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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 »

Henderson County News

DRIVER IN FATAL CRASH SENT TO PRISON

The driver responsible for a head-on crash that killed a 17-year-old high school student 15 months ago is going to prison. A Henderson County Superior Court jury on Monday convicted Matthew Schmieder, 37, of second degree murder and Superior Court Judge Julia Gullet immediately sentenced him to 16¾ years in prison, meaning he would be eligible for parole in 13 years, at age 50. Schmieder was charged with second-degree murder in the head-on crash that killed Derek Miller, a popular senior at East Henderson High School on Dec. 22, 2016. After the verdict but before sentencing, Derek's father, Darrell Miller, addressed the jury. "Derek would get up every morning and tell his mother he loved her," he said, speaking haltingly and through tears. "Every afternoon when he came home from school he asked her how her day had been. And now she just stands in an empty room." "Derek earned a diploma he didn't receive. We went on a vacation trip that would have been his. But he wasn't there. His brother didn't lose a brother, he lost a best friend. It's been hours of sadness." Financially, he said, the family would have been ruined without their friends, church and community. "I have anger. It's the first time I've ever been in court. I'm happy with the verdict and happy with the process." When the court clerk read the verdict, Schmieder took off his glasses for a moment then put them back on. He was taken into custody after the judge sentenced him to prison. The defense submitted letters from family members, friends and civic organizations attesting to his good character. "I've never had this many people reach out to me ever before," defense attorney Beth Stang said. Newman said afterwards he was pleased with the verdict. "It was a hard case, a loss of life of someone so young." Stang, the public defender who represented Schmieder, and District Attorney Greg Newman gave their closing arguments before Judge Julia Gullet sent the jury to deliberate, at 2:40 p.m. Jurors returned an hour later, asking the judge for a copy of Schmieder's driving record and photos of the crash scene. Defense attorney Beth Stang urged the jury to think beyond convicting or acquitting on the second murder and consider instead involuntary manslaughter or death by vehicle, two lesser charges that Judge Julia Gullet told jurors in her instructions they could consider. In her closing arguments, Stang said she would not diminish the loss for the Miller family. "This is a difficut case with difficult evidence. Lots of hearts were broken and you heard from one who had the biggest break and you know her," Stang said, referring to Angie Miller, Derek's mother. "No mother should have to do what she had to do that night" in identifying her son's body. "This was a bad wreck. I'm not here to ask you to think it was not terrible. But the law trumps anger, the law trumps sadness." Stang emphasized to the jury that conviction on a second degree murder charge requires elements of intention and malice she said were not present that night. "The wreck was clearly not intentional," she said. "Your verdict lies in the middle, involuntary manslaughter or death by vehicle." Newman challenged Stang's argument. "Real people make real choices with real consequences," he said. "Consequences that impact people's lives forever. Second degree murder is the unlawful killing of another human being." Newman urged jurors to set aside the judge's characterization of Miller as "the alleged victim." "Derek Miller, 17, was a member of this community. There is nothing alleged about it," he said. "The defendant Matthew Schmieder should not have been driving," he went on. "His license was suspended. He knew he should not have been driving." "There is circumstantial proof, a chain of events," he said. "Mr. Schmieder got behind the wheel and drove real fast. He knew where he was going. He intentionally drove too fast on Kanuga Road. It was pitch black outside ... There were a lot of people out and about, more than normal I would say. ... There's a pattern of behavior in his driving. He just doesn't care. And it cost him. But not anything like it cost this Miller family here. No mistake about it. This was avoidable." Holding up for the jury a picture of Derek taken four days before his death and held up a photo of the crash scene, Newman challenged Stang's comment in her close that the jury was there to interpret the law, not to send a message. "Verdicts do send messages. Make no mistake about that," he said. "Make the message be, 'You've got to follow the law.' Hold him accountable." EARLIER COVERAGE: Schmieder testified that he drank three beers with a dinner of steak and baked potato then one more when he ran into friends before he left South Rock Grill some time around 7:30 the night of Dec. 22. He told Stang that he has no memory of what happened after he pulled out of the Greenville Highway bar to head home. “I don’t know what would put me in that much of a hurry,” he said. “I don’t know why I would think it was OK to do it. I have no idea why I would do that. I know I caused it. I know I’m wholly responsible for the accident. I’ve never been more sorry for anything. I’m just real sorry.” Stang’s decision to put Schmieder on the stand came with some risk, given that the move allowed Newman to recount in detail the 10 speeding tickets Schmieder had gotten since he started driving at age 17 and the fact that his license was revoked when the fatal crash happened. But in the end, Newman’s questioning did not seem to draw out anything more incriminating than the jury had already heard. Schmieder, who hobbled to the witness stand with the use of a cane, also testified that he was not impaired the night of the accident, that he "felt fine" to drive when he left the South Rock Grill. Wearing a dark suit, blue dress shirt and red tie, he answered questions as Stang guided him through his school and career history and his driving record. He moved with his family to Hendersonville when he was a freshman, and attended Hendersonville High School. After graduating from Western Carolina University in 2004, he did odd jobs and worked at golf courses before he got his first accounting job, in 2006. He received a masters degree in accounting from WCU in 2009 and had been working in his own solo accounting practice since then, serving clients in Hendersonville. He testified that he bought the 2012 BMW he was driving the night of crash because he felt business clients would perceive the car's owner as "someone who was financially responsible." Stang guided her client through his driving record, which is replete with speeding tickets and also included a fender bender on King Street and a citation for driving while his license was suspended, in November 2016, a month before the fatal crash. Schmieder recalled what happened when a state Highway Patrol trooper pulled him over on U.S. 74 in Polk County. The trooper told him his license was suspended and he had until Feb. 15, 2017, "to clear it up." Schmieder testifed that he took that to mean his license was not actually suspended yet, even though he admitted to knowing that the trooper asked his brother to drive before he let them go. Schmieder said he followed up the Monday after Thanksgiving of 2016, found out he owed fines totaling about $600, and decided he would wait until after Christmas to pay them and get his license reinstated. He also testified that when he got a ticket for a rear-end collision on King Street, he did not know he had to go to court to answer for the charge. His license was revoked after that, though he said he was not aware of that and had not received a notification of that the Department of Motor Vehicles sent to his condo on March 13, 2014. He testified about two occasions after that when law officers checked his drivers license, said nothing about a revocation and handed it back to him — once when he accidentally set off a burglar alarm at his office and a second time when he went through a DUI checkpoint. When he was released from Mission hospital and a rehab center after the crash, he said on the stand, he paid fines at the clerk of court office and at the DMV, which issued him a new drivers license. He went to court in Polk County. "I showed the district attorney by regular license. He dismissed all the charges and sent me home," he said. Asked about his injuries from the crash, Schmieder testified that he sustained a concussion, broke his left arm, his collarbone and four ribs, cracked his sternum, broke his left femur, tore tendons in both knees, had "really bad compound fractures" of both legs below the knees and had severely broken ankles and feet. Stang asked him when he found out that he had killed someone in the crash. He woke up from the injuries for the first time on Jan. 3, he said, "and was told straight away that I'd been in a car accidnt and it was bad." Three days later, his brother and his best friend told him that Derek Miller, the driver of the pickup truck he hit, had died. "It was horrible," he said. "I didn't know what to do. I couldn't do anything to fix it. I told my brother and my friend all I could do was just try and be better and in some way try to make up for something I could never make up for." "You knew it was your fault?" Stang asked. "I did," he said. On cross examination, Newman recounted what Schmieder did when he left South Rock — speeding, crossing a double yellow line to pass cars and then crashing at high speed head-on into the pickup truck driven by Miller. "I've heard testimony of no emergency that would necessitate driving in a fast and frantic manner to get home," Newman said. "How do you explain your behavior and your actions?" "I can't," Schmieder responded. "There's no explanation." Newman pointed out that Schmieder as an accountant advises clients on following the rules, yet he seemed to ignore the consequences of his speeding tickets and traffic citations. "It's your testimony that you didn't know you had to do anything about it" when he received the ticket for the King Street collision, Newman said. "You just thought it was a notice that you caused a wreck. ... A man with a masters degree and you didn't think you had to go to court." Newman asked if he remembered the testimony from first responders that he said at the crash scene, "I caused this" and "I 'eff'd up,' paraphrasing of course." The D.A. pointed out that Schmieder remembered from the day of the crash the clients he served, a text from his brother inviting him to meet for dinner, what time he went, what he ate and drank and what time he settled up — yet "You don't remember anything from that point on?" Because Schmieder received a blood transfusion in the operating room at Mission before blood was drawn for testing, the state was left with no admissable blood alcohol reading. The defense team drew testimony, both from prosecution witnesses and a defense witness, that Schmieder did not appear to be impaired the night he left South Rock Grill. A bar manager and waitress testified to that on Thursday. On Friday, the defense called Mike Summey, a casual friend of Schmieder's who testified that Schmieder did not appear to be impaired. Superior Court Judge Julia Gullett denied a defense motion to dismiss the second-degree murder charge on the ground that Schmieder's action did not rise to the level of malice required under the law. The defense has a couple more witnesses to call Monday morning. After closing arguments, the case would go to the jury.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Budget 'embraces polar opposite' of conservative goals, Meadows says

U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows, leader of the Freedom Caucus, ripped the $1.3 trillion budget that the House passed on Thursday, saying the spending plan "flatly rejects" promises conservative Republicans made to voters. Here's his statement Meadows issued Thursday: This omnibus is nowhere close to what Republicans promised to fight for. When the American people sent us to Congress, their message was loud and their mandate clear: Secure the border; Repeal and replace Obamacare; Protect Second Amendment rights from bureaucrats in Washington; Defund Planned Parenthood; Cut wasteful spending; ‘Drain the swamp’ and change the unsustainable way Washington, D.C. does business. This budget embraces the polar opposite of these principles. We are not funding the wall. We are putting Second Amendment rights at risk. We are failing to provide families relief from Obamacare. We are still sending taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood. We are not cutting federal funds to sanctuary cities. We are growing the size of government at a break-neck pace. And we are doing all of this through a 2,300 page spending bill, written privately by four leadership members, that became public only 24 hours ago. This is wrong. This is not the limited government conservatism our voters demand. Our constituents—our employers—deserve better. Republicans in Congress today were faced with a choice: Vote ‘yes’ and fund the military while embracing record levels of spending with a list of unfulfilled promises; or vote no, go back to the drawing board, and get to work on a real proposal, with a real process, that funds our troops and actually fights to deliver the bill of goods that we promised the American people. Members of the Freedom Caucus chose to vote no, because this omnibus doesn’t just forget the promises we made to voters—it flatly rejects them.   Read Story »

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