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Dry conditions mean high fire danger, Forest Service says

Henderson County News

Moms plan 'nurse-in' at Grove Street courthouse

Breastfeeding moms plan a "nurse in" at the Henderson County Courthouse at 10 a.m. Tuesday morning to raise public awareness about breastfeeding after a District Court judge scolded a woman for feeding her baby in the courtoom,  television stations and social media sites reported Monday.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Hillandale teacher wins grant to plant 'Reading Garden'

Hillandale Elementary School teacher Rebekah Pace received a $2,000 grant from educational sorority Alpha Delta Kappa to create a Reading Garden inspired by “The Secret Garden” protagonist Mary and her desire to “have a bit of earth with which to grow a garden.” “Students will be encouraged to take ownership in the planning and implementation of this Reading Garden, thus fostering student leadership roles,” Pace said. Approximately 620 K-5 students will be involved in the creative process from start to finish, from brainstorming and voting on what they want the finished Reading Garden to look like, to designing a layout, to working with the land and other resources to build and construct their vision, Pace stated in her grant request. The interdisciplinary Reading Garden will integrate reading, writing, math, social studies and science; students will read about the types of plants and architectural elements they would like to incorporate into the garden, use writing to create the plans and request resources, use math and science to measure how far plants can be from one another and what plants grow the best in different soil types, and use social studies to research what plants are native to our area. “Through a partnership with director Bullington Gardens Director John Murphy, Hillandale students will be able to get hands-on learning opportunities in horticulture and natural sciences both on and off-site in preparation for the Reading Garden,” Pace said. The $2,000 from Alpha Delta Kappa will be used to purchase materials for the garden, including trees and small plants, a pergola, seating, and decorative elements. Pace’s grant request was first submitted to the Henderson County sorority chapter, North Carolina Alpha Upsilon, and then to the State Scholarship Committee, which annually chooses one grant winner in the state of North Carolina. Pace is planning a Reading Garden groundbreaking ceremony at the end of the 2015-16 school year and a ribbon-cutting in the spring of 2017, when the garden is in bloom and ready for readers.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Hendersonville native to lead new Pisgah Conservancy

Representatives of a variety of Pisgah National Forest user groups, in cooperation with the U.S. Forest Service, have formed a North Carolina non-profit corporation called the Pisgah Conservancy to work for sustainable recreational use, watershed improvement, eradication of invasive species, removal of waste, litter and graffiti, wildlife habitat improvement and education in the forest.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

FIREFLY TOURISM: DuPont closes trails to protect blue ghosts

Overwhelmed by blue ghost tourists last year, DuPont State Recreational Forest is closing several trails at the High Falls Access Area to prevent damage to the rare blue ghost firefly populations. The closures will take place at night from mid-May through early June.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Hamlin digs hole 'deeper and deeper,' resident says

Carriage Park developer Dale Hamlin blocked the sale of his property on the courthouse steps last week with the filing of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition on the eve of the sale.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

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 »

Hendersonville News

Upholding tradition, HHS band brings home gold

Olivia Baer was stunned to hear her name called during Saturday’s awards ceremony after the Hendersonville High School band performance in the St. Louis Heritage Festival.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

LOCAL BRIEFS: Russian singers, walking tours, WHHS grad honored

LYRA to perform at St. John church LYRA, an a cappella group of five professional vocalists from St. Petersburg, Russia, will present a concert of Russian choral and folk music at 7 p.m. Sunday, April 24, at St. John in the Wilderness Church in Flat Rock. The concert is sponsored by the Friends of Music of St. John in the Wilderness.LYRA is a community of 25 international, award-winning professional musicians, most of whom are students or graduates of the St. Petersburg Conservatory who sing in churches and musical theatres throughout that city. They perform in smaller groups of soloists due to the sometimes difficult logistics of international touring. Through these small group tours, LYRA introduces the enormous musical heritage of the Russian Orthodox Church as well as traditions of Russian folk music.St. John in the Wilderness is at 1905 Greenville Highway. Tickets are $15 per person and are available at the church office and the Henderson County Visitor Center. For more information, call (828) 693-9783 or visit www.stjohnflatrock.org. Walking tours feature history of Main Street Starting Saturday, April 23, and continuing at 10 o’clock on Saturday mornings through May, former Hendersonville City Council member Mary Jo Padgett will lead guided walks along Hendersonville’s Main Street. The tours describe the history of the town and cover architectural features during stops at the Historic Courthouse, Skyland Hotel, City Hall and shops and buildings on Main Street. Cost is $10 per person 10 years and older. Children under 10 are free with a paid adult. Space is limited. Reservations are suggested. Call Padgett at 828-545-3179 or email maryjo@maryjopadgett.com.Tours will gather at the Sixth Avenue entrance of City Hall (off King Street) at 9:30 a.m. The walks will last about 90 minutes and will be held rain or shine. The tours covers the age of the oldest block of buildings, what was on the third floor (and in the basement) of the old City Hall, who was the town named for, bordellos, shoot-outs, trolley lines and more.Padgett served on Hendersonville City Council for eight years and is a journalist and public relations consultant. She was a co-founder and former executive director of ECO and associate editor at The Mother Earth News magazine. Sister Cities conference to be held in Asheville A joint conference of Sister Cities members and boards in North Carolina and South Carolina will be held Saturday, April 16, at the Grove Arcade in downtown Asheville. The event is co-hosted by Asheville and Hendersonville Sister Cities organizations. Registration begins at 9:30 a.m. The conference is 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Registration is $20, which includes lunch. North Carolina attendees can pre-register by sending a check to Barbara Shepard, P.O. Box 4752, Cary, N.C. 27519. For more information contact Shepard at bshepard_10@yahoo.com. For information on the Hendersonville Sister Cities program visit www.hendersonvillesistercities.com. N.C. Writers Network holds readings at library The North Carolina Writers Network invites all writers and the public to Literary Open Mic Readings the third Monday of each month at the Henderson County Public Library. This month’s meeting will take place on Monday, April 18. To read, sign up at Kaplan Auditorium at the main library branch, between 5:15 and 5:45 p.m. Reading is from 6 to 7:30. Readers are timed: poetry three minutes, prose five minutes, including the writer’s introduction. The Hendersonville Public Library is at 301 N. Washington St. For more information email opmiclit1@gmail.com or call (828) 808-0899. Catherine Swift inducted into Phi Beta Kappa Catherine Louise Swift, a Morehead scholar at UNC at Chapel Hill, has been inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest college honorary society.A senior majoring in religious studies with minors in medicine, literature and culture and environmental science, Swift is the daughter of Rebekah Ellsworth of Hendersonville. She is a 2012 graduate of West Henderson High School.A student who has completed 75 hours of course work in the liberal arts and sciences with a GPA of 3.85 or better (on a 4-point scale) is eligible for Phi Beta Kappa membership. Also eligible is any student who has completed 105 hours of course work in the liberal arts and sciences with a 3.75 GPA. Less than 1 percent of all college students qualify. Bearcat Loop plants will attract pollinators Volunteers with Hendersonville Tree Board will install three 4x8-foot raised-bed plots along Bearcat Loop Parkway and plant them with a variety of pollinator-friendly plants on Saturday, April 23. The pollinator beds will enhance more than 70 native and pollinator-friendly trees that were planted along the driveway to Hendersonville Elementary School and Hendersonville Middle School. In addition, the city will install identification placards for the trees that volunteers planted along the roadway last year.Hendersonville became a Bee City USA in 2015. The demonstration pollinator beds will serve as a friendly place for bees, butterflies, and other pollinators — providing nectar, pollen, and host plants needed for their reproduction. For more information visit http://www.hendersonvillenc.gov/tree-board. Southern Lights sets ‘April Showers’ dance Southern Lights Square and Round Dance Club will hold its “April Flowers Bring May Flowers Dance” on Saturday, April 16, at the Whitmire Activity Center on Lily Pond Road. Advanced dance is at 6 p.m., early rounds at 7 and squares and rounds at 7:30. Caller is Stan Russell and cuers are Tom and Cindy Bunn. For information or directions visit www.southernlights.org. Volunteers to work on Servant Saturday More than 125 members of Grace Lutheran Church will gather on Saturday, April 23, for a day of volunteer work in the community. An annual event since 1993, Servant Saturday has resulted in hundreds of projects and more than 6,500 hours of work in Hendersonville neighborhoods to provide assistance to agencies and individuals in need.Volunteers will spend the day doing projects for the Boys and Girls Club, Four Seasons Compassion for Life, Interfaith Assistance Ministry, Safelight, Hendersonville Rescue Mission, Lutheran Missions, Children and Family Resource Center and Thrive. Work includes painting, landscaping, gardening, mulching, window washing, cleaning, quilting, sandwich making and other jobs. Most projects will be completed in 4 to 5 hours.Volunteers will meet at Grace Lutheran at 8:30 a.m. for breakfast and commissioning, then travel to their job sites by 9 a.m. To sign up, call the church at 828-693-4890 or email Jim Krause at jkrause4@yahoo.com or Jim Florine at j2florine12@gmail.com and give a preference for the type of project preferred. Camera Club to hear from nature photographer Jeff Miller, owner of Mountain Lens Photography, will be the guest speaker at the April 26 meeting of the Camera Club of Hendersonville. For the forum topic, Glass, Miller will critique members’ images and provide suggested techniques for improvement. Inspired by the natural beauty of the Southern Appalachians, Miller wants to help photographers capture and share the beauty of the mountains. The club meets at 6:30 p.m. on the fourth Tuesday of the month at the Chamber of Commerce, 204 Kanuga Road. Visitors are welcome. For more information, visit www.cameraclubofhendersonville.com.   Tavernier to represent N.C. in piano competition Christopher Tavernier has been selected as one of the 15 top outstanding junior pianists from around the world and will represent North Carolina in the 2016 biennial Midwest International Piano Competition at the University of Northern Iowa School of Music in Cedar Falls, Iowa, June 5-11.Additionally, Tavernier won the 2016 Concerto Competition in the Asheville Symphony Orchestra’s Spotlight on Young Musicians. He is is a freshman at Hendersonville High School.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

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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