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Flat Rock News

LIGHTNING EDITORIAL: Rail tankers not subject to zoning

Watco, the shortline freight hauler that operates here as Blue Ridge Southern Railroad, is just doing what a smart business does. Other railroad companies suddenly found themselves with tankers sidelined by a glut of crude oil and natural gas. Blue Ridge has rail tracks it’s not using. Supply and demand strikes again. As the Hendersonville Lightning reported last week, the ominous-looking black tankers showed up on the rail line between Highland Lake Road in Flat Rock and Mine Gap Road last month. Residents of Highland Lake Village, an upscale mostly retirement neighborhood in Flat Rock, don’t like looking at the cars. The LP gas warning labels make them nervous.Ginger Brown is a resident Highland Lake Village and a Flat Rock Village Council member. Her neighbors assumed she could do something about the rail cars. Not so much. First, that section of tracks is not within the village boundaries. Brown contacted the railroad company’s local marketing director.“I called her twice last week and kind of complained a little bit,” Brown said. “She called me Friday and said some of those tankers had been called back into service. She said she couldn’t promise that they wouldn’t come back and bring friends. But they’re still there. She said they will be leaving this week. She said they might go this weekend.”Brown said she was appreciative that Blue Ridge Railroad pulled the tankers from the Highland Park Road area this week.In an interview last week, Blue Ridge Railroad’s marketing director, Brigid Rich, described the tankers as “empty residue cars” that contain no volatile chemicals or gas.“It could be an in-and-out kind of thing,” she said of the duration. The railroad company can use the tracks for this purpose, she said, even though the line has been out of service since 2002.Councilwoman Brown also mentioned plans to contact Henderson County to see what elected officials could do. Little to nothing. Turns out the tankers in storage are yet another example of a disruptive land-use beyond the reach of local zoning regulations, like the proposed Duke Energy transmission line last summer and the current natural gas line construction.“That’s their property,” County Manager Steve Wyatt said when the Lightning asked about the stored tankers. “It’s a railroad. It’s commerce.”It’s encouraging that Watco’s local managers, by all evidence, are open about what the business is doing and responsive to neighbors’ concerns. Watco is, after all, the company that has to come to the table if the Ecusta Trail is ever going to happen. Plenty of people would gladly accept a few months of storage on the Saluda-bound line in exchange for negotiations on the Hendersonville-to-Brevard line.Residents who have researched the current state of the oil and gas industry learned that surplus tankers are increasingly common as drilling and fracking has slowed. The oil market is like the weather in our mountains. If you don’t like it, wait a little a while and it will change.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Dry conditions mean high fire danger, Forest Service says

The U.S. Forest Service and the North Carolina Forest Service are warning the public of high fire danger across North Carolina.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Moms plan 'nurse-in' at Grove Street courthouse

Breastfeeding moms plan a "nurse in" at the Henderson County Courthouse at 10 a.m. Tuesday morning to raise public awareness about breastfeeding after a District Court judge scolded a woman for feeding her baby in the courtoom,  television stations and social media sites reported Monday.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Hillandale teacher wins grant to plant 'Reading Garden'

Hillandale Elementary School teacher Rebekah Pace received a $2,000 grant from educational sorority Alpha Delta Kappa to create a Reading Garden inspired by “The Secret Garden” protagonist Mary and her desire to “have a bit of earth with which to grow a garden.” “Students will be encouraged to take ownership in the planning and implementation of this Reading Garden, thus fostering student leadership roles,” Pace said. Approximately 620 K-5 students will be involved in the creative process from start to finish, from brainstorming and voting on what they want the finished Reading Garden to look like, to designing a layout, to working with the land and other resources to build and construct their vision, Pace stated in her grant request. The interdisciplinary Reading Garden will integrate reading, writing, math, social studies and science; students will read about the types of plants and architectural elements they would like to incorporate into the garden, use writing to create the plans and request resources, use math and science to measure how far plants can be from one another and what plants grow the best in different soil types, and use social studies to research what plants are native to our area. “Through a partnership with director Bullington Gardens Director John Murphy, Hillandale students will be able to get hands-on learning opportunities in horticulture and natural sciences both on and off-site in preparation for the Reading Garden,” Pace said. The $2,000 from Alpha Delta Kappa will be used to purchase materials for the garden, including trees and small plants, a pergola, seating, and decorative elements. Pace’s grant request was first submitted to the Henderson County sorority chapter, North Carolina Alpha Upsilon, and then to the State Scholarship Committee, which annually chooses one grant winner in the state of North Carolina. Pace is planning a Reading Garden groundbreaking ceremony at the end of the 2015-16 school year and a ribbon-cutting in the spring of 2017, when the garden is in bloom and ready for readers.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Hendersonville native to lead new Pisgah Conservancy

Representatives of a variety of Pisgah National Forest user groups, in cooperation with the U.S. Forest Service, have formed a North Carolina non-profit corporation called the Pisgah Conservancy to work for sustainable recreational use, watershed improvement, eradication of invasive species, removal of waste, litter and graffiti, wildlife habitat improvement and education in the forest.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

FIREFLY TOURISM: DuPont closes trails to protect blue ghosts

Overwhelmed by blue ghost tourists last year, DuPont State Recreational Forest is closing several trails at the High Falls Access Area to prevent damage to the rare blue ghost firefly populations. The closures will take place at night from mid-May through early June.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Hamlin digs hole 'deeper and deeper,' resident says

Carriage Park developer Dale Hamlin blocked the sale of his property on the courthouse steps last week with the filing of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition on the eve of the sale.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Crowd rallies against HB2

Nearly 200 people gathered at the Historic Courthouse downtown Friday afternoon in a spirited protest against HB2, the state law on sexual-orientation discrimination that has sharply divided North Carolina voters and provoked vocal national opposition.The Rev. Jim McKinley, pastor of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Hendersonville, urged the protesters to set aside the “language of opposition” and focus on how they can change things by showing up and making their voices heard.“I want to think the sponsors of House Bill 2 for all they’ve done to awaken our awareness of transgender concerns and LGBT rights in North Carolina,” McKinley said. Sponsored by the Campaign for Southern Equality and theHenderson County chapter of the NAACP, the rally aimed to stoke opposition to HB2 but also to explain its broader implications. Organizers handed out copies of the bill in an effort to show that it was broader than just a "bathroom bill" affecting transgender men and women. “We want to give the community a chance to protest against this bill, which is about discrimination against many people including the GLBT community,” PFLAG chapter president Jerry Miller said in advance of the protest. “Prohibiting people from using the bathroom of the gender to which they identify is just one small part. To name a few others — it prohibits communities from passing ordinances which affect wages, and other working issues.”The most personal appeal came from Archer Faust, a transgender male.“There was a lot more to it that I was very angry about,” he said of the bill. “The whole bathroom issue was just the first page or two. There are more sections covering employment and public employees. I was very upset to learn that now that HB2 had passed it was considered a religious freedom bill.”“They’re using fear of trans people and I’m upset that they’re using that,” he told the crowd of 175 people. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. We’re just people, right?”The crowd cheered and applauded.He called on the audience and other speakers to send a message: “We won’t tolerate hatred. We won’t tolerate it in Henderson County or anywhere else.”“Repeal that law,” the crowd chanted as the next speaker, Rabbi Phil Bentley, came to the lectern.Bentley read a letter he said “rabbis all over the state” had signed opposing what it called “state-sponsored discrimination.”“We will not stand idly by as the North Carolina Legislature weakens the legal protections for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender brothers and sisters,” Bentley said. “Our prayers are with the thousands of North Carolinians whose humanity is under attack. We stand with them and against those who would strip them of their legal guarantees under the law.”“I just got back from a family event in New York,” Bently told the crowd. “North Carolina has become a national joke.”The most personal appeal came from Archer Faust, a transgender male.“There was a lot more to it that I was very angry about,” he said. “The whole bathroom issue was just the first page or two. There are more sections covering employment and public employees. I was very upset to learn that now that HB2 had passed it was considered a religious freedom bill.”“They’re using fear of trans people and I’m upset that they’re using that,” he added. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. We’re just people, right?”The crowd cheered and applauded.     Read Story »

Hendersonville News

Upholding tradition, HHS band brings home gold

Olivia Baer was stunned to hear her name called during Saturday’s awards ceremony after the Hendersonville High School band performance in the St. Louis Heritage Festival.   Read Story »

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