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An injured hiker was successfully airlifted from Low Gap Trail in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Friday evening, June 14. Nathan Lipsom, a 53-yearold male from Cambridge, Mass., was injured from a falling tree while hiking the trail during a severe storm on Thursday, June 13.
Lipsom was rescued by a Blackhawk helicopter, coordinated through Haywood County and the N.C. Division of Emergency Management. He was flown to Asheville Regional Airport, where he was transported by ground to Mission Hospital. Park staff assisted the airlift operation on the ground and provided two medics and an emergency medical technician. Damage to the trails around the Cosby and Big Creek areas prevented ground rescuers from reaching Lipsom for a timely evacuation.
The National Weather Service confirmed an EF-1 tornado in the Cosby area during the June 13 storm. A Park Backcountry Ranger was patrolling the trails around Cosby and Big Creek on the morning of June 14 to assess storm damage when he discovered Lipsom and solicited help.
Several trails in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park have been closed due to extensive damage from wind and rain.
Batter up ladies and gentlemen. The Waynesville Parks and Recreation Department will offer a co-ed softball league this summer.
To the Editor:
Bob Wilson’s recent column in a local publication condemning a liberal arts college education is full of contradiction and misinformation. The point he tried to make was that today’s very expensive college degree should be focused on a student’s future earning potential. No one can disagree with that.
Wilson agrees with Gov. Pat McCrory that all college education should be focused on getting a job, not a silly liberal arts degree.
The trouble with that idea is that no one knows what kind of a job he or she will have in 10 years. A Bureau of Labor statistics study reports that the average American worker will change jobs 11 times in his career. Many of these changes involve completely different kinds of employment. So if one goes to college and studies for a particular kind of job, chances are that within a few years that education will be worthless.
Of course a degree in computer science or medicine will produce great job prospects, but few will become doctors or engineers. The vast majority of future employees will need an education that prepares them for many different kinds of jobs. They will need an education that will prepare them to think clearly, and be able to adapt to whatever jobs are available. That is the definition of a liberal arts degree.
Mr. Wilson can make fun of all the silly courses on “Dogs and People” he wants, but, if you end up working in a veterinarians office that one class (likely a one semester, 3-hour credit elective) might get you a raise. As he says, “The analytical and critical thinker will always win.” His apparent personal definition of “analytical and critical” thinking appears skewed. No, make that contradictory.
In his attempt to take a cheap shot at “liberal” education, he completely missed Gov. McCrory’s point. As a true hard-right ideologue, the governor wants the colleges in his state to produce good reliable worker bees for his corporate funders. Critical thinkers and independent-minded employees are usually more trouble than they are worth.
Shirley Ches
Franklin
To the Editor:
North Carolina is now a state role model — a model for what will happen when a state (and possibly the country) is completely controlled by Republicans. Unemployment benefits will be curtailed, and public education will be reduced and eventually eliminated as taxpayers pay for private and religious education. The arrogant and liberal cities will have their power diminished and be controlled by the state, which will strip them of utility functions like water and airports and infrastructure improvement. Environmental controls will be eliminated and financial regulations will cease. Taxes will be reduced and replaced by taxes on services and Social Security income such that the wealthy and corporations will profit and the rest will pay more. Voting will be curtailed so that minorities, seniors, and college students will have major hurdles to overcome. The state will have as its underlying message that the wealthy and the corporate connected are welcome; the middle- and working-class, minorities, LGBT people and even women who care about controlling their bodies are not welcome. And, possibly, a state religion will be determined.
And that is the Republican view of less government. Indeed, it is a perfect vision of a Third World country with a state-sanctioned religion.
Gary Soldow
Asheville
A slap-happy spray paint job by a utility contractor has tarnished the quaint brick sidewalks in downtown Waynesville with obtrusive and excessively large orange stripes.
Electronic gurus The Crystal Method will hold a special DJ set at 9 p.m. Saturday, June 22, at Harrah’s Cherokee Event Center.
As part of the “Cherokee After Dark” series, the event center is transformed into an upscale nightclub. Ever since they started making their first singles in the mid-1990s out of the Bomb Shelter (their congested home studio in Los Angeles), Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland of The Crystal Method have been forerunners of the electronic music revolution in America.
The performance is free and open to the public ages 21 and over.
Showcasing the Plott hound and local music, PlottFest is set for June 22-23 at the Maggie Valley Festival Grounds. The festival opens at 9 a.m. Saturday and noon on Sunday.
The official state dog of North Carolina, the Plott hound is native to Haywood County. There will be an American Plott Association-sponsored bench show and National Plott Hound Association-sponsored kid’s bench show. Live music will be provided by Balsam Range, Darren Nicholson Band, Eddie Rose & Highway 40, Mark Bumgarner, Mark Winchester Trio, The Primitive Quartet, Ila Knight, Anita & Luis Diaz, Timbre Fox, and Sam Lewis. The Ghost Town Gunfighters will perform. Food and craft vendors will be on-site.
Tickets are $15 for Saturday, $10 for Sunday or $20 for a weekend pass.
A full schedule of events can be found in the Outdoors section of this week’s Smoky Mountain News.
Mountain Artisans’ Summertime Arts & Crafts Show will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 29-30, in the Ramsey Center at Western Carolina University.
Mountain Artisans’ Summertime Arts & Crafts Show will be from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 29-30, in the Ramsey Center at Western Carolina University.
Rock-n-roll legend Billy Idol performs at 9 p.m. Friday, June 21, at Harrah’s Cherokee Event Center.
The Trantham Family will perform from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, June 23, at an open house for the recently restored Francis Grist Mill in Waynesville.
By Chris Cooper
Inspiration comes from a variety of sources. And as much as a new love, a rainy day or a broken heart can provide the fuel for inspired songwriting and performance, so can the pain of loss and the need to understand and deal with it.
By Michael Beadle
Imagine hundreds of stainless steel threads woven together to make a scarf that looks like silk. An optical illusion of sorts, but nonetheless real and exquisite.
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
Working her way past the miniature Christmas village homes and a star topped tree, Vickie Horne stood fingering ornaments on the wall of Nancy Tut’s Christmas Shop in Dillsboro with an index card full of names in her hand.
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
For Germanic cultures having a Christmas tree was all about finding the pickle.
Stand on Zanzibar
In 1968, a British science fiction writer named John Brunner wrote a novel, a 50-year projection into the future entitled Stand on Zanzibar.
Already the noted author of such books as The Crucible of Time and The Sheep Look Up, Brunner won the Hugo award, one of science fiction’s major yearly awards, for Stand On Zanzibar.
I was living in a friend’s attic in the early 70’s, and the walls of this dusty garrett were covered with paperbacks, almost all of them speculative fiction. (We HATE the term sci-fi!) I plowed through a lot of them over the next two years, and was introduced to many of my favorite writers.
This was when I first read Zanzibar, and after 30 years and at least that many re-reads, I am still blown away by the breadth of Brunner’s vision and his uncanny ability to predict trends and outcomes.
There are many sub-plots and characters running through the book, but one of the main threads is a major multinational, General Technics, trying to secure a beachhead in Africa as an offloading port for it’s seabottom mining operations. In effect, they offer to practically buy a country on the west coast of Africa and bring it up to 21st century standards, i.e. new infrastructure, schools, agriculture, government, and everything else needed to bring an entire PEOPLE to literate self-sufficiency.
But that is only the beginning! Every aspect of human society is examined and extrapolated on, from a 1968 perspective, and he hits the bulls-eye so often from a present day perspective, that I can’t help but wonder if Brunner didn’t either come from far in the future or have access to it.
There is genetic engineering, there are people who go crazy and kill hundreds, there are random and senseless acts of terrorism, artificial intelligences, religious cults looking for world domination, racial tensions... the list goes on and on, and each time you read one you will be stunned at Brunner’s prescience, and be a little frightened as to what might possibly come next.
By the way, the title comes from the idea of everybody in the world standing on the island of Zanzibar, an island off the east coast of Africa, now part of Tanzania, and how long it would be before there was no more room.
In a related note, another of my favorite authors, David Brin, wrote his own 50-year projection, entitled Earth. It was written in 1988, and he acknowledges a debt to John Brunner. Brin’s perspective is very good, but he doesn’t yet have the stamp of veracity that the passage of time has given to Brunner.
Read both of these books, but especially Stand on Zanzibar.
50 years is really no time at all...
— By David Cohen
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
A high-rise moratorium is in the works for Macon County.
On Monday night (Dec. 4), county commissioners directed new county attorney Lesley Moxley and Macon County Planner Stacy Guffey to draft an ordinance prohibiting new commercial and residential construction over 48 feet in height or four stories for six months.
Haywood Regional Medical Center and Haywood Emergency Physicians disagree over whether it was necessary to rewrite the doctors’ contract with the hospital while there is still 18 months left on the agreement.
A regional effort is afoot to address mountainside and slope development as a region rather than relying on individual counties to implement development standards.
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
Jackson County Librarian Michael Cartwright will be resigning from his post by the end of the year, prompting the Fontana Regional Library System to begin a search for his replacement.
Downtown Sylva Association members are doing all the legwork on discussing the creation of a special downtown taxing district. At a point in the near future, however, town of Sylva leaders are going to be forced to take a stand on this issue. We hope they realize the value of such a district to the whole town and move forward with what could be a long-term economic development tool.
A new initiative is now underway to encourage landowners to keep the Upper Pigeon River Valley in the Bethel community of Haywood County rural.
It’s highly possible that you have been daydreaming about a less stressful holiday season, and it includes those memories of how it was for you as a child, when things were kinder and slower.
By Michael Beadle
Kathy Boydston was never one to sit quietly in retirement.
A veteran elementary school teacher, world traveler, mountain biker and marathon runner, she’s now keeping busy coordinating programs in Haywood County Schools that teach students about the importance of water quality.
A private research and public opinion firm was hired by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission to measure public sentiment toward Sunday hunting — namely whether it should be allowed. North Carolina is one of the last states with a law banning hunting on Sunday.
Landowners in Jackson County are in the process of protecting 154 acres on Cowee Mountain from future development by placing the property in a conservation easement with the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee.
By Michael Beadle
Cyrano’s Bookshop in downtown Highlands may be all of 700 square feet, but that hasn’t stopped its new owners, Clair and Arthur Simpson, from setting up book signings for such nationally notable authors as Pat Conroy, Steve Berry, Sharyn McCrumb and Nicholas Sparks.
By Chris Cooper
I’m beginning to notice a relationship between the acquisition of “new” used CDs at my place of employment and my need to write in a “multiple CD” review format. Coincidence? I think not. But this week I was reminded, for the umpteenth time, that there is indeed a veritable smorgasbord of great music waiting to be heard out there.
NPR’s All Songs Considered Podcast
Admittedly, I’ve been slow to catch on to the iPod revolution. I received a green, personalized iPod mini almost two years ago, but just this month began puttering around on iTunes’s Podcast Web site to find a treasure trove of information.
The Francis Mill Preservation Society in Haywood County is gearing up for a major campaign to replace the metal wheel on the grist mill.
The following statement was provided to The Smoky Mountain News following a meeting of the Haywood Regional Medical Center Hospital Authority Board of Commissioners on Monday, Dec. 11.
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
With the announcement of plans to bring a new Wal-Mart Supercenter to Franklin, some say town aldermen have given away their only real bargaining chip that would aid negotiations to make the Big Box store more visually appealing — water and sewer rights.
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
The Town of Sylva has begun surveying the Fisher Creek watershed in anticipation of receiving a $3.5 million conservation easement to be awarded by the Clean Water Management Trust Fund.
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
Parking along Sylva’s downtown Main Street is a challenge.
The competition between Western Carolina University students to win a building contract at a Cullowhee church was just for fun, but the construction ideas and issues they pointed out recently were real — and appreciated.
Jan. 20, 1961. Inauguration Day. The words that stuck in the minds and hearts of all citizens: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country,” said President John F. Kennedy.
When the administration of George Bush argued Nov. 29 before the Supreme Court that the EPA did not have the authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, it was doing this country and its people a monumental disservice. In truth, it’s not a stretch to argue that the current administration’s premise in this case and its continued ignoring of global warming is detrimental to all of mankind.
“A Man for All Seasons”
Robert Bolt’s award-winning play was released as a movie in 1966, winning six Academy Awards that included Best Director and Best Actor.
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
The Craft Revival: Shaping Western North Carolina Past and Present Web site is located at http://craftrevival.wcu.edu.
Much of what is considered to be historic Appalachian art work began as anything but. The quilts and clay bowls, hand-wrought iron and homemade dresses were items made for their function.
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
The delivery of 3,000 gallons of B-20 biodiesel manufactured by Smoky Mountain Biofuels made Hop’s Gas and Grocery on Old Cullowhee Road the first station to offer a public biodiesel pump west of Asheville last week.
Here is a copy of the resolution, which was passed by the Medical Executive Committee on Dec. 6 and affirmed by a meeting of the medical staff on Dec. 12:
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
Two years have passed since the Jackson County Commissioners suspended their participation with the local Economic Development Commission, launched an internal investigation and audit of the EDC and EDC office and attempted to remove Tom McClure — the EDC Chairman, chairman of the county’s revolving loan committee and Chairman of the Jackson Airport Authority — from all county committees and appointments.
Jackson County Commissioners passed a resolution Monday night (Dec. 18) encouraging the state General Assembly to provide funding for the Land for Tomorrow program in 2007.
By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer
Macon County Commissioners unanimously approved a moratorium on high-rise development Monday, giving county planning and legal staff 11 months to write an ordinance that if adopted could potentially prohibit such development for a long time to come.
By Bill Rhodarmer
I read with interest a recent column in a local news publication concerning the high cost of a college education and the debt often incurred by students and families — up to $50,000 for a four-year degree. In the column, the editor indicated that the only way to lessen the high cost and associated debt was for the state and federal governments to become more involved in controlling costs and providing more student aid.
The last thing Macon County — or any of the counties west of Asheville — needs is a high-rise condominium development. Commissioners in that county made a wise move Monday to enact a moratorium on any construction over 48-feet in height. They made use of a common tool often employed by local governments who are looking out for the welfare of their constituency.
By Michael Beadle
Just because the temperatures drop and days grow shorter doesn’t mean you have to give up your exercise routine.
A statewide survey to gauge support for making hunting on Sundays legal revealed some interesting side statistics on outdoor recreation.
Something I’ve noticed over the years is that the longer you’re on this planet, the smaller said planet seems to become. This observation becomes especially true if you find yourself immersed in a particular field or occupation for a long time — paths that may have crossed long ago, seemingly by coincidence, inevitably find a way to cross again later.
