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Newman announces candidacy for second term

Fletcher News

Water main break closes Pardee urgent care in Fletcher

Due to a water main break in the Fletcher and Arden area, Pardee UNC Health Care announced this morning that all facilities at the Mission Pardee Health campus have been closed until further notice. This includes the YMCA, Pardee Urgent Care, all physician practices, Southeastern Sports Medicine, and Pardee Rehabilitation and Aquatic Therapy. Pardee officials are encouraging patients who need immediate care to go to the next closest emergency facilities: Park Ridge Health and Sisters of Mercy Urgent Care. The Pardee Urgent Care located off Four Seasons Blvd in Hendersonville remains open.Pardee officials will continue to monitor the situation and provide ongoing updates via Facebook and Twitter.   Read Story »

Laurel Park News

LIGHTNING EDITORIAL: Give roundabouts a chance

The prospect of roundabouts in Hendersonville seems to have flummoxed the motoring public and alarmed property owners. Roundabouts raise two different challenges. There’s no denying the fact that a roundabout takes up more room and thus would require the state to condemn more property to build them. We’re only at the mid stages as the NCDOT, local elected leaders and the public react, discuss and massage the plans. If nothing changed — an unlikely outcome — we would in the years ahead have three roundabouts on U.S. 64 — at Glasgow Lane, Pisgah Drive and White Pine Drive — one at White Street and Kanuga Road and a big one where South Church, South King and South Main streets meet.Right of way acquisition and utility line relocation is already under way for the first one we’ll drive around — on Greenville Highway at (realigned) Shepherd Street and Erkwood Drive. It can’t come too soon.“The whole thing with new traffic implementation, like when we do roundabouts, you’ve got to train people to drive safely through roundabouts,” said Hendersonville City Councilman Steve Caraker. “They’re not used to it. There’s a learning curve with anything you do. The people that navigate roundabouts well are the people that live near them and have to use them all the time.”So, the second challenge is whether the driving public will accept these changes, which are new to us but routine for millions of others. No, they’re not all in France. There are at least 10,300 roundabouts in the U.S. Florida has the most, followed by California and Texas.As we’ve said in these columns before, the NCDOT has proposed several efficient and well-designed road improvements for our area. Under these plans, it’s true, a ride through Laurel Park would be on a divided highway. U.S. 64 would have roundabouts to allow for safe, low-speed U-turns. A roundabout at Kanuga and White, it’s true, would be impossible without taking some business property or entire businesses. Those are not by themselves reasons to kill the improvements. The talk at public meetings seems to be based more on emotion and fear than on facts about the safety and efficiency, where roundabouts have a very good record.Are roundabouts safer for motorists, pedestrians and bicycle riders than conventional signalized intersections? Yes, and don’t take our word for it.According to the Federal Highway Administration, roundabouts typically achieve a 37 percent reduction in overall collisions, a 75 percent reduction in collisions resulting in injury, a 90 percent reduction in fatalities and a 40 percent reduction in pedestrian collisions. Why? Because one-way travel eliminates the possibility of T-bone and head-on collisions. One-way travel eliminates “intersection ambiguity” factors such as right on red and beating the light. Roundabouts naturally slow intersection traffic to 15-20 mph.Pedestrians are safer, too. So-called splitter islands (see rendering) provide a space between opposing lanes at each pedestrian crossing, and each crosswalk is set back at least one full car length from the roadway yield sign. During public hearings, the caterwauling crowd tells us that roundabouts will maim and kill elderly drivers. That’s false. Conventional intersections maim and kill much more efficiently. Older drivers are twice as likely crashes as younger drivers to be killed in intersection crashes. The FHA analysis of roundabouts cites a report that roundabouts generate economic benefits for nearby businesses. A road improvement project that included four roundabouts, landscaping, medians and sidewalks along a commercial stretch of highway in Golden, Colorado, lowered the crash rate from 5.9 crashes per million vehicle miles to .2 crashes MVM, resulted in slower speeds and faster travel time through the corridor and increased sales tax revenue by 60 percent along the roadway.“Well-designed roundabouts,” the engineers concluded, “are good for communities and businesses.”We know roundabouts and medians are still a tough sell, for business owners who may lose all or part of their real estate, for residents who would be blocked from left turns out of neighborhoods, and for the vocal No Change! caucus. But for the good of all, we ought to give the new roundabout designs a chance. As we are seeing on Kanuga Road and Highland Lake Road, if we allow only those who shout the loudest and plant the most yard signs to win the argument, we’ll be stuck in traffic a long time.         Read Story »

Henderson County News

County threatens to pull Waste Pro's garbage permit

The Henderson County Board of Commissioners put a big garbage hauler on notice that it better improve its residential collection service or risk losing its permit to operate in the county.Waste Pro recently bought Republic’s residential routes in Henderson County and Brevard, adding 8,000 new households that it has had trouble servicing. Waste Pro had just 800 residential customers here before it bought the Republic accounts.“We recognize we have some service issues out there,” John Witherspoon, region operations manager for Waste Pro, told the decidedly unfriendly audience of commissioners at their regular meeting Monday night. “We acquired these customers from Republic. … In reference to not having enough staffing, we were going to retain their drivers, 22 people. … At the last second it didn’t happen. Otherwise we would have had several people, trained and ready to go. The documentation (of customers) was not quite up to par. There was lot of customers that shouldn’t be on there that were and a lot that should have been on there that wasn’t. ... You probably already know this already, a lot of these calls have already went down. …This was just a multitude of bad things that happened.”Will Sagar, of the Southeast Recycling Development Council, said he had received reports of Waste Pro trucks dumping recycling in with the garbage. When customers see that, he said, they lose the incentive to recycle, the success of which depends on household customers taking the trouble segregate the waste stream.County Manager Steve Wyatt and county Engineer Marcus Jones described a sharp rise in complaints from former Republic customers now served by Waste Pro. Unfortunately for Waste Pro, one of the unhappy customers was Michael Edney, the chair of the Board of Commissioners, who lives in Flat Rock.Edney said he and some of his neighbors had called repeatedly when the garbage hauler missed their houses. The company promised to come within 24 hours and did only so only one time out of four. One time, the hauler came and picked up his trash but left all his neighbors’ homes, also Waste Pro customers, with piles of trash.“It’s unacceptable,” he said.“The bottom line is you folks got to get this taken care of or we’re going to pull the permit,” Commissioner Tommy Thompson added.Commissioners gave the company 30 days to fix the problems or risk having its permit revoked.Witherspoon pledged to get the books right and get everyone served.“There’s still a lot of customers we don’t know about and we’re not going to know about until they slowly trickle in,” he said.Outside the meeting room, he said was confident Waste Pro can catch the households it’s been missing.“We’ll get it straightened out,” he said. “That’s what we do.”     Read Story »

Henderson County News

Downtown cameo is an X-Files mystery

A split-second image of downtown Hendersonville in a recent episode of the “X-Files” was as mystifying to local viewers as the science-fiction show’s unanswered questions involving the supernatural.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Which restaurant is offering '90s throwback prices?

Haus Heidelberg German Restaurant is marking its 24th anniversary a “’90’s Throwback Weekend” featuring a retro menu from the first year they opened. The special menu offered Feb. 2-4 will include not only the dishes they served at the time but also the same prices at which they were first offered.“It’s become one of the biggest yearly events we hos,” said owner and chef Helge Gresser. “Our first Throwback Weekend was held on our 20th anniversary, and it was a huge hit. Our customers love to come in and get their favorite dishes for such a discounted rate. It’s our way of thanking the community for supporting us for so long.”   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Super Bowl party benefits United Way

United Way of Henderson County invites the community to a Super Bowl party at Southern Appalachian Brewery, 822 Locust Street, on Sunday to benefit the United Way. Doors open at 2 p.m. and Super Bowl LII kicks off at 6:30 p.m. SAB craft beer will be featured throughout the evening with special release secret batches at kickoff and halftime as well as giveaways from United Way. The Olive Food Truck will be there. Ten percent of proceeds benefit United Way.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Remember canned goods on Souper Sunday

Remember your canned goods at worship services this weekend for the Souper Bowl of Caring. In photo, Jennica Tapia, with the Rev. Kathryn Cameron, shows a snack box that First Presbyterian Church will donate to the Interfaith Assistance Ministry to feed the needy. Mark White, a real estate broker and appraiser, donated 100 snack boxes to the church for this year’s Souper Bowl of Caring, which wraps up on Sunday. In the weeks leading up the Super Bowl, congregations, youth groups and other organizations around the country collect canned soup and cash donations for local organizations that feed the needy. In 2017, 6,542 groups across the country participated, including many congregations and groups in Henderson County. White runs the volunteer group Feeding by Grace, which cooks hot dogs, pizza and chicken on Seventh Avenue every Thursday night. He also cooks at sites in Asheville and Forest City. “I’m always looking for a deal on something,” White said of the snack boxes, which contain chips, tuna, cookies and other treats. “They retail for $4.75 apiece. We found 7,000 that they sold us for a dollar apiece because they’re not uniform.” He resold enough to break even and is giving the rest away. Feeding by Grace gives out the snack boxes when it’s too rainy or cold to cook out.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Veteran volunteer is girls soccer coach of the year

Volunteer coach Tom Jones received the North Carolina Youth Soccer Association 2018 Girls Recreation Coach of the Year award on Sunday, Jan. 28, at the association’s annual soccer show in Raleigh. Jones has volunteered as a soccer coach in Henderson County Parks & Recreation Department’s recreation soccer program since 2005, when he started coaching his oldest child’s team. Over the past 13 years, Jones has coached his three children through the program, for a total of 17 teams, and counting. Jones has worked hard to develop player skills, and has taken incredible steps to understand the game of soccer beyond a surface knowledge. Jones exhibits all the qualities sought in every volunteer coach: dedication to providing the best player experience possible, player development, and teaching sportsmanship to players and parents alike. Henderson County recognizes that Jones is a busy father, husband, and businessman and appreciates his involvement in the soccer program.  Jones is the fourth volunteer coach from Henderson County to receive a coach of the year award from NCYSA since 2013. The recreation program is dependent on the involvement of quality volunteer coaches such as Jones to coach the over 500 youth players each season. Registration is currently underway for the spring season. More information about the program is online atwww.HCPRD.com.       Read Story »

Henderson County News

National forest roads taking a beating from winter weather

Turkey Pen Gap Road on the Pisgah Ranger District will be temporarily closed due to damage that resulted from vehicles traveling on the road during winter weather conditions. The road has ruts up to two feet deep in spots and is very slick making it unsafe for vehicles. A gate will be installed at the Forest Service boundary on Turkey Pen Gap Road. Visitors are reminded not to park on private property in the area before the gate. Several other gravel roads are currently closed because they are highly susceptible to damage in freeze-thaw weather conditions. Freezing nights and warm days loosen gravel making it easy for tires to degrade the road surface and create ruts. Unfortunately some drivers have gotten past the locked gates. People who violate the emergency closures have caused significant damage which will extend the closures until repairs can be made. "This year many of our locks were cut off the gates exposing the roads to traffic during this sensitive time," said Pisgah District Ranger Dave Casey. "On some roads the damage is so severe that I'm unsure of when we'll be able to repair and reopen them." Avery Creek Road, Head Waters Road, Yellow Gap Road and Bent Creek Road from Ledford Branch trailhead up to the Blue Ridge Parkway are also temporarily closed. There is no timeline for their reopening because it is dependent upon both the weather and necessary repairs. Casey added, "We do not have the funding to grade and gravel all of the district roads multiple times per year. Our budget is generally sufficient to grade only the roads with the greatest need once per year. And if we have extensive road damage to fix, those repairs leave us less money to do regular road maintenance." All gravel roads are rough at this time and visitors are asked to drive on any open roads with extreme caution to avoid causing damage. Damaged roads not only reduce access for the public but can inhibit emergency responders from accessing the forest to perform public safety duties. Across the National Forests in North Carolina, certain roads are seasonally closed to motorized vehicles to reduce road maintenance costs, help protect wildlife habitat, decrease wildlife disturbance, and in specific cases to protect public safety during long bouts of adverse weather. On all Forest Service roads, emergency closures due to weather or resource conditions can occur at any time. Proper and timely road closures will lengthen the surface life of the road.   Read Story »

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