Last week, Chuck Edwards held a couple of contentious events, a town hall that was guaranteed to draw some angry protestors and an announcement in Canton of infrastructure funds that should have been nothing but positive but was interrupted by an angry resident in the audience. The Smoky Mountain News breaks it all down. (Page 11) Jack Snyder photo
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Federal appropriation will shore up Canton water infrastructure..........................5 Macon Commission changes rules on public comment..........................................5 Cabe appointed Macon County manager....................................................................5 Out of the Lion’s Den: Cliff Graham comes to Macon County..............................6 Green invites community engagement in education..............................................14 Progress on storm recovery, broadband highlighted at town hall......................16
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C ONTRIBUTING: Jeff Minick (writing), Susanna Shetley (writing), Adam Bigelow (writing), Thomas Crowe (writing)
In a split vote during its March 11 meeting, Macon County Commissioners decided to reduce the time limit for people speaking during public comment. The decision was made to allow more people to speak during the monthly, 45-minute public comment sessions.
“Taking it down to three minutes just gives opportunity for more variety of opinions, so we get to hear a lot more constituents,” said Commissioner Danny Antoine. “We make better decisions that way too the more people we can get to and understand where they’re at.”
“Three minutes, if you speak well, you can get your point across,” said Chairman Josh Young, who initiated the change.
Some members of the public speaking during the March 11 meeting spoke in favor of the rule change, noting that it would allow for more members of the public to voice their opinion at each meeting.
Commissioner Gary Shields was the only board member to oppose the change. He proposed adjusting the time allotted per speaker at the beginning of each meeting based on the number of speakers signed up.
Federal appropriation will shore up Canton water infrastructure
BY CORY VAILLANCOURT P OLITICS E DITOR
The Town of Canton is about to receive a huge economic development boost after Rep. Chuck Edwards announced a $41 million appropriation from a Biden-era water resources program.
“Our infrastructure is aged. It’s old. It’s falling apart,” said Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers. “This is historic, one of the largest, if not the most significant, influxes of federal money to not just do wastewater, but basically generations of water projects over the next four years.”
The money, $40.78 million, came from the Water Resources Development Act of 2024, signed by President Joe Biden on Jan. 4.
Canton’s municipal water system has been plagued with deteriorating hardware, resulting in periodic breaks that in turn result in boil-water orders on a regular basis.
Previously, speakers during regular public comment at Macon County Commission meetings were allowed five minutes each. Public comment is capped at 45 minutes, which allows for nine speakers.
Now, each individual will be allowed three minutes to speak, which will allow for 15 speakers during the 45-minute session.
Cabe appointed
“I think your rules of procedure are pretty clear and that gives folks, ahead of time, as they’re preparing for their presentation, how much time they’ve got to speak,” said Board Clerk Tammy Keezer.
The board voted 4-1 to approve the decision to shorten the time limit for each individual speaker to 3 minutes during public comment sessions. The new rule will take effect at the commission’s April meeting.
Macon County manager
BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER
Commissioners appointed Warren Cabe as the new manager for Macon County after he had served just over four months as interim county manager.
“I appreciate the opportunity,” said Cabe at the March 11 meeting when commissioners appointed him to the position. “I’ve been asked by a lot of folks how it’s been and it’s definitely challenging. But I’ve had good relationships with the board, good relationships with the departments and the other agencies I work with, and I just want to say I appreciate the opportunity.”
During the March 11 meeting, County Attorney Eric Ridenour said he had been asked to prepare an employment agreement for the next county manager. According to Ridenour the terms of the agreement are virtually the same as the previous manager’s employment agreement, including the rate of pay.
left his position at the start of November.
“When you lose your employee, you scramble, especially in this economy,” said Commission Chairman Josh Young during the March 11 meeting. “Fortunately, we had a gentleman step up; he has absolutely knocked it out of the park. I’ve spoken with about every department head in this county and we have overwhelmingly great reviews …
He’s making them go to work and expecting a very high performance, which is a very high priority of mine.”
Cabe’s initial interim contract ran through June 30 and his annual salary was set at $154,536.45, plus a $500 per month car allowance.
Commissioners were selecting from multiple applicants, only three of which, commissioners said, were qualified for the position.
The town has also been facing a wastewater treatment problem since Pactiv Evergreen announced on March 6, 2023, that its century-old paper mill would close by that summer. Pactiv, and previous owners of the mill, had treated the town’s municipal waste at nearly no cost for several decades, but told the town it would halt treatment as soon as contractually feasible.
That sent the town on the hunt for the money and the real estate to construct its own wastewater treatment plant.
“This money will be rolled out over four years. Some of it goes to wastewater infrastructure. It also goes from piping and water tanks and the filter plant,” Smathers said. “This is revolutionizing and modernizing the town of Canton water system with one swoop. This is money that we would never have access to in years and years and years.”
Edwards made an appearance in Sorrells Street Park on March 13 to announce the funding.
“Canton residents will no longer have to rely on a now-defunct paper mill to ensure safe water treatment sanitation,” Edwards said. “This investment opens the doors to an eventual regional connection in wastewater processing between Canton and surrounding communities such as Clyde.”
Now that the money appears to be flowing, Canton officials need to settle on a site.
“Over the course of last several years, we knew negotiating with Pactiv was not an option and we have been looking far and wide for a site,” Smathers told The Smoky Mountain News March 17. “I feel confident we are finalizing that issue and hopefully making some public announcements soon. We’ve looked at many sites, options and costs and I think we’ll have forthcoming news.”
Smathers said that only some of the WRDA money would be used for the new wastewater treatment plant and the rest would come from a 2023 state appropriation shepherded by Haywood Rep. Mark Pless and Sen. Kevin Corbin.
“We’ll be drawing on the funds from Raleigh, as well as some the funds from Washington,” Smathers said.
Cabe began serving as interim county manager on Nov. 1 after the departure of long-time county manager Derek Roland. After more than a decade of leadership in the county, Roland had announced his resignation in September, and he
“It’s been a great experience the last several months working with Mr. Cabe,” said Commissioner John Shearl. “I think there are a lot of great things coming for the betterment of the entire county.”
“Thank you for your leadership,” said Commissioner Barry Breeden. “Being a new member, it’s definitely not overlooked, it’s much appreciated.”
The projects are expected not only to elevate the quality of service for residents but also to ensure a reliable supply of water to the mill site, which is currently undergoing demolition and redevelopment by new owner Eric Spirtas. Detailed plans for development haven’t been issued, but the site is expected to feature a number of different uses.
“Everyone is excited to talk about what is next in economic development at the mill site but before we do that, it is paramount we get out house in order — especially our infrastructure,” said Smathers. “It’s always good to talk about dessert, but we have to get to the meat and potatoes first.”
Rep. Chuck Edwards (right) speaks in Sorrells Street Park Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers looks on from behind. Cory Vaillancourt photo
File photo
A Christian author with a long list of abandoned business deals and unpaid creditors finds a new home for his work in Macon County. He says it’s a chance for redemption. Others aren’t so sure.
BY KYLE PERROTTI
N EWS E DITOR
Most novelists dedicate their books to loved ones, sources of inspiration or the memory of someone who has passed away. Cliff Graham dedicated his 2024 book, “The Boundary of Blood,” to “every man that has ever been broken.” The dedication might be self-referential. By age 30, Graham was seizing his dreams. His first novel, initially self-published, had become an instant success in the Christian literary world, and there were talks about a movie adaptation.
Graham, now 43, gained acclaim as a writer, but his greatest talent might be his ability to sell an idea — and there came a point where Graham was doing more of that than writing. Over the years, the author attracted dozens of investors into his creative and entrepreneurial endeavors, most of which were eventually driven into the ground. Within a few years, the series of failed ventures led to a mound of debt and angry creditors, and according to the 12 people The Smoky Mountain News spoke with, he still owes money to dozens, if not hundreds, of individuals and organizations.
On a Facebook page created by and for people Graham owes money, dozens vent and post updates on their situations. They say they are owed anywhere from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of dollars. One woman was awarded a $99,000 judgment. Some say they have reached out to local authorities and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to pursue charges of fraud and writing bad checks. A spokesperson from the FBI said that, in line with Justice Department policy, she couldn’t say whether agents ever investigated Graham or even whether they’d received formal complaints. Graham admits that he’s made mistakes and that he has spent a decade telling people that repayment is just around the corner.
Graham said in an email he feels many people — either through lack of understanding or pure malice — have exaggerated some of his previous wrongdoings.
“With all of that being said, there is no way around the truth that I was a fool and an idiot,” he wrote. “I hurt people who trusted me, I ignored wise counsel, I misled people constantly as to how things were going, and created one disaster after another in the pursuit of my calling and the management of my business.”
One might think Graham’s reputation would kill any future opportunities, but he recently found a new venue for his written work in Macon County, with Kavod Family Ministries, a Franklin-based religious nonprofit. They have worked out an arrangement to reissue his old works and publish new projects.
“They have taken me in when no one else would,” Graham said via email.
Many of Graham’s creditors have abandoned any hope they’ll be made whole. Others believe more restitution will come. Graham believes his new partnership in Macon County is the beginning of a great redemption arc, a chance for a broken man to repair the damage he’s caused.
DAY OF WAR
Graham began writing his first novel on nights and weekends when pursuing a master’s in religious studies. He earned a political science degree from Black Hills State University in 2006, after which he enlisted in the National Guard out of South Dakota and joined a military police unit. Although the unit was activated, Graham never deployed overseas, something people close to him said is still a source of disappointment to him.
A few years later, while in graduate school, Graham lived in San Antonio near his parents and worked at a church led by his uncle. He said he eventually gained his commission and served in the National Guard’s Chaplain Corps, but still never served overseas.
Around the time Graham became more serious about his writing, the movie “300” came out and through its telling of the Battle of Thermopylae revolutionized the action genre by stylizing the film like a graphic novel. He believed there was a market for such a sensational rendering of Old Testament stories, in both film and books. He was particularly interested in the exploits of King David and his small but elite band of “mighty warriors” referenced in 2 Samuel 23. The stories became the inspiration for the “Lion of War Series,” which Graham envisioned as five novels that would portray biblical battles of David’s army in gory detail.
“I got into writing because I had a passion for storytelling, and I believed that modern men had been misinformed about what was in the Bible,” Graham said in an email. “They thought it was just Jesus petting lambs, and I wanted to show them stories like the wars of King David.” Graham’s work depicts tremendously violent and intense tales of brave men fighting against tough odds. While the stories are based on scripture, he typically stretches one small verse or set of verses into vivid narratives with plenty of sprays, spurts and splatters of blood. In Graham’s first book, “Day of War,” the first two chapters are based on one verse that says one of David’s commanders, Benaiah, had once killed a lion in a pit on a snowy day.
Graham initially self-published “Day of War” on a limited print run in 2009. Through a connection with a student in a youth group Graham led, David F
Illustration by Jack Snyder
Cunningham, a film director and producer based out of Hawaii, contacted him about the film rights, with visions of producing a violent epic of biblical proportions. Cunningham did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The books quickly caught on with Christian audiences, mostly men looking for more action than could be found sitting on a hard pew listening to a sermon. Graham’s work has an impressive 4.42/5 average rating on goodreads.com; “Song of War,” the third book in the series, has a 4.54.
In 2012, Graham formed Five Stones Media LLC in Utah through which he courted investors for a “Day of War” film. According to a prospectus sent to potential investors, Five Stones’ vision was to “create high quality, aggressive and thought-provoking entertainment content that affects popular culture for Christ, bringing God’s Word into the light of mainstream media, and establishing the Bible as the cutting edge of today’s popular consumption marketplace.”
In June 2011, the book “Day of War” was released commercially after Zondervan, the Christian publishing arm of HarperCollins, bought the rights, largely intrigued by the potential film project that already seemed to have momentum, according to the prospectus. According to the prospectus, the novel reached the Amazon bestseller list on multiple occasions and was No. 1 in the religious fiction category, selling an estimated 90,000 copies its first year. However, the prospectus says the traditional model of publishing rarely enabled novels to become “massive hits,” so more money was needed to achieve Graham’s entrepreneurial vision. Graham “intends to capitalize on his growing recognition as the pioneering author of the bare-knuckle brawling Bible story,” the prospectus reads.
The initial prospectus sought $3 million in investments, but Graham said that amount grew to $5 million in a later version of the document. The minimum a person could contribute was $10,000. The prospectus promised investors they would recoup their initial investment, plus 25%, upon the publication and sale of future projects, including books and movies. Furthermore, the prospectus stated that investors would receive 0.1% of all profits per $10,000 invested.
The prospectus estimated that by January 2018, Five Stones would turn a profit of $17 million–for a return of over $25,000 on each $10,000.
Graham said Five Stones never raised the $5 million. Some investors said they got all their money back. Others say they got some but never saw the promised returns.
Many investors were Graham’s close friends and family. Three Five Stones investors who spoke with SMN each said they put at least $50,000 into his company. It isn’t known publicly, and Graham wouldn’t disclose how many investors he worked with or how much he ultimately raised.
One investor filed suit: Margo Milianta, the mother of one of Graham’s former close friends. The March 2019 settlement asserts
that Milianta initially gave Graham $130,000. He paid back some but still owed her almost $100,000. Graham ultimately defaulted on that agreement and has since been subject to wage garnishment.
Others on the Facebook group have discussed suing Graham, perhaps even under a class action lawsuit. Others have mentioned criminal charges but say they have been dismayed by investigators’ disinterest.
“FBI … super rude ... I called and they have no information about Cliff! The women I spoke with said it could take years before they get any information,” one woman posted on March 30, 2024, along with a number to call. “Keep calling and bug them until we see something happen.”
G RAHAM ’ S S IDE Q UESTS
Throughout his life, Graham has been drawn to alpha male types who’ve proven their mettle in one way or another. Those types have also been drawn to his work.
Among them was Tim Ballard, founder of the anti-human trafficking organization Operation Underground Railroad. Prior to his resignation in June 2023, Ballard was a sort of folk hero in conservative circles for rescuing children from criminal organiza-
retreat in Adair, Oklahoma, Graham talked about the dark world he’d encountered participating in Operation Underground Railroad operations.
“I once sat across the table from a guy in Colombia — I was posing as a buyer, as a client — and he pulled out his iPhone and was scrolling through pictures of little girls,” Graham told the crowd, “and it was like he was showing you a car to sell. It’s like ‘OK, she’s 9, a virgin; $1,000.’”
Two people who worked with Graham on operations in Latin America, speaking on the condition of anonymity because either they are still close to Graham or they are still taking part in missions, said that while Graham did observe or have a role in some operations with other entities, they never saw him participate in an operation with OUR. Graham said his time working with OUR was brief.
“Part of what causes so much confusion among people who were affected by those days is the fact that I was never working directly for any of the organizations like OUR,” Graham said. “I had formed my own team and operation early on, and it worked in tandem with other groups on specific operations. That team was called Gibborim.”
expecting to take part in a mission. According to several people present for that meeting, Graham didn’t admit to taking any donations and flew home the next morning.
“It was eight to 10 guys sitting around a conference table in a hotel office, and they were like, ‘look, we’re not asking if you did it; we know you did it,’” said one man who was in the room.
“In regards to this work, there are mistakes I will admit, but there are also accusations which are false,” Graham said. “Either the mists of time have caused a lack of clarity, or someone with malicious intent is distorting the record on this.”
However, he did say he regretted ignoring the opportunity for accountability at the 2016 meeting.
“Realizing that I had no way of even beginning to defend myself, and that what I was doing was indefensible, I made the choice to not defend my actions in any way,” he said.
In response to questions, Graham neither admitted nor denied taking donations but said that what he considered “indefensible” was how poorly he managed the whole effort, believing his entrepreneurial spirit outstripped his abilities. He did say
tions — although the stories of those missions were later found to be exaggerated — and featured in the film “Sound of Freedom.”
Through his burgeoning friendship with Ballard, Graham joined anti-human trafficking circles and even claimed to take part in several missions; however, his biggest role was raising the money Operation Underground Railroad needed to fund operations. At the 2016 Cavetime USA Conference, a three-day Christian men’s
Those people allege Graham was also pocketing portions of donations that were meant to go toward operations and resources for victims, donations that initially went directly to him with little initial oversight. The two sources said that in 2015, a North Carolina donor contributed $50,000 for victims of human trafficking, but only about half of that money made it to its intended destination.
In 2016, several donors confronted Graham in Costa Rica when he flew there
there is confusion among some because he was “not trying to operate or run an actual human trafficking organization” but was instead “trying to get others involved” and “generate an overall movement.” In addition, he said he thought a “financial partner,” whom he left unnamed, was about to purchase Five Stones, which would have covered “every single expense and commitment.”
Cliff Graham (left) and Cody Bobay during an episode of the Gibborim. From YouTube
“It was sincere and well-meaning, and it was also horrifically managed and executed,” he said.
Graham said that, aside from the fact that he now considers the kind of work he attempted in Latin America “far outside” his calling, it distracted him from obligations he had to pay back people who’d invested in Five Stones.
“To be very clear: Of all the things I ever got involved in in my life, this is the area I regret the most,” Graham said of his time spent in the anti-human trafficking world.
In 2017, Graham launched a training program at a family-owned ranch in Texas, where once a month he offered men a chance to spend a weekend learning the basics of tactical operations, security and first aid. He contracted men with experience in these areas to lead the courses and promised participants they’d have a chance to observe and perhaps even participate in anti-human trafficking sting and rescue operations. According to two sources, one of whom participated in the program and one who worked as an instructor, Graham charged different people different prices for the same training, although they didn’t know what that price range was.
But the program soon unraveled. While airfare was supposed to be included, Graham began telling people he’d reimburse them for it and then failed to do so. Classes that were booked were later canceled without any refund. Some say they were sent refund checks that bounced. A number of people have shared their stories on the Facebook page.
Graham admitted that there are still people he owes refunds but said that most participants liked the courses, and he initially considered them well-run. But like with the Latin American operations, he said many of the problems stem from the fact that he expected a large sum of money to come his way from the sale of Five Stones.
Doug Kramer, who lives in Canada, said he booked a trip to Texas for one of the sessions in 2017. Kramer had read Graham’s books and decided to search online to see what he was up to. Kramer said he was excited to have the chance to serve in a way that’s “beyond a mission trip where we build houses.”
Graham said he initially had the idea to offer “Good Battle” tours at a reduced price to people willing to help promote his books.
“I viewed it as a marketing effort, as well as a good chance to do research for my creative projects,” Graham said in the email. “Like most things I touched, it was created out of good intentions, and I managed to utterly ruin it.”
Graham said he took several dozen trips over multiple years up to 2020, sometimes as often as once a month with groups of up to 100 people.
According to people interviewed for this story and posts on the Facebook group, some Israel trips were canceled without a refund. Others said they flew to Israel to find that Graham wasn’t there, and they didn’t have accommodations. But those who did make the journey with him seemed to agree it was worth the money.
Joshua Garcia said he paid $2,000 to cover airfare, lodging, meals, and tours. Close to the departure date, Graham reached out and said there were unforeseen issues and asked if Garcia would pay for his own airfare directly, under the promise he would be reimbursed once he touched down in Israel. Purchasing round-trip airfare on such short notice cost about $4,000. Still, Garcia said it was the “trip of a lifetime,” and Graham “seemed like a good guy, and he was very knowledgeable about the Bible.”
that is absolutely beyond the pale.”
Graham acknowledged that neither Garcia nor Herron were repaid but said they booked their trips at a particularly difficult time.
“It was during the overall mental, physical and spiritual collapse I began to have, and I simply couldn’t communicate with everyone,” he said. “I don’t dispute the details of what they are saying.”
HOLD THE PASS
Cody Bobay was an aspiring actor from Texas when he reached out to Graham in 2015 to express his admiration. The following year, Bobay went on Graham’s first Good Battle Israel trip. The two men stayed close over the next couple of years, and around 2018 Bobay reached out about working together to, as Graham said, “bring Bible stories to life on film.”
Graham was intrigued, but they’d need a company to get it off the ground. At that point, Five Stones existed basically just as a vehicle to pay back creditors. So Bobay became the sole owner and manager of a new company, Gibborim Studios, with Graham working as a contractor. Graham said that from the get-go, Bobay took heat for working with someone who’d already burned so many bridges, hearing warning after warning about working with someone who’d scorned so many past associates. Bobay declined an interview request.
But Garcia never got the reimbursement. The check Graham gave him on the last day of the trip bounced.
“He was a guy with a vision, he had some of the background, it seemed, to pull it off,” Kramer said. “I had some good confidence that it was going to happen. He was sincere; he was good to talk to. Everything seemed like it’d go off quite well.”
Graham informed Kramer that the class was canceled, and while Kramer wouldn’t disclose how much he paid, he said he didn’t get his money back.
While many in the Facebook group can’t find a good word to say about their common debtor, Kramer often encourages mercy and patience. While he is still upset, Kramer believes Graham deserves grace. He posed the philosophical question: What is his path to redemption, and is that path harder to travel if more stones are slung?
“If you’re a believer and you have any kind of honesty with yourself, there’s lots of things we should be held accountable for,” Kramer said, “and yet Jesus has provided a path to wholeness and redemption.”
Another Graham venture offered all-inclusive trips to Israel, where he would lead guided tours of the ancient battlefields he’d studied so deeply while writing his novels.
“He apologized and mailed another check, and that check bounced, too,” Garcia said. Garcia reached out, and Graham said he’d make it right. That’s the last time Garcia heard from him.
In an email, Graham said poor management led to bounced checks.
“I had (foolishly) started using a merchant cash advance company to help pay the bills, and they had the ability to make withdrawals from the Five Stones account at will and without my approval for their own repayment,” Graham said. “When they did that, it would deplete the account and cause checks to bounce.”
Jonathan Herron, founding pastor of the Life Church in Saginaw, Michigan, was attracted by an ad he saw in 2017 offering a trip to Israel with a “ridiculously low” price. His church paid an up-front fee to secure spots for several participants, while Herron communicated with Graham via email about logistics. But then one day, the emails just stopped. The trip never happened, and the deposit was never returned.
“It’s wicked,” Herron said. “The Bible is pretty clear about that. Especially if you’re defrauding a local church,
“He was willing to step in and take arrows on my behalf. Because he was publicly associating with me, he was accused of ‘being in on it’ by people who were angry with me, even though Five Stones occurred long before he and I joined up for the Gibborim Studios vision,” Graham said in an email.
The two became close; Bobay and his wife even lived with Graham and his family in their Ogden, Utah, home for a time. They also launched a mobile app to provide updates on both their first film and the promised repayment of Graham’s debts, raising funds by charging a $10 monthly subscription fee.
Graham often asked donors to continue sending “ammo for the fight.”
In one video, Graham lamented his past mistakes, saying that lessons learned would be applied at Gibborim to ensure donors and stakeholders wouldn’t see a repeat performance.
“I made many mistakes,” Graham said in the video. “What I wanted to do was stay in the arena and keep fighting and keep things moving forward.”
This mea culpa led to an explanation of the team’s oftrepeated ethos: “There needs to be stories of the redemption of broken men,” Bobay said in the video.
The duo ended up making one short film, which can still be found on Amazon’s streaming service: Hold the Pass, a stylized portrayal of a Biblical account in which a man named Shamgar killed 600 Philistines with an oxgoad, a farming implement with a pointed tip used to prod livestock, a brave act that according to the Bible verse saved Israel. Bobay stars as Shamgar.
After promising for years that a feature film would come from Gibborim, Bobay and Graham parted ways in 2023. Graham said they agreed to part ways “in love and mutual respect.” Bobay, he said, needed to be free to pursue his own endeavors unencumbered by Graham’s past.
Cliff Graham (right) and Kavod board member Travis Shook during a podcast recording. From YouTube
THE LIFELINE
Despite his business woes, Graham continued to live an opulent lifestyle. In 2011, he bought a home in Ogden, Utah, for about $900,000. The house, which offers sweeping views of distant mountains, is almost 7,000 square feet, with six bedrooms and five bathrooms. Weber County property records indicate that Graham was delinquent on property taxes most years he owned the home and in 2016 wrote a check for almost $3,000 that was returned.
After Milianta’s lawsuit, Graham sold the house in 2019 for $1.2 million. He has since been living in a fifth-wheel camper with his family, mostly in the Laramie, Wyoming, area.
Over the years, Graham has promised in individual communications, email blasts, and videos that he would make everyone whole again. According to court documents, interviews, and posts on the Facebook page, in some cases people said they’ve received individual payments ranging from less than $50 to thousands, but those payments have been sporadic at best.
In a video posted late last year shot in the cab of a pickup truck in front of the fifthwheel, Graham admitted that the road had been tough. While he’d published the first three novels in his planned five-book “Lion of War” series, the last two installments remained unwritten.
Kavod, which was founded in March 2022 as a 501(c)3, said in a statement that its purpose is “strengthening families through biblical resources and Christian outlets.” It focuses largely on providing opportunities and outlets for youths in the Franklin area, and on bringing more men into the fold.
“We recognize that husbands and fathers have the most significant impact on the stability of families over time,” they wrote.
According to its 2023 IRS form, Kavod brought in $611,467 in revenue and had a net income of just over $350,000, with most of that coming from donations. Kavod also runs Macon Sense, a newspaper out of Franklin that prints every two weeks. While its news coverage is relatively straightforward, its opinion section skews conservative and often offers Christian perspectives.
Kavod has also gained prominence and power in the community as its board members, most committed volunteers and allies have joined numerous public and nonprofit boards. Antoine is also a first-term Macon County commissioner, and Robbie Tompa, who is closely associated with Kavod, is a Franklin town councilmember.
In its email, the Kavod board said Graham has been candid about his failures with Five Stones. They also said they’d had numerous calls with previous investors, friends and others who’d worked with Graham in the past.
“I, in general, wasn’t writing at all,” he said. “And we tried a lot of different things … a lot of you are here from the Gibborim days, and we tried our best with that, but it just felt like we were kind of constantly being thwarted. And so it was discouraging in the extreme.”
Graham said he just fell further and further behind, eventually hitting his “rock bottom,” as he put it in one podcast.
But in fall 2023, Kavod Family Ministries board members Travis Shook and Casey Wilson both reached out to Graham to ask what he was up to, curious whether they’d ever get to read the final two books of his series. As their conversations developed, they started talking about republishing the novels that many associated with Kavod so admired.
Late last year, Shook, Wilson and fellow Kavod board member Danny Antoine introduced Graham in a YouTube video. Wilson described Graham as a “really good friend” who he never thought would cross their path.
“God threw us one we did not see coming,” Wilson said, noting how Graham’s “violent men’s stories from a Biblical perspective” had influenced him.
While Graham and his family spent a good deal of time in Western North Carolina in early 2024, he has said he doesn’t intend to relocate here. After serious discussion among the board members following Graham’s visit, the partnership was unanimously approved.
“By even associating with me, they have proven willing to take arrows that are unjustified and deeply unfair to them and their reputation,” Graham said in his email.
Graham and Kavod came to the agreement that they’d reissue Graham’s previously published work, albeit with some changes Graham said will reflect his current abilities as a “better writer.” They also plan to eventually release books four and five of the Lion of War Series.
The initial agreement was that Graham would begin work on new books that weren’t subject to entanglements with any investors while they figured out the rights to the first two books of the “Lion of War Series.” Kavod is already selling copies of a “War Prayers” devotional and a novel, “The Boundary of Blood,” which depicts the story of Shamgar.
Ultimately, Graham and Kavod hope this first step is part of a longer journey toward redemption. The Kavod board said that after thorough examination, the members believe that a “healthy process of repentance and restoration” has occurred in Graham’s life over the past decade. The nonprofit’s leadership believes God brought Kavod into Graham’s life when he needed others to rally around him, and that’s what they intend to do.
tures. In their email, the Kavod board noted that the nonprofit has the option to designate royalties to Graham’s creditors.
“We are seeking legal counsel on how this might look in the future,” the board said in the email.
“The terms of our agreement with Cliff Graham and the structure of our nonprofit do not allow for the previous mismanagement of funds and overcommitments to take place,” Kavod wrote.
Graham is still subject to wage garnishment in the Milianta suit. Milianta’s daughter, Bree Duran, said they were informed last year that Graham had stopped working for BNSF Railway in September 2023, the same month he came into contact with Kavod.
“There comes a point in a man’s failure — after the offense has taken place, after he acknowledges his failures, after apologies have been made and after unhealthy habits have been addressed — he must be allowed to stand and live again,” the email states. “We believe that time is now for Cliff.”
SNOW REPORT
Last May, Kavod secured the rights to the first two books of the “Lion of War Series” from Zondervan. The rights for books three through five were purchased over a decade ago by a group of 14 investors led by Mitch Wheeler, a 67-yearold Kansas City sports marketing professional.
Wheeler said he first met Graham in 2010 and was instantly drawn to his writing and the potential it had to bring more people to scripture. While he declined to give details on their arrangement, Wheeler said his group is looking forward to seeing Kavod act as publisher for the three remaining novels.
“I love him like a son, which I’ve got two of already,” Wheeler said. Wheeler said he believes Kavod’s board is “providing guardrails” to hold Graham accountable. “I hope this is like the prodigal son where you think all is lost but it’s not.”
Both Wheeler and the Kavod board said they believe that deadlines and accountability, along with positive encouragement, can go a long way.
“Additionally, we believe, morally, in the need to ensure that he continues working toward restoration, and we have the personal place in his life to ensure that he does not get sidetracked in that journey,” wrote Kavod’s board.
Some of Graham’s other creditors remain concerned that he could be paid under the table to avoid wage garnishment if they ever pursued their own legal action against him. Graham admitted that he’d heard that concern but said he was offended by the insinuation–not necessarily as it relates to him, but as it relates to his new partners.
“I believe that such an accusation would be an insult to the integrity of the Kavod organization willing to step in and help me finish these projects, and I reject that outright,” he said. While the Kavod board outlined what it said was the general arrangement with Graham, it did not address that specific concern.
In a Kavod podcast last year, Graham explained the dedication of his latest book.
“This is my love letter to my fellow broken men out there,” Graham said, adding that one of the most effective strategies of the “enemy” is to throw a person’s past back at them to say they can never find redemption. Graham gave a specific example.
“There’s nothing that can cripple you like a debt can,” he said in the podcast. “If you’re just in the hole to a lot of people or something big, they can do things to you and damage you and own you the rest of your life.”
Graham said he is working on a memoir he began a while back but has struggled to finish. Kavod will publish “Five Stones,” a book meant for three audiences: people affected by his “failures,” so they can have the full story; his children, so they can have a cautionary tale; and readers of his novels who are interested in the stories behind the books.
Although he admitted that his past story is one of “foolishness and pride,” Graham still swears it is not one of “villainy.”
Graham is not an employee of Kavod and according to Kavod’s board will not receive any money; profits, perhaps minus royalties, from his books under this venture will go directly to the nonprofit’s ministries, they said.
Email blasts sent out by Graham over the last year state that royalties from any books sold will go toward paying back people left high and dry from his previous ven-
“To the God of grace, to the people I harmed, and to the many people who are fighting for my redemption story, I owe my absolute best effort,” Graham wrote, “and I believe we will see victory.”
This story was also published in The Assembly, available online at theassemblync.com.
Founded in 2021, The Assembly is a digital magazine featuring deeply reported, nuanced stories about the people, institutions and ideas that shape North Carolina.
File photo
Chuck Edwards’ longest day
Asheville congressman faces fierce opposition at town hall
B P
ing. Demonstrators waving signs and banging rhythmically on locked glass doors, their chants pulsed through the cool evening air.
Western North Carolina Republican Congressman Chuck Edwards was holding a press conference after an uproarious town hall in the heart of the beast — liberal Asheville, a bastion of progressivism awash in a sea of deeply conservative voters.
Edwards said over the din as security guards looked out warily from inside, audibly concerned with a possible breach. “I appreciated the energy that I heard from the folks here, even though they might disagree with me, even though they might disagree with President Trump.”
round 1 p.m. on March 13, Edwards joined Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers, along with Canton’s governing board and several county officials, at an outdoor event in Sorrells Street Park. Police vehicles, lights flashing, had blocked off a lane of Park Street in anticipation of protestors akin to those who had been taking their anger out on federal officials at public events for weeks. No protestors showed up
Edwards had just concluded remarks on a forthcoming $41 million appropriation meant to bolster Canton’s ailing water system and allow the town to construct its own waste-
“How many times do we get $41 million coming to Haywood County for anything, for the long-term health and safety of our local residents?” Edwards said. The money, he noted, came from the Water Resources Act of 2024, signed into law by President Joe Biden on Jan. 4.
As the event concluded, a man later identified as Nate Roberto shouted a question at Edwards from about 20 feet
“Congressman, thank you so much for bringing home these dollars but if you cut Medicaid and you knock 40% of our kids off Medicaid and you don’t bring dollars home to these schools, the county schools [will] have a shortfall,”
police escort Haywood County man Nate
away from an event on March 13 as Canton’s governing board (bottom right) watches Republican Congressman Chuck Edwards (far right, facing away) leave under police guard.
Apparently startled by the question and attempting to regain control, Edwards talked over Roberto.
“I appreciate all of you being here. Let’s go find the ice cream truck now,” he said. He turned from the podium and
Roberto continued questioning Edwards while moving toward the podium slowly, saying “If you can’t hold yourself responsible, then we’re going to come at you.” Canton Police Chief Scott Sluder, along with another officer, grabbed Roberto and led him away from the event.
Recent discussions by Republicans on cuts to federal services, including Medicaid, have alarmed some — not only in Edwards’ 11th Congressional District but across the coun-
went 88% for Harris.
But for the two-term congressman, there’s probably only one number that really matters in the gerrymandered congressional district he helped draw while in the state Senate — his 57% support in the last General Election.
As Edwards was escorted from the podium by other Canton police officers, The Smoky Mountain News attempted to ask Edwards if he had taken any steps to prevent billionaire Elon Musk from closing another federal facility in Macon County. On March 3, The Smoky Mountain News first to report that the Social Security Administration office in Franklin appears on a list of federal facilities slated for closing by Musk’s DOGE. Other media outlets have since reported that the facility won’t close; however, as of March 18 it remains on Musk’s list.
The closing is expected to save just over $1 million against a $6.8 trillion federal budget, but it’s also expected to S EE E DWARDS, PAGE 12
Western North Carolina Congressman Chuck Edwards addresses a hostile crowd at his town hall in the Ferguson Auditorium at Asheville Buncombe Technical Community College on March 13. Jack Snyder photo
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Roberto (left)
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result in a 95-mile one way trip to the Asheville office for residents of the far west who have problems with Social Security that can’t be resolved online or on the phone.
Last month, Musk falsely claimed that millions of dead people, some centuries old, have been receiving improper payments. President Donald Trump echoed Musk’s false claims during a speech on March 4, even after the claims had already been debunked. A 2024 report issued by the SSA’s Inspector General noted that from 2015 to 2022, less than 1% of the administration’s payments (0.84%) were improper; most were overpayments, not payments going to the deceased or others who weren’t entitled to receive them.
In recent days, Musk has called Social Security “a Ponzi scheme,” dehumanized recipients of federal benefits by calling them “the parasite class” and floated the idea of cutting in-person staff at the Social Security Administration, making the resolution of issues even more difficult.
During his successful 2022 congressional bid, Edwards told The Smoky Mountain News that “there is absolutely no interest from Republicans to cut Medicare or Social Security.” Edwards’ comments came just weeks after Rep. Kevin McCarthy and Sen. Ron Johnson, both Republicans, refused to quash rumors about potential cuts. A year later, Edwards remained silent about protecting seniors and veterans, refusing to meet with a group asking him to sign a pledge protecting Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and veterans benefits.
Edwards did not acknowledge SMN’s question about the Franklin Social Security office and left the event with members of his staff.
Later, Roberto — a registered independent in Haywood County who ran for school board last year — told SMN that even though Edwards didn’t answer his question, Edwards’ silence spoke volumes.
“He’s already made it clear he’s banking on the fact that nobody’s going to come out and fight him on this,” said Roberto, who wasn’t taken into custody and left the scene without further incident. “And this was the perfect opportunity to do that.”
Four hours later and 20 miles away, a long line had already formed outside Asheville Buncombe Technical Community College’s Ferguson Auditorium. More than 450 people, many of whom were eager to share their stories, were waiting to claim one of 360 seats.
“We are really, really concerned about just the array of things that are happening and just the chaos that is going on, but it’s hard to pinpoint one thing that is the standalone,” said Janice Habash, who with her husband Eric Augustine had traveled from Haywood County to the town hall. “Certainly, just the fact that there is so much chaos is very concerning, but everything from foreign policy to domestic policy and firing of federal workers — they’re all concerning, especially the impact on Western North Carolina and threats to Medicaid, when so many kids in this region depend on it.”
County and as far east as McDowell County, on the edge of Edwards’ district.
“I don’t know if he’s been to McDowell ever, so I thought, this is within an hour’s drive, so we should come in and hear what he has to say,” said Paula McLean, who was with her husband Kevin.
“I guess my issue is we have a convicted felon, of rape and molestation, as president of the United States,” Kevin said. “I find that to be morally just terrible, and to think that so many people in this country voted for somebody who’s morally corrupt is disturbing.”
Paula mentioned cuts to the U.S. Forest Service. Rugged, rural Western North Carolina holds a certain respect for the outsized effect federal workers have on the tourism-based economy.
“We’ve had five fires in McDowell County in the last six weeks. They’ve burned for days,” she said. “If they don’t keep training people to fight those fires, if they don’t have the firefighters available, what happens?”
As the time grew near and the end of the line grew far, more and more signs emerged, both clever and crude.
Pro-America, anti-Trump. Drug test Trump. Elect a clown, get a circus.
Notably, there didn’t appear to be a single Trump or Edwards supporter in line — or if there was, they were reluctant to advertise.
Those allowed into the venue were searched with metal detectors. Bags were checked. Signs were prohibited, as were people who didn’t reside in the district — attendees had to sign in by name, with a phone number and zip code, according to reporting by NC News Digest.
Shortly before 6 p.m., as the venue filled, there were about 2,000 people still outside, and they weren’t leaving.
ACCESSIBILITY AND HELENE RESPONSE
Edwards framed himself as accessible and transparent, saying, “One of the things that I’m most proud of in my privilege to serve you is my accessibility to the public.”
Edwards refused to debate his 2024 opponent, Democrat Caleb Rudow, and has refused to speak to The Smoky Mountain News since he was first elected in 2022. He mentioned the fact that party leaders had told people like Edwards not to hold town halls anymore, and seemed quite pleased with himself for ignoring the warning.
“You’ve seen a lot of advice in Washington, D.C., from different folks saying Republicans shouldn’t be out there doing town halls, and I’m thinking, ‘Why not? I love the people in Western North Carolina. I trust the people in Western North Carolina.’ Do I agree with everything? Do they agree with me about everything? Absolutely not,” he said. “But why do we shy away from those conversations as long as we can do that civilly? I appreciate the opportunity to hear opinions, even if they differ from mine.”
Giving a rundown of his office’s response to Hurricane Helene, Edwards was drowned out by shouts. As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, he has claimed he was the sole author of the $110 billion relief bill that passed Congress in late December, but his failure to procure anywhere near the $60 billion North Carolina needs, or the $25 billion then-Gov. Roy Cooper asked for, leaves the state in a tough spot. It’s estimated the state will only receive between $9 and $15 billion.
SNEERS AND JEERS
Asked by a constituent what he plans to do to make sure North Carolina is not overtaken by dictatorship and fascism, Edwards scoffed at the premise.
“Sounds like there’s a little bit of bias in that question,” he said. His answer — an ambiguous defense of Trump’s presidency — elicited a mix of boos and laughter.
Habash and Augustine were unique in that the majority of people in line had come from Buncombe County. Henderson County, where Edwards lives, was well represented. Others had come from Madison
“To be quite honest with you, we have a Constitution. I work to uphold that Constitution. I’m assuming that many of you might have some disagreement with what you see taking place in the White House right now but I think we also have to realize that what we see President Trump doing is exactly what President Trump said he was going to do if he was elected,” Edwards said. “And President Trump was elected by the lion’s share of the American people.”
That claim was met with pushback, as Trump never F
Signs weren’t permitted inside Rep. Chuck Edwards’ town hall, but outside, they were on full display. Jack Snyder photo
topped 50% of the vote. The lion’s share of the American people, all 340 million of them, didn’t vote for Trump or for Harris — they didn’t vote at all.
VETERANS, SOCIAL SECURITY AND THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT
One of the most combative moments of the town hall came nearly 30 minutes into the event, when a man seated near the front hurled expletives at Edwards, drawing the attention of several sheriff’s deputies and an AB Tech campus police officer.
“I’m a veteran, you don’t give a fuck about me; you don’t get to take away our rights; you don’t get to do this to us,” he exclaimed.
Edwards made a dismissive gesture as the man, Jay Carey, was ushered out, continuing to shout and at one point appearing to forearm-check a deputy.
Carey is a retired, disabled Army veteran with a Bronze Star who unsuccessfully ran for office as a Democrat twice in 2022. He finished third in the 11th Congressional District Democratic Primary Election that May but three months later was appointed to run for Edwards’ empty state Senate district seat after the previous Democratic candidate withdrew.
offering up one of his biggest falsehoods of the night.
On Feb. 24, the VA announced more than 1,400 employees had been dismissed. Federal judges recently demanded the workers be reinstated temporarily. They remain in limbo. A March 4 memo from the VA details plans to fire 80,000 come August.
Similar cuts proposed by Musk for Social Security prompted another constituent to ask Edwards what he was doing to ensure the protection of the agency.
“I’m not going to vote to dissolve your Social Security,” he said. “I’m not looking to disrupt Social Security at all.”
Yet when pressed on whether he’d support lifting the $176,100 income cap on Social Security taxes, Edwards engaged in one of his most painful dodges of the night.
“We’re committed to not touching the benefits of anyone that is already in the program and reaping the promises that they have been made,” Edwards said as the crowd grew more agitated. “The reality is we have to look at every possibility so that we can continue to keep those promises.”
He continued to struggle when asked about Elon Musk’s reported access to Treasury Department data.
“If the name of the person that was running the agency was anything more than
The next day, Carey issued a press release accusing Edwards of silencing him. Carey revealed that his family had lost everything to Helene and that he was concerned about his benefits, mental health resources for veterans and job cuts at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
“President Trump is a five-time repeated draft dodger who claims to be a patriot, and Congressman Chuck Edwards is a coward for backing Trump instead of the hardworking constituents he was elected to serve,” Carey said in the release. Reached by John Boyle of the Asheville Watchdog later that day, Carey told Boyle the outburst was “necessary.”
About 10 minutes after Carey’s departure — the second time in less than six hours that law enforcement had to step in to protect Edwards from his own constituents — another constituent asked him to justify cuts to staff at the VA.
“First of all, there have been no cuts to the staff at VA at this point,” Edwards said in
you’re concerned with. I met with probably a dozen different media outlets and told them why I was going to be here with you here today. I am here with you today,” he said, as the audience lambasted him for falling short.
Edwards faced even louder opposition when defending his position on abolishing the Department of Education.
“Let’s drop back and realize that the Department of Education is not mentioned in our U.S. Constitution,” he argued. Boos and shouts filled the room. No administrative departments or agencies, not even DOGE, are established in the Constitution.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
One constituent asked, “Do you support the annexation of Canada and Greenland?” — an absurd question months ago, now suddenly serious and topical. The room burst into laughter, and Edwards seemed caught off guard.
“The short answer to that is, no, I do not,” he said, adding he would support a deal where the U.S. extracted minerals from Ukraine in exchange for aid. The audience’s reaction was swift — more shouting and laughter drowned out his attempt to justify the position.
Asked about Ukrainian refugees in North Carolina who are now at risk of deportation, Edwards was noncommittal, saying only that he’d study the issue. When later asked, “Why do you support a president that cares nothing about NATO,
Ukraine and democracy, but cares about Putin and other dictators?” Edwards again pivoted to a vague defense of Trump that triggered loud groans and more laughter from the audience.
“I believe the President is very supportive of Ukraine,” Edwards said. “I believe the President recognizes that Putin is a murderous dictator. I believe that we see the author of ‘The Art of the Deal’ working his magic.”
At the event’s conclusion, unanswered life-or-death questions handled with vague and deflective statements from the multi-millionaire McDonald’s magnate still ringing through the auditorium, Edwards said he thought it had been “fun.”
His staff quickly set up a podium in the lobby for a press conference. Camera crews surrounded him, and softballs began to fly as law enforcement covered the doors, hoping to avoid a third intervention on this, Chuck Edwards’ longest day.
“I take away from much of what I heard today that we’re doing exactly what the American people sent us to Washington, D.C., to do,” he said — an incongruous lyric set to the percussive pounding and synchronous shouting emanating from outside the glass, just a few feet away.
If he believes that, truly believes that, his 57% figure isn’t the only number he should be thinking about.
Maybe, just maybe, the most important number isn’t his previous level of support; maybe it’s 594 — the number of days until the Nov. 3, 2026, General Election.
angered about it,” he said, pointing out that legitimate employees of the Treasury Department previously had access to the same data. The difference, however, is that Treasury Department employees undergo rigorous background checks, but there’s still no documentation about which security screenings DOGE employees have completed, if any.
In response to a question about the “five things” he’d done this week to protect democracy — a not-so-subtle dig at Musk’s demand for federal employees to do the same or face termination — Edwards named four.
“I participated in a two-hour classified briefing with a military outfit that is charged with creating the equivalent of an Iron Dome in a region that we are very interested in. I helped pass a continuing resolution that funded our military, gave raises to our military [and] kept our government running, including all the federal [agencies] that
An energetic, capacity crowd consistently engaged with Rep. Chuck Edwards during his 90-minute town hall March 13. Jack Snyder photo
‘I can’t do it alone’
Green invites community engagement in education
HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER
The aim of newly-elected State Superintendent of Public Schools Mo Green’s “Mo Wants to Know” tour is simple — to garner as much input as possible about the direction North Carolina Public Schools should be heading in the coming years. Green has made two things clear. First, that he doesn’t have all the answers, and second, that he can’t realize the goal of achieving academic excellence in North Carolina by himself.
Green hosted the first in a series of public listening sessions on Monday night, March 17, in the Tuscola High School auditorium not only to garner input from the public and educators in the western region of the state, but also to encourage investment and community support for public schools.
The national conversation around public schools, especially during election season, is often critical and describes an institution in crisis. During the 2024 election, his opponent Michelle Morrow said Green’s experience in North Carolina Public Schools was a liability and that he was “an integral part of the failing, broken system.”
But Monday’s event was devoid of such political chatter. Instead, Green, educators, schools board members and the public took time to celebrate and discuss what is working well within the public school system, while simultaneously taking a hard look at what isn’t working and what needs to be improved, changed or restructured.
After all eight listening sessions take place across the state, Green’s leadership team together with the State Board of Education will create a joint strategic plan that will be released in June. This will be the first time that the state superintendent and board of education have worked together on such a plan.
Prior to the public input portion, Green described the goal of achieving educational excellence.
schools?”
Responses from the public spanned arts education, early college programs, apprenticeship programs, pre-K education, career and technical education programs, exceptional children’s programs and academically and intellectually gifted programs.
“My son is severely intellectually disabled and visually impaired and I just want to celebrate our exceptional children program,” said one Haywood County mother. “I implore everyone to support the exceptional children’s program in the state of North Carolina and see that it continues.”
Another mother from Buncombe County shared a similar appreciation for EC programs.
“We weren’t sure that public school was going to be right for him,” the Buncombe mother said of her special needs child. “The EC staff at Lucy Herring was truly excited to get the chance to work with my special kid. It was amazing. He has grown so much this year because of the staff, teachers, everybody at Lucy Herring.”
The second question of the night was “what are the challenges in NC schools and potential solutions?”
“I hope you’ll see this isn’t just about listing challenges, this isn’t simply about the concern, this is also about identifying and raising up a potential solution to the challenge,” said Green. “I’m with bright individuals tonight that I think know some answers to some of the challenges that we face in our public schools … let’s not assume that I know it all, because I do not.”
This question instigated the lengthiest portion of public input with members of the public and educators sharing a litany of challenges they face in the public school system and offering what they could in the way of potential solutions.
Haywood County Schools Superintendent Trevor Putnam opened the night with a brief introduction before Green took to the stage.
“The most endearing thing that I have discovered since his arrival is that he’s a genuine and real person,” said Putnam. “He’s kind. He’s interested in our kids. He’s interested in our voice. And I can tell you, as far as I know, this is the first time the State Superintendent has come to listen and learn.”
Green said that when he has taken on new leadership roles throughout his career, he has found it helpful to take time to listen and learn before taking action.
“I like to listen and learn, and that is what tonight is going to be about,” Green said. “Tonight will be primarily about me hearing from you so that we can put together the best strategic plan for our children and the future of public education in the state of North Carolina.”
“I believe that we will have the very best public education system in the country,” said Green. “It is going to require all of us to do a lot of work, but you have to understand that I set my bar exceedingly high, and then call on folks to rise to the occasion, and then our children will follow. When excellence is all that our children know, they will rise to the level of excellence.”
Green’s initiative involves six primary pillars — prepare each student for their next phase of life, fully fund public education, support public school educators, enhance parent and community support, ensure safe learning environments and recognize the good in public education.
“This is a noble profession,” Green told educators gathered for the event. “And somewhere along the line in this country, in this state, we have forgotten the profession that transforms the lives of people, community, our station and nation — the world.”
Green and his team solicited input from the public with four broad questions. The first of which was “what should we celebrate and continue in NC public
One speaker suggested that North Carolina schools come up with better plans for schooling and safety in the wake of natural disasters like Hurricane Helene.
Other speakers presented challenges like unequal access to arts education, graduation rates, attracting new teachers, retaining staff, facilitating training for new teachers entering the profession, supplies shortages, serving multilingual learners, bus driver shortages and more.
While several speakers offered creative solutions to the challenges they faced, many of the challenges have more straightforward solutions.
“There really is a problem and a solution with each of the items that were mentioned so far,” said one long-time school finance officer in Western North Carolina. “Someone here mentioned AIG as an important area we should focus on. North Carolina currently limits AIG funding at 4% of our ADM [average daily membership]. If we want students to excel, why is that limited?”
The finance officer went on to explain that North Carolina limits exceptional children funding at 13% of a school’s average daily membership.
“This year, 81% out of 150 districts exceed that arbitrary cap,” the finance officer continued. “So, I appreciate all the comments and I hope
Mo Green speaks to the crowd at Tuscola High School. Hannah McLeod photo
March 24, 6 p.m. - Piedmont Triad Region – Mount Tabor High School (WinstonSalem/Forsyth County Schools)
March 26, 6 p.m. - Southwest Region –Harold E. Winkler Middle School (Cabarrus County Schools)
March 27, 6 p.m. - Sandhills Region –Westover High School (Cumberland County Schools)
March 31, 6 p.m. - Southeast Region –John J. Blair Elementary School (New Hanover
that you all speak up to your legislators as well because a lot of this, as much as Mr. Green is going to advocate for us, and support us, we all have to do this work as well.”
Jesse Ross, western regional vice president of the Young Democrats of North Carolina is a graduate of Haywood County Schools and encouraged a similar type of advocacy.
“I’ve heard a lot right now about the funding issue, and that is a serious problem across the board in so many different ways,” said Ross. “I don’t have a solution outside of getting more politically active. That doesn’t necessarily mean getting involved with one political party over another … Because we have been through a lot with Helene, the mill closure in town, we had a flood here three years earlier… because of that attention, I think there is a chance for the folks in this room to use the greater political leverage they have to get folks attentions, and I don’t want folks to miss that opportunity to feel empowered.”
The third question of the evening asked, “what is your ‘big idea’ for North Carolina Public Schools?”
Green encouraged those present to forget about the impediments to implementation and just focus on what they want to see for North Carolina public schools.
Ideas ranged from universal free pre-K to restructuring testing standards in the state, greater parental and community involvement in schools, more outdoor learning, less time on devices like computers and tablets, more arts education, and more funding across the board.
County Schools)
April 7, 6 p.m. - North Central Region –Northern High School (Durham Public Schools)
April 9, 6 p.m. - Northeast Region –Northeastern High School (Elizabeth CityPasquotank Public Schools)
Participants who want to provide more input, or those who are not able to attend one of the listening and learning sessions are encouraged to submit their comments at go.ncdpi.gov/mwtk.
which participants did not weigh in on for lack of time, was “what are the actions you/ your organization are committed to doing to enhance NC public schools?”
Participants who want to provide more input, or those who are not able to attend one of the listening and learning sessions are encouraged to submit their comments at go.ncdpi.gov/mwtk.
The ‘Mo Wants to Know’ tour began just weeks after Linda McMahon was confirmed to lead the United States Department of Education. And while the Trump Administration has touted the idea of dismantling the federal department, doing so would require an act of Congress.
However, when McMahon was approved for the position, she made a speech titled “Our Department’s Final Mission.”
“The Department will be focused on advancing education freedom, not building up government-run systems,” McMahon said in a press release following her confirmation.
“We will empower states and districts to have more say in what is working on the ground for students instead of bureaucratic edicts from Washington, D.C.”
Since then, thousands of employees at the federal department have been fired.
“I think sometimes we have a lot of words, and sometimes it just is simple,” said Evelyn Graning, principal at Jackson County Early College. “If you increase teacher pay in the state of North Carolina, we will do better. We will not have nearly the amount of issues that we have statewide right now. There is a massive exodus of teachers. If I’m a beginning teacher, what incentives do I have to teach in the state of North Carolina?”
The fourth question of the evening,
Green did not address the changes at the federal Department of Education during the public session on March 17, but many of the challenges, as well as the programs that were celebrated by people in attendance depend on federal funding, including CTE programs, exceptional children’s programs, and Title One, which provides supplemental funding to schools and districts with high percentages of low-income students to help close achievement gaps.
In Western North Carolina, federal funds provide about 6-8% of individual school systems’ overall budget, while the vast majority of funding comes from the state and local level. For a few years that percentage was inflated due to federal relief funds provided during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Progress on storm recovery, broadband highlighted at town hall
BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER
On Friday, March 14, Representatives in the North Carolina General Assembly hosted a town hall to update the public and local elected officials about the progress of both Hurricane Helene Recovery and broadband expansion in the region on Friday March 14.
And while town halls around in the region and around the nation have become tense affairs over the last several weeks, the mood in the basement of Holly Springs Baptist Church in Franklin where the town hall took place was calm, friendly and professional.
“So, we’ve invited two groups of people here today — Matt Calabria is with GROW NC, the storm relief group that the governor put together … Teena [Piccione] is the secretary of the Department of Information Technology,” said Sen. Kevin Corbin (RMacon) as he opened the town hall.
The primary goal of the event was to facilitate communication between stakeholders involved in both broadband expansion and storm recovery on the local and state levels.
“The purpose of this meeting is for you to meet these people, be able to talk to them, see who they are,” Corbin told attendees.
Calabria is the Director of the Governor’s Recovery Office for Western North Carolina (GROW NC), established by Gov. Josh Stein after he took office in January.
Calabria began by rehashing the facts
that most of the town hall attendees were familiar with.
“The total dollar amount of damages in Western North Carolina is the highest dollar amount of any North Carolina disaster by a factor of three,” Calabria said in a presentation at the town hall event. “That, I think, underscores the seriousness of the damage here in Western North Carolina. 106 people unfortunately lost their lives as a result of Hurricane Helene. And our Office of State Management and Budget has estimated nearly $60 billion in damage.”
North Carolina’s entire budget is around $30 billion. Calabria said the largest category of damage from the storm is to the economy — losses for small businesses — followed by transportation. More than 1,300 roads and bridges were damaged as a result of Helene.
“I’m glad to tell you that we are now at 89% of the roads that were closed have now been repaired and reopened,” said Calabria.
Calabria outlined key themes in Stein’s vision for storm recovery.
“The first is focus,” Calabria said. “Making sure that we are resident-oriented, business-oriented, and focusing on the things that matter most. There is so much to do when you recover from a hurricane or from a natural disaster, so it’s really important for us to focus on what is most important from a felt impact standpoint, for residents and small businesses.”
Urgency is another key theme. Calabria said it was important that recovery efforts moved with speed.
“Because we know, for example, that the
amount of people who are in temporary housing, the amount of businesses that are out of commission and who need support in the form of grants and loans and technical
According to Calabria, more than 5,000 people in Western North Carolina are receiving temporary housing assistance, and the state has approved 157,000 applications for individual assistance for money to repair damage to homes, roads, bridges, farms or other personal property which has resulted in the distribution of $400 million in repair and replacement funds. More than 5.3 million cubic yards of debris has been removed.
“The hope is by the end of this month, to finish collecting debris out of the rights of way,” said Calabria.
While Calabria said there is not a good way to get grants for small businesses from the federal government, he did tout the program in which the state government put in about $20 million to a fund that was matched with more than $10 million in private and philanthropic sector money to create a small business program that has given out thousands of loans.
“As of this week, we’ve dispersed $65 million to small businesses to help stand them up, and also facilitated $152 million in small business loans through the SBA [Small Business Administration],” said Calabria.
longer a small business is out of commission, the harder it is, and the less likely it is for them to bounce back and to continue,” said Calabria.
Transparency and accountability are also part of Stein’s vision and GROW NC’s work.
“You all need to know what’s going on, we all need to have conversations like this, our stakeholders, our legislators, our congressional delegation need to know what’s going on so that we can all be working together,” Calabria said. “We all need to
Alongside the GROW NC office, Stein also created the Division of Community Revitalization within the Department of Commerce with a mission to focus on housing and economic development, as well as economic recovery.
“Right now, they are working through a process to enable us to access disaster recovery funds through HUD,” said Calabria. “Already the federal government has appropriated to us $1.65 billion for community rebuilding, revitalization. And these are really important funds because they have a lot of flexibility to them, but they are slow to get out. So, the state has autonomy within federal bounds for about $1.4 billion of those dollars.”
“The total dollar amount of damages in Western North Carolina is the highest dollar amount of any North Carolina disaster by a factor of three.”
— Matt Calabria, GROW NC
hold ourselves accountable.”
GROW NC recently launched its website, wncrecovery.nc.gov, which houses information about recovery progress, resources and a dashboard that is still under construction.
“We’re still adding more data and more data points, but it highlights some of the things that we are tracking and some of the progress we’re making,” said Calabria.
“All of this is under the umbrella of knowing that we have a long way to go,” Calabria continued. “Candidly, in every disaster of this size and scale and scope, it takes years and years to finish the recovery effort. So, we are very mindful of the amount of debris that is yet to be collected, the amount of homes that need to be repaired, the
The governor has released a HUD action plan and is currently taking feedback on the plan.
While the Cooper administration asked for $25.7 billion in federal aid for Hurricane Helene recovery, it was awarded $15.7 billion.
“Again, the total amount of damages is $60 billion and so the federal funds that are coming in are not going to make North Carolina whole in that respect,” said Calabria.
Governor Stein’s administration has put in a renewed request for $11.6 billion for repair of roads, bridges, housing and more. In
S EE TOWN HALL, PAGE 18
Broadband executives and local elected officials were among attendees at the town hall. Bob Scott photo
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addition to that, the state is requesting federal agencies release the funds that Congress already appropriated to the state but has gotten held up by those federal agencies.
On the state side, the General Assembly appropriated a little more than a billion dollars to Helene recovery.
“I want to encourage you all to share information about the resources that are available,” said Calabria. “Please advocate to your legislators, to your congress people.”
The second portion of the town hall focused on broadband expansion in Western North Carolina.
According to data presented by the North Carolina Department of Information Technology, more than $550 million of $1 billion in federal funding has been awarded for internet access, devices and digital skills since 2022. And while that has connected about 187,000 unserved and underserved locations in Western North Carolina, there are more than 150,000 estimated locations remaining that need connection.
“We have to make sure we are not resting until every single household and business in North Carolina is connected at an affordable rate, that we can all enjoy the same access,” said Piccione.
Angie Bailey, director of the Broadband Infrastructure Office spoke to town hall attendees about the progress of broadband in Western North Carolina and how the effort is funded.
the end of 2026,” said Bailey.
More federal money is coming to the state through the BEAD program (Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program), from the infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. North Carolina is allocated about $1.5 billion to incentivize private providers to build out to unserved
Secretary for the North Carolina Department of Information Technology Teena Piccione addressed attendees. Bob Scott photo
ers they are encountering when trying to provide broadband access in Western North Carolina.
Providers brought up concerns with deployment bottlenecks including easement access for municipalities, pole access and the length of time for permitting for those things. Another executive brought up the
“The General Assembly appropriated about a billion dollars of American Rescue Plan Act [funds] to DIT to provide grants and incentives to private sector providers to build out to unserved and underserved locations,” said Bailey. “So, we provide funding to private sector providers to help cover the capital costs to build to locations that are hard to reach.”
Out of that $1 billion, about $500 million has been invested and awarded for infrastructure builds. The state has more than $400 million left in American Rescue Plan Act funds.
“We’re working hard to get those out the door, because those projects need to be either expended or substantially complete by
100% coverage for every location in the state, and we think that with the billion and a half that that is doable,” said Bailey. “We do expect some changes at the federal level on BEAD and so we’re watching that closely to see what requirements may change under the program.”
Also attending the town hall were more than a dozen broadband executives who have contracts in Western North Carolina.
Following presentations by Piccione and Bailey, those providers were encouraged to ask questions and describe the biggest barri-
“We need to socialize some of these problems, because it just seems like the owners of the choke points don’t always feel it is a problem,” said Brian Gregory with Charter Spectrum.
While the officials present didn’t have immediate solutions for the impediments presented by broadband executives, they did encourage communication about roadblocks as they come up so that elected representatives and NCDIT know the issues these companies are facing as they build out broadband projects.
WCU to host annual Research and Scholarship Conference
Western Carolina University will host its annual Research and Scholarship Conference (RASC) on Wednesday, March 19. Best-selling author David Joy will deliver the keynote address from 5-6 p.m. at the Ramsey Regional Activity Center. Following the keynote, there will be fine arts exhibits and poster presentations from 6-7:30 p.m., along with a celebration reception.
Earlier in the day, students will present oral presentations at the A.K. Hinds University Center from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. All events are free and open to the public.
Joy's keynote, titled "A Mountain Knotted Together: Researching and Capturing the Inseparability of People and Place," will explore his literary approach to research. Joy, an alumnus of WCU, is known for his novels set in Jackson County, which highlight the region's culture and history.
The conference will also feature student research presentations on various topics, including the La Cross virus, emotional fatigue in teachers, and social vulnerabilities in Appalachia. For the first time, nine WCU professors will present posters alongside over 100 student posters.
The event is sponsored by the Graduate School and Research, the Office of the Provost, Hunter Library, and the Brinson Honors College. For more information, visit research.wcu.edu/rasc or contact Suzanne Melton at scmelton@wcu.edu.
David Joy. WCU photo
Slow down and be more adventurous
Is it just me or, as we get older, doesn't it seem like time moves at warp speed? When I was a child, minutes felt like hours and days felt like weeks. Maybe it was because getting lost in a moment was effortless or, while my parents and teachers managed the hard stuff, I was left to simply play and explore. Then adulthood comes along and with each passing year, if we aren’t careful, months unfold in blurred clumps until it's already time to ring in another New Year.
The good news is we can do something about this phenomenon.
I enjoy podcasts featuring longevity experts and a recent episode said time moves more quickly for older people because we become less adventurous and too routine as we age. For parents, it's often our children's activities and agendas that keep us moving. Once they are in college or out on their own, many moms and dads become disoriented and bewildered with all the time on their hands. This same thing can happen after retiring from a long-held career. Additionally, aging individuals can be more anxious about trying new things, visiting novel places and being otherwise spontaneous. Similarly, routine tends to rush time along more quickly because every day is the same and there isn’t a range of emotions being felt nor any new neural networks being fired.
All of this hit home this past week as my older son and I traveled to Boston for the New Balance Nationals Indoor track meet. Initially, we were going to visit Boston for the meet then return to North Carolina, but since it was his spring break we decided to make it a lengthier trip. It’d been a
Now is the time to get involved
To the Editor:
As a woman who is active in Indivisible and has protested the decisions of our government since the inauguration, I find myself waking each day thinking “What can I do? What should I do?”
As a citizen of this country, a country that is of, by, and for the people, I wonder what we as citizens can do to keep our democracy, as every day I hear more evidence of President Trump pushing for “unitary executive authority.”
In America the unitary executive theory is a constitutional law theory that makes the president the sole authority of the executive branch with aims to centralize control of the government in the White House. President Trump has demonstrated this by overriding congressional budget authority and ignoring court orders. We are waiting to see if he complies with the recent Supreme Court denial of his withholding payments to USAID contractors; an action that is not within his rights as president. This is only one example of how he has exercised unconstitutional power over the Congress. We, the concerned citizens of the United States, the citizens who don’t want authoritarian rule, ask our representatives in Washington “What are you doing? What are you doing to temper this abuse of power in the White House? Why have you approved
while since I’d traveled to a large, urban city without another adult. When I started planning the agenda, booking reservations, making flights and thinking about meals and subway lines, a part of me felt nervous, like I was out of my wheelhouse. The sensation bothered me because in my early 20s, when I had a fraction of the knowledge and wisdom I have now and no cell phone to help with navigation, I backpacked around Europe with not a care in the world. But therein lies part of the answer.
When we’re young, the world is our oyster with nothing but possibilities ahead of us. The more life we live and the more years we tick off, we start to think “It’s too late for this” or “I’m getting too old for that.” We have to change this narrative within our minds and the only way to do that is through our actions.
When my sister realized we would be in Boston, which is a quick flight from her hometown of Great Falls, Virginia, she decided to jet over and stay with us for half of our trip. Over two decades ago, she and I went to Boston on one of our annual sister trips. As we frolicked around the city this time, it was mind-boggling we’d allowed so many years to pass before returning.
The track meet was an incredible experience, not only for my son but for me as well. He ran a personal best in the men’s championship two-mile race, which was held at the New
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this cabinet, many of whom are without experience and aligned with the President in his abuse of the office?”
Here in North Carolina, we know part of the reason. Our own Sen. Thom Tillis was told by the FBI that there was a credible threat against his life as he considered voting against Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense. Did that affect his vote?
President Trump doesn’t need the military on his side. He has an army of white supremacists who are eager and willing to remove any obstacles in his path. We may not know the final goal but looking at Project 2025 it is not difficult to discern the desired outcome. I know from my reading that there is no room for me as a woman, as a senior citizen, or as a grandmother to be a contributing member of the country they are creating in this moment. Any respect for women’s minds or their rights, for their achievements or their contributions, will evaporate as we are reduced to being stay-at-home wives and mothers.
I was raised in a patriarchal system and spent my life fighting against it. Having been told there was no reason, or money, to support my college education, I chose a different path, attending a three-year nursing school. It ensured I would be debt free and able to support myself, never knowing what the future would hold. I worked hard and ultimately achieved independence, mainly because I lived in a time where women fought, and suc-
Balance Track at Boston Landing, a beautiful facility in a really cool part of the city. Once his event concluded, we were in full tourist mode. With a physical map of the city and our phones to assist us, we figured it all out. We traipsed around the entire footprint of Boston, saw all the famous sites, ate great food and made memories. Additionally, it was St. Patrick’s Day weekend and the Irish spirit in the air was palpable, which made the atmosphere extra energizing.
By the last day, we were navigating the subway system like pros and chatting about the various sections of the city with ease. When boarding the plane to head home, I felt proud of myself. If my son’s meet would not have given me a reason to visit Boston, would I ever have done it myself? Would I have planned a spontaneous trip to such a historical, fun and friendly city? I don’t know, but it did prove the research correct. Galavanting around Beantown made me feel more youthful and adventurous than I’d felt in a while and ignited that old travel bug that was so active in my youth. It doesn’t have to be a big trip or crazy adventure to help slow down time. Merely learning a skill or taking on a new hobby or challenge can do the same thing to the brain. Anything novel, unique or different from our comfort zone stretches out time. With this in mind, why not book the flight or do that thing you’ve been itching to do? Not only will it remind you of your younger self, but it will give more life to your years, and isn’t that the goal of this one wild and precious life? I certainly think so.
(Susanna Shetley is a digital media specialist, editor and writer who lives in Waynesville. susanna.b@smokymountainnews.com.)
ceeded, to have choices. Instead of joining in celebrating women’s achievements many men have expressed dismay at their successes. We are now living with the consequences of this disapproval.
It is time to stand up for women, women’s rights, women’s work and women’s achievements that have contributed to making this country what it is, while it still is this country and not an imitation of Russia or Hungary. I encourage you to look around and choose one thing to stand up for in this time. Join a group like Indivisible, Common Cause, Carolina Forward or one of many others that are bringing people together to fight back against unconstitutional changes that are not in our best interests, but in those of an oligarchy of billionaires. This is the time and we the people, women and men, were made for it. I hope.
Margaret Pickett Highlands
Thankful to live in this community
To the Editor:
On what was supposed to be a simple onemile hike off an overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway, I managed to turn a peaceful afternoon stroll into an 11-hour misadventure that ended with a helicopter rescue, a hospital stay and a whole new appreciation for our local heroes.
After summiting the trail and starting
what should have been an easy return loop, I lost the path and tried to bushwhack my way back toward the Blue Ridge Parkway. Instead, I found myself 2.5 miles in the wrong direction, sliding 1,200 feet down rugged terrain, losing my phone in the process, and dressed entirely wrong for the 40-degree temps — just a cotton shirt, jeans and sneakers. No food, no water, and no way to call for help. Not exactly wilderness survival gear.
What happened next is nothing short of incredible. Search and rescue teams from Haywood and Jackson County EMS, first responders, drone operators, helicopter and plane crews and many dedicated volunteers launched into action, working tirelessly in cold, challenging conditions. I don’t know the names of everyone involved, but please know that I am deeply and sincerely grateful.
To the helicopter crew who winched me to safety — yes, I still owe you that FTD “PickMe-Up” bouquet. To the staff at Mission Hospital, thank you for your care and kindness. And to my amazing wife, Mary Catherine, who logged the initial call and joined in the search effort — you’re my reallife hero.
This experience reminded me that in our community, when someone is in trouble, people show up. They show up with skill, compassion and determination. I’m lucky to be alive, and even luckier to live in a place where help is never too far away — even when you are. Fred G. Schutt Sylva
Susanna Shetley
Pless works against taxpayers
To the Editor:
State Rep. Mark Pless, R-Haywood, is facilitating property de-annexation with a group of current Town of Maggie Valley property owners. They are testing the water to see if they can put more dollars in their pockets, take tax dollars away from the Town and allow unfettered development to their parcels. Pless clearly does not represent and protect all Town of Maggie Valley property owners.
Who is hurt by this action? All current and future Town of Maggie Valley taxpayers. It’s simple math — fewer properties paying taxes, those lost dollars become a burden to the balance of town taxpayers or services need to be reduced. If successful, this test case will degrade the tax base within Maggie Valley and could be deployed in other Pless-represented municipalities.
But the additional tax burden born by remaining Maggie Valley property owners isn’t the worst of it. It is the potential property value damage to properties adjacent to these “de-annexed” properties.
If de-annexation is successful, it allows those property owners to develop their property unfettered by Maggie Valley development rules. The county has limited oversight, so who knows what might be developed next door to your home. It makes sense this is the real goal of these property owners, to avoid Maggie Valley zoning and protective nuisance ordinances that safeguard adjacent owners and provide a level development playing field.
The online professional real estate publicity page of one of the property owners involved in this test case indicates his real estate specialty is land. I don’t think any of these folks are claiming poverty so maybe, just maybe, it’s all about how they or future owners prefer to develop the land, neighbors be damned.
Paul Revere
rides again
To the Editor:
The other night I dreamed I heard hoofbeats on Main Street in Sylva. At first, I paid them no mind. Maybe a member of the wagon train that lumbers through Western North Carolina each summer. Yet, the hoofbeats got louder and louder as the rider approached the red light in the middle of town. He was bellowing out, “The billionaires are here.”
What a dream! He brought his steed to a halt close enough for me to touch it. He spoke with authority to all who were at the site, “I rode here tonight to warn you. You are being enslaved by billionaires now the same as your ancestors were by King George in 1775. You must resist as your patriot ancestors did then, or you will be tacitly approving the death of the republic
LETTERS
they envisioned.”
Only at that moment did I realize I had heard the voice of Paul Revere. Revere steadied his steed near the fountain at the red light. There he addressed the gathering, “There were loyalists then. There were patriots then. It is no different today. Each of you must decide what form of government you will fight for. You will support the republic your forebears gave you or you will cave in to billionaires like Trump and Musk (who are your modern-day King George). They aim to undo every right your ancestors fought for ....”
Then the crowd watched in awe as the ghost of Paul Revere sped east toward the Balsam Gap as fast as he had ridden in, 250 years after his famous ride near Boston in 1775.
Democracy was only a dream then, a great idea. It still is. We must decide to maintain the dream or watch as American democracy is thrown onto the trash heap of history.
Dave Waldrop Webster
Trump and Musk are a joke
To the Editor:
Despite what MAGA Republicans say, our esteemed president inherited a robust economy from President Biden (except for egg prices, apparently). The stock market was booming, unemployment was low and inflation was going down.
Since Trump assumed the highest office in the country — holding massive power and the responsibility for what goes right and what goes wrong — the stock market has tanked, losing over 7% of its value. The Dow Jones went from 44, 050 to 40,738 (as
Thousands upon thousands of federal employees are now unemployed. Trump flip-flopped for days on the imposition of tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. Then he imposed 20% tariffs on Chinese imports. Then he imposed 25% tariffs on metals from Canada. Canada and the European Union retaliated. Trump insists he will retaliate. Everyone (everyone except Trump and his allies) watching this fiasco unfold agrees this is bad for business and worse for consumers. Prices will rise well beyond the inflation we suffered post COVID.
In the coming weeks and months, keep your eyes open, keep track of the cost of living day-to-day. Things will get tough.
Finally, in the face of certain economic catastrophe, the president did let us know that he is concerned about the financial health of his new bestie, Elon Musk, whose net worth is in the neighborhood of $300 billion even though Tesla stock has lost 40% of its value this year. The president became the chief smarmy salesman of Teslas this past Tuesday by hawking Teslas parked on the White House lawn. You all be sure to go out and order your $50,000 model 3.
What you are seeing here is the polar opposite of the Midas touch.
Ann Fulton Sylva
Are they malicious or incompetent?
To the Editor:
Are Donald Trump and Elon Musk incompetent or malevolent in their actions toward America and the American people? You decide.
Trump complained about the lack of water to fight the fires in Los Angeles. He said he ordered two reservoirs north of the fires to release water. The problem is that the reservoirs are hundreds of miles from
the fires, and the water was just wasted because there was no way to convey the water to Los Angeles. However, farmers in
the area now may not have enough water for irrigation in the coming growing season. Is this incompetence or a malicious act to hurt farmers in a blue state? Incompetence or malevolence? You choose.
Trump’s tariffs are an on-again-off-again issue. He has not clearly stipulated what he actually wants to achieve with the tariffs other than addressing vague past complaints. In the process, he has antagonized Canada, one of our longest and closest allies. Incompetence or malevolence?
Musk claimed he wanted to cut waste but seemed to cut jobs and departments randomly or without understanding the functions of the jobs involved. As a result, he cut positions that were essential to government functioning, such as people maintaining nuclear weapons, meteorologists for weather forecasting and national park personnel who keep national parks open and address hurricane damage locally. Many had to be rehired, but Musk’s minions had not kept the contact information for the former employees.
A prudent businessman would want to know which jobs were either redundant or not essential for his business to functions. This would require examining what functions are required for the business. So why did Musk banish his chainsaw and cut jobs indiscriminately? Is Musk incompetent or malevolent in cutting government jobs?
Trump has never been considered the brightest bulb in the box and the immigrant from South Africa has the emotional maturity of a 12-year-old boy. Still, are Trump and Musk so incompetent, or are they deliberately trying to sabotage the functioning of the federal government? You decide.
Myrna Campbell Waynesville
President, secretaries control agencies
To the Editor:
It seems many have talked about the three branches of government and their separation and nonelected personnel. I don’t know why people don’t realize that the President is the head of the Executive Branch and can control hiring and firing in his 15 departments. Of the thousands of personnel in these departments, he and his VP are the only elected persons in the entire Executive Branch.
Each of his departments are further controlled by the President’s appointed secretaries, which have been approved by the Senate. If the President or any of these want to use a nonelected group (DOGE) to investigate the Executive Branch department’s workings and to make recommendations for change, then this doesn’t violate anything. The President or a Secretary has to bless any changes that take place and they can reverse any if they decide otherwise or if courts won’t allow due to law. It doesn’t seem any different than state or local governments using outside groups to help them with some of their decisions.
Mark Foster Waynesville
Angie E. Van Scyoc Crabtree
It just keeps gettin’ better
Country legends Lonestar to play Franklin
Want to go?
Acclaimed country band Lonestar will perform at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 20, at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin. Tickets start at $25 per person with seating upgrades available. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, visit smokymountainarts.com or call 866.273.4615.
BY GARRET K. WOODWARD
ARTS & E NTERTAINMENT E DITOR
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, it was pretty much impossible to not hear or be aware of the juggernaut country radio hit “Amazed” by Lonestar.
Released in March 1999, the melody was a love song that became an instant earworm of poignant lyrics and ubercatchy Nashville tones. So much so, it ultimately becoming the first country song to top the Billboard Hot 100 Chart since Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton did so in 1983 with “Islands in the Stream.”
Now, more than 25 years later, “Amazed” has become a radio staple, one that’s transcended rhyme or reason as to explaining its enduring popularity — it just simply hit the airwaves at the right time and place. Whether you’re just cruising down the highways and backroads of America or attending a gathering of friends and family, the tune continually bubbles up to the surface.
And yet, beyond “Amazed” and the other No.1 hits by Lonestar (nine total), what does remain is a steadfast and hardscrabble country band, where a keen work ethic and ethos of connectivity with its loyal audience is a testament to the group’s longevity as it soon approaches its 35th anniversary together.
Smoky Mountain News: Looking back on the earliest days of Lonestar. What do you vividly remember about the starting line of the band and its intent?
Keech Rainwater (drummer): The feeling was very positive and exciting. We were so over the moon excited that we actually landed a record deal and were going to be releasing brand new original material that hopefully would stack up against what was out at the time, like Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney and Alabama.
There was also a nervous feeling about how the public was going to react to yet another band on the radio. We were also learning so much about the industry as we were pretty new to that side of the business.
Then, kind of starting over with shows where it was mostly playing our new album to people who had no idea who we were. Slowly though, it began to take off with our single “No News.” With a fresh music video on CMT and GAC, it was all on now and things got really busy.
SMN: Country music. For you, personally and professionally, what really, truly and honestly separates country music from other genres?
KW: It’s always seemed to me that country music is huge when it comes to telling a story and understanding the words being emoted.
It’s like when you would hear a rock or pop song, you felt like dancing and most of the time, for me, I didn’t even know what the singer was singing about. Like “Benny and the Jets” by Elton John — I still couldn’t even tell you what he was singing about, but it was a great song.
It seems like country music has that ability to make you stop what you were doing and just listen to the story and feel something. It can be sad, happy, moody or whatever. It just makes your heart beat a little differently.
SMN: “Amazed.” When that song hit the airwaves and caught fire, what was that experience like, to be able to see and experience your wildest dreams happen as a musician and a band?
KR: When “Amazed” was pitched to us back then, as we were recording the “Lonely Grill” record, it seemed like just an ordinary song to most of us. There was no real sense of it
being this giant hit.
After it was released to radio, it had a slow start but kept gaining airplay. We were so busy at that time touring and playing shows, [so] it took us a while to realize how special it was. As it kept climbing and climbing the charts, we were “amazed” at the momentum it had.
Then it went to number one. We were so excited and still had no idea it was about to spend another eight to nine weeks there at number one on the charts.
I think the real surprise was when some pop stations had gotten ahold of the UK mix of the song — a little more euro sounding — and started to play it more and more. Next thing we know, it reaches number one on the “Hot 100” AC chart.
After that, everything kind of seemed like a blur. We kept busy trying to keep up with that success and continually trying to top the last hit. To this day, we are still very humbled by that song and how much it means to our fans. I just wish I had written it.
SMN: The 35th anniversary of Lonestar is not far on the horizon. When you think about the journey y’all have been, what has been your biggest takeaway from everything that’s happened and continues to unfold?
KR: I personally feel like being in a band for this long with some of the greatest musicians I’ve known and performing each night like we do, it’s one of the most satisfying feelings in my life. Each guy on that stage was meant to be there and fits in like a puzzle piece. Being just one part of that machine is something that I think we all live for.
When a group has been together for so long and you hear the sound that can come from decades of experience and collaboration, you can’t help but feel something in the air. There’s a kind of magic there I feel.
Lonestar will hit the stage in Franklin March 20. Michael Gomez photo
This must be the place
BY GARRET K. W
‘Blow
up your TV, throw away your paper, go to the country, build you a home’
As I was cracking the third of four eggs into the bowl to then scramble the yolks, the chorus of John Prine’s seminal 1971 number “Spanish Pipedream” echoed throughout the room. I decided then and there that to make breakfast with Mr. Prine playing in the background is the only way to start your day.
“She was a level-headed dancer on the road to alcohol,” the melody swirled around the kitchen. “And I was just a soldier on my way to Montreal.”
The natural sunlight spilled into the space from the nearby atrium, the wide open blue sky of North Florida streaming across the floor and over my toes, which, in that moment, were scurrying about trying to figure out what I could use in the fridge that would go well with scrambled eggs atop an English muffin.
Turns out, as I’ve found to be the case many-a-time before, that seemingly everything goes with scrambled eggs atop an English muffin. Sliced cherry tomatoes. Pickled onions. Two kinds of shredded cheese (mozzarella and cheddar). Garlic chili sauce. Dash of pepper.
Placing the two stacked breakfast sandwiches on the dinner table in front of two mid-century modern chairs, the beautiful woman sitting across from me felt it was one of the tastiest sandwiches of its kind she’d ever had. I concurred between eating and smiling. It was.
It’s now late Saturday morning. I’m a little over seven hours away from my humble abode apartment in downtown Waynesville. The sunny, warm weather of Jacksonville Beach, Florida, reminds me that I’m nowhere near the winter mountains I call home. The palm trees and slight ocean breeze signal that this is what I’ve waited for.
You see, if you haven’t been reading this here weekly column somewhat regularly, I’d have to fill you in on the past year of my life. Work burnout. Hurricane Helene. Flood damage. Endless articles and deadlines. Onward to the holidays and the demise of my longtime relationship in the midst of the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve blur.
Oh, and last month? I turned 40 years old. Instead of taking some random, wild-n-out bucket list trip to somewhere, anywhere —
All of the intrinsic ethos and sincere sentiment of the previous paragraph underlines my mantra of recent years, which is “order the filet.” This mantra arose in 2022 when a dear friend passed away in a car accident. After I said my goodbyes to her in the hospital ICU, I found myself at a nearby Longhorn Steakhouse trying to make sense of it all over a cold beer and $55 piece of Grade A meat.
Instead of opting for the less expensive chicken dish — in an attempt to save money while in transit, which I was on that day — I said, “Fuck it, order the filet.” Life is short, order whatever the hell you damn well please on the menu. Life is much better and tastier when you actually select the dish you really, truly and honestly want.
Besides, as my father says, “There will always be bills.” Which plays into his appetite for fine dining and good wine. Order the meal you’re craving. Pick the bottle of wine you’ve been meaning to try. Shit, we’re all going to die someday. Wouldn’t it suck to leave this earth knowing that the secret “rainy day” stash of cash you saved up never got spent? Remember, “rainy day” can be changed to “any day.”
which was the original plan many months prior to the eventual dismantling of my daily existence — I jumped into my rusty, musty pickup truck and bolted for my native North Country of Upstate New York.
And though most folks would rather spend a milestone birthday on a beach in the Caribbean or the Mediterranean, I opted for the frozen tundra of Plattsburgh, New York. Sub-zero temperatures and snowflakes every single day I was back in my hometown. In fact, the exact day before I headed below the Mason-Dixon Line for Haywood County, Plattsburgh received over a foot of snow in less than 24 hours.
Sitting by the fireplace in my parents’ farmhouse and trying to stay warm, visions of North Florida danced across my thoughts. With my parents headed to St. Augustine every March to have some fun in the sun, I tag along for a week or so. Cut to this past weekend. Breakfast sandwiches in Jacksonville Beach with a cute girl and her big dog.
The plan today is to finish this column and make the last of my trek down to St. Augustine. Seven hours down, one left to go. Tomorrow (Sunday) is my father’s 83rd birthday, with Monday being St. Patrick’s Day. Thus, the next 48 hours will be filled with celebrations and libations. To that, with Silver Oak (Napa Valley) being my father’s all-time favorite wine, I was able to find him two bottles.
It’s become somewhat of a tradition over the last handful of years, where I throw down some bucks on a bottle of Silver Oak for the old man. To note, I’m a writer, not a millionaire. Far from. Never will be, in all actuality. But, I know how much that $200 bottle of wine means to him. So, screw it. Buy the old man what he desires most.
Onward to St. Augustine. Onward to my father’s 83rd birthday. Onward to St. Patrick’s Day and that delicious meal my mother will, like clockwork, have ready to honor our Irish heritage. Onward to white sand beaches and diving below the surface of the mighty Atlantic Ocean. Onward to rest and relaxation (and also deadlines).
But, most of all, take a moment to hold gratitude for the music of John Prine. For having enough eggs and ingredients in the fridge to make breakfast sandwiches. For just barely enough cold brew coffee for two cups. For mid-century furniture and a slight breeze coming through the open windows. And for a cute girl and her big dog.
Life is beautiful, grasp for it, y’all.
HOT PICKS
1
Eddie Huffman will share his new book, “Doc Watson: A Life in Music.” and also be accompanied by musician Jerad Davis at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 27, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva.
2
A stage production of “An Unexpected Song” will be held at 7:30 p.m. March 21-22, 2829 and 2 p.m. March 23 and 30 at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville.
3
Swain Arts Center (Bryson City) will host a production of “The Wizard of Oz” at 7 p.m. March 28-29, April 4-5 and 2:30 p.m. March 30 and April 6.
4
Scotsman (Waynesville) will host TrancEnd (rock/pop) at 9 p.m. Saturday, March 22.
5
Valley Tavern (Maggie Valley) will host Stomper Kitty at 6 p.m. Friday, March 21.
Back porch pondering in Florida. Garret K. Woodward photo
• American Legion Post 47 (Waynesville) will host an “Open Mic” 3 p.m. every Tuesday. Free and open to the public. 828.456.8691.
• Angry Elk Brewing (Whittier) will host semiregular live music on the weekends. All shows are free and open to the public. 828.497.1015 / facebook.com/angryelkbrewingco.
• Balsam Falls Brewing (Sylva) will host an open mic from 8-10 p.m. every Thursday. Free and open to the public. 828.631.1987 / balsamfallsbrewing.com.
• Balsam Mountain Inn (Balsam) will host an “Open Jam” 6 p.m. every Tuesday and semiregular live music on the weekends. 828.283.0145 / thebalsammountaininn.com.
• Blue Ridge Beer Hub (Waynesville) will host Doug & Lisa (acoustic) March 29. All shows begin at 5 p.m. Free and open to the public. 828.246.9320 / blueridgebeerhub.com.
• Boojum Brewing (Waynesville) will host “Karaoke Night” Wednesdays, “Trivia” 7 p.m. Thursdays and Rossdafareye (Americana/funk) March 22. All shows are located in The Gem downstairs taproom and begin at 9 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.246.0350 / boojumbrewing.com.
• Cataloochee Ranch (Maggie Valley) will host Marc & Anita Pruett (Americana/bluegrass) 5 p.m. March 19. For tickets and reservations, visit cataloocheeranch.com/ranch-events/livemusic.
• Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center (Franklin) will host “Contra Dance” 6:45 p.m. March 20 and “Open Mic Night” 6 p.m. April 11. 828.369.4080 / coweeschool.org/music.
• Currahee Brewing (Franklin) will host “Team Trivia” Mondays and Eric Thurmond (singersongwriter) March 22. 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 McKindleyWard (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, Old Sap (Americana/folk) March 21, Stomper Kitty March 22, Patty M. 3 p.m. March 23, Bridget Gossett (singer-songwriter) March 28, The Jugs March 29 and Justin Howl (singersongwriter) 3 p.m. March 30. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.454.5664 / froglevelbrewing.com.
• Frog Quarters (Franklin) will host live music from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays. Free and open to the public. Located at 573 East Main Street. 828.369.8488 / littletennessee.org.
• Gathering Room (Waynesville) will host an
“Open Acoustic Jam” from 6:30-8:30 p.m. the last Friday of every month. All welcome to play or listen. 828.558.1333 / thegatheringroom828.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” on select dates. 828.526.2590 / highlandermountainhouse.com.
• Innovation Brewing (Sylva) will host “Monday Night Trivia” every week, “Open Mic w/Phil” on Wednesdays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows and events begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.586.9678/ innovation-brewing.com.
• Innovation Station (Dillsboro) will host “Music Bingo” on Wednesdays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. All events begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.226.0262 / innovation-brewing.com.
• Junction Pub (Sylva) will host “Open Jam” on Sundays, “Marg Monday Karaoke” on Mondays, “Trivia” on Tuesdays, “Open Mic” on Thursdays and semi-regular live music on the weekends. All events are free and begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 828.370.2090 / facebook.com/jctpub.
• Lazy Hiker Brewing (Franklin) will host Jamie Saylor (Americana/folk) March 21, Canon Tyler (Americana/bluegrass) March 22 and Roscoe’s Road Show (Americana) March 29. 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, The V8s (rock/oldies) March 21 and The Waymores (Americana) March 28. All shows begin at 8 p.m. Free and open to the public unless otherwise noted. 828.349.2337 / lazyhikerbrewing.com.
• Legends Sports Bar & Grill (Maggie Valley) will host an “Open Mic Night” 6:30 p.m. every Wednesday, Karaoke Thursdays (6 p.m.) and Saturdays (7 p.m.), with live music each Friday (8 p.m.). Free and open to the public. 828.944.0403 / facebook.com/legendssportsgrillmaggievalley.
• 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
Americana, folk at Mountain Layers
Jackson County Americana/folk duo Bird in Hand will perform at 6 p.m. Saturday, March 22, at Mountain Layers Brewing Company in Bryson City.
The road less traveled has always been the way for husband-and-wife duo Bird in Hand. Bryan & Megan Thurman call the Great Smoky Mountains of Western North Carolina home, and the region is directly reflected in their music. Bird in Hand is upbeat and new while still rooted in the traditions of American folk.
The two have played all over the Appalachian region, as well as across the country, and share an onstage chemistry that demands attention. They need to be seen live to understand the meaning of “Appalachian Thunder Folk.”
The show is free and open to the public. For more information, go to mountainlayersbrewingcompany.com.
Bird in Hand will play Bryson City March 22. File photo
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.
• Mountain Layers Brewing (Bryson City) will host “Open Mic Night” w/Frank Lee every Thursday, Zip Robertson (singer-songwriter) March 21, Bird In Hand (Americana/indie) March 22, Shane Meade (indie/folk) 5 p.m. March 23, Alma Russ (Americana/folk) March 28, Ron Neill (singer-songwriter) March 29 and Frank Lee (Americana/old-time) 5 p.m. March 30. All shows begin at 6 p.m unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.538.0115 / mountainlayersbrewingcompany.com.
• Old Edwards Inn (Highlands) will host live music in the Hummingbird Lounge at 5:30 p.m. every Friday and Saturday. Free and open to the public. 866.526.8008 / oldedwardshospitality.com.
• Otto Community Center (Otto) will host James Thompson (Americana) 4 p.m. March 21. 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 “Bad Company Experience” (classic rock tribute) March 21, Kanstyx (Kansas/Styx tribute) March 22, Wyatt Espalin & The
Riverstones (Americana/indie) March 28 and Frankly Scarlet (Grateful Dead tribute) March 29. All shows begin at 7:30 p.m. For tickets, 828.389.ARTS / thepeacocknc.org.
• Pinnacle Relief CBD Wellness Lounge (Sylva) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 828.508.3018 / facebook.com/pinnaclerelief.
• Rathskeller Coffee Haus & Pub (Franklin) will host Karaoke 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Trivia Night 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Jamie Rasso (singersongwriter) 6:30 p.m. March 20, Jamiee Anders (singer-songwriter) March 21, Michael Kitchens (singer-songwriter) March 22, “Karaoke” 6:30 p.m. March 26, “Open Mic” with Dirty Dave 6:30 p.m. March 28 and Jacob Donham (singer-songwriter) March 29. All shows begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.369.6796 / facebook.com/rathskellercoffeebarandpub.
• Salty Dog’s Seafood & Grill (Maggie Valley) will host “Karaoke w/Russell” every Monday and semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 828.926.9105 / facebook.com/saltydogs2005.
• Scotsman (Waynesville) will host TrancEnd (rock/pop) 9 p.m. March 22, Shane Meade (indie/folk) March 27 and The Borrowed Band March 29. All shows begin at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.246.6292 / scotsmanpublic.com.
On the beat
‘Doc Watson: A Life in Music’
book, “Doc Watson: A Life in Music.” and also be accompanied by musician Jerad Davis at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 27, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva.
An intimate and lovingly written biography of one of music’s legendary performers, this is the first major book written about Doc Watson and is destined to be the go-to book on Watson for generations to come.
Arthel “Doc” Watson (1923–2012) is arguably one of the most influential musicians Appalachia has ever produced. A musician’s musician, Watson grew up on a subsistence farm in the North Carolina mountains during the Great Depression, soaking up traditional music and learning to play guitar even though he was blind.
Rising to fame in the 1960s as part of the burgeoning folk revival scene, Watson became the face of traditional
music for many listeners, racking up multiple Grammys and releasing dozens of albums over the course of his long career.
Huffman tells the story of Watson’s life and legacy, drawing on extensive interviews and hundreds of hours of archival research. In making the most comprehensive biography of Watson ever, Huffman gives us an affecting and informative portrait of the man they called Doc.
To showcase the intricate beauty and mesmerizing sound of Watson, local singer-songwriter and guitarist Jerad Davis will also perform a handful of Watson’s melodies.
Huffman is a writer, reporter and author of “John Prine: In Spite of Himself.” He lives in Greensboro.
The event is free and open to the public. For more information, visit citylightsnc.com or call 828.586.9499.
• Slanted Window Tasting Station (Franklin) will host Sara & Seth (Americana) 6 p.m. March 21, Michael Kitchens (singer-songwriter) 2 p.m. March 23, The Water Kickers 6 p.m. March 28 and Steve Vaclavik (singer-songwriter) 5 p.m. March 30. 828.276.9463 / slantedwindow.com.
• Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts (Franklin) will host Lonestar (country) 7:30 p.m. March 20 and The North Carolina Symphony 7:30 p.m. March 28. 866.273.4615 / smokymountainarts.com.
• Stecoah Valley Center (Robbinsville) will host a Community Jam 5:30-7:30 p.m. every third Thursday of the month and semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. 828.479.3364 / stecoahvalleycenter.com.
• Stubborn Bull (Highlands) will host semi-regular “Live Music Mondays” with local/regional singer-songwriters. All shows begin at 5:30 p.m. Free and open to the public. 828.200.0813 / the-stubborn-bull.com.
• Trailborn (Highlands) will host its “Carolina Concert Series” with Melissa McKinney (Americana/soul) March 20 and Remedy 58 (Americana) March 27. All shows begin at 6 p.m. Free and open to the public. 828.482.1581 or trailborn.com/highlands.
• Ugly Dog Pub (Highlands) will host “Bluegrass Wednesday” at 6 p.m. each week and semiregular live music on the weekends. 828.526.8364 / theuglydogpub.com.
• Unplugged Pub (Bryson City) will host “Karaoke Night with Lori” March 20 (free), Topper March 21, Rock Holler March 22, Line Dancing Lessons 7 p.m. March 26 (free), Troy
Ready for “Fat Burger Month”?
Filled with some of Haywood County’s “juiciest, most mouthwatering burgers,” “Fat Burger Month” will run through April 6 in Waynesville, Maggie Valley and Canton. 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/fat-burger-month.
Underwood (singer-songwriter) March 27 (free), Bo Bullman (singer-songwriter) March 28 and Jon Cox Band (country/rock) March 29. 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 Paper Crowns (Americana/indie) 2 p.m. March 22 and Shane Meade (indie/folk) 2 p.m. March 30. Free and open to the public. 828.944.0686 / valleycigarandwineco.com.
• Valley Tavern (Maggie Valley) will host Stomper Kitty March 21 and Amos Jackson March 28. All shows begin at 6 p.m. unless otherwise noted. Free and open to the public. 828.926.7440 / valley-tavern.com.
• Vineyard At High Holly (Scaly Mountain) will host Katie & Ezra (Americana) March 22 and Breeze Cable (Americana) March 30. Free and open to the public. 828.482.5573 / thevineyardathighholly.com.
• Water’n Hole Bar & Grill (Waynesville) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. All shows begin at 9:30 p.m. 828.456.4750 / facebook.com/waternhole.bar.
• 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, bit.ly/jazzatwells.
• Yonder Community Market (Franklin) will host semi-regular live music on the weekends. Free and open to the public. Donations encouraged. Family friendly, dog friendly. 828.200.2169 / eatrealfoodinc.com.
• Find more at smokymountainnews.com/arts
• “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 / gsmr.com. On the table
‘Fat Burger Month’ runs through April 6. File photo
• 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.
• “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.
On the wall WCU faculty art showcase
The WCU faculty art showcase is currently underway. File photo
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.
ALSO:
• WNC Paint Events will host painting sessions throughout the region on select dates. For more information and/or to sign up, visit wncpaint.events.
• Gathering Room (Waynesville) will host a “Makers Market” 3-7 p.m. March 22. All welcome to play or listen. 828.558.1333 / thegatheringroom828.com.
• 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.
• 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.
On the stage
HART presents ‘An Unexpected Song’
• Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort (Cherokee) will host semi-regular comedians on the weekends. For tickets, visit caesars.com/harrahs-cherokee.
• Swain Arts Center (Bryson City) will host a production of “The Wizard of Oz” at 7 p.m. March 28-29, April 4-5 and 2:30 p.m. March 30 and April 6. Tickets are $12 for adults, $6 for students. swainartscenter.com.
ALSO:
• Haywood Arts Regional Theatre (Waynesville) will host semi-regular stage productions on
A stage production of “An Unexpected Song” will be held at 7:30 p.m. March 21-22, 2829 and 2 p.m. March 23 and 30 at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville.
“An Unexpected Song” is a captivating musical revue celebrating the iconic and rarely performed works of Andrew Lloyd Webber, featuring a powerhouse cast in an intimate cabaret setting.
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.
‘An Unexpected Song’ will be held on select dates. Donated photo
the weekends. harttheatre.org / 828.456.6322.
• Highlands Performing Arts Center (Highlands) will host semi-regular stage productions on the weekends. mountaintheatre.com / 828.526.9047.
• Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts (Franklin) will host semi-regular stage productions on the weekends. smokymountainarts.com / 866.273.4615.
• Peacock Performing Arts Center (Hayesville) will host semi-regular productions on the weekends. thepeacocknc.org / 828.389.ARTS.
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.
Want to learn contra dancing?
An evening of old-time dancing (contras, rounds, squares and mixers) will be held from 79 a.m. Thursday, March 20, at the Cowee School Arts & Heritage Center in Franklin.
Professional dance caller Claire Takemori, known for her clear teaching and positivity, will open the event at 6:45 p.m. with basic instruction for beginners, then walk dancers through each new dance and call the moves in time to the music as the dance progresses. Live music will be provided by Toss the Possum, a popular, highenergy family dance band.
Contra dance is considered the most accessible and sociable of all dance forms, with participants moving in two facing lines or in groups. Frequent partner changes allow dancers to meet new friends and experience different dancing styles.
All dances are taught, and seasoned dancers enjoy partnering with novices, so no experience or partner is required. People of all ages and experience levels are welcome. Wear comfortable clothes and closed shoes; no strong scents, please. Water bottles and snacks are allowed.
Admission is by donation, $10 is suggested. Children and first-timers are admitted free. The event is coordinated by Cricket Woodward and sponsored by the Arts Council of Macon County. For details, call 828.524.ARTS, email arts4all@dnet.net or visit artscouncilofmacon.org.
The contra dance will be in Franklin March 20. Cricket Woodward photo
Hoofing it from DC to NYC
“The simple act of walking and taking in what I saw and puzzling over what I encountered as I went. The rhythm and simplicity of it.”
— Neil King Jr.
Most all of my life I have liked to travel. To move about the planet and to see new places and to meet new people. Most of this travel was done on planes, on buses, on boats, on trains or in cars. I learned a lot from my travels and had good times.
Not doing much long-distance travel these days, I get my travel thrills mainly from books; traveling the globe during all periods of history and the future. So, when the prize-winning journalist and editor of the “Wall Street Journal’ Neil King Jr.’s recent book (“American Ramble: A Walk of Memory and Renewal,”
Mariner Books, 2023, 334 pgs. with an author’s hand-drawn map at the front of the book that tracks King’s trek from start to finish) about his solitary journey on foot from Washington, D.C., to New York City showed up in my stocking this Christmas, I was anxious to dive in and experience his journey myself. And so, off I went with Neil King in my walking shoes for a 330-mile trek up the East Coast of the U.S. and ready for an adventure.
Praise for the book abounds with writers such as Pulitzer Prize winner Daniel Yergin stating that this book is “packed with keen observations, surprising discoveries and wise reflections. Readers will be rewarded at every turn in the road.” I am reminded of Henry David Thoreau’s travel writing a couple of centuries ago in his book “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers,” and King, with this book, places himself in that heralded lineage.
“Destination stirs excitement,” he writes, “they bestow purpose.”
So, literally starting at the U.S. Capitol Building and not far from King’s own residence in downtown D.C., he starts his stroll on a March morning in 2021 on foot and with nothing but a knapsack, a blank journal to record his thoughts and travel information, and a strong, comfortable pair of shoes — down sidewalks and narrow streets leading out of town “where the gravest peril was
‘The Red Mill Bookstore’
a driver looking at his phone,” he writes.
“I could tell within blocks,” he continues, “that my walk would bend time, time moving more slowly and would make the present more expansive.” This statement reminds me of my own experience living off-the-grid in the woods along the Green River and with only my two feet as a mode of transportation. And so King says goodbye to the statue of Abraham Lincoln on the National Mall and heads out to the northeast.
As he walks “Buddhist like” out of town, his mind is filled with many thoughts about his life and the nature of this journey and his
the shoulder of a road keeping company with candy wrappers and roadkill.”
Soon King is in Maryland, where he visits small towns, farms and spends time in local neighborhood pubs learning about where he is. Back on the road (the “path”) he soon finds himself at the Mason-Dixon Line, where he literally walks the path of “the line” that divides Maryland and Pennsylvania. What follows is a Pennsylvania excursion from York to Conestoga to Lancaster along the Susquehanna River; and then, after an Amish buggy ride adventure, we’ve made our way through Amish country and all the way to Valley Forge on the way to Philadelphia.
own self-reliance and about freedom as a choice: “Emerson wrote that self-reliance was about the faith to rely on your own instincts and live by your own lights. As I kept going upriver, every inch of me was glad for the movement. You think about who did the original spadework when you walk the roads, the railbeds, the canal towpaths, when you cross the expansive bridges over the biggest rivers or the small but elegant bridges over mere creeks,” he writes.
As he wends his way northward and as city became country and horse farms and previous Quaker settlements, he writes in his journal: “Once what had been a deer path, an Indian trail, a lane to haul carts by, was now a road strictly for cars as I skitter along
Here, and on the outskirts of the city, we are with Quakers in silent meeting and camping out at night in a Quaker cemetery or a cave in a rock cliff. Here amidst all of this history, eating day-old sausage and with holes in his shoes, King writes: “The whole of the walk kept bringing delights beyond bounds of any rightful expectation,” as he moseys on up the road into Bucks County, and then New Hope, Penn., through cold, rain and, eventually, blue skies.
An avid reader and music lover, King cites and quotes others, like Thoreau, Beethoven, Kant and Nietzsche as keen and fervent walkers and whom he refers to as “the sauntering ones.”
”The longer you run or walk and the richer the blood flows, the freer and nimbler the thoughts,” he ponders, as he ruminates about his time and experiences as he hikes into the Delaware Valley and ever northward thinking about how differently people responded to him and his trek with many stops along the way — the bakery, the coffee shop, the hotel bar, the sandwich shop — where people had given him things for free. For the most part, such was King’s experience during his long and multifarious hike as he writes about history, personal stories and details including the unexpected, both positive and negative, as we near the end of the book and his journey and find ourselves approaching the Hudson River with New York City in the near distance.
(Thomas Crowe is a regular contributor to The Smoky Mountain News and Smoky Mountain Living magazine and is the author of the awardwinning memoir “Zoro’s Field: My Life in the Appalachian Woods.”)
Author Lin Stepp will host a special book reading for her latest novel, “The Red Mill Bookstore,” at 2 p.m. Friday, March 21, at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville.
Life is hard when too many of your plans and dreams crash to the ground at the same time, but often, with time, new beginnings and new opportunities come that bring fresh and unexpected joy and even surprising resolutions and answers to old sorrows. “The Red Mill Bookstore” is a heartfelt story full of hope, small town charm and belief in second chances. The event is free and open to the public. blueridgebooksnc.com or 828.456.6000.
Writer Thomas Crowe
Helene and DOGE could make it worse.
once all the wood dries out it will pose a significant fire hazard.
Limited resources and tricky topography already pose challenges.
Now those problems have been exacerbated.
BY JACK EVANS & JOHN BOYLE ASHEVILLE WATCHDOG
When Chris and Sara Evensen bought their home off Elk Mountain Scenic Highway in 2018, they felt like they’d hit the natural beauty jackpot: a nice home on two acres, ensconced in a gorgeous hardwood forest.
Now they fear their slice of paradise has become a tinderbox.
Like a scythe-wielding giant, Tropical Storm Helene felled hundreds of acres of woodlands that surround them. Last month, a truck working on storm recovery on the mountain clipped a power pole, igniting a fire along the Elk Trail neighborhood.
The blaze was contained, but it validated the fears of the Evensens and their neighbors. Their anxiety has only flared in the weeks since then, as high winds buffeted the mountains and
fanned wildfires in western North Carolina and beyond.
“Fires are starting really easily,” Chris Evensen said. “That’s pretty much the center of conversation up where we’re at.”
As Western North Carolina enters its spring wildfire season, fire officials and other experts warned in interviews with Asheville Watchdog that a collision of meteorological and political factors could make for perilous conditions.
FIRE SEASON BEGINS
Fires start and spread easily in the dry, windy weather typical to the region this time of year. Debris from Tropical Storm Helene, including hundreds of thousands of acres of downed trees across the state, threatens to fuel fires and hinder the crews trying to put them out. And in a realm where resources often run thin even in politically stable times, recent cuts to federal agencies including the U.S. Forest Service could limit both fire prevention and response.
And Western North Carolina has a lot of wildfires. Between 1997 and 2020, the 21 counties that make up the region saw more than 9,000 fires burn more than 148,000
acres, according to Steven Norman, a research ecologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service. More than half started as debris burns.
“This is important to know because we now have a great deal of tree debris from Helene,” Norman said. “We’ve got to deal with that safely.”
These mountains have two fire seasons: One from October through December, another from March through early May. As winter gives way to spring in Western Carolina, humidity levels drop. With trees still bare, the sun, up a bit longer each day, has an easy path to the forest floor, where it bakes leaves, grasses and twigs into easy fuel. As flowers and shrubs blossom, they suck up the moisture that remains in the ground.
Foresters rely on weather fronts to dampen the land every week or so, said Greg Yates, who retired in 2018 as the North Carolina Forest Service’s regional forester for the western third of the state. Miss one, and it’s an “active fire situation.” Miss several, “then things really start getting dried out,” Yates said, and it’s no longer just the little stuff — what foresters call “the fnes” — feeding flames.
“You go from having the quarter-inch-and-
less wood available and contributing to the fire, to an inch, to three inches, to six inches,” he said. “All that just builds on intensity.”
These conditions, in any year, make it easy for a spark to become a wildfire. Depending on who you ask, this year’s season arrived either slightly prematurely — Buncombe County Fire Marshal Kevin Tipton pegged it to an unusually early brush fire in Leicester on Feb. 4 — or right on cue, with several substantial fires igniting around the state during the last week of February. Over the following week, according to the North Carolina Forest Service, more than 2,000 acres burned across North Carolina, though rain Wednesday provided some relief.
“By tomorrow,” Philip Jackson, a spokesperson for the state agency, said, “it’ll be as if we never got that rain, because things dry up real quickly.”
Recent conditions would presage a moreactive-than-usual fire season on their own merits, said Riva Duncan, who worked for the U.S. Forest Service as a forest fire manager in North Carolina’s national forests before retiring at the end of 2020. But 2025 is poised to be an abnormal year in many ways, Duncan and other experts said. It’s why Yates, asked for his impressions on the months ahead, responded: “Just glad I’m retired.”
HELENE DEBRIS COMPLICATES TRICKY TERRAIN
North Carolina’s terrain makes for tough fires. It has more places where forested land mingles with development — what’s dubbed the “wildland-urban interface” — than any other state, and most of its residents live within these in-between zones. Buncombe County is rife with these areas: Town Mountain near downtown Asheville, the Bee Tree community in eastern Buncombe, Reynolds Mountain in Woodfin. These are the places Tipton thinks of when he imagines a worst-case scenario.
The mountainous topography creates its own challenges. In the valleys, tunneled winds send fire hurtling forward. In the hills, blazes can quickly scrape the sky.
“Fire goes uphill — the steeper it is, the faster that fire is going to run,” said Duncan, who was working in the national forests during the destructive fire season of 2016. “Fire just gets up and goes here.”
In the wake of Tropical Storm Helene, the landscape has become even harder to manage. The National Interagency Fire Center cited Helene as the source of “the most notable concerns” as it predicted above-normal fire potential along the path of devastation the storm cut from Florida’s Big Bend across the southeast and into Appalachia. The expanses of fallen trees — what firefighters call “blowdown” — can create an impenetrable barrier.
“Like taking a handful of toothpicks and scattering them, dropping them in a pile on a table,” Tipton said. “They’re not all facing in one direction.”
Landslides and floods have fur- F
Thousands of downed trees still litter the hillsides on and around Elk Mountain in northern Buncombe County, and residents are worried that
Watchdog photo by John Boyle.
ther isolated already-remote areas; many of the old logging and farm roads that fire crews rely on for access, especially when trucks and heavy equipment are involved, have been rendered impassable or disappeared entirely.
“You have those roads that are blocked with just a boatload of trees — thousands of trees,” Yates said, mentioning a hundredyear-old access road on his own property in Madison County that’s no longer usable. “Keeping the fires small is all about getting to them quick. Any of those delays can add up.”
Buncombe has some of the region’s largest blowdowns, Norman said, citing satellite images and aerial photography. Much of it, he said, is on south- and east-facing slopes, the same places that tend to burn
mean bigger fires. Bigger fires call for more personnel, more equipment. The more occupied those crews are, the harder it becomes to respond to new fires, and so on.
A particularly active fire season, then, could strain a state fire workforce already spread thin. Vacancies pockmark the state forest service, Jackson said. Some entire counties — such as McDowell, the site of recent fires — are without any state fire personnel.
Low income and burnout have created a self-perpetuating pattern. Pay for the state forest service’s first responders starts at $35,000 a year, barely over the poverty level for a family of four in North Carolina. Many of these rangers and forestry technicians work extra hours to fight fires, but they receive compensation for this overtime in the form of comp days rather than extra pay. But actually using
The current fire danger map shows “extreme” risk for Asheville, Buncombe County, Henderson, Transylvania, Madison and Polk counties. The risk of wildfires is “very high” this spring throughout the rest of western North Carolina. U.S. and North Carolina Forestry Services map
hottest in wildfires.
The largest pieces of debris pose more of a problem for access than they do as fuel, Duncan said. Downed hardwoods can hold moisture for months after they fall, and they’ll become more worrisome the longer they sit, drying into tinder for the autumn fire season and into 2026. But a hot, slowmoving fire sitting near blowdown could speed up the process, as radiant heat parches the wood and turns it into copious fuel for a hungry blaze.
Tipton has already had to call aerial support for one fire that was unreachable because of blowdown. Jackson said state crews have battled fires among fallen trees in McDowell and Polk counties. With access points shut off, especially in western Carolina, the state relies more on crews that can hike in on foot and set fire lines by hand. That means they could be slower to respond to fires that have more fuel to feast on — ”there are literally mountainsides that experienced complete blowdown,” Jackson noted — and will in turn burn hotter and spread quicker.
WILL LAYOFFS WORSEN CYCLE OF RESOURCE DRAIN?
These circumstances could conspire to fuel a cycle of resource drain. Slower responses
alongside federal personnel. The state forest service “literally ran out of resources” in 2016, Yates recalled, because many federal firefighters from elsewhere had already been sent home for the season when severe fires broke out.
“We wouldn’t have that this spring, but what are we facing as far as resources go now?” he said, adding that the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency is “going to wreak havoc with resources.”
that time is hard, Jackson said, because fire doesn’t take days off, and when these workers are able to take time off, they often spend it taking jobs to fight fires elsewhere to make ends meet.
“They run into the ground,” he said. “They’re not leaving because they want to. They’re leaving because they have to, because the money does not allow them to live.”
It’s too early to say how job and budget cuts from the federal level could affect state fire response, Jackson said. But the U.S. Forest Service, which is responsible for managing fire on federal lands, will face imminent challenges, Duncan said.
Though primary fire personnel have been nominally exempt from layoffs, much of the Forest Service’s firefighting is done by employees with other jobs who are certified to help fight wildfires. Those workers are especially important in the eastern U.S., where fire workforces are smaller than they are out west, Duncan said. They haven’t been spared the axe.
Federal firefighters from the western states, now in their off-season, have arrived in the east to provide support, she said. But whether the Forest Service would have the resources to fight multiple large fires at the same time remains an open question.
And because fire doesn’t respect jurisdictional boundaries, the federal squeeze could affect other agencies that often battle fires
Those federal layoffs could also stymie prescribed burning, an important fire-management practice that requires an intensive legal compliance process, with experts such as biologists and archaeologists signing off on burn plans, Duncan said. Those burns — which also take place this time of year — are crucial for lowering wildfire risk and nourishing wildlife.
“It’s an ecological tool,” she said. “Fire in the right time and place is very important.”
HOMEOWNER: TWO YEARS TO CLEAR OUT ALL THE DOWNED TREES
The Evensens accepted high winter winds as an inevitability when they chose to live atop a largely exposed ridge on Elk Mountain. But Helene erased the windbreak that served as their protection.
Chris Evensen said meteorological equipment on the property has recorded gusts as high as 86 mph. Now, when it blows, they leave their upstairs bedroom and sleep atop the concrete foundation in the basement, hoping no embers are carried on the wind.
Meanwhile, the neighborhood remains covered with what Chris vensen can see only as fuel.
“All the neighbors are working on their own houses, trying to get the stuff cleared from the immediate area of the houses,” he said. “There’s just so much that if I was doing it myself, it would take me two years to get a lot of that. I’m talking like giant poplars that are hundreds of years old — thick enough that I couldn’t even wrap my arms around them, and they just completely uprooted.”
He and his wife hope that maybe the neighborhood can work with a logging company to take away downed timber for free, and that some kind of organized governmental plan emerges to remove all the blowdown. The worry about fire never ebbs, but they want to stay on the mountain.
Norman noted that 98% of wildfire ignitions in the mountains are human-caused. He and other fire officials advise residents to take small steps to protect their homes from fire, such as cleaning their gutters and clearing leaves and combustible vegetation from around the house. But the best thing they can do is the most obvious, experts said: Don’t start a fire. That means being especially cautious of cigarette butts and fireplace ashes and cognizant of running equipment that could cause a spark. And it especially means resisting the temptation to set Helene debris ablaze.
Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation announces new ambassadors
The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation is welcoming a slate of community ambassadors to guide the next steps of its Blue Ridge Rising initiative. The group of leaders will help implement strategies to unify gateway communities surrounding the Blue Ridge Parkway for the betterment of the region.
Blue Ridge Rising aims to strengthen relationships and foster economic development within the North Carolina and Virginia communities that neighbor the Blue Ridge Parkway, one of the country’s most visited national parks.
The group is composed of one representative from each Parkway community. The ambassadors will voice the unique needs of their communities, help prioritize and guide projects, foster partnerships, and identify appropriate funding sources.
The ambassadors in North Carolina are Wes Greene, Ashe County; Mark File, Avery County; Thomas House, Buncombe County;
HCC hosts environmental summit
Haywood Community College in Clyde will welcome multiple speakers, guests and partners to campus for the WNC Environmental Summit from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, March 21,.
The summit will provide educational opportunities for regional groups to come together, share ideas and take action to make a difference. Community leaders, experts, agencies and partners will share expertise related to WNC environmental topics.
Programs will feature local youth action leaders, community leaders and scientists. Special youth-led sessions will allow middle and high school students to collaborate and discover ways to step up as leaders.
The event will also include science speakers participating in two panels discussing fish and wildlife conservation and change and Resilience in WNC’s waterways and over 20 community partners in attendance teaching attendees in hands-on workshops and booth displays.
Danielle Stilwell, Burke County; Jason Chaffin, Caldwell County; Amie Newsome, Haywood County; Carlos Martinez, Henderson County; Bernadette Peters, Jackson County; Shannon Odom, McDowell County; Spencer Bost, Mitchell County; Jessica Roberts, Surry County; Paul Wolf, Swain County; Carolyn Ashworth, Transylvania County; Ryan Robinson, Watauga County; Linda Cheek, Wilkes County; and Brywn Philips, Yancey County.
Blue Ridge Rising marked the first time in the national park’s history that all 29 Parkway-adjacent counties worked together to determine strategies that will have wideranging benefits for the region’s communities. Input from communities led to the creation of the Blue Ridge Rising Action Plan. The key themes of the plan are marketing, visitor experience, unified regional voice, resource protection, workforce education, and capacity building.
creeks in northeastern Oklahoma, where he was born and raised. His lifelong passion for understanding and preserving the natural world has led him from mountaintops to deserts, studying various ecosystems and organisms. As a supervisory biologist for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, he works with all wildlife, fish, and their ecosystems. He strives to reconnect with Cherokee lifeways through the natural world and wants to inspire others to deepen their connection to their native environment.
The summit will feature two keynote speakers. Dr. Caleb Hickman, a proud citizen of the Cherokee Nation, found his love for nature amidst the oak-hickory forests, lakes, and clear
Amber Allen, Noquisi Initiative, Project Coordinator, grew up in the mountains of Leicester. Throughout her childhood, she learned a lot about Cherokee and Appalachian traditions. She graduated CLMAP (Cherokee Language Master Apprentice Program) in the Summer of 2023. Throughout her time in CLMAP, she also wanted to be more involved in conservation efforts of native plants and the land, especially traditional basket materials. She has participated in many conservation efforts, including blood root and rivercane.
The summit will be held at the Haywood Community College campus. The conference is free to attend and will have a food truck on hand for lunch.
For full details, to RSVP and view the conference schedule, please visit haywood.edu/events/summit.
Reminder: burning trash is against state law
The open burning of trash, metal, plastic and all other man-made materials not only harms the environment and poses a public health risk, it’s against state law.
The open burning rule, the state’s oldest air quality regulation, limits what can be burned outdoors and when. Other requirements of the open burning rule:
Residential yard waste and commercial land clearing burning can only occur between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. No new vegetation can be added to a burn pile after 6 p.m.
Burning is only allowed when the air quality forecast is Code Green or Code Yellow. Burning on Code Orange, Red or Purple days is prohibited. Check your county’s air quality forecast at the online Air Quality Portal.
Yard waste must originate at a private residence and be burned on that site. In other words, residents can only burn vegetation from their own yard — not yard waste from other homes or locations.
Burning of yard waste is only allowed if permitted under local ordinances and only if public pickup of yard debris is not available.
Campfires, outdoor cooking fires and bonfires are permissible, unless prohibited by local ordinances or temporary burn bans, provided that only vegetation such as firewood is burned. Fires must be controlled and never left unattended.
In the wake of the devastating impacts of Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina, there are special provisions in place through the end of March to help facilitate efficient and safe processing of vegetative disaster debris in impacted counties. While grinding or chipping wood debris is preferable, guidance for burning debris is available online.
Commercial land clearing operations are also limited by the open burning rule. Land clearing is the uprooting or clearing of vegetation in connection with construction, land development or mining, or the initial clearing of vegetation to enhance property value. The burning of this debris must comply with all open burning rules, including the following key restrictions:
As a general rule, the vegetation should originate on the site where the burn is taking place. (Land clearing waste can be transported and burned at another site up to four times a year only if specific conditions in the open burning rules are met).
Kerosene or diesel fuel may be used to start a landclearing fire, but no other man-made materials can be burned.
Land clearing burn piles must be at least 500 feet from occupied structures and at least 250 feet from any public road when the prevailing winds are blowing toward the road. Information on wind direction is available from the National Weather Service.
The Division of Air Quality enforces the state open burning rule, partnering with local law enforcement, firefighters and fire marshals, and the N.C. Forest Service to ensure compliance. Violators can be fined up to $25,000 per violation per day. To submit an open burning complaint, contact the DEQ Regional Office that serves your county. Anonymous complaints can be submitted via our online tool.
Burn permits are available through the N.C. Forest Service’s online application at ncforestservice.gov/burnpermit or by contacting a local N.C. Forest Service county office or local permitting agent. For more information, contact the N.C. Forest Service.
Local county and municipal governments may have more stringent burning restrictions than state law. Contact your local officials to learn what burning rules may be in place where you live.
“I know people are aching for some normalcy and being able to get that big pile of junk out there that reminds them every day of what they went through, there’d be some great satisfaction on a number of different levels of putting a match to it,” Yates said. “But now is not the time.”
He nodded to the so-called “Swiss cheese model” of risk management, which posits that catastrophes originate not from a single cause but from many layers of behavior, each with their own small failures.
A drone photo above Elk Mountain in summer 2024, juxtaposed with drone photo after Tropical Storm Helene. The “blowdown” flattened an entire slope and downed trees are now potential fuel for wildfires.
Low humidity. High wind. A foolish decision to light a match. Bad weather, blocked roads. A crew that’s exhausted, inexperienced, short-handed. A fire that’s growing now, getting bigger and hotter and moving fast.
“How many holes have to line up before it starts getting ugly?” Yates said. “That in a nutshell, brother, is what used to keep me up at night when the wind blew.”
(Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Jack Evans is an investigative reporter who previously worked at the Tampa Bay Times. You can reach him via email at jevans@avlwatchdog.org. John Boyle has been covering Asheville and surrounding communities since the 20th century. You can reach him at 828.337.0941, or via email at jboyle@avlwatchdog.org. The Watchdog’s local reporting during this crisis is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication.)
Chris Evensen photos
The Joyful Botanist
BY ADAM B IGELOW
Something Spicy
Many of the first signs of springtime are subtle. There are little shifts in the breeze as the sun begins to feel a bit warmer and remains in the sky a little bit longer each day. Birdsong increases morning and evening, and other flying beings begin buzzing around looking to forage some pollen and nectar.
Many of the first spring blooms tend to be diminutive little flowers that may not stand out to most modern people who have been disconnected from nature. Luckily, they do stand out to the newly emerging insects who pollinate them in the earliest of spring times. Early pollinators like native bees and flies will seek out these early sources of energy and help to ensure their continued growth and spread by gorging themselves on nectar and bringing pollen back to begin their spring broods.
While I celebrate the return of the troutlily (Erythronium spp.) as the first wildflower to bloom, I know in my heart and head that the first subtle shifts of the season start with woody plants, like shrubs and trees, and not with the herbaceous plants we call wildflowers.
spotted while dormant due to the distinctive round ball-shaped buds along the stems. No other woody plant in our region has rounded buds like spicebush.
In springtime these buds burst open to reveal bright yellow flowers that attract a variety of insects like sawflies (Symphata spp.), tachinid flies (Tachinidae family) and many different species of early emerging bees. Successfully pollinated female flowers will produce a type of berry called a drupe that contains one single seed surrounded by a fragrant flesh and a bright red skin that stands out behind the yellowing leaves come fall.
It is in the summertime that I used to have the most trouble identifying spicebush. Its simple green leaves blend into the mass of green that fill the woods in summer, and there is very little that stands out to the eye as distinctive. At least that is until being shown the small, petiole leaves that are found at the base of the more abundant and larger leaves.
Puzzles can be found on page 38
Of course, the first flower of spring is not the dandelion (Taraxacum officinale). Neither it, nor the first pollinators it is supposed to help according to memes on my newsfeeds, the honeybee (Apis mellifera) is native to North America, let alone Western North Carolina.
No, the true first flower of springtime is the red maple tree (Acer rubrum) which begins the transition into spring long before the spring equinox. As the sap begins to flow again, the hillsides take on a faint red glow. These are the buds swelling into flowers that will soon tinge the mountains with their red and orange blooms.
Among my favorite spring flowers are those of the shrub called spicebush (Lindera benzoin). This small and spreading shrub with multiple branches is easy to identify three of the four seasons. In winter, it can be
At any time of year, you can crush a part of the plant to reveal its wonderful, spicy and lemony aroma which is found most intensively in the flowers, leaves and fruits of spicebush. This “scratch-and-sniff” test is a reliable trait that gives spicebush its name. Flowers and stems can be made into a delicious and medicinal tea that helps with inflammation and can relieve cold and flu symptoms. Plus, it tastes great.
As if all of this wasn’t enough to help you fall in love with spicebush, it also serves as the larval host and namesake of one of the black and blue iridescent butterflies that flit around all summer, the spicebush swallowtail butterfly (Papilio troilus). This summer, see if you can spot one of these caterpillars rolled up inside of a leaf. If you do, it will give you a big smile, as the markings of the caterpillar’s head look like the eyes and mouth of a snake. It won’t bite you, though.
(The Joyful Botanist leads weekly wildflower walks most Fridays and offers consultations and private group tours through Bigelow’s Botanical Excursions. bigelownc@gmail.com.)
Tiny Spicebush flowers are easily identifiable three seasons out of the year. Adam Bigelow photo
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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!
Considering the number of disasters that have occurred in the past decade, chances are you’ll experience some sort of emergency. Between school, sports and other activities, chances are you won’t be with your kids when it happens. Ready.gov/kids has
