Two soil erosion-control trainings are available to contractors in Western North Carolina in early March. One is classroom-based and free, the other is in the field and has an admission fee.

A Mountain Soil Erosion Control training will be held from 8:05 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 2, at the Almond Campus of Southwestern Community Center in Swain County. Richard McLaughlin, a lead soil scientist with N.C. State University and director of sediment and erosion control research, will be the presenter. He will cover erosion control, sediment control and turbidity control. Admission is free but registration is required.

The second training led by McLaughlin will be on installation of construction site erosion and sediment-control devices, and will be held twice: Thursday, March 3, and Friday, April 15, from 8 a.m. to noon at the Highlands Crops Research and Extension Center in Mills River. The cost is $30.

Both training sessions fulfill Swain County requirement for annual erosion-control training. Register at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 828.488.8418.

Order forms for edible bushes and other plants are now available from the Haywood County Master Gardener Association.

Plants available include: red, black and golden raspberries, blackberries, asparagus, blueberries, strawberries and various shrubs.

Money raised by the plant sale goes to the Haywood County Master Gardener Association grant program, which funds horticultural projects and scholarships for horticultural students from Haywood County.

Orders due by March 16. Order forms are available at the N.C. Cooperative Extension on Raccoon Road in Waynesville or call 828.456.3575 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or go to www.masteryourgarden.blogspot.com, or ask any member of the Master Gardener Association.

Plants will be available for pick up on April 9 at the cooperative extension.

Volunteers are needed to help transplant rivercane from near Western Carolina University to a site near Cherokee as part of a rivercane restoration project.

Rivercane is a mainstay of Cherokee culture, and traditionally has been used in making baskets, blowguns and mats. It once was plentiful along stream banks and floodplains in Western North Carolina, but the species has been heavily impacted by development. WCU and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians are working together to restore the native bamboo. Not much rivercane still grows in Cherokee, so WCU students and faculty members started working with Cherokee tribal members last fall to move plants from  Cullowhee Valley to the site near the Cherokee school.

“Over the course of four days in October, volunteers dug up rivercane behind the baseball stadium on campus, wrapped the roots in plastic, loaded them onto a truck and replanted them in Cherokee,” said Adam Griffith, a staff member in WCU’s Program for the study of developed shorelines. “The dense network of tough underground stems and roots made the digging difficult, but the result was the planting of more than 50 feet of underground stems and 30 above-ground stems.”

A much larger rivercane transplantation effort is planned for March and April to a site at the new Cherokee Central School.

“The long-term goal of the project is to establish a patch of rivercane on Cherokee tribal land that can be used for educational purposes and even harvesting by Cherokee artisans,” Griffith said.

The transplanting work is scheduled for March 11 and 19, and April 1, 2, 8 and 9.

Visit rivercane.wcu.edu or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Area landowners who have rivercane on their properties they’d like to donate are asked to contact Griffith.

There’s a new handicapped-accessible fishing pier in Western North Carolina, located at the Charles D. Owen Park in Buncombe County.

The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission recently partnered with the Buncombe County Parks, Greenyard and Recreation Department to construct the pier. This is a six-section, floating fishing pier on the larger of the two lakes in the 29-acre park. The pier is 59-feet long with a 48-foot wide T-section at the end. It has low, angled handrail sections allowing easy access for children and anglers confined to wheelchairs.

A handicapped-accessible approach sidewalk and associated parking will be added, too, ensuring the park’s pier fully complies with Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines.

There are plans to install a solar-powered fish feeder within casting distance of the new pier.

“Trout fishing in the Swannanoa River requires skills that not everyone has – particularly children,” said Jay Nelson, athletic coordinator for Buncombe County Parks, Greenways and Recreation Department. “This new universally accessible fishing pier and fish feeder will be an ideal place to take the family fishing.”

Nantahala Outdoor Center is donating nearly $5,000 worth of paddling equipment for the recovery of injured military veterans.

The donation will benefit the Johnson City, Tenn., chapter of Team River Runner, a nonprofit organization established to help military personnel wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. NOC is donating an Ultimate Propel Kayak (pedal powered boat), an Ultimate Volt Kayak (battery powered boat), personal flotation devices and other miscellaneous paddling items.

Established in 2004 by kayakers in Washington, D.C., Team River provides military personnel an opportunity to heal from profound psychological and physical wounds by exploring the challenges of kayaking.

The Johnson City chapter has led 40 military veterans through its paddling program, teaching them kayaking skills as an avenue to aid in their physical and emotional recovery after being wounded.

“Saving our Streams” movie night and classroom bug exploration is set for Feb. 24 from 6:30-7:45 p.m. at the Grove Church outside of Bryson City sponsored by the Watershed Association of the Tuckasegee River.

The event will feature hands-on lessons about creatures that live in creeks, giving folks a chance to look for invertebrates in water samples collected just hours before. There will also be a short movie demonstrating how groups in other parts of the country work to safeguard their rivers and streams. WATR will share sign-up information for upcoming volunteer stream days this spring.

“As a community, we should also have a goal of developing more ‘citizen scientists’ who collect samples and learn the basic information of how watersheds operate so that they teem with life,” said Roger Clapp, WATR director.

The Grove Church is at 1127 Franklin Grove Road.

Additionally, WATR will have its annual meeting in the community room at the Ginger Lynn Welch Complex in Cherokee at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 28.

Educators from throughout the region are invited to attend a one-day conference focusing on literacy hosted by Western Carolina University’s College of Education and Allied Professions.

The conference will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 25, in the A.K. Hinds University Center Grandroom on the WCU campus.

Highlights include breakout sessions and a keynote address by Katie Wood Ray, a full-time writer and researcher on the teaching of writing who leads workshops and summer institutes across the nation. Ray is a former elementary and middle school teacher and developer at Columbia University’s Reading and Writing Project.

Registration includes lunch and is $50, $25 for students.

Elaine Franklin at 828.227.3318 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

To the Editor:

The tragedy in Arizona resulting in loss of life and injury to so many people was horrible. For one deranged person to have caused such pain is beyond belief.

What made the event even worse, if possible, were the immediate conclusions being made attributing the attack to political vitriol, combative language during the elections, and the Tea Party movement. Ascribing malicious and dangerous motives to a grassroots group is, at best, mistaken, and at most, an effort to quash healthy discourse by demonizing one’s adversaries.

Since the Tea Party has been growing in number and influence, we have been called red-necked, rebellious and racists, among many other even more vicious names. Attempts have been made to downplay and ridicule the basic tenets upon which we stand.

As a country, our people have spent years absorbed in our own lives and allowing decisions to be made, which have begun to erode the beliefs upon which our country was founded. We, the silent majority, have permitted those choices in the mistaken belief that we had no influence on what happened … that our one voice didn’t count.

So we – average, middle-class, educated people of all ages – began to gather in an attempt to make a difference and to bring the power of the government back home to our communities and the individual. There is no rancor in our midst, just determination. We do not uphold violent behavior and disrespect, just our right to discuss and disagree.

If you ever attended one of our meetings or stood with us on the corner as we held up signs, you would find that we are a non-combative, conscientious, conservative group who believe in the process of our government and our ability to have it work for us.

So, when we listened to the sheriff of Pima County veer from his report – which should have been an update on an investigation – to personal comments about vitriol, Sharon Angle, Sarah Palin, and Tea Parties, we were surprised and hurt. To suddenly be placed in the spotlight as possible contributors to an act of insanity was negligent and irresponsible on the part of the sheriff and led to further division between people of differing political beliefs. We do not appreciate the attempts by some representatives of our government to use a horrible event to drive a wedge between Americans.

Insanity has no bounds and needs no reason. Any one event could be a trigger that sets a deranged person on a violent path. If there is any change that could be made as a result of Jared Loughner’s horrendous act, let it be changes in the way people handle those with possible psychiatric needs.

Our elected officials should use the common sense, with which they have been attributed, to think before they speak. Judgments about a group of people about which it seems many have no knowledge, is unacceptable. The events of Jan. 8, 2011, in Arizona need not bring out the political correctness police and cause reasonable conversation with no evil intent to be stifled.

As a group, we will continue to exercise our rights to express our opinions, to expect our elected officials to represent us, the people, and to be treated with the respect that we are due as citizens of the greatest country in the world.

You are all in our constant prayers that God will give you wisdom and discernment in your decision making.

Gail Chapman

President

Mountain Patriot Tea Party

To the Editor:

I’m not sure if I’m angry, embarrassed, disappointed, or a combination thereof because of an event that was held here in Franklin, Saturday, Jan. 22.

The American Legion Post 108 held a Constitutional Speech competition for high school students. Students were to give an eight- to 10-minute prepared speech on the Constitution of the United States. The second part of the contest was a three- to five-minute extemporaneous speech on a selected amendment to the Constitution. Prizes were awarded and the winner is eligible to participate in the next level of the contest to be held in Hickory. As the student continues winning in the competitions, he or she is able to win large sums of monies for their college education.

Our Legion Post is to be commended for their organization, with judges, timers, assistants for the students, and other members there to assist or just add support. These Legion members who have served our country, defending our Constitution while in the armed forces, gave up their Saturday to be there to help the students.

At this first level of competition there were just two students participating from all of Western North Carolina, one from Waynesville and one from Murphy. There were no students – none, zero, nada – from Franklin or any part of Macon County. Does this indicate the level of their patriotism, of love and respect for our country? The lack of gratitude for lives lost, or the sacrifices made by past generations, their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents so that young Americans can continue to live under freedom.

If this is the case, where have we gone wrong? It is our duty to set an example for our young people and instill the values and principles of American “Exceptionalism.”

Hal Chapman

Otto

To the Editor:

I read with interest your article, “A New Day for Dillsboro” (Smoky Mountain News, Feb. 9). As a resident of Jackson County and a former business owner in town, it has been unfortunate to watch what has happened to the town since the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad pulled out in 2008. Economic downturn or not, an attraction bringing 60,000 people a year into a town not otherwise a destination is certainly a boon for any merchant, and with the train leaving, there would have been a definite downturn in business no matter the economic climate.

Moreover, the train – with its advertising budget – could reach people from all over the world, drawing them to this quaint village. Without an attraction to draw tourists, the town’s tourist trade and businesses were certain to dwindle.

Many good people have chosen to close their businesses or have moved on to bustling towns in order to survive. The town and the train had a symbiotic relationship that failed to be nurtured and cultivated, making it easy for the train to leave the town when GSMR decided to consolidate its business operations in Bryson City.

What might have happened if they had chosen to consolidate their business to Dillsboro?

I am glad to hear the train is resuming partial trips back to Dillsboro, and I hope the result is an increase in business, a reacquaintance of tourists to the town, and a return to the bustling atmosphere that used to exist there.

Ron Moss

Whittier

By Scott Muirhead • Guest Columnist

Politics aside, what could possibly be more absurd than plastic flowers? (OK, there are hundreds of things, I know, but we’re on a tight schedule here. Besides, polyethylene gladioli are long overdue for a bashing.)

Fake flowers seem to be the darlings of those who obviously do not grasp the concept of real flowers. But to avoid stumbling into a pit of poetic mush, let’s just say that the bittersweet joy of flowers, ahem, stems from their impermanence. Whether on the vine or bush or in a gilded vase, flowers die. We bring them indoors fragrant and fresh, luminescent and vibrant, then in a few days they shrivel and blacken and die. It is then that they are unceremoniously but with admitted satisfaction dropped into a trash bag. They had for a few days splendidly served as one of our better metaphors for life, which, like the flowers, is real and limited.

Meanwhile, plastic flowers, those illegitimate offspring of the oil fields, those insolent phonies squat on the credenza reeking of cheap commercialism, collecting dust and never changing. Life is not like that, although I suspect there are wives within the readership of this very newspaper who consider their husbands to be a lot like plastic flowers.

Maybe fake flowers are good for guilt. You can place a plastic bouquet of jasmine and hydrangea by a tombstone, and you don’t have to come back for months. Best of all, no guilt! Everybody who happens by will think you had just been there that morning.

Otherwise, the point of artificial blooms eludes me. I suppose they are economical. They never go away, and money spent on real daffodils and roses could be more enjoyably applied at Burger King or for a cell phone upgrade. In all its shapes and forms and embodiments, plastic is eternal, you know.

Plastic flowers are especially tedious for those who travel interstate highways, where every 50 feet or so there is a little makeshift memorial, a wad of mud-spattered chrysanthemums adorning what may appear to be a rhinestone studded candy box left over from Valentine’s Day.

The memorials are a bit of a distraction, actually. Drivers are craning their necks trying to read the epitaphs at 70 miles an hour, on the outside chance they know something about the departed. Such behavior will inevitably result in even more roadside plastic.

There is something quizzical about the interstate testimonials. If a homeowner falls and breaks his neck cleaning gutters, does his wife rush to K-Mart for a buggy full of fake baby’s breath and Queen Anne’s lace? Does she jab a little PVC lilac cross in the ground at the head of the deceased? No. She collects the insurance and hightails it to the casino. But just let that dolt husband of hers get killed on the highway and see what happens. There’ll be plastic purple tulips everywhere!

And probably there is not a church house in the land whose narthex or altar is not — shall we say — adorned with the colorful petals and leaves of a Taiwanese injection mold factory. There is something ironic about that artificiality.

But where the utilitarian beauty of fake flora is most abundant is in our delicately manicured graveyards, where spring springs eternal. Why visit the gardens of Biltmore? You can see all the pretty flowers you want, anytime of year, right down the street at the nearby cemetery. But what about the poignancy that is life? Isn’t it dying and death that make life so precious?

And lest you think me a completely callous monster, I confess I am not immune to the sadness that sometimes accompanies the death of a family member or business associate. But I like to mark the occasion with real cut flowers. In a few days they, like the memory of the dearly departed, wilt and vanish. You can read all about it in Ecclesiastes.

(Scott Muirhead claims to have enrolled in a sensitivity course in college, but admits he dropped out after a few minutes. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..)

A seminar on how to use marketing to increase sales will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Feb. 17 at the Bethea Welcome Center at Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center.

More seminars are scheduled for Feb. 24, March 3, March 17 and March 24. Topics will include social media, increasing productivity, accelerating cash flow in a soft economy and more.

The seminar topics are the result of a recent community survey concerning business growth in a soft economy. The Haywood County Chamber of Commerce compiled a series of seminars to give tips to help local businesses grow this year, and beyond.

Pre-registration is required. 828.456.3021.

MedWest Health System will recognize outstanding athletes from Haywood, Graham, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties and the Cherokee Indian Reservation through the Game On! spot in local newspapers.

The Game On! spot will acknowledge individuals who have exemplified outstanding performance, winning attitudes and great sportsmanship.

Outstanding athletes will be recognized with photos and a summary of their accomplishments. This awards program is open to student athletes, senior citizens and sports enthusiasts.

Members of the community can sign up to receive text alerts about the player of the week. To signup for the text alerts, send an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Coaches, team members and community residents can nominate an outstanding athlete. Nominations for the Game On! recognition should send an e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; along with a photo of the athlete, preferably in uniform or in action.

U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler, D-Waynesville, has been appointed to serve on the House Committee on the Budget.

“Our nation’s exploding debt has become the single greatest threat to America’s economic future,” Shuler said. “The Budget Committee in the 112th Congress will play a pivotal role in setting the fiscal course of our nation for next two years and, hopefully, for years to come.”

The committee determines the country’s spending priorities and develops the annual federal budget.

In addition to the committee on the budget, Shuler serves on the committee on transportation and infrastructure.

Local Girl Scouts will begin this year’s cookie drive beginning Feb. 12.  

Cookies are only available for approximately two months, then the girls decide where the proceeds go.

This year, Girl Scouts can also track their goals online and become part of a safe online Cookie Connector asking their friends and families to purchase cookies. Price per box is $4, and all of the proceeds generated from the Girl Scout Cookie Program stay within the girls’ local area.

www.girlscoutsp2p.org

Western Carolina University supporters have the chance to grow a student emergency fund when they commission a brick paver for the Catamount Legacy Walk.

Each 4-by-8-inch, reddish-orange brick paver commissioned through a $125 gift to the Catamount Legacy Walk will be engraved with a message from the donor and installed on a walkway on campus.

Eighty percent of each Catamount Legacy Walk donation goes directly to the WCU Division of Student Affairs Student Emergency Fund, with the remaining amount used for maintenance of the walk and Alumni Tower. The student emergency fund, which is administered by a committee, offers limited financial assistance when students are unable to meet immediate, essential expenses because of temporary hardship resulting from an emergency.

With enough donations, the first section of 300 pavers will be engraved and installed as a group near the Alumni Tower in the spring before commencement, as an executive assistant with Martha Stewart Living.

Visit legacywalk.wcu.edu or 828.227.7234.

A health-care policy forum is set for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 22, in the Catamount Room of the A.K. Hinds University Center at Western Carolina University.

The Department of Political Science and Public Affairs and the Public Policy Institute is hosting the event

The health-policy forum is a part of the Quality Enhancement Plan’s “Sweet ‘N Low” initiative. Designed to enhance the educational experience of students at WCU with thematic and interdisciplinary learning opportunities, the forum will address health policy issues affecting Western North Carolina.

Panelists will include representatives from the WNC medical community, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations and governmental agencies. Topics to be discussed include federal health care legislation and the impact of budget shortfalls on health care in the region.

The event is free and open to the public. 828.227.3862 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

The Blue Ridge National Heritage Area Partnership today announced twenty grants, totaling nearly $245,000, have been awarded to help preserve and promote Western North Carolina’s heritage.

The grant awards will help support diverse initiatives across the North Carolina mountains and foothills, focusing on craft, music, natural heritage, Cherokee traditions and the region’s legacy in agriculture. These five facets of the region’s heritage earned the 25 counties of Western North Carolina a Congressional designation as the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area in 2003.

The nonprofit organization charged with preserving, interpreting, developing and celebrating the rich and unique natural and cultural heritage in the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area.

The twenty awards include:

• $17,850 to the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project for an initiative to link new farmers to available farmland and to stimulate farm and food tourism.

• $5,000 to the Asheville Art Museum for an exhibition of Appalachian, Cherokee and low-country baskets.

• $1,500 to the Bethel Rural Community Foundation to support the nomination of the Francis Mill in Waynesville to the National Register of Historic Places.

• $3,500 to the Center for Craft, Creativity and Design for an interpretive brochure highlighting the EnergyXchange in Yancey County and the Jackson County Energy Park.

• $3,525 to the Clay County Communities Revitalization Association, to support curriculum materials and events associated with the Nelson Heritage Park Cherokee exhibit in Hayesville.

• $12,500 to the Great Smoky Mountains Association for the production of videos highlighting points of interest within the North Carolina portion of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

• $15,000 to Junior Appalachian Musicians, Inc. to support curriculum and teacher development for local Junior Appalachian Musicians programs.

• $22,000 to the Stecoah Valley Arts, Crafts & Educational Center for classes and workshops on craft, music, dance, and culinary arts.

• $24,998 to the Western Carolina University Hunter Library for the research and documentation of mountain potteries and Cherokee pottery.

Since its inception in 2003, the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area Partnership has awarded 90 grants totaling nearly $1.5 million and leveraged another $2.7 million in matching contributions from local governments and the private sector. These grants have funded projects in all 25 counties of Western North Carolina.

The Haywood County Board of Realtors is offering continuing education classes for current N.C. Real Estate License holders. The four-hour class called Mandatory Update will be held in the morning and the elective class Client Level Negotiating will take place in the afternoon Tuesday, March 15. Each class will be led by Ben Wirtz from the Superior School of Real Estate. The cost of the morning session is $60 or $120 for both. Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 828.452.5096.

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A “Home Based Business Expo” will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Feb. 26, at the Whistle Stop Mall in Franklin. This free expo, organized by The Center for New Mountain Business, will teach people about home-based business opportunities and small business resources in the area.

The event will offer information from vendors who specialize in areas such as marketing, financing, book-keeping, networking, office supplies and more. Other companies involving nutritional coaching, digital assistance, party hosting and travel planning will be present to talk about job openings in home-based businesses.

Table rentals start at $25 and must be reserved by Feb. 21. 828.369.8660 or NewMountainBusiness.com.

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The Jackson County Chamber of Commerce is offering a seminar on social media from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday, April 15, at Southwestern Community College. Topics covered will include blogging, search engines, Facebook, Twitter, Flikr, LinkedIn, Web site analytics and more. The cost of $5 includes a light lunch and computers are provided. Pre-registration is required as these seminars quickly sell out. 828.586.2155.

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Business owners in Western North Carolina counties can now tap a new type of loan through The Sequoyah Fund called The New Economy Fund. It provides loans of $50,000 to $250,000 for green, knowledge-based or creative economy businesses located in Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain counties. Loans are available for new or ongoing businesses.

The Sequoyah Fund is a Cherokee-based nonprofit, independent Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) and focuses on assisting business owners who are not having their needs met with traditional bank loans. In addition, the fund supports businesses with training, one-on-one counseling and business development resources. 828.497.1666.

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Learn how to sell items on eBay through the Small Business Center of Haywood Community College, which is offering a free seminar Wednesday, Feb. 23, from 6-9 p.m.

Learn best practices to use when setting up an account, how to list items for sale and how to take payments and shipping.

Other topics include eBay features and policies, registering an account, choosing formats and categories, writing descriptions that sell, taking and submitting photos, feedback, using PayPal and shipping tips. Held at the Regional High Technology Center. 828.627.4512.

I combine several recipes for my own version of the cassoulet and I don’t think that I’ve make a cassoulet the same twice. That’s the beauty of this dish — it is versatile and can be adapted to accommodate available ingredients. But I warn you it is time-consuming (much like love!) so allow enough time to prepare it properly. I usually begin the preparation at least a day ahead of the serving time for the process cannot be hurried. The beauty of this dish is that it can be adjusted to taste; add more or less garlic and herbs. The flavoring is based entirely on individual taste.

Required ingredients (all easy to find in our area):

1 lb. of dried Great Northern beans

2 quarts of water

32 ounces of chicken broth (I prefer Swansons)

2 sprigs of fresh parsley

1 bay leaf

2 whole cloves

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

1 teaspoon thyme

1 ½ lb. boneless pork shoulder

6 slices of thick-sliced applewood-smoked bacon (you can find it at Walmart)

1 onion chopped

2 or 3 garlic cloves finely chopped, 3 or more whole cloves, halved

Small package of baby carrots

1 tablespoon of honey

Garlic-Crumb Topping

1 tablespoon (or more) minced garlic

5-6 tablespoons of olive oil

1 ½ cups coarse bread crumbs (I use Pepperidge Farm herb-seasoned crumbs)

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Optional Ingredients:

6 duck or chicken legs (I have always used chicken because duck is hard to find and it works out fine)

3 or 4 links of chicken garlic sausage (I found this at Ingles)

Generous splash of sherry wine vinegar

3 leeks, sliced

2 stalks of chopped celery

I begin with soaking the white beans overnight. After washing and draining them the next day, I put them in a big pot with the water and chicken broth and a large herb bouquet. The herb bouquet is made by cutting a square of cheesecloth, placing the parsley, bay leaf, cloves, peppercorns and thyme in the middle of the square and tying it securely with a piece of kitchen string. The herb bouquet is cooked with the beans on top of the stove on low heat for an hour to one and  1/2 hours or until beans are just tender. Leave the beans in their cooking liquid until ready to use, then drain but reserve the cooking liquid.

Fry the bacon slabs in an iron skillet. Remove the bacon when almost done and brown the pork shoulder roast on all sides in the bacon grease. The grease needs to be hot and it will smoke some. When all the sides are browned, return the bacon slices to the top of the pork roast. Cover the skillet with heavy duty aluminum foil and bake in a 325 degree oven for 3-4 hours. Check it every hour or so and add some water if it looks dry. You will want the pork to be falling-apart done when you take it from the oven.

While the pork is cooking, sauté the onions in some olive oil for about 5-10 minutes until they are opaque and add the garlic cloves (both chopped and whole) and sauté with the onions for about 2 minutes or until you have lightly browned the garlic. If you want to add leeks and/or celery, this is the time to sauté them along with the onions and garlic.

Cook the carrots in boiling water for about 10 minutes or until crisp-tender. Drain the water and add some honey to the carrots. Set aside.

Remove the pork shoulder from the skillet when it is done and while it is cooling in a bowl, cook the duck or chicken legs in the grease that is still left in the skillet. When the legs are browned and done (no blood seeping through), remove them to a plate lined with paper towel to drain.  

Brown the sausage links in the grease, adding a little olive oil if the skillet gets too dry. Remove the sausage links to a paper towel lined plate.

Now it is time to assemble the cassoulet. This is the fun part. First pull apart the pork shoulder roast. It should pull apart easily if it is well-done. I just shred it with my fingers or a fork into bite-sized pieces. Next I spread the beans, pork pieces, onion/garlic mixture, carrots, chicken legs, sliced sausage links and about 3-4 cups of the reserved broth into an earthenware (or cast iron—plenty to choose from at Walmart if you don’t have one) oven-proof bowl.  I stir this mixture a couple of times, then sprinkle some salt, pepper, thyme and some fresh parsley over the mix. This is optional but I like a savory mix. Bake in the covered container for about 30-45 minutes in a preheated 375 degree oven.

While the cassoulet is baking, assemble the bread crumbs, salt, and pepper. Sauté the minced garlic in a cleaned skillet mixed with hot olive oil over moderate heat until fragrant, about one minute. Add the bread crumb mixture and stir until crumbs are crisp and golden, about three minutes. Transfer to a small bowl and stir in parsley.

Serve the cassoulet with crumb topping. This is a one-dish meal and needs only a loaf of French bread (the Baggett looks and tastes best) and maybe a simple green salad to accompany it. Serve in sturdy bowls with cloth napkins and light candles. This is a meal made from and for love.

Pear Tarte Tatin

This is an easy dessert but it looks beautiful and elegant when served and it makes a lovely presentation for the one or ones that you love. You can substitute apples or plums for the pears but the pears are really delicious.

Ingredients:

1 sheet frozen puff pastry

½ stick of butter (use butter not margarine)

½ cup granulated white sugar

2 tablespoon honey

2 pounds (about 6 medium) firm-ripe pears, cored and peeled

½ teaspoon fresh lemon zest

½ teaspoon powered nutmeg (freshly grated if you have it)

Working on a clean and floured surface, roll the pastry dough into an 11 inch circle and chill it.

Melt the butter in a 10-inch ovenproof skillet. Add the sugar and cook it for 4 to 5 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally to evenly caramelize the sugar. The sugar is done when it has turned a medium golden brown hue. (If you cook it too long—as I did the first time!—it will turn to a hard caramel candy and you will need to scrap out the mess and start over!) Remove the skillet from the heat, stir in the honey and set it aside.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the pears in half and toss them gently but thoroughly with the lemon zest and nutmeg. Arrange the pears in a single layer in the hot caramel and honey in the skillet.

Drape the pastry over the spiced pears, fitting the overhang down between the fruit and the sides of the skillet. Bake in the preheated oven 25 to 30 minutes, until the pastry turns golden brown. Cool the tart Tatin in the skillet for 30 minutes before inverting it onto a serving plate.

Serve slices warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream on top and voila! You have a beautiful dessert that is unique and made with love.

By Karen Dill • Guest Writer

I was driving through the south of France in February 1985 when I had an experience that taught me the importance of the mystical union of food and love. I had my mother and young son in tow, and while we had a wonderful week traveling the country roads from Frankfurt, Germany, to Marseille, France, I was pregnant with my second child, physically tired and achingly homesick for the mountains of North Carolina.

I had lived in Europe for five years and had not been back to the United States during this time. I had convinced myself that I loved this foreign life and was too sophisticated for a common case of homesickness. But traveling on this Sunday morning in February, the week of my daddy’s death five years earlier, fraught with hormones, missing my daddy and hungry for the food of my childhood, I was homesick for the home I knew best —the green mountains of western North Carolina. There is no homesickness, I’ve discovered since, that is more powerful than the longing for your mountain home.

We had been riding for over two hours on a side trip to Toulouse and as we passed small country inns, I could smell the delicious food that had been cooking over stoves for hours and the smell was both familiar and haunting. I remembered Sunday dinners (the noon meal right after church) of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans or the standard roast with the same side dishes. It was always a special meal — one of the few during the week that featured meat. The smell coming through the front door after church was intoxicating.

ALSO: Recipes

I remembered the lines from Kris Kristofferson’s “Sunday Morning Coming Down:”  “… the Sunday smell of someone frying chicken … and it took me back to something that I’d lost somehow, somewhere along the way.” The grief that I felt at those moments was overwhelming. I kept driving, blinking back tears and trying to swallow the enormous lump that had formed in my throat. I wanted desperately to be back at my childhood home in Bethel with my mother cooking her standard Sunday meal and I wanted my son to understand the importance of communion in a simple house with people that you love.

But there were practical matters to attend to: we were hungry and finding a place to eat had become a daunting task. The problem was finding a compromise for my mother and 5-year old son.

My mother, a mountain native from Madison County and not well-traveled, preferred simple dishes with ingredients that she could recognize and pronounce. She had been patient throughout this week in France but I could sense that her sweet disposition might turn south if she had to face another meal of snails or goose liver. My son was clamoring for pommes frites and schnitzel — a fine German dish but we were in France. I was caught in the middle — arbitrator between two generations, caught in a compromise in the web of love and food, wanting to placate both mother and son.

The primal needs for love and food are so intertwined that the unraveling often takes a lifetime. Our first romances are with our mothers. They feed us; they nurture us; and thus the entanglement begins. We need and love the mothers who provide us with food. Each mouthful of food accepted by the child is proof that the love is reciprocated and the entanglement continues in an evolutionary fashion. We show love with food; we woo with food; we seduce with food. We are drawn toward simple food that nurtures in our childhoods, move toward food that excites when we find lovers and return to the comfort foods when the raging passion ebbs. The evolution is complex and universal. It encompasses relationships between families, lovers and many generations.

So on this beautiful Sunday afternoon in February, I did what one must do to balance a relationship between mother and child and the desire for food. I did what anyone who loves must do. I listened to my heart, trusted my instincts and took a giant leap of faith. When a homely and comfortable auberge (inn with a restaurant — the best to head for in France for a good home cooked meal) appeared around the next curve, I pulled over and took my mother by her arm, my son by his hand, and bravely entered the dining room of the small French inn.

The room was filled with Sunday diners as the noon meal in France is a popular family occasion. I saw mothers, grandmothers, grandchildren sitting together, enjoying simple country dishes. My homesickness was abating in this foreign yet familiar setting and I could sense that my mother and son were beginning to relax.

I don’t remember the words that were used — my French is elementary at best — but as our waitress looked at us and we looked at her, she seemed to know what we needed. We needed simple country comfort food and it was at this table that we came to know and love the cassoulet. We ordered a dish that was unknown to us but the ingredients were familiar and the sound of the dish’s name was much like our own casserole. The dish contained savory chunks of pork, white beans, duck legs, herbs and a garlic crumb topping — a one-dish wonder.

The cassoulet that we were served in this simple dining room in France would become a model for many meals over the next two decades. I could always find the common ingredients wherever I lived and shopped and the ingredients could be altered to accommodate tastes and locales. The one-dish marvel is a peasant dish, tracing back to a 14th century siege during the Hundred Years’ war when peasants created a communal dish to provide sustenance to the soldiers who were fighting off invaders.

It is simple — consisting of beans, meat and herbs but its preparation can be complex. It is a labor of love and requires patience. It is the perfect dish for a much-loved family or for a new lover — a dish that is both simple yet elegant. The cassoulet is a perfect dish for February.

I did not know the complications of the cassoulet’s preparation at that time but I knew that the dish held magical powers. My mother loved the simple pork and white beans; my son loved the crunchy topping; and I loved the savory combination of herbs in the delightful rich and hearty dish. We all cleaned our plates and as we finished the meal with café au lait and a pear tarte tatin; we smiled warmly at each other with knowing love and contentment of family.

In that moment I realized that we were not all that different despite the language and cultural diversity. Food and family had joined us in an elementary way for we all need the basics: food, love and a sense of belonging. Like the ingredients in the cassoulet, we are joined by flavor and diversity.

Sometimes on rare and wonderful occasions we blend together in perfect harmony — a blend of family, food and love — and the effort that we must exert to maintain this balance is worth it. And like the preparation of a good cassoulet our hard work and efforts are rewarded in simple and profound ways. For no matter how far from our beautiful mountains we might roam, a connection with familiar food and moments of soft contentment with family will take us home again.

A “Slow Cooker Savvy” presentation to help inspire healthy crock-pot meals will be offered from 1 to 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 23, at the Jackson County Senior Center Complex.  

The N.C. Cooperative Extension Service in Jackson County is hosting the event, which will offer information on slow-cooker safety, tips for the best use of your slow cooker, and healthy, easy-to-prepare recipes. Participants will get to sample several dishes as well.

Cost is $5. 828.586.8562.

The monthly meeting of Coffee with the Poet is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, Feb. 17, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. The featured poet will be Barbara Duncan of Cherokee, author of Crossing Cowee Mountain and education director at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. 828.586.9499.

The next community music jam at the Marianna Black Library will be from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 17, in the library auditorium.

Anyone with a guitar, banjo, mandolin, fiddle, dulcimer – anything unplugged – is invited to join. Singers and listeners are also welcomed to join. The community jams offer a chance for musicians of all ages and levels of ability to share music they have learned over the years or learn old-time mountain songs.

828.488.3030

John Davidson, star of television and Broadway for more than 50 years, will take the stage at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 24, at Western Carolina University as part of the 2010-11 Galaxy of Stars Series.

Davidson will present a vocal and banjo performance of his favorite songs and stories from his career, which has included leading Broadway roles as well as stints as host on such television shows as Hollywood Squares and The $10,000 Pyramid.

Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for senior citizens, and $5 for students and children. Group rates are available.

828.227.2479 or www.wcu.edu/fapac.

Mad Divas Junior Derby is looking for new members at a registration session at 10 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 20, at Smoky Mountain Sk8way in Waynesville.

Mad Divas is an all female, flat-track, low-contact roller derby league specifically for girls between the ages of 12 and 17.

The registration event will include guest speakers as well as members of both the Mad Divas and The Blue Ridge Rollergirls, who will talk about what it means to be a derby girl, how to buy gear and how to sign-up and get started.

The Divas are an organization that strives to create a safe, fun and positive environment - where girls can be athletic, obtain new friendships and increase self confidence.

Local residents are invited to join a stained glass course to be offered in February and March by Western Carolina University’s Division of Educational Outreach.

Classes will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. on Thursdays beginning Feb. 21 and continuing through March 31 in the Cordelia Camp Building.

The course will follow the Tiffany method of stained glass, which involves each piece of glass being wrapped in copper foil and soldered. Students will complete a project in plain glass and a small panel in colored glass while learning about safety, proper cutting techniques, foiling and soldering techniques, and simple metal framing.

The class will be lead by veteran glass artist Moya O’Neal.

Cost is $85. Registration is required and will continue through the first week of classes.

828.227.7397 or 800.928.4968. learn.wcu.edu.

Poetry Alive! will present a program of poetry performance at 7 p.m on Tuesday, Feb. 22, in the Macon County Public Library in Franklin.

Bringing poetry from the page to the stage, the Poetry Alive! team of two professional actors presents memorized poems in theatrical style. To commemorate Black History Month, the program will include works of prominent African-American poets.

828.524.7683 or www.artscouncilofmacon.org.

Pan Harmonia will perform music of Latin America, new sounds by American composers and Carmen Fantasy at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 20, in the Swain County Center for the Arts.  

Musicians are flutist and artistic director Kate Steinbeck and classical guitarist Amy Brucksch. Impressionistic oil and pastel paintings and stone jewelry by Jenny Buckner of Waynesville are on exhibit and available for viewing before and after the free concert.

Founded in 2001, Pan Harmonia is an independent, artist-directed collective based in Asheville whose mission is to transcend the boundaries of traditional chamber music.

www.pan-harmonia.org.

Christian illusionist Brock Gill will appear on Feb. 25 at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts, bringing a new brand of illusions and daring escapes to the stage.

Gill has been performing since 1997, when he left work in a saw mill to take his show of humor, tricks and escapes to audiences around the country.

Tickets are $15 and packages are also available.

GreatMountainMusic.com or 866.273.4615.

Richard Collings has submitted his resignation as president of Southwestern Community College after just six months on the job.

The resignation was submitted Tuesday, to be effective Wednesday, Feb. 9. No reason was given for the resignation. Collings suffered unexpected health problems shortly after taking the job at SCC late last summer.

The board of trustees is moving quickly ahead to begin the search for a new president, according to Conrad Burrell, chairman of the SCC board of trustees.

In the meantime, the board selected Janet Burnette, executive vice president for administrative services, to serve as interim president. She served briefly as interim president before Collings came on board in August.

“Ms. Burnette has served previously as interim president of the college, and we feel her knowledge of the college and level of experience will best serve the college during this transitory period,” Burrell said in a statement.

The SCC board had approved the selection of Collings in June 2010 upon the retirement of longtime president Cecil Groves. At the time, Collings was president of Wayne State College in Nebraska. He was a former administrator at Western Carolina University, where he served as vice chancellor for academic affairs from 1996 to 2004.

• Click to read about Collings health problems after being hired at SCC and his background

• Click to read about Collings initial hire and his background

White-nose syndrome, the disease that has killed hundreds of thousands of bats in the Eastern United States, has been discovered in a retired Avery County mine and in a cave at Grandfather Mountain State Park, marking the arrival of the disease in North Carolina, according to a media alert sent out today (Feb. 9) by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.

On Feb. 1, a team of Commission biologists were conducting a bat inventory of the closed Avery County mine where they saw numerous bats displaying symptomatic white patches of fungus on their skin. Five bats from the mine were sent to the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study unit at the University of Georgia for testing, which confirmed the presence of white-nose syndrome.

In late January, a team of state, federal, and private biologists were conducting a bat inventory of a cave at Grandfather Mountain when they discovered a single dead bat. Following state white-nose syndrome surveillance protocols, the bat was sent for testing and it has been confirmed for white-nose syndrome.

“White-nose syndrome is confirmed in Virginia and Tennessee, so we expected we would be one of the next states to see the disease,” said Gabrielle Graeter, a biologist with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. “This discovery marks the arrival of one of the most devastating threats to bat conservation in our time.”

In the Northeast, the disease has decimated some species of bats. It seems to be most fatal during the winter months, when hundreds of bats are hibernating together in caves and mines. It’s not known if the disease will similarly affect all species in all regions of the country, though bat mortality and the diversity of species affected in the Northeast suggest the impacts will be significant.

The discovery of white-nose syndrome comes as Commission biologists work through bat inventory and white-nose syndrome surveillance efforts at numerous caves and mines in Western North Carolina this winter as part of a grant awarded by the Service to several states on the leading edge of the disease’s spread.

North Carolina is home to three federally endangered bats, the Virginia big-eared, Indiana, and gray. Virginia big-eared bats are known from the.

“The discovery does not bode well for the future of many species of bats in western North Carolina,” said Sue Cameron with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. “Although researchers are working hard to learn more about the disease, right now so little is known. There has been some evidence that humans may inadvertently spread the disease from cave to cave, so one simple step people can take to help bats is to stay out of caves and mines.”

“Cavers are passionate about what they do and we truly understand that asking them to stay out of caves is no small request and we greatly appreciate their sacrifice,” said Cameron, noting that the western North Carolina caving club, Flittermouse Grotto, has been very supportive of efforts to protect the area’s bats.

In 2009, fearing the disease could be transferred from cave to cave by humans, the Service released a cave advisory asking people to refrain from entering caves in states where white-nose syndrome has been confirmed and all adjoining states. The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission holds a protective easement on the mine and both it and the Grandfather Mountain cave have been gated and closed to the public for years to protect hibernating bats.

Read an in-depth article about the deadly bat syndrome that was published in The Smoky Mountain News in November 2010

Travelers can sign-up to receive status updates about the Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s most frequently used roads via text message or the Internet.  

Previously, travelers had to place phone calls to the park to determine the status of the roads, which can change frequently with changing weather conditions.

“While better serving the public, we can also reduce the workload to the park’s communications center,” said Dale Ditmanson, GSMNP superintendent.

Those wishing to be notified of the status of the park’s four most popular roads —Newfound Gap (U.S. 441), Little River Road, Laurel Creek Road and Cades Cove Loop Road — can get text messages to their cell phones by texting: follow smokiesroadsnps to 40404. To stop receiving the text message alerts, text stop smokiesroadsnps to the same number.

Standard text rates will apply.

You can get that same information via the Internet by going to: www.twitter.com/smokiesroadsnps to read recent road notification postings.

Anyone having a Twitter account can go an extra step and choose to have updates set to them by going to the site listed above and clicking the “follow” button to see the updates on their own account page and receive the notifications in the manner they specify.

The Wilderness Society recently appointed Jill Gottesman as outreach coordinator in an effort to increase conservation efforts in North Carolina. She will work out of the conservation group’s Sylva office.

Gottesman, former outreach director at Georgia ForestWatch, will be responsible for expanding community awareness and participation in the region for legislative protection of national forests in North Carolina.

“Jill’s wilderness background and community practices experience will benefit Western North Carolina for years to come,” said Brent Martin, Southern Appalachian program director at The Wilderness Society, who is also based in Sylva. “She brings a wealth of experience and expertise working with communities.”

Gottesman has an extensive background working with people and wilderness. She got her start studying outdoor recreation and resource management at the University of Georgia. Throughout her time there, she augmented her experience by working on a trail crew in the Pacific Northwest. She also studied desert ecology and wilderness education with a backcountry class in Utah and led a volunteer spring break trip to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, where she and her crew assisted with wetland restoration projects.

Gottesman hopes to build local partnerships and broader political support for wilderness designations in North Carolina.

You’ve heard of deer crossings? Well, fish need crossings too, the Little Tennessee Watershed Association announced recently after the Franklin-based conservation group and some partners studied the group’s river namesake from the North Carolina state line to Lake Emory in Macon County.

A fish-passage assessment for small streams draining into the Little Tennessee River was recently completed, identifying areas where fish might be “cut off” from good habitat in sections of some of these tributary streams. Improper placement of culverts often creates habitat that is difficult, if not impossible, for a fish to swim through. This is a problem because it limits the range of habitat that a fish can occupy.

To understand the study, you must first understand this: just as different types of fish have specific behaviors, each species are also shaped differently and have various swimming abilities.

For the fish-passage project, culvert assessments were based on three groups of fish:

• The strong-bodied swimmers, such as adult trout.

• The medium-skilled swimmers, such as young trout and shiners.

• The darters, which cannot jump well and have the most difficulty swimming against strong currents.  

The Little Tennessee Watershed Association, with help from government agencies when needed, inspected about 160 stream crossings. The crossing will be evaluated now for all three groups of fish. This project was designed as a follow up to previous cooperative barrier assessment efforts begun in 2007. The information from this project will influence future restoration projects in the Little Tennessee River watershed.

Good news on the hemlock front — the U.S. Forest Service reports it has had some success in ongoing efforts to protect these trees from the hemlock woolly adelgid.

The non-native invasive insect has killed thousands of hemlocks in the Southern Appalachians.

Treatments include soil injection of insecticides containing the active ingredients imidacloprid and dinotefuran, both of which have proved effective in reducing adelgid populations. Predatory beetles have been released in several areas across the two national forests in the region — Nantahala and Pisgah — with additional species of beetles studied as options by partner researchers and universities. An adelgid-killing fungus applied through aerial spray is also being considered.

The Hemlock Woolly Adelgid Working Group includes the National Forests in North Carolina, USFS Forest Health Protection, Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition, WildLaw, Western North Carolina Alliance, N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, a local arborist, and the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

For more information about these hemlock conservation efforts, visit www.fs.usda.gov/nfsnc and search on the keyword “hemlock.”

Whether you love to hunt, fish, bird watch, or just want to do your part to ensure that wildlife in North Carolina flourishes, you can help conserve the state’s wildlife and wildlife habitats by checking line No. 30 on your income tax form.

This provides money for projects that help the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission conserve non-game wildlife and their habitats. Turtles, freshwater mussels, fish, birds, bats, frogs and salamanders all benefit from tax check-off donations to the Nongame and Endangered Wildlife Fund.

A few of the projects supported by tax check-off donations in 2010 included: managing wetlands for the benefit of pond breeding amphibians such as the gopher frog; developing a conservation tool called the Green Growth Toolbox to help county and local governments statewide plan for future development while sustaining priority wildlife habitat; and supporting local wildlife recreation economies through the North Carolina.

Starting March 1, the executive director of the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission will have the power of implementing an emergency response plan in the event of a wildlife disease outbreak.

An emergency response plan would be developed in consultation with the governor’s office and the state veterinarian. It would allow the commission to quickly regulate public activities in order to contain disease.

The plan would be effective for 90 days, unless an additional rule was adopted within that time to continue the provisions in the emergency plan.

Author Deanna Klingel of Sapphire Valley will be at City Lights Bookstore at 2 p.m. on Feb. 12 to discuss her new book, Just for the Moment: The Remarkable Gift of the Therapy Dog.

Klingel says the book is not so much a memoir as a collection of moments exploring the special gift of therapy dogs. Klingel has two golden retrievers who work as therapy dogs, and one of them, Lily, will accompany her to the store.

Just for the Moment focuses on the inexplicable times when a therapy dog touches the heart and soul of a human and makes a difference in that life, even if it’s just for that moment. The three most frequently asked questions about therapy dogs (what is a therapy dog, how did she get to be a therapy dog, and can my dog be a therapy dog) are answered in these stories.

Klingel and Lily will be available to answer audience questions, and Klingel will autograph books at the conclusion of the event.

City Lights welcomes Ron Rash back to the store at 2 p.m. on Feb. 13 to celebrate the release in paperback of his highly acclaimed short-story collection, Burning Bright.

Rash teaches writing at WCU and is a nationally recognized gem of the Western North Carolina writing community. His previous books include Serena, Saints at the River, The World Made Straight, and One Foot in Eden.

He will “launch” the paperback edition of Burning Bright with this appearance and reading at City Lights. Seating may be limited as turnout is expected to be high, so attendees may want to come early.

For more information, or to reserve a signed copy, call City Lights at 828.586.9499.

To the Editor:

Jackson County truly has a hidden gem in its midst, the Green Energy Park. This innovative county program is based in Dillsboro and, for the most part, goes unnoticed by the average citizen.

Recently, my husband took a blacksmithing/knife course at this facility and it was a huge success. The blacksmith was informative, provided individual attention and instilled in all a beginning skill and love for the art that they can build upon in the future. We’re hoping there will be lots more classes in the future.

Kudos to Timm Muth and the rest of the staff at Jackson County Green Energy.

Jan Moore

Franklin

To the Editor:

I must agree with Carole Larivee’s letter last week. Everywhere you go people are watching Fox News! Why? What would prompt more Americans to watch Fox News than all the other networks?

Could it be because for decades all we had were the “mainstream media” networks which helped create the evil, corrupt, freedom-taking, unborn-baby-killing, education-destroying, ambition- and competition-smashing, hard-working-people’s-income-redistributing, antichristian, rotten to the core government that a lot of us, in addition to Fox News, want to change. Thank God for Rupert Murdoch (and Australia).

Carole is correct, our nation is divided and was divided before Fox News. I could fill the next 10 pages with the tragic history of the evils and failures of the socialist type government developing in our country at this time. Along with Rupert Murdoch, there are millions of us who hate it and will fight it at the polls and with the constitutional rights we have remaining, while others watch the Weather Channel as their remaining rights are taken from them.

Paul Boone

Maggie Valley

To the Editor:

As I was reading The Smoky Mountain News this morning, I was encouraged after reading a letter to the editor. I was glad to hear that Fox News is playing all over the place, which gives me hope. At least Fox News gives a balance of opinions from both the liberal and conservative sides that the others do not. So what’s the problem? NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, ABC and CBS only give their opinion, and they are the ones that are causing the controversy and confusion. As for the weather channel, who owns that channel? NBC. So there you have it. Personally, we thank God for Fox News.

Ray and Frances Givens

Balsam

To The Editor:

I want to commend The Smoky Mountain News for reporting on issues that are not popular. The Haywood Emergency Physician’s case took courage to write about a few years back and the paper risked hard-to-earn cash dollars from advertisements. The paper did lose those dollars and it persevered. I hope the new leaders at Haywood Regional Medical Center will take note and continue to advertise in The Smoky Mountain News.

In a small town where all enjoy the warmth and kindness of a community there is also the bad entangled with good. We all live with that in our lives. As we seek to be better citizens in our community, it is important to know we have a newspaper willing to shine the light on some of the dark or confusing places. Thank you Smoky Mountain News.

Margaret Osondu

Waynesville

Winners of the Commission for a Clean County’s 10th-annual awards were announced recently.  

The Community Pride program honors businesses, community groups, civic clubs, schools and individuals (both adults and children) for exceptional efforts in the categories of litter pick-up and control, recycling, beautification of public areas and environmental stewardship.

The latter category includes energy conservation, cleaning of air, use of biofuels, “green” building and other methods of nurturing our environment.

The winners were:

• James Mashburn, Clyde alderman, for his dedicated service in aiding the revitalization of the Town of Clyde.

• Katie Finegan, recent Tuscola graduate, for outstanding environmental work enhancing the safety and aesthetic appeal of her church, St. Johns, in Waynesville.

• David Raulerson and sister-in-law Teresa Raulerson, for their continuous litter pick-up along N.C. 276 and for landscaping the Cruso Community Center.

• Plus Linen, owned by Gary Harkins, for excellent, committed environmental stewardship in the Canton plant.

• Sue Pendley, for devotedly both supervising and working on the annual Maggie Valley Fall Days decorations along five miles of Maggie Valley.

• The Master Gardener Volunteers, and their Coordinator Tim Matthews, for the oversight and management of three school gardens and for supplying both the plants and work in landscaping the county’s extension center.

• The Evergreen Circle Community and the Sonoma Masonic Lodge No. 472 for showing true “community pride” through long hours, hard work and expense rehabilitating the property of a neighbor in need.

This year, Mast General Store will contribute $1 to MANNA FoodBank for each pound of candy purchased on Feb. 12 and 13. The eighth annual Be a Sweetheart, Feed the Hungry event is designed to raise awareness of hunger and help everyone have a meal this Valentine’s day.

828.299.3663.

Haywood County Animal Services officers are canvassing the Beaverdam community in search of stray animals, after hikers discovered a rabid raccoon in the area on Jan. 30.

The raccoon tested positive for rabies, after being killed following a fight with the hikers’ dogs.

Rabies is a fatal disease in humans, and residents in the Beaverdam area are encouraged to take steps to limit exposure of both humans and pets.

Animal Services at 828.456.5338 or the Health Department at 828.452.6675.

A six-part seminar series on financial management and updated business strategies is being offered by the Haywood County Chamber of Commerce and Asheville consulting firm BluePrints for Business. The seminars, sponsored by Champion Credit Union, Waynesville, will run six Thursday mornings beginning Feb. 10 from 8:30 to 11 a.m. at the Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center.

Register at www.haywood-nc.com.

The third-annual Mardi Gras dance, sponsored by Old Town Bank to benefit the Haywood County Schools Foundation, will be held at the Gateway Club March 5. 

This will be an evening of fun, food, pageantry and dance.

A limited number of tickets are available. The tickets cost $100 each. The proceeds will be used to recruit and retain highly qualified employees in Haywood County Schools. Last year, the Haywood County Schools Foundation provided the school system more than $40,000.

828.456.3006 or 828.456.2400.