Measuring the overall health of a population at the local level is an elusive and cumbersome task. As a result, there have been few statistical studies historically that hint at how Western North Carolina stacks up.

But this year, an unprecedented study compiled health rankings for every county in each state across the country.

The results weren’t good news for Swain County, which ranked in the bottom 10 percent in several categories. However, Haywood, Jackson and Macon counties went against the stereotype of poor health in the Appalachian Mountains and ranked in the top third.

“The western part of the state is a good deal older. When you control for that, the east part of the state seems a good deal unhealthier,” said Dr. Tom Ricketts, past director of the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Compiled by the University of Wisconsin, the study divided heath rankings into two broad categories: health outcomes and the health factors that cause them.

Swain County ranked 91st out of 100 counties in the state — the lowest ranking of any county in WNC when it comes to health factors. Meanwhile, Jackson, Haywood and Macon Counties are ranked in the healthiest third at 31, 19 and 15 respectively.

Diet, smoking, drinking, exercise, access to quality health care, social and economic factors, and the physical environment all play into the ranking.

“Health and health behaviors and care are all tangled up in a multi-complex system,” said William Aldis, a World Health Organization representative to Thailand who lives in Sylva and has taught health classes at Western Carolina University and at a university in Thailand. “You can never completely separate these things.”

Aldis said he notices the difference in health as soon as he steps off the plane and into the airport terminal when he returns to the United States.

“It surprises me when I come back how sick people look here compared to other countries,” he said.

While the University of Wisconsin study took on an enormous task, the rankings are not universally accepted by public health officials.

Linda White, director of the Swain County Health Department, has not used the information in any strategic planning because she thinks the data may be skewed.

She often compares Swain to Graham County in her planning because the populations are similar. But she noticed the study reported Swain to have the highest percent of smokers in the state while failing to report a percentage of smokers in Graham.

“It causes me to question the validity of the data,” White said.

Macon County Health Director Jim Bruckner said some counties may need to look harder at some of the statistics to determine their quality because of the sampling methods. But Bruckner said the health department has a lot it can glean from the statistics.

Every three years, the health department uses a variety of statistics to create a “snapshot” of health outcomes and contributing factors in Macon County. Bruckner said the county health rankings will now be included in the project.

“We hope to use this report to shed light on what more we can do to help residents lead healthier lives and to mobilize community leaders to invest in programs and policy changes that will improve Macon County’s health,” Bruckner said.

 

Health behaviors

 

The University of Wisconsin study looked at key health behaviors — which will ultimately affect people’s health in the future — such as diet and exercise, tobacco use, unsafe sex and alcohol use.

The study uses obesity as the measure for a county’s commitment to diet and exercise. Although obesity is a problem across the state, Jackson, Macon, Haywood and Swain Counties are no worse than the state average, according to the County Health Rankings.

North Carolina is the 10th most obese state in the nation with an adult obesity rate of 29 percent, according to the Trust for America’s Health “F as in Fat” 2010 report.

And North Carolina has grown heavier. In 2009, North Carolina was the 12th most obese state, 16th in 2008 and 17th in 2007.

“Obesity is one of the most challenging issues and has had the more lasting impact on our society,” said Carmine Rocco, Haywood County Health Department director.

Reducing childhood obesity is a big focus for health departments in Western North Carolina.

“We’ve attempted to combat that for years,” White said. “It’s a lifestyle change. Kids will eat what’s offered to them.”

White has worked with schools in Swain County to get healthier food on the menu. Between five and six years ago, the health departments removed the deep fryers from the school cafeterias and purchased them ovens instead, White said.

But it’s other health behaviors that earned Swain County its low ranking. Swain has the highest percentage of smokers in the state and one of the highest teen birth rates, which is used to indicate unsafe sex tendencies.

Dr. Mark Engel, a family doctor in Swain County, said he thinks part of the problem with Swain’s health is that preventative care has not been emphasized until recently and that Swain has been more isolated than the counties to the east.

“Swain has been socially isolated long enough,” Engel said. “It will be an uphill climb for better health.”

He’s noticed higher social support for both smoking and teen pregnancy, he said, adding that it will take generations to change the population’s attitudes.

Forty percent of adults in Swain County smoke compared to 23 percent across the state.

“We’ve come leaps and bounds,” White said, who questioned the accuracy of the statistics. “We work on lessening those numbers regardless of what they are.”

Both Dr. John Stringfield and Dr. Michael Brown, who are family doctors in Waynesville, said that they’ve seen a decrease in the number of smokers in their offices even though the study reports that Haywood still has a higher percent of smokers compared to the state average.

“There’s been an increase in education and peer pressure against smoking,” Brown said.

Only Macon County with 19 percent of the population being smokers falls below the state average.

Ricketts said that there is a strong correlation between smokers and more rural environments. He suggested that smoking might be a form of entertainment where few other options exist.

“It’s hard to explain,” Ricketts said. “It just is.”

 

Clinical care

 

Another key component in assessing an area’s health is the availability of healthcare. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin examined several factors, including the percent of uninsured adults, the number of primary providers in the area and preventable hospital stays.

Jackson and Swain Counties have poor clinical care rankings at 86 and 93 respectively while Haywood and Macon Counties are both in the top 15, according to the study.

“In the early ‘70s, the main problem was that there’s been a misdistribution between urban and rural areas with primary care physicians,” said John Price, director of the N.C. Office of Rural Health and Community Care. “The issue over the years has changed a little. The issue is economic access to care.”

Three of the four counties — with Haywood being the exception — have more than 22 percent of adults without health insurance.

That portion is noticeably higher compared to about 15 percent of American and 17 percent North Carolinians who are uninsured.

The Good Samaritan Clinic in Jackson County is a free clinic that treats uninsured adults. A volunteer doctor at the clinic, Dr. David Trigg, said there are often misconceptions about who the uninsured are.

“They’re not unemployed. They’re just uninsured, and they certainly aren’t lazy,” he said,

But in the clinical care rankings, other factors have a role in bringing down Jackson and Swain counties’ rankings.

Swain County has a high rate of hospitalization for typical outpatient services, according to the study. This suggests that outpatient care in the area is less than ideal or that the people overuse the hospital as the primary source of care, the researchers wrote.

A strike against Jackson County’s ranking is a low percentage of diabetic Medicare patients getting annual blood sugar control tests. The tests are considered a standard of good healthcare — a standard at which Jackson is the lowest in the state.

“One reason that could be lower is the way it’s recorded,” said Paula Carden, the Jackson County Health Department director. “Whether all the numbers get reported or not is hard to say.”

Carden said doctors are responsible for reporting the screenings when their patients come to get them. The codes used by doctors in Jackson to report the data may be different from those in other counties.

In one aspect of clinical care, the number of primary care doctors per capita, the study found all four counties at or above average.

But some of the physicians are counted twice, inflating the number of doctors for Western North Carolina. Many doctors in Jackson, Macon and Swain counties practice across countylines — with their main office in one county but a satellite office in the other where they hold weekly office hours. These doctors appear to be counted in both counties.

“Even if there are enough providers to the population by the numbers and they appear at the right levels, they’re not,” Good Samaritan Clinic director Becky Olson said. “The problem is that Jackson County doctors don’t just serve Jackson County alone.”

The study also fails to take into account the influx of seasonal residents and tourists to the area. Doctors in Western North Carolina said they can tell when the part-time residents begin to arrive in the spring.

“It’s an elusive number, hard to quantify,” said the Haywood County Health Department director Carmine Rocco. “But it’s a reality we have to deal with when we plan health care. If something happens, we have to be able to respond.”

Flu and respiratory illnesses keep his schedule filled during the winter, and during the summer, he sees an influx of seasonal residents. Some older residents who come for four or five months in the spring and summer have chronic conditions that require a physician’s monitoring, said Dr. John Stringfield, a doctor at Waynesville Family Practice.

“What keeps me busy is different for each season of the year,” he said.

But Ricketts said he wouldn’t call seasonal homeowners or tourists a stress on the Western North Carolina healthcare system.

“For a rural place, it generally does pretty well on physician supply,” Ricketts said.

He gave the motorcycle rally in Sturgis, S.D., as an example of something that would cause stress on the system. In 2008, the rally brought more than 400,000 bikers and three rally related deaths to the small town.

“[Tourism in Western North Carolina] doesn’t necessarily provide stress but provides income,” Ricketts said.

 

Social & economic factors

 

Research has shown that social and economic factors also play a key role in determining health.

“To have an overall picture of health, it’s affected by economic factors,” health director Carden said. “If you don’t have enough money for the good health care, your overall health is affected. … Economics plays an important role in our overall health whether we like it or not.”

According to the University of Wisconsin study, Swain County has the lowest high school graduation rate, fewest college degrees, highest unemployment and most single-parent households compared to the other three counties.

“More educated people are in a much better position to analyze health choices,” Aldis said. “Education is a powerful tool in expanding people’s health choices.”

Aldis said that in his work in foreign countries where the populations are less literate than in the United States, women who can read are more likely to get their children vaccinated even if they haven’t had any medical training.

But even less educated patients are attentive and willing to learn how to make better health choices, Trigg said about his patients at the free clinic. But without the clinic, they don’t have the same knowhow about getting health information, he said.

“They don’t get on the Internet and look up health information the same way someone from the university would,” he said.

Hand-in-hand with education, poverty also limits a people’s health options in that they can’t afford the best or at times adequate care, said Stringfield, a Haywood doctor.

“Those in a lower social economic status may tend to have more medical problems,” Stringfield said. “Sometimes that has to do with access to care or access to medicine. Many simply can’t afford to fill a prescription.”

Poverty also influences people’s food choices. Fruits and vegetables are expensive compared to a value menu at the local fast food restaurant. Snack food is also cheaper but contains unhealthy ingredients such as excess salt and high fructose corn syrup, Aldis said.

“There’s not a sense of autonomy of choice,” he said. “We have a very interesting inversion going on. Obesity is a disease of the poor.”

To learn more, visit www.countyhealthrankings.org/north-carolina.

 

 

How WNC stacks up

The University of Wisconsin ranked all counties in all states by health outcomes and health factors. Within health factors, four subcategories determined the rankings: health behaviors (30 percent), clinical care (20 percent), social and economic factors (40 percent), and physical environment (10 percent).
There are 100 counties in North Carolina. A ranking of 1 would denote the healthiest county while 100 would signify the unhealthiest in that category.

Health Factor Rankings denotes overall health. The others show what went into determining the rankings.

Health Factors Rankings
Macon    15
Haywood    19
Jackson    31
Swain    91

Health Behaviors Rankings
Macon    12
Haywood    35
Jackson    39
Swain    97

Clinical Care Rankings
Haywood    11
Macon    14
Jackson    86
Swain    93

Social and Economic Factors Rankings
Haywood    16
Jackson    19
Macon    33
Swain    79

Physical Environment Rankings
Swain    14
Jackson    35
Macon    51
Haywood    72

Percentage of Smokers
Macon:    19%
Haywood    27%
Jackson    28%
Swain    40%
State Average    23%

Haywood Habitat for Humanity marked its 20th anniversary at the organization’s Annual Meeting. To celebrate, Habitat Executive Director Marnette Colborne announced the creation of the annual Walton Garrett Award to recognize special volunteers. Garrett started the organization in the county and has worked on every house built. Four volunteers were recognized this year: Hugh Constance, Tom Henry, Ted Lazo and Steve Kirton.

Colborne summarized accomplishments of Haywood Habitat throughout the past year, including completion of the 39th house and ground breaking on the 40th, which was sponsored by Jay and Buckie Somers. The 40th house should be completed this fall.

Habitat for Humanity is a volunteer-based organization committed to eliminating sub-standard housing. For additional information or to volunteer, visit  www.haywoodhabitat.org or call 452-7960.

An ongoing debate over the cost of a new building on the Haywood Community College campus lacks a clear resolution, with neither county commissioners nor college leaders budging from their position since the conflict first arose four months ago.

County commissioners claim the $10.2 million price tag on the new creative arts building is too high. College leaders claim they have cut all the costs they can without starting over completely or compromising core functions of the building.

“What’s disappointing is the commissioners have expressed that we want the building costs to come down, but they just keep coming back with the same plan. It’s like they don’t even hear us,” said Commissioner Kevin Ensley.

HCC President Rose Johnson says the college board of trustees went over the design with a fine-tooth comb before bringing it to the county commissioners.

“We had gone through a cost reduction process already, and there was nothing else we could do other than go back and totally redesign the building,” Johnson said.

The college trustees don’t want to do that. But commissioners are questioning whether the trustees have tried hard enough.

“It has always been my experience that an architect can find ways to reduce costs if instructed to do so,” said Commissioner Mark Swanger. “Obviously it is better to be conservative during the design process to keep the costs down, but I have never seen a case where architects couldn’t go back and find savings if instructed to do so.”

Swanger has been intimately involved in the construction of several new schools and county building in his 12 years as an elected leader on the school board and county government.

Terry Gess, chair of the Creative Arts Program at HCC, said it would be a mistake to shortchange the new building. The college has a national reputation for its craft program. Meanwhile, the craft industry has an economic impact of $206 million in Western North Carolina.

Gess said the building will be a showcase for the importance of craft in the region and a source of pride.

“It will maintain Haywood Community College’s place as a leader in the professional craft industry,” Gess said.

Alternative energy under fire

A major sticking point in the debate is over environmental features of the new building. Under Johnson’s leadership, HCC has become a leader in sustainability, from campus operations to course curriculum. Likewise, the new creative arts building incorporates many green features.

Commissioners have repeatedly questioned the cost of those features, in particular the alternative energy components like solar hot water and solar panels.

Johnson told commissioners the technology is needed to meet strict new energy-use mandates for state buildings.

An article in The Mountaineer two weeks ago reported differently, however. The article quoted an associate architect for the project who revealed the building would actually exceed the state’s energy guidelines not just by a little, but by 60 percent. That news caught county commissioners off guard.

“The latest information didn’t dovetail with what I recall being told previously,” Swanger said.

However, there is a logical explanation for the discrepancy, college leaders said.

The building incorporates three alternative energy features. All three together indeed go above and beyond the state mandate.

But one of the three has always been considered optional, namely photovoltaic solar panels on the roof of the building. It indeed isn’t needed to meet the state standard — but it wasn’t included in the $10.2 million cost estimate either, according to the college.

“As for the other two, neither goes far enough to meet the state standard singlehandedly. One is passive energy-saving design throughout the building, like using low-energy appliances and orienting windows away from the summer sun. The other is a solar thermal system for heating, cooling and hot water. Together, they exceed the state standard by 20 percent.

“There was no in between step,” Johnson said.

Johnson said the college explored other energy measures to meet the standard without going over, like geothermal, for example. But the 30 wells needed for geothermal would take up too much land, she said.

The new state standards cap energy use for new buildings based on their size. Since the craft building will house energy heavy trades — from power-hungry woodworking tools to super high temperatures required for pottery kilns and glassblowing stations — the college has an extra challenge to offset the high energy consumption.

How far the college must go depends on the estimated energy use of the building in the first place.

“If the starting point is incorrect, then it can skew the entire project,” Swanger said. “I am afraid they may be exceeding unnecessarily. I would feel much better if I had a third party view of it.”

County commission chairman Kirk Kirkpatrick agreed.

“If they are trying to reach something that is greater than what is required by the state, and it costs additional money, then I don’t think that is necessarily a wise plan,” Kirkpatrick said.

Johnson said the creative arts facility is a semi-industrial building with high-load and specialized features, from air ventilation in the jewelry making studios to the dust collection in the woodworking shops.

“When you analyze the projected cost of the building, it is not more expensive than any other building of its type that is being built in the community college system,” said Johnson. The college has offered up square footage comparisons with five other community college buildings around the state.

What next?

County commissioners must ultimately agree to the building’s price tag, something they haven’t done yet. While commissioners have set the wheels in motion to take out a construction loan, they have stopped short of specifying the loan amount.

Swanger said he won’t make up his mind for sure until he sees bids from contractors.

“I want to see actual numbers,” Swanger said. “I need good accurate information and need to know what I am voting on.”

Commissioners feel like the college could be more forthcoming, laying out costs associated with different stages of construction, on what elements the college board has allegedly cut already and, of course, a clearer picture of the energy initiatives.

“They have produced some answers, but everyone is still rather confused about it,” Kirkpatrick said.

Commissioner Ensley, who is most adamant that costs are too high, voted against the loan application despite the caveat that it doesn’t lock in an amount.

Kirkpatrick said the commissioners did not want to cause controversy with the college.

“Do I want to dictate what the college does? That is not my job,” Kirkpatrick said. “As county commissioners, it is my job to ask questions.”

Kirkpatrick said the due diligence should rest with the college board of trustees, whom he trusts are vetting the plans and looking at the same questions.

“I just want to make sure they second guess themselves on what kind of project they are doing and whether it is the most important thing they need to do,” Kirkpatrick said.

Money to pay for the new building will come from a special quarter-cent sales tax. In a countywide election two years ago, voters approved the special tax for the sole purpose of funding improvements on the HCC campus. The vote was seen as broad public endorsement for the college’s role in the community and willingness among the public to invest in its future.

“We voted for the quarter-cent tax and now let’s use it for its intended purpose,” Adam Thomson, a furniture maker who has taken courses at HCC and has now started his own company, told commissioners during a public comment period at a recent meeting.

“I think I can speak on behalf of all commissioners. We certainly aren’t against the creative arts building,” Kirkpatrick responded.

Commissioners are concerned, however, that the college will burn through the lion’s share of the special tax money on one project. The special tax is enough to cover annual payments on a $12 million loan for 15 years. If the craft building is $10.2 million, it leaves little left over for other projects.

“It is my view the entire campus needs to be considered, not just a flagship building,” Swanger said. “In times when money is tight, you would use up a lot of that money.”

Despite the acclaim of HCC’s craft program, the craft building is literally crumbling and too small.

Johnson said it is the college’s most pressing need and pursuing it is “a very wise decision.”

Want to weigh in?

A public hearing on the loan application for the new Haywood Community College creative arts building will be held before the county commissioners at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 16, in the historic courthouse.

Home Depot is still trying to unload a 12-acre tract in Waynesville after sidelining plans for its first store west of Asheville a year and a half ago due to the economy.

Home Depot had been asking $4 million for the site in Waynesville Commons, a new mega-shopping complex anchored by Super Wal-Mart and Best Buy.

“They have been trying to market it, but the overall economy is still slow,” said Mark Clasby, Haywood County’s economic development director. “It has been a challenging market to say the least.”

In the meantime, however, Home Depot has purchased the very tract it hopes to sell rather than continue to lease it from the developer of Waynesville Commons.

Home Depot signed a 20-year lease on the tract with Cedarwood Development in November 2007 with an option to buy. Home Depot killed its plans for the Haywood County store a year later and began its effort to sell the site and get out of its lease.

Meanwhile, the clock was ticking on the option to buy. If it expired, Home Depot would still be stuck in the lease and lose what it had already paid toward the site. Under the purchase option, lease payments counted toward the eventual purchase price.

To buy the tract, Home Depot forked over another $1.87 million. How much more Home Depot had already invested through two-and-a-half years of lease payments is not known since but the terms of the lease are not part of the public record available through the Register of Deeds office.

While Home Depot continues the hunt for a buyer, a local developer is plugging away on plans for a collection of retail stores on a six-acre tract in Waynesville Commons fronting South Main Street.

Brian Noland, a Waynesville developer and Realtor, has finalized plans for a retail complex sporting six storefronts. Noland said he has already lined up tenants, mostly national franchises, interested in the spots. But he has had trouble with financing.

Before issuing a construction loan, banks want evidence that a developer has a sure stream of revenue to pay it back.

Noland has letters of intent from retail chains wanting to lease the space, which typically satisfies banks.

But “not nowadays,” Noland said. Banks’ unwillingness to lend has been blamed nationally for prolonging the recession, and Noland would agree.

“It has blocked the recovery in a lot of ways,” Noland said.

He paid $600,000 for the two-acre tract fronting South Main in late 2009. He has finished blueprints that pass muster with the town’s appearance and design standards and has his building permit in hand.

“I have a ton of money in it so far, so I am not going to stop now. It is just a lot slower pace,” Noland said. “It has been a lot of extra hoops to jump through.”

Meanwhile, the Waynesville ABC store plans to build a new retail location on another available site in the Waynesville Commons shopping complex.

But the massive size of Home Depot’s site makes it far more challenging to market.

Water pollution stemming from a Waynesville rock quarry is 100 times higher than that allowed under state standards, according to recent creek sampling by a state water quality specialist.

Silt running off the Harrison Construction rock quarry into nearby Allens Creek during rainstorms is evident to the naked eye.

“It looks like buttermilk after a good hard rain,” said Charles Miller, who lives along Allens Creek downstream of the quarry.

Miller says it is nothing new. But until last week, state water quality inspectors had not visited the quarry since 2006 — despite renewing the quarry’s five-year water quality permit earlier this year.

Water samples taken immediately upstream and downstream of the rock quarry during a recent rainstorm show a huge spike in turbidity levels that far exceed the state’s standard (see chart).

Neighbors of the quarry have complained loudly about the volume of mud pouring into Allens Creek as part of a larger fight against expansion of the quarry, prompting the action from environmental agencies.

Downstream neighbors of the quarry deserve credit for shedding light on water quality problems, said Eric Romaniszyn, director of the non-profit Haywood Waterways Association.

“It takes a small group, mostly people who live in an area, to speak up,” Romaniszyn said.

Michael Rogers, who lives in the shadow of the quarry, photographed Allens Creek upstream and downstream of the quarry following rainstorms and submitted the visible evidence of excessive erosion to the state mining bureau in Raleigh, which controls the quarry’s permit.

That alone did not spur a site visit by inspectors, however. Instead, residents convinced a water quality specialist coordinating an ecological restoration of Richland Creek — a major stream that courses through Waynesville — to capture the water samples. Since pollution in Allens Creek eventually ends up in Richland Creek, Ed Williams told residents near the quarry to call him the next time it rained.

Williams is not technically an inspector, but works under the N.C. Division of Water Quality regional office in Asheville. He promptly shared his results with rest of his office, and that in turn triggered an official inspection the following week.

“When we saw those results, we wanted to find out what is happening,” said Roger Edwards, the regional supervisor for the Division of Water Quality out of Asheville. “There may be issues out there.”

The official inspection report will not be available for another week.

Edwards does not believe the erosion from the quarry could sideline the expansion permit. The quarry can shore up its erosion safeguards — indeed it will be required to if violations are noted, Edwards said — negating any long-term impacts.

Doing their best

Edwards said it can be a challenge to manage erosion at quarries.

“The more vegetation you remove, the more you increase your stormwater runoff, and the more impacts it is going to have,” Edwards said.

And quarries, by nature, have little vegetation. The Allens Creek quarry is permited to disturb up to 137 acres. Roughly half that acreage is the mining pit itself, while the other half is stockpiles, the crushing yard, roads and the like.

Ditches are supposed to funnel mud-laden rainwater running off the quarry’s bare slopes into retention ponds. When working correctly, the silt settles to the bottom of the ponds and clean water continues on through a storm drain to the creek.

But inspectors can’t always tell just by looking whether the erosion safeguards are doing their job.

“You have to be out there during a rainfall event, and you have to sample, and realistically, you have to get more than one sample,” Edwards said.

But the Division of Water Quality doesn’t have the staff to inspect every site under its purview in the course of a calendar year — let alone when it is raining. Edwards said his staff of 12 is in charge of 800 permits spanning 19 counties.

Edwards said inspectors aim to visit every site once during the span of the permit — in the case of the quarry, that’s once every five years. Even then, it may be on a sunny day and typically does not entail water sampling.

“It is a staffing issue and workload management issue,” Edwards said.

Edwards said the frequency of inspections at a site is based in part on its history. But when inspections are few and far between, violations can go unnoticed. The site stays off the offender list, reinforcing the less-frequent inspection schedule.

Quarries are supposed to conduct their own creek sampling twice a year and keep a log of erosion control efforts. Quarry managers are supposed to notify water quality inspectors anytime sediment is visibly seen running off the site into a creek, according to the terms of their water quality permit.

Haywood Waterways Association collects samples from Allens Creek monthly as part of its countywide water quality observations. Turbidity has been well within state standards, although the samples are taken a couple of miles downstream from the quarry and on days when it hasn’t necessarily been raining.

While data shows the creek looks good under normal conditions, even a temporary spike in turbidity on a short section of stream qualifies as a violation.

Dual oversight

The quarry has three state permits with three separate state agencies: water quality, air quality and land quality. All three fall under the larger umbrella of the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

“There is overlap from agency to agency,” Rogers said.

However, inspectors with the land quality division — who monitor compliance with the quarry’s main mining permit and erosion control plan — went 3.5 years without doing an inspection, from 2005 to 2008.

Their counterparts in the water quality division went four years without visiting the site, from 2006 until last week.

Inspectors with land quality told the quarry it needed to take “corrective action” with certain erosion safeguards three times from 2008 and 2009, according to inspection reports. However, there were no specific follow-up visits to see that corrections were made.

Complaints from neighbors fighting the quarry expansion prompted three inspections by the land quality division in the past three months alone. The inspector, Shawna Riddle, was called out specifically due to complaints of sediment in the stream, but she ruled the quarry was in compliance with its sediment and erosion control plan and found no violations.

“Site was in compliance. All discharge points inspected and no violations noted,” Riddle wrote in an inspection report dated June 7.

But nine days later, water samples taken from Allens Creek portrayed a different reality.

Edwards, who works in the same office as Riddle but on the water quality side, could not explain the incongruous reports: one by land quality showing no violations, and another by water quality nine days later documenting excessive turbidity.

At a public hearing on the rock quarry expansion two weeks ago, quarry workers accused opponents of trying to shut operations down.

“They just think it is unsightly, and they want to get rid of it,” said Michael Mathis. “It was here before they were here, and it will be here when they are gone unless they make it too tough. If it does close, it doesn’t bother them — they will all be happy, slapping each other on the back up there.”

Neighbors say that’s not their motive.

“I don’t want to shut them down. I just want them to go by the law,” Miller said.

A packed public hearing last week over a Waynesville rock quarry pitted neighbors opposing an expansion of the mine against its workers.

The Allens Creek quarry mines granite, which is used in road building and is the primary raw material in asphalt and concrete. The quarry plays a vital role in the local economy — both as a supplier for the construction industry and provider of jobs, said Todd Quigg, president of Harrison Construction, which operates the quarry.

Quarry supporters wearing crisp, clean ball caps boasting their affiliation with Harrison Construction comprised a large block of the audience.

“Harrison puts food on a lot of people’s tables. We need to do everything we can to support them,” said Walter Moody, a truck driver who hauls rock from the quarry.

Opponents to the quarry expansion outnumbered those speaking in its favor, however. One after another came forward to testify that incessant mica dust is causing respiratory problems in children and old people living nearby.

“It’s not like we want to stop Harrison Construction completely, but we just want to make our lives better so we can breathe,” said Christi Thompson, whose seen a correlation in increased quarry activity and her son’s use of an inhaler and nebulizer.

Polly Leatherwood, who likes to drink coffee on her porch in the morning, held up a bag of dust and submitted it as evidence to the hearing officer.

“This is what I have to clean up every morning before I can sit down,” said Leatherwood. “This dust comes down from above. One day it looked like a snowstorm, only it was brown.”

Sherri Inman, the wife of a quarry worker who grew up nearby and still lives there today, had a different story, however.

“I can say with all certainty me nor my family has ever had any health issues due to living one-half mile from the rock quarry,” Inman said. Her dishes have never rattled from the blasting, she isn’t plagued by dust, and her children play outside without breathing problems.

Opponents had been preparing for the hearing for weeks. Their talks were riddled with chapter and verse references to the state statutes that govern quarry permits. A few speakers set up easels to display large photographs documenting dust plumes, silted waterways and even a map showing high incidents of cancer. They directed the audience’s attention to “exhibit A, B or C” as they spoke.

Kenneth Taylor, the head of the N.C. Geological Survey who conducted the hearing, said speakers at public hearings everywhere have grown increasingly savvy in their presentations over the past five years, and the Waynesville crowd was no exception.

“They were ready. They had their game on,” Taylor said.

Eric S. Brown’s neighbors have probably noticed him — planted in his car day and night, writing furiously in spiral notebooks, smoking cigarettes and downing one energy drink after another.

To spare his wife, son and Canton home from a constant onslaught of cigarette smoke, Brown elects to work on his writing from his driveway. Even after deciding to quit smoking, Brown maintains his car as an official place of work.

It’s where he’s produced an astonishingly prolific portfolio in eight years: 20 published novels by next July, articles in hundreds of publications and even his own comic book series.

His fans joke that the real Eric S. Brown died a while ago, and the Flash has since taken over his body.

Living and breathing horror for as long as he can remember, Brown can pen an entire novel in as little as one week. Since most of the last 8 years have been devoted to zombie tales, Brown is widely regarded by horror enthusiasts as an expert on the walking dead.

But after years of publishing in the indie world, Brown is now hitting the mass market.

Major publisher Simon & Schuster recently picked up his War of the Worlds Plus Blood, Guts and Zombies, a “mash-up” of the classic H.G. Wells tale of a Martian invasion.

The novel has already been published on a smaller-scale under Comcast, and it will be re-released by Simon & Schuster in mid-December.

Brown is not authorized to say how many copies will hit the shelves. According to Brown, books distributed by indie publishers sell an average of 200 copies. His worst-selling books sell several times that.

Brown’s take on War of the Worlds meshes the original work with horrifying new additions. On top of the attacking aliens, Londoners must also stave off the walking dead.

The book follows in the footsteps of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which has given rise to a slew of tongue-in-cheek twists on classic literature: Jane Slayre, Little Women and Werewolves, and Android Karenina, to name a few.

While some of these works are clear parodies, Brown considers his contribution to the genre of monster classics a “hardcore, serious zombie book.” He reread the 1898 novel numerous times to make sure his words seamed invisibly with those of Wells, often called the Father of Science Fiction.

With the Simon & Schuster deal coming on the heels of Borders distributing another of his novels, Season of Rot, Brown says he’s finally accomplished his long-standing goal of reaching the masses — but that doesn’t mean he’s putting down his pen.

“I hope my career goes far past this book,” said Brown. “I hope they would buy something more than the rewrite of somebody else’s work.”

An overlooked genre

Brown isn’t blind to the criticism leveled at horror writing, admitting that it’s a genre that’s often looked down upon. But he maintains there is “deeper” work out there for those looking for it.

Brown’s own fascination with zombies comes from a philosophical place. He says zombies serve as a great metaphor for the human condition.

“They’re us, just soulless,” said Brown. “Our greatest fear in our culture may be loss of self and loss of identity — that’s what zombies represent.

Zombies are flexible enough to be thrown in the Old West or outer space, which is exactly what allows Brown to delve into science fiction and Western novels. He’s pushed the envelope with tales of farmers trapped in their house by zombie chickens before animal zombies became a craze. He’s even had superheroes battling zombies.

Obviously Brown has fun with his work, and that’s exactly what he hopes to pass on to his readers.

“My work, while it does have deeper elements, it’s really about the fun, the escapism,” said Brown. “If I don’t give you a fun read, then I failed as a writer. To me, it being entertaining is more important than it being true literature.”

Brown attended Smoky Mountain High School, which offered a class on supernatural horror and literature — it ended the year before Brown could take it.

“I remain bitter about that,” said Brown, who wishes there were more classes on speculative fiction, which encompasses science fiction, fantasy, horror, superhero fiction and more.

Brown has had no training in professional writing. He attended Southwestern Community College then transferred to Western Carolina University, but soon dropped out, “fed up with the academia of literature.”

Nevertheless, Brown has found a niche to thrive in.

His pride and joy is his novel, Bigfoot War, which pits an army of 60 Sasquatches against a town of 800 in rural North Carolina, based on Sylva —where Brown was born — and certain towns in Haywood County. At the end, readers see the Macon County Sheriff’s Department materialize as heroes.

Brown is pleased to have revived Bigfoot as a terrifying threat after it slipped from its status as a horror movie icon to a cultural joke. Brown’s book brings the horror back to Bigfoot.

Another of Brown’s accomplishments is World War of the Dead, a Christian horror story about the salvation of one man’s soul in a zombie-infested Nazi Germany. Fans were taken aback by the unusual message.

“They said, where’s the hopelessness? There’s not supposed to be hope,” said Brown.

Harrison Construction’s rock quarry on Allens Creek in Waynesville mines granite for building roads, driveways and concrete house pads. The raw crushed stone forms the base for roadbeds and is also the main ingredient in asphalt and concrete. Harrison has an asphalt plant next door to its quarry.

Before the recession, demand from private developments fueled demand for the quarry’s stone — around 850,000 tons a year. Now, the quarry is doing half that, said Don Mason, who’s in charge of environmental compliance at Harrison’s quarries in the region.

If it weren’t for the Allens Creek quarry, paving in Haywood County would cost a premium to haul in asphalt and gravel.

“When you have to truck the product that far it gets very very expensive,” Mason said.

Harrison Construction owns seven quarries — one in each of the seven western counties. Together, all seven quarries employ 80 to 90 employees, down from 150 to 170 at the peak of the building boom.

Opponents acknowledge the quarry’s role.

“There ain’t a driveway in Haywood County that don’t have Harrison stone on it,” said Michael Rogers, a neighbor fighting the quarry expansion.

While university leaders are nervously hoping state lawmakers will pass a budget that looks something like the Senate version, many K-12 school officials are openly rooting for the House version.

Seeing public schools and colleges compete for the same budget dollars is not unusual, especially during this recession.

John Bardo, chancellor for Western Carolina University, said the budget would ideally not pit educational systems against each other.

“We cannot get good students in our institutions if the K-12 sector or the community colleges aren’t doing their jobs,” said Bardo, adding that lawmakers should consider the various entities as one system that builds competitiveness for North Carolina.

Bill Nolte, associate superintendent for Haywood County, added that he understands the dilemma leaders across the board face during this recession.

“We know it’s not the mayor’s fault or the state superintendent’s fault. It’s just the state of the world economy right now,” said Nolte.

According to Nolte, the governor’s budget is the least desirable for K-12 schools. To prepare for the worst, that’s the version Haywood County schools is working with in crafting its budget.

Last year, Haywood County’s school system lost 44.5 positions. This year, Nolte estimates Haywood will lose around a dozen more.

“Out of 1,200 plus, it’s a lot, but it could be a lot worse,” Nolte said, citing the total number of school employees. About 10 of the 12 positions would be absorbed through retirement and resignations, avoiding actual layoffs but impacting staff levels nonetheless.

Other budget cuts will likely limit textbook purchases, replacement of school buses and staff training.

While state lawmakers make mandatory cuts for all public schools, they also require individual school systems to decide where to make additional cuts. Under the governor’s budget, Haywood has to come up with $2.3 million in additional cuts, compared to $1.4 million under the House budget.

Gwen Edwards, finance officer for Jackson County Schools, said the K-12 school system will probably have to make $750,000 of its own discretionary cuts above and beyond what state lawmakers slash.

Federal stimulus money may make up the difference this year, but that money, which has eased the pain of state cuts for two years now, will dry up come the 2011-12 school year.

“We’re anticipating that that’s where a lot of hurting is going to be,” said Edwards.

Jan Letendre, finance officer for Swain County Schools, said many have likened the cutoff in federal stimulus money to a “funding cliff.” What’s also worrying for Letendre, though, are state cuts in funding for custodians, school secretaries and substitute teachers.

Letendre pegs the discretionary cuts for Swain’s school system at about $575,000 this year.

The last Cold Mountain Heritage Tour, sponsored by The Bethel Rural Community Organization, will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, June 26. This final tour includes some of the most popular and historic sites in Haywood County that have been featured in prior years and new sites that were not available before this year’s tour.

Tour guides will provide visitors on the tour detailed information about the architecture, the history, and the people whose lives gave meaning to the sites. The tour has entertained and informed local people about their own history and has also attracted hundreds of visitors each year from other states and regions who are intrigued by Cold Mountain heritage.

There will be a stop at the Bethel Presbyterian Church, built in 1885, and currently under restoration by the Bethel Rural Community Organization. On the tour is the Bethel Cemetery, the resting place of Pinkney Inman, the Civil War hero of Charles Frazier’s book and subsequent blockbuster movie, Cold Mountain.

The tour will again include the Inman Chapel and Cemetery where Charles Frazier made a surprise appearance last year. Another popular stop is the Blanton-Reece log cabin, one of the oldest structures in Haywood County. This cabin is unique because of its full dovetail corner connections, something that was not common at the time and may account for its preservation for nearly 200 years.

Points of interested that will be featured this year are the Cruso School and Lenoir-Devon Acres.

Cruso School was built in 1928 as a feeder elementary school for Bethel High School, the school closed just before consolidation in 1966. Today, Cruso Community Club utilizes the facility as a community center to promote its many programs: Old Crab Day, thrift shop fashion show and luncheon, quilt show, and Halloween Festival. It houses a mini-library, craft co-op, and a thrift shop. The Community Club has maintained the school building with historic integrity so that tour-goers can regain the feel of what it was like to attend school eighty years ago.

Lenoir Devon Acres is the location of one of the oldest land grants in Haywood County and is one of the county’s longest continuing working farms. The 100-acre farm was home to several generations of Lenoir family members, including Thomas Isaac Lenoir who was the first Captain of the Highlanders, Company F of the 25th Regiment of the North Carolina Volunteers of the Confederate Army. “Inman” of the Cold Mountain story served in this Civil War Company. Thomas Isaac Lenoir brought Devon cattle to the farm in the mid 1800s, and this same line of these gentle cattle is still living on the farm almost 160 years later. When the producers of the Cold Mountain movie were considering a location for the movie, this farm was where the movie was to be filmed until they moved production to Romania.

The Osborne Boundary Oak Tree, which has received some publicity lately, is also on the tour. It has served as a landmark in the Bethel Community since 1792. Dr. Doris Hammett has successfully fought twice to preserve this old oak tree, which is over 200 year old.

Another favorite on the tour is the Truss Bridge #79. This bridge is North Carolina’s oldest working bridge and Haywood County’s only remaining ornamental bridge. The bridge was manufactured in 1891 by the Phoenix Bridge Company and was moved to its present site in 1925 by men in the community who desired to have a passageway across the Pigeon River from Lake Logan Road to Love Joy Road.

Another new location to the tour is the Kinsland House, which dates back to around 1860 and has been remarkably preserved. New to the tour will be the opportunity to purchase the antiques and collectables displayed in the home, thanks to the generosity of the current owner Hugh Kuydendall. There will be a silent auction for the larger furniture items, such as antique beds, one is an original rope bed, and there is also a pie closet.

Tickets for the tour are $15 and can be purchased up to June 25 at Blue Ridge Books and ERA Sunburst Reality in Waynesville. In Bethel, they are available at Jukebox Junction and Riverhouse Acres Campground.

The day of the tour tickets can be purchased only at Bethel Presbyterian Church, the Cruso Community Club, and at the Blanton/Reece Log Cabin.

The tour is an all-day event and tour goers are encouraged to start early. Editions one through six of Legends, Tales & History of Cold Mountain, by local author, Evelyn Coltman will be available for purchase. The Bethel Rural Community Organization’s DVD will also be available, Walking In The Footsteps Of Those Who Came Before Us, which gives the oral history of the area by relatives of some of the original settlers.