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Chairman Brian McMahan, lone “no” vote
“I’ve thought long and hard about this process. I thought about what will the moratorium accomplish? What would the consequences potentially be? It’s not really going to stop anything. There will be more houses built in the months to come. To say we are going to stop all development, that’s not what’s going to happen. All it is going to do is put a halt for five months. Then I had to weigh ‘What’s the consequences?’ We don’t really know what’s going to happen. If there’s a chance it could put somebody out of work, then I don’t think I could support it. I don’t want to take any chances. Let’s just ride this ship on out and adopt a good ordinance in a couple months.”
Commissioner Tom Massie, “yes” vote
“Despite what some people have said this is not an action this board is undertaking lightly or irresponsibly or anything else. What we do know not only from the public hearings but the hundreds and hundreds of emails, letters and phone calls, is the majority of citizens in Jackson County are agreed on a few things. They want people to continue to work. They want the building to continue to start. But they want responsible development and they also want standards. They want to protect the natural resources. They also want adequate time for the planning board to come up with thoughtful, responsible subdivision standards. I think this is as good a compromise we can come up with in Jackson County.”
Commissioner Mark Jones, “yes” vote
“I have builders and contractors on both sides of this fence. Not only has it been a divisive matter, but it even has in my own district. It has caused quite a lot of pressure on commissioners to come up with a compromise to avoid some of the hardship cases we have heard about.”
Commissioner Joe Cowan, “yes” vote
“Our job is to balance the competing interests as best we can. We did not have our minds made up because we have come up with a significant number of what I call compromises. I would like to thank this board for keeping an open mind. We have something now that nobody is going to lose any jobs from. Development can continue under the agreement yet we can meet our goal of high standards.”
Commissioner William Shelton, “yes” vote
“One word comes to mind and that’s sustainability. How do we balance what is happening in this county? It’s been stated that this area, the Appalachian Region, is the number one area for development over the next how many years. One phrase I hear more than any other is ‘We’ve got to do something. We’ve got to do something.’ The question is what do we do?
I’ve put more thought into this than anything in my life. I have heard these people afraid for their careers loud and clear. (The compromise) will give developers an opportunity to continue with these properties and developments and address the issue of job loss, which is questionable to me to begin with.”
Ghost Town amusement park in Maggie Valley — slated to re-open on May 25 after five years — began selling tickets for the summer season on-line this week.
A proposed 1-cent increase in Haywood County’s tax on overnight lodging and a completely new make-up of its tourism board will likely be approved during this session of the General Assembly.
By James Costa • Guest Columnist
There has been much discussion in recent weeks regarding the notion of opening the upper Chattooga River to boating. As a biologist and as a longtime resident of the Southern Appalachian region, I have studied the issue for the past several months in order to take an informed position on the potential impact that boating might have on the river and surrounding national forest.
“The highest form of morality is not to feel at home in one’s own home.”
“What has become alien to men is the human component of culture — which upholds them against the world.”
— Theodor Adorno, social critic and philosopher
“What we’re trying to do here is reduce the impact of development. That’s really what conservation is, the wise use of resources.”
— Blair Bishop, Haywood Community College
How come this isn’t done all the time?
By Stephanie Wampler
It was one of those days .... One of those days when an unnecessarily shrill alarm clock tears you from deep slumber, when you swing out of bed and land your foot on a particularly sharp Lego, and while you are hopping and cursing, you crash into the corner of the door.
Being environmentally conscious has become mainstream, but we still have a long way to go before mankind figures out how to live and prosper without negatively impacting the very earth that sustains us. A relatively new front raising awareness in this arena is coming from organized Christian religions, and an upcoming conference at Lake Junaluska is a great example of a progressive movement whose time has come.
By Michael Beadle
Iranian-born author Farnoosh Moshiri writes about people who are enemies of the state, those who have disappeared, and those displaced by war and oppressive governments. And yet she breathes a light of hope into her characters, a chance for redemption despite all their suffering.
By Chris Cooper
If you’ve wandered down Main Street in the early part of a summer evening over the years, you’ve probably paused mid-step to the sound of a lady singing the blues bouncing off the bricks. And there’s a good chance that the voice belonged to Karen Barnes, long the local purveyor of all things classy and vintage in blues and jazz.
By Michael Beadle
Nick Taylor’s career in journalism has spanned four decades and several cities, but it all began in Western North Carolina.
“300”
OK, to be perfectly honest, this is a “qualified recommendation.” “300” is currently in the theatres, but the original work — a graphic novel by Frank Miller (“Sin City”) and Lynn Varley, contains some of the most “vibrant” art work being done in the USA.
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
The duck egg is just slightly larger than the chicken egg, its shell a little harder, making it the perfect egg for Rebekah Joy Brown to turn into a Christmas tree ornament.
By Chris Cooper
Two very different artists and albums, but similar in the pursuit of uniqueness and mastery in their respective genres: the enigmatic Andrew Bird and Dobro virtuoso Jerry Douglas.
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
Culinary connoisseurs will have a chance to sample the skills of a dozen local restaurant chefs at the third annual Mélange of the Mountains to be held from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday, March 29, at the Balsam Mountain Inn.
Slam Poetry
Poetry need not be lame. Two Tuesdays ago Western Carolina University’s Lectures, Concerts and Exhibitions series and Last Minute Productions brought Saul Williams to the Fine and Performing Arts Center stage for one of the most well student-attended shows I’ve seen held on the WCU campus.
A coordinator has been selected for the visual arts program of the Oconaluftee Institute for Cultural Arts (OICA), a joint venture among Southwestern Community College, the Eastern Band of Cherokee and Western Carolina University.
Blue Ridge Paper Products might have found a buyer — a New Zealand-based paper company called The Rank Group that has recently moved into the United States paper market.
By Bruce Hare • Guest Columnist
I would like to respond to Mr. James Costa’s letter (March 14, The Smoky Mountain News) expressing his concern about kayaking and canoeing on the headwaters of the Wild and Scenic Chattooga River.
By Jim Joyce
My great- grandparents, on my mother’s side, “Bestafahr” and “Bestamour” (Nelson and Christiana Wurtz) emigrated from Denmark to the United States in 1867. The newlyweds traveled by boat to New York City and by train to Chicago where they scouted around for a place to settle down and begin farming.
By Dick and Sandy Michener
Are you a serious competitor or a weekend athlete? Are you an accomplished artist or a hobbyist? Regardless of your abilities and goals, you have a place in the 2007 Haywood County Senior Games (and the Senior Games in all the counties in Western North Carolina for that matter).
It’s not clear what Swain County commissioners are hoping to accomplish by turning over to the District Attorney’s office the investigation into the way the sheriff’s office handled excess meal money, but there’s evidence that a long list of people could be implicated if this probe is taken seriously.
By Joe Yarkovich
Spring is upon us and with the days beginning to lengthen, signs of the season can be seen within the elk of Cataloochee as well.
By Kathleen Lamont
I’ve got two cents to add to the honeybee dilemma. There are approximately 20,000 species of bees roaming around, out of which approximately 300 pollinate, and of those 300 most people can identify two — the bumblebee and the honeybee.
By Chris Cooper
Rebel Records, that esteemed purveyor of all that is and has been high and lonesome for the past 40 odd years, has just released (in some cases re-released) a slew of fine discs in the past month or so. Up for review is a new release by the legendary Larry Sparks, an important bit of history from the catalog of J.D. Crowe, and a fantastic collection from bluegrass innovators The Seldom Scene.
A king named Midas wishes for riches and ends up with a wealth that kills. A singer named Orpheus descends into Hades to win back his love, but curiosity causes him to lose her forever. Narcissus falls in love with his beautiful reflection and drowns in his own vanity.
Good Friday & Easter
Easter, of course, is more than dyed eggs, plastic straw, and strange bunnies.
Western Carolina University will launch the Half Frame Film Festival, a daylong celebration of documentary filmmaking, on Monday, April 9, featuring Laura Poitras, director of the Academy Award-nominated “My Country, My Country.”
Cherokee Preservation Foundation has awarded 29 grants totaling $3.6 million during its spring cycle.
By Michael Beadle
When Waynesville Town Manager Lee Galloway meets fellow town managers from across the state, he inevitably hears his counterparts say, “Your town looks great. What’s your secret?”Without a beat, Galloway replies, “Let me give you a phone number and a name.”
By John Armor
Who are these people? Katie Couric used to be on the Today Show, then she fell off the map. You’ve never heard of Becky Johnson? Allow me to help.
He’s on record, and we for one will hold him to it: Haywood County’s new solid waste director says anything that “can be recycled should be.”
A new lab has opened at the University of Georgia to raise predator beetles aimed at countering the deadly hemlock woolly adelgid infestation killing native hemlocks.
Rep. Heath Shuler, D-Waynesville
“As a Swain County native, I have a deep, personal understanding of the issues and emotions surrounding the Road to Nowhere. The people of Swain County have
By Carl Iobst
Ed Stephens of Dillsboro recently had a problem with the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad. According to the Sylva Herald, Stephens said the railroad is abandoning old train cars on his property. Stephens “called them and asked them to remove the cars.”
By Becky Anderson
This is the time for members of the 2007 North Carolina General Assembly to follow their hearts and love for this state and approve a significant increase in funding for land and water conservation in our state as proposed by the Land for Tomorrow organization.
Swain County native Heath Shuler is doing his home county a favor by putting together a powerful congressional coalition to support a cash settlement in lieu of building the controversial North Shore Road. Truthfully, there’s little chance that this road was ever going to get built, so taking a $52 million payout seems a much smarter option than holding out hope that a decades-old promise would ever be kept.
By Michael Beadle
Jon Brown and Scott Cochran want to help a small town in Bosnia and Herzegovina rebuild after a bitter ethnic war, but to get there, they’ll need to raise about $30,000.
By Sarah Kucharski
Entering figurative sculptor Wesley Wofford’s studio one is struck by the sheer size of his works.
The Cowboy Junkies have this thing that only they can do, and as easy as it is to recognize that thing when you hear it, exactly what it is remains uncertain.
Well, let’s just consider this a collection of things I would NOT recommend. But maybe reading this will constitute a “diversion” of some sort, so here goes...
Thank goodness for Don Imus.
After 25 years of gutteral lyrics in the name of entertainment, none of which was protested, banned, boycotted or demonstrated against by the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, the Imus faux pas has finally brought trash music to a level of national outrage where it should have been long ago.
The expansion announced last week by Smoky Mountain Biofuels and Mountain Energy will help place Western North Carolina at the forefront of a homegrown energy industry that holds great promise for the region and the country.
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
Sitting at a workbench in the back of his gallery on Main Street in Waynesville, wood worker Dennis Ruane meticulously carves a tiny bearded man into the handle of a spoon. The spoon is a replica of one of his early pieces, being made for a collector up North who saw the work on the cover of Ruane’s novel Wooden Spoons.
By Chris Cooper
See, the primary difference between Todd Snider and Ryan Adams is that Snider didn’t get so caught up in transforming himself into a freakish “just this side of Gen-X” version of Neil Young that he lost sight of what his gig really is: consistently writing great material that doesn’t eventually disintegrate and dilute itself into self-obsessed nattering and contemplation of one’s navel.
Guests of the Ayatollah and Kite Runner
Trying to understand the Middle East? Here are two books — one non-fiction and the other a wonderfully rich novel — that will open some doors for you.
Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America’s War with Militant Islam, by reporter Mark Bowden, recounts the 1979 takeover of this country’s Iranian embassy in Tehran by Muslim students. The book gives interesting insights into the struggle in Iran almost 30 years ago between moderate nationalists and Muslim fundamentalists. It’s a storyline that is playing out throughout the Middle East today. Incidentally, Bowden says Iran’s current president — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — was one of the students who figures prominently in the takeover.
Kite Runner is the first novel by Afghan-American author Khaled Hosseini, and the first novel published in English by an author from Afghanistan. It is a wonderful story about the relationship between two boys from different classes, but an important part of the story is the backdrop. It is set amidst Afghanistan’s tumultuous recent history, including the fall of the monarchy, the Soviet invasion, and the utter hypocrisy and capriciousness of the Taliban.
Now I’m searching for a good read on Iraq. Suggestions anyone?
Family camping
As I’ve gotten older, life has boiled itself down to a few essentials: family, work, and everything else. For Lori and I, family camping remains a favorite way to spend time with our kids. We’re just back from a great trip to Florida’s gulf coast where we swam, biked, canoed, walked, and took part in all kinds of other fun together. By my estimation there is no better way to spend time with children who haven’t graduated from high school.
Jackie Robinson and Don Imus
When Jackie Robinson walked out onto the field on April 13, 1947, to play Major League Baseball for the Los Angeles Dodgers, it was a milestone for race relations in this country. African-Americans couldn’t eat in the same restaurants or stay in the same hotels as whites, couldn’t vote in many states, and were treated as second-class citizens. Robinson didn’t change much by himself, but as major league sports evolved so did the country. While shock jock Don Imus apologizes and tries to save his career after making a stupid racist remark, we — African-Americans and whites — should remember Robinson and countless others who showed by example the right way. It took courage to stand out there on his own, enduring threats on his life along with racial taunts. Too few follow that model these days.
— By Scott McLeod
A traffic study was conducted to assess the traffic impacts of a new Super Wal-Mart and Home Depot complex coming to West Waynesville.
About $1.5 million in roadwork is planned to accommodate the increased traffic on South Main Street and Hyatt Creek Roads from the Super Wal-Mart and Home Depot development. There will be two entrances to the development: one off Hyatt Creek Road and one off South Main Street. Here’s a description of what the new road will look like:
U.S. 23-74 on-and-off ramps on the Anderson Auto side
• There will be a roundabout in the middle of Hyatt Creek Road. Drivers coming off the by-pass will go through the roundabout at the bottom of the exit ramp. The roundabout was chosen in lieu of a traffic light because it will move traffic more quickly. A traffic light would back up traffic all the way up the exit ramp and onto the bypass.
U.S. 23-74 on-and-off ramps on the development side
• There will be a dedicated right-turn lane coming from the development and leading up the on-ramp heading toward Asheville.
Entrance to the development on Hyatt Creek Road
• Hyatt Creek Road will be five lanes between the by-pass and the entrance to the development.
• Coming from the bypass toward the entrance there will be three lanes: two lanes are left-turn only into the development and one continues straight ahead on Hyatt Creek Rd.
• Leaving the development and going toward the by-pass, there will be two lanes: one is a dedicated right-turn lane to get on the bypass and one will be for going straight.
• Coming from South Main Street toward the entrance, there will be three lanes: one is a right-turn into the development or straight thru, one is straight-thru only and one is a left-turn only into the Huddle House.
• Leaving the development heading toward South Main Street, there will be two lanes: one left-turn only and one right-turn only.
• There will be a traffic light at the entrance.
Entrance to the development on South Main Street
• South Main Street will be three lanes around the entrance.
• Two lanes will be for straight-thru traffic, one in both directions.
• Approaching from town, there will an extra lane for right-turns only into the development.
• Approaching from the other way, the extra lane will be for left-turns only into the development.
• There will be a traffic light at the entrance.
National Poetry Month
In honor of National Poetry Month this April, here are some recommendations for poetry lovers and those seeking to learn more about the craft. First, a few books...
Access management deploys numerous design techniques to reduce congestion on clogged roads, five-lane drags being the primary candidate.
