Smoky Mountain News

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On the Cover:

Old growth trees elicit awe and inspire forest visitors, but their numbers have dwindled since the age of industrialized logging. (Page 32)

News

County courthouse landscape plan lacks shade.

Haywood leaders consider opting out of newspaper bill

MedWest hospital board expands. .

TDA celebrates Travel and Tourism week.

Haywood leaders weigh tax increase versus school safety.

Jackson commissioners to add one school resource officer.

Price of Cherokee justice center project rises.

Eastern Band to participate in national housing study.

Macon school officials detail dramatic cuts

Officials weighs profits versus cost of Cashiers ABC store.

Cashiers looking to break free from sewer bind

HCC gives commissioners laundry list of projects.

Opinion

The fracturing of public squares.

A&E

Shelton House to host Village of Yesteryear.

Back Then

Some scarlet tanagers are orange.

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C ONTRIBUTING: Jeff Minick (writing), Chris Cox (writing), George Ellison (writing), Gary Carden (writing), Don Hendershot (writing), Dylan Brown (intern)

CONTACT

WAYNESVILLE | 34 Church Street, Waynesville, NC 28786 P: 828.452.4251 | F: 828.452.3585

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This distinction is a direct result of the outstanding efforts that you, our dedicated caregivers, make each and every day at Mission Health to attain exceptional outcomes for our community. You are the reason we achieved such a remarkable honor for two consecutive years. Thank you.

Canton residents trapped after landslide blocks road

BY CAITLIN BOWLING STAFFWRITER

Alandslide east of Canton took out a dirt road early Monday morning following two solid days of unceasing rains, blocking about 40 people in their homes who had no other way to get out of their neighborhood.

Among those trapped were Michael Stansell and a group of buddies, who joked that the landslide must have been entirely their fault.

The day before was Cinco De Mayo, and Stansell and others were gathered at friend Luke Wright’s house on Holder Branch Road celebrating the Mexican holiday.

“We partied the mountain down,”

Stansell chuckled.

The group of friends was fast asleep when the slide actually occurred around 7 a.m. May 6. The slide pushed trees and earth about 200 feet down an embankment, covering nearly 125 feet of roadway.

The road was closed for about a day as N.C. Department of Transportation workers moved the debris, which included a storage building that was swept down in the slide.

Dara Parker realized she was blocked in by the landslide not long after it happened Monday morning when her three kids headed to school.

Although the road was cleared in time for them to go to school Tuesday, Parker said she

is still worried about the stability of the road and mountainside. DOT workers shoved the debris to either side of the road, creating tall mounds of dirt residents now have to pass through.

“I’m a little nervous with the kids,” she said. “You always kind of wonder if it is going to give way.”

Emergency officials rode four-wheelers up the mountains to check on the people stuck on the wrong side of the slide around 9 a.m. Monday, Stansell said. N.C. Highway Patrol even called in a helicopter to help assess the situation.

“It was something else,” Stansell said. “Apparently, it was a lot bigger deal than we thought it was.”

MOTHERS’s Day Roses

Initial assessments by DOT concluded that a fill slope above the switchback on the road was the source of the slide. Haywood County sustained an estimated three inches of rainfall prior to the slide.

“There is concern throughout our region about more rain — what it will do to existing slides and some slopes that we don’t know are unstable,” said Joel Setzer, head of a 10-county region of DOT in the mountains. “We will be happy if it does not rain for a couple of weeks.”

Marc Pruett, a Haywood soil and erosion officer, made rounds to about half a dozen landslides through the wee hours of the morning Sunday night when the more than two-days of unceasing rains finally quit. The cause of all the slides?

“The heavy weight of water on steep slopes,” Pruett said.

All the landslides originated from slopes that had been graded, cut or fill in some way at some point in time — rather than completely natural terrain.

“I think all of them we saw were associated with artificial work in some way,” Pruett said.

DOT has not set a deadline or calculated cost estimates for the Holder Branch Road repairs. Setzer said that the department is still dealing with a backlog of repairs for damages that occurred during January when Western North Carolina was slammed with nearly a week of heavy rains.

“We are not fully recovered from those storms,” Setzer said. “We are working very diligently.”

According to Parker, Monday was not the first time a landslide had occurred on Holder Branch Road. A slide happened in about the same place more than 10 years ago. Back then, officials cleaned up the mess and planted some grass, but they didn’t fix the problem, she said.

Neither Stansell nor Wright were overly concerned about not being able to take the traditional route down Holder Branch Road.

“It was like a vacation,” Wright said.

Plus, they had a round about way out. Interstate 40 runs over Holder Branch Road and there is a gap in the metal guardrail.

Wright and others were able walk up to onto the shoulder of the interstate, where a prearranged ride picked them and took them where they needed to go.

Joseph Drewnoski, 32, of Waynesville left behind a wife and three children after being killed in a landslide this week. The family has asked donations be made to The Open Door Soup kitchen, where Drewnoski liked to volunteer, in lieu of flowers. Donated photo

Landslide kills railroad worker

BY ANDREW KASPER STAFFWRITER

AWaynesville man who works for Norfolk Southern Railway was buried and killed by a landslide in the middle of the night Sunday while surveying tracks for storm damage following a weekend of unrelenting rains throughout the region.

The tragedy left a widow and three young children fatherless.

Joseph Drewnoski was inspecting a rail line near Black Mountain in McDowell County that morning at 2 a.m., when a mudslide came shooting down the mountain. It took emergency workers five hours to recover his body from the rubble, mud and debris.

The 32-year-old was an assistant foreman for Norfolk Southern’s engineering department. Drewnoski worked for the railroad for about eight years. Track maintenance and repairs were a key part of his job.

Drewnoski was traveling the line with a co-worker to check the site of a mudslide that had come down on the track. Drewnoski had gotten out of the specialized rail-running truck, which can drive on railroad tracks, when another landslide came down the mountain.

His coworker was still inside the truck. It was knocked off the track and that man survived. However, Drewnoski died.

Responders from McDowell County received an emergency call at 3 a.m. and arrived on site with fire and emergency dispatch personnel. However, it took until 7:30 a.m. to dig Drewnoski’s body out of the mudslide.

The company had other workers in the field that night, and landslides covering sections of the track were not an uncommon during heavy storms, according to Robin Chapman, a spokesperson for the railroad.

“It’s not an unusual occurrence in a heavy rain situation,” said Chapman. “Inspecting lines was part of (Drewnoski’s) job.”

The fatal incident has sparked an investigation by Norfolk Southern as well as the Federal Railroad Administration, which is standard policy when a railroad worker is killed. The administration currently has two inspectors on site accompanied by an inspector with the N.C. Department of Transportation.

A Federal Railroad spokesman wrote in an email that the administration would not comment on the investigation while it was ongoing. The final report on the incident could take as long as a year to produce and the agency can implement penalties if fault is found.

Drewnoski was a native of Florida and has lived in Haywood County for the past six years. He left behind a wife, two sons and a daughter. An obituary remembers him as a loving husband and father.

“He loved spending time with his family and especially enjoyed sharing the Star Wars Trilogy, Boy Scouts, and volunteering at The Open Door (Soup Kitchen) with his sons,” the obituary read. “Joe loved the outdoors, enjoyed going fishing and hunting, and was also an avid reader and Duke basketball fan.”

Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. on Friday, May 10, at Grace Episcopal Church in the Mountains. Burial will follow at Green Hill Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 6-8 p.m. on Thursday evening at Wells Funeral Home in Waynesville.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to The Open Door Soup Kitchen, 32 Commerce Street, Waynesville, NC 28786. www.wellsfuneralhome.com.

New courthouse landscape to be less lush, more spartan

The two landscape architects disagreed about the county’s choice of tree species.

Villavaso said he liked the choice because of their colorful nature.

“I think they are fine actually. There is lots of color,” Villavaso said. “This is a good effort.”

BY CAITLIN BOWLING STAFFWRITER

Anew landscape plan for the Haywood County historic courthouse is mostly devoid of large shade trees, in stark contrast to the many stately sugar maples that graced the lawn until recently. Instead, it opts for just a handful of midsized trees.

County commissioners hastily voted to cut down the trees earlier this year without public input, citing a variety of reasons ranging from trouble getting grass to grow underneath to the danger posed by falling limbs. The now-denuded courthouse lawn was met with chagrin by some, but commissioners pledged a better, more attractive landscaping plan would follow.

Commissioners this week approved a landscaping plan for the courthouse, but according to two landscape architects, it leaves something to be desired.

While the trees selected to decorate the courthouse lawn will offer color during the year, the design lacks large shade trees — the reason the grassy area became a hotspot for anyone looking to cool off while downtown during the summer.

“They should put some of the canopy back,” said Wayne Villavaso, a landscape architect from Maggie Valley. “Try to add a couple of the maples in.”

The plan calls for just two trees in front of the courthouse, namely Yoshino Cherry trees, which grow to a maximum height of 50 feet.

Along the left side of the courthouse facing Depot Street, the plan calls for six Kousa Dogwood, which grow to a height of 25 feet. It also has numerous shrubs lining the walkway and a couple more trees heading toward the justice center.

It includes only one sugar maple set back on the right side of the historic courthouse, between it and the new justice center.

After reviewing the design, Villavaso said the county could easily add a couple of sugar maples along the street in front of the courthouse. The trees would provide shade without blocking the view of the courthouse or clashing with the rest of the design.

“They can put in the maples trees and still have a nice lawn,” Villavaso said, adding that he liked the plan otherwise.

Philan Medford, a tree advocate and pedestrian activist, also suggested that the county place maples along the street for shade. The trees would grow tall and could be limbed up and still allow unobstructed views of the courthouse from the sidewalk or street.

“What I regret is no shade trees on the street,” Medford said. “It is going to be hot.”

Medford called the absence of shade trees “stupid.”

“If we go back and busy it back up, we are defeating what we tried to do.”

However, Daniel Hyatt, a landscape architect in Waynesville, said he felt the choice of trees was too exotic for Haywood County and none of them would provide the shade people have enjoyed and were accustomed too with the maples.

“Surely there are at least regionally native plants that would have some character,” he said.

By placing the cherry trees in the middle of the lawn instead of closer to the edge, people will also be less inclined to hang out on the lawn as is a longstanding custom during summer festivals.

“Trees framing a lawn invite use, ease mowing and make the space feel longer,” Hyatt said.

And because of the way cherry trees’ limbs fall, people will not be able to sit beneath them for shade, he said.

ASSESSINGTHEOPTIONS

Commissioners got their first look at at the landscaping plan last week, when County Maintenance Director Dale Burris presented the commissioners with three design options for the courthouse lawn. All three included the same tree species but had slightly different placements.

A committee of a dozen people with varying backgrounds, including arborists, concocted three different landscaping options. The committee did not include any certified landscape architects, however.

The two that were not picked included more Yoshino cherry trees lining the walkway up to the courthouse entrance, one of which included elevated planters for flowers and another that did not.

But commissioners thought the options that included more trees might make the lawn look cluttered.

“If we go back and busy it back up, we are defeating what we tried to do,” said Commissioner Mike Sorrells.

Board members also thought their final choice would be best for festivals, particular the Folkmoot International Festival when flags are hung from the courthouse.

“I do think number three does lend itself more when we have Folkmoot,” said Commissioner Kevin Ensley.

Burris said he did not care which plan was ultimately chosen as long as the county moved quickly to plant something on the barren courthouse law. Out of everyone, he said, employees in the facilities and maintenance department are the most anxious to replace the cut down maples.

“Maintenance staff … wants to get this back to the way it used to be probably more than anybody else,” he

F— Mike Sorrells, Haywood County commissioner Haywood

Bill would weaken newspapers as conduit for government oversight

BY CAITLIN BOWLING STAFFWRITER

Haywood County commissioners weighed the merits of saving money versus government transparency this week.

State law requires counties and towns to publish notices of meetings, public hearings and contracts going out to bid in the local newspaper of record. Newspapers charge a fee to print the notices, which add up to $20,000 to $30,000 a year for Haywood County alone.

A bill aimed at saving those local tax dollars would let counties and towns opt out of putting notices in the paper and instead post them to a website where they could be viewed by the public.

The bill would only grant the exemption to a handful of counties in the state — a mere 10 in fact. Sen. Jim Davis, R-Franklin, inserted Haywood, Macon, Jackson and Swain counties into the bill. Any towns within those counties would also be exempt from putting public notices in the newspaper.

Haywood leaders might end up telling the state “thanks, but no thanks,” however.

“I feel like we are here to save money for the taxpayer,” said Commissioner Kirk Kirkpatrick. But, he added, that must be balanced against the responsibility of government to be transparent.

In rural counties like Haywood, there are still a number of people who don’t have access to Internet at home and must use the library to get online. On the other hand, anyone can subscribe to the local newspaper.

Kirkpatrick and Chairman Mark Swanger both said they would like Haywood County taken out of the bill.

“The cost savings is not so great that I feel comfortable,” Kirkpatrick said.

The rationale for printing government notices in the paper is to keep the public apprised of when elected leaders are meeting and when hearings on public policy changes are scheduled so citizens can monitor and participate in their local government.

Relegating them to a website opens the door for information to be concealed from the public. Haywood commissioners said they would never do that, but they can’t predict what future leaders might do if no one was watching.

“Do we trust a future board or other

said. “They don’t take much pride in a mud hole.”

The new landscape plan also includes the relocation of the flagpole outside the courthouse. The pole currently sits on the right side, closest to the Haywood County justice center. According to tradition, it should stand on the left side.

The commissioners agreed to replace the current flagpole with a 40-foot pole just to the right of the historic courthouse.

The appearance of the courthouse lawn has been a hot topic around the county since

boards?” said Commissioner Kevin Ensley.

The commissioners delayed an official decision on whether to have the county removed from the bill until their May 20 meeting, when they will have had more time to consider the matter. If Haywood is removed from the bill, so would the towns that lie within Haywood, meaning they would have to keep putting notices in the local newspaper as well.

Meanwhile, some town leaders in Franklin formally lodged their disapproval of the bill. The town of Franklin can’t ask directly to be removed from the bill. Since Franklin lies in Macon County, and Macon is included in the public notice exemption, it would apply to Franklin as well.

Read more:

For more information on the bill and its potential impacts, see last week’s story: smokymountainnews.com/news/item/10227.

But in a symbolic gesture, the board voted 4-to-2 to send a letter to legislators saying that they plan to continue publishing notices in the local media even if the bill granting them an exemption passes.

Alderman Bob Scott, a former newspaperman, brought the matter up for a vote.

Scott said the General Assembly would sacrifice the principles of government by the people, for the people, in the name of cost savings.

“Government is not a business that is supposed to run as a profit; government is a service,” Scott said.

Scott added that Franklin has no problem posting notices online, but he also believes counties and towns should continue printing them in newspapers as well.

Aldermen Billy Mashburn and Farrell Jamison voted against sending the letter. Jamison said he is in favor of continuing to use media to notify the public about various meetings or legal matters but was not prepared to send a letter expressing an opinion about the bill.

“We don’t really know what the bill was,” Jamison said. “I would rather send a letter when we know what we are voting against.”

MedWest-Haywood board change averts potential for tie votes ahead of controversial decision

The 10-person Haywood Regional Medical Center board will now include an 11th member.

The Haywood Board of Commissioners Monday approved a change to the hospital board’s bylaws to up the number of members and appointed Neil Budde to the 11th seat.

“We thought it would probably be in the best interest of the hospital board to at least have an odd number of members,” said Commissioner Kirk Kirkpatrick, who is also a member of the hospital board.

Kirkpatrick said that an uneven number is crucial when controversial votes are taken. An odd number ensures that there is not a tie.

The board is already faced with an important and future-defining decision. MedWest-Haywood is part of the three hospitals in the MedWest system, managed by Carolinas HealthCare in Charlotte.

However, poor bottom lines and perceived disparities have caused strife within the MedWest system, which also includes MedWest-Harris in Sylva and MedWestSwain. And Westcare, the governing board for both Harris and Swain hospitals, has voted to dissolve the partnership with MedWest-Haywood.

The board of MedWest-Haywood has

Bring on the tourists

This week is Travel and Tourism Week in Haywood County.

The Haywood County Board of Commissioners Monday officially dubbed May 4-12 Travel and Tourism Week to recognize the importance of the industry in the county and its positive impact on the local economy.

“Tourism means a whole lot to this county,” said Commissioner Mike Sorrells.

In its proclamation, the Tourism Development Authority detailed just how much tourism benefits the county. The yearly economic impact of the county’s tourism industry was tabulated at $120.4 million.

More tourists means more jobs and also lower taxes for residents. Travel and tourism accounts for more than 1,280 jobs in Haywood County — equaling $22.76 million in payroll. The state and local tax revenue generated from tourism also trans-

not yet weighed in on whether it would agree to dissolve the partnership, however.

A vote is anticipated sometime this year. Budde applied to serve on the board in April but was not chosen during that round of appointments. However, with his

Poor bottom lines and perceived disparities have caused strife within the MedWest system, which also includes MedWest-Harris in Sylva and MedWest-Swain.

hospital and Information Technology background, commissioners said they thought he was a good fit for the new seat.

Budde, a retired Waynesville resident, worked for 12 years directing data centers in hospitals and sold IT software for 10 years. He currently co-chairs the Haywood Christian Ministries’ annual golf tournament.

— By Caitlin Bowling

The state and local tax revenue generated from tourism also translates to $192.85 in tax savings on average for each Haywood County resident.

lates to $192.85 in tax savings on average for each Haywood County resident.

Lynn Collins, executive director of the TDA, said visitors’ reason for staying in Haywood County is apparent — it’s the natural beauty of the mountains.

“All you have to do is look out these windows to see why people want to visit,” Collins said.

— By Caitlin Bowling

February when the commissioners first gave the orders to chop down the 11 sugar maples and one evergreen that stood around the courthouse. The loss of the trees came as a surprise to many when they saw the sugar maples being cut down in the days following the board’s decision.

An arborist’s report said the trees were diseased and posed a liability problem for the county, prompting the commissioners to order them to be swiftly cut down. The courthouse lawn has sat bare for a couple months. Workers will finish grinding up the trees’

stumps this week and then the re-landscaping can begin.

“Once they are finished, this should begin to move very rapidly,” Swanger said.

Committee members included Jonathan Yates, horticulturist with town of Waynesville; Bill Skelton with Haywood County Extension Service director; Tim Matthews, certified arborist with the county extension office; Dwayne Vigil, N.C. Forest Service supervisor; Buffy Phillips, director of Downtown Waynesville Association; Sherri Rogers, county register of deeds, Julie Davis, county finance

director, Dale Burris, county maintenance director, County Commission Chairman Swanger and County Manager Marty Stamey. County workers will receive help from the Haywood Community College students and George Thomas, director of Haywood Community College horticulture program.

Charles Boyd, a licensed landscape contractor and owner of WNC Landscaping Service, will donate the dogwoods and sugar maple to the county. The county will try to find the other species at wholesale price or try to get them donated as well.

Haywood weighs cost-benefit of more school cops

BY CAITLIN BOWLING STAFFWRITER

The Haywood County Board of Commissioners have made it clear that without a property tax increase, funding is unlikely for additional school resource officers and guidance counselors.

County commissioners and school administrators met last week to review the school system’s budget request. Among the requests was $500,000 for four new resource officers and four new counselors.

Weigh in

The Haywood County Board of Commissioners will meet with school leaders and law enforcement at 6 p.m., Thursday, May 9, at the Education Center in Clyde. They will discuss school safety and school resource officers.

The increase would give each elementary school its own counselor rather than shared part-time counselors, seen as a proactive step to make sure students are on the right path early to avoid behavior problems down the road.

The four armed officers would be shared by elementary schools. The middle and high schools in the county already have cops.

Would you support a property tax increase to fund four additional officers as well as four new guidance counselor positions? mstamey@haywoodnc.net or 828.452.6625.

Kirkpatrick likened placing resource officers in schools to stationing an armed guard outside Walmart. Should someone stand watch over the megastore just because there is a small chance a shooting could occur there, he queried.

“We believe that is a step in the right direction,” said Haywood County Superintendent Anne Garrett.

But the quandary for county leaders is how to pay for the eight new positions year after year. Budgets have been tight since the recession, and while the county’s financial outlook has improved, it has not rebounded enough to take on an additional $500,000 annual expense.

“The only way to get it is through a tax increase. We just don’t have the money,” said Commissioner Mark Swanger. “Do they think this is important enough to raise taxes?”

“You don’t know when and where that is going to happen,” Kirkpatrick said. “We are protecting against something that is very difficult to protect against.”

Some argued the presence of an officer could deter possible criminals.

“Let’s just see what the public thinks. It’s their kids we are talking about.”

— Mark Swanger, commissioner

Commissioners calculated that they would need to raise the property tax rate 2 cents to cover the annual cost of the officers and counselors. The current rate is 54 cents per $100 of a property’s value.

The commissioners have asked school leaders to talk with parents and residents and gauge whether they would be amenable to a tax increase if it were earmarked for the new positions.

“Let’s just see what the public thinks,” Swanger said. “It’s their kids we are talking about.”

Although the school administration has asked the commissioners for the budget increase, the Haywood County Board of Education has not formally put its weight behind the funding request. School Board Chairman Chuck Francis said they are still trying to gather input from parents.

“It is a serious thing to ask the public to ask for a tax increase,” Francis said.

But there’s a fundamental question looming over the debate. Commissioner Kirk Kirkpatrick said although he may support funding for more officers, he wondered if it was prudent to spend money to protect against something that is “more than likely not going to happen.”

“If you pull up to a bank and see a police car, you are not as likely to rob it,” Garrett said. On the flip side, however, a mentally disturbed individual may not care either way.

“You are not going to stop a crazy person,” Kirkpatrick said.

For commissioners and school board officials, there seems no easy solution.

“I think everyone in the county wants to assure that the children are safe,” Garrett said.

But it is debatable whether additional resource officers is the answer or if the county could more wisely invest what money it does have elsewhere.

The top three causes of death among children ages five to 14 in N.C. are car crash injuries, cancer and accidents. Homicide ranks sixth — accounting for nine of the 105 deaths of children age five to 14 in 2011. Child homicides are usually at the hands of an abusive relative or caretaker, not a random shooter.

HALFTIMEFEARS

Commissioners and other county leaders voiced concerns about officers splitting their time between two schools.

Haywood has five officers now — one at both the main high schools, one at the alternative high school, one at Waynesville Middle and a shared officer between Canton and Bethel middle schools. There are none at any of the elementary schools. The four officers

S EE HAYWOOD, PAGE 11

Officer Nan Tritt is partmom, part-cop, part-counselor to the kids at the Jackson County School of Alternatives.

Here she talks with student Tylor Keffer before school this week. Donated photo

Cops in schools offer more than peace of mind

BY B ECKY JOHNSON STAFFWRITER

At first blush, Officer Nan Tritt looks like any other cop. She wears a badge and a gun, and the heft of a bulletproof vest shows under her uniform.

She drives a police car, carries a radio, and is ready to risk her life protecting the public, but that’s about where the similarities end. As a school resource officer at the alternative school in Jackson County, she primarily serves as a confidant, a shoulder to cry on, and a trusted coach when life throws kids a curveball.

“Sometimes I think the public sees us as standing at the door ready to defend the school against an intruder. But I am not that. I am a counselor,” Tritt said. “I am their friend. I am someone they can talk to when things are going the wrong direction.”

In the wake of the Connecticut school shooting late last year, school systems across the mountains have been asking county leaders for extra money to hire more school resource officers. To help bolster that case in Jackson County, Tritt appeared before coun-

ty commissioners this week and offered evidence of a different sort — the role she plays as a navigator to get kids the help they need.

She shared a small sample of the heartbreaking home life some of her students deal with. There’s no food to eat. The power had been cut off so they can’t shower before coming to school. Their dad got arrested. And, thanks to the rapport Tritt has developed with students after five years on the job, they confide in her.

“This is my passion. These kids are like my children. I love these children,” Tritt said. “I am not a security guard. I am much more.”

Jackson County school leaders and the sheriff’s office have asked for $176,000 a year to hire four additional school resource officers in Jackson County. The county’s three high schools already have school resource officers, but its four K-8 schools don’t.

In addition to $176,000 annually for salary and benefits, it would cost the county $225,000 the first year to outfit each of the four additional officers with equipment and a patrol car — for a total budget increase of

$400,000 in the coming fiscal year.

County commissioners have not endorsed the proposal, however. Based on a preliminary budget, the county will only fund one of the four new officers the schools have asked for.

For now, the county sees merit in placing a school resource officer at Smokey Mountain Elementary, a K-8 school in Whittier, primarily due to its more remote location. If a problem arose at the school, it could take 15 minutes for a deputy to get there from Sylva after being dispatched.

But like Tritt, Superintendent Michael Murray said the real value of a school resource officer isn’t just the security measure they offer. Murray lamented that the national debate has been focused on giving teachers guns and arming schools to defend themselves.

“That is missing the point. We can all hire security guards and put them out front, but it’s the relationship with children. We want that piece — not just people with guns,” Murray said.

That said, there is merit to school resource officers from a safety standpoint.

“I’m not going to say a person with a gun isn’t a deterrent,” Murray said.

“These kids have a right to come to school and be protected,” Tritt added. “It is our job as school resource officers to make sure they are safe.”

Tritt’s presence has indeed created a safer environment for kids at her school, but mostly by squelching problems among the student body itself — not from an outside threat.

“When I first started, I had fights every day. I had to lock the school down on several occasions for violence. Now I am pleased to say I have one fight a year,” Tritt said.

Tritt helps students get the help they need, often by taking them to see the school social worker. But sometimes it is as simple as letting them get food to take home from a food locker in the library that’s stocked for that very reason.

County Commissioner Doug Cody likened Tritt’s role to that of a liaison that can help students get the assistance they need.

“I let them know ‘Somebody is on your side and going to look out for you,’” Tritt said. “In return I don’t have the fights and the disrespect.”

requested would be shared by nine elementary schools.

“That is not a good situation,” said Commissioner Bill Upton, adding that lives could be lost in the minutes it would take law enforcement to respond to a 911 call.

Part of the fear is that people can track an officer’s schedule and know when they will be at one school or another.

“Whenever we divide these (officers) and they become a half day (officer) at schools, what is going to happen the rest of the day?” said Haywood County Sheriff Greg Christopher. “People know when they are at a particular school.”

Christopher said concerned parents have been questioning why officers are in some schools but not others.

“’My son at Pisgah, is he that much more valuable to you than my son at Bethel?’” said Christopher, relaying a conversation with a parent.

With the county still on the fence, school administrators are hoping for state and federal funding, but the prospect is unlikely. While there have been bills introduced that would help schools fund officers, they seem unlikely of passing.

“I don’t think you can count on the state to help you,” Swanger said.

There is a federal grant program that pays a portion of the salary for a new school officer, but only for three years and competition is likely to be stiff.

Still, Haywood applied.

“We are just looking at ever opportunity that comes along,” Garrett said.

OTHERCOUNTIES

In Macon, the school system would like one additional school resource officer for its alternative middle and high school. It already has four officers: one for each middle school, and two for the 900-student-body Franklin High. Its four elementary schools nor its two K-12 schools have officers.

In Jackson, commissioners will likely consider one additional officer instead of the four being requested (see related story). In Swain County, the board of commissioners did not think twice before adding three new officers in January.

Walking the dog

The trials and tribulations of being homeless in Haywood

65-year-old Louis “Louie” Bing has been homeless in Waynesville for the last seven years. After a series of mishaps and unfortunate events, Bing soon found himself alone on the streets. These days, he sees his place in the community, strolling the town with his beloved dog Sid, talking with anyone who has time to chat. Garret K. Woodward photo

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD STAFF WRITER

Standing next to Louis “Louie” Bing, you’d never know he was homeless.

While waiting for a cup of coffee at City Bakery in Waynesville, the 65-year-old stands patiently alongside tourists, retirees and locals. His clothes, shoes and beard are well kempt. He holds his head up high and there’s a smile on his face. These don’t seem to be your typical characteristics of someone homeless. But, then again, Bing isn’t your typical man.

“In seven years of being homeless, I’ve found people are generous. People are so kind

to me and my dog,” he said. “I wasn’t planning on doing this during my twilight years. People say they envy my freedom, I say ‘Well, if you woke up freezing, starving and lonely, this wouldn’t have so much romance.’”

Bing is well known around downtown Waynesville, for good or ill. People either avoid him because he represents something they disagree with and don’t understand, or they respect him as another piece of the community, one whom they look forward to interacting with and getting to know.

“It’s strange, you never think things will happen like this, when you’re desperate and just grasping for straws,” he said. “But it came to pass and I’ve gone from being a casualty in the [societal] war to becoming somebody to these people — the street people, the jail people, people who go to church and go to work.”

“If you can’t be honest with yourself, then you can’t be honest with anybody else. When you get up in the morning, and brush your teeth or comb your hair, when you look in that mirror, you want to be able to look yourself in the eye, and I have.”

— Louie Bing

Bing has indeed become a fixture of downtown, someone who will stop and talk with just about anyone. With face-to-face communication a seemingly lost art these days, the notion that all friends were strangers at one time echoes loudly. And always straggling along a few yards behind is his faithful dog Sid, a five-year-old Australian pit bull. Bing took him in as a puppy after the dog was found under a trailer in Hazelwood.

“He was sick and full of fleas. When I brought him a can of food, he almost ate the can, too,” he chuckled. “But, I’m a firm believer in reincarnation, and he and I have known each other for a long time. We were together before.”

Short for “Siddartha” (the birth name of Gautama Buddha — the founder of Buddhism), Sid waddles along the sidewalk with his barrel chest, tail wagging without a care in the world. With his friendly, almost cartoon like shape and demeanor, people are immediately drawn to the dog. Once they stop and pet Sid, a conversation is soon struck with Bing. Thus, another friend is made as Bing simply takes his “dog for a walk.”

“You want to see a welltrained dog? Well, follow a homeless man with one,” he said. “When I walk down the street and he’s not following immediately behind, people always ask where he is, and he’ll soon show up. We’ve always been on the same wave length.”

It’s been a long and constantly evolving journey for Bing. Born and raised in a bluecollar Irish-German Catholic family in postWorld War II Philadelphia, he was the second oldest of seven siblings. He lived in a row house, with both his parents working as nurses. It was a simple childhood, filled with parental rules and rigorous Catholic schooling.

“My father and mother were hard working people who provided for all of us,” he said. “This was all before rock-n-roll, when there was still a boom of work and opportunities after the war.”

Towards the end of high school, Bing started to realize he was different from other

people, a sentiment that would follow him all of his life. He listened to The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, started to grow out his hair and soon fell into the counterculture. In those days, if you didn’t fit the mold, you were either a hippy or a freak, and he became known as the latter.

“It was the dawn of the Age of Aquarius and I was a ‘freak,’” he said. “You could feel it, something was happening. It was the beginning of the revolution.”

The political and cultural revolution of the late 1960s was in full force and he was in the thick of things as a student at Temple University in Philadelphia. He found himself in the presence of the infamous Black Panthers movement, city police brutality and peaceful civil disobedience through sit-ins and be-ins. He was standing at the forefront of history, trying to make sense of it all.

“I wanted to see the movement for peace and equality come to something,” he said. “But, here I was seeing the Black Panthers with their guns and city police with riot gear. I wasn’t out there because I was a political animal, I just had no intention of getting killed in Vietnam.”

Eventually though, Bing was drafted into Vietnam, but soon was released from his duties after being deemed unfit to serve due to mental instability. Now it was the early 1970s and he headed for Colorado, chasing job prospects that never seemed to pan out. But, with those connections, he landed in Connecticut opening up a health food store — a business venture as radical as it was ahead of its time.

“We were pioneers, learning along the way, and there I was a vegetarian, a cosmic cowboy,” he smiled.

It was there in Connecticut where Bing met his wife. They had two daughters and by the mid-1980s found themselves in Western North Carolina. A friend from the health food store had moved down to Waynesville to live and survive in the woods of Southern Appalachia. Bing found the notion tempting, packed up the family and headed for Haywood County.

“Back then, all the old-timers were still alive here,” he said. “I always hung around with them, just listening to their stories. They weren’t trying to put anything over on you. They were survivors of the Great Depression and World War II, they were just happy to be alive and share their wisdom.”

In search of a career, Bing had learned over the years how to be a carpenter. He found decent work all the way into the late 1990s during the housing boom. But, a lifelong dark cloud of mental illness always hung

overhead. Well aware of his constant battles with

and bipolar disorder,

“I learned how to do all of these things, but I could never develop enough self confidence to go out and do things on my own,” he said. “It was hard to do a hands on job you know you can do when all the time your mental illness makes you think otherwise.”

From there, the house of cards began to fall. He was thrown out of his house with a divorce after 34 years of marriage. He was thrown into jail for a list of offenses, regardless if he was guilty or not of the charge.

Bouncing around between the homes of friends and strangers, he ended up flat out on the street with empty pockets, a hungry belly and nobody to call for help.

“I was freaking out that first night out here. I had no survival skills, no backup plan, nobody except for street people who robbed me,” he said, misty eyed. “I had never been homeless, never been hungry and all of a sudden there I was on the street, and here I’ve been for the last seven years.”

Security check and random acts of kindness he crosses path with. He showers, readies himself and gets advice at the Meridian Behavioral Health Services in Waynesville. Of what little money he does receive, he tends to quietly hand it to those even less fortunate than him, people who end up on the street with needy children and nagging medical problems.

“We’ve lost a lot of good people out here on streets to drugs and alcohol abuse, to violence,” he said. “Waynesville is really a great town to be in, but it can have its drawbacks for people in my situation.”

When asked if he ever considered moving elsewhere and starting fresh, Bing points out he’ll never relocate as long as his children and ex-wife still reside in the area. Though they aren’t necessarily on speaking terms, it comforts him to know they’re close and he’s nearby if they ever do need him.

“I don’t leave here because I have a purpose here,” he said. “I’m here to listen to people, hear their problems and talk to them when nobody else does. I’m here because I’m on good terms with the police, and it’s

But, after that first night, and every night thereafter, Bing gets up from his sleeping bag, sometimes near the railroad tracks, sometimes in the woods outside of town, and tries again.

“If you can’t be honest with yourself, then you can’t be honest with anybody else. When you get up in the morning, and brush your teeth or comb your hair, when you look in that mirror, you want to be able to look yourself in the eye, and I have,” he said.

And over these seven years and counting living outside, Bing has made amends with not only his past transgressions, but also himself as a person. If there were a list of sins he committed, each one was erased for every frozen night under a blanket, huddled with Sid and trying to keep warm.

“I would reckon I’ve done enough in this life to burn in hell, but I haven’t destroyed my heart and soul, so hopefully I’ve put up some good karma, but who knows?” he grinned.

These days, he survives on a small Social

always better to know your law enforcement officials than not. I don’t leave here because my family is here.”

Bing finishes his coffee and readies himself to exit City Bakery. Sid is outside, keeping warm on Bing’s carefully placed jacket, eager to continue their daily stroll. There’s a lot of new people and new things still awaiting them on their trek around Waynesville. Before he walks out the door, he recites one of his many poems he writes on whatever paper he can track down, pieces ultimately stuffed into his pockets until someone asks him to read one.

“Striding towards the great finality, amidst the imitations of mortality, some few recognize the banality, of this thing we call reality,” he said. “At homes, in our jobs, in our families too, all mean different things to me and you, friends and lovers now long lost, can help us direct the final cost, but when I’m in my grave, and my ashes are scattered, my soul will still know, that love is all that mattered.”

Price tag inches up on Cherokee jail and justice center

BY CAITLIN BOWLING STAFFWRITER

Members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ Tribal Council took issue with a construction budget increase for the tribe’s justice center and jail during their meeting last week, a sign of overall displeasure with past and current projects demanding more funds.

Cherokee does not currently have its own jail and instead pays a daily rate to house inmates in the jails of neighboring counties. The tribe is currently building its own jail, with an original estimated price tag of $20 million. Of that, $18 million came from federal stimulus dollars.

But, the project will actually run the tribe more like $26 million. Tribal Council passed a resolution last week approving the increased cost of the project.

The reason for change, according to finance officials, is because the scope of the project changed. The facility was always going to include a 75-bed jail, but as time moved on, the project was expanded to also include a new courthouse and police station.

“We tried to whittle it down, but we couldn’t,” said Kim Peone, deputy finance director for the Eastern Band.

But the members of Tribal Council were not satisfied and still wondered why the project couldn’t be completed within its original price tag. The council members’ complaints about the change in cost for the justice center displayed their overall annoyance with unexpected requests for more money.

“You guys come back wanting more, wanting more,” said Diamond Brown, a council member from Snowbird.

The council approves projects at a certain price, and then once the tribe is knee-deep in the project, someone comes back to council pleading for more money, according to a cou-

Cherokee’s justice center is currently under construction and is not slated for completion until February 2014. Becky

ple of council members.

One recent example is Sequoyah National Golf Course. The tribe spent $9 million to construct the golf course about four years ago. And although the course manager is adamant that the golf course will eventually turn a profit, it has not yet, so the Eastern Band has had to continually subsidize the venture with more than $1 million annually.

Terri Henry, a tribal council member from Painttown, also expressed frustration with the justice center budget but recognized that if the council did not sign off, the Eastern Band would lose out on the $18 million federal grant and the chance to open its own jail.

“We need a justice center,” Henry said. “I am sorry you guys went over budget, but let’s

State of housing in Cherokee to be surveyed

A federal study researching housing conditions on Indian reservations across the U.S. will include the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

In 2009, Congress mandated that the Department of Housing and Urban Development assess housing needs among people living on reservations. The study will determine need based on demographic, social and economic conditions.

The goal is to amass “clear, credible and consistent information that can inform Congress,” according to a resolution approved by Tribal Council last week.

Although all tribes can complete surveys online, the Eastern Band is one of 40 randomly selected tribes whose enrolled members have a chance answer more in-depth household surveys. Selected participants will receive a $20 gift card for their time.

The in-person household survey will ask questions such as: how many people live in each residence; reasons multiple people are living in the same household; and what features the home includes.

move on with it.”

The tribe received $18 million from the justice department to build its own jail as part of the Indian Country in Recover Act. Overall, the U.S. Department of Justice awarded more than $224 million to pay for the construction and renovation of prisons and jails on Indian reservations across the country.

The grant awarded to the Eastern Band required the tribe to match the department’s funds with $2 million of its own, hence the $20 million price tag. However now, the tribe will chip in $8 million total toward the project. The tribe’s endowment funds, its capital improvement fund and internal finance will make up the Eastern Band’s contribution.

Councilman Perry Shell of Big Cove called the justice center project “a good learning tool.” He asked that the Eastern Band’s Internal Audit department review it and keep an eye out for any unnecessary expense or fixable problems that could cost the tribe. The U.S. Department of Justice is already auditing the project as a condition of the grant award.

According to finance officials, the increased cost is because the scope of the project changed. The facility was always going to include a 75-bed jail, but as time moved on, the project was expanded to also include a new courthouse and police station.

Although only a handful of enrolled members of the Eastern Band will fill out in the in-person survey, researchers are collecting multiple types of information to give a more complete picture of life on reservations. They will look at readily available information such as Census data, conduct in-person and phone interviews, and involve background interviews and literature reviews.

Data collection began in January and will continue until January next year, with preliminary findings scheduled for completion in June 2014. The results will not affect how much funding individual tribes receive but could influence overall allocations for the federal Indian Housing Block Grant program.

Cherokee leaders call for full transcripts

In an effort to increased accuracy and transparency, meetings of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ Tribal Council will now be captured with a verbatim transcript.

Council Member Tommye Saunooke presented a resolution to council last week asking that all discussion at budg-

The Eastern Band currently pays Swain County $40 a day to house any enrolled members who are charged with a crime on the reservation. On any given day, the county houses about 25 inmates from Cherokee — about a third of Swain County’s nightly inmate population.

While enrolled members are happy a corrections facility is finally being built on the reservation, Swain County leaders are concerned about the loss of revenue from housing enrolled members and how the decline will affect its ability to pay off the debt of its own jail facility.

The county opened a brand new $10 million, 109-bed jail in 2008 and pays $454,000 a year toward the debt on that project. The loss of tribal inmates would amount to a $365,000 cut in revenue.

et and Tribal Council meetings be transcribed word for word to keep an accurate history of what happened.

“I don’t want a summary. I want verbatim,” Saunooke said.

The resolution suggested hiring a court reporter for the job.

Council Members Terri Henry, Bo Taylor and B Ensley all voiced their agreement with Saunooke. However, Ensley questioned whether the tribe needed to hire outside help.

“I agree with what Tommye is trying to do here,” Ensley said. “But I am opposed to contracting someone to do this.”

The tribe already has employees who are capable or could learn to take verbatim notes, he argued. In the end, the council unanimously voted to take verbatim notes of its meetings but to contract a current employee to transcribe them.

Council’s monthly meetings are already broadcast on the tribe’s own cable channel as well as online, and are widely viewed.

Cherokee will be the only government entity in the region that offers complete transcripts of government proceedings. Towns and counties keep minutes of meetings, which are written as summaries of what transpired and vary in how comprehensive they are.

— By Caitlin Bowling

HCC makes pitch for continued building plan

BY CAITLIN BOWLING STAFFWRITER

Haywood Community College has asked for more than $1.4 million from the county for building and renovations projects on campus in the coming fiscal year.

That’s $1.25 million more than the college got this year for capital projects.

Before the recession, HCC got between $400,000 and $500,000 a year for capital projects, but that amount was cut to about $170,000 during the recession.

Now, college leaders say they need to play catch up.

“These are things that we feel like the college needs to do now,” said Bill Dechant, director of campus development for HCC.

The county wouldn’t necessarily have to dip into its own coffers to come up with the increase the college is seeking, however.

The community college has at its disposal revenue from a quarter cent sale tax increase that was approved about five years ago. The revenues from the tax are specifically earmarked for the college’s construction projects.

The annual sales tax revenue, which totals about $1 million a year, is placed in a special county fund.

Right now, all the money the tax brings in annually is spoken for to pay off debt on a new $10 million Creative Arts building. But there was $1.1 million funds that had accrued in the fund previously that could be tapped.

THEREQUESTS

Topping the priority list is an emergency services training facility, which isn’t actually included in the budget request.

“There is a world of interest in that happening,” said Interim HCC President Bill Aiken.

Walmart debate prompts Sylva to consider more flexible sign rules

BY ANDREW KASPER STAFFWRITER

Walmart in Sylva was asking for the town board to grant them an exemption for a larger storefront sign. But instead of getting a pass on the existing ordinance, the town board decided to change the sign law as it applies to everyone.

A slim majority of Sylva town board members were willing to go ahead and grant Walmart the exemption, but a super majority was needed for the measure to pass.

Walmart currently has both roadside and storefront signs larger than the town’s rules allows — but it wants to replace the signs with new ones, which means it would lose its grandfathered status.

Walmart representatives came to the meeting. They withdrew one of their two requests:

The college already has $600,000 to pay for the first phase of the project, which includes a live burn tower and an emergency training tower, thanks to flood settlement money HCC squirreled away in 2004.

The final phase of the project is the construction of a classroom building. HCC officials estimated the cost of phase two at $1.2 million.

“We really feel like at this point in time, it is time to get this project built. We really need your help to get this project done,” Dechant said.

The college has not yet hammered out all the details of the project and no start date is set for construction.

Funding for the second phase was not included in this year’s capital budget request, but it could come out of revenues from a quarter cent sales tax in the future.

Next on the list is a $250,000 renovation of the upper level of building 300, which houses the Natural Resources department. The cost includes upgrades to the HVAC system and revamping of classrooms.

The 300 building is followed closely by the renovation of the R.V. Frazell Administration Building.

“It’s been a long time, if ever that building has been renovated,” Dechant said. “It’s time.”

The estimated project cost is $500,000 and includes an overhaul of offices, meeting rooms and the bathrooms.

Dechant pointed out that the current restrooms in the administration building are one-person bathrooms and too small to allow for much movement, making them not ADA compliant.

The last items on HCC’s priority list for next year are equipment: $56,000 for a dump truck; $50,000 for two 15-passenger trucks; $35,000 for an excavator; $38,000 for a tractor and $9,000 for a golf cart.

The trucks are “heavily” used for trips to Raleigh and the maintenance department uses golf carts to move needed tools around campus, Dechant said.

Although the college asked for slight more than $1.4 million to pay for the equipment and the renovations of the administration building and building 300, its actual construction to-do list amounts to $3.6 million, including $1.5 million to renovate HCC cosmetology building.

the one for a larger roadside sign. That sign will be left as is, thus preserving grandfathered status. But they still hope to redo their storefront sign and would need an exemption to keep the new one as big as the old one.

Those in favor of giving Walmart a pass on the rules were: Harold Hensley, Chris Matheson and Danny Allen. Those against were: Lynda Sossoman and Barbara Hamilton.

However, the town board appeared to agree that the town’s sign rules aren’t flexible enough for stores with such massive façades.

“It looks like putting a postage stamp on a manila envelope,” said Board Member Harold Hensley.

So, town board members directed the planning board to come up with changes to the sign laws. Instead of using a one-size-fits-all formula for sign size, the sign size would be based on the square footage of the building.

The planning board already had a review of the sign ordinances in the works. The town board will then hear the proposed changes at its next meeting.

Macon School leaders ask county for bailout, or harmful cuts are imminent

BY ANDREW KASPER STAFFWRITER

Macon County Schools are facing a $2 million budget shortfall and are hoping the county will come to the rescue. That leaves county commissioners with a difficult decision: inject substantial amounts of money into the school system or force the school board to make difficult cuts.

The school system has prepared two lists of proposed cuts. One list that would make $2 million in cuts, and one list that would make only $1 million in cuts.

The list includes funding cuts to sports programs, coaches salaries and principals’ travel budgets. The biggest savings would come from reducing the number of teaching positions by 12, the number who are likely to retire or quit by next year anyway. Not replacing them would save nearly $500,000.

Superintendant Jim Duncan has put a $16,000 salary decrease from his own paycheck on the table in the suite of proposed cuts.

Despite less money coming in during recent years, Macon Schools did not substan-

tially scale back its budget. School systems across the mountains have grappled with state budget cuts and increased costs for everything from teacher salaries to utilities in recent years, and ultimately have cut positions. But Macon largely avoided that by burning through emergency federal stimulus money dolled out to schools and dipping into its fund balance.

Once containing more than $3 million, the last of the school system’s savings account was used this year. Now, having not made smaller adjustments as they went, Macon County school leaders might have to do it all in one fell swoop, or convince the county to ante up.

“We have been calling it the ‘cliff,’” said Macon County Schools Finance Director Angie Cook. “We knew the last two or three years this was coming.”

Cook said the county has been making “mini” cuts throughout the last few years but nothing compared to what will happen if commissioners are not willing to pay all — or a large part — of the amount the school board has requested.

The $2 million would essentially make up

Macon County School cuts

The Macon school system in facing a $2 million shortfall. This list shows only $1 million in cuts, in hopes the county will increase funding to the schools to avoid a full $2 million in cuts.

11 Teaching positions..................$470,041

2 central office positions...............$87,000

1 Franklin High Student Services position......................................$60,000

Staff Development..........................$22,000

Cell phone supplements.................$11,000

Cut bookkeeper from 12 months to 11 months................................$3,000

Instructional materials...................$78,000

Software.........................................$61,000

Superintendent salary cut..............$16,618

Sports referees...............................$50,000

Co-curricular sports.......................$25,850

Steel toed boots................................$4,000

Principal travel.................................$9,550

New Century Scholars.....................$10,000

National Board renewal fees............$6,600

TOTAL...........................................$914,659

for the difference between the school system’s operating budget of nearly $33 million in 2008 versus the roughly $31 million it had this year. While the county has held steady on its annual allocation to the schools of $6.9 million, Raleigh has sent less and less, Cook said.

“In my eyes, that’s the biggest problem,” Cook said.

As the county trudges through its budgeting process for the coming fiscal year, it will be up to a vote of commissioners as to how much extra funding, if any, to hand over to education. But some commissioners have already signaled that they are not too pleased with the prospect of such a large, extra expense.

Commissioner Paul Higdon pointed out that the county recently funded $45 million in school buildings and injected another $1.5 million into the school technology budget last fall. He said that what Macon County already provides a lot of support for education and asking more of taxpayers may be crossing the line.

“I’d be moron to say we have to cut education,” Higdon said. “But we have got to be better managers of limited taxpayer funds.”

Higdon also questioned why none of the cuts the school system discussed at a meeting with commissioners and the school board back in February have been enacted. Instead, Superintendant Jim Duncan decided to pitch a budget increase request to the county for the full amount of the shortfall.

Duncan said it made sense to ask for a funding increase to plug the gap first.

“Until you’re actually forced to make the cuts — you don’t just automatically go out and start doing that,” Duncan said.

However, he said he has resigned himself to the fact that some cuts will probably have to be made, even if the county contributes more than its usual allocation. And cuts will likely take away some teaching positions.

“We’ll have to increase class sizes,” Duncan said. “But you can’t

go around putting 35 and 38 kids in a classroom.”

Duncan said he wouldn’t reduce teachers for the youngest pupils and would hesitate taking away advanced placement classes. The schools system has about 550 staff total, and about 330 teachers serving a little less than 4,500 students.

Duncan said making personnel cuts in a rural system like Macon’s is more difficult than in many other counties. Macon has two K-12th grade schools, which are more costly to operate since there aren’t always enough students in a grade to justify a teacher, but likewise one must be funded.

School Board Member Gary Shields said he is optimistic the county will not force the school board to make cuts to education. After presenting the first list of proposed cuts — totaling $1.9 million — to commissioners in February, Shields said the school board members had to do a double-take and reposition themselves for the April meeting, where they scaled back the cuts and instead asked the county for more money to plug the shortfall.

“Until you’re actually forced to make the cuts — you don’t just automatically go out and start doing that.”

— Jim Duncan, Macon schools superintendant

“We did have a plan if they didn’t give us an increase,” Shields said. “But we looked at that $1.9 million and said ‘Whoa, this is murder.’”

But even if some cuts are passed down, he hopes they will fall in line with the $1 million or so chosen carefully by the board and school administrators and deemed “Plan B.” The thought of the county declining to help with any extra expenses makes Shields, who was also the former principal at Franklin High School, uneasy.

“I’m still hopeful that clear minds will prevail and the county will see the need and that we’re not inflating our need,” Shields said. “If we start going backward in education, we lose a generation real quick.”

County Commissioner Ronnie Beale said he’s not made up his mind just yet and will wait and see what County Manager Jack Horton recommends for the school in his budget, but he is open to lend a helping hand. Not in spite of how much the county has contributed the education system in the past, but because of it.

“It’s the first time in over 30 years we don’t have students in trailers,” Beale said of the mobile education units the county was able to do away with because of the money it invested in new schools. “The only thing I know is the last place you want to cut money is in the classroom.”

Past commissioners to discuss Macon’s evolution

Former Macon County commissioners will speak about how the county has changed at a gathering hosted by The League of Women Voters at noon on Thursday, May 9, in Tartan Hall of First Presbyterian Church in Franklin. They will touch on what issues were prominent during their service, as well as how citizens and leaders viewed each other and the county. Bring your own lunch and drink.

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Upfront costs don’t deter plans for Cashiers ABC store

BY B ECKY JOHNSON STAFFWRITER

Jackson County leaders are moving ahead with plans to open a liquor store in Cashiers, despite up to $200,000 in startup costs that could take more than five years to recoup before seeing a profit.

Currently, Cashiers residents, vacationers and restaurant owners must make the half hour or more trip into Sylva to buy liquor at the ABC store there. But last year, voters approved a ballot measure to legalize the sale of beer and wine countywide — and to pave the way for county-run ABC stores.

In the lead up to the vote, county commissioners indicated Cashiers would be a ripe location for opening an ABC store if the measured passed. It did, and now less than a year later, plans are in the works to do just that.

People buying liquor would need ice and mixers and probably some steaks to go with it, he said. And other shops could capitalize on the foot traffic an ABC store brings.

Debnam said the Ingles grocery store in Cashiers saw increased sales across all departments after they started carrying beer last year following the passage of countywide alcohol sales — not just increased sales from the beer itself.

The newly formed Jackson County Alcohol Beverage and Control Board officially voted last week to pursue an ABC store in Cashiers.

If customers are siphoned off Sylva’s store, the county will lose $1 in the profit-sharing arrangement in Sylva for every $2 it makes at its own store in Cashiers. Andrew Kasper photo

“Now they are looking for a location,” County Manager Chuck Wooten said.

If they can’t find an existing space to lease, they will build a store, Wooten said.

County commissioners hoped a Cashiers ABC store would be up and running by summer — ideally by the Fourth of July when the summer resort season is in full swing. That now appears to be overly optimistic.

“There is a possibility we would not have a store in operation this year,” Wooten said.

Even if the county could lease rather than build from scratch, employees would have to be hired and trained, computer systems bought and merchandise stocked on the shelves.

All that will cost money — an estimated $160,000 to $200,000. The county would front the ABC board the start-up costs. The county would be paid back over time, but over how much time is a wild card. It would be a few years at least and depends on how well the store does.

“The big unknown is how much their sales will be,” Wooten said.

Commissioner Chairman Jack Debnam said an ABC store will have an economic impact on the entire Cashiers area.

“We realize we aren’t even going to break even maybe the first two to three years,” Debnam said. “But it is not all about the profit part.”

Opening a Cashiers ABC store is also about the convenience factor for that population, Debnam and other commissioners have said.

Once start-up costs are recouped, ABC stores can be a modest moneymaker for the towns and counties that run them.

In Jackson County’s case, any gains in Cashiers would be partly offset by a loss of sales at the Sylva ABC store. The town of Sylva splits 50 percent of its ABC profits with the county.

If customers are siphoned off Sylva’s store, the county will lose $1 in the profitsharing arrangement in Sylva for every $2 it makes at its own store in Cashiers.

The real boon, however, could be capturing market share that is now leaving the county. No one knows exactly how many people venture into neighboring Macon or Transylvania counties to hit the ABC stores there, or how many second-home owners simply stock up at home before their stay in the mountains, Debnam said.

Stocking the shelves would comprise the biggest piece of the $160,000 to $200,000 in start-up costs, since inventory must be bought and paid for upfront from the state’s warehouse. ABC stores also must use a specific computer system that links with the state’s controlled liquor warehouse for placing orders and tracking shipments and sales.

Cashiers sewer plant at capacity, but only on paper

BY ANDREW KASPER STAFFWRITER

Sewage and what to do with it has posed a complicated set of problems for the community of Cashiers — problems that could put in peril the area’s economic development as much as the public’s health.

For several years now the public wastewater treatment plant in Cashier has been at capacity. The 200,000 gallons per day the plant can handle is nearly all spoken for, save for a small percentage left as a statemandated safety net and emergency contingency.

The sewer stalemate has been blamed for stifling economic growth in the area by limiting the number of new customers able to hook on to the system, particular commercial enterprises and higher density housing. It has also dissuaded residents with individual septic systems — which have greater potential for groundwater contamination and failure — from switching over to the public utility.

“We’ve run out of capacity,” said Tom Sawyer, an area resident and member of the Tuckaseigee Water and Sewer Authority Board. “We’re unable to hook anybody else up.”

But what really has frustrated the situation is that the TWSA-managed plant is only “at capacity” on paper. About half of the treatment plant’s load is allocated to developers or property owners who aren’t actually using it yet, said the authority’s Executive Director Dan Harbaugh.

Years ago, developers bought up capacity for projects that never came to fruition. But they are still hanging on to their unused allotments.

Currently, the plant has 270 customers in Cashiers. That could be more than doubled if the unused allotments were freed up. However, regulations keep the sewer system from doling out the unused allotments. Developers bought the allotments, and they aren’t eager to relinquish them in case they want them one day after all — even though they must pay a monthly fee in the meantime just for hanging on to them.

“We’re not seeing a lot of pressure on these developers to abandon what they already have and stop paying,” Harbaugh said. “If they give it up, it’s hard to get it back.”

Many of the unused allotments were bought for projects before the housing recession hit, and then the projects put on hold. Meanwhile, sewer service in Cashiers has been at a standstill, as developers and investors re-shuffle and downsize or decide whether to scrap constructions plans.

Even for those who have definitively pulled the plug on their own development plans, there’s incentive to hang on to their allotment since it makes a tract more mar-

ketable from a real estate perspective. Unused allotments aren’t an outright commodity — they can’t be sold or transferred for a project on another piece of property. That could create an environment where developers buy up allotments with the sole intention of selling them later.

Instead, allotments are tied to the property, and can only be transferred to another owner for use on that same property. Having a piece of property with a sewer allocation attached to it can be more enticing to potential buyers than one without, said Sawyer.

But the downfall is that property owners with an immediate need to tap onto a sewer system are left with little recourse.

“The only option you have at this point is either you buy a building or property with existing sewer tap or you have to build a septic field,” Sawyer said.

Sawyer has a business in Cashiers, Mountain Party Tents and Events, but is not on the sewer system. Although he’d like to be, his only alternative is to use a septic system.

Sawyer knows of specific cases of commercial development that were stymied due to the lack of capacity, including a proposed restaurant in downtown Cashiers.

“They couldn’t get enough sewer tap so they backed out of the deal,” Wilson said. Currently, six applications for sewer allotments are on a waiting list with the authority, asking for a total of about 5,000 of gallons per day of flow.

Harbaugh said they may be granted their requests, but only because the authority is moving toward building another treatment plant east of Cashiers. Because plans for a new facility are in the works, the state allowed the current plant to raise its flow from 80 percent to 90 percent of the 200,000 gallon-per-day limit.

A 14-acre tract of land on the Horsepasture River is under option with the authority as the site of a future sewer treatment plant. If construction begins, the authority can raise its cap on the current plant to use the full 200,000 gallons per day.

If all runs smoothly, the plant could be up and running within three years. Environmental interests could mount opposition over discharge into the protected Horsepasture River. The project would need a bevy of state and federal permits. The authority is now in the process conducting environmental and engineering surveys to see if the site is feasible.

But Harbaugh also has his reservations about spending millions of dollars constructing another wastewater treatment plant when the full potential of the current one isn’t realized, just to meet a need on paper.

“You don’t want to buy that car and park it in the garage for five years,”

Harbaugh said. “That’s the balancing act.”

Although grants may become available, much of the cost may fall on the backs of customers. Yet, someday a new facility will be necessary regardless, as it is unable to discharge anymore volume into the Chattooga River. And over the next two decades, demand for sewer in Cashiers is expected to triple what the current plant provides. The new plant will meet that projected need.

However, a pressing concern is what happens in the meantime. For property owners who can’t link to the sewer system the other option is to use a septic system and a leech field to filter the waste. That poses at least two potential problems, one being the property owner must have enough land to meet the minimum leech field size, the other being Cashiers drinking water could be at risk.

The authority’s board has set aside 5,000 gallons per day of capacity for emergency situations in which a septic system fails and that building needs someplace to flush. Damage from tree roots and broken pipes can wreak havoc on septic systems which in turn can do the same to groundwater.

“When they fail, then it becomes not only your problem but your neighbor’s problem,” Sawyer said of the septic systems. Furthermore, over time, slow seepage into Cashier’s aquifer could all adversely

affect the well water. Without a centralized water system, much of the community’s water comes from an open aquifer, which is not enclosed in a protective clay layer.

The soil structure is such that whatever goes into the ground is also being drawn up by the many individual wells serving residents. Cashiers’ growth projections, especially now that the homebuilding market in the area is picking back up again, are not going to help the situation.

“If you’re getting too many septic fields close together you can start to impact groundwater standards,” Harbaugh said. “I’m not saying that’s happening but the potential is there.”

In the coming year, he said he will begin exploring some sort of water solution for Cashiers, whether it be expanding a small, centralized water system that serves the county’s recreation center and a dozen or so nearby customers, or enacting restrictions in the dry months as to how much water people can pull from their wells.

In drought, residents have experienced water shortages because of the strain on the main aquifer.

But both Cashiers water and sewer, hopefully not intermingling, will be a challenge to keep the community viable and growing in coming years.

“We want to make sure the community is sustainable,” Harbaugh said.

Macon commissioner duo wants to spend down savings to bring on tax cuts

BY ANDREW KASPER STAFFWRITER

Two tight-pocketed Macon County commissioners, who have voted consistently against all sorts of new government spending, have decided to go on the offensive and push for a tax decrease.

Ron Haven and Paul Higdon cited the recent move to give about $750,000 in raises to county employees as their latest justification for a property tax decrease. Haven said the property owners were the ones who deserved the raise.

“The ones we have forgotten are the taxpayers,” Haven said.

Haven said he wants to see a return to pre-2010 tax rates in the county, which was 26.4 cents per $100 of property value. In 2010, the commission approved a 1.5 cent increase to fund school construction.

Haven claims the tax increase was unnecessary — pointing to millions of dollars at the county’s disposal sitting in its savings account.

Known as a fund balance, the savings are a contingency fund. They provide a safety net in case of a cash flow crunch or emergency spending, like a natural disaster.

The state mandates counties and towns

keep a fund balance of at least 8 percent of their annual operating budget — a rule of thumb equivalent to one month’s of operating expenses. Eight percent is the bare minimum, however, the average is more than twice that.

Macon clocks in with a fund balance of 42 percent, one of the highest percentages in the state among county governments. The county’s unusually large fund balance has been a source of pride for county leaders but also a source of criticism during the years.

In dollars, average fund balance of counties of Macon’s size — between 25,000 and 50,000 residents — is about $11 million, Macon County has about $18 million in reserves, according to recent statistics from the N.C. Treasurer’s Office.

Haven wondered why the extra money wasn’t being returned to taxpayers.

Higdon agrees.

“If government doesn’t need that money give it back to the taxpayers” Higdon said. “I don’t think the county government should be holding taxpayers dollars above what is required to conduct business.”

Higdon also wants to reverse the property tax hike of 2010. But he also wants to give back the extra tax money collected as a result of that hike during the past three years. That would mean a one-time tax cut of 4.5 cents in the coming year. He said that would translate to $45 off the next tax bill of a person paying taxes on a $100,000 home and about a $4 million shot back into the county’s economy if people spent their property tax savings locally.

Macon County has the lowest or second lowest tax rate in the state, but that doesn’t mean people pay exceptionally low property taxes. The county is due for a revaluation of property values in the post-recession economy, as a rule of thumb property values go down and thus tax rates are increased to keep revenues stable.

However, Democratic Commissioner Ronnie Beale said the notion of a tax decrease in the upcoming budget didn’t seem very realistic, although he said he would support it if it were possible without reducing the services offered.

“If we could find a way to do it, great, but without penalizing our school systems and other things we have going for us,” Beale said. “But if you cut taxes, something has to be cut out.”

Beale said Macon County has cut its overall budget during the last four years, and residents are well served by the fact that the county can afford things like emergency vehicles, school equipment and cop cars because of its reserve funds.

When the county was faced with the Peeks Creek landslide and countywide flooding, it had to make quick use of the contingency funds to provide disaster relief, he said.

Macon clocks in with a fund balance of 42 percent, one of the highest percentages in the state among county governments. The county’s unusually large fund balance has been a source of pride for county leaders, but also a source of criticism over the years.

“I’m very proud of our fund balance. It gives us latitude,” Beale said. “It’s not just like Monopoly money.”

Since Higdon ousted Democrat Ronnie Kuppers’ from the board seat in January — presumably swinging the board to a more conservative majority — there have instead been a series of unbudgeted, highprofile spending proposals that have raised the ire of the fiscally conservative Republican. He has opposed a request from emergency services for nearly $400,000 for new cardiac defibrillators, a $500,000 purchase of property for county sports complex and the $755,000 in raises for county employees. Recently the county was approached with $1.9 million request from the school board.

“I’m not an economist, but I can read a budget sheet,” Higdon said. “There is no sign that we’re looking to cut anything.”

At least one expert on county government was hesitant to dismiss the importance of a large fund balance. When disaster strikes you might be glad you have it, said Todd McGee, public relations director with the N.C. Association of County Commissioners. Also, according to a survey of counties in North Carolina, about a quarter of them used their fund balance in the current fiscal year to help with revenue shortfalls.

“I think it’d be hard to say that any fund balance is too big,” McGee said. “What happens if the county courthouse burns down?”

However, Bill Rivenbark, a professor of public administration in the UNC School of Government, said once the baseline amount is reached in the balance, the decision is left up to policy makers as to what to do with the rest.

“Some elected officials see that the fund balance as a safety net; others want to spend the money,” Rivenbark said. “You can make a case for either side.”

Donate school supplies for students in Haywood

Keller Williams Realty in Waynesville will spend May 9 collecting school supplies for needy elementary students in Haywood County as part of “Renew, Energize and Donate,” or RED Day.

“This event is an entrenched part of Keller Williams Realty’s culture and displays the extraordinary effect a company can have when individuals come together to work as a team for the greater good of everyone,” said Culture Committee Chairperson Billy Brede.

Since the first RED Day in 2009, Keller Williams associates have given almost a half million hours of community service. www.kw.com/redday.

Where do we go when the public square fractures?

The “fractured public square” refers to the loss of the place where a community discusses ideas, politics and values.

The ideal public square can be both a bonding agent and a place where one draws a line in the sand. It’s not necessarily a physical place, but it might be.

What happens when there is no public square, when it keeps fracturing and breaking into smaller places and smaller forums? I’m afraid we are on the way to finding out.

My first trip to Europe a little more than 25 years ago was a grand adventure. One of my fondest memories from that trip was the time spent in literal public squares in European towns large and small. Lori and I stayed for a week in a small seaside town in Spain where she had been a nanny, and she had told me about the “promenade,” a wide walkway along the beach that filled on Sunday afternoons. And it was true. Kids, grandparents, couples, high schoolers, they all came out and walked, talked, hung out, and just came together for hours. We found similar places in town after town, and anyone who has traveled to Europe has probably had a similar experience.

Another strong memory from that trip is the great pleasure

Tribal Council vote on bear zoos disappointing

To the Editor:

I am extremely disappointed in the Eastern Band of Cherokee Tribal Council (except members Perry Shell, Terri Henry and Bo Taylor) for allowing the bear zoos to continue in operation.

It’s understood that the bears cannot be released into the wild. However, they can and should be provided an environment as near to their natural habitat as humanly possible and anything short of that is unconscionable.

As Council Member Diamond Brown admitted, the tribal focus is on the new casino being built in Murphy. That excuse is so lame, and certainly undeserving the proud and ageless heritage of the Cherokee Nation.

David Snell Dillsboro

Meadows in the wrong on background checks

To the Editor:

This is an open letter to Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., our district’s freshman congressman:

Your vote to filibuster expanded background checks to purchase guns will haunt you through your next election. To defend your vote based on the lies of the National Rifle Association speaks to your ignorance of what the bill really said, your incompetence to represent the will of your constituents, or your laziness to determine either.

If you talk to hunters and sportsman, you know that hunters have to buy licenses to hunt, have limits on the numbers of ducks, deer, turkeys, etc., that can be killed and have

Editor Scott McLeod

and lifeline that I found in reading the International Herald Tribune. The English language newspaper is part of the N.Y. Times, and in those pre-Internet days finding a place that sold it or even getting my hands on a days-old copy was like a ray of sunshine after days of rain. It brought me stories of home, stories of the countries we were visiting, and kept me up to date with the world. Newspapers, to me, have always been the community’s public square, where news, ideas and issues of great importance are debated. Quality newspapers work very deliberately to inform and present different views, to invite dissent while also censoring out distasteful, personal attacks. We work very hard to get it right.

The digital revolution has weakened the power that newspapers once held in the communities they served. Now, more and more people go online for news, sometimes visiting news-

limits on the number of shells they can have in their guns.

Guess what? Nobody has come to take their guns away from them.

These are all common sense measures to sustain the resource they want to hunt so their grandkids can enjoy the same experiences they have now. Surely our children who are our future deserve as much protection from common sense regulations as ducks or deer!

Over 31,000 people die EACH YEAR in the United States from gun violence — EACH YEAR! That is seven times more people than were killed in 10 years of war in Iraq and you want to do nothing! Shame on you.

Jane Harrison Waynesville

What will you do about jack booted thugs?

To the Editor:

Watching the YouTube videos (since removed) of the “jack booted thugs” trampling on our Third, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Tenth Amendment natural rights recently in the greater Boston area, I experienced a great sadness. Sadness because peace officers, who took an oath to support and defend the Constitution, believed that they could commit these unconstitutional crimes; sadness that there has been no great public outcry against these atrocities; sadness that media commentators and officeholders haven’t spoken out vociferously against these fascist terror tactics against the American people; sadness mostly because despite the facade of liberty we still enjoy, all of these acts and attitudes mean that we have lost the republic.

What comes next won’t be pleasant. I know that I will continue to work to restore the principles of the Declaration of

paper websites. But many prefer blogs that cater to their ideas and their politics. Others spend much of their time listening to or reading the arguments of one person, adopting one person’s view as the truth. Everywhere, it seems, people tend to prefer hearing what they want to rather than spending the intellectual energy to learn enough to change their mind.

My point is this: when we seek to understand fewer dissenting opinions, our understanding of the world shrinks correspondingly. The less one is exposed to, the narrower the world view. The irony is that at a time when we all have all the world’s storehouse of knowledge at our fingertips, people are less willing to make concessions for the common good.

The common good. The fracturing of the public square into a place where a wild anarchy of ideas prevails means we will have a hard time coming back together for the common good. We see that happening on the national level. For now, local and regional papers are part of the glue that holds smaller public squares together. We shall see what the future holds.

(ScottMcLeodcanbereachedatinfo@smokymountainnews.com.)

Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights that the founders handed down to us. What will you do? Choose wisely.

Benjamin Franklin once said: “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Carl Iobst Cullowhee

Sen. Davis going way too far to the right

To the Editor:

Sen. Jim Davis, R-Franklin, and his extreme right-wing partisans have no problem wasting taxpayer money as long as he gets a headline and appears to be tough on the poor folks, as illustrated by his recent comments and support for a proposal to drug test anyone getting state benefits from programs intended to help people. The only people who will benefit are the lawyers, as usual, who will fight a losing battle because the suspicion-less drug testing of Americans has been ruled unconstitutional already by every federal court in every state that has attempted this ridiculous and pointless policy.

Alcohol is by far the most dangerous and widely abused drug of all, responsible for the majority of domestic violence arrests and in every other category possible where a substance is at issue, yet his “ drug testing” scheme does not cover that deadly drug. Any recipient of the Work First program can swill whiskey and stagger their way through life and that is OK with Davis; there are no tests done for alcoholics and problem drinkers, but some poor cancer patient with a minor amount of cannabis in their system would be excluded.

That is a sickening and shameful example

of the hypocrisy of the nanny state promoters’ refusal to use common sense in the use of our tax money.

How about if Sen. Davis proposes a bill that would drug test all N.C senators and house members every year so we know our tax dollars are not being wasted on the politicians? Let them be the first. After all, we are paying their salaries with our money and have a right to make sure that the oftentimes insane and ridiculous laws and policies they pass are not the result of intoxication but just due to their individual failings as leaders.

I guarantee you that if alcohol were forbidden to the talking heads in Raleigh and Washington, there would be virtually no one left to govern … and good riddance.

There has never been a  “drug-free” society in all of human history, and Davis is deluded if he thinks there ever will be despite the efforts of the people who would destroy our rights and freedoms to accomplish an impossibility. If someone does have a real drug problem, which statistically would involve alcohol far more often than any illegal substance, offering medical help and counseling would do more for them and their families than to deny them benefits and pressure them into serious crime to survive.

Republican politicians care nothing about results, common sense or human dignity, but are only concerned with headlines and promotion of far right wing nonsense never meant to succeed but only to curry favor from political donors and rabid far right voters. Unless we want to keep looking like illiterate and moronic bumpkins we would do well to ignore the grandstanding of Davis and his cronies and instead promote policies that actually help people, make common sense and use our money for beneficial purposes and not pipe dreams destined to fail.

TUESDAY MAY 14 • 6-8PM BUCHI TASTING NIGHT WITH FUSION'S SPA

CREPES, PANINIS, SOUPS, SALADS, GOURMET PASTAS WINE & BEER CityLightsCafe.com

MOTHER’S DAY

Sunday Brunch Buffet

Baked Ham • Roasted Turkey • Fried Chicken Charleston Shrimp and Grits

$19.95 per adult

$6.50 children 12 & under ~ 4 & under free! Call for reservations

117 Main Street, Canton NC

828.492.0618 • SidsOnMain.com MON.-THURS. 11 A M TO 9 PM. • FRI & SAT. 11 A M TO 10 PM

BRUNCH 11 A M TO 2:30 PM

tasteTHE mountains

Taste the Mountains is an ever-evolving paid section of places to dine in Western North Carolina. If you would like to be included in the listing please contact our advertising department at 828.452.4251

AMMONS DRIVE-IN

RESTAURANT & DAIRY BAR

1451 Dellwwod Rd., Waynesville.

828.926.0734. Open 7 days a week 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Celebrating over 25 years. Enjoy world famous hot dogs as well as burgers, seafood, hushpuppies, hot wings and chicken. Be sure to save room for dessert. The cobbler, pie and cake selections are sure to satisfy any sweet tooth.

ANTHONY WAYNE’S

37 Church St, Waynesville. 828.456.6789

Open for lunch Monday-Friday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; open for dinner Thursday-Saturday 5 to 9 p.m.; and Sunday brunch 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Exceptional, new-American cuisine, offering several gluten free items.

BLUE RIDGE BBQ COMPANY

180 N. Main St., Waynesville. 828.452.7524. 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. TuesdayThursday; 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Blue Ridge BBQ is a family owned and operated restaurant. The BBQ is slow hardwood smoked, marinated in its own juices, and seasoned with mountain recipes. All menu items made from scratch daily. Featuring homemade cornbread salad, fresh collard greens, or cornbread and milk at your request. Old-fashioned homemade banana pudding and fruit cobbler of the season. Catering, take-out, eat-in. blueridgebbq@gmail.com.

BLUE ROOSTER SOUTHERN GRILL

207 Paragon Parkway, Clyde, Lakeside Plaza at the old Wal-Mart. 828.456.1997

Monday-Friday 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Friendly and fun family atmosphere. Local, handmade Southern cuisine. Fresh-cut salads; slowsimmered soups; flame grilled burgers and steaks, and homemade signature desserts. Blue-plates and local fresh vegetables daily. Brown bagging is permitted. Private parties, catering, and take-out available. Call-ahead seating available.

BOURBON BARREL BEEF & ALE

local neighborhood host for special events: business party’s, luncheons, weddings, showers and more. Private parties & catering are available 7 days a week by reservation only.

BRYSON CITY BAKERY AND PASTRY SHOPPE

191 Everett St., Bryson City. 828.488.5390

Offering a full line of fresh baked goods like Grandma used to make. Large variety to choose from including cakes, pies, donuts, breads, cinn-buns and much more. Also serving Hershey Ice Cream. Open seven days a week, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.

CATALOOCHEE RANCH

119 Ranch Dr., Maggie Valley. 828.926.1401. Mile-high mountaintop dining with a spectacular view. Join us for cookouts on the terrace on weekends and Wednesdays (weather permitting) and familystyle dinners on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Social hour starts at 6 p.m., with dinner at 7 p.m. Our bountiful family-style meals include prime rib, baked ham, and herb-baked chicken; cookouts feature steaks, ribs, chicken and pork chops, to name a few. Every dinner is complemented with an assortment of seasonal vegetables, homemade breads, jellies and desserts, and we offer a fine selection of wine and beer. Breakfast is also served daily from 8 to 9:30 a.m., and lunch from 12 to 2 p.m. Please call for reservations.

CHEF’S TABLE

30 Church St., Waynesville. 828.452.6210

From 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday dinner starting at 5 p.m. “Best of” Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator Magazine. Set in a distinguished atmosphere with an exceptional menu. Extensive selection of wine and beer. Reservations honored.

CITY BAKERY

18 N. Main St. Waynesville 828.452.3881. Monday-Friday 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Join us in our historic location for scratch made soups and daily specials. Breakfast is made to order daily: Gourmet cheddar & scallion biscuits served with bacon, sausage and eggs; smoked salmon bagel plate; quiche and fresh fruit parfait. We bake a wide variety of breads daily, specializing in traditional french breads. All of our breads are hand shaped. Lunch: Fresh salads, panni sandwiches. Enjoy outdoor dinning on the deck. Private room available for meetings.

CITY LIGHTS CAFE

CORK & CLEAVER

176 Country Club Drive, Waynesville. 828.456.7179. Reservations recommended. 4:30-9 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Tucked away inside Waynesville Inn, Cork & Cleaver has an approachable menu designed around locally sourced, sustainable, farm-to-table ingredients. Executive Chef Corey Green prepares innovative and unique Southern fare from local, organic vegetables grown in Western North Carolina. Full bar and wine cellar.

FRANKIE’S ITALIAN TRATTORIA

1037 Soco Rd. Maggie Valley. 828.926.6216 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Father and son team Frank and Louis Perrone cook up dinners steeped in Italian tradition. With recipies passed down from generations gone by, the Perrones have brought a bit of Italy to Maggie Valley. frankiestrattoria.com

FRYDAY’S & SUNDAES

24 & 26 Fry St., Bryson City (Next To The Train Depot). 828.488.5379. Spring hours: 11:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Wed., Thur. & Sun. 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Fri & Sat. Fryday’s is known for its Traditional English Beer Battered Fish & Chips, but also has burgers, deep fried dogs, gyro, shrimp, bangers, Chip Butty, chicken, sandwiches & a great kids menu. Price friendly, $3-$10, Everything available to go or call ahead takeout. Sundaes has 24 rotating flavors of Hershey's Ice Cream making them into floats, splits, sundaes, shakes. Private seating inside & out for both locations right across from the train station & pet friendly.

FROGS LEAP PUBLIC HOUSE

44 Church St. Downtown Waynesville 828.456.1930 Serving lunch and dinner from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, Sunday lunch and dinner from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., closed Mondays. Frogs Leap is a farm to table restaurant focused on local, sustainable, natural and organic products prepared in modern regional dishes. Seasonal menu focuses on Southern comfort foods with upscale flavors. Come for the restaurant’s 4 @ 4 when you can choose a center and three sides at special prices. Offered Wed- Fri. from 4 to 6. frogsleappublichouse.org.

GUADALUPE CAFÉ

454 Hazelwood Ave., Waynesville, 828.452.9191. Dinner nightly from 4 p.m.

Closed on Sunday. We specialize in hand-cut, all natural steaks, fresh fish, and other classic American comfort foods that are made using only the finest local and sustainable ingredients available. We also feature a great selection of craft beers from local artisan brewers, and of course an extensive selection of small batch bourbons and whiskey. The Barrel is a friendly and casual neighborhood dining experience where our guests enjoy a great meal without breaking the bank.

HERREN HOUSE

94 East St., Waynesville 828.452.7837

Lunch: Wednesday - Saturday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday Brunch 11 a. m. to 2 p.m.

Enjoy fresh local products, created daily. Join us in our beautiful patio garden. We are your

Spring Street in downtown Sylva. 828.587.2233. Open Monday-Saturday 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tasty, healthy and quick. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, espresso, beer and wine. Come taste the savory and sweet crepes, grilled paninis, fresh, organic salads, soups and more. Outside patio seating. Free Wi-Fi, pet-friendly. Live music and lots of events. Check the web calendar at citylightscafe.com.

CORK AND BEAN

16 Everett St., Bryson City. 828.488.1934

Open Monday-Saturday, 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Enjoy organic, fair-trade, gourmet espresso and coffees, a select, eclectic list of wines, and locally prepared treats to go with every thing. Come by early and enjoy a breakfast crepe with a latte, grab a grilled chicken pesto crepe for lunch, or wind down with a nice glass of red wine. Visit us on Facebook!

606 W. Main Street, Sylva. 828.586.9877 Open 7 days a week at 5 p.m. Located in the historic Hooper’s Drugstore, Guadalupe Café is a chef-owned and operated restaurant serving Caribbean inspired fare complimented by a quirky selection of wines and microbrews. Supporting local farmers of organic produce, livestock, hand-crafted cheese, and using sustainably harvested seafood.

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

Lunch Sunday noon to 2:30 p.m., dinner nightly starting at 4:30 p.m. World-famous prime rib, steaks, fresh seafood, gorgonzola cheese and salads. All ABC permits and open year-round. Children always welcome. Take-out menu. Excellent service and hospitality. Reservations appreciated.

JUKEBOX JUNCTION

U.S. 276 and N.C. 110 intersection, Bethel. 828.648.4193. 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Serving breakfast, lunch, nd dinner. The restaurant has a 1950s & 60s theme decorated with memorabilia from that era.

tasteTHE mountains

MAD BATTER BAKERY & CAFÉ

Located on the WCU Campus in Cullowhee.

828.293.3096. Open Monday-Thursday

7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Earth-friendly foods at people-friendly prices. Daily specials, wraps, salads, pastries, breads, soups and more. Unique fare, friendly service, casual atmosphere and wireless Internet. Organic ingredients, local produce, gourmet fair trade and organic coffees.

MAGGIE VALLEY CLUB

1819 Country Club Dr., Maggie Valley. 828.926.1616. maggievalleyclub.com/dine.

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

MOONSHINE GRILL

2550 Soco Road, Maggie Valley loacted in the Smoky Falls Lodge. 828.926.7440

Open Wednesday through Saturday, 4:30 to 9 p.m. Cooking up mouth-watering, woodfired Angus steaks, prime rib and scrumptious fresh seafood dishes. The wood-fired grill gives amazing flavor to every meal that comes off of it. Enjoy creative dishes made using moonshine. Stop by and simmer for a while and soak up the atmosphere. The best kept secret in Maggie Valley. themoonshinegrill.com

MOUNTAIN PERKS ESPRESSO BAR & CAFÉ

9 Depot St., Bryson City. 828.488.9561

Open Monday through Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Friday 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturday 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. With music at the Depot. Sunday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Life is too short for bad coffee. We feature wonderful breakfast and lunch selections. Bagels, wraps, soups, sandwiches, salads and quiche with a variety of specialty coffees, teas and smoothies. Various desserts.

OLD STONE INN

109 Dolan Road, off Love Lane. 828.456.3333. Classic fireside dining in an historic mountain lodge with cozy, intimate bar. Dinner served nightly except Sunday from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Signature dinner choices include our 8oz. filet of beef in a brandied peppercorn sauce and a garlic and herb crusted lamb rack. Carefully selected fine wines and beers plus full bar available. Open year round. Call for reservations.

PASQUALE’S

1863 South Main Street, Waynesville. Off exit 98, 828.454.5002. Open for lunch and dinner seven days a week. Classic Italian dishes, exceptional steaks and seafood (available in full and lighter sizes), thin crust pizza, homemade soups, salads hand tossed at your table. Fine wine and beer selection. Casual atmosphere, dine indoor, outside on the patio or at the bar. Reservations appreciated.

PASQUALINO’S ITALIAN RESTAURANT

25 Everett Street, Bryson City. 828.488.9555. Open for lunch and dinner everyday 11:30 a.m.-late. A taste of Italy in beautiful Bryson City. Exceptional pasta, pizza, homemade soups, salads. Fine wine, mixed drinks and beer selection. Casual atmosphere, reservations appreciated.

PATIO BISTRO

30 Church Street, Waynesville.

828.454.0070. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Breakfast bagels and sandwiches, gourmet coffee, deli sandwiches for lunch with homemade soups, quiches, and desserts. Wide selection of wine and beer. Outdoor and indoor dining.

RENDEZVOUS RESTAURANT AND BAR

Maggie Valley Inn and Conference Center

828.926.0201 Bar open Monday thru Saturday; dining room open Tuesday thru Saturday at 5 p.m. Full service restaurant serving steaks, prime rib, seafood and dinner specials. Live music Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

SOUL INFUSION TEA HOUSE & BISTRO

628 E. Main St. (between Sylva Tire & UPS). 828.586.1717. Tuesday-Friday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday noon -until. Scrumptious, natural, fresh soups, salads, sandwiches, wraps and desserts. 60+ teas served hot or cold, black, chai, herbal. Seasonal and rotating draft beers, good selection of wine. Home-Grown Music Network Venue with live music most weekends. Pet friendly and kid ready.

SPEEDY’S PIZZA

285 Main Street, Sylva. 828.586.3800

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

TAP ROOM SPORTS BAR & GRILL

176 Country Club Dr. Waynesville

828.456.5988. 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week. Enjoy soups, sandwiches, salads and hearty appetizers along with a full bar menu in our casual, smoke-free neighborhood grill.

THE WINE BAR

20 Church Street, downtown Waynesville. 828.452.6000. Underground cellar for wine and beer, served by the glass all day. Cheese and tapas served Wednesday through Saturday 4 p.m.-9 p.m. or later. info@classicwineseller.com. Also on facebook and twitter.

VILLAGE GREEN CAFE

389 Walnut Street, Walnut Village Plaza, Waynesville. 828.550.9489 . Open Monday thru Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. A fun, casual lunch spot offering fresh made salads, sandwiches, panini, and soups. All meats are all-natural and we support local growers when produce is available. Free delivery in the Waynesville area and call-in orders welcome. villagegreencafe.com. Like on Facebook to view daily specials and promos.

VITO’S PIZZA

607 Highlands Rd., Franklin. 828.369.9890. Established here in in 1998. Come to Franklin and enjoy our laid back place, a place you can sit back, relax and enjoy our 62” HDTV. Our Pizza dough, sauce, meatballs, and sausage are all made from scratch by Vito. The recipes have been in the family for 50 years (don't ask for the recipes cuz’ you won't get it!) Each Pizza is hand tossed and made with TLC. You're welcome to watch your pizza being created.

Making crafts of the past come alive

BY GARRET K. WOODWARD STAFF WRITER

In order to have a clear vision of the future, one must cherish the traditions of the past.

“Southern Appalachian traditions are our heritage,” said Beth Woody. “They made us what we are today. To know who we are now, we need to know who and what we came from.”

An acclaimed woodcrafter from Canton, Woody will be one of the featured artists at the Village of Yesteryear — a live demonstration showcasing the storied craft history of North Carolina. In conjunction with the Museum of North Carolina Handicrafts, the village will be displayed at the Shelton House in Waynesville on May 11 as part of its annual membership drive and patron appreciation day.

The event will feature craftspeople dressed in period clothing. They will demonstrate their traditional activities, many of which are talents and skills passed down through several generations.

“Preserving these traditions will provide a richness and texture to our lives that cannot be found anywhere else,” Woody said.

Artisans create an educational atmosphere where attendees can ask questions and learn the history of what they are witnessing.

“The knowledge and wisdom of our forefathers will help us to grow and progress,” Woody said. “If we don’t teach our young people these traditions and values, they when they become our leaders, they will have no foundation for making appropriate decisions.”

In connection with the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, the Village of Yesteryear was created in 1951 for the state fair. It was designed to cultivate and nurture heritage crafts, serving as a working artist community — one that educated the public about the production of handmade items. Haywood County resident Mary Cornwell was the first director of the fair’s Village of Yesteryear. Cornwell later founded the handicraft museum in 1977, which was placed in the Shelton House. She wanted a place where the ideals and traditions from the village would grow and flourish.

“Mary envisioned the Shelton House museum as a place to house crafts from all over the state and, in particular, to serve as a permanent repository of

“People are always looking for the unique, the different, the beautiful, and our craftsmen today are providing that.”

— Beth Woody, crafter

Specializing in the wood craft of marquetry, artist Beth Woody will be one of the featured artists at the Village of Yesteryear at the Shelton House in Waynesville on May 11. The art form involves using the natural colors and grain of a variety of woods to piece together into a picture.

Donated photo (left) • www.villageofyesteryear.com photo (below)

the Village of Yesteryear art pieces,” said Evelyn Coltman, who serves on the Shelton House board.

Alongside Woody, other crafters include whittler Cary Pace, rug maker Mary Ann Silvey (the niece of famed Haywood County rug maker Virginia Boone), and ceramicist June Wiggins of Dogwood Crafters in Dillsboro.

“It’s important to know where you come from in order to have a clear idea of where you’re going. History is always important, even crafting history,” Pace said. “It’s about sharing the skills with the world, and especially the children because they are the one who will carry it to the next generation.”

A resident of Saluda, Pace has always held an interest in art. While in the Navy, he was stationed in Japan and learned how to watercolor. It was something to not only pass the time, but also put his soul at ease during wartime. Whittling since he was 11, Cary got more involved in the craft after returning home from Vietnam.

Want to go?

As part of the annual Shelton House patron/membership appreciation day, the Village of Yesteryear will be held from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 11, in Waynesville. Live music will start at 1 p.m. with Anita and Marc Pruett. The event is free and open to the public. Donations are accepted. Each person or family who becomes a museum patron/member will receive a numbered ink drawing of the Shelton House. 828.452.1551 or www.sheltonhouse.org.

“[Whittling] became my nerve tonic,” he said. “I’m always carving, I can never just sit without doing something with my hands, and I like to say I always have something to show for my time.”

A woodcrafter of a different sort, Woody specializes in marquetry, which is known as “painting with wood.” The art form involves using the natural colors and grain of a variety of woods to piece together into a picture. Introduced to the craft some 40 years ago, Woody was fascinated by all the things so could create with different species of wood.

“Every piece of veneer is different and, like people, every piece is beautiful,” she said. “It’s very satisfying to find the right piece of veneer to use in pictures so that they compliment each other.”

Reflecting on the current craft scene in Southern Appalachia, Woody feels the traditions are thriving and spreading across the globe.

“People are always looking for the unique, the different, the beautiful, and our craftsmen today are providing that,” she said. “The future is wide open for anyone willing to learn a craft and then use their imagination to take it as far as they can.”

WCU professor nominated for Tony Award

Broadway star and Western Carolina University Musical Theatre Professor Terrence Mann was recently nominated for a Tony Award for his role in the revival of the production “Pippin.”

Mann is among the nominees in the category of best performance by an actor in a featured role in a musical. He is playing the role of King Charles (or Charlemagne), father to the title character.

“Pippin” racked up a total of 10 nominations. Winners will be announced Sunday, June 9. Mann joined the WCU faculty in 2006 as the Phillips Distinguished Professor in Musical Theatre.

This is Mann’s third Tony Award nomination. www.stageandscreen.wcu.edu or 828.227.7491.

Craft beer and canines in Frog Level

A Dogs and Suds fundraiser for Sarge’s Animal Rescue Foundation will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, May 16, at Frog Level Brewing Company in Waynesville.

Live music will be provided by the Celtic Knot Band and Blue Ridge BBQ Company will provide hotdogs. Proceeds will help fund Sarge’s efforts to save as many dogs and cats as possible from the county shelter and place them in foster homes until they can be adopted.

Liars Bench hosts Marilyn McMinn McCredie on May 16

The Liars Bench presents acclaimed storyteller Marilyn McMinn McCredie at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 16, in the Mountain Heritage Center auditorium at Western Carolina University.

The Liars Bench was created in the early summer of 2010 by Gary Carden, recipient of the 2008 Brown-Hudson Folklore Award and the 2012 North Carolina Award for Literature, to promote southern Appalachian storytelling, music, poetry, drama, and folk arts. The group performs southern Appalachian stories, music and songs onstage.

The event is free and open to the public. theliarsbenchgazette.blogspot.comor www.facebook.com/TheLiarsBench or 828.227.7129.

Strawberry Festival sweetens up Cherokee

A Strawberry Festival will be held from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 18, at the Cherokee Indian Fairgrounds.

Concession stands will run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. featuring strawberry pancakes and shortcake. Children’s activities, baked goods, entertainment and demonstrations will also be offered. Learn about the

Cherokee’s strawberry legend and hear children’s versions of the legend during the opening ceremony beginning at 9 a.m. There will also be contests for strawberry baked goods, preserves and other strawberry products.

Vendor space is still available and is $5 per table.

828.736.5285 or 828.497.2389 or carmaleta@msn.com.

Help the Stecoah azalea garden bloom

There will be a azalea garden planting day at 9 a.m. Wednesday, May 15, at the Stecoah Valley Cultural Arts Center.

Besides being able to enjoy the variety of colors and sweet aroma of the garden, as they are currently in full bloom, volunteers are needed to help maintain the property. A cleanup day has been scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday, May 23.

www.stecoahvalleycenter.com or 828.479.3364.

“We hope more people will be able to come this year to support the services that Sarge’s provides. I, for one, can’t say how much I appreciate Annie and Tulsa, my Sarge rescued dogs,” said Clark Williams, owner of FLBC.

Advance tickets can be bought at Sarge’s Adoption Center, Mountain Dreams Realty and Smoky Mountain Dog Bakery. Tickets

are $20 in advance and $25 at the door. Ticket purchase is an automatic entry in drawing for $100 gift certificate to the Chef’s Table. Sponsors for the event are the Blue Ridge BBQ Company, Tourism Development Authority, Smoky Mountain Dog Bakery and Frog Level Brewing Company. www.sargeandfriends.org or www.froglevelbrewing.com.

Haywood Art Council welcomes brass quintet for Sunday concert series

The Pyramid Brass Quintet will play in Waynesville on May 19.

Donated photo

The Pyramid Brass Quintet will play at 3 p.m. Sunday, May 19, at the Haywood County Library in Waynesville as part of the Haywood County Arts Council’s free Sunday Concert Series.

Formed in 2001, the WNC-based band was drawn together because of their love for brass music, using it as an art form to educate and entertain. Their repertoire has grown to include many arrangements from all musical styles and periods including The Renaissance, The Romantic Era, Sacred Music, Broadway Musicals, Big Band, Dixieland, Ragtime, Jazz, Marches, Polkas, and Patriotic Music.

This project was supported by the N.C. Arts Council, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources. The Sunday Series is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Library. www.haywoodarts.org.

Thea & The GreenMan and artist reception planned in Bryson

A folk concert and artist reception will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday, May 18, at the Swain County Center for the Arts in Bryson City.

Thea & The GreenMan of Asheville will perform a concert of original acoustic folk music from 7 to 8:15 p.m. The duo is known for its stellar harmony vocals accompanied by guitar and percussion. Their lyrics are inspired by Native American imagery, the elements of nature, and the subject of

mountains, rivers and canyons.

Immediately following the concert there will be a reception from 8:15 to 9 p.m. for artist and writer Laura Elliott and glass artist Tadashi Torii, both of Sylva. The exhibit of abstract paintings and glasswork will be on display at the Center for the Arts through July 23.

In addition, Iva Veazey of Durham will play the keyboard during the reception, performing compositions inspired by Elliott’s paintings. The evening is sponsored by Swain County Center for the Arts and Swain County Schools. It is free and open to the public. www.swain.k12.nc.us/cfta or 828.488.7843.

Jackson Arts Council contributes to musician fund

Jackson County Arts Council has arranged to donate the money collected in honor of the late Ray Menze to the Junior Appalachian Musicians of Jackson County.

Menze, who died in November 2011, is remembered for his contributions to a wide variety of art forms. For many years Menze taught art in Jackson County public schools. His interest in the music of this region resulted in his contribution towards the founding of a Junior Appalachian Musicians Program in Jackson County.

JAM is an after-school program that provides young people instruction and performance opportunities in Mountain Heritage Music on traditional Appalachian instruments. All Jackson County youth in grades three to eight can join.

It is an affiliate program of the regional JAM, INC.

Mike Snider takes the stage in Franklin

The Mike Snider String Band will perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 11, at the Smoky Mountains Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin.

Snider made his way on the country music scene in the 1980s with his incomparable wit and stellar banjo playing. He first worked his way into people’s hearts through his hundreds of spots on TNN’s Nashville Now and his seven-year stay in the cornfield on “Hee Haw.” A Grand Ole Opry member since 1990, he continues to draw laughter and entertain crowds with his music.

www.greatmountainmusic.com.

Variety choral ensemble brings show to Haywood

Land of the Sky Chorus, the largest male a cappella singing group in North Carolina, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 11, at Tuscola High School in Haywood County.

The show “The Bare Necessities: Laughter, Love and Song” will include appearances by a Johnny Cash impersonator, the world’s worst magician, a doo-wop group and an assortment of other characters. This one-act show also features the debut of “Supersonic,” the area’s newest competitionlevel barbershop quartet.

The Land of the Sky Chorus features fourpart barbershop harmony arrangements of a

Funding is provided by the North Carolina Arts Council and Jackson County Arts Council and sponsored by the NC Cooperative Extension and 4-H.

For information on how to donate to the fund, call 828.586.4009 or heather_gordon@ncsu.edu.

variety of musical genres. It draws performers from all over Western North Carolina and the upstate of South Carolina, including 16 members from Haywood County. A portion of the support local student singing organizations. Tickets cost $15 each, with students admitted free. www.ashevillebarbershop.com or 866.290.7269.

Guitarist brings country blues to Waynesville

Piedmont blues guitarist Sleepy Ralow will be performing at 7 p.m. Friday, May 10, at The Classic Wineseller in Waynesville. Ralow has been carrying on the tradition of old style country blues in North Carolina for over 10 years. He has played juke joints and wineries throughout the state, opening shows for Roy Book Binder and Owen Poteat, among others. Fans of American roots music and the old style blues of the Carolinas and Mississippi Delta will find his live performance of standard and original material remarkable.

There is no cover, but there is a $10 minimum purchase per person. The show is part of The Classic Wineseller’s popular Friday Night Live series. www.classicwineseller.com or 828.452.6000.

Bluesman Sleepy Ralow will be in Waynesville on May 10.

Find the perfect gem for Mother’s Day at Gemboree

The Mother’s Day Gemboree will run from May 10-12 at the Macon County Community Building in Franklin. Doors will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Known as “The Gem Capital of the World,” Franklin hosts three gem and minerals shows throughout the year, with others in July and October.

“Some of the nation’s finest gem and mineral dealers will display and sell everything from fine jewelry to rough and cut gems and minerals,” said Linda Harbuck, executive director of the Franklin Chamber of Commerce, which sponsors the event.

Admission to the gemboree is $2 for adults with those under 12 years of age admitted free.

828.524.2516 or www.discoverfranklin.com.

Habitat for Humanity recovers store treasure

A valuable piece of the history of the Rickman General Store in Macon County is back in its original home thanks to a contribution from Habitat for Humanity.

A 1930 wood-frame glass showcase from the Saginaw Company in Michigan, used by Tom Rickman to display valuable merchandise in the general store, was rescued from destruction and returned to the historic building in the Cowee community this winter.

Habitat for Humanity stumbled upon the piece in 2008, when Macon Bank invited the nonprofit to tour a property in foreclosure and take what they could use. The showcase was found on the porch of the house with the glass broken and full of junk.

Craig Bridge, volunteer with Habitat, suggested that the showcase be fixed up and

Haywood Square to host block party

A day of festivities for “Customer Appreciation Day” will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 11, at Haywood Square in Waynesville.

There will be live music and children’s activities, food vendors, a scavenger hunt with a prizes and professional pet photos. The festival will showcase the vibrant and diverse collection of locally-owned businesses that occupy the shopping plaza in the heart of downtown Waynesville.

“Small business is the backbone of our economy,” said Bruce McGovern, a small business owner in the square. “Keeping local business active means that money is being channeled throughout the county. When a local business makes money, they’ll spend the money in the community.”

Haywood Square bridges the Main Street and Frog Level shopping districts, and McGovern looks at the event as a chance to connect the dots of commerce in the greater downtown area.

“We want to bridge the gaps between downtown and Frog Level,” he said. “Businesses here are active, and the fact more people are supporting us, the more difference it’ll make.”

pressed into service at Habitat for Humanity’s thrift store. Bridge made all the necessary repairs to bring the piece to useful condition, and the showcase was used for displays at their re-sale store for three years.

Mack Brogden, grandson of the late Tom Rickman, recognized the piece and shared many stories about his grandfather’s general store in Cowee making it evident to the folks at Habitat for Humanity that the old piece of furniture had great historical value for the community.

After several conversations with Habitat and the approval of its board, the piece made it back to Cowee in January of this year. Friends of the Rickman Store, Jerry and Joyce Starr arranged the return of the showcase to the Rickman Store. Volunteers from both organizations helped in the move.

The festival is being held the same day as

Spring festival gets hopping in Frog Level

The Whole Bloomin’ Thing street festival will kick-off the growing season with its annual showcase of music, art, crafts, food — and all sorts of things to plant in your yard — from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 11, in Waynesville.

Local growers will be selling flowering baskets, vegetable and herb starts, perennials and annuals, berry bushes and potted plants. Local artisans will feature a wide range of natureinspired crafts. Enjoy fresh cheeses, homemade preserves and jellies, BBQ, tacos, veggie wraps, ice cream and desserts all day long.

Live music and entertainment will be provided throughout the day by local musicians and dancers, including Chris Minick, Raqs Beledi Belly Dance School, Productive Paranoia, Sheila Gordan, ‘round the Fire, the Frog Level Phil Harmonic, The Ross Brothers, and the Jonathan Creek Cloggers.

It is put on each year by the Historic Frog Level Merchants Association.

Parking is available at Haywood Builders, the public parking deck on Branner Avenue and all public parking in the area.

Waynesville Rec center to throw ‘Spring Fling’ kids’ bash

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YOUR HOMETOWN PRINT, COPY, DIRECT MAIL & SIGN SHOP

641 North Main Street, WAYNESVILLE, NC

641 North Main Street, WAYNESVILLE, NC

(3/10 Mile North of the Courthouse)

(3/10 Mile North of the Courthouse)

828-456-HAUS (4287)

828-456-HAUS (4287)

509 Asheville Hwy., Suite B, SYLVA, NC

509 Asheville Hwy., Suite B, SYLVA, NC

(Located in the NAPA Auto Parts Center)

(Located in the NAPA Auto Parts Center)

828-586-HAUS (4287)

828-586-HAUS (4287)

The annual “Spring Fling” will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 11, at the Waynesville Recreation Center.

There will be tubing in Richland Creek, a kid’s dog show, food, music, games for children and a water slide. Kids can have a blast on the 21-foot Ninja slide, the 30-foot obstacle course or bounce on a large castle.

A free dog contest for kids will be held at 10 a.m. with categories for largest dog, smallest dog, best trick, best dressed and cutest

Open call for Macon veteran portrait tribute

The Macon County Art Association will honor local veterans by painting their portraits.

Submissions for candidates of the “Veterans Portrait Tribute” are due by Monday, May 27 (Memorial Day). Families interested are asked to submit a good quality clear photo and a brief biography to the Uptown Gallery in Franklin.

828.349.4607 or www.uptowngalleryoffranklin.com.

Downtown art stroll returns to Sylva

The downtown Sylva Art Stroll will kickoff for the year at 5 p.m. Friday, May 10. Art gallery spaces around downtown feature new exhibits and many host artist receptions coinciding with the monthly art walk, held the second Friday evening of the month. Many shops and restaurants will be open late for patrons to shop and dine locally.

An exhibit by mixed media artist Dawn Behling will run from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Jackson County Library Rotunda. There will be a special artist reception and exhibit from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Nichols House Antiques and

The

dog. Prizes will be awarded. The deadline to register for the dog show is 5 p.m. Wednesday, May 8.

From 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday all Haywood County residents will have free admission to the Waynesville Recreation Center.

The Spring Fling is sponsored by the Waynesville Kiwanis and the Waynesville Parks and Recreation Department

828.456.2030 or recdirector@townofwaynesville.org.

Collectibles. An exhibit of works by WCU student Carrie Croom will be held at Guadalupe Café. Gallery 1 will have a reception celebrating their reopening for the new season from 5 to 9 p.m. A new collection of original paintings by local artists Susan Lingg of Cullowhee and Jack Stern of Tuckasegee will be at It’s By Nature. A display of abstract paintings by artist James McManus will be at Main Street Bakery, which will stay open until 8 p.m. Supported by the Jackson County Visual Arts Association and Jackson County Chamber of Commerce

828.337.3468.

Ballroom dance class offered at WCU

A ballroom dance class will be held from 6 to 7 p.m. Mondays from May 13 to June 17 in the Breese Gym on the campus of Western Carolina University.

Learn the basics of leading and following in a social ballroom dance setting, along with dance styles such as the waltz, tango, chacha, swing and fox trot. Partners will rotate throughout the class and participants need not have a partner to attend.

The cost of the class is $59 or $49 for WCU students, faculty and staff. www.learn.wcu.edu or 828.227.7397.

Franklin celebrates ‘Airing of the Quilts’

The annual “Airing of the Quilts” festival will be held May 10-11 in downtown Franklin. The event will feature an array of workshops, demonstrations and activities in honor of the tradition and pastime.

“You’ll discover hundreds of quilts all throughout historic downtown Franklin as businesses and homeowners will be hanging quilts from their store fronts and porches that will create an unbelievable burst of spring color,” said Linda Schlott, executive director for the Franklin Main Street Program.

Entries in a Quilt Block Challenge will be displayed and judged, as well as quilt art by local school children. Representatives with American Quilt Alliance will be in town to record interviews with local quilters about their family quilting traditions.

Schlott said the festival is also lucky to feature two prominent names in the national quilting lecture circuit this year.

Visitors can also tour the back roads and discover the Macon County Quilt Trail with more than 20 quilt blocks that have been installed on barns, homes, and businesses throughout the county. Quilt Trail guides will be available for purchase.

FRIDAY, MAY 10

The “Airing of the Quilts” festival will be on May 10-11 in Franklin.

• 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. – Deb’s Cats N Quilts will host a workshop with “Certified Square in a Square” instructor Carol Daniel from Texas. www.maconcountyquilttrail.org.

• 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday and 9-11 a.m. Saturday – Quilters can schedule an appointment with certified quilt appraiser Ken Gleason in the town hall. Call 828.349.8912 to schedule an appointment. Fee is $40 per quilt for a certified insurance appraisal. Verbal appraisals are $10 per quilt.

• 6 p.m. – Slideshow and lecture with Suzi Parrone, author of Barn Quilts and the American Quilt Trail Movement. She spent

three years traveling the country talking with barn owners and others who have participated in this new form of “quilting.” Event is free.

SATURDAY, MAY 11

• 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. –Franklin Garden Club Plant Sale will be held at the Clock Tower on the Square.

• 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. — Vintage and miniature quilt show in the windows of the old Macon Furniture Mart downtown.

• 11 a.m. – Confederate Memorial Day Observance in Rankin Square.

• Noon – Lecture and trunk show by Ken and Connie Gleason (known as “Ken the Quilt Guy” but also a Civil Ware re-enactor) on Civil War era quilts in town hall. The Gleasons will be in period costumes and will transport their audience back to the 1860’s.

• Pleasant Hill Church open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with quilting demonstrations.

• Oak Hill Inn Bed & Breakfast and Gillespie Chapel open for tours . www.maconcountyquilttrail.org.

Bartering Day set at Rickman store

“Bartering Day” will serve as the backdrop for a line-up of music, art and storytelling held at Rickman General Store in Macon County on Saturday, May 11, in Cowee. Starting at 10 a.m. friends and visitors are welcome to bring any items they would like to swap with neighbors. Plants and seeds, books, tools, bake goods and antiques have been popular trade items in past years. “Bartering Day” commemorates the first purchase made at the Store in 1925 by Eva Bryson who traded with Tom Rickman three eggs for a spool of thread.

From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., ceramist Doug Hubbs from the Institute of Heritage Arts at SCC will be demonstrating and teaching a variety of pottery techniques for children and adults. Hammer dulcimer player Gary Zimmerman and other musicians will delight visitors with their tunes until 4 p.m. Volunteers will share stories and warm hospitality that characterizes the Cowee community. 828.369.5595.

Interested in pursuing a career in public or non-profit management?

Consider WCU’s acclaimed Master of Public Affairs (MPA) program

With classes conveniently offered in the evenings at our Biltmore Park location, the WCU MPA program can help you achieve your career goals.

We are interested in both full-time and part-time students who want to pursue a career in public service. For more information, please contact Roger Hartley at rehartley@email.wcu.edu

A rural bookstore that beat the odds

“Bookshops are magic.”

This quotation, buried in the middle of Wendy Welch’s The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap: A Memoir of Friendship, Community, and the Uncommon Pleasure of a Good Book (ISBN 978-1-250-01063-6, $24.99), could serve as the banner for this wonderful account of a used bookstore and the community in which it came to life.

Wendy Welch and her husband Jack Beck, a native of Scotland, had lived overseas, and had then returned to the United States, where they both worked high-powered jobs. In addition to her professional life, Wendy Welch also worked as a storyteller. After becoming dissatisfied with the back-stabbing and cutthroat office politics at her place of employment, Welch and her husband decided to seek out a quieter life. Their search brought them to Big Stone Gap in rural Virginia, a former coal town which was suffering, like so many small towns, economic upheavals. Here they found a five bedroom Edwardian house which, despite its exposed wiring, rickety fans, and need of paint, struck them as their dream home.

It also sparked another of their dreams. For years the two of them had fantasized about owning a used bookstore one day. Though the thought was at first a mutual jest, eventually it began to take on shape. On finding the house, they decided that the bottom floor would become the bookshop of their dreams.

Welch takes readers on a humorous journey as she and Jack build the bookshop. They began with no books other than those from their own collection, and so purchase their books from yardsales. Welch’s sister cleverly advises them to advertise that they will pay for books from customers with promises of

Haywood celebrates ‘Children’s Book Week’

to love. Welch’s descriptions of these customers reflects her love for them. Here, for example, is her portrait of Fiona:

“A transplant from Europe many years ago, Fiona runs a pottery and weaving studio on the town’s main street, and her designs command international respect. Not quite five feet tall, she sports a pixie cut of magnolia-blossom white hair. Her smiling eyes hint at mischief bobbing just beneath the surface. I couldn’t say what it is about her — her pixielike figure, baby face, or charming upper-class British accent — but sellers knock themselves out to throw discounts at this happy-go-lucky grandmother.”

insiders and outsiders — and who gets called which — can be as subtle as a homemade quilt.” She and Jack finally prevail in their quest for acceptance through their resolve to stay in the town and keep the shop open, and through Stephen Igo’s celebratory column about the shop that appeared in The Kingsport Times-News, bringing a sense of appreciation to Welch and more customers to the store.

In further efforts to attract customers, and because both of them are community-minded, Jack and Wendy hosted many events at the store. Some of these were impromptu parties with wine and homegrown music, others involved occasions like Needlework Night, when women from the town gather to talk while crocheting and knitting.

future credit, and the idea begins to bring in more and more residents of Big Stone Gap.

With her fine eye for detail, Welch introduces us to many of the shop’s regulars, and we watch as their initial incredulity — “A bookstore? You’re nuts!” is the usual reaction of the locals — turns to acceptance and then

The Haywood County Public Library is planning two special events for this year’s Children’s Book Week.

• “Fun Family Reading Night” will be held at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, May 16, at the Waynesville Library. The event features author, illustrator and performer Chris Rumble, who has inspired kids all across the country. The evening will begin with an introductory presentation by local author Anna Browning and illustrator Josh Crawford.

• An “Authors Fair” will be held at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 21, at the Canton Library. Meet local authors and illustrators Anna Browning, Josh Crawford and Haley Wolfe. Also attending will be Dawn Cusick, author of several nonfiction books for kids, including

In addition to describing encounters in the shop, Welch also gives us a fine portrait of this Appalachian town. In the chapter titled “God Bless You for Trying, Losers,” Welch shows her readers — and I suspect many of them may recognize the sensation — the difficulties of entering into the life of a tight community. When she is fired from a day job, which she’d taken to help support the store, a certain clique in the town begins gossiping about her, and some refuse to bring their business to the bookshop. She writes that “amid the innuendoes and nuances, relationships between

Get the Scoop on Animal Poop, a finalist for the Children’s Choice Book Award for “Book of the Year.”

Doors prizes and refreshments will be offered at each event. 828.648.2924 or 828.452.5169.

Mystery author to discuss new Appalachian-set novel

Writer Sallie Bissell will read from her new novel, Music of Ghosts , at 3 p.m. Saturday, May 11, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva.

When a group of college students visit a haunted cabin deep in the Appalachian woods, one is brutally murdered and her flesh mutilated with disturbing symbols. Attorney Mary Crow must navigate through ghostly legend and truth to find out the identity of the

At the heart of The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap, of course, are books. Welch not only offers anecdote after anecdote about customers and why they buy certain books, but she also shares her own preferences in reading along with those of her husband. She discusses the place of the book in today’s digitalized culture, and the special place of second-hand bookshops in the book world. Her chapter “On Recommending Books” should send readers off to open old classics and newer novels. (I was particularly gladdened to see that she had recommended “Till We Have Faces,” which is for me not only the best novel ever written by C.S. Lewis, but a truly important work about relationships and the human spirit).

Tales of the Lonesome Pine is the real name of Jack and Wendy’s bookshop, chosen because of the town’s association with John Fox Jr.’s novel The Trail of the Lonesome Pine Both the bookshop and the town of Big Stone Gap are now on my “places to visit” wish list. For the present, however, The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap must serve as a sort of secondhand visit to this secondhand shop. And a fine visit it was.

(Jeff Minick is a teacher and reviewer. He can be reached at minick0301@gmail.com.)

killer. Bissell is a Nashville native and divides her time between her hometown and Asheville. Her previous Mary Crow novels have been favorites of local readers. 828.586.9499.

Asheville writer presents thriller

Author Jamie Mason will read from her debut thriller, Three Graves Full, at 6:30 p.m. Friday, May 10, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva.

The book finds Jason Getty in a unique position. Having killed a man he wished he had never met and burying him in the backyard of his house, Getty is trying to learn to live with what he has done. But then he’s shocked when police find two more bodies buried in his yard, ones that he did not bury. 828.586.9499.

BY ANDREW KASPER STAFFWRITER

Hidden among the expanse of forestland in Western North Carolina are little-known pockets of trees that are several centuries old. Either overlooked by loggers or too difficult to access, the old growth stands act as windows into the past and markers of Appalachian history.

Since the end of the Civil War until the 1930s, most forests in the eastern United States were clear-cut. However, some tracts were able to escape that era of industrialized logging and continue to grow.

But they were few. Less than one-tenth of 1 percent of forests in the eastern United States is old growth. Out of the 1.1 million acres in the Nantahala and Pisgah national forests, about 80,000 acres contain old growth. There, 150-, 200- and even 300-year-old trees can be found.

“To find little portions that have escaped, that is pretty special,” said Jill Gottesman, the southern Appalachian outreach coordinator for The Wilderness Society.

Nevertheless, roughly 20,000 acres of the old forests in the Nantahala and Pisgah are still susceptible to logging, not given special protection by the U.S. Forest Service. One such stand is adjacent to the protected Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest near Robbinsville but was not fortunate enough to have been included safely within its boundaries.

The stand is just over 1,000 acres in the Wright Creek drainage, bordering the Cherohala Skyway to the north and interspersed among other sections of forest that have been cut. It neighbors the Indian Creek drainage, another notable site of old growth trees.

Both sites have caught the eye of biologists and environmental activists, and once came within an eyelash of being logged over before advocates took forest service officials on a walking tour of the area to put its qualities on display.

The old growth stand along Wright Creek, with a carpet of wildflowers beneath, is easily picked out from the neighboring stands of dense, shrubby trees that were logged more recently. The old growth giants were temporarily saved from the saw, but Gottesman fears that unless the area is permanently protected the danger being cut will always be present. Cutting the trees could also disrupt the natural cycle and fragile habitat — the small area contains three species that are on the federal endangered list.

Also, a large tree’s trunk, once fallen, takes just as long to decompose as it did to grow. The decomposing tree provides habitat for countless animal species such as birds, chipmunks and salamanders, all the way down to the microbes that convert its wood back into soil. And it will be more than a century before another

“These were the forests that our ancestors encountered when they came and settled this part of the world. It’s a living history. It helps us connect to our past.”

— Jill Gottesman, The Wilderness Society

Forest Service input session

Advocates want to save little-known old growth pockets

tree takes its place. Gottesman says that’s too long to wait, considering the paltry number of old trees in the forest.

“Knowing it takes generations for those trees to grow — I personally want my own children and grandchildren and great grandchildren to encounter trees like that,” Gottesman said.

And although old growth forest provide unique habitat in their shaded canopies and massive, fallen trunks, they also should be revered for their historical significance. They resemble the forests the Cherokee once walked through and the trees that the European settlers found when they first entered

Gottesman says they’re just as much a part of the cultural heritage of the area as an old cemetery, a Native American archeological site or a settler’s home.

“These were the forests that our ancestors encountered when they came and settled this part of the world,” Gottesman said. “It’s a living history. It helps us connect to our past.”

And, they have stored in their wood a cross section of that history. Through their rings and physical markings, the oldest trees in the area have kept an accurate record of droughts, fires and conditions of the forest over the years.

“They’re like the chronicles of nature,” said Josh Kelly, public lands biologist with Western North Carolina Alliance, an environmental organization.

But their chronicles unfold at a different pace than those of human history. To mature into an old growth stand can take between 140 and 240 years after being cut. Logging cycles on private land typically occur every 80 years, Kelly said. Since logging stopped on much of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park since its creation as a park in the 1930s and 1940s, Kelly said much of the woods within its borders are destined for old growth status in 100 years or so.

“We won’t see it in our lifetime,” Kelly said. “But that’s the benefit of public land — it can allow old growth forests to happen.”

Kelly said there has been a small but noticeable resurgence in old growth forests in recent years and a growing fondness for them. When park- and forest-goers visit stands of tall, looming trees, they can’t help but be drawn in by their grandeur.

“Old growth forests are charismatic,” Kelly said. “People love to see big trees.”

Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest and the adjacent Wright and Indian creeks, with rich soil and fertile growing conditions, have created poster children for the old growth cause.

Nevertheless, that creates a special challenge for the most common class of old growth trees in the Appalachians. Often found on ridge tops where the climate is harsh and the soil is poor, these trees are as old as they get but often scraggly and stunted.

Their remote and uninviting location have saved them from being logged over the years, but as the technology for logging has advanced, they may not have the superstar tree appeal to save them in the future.

Many people, Kelly said, will pass them by without even noticing, which creates a problem for their preservation.

“If people don’t know something, they can’t love it, and if they can’t love it they won’t protect it,” Kelly said.

The U.S. Forest Service is soliciting information and feedback from forest visitors, area residents and others on the state of the Nantahala and Pisgah national forests. The forest service is undertaking a planning process that will determine how it manages the two forests for coming decades.

People supporting everything from logging interests to wilderness expansion to recreation and hunting advocates are weighing in. The agency expects to have a draft assessment report available to the public this summer and a final report this fall.

Officials are currently in the assessment phase of revising the Nantahala and Pisgah national forests management plan and are accepting comments through email as well as through two upcoming meetings in Franklin and in Asheville.

The Naturalist’s Corner

BY D ON H ENDERSHOT

Water cents

What falls freely from the sky, rumbles, swooshes, rolls, trickles across the planet; seeps into the earth beneath our feet yet is more valuable than “Texas T,” that foul smelling icky crude that companies spend billions to produce, only to sell for megabillions?

If you walked outside in Western North Carolina this past weekend, you were standing in the middle of it — fresh water.

Now this is not something new on the radar. A Bloomberg News report back in 2006 noted, “The Bloomberg World Water Index of 11 utilities returned 35 percent annually since 2003, compared with 29 percent for oil and gas stocks and 10 percent for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index … The United Nations estimates that by 2050 more than 2 billion people in 48 countries will be short of water.”

And even 10 years before that report some progressive, forward thinking (dare we say liberal?) elected officials in the Tar Heel State, listening to their constituents, created the Clean Water Management Trust Fund. In 1996 the North Carolina General Assembly created the Clean Water Management Trust Fund (CWMTF) with the mission, “… to clean up pollution in the State’s surface waters and to protect and conserve those waters that are not yet polluted.”

These forward-looking public servants were so committed to the concept and scope of the CWMTF that they created a statute — GS 20-81.12, to insure its continued funding. The appropriations began with a little over $47 million in 96-97, growing to $100 million in 05-06 where it remained until economic hardships began to manifest in 2008. Funding began to slowly diminish, dropping to $84 million in 0809. And then the Republican-controlled General Assembly not only repealed the statute guaranteeing funding for CWMTF but cut appropriations by nearly 90 percent beginning fiscal year 2011.

Newly elected Gov. Pat McCrory and the current General Assembly are continuing the trend by reducing the CWMTF appropriations (which are now no longer guaran-

teed) to around $6.8 million a year.

All of North Carolina’s 100 counties have benefited from CWMTF grants. Since it’s inception in 1996, CWMTF has provided more than $500 million to purchase lands protecting fresh water sources in the state; more than $251 million to repair and enhance sewer lines; and more than $96 million in restoration projects. Here in Western North Carolina, the list is obvious: Waynesville watershed; Bryson City watershed; Murphy watershed; Needmore; Rough Creek watershed and the list just

goes on and on.

Before McCrory took office as governor, he served as mayor of Charlotte. Charlotte and Mecklenburg County received more than $17 million dollars in assistance from CWMTF for projects like Mountain Island Lake and Little Sugar Creek while McCrory was mayor. Under his budget it would take more than three years of continuous funding (with no other bids considered) by CWMTF to match the essential work it did in Mecklenburg County.

And of course the governor of the party of “smaller government” has no influence over a General Assembly that has already voted to wrest control of Asheville area’s water from Asheville and Asheville voters to create a Metropolitan Sewer District whose members will be politically appointed. Are other local water districts on notice?

(Don Hendershot is a writer and naturalist. He can be reached a ddihen1@bellsouth.net.)

Get ready for 12 hours of Tsali

A grueling, 12-hour mountain bike race will be held from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. Saturday, May 11, at the Tsali Recreation Area outside Bryson City. Riders can take the course solo or sign up with a team of four to help split the long hours necessary in the saddle to conquer the course.

The race circuit is a 10-mile loop up hills and through the mud on some of the best single-track mountain bike trails in the eastern United States. And as bikers finish the half-day course after nightfall, headlamps and bike lights on, the team or rider with the most laps wins. Race registration is limited to 350 riders, but if space is still available riders can sign up beginning at noon the day before the race. Camping and lodging is also available in the area on a first come, first served basis. www.goneriding.com.

Beginner class for aspiring birders

An introductory workshop to bird watching will be held from 8 a.m. until noon, Saturday May 18, at the Balsam Community Center. The program

“Birdwatching for Beginners” will acquaint participants with the basics of bird watching, including how to identify common birds, use binoculars and field guides, and attract birds to into your front yard for easier viewing. The workshop is open to anyone over the age of 10 and family participation is encouraged. The cost is $20 and registration is required. lvthompson@eartlink.net or 828.452.5414.

A morning filled with migratory birds

The Balsam Mountain Preserve will celebrate migratory birds during a morning filled with events on May 11.

Starting at 8 a.m., a bird walk will set off with naturalist Blair Ogburn. The walk is for ages 10 and up and will be a two-mile trek to find colorful migratory birds on the preserve. Following the walk, all ages are invited to participate in a bird watch at the nature center window at 10 a.m. Watchers will learn how to identify birds and learn about bird feeding. Then at 11 a.m. there will be a live birds of prey demonstration until noon. The cost for the day’s events is $5 per vehicle and attendees must register. 828.631.1060 or www.bmtrust.org.

Fishing class conjures images of Brad Pitt and leaping carp

Ever since I first watched Brad Pitt fly fishing in the film “The River Runs Through It,” I knew I wanted to be on any river that he was on. Unfortunately, I am not sure how much fly fishing he gets in between trips to Africa or Asia to adopt children, so I had to go it alone.

Orvis, an outdoors store in Biltmore Village, hosts “Fly Fishing 101” every Saturday and Sunday, rain or shine. And I mean rain or shine. The Sunday I went, the rain poured down so hard that, had we waited long enough, there would have been a fishable lake covering the grassy area where we practiced casting.

I have fished before — the easy type of fishing where all you do is stick a night crawler on the hook, press a button to throw the line and then let go when you want it to stop. Then you wait and wait some more until you’ve almost lost your

A fledgling IN THE woods

By Caitlin Bowling

patience, hoping a fish finds your worm delicious enough to bite.

Patience is not something I excel at though, and the immediacy of the Internet, smart phones and Netflix has probably made it worse. I still remember sitting in a canoe with my Papa (my dad’s dad), the same person that introduced me to “The River Runs Through It.” I was paddling as if I heard banjos, trying to catch up with the group who seemed leagues ahead. He told me to stop, look around and take in the surroundings —and in a bigger way, not to concern myself with what others were doing but to soak up the moment.

Fishing is the epitome of that. After casting a line, there is nothing to do but sit and wait. But again, when I signed up for the fly fishing class at Orvis, I was thinking about Brad Pitt. Plus, fly fishing seemed to contain some level of skill that I would no doubt find I lacked once gripping the fishing pole.

I haven’t fished in a while. My greatest achievement is catching a bluegill, which, for those that don’t know, are pretty small. I ate it proudly anyway. My greatest almost

French Broad trail map comes online

For paddlers looking to master the French Broad River, a new map is available online detailing the river’s paddle trail. The French Broad River Paddle Trail map includes river access points, campsites and river hazards in addition to nearby rafting and guide services, gear shops, equipment

Make Your Mama

Proud!

accomplishment is nearly catching a leaping carp with a net only. Now that would be an impressive story, so let’s pretend it actually happened.

Now I’m just getting on tangents. The class itself was a great beginner’s course, but it was also a nice refresher for people who have fly fished before. The first half we learned basic knots needed — the clinch knot and surgeon’s knot, which I was informed is not actually used by surgeons. Even the family of four paired with me, who have fly fished before, were enjoying themselves, tying knots and asking about rods and reels.

But then the real test came. Going out in what was then the pouring rain to learn the art of casting. In theory, it was easy, but then again, isn’t everything?

Reel out about 15 feet of line, pull your arm behind you, stop long enough for the line to straighten out behind you, throw the line forward and stop. If all goes right, the line would land near straight in front of you.

The most challenging part was moving fluidly and softly because of the necessary abrupt stop that fly fishers must make when pulling the pole behind their head and again when sending it forward into the water. How can you adequately slam on the brakes without gunning it first?

Our instructors tested our skills by setting up a well-stocked gathering of black, wooden fish covered in Velcro. With another piece of Velcro attached to the end of a pole, we took turns casting our lot. And unlike some days on the river, we all ended up winners.

rentals, parks and lodging.

The river trail spans more than 200 miles from Rosman deep into the Tennessee, where is becomes the French Broad River Blueway. There are campsites, which are free and open to the public, every 10 miles or so along the river.

www.riverlink.org/FBRPaddleTrail.asp.

Gambling

• Has gambling ever made your home life unhappy?

• Do you often gamble until your last dollar is gone?

• Have you ever gambled to escape worry or trouble?

• Have you ever sold anything to finance gambling?

12k 5k

• Have you ever felt remorse after gambling?

Waynesville seniors on the fly

Seniors interested in learning the art of fly fishing are invited to join the Waynesville Parks and Recreation Department on a fly fishing trip to the Pisgah National Forest beginning at 7:30 a.m. on May 14.

The trip will leave from the Waynesville Recreation Center and return by 5 p.m. the same day. Space is limited to the first five

Cullowhee hosts fly fishing festival

Jackson County will host of the upcoming Southeastern Fly Fishing Festival from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 17-18 in the Ramsey Center arena at Western Carolina University.

The festival is designed to attract both experienced and beginning anglers with an extensive lineup of guest speakers, fly-tying experts and industry exhibitors, as well as educational programs for novices who wish to learn more about the sport.

There will also be a barbecue dinner Friday, May 17, in conjunction with Trout Unlimited, to support brook trout restoration in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The evening includes a screening of this year’s Fly Fishing Film Tour, a contest for short films about fly fishing.

Haywood soccer season kicks off

Haywood County is now signing up players for its adult summer soccer leagues. The county’s Recreation and Parks Department will be organizing two leagues: a co-ed and a women’s league. Games are seven versus seven with 25-

sist of six teams of as many as 13 players. All players must be at least 18 years old. Registration will take place May 13-17 on a first come, first served basis and can be submitted at the department office at 1233 N. Main St. in Waynesville.   828.452.6789 or recreation@haywoodnc.net or www.haywoodnc.net.

people to sign up. The cost of the trip is $5 for members of the Waynesville Recreation Center or $7 for non-members.

828.456.2030 or recprogramspecialist@townofwaynesville.org.

The festival was held in Helen, Ga., last year and is sponsored by the Southeastern Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers. Daily admission price is $5 for individuals and $10 for families. Admission price includes the presentations and programs, along with the opportunity to sign up for paid instruction in casting and fly-tying. SoutheastFFF.org.

Market vendors get shelter form the storm

The Haywood County Health Department pitched in and gave away tents, tables, coolers and other equipment to vendors at area farmer’s markets last week, including Haywood’s Historic Farmers Market. The equipment was purchased through a Community Transformation Grant Project, which focuses on addressing disease in the state through tobacco-free living, exercise and eating healthy.

Keelin Schneider, the Health Promotions coordinator, was on site last Wednesday’s to help deliver the equipment to individual vendors who had applied and to market representatives.

“This generous contribution by Haywood County, supporting healthy lifestyles through local markets, is a refreshing boost for producers who are challenged by economic issues and weather,” Schneider said.

Haywood’s Historic Farmers Market is held on Wednesday and Saturday mornings from 8 a.m. until noon in the Shelton House parking lot in Waynesville.

Photography program open to all skill levels

A field photography program is set to begin May 21 and run through June 18. It will be led by local photographer Bob Grytten and include Tuesday evening workshops in the Waynesville Old Armory Recreation Center and Wednesday morning outings to photo-rich destinations in the area. Attendees will carpool to places along the Blue Ridge Parkway and within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park such as Cataloochee Valley, among other destinations.

This program is open to people of all photo skill levels and interests, such as hobby, artistic and journalistic photography. Each Tuesday night session costs $15 and each photo outing $45. The first class will be held Tuesday, May 21. A 20 percent discount can be arranged to those planning on attending all the sessions. Also, for those not located in the Waynesville area, Grytten is gathering input for possible sites for future classes. Space is limited. 828.627.0245 or bobgry@aol.com.

minute halves. The season runs from June 10 until July 24 on Monday and Wednesday evenings at Allens Creek Park. The fee is $365 per team, which includes a soccer jersey for each player and tournament prizes for the final tournament on August 3.

The open league will consist of a maximum of 10 teams with as many as 13 players each. The women’s league will also con-

WCU offers swim lessons for all children

Western Carolina University is offering swim classes for children of all ages throughout the summer.

The classes are held in the Reid Gymnasium pool on weekdays. The first session will run from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., May 13 until May 24 in the evenings. It is open for “sharks,” swimmers who are 6 years and older. Beginning June 17, the university will be offering swim classes for a variety of age groups starting as young as 6 months old. There will also be classes that begin in July and run until the beginning of August.

Classes will be taught by Mike Creason, a retired faculty member of health, physical education and recreation at WCU. Creason has 34 years of experience teaching swim lessons to swimmers of all ages and is certified by the American Red Cross. The costs for the sessions are $75 for students older than 6 and $44 for younger children. Parents must register their children for classes.

828.227.7397 or http://swim.wcu.edu.

Stecoah

The azalea garden at Stecoah Valley Center is in full bloom, but will only be for the next few weeks. Visitors are encouraged to go to the garden and spend an afternoon among the floral aroma and variety of amazing colors. There is a onethird mile paved nature trail to walk along as well free high-speed wifi service for those who wish to access the Internet in the picturesque setting.

And, for those interested in helping out in the garden, which is maintained primarily by volunteers, there are two upcoming volunteer workdays. A planting day will take place at 9 a.m. on May 15, and a clean up day for the azalea garden 9 a.m. on May 23. The Stecoah Valley Cultural Arts Center is located at 121 Schoolhouse Road between Bryson City and Fontana Dam. 828.479.3364 or www.stecoahvalleycenter.com

Garden whiz and author to give talk

Award-winning author, illustrator and gardener Peter Loewer will share his gardening expertise in a talk titled “The Wild Gardener” at 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 14, at the Canton Library.

The talk will touch on both rare and common plants, including native wildflowers. The lecture is based on Loewer’s book, The Wild Gardener, which was selected as one of the 75 Great American Garden Books by the American Horticultural Society. In all, Loewer has written more than 30 books on gardening and natural history, many of which are available through the Haywood County Public Library. The event is free and open to the public. www.thewildgardener.com 828.648.2924.

Park releases new species of predator beetles

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is planning to release two new predatory beetles to stop the spread of the hemlock woolly adelgid, an invasive insect that has devastated hemlock forests throughout the eastern United States.

The park began releasing predatory beetles, which feed exclusively on adelgids, in 2002. Park managers are hopeful that the addition of these two new beetle species will help even further.

Both beetle species are small black lady beetles and will be released at sites throughout the park. One of the beetles comes from Osaka, Japan, where the Smokies strain of invasive adelgid originated. The other comes from Washington, where a similar adelgid species occurs and has been kept in check by the predatory beetle.

officials expect beetles to control the invasive beetle.

The park also employs injecting leaves with horticultural oil and stem and soil injections of systemic insecticides. About

Park managers currently utilize two other beetle species for controlling the adelgid, they also originate from Washington and northern Japan. In the long-term, park

Volunteers needed at Pisgah wildlife center

The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission is seeking volunteers to help at its Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education to accommodate a boost in visitation.

Located near Brevard alongside the Davidson River, the wildlife education center offers free admission and a busy schedule of handson programs and conservation activities.

The center features five large aquariums representing different aquatic habitats as well as nature trails and a neighboring fish hatchery.

There is a long list of openings for volunteers, which include maintenance and

600 acres are being sprayed annually. More than 250,000 hemlock trees across 11,000 acres have been hand-treated with systemic pesticides and more than 545,000 predatory beetles have been released. Each beetle species is first quarantined and researched in depth before given approval for release.   www.nps.gov.

garden help, visitor greeters and wildlife educators. Many of the posts require no previous experience. Hours of operation through November are Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. 828.877.4423 or www.ncwildlife.org.

Park reopens trails damaged by tornado

Two trails that have been closed since 2011 after receiving extensive damage from a tornado in the western end of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park have finally been reopened.

Park trail crews recently completed rehabilitation work on Beard Cane and Hatcher Mountain trails. These trails have been closed since April 2011 due to damaging tornado winds and rain that left the trails blocked by thousands of downed trees. In addition, crews had to rebuild the trailhead and construct multiple retaining walls where the paths had been completely destroyed when trees uprooted.

The storm was so devastating that trail crews from as far away as California had to be brought into help park maintenance workers. All trails are now reopened for public use. However, backcountry campsite 11 remains closed because the damage was so great from the storm that it was deemed no longer suitable as a campsite.   www.nps.gov/grsm or 865.436.1297.

WNC Calendar

B USINESS & E DUCATION

• Haywood Chamber Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, 3:30 p.m. Thursday, May 9, Champion Mortgage, Canton.

• Keller Williams associates will collect school supplies Thursday, May 9, at Kmart and Staples, Waynesville, to distribute to the nine elementary schools in Haywood County, as part of RED Day (renew, energize and donate). www.kw.com/redday.

• Spring Fling and Open House, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, May 9, Highlands Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center, 108 Main St. RSVP, 526.2112.

• Western Carolina University commencement ceremonies, 7 p.m. May 10, 10 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. May 11, Ramsey Regional Activity Center, Cullowhee. www.wcu.edu/24593.asp or 227.7216.

• Free 90-minute computer class- Basic Microsoft Word, 6:45 p.m. Wednesday, May 15, Jackson County Public Library, Sylva. Space limited. 586.2016.

COMMUNITY EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Law enforcement memorial service, noon Friday, May 10, courthouse square, downtown Franklin. Fraternal Order of Police lodge from Macon and Jackson counties. Congressman Mark Meadows will speak.

• Haywood and Jackson County Guardian Ad Litem New Volunteer Training Classes, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesdays May 8 through June 19. 454.6394 or 454.6513.

• Chick-fil-A Leadercast, 8 a.m. Friday, May 10, Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts, Franklin. Oneday leadership event will broadcast live from Atlanta to Franklin. Tickets are $60 each or $50 for two attendees. Includes a Chick-fil-A lunch. GreatMountainMusic.com or 866.273.4615.

• Foster Pet Adoption, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 11, Sarge’s Animal Rescue Foundation’s Adoption Center, 256 Industrial Park Drive, Waynesville. Photos of pets available for adoption can be seen at www.sargeandfriends.org or www.petfinder.com. 246.9050.

• PetSmart hosts Sarge Foster Pet Adoption, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 11, PetSmart, 321 Town Center Loop in Waynesville. Photos of pets at www.sargeandfriends.org. 246.9050.

• Youth for Sarge will have a booth at the Whole Bloomin’ Thing festival, Saturday, May 11, Frog Level district, Waynesville.

• National Letter Carriers “Stamp Out Hunger” Food Drive for Haywood County, 1 p.m. Saturday, May 11, loads of food are to be taken to your nearest post office. 456.4838.

• REACH Fundraiser, An American Girl Tea Party 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 11, Holly Springs Baptist Church, Franklin. $150 per table; $25, adults; $10, children. Proceeds to victims of domestic violence. Macon office, 369.5544 or Jackson office, 586.8969. www.reachofmaconcounty.org.

• Community input meeting, 5 to 6:30 p.m. Monday, May 13, atrium of the Jackson County Public Library, Sylva. Input sought by WCU campus master planners to help guide campus development and improvements in the years ahead. Office of Institutional Planning and Effectiveness, 227.7239, email wargo@wcu.edu or visit the website masterplanning.wcu.edu.

• Western North Carolina Civil War Round Table presents Daniel T. Davis, 7 p.m. Monday, May 13, Mountain Heritage Center, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee. Chris Behre, 293.9314 or Chuck Beemer, 456.4212.

• MedWest-Haywood President and CEO Janie Sinacore-

All phone numbers area code 828 unless otherwise noted.

Jaberg will speak at the Beaverdam community development group meeting, 7 p.m. Monday, May 13, Beaverdam Community Center, 1620 N. Canton road. Melissa Moss, 648.0589.

• MedWest-Haywood President and CEO Janie SinacoreJaberg will speak at the Bethel Rural Community Organization meeting, 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 14, Bethel Presbyterian Church, 804 Sonoma Road. Dave Curphey, 648.6068.

• Introduction to Emotional Freedom Technique training 10 to 11:30 a.m., Saturday, May 18, Haywood County Library auditorium, Waynesville. Taught by Vicki O’Connor, master EFT practitioner and trainer, 768.4252, www.destinationstressfree.com.

• Last Relay for Life of Franklin’s Team Captain’s meeting, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday May 21, The Factory, 441 South. Tammy Dills, 371.1868.

B LOOD D RIVES

Haywood

• Junaluska Fire Department Blood Drive, 1 to 5:30 p.m. Monday, May 13, 90 Old Clyde Road, Lake Junaluska. All donors will be automatically entered into a drawing to win a $1,000 gift card. To schedule an appointment, call Larry, 456-9934 or 800-REDCROSS (800.733.2767) and enter Sponsor Code: Junaluska.

Macon

• Keller Williams Realty Blood Drive, 1 to 5 p.m. Thursday, May 9, 1573 Highlands Road, Franklin. Connie Coker, 524.0100 or log onto www.redcrossblood.org.

H EALTH MATTERS

• Fourth annual Healthy Living Festival, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, May 10, Jackson County Recreation Center, Cullowhee. 587.8288 or annalippard@jacksonnc.org.

• Free information booth regarding speech/language/swallowing issues and services 2 to 4 p.m. Thursday, May 16, MedWest Harris West Entrance. Free 15 minute screenings for speech/language/swallowing concerns will be offered with prior appointments. 586.7235.

• Free hearing screening, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, May 17, Haywood Community Connections. Suzanne Hendrix, 452.2370 or Kim Reed, hard of hearing services specialist, 665.8733 or Kim.Reed@dhhs.nc.gov.

R ECREATION & FITNESS

• Spring Fling, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 11, Waynesville Recreation Center, rain or shine. Free events. Tubing in Richland Creek, a kid’s dog show, food, music, games for children, and a water slide. Concessions by Waynesville Kiwanis. 456.2030 or email recdirector@townofwaynesville.org

• Registration for Haywood County Recreation & Parks Adult Summer Soccer Leagues May 13-17, Haywood County Recreation & Parks office, 1233 N. Main St. (Annex II Building), Waynesville. 18 years old or older. 452.6789 or email recreation@haywoodnc.net. www.haywoodnc.net.

• American Red Cross certified swim lessons for children age 6 months to teens, starting May 13, Western Carolina University. Details at http://swim.wcu.edu or call 227.7397.

S ENIOR ACTIVITIES

• Haywood County Senior Games, May 6-21, throughout Haywood County. Opening Ceremony, May 6, Ice Cream Social, May 15, and dinner at the Closing Ceremony, May 21. Haywood County Recreation & Parks office, 452.6789 or visit www.haywoodnc.net.

• Seniors Fly Fishing trip, 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 14, Pisgah National Forest. Offered by Waynesville Parks and Recreation Department. Leave from Waynesville Recreation Center at 7:30 a.m. Space limited to first five people to sign up. Bring own lunch. $5 for members of Waynesville Recreation Center, $7 for non members. 456.2030 or email recprogramspecialist@townofwaynesville.org.

• Covered dish luncheon for seniors noon to 1 p.m. Thursday, May 16, Waynesville Recreation Center. Free to members of the Waynesville Recreation Center or $5 per person for non-members. Tim Petrea, 456.2030 or email recprogramspecialist@townofwaynesville.org.

K IDS & FAMILIES Day Camps

• Elementary School Summer Day Camp, ages 6 to 12, Cullowhee United Methodist, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, June 3 to Aug. 2. 293.9215 or visit http://www.cullowheeumc.org/summer-camp-2013/.

• Preschool Summer Day Camp Cullowhee United Methodist Church, ages 3 - not yet attended kindergarten, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, June 3 through Aug. 2. 293.9215 or visit http://www.cul-

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

■ Complete listings of local music scene

■ Regional festivals

■ Art gallery events and openings

■ Complete listings of recreational offerings at regional health and fitness centers

■ Civic and social club gatherings

lowheeumc.org/summer-camp-2013/.

• Summer Nature Day Camps at the Highlands Nature Center, Tuesday through Friday, June through August. 526.2623 or www.highlandsbiological.org.

• Five-day, two-day art camps, Around the World in a Week, www.cullowheemountainarts.org/youth.

• North Carolina Arboretum’s 2013 Discovery Camp, pre-kindergarten through high school. Scholarships available. 665.2492 or visit www.ncarboretum.org.

• Day Camps at Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, 227.7108 or www.wcu.edu/academics/edoutreach/conted/camps-and-programs-for-kids/index.as

Science & Nature

• Nature Center Summer Day Camps at the Highlands Nature Center. Filling up fast. Complete schedules, costs, and other information, at www.highlandsbiological.org or call 526.2623.

Literary (children)

• American Girls Club, noon Saturday, May 11, City Lights. Jackson County Public Library, 586.2016.

• Children’s Story time - Rotary Readers, 11 a.m. Monday, May 13, Jackson County Public Library, 586.2016.

• Lego Club, 4 p.m. Tuesday, May 14, Jackson County Public Library, 586.2016.

Food & Drink

• Second annual Dogs and Suds fundraiser for Sarge’s Animal Rescue Foundation, 6 to 9 p.m. Thursday, May 16, Frog Level Brewing Company, 56 Commerce St., Frog Level, Waynesville. Music by the Celtic Knot Band.

• Collective Spirits Premier Wine & Food Event, May 16-18, The Bascom, 323 Franklin Road, Highlands. www.collectivespirits.com or 787.2896. Claire Cameron, events manager, 787.2882 or ccameron@thebascom.org.

• Taste of Home Cooking School, 6:30 p.m. Saturday, May 18, Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts, Franklin. Tickets, $12. GreatMountainMusic.com or call 866.273.4615.

• Free tea tasting, 2 p.m. Sunday, May 19, Blue Ridge Books, 152 S. Main St., Waynesville, 456.6000.

• Gathering Table, 5 to 7 p.m. Thursdays, at The Community Center, route 64, Cashiers. Fresh, nutritious dinners to all members of the community regardless of ability to pay. Volunteers always needed and donations gratefully accepted. 743.9880.

ECA EVENTS

• Extension and Community Association (ECA) groups meet throughout the county at various locations and times each month. NC Cooperative Extension Office, 586.4009. New members welcome.

• Noon Thursday, May 9 – Container Herb Garden, Lunch and Learn ECA, Conference Room of Community Service Center, Sylva.

• 10 a.m. to noon Thursday, May 16 – ECA Craft Club Workshop: Pine Needle Pendant, Conference Room of Community Service Center, Sylva. Call Extension Office, 586.4009, to sign up.

• 1 p.m. Monday, May 20 – VA Projects, Sew Easy Girls ECA, Conference Room of Community Service Center, Sylva.

• 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 21 – Paper Craft, Cane Creek ECA. Call Extension Office, 586.4009, for location.

P OLITICAL G ROUP EVENTS & LOCAL G OVERNMENT

• Special meeting of the Haywood County Republican Party Executive Committee, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 21, 303 N. Haywood St., Waynesville. Final selection of candidates for the County Board of Elections will be made. May 23 meeting cancelled. Pat Carr, carr4pat@aol.com.

• Bring Your Own Lunch With The League, noon Thursday, May 9, Tartan Hall, First Presbyterian Church, Franklin. Past county commissioners to discuss how Macon County has changed. Hosted by The League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan political organization.

S UPPORT G ROUPS

Haywood

• Men’s Only Grief Support Group, 9 to 10:30 a.m. the second Tuesday of each month, First Presbyterian Church, 305 Main St., Waynesville. John Woods, facilitator. 551.2095 or jhwoods55@yahoo.com.

• Grief and Beyond, a grief support group, 4:30 to 6 p.m. Thursdays, room 210, Long’s Chapel UMC,

Waynesville. Facilitated by Jan Peterson, M.S. 550.3638 or Long’s Chapel UMC, 456.3993, ext. 17, Tim McConnell.

• Haywood County Aphasia Support Group, 1:30 to 2:30 p.m., second Monday of each month in the Haywood Regional Medical Center Fitness Center classrooms. 227.3834.

• Haywood County offers an HIV/AIDS Support Group, 4 p.m., first Tuesday of each month at the Health Department. Anonymity and confidentiality are strongly enforced. 476.0103 or haywoodhiv@yahoo.com.

• AA meetings, 7 p.m., Saturdays, Maggie Valley United Methodist Church, 4192 Soco Road. 926.8036.

• Al-Anon, a support group for families and friends of alcoholics, 8 p.m., Tuesdays, Grace Episcopal Church, 394 N. Haywood St. Use Miller St. entrance. 926.8721.

• Alzheimer’s Association, 4:30 p.m., fourth Tuesday of each month, First United Methodist Church, Waynesville and 2:30 p.m., third Thursday of each month, Silver Bluff Care Center in Canton. 254.7363.

• Celebrate Recovery, 6 p.m. every Thursday, Long’s Chapel UMC, Waynesville. A Christ-centered 12-step recovery ministry open to all adults with hurts, habits, and hang-ups. Childcare available. 456.3993, ext. 32.

• Diabetes Support Group, second floor classroom, MedWest Health & Fitness Center, 4 p.m. on the second Monday of each month. 452.8092

• Grandchildren/Grandparents Rights of N.C., 7 p.m., first Thursday of each month, Canton Library. 648.5205.

• HOPEful Living: Women’s Cancer Support Group, third Tuesday of each month from 5:30 to 7 p.m., Haywood Regional Medical Center, Fitness Center, Health Educ. Room, Waynesville. 627.9666 or riggs_sandi@msn.com or 627.0227.

• National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) chapter, 7 p.m., third Thursday of each month, Asbury Sunday School Room, First United Methodist Church in Waynesville. 400.1041.

• Recovery from Food Addiction, a 12-step recovery program for individuals suffering from food addiction, 5:45 p.m. Wednesdays, Friendship House, Academy St. beside Waynesville’s First United Methodist Church, 400.7239.

• Single Parents Networking Group, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Wednesdays, First United Methodist Church, 566 S. Haywood St., Waynesville, free, dinner and child care provided in fun, informal setting. 456.8995 ext. 201.

• WNC Grief Support Group is for families who have lost a child. 7 p.m., third Thursday of each month, Clyde Town Hall. 565.0122 or e-mail hotstraitcountry@aol.com.

• WNC Lupus Support Group 7 p.m., first Tuesday of each month, Home Trust Bank in Clyde. 421.8428 or countrygirl351@bellsouth.net

Jackson

• Man to Man Support Group for prostate cancer patients and survivors, 7 to 8 p.m., Monday, May 13, Harris Medical Park conference room 98, Doctors Dr., Sylva. Mary E. Mahon, RN, 631.8100.

• MedWest-Swain WNC Breast Cancer Support Group, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Tuesday, May 14, private dining room next to the cafeteria at MedWest-Swain in Bryson City. Mary E. Mahon, RN, 631.8100.

• MedWest-Harris WNC Breast Cancer Support Group, 7 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 28, Harris Medical Park conference room, 98 Doctors Dr., Sylva. Mary E. Mahon, RN, 631.8100.

• Harris Monthly Grief Support Group, 3 to 4 p.m. every third Tuesday of the month, Chaplain’s Conference Room, MedWest-Harris, Sylva. 586.7979. •

• Breastfeeding support group, 9:30 to 11 a.m., first Monday of each month at the First United Methodist Church (park in back and use rear entrance) Sylva. smokeymtnmamas@yahoo.com or 506.1186.

• Men’s discussion circle, 7 p.m. Mondays, The Center in Sylva. Join an open circle of men to discuss the challenges of life that are specific to men in a safe environment of confidentiality. $5. Chuck Willhide, 586.2892 or e-mail chuckwillhide@hotmail.com.

• Al-Anon Meetings are held at 4 p.m. Tuesdays at Grace Community Church. The meetings bring hope for families and friends of alcoholics. 743.9814.

• Cashiers Cancer Care Group for cancer patients, survivors, spouses and caregivers offers support, encouragement, hope and understanding. 7 p.m., first Thursday of the month, Grace Community Church. 743.3158.

• Food Addicts In Recovery Anonymous, 7 p.m., Mondays, Harris Regional Hospital in the small dining room, Sylva. 226.8324.

• Jackson County Alcoholics Anonymous, 7:30 p.m., Mondays, Sylva First Presbyterian Church, Grindstaff Cove Road.

• Look Good, Feel Better is for women dealing with the appearance related side effects that occur with cancer treatments. A trained volunteer cosmetologist shares expertise in dealing with hair loss and skin change. 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Harris Regional Hospital. Sessions are offered bimonthly on the first Monday. RSVP required, 586.7801.

• WestCare Hospice Bereavement Support Group meets at 3:30 p.m. the third Tuesday of each month in the Chapel Conference Room at Harris Regional Hospital. 586.7410.

• Weight Watchers meets at 8:30 a.m. every Monday at Grace Christian Church in Cashiers. 226.1096.

Macon

• Angel Medical Center Hospice offers three bereavement support groups for people who have lost loved ones. Two Women’s Support Groups both meet on the third Wednesday of each month at the Sunset Restaurant on Highway 28 at 11:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. A Men’s Support Group meets the first Monday of each month also at the same location at 11:30 a.m. 369.4417.

• Angel Medical Center offers a monthly Diabetes Support Group the last Monday of each month. The group meets in the Angel Medical Center dining room beginning at 4 p.m. Pre-registration is required by calling 369.4181.

• Anxiety, nervousness and/or panic disorders support group meets at 7 p.m. on Fridays in the basement of Highlands United Methodist Church. 526.3433.

• Al-Anon meetings are held at noon every Thursday at the First Presbyterian Church at Fifth and Main in the community room in Highlands. All are welcome.

• Alzheimer’s Caregivers Support Group meets at 1:30 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month at the Macon Co. Department on Aging. 369.5845.

• Angel Medical Center’s Diabetes Support Group meets at 6 p.m. the fourth Monday of each month in the Center’s dining room.

• Chronic Pain Support Group meets at 7 p.m. the fourth Monday of every month in the dining room of Angle Medical Center. 369.6717 or 369.2607.

• Circle of Life support group meets 10 a.m. to noon Fridays at Highlands-Cashiers Hospital. The group is for those who are dealing with any loss or grief. 526.1462.

• Healthy eating/weight control classes are held every Tuesday at noon at the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service Office, 193 Thomas Heights Rd. 349.2048.

• Highlands-Cashiers Cancer Support Group meets at 6:30 p.m. on the third Thursday of the month at First United Methodist Church of Highlands. Meetings are confidential.

• Miracles Happen group of Overeaters Anonymous meets at 5:30 p.m. each Thursday and 5 p.m. each Sunday in the downstairs chapel of First United Methodist Church. 349.1438.

• Overeaters Anonymous meets at 5 p.m. on Sundays at First United Methodist Church at 86 Harrison Ave in Franklin. 508.2586

• NAMI Appalachian South (National Alliance on Mental Illness), the local affiliate of NAMI NC, meets on the first and third Thursdays of each month at 7 p.m. at the Community Facilities Building, Georgia Road Contact Ann Nandrea 369.7385.

• Suicide Survivors Support Group. Angel Hospice sponsors a monthly support group for those who have suffered a loss due to the suicide of a loved one. This meeting is open to everyone in our community and meets the fourth Wednesday of each month at 10:30 a.m. in the back room. 369.4417.

• TOPS (Take off Pounds Sensibly) support group meets 5:30 p.m. every Monday at Bethel Methodist Church. Weigh in begins at 4:30 p.m. 369.2508 or 369.5116.

• Weight Watchers meet each Tuesday at the Peggy Crosby Center in Highlands. Weigh in is at 5:30 p.m. with the meeting beginning at 6 p.m.

Swain

• Women’s 12-Step Medicine Wheel Recovery Group meets Tuesdays at 5 p.m. at A-Na-Le-Ni-S-Gi in Cherokee.

• Circle of Parents, support group for any parent, meets at noon on Thursdays at the Swain Family Resource Center.

• Grief Support Group meets from 7 to 8 p.m. each Monday night at the Cherokee United Methodist Church on Soco Road. 497.4182.

• Great Decisions 2013 Edition Discussion Group, 5:15 to 6:30 p.m. Thursdays through May 23, auditorium Haywood County Public Library, Waynesville. $20, cost of Great Decisions, 2013 Edition. Leader, David E. McCracken, National Associate with the FPA. 550.5980 or dem32415@aol.com or www.fpa.org.

• Hunger Games Fan Tours - Walking Tours June 8, July 6, Aug.17, & Aug. 31, DuPont State Forest (between Hendersonville and Brevard). $59 per person. www.hungergamesfantours.com.

LITERARY (ADULTS)

• Registration now open for the 2013 Squire Summer Writing Residency, July 11–14, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee. Admission limited to the first 50 registrants who sign up for one of three three-day workshops. www.ncwriters.org.

• Author Ron Rash will speak at the Haywood Friends of the Library Annual Meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 9. Tickets are $8 and available at all library branches, Blue Ridge Books and Gallery 86 in Waynesville, Christian Growth Center of First United Methodist Church in Waynesville. stanandlinda@charter.net or 828.456.5311.

• Author Victoria Casey McDonald discusses AfricanAmerican roots, 7 p.m. Thursday, May 9, Jackson County Courthouse. 631.2646.

• Asheville writer Jamie Mason will read from her thriller novel, Three Graves Full, 6:30 p.m. Friday, May 10, City Lights Bookstore, Sylva. 586.9499.

• Sallie Bissell reads from her new novel, Music of Ghosts, 3 p.m. Saturday, May 11, City Lights Bookstore, Sylva. 586.9499.

• Scarf-Tying with Michele Garashi-Ellick, 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 14, Jackson County Public Library, 586.2016.

A&E

FESTIVALS, S PECIAL & S EASONAL EVENTS

• Fourth annual Healthy Living Festival, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday, May 10, Jackson County Recreation Center, Cullowhee. 587.8288 or annalippard@jacksonnc.org.

• 12th annual Mother’s Day Gemboree, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, May 10 and Saturday, May 11, and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, May 12, Macon County Community Building, Franklin. Rough and cut gems, minerals, fine jewelry, equipment, supplies, beads, door prizes and demonstrations.

• 11th annual Whole Bloomin’ Thing Festival, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 11, Historic Frog Level, Waynesville.

• Cherokee Spring Fling, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, May 11, Cherokee Welcome Center, 498 Tsali Blvd. Cherokee. Cancelled if raining. 554.6490/554.6491

• Customer Appreciation Day, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 11, Haywood Square, Waynesville.

Live music, children’s activities, food vendors, a scavenger hunt with a prizes and professional pet photos.

• Strawberry Festival, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, May 18, Cherokee Indian Fair Grounds, Cherokee. Free admission. Featuring strawberry pancakes and strawberry shortcake.

• The Rickman Store opens 10 a.m. Saturday May 11, with a day full of activities for the celebration of the “Airing of the Quilts” in Franklin. The Rickkman Store is located in the Cowee-West’s Mill Historic District at 259 Cowee Creek Road, seven miles north of Franklin off highway 28. 369.5595.

guest performer, storyteller Marilyn McMinn McCredie and Gary Carden’s popular “Appalachian Bestiary” series. No admission charge, but the hat is passed at each performance to provide a token payment for the performers. 227.7129.

• Senior Follies, 7 p.m. Friday, May 17, Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts, Franklin. Tickets, $5. GreatMountainMusic.com or call 866.273.4615.

• The Lottery, directed by Richard Fish, 6:15 p.m. dinner, 7 p.m. performance, May 17-18, The Vine of the Mountains Church, Frog Level, Waynesville. Featuring home schooled students from Deep/Young Academy. Tickets for dinner and show are $25, adults, $10, students and can be purchased via PayPal at www.deepyoung.com or by calling Clint Matthews at 400.5674.

• Smoky Mountain High School Musical, 7:30 p.m. May 17-19, WCU Bardo Arts Center, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee. 586.2177.

• Highlands Playhouse Lock-up, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 18. Community leaders will be “arrested” for having a big heart. Proceeds go to Playhouse. 526.2695, www.highlandsplayhouse.org.

• Songwriters in the Round, 6 to 10 p.m., Saturday, May 18, Balsam Mountain Inn. $45. 800.224.9498

• Haywood County Arts Council’s Sunday Concert Series presents Pyramid Brass, 3 p.m. Sunday, May 19, Haywood County Library, 11 Pennsylvania Ave., Canton. Free. www.haywoodarts.org for more information.

• Grace Noon Concert Series, noon, third Thursdays of the month through June 20, Grace Church in the Mountains, 394 Haywood St., downtown Waynesville. Featuring the Signature Winds. 456.6029.

• Award-winning author, illustrator and gardener Peter Loewer will share his gardening expertise at 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 14, Canton Branch Library. Free. www.thewildgardener.com. 648.2924.

• Authors Fair, featuring local authors and illustrators, 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 21, Canton Library. Lisa Hartzell, 648.2924 or 452.5169.

ON STAGE & I N CONCERT

• Four-time Grammy Award winner David Holt and Mountain Faith, 7 p.m. Friday, May 10, Coulter Hall, Western Carolina University. $10. Tickets sold at the door. Sponsored by the Jackson County arm of the Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM) program. All proceeds to help sustain the JAM program in Jackson County. Heather Gordon, Jackson County 4-H, 586.4009 (office), 400.2114 (cell), or heather_gordon@ncsu.edu.

• The Land of the Sky Chorus presents The Bare Necessities: Laughter, Love and Song, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 11, Tuscola High School. Tickets, $15; students free. Tickets available at the door or through the chorus’ website, www.ashevillebarbershop.com. Group discounts available. 866.290.7269

• Grammy nominated Josh Turner, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 11, Harrahs Cherokee Casino. 497.7777.

• Mike Snider String Band, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 11, Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin. $15. GreatMountainMusic.com or call 866.273.4615.

• Singer/songwriter Dave Desmelik, 7 p.m. Saturday, May 11, BearWaters Brewing Company, Waynesville.Free.

• End-of-Year Celebration, Junior Appalachian Musicians Program (JAM), 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 14, Canton Middle School Cafeteria. Free. www.ncarts.org, www.haywoodjam.org.

• Liars Bench, 7 p.m. Thursday, May 16, Mountain Heritage Center, Western Carolina University, featuring

ART/GALLERY EVENTS & OPENINGS

• Testify exhibition through Friday, May 10, Fine Art Museum, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee. WCU Fine Art Museum, 227.3591 or go online to fineartmuseum.wcu.edu.

• Downtown Art Stroll, 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, May 10, Sylva. Art receptions, wine and cheese, extended shopping hours.

• Photographer Barbara Sammons’ Dusty Roads and More, a collection of 18 photographs of old cars and tractors, wildlife and scenography, through July 31, Canton Branch Library, 11 Pennsylvania Avenue, Canton. Barbara Sammons, 707.4420. www.barbarasammons.com.

• Family craft workshops, 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 18, Gallery 86, 86 N. Main St., Waynesville. $5. Space limited. Correlates with Under the Sea exhibition, a series of underwater photographs by Dr. John Highsmith. Haywood County Arts Council, 452.0593. www.haywoodarts.org.

• Norma Bradley (fiber) and Rebecca Kempson (mixed media), May 11 through June 30, Folk Art Center Focus Gallery, milepost 382 Blue Ridge Parkway, Asheville. 298.7928, www.craftguild.org.

• Fifth annual Spring Cashiers Arts & Crafts Fair, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 25-26, Cashiers Village Green. Spring juried event. Artisans interested in participating in this show email artsandcrafts@cashiersrotary.org.

CLASSES, PROGRAMS & D EMONSTRATIONS

• Village of Yesteryear craft specialists and membership drive, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 11, Museum of North Carolina Handicrafts in Historic Shelton House, 49 Shelton St., Waynesville. Free, but donations accepted. Entertainment by Anita Pruett and fellow musicians. Juried crafts people in period clothing.

• Hot glass flowers class with Julie Boisseau, 45-minute time slots, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 11, Jackson County Green Energy Park, 100 Green Energy Park Road, Dillsboro. $30, due at registration. 631.0271

• Glass Bowl with Carla Camasso, 45-minute time slots, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, May 11, Jackson County Green Energy Park, 100 Green Energy Park Road, Dillsboro. $50, due at registration. Pre-registration required. 631.0271

• Claymates Pottery Margarita Night 6 p.m. Friday, May 10, 31 Front St., Dillsboro, 631.3133, and Saturday May 11, 460 Hazelwood Ave., Waynesville, 246.9595. Light snacks provided. For those 21 years and older. $10 minimum purchase. www.claymatespottery.com.

• Claymates Pottery Mommy & Me Tea Party, 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday May 12 (Mother’s Day), Dillsboro and Waynesville locations. Paint two teacup and saucer sets plus refreshments, $25. 631.3133 or 246.9595

• Dogwood Crafters Class, embossed floral birthday card, 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Friday, May 17, Dogwood Crafters, 90 Webster St., Dillsboro. $5. 586.2248 or email: junettapell@hotmail.com.

• Southwestern Community College is offering several pottery classes this summer at the Swain Center, 60 Almond School Road, Bryson City. For a complete schedule, visit www.southwesterncc.edu/finearts or call 366.2000.

FILM & S CREEN

• Free classic film, 1 p.m. Friday, May 11, Marianna Black Library, Bryson City. Starring Don Ameche in a 1943 Ernst Lubitsch classic. 488.3030.

• Free family movie, 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 14, Marianna Black Library, Bryson City. Features Winter, a young dolphin who lost her tail in a crab trap. 488.3030.

• New movie, 4:30 and 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 15, meeting room, Macon County Public Library, 149 Siler Farm Road, Franklin, 524.3600. Rated PG for emotional thematic content throughout, and some scary action sequences and peril.

• Movie Night, 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 15, Jackson County Public Library, Sylva. 586.2016.

• Classic movie, 2 p.m. Friday, May 17, meeting room, Macon County Public Library, 149 Siler Farm Road, Franklin. Starring Katharine Hepburn and Burt Lancaster. 524.3600.

DANCE

• Pisgah Promenaders Dahlia/Mother’s Day square dance, 6:45 to 8:45 p.m. Saturday, May 11, Old Armory Rec. Center, 44 Boundary Street, Waynesville. Plus and Mainstream dancing with caller Ken Perkins. 586.8416 Jackson County, or 452.1971.

Carolina University. $59 ($49 for WCU students, faculty and staff). Register at learn.wcu.edu and select the “conferences and community classes” tab or call Office of Continuing Education, 227.7397.

M USIC JAMS

• Back Porch Old-Time Music, 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 18, porch of the Oconaluftee Visitor Center, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Bring an acoustic instrument and join in on this old-time jam.

M USIC MAKERS

• Golden Aires singing group meets at 10:30 a.m. every Thursday at the Golden Age Senior Center in Sylva. Secular and religious music. Performances given at area nursing homes. Singers need not be seniors to join. goldenagecenter1@verizon.net.

• Haywood Community Band meets from 7 to 8:30 p.m. every Thursday at Grace Episcopal Church. 452.7530.

• Karaoke is held at 7 p.m. every other Friday at the American Legion Post 47 in Waynesville. Open to all members and their guests. 456.8691.

• Karaoke is held from 8:30 to12:30 p.m. every Friday at the Tap Room at the Waynesville Inn. 800.627.6250.

• Men Macon Music, canella singing, meets at 5:30 p.m. every Monday in the Chapel of First Presbyterian Church, 26 Church St., Franklin. Visitors welcome. 524.9692.

• Mountain Dulcimer Players Club meets from 2 to 4 p.m. on the first and third Sundays of each month at the Bryson City United Methodist Church. Knowledge of music not required, tablature method used. 488.6697.

Outdoors

OUTINGS, H IKES & FIELDTRIPS

• Bird walk along the Greenway, 8 a.m. Wednesday, May 8, meet at Salali Lane, Franklin. 524.5234.

• Bird walk near Walnut Creek, 8 a.m. Saturday, May 11, meet at Bi-Lo parking area, Franklin. 524.5234.

• Nantahala Hiking Club six-mile moderate hike Saturday, May 11, along Panther Creek to Panther Creek Falls near Tallulah Falls, Ga. Meet at 9 a.m. at Westgate Plaza, Franklin. Gail Lehman, 524.5298. No pets.

349.3380. No pets.

• Nantahala Hiking Club 13-mile strenuous hike, Sunday, May 18, to Mount LeConte, from Grotto Falls on the Trillium Gap Trail and descending via Rainbow Falls Trail. Meet at 8 a.m. at Dillsboro Huddle House to carpool. Don O’Neal, 586.5723. No pets.

• Nantahala Hiking Club 2.5 – mile easy hike Sunday, May 19, Kimsey Creek Trail. Meet at 2 p.m. at Westgate Plaza, Franklin. Kay Coriell, 369.6820. No pets.

• Audubon Society special joint walk with the Franklin Bird Club, led by Jim & Ellen Shelton, 7:30 a.m. Saturday, May 11, Walnut Gap. Highlands participants should carpool from the Highlands Town Hall Parking lot, meeting at 7:30, while Cashiers residents will meet at the Community Center parking lot, at 7:45 a.m. Michelle, 743.9670.

• Audubon Society bird walk, 8 a.m. Saturday, May 18, Lonesome Valley, Sapphire. Meet at 7:45 a.m. in parking lot of new Cashiers Community Center to carpool. Michelle Styring, 743.9670 or visit www.highlandsaudubonsociety.org.

• Chris Graves, 7 p.m. Monday, May 20, Hudson Library, Highlands. Graves, of Haywood Community College will discuss landscapelevel research to improve habitat for birds in western North Carolina. Hosted by Highlands Plateau Audubon Society. www.highlandsaudubonsociety.org.

• The local Audubon Society is offering weekly Saturday birding field trips. Meet at 7:30 a.m. in the Highlands Town Hall parking lot near the public restrooms, or at 8 a.m. behind Wendy’s if the walk is in Cashiers. Binoculars available. www.highlandsaudubonsociety.org or 743.9670.

• The Gorges State Park is looking for volunteers to assist in maintaining existing trails and campgrounds in the park on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., weather permitting. Bring gloves, water and tools supplied. Participants need to be at least 16 years old and in good health. Registration not required. Meet at 17762 Rosman Highway (US-64) in Sapphire. 966.9099.

PROGRAMS & WORKSHOPS

• Free boating safety course, 6 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 8, and Thursday, May 9, room 309, Haywood Community College. Participants must attend two consecutive evenings to receive their certification. No age limits. Preregistration is required at www.ncwildlife.org. Sponsored by HCC’sNatural Resources Division and the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

• Second Sunday Community Dance, 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 12, community room, second floor, old courthouse, Jackson County Library Complex, Sylva. Beth Johnson will call the dance to the live music of Out of the Woodwork. Potluck dinner will follow at 5 p.m. Bring covered dish, plate, cup and cutlery and a water bottle. Ron Arps at ronandcathy71@frontier.com or www.dancewnc.com.

• Ballroom dance class, 6 to 7 p.m. Mondays, May 13 through June 17, Breese Gym, Western

• Nantahala Hiking Clubfour-mile moderate hike Saturday, May 11, to Lower Whitewater Falls from Bad Creek parking area. Meet at 10 a.m. at Cashiers Recreation Center parking lot. Mike and Susan Kettles, 743.1079. No pets.

• Nantahala Hiking Club six-mile moderateto-strenuous hike Sunday, May 12, Bartram Trail. Meet at 2 p.m. Westgate Plaza, Franklin. Joyce Jacques, 410.852.7510. No pets.

• Nantahala Hiking Club four-mile easy hike, Friday, May 17, Little Tennessee River Greenway from Tassee Shelter to the Library Loop and back. Meet at 6:30 a.m. at the Tassee Shelter on Ulco Dr. in Franklin with binoculars for bird-watching. Kathy Ratcliff,

• Celebrate Migratory Birds of the Balsam Mountain Preserve, 8 a.m. to noon, Saturday, May 11. $5 per vehicle donation. Registration for events required at Balsam Mountain Trust, 81 Preserve Road, Sylva. 631.1060, www.bmtrust.org.

• 2013 Southeastern Fly Fishing Festival, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. May 17-18, Ramsey Center arena, Western Carolina University. Daily admission is $5 for individuals, $10 for families. SoutheastFFF.org.

• Birdwatching for Beginners, 8 a.m. to noon, Saturday, May 18, Balsam Community Center, Cabin Flats Road, Balsam. Open to anyone over the age of 10, family participation is encouraged. Larry Thompson, instructor. $20. Preregistration required at 452.5414 or email lvthompson@earthlink.net.

MarketPlace information:

The Smoky Mountain News Marketplace has a distribution of 16,000 every week to over 500 locations across in Haywood, Jackson, Macon, and Swain counties along with the Qualla Boundary and west Buncombe County. For a link to our MarketPlace Web site, which also contains a link to all of our MarketPlace display advertisers’ Web sites, visit www.smokymountainnews.com.

Rates:

■ Free — Residential yard sale ads, lost or found pet ads.

■ Free — Non-business items that sell for less than $150.

■ $12 — Classified ads that are 50 words or less; each additional line is $2.

■ $12 — If your ad is 10 words or less, it will be displayed with a larger type.

■ $3 — Border around ad and $5 — Picture with ad.

■ $35 — Non-business items, 25 words or less. 3 month or till sold.

■ $300 — Statewide classifieds run in 117 participating newspapers with 1.6 million circulation. Up to 25 words.

■ All classified ads must be pre-paid.

Classified Advertising:

Scott Collier, phone 828.452.4251; fax 828.452.3585 | classads@smokymountainnews.com

UPBEAT ADS

$2,000 REWARD

Wall Curio Cabinet with Skeleton Key. Was sold at Lake Junaluska Elementary Yard Sale 3 or 4 years ago. Valued at $200. I am restoring house back to original. Please call Vicki with any info 828.452.9253

YOGA BY ROSE

Core Strength, Tuesday 5:306:45 p.m. ($10); Restorative, Wednesday 4:15 - 5:15 p.m. ($7); Meditative Flow, Thursday 10:00 - 11:15 a.m. ($10). Mountain Spirit Wellness, 254 Depot Street, Waynesville. Register: rose@yogabyrose.com or 828.550.2051. Facebook.com/yogabyrose.

ANTIQUES

SPRING ANTIQUES FESTIVAL

Sat. May 18th, 9:00a.m. 20 Dealers

Featuring: Antiques, costume jewelry, furniture, buttons, glass ware, cast iron, Indian jewelry, toys, tools, lots of treasures, fishing, advertising & Fresh Produce! Antique Antics, 1497 S. Main St., Waynesville. SPACE AVAILABLE! 828.452.6225

ARTS & CRAFTS

ALLISON CREEK

Iron Works & Woodworking. Crafting custom metal & woodwork in rustic, country & lodge designs with reclaimed woods! Design & consultation, Barry Downs 828.524.5763, Franklin NC

AUCTION

622.8+/- ACRES (14 TRACTS). Rolling hills, streams. Working cattle farm in town limits. Water & sewer. Hillsville, VA. Absolute Auction. June 1. www.countsauction.com. 800.780.2991. VAAF93

ABSOLUTE AUCTION1904 Grist Mill on 4.5 Acres & Mill Pond, Danbury, NC- Stokes CountySaturday, May 18th - 12 Noon. ALL early milling machinery operational, includes Sawmill. www.HallAuctionCo.com. 336.835.7653. NCAL#4703

AUCTION

LARGE AUCTION

Friday May 10th at 4:30 PM.

Selling over 800 lots of: Quality furniture, coca cola advertising, primitives, tiara and other glassware, used furniture, antiques, collectables, household & TONS MORE!! Too much to list. Running 2 auctioneers at once. View Pics and Details at: www.boatwrightauction.com

Dont Miss This Auction! Boatwright Auction, 34 Tarheel Trail, Franklin, NC, 28734. 828.524.2499, NCAL Firm 9231

AUCTIONConstruction Equipment & Trucks, May 17th, 9am, Richmond, VA. Excavators, Dozers, Dumps & More. Accepting Items Daily. Motley's Auction & Realty Group, 804.232.3300, www.motleys.com, VAAL#16.

AUCTIONS, SEALED BID & ONLINE

With Bid Centers, Restaurant, Commercial Tracts, Luxury Homes and Land Lots, Lake Front Home, Town Homes, Duplex Lots & Residential Lots in NC, SC & VA, Auctions ending May 1st, 15th, 16th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 25th & 30th, See Website for Sealed Bid & Bid Center Locations, NCAL3936, SCAL1684, VAAL580, www.ironhorseauction.com

ESTATE SALE

2 Different Estates From Franklin. Antiques, primitives, cast iron, wash tubs, jewelry, tools, housewares, furniture & more! May 11th & 12th from 9am to 5pm. Come join us at The Whole Bloomin’ Thing, in Frog Level, 255 Depot St., Waynesville.

TAX SEIZURE AUCTION -

Saturday, May 18 at 10am. 201 S. Central Ave., Locust, NC. (14 miles East of Charlotte) Selling Vehicles, Trucks, Motorcycles, Backhoe, Road Trailers, Shop Equipment for NC Department of Revenue for Unpaid Taxes. 10% BP. 704.791.8825. ncaf5479. www.ClassicAuctions.com

GOING, GOING, GONE!

Promote your auction with a classified ad published in 100 North Carolina newspapers with over 1.3 million circulation. A 25-word ad is only $330. For more information, call NCPS at 919.789.2083 or visit www.ncpsads.com.

CARS - DOMESTIC

TOP CASH FOR CARS, Call Now For An Instant Offer. Top Dollar Paid, Any Car/Truck, Any Condition. Running or Not. Free Pick-up/Tow. 1.800.761.9396 SAPA

BUILDING MATERIALS

WHITE PINE, HEMLOCK, POPLAR Lumber and Timbers, Any Size!

Rough Sawn or S4S, Custom Sawing. Smoky Mountain Timber, 3517 Jonathan Creek Rd., Waynesville, North Carolina. 828.926.4300.

HAYWOOD BUILDERS

Garage Doors, New Installations Service & Repairs, 828.456.6051

100 Charles St. Waynesville Employee Owned.

ELECTRICAL

BOOTH ELECTRIC Residential & Commercial service. Up-front pricing, emergency service. 828.734.1179. NC License #24685-U.

PAINTING

JAMISON CUSTOM PAINTING & PRESSURE WASHING

Interior, exterior, all your pressure washing needs and more. Call Now for a Free Estimate at 828.508.9727. Ask about our Senior Citizens Discount

EXPERIENCED PAINTER

Interior/Exterior, will help you or work alone. $12/hr. 20 yr. Resident of Waynesville with references. 828.550.5522

CONSTRUCTION/ REMODELING

DAVE’S CUSTOM HOMES OF WNC, INC Free Estimates & Competitive rates. References avail. upon request. Specializing in: Log Homes, remodeling, decks, new construction, repairs & additions. Owner/Builder: Dave Donaldson. Licensed/Insured. 828.631.0747 or 828.508.0316

SULLIVAN HARDWOOD FLOORS

Installation- Finish - Refinish 828.399.1847.

EMPLOYMENT

ADMINSTRATIVE ASSISTANT

Training Program! Become a Certified Microsoft Office Professional! No Experienced Needed! Online training gets you job ready! HS Diploma/GED & PC/Internet needed. 1.888.926.6057.

AIRLINES ARE HIRINGTrain for hands-on Aviation Maintenance Career. FAA approved program. Financial Aid if Qualified, Housing available. CALL Aviation Institute of Maintenance. 1.866.724.5403. SAPA

AVIATION CAREERS -

Train in advance structures and become certified to work on aircraft. Financial aid for those who qualify. Call aviation institute of maintenance 1.877.205.1779.

WWW.FIXJETS.COM

SAPA

COMPANY DRIVERS:

$2500 Sign-On Bonus! Super Service is hiring solo and team drivers. Excellent hometime options. CDL-A required. Call 888.441.9358 or apply online at: www.superservicellc.com

Puzzles can be found on page 45.

These are only the answers.

EMPLOYMENT

AVERITT OFFERS

CDL-A Drivers a Strong, Stable, Profitable Career. Experienced Drivers and Recent Grads. Excellent Benefits, Weekly Hometime. Paid training. 888.362.8608. AverittCareers.com. Equal Opportunity Employer.

YOUR AD COULD REACH 1.6 MILLION HOMES ACROSS NC!

Your classified ad could be reaching over 1.6 Million Homes across North Carolina! Place your ad with The Smoky Mountain News on the NC Statewide Classified Ad Network- 118 NC newspapers for a low cost of $330 for 25-word ad to appear in each paper! Additional words are $10 each. The whole state at your fingertips! It's a smart advertising buy! Call Scott Collier at 828.452.4251 or for more information visit the N.C. Press Association's website at www.ncpress.com

DRIVERS...

Freight Up = More $. Class A CDL Required. 877.258.8782. www.ad-drivers.com

EMPLOYMENT

DRIVERFlatbed & Heavy Haul Owner Operators/Fleet Owners. Consistent year round freight. Avg $1.70 - 2.00 all miles. No forced dispatch. Apply online www.tangomotortransit.com or call 877.533.8684.

GYPSUM EXPRESS.

Regional Hauls for Flatbed Company Driver Terminal in Roxboro. Ask about Performance Bonus coming April 1st & more. Melissa, 866.317.6556 x6 or www.gypsumexpress.com

HEAVY EQUIPMENT

Operator Career! 3 Week Hands On Training School. Bulldozers, Backhoes, Excavators. National Certifications. Lifetime Job Placement Assistance. VA Benefits Eligible. 1.866.362.6497

OWNER OPERATOR:

Experienced CDL-A Owner Operators Wanted. $2,000 Solo Sign-On Incentive & $5,000 Team Sign-On Incentive. Long Haul Freight. Competitive Pay Package. Paid loaded and empty miles. Also hiring Company Teams. Call 866.937.7803 or apply online at: drivenctrans.com

MANAGER FOR THE CHALET INN

Salaried, BA in Hospitality or equivalent experience required. Email resume to: paradisefound@chaletinn.com

NEEDED - SKIN CARE THERAPIST, Manicurist & Massage Therapist for Indigo Salon - Aveda ConceptIn Waynesville. Must have some experience. Call 828.454.5460 for more information.

MEDICAL CAREERS BEGIN HERETrain Online for Allied Health and Medical Management. Job placement assistance. Computer and Financial Aid if qualified. SCHEV authorized. Call 1.800.494.2785 or visit www.CenturaOnline.com SAPA

MEDICAL OFFICE TRAINEES! Become a Medical Office Assistant! NO EXPERIENCED NEEDED! Online Training gets you job ready! HS Diploma/GED & Computer needed. Careertechnical.edu/nc. 1.888.512.7122

TANKER & FLATBED COMPANY.

Drivers/Independent Contractors!

Immediate Placement Available.

Best opportunities in the Trucking Business. Call Today. 800.277.0212 or go to: www.primeinc.com

TRUCK DRIVERS WANTED -

Best Pay and Home Time! Apply Online Today over 750 Companies! One Application, 100’s of Offers! www.HammerLaneJobs.com SAPA

DRIVERS:

Top Pay & CSA Friendly Equip, Class A CDL Required. Recent CDL grads wanted. 877.258.8782. www.ad-drivers.com

WANTED: LIFE AGENTS.

Potential to Earn $500 a Day. Great Agent Benefits. Commissions Paid Daily. Liberal Underwriting. Leads, Leads, Leads. Life Insurance, License Required. Call 1.888.713.6020.

WOODWORKING SHOP

Looking for part-time worker.

Flexible hours or weekends, no experience necessary. 828.421.2693.

FINANCIAL

$$$ ACCESS LAWSUIT CASH NOW!!

Injury Lawsuit Dragging? Need $500-$500,000++ within 48/hours? Low rates. Apply Now By Phone! 1.800.568.8321. wwwlawcapital.com Not Valid in CO or NC. SAPA

BEWARE OF LOAN FRAUD.

Please check with the Better Business Bureau or Consumer Protection Agency before sending money to a loan company. SAPA

DEPUY HIP IMPLANT VICTIMS -

Warning: Your hip case should be SETTLED or filed in court by August 26, 2013 or your claim may be lost. To get your case SETTLED or filed, call Lawrence Egerton at 800.800.(4LAW) 4529, Greensboro, www.EgertonLaw.com

FURNITURE

COMPARE QUALITY & PRICE

Shop Tupelo’s, 828.926.8778.

ENGLISH 2-PIECE OFFICE DESK

Mahogany - Mini - 36” wide. Secret Drawers - $8,500. Call for more information 828.627.2342

HAYWOOD BEDDING, INC.

The best bedding at the best price! 533 Hazelwood Ave. Waynesville 828.456.4240

RED OAK LUMBER AVAILABLE

12 Boards, 11 ft. x 14 inches x 5/4. $125. Old Chestnut Boards Available $500. For more info 828.627.2342

LAWN & GARDEN

HEMLOCK HEALERS, INC.

Dedicated to Saving Our Hemlocks. Owner/Operator Frank Varvoutis, NC Pesticide Applicator’s License #22864. 48 Spruce St. Maggie Valley, NC 828.734.7819 828.926.7883, Email: hemlockhealers@yahoo.com

PETS

HAYWOOD SPAY/NEUTER

828.452.1329

Prevent Unwanted Litters! The Heat Is On!

Spay/Neuter For Haywood Pets As Low As $10. Operation Pit is in Effect! Free Spay/Neuter, Microchip & Vaccines For Haywood Pitbull Types & Mixes! Hours: Monday-Thursday, 12 Noon - 5pm 182 Richland Street, Waynesville

Pet Adoption

ARABELLA - A 2-3 year old Catahoula/Feist. She weighs 25-30 lbs. She is grey and white. Arabella needs tender, loving care. Call 1.877.ARF.JCNC.

PANTUFLE - A handsome male, young dog. He is most likely a Retriever mix. He is very good with dogs and people and is learning cats. He will make a lovely family pet. Having beautiful leash manners and being housebroken, he will be ready to go as soon as he is neutered. Call 828.399.0125.

SHADOW - A male, blond, Pomeranian/Chihuahua mix. He is about two years old. Shadow will make a loving housedog. He will need a fenced yard, however. Working on housebreaking, he is good with cats and dogs. 828.226.7766.

LILY - A 17 lb. Feist mix. She is tan and white. Just a little shy at first, but would make a good watch dog. Call 1.877.ARF.JCNC.

HOMER - A little, male Beagle. He is 3 years old, 17 lbs., and white and liver colored. Housebroken and good with other dogs. Call 1.877.ARF.JCNC.

RASCAL - A cute Terrier/Corgi mix who is just 3 years old. He is housebroken, current on all shots, not a lapdog, but is a good porch dog to alert when visitors arrive. Call 1.877.ARF.JCNC.

ARF’S next low-cost spay/neuter trip will be June 10th. Register and pre-pay at ARF’s adoption site on Saturdays from 1-3. Spaces are limited.

ARF (HUMANE SOCIETY OF JACKSON COUNTY) Holds rescued pet adoptions Saturdays from 1:00 - 3:00 (weather permitting) at 50 Railroad Avenue in Sylva. Animals are spayed/neutered and current on shots. Most cats $60, most dogs $70. Preview available pets at www.a-r-f.org, or call foster home.

ZOEY - Terrier Mix dog – white, I was born in summer 2012 and I’m a very affectionate gal. I love to play and hang out with people, and I am good with cats and other dogs. $125 adoption fee, Animal Compassion Network 828.274.3647 or animalcompassionnetwork.org.

LUCAS - Pit Bull Terrier Mix dog – reddish brown & white, I was born in spring 2012, and I enjoy riding in the car. I am good with kids, cats, and other dogs. Animal Compassion Network 828.274.3647 or animalcompassionnetwork.org; LUCAS' ADOPTION FEE IS SUBSIDIZED BY A GENEROUS DONOR AT A MUCH REDUCED COST.

Duchess - An 8-year-old calico who certainly lives up to her name - she looks so proud and regal! She is very sweet and gracious, though; always happy to hold an audience!

Juno - A very pretty Treeing Walker Coonhound. She is about 2 years old and incredibly sweet. It was hard to get her picture because she wanted to get in the photographer's lap!

baby, and I’m very docile and even like belly rubs. I love to sit in your lap most of all. $100 adoption fee, Animal Compassion Network 828.274.3647 or animalcompassionnetwork.org.

NEED A NEW HOME

For your pet? Animal Comp Net provides a re-homing service! that includes neutering, microchipping, and food – all FREE to you! You'll bring your pet to our adoption events and we'll find them a loving new home! For details, call us at 828.258.4820

COLTRANE - Domestic Shorthair cat – black, I am a petite female who is about 8 years old. I am used to being touched and handled by people since I was a

FREE NEUTERING! ACN proudly offers the donor-supported Betty Fund Spay/Neuter Project, which pays up to full cost of surgery for anyone who cannot afford it. A co-pay is requested but not required. For assistance or to donate to this program, please call 828.258.4820.

ANIMAL COMPASSION NETWORK

Pet Adoption Events - Every Saturday from 11a.m. to 3p.m. at Pet Harmony, Animal Compassion Network's new pet store for rescued pets. Dozens of ACN dogs, puppies, kittens and cats will be ready to find their permanent homes. The store also offers quality pet supplies where all proceeds save more homeless animals. Come see us at 803 Fairview St. (behind Province 620 off Hendersonville Rd), visit www.animalcompassionnetwork.org, or call 828.274.DOGS.

Haywood County Real Estate Agents

REAL ESTATE ANNOUNCEMENT

BANK LAKE PROPERTY

GREAT CASH OPPORTUNITY

STORAGE SPACE FOR RENT

GREAT SMOKIES STORAGE

CASH FOR

Beverly Hanks & Associates — beverly-hanks.com

• Michelle McElroy — beverly-hanks.com

• Marilynn Obrig — beverly-hanks.com

• Mike Stamey — beverly-hanks.com

• Ellen Sither — esither@beverly-hanks.com

• Jerry Smith — beverly-hanks.com

• Billie Green — bgreen@beverly-hanks.com

• Pam Braun — pambraun@beverly-hanks.com

ERA Sunburst Realty — sunburstrealty.com

Haywood Properties — haywoodproperties.com

• Steve Cox — info@haywoodproperties.com

Keller Williams Realty kellerwilliamswaynesville.com

• Rob Roland — robrolandrealty.com

• Chris Forga — forgarentalproperties.com

Mountain Home Properties — mountaindream.com

• Sammie Powell — smokiesproperty.com

Main Street Realty — mainstreetrealty.net

McGovern Real Estate & Property Management

• Bruce McGovern — shamrock13.com

Prudential Lifestyle Realty — vistasofwestfield.com

Realty World Heritage Realty realtyworldheritage.com

• Carolyn Lauter realtyworldheritage.com/realestate/viewagent/1701

RE/MAX — Mountain Realty remax-waynesvillenc.com | remax-maggievalleync.com

• Brian K. Noland — brianknoland.com

• Connie Dennis — remax-maggievalleync.com

• Mark Stevens — remax-waynesvillenc.com

• Mieko Thomson — ncsmokies.com

• The Morris Team — maggievalleyproperty.com

• The Real Team — the-real-team.com

• Ron Breese — ronbreese.com

• Dan Womack — womackdan@aol.com

• Bonnie Probst — bonniep@remax-waynesvillenc.com

The Seller’s Agency — listwithphil.com

• Phil Ferguson — philferguson@bellsouth.net

Liquidation! Smoky Mountains Tennessee 1-8 Acres Starting $12,900 w/boat slip access! Last Absolute Public Sale! Preview 5/25-5/26, Sale 6/1-6/2. Map/pricing 1.800.574.2055 ext. 108.

BANK OWNED

Lake Property Liquidation! Smoky Mountain Tennessee 1 Acre to 8 Acres. Starting at $12,900 w/boat slip/marina/ramp access! ABSOLUTE SALE! FINAL WEEKEND! 5/25-5/26, SALE 6/1-6/2. Call for map/pricing! 1.800.574.2055 extension 101. SAPA

EVER CONSIDER

A Reverse Mortgage? At least 62 years old? Stay in your home & increase cash flow! Safe & Effective! Call Now for your FREE DVD! Call Now 888.418.0117. SAPA

PUBLISHER’S NOTICE

All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Fair Housing Act which makes it illegal to advertise “any preference, limitation or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin, or an intention, to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination” Familial status includes children under the age of 18 living with parents or legal custodians, pregnant women and people securing custody of children under 18. This newspaper will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate which is in violation of the law. Our readers are hereby informed that all dwellings advertised in this newspaper are available on an equal opportunity basis. To complain of discrimination call HUD toll-free at 1.800.669.9777.

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HOMES FOR SALE

HAYWOOD COUNTY AREA

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BRUCE MCGOVERN

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MOBILE HOMES FOR SALE

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APT. FOR RENT FURNISHED

APARTMENT FOR RENT $800/MO. 1/BR 1/BA Fully Furnished or Unfurnished; Luxury Apartment attached to large house close to downtown Waynesville and Hospital, Wooded lot, large separate entrance, Handicap Access, Quiet safe area, All new appliances: Stove, Fridge, Dishwasher, Washer/Dryer, Everything included: Internet, Direct TV, Electric, Water, Trash Service, Local & Long Distance Phone, No Application Fee. Call Mike at 828.246.8900.

NICOL ARMS APARTMENTS

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OFFICE HOURS:

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NOTICES

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PERSONAL

A MARRIED COUPLE

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SCHOOLS/ INSTRUCTION

AIRLINES ARE HIRING -

Train for hands on Aviation Career. FAA approved program. Financial aid if qualified. Job placement assistance. Call Aviation Institute of Maintenance. 877.300.9494.

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From home. Medical, Business, Criminal Justice, Hospitality. Job placement assistance. Computer and Financial aid if qualified. SCHEV authorized. Call Now 888.899.6918 or go to: www.CenturaOnline.com

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STEEL BUILDINGS

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YOUR AD COULD REACH 1.6 MILLION HOMES ACROSS NC! Your classified ad could be reaching over 1.6 Million Homes across North Carolina! Place your ad with The Smoky Mountain News on the NC Statewide Classified Ad Network- 118 NC newspapers for a low cost of $330 for 25-word ad to appear in each paper! Additional words are $10 each. The whole state at your fingertips! It's a smart advertising buy! Call Scott Collier at 828.452.4251 or for more information visit the N.C. Press Association's website: ncpress.com

YARD SALES

ESTATE SALE

2 Different Estates From Franklin. Antiques, primitives, cast iron, wash tubs, jewelry, tools, housewares, furniture & more! May 11th & 12th from 9am to 5pm. Come join us at The Whole Bloomin’ Thing, in Frog Level, 255 Depot St., Waynesville.

REACHING THE FRESH HOLD

ACROSS

1 Rand McNally book

6 Deli cheese

11 Easy - be

16 Gremlin

19 - apso (dog breed)

20 Proofreading symbol

21 Donald’s first ex

22 Shootist’s org.

23 Brand-new scientific discovery?

26 Sackable NFL players

27 Attack

28 With 30-Across, attire for the slopes

29 Filmdom’s Spike

30 See 28-Across

31 Roth - (savings plan)

32 Let baby oinkers out of their cages?

36 Klee pieces

39 Mystery writer Marsh

41 Lives, as in a house

42 Powerful quartet?

47 Naturist’s practice

50 Yothers of “Family Ties”

51 ASAP part

52 Mauna - (volcano)

54 Great Plains tribe

55 Geared for the garage?

58 Water, lime, and rust

60 Prior to, poetically

61 Cousin of a regular Joe?

65 Hidden part of a guitar neck?

67 Lube anew

68 Act segment

69 Yellowbelly’s cry of

disgust?

74 In a shark costume?

79 Actor Lash

80 Shortage

82 “- Nacht” (German “Silent Night”)

83 “Pity, pity”

84 Fraternal patriotic org.

85 “... - just me?”

89 Regretful person

90 Continued

92 Had a vocal altercation?

95 Large artery

98 Rockies’ - Mountains

99 Motel units: Abbr.

100 Study of deep ruts?

105 Skeleton lead-in

107 Gung-ho

108 Little, to a 6-Down

109 TripTik org.

110 Prioritized, as wounded people

114 Frat letters

115 Ruffle that wins a blue ribbon?

119 “Y”-sporting collegian

120 Odor detectors

121 On - firma

122 Cliff nest

123 Govt. prosecutors

124 Food box abbr.

125 “There’s no such thing - publicity”

126 Poodle, e.g.

DOWN

1 - Romeo (sporty car)

2 “- is a test”

3 Phyllis’ TV husband

4 Very, to Vivaldi

5 U.S. rocket launched in 1961

6 Dundee dweller

7 1812 event

8 Tee off

9 Hearing, e.g.

10 Incite

11 Not feel well

12 Gracefully slender

13 Plebes and doolies, e.g.

14 Lara Croft player Jolie

15 No, to a 6-Down 16 Harsh interrogator

17 Top banana

18 People’s histories 24 Actress/writer Fannie 25 Actor/humorist Shriner

30 Drove away quickly

32 Is the right size

33 Orbison and Clark

34 Like the verb “be”: Abbr.

35 College URL ender

36 Top web site?

37 Titanic tusker 38 2200 hours

40 “That’s it!” 43 Sir’s partner 44 Nourishment

45 Losing tic-tac-toe row

46 Pt. of NYU

48 Spot to salve

49 Get together

52 Vivitar rival

53 Knighted physician William

56 “I Dream of Jeannie” actor Hayden -

57 Karate weapon

59 Not those, in Brooklynese

Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each small 9-box square contains all of the numbers from one to nine. Answers on Page 42

60 Make - in (start working on)

62 “Klute” star Jane

63 More plentiful

Hollywood’s Kazan

Robust

1979-81 hostage sit-

Eggy dessert

Switch or smack suf-

Tory’s rival

Missy

Prefix for element #9

Intestinal division

Abi-monthly magazine that covers the southern Appalachian mountains and celebrates the area’s environmental riches, its people, culture, music, art, crafts and special places. Each issue relies on regionalwriters and photographers to bring the Appalachians to life.

In this issue:

On the trail of Cherokee’s marker trees The last scream of the Virginia Creeper Winding along the Blue Ridge Parkway Postcards’ role in attracting early tourists

Some scarlet tanagers are orange

Last Saturday, I led a bird identification workshop for the Smoky Mountain Field School. We started out in the morning in a residential area (Minot Park) in Gatlinburg and worked our way into the higher elevations of the national park by late afternoon. The weather at Newfound Gap was perfectly awful: wind, rain, fog, cold, you name it. But it was a good group and we did OK. Indigo buntings, catbirds, thrashers, warblers, juncos, hawks and lots of other birds made their way onto our checklist.

BACK THEN

The prettiest bird of the day? A male black-throated warbler at Campbell Overlook. The ugliest bird of the day? A really peculiar looking scarlet tanager. By peculiar looking, I mean orange. No bird in our region is more striking than a scarlet tanager. Jet black wings on a trim red almost luminescent body, the male is impossible to overlook. “The scarlet tanager flies through the green foliage as if it would ignite the leaves. You can hardly believe that a living creature can wear such colors,” was the way naturalist and writer Henry David Thoreau described the bird.

I almost never encounter the summer tanager (whose entire body is rosy red) in Western North Carolina, but the scarlet tanager is encountered every year — to a greater or lesser extent — during the breeding season (mid-April to mid-October) in mature woodlands (especially slopes with pine and oak) between 2,000 and 5,000 feet in elevation. The bird winters in northwestern South America, where it enjoys the company of various tropical tanagers that do not migrate.

The call note used by both the male and female is a distinctive “chip-burr … chipburr.” The male’s song is not pretty. He sounds like a robin with a sore throat; that is, the notes in the song are hoarse and raspy. Males in adjacent territories often engage in combative counter-singing and will, as a last resort, go beak-to-beak. On our property, a creek sometimes serves as a boundary — the line drawn in the sand, as it were. The males sing defiantly at one another across the water and sometimes make short forays into enemy territory. Meanwhile, the female is busy incubating her eggs. When not squabbling with a nearby male, her mate brings food.

Keep in mind that the female doesn’t resemble her mate except in shape. She is olive-green or yellow-orange in color. Also

keep in mind there is a variant form of the male tanager. Orange. My first encounter with an orange scarlet tanager was in the Lake Junaluska area several years ago.

My second was this past Saturday. He was perched in the top of a tree in Gatlinburg singing “Rocky Top” … just kid-

ding ... he was singing “Hold That Tiger.” Actually, he sounded like what a scarlet tanager’s supposed to sound like. But he was an eyesore. Nothing pretty about that bird.

I suspect this alternate color form is due, in part, to diet. A class of pigments called carotenoids (produced by certain plants) are responsible for the bright yellows seen in goldfinches and yellow warblers as well as the brilliant orangish-yellow of the male Blackburnian warbler. In this event, the orangish coloration of a male scarlet tanager would be due to a “faulty” color-shift in the carotenoid pigments triggered by diet. (Cedar waxwings also experience “faulty” color-shifts related to diet.) It may be that young first-year males are more prone to display this trait than older males. I’m just guessing.

George Ellison wrote the biographical introductions for the reissues of two Appalachian classics: Horace Kephart’s Our Southern Highlanders and James Mooney’s History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees In June 2005, a selection of his Back Then columns was published by The History Press in Charleston as Mountain Passages: Natural and Cultural History of Western North Carolina and the Great Smoky Mountains Readers can contact him at P.O. Box 1262, Bryson City, N.C., 28713, or at info@georgeellison.com.