News

Hendersonville Police Department Citizen Advisory Group – March 22

Police Chief Blair Myhand and the Hendersonville Police Department invite community members to get involved with their local police department by attending a Citizen Advisory Group meeting. This group periodically meets with police department staff to provide feedback and generate ideas and solutions.

The meeting will take place Tuesday, March 22, 2022, at 6:30 pm at the Hendersonville Police Department located at 630 Ashe Street. Any residents and community stakeholders with an interest in collaborating with the Hendersonville Police Department are invited to attend.

People who are interested may attend in-person or join the meeting via Zoom. Login details and additional information is available at www.hendersonvillenc.gov/police-department and on the City of Hendersonville’s event calendar.

Mulch and Compost Giveaway – Starting March 24

The City of Hendersonville has scheduled its seasonal mulch giveaway program to begin on Thursday, March 24, 2022. Mulch will be available for pick up on Thursdays and Fridays from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. and on Saturdays from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. This schedule will continue until around May 7, or until the material is gone.

The mulch will be distributed at the old Wastewater Treatment Plant located at 80 Balfour Road in Hendersonville. The Public Works Department will have a staff member on-site to operate the backhoe and load the material.

In addition to the mulch, the City will be offering composted leaves as a separate material. These leaves were collected during the fall of 2020, ran through a grinder, and composted for a year. This material makes an excellent addition to vegetable and flower gardens.

More information on these programs is available at www.hendersonvillenc.gov or by contacting the Public Works Department at (828) 697-3084.

Hendersonville Police Department Hosts ‘March for Hendersonville’ Litter Cleanup – March 26

The Hendersonville Police Department invites the community to join them for a litter cleanup later this month. The ‘March for Hendersonville’ litter cleanup event will focus efforts on picking up trash in and around City of Hendersonville parks and the Oklawaha Greenway. Community members should gather at Patton Park near the picnic shed at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, March 26, 2022, to participate.

Hendersonville Police Officers will divide participants into groups and accompany them to clean up various park and greenway sections. Participants younger than age eighteen should be accompanied by an adult. The cleanup event is expected to conclude by noon.

More information on the event is available at www.hvlnc.gov/march4hvl.

Public Input Requested on ‘Above the Mud’ Grant Project Proposal to Connect Ecusta Trail and Oklawaha Greenway – March 29

The City of Hendersonville is seeking public input on a grant project proposal that could connect the Ecusta Trail to the Oklawaha Greenway and 7th Avenue.

The public is invited to attend a drop-in public meeting on Tuesday, March 29th from 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. at the City Operations Center at 305 Williams Street. The meeting will provide grant project details, allow participants to provide feedback, and show their local support for improving bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure.

The grant proposal titled ‘Above The Mud’ includes three improvements to bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in the City:

• Construct a new greenway along Mud Creek to connect the Oklawaha Greenway to the Ecusta Trail
• Improve a frequently flooded section of the Oklawaha Greenway
• Construct streetscape improvements on 7th Avenue from the railroad to the Oklawaha Greenway

A virtual participation option will be provided; however, the community is encouraged to attend in-person to best view the project maps, interact with staff, and enjoy refreshments.

US Department of Transportation RAISE grants (Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity) help communities around the country carry out projects with significant local or regional impact. The City of Hendersonville wants to hear from the community to help inform the grant application process and plan for future infrastructure improvements.

Additional information on the proposed grant project, including virtual participation details, is available at www.hvlnc.gov/abovethemud.

The senate Republicans and Democrats voted to end time changes, and stick with the current daylight savings time.

The bill was supported unanimously with no nay votes.The bill initiated by Marco Rubio now goes the house, and then on the Joe Biden to sign off on. It is expected to pass there as well.

We may have reset our clocks for the last time..stay tuned.

Ten year Hendersonville HIgh School Football coach Jim Sosebee has been stolen away to coach Cleveland County's Crest High School, known for their 'football prowess. 

Sosebee crafted 50 Bearcat wins over the last six seasons at HHS.

Sosebee is a "big-time" high school football coach, having completed stints at big-time populated schools such as powerhouse Byrnes, Greenville, and Riverside High Schools in South Carolina.

Perhaps he was too good for Hendersonville, having caught the attention of much larger schools such as Shelby and Burns who were defeated by the Bearcats.

Bigger schools are always in a position to "pony up" more big dollars, a temptiation Sosebee obviously couldn't turn down....and in leaving he commented that Crest will put his new program on a "bigger stage".

In leaving, Sosebee says "Once a Bearcat, always a Bearcat".  But, he will not be coaching the Bearcats any longer.

So there you have it Bearcat fans.....if you want to keep a BIG TIME WINNING COACH.....you GOTTA PAY BIG TIME COACHING DOLLARS.   

In a joint news release, two Western North Carolina legislators have announced the allocation of further funding for the Ecusta Trail.

On Monday, March 14, State Sen. Chuck Edwards (R-District 48) and Rep. Tim Moffitt (R-District 117) announced the allocation of an additional $7.5 million in state dollars toward the building of the trail.

The Ecusta Trail is slated to span roughly 19 miles, transformed from an old, inactive rail line into a multi-use greenway, connecting the hearts of Hendersonville and Brevard.

Edwards said he sees a lot of benefits to building the greenway and saw an opportunity to allocate more funding for it as lawmakers were assembling a budget technical corrections bill last week.

"That's the reason that so many folks have gotten behind this is to provide another way for people to get outdoors, get exercise, fresh air and move about the district," Edwards said. "It's a matter of highest and best use for an asset in our region."

The funding is in addition to the $600,000 previously designated in the state budget for the trail, according to the news release.

"I'm encouraged that we could see bicyclists and walkers out there sooner rather than later," Edwards said.

STORY & PHOTO COURTESY OF ABC 13 WLOShttps://wlos.com/news/local/ecusta-trail-gets-75-million-in-additional-state-funding

The Hendersonville Police Department invites the community to join them for a litter cleanup later this month. The ‘March for Hendersonville’ litter cleanup event will focus efforts on picking up trash in and around City of Hendersonville parks and the Oklawaha Greenway. Community members should gather at Patton Park near the picnic shed at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, March 26, 2022, to participate.

 “The Hendersonville Police Department continues its commitment to strengthening community partnerships,” said Sergeant Garrett Gardin. “March for Hendersonville is about taking pride in our greenways and parks through a focused cleanup effort.”

 Hendersonville Police Officers will divide participants into groups and accompany them to clean up various park and greenway sections. Participants younger than age eighteen should be accompanied by an adult. The cleanup event is expected to conclude by noon.

 More information on the event is available at www.hvlnc.gov/march4hvl.

 What: March for Hendersonville Litter Cleanup Event

Who: Community members and Hendersonville Police Department Officers and staff

Where: Patton Park, 114 E. Clairmont Drive, Hendersonville

When: Saturday, March 26, 2022, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Federal pandemic recovery money is being used in a literal sense in Henderson County, where officials have allocated a portion of the county’s American Rescue Plan Act funds to establish COVID-19 monoclonal antibody infusion clinics.

During August and September meetings, the Henderson County Board of Commissioners voted to use up to $500,000 of the county’s $22.8 million in ARPA funds on infusion clinics at AdventHealth Hendersonville and Pardee Hospital.

Despite being the recipient of the second-largest amount of ARPA funds in Western North Carolina, Henderson County had not used the federal money on any other projects as of February, county spokesperson Kathryn Finotti said.

In contrast, Buncombe County, which received the largest amount of federal COVID funding in the region, had spent more than $23 million, or about 45%, of its ARPA money by the start of February, its COVID recovery spending page showed.

“The Board of Commissioners continues to work with community leaders to advocate for the best use of the ARP funding (in Henderson County),” Finotti said.

Infusion clinics in Hendersonville hospitals
Pardee and AdventHealth have been infusing COVID-positive patients with antibodies in their emergency departments since early in the pandemic. However, in August, with the delta variant causing cases to skyrocket, the logistics of an emergency department doubling as an infusion clinic became more difficult to navigate.

“Our emergency department got really busy with COVID patients,” said Dr. Teresa Hebert, AdventHealth Hendersonville chief medical officer.

“We were identifying patients who needed infusion and treating them in the emergency department, but that was causing delays in care because we didn’t have enough room for all the patients.”

Pardee encountered the same issue with demand for antibody infusion having “quickly outpaced both space and capacity within the emergency department,” said Carol Stefaniak, Pardee’s vice president of clinical services and chief nursing officer.

So in August, hospital officials decided to establish an independent space for antibody infusions, which, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, are given to high-risk COVID-19 patients within seven days of testing positive for the virus.

Henderson County steps in
Shortly after the hospitals created the clinics — Pardee’s inside the hospital and AdventHealth’s in a hospital-owned building across the street from the main facility — the Henderson County Board of Commissioners approved using ARPA to offer the hospitals financial support. Pardee’s clinic has since moved to the Mission Pardee Health Campus on Hendersonville Road in Fletcher.

According to the county’s current contracts with the hospitals, Henderson will pay up to $250,000 in staffing costs for the infusion clinics through June 30. Pardee and AdventHealth pay infusion clinic workers $50 per hour.

Since the federal government provides antibodies to hospitals, staff pay was a welcome piece of assistance, as finding clinic workers has been a “major challenge,” Herbert said.

“It’s a pretty labor-intensive process,” she said about the antibody infusion.

“You need a skilled nurse or EMT to administer it and to sit with (the patients), and then you need people trained in emergency management in case a patient has an emergency reaction or any other complications with COVID.”

The need for a clinic
Though COVID-19’s prevalence has waned over the past two years and demand for antibody infusions has ebbed and flowed, Hebert and Stefaniak said access to monoclonal antibodies is an important part of fighting the pandemic.

“For some people, they are the best thing,” Hebert said about the antibodies.

“Very vulnerable people who are immunocompromised are the most likely to be hospitalized, so using the treatment for them is really important to keep them out of the hospital. I don’t see the infusion as an option going away anytime soon.”

STORY COURTESY OF CAROLINA PUBLIC PRESS.