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Four Seasons Politics

State House passes local bills

Henderson County Four Seasons Politics

Larry Young, former three-term commissioner, dies at age 75

Larry R. Young, a three-term Henderson County commissioner who styled himself as a fiscal conservative while later endorsing a variety of major capital improvements, died early today after a period of declining health. He was 75.   Read Story »

Henderson County Four Seasons Politics

Former sheriff divorces Republican Party

From the mid-’90s through the mid-’00s, George Erwin was arguably the most powerful elected Republican in Henderson County.After his stunning upset of popular incumbent, Sheriff Ab Jackson, in the Republican primary in 1994, Erwin went on to consolidate a base of party regulars, and win back the old Ridge Republicans who had supported his vanquished opponent. But he went further. Against the advice of skeptical supporters who said Republican-trending Henderson County didn’t need tinkering, he worked to broaden the party’s appeal among independents and Democrats — black, white and brown.Through his energy, forward thinking law enforcement innovation and personal approach, Erwin was credited with building one of the most powerful and inclusive machines in recent local political history — deploying his network to help elect a little known sureties broker named Tom Apodaca to the state Senate in 2002 while also boosting other Republicans from the moderate wing of the local party.Now, 22 years later, Erwin is no longer a Republican.“The Republican Party left me, let’s put it that way,” he said in an interview on Tuesday. “The Republican Party just is in a circular firing squad for a number of years. There’s a lot of talk about reaching out to minorities. I haven’t seen it. I always tried to do that and was pretty much successful in doing that.”Erwin recalled an early meeting in his first campaign when he told supporters, “We’re going to have barbecues in every part of the county, we’re going to have every kind of music. We’re going to Green Meadows. And they said, ‘Do you think people in Green Meadows are going to vote for you as a Republican?’ I said, ‘It doesn’t matter. I’m going to be sheriff.’”The Erwin campaign roasted hotdogs and handed them out to children. It got a band. Deputies and other campaign volunteers played basketball with young black teenagers. He didn’t stop his outreach when he won.He worked to win over every ethnic group, every party, every political stripe. When he first threw a Father-Son day for the Latino community, hardly anyone showed up. The old guard again gave him “I told you s0” looks. Erwin wasn’t discouraged.“I said, ‘They’re just testing us.’ The next time they had an event they invited us,” he said.When the League of Women Voters had an event, Erwin showed up, never mind that doctrinaire Republicans regarded the organization as a bastion of liberal Democrats. When he ran DARE camps for fifth graders, he welcomed kids of every color from every household, rich or poor. From the state and national party, he hears only lip service to the idea of broadening the party he loved.“It’s fine to talk about things and reaching out but I’ve never seen action going in that direction,” he said. “The state party had a vice chairman who was African-American and all they did was give him grief. They had a chairman who was African-American and they voted him out.”Although he cringed at the campaign, Erwin strongly supported one candidate.“In Ted Cruz we had a strong Republican candidate with strong conservative values and a strong conservative history and people just didn’t support him,” he said.“It’s so vicious and vitriolic,” he said. “I just had enough. They’re getting away from their conservative values. We’ve got a potential nominee now that makes remarks toward the handicapped and toward a number of different groups. That’s just not a part of who I am. I don’t see how you can just rip people apart and say nasty things and then say now we all have got to get together. People can forgive but they’re not going to forget.”Even so, Erwin adds that like a lot of conservatives he’ll hold his nose and vote for Donald Trump, because he considers Hillary Clinton a lot farther from his values.Erwin expressed frustration that his former party doesn’t heed the obvious warning signs of decline. Unaffiliated voters are just 457 short of leading in registration — 29,402 to 29,859 Republicans to 17,442 Democrats.“Look at these people,” he tells his Republican friends. “They’re leaving the party. They say, ‘We’re a Republican county. We’re always going to be a Republican county.’ No, we’re not.   Read Story »

Henderson County Four Seasons Politics

Don't miss this week's Hendersonville Lightning (83)

You won't want to miss this week’s Hendersonville Lightning.   Read Story »

Henderson County Four Seasons Politics

No tax increase in $126M county budget

Henderson County residents would see no tax increase under a budget County Manager Steve Wyatt presented to the Board of Commissioners on Monday night.   Read Story »

Henderson County Four Seasons Politics

Apodaca proposes referendum on HB2

State Sen. Tom Apodaca, the second ranked Republican in the Senate, on Tuesday floated a new idea on HB2, the controversial bill that has drawn widespread protest and economic backlash. He'd put the measure on the ballot and let North Carolina voters decide.   Read Story »

Hendersonville Four Seasons Politics

McGrady explains missed vote on HB2

State Rep. Chuck McGrady is not ready to commit to upholding or opposing HB2, the state law that bars government from establishing or mandating transgender bathroom accommodation and makes other changes governing LGBT protections in North Carolina.   Read Story »

Flat Rock Four Seasons Politics

LIGHTNING EDITORIAL: Rail tankers not subject to zoning

Watco, the shortline freight hauler that operates here as Blue Ridge Southern Railroad, is just doing what a smart business does. Other railroad companies suddenly found themselves with tankers sidelined by a glut of crude oil and natural gas. Blue Ridge has rail tracks it’s not using. Supply and demand strikes again. As the Hendersonville Lightning reported last week, the ominous-looking black tankers showed up on the rail line between Highland Lake Road in Flat Rock and Mine Gap Road last month. Residents of Highland Lake Village, an upscale mostly retirement neighborhood in Flat Rock, don’t like looking at the cars. The LP gas warning labels make them nervous.Ginger Brown is a resident Highland Lake Village and a Flat Rock Village Council member. Her neighbors assumed she could do something about the rail cars. Not so much. First, that section of tracks is not within the village boundaries. Brown contacted the railroad company’s local marketing director.“I called her twice last week and kind of complained a little bit,” Brown said. “She called me Friday and said some of those tankers had been called back into service. She said she couldn’t promise that they wouldn’t come back and bring friends. But they’re still there. She said they will be leaving this week. She said they might go this weekend.”Brown said she was appreciative that Blue Ridge Railroad pulled the tankers from the Highland Park Road area this week.In an interview last week, Blue Ridge Railroad’s marketing director, Brigid Rich, described the tankers as “empty residue cars” that contain no volatile chemicals or gas.“It could be an in-and-out kind of thing,” she said of the duration. The railroad company can use the tracks for this purpose, she said, even though the line has been out of service since 2002.Councilwoman Brown also mentioned plans to contact Henderson County to see what elected officials could do. Little to nothing. Turns out the tankers in storage are yet another example of a disruptive land-use beyond the reach of local zoning regulations, like the proposed Duke Energy transmission line last summer and the current natural gas line construction.“That’s their property,” County Manager Steve Wyatt said when the Lightning asked about the stored tankers. “It’s a railroad. It’s commerce.”It’s encouraging that Watco’s local managers, by all evidence, are open about what the business is doing and responsive to neighbors’ concerns. Watco is, after all, the company that has to come to the table if the Ecusta Trail is ever going to happen. Plenty of people would gladly accept a few months of storage on the Saluda-bound line in exchange for negotiations on the Hendersonville-to-Brevard line.Residents who have researched the current state of the oil and gas industry learned that surplus tankers are increasingly common as drilling and fracking has slowed. The oil market is like the weather in our mountains. If you don’t like it, wait a little a while and it will change.   Read Story »

Henderson County Four Seasons Politics

Crowd rallies against HB2

Nearly 200 people gathered at the Historic Courthouse downtown Friday afternoon in a spirited protest against HB2, the state law on sexual-orientation discrimination that has sharply divided North Carolina voters and provoked vocal national opposition.The Rev. Jim McKinley, pastor of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Hendersonville, urged the protesters to set aside the “language of opposition” and focus on how they can change things by showing up and making their voices heard.“I want to think the sponsors of House Bill 2 for all they’ve done to awaken our awareness of transgender concerns and LGBT rights in North Carolina,” McKinley said. Sponsored by the Campaign for Southern Equality and theHenderson County chapter of the NAACP, the rally aimed to stoke opposition to HB2 but also to explain its broader implications. Organizers handed out copies of the bill in an effort to show that it was broader than just a "bathroom bill" affecting transgender men and women. “We want to give the community a chance to protest against this bill, which is about discrimination against many people including the GLBT community,” PFLAG chapter president Jerry Miller said in advance of the protest. “Prohibiting people from using the bathroom of the gender to which they identify is just one small part. To name a few others — it prohibits communities from passing ordinances which affect wages, and other working issues.”The most personal appeal came from Archer Faust, a transgender male.“There was a lot more to it that I was very angry about,” he said of the bill. “The whole bathroom issue was just the first page or two. There are more sections covering employment and public employees. I was very upset to learn that now that HB2 had passed it was considered a religious freedom bill.”“They’re using fear of trans people and I’m upset that they’re using that,” he told the crowd of 175 people. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. We’re just people, right?”The crowd cheered and applauded.He called on the audience and other speakers to send a message: “We won’t tolerate hatred. We won’t tolerate it in Henderson County or anywhere else.”“Repeal that law,” the crowd chanted as the next speaker, Rabbi Phil Bentley, came to the lectern.Bentley read a letter he said “rabbis all over the state” had signed opposing what it called “state-sponsored discrimination.”“We will not stand idly by as the North Carolina Legislature weakens the legal protections for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender brothers and sisters,” Bentley said. “Our prayers are with the thousands of North Carolinians whose humanity is under attack. We stand with them and against those who would strip them of their legal guarantees under the law.”“I just got back from a family event in New York,” Bently told the crowd. “North Carolina has become a national joke.”The most personal appeal came from Archer Faust, a transgender male.“There was a lot more to it that I was very angry about,” he said. “The whole bathroom issue was just the first page or two. There are more sections covering employment and public employees. I was very upset to learn that now that HB2 had passed it was considered a religious freedom bill.”“They’re using fear of trans people and I’m upset that they’re using that,” he added. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. We’re just people, right?”The crowd cheered and applauded.     Read Story »

Henderson County Four Seasons Politics

LGBT organization to protest HB2 at Historic Courthouse

The Flat Rock-Hendersonville Chapter of PFLAG (Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) will hold a rally protesting HB2 at 5 p.m. Friday at the Historic Courthouse.   Read Story »

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