Movin' on

The Town of Weaverville is gearing up for its annual Fourth of July celebration this Friday. In hopes of alleviating crowd control concerns, the town announced in April that it was moving its celebration to Lake Louise Park from Main Street.

Weaverville Town Manager Mike Morgan told the Tribune, "We have come increasingly nervous and concerned about the number of individuals we have on Main Street in such a tight area."

The celebration at Lake Louise will stretch along the shore of the popular lake. Booths will open at 4 pm, opening ceremonies will begin at 6:30 pm and the fireworks will conclude the evening at 10 pm. Shuttle buses will transport guests from area parking lots to the lake.

Leaving Main Street upset at least one downtown business owner. Blue Mountain Pizza owner Matt Danford told the Tribune in April, "I don't see the reason for moving it. But it doesn't surprise me." Danford said the festival grew up on Main Street and was a celebration of, what is considered by most to be, the heart of the town.

Lake Louise is an attractive alternative, and the notion of watching the fireworks explode over the rippled waters is appealing. It will be interesting to see if the layout of the festival stretches beyond the proposed arrangements on Lakeshore Drive. Lake Louise has more room, but it will need to be utilized effectively in order to maximize space. Another question will be the amount of foot traffic the new venue generates.

Weaverville prides itself on its Fourth of July celebration. Let's hope this move pays off.

Somethin' in the soil

Claude Cochran, 71, says he has been farming all his life. But, he's never had the kind of success growing vegetables than the kind he's been having in his Ollie Weaver Road garden the past few years. Several years ago, he dug up a batch of 5-pound sweet potatoes. On Wednesday (June 25), he reached in the ground and pulled out something he had never seen before: a 1-pound, 5 oz. cauliflower.

"I can't explain it. It's the biggest I've ever had," Cochran remarked. There's some fertile soil in northwest Weaverville.

Old-time music in Mars Hill

Mars Hill College hosted Blue Ridge Old-Time Music Week the second week of June. The annual weeklong event provided amateur and accomplished musicians an opportunity to learn more about traditional Blue Ridge Mountain music through workshops, classes, concerts and jam sessions.

Some of the available classes included varying levels of banjo, fiddle, mandolin, upright bass, guitar and dulcimer as well as lessons in singing, rhythm and storytelling.


Mars Hill College submitted the following pictures.


Instructor Joe Newberry teaches an intermediate banjo class during Blue Ridge Old Time Music Week at Mars Hill College June 8-13








Afternoon jam sessions add to the fun at Blue Ridge Old Time Music Week at Mars Hill College June 8-13.

Headed in a new direction

James Latimore, chairman of the Woodfin Water Board, is looking toward the future. The board granted water service to a new development in West Buncombe County, but not before debating its merits.

The board passed a conservation resolution in 2007 that essentially stated that the board would grant water service to developers who practice in "green" building standards.

Latimore enforced this resolution when developer Jack Fisher (pictured) asked the Woodfin Sanitary Water and Sewer District for water service to an additional 42 units in his River Highlands project to be constructed off Olivette Road. The board approved water service for 168 units in 2007. Latimore wondered if the increase in density would also increase the development's impact on the surrounding environment. Latimore discussed the topic with the developers for two months.

"What we're trying to figure out is what we can do to make developers think more about conservation," Latimore told Fisher at a June 23 meeting of the board.

Fisher outlined preliminary plans for land easements, use of electric vehicles within the development, south-facing exposure and rain barrel distribution. The use of any solar power and low-flush toilets would be left up to the discretion of the homeowner, a point Latimore contended.

"I don't feel bad about using the water board as a sounding board for this concept," Latimore said of eco-friendly construction.

The debates indicate that Woodfin water growth will be carefully considered with Latimore as chairman.

Circle gets a square

The to-be constructed traffic circle at the future home of Reynolds Village in Woodfin brings up some interesting points.

1) In Europe, some traffic circles have different yielding laws including having the vehicles in the circle allow incoming traffic into the roundabout. At traffic circles in Asheville, the incoming traffic yields. Is it better to have traffic potentially stacking in the circle or on the thoroughfare? And of course, some traffic circles in Europe are nearly the size of a city block, which would dwarf the proposed Woodfin circle.

2) How will drivers using Merrimon Avenue/Weaverville Road as a means to get from North Buncombe County to Asheville react to slowing their drive in Woodfin. Currently, the stretch of Weaverville Road through Woodfin has a 35 miles per hour limit in sections, but traffic flows generally at a swifter pace. Will drivers react favorably to slowing around a traffic circle and potentially visiting the new village? Or will they choose to bypass Woodfin altogether for the nearby free-flowing future Interstate 26?

The Reynolds Mountain development team is transforming this growing town piece by piece. Woodfin as we know it won't be the same place in another five years. Is everybody on board?

Bus fuss

During the hearings leading up to the approval of the 2008-2009 budget, there has been much talk among the Weaverville Town Council and concerned citizens about the town's bus service. Currently, a bus from the Asheville City Transit System travels from Weaverville to Woodfin before concluding its route in downtown Asheville five times daily.

Council member Dottie Sherrill said she rarely sees more than two people on the route. Other council members expressed concerns whether the route was worth the annual price tag of $10,000.

At Monday night's (June 19) council meeting, Hamburg Mountain Road residents Susan Stuart and Richard Keene said the reason for the low numbers of riders on the bus was its infrequent schedule. The bus currently stops in downtown Weaverville around 7 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 2 p.m., 3:30 p.m., and 7 p.m. Keene said a 30-minute doctor's appointment in Asheville would take six hours riding the bus.

Councilman Gene Knoefel said the bus service was a waste of tax dollars, while Councilman Don Hallingse said he wanted to wait for an origin and destination survey, which is scheduled to be released in September, before determining the fate of the bus service in Weaverville.

Church construction talk

Several callers have phoned The Weaverville Tribune's office to express concern over the large swath of trees currently being cut down near Reems Creek-Beech Presbyterian Church at the end of Reems Creek Road. The historic church is undergoing an expansion project, which the Rev. Dr. Henry Scoggins discussed during an interview with the Tribune last fall. He said the goal of the project will be to improve the church's parking and unusual layout. More on this story will be in an upcoming edition of The Weaverville Tribune.

Wildcat

D-Day veteran Delize O. Honeycutt said he has been a Woodfin resident nearly all of his life. True, he spent some time in Europe fighting Nazi forces during World War II. But, before even enlisting in the U.S. Army, he traveled and lived in the Western United States.

Honeycutt left home at 13 and took to hoping trains to get where he needed to go. "Where I could get a meal was home to me then," Honeycutt remarked. He eventually made his way out West, where he found odd jobs working on oil refineries and taking care of mules. "I like mules because they're lazy like me," he laughed.

Today, his Woodfin Avenue home is still decorated with pictures and portraits inspired from his time spent out West.

Vehicle graveyard

Each year, town budgets accommodate the costs of new vehicles for the town's fire, police, public works and various other departments. Weaverville and Woodfin are no different. When it comes time to decommission one of these vehicles, does the town get any return for it? Not much, according to Weaverville Town Manager Mike Morgan.

Morgan, Weaverville Public Works Director Larry Sprinkle and Weaverville Police Chief Greg Stephens responded to several questions on this matter during a public hearing on the town budget Monday night (June 9). Councilmen Walt Currie and Doug Jackson asked the department heads if they had investigated ways to get top dollar on the return of their vehicles. Sprinkle said his department had tried several avenues, including govdeals.com and Ebay, all with little success. Stephens mentioned that since the return is so low, he ensures he gets maximum use out of the vehicles by rotating older models to employees who may not use the vehicles for high-speed pursuits. Morgan said the town had sold several vehicles to a scrap metal dealer in Virginia.

"The market is just not there for selling old vehicles," Sprinkle told the council.

Herron Cove hubbub

Emergency personnel from the Weaverville and Reems Creek fire departments spent most of their day Monday (June 9) out on Herron Cove Road in Weaverville. Shortly before 1 pm, a small brush fire broke out in the back of home, igniting a portion of a fence. A teenage male at the house accidently started the fire. Personnel, including the Buncombe County Sheriff's Office, were again called out to Herron Cove Road shortly after 3 pm to settle a domestic dispute. The domestic disturbrance broke out at a residence roughly 100 yards from the first call. A car was lit on fire during the dispute. The scene was finally cleared around 5 pm.

We're ready to blog

During the past several months, developing a sustainable web presence has become a priority at the Tribune office. To this extent, we've decided to add a blog feature to our website called "Dropped From the Headlines." In this space, we will feature news, notes and nuggets that just missed the weekly edition of The Weaverville Tribune.

We feel this initiative will enable the Tribune reporting staff to keep the readers of North Buncombe County better informed about the goings-on in their community. This will not be a forum for breaking news. Rather, this will be a place to find an interesting tidbit or element that we couldn't squeeze onto the page.

As we continue to develop this new venture, we encourage feedback from readers to help us cultivate what we hope will bring another valued dimension to the Tribune's coverage.