More than 300 people packed a public hearing last week to debate whether Mission Hospital in Asheville is an overbearing monopoly and is unfairly squeezing out smaller hospitals in the region.

Doctors, hospital leaders and patients from across Western North Carolina gave passionate speeches in hopes of swaying a state committee investigating the issue.

At issue: whether anti-trust regulations limiting Mission’s influence should be tighter, or done away with.

“Mission must have the freedom to serve. It must have the freedom to compete for patients,” said Ron Paulus, the CEO of Mission. “It means letting patients and physicians choose where they go, who to align with, and letting performance on quality determine the winners and losers, not government regulation.”

But opponents portrayed Mission as a predator and bully, gobbling up smaller hospitals and buying doctors’ practices to funnel more and more patients to its mothership in Asheville, weakening the availability of health care in people’s home communities around the mountains.

“Mission success is inversely proportional to the success of the region’s smaller hospitals,” said Jason Wells, vice president of Park Ridge hospital in Hendersonville.

“When Mission gains market share, someone else has to lose market share.”

An HIV/AIDS Awareness Walk will be held Saturday, Nov. 5 at 11 a.m. in Asheville.

Walkers will gather at The Grove House Complex at 11 Grove Street, and then move uptown to rally at Pack Square.

County Commissioner David Gantt, local writer and poet Dennis Tillman and longtime HIV/AIDS activist Michael Harney are slated to speak.

The mission of the free awareness walk is to bring attention to the ongoing issue of HIV/AIDS infection in Western North Carolina and to inform the public about the current funding crisis of the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, which provides life-saving medications to low-income North Carolinians living with HIV/AIDS in this state.

Palliative Care and Hospice Services of MedWest Health System will hold a series of training classes for new volunteers Oct. 31 through Nov. 3 in Sylva.

The 12-hour series will acquaint volunteers with the Hospice philosophy and program. Sessions run from 9 a.m. to noon daily, at the Jackson County Public Library. Pre-registration is required.

Volunteer opportunities include: patient and family support, companionship visits, respite care for caregivers, errand running, bereavement support, chaplain-related and other professional services, office assistance, fundraising and community events planning.

828.452.8578 to pre-register.

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians will build a youth center facility on approximately 20 acres of national forest land near Robbinsville.

The youth center, affiliated with the Boys and Girls Club of America, will offer a variety of programs including Cherokee Language classes, social skills development, cultural craft classes, computer labs, and physical fitness programs. The center will serve the outlying portion of the Cherokee reservation in the remote Snowbird area of Graham County.

The 15,000 square-foot building will meet LEED green building certification and will including a multi-purpose field and an interpretive hiking trail. The youth center will be constructed directly across from the N.C. Forest Service Graham County Office on Massey Branch Road.

Carolina Readiness Supply will have a Customer Appreciation Day at their new location, 72 Montgomery Street in Waynesville, just below the Main Street Sun Trust Bank on Oct. 29 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.  

There will be book signings by three local authors: Larry Porter, True Globalization; Mike McCarthy, The Noah Option; and Patrick McConnell, Government of Deceit.

Fire-starting without matches classes will be taught by Doug Knight. Other topics include water pumps that will work if your electricity goes out and sanitation and waste disposal in a disaster.

828.456.5310.

Inspired by a Global Poverty Project presentation on campus, the president of Western Carolina University’s Student Government Association and the wife of Chancellor David O. Belcher will eat on just $1.50 per day for five days.

To help raise awareness of global poverty, student TJ Eaves and Susan Brummell Belcher will participate in the Live Below the Line campaign beginning Monday, Oct. 24. Belcher and Eaves acknowledge the challenges ahead.

“It will be a pretty interesting week because I am a fairly picky eater,” Eaves said. Belcher said she’d have to explore whether coffee with cream will fit in her budget.

“If not, I’ll struggle with that one,” she said.  

Participating in the challenge is a natural fit for Belcher, who after her husband’s appointment as new WCU chancellor designated herself a “WCU friend-raiser” and pledged to “wholeheartedly engage with students, faculty, staff, donors, alumni, community members and other constituent parties to create broad support for the WCU mission.”

For WCU students who wish to participate in the challenge, Aramark, WCU’s food service provider, will host a station in the upper level of the Courtyard Dining Hall with foods and portions that comply with the Live Below the Line initiative for breakfast, lunch and dinner on Thursday, Oct. 27.

While Belcher and Eaves have initiated the project primarily to raise awareness, Belcher does have a goal to raise money for CARE, a humanitarian organization fighting poverty in more than 70 countries around the world. Anyone interested in sponsoring them or joining their effort, including community members, can visit WCU’s Live Below the Line page online (http://my.e2rm.com/TeamPage.aspx?teamID=262576). Updates on the effort will be available on the WCU Poverty Project Facebook page.

Western Carolina University Chancellor David O. Belcher this week fired C. Joseph “Chip” Smith, the director of intercollegiate athletics.

Belcher announced that Fredrick Q. Cantler, WCU’s longtime senior associate athletic director for internal operations, has agreed to come out of retirement to serve as interim director of athletics.

Cantler, who retired in March after 33 years in athletics administration at WCU, will serve as interim director of athletics as the university conducts a national search for a permanent athletics director, Belcher said.

“With Fred’s wealth of experience, including a previous stint as interim AD, I have the greatest confidence in his ability to keep the athletics program moving forward during this time of transition,” he said. “Fred brings extensive knowledge of athletics budgeting and NCAA compliance issues to this assignment, and I am grateful to him for his willingness to assume this responsibility.”

During his career as a sports administrator, Cantler helped develop the Catamount women’s soccer program from scratch in 1999. Two years later in 2001, the program captured the first of its three Southern Conference tournament championships. Also, the Catamount baseball team won both the regular season and tournament titles in 2003 and won the regular season in 2007, advancing to the NCAA regional tournaments.

There’s a move afoot in Sylva to designate some of the downtown area as a national historic district.

A study, expected to take about six months to complete, will help determine whether and which parts of town have enough historic aspects to qualify. First Citizens Bank is bankrolling the study.

Paige Roberson, executive director of the Downtown Sylva Association and the town’s economic planner, said the information gathered in the study would be shared with business owners. If 51 percent want to move forward and form a historic district, the issue would then come before Sylva town commissioners for a formal vote.

Individual homeowners can opt to have their houses included if historic standards are met.

“Sylva should be a pretty good candidate for a historic district,” Roberson said.

There are benefits to receiving such a designation, said Paul Benson, planning director for the town of Waynesville. Waynesville has three districts on the National Register: Frog Level, approved in 2002; Main Street, approved in 2009; and an expansion of the Main Street district to include nearby residential streets in 2010.

Benson said simply documenting historic buildings in town as part of the application process has proved valuable in and of itself.  

“The Waynesville Historic Preservation Commission used this information in their walking tour publication,” Benson said. Property in the historic districts also have special protection from road widening, for example.

Benson said the primary benefit will “hopefully be the long term preservation of historic buildings and the character and quality of life they bring to the community.”

Canton also has an approved National Historic District.

Business owners with buildings included in a district can get a 40 percent tax credit to help pay for renovations, Roberson said. The designation does not limit what they can do with their buildings.

“Building owners can do anything they want,” she said, emphasizing the tax credit given for following historic standards is optional.

— By Quintin Ellison

Casey Cooper, chief executive officer for Cherokee Indian Hospital, will deliver Western Carolina University’s annual public lecture on Indian health at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2.

Cooper will address the topic “The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians: Issues in Health” in a talk scheduled for the A.K. Hinds University Center theater.

The event is made possible through a $3,000 gift from Harrah’s Cherokee Casino and Hotel to Western Carolina’s College of Health and Human Sciences to sponsor a public lecture series on Native American health issues offered through the university’s Culturally Based Native Health Program.

Established in 2006, the Culturally Based Native Health Program, or CBNHP, provides health professionals with an opportunity to acquire knowledge about Cherokee culture and other Native American cultures that might help them in treating patients.

The program’s lecture series is designed to help inform the public of issues that affect the health and wellbeing of Native peoples and to be of interest to those who work in rural communities in Southern Appalachia with other underserved populations.

828.227.2164 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Homeward Bound, a foster care/adoption awareness event coordinated by the Haywood County Department of Social Services and Western North Carolina foster care agencies, will be held from 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 5, at Long’s Chapel United Methodist Church.

The event is designed to provide information on how to become a foster and/or adoptive parent and to share information on Haywood County children who need placement with a family.

DSS currently has 96 children in foster care. Jones estimates that 40 percent of the children placed in foster care each year are placed in homes outside of Haywood County. The event will allow interested persons to learn more about how the process works and to talk to families who have fostered.

Homeward Bound will take place in the Long’s Chapel Fellowship Hall. The church is located at 175 Old Clyde Highway in Clyde. Admission and parking is free.

828.356.2367 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The final day to donate “Coats for Kids” through the Cullowhee United Methodist Church and Cullowhee Valley Elementary School is Monday, Oct. 31.

Donations of good-condition used or new warm clothing, hats, gloves, shoes and coats can be dropped off at sponsoring locations.

Underwear and sock donations should be new and in original packaging (in sizes newborn-18 or XS- XL).

“Coats for Kids” Distribution Day will be Saturday, Nov. 5, at Cullowhee United Methodist Church from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. Parents or guardians will need to be physically present with their children in order to receive items.

Monetary gifts can be sent to Cullowhee United Methodist Church, PO Box 1267, Cullowhee, NC 28723. Please write on the memo line: “Coats for Kids.”

The Smoky Mountain Brass Quintet will perform a free concert Tuesday, Nov. 1, in the recital hall of the Coulter Building at Western Carolina University.

The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m.

Members of SMBQ, the quintet in residence at WCU, are P. Bradley Ulrich and David Ginn, trumpets; Travis Bennett, horn; Dan Cherry, trombone; and Michael Schallock, tuba.

The program also will feature fellow faculty soloists John West, Will Peebles and Pavel Wlosok. West will perform “Blues Concerto for Alto Sax and Brass Quintet” by Holcombe. Peebles will be the bassoon soloist on Burrill Phillips’ “Concert Piece,” arranged by Ulrich. Wlosok, jazz piano, will be joining the SMBQ on his “Jazz Miniatures for Brass Quintet.”

828.227.7242.

The Overlook Theatre Company will present the “Wizard of Oz” Nov. 3-6 at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday performances will be at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday’s performance will be at 2:30 p.m. Ticket prices start at $10 each.

This production of the “Wizard of Oz” will include 95 cast and crew members bringing the classic MGM film to life in a two-act production complete with songs from the Oscar-winning musical score.

This production of Wizard of Oz is sponsored by Watson Contracting of 201 Sloan Road, inFranklin.  Watson Contracting is a privately-owned business serving the construction and architectural needs of Western North Carolina and surrounding areas.

www.greatmountainmusic.com or 866.273.4615.

The Cherokee Rodders are hosting the popular “Cruise the Smokies” Rod Run Nov. 4-6 at the Acquoni Expo Center (the old Cherokee High School).

This is the largest show and shine in the area for hundreds of classic and customized pre-1981 cars and trucks. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Travel & Promotion Department, Harrah’s Cherokee Casino, Smoky Mountain Chevrolet, GT Graphics, and ET Motorgear are the major sponsors.

All cars, either for show or sale, will be parked on the grounds of the center. Spectator parking will be available in surrounding areas around the Center. Gates will open at 8 a.m. for both cars and spectators. Daily spectator entrance fee is $5 with children 10 and under free.

Registration is $40 per car and provides unlimited entrance to the show for two people (children 10 and under are free); a dash plaque and button; chicken dinner on Friday night; poker walk on Saturday; poker cruise on Friday; a chance to win door prizes, cash drawings, and trophies. New this year are the “Trivia,” “Blind Driver,” and the “Loudest Muffler” competitions with prizes. Event shirts will be available for purchase.

Visit www.cherokeerodders.com or call 828.497.2603 to register or for more information.

Two award-winning, classically trained artists — guitarist Brad Richter and cellist Viktor Uzur — will perform this weekend at the Jackson and Macon libraries.

The Arizona Daily Star describes the duo’s original music as “straddling the divide of pop and classical music in a way that seems so natural, you wonder why someone had never thought of it before.” The programs will feature a set of their popular mash-ups and an exciting arrangement of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” among others.

Richter is the former U.S. National Finger-Picking Champion and has won numerous prizes for performing and composing. Uzur is former principal cellist and soloist with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra and is a prize winner at many competitions.

The duo will perform at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 28 at the Jackson County Library. The performance at the Macon County Library is at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 30.

The Low Tech Ensemble will perform at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 3, in the Coulter Building recital hall on the campus of Western Carolina University.

The Low Tech Ensemble plays gamelan music from the Central Javanese tradition and by contemporary composers. A gamelan is an orchestra of tuned percussion instruments that consists mainly of gongs, zithers and xylophones. The concert will feature several traditional pieces as well as a performance of an arrangement by Will Peebles, director of the WCU School of Music.

Joy Shea, also a WCU music faculty member, instructs the ensemble. A resident of Jakarta, Indonesia, for 12 years, Shea has studied and played gamelan with some of the foremost instructors in the United States.

Admission to the concert is free and open to the public.

For more information about the concert, contact the WCU School of Music at 828-227-7242. To learn more about the Low Tech Ensemble, contact Shea at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The Western Carolina University Percussion Ensemble, under the direction of Mario Gaetano, will perform in concert at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2, in the recital hall of Coulter Building. The concert is free and open to the public.

The ensemble performs compositions specifically written for percussion instruments, such as drums, timpani, xylophones and marimbas. The ensemble is made up of 13 of Gaetano’s undergraduate percussion students.

The concert will include “Stratus” by Chris Crockarell, “Sacrificial Rite” by David Gillingham, “Ceremonium” by Jared Spears and Symphony, Op. 34 by Armand Russell. Also on the program is Gaetano’s “Fiesta Del Rio.”

The concert will feature traditional African drumming selections.

828.227.7242.

A talented lineup of potters is coming to Dillsboro for the seventh annual Western North Carolina Pottery Festival on Nov. 4-5.

The juried festival showcases 45 master potters hailing from 17 states.

Elmer Taylor of Denton, Texas, is this year’s featured artist. Taylor is the Regents’ Professor of Art at the University of North Texas and has a summer studio in the Sun Valley region of Idaho. Early in his career, Taylor trained in England under Bernard Leach, considered the father of the modern functional pottery movement.

Taylor’s appearance speaks to the quality of ceramic artists who frequent the WNC Pottery Festival on an annual basis.

“What started as a local pottery event has blossomed into a national show featuring some of the best potters in America,” said festival organizer Joe Frank McKee of Dillsboro’s Tree House Pottery. “These artists love our show because of the fall scenery, the great customers who come year after year, and the hospitality of everybody in Western North Carolina.”

The main portion of the festival is Saturday, with potters manning their booths along Front Street and demonstrations on-going throughout the day. All festival attendees receive a ticket for a day-long raffle, while a silent auction has been added this year to benefit a local organization that provides meals to needy families.

Pre-festival excitement takes place Friday from 1-5 p.m. with the third annual WNC Clay Olympics competition, featuring a field of 20 potters from the festival. Also Friday is the firing of the wood-fired kiln, plus the opportunity to buy pottery tools and equipment at discount prices from Shimpo Ceramics of Chicago. Stone Mountain Clay and Glaze of Tucker, Ga., will also be on hand Friday selling clay and glaze products.

Saturday’s festival hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., rain or shine. Admission is $3 per person, with children under the age of 12 admitted free.

“Festival attendees get to buy incredible works and see wonderful demonstrations all day long,” McKee said. “And they’re surrounded by the fall foliage of the Great Smoky Mountains.”

For festival info call 828.6315100 or visit www.wncpotteryfestival.com. For lodging information call the Jackson County Visitors Center at 800.962.1911.

A two-hour workshop in mixed media techniques will be taught at Leapin’ Frog Gallery on Friday, Nov. 4, by local artist Silvia Cabrera Williams.

Attention will be given to the elements and principles of art incorporating several mixed media techniques using gesso. The workshop is from 1-3 p.m. and cost of $25.

A recent mixed media piece of Williams has been juried into the 25th International Show of the North West Pastel Society in Tacoma, Wash. The show will be held at the oldest gallery in the Northwest by the oldest fine art company in the country, the American ART Company.

Call 828.456.8441 today to reserve your space for the workshop at Leapin’ Frog Gallery at 58 Commerce St. in th Frog Level area of Waynesville.

Artist and gallery owner Peggy Duncan has 31 of her paintings in pastel, acrylic, oil and mixed media on exhibit at Swain County Center for the Arts through Nov. 10. The “Fleeting Images” exhibit includes a retrospect of Duncan’s work from impressionistic pastels and low country landscapes to textural mixed media paintings on shaped wood panels.

There will be a reception for Duncan on Saturday, Oct. 29, in the lobby of Swain County Center for the Arts immediately following a concert of blues, zydeco, rock and jazz by Gas House Mouse at 7 p.m.  

Sponsored by the North Carolina Arts Council, Swain County Center for the Arts and Swain County Schools, the public is invited to both the concert and the reception free of charge.  

Duncan moved to Bryson City in 2006 to pursue her own painting full time and to open The Artists’ House Studio & Gallery in her house. She displays and sells artwork by a variety of 2-D and 3-D local, regional and national artists, including her own pastel, oil and acrylic paintings. The Artists’ House Studio & Gallery is located at 40 Victorian Drive in Bryson City.

Duncan’s artwork has been accepted in more than 40 regional and national juried shows since the early 1980s.  Her painting, “Pretty in Purple,” is one of only 24 pastels selected out of a total of 77 entries to show in the Appalachian Pastel Society Juried Show to be held Oct. 14 to Nov. 23 at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts.

828.488.7843.

Smoky Mountain Living magazine prominently features images from across the southern Appalachians in each edition. Photo essays adhere to the issue’s overall theme.

The next issue of Smoky Mountain Living will focus on all things home. Appropriate photos would include hometown scenes, animal homes, feeling at home, homemade things, and whatever else evokes the spirit of home.

Reader submitted photos are unpaid but those selected are rewarded with publication in the nationally distributed magazine. SML covers the southern Appalachians and  celebrates the area’s environmental riches, its people, culture, music, arts, history, and special places. Each issue brings the Appalachians to life. Published six times each year, SML is a magazine for those who want to learn more about where they live and those who want to stay in touch with where they love.

Submissions should be hi-resolution digital images and include information about where  and when the photos were taken and by whom. Email photos to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by Oct. 21.

This winter Smoky Mountain Living is celebrating the home. Help share the joys of home by telling about your hometown in 300 words or less.

Some questions to consider as you think about writing are: What was it like growing up in your hometown? What are your favorite memories? What does it feel like to be home? What gave/gives the town a sense of place? Why did you leave or did you? Would you live in your hometown again or do you live there now? What's one thing you would tell any visitor to your hometown to make sure to do?

Submissions must include a picture of the writer (current or, even better, in the hometown) as well as full name, current address, hometown name, email and phone number.

Submissions should be by those who grew up in the Southern Appalachian region or are now living in the Southern Appalachian region.

Send your submission to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by Oct. 24.

Public comment will be taken on a proposed 17.4 percent rate hike by Duke Energy at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 26, at the Macon County courthouse.

Commercial customers’ rates would increase by 14 percent.

Aside from general disdain of larger monthly power bills, the proposed rate hike has raised the hackles of environmentalists. Duke is hoisting the cost of building a new coal power plant onto its customers. Environmentalists have questioned the need for the new coal plant, instead calling for renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy conservation.

“The proposed hikes will place a burden on the public in an effort to build more generating capacity when such capacity is not necessary,” said Ken Brown, a member of WNC Alliance environmental organization in Jackson County.

The N.C. Utility Commission must OK the rate hike. It is holding public hearings across the state, including the one in Franklin.

A meeting called Green Drinks was held recently in Franklin, and helped prep talking points for opponents to use at the public hearing.

“We feel a large public turnout is needed to keep the decision-making process balanced,” said Bill Crawford, an organizer of Green Drinks.

Green Drinks is a monthly social gathering of conservationists, providing a forum and outlet for the environmental community to discuss issues and share concerns. It was patterned after a long-standing Green Drinks event in Asheville.

Anyone is welcome. 828. 524.2280 or 828.349.3067.

The Alliance for Saving Threatened Forests is hosting a one-day symposium, from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., about host resistance research to the hemlock and balsam woolly adelgids.

The conference will take place Oct. 26 at the Haywood County Cooperative Extension Center, across from the Mountain Research Station in Waynesville.

There are several objectives, including bringing together scientists who are researching adelgid resistance to explain their work in layman’s terms.

The symposium is sponsored by the Friends of the Smokies, the N.C. Nursery and Landscape Association, and the N.C. Christmas Tree Association. A barbecue lunch will be provided.

www.threatenedforests.org or contact Erin Mester, ASTF development officer,

Department of Entomology, Grinnells Laboratories, Campus Box 7626, Raleigh, N.C. 27695-7626, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Learn from experts about the rich American Indian history of Cherokee and Clay counties at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 25, at the Hiwassee Valley Pool and Wellness Center in Murphy.

Lance Greene and T.J. Holland will speak.  

Greene received his PhD in anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, under an advisory committee that included Brett Riggs. He has worked as an archaeologist for 25 years, mostly in the Southeast. He works as a historical archaeologist with a focus on life in the Southern Appalachians during the 19th century. His recent research focuses on how and why members of traditional Cherokee communities avoided forced removal in the 1830s.  Greene’s dissertation is based on findings from research on the historic Welch Farm near Andrews, a portion of which was conserved by the Hiwassee-Valley Land Trust earlier this year.

T.J. Holland is director of the Junaluska Museum in Robbinsville and an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. He holds a degree in fine arts from Western Carolina University and is an expert on the mative settlement histories of the Hiwassee, Valley and Cheoah river valleys.

The forum is sponsored by the Junaluska Museum and the local conservation groups Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition and Hiwassee-Valley Land Trust and is a project of the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee.

The Hiwassee Valley Pool and Wellness Center is located at 695 Conahetta Street, across from Konehete Park near downtown Murphy. www.cherokeeheritagetrails.org/robbinsville_places.html

The second annual Rooted in the Mountains symposium at Western Carolina University will be held Thursday, Oct. 20, and Friday, Oct. 21, in the Grandroom of the A.K. Hinds University Center.

The Rooted in the Mountains event was created to raise awareness of the intersection of environmental, health and indigenous issues related to mountain destruction.

Dennis Martinez (Tohono O’odham/Chicano), a “bio pioneer” and advocate for an indigenous perspective of ecology, will speak at 6 p.m. Thursday. Sheila Kay Adams, a longtime storyteller and performer of traditional Appalachian ballads, will lead a musical performance beginning at 7:30 p.m. Also Thursday, the documentary film “The Last Mountain” will show at 4 p.m. in the University Center theater. The screening is free. “The Last Mountain” explores the consequences of mining and burning coal and focuses in particular on the use of a method for strip-mining in Appalachia commonly known as mountaintop removal mining.

Cultural historian Jeff Biggers will start Friday’s session with a 9 a.m. keynote address. Biggers, a coal miner’s grandson and outspoken critic of mountaintop removal in Appalachia, is the author of nonfiction works Reckoning at Eagle Creek, The United States of Appalachia and In the Sierra Madre. The symposium also includes a Thursday reception, Friday lunch, academic presentations and a facilitated discussion.

The symposium registration fee is $125 (free to students, with an optional $10 charge for lunch). The Biggers address, part of WCU’s Art and Cultural Events Series, is free to all.

Rooted in the Mountains sponsors include WCU’s Division of Educational Outreach, Mountain Heritage Center and Cherokee studies program. Community sponsors include the Center for Native Health, Watershed Association of the Tuckasegee River, the Canary Coalition, the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee and the Tuckaseegee Community Alliance.

To register go to rootedinthemtns.wcu.edu or call 828.227.7397.

A fall party will be held at Haywood’s Historic Farmers Market on Saturday, Oct. 22, from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m.

There will be “campfire cuisine with Lu Dodson, a National Park Service ranger, who also will emphasize bear awareness techniques.

Lorraine Conard, a Waynesville singer-songwriter, will perform in the Music Tent, and the Haywood County Amateur Radio Club plan a ham-radio setup at the market.

www.waynesvillefarmersmarket.com

A farm equipment auction will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 22, at the Haywood County Fairgrounds on NC 209.

On the auction block will be a variety of tractors and tractor equipment, a trailer, hay, hand tools and more.

From Interstate 40, take Exit 24. Go south on N.C. 209. The fairgrounds are approximately 3.5 miles on the left. 828.593.9649

Bryson City Bicycles is in search of gently used bikes to be tuned and donated to kids in need.

The bike shop will again support the Swain County Family Resource Center with a Christmas Cheer Program by fixing up these used bicycles and donating them to the center to be distributed to families in need.

Gently used adult or youth bikes, bikes that have been outgrown, or bikes in decent condition that might need tuning or new parts can be dropped off at Bryson City Bicycles. The bike shop will tune the donated bikes, replace parts, and make sure the bicycles are safe before handing them over to the Family Resource Center for distribution.

Last year Bryson City Bicycles provided 15 refurbished bikes to the Family Resource Center. Bryson City Bicycles is accepting bicycles now through Dec. 15. Bryson City Bicycles is located at 157 Everett St. in downtown Bryson City.

828.488.1988 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The Haywood Community College Timbersports Team finished in first place in the John G. Palmer Intercollegiate Woodsmen’s Meet and Forest Festival Day held at the Cradle of Forestry. The team competed against Montgomery Community College, North Carolina State University, Penn State Mont Alto, and Virginia Tech.

A nature walk by The Land Trust for the Little Tennessee will be held Friday, Oct. 21, at Tessentee Bottomland Preserve in Macon County just south of Franklin.

The walk will feature different types of forest stands, historic farmhouse and silo and stands of rivercane. Tessentee Bottomland Preserve is stop No. 53 on the N.C. Birding Trail, with the preserve’s bird list at 116 species and it’s butterfly list at 43 species and counting.

Jason Love, LTLT board member and site manager for Coweeta Long Term Ecological Research, will lead the hike.

To get to Tessentee Bottomland from Franklin; take the Georgia Road (U.S. 23/441) south for approximately 5.2 miles, turn left onto Riverside Roadd and follow for 0.5 miles, turn right onto Hickory Knoll Road and follow for approximately 1.9 miles — the preserve is located off a private drive (2249 Hickory Knoll Road) on the right side of the road; parking area is on the left, before the farm gate.

For directions from other locations and to RSVP, contact Jill Wiggins at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 828.524.2711 x209.

LTLT acquired the original 64-acre tract of bottomland and river bluff land at the junction of Tessentee Creek and the Little Tennessee River in November 1999. The conservation project was made possible by grants from the NC Clean Water Management Trust Fund, The Lyndhurst Foundation and significant donations from LTLT supporters. The parcel was the first land protected on the free-flowing Little Tennessee and now, 12 years later, in 30 different land protection projects, more than 20,000 acres and 35 miles of river frontage have been conserved. In December 2009, a bargain sale by Margaret Parks, in honor of her late husband, James (Jim) Parks Jr., allowed LTLT to add another 5.6 acres to its Tessentee Bottomland Preserve. Parks sold the property to LTLT for less than one-half of its market value and financed one-half of the purchase price to allow LTLT time to raise funds for the project.  For more information about the conservation and restoration projects of LTLT, visit www.ltlt.org.

The Wilderness Society’s Brent Martin will lead the final presentation in the “Gardening for Wildlife” series of lectures at 7 p.m. on Oct. 21 at the Rickman Store in Macon County.

Martin, the southeast representative for the Wilderness Society, will lead a program called “Hug a Bug! Love a Bee! Save a Tree!” which focuses on putting a value on nature’s free services. Martin will discuss how nature’s gifts are undervalued but vital to the health and sustainability of the planet, and most importantly how individuals can work to protect natural systems in our own neighborhoods.

Songwriter Angela Faye Martin will accompany Martin’s talk with some “wild” strumming and songs.  

This is the third year of the Gardening Series organized by the Friends of the Rickman Store. All gardeners who have received “Backyard Wildlife Habitat” certification from the National Wildlife Federation are invited to attend and be recognized with congratulations.

828.349.5201.

Come hike the 8,600-acre Waynesville Watershed property at the head of Allens Creek in Haywood County, which is normally off-limits to all public access.

The last hike of the year there is set for Saturday, Oct. 29, at 9 a.m. It will be led by naturalist Don Hendershot, Peter Bates of Western Carolina University and naturalists from Balsam Mountain Trust.

The hike will be between three and five miles long across moderately strenuous terrain. Hikers should bring their own lunch, water, appropriate (warm) clothing, hat, rain gear, and wear sturdy shoes. Birders should bring their binoculars. The group will leave from the Waynesville Water Plant and return by 2 p.m.

The hike is being co-organized by the Town and Balsam Mountain Trust, the nonprofit environmental education and research arm of Balsam Mountain Preserve.

Advanced registration is required and can be done online at www.townofwaynesville.org, or 828.452.2491.

Learn how to cook wild game outdoors in a class from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Oct. 22 at the Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education.

Topics will include equipment, preparation and cooking techniques best suited for the outdoors and wild game. Instructors will share their best recipes and participants will be able to sample the dishes.  

Space is limited and pre-registration is required. The center is near Brevard off U.S. 276 next to the Davidson River. The class is free.

828.877.4423 or www.ncwildlife.org.

Earlier this month the fourth-grade classes from Cartoogechaye Elementary School hiked 4 miles on the Appalachian Trail from Wayah Crest picnic area to Siler Bald. The Nantahala Hiking Club led the hike as part of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy’s Trail to Every Classroom outreach program to local schools. The school’s physical education department uses the hike to demonstrate hiking as a life long, healthy living activity.

Western Carolina University faculty and students from the athletic training program finished the fourth annual Mountain Jug Run for Research in record time, completing the 175-mile relay run from Cullowhee to Boone in 29 hours, 11 minutes and 54 seconds.

The fundraising effort began early Friday afternoon, Oct. 7, from WCU’s E.J. Whitmire Stadium and ended at the Appalachian State University football stadium just after 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 8. This year’s contingent of 15 WCU runners beat the previous low time of 29 hours, 53 minutes and 53 seconds recorded by last year’s group, said James Scifers, director of WCU’s School of Health Sciences.

Named in honor of “The Battle for the Old Mountain Jug,” the annual football rivalry game between WCU and ASU, the relay is organized to raise funds for the National Athletic Trainers’ Association’s Research and Education Foundation, which awards research grants and academic scholarships in the field of sports medicine.

The relay course took the runners 15 miles to the Blue Ridge Parkway at Balsam, and then the group followed the parkway north for 152 miles before exiting the scenic highway and running the final 7 miles into Boone.

The running contingent this year included Scifers and three other faculty members – Ashley Long, Rob Dingle and Emily Martin – plus 11 students: senior Kayla Jones, juniors Josh Edwards, Wes Bell, Alessa Lennon, Mikko Ablan and Carlos Acuna; sophomores Sarah McNamara, Aaron Marshall, Brittany Wiley and Michael Evans; and freshman Taylor Parker.

Donations will be accepted until the end of WCU’s fall semester and may be made in the form of checks, made payable to the NATA-REF, and sent to Jill Manners in 134 Moore Hall at WCU.

City Lights’ “Coffee with the Poet” series continues at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 20 with local artist and author Terry Michelson.

Michelson will be reading from her three recent collections, Psalms, Wolven and Sonnets. Her paintings will also be on display at City Lights Bookstore in celebration of the third annual Colorfest arts festival. See her demonstrate her pastel technique on Saturday, Oct. 22.

Coffee with the Poet event is every third Thursday and is co-sponsored by NetWest.

828.586.9499.

Three of the authors who contributed to the poetry book Every Breath Sings Mountains will appear at Blue Ridge Books and News at 3 p.m. on Oct. 22.

This book of poetry is published by Voices From the American Land, a conservation organization designed to preserve some of the U.S.’s most pristine environments.

Authors Brent Martin (who works with The Wilderness Society) and lives near Franklin, Barbara Duncan (the education director at the Museum of the Cherokee Indians), and Thomas Rain Crowe (poet and publisher from Jackson County) will read selections from the book.

The purpose of the book is to promote a greater awareness of the diversity and uniqueness of the Great Smokies region.

For information call 828.456.6000 or visit www.blueridgebooksnc.com.

Editor’s note: Rep. Health Shuler wrote this letter to U.S. Postmaster Pat Donahoe to express his concern for potential job cuts at the Postal Service.

I write to express my concern for and opposition to plans being discussed by the United States Postal Service (USPS) that would result in the termination of 120,000 postal employees by 2015, as well as the USPS’s suggestion to close nearly 3,700 postal facilities throughout the country, many in rural areas. Such closures would put a devastating number of postal employees out of work. This is the time to create jobs, not take them away.

Neither postal employees nor Americans should bear the brunt of policy disagreements between the USPS and the federal government. Frankly, they deserve more.

Though I fully appreciate the immediacy of this situation, the USPS has other options that it can explore before taking such drastic actions that will ultimately hurt both postal workers and their taxpaying customers. For example, it would behoove the USPS to first review the forthcoming plan from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) designed to create a USPS framework for fiscal solvency.

I urge you to exercise abundant caution before taking additional steps prior to the OPM framework proposal. Cogent action is necessary to ensure the USPS does not inflict devastating job losses or facility closures.

Heath Shuler

Member of Congress

To the Editor

On behalf of the Greater Cashiers Area Merchants Association we would like to thank everyone who contributed to the 2011 Cashiers Valley Leaf Festival. The Festival, held on Oct.7-9 once again brought thousands of visitors and tourists to the Valley and was a resounding success in every way.

Numerous volunteers, local attendees and their guests, highly talented artists, vendors, musicians and performers as well as local businesses, media and restaurants all contributed to the festival’s phenomenal attendance figures and success for participants. The unique Cashiers Village Green and Commons provided an unequaled Festival headquarters venue. Members of the Glenville Community Development Club and the Sapphire Resort added their own special flavor to the festival activities enhancing the heightened level of festival interest while earning rave reviews from attendees and their participants.

No event in the scale of this Leaf Festival can be accomplished without the generosity of those who make our financial commitment possible. A very special thank you is owed to all of our sponsors.

Judy Brown, President                                              

Greater Cashiers Area Merchants Association

Pat Grady, Chair

Cashiers Valley Leaf Festival 2011

To the Editor:

Duke Energy has applied to the N.C. Utilities Commission for yet another rate increase in an attempt to force ratepayers to finance the cost over-runs of their ongoing construction on the new, un-needed coal-burning power plant at Cliffside in Rutherford County. This time Duke is asking for a residential rate increase of 17.4 percent on top of the 5 percent it just received for the increasing cost of fossil fuels. The cost of street lighting for local governments (and taxpayers) will rise another 8 percent if Duke’s request is granted.

This rate increase has the potential to cripple already struggling families, businesses and industries throughout our state, causing more mortgage foreclosures, business failures and job losses.

Isn’t it time we all stepped up to the plate to say “No?”

We will have the opportunity. The Utilities Commission is holding two public hearings in Western North Carolina on Duke Energy’s rate-hike request: in Marion, on Oct. 25 and in Franklin on Oct. 26. The undersigned organizations strongly urge you to attend one of these hearings to tell Duke Energy and the Utilities Commission how you feel about this matter.

For carpooling and more information call the office of the Canary Coalition at 828.631.3447 or visit www.canarycoalition.org.

Avram Friedman

Executive Director, The Canary Coalition

Macon Foscue

Active Students for a Healthy Environment

June Blotnick

Executive Director, Clean Air Carolina

Monica Embrey

Field Organizer, Greenpeace USA,

Michelle Price

Jackson-Macon Conservation Alliance

Elaine Lite

Chair, Mountain Voices Alliance

Richard Fireman

NC Interfaith Power & Light

Charlie Thomas

People Advocating Real Conservancy  

Charles Jansen

Transition Asheville

Kenneth Brown

Chair, Tuckaseegee Community Alliance

To the Editor:

I was born and raised in Cashiers and have always disliked the phrase “country come to town.” Unfortunately that is the exact phrase that came to mind as I read Scott McLeod’s column “Pope is pulling the strings in state politics.” (Oct. 12 SMN, www.smokymountainnews.com/news/item/5304)

That you, Mr. McLeod, chose to shove the left-wing, ultra-liberal New Yorker magazine article down our throats is “country come to town.” To me that means that you have been duped into believing that the big city reporter’s ideas, impressions and comments in the magazine’s Oct. 10 story, “State for Sale,” must be better than our own in rural North Carolina.

Why do you suppose the New Yorker chose North Carolina as a “state for sale?” Could it be that the Democrats and Obama need this state to win in 2012, and a little discrediting of N.C. Republicans might help?

Nearly half of your editorial is direct quotes from the New Yorker article. However, prior to the quotes you give us New Yorker writer Mayer’s credentials, which are her writings about the Kochs, who are New York billionaire Republican donors, and her appearances on left-wing radio and TV programs.

Then you make your own comments on the 2010 Snow-Davis race that in itself is a smear campaign on Raleigh millionaire Art Pope. Your position appears to be, I guess because the New Yorker says it is so, that a powerful political benefactor is exclusive to Republican candidates.

In the 2010 election North Carolina Democrats spent $18 million to Republican $16 million. Perhaps we can look forward to your investigative reports on the Democrat side about the “rich” N.C. businesses, the massive Union, celebrity and George Soros donors to Democrat candidates. Eighteen million dollars does not come from North Carolinians dropping money in the pot at the their local shopping center.

Also it should be quite easy for you or your reporters to research the sources of the enormous contributions in the millions to Democrat Heath Shuler’s two campaigns for the U.S. House of Representatives. We’d read some exceptional journalism on the part of The Smokey Mountain News if you publish a counterpoint, i.e., comments from Sen. Jim Davis, R-Franklin, who is maligned in the New Yorker article as the beneficiary of great sums Pope spent on “flyers, TV and radio ads.”

To my mind I’d rather have campaign money from a successful North Carolina businessman than Hollywood hotshots, California kooks, union thugs and the Chicago mafia.

You end your editorial with “All voters can do is to try to stay informed and keep tabs on who is pulling the levers behind the curtain.” Unless The Smoky Mountain News begins to practice a balanced brand of journalism, we voters will not be informed by you. However, I am still in hopes that I will read original political material from our Western North Carolinians, not the big city slickers.

Shirley Slaughter

Cashiers

Sunburst Trout Farm has opened a retail location in downtown Waynesville, offering a convenient spot to pick up local trout products without driving out to the farm itself.

“This has been an idea we have had for many years, but have not had a viable space or the manpower,” said Anna Eason, director of human resources and web presence.

The downtown store will also offer caviar, smoked tomato jam, blended coffee form Smoky Mountain Roasters and candles from Hazelwood Soap Company, along with its traditional trout products including fillets, marinated fillets, encrusted fillets, trout jerky, smoked trout, cold smoked trout and trout sausage.

It will hold a grand opening celebration from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. October 27.

The new store, located at 133 Montgomery Street, will be open Monday thru Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

“Many of the customers that come to the farm and customers who want our trout on a day we are closed, like the weekends, have been begging for an outlet closer to home,” Eason said.

Sunburst trout is carried at grocery stores and restaurants across the Southeast. The three-generation, family-owned aquaculture business has received nearly continuous television and magazine attention for its sustainable practices, innovative business strategies and health-conscious.

Additionally, a ribbon cutting with the Haywood Chamber of Commerce will be held at 11 a.m. Nov. 10. 828.452.3848.

The Princeton Review has named Western Carolina University’s College of Business one of the top business schools in the country.

The annual ranking received high marks for its master’s degree in business administration and finance and management preparation.

“These accolades tell prospective and current students, as well as their future employers, that we are preparing graduates who are business-ready,” said Louis Buck Jr., interim dean of the college of business.

“The Best 294 Business Schools” are ranked based on surveys from 19,000 business students.

Programs at the Osteoporosis Center at MedWest-Haywood already promote the prevention, detection and treatment of osteoporosis, but the doctors at the center want to do more.

They want to identify people who are at risk for falling, which can lead to debilitating problems or death.

“Falls are costly, and with the graying of America, it’s becoming an even greater problem,” said Rheumatologist Kate Queen. “Ninety percent of fractures are caused by falls. If we can identify people who are at risk for falls before they happen, we may have a bigger impact.”

Rarely are people assessed for their fall risk, which can result from a wide range of causes including cardiovascular disease, dementia, low vision, foot issues or in a person who takes multiple medications, Queen said.

During the first 14 months of Queen’s project, 900 patients were identified as at risk for falls and about 20 percent of those individuals have transitioned into a yearlong training program.

Duke Energy and the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce is looking for nominees for its Duke Energy Citizenship and Service Award, which honors volunteers.

Nominees should be individuals or groups who make a difference in their community or workplace by using their time, talents and compassion to positively impact the lives of others.

Nomination applications are available at the chamber office located at 773 West Main Street in Sylva or on the chamber’s website, www.mountainlovers.com. The deadline for applications is Nov. 10.

Duke Energy representatives will present the award at the chamber’s Annual Holiday Reception Nov. 17 in the Historic Hooper House on Main Street in Sylva.

Western Carolina University is holding its “Forever a Catamount”-themed homecoming Oct. 21 thru 23.

FRIDAY

• The annual Alumni Scholarship Homecoming Golf Tournament at 11 a.m. at Sequoyah National Golf Club in Whittier. It costs $85 per person.

• Professor emeritus Robert Holquist presents the Last Lecture at 1:30 p.m. in Coulter Recital Hall.

• The homecoming parade begins at 6:15 p.m. in downtown Sylva

SATURDAY

• A continental alumni breakfast held from 8 to 10 a.m. in the multipurpose room at A.K. Hinds University Center.

• A brunch and alumni awards ceremony will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the UC Grandroom. The cost is $15 a plate.

• The Catamounts play The Citadel at 3 p.m. at E.J. Whitmire Stadium.

• Stompfest, a step competition featuring African-American fraternities and sororities, will begin at 8 p.m. in the John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center. Tickets are $12.

To make reservations for the golf tournament and brunch, call Cindi Magill in the Office of Alumni Affairs at 828.227.7335.

The Haywood County plans to renovate the formers Bargains building on Russ Avenue near K-Mart to house Haywood County Board of Elections, an adult day care program, a wellness center, additional office space and warehouse storage space.

The county commissioners are currently accepting bids from architects. The 12,000-square-foot building was once a flooring and carpeting retail store. The cavernous warehouse-style building must be remodeled on the inside to accommodates offices, and will require roof replacement and façade improvements.

“This is a rather small project in the scheme of things,” said Commissioner Michael Sorrells.

The Bargains building has been empty for eight years. It was bought by the now-defunct Council on Aging, which built an office complex on the adjacent lot to house its nonprofit operations. When the nonprofit folded, the county took over the office complex, and the empty Bargains building came with it.

Architects should submit qualifications, experience renovating commercial buildings, experience working on government construction projects, a tentative timeline for project completion and estimated costs. All applications should be sent to Dale Burris, director of Facilities and Maintenance.

Macon County commissioners will hold a special meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 25, to discuss regulations on earth moving proposed by the county’s planning board.

A vote on the guidelines probably won’t take place then, County Manager Jack Horton said Tuesday. He expects an actual vote in November.

Next week’s meeting at the commissioner board room in the courthouse is likely to trigger turnouts of the for-planning and the against-planning factions that divide Macon County.

The planning board was originally tasked two years ago with developing rules for steep-slope development, but got bogged down and instead settled on so-called “construction guidelines” as a means of salvaging a few of the more salient building rules. The guidelines include rules that limit how high and steep cut and fill slopes can be and require compaction of fill dirt.