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‘Only the Brave’ screenwriter has local ties

Flat Rock News

Saint Paul winery opens Flat Rock tasting room

FLAT ROCK — Saint Paul Mountain Vineyards has opened a tasting room in Flat Rock Square that will offer wine-pairing dinners, pairing classes, tapas and small plates and events. The new venture has something that the popular tasting room and the new Appalachian Ridge Cidery on Chestnut Gap Road lack — a commercial kitchen. Saint Paul Flat Rock in Flat Rock Square (formerly the Singleton Centre) serves five white wines, six red wines and four dessert wines. Occupying the corner location with an upstairs deck, the tasting room has something that the home location lacks — a commercial kitchen. The Dragonfly restaurant previously occupied the space. “We wanted to do something a little different than the tasting room,” said Meredith Ward, the 25-year-old daughter of Saint Paul founder Alan Ward. The new venture is just getting started but has plans for events, cooking classes and pairing dinners. It serves locally roasted coffee from Hendersonville-based ShareWell Coffee Co. Wines include charconnay, the award-winning Laurel Hill Vidal Blanc (best in show in the biggest state wine contest), Chestnut Gap, Jasper and Petit Verdot, with prices ranging from $6 to $15 a glass. Wine is for sale by the bottle, too. “We hope to partner with some of the local Flat Rock businesses to do some events,” said Ward, a 2010 graduate of Hendersonville High School and graduate of N.C. State University in social work. An on-call social worker for the county DSS, she works seven days and seven off.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Bar reprimands attorney for neglecting estate

The North Carolina State Bar reprimanded attorney Michael Edney for professional misconduct in the handling of an estate, according to an order issued last Aug. 9.The bar’s Grievance Committee investigated a complaint against Edney filed by a client identified only as S. M. According to the committee, Edney was hired to handle the estate of the complainant’s father in December 2014. At that time, “the complainant’s mother, Mrs. L.M., gave you two checks made payable to her late husband or his estate,” Grievance Committee Chair DeWitt “Mac” McCarley wrote in the reprimand. “You did not place those checks in a fiduciary account, but placed the checks in a file where they remained until the complainant spoke with you in April 2017.”Edney, the chairman of the county Board of Commissioners, admitted to the bar that he took no substantive action on the estate for two years and that he did not “adequately stay in touch” with the client “due to your busy law practice and other obligations.”The Grievance Committee found that Edney violated state bar rules by failing to communicate with the client and failing to place the decedent’s checks in a trust account.The state Bar suspended Edney from practicing law for two years in June 1999 for what it said was his mishandling of a client’s appeal of a criminal conviction and his failure to respond to either the client’s letters or the state Bar’s notifications. The state Bar reinstated his license in April of 2000 after it determined he had complied with the terms of disciplinary order.“That’s gutter politics,” Edney said when asked about the disciplinary action. He suggested someone planning to run against him leaked the order to the press. “That’s what these folks are trying to dig up. It’s not newsworthy and I’m going to comment on it.”     Read Story »

Henderson County News

Marco's Pizza opens on Seventh Avenue

Marco’s Pizza, the newest competitor in the growing list of pizzerias in the area, has opened and is doing a strong business already for takeout, delivery and dine-in of its pies, wings, subs and salads.The first chain restaurant to open on Seventh Avenue in decades, Marco’s has been growing fast regionally, opening five locations in the Upstate South Carolina. The Hendersonville store at 310 Seventh Avenue East is its first in Western North Carolina and more are planned.The menu features build your own from 22 toppings plus eight specialty pizzas including All Meat, Hawaiian Chicken, White Cheezy, Chicken Fresco, Deluxe, Pepperoni Magnifico and barbecue chicken, from $6.99 to $19.99; six subs ($5.99); ($5.50 for 6, $10.99 for 14); antipasto, chicken Caesar, Greek and chef’s salads ($6.49) and baked cinnamon squares ($4.99) and double chocolate brownies ($5.99) for dessert. Marco’s does not serve beer and wine. It offers delivery a few miles from the store, for an $2.99 charge.Manager John Podhany said the new restaurant, which opened a month ago, has been drawing steady and sometimes big crowds. He’s still learning the rhythm of Hendersonville diners.“One day (on a Sunday) they were lined up the door” before noon, he said. “The next week they didn’t come until 12:30.”Located next door to the new Triskelion Brewing Co., Marco’s expects to do plenty of takeout orders from taproom customers. Hours are 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and 11 a.m.-midnight on Friday and Saturday.     Read Story »

Hendersonville News

Cook Out on U.S. 64 East before end of the year

Those who thought Cook Out had pulled plans to open a restaurant in Hendersonville can breathe a sigh of relief.The cheeseburger, barbecue and milkshake drive-thru specialist, another fast-growing purveyor in the highway interchange market, has pulled a permit for its store at 2548 Chimney Rock Highway next door to the Golden Corral and across from drive-in competitor Sonic.The Lightning first reported the Cook Out lease of the property from Boyd L. “Bub” Hyder in December 2016. Fourteen months later, Mlb Construction Services is ready to start work. A car wash that occupied the property has already been cleared. The contractor plans a 4,000-square-foot building worth $1.4 million, according to a building permit.Started in Greensboro in 1989, Cookout has more than 200 locations in the Carolinas and eight other states in the South. The privately held company is known for its “never frozen” burgers, chicken sandwiches and hotdogs grilled “outdoors style” and a menu of 40 milkshake flavors, including chocolate cherry, mocha, peach cobbler, fresh watermelon (in the summer), egg nog (in December), walnut, peanut butter banana and candy bar flavors. Unlike many of its competitors, Cook Out ranges beyond grilled burgers and hot dogs to offer barbecue sandwiches, BLTs, hushpuppies and chili cheese fries.A Cook Out spokeswoman said it doesn’t take contractors long to put up the building. The Cook Out on U.S. 64 East will be open “definitely by the end of the year,” she said.     Read Story »

Henderson County News

Pardee thanks Dr. Albers for 36 years of service

Pardee UNC Health Care administrators and board members thanked Charles Albers for 36 years of service to Henderson County Wednesday during the regular meeting of the Board of Directors. In addition to his general surgery practice, Dr. Albers has served as Chief of Surgery, Chief of Staff and on the Board of Trustees for Pardee Hospital, from 2000 to 2005. "As far as I can tell, he's the only active surgeon to serve as chair," said Dr. David Ellis, Pardee's chief medical officer. Born and raised in Carmine,Texas, a town of 223 people, Albers graduated with 10 others from his high school and went on to earn an undergraduate degree from Texas Lutheran. He earned his medical degree at Baylor and got this surgical residency from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. He started his career at Pardee in 1981. In 2006 he was asked to start and lead a new breast care program at Pardee and became, Ellis said, "the anchor of our breast surgery program." Learning from his wife’s personal experience with breast cancer, Albers set out to create a fully integrated and navigated continuum of care for the breast care program.Taken from an excerpt from a 2016 column in which Dr. Albers explained , he noted that in 2006, “ "There was nothing terribly cutting edge about breast care programs," Albers said in a 2016 column about the the evolution of the breast care program at Pardee. "We all had relatively comparable technology, performed the same types of surgeries, and offered similar treatments. However, I knew that there was one key area where Pardee could be innovative and that was in how we treated our patients. I knew immediately that I wanted our new program to treat everyone like a doctor’s wife. Pardee would make it their mission to offer a level of service unlike any other, allowing each patient to completely and efficiently navigate a truly integrated system.” That system has evolved into a multi-faceted, multi-disciplinary program that serves women and men. The leadership of the breast care program will transition to Dr. Jennifer McAlister. "Dr. Albers has made a tremendous impact on the lives of many women in our community,” Ellis said. “He leaves a strong legacy with our Breast Care Program and has worked to create a seamless transition in leadership to Dr. McAlister. We are grateful to him for his vision and his dedication.”   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Don't miss this week's Hendersonville Lightning (163)

You won't want to miss this week’s Hendersonville Lightning.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Homeowners pan Balfour Parkway corridor

Hundreds of homeowners turned out Tuesday to get a first look at possible routes of the proposed Balfour Parkway and many said they hope the lines on the map near their homes never become a four-lane highway. The NCDOT held its first public input meeting on the route for the roughly 5-mile connector between I-26 and Asheville Highway, the first of three segments in a state highway project that would eventually run from U.S. East to N.C. 191. The first segment is funded. Right-of-way acquisition would be in 2022 and construction would start in 2024 if the project goes forward. Property owners who showed up told state engineers and transportation consultants that they hope it does not. “Even though they claim there is no decision made at this time it puts everybody under this cloud,” said Wayne Forsyth, a resident of Dogwood Forest off N.C. 191. Under state law, real estate agents are required to disclose that a new road may be coming near a property on the market, he said. Opponents have formed Stop the Balfour Parkway and launched a Facebook page and are pushing for a western alternative that would connect I-26 between the Mountain Home and Airport Road exits to Mills River. Many homeowners showed uo from Foxwood, Stoney Mountain Estates and other neighborhoods off Stoney Mountain Road and Grimesdale off Brookside Camp Road. “They can avoid a lot of these houses and people if they went on up 26 like this plan here,” said Maury Wray. “This is farm fields. Right here is the old Rockwell. It’s all farm fields right there. Avoid all these houses. Connect to 280 on this side of 280 and you don’t have to bother all these neighborhoods. ... Me and my wife spent six years planning our retirement house and another three years building it and we’re 99 percent done and we get this news. This really broke my wife’s heart. It’s terrible.” “I think it’s a horrible idea,” said Dennis Roberts, a resident of Foxwood. “This area is almost completely residential and very close to being overdeveloped and very close to being overdeveloped. Why not do this?” he said, holding up a copy of the alternative plan the Balfour Parkway opponents handed out at the meeting. “They’re destroying neighborhood after neighborhood after neighborhood. They’re directing commercial from here through this residential area.” Alex Chapman, 30, bought a home and moved in with his wife and “brand new” baby daughter on J.P. Huggins Drive two years ago. Real estate agents never mentioned the fact that a new road might be going in hear his house.“I cashed in all my first-time buyer incentives and it’s a blessing I got this house,” he said. “I won’t be able to do that again.”Jim Crafton, who served on the county Transportation Advisory Committee for 20 years, observed the crowd and talked to people about the project that has been a rough line on a map since the early 2000s.“If you put a new road in that’s going to stir up people’s curiosity and some objections,” he said.One of the few residents who showed up, looked at the plans and came away with a favorable view was Robert Eaton. “I think it’s a good idea,” he said. “In the late ‘70s there was a proposal to do this and everyone screamed and they killed it. We should have done it then.”     Read Story »

Henderson County News

House candidate against gerrymandering, for Medicaid expansion

Gayle Kemp, a retired attorney and law enforcement instructor from Fletcher, announced her candidacy for the District 117 state House seat on Tuesday. Kemp vowed to bring her 30 years of legal experience and her deep concern for fairness and equality to the job of representing District 117, which covers the northern two-thirds of Henderson County.“Local communities know what is best when it comes to issues like water and sewer and local voting districts,” she said. “Democracy is preserved when each person’s vote is counted," she added. "Democracy is preserved when voting districts are fairly drawn to allow the voters to choose their representatives rather than the other way around. Extreme gerrymandering must stop.” “Democracy is preserved when all citizens are guaranteed life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These Democratic standards and values are best served when everyone, rural or urban, white, black, Hispanic or Native American, rich, middle class or poor, can expect a living wage for working forty hours a week.” She believes that Western North Carolina has been left behind when it comes to economic growth. “We have talented folks here. They need to be valued and paid for their labor.”“Rejection of Medicaid expansion makes no common sense when our tax dollars are sent to Washington DC but could be used here for people who need healthcare and to increase good-paying healthcare jobs," she said.A mother of three and grandmother of three grandsons, she is active in her community and works toward goals like community libraries to teaching children to sew at 4H clubs. Kemp plans to file for election at the Henderson County Board of Elections on Wednesday at 9:30 am.For more information on Gayle’s campaign, please contact her 828-551-6169 or by email at gaylekemp@gmail.com. The address for Gayle Kemp for State House is P.O Box 126, Hendersonville, NC 28793. Gayle’s Facebook page and website are under development.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Meadows, state treasurer headline GOP convention

U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows and State Treasurer Dale Folwell will headline the annual convention of the Henderson County Republican Party at 11 a.m. Saturday, March 10, at Apple Valley Middle School. “We believe this year’s Convention will be one of our best," said party Chair Merry Guy. "We have seen so much enthusiasm this year for conservative candidates who support our platform. I think the tax cuts and booming economy have helped encourage Republicans to get involved because they know they can make a difference.” Republican activists will also hear from primary candidates and conduct party business. "Delegates are elected at precinct level and from there are eligible to move up the levels of organization, even to the National Republican Committee delegate level if elected," Guy said. “We hear so much about the delegates sent to the RNC to nominate our Presidential candidates, but few understand that they started as credentialed delegates at the Convention in their own precinct and county before they could move up.” For more information visit http://hendersoncountygop.com/ or call 828-693-6040.   Read Story »

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