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Henderson County Business

TIGHT LABOR MARKET: Area has 2 jobs for every worker

When Publix holds a jobs fair this weekend, the Florida-based supermarket chain will find that it’s hunting in a sparse field.   Read Story »

Flat Rock Business

'Mamma Mia' a box office smash before it opens

When it opened the season, the Flat Rock Playhouse schedule had a fill-in-the-blank for what it teased would be a "blockbuster summer musical." The marketers turned out to be right. "Mamma Mia" has already sold out its four opening weekend performances and tickets are going fast for the entire four-week run.   Read Story »

Laurel Park Business

Young entrepreneur crusades 
for low-cost college alternative

Grayson Marshall, a fresh-faced 21-year-old with brown eyes and a thick shock of dark hair, believes student debt is a national crisis —an avoidable one at that.   Read Story »

Mills River Business

Gaia Herbs adding 30 jobs in Mills River

MILLS RIVER — Brevard-based Gaia Herbs, which has grown from a $2,000 startup in the Boston suburbs to a $50 million supplier of herbal supplements, announced Wednesday that it would expand its operations in Mills River, creating 30 new jobs and investing $12.2 million at a new facility in Broadpointe Industrial Park for office­s, production and warehousing.   Read Story »

Henderson County Business

Ask Matt ... about new sandwich shop

Q. What do you know about the new restaurant in Horse Shoe on Highway 64 West? The corner storefront in the Horse Shoe Plaza mall has been less than kind to restaurants. Casualties include MoJo's Coffee, the Horse Shoe Grill, and just recently Bandana's. But there is a new chef in town and her name is Sandi Novak. I asked her why when so many other eateries have failed, hers would break the chain. Novak said it's a combination of knowing the business and knowing what customers want. The business part is hard to dispute. Novak has 30 years in the food service industry and holds a CIA certification (that's Culinary Institute of America, folks). Her concept is light breakfasts and pastries but you can get a breakfast wrap if you want. The lunch menu offers 10 different sandwiches plus soups and salads. You order at the counter and food is brought to your table but it's not served on china. Sandi's Kitchen uses eco-friendly biodegradable plates and cups. She said it saves water too. Sandi's Kitchen is open from7:00 am to 2:30 pm Monday through Saturday. They plan to do lunchtime catering in the future. Hey, if you can make it in Horse Shoe Plaza, you can make it anywhere! Q. How are the animals housed at the county animal shelter cared for at night and are they safe? Yes, they are safe. Brad Brayfield, Director of the Henderson County Animal Services Center confirmed that there is an employee at the Stoney Mountain Road facility every day to feed and clean but there is no one on a continual basis during non-operating hours (5:00 pm to 8:00 am and on weekends). Brayfield did share that our local law enforcement officers are trained to properly check-in dogs and cats when the Center is closed to the public. Based upon what I observed at the facility and my "conversations" with the dogs and cats, there was no reason to believe that the animals were not well cared for and secure. Q. I read where the Mills River Town Council voted for a 5-lane widening of NC 191 from NC 280 to Mountain Road. Will they really need all five lanes over the French Broad basin where it is swampy and a center turning lane is questionable? According to Brian Burch, NCDOT Division Engineer, the NC 191 project (R-2588-B) is being designed for a 5-lane undivided section within the town of Mills River but only a median divided 4-lane section from Ladson Road to South Rugby Road. This would include the river crossing. Burch added that the 4-lane section is the state's preferred highway alternative. However, Mills River asked for the five-lane design and it should function adequately when built. * * * * * Send questions to askmattm@gmail.com.   Read Story »

Hendersonville Business

Rescue dogs star in movie filmed here

After David Sullivan made a movie starring neighborhood dogs back in Dallas, fans asked him if planned a sequel. He did but in the meantime he and his wife, Jan, had retired to Hendersonville.“I thought I was going to have to go back to Dallas to do it,” he said. “Then we arrived in Hendersonville and we discovered this community full of incredible actors and musicians. It was a bonanza.”That’s how Hendersonville became the shooting location for Sullivan's sequel. “The Rescue Dogs of Western North Carolina: A Christmas Caper” premieres next week at the Regal Biltmore, starring local actors and 35 Hendersonville dogs.As soon as they arrived here in 2017, Sullivan and his wife bought season tickets to the Flat Rock Playhouse. It didn’t take him long to realize everything he needed for movie-making was right here in Hendersonville.After howling at Mark Warwick's performance in “Little Shop of Horrors,” Sullivan decided he had to have Warwick in the movie. He recruited Mark and his wife, Paige Posey, both professional actors. When he started laying the groundwork for the movie, he was astonished at the cooperation he received at every turn. County Engineer Marcus Jones helped arrange shooting involving county property; Hendersonville City Manager John Connet and Police Chief Herbert Blake made the downtown shooting easy.“They couldn’t have been nicer. It was not, ‘What do you want to do?’ It was, ‘How can we help you?’ We just did the whole production there. And now Hendersonville is going to be the central location for my future films. … The people’s enthusiasm keeps me going. They just love dogs here, and cats. So it’s a perfect place.” The Christmas Caper opens when, crossing the Smokies, a strong wind blows all the presents out of Santa’s sleigh unbeknownst to Santa. When he reaches the last stop of the night, Hendersonville, he realizes what's happened. Three dachshunds become the first enlistees to save Christmas when Santa’s sleigh lands on their roof. Hearing Santa’s sad story, they hatch a plan to “let themselves in” to all the stores downtown and collect gifts for everyone in Hendersonville, leaving Santa’s credit card as payment. The dachshunds visit the Blue Ridge Humane Society to recruit a rescue for the Christmas rescue. “There’s a dog there with lots of leadership capabilities. They talk her into coordinating this effort,” Sullivan says. She's a golden collie mix named Sasha.The villain is dog catcher Snidely McFish from “Tennalina,” a town so mean neither North Carolina nor Tennessee will claim it. Hendersonville’s police chief, played by Warwick, and an FBI agent, played by Posey, investigate a break-in at Renzo’s Ristorante, where the dogs have stolen gift certificates. “They call Renzo, so he’s in the film and he does a good job getting all excited,” Sullivan says.At Mast General, 60-pound Hungarian sporting dogs, or Vizslas, race through the store. The crew got permission to film in the store before it opened. “They really run fast,” Sullivan says of the Vizslas. “They allowed us to have these Vizslas running through their store at full speed. It really is funny just to look at.”A Vizsla in charge of disabling the burglar alarm accidentally sets off the sprinkler system and fire alarm. Meanwhile, the dogs who are supposed to be guarding Santa’s sleigh instead decide to take the sleigh for a joy ride, causing air traffic controllers to report a UFO, which results in the governor’s order to dispatch F-16s and the National Guard to Hendersonville while the first responders race to the fire alarm at Mast General … you get the idea.Two Newfoundlands break into Dancing Bear Toy Store, with the dog catcher on their tail. The Newfies freeze in front of a stuffed animal display and blend in, escaping capture.Preston Dyar plays Santa Claus. Scott Treadway, in the voice of a miniature dachshund, sings “Dog Bones o’er Carolina.” The dog catcher, played by Charlie Smith, gets doused by balloons filled with paint and then pea soup dropped by dogs piloting red miniature biplanes deployed to thwart him. The dog catcher nabs Sasha, the hero, and puts her on trial in Tennalina. The police chief and FBI agent save the day, with help from Frank “Fineprint” Peterson (specializing in 1-point fonts and missing semicolons), played by Page Collie, a real-life attorney who handled the real estate closing for the Sullivans.Recruiting the dog stars was easy. “We put an ad in the Pet Gazette and we got an immediate response,” Sullivan says. “People were so excited about having the dogs in the film. We bring the dog in and we want the dog to be comfortable and not nervous. We either have them sit or run and their parents are right there. The idea is we keep filming until we get a funny expression or some type of thing that looks like they’re talking. So it’s completely relaxed but we get footage that’s comical, and then write around that.”He hired nine or 10 voiceover artists who did three or four parts each. (A Doberman sings like Ethel Merman.)At 32 minutes, the film is short enough to leave plenty of time to introduce actors and entertain questions during the premiere, Sullivan says. The revenue comes from ticket sales plus a director’s cut DVD, including outtakes and scenes that didn’t make the finished product. His next step after the premiere is to try and sign a distributor. If that doesn’t happen, he hopes word of mouth will create enough buzz to warrant more showings in Hendersonville.Sullivan’s next project is a musical comedy based on a Battle of the Bands between beach music and Rolling Stones bands. (He’s recruited guitarist Bill Altman, drummer Paul Babelay and his wife Susan and their daughters Elizabeth and Rebecca, and is still casting otehr roles for that one.) “It’s Hollywood East as far as I’m concerned,” he says.  * * * * * “The Rescue Dogs of Western North Carolina: A Christmas Caper” premieres Wednesday, July 18, at the Regal Biltmore in Biltmore Park Town Square. Shows are at 5 and 6:30 p.m. Twenty-five percent of the gross revenue (not profit) goes to the Blue Ridge Humane Society. For tickets email jdmsullivan@att.net.     Read Story »

Etowah Business

80-year-old Brightwaters Guesthouse restored and reopened

The 80-year-old Brightwaters Guesthouse and surrounding property has been restored and reopened as rental housing.   Read Story »

Flat Rock Business

MossColumn: Village Council's vote made road safer

Maya Richardson did not get as much ink as other commenters on the North Highland Lake Road widening project.   Read Story »

Hendersonville Business

Awaiting floodplain permit, Publix edges closer to opening

Publix is filling mailboxes with slick fliers and popping up on smart phones with the promise that it’s “coming soon.” In the mailings, smiling cashiers, welcoming butchers and produce managers and delectable-looking plates of seared steak and baked salmon tease shoppers about the offerings and service at the supermarket "where shopping is a pleasure." (“No matter where you are in the store, our associates are easy to find and ready to serve.”)Muscling into a crowd of incumbent supermarkets and drug stores within a few hundred yards, the new grocery store on Greenville Highway is getting closer to completion by the day. Signs went up on Greenville Highway and White Street. Last week, crews moved the construction trailer behind the store, to clear ground for paving. Landscapers are unloading dozens of trees and bushes, so contractor Benning Construction can comply with the city’s stringent landscape requirements. One of the biggest regulatory obstacles remaining is a permit required by state and federal agencies because of the floodplain conditions, notorious locally for pushing high water up over cars’ wheel wells.A deluge of rain in May had people wondering whether Publix had made Mud Creek flooding worse, despite the fact that the contactor installed a huge underground stormwater storage system and other flood prevention measures. Halvorsen Development, the Florida-based contractor that manages construction of new stores for Publix, is still waiting for a flood control permit from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Publix can’t receive a certificate of occupancy until it gets the signoff from FEMA and the state Floodplain Mapping Program, said Susan Frady, director of the city’s Department of Development Assistance. The developer received a conditional letter of map amendment after it tried six times and failed to win a regulatory OK called a no-rise permit, which would have certified that the development on the 6-acre site in the Mud Creek floodplain would not make flood conditions worse than they currently are. The conditional letter allowed the supermarket company to start construction. To get a certificate of occupancy, Publix’s engineers have to convince regulators to drop "conditional."“They have to get everything done with all the flood stuff,” Frady said. “That’s part of their main C.O.”She had received correspondence recently from Jason Claudio-Diaz, the Kimley-Horn engineer working on the application, “so I know he’s working on it.”“We don’t have that yet,” Halvorsen president Tom Vincent said Monday of the Letter of Map Amendment. “We’re getting there. I just know it’s on our checklist as a work in progress. There isn’t a specific opening date. In the next 30 days we’ll have a better idea” on an opening date.City Manager John Connet said the last projection he heard on an opening date was late August. Kim Reynolds, a Charlotte-based Publix spokeswoman, confirmed an opening in the third quarter, which would be by Oct. 1.“Ultimately they have to get (FEMA) to sign off” on the floodplain application, Connet said. “Plenty of people are speculating” that the fill on the site may have made flooding worse, he said. “The question I ask back is, Didn’t it flood this way before Publix was there? We have no indication it’s caused any increased flooding in that area.” More than 2 feet of rain in a three-week stretch in May caused widespread flooding across the region, including high water that closed Greenville Highway directly in front of the supermarket site.Since the May floods crews have completed a new concrete box culvert that drains water from the site via a channel called the Johnson ditch.The contractor has to get a driveway permit from the NCDOT. And still to come are a center turn lane for shoppers northbound on Greenville Highway. The NCDOT is requiring the left-turn lane into the driveway entrance at the southern end of the parking lot. Plans submitted by Halvorsen’s traffic engineers also show a 130-foot southbound right turn lane on Greenville Highway across from Copper Penny Street and a new right turn lane from White Street into the store parking lot.       Read Story »

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