Free Daily Headlines

News

Set your text size: A A A

News

Mills River OKs tax breaks for herbal supplement maker

Henderson County News

Trail length doubles at 'no excuses park'

FLAT ROCK — The Park at Flat Rock, said Mayor Bob Staton, is one more attraction that makes the village special.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Pardee board elects new officers, welcomes new members

The Pardee UNC Health Care Board of Directors elected new officers and welcomed three new board members during its last meeting of the fiscal year on Wednesday. Jack Summey was elected board chair, Greg Burnette vice chair, Hall Waddell treasurer and Tammy Albrecht secretary. Joining the 15-person board of directors were Vivian A. Bolanos, market manager for First Bank; Brian Cavagnini, senior director of operations for axles at Meritor; and James “Jimmy” Chandler, a retired vice president of operating services at Compaq Computers. Bolanos, Cavagnini and Chandler  fill seats left vacant by Peggy Judkins, Bill Moyer and Bill Smith, who have completed their terms. The new board members began their term on June 1 and will serve for three years through 2021. “On behalf of the Pardee UNC Health Care board of directors, I am pleased to welcome Vivian, Brian and Jimmy,” Summey said. “As leaders in their respective industries, we look forward to their unique perspectives as we pursue our mission to offer high-quality health care to our community .”   Read Story »

Etowah News

Residents spotting an elk that left Cataloochee herd

LAUREL PARK — Ibby and Bradley Jones are used to wildlife, living on Ransier Drive near the woods. But the big animal they saw this week was a startling sight.“I thought I was dreaming,” Bradley said. “Yesterday morning about 7:30, we were getting ready for work and it was outside by the driveway eating grass.”Jones made smart phone pictures and a video.“We just stayed inside,” he said. “We have two black labs and luckily they both stayed inside. He kind of noticed we were taping and looked up and he just kind of walked away into the woods. It was wild.”A technician working a job at Foxwood off Mountain Road spotted an elk — maybe the same elk — on Tuesday morning, said Keith White, a manager at Summey.“They went by and they said ‘Holy cow’ and took the picture,” he said.The wildlife experts are on it. In fact, they’ve been tracking the bull step by step ever since he left the Great Smoky Mountains herd about three weeks ago.“We don’t know why he came here but we know where he came from, his route and how he got there,” said Mike Carraway, a wildlife biologist with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. “This is a young bull that’s probably about three years old. He was hanging around with a small herd of elk in the Maggie Valley area. He had been there a couple of years and all of a sudden he decided to cross the mountain from Maggie Valley to Waynesville, then went from Waynesville up around the Waynesville watershed toward Lake Logan, then went to where he’s been hanging out recently in Etowah.”Carraway had heard about the Laurel Park sighting. He says it’s the same bull.“It’s probably not as many as you would think,” he said of the mileage the bull had been wandering.Biologists don’t know for sure why a young bull might leave a herd but it’s not all that rare.“That is a strong possibility that maybe he was being bullied by other bulls,” he said. “We’ve had elk do this before, particularly young bulls. guess it’s a natural way for wildlife population to spread, is for these young animals to go out. We’ve seen this before. This time we had a collar on one and we’ve been tracking him the whole way.”More than 10 million elk once roamed North America but the last North Carolina elk was killed in the late 1700s, according to a website on the elk herd that was released in the Great Smokies in 2000 and 2001. The 52 North American elk released in the Cataloochee Valley have multiplied ever since.“He’s just wandering,” Carraway said of our new elk. “He doesn’t seem to be particularly afraid of people.” And that’s not necessarily good. “Even though he might seem tame, they’re wild animals. They should not approach him and not feed him. He’s tame enough as it is. Don’t try to feed him. Let him go where he wants to go.”In the long view, Carraway said, it’s not surprising that a few elk have spread. “We kind of expect this behavior,” he said. “Unless there's some kind of threat, I think people should expect to see more wild elk around these parts. We have female elk as well that are outside from the Great Smokies and it’s usually small herds with a mixture of females and young bulls and calves. When we start seeing females more widely dispersed that’s an indication that the population is spreading. But this one in particular is just a bull that’s wandering.”At three years old, the bull is not full grown. He might head back where he came from in pursuit of a mate in another year or two.“I would suspect that as he becomes an older and a more mature bull and gives serious thought to looking for cows, he might go back,” Carraway said. “If he gets near cows right now he’s going to have to contend with a larger bull.”   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Don't miss this week's Hendersonville Lightning (178)

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

Henderson County News

Couple charged with Planet Fitness break-ins

The Hendersonville Police Department has charged a man and woman in connection with nine vehicle burglaries in mid-April at Planet Fitness and other businesses. Two suspects identified by the Sheriff’s Office Crime Suppression Unit were Dennis O’Neal Pack and Ashley Renee Watkins. Hendersonville police detectives conducted interviews with both individuals and were able to link them to vehicle burglaries at Planet Fitness, South Rock Grill and Blue Ridge Health and Rehab, the police said in a news release. Pack was charged with five counts of Breaking and Entering Motor Vehicle, five counts of Misdemeanor Larceny, five counts of Felony Aid & Abet Larceny and two counts of Misdemeanor Aid & Abet Larceny. Watkins was charged with three counts of Breaking and Entering Motor Vehicle, three counts of Felony Larceny, two counts of Misdemeanor Larceny, two counts of Misdemeanor Aid & Abet and one count of Misdemeanor Injury to Personal Property. Pack was jailed at the Henderson County Detention Center under $205,000 bond. Watkins, who turned herself in, was jailed under a $11,500 bond.   Read Story »

Laurel Park News

Senior apartments, round 2, off to rocky start

LAUREL PARK — Nine months year after the Hendersonville City Council shot down its request for senior apartments on U.S. 64, a developer is shopping the idea in Laurel Park.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Local NCDOT engineer takes promotion to Asheville post

Steve Cannon, the NCDOT engineer who works closely with local government officials on transportation problems and projects, has left the agency’s Mills River office for a new post in Asheville.Moving from Division 14, Cannon becomes project development engineer for Asheville-based Division 13. As the district engineer for Henderson, Transylvania and Polk counties, Cannon was the go-to contact for requests and transportation issues, from new traffic lights to driveway permits.“It was a promotion for Steve,” said Brian Burch, the top engineer for Division 14. “It’s a good career move on his part. We’re going to miss him but we’ve got his position posted and we’re doing interviews.” Burch hopes to fill the position by next month. City and county officials have praised Cannon for his responsiveness to their concerns and willingness to move quickly on urgent projects. In 2013, the Partnership for Economic Development honored Cannon and fellow DOT engineer Ed Green for their work on roads needed for the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.District engineers are “on the front lines” dealing with everyday issues, Burch said.“They’re the ones that work with and understand what the local governments’ needs are and what the public’s needs and desires are,” he said.       Read Story »

Hendersonville News

Pardee honors top doc, donor

A part-time gardener and bookkeeper, emergency dental assistant and full-time mom, Betsy Merrell can add Physician of the Year to her portfolio. The family practitioner was honored as the top doc for Pardee UNC Health Care for 2018 at the annual Pardee Hospital Foundation Gala Saturday night at the Blue Ridge Conference Hall at BRCC. A native of Ohio, Merrell has spent most of her life in North Carolina, from high school to Appalachian State to medical school at Wake Forest University. She and her husband, dentist Joshua Merrell, moved to his hometown of Hendersonville in 2006 and both started private practice at the same time. Betsy Merrell joined Pardee in 2009, first as a hospitalist, becoming a family practice associate two years later. Betsy Merrell A member of the North Carolina Medical Society, the American Academy of Family Practice and the N.C. Academy of Family Physicians, Merrell served for two years as president of the Henderson County Medical Society. She’s also served on the Board of Safelight and has volunteered with the Free Clinics, Relay for Life and Chamber of Commerce.Besides gardening at her husband’s dental office and decorating the interior, she rears 7-year-old Sophia and 4-year-old Luke. “We have even learned that she has stepped in as dental assistant at 3 a.m., called upon to help with an emergency root canal,” Greg Burnett, a Pardee board member and First Citizens Bank executive, said in introducing her. “She has been known to stand in line for hours to snag UNC basketball tickets and is on the short list to learn of the next U2 concert in the area.” Philanthropist of the Year Philanthropist of the Year was Carol Adams, a former Pardee Foundation member and veteran of many fundraising campaigns. A native of North Carolina, Adams has been a “professional volunteer” since a young age while moving around the South before arriving in Hendersonville in 2003, Mary Olson, the 2017 philanthropist winner, said.After graduating from graduate of Queens College in Charlotte, Adams moved to Richmond, Virginia, where she met the love of her life. Her volunteer service and commitment to philanthropy has run the gamut from the Junior League to the Public Library, the Crippled Children’s Clinic to the Henry Logan Children’s Home and the Parkersburg, West Virginia Community Foundation. In her free time she served as a tennis and swim team coach and a homeroom mom.In Hendersonville, the Pardee Foundation was fortunately to be on the receiving end of Adams’s tireless volunteer service and philanthropy. She helped found the Women Helping Women Committee, chairing the fundraising committee before joining the Pardee Foundation Board in 2005. She served in Carol Adamsvarious roles from secretary to the By-Laws and Nominating committees and co-chaired the capital campaign for the Elizabeth Reilly Breast Center. In addition, the busy mother of two and grandmother of three, Adams serves St. James Episcopal Church in numerous volunteer leadership roles. In addition, she spent countless hours a few years ago working at the Blackwater Grill, which was owned and operated in Laurel Park by her son and daughter-in-law. “After a brief hiatus from the foundation board, she rejoined the board in 2012 and will finish six years of devoted service with tireless commitment to Planned Giving, Generations and Annual Fund; chairing the Annual Fund Committee for the last couple years,” Olson said.“Dr. Betsy Merrell and Carol Adams are both fantastic representatives of our community,” said Kimerly Hinkelman, Pardee Hospital Foundation Executive Director. “Pardee Hospital is a better place because of them and we would not be able to provide the care our community deserves without these individuals. We thank them for making Pardee a better place with their gifts.”          Read Story »

Henderson County News

City pitches rezoning
 as catalyst for Seventh Avenue

City officials made the case on Thursday that a new police station and a broad rezoning could stimulate redevelopment and raise property values in the Historic Seventh Street District. But they sought to assure residents that no property owner would be forced to sell, upgrade their property or move because of potential changes in a five-block area. “This is not the Green Meadows project from back in the ‘70s,” City Manager John Connet told a gathering that filled the pews at the Agape Christian Fellowship on Cherry Street. “We want to do the sort of things that will allow you better opportunities to improve your property.”The Hendersonville City Council staked an investment in tax dollars in the historic district when it decided earlier this year to build a new police station on Ashe Street. Considered a stabilizing influence in an area spotted with vacant lots, rental housing and blight, the police station is being designed now and scheduled to be under construction about a year from now. Meanwhile, city planners have rolled out a rezoning that would give property owners greater flexibility in how buildings or land is used. ‘Not removing houses’ The Central Mixed Use zoning district is an urban-oriented designed to facilitate development in a pedestrian friendly way with attractive streetscapes and pockets of open space. Design requirements aim to “animate and enliven the streetscape” with such elements as changes in color or material, architectural lighting, works of art, fountains, pools, landscaping and gardens. Spelled out in 25 paragraphs of the zoning code, the streetscape requirements cover street trees and other landscaping (“replace dead vegetation with healthy living plantings”), urban open space and exterior facades of buildings.Significantly, however, single-family homes and duplexes are exempt from the streetscape requirements. Instead, the central mixed use zoning relaxes many residential zoning requirements, allowing greater flexibility for new development like zero-lot line cluster housing. The minimum lot area, at 8,000 square feet, is less than a quarter acre. Bounded by Barker, East Pace and Elm streets and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, the overlay district contains 65 lots and includes 27 rental houses, 16 vacant lots, 10 owner-occupied homes and two non-residential uses. It’s currently zoned R-6 residential. Property owners listen to a presentation about the proposed rezoning.“This change in zoning is not going to be removing houses,” Dylan Powell, a planning intern who presented the plan, told the property owners. “If you have a house here and want to keep it, you can. Property owners won’t be required to do anything different with their property if they don’t want to.”Homeowners asked several times in several different ways whether the city planned to condemn property for redevelopment. City officials said no.“This is a work in progress,” said Councilman Steve Caraker, who has been an advocate for Seventh Avenue revitalization for years. “What we’re talking about tonight is changing the ground rules to allow a lot more uses in here.”Among the 47 uses the zone permits are single-family homes, multi-family developments, garage apartments, hotels, B&Bs, parking garages, churches, restaurants, nursing and adult care homes, public buildings and microbreweries. While a new police station on Ashe Street would potentially spark development, Connet emphasizes that current landowners and private investors, not city taxpayers, will steer the future of Seventh Avenue.“We will bring a public institution into the neighborhood and we wanted our initial involvement to be as small as possible,” he said. The city cobbled together the police station land from three lots it owned, three vacant lots, one lot containing a rental house and just one that was owner-occupied.“We wanted to limit the purchase of houses that people were living in,” he said.In an interview Monday, Connet said he was generally pleased with the how the reception the rezoning presentation got.“I think we got good input,” he said. “We had people that had concerns but we had folks that were not so vocal come up to us and say they liked the idea. … The idea is we got in there first (with the police station), we rezone the property and let the market drive the change.”The city-initiated rezoning request is scheduled to go to the Planning Board on July 9 and to the City Council on Aug. 2.   Read Story »

News Archive