News

MISSING PERSON: Rachel Soileau Sales - Rachel was reported missing by family members who last had contact with her in the fall of 2017. Rachel is believed to be operating a 1999 Nissan Altima (unknown color) bearing NC registration plate CBH-9004.  Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Rachel are ask to contact Detective Darrin Whitaker at 828.694.3098.

Summer plays and special programs begin at Carl Sandburg Home NHS on June 12, 2019.  The summer season begins with children’s plays, performed by apprentice actors from the Flat Rock Playhouse Vagabond School of the Drama. Come enjoy lively performances of Sandburg’s “Rootabaga Stories” Wednesdays through Saturdays at 10:15 am in the park amphitheater, from June 12 through August 10.

Wednesday and Friday morning performances feature Spink, Skabootch and Swipes (Sandburg’s loving nicknames for his three daughters).  Follow them into Rootabaga Country, discovering how the letter X made its way into the alphabet; hit the rails with the Great Golden Spike Limited as it speeds from coast to coast; and marvel at how Hot Balloons and his two pigeon daughters crossed the Shampoo River!

On Thursday and Saturday mornings, Rootabaga Express! brings the stories of the Five Rusty Rats, Bimbo the Snip, and more to life.  You’ll meet new characters and journey farther into the Village of Liver and Onions and Sandburg’s imagination than ever before.  The 30-minute shows are appropriate for all ages and are held rain or shine.  For young visitors who attend the plays, there is a new Rootabaga Junior Ranger program available.  Activity sheets will be available at the amphitheater after the play and can be turned in at the Sandburg Home for a limited edition “Rootabaga Ranger” badge.

To celebrate Sandburg’s love of folk music, the park will offer new, monthly Sandburg Sing-alongs.  Musicians will lead the audience in fun songs, with lyrics provided.  Sing-alongs will be held in the park’s new amphitheater on Tuesday, June 25, from 5:00 – 7:00 pm; Saturday, July 20, from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm; and Sunday, August 11, from 3:00 to 5:00 pm.

Ranger programs and special tours are also offered in the summer, from June 24 – August 10.  On Wednesday through Sunday afternoons at 2:15 pm, visitors can learn how Mrs. Sandburg turned sweet fresh goat’s milk into cheese, butter, yogurt, and more.   These farm-life demonstrations focus on cheese-making with recipes and samples for the audience.

Monday and Tuesday mornings at 10:15 am, rangers will stroll the grounds uncovering the history of Connemara from the first residents in 1838 to the Sandburg family.  This is a great opportunity to see inside buildings normally closed to the public and discover how life at Connemara changed over time.

To highlight the clothing exhibit “Dressing for the Occasion,” the park’s museum staff will offer special house tours every Tuesday at noon, beginning on June 24.  Visitors will learn more about the clothing and accessories on display, as well as the care and treatment required for preservation.

On Saturdays in July, visitors of all ages can get hands-on with history.  Each Saturday will feature a different topic related to the Sandburg family’s life at Connemara.  The following programs will occur from 11am to 3pm at the amphitheater:  July 7 – Everything’s Butter with Goats. July 14 – Archives Alive! July 21 – Books and Banjos. July 28 – Birds, Bats and Bugs. Kids can earn a special junior ranger pin for attending the programs.  The park also offers a self-guided Junior Ranger program every day for young visitors to complete.

Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site is a unit of the National Park Service.  The park is located three miles south of Hendersonville off U.S. 225 on Little River Road, and is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., daily except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day.  Weekdays are less busy than weekends. For parking options, please visit www.nps.gov/carl/planyourvisit/parking.htm.  For further information please telephone 828-693-4178

Childhood hunger rampant in parts of Western North Carolina
Emily Weaver, Carolina Public Press

A 3-year-old boy with long raven hair cried April 3 inside the Living Waters Food Pantry and Resource Center, which seeks to combat hunger in Cherokee. He squirmed on the hip of his mother, stretching for a toy as she reached for a can of vegetables.
He got his toy, and she got their food at the tribal pantry that serves two counties, both plagued with poverty.
One in every four children under the age of 18 in Swain and Jackson counties live in poverty, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Even more live in households that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has deemed “food insecure.”
“It’s very hard,” said Lisa Russell, who runs the Living Waters Food Pantry and Resource Center within the Qualla Boundary, home to the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
“I mean I’ve had young, especially young mothers who will come up, and somebody will holler, ‘Lisa, you’ve got a new one around the corner.’ I’ve had them standing here, and they’ll be crying, ‘I’ve never had to ask for help.’ I say, ‘Baby, you’ve come to the right place. That’s what we’re here for. We’re here to get you on your feet.’”
The Living Waters pantry and many others like it are in high demand across Western North Carolina, where MANNA FoodBank distributed more than 18 million pounds of food to hungry clients last year.
Swain County was ranked 99 out of the state’s 100 counties when it came to food security among children in the Public School Forum of North Carolina’s Center for Afterschool Programs’ Roadmap of Need 2018.
Several other western counties also ranked poorly, including Clay at 89, Yancey at 88, Mitchell at 85 and Jackson, McDowell and Macon tied for 75.
“In Western North Carolina, one in four children are food insecure,” said Amy Sims, the western zone coordinator and agency relations manager at MANNA. “But there are pockets where as many as four in five kids don’t have enough healthy food to eat. We look at the rates of use for the free school lunch program in each of the 16 counties that we serve, and there are more than 45,000 kids on the program, a number that continues to climb.”
One of MANNA’s primary tools to address childhood hunger is through its MANNA Packs and Summer Packs programs, which provided 186,716 bags of food to kids last fiscal year, she said.
“Children are our future, and there is no better investment than providing those in need with the healthy food they need for a solid foundation in life,” Sims said.

Isabella Cole, 2, waits as a volunteer packs up a to-go dinner at The Giving Spoon at Bryson City, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide hot, nutritious meals to the community. Matt Rose / Carolina Public Press
Hunger and learning
Nearly a third of the children in Swain County live in food-insecure homes. According to the county’s school nutrition director, hunger can hinder their ability to learn.
No Kid Hungry North Carolina, which recently honored Swain County Schools for its summer meals program, agrees.
“Hungry children have trouble concentrating, get more headaches and infections, are more likely to be hospitalized and are less likely to perform well on athletic fields and in classrooms. It’s simply much harder for children at risk of hunger to thrive,” said Tamara Baker, project and communications director with No Kid Hungry NC, an initiative based at UNC Chapel Hill’s Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention.
“School breakfast and strong instruction mean more graduations,” she said. “Studies show that a student who eats a healthy breakfast scores up to 17 points higher that day on a math test. School principals tell us that eating school breakfast improves focus, discipline and academic performance for kids.”
Every child in both of Swain County’s elementary schools is served free breakfasts and lunches every day.
“All kids eat free,” said Jennifer Brown, the county schools’ nutrition director. “They all have the option to have breakfast and lunch. The middle and high schools run at about 60 percent free and reduced lunches.”
But whatever isn’t eaten or taken by the children at school is thrown away.
“My granddaughter said, ‘Nan, … you wouldn’t believe the food they’re throwing away here at the school,’” said Kathleen Burns, a former social worker and mental health worker, who has since founded The Giving Spoon community meals site in Bryson City. Burns’ granddaughter teaches at West Elementary.
Burns said she and others working on the problem convinced teachers to start saving their untouched leftovers for her to pick up. The extra cartons of milk, juices, cheese sticks and other prepackaged food items that would have gone in the trash were stored in a refrigerator in the teachers lounge.
Burns drove to the school to pick it all up and took the items to a community cooler on the porch of The Restoration House in Bryson City. The cooler, in addition to a pantry called The Blessing Box on the porch, held food, drinks and other items that are free to anyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“That’s what really started the trend of people … coming by there to get those milks,” Burns said.
Then word got around that only certain people were taking all of the food, she added, and “the refrigerator went away.”
Burns started taking the leftovers herself to struggling neighborhoods until the efforts to store the items became a hassle.
“I’d really, really like to get that going again,” she said. “If there is food, there is no reason why food should be thrown away.”
Brown says she and others place the leftovers from breakfasts served in the classrooms on a share table offered to students.
“Kids can get extras,” she said. “What is not taken does get thrown away. In terms of food that comes back to the cafeteria, if it is not a shelf-stable individually wrapped food, it is required to be discarded by health department regulations.”
Brown says she and others are looking at ways to reduce the waste.
“I was doing that, and then my focus kind of got on this,” Burns said, as she sat in an office inside Bryson City Presbyterian Church, where she started The Giving Spoon, in February.
“We have a lot of grandparents raising grandchildren in this county — lots,” Burns said.
“They don’t get a lot of support. They’re on fixed incomes. And a lot of times they’re elderly.”
The federal government’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Women, Infants and Children programs weren’t designed with the elderly providing care to children in mind.
The elderly and children under the age of 18 make up more than 40 percent of Swain County’s population.
To reach the children in need, Burns put a call out to teachers on Facebook, encouraging them to invite their students out to dinner at The Giving Spoon.
“Our meals on Thursday nights are free to anyone who comes through that door. No questions asked,” she said.
“We have two kids that come on a regular basis with their mom every week that we’ve been open. One child came with her grandmother one time. And we’ve had some children volunteers to come with their parents. But we’re hoping to get more children in, and I’m starting to work with some of the school social workers in getting information out that we’re available now.”
Swain County Schools also offers an after-school supper program for kids. The program once only offered snacks, but now meals are served to every child for free.

Dante Shields, 8, left, and Sydney Toomey, 11, finish eating at The Giving Spoon, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide hot, nutritious meals to the community in Bryson City. Matt Rose / Carolina Public Press
Summertime food in Swain
“The cafeteria ladies, they tell me stories about how kids will come in on a Monday morning, and they’ll get to school hungry so, you know, you just wonder what’s going to happen to them over the summer,” said Brown, the Swain County Schools nutrition director.
The district has been honored for its summer meals program.
“We actually have a very big program,” she said. “We partner with about 23 sites. All of our cafeterias are open in the summer, except the high school won’t be open this summer because of the renovations. But we partner with churches and some community organizations and some camps in Cherokee. We do a lot of meals.”
Brown says The Giving Spoon offers breakfast, lunch and supper to children throughout the county for free. Adults can buy plates for $3, she said.
“We know that kids decline in their learning over the summer because they come back to school in the fall behind where they left off,” Brown said in a Facebook video message the district posted on March 4. “Part of this is due to inadequate nutrition over the summer months.”
For those who couldn’t make it out to the cafeterias, Burns said, the teachers brought the food to them.
“They were bagged lunches, and they (the teachers) would go to the poor communities in this county,” she said. Her granddaughter was one of the teachers who helped.
“My granddaughter said that at one place (an old motel) … kids would be jumping out the windows or coming out the door, you know, just coming to get their meals,” Burns said. “They knew it was their mealtime. Those are the ones that needed the meals, and to take it out and hand it out to them, that was great.”
“Swain (County) is the No. 1 county in our state for serving summer meals to the highest number of their percent of need,” said Baker of No Kid Hungry NC. Meeting more than 45 percent of the needs for summer meals through its federal summer nutrition program, the district’s efforts exceeded those in every other county.
“Next closest was Transylvania County with 25.12 percent met,” Swain County Schools announced in a Facebook post on April 22. “We currently have 19 sites that served 48,313 total meals during the summer of 2018, which translates into some 915 students being served daily.”

 Cummings Cove in Hendersonville, NC, Recognized as 50 Best in U.S.

NORTH CAROLINA MASTER-PLANNED COMMUNITY RECOGNIZED AS 50 BEST IN U.S.
Where to Retire Releases 11th Biennial List

HOUSTON, TX (June 4, 2019) – Where to Retire reveals “The Short List: 50 Best Master-Planned Communities in the United States,” in the July/August issue, on newsstands June 11. The list is the only one of its kind, focusing on communities rather than locales and featuring first-person testimonials by current residents. (View a complete list of the 50 Best online)
Cummings Cove, in Hendersonville, is one of eight master-planned communities in North Carolina to be recognized this year. Blue Ridge Mountain views inspire a blissful atmosphere in this development. The golf course makes the most of its beautiful setting, as elevated tee boxes give way to rolling fairways that ramble past waterfalls. “You never get tired of watching the sunsets and sunrises,” one resident said.
The selected 50 best master-planned communities showcase the variety of housing options and amenities that enrich the lives of relocating retirees. “Moving after retirement doesn’t mean just a new home; it means a new life,” Where to Retire editor Annette Fuller said. “Yes, each of our 50 communities builds attractive homes, but they also nurture new friendships. Most developments offer trails, sports courts, fitness equipment, restaurants, pools and more. The settings are gorgeous, near mountains, oceans, rivers, lakes and low-humidity deserts. Climates generally are mild, allowing daily communes with nature.”
Nearly a year ago, editors began gathering and evaluating information on hundreds of communities, but chose only established neighborhoods with enough acreage to build at least a year’s supply of homes. The communities come from 17 states. Florida has nine of the winning 50 communities, followed by North Carolina with eight, Arizona with seven and South Carolina with five. Home prices begin in the $120,000s and go upward of $3 million; 35 communities on the list have homes that start at less than $300,000. Almost half of the neighborhoods are age-restricted or age-targeted while the rest are all-ages. The communities are not ranked; rather, they are listed alphabetically by state and then by development name. A two-page chart gives a snapshot of all 50 choices and a guide to their amenities.
As the authority on retirement relocation since 1992, Where to Retire has covered hundreds of the best retirement regions, towns and master-planned communities. The magazine is published six times a year and has a national circulation of 200,000.
Request a free trial issue at WhereToRetire.com.

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Contact Kathryn Worrall at (713) 974-6903 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

West Henderson High basketball standout Ben Bryson is heading out West this summer ... way out West.

The Falcon junior has been selected to participate in the exclusive NCAA Youth Development Camp, which will be held July 26-28 at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona. According to NCAA.com, players were hand-picked by Division I college coaches who have shown interest in them.

“Obviously, it’s a tremendous honor and opportunity to go to one of these camps. Playing Division I basketball is extremely difficult, so this gives him another opportunity to play in front of high-level coaches,” West coach Joey Bryson, Ben’s father, said.

The NCAA says the camps will “provide promising Division I men’s basketball prospects an opportunity to develop their skills while also preparing them for college both as a student and an athlete.”

The speedy point guard Ben Bryson, who shared the Times-News Player of the Year honors with Hendersonville’s Ben Beeker a year ago, was once again the area’s scoring leader this year. He ended his junior year averaging an area-high 24.4 points per game and averaged 5.3 assists, 5.1 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game.

“He’s worked harder than any kid I’ve ever coached, and he’s definitely earned the right to go,” Joey Bryson said.

There are just four development camps in the nation being conducted by the NCAA this summer. The South Region (University of Houston), Midwest Region (University of Illinois), East Region (University of Connecticut) and the West Region (Grand Canyon University).

“How he ended up in the Arizona one, I’m not sure, but it doesn’t matter to him. He’s excited for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play with some of the best players in the country,” Joey Bryson said.

And Coach Bryson believes his son’s stock will be on the rise with this much exposure. In his sophomore year, Ben Bryson received an offer from Tennessee Tech and committed, but he decommitted after the school fired its entire coaching staff. According to Joey Bryson, Ben Bryson has about eight D-I schools actively recruiting him.

“They will all see him play a lot this summer,” Joey Bryson said.

Ben Bryson has also been invited to the N.C. Top 100 Prospect Camp, which will be held June 22 at Davie County High School.

“There will be D-I coaches in attendance there, too. Hopefully this will be a big summer for him,” Joey Bryson said.

The rezoning request for a 1,000-unit housing development at the former Tap Root Farms site on Butler Bridge Road was tabled by the Henderson County Board of Commissioners Monday night.

The board will take up the controversial rezoning and development at its next meeting June 19.

The project includes 546 single-family homes and 532 townhomes, which is a density of 3.7 units per acre for the 286-acre site. At least 72.5 acres, of 25 percent of the site, is proposed to be left open.

Amenities, including an Olympic-sized swimming pool, are part of the plan.

Apartments were originally proposed but later removed.

The commissioners held an hours-long discussion of the project Monday night before tabling the rezoning after 10 p.m. More than a dozen residents spoke out about the proposal, most in opposition.

Those opposed expressed concerns with school overcrowding, increased traffic, noise from Asheville Regional Airport and the amount of homes being proposed.

The couple of residents who voiced support said more housing is needed in the county, and the population of the county is growing whether the housing is there or not.

Commissioners asked detailed questions of the developer for over an hour. Density, parking, proximity to Interstate 26 and the airport, HOA fees, roads, street lighting and affordability were just a few of the concerns broached by the commissioners.

The county planning board did not approve the plans for the development following a 4-4 vote in March. The issue then was handed over to the commissioners.

The original developer, Ken Jackson, is working with D.R. Horton, who would be the developer and builder of the project. Members of the development team, attorneys and representatives of the family that owns the land were present.

Music On Main

7:00-9:00pm

Visitor Center

201 South Main Street

Admission is free

A Social Function:

Kick-off the weekend on Friday, June 14th at the Music On Main concert series. The concert features the group A Social Function.  A Social Function is seven-piece band playing a wide array of popular Top 40 tunes. The members that make up A Social Function are Mike VanGorder, Jeff Anders, Ric Luther, Jesse Barry, Kirk McWilliams, Joe Deodato and Johnny House.

The Annual Music On Main concert series is held every Friday evening through August 23 at the Visitors  Center, 201 South Main Street in Downtown Hendersonville, NC. Bring a chair and sit back, relax and enjoy the music from 7:00-9:00pm. Seating area opens after 5:30pm, early admission is strictly prohibited. No pets, alcoholic beverages, or coolers allowed. Admission is free.

In case of inclement weather the concert will be postponed until 8:00pm; if the weather does not improve by 8:00pm the performance will be cancelled.

For additional information or a complete concert schedule call the Henderson County Tourism Development Authority at (828) 693-9708, 800-828-4244 or visit our web site at www.visithendersonvillencorg.

The Music On Main concert series is an event of the Henderson County Tourism Development Authority.

Deputies charge sex offender spotted at Jackson Park during police softball game - News - Hendersonville Times-News - Hendersonville, NC A registered sex offender from Columbus was charged Saturday with unlawfully being on the premises of Jackson Park during a softball game between the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office and Henderson County Senior Softball team. Billy Gene Weesner, 50, of Lot 9 Thrush Lane, was out on bond and at the park when he was spotted by Polk County deputies attending the game. Deputies took Weesner into custody during the softball game, which was a benefit for Special Needs Sports. Weesner is a lifetime registered sex offender and was charged with one felony count of sex offender unlawfully on premises, the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. He had been arrested in Polk County for the violating terms and conditions of his court-mandated registry status on April 8. Weesner remains in the custody of the Henderson County Detention Facility in lieu of $10,000 secured bond.