News

Clearing to Begin for U.S. 64 Safety Upgrades in Henderson County
Minimal traffic impacts during this operation

HENDERSONVILLE – N.C. Department of Transportation crews will begin clearing trees and vegetation along U.S. 64 from White Pine Road to Blythe Street as early as Feb. 5.

Crews will fell trees, remove limbs and stack trunks to be hauled away during the six-week operation. NCDOT crews will control traffic on site where short delays may be necessary, but no closures are anticipated during morning and evening commuting hours.

Later this spring, utility crews will begin moving utility lines ahead of a construction project that will reduce crashes and improve traffic flow. During construction, slated to begin later this year, contract crews will install 12-foot-wide travel lanes, a 5-foot bike lane in both directions, 5-foot sidewalks on both sides, roundabouts at three intersections and add turn lanes in all four directions at Blythe Street.

“We are delighted to see all of our coordination with the municipalities involved coming to fruition,” Division 14 Project Team Lead Jeanette White said. “Drivers and residents will finally see the efforts of planners and designers in the coming weeks and months as clearing, utility-line relocation, and finally construction, begin to commence.”

Transportation officials remind drivers to remain alert and obey all traffic instructions in the work zone.

“Safety is our top priority,” White said. “This project improves safety for cyclists, pedestrians and drivers, and we hope folks are cautious during all work activities.”

For real-time travel information, visit DriveNC.gov or follow NCDOT on social media.

***NCDOT***

Copyright N.C. Department of Transportation
1503 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699 | (919) 707-2660

 A woman previously charged with second-degree murder on Jan. 7 after a man was found dead in Laurel Park has now been indicted on a first-degree murder charge.

A Hendersonville grand jury indicted Vanessa Annalee Ledbetter, 38, on first-degree murder on Jan. 30, 2024, the Henderson County Clerk of Courts confirmed.

Laurel Park Police Chief Bobbie Trotter said officers with the Laurel Park Police Department responded to an incomplete call at approximately 10:31 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 7. When officers arrived to the location at 16 Lake Drive, they located a white male victim lying in the rear patio area with an "obvious fatal wound," officials said.

The deceased was identified as Robin Bracken, age 58.

Police have not disclosed the type of fatal wound, but at the time, said an autopsy would soon be scheduled for the victim.

STORY & PHOTO COURTESY OF ABC 13 WLOShttps://wlos.com/news/local/grand-jury-indicts-woman-first-degree-murder-death-of-man-laurel-park-hendersonville-vanessa-annalee-ledbetter-robin-bracken#

 A man from Henderson County is facing multiple sex crime charges in an ongoing investigation.

The Henderson County Sheriff's Office announced on Jan. 31 that the department's Major Crimes Unit on Jan. 26 charged Michael Fitzgerald Sr., 50, of Hendersonville, with the following:

• Statutory rape of a child by an adult
• Statutory sex offense with a child by an adult
• Indecent liberties with a child

The sheriff's office said these charges are the result of an investigation conducted by the Major Crimes Unit.

Fitzgerald was arrested by the sheriff's office Crime Suppression Unit and booked into the Henderson County Detention Facility under a $500,000.00 secured bond.

The investigation is ongoing and more charges are possible, officials say.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Joseph Tulloch at (828)694-3177 or Lieutenant Brad Woodson at (828)694-2985.

According to Henderson County Government, Safelight is a nonprofit agency that provides support for victims of interpersonal violence, sexual assault and child abuse. Call for help: 828-693-3840 - 24 hours a day - 7 days a week. Located at 133 5th Ave W, Hendersonville, NC, at the corner of Church St and 5th Ave.

STORY & PHOTO COURTESY OF ABC 13 WLOSHendersonville man charged with statutory rape, sex offense, indecent liberties with child | WLOS

The North Carolina State Highway Patrol says rescue call responses have become a lot quicker, and safety has been improved -- all thanks to a new GPS system upgrade that will more quickly connect 911 callers to the nearest state trooper.

The $11 million project was funded with money from the federal American Rescue Plan Act after a decade of searching for the right replacements.

The highway patrol's previous computer-aided design (CAD) dispatch was decades old and was on the brink of shutting down permanently, so it was a perfect time for this necessary funding to come through.

Though 911 calls have had track abilities for decades, not all agencies are able to use the resource, according to 1st Sgt. Chris Knox, N.C. State Highway Patrol public information officer.

“When I tell you that we were operating on an antiquated system, that is the understatement of the year," Knox said Wednesday, Jan. 31. "We were relying so much on what people could tell us. Now, our system has that capability as well."

“Sharing information between the 911 centers and our centers and our center to the member they are out in the field.”

Knox said this will greatly help lighten the workload of 911 dispatchers so they can answer more calls instead of trying to help troopers track individuals.

This new CAD system will not only share the real time information of caller to troopers, but it will also alert troopers to any nearby obstacles they could face on the way there with the updated mapping system.

The tracking systems of this CAD upgrade are already being used to serve the public but the full systems, including administrative services, will be completed by 2025.

STORY & PHOTO COURTESY OF ABC 13 WLOSNC State Highway Patrol improves rescue response times with $11M GPS upgrade | WLOS

Feb. 1 will be an exciting day for the future Class of 2037 and their families. On Thursday, Henderson County Public Schools (HCPS) will open online kindergarten registration for the 2024-2025 school year.

As the user-friendly online enrollment form goes live and begins accepting registrations on Feb. 1, the registration link will be shared publicly across various channels, including the HCPS website, social media platforms, and online marketing.

Enrollment is open to children turning 5 years old on or before August 31, 2024. Students should be registered in their home school district, even if a parent or guardian plans to make a request for transfer or reassignment to another elementary school. Families can call the HCPS Transportation Department at 828-697-4739 for assistance determining their home school district.

When using the online enrollment form, guardians have the ability to upload required documentation including proof of residency and birth certificates, indicate plans for bus transportation, notify the district of a child’s medical needs or Individual Education Plan (IEP), and more. These details about the incoming Class of 2037 give HCPS administrators more accurate numbers for logistical planning for the upcoming school year.

Families are encouraged to use the online enrollment tool as early as possible, since earlier kindergarten registrations in February and March also allow schools to communicate important district messages leading up to the start of school. This year, those messages will include invitations for families to attend their school’s kindergarten readiness rallies planned for March. At these school-based rallies, families will meet teachers and administrators, ask questions, and learn about kindergarten readiness skills they can practice with their children at home.

In addition to the highly anticipated launch of online kindergarten registration on February 1st, parents will have two invaluable opportunities to enhance their understanding and readiness for the kindergarten journey through dedicated Q&A sessions. These informative sessions, featuring elementary school principals, kindergarten teachers, school counselors, and more, are designed to address questions related to the registration process and kindergarten readiness. The first session is scheduled at the Etowah Library on February 19th at 5:30 p.m., followed by another session at the Main Hendersonville Library on February 27th at 5:30 p.m. These interactive sessions serve as a valuable resource for parents seeking to prepare their young learners for a successful start to kindergarten.

On Saturday, March 2nd, the school district’s ESL Family Center and community partners will offer in-person support for families needing assistance with the online registration process in Spanish. The event, titled “Inscripciones para Kínder en Español,” will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Stull Hall at Grace Lutheran Church, 1245 6th Ave W Hendersonville, NC 2879. Families can also reach out to ESL Family Liaison Evelyn Angeles-Alarcon at 828-388-2632 for questions regarding kindergarten registration.

Stay tuned for additional information from HCPS and early childhood education partner, Smart Start Partnership for Children, about the upcoming school-based kindergarten readiness rallies.

 It was not a pretty sight along Howard Gap Road in June last year.

“We will have to basically move the bad material, refill it in and fix it up from there,” North Carolina Department of Transportation Bridge Maintenance Engineer Mark Hill said in June after seeing the Howard Gap Road bridge damaged by flooding.

The bridge is still undriveable. It’s been that way for more than six months, and it’s going to stay that way for the rest of 2024. However, the NCDOT is optimistic it will be back in use in 2025.

“NCDOT determined that the repairs were far beyond what we could do,” Communications Officer David Uchiyama said. “So, the engineers decided this was the best time to do a full bridge replacement.”

With TGS Engineers doing the designing and RE Burns Contractor doing the building, the bridge will be completely rebuilt by April 2025.

Though that’s almost a year and a half away, the DOT said the two entities partnering up will save time.

“The same company is designing it and building it,” Uchiyama said. “What that allows for is a faster process from start to finish.

This bridge will be designed with scour prevention. As in, there will be additional defenses for when the river rises. In this case, it was the debris that knocked out the edge of the bridge.

However, the project means 15 more months of detours, including for emergency services.

“There’s still that concern,” Polk County Emergency Management Director and Fire Marshal Bobby Arledge said. “There may be some delay to get certain emergency services to some areas that normally take 5 minutes, might take a little longer now. It’s going to take another route to get to [those places].”

Arledge said he trusts the DOT to do the best job with the full bridge replacement, work the county emergency management director said is well overdue.

“That bridge has been seen a lot over the years,” Arledge said. “So, I’m happy to see a new, modern bridge going in.”

STORY & PHOTO COURTESY OF ABC 13 WLOSPlan in place for Howard Gap Road bridge in Polk County after flood damage | WLOS

 Seventeen years ago it was Western North Carolina's biggest golf story. Buncombe County would be home to the first Tiger Woods-designed golf course in America. But when the real estate market tanked and the venture was hit with other problems, the project failed.

In 2017, the property went up for auction after not selling for $20 million, but it also didn’t sell at auction. Broker Billy May, with Keller Williams, said South Carolina investors bought the 840 acres for $15.5 million in 2019.

Now, 550 acres are up for sale and the focus is on finding deep-pocketed buyers who’d be motivated by the idea of tax breaks from having large tracts placed in conservancies.

“Either a family compound or a collection of families coming together to build very private houses,” said Collin O’Berry, co-listing agent with May. “We’re counting on somebody liking the location and wanting the privacy."

“This tract of land is a large contiguous tract in the Swannanoa River mountains,” said Michelle Pugliese, land protection director for the nonprofit Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy. “Southern Appalachians Highlands is aware of it, because we have done strategic planning and we know of large tracts that are out there. We would love to purchase and own it as a nature preserve and not see any subdivision on that tract of land if possible.”

But O’Berry and May don’t have any interest in that at this point since it would mean the property would sell for significantly less than the $19 million for which it's listed.

“There’s direct prospecting to high net worth individuals and other brokers across the country who represent high net worth individuals,” O’Berry said.

The property has been on the market 20 days.

“We’ve shown it a couple times already,” May said. “And time will tell.”

STORY & PHOTO COURTESY OF ABC 13 WLOS550 acres tied to failed Tiger Woods golf course back on market with $19M price tag | WLOS

 A judge refused Friday to prevent the use of two North Carolina Senate districts drawn by Republican legislators starting with the 2024 elections and to order them replaced with boundaries that lawsuit plaintiffs argue would more likely ensure Black voters can elect a preferred candidate in one of them.

U.S. District Judge James Dever denied a preliminary injunction requested by two Black residents who sued over the Senate districts in November, alleging racial bias. They contend GOP legislative leaders likely violated the federal Voting Rights Act by fashioning the two districts so that Black voters in northeastern counties were split between the two, diluting their voting strength.

The plaintiffs proposed remedial districts, one of which would have a Black voting age population of nearly 50% or slightly above it, depending on the counting method. The Black voting age populations in each of the districts enacted by the General Assembly approach 30%.

Dever, who was nominated to the federal bench by President George W. Bush and once a redistricting lawyer, wrote that there wasn't evidence presented to him or the General Assembly showing a majority-Black state Senate district was required in the region.

And a principle that courts should not change election rules close to an election applies here because activity for the March 5 primaries is underway, Dever wrote. While there are no primaries for the seats for the 1st and 2nd Senate Districts being challenged, attorneys for the GOP legislators have argued that granting an injunction could require many other districts - some with primaries - to be redrawn.

"The court declines plaintiffs' invitation to issue the requested extraordinary, mandatory preliminary injunction and thereby inflict voter confusion and chaos on the 2024 Senate elections in North Carolina," Dever wrote in a 69-page order.

Thorough their lawyers, plaintiffs Rodney Pierce of Halifax County and Moses Matthews of Martin County quickly filed Friday their notice to appeal the ruling to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Every Senate seat is critical for Republicans as they seek to retain their veto-proof majority in the chamber. They currently hold 30 of the 50 seats - the minimum required to override vetoes if the GOP caucus stays united. The two current senators representing the region are white Republicans. A ruling ultimately favoring the plaintiffs likely would ensure a Democrat winning one of the seats.

The two voters argue that Black voters who comprise a politically cohesive unit within the state's "Black Belt" region won't have the opportunity to elect a favored candidate in either district because of racially polarized voting favoring majority-white residents who vote in blocs.

Dever agreed with attorneys for the GOP legislators that rulings in previous recent North Carolina redistricting litigation have concluded that voting is not racially polarized at legally significant levels to justify districts like those the plaintiffs seek. Senate Republicans said they did not use racial data in drawing the chamber's districts in the fall.

Pierce and Matthews have said action is needed by early February so that new districts can be drawn and possible primary elections held in mid-May, when any runoff from the March primaries would occur.

Pierce and Matthews reside in the 2nd District, which stretches more than 160 miles from the Virginia border down to parts of the Atlantic coastline. Their lawyers wrote that it would be relatively easy to draw a compact majority-Black district that ensures the rights of minority voters aren't eroded.

Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and Attorney General Josh Stein aren't named in the lawsuit but filed a court brief backing the preliminary injunction.

Republicans enacted in October new lines for all the state Senate and House districts and the state's 14 U.S. House seats for use through the 2030 elections. At least two other lawsuits have been filed alleging the boundaries are illegal racial gerrymanders. But the plaintiffs in neither case are aggressively trying to block the maps from being used in the 2024 election cycle.

STORY & PHOTO COURTESY OF ABC 13 WLOSNew NC state Senate districts remain in place as judge refuses to block their use | WLOS

 The Carolina Panthers have agreed to hire Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Dave Canales as their new head coach, according to two people familiar with the situation.

Canales has informed the Buccaneers that he is taking the job, although there are still details that need to be finalized before the move is announced, according to the people who spoke to The Associated Press on Thursday on condition of anonymity.

Canales will be the seventh head coach since owner David Tepper took over as owner in 2018. He inherits a Panthers team that went 2-15 last season and does not have a first-round draft pick in 2024.

Canales, who is Mexican-American, joins Ron Rivera as the second head coach of Latino descent hired by the Panthers.

He will be the third minority hire during this coaching cycle, joining Jerod Mayo in New England and Antonio Pierce in Las Vegas, bringing the NFL total to eight along with Pittsburgh's Mike Tomlin, Houston's DeMeco Ryans, Tampa Bay's Todd Bowles, Miami's Mike McDaniel and the New York Jets' Robert Saleh.

Three teams still have yet to hire a head coach: the Falcons, Seahawks and Commanders.

The hire caps a meteoric rise for the 42-year-old Canales, who was working as the Seattle Seahawks quarterbacks coach in 2022.

He spent 13 seasons in Seattle where he worked with Dan Morgan, who was recently hired as the Panthers general manager and president of football operations. Morgan replaced general manager Scott Fitterer, who was fired after the season.

Canales broke into league in 2010 as the Seahawks wide receivers coach, where he spent eight seasons and helped the team win a Super Bowl in the 2013 season. He spent three more seasons as the team's quarterbacks coach working with Russell Wilson and two as passing game coordinator before the landing the Buccaneers job last year.

Canales helped the Bucs reach the NFC divisional playoffs with Baker Mayfield at quarterback in his first and only season as an NFL offensive coordinator.

Canales will be entrusted with the development of quarterback Bryce Young, the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft who struggled as a rookie. Young went 2-14 as a starter and averaged fewer than 180 yards passing per game and had just 11 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions.

Canales' development of Mayfield may have left a lasing impression on Tepper. The 2018 No. 1 overall pick had struggled last season with the Panthers and was released late in the 2022 season.

But under Canales, he resurrected his career in Tampa Bay.

Mayfield completed 64.3% of his passes for 4,044 yards with 28 touchdowns and 10 interceptions this season for the Bucs, who went 9-8 and won the NFC South in the final week of the regular season. Mayfield played well in the postseason as well as the Bucs beat the Philadelphia Eagles 32-9 before losing last week to the Detroit Lions 31-23.

Mayfield completed 62.3% of his passes in the postseason for 686 yards with six TD passes and two interceptions.

Wilson had his best statistical season in 2020 with Canales as the passing game coordinator, throwing for 4,212 yards and 40 touchdowns with 13 interceptions. And Geno Smith posted his best season in 2022 with Canales as QBs coach, throwing for 4,282 yards with 30 TD passes and 11 picks.

The big question might be how much patience Tepper will have with Canales.

The Panthers fired Frank Reich just 11 games into his first season as head coach this season after giving him a four-year contract. Tepper, who is 31-68 since taking over, hasn't shown much patience with head coaches, also having fired Ron Rivera and Matt Rhule during the middle of previous seasons.

STORY & PHOTO COURTESY OF ABC 13 WLOSPanthers agree to hire Dave Canales from the Buccaneers as new head coach, AP sources say | WLOS

 Duke Energy customers daunted by higher energy bills this winter in the hundreds of dollars have been contacting News 13 asking us to find out why their bills are so much higher than last winter.

“December’s was $318.51,” said Anthony Crisp, a Duke Energy customer who lives outside Sylva with his family in a 1900-square-foot modular home.

Crisp’s bill due in days is $409.88.

“Almost $500 a month for a 1,900-square-foot house is outrageous," he said Wednesday, Jan. 24. "I don’t understand the high prices and how it could go up so much in a year’s time.”

Crisp showed News 13 his graph chart for the past year, which seems to indicate that his power use in December 2023 wasn’t any higher that his use a year prior, in December 2022, yet he said his bills are hundreds of dollars higher.

In his home, Crisp said puts into action many of the tips Duke officials recommend for conserving energy, from using LED lights to having good insulation in his walls and keeping his fan on to circulate warm air to keep it from rising.

News 13 spoke with several Duke representatives who said the power company did have a state-approved rate increase of 5.8% in October 2023. Then, just two months later in December, a fuel rate increase of 4.1% was passed on to customers. Plus, Duke representatives cited higher use of electricity due to winter weather. Those three factors are what customers are seeing reflected in higher bills hitting mailboxes this winter, the spokesperson said.

Another News 13 viewer asked about new lines that detail “rider charges.” The charges were previously summarized in a per-kilowatt energy rate and not broken out,but that has since changed.

“Riders include approved fuel, generation, environmental, purchases and credit that affect reliable and efficient service to customers,” said Logan Kureczka, spokesperson for Duke Energy. “They are often fees that help advance state policy goals, such as funding to bring more solar energy to the grid.”

As for Crisp, he’s just worried about what the next big bill will be for Duke -- and he said he’s not convinced the rate hike and the winter weather coupled with the fuel rate pass-through charges are all that’s causing his bills to be so much higher than last winter.

Duke Energy has a state-approved rate hike schedule for the coming years:

• October 2023 base rate increase: 5.8%
• October 2024 base rate increase: 3.2%
• October 2025 base rate increase: 3.4%

Duke offers a free house call option in which a tech will go through a customer's house to look for inefficiencies and ways they may be able to save. Click HERE for more information.