News

'Ask Matt': Lightning columnist answers your questions

Matt Matteson

By Bill Moss, Published: July 28, 2013

Hendersonville Lightning readers have questions. The Lightning has answers!

This week we introduce Ask Matt, a new column by Matt Matteson, a longtime Henderson County resident and skilled sleuth who is curious about things he sees and wonders "whatever happened to ..." people or events that made news a while back.
Matteson grew up in Hampton, Va., and earned a bachelors degree from East Carolina University. After graduating from Officer Candidate School, he served for three years in the U.S. Army Combat Engineers. While stationed in Virginia, he earned a masters of public administration degree from Golden Gate University.
Matteson got his start in local government working in the budget office for the city of Newport News, Va. He served as city manager of three towns in North Carolina, the last one Waynesville.
He served as planning director for Henderson County from 1989 to 1999, then worked as an administrator at Blue Ridge Community College, retiring in 2010. At BRCC he also taught a course entitled "The Modern History of Henderson County." He and his wife, Ann, have two boys, Tory and Adam. Matt is active in a number of clubs and organizations and does volunteer work when not hiking or playing tennis.

Q. I just saw one of those funny looking Google cars in town the other day. How does that thing work?
Those are Google's "street view" cars. Google mounts a multi-lens camera on the roof of a Subaru Impreza to take a mosaic of photos that are pieced together for the street view you see on Google Maps. To get a 360-degree view, they orient the camera by GPS and shoot in motion in nine directions at a height of about eight feet. The first "street view" images were released for five cities in 2007 but now the panoramic views are available for 3,000 cities. Google reshoots its images only as necessary. Most of Henderson County was shot in 2012 although some photography is as old as 2008 and some as recent as June 2013. Now Google that!

Q. Can I go to the new county-owned gym and just shoot hoops?
Yes. The old Hendersonville Christian School gym, officially called the Athletics and Activity Center, is located at 708 S. Grove St. Henderson County Parks and Recreation has posted a gym schedule on its website: http://www.hendersoncountync.org/recreation/activitycenter.html. The best times for open basketball are Mondays from 4 to 8 p.m. and also on weekend afternoons. Call Lani Thompson at 694-1611 for details. The gym offers other indoor sports as well such as volleyball and pickleball (yes, that's a sport). You will need to fill out a short membership form to play there. It's really no sweat.

Q. How do you pronounce the name of that young lady golfer from Hendersonville who's doing so well?
That would be Kayla Sciupider, the West Henderson High grad, now a rising junior at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla. She recently qualified for the U.S. Amateur Links Championship. You pronounce her name "Kay-la" (rhymes with Layla). Oh yeah, her last name is pronounced "Ska-pee-der."

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Send us your questions about a local issue, event, sighting or anything that is puzzling you. If your question is reasonable, we'll try to get an answer. Email Matt at askmattm@gmail.com.