To the Editor:

Kudos to Bob Scott, mayor of Franklin, for his decision to take his oath of office on the U.S. Constitution rather than the Bible. I applaud a man manifesting the courage to “do what is right, not popular,” by taking an action, both symbolic and significant, to stand for the constitutional principle of separation of church and state.

His statement, “Our government should not favor one group of people over another, and that is what you do when you allow religion into government,” puts Mayor Scott in exceedingly good company. Witness:

• “If I could conceive that the general government might ever be so administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure ... no one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution.” George Washington, 1789.

• “In regard to religion, mutual toleration in the different professions thereof is what all good and candid minds in all ages have ever practiced ....” Samuel Adams, 1771.

• “Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law. Take away the law-establishment, and every religion re-assumes its original benignity.” Thomas Paine, 1791.

• “I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people [which] built a wall of separation between Church and State.” Thomas Jefferson, 1802.

• “Christian establishments tend to great ignorance and corruption, all of which facilitate the execution of mischievous projects.” James Madison, 1774.

• “During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution.” James Madison, 1785. 

Those who contend that the United States was founded as a strictly Christian country do not know their history. Our forefathers cited above knew firsthand the perils and “mischief” (oppression and persecution) that a merger of two powerful institutions, uninhibited by legal and constitutional restraints, could inflict on religious minorities. As a wise person has said, “Those who do not know their history are condemned to repeat it.”

Mayor Bob Scott not only knows his history, but by his actions is in line with the best of our history, stands with others as a bulwark protecting our constitutional rights and freedoms. The people of Franklin are in good hands.

Doug Wingeier, 

Waynesville

A federal fund that supports parks and open spaces across the nation has been spared, but was reduced to half its former funding level.

The 50-year-old Land and Water Conservation Fund lapsed when Congress failed to reauthorize it by Sept. 30, but it was reinstated as part of the federal spending bill earlier this month — albeit at half its former funding level.

The fund sets aside $900 million a year to fund projects such as trails, playgrounds and recreation centers. However, opponents said a greater portion should go to state and local projects and to maintain existing park infrastructure rather than to purchase more land, which they argued takes away from the local tax base.

Supporters of the bill celebrated its resuscitation as a victory for natural resources and cultural heritage. 

“The Congress has reaffirmed America’s commitment to conservation and our outdoor recreation heritage,” said Bob Brown, vice chairman of the North Carolina Wildlife Federation.  

However, supporters of the fund say there is still more work to do, as the spending bill gave the program only a three-year reprieve and funds it at only half of the original funding level. 

A map of projects funded by the Land and Water Conservation Fund — including many in Western North Carolina, is available at www.wilderness.org/mapping-land-and-water-conservation-fund-lwcf.

North Carolina has a new U.S. Forest Service forest supervisor in Allen Nicholas, who currently works as forest supervisor for the Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois. Nicholas will be the fourth forest supervisor North Carolina has seen in 10 years. 

“North Carolina’s national forests are home to some of the most pristine and picturesque tracts of public land available, and it’s a great honor to join this amazing team of talented individuals that manage these treasured resources,” said Nicholas.”I look forward to building on the collaborative efforts already underway between the staff in North Carolina and our regional leaders as we continue to work toward new and innovative ways to engage the communities we serve.”

In his new role, Nicholas will oversee more than 1.25 million acres of public land in the state’s four national forests. His career thus far has spanned more than 30 years and included stops in the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the Francis Marion and Sumter national forests and the Eastern Regional Office in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with titles ranging from deputy manager to acting director before his most recent role as forest supervisor in Illinois. 

Nicholas will begin work in February. 

Sales of license plates supporting the Friends of the Smokies were strong in 2015, with sales in North Carolina and Tennessee generating $805,000 this year. Since the program launched in 1999, specialty plates have raised more than $12.5 million to support America’s most-visited national park.

The number of Appalachian Trail hikers passing through the trail’s “psychological midpoint” in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, hit an all-time high this year.

In 2008, Catch the Spirit of Appalachia (CSA), a Western North Carolina not-for-profit 501c3 organization, began recording “Stories of Mountain Folk,” a radio program that aired weekly on local radio station WRGC. When WRGC closed in September 2011, the organization teamed up with Hunter Library to preserve the recorded material. The “Stories of Mountain Folk” collection was Hunter Library’s first all-sound oral history collection. 

WRGC Radio came back on the air in April 2012, and once again, CSA’s program became a feature on the radio. At the end of 2015, within the 378 programs produced were 1156 interviews, plus 276 storytelling segments — all which capture “local memory” detailing traditions, events, and the life stories of mountain people. A wide range of interviewees include down-home gardeners, herbalists and farmers, as well as musicians, artists, local writers and more.

“Each program stands alone, each story is unique, for everyone is creative and worthy,” says Amy Ammons Garza, cofounder of CSA. “Each of us is the product of our heritage. It is through realizing the value of who came before that we realize the true importance of who we are today — for we are the individuals who link, bridge and fulfill destiny of all the ages.”

As of January 2016, although no longer heard on WRGC radio, CSA will continue “Stories of Mountain Folk” as an online podcast with a new format, highlighting one interview per release, with one interviewer and a longer version per interview (30 minutes to one hour). The program posted on the website www.storiesofmountainfolk.com is available to all who come to the site or call it up on their cell phone. Those listeners who sign up at the website to receive the postings via an RSS feed, a format for delivering regularly changing web content, will receive notification of each new posting automatically.

Supported by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the Jackson County Arts Council, WRGC Radio and Mountain Manor Nursing Home, “Stories of Mountain Folk” could not have been possible without the hard work of a team of dedicated professionals and volunteers. Producer/editor Neal Hearn, a professional radio personality, worked with CSA’s cofounders, Amy Ammons Garza and Doreyl Ammons Cain, to produce each program, keeping to the time constraints of a radio program format. Along with the core team, the project benefited from the volunteer efforts of all interviewers, including the Ammons sisters, Judy Rhodes, Joe Rhinehart, Robert Jumper, Shawn Crowe, Victoria A. Casey McDonald (deceased) and Mary Sue Casey. 

Catch the Spirit of Appalachian continues to work with Hunter Library to archive its programs on their site, www.wcu.edu/hunter-library/collections/digital-collections.asp.

A New Year’s Eve Masquerade Party will be held from 8 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Thursday, Dec. 31, at The Imperial Restaurant in Canton.

An open call is currently underway for artists, crafters, environmental groups and food vendors for the 19th annual Greening Up the Mountains Festival in downtown Sylva.

Renowned bluegrass/gospel group Balsam Range will kick off the sixth annual “Winter Concert Series” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 2, at the Colonial Theatre in Canton.

At Ingles we work with many community groups throughout the year. Fund raisers, special events, food collections... here are some of our community partners that make a difference in Western North Carolina especially in food and nutrition issues.

To the Editor:

Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland, is the only poet or musician that has a worldwide celebration. It is on or near his birthday, January 25. He is also known as the Ploughman’s Poet.

Burns was a farmer, but not a very productive one. His poems and songs were noted for preserving the Gaelic language and the passion he had for the everyday beauty and life of the common folk. He overturned a field mouse’s home one day. He was so effected by this, that he wrote,“To a Mouse.” Burns tolerated all creatures and was touched by ordinary events.

From intimate groups gathered in a pub to larger more formal celebrations, toasts are raised to Robert Burns. A Burns Night dinner has become a tradition here in Franklin. This year Burns Night will be held at Tartan Hall, first Presbyterian Church, on Saturday, January 23, from 5 to 8 p.m. Celebrations around the world have several common features:  calling of the clans, presentation of the haggis, recitation of “ Ode to the Haggis,” poetry and songs of Robert Burns, entertainment, Scottish county dancing., and singing of “Auld Lang Syne.” Our dinner is a catered five-course dinner.

Our entertainment this year will be the Jacobites, a group from Tennessee, North Carolina, and Florida, with local ties to Franklin. If you have never heard “Auld Lang Syne” the way Robert Burns wrote it, this is your chance. Our piper is Michael Waters. The Scottish country dancing will be led by Marshall and Anne McLaughlin. At 69, if I can give it a go, anybody can try. After all, this night is celebrating a person, a poet, a musician who lived life to its fullest.

Advance tickets are now on sale at the Scottish Tartans Museum and Heritage Center and the Franklin Chamber of Commerce. Please feel free to join us for a rollicking good time. This dinner is sponsored by the Friends of the Scottish Tartans Museum and Heritage Center.

Merrilee Bordeaux

President of the Friends of the Scottish Tartan Museum and Heritage Center 

Franklin

To the Editor:

I vehemently oppose designating more wilderness areas within the Pisgah and Nantahala Forests. These lands are already protected under the Department of Agriculture as national forestland and set aside to be managed for multiple uses: timber, water, wildlife, recreation and range.  

These objectives are not mutually exclusive, but can exist simultaneously through well-planned and carefully designed timber harvests. A good forest plan wisely maps out road infrastructure, balanced with forest health and diversity as clear goals. To let our renewable wood resources grow and die without human intervention is wasteful and not at all the intent of these lands being conserved in the first place. To conserve something is to use it and use it wisely. To preserve a resource is the lock it up and throw away the key, which is why I strongly disagree with any wilderness designations.

Our forests are under tremendous threats from invasive species, oak decline, hemlock wooly adelgid, emerald ash borer, pine beetle, dogwood anthracnose, and the list continues. We need to leave all management options on our public table for accessing these forestlands for treatment. We must proactively manage these lands, not place them into a wilderness category, which greatly restricts and limits the options available.

One thing for certain in nature is change — as change is constant. We can replicate natural disturbances through science-based forest management and benefit the forestlands, wildlife and create a mosaic of varying age classes of forests to provide a myriad of products for man infinitely and sustainably.

In the birthplace of forestry, North Carolina is well positioned to celebrate our renewable wood resources with common sense. As our state toast lauds the “land of the long leaf pine.” I urge our forest land managers to heed our heritage of wisely using the abundant resources available to us — please do not lock these lands up in wilderness. Forever is indeed a long time.

Susan Fletcher

Candler

To the Editor:

I have been a proud employee of the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad (GSMR) for nine years and an active member of this community for 20 years. I have had first-hand opportunity to witness GSMR’s phenomenal growth in the Bryson City community and I have watched and enjoyed the growth of Bryson City businesses and tourism in Swain County and beyond as well. Surely there can be no doubt that GSMR has played a major role in this growth, attracting over 200,000 visitors to the area year after year. It also goes without saying GSMR adds significantly to the economic impact of Bryson City as a major employer in this community.

I know first hand of some of GSMR’s lesser-known activities, too, including the many charities and other nonprofit groups who have only to ask for GSMR’s help in their fundraising activities.

With all this said, I would like to speak to the article published by the Smoky Mountain Times that touted the “failure” of the trial effort by GSMR to demonstrate how closing Fry Street would be beneficial. It would seem a major factor in this situation has to be the town in launching a street project at the Mitchell and Everett streets intersection and on down Bryson Street just as the busy fall color season in October began and continuing on into The Polar Express and Christmas shopping season. The street work made access to the Bryson Street entrance of the parking lot set up by GSMR for access to the Fry Street businesses difficult and on some days, impossible. Bad weather also played a role, delaying the town’s completion of the Bryson Street project as well as affecting shoppers being out and about.

It would seem that those claiming to be losing business due to the closing of Fry Street are being a bit disingenuous given these factors. I would also wonder how the town leadership would be able to make a definitive statement about GSMR being “bad neighbors” and deciding even before the Polar season is over that closing Fry Street is a failure. It makes for great headlines, but it is not helpful to the image of this beautiful town for the town board to be blocking efforts to make Fry Street a more attractive and practical community space as well as making it safer for everyone. In fact, safety is the prime factor that generated the ideas leading to the closing of the street in the first place. 

Three of my years as a GSMR employee were spent as a ticket agent in the depot. The number of times I and other staff witnessed pedestrians walking on Fry Street being endangered by traffic is too many to tell.

I would urge the town board to pledge to set aside former prejudices and emotions and look at this issue from an objective and informed position.

Gail Findlay

Bryson City

A project aiming to help Western North Carolina communities consider health needs when doing long-term planning revealed that issues such as farmland preservation and alternative transportation are high health priorities for WNC residents and earned MountainWise, the organization that did the work, statewide recognition. 

The American Planning Association’s North Carolina chapter presented MountainWise with the Marvin Collins Planning Award in the Special Theme Awards/Multidisciplinary Project category, which honors projects that use collaboration as the primary means for success. 

“Collaborative partnerships are the cornerstone of public health practice, but that can be easier said than done,” said Jim Bruckner, MSHS, Health Director for Macon County. "MountainElements successfully connected land-use planning, community design and public health practice and policy to build healthier communities in Western North Carolina.”

MountainElements Health Impact Assessment was a first-of-its-kind look at how the comprehensive plans in North Carolina’s eight westernmost counties impact health. The evaluation process involved the health departments of each county, their respective economic development and planning departments and the Southwestern Commission. 

The project revealed that the region as a whole supports improved food systems planning. That includes farmland preservation, improved land use, transportation networks and economic development.  

“This recognition will further help us to advance the regional conversation about the importance of health and how it can be facilitated through effective planning,” said Sarah Tennyson, Regional Coordinator for MountainWise.

MountainWise is funded through the North Carolina’s Community Transformation Grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to improve opportunities for healthy living in the eight western counties of North Carolina.

www.mountainwise.org

A Macon County man was presented the 2015 Governor’s Award for Excellence, the highest honor a state employee can receive, for providing hunting opportunities to children with special needs and disabled veterans.

The Pisgah National Forest will see the addition of 178 acres in the Mills River area of Henderson County thanks to a deal worked out by the Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy.

A new conservation agreement on a 318-acre farm in Madison County through the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy will help the family farm continue its legacy on the land for generations to come.

Atop all the festivities surrounding the holidays, the students of North Canton Elementary School each received one more gift “under the tree.” 

A glass artist at the Jackson County Green Energy Park in Dillsboro and recent Western Carolina University graduate, Cole Johnson was recently awarded a two-year scholarship beginning in January at The JamFactory, a prestigious, international art school near Adelaide, South Australia. While there, he will have the opportunity to work with master glass artists from around the globe.

Following the recent closure of Nick & Nate’s pizzeria in downtown Waynesville, Apple Creek Café will take over the Main Street space.

“As for Apple Creek Cafe’s vision, we’ve created perhaps one of the best lunch locations in Haywood County. We have also served a family-style dinner in the last four months [at our previous location],” said company spokesman Brandon Anderson. “We will not continue with family-style at the new location, but the entree choices we offered for dinner will be available.”

Originally right off of North Main Street heading out of Waynesville, the new restaurant will include specialty sandwiches, soup, salads, desserts, appetizers, and full-course steak, chicken, pasta, and fish entrees. They will be open seven days of week alongside a full bar with craft beer, wine and liquor.  

“What sets Apple Creek Café apart is our food,” Anderson said. “Our new location will be a warm and inviting atmosphere that is sure to be everyone’s favorite spot.”

Though they aim for a Feb. 1 opening, there will be interviews held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dec. 30 and Jan. 6 at the Main Street business. Anyone with experience is encouraged to apply, especially those who worked at Nick & Nate’s before it closed. 

Join us for “TASTE of LOCAL” at Ingles Markets on Champion Drive in Canton Thursday, December 17th 3:30-6 p.m.

A referendum vote asking whether tobacco growers wanted to keep giving a portion of their sales to tobacco research and education had no trouble finding support this fall. 

As of Nov. 20, 67 of the 83 North Carolina counties affected had reported their results, yielding a passing rate of 95.1 percent. 

Since 1991, the tobacco research checkoff program has allocated about $300,000 annually to tobacco-related research and extension projects at N.C. State University. Growers pay 10 cents per 100 pounds of flue-cured and burley tobacco sold. 

State law requires a referendum on whether to continue the assessment be held every six years. The assessment requires a two-thirds majority to pass, which this vote seems to have achieved. The decision will be effective through December 2021.

People wanting to explore DuPont State Forest now have three new tools at their disposal to navigate through the forest’s most beautiful trails. 

Through a partnership with National Geograpic/Trails Illustrated, Friends of DuPont Forest has released an updated trails and topography map, a section pointing out the forest’s most popular trails and an app that keeps all that information stored on a smartphone. 

“We think these are the best maps ever of the forest we love,” said Retta Allred, of Friends of DuPont. “Our partnership with National Geographic/Trails Illustrated has brought to the table a level of expertise that just isn’t available locally.”

The maps are waterproof and tear-resistant, produced with input from local trail experts and review by National Geographic. Proceeds will go toward forest improvements, trails maintenance and educational programs. Visitation at DuPont State Recreational Forest is expected to reach 650,000 next year, a four-fold increase over 2011.

Check for maps at local stores or order online at www.dupontforest.com/visit/maps/#waterproof.

An exhibit using mechanics to show how real animals work is open through Jan. 3 at the N.C. Arboretum in Asheville.

The Appalachian Farm School at Southwestern Community College will return for a second year starting Jan. 12, thanks to a $5,500 grant from the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina.

A collection of environmental and recreation-oriented groups has come out with a recommendation for two new recreations areas to be included the U.S. Forest Service forest management plan that’s currently being developed for the Pisgah and Nantahala national forests.

A state plan to comply with federal rules for controlling carbon emissions is now out for public comment, but the proposed rules leave out key points the feds had asked states to address.

The Jackson County Arts Council will host an art exhibit opening for Dawn Behling, the 2014-15 Regional Artist Project Grant Recipient, from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 17, in the Rotunda Gallery of the Jackson County Public Library in Sylva.

Seniors may begin registering for the following trips in January, which will be hosted by the Waynesville Parks and Recreation Department. All trips are available on a first come, first serve basis.

• Jan. 20: Frozen Waterfall Ramble. Join the group on this adventure to look at the winter version of our beautiful waterfalls. They will enjoy a dutch treat lunch on the route. Cost is $5 for members, $7 non-members. Departure time is 9:30 a.m.

• Jan. 27: Local Artisan Ramble. Join the group on this adventure to discover local artisans. They will stroll through their shops and discuss their craft. Lunch will be dutch treat at a local restaurant. Cost is $5 for members, $7 non-members. Departure time is 9:30 a.m.

828.456.2030 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

“Cherokee Friends” will offer free programs for visitors throughout the month of December at the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. Programs will be held at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Wednesday through Friday. Storyteller Jerry Wolfe will also be spinning his tales at 2 p.m. on Fridays.

To the Editor:

Please allow common sense to prevail in the forest management discussion. Trees are the ultimate gift — the gift that keeps giving. While growing, they assist tremendously in carbon dioxide conversion. Young, vigorous, healthy trees assist wth the water table and the entire water cycle. Trees provide shelter, shade, create wildlife habitat and, once harvested, wood from trees provides thousands of products that we humans depend upon daily.

Obviously, early man needed fire, tools and shelter — wood was the answer. Modern-day products contain wood derivatives: cough syrup, muffin mix, fabric softener, toothpaste, nail polish, tape, and film to name a few. Wood byproducts area also found in soft drinks, chewing gum paints, vanilla flavoring, cinnamon, hair spray, instant hot chocolate, maple syrup, crayons, baby food, STP oil treatment, lotion, glue, dishwashing detergent, aspirin and the list goes on and on. Trees indeed are the gift that keeps giving, even once transformed into other forms.

In the forest management dailogue, please allow responsible and sustainable harvesting to be part of the equation. Renewable and abundant, our native forestlands grow jobs and create brand new revenue. Trees are green, growing and givers. Trees give to man while living and for eternity as other magnificent wood products. Wood is indeed good.

Regan Fletcher

Candler

To the Editor:

As a North Carolina citizen, I could not understand why our senators voted against a bill that would deny the purchase of a weapon by those persons placed on a “No Fly” terrorist watch list by the FBI. 

I called Sen. Tillis' office and spoke to Luke Blanchard, an administrative assistant on legislative affairs for Tillis. He told me that the U.S. Attorney General already has the power to block persons on the No Fly list from buying a gun. This is blatantly false and misleading. The Attorney General can only block that sale if they find some other reason, like documented mental illness or a criminal record, but being placed on the terrorist watch list by the FBI does not allow the Attorney General to block that sale.

In fact, according to General Accounting Office, between 2004 and 2014 out of 2,233 persons on the No Fly list that tried to purchase a weapon, 2,043 were able to clear a background check and purchase the weapon and only 190 were blocked because there was some reason other than being on the No Fly list.  

When I told Mr. Blanchard that information was completely false, he then began to justify Tillis' vote because many people have mistakenly been placed on a No Fly list, with Sen. Ted Kennedy being his prime example.  

Once again, this information is completely false. According to the Transportation Security Administration, Kennedy was never on a No Fly list and never missed or had to cancel any flights. In 2004 Kennedy was briefly detained for further questioning because there was someone named T. Kennedy that was on the No Fly list. Sen. Kennedy was cleared after a brief screening and caught his flight without any problem. 

North Carolina citizens have the right to expect our government to keep weapons of war out of the hands of suspected terrorists. They also deserve honesty and truthfulness from the offices of our senators, not myths and false and misleading information.

Ed Morris

Franklin

Mary Kelly, a 16-year-old Smoky Mountain High School student, was recently recognized by Harris Regional Hospital for her quick actions that saved a man’s life.

Two Haywood County men and a woman are being sought in the stabbing of a 33-year-old Clyde man Sunday.

A $483,000 National Park Service grant will allow Western Carolina University to map shoreline storm vulnerability in 12 costal parks from Alaska to Florida. 

The internationally recognized WCU Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines advocates for science-based coastal management policies that balance economic and environmental interests. The grant is the latest in an ongoing partnership with the National Park Service, with a similar grant of $436,000 awarded in 2014.

The money will fund a phase of research “that will assist park managers in the decision-making process for resource management and preservation of infrastructure at coastal parks, all of which ultimately effects the economic, environmental and recreational outcomes that impact all of us,” said WCU shorelines program director Robert Young. 

The U.S. Forest Service is considering a timber project on 117 acres of the Nantahala Ranger District of the Nantahala National Forest, encompassing sections of Swain, Jackson and Macon counties. 

The project, termed a “crop tree release,” would thin out faster-growing species like red maples and yellow-poplar in order to promote the growth of slower-growing species such as oak and pine, which are considered to be more desirable for timber and wildlife food production. The work will be done in areas that had previously been commercially cleared and planted with oak and pine seedlings. 

Send comments by midnight Dec. 22 to comments-southern- This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Joan Brown, Nantahala Ranger District, 90 Sloan Road, Franklin, NC 28734. The Forest Service will issue a decision in early 2016.

A state quarantine to prevent the spread of the imported fire ant has expanded to include Macon and Graham counties, bringing the total number of counties included in the quarantine to 74. Many of the mountain counties are still exempt. 

Considered a nuisance and health concern for people and animals alike, the imported fire ant has a painful sting. It was first identified in Brunswick County in 1957. To prevent its spread, the quarantine requires residents and business owners in affected areas to obtain a permit before moving plants, sod or related equipment into or through non-infested areas. 

“Fire ants can be harmful to humans and livestock. It is critical we continue proactive efforts to slow down fire ant movement into non-infested areas of the state,” said Vernon Cox, director of the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Plant Industry Division.

Permits are available through the state’s Plant Protection Section, 800.206.9333.

www.ncagr.gov/plantindustry/plant/entomology/IFA.htm. 

Equestrians and bikers who enjoy the Staire Creek Trail in the Big Ivy Area of the Pisgah National Forest will have to wait until spring to use the trail, due to delays in completion of maintenance work there. 

The U.S. Forest Service had started a significant maintenance project on the trail’s upper portion this fall but will not be able to finish it until early spring. Until then it’s not safe for horseback or mountain bike riders, though hikers may still use the trail. The restriction is scheduled to last through March 1, 2016, though it may be extended if necessary. 

828.689.9694.

A new map to feature North Carolina’s most loved trails is now in the development stage, and the N.C. Department of Transportation is looking for nominations of trails to include.

Nearly two tons of trash were removed from Haywood County waterways this year thanks to Haywood Waterways Association’s Adopt-A-Stream Program. 

The Great Smoky Mountains Association, a nonprofit that provides millions for visitor programs, conservation and special projects in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, is getting a new director.

“Appalachian Christmas” at the Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center will deliver the nostalgic charm of mountain hospitality to visitors on Dec. 11-13.

By Brent Martin • Guest Columnist

In recent months I have watched a tense and difficult relationship play out nationally between some members of the mountain biking community and advocates for Wilderness.  And over two years ago when the Forest Service began its management plan revision for the Nantahala-Pisgah National Forest, it appeared this would be the situation here.

To the Editor:

Thanks to many, many individuals and businesses, the 2015 Turkey Drive sponsored by the Maggie Valley Area Lodging Association was a success for the eighteenth year.

We did have a wrinkle this year: the bird flu caused a shortage of turkeys, so we substituted hams for the birds.

Your generosity again allowed us to deliver Thanksgiving baskets to the Department of Human Services headquarters. In turn, their employees along with their volunteers, distributed the food to 250 families meeting DHS criteria.

Without so many people and businesses from Western North Carolina as well as several from other states, this Thanksgiving effort could not have helped as many of our county’s needy residents. So once again, kudos to all who opened their hearts as well as their wallets to help their neighbors.

Tammy Wight

President

Maggie Valley Area Lodging Association

To the Editor:

In last week’s letter to the editor (www.smokymountainnews.com/opinion/item/16807), Mr. Jones commented on the politicizing of WCU. Let me encourage us all to think about his letter and what is also happening in our university system. 

Chancellors are getting raises the size of a faculty member salary times two while faculty have received a $750 payment to stay quiet last year. They took a 5 percent cut during the Bush recession and  have only gotten a 1 percent increase since. Retiring professors are finding starting salaries for replacements to be as much as $20,000 more than their current salaries. I have to wonder if these excessive salaries are derived from reduced faculty positions and stagnant faculty and staff wages. 

The North Carolina university system charges students a fee for recreation services. Those fees translate into millions of dollars that should be — and used to be — paid by the state. While the students are paying millions to the universities, the students who work on campus are paid minimum wage and are double taxed on their meal plans. Let’s all start driving around the North Carolina University campuses to protest our universities creating the same wealth gap as in much of corporate America. 

Furthermore, the movement to privatize our public education continues with BB&T placing “distinguished Libertarian” professor of Ayn Rand in the WCU School of Business while the Koch brothers use a Trojan Horse in the form of several million dollars for a Free Enterprise Center to potentially advance Libertarian principles. Will WCU take the 40 pieces of silver? 

The answer is affirmative, with the reasoning “we need the money.” The faculty senate voted against taking the grants. The state cuts funding and the free enterprise fanatics take advantage to further privatize public education. Will the new system president continue privatizing by using for-profit software giants to install e-learning and eliminating faculty positions to pay for the services?

Social justice is just as much an issue as minority students on many North Carolina campuses quietly talk about the abusive remarks they experience. Duke University students are actively engaged in the issue as are students and faculty at Appalachian State and UNC Chapel Hill. Isn’t it time students and faculty in our public school system from k-12 and higher education take the kind of action we witnessed at the University of Missouri? When the football team refused to play on Saturday, university leaders immediately made changes. The powerful listen when their sources of revenue are at risk. Anything less does not matter. How much change happened with the Moral Monday marches? How much happens with letters to the editor? The General Assembly is still up to its mischief. It has not changed because tax revenues are not threatened and business as usual has not been interrupted. 

Isn’t it time we the people of Western North Carolina become visible and take the kind of action that says “enough is enough” and motivates our leaders here to change?

Ron Robinson

Sylva

To the Editor:

It is time to wake up and take a big whiff of reality. The shape of our economy has shifted over the years and not for the better. I hear people say things like “If low-wage workers want to make more money they should get a real job.” But the reality of our current job market makes this impossible. Corporations have restructured and outsourced so many of our “real jobs” that many college graduates simply can’t get hired anywhere but in low-wage fastfood or retail jobs. 

I ask you why is this the case? In an age when corporations are consistently posting billion dollar profits, why do they refuse to pay their employees a living wage? Is it greed? Is it cultural bias? I can’t answer these questions, but what I can say is that more money finding its way out of offshore corporate accounts and back into our economy can’t be a bad thing.

While some companies have taken that bold step of becoming trendsetters by voluntarily raising wages, many more will reluctantly hold back until forced to change by legislation. But here we find that these money-hoarding corporations are suddenly willing to part with their hard-earned dollars to pay lobbyists who work to block those very laws from becoming reality.

However, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, I am hopeful and optimistic. I am hopeful because I know deep down in my heart that we are a good people. I know that we can, in spite of the media rhetoric, still empathize with our fellow human beings. I am optimistic because I know that many of us want to do the right thing and build a better society for everyone. 

Armed with hope and optimism, I decided to join a group of other concerned citizens in a drive-through protest in Asheville on a recent Saturday. We drove a circuit around the city passing through each McDonalds with a drive-thru and handed the employee at the window the seventeen cents the company would have to charge extra per meal to cover the raise in wages. Never mind the fact that McDonald’s could easily dip into its $6.5 billion in annual profits to pay employees better without a price hike.

With this knowledge firmly in mind, I encourage each and every one of you to also take action, be that a call to your state and federal representatives or simply spreading a message of positive change to friends and family. If each of us does even a small part we can make our country strong again.

Cory Lomax

Sylva

To the Editor:

As the U.S. Forest Service proceeds through the plan revision for the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests, it is a good time to reflect on the role that forest management can play in protecting environmental values while enhancing our regional economy. One example of how environmental values and our regional economy can both be improved is through integrated forest management that incorporates and restores mixed age stands and creates early successional habitat that is lacking throughout the region. Such a strategy would provide a sustainable source of harvestable trees for the local timber industry, and also provide unique habitat settings for a wide variety of native wildlife species such as ruffed grouse and some songbirds. 

Though the current Nantahala-Pisgah National Forests Management Plan covers 1,040,000 acres, only 800-900 acres have actually been logged annually over the last 10 to 15 years. More frequent harvests in targeted areas can be a valuable tool for increasing the pace and scale of restoration. 

Forest management at optimum levels will require staff resources within the U.S. Forest Service that are currently not available. Budget cuts continue to reduce staff numbers, and the remaining staff are increasingly needed for other duties, including wildfire control outside the region in various areas around the country. We need a forest management plan that addresses both economic and environmental issues, but it should be administered by an agency with the capacity to follow through and implement the strategies that are ultimately approved. 

I encourage everyone to visit the Forest Service’s website at http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/nfsnc/home/?cid=STELPRDB5397660 and learn about the forest management planning process and how you can be involved. There is a lot at stake for the economy and the environment.

Jason Love

WNC Public Lands Council

To the Editor:

I hope to be understood that my family is as pro-wireless communication as anyone in Cashiers. Verizon needs to find a new place to put its antennas because the tower currently hosting its antenna will have to move sometime late next year.

All the other carriers serving Cashiers have their antennas on a different existing tower behind Freeman Gas. That tower has room available and is willing to host Verizon’s antenna. Colocating there is the best place to put them, instead of on a new tower 12 stories tall to be constructed in the Gana Sita neighborhood.

Even if our neighbor’s 20-acre tract in Gana Sita were the best place for a new tower, it doesn’t have to be put in the far corner, next to two of our property lines. There is ample room. They have 20 wooded acres in which to work. It doesn’t have to go so close and in such an exposed place within our view corridor of surrounding mountain peaks, and that is exactly where it is currently proposed.

Alternate sites on the same parcel were reviewed by all interested parties last summer at the bidding of the Jackson County Planning Board. We felt a compromise was struck by moving the tower site only 250 feet southeast (or further), embedded in the woods and just slightly off the ridge line.  

It was and still is a reasonable compromise.

We were surprised to learn that, even after Jackson County Planning Board suggested that we find a compromise and consider moving the tower site, the big corporation that wants to build it refused to budge, even though it hurts our property value deeply.

We are asking the Jackson County Commissioners to deny the application for the proposed site, but not necessarily alternate, less harmful sites in the middle of the same parcel if Verizon doesn’t colocate on the existing tower behind Freeman Gas, or a less intrusive site for a new tower cannot be found.

We can do better when it comes to site location than what this global corporation wants to ram down our throats. We can still have good Verizon service in the Cashiers crossroads area without damaging neighboring properties. 

Please come to the public hearing at 11 a.m. on Dec. 10 and and the judicial hearing at 1 p.m. on the same day at the Cashiers Library. The public is welcome and so is your opinion.

Rick Barrs

Cashiers

To the Editor:

Below are several of the solutions proposed by many of the candidates running for president to end the terrorist threat in the United States. These solutions are backed by appeals to Americans’ patriotism, suggesting our very way of life as well as our safety is at risk. 

The people are rallied in support of a perceived common threat or foe of an ethnic and religious minority, in this case Syrians and Muslims. We must build up funding for a mighty military force, neglecting pressing domestic issues. Fear for our nation’s security and way of life is used to motivate public support and suppress civil liberties. 

Christianity is the most common religion in our nation. Several presidential candidates support suppression of religious minorities even though it violates our Constitution. The Supreme Court decision supporting “Citizens United” has resulted in the use of huge amounts of money to elect candidates to public office who support the above policies. Expensive advertising campaigns are used to smear opposition candidates.

The business aristocracy puts government leaders into power to create a mutually beneficial business/government relationship. Many state legislatures are dominated by politicians whose election campaigns were paid for by this wealthy minority. These legislators passed laws to redraw political district boundaries and manipulate election outcomes to favor their financial backers. Laws are passed to suppress voting by citizens opposed to the above policies. Labor unions, supporters of workers’ rights, are often eliminated or severely suppressed. 

Another related issue, supported by many candidates, would shrink government’s role in the economy. Proposals include privatizing social security and health care. If this were to happen, big corporations would reap huge profits and the average American would suffer.

The policies endorsed by many presidential candidates reflect basic tenants of fascism. Economic depression, a declining middle class, and international disgrace following World War I led to the rise of Adolph Hitler. Hitler was elected by popular vote in Germany, promising to make Germany great again. The people voluntarily surrendered their civil liberties and voting rights in exchange for Hitler’s rebuilding Germany’s military might and restoring economic prosperity by promoting the growth of private corporations. 

Will the majority of Americans support presidential candidates who endorse policies taking us down the same road?

Margery Abel

Franklin