For the last seven years, Canton has celebrated Haywood County’s biggest crop with a festival in its honor. This year, the town’s Mountain Mater Festival has grown from a small celebration of the red jewel of summer to a sizeable small-town festival that drew 10,000 attendees last year.

The 2011 festival is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, August 5 and 6 in downtown Canton.

This year, the lineup of entertainment on the downtown stages will be non-stop, featuring six mountain clogging groups, martial arts demonstrations and music. There will also be a talent competition.

The entertainment this time around will be one of the festival’s highlights, said Gene Monson, a member of Focus On Canton, the civic group that plans the event.

“Entertainment is a big portion of the festival,” said Monson. “We have a very nice stage and it stays busy from the time we open until the time close.”

And then, of course, there are the tomatoes that are the festival’s namesake.

Among the food vendors will be a section called Tomato Alley, where tomato delicacies can find their way into the hands of hungry tomato lovers.

Elsewhere at the festival, vendors will be selling local tomatoes, donated by J.W. Johnson, a tomato packing house in Crusoe.

There will be the annual Mrs. Mater Pageant, a car show and this year, a few new additions will join the Mater Fest family — a motorcycle show and a petting zoo for the younger crowd.

The event is coordinated each year by Focus On Canton, and the group underwrites the cost through merchandise and food sales, along with sponsorships from businesses and individuals in the community.

But after paying out its overhead, the group’s real goal is to put whatever money it can towards helping those in need in Canton.

Mater Fest might be a summer festival, but around the holidays, its impact is felt by those who need it most, said Monson.

“We sponsor families at Christmastime,” said Monson. “We give our entire treasury away at the holidays.”

The festival, he said, is for the people of Haywood County, as an enjoyment in the summertime and a help during the holidays for some who may not get it from other places.

“We try to make the festival as close to free as we possibly can, and to do it for the folks of Haywood County to come and enjoy it and hopefully not be a burden on their pocketbook,” Monson said.

Entertainment line-up

Friday, August 5

• 1 p.m. — The Josh Fields Band

• 3 p.m. — Lisa Price Band

• 3:30 p.m. — Southern Appalachian Cloggers

• 6 p.m. — Talent Contest and Mountain Mater Festival Talent Jubilee

• 8 p.m. — Simple Folks

• 8:30 p.m. — Blue Ridge High Steppers

Saturday, August 6

• 11 a.m. — Fred Riley Academy of Martial Arts

• 12 p.m. — Country Soul

• 1:30 p.m. — Southern Appalachian Cloggers

• 2 p.m. — Hominy Valley Boys

• 3 p.m. — Fines Creek Flat Footers

• 3:30 p.m. — Gray Wolf

• 4:30 p.m. — Smokey Mountain Stompers

• 5 p.m. — Gold

• 6 p.m. — Talent Contest continues

• 8 p.m. — Michelle Leigh

• 8:30 p.m. — Green Valley Cloggers

Canton was one of the first towns in Western North Carolina to sport a swimming pool, something made possible thanks to the booming economy of the mill town and the large population of working middle-class families it gave rise to.

The age of Canton’s pool, dating to the early 1950s, has become all too evident, however, witnessed by the perpetual concrete patches and the lack of modern features. Canton not only has the oldest pool on the block, but is also one of the few that haven’t embarked on a rehab. Even towns with pools built as recently as the 1970s have since done a major renovation and modernization of their pool.

And it isn’t cheap, something pool managers who have been there know all too well.

“I feel their pain,” Jim Brown, the Swain County recreation director, said of Canton’s plight.

• In Swain County, the pool dates to 1977. In 2007, at the 30-year mark, the county launched a series of renovations spanning three years: new filter and pump, new grate-style water return around the pool’s edge, and a vinyl lining.

“We were having the same problem with cracks starting to develop,” said  Brown.

The county opted for a slightly cushiony, vinyl liner that feels excellent underfoot compared to plaster or concrete, but that many public pool managers have shied away from fear of an irreparable tear. But Brown said the lining is so tough that is highly unlikely.

Swain County spent $210,000 on the renovations, which also included putting in a stand-alone splash play area.

The N.C. Parks and Recreation Trust Fund contributed $75,000 to the work.

• In Highlands, a wealthy second-home owner — Jane Woodruff, the daughter of Coca-Cola magnate, Robert Woodruff — made a donation of more than $200,000 to pay for a major pool rehabilitation there, saving the town the expense. The pool dates to 1975, and the renovation was done in 1997.

• At Lake Junaluska, while no wealthy benefactors have made specific contributions to the pool, it does benefit from contributions and donations made to the building and grounds fund.

“People love Lake Junaluska and are eager to help us improve and maintain our facilities,” said Howle.

Lake Junaluska has a pool almost as old as Canton’s, dating to the 1950s. The pool, also like Canton’s, is made of concrete rather than the newer plaster, but has held up far better.

“We have a stringent regular maintenance campaign,” Howle said.

The pool was renovated in 1995, including major new concrete work and the addition of a zero-entry ramp.

• The town of Sylva got a grant from the N.C. Parks and Recreation Trust Fund to fund half the roughly $700,000 overhaul of the pool in 1999. The town faced the similar problem of aging concrete. It was busted up and a new shell poured, expanding the footprint to add extra lap lane and putting in a kiddy-pool with water play features in the process, plus new inner workings like a grate-style water return around the edge of the pool, new filters and pumps.

“It was basically a teenager hang out before. With the kiddy play area, you have more moms and grandparents using the pool,” said Rusty Ellis, the pool manager.

• The pool in Franklin is about 30 years old, and like most newer pools dating to that era, it is built from plaster. It’s a better material for maintenance than concrete: as cracks develop they can be replastered with a thin coat of new plaster. The technique won’t work on pools built of concrete — plaster won’t stick to the concrete. Only concrete can be used to patch concrete, but concrete applied that thinly won’t bond. So the patches are prone to repeated crumbling and cracking in the same place.

“You are basically going to put a Band-Aid on it,” Adams explained of the concrete conundrum.

But with a plaster pool, it can be periodically replastered. The Franklin pool has been replastered three times.

“We are getting pretty close to where we will have to replaster again,” Adams said.

Last year, the county put in new pumps and filters.

The Canton swimming pool is on its last leg and without a major investment of $750,000 to $1 million, the town will be forced to close it within a few years.

Canton’s pool has been held together with everything short of duct tape and baling wire. Every year, the town’s street workers climb down into the dry pool bed with spatulas and buckets of concrete to patch the burgeoning number of cracks, then apply gallons of fresh paint to get the pool through another summer.

“It is in very bad shape,” said Alderman Eric Dills. “We have been patching the pool to get by year after year after year, but water is a destructive force. It is leaking so bad now you just about have to build a new pool.”

It will eventually get so bad patching can’t fix it. And that point is not too far off. The town may have as few as three years left in the pool — five at the most.

Unfortunately, busting up the concrete pool and rebuilding it is the only solution.

“It would be a tremendously expensive project to undertake,” Town Manager Al Matthews. “They have two options — they borrow the money and do it or shut it down.”

Canton’s pool is not only one of the largest in size but draws the biggest crowd of any other pool in Haywood, Jackson, Macon or Swain counties.

Its capacity is 500, and it easily draws more than 300 on busy summer days, fully double what the next biggest pools in the region draw.

“It is one of the most popular things we do have,” Matthews said.

The town board will have a tough choice to make on whether to invest the money to remake the pool.

“The bottom line is no matter what we do, the concrete is still of an age that it will deteriorate. That is the problem: the age of the concrete,” Matthews said.

The town hired a consultant to do an assessment of the pool last year. The good news is that the pool is structurally sound. In fact, that was the main impetus to bring in a structural engineer for an outside report.

“We wanted to know is this pool safe,” Matthews said.

Safe it is, but its useful life is limited. It will take $750,000 to redo the pool, and another $250,000 to redo the bathrooms, changing rooms and concession stand, according to estimates in the report.

Dills doesn’t think the town has the kind of money it will take to bust up and rebuild the pool.

“Really we would have to have some outside funding,” Dills said, suggesting the town hunt for a grant.

The town of Sylva and Swain County have gotten state  grants from the N.C. Parks and Recreation Trust Fund to cover a portion of pool overhauls there. But that was a few years ago, and Matthews is highly doubtful the town could land grant money like that today. Dills admits it may be a long shot.

“The state has tightened up on money. These grants are tougher to get than they were a few years ago,” Dills said.

Pools can be a money pit

Pools are an expensive prospect, not only to repair and maintain but simply to operate.

“For every county or town, it is a service. It is not a money making venture at all,” said Seth Adams, Macon County’s recreation director.

Canton brings in about $40,000, but spends $75,000 on lifeguards, staff and other overhead.

Canton is one of the few pools with a concession stands, but it merely adds to the pool’s financial burden. It’s a money-losing proposition: it doesn’t bring in enough to cover the cost of food and counter workers. Last year the concession stand lost over $8,000 on top of the pool’s operational loss.

The town of Highlands posted the worst pool losses in the four-county area last year. It has the smallest attendance and the lowest admission — only 35 people a day on average paying just $2 to get in. The pool brought in a measly $4,500 last year compared to $67,000 in operations.

Highlands is one of the only public pools that is heated, adding to overhead by about $5,000 annually for propane.

In Swain County, pool costs come to $61,000 a year, including a little set aside in a capital improvement fund. The pool brings in only $16,000, but an annual contribution from the town of Bryson City for $21,000 tempers the operating loss somewhat.

Waynesville bulldozed its outdoor pool 10 years ago after building an indoor one. The town couldn’t afford to subsidize two pools, according to Town Manager Lee Galloway.

“The operating costs were always about twice what it brought in,” Galloway said.

Galloway admits he wasn’t exactly sad to see the outdoor pool go.

“It was leaking so much water and the maintenance costs on it were extraordinary,” Galloway said.

Besides, there were two other outdoor pools in the county.

“My argument at the time was you can go to Lake Junaluska, which is four miles away, or Canton, which is eight miles away,” Galloway said.

Who should pay?

Therein lies part of the rub. Canton residents are subsidizing the outdoor pool, but scads of the 275 people who go to the pool on an average summer day don’t live in town, and thus don’t pay town taxes toward the pool’s upkeep or operations. Those folks are getting a steal on the low $3 admission.

Likewise, Waynesville’s indoor pool serves the whole county, yet town taxpayers pick up the tab.

The county used to kick in an annual contribution to both towns for recreation, recognizing that the two towns were bankrolling recreation like swimming pools used by everyone in the county. But the county yanked that funding as part of the sweeping recession-inspired budget cuts.

Both towns have contemplated charging pool users more who don’t live in town, and reserving the cheaper rates for in-town residents who also pony up town taxes to subsidize the facilities.

But pool workers would then have to be in the business of checking everyone’s ID to determine residency.

“That is a cumbersome thing to implement,” Matthews said.

Such a system is used at Lake Junaluska, where the 770 property owners at the lake get a 50 percent discount compared to the general public. The pool is operated by Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center, a private non-profit, and the public is welcome to use it.

“We see having members of the greater community come to Lake Junaluska and participate in what we have and be exposed to the things that are happening here is in a way a form of evangelism,” said Ken Howle, the director of advancement at Lake Junaluska. “We can show our Christian hospitality not only in our programs but the recreational activities we do as well.”

Unlike towns and counties, Lake Junaluska lacks taxes to subsidize operations, so the Lake attempts to break even or come close to breaking even on its pool, and as a result has to charge more than city and county pools — $6 compared to $3 for adults.

In Sylva, the county shares the cost of operating the pool even though the pool technically belongs to the town. In fact, the county pays for the entire pool operations up front, and acts as the employer for the pool’s manager and staff. At the end of the season, the town cuts the county a check for its share — half of whatever that year’s cost was minus the revenue.

In Canton, whether the county chips in, a grant is miraculously found, or aldermen bite the bullet themselves, Dills hopes the town can arrive at a solution.

“The pool is a huge priority,” Dills said. “It is a centerpiece. It is a jewel of the recreation for the town of Canton.”

WNC’s outdoor pools

Lake Junaluska

Admission: $6/general public, free for kids 4 and under. Summer grounds pass is $150 for a family of four and includes other Lake J recreation amenities like a round of golf, putt-putt, tickets to Junaluska Singers concerts and more.

Features: Graduated entry ramp good for toddlers and children, as well as handicapped accessible.

Daily average: 125 with capacity capped at 270.

Canton

Admission: $3; 10-visit pass for $25.

Features: Separate baby pool enclosed with a fence to prevent wandering into big pool.

Daily average: 275. Capacity capped at 500.

Sylva

Admission: $3, free for kids 3 and under. Season pass is $150/family or $80/individual. Family night on Monday and Wednesday from 7 to 9 p.m. for $5/family.

Features: Separate kiddy-pool with water play features. Sun Shade over part of pool.

Daily average: 225. Capacity capped at ?

Swain County

Admission: $3/adults, $2.50/kids ages six and up, free for 5 and under. Season pass is $275/family or $150/individual.

Features: Separate kids pool that is three-feet deep, separate splah play area, water slide, Olympic sized pool.

Daily average: 75 to 100 on a busy day. Capacity capped at 300.

Macon County

Admission: $2/adults, $1/kids under five. Season pass is $100/family or $50/individual.

Daily average: 150 to 200. Capacity capped at 250.

Highlands

Admission: $2/adults, $1/children. Season pass is $90/family and $40/individual.

Features: Separate kiddy pool.

Daily average: 30 to 40. Capacity capped at 80.

Two years after its last major shakeup, the entire Canton town board is up for election again, though this time, many aldermen are intent on keeping their seats.

In the last election, three new members swept into power from a wide field of 10 candidates, after the previous board — themselves new after replacing a slew of long-time incumbents in 2007 — were ousted.

This time, some current incumbents are pointing at their accomplishments and remaining to-do lists as reasons to stay in office.

Alderman Jimmy Flynn hasn’t yet made up his mind, but said he’s leaning heavily towards filing.

“I told everybody when I ran [in 2009] I had two main goals, one was to get the new sewer line out to Buckeye Cove and we’ve accomplished that,” said Flynn. The other was the purchase of a new fire truck, also ticked off the list. Flynn said he’d like to stay around to see the sewer project through and get to a few other things lingering on the board’s agenda.

Many other members highlight the same two goals as both their success as a board and desire to keep going.

Alderman Ed Underwood is also, as yet, not at 100 percent certainty of running again, but said he’d like to, especially given the successful collaboration of the board.

Alderman Eric Dills is one member who said he’s unlikely to seek another term for non-political reasons, and Kenneth Holland could not be reached for comment.

Some board members may face challenges, though.

Local resident Patrick Willis, who has campaigned for a seat before, said he’s intent on running again this year.

“I think the town board can be much more proactive in a few areas that I think the town can improve on,” said Willis, who is the office manager for the Thomas Wolfe Memorial in Asheville. “I think Canton has a lot of opportunities, it’s got a lot of advantages. It’s a great place to live.”

Not all those who emerged from the woodworks two years ago will make another go of it this time, however. Gene Monson, part of the groundswell of candidates last time reflecting dissatisfaction over the town’s leadership, said he won’t run again this time.

Meanwhile, Mayor Pat Smathers said he hasn’t given much thought to the idea of returning to the post. He’s not yet ruling it out either, however.

Smathers has held the job since 2000 and ran uncontested in the last election.

He’s been actively seeking a new vision for Canton in that time, though initiatives have stalled under previous boards.

But regardless of whether his name is on this year’s ballot, Smathers said he’s pleased with the progress the town has made this term.

“I think the town is doing, you know, under the circumstances, pretty well,” said Smathers. “I’m pretty optimistic about the future, whether I’m the mayor or not the mayor.”

A merger is afoot in Canton that will bring together two staples of the town’s downtown scene.

Soon, the Canton Lunch Box, a fixture of the town’s business community, will join forces with the Imperial Hotel, an equally prominent fixture in Canton’s history and heritage, with the opening of the Imperial Grill and Tavern.

The new venue is the brainchild of Mayor Pat Smathers, who owns the historic structure, and Greg Petty, the man behind the Lunch Box. It will bring to downtown Canton something it hasn’t seen since the heyday of the hotel itself, said Petty.

While the Lunch Box, a popular lunch spot for downtown workers and employees of the nearby paper mill, has now officially shut its doors to the public, the place will be reincarnated in July when the Imperial opens for business.

The idea, said Petty, is to offer the town not only a restaurant and bar — and eventually a few hotel rooms, which is Smathers’ side of the business — but also an event venue housed in the old hotel’s grand ballroom. It will be able to accommodate up to 125 people, and Petty’s hoping it will soon become a popular spot for wedding receptions and business meetings. The first phase of the project, the bar and restaurant, are slated for completion around July 10, while phase two, the event venue, will hopefully follow soon after.

But the historic renovation hasn’t been without its hurdles. The initial target date was sometime around Mothers’ Day, but May came and went sans opening, the project hamstrung by the difficulties inherent in tackling such an old and storied structure.

But that, said Petty, is part of its charm.

“The historical aspect of the building really intrigued me. That atmosphere and that venue is what really attracted us,” said Petty.

And the structure is, indeed, full of history.

Built in the late 19th century, it was originally a residence. Following a transformation into a hotel, it remained a lodging house into the 1930s. Later, storefront façades were erected, covering the ornate face of the building. In what will now be the outdoor dining courtyard, the intricate tile pattern that once lined the floor of a menswear store housed there can still be seen.

Gary Cochran, the contractor overseeing the Imperial’s restoration, said they’ve even found photos advertising the hotel as the best $2 rooms around.

Partially, it’s that historic character that makes the project slow going at times.

“We’re trying to put things back as original as we can,” said Cochran, though that’s sometimes hard, given all the incarnations the building has gone through in the intervening century since its construction.

And, said Cochran, the tiles aren’t the only remnants they’ve found of the building’s many past lives. During Prohibition, the place served as a local speakeasy. Cochran and his crew found the trap doors and old bottles used in the clandestine operation. Some of the contractors have even reported hearing voices and spying moving curtains in empty rooms.

The restoration of the storied structure was funded in part by a matching grant from the N.C. Rural Center, who kicked in 50 percent of the money. The other half was raised by Smathers, the building’s owner, along with Petty, its new tenant.

In its newest role, Petty hopes the Imperial will again serve as a gathering place for the county’s eastern end, the kind of place locals have long had to travel to Waynesville or Asheville to find.

And although his cuisine is likely going to step up a notch from down-home lunch fare to American dinner staples such as ribs, steak and chops, Petty said he’s not worried about losing his loyal lunchers.

“You’re still going to be able to get a chicken salad sandwich, you’re still going to be able to get a tuna melt. We’re going to have a lot more parking for people to come to, we’re going to have the outdoor dining, we’re going to be able to do a lot more with that building than we can’t do with the Lunch Box,” said Petty. “We’re not going to run away any of our guests; we’re not going to change.”

In the world of Haywood County tourism, a turf battle is brewing, and the fiefdoms under fire are the county’s visitor centers.

What might seem like the friendly face of local tourism has once again become a battleground where funding dollars are the ultimate prize, and the most recent conflict has flared over Canton’s visitor center. It’s a small building, situated just off Interstate 40 on Champion Drive, in what was once a car wash. It has been closed on and off for the past year as the county’s tourism agency struggled with funding shortfalls, and is now at risk of having the plug pulled completely.

The Haywood County Tourism Development Authority plans to shift funding for the Canton visitor center, which sees little traffic, to a new, flagship visitor center on Main Street in downtown Waynesville with the promise of reaching more people.

Canton Mayor Pat Smathers has spoken out against the funding cut, pointing out the Canton visitor center’s proximity to I-40, making it more visible than any of the other three visitor centers in the county.

“I think a big push ought to be made to make that the premier center in the county, not just because it’s Canton, but because that’s the main corridor in the county,” said Smathers. “More visitors come in contact with I-40 than with any other place in the county and that visitors center should be a place to stop people and be able to funnel them into Maggie Valley, into Waynesville, Cruso, Canton, Clyde — everywhere in the county.”

Smathers said he’d be disappointed if the Canton center was relegated in favor of TDA’s newer Waynesville visitor center.

“I don’t know why we’re going to put more visitor centers up in Waynesville and not fund the one here on the main corridor,” Smathers said.

The visitor center isn’t Canton’s only bone to pick with the TDA. At last week’s TDA meeting, it was highlighted that a new map put out by the tourism agency showcased Waynesville and Maggie Valley as the only towns in the county. Canton didn’t even make an appearance. Neither did Clyde.

TDA Executive Director Lynn Collins defended the map, saying that listed locations were given to those who bought ad space.

TDA makes amends with Haywood Chamber

Canton isn’t the only visitor center to lose funding to make way for TDA’s new endeavor. The tourism agency announced it would ax $30,000 in funding a year for a Waynesville visitor center operated by the Haywood County Chamber of Commerce — diverting the money to its own visitor center instead.

While the TDA’s new visitor center will be mere blocks from the one run by the chamber, the chamber plans to keep operating its visitor center anyway — resulting in two visitor centers three blocks apart.

Pleas from the chamber of commerce not to yank its funding so suddenly convinced the TDA board to partially reverse course. The TDA board decided last week to restore partial funding to the tune of $13,000 for the coming fiscal year, but not without some dissension among board members.

TDA board member Lyndon Lowe questioned the decision, especially in light of the Canton visitor center predicament.

“Canton’s visitor center we say that we don’t have money for but we’re going to subsidize the one here?” Lowe asked fellow board members before voting against the funding.

Marion Hamel agreed, saying she would feel more comfortable with a smaller amount.

“I feel that $13,000 is putting us over the edge,” said Hamel, who represents Maggie Valley on the TDA. “I understand the rationale behind it, I just wish that it wasn’t as much money as it is.”

Jennifer Duerr, TDA board member and owner of the Windover Inn, also expressed concerns over the fairness of partial funding to the chamber for its visitor center but not Canton’s.

“If we’re going to not be making an exception for one, I’m a little uncomfortable making it for another,” said Duerr.

The measure eventually passed, though not unanimously, with Hamel, Lowe and Duerr casting the only dissenting votes.

Canton fate up in the air

TDA planned to pull its staff out of the Canton visitor center in May and turn it over to volunteers to run, but not enough volunteers materialized. Total closure seemed imminent, but a rescue came through from a special pot of tourism money controlled by Canton.

A portion of tourism tax dollars are divvied up between five locales in the county to use on pet projects. Canton has elected to use $3,000 from its special pool of money to staff the visitor center through July. The TDA, however, is still calling for volunteers to help work the center at other times.

TDA board members maintain that they are committed to keeping the center open and believe in its viability.

“It is our every intention to keep that visitor center open,” said Ken Stahl, a TDA board member, but he has also noted that many driving visitors find information via GPS and Web-enabled phones, rather than through traditional highway visitor centers.

Strictly by the numbers, Canton’s center ranks third out of the county’s four visitor’s centers for actual visitors, trailing the popular Balsam center and Maggie Valley’s location.

However, Haywood County Economic Development Director Mark Clasby, who sits on the TDA, said that the Canton center should be a priority for tourism in the county.

“I think it plays an important role,” said Clasby. “Before the rock slide that we had, the numbers for the Canton visitor’s center were up. I think it’s a very important geographic location.”

Canton Town Manager Al Matthews is  both the town manager in Canton and a TDA board member himself.

“The town sees the necessity and advisability of having a visitor center here,” said Matthews. “We have been working with the TDA, trying to make sure that the visitor’s center is open on a regular basis.”

The car-wash-cum-visitor’s-center may not be the only iron in the fire for Canton, though. Back in 2004, the idea for a more comprehensive visitor’s experience off I-40 in Canton was proposed, but stalled before getting funding for a feasibility study when the economy tanked two years later.

There’s talk of the concept being resurrected, however, as part of an economic development plan being crafted for the town using a grant from the N.C. Rural Center.

Matthews said that, though it’s an idea that’s on the table, it’s far too early to speculate about its practicality.

“Hypothetically that is an option, but it’s premature to say that could or should or would happen,” said Matthews.

It’s still unclear whether Canton’s current center will be able to stay open full time into the next fiscal year. Lynn Collins, TDA’s executive director, said they “were still working it out.”

For the last month, Greg Petty has been on a leaflet campaign around Canton. He’s been to parking lots. He’s been to offices. He’s been to bulletin boards. He’s been inside Evergreen Packaging, the paper mill that looms large in the town’s small center, and trolled its perimeter, plastering spots that might catch the eye of workers with his restaurant’s offerings.

“We’ve got menus up at every tunnel and every gate and every parking lot,” said Petty, the owner of the Canton Lunch Box.

The Main Street lunch and dinner spot is hardly in need of new business. On any given weekday around noon, there is nary a seat to be found. The wooden tables and chairs are filled with mill workers and other locals, and the staff seem acquainted with virtually all of them.

But what Petty, with his paper push, is gearing up for is an onslaught of new customers, thanks to more than 1,400 contract workers who will descend on the town next week for a massive mill maintenance, the largest since 2003.

A collective undertaking

The workers are coming for what, in the paper business, is called a cold mill outage. The paper mill will halt operations for three days and undergo major maintenance for several weeks to overhaul the place. They’re cleaning, they’re replacing pipes, they’re rebuilding boilers, they’re aligning massive pieces of equipment like steam turbines.

It’s going to take regular mill employees working at full pelt — some clocking overtime — and a hoard of outside contractors to get it all done.

But for an often-sleepy hamlet like Canton, such an influx of people isn’t just a massive undertaking for the mill: it’s a massive undertaking for the entire town. With the incoming contractors, the town’s population will swell by a third. And out in the streets, if they’re not busily gearing up, they’re anticipating the busyness to come.

“I’m not going out to eat for the next week,” said Nancy Rathbone at Sign World WNC on Main Street.

Sign World itself, meanwhile, has been cranking out custom signage for the mill as fast as it can: signs to mark parking lots, signs to mark exits, stickers for parking, ID badges, new plaques for machinery and a plethora of other printed pieces to orient and direct the out-of-town workers. Charles Rathbone, the company’s owner, said Evergreen officials have been in nearly every day in the weeks running up to the outage.

“We’re getting a lot done for the mill to gear up and probably expect a whole lot more during the period of time that they’re here,” said Rathbone, who said he’s excited about the outage and believes it will be good for Canton.

The mill estimates that it’ll be pretty good for it’s hometown, as well. The outage should boost the local economy by $500,000, according to Mike Cohen, a company spokesman.

According to Cohen, they arrived at that $500,000 figure by using an economic impact formula that factors in things such as hotel nights, meals and gas.

Mark Clasby, Haywood County’s economic development director, said that’s only one facet of the positive impact the outage will bring.

“It’s good news because of the capital investment that they’re making in the plant to continue operations, but there are multiplier effects — it means buying supplies, there’s hotel nights, meals, things like that, expenses. All those factors go into that,” said Clasby.

A boon for business

Businesses around Canton are already feeling the rising tide they hope will continue to lift all boats.

At Days Inn on Champion Drive, they’re completely booked. They’re pretty close at the Comfort Inn just down the road, the town’s other hotel.

“We just have a few rooms, but they are very few,” said Gagan Nanda, who works the desk there. He said they’ve been taking advance bookings for three months now in preparation for the work.

The contractors themselves have been preparing, too. Anchor Steam Power, based in Asheville, said that, although they keep a crew at the plant nearly year-round to repair and maintain boilers, they’ll be sending in nearly 200 extra workers to revamp most of the plant’s many boilers.

Evergreen will be paying dearly for the maintenance — they expect it to cost in the range of $20 million.

They’ve budgeted for the outage and upped production in the weeks leading up to it so they can keep their customers’ orders filled, said Cohen, though, he notes, it isn’t a move they’re keen to make regularly.

“It’s one of those things that you do them when you need to, but not anymore often than you have to,” he said.

Of the $20 million that the company thinks they’ll spend on the outage, 60 percent of it — around $12 million — will be spent on paying workers to do the maintenance. The other $8 million will go to pay for the maintenance itself, purchasing supplies and equipment, along with preparations for the incursion of extra help.

Some of those workers, like those from Anchor Steam, are from the region. Most, though, are industry specialists who travel around the country, bouncing from site to site doing similar work.

“Most of the contractors have specialized skills for what we need,” said Cohen. “A paper mill is not like anything except other paper mills, and even those can be very different.”

With so many out-of-region workers, that means they’ll be relying on the town for pretty much everything, and in addition to shops and motels, some of Canton’s restaurants are ready to entice the temporary customers in for a meal or two.

Back at the Lunch Box, they’ve bolstered their operations in addition to their marketing.

“During the outage and the upgrade, we’re going to be opening at 10 in the morning and we’re going to double our staff,” said restaurant-owner Petty. They’ll also be delivering to the mill, and just in case anyone didn’t hear about their offerings, they’ve saturated the campus with paper.

Petty is also the man behind the renovation of the town’s Imperial Hotel, which will include a restaurant slated to open later this year. Though he was shooting for both restaurants to be open, Petty’s excited about the infusion of people and believes it will be a boon to the town’s businesses and morale.

“I think a lot of the people in town are excited about having 1,500 people in town that aren’t from Canton,” said Petty.

Rene Cutshaw, the service manager at Sagebrush steakhouse, one of the town’s other lunch spots, said they’re bulking up their normal staff schedules, too.

“We are putting some extra staff on next week and getting ready for the people staying in the hotels that are right behind us,” said Cutshaw.

And as one of only two restaurants that serve alcohol, and the only bar, they’re expecting an upshot in their sales there, too.

“We’re the only option, but we’re a good one,” said Cutshaw. “The next closest [bar] is O’Malley’s in Waynesville, so we’re making sure we’ve got a bunch of bottled beer ready and making sure we’re ready to meet their needs.”

The town itself has been helping out with operations, too. Though Town Manager Al Matthews said Evergreen has been handling most of the logistics, his staff has been helping them locate parking lots to house the workers’ vehicles while they’re here, which is no mean feat in Canton’s small downtown.

“We’ve been coordinating with their people to accommodate the extra vehicles that will be in the town, and our law enforcement is trying to accommodate that, to have enhanced patrols to protect all those vehicles,” said Matthews.

With so many unmanned cars sitting in vacant lots all day, police realize that the temptation might be too much for potential thieves.

Matthews, too, is optimistic about the benefits that the maintenance will bring.

“I think it will be very positive,” said Matthews, echoing the sentiments and hopes expressed by many in Canton ahead of the outage.

So as the little town readies for the big mill ball, they seem to have their hopes high that the temporary boom will be as loud and prosperous as estimates promise.

By DeeAnna Haney • Smoky Mountain News Intern

Although Curly Hollow might sound like the perfect picnic area down some country road, it’s really more a product of imagination than a destination. In fact, the members of the band Curly Hollow aren’t even sure if such a place truly exists — the name simply resonated with them during their search for a title.

The country-pop band has come a long way since the members first met at a showcase in Nashville in July 2010. Now, less than a year later, members Keil Smith, Zakk Merrill, Charlie Lance, Chris Pruett and Ryan Riddle are celebrating the release of their first extended play record, “Love in Theory.”

Curly Hollow’s sound is mellow and modern at the same time, with a touch of many different musical styles. Each member contributes pieces from varying musical influences such as The Temptations, Jason Aldean, and Miles Davis.

“We try to blend different genres together – jazz, rock, country, blues – and just put our own twist to it and it’s fun that way,” said Zakk Merrill, the band’s bass guitarist.

Lead guitarist Charlie Lance tries to ensure the band’s sound stays original and fresh, not sticking with the same chord progressions in each song. He often incorporates what he learns while practicing for his jazz studies classes into songs for the band.

Most reminiscent of the sounds of Rascal Flatts, Curly Hollow’s songs have attracted traditional country music lovers as well as those who normally steer clear of the genre. The band believes they appeal to a wide variety of musical palettes because of the genre infusions and the passion behind each song.

“It’s one thing when you see a band get on stage but their hearts aren’t really in it,” Lance said. “But there is something cool to be said about seeing somebody do something they’re extremely passionate about and that’s what we try to do.”

Already signed to a Christian label before joining Curly Hollow, lead vocalist Keil Smith said he always harbored a penchant for country music. With an admittedly sappy songwriting style, Smith’s lyrics come directly from the heart.

Each member typically contributes to the songwriting process, although Lance has a difficult time putting his thoughts into words. His preference, he said, is to evoke emotion through his guitar.

“Love in Theory” is a collection of six original songs each exploring love in the best and worst forms, from falling in love to heart break. The EP features a satisfying sample of Curly Hollow’s various sounds such as the rock-and-roll duet with Ami Pruett “Home of Glass,” the simple acoustic guitar accompaniment to “Because,” and the traditionally country twang in “fairytale.”

Spectators attending a Curly Hollow show should expect a high-energy concert, Smith said, because the band is eager to play on stage for the first time. His hope is that the band’s chemistry and camaraderie will radiate through the songs.

“When a band does a good job on stage I feel like I know every member when I leave because they put so much into their performance and that’s what we want,” Lance said.

Visit www.reverbnation.com/curlyhollow or iTunes to preview Curly Hollow’s music.

See Curly Hollow at the Colonial

Curly Hollow will play its debut concert with opening act Rewind Blue at 6 p.m. Saturday, April 9, at the Colonial Theatre in Canton. A CD release party will follow the concert. Tickets are $7 and can be purchased at the Colonial Theatre or at Simple Taste Grill in Canton.

The first cow ushered into the WNC Regional Livestock Center in Canton weighed 850 well-proportioned pounds. Despite being two-months pregnant, she danced lithely about the livestock arena, easily sidestepping the green, long plastic paddle a handler occasionally dabbed in her direction.

“Get your hands up in the air and let ‘er rip,” the auctioneer said excitedly to a crowd of hundreds, so many that people were lined along the walls two and three deep, and even spilled out into the hallways. This was a ballcaps-and-boots-kind of crowd, mainly men, though there were some women and, despite this being a school day, even a few kids. So many people showed up, the state Highway Patrol turned out, too, directing the long lines of traffic coming off Interstate 40.

The cow, an attractive blonde, fetched $750.

And so went the first sale at the first major cattle market in Western North Carolina since a livestock auction in Asheville closed seven years ago. It required the push of local farmers, and money from willing donors, to make the WNC Regional Livestock Center a reality — more than $3 million from various organizations, businesses and producers financed the building that houses the market.

“We came together three or four years ago to start organizing for a new market,” said Bruce Peterson of WNC Communities, a collaborative regional group that works on quality-of-life projects such as the new regional livestock center. “We didn’t need to take all this money out of state.”

That’s what Alden Childers of Swain County would have done if this regional livestock center hadn’t opened. He and friend Clarence Wiggins, also of Bryson City, would have hauled the cattle they brought to Canton this day — including a bull they picked up along the way in Jackson County — to Tennessee perhaps, or maybe even down into Georgia.

Michael Vanhook wanted to bring a few head over from Macon County to sell, but didn’t get them rounded up in time. Instead, he and Jerry Sutton of Franklin just watched the show, like so many here this day.

Vanhook, who stays busy raising and selling cattle after retiring from Franklin High School, says a new market this close to home helps those in the cattle business.

That’s because hauling cattle costs gas money, time and stresses the animals, said Boyce Deitz, a regional aid for Congressman Heath Shuler (and Shuler’s former Swain County football coach).

His boss was on hand to meet and greet and take in the show, but Deitz was all business — and his business this fine Monday was selling the four heifers and a steer he’d hauled over the Balsams from his pastures in Jackson County. That’s obviously a lot closer than taking the animals all the way to Tennessee, he noted.

“It would’ve taken me about two hours,” Deitz said. “If you unloaded right then and came back, it was a day’s journey and a tank of fuel.”

Lucas Tipton doesn’t expect to save time driving his cattle to Canton, though he’s happy the market opened. He lives in Burnsville, and with about 100 head, he keeps busy driving to buy and sell at a variety of cattle markets. Tipton will frequent Canton on Mondays for this weekly market, and be in Chesnee, S.C. on Tuesdays, and all the way up in Abingdon, Va., on Friday and Saturdays.

That’s what a lot of cattle farmers do, though most in this region on a smaller scale than Tipton. Sell at the market, and then buy some more to grow out. Sell those, and buy some more.

A red calf trots into the show arena. Tipton doesn’t much care for red calves.

“I just like black ones,” he said in explanation. “They seem to do a little better for us, and bring a little more per pound.”

That’s what this market opening is about — farmers being able to make money by raising cattle. Tipton approved the method of sale being used in Canton: “that’s the right way,” he said, apparently thinking of some markets that use other methods. Beef cattle in Canton are being sold by the pound —  cows, on the other hand, are given a pregnancy test, “aged” and sold by the head.

It’s a sunny, mid-March Friday, the air is barely warm enough to warrant open windows and loosened collars, and on this particular spring morning, John Queen is a pretty popular guy.

His hip-holstered Blackberry stays quiet just for a few minutes at a stretch, and he has only to take a step or two around the shiny new offices at the WNC Regional Livestock Market before being waylaid by an outstretched invoice needing his signature or logistical question awaiting his advice. Where are the gate keys and who gets a set? How close are the welders to completion?

SEE ALSO: Farmers turn out in droves for cattle auction opening day

It’s the Friday prior to the market’s first Monday sale, and Queen, who is, in essence, the ringmaster, emcee and manager of this show, is like the queen bee of this hive of workers, all bustling diligently to finish off the details before the market’s opening.

On a mid-morning walkthrough of the new facility with the site’s project manager, he flits back and forth from problem to problem — giving direction to the Bobcat operators, gamely scaling the side of a dump truck to point its driver in the right direction, strategizing with workers on a last-minute water trough installation — though ‘flit’ really isn’t a word that would describe Queen’s style well.

He’s tall but not ungainly, with a long face, dark grey hair, eyes the mid-blue of a gas flame and a manner that is at once authoritative and friendly. He’s the longtime president and owner of Southeast Livestock Exchange, the Haywood County company in charge of running the new livestock market, and it’s not an overstatement to say that, for Queen, livestock is a lifestyle. In fact, it’s in his blood.

“I’m a fourth-generation cattle producer, from right here in Haywood County,” he says, the first words from his mouth, in fact, when asked to explain just precisely how he got into this business. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather before him all raised cattle right here, but it’s Queen himself who’s taken the business to a level far surpassing a simple cow-and-calves operation.

Though he may call himself a cattle farmer, livestock marketer probably fits the bill a little better; it’s what has made his career for the last 30-plus years and made his role in the new regional market possible.

Queen has been in the business of marketing cattle since 1979, first at the now-defunct Western Carolina market in Asheville, then briefly with an ill-fated Canton market, and since 2005, an online video marketing outfit that’s made Queen’s company into a regional marketer and national and international seller. Over the years, the birth of online sales coupled with Queen’s natural fervor for the industry has led his operations to open out into a panoply of new venues and ventures.

Essentially, the way the system works, says Queen, is much like a live auction — but larger, quicker and more profitable and efficient for both buyer and seller. His team will trek out to farms in a three-state area, take stock of a farmer’s livestock — weight, height, conformation and various other statistics important to those whose business is the bovine market — then shoot video of the cattle in question. DVDs and catalogs are then sent to potential buyers, often middlemen for end-users like beef companies, and the cattle are hawked on live video auction every Monday. The online operation has 800 virtual seats for would-be buyers, and for many, Queen says it’s far-and-away more efficient than approaching farmers or attending small auctions to put together a load of cattle piecemeal.

“He can buy a tractor-trailer load of cattle in about 15 seconds, where he couldn’t buy a tractor-trailer load of cattle in a sale barn in a matter of two or three hours,” says Queen, which is quicker, more convenient and cost-effective for the buyers and more lucrative for the sellers, who can get a better price per head when they go in with other farmers.

It’s part of what Queen calls added-value sales, and it’s a pitch he’s pretty passionate about, because he sees it as the ideal solution for helping small-time cattlemen to stay afloat. It’s also what he hopes producers can get out of this market as well.

Back in the open air of the market, Queen walks the catwalk that runs above the numbered metal chutes, explaining the complex process that brings cattle from the rear of the arena, snaking through a series of interlacing metal lanes and pens to the stadium-seated auction room at the opposite end. Queen looks the mixture of farmer and businessman that he is — faded Wranglers atop equally careworn Justin boots, both standard uniform for cowboys and cattlemen from San Diego to Syracuse, but with a crisp, pressed blue gingham button-down that is less farmer, more broker and that ever-present Blackberry hugging his right hip.

Shafts of morning light crisscross over the textured concrete and dirt floors, bouncing from the gleaming gray pen bars, giving the whole place the hushed feel of an ancient cathedral, and it’s clear that Queen is in his element, in this cathedral that seems to stir in him both reverence and pride.

But it wasn’t always this way. He’s really not one of those people that grew up wanting to take over the family business. He wasn’t, he says, exactly waiting in the wings as a young man.

“When I left to go to college, I swore I’d never come back to the farm,” says Queen, laughing wryly. “My dad made me work there when I was a kid, and I thought that day when I left, I told myself it was my chance to escape and I’d never come back.”

But it took only a few months at Western Carolina University for Queen to realize that the farm was really his love.

Even still, though, it wasn’t quite enough. His ambitions were greater, his talents broader than simple farming. And when he got into the business end soon after returning, he never looked back.

“I wanted to see the bigger picture rather than just what we did in Haywood County,” says Queen, and that he did, eventually becoming president of first the North Carolina Cattlemen’s Association and then the National Cattlemen’s Beef Assocation.

The business, he says, has evolved over the years, growing in scope and depth, especially since the advent of online sales has put the world of clamoring cattle buyers at the fingertips of every small seller with an internet connection.

The newly opened regional market will, Queen hopes, do the same thing for local producers that burgeoning online auctions have done — provide small Southern farmers, who average 20 head per farm, the outlet to reach big-time buyers by pulling together and selling together.

Queen says he knows some rail against progress such as this, but he minces no words when he says it is truly the only way forward.

“Tradition is a great thing, but you know, in all reality, tradition is probably the No. 1 enemy of agriculture today,” says Queen. “We all want to do as daddy did or as granddaddy did, and we can’t operate that way any longer. We have to change as time does. We’ve got to learn to adapt to that if we’re going to get the value out of our livestock.”

And really, he is the perfect spokesman for that growth, change and adaptation; with his roots deep in local soil, he understands and appreciates the history that brought regional agriculture to its current resting place, but with his head and heart in the global market, he understands that this can’t be its resting place for long, lest it be left behind by a speedily changing world.

Plus, for all his success in international livestock marketing — and he’s adamant that global exporting must be a part of every cattle farmer’s core principles — to meet John Queen is to meet one of the friendliest, most plainly genuine people you’re likely to come across. His ardent zeal for what he does and what it can become is endearing and contagious, and it’s not a mental stretch to envision him convincing veritably every cattleman that crosses his path of the merits of forward agricultural progress.

Though he doesn’t think he’ll pass his enterprise on to his daughters the way it was passed on to him — the business has changed, he says, grown and tendrilled out into a complex organism that needs someone with his passion behind it — he’d like nothing better than to be doing exactly this until the very day he dies.

“I’ve always been thrilled with the atmosphere and nature of the marketplace. The day I die, I hope I’m either running cattle around on my farm or somewhere marketing cattle. It’s just the ideal thing for me,” says Queen. And with that, and a ring of the Blackberry, he’s off once more, into the next incarnation of a business that he’s built from the ground up, and an industry that he’s helping lead into the future of American farming.