A pesky stomach virus has turned up among hikers along the Appalachian Trail near Hot Springs, especially on a stretch of trail running north out of town toward the Tennessee border.

A number of hikers fell sick to the 24-hour bug last week, and it is speculated that the illness is being passed between hikers in the region. The U.S. Forest Service warns that several shelter locations have been identified as hotspots, including No Business Knob, Big Bald and Hogback Ridge.          

A guided hike involving some off-trail bushwhacking to a little-known stand of old growth forest in Graham County will be held on April 20 by the WNC Alliance.

The remnant of old-growth forest that rivals Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest in its grandeur and beauty but is simply lesser known. There should be good displays of wildflowers and early arrivals of migratory birds. The hike will be very difficult, mostly off-trail, and will include four very wet stream crossings. WNCA Biologist and old-growth expert Josh Kelly will lead this hike. To sign-up, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Another guided hike in the Joyce Kilmer forest itself will be held April 25 with the Benton MacKaye Trail Association to view the peak of spring wildflowers in the area along the two-mile forest loop trail. The group will then take in a second late afternoon hike to Huckleberry Knob off the Cherohala Skyway.  Bring supper and stay to see the full moon rise.

Sign up by contacting This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 828.479.2503.

Don’t be greedy and keep your favorite swimming hole for yourself. A regional environmental organization is developing a new guide for swim holes to direct locals, hikers and tourist to the closest and cleanest swim holes in the region.

An Arbor Day flower planting will be from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, April 20, at Island Park in downtown Bryson City.

Harold Adams of Naturally Green Landscaping will aid volunteers in planting almost 500 native species of wildflowers that will lend color and a natural food source for birds and butterflies. Students and staff from the Oconaluftee Job Corps have prepared the park for the plantings and will also be on hand during the event. 

The event is sponsored by the Swain County Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Development Authority.

“This is a project that the Chamber and TDA are very proud to be involved with,” said Karen Wilmot, executive director of the chamber. “While a great deal of the work is being done to ready the Island for the ICF Freestyle Kayaking Championships events that we will be hosting here in Bryson City in September; it also provides an opportunity to improve what is an asset to our town and tourism product. ” 

828.488.3681 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Riders are gearing up for this year’s Tour de Cashiers coming on Saturday, May 4. The route will feature stunning spring scenery and challenging ascents.

The rides will consist of three distances: 100-mile, 50-mile, 25-mile routes. Although varying in difficulty, all three provide a challenge for cyclists wanting to test their conditioning. More than 300 riders from across the southeastern United States are expected to participate.

This year’s Tour will be starting on and returning to Frank Allen Road near the Cashiers Crossroads at U.S. 64 and N.C. 107. Proceeds will support Cashiers-area community development.

Participants will receive a commemorative T-shirt and a post-ride meal. Massage services and shower facilities also will be available. Individual and corporate sponsors are also needed for the event. The ride will supported by about 200 community volunteers, including help from regional fire departments, rescue squads and other law enforcement agencies. Those interested in volunteering can help with registration, SAG wagons, rest stations, course preparation, entertainment and other support activities.

www.TourdeCashiers.com or 828.743.5191. 

A Robbinsville man was sentenced to five months in prison last week for killing an black bear cub in Nantahala National Forest in October 2011.

Tyler Colvin, 20, of Robbinsville used a .50 caliber muzzleloader to kill a black bear cub in the Wayah Bear Sanctuary in the Nantahala National Forest in Macon County, according to court records.

Colvin had fired three shots at the cub, skinned it and removed the paws and some meat. He left the remainder of the carcass and the entrails in the forest. It is illegal to kill a bear weighing less than 50 pounds at any time and killing bears within a bear sanctuary is prohibited even during bear hunting season.

Forest agents then apprehended Colvin and retrieved the bear parts from his vehicle. He pleaded guilty in December 2012 to one count of transporting wildlife that had been taken in violation of federal laws and regulations.

In addition to the prison sentence, Judge Dennis Howell ordered Colvin to one year of supervised release and to surrender his hunting license while he is under court supervision. Colvin was also ordered to pay $2,232 as restitution to the N. C. Wildlife Resources Commission for the killing of the bear cub and forfeit his muzzleloader rifle, a powder horn and a deer call device.    

To the Editor: 

I was horrified to learn that my representative in the N.C. House, Rep. Michele Presnell, R-Burnsville, co-sponsored House Resolution 494, the Rowan County Defense of Religion Act of 2013.  

H494 is designed to allow North Carolina to establish a state religion, declaring itself exempt from the U.S. Constitution, federal law and judicial precedent. This bill garnered widespread support among the radial Raleigh Republicans, including two senior members of the House leadership team, but it was reportedly killed by Speaker of the House Thom Tillis, to his credit.  

The sponsor of the resolution, Rep. Harry Warren, has since apologized for the resolution’s poor wording and how it embarrassed the state, but Rep. Presnell continues to defend it. Perhaps she is unaware that the N.C. Constitution states that it is subservient to the U.S. Constitution. Since she pledged allegiance to the state and federal constitutions, perhaps she should read them.

I was raised a Southern Baptist, granddaughter of a circuit-riding Baptist preacher and daughter of a Baptist deacon. I learned at my daddy’s knee the critical importance of the separation of church and state. My ancestors came to North Carolina from Scotland in the 1700s. The oral family history passed along that, being Protestants, they came to the New World because they objected to the establishment in Britain of the Church of England as the official state religion. Why is there not an outcry from the churches about H494?

For the last several years, some in the Republican Party have been rather “in your face” about the U.S. Constitution, carrying copies around with them and quoting from it. Why is there not an outcry from them about H494?

According to his website, Republican Rep. Mark Meadows is a member of the Constitutional Caucus in the U.S. Congress. I emailed a query to him asking what he thinks about the disrespect from Rep. Presnell and the other co-sponsors of H494, but he has not replied. Why is he not outraged about H494?

The Taliban is an intolerant sect of Muslims who originated in Afghanistan. They enforce their religion, fundamentalist Islam, in areas where they rule. Religious freedom and tolerance are unheard in those areas. Sound familiar?

I wonder if those who voted Republican in the last election and caused the takeover of our state government by this radical gang realized they were voting for the Taliban. This grievous error can be remedied in 2014.

Carole Carson Larivee

Waynesville

To the Editor:

I’d like to ask the Jackson County Commissioners why, in the midst of high unemployment and a miserable economy, is there the rush to seal this dubious venture with the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad. It won’t pay off for Dillsboro for three years, much less to the rest of the county? Why do the terms under discussion seem more like a bribe to attract the railroad instead of cautious bargaining to secure a return on our dollars?

Each time additional terms are divulged, I am astonished by the weak stance you have assumed. Shouldn’t these conditions (or tighter ones) be the county’s demands for consideration of the loan — instead of terms that allow the loan to be forgiven? Jackson County leaders could be in the driver’s seat; currently GSMR seems to have everything to gain.

My appeal is to all five commissioners. Restructure your negotiations from a position of strength. GSMR obviously wants this deal. Accept nothing less than secure compensation for Jackson folks’ hard-paid taxes.

Lucy Christopher

Cashiers

To the Editor:

There are conflicting lights in which to view the co-sponsorship by Rep. Michele Presnell, R-Burnsville, of the ill-founded, ill-fated state religion resolution. Neither is flattering to her or comforting to the public.

In one, she’s a witless wonder who couldn’t pass a high school history test or an immigrant’s citizenship exam.

In the other, she’s a willful demagogue, the kind who says things she knows aren’t true in order to satisfy or exploit the emotions of gullible constituents.

By either interpretation, she was faithless to her oath to support the Constitution of the United States.

The resolution to which Presnell lent her name and the dignity of her office declared that the First Amendment’s establishment clause does not apply to states, cities, or schools; that the federal courts have no power to determine “what is or is not constitutional,” that the state could establish an official religion if it chose; and that federal court rulings to the contrary would not be respected by the North Carolina General Assembly.

Such claptrap brings to mind the “interposition” resolutions by which some Southern rabble-rousers thundered their defiance of the Supreme Court’s school desegregation decisions a half century ago. 

When Florida’s legislature did so, Gov. LeRoy Collins wrote upon the document that if it were to be taken seriously, it was “anarchy and rebellion against the nation.” Col-lins knew, of course that interposition would be futile. Nonetheless, he saw harm in it. “I decry it as an evil thing, whipped up by the demagogues and carried on the hot and erratic winds of passion, prejudice, and hysteria,” he wrote.

That’s what is so wrong with what Presnell has done. She encourages disrespect for the Constitution, for the courts, and for the minority religious faiths which would be the sure losers under any state religion imposed by people like her (She compounded that damage by referring to Islam, in an e-mail to a constituent, as “terrorism.”). Her sorry message lingers even though the House speaker has effectively killed the resolution, which was spawned by a court challenge to the Rowan County Commission’s insistence on opening its meetings with exclusively Christian prayers.

With the First Amendment, Congress intended to put an end forever to such abuses as had been practiced by established churches in Virginia and Massachusetts. Federal courts have had the explicit power to interpret and apply the Constitution for more than two centuries. In the context of the Little Rock desegregation crisis, the Supreme Court declared unanimously in 1958 that “No state legislative, executive, or judicial officer can war against the Constitution without violating his undertaking to support it.” That applies even to back-benchers like Presnell.

Martin A. Dyckman

Waynesville

Western Carolina University will host its inaugural Discovery Forum, an event designed to encourage students to share innovative ideas for making their communities a better places to live, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. on Monday, April 22, in Blue Ridge Hall at WCU.

During the forum, nine student teams selected by a special campus committee will share results of their research projects with an audience composed of students, faculty and community members in a series of five-minute presentations.

Topics include “The Human Population Problem and Its Environmental Impact,” “Whee Turn the Page: Cullowhee Community Reading Program” and “Military Families: Deployment Impact on College Students,” among others.

828.227.7383.

Seniors around the region are gearing up for Senior Games during the month of May.

In Haywood County, registration will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 17-19 at the Haywood County Parks and Recreation office at 1233 N. Main St. in Waynesville. Haywood County Senior Games will be held May 6-21.

Participants must be 55 or older this year and must have lived in the state for three consecutive months. Events include shuffleboard, tennis, pickleball, horseshoes, bowling and track and field, to name a few. Entry fee is $10 and includes a T-shirt, light breakfast at the opening ceremony on May 6, AARP Ice Cream Social on May 15 and dinner at the closing ceremony on May 21.

For the athletically disinclined, there are also the SilverArts, with categories such as visual arts (photography, painting, etc), heritage arts (pottery, woodcarving and basket weaving), and literary arts (poems and short stories).

828.452.6789 or www.haywoodnc.net.

Barium Springs, a nonprofit that serves troubled youth, is hosting its first Giving Them Hope Breakfast at 8:30 April 25 at the new conference center in the Burrell Building at Southwestern Community College in Sylva.

The free, hour-long breakfast will include testimonials by teens who have used Hawthorn Heights, the nonprofit’s emergency runaway and homeless teen shelter, the only homeless teen shelter west of Asheville. 

The nonprofit is also kicking off its Homelessness to Hope campaign, which aims to raise $300,000 to renovate a new, larger building that will meet growing demands. The current facility is no longer safe or adequate for the level of at-risk youth it serves.

Register for the breakkfast or donate by calling www.bariumsprings.org or 828.231.5413.

The Empty Bowl fundraiser will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday, April 26, at The Community Table in Sylva.

For a $20 donation to the soup kitchen, you get a handcrafted ceramic bowls by a local potter to take home, after partaking in a meal of soup provided by local restaurants.

There will also be live music by Karen Barnes & Friends, Jessi & Chris Bassett, and The Buchannan Boys. 

In 2012, The Community Table served 17,087 meals and provided 4,208 food boxes.

Tickets are $20 and are currently on sale now through Tuesday, April 23, at Soul Infusion and Signature Brew in Sylva.

www.communitytable.org or 828.586.6782.

 The 16th annual Greening Up the Mountains street festival will run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 27, in downtown Sylva. 

The spring festival is named for the way spring creeps up the mountainsides — a wave of green moving in succession from lower to higher elevations as leaves pop out. It began over a decade ago as a celebration of Earth Day.

Crafters, environmental groups, non-profits, local businesses and farms and nurseries will provide an engaging experience for this year’s attendees. More than a dozen bands will play over the course of the day. There is also a kid’s area, 5K race and demonstrations on sustainable lifestyles.

Stay tuned for a more detailed line-up in The Smoky Mountain News in coming weeks.

828.506.3419 or www.greeningupthemountains.com. 

Haywood Arts Regional Theater in Waynesville will kick off its 29th main stage season this month with a stage adaptation of the popular series of novels “Welcome to Mitford.”

Shows will be at 7:30 p.m. April 19, 20, 26 and 27 and May 2, 3, and 4, and at 3 p.m. April 21, 28 and May 5.

Adapted by Robert Inman and based on the Mitford books by Jan Karon, the series contains nine novels, all set in the fictional town of Mitford and centering on the character of Father Tim Kavanaugh, an Episcopal priest in a small North Carolina town.

The play takes the highlights and condenses the action into two acts, spanning 10 years. Father Tim moves from scene to scene, as the audience is introduced to over 20 characters in the town.

Tickets are $20 for adults, $18 for seniors, and $10 for students and teachers. There will be a special $6 discount ticket for students and teachers for Thursday and Sundays.

828.456.6322 or www.harttheatre.com.

The outdoor Mom’s Music Festival will be held from noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 27, in Waynesville, featuring a line-up of bands and activities to celebrate moms.

Put on by WOW, the Women of Waynesville, in conjunction with the Haywood Regional Medical Center Foundation, the event will raise money for the Power of Pink, which provides free mammogram screenings for underserved women.

Bands include Smoke Rise, Tarnished Rose, Bohemian Jean, Cherokee Thunder and DJ Ogre of Dizzy Records. There will be vendors, food, local breweries and a kids area with a bouncy house, arts and crafts, small petting zoo and the Waynesville Fire Department.

“It’s been so fun putting this event into production again,” says Nikki White, President of WOW. “The Mom’s Music Festival is going to get bigger and better every year.”

The festival offers a safe, fun area for children to play while moms kick back on a blanket.

The Mom’s Music Festival will be held on behind The Herren House and Bridgets Bistro on East Street in Waynesville, one block from Main Street. It is a cash-only event. 

828.545.6879 or 828.452.7837 or www.facebook.com/Womenofwaynesville.

A “Record Store Day Celebration” will be at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 20, at In Your Ear Music Emporium in Sylva.

On this day, independent record stores across the United States collaborate with artists to give the public exclusive releases available only at small town shops. Festivities at In Your Ear will include live music performed by local indie-folk band Pearly Peach, raffles, giveaways and exclusive jams.

828.586.6404 or www.inyourearmusic.net.

The Liars Bench presents music group Carolina Dusk at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 18, in the Mountain Heritage Center auditorium at Western Carolina University.

Performances will also include musician Paul Larussi, storyteller Lloyd Arneach and writer Gary Carden who will performing “The Robert Hall Suit.”

The Liars Bench was created in the early summer of 2010 by Carden, recipient of the 2008 Brown-Hudson Folklore Award and the 2012 North Carolina Award for Literature, to promote southern Appalachian storytelling, music, poetry, drama and folk arts. The group performs southern Appalachian stories, music and songs onstage. 

The event is free and open to the public.

www.theliarsbenchgazette.blogspot.com or www.facebook.com/TheLiarsBench or 828.227.7129.

Renowned Appalachian writer Gary Carden will perform “Madison,” a monologue about the life of Dr. Robert Lee Madison, at 7 p.m. Friday, April 26, at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Franklin.

In the 1880s, Madison promoted the idea of a training school that would cultivate teachers for a network of mountain schools. There were no free public schools, only family schools or subscription schools at the time.

Adding impetus to his dream was the “Normal School Movement” that was gaining momentum in the South. Normal schools are believed to have been modeled on the French ecole normale superieure, that were intended to provide a body of teachers, trained in the critical spirit and secular values of the Enlightment.

Madison’s progressive idea evolved through the years from the small Cullowhee Academy to become Western Carolina University.

Tickets are available at the Franklin Chamber of Commerce (828.524.3161), UU Fellowship of Franklin (828.524.6777) and at the door the night of the performance.

The work of Linda Anderson, a prolific artist whose pieces depict her life in rural North Georgia, will be on display from April 20 through July 28, at The Bascom in Highlands.

A concert production of “Dead Man Walking” will come to the stage at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 27, in the Coulter Building at Western Carolina University.

The 2013 Jazz Festival will take place from April 27 and 29 at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, featuring jazz classes, concerts and open dress rehearsals.

In the buildup to a large environmental demonstration in Raleigh, a climate change rally will be held at 11 a.m. April 15 in Sylva at the old courthouse fountain downtown.

A Climate Convergence event in Raleigh will be on Earth Day weekend. Thousands of groups and individuals from throughout the state are expected to arrive in Raleigh to raise awareness about climate change and to push the state government to take action to address it. 

The rally is also in support of a proposed house and senate bill that seeks to implement a progressive utility rate structure that promotes energy conservation and investment in energy efficiency by utility customers.

www.climateconvergencenc.org

When science meets the mountains you get: The Mountain Science Expo. The expo will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, April 13, at the North Carolina Arboretum in Asheville and feature guided nature walks, live animal programs, a range of other demonstrations and displays from local environmental organizations. Also making an appearance will be the Sol Food Mobile Farm, a retro-fitted school bus that runs on waste vegetable oil.

The event is held in conjunction with the N.C. Science Festival.

828.665.2492 or www.ncarboretum.org.

Gotta love that A.T.

A program on the importance of the Appalachian Trail and ways to promote and conserve it will be held at noon on Thursday, April 11, at Tartan Hall in Franklin.

Local trail activists from the Nantahala Hiking Club and Appalachian Trail Conservancy will discuss a variety of topics such as the trail’s history and management, the mutually beneficial relationship between the trail and the town of Franklin, and ways to enhance use of the trail.

Also, Mary Bennett, local A.T. Community Ambassador, will highlight the opportunities the A.T. provides for environmental education and to Macon County schools, and other local activities around the trail.

The program is hosted by the League of Women Voters of Macon County and will focus on Franklin as an Appalachian Trail Community, an official designation the town has carried since 2010. The program corresponds with the Macon County Public Library’s Walking with Spring series and follows Franklin’s April Fools’ Days Trail Festival.

AT education program for teachers

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy is currently accepting applications from educators to participate in the Trail To Every Classroom program, connecting students and trailside communities along the Appalachian Trail’s 14-state route.   

The program, in partnership with the National Park Service, trains K-12 teachers to use the Appalachian Trail as an educational resource. Divided into a series of three workshops, the program teaches the fundamentals of hiking, environmental stewardship and ethics, GPS technology, grant writing, and provides an opportunity for backpacking, networking and curriculum writing specific.

An optional three graduate credits are offered for $637 through Mary Baldwin College.  To date this program has trained over 275 teachers from Georgia to Maine.

www.appalachiantrail.org/ttec or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

In an effort to clean up Scotts Creek in Jackson County, a coordinated workday will be launched by volunteers from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 20.

The Carolina Mountain Club has been awarded $2,200 through the North Carolina Appalachian Trail License Plate Grant Program to help buy safety equipment, rebar and tools for the club’s trail maintenance work along the Appalachian Trail. 

Professional and collegiate lumberjacks from around the East will soon converge on Haywood County to compete in a top-notch woodsman competition.

We have been hearing a lot lately about President Barack Obama’s charm offensive. He has been traveling a short distance from the White House to Capitol Hill to meet with members of Congress, including Republicans. He now seems more interested in developing relationships and a rapport with members on both sides of the aisle whose votes he can use in the days ahead.

All five Western North Carolina microbreweries west of Asheville collaborated on a craft beer that will be simultaneously released at 6 p.m. Friday, April 12, at each establishment.

Bear Waters Brewing (Waynesville), Frog Level Brewing (Waynesville), Heinzelmannchen Brewery (Sylva), Nantahala Brewing (Bryson City) and Tipping Point Brewing (Waynesville) have created “Ryeway 74.” The beer is a smooth red ale with spicy flavors balanced with hoppy and unique malty notes. It was developed with heirloom barley and rye malt from Riverbend Malting in Asheville.

Participating breweries will have the ale available by the sample, pint or growler.

Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate will be delight partakers in the 14th annual Taste of Chocolate from 6 to 9 p.m. April 20 at the Maggie Valley Club.

Bakers from professional, bed and breakfast and amateur categories will be serving up samples of 20 chocolate culinary delights. Along with chocolate and more chocolate, there will be a silent auction, milk fountain, coffee and wine bar. Entertainment is by Ray Lyon on the piano.

Proceeds from the Taste of Chocolate go to the Haywood Jackson Volunteer Center. The event sponsor is First Citizens Bank.

Tickets are available at Quilters Quarters, Blue Ridge Books, Chocolate Bear, Maggie Valley Club and Dillsboro Chocolate.  Tickets are $12 in advance and $15 at the door.

The Classic Wineseller in Waynesville will showcase live music from singer-songwriter Ben Wilson at 7 p.m. Friday, April 19, and a jazz dinner featuring Eve Haslam & Satin Steel Jazz at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 20. 

The popular Songwriters in the Round series will return to the Balsam Mountain Inn at 6 p.m. Saturday, April 13, with nationally acclaimed songwriters Casey Kelly, Leslie Ellis and Angela Kaset.

Sarge’s Animal Rescue Foundation’s Annual Pet Photo Contest award ceremony will take place at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, April 13, at Bocelli’s Italian Eatery in Waynesville.

A candlewicking workshop will be offered from 9:30 a.m. to noon Thursday, April 18, at the Jackson County Extension Office in Sylva.

Candlewicking is an old form of embroidery technique that used the soft-spun thread that was also used for making wicks for candles. Traditional embroidery stitches including French knots are usually done on cotton unbleached muslin. Extension and Community Association member Diane Herring will be teaching this pillow-sized craft technique.

Cost is $5. 828.586.4009.

The Gathering Table is providing fresh, nutritious dinners from 5 to 7 p.m. every Thursday evening at the Cashiers Community Center to all members of the community regardless of one’s ability to pay. 

The Valley of the Lilies Half Marathon and 5K will race through the Western Carolina University campus and greater Cullowhee on Saturday, April 6.

Paddlers are salivating over the first-ever whitewater releases offered on the west fork of the Tuckasegee from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., April 13 and 14.

DigiX, a digital media and arts event, will bring technology demonstrations, exhibits, workshops and a competition showcasing digital masterpieces to Western Carolina University Thursday, April 11.

DigiX grew out of an interest in sharing with the WCU campus and community what is possible with digital media. The event was inspired by the kind of excitement that surrounds large conferences where vendors demonstrate the latest technology.

For the DigiX competition, WCU students are invited to submit either a digital arts project such as a film, animation or graphic design, or an interactive project such as a website, mobile application or game. 

The daylong event will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the A.K. Hinds University Center. It is hosted by WCU’s Coulter Faculty Commons and supported by the Division of Information Technology.

digix.wcu.edu/2013 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Western Carolina University students will perform “A Salute to Rockette History” on 4:30 p.m. Thursday, April 4, in the Niggli Theatre at WCU.

The show is choreographed and produced in part by Karyn Tomczak, director of WCU’s dance program and a former Rockette herself. Ten WCU dance students will perform numbers ranging from “Dream Girls,” which honors the idea that the Rockettes were Russell Markert’s dream girls, to a tribute to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.

The performance will be held in conjunction with the Undergraduate Expo that showcases student research. The event is free and open to the public. 828.227.3672 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or stageandscreen.wcu.edu.

Once again gracing Western North Carolina with an array of culinary delights from chefs around Haywood County, Melange of the Mountains will be taking place from April 11-13.

The weekend of events around Waynesville will kickoff with a culinary gala from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 11, at Laurel Ridge Country Club. Tickets are $40 per person, with a VIP option at $60 per person. Tickets are available at the event, but can now be purchased at the Haywood Chamber of Commerce in Waynesville.

• “Farm to Fork Dinner” will take place on Friday, April 12, at Frogs Leap Public House. The prefixed menu is $50 per person. 828.456.1930.

• “Hands-on Biscuit Making Demonstration” will be at 10 a.m. Saturday, April 13, at City Bakery. Pastry Chef Brooke will be in the kitchen for the demonstration. Cost is $10 per person. 828.452.3881.

• “Champagne & Caviar Tasting” will run from 3 to 5 p.m. April 13, at Sunburst Market on Montgomery. There will be caviar appetizers prepared in three ways, paired with champagne. 828.452.3848.

• “Beer & Cheese Tasting Event” will run from 3 to 5 p.m. April 13, at The Classic Wine Seller. Gourmet cheeses paired with craft beer from Bearwaters Brewing Company. 828.246.0602.

• “Farm to Fork Dinner” will take place on April 13, at Frogs Leap Public House. The prefixed menu is $50 per person. 828.456.1930.

• “Course Wine Dinner” will take place on April 13, Herren House Bed & Breakfast. Evening five-course wine dinner with selections from The Classic Wine Seller. 828.452.7837.

As well, there will be a full feature on Melange of the Mountains in next week’s issue of The Smoky Mountain News.

www.haywood-nc.com or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 828.456.3021.

A free program on Cherokee Indian heritage by folklorist Dr. Barbara Duncan will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 6, at the Haywood County Library in Waynesville.

The Smoky Mountain Brass Quintet, the quintet-in-residence at Western Carolina University, will present its final concert of the spring semester at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 9, in the recital hall of the Coulter Building on campus.

“The Drowsy Chaperone,” a playful take on classic musicals of Broadway, will be performed at 7:30 p.m. April 11-13, and 3 p.m. April 14, in the John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center at Western Carolina University. 

Haywood County Arts Council will exhibit works by the Blue Ridge Watermedia Society from April 10 through April 27, at Gallery 86 in Waynesville. The artist reception will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, April 12 at the gallery. 

To the Editor: 

Every time I drive to and from Bryson City, I become distressed by the volume of litter along our roads. I have lived here close to 40 years, and the litter problem seems to be worse than ever. I am distressed, not so much for the sake of tourism, but for the lack of pride in the place we live out our lives on a daily basis — our home. We can do so much better for ourselves, for our children, and for our grandchildren. 

A coordinated approach to our litter problem could make our county a more beautiful place to live and a place where tourists would want to return year after year. None of the ideas I want to share with you are new, but they are all workable. Here are my suggestions:

1. Coordination among agencies  —  City, county, state, federal, the chambers of commerce, private groups, as well as individuals need to be pulled together to improve our situation. Each of these entities has the capacity in some way to contribute to a cleaner Swain County. What can each of them contribute to a joint effort? Let’s find out.

2. County prisoners — For a number of years, state prisoners provided valuable help in keeping our county cleaner. We lost that program several years ago. In many communities, local county prisoners serve the same purpose. There are established guidelines for this type of program. The prisoners benefit by not being idle, receiving possible reductions of their sentences for community service, and being outdoors, and the community benefits with a cleaner environment.

3. Work with the business, school, government, and church communities — Most of these organizations already do a good job of keeping their places clean, but we can all do a better job of cleaning up around our places. Picking up one extra day a week can make a big difference.

4. Education program — The long-term solution, as well as the short-term solution to our litter problem, is the education of our children and through them the education of our community. There are a number of established litter awareness programs designed to be offered in schools, churches, 4-H, scouting, etc.

5. Sign regulations — Public rights of way are being overrun with signs. Limited designated sites should be established for these signs, and there should be a time limit for their removal. Signs for businesses that no longer exist should be removed. A voluntary code for sign development needs to be developed or adopted.

6. Work with homeowners — There are numerous abandoned mobile homes and automobiles in the county that could be scrapped for metal, etc. Many of the owners do not have the means to remove them. A coordinated effort to match the owner with scrap metal vendors might reduce these abandoned eyesores.

7. Advertisement — The use of the mass media for public service announcements as well as other means of getting the message out should be a part of a comprehensive approach to keeping our county clean. Special attention should be paid to fast food outlets and convenience stores, since they appear to be a major source of our roadside litter. Simple printed and verbal reminders requesting proper disposal might make a difference.

8. Enforcement of existing anti-litter laws and regulations — We want to take pride in the appearance of our county, with that pride being internal and not forced upon us. When the appeal to internal pride and discipline doesn’t work, then the existing laws pertaining to littering need to be enforced.

A plan should begin in Bryson City and work out from there on the major roads that we all travel each day. As the major corridors are cleaned up, we can move on to the less-travelled roads.

When I moved here, the Tuckaseigee River was nearly an open sewer. The Mead Paper Company dumped their waste directly into the river, and it flowed from Sylva to Lake Fontana. Scum was a common sight on the river. Organisms that depended on fresh water for life disappeared. Efforts to return the river to a livable, natural state have made tremendous progress. The river is scenic again; life has returned; we can fish and paddle in it; people want to camp near it, and the river is a major asset and source of pride to our county. Lake Fontana has also been revived through a community/government/business effort. With a coordinated, concerted effort, we can also reclaim our roadways and land.

Dan Trehern 

Bryson City

To the Editor:

I am a white woman and a God-fearing Democrat. I could not sleep well this Easter Sunday. For the past weeks, I have been trying to figure out how Congressman Mark Meadows, R-Cashiers, could vote against the Violence Against Women Act.

The numbers for voting against this don’t add up and the morality of it doesn’t add up either.

I have been to shelters for the abused. I don’t recall seeing anyone with a sign around there neck that said they were gay, straight, red, yellow, black, white or polka dot.

So the best I can tell is that Rep. Meadows and some of his fellow constituents only think it’s wrong to abuse straight white women.

It’s OK to punch a straight or lesbian Indian women.

It’s OK for a gang of white kids to make fun of a Mexican kid.

It’s OK to curse and spit at a black person. Um, I seem to remember that happening to Jewish guy a couple of thousand years ago.

By the way, his sign was a cross.

We are not supposed to abuse another human being, regardless of their sex, race, or belief.

Perhaps Rep. Meadows and the rest of the moral right need to read Matthew chapter 5: 3-10. They might also want to consider Luke chapter 10: 30-37

Barbara Robinson

Bryson City

To the Editor:

How many nuclear weapons does it take to make us “safe?” According to a recent report by the Federation of American Scientists, the world’s combined stockpile of nuclear warheads is more than 17,000, of which 4,300 warheads are operational, and 2,800 belonging to the U.S. and Russia are on high alert.

President Obama has articulated a “vision of a world without nuclear weapons,” but doesn’t expect this to happen during his lifetime. He says “we have more than we need” — a gross understatement, since the next leading nuclear threat, China, has only 50 that could reach the U.S.

 Despite this dangerous — and costly — overkill, the U.S. intends to spend hundreds of billions of dollars in the years to come enhancing its already-bloated nuclear arsenal. The Navy plans to build 12 new nuclear submarines ($5.6 billion apiece), each to carry 16 ballistic missiles, with four or five nuclear warheads apiece — each one 20 times as powerful as the bomb that obliterated Hiroshima. In addition, the cost of replacing our nuclear delivery systems will top $100 billion and require another $300 billion over the next 10 years to keep them operational. Wouldn’t this be a good place to cut the defense budget and reduce the deficit?

A portion of this astronomical bill is the proposed new Uranium Processing Facility to be built just over the mountain from us at the Y-12 Nuclear Plant in Oak Ridge — at an estimated cost of $4.5 to $7.5 billion (the price tag keep going up). Now doesn’t this make us feel real safe knowing that 80 warheads a year are to be produced in our backyard? If this worries us, though, we can drive over to Oak Ridge this Saturday, April 6, to join friends of the Oak Ridge Environment and Peace Alliance (OREPA) in saying “NO!” to such idiocy — 12:30 p.m. at Bissell Park for the one-mile march, 2 p.m. at Y-12 for the rally.

We complain about “rogue states” like Iran and North Korea posing a threat to world peace because they insist on developing a nuclear capability. But when we agree in the 2010 START Treaty with Russia to reduce our thousands of warheads by just a few hundred, while intimidating Iran with severe sanctions and North Korea with “war games” and a weapons buildup on their border, isn’t this likely to be seen by the rest of the world as the height of hypocrisy? How would we feel, for example, if another country — say China — were to impose sanctions on our economy and conduct “war games” in the Caribbean in an effort to force us to destroy our warheads in keeping with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty we have already signed but never implemented?   

Hope you can make it to Oak Ridge on the 6th!

 Doug Wingeier

Waynesville

Barbara Sue Parker, a native of Haywood County, has been appointed president of Haywood Community College this morning.

She most recently served as assistant superintendent for Rutherford County Public School System. Before that, she worked in Haywood County schools for 20 years and was principal of Jonathan Valley and Waynesville middle.