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Henderson County News

East Flat Rock man charged with sex offenses

After an investigation by the Violent Crimes Unit from the Henderson County Sheriff's Office, detectives have charged Jesus Hernandez Flores, age 37 of Brooks Avenue in East Flat Rock, North Carolina with two felony counts of Indecent Liberties with a Child and one felony count of Statutory Sex Offense with a Child by an Adult. Flores was arrested today and remains in the Henderson County Jail under a $200,000 bond.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

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 »

Henderson County News

Davis Mountain property among 'best homes for gardeners' in the U.S.

A regular feature of The Week news magazine, “Best properties on the market,” spotlights a Hendersonville home as the “Steal of the week.”In the magazine's July 6 issue, the real estate feature focuses on “Homes for gardeners.” A 2,396-square-foot home on three private acres on Davis Mountain is among the six properties featured. Easy to understand why it’s the steal of the week. Listed at $350,000, it’s the only home that sells for less than $2 million. The other best homes for gardeners were in Mount Vernon, Wash. ($2.28 million); Sarasota, Fla. ($5.5 million); Bedford Hills, N.Y. ($2.88 million); Lyme, Conn. ($3.8 million); and Bend, Ore. ($3.45 million).   Davis Mountain home features hardwood floors and a wood stove.Listing agent Kelly Hetherington, of Beverly-Hanks & Associates, was delighted to learn that the home had been chosen for the feature.“It’s just a beautiful setting,” she says. “She does have some nice garden area.” The home also has an outdoor pool and decks. Built in 2001 of railroad ties and Carolina pine, the three-level home has a woodstove, a master bedroom with a clawfoot tub, front and back porches and a whole-house generator. Gardens? Of course. It has flower gardens, a large vegetable garden and fruit trees.The listing has generated “a lot of inquiries," she says. "We were in the counteroffer stage at one point but the buyer decided to go elsewhere.”A caller from Italy, who plans to visit Hendersonville, “wants to see it when he gets here.” The address is 45 Mack Hill Drive. Reach Hetherington at 850-509-0488.   Read Story »

Hendersonville News

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 »

Henderson County News

Suspect told neighbor 'there was a shooting and she was dead'

CRAB CREEK — A 35-year-old man charged with murder told a neighbor on Tuesday that there had been "a real bad situation" at his house that resulted in a shooting death, according to the 911 call that led Henderson County sheriff's deputies to check on the home where they found the victim. "Her boyfriend is drunk and he’s over there saying all kinds of crazy stuff and I went over there to check on her and he wouldn’t let me in the house," the caller told a 911 dispatcher. "I don’t know if she’s OK or not. ... When he came over here he told my son that it was a real bad situation today and there was a shooting and that she was dead. I’m just concerned for her.” Asked the identity of the woman's boyfriend, the neighbor said she knew him only as Terry. After finding the victim's body, deputies called detectives, who later arrested Terry Jason Brank and charged him with murder. The murder happened at a trailer home at 215 DuPont Estates Drive, which is off Crab Creek Road between Holmes State Forest and DuPont Road. The neighbor called 911 at 9:11 Tuesday night after she was unable to reach her friend by phone. “I went over there and banged on the door, too," she said. Deputies have responded to the location numerous times in the past for domestic related calls, the sheriff's office said. The investigation continues. After a first appearance hearing Wednesday in Henderson County District Court, Brank remained in jail under an $800,000 bond.   Read Story »

Hendersonville News

Don't miss this week's Hendersonville Lightning (180)

You won't want to miss this week’s Hendersonville Lightning. You'll find coverage of the city's effort to use a broad rezoning to revitalize the Historic Seventh Avenue District, a profile of a waitress who has hiked to 850 waterfalls, our second report on the history of the Hendersonville Street Dance, the popular Ask Matt and Stuck in the Late Middle columns and more. You've got to get a copy because it's only in print and only in the Lightning! Here's where you can pick up a Lightning: Downtown Hendersonville• Hendersonville Lightning Office, 1111 Asheville Hwy.• Pop’s Diner, 5 Points, North Main Street• Triangle Stop, 701 North Main Street• The 500 block of North Main Street(First Citizens Bank / Mast General Store)• Black Bear Coffee Co., Main Street• The 300 block of North Main Street(McFarland’s Bakery / Mike’s on Main )• 100 block of South Main(Flat Rock Playhouse) Southside Hendersonville(Spartanburg Highway)• Ingles, Spartanburg Hwy.• Hairstyles by Charlene, Joel Wright Drive• McDonald’s, Spartanburg Hwy.• Norm’s Minit Mart, Spartanburg Hwy.• Hendersonville Co-op• Burger King/ BP, Spartanburg Hwy. Flat Rock/East Flat Rock• Flat Rock Post Office• Flat Rock Bakery• Zirconia Post Office• East Flat Rock Post Office• Whitley Drug, Greenville Hwy.• Energy Mart Exxon, Upward Road & I-26• Triangle Stop, 754 Upward Road & I-26 Along Kanuga Road• Hot Dog World, Kanuga Road• Mr Pete’s Market, Kanuga Road• Norm’s Minit Mart, Kanuga Road Laurel Park Area• Economy Drug on Fifth Ave. West• Fifth Avenue Shell• YMCA Hendersonville, Sixth Ave & Oak St• Laurel Park Village, RiteAid• Energy Mart Exxon, Laurel Park• Dixie DIner, Brevard Road West on Highway 64 (Brevard Road)• Horse Shoe Post Office• Mr Pete’s Market, Etowah, Hwy. 64-W• Blue Ridge Pizza, Etowah, Hwy. 64-W• Etowah Shopping Center, Etowah• Ingles, Brevard Road• Bandana’s Restaurant, Brevard Road North on Highway 191 (Haywood Road)• Joey’s New York Bagels, Hwy. 191• One Stop Store # 8, Haywood Road (Hwy. 191)• Dollar General, Hwy. 191 & Mountain Road• Triangle Stop, 4197 Haywood Road, Mills River• Ingle’s, Mills River, Hwy. 280 Eastside Hendersonville (Four Seasons Blvd.)• Norm’s Minit Mart, Dana Road• Fatz Cafe, Dana Road & Four Seasons Blvd.• Grocery Outlet, off Four Seasons Blvd.• Energy Mart Exxon, Four Seasons Blvd.• McDonald’s, Four Seasons Boulevard• Mustang Cafe, Dana Road East on Highway 64 (Chimney Rock Highway)• Triangle Stop, 2545 Chimney Rock Road, Hwy. 64-E• Mr Pete’s Market, East, Hwy. 64-E• Griffin’s Store Edneyville, Hwy. 64-E• Edneyville Post Office• Edneyville General Store• Walmart Shopping Center North on Highway 25(Asheville Highway)• The Ugly Mug Coffee Shop, Hwy. 25-N• Alykat, US 25-N• Triangle Stop, Hwy 25-N, Balfour• Mountain Home Post Office• Fletcher Post Office• Ingles, FletcherSouthern & Eastern Henderson County • Dana Post Office• Rosco’s Grocery, Green River• Saluda Post Office The Hendersonville Lightning is available at mostHenderson County post offices and Ingles supermarkets   Read Story »

Laurel Park News

Fence case ends suddenly when applicant walks out

LAUREL PARK — The Laurel Park Zoning Board of Adjustment, which usually labors in obscurity, had a doozie of a time last week. A hearing on a variance request was abruptly cut short when the applicant stalked out. That brought a sigh of relief from the 35 people who filled the Town Hall’s small meeting room beyond capacity, although the case might not be over yet. At issue was an application from Charles Burch, a homeowner who has upset many of his neighbors with his landscaping practices and tree cutting zeal. Burch asked for a variance that would allow him to surround his 2½-acre home site in upper Laurel Park with a high-tensile wire fence, a material that’s not among the permissible materials in the town’s land-use code. The code allows fences up to 6 feet high made of stone, wood or plastic-simulating wood, with chain-link fences permitted in backyards. Burch landscaped a tall steep terrace on his property at Laurel Park and Birchwood Drive and has cut down trees on the land. He told the Zoning Board of Adjustment on Thursday that deer are romping in his yard, tearing up the St. John’s wort and causing erosion. He’s put in 3,900 St. John’s wort plants on the terrace and, valuing them at $10 each including labor, watering and fertilizer, said he had a $39,000 investment in the Laurel Park Highway frontage. He applied for a variance to allow four strands of 12½-gauge wire tightly strung between black pipes two-and-three-eighths inch thick.Asked why he needed a wire fence instead of wood or stone, he cited the price.“My price drops from probably $50,000 to something I can afford,” he said. “You took all the vegetation off and put your own plants there,” said Jim Ball, a former town manager. “I kind of feel like you helped create your own problem.”Susan Mangrum, Burch’s next door neighbor, opposed the variance. “I’m not terribly comfortable being here and speaking against Mr. Burge, not because I’m not comfortable with public speaking but because I have a problem with Mr. Burge’s vile temper,” she said. “I am concerned that by opposing the fence I may be the target of retaliation. Mr. Burge has made threats to other people about me.”She said he had cut down more than 100 trees, replaced native plants and made other changes that have devalued her property.“The whole ecological system of that part of the mountain has been harmed by his complete disregard of the ecology and the environment,” she said. “He put a porta-potty by my mailbox because it was ugly and he didn’t want to look at it but it was OK for me to look at it.” After huddling with Town Manager Alison Alexander, board Chair John Crook announced there was no point in continuing the hearing because the city code requires the applicant to be present.“I would rule that the applicant has withdrawn his application by virtue of his departure,” Crook said.Reached after the hearing, Burch said he did not see the point in staying.“There was no sense of me staying there,” he said. “I think people have their mind made up before I started speaking.”   Read Story »

Etowah News

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 »

Henderson County News

Minutes reveal county’s offer of $2.3M for firing range land

Henderson County’s new emergency services headquarters is up out of the ground at the old Balfour school property on Asheville Highway. But could the location have been next to Bay Breeze seafood restaurant or at the current Board of Elections site off Spartanburg Highway? Those options were on the table in December 2015 when the Board of Commissioners looked at potential sites for the $14 million complex for the emergency management, EMS, rescue squad and fire marshal, according to minutes the board voted recently to unseal. Under state law, minutes of closed sessions may be withheld from the public “so long as public inspection would frustrate the purpose of a closed session.” The North Carolina Open Meetings Law requires that hearings, deliberations and actions of public bodies be conducted openly. The law permits nine exceptions where closed meetings are allowed, including attorney-client privilege, industry recruiting and buying real estate.After Commissioner Bill Lapsley expressed the view that the Balfour site might not be the best location, commissioners authorized a study of other options. The Balfour site and Board of Elections property were both county-owned. County Engineer Marcus Jones, reporting on the study in a closed session on Dec. 7, 2015, said the elections board site was too small and had insufficient parking.Besides the Bay Breeze property, consultant Steve Allen looked at the old Food Lion site, the Ingles-owned Sav-Mor property on Fleming Street, Goodwill property on Asheville Highway and Park Ridge Health-owned land (the old Four Seasons Cinema) on Seventh Avenue East. All four of the privately owned sites were unavailable.County administrators and then-Emergency Services Director Rocky Hyder recommended the Balfour site. The board OK’d the former school property. Lapsley voted no, citing “the cost of $7.7 to $9.3 million for what people will see as a garage.”Commissioners said at the time the county could get some cash down the road by selling the Asheville Highway frontage for commercial use. Nothing has been said publicly about that option since then.Unsealed minutes also reveal that the Board of Commissioners offered to buy 551 acres on Pinnacle Mountain for $2.3 million for the firing range and training center Sheriff Charlie McDonald wanted. The Pinnacle Mountain land was the second site commissioners talked about buying; the board had rejected the old Camp Flintlock property in Green River and later rejected Blue Ridge Community College and Macedonia Road in Saluda before killing the idea altogether after McDonald’s primary election loss.In a meeting on March 16, 2016, Jones, the county engineer, reported to the commissioners about the land, owned by Boyd L. “Bub” Hyder. The closest house was a mile away and closest church a half mile away. “We only need approximately 151 acres” at a projected price of $5,000 an acre, the minutes say. That would total $755,000. Two months later, on May 18, 2016, Commissioner Charlie Messer reported in another closed meeting that Hyder had called him “and wants the county to make an offer on the property,” according to the minutes. “Mr. Hyder also has other property on Highway 25 we may be interested in.” County Manager Steve Wyatt told commissioners the county’s real estate agent had made the offer of $2.3 million — the tax value of the land — to Hyder. “Mr. Hyder doesn’t seem to want to deal with the agent and did not give him an answer,” the minutes say. As a result, the board voted unanimously to drop the Pinnacle Mountain property. “The board will continue to look at options for an indoor facility possibly at Blue Ridge Community College.” Six months later, commissioners authorized a $20 million indoor firing range and training center on the BRCC campus, the project that it later dropped. In two other closed meeting discussions:• The board declined a request from GF Linamar LLC in February 2016 to lower the average factory wage it had committed to in exchange for $7 million in county property tax rebates. The company, which had agreed to an average wage of $47,738 during a public hearing on the tax incentives a month earlier, wanted to lower the annual wage target to $41,000. Andrew Tate, then president of the Partnership for Economic Development, and County Attorney Russ Burrell told commissioners the agreement “is still a good package and it is not uncommon for changes to be requested,” the minutes say. “However, they are both uncomfortable with the wage guarantee change and, given the company’s resistance to the previous guaranteed wage rate, wanted to bring the issue before the Board.” Burrell pointed out that the state Job Development Investment Grant gives that the company gets credit for a created job that meets 90 percent of its target wage, in this case $42,000. The board declined to lower the target wage.• The board agreed in January 2017 to buy 1.3 acres at 1008 Fleming Street for parking for the new Hendersonville High School when city officials informed the county that more parking would be needed for zoning approval. The owner offered to give back $300,000 as a gift if the county paid the list price of $800,000. Commissioners were also told of five parcels across Bearcat Boulevard from the high school, valued at a total of $773,000. They did not act on those. Commissioner Edney told the board that Hendersonville City Councilman Jeff Miller had asked for "another meeting" with Lapsley, Edney and several HHS alumni. By consensus, commissioners said no, according to the minutes.   Read Story »

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