Commissioners discuss Cashiers issues

“Serving Cashiers, Glenville, Tuckasegee and Sapphire, N.C.”
Vol. 36, No. 07 • 75 cents
www.crossroadschronicle.com
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Commissioners discuss Cashiers issues
quiring the
p r o p e r t y.
Peterkin had
previously
reached an
agreement
with the
county to
purchase the
two vacant
Wooten
lots, considered surplus
lots by the county, for $28,000.
However, an assessment by
the Army Corps of Engineers
led to a drop in the appraised
By David Joy
Staff Writer
When Jackson County Commissioners met last Monday,
Feb. 6, there was little in regards to legislation, but three
presentations during the new
business portion of the meeting will have direct impacts on
the Cashiers area.
Two vacant lots behind the
Cornucopia restaurant off of
Cashiers School Road were
up for sale by the county, with
Cornucopia owner Brian Peterkin showing interest in ac-
value, meaning a new
agreement,
if Peterkin
were still
interested,
needed to
be reached
with commissioners.
Green
County
Manager
Chuck Wooten said that the
property was originally acquired when the county was
still in the utilities business,
but has sat
unused for
years. He
said that
when the
property
was orig inally appraised
there were a
Debnam
few streams
that needed
to be assessed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and
that is when the county learned
the fate of
the lots.
“We had
it appraised
and we advertised it
as required
by law, and
as Brian
Peterkin
Jones
was doing
his due diligence and we were going
to closing, we had some set
backs,” Wooten said. “When
we originally had it appraised
we asked DENR to come out
and look at the little streams
and we understood that they
were certified trout streams
so we wanted to know of any
set backs that may cause. For
whatever reason DENR decided to invite the Corps of
Engineers to come out and
look at those two lots, and
when they came out they determined that most of those
lots were in what they determined are wetlands and wetSee Meeting, Page 12
Website created for
local non-proifts
By Kelly Donaldson
Editor
If there was only one thing
Cashiers could hang its hat
on, it’s the resounding and unequivocal philanthropy that occurs here on the plateau. But
how do people find our many
non-profits, charities and service groups?
Cashiers web designer Steve
Johannessen and local developer Pat Carlton have joined
forces to create a website,
www.theheartoftheblueridgemountains.org, to help people
find and learn more about our
many, many non-profit organizations that are constantly in
need of donations, volunteers
and much more.
“It is a site specifically for
the service organizations and
501©3s in the area,” said JoSee Website, Page 5
Photo by David Joy/Staff Writer
A short-lived winter mountain morning
Photo submitted
Around an inch and a half of snow had gathered in the higher elevations of the Chronicle coverage
area Tuesday morning, Feb. 14 but quickly turned to slush as rain moved into the region. Still, there
was a brief glance of winter with snow covering the field and trees by this small pond on Glassy
Rock in Glenville. If temperatures remain low enough there are chances for snow in the forecast
this weekend, though significant accumulation is still unlikely.
Above is a screen shot view of the new website www.
theheartoftheblueridgemountains.org website, which
is a portal for finding charities, non-profit and service oriented organizations in the Cashiers, Highlands, Glenville, Sapphire and Lake Toxaway area.
Cashiers pathway grows
By Kelly Donaldson
Editor
As time goes by, more and
more steps are being added
along the Cashiers pathway
system, a project headed up by
the Cashiers Village Council,
(CVC).
The goal of the pathway is
to improve connectivity for
locals and visitors to village
merchants.
“We have the master plan
from before with a pathway
network,” said Cashiers Village
Council Executive Director
Jim Sibley. “The (HighlandsCashiers) hospital is really excited to work on this with us
and have us come in and do
it because they have plenty of
initiatives about getting outside to walk for health. And
we worked with Joe Hardy of
Native Landscapes to install
it.”
Sibley said the new pathway
runs from the Cashiers Area
Chamber of Commerce north
to Highway 107 N., and from
that point it continues north to
the Slabtown Road shops.
“It’s brown pebble stone,
and we put some fencing on it
so hospital maintenance people
can get through there easily,”
Photos by David Joy/Staff
A group of hooded mergansers swim around Cashiers Lake.
These fowl weather friends are
Cashiers’ other seasonal residents
Photo submitted by Jim Sibley
A new phase of the Cashiers pathways system has
been completed connecting the Cashiers Area
Chamber of Commerce to Slabtown Rd.
Sibley added. “We’ll be putting up additional signage.”
Sibley said the new pathway
from the Chamber to the Slabtown shops is about a quarter
of a mile.
“It’s meandering, it’s a very
pleasant walk,” he added.
“People at the Slabtown shops
are very excited because they
See Pathway, Page 5
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© 2012 Crossroads Chronicle/Community Newspapers Inc.
By David Joy
Staff Writer
Most of the time when
we think seasonal residents
in Cashiers, we think of our
close friends and neighbors
who head off the mountain
each fall to spend the winter
elsewhere and return each
March or April when the
mercury begins to rise. Yet,
there is another group of
seasonal residents that head
onto the plateau when the
weather gets coldest.
I’d noticed a flock of
waterbirds piled into the
small cove along Highway 107 where Cedar Creek
pushes under the highway
through a culvert from Jenkins Lake, but I’d never
taken the time to really stop
and watch. So last week I
Easily the most identifiable of the duck species,
mallards may stay in the area year round or winter here on waters such as Cashiers Lake.
rode around Cashiers, Sapphire, and Glenville checking ponds and lakes for as
many waterbird species as
I could find. Within a few
miles of the crossroads, I
was happy to find five species, though I’m certain
there are plenty more.
On Cashiers Lake I found
the usual couple of mallards, but it was a group of
INSIDE
Chocolate love
Sweethearts enjoyed
sweets at library fundraiser
last Saturday. Page 14
eight hooded mergansers
that I chased for two days.
I’d never seen that type
of duck before: tan brown
sides, a bright white chest,
black back, and a black
head crowned in white that
fluffed into a giant crest
when I got too close. That
second day, I also ran into a
See Ducks, Page 12
Index
Calendar ................................... 9-10
Classified ........................................11
Obituaries ...................................... 2
Opinion .......................................... 4
Dance the night away
Annual Hampton Preschool Valentine’s party
a successful fundraiser.
Page 14
Religion ........................................... 8
Sports ............................................. 6
Weather ........................................... 5
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 – Crossroads Chronicle – Page 5
WEATHER
PATHWAY: Cashiers trail extended
from Page 1
enjoy walking to the post office. That’s a pleasant avenue
for them to take.”
Future installments to the
pathway will include moving
from the Cashiers Area Chamber of Commerce south toward
the new recreation center.
“There’s a little old roadbed just across the road from
the chamber, and then you can
access the back of the plastics
plant so it continues on the
backside of the plastics plant
and drifts down past the workshop they are creating and goes
by the McKee well to the new
recreation center.”
Sibley said that particular
extension would be the next
project, but he wasn’t sure of a
goal completion date just yet.
When the overall pathway
is complete, there should be
about three miles of connected
pathway.
“With having three miles
of connected pathway, we
can begin now having more
signage to make it more clear
and better define the pathway
edges, and locations of the path
for this season” he added. “We
have the logo posts (with an
acorn at the top). Hopefully,
this will be the best year yet
for the pathways.”
Also in the CVC’s future
CASHIERS WEATHER FORECAST
Courtesy of Justin Caudell and Cashiers Weather Service
For up-to-date and historical weather, visit www.cashiersforecast.com
Last week’s rainfall: 0.00 inches
is finishing the creation of a
public parking lot in the field
behind United Community
Bank.
“That should be really good
and important to the merchants,” said Sibley.
He said the parking lot
should be open in May.
“We’re hoping the main entrances can be from Highway
107 S., one through Village
Walk Shops, and the third entrance through Burns Street,”
Sibley added.
For more information or to
make donations to the CVC,
call Sibley at 828-508-8217 or
e-mail him at jim@cvcnc.org.
Visit the CVC website at www.
cashiersvillagecouncil.org.
(Coming next week, the
Chronicle will take a look at
the new surface installed at
the Village Commons parking
area, similar to the material
used for the Cashiers pathway
system.)
Year-to-date rainfall: 7.97 inches
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
Partly cloudy skies
during the day and
night. Highs around
54 and lows around
40.
A chance of showers
during the day and
night. Highs around
55 and lows around
30.
Partly cloudy skies
during the day and
night. Highs around
52 and lows around
30.
A chance of showers during the day,
then clearing. Highs
around 46 and lows
around 29.
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
Partly cloudy skies
during the day and
night. Highs around
46 and lows around
26.
Partly cloudy skies
during the day and
night. Highs around
49 and lows around
30.
A chance of showers during the day,
then clearing. Highs
around 54 and lows
around 39.
Last Week’s Weather
Observed at Cashiers Area Weather Center – 3,486 feet
Date
Feb. 7
Feb. 8
Feb. 9
Feb. 10
Feb. 11
Feb. 12
Feb. 13
High
51ºF
47ºF
41ºF
46ºF
38ºF
34ºF
42ºF
Low
28ºF
31ºF
26ºF
27ºF
12ºF
10ºF
17ºF
Precipitation
0.00”
0.00”
0.00”
0.00”
0.00”
0.00”
0.00”
Jackson County Public Library book
club discussing “The Help” March 12 DONALDSON: Oh Grammys, I’m done
attend. Light refreshments
will be served.
In “The Help,” Kathryn
Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose
determination to start a
movement of their own
forever changes a town,
and the way women- mothers, daughters, caregivers,
friends- view one another.
“The Help” is a deeply moving novel filled with poi-
gnancy, humor and hope.
This event is co-sponsored by the Friends of the
Jackson County Public Library. For more information, please call the library
at 828-586-2016. The Jackson County Public Library
is part of Fontana Regional
Library (www.fontanalib.
org).
WEBSITE: Link for non-profits created
from Page 1
we reach out to all the different charities out there,” said
Carlton.
“There is a calendar that
links to the Cashiers Today calendar, which links the chamber calendar and the newspaper calendar, so everyone
is looking at the same date,”
added Johannessen.
As for the qualifications to
get listed on the site, Carlton
said, “If you are a 501c3 or
you are a charitable organization that services this area,
that’s your qualification.”
Each organizations listing
will include a link to their
website, their contact information, their name, address,
phone number and e-mail.
The two said that all of those
listed should check the site and
make sure their information is
listed correctly as well.
As for whether or not other
sites like this exist, Carlton
said, “There’s one like this
in the middle part of the state
that is very similar. This is not
an uncommon need for small
communities, there’s just not
many small communities doing
something about it.”
Johannessen encouraged
anyone with a website in the
area to link this new site to
their existing site.
performances by Brown.
Forty-three years of thrilling fans across the world,
dismissed for someone
who dances as much as he
raps. It just kind of makes
me sad.
Twenty-eight Grammys for Alison Krauss, the
most since Quincy Jones’
27, and only three short of
the most all-time by anyone, living or dead. It was
not even mentioned on the
show or apparently in an
American media outlet.
Thank God I have compact discs of my musical heroes. I can’t stand
to watch another Grammy
award show. I’m done.
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hannessen. “It allows them
to be found and have a common calendar they can work
with coordinate events and not
overlap.”
“We are always trying to
find ways to coordinate,” said
Carlton, who is associated with
several charities and non-profits in the area. “The Humane
Society has an event, and the
Bascom has an event, and
we’re always stepping all over
each other. Steve and I started
talking and tried to find a way
for charities to at least share
their basic information without
having to host their own website. People can go and look
at this, and we’re not trying to
push anyone’s agenda, we’re
not trying to run the charity’s
business or even have an influence. We don’t take donations
on the site.
“So much of this community
has been built on charitable
works, and it always has been,”
added Carlton. “When people
come up, this is a way for them
to more easily understand
what’s going on and how to
contact those folks. The Crossroads Chronicle does a great
job of promoting things, but if
people come up for a week and
want to know what’s going on
a month from now, if there’s a
way we can kind of dig in and
have them come back for an
event, maybe they’ll look at a
charity and say, ‘hey, I didn’t
know these guys even existed.
Maybe I’ll give them a little bit
of money.’”
Of the 55 non-profits on the
site, in order to make a donation to any of them, donors
would have to contact the organizations themselves.
“It includes Highlands, Cashiers, Glenville, Sapphire and
Toxaway, basically the whole
plateau area,” said Johannessen about which organizations
are included. “It’s up and running and ready to go.”
Only service organizations,
501c3 and charitable organizations are allowed onto the site.
If any in the area are not included on the current site, contact Johannessen and Carlton
through the “Contact Us” button on the website.
“We want to make sure that
from Page 4
mine actually forwarded
an article about it to me
on Monday night. Guess
where it was printed? In a
newspaper from the U.K.
More Grammys won
than anyone breathing on
earth and it was only reported in a paper from the
U.K.
What is wrong with us?
Finally, if you have any
remote connection with
the world of pop music,
you may have heard that
R&B artist Chris Brown
made his return to the
Grammys, after physically
beating then-girlfriend
Rhianna three years ago.
Some were glad to see
his return, some said he
should never be allowed
to return. But what is disturbing is that fans actually “tweeted” things like,
“He can beat me anytime.”
I’m just disgusted with
the state of music. I really
wanted to see my favorite band accept one of the
academy’s top honors, but
apparently there wasn’t
time for that because we
had to get not one but two
167055
The Book Ends Book
Club at the Jackson County
Public Library (JCPL) in
Sylva is reading Kathryn
Stockett’s acclaimed novel,
“The Help” and will meet
on Monday, March 12 at 7
p.m. at the library. The discussion will be led by JCPL
staff member Sally Salyards,
who encourages anyone interested in the book or the
recently released movie to
*Photo฀shows฀upgrades฀not฀included฀in฀price.฀Price฀subject฀to฀change฀without฀notice.
฀฀Included฀features฀subject฀to฀conditions฀not฀fully฀listed฀in฀this฀email.