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Nelly Belle, retired racer, succumbs

Flat Rock Opinion

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 Opinion

LIGHTNING EDITORIAL: Edwards is the best choice for Senate seat

One of the most significant retirements in recent years is Tom Apodaca’s departure from the state Senate, where he has virtually rewritten the playbook as an attentive, powerful and effective representative of Hendersonville and Henderson County.   Read Story »

Henderson County Opinion

LIGHTNING EDITORIAL: Greenway IS jobs creator

We’re glad to see that the Ecusta Trail has become an issue that distinguishes candidates in two legislative races in the Henderson County area. It should.   Read Story »

Henderson County Opinion

EDITORIAL: Environmentalists won't take yes for an answer

When Duke Energy does its work efficiently, it’s not just a manager down the line or the investors above who get rewarded. The ratepayers do, too. In other words, all of us.   Read Story »

Mills River Opinion

LIGHTNING EDITORIAL: Housing ought to be on Mills River docket

Sometime in 2017, if things go as industrial recruiters hope, the town of Mills River will once again celebrate a plant opening that marks a major coup in new job creation.The Hendersonville Lightning reported last week that a partnership of Swiss and Canadian manufacturers may invest at least $217 million and hire 350 workers at a new automotive parts plant in Ferncliff Industrial Park over the next six years if the Henderson County Board of Commissioners and Mills River Town Council approve economic development incentives totaling $7.25 million over 14 years.   Read Story »

Henderson County Opinion

LIGHTNING EDITORIAL: Where have all the women gone?

With less than a week to go in the filing period for the 2016 elections, we once again confront an obvious and substantial gender gap.   Read Story »

Hendersonville Opinion

LIGHTNING EDITORIAL: Apodaca served his town

When the 2002 reapportionment created a Hendersonville-centric state Senate seat, few surveyors of the political landscape would have pointed to Tom Apodaca as a likely candidate.   Read Story »

Hendersonville Opinion

HHS senior: Why 1926 building matters to me

I am student of the Class of 2016 and I am also a fourth generation Bearcat.   Read Story »

Henderson County Opinion

Coren would charge Bearcats for cost overrun

Saying that he was elected as “a representative and voice for the entire county,” School Board member Colby Coren last week cautioned that decision makers should “look at look at the next hundred years, not dwell on the last hundred” years of Hendersonville High School history.   Read Story »

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