Gary Mann was working as a mortgage banker in Philadelphia when he read Cold Mountain during a trip to the beach. The book, written by his second cousin Charles Frazier, made his heart ache for Haywood County.

“About the second day after reading it, I told my girlfriend I was moving back,” said Mann.

Mann, who grew up moving every three years because of his father’s work, attended Tuscola High School, and his mother’s family has lived in Ratcliffe Cove for a couple centuries.

Having decided to leave the mortgage industry and move back to his mountain home, Mann was in the market for a new line of work. Eager to get in some fishing while he figured it out, he pulled up the Waynesville Fly Shop’s website looking for flow schedules on local rivers controlled by dams. That’s when he noticed the business was for sale.

“It was basically a done deal when I saw that,” Mann said.

And that’s how Gary Mann, a local boy who had wandered in search of his fortune, came home to buy up a fly.

If you walk into the Waynesville Fly Shop, you’ll notice a long plastic folding table with a fly tying vice on it and three or four men sitting around talking. At any given time, you could be in the presence of more than 200 combined years of fly fishing experience. The table is the heart of the Waynesville Fly Shop, and in many ways it’s the heart of Haywood County’s fly-fishing scene.

Rex Wilson, 70, a regular at the shop, has been using dry flies to fish for trout since 1962, the year his father-in-law Gary Smith took him on a trip to the Davidson River. Back then you could fish Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, and after checking in and paying a buck, you were entitled to 10 fish.

Wilson and shop manager Doug Mitchell grew up fishing Haywood County in that era, when the mills were everyone’s line of work and fishing knowledge was kept close to the vest.

The two men now carry on the fly tying traditions of Frank Coffee and Benny Jo Craig, two men who standardized the region’s most distinctive fly-tying patterns.

“Way back it was kind of a secret how to tie flies,” Wilson said. “People wouldn’t just tell you.”

Wilson earned his stripes filling orders for Coffee, who sold to distributors in East Tennessee and Asheville. He remembers tying his first dozen and looking on nervously as Coffee went over each fly with his magnifying glass.

“I reckon I could use these,” Coffee had said.

Since then, Wilson has tied thousands of dozens of flies and is still the primary local source for the Coffee Stone Nymph — or sometimes referred locally as the “Dayco Nymph” in reference to the rubber factory in Waynesville where the materials for the fly originated.

“Rex won’t tell you this, but he is a master fly tier,” said Mann.

Mitchell, now 56, grew up in Hazelwood. He first went fly fishing on the West Fork of the Pigeon River as a 7-year-old with his uncle and has been fishing for everything from large and smallmouth bass to wild trout since then.

Mitchell ran guided trips for the shop’s previous owner, Matt Rosenthal, and was a regular at Roger Lowe’s fly shop in Waynesville before that. Lowe raised the bar for the fly fishing industry in Western North Carolina and served as an important generational link in the chain of mountain fly tying traditions.

Mitchell got hooked on tying flies at Tuscola High School, where his biology teacher Pat Powell initiated him to the mysteries of the art.

“My biology teacher was a fly fisherman and a fly tier, and I asked him to show me,” Mitchell said. “I might have flunked biology, but I passed fly tying.”

For Mitchell, being a mountain fisherman is about upholding a code and refining a skill that takes a lifetime to perfect.

“True mountain fisherman are so good with a dry fly, they can catch anything, but these are humble people,” Mitchell said. “They don’t go around telling people everything they know.”

Another regular at the Waynesville Fly Shop, Rodger McIntyre, was born and raised near Pine Bluff, Ark., and started work at the Canton Paper Mill in 1966. He floats Lake Junaluska with Mitchell regularly, and after 50 years, still marvels at the thrill of watching his quarry rise.

“It’s just seeing that little fish come up and take a dry fly. You see that once, and you’re hooked,” McIntyre said.

For McIntyre, the fly shop is a place you can act like a fisherman.

“You see what’s going on and you get new ideas,” McIntyre said.

Jason Van Dyke, 36, started fly fishing when he was 14 and runs guide trips for Waynesville Fly Shop. You can hear the reverence in Van Dyke’s voice when he talks about the other guys in the store.

“A lot of shops aren’t like this anymore. They don’t have a hometown feel. It’s a rare thing these days,” said Van Dyk, who likes to sit at the table and mine for knowledge about tying patterns, local hot spots and hatch schedules.

While the Waynesville Fly Shop may be the last best repository of local fishing knowledge, it’s also a community exchange for a host of fishermen who have come to the area later in life.

CFOT stands for Codgers Fishing on Tuesday, a group of men who frequent the shop and fish together every week. The group’s name is self-explanatory and owes its origin to the fact that member Dick Morgan has Tuesday off work.

William “Billy” Lamar III, 71, originally from the South Carolina low country, has been fishing “since Moby Dick was a minnow,” having gotten his first bamboo rod at the age of 6. Lamar is CFOT’s historian.

“We fish a little, but we kibitz a lot,” Lamar said.

Tom Hopkins, 69, another CFOT mainstay, started fly fishing for bluegills at 10 years old on Lake Schaeffer in northern Indiana. He met Lamar at the Waynesville Sub Shop and asked him about a fly-fishing pin in his hat. Lamar invited him fishing.

“I knew him for about 90 seconds, and he invited me into his world of fishing,” Hopkins said. “I’ve never had the nice, close relationships I’ve had since I moved here. I guess it’s a Southern thing, and I do appreciate that.”

Barney Neal, who recently moved up from Tampa Bay, Fla., full time, is the newest addition to the Tuesday fishing gang. Neal spent 35 years as a golf professional and picked up fly fishing last year after taking a few out of town guests on one of the shop’s guided tours of the Cherokee trophy waters. Now he fishes every week in good company.

“All of my fishing companions have at least 50 years of experience. How could I go wrong?” Neal said.

Lamar recently returned from a fly-fishing trip in Yellowstone National Park during which he fished the Lamar River, named for his ancestor Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, a former U.S. Secretary of the Interior. The experience, while thrilling, didn’t hold a candle to his experiences in the wilds of Western North Carolina.

“I prefer living where I live and fishing where I fish,” Lamar said.

The reason, according to Lamar, is the community at the Waynesville Fly Shop.

“You know what this table really is?” Mitchell said. “It’s fishing out of water. More fish have been caught at this table than any stream in the mountains.”

“And the fish are getting bigger every day,” Lamar said.

The Waynesville Fly Shop offers guided tours on rivers throughout the region, fly tying materials, and all the goodies and gear that come with the sport of fly fishing. But it also offers knowledge and community to those with the patience to appreciate it.

“I think it’s one of the few industries left where you need people to tell you what’s going on,” Mann said. “Otherwise people would just go to the big box stores. The reason we’re competitive is because of the knowledge.”

For Mann, the effort of keeping a tradition alive is especially rewarding because he dropped everything for a chance to come home to his family tree.

“Having a deep-rooted history here just makes it mean much more to me personally,” Mann said. “It’s important for me to carry on the tradition of the fly patterns of the Smoky Mountains.”

www.waynsevilleflyshop.com

The Haywood County Meals on Wheels is hosting a Tennis Tournament at 9 a.m., Aug. 5 to 7 at the Waynesville Recreation Center Tennis Courts on West Marshall Street. Cost is $20 per person and $40 for Doubles. Categories include Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles and Mixed Doubles and 50 Plus Singles and Doubles and Mixed Doubles. Registration required. 828.356.2442.

The first inpatient hospice west of Asheville had its groundbreaking in Clyde last week — complete with Jimmy Jack the mule and its own theme song.

The hospital is targeting September 2011 as the opening date for the Homestead hospice, to be located on the campus of Haywood Regional Medical Center. The new facility will house six beds for hospice patients, offering families with a dying loved one a choice in between hospitalization and in-home care.

Anyone who’s seen a loved one face a terminal illness can appreciate the hospice that’s to come, said N.C. Rep. Phil Haire, D-Sylva, who was at the ceremony.

“I can’t think of anything more stressful,” Haire said.

The second phase of the project will be the end-of-life outreach center, which will offer:

• private rooms for counseling services and bereavement therapy.

• a reference library for resources related to terminal diseases and end-of-life issues.

• a community education center with multimedia capacity.

A courtyard will connect the two buildings. Memorial gardens will serve as a site for butterfly and dove releases.

The Homestead is expected to create 15 new permanent jobs, with an annual payroll of more than $500,000, along with dozens of short-term construction jobs.

An inpatient hospice center is also in the planning stages in Franklin. But as of now, families seeking that kind of setting must go to Asheville.

Mike Poore, CEO of MedWest — Haywood Regional Medical Center’s parent company — emphasized the significance of building a hospice like this closer to home.

“Having family close around is very important for patients,” said Poore. “We think this is really a sort of a new era for Haywood County.”

Poore added that the hospice is a testament to MedWest’s philosophy of keeping care in the community.

With more family members living far away from each other, Haire said hospice workers could also provide caring support to those who live far from their family.

“This is another way,” said Haire. “A lot of retired people don’t have support of families that live close.”

The $1 million difference

After several years of planning and fundraising, Haywood Regional Medical Center has raised $2.66 million of the $4.9 million needed for the Homestead hospice.

The effort got a major bump with a recent $1 million donation left in the will of Bernice “Bee” Medford, a long-time Haywood County benefactor who split her time between Maggie Valley and Sarasota, Fla.

“She loved this community,” said Bill Medford, her stepson. “She gave more to Haywood County than anybody in Florida.”

Medford said Bee would’ve been pleased to see her donation invested in the hospice.

Poore called Bee Medford a great friend to the hospital. “Her generosity will touch people’s lives well beyond her time,” said Poore.

Other contributions toward the hospice include $150,000 from The Duke Endowment and a $132,000 grant from the N.C. Rural Center.

State legislators Joe Sam Queen, Ray Rapp and Haire, who helped secure the grant money, all attended the groundbreaking on Friday.

“North Carolina is very proud of this project and what this community is doing,” said Queen.

The fundraising effort is still underway, and HRMC is still actively seeking grants and donations to finish the outreach center.

Call 828.452.8471 for more info.

Haywood Habitat for Humanity is holding an open enrollment through July for perspective new-home partner families. Applicants must be residents of Haywood County and have lived in North Carolina for the past year, have an annual household income of $18,700 to $28,600 and a credit history free of liens and judgments. Applicants must currently reside in unsafe or overcrowded housing and be willing to commit 400 hours of labor and time into building their home or the home of another partner family.

828.452.7960. www.haywoodhabitat.org.

The Haywood County Historical and Genealogical Society will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday, July 27 at the Shook House in Clyde. Following the business meeting, Ted Carr and Evelyn Coltman will present a program entitled, “The Best of the Cold Mountain Heritage Tour.”  The tour, which was the sixth and final one of its kind, was held in June.

The presentation will include video clips from “The Best of Bethel” and parts of a DVD entitled, “Walking in the Footsteps of Those Who Came Before Us.”  The video describes the Heritage Tour, and the DVD features interviews of local people such as Ted Darrell Inman discussing Inman’s Chapel, Tanna Timbes talking about Francis Mill, and Doris Cathey who discusses her home, all of which have been on the tour.

828.627.9828.

The latest long-distance race to join the local cycling scene is the Blue Ridge Breakaway on Aug. 21, the first of its kind to be held in Haywood County. Organizers hope to attract top caliber riders from across the South to enjoy the topography of the highest county this side of Colorado.

“The cycling community in Western North Carolina is huge. It’s a hobby, a sport, and a lifestyle here in the mountains, and we wanted to bring the cycling community together to lead us through it,” said Katy McLean, of the Haywood County Chamber of Commerce.

Chamber Director CeCe Hipps hatched the plot for a ride that would showcase the county’s terrain, but she relied on the cycling community to pull the event together.

While the ride will feature a 32-mile stretch on the Blue Ridge Parkway and a breathtaking descent from Soco Gap into Maggie Valley, perhaps its greatest feature is its accessibility for riders of all skill levels with 25-, 40-, 60-, and 100-mile options.

“One of the things that’s unique about this ride is there are four different routes, and it really has something different for every type of rider,” said Ken Howle, chair of the organizing committee.

Larry East, an avid cyclist and a regular in weekly group rides around Waynesville every Wednesday, took on the challenge of designing the course. It runs through wide mountain valleys, up narrow coves, and along the Blue Ridge Parkway, where it reaches its highest elevation at 6,100 feet.

It was East’s job to make sure the rides were safe, full of right-hand turns, and scenic.  East tipped the 40-mile loop as the prettiest ride.

The century loop features an astonishing 8,000 vertical feet of climbing over 105.72 miles that traces a ring around the county and finishes with the drop into Maggie Valley from Soco Gap.

“Make sure your brakes are working,” East said.

Howle has high hopes for the ride’s future, which he believes will solidify the county’s place as a cycling destination among the already burgeoning WNC scene.

“Our long-term vision is to grow it into a destination ride that will attract between 600 and 1,000 riders,” Howle said. “It’s a great time of year for folks from the low country to come riding in the mountains.”

This year, organizers expect between 200 and 400 cyclists. The event has permission from the National Park Service for up to 500 cyclists on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The riders already registered for the event come from as far away as Michigan and Ohio, but many are from Atlanta, Spartanburg, and Charleston. Howle thinks destination cycling is becoming an important part of the tourist economy in the mountains.

“We’re going to be bringing a kind of tourist that Haywood County doesn’t normally attract,” Howle said. “And I think it will establish this area as a destination not just for paddling and rafting but for cycling.”

MedWest hospital system has underwritten the event, which has also had major support from bike outfitters like Liberty Bicycles in Asheville and the Nantahala Outdoor Center bike shop in the Gorge.

Kent Cranford, owner of Motion Makers in Sylva and Asheville, is excited about a new ride, especially since Jackson County’s Tour de Tuck won’t run this year.

“It is always good exposure for the region's great riding when a good cycling event traverses some of our landscape,” Cranford said. “The Breakaway has been very organized from the beginning, and I'm sure that they are going to pull off a great event, especially with so many options to ride. Obviously, the long options that get on the Blue Ride Parkway are going to be the most breathtaking.”

For Howle, the strong local support in the event’s first year has been a vote of confidence.

“The thing that’s really surprised me is the overwhelming support we’ve had from the community and the sponsors,” Howle said. “It just proves that people see this as the type of event we should be doing in Haywood County.”

Meanwhile, the Haywood County Chamber of Commerce has accomplished the task of opening up new terrain in destination marketing while taking care of its hometown community.

“We just have such a great cycling community and there are so many riders around that we needed an event like this in Haywood County,” McLean said.

For more info, visit www.blueridgebreakaway.com.

Weekly road bike rides

• Waynesville: Thursday at 5:30 p.m. Meet at Rolls Rite Bicycles on the Old Asheville Highway. Beginnger to intermediate rides led by Bicycle Haywood advocacy group. 8- to 12-mile rides. 828.276.6080 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

• Bryson City: Wednesday around 6 p.m. Depart from the East Swain Elementary school in Whittier on U.S.19 of exit 69 from U.S. 23-74. All levels. 800.232.7238, ext. 158.

• Bryson City/Sylva: Women’s ride on Mondays at 5:45 p.m. Departing from Whittier Post Office. Three groups do 8-mile, 13-mile and 17-mile rides. No one will be dropped. spinderellas.ning.com.

• Bryson City: Sunday at 4:30 p.m. Meet at Bryson City Bicycles on Everett Street for casual, moderate ride. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 828.488.1988. “Bike and Brew” ride ends with a local microbrew at Nanthala Brewing Company.

• Sylva: Tuesday at 6 p.m. Depart from Motion Makers bike shop for a tough 25-mile ride up to the Balsam Post office via back roads and back into Sylva. 828.586.6925.

• Franklin: Sunday at 1 p.m. departing from the Franklin Health & Fitness Center on Main Street in Franklin. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 828.369.5608 and ask for Tom.

• Franklin: Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. departing from Smoky Mountain Bicycles at 179 Highlands Road. Geared for all levels. 828.369.2881.

But this year, an unprecedented study compiled health rankings for every county in each state across the country.

The results weren’t good news for Swain County, which ranked in the bottom 10 percent in several categories. However, Haywood, Jackson and Macon counties went against the stereotype of poor health in the Appalachian Mountains and ranked in the top third.

“The western part of the state is a good deal older. When you control for that, the east part of the state seems a good deal unhealthier,” said Dr. Tom Ricketts, past director of the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Compiled by the University of Wisconsin, the study divided heath rankings into two broad categories: health outcomes and the health factors that cause them.

Swain County ranked 91st out of 100 counties in the state — the lowest ranking of any county in WNC when it comes to health factors. Meanwhile, Jackson, Haywood and Macon Counties are ranked in the healthiest third at 31, 19 and 15 respectively.

Diet, smoking, drinking, exercise, access to quality health care, social and economic factors, and the physical environment all play into the ranking.

“Health and health behaviors and care are all tangled up in a multi-complex system,” said William Aldis, a World Health Organization representative to Thailand who lives in Sylva and has taught health classes at Western Carolina University and at a university in Thailand. “You can never completely separate these things.”

Aldis said he notices the difference in health as soon as he steps off the plane and into the airport terminal when he returns to the United States.

“It surprises me when I come back how sick people look here compared to other countries,” he said.

While the University of Wisconsin study took on an enormous task, the rankings are not universally accepted by public health officials.

Linda White, director of the Swain County Health Department, has not used the information in any strategic planning because she thinks the data may be skewed.

She often compares Swain to Graham County in her planning because the populations are similar. But she noticed the study reported Swain to have the highest percent of smokers in the state while failing to report a percentage of smokers in Graham.

“It causes me to question the validity of the data,” White said.

Macon County Health Director Jim Bruckner said some counties may need to look harder at some of the statistics to determine their quality because of the sampling methods. But Bruckner said the health department has a lot it can glean from the statistics.

Every three years, the health department uses a variety of statistics to create a “snapshot” of health outcomes and contributing factors in Macon County. Bruckner said the county health rankings will now be included in the project.

“We hope to use this report to shed light on what more we can do to help residents lead healthier lives and to mobilize community leaders to invest in programs and policy changes that will improve Macon County’s health,” Bruckner said.

Health behaviors

The University of Wisconsin study looked at key health behaviors — which will ultimately affect people’s health in the future — such as diet and exercise, tobacco use, unsafe sex and alcohol use.

The study uses obesity as the measure for a county’s commitment to diet and exercise. Although obesity is a problem across the state, Jackson, Macon, Haywood and Swain Counties are no worse than the state average, according to the County Health Rankings.

North Carolina is the 10th most obese state in the nation with an adult obesity rate of 29 percent, according to the Trust for America’s Health “F as in Fat” 2010 report.

And North Carolina has grown heavier. In 2009, North Carolina was the 12th most obese state, 16th in 2008 and 17th in 2007.

“Obesity is one of the most challenging issues and has had the more lasting impact on our society,” said Carmine Rocco, Haywood County Health Department director.

Reducing childhood obesity is a big focus for health departments in Western North Carolina.

“We’ve attempted to combat that for years,” White said. “It’s a lifestyle change. Kids will eat what’s offered to them.”

White has worked with schools in Swain County to get healthier food on the menu. Between five and six years ago, the health departments removed the deep fryers from the school cafeterias and purchased them ovens instead, White said.

But it’s other health behaviors that earned Swain County its low ranking. Swain has the highest percentage of smokers in the state and one of the highest teen birth rates, which is used to indicate unsafe sex tendencies.

Dr. Mark Engel, a family doctor in Swain County, said he thinks part of the problem with Swain’s health is that preventative care has not been emphasized until recently and that Swain has been more isolated than the counties to the east.

“Swain has been socially isolated long enough,” Engel said. “It will be an uphill climb for better health.”

He’s noticed higher social support for both smoking and teen pregnancy, he said, adding that it will take generations to change the population’s attitudes.

Forty percent of adults in Swain County smoke compared to 23 percent across the state.

“We’ve come leaps and bounds,” White said, who questioned the accuracy of the statistics. “We work on lessening those numbers regardless of what they are.”

Both Dr. John Stringfield and Dr. Michael Brown, who are family doctors in Waynesville, said that they’ve seen a decrease in the number of smokers in their offices even though the study reports that Haywood still has a higher percent of smokers compared to the state average.

“There’s been an increase in education and peer pressure against smoking,” Brown said.

Only Macon County with 19 percent of the population being smokers falls below the state average.

Ricketts said that there is a strong correlation between smokers and more rural environments. He suggested that smoking might be a form of entertainment where few other options exist.

“It’s hard to explain,” Ricketts said. “It just is.”

Clinical care

Another key component in assessing an area’s health is the availability of healthcare. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin examined several factors, including the percent of uninsured adults, the number of primary providers in the area and preventable hospital stays.

Jackson and Swain Counties have poor clinical care rankings at 86 and 93 respectively while Haywood and Macon Counties are both in the top 15, according to the study.

“In the early ‘70s, the main problem was that there’s been a misdistribution between urban and rural areas with primary care physicians,” said John Price, director of the N.C. Office of Rural Health and Community Care. “The issue over the years has changed a little. The issue is economic access to care.”

Three of the four counties — with Haywood being the exception — have more than 22 percent of adults without health insurance.

That portion is noticeably higher compared to about 15 percent of American and 17 percent North Carolinians who are uninsured.

The Good Samaritan Clinic in Jackson County is a free clinic that treats uninsured adults. A volunteer doctor at the clinic, Dr. David Trigg, said there are often misconceptions about who the uninsured are.

“They’re not unemployed. They’re just uninsured, and they certainly aren’t lazy,” he said,

But in the clinical care rankings, other factors have a role in bringing down Jackson and Swain counties’ rankings.

Swain County has a high rate of hospitalization for typical outpatient services, according to the study. This suggests that outpatient care in the area is less than ideal or that the people overuse the hospital as the primary source of care, the researchers wrote.

A strike against Jackson County’s ranking is a low percentage of diabetic Medicare patients getting annual blood sugar control tests. The tests are considered a standard of good healthcare — a standard at which Jackson is the lowest in the state.

“One reason that could be lower is the way it’s recorded,” said Paula Carden, the Jackson County Health Department director. “Whether all the numbers get reported or not is hard to say.”

Carden said doctors are responsible for reporting the screenings when their patients come to get them. The codes used by doctors in Jackson to report the data may be different from those in other counties.

In one aspect of clinical care, the number of primary care doctors per capita, the study found all four counties at or above average.

But some of the physicians are counted twice, inflating the number of doctors for Western North Carolina. Many doctors in Jackson, Macon and Swain counties practice across countylines — with their main office in one county but a satellite office in the other where they hold weekly office hours. These doctors appear to be counted in both counties.

“Even if there are enough providers to the population by the numbers and they appear at the right levels, they’re not,” Good Samaritan Clinic director Becky Olson said. “The problem is that Jackson County doctors don’t just serve Jackson County alone.”

The study also fails to take into account the influx of seasonal residents and tourists to the area. Doctors in Western North Carolina said they can tell when the part-time residents begin to arrive in the spring.

“It’s an elusive number, hard to quantify,” said the Haywood County Health Department director Carmine Rocco. “But it’s a reality we have to deal with when we plan health care. If something happens, we have to be able to respond.”

Flu and respiratory illnesses keep his schedule filled during the winter, and during the summer, he sees an influx of seasonal residents. Some older residents who come for four or five months in the spring and summer have chronic conditions that require a physician’s monitoring, said Dr. John Stringfield, a doctor at Waynesville Family Practice.

“What keeps me busy is different for each season of the year,” he said.

But Ricketts said he wouldn’t call seasonal homeowners or tourists a stress on the Western North Carolina healthcare system.

“For a rural place, it generally does pretty well on physician supply,” Ricketts said.

He gave the motorcycle rally in Sturgis, S.D., as an example of something that would cause stress on the system. In 2008, the rally brought more than 400,000 bikers and three rally related deaths to the small town.

“[Tourism in Western North Carolina] doesn’t necessarily provide stress but provides income,” Ricketts said.

Social & economic factors

Research has shown that social and economic factors also play a key role in determining health.

“To have an overall picture of health, it’s affected by economic factors,” health director Carden said. “If you don’t have enough money for the good health care, your overall health is affected. … Economics plays an important role in our overall health whether we like it or not.”

According to the University of Wisconsin study, Swain County has the lowest high school graduation rate, fewest college degrees, highest unemployment and most single-parent households compared to the other three counties.

“More educated people are in a much better position to analyze health choices,” Aldis said. “Education is a powerful tool in expanding people’s health choices.”

Aldis said that in his work in foreign countries where the populations are less literate than in the United States, women who can read are more likely to get their children vaccinated even if they haven’t had any medical training.

But even less educated patients are attentive and willing to learn how to make better health choices, Trigg said about his patients at the free clinic. But without the clinic, they don’t have the same knowhow about getting health information, he said.

“They don’t get on the Internet and look up health information the same way someone from the university would,” he said.

Hand-in-hand with education, poverty also limits a people’s health options in that they can’t afford the best or at times adequate care, said Stringfield, a Haywood doctor.

“Those in a lower social economic status may tend to have more medical problems,” Stringfield said. “Sometimes that has to do with access to care or access to medicine. Many simply can’t afford to fill a prescription.”

Poverty also influences people’s food choices. Fruits and vegetables are expensive compared to a value menu at the local fast food restaurant. Snack food is also cheaper but contains unhealthy ingredients such as excess salt and high fructose corn syrup, Aldis said.

“There’s not a sense of autonomy of choice,” he said. “We have a very interesting inversion going on. Obesity is a disease of the poor.”

To learn more, visit www.countyhealthrankings.org/north-carolina.

How WNC stacks up

The University of Wisconsin ranked all counties in all states by health outcomes and health factors. Within health factors, four subcategories determined the rankings: health behaviors (30 percent), clinical care (20 percent), social and economic factors (40 percent), and physical environment (10 percent).
There are 100 counties in North Carolina. A ranking of 1 would denote the healthiest county while 100 would signify the unhealthiest in that category.

Health Factor Rankings denotes overall health. The others show what went into determining the rankings.

Health Factors Rankings
Macon    15
Haywood    19
Jackson    31
Swain    91

Health Behaviors Rankings
Macon    12
Haywood    35
Jackson    39
Swain    97

Clinical Care Rankings
Haywood    11
Macon    14
Jackson    86
Swain    93

Social and Economic Factors Rankings
Haywood    16
Jackson    19
Macon    33
Swain    79

Physical Environment Rankings
Swain    14
Jackson    35
Macon    51
Haywood    72

Percentage of Smokers
Macon:    19%
Haywood    27%
Jackson    28%
Swain    40%
State Average    23%

Haywood Habitat for Humanity marked its 20th anniversary at the organization’s Annual Meeting. To celebrate, Habitat Executive Director Marnette Colborne announced the creation of the annual Walton Garrett Award to recognize special volunteers. Garrett started the organization in the county and has worked on every house built. Four volunteers were recognized this year: Hugh Constance, Tom Henry, Ted Lazo and Steve Kirton.

Colborne summarized accomplishments of Haywood Habitat throughout the past year, including completion of the 39th house and ground breaking on the 40th, which was sponsored by Jay and Buckie Somers. The 40th house should be completed this fall.

Habitat for Humanity is a volunteer-based organization committed to eliminating sub-standard housing. For additional information or to volunteer, visit  www.haywoodhabitat.org or call 452-7960.

County commissioners claim the $10.2 million price tag on the new creative arts building is too high. College leaders claim they have cut all the costs they can without starting over completely or compromising core functions of the building.

“What’s disappointing is the commissioners have expressed that we want the building costs to come down, but they just keep coming back with the same plan. It’s like they don’t even hear us,” said Commissioner Kevin Ensley.

HCC President Rose Johnson says the college board of trustees went over the design with a fine-tooth comb before bringing it to the county commissioners.

“We had gone through a cost reduction process already, and there was nothing else we could do other than go back and totally redesign the building,” Johnson said.

The college trustees don’t want to do that. But commissioners are questioning whether the trustees have tried hard enough.

“It has always been my experience that an architect can find ways to reduce costs if instructed to do so,” said Commissioner Mark Swanger. “Obviously it is better to be conservative during the design process to keep the costs down, but I have never seen a case where architects couldn’t go back and find savings if instructed to do so.”

Swanger has been intimately involved in the construction of several new schools and county building in his 12 years as an elected leader on the school board and county government.

Terry Gess, chair of the Creative Arts Program at HCC, said it would be a mistake to shortchange the new building. The college has a national reputation for its craft program. Meanwhile, the craft industry has an economic impact of $206 million in Western North Carolina.

Gess said the building will be a showcase for the importance of craft in the region and a source of pride.

“It will maintain Haywood Community College’s place as a leader in the professional craft industry,” Gess said.

Alternative energy under fire

A major sticking point in the debate is over environmental features of the new building. Under Johnson’s leadership, HCC has become a leader in sustainability, from campus operations to course curriculum. Likewise, the new creative arts building incorporates many green features.

Commissioners have repeatedly questioned the cost of those features, in particular the alternative energy components like solar hot water and solar panels.

Johnson told commissioners the technology is needed to meet strict new energy-use mandates for state buildings.

An article in The Mountaineer two weeks ago reported differently, however. The article quoted an associate architect for the project who revealed the building would actually exceed the state’s energy guidelines not just by a little, but by 60 percent. That news caught county commissioners off guard.

“The latest information didn’t dovetail with what I recall being told previously,” Swanger said.

However, there is a logical explanation for the discrepancy, college leaders said.

The building incorporates three alternative energy features. All three together indeed go above and beyond the state mandate.

But one of the three has always been considered optional, namely photovoltaic solar panels on the roof of the building. It indeed isn’t needed to meet the state standard — but it wasn’t included in the $10.2 million cost estimate either, according to the college.

“As for the other two, neither goes far enough to meet the state standard singlehandedly. One is passive energy-saving design throughout the building, like using low-energy appliances and orienting windows away from the summer sun. The other is a solar thermal system for heating, cooling and hot water. Together, they exceed the state standard by 20 percent.

“There was no in between step,” Johnson said.

Johnson said the college explored other energy measures to meet the standard without going over, like geothermal, for example. But the 30 wells needed for geothermal would take up too much land, she said.

The new state standards cap energy use for new buildings based on their size. Since the craft building will house energy heavy trades — from power-hungry woodworking tools to super high temperatures required for pottery kilns and glassblowing stations — the college has an extra challenge to offset the high energy consumption.

How far the college must go depends on the estimated energy use of the building in the first place.

“If the starting point is incorrect, then it can skew the entire project,” Swanger said. “I am afraid they may be exceeding unnecessarily. I would feel much better if I had a third party view of it.”

County commission chairman Kirk Kirkpatrick agreed.

“If they are trying to reach something that is greater than what is required by the state, and it costs additional money, then I don’t think that is necessarily a wise plan,” Kirkpatrick said.

Johnson said the creative arts facility is a semi-industrial building with high-load and specialized features, from air ventilation in the jewelry making studios to the dust collection in the woodworking shops.

“When you analyze the projected cost of the building, it is not more expensive than any other building of its type that is being built in the community college system,” said Johnson. The college has offered up square footage comparisons with five other community college buildings around the state.

What next?

County commissioners must ultimately agree to the building’s price tag, something they haven’t done yet. While commissioners have set the wheels in motion to take out a construction loan, they have stopped short of specifying the loan amount.

Swanger said he won’t make up his mind for sure until he sees bids from contractors.

“I want to see actual numbers,” Swanger said. “I need good accurate information and need to know what I am voting on.”

Commissioners feel like the college could be more forthcoming, laying out costs associated with different stages of construction, on what elements the college board has allegedly cut already and, of course, a clearer picture of the energy initiatives.

“They have produced some answers, but everyone is still rather confused about it,” Kirkpatrick said.

Commissioner Ensley, who is most adamant that costs are too high, voted against the loan application despite the caveat that it doesn’t lock in an amount.

Kirkpatrick said the commissioners did not want to cause controversy with the college.

“Do I want to dictate what the college does? That is not my job,” Kirkpatrick said. “As county commissioners, it is my job to ask questions.”

Kirkpatrick said the due diligence should rest with the college board of trustees, whom he trusts are vetting the plans and looking at the same questions.

“I just want to make sure they second guess themselves on what kind of project they are doing and whether it is the most important thing they need to do,” Kirkpatrick said.

Money to pay for the new building will come from a special quarter-cent sales tax. In a countywide election two years ago, voters approved the special tax for the sole purpose of funding improvements on the HCC campus. The vote was seen as broad public endorsement for the college’s role in the community and willingness among the public to invest in its future.

“We voted for the quarter-cent tax and now let’s use it for its intended purpose,” Adam Thomson, a furniture maker who has taken courses at HCC and has now started his own company, told commissioners during a public comment period at a recent meeting.

“I think I can speak on behalf of all commissioners. We certainly aren’t against the creative arts building,” Kirkpatrick responded.

Commissioners are concerned, however, that the college will burn through the lion’s share of the special tax money on one project. The special tax is enough to cover annual payments on a $12 million loan for 15 years. If the craft building is $10.2 million, it leaves little left over for other projects.

“It is my view the entire campus needs to be considered, not just a flagship building,” Swanger said. “In times when money is tight, you would use up a lot of that money.”

Despite the acclaim of HCC’s craft program, the craft building is literally crumbling and too small.

Johnson said it is the college’s most pressing need and pursuing it is “a very wise decision.”

Want to weigh in?

A public hearing on the loan application for the new Haywood Community College creative arts building will be held before the county commissioners at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 16, in the historic courthouse.

Home Depot is still trying to unload a 12-acre tract in Waynesville after sidelining plans for its first store west of Asheville a year and a half ago due to the economy.

Home Depot had been asking $4 million for the site in Waynesville Commons, a new mega-shopping complex anchored by Super Wal-Mart and Best Buy.

“They have been trying to market it, but the overall economy is still slow,” said Mark Clasby, Haywood County’s economic development director. “It has been a challenging market to say the least.”

In the meantime, however, Home Depot has purchased the very tract it hopes to sell rather than continue to lease it from the developer of Waynesville Commons.

Home Depot signed a 20-year lease on the tract with Cedarwood Development in November 2007 with an option to buy. Home Depot killed its plans for the Haywood County store a year later and began its effort to sell the site and get out of its lease.

Meanwhile, the clock was ticking on the option to buy. If it expired, Home Depot would still be stuck in the lease and lose what it had already paid toward the site. Under the purchase option, lease payments counted toward the eventual purchase price.

To buy the tract, Home Depot forked over another $1.87 million. How much more Home Depot had already invested through two-and-a-half years of lease payments is not known since but the terms of the lease are not part of the public record available through the Register of Deeds office.

While Home Depot continues the hunt for a buyer, a local developer is plugging away on plans for a collection of retail stores on a six-acre tract in Waynesville Commons fronting South Main Street.

Brian Noland, a Waynesville developer and Realtor, has finalized plans for a retail complex sporting six storefronts. Noland said he has already lined up tenants, mostly national franchises, interested in the spots. But he has had trouble with financing.

Before issuing a construction loan, banks want evidence that a developer has a sure stream of revenue to pay it back.

Noland has letters of intent from retail chains wanting to lease the space, which typically satisfies banks.

But “not nowadays,” Noland said. Banks’ unwillingness to lend has been blamed nationally for prolonging the recession, and Noland would agree.

“It has blocked the recovery in a lot of ways,” Noland said.

He paid $600,000 for the two-acre tract fronting South Main in late 2009. He has finished blueprints that pass muster with the town’s appearance and design standards and has his building permit in hand.

“I have a ton of money in it so far, so I am not going to stop now. It is just a lot slower pace,” Noland said. “It has been a lot of extra hoops to jump through.”

Meanwhile, the Waynesville ABC store plans to build a new retail location on another available site in the Waynesville Commons shopping complex.

But the massive size of Home Depot’s site makes it far more challenging to market.