News

Ask Matt ... about roundabouts, Opp House, parking revenue

By MATT MATTESON, Published: August 5, 2025

Q. They're doing a lot of utility work on U.S. 64 West between Blythe Street and Pisgah Drive in Laurel Park. How many poles have they moved and who pays for that?

We all pay, of course, and for this project we are talking about installing 75 new power poles to make room for the four roundabouts and lane widening. Here’s how it works. NCDOT designs the new roadway or intersection and Duke Energy relocates its facilities to accommodate the changes. NCDOT pays Duke for the relocation costs. If a power pole has other wires such as cable television, each utility is responsible for doing its own relocations. Duke Energy officials said that they experienced about a three-month delay on the project due to damage from Hurricane Helene. Duke should be done with the relocation work by the middle of this month. Once the other utilities have moved their lines and equipment Duke will take down the old poles.

The Opportunity House was forced into receivership, then flooded by Hurricane Helene, and sits idle now. What’s happening with it?

The once-robust senior center on Asheville Highway is now owned by Carolina Village, which a year ago announced ambitious plans for child-care services for CV employees, tutoring, senior wellness programs and memory care at the 19,800-square foot facility on two acres. Since Carolina Village bought the property on Oct. 18, 2024, for $700,000, it has not communicated publicly further details about its plans for the building.

Meanwhile, the seven-year-old saga to hold the Opportunity House’s last leaders to account and dissolve the nonprofit looks to be nearing the finish line. In a court order last November, Superior Court Judge Peter Knight granted requests for payments from the trust managed by receiver John Noor, an attorney with Roberts & Stevens in Asheville, who has been guiding the Opp House dissolution since 2022. Payments included $65,920 to ASG Strategies owner Graham Mew, a consultant to Ken Rhoads, the nonprofit’s last director; $27,692 to attorney Edward L. Bleynat; and $20,028 to attorney Jake Snider.

On his website, Mew describes himself as “a successful seasoned executive with over 30 years of experience in executive management, IT and consulting (who) brings a wealth of experience with strengths in business strategy and execution, risk management, succession planning, operations, marketing, business systems and product development from initial concept to successful launch, and project management.” He’s based in Hendersonville. Bleynat and Snider both represented Rhoads and the Opp House in the lawsuit the Community Foundation brought in 2018 asserting that the Opp House was not properly operating as a nonprofit corporation in accordance with its bylaws.

Noor’s most recent court filing, on July 31, notified Judge Knight that the receivership trust had paid him and his colleague Abbie Hornberger $847.50 for 3.2 hours of work on the case. That left a trust balance of $249,798.

In his order on Nov. 19, 2024, Knight directed Noor to schedule a hearing one year hence “for purposes of determining the manner of the final distribution of the Trust Balance remaining at such time.”

Q. How much revenue have the downtown parking fees brought in since they began the new parking system and how much has been paid against the debt?

I pitched this question to Hendersonville city officials who said that the financing plan for the parking deck included a total revenue estimate of $836,000. This included revenue from the surface lots (Dogwood, Azalea, etc.), Main Street (including side avenues) and the parking deck itself. The total revenue for the first fiscal year using the kiosk system was $854,000, slightly more than estimated. The city is paying back a 20-year loan for the parking deck with about $810,000 each per year for debt service.

The new kiosk and ParkMobile app parking system was launched in March 2023. There has been a 15 percent increase in occupancy in the past year. The busiest time for parking is 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays and Fridays. Naturally, there is no accurate way to determine which parking spaces are used every hour of the day so the daily revenue reports serve as an estimation of occupancy. Also, the city offers “free parking” several ways such as driving in and out of the parking deck in less than 60 minutes. The data is there but the city is not actively tracking it.

What is really cool is that the city has a website that compares the use of the lots, parking deck and on-street downtown parking. Just go to the city’s budget page and click on “parking dashboard.” You will notice that there is no revenue cited for October 2024 due to Hurricane Helene.

Q. Did “Beautiful,” the Carole King tribute, set any attendance records for musicals at the Flat Rock Playhouse?

“No, but it exceeded our goals,” said Samantha Goodrum, the Playhouse’s managing director. Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, ran from June 6 to July 5 with a total of 30 performances. Cats, another recent successful musical, had 26 shows. “Most people were surprised by the history in the show and that Carole King once wrote songs for the Shirelle’s,” Goodrum said. “We took a risk running a show post-Helene for that long.” Goodrum said that this year the Playhouse has been offering shows that “put smiles on faces.” Some may remember that King, now 83, left NYC in 1977 and bought a ranch in Idaho. Does that make her a country girl?

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Editor Bill Moss contributed reporting on the status of the Opportunity House. Send questions to askmattm@gmail.com.