Editor’s note: Barbara McCarty worked on a flood task force that allocated more than $800,000 in private donations to victims of the 2004 floods. This column focuses on the contributions of business that agreed to accept vouchers from flood victims and be reimbursed from the flood fund later.

Land conservation trusts cropping up across Western North Carolina and the rest of the country will soon be able to certify themselves with an official accreditation.

I felt like I should have had crampons on my boots, like the spikes mountain climbers use on ice. The steep trail was so slick I would take two steps forward, then slide back a step.

Though it’s become a standard target for critical blasting, not all of modern country music is bad.

Keith Urban turned in a rousing performance at the Grammy awards, Emmylou Harris really can do no wrong, and the same can be said about Lucinda Williams and Eric Brace of Last Train Home. Maybe I’m stretching the boundaries of “country” to include Americana and the more rocking side of twang, but you get my drift. And, not so surprisingly, most of the really good stuff is traveling safely below the CMT/international superstardom radar.

By Michael Beadle

“Pivot Points” is not your typical art exhibit.

Then again, the new Fine Art Museum on the campus of Western Carolina University in Cullowhee is building a reputation for unique exhibitions that challenge typical notions of what art can be.

Joni Mitchell

“Anything that moves me, influences me.”

— Joni Mitchell

The North Carolina Rural Center has provided a $30,000 grant to Haywood County to assist with flood recovery and flood prevention in the Bethel area.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

Jackson County commissioners’ failure to follow state Open Meetings Law was a failure to use common sense, said Mike Tadych, counsel to the North Carolina Press Association.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

A Superior Court Judge has ruled that Jackson County Commissioners acted illegally when they closed meetings to discuss Economic Development Commission dealings.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

Jackson County Airport Authority members are hoping to get on with business following a Superior Court ruling that re-establishes Tom McClure as the authority’s rightful chairman.

Swain County is one step closer to getting $4 million in “Road to Nowhere” funds after a bill introduced by U.S. Congressman Mark Meadows, R-N.C., advanced through the House Committee on Natural Resources last week. Though the bill, H.R. 3806, is not yet on the House calendar, Meadows’ office expects it to come to a vote sometime this week. 

Eight defendants charged with the 2013 murder of Calup Joe Caston in Swain County are slated for an Aug. 11 court date. 

“If their attorneys have any motions they’ll be heard, if not it’ll be continued,” explained Alison Barnes, of the Swain County Clerk of Court’s office. 

In March 2013, the Swain Sheriff’s Office arrested eight people in connection with Caston’s killing. The victim, age 27, was assaulted at the old 288 boat ramp in Swain, and later died as a result of his injuries after arriving at Mission Hospital in Asheville.

The eight men facing charges for Caston’s murder all hail from Cherokee. They are Troy Floyd Boston, 25; Joshua Daniel George, 19; Marcos Anthony Cardonne, 23; Trevor Dylan George, 18; Curtis Cole Price, 19; Joshua Tyler Price, 22; Correy Hunter Price, 25; Corey Michael Jenkins, 21. 

Each defendant faces four different charges: conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon, first-degree kidnapping and first-degree murder. 

Curtis Cole Price bonded out in April 2013 on $250,000. In March of this year, Jenkins also posted a $250,000 bond. Correy Hunter Price has yet to make his $500,000 bond and remains in custody. 

For two of the eight defendants — Cardonne and Joshua Tyler Price — the state is seeking the death penalty. According to Barnes, the death penalty is being sought due to two “aggravating circumstances” — the murder is considered “especially heinous, atrocious and cruel” and the crime was allegedly “committed while the defendant was engaged in the commission of kidnapping.”

— Jeremy Morrison, News Editor

Western Carolina University is launching a new lifelong learning institute aimed at people age 50 and older across Western North Carolina who are interested in enriching their lives through the pursuit of knowledge.

The institute, based on the idea that “learning is for everyone” and titled LIFE@WesternCarolina, will feature weekly interactive seminars in Cullowhee and Asheville. Sessions will focus on a wide variety of topics spanning business, history, science, literature, politics and personal development.

LIFE@WesternCarolina is designed to extend to residents of the greater WNC community the wide array of academic resources available at the university and in the community, said Alison Morrison-Shetlar, WCU provost.

“The LIFE program is for retirees, alumni and community members seeking to engage in lifelong learning. It is for those seeking networking, community and engagement in the learning process,” Morrison-Shetlar said. “The program topics will nourish the mind, spirit and body.” 

The institute will include educational lectures, social opportunities and field trips as presenters, including university faculty, share expertise from a variety of backgrounds, she said.

Sessions are weekly for 12 weeks during the fall and spring semesters. Fall semester programs are tentatively scheduled to get underway Sept. 9 in Cullowhee and Sept. 10 in Asheville.

Participants will register for sessions being held at one of two sites. Programs will be held Tuesdays at the N.C. Center for the Advancement of Teaching adjacent to the WCU campus in Cullowhee, and Wednesdays at the university’s instructional site at Biltmore Park Town Square, located at 28 Schenck Parkway in Asheville. Sessions at both sites will begin at 10 a.m. and continue until noon.

Among the proposed topics for this fall are “Operations of the Biltmore House,” “Useful Legal Matters,” “Cherokee and the Seven Clans,” “How the Civil War Affected WNC,” “Native Plants,” “Local Scenic Hikes,” “Making the Theory of Evolution Clear to People Like You and Me,” “Storytelling in Appalachia,” “Seeing, Imagining and Recording: The Process of Creative Writing,” “Theater and Design,” “The Major Differences between the Core Beliefs of Conservatives and Liberals,” “State and Federal Politics and Trends: Impact on the Economy and Education,” “Terrorism and Global Threats,” “Being and Doing Good” and “Living While Dying.”

Cost of membership in the institute is $125 per year, including 24 engaged learning experiences with opportunities to take part in additional activities related to some of the topics. Participants may attend all or as many sessions as they like.

For more information or to register for the LIFE@WesternCarolina institute, contact the Division of Educational Outreach at 828.227.7397 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or visit the website life.wcu.edu.

Haywood Community College’s Workforce Continuing Education Department recently added an ambulance and a fire truck to help train students in public safety areas.

 An ambulance was donated to the college by Haywood County commissioners and Haywood Emergency Medical Services. A retired fire truck was purchased by HCC’s Foundation from Waynesville and the Waynesville Fire Department. 

Both vehicles will aid in student training for not only public services areas of fire, law, and EMS but also for students in the Automotive Systems and Collision Repair and Refinishing curriculum programs.

To the Editor:

The column by Editor Scott McLeod two weeks ago taking after Rep. Michelle Presnell, R-Burnsville, for stopping the annexation —involuntary annexation to many property owners — seems to rely on the false premise that local bills result in the legislative process being turned over to a couple of legislators with the rest of the body laying over as if brain dead. Your opinion also seems to be based on the assumption that the involuntary annexation of several hundred parcels of land is a typical subject for the type of local bill you pine. 

North Carolina has a statute for voluntary annexation. Those in favor of annexation at the lake did not follow that process because the statute provides that a single no vote ends the process. That statute gives clear indication of the level of property rights that the state gives owners of real property when it comes to annexation.  

Given that level of rights, it is not only appropriate but fair that the rights of property owners not be subjected to an end around of a local bill to override the property rights established by law. The legislature can annex over objection and that is the process those seeking annexation took, hoping that the legislature would not take a look at the protests of property owners against annexation.That is where Rep. Presnell came in to provide the opportunity for those of us against annexation to be heard.  

The suggestion that Rep. Presnell single-handedly stopped annexation is just not factually correct. That suggestion is also an insult to the rest of the legislators in the House. Rep. Presnell played an important role but never claimed to have the authority to stop annexation on her own. Her attention to the bill was appropriate and she did an excellent job of bringing the faults of the bill to the attention of fellow House members. We thank her for her good work.

Members of the House Finance Committee were provided much information from both sides of the question. The committee process of the legislative process was allowed to work. The bill which affected the real property rights of so many was not treated like a local bill to rename a bridge or recognize a local citizen for an outstanding act. No, this bill had two very vocal sides and both were considered.

The suggestion has been aired that the town of Waynesville has agreed to take over the responsibility of a now $10 million problem regarding water and sewer lines at Lake Junaluska. There are questions that such a suggestion raises:

• How can the taxpayers of Waynesville be expected to fund such generosity on the part of the town leaders?

• Where did the $10 million figure come from and where is the support for the number? (The figure started at somewhere just over $1 million and continues to grow without any support or study.)  

• Why was the Junaluska Sewer District never studied as an alternative to annexation? (After all, the water and sewer pipes seemed to be the driving force/argument for annexation.)
 

There is much more to the annexation saga but space is a constraint. The surveys are a topic calling for long discussion. The bottom line is that the process followed was flawed from start to end ... that and other subjects will be left for another day if further discussion is necessary.

In summary, the editorial is an insult to the legislative process. The complaint seems to be that the legislative process worked. Trying to take the result which some are disappointed with and put it all on a single representative falls well short of the usually well thought out journalism that we have seen in the SMN news in the past (your work regarding the hospital situation in the Rice days was outstanding). 

Rep. Presnell and all members of the House of Representatives who considered the issue did just what the legislative process calls for and reached a decision. As property owners in the Lake Junaluska area, we thank them for their deliberations and work.

Walt Logan

Lake Junaluska

The Mining and Energy Commission has finished writing a proposed set of rules to govern oil and gas development in North Carolina, and now the commission is seeking public input through Sept. 15.

Submit comments at portal.ncdenr.org/web/mining-and-energy-commission/public-comment-meetings.

Comments will also be taken at three public hearings in the eastern part of the state, with the closest hearing to the mountains being more than a three-hour drive from Asheville.

The proposed rules are available online at portal.ncdenr.org/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=812822fd-9e97-4359-8935-4f07e713f0b1&groupId=8198095. 

Amateur biologists of all ages are invited to help find out how the birds and fish are doing on Land Trust for the Little Tennessee’s 57-acre Welch Farm property at 9 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 2. 

The half-day event showcases nationally recognized research work monitoring bird and fish health. Volunteers will help in all aspects of the survey work, with supervision from a group of field biologists. 

The bird monitoring work is part of Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship, a nationwide program coordinated by the Institute for Bird Populations. The network includes more than 500 mist-netting stations. Data analysis will help scientists understand how best to manage and conserve these populations. 

Volunteers will also have the chance to participate in a stream biomonitoring program that LTLT has been heading up in the Little Tennessee River Valley. The program focuses on fish as indicators of watershed health and is celebrating its 25th anniversary. 

This event is a result of a partnership between LTLT, Southern Appalachian Raptor Research and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ Fisheries and Wildlife Management program. The program is sponsored by the Cherokee Preservation Foundation’s Revitalization of Traditional Cherokee Artisan Resources initiative, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, North Carolina State University and the Coweeta Long Term Ecological Research program.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 828.736.1217.

A new moth species recently discovered in the Southern Appalachians has a locally inspired name.

Western Carolina University will send two students to the national Bassmaster College Series National Championship following a third place win at a regional bass fishing competition in June. 

A coalition of public and private conservation organizations is stepping up to save the Georgia aster, a purple Southern flower that is on the verge of being listed under the Endangered Species Act. 

Western Carolina University will launch a new master’s degree in chemistry this fall with a professional science concentration in natural products.

Raptors will ride into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park with a birds of prey program 10 a.m. Friday, July 25, at Oconaluftee Visitor Center. 

Explore the diversity of fungi in the Southern Appalachian Mountains and their relationships with native plants through upcoming programs at the Highlands Biological Station.

Sister string duo Scenic Roots will continue the Summer Music Series at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 24, at the Marianna Black Library in Bryson City.

The Kansas-based band combines old-time mountain melodies, bluegrass drive, Irish traditions and down-home humor.  The duo is comprised of Erin Rogers on mountain dulcimer and vocals and Amber Rogers on fiddle, banjo, hammered dulcimer and lead vocals.  They take their audiences on a scenic journey as they weave their many musical influences together to create a unique blend of acoustic roots music.  They take you back in time to the days when folks gathered on front porches to play and sing together.

Traditional musician and storyteller Lee Knight will perform as part of the series on July 31.  

Free.

828.488.3030 or www.fontanalib.org/brysoncity.

Acoustic bluegrass quartet The Special Consensus will perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 26, at the Stecoah Valley Cultural Arts Center in Robbinsville.

With a repertoire that features traditional bluegrass standards, original compositions, and songs from other musical genres performed in the bluegrass format, the band has released 16 recordings and has appeared on numerous National Public Radio programs, The Nashville Network and the Grand Ole Opry. The band’s 2012 release “Scratch Gravel Road” was GRAMMY nominated for Best Bluegrass Album.

A traditional mountain dinner is available in the Schoolhouse Café prior to the concert at 6 p.m. The menu includes fried chicken, potato salad and a light veggie. 

Tickets are $25 for adults, $10 for students (kindergarten-12th grade), with special dinner passes available

www.stecoahvalleycenter.com or 828.479.3364.

The Great Smoky Mountains Railroad has partnered with Rail Events Inc. and The Jim Henson Company to bring the PBS KIDS series “Dinosaur Train” July 18-20, 25-27 and Aug. 1-3, at the Bryson City Train Depot.

For this event, families will take a ride on a real train bound for the Nature Trackers Adventure Area where young guests will participate in a series of challenges. Also included are music, children’s activities, “Dinosaur Train” merchandise and an opportunity to meet your favorite T. rex, Buddy.

Tickets start at $39 per adult and $30 per child (ages 2-12). Crown Class tickets are available on a limited basis and are $59 per adult and $40 per child (ages 2-12) and $10 for infants 23 months and younger.  

800.872.4681 or www.gsmr.com.

Haywood Community College Professional Crafts Wood instructor Brian Wurst was recently elected to the board of the Southern Highland Craft Guild in Asheville. 

Wurst graduated from HCC’s Professional Crafts Wood program in 2001 and began teaching at the college in 2007. The Southern Highland Craft Guild Board of Trustees is composed of nine members, elected by the membership to serve a three-year term. The board of trustees meets four times each year, at which time the board receives committee reports, acts on Guild policy, approves budgets, reviews programming, plans for the Guild’s future and offers guidance, support and counsel to the executive director. 

The Southern Highland Craft Guild, chartered in 1930, now represents close to 1,000 craftspeople in 293 counties of nine southeastern states. The Guild holds the largest and most important collection of Appalachian craft in the world.

Western Carolina University Provost Alison Morrison-Shetlar announced a change in leadership in the College of Fine and Performing Arts. Robert Kehrberg, founding dean of the college, is stepping down from that position and will return to the faculty in the School of Music. Darrell Parker, dean of WCU’s College of Business, has agreed to also serve as acting dean of the College of Fine and Performing Arts.

“I would like to thank Dr. Kehrberg for his years of committed service as founding dean of the College of Fine and Performing Arts, a role he has held since July 1, 2007, and to Western Carolina University,” Morrison-Shetlar said. 

Prior to becoming dean, Kehrberg had served as interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences since June 2005, as well as for a brief stint in 2004. Under a reorganization plan implemented in 2007, academic programs in the arts that had been housed in the College of Arts and Sciences were relocated to the newly created College of Fine and Performing Arts.

In addition, an announcement is forthcoming about the membership of a campus committee, including its chair, that will conduct a national search to fill the vacant dean’s position on a permanent basis. 

The 5th Annual Hillbilly Woodstock will be held 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Aug 1-2 at the Maggie Valley Festival Grounds.

The Waynesville Public Art Commission will hold a dedication of a new public art piece entitled “Chasing Tadpoles” during the Frog Hop at 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 2, in the Historic Frog Level District.

Metalsmith William S. Rogers is one of several studios participating in the July 26-27 Jackson County Farm, Garden, & Studio Tour. The combined farm and arts tour is a first for Jackson County.

Country music megastar Travis Tritt will perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, July 26, at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

The race for the 11th District’s U.S. House of Representatives seat is officially off and running as the filing period closed Tuesday (Feb. 28), but a recent tour of the district found that a lot of voters are not yet interested in the November race.

By Chris Cooper

The brainchild of programmers Robert Smith (no, not the guy from the Cure) and Bill Walters, Blue Stone produces evocative, dreamy textures that skate between subtlety and head-spinning surprise. Taking cues from Enigma, Tangerine Dream and maybe some Enya and Sarah Brightman, Breathe goes for the dreamy soundtrack feel and manages to bring some world influences to the mix.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

Travel writer and National Public Radio commentator Jeff Biggers spent 20 years collecting and researching the stories and historical papers that make up the backbone of his new work The United States of Appalachia.

By Michael Beadle

OK, first things first — Craig Karges is not a comedian though he makes his audiences laugh. He’s not a magician, though he uses magic. And he’s not a psychic, though psychic happenings occur in his shows.

He likes to refer to himself as an “extraordinist” — someone who demonstrates extraordinary phenomena like floating tables, metal bending, and mind reading — and shows you just how amazing life can be if you’re willing to trust your intuition.

By Michael Beadle

Art class is not just a place to make art for yourself — sometimes it’s a place to help those who are less fortunate.

“We need to help the homeless people,” said Hunter Creson, a fifth grader at Central Elementary School.

Kindergarten

The other day I went to a kindergarten class for “Career Day.” I had 15 minutes to talk about cartoons, draw some cartoons, and find out what these 5-year-olds knew about cartoons.

When I was a kid, adults talking about what they did was a very big deal for me. Especially if they enjoyed it. Nothing is more encouraging than seeing people’s eyes light up when they are talking about something they love doing.

By Michael Beadle

Sequoyah is perhaps one of the most recognizable names in Native American history — and quite rightly so. After all, he was the only person in human history to invent a language on his own without first having the skills to read or write.

The symbols he developed into a syllabary are used to identify all the syllabic sounds of the Cherokee language, a feat that helped the Cherokees record and save their culture.

By Michael Beadle

It’s a special day for 14-month-old Tawodi Clapsaddle.

Several adults including his father, Ethan, look on as the curious toddler explores tiny furniture and grabs a hold of toys in his new classroom at the Dora Reed Tribal Childcare center in Cherokee.

I pride myself on being a good cook. After 10 years of effort, I have finally mastered homemade cinnamon rolls. Entire batches have been known to disappear in seconds. I can cook suppers dripping with cheeses and overflowing with tangy marinaras. I can do Southern meals with fried chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy and lots of garden vegetables. I cooked for a local inn and heard guests say that the main reason they returned was the food. I don’t consider myself a gourmet by any means, but I do figure that I have learned some things about food and making it taste good.

By Michael Beadle • Columnist

The recent worldwide protests against cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Mohammed have given humanity a chance to take a closer look at itself, and it’s not a pretty sight.

Too often the opportunity for self-examination and honest discourse about our differences — whether based on culture, religion, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation — give way to the worst humanity has to offer: ignorance, fear and hatred.

A coalition of environmental groups and local residents lost their appeal against a logging operation in the Nantahala National Forest in Jackson, Macon and Swain counties.

Residents in Macon and Jackson counties joined three regional conservation groups — Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition, Western North Carolina Alliance, and Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project — to appeal a proposed logging operation. Their top complaint was logging on Kirby Knob, located on the ridge above Savannah and Tilley creeks on the border of Jackson and Macon counties. Kirby Knob is designated as a Natural Heritage Area by the state and is one of the highest points in Jackson County.

By Marshall Frank

“A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.”

— Ariel Durant, author and historian

Not long ago, I was encouraged by a publishing company to write a book on the infiltration of Islam inside the United States, and what effect it might have on our nation.

“This is an administration that believes in natural resource exploitation, and hang any future cost to the public owners. This is not incompetence at work (as some might say, looking at Iraq or Katrina), but ideology, and these people are very good at what they do.”

— Bill Thomas, the Conservation Chair for the Pisgah Group of the Sierra Club

Counties with national forest or park land in their borders get two types of money from the federal government: payment in lieu of taxes, known as PILT, and a 25 percent cut of logging revenue.

Those pitching the plan to sell off pieces of the national forest claim the parcels on the list are inconsequential.

The tracts on the chopping block are small, isolated islands surrounded by privately-owned land, don’t contribute to forest ecology, aren’t used for recreation, are too small for logging and are generally more trouble than they’re worth for the forest service, say those who proposed the sale.

When Dick Morgan, a fisherman from Maggie Valley, heard that two acres on Hurricane Mountain was on the chopping block in the proposal to sell off portions of the national forest, the gravity of the plan hit home.

One of this favorite fishing holes, Hurricane Creek in the Harmon Den area of Haywood County, comes off the mountain, close enough to its own headwaters to host coveted native brook trout. If sold, the tract atop Hurricane Mountain would make a trophy house site for someone, but sediment from the construction would muddy his precious Hurricane Creek, he said.

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

Macon County Art Association publicity manager Pat Mennenger busied herself arranging crackers on a platter while a gaggle of fellow board members unwrapped homemade hors d’oeuvres, positioning them on two tables in the back of the association’s Uptown Gallery on Main Street in Franklin.

By Chris Cooper

Duncan Sheik demonstrates a sort of understated brilliance that’s almost alarming when you hear it. Ballads slip from majestic to broken at the turn of a phrase. Grit and political outrage collide with hypnotic guitar and carefully arranged strings. The list of enthusiastic descriptions could just go on and on.