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County moves firing range meeting to Grove Street Courthouse

Henderson County News

Laurel Park holds work day for park

The town of Laurel Park is holding a volunteer work day Saturday to finish beautifying Rhododendron Lake Nature Park ahead of a big park dedication on Arbor Day, April 27. "We're expecting probably 20 people to volunteer," said Mayor Carey O'Cain. They could use more. "Meet at 9 Saturday morning at Town Hall and we'll divvy up responsibilities." Among the tasks are roadside cleanup, fertilizing and watering trees, pruning, raking, wheelbarrowing and speading mulch. Bring loppers, clippers, shovels, rakes and other garden tools, plus garden gloves, sunblock and water. The Rhododendron Lake Nature Park celebration from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday, April 27, features a history walk, ribbon cutting and an "ask the experts" time with master gardeners, birders, conservationists and others. People are encouraged to bring a picnic dinner and (for the park celebration event only) beer and wine are allowed.   Read Story »

North Carolina News

Former BRCC president seeking NC Senate seat on coast

David Sink, who served as president of Blue Ridge Community College for 20 years, is running for the state Senate in Brunswick County on the coast south of Wilmington.   Read Story »

Saluda News

Saluda residents call meeting to oppose firing range

SALUDA — Saluda citizens have called a communitywide meeting for Monday night to organize opposition to a sheriff's office firing range, two days before Henderson County commissioners are likely to confront a roomful of shooting range opponents. The community meeting is at 6:30pm at the Saluda Fire Department and invite everyone to attend to hear more about the plans that Henderson County is proposing.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

NCDOT sets meeting on I-26 widening

The NCDOT will hold a public meeting Monday to receive comments on the $400 million widening of I-26 from the I-240 junction to the U.S. 25 connector (exit 54). The 22-mile project, scheduled to start next year, involves widening the interstate to three lanes in each direction between the connector and the Asheville Highway interchange (exit 44) and four lanes in each direction from Asheville Highway to the I-40/I-240 interchange. "During a public comment period in October 2016, NCDOT heard concerns from citizens that proposed interchange improvements at Asheville Highway would result in a footprint that had too many impacts to homes and businesses," the NCDOT said. As a result engineers looked at two alternative designs that would have a smaller impact. The drop-in meeting is 4-7 p.m. at Biltmore Baptist Church, 35 Clayton Road in Arden. No formal presentation will be made. NCDOT engineers and other officials will be there to explain the plans, answer questions and receive comments. The public comment period ends May 1. To submit comments, email chood@ncdot.gov. Click here to see more on the project.         Read Story »

Henderson County News

IAM opens Working Women’s Clothing Closet

A woman struggling to make ends meet often can't afford a new wardrobe, an interview dress or specialized work clothes, or required clothing like medical scrubs or work boots. That's why Interfaith Assistance Ministry has opened a Working Women’s Clothing Closet to help local women who need appropriate or job specific clothing for a new or an existing job. The Community Foundation of Henderson County awarded IAM a $5,000 Women in Need of Support (WINS) grant to help pay for clothing and shoes for the Working Women’s Clothing Closet. The grant will be used to purchase required clothing for health care, service sector, food industry, manufacturing, office work and other jobs. In 1989, seven dedicated women from Henderson County who had a passion and desire to help women working to improve their lives established the WINS Endowment Fund.“We are so grateful for the generous assistance the Community Foundation’s WINS grant is providing to help IAM launch our Working Women’s Clothing Closet for women who are working hard to help keep their families and themselves afloat,” said Elizabeth Willson Moss, IAM’s executive director. “The cost of purchasing specialized shoes and clothing such as scrubs for health care jobs and steel-toed shoes and boots for industry can quickly reach $100 or more. We are thankful that our community can help us give our neighbors in need a hand-up with this clothing.”In March, IAM expanded crisis service hours to Saturdays from 9 a.m. - 1 p.m. to help residents who need crisis assistance seek help on the weekend. “Many of the local residents that IAM helps are working women,” said Becky Polonsky, IAM’s Board President and commercial relationship manager at United Community Bank. “We hope we can help them become more self-sufficient and more successful in their jobs.”Interfaith Assistance Ministry is located at 310 Freeman Street, off Four Seasons Boulevard, near the Blue Ridge Mall and beside Tequila’s restaurant. For more information, call 697-7029. To make a charitable donation to IAM, go on line at www.iam-hc.org or mail a check to IAM, PO Box 2562, Hendersonville, NC 28792.     Read Story »

Henderson County News

Foes deliver 1,600 signatures against Highland Lake widening

FLAT ROCK — The Cultural Landscape Group Flat Rock presented 1,595 petition signatures in opposition to the North Highland Lake Road project to the Flat Rock village council during the public comment period of the April 12 regular council meeting.   Read Story »

Laurel Park News

Crowds flocking to coffee shop/taproom/wine bar

Avery Ross caught a rare break on a recent afternoon at 4 o’clock as he stood behind the bar at Appalachian Coffee Co.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

LIGHTNING EDITORIAL: Political salvation at undisclosed location

The third time might be the charm for Sheriff Charlie McDonald, who has a site for a shooting range and tactical training center after more than two years of looking. It’s rare for the Board of Commissioners to insert a major policy or capital decision into its regular agenda with no advance notice. That’s what happened April 2. When commissioners emerged from a closed session, the law enforcement training center had popped up on an overhead projector. It was the first time in a year that commissioners had broached the subject during a board meeting and the sheriff himself had dropped the subject, at least publicly.McDonald’s first effort to site a tactical training center, in August 2015, triggered a huge uprising in the Green River community. When residents packed the county commission meeting room, commissioners summarily killed that idea. Trying to do the sheriff a favor in return, the commissioners endorsed County Manager Steve Wyatt’s recommendation to use free land at Blue Ridge Community College. That idea sparked even more widespread opposition. For starters, the BRCC site quadrupled the original cost, free land or not. Moving a firing range indoors, abating lead pollution, soundproofing walls so students next door could concentrate on math equations and English essays were expensive add-ons that escalated the cost to a jaw-dropping $20 million. If good ideas have a thousand fathers, bad ones become an orphan. The training center was looking like McDonald’s boondoggle and soon even he was running from it. By March of 2017, Commissioner Bill Lapsley had declared his opposition to a $20 million training center. By the time county officials cut the ribbon on the new Innovative High School last summer, it was clear that BRCC was out, though no one would say so publicly.The training center laid in a shallow grave until last month, when Commissioner Grady Hawkins neatly sketched an escape plan for McDonald, a few short weeks before his Republican primary contest with Lowell Griffin, the Polk County sheriff’s captain McDonald sacked in November 2014. McDonald the Reformer has worked hard to cultivate support among lots of constituencies and he does not look too vulnerable in this election. The pop pop pop of a firing range next to a high school in a time of heightened anxiety over school shootings may have been the sheriff’s biggest liability. Bad optics.At a joint news conference on school security three weeks ago, McDonald — flanked by commissioners and School Board members nodding their assent — vowed to deploy armed guards at all 23 public schools. Right on cue, Hawkins stepped forward to declare that now is the time for a cheaper but still excellent training center that among other things would drill deputies in school security and active shooter confrontation.So, somewhere, in an undisclosed wilderness location that Wyatt describes as “extremely remote,” a training center is what we shall have. The instinct for electoral survival and the gun violence crisis met, got married and birthed an extrication maneuver for the sheriff and the county commissioners. Ain’t politics grand?       Read Story »

Flat Rock News

Village to see revised widening plan on Friday

FLAT ROCK — The Flat Rock Village Council will see revised Highland Lake Road widening plans that are expected to reduce the footprint of the overall project. The NCDOT will present the revisions during a meeting of the council at 10 a.m. Friday at the Parish Hall at St. John in the Wilderness. The meeting is a special called meeting of the Village Council, not an NCDOT public hearing with large maps spread out on tables or tacked to walls. "They're not going to have paper drawings, they're just going to have a PowerPoint," said Village Administrator Judy Boleman. "I think as far as DOT is concerned they've had all the public meetings they plan on having." Back in the late fall, the council told the DOT, "This is too big. Bring us something back that minimizes the footprint and protects the church," she said. Residents have mounted an aggressive campaign to stop the widening, saying it takes too many trees at the Park at Flat Rock and would harm Pinecrest Presbyterian Church, potentially encroaching on the church's septic field and parking lot. After an appearance at Business Morning Update on Wednesday, NCDOT engineer Wanda Austin said the revised plan keeps a greenway through the park and improves the park entrance, protects historic property on the south side of the road and fixes an inadequate turning radius at Greenville Highway. "We never were impacting their septic system," she said of the church. Engineers have looked at that issue and determined that the project would not encroach on the septic field. "We're confident that their parking lot and their awning where they drop people off will not be impacted," she said. The project would remove a line of trees along Highland Lake Road that provides a sound and visual barrier. The NCDOT would replant trees once the widening is finished, Austin said. Anne Coletta, a founder and leader of the Cultural Landscape Group Flat Rock, which formed to oppose the Highland Lake Road project, said she planned to attend and hoped to speak on the revised plans. "I know they're going to be there to show them to the council," she said. I'm  assuming there may be some plans for public comment. Everyone needs to take some time to look at them and see what they're really doing. As a member of the Cultural Landscape Group, we are opposed to the widening project for a variety of reasons." She doubts the revisions will satisfy opponents "because we think the project is unnecessary and unneeded." She praised the NCDOT for being transparent and responsive when the activists have asked for information. The Cultural Landscape Group, which formed last December, has an executive committee of nine, said Coletta, who opposed the widening project when she served on the Village Council. Fifty or 60 people requested "Don't Urbanize Flat Rock" signs the organization made to oppose the Highland Lake widening. Coletta expects a big turnout for Friday's rollout of the revisions. "This is something that everybody's been interested in because it affects all the village, not just the North Highland Lake Road area," she said. "How this is handled will determine how road projects in the future will be handled. Part of our concern is how did this project get a point where DOT presents a plan? Our concern is the project has not been as transparent as we would like. Based on how this project moved up the line, that could be happening to other road projects in the village." John Dockendorf, who has been closely involved with the plan revisions as the Village Council's transportation liaison, said he has not seen the final version. "The truth, they're going to finish that plan Thursday night, probably late," he said. "We have certainly made requests to them. My best guess is that the road is going to stay at 12 feet (instead of 14 feet in the original plans) and that the only impact to the historic district woud be at corner of Highland Lake Drive and Greenville Highway where they're going to round that corner so buses can make that right turn (onto Highland Lake Road from Greenville Highway). It's stupid to have an interseciton that doesn't work, especially an intersection where there's some accidents. We want buses to be able to go to the Playhouse but they have to make that safe corner. We're expecting that would be the only impact and we're hoping Historic Flat Rock and landowner will appreciate that it's not affecting the historic property."   As for the shared park and Highland Golf Villas entrance, the council asked engineers to preserve two majestic oak trees. "Our request is for the safest park entrance possible and to preserve the two trees and minimize the impact on Dale's (auto repair shop)," he said. Dockendorf doubts that Pinecrest Church leaders and other project opponents will accept the changes. "For North Highland Lake Road, this is our window," he said. "We're not going to get another chance. We've asked them to do it as esthetically as possible. I have good faith belief that they're going to give us a plan that won't take too many trees. If if it's not a good plan the council will vote against it."   Read Story »

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