Chuck McGrady

His bill would fix  an absurd overreach by  building code and health regulators who shut down a primitive camp near Boone that teaches kids skills common in the 19th century. The camp, Turtle Island Preserve, is run by Eustace Conway, whom  History Channel fans might recall seeing in the “Mountain Man” series.

“Like Thoreau, Eustace has gone to the woods to live deliberately, fronting only the essential facts of life, to see if he could not learn what it had to teach, and not when he came to die discover that he had not lived,” the Turtle Island Preserve website says. “He has lived in the woods for over 20 years. He learns by visiting extremes; once when Eustace severely cut his thumb, he sewed it back together with twelve stitches, and used plant medicine.”

Here’s McGrady’s telling:

“I got enticed to work on the primitive camps bill by some family history.   My father, my uncle, my brother and I went to a summer camp outside of Weaverville run by C. Walton Johnson.   I worked at that camp, Camp Sequoyah, and one of my campers was the grandson of “Chief” Johnson, Eustace Conway.   Well, Eustace ended up running his own camp, Turtle Island Preserve.   Going to Turtle Island is like stepping back into the 19th Century—no electricity, buildings and structures built in the way they would have been built two hundred years ago, and instruction that teaches kids skills (blacksmithing, non-mechanized farming, building log cabins, among others) that aren’t often taught.

“Conway was the subject of a book, The Last American Man, and he more recently appeared in a segment of the History Channel’s Mountain Men (Read about Eustace:(http://www.turtleislandpreserve.com/about-us/about-eustace-conway), and it seems that appearance prompted local county building and health inspectors to descend upon Turtle Island to shut it down (Charlotte Observer: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/12/07/3713079/watauga-county-mountain-man-fighting.html). …  It made no sense to me.   If people wanted to give their kids a taste of what it was like to live a hundred or two hundred years ago, why shouldn’t our building codes (and health codes for that matter) allow that to happen?   Hopefully, the bill that Governor McCrory signed will get Turtle Island Preserve back open.”

Tasting five samples of “Anything But” at Blue Ridge Barbecue Festival.

I was a taster in the potato salad, dessert and “anything but” categories of the Blue Ridge Barbecue Festival. As a first time taster, I was seated next to an expert judge, Dean Hines of Canton. Dean was a veteran of tasting; he had done dozens of contests. He’s also an expert barbecue cooker. He started an annual barbecue fundraiser that over the years has accounted for his church nearly paying off a $300,000 mortgage.

Until you taste officially you have no idea how official the process is. I rode down with my friend Ruth Birge, a veteran taster at this event. We had to be in place by 5:30 for orientation; if you’re late they replace you. The orientation made it sound more complicated than it is but came with good tips. No dish is perfect, our instructor told us, so it’s OK to give the chocolate cake a 9 (for excellent) if it’s, well, excellent and not perfect. Our table had four amateur tasters plus Dean as kind of a coach, and a table captain, who is the server but not the taster.

We were tasting side dishes, not the barbecue; they have professionals for that.

A placemat with six squares serves as your plate for the food. The samples — sometimes there are six and sometimes less — go in each square. In the corner, tasters write the number, corresponding to the same number on a scorecard.

Before you get a sample, the table captain shows the dish to all, like a jeweler displaying a necklace. Made me appreciate how we taste with our eyes, too.

The first sampling was potato salad. How hard can it be, right? It was quite enjoyable. The first sample had a real nice dilly tang that I liked. I think I gave it an 8. The next one was tasty and regular. One had a good kick that I liked. The last one was made of purple potatoes that resembled turnips. It was delicious!

The “Anything But” category was kind of odd. The first one, someone had taken a hunk of beef tenderloin, cooked it until it was done and then cooked it some more and dumped a bunch of strawberries on top. They had no knives so Dean took out his pocket knife and cut into the beef; he loaned it to me and I passed it down to David. Didn’t help. I think we all low-rated the beef. (No talking is permitted during tasting.)

A chicken-cheese quesadilla was tasty. A dish disguised as shrimp and grits turned out to be shrimp and sausage balls. I made a mental note: taste like store bought but not as good as Sam’s. A gumbo was good but not sensational.

Dessert is a sight to behold. We had an orange layer cake, very moist, a tall chocolate cake and an apple torte. I thought the apple torte had an off taste. The crust underneath was thin; I turned it over and saw it was burned on the bottom. Hmm. But the chocolate cake. What a treat. It was moist and crunchy, with chocolate chips in the icing and sliced toasted almonds along the edge. Very good. I had to give that the top grade.

7:58 p.m.: Rescue Squad: Wyatt explains a proposal to buy the Rescue Squad ambulance and new EMS ambulance at the same time, borrowing money. Board agrees to $100,000 for the Rescue Squad.

8:01: “We’re getting pretty doggone close,” Wyatt says.

“We budgeted $5 million in fund balance; now we’re at $7.25 million, which means you’ve added about $2.25 million.”

They’re on Dana Community Park. Thompson, of Dana, is explaining the Dana Park plans. The community is meeting Tuesday night on the plans.

Commissioners agreed to spend $225,000 for phase 1 of the Tuxedo Community Park and voted to keep $635,000 in the capital budget for the former Christian school property, including lights and artificial turf. They discussed setting aside up to $100,000 for Dana Community Park.

7:54: Commissioners are deliberating the sheriff’s request, which includes two new dispatchers. They approve the dispatchers.

7:40: Commissioners turn down the 1.36 cent tax cut, voting 3-2 in favor of Messer’s motion to keep the rate at 51.36 cents per $100 valuation.Thompson and Edney joined Messer. Hawkins and Young voted no.

Commissioners have approved $870,000 for schools.

BRCC: The board approved $250,000 for capital funding.

At 7:34 Messer gavels the meeting back. Calls for a motion to either drop the rate or leave it as is. Messer makes the motion himself to leave the tax rate at its current rate. If that fails, he’ll ask for another motion. Messer makes the motion.

“I’m of two minds, or three minds or four minds,” Edney says. Last year we spent $6 million in fund balance; this will be $7.3 million of fund balance. “I want to reduce the rate but given the timing of where we’re at I can’t agree to it.”

At 7:19 Messer cuts off Hawkins, who insists “we’ve got $10 million,” and calls a 10-minute recess.

7:13 p.m.: Messer recalls cutting departments 7.5 percent two years ago. More demonstrative than usual, Messer argues that the 8 percent reserve level required by state law is not enough of a rainy day fund. The schools and sheriff’s requests are conservative amounts, he said, considering the budget cuts two years ago.

If the board does decide to raid the capital reserve set aside for the Christian school recreation, there’s gonna be a scrum for that $500,000. Everyone has different ideas what to use it for.

Messer argues for keeping the current rate.

If you look at our initial budget, we can fund the schools fully what they asked, Messer says. Second of all, the park. We can’t spend money twice. I don’t think we need to withdraw that. We also have heard from people in Tuxedo-Green River. The way Messer sees it, the board can fund several of the sheriff’s requests and BRCC.

“Our current tax rate of 51.36, if we do not cut it, we can fund schools, sheriff’s department, some of our recreation and the college,” he said. Keeping the current rate means $1,645,702 more to spend. “We as county commissioners do not and will not micromanage any departments in Henderson County,” he said.

Commissioners weigh in on the outstanding spending requests:

Edney: Tuxedo Park, $235,000. “When I was a commissioners back in the 80s they were looking for a place for Green River-Tuxedo. It is their time.” Christian School: “I want to keep that $635,000 in there.” He favors giving the schools $870,000. He’d skip the BRCC request this year. Give Rescue Squad $50,000. Edney proposes a compromise of 50.5 cents per $100 valuation.

Young: Likes the 50.5 cent compromise. Points out that county has spent $325,000 so far in Tuxedo.

Messer said it’s misleading to say the county had spent $325,000 for a park; the county acquired the old J.P. Stevens mill in foreclosure and demolished it. When environmental damage was discovered

Thompson warned against spending down the fund balance. “Two years from now we’re not going to have any money by spending at this rate in the fund balance. … To cut the tax rate, it’s a very small amount for an individual household, in three years we’re not going to have a fund balance. Spending all our fund balance is not good.” He invites Wyatt to respond.

Wyatt pointed out that the county would not have landed Sierra Nevada if it had not had reserves to spend on a rail spur in Fletcher. “You had that opportunity and you were able to do it because you had the fund balance.”

Thompson said anybody in this community shopping tomorrow at Walmart or Sam’s Club will spend an extra $13 they didn’t plan on spending; i just cannot see lowering the tax rate. Little small 13 dollars and 16 cents over and over again would fund the things we need.

Hawkins said the county has enough money in reserves. We have $10 million above the 12 percent board policy. If you look at the items we’ve looked at, and fund everyone of them; and lower the rate, you end up $2 million more than the minimum. The big winner, he said, is small business. “In two years, we’ll have another valuation cycle and we’ll have to adjust the tax rate,” he said. Let’s give the citizens back some of their money.

“This $10 million that’s sitting in a dusty bank vault somewhere is not helping anybody except the bank that’s keeping it,” Hawkins said.

At 6:34 p.m. the board is back in the budget discussion. Messer calls on County Manager Steve Wyatt to present where the board stands on the $110 million budget.

Messer recognizes Grady Hawkins, the father of the 1.36-cent tax cut. Two big issues, he said, are schools and BRCC. “We’re $870,000 short of the requested funding,” he said. He suggested shifting $500,000 from the former Christian school property to the schools; the other $300,000 — for iPads in the schools — ought to be tabled because the state Legislature is currently looking at the core curriculum. “I would like to know that if we extend a third of a million dollars on computers we’re doing the right thing,” he said. “I think the schools have a higher priority than we need on another court at this time.”

Edney says he supports the $370,000 for iPads and the $500,000 for operating money for schools.

Young supports Hawkins’ idea.

Tommy Thompson says, “My thoughts are a little different. I’m not particularly interested in taking it from those capital fund items. One thing we haven’t discussed is we’ve outgrown the 1995 courthouse.”

There appears to be no consensus, although so far things are civil.

Thompson, who spend three decades as Clerk of Superior Court, is talking about a major courthouse renovation. He is very concerned that the renovation creates an efficient use of 500,000 square feet. “I think we need some extra money above that million dollars,” he said. Plus, “we’ve heard from our folks from Tuxedo, Green River, Zirconia area.” That’s a depressed area of the county, he said, that has been skipped in spending.

Billy Anders, who represents American Trans-Med, is seeking county approval for the basic life support non-emergency transports, from nursing home to nursing home, hospital to hospital. It would start with two units, based in a building on Duncan Hill Road, and would employ 5-6 employees. The company has franchises in Rutherford County and in Spartanburg County, S.C. It has 17 service areas and 30 units in service right now.

Messer questioned the company on how it could commit to a startup here, given the uncertainty of health care and reimbursement rates.

Commissioner Michael Edney suggested that the board send the request to Rocky Hyder, the county emergency services director, for more study.

Chairman Charlie Messer tells the audience that after one more agenda item — proposal by American Trans-Med to offer ambulance service in the county — the commissioners will resume budget discussions. They will try to focus the issues, he said. They won’t adopt it until the mid-month meeting, on Wednesday, June 19.

That wraps up the public comment on the budget.

In regular business, the board appointed Virginia Gambill to the Heritage Museum board.

Hillary Hart: Flat Rock Playhouse cannot be supported solely by the private sector. The money that FRP has asked for is to subsidize our YouTheatre programs. Yhe money we’re asking for subsidizes our foundation so children can attend.

In Henderson County we have a sizable number of employees who are on a fixed income, said a gentleman urging the tax cut.

Sam Pratt, the executive director of the Medical Loan Closet, said the nonprofit has been playing catchup for a number of years. The Loan Closet made almost 3,200 loans of medical equipment to people, valued at $1.2 million, he said. In 2012, if you multiply our cost per loan, we’re asking the county for just $3 per loan.

Green River Community Association secretary urged the board to fund the proposed Tuxedo park. “I can think of no better way to use a community’s taxes than to reinvest in that community,” she said.

Theron Maybin, a Green River farmer, thanked the board for supporting the county AgriBusiness office. He asked for support as well for funding of Tuxedo Park. “We’ve been patiently waiting probably 15 years or longer,” he said.

A supporter of the tax cut says Texas ought to be our model. It keeps taxes down and supports business.
The Healing Place is asking for $8,871 for crisis line and maintenance of effort. Director Angie Alley says the agency has suffered deep cuts in federal and state money and grants.
Tea Party chairman Jane Bilello urged the board to adopt the 1.36-cent tax cut proposed by County Commissioner Grady Hawkins.

Donna Hastie, president of the Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra, urges a grant for youth orchestra. It has existed for 30 years. “We have so many programs that help children and youth after they have a problem,” she said. Studies show music education prevents problems. Contributions were down 23 percent last year; HSO had to lay off an employee and cut budget to the bone.

Crowd enjoys the Broadcast during Rhythm & Brews.

If I heard it once I must have heard it a dozen times.
“Can you believe this?” because everyone seemed to be there, which is to say a bunch of local people who hang around, who do business, serve in elected office, lead non-profit agencies, work in the banks. Everyone wasn’t there, of course. That would be 107,000 people.
“We had a lot of compliments,” said city planning director Sue Anderson, who was at a City Council budget workshop Friday morning.
Mayor pro tem Jeff Collis said he heard nearly all positive comments — with the exception of the beer line complaint.
“People said, ‘thank you for doing this. We’ve been going over to Asheville during the week for this kind of thing,’” Collis said.
It felt more like a regular mid-sized city, maybe Greensboro or Greenville, than Asheville, which is so unique that it has no counterpart anywhere in the South. In fact, I heard one person compare our event to a regular outdoor summertime event in Greenville, a small city that has won acclaim for its downtown redevelopment over the past 20 years.
The parking lot, a block long and a half block deep, was filled.
The line for a wrist strap and beer and wine tickets stretched for maybe 50 yards and looked worse than it was.
“Lew was timing it and said it was only eight minutes,” Collis said, referring to Main Street coordinator Lew Holloway.
Before the event, organizers were kind of squirrelly about one theme, which I’ll call fogeyism. I’m not involved so I can say it: we have enough music events with bands that cover all the hits we know and love from Frankie Avalon to Don Henley. And we love them — we being the generation approaching or past retirement age.

Caitlin Krisko performs with the Broadcast.

Rhythm & Brews is very purposefully bringing in younger bands that perform original music. Councilman Collis told me in an interview on Thursday afternoon, two hours before the concert started, that he hoped the R&B series would show “we’re not as stuffy as people think we are.”
Babs Newton told me that she had addressed the City Council more than a year ago about the need for newer music downtown (she didn’t know then that Music on Main is a county event, put on by the Tourism Development Authority). She became an advisory committee member, and helped nudge the city into the land of the young.
Collis was hanging around the stage end of the Azalea parking lot, watching the people. I asked him if he was a greeter or a bouncer. Collis, who is a probation officer and could bounce if he had to, was drinking it all in with a smile on his face, though no beer in his hand. “I haven’t heard any complaints,” I told him, “that people are unhappy because they don’t know any of these songs.”
“Can you believe this?” was the chorus, too, because of the mildly fortified libation. At long last, the city of Hendersonville is no longer a beer virgin. I didn’t see a single sign of inebriation. “It’s 5 o’clock somewhere,” they say. Well, yeah, except it was never 5 o’clock in downtown Hendersonville, outside, at a public event. No drunkenness and no bad behavior. Instead, people had that 5 o’clock glow.
There’s no doubt in my mind that Sierra Nevada, a lead sponsor of the Rhythm & Brews series, has had a lot to do with our cultural shift. Because the California brewery is such an exciting new addition as an employer and corporate citizen, beer has become not just acceptable but the thing to do. And don’t forget the wine. We’ve got local wine, too.
There are three more Rhythm & Brews concerts. The buzz could hardly be better.
Holloway, the Main Street director, and the Main Street advisory committee deserve credit for having the courage to push this through, and so does the City Council for sanctioning it.
Here is the question that hovered over downtown before the first beer was poured and first note struck:

Can Hendersonville pull off a new event with fresh new music, lively electric guitar and beer and wine?

Asked and answered, your honor.
Can you believe this?

Mark Meadows

Taking the lead from Rand Paul, U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows and five other House Republicans are endorsing a three-pronged immigration reform plan that could give immigrants “legal status, upon certain conditions” that stops short of citizenship.
Meadows last week signed a letter endorsing the Kentucky senator’s views in remarks to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce that opened the door to immigration reform.
Paul told the audience that “somewhere along the line, Republicans have failed to understand and articulate that immigrants are an asset to America, not a liability.”
“We wholeheartedly agree,” the Republican congressmen said, “and stand alongside you in your efforts. We believe you put it best when you said, ‘Immigration reform will not occur until conservative Republicans … become part of the solution.”
The three-legged approach calls for border security, expanding legal immigration “with a special eye toward encouraging highly skilled workers educated here to remain here” and “to help serve our agricultural and tourism industries” and finding a way “to reasonably address” the 11 million immigrants here illegally “in a way that is best for all Americans.”
It’s a shift to center for Meadows, who toed a more conservative view during the Republican primary a year ago. Yet it’s no surprise that Meadows would endorse the line about immigrants serving the tourism and farm industries. The freshman congressman has heard plenty in the 11th District, and especially in Henderson County, about the need for farmers to legally employ veteran skilled farmworkers to harvest the apple crop and work in the labor intensive nursery industry.
The letter was also signed by Reps. Justin Amash of Michigan, Mick Mulvaney and Jeff Duncan of South Carolina, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Trey Radel of Florida.
If Meadows has an early pick for the 2016 Republican nomination it could be Paul, the conservative rock star of the moment. At the Henderson County Republican convention March 9, Meadows told of walking over to the Senate during Paul’s old-fashioned filibuster to show support for the Kentucky’s senator’s 13-hour marathon challenging the Obama administration’s drone strikes.

Cast members enjoy the lunch in dining hall at Flat Rock Playhouse.

The cast had a terrific lunch at the Jim-Dan Dee dining hall on the great flat rock Friday afternoon during a brief stop en route from Nashville to Charlotte. Plus, Turner Rouse Jr. is in the cast, and Rouse family and friends made the fabulous feed on Friday and then drove down to Charlotte for the show.

Here’s the story on the lunch: http://www.hendersonvillelightning.com/life/1378-rock-musical-cast-feasts-on-playhouse-hospitality.html

“American Idiot” is playing four shows at Blumenthal Performing Arts theatre, including a matinee and 7 o’clock show tonight (Sunday).
Mr. Toppman looks like the rest of us grayheads, and he applauds the power of the show. Here is the second paragraph of his review:
“I have just spent 95 minutes with my head snapping back and forth like a windsock in a typhoon, my brain flooded with images visual and aural, my ears assaulted by walls of sound and tickled by the twang of one acoustic guitar, my eyes blinded by a bank of lights yet opened to the touring wonder that is ‘American Idiot.’”
Read the review here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/03/08/3902986/green-days-american-idiot-rock.html##storylink=cpy
Says he liked it.
No doubt the cast got good energy from those goodie bags that Lou Reeves made.

Chuck McGrady competes in Fourth of July watermelon contest.

Chuck McGrady, the lawyer turned summer camp owner turned Flat Rock Village Council member turned county Planning Board member turned county commissioner turned state legislator, turns 60 today.
McGrady, who also was national president of the Sierra Club, has made a mark here in several ways. He was the first local politician that I’m aware of who successfully ran for office on a platform of reasonable growth management. He has always been a serious policy maker when it comes to balancing the environment and business, and few around here have based a successful career on that.
Some people thought Mills River Mayor Roger Snyder might ride a more conservative view on the gay marriage ban — he favored it, McGrady opposed — and a fabricated gun rights issue to an upset of the freshman House member last May. (Yep, I was among “some people” wrongly predicted a squeaker.) It wasn’t close. McGrady won 57 to 43 percent. In a campaign that both candidates ran honorably, Snyder refused to sling mud. He said he would have voted the same way on an employer’s right to ban guns in the workplace.
In a state House filled with freshmen and sophomores, McGrady has still managed to get noticed. He won an important position on the education appropriations committee. Although school spending has not been a specialty of McGrady’s,  House Speaker Thom Tillis chose him because he knew he’d work hard and take the job seriously.
McGrady has made his 60 years count. He has stood up and raised his hand. McGrady and his wife, Jean, and his family have been generous in giving to organizations that help children, the arts and the environment,  without fanfare.
Dr. Kay McGrady, who died in 2008, was a longtime benefactor to Four Seasons hospice, the Children and Family Resource Center and many other agencies. Elizabeth House is named for her mother, Elizabeth Reilly, and a wing is named for her husband and Chuck’s father, Dr. Charles W. McGrady.
In some ways, McGrady is the anti-politician. He shows up but he does not make a habit of empty gestures. He laughs plenty but takes work seriously. I’ve reported in print before that he does not suffer fools gladly, which was one reason he had a hard time as a county commissioner and still winces at half the stuff he has to deal with in Raleigh.
In this week’s Lightning, Chuck’s wife, Jean, placed a Happy Birthday ad, showing Chuck as a boy, maybe 10, on horseback. It’s signed by Jean and their two children, Steve and Lisa, and their dogs, Bailey and Stagolee (paw prints).
I’m glad to see Chuck McGrady has four-legged companions to greet him when he gets home from Raleigh. He of all people knows well the admonition to politicians who toil in the snake pit of lobbyists and lawmaking: If you want a friend, get a dog.

A lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserves, he instead flew to Tyndall Air Force Base in Panama City, Fla., for weekend drills. He described the  duty in his weekly newsletter. It sounds like a key  job, one that could help his district and state in the event of disaster.

Chris Whitmire

“This week was an especially compressed and eventful week,” he writes. “Instead of spending the weekend at home in the district with my wife and three children, I was on military orders drilling with my unit, the Air Forces North National Security Emergency Preparedness Directorate (AFNSEP). This is a specially designated unit that is part of the air component of US Northern Command, also known as Homeland Defense Command. This drill period was the one time a year that all unit members from Guam to Alaska to the Virgin Islands are at the same place at the same time to cross-flow lessons-learned and formulate best practices to ensure more effective and efficient emergency management operations.

“Topics included unit experiences working the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, this summer’s Wildland Forest Fires, Superstorm Sandy, and other natural phenomena. Every year at this event I gain from some of the most talented Air Force officers I have ever worked with in my 27 years of military service and this year was especially beneficial. Pertinent to North Carolina and the 113th District, my military role as the North Carolina Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officer allows me to have a direct role in natural and manmade disasters that impact North Carolina and ensure State and Local emergency management divisions have the capabilities necessary to save lives, prevent human suffering, and mitigate property damage. Being part of this elite military unit is yet another way I am able to better serve our great state.”

Back on the legislative front, here’s how he describes the “strategic traditional education reform”  he’s working on in the House. “It focuses senior leaders of the General Assembly on three principal concepts: re-designing funding formulas to reward school district achievement, returning greater local control to deserving districts, and accurately identifying school systems that display excellent stewardship and fulfill their educational mission objectives of preparing our children to become contributing and productive citizens. In short, this is a complex undertaking, but a worthy one that has been well-received.”

A new job as a legislator. Work on the education committee. Big ideas for funding schools. A wife and three young children at home. Weekend warrior duty. Here’s a guy with a lot on his plate.