Jackson County launched a comprehensive audit two years ago to make sure businesses are paying enough taxes on all their equipment and machinery.

So far, more than 300 have been audited, reaping an additional $90,000 in annual tax revenue.

Just what counts as taxable equipment? For a law office, that might mean desks, telephones and computers, while for restaurants, it means their ovens, dishwasher and knife sets. For factories with lots of big machinery, or for a contractor with a fleet of high-dollar bulldozers, the equipment tax surpasses their regular property tax bill.

All together, businesses in Jackson County listed nearly $130 million in equipment in 2009, reaping $361,000 in taxes.

Jackson County hadn’t done an audit in about 10 years. Tax Assessor Bobby McMahan said it was time for another one.

Jackson Paper pays more in equipment tax than any other business in the county. As a result, it was among the first targeted by auditors. In fact, all businesses in the top 50 for their equipment holdings were put at the top of the list.

“That’s no secret — of course they are going to pull them,” McMahan said of the big guys. But eventually, most of the businesses will be audited.

“Our intention is to have everyone audited. We are not picking and choosing,” McMahan said.

But McMahan concedes there are some small businesses, like a single accountant working out of his home with little more than a desk, chair, phone and laptop who will escape the audit.

McMahan said the goal is to make sure everyone is paying their fair share.

“It is not an ambush at all. It is not an ‘Ah-hah! Gotcha!’ thing. It is just an equalization process,” McMahan said.

McMahan estimated 75 to 80 percent of businesses don’t see their equipment taxes change as a result of the audit.

Equipment audits of businesses are becoming increasingly common.

Counties are also looking for extra revenue wherever they can find it, now more than ever. The audits are also simpler than ever. Firms that specialize in business equipment audits actively solicit counties with a no-lose pitch. The county pays nothing up-front. The firm works solely on commission.

The firm hired by Jackson County, Tax Management Associates out of Charlotte, gets a commission of 35 percent. Since it began the audits in late 2008, the firm has uncovered nearly $90,000 in underreported equipment and got to keep $30,000 of that as payment. It only gets commission the first year, while the county continues to collect taxes annually on what was uncovered.

So far, the firm hasn’t gotten any commission on its audit of Jackson Paper since a portion of that bill is still being contested. (see related article)

Businesses are supposed to send in a list of their equipment and its value to the county tax office each year. Jackson County has three employees in the tax office that oversee more than 1,050 accounts for business equipment. But the county has no real way of knowing whether a business has listed everything it should, or whether it is accurately describing it, without doing an audit.

McMahan said counties rely on the firms for their expertise. Knowing what a piece of equipment is, let alone what it’s worth, can be tricky in specialized fields. McMahan joked he wouldn’t know a vacuum cleaner from an MRI. The same goes for factory machinery.

“They are familiar with all kinds of industrial equipment,” McMahan said of the auditing firm.

Another challenge is making sure there aren’t businesses operating under the radar.

“We use the newspapers, we use the Internet, we use the phone book. We have staff members that physically get out on the street and ride around,” McMahan said.

They keep a running tally of new businesses that open over the course of a year, and come tax time, they check to see that the business files.

Who’s paying the most?

In 2009, these were the top six businesses in Jackson County for the dollar value of their equipment and machinery.

• Jackson Paper

• APAC Atlantic (operates Dillsboro rock quarry)

• Daimler Trucks of North America

• Alliance Medical

• GTP Acquisition Partners (cell tower company)

• Luker Brothers Construction Company

After being hit with a county audit of its machinery, Jackson Paper factory in Sylva is disputing what it considers a highly inflated tax bill.

The business audit claimed Jackson Paper had been underestimating the value of its equipment for tax purposes. The mill was charged $72,000 in penalties and interest and another $195,000 in back taxes owed to Jackson County and the town of Sylva.

Jeff Murphy, chief financial officer for Jackson Paper, said it has “resulted in a significant detriment to our company,” in a letter sent to county commissioners protesting the outcome of the audit.

Jackson Paper wants the county to waive the penalties and interest. It also claims the county has pegged the value of its machinery too high, resulting in excessive property taxes, and that the value needs to be adjusted.

Jackson Paper’s equipment taxes doubled following the county business audit in 2008. That alone caused an unexpected blow to the company’s bottom line — one that will recur every year unless their appeal is successful — not to mention the one-time blow of hefty back taxes, penalties and interest.

Jackson Paper swallowed the back taxes and paid up as a “good faith effort,” but not because the company agrees.

“In no regard are we conceding to the assessment,” Murphy wrote.

Jackson Paper has withheld paying the interest and penalties in hopes they will be waived, and further hopes to get a refund on the back taxes it claims are excessive. It has asked the county to reopen the audit in order to straighten things out.

But there’s a glitch. Jackson Paper failed to appeal the audit within the required 30-day window.

“If you don’t get on your horse and ride up here to the tax office in 30 days, or fax it or whatever, that’s just tough,” said Bobby McMahan, county tax assessor.

State statute in fact bars the county from adjusting a tax bill outside the appeal window — a safeguard likely intended to prevent favoritism or quid pro quo by the tax office.

The county’s hands were tied, and Jackson Paper seemed to be out of luck.

But eventually, a little known clause in state property tax law was uncovered that may help Jackson Paper yet. Aptly called the “power to compromise,” it allows a taxpayer to take their request directly to the board of county commissioners.

Jackson Paper wrote a letter seeking an audience with the commissioners in February, but the company is still waiting for a resolution.

The county turned the matter over to its attorney, Paul Holt, who has been consulting with the N.C. Department of Revenue in Raleigh to understand how the power to compromise is supposed to work.

“We need to know what are our options are from a legal standpoint. What can we do and what can’t we do,” said County Manager Ken Westmoreland. “We know what Jackson Paper wants us to do, but whether that is in the purview of our authority hasn’t been determined.

“It is sort of in a gray area, and no one knows which way to turn on it,” Westmoreland said.

Simply put, the power to compromise grants county commissioners the ability to “compromise, settle or adjust” a tax bill.

Why the dispute?

Jackson Paper not only claims the county’s auditors made an error in calculating the value of its equipment and machinery, but that its own auditor failed to catch the error in time.

When Jackson Paper learned of the pending audit, it brought its own audit firm on board to represent the mill during the process, knowing that thousands of dollars could be at stake depending on which way the audit went.

The value of factory machinery declines a little each year as it gets older and is subject to wear and tear. The depreciation is calculated based on the equipment’s original value and how old it is now.

Jackson Paper claims the original value used by the county’s auditors was wrong. Instead of using the value of the equipment when it was first installed, the auditors used the value of the equipment at the time Jackson Paper purchased the factory in 1995.

That led to a higher baseline, and as a result a higher value for the machinery today.

Murphy said in his letter that standard protocol is to use the original value of the machinery rather than its value at the time of a later purchase.

The auditor hired by Jackson Paper failed to catch the error, and failed to file an appeal on the company’s behalf in time.

“It is unfortunate we received poor professional service that resulted in the incorrect tax assessment,” Murphy wrote in the letter to commissioners.

But the mistake should not cost the company such a sizeable sum, Murphy argued.

Officials with Jackson Paper would not comment for this article since the issue is unresolved.

Commissioners have not yet discussed whether to reopen the audit per Jackson Paper’s request, let alone whether to adjust the value of its machinery or waive the penalties — presumably pending advice of county attorney Paul Holt on what the course of action should be.

For months, debate surrounding the price tag of a new Creative Arts building on the Haywood Community College campus has largely pitted the county commissioners against the college board.

But now, on the eve of a key public hearing that could make or break the project’s approval, the college board of trustees have emerged narrowly split over one key element of the design.

The building’s design incorporates several green features, from harvesting rain water to buying Energy Star photocopiers. The feature that has landed in the crosshairs of the controversy, though, is an alternative energy technology known as solar thermal.

Charles Boyd, a newcomer to the community college board, said the technology is “too cutting edge” and is so far unproven.

“My concern is, is it going to be an asset rather than a liability?” Boyd said. “If it isn’t foolproof, the community doesn’t need to pick up the liability for that.”

A vote last month by college trustees was 6 to 5 in favor of moving forward with the solar thermal technology.

There are around 30 other solar thermal projects in the nation installing similar technology, though none are fully up and running yet. Nonetheless, Mark Bumgarner, a member of the college board, believes it has been fully vetted and is satisfied it’s a good deal.

Bumgarner pointed out that two of the five who voted against it are new to the college board, having just been appointed by county commissioners this summer.

“They were very, very new on the board and did not have all the facts,” Bumgarner said.

Under the administration of Dr. Rose Johnson, Haywood Community College has hung its hat on sustainability initiatives at all levels, from the teaching curriculum to campus operations.

But when it comes to the solar thermal feature, it’s not merely a prized eco-perk. College leaders say the measure is needed to meet rigorous new state standards for energy efficiency in state buildings.

The building has an above-average energy load due to power-hungry equipment like pottery kilns and woodworking tools. That in turn requires an above-average effort to bring down the square-foot energy consumption to within state levels.

But how far the college must go to meet the mandate continues to be a matter of debate.

“I personally feel we can meet the green standard without going to the extent we are going,” Boyd said. “We are trying to look after taxpayers money. We have to be real frugal.”

But Bumgarner said switching gears and going back to the drawing board at this point could cost more than it would save. The college considered other energy saving measures, and found this one to have the fewest downsides, he said.

The cost of the solar thermal is between $600,00 and $700,000. Even factoring that out of the equation, county commissioners claim the $10.2 million price tag on the new creative arts building is too high. College leaders, meanwhile, claim they have cut costs all they can without starting over completely or compromising core functions of the building.

County commissioners must ultimately agree to the building’s price tag. Money to pay for the new building will come from a special quarter-cent sales tax approved by county voters two years ago for the sole purpose of funding improvements on the HCC campus. The vote was seen as broad public endorsement of the college’s growth.

But county commissioners question the wisdom of devoting nearly all the sales tax revenue for the next 15 years to one project when the needs on campus are great.

The college has already sent the plan out to bid, and the deadline for contractors to respond was this week. Commissioners have been reserving final judgment until the bids came in, but the college won’t be ready to release the lowest bid for at least another week or two.

Want to weigh in?

A public hearing on the loan application for the new Haywood Community College creative arts building will be held before the county commissioners at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 16, in the historic courthouse.

What is solar thermal technology?

The sun heats water as it flows through giant collectors. The solar-heated water supplies the building’s hot water needs. It also heats the building by circulating through pipes embedded below the floor, which radiate heat upward into the room.

The more complicated, and cutting edge, aspect of the technology involves using the hot water to cool the building, by using the thermal energy to drive an absorption chiller.

Western Carolina University hopes to create a new commercial hub to bolster life on campus and serve the larger Cullowhee community.

The university wants to carve out 35 acres from the main campus to create a “Town Center.” Building sites would be leased to restaurants, coffee shops, bookstores — and ideally even a specialty-style grocery store, according to WCU Chancellor John Bardo.

As the name implies, Town Center could fill a void in Cullowhee’s current makeup.

Convincing businesses and developers to come to Cullowhee at set up shop in the new Town Center will obviously be the biggest challenge, especially given the economy. Private investors willing to wade into the commercial marketplace are testing the water cautiously and choosing their new ventures wisely.

But not to worry, Bardo said.

“All economic downturns sooner or later go away, and this one will as well,” Bardo said.

A conceptual vision for Town Center was unveiled at a meeting last week as part of a pitch by the university community to the nearby town of Forest Hills to expand its town limits. Being part of an incorporated town is essential to pulling off the Town Center development, according to Bardo (see related article).

Far from being an actual plan, the illustrations were merely intended to sell people on an example of what Town Center “could be,” said Chadwick Roberson, an architect and principal at PBCL Architecture.

The university’s next step is to hire a consulting firm that would delve into specifics: what exactly would buildings look like, how would they be laid out, what types of businesses would be recruited, and so on.

Bardo envisions a mixed-use development with condos as well as shops. Town Center may house a few university functions, like the graduate school or admissions office. But there would be no classroom buildings or dorms, for example.

Bardo said the university would ask Forest Hills to adopt wholesale the university’s design for Town Center. A blanket approval for Town Center as a “planned unit development” within Forest Hills would be good for 20 years, eliminating the need for each new business or building to get individual approval from the town.

Curt Collins, owner of a small organic farm in Cullowhee called Avant Garden, questioned whether the Town Center would become a repository for corporate chain stores.

“I don’t want to see Applebee’s or Chili’s or even McDonald’s,” said Collins said.

Bardo countered that those may be precisely the businesses that could afford to build stores and pay rent, and so barring them from Town Center would be unwise.

“We wouldn’t do that. We couldn’t agree to that as a university,” Bardo said.

The idea of turning Cullowhee into a real town drew several dozen people to a public presentation last week where they were hit with contrasting images of Old Cullowhee — a before and after of what exists now compared to what “could be.”

The difference was stark. In the world of what “could be,” Old Cullowhee was a hip pedestrian village with people drinking lattes on park benches overlooking the Tuck.

Paddlers in kayaks and joggers on a river trail served as the backdrop for an attractive row of restaurants and shops.

The now, however, is a hodgepodge — a laundromat, tattoo parlor, a Chinese and a Mexican joint, and a couple of apartment complexes are among the anchor attractions.

“I think downtown Cullowhee is a disaster waiting to be redone. It is an eyesore right now,” said Janie Prentice, a member of the Forest Hills planning board.

Yet it’s the closest WCU has to a college town of its own.

“We have a long way to go in Old Cullowhee, but there is potential,” said Mary Jean Herzog, a WCU professor of education and member of the Cullowhee Revitalization Endeavor.

The group driving the revitalization effort says it all hinges on whether the tiny nearby Village of Forest Hills will expand its town limits and annex a portion of the university and its surrounds.

“I don’t think it could actually happen without it, truth be known,” said WCU Chancellor John Bardo in a phone interview following last week’s meeting.

Being incorporated turns on the spigot for state money, from sidewalk funding to a cut of sales tax collected in the area, and taps into the federal grant pipeline. That in turn will allow the community to put in infrastructure and amenities it otherwise couldn’t afford.

There is another less tangible but equally important reason, Bardo said.

“The reality is most businesses aren’t going to come to something they don’t understand. Most companies wouldn’t understand a rural area without a town,” Bardo said.

Perhaps the most important reason — but one that is unspoken for now — is the prospect of bringing beer, wine and alcohol to the area. Alcohol sales, be it a six-pack at a minimart or glass of wine over dinner, aren’t allowed in Cullowhee. As a result, the nightlife typically associated with a college campus is markedly absent.

Restaurants or a small grocery store contemplating a foray into Cullowhee will likely want the ability to sell booze.

There are two routes to alcohol: convincing the county commissioners to allow it countywide or incorporating as a town and legalizing it in the town limits.

But Bardo and the Cullowhee revitalization group downplay alcohol as a motive in the incorporation quest.

“The motive is to provide a strong university community,” Bardo said. “The variables to make that happen are the same as the rest of the state. My interest in this is the level of services we can provide that give our university the opportunity to move forward.”

The Forest Hills town board seems open to the idea of expanding its town limits, with at least a couple of members if not more appearing to support the idea.

“The whole idea is to make a better place to live for everybody here,” said Mayor Jim Wallace.

“If it is done right I see a lot of benefits,” Board Member Gene Tweedy said.

University vs. town

PBCL Architecture in Asheville was hired about a month ago to illustrate a vibrant vision for Old Cullowhee in time for the meeting with Forest Hills leaders and residents last week.

“The goal was to try to communicate the feel of what Old Cullowhee could be,” said Richard Fort, an architect with PBCL.

As Fort surveyed the area it was instantly clear that the river was the biggest asset. The biggest weakness?

The plan depends on private developers buying land, building stores and creating a commercial district essentially from scratch. Attracting that level of private investment in this economy would be a challenge for any locale, but is possible, Fort said.

“I think it is underutilized and has some pretty good potential,” Fort said.

It’s the same challenge faced by the university as it maps out plans for a “Town Center” proposed on campus property (see related article).

In fact, Old Cullowhee and the Town Center could find themselves competing for whatever private enterprise may be willing to take a gamble on launching a new store in Cullowhee.

Bardo said he supports the vision for Old Cullowhee. Anything that makes Cullowhee more attractive and desirable will be good for the university.

But unlike plans for a Town Center on campus, remaking Old Cullowhee is not something the University can control.

“There is nothing we can do to cause it to happen,” Bardo said. “But we can support it and talk to people about it and continue to help the folks who are trying to do it. There are a lot of ways we can help — but we can only help.”

What’s in it for Forest Hills?

Residents of Forest Hills attending last week’s meeting mostly listened, with only a few asking questions. But they will ultimately want to know what’s it in for them.

“In viewing the sketches you put out, it seems the university would gain quite a lot of benefits. I need to find out what Forest Hills is going to be getting also,” said Gene Tweedy, a Forest Hills town board member.

For starters, it would mean more property tax revenue, Bardo replied.

“The second thing you gain is a set of services that currently don’t exist,” Bardo said, pointing to the prospect of new commercial establishments. “Whether that is perceived as valuable or not by your residents is not something I can speak to.”

Jeanette Evans, owner of the Mad Batter Café on WCU’s campus, said expanding the town limits will give Forest Hills control over the growth that will inevitably crop up around campus. Through land-use planning — from limiting light pollution to capping the height of buildings to preserving viewsheds — residents of the area could control how new development looks.

“It benefits us because it gives us a chance to have a voice,” Evans said. “Cullowhee wouldn’t be dominated by the university, but it would be Cullowhee and the university, two separate entities, that work together to form one great community.”

Forest Hills will hold another meeting on Aug. 24.

Forest Hills? Where’s that?

The Village of Forest Hills is a tiny town with just 347 registered voters near the WCU campus. It has a property tax rate of just 1 cent, and an area of a little over one square mile. It has no town hall nor paid employees.

The residents of Forest Hill incorporated in the late 1990s with one main purpose in mind: to pass zoning that would keep student housing out and maintain a neighborhood feel. In some ways, it looks and feels more like a homeowners association than a bona fide town, but that could take a dramatic turn if it accepts a proposition on the table from the university community.

The clock is ticking for stabilization work on a landslide in Maggie Valley to get underway or a federal grant to pay for the work will be lost.

A $1.3 million grant to recontour the precarious mountainside near Ghost Town in the Sky amusement park was secured months ago from the Emergency Watershed Protection Program. But developing engineering plans, securing environmental permits and navigating the various state and federal agencies overseeing pieces of the work has taken months. The Emergency Watershed program has now granted a third — and final — extension for the stabilization work and set a deadline of Oct. 16.

“We need to be under construction by then,” said Town Manager Tim Barth. “They indicated this would be the last extension.”

The town is ready to go out to bid on the stabilization work, but Ghost Town does not like the design and instead has suggested an alternate plan. Engineering for the alternate plan is not yet finished, however.

Barth said the town cannot wait beyond Aug. 22 to go out to bid, or it will jeopardize getting construction underway by mid-October and in turn jeopardize the grant.

Without the grant, there is no source of money Barth knows of to stabilize the mountain. The town can’t afford the work, and the county has said it won’t put up money to fix a landslide on private property for fear of setting a bad precedent. Ghost Town, meanwhile, has been in bankruptcy for a year and a half and its ability to pay for the work is unclear.

The engineering firm, Bunnell-Lammons, has been waiting on some basic schematics from Ghost Town for several weeks in order to draw up a detailed engineering design for the alternate design. It will take two months for the project to be bid out, have a contractor selected, and for work to get underway.

“That’s why we are saying Ghost Town needs to really get it to them quickly,” Barth said.

Ghost Town CEO Steve Shiver said that there is “no problem” meeting the deadline to go out to bid. Ghost Town is delivering schematics on the alternate plan to the engineering firm this week. Shiver blames the town for plowing ahead with a plan that was “unacceptable” to Ghost Town.

“They composed the plan without any input from any property owners,” Shiver said. “If Mr. Barth would have engaged Ghost Town in the repair planning, we would already be under construction. I am frustrated that we are even put in this position by the city.”

The emergency federal grant requires support of the property owner. But Shiver said he would not agree to the first plan that was developed.

“Absolutely not,” Shiver said. Shiver said he told town officials so at the beginning of the process.

“He wasted two months worth of time. Why I have no idea why,” Shiver said. “The [engineering firm] was directed to come up with the plan absent any input from us.”

If the issue of dueling plans isn’t solved, it is unclear whether the town can compel Ghost Town to agree to the stabilization work. A state statute does allow towns to intervene if there is a threat to public safety.

“A city shall have authority to summarily remove, abate, or remedy everything in the city limits, or within one mile thereof, that is dangerous or prejudicial to the public health or public safety,” according to G.S. 160A-193.

The slide qualifies as a threat to public safety for the dozens of people living below the mountainside who would be in the path of another slide, according to N.C. Geologist Rick Wooten, who has assessed the destabilized mountainside.

“In my professional judgment, unstable slopes remain in the vicinity of the slope failure, and these unstable slopes present an imminent threat to public safety,” Wooten wrote in a letter to the Town of Maggie Valley following the slide.

Kim Hibbard, general counsel for the N.C. League of Municipalities, said the statute is most commonly used to force property owners to clean up junk cars, keep their lawns mowed or seal off old swimming pools.

But, “It is a fairly broadly written statute,” said Hibbard. Typically, the town would get a court order giving it permission to take charge of the public safety threat.

If the statute was used, the work could be billed to the property owner, in this case, Ghost Town. Although Ghost Town is in bankruptcy, the work carried out under the statute would have priority status, carrying the same weight as back property taxes, and would be the first thing to get paid off if the amusement park is either sold or liquidated.

Shiver said there are flaws in the original plan proffered by the town. For a start, it was unclear if there was enough grant money to cover the cost of the stabilization.

“There were too many variables in that plan. It had an open-ended checkbook,” Shiver said.

In addition, the original plan would claim a small flat area tucked into the side of the mountain that Shiver says is critical to the amusement park’s future plans. As the only level spot on an otherwise extremely steep slope, it’s one of the few places Ghost Town could add attractions in the future.

Congressman Heath Shuler has a sizeable financial advantage against his opponent heading into the fall election season.

Shuler, D-Waynesville, had $1.4 million in cash on hand compared to just $65,000 for Jeff Miller, R-Hendersonville, according to campaign finance reports filed by the two candidates in July.

Miller’s campaign contributions for the first six months of 2010 aren’t drastically below that of Shuler’s, however. Miller raised $246,000 in the first six months of the year, compared to $304,000 for Shuler.

The giant spread in their campaign treasuries is due instead to the substantial carryover in Shuler’s war chest from the past two elections. Shuler had $970,000 left, providing a generous foundation for the 2010 race. Plus, Shuler raked in more than half a million in donations in 2009 before Miller had even thrown his hat in the ring.

Miller, meanwhile, didn’t start fundraising until this year.

Miller knows the money race will be a tough road to hoe.

“We don’t have a lot of money like Shuler,” Miller said. “He pretty much has an endless well of money. He could start going on TV right now and max out and not be able to spend all his money.”

Shuler sailed into office two years ago, pulling down 62 percent of the vote compared to 36 percent for his opponent Carl Mumpower. Mumpower, a former Asheville city council member, wasn’t exactly the strongest candidate.

A controversial city councilman, Mumpower was a media lightning rod and seemed to revel in it. His eccentricities magnified during the congressional race, witnessed by a life-sized cardboard cutout of Shuler he carried to debates since Shuler wouldn’t attend.

As a result, Shuler spent only $637,000 to defeat Mumpower even though he raised $1.63 million in the 2008 election cycle.

Shuler admits he didn’t have to work very hard that race.

“Last time it was kind of a pass, and this time it won’t be a pass,” Shuler said, indicating he is ready to spend more this go around.

Miller’s ability to raise close to what Shuler raised during the first half of 2010 is impressive considering the source of contributions. Miller’s donations all came from individuals, while 60 percent of Shuler’s donations this election cycle have come from political action committees.

The incumbent advantage is obvious in the fundraising arena. Shuler picks up contributions from a laundry list of political action committees that make a habit of donating a few thousand a year to just about every sitting member of Congress, from the Airline Pilots Association and National Beer Wholesalers to corporate PACs of companies like Microsoft, Lowe’s and Duke Energy.

The trend will likely continue through the fall.

“People who donate money are strategic about it, and they are more likely to donate money to those who are more likely to win,” said Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University.

Miller, meanwhile, is relegated to raising smaller sums one individual at a time. The bad economy has made fundraising from individuals harder, he said.

“The part of this job I hate the most is calling people and asking them for money because I know how hard it is right now,” Miller said. “I truly dislike it, but I do it because I have to.”

Miller put in $12,000 of his own money into his candidacy so far. It’s not classified as a loan, so he doesn’t intend to pay himself back. But Miller said if he is asking others to donate their hard-earned money, he should put up some of his own.

To Miller’s detriment, he is spending money almost as soon as it comes in, according to the campaign finance reports. He spent nearly everything he raised as it came in. As a result, he has little reserves to speak of going into the critical three-month countdown to Election Day.

Miller may be behind in the money race, but he is doing what he can on a different front. He has been highly visible in the region, attending events and speaking to groups at a whirlwind pace. Miller chastised Shuler for not spending enough time interfacing with voters.

“He does not do public events. He did not do town halls that I know of,” Miller said. Not even on the health care bill, Miller said. Shuler did do call-in town halls, however, where the public received pass codes to participate.

Shuler said he is in Washington a lot, so he likely won’t be as visible as Miller on the campaign trail since he has a job to do.

“It is much harder and more difficult to be out and about,” Shuler said.

Campaign fundraising snapshot

Jeff Miller, R-Hendersonville

Cash on hand: $65,000

Cash entering the election cycle: 0

Percent raised from PACs: 0

Average donation amount: $856

Heath Shuler, D-Waynesville

Cash on hand: $1.428 million

Cash entering the election cycle: $970,000

Percent raised from PACs: 60

Average donation amount: $1,368

* Figures based on federal campaign finance reports filed by the candidates at the close of the second quarter of 2010.

Volunteers continue knocking out a new section of the Mountains to Sea Trail along the Blue Ridge Parkway near Waterrock Knob.

Working under the tutelage of trail builders with the Carolina Mountain Club, who have spent years tackling a missing section of the Mountains to Sea Trail from Cherokee to Waynesville, several first-timers turned out during National Trails Day and helped punch another 800 feet of trail through dense woods.

“When you walk on a trail you’ve helped to build you see how everyone contributes a little and doesn’t think it’s much. But when you see what lots of hands can do … you really see what can be accomplished,” said Piet Bodenhorst, a crew leader with Carolina Mountain Club.

The work can be hard labor, but there are jobs for anyone wishing to lend a hand. The oldest volunteer with the regular volunteer crew is 86, and the majority are retirees.

“I’ve lost weight, my health is better, and I feel better getting out and working every day,” Bodenhorst said with a grin. He added, “We like to say ‘Come out with the Carolina Mountain Club, and we’ll keep you going for 10 more years.”

The myriad life skills are invaluable team effort involved in trail building challenges, from uprooting tree roots to dislodging boulders to skirting trenches.

“Electricians approach a problem differently from a dentist, but they both have different ways of solving problems.  Everyone has something valuable to offer,” Bodenhorst said.

To learn more or contact the club about volunteering, go to www.carolinamtnclub.com.

Triathletes from across the country will descend on Lake Logan in Haywood County Aug. 7 and 8.

The weekend line-up includes two triathlons — one longer and one shorter — with a combo of swimming, biking and running. There is also an aquathlon that skips the bike leg and features only swimming and running.

Lake Logan may be the most beautiful triathlon venue in the country and has helped propel the triathlon to one of the premier races in the Southeast.

There could be as many as 700 racers clogging the roads around Lake Logan Saturday and Sunday mornings. The bike leg for Saturday’s race descends from Lake Logan through Bethel and nearly to Canton before turning around.

The international distance triathlon on Saturday features a one-mile swim, 24-mile bike and 10K run and the sprint distance triathlon on Sunday features a one-third mile swim, a 12-mile bike and a 5K run. The aquathlon will be a one-mile swim followed by a 5K run, also on Sunday.

The event is put on by Glory Hound Events with support from Haywood Regional Health and Fitness Center and Lake Logan Episcopal Center.

www.gloryhoundevents.com.

George and Elizabeth Ellison, the artist and naturalist husband-wife team from Bryson City, will give a talk called “Blue Ridge Perspectives: The Natural World Thru Words and Images” at 7 p.m. on Aug. 5 in Highlands.

George is a writer, naturalist, lecturer and historian who resides with his wife, Elizabeth, an artist whose acclaimed watercolors can be found at her studio in Bryson City. George and Elizabeth have collaborated on many projects including: A Blue Ridge Nature Journal: Reflections on the Appalachians in Essays and Art. Currently the Ellisons are editing and illustrating a two-volume collection titled High Vistas: An Anthology of Nature and Descriptive Writing from Western North Carolina and the Great Smoky Mountains.

George and Elizabeth will discuss their latest venture, give readings from both Blue Ridge Nature Journal and from his upcoming book of poems entitled Permanent Camp, and share their artwork.

The talk is part of the Zahner Conservation Lecture Series held at the Highlands Biological Station. Sponsored by the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee and the Highlands Biological Foundation.

www.wcu.edu/hbs or 828.526.2602.

George Masa was one of the greatest landscape photographers of Western North Carolina, but where he came from and what happened to the thousands of photographs he took remains a mystery even today.

Known as the Ansel Adams of the Smokies, Masa’s stunning images helped inspire the creation of the national park and introduced the beauty of the mountains to the world in the 1920s and ‘30s.

A program featuring one of the largest collections of Masa’s remaining masterworks will be held at 6 p.m. July 28 at the Village Commons in Cashiers as part of the Village Nature Series. Ran Shaffner, archivist for the Highlands Historical Society, will discuss Masa’s life and his photographs on display at the Society’s Museum. Masa did extensive photography on the Highlands-Cashiers plateau in addition to his more well-known work in the Smokies.

Sponsored by the Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust and the Village Green. www.hicashlt.org or call 526.1111.

A one-mile race down Main Street in Waynesville on Friday evening, Aug. 13, will raise money for the Shriners Children Hospital.

The Main Street Mile is a brand-new road race down the historic section of Main Street, starting one mile south of the Haywood County Courthouse.

“The mile distance is creating a lot of interest in the local running community since runners of all levels always want to know how fast they can run a mile,” said Dr. Jason Bodnar, vice president of the Main Street Mile.

There will be a post-race party with food, drinks, beer from Highlands Brewing Company and live music featuring Chris Williams, lead singer of Asheville’s Empty Slate.

“We look forward to the Main Street Mile growing and becoming a summer staple to our downtown events as well as to the WNC race series,” said Dr. Eric Yarrington, president of the Main Street Mile. “In addition to highlighting our beautiful town and providing a unique racing experience, we are truly running for the children in helping Shriners continue to provide pediatric specialty care to our region.”

The race will be run in waves. Under 18 age group starts at 6:30 p.m., female runners at 6:50 p.m., and male runners at 7:10 p.m. A team event for local police, fire and emergency services personnel will start at 7:30 p.m. After registering at Badcock Furniture near the race finish line, racers will walk one mile up Main Street to the starting line, serving as the perfect warm-up.

All proceeds go directly to Shriners of Greenville, S.C.  As the region’s only pediatric specialty hospital for orthopedic conditions, they serve many children in Haywood County and throughout Western North Carolina. www.waynesvillemainstreetmile.com or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

A college student who drowned in the Tuckasegee River last month was highly intoxicated, according to toxicology reports that have now been released.

Allen Stanley Brisson, 22, a new graduate from Western Carolina University, had a blood alcohol content of 0.38 percent — more than four times the legal limit to drive and surpassing the danger level for alcohol poisoning.

Brisson made other fatal mistakes when setting out on the Tuckasegee with a group of friends on June 3. He was not wearing a lifejacket, and he was floating in an inflatable pool chair sporting cup holders filled with alcoholic beverages.

“We hope to make this a teachable moment,” said James Jackson, owner and manager of Tuckasegee Outfitters. “Alcohol and water do not mix. If you are on whitewater, be in an appropriate craft and wear a lifejacket.”

Jackson said he and other outfitters do not allow alcohol on their trips, although some will try to hide coolers in bushes downstream to pick up along the way.

Jackson said the pool chair was an inappropriate choice to float on the Tuck since it does not provide stability or maneuverability. Jackson said he would like to see county regulations that require lifejackets for anyone using public put-ins along the river.

Brisson’s body was not found until the next morning following an extensive search operation in the river. His urine was tested for alcohol content as well, and confirmed the levels found in his blood were accurate, according to Sandra Bishop-Freeman, deputy chief toxicologist for the state.

The range for alcohol poisoning varies, depending on things like weight, sex and how often someone drinks, Bishop-Freeman said. But in general, “you are definitely reaching a toxic alcohol level anywhere from 350 to 400 milligrams,” Freeman said.

At a level of 380 milligrams, Brisson’s central nervous system would have been depressed, compromising his ability to function. Interviews with Brisson’s companions by emergency personnel the day of the tragedy indicate he may have been unconscious prior to falling out of the chair.

“To get to 380 milliliters, it takes a lot of drinks,” Bishop-Freeman said.

An unusual proposition has landed on the doorstep of Forest Hills, a tiny speck of a town at the edge of Western Carolina University.

In hopes of transforming Cullowhee into a more vibrant college community, a group dedicated to reinventing the lackluster area around campus wants Forest Hills to expand its town limits and annex a portion of the university and its surrounds.

It would be quite a leap for a town of Forest Hills size. With only 347 registered voters, a property tax rate of just one cent, and an area of a little over one square mile, the Village of Forest Hills seems more like a homeowners association than a bona fide town. It has no town hall and no paid employees.

Yet being part of an incorporated town is crucial in the quest for WCU’s campus to be more than an island in the middle of nowhere, according to those advocating the idea.

The restaurants, coffee shops and bars typically found around universities are markedly absent at Western — witnessed by a standing joke on campus that “Cullowhee is a state of mind.”

Incorporating would give Cullowhee the option of allowing alcohol sales and bring greater access to state and federal grants, supporters say.

Conjuring up a college town from thin air isn’t exactly what advocates have in mind, but they do want a more robust commercial district. In particular, the area along Old Cullowhee Road bordering the Tuckasegee River isn’t reaching its potential.

“I think it is difficult to sustain a business there. We have seen restaurants come and go, businesses change hands or just go defunct,” said Brian Railsback, dean of the WCU Honors College who is active in Cullowhee revitalization efforts. “Rather than a backwater to the university, it could become a hub.”

The appeal came to Forest Hills by way of the Cullowhee Revitalization Effort, a group that goes by the acronym CuRvE.

The decision is ultimately up to the five members of the Forest Hills town board. So far, they appear willing to hear out the idea.

“We are part of the larger Cullowhee community, and we don’t want to divorce ourselves from that but instead look at our mutual interests,” said Clark Corwin, a Forest Hills town council member.

Details of the proposal are still in formation, including exactly what area CuRvE wants Forest Hills to annex. A public presentation by the group next week should shed light on those questions.

“I want them to share with us what their visions is and see if any of it fits with how the village is evolving,” Corwin said.

The town board is eager to keep Forest Hills residents abreast of the proposal, so much so that it sent a letter to every household in the town limits inviting them to the public meeting.

“The council would appreciate your presence and participation during this meeting,” the letter states.

The proposal to grow the town’s size comes with the suggestion for a name change: from Forest Hills to Cullowhee.

A name change would certainly create a shift in the town’s identity, Corwin said. But mention the two names to an outsider — Forest Hills and Cullowhee — and it’s easy to guess which one they’ve never heard of. Corwin said his post office address is in Cullowhee, after all, not Forest Hills.

Railsback said his group envisions a commercial district along Old Cullowhee Road with a “river walk” feel.

Road to redemption

One barrier to revitalization in Cullowhee is the lack of alcohol sales. Whether it’s a six-pack at a gas station or a glass of wine with dinner, alcohol sales aren’t allowed by Jackson County. Incorporated towns have the option of allowing alcohol sales, however.

If the annexation goes through, and if Forest Hills in turn passed a law to allow alcohol sales, it would help attract restaurants, Railsback said.

“That is the most important source of revenue for many restaurants,” Railsback said.

Railsback said legalizing alcohol sales is not the driving factor in the annexation plan, however.

“We didn’t all sit around say ‘Hey, let’s get incorporated so we can drink,’” Railsback said.

If it does pan out that way, however, beer could be sold at the Ramsey Center, where concerts and sporting events are held, and wine could be served during receptions at the Fine and Performing Arts Center — since both buildings would be taken in by the annexation.

The revitalization crew will try to convince the property owners in the area being annexed to support the move. But the most important pitch is to the people of Forest Hills. Many Forest Hills residents are affiliated with the university, from retired professors to currently faculty. For them, the motive to revitalize Cullowhee might be reason enough to support the idea.

But to others wondering what’s in it for them, Railsback points out that expanding Forest Hill’s town limits is the only way to give them control over how growth around the university will look.

“Whatever happens in Cullowhee is going to be right at their front door,” Railsback said. “If you just passively sit there, you won’t have a say in what this will look like. I don’t think that will be in their best interest.

“Let’s face it. Even if you are in Forest Hills, you are living in a part of Cullowhee. I think people are interested in having a say and being a part of creating an identify for that,” Railsback said.

Forest Hills’ forte

Land-use planning just happens to be what Forest Hills does best. In fact, it’s their raison d’être.

The residents of Forest Hill incorporated as a town in the late ‘90s with one main purpose in mind: to keep student housing out. The town sits at the edge of the University and was at risk of becoming inundated by student apartments, condos and rental units.

Residents wanted to maintain their neighborhood feel. As a town, they could pass zoning laws to do just that. The town is currently refining its ordinance to limit the number of non-related people who can live under the same roof in an effort to prevent large groups of students from renting homes in certain neighborhoods.

The town hires off-duty deputies to patrol on weekend evenings during the school year to keep a check on loud partying.

Other than the security patrols, the town’s only other service is fixing potholes and street maintenance.

Corwin sees merit in Forest Hills being a master of its own destiny, rather than allowing Cullowhee to grow up around it.

“Either way, we are going to be affected. One way, we can have participation,” Corwin said.

Incorporating a brand-new town of Cullowhee will continue to be a fallback plan if Forest Hills doesn’t take the bait.

When Cullowhee Revitalization Effort launched three years ago, Railsback said the group quickly realized not being an incorporated town was hurting them. They weren’t eligible for some state and federal grants. From sidewalks to sewer lines, the area was missing out on funding it could get it only if it were incorporated, Railsback said.

“CuRvE didn’t begin with the idea of incorporation but we recognized pretty soon if you want to improve infrastructure or get grants or even stimulus money, no one is going to touch that if you aren’t incorporated,” Railsback said. “If you have a bunch of volunteers in an unincorporated area, you aren’t going to say ‘Here is $1 million, go to it.’”

Railsback said the proposal to Forest Hills came up as an alternative to jumping through the myriad hoops of incorporating a new town.

The idea to partner with Forest Hills has been percolating for more than a year, but it was publicly broached with the Forest Hills town board in December.

“We didn’t have a plan or anything then. We just said ‘Here’s what we are trying to do and would you be interested in some kind of expansion and being involved in creating Cullowhee,’” Railsback said. “Or should we reinvent the wheel and create our own Cullowhee, which could present problems for Forest Hills.”

Meanwhile, property owners in the area to be annexed also need convincing that something positive will come from having to paying town property taxes — albeit exceptionally low ones.

“If I was a property owner I would think on the one hand, I will have a city tax to pay, but on the other hand, if what comes with that is a whitewater park down the road and sidewalks and improvements and I can sell beer and wine, the property value would increase,” Railsback said.

Property owners would also be subject to whatever zoning laws Forest Hills leaders come up with.

If property owners sign on voluntarily, it will make the process far easier for Forest Hills. If they don’t like the idea, Forest Hills can annex them anyway, but the process is more cumbersome.

Railsback said the university administration supports the move. University leaders hope to create a new university “center,” a commercial district to fill the void of a college town. Being incorporated would help.

“The university likes it because if you are going to build a town center and you want a supermarket to come here, it is a much more attractive if it is an incorporated area,” Railsback said.

Want to learn more?

The Cullowhee Revitalization Endeavor will present a formal proposal to the Village of Forest Hills to annex part of the university and surrounding area at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 3, at the Ramsey Center hospitality room on the WCU campus. It is open to the public.

While national pundits predict Republican challengers will steal seats from Democrats in Washington come November, Congressman Heath Shuler likely has little to worry about, based on a recent poll of registered voters in Jackson County.

Shuler, D-Waynesville, has a general approval rating of 46 percent, with 39 percent unfavorable and the remaining 15 percent undecided, according to a Western Carolina University Public Policy Institute/Smoky Mountain News poll conducted by Public Policy Polling out of Raleigh in June.

The results sound merely mediocre for Shuler on the surface. But the poll of almost 600 registered Jackson County voters reveals a striking anomaly in who Shuler’s supporters are: Republicans gave him just as high an approval rating as Democrats.

“That is rare,” said Chris Cooper, a WCU political scientist who developed the poll. “That is very, very rare that Republicans would feel as good about a Democrat as a Democrat does.”

Shuler seems to be in the perfect position given the district’s demographics, Cooper said. Shuler not only locks down the votes of conservative Democrats who would otherwise be quick to desert a more liberal candidate, he also snags part of the Republican vote.

And as for the liberal Democrats, he captures them too since they have nowhere else to turn.

“The Democrats don’t have a more liberal option, so they are probably still going to vote for him,” Cooper said.

Shuler’s approval rating was actually pulled down by those who identified themselves as liberal. The poll asked voters not only what party they were registered as, but also whether they considered themselves liberal, moderate or conservative. Only 30 percent of self-described liberals approved of Shuler. Conservative — even conservative Republicans — were more likely to approve of Shuler than liberals.

Shuler agrees he has strayed from the party on a few key votes. He voted against the stimulus bill and against the Wall Street and auto bailouts. But his vote against health care reform was likely the most upsetting to more liberal Democrats, Shuler said.

“You realize you can’t make everyone happy on every single vote you cast,” Shuler said. “I hope the votes I cast represent a large percentage of our district.”

Shuler may indeed mirror his constituents.

“It is a particular breed of Democrats we have in Western North Carolina,” Cooper said. “So many of our Democrats are conservative. I think the Democrats in Western North Carolina looks a lot like the Southern Democrat of 30 and 40 years ago.”

Shuler agreed.

“Republicans from California could be more liberal than North Carolina Democrats,” Shuler said.

Shuler is the fifth most conservative Democrat in Congress and is the whip for the Blue Dog Democrats, a self-proclaimed group of 54 conservative Democrats who joined forces to form a moderate voting block in the House. The Blue Dogs are more than willing to break ranks with their party when push comes to shove.

Not exactly a sleeper race

Shuler’s opponent, Jeff Miller from Hendersonville, isn’t discouraged by the poll numbers, however. Shuler’s favorable rating was below 50 percent, which political experts say is a dangerous tipping point for incumbents — one that suggests the race is very much in play.

“I know as an incumbent I would not be comfortable with that. I would be worried and trying to do something about it,” Miller said.

Miller said voters this year in particular will be more likely to oust their sitting congressman and go for the challenger.

“This is pretty reflective of what you see around the country. I think there is a ‘get out of our house’ movement that wants to replace everyone,” Miller said. “People are very frustrated with the federal government.”

Indeed, the PPI/SMN poll of Jackson voters showed only 29 percent had a favorable opinion of the federal government. But given Shuler’s approval rating of 46 percent, they seem to distinguish between the two.

Miller’s campaign conducted a poll of its own the first week of June. The poll, conducted by Public Opinion Strategies of Alexandria, Va., on behalf of Miller’s campaign, targeted only 300 voters in the 15-county district with a 5.6 percent margin of error. WCU’s poll surveyed more nearly 600 voters and had a 4 percent margin of error.

In Miller’s poll, Shuler had an approval rating of 53 percent — compared to 46 percent in the poll of only Jackson County voters.

Jackson County has a greater percentage of Democrats than the district as a whole, which should theoretically translate into a higher approval rating for Shuler in Jackson — not a lower one. Instead, the results offer further proof liberal Democrats actually pull his approval rating down.

While Shuler is busy pointing out his conservative votes, Miller is busy pointing out his opponent’s liberal ones. Miller rattled off several Democratic bills that Shuler supported: financial reform, pro-union legislation and cap and trade. And most importantly, says Miller, Shuler voted to give control of the House to Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“Mrs. Pelosi’s values I don’t think are our mountain values,” Miller said.

The poll conducted by Miller asked people who they plan to vote for: 46 percent said Shuler, 34 percent said Miller and 18 percent were undecided. Miller said that’s not bad, considering it was right after the primary and he doesn’t yet enjoy the name recognition that he will have by November. In fact, only 38 percent of those polled had heard of him.

Jumping ship harder than it seems

Dissatisfaction with Shuler among some Democrats led to a relatively poor showing for Shuler in the May primary — he pulled only 60 percent of the vote — especially considering he ran against a no-name opponent. Aixa Wilson did no campaigning to speak of and was largely unknown, with a name that left many voters wondering whether he was a man or a woman. Nonetheless, Wilson made an impressive showing and even carried Buncombe County over Shuler.

“It is easy to cast a protest vote when you know your candidate is going to win,” Cooper said.

It’s another matter when the seat is really on the line, Cooper said.

However, Miller said Democrats have told him personally they will vote for him instead of Shuler.

“I do believe some are going to jump ship,” Miller said.

But Shuler disagreed.

“They won’t jump ship,” Shuler said. “Even though they may not agree with my health care vote, they at least recognize I am the same person I said I was when I first ran for office.”

Shuler may not vote the way Democrats like all the time, but he at least votes their way more often than Miller would.

But Miller said he has heard firsthand from liberal Democrats who plan to vote against Shuler “out of anger for Shuler because he did not vote the way [they] wanted,” Miller said.

Miller said these voters are willing to sacrifice the seat to a Republican for now with the aim of running a more progressive candidate two years from now and claiming it back. Miller joked that he is never quite sure “whether to say thanks or not” when hearing from these voters.

Cooper is skeptical that many Democrats would be willing to sacrifice the seat for two years in hopes of winning it back in 2012 under the banner of a more liberal Democrat.

“I don’t think people vote that strategically. I think people talk that strategically, but I don’t know if they vote that strategically,” Cooper said.

There is one problem with a disenchanted base, however. Candidates rely on party loyalists to propel their campaigns, and Shuler may suffer in that area.

“Real party loyalists are less likely to be excited about Shuler, put a yard sign up for Shuler, tell their friend about Shuler,” Cooper said.

Shuler explains his more conservative leanings as simply rising above party politics.

“Far too often we are seeing the extreme on both sides get most of the talking points, but I feel like I am the person in the middle trying to be a conduit saying, ‘Here is the middle ground folks,’” Shuler said. “It is more about the individual that you are actually voting for and less about the party.”

Cooper said a scandal is likely the only thing that could compromise Shuler’s favorable rating in the short time span between now and the election.

“Save some kind of John Edwards situation, he is looking pretty good,” Cooper said.

The state has delayed issuing a necessary permit and instead is asking Harrison Construction to provide a slew of additional information to ensure the expansion won’t create an environmental hazard or safety risk.

“They need to be more responsible. We felt that and we proved that,” said Suzanne Hendrix, one of dozens of neighbors who organized against the quarry. “It took a big effort on everyone’s part.”

From the impacts of blasting on drinking wells to the stability of its massive rock walls, the quarry must address a laundry list of concerns before the N.C. Division of Land Resources will entertain the expansion permit.

The quarry received a letter from the state in late June requesting additional information and has 180 days to reply. Judy Wehner, assistant state mining specialist, said she has no indication from the quarry when it might respond. The quarry did not return phone calls and emails seeking comment.

Neighbors of the quarry are optimistic, but also skeptical.

“Their track record isn’t good,” said Polly Leatherwood, 69, who has lived near the quarry her whole life. “If they do what they are supposed to, it would be fine.”

But state environmental inspectors visit too infrequently —with a lapses spanning more than two years by some agencies and four years by others — and aren’t diligent enough when they do, according to neighbors.

“They need to follow up on them and see they do what they say they are going to do. That’s the biggest thing,” said Leatherwood.

Ronnie Deweese agreed the state’s request for additional information won’t work unless regulatory oversight is ramped up going forward.

“They can provide all the information they want, but if they don’t have an inspection every so often it won’t do no good,” said Deweese, who lives near the quarry.

Shoring up quarry walls

The biggest issue the quarry must address is the stability of the quarry walls, which tower hundreds of feet in the air. Last year, a slab of rock hundreds of feet wide and tall came crashing down at the quarry. The potentially fatal slide could have been prevented had the quarry practiced more careful geotechnical monitoring, according to geologists and mine inspectors that visited the site in the aftermath.

But there are no state or federal engineering standards that apply to quarries, nor do state or federal agencies oversee the blasting and excavation plans. There are no rules limiting how steep or tall quarry walls can be.

In the new permit, however, the state took the quarry to task over its plans to stabilize and shore up the slide area.

Plans submitted by the quarry “contained insufficient information to assess the stability of rock soils and slopes,” according to the state’s letter. The quarry must provide more detailed engineering plans and slope assessments before the permit can proceed.

Quarries generally are not required to hire geotechnical engineers to monitor their operations, yet in this case, the state wants to see a slope expert on hand throughout the slide cleanup.

“Unexpected planes of weakness in the bedrock or other unexpected conditions may be discovered as work progresses,” the letter states.

Rick Wooten, a state geologist and mountain landslide expert based in Asheville, provided the engineering critique of the quarry’s plans on behalf of the state mining agency. Opinions of state geologists are not typically sought by the agency that grants quarry permits.

Wooten also pointed out that the rock being mined is not in fact pure granite, as claimed by the quarry in its permit. Wooten said the “metamorphized sedimentary and igneous rock in the pit is much more structurally complex,” which affects how it behaves.

In order to shore up the slide that destabilized a major part of the quarry, quarry officials say they must expand the current boundaries of the quarry. Their plans call for recontouring the sheer vertical walls of the quarry with a more gentle grade. To do so, they say it is necessary to shave off the ridgeline above the quarry.

The expansion would bring operations closer to the doorstep of the Lickstone community, prompting the opposition.

State wants more information

The state found the quarry’s application wasn’t thorough enough in some areas. The state deemed the sediment and erosion control plan insufficient to control runoff, for example.

Following complaints by neighbors about blasting, the state wants to see a blasting analysis and detailed monitoring plan by a qualified blasting expert — something it had not asked for before.

The state also alerted the quarry that it may be required to install an air quality monitor at the site to measure dust particles, which have been a chief source of complaints. Such a monitor has been required at a quarry site in Spruce Pine similarly accused by neighbors of excessive dust.

“If they set up a monitoring device, we would feel better about it,” Rogers said. “We would know then how much dust is getting transferred onto us. Right now it is hearsay. It is our word against them.”

The state also acted on concerns from neighbors who fear blasting could disrupt the flow of their springs or wells as the quarry inches closer to their homes. The quarry was asked to “provide proof” that the expansion of the quarry wouldn’t harms the springs and wells.

But Michael Rogers doesn’t know how they could provide that kind of assurance.

“It is a fragile system really,” Roger said. Aquifers in the mountains are notoriously hard to read, with veins of water running through the rocks like a maze. A jarring blasting could cause one of the veins to collapse and cut off a spring or well’s flow, Rogers said. Rogers said he wants something in writing from, the quarry that they will dig him a new well if his spring is disrupted.

At least two of the quarry’s neighbors believe that blasting compromised their wells. One suffers from discolored water that stains her laundry. Another had her well suddenly go dry following a week of blasting. Polly Leatherwood said her well didn’t diminish in volume slowly, but just went dry all of a sudden “like you turned the water off.”

Leatherwood called the quarry, and someone came to see her but told her she would have to prove it was their fault.

The state also sent the quarry back to the drawing board on safety fencing around the top of the quarry walls. A fencing plan was required as part of the original application, but the quarry asserted it was unnecessary.

“The heavily wooded, surrounding mountain makes inadvertent public access to the highwall area unlikely,” the quarry wrote.

The state apparently wasn’t satisfied. It has reiterated the need for fencing and told the quarry to draw up a plan.

A high school freshman, Hannah Parrott of Waynesville, had raised this issue during a public hearing on the quarry’s permit, pointing out the threat the unfenced highwalls pose to animals.

A couple of the state’s critques were a result of typos in the quarry’s application, like failing to put north arrows on its maps or listing different numbers for how many acres will be impacted with the expansion.

Deweese said it will likely be up to the neighbors of the quarry to keep the pressure on.

“We’re going to have to make them stay the way they ought to be because they have had the run of things so long,” Deweese said.

The Harrison Construction rock quarry, which mines rock used in road building, was issued a notice of violation on July 8 from the N.C. Division of Water Quality. The violations carry the potential for hefty fines, but if problems are fixed immediately, fines usually aren’t imposed.

The quarry has been in the limelight over the past three months due to a controversial expansion plan. Neighbors fed up with the quarry’s practices had complained to state officials about mud running off the quarry and into the creek, and even documented it themselves in photographs.

Neighbors’ action prompted the first water quality inspection of the site in more than four years, which resulted in the violations. Creek samples taken upstream of the quarry were pristine compared to immediately downstream where sediment levels were 100 times higher than what’s allowed under state standards.

Sediment-laden rainwater was running off three areas of the quarry and into Allens Creek unchecked, according to the inspection report. While the quarry had erosion safeguards elsewhere on site, three areas lacked such measures. Runoff from quarry walls, dirt roads, crushing operations and even the asphalt waste pile flowed off the site and into the creek without first passing through erosion check points, according to the report.

The quarry should have noticed the problem itself and alerted state water quality officials. Failing to do so was among six violations the quarry was cited for.

“If they see a bunch of turbid water blowing out, we expect them to let us know they are having issues and what they are doing to fix it,” said Linda Wiggs, a state water quality official in Asheville. “We don’t want to hear it from someone else.”

Wiggs was among a team of four people who inspected the quarry site on June 26. Their official report from the inspection was made public last week. The quarry has until July 26 to explain why turbidity standards were violated and why the Division of Water Quality hadn’t been notified.

Harrison officials did not respond to several phone calls and emails requesting comment for this article.

As a result of the violation, the quarry will have to take water samples in Allens Creek on a monthly basis and send them to state water quality officials until further notice. Normally, the quarry would only have to sample the creek twice a year.

The quarry was also cited for failing to keep proper erosion records. The quarry is supposed to monitor how well its sediment safeguards are working in weekly inspections and keep a log of erosion maintenance.

For example, earthen dams that slow down rainwater and trap sediment before it reaches the creek can quickly become backlogged and must be cleaned out regularly — something that should be noted in the quarry’s log book.

Another technique is to divert muddy water into giant retaining ponds where sediment settles to the bottom. The ponds, too, have to be dug out to maintain the holding capacity.

The quarry’s maintenance logs were inadequate, however.

“They were generalizing a lot of their erosion control inspections. I told them they needed to be more specific,” Wiggs said.

As part of its self-policing, the quarry is supposed to assess its erosion safeguards within 24 hours of a rainfall of half an inch or more, per state water quality standards. But the quarry’s environmental compliance manager splits his time between seven rock quarries — one in each of the seven western counties. Wiggs said that it’s too big a job for one person in the report.

“If they think they can be compliant with one guy running around to that many areas, that’s fine, but we felt like ‘Well, let’s get some other folks doing this,’” Wiggs said.

The inspection report warned that failing to monitor runoff “because personnel are not available during a discharge event is not an acceptable practice.”

Fixing the problem

The quarry must now figure out what new erosion safeguards are needed to stop the unchecked runoff — but also exactly where all the water is coming from, Wiggs said.

Quarry workers told Wiggs they didn’t realize muddy water was escaping from the site without first passing through erosion checkpoints. Quarry workers told Wiggs they thought the water running off the site was clean groundwater seeping out of the excavated pit.

Quarries inevitably hit the groundwater table, and pools of water form in the pits. Quarry workers told Wiggs they thought the pools were merely overflowing, and therefore, they weren’t paying attention to it.

In reality, the runoff from the quarry’s bare slopes and water used to spray down crushing operations — both laden with sediment — were mingling with the pit water, Wiggs said.

“It is recommended a thorough evaluation of this entire drainage take place,” the report states.

The quarry must have a sediment and erosion control plan on file with the state as part of its mining permit. That plan was inadequate, however, as it shows only two locations where runoff leaves the quarry when in reality there are five, Wiggs said.

State mining inspectors had consistently deemed the quarry “in compliance” with its sediment and erosion control plan, without noticing that the plan itself was inaccurate. Jamie Kritzer, public information officer, said mining inspectors focused on whether the quarry was “meeting the conditions of its state mining permit,” and not necessarily the larger issue of storm water runoff.

Wiggs said the sediment and erosion control plan needs to be updated.

“Mines move land. Things shift,” Wiggs said.

Indeed, when the quarry sliced open a new part of the mountainside as part of a major pit expansion in 2008, it apparently created new routes for runoff.

Further exacerbating the issue, a massive rockslide in 2009 reduced a section of the quarry wall to rubble — a loose pile of dirt and rock that is hundreds of feet wide and tall. Rain running off the slide section is contributing to sediment issues, Wiggs said.

Harrison did not waste any time getting to work. Even before the official violation notice arrived in the mail, a team of dozers and dump trucks could be seen at the quarry site shoring up erosion measures day in and day out.

The amusement park is still mired in bankruptcy and remains in a holding pattern until a major landslide blocking access to the park is cleaned up and stabilized.

A proposal by one of the park’s main owners to buy Ghost Town out of bankruptcy failed to go through as planned. Al Harper, owner of Great Smoky Mountains Railroad and a principal investor in Ghost Town, hoped to buy the park for $7 million. That price tag would fall $6 million short of covering the park’s debts, but it would have allowed the park to emerge from bankruptcy. Harper hoped to put the amusement park back in operation, but the deal was contingent on a loan from an offshore lender.

Maggie Valley business owners that rely on tourist traffic from the theme park had been hoping the deal would go through. But even if it had, the challenge of getting rides in working order to pass state inspections and hiring a seasonal staff to get the park open for the summer would have proved challenging, according to park officials.

Meanwhile, stabilization of a massive landslide that originated from the mountaintop amusement park is months away from completion. Until then, the risk of another even more massive slide is possible.

The work is estimated at $1.3 million, a tab being picked up by federal and state grants.

The town of Maggie is contributing $25,000 in matching funds and is coordinating the work. Ghost Town made a verbal promise to pitch in $25,000 as well. Maggie Town Manager Tim Barth said he won’t authorize work to start until the money from Ghost Town is in hand.

The town is still waiting on state environmental permits before the project can go out to bid. However, a debate has now emerged concerning competing plans.

Ghost Town CEO Steve Shiver is not satisfied with initial engineering plans to fix the slide.

“We thought there was a better way,” Shiver said.

The plan to recontour the mountainside on a gentler grade would claim a small flat area Shiver says may be critical to the amusement park’s future plans. As the only level spot on an otherwise extremely steep slope, it’s one of the few places Ghost Town could add attractions in the future.

As a result, Ghost Town asked for a second stabilization plan to be formulated. A slightly steeper grade, bolstered by a retaining wall, would preserve the level area.

Barth said Ghost Town must pick up the tab for engineering work required for the alternative plan, which is still in development. A cost estimate for the competing plan is not known yet, Barth said.

“If that option is significantly more expensive, that’s where more money might be necessary from Ghost Town,” Barth said.

Once one of the two plans is chosen, more detailed plans must be prepared before the project can go to bid.

Millions in state and county tax dollars have been funneled to Evergreen Foundation, a mental health nonprofit serving the seven western counties. Yet it operates without public oversight.

The board of Smoky Mountain Center, a state mental health agency for the western counties, fears Evergreen has strayed from its mission and needs realignment.

“I don’t know that anybody ever envisioned a day that there would be such a disconnect between Smoky Mountain Center and Evergreen Foundation,” said Shelly Foreman, community relations coordinator for the center.

Evergreen, meanwhile, is resisting forays by Smoky Mountain Center to exert control over the nonprofit and its finances. Evergreen has even accused Smoky Mountain Center of a money grab.

“I cannot in good faith stand by and let [Smoky Mountain Center] raid the foundation,” said Hugh Moon, a member of the Smoky Mountain Center board. “It sounds to me like [Smoky Mountain Center] is saying we want your money.”

However, the money in Evergreen’s coffers was given to it by Smoky Mountain Center in the first place. Evergreen has $20 million — and nearly all of it stems from tax dollars earmarked by the state for Smoky Mountain Center.

“The funds came from the public purse and have always been intended for use on behalf of Smoky Mountain Center and its constituents,” said Brian Ingraham, director of Smoky Mountain Center.

Instead, Evergreen has enriched its own balance sheet, according to Smoky Mountain Center (see related article).

Now, Smoky Mountain Center wants Evergreen to come back under its auspices rather than operate independently.

County commissioners from all seven western counties have unanimously joined the call.

“We unanimously concluded that the money was public money, and it should have public oversight,” said Joe Cowan, a Jackson County commissioner.

Smoky Mountain Center wants control over who sits on the Evergreen’s nonprofit board, with the aim of stacking the board with many of its own members. But to do so, the current Evergreen board would essentially need to dissolve itself and agree to the new structure.

“All the other disagreements can be overcome if we can figure out a system of governance that both boards support,” said Ronnie Beale, board member of Smoky Mountain Center and chairman of the Macon County commissioners.

But that seems unlikely. Instead, it appears the boards of Evergreen and Smoky Mountain Center have reached a stalemate.

“I will never vote to dissolve. I would never support any governance other than the way we are going right now,” said Don Bunn, an Evergreen board member from Swain County. “I was offended by the accusation that we were not properly handling the money.”

A joint meeting between the two boards will be held this week. The last such meeting failed to reach a consensus.

The board of Smoky Mountain Center has indicated in a letter to Evergreen that it will pursue legal recourse if diplomacy fails.

Evergreen’s board may well test Smoky Mountain Center’s resolve to follow through with that threat.

Moon said it would be “blatantly inappropriate” for the foundation to be under the oversight of Smoky Mountain Center.

“I will do my best to ensure it remains a private nonprofit,” Moon said.

The nine-member Evergreen board meets only four times a year. Its meetings are not open to the public, nor are its finances. That troubles Don Barrier, a board member of Smoky Mountain Center from Caldwell County.

“I do believe it is public money and deserves public oversight,” Barrier said in the last joint meeting between the boards.

Barrier said he is uncomfortable with a private organization — one with no obligation to disclose its activities — holding the purse strings to millions in public dollars.

Barrier also takes issue with the board appointing its own members. Known as a self-perpetuating board, existing members handpick who will join their ranks when someone steps down. There is no limit to how many years a board member can stay on.

That’s not how oversight of public money typically works, Barrier said.

“That is a point of disagreement,” said John Bauknight, an Evergreen board member from Cashiers.

Bauknight challenged the extent to which Evergreen’s assets can be traced to Smoky Mountain Center. Evergreen’s coffers have grown significantly in the past decade due to “real sharp investments,” Bauknight said.

“When public money is invested, then the interest generated is still public money,” Barrier countered.

Evergreen board members contested the notion that Tom McDevitt, the director of Evergreen, said any money given to Evergreen ceased to be public funds the minute they were given to the nonprofit.

Ingraham disagreed.

“The funds transferred from Smoky to Evergreen did not lose their identity as public funds,” Ingraham said.

Ron Yowell, a member of the Evergreen board, said the critical question is whether the funds are still considered public after being transferred to a private entity.

“Once that’s decided, answers can be found to all of these things,” Yowell said. “Until that fundamental question is answered, I don’t think we can resolve much of anything.”

Communication breakdown

Evergreen has grown increasingly estranged from Smoky Mountain Center over the past two years. Historically, the director of Smoky Mountain Center also served as the director of Evergreen. The dual roles worked well for three decades.

But two years ago, Tom McDevitt stepped down as the director of Smoky Mountain Center amid controversy. His departure from Smoky Mountain Center was less than amicable, yet the Evergreen board voted to keep him at the helm of the nonprofit. Relations between the two have since been strained.

“We all agreed there has probably been a disconnect,” Beale said.

For example, the director of the Smoky Mountain Center should be an integral player in handing out grants, Beale said.

“Nobody knows what the counties need more than the director,” Beale said.

It’s Smoky Mountain Center’s responsibility to know where there are gaps in mental health and substance abuse services, thus making it suited to know what grants are needed most.

“Why wouldn’t you want the organization involved that is recognized as the locus of control over planning and system development?” Ingraham said.

McDevitt said he, too, envisioned Smoky Mountain Center staff involved in ranking grants that come in to Evergreen.

“Evergreen had every intention of working hand and glove with Smoky Mountain Center, but when there isn’t a vehicle to sit down and talk with them and get feedback and do planning, we had no choice but to do it autonomously,” McDevitt said.

Evergreen board members say that communication is a two-way street. Evergreen invited a member of Smoky Mountain Center’s board to sit in on their meetings, but no one ever took them up on the offer.

Over the past two years, Evergreen has officially distanced itself from Smoky Mountain Center on paper. A new set of bylaws and new wording on its nonprofit tax filings have eliminated any reference to Smoky Mountain Center.

Historically, Evergreen’s tax filing listed its mission as “supporting Smoky Mountain Center.” But in 2009, the year McDevitt parted ways with Smoky Mountain Center, the wording was changed.

“[Evergreen] no longer characterizes itself as supporting Smoky Mountain Center,” said Jay Coward, the attorney for Smoky Mountain Center.

Beale said Evergreen appears to be moving away from what it was established to do.

But McDevitt said the changes more accurately reflect Evergreen’s mission today. In the past, Smoky Mountain Center was the primary conduit for all mental health services in the region.

But in recent years, the state has privatized mental health. Counselors and psycholoigsts are not longer employed by Smoky Mountain Center, but operate as private practices. The same goes for patient clinics once operated by Smoky Mountain Center.

Since Smoky Mountain Center is now solely an administrative arm, it made sense to have a more generic mission statement dedicate to supporting mental health services “and not specifically one government entity,” McDevitt said.

Evergreen has agreed to few concessions as a result of the prodding.

McDevitt said Evergreen will expand its board by three members. The seven western counties will take turns nominating people for those seats, but the Evergreen board will ultimately select the person.

McDevitt said Evergreen has already started doling out more in the form of grants. Evergreen will share its finances, and allow Ingraham to review grant applications that come in.

“We are not going to go back and jeopardize Evergreen to satisfy their control needs, but we will open up to generate public oversight,” McDevitt said. “I hope both sides will decide it is more important to concentrate on what we do rather than how it is done.”

Tom McDevitt, the director of the Evergreen Foundation, has kept a tight hold on the nonprofit’s purse strings. Rather than putting money toward the cause of mental health and substance abuse, McDevitt has instead focused on growing a nest egg to the tune of $20 million.

The nonprofit makes $1 million a year on average through investments and on rent from an expansive inventory of office buildings leased to those in the mental health and substance abuse fields in the seven western counties.

But Evergreen gave out only a single grant of $50,000 to benefit mental health services in the 2008-2009 fiscal year.

This upset board members of Smoky Mountain Center, who see needs going unmet while Evergreen’s coffers grow.

“A percentage of the money that Evergreen takes in each year after expenses should be returned back to the seven far west counties,” said Ronnie Beale, board member of Smoky Mountain Center and a Macon County commissioner.

Concern that Evergreen is hording its assets has led Smoky Mountain Center to attempt to regain control over the nonprofit (see related article).

County commissioners in the seven western counties unanimously endorsed supporting Smoky Mountain Center’s position.

“You’re really not helping your entity if you’re just sitting there with a pot of money,” said Haywood County Commissioner Bill Upton.

Smoky Mountain Center made rounds to each board of county commissioners seeking support. The counties all passed a resolution that hints at legal action if Evergreen won’t play ball.

“I’m doing this for the people that have mental illnesses in Haywood County, since this may free up some of the money that may benefit them,” Haywood County Commissioner Kirk Kirkpatrick said when voting on the resolution.

Where Evergreen

got its money

Evergreen owes its wealth in the first place to Smoky Mountain Center. Smoky Mountain Center funneled state and county tax dollars to the nonprofit over the years, allowing it to amass an inventory of 25 rental properties across seven counties, which is now a major source of revenue.

The real estate holdings include offices for mental health counselors and psychologists, group homes for people with disabilities, the Balsam Mountain Center outpatient clinic — and even the office headquarters for Smoky Mountain Center.

While the buildings were purchased or built with state tax dollars, Evergreen pockets the money it makes on rent. Evergreen even makes Smoky Mountain Center fork over $140,000 in rent a year for its offices — offices built with money from Smoky Mountain Center in the first place.

If Smoky Mountain Center was relieved from paying rent, it could spend that money helping people with mental health and substance abuse problems, said Brian Ingraham, director of Smoky Mountain Center.

But that was never the deal, McDevitt said.

“What the foundation is in the business of doing, and what is was contracted to do, was to build that building and then turn around and rent it,” McDevitt said.

When Evergreen was created in 1977, state agencies couldn’t buy and sell property. Evergreen was created expressly to manage an inventory of office buildings for Smoky Mountain Center’s therapists, psychologists and counselors. And that’s exactly what it’s done, McDevitt said.

As a charity, Evergreen gives mental health service providers discounted rent, which is an incentive to those in the field to locate here, according to McDevitt.

Smoky Mountain Center hired a private CPA firm to track just how much money Evergreen has gotten in state and county tax dollars. From 1977 to 2009, $13.7 million in public funds were funneled to Evergreen through Smoky Mountain Center. Another $4.2 million in state money has been paid to Evergreen by Smoky Mountain Center on rent for buildings.

Step up the giving

This year, under pressure to ramp up its grant making, Evergreen has given out $357,000 in grants. McDevitt said the foundation’s assets finally grew enough that it could part with some of its money without jeopardizing its long-term capital.

“The board said we did not need to accumulate money just for the sake of accumulating money,” McDevitt said.

But it still fell short of what Smoky Mountain Center wants to see.

Despite a $2 million state budget cut that forced Smoky Mountain to cut services to mental health patients, Evergreen only gave Smoky Mountain Center $200,000 to offset the cuts, when its deep pockets could have afforded more to help the center through the crisis, according to Ingraham. The budget cuts have been restored this year.

And when Smoky Mountain Center needed to expand the parking lot at the substance abuse and mental health outpatient clinic in Balsam, Evergreen agreed to foot 75 percent of the bill, even though it owns the building and collects rent on it.

Smoky Mountain Center would like something more concrete than a verbal pledge from Evergreen that it will start allocating more money to mental health. Beale wants a formula that guarantees a certain percentage of annual revenue will be put toward grants.

“Most foundations have giving guidelines they have the grant process it is usually a pretty established process so of course that is what we want to see,” said Shelley Foreman, community relations coordinator at SMC.

But Evergreen’s foray into grant making won’t happen instantly, McDevitt said.

“You don’t go from being an organization that builds buildings and rents them for less than fair market value to making $800,000 in grants over night,” McDevitt said.

Other grants by Evergreen this year included $80,000 to Haywood Vocational Opportunities for pilot program tracking developmentally disabled people from employment to retirement; $10,000 to REACH for workshop series to educate parents at risk of abuse; $20,000 to Meridian Psychological Services to develop volunteer network; and $15,000 to put on training workshop for substance abuse counselors.

County commissioners claim the $10.2 million price tag on the new creative arts building is too high. College leaders claim they have cut all the costs they can without starting over completely or compromising core functions of the building.

“What’s disappointing is the commissioners have expressed that we want the building costs to come down, but they just keep coming back with the same plan. It’s like they don’t even hear us,” said Commissioner Kevin Ensley.

HCC President Rose Johnson says the college board of trustees went over the design with a fine-tooth comb before bringing it to the county commissioners.

“We had gone through a cost reduction process already, and there was nothing else we could do other than go back and totally redesign the building,” Johnson said.

The college trustees don’t want to do that. But commissioners are questioning whether the trustees have tried hard enough.

“It has always been my experience that an architect can find ways to reduce costs if instructed to do so,” said Commissioner Mark Swanger. “Obviously it is better to be conservative during the design process to keep the costs down, but I have never seen a case where architects couldn’t go back and find savings if instructed to do so.”

Swanger has been intimately involved in the construction of several new schools and county building in his 12 years as an elected leader on the school board and county government.

Terry Gess, chair of the Creative Arts Program at HCC, said it would be a mistake to shortchange the new building. The college has a national reputation for its craft program. Meanwhile, the craft industry has an economic impact of $206 million in Western North Carolina.

Gess said the building will be a showcase for the importance of craft in the region and a source of pride.

“It will maintain Haywood Community College’s place as a leader in the professional craft industry,” Gess said.

Alternative energy under fire

A major sticking point in the debate is over environmental features of the new building. Under Johnson’s leadership, HCC has become a leader in sustainability, from campus operations to course curriculum. Likewise, the new creative arts building incorporates many green features.

Commissioners have repeatedly questioned the cost of those features, in particular the alternative energy components like solar hot water and solar panels.

Johnson told commissioners the technology is needed to meet strict new energy-use mandates for state buildings.

An article in The Mountaineer two weeks ago reported differently, however. The article quoted an associate architect for the project who revealed the building would actually exceed the state’s energy guidelines not just by a little, but by 60 percent. That news caught county commissioners off guard.

“The latest information didn’t dovetail with what I recall being told previously,” Swanger said.

However, there is a logical explanation for the discrepancy, college leaders said.

The building incorporates three alternative energy features. All three together indeed go above and beyond the state mandate.

But one of the three has always been considered optional, namely photovoltaic solar panels on the roof of the building. It indeed isn’t needed to meet the state standard — but it wasn’t included in the $10.2 million cost estimate either, according to the college.

“As for the other two, neither goes far enough to meet the state standard singlehandedly. One is passive energy-saving design throughout the building, like using low-energy appliances and orienting windows away from the summer sun. The other is a solar thermal system for heating, cooling and hot water. Together, they exceed the state standard by 20 percent.

“There was no in between step,” Johnson said.

Johnson said the college explored other energy measures to meet the standard without going over, like geothermal, for example. But the 30 wells needed for geothermal would take up too much land, she said.

The new state standards cap energy use for new buildings based on their size. Since the craft building will house energy heavy trades — from power-hungry woodworking tools to super high temperatures required for pottery kilns and glassblowing stations — the college has an extra challenge to offset the high energy consumption.

How far the college must go depends on the estimated energy use of the building in the first place.

“If the starting point is incorrect, then it can skew the entire project,” Swanger said. “I am afraid they may be exceeding unnecessarily. I would feel much better if I had a third party view of it.”

County commission chairman Kirk Kirkpatrick agreed.

“If they are trying to reach something that is greater than what is required by the state, and it costs additional money, then I don’t think that is necessarily a wise plan,” Kirkpatrick said.

Johnson said the creative arts facility is a semi-industrial building with high-load and specialized features, from air ventilation in the jewelry making studios to the dust collection in the woodworking shops.

“When you analyze the projected cost of the building, it is not more expensive than any other building of its type that is being built in the community college system,” said Johnson. The college has offered up square footage comparisons with five other community college buildings around the state.

What next?

County commissioners must ultimately agree to the building’s price tag, something they haven’t done yet. While commissioners have set the wheels in motion to take out a construction loan, they have stopped short of specifying the loan amount.

Swanger said he won’t make up his mind for sure until he sees bids from contractors.

“I want to see actual numbers,” Swanger said. “I need good accurate information and need to know what I am voting on.”

Commissioners feel like the college could be more forthcoming, laying out costs associated with different stages of construction, on what elements the college board has allegedly cut already and, of course, a clearer picture of the energy initiatives.

“They have produced some answers, but everyone is still rather confused about it,” Kirkpatrick said.

Commissioner Ensley, who is most adamant that costs are too high, voted against the loan application despite the caveat that it doesn’t lock in an amount.

Kirkpatrick said the commissioners did not want to cause controversy with the college.

“Do I want to dictate what the college does? That is not my job,” Kirkpatrick said. “As county commissioners, it is my job to ask questions.”

Kirkpatrick said the due diligence should rest with the college board of trustees, whom he trusts are vetting the plans and looking at the same questions.

“I just want to make sure they second guess themselves on what kind of project they are doing and whether it is the most important thing they need to do,” Kirkpatrick said.

Money to pay for the new building will come from a special quarter-cent sales tax. In a countywide election two years ago, voters approved the special tax for the sole purpose of funding improvements on the HCC campus. The vote was seen as broad public endorsement for the college’s role in the community and willingness among the public to invest in its future.

“We voted for the quarter-cent tax and now let’s use it for its intended purpose,” Adam Thomson, a furniture maker who has taken courses at HCC and has now started his own company, told commissioners during a public comment period at a recent meeting.

“I think I can speak on behalf of all commissioners. We certainly aren’t against the creative arts building,” Kirkpatrick responded.

Commissioners are concerned, however, that the college will burn through the lion’s share of the special tax money on one project. The special tax is enough to cover annual payments on a $12 million loan for 15 years. If the craft building is $10.2 million, it leaves little left over for other projects.

“It is my view the entire campus needs to be considered, not just a flagship building,” Swanger said. “In times when money is tight, you would use up a lot of that money.”

Despite the acclaim of HCC’s craft program, the craft building is literally crumbling and too small.

Johnson said it is the college’s most pressing need and pursuing it is “a very wise decision.”

Want to weigh in?

A public hearing on the loan application for the new Haywood Community College creative arts building will be held before the county commissioners at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 16, in the historic courthouse.