Haywood County commissioners are deciding whether to sell off space in the county’s landfill, allowing trucks from elsewhere to dump their garbage here for a fee.

There’s only 30 to 40 years of life left in the landfill. Selling space will obviously shorten the life. Commissioners have to decide whether the money to be made is worth it.

“This is a very serious decision,” said Commissioner Skeeter Curtis. “We need to make absolutely certain what we are doing here because it is very, very important.”

The landfill was bought and built on the taxpayers’ dime, and filling it up with other people’s trash could cost the county later.

But the thought of making a couple of million a year selling landfill space — enough to offset the county’s own landfill costs — is too tempting to ignore.

“I think right now we have an asset, and we would be wise to explore every possibility of maximizing it,” said Commissioner Mark Swanger.

Commissioners have pledged to look before they leap, however.

“If we fill up our landfill too quickly, then what? Where does the future lie?” asked Commissioner Bill Upton. “We have a great resource because so many other places don’t have a landfill.”

Stephen King, the county’s solid waste director, isn’t overly concerned about the day Haywood’s landfill runs out of space, however. By then there will be other ways to deal with trash, he said.

“I foresee that burying trash in the ground is not going to be the only option 10 or 15 years down the line,” King said.

See also: A simpler solution

Taxpayers fork over $1.3 million a year to run the landfill, plus another $1.1 million annually for five years to pay for building a new pit (see “Trash budget breakdown”).

Swanger is optimistic the landfill costs could not only be wiped from the county’s budget, but the county could actually make money.

Selling space in the landfill is part of a larger discussion about turning over landfill operations to a private firm. Companies interested in running the landfill have until the end of the week to submit their proposals.

Any agreement would take the form of a long-term contract, perhaps as long as the life of the landfill itself.

“They would almost be like the owner in a way,” Commissioner Kevin Ensley said.

For-profit landfill ventures are nothing new. Several large trash companies operate chains of private landfills across a multi-state area, and that’s who will likely be interested in taking over Haywood’s landfill.  

A few months ago, the county outsourced to a private firm the operation of its 10 trash drop-off points known as convenience centers. The county saved $145,000 a year by turning convenience centers over to a private company rather than operate them in-house.

See also: Haywood’s quest for trash savings dumps costs on towns

Upton said there is no harm in seeing what the private trash companies offer.

“I would like to see if someone could operate a facility more efficiently than we do,” Upton said. But, “We need to move slowly and continue to look at both sides. I worry about what I don’t know might bite me.”

The county could be offered a sweet deal now to give up control of its landfill. But once the county is out of the trash business, it could be held hostage by changing terms and rising rates.

Swanger said a contract would be written meticulously to protect the county, which has already engaged a special attorney who’s an expert at landfills.

“To truly know the benefit we have to wait for the (proposals) and not just speculate,” Swanger said. “The (proposals) may lead us to say ‘This isn’t going to work.’”

Doing the math

Haywood is wading into a dilemma many others have faced: run your own landfill or ship your trash elsewhere. The choice pits big upfront costs against long-term savings.

Jackson and Swain counties and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians opt to ship their trash to mega landfills in South Carolina and Georgia.

“Short term it is cheaper because you don’t have the cost of building that landfill,” said Chad Parker, solid waste director in Jackson County. “It’s really hard to site a landfill in mountainous terrain. We don’t have any available land without spending quite a bit of money.”

Haywood and Macon counties — which already have landfills — find it cheaper to run their own since they already have the land.

Swanger thinks the days of building new landfills are over in the mountains. The county had a hard time 20 years ago finding somewhere to build the current landfill in White Oak — a tract that was large enough, removed from any neighbors and free of environmental constraints.

But the greater hurdle is a state moratorium on permitting new landfills. To some, the moratorium sounds like all the more reason for Haywood to guard what space it has left in its own landfill.

Swanger says it is just the opposite.

“The people with the state know there is trash being generated every day. You can’t continue to take it to neighboring states,” Swanger said. “What that tells you is there must be other plans in the works.”

That other plan is likely a trash incinerator — a giant one that would serve the whole region.

If the state halts the use of landfills and imposes a shift to regional trash incinerators, any space left in Haywood’s landfill could be left on the table. So one theory is that the county might as well make hay on its landfill while it can.

Can Haywood compete?

Private landfills in Georgia and South Carolina — where large tracts of flat land are plentiful — are dirt cheap compared to the per ton fee charged by landfills in mountain counties. Dump fees in the $30 a ton range are common, compared to twice that in the mountains.

Jackson County pays just $20 a ton to dump trash at a private landfill run by Waste Management in Homer, Ga.

The landfill takes in 2,000 tons a day — a volume that dwarfs the 150 tons a day seen at Haywood’s landfill.

The landfill is a total of 470 acres. It has 20 years of life left, but the company has already bought another 484 acres right next door, said Charlie Claws, district manager for Waste Management in northeast Georgia.

Claws’ landfills are cheaper for a couple of reasons: the economy of scale that goes with such a mega operation and slacker environmental regulations.

Claws said the cost of equipment would be hard for a small landfill to amortize. A compactor with big wheels and spikes to compress the trash costs $800,000 and only lasts five years. A basic dozer costs $650,000.

The same principle applies to labor. Claws has a staff of 10 at the landfill: five equipment operators, two mechanics, two in the scale house and one supervisor. Haywood has 9 workers — even though it does one-tenth the volume of trash.

“Can cities and counties do it? Yeah they can, but it is like anything else: you have more manpower and equipment than you need,” Claws said.

Claws also balked at how much Haywood is paying to construct a new section of the landfill. It costs him $250,000 an acre. Haywood is paying $500,000 an acre for a new pit under construction. King said it costs more to build landfills in North Carolina because of more stringent regulations.

“They are not regulated the way we are regulated,” he said of Georgia.

Haywood’s new lined pit will cost nearly $5 million and will last eight to nine years at the current rate of trash disposal.

The life of the cell might only be eight years, but it is laying a foundation for the future. Down the road, when the lateral footprint of the landfill can’t grow anymore, there will still be room to go up. But the base has to be built first, King explained.

But the questions remains whether Haywood can compete with the low per ton rates of landfills out of state.

Right now, Haywood would have to charge more than $44 a ton to break even. At $44 a ton, the county couldn’t compete. Besides, Haywood doesn’t want to merely break even on the trash. It defeats the purpose of selling space in the landfill in the first place. The whole point is to make enough profit to offset the cost of its own trash operations.

But the per ton cost of handling trash will get cheaper if the volume increases.

“Landfills are volume driven. The more volume they get, the cheaper it is to operate,” King said.

Plus, a private company may be able to run the landfill for less.

Claws estimated that Haywood will need to take in 600 tons a day to realize economies of scale. At that rate, however, the landfill’s life would be drastically shortened to as little as 10 more years.

Commissioners will soon have to weigh the pros and cons of cost savings versus the life of the landfill. The question is how much space is the county willing to give up in order to reap the financial returns.

“I think that threshold exists, but I don’t know exactly what it is,” Swanger said.

Haywood’s trash budget breakdown

Total budget    $4.7 million

Convenience centers    $680,000

Transfer station    $800,000

Material recovery center    $200,000

Landfill    $1.3 million

Recycling    $450,000

Loan payment on landfill expansion

$1.16 million

A major remodeling job to convert the abandoned Wal-Mart in Clyde to house the Haywood County Department of Social Services could get underway by November. This rendering by Asheville firm Padgett & Freeman Architects shows how the dreary big-box storefront will get a new façade more fitting with the mountains. Contractors are now bidding on the $12.5 million project. The 115,000-square-foot superstore will also serve as home for Haywood’s health department, planning and erosion control, building inspections and environmental health. Commissioners bought the Wal-Mart primarily to move DSS from its crumbling building, which would have required millions to fix up. In August, the county locked down a 40-year rural development loan, funded with federal stimulus money through the USDA, to pay for the project.

Deputy Gregory Wood was looking forward to a mundane Monday morning manning the metal detector at the Haywood County courthouse when a woman came in with some strange news: a snake had taken up residence in the elevator of the parking deck.

Needless to say, when the woman saw the big, black snake curled up in the corner, she opted to take the stairs. Wood said he didn’t doubt her tale for a second.

“We get strange things around here all the time,” he said.

So Wood, along with fellow Deputy Russell Bryson, headed out to see for themselves. They hit the call button for the elevator, and when the doors opened, there it was — a big, black snake nearly four feet long.

They realized right away the snake didn’t get in there on its own.

“It couldn’t have crawled in there before the doors closed shut on it,” Bryson said.

But first things first.

“I knew I needed to get it off the elevator,” Wood said. He pulled his expandable baton from his holster and quickly pinned down the snake’s head to immobilize it. With his other hand, Wood grabbed the snake by the neck so it couldn’t turn around and bite him.

Wood paused briefly to pose while Bryson took a picture on his cell phone, and then the two released the poor critter into the grass.

Once back inside, they began reviewing surveillance footage of the parking deck. At 10:20 a.m. — about 10 minutes before the woman reported it — a man is seen walking up to the elevator and putting the snake inside. It’s possible someone rode on the elevator with the snake if they were talking on their phone or otherwise distracted, Wood said.

“We are trying to figure out if there is anything we can charge him with,” Wood said of the man. They consulted with a District Court judge to figure out what charge might be applicable. The next step would be identifying him.

Before putting the snake on the elevator, the man was walking around with it on the grounds outside the historic courthouse. Tax Collector David Francis, who works in the building, confronted the man and asked him to get rid of the snake.

Voters will have a choice between a fresh or familiar face in this year’s Haywood County sheriff’s race.

Democratic incumbent Bobby Suttles has worked law enforcement in Haywood for 35 years, including 18 years at the Haywood County Sheriff’s office.

“I know the people over here. I know this office,” said Suttles.

Suttles is relying on that tenure as the foundation for his campaign. Suttles inherited the post of top lawman 18 months ago when former Sheriff Tom Alexander retired. Now Suttles must run for the seat.

His opponent Bill Wilke, a sergeant with the Asheville Police Department, said he would bring a modern approach to the table if elected.

“I think my perspective is broader,” Wilke said. “I think I have a more contemporary outlook on how those problems need to be addressed.”

Wilke wants to provide a long-term vision for the sheriff’s office that looks 10 or 15 years from now. He will focus on modern law enforcement programs and ideas that are already working in neighboring counties.

For example, Wilke is in favor of connecting criminals with community members, such as pastors.

“They need to be given a microphone,” Wilke said.

According to Wilke, moral voices could help curb crimes such as domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse.

Wilke also wants to stress problem-oriented policing, which asks officers to take a long-term approach to problems rather than dashing onto a crime scene. A drug house could be thoroughly investigated to determine players before taking action, for example.

Suttles said he and his deputies already look before they leap.

“You’ve got to build your case,” Suttles said.

The sheriff’s office is already working hard to combat drugs, according to Suttles. In addition, Suttles deputized officers at the Waynesville Police Department, which has its own K-9 dog, to help battle drugs.

Suttles added that law-enforcement officers from Haywood’s municipal police departments also meet monthly to discuss problems and strategies.

Fighting for resources

Recently, Haywood commissioners expressed hesitation about accepting a $220,000 grant for equipment, vehicles and two officers who would focus on traffic enforcement. The county would have to pay an increasing portion of the two traffic officers’ salaries and take full responsibility for salaries by the fourth year.

“It’s hard to understand when they want to turn down grants,” said Suttles, who has often stressed the need for more officers and newer equipment at the sheriff’s office. “Sometimes, our hands are just tied here with the commissioners. They don’t have the money.”

Wilke said he would try to compromise with commissioners over budget items, but the sheriff’s office also should wisely allocate the resources it already has.

Wilke hopes to do an assessment of operations at the sheriff’s office to make sure resources are used efficiently.

But according to Suttles, the recession, not wasteful spending, is the problem.

“We’re not frivolously spending money, but you can only do so much,” Suttles said.

During his short term, Suttles has successfully pursued grants that have brought Tasers and mobile data terminals to the Haywood sheriff’s office. Video arraignments should be available by mid-October, cutting down on officer time spent shuttling criminals between jail and the courthouse.

Rather than focus on grants, however, Wilke said he would try to generate revenue from drug seizures. Law enforcement agencies can keep a portion of the money they seize from narcotics dealers.

“You hit the drug problem in this county, and you’re going to have a great effect on ancillary crimes,” Wilke said. “It’s a win-win all the way around. We’re just not doing it right.”

Wilke said the sheriff’s office could profit more from seizing drug dealers’ assets than going after grants. Moreover, there wouldn’t be any strings attached.

After enduring months of dogged opposition over a county rule that would protect residents from nasty garbage piles on their neighbor’s property, Haywood County leaders are trying a different tack.

The county has dropped the idea of a public health rule governed by the health department and instead will draft a health ordinance. An ordinance will allow more flexibility, while a rule under the auspice of the health department had to conform with state mandates.

Haywood County Commissioner Mark Swanger recommended the new approach, which garnered unanimous support from the rest of the commissioners.

Swanger said some sort of mechanism is necessary to protect people from unhealthy situations created by neighbors.

“It has nothing to do with aesthetics or that you just have a messy yard. It would have to be a demonstrated health risk,” said Swanger.

The scrapped health rule chiefly dealt with garbage that might attract disease-carrying rodents and mosquitoes, but would have also applied to an abandoned swimming pool that had become a health risk or a chemical spill, for example.

While some opposed the spirit of the ordinance as meddling in the private property arena, others merely took issue with over-reaching enforcement and over-the-top punishment.

The rule allowed the health director to come onto private property without permission and offenders could have been charged with a class I misdemeanor.

Wording was changed to require the health director to first get a search warrant except in the case of an imminent hazard. But little could be done about the class I misdemeanor for violations, as that was the punishment mandated by the state. If written as an ordinance by the county, however, it could carry a lesser charge of a class III misdemeanor, Swanger said.

A small task force has been appointed to provide input on writing the ordinance, including two critics of the health rule in its original form.

One of those, Terry Ramey, said he hopes the new approach will help “bring people back together instead of being mad at each other.”

Ramey said too much bad blood exists between the critics of the rule and members of the health board for a compromise to be reached.

“It had gotten to a head-butting deal,” Ramey said. “It just got out of hand.”

Ramey said he is not against an ordinance in principle.

“We need something,” Ramey said. “Let’s say somebody had trash piled up and it was rotten and it had insects and stuff in it. We want something in place for situations like that. Even the people against it don’t want a really bad health hazard.”

But Ramey said the original rule left too much room for broad interpretation.

Haywood County is headed to arbitration in a lawsuit over the $8.2 million renovation to the historic courthouse.

The contractor sued the county for $2 million after being fired from the job in May 2008. The county claimed the contractor was “significantly behind schedule” and was “incapable” of finishing the job they were hired to do.

Meanwhile, KMD Construction claims it was working off inaccurate blueprints. As a result, the project took a lot longer than expected, and was more expensive.

The county refused to pay for cost overruns, however. KMD says it was left holding the bag and wants the county to pay up. The suit cites wrongful termination by the county and negligence by the county’s architect.

Last week, the county learned arbitration to settle the ongoing dispute has been scheduled for May 2011.

The county and contractor butted heads for most of the project, but the final straw came when the county learned the contractor was cutting corners that compromised the structural integrity of the building, according to court filings. Specifically, a cinder-block wall of an interior staircase at the rear of the courthouse was being put up without proper internal support.

“KMD management was aware of the unsafe, improper and defective construction and intended to cover it up,” the county claims in court filings, defending its firing of KMD.

Another construction error involved leaky conduit for electrical lines feeding an emergency generator. The conduit was not properly sealed, and leaks damaged the switch for the emergency power supply, according to the county.

In yet another mishap, kerosene heaters were left burning unattended to make drywall mud dry faster. One malfunctioned and smoke and soot got into the ventilation system and filled the building.

KMD, however, says the architectural plans were inadequate and failed to meet building code, leaving out key support beams in several places.

The construction plans also failed to reflect the condition of the historic building, such as the varying thickness of the stone exterior walls and undulating slopes in the floor, which required extensive leveling, KMD claims in its suit.

The county admits that the blueprints weren’t perfect, but that goes with the territory when making renovations to a historic 1930s-era building.

“Haywood County admits that the project designs required revisions through the course of construction to meet unknown conditions in the existing building,” wrote Bob Meynardie, an attorney representing the county, in court filings.

The county countersued the contractor, claiming it racked up additional expenses of its own during the drawn-out project. It had to pay rent on satellite office space during the renovations, pay architects for additional time and hire a scheduling consultant to keep the project on task.

The county withheld payments from the contractor to cover most of the extra costs it incurred as a result of the quagmire, while other costs were picked up by a surety bond taken out by the county as insurance against just such a scenario. As a result, the county didn’t pay any more for the project than it had budgeted originally. It was completed a year late, however.

What now?

Arbitration will bring a final resolution to the dispute and is similar to a court trial.

“The contractor will present their case, we will present our case and the arbitrators will decide whether or not to make an award to either side,” said Meynardie.

Both sides will present evidence, call witnesses and put on exhibits.

The only difference is that arbitration isn’t held before a judge. Instead, the decision rests with a three-person panel selected jointly by both sides: one chosen by the county, one by the contractor, and the third chosen jointly by the first two. The American Arbitration Association certifies architects, engineers, contractors and lawyers to serve as arbitrators. In this case, the panel will be comprised of three construction lawyers.

The architect and engineer for the project are named by KMD in the suit as well, but the county will hold the primary burden of countering KMD’s claims.

It does not appear that the county will try to point the finger at the architects and engineers in order to absolve itself.

“We believe the contractor had more responsibility for what wrong out there than anybody,” Meynardie said.

Issues with the contractor’s work were brought to the county’s attention by the architect. The architect also recommended firing KMD. But the county stands behind its decision.

“The contractor didn’t live up to its contractual obligation. We had to make our own assessment of that,” Meynardie said.

Even if the county prevails at arbitration, it will still be out the legal costs of defending itself, Meynardie said.

From buttered trout fillets to a trout race, all things trout will be celebrated during the 21st annual Great Smoky Mountain Trout Festival from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 1, at the Maggie Valley Festival Grounds.

The festival grounds will be filled with vendors selling arts, crafts and other wares, as well as festival food booths. Performing on stage will be the Hominy Valley Boys and the Caribbean Cowboys band.

Other happenings at the festival include:

• An environmental education tent featuring the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Haywood Waterways Association, N.C. Wildlife Commission and numerous other environmental agencies and nonprofits.

• Talks by Rob Gudger, a biologist who raises wolves, and by Jim Casada, an expert fly-fisherman and renowned outdoor writer.

• Casting demonstrations and fly-tying demonstrations by the Waynesville Fly Shop.

• Casting contest for ages 16 and up.

• Project Healing Waters, dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled servicemen and veterans through fly-fishing, will have a booth.

• Kids activities and games, like making your own kite.

• Bean bag toss contest for teams of two at 10 a.m.

www.gsmtroutfestival.org or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Free fishing clinics for kids

Two free youth fishing clinics will be held in conjunction with at the Great Smoky Mountain Trout Festival in Maggie Valley May 1.

The CATCH clinics Ñ Caring For Aquatics Through Conservation Habits Ñ are designed to teach young people how, when, and where to fish as well as aquatic ecology, water safety, fishing ethics and respect for the outdoors. Kids will wade in the stream to collect and identify aquatic bugs and test water quality, plus try their hand at fishing..

Program is for ages 6 to 15. Equipment is provided. Kids who have never fished or explored a stream are particularly encouraged to participate. The clinics are sponsored by the HCC Natural Resources Department, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, Haywood Waterways Association and the town of Maggie.

The morning clinic will be from 9 a.m. until noon and requires registration. An afternoon clinic will be from 1 to 4 p.m. and will be first-come first-served.

To register, call 828.926.0866, ext. 117.

Mountain music, dancing and tradition will be on display on the shores of beautiful Lake Junaluska as the Smoky Mountain Folk Festival, now in its 40th year, celebrates the culture and heritage of Western North Carolina.

As in years past, spectators will be treated to performances by more than 200 mountain dancers and musicians at the 2,000-seat historic Stuart Auditorium on the grounds of Lake Junaluska. Each night will feature open tent shows on the lawn beginning at 5 p.m. with main stage performances at 6:30 p.m. The entertainment will continue well into the night with the last performances ending some time after 11 p.m.

The festival is one of the longest running and most authentic folk festivals in the South, and offers spectators the chance to experience a wide variety of the region’s best traditional performers. Scores of the region’s finest fiddlers, banjo players, string bands, ballad singers, buck dancers and square dancers will be in attendance. Visitors will also be treated to the unique regional sounds of the dulcimer, harmonica, Native American flute, bagpipes and spoons, even a bowed carpenter’s saw.

While the festival is sure to entertain the thousands of people who attend, it also serves as a venue to preserve the mountains’ legacy of traditional music and inspire a new generation of artists as they swap tunes and licks, song and stories, under the open tents on the lakeshore.

“Our Appalachian identity with its music, stories, song and dance is something we can be proud of and must share with others to keep it alive. It is an identity that enriches all who experience it,” said festival director Joe Sam Queen.

The Smoky Mountain Folk Festival had its beginnings as a collaboration between Queen and a master fiddler named Earnest Hodges. Queen’s grandfather had passed away shortly before and Queen and his family sought to celebrate the music and dancing his grandfather had loved so much.

“My grandfather Sam Queen made mountain music and dancing such a big part of this community’s life, we wanted to carry on this family tradition and share it with the community just as he had done,” said Queen.

Queen and Hodges put together those early festivals in the high school gymnasium of what is now Waynesville Middle School. They worked together to contact and lineup an extensive collection of mountain artists to perform. The festival was a success for the community, attracting hundreds of visitors and locals each night.

Now a tradition with decades of history, the festival has established itself as a family and community gathering with many performers returning each year to see old friends and make new ones. Families return each year with new generations to enjoy what is one of the richest cultural events of the year.

Main show tickets are $12 at the door, $10 in advance, with children under 12 admitted free. Advance tickets can be purchased at the Haywood County Arts Council at 86 North Main Street in Waynesville or at the Administration Building at Lake Junaluska.

And of course, in keeping with tradition, there is always a complimentary slice of cool watermelon available to all who attend.

Waynesville’s town board is drawing the line at 14 Main Street closings annually.

As a result, the town has rejected a request to shut down part of Main Street to traffic for a Sept. 11 memorial ceremony.

The group organizing the memorial was hoping to close the area in front of the Haywood County Courthouse for three hours so that an American flag could be raised between two parked fire trucks during the ceremony. The group putting on the ceremony is the 9-12 Project, a political group that shares many of the philsophies and goals of the Tea Party.

Representing the 9-12 Project, Jan Sterret said she wanted to interrupt traffic as little as possible.

“I think the greatest thing is the visual of the two fire trucks with the huge flag hanging down,” said Sterret. “It would be very meaningful for a lot of people.”

But Mayor Gavin Brown, Town Manager Lee Galloway and town aldermen expressed concerns about irking the N.C. Department of Transportation with yet another closing. Main Street doubles as U.S. 276, a state maintained highway, and is not technically under the town’s jurisdiction.

Whether it’s for a street dance, International Festival Day or a block party, closing Main Street requires permission from DOT 60 days in advance.

So far, the DOT hasn’t objected to the large number of street closings in Waynesville.

“Although they don’t particularly care for it, they’ve allowed it,” said Alderman LeRoy Roberson.

But town officials fear the DOT might begin clamping down if the town adds any more closings to the list.

“Sooner or later, DOT’s going to start knocking on the door,” said Brown.

Jonathan Woodard, a DOT district engineer over Haywood, Jackson and Swain counties, said he would normally expect one or two street closings a year.

“I wouldn’t expect it to be an every weekend or once-a-month type situation,” said Woodard.

Though 14 street closings a year certainly doesn’t meet that threshold, Woodard said it really depends on which street is being closed.

Making the call

Festivals and events that have historically been part of Waynesville’s repertoire will likely continue to be approved for street closings.

“The newer ones have a tougher time, there’s no question,” said Brown.

Even the Haywood County Chamber of Commerce’s request to shut down Main Street for the inaugural Fire & Ice festival last winter was denied. The detour would take drivers down the much steeper Depot Street.

“If it was snowy or icy, that could be a hazard that we were directing people into,” said Galloway.

Waynesville’s tight budget continues to remain a concern. During each street closing, town employees must set up and remove barricades and clean up streets during the aftermath. A few extra police officers are often called in to work the events.

“We have to try to control those costs to some degree,” said Galloway.

Brown’s other reservation was that the 9-12 Project is not a legal entity that could held responsible if something went awry during the Sept. 11 memorial.

“You would rather have a group of individuals who collectively take responsibility,” said Brown. “And the 9-12 group is not organized like that.”

In contrast, the Downtown Waynesville Association — which coordinates most of the events on Main Street — is an established organization that carries a large insurance policy for its festivals.

Brown said the 9-12 Project didn’t notify the town until Aug. 17 of its request for a street closing, while the Downtown Waynesville Association applies annually for street closings every February.

“It shows me a lack of coordination,” said Brown.

With about 100 people showing up at the Sept. 11 memorial last year, town officials say the Haywood County courthouse lawn will easily accommodate the entire ceremony again. Fire Chief Joey Webb is working with the group to possibly close down Depot Street to allow a flag to be draped across two fire trucks.

Buffy Messer, director of the DWA, points out that unlike other towns, side streets can’t always accommodate events. The Apple Festival once took place on Church Street, but its slope made setting up booths challenging.

“Main Street is just on this little ridge,” said Messer. “All the side streets are sloped. Our topography is just a little different than any other town.”

Ghost Town in the Sky is staring down the barrel of foreclosure.

BB&T has filed for foreclosure against the amusement park, which owes BB&T $9.5 million dating back to 2007. Of that amount, $6.5 million was to purchase of the 288-acre mountaintop property in Maggie Valley and the rest was for improvements.

A foreclosure hearing is scheduled for Sept. 20, which will set the wheels in motion for Ghost Town to be auctioned off to the highest bidder on the courthouse steps. If Ghost Town is unable to stall it, and if BB&T really goes through with it, Ghost Town could be auctioned off before the end of October. Once the ball is rolling, however, BB&T can set a later date or delay it at will.

Ghost Town has been running from BB&T for almost two years. It filed for bankruptcy in early 2009 primarily to shelter itself from BB&T’s demands to pay up. Bankruptcy was the only way to keep BB&T at bay, according to court testimony early in the bankruptcy process.

Ghost Town also owes $2.5 million to more than 200 small businesses left hanging after providing services or products to Ghost Town, from local electricians and plumbing supply stores to advertising firms and souvenir vendors. These are last in line, however, and it is unlikely the property would bring in enough for them to see any of the money they are owed.

Companies cannot hide from their debts in bankruptcy court forever and must eventually emerge from bankruptcy with a plan to pay off what they owe or face liquidation. After 18 months in bankruptcy, Ghost Town has not produced a viable reorganization plan, according to the bankruptcy administrator.

BB&T got permission from the bankruptcy judge in May to begin foreclosure proceedings. But BB&T was dissuaded from pulling the trigger by the promise of a payoff by one of the park’s primary owners, Al Harper, who also owns the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad.

Harper staved off the foreclosure for four months with an offer to buy the park out of bankruptcy for $7 million. It was less than what BB&T was owed, but the bank was willing to take it.

Harper said upfront the deal was contingent on financing, and so far that hasn’t come through. The looming foreclosure now brings additional pressure to bear on Harper to produce the money to consummate the deal or lose the amusement park.

BB&T has other outlets to recoup the full cost of what it loaned Ghost Town. Several early investors put up personal guarantees to back the BB&T loan. The loan was also partially backed by a federal rural development loan, placing taxpayers on the hook for a potion of it. BB&T could go after either if a sale of the amusement park on the courthouse steps or to Harper directly failed to bring in the full amount it’s owed.