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Jay Egolf announces run for School Board

Hendersonville News

Metal detector seeks owner of gold wedding ring

Metal detecting hobbyist Denny Foresman hopes a groom out there somewhere will retrieve a wedding ring that he found at a soccer field at Sandhill-Venable Elementary School in Asheville.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Landlord, lender evicted Black Star Line brewery

Black Star Line Brewing Co. shined bright in its short-lived time in downtown Hendersonville. It made news regionally, winning positive coverage for what its founder and owner audaciously described as a pioneering “African American and queer-owned” microbrewery. It made the police blotter when managers reported that someone had made death threats and written racial slurs in an email. As the guest on a statewide public radio interview show, founder and brewer L.A. McCrae described a success story based on her upbringing in the African-American church and her decision to open a brewery in Hendersonville, a quiet retirement haven.A star that burned too bright, the business abruptly flickered out on Thursday, Jan. 18, when the brewery’s landlord and lender evicted the owners, padlocked the door and called police. Even then, mysterious things went on. Ten hours after the place closed, someone broke in, wrote racial slurs on a wall and took the recording machine that could have captured an image of the perpetrator.Interviews and a search of public records by the Hendersonville Lightning revealed that the brewery had piled up debt and exhausted the patience of its lender, a nonprofit called Mountain BizWorks, and the owner of the building at 131Third Avenue West, landscape architect Luther Smith. Black Star Line took over the space that had first been made into a microbrewery by Basic Brewing Co., which closed last Sept. 3. Black Star Line opened seven weeks later after making a deal to buy the brewing equipment from Basic owner Richard Wenger, according to Smith.“We had a lease with the client and after several months of not paying it we said, ‘You guys need to straighten this out,’” Smith said. “My understanding was Mountain BizWorks put up the funds to buy his equipment to help them start the business.”Smith said Mountain BizWorks personnel came back to the building on Monday to move out furniture and artwork. When he went down to the basement to check on a water leak, Smith was surprised to learn that the brewery equipment had already been moved out.“Our concern with everything going on was we couldn’t get the rent from them,” he said. “After three or four months, we said, ‘What’s going on?’” The owners responded that they “didn’t have the funding to even pay our help. The business got out of hand.” Patrick Fitzsimmons, executive director of Mountain BizWorks, confirmed that the agency had made a startup loan but said the details are not public.“The reason they went out of business was because the lease on the facility was terminated by their landlord,” he said. Asked why, he said, “nonpayment.”Mountain Biz Works is a U.S. Treasurer-certified community development lender that helps small businesses that may not qualify for loans from banks and other traditional sources. It makes loans of $1,000 to $250,000 to finance startups.“We are an SBA intermediary but I can’t say whether that loan was SBA,” Fitzsimmons said. “We also have other sources of funding.”Asked whether the agency was working with Black Star Line on the loan, he said, “That kind of depends on the client.” Residential landlord evicts brewery owner Meanwhile, the owner of the house McCrae was renting on Mountain View Street filed a small claims action to evict McCrae for failing to pay rent. Property owner Stephen Norwood said in the document that the tenant owed $1,455 in rent and had refused to vacate the house. McCrae said in an interview that the landlord and lender swooped in and closed the business down before she had a chance to bring in the revenue to pay past-due bills.“The loan was never in default,” she said.She compares her story to that of the brewery’s namesake. Founded by Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association, Black Star Line shipping company operated from 1919 to 1922.“We were drawing the parallel that there was a lot of collusion to keep Black Star Line out of business and to completely humiliate” Garvey. “We’ve experienced something very similar with our closing,” she said. “We would have been able to recover in that location right now if those actions had not been taken.”After she was evicted on Jan. 18, she never got the chance to retrieve personal belongings from the building, she said.“The lender and the landlord literally painted over the hate messages that were scrawled on the walls without even telling us what they were,” she said. “We were never notified of the break-in.”A police report filed on Friday, Jan. 19 listed Mountain BizWorks as the victim, not Black Star Line, because the lending agency had taken possession of the taproom.Police Chief Herbert Blake said there has been no progress in the investigation of the vandalism, racial threats and break-in.“The detectives have it,” he said. “They have not developed any leads. It remains open but there have not been leads to follow.”McCrae said she and four other Black Star workers lived in the Mountain View house off Hebron to save money.“We did not have the money starting up, so one of the things that we did to reduce cost and be creative was living together,” she said. “The events that were happening would have provided the cash we needed to pay our rent. So the lender making this decision … has rendered employees and team members of Black Star Line homeless. We lost tens of thousands of dollars of revenue because of the way things were handled. It literally forces us out of the community.”McCrae said the media had “hyper-sensationalized” the news about the brewing company. She added that she’s sorry her venture had to close.“I take full responsibility for our actions at Black Star Line that we’ve contributed to this situation,” she said. “Just a sincere apology to the community that was gathering at Black Star Line because it was extremely diverse and extremely unique in Henderson County and certainly in Hendersonville. I can count at least a dozen couples who met at Black Star Line Brewing Co. who would not have met otherwise. So it’s extremely unfortunate that this place that at the end of the day was a community center and brewery has been lost. … I felt like I was welcomed in the community even in the midst of the death threats and the vandalism and the break-ins. It’s a loss to me. I’m grieving. It’s a loss on every front and, yes, it’s absolutely devastating.”     Read Story »

Henderson County News

Don't miss this week's Hendersonville Lightning (160)

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

Henderson County News

Raccoon that tangled with cat had rabies

EDNEYVILLE —Health Department officials and the sheriff's office are warning pet owners in the St. Paul’s Road area to look out for unusual behavior by their pets after a raccoon that fought with a pet cat tested positive for rabies. The North Carolina State Laboratory of Public Health on Tuesday confirmed the first positive rabies case in Henderson County this year. Deputies are posting fliers and contacting residences within a mile radius of the intersection of St. Paul’s and Beehive roads in Edneyville. The event happened Sunday, and the cat owner shot and killed the raccoon. Both the raccoon and cat were taken to Animal Services, and the raccoon was shipped to the state lab. Because the cat had not received the rabies vaccine, it will be euthanized and sent to the state lab to be tested for rabies. Because the raccoon and cat may have interacted with other pets or wild animals in the area, residents were warned to watch for sickness in pets or wildlife. Anyone who may have had contact with an unfamiliar pet or wild animal recently should contact a Communicable Disease Nurse with the Department of Public Health at 828-694-6019 immediately. If you think your pet was exposed or have questions, call the Henderson County Sheriff Office's Animal Enforcement Division at 697-4911. Rabies is a deadly viral disease affecting the central nervous system. Rabies can be prevented but not cured. A healthy animal or human can get rabies when bitten, licked or scratched by a sick animal. Officials with the Henderson County Sheriff’s Animal Enforcement Division and the Department of Public Health are urging residents to ensure their pet’s rabies vaccination is current and to contact a veterinarian immediately if their pet seems injured from an unknown cause, displays unusual behaviors or appears sick—even if the animal is current on its rabies vaccination. For more information about rabies, visit the Health Department’s website at hendersoncountync.org/health and click on the Communicable Disease link.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Deputies find pot-growing operation, make arrest

Henderson County sheriff’s deputies charged a 43-year-old local man with four felony counts after allegedly finding an indoor pot-growing operation Henderson County Sheriff’s Office SWAT Team executed a search warrant at 214 Salisbury Road on Thursday in connection with a drug investigation being conducted by the Sheriff’s Office Direct Enforcement Team (DET). During the search of the residence, detectives encountered an operational indoor marijuana grow operation, which was safely dismantled. In addition, detectives seized approximately 347 grams of processed Marijuana, approximately 2.7 grams of extracted THC resin, a quantity of methamphetamine, multiple drug paraphernalia items, and six (6) firearms, to include an assault rifle and shotgun. Detectives contacted the Henderson County Department of Social Services after it was determined two school age children lived in the residence; the children were not at home during the subsequent search and arrest. Jonathan Zion Mills, of 214 Salisbury Road, was charged with:Felony Manufacturing MarijuanaFelony Possession with Intent to Manufacture, Sell, or Deliver Schedule VI Controlled SubstanceFelony Possession of MethamphetamineFelony Maintain a Vehicle, Dwelling, or Place for Controlled SubstancesMisdemeanor Possession of Marijuana Paraphernalia Mills was released from custody after posting a $24,200 bond.     Read Story »

Henderson County News

Democrats cautiously optimistic about 'blue wave'

Although Democrats sense momentum this election year, they’re not so far removed from 2016 that they dismiss the unexpected. “You can feel it for one thing,” state Rep. John Ager, a Democrat from Fairview who was elected in 2014, said of the party’s energy. “I was at the ladies’ march yesterday — 70,000 people. It was unbelievable. The poll numbers are looking good. … We think it’s going to be a blue wave but I don’t want to be overconfident. We’ve got to work hard.” Supporters gathered on Jan. 21 for the kickoff of Scott Donaldson’s campaign for the 11th Congressional District, a seat held by three-term incumbent Mark Meadows, who as chair of the conservative Freedom Caucus is a regular guest on cable TV and in negotiating huddles at the White House. That just fires up the Democrats even more. As a physician and supporter of a single-payer system, Donaldson challenges critics in the Republican Party who say single-payer won’t work. “Medicare is a single-payer system,” he said. He rattled off statistics about European countries doing better than the U.S. in life expectancy and other measures. “They live longer than we do,” he said. “The fetal demise rate is half of what ours is.” He mocks the idea of putting Medicaid recipients to work. “The majority of Medicaid recipients are in nursing homes,” he says. He criticized the past several presidents for prolonging wars, then boasting that they’re taking care of veterans. “I will tell you that the best way to take care of veterans is to stop making new veterans,” he said. “Because if you break a man’s brain, you won’t fix a brain after you break that brain.” Donaldson said he’s been gathering support from Republicans who are unhappy with Washington. “They’re not going to put my bumper stickers on their car,” he says. “But they’re going to vote for me.” “We still think it’s a Don Quixote idea,” he said of his longshot candidacy. “We’ve done some videos and got 3,000 views. A number have hit a thousand. I had a doctor from Waynesville knock on my door one day” and offer to help, because of his interest in opioid abuse.  Nancy Waldrop, a Democrat from Candler and member of Donaldson’s campaign committee, said the physician can go toe-to-toe with Meadows on the issues and top him in campaign style. “Scott can do everything Mark Meadows is known for doing in terms of talking to people, attracting people, understanding the subject,” she said. “Scott can do that equally as well. Scott has a sense of humor and that I think that is a very good part of it. I think he can relate to people.” Michael Careccia, a 25-year-old apprentice electrician, is a Democrat running for a seat on on the all-Republican Caldwell County Board of Commissioners. He attended an anti-Trump march Saturday in Lenoir. “The first big march we’ve had in quite a while,” he said. “We had well over a hundred people.” Redistricting of congressional and legislative maps is also a big topic. Ager lamented that the U.S. Supreme Court had blocked a lower court’s order that would have forced North Carolina’s Republican-controlled Legislature to redraw congressional maps. The son-in-law of Democrat Jamie Clarke, Ager recalls the days when the N.C. 11th was known as one of the most competitive seats in the nation. Clarke defeated Republican Rep. Bill Hendon in 1982, lost to Hendon in 1984 and unseated him again in 1986. He narrowly won re-election over Charles Taylor in 1988, then lost to Taylor two years later. “I’ve been gerrymandered out of District 11,” Ager said. “My community, Fairview, is linked (in the 10th District) to Gastonia. I was really hoping that we could be put back into No. 11 because that area carries a lot of Democratic registration.” “And independents,” someone in the crowd shouted. Another 2018 candidate, Norm Bossert, a retired principal who is running for the state Senate seat held by Chuck Edwards, praised Donaldson’s health care platform. “Scott’s message about health care is just what has got people thinking,” Bossert said. “It’s a perfect message.” In order to take on Meadows, Donaldson would have to defeat Democrat Phillip Price of Marion.     Read Story »

Henderson County News

Public comment sought on moving Confederate monuments

RALEIGH — Members of the public may use a new online portal to comment on a proposal to relocate three Confederate monuments from the State Capitol grounds in Raleigh to the Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site in Four Oaks.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

AVL sets all-time record in 2017, eyes terminal makeover

Asheville Regional Airport continued its rapid growth in passenger use in 2017, logging its fourth straight year of record numbers with almost 1 million flyers. An all-time high of 956,634 passengers used the airport in 2017, a 15.7 percent increase over 2016 and 50 percent more than five years ago. "The airport has been growing during the past few years, and 2017 was especially significant," said Lew Bleiweis, A.A.E., Executive Director. "The airlines expanded their services with larger planes and more seats and frequencies to existing destinations, and a new airline and route was also added. Equally important, our region's travelers continued to use their local airport."Western North Carolina's recognition and significant success as a prime tourist destination has been key to the airport's utilization and air service growth. The airport is working to manage growth. On the horizon are plans to expand the Transportation Security Administration screening area from two lanes to three. The airport is also in discussion with the TSA regarding implementation of TSA Pre-check.A new five-story parking garage is now open, providing convenient covered parking for travelers.Last, the airport is beginning an extensive terminal assessment study to determine infrastructure and spatial needs to serve growing numbers of people now and into the future. Once the study is complete, next steps will be identified.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Schools called off

A dusting of snow coated the area Tuesday morning, leaving hazardous road conditions and closing Henderson County schools. The high Tuesday was only expected to reach 33 and the low overnight should drop to around 21. Wednesday will be sunny with a high of 43 while the high Thursday should reach 50, forecasters said. Then it gets cold again with a high Friday of 38 and an overnight low around 20.     Read Story »

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