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Henderson County News

Residents organize to oppose treatment center

Residents of Dunroy, Estate Drive, Chanteloup and other neighborhoods near the intersection of Erkwood Drive and Rutledge Drive are gearing up to fight a proposed addiction treatment center on the campus of Mud Creek Baptist Church. About 70 residents turned out earlier this month at the Henderson County public library to hear Don Huneycutt, a financial adviser, and Hilton Swing, a real estate agent, talk about the land-use code and how opponents could fight a rezoning application. Huneycutt and his wife, Julie, have been active in the fight against prescription drug abuse. They founded Anna’s Hope, named for a daughter who died of a prescription drug overdose. Julie Huneycutt directs HopeRx, an organization of health care providers, social workers and law enforcement that fights opioid abuse. She attended the neighborhood meeting but did not speak.“I don’t think I’ve heard a single person in this room or anywhere else that has said we are opposed to helping folks who struggle with this issue,” said Don Huneycutt, who lives in Dunroy. “This is not an opposition to helping people. This is one of opposition to location and a zoning integrity issue and also an incompatibility issue. We’re not focused on, ‘Let’s get it out of this area because we just don’t feel like we want to look at it.’ I think we’re kindred spirits in wanting to help and getting a treatment facility in Henderson County. We’ve been advocating that for years.”   The nonprofit ministry of Mud Creek Baptist Church announced plans to build a 45-bed treatment facility on Erkwood Drive across from the church. “We’re basically still in the process of looking. We’re pretty close to making a decision but I’m not prepared to do that today,” said Craig Halford, president of First Contact Addiction Ministries, said. “The process is still ongoing and we’ll probably be making a decision soon on which direction we’re going to go. We’re not going to do anything until we’ve got the money raised.”Formed in 2011, the ministry wants to build a residential treatment center. Mud Creek Baptist Church congregants voted Dec. 19 to allow First Contact Ministries to enter into a long-term lease for a 2.6-acre parcel of property across Erkwood Drive from the church. First Contact plans to raise $3 million before it starts work on the 15,000-square-foot treatment facility. The ministry held its first big fundraiser, the “Take the Mask Off Addiction Masquerade Ball,” last Friday. Huneycutt told the gathering he met with John Mitchell, the county’s director of Business and Community Development director, who told him that residents were welcome to come ask questions.“He said ‘bring everybody from Erkwood and Rutledge if you need to.’ He was very open to hearing from everybody,” he said. Mitchell told him: “Please don’t come and talk about how it’s going to depreciate your property value. Whether it’s true or not, we’re going to assume you’re concerned about your property values.” Instead, Huneycutt urged residents to talk about the broader issue of land use.“We’re going to focus on zoning integrity and compatibility vs. incompatibility of this going into our residential community and what makes it a neighborhood,” Huneycutt said. The area already has two treatment facilities — Hope Academy, for special-needs children, on church property on Rutledge, and a small group home behind the barbershop on Erkwood.“And we’re adding a third care center” if the treatment center opens, he said.Swing said any commercial use as large as the center First Contact has proposed would be incompatible.“It’s my opinion that a 15,000-square-foot facility of any kind is not in keeping with the residential character of all the neighborhoods that are around this area,” Swing said. “What we’re talking about is zoning integrity and zoning compatibility and those are the things that affect our property values. By his count, there are some 1,500 homes within a 1-mile radius of Mud Creek church. “Let’s stick to the facts,” Swing said. “We want to talk about zoning integrity. Does this facility maintain the residential character of the neighborhood? I posit that it doesn’t.” He recommended that opponents make “a good cohesive argument” that commissioners will hear “knowing there’s a thousand people behind it.”Swing and others also argue that the need for opioid addiction treatment is so great that the First Contact center would hardly made a dent.“At 42-odd beds, it would be occupied overnight,” he said. “We probably need 200 beds.”Clay Smith, also a Dunroy resident, has researched opioid addiction treatment.“There’s a realization that what First Contact and Mud Creek are proposing is totally inadequate,” he said.His research suggests that successful rehab models suggest rely on alternative drug treatments, intensive mental health counseling and other services that First Contact does not plan to use.“You’ve gotta have counseling of various forms including vocational counseling,” he said. “So many of these addicts are simply unprepared to go into the job market at all. … . If you don’t employ those drugs, the rate of relapse is going to be probably 80-90 percent so you go through all this effort and people are going to relapse anyway.”“Our position is it’s not compatible with the neighborhood,” he said. “It was zoned residential in the first place because it is a residential neighborhood. We see what I would call creeping commercialization on the part of Mud Creek, the church, child care, a daycare facility, the Hope Academy. They bought all this land around there. They’ve got an ungodly amount of parking lots, the whole thing in becoming a religious commercial empire over there, and we think it’s wrong. It’s not right for all this to be happening in a residential area.”The problem of opioid addiction is much bigger than First Contact can tackle on its own, Smith said.“No. 1, I don’t think the county has given the fight against drugs any consideration at all,” he said. “That is a major problem. If we’ve got 2,000 addicts in this county, it’s a burden on law enforcement, on the courts, on the jail, on the probation folks, on DSS, on EMS. It goes on and on. They’re all being impacted by this and the county’s not doing anything. I think the county has to do something about it.”He would support a treatment facility, just not one close to his home.“Their heart is in the right place,” he said. “I know they think what they’re doing is a very good thing, but it isn’t. It’s not the right thing.”As for the zoning, Halford, the First Contact president, said, “If we go to the zoning board they’ll make that determination.”“We’re not interested in getting a fight started,” he added. “We’re looking at the concerns from Dunroy. The last thing I want to do is create a greater controversy than needs to be. We will determine soon what direction we’re going in and the community will be notified when we apply for a special use permit. The best way to describe it is due diligence.”       Read Story »

Henderson County News

Easter services set

Jump Off Rock Henderson County Churches Uniting will host Easter Sunrise Service, with the Rev. Dr. Mark Stanley, pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church, presiding at 7 a.m., April 1, at Jump Off Rock, Laurel Park. Carpools will run from First Congregational Church parking lot at the corner of Fifth Avenue West and White Pine Drive. Arrive prior to 6:30 a.m. to join the carpools which will bring everyone back to First Congregational Church where breakfast will be served. For more information, fcchendersonville.org or 692-8630. Trinity Presbyterian Trinity Presbyterian Church, 900 Blythe St., welcomes all to share in communion and worship on Maundy Thursday, March 29, at 6:30 p.m. with special music by the Shannon Hoover Trio. Trinity will celebrate the risen Lord on Easter Sunday, April 1, with music and worship services at 8:30 and 11:00 a.m. The annual Easter morning breakfast will be served between services. In the spirit of giving, Trinity continues to collect new and clean, gently-used “Linens for Lent” for donation to IAM, the Interfaith Assistance Ministry.   Hendersonville Presbyterian The choir of Hendersonville Presbyterian Church, 699 N. Grove St., will present “And the Son Arose” by Mark Brymer and Cindy Berry at 6:30 p.m. Thursday March 29, in the sanctuary. The choir will be directed by Gayle Stepp, who also will accompany on piano along with Tarelton Brooks on drums and Rick Stewart on guitar. Actors in costume will portray the story of Holy Week as the music progresses. Rhoda Suesz will read the part of Mary Magdalene; Chip Gilbert, a disciple, Kevin LaHue, Pontius Pilate; Thomas Leonard, a Roman soldier, and Bruce Rau, Judas; as the Rev. Bob Hicks narrates the entire musical. Pastor Bill Campbell will deliver a homily and holy communion will be served.       Read Story »

Henderson County News

Tulip photo contest 
deadline is April 14

Entries in the “Tulip Extravaganza” photo contest, sponsored by Narnia Studios, are due by 5 p.m. April 14. All photos must be taken in downtown Hendersonville. The winner will be announced on April 18.The “Tulip Extravaganza” includes the week of Easter (April 1) and Passover (March 30-April 7) this year. Many of the shops will be holding their annual “spring cleaning” sidewalk sale on April 6 and 7 during the height of the spring color.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Planners rewrite food truck rules

A food truck that was out of compliance with city rules may result in a rewrite of Hendersonville’s zoning code. The Planning Board last week recommended that the City Council add mobile food vendors as a permitted use in five commercial zones in the city — highway mixed use, central mixed use, C-3 highway business, C-2 secondary business and I-1 industrial. Property owner Mark Searcy applied for a permit for a food truck to operate on his vacant lot at 2745 Chimney Rock Road. City planners then opted to create a new zoning category different from restaurants and special event food vendors. Using model food truck rules from Charlotte, city planners presented the proposed changes to the advisory board last week. Planning Board members made some minor tweaks before sending the changes on to the City Council, which takes them up on April 5.The ordinance would require food vendors to obtain a zoning compliance permit, valid for one year and renewable. There would be no limit on the number of food trucks on a parcel as long as they were 20 feet from one another and complied with setback rules. The rules prohibit operators to dump waste, grease or wastewater into the city sewer system or stormwater drains. The food trucks would have to be at least 500 feet from any restaurant and 100 feet from a house or residential zone. They could have one wall sign no larger than 32 square feet plus an A-frame sign of 8 square feet. They may not encroach on any street, sidewalk or right of way. They could operate from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.     Read Story »

Hendersonville News

Flu, heart caths, new knees boost Pardee revenue

Eighteen months ago, at the close of its 2015-16 fiscal year, Pardee Hospital reported a $15 million loss. Last month, the hospital’s finance committee reported that January revenue of $62.4 million set a single month record for overall income and that Pardee and its physician practices had achieved a strong first half of the current fiscal year. Pardee UNC Health Care’s new heart center, its new cancer center, urgent care clinics and a spike in flu cases all contributed to a financial resurgence. Pardee CEO Jay Kirby told the hospital Board of Directors in November 2016 that investments made in 2015 and 2016 would pay off in the months ahead.Here is the Lightning’s interview with Kirby on the financial picture.   How has Pardee rebounded from the loss 18 months ago to much better financial position today? “We are growing in a number of areas. Orthopedics. Southeastern Sports Medicine. We upgraded the operating room and increased access. Cardiac catheter volume is up 130 percent. We’ve always been strong there, and it’s good to see continued growth. We’ve had great growth in cardiology and then oncology. Our radiation oncology and medical oncologists are as busy as they’ve ever been. Those three service lines drive a lot of our business. We had a high-spike flu season, which increased our volumes in urgent care, in ER and throughout the house. We had days where we normally see 75 or 80 in our urgent care. We would see 120 to 125. It was a very steep spike this year, whereas in the past it was a long rainbow bell curve. Clearly, it’s a very busy time.” In October 2016 Pardee started Pardee Cardiology Associates. How has that gone? “Really, quite frankly being able to get folks into the cardiologist in 24 to 48 hours instead of having to wait four to six weeks has really helped us take off. … When we started this, we were doing about 80 caths a year. We’re on target this year to do 320. We’ve had patients show up in our ER that are having active heart attacks. During the daytime when we have Dr. Balcells and Dr. Das, we can move them straight from the ER directly into our cath lab and unblock it without having to have an ambulance ride.” How is Pardee situated to serve new residents? Jay Kirby “With so many people come here to retire, so many people living longer, you better do three things well in a community like this. You better have orthopedists to take care of their hips and their knees, you better have a cardiologist to deal with their cardiovascular system and you better have oncology because as we age the incidence and prevalence of cancer goes up as well. As our community grows and we expand schools and roundabouts and parkways and power plants, our hospital has to grow too.” The hospital invested heavily in 2016 in Epic, the computer network, and Carolina Values, a UNC Health Care project. How did that work? “UNC Health Care Pardee and all hospitals engaged a consultant to identify ways to cut duplication and waste, save money in buying supplies systemwide, share resources, combine back office functions. Carolina Values was a great investment in improving our operations. If you look at our revenue cycle, our days in AR (accounts receivable) is at an all-time low. Our gross revenue on a monthly basis is at an all-time high.” After Pardee lost $15 million in the fiscal year 2015-16, you told the board that investment in Carolina Value, Epic, hiring new physicians would pay off in the long run. That might have sounded like spin at the time but you turned out to be right. “I would say lucky. I would tell you there’s no special recipe. If you recruit highly qualified, well-trained doctors and give them the tools and resources and get out of the way, this is what you get. The success you’re seeing today, bringing physicians, such as radiation oncologists, vascular surgeons, general surgeons, expanding primary care, opening new urgent care, creating a cancer center that’s a destination, and then giving them tools such as Epic to talk together to manage care. It’s no secret sauce. We spent a lot of money in 2015, on Epic, on Carolina Value, on 24 new providers. What you’re seeing today is the fruit of those investments. I’m just fortunate that the board and the commissioners had the patience to go through that time but more importantly had the foresight to make those investments.” You put a lot of emphasis on improving productivity at the urgent care centers. “Used to be, not just Pardee, but hospitals across America had core competencies in how to run ERs. So hospitals relied on our ER group to run our urgent cares and they ran them — guest what? — just like an ERs. We don’t need to run them like ERs. We need to run them like physician practices that create a lot of increased efficiencies. We created a physician and P.A. model. (The medical personnel are) not all physicians and they’re not all ER physicians. The real benefit there is the fact that we will see 46,000 people in two urgent cares (in Hendersonville and Fletcher). That’s 46,000 people that might have ended up in our ER or someone else’s ER. We’re getting ready to open one up in Mills River (in June) and if that goes well we’ll be looking for other sites as well. Because people want accessible, affordable, convenient care and that’s what those urgent cares do.” Any plans for the property Pardee bought across the road? “No, we’re keeping our powder dry on that.” Did Pardee see any patient revenue from the Mission-Blue Cross Blue Shield standoff? “Sure, we saw a short-term blip. That was an unfortunate situation all the way around. … As unfortunate as it was for all involved, I do think it introduced Pardee to people as an alternative. I don’t believe people are coming here for their primary care. But it did bring some folks from Hendersonville to Pardee who would not have come in the past and I think we’ve held on to a little bit of that.” Is the positive trend for revenue continuing? “Average daily revenue continues to grow. In our community because we have the seasonality, our busiest time of year is this time of year, as people become more active, as people come back to Western North Carolina when they live other places. The second half of this year will be more profitable than the first half of this year.” What’s the next big project? Continued growth and development of our cardiovascular program. We want to be able to bring advanced care closer to not just Henderson County but to our region and that includes Transylvania, Polk and Rutherford counties and that means round-the-clock stent service where folks will not have to travel for care. We want to grow into our investment in those areas. Do you see another wave of health care reform that will change the landscape again? “Who knows what’s going to come out of Washington or Raleigh. But I can tell you that people are going to continue to get sick, people are going to continue to need care and Pardee hospital’s going to be there to provide it. Sixty-eight to 70 percent of the dollars we put in First Citizens Bank over there comes from the federal government.” Anything else? “Two things that are really exciting is we continue to expand access to primary care. Dr. (David) Ellis (chief medical officer) and his team have added four providers to Laurel Park, one to Etowah and more to Fletcher. Second, we’ve all heard that Wingate is going to expand their P.A. program, to 20 I think it is. We’re expanding our family practice residency with Blue Ridge Community Health Care up to five a year, so we’ll have 15. Pardee Surgical Associates is now training second and fourth year general surgery residents here through MAHEC and we’re also training four psychiatrists. So MAHEC, UNC, Wingate have all recognized that we’ve got quality medical staff, we’ve got great outcomes. This is where they’re bringing their students to train. We’re helping grow workforce. We’re a whole lot more than just a little hospital.”   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Opponents step up campaign to kill Balfour Parkway

Opponents of the Balfour Parkway are ramping up their opposition to the proposed $160 million Hendersonville bypass with plans for a protest at the Historic Courthouse and studies that challenge the NCDOT's traffic assumptions. The organization hoping to kill or reroute the bypass, Stop the Balfour Parkway, received a permit to protest prior to the regular meeting of the Board of County Commissioners on Monday. The intent of the protest is show the community support that is building in opposition to the NC DOT proposed Balfour Parkway.Cindy Lemon initiated the grassroots campaign at an organizational meeting on March 17. “This protest is a chance for the community to let the commissioners know that we're against the Balfour Parkway," she said in a news release.  "The Parkway will destroy homes and neighborhoods needlessly with an extraordinarily expensive solution to a problem that just doesn't exist.” Bill Burchill, a retired engineer and a resident of Carriage Park, prepared a detailed traffic analysis he says disproves the need for the parkway and its effectiveness in relieving east-west traffic congestions. Grimesdale resident Bill Erickson has proposed an alternative corridor further west running from Fletcher to Mills River with a new I-26 interchange between the Fletcher-Mountain Home and airport exits. That option traverses farmland and would only endanger one home, Erickson says. The Stop the Balfour Campaign said it hopes to unite Henderson County communities against creation of an expressway that would destroy homes, businesses, churches and impact quality of life for residents near and within the path of the proposed Balfour Parkway. The peaceful protest is planned for 4 p.m. Monday before the commissioners' meeting at 5:30. For more information visit www.stopthebalfour.com.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Parkway ranger seeks comments from bicyclists on Friday

Blue Ridge Parkway ranger Eric Elysleev will be at Liberty Bicycles in Asheville, 1378 Hendersonville Road, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday to hear bicyclists' concerns about riding on the Parkway, traffic conditions, parkway resurfacing and other topics.     Read Story »

Hendersonville News

LIGHTNING PHOTOS: Hundreds march for school safety and gun control

Hundreds of people of all ages marched from Hendersonville High School to the Historic Courthouse on Saturday morning as smalltown Hendersonville joined cities across the world in an extraordinary moment of protest in favor of protecting kids in schools and condemning gun violence. Carrying signs that said "Protect Kids Not Guns," "Thoughts and Prayers Are Not Enough," "Pencils Not Pistols" and "Grab 'Em By the Midterms," the chain of protesters filled five or six blocks of Main Street as it slowly made its way eight blocks to the courthouse plaza.Organizers and those who attended said they were stunned at the turnout in cool weather under overcast skies. There were not counterprotests and incidents along the route. Hendersonville police deployed a crossing guard at Church Street at Bearcat Bouleward and kept watch during the march. "We're tired of going into our schools and just not feeling safe for fear of gun violence," said Liam Daniels, 16, of Tryon. Daniels was with a dozen or more classmates from his school, the Outdoor Academy in Brevard, who had donned bright orange safety vests for the event. "I'm here because it's our safety that's at risk because of their not having any gun regulations," said Mia Prausnite Weinbaum, an Outdoor Academy student from Atlanta. Across the world, protesters carried signs, chanted and marched in solidarity with the young students from Parkland High School in South Florida spurred to activism by the slaughter of their classmates and teachers at their school on Valentines Day. "I was impressed to see all the kids here because it's all about the next generation, isn't it?" said Ann Commito, who is from Frederick, Maryland, and was visiting friends here. "They're going to be voting soon. I think it's frankly amazing. This shows you how important this is to everybody. It's not a Democrat or Republican issue as much as it's a public safety issue."   THIS IS A DEVELOPING STORY. RETURN TO THE LIGHTNING FOR MORE.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

POLITICS BRIEFS: Training center, lunch & learn, Democratic convention

Did Grady Hawkins just offer Sheriff Charlie McDonald cover to recast the purpose (and slash the cost) of a controversial training center?   Read Story »

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