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Acclaimed musicians kick off Songcatchers in forest

Henderson County News

Ministers set Awake WNC revival July 17-19

The public is invited to join area pastors, ministry leaders and intercessors July 17-19 at Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in Asheville in seeking spiritual awakening in Western North Carolina.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

TDA support boosts trail momentum

Friends of Ecusta Trail board member Chris Burns thanked the Henderson County Tourism Development Authority last week for its decision to allocate a half-cent of the county’s 5-cent occupancy tax, which will total roughly $70,000, to support the proposed Ecusta Trail.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

County, towns show off for Bloom round 2

Don’t let the name fool you.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Atkinson hires new principal

Mark Page has been named principal Atkinson Elementary School, succeeding Matthew Johnson.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

‘Developer’s dream’ on the market

FLETCHER — The Johnston family’s roots in dairy farming go back a century and a half to the day when George Washington Vanderbilt first traveled to Asheville looking for land. Among the thousands of acres he bought for his vast Biltmore estate was the dairy farm of C.W. Johnston.Johnston took the money from the wealthy New Yorker, bought more cows and kept on milking.Johnston passed the dairy operation down to his son, Samuel Ervin Johnston, who passed it down to Samuel E. Johnston Jr. After outgrowing a farm in Fairview, the family moved to the Tap Root dairy in Fletcher in 1979.“My father went by S.E.,” says Mary Louise Corn, the fourth generation of the dairy family. “They called them different names so they could keep them apart.”Samuel Ervin Johnstons have kept on going. Samuel E. Johnston V is known as Quint. But even if the youngest S.E. Johnston has the most durable family name he’s probably not going to be in the family business. In fact, the generation of Corn and her brothers may be the last to operate Tap Root dairy. It could be developed for homes, shopping, industry or something else.It’s not the first time the Johnstons have had the 320-acre farm on the market. But for the first time, they’ve listed the property with an agent.Eight years ago, the Johnstons had a tentative deal with a Charlotte company to sell the land for a development that included a shopping mall with a Bass Pro Shop, a Western Carolina University branch and a medical clinic. The proposal came after the real estate had crested — in fact just before its steep plunge. This time, the Johnstons are ramping up the marketing effort just as the real estate market is climbing.“You can look at us and tell we’re not getting any young,” Corn says.“And the job don’t get any easier,” adds her brother, Billy Johnston. “It gets harder.”Billy runs the day-to-day farming operation with two brothers, Bradley and Timmy. A fourth brother, Samuel E. “Sammy” Johnston III, owns Fletcher Lawn and Garden.“To sign with a Realtor, we’ve never done that before,” Corn says. “This is just one more step in our efforts to be sure there’s a wide net.” Technology advances The connection to the land and the dairy herd kept the Johnstons going through four generations. The fifth and sixth are not interested in taking on the seven-day-a-week work of milking cows and growing crops.“It takes almost 200 cows per family to make a living,” Billy Johnston says.At one time, he says, Tap Root was the biggest dairy in seven states, milking 1,500 cows and raising all its own feed. Now the Johnston boys are milking 515 Holsteins. When they look down the family tree there are no more Johnstons on the way up to farm.From a second floor office, Billy looks down at the milking barn and points to the cows.“Each one has a collar around her neck that has a computer chip in it,” he says. “When she comes in to be milked her milking station already identifies her. How many pounds she produces and how long it takes her to produce it is recorded in the computer.”The farmers can also use the computer system to segregate cows and to open and shut gates.“Bradley can put in a list of cows before he goes home and the next morning they’re all standing in the pen ready to do whatever,” Billy says. “It’s a huge labor saving device.” And yet by 2015 standards “this is already obsolete. The big thing is robotics. … We came over (to Tap Root) and started milking in ’76. It was a state-of-the-art barn but before we ever milked the first cow, it was obsolete. It moves so fast.” Interstate and river frontage The Johnstons don’t know how much longer they’ll be milking cows.They’ve put the farm on the market for $26.5 million and they don’t sound eager to take less. The words of their father stuck.“In 1979,” Billy recalls, “we had a family meeting and he said, ‘Y’all can do whatever you want to. But always price it so you can all retire.’”“Truly a developer’s dream,” the listing says, the Tap Root farm is bordered by I-26, the French Broad River, Cane Creek and the Broadmoor golf course. It’s level and features a half-mile of I-26 frontage and almost three-quarters of a mile along the French Broad. “Rarely does an assemblage of this magnitude become available,” the real estate agent, Curtis Burge of CoveStar Investment Realty Advisors, wrote in the MLS listing.The availability of the land would seem to dovetail with efforts by the Henderson County Partnership for Economic Development to preserve large parcels of land for manufacturing plants that bring jobs.“We’ve always marketed the property as an available site,” says Andrew Tate, president of the partnership. “We’ve always partnered with the landowners. The property’s now listed with a broker and we’ll continue to work with the broker and the owner to present the property.”As for buying it, “The price prevent us from really engaging,” he adds.The Johnstons say county officials have eyed the land for industrial use since the late 1970s.“The Henderson County commissioners came to our father in 1979 with a plan for a future industrial site,” Billy Johnston says. “They worked out all the details and the commissioners backed out on it. Then in the ‘80s the commission changed and they came back again. They had a plan for it, all the roads laid out, and then they backed out.”Whether it’s done by Henderson County or a regional economic development agency, preserving the parcel for a job creating plant would be best, the dairymen say.“It is crazy that they don’t tie this thing up because this is the last one in Buncombe, Henderson and Transylvania county that’s situated like this, with interstate access and virtually no grading,” Billy Johnston says. “It’s flat. There’s a Duke Power substation. We’ve already got sewer, gas, water. Airport’s across the creek. It’s ideal. If somebody comes along and wants to put in a mall or a golf course it’s gone and it’ll be gone forever. Commissioners will just be out. This region will be out.”The Johnstons know the property has liabilities when it comes to access.“If this road was widened and three-laned from here to 25 — just that one thing would make a tremendous difference for any industry to come in,” Bradley Johnston says. “To me, the biggest thing that hurts this land is the mentality of the politicians in these tri-counties — the near-sightedness that they’re going to screw around and let this only good tract of land for major industry get gone.”Tate agrees with the Johnstons’ assessment of both the assets and the liabilities.“We’ve put the property through Duke Energy’s site readiness program,” he says. “We’ve done some preliminary engineering work to determine utilities and extensions and cost to extend. We worked with DOT on the process to extend wastewater from the other side of the interstate at Meritor. So we’ve done a good bit of analysis on the property to make sure we understand it and that we can mitigate risk for a client.”The developer would have to be big enough to pay for major work, or the number of jobs so great that the state would step in to build an interchange and improve Butler Bridge Road.“It’s a narrow road, it winds, it’s got heavy residential development already on it,” Tate says. “There’s a small narrow bridge going across the interstate. So one hurdle for the property to sell is someone’s going to have to take on responsibility to develop and make improvements there.” Regulations and the public’s intolerance for the dust, noise and smells of farming don’t make life any easier for the dairymen. The EPA in May fined Billy Johnston $80,000 for a spill of cow waste into the French Broad River. He and Bradley call the violation a “dead issue” that has nothing to do with their listing the property. They’ve been willing to sell since 1980, they point out.It’s just time, they say, to get out.A shutdown of the dairy operation would be closely monitored by environmental agencies.“Cows would have to be sold,” Billy Johnston says. “Once all the animals are off the property the lagoons have to be cleaned out, certified clean and then it’s clean water. The new owner can tear ‘em out, leave them for fishing ponds, whatever they want to do. You get a soil and water plan, then you clean them out, down to the dirt.”Tate has brought industrial prospects to look at the property as recently as three weeks ago, Corn says.“We’ve had all kinds of conversations,” she says. “Originally, we said it’s got to be at least a hundred (acres) and we compromised some more.” Now, the owners have told the Partnership they’d sell parcels as small as 50 acres.Although it wasn’t industrial, the development proposed in 2007 by Collett and Associates of Charlotte would have brought regionwide benefits.“They were the perfect kind of developer because they were willing to put together the entire property,” Corn says. “They had the vision of commercial retail but also things that would be beneficial like a hotel-convention center.”For now, this “developer’s dream” is still home to the classic black-and-white Holsteins, dutifully hoofing their way to the milking barn and providing millions of gallons of milk per year for Ingles supermarkets.“We’ve been told that it’s the most desirable piece of land between Charlotte and Knoxville,” Corn says, “but we’ve been told that for 40 years.”   Read Story »

Henderson County News

BUSINESS BRIEFS: Selee acquisition, Pardee finances, United Way adds staffers

Selee Corporation has acquired Fiber Ceramics, a Cincinnati corporation that could help the Hendersonville company speed its production. “One of the things they do well is in our process to make the same product, we take 44 hours to fire our furnace,” said Mark Morse, Selee’s president. “They can do it in four.”The potential for faster manufacturing comes as Selee is seeing marketing growth in a new product.“That’s the idea — to speed up production and find some cost reductions and hopefully put some of our own products through there,” Morse said. “We have another product that is getting quite bit of growth. We can free up that firing space for that product and we can transition other things into this new furnace.”Selee will continue to operate the business in Cincinnati until it receives permits for the move to the company’s Shepherd Street plant. Then the company will move equipment into the Hendersonville plant.A maker of reticulated ceramic foam structures for use in molten metal filtration and kiln furniture applications, Fiber Ceramics has about six employees and brings in about $1 million in annual revenue, Morse said. “It’s a competitor in an area where we have not done a lot of work,” he said. The move is not expected to add jobs at the Hendersonville plant. Pardee reports healthy finances Pardee Hospital sustained year over year growth in most of its patient services through the first eight months of the fiscal year, the Board of Directors heard last week.Two-thirds of the way through the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, the county-owned UNC Health Care affiliate reported admissions of 5,056, or 288 ahead of budget and 602 better than the eight-month period a year before. Emergency room visits were up 663 to budget and 846 ahead of 2014. Combined Hendersonville and Fletcher urgent care clinic visits were 3,026 ahead of budget and 4,360 better than the year earlier.Gross operating margin of $9 million through May beat the budget by $1.33 million and topped the 2014 number of $5.45 million.“May was a little bit down from what we have seen” so far this year, Finance Committee chair Bill Smith said. “Cost containment continues to be very strong.”Total physician visits of 67,388 fell short of the target by 6,866 but came in ahead of last year by 8,225.“We brought on a lot of physician practices,” Smith said. “Some of them came on later than expected. Some of them ramped up slower.” United Way adds two new staffers Sarah KowalakThe Henderson County United Way has announced the hiring of two new staff members.Sarah Kowalak, who served as the agency’s marketing coordinator from 2007-2013, rejoined the United Way after two years as community relations director at The Free Clinics. Originally from Massachusetts, Kowalak and her family have been in Henderson County for 10 years. As director of community impact, Sarah collaborates with United Way partners to make improvements in education, income and health in the community.Tana BlackTana Black started last week as marketing and communications coordinator. Formerly a freelance reporter and photographer for the Asheville Citizen-Times, she also worked in communications with an international adoption agency and most recently worked in the mortgage industry with two local banks. Raised in a military family, she has traveled widely and called many places home. She has lived in Western North Carolina for almost 20 years.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Pardee to spend $1 million on new parking lot

Pardee Hospital is spending almost $1 million to provide parking for the new Health Sciences building in the southwestern corner of the hospital campus.Facing a parking crunch because the construction and its staging area is taking up half a city block, Pardee officials moved forward on an immediate parking solution and on a long-range plan to provide parking for its employees and patients and the college students and faculty who will be using the new $32 million building.Last Wednesday morning the Henderson County Board of Commissioners gave Pardee permission to use the Boyd dealership property at Five Points and the county-owned Sixth Avenue Clubhouse property for overflow parking. A few hours later Pardee’s governing board agreed to buy 2.7 acres of wooded land for $300,000 and spend $640,000 to build a new parking lot providing 109 spaces.“We realize that parking is worth its weight in gold,” County Manager Steve Wyatt told the commissioners. “There is a continuing issue with parking.”The construction project has eliminated 150 parking slots at the Pardee Medical Office Building, forcing hospital administrators to scramble for alternatives. In one improvisation, employees are parking on a grassy lot the hospital bought on Justice Street.The county bought the Boyd property in 2013 with the intention of using it for an expansion of Hendersonville High School. But the School Board and school administrators said it would not even begin talking about the HHS plans until mid-2016. Now the property that once showcased shiny new Silverados and Escalades is pressed into service for overflow parking and construction staging.The county has given general contractor Vannoy Construction permission to park up to five flatbed trailers of steel beams in the corner closest to Five Points.“That’s the immediate need for it,” Wyatt said. “After that situation, we will be entertaining a whole lot more subcontractors on the site and due to the limitations there would be no place for these contractors to park.”The Boyd parking lot is six-tenths of a mile from the job site, meaning workers would either walk or get rides. Pardee faces the same challenge.“We are considering the Boyd parking area as overflow and if it comes to the point that we really need it we will provide a shuttle,” Elizabeth Moss, Pardee’s director of community affairs, told the county commissioners.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Mills River again grills AVL exec on drainage

MILLS RIVER — For the second time in six months stormwater runoff from the Asheville Regional Airport temporarily blocked Ferncliff Park Drive — the road to the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. and Empire Distributors — and for the second time in six months the Mills River Town Council summoned airport executives to find out why.   Read Story »

Henderson County News

Cub Scout camp is for the birds… and BBs

On Tuesday morning of the week-long Camp Terrora, the Cub Scouts of Henderson and Transylvania counties had a new song to sing: “Bird, bird, birds fly, just like a plane, lots of fun for all Cub Scouts, hope it doesn’t rain!” The previous afternoon, rain had kept the Cubs from participating in all of their rotating activities, including archery, BB guns, science and nature lessons, and, last but not least, the giant water slide. Just ask third grader Andrew Lyda what his favorite thing about camp is. “The water slide!” He learns, too. “We just go to different stations and learn about like science, and nature, and art. We have partners and if we need to go somewhere, we can take our partner.”Reagan Govern, a rising fourth grader, also reported that the water slide was his favorite activity. He’s also partial to “archery and BBs . . . And lunch.” When asked what he learned at camp, he said, “I learned not to hold the BB near my mouth so I don’t get a bruise on my head.” Safety is a high priority here at camp.Tuesday’s busy schedule was happily thrown off by a visit from Steve Longenecker and his wild birds. He brought in a screech owl, an American kestrel, a great-horned owl, and a red-tailed hawk, all of which are native to Western North Carolina. To keep from startling the birds, Longenecker had the Scouts “scratch their beards” instead of raising their hands when they had questions.Longenecker’s visit illustrates just one example of the exciting opportunities Camp Terrora offers. “My grandpa’s coming tomorrow with his plane,” Reagan said. “It’s a glider.”Volunteers—parents and others with an interest in scouting—made sure the camp ran smoothly and put in many extra hours “behind the scenes.”Seventeen-year-old volunteer Seth Hendrix only joined the Boy Scouts of America last year when he moved to the area. “We moved up here, there were a lot more places to hike, camp, all that, so you can really get more involved here.” His favorite thing about camp? “The kids,” he says. “The first day I got here, they were really open to me. They didn’t care that I started late, they taught me the ropes, and they helped me through everything. I’ve learned a lot from them.”Older kids—some of them older brothers and sisters, some other scouts—also helped out as den chiefs, guiding the Cubs through the day’s activities. One den chief, rising sixth grader Jayden Farley, looks indistinguishable from the campers, as he is just “almost eleven.” Nicky Wilson explains, “What it is, is they have just crossed over into Boy Scouts. So being that they have just crossed over, this is a way to mentor them and show them how to become good leaders.”“My kid asked me yesterday, ‘How old do I have to be to be a den chief?’” Alicia Lyda said. “And he is a rising third grader.”And Camp Terrora isn’t just for boys, either. Volunteering parents can register their daughters as tag-alongs, and older girls can serve as den chiefs. “My daughter was more excited than my son,” Wilson said. In fact, the whole family, who recently moved from Hendersonville to Goldsboro, because of Wilson’s husband’s active military career, traveled almost five hours just to be a part of camp this year.Scouts learn tons of skills and accrue many new badges throughout the week, but that’s not all they get out of the experience. “They learn sportsmanship, integrity, working as a team,” Wilson says. “They learn safety. Some of them are put into different leadership roles throughout the week. We learn proper flag ceremonies. Creativity and imagination are huge, because we have to come up with a den name, a flag, a skit, all of that within the first couple days of camp.”Cub Scouts Trevor Long and Andrew Ramsey proudly explained their den’s unique and clever name. “Apollo 5 is a spacecraft and Trevor had the idea of Apollo 5 because our den is 5 . . . and we thought of Delta 5, and we didn’t know which one to do so we just combined them. Delta and Apollo. What do we do? Delpollo!” SHIRTTAIL Cub Scouts is open to boys from first through fifth grade. To learn morecontact District Executive Caitlin Meeks at 828-989-2538 or caitlin.meeks@scouting.org.   Read Story »

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