “So, I’ve got to have at
Sylva selects new commissioner
BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER
During its March 27 meeting, the Sylva Board of Commissioners voted to appoint Joseph Waldrun to fill the seat left vacant by Commissioner Mark Jones in February.
The town received four applications for the position. The candidate had to be selected by a majority of votes, with each of the four commissioners able to cast a vote, but not the mayor.
All four commissioners cast their vote for Waldrun, who will be sworn in at the April 10 meeting of the Town of Sylva. Waldrun will serve on the board until the November election.
“To the other applicants, I’ll say we have some other
positions with the town and I’m very encouraged that we had four applications, and I hope the ones that weren’t selected will be interested in maybe serving on the planning board or something else,” said Mayor Johnny Phillips. “We do have a current vacancy on the planning board. I hope you express interest in one of those. Thank you for your time and effort.”
Commissioner Mark Jones resigned from the board through a letter during the Feb. 13 meeting, citing health concerns.
“Dear Town of Sylva Board of Commissioners and residents, it is with a heavy heart that I’m resigning from the Town of Sylva Board of Commissioners effective today, Feb. 13,” he said in the letter. “In the last month, I’ve had major medical issues that are forcing me to resign, I need to focus
“Facilities themselves would be another challenge; if we had to rent out a spot that would be something else,” said Gibbs. “I would hope not, with the rec department and the gyms that we have, I would hope that we could do that cost free. But again, it’s uncharted territory for MEC, so, what are the bumps in the road? It’s kind of hard to tell right now. You’ve got to start somewhere.”
Board Member Hillary Wilkes inquired about starting a booster club among MEC parents to help fundraise and offset some of the costs associated with athletics.
Parham said that the best bet for a parent organization like a booster club would be to pass on those responsibilities to the existing PTSO.
“I’ve had a couple parents reach out to talk about how they can be supportive in that measure,” said Parham. “The nature of MEC is that our freshmen and sophomores are very involved, they’re there with us, they’re present all day. Where our juniors and our seniors and our fifth years, we push them to be independent college students.”
Juniors and seniors at the early college are encouraged to take part in internships, jobs and other extracurriculars that better prepare them for the world beyond high school, which means these students naturally have lower levels of participation in school activities.
“Because of that, parent involvement is there, but in terms of boosters and stuff, I don't know what that looks like fully yet,” said Parham. “As age increases, parental involvement decreases, in general.”
on my health and family, and I cannot give this position the full attention that I feel like the town needs.”
Jones was elected to the board in 2023, the same election that saw Mayor Johnny Phillips and Blitz Estridge join the board. Jones is a lifelong resident of Sylva, working 30 years as a sales manager at a local business.
This was the third board vacancy Sylva has experienced outside of normal elections since 2023 when Mayor Linda Sossamon resigned in February of that year. At that time, Commissioner David Nestler was appointed by the board to serve as mayor and Brad Waldrop was selected from a pool of applicants to serve as the newest commissioners. Waldrop went on to win the most votes of any candidate in the 2023 municipal elections.
Just over a year later, in April 2024, Commissioner Natalie Newman resigned from her position on Sylva’s town board. The town selected Jonathan Brown to fill the vacant seat.
When it comes to libraries, let’s keep the faith
Growing up as an educator’s daughter, I spent afternoons running the halls of my mom’s school with the other teachers’ kids, waiting on our parents to finish grading papers, attend faculty meetings or otherwise close out their duties. My mom was a public school librarian. At some point they were renamed “media coordinators” because they do a lot more than simply check out books. Today’s media coordinators manage technology, update websites, host guest speakers, coordinate book fairs and a slew of other things.
When I was a student at my mom’s K-2 school, I’d walk from my classroom to the library and spend the next hour or more eating a snack from the vending machine, flipping through books on the shelves, messing around with the projector or laminating machine, or playing hide and seek with the other children. We didn’t have cell phones or tablets to keep us occupied so we had to squelch the boredom with whatever we could conjure up. At the time it seemed like the most mundane part of my day. I dreaded entertaining myself, but when I reflect upon those afternoon shenanigans, I smile at the memories.
As a third-grader, I moved on to Weaverville Elementary which also had an active library. At some point, I stumbled upon “A Little Princess” by Frances Hodgson Burnett and was captivated by Sarah Crewe’s story set in a Victorian boarding school. I was so obsessed with this book, I often moved it to an incorrect shelf so that no one could find it and it would always be available when I wanted to read it again. In retrospect, that feels like a naughty thing to have done.
Purchasing books was complicated when I was growing up, and the only way I remember owning books was through a school book fair or via a Scholastic flyer, and boy did I love a book fair and a Scholastic flyer. Curling up on our couch with a pen and that flimsy flyer was a highlight of my year. I’d circle the books I wanted and then my mom would make me narrow it down to three because with two teachers in the house, we didn’t have a ton of money to spend on books,
Rally against Trump at Haywood courthouse
To the Editor:
For the past month, several hundred people have gathered in front of the Haywood County Courthouse at noon every Friday. We have declared our defiance of the TrumpMusk billionaire takeover of our government and their assault on freedom, justice and the well-being of our nation. We are a group of unpaid volunteers committed to the peaceful expression of our strongly held opinions. The vast majority of us are Haywood County residents.
On Saturday, April 5, at 12.30 p.m. we will join with over 650 other communities around the USA to demand:
• Hands off our Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and all the other programs that Musk and Trump are threatening to destroy.
• Hands off the Veterans Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, food banks for the hungry, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service and the outrageous number of other programs and institutions
especially when we could just as easily check them out. Weaverville Public Library was another special place in my life. During the summers and as a part-time job, my mom often worked in this library which is on the main drag and a walkable destination for families who live and work in and around downtown, which we did. When I became a mom, the library was a favorite place to take my two little boys. Before moving to Waynesville, we lived in Candler and would visit the Enka-Candler Library or the North Asheville Library. If we drove to Weaverille to visit my parents, we never missed an opportunity to visit the Weaverville Library, which continues to be a nostalgic place for me.
Fast forward a few years to when my boys were a little older and my mom picked them up from First United Methodist Preschool and Junaluska Elementary School. After pick-up, they’d often venture over to the Waynesville Library to check out a stack of books and participate in activities. When I got home from work, the boys and my mom would inevitably be on the floor with books spread everywhere. During my years teaching language arts at Waynesville Middle School, Karen Kreitzburg was the media coordinator and her library was the heartbeat of our school. She created a welcoming space for all students, a place of reprieve where they could come to relax and read. During the day, there would be a class on one side of the library checking out books with a different class on the other side at the computer lab section creating multimedia projects. Additionally, she hosted guest authors and writing workshops several times throughout the year. My students’ lives and academic experiences were enriched by having such an incredible media center.
LETTERS
that the billionaires want to dismantle.
All this to justify a massive tax cut for the richest people in our country, many of whom “earn” more in one hour than a fireman or a teacher or a farmer earn in a year.
Join us Saturday, April 5, at 12:30 p.m. at the courthouse. A legal permit has been issued. Exercise your First Amendment right of freedom of speech and assembly! Stand up to the people who want to undermine the rule of law and turn America into a monarchy with a king and his cronies!
Janine Geenan, Rus Binkley, Steve Wall Waynesville
What happened to honesty, integrity?
To the Editor:
Whatever happened to honesty and integrity in the United States of America?
Lying, cheating and immorality seem to be the acceptable norm these days.
We have a serving President who is a convicted felon from the hush money trail with a
When one of my kids or I need a book, we try to find it at a school or public library before impulsively clicking the “Buy Now” button on Amazon. Librairies, of all types, continue to serve as a place of serenity in a world of continual overstimulation, for me and others.
I say all of this because libraries and media centers have been integral throughout my entire life. My memories are more colorful because of libraries and the people who work in them, and I know I’m not the only person who feels this way. For many, a public library is their safe space, a place away from the noise, and for some, their only access to books and the internet.
In an executive order signed in early March 2025, the Trump administration mandated the reduction of seven agencies, including one that funds libraries around the country: the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). I couldn’t breathe for a second when I read this. Does he do these things for a shock factor or merely to be cruel? Anyone who has ever enjoyed a book or utilized a library knows how special they are. I’m wondering if President Trump has ever read a book. If so, it probably miraculously landed in his lap. It makes me sad for him and anyone who hasn’t had the pleasure of checking out a book.
As with many of his executive orders, this one feels unnecessary and malicious, a way to punish the innocent and those without means to buy books. Or, maybe it’s part of his plan to censor the content we consume. My entire life would’ve had a different trajectory if I hadn’t been exposed to so many libraries and books. I must keep the faith that school and public libraries will continue to thrive in the ways they always have. Faith and fear are both invisible emotions so if I have to choose one, I’ll always choose faith. Cheers to all of the libraries and librarians out there. Keep doing your thing. It’s appreciated more than you know.
(Susanna Shetley is an editor, writer and digital media specialist. susanna.b@smokymountainnews.com.)
porn star. A jury of his peers found him guilty and liable for sexual abuse and defamation. Is this the kind of person our nation wants leading us?
Not even to mention what we all witnessed with our eyes and ears leading up to January 6 and the attack on our Capitol to overturn a free and fair election. More lies. This is not fake news as some would like you to believe. Sadly, many do. If the American voter continues to elect known liars and cheats into our highest offices, we are in danger of losing all that the United States of America stands for.
It’s happening right now before our eyes. Make your voice heard and stand up to protect honesty and integrity in our great country.
Eric Young Glenville
Term limits promote good government
To the Editor:
The United States' founding fathers envisioned a government where elected officials would serve the nation selflessly, free from the
constraints of political parties. Over the years, however, the political landscape has shifted dramatically, leading to entrenched corruption and self-serving practices that undermine the very principles our forefathers fought to establish.
Term limits restrict an elected official's terms in a particular office. The idea behind term limits is to prevent politicians from becoming too comfortable and entrenched in their positions, thereby reducing the risk of corruption and ensuring that fresh ideas and perspectives are continually introduced into the legislative process.
Benefits of term limits:
• Reduction in corruption — Limiting the number of terms a person can serve reduces individuals' opportunities to build long-term networks of power and influence that can lead to corrupt practices such as bribery and kickbacks.
• Fresh Perspectives — New members bring new ideas and approaches, which can revitalize the legislative process and ensure it remains responsive to the people's needs.
• Public Trust — Limiting the tenure of Congress members can help rebuild public trust in government institu-
F
Susanna Shetley
tions, as it demonstrates a commitment to preventing the accumulation of power and privilege.
Our founding fathers envisioned a government that served the people and upheld the principles of liberty, justice and equality. Implementing term limits is a crucial step toward achieving this vision. By preventing long-term entrenchment and encouraging diverse representation, we can create a more dynamic, responsive and trustworthy government that genuinely serves the interests of its citizens.
It is incumbent upon “we the people” of North Carolina to demand “term limits” and reclaim the integrity of our political system.
If you are a patriotic American citizen who understands the importance of instituting term limits, you can help make this a reality by going to conventionofstates.com to sign the petition supporting the convening of a Convention of States under Article V of the Constitution and learn more about how you can become a volunteer to help achieve this goal.
L.E. Cossette Waynesville
Elected officials need to speak up
To the Editor:
This morning I read an article in the New York Times titled “Musk Targeted FEMA. Storm-Battered Communities Are Paying a Price.” The article describes how the federal government has stopped making FEMA pay-
Ridge Public Radio would be more than happy to publish their responses.
Jack Summers Cullowhee
Our rights are on endangered
To the Editor:
Myself, like many other people these days, are trying to keep up with the constant bombardment of the current administration’s policy changes. My brain is spinning and my mind is weary. The Project 2025 authors are doing exactly what they set out to do and have had several years to craft their master plan for the dismantling of our democracy by the stroke of a sharpie pen, along with the manic rush of Elon Musk and his inexperienced young hacks.
In my opinion, Trump at this point is just an old man bent on revenge but mainly a front man for the cameras. The real culprits are in his shadow and pulling the strings. Because of his shameless actions and criminal history he is also easily manipulated to carry out the actions that they have crafted against our laws and the Constitution. But I do believe that his proclivity for the admiration of dictators is real and his personal craving for absolute power is his main motivation.
When I was in high school back in the 1970s, we were required to take AVC, Americanism vs. Communism, which taught us the difference of autocratic rule, totalitarian power, authoritarian regimes, dictatorship and socialism etc. We also learned how our democracy works and how it came to be. Apparently a majority of voters never took that course. If so, I think the outcome in this election would have been very different.
ments to states and non-profits and has given DOGE full system access to FEMA’s financial management system. The article gives a number of examples of affected organizations including the French Broad Electric Membership Corporation and Warren Wilson College. The article also quotes DHS secretary Kristi Noem as saying “We’re going to eliminate FEMA.” I note that Senators Tillis and Budd both voted to confirm Ms. Noem.
It is time for our elected representatives (Senators Tillis and Budd, and representative Edwards) to explain whether they support eliminating FEMA and what they will do to support working people when a lifetime of hard work is overturned by natural disaster. I am sure The Smoky Mountain News, Asheville Citizen Times and Blue
Yes, I would like to see government waste reductions and better safeguards for fraud prevention like any sensible person, but the exceedingly reckless use of a non-elected billionaire who has and continues to make millions with his government contracts is just not who should be in charge. But here we are Americans, so now I’m just waiting to see how much damage will continue to be done before the voters who support their destruction of our nation and democracy have a rude awakening, along with the ones who chose not to vote or be engaged by doing their civic responsibility to protect our country from a bunch of fanatical despots who have a fascist agenda in play.
Our fundamental rights are being violated and our freedoms and laws that this country was founded upon are in great jeopardy by the real threat that lies behind the MAGA agenda. Mylan
New way to fly New way to fly
The Sentimental Gentlemen roll into WNC
BY GARRET K. WOODWARD ARTS & E NTERTAINMENT E DITOR
This may be the first time you’ve heard of The Sentimental Gentlemen. But, if you’re a music freak for Americana, bluegrass, country and folk, chances are you’ve either listened to them before or actually witnessed their melodic magic onstage.
You see, for the trio of Joshua Rilko (mandolin), Oliver Bates Craven (fiddle/guitar) and Geoff Saunders (bass) that make up the Nashville, Tennessee, ensemble, they’re also the backing group for the songbird voice and mesmerizing presence that is Sierra Ferrell.
Beyond the intricate nature of the songs presented by The Sentimental Gentlemen resides a delicate, deep respect and admiration for the bluegrass traditions. This realm where musicianship, style and perpetuation of the old tunes in a modern era sits at the foundation of each unique, vibrant performance. And at the center of this “powerhouse collective” is Rilko, a longtime friend of The Smoky Mountain News. Hailing from Michigan, he headed south for Music City several years ago to seek his destiny, which is simply creating melodies and sharing them with
the world. Thus far, that exact dream continues to unfold in real time.
Smoky Mountain News: How, when, where and, perhaps most importantly, why did The Sentimental Gentlemen come to be?
Josh Rilko: I’ve played music with Oliver Craven and Geoff Saunders in various capacities for many years prior to all three of us ending up in the Sierra Ferrell band. Oliver was the last one to join. He joined at the beginning of 2023.
Since we’re on the same touring schedule, it just made sense to always have each other on gigs we would book around Nashville at Jane’s Hideaway, Dee’s, the Station Inn, places like that. I also did a few small tours under my own name with those guys and a few other friends. That was sort of the band that became The Sentimental Gentlemen.
As we’ve played more and more around Nashville, we’ve sort of developed a sound and, of course, it also helps that we’ve been playing hundreds of shows together on the road with Sierra over the last number of years.
SMN: Where does the band currently stand with its aspirations and sonic tone, in terms of the initial
and the groove are undeniable. And that’s addictive to a lot of people.
As far as performing it, I think even people who don’t necessarily listen to bluegrass can see the band perform and be drawn to the intimacy of the music and the conversational interaction that the musicians are obviously having with their instruments.
I’m very partial to the sound of strings on wood, with as little technology as possible manipulating the sound.
SMN: In your travels coast-to-coast, what is it about the people, places and things — geographically, culturally, socially — that continues to inspire you and your work?
JR: The bluegrass and roots community, or whatever you want to call it, is international. So, there are friends everywhere we go. And we can get together and play music with them when we pass through a given city.
Different tunes and songs are played more in different regions. And regions can even have their own twist on how bluegrass sounds. And the people that are drawn to the music come from all different walks of life, political and religious orientations, whatever.
It truly does bring people together without all the nonsense that is unnecessarily trying to divide us.
SMN: In a modern era of digital distraction and white noise, what is the role of the musician/performer in the 21st century?
JR: There’s so much so-called “content” out there. Whether it’s video, audio, print, whatever. The vast majority of it we don’t even know where it came from and, at this point, was probably created by an algorithm or AI or who knows what.
thought and design for the ensemble?
JR: We’re definitely focused more on the songs, melody and harmony than just the shredding, although we try to do that too sometimes. Less jam-grass and more Country Gentlemen. Less worried about playing at blistering speeds and instead prioritizing groove and melody and harmony.
We also want it to be the type of band where everyone sings. When we play as a fivepiece, all five of us lead songs, with Geoff, Oliver and I being the primary harmony singers. But, since everyone is capable, it allows for many different combinations of harmonies and lead vocals, which keeps the sound pretty diverse.
SMN: What is it about bluegrass — whether sonically, emotionally, spiritually or otherwise — that really sets it apart from other genres?
JR: Bluegrass is a social music. It’s a language that anyone can learn and participate in. Regardless of your skill level, there’s a jam somewhere for you. When I hear great bluegrass, or find myself participating in a jam where everything is really clicking, there’s a sort of spirit that takes over and the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. You just start playing the right thing. The drive
And it’s shitty content. When you see high-quality live music, you know exactly where it’s coming from. You know it’s spontaneous. You can hear the high moments and maybe notice some mistakes. You can see the joy or the “oops” expressions on the performers faces and their body language. People like that and they always will.
So, I believe there will always be a role for the live human performance or any sort of art. And I hope that as AI becomes more and more able to produce what on the surface may appear to be “high-quality art,” the value that people place on actually watching their fellow humans perform with emotion and rawness will increase.
Want to go?
Americana/bluegrass act The Sentimental Gentlemen will hit the stage at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 5, at 185 King St. in Brevard. Tickets are $12 per person with table options available. The show is ages 21 and over unless accompanied by a guardian. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, visit 185kingst.com or sentimentalgentlemen.com.
The Sentimental Gentlemen will play Brevard April 5. Donated photo
This must be the place
BY GARRET K. WOODWARD
‘Buy me a drink, sing me a song, take me as I come ‘cause I can’t stay long’
Nearing the midnight hour, I found myself sipping on a cold Coors Light can in the depths of the Tradewinds Lounge in downtown St. Augustine, Florida. This was last Tuesday, but the classic rock tribute onstage that evening was rockin’ out as if it was Saturday night.
Kicking into a rendition of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” a whirlwind of emotions and visions came into focus in my mind. First and foremost, came the image of myself as a teenager running around the local bowling alley in my one-horse hometown on the Canadian Border in rural Upstate New York.
Though the bowling alley closed down years ago, back then, in the early 2000s, it was the place everyone from my high school went. At 16, I was driving a rusted out 1989 Toyota Camry with 200,000 miles on it that I paid $300 for (money saved up working at McDonald’s).
With my best friend in the passenger’s seat, we’d cruise to the alley, in search of nothing and everything, but mostly shenanigans and youthful transgressions — all in the name of irresponsible enlightenment. “Load up the bong, crank up the song” was the ethos, or so Bradley Nowell of Sublime sang in the seminal tune “Get Ready.”
That ole Johnny Cougar Mellencamp was right, too, that “life goes on, long after the thrill of livin’ is gone.” And there I sat, some 24 years later from that 16-year-old reality, tossing back a Coors Light in a North Florida dive bar, the sounds of those Bowl Mart Jukebox melodies roaring out from the stage, the gritty dudes holding the instruments now pushing 60 years old or more.
Wandering into the Bowl Mart, it was pinball, billiards and foosball in the game room; Tom Petty, The Tragically Hip and Bob Seger on the jukebox; shitty weed joints and lukewarm domestic beer stolen from our parents’ garage refrigerators consumed in the dimly-lit parking lot. Every now and again, we’d pony up money to actually go bowling, instead of merely loitering and waiting for something, anything to happen.
The hope was for something wild to transpire or someone cool and unknown to cross the threshold of the establishment, perhaps in an effort to finally take us out of our John Mellencamp “Jack & Diane” chili dog, tasteefreeze, farm town existence. But, mostly, it was to have some tall tale to spin come the first period of school Monday morning. That, and maybe finally meet that cute girl from science class under the bright fluorescent lights of the foosball table or cozy neon glow of the pinball machine.
“Holdin’ on to sixteen as long as you can,” Mellencamp’s voice would echo out from the Bowl Mart jukebox. “Changes come around real soon, make us women and men.”
were pleasantly silent in the midnight hour compared to the normal chaotic hustle and bustle of midday tourists from every corner of the world. I found myself alone, the only sounds being my boots traversing the cobblestone. Gaze up every so often at the surreal, stunning majesty and splendor of the old live oak trees hovering above your trek, pondering what these magical trees have witnessed over the centuries.
With one block to go to the bungalow, my mind drifted to the here and now. It’s late March and it feels like 2025 is flying by. Spring just showed up last week, at least on the calendar it did, and here I stand, wondering what’s next? Where to from here? And with who? Another solo excursion out west this summer? Maybe not? Hopefully not, seeing as, at age 40, I prefer a partnerin-crime and not the single life.
Incoming phone calls and text messages from people in New England, Montana, Texas and around Southern Appalachia. “Can you cover this event?” “Can you write about this band?” “Can you help me out?” The white noise of journalism in the endless perpetuation of a craft that I’ve used as a vehicle — literally and figuratively — to wander towards the unknown horizon of tomorrow and every day thereafter.
The work is bountiful and fulfilling. And just as stressful and constraining. Assignments and deadlines. But, no matter, for what else could I actually see myself doing with my time on this planet? Nothing. That’s an honest and hard truth. Even when it all is shiny and jovial, there’s still the actual work and grinding it out to do. Luckily, I remain inspired and steadfast in my intent. More so today than ever before.
And it dawned on me, in that moment, that pretty much every memento, trinket and photograph of my youth, teenage and subsequent college years is long gone. Destroyed by the ravaging flood waters from Hurricane Helene last fall. Covered in mud and ripped apart in my former storage unit in Canton along the Pigeon River. The remnants of which are now somewhere in a landfill in Haywood County.
Who knows, eh? Who cares, I suppose? It’s just stuff. The memories in my head remain and cannot be washed away by Mother Nature. The only thing one can take with them to “The Great Beyond” that is the afterlife are those visions of people, places and things you’ve experienced in your life and how you felt in doing so. The love. The heartache. Sorrow. Joy. Sadness. Bliss. Tragedy. Triumph. The whole ball o’wax that is a life well-lived.
Finishing up my beverage, I waved goodbye to the classic rock act onstage and moseyed out the door onto Charlotte Street. Head north towards my folks’ spring vacation rental, this bungalow a few blocks away from the Spanish ruins that launched the 16th century city itself. The slow pace in walking back to my bed was on purpose. I was in no hurry, nor should I be. Existence is too crazy as it is to keep tabs on.
The cobblestone streets of “Ancient City”
“Seventeen has turned 35, I’m surprised that we’re still livin’,” Mellencamp croons in an introspective tone during “Cherry Bomb.” “If we’ve done any wrong, I hope that we’re forgiven.”
Life is beautiful, grasp for it, y’all.
HOT PICKS
1
Vermont-based Americana/indie act Jaded Ravins will hit the stage at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 5, at The Scotsman Public House in Waynesville.
2
The inaugural “Lowcountry Oyster Roast” will be held from 3-5 p.m. Saturday, April 5, at the Outpost Inn in Highlands.
3
A special stage production of “Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. April 4-5, 11-12 and 2 p.m. April 6, 13 at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville.
4
Americana/folk singer-songwriter Woolybooger will perform at 8 p.m. Friday, April 4, at Lazy Hiker Brewing in Sylva.
5
Wells Events & Reception Center (Waynesville) will host “A Night Of Jazz” with The Sheila Gordon Jazz Trio 7 p.m. Friday, April 4.
Downtown St. Augustine, Florida. Garret K. Woodward photo
On the beat Holton returns to Mountain Layers
6, at Mountain Layers Brewing in Bryson City. cal traditions: the blues. She began young, leaving Murphy to play in rock bands in Athens, Georgia, and New Orleans, Louisiana, before the blues called and she answered. She studied under the great Jorma Kaukonen (Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna) and then disappeared to Alaska’s arctic interior to perfect her craft. She has then moved back to Murphy and is touring around the country.
The show is free and open to the public. 828.538.0115 or mountainlayersbrewingcompany.com.
• Blue Ridge Beer Hub (Waynesville) will host Paul Koptak (singer-songwriter) April 5. All shows begin at 5 p.m. Free and open to the public. 828.246.9320 / blueridgebeerhub.com.
• Cataloochee Ranch (Maggie Valley) will host Helena Rose & Clint Roberts (Americana/indie-folk) 5 p.m. April 9 and Brian Ashley Jones & Melanie Jean (Americana/country) 5 p.m. April 16. For tickets and reservations, visit cataloocheeranch.com/ranch-events/livemusic.
• Currahee Brewing (Franklin) will host “Team Trivia” Mondays and Hunter Blalock (singersongwriter) April 5. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.634.0078 / curraheebrew.com.
• Folkmoot Friendship Center (Waynesville) will host Andrew Finn Magill & David McKindley-Ward (Celtic/world) 7 p.m. April 3. Tickets are “pay what you can” ($25, $15, $5). 828.452.2997 / folkmoot.org.
• Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville) will host “Jazz On The Level” 5:30 p.m. every Tuesday, Marley’s Chain April 4, Sycamore April 5, Paul Edelman (singer-songwriter) 3 p.m. April 6, Unspoken Tradition (Americana/bluegrass)
(R&B/soul) April 11. All shows begin at 8 p.m. Free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. 828.349.2337 / lazyhikerbrewing.com.
• Listening Room (Franklin) will host Tret Fure (singer-songwriter) 2:30 p.m. April 6. Suggested donation $20. Located at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.
• Macon County Public Library (Franklin) will host The Vagabonds (Americana) at 2 p.m. the first and third Monday, a “Song Circle” open jam from 3-6 p.m. the first Tuesday each month and “Old-Time Songfest” (for youth and families) 3:30 p.m. March 13. Free and open to the public. 828.524.3600 or fontanalib.org.
• Otto Community Center (Otto) will host James Thompson (Americana) 4 p.m. April 4. Bring a beverage and snack of your choice. Free and open to the public. 770.335.0967 / go2ottonc.com.
• Peacock Performing Arts Center (Hayesville) will host Carpool (The Cars tribute) April 5. All shows begin at 7:30 p.m. For tickets, 828.389.ARTS / thepeacocknc.org.
• Rathskeller Coffee Haus & Pub (Franklin) will host Karaoke 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Trivia Night 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Wild Mountain
Time (Americana) April 4, Steve Vaclavik (singer-songwriter) April 5, Karley Nichols (singer-songwriter) April 8, “Open Mic with Dirty Dave” 6:30 p.m. April 11 and Alma Russ (Americana/indie-folk) April 12. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.369.6796 / facebook.com/rathskellercoffeebarandpub.
• Scotsman (Waynesville) will host Alma Russ (Americana/indie-folk) April 3, Spiro Nicolopoulous Blues Apocalypse (rock/blues) April 4, Jaded Ravins (Americana/indie-rock) April 5, Celtic Road Jam (Celtic/folk) 4 p.m. April 6, James Morris (Americana) April 10 and Celtic Road Jam (Celtic/folk) 4 p.m. Aprul 12. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.246.6292 / scotsmanpublic.com.
• Slanted Window Tasting Station (Franklin) will host Blue Jazz (blues/jazz) 6 p.m. April 4, Gregg Erwin (singer-songwriter) 4 p.m. April 6, Mick Kyte (singer-songwriter) 6 p.m. April 11, “Music Bingo” 2 p.m. April 12 and Ray Ferrara (singer-songwriter) 5 p.m. April 13. 828.276.9463 / slantedwindow.com.
• Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts (Franklin) will host Jamie Grace (singersongwriter) 7:30 p.m. April 11 (tickets start at $10 per person). 866.273.4615 / smokymountainarts.com.
April 11, Rich Manz Trio (oldies/acoustic) April 12 and David Cheatham (singer-songwriter) 3 p.m. April 13. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.454.5664 / froglevelbrewing.com.
• Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort (Cherokee) will host Travis Tritt (country) 7:30 p.m. April 5. For tickets, visit caesars.com/harrahs-cherokee.
• Highlander Mountain House (Highlands) will host “Blues & Brews” 6-9 p.m. Thursdays ($5 cover), Zorki (singer-songwriter) 1-3 p.m. Saturdays, “Bluegrass Brunch” 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sundays (free) and the “Salon Series” with Ben Nichols (Americana/indiefolk) 8:30 p.m. April 24 (admission is $55.20 per person, tax included). 828.526.2590 / highlandermountainhouse.com.
• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Franklin) will host Alma Russ (Americana/indie) April 4, Grizzly Mammoth (rock/jam) April 5 and Natti Love Joys (reggae/roots) April 12. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.349.2337 / lazyhikerbrewing.com.
• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Sylva) will host “Music Bingo” 6:30 p.m. Mondays, Woolybooger (blues/folk) April 4 and Lewandahl
Americana, indie at Scotsman
April 5, at The Scotsman Public House in Waynesville.
The duo is composed of Kelly Ravin and his partner, Halle Jade. The sound is a blend of Americana, rock, alt-country and indie-folk influences.
It’s a concoction that’s heavy and heartfelt, of hardscrabble North Country winters and the unforgiving pavement of that lost highway — the genuine depths of lifer musicians who will sacrifice sanity and self in the name of the sacred act that is live performance.
The show is free and open to the public. For more information on the duo, visit jadedravinsmusic.com.
828.246.6292 or scotsmanpublic.com.
Jaded Ravins will play Waynesville April 5. File photo
Heidi Holton will play Bryson City April 6. File photo
Blow the tannery whistle
BY GARY CARDEN · S PECIAL TO SMN
Scarecrows in the rain
This one is for my old friends, living and dead, in Cherokee. Here’s to you, Trigger Young, Woody Sneed, Bill Young, Darlene Whitetree, Homer Burgess, Wanda Lee Burgess, Darlene Bradley, Ralph Henry, Jean Holt, Ethelene Conseen, Johnson Catoaster, Johnson Lee Owle, Eddie Swimmer Wilber Paul and a hundred others.
In the late 1970s, the Cherokee tribal government found itself caught up in a major disagreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority which had announced plans to build a major dam on the Little Tennessee that would flood the Tellico Plains.
Traditionally, the Tellico Plains had great significance since the Cherokees felt that this region was once the sacred burial ground of the Cherokees. Even though the majority of the Cherokees had lost their ties with Tellico, the Cherokee spiritual leaders still returned to this sacred land to visit the graves of ancestors and to renew their religious beliefs.
The Cherokee government suddenly found itself “befriended” by other organizations that opposed the flooding of Tellico for other reasons: religious, environmental, economic, etc. Ambassadors arrived from the University of Tennessee’s Archaeology Department, the Fort Loudon Historical Association, Trout Unlimited.
There were invitations to visit and eventually the Cherokee Tribal Council responded. Since I was employed by the Eastern Band, I think I can say that although there was considerable response from the Cherokee people, it was not necessarily reflected in the tribal government where the primary interest was, what was TVA going to give the Cherokees in terms of “recompense?”
people by surprise.
The temperature in Tellico was 110, and most of the workers were blackened by the sun as they toiled with tools that looked like they were meant for a beauty salon. In the bottom of the grave was the remains of a human who had died some 500 years ago, and the young man who was working there was painstakingly removing what appeared to be teeth.
Not much was left of this skeleton, and one of the workers told me that the acidity of the soil had destroyed most of the beings and frequently, they had been reduced to teeth, ribs and some jewelry, that being a necklace or a ring of copper or bone.
John Crowe bent to look at the young
Cherokee graves,” the young man said.
“How you know that?”
“Some are buried differently.”
“How so?”
”Some are buried ... sitting up.”
“So the Cherokees lie down, and these other people sit up? Okay,” John said. He turned away, then turned back. “Falls Church, you said?”
“Yessir.”
A young woman, also blackened by the sun, approached John and said, “Chief Crowe, we have arranged for you and your group to eat at a nearby farm that is noted for good food.”
“Are these people losing their farm to TVA?”
The young woman fidgeted, then said “Yes sir.”
“Strange world.” said John. “Stranger each day.”
On our way to the farm, I saw a sign that said, “More Power to the Scarecrows.”
I asked the archaeology student that
man in the grave. “Good morning, young man,” said Crowe, extending his hand and speaking in his high tenor. The young man stared at John, looked at the car that had the Cherokee seal on the door, and scrambled out of the grave to shake John’s hand.
So it was that on a bright, spring day in 1979, I found myself part of a “delegation” that was visiting Tellico at the invitation of the archaeology department that was busy excavating in Tellico and was distressed that the TVA project would deny themselves access to hundreds of ancient graves.
At that time, the Principal Chief of the Cherokees was John Crowe who despised the archaeology department because they were desecrating the graves of his ancestors.
When we arrived at Tellico, I got my first visual shock. Every tree had been cut and the very earth had been stripped away in preparation for the flooding. The TVA was a powerful agency and it had the backing of the federal government, so it was accustomed to doing what it pleased.
Once we got out of the car, John Crowe immediately walked to one of the open graves. Crowe was a small man with a falsetto voice and his friendly approach often took
“Where you from?” John spoke in his tenor mountain twang.
“Falls Church, Virginia,” said the young man.
“You look Episcopalian,” said John.
The young man blushed. “Yessir.”
“Your people been living there long?”
“Over 300 years.”
John is impressed.
“All your ancestors buried up there?”
“Yessir.”
“Tell me, young sir,” said John, in a deceptive whisper, “would you take it amiss if I went up there and dug up your grandfather?” The young man looked around for help.
“That poor soul down there,” said John, pointing into the grave, “he might be my grandfather.” He surveyed the steaming land around him. “And all of these graves might be my ancestors.”
“No, actually, we are finding pre-
accompanied us for an explanation.
“That is a protest group,” he said. “They have been burning maintenance sheds, slashing tires, pouring sugar in the gas tanks of TVA vehicles and generally causing trouble.”
“Who are they?” John asked.
“Malcontents, trouble makers.”
“Anti-TVA?”
“Yessir.”
“Seems like I heard a song ... Mellencamp?” I said.
“Very popular around here,” said the archaeology student.
“Rain on the scarecrows, blood on the plow,” I sang, but I stopped when Chief Crowe gave me an angry look.
Gary Carden is one of Southern Appalachia’s most revered literary figures and has won a number of significant awards for his books and plays over the years, including the Book of the Year Award from the Appalachian Writers Association in 2001, the Brown Hudson Award for Folklore in 2006 and the North Carolina Arts Council Award for Literature in 2012. His most recent book, “Stories I lived to tell,” is available at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva or online through uncpress.org.
On the beat
• Trailborn (Highlands) will host its “Carolina Concert Series” with David Cheatham (Americana/ bluegrass) April 3 and Brooke Campbell (singer-songwriter) April 17. All shows begin at 6 p.m. Free and open to the public. 828.482.1581 or trailborn.com/highlands.
• Unplugged Pub (Bryson City) will host “Karaoke Night with Lori” April 3 (free), Jon Cox & Ginny McAfee (Americana/country) April 4, Tricia Ann Band (country/rock) April 5, “Line Dancing Lessons” 7 p.m. April 9 (free), Troy Underwood (singer-songwriter) April 10 (free), Lori & The Freightshakers (classic rock/country gold) April 11 and Topper April 12. All shows are $5 at the door unless otherwise noted and begin at 8 p.m. 828.538.2488 / unpluggedpub.com.
• Valley Cigar & Wine Co. (Waynesville) will host
Darren Nicholson (Americana/bluegrass) 6 p.m. April 3, The JackTown Ramblers (Americana/bluegrass) 2 p.m. April 6 and Connor Hunt (country/acoustic) 6 p.m. April 11. Free and open to the public. 828.944.0686 / valleycigarandwineco.com.
• Vineyard At High Holly (Scaly Mountain) will host Monica Spears (singer-songwriter) April 6 and Tim Austin (singer-songwriter) April 13. All shows begin at 2 p.m. Free and open to the public. 828.482.5573 / thevineyardathighholly.com.
• Wells Events & Reception Center (Waynesville) will host “A Night Of Jazz” with The Sheila Gordon Jazz Trio 7 p.m. April 4. Doors at 6 p.m. Admission is $40 per person. To purchase tickets, visit bit.ly/jazzatwells.
Bryson City community jam
Lazy Hiker gets the blues
Americana/folk singer-songwriter Woolybooger will perform at 8 p.m. Friday, April 4, at Lazy Hiker Brewing in Sylva. Dubbed “music to grow your hair out to,” the Murphy musician, whose real name is Gavin Graves, is well-regarded in this region for his mix of blues and roots music into a unique Southern Appalachian tone. Both shows are free and open to the public. For more information, visit lazyhikerbrewing.com.
Woolybooger will play Sylva April 4. File photo
A community jam will be held from 6-7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 3, on the front patio of the Marianna Black Library in Bryson City.
Anyone with a guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, dulcimer or anything unplugged is 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 of the Sawmill Creek Porch Band.
The community jams offer a chance for musicians of all ages and levels of ability to share music they have learned over the years or learn old-time mountain songs. The music jams are offered to the public each first and third Thursday of the month — spring, summer, fall. 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. For more information, call 828.488.3030.
On the street Pigeon Community ‘Storytellers Series’
The Pigeon Community Multicultural Development Center in Waynesville has recently announced its 2025 “Pigeon Community Conversations with Storytellers Series.”
This curated series will showcase awardwinning storytellers from Western North Carolina’s African American, Latinx and Eastern Band of Cherokee Indian communities.
Through live storytelling, readings, music and focused questions, the “Pigeon Community Conversations with Storytellers Series” examines the purpose and power of storytelling in underrepresented communities.
Types of storytelling to be explored are written, traditional, musical and spoken word poetry, which will reflect Western North Carolina’s diversity of talent. The series is appropriate for all community members. Everyone is welcome to attend.
PCMDC Program Director Tausha Forney will lead this series starting in April 2025. The conversations are casual and will allow for audience participation. There will be six events held at 6 p.m. at the PCMDC
• April 10: Kathi Littlejohn has been telling Cherokee stories for more than 40 years at events, festivals and schools. She has been leading Cherokee history tours for five years to historically and culturally significant places in WNC.
• May 08: LaKisha Blount explores the essence of her experiences and generational stories of Black mountain life in Appalachia through her figurative oil paintings. Using
bold colors, gritty textures of layered paint and intricate markings, Blount aims to capture the raw emotion and beauty of everyday life.
• June 12: Joseph Drew Lanham is an American author, poet, wildlife biologist and 2022 MacArthur Fellowship-winner for his work “combining conservation science with personal, historical and cultural narratives of nature.”
• July 10: Kelle Jolly is an “AffrilachianGeorgia-lina-Peach,” embracing a rich blend of cultural influences. Through the art of storytelling and her mastery of the ukulele, she joyfully expresses her folk traditions.
• Aug. 14: Roy Harris belongs to three storytelling organizations: the Asheville Storytelling Circle (of which he is a former president), the North Carolina Association of Black Storytellers and, more recently, the National Association of Black Storytellers.
• Sept. 11: Glenis Redmond is the First Poet Laureate of Greenville, South Carolina, and is a Kennedy Center Teaching Artist. Tickets are $10 for community members, $7 for seniors (ages 65 and over) and $5 for students. Children 12 and under may attend free of charge.
Tickets may be purchased in advance and can be purchased at the door of each performance. Reduced price $50/$40/$30 series passes are also available. Refreshments are available for purchase. Please contact Tausha Forney for information about individual event sponsorships.
For more information and/or to purchase tickets, visit pcmdc.org. On the
‘Someone Who’ll Watch
Over Me’ will be held on select dates. Donated photo
HART presents ‘Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me’
A special stage production of “Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. April 4-5, 1112 and 2 p.m. April 6, 13 at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville.
The powerful drama is about three strangers imprisoned in Lebanon who
— through humor, imagination and unwavering support — find the strength to endure unimaginable hardship.
Tickets are $23 for adults, $13 for students. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, visit harttheatre.org or call the box office at 828.456.6322.
• Swain Arts Center (Bryson City) will host a production of “The Wizard of Oz” at 7 p.m. April 4-5 and 2:30 p.m. April 6. Tickets are $12 for adults, $6 for students. swainartscenter.com.
Glenis Redmond will be in Waynesville Sept. 11. File photo
Craving an oyster roast?
the Outpost Inn in Highlands.
Company out of Charleston, South Carolina, and Munkle Brewing Company to bring the inaugural oyster roast to their sister property at the Outpost Inn.
Munkle beer. Other beer and wine offerings are available ala carte at the wine bar. 828.482.7736.
• Classic Wineseller (Waynesville) will have its wine bar open 4-8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. 828.452.6000 / classicwineseller.com.
• Blue Ridge Beer Hub (Waynesville) will host semi-regular tap-takeovers from local and regional breweries on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 828.246.9320 / blueridgebeerhub.com.
• “Flights & Bites” will be held starting at 4 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays at Bosu’s Wine Shop in downtown Waynesville. 828.452.0120 / waynesvillewine.com.
‘Fat Burger Month’
Filled with some of Haywood County’s “juiciest, most mouthwatering burgers,” “Fat Burger Month” will run through April 6 at several restaurants throughout Waynesville, Maggie Valley and Canton.
• “Take A Flight” with four new wines every Friday and Saturdays at the Bryson City Wine Market. Select from a gourmet selection of charcuterie to enjoy with your wines. Educational classes and other events are also available. 828.538.0420.
• “Uncorked: Wine & Rail Pairing Experience” will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 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. There will also be a special “Beer Train” on select dates. 800.872.4681 /
‘Fat Burger Month’ runs through April 6. File photo
o Susan H
Presented by the Haywood County Tourism Development Authority, the celebration of these extraordinary burgers is an effort to promote an array of great restaurants right here in our backyard. This year, if you try six out of the 14 participating culinary destinations, you will earn a free “Fat Burger Month” t-shirt. For each location visited and burger consumed, you’ll receive a sticker. You must submit your completed sticker card by April 20. For more information and a full list of participating locations, visit visithaywood.com/fatburger-month.
RE S IDENTIAL BR O KER A SS (828)400-1078
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File photo
On the wall
HCAC celebrates Woodford
The Haywood County Arts Council’s (HCAC) specially curated exhibit featuring the works of celebrated visual artist and author Ann Miller Woodford will run through April 6 at HCAC’s Haywood Handmade Gallery in downtown Waynesville.
This is an exceptional opportunity to view Woodford’s artwork and experience her unique gift for storytelling in person. Woodford, a North Carolina native, has dedicated her artistic career to capturing the spirit of life and history around her. Working primarily in oils and skilled in pencil, charcoal and ink drawing, her subject matter ranges from portraits and landscapes to inspirational and still-life compositions.
Her latest portrait series, “Black in Black on Black: Making the Invisible Visible,” explores themes of emergence and empowerment, using the richness of the color black to celebrate identity and visibility.
For more information, please contact the HCAC at director@haywoodarts.org or visit haywoodarts.org.
WCU faculty art showcase
Featuring works from faculty artisans at Western Carolina University, the 2025 School of Art & Design Faculty Biennial Exhibition will be displayed through May 2 in the Bardo Arts Center in Cullowhee.
• Artisan Alley Craft Show will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 5, at the Franklin Town Hall. Art, baked goods and more. For more information, email artisanalley2024@gmail.com.
• WNC Paint Events will host painting sessions throughout the region on select dates. For more information and/or to sign up, visit wncpaint.events.
• Marianna Black Library (Bryson City) will host “ArtWorks” at 1 p.m. every second Thursday of the month. Come create your own masterpiece. The materials for art works are supplied and participants are welcome to bring ideas and supplies to share with each other. Free and open to the public. 828.488.3030 / vroberson@fontanalib.org.
• Marianna Black Library (Bryson City) will host an adult arts and crafts program at 1 p.m. every second Thursday of the month. Ages 16 and up. Space is limited to 10 participants. Free and open to the public. 828.488.3030 / vroberson@fontanalib.org.
• CRE828 (Waynesville) will offer a selection of art classes and workshops at its studio located at 1283 Asheville Road. Workshops will include art journaling, watercoloring, mixed media, acrylic painting and more. For a full list of classes, visit cre828.com. dawn@cre828.com / 828.283.0523.
• Gallery Zella (Bryson City) will be hosting an array of artist receptions, exhibits and showcases. galleryzella.com / 517.881.0959.
• Waynesville Photography Club meets at 7 p.m. every third Monday each month on the second floor of the Haywood Regional Health & Fitness Center in Clyde. The club is a nonprofit organization that exists for the enjoyment of photography and the improvement of one’s skills. They welcome photographers of all skill levels to share ideas and images at the monthly meetings. waynesvillephotoclub@charter.net.
• Haywood County Arts Council (Waynesville) will offer a wide-range of classes, events and activities for artisans, locals and visitors. haywoodarts.org.
• Jackson County Green Energy Park (Dillsboro) will be offering a slew of classes, events and activities for artisans, locals and visitors. jcgep.org.
Over 450 Tires In Stock
Outside of the classroom, faculty members in the School of Art & Design are active artists and scholars that make significant contributions to the arts. The exhibition provides students and the community with an opportunity to view recent works created by distinguished faculty members whose primary research output is studio-based.
The museum’s hours of operation are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and until 7 p.m. on Thursday.
For more information, visit wcu.edu/bardo-arts-center.
• Southwestern Community College Swain Arts Center (Bryson City) will host an array of workshops for adults and kids. southwesterncc.edu/scc-locations/swain-center.
• Dogwood Crafters in Dillsboro will offer a selection of upcoming art classes and workshops. dogwoodcrafters.com/classes / 828.586.2248.
• Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center (Franklin) will host semi-regular arts and crafts workshops. coweeschool.org/events.
Ann Miller Woodford is a popular WNC artist. File photo
“Desert Gems” is a work by Nathan Ellis Perry. File photo
Writer dreamed of a mythical Russia
In the early 1900s, in Tsarist Russia, young intellectuals with means would study philosophy and history. Some would feel a longing for their country to become more modern, to become a nation under the rule of law, as other nations in the world had done.
One such young scholar was Ivan Ilyin. His country was destined to change, but not in the way that he desired. The Russian Revolution of 1917 resulted in a dictatorship, not a nation of laws. Ilyin made his views known and was told by the secret police to leave Russia. He left.
Living in exile in Germany, he began to create a story of Russia. In this story, in Ilyin’s mind, Russia became the one innocent country. It wasn’t a nation, so much as a civilization. God played a brief role in Ilyin’s myth. God created people, but with the creation of people, God shattered and lost all power. A sinful, corrupt world remained. But no one should worry. A leader, Russian, was to arise. A redeemer.
The problem that Ilyin had trouble solving was succession. Who would follow the leader?
Ilyin wrote pamphlets and books and a 40-volume set detailing his myth, and then he gradually faded into near obscurity. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union under the communist dictatorship did become modern, in a sense. It became industrialized. Cities and factories were built with money gained from state control of agriculture. The price for reorganization of agriculture was the starvation of millions. An additional price for state control of power was the imprisonment of millions in Soviet labor camps. Close to a million others were shot.
Someone the people would recognize and follow. The people would obey all the laws because this was Russia, where things were pure. There would be elections, but even if the numbers didn’t always add up in the leader’s favor, the people would recognize that the special leader was the leader. It would be a special Russian form of democracy.
There would be problems with outside countries, of course, the decadent ones, but pure Russia would always prevail. The civilization that was Russia would be all-important and would spread, should spread, because it was pure. Because it was a “civilization” and not a nation, borders were not all that important. The purity, the innocence of Russia — that was the important part.
In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed. The emerging Russian Federation, led first by Boris Yeltsin and then by his successor, Vladimir Putin, toyed initially with capitalism and democracy. Society in Russia seemed stable at last under Putin and most people were relieved. Foreign relations were generally positive, even with neighboring Ukraine, which had been in the Soviet Union but formed its own nation after the break-up. In 2004, Putin spoke favorably about Ukraine joining the European Union. That would benefit Russia, he said.
But the problems in Russia were deep. A market economy, as opposed to the centrally planned economy of communism, requires the rule of law, and the structure for the rule of law was weak. A few individuals, including Putin, became very wealthy, very quickly. Wealthy and powerful. Rule was not democratic, but oligarchic. A wealthy few ruled. Election fraud became common.
Also, Putin and others began reading Ivan Ilyin. The myth of the innocent Russia in perpetual conflict with the decadent and aggressive West appealed to these wealthy men. It helped justify their extreme wealth and was a useful propaganda tool. Feed the people the myth of pure Russia, and you don’t have to spend money to improve their lives. Make the West the enemy, and the
Upcoming readings at City Lights
people won’t ask too many questions. In 2005, Putin, the “redeemer,” had Ilyin’s remains removed from Switzerland, where he had died, and reburied in Russia. Russian economic growth slowed with the international financial collapse in 2008. Subsequent elections were blatantly fraudulent, and citizens began to protest. Both Putin and the state-controlled media stated without proof that the protesters were paid by Westerners. This was the aggressive, decadent West, they said, seeking to attack pure Russia. Putin also began to assert that Ukraine, recognized by international law, including Russia, as a sovereign state for 20 years, was actually supposed to be part of Russia. “Civilization” was more important than legal boundaries. About this time, Russia made its first cyberattack, on Estonia. It was the first attack of the Russian cyberwar against any and all democracies. Ukraine, at the same time, although also experiencing corruption by its leaders, was moving slowly toward association with Europe. The business community and the young people wanted the European model, and in 2013 the president was poised to sign an association agreement with the European Union, a preliminary step toward membership. Then the president, after speaking with Putin, decided not to sign. Protests began, violence against protesters resulted in larger protests, the president escaped to Russia, new elections were held, and Ukraine continued its path towards the rule of law.
On February 24, 2014, Russia invaded Ukraine while simultaneously conducting cyberwarfare and a propaganda blitz to confuse the world about what was happening. It wanted the world and its own people to believe that Ukrainians were rising up against their own. Russian armored vehicles were unmarked and soldiers wore uniforms with no insignia. Ukrainians who resisted the Russian invasion were called, by Putin, “nationalists, neo-Nazis, Russiaphobes, and anti-Semites,” controlled by, as one of his advisors stated, “the Nazi junta that the Americans had installed in Kyiv.” The Russian head of security put it this way, “If the world were saved from demonic constructions such as the United States, it would be easier for everyone to live. And one of these days it will happen.”
This story, from Ilyin to invasion, is told by Yale historian Timothy Snyder in his book “The Road to Unfreedom” (Penguin, 2018, 2023 preface, 284 pp). A second Russian invasion of Ukraine was launched in 2024, and Ukrainians continue to resist.
(Anne Bevilacqua is a book lover who lives in Haywood County. abev1@yahoo.com.)
A young volunteer reaches for a piece of litter during the 2023 Spring Clean litter pickup in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Save Our Smokies photo
In the fight against litter, volunteers are key
Volunteer-in-Park program includes a Parkwide Litter Patrol force. Unlike Save Our Smokies, which focuses on organizing group litter patrol events, the VIP program recruits volunteers who work individually according to their own schedule. Independent groups on both the North Carolina and Tennessee entrances to the park, Swain Clean and Keep Sevier Beautiful, are also vital partners in the litter control effort.
“You’re never going to get rid of litter, unfortunately, but our main goal is educating people about litter and what it does to the environment,” said Lisa Bryant, executive director of Keep Sevier Beautiful. “We try to start young and instill good habits with the kids.”
Word from the Smokies
BY HOLLY KAYS | S PECIAL TO SMN
very year, millions of people visit Great Smoky Mountains National Park to experience its clear mountain streams, verdant views, and diverse forms of natural beauty. The mountains exert a powerful spell — but too often, that spell is broken by the sight of plastic bottles and candy wrappers scattered beside trailheads and overlooks, fast food bags and old tires flung along roadsides and plastic bags or balloons hung in treetops.
“We care about where we live, we care about our park, and we want it to be a place that is safe and enjoyable,” said Swain County resident Cynthia Womble. “It hurts us when we see trash on the side of the road or in a picnic area.”
Womble handles social media and engagement for Swain Clean, one of several volunteer organizations working to reduce litter in the park and its gateway communities. Every year, hundreds of people give their time to remove thousands of pounds of garbage that would have otherwise cluttered roadsides throughout the region, eventually entering streams, lakes or the stomachs of unsuspecting wildlife.
“Trash changes animal behavior,” said Jerry Willis, who in 2020 founded the nonprofit Save Our Smokies with his wife, Darlene. “We’ve seen bear scat that’s got plastic in it, and we’ve
seen animals that have been hit because they’re on the side of the road scavenging that free food that somebody chucked out of the car window.”
The impact extends far beyond the litter’s first landing spot.
“The thing is, litter doesn’t stay where it’s thrown,” Willis said. “All that garbage that’s laying there on the side of the road or in the woods degrades, and the plastics degrade. And all that gets into the water system, and it gets into the little stream there beside it, which leads to a creek, which leads to a river, and it just never stops.”
Save our Smokies launched in October 2020 after the Willises got caught in a traffic jam on Newfound Gap Road. Crawling over the mountain, they noticed a disturbing amount of trash littering the roadside. Willis started the Save Our Smokies Facebook group that evening, never imaging it would turn into a full-blown nonprofit organization with more than 150 volunteers. Since its creation, Save Our Smokies has collected 25,000 pounds of trash, and its biggest event of the year, the annual Spring Clean that mobilizes volunteers throughout the park, is coming up on Saturday, April 5, marking its fourth year.
When Save Our Smokies first started, the litter situation was dire. Patrolling Foothills
Parkway, volunteers frequently found decadesold tires, sometimes removing 30 of them in a single day. But the group has made “large gains” in the years since, Willis said; tires are now rare finds, and overall, the backlog of old garbage has gone down. In its first year, Save Our Smokies collected 9,300 pounds of trash. That number fell with each subsequent year, with the group logging 2,780 pounds in 2024.
Over the same period, volunteer hours also fell as life returned to normal in the wake of the pandemic, but Willis believes that the decline in accumulated litter has helped drive that decrease in participation — not the other way around.
“It’s a lot less sensational when you say we picked up 200 pounds of garbage today than when you say we had a pickup that was 4,600 pounds,” he said.
There’s a sense of satisfaction in knowing their efforts are making a difference, but nevertheless there is still an “awful lot” of trash to pick up, Willis said. And graffiti removal in the park — the other focus of Save Our Smokies — hasn’t slowed down at all.
“We clean graffiti from an area and then we go right back, and it’s already started back within the same day,” he said. “We’re fighting that mentality that, ‘It’s okay, it’s just graffiti.’ We see families teaching and guarding their children while their children are doing graffiti. They’re standing there watching out for them. Why are we teaching the next generation to do this?”
Save Our Smokies isn’t fighting litter alone. Willis said the park has been a “tremendous partner” to Save Our Smokies, and its
Established in 2002, Keep Sevier Beautiful works with about 800 volunteers each year to organize more than 100 events focused on beautification, invasive plant removal, and recycling and waste reduction, as well as litter pickup and education. The group conducts educational programs in all Sevier County schools and many after-school programs, teaching children about the harms of littering. It also holds roadside cleanups throughout the year, including several on the Gatlinburg Spur, park bypasses, and trails. One March cleanup on the Spur yielded 78 bags of trash.
“We see a lot of plastic bottles, a lot of Styrofoam, and things like that where you know it came from a fast-food chain,” Bryant said. Swain Clean’s structure is less formal than Save Our Smokies or Keep Sevier Beautiful, but its volunteers are just as committed to the mission. A sub-chapter of the Swain County Chamber of Commerce, Swain Clean has a core group of about 25 people, with roughly 50 who participate in cleanups at least once per year, Womble said. On the third Saturday each month, the group meets outside the Swain County Visitor Center and Museum in Bryson City — known as the old courthouse building — and then disperses to that week’s cleanup site. But Swain Clean’s impact is much greater than the sum of its monthly pickups.
“Whenever any of our Swain Clean members are in the park, they’re always going to be taking out trash,” said Womble. “We have folks who walk at Deep Creek at least two or three times a week, and when they walk, they’re always going to have a trash bag with them, and they’re going to pick up whatever they see.”
The group also collaborates on larger litter removal efforts, like the Save Our Smokies Spring Clean event coming up April 5 or the Fontana Lake Cleanup Event held each fall. In 2024, more than 30,000 pounds of trash were hauled from the shoreline during the three-day event.
Though tourists and tourism-related endeavors bear some responsibility for the litter these groups encounter, locals also contribute. Discarded mattresses, washers, dryers and tires have all been found inside the park, believed to be dumped there by people who live nearby. According to Womble, identifying information included on various prescription bottles, bank statements, and water bills that Swain Clean volunteers pick up along the road also shows that local residents are
Some waterways remain dangerous post-Helene
Officials at the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) report there are still areas that are unsafe to participate in water activities due to remaining debris from Hurricane Helene. Some locations are inaccessible to emergency responders in the event an incident occurs.
The Cradle of Forestry to reopen
The Nolichucky River received heavy damage and destruction from the storm, washing away the railroad tracks that run along the river. All of the infrastructure at the Poplar Boat Launch was demolished and much of the debris still remains as salvage operations continue.
Other rivers that remain heavily impacted include sections of the Green River and Pigeon River to the Tennessee state line, including near the Interstate 40 landslide which may experience safety and access issues when reconstruction begins there.
According to NCWRC’s Land and Water Access (LAWA) staff, the remaining storm debris, construction repair activity and changes to the underwater landscape have increased the danger risk. When utilizing these waterways for recreation, NCWRC Law Enforcement advises to be mindful of debris and potential construction and heavy equipment. Check NCWRC’s Boating Full and Partial Closures webpage before attempting to visit an area. Also always wear a personal flotation device when participating in water activities, do not go alone, and let others know your float plans and estimated time of return.
For more boating safety information, visit NCWRC.
EPA announces completion of Helene response in WNC
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that the agency has completed its work supporting the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NC DEQ), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and local health departments with hurricane response efforts in western North Carolina. EPA’s response included:
• Removing and processing more than 1,700 orphan containers of oil, propane and other hazardous materials from land and waterways at the request of FEMA and NC DEQ. EPA worked with the Asheville Fire Department swift water rescue team and hired local rafting guides to help retrieve containers from the French Broad River.
• Testing over 1,500 samples from private wells at EPA mobile water testing labs in Buncombe and Watauga counties.
• Working with the NC DEQ and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to assess the storm’s damage to more than 250 drinking water and wastewater systems.
• Providing technical guidance to local water operators, supporting efforts to restore and maintain drinking water systems and other essential services, and assisting the City of Asheville Water Resources Department in restoring drinking water service to 150,000 people in the Asheville area.
• Advising residents on the importance of following local boil water advisories to prevent waterborne illnesses, in accordance with CDC guidelines and in partnership with local health departments.
EPA will continue to work closely with federal and state partners to ensure North Carolina residents have safe, clean water and to improve water system resilience in future storm events.
Blue Ridge Parkway provides damage update
Hurricane Helene caused at least 57 landslides on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, damaging roads and trails across 200 miles, the National Park Service said. The storm, which also damaged facilities in Virginia, led to the closure of parts of the 469-mile parkway. About 312 miles have reopened.
Repairs, funded in part by federal disaster funds, are underway at eight slide locations, with completion expected by late summer or early fall 2025. The hardest-hit area is between mileposts 317 and 349, near Linville Falls and Mount Mitchell State Park.
Current conditions and updates about the Parkway are found online at nps.gov/blri and the park’s social media platforms at @BlueRidgeNPS (Facebook, X and Instagram). Photos and additional information regarding storm damage along the Parkway is available on the park’s website.
contributing to the problem.
“I really don’t think people realize what litter does to the environment,” Bryant said. Keeping the park and its gateway communities litter-free is a never-ending task, but with every piece of trash sent to its proper destination comes a feeling of satisfaction that encourages these volunteers to keep going.
“I don’t know many people who can’t at least pick up a piece of trash and put it in the trash can,” Womble said. “It doesn’t take that much time. It’s something you can do in ten minutes, sometimes even five minutes, and it makes a difference.”
FIND Outdoors is excited to announce the seasonal reopening of the Cradle of Forestry in Pisgah National Forest on April 5. This historic site, often referred to as the birthplace of modern forestry in America, continues to serve as a hub for conservation education and outdoor experiences.
Opening day attendees will enjoy complimentary admission and programming throughout the day, including:
10:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. — Character Meet & Greets
11 a.m. — Book signing and reading with Carolyn Bennett Fraise, the author of “MOON TREE: The Story of One Extraordinary Tree”
1-2 p.m. — Up Close Encounter with Birds of Prey
• Jeff Curtis presents an exciting falconry demonstration featuring majestic birds of prey. Get up close to these incredible birds and learn about their role in the ecosystem.
3-4 p.m.— Fur, Feathers and Scales
• The WNC Nature Center brings an exciting educational presentation featuring animals with fur, feathers and scales. Meet live animals and learn how they adapt to their environments.
Guided tours of the Biltmore Campus Trail and Forest Festival Trail will also be available.
Admission:
$10/adult (13+)
$5/child (4–12)
$5/Federal Passholder
Season Passes to the Cradle of Forestry are also available for $35/individual or $55/family and include:
• Regular admission to the Cradle of Forestry during the season
• 15% discount at the Cradle of Forestry Gift Shop
• Half-off admission for special programs/events offered throughout the season For more information, visit gofindoutdoors.org/sites/cradle-of-forestry.
Holly Kays is the lead writer for the 29,000-member Smokies Life, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting the scientific, historical and interpretive activities of Great Smoky Mountains National Park by providing educational products and services such as this column. Learn more at smokieslife.org or reach the author at hollyk@smokieslife.org.
To participate in the April 5 Spring Clean event in the park, register at saveoursmokies.org or contact Willis at info@saveoursmokies.org. Find Swain Clean at facebook.com/groups/swainclean and Keep Sevier Beautiful at keepsevierbeautiful.org.
The cradle of forestry is a favorite destination for families. Donated photo
File photo
Repair homes now before bat pupping season
N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) recommends that homeowners check now for bats that may be getting into their home and evict them responsibly before pup-rearing season begins on May 1.
Bats are highly beneficial, offering free pest control by devouring nearly their own body weight in insects each night. Their hunger for insects peaks during pup-rearing season, which runs May 1 to July 31 across North Carolina.
Early spring is the perfect time to check for bats and make sure if any are getting into the building, they end up elsewhere before this season’s pups are born. Bat evictions work by allowing bats to leave on their own, while preventing them from getting back in.
Governor Stein, Ag Commissioner call on USDA to allocate funds to farmers
On the six-month anniversary of Hurricane Helene, Governor Josh Stein and Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Troxler sent a letter to US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, requesting that USDA approve a block grant to support the recovery efforts of farmers in Western North Carolina.
“Agriculture plays a crucial role in the region’s economy, and the farmers of western North Carolina have always demonstrated resilience,” said Governor Josh Stein. “However, Hurricane Helene’s catastrophic impact has left them in a difficult position, with staggering losses they will not recoup without external assistance.”
Bat guano, which resembles mouse droppings, often piles up under the entry point bats use to get to their roost. Check under attic vents, shutters or other potential entry points for rice-sized droppings that easily crush into a fine powder. If you suspect bats are getting inside, you can hire a licensed Wildlife Control Agent or follow Bat Conservation International’s guidance on evicting bats yourself.
Though evicting bats isn’t an option between May 1 and July 31, homeowners can ensure bats can’t enter the human living space. A licensed Wildlife Control Agent can inspect the home and seal off any gaps that would allow bats to enter the main dwelling area. They can also make any preparations for evicting the bats once pup-rearing season is over. If you do find a bat inside the living space, especially if you can’t rule out that it may have come into direct contact with a person or a pet, contact your county health department immediately to find out if the bat needs to be tested.
Bats return to the same roost each spring, so it’s important to make permanent repairs that prevent them from entering the building in future years. You can give bats an alternative roost by installing a bat box in a sunny area on your property. For the best chance of success, follow Bat Conservation International’s tips on building, buying and installing bat boxes.
Contact NCWRC’s Wildlife Helpline, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., at 866.318.2401 for questions, or email hwi@ncwildlife.org. You can also visit CoExisting with Bats on NCWRC’s website.
Invasive plant crew celebrates milestone
The Pisgah Conservancy’s Invasive Plant Management Crew celebrates one year of tackling non-native invasive species in the forest this month.
The Invasive Plant Management Crew is the first and only of its kind fully dedicated to working in the Pisgah Ranger District. In its pilot year, two crew leads and one seasonal crew member successfully treated more than 120 acres and surveyed an additional 330 acres across the forest. Sites included the Catheys Creek Watershed, Davidson River Watershed and Kuykendall and North Mills River campgrounds.
Pisgah is among the most biodiverse and most visited national forests in the United States and boasts globally unique ecological hotspots. These biodiverse areas — ranging from mountain bogs and heath balds to temperate rainforests — support rare plants and animals.
Unfortunately, invasive plant infestations have developed acres of monocultures in Pisgah’s forested understories, along riparian zones, and into forest
canopies. Unmitigated, invasive plants negatively affect soil and water quality, hydrologic function and geochemistry of streams and river systems, and overall watershed health. They crowd out native plant populations leading to a series of declines in dependent species of insects, birds and many aquatic organisms.
The Invasive Plant Management Crew is moving forward into different phases of management in 2025. They will combat reemergent invasive plant seedbanks and resprouts while allowing native plants to re-colonize and naturally move back into the management area. They will also expand their geographic footprint to cover more of the forest. Their work will increase habitat quality for wildlife and other foodwebs and help safeguard and improve water quality and visitor experiences.
The Pisgah Conservancy’s Invasive Plant Management Crew is a partnership program with the U.S. Forest Service that receives support from the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, Naventure, and donors to The Pisgah Conservancy. To learn more about the Invasive Plant Management Crew, and ways to help Pisgah, visit pisgahconservancy.org.
“The damage to farms from Hurricane Helene is almost unimaginable, and it is going to take a lot to put them back together,” said NC Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Troxler. “We will need funds to help with that recovery. We hope USDA will come through with block grant funding to do the things we know are going to be needed.”
Stein and Troxler are requesting a block grant utilizing funds appropriated in the Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2025. Conversations regarding the allocation of these funds have begun, and timely approval of funds will be critical for ensuring farmers can quickly return to sustainable production levels.
Last week, Governor Stein signed the Disaster Recovery Act of 2025, Part 1, into law, which provides $200 million for North Carolina farmers who have experienced crop losses or infrastructure damage due to Hurricane Helene. Governor Stein continues to advocate for additional funding that supports farmers in repairing their infrastructure and removing debris from their land.
Whiteoak Sink group size limited for wildflower viewing
As Spring begins, Great Smoky Mountains National Park reminds visitors of group size limits during the popular wildflower season at Whiteoak Sink. Individuals and small groups of eight or fewer people may access the Whiteoak Sink area throughout the wildflower season Tuesday, April 1, through Sunday, May 4.
Whiteoak Sink is a unique, sensitive area that hosts many rare plants. Park managers limit group size to protect sensitive wildflower species from trampling. Overuse of the area causes impacts like damage to plants and soil compaction when large groups crowd around plants off-trail to take photos or closely view flowers. Parking is limited, so visitors should plan ahead and come prepared with alternative destinations in case they do not find parking available at Whiteoak Sink. Parking is not allowed on road shoulders.
A team of volunteers on site will provide wildflower viewing information and collect monitoring data. Park managers have monitored sensitive wildflower species in the Whiteoak Sink area since 2016.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is world famous for its wildflower diversity and has more kinds of flowering plants than any other North American national park.
Bats are likely nearing their pup-rearing season. Donated photo
641
509 Asheville Hwy., Suite B, SYLVA, NC
The Joyful Botanist
BY ADAM B IGELOW
Up Moses Creek
I(3/10 Mile North of the Courthouse)
(3/10 Mile North of the Courthouse)
(Located in the NAPA Auto Parts Center)
828-456-HAUS (4287)
828-456-HAUS (4287)
828-586-HAUS (4287)
really enjoy and am honored by the fact that I share this column space with Burt Kornegay who writes the fun and informative column. I like sharing this space because I enjoy reading his writing, and because he is a friend and a big influence on me and my work leading plant walks. When first starting my business, Burt graciously sat with me and talked about some of his experience running and promoting a tourism business, and I am grateful for his time and input.
I’ve purchased and used many copies of his great map of Panthertown Valley over the years, as it is a detailed and useful map of one of my favorite places. And it’s less likely to get you lost than the US Forest Service’s version, in my experience.
I also enjoy sharing this spot with Burt because of the title of his column, “Up Moses Creek.” I’ve been going up Moses Creek for many of the 32 years that I’ve lived here in these mountains. And for the last 25 years, I’ve been travelling up Moses Creek two or three times a week every year in the early springtime, or what most people would call late winter, to see and celebrate the return of wildflowers and spring with the blooming of the first trout-lily of the year (Erythronium umbilicatum).
And this May I will have been living up on Tilley Creek, or the Top O’ Tilley as I like to call it, close to where I would visit wildflowers each spring for 10 years. Springtime is a great time to celebrate. Life is a celebration, especially in the spring. It is a riot of celebration and growth.
I still go up Moses Creek each spring to stalk the first trout-lily of the year, in that one spot way up, so I can see the very first bloom and celebrate the new season. I just led my first wildflower walk of the season at Fisher Creek along the Forest Therapy Trail at Pinnacle Park. This place is special, and the gentle trails that wind along the creek will be filled with an ever-changing display of spring ephemeral wildflowers for the next few weeks. Go see them.
Moses Creek is one of the places where I first fell in love with wildflowers 20 years ago. It was Moses Creek and Fisher Creek where for the last 10 years in a row I have led my first wildflower walk of the season, and Tilley Creek where my friends and I went to visit the spring ephemeral wildflowers, and where my love and fascination for plants and wildflowers began, especially those plants native to the Southeastern United States and the Southern Appalachian Bioregion where we live.
Yup, I fell in love with wildflowers, and it’s been the longest and most successful relationship of my life. I intend to stay in love with wildflowers, actively, for the rest of my life. This year marks many milestones for me. 25 years of studying and working with plants, 10 years of guiding wildflower walks and teaching about plants and 20 years of being actively in love with wildflowers as mentioned above.
I encourage you to get outside, as long as the air quality allows, and go look for wildflowers. There is little more hopeful in the world than the return of spring wildflowers. Once the leaves all come out on the trees in mid-April to early May, the ephemera will have passed.
Come for a walk among the wildflowers with me or join one of the many other opportunities to learn about plants and ecology that are offered throughout this region. Go for walks on your own and slow yourself down by connecting and reconnecting with nature. The festival of spring is all around, so we might as well celebrate. Happy springtime, everyone.
(The Joyful Botanist leads weekly wildflower walks most Fridays and offers consultations and private group tours through Bigelow’s Botanical Excursions. bigelownc@gmail.com.)
Windflower is one of many wildflowers found blooming up Moses Creek in the Spring. Adam Bigelow photo
Market PLACE WNC
MarketPlace information:
The Smoky Mountain News Marketplace has a distribution of 16,000 copies across 500 locations in Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties, including the Qualla Boundary and west Buncombe County. Visit www.wncmarketplace.com to place your ad!
Rates:
• $15 — Classified ads that are 25 words, 25¢ per word after.
• Free — Lost or found pet ads.
• $6 — Residential yard sale ads.*
• $1 — Yard Sale Rain Insurance Yard sale rained out? Call us by 10a.m. Monday for your ad to run again FREE
• $375 — Statewide classifieds run in 170 participating newspapers with 1.1+ million circulation. (Limit 25 words or less)
• Boost Online — Have your ad featured at top of category online $4
• Boost in Print
• Add Photo $6
• Bold ad $2
• Yellow, Green, Pink or Blue Highlight $4
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Note: Highlighted ads automatically generate a border so if you’re placing an ad online and select a highlight color, the “add border” feature will not be available on the screen.
Note: Yard sale ads require an address. This location will be displayed on a map on www.wncmarketplace.com
STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA IN THE GENERAL COURT OF JUSTICE COUNTY OF HAYWOOD DISTRICT COURT DIVISION
CHELSEA COMBS Plaintiff, v. PATRICK L. COMBS Defendant,
NOTICE OF SERVICE OF PROCESS BY PUBLICATION
Take notice that a pleading seeking relief against
above entitled action. The nature of the relief being sought is as follows:
Complaint for permanent custody and ex parte motion for emergency custody
You are required to make defense to such a pleading no later than May 2nd, 2025 and upon your failure to do so the party
seeking service against you will apply to the court for the relief sought.
This 28th day of March, 2025
NIELSEN LAW, PLLC
Joshua D. Nielsen Attorney for Plaintiff 413 Walnut St Waynesville, NC 28786 (828) 246-9360 (828) 229-7255 facsimile
Publication Dates: April 2nd, April 9th and April 16th, 2025
NOTICE OF ADMINISTRATION
Case No.25E000195-430
Ronald F. Benhart, having
of the Estate of Rebecca E. Benhart of Haywood County, North Carolina, this is to notify all persons having claims against the Estate to present them to the undersigned on or before Jul 02 2025, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to
said Estate, please make immediate payment.
Executor 105 Pinellas Lane Waynesville NC 28785
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SUDOKU
Here’s How It Works: Sudoku puzzles are formatted as a 9x9 grid, broken down into nine 3x3 boxes. To solve a sudoku, the numbers 1 through 9 must fill each row, column and box. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and box. You can figure out the order in which the numbers will appear by using the numeric clues already provided in the boxes. The more numbers you name, the easier it gets to solve the puzzle!
location 220 Hwy 19S in the Valley Village Shopping Center in Bryson City. This auction features a great selection of crocks, churns, jugs, stained glass, bull horns, glassware, goat cart, RR Lamp, oil lamps, enamel ware, circus memorabilia, Remington lures, and much more. Plenty of seating, Plenty of parking. Easy loading. We accept Cash, CC (3% fee) and Business Checks. Tax exempt status must present tax on premises. Come join us at one of the last live auctions left in the area See all photos on Auction Zip under our auction name (828) 366-2215 bttrmlkfarms@frontier.com
Pets
PUPPIES!! Asheville Humane Society has puppies available for adoption; all 2-6 months old and cute as can be! Fee includes vaccinations and spay/neuter. (828) 761-2001 adoptions@ ashevillehumane.org
CALICO CAT — WINNIE 6 year old girl; gentle and affectionate. Loves to observe nature and bask in the sun. Asheville Humane Society (828) 761-2001 adoptions@ ashevillehumane.org
Automotive
24/7 LOCKSMITH We are there when you need us for home & car lockouts. We’ll get you back up and running quickly! Also, key reproductions, lock installs and repairs, vehicle fobs. Call us for your home, commercial and auto locksmith needs!
1-833-237-1233
Construction/ Remodeling
SAFE STEP. North America’s #1 Walk-In Tub. Comprehensive lifetime warranty. Top-of-the-line installation and service. Now featuring our FREE shower package and $1600 Off for a limited time! Call today! Financ-
ing available. Call Safe Step 1-855-931-3643
NEED NEW WINDOWS? Drafty rooms? Chipped or damaged frames? Need outside noise reduction?dows may be the answer! 1-877-248-9944.
WATER DAMAGE CLEANUP & RESTORATION: A small amount of water can lead to major damage and mold growth in your home. We do complete repairs to protect your family and your home’s value! 24/7: 1-888-290-2264
Health/Beauty
ATTENTION OXYGEN THERAPY USERS! Discover Oxygen Therapy That Moves with You with Inogen Portable Oxygen Concentrators. FREE information kit. 877-443-0443
HEARING AIDS!!
High-quality rechargeable, powerful Audien hearing aids priced 90% less than competitors.
Tiny and NEARLY INVISIBLE! 45-day money back guarantee! 888-970-4637
BEAUTIFUL BATH UPDATES in as little as ONE DAY! Superior quality bath and shower systems at AFFORDABLE PRICES! Lifetime warranty & professional installs. Call Now! 1-833-423-2558
Wanted to Buy
TOP CA$H PAID FOR OLD GUITARS! 19201980 Gibson, Martin, Fender, Gretsch, Epiphone, Guild, Mosrite, Rickenbacker, Prairie State, D’Angelico, Stromberg. And Gibson Mandolins / Banjos. 1-877-5605054
WE BUY VINTAGE GUITARS! Looking for 19201980 Gibson, Martin, Fender, Gretsch, Epiphone, Guild, Mosrite, Rickenbacker, Prairie State, D’Angelico, Stromberg. And Gibson Mandolins / Banjos. These brands only! Call for a quote: 1-855-402-7208
