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Ironically, water was a very bad thing for the fish

Hendersonville News

Ask Matt ... about The Cedars

Q. Do they use the upper floors of The Cedars? I’ve only seen the first floor. I am told by Tommy Shipman, who operates The Cedars and the Chariot next door, that the last residents of the upper floors of the old hotel were...raccoons.The Cedars is a four-story meeting and banquet hall that occupies the corner of Buncombe Street and Seventh Avenue East in downtown Hendersonville. It has 30 bedrooms on the upper floors but none are used. The fourth floor has five bedrooms but only one bath. There is an old elevator that Shipman says is about four feet-by-four feet. It may still work but it won’t meet today’s building code.Built in 1914 by the wife of Southern Railway President J.W. Bailey, the old hotel has been in the Shipman family since 1976. During the 10 years before the Shipmans bought it, the structure was unheated and suffered significant deterioration. It took two years to refurbish the first floor, which was opened as a private catering house in 1980. Today the facility can seat a wedding party of 100 and with the porch and grounds it can accommodate 300 guests.When I asked Tommy Shipman about the future of the Cedars he smiled and said, “If I had the wherewithal, I would keep the Cedars but clear the rest of the site that includes the Chariot meeting place and the one-story office building. I would then build a new 75-room hotel that would physically connect to the Cedars.”Oh, about the raccoons. With the help of some bait, they were “relocated” from the Cedars second floor to an undisclosed squirrel refuge in Mills River. Shipman said the job was made easier with bananas. Who knew? Q. How did the primary election results here in Henderson County compare with the state? For president, the top four Republican finishers in order here in Henderson County were Cruz, Trump, Kasich and Rubio. Statewide it was Trump, Cruz, Kasich, and Rubio. Henderson County Democrats chose Sanders over Clinton while statewide Clinton beat Sanders in a close race. In Henderson County, incumbent Sen. Richard Burr garnered 53 percent of the vote among four candidates but fared better statewide, collecting 61 percent. Sixty-three percent of county voters supported the public improvement bonds, which was slightly less than the 66 percent that voted for the bonds statewide. A link on the county Board of Elections website shows all primary election results. * * * * * Send questions to askmattm@gmail.com.   Read Story »

Laurel Park News

Cafe owner vows to fight embezzlement charges

The owner of a Laurel Park café faces seven felony charges in connection with what investigators say was the theft of $208,463 from an elderly man who had made her the beneficiary of $2.65 million worth of investments, according to court documents.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Granna retires from her Easter egg hunt

MOUNTAIN HOME — Before she officially kicked off her annual Easter egg hunt on Saturday morning, Betty Robinson hollered for Joshua Robinson to come forward. The 15-year-old Joshua (no relation) walked up and dutifully stood beside her. Everyone in the large extended family of Smiths and Robinsons and Corns knows that when Betty calls, you come.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Police seek two men after shots fired in Green Meadows

Hendersonville police are seeking two local men after shots were fired shortly before 7 p.m. Saturday on Towhee Street in the Green Meadows neighborhood. Wanted from that incident is Zachery Micah Rice, 26. Rice is a validated member of the Folks Nation street gang and should be considered armed and dangerous, police said. Rice is wanted for felony probation violation, possessing a firearm while being a felon, and driving on a revoked license. Rice was last seen driving a newer model silver over black possible Ford Explorer SUV.Wanted for questioning in the incident is Christopher Tre Bradley, 19. Bradley should also be considered armed and dangerous. At this time, there are no pending arrest warrants for Bradley. Police asked anyone with information on the men's whereabouts to contact the law.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

LIGHTNING PHOTOS: Runners dash off in Bunny Hop

About 150 joggers and walkers covered the course in the second annual Bunny Hop sponsored by the Hendersonville Kiwanis Club on Saturday.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

EHHS basketball coach resigns

Bruce Gilliam, East Henderson High School varsity boys’ basketball coach, announced his resignation Thursday after 23 years coaching at the middle and high school level.   Read Story »

Laurel Park News

Laurel Park eyes growth along U.S. 64

LAUREL PARK — Nine years away from its 100th birthday, Laurel Park is reimagining itself in its second century as a town with more retail, a destination for younger families and a mountaintop community connected by greenways — all while preserving its small town character. “We have a small town and we have a limited commercial district so we need to look at long term how we going to maintain our small town atmosphere but also grow our town,” says Councilman Paul Hansen.Hansen and Mayor Carey O’Cain are the council liaisons to a steering committee that has been working since last summer on a plan to guide growth through 2025. Change is a delicate topic in a town where 42 percent of the residents are over age 65 and the biggest issues are how soon the snowplows will clear Hebron Road and how efficiently the town will plug water leaks. Aside from that, people in Laurel Park are pretty happy with the town that real estate developers conceived as a summer resort during the land boom of the 1920s.“We had an event (to accept public input) on Jump Off Rock and we heard very strongly that people want to maintain the residential rural core of what it means to be Laurel Park,” said Town Manager Alison Melnikova.Even so, planning committee would like to see at least modest growth, more retail and dining opportunities and a bigger tax base.The countywide property reassessment last year showed that the total taxable real estate value in Laurel Park had inched up by an anemic 1 percent, well below the countywide rate of 5.4 percent. Other towns with more vacant land and industrial and commercial property experienced much more robust growth. Fletcher’s tax base grew by 4.5 percent and Mills River’s shot up by 8.4 percent. Laurel Park residents and others interested in the 2025 comp plan are invited to review the plan and make comments during open houses on April 7 and April 9. ‘Neighborhood services and gathering places’     2025 Laurel ParkComprehensive Plan Community Open House: 4:30-6:30 p.m. Thursday, April 7, and 10 a.m.-noon Saturday, April 9, at First Congregational Church.Residents may drop in when convenient and visit a variety of stations to review maps, read elements of the plan, ask questions and make comments. There will be a kid’s station, too, so families are encouraged to attend. During a public meeting last summer and from a survey of town residents, the steering committee “heard from the residents that they want to continue to protect the rural residential nature of the Town but have a commercial area that provides neighborhood services and gathering spaces,” Melnikova wrote in a summary of the comp plan recommendations. “The result is a long-range plan for gradual change in a targeted area along US-64/Brevard Road to a mix of business and residential.”The opportunity for commercial and retail growth lies along a westward frontier that’s partly outside the town’s jurisdiction. Although the proposed 2025 plan identifies the U.S. 64 corridor as a target for mixed-use development, the Henderson County Board of Commissioners has jurisdiction over a stretch of the corridor almost a mile long.“And we’re limited on expansion due to the Legislature’s restriction on involuntary annexation,” Hansen said.The town is sensitive to the fears of property owners in unincorporated Henderson County.“We don’t want our plan to scare the people who live in this area,” Melnikova said of the unincorporated land. “We’re not coming after them. … This is not going to change anybody’s current zoning. It encourages future voluntary changes along U.S. 64.”In planning sessions, council members often bring up a 90-acre parcel of vacant land on the south side of U.S. 64 and on the westernmost edge of town. Zoned for half-acre residential lots, the land could be prime property for a mix of housing and retail, the steering committee said. The land is currently on the market.“Basically if you look at the Highway 64 corridor you’ve got a gap from our current town limits to the 90-acre parcel,” Hansen said. “I’m not saying we’d develop the whole corridor as a commercial corridor. I don’t think that’s feasible.” Attracting families Committee members also hope that the 2015 plan will encourage development and amenities that would attract families.“What’s really important for us is that we need to make the town more friendly for the younger generation of folks,” Hansen said. “How do we make the town a destination and a place that the millennials want to have a residence in? A lot of people love being retired here but we also need to bring in the younger generation.”One way to do that is park and greenway development.“It’s quite clear that part of bringing in the younger generation and people that would appreciate Laurel Park is to have walking trails, biking trails and more parks,” he said. The town has Laurel Green, Lake Rhododendron and Jump Off Rock. “Connecting the top of the mountain to the bottom of the mountain in walking trails” is a priority, Hansen said. “And we’ve got a plan to do that.” The Town Council is on record in support of the Ecusta Trail.The town received two grants to help fund studies that dovetail with the 2015 plan. A $12,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission will fund a study of the commercial district and a $40,000 grant from the NCDOT will fund a pedestrian-bikeway plan.“What we’ve stressed about it from the beginning is that this comp plan contain an action plan and that it’s not a dust collector,” Hansen said.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Carriage Park developer faces foreclosure

The Carriage Park property owned by developer Dale Hamlin is headed for sale on the courthouse steps next month.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Kiwanis Club honors 'Caring' law officers

Burnout is common in law enforcement.   Read Story »

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