Moody Funeral Home in Sylva has been accused of hiding its assets and income to avoid paying bills in violation of a court order, according to the latest filing in an ongoing lawsuit.

Moody Funeral Home was sued in 2007 by a casket company after failing to pay for coffins it had ordered, according to court filings. The court sided with the casket company and ordered Moody Funeral Home to pay $176,000 in 2008.

However, Moody Funeral Home claims it has no assets to its name nor any income and therefore hasn’t paid.

Meanwhile, funerals continue to be conducted out of the building. The sign still says Moody Funeral Home, as do those answering the phone at the business. And the same man still runs the business now as before, namely Reginald Moody Jr.

However, Moody claims he is running the business as a different entity now. Before, Moody Funeral Home was run by a corporation called Wings Aviation, and now it is being run by Moody Services.

Wings — not Moody Services — is the one named in the lawsuit. While Wings used to run the funeral home, it doesn’t any more.

“Used to does not count,” Moody said. “Wings Aviation has no affiliation with Moody Funeral Home or any of its businesses. Moody Funeral Home is run entirely by Moody Services.”

Moody was the president of Wings and is the sole proprietor of Moody Services, according to court filings. Moody said Wings ceased to do business in December 2007 — timing that coincides with the lawsuit by the casket company.

An accountant appointed by the court to investigate the finances surrounding Moody Funeral Home filed a report this month describing a tangled web of corporate entities designed to “hinder, delay and defraud creditors,” according to Shelia Gahagan, a CPA in Waynesville.

Specifically, Gahagan shows how assets once owned by Wings — from its building, to vehicles, to trade name — have been siphoned to other entities in hopes of making them untouchable by creditors, the court filing claims.

“It is certainly my position at this juncture that I will request the shareholder to repay any monies and to return any property taken from the corporation,” Gahagan wrote. “It appears if the shareholders would return money and assets they have taken, all the creditors could be made whole.”

Jeff Norris, a Waynesville attorney who represented the casket company, said Gahagan’s investigation confirms “a lot of what I suspected.”

“I have a client with a substantial judgment, and this individual has been taking money out of the corporation,” Norris said. “He has gone in and used it as his personal checking account.”

Gahagan was appointed the receiver in hopes of uncovering assets in Wings’ name that could be used to pay more than $400,000 in debts, owed not only to the casket company but the IRS and others as well.

The court gave her discretion to investigate the finances of all the business operations being conducted out of Moody Funeral Home. But Gahagan said she has not been given full access to the books and records.

Fred Jones, an attorney representing Moody, said that Gahagan is looking into more than she is entitled to, taking the “broadest possible view to expand the search for assets.”

Moody has an appeal filed with the N.C. Court of Appeals protesting the scope of Gahagan’s investigation. Multiple businesses can and are operated from a single address. The court should have tailored Gahagan’s investigation only to Wings, not to the other entities that now run funeral home operations.

“It appears they are wanting to not accept there is a difference between Wings Aviation and Mr. Moody individually,” Jones said.

Moody said the report by Gahagan makes incorrect conclusions.

“I would caution you to be very skeptical of that report. Most of the report is wrong,” Moody said.

A court filing rebuking inaccuracies in the report has been prepared by Sylva Attorney Jay Coward, but has not yet been filed. Coward did not return phone calls seeking comment due to a busy schedule, his assistant said.

The next step in the court case is unclear. The judge appointed to the case, Zoro Guise, could make a ruling based on Gahagan’s report and the rebuttal by Moody. But Jones hopes there will be a hearing.

“This is a report by a receiver, whether it is true, false, mistaken, misunderstood — these are nothing more right now than allegations,” Jones said.

One town commissioner, the town manager and two business owners will help pick Sylva’s next police chief.

The panel, agreed on last week at a board meeting, replaces one originally conceived by Town Manager Adrienne Isenhower that sparked dissent among the town’s five commissioners. She proposed using herself, two Western Carolina University employees, and the town of Maggie Valley’s police chief to select a replacement for Jeff Jamison, who steps down Oct. 1.

But Commissioners Harold Hensley, Danny Allen and Ray Lewis objected to the use of outsiders. They said there was ample wisdom on the town board to help guide the selection. The town’s leaders include two former police officers, Allen and Lewis, and a former district attorney, Christina Matheson. The board agreed to this panel makeup previously.

Allen and Lewis missed last week’s meeting. No explanation for their absence was offered.

Matheson volunteered to serve on the panel, and nominated Marion Jones of Jones Country Store. Hensley nominated R.O. Vance of Vance Hardware and Appliance Repair. The nominations of all three, Matheson, Jones and Vance, passed unanimously, 3-0.

While hiring choices and day-to-day management of town affairs usually fall to the manager, a town ordinance stating commissioners shall select the police chief further confused the issue.

Sylva hired its first manager eight years ago, but this represents the first time the manager has wielded hiring power for the police chief. Before, town board members selected the police chief.

An accountant tasked by a Superior Court judge with taking control of Moody Funeral Home in Sylva said she couldn’t fulfill the order because of a state-licensing issue, and questions about who is on the property lease.

In a Sept. 13 court filing, Sheila Gahagan, court-appointed receiver for Wings Aviation Inc., listed in the filing as “doing business as” Moody Funeral Home, also asked the court to consider the possibility that there have been efforts to “hinder, delay and defraud creditors.”

Reginald Moody Jr., identified by Gahagan as president of Wings Aviation/Moody Funeral Home, said in response Tuesday: “Wings was foreclosed on and ceased doing business October 2007. And, from that date forward, Moody Services has operated the funeral home. The whole thing is in the North Carolina Court of Appeals right now.”

Gahagan was appointed receiver in December 2009. Neither she nor Moody could be reached for comment Tuesday before presstime.

“In the time since my appointment, I have struggled to locate and review documents, to trace financial transactions, as well as identify and interview those who have helpful information,” Gahagan wrote in the filing.

The accountant told the judge that she has asked the North Carolina Funeral Service Board to revoke or suspend Moody Funeral Home’s license because of failure to comply with the licensing laws. The state laws, Gahagan said, require a funeral home to only operate under the name listed on the application, and stipulate a new application for any change in ownership.

Gahagan said the license filed for Moody Funeral Home this year was under a sole proprietorship owned by Moody; previously, the filing has been under Wings Aviation.

Additionally, Gahagan said, “There are questions of Coward, Hicks and Siler (law firm) and Jay Coward’s involvement in the transfer of Wings assets to Mr. Moody and his father, Mr. Moody Sr. and the purpose of those transfers.”

Sylva Commissioner Christina Matheson surfaced as peacemaker last week for a town board that, among other matters, has shown signs of fracturing over the best method of hiring a new police chief.

Commissioner Harold Hensley bucked up at a meeting in August after learning about Town Manager Adrienne Isenhower’s plan to use outside help in deciding who would replace Police Chief Jeff Jamison, who retires Oct. 1. Isenhower had informed the board she intended to form a panel made up of herself, two Western Carolina University employees, and the town of Maggie Valley’s police chief.

At that meeting, commissioners Danny Allen and Ray Lewis echoed Hensley’s reluctance to allow Isenhower the full hiring power the town’s charter apparently stipulates. Often, town boards hire their manager, and the manager is in charge of hiring all other positions.

But no one seems entirely sure what the correct legal procedure is for Sylva because a town ordinance has confused the issue. The ordinance states commissioners shall select the police chief.

Hensley, Lewis and Allen emerged as a voting and speaking-in-one-voice bloc after Hensley was appointed in July to fill a board vacancy. This changed the constitution of the board. The minority is now the majority, and Commissioner Stacey Knotts has become the odd woman out after voting “no” to Hensley’s appointment.

Allen, who nominated Hensley for the board seat, upped tensions by sending a letter to The Sylva Herald demanding Isenhower and Mayor Maurice Moody consider resigning if they didn’t “work with us not against us.”

This, after commissioners’ summoned Isenhower behind closed doors for a time following last month’s dustup.

Against this backdrop of internecine warfare, Matheson attempted to throw oil on the water, at times even leaning back in her chair to directly negotiate with Hensley in a semi-private but still legally public manner.

Hensley sits on the other side of the mayor, as do Allen and Lewis, in a tidy but accidental alignment of what actually takes place in the boardroom. So the negotiations were literally, if not figuratively, going on behind Moody’s back.

“My suggestion is, to avoid confusion … we need to get a resolution of our charter, first,” Matheson said.

Matheson, a former assistant district attorney, outlined the following: Respect the autonomy of the manager, but have a board member present when candidates for high-level town positions are interviewed. In the vacancy for police chief, for instance, the number of applicants would be reduced to three by the manager, with the assistance of this special commissioner.

“Narrow the field to the extent the manager could (then) make the decision,” Matheson said.

“I think that’s a wonderful proposal,” Hensley said, as Lewis and Allen nodded in agreement.

Knotts, however, temporarily stymied the prospect of board unity by demanding a larger panel be formed.

“I don’t think one board member should be weeding all the applications down to three,” she said.

Hensley responded the size of the panel didn’t matter to him. He did warn that if too many board members got involved, the necessity of abiding by the state’s open-meetings law would come into play.

Ultimately, commissioners agreed one of them would volunteer for the panel, as originally proposed by Matheson. Additionally, at Hensley’s suggestion and with Knott’s agreement, a local businessperson who is also a town citizen will serve as a third body on the panel. Nominations for this post will be considered at the next meeting.

Isenhower, 27, was hired as town manager in March 2009 by a 3-2 vote of the board. Knotts voted for her, Hensley and Lewis against her. Allen wasn’t yet on the town board. The vote followed the board’s firing of former Town Manager Jay Denton in a controversial and split vote.

Getting around on your own two feet in Sylva would be safer and easier if an ambitious, $4.5-million pedestrian plan becomes reality.

The plan — really, a wish list that would help keep the town moving now and in the future — is headed for review by the state Department of Transportation after being presented to civic leaders last week. The 20-year blueprint for getting from here to there safely calls for more sidewalks, crosswalks, traffic lights and a picnic area.

The state review is expected to take one to two months.

“I think this is the time to make the right choices for what we want in this community,” said John Bubacz, owner of Signature Brew Coffee Company, between tending to customers at the popular West Main Street establishment. “If we build more roads, we are going to only have more cars. If we make Sylva pedestrian-friendly, we’ll have families and out-of-town visitors walking to see what the town offers.”

What’s there, what’s not

Compared to many towns, Sylva is in fairly decent shape, said the plan’s primary architect, Don Kostelec. The town used a $20,000 Transportation Department grant to hire the Asheville-based consultant, the senior transportation planner for Transpo Group. Kostelec partnered with a local steering committee made up of town officials, the county’s greenways coordinator and others.

The sidewalks in downtown are wide, Kostelec said, and there are already some crosswalks in place. Additionally, the missing link of a sidewalk between Sylva and its neighbor, Dillsboro, is in the works, and a new bridge now connects downtown with a town park and playground, which were once cut off by Scott’s Creek.

But long-term, Kostelec said, the goal of the plan is to transform Sylva into truly “a great, walkable downtown.”

The plan will take time, money and patience to realize. Many of the recommendations fall under long-term goals that could take up to 20 years to build.

“Where I’m stuck is, where do we start pursuing funding for some of these projects?” said town Commissioner Stacey Knotts of the overall plan.

Kostelec suggested the town seek grants to help pay for the projects.

“Having an adopted policy kind of puts you in line, as I understand it,” Mayor Maurice Moody said.

Some business owners, however, want to remain focused on parking issues before that happens.

“It’s pretty important that we get more parking along Main Street,” said Ben Seay, the owner of My Place restaurant, who is better known for his ownership of Uncle Bill’s Flea Market, located between Sylva and Bryson City. “That’s the bigger problem. We need parking.”

The plan doesn’t ignore parking altogether. It acknowledges there are issues with typical parking lot designs in that the “primary carriageway for vehicles in the parking lot happens to coincide with where the greatest numbers of pedestrians cross: directly in front of the main entrance.”

For the most part, however, the plan is focused on what happens to people once they get out of their cars.

Sylva pedestrian plan

To make the costs more palatable, the plan is broken down into bite-sized pieces. Here are some of the recommendations.

Short-terms goals, 5 to 7 years, $289,000:

• Along Grindstaff Road, adding a crosswalk at Mill Street and upgrading the railroad crossing for pedestrian access.

• Building a picnic area outside the Jackson County Administration Building.

• Build a sidewalk from Grindstaff Road to Jackson Plaza.  

• Along N.C. 107, include crosswalk and pedestrian signals on Wal-Mart side to connect existing sidewalks and upgrade with future sidewalks along the highway.

• On Main and Mill streets, fill sidewalk gaps and upgrade existing sidewalks, and make pedestrian access to the courthouse via Keener from Main Street.

Mid-term goals, 5 to 12 years, $617,000:

• At the U.S. 23 Business and Skyland Drive intersection, adding crosswalks, installing “countdown” pedestrian signals and upgrading curb ramps to meet Americans with Disabilities Acts requirements.

• On Savannah Drive, from Keener to Cowee streets, improve the stairway to Mark Watson Park, fix problem areas on existing sidewalks.

Long-term goals, 20 years, $3.5 million:

• Sidewalks along U.S. 23 Business near the hospital.

• Sidewalks from N.C. 107 along the west side of Cope Creek Road.

The blue-plate special fundraiser is a tradition in Sylva. On the last Wednesday of each month, Jackson County residents sit down to lunches served on battered wooden tables at the soup kitchen and eat food donated by local restaurants. The money they give in return helps keep The Community Table afloat.

The need is great. Since the economy soured, the mainly volunteer staff has been dishing out an average of 100 to 120 meals a night, up from 25 to 40. And that’s not just a strain on the budget. The Community Table can only seat 30 people at a time at each of the four dinners served each week. Additionally, a food pantry is operated out of the small building the nonprofit calls home.

“They are crowded, and this is a light day for them,” said Jean Ellen Forrister, a blue-plate regular who was at the soup kitchen last week. “Sometimes people are standing in line.”

Though the answer is just a few blocks away, the fix won’t be simple. Town of Sylva commissioners agreed the soup kitchen could move into the former Golden Age center, which was vacated after the county built a new senior center late last year. But up to $90,000 might be required to renovate the old building and render it usable. Walk-in coolers, stoves and other kitchen equipment must be bought. That could cost an additional $30,000 if purchased new, $20,000 used.

Amy Grimes, executive director of The Community Table, and the soup kitchen’s other paid staffer, Kevin Hughes, have been roughing-out cost estimates. They are trying to figure exactly how much they’ll need to move The Community Table, and where that money will come from.

First Steps

Grimes this month made the rounds nonprofit directors of local organizations all make when seeking dollars: first to the town board, then to the county board. Town leaders said they were strapped for money. They asked that the use of former Golden Age building be considered their contribution. Additionally, the town’s maintenance workers will help The Community Table fix up the building, if time away from regular duties can be found.

“I wish we had money, that we could write a check for you guys,” Sylva Commissioner Stacy Knotts told Grimes.

Grimes appealed to county commissioners for a contribution of $50,000 toward the work. They asked Grimes to provide a list of exactly what’s needed and the estimated costs. They promised to consider her request then.

County Commissioner Tom Massie said he didn’t mind spending county tax dollars to renovate a building owned by the town, given that The Community Table would use the building.

“It is serving Jackson County residents,” Massie said. “The majority of the clientele are residents of Jackson County whether they reside in the town of Sylva or not.”

Grimes said she has asked the town for a five-year lease on the building with an option to renew. That, if granted, should allay any concerns about the county’s participation, she said.

Fundraising starts next month

“They really need the space, and it’s a good location with lots of parking,” said Sara Hatton, a Jackson County resident who also ate lunch at The Community Table’s blue-plate special last week.

Both Hatton and Forrister expressed confidence that people in the community will donate the dollars needed to move The Community Table to the former Golden Age center, fix-up the building and furnish the kitchen.

“I’m always just amazed at the willingness of people to come forward here and help,” Hatton said. “The response to the library has just been phenomenal.”

When official fundraising started for the new Jackson County Public Library complex in May 2008, the Friends of the Jackson County Main Library had $140,000 in hand. The group, which is spearheading the fundraising drive, has since raised more than $1.7 million. This total represents a combination of grants, matching funds and private donations, said Mary Otto Selzer, co-chair of the capital campaign.

The shaky economy has forced many in Jackson County to seek help from the soup kitchen for the first time. Grimes said some construction workers, unable to find jobs, are relying on The Community Table for meals. So are a number of working people whose wages aren’t enough to make ends meet, or whose house have been cut.

Grimes said an annual survey revealed that many of those coming to the soup kitchen have been college educated. This represents a significant change from surveys taken in previous years.

Estimating when The Community Table will make the move is almost impossible at this point, Grimes said.

“First quarter of next year?” she said. “That’s probably too soon. The building is so old. We’re just really not sure what it is going to take.”

Want to help?

The first major fundraising event in support of The Community Table’s move to a bigger location will be held Sept. 15 at Bogart’s Restaurant in Sylva from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. Harris Medical Park is sponsoring the event. WRGC 680 AM will be live on location for part of the day, and local well-known people are expected to stand on the roof until allowed down for “ransom” dollars.

Growers looking for greenhouse space may find what they need at the Jackson County Green Energy Park in Dillsboro, where large greenhouses are heated using energy from methane given off by decomposing trash.

There is more than 4,000 square feet of greenhouse space available for rent, either by one grower or an organization. One-year lease begins in January and is renewable for up to a total of three years.

Biodiesel serves as a backup fuel source. Tenants share other utility costs and the cost of a rainwater collection system that provides most the water needs.

828.631.0271 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or www.jcgep.org.

A Jackson County grading company was left holding the bag on more than $200,000 in site work after the developer who hired it went bankrupt.

The grading company has filed a lawsuit targeting the current property owner in hopes of collecting. But the current property owner says he has no obligation to make good on work performed under a past owner. The case is slated for a trial in September unless a settlement is arrived at in the meantime.

Buchanan and Sons was hired in 2007 by a Georgia developer to grade a 20-acre mountainside tract across the road from Harris Regional Hospital in Sylva.

But he “never paid a nickel,” said Mark Kurdys, an attorney for Buchanan and Sons. He also never made a single payment toward the purchase of the property.

The Georgia developer bought the property from James Vanderwoude, a developer and businessman based in Franklin.

After not getting paid, Buchanan and Sons quit the job and filed a lien against the property when Vanderwoude appealed to them to stay on board. Vanderwoude promised that they would be paid down the road, according to Chris Buchanan, vice president of the family grading company.

Specifically, Vanderwoude asked Buchanan and Sons to keep up with necessary erosion maintenance.

“Vanderwoude said ‘You have to maintain this property. You can’t just walk away from it. Otherwise it is just going to wash down the road,’” Kurdys recounted during a court hearing earlier this year.

Meanwhile, Vanderwoude foreclosed against the Georgia developer. Vanderwoude regained title to the property less than a year after selling it.

“In that intervening year, $214,000 worth of improvements had been made to the property,” Kurdys said.

Prior to the foreclosure, Buchanan and Sons had filed a lien against the property. The company also planned to bid on the property at foreclosure.

“I couldn’t afford to let $214,00 just go away,” said Buchanan. The company was out the cost of the labor and equipment to do the job and was never reimbursed for it.

If Buchanan and Sons got the property, the company would flip it to a new buyer and hope to recoup its costs on the selling price.

If someone outbid the company at foreclosure, it would at least drive up the price of the property. Whatever was left over after paying off Vanderwoude’s loan would have gone to satisfy Buchanan and Sons’ lien for the grading work.

“We would have been second in line and gotten our money,” said Buchanan.

Verbal promise means little

But before that could happen, Vanderwoude came to Buchanan and instead suggested the idea of a joint venture to develop the property together, Buchanan claims.

“He enticed my client into believing there would be a way for everyone to be made whole,” Kurdys said. “He convinced my client to forgo opportunities to protect himself.”

Once Vanderwoude foreclosed and got the property back, he backed away from the idea of a joint venture. He also hired another grading company to take over the work at the site.

Vanderwoude’s attorney disputed the notion that his client had an obligation to Buchanan and Sons. He said talk of a joint venture was just that — talk.

“There is nothing in writing where my client agreed to pay that debt,” attorney Bill Coward said in a court hearing earlier this year. “Those are just proposals.”

Vanderwoude did write Buchanan and Sons a letter confirming that verbal discussions for a joint venture had taken place. The letter talks about various options for joint ownership and shares under a newly formed LLC. But it falls far short of a legally binding contract.

Coward argued in court filings that Buchanan and Sons was owed money by the Georgia developer, not Vanderwoude, and that Vanderwoude has no contractual obligation to pay Buchanan and Sons anything. Coward further suggests Buchanan and Sons “overbilled” for the grading work they performed.

Kurdys argued that even after selling the property to the Georgia developer, Vanderwoude remained involved in the property’s development.

Vanderwoude advised the Georgia developer on how to develop and market the property, called Villages of Sylva. They were “agents of and for each other,” Kurdys claims.

“The value of that property has been increased by virtue of my clients’ labor and material, and there is evidence that all along [Vanderwoude] had an interest in the property,” Kurdys said.

However, Vanderwoude asserts that is not at all the case.

“There is no evidence of that at all,” Coward said. “There was absolutely no connection between Mr. Vanderwoude and the former propery owner.”

So far, the only thing built on the 20-acre site is a Nick and Nate’s restaurant. At one time, Nantahala Bank had expressed interested in building a branch on the site. Both had contracts to purchase lots in the commercial development for $350,000.

Buchanan said he should have been more savvy and less trusting when performing the original work. Buchanan said contractors and graders have to be far more careful today than they did a few years ago when hired by developers given the economy.

“People are coming up with any reason they can not to pay you,” Buchanan said.

Finding a new police chief for Sylva might take more time than anticipated after some of the town’s board members balked at using outside help.

In early August, Town Manager Adrienne Isenhower notified commissioners via email she intended to enlist “three other people … on the police chief selection,” with interviews starting the following week. Town leaders last week questioned her approach and instead decided to discuss the matter further at their next meeting Sept. 2.

Jeff Jamison, who became police chief in November 1997, retires Oct. 1. State law gives hiring choices and day-to-day management of town affairs to the manager. Sylva hired its first manager eight years ago. This represents the first time the town’s top employee has wielded such power. Before, town board members selected the police chief.

The new method means that commissioners aren’t included in the decision unless the manager asks for participation, according Frayda S. Bluestein, who serves in the School of Government for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Town Attorney Eric Ridenour asked Bluestein to review the matter earlier this month.

Isenhower wrote in her email to the town board that she has asked Scott Sutton, Maggie Valley’s police chief; Vickey Wade, director of governmental affairs at Western Carolina University; and Chris Cooper, director of WCU’s Master of Public Affairs program, to help her with the selection.

“I don’t think we should have an outside panel tell us who we should hire as police chief for Sylva,” Commissioner Ray Lewis said during last week’s meeting.

Commissioner Harold Hensley questioned why board members were excluded from the selection process while people from elsewhere were being solicited to weigh in on the issue. Isenhower said she had formed the panel to help make it clear that politics were playing no part in her selection.

Commissioner Christina Matheson, though acknowledging she and the other board members might have been at fault for not requesting specific details, chastised Isenhower for failing to provide more information beforehand. She termed the situation a “communication glitch.”

“It caught me off guard,” Commissioner Danny Allen said in agreement.

Stacy Knotts was the lone commissioner to express unqualified approval for Isenhower’s plan, saying she didn’t believe board members should take any part in the hiring process. Mayor Maurice Moody, too, cautioned against board-member involvement.

But Hensley suggested that with two former police officers — Lewis and Allen — and a one-time assistant district attorney — Matheson — serving as commissioners, sufficient expert help probably could be found closer to home.

Temperatures boiled above 90 degrees as the dancers grabbed their partners and lined up on the floor. The caller patiently explained the moves for the first contra dance of the afternoon as members of a volunteer pickup band plucked notes on dulcimers, fiddles and guitars.

Music filled the pavilion. Skirt hems whirled around dancers’ ankles. And shoes clapped against the wooden dance floor as the dancers dosey-doed and swung their partners.

“Thank your partner, get a drink and get back out there on the floor,” the caller said through the microphone as the music ended.

Such contra dances are a regular occurrence in downtown Sylva on the second Sunday of every month. Ron Arps typically organizes each dance and calls the steps. On the day of the August dance, he turned 65.

Arps began contra dancing in the late ‘70s when his wife was invited to play her fiddle at the Odd Ball — a contra dance that used to be held in Jackson County on the odd Friday every month.

Arps said he loved it right away, but that it took him about two years before he finally got the hang of it.

“I’m one of those people with two left feet,” Arps said. “In contra dancing, you don’t have to worry about that. It’s just dancing.”

The dance now hosted at the concert pavilion is a continuation of the Odd Ball held years ago. Though the contra dance has been held at different venues and hosted by different folks throughout the decades, someone has always had the passion to keep it going.

About a year ago, Arps began hosting the dances on the second Sunday of every month at the pavilion or an indoor location when the weather is too cold. The dances are free, but Arps asks for donations to help cover the $50 cost of renting the space.

When the pavilion was still in the planning stages, Arps instructed its architect to make the floor at least 28 by 36 feet so it would be big enough for dances.

The only problem is that the floor is concrete, which is hard on the dancers’ knees and shins. Arps’ solution was to make a portable wooden floor.

The floor cost $1,000 to build, and Arps raised the money within a few weeks from customers at his farmers market booth and area dancers.

“Some didn’t know what contra dancing was [at the farmers market], but they were giving so I could build a dance floor anyway,” Arps said.

The floor has 64 panels and weighs 2,400 pounds.

The wooden floor reduces friction, allowing dancers to slide. It also creates more noise as all the shoes hit it in unison — a sound that energizes the band, caller and dancers.

Andrea Woodall from Florida called the August contra dance so Arps could dance on his birthday. It was her first time calling, both in North Carolina and at an outdoor venue.

“I love inviting people in and helping them enjoy what I love so much,” she said.

Woodall has a box filled with more than 150 note cards, containing dances she’s participated in throughout the years. She said 150 is a small number compared to most callers.

She chooses dances based on the variety of moves, the group’s experience and how smoothly different parts of the dance flow into each other.

“I figure if the dancers don’t know what’s going on, it’s my responsibility,” she said.

At contra dances, beginners are warmly welcomed. Often times, experienced dancers will pick them as partners and show them the ropes.

“Of course you’ve heard of no child left behind,” Kim Lippy said. “They’re like that with their dancers. They take them all with them.”

Lippy has been contra dancing for more than 10 years. Her favorite part of the dance is its flirtatious nature. The dance strongly emphasizes eye contact and breaks down personal space bubbles that are apart of today’s culture, she said.

“You have to look your partner in the eye or else you get dizzy,” Marsha Crites said.

Crites has been contra dancing for more than 30 years, but during that time she had a stroke that she said could have killed her.

“I wanted to run really bad when I was disabled,” Crites said. “Dancing wasn’t a goal until later.”

It took Crites three years to rebuild her muscle coordination to the point she could dance again. During her recovery, she remembers a time when she fell during a dance, bringing a few others to the floor with her.

She said that the experience wasn’t embarrassing, but it was instead a good laugh for everyone in the room. All the dancers were supportive as she tried to get her footing back.

Crites is still dyslexic as a result of the stroke, but it doesn’t slow her step.

“Pretty much all you’ve got to know is to know your right from your left,” she said.

Go dance

The next contra dance will be 3:30 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 12, at the outdoor Bridge Park Pavilion in downtown Sylva with a potluck dinner to follow.