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U.S. awards $5 million for AVL runway project

Saluda Business

Dad's Collectibles moving to Saluda's historic train depot

Mark Ray was telling a visitor about how he’d recruited Dennis Dunlap to fly his vintage 1943 Stearman biplane over a celebration of Berkeley Mills baseball park on Sept. 16 when he heard a distinctive sound from outside.   Read Story »

Henderson County Business

Winery branching out to brandy in a restored barn

Alan Ward and Marvin Owings make a formidable team — a portfolio manager who’s become an innovator in wine-making, hard cider and now distilling and a retired farm agent who's one of the area’s leading experts on the science of growing apples. “I give Marvin a hard time but we kind of complement each other,” Ward says recently in the cavernous old barn he’s converted into his newest tasting room venture. “I couldn’t have done this without Marvin.”After more than two years of planning and renovation, Ward expects to open his new Appalachian Ridge tasting room, maybe as early as Labor Day weekend. When he does open, visitors will be able to sample not only hard cider but brandy and French pommeau, a blend of Calvados brandy and hard cider.The 70-year-old barn itself is an impressive adaptive reuse. Built in the late 1940s by apple farmer Walter Freeman, the structure has a towering ceiling and irregularly shaped floorboards made of different kinds of wood.“When he was getting ready to buy this property and this barn you would not believe the stuff that was in this barn,” Owings says. Workers blasted the floor clean, caulked between the floorboards and added a series of finishes.And now the barn has a long wooden table hand-crafted by Ward’s son, Brian, a pediatrician in Boone and woodworker on the side, other tables made of stable doors, a long apple-themed bar decorated with stained glass images and a two-level deck overlooking Ward’s Crest of the Blue Ridge orchard.“We could’ve torn down this barn and done it for a fraction of the price,” he says. “But we didn’t. … It is beyond solid. And that deck we put on the back — we made that as a tough as a railroad trestle. We tried to do everything we could to keep it real. Everything you see inside is the way this barn was. We tried to keep everything authentic.”Talk about authentic. Don’t get Ward started. Or do get him started. No one can stop him.When Ward and Owings get started about Normandy and their search for apple varieties that are perfect for cider, pommeau and brandy, they’re a tag team of narrators unable to conceal their enthusiasm.Back in 2004, Owings invited French apple farmers named the Huets to the Winter Apple School in Hendersonville. They got reacquainted over the last couple of years when Ward and Owings traveled to the Normandy region —a few hundred yards from Omaha Beach — to observe the French harvesting and pressing and buy native trees that go back hundreds of years.With Owings handling the growing side, the partners will receive 5,200 one-year-old trees of 14 different varieties this winter to plant on the slope behind the big barn. SUBHEDWine to cider to brandy Ward pours samples of the brandy and pommeau into 300-year-old brandy glasses he brought home from France.“Who knows who drank out of that, maybe Marie Antoinette,” he quips.After starting Saint Paul Mountain Vineyards in 2012, Ward expanded into hard cider and now is launching his distillery.“We now have a distillation license and we are going to build a distillery in that hill over there,” he says. He’s working with Blue Ridge Distillation, which makes the highly regarded Defiant single-malt whisky in Rutherford County.“There some of the most advanced people we’ve found that understand distillation,” Ward says. “These guys can really check it out scientifically where we’re getting what we want.”Local, though, is a big part of what Ward preaches and practices. What he doesn’t grow himself, he buys from local apple farmers. Ward’s grower, Wayne Barnwell, blends seven different varieties of apples to make the base for hard cider.No offense, Ward adds, but “what about craft beer is local except the water? The hops, the grain, they’re not local. This is truly a local product where we can take you out and show you where this comes from. The money that we pay out stays in North Carolina,” he adds. “Probably 90 percent of it stays in Henderson County.”Ward says the trips to Normandy, the importing of French apple trees from stock that dates back hundreds of years and the care in growing, aging and distilling is all part of a mission to produce “something that’s of value and merit, because people that buy brandy, they’re going to pay between $35 and $50 a bottle. This is taking an apple product that takes three years to age. A lot of people want to just get it out there. You can’t do that.”He hopes that the quality of brandy and hard cider will attract tasters from near and far, and he expects to add online sales, too.“We don’t want to come out with something that people buy just because it’s local,” he says. “We want people to buy the things we produce because they’re excellent, not because they’re just OK.”   Read Story »

Green River Business

New diner offers Southern classics in Tuxedo

TUXEDO — Classic diner staples and country favorites with a twist make up the menu at Tuxedo Diner, the newest taste of the south serving Tuxedo.   Read Story »

Flat Rock Business

Flat Rock opens charging station for E-vehicles

FLAT ROCK — Electric car drivers now have a new convenient charging station in the Village of Flat Rock. Funded by Duke Energy, the two EV stations are among more than 200 the utility is installing in partnerships with cities and towns that have public space available. The charging stations are in the Village Hall parking lot. "We expect our out-of-town visitors and local residents to take advantage of the new stations," Mayor Bob Staton said. "Not only will they be available 24-7 but they're easy to use." Drivers should register at chargepoint.com to open an account. A $10,000 grant from Duke covered most of the cost of the installation, which was coordinated by Vice Mayor Nick Weedman. According to Advanced Energy, a nonprofit group, there are about 7,330 electric vehicles and 938 public charging ports in North Carolina. "Adoption of EVs depends on a robust infrastructure for consumers," Duke President David Fountain said in a statement.     Read Story »

North Carolina Business

McGrady to co-chair pollution investigation

State Rep. Chuck McGrady, the go-to specialist on environmental legislation in the state House, has been appointed to co-chair of a commission that will look into an industrial plant's discharge of the chemical GenX into the Cape Fear River in Bladen County.   Read Story »

Etowah Business

Skeptical Planning Board tables action on 300-unit Etowah development

ETOWAH — Henderson County Planning Board members tabled an application for a big new residential development in Etowah on Thursday, saying unanswered questions about traffic, density, wastewater treatment and neighborhood compatibility made it impossible to move forward. A Miami developer whose proposed development of Horse Shoe Farm was denied by the Henderson County Board of Commissioners is seeking the county's OK for a similar development on McKinney Road in Etowah. John Turchin has submitted a master plan that includes a 299-unit development, including 173 single-family homes, 70 duplexes, 56 apartments, 16 guest rooms and 24 RV spaces on a 232-acre parcel on the French Broad River. The development, called The Farm at Eagles Nest, would include a restaurant, clubhouse, art center, wellness center, pavilion, art studios and dairy barn. It would include 598 parking spaces, 109 retail-commercial spaces and 10 RV/boat storage spaces and would cover 44 acres, leaving 180 acres of open space. The development would be served by the city of Hendersonville water system and Etowah Sewer Co. The privately owned sewer company sent Turchin letter saying its system had the capacity to serve the first phase of the project but would need an upgrade to serve later phases. Barring that, the developer would have to add an on-site sewage treatment plant. After the Board of Commissioners shot down his plan for the Horse Shoe Farm property, “we reconsidered and found this property,” Turchin told the Planning Board Thursday night. “It gave us a better campus, a bigger piece of property. We were able to spread out, using 44 acres, leaving a tremendous amount of green space. … We think we’ve put together a very comprehensive well-thought-out plan. From a marketing standpoint our marketing group really thinks we’re onto something that will be well accepted in the community.” Neighboring property owners spoke against the development. “How tall are these going to be — three stories, four stories? They’re going to be huge,” Bob Edwards said. “When Biltmore was adopted, they changed theirs until that was just single-family homes. Is this one of these places where people can just move in and live, in a camper?” Turchin said the apartment buildings would be two stories high and be no larger than a single-home family. “We didn’t move down here to look at apartment buildings and parking lots,” another resident said. “We can hear horses and cows mooing up the road now and roosters crowing. I can just imagine what we’re going to hear with this.” County Commissioner Grady Hawkins, an ex officio member of the Planning Board, pointed out that commissioners had recently heard about the probems with Etowah Sewer Co. The privately owned sewer company needs a half million dollars worth of repairs now, he said, and is unlikely to have the capacity to take on a 300-unit residential development. “I just don’t see that happening in phase 1, much less in two more phases,” Hawkins said. “I know of nowhere in this county you could put 300 units and not have a road problem. These roads were made in the 1920s, farm-to-market roads, little two-lane roads, and they have a tough time with the traffic they already have on them. To me this is incompatible with the land development code. To try to put this kind of density in it in my opinion is not what the land development code is about and is not what we told people was in the land development code … I just have a lot of concerns about this project.” Planning Board members Jim Miller and Chairman Steve Dozier said they could not vote in favor of the project without more information. The next step for Turchin Development is an Aug. 30 meeting of the Zoning Board of Adjustment, which will take up special-use permit applications for the seven eight-unit apartment buildings and the RV park. Turchin, a Miami developer who has built the Lodges at Eagles Nest in Banner Elk, told the Board of Commissioners last December that he is interested in building cluster-style communities for baby boomers. His first application for development of the former horse farm would have resulted in rental cottages that he said would be a good alternative to apartment style developments for seniors. Commissioners denied his rezoning request based on concerns about traffic and other factors.The McKinney Road property, owned by the John Thomas Hammond, James William Hammond and Annette Hammond trust, was also the site of a proposed development by Biltmore Farms in 2007 for a 652-unit development of single-family homes, duplexes, triplexes and quadplexes with a clubhouse, walking trails and open space. EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the location of the new proposed development as Horse Shoe Farm. The new development is on the Hammond tract in Etowah.   Read Story »

Hendersonville Business

Tourism spending up 6½ percent in Henderson County

Visitors in Henderson County spent $274.6 million in 2016, an increase of 6.5 percent over 2015, Visit North Carolina announced on Wednesday. “Tourism is one of the top economic drivers in Henderson County bringing visitors from over thirty-nine countries from around the world and all fifty states to experience our local heritage, agritourism, culture, recreation, dining and shopping, and other attractions,” Beth Carden,  Executive Director of the Henderson County Tourism Development Authority said in a statement. Tourism impact highlights for 2016:• Henderson County was among the top 10 counties, out of 100, in percentage of growth in 2016.• The travel and tourism industry directly employees more than 2,320 in Henderson County.• Total payroll generated by the tourism industry in Henderson County was $50.33M.• State tax revenue generated in Henderson County totaled $12.57M through state sales and excise taxes, and taxes on personal and corporate income. About $11.73M in local taxes were generated from sales and property tax revenue from travel-generated and travel-supported businesses.Gov. Roy Cooper announced in May that visitors to North Carolina set a record for spending in 2016. The $22.9 billion in total spending represented an increase of 4.4 percent from 2015.These statistics are from the “Economic Impact of Travel on North Carolina Counties 2016,” which can be accessed at partners.visitnc.com/economic-impact-studies. The study was prepared for Visit North Carolina by the U.S. Travel Association.“All eight economic development regions of the state had spending growth of 3 percent or more, and 96 percent of the state’s counties saw direct tourism employment growth from 2015 to 2016,” said Wit Tuttell, executive director of Visit North Carolina. “Tourism continues to be major driver of economic development across North Carolina, which is the sixth most-visited state in the country.”Statewide highlights include:• State tax receipts as a result of visitor spending rose 5.1 percent to nearly $1.2 billion in 2016.• Visitors spend more than $62 million per day in North Carolina. That spending adds more than $5.1 millionper day to state and local tax revenues (about $3.2 million in state taxes and $1.9 million in local taxes).• The travel and tourism industry directly employees more than 219,000 North Carolinians.• Each North Carolina household saves $497 in state and local taxes as a direct result of visitor spending in the state.   Read Story »

Hendersonville Business

Ask Matt ... about Publix's plans for drainage

Q. Will the runoff from the Publix grocery store parking lot affect the flooding on Greenville Highway such as from the big July 8 storm? I asked Hendersonville City Engineer Brendan Shanahan about the project. Shanahan rolled out the drawings for the 6.9 acre Publix property and pointed out two locations for detention devices — one along Greenville Highway and another behind the store near Mud Creek. Plans call for a high tech underground system of collection chambers that will occupy an area equivalent to about 25 parking spaces. Yes, right under the parking lot! You can see them on the ground now, looking like rows of bright yellow plastic dog houses.Here’s how it works. Water runs off the asphalt surface and is collected in long plastic chambers buried 24 inches below the surface. These chambers are made of high strength half-pipe sections interconnected and set on a bed of gravel. The idea is to slow the stormwater entering Mud Creek and of course, Greenville Highway. Shanahan said that the Publix system is designed to detain 10,275 cubic feet of water or — for us non-engineers — the first 1.3 inches of rainfall. Eventually the impounded water seeps into the ground or is slowly discharged into Mud Creek flowing northward under the Steinmart-Fresh Market parking lot towards downtown Hendersonville.Shanahan added that the system is designed to trap parking lot debris and suspended solids. In other words, to keep the trash and mud out of Mud Creek. Maintenance of the entire system falls on Publix. The city will do annual inspections. If you want to see a neat clip on how the system works, search for “StormTech pipe animation video.”Whenever you disturb an acre of land, stormwater rules kick in. Above-ground retention ponds can usually be constructed at minimal cost but if the site is low-lying there are fewer options and stormwater detention gets expensive. The former Atha Plaza shops and adjacent buildings held back very little stormwater so what Publix is doing could improve conditions. It won’t take long to see what those little underground dog houses can do. Q. How do you pronounce the name of the new brewery being built on Seventh Avenue? Triskelion, according to brewery owner Jonathan Ayers, is pronounced tris-kell-ee-on with the emphasis on “Tris” as in Triscuit crackers. The word is of Greek origin meaning “three legs” but many historians consider it Celtic because the symbol was used in the late 19th century in Britain and Ireland. The triskelion symbol is captured on the current flag of Sicily which, of course, is a region of Italy. Need help saying words? Just go online and YouTube will pronounce it for you. * * * Send questions to askmattm@gmail.com.   Read Story »

Hendersonville Business

Ask Matt ... who made those street lights?

Q. In June there was a crew from South Carolina replacing streetlight fixtures in downtown Hendersonville. The new ones look like LED lights. Why are they changing the streetlights and are those lights made locally by GE? City Public Works Director Tom Wooten said that the goal of the re-lamping project is to improve the overhead lighting on the avenues between Church Street and King Street plus the alleys and the areas around the Dogwood Parking Lot. There are about 75 lighting fixture change-outs of various intensity ratings. All are LED lights.Streetlights are not individually metered so the City pays Duke a monthly rate based upon the number and type of outdoor lighting fixtures. The new LEDs will cost the City slightly more than the old mercury vapor or sodium vapor lamps but the lumen rating (brightness) is higher. Plus there is a benefit from having presumably safer nighttime activities. Duke Energy will not charge for doing the replacements but the utility benefits from using considerably less power than the old lights required plus there is less maintenance for utility crews because the LEDs last longer.But on the source question I had to dig deep. Engineers at GE were quick to tell me that these were “not our lights.” The Contractor that Duke Energy hired to hang the lights was closed mouth and Duke was slow to come forth with specifics. But the folks with American Electric Lighting (AEL) in Ohio confirmed that the flat cobra head type fixtures just installed in Hendersonville were made in one of two places – Conyers, Georgia or Monterey, Mexico. AEL is a subsidiary of Acuity Brands, a large lighting corporation with home offices in Georgia.GE’s newly renovated facility in East Flat Rock makes LED streetlights so I asked our Chamber of Commerce to comment on the fact that Duke was not shopping locally for streetlights. The Chamber quickly recognized the contributions that GE has made in the community dating back to arriving here in 1956 –treading carefully because Duke is a member too. But neither the Chamber nor the City can dictate which fixtures Duke Energy will use. Duke officials stated that their company selects their products “based on pricing, product quality, light output, product availability and product support from the supplier.” Duke has used GE products in the past and has some in service now. With headquarters in Charlotte, Duke is a $23 billion utility that operates in the Carolinas, Florida, Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio serving 7.5 million customers.One more thing. GE recently announced it was considering selling its lighting division which is headquartered in Cleveland. It is unknown if and how such a move could affect their East Flat Rock plant. The company recently changed the name of the lighting division to “Current, powered by GE.” Stay tuned.   *  * * * * Send questions to askmattm@gmail.com.     Read Story »

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