Senior Scientist and Aquatic Program Specialist Dr. Bill McLarney, a senior scientist and aquatic program specialist for the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee (LTLT), has been selected as the 2014 recipient of the Fred A. Harris Fisheries Conservation Award by the North Carolina Chapter of the American Fisheries Society.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is seeking public comment on a proposal to build a new 36-stall barn at the site of the current Smokemont stables, which is about six miles north of Cherokee off U.S. 441.

Outdoors author and blogger Danny Bernstein will once again lead this year’s Friends of the Smokies Classic Hikes, which kick off March 11 with a trek to Little Cataloochee in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Letter to the Editor:

While I currently serve as chairperson of the Jackson County Tourism Development Authority, I wish to make clear that I am speaking as a private citizen and my comments may not reflect the collective opinion of the TDA. 

First, I wish to thank news organizations for their coverage of the formation and deliberations of this TDA. Having served six years with Jackson County Travel and Tourism Authority, I can say that this is the most attention the media has paid to the tourism efforts of Jackson County that I have seen in many years. 

The statement made in a recent Sylva Herald editorial, “… a robust tourism industry is critical to everyone in Jackson County …to a great extent, we rely on visitation dollars,” is quite accurate. And no one knows that better than those the county has selected to direct the development of that segment of the economy just how critical it is. As the writer indicated, the impacts of tourism on the Jackson County economy are far-reaching. But it does all start with getting those “heads in beds.” That is the catalyst for all of the benefits that the paper listed in the editorial. 

You see, each one of those who sit on the Tourism Development Authority was selected because of their connection and understanding of the industry based on ownership or management. They have a vested interest in the success of efforts being put forth. Unlike some, their income is tied to the dollars the TDA invests in enhancing and promoting the Jackson County tourism brand, accommodations, amenities and attractions.

And what they are doing is working. So much so, in fact, that in the first six months of the fiscal year, occupancy tax collections increased by 8.2 percent. That number is adjusted so that the 1 percent occupancy tax increase does not inflate the percentage (so actual collected revenue is even higher than the 8.2). Using the vernacular of the editor, I would say that the Board not only “burned rubber,” but left the previous revenue figures in the dust. Growth in that collection is one of the metrics of success that lets the board and the public know that efforts (and dollars invested) are bearing fruit.  

Again, to use the analogy of the writer, youngsters often make fun of what they don’t understand. We, as citizens, need to be reminded occasionally that an opinion page is just that — opinion. Even if it is brought forward by those who normally bring us the “news” and even if it is peppered with facts, a person (journalists included) is not required to be accurate or correct when giving their opinion in print. 

Insinuating that the TDA paid for two words shows a gross misunderstanding of what it takes to produce a slogan or brand concept, brand creative and the associated research, which is also a product of the effort. And to declare that the TDA is spending money frivolously is an insult to each of those who are putting heart and soul into efforts to improve Jackson County’s tourism product, image and help the overall economy of Jackson County grow. The TDA’s actions are not frivolous, they are deliberate and they are not only working; they are showing increase. 

I invite you, as citizens and media, to attend our monthly meeting and see first-hand what is going on in the TDA. I can do that as a citizen; those meetings are public and open to everyone. Again, as the opinion writer stated, tourism is important to Jackson County. We should all be working to enhance it and not tear down those who are volunteering to lead it. 

Robert Jumper

To the Editor:

I see the notion to hike the Haywood County bed tax by 50 percent has risen again. Some bad ideas just never die. 

The TDA leadership smells a way to boost their till, and like a kid and a cookie jar, they will not be denied. Thankfully we had individuals in the legislature like Sen. Jim Davis, R-Franklin, and Rep. Michele Presnell, R-Burnsville, who understand that raising taxes just because a few people want to is not a good enough reason to do so.

I thought we put this idea to rest in the last session. It was an ill-conceived idea to increase the TDA tax by 50 percent (from 4 cents to 6 cents per dollar). They said “we could do all sorts of great things if we could just boost the revenue by $450,000.” Mind you, that’s in addition to the nearly $1 million dollars they’re already collecting from innkeepers and lodge and cabin owners! 

What great things are you doing with that? Their stated reason was to, um, what was the stated reason again? I heard rumblings about building a baseball park. In Canton. Or an ice skating rink. Seriously? So you build a building, and baseball fields, and fences, and seating and parking areas. Who is going to pay the salaries and benefits to those for manning it? Maintaining it? Insuring it? The TDA?

That is not what the TDA charter was when it was created. Its purpose was to bring more tourists and lodging business into the county, primarily through marketing and advertising. If the county wants a baseball park, they should fund it from the general revenue (of which I am also opposed), not on the backs of inns and lodging business owners. News flash: Baseball teams from area cities are not tourists. Most of them pack coolers and eat off their tailgates. They're not big spenders for tourism. 

I want this TDA tax increase idea to die and stay dead. You’re already getting 4 percent of the gross income of every lodging business. That’s in addition to the 7 percent that’s already being collected (4.75 percent state, 2.25 percent county). Deal with it. If you insist on more taxation, let’s share the pain. You think I’m squealing? Let’s talk about a TDA restaurant plate tax. 

Larry Wright

Maggie Valley

To the Editor:

Recent elections in Haywood County have seen Republicans getting elected. Some of this activity is due in part to the Active TEA Party in Haywood County (www.912wnc.com).

Nationally, the TEA Party gets a lot of media attention because of this success. Some Republicans in office may be afraid they will be ousted in GOP primaries because of their voting records. So these politicians may attack the TEA Party.

TEA Party people are elected on principles instead of party control. The establishment politicians worry. Lobbies in D.C. lose control. “We the People” get better representation.

Locally, the Republican Party may be attacked, but the TEA Party is not to blame. Yes, these Republicans have been distracted from their true tasks of helping elect Republicans.

To get elected, Republicans need everyone from all parties and unaffiliated voters. This “Big Tent” voter base includes TEA Party supporters, unaffiliated independent voters, Libertarians and Democrats.

The local GOP gets along with the local TEA Party. Even fiscally conservative Democrats understand the TEA Party. I remember a president who said, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what YOU can do for your country.” My have things changed (and not for the better!)

 The TEA Party spends time educating the public. Offering ‘meet and greets’ with candidates, elected officials, authors and movie directors. The TEA Party does not get involved in local Republican Party organization. It certainly does not disrupt meetings.

When Democrats attack the TEA Party Republicans, they are showing fear of the TEA Party. They want to reduce the influence of a growing movement. They want to win elections — but they are not speaking the “truth.” So listen carefully to the complaints about the TEA Party. It may be coming from Democrats.

Watch what the TEA Party “does”… understand why they are doing it. Think about the big issues. Do not listen to the gossip of fear.

The TEA Party is open to all conservative-minded people. If the TEA Party wants to vote Republican, then the GOP should embrace them. Along with anyone else that wants to vote Republican.

Al Goodis

Waynesville

To the Editor:

Here are just a couple thoughts about fracking. My home water supply is spring fed, and I’ve not been too impressed with what I’m reading about local municipal water efforts. All my neighbors are either using spring water or wells. I see no good reason to trade perfectly good spring water for a city water bill based on some pie-in-the-sky fracking company’s promise of free money sitting under ground. Whenever I hear “free money,” I assume someone is trying to con me.

Worse than that is the forced pooling allowed under the new law (General Statutes 113-393. Development of lands as drilling unit by agreement or order of Commission.) If James Womack's Mining and Energy Commission of the DENR lumps me into a drilling unit, then my property rights go out the window. Some landowners around me are my neighbors, but some are out-of-state and out-of-country investors who'll only look at the potential income from drilling versus the loss in property value. 

Forced pooling lets this unelected bureaucrat sell me down the river for what? Maybe a few bucks and legacy of poisoned well water.

So suppose I don't lease and I manage to stay out of a Forced Pooling Drilling Unit. Now my property rights are safe from the DENR Mining and Energy Commission trespass, right? Hardly. 

N.C. General Statute 113-420 gives gas speculators authority to trespass without my permission, to go looking for gas and make undefined “alterations” to the property surface, all with little more than a note in the mail and a company badge. General Statute 40A-3 gives energy companies authority to take my land by eminent domain if they want to build roads or pipes moving their gas across my front lawn.

Some people have convinced their towns and counties to put up legal hurdles between themselves and Womack's DENR robber barons, and it might be a good idea to do the same here before the hills are crawling with gas speculators looking to rip off landowners.

Garrett Lagan

Alarka

To the Editor:

The old cliché of follow the money continues to be true, and now it’s close to home. Let’s connect the dots.

• Pat McCrory elected governor of North Carolina in 2012.

• McCrory was an employee of Duke Energy for 28 years.

• Duke Energy executives, families of executives, and political action committee contributed $1.1 million to McCrory’s campaign for governor.

• Environmental groups sue Duke three times to get coal ash dumps owned by the power company cleaned up, through the Federal Clean Water Act.

• N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources steps in to head off the lawsuits, claiming that it will handle the problem, and levies small fines on Duke Energy.

• Amy Adams, regional director of the agency, resigns, stating, “Under the new administration, North Carolina has changed the definition of who its customer is from the public and the natural resources it protects to the industry it regulates.”

• Coal ash pond owned by Duke Energy erupts, dumping 82,000 tons of coal ash — enough to fill 73 Olympic sized swimming pools — into the Dan River. 

• Tests of the river water show elevated levels of heavy metals in the water — and arsenic. 

• Turns out that none of this is new to Duke Energy; it has a history 14 groundwater and wastewater violations at ash ponds. 

 So, Pat, you worked with a lobbying law firm. Is your role in this misfeasance, malfeasance, or nonfeasance?

Rick Bryson

Bryson City  

To the Editor:

I hate paying taxes. So when someone promises to lower my taxes, they have my attention. Most people feel the same way. In 2010, every Republican running for office in N.C. promised to lower my tax bill. They all got elected. And sure enough they lowered taxes. The problem is they did not lower my taxes. You see, I don't make more than $84,000 a year. I make less, so my taxes went up, just like eight out 10 N.C. citizens.

How could a lower tax rate cause my taxes to go up? Easy, you eliminate those tax breaks for the middle class and the poor. Gone is the Earned Income Tax Credit; a program actually started by conservatives to aid poor working families. Gone are the deductions for college savings accounts. The personal exemption allowance is eliminated. Business pass-through income deductions and private pension deductions are eliminated. These and many other “adjustments” to the tax code directly result in higher taxes for most of us.

Just in case we did not get the message on who benefits from this new tax plan, the legislature increased the sales tax on many services we use every day. The sales tax is the most regressive of all taxes because it burdens the poor and middle class the most. Just how focused was the Republican legislature in helping out their rich friends? Well, two-thirds of all the tax cuts will go to the top 1 percent of N.C. taxpayers.

The tax rate for large corporations has been cut to 5 percent this year and possibly down to 3 percent in 2017. This windfall for large corporations, together with the tax breaks for the top 20 percent of all taxpayers, will result in a revenue shortfall of more than $650 million a year. That is $650 million less for teacher salaries, road and bridge repairs, investments in higher education, money for county and city governments, and in general, all those things we depend on statewide.  

So how did the Republicans justify this massive shift in taxes from high-income citizens and large corporations to the middle class and the poor? The answer is trickledown economics. You have heard it before. Just give more money to the wealthy and large corporations and they will create jobs, jobs, jobs. Some actually believe this. In reality, study after study over the last 50 years shows that if you give more money to rich, they just get richer.

Jobs are created when the middle class has more money to spend. Corporations come to a state with excellent education systems, an educated work force, a well-maintained infrastructure and a politically stable society. Taxes are usually last on their list. Most experts agree that this new “reform” tax plan will actually cost us jobs in the long run.

So the next time Republicans promise to cut taxes remember they aren’t talking about you.

Louis Vitale

Franklin

To the Editor:

We have heard much from GOP Gov. Pat McCrory and some leaders in the state legislature about our “failed” Medicaid program. This “fix” is despite the fact that Community Care of NC (CNCC), which manages care for 1.4 million of the 1.6 million state Medicaid patients, was recognized nationally in April 2013 as the model for delivery of Medicaid services. 

Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., presented an award to CNCC from the Healthcare Leadership Council, a national group of healthcare CEOs, for quality AND efficiency and in particular praised the high quality of care delivered to patients in rural areas.

However, Art Pope’s Civitas Institute has allocated funds to discredit the Medicaid program, the purpose seeming to be to further reduce funding to the program. 

So what are the governor’s plans? He wants to privatize Medicaid. He wants to take this award-winning, efficient, patient-centered program and turn those state dollars over to several mega insurance companies and managed care HMOs. It is his belief that a private business can better run such a large program and save our tax dollars.

However, as has been shown with Medicare, a much larger program, only 1 percent is spent on administration. In contrast, managed care HMOs take 15 percent of health care dollars as profits.

Even if the state saves a few bucks (not a certainty), where does the 15 percent come from? It comes from reduced services to patients and further reductions in reimbursement to providers. Rural hospitals, especially, and providers depend on Medicaid income, but with increases in overhead and reduction in payments, many will not be able to survive and continue to serve those who need it most.

Having been in private pediatric practice in Franklin for 37 years (and with a Medicaid population of about 60 percent), I have dealt with the current N.C. system as well as the managed care system in Georgia. Hands down, the current NC system much more efficiently serves the patients and is much more user friendly to the medical providers; there is far less red tape and fewer inexplicable denials of care than the managed care system in Georgia.

And there is that 15 percent profit going to insurance companies for performing a service the state can do for much less.

Please contact the governor, Sen. Jim Davis, R-Franklin, and Rep. Roger West, R-Marble, and tell them the system is not broken; don’t “fix” what is not broken.

Frederick A. Berger, M.D.

Franklin

To the Editor:

Regarding the plan to give some teaches a pay raise: I cannot for the life of me see anything wrong with this plan. Good teachers get a raise and the others are encouraged to do better. Teachers should not get a raise just because they are teachers.

I'm a third shift factory worker. Every year we get a review, and only the best workers get a raise. Like the state, the company has a limited amount of money available. Other workers are encouraged to do better. Some may be let go and encouraged to do something else for a living. 

Yes it is possible that I may have upset the plant manager in some way, and he won't give me a raise no matter what my job performance. It is not a perfect world. This is a problem that everybody in the world faces … except teachers. 

But the solution to this is not to give everybody a raise and guarantee a job through tenure. Doing this would soon put the company out of business. With teachers, we can try to prevent this through more openness and parent involvement in the evaluation process. If an obviously great teacher is not offered a raise, we know there is something wrong.

There is no reason why teachers can't live by the same rules as everybody else. Good workers get a raise. Others are encouraged to do better, or do something else. And no one is guaranteed a job.

Larry Rhodarmer

Candler

Jane Hipps of Waynesville will officially kick off her campaign to run against Sen. Jim Davis at an “Announcement Celebration” at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 20 at Junaluska Elementary School. 

Hipps says she is running for the N.C. Senate because she is concerned about the future of North Carolina. She highlights how opportunities for children have been eroded by the massive cuts and threats to public education, including the community colleges and universities. Hipps said that the impact of these cuts at the local level has meant that our counties have fewer teachers, teacher assistants and assistant principals.

The public is invited.

The Commission for a Clean County (CCC) has announced the winners of its annual Community Pride Awards program, who will be honored at luncheon ceremony at the Waynesville Country Club on Feb. 26.

This program honors businesses, community groups, civic clubs, schools and individuals (both adults and children) for exceptional efforts in the categories of litter pickup and control, recycling, beautification of public areas and environmental stewardship, which includes “green” building.  

Winners include:

• The advisory appearance committee for the town of Canton. 

• Sharon Flowe, a science teacher at Tuscola High School, for her work in organizing litter pickups and recycling efforts at the school.

• Jarvis Hampton, a teenager, who participated in every roadside litter pick-up organized by the CCC last year.

• Haywood County Sheriff’s Office. 

• Haywood Soil and Water Conservation District.

• Mark Etheridge, who has worked tirelessly as a volunteer for the YES camp and has brought groups of youths to tour the recycling facility and the White Oak landfill to see what happens to discarded items.

• Tuscola High School Ecology Club and advisor Suzanne Orbock-Miller.  

• Ken Zulla, a Lake Junaluska resident who has devoted much time, energy and money to organize daily cleanups around lake Junaluska every spring and summer. He also recruited a Boy Scout Troop to help with the clean-ups as their service project.

In existence since the year 2000, the CCC believes that a litter-free, environmentally conscious clean county is highly beneficial for the financial and physical health of its residents. 

For information about the work of the CCC, call Chairman Dr. Bill Skelton at 828.456.3575 or Secretary JoAnna Swanson at 828.452.1550.

Pop sensation Robin Thicke will perform at 8 p.m. March 14 at Harrah’s Cherokee Event Center.

Born in Los Angeles, Thicke taught himself to play piano at the age of 12 and by 16 was writing and producing songs for artists like Brandy, Color Me Badd and Brian McKnight. By the age of 21, he had written and produced songs on over 20 gold and platinum albums for artists including Michael Jackson, Marc Anthony, Pink, Christina Aguilera and others. He’s world-renowned for his hits “Give It 2 U,” “Lost Without U,” “Magic” and seminal summer 2013 anthem “Blurred Lines.” Tickets are $39.50, $40 and $49.50.

The show was originally scheduled for Feb. 25. All tickets purchased for the concert will be honored for the rescheduled date and full refunds are also available through Ticketmaster.

800.745.3000 or www.harrahscherokee.com.

The Maggie Valley Chamber “Chili Challenge” will be from 3 to 6 p.m. Saturday, March 9, at the Maggie Valley Inn & Conference Center. Alongside chili tasting, there will be awards given for an array of categories. To enter the competition, there is a $10 fee for chamber members, $15 for all others. To taste the entries, the fee is $5 per person. 828.926.1686 or

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

The Penland School of Crafts Community Open House will take place from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, March 1. 

An exhibit of artwork by local students in kindergarten through 12th grade will run Feb. 28 through March 21 in the John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center at Western Carolina University.

Grammy Award-winning black string band Carolina Chocolate Drops will perform at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 3, in the John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center at Western Carolina University.

The Squirm Burpee Circus will perform at 5 p.m. Sunday, March 2, in the John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center at Western Carolina University. The performance is part of the 2013-14 Galaxy of Stars Series.

The Wildlife Club at Haywood Community College is hosting the 8th annual Wild Game Dinner at 6 p.m. Friday, March 7, at the Haywood County Fairgrounds.  The dinner is a fundraiser for students. Funds generated during the event will provide the financial assistance needed to attend the annual Southeastern Wildlife Conclave, support a wildlife student scholarship and provide additional opportunities for students to learn from and network with natural resource professionals at state, regional and national meetings. There will be door prize drawings, a silent auction and a live auction. The grand prize drawing will be a lifetime hunting/fishing license. There will also be live entertainment and a game and non-game calling competition. Bring your favorite wild game dish, vegetables and/or dessert. Bread and drinks will be provided. Admission is $10 ($5 if you bring a dish) and children under 12 years old eat free. 

For more information, call 627.4560.  

Girls volleyball prep league at Waynesville Recreation Center

A volleyball development league for girls in fourth through sixth grade will be held on Mondays from 6 to 8 p.m. in March and April, except for April 21, at the Waynesville Recreation Center. The purpose of the league is to expose girls to volleyball before they reach the seventh grade, when they can try out for a school team. Hosted by the Waynesville Parks and Recreation Department, the league will teach athletes the basics of passing, setting, spiking, offensive strategies and defensive strategies. Registration will take place from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., followed by a brief parent meeting, Monday, March 3, at the Waynesville Recreation Center. Jennifer Parton will oversee the league, with assistance from student athletes from Pisgah and Tuscola high schools’ volleyball teams.  The cost is $40. For more information, call Jennifer Parton at 734.1298 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

Basketball camp for boys and girls with Coach Derek Thomas

The Innovative Basketball Training Summer Basketball Camp will take place Sundays, March 9 through May 25 at the Waynesville Recreation Center in Waynesville. The camp is for boys and girls ages seven to 18. The camp will take place from 4 to 5:30 p.m. for beginning boys and girls and from 5:30 to 7 p.m. for advanced boys and girls. Space is limited. 

The camp will be directed Derek Thomas, who spent 32 years as a head coach, two years as a college coach, was Coach of the Year six times and is in his high school and college Hall of Fame. His coaching career includes 425 wins with 35 different types of championships. 

The cost of the camp is $120 per person for four sessions per month and is payable in advance or upon registration. Credit cards will also be accepted.  

For more information, call 246.2129 or the Waynesville Parks and Recreation Department at 456.2030.

Learn to grow shiitake mushrooms from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 25, at the Macon County Environmental Resource Center in Franklin.

Boosting sales at farmers’ markets, marketing to restaurants, finding farmland and tapping agritourism are just a few of the topics to be covered during the Business of Farming Conference set for 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 22, at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa.

A public meeting on management plans for the Needmore game land in Macon and Swain counties will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 20, at Tartan Hall, First Presbyterian Church, 26 Church St., in Franklin.

Owen Link McConnell liked the Unicoi and Snowbird mountains so much, he wrote a book about them. And not just any book, but a reference guide for the region.

Unicoi Unity: A Natural History of the Unicoi and Snowbird Mountains and Their Plants, Fungi, and Animals, is a comprehensive natural history book about this particular line of mountains that straddle the North Carolina-Tennessee state line immediately south of the Great Smoky Mountains. 

The book integrates McConnell’s experiential knowledge of the Unicois (gleaned over 49 years) with research findings from numerous scientific studies and includes 167 of his color photographs. The Unicoi and Snowbird mountains harbor some of the most pristine places in the Southeast, including the never-cut Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, four wilderness areas within two national forests and the popular Cherohala Skyway scenic byway, which winds 42 miles along high mountain ridges through the heart of the Unicois. McConnell earned a minor in zoology and a B.S. and Ph.D. in psychology at Duke University. He served on the clinical psychology faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for 30 years and was also director of Psychological Services at the Children’s Psychiatric Institute at Butner. 

His exploration of the Unicoi Mountains began in 1964 when he began camping there during summer vacations with his wife, Pat, and two young sons. The couple purchased land in 1971 in the Unicois on West Buffalo Creek; and, after retiring in 1990, McConnell built a cabin there. For more than 50 years he has kept records of plants, mushrooms and animals that he and others have found in the Unicois. The book is published by AuthorHouse.

The Greater Cashiers Area Merchants Association is currently looking for artisans for the 6th annual Cashiers Valley Leaf Festival, which will be held Oct. 10-12. 

The festival is Western North Carolina’s most prominent fall event. The weekend festival is held each year when the mountains begin to glow with fall leaves and crisp weather welcomes leaf peepers. 

The Leaf Festival Committee and the Greater Cashiers Area Merchants Association is dedicated to attracting people to this event for the benefit of area artists, merchants and the entire business community.

www.visitcashiersvalley.com or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 828.743.8428.

A benefit for Sam Waldroop will be at 4 p.m. Feb 15 at South Macon Elementary School in Franklin.

On Dec. 24, 2013, Sam Waldroop (son of Ricky and Julia Waldroop and brother of Christie and Amy Kinsland) was in a car accident, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. The benefit is to help ease some of the financial stress of renovating his parents’ house to make it handicap accessible, and for future expenses.

The hamburger and hot dog dinner includes a silent auction, raffle items, kids’ games, cake auction and a live DJ.

www.franklin-chamber.com. 

The National Dance Company of Ireland’s “Rhythm of the Dance” hits the stage 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 21, at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin.

Pottery from the private collection of Joan Byrd and George Rector will be on display Feb. 17 through May 9 in the Fine Art Museum at Western Carolina University. An artist’s talk and reception is set for 5 p.m. March 20.

Bennie Anderson and The Drifters will perform at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 14, at the Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin. The Sock Hops will open the show.

The Sunday Concert Series continues at 3 p.m. Feb. 16 at the Waynesville and Canton libraries.

By Ben Brown • Guest Columnist

Think of it as a starter kit for a comprehensive business plan for North Carolina’s seven westernmost counties. 

That’s as good a way as any to understand the mission of the Opportunity Initiative for Southwestern North Carolina — Opt-In, for short. It’s a 15-month process overseen by the Southwestern Commission Council of Governments representing the seven far western counties and set to wrap by the end of May.

To the Editor:

Some parts of Western North Carolina are loaded with socialist agenda people, especially in Asheville and Cullowhee. 

They must envy the great progress the country of Russia has made. Is not Sochi a shining example of how this socialist country can stage the 2014 Games of the Winter Olympics? Never before has the world seen anything like it! I am sure the millions of people who attend will rave about it for years to come.

However, I am sad to say that in your Feb. 5 issue, several people where whining about what a terrible state North Carolina has become since Gov. Pat McCrory became governor. 

You should get the Rev. Barber to come back to Asheville to lead another protest against Gov. McCrory. Maybe he can persuade Gov. Beverly Perdue to run for re-election so she could get the state’s unemployment rate back up to 9.8 percent, where it was when she left the governor’s mansion in 2012. 

Obviously many people in our state are not unhappy with a high unemployment rate as long as the governor is a Democrat!

Jim Mueller

Glenville

To the Editor:

I want to thank The Smoky Mountain News for the  article in the Feb 5 edition (www.smokymountainnews.com/news/item/12419) concerning the proposed Jackson County Mountain and Hillside Development Ordinance (MHDO). That subject needs public attention, thought and then response to the proposed ordinance. I also think your upcoming article comparing the existing ordinance to the proposed MHDO will help clarify the differences between the two. That will assist those who may not have the time to make that comparison themselves.

While I appreciate your efforts described above, I need to comment on several of the statements made in the article. That article included content from an interview with me, as a member of the planning board. I am concerned that parts of that article may misrepresent my position and beliefs. 

The statement that I have a “confession” to make regarding my prior resident state is the view of the author, not mine. I am neither embarrassed nor reluctant to discuss where I have lived my life (Alabama and Florida). 

Further, I don’t think placing geographic labels on people and the use of terms such as “outsiders” — the reporter’s words, not mine — is constructive to making Jackson County a better place to live. 

This is what’s important: From the moment I arrived in Jackson County in 2002, it became my home. If I’m lucky, I will die here and have my ashes spread in these mountains so I will never leave. Since this is my home, I feel obligated to make it the best that it can be for the generations that will follow me. I believe everyone who now considers Jackson County to be their home feels the same way.

Also, the comment that I came here seeking solitude and beauty and “he wants to see it stay that way” is inaccurate. The words in quotes in the preceding sentence are not mine; but the context of the article implies that they are. To think that any community will stay the same is naive. The only thing that is constant is change. Jackson County will change. The question is: How?

The comment in the MHDO article attributed to Dickie Woodard stating that we would all love to live in Cades Cove is absolutely true, but (as he well knows) is not realistic. I am not categorically against property development in Jackson County. It should and will happen. 

We live in a beautiful part of the United States and that beauty is no secret. Others want to come and enjoy what we enjoy on a daily basis. However, we need to make sure we don’t “love it to death.” If that happens, no one will enjoy the results. 

The question is how the property in Jackson County will be developed, not if it will be developed? That fact is what makes the contents of the MHDO so important.

I also do not categorically defend the existing “steep slope” ordinance. Since I became a member of the planning board, I’ve probably asked as many questions about the justification of the parameters that are included in the existing ordinance as I have asked questions about the contents of the proposed ordinance. There need to be changes to the existing ordinance, and I support those that the planning board, as a whole, has advocated.

Regardless of my position on the proposed MHDO, what’s important is the position of the citizens of Jackson County. As I said in the interview, it’s their ordinance. I strongly encourage them to attend the planning board public hearing and express their views on the subject matter included in the proposed MHDO. 

I appreciate the SMN giving me the opportunity to respond to the article.

Tom Rodgers

Jackson County Planning Board

Cullowhee

Cherokee Bear Zoo has been fined by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration for violating worker safety regulations.

Cherokee Bear Zoo was cited for allowing workers to have “unprotected contact with bears while feeding, cleaning cages and assisting in mating activities,” according to OSHA documents. In addition to receiving five citations, Cherokee Bear Zoo was fined $3,120.

A site visit from federal OSHA investigators last fall was prompted by a complaint from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. PETA filed an OSHA complaint last summer that included video footage and photographs of workers inside concrete pits with multiple bears. In its complain, PETA suggested it would file legal action against OSHA if OSHA did not conduct a site inspection.

PETA has campaigned for years against the roadside bear zoos in Cherokee. One of the two zoos that kept bears in concrete pits, Chief Saunooke Bear Pit, finally closed last year after repeated federal violation notices for the treatment and care of the animals.

Cherokee Bear Zoo workers apparently went into bear pits to feed them by hand, and in one case to lure a male bear to a female bear enclosure, without protection or barriers between them and the animals. Violations also included the use of bleach cleaning chemicals without proper eye protection.

Four Asheville residents were arrested after an attempt to steal a logsplitter from Lowe’s in Waynesville drew the attention of an alert citizen.

Something about the scene apparently didn’t sit quite right: a person in the bed of a pickup truck holding on to a chain that was towing a logsplitter along behind them. 

“When trying to make their getaway with the stolen log splitter, the suspects found the log splitter’s trailer attachment did not fit onto the ball hitch they had on their truck, so one of the suspects actually sat in the back of the truck, holding onto the chains that were dragging the log splitter behind them,” said Heidi Warren, public information officer for the Haywood County Sheriff’s Department. 

The “alert citizen” called the Waynesville Police Department and then followed the truck until officers arrived on-scene. Kristy Franklin, 34; Deborah Crowe, 24; Dewey Franklin, 42 and Preston Franklin, 23 were arrested for charges ranging from larceny to possession of stolen property.

The 2014 election season officially got underway this week.

Candidates could begin signing up to run for office on Monday. The candidate sign-up period runs for two weeks, closing on Feb. 28.

By Jake Flannick • SMN Correspondent

A design for a new gazebo on the town square in downtown Franklin has been sent back to the drawing board.

Restaurants in Haywood County are being encouraged to jump on the Melange of the Mountains train, which will return this year April 10-13.

The event is expanding again this year, with a growing  lineup of culinary-themed festivities over several days. 

Melange began several years ago as a one-night gala where restaurants showcased samples of their signature dishes. That remains the keystone event of Melange, but it will kick off an entire array of weekend with an array of specialty dinners, culinary demos and tastings hosted by Melange of the Mountains participants. Events such as Farm to Table, Hops to Tap, Sip and Stroke, Dinner on the Mountain, Champagne & Caviar, Five Course Candlelight Dinner, and Wine Pairings will take place throughout the county.

The event is a partnership between the Haywood Chamber of Commerce, Haywood County Tourism Development Authority and Buy Haywood.

A listing of participating restaurants along with additional information will be released at a later date. 

828.456.3021 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

By Jake Flannick • SMN Correspondent

Haywood County leaders have all but signed off on plans by a pair of faith-based groups running social service ministries in the county to convert a defunct state prison into a homeless shelter and halfway house.

A guided hike along the Tallulah River in the Southern Nantahala Wilderness will be held on Saturday, Feb. 15, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of passage of the Wilderness Act.

It is being led by the Nantahala Hiking Club and the Southern Appalachian branch of the Wilderness Society.

The hike is part of a year-long series of outings and programs in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act and organized by the Southern Appalachian branch of The Wilderness Society in partnership with other organizations. Activities will include guided hikes and walks in wilderness areas, events celebrating the connections between wilderness and the arts, trail maintenance volunteer opportunities, celebratory gatherings and more. www.southeastwilderness50.org.

For the meeting place, call the hike leader at 828.369.1983

So, when else would you have an opportunity to race an outhouse down a ski mountain? Thought so. 

A whole lot of people visited the WNC Nature Center last year. The Friends of the WNC Nature Center report that 107,949 people visited the Nature Center in 2013, a record-breaking attendance.

A Haywood County teacher, Janet Frazier, has been named the 2013 North Carolina Elementary Conservation Education Teacher of the Year.

Octogenarian Jim Pader will talk about his record-setting hike up Mount Whitney from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 12, at REI in Asheville.

To the Editor:

The Jackson County commissioners recently made a mistake — an honest, well-meaning, well-intentioned error, yet a mistake nonetheless. Imposing background checks on county volunteers is government intrusion and is wrong. These infringements to our freedoms are totally contrary to the natural rights principles codified by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, the other founders in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights; and, all the men (and a few women) who fought against and achieved victory over a tyrannical British king.

What took so long for American citizens to allow their government to violate us with airport strip searches, lock down whole cities for martial law exercises by the Department of Homeland Security and the military, conduct illegal searches of people and property in search of one lone alleged bomber (Boston, January 2013), use metal detectors against citizens lawfully entering public buildings, and, yes, forcing county volunteers to endure background checks in an assault on their persons and reputations? Apathy. 

We’re more interested in sports on big screen televisions, adult beverages in our refrigerators, and fast food hamburgers in our stomachs than holding our local, state, and federal representatives honest, open, accountable, and within the constitutional rule of law.

Collectivists (progressives) such as Benito Mussolini and Adolph Hitler used tools of oppression such as these before and we're seeing these Fascist, authoritarian tools of enslavement used here in America in the 21st century where our government has become the common enemy of us all.

Opposing this fascism are the forces of individual freedom, smaller government, fiscal sanity, and the constitutional rule of law. Numerous men and women in our communities haven't given up on politically restoring the Constitution and the republic, although peacefully accomplishing this is becoming less and less possible everyday.

Call, write and email the county commissioners and demand that they reverse their decision to impose background checks on law-abiding county volunteers. Even something as small as this will send a message to your representatives (those seats are yours and mine) that the Fascist tide must stop and begin to reverse here, now.

What you do here today will make a difference as to whether your children and grandchildren become slaves or whether we reestablish our Creator-given American freedoms.

Which side are you on?

Carl Iobst

Cullowhee

To the Editor:

The alleged embezzlement of around $50,000 from Macon County taxpayers by a county employee highlights incompetency within the county’s “award winning” finance department. The allegations in Judge Letts’ search warrant for the Macon County Board of Elections (BOE) office lay out the damning details.

The alleged embezzler wrote at least 29 “check requests” between July 2013 and mid-January 2014 with insufficient documentation and no or forged signature authorizations. Without hesitation finance’s accounts payable (A/P) issued checks totaling around $50,000 to sham vendors. The checks were given to the embezzler who allegedly pocketed the money.

Macon County, with more than 400 employees and a budget of nearly $60 million annually, has a finance department using purchase order (PO) and payment procedures appropriate for a “mom and pop” shop.

Why would the county’s finance department process any “check requests” except in very limited and carefully controlled circumstances? To handle 29 “check requests” from one employee over a short period is astounding. Especially since many didn’t meet authorization requirements, involved “vendors” who weren’t vetted, receipt of services wasn’t verified, and checks weren’t mailed to the vendors. Was there a co-conspirator within the finance department? Will any finance department employees be disciplined for failure to follow procedures? Are there any written procedures?

“Check requests” are ripe for fraud and at least one employee figured that out. How many other undetected embezzlements have occurred, or are occurring, within Macon County government?

The county manager must hire an independent forensic auditor, or an auditor from the Office of the State Auditor, to thoroughly review all aspects of Macon County’s Finance Department. The forensic auditor must assure everyone that no other illegal activities have occurred or are occurring, and assure that all purchasing procedures in the finance department are brought up to 21st century standards.

Until a forensic audit is completed, corrective actions are implemented, and a public report is issued to county residents answering all questions raised, residents should have no confidence that the county’s finance department is protecting taxpayers’ money.

Vic Drummond

Franklin

To the Editor:

If you have been following the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, you have recently learned that 85 individuals control more wealth than the less wealthy half of the world’s population …  that’s 3.5 billion people. It just underscores the extreme differences in wealth in our world.  

With that on my mind, I couldn’t help but think of North Carolina’s hardworking teachers who are now ranked 46th in pay in the country. I’m sure you are aware of the decision by our state legislature to give a bonus of $2,000 over four years to 25 percent of the teachers in each school district. This 25 percent are to be chosen, somehow, by the principals and superintendents, leaving the other 75 percent to wonder why they were not included. Oh, and of course, the teachers are also giving up their recourse to due process, which opens the door to political based control.

Public education is the foundation of our economic strength as a state. According to the North Carolina Constitution, it is the responsibility of the state legislature to guarantee an adequate public education to all our students. Yet it seems the current administration has a warped idea of how to insure that. Cutting funding to education has never enhanced it. Keeping a lid on teacher pay is a guarantee that many teachers will leave for greener pastures in neighboring states, or find a more lucrative profession … and it will negatively impact our state now and in the future.  

Perhaps Gov. Pat McCrory and our state legislature will consider the benefits of education when they set the new budget.  Instead of punishing our educators, I would ask them to make a goal of bringing teacher pay up to the nation’s median … 25th is so much better than 46th and falling.

Nancy Scott

Franklin