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Moore to appeal Elections Board decision

Hendersonville News

Repairs on Blythe Street bridge to continue to July 28

The N.C. Department of Transportation expect to be working on repairs to a small bridget on Blythe Street until July 28.    Read Story »

Henderson County News

United Way needs volunteers for Day of Action on Aug. 18

United Way of Henderson County is seeking hundreds of volunteers throughout the community for the second annual Day of Action sponsored by Pardee/UNC Health Care on Aug. 18.   Read Story »

Hendersonville News

Remodeled Aldi store will reopen on July 27

The Aldi store on Duncan Hill Road will reopen on Thursday, July 27 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 8:25 a.m. and special shopping deals for the first 100 customers.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Deputy facing assault charges has been fired

A Henderson County Sheriff’s deputy, who was arrested and charged with assault on a female Tuesday night, has been fired. Major Frank Stout of the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office, gave this report of the incident: "On July 11, at 6:23 pm, the Asheville Police Department responded to a domestic violence call. Cory Thomas Burton, age 39 of Arden, was arrested and charged with assault on a female. Burton was being held in the Buncombe County Jail on no bond. His employment with the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office has been terminated."Burton was released from jail on an unsecured bond around 4 p.m. Wednesday, a jail official said.     Read Story »

Henderson County News

Agencies invited to apply for emergency food, shelter funds

The Emergency Food and Shelter Program has announced that Henderson County has been awarded $13,966 to provide emergency food and shelter assistance.Agencies interested in helping others with economic emergencies have two weeks to apply for the federal funds.The deadline to apply is 5 p.m. Friday, July 28. For more information, contact Jessica Chipriano at United Way of Henderson County at jchipriano@liveunitedhc.org or call 828-692-1636, ext. 1105, for an application.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Pardee Foundation receives $750,000 endowment gift

Pardee Hospital Foundation announced Wednesday that its board of directors will honor the recent $750,000 bequest received from the late Elizabeth Warrick, a Henderson County resident, by creating a permanent legacy.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Key dates in Henderson County’s greenway efforts

• 1894: Henderson and Brevard Railway, Telegraph and Telephone Co. builds rail line between Hendersonville to Brevard.• 1939: Ecusta paper mill opens in Pisgah Forest.• May 1994: Greenway advocates form group to discuss joint greenway planning with the city of Hendersonville and Henderson County.• June 1997: Endorsed by the county, Flat Rock, Fletcher, Laurel Park and the Environmental Conservation Organization, city of Hendersonville receives National Park Service guidance to develop a countywide greenway plan.• March 1999: The Local Government Committee for Cooperative Action (made up of Henderson County and its municipalities) and the newly formed Greenways Steering Committee hear from a national greenways expert.• October-December 1999: After adopting an interlocal agreement, the county and cities form the Apple Country Greenways Commission.• July 2001: Greenways Commission unveils a countywide plan. Criticized as too ambitious, the blueprint draws fire from property rights advocates.• 2002: Ecusta mill closes. Norfolk Southern stops operating the Hendersonville-Brevard line.• October 2004: Phase I of the city’s Oklawaha Greenway opens.• 2005: Board of Commissioners endorses a greenways master plan and adds it to the county’s 2020 comprehensive land-use plan.• 2009: Phase II extends Oklawaha Greenway from Seventh Avenue to Patton Park.• April 2010: Steering committee advocating for the 19-mile Hendersonville-Brevard greenway forms Friends of Ecusta Trail.• 2011: Interlocal agreement creating the Apple Country Greenways Commission expires and is not renewed.• March 2012: An economic impact analysis commissioned by the Hendersonville City Council projects that the Ecusta Trail would cost $20 million to build and generate $9.4 million a year in tax revenue, visitor spending, health care cost savings and property appreciation.• 2012: Don Schjeldahl, a site selection consultant who helped Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. choose Mills River for itsEast Coast plant, forms a group of stakeholders to explore a French Broad River greenway and blueway connecting Hendersonvilleand Asheville.• June 2014: Mills River Town Council endorses study for a separated bikeway along N.C. 280 from the French Broad River to Pisgah Forest.• Summer 2014: Watco buys 92 miles of train line from Norfolk Southern Railway, including the Hendersonville-to-Brevard line and Asheville-to-Hendersonville line.• November 2015: Board of Commissioners directs planning staff to identify a greenway path through Jackson Park, opening the possibility of a southern extension of the Oklawaha Greenway to BRCC.• 2016: Steering group forms Friends of the Oklawaha Greenway to advocate for the bike-ped path extension.• August 2016: City officially opens Phase III extending the Oklawaha Greenway to Berkeley Mills Park.• September 2016: Board of Commissioners rejects a recommended greenway route through Jackson Park that would eliminate parking spaces at a picnic area. The board orders planners to find another route.• December 2016: Mills River Town Council reviews NCDOT proposal for N.C. 191 widening project that includes 4-foot bike lanes (not separated).• February 2017: Commissioners direct the planning department and recreation department to begin work on a greenways master plan and seek grants for possible southern and northern extensions of the Oklawaha Greenway.• April-May 2017: Saluda, Tryon and Landrum endorse effort for a Saluda Grade rail-to-trail greenway from Saluda to Landrum.• May 2017: Henderson County wins grants worth $96,000 to study extensions of the Oklawaha Greenway from Berkeley Mills to Westfeldt Park and from Jackson Park to BRCC, the Park at Flat Rock on Highland Lake Road and the county Athletics and Activities Center on South Grove Street.• June 2017: Flat Rock Village Council meets with NCDOT to discuss plans for a greenway through the Park at Flat Rock as part of the widening of Highland Lake Road in 2022.• Under way: Consulting engineers are developing bike-ped studies for Hendersonville, Laurel Park and Flat Rock, all of which received NCDOT planning grants. Mills River, Transylvania County and the Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy are holding public drop-in sessions to gather input and gauge support for a greenway along N.C. 280 from the French Broad River to Brevard. Henderson County is hiring a consultant to look at Oklawaha Greenway extensions while staff is developing the greenway master plan. SOURCES: Apple Country Greenway Commission master plan, Ecusta Trail planning study, Friends of the Oklawaha Greenway, news coverage, interviews.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Sanders is there when bicycling is on agenda

In addition to yellow sticky notes, Sharpies and consultants from out of town, one more thing you can count on at a greenway planning drop-in is that Joe Sanders will be there.A retired electrical engineer, Sanders listens, engages and encourages people as they talk about their dreams and their concerns when it comes to public bicycle and pedestrian paths.Sanders, 65, rides almost every day, with his wife, Peggy.“Some people would call me obsessive about it,” Sanders say. Noting that one chunk of it was a long organized ride in Vermont, Sanders estimates he and Peggy rode 4,000 miles last year. His other avocation is thinking about and talking about greenways and trying to forge consensus on how to move forward. If anyone is the unofficial conductor of a disparate and sometimes out-of-tune orchestra, it’s Sanders. A past president and current vice president of the Blue Ridge Bicycle Club, Sanders serves on the steering committees for the Hendersonville, Laurel Park and Flat Rock bike-ped studies. He’s in the stakeholders group for the N.C. 280 greenway corridor study. He serves on the board of the Friends of Ecusta Trail and chairs the Friends of the Oklawaha Trail.Ken Shelton, a radiologist who has been a leading advocate of public bike paths, says Sanders is able to see how many moving parts could work together.“Joe Sanders had a vision that we all need to sit around the same table because we all have different interests but they’re similar and we need to get them all together,” Shelton says.A serious road biker since 1999, Sanders traces his love of the two-wheeler to his Newsboy Special.“I used to use a bike to deliver the Detroit News,” he says. “I was one of eight kids so if I wanted to go someplace most of the time I had to use the bike to get there.”When he speaks to crowds, “I always ask, ‘How many of you rode a bike as a kid?’ Ninety percent of the hands go up. ‘How many of you ride now?’ Ten percent of hands go up. Because they don’t feel safe. That’s the number one reason” adults don’t ride.As an experienced rider, Sanders knows he can bicycle on any number of lightly traveled routes around the county. Although he says he would definitely use new greenways, he doesn’t really need them to pursue his passion for pedaling. So why devote so much time and energy as the community’s most passionate evangelist for public greenways?“It’s a way to not only improve our community but help people see that there are other ways to improve their health, their benefit, and in the long run it helps us all,” he says. “For every dollar you spend on these types of projects you reap $3 in medical cost saving benefits, and that’s from an NCDOT study.“Peggy and I derive joy when we get people out on the greenway and get them exercising and then they get it. I know of people that were overweight, either diabetic or pre-diabetic, on six, seven, eight medications that are now off all of their medications. Bicycling is just a natural.”   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Support for greenway expansion gains momentum in cities, county

In September 2016, Henderson County commissioners got their first look at a proposal to extend the Oklawaha Greenway through Jackson Park.   Read Story »

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