Saluda News
Mark Ray was telling a visitor about how he’d recruited Dennis Dunlap to fly his vintage 1943 Stearman biplane over a celebration of Berkeley Mills baseball park on Sept. 16 when he heard a distinctive sound from outside.
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Henderson County News
Around 400 bicyclists will be pedaling on roads throughout much of Henderson County during the fifth annual Tour d’Apple today. Now in its fifth year, the Tour d’Apple has become a popular Apple Festival weekend event for bicycle riders from the immediate area and beyond.
Bicycle traffic will be heavy early from Hendersonville northeast to Tracy Grove, Dana, Edneyville and Fruitland and, tapering off, in southern Henderson County and Hendersonville as the 100-milers finish.
Here are the areas to watch:
From 8 a.m. to noon: Tracy Grove, Dana, Blue Ridge, East Flat Rock, Sugarloaf Mountain, Ottanola, Lamb Mountain, Spicer Cove, Bald Rock, Edneyville, Bearwallow Mountain, Hoopers Creek, Terry’s Gap and Fruitland.
From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Dana, Upward Road, East Flat Rock, Flat Rock, Zirconia, Tuxedo, Green River, Cabin Creek, Pinnacle Mountain, Litter River Road, Old Kanuga Road, Price Street, Kanuga Lake Road, Evans Road, Big Willow Road, Hebron Road, Laurel Park, Osceola Lake, east Hendersonville, Erkwood Road, Mud Creek Baptist Church, Shepherd Street and Airport Road.
THE LIGHTNING REPORTED PREVIOUSLY:
“Things are going extremely well,” Dick Miley, one of the race organizers, said 10 days before the race. “We’ve got wonderful sponsors and incredible volunteers.”
As of Saturday, “We’re at about 270 (riders). We expect another 100. Last year was 407. We’re thinking about 400 this year.”Last year, race directors adjusted the 45-mile Jonagold route by cutting out Oleta Road, a steep downhill/uphill loop. They’ve made no changes to this year’s routes, which run from a 25-miler to a grueling 100-miler with 8,500 feet of climbing.What is new is chip timing. Chips will be attached to race bibs, which riders should fasten to the front of their handlebars.“It’s really important that cyclists come back under the arch,” Miley said. Otherwise, they won’t get an officially recorded time.Sponsored by Hunter Subaru, the event starts at 8 a.m. on Labor Day at Blue Ridge Community College. Same-day registration opens at 7 a.m. on Labor Day.“We’ve never had a lost rider — yet we are always striving to make the Tour d’ Apple a safer event,” Ride Director Barry Macdonald said. “With chip timing we know exactly when each participant returns so we can let a rider’s spouse or other loved one know that ‘Yes, indeed. John made it back safely.’ Or near the end of the day, if John has not come back, we will send a SAG vehicle looking for him. We are grateful to Hunter Subaru for helping add the chip-timing safety to the Tour.”“Chip timing works only if cyclists remember to finish their ride and come back in under the finish arch,” Macdonald said.The fully-supported ride takes cyclists from BRCC through many of Henderson County’s apple orchards and up and down numerous mountains. Riders choose one of four routes:• Green Apple Easy — 25 miles with just 1,200 feet of ascent.• Jonagold — 46 miles with 2,300 feet of climbing.• Gala Challenge, the 65-mile metric 100 with 4,961 feet of climbing.• Honey Crisp Century, 100 miles, with 8,481 feet of ascent and three King and Queen of the Mountains climbs, for the strongest cyclists.For cue sheets visit www.tourdapple.com. Register at Active.com. Early registration discounts end on Aug. 26.As organizer of the one-day cycling route, Four Seasons Rotary Club will provide cyclists with five fully supported rest stops and a post-ride party at BRCC with food from Chick-Fil-A. Blue Ridge Amateur Radio Club and Henderson County Amateur Emergency Services support the tour with HAM operators at rest stops and in SAG Subarus. Members of Hendersonville Camera Club will photograph cyclists during the Tour.In addition to Hunter Subaru, Ingles Markets and Pardee/UNC Health Care, sponsors include Hendersonville Eye Care, Borg Warner Corp., Rent WNC, Sycamore Cycles, Trinity View, and Allison Development Group. Home Trust Bank, Hilliard-Lyons, and St. Paul Mountain Vineyards host the Tour rest stops. Asheville Bicycle Company and Sycamore Cycles provide bicycle mechanics.
Crabapple mini-tour peddles bicycle safety
The Tour d’Apple includes a free bicycling event for children beginning with registration at 9:30 a.m. The Mini-Tour includes a safety clinic. Experienced adult cyclists will then assist young cyclists learn balance and bicycling skills with a slow race — the last-one-to-finish wins. Chick-Fil-A will offer games and prizes. The Mini-Tour concludes with a two-mile ride around the College Campus. Parents or a guardian must register their children and bring a bicycle and helmet for each child. Read Story »
Etowah News
ETOWAH — A Hendersonville-based conservation organization has closed on the purchase of 146 acres on the French Broad River and is considering the next steps in restoring wetlands and ultimately opening the land to the public.
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Henderson County News
There is an apple variety for every taste and use. Some are sweet, some tart but all are more crisp and tart when they are fresh from the tree.
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Etowah News
Although this year’s Apple Festival Grand Marshal, J.D. Obermiller is known for his strawberries, he has been closely involved with that bigger red fruit for 40 years.
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Henderson County News
The N.C. Apple Festival offers dozens of food and beverage booths serving everything from lemonade to apple slushies to the McMurray family’s piping hot fresh cut French fries. Try as you might, you won’t find any Apple Festival-sanctioned beer or wine. But if you’re thirsty for a cold beer, glass of hard cider or sip of wine, Hendersonville and the surrounding area have plenty of options.
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Hendersonville News
U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows benefited from a fundraiser Thursday night that attracted about 150 supporters to the Asheville home of Mike Summey, a retired real estate investor. The guests included A-lister Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Trump and a senior adviser in the White House.
"Meadows and Kushner have discussed Israel — part of Kushner’s portfolio, and a key issue for Meadows — and he has talked with Ivanka about paid leave, which faces long odds in the Republican Congress," Politico reported in Friday morning's Political Playbook.
"We had a fundraiser and Jared Kushner flew down to help with that," Meadows said Friday morning in Hendersonville, where he attended the Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast and the opening ceremonies of the North Carolina Apple Festival. "The president called in and that was probably the highlight. He was telling the people how much he loves North Carolina."
Politico noted the role of Meadows, "now one of the most powerful men in the Capitol," as a bridge between conservatives in the House and Trump administration.
"Kushner traveling to North Carolina ahead of the long weekend shows the nature of the relationship between Meadows and members of the Trump administration," the report said.
Meadows said he didn't know how much the event raised for his 2018 campaign.
"I just basically thank them for coming," he said in a short interview with the Hendersonville Lightning at the pancake breakfast. "I learned a long time ago that if you focus on people and not politics things have a way of working out. We would rather be here shaking 500 hands and letting people know we care than raising money to buy ads to try to convince them we care."
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Henderson County News
Billy Laughter, an Edneyville native and fifth generation apple grower, was posthumously honored as this year’s Apple Farmer of the Year Award during the opening ceremony of the North Carolina Apple Festival.
Peggy Laughter, Billy’s wife, accepted the award on her husband’s behalf and thanked the United Community Bank and the Apple Festival. Billy passed away this June at 84 years old. The award was presented Friday at the opening ceremony of the Apple Festival.“If you could build a man from scratch, give him all of life’s most beautiful qualities, and make him a farmer; we would come up with Billy Laughter,” one family member said.Someone had asked the Laughter family if they would enter Billy for the award. Peggy’s son-in-law wrote the entry. “He thinks an awful of my husband,” Peggy said.Billy came from a lineage of apple farmers. He was the fifth generation in his family to grow apples. His farm, Billy Laughter Orchards, has belonged to the Laughters since 1962, when Billy and Peggy bought 34 acres from Peggy’s brother. The land included the house in which Billy and Peggy raised their children.Laughter was passionate about agriculture from a young age. He graduated from North Carolina State University in 1955 as a horticulture major, Peggy said. “He worked on a farm and took care of the greenhouse” at NC State University throughout his college years Peggy added.Since Billy’s passing, his son has taken over the farm, Peggy said. The orchard has a pick-your-own orchard and also sells apples wholesale.His love of apple farming led to his 20-year tenure as president of the WNC Apple Growers Association and service as president of the WNC Apple Growers Co-op in Edneyville for many years, Peggy said.“He loved doing what he did,” Peggy says of Billy when he farmed. He rarely got to attend the apple festival because it was in the middle of apple season and he didn’t leave the orchard.Billy loved farming because he enjoyed “being outside and meeting people” Peggy says. “His last few years, he didn’t do much farming, but he took people down to pick their own apples and helped with the maintenance part of the farm.”A lifetime deacon of Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, he was also a member of the Edneyville Grange and an honorary lifetime member of the NC Apple Growers Association.“I think he would be very humbled,” Peggy says if Billy were here to accept his award. “I am myself. He would be very honored and feel like he didn’t deserve it.”Sponsored by United Community Bank, the award is in its ninth year. After nominations come in, a panel made up of community members chooses the winner.“He (Billy) was nominated by his family, and the reasons they gave on the nomination were the way he could give back to other farmers in the community and people that needed help,” said Karen Yockey of UCB, who coordinates the award.Fair Waggoner, a Henderson County native and city president at UCB, began the award through a sponsorship.“She’s always willing to donate to community events,” Yockey said. “She wanted to give special consideration to someone deserving of the award. She wants to focus on apple farmers because we wouldn’t have a festival without that.” Read Story »
Henderson County News
Carolinas HealthCare System and UNC Health Care, two of the biggest health care networks in the state, plan to merge and form a new organization that would be the most comprehensive health care network in the South, UNC Health Care and Carolinas Healthcare annouunced.
The new organization will deliver world-class care to people in North Carolina by creating the most comprehensive network of primary, specialty and on-demand care in the Southeast, the two systems said in a news release.
UNC Health Care is an integrated health care system comprised of UNC Hospitals and its provider network, UNC Faculty Physicians, UNC Physicians Network, the clinical patient care programs of the UNC School of Medicine and nine other hospitals and hospital systems across the state including Pardee Hospital.
Additional hospital entities include UNC Rex Healthcare, Chatham Hospital, Johnston Health, High Point Regional Health, Caldwell Memorial, Nash Health Care, Wayne Memorial and UNC Lenoir Health Care.
Carolinas HealthCare System and UNC Health Care have signed a Letter of Intent to join their clinical, medical education and research resources. Under the LOI, the two organizations have agreed to start a period of exclusive negotiations, with the goal of entering into final agreements by the end of the year.
Together, Carolinas HealthCare System and UNC Health Care will provide clear solutions for healthcare’s most pressing challenges by focusing on four strategic areas: increasing access and affordability, advancing clinical care expertise, growing their renowned academic enterprise and contributing to the region’s economic vibrancy.
"Together with UNC Health Care, we believe that the opportunities to be a national model and to elevate health in North Carolina are nearly limitless," said Gene Woods, current president and CEO of Carolinas HealthCare System, and future CEO of the new entity. “For example, since our organizations already serve almost 50 percent of all patients who visit rural hospitals in our state, we are perfectly positioned to participate in the reinvention of rural healthcare in partnership with others. Ensuring there is great healthcare in rural counties is not only important to our patients’ physical wellbeing, but is also vital to the economic wellbeing of those communities as well.
"At the same time, we are also inspired by what our two organizations will be able to do together to transform cancer treatment. At Levine Cancer Institute, we care for over 10,000 new patients every year, and over 1,000 participate in clinical trials through a ‘care-close-to-home’ model in more than 25 locations throughout the Carolinas. Combined with UNC Health Care’s National Cancer Institute designation, with more than $70 million in joint cancer research grants for clinical trials, we will create a cancer network that is second to none in the country. In short, this partnership is an example of one of those truly ‘big ideas’ that this state is known for."
Carolinas HealthCare System and UNC Health Care will improve access to care in underserved and rural geographies, jointly addressing behavioral health needs, designing new models of care and further developing virtual care platforms. The joint organization also will work to expand medical education, serving as the platform for training future healthcare providers. The new organization also will further the development of clinical care destination centers and centers of excellence as well as differentiated care in pediatrics, cancer, transplant services, among others.
“By integrating our organizations, we are combining the strengths of two great health systems, providing greater access to a full range of services and leading-edge treatments for patients, enabling better coordination of care and advancing research,” said Dr. William Roper, dean of the UNC School of Medicine, CEO of UNC Health Care, and future executive chair of the new organization. “Carolinas HealthCare System is one of the most innovative healthcare organizations in the nation, particularly in combining world-class clinical care with a community care model. By combining our two extremely mission-focused organizations, we will offer an unparalleled array of services, expertise and experiences for our patients and communities – beyond what either of us could do independently.”
Among its many services, the new company will:
Provide both urban and rural populations with close-to-home options for world-class care.
Offer nearly 1,400 active clinical trials that can quickly help uncover solutions and deliver treatments.
Serve as the cornerstone for Medicaid coverage in North Carolina.
Strengthen collaboration with other healthcare providers to improve patient experience and bring affordable care to the region.
House seven nationally-ranked adult clinical service lines and nine nationally-ranked pediatric clinical service lines.
Drive research opportunities that advance discovery and innovation to find new cures and change the way care is delivered.
Educate the next generation of physician leaders at the nationally ranked UNC School of Medicine, through more than 100 residency programs in its enhanced network of teaching hospitals across the state, and through lifelong learning for providers
Additional information is available at TogetherInHealthCare.org.
Carolinas HealthCare System, one of the nation’s leading and most innovative healthcare organizations, provides a full spectrum of healthcare and wellness programs throughout North and South Carolina. Its diverse network of care locations includes academic medical centers, hospitals, freestanding emergency departments, physician practices, surgical and rehabilitation centers, home health agencies, nursing homes and behavioral health centers, as well as hospice and palliative care services. Carolinas HealthCare System works to enhance the overall health and wellbeing of its communities through high quality patient care, education and research programs, and numerous collaborative partnerships and initiatives.
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