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Four Seasons Politics

Mills River councilman announces state Senate campaign

North Carolina Four Seasons Politics

Legislator served with domestic violence order

State Rep. Cody Henson, R-Transylvania, was served with a domestic violence protection order late last month, records from the Transylvania County Courthouse show.   Read Story »

Henderson County Four Seasons Politics

Politico profile describes Meadows as 'Trump whisperer" and 'go-to guy'

U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows continues to enjoy broad influence with President Trump despite being passed over for the White House chief of staff job, Politico reports. In a story under the headline "Mark Meadows, Trump whisperer," the website describes Meadows as the president's "go-to guy," a close ally who talks on the phone frequently with Trump and serves to enforce the conservative hard-line positions that the Freedom Caucus stands for. Meadows and Trump speak several times a day on some days and sometimes for an hour. "The result is that a three-term congressman little known outside the Beltway has earned an outsized influence on shaping the direction of the Trump administration — and the country," the report said. "Meadows has the president’s ear on any number of topics, from immigration and border security to criminal justice and international affairs. And he’s used that access to push Trump toward stances aligned with the rapidly ascendant House Freedom Caucus, the hard-line conservative and libertarian caucus founded in 2015 that Meadows chairs. "In other words, Meadows — who many people, even those in D.C., probably couldn’t pick out of a lineup — might be one of the country’s most powerful lawmakers." The story traces Meadows' close relationship with Trump to the presidential campaign when Meadows, one of the first members of Congress to endorse him, became "the de facto chairman of Trump’s operation in North Carolina." While other congressional leaders were putting distance between themselves and Trump when the Access Hollywood tape broke, Meadows and his wife, Debbie, sprang to his defense. “Debbie was on a bus with Christian women on Billy Bush Saturday, which was basically the acid test for hardcore Trump supporters," a Trump campaign official told Politico. "She and Mark were at the barricades with us.”         Read Story »

Flat Rock Four Seasons Politics

LIGHTNING EDITORIAL: What to watch in 2019

Elections in the cities, development in downtown Hendersonville, the next steps in the pursuit of high-speed internet service, the new sheriff’s policy changes and popular uprisings against road improvements and development highlight the forecast for 2019.   Read Story »

Hendersonville Four Seasons Politics

Cost gap (again) provokes conflict (again) on HHS

A difference in School Board architects' cost projection and a higher cost blessed by a contractor retained by Henderson County has again led to conflict in the Hendersonville High School project. The Henderson County School Board on Monday night unanimously endorsed and sent on to the Board of Commissioners the new plan for Hendersonville High School that renovates the historic Stillwell core building and auditorium while adding classroom space and other new buildings. The plans were drawn by a partnership of firms — Asheville-based PFA Architects and LS3P, a Charlotte-based education construction specialist. After a meeting Friday with the contractor that has worked for Henderson County on numerous large projects, the cost projection went up from $52.6 million to $59.2 million. County Manager Steve Wyatt on Tuesday objected to the way the School Board and its architects characterized the new cost projection as "add-ons" that the county wanted. He objected to the characterization of the additional cost as add-ons, when those things, including fixtures, furniture and equipment, and the architects' fees, are essential and fundamental. “Apparently somebody said last night the county wanted to add some stuff. It’s stuff you had to have to have school," he said. "Let me be clear, that’s the total to operate a school or design a school or build a school, like the architects’ fees. I’d be happy to zero that line item out but I don’t think they’d be happy.” The School Board's projection also failed to include a fee for a construction manager at risk, a contractor who coordinates the project and agrees to bear cost overruns. “They left that out and we put it back in,” Wyatt said. Wyatt said it was at his insistence that the county brought in “a third party,” Vannoy, to check behind the architects’ projections. That meeting took place Friday after Wyatt and Commissioner Bill Lapsley, a civil engineer with decades of construction experience, met with PFA principal Maggie Carnavale and her team in December and pointed out what Wyatt describes as significant omissions. The architectural team, led by Carnavale, Scott Donald and Jamie Henderson, told the School Board on Monday, Jan. 7, that they stood by the $52.6 million projection. “That’s concerning because again we pointed that out in December,” Wyatt said. “She knew about it last week. We pointed out several things that were not included in that budget.”Wyatt said he's confident in the Vannoy-blessed projection of $59.2 million, “which I think now is a good number. It’s concerning that as late as a week ago the architect was touting the $52.6 million with buffer.”Although new artificial turf for the high school football field has never been a part of the overall construction budget, Wyatt said the commissioners expect to include that if they authorize the overall project.“My frustration has been I’ve got to know how much money we’re going to borrow so we can pay these people,” he said. “It looks like it’s right at $60 million.” The school system hired PFA Architects in October to do the preliminary design for $130,142, with that amount refundable as a credit if the county school system retains PFA to complete the final design and construction drawings, a job that's expected to take a year.   Read Story »

Hendersonville Four Seasons Politics

School Board sends county costlier — by $7 million — HHS construction plan

The Henderson County School Board unanimously endorsed and sent on to the Board of Commissioners on Monday night a new plan for Hendersonville High School that preserves the historic Stillwell core building while adding a second large classroom building, second gym, new courtyard space and numerous security improvements.   Read Story »

Hendersonville Four Seasons Politics

New HHS plan wins applause

Architects hired to draw a new plan for Hendersonville High School presented a design Monday night that drew praise from the School Board and applause from Bearcat alumni and faculty in the audience. The plan preserves the historic Stillwell core building — the crux of a dispute between the county commissioners and School Board — while adding a second large classroom building, second gym, new courtyard space and numerous security improvements.Two architectural firms formed a partnership for the project in response to the School Board’s request for a new school design. The firms are Asheville-based PFA Architects and LS3P, a Charlotte-based education construction specialist that has built 576 school buildings in the past 20 years.Presented at a special meeting of the School Board on Monday night, the new plan followed the same lines as one that that the firm presented back in September when it won the board’s endorsement to design. With its final vote on the plan expected to come next week, the School Board is near the end of this phase of its last ditch effort to save the HHS construction project after a rift with the Board of Commissioners over the cost and design issues.Jay Egolf, who just joined the School Board last month after winning election in November, complimented the School Board and the architects for having come this far.“Everybody did an outstanding job,” he said. “I think it’s great. Great job.”Board Chair Amy Lynn Holt, who with Blair Craven led the battle for a Stillwell-centric plan, said the vote on this new plan would come next Monday night.“We’re just waiting on some final budget numbers so we can approve it and hopefully take it across town for approval,” she said. PFA principal Maggie Carnevale told the School Board that the team had held seven different meetings with high school faculty and staff, briefed county commissioners on the plans and begun working with Vannoy Construction, which has done many projects for the county, on refining cost estimates. The architects also have gotten the preliminary blessing from the state Department of Public Instruction — “They said keep going, keep moving forward,” Carnevale said — and has met four times with the development team of the city of Hendersonville, including the city manager, fire chief, police chief, planning staff, engineers and public works.The plan would result in 150,000 square feet of new and renovated space, including 91,000 square feet of new building.PFA partner Scott Donald said the team’s primary goal was to preserve the historic Stillwell building while adding the new space and making the campus secure. Besides the Stillwell building, only the 1974 gym would survive. The cafeteria, bandroom, vocational-ed building and auxiliary gym would all be bulldozed by the time the project is done in 2023.The construction phasing is complicated and not without sacrifice. HHS will lose use of a gym for one whole school year; once the cafeteria is demolished to make room for the new classroom building, lunches will be made offsite at Hendersonville Middle School and brought to HHS.“The Stillwell building is a community landmark and it’s also a very well built building,” Donald said. “They did things right in the ‘20s. It’s a building worth saving.”The historic building has a new roof and a new chiller but will need new wiring, heating and AC systems and fire safety fixes to meet code. The architects said the “critically undersized classrooms” will be greatly enlarged without disturbing columns or load-bearing walls. “It can be repaired and renovated. It also will save you a lot of money compared to building two new buildings. Rather than do that, we can repair these buildings and use them for another 75 years.” The Jim Pardue Gymnasium and originally HHS building “have a lot of meaning to the community,” he said. “They’re well worth saving.”Architect Amy Dowty explained the security improvements for a campus that is “too porous” with “too many entries.” The plan creates 146 parking spaces on the Boyd lot.“That gives us enough room on this campus that we can look at the campus as a whole and make it safe,” she said. “If we can provide 146 spaces on this campus then we meet the ordinance and this plan does that. That’s not counting parking on the street.”Students and faculty would reach the parking lot with a right turn from Asheville Highway at the now closed Ninth Avenue and would exit via right turn only onto Asheville Highway. Bus loading would be safer and simpler thanks to a turn-out lane parallel to Oakland Street. “We have designed this entry so there would be two manned supervisable entries into the building at pickup and dropoff times,” Dowty said. “After pickup and dropoff time, all the other doors could be locked automatically.”Connecting the new classroom to the Stillwell building with a second-story pedestrian bridge means students can reach everything on the campus without having to go outside — a major security improvement.   Read Story »

Edneyville Four Seasons Politics

The Top 10, No. 2: Voters oust sheriff

Charlie McDonald, initially reluctant to fill the job as sheriff, parlayed his 2012 appointment to the job into a strong campaign to win the job via election two years later.   Read Story »

Henderson County Four Seasons Politics

Bio sketch revisions remove reference to a four-year degree for Meadows

U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows, the House Freedom Caucus who had been prominently mentioned as a possible choice as President Trump's chief of staff, has had an update of his official congressional biography and Wikipedia biography. The biographical sketches no longer say that he earned a bachelor's degree from the University of South Florida. That's because he didn't, the Tampa Bay Times reported Tuesday. Meadows official biographical sketch on a U.S. House website listed his education as "B.A., University of South Florida, Tampa," said the story by the Tampa Bay Times, which also included a screenshot of the House bio. Instead of a four-year degree, Meadows earned an "associate of arts" from USF in December 1980, USF spokesman Adam Freeman told the Florida newspaper. That degree is "similar to a degree an individual might earn after completing two years at a community college," Freeman told reporter Steve Contorno. The House historian corrected Meadows' biography Monday after the Tampa Bay Times inquired about the discrepancy. Meadows spokesman Ben Williamson told the Hendersonville Lightning on Wednesday that no one in Meadows' office had made the Wikipedia revisions on Dec. 11 and that Meadows and his aides had never been the source of the references to a four-year degree from USF. The Washington press corps and newspapers that cover the 11th Congressional District, including the Hendersonville Lightning, have routinely repeated the reference to Meadows as a graduate of USF, sometimes reporting that his B.A. was in "business management." There's no business management degree for two-year students, Freeman told the Florida newspaper. The Tampa Bay Times was apparently looking into Meadows' upbringing and early adult years in the Tampa Bay area as the possibility increased that he would become Trump's third chief of staff. While several other possible candidates publicly took their names out of consideration, Meadows, one of the Trump's earliest and strongest supporters in Congress, made his interest clear. He told a reporter on Monday, Dec. 10, that it would be "an incredible honor" to serve in the White House. The next day, the Wikipedia page was changed. One day later, on Dec. 12, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders announced that Trump had eliminated Meadows from consideration. “Congressman Mark Meadows is a great friend to President Trump and is doing an incredible job in Congress," she said. "The President told him we need him in Congress so he can continue the great work he is doing there.” Not every reference to his college education has been changed to describe an associates degree. "He graduated from the University of South Florida with a degree in business management," Meadows' bio on the election news site Ballotpedia says, citing the National Journal as the source of the information. Although references to a B.A. or a degree in business management are common in stories about Meadows, the Tampa Bay Times report noted that "none of these stories directly quote Meadows claiming (to have) such a degree from USF. It also does not appear that Meadows has ever professed a four-year degree from USF on his Congressional website, according to a review of archived web pages." The person who tweaked the Meadows' Wikipedia bio made two other changes, removing a claim that he had "joined Sigma Chi Fraternity" at USF and that he previously had attended Florida State University. An FSU spokesman confirmed to the Florida newspaper that Meadows attended the university in 1977-78. On Wednesday the Wikipedia page had been updated yet again to reflect the facts the Tampa Bay Times uncovered.   Read Story »

Asheville Four Seasons Politics

Edwards appointed to state Tourism Board

State Sen. Chuck Edwards, who represents three tourism-rich counties, has been appointed to the North Carolina Travel and Tourism Board.   Read Story »

Four Seasons Politics Archive