Swain teams help raise SPORTS: Lady Devils sweep relay money...

Volume 133, No. 37 Bryson City, NC 28713 Thursday, May 19, 2016 www.thesmokymountaintimes.com $1

Subscribe Today! IndexObituaries..............3A

Opinion............4A-5A

Education..............8B

Community...........4B

Classifieds........6B-7B

Serving Swain County since 1883

SPORTS: Lady Devils sweep relay races at regionals, head to state. 1B

Fundraising party helps effort for new library. 3A

In this week's issue...

• Children's Hope Alliance has annual luncheon 6A

• Swain graduate honored 7A

• Sicklefin fish get help 1B

Plan your week ahead

Library Movie: Join the Marianna Black Library Tuesday, May 24, at 3:30 p.m., for a classic animated adventure for the whole fam-ily. Growing up beneath a five-star Parisian restaurant, Remy the rat inherits a taste for fine food. Popcorn, pro-vided by the Friends of the Marianna Black Library, will be served in the library audi-torium starting at 3:20 p.m. For more information on the movie (including its title), please call the library 488-3030.

Drive 4UR School: The annual Mountain Ford Drive 4UR School event is Saturday, May 21 from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Swain County Adminis-tration Building parking lot. Come out and test drive a car or truck to help raise funds for Swain County Schools S.T.E.M. Camp. While you’re there, grab a hot dog or burg-er.

Swain Clean: Swain Clean will have the next county-wide litter cleanup on Satur-day, May 21. Registration is at 9 a.m. at the Ingles park-ing lot. The rain date will be Saturday, June 4. Lunch for volunteers will be served at noon at the Visitor Cen-ter/Heritage Museum gazebo on the river. Any questions, please call Chris Roth at 770-315-8950.

Salary raises urged for at budget meetingJessica Webb

[email protected]

Swain County Board of Commissioners met at the Swain County Business Cen-ter on Tuesday, May 10 in the first of several special budget meetings. A second meeting is planned at the same location tonight at 6 p.m.

It was a packed house on Tuesday with more than 20

from the Swain County Sher-iff ’s Office in attendance to send a message to the board: consider salary increases.

As the sheriff explained as part of an hour-long discus-sion from his department, he is struggling to keep people on staff.

“We have been losing people right and left to other counties and other agencies because they pay more money,” said Sheriff

Curtis Cochran. “We’re spend-ing taxpayer’s money to get them trained, equipped. It costs the taxpayers of Swain County a lot of money for someone else to reap the benefit of that.”

The jail has essentially been working with a skeleton crew. People rarely take time off, and hiring people to work at the jail is proving difficult in itself, he explained.

The sheriff requested the fol-

lowing salaries for the county’s 2016-2017 fiscal year budget: $1,440,82 for the sheriff ’s of-fice and $712,768 for the jail.

In the first discussion of the budget on Tuesday night, Swain County Manager Kevin King has included a 2 percent cost-of-living increase for all county employees.

For the sheriff ’s office, that represents a total difference of $230,767 for the sheriff ’s office

and $119,716 for the jail. “The numbers you have are

for a retention plan so we can be competitive and keep peo-ple,” Cochran said.

The request, he said, is a re-tention plan with a base rate of 2 ½ percent for each year of service for sheriff ’s depart-ment employees.

He said loyal people have

Photo by Tony Fortier-Bensen/SMTA new tradition was born this year for the seniors of Swain County High School. After walking through their respective elementary schools and, seniors from the Class of 2016 walked through the halls of the middle school and poured out into the streets of downtown Bryson City. Afterwards, SCHS Student Council President Laura Booth rang the Ridge Ringer bell 16 times to mark each year of the century.

Riverfront projects receive $90,000 grant

Jessica [email protected]

Community Services of Swain has been awarded a $90,000 water re-sources grant from Duke Energy to expand public use and access to the Tuckaseegee River for fishing, canoe-ing, kayaking, tubing and more.

The Swain County nonprofit was among nine organizations in the Carolinas to receive grants from the Water Resources Fund with a total of $730,000 awarded. The Water Re-sources Fund is a $10 million, multi-year commitment from Duke Energy to help local nonprofits continue to protect and improve the environment,

including waterways used year-round across the Carolinas and neighboring states. Recipients are selected by an in-dependent body that includes five en-vironmental experts and two Duke En-ergy employees.

For Swain, this means three new public access points and an observa-tion deck along the Tuckasegee River will become a reality over the next year.

The first step in the process will be bringing in engineers, explained Ken Mills, Swain County Economic Devel-opment director, who wrote the grant.

The observation deck and the first public access landing will be located on Island Street, across from the county

Photo by Jessica Webb/SMT

This sidewalk on Island Street will be extended to Everett Street this summer. A new river overlook and boat put-in and take-out is also planned.

The cross-country road of Southern hospitalityTony Fortier-Bensen

[email protected]

On March 7, Lee Allison touched the Pacific Ocean with the back tire of his bicycle. On May 1, his front tire touched the Atlantic Ocean, travers-ing over 3,000 miles in 64 days.

“I felt 20 years younger,” said Allison, age 60. “No aches or

pains, it was surprisingly easy. I felt like I could turn around and go back right away.”

Starting in San Diego, Alli-son went through western cit-ies like Phoenix and El Paso, but stayed most along the back roads and county streets before reaching Fort Clinch State Park in Fernandina Beach, Florida.

He averaged about 60 miles

a day on the bicycle, including a couple times of doing over 100 miles in a single day. He rode with 40 pounds of baggage on his bike with camping gear, food, bike repair and more.

Of course, there were many expected challenges he had to overcome: a dust storm in New Mexico, a flat tire in El Paso, the rolling hills of West

Texas, the winding and narrow roads in Louisiana and Missis-sippi and more.

On the other hand, there were many beautiful sights and sounds he experienced on the road: the wide open spaces in the great Southwest, the song-birds of Louisiana and Missis-sippi and the inner solitude of riding a bicycle across America.

However, Allison said there was one thing he didn’t take into account – Southern hospitality.

“The biggest surprise was just how friendly everyone was,” said Allison. “It was amazing to see how friendly and supportive so many peo-

See Raises, page 7A

See Grant, page 7A

See Hospitality, page 6A

SMOKY MOUNTAIN TIMES

Class of 2016 honored with Senior Walk

THE SMOKY MOUNTAIN TIMESP.O. Box 730, Bryson City, N.C. 28713

In County — $28 per yearOutside county our outside N.C. — $47 per year

Seasonal —$37

© 2016 Smoky Mountain Times/Community Newspapers Inc.

Swain teams help raise money for American Cancer Society at relay. 1B

Th e following citizens of Swain County have been summoned for jury duty beginning May 23 at 9 a.m.For further information, please call the jury clerk at 488-7400.

Alemany, Alfred JosephAllen, George ElmerAllison, David WilsonAnthony, Michael JohnAnthony, Tyler MitchellArch, Richard WilliamArellano, Raul GustavoArkansas, Alora BreeArmachain, Dustin CheArvey, Ginger LambertAryani, Santi Austin, Julia CaseyBailey, Azelee OberryBailey, Joel RyanBall, Arthur LBall, James GudgerBarnett, Donna SueBeck, Skyler LeeBembry, Timothy CalvinBennett, Beverly LynnBetz, Curtis MichaelBiggs, Angela MarrBjerkness, Scott LeroyBlackfox, Wiggins Blocker, Robert AllenBradley, Shannon ReneeBrady, Billy JoeBrooks, Kenneth LeeBrown, Jamie DeanBryson, Linda SmithBumgarner, Falishia BrendleBurnett, William LesterBurrell, Chelsea JordanButler, Sally InezByfi eld, Heather JonesCable, Patricia LynnCalhoun, Jessica NicoleCalhoun, Patricia LeighCalhoun, Timothy RicimerCarr, Craig LawrenceCatt Smith, Sara JaneChapa, Jean ArleneaClark, Oliver IshmaelCloer, Roger Leland, JrCochran, Lynn StephensonCochran, Sharon FoutsCochran, Stanley WadeColcord, Michael RossColcord, Paul AlanCollins, Mistie GudgerCollins, Robert EdwardConner, Brenda CookCook, Kelcye MichelleCooper, Michael RayCooper, Robert WarrenCrawford, Lettie RCreson, David DwainCrisp, David FrankCrow, Matthias ClellCucumber, Annie PowellCunningham, Daniel GlennCunningham, Kimberly AnnCuthbertson, Catherine Ann GanttCutler, Sarah ElizabethDaniels, Patricia GayleDavis, Jack EdwardDavis, Robert TilfordDavis, Tweena DawnDe Hart, David CharlesDeas, Byron MatthewDebord, Harold MartinDehart, Willa JeanDerreberry, Patricia BrownDiaz, Ignacio SandovalDouthit, Robert EugeneDouthit, Th omas LukeDover, Joseph David, JrDriver, Kerra WelchDriver, Robert Drotzur, Varnel Henry

Duplak, Dawn MarieDutton, Daniel WayneDyer, Daniel LeeEdens, Garry AnthonyEvans, Jacob SilasFabian, Sandra LeeFlores, Otilia Folger, Jean PerryFortner, Mark HenryFrankiewicz, Victoria AnneFrazier, Steel EugeneFrench, Kelley SharaineFrench, Marissa Frizzell, Sheila RenaeGibson, Max EdwardGillette, Catherine ElizabethGreen, Melanie ClaudetteHaney, Freddy McKinleyHarris, Ange’Lique MicheleHatter, Ila DeeHenry, Kyle AddisonHernandez, Manuel Hicks, Mark WayneHicks, Melissa AnnHill, Corey JamesHolder, Sheena CaitlinHolling, Seth DavidHolt, Sonia VelardeHoughteling, Robert DaleHull, Erica PheasantHutchison, Zeb JamesHyatt, Diane BeckJackson, Donald DwayneJames, David WayneJenkins, Emmett GregoryJenkins, Sheena DarleneJohnson, Charlotte SueJohnson, Jerry MichaelJohnson, Verna ViolaJones, Jason MichaelJunaluska, William DavisKanott, Mark JacksonKerr, T C CKing, Brittney MarieKing, Cliff ord VerrieKing, Debora LynnKing, Irbye JoelKing, Shanice BriannaKirkland, Amanda JoseyLackey, Jonathan Th adLakey, Cynthia LynnLambert, Noreen ArdithLambert, Tommy DarylLarch, Frederick RockyLargent, Maxine DehartLawson, Karen DianneLedford, Martha WachachaLeo, Jinny LynnLequire, Vera PartridgeLetts, Ray DonLewis, Kathleen ParrishLindsay, Phillip PLong, Floyd Long, Katherine AustinLovell, Nikkie MarieLowe, Garrett AlmondLowe, Whitney GreyLowery, Jason CarrolLowman, Naomi RoseannLuther, Billy WayneMacon, Lucas ElliotMaddalone, Eugene VincentManey, Anthony EdwardManey, Issabella Janna LeighManey, Jessica LeighMann, Sybil GraceMaples, Carly DeaMarcoux, Tiff any LouiseMarsden, Samantha AnnMartens, Jennifer NicoleMartin, Sarah CarmenMathews, Kandice SueMcCall, Jonathan SpencerMcCann, Robert DonaldMcCoy, William Tyler Edwin TackettMcHan, Marvin MitchellMcKinney, Gerald GlennMedlin, Amanda Sams

Messer, Dexter EricMesser, Rachel LoweMillen, Michael EarlMiller, James DanielMillsaps, Rhonda LynnMontagne, Michael JosephMoon, Beverly WatkinsMoore, Dana MichelleMurphy, Clarence LeeMurphy, Talleda RachelMurray, Jacqueline Nations, Christopher LeeNelson, Th omas Glen, JrNewcomb, Richard LavernNiu, Jun Nosworthy, Carolyn GraceOetting, Derek JohnOgle, Patricia AOnken, Jade NicoleOrmand, Marion PressleyOsborne, Paul EdwardOwen, Marion DillardOwenby, Sheila KayOwle, Charlene Owle, Clift on McKinleyParris, Ronald LaneParton, Rebecca WoodardPenland, Shawna McRaePhillips, Monte CharlesPittman, Catharine VictoriaPorter, James EdwardPosey, Marie DyerPratama, Mindy ArchPrice, Dolores RussellProctor, Christine ColeProctor, William TylerRabideau, Paula GayRamirez, Rafael VazquezReed, Ronda DellRickman, Tommy Lee, JrRiggs, Kathryn EstellaRoach, William PrestonRoberts, Deborah SneedRobinson, Alyssa LouiseRojas, Leonard DavidRose, Dylan ChristianRothrock, Tammra AilleenRoyce, Shannon CarrieRuiz, Cynthia SeymourRunner, Casey GloyneSadler, Dorla JaneSampson, Tyson EugeneSaunooke, Josephine LynSawyer, Edward TaylorSeay, Alexandra BrookeSequoyah, Brenda CroweSequoyah, Ryan AllenShannon, Patsy CroweSharpless, Shamonica TeamilaSheriff , Nicole PageShuler, Shannon AngelShuler, Terri DavanaSides, Katelynn HopeSimonds, Dillard RaySimpson, Paul DennisSitton, Tina JonesSkidmore, Patrick Daniel, JrSmith, Charles PerrySmith, Gregory TylerSmith, Heather DawnSmith, Joyce KirklandSmith, Phillip Warren, JrSmith, Samantha JaneSmith-Cabe, Precious Snow, Robert TroySouthard, Johnny JacksonSpates, Ronald William, JrSquirrell, Yahnieann Little-johnStarling, Elizabeth Th omasStclair, Martha JacksonStewart, Kurt Marcus, JrStiles, Michelle AllisonStiles, Savannah MarieStrickland, Amy MelissaSummey, Shirley DehartSutton, Chantel NicoleSutton, Shirley CooperSutton, Terry JoeSwink, Jonathan MatthewTaylor, Brandi EveTaylor, Donald Lee

Taylor, Jamie MichelleTaylor, Karry MiltonTaylor, Selena DeanTeesateskie, Anita PheasantTh ompson, Sequoyah Tipton, James KeithTipton, Silba JeanTomlinson, Charles RonaldTorres, Selena JadeTurner, Stephanie RoseTurpin, Sandy Vaughn, Grace LeonaVer, Amy MichelleWachacha, Noah Wachacha, Shalana MarieWade, Jason AnthonyWaldroup, Leroy PattonWalker, Tiff any Lynn CrispWalkingstick, Kelli NicoleWaters, Oswell Elwood, JrWatkins, Tammy RoseWatty, Jessie LossiahWatty, Steven DwayneWebb, Amanda JenkinsWebb, David AlanWebb, Dewey Jason

Welch, Diane LynnWelch, Madeline Nicole Pretty WalkerWelch, Susan AshleyWelch, Tosh ChancetWest, Kathy Whitaker, William Ray, JrWhite, Dean AlexanderWhite, Edwin LaverneWhitt, Craig CharlesWidiarta, Kadek OktaWildcat, Tina MariaWillis, Patricia StoneWilson, Cynthia SmithWinstead, Roberta MarieWolfe, Denene CutshawWood, Sherry Lynn OttYork, Jennifer CelesteYork, Larry Young, Harley LewisYoungdeer, Andrea Zmuda, Corrina Lynn

THE SMOKY MOUNTAIN TIMES – Thursday, May 19, 2016 – A

CRIME

The following law enforce-ment logs were recorded by the Swain County Sheriff ’s Office or Bryson City Police Depart-ment and collected by newspa-per staff on Monday. All indi-viduals charged are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Swain County Sheriff’s Office Arrests

May 9Rhichelle Marie Horton, 23,

of 520 Sam Davis Road, larcenyElizabeth Jane Penely, 52, of

859 Long Branch, felony pos-session scheduled VI con-trolled substance

Shaina Marie Taylor, 25, of 869 Straight Fork Road, Cher-okee, felony possession sched-ule II controlled substance, fel-ony possession with intent to sell/deliver, misdemeanor drug paraphernalia, secured bond $5,000, 7 grams amphetamine/methamphetamine

May 10Johnson Lloyd Sequoyah,

of 50 B AWI Drive, Chero-kee, contempt of court, per-jury, court violations, secured bond $15,000

Jaalyhia Tyshea Williams, 20, of 548 Mulberry Street, resist, obstruct, delay, felony posses-sion/conceal stolen property, secured bond $100,000

Shannon Michelle White, 32, of 179 Hemlock Street, resist, obstruct, delay, felony possess/conceal stolen property, mis-demeanor possess/conceal sto-len property, secured $100,500

Benjamin Allen Lindsay, 26, of 93 New Salem Road, Swan-nanoa, resist, obstruct, delay, felony possess/conceal sto-len property, secured bond $100,000

Dwight Clint Sharp, 24, of 246 Allens Creek Road, Waynesville, felony possess/conceal stolen property, mis-demeanor possess/conceal weapons, misdemeanor re-sist, obstruct, delay, secured bond $100,000

Timothy Michael Allison,

26, of 6627 Ela Road, Whit-tier, possess schedule VI con-trolled substance

Erik Timpson Swiftwind Taylor, 29, of 111 Lydasquirrel Road, felony breaking and en-tering forcible, felony burglary forcible, misdemeanor possess/conceal stolen property

May 11Jeffery Ray Bluford, 51, of

5732 E Racoon Valley Driver, misdemeanor possess sched-ule VI controlled substance, no bond

Brandi Nichol Johnson, 29, 1335 Wrights Creek Road, Cherokee, felony possess schedule II controlled sub-stance, .01 grams amphet-amine/methamphetamine, 1 drug unit narcotic

Angela Martinez, 37, of 58 Leyla Pk, Sylva, felony pos-sess schedule II controlled substance

May 12Ruth Ann Taylor, of 430

Wolfetown Road, Cherokee, misdemeanor communicated threats

Kippy Lee Lynch, 41, of 68 Pat Hyde Road, felony break-ing and entering forcible, fel-

ony larceny from building, se-cured bond $50,000

May 13Darius Chevez Smith, 22,

of 505 Pelham Street Greer, South Carolina, misdemeanor possess schedule VI con-trolled substance, 1 drug unit marijuana

Ryan Harrol Ward, of 893 Sunset Farms Road, Whit-tier, possess schedule VI con-trolled substance, 0.01 grams marijuana

Tyrone Gene Dodd, 33, of 16 Best Dr Unit 103 Green-ville, South Carolina, secured bond $3,000, 0.5 grams cocaine

May 14Donald Cleveland Jones,

36, of 403 Rolling Hills Drive, Cherokee, two misdemeanor simple assault charges

Stanley DeWayne Henson, 54, of 409 Briarwood Drive, Sylva, two counts assault with a deadly weapon, resist, ob-struct, delay

May 15Richard Scott Mason, 44, of

91 Needmore Road, contempt of court, perjury, court viola-tions, secured bond $15,000

Swain County Sheriff’s Office Incidents

May 920 Coopers Creek Road,

Whittier, all other larcenyTeddy Bear Motel, posses-

sion schedule II controlled sub-stance, possession with intent to sell/deliver, drug parapher-nalia possess/conceal

May 10102 Byrd Road, child abuse

and child neglectCornerstone Church parking

lot, possession schedule VI con-trolled substance

Walnut Drive, larceny from motor vehicle

Coopers Creek General Store, vehicle pursuit

Needmore Road and Wiggins Road, possession schedule VI controlled substance

May 115191 Hwy 19 W, larceny all

other and breaking and enter-ing forcible

45 Plateau Street, call for ser-vice suspicious person

May 12Swain County High School,

false alarm200 Friendship Walk, break-

ing and entering forcible and larceny from buildings

424 Hidden View Lane, breaking and entering forcible

1041 Fox Run Road, break-ing and entering forcible and larceny from buildings

1870 Hwy 28S, false alarm

May 133365 Coopers Creek Road,

call for service injuryGovernor’s Island, posses-

sion schedule II controlled substance, drug parapherna-lia possess/conceal

500 Buffalo Creek Road, breaking and entering forcible

2040 Old NC 288, false alarm

May 141112 Conleys Creek Road,

Whittier, breaking and enter-ing forcible and vandalism

351 Round Hill Road, assault with deadly weapon and resist, obstruct, delay

122 Coopers Creek Road, Whittier, disturbing the peace

May 152318 Alarka Road, breaking

and entering non-forcible

Law Enforcement Log

Jury List

Hop On BoardWith School Bus Safety.

When it’s time to exit the school bus, follow these

simple safety rules:• Remain seated until the

bus comes to a complete stop.

• Use the handrail while exiting the bus.

• Never cross behind the school bus. If you have to cross in front of the school bus, look both ways and wait for the bus driver to wave you across.


James Alfred “Junior” Lackey

James Alfred “Junior” Lackey, 89, of 240 Cloer Rd., Bryson City died May 17, 2016 after an extended illness. A native of Swain County, he was born March 5, 1927 to the late Talitha Grooms and Alfred Fernando “Dutch” Lackey.

He served in the Navy from 1944-1946, and during World War II, worked aboard the USS “New York” battleship # BB-34 as a 3rd Class Gunnery in the 7M division.

He was briefly married to Doris Thomas in the late 1940s. On January 15, 1951, he mar-ried Frances Phillips in Bryson City. They were happily married for almost 60 years until her death in late 2010.

He worked in the construction industry for almost 50 years, specializing primarily in underground tunnel construction. This occupa-tion took him all over the country, and he lived

in several states during this time, including North Carolina, Colorado, Washington, New York, Massachusetts, Missouri, California, West Virginia, and Alabama. He greatly enjoyed outdoor activities including fishing, hunting, camping, and was also an avid fan of boxing, and watched the fights on TV every week.

In addition to his wife and parents, he was preceded in death by nine siblings, including brothers, Frank Dewey, Cordell, Fred, Tom, Anderson, and Thad Bryson Lackey, sisters, Lou Ella Lackey Cochran, Mary Magdeline Lackey Ivans Davis, and Opal Mozell Lackey Penland, a niece that he considered a sister, Edna Mae Cochran Ward, and one grandchild, Kimberly Renee Black. He is survived by one daughter Loretta Lackey Pack of Casselberry, FL, one son Randall Bauer Lackey, of Hutchinson, KS, five grandchildren, Kristina Nicole Schrag, of Providence, RI, Richard James Black, II, of Redlands, CA, Jennifer Michelle Black and Michael David Black, of Casselberry, and Alicia Lawson of Savonberg, KS, six great grandchildren, Richard James Black, III, of Sacramento, CA, Cassandra Lynn McIntosh, of the home, Thomas Reed Emberg and Eleanor Ivy Schrag, both of Providence, and Kory and Trinity Lawson, both of Savonberg, one great great grandchild Skiler Michelle McIntosh of the home one brother, Raymond Lackey of Bryson City, and several nieces and nephews.

Funeral Services will be held 2:00 PM Saturday at Crisp Funeral Home Chapel.

The family will receive friends from 1:00 until 2:00 PM Saturday at the Funeral Home.

OBITUARIESJean Henderson

Jean Henderson, 75, of Hendersonville, went home to be with the Lord, Wednesday, May 11, 2016. A native of Swain County, she was the daughter of the late Lon and Eva Bolin Queen, and wife of the late Jay Henderson. In addition to her parents and husband, she was preceded in death by one brother, Ronnie Queen; two half-sisters, Hazel Jenkins, and Reva Millsaps, and one half-brother, Bill Passmore.

She is survived by two daughters, Janice Hatcher and husband Mike of Bryson City, Kimberly Owen and husband Samuel of Mills River; one son James Henderson and wife Susan of Columbus, numerous grandchildren and great grand-children; two brothers Dennis Queen and wife Linda, and Roger Queen and wife Sandy, and two sisters Nancy Ammons and husband Bill, and Barbara Jordan and husband Tom.

Funeral Services will be held 2:00 PM Sunday at the Chapel of Crisp Funeral Home. Rev. Charles Ray Ball will officiate with burial in the Thomas Chapel Cemetery.

The family will receive friends from 7:00 PM until 9:00 PM Saturday at the Funeral Home.

Janet Long Beck

Janet Long Beck, 81, of Cherokee, went home to be with the Lord, Friday, May 13, 2016. Born in Clay County and lifelong resident of the Qualla Boundary in Cherokee, NC, she was the daughter of the late J.C. and Ethel Long. In addition to her parents she was preceded in death by a son, Jim Beck; granddaughter, Stephanie Beck, and a brother, J.C. Long Jr.

She was a member of Cherokee Baptist Church. She had a passion working with children in the Cherokee Elementary School and Tribal Day Care.

She is survived by her husband of 62 years, Tim Beck; three daughters, Julie Maney and husband Kenneth of Cherokee, Jeanne Beck of Cherokee, and Jilinda Beck and Lance of Cherokee; two sons, Jack Beck of Cherokee, and Joey Beck of Cherokee; one special companion Puggie; 13 grandchildren; 18 great grandchildren; 1 great great grandchild; one brother, Melvin “Buddy” Long and wife Sharon; one sister, Brenda Morgan and husband Jim, and several nieces and nephews.

Funeral Services were held 2:00 PM Monday at Cherokee Baptist Church. Revs. Percy Cunningham and Richie Sneed officiated with burial in the Beck Cemetery.

The family received friends from 5:00 until 10:00 PM Sunday at the Church.

Pallbearers were be grandsons.Crisp Funeral Home assisted the family.

Lavon Hyatt

Lavon Hyatt, 58, of the Big Cove Community in Cherokee, went to his Heavenly home on Sunday, May 15, 2016.

Lavon was a native of the Laurel Branch Community in Bryson City.

He was a devoted and loving husband, father, grandpa Von, uncle, brother, and friend who will be greatly missed.

He was a former employee of the Western Steer Family Steakhouse in Cherokee for over twenty years and went into early retirement due to health reasons.

He was a member of Straight Fork Baptist Church where he previously held the offices of Sunday School teacher and superintendent for a number of years. He also was the Training Union director and adult class teacher, as well as the Vacation Bible School director. He loved his church. He enjoyed watch-ing NASCAR racing, particularly Dale Earnhardt Jr. and was also a Carolina Tar Heels fan as well as a New England Patriots fan. He also enjoyed working on his 56 Chevy.

Lavon was the son of the late Felix and Inez Earley Hyatt of Bryson City.

He is survived by his wife of 30 years, Gloria West Hyatt, one daughter Kristina Lynn Hyatt, and sons Jeremy Lavon Hyatt and wife Caroline, and Steven Hyatt and wife Vangie, all of Cherokee. Two special grandsons, Reggie Vahn and Kedron Felix Hyatt, and a special great-niece Shelby Solis, one grand-daughter and a great grandchild. Brothers Hershel Hyatt, William Hyatt, and Michael Harlan. Sisters Lillian Hyatt and Dean Hyatt, all of Bryson City. Several nieces and nephews also survive, along with the family cat, Peabody.

Visitation was held on Wednesday evening, May 18, beginning at 5:00 pm until midnight at Straight Fork Baptist Church in Big Cove.

Funeral services will be held on Thursday afternoon begin-ning at 2:00 pm, with the Rev. Charles Ray Ball and Bro. Steve Smith of Good News Baptist Church in Candler. Pallbearers will be Nika West, Nathan Garcia, Charlie Watty, Lupe Solis, Mike Ball, Clinton Messer, Damian Solis, and Joseph Solis.

Crisp Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements.

Ray Simonds

Ray Simonds of the Maple Springs community, Bryson City, NC made his earthly passing May 14, 2016. He was preceded in death by his mother and father, Nola and James Simonds; brothers, Harold, Edward and J.C. Simonds; baby

sister, Mary Jane Simonds; daughter, Lynda Ellen Simonds; and his first granddaughter, Kendra Lorraine Bashaw.

Ray is survived by his wife of 63 years, Shirley Temple; his sons, Douglas Ray Simonds and wife Olof from Iceland, and Kenneth Wayne Simonds; two sisters, Ethel Breedlove of Bryson City and Mary Sue Bailey of Waynesville; brothers, Don Simonds of Bryson City; two grandsons, Asgeir Thor and Johnnie Ray Simonds; one granddaughter, Shirley Nola Simonds; five great granddaughters and one on the way; two great grandsons; and 38 nieces

and nephews.Ray was a US Army veteran where he served as an A.A.A.

Gun Crewman. He was a great outdoorsman and avid hunter and fisherman. “Give him a cane pole and he would bring you dinner.”

He worked at Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, MI for 30 years then retired and came back home.

Ray held every position in, on or the other of the three churches he was a member of in Michigan or North Carolina except being a Preacher Man like his dad was.

A memorial service will be held at a later date.Crisp Funeral Home is assisting the family.

PET OF THE WEEK

BEATRICEBeatrice is a beautifully sweet and gentle ambassa-dor of her breed. She is one of the eight dogs that were surrendered to P.A.W.S. dur-ing the Bryson City Police seizure at the end of Novem-ber, 2013.

Beatrice is affectionate and will be a fine pet for a single, couples, or a fam-ily with dog-savvy teenage children.

PAWS Placing Animals Within Society

PAWS Animal Shelter57 Lemons Branch Road, Bryson City • 488-0418

Mon-Wed 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Fri-Sat 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m.www.pawsbrysoncity.org

Staffordshire Bull Terrier Mix • Adult • Female • Medium

Movies on EverettThis family friendly outdoor movie event takes place

every Friday night behind the caboose on the corner of Mitchell and Everett Streets will start back up on June 3 and go through July 29. Contact Erin Smith at 404-683-7329 for sponsorship opportunities. Follow Movies on Ev-erett on Facebook.

Friends gives $10,000 to the libraryTony Fortier-Bensen

[email protected]

Each year, the Friends of the Marianna Black Library Used Bookstore gives a donation to the library to be used for day-to-day operations. This year, the bookstore donated a much larger sum than usual.

On Monday, May 16, presi-dent of the group Arydell Ho-telling handed head librar-ian Jeff Delfield a check for $10,000.

“It’s all going to be spread out,” said Delfield. “This helps operate the library in a lot of different ways.”

The money will be used for mostly children’s programs in-cluding children books, sum-mer reading programs, music classes, arts and crafts, snacks, and hiring people to do profes-sional programs.

“We do this because our li-braries are in desperate need for support,” said Hotelling.

“Library funding has been cut across the nation, and we have to find a way to fill in some of the gaps.”

The bookstore, located on Everett Street in downtown

Bryson City, donates all its pro-ceeds from selling used books, cash donations and member-ship fees to the Marianna Black Library.

“This shop is important to

the library for two reasons: The obvious one is funding, but the other is advocacy and aware-ness for the need of funding for what we’re doing at the li-brary,” said Delfield.

Photo by Tony Fortier-Bensen/SMTArydell Hotelling, middle left, presents Jeff Delfield with a check for $10,000 on behalf of the Friends of the Marianna Black Library Used Bookstore. Also pictured are boardmembers Teresa Maynard (left) and Heidi Ramsey-Woodard (right).

Library fundraiser party heldThe New Library Campaign

Committee held a fundraiser party “Sip and Sample” for the new Marianna Black Library hosted by Cork & Bean Bistro.

The sold-out event was held

on the Everett Hotel rooftop. Forty-five tickets were sold at $45 a piece for the fun event.

“Through this series of fund-raising events we’re having, it’s been great to see the enthusi-

asm in the community for the new library,” said Janis Wright, board member.

A heritage seed fundraiser is also going on through the end of May in cooperation with Sow True Seeds in Asheville.

To order heritage seeds or for more information, contact Jeff Delfield, Swain County Li-brarian at 828-488-3030 x 128 or by email at [email protected].

Submitted photoKaren Wallace, director of Fontana Regional Library System, and library board member Janis Wright speak to the crowd.


Swain County Board of Com-missioners is in the early stages of developing the county budget for fiscal year 2016-2017.

As a small county with a lim-ited tax base, many tough de-cisions must be made during this process to see the county’s needs are met. There is cer-tainly a fine balance between what the county and its resi-dents can afford and what it wants and needs.

Smoky Mountain Times is lis-tening closely as discussions are starting on how to address the challenges the county struggles with because of lower wages for some of its workers.

Additionally, we’re paying at-tention to discussions regarding how to meet the capital needs at Swain County Schools and whether the board will move forward with a referendum for an increase in sales taxes as the school board has urged.

The Times is also hoping the board looks at continuing the progress that has been made on two other projects: animal control and the new Marianna Black Library.

Through 2015, an ad-hoc an-imal committee held more than 10 public forums and at least as many meetings in an effort to develop a plan for the county to address animal control. Com-munity members were able to weigh in their concerns and opinions early on, and a reason-ably concise and simple draft or-dinance was developed.

When the committee brought the ordinance out to county res-idents, the overwhelming re-sponse was positive. A few re-vision meetings followed at the end of the year, yet there’s been little to no activity since then.

In her report to the county board of commissioners Thurs-day, Health Department Direc-tor Alison Cochran urged the board to address the need for animal control, as well. Cur-rently, the responsibility to oversee the state laws regard-ing rabies and protocols in re-sponse to animal bites falls to the department’s environmen-tal health. Cochran said her de-partment receives and responds

to an enormous amount of an-imal complaints and urged the board to keep animal control in mind during the budget process.

Following all of this hard work, it seems paramount that the draft ordinance be submitted to the commissioners now, par-ticularly since the budget talks for next year are beginning.

While animal control must be weighed against the many needs of the county like any-thing in the budget, it shouldn’t go ignored.

With an ordinance in place, the county could begin a process to establish an animal control agency and take steps toward ad-dressing the need in the county.

On a new Marianna Black Library, the Times recognizes that this is a project that likely has many years to go before a new building opens. However, it’s been encouraging to see the county investing in the initial steps to bring it to a reality. En-thusiasm for this effort has been growing in the community, and we urge the board to continue to move forward with this project.

“Unfortunately, many se-niors believe it’s normal to have pain as you get older, but noth-ing could be further from the truth,” states Dr. James Bartley, Jr., in Columbus, Georgia. Pain from common foot and ankle conditions can be treated suc-cessfully with proper diagnosis, non-surgical and surgical treat-ments and rehabilitation to help seniors stay active, exercise reg-ularly and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Arthritis: A common prob-lem in the big toe is called hal-lux rigidus, which is a form of degenerative arthritis that causes pain and stiffness. As the condi-tion advances, range of motion decreases until the big toe be-comes stiff. An improperly re-habilitated ankle sprain, for ex-ample, can leave residual liga-ment damage, weakness or in-stability in the joint that can lead to osteoarthritis.

Bunions: A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Assoc. reported that bunion surgery is more than 80 percent successful in relieving pain. The techniques are avail-able and not doing something will eventually worsen the con-dition. Chronic heel pain orig-inates deep within the foot, di-rectly on the heel or within the bone/s connective tissues, called the fascia.

Flexible footwear: This is a condition that typically begins in childhood or adolescence and continues into adulthood and gets worse as we age, if unattended.

Hammertoes: This condition is progressive and will continue to get worse, if it isn’t addressed by professionals. Here are some nonsurgical measures that can help:

Padding corns and calluses: Doctors can prescribe pads but it you want to try OTC pads, avoid the medicated types, be-cause a small amount of acid can be harmful.

Changes in footwear: Ladies, avoid shoes with pointed toes or high heels over 2 inches. If you have foot problems, buy shoes with a deep, roomy toe box.

It was very hard for me to stop wearing high heels and was fi-nally told if I didn’t stop my feet, knees, hips and spine would continue to get more painful!

Non-Surgical Treatments: Orthotic devices can help to

give support to our arches. (I can confirm that). Since joining an exercise class in Sylva called “flexercise” where we stimulate the connective tissues/fascia in our bodies and I have reaped many benefits. My feet and legs are responding greatly.

Weight loss is really impor-tant is helping foot conditions. Since joining the National Di-abetes Prevention Program at the Dept. of Health, I have lost 15 pounds, and that has really helped my flexible flat footed-ness and my one hammertoe is starting to straighten up, after many years.

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Dog, owner thank policeThe Bryson City Police De-

partment was available and very helpful at 4 p.m. on Tues-day, May 10, when my lab/boxer mix dog bolted under the guardrail just past IGA on Route 19, and found her-self tangled in the vines, trees and her own leash at the water’s edge many feet below.

Her sudden decision to catch a groundhog had not panned out, and she could do nothing except bark for help.

Two policemen came to help, repelling down the steep, rug-ged terrain without a rope, and cutting the 70-pound dog free with a pocketknife and elbow grease. My gratitude, admira-tion and heartfelt appreciation to both of you and to your de-

partment. Thank you from the lady with the black dog.

Marietta MyersBryson City, N.C.

Shed light on HB2 talkRecent letters have pro-

vided more smoke than light regarding HB2, also known as House Bill 2, which con-cerns itself with bathroom use, unfunded mandates, set-ting wages, hours or working conditions, micro management from the state, discrimination in employment and housing, and lack of ability to sue in cases of discrimination.

For the record, this was an overwhelmingly Republican-passed bill, signed by the Re-publican governor.

The introduction states that the General Assembly finds that consistent statewide laws “will improve intrastate com-merce” and “attract(s) new business” to North Carolina. A cursory view of national head-lines reveals that the impact of HB2 has been just the oppo-site—large companies are leav-ing North Carolina in droves.

One reason for the exodus is in Part I, the bathroom clause. While common sense and de-cency would suggest that we not put males and females to-gether in showers, etc, the devil is in the details.

The key is how the assembly defines ‘biological sex,’ which they order be determined by what is on one’s birth certifi-

Why would Alevo, a European company seeking to develop and manufacture a powerful ground-breaking battery, choose Con-cord, North Carolina, as the site of its operations, rather than some other place anywhere in the world?

There are several answers to this question that I will share in a minute, but first some back-ground about Alevo and its battery.

Alevo is producing a lithium-ion battery. Other lithium-ion batteries provide the power for electric-powered and hybrid automobiles.

But Alevo’s product is differ-ent. It has the ability to charge and discharge electricity rapidly and multiple times, without the risk of overheating or burning.

It is also much, much larger, about the size of a seagoing in-termodal shipping container. The battery, called a “GridBank,” can store about two megawatts of electricity, which would be enough power to supply the electrical needs of 90 homes for a year.

But the purpose of the Grid-Bank’s large storage capacity is not to directly supply the electri-cal needs of users at remote sites. Instead, that vast capacity is in-tended to be used to revolution-ize the electric utility business by making possible a dramatically different generating and trans-mission process.

Today Duke Energy and other electric utilities regularly start up and shut down their generating plants to meet the varying de-mands of their customers. Meet-ing these irregular demands is in-credibly costly. To the extent that the utilities could operate their generating plants in their most efficient mode and find other

ways to supply peak or other irregular demands, the savings could be enormous.

Alevo’s GridBank is designed to “level out the grid.” GridBanks are to be connected to the elec-tric grids that transmit electric-ity from producers to users. They will collect and store any excess energy and then release it when it is needed.

Alevo’s backers have already invested hundreds of millions of dollars. With more than 100 em-ployees and numerous robots at work, the manufacturing process in Concord is under way. When the product is ready, customers are committed.

But Alevo cannot afford to re-lease the battery until all the bugs and potential bugs are elimi-nated. The company hopes it will be soon but will not yet commit to a specific date.

When that date comes, Alevo will ramp up production and hundreds, even thousands, of good jobs in Concord will be the result.

Again though, why did this Swiss company with mostly Nor-wegian officers locate its busi-ness in Concord?

“Think Charlotte’s Myers Park High School and Davidson Col-lege,” says Harrison Wellford, the only American member of Ale-vo’s board of directors. Wellford

is a loyal and grateful alumnus of both schools.

Wellford’s cousin, Charlottean Wellford Tabor, arranged the fi-nancing for the acquisition of the Philip Morris site that cost $68 million.

Wellford says that Alevo’s general counsel, Tord Eide, has a similar connection and affec-tion for the region. He spent a year in Concord as a high school exchange student from Norway. He met his late wife there and now plans to buy a house in Con-cord. According to Alevo’s web site, “it was Eide’s family con-nections in the U.S. that led Ale-vo’s manufacturing base of op-erations to launch in Concord.”

There may be important other reasons why Alevo chose Con-cord, but the main one is that the former Philip Morris cigarette-manufacturing site provided an ideal locale for designing, test-ing and manufacturing its high-tech product. For safety reasons, these operations best take place in discrete spaces within the fac-tory complex. The Philip Mor-ris site was ideal.

Another plus for Alevo as a start-up company is the beauti-ful and expansive park-like cam-pus that Philip Morris developed. It provides an attractive and im-pressive location for prospective customers, employees, and inves-tors to see and learn about Ale-vo’s operations.

Whatever the reasons Alevo came to our state, every North Carolinian should wish God-speed for its GridBank.

D.G. Martin hosts “North Car-

olina Bookwatch,” which airs Sun-days at noon and Thursdays at 5 p.m. on UNC-TV.

Foot health for seniors

The next big high-tech product: Why Concord?

See Feet, page 6A

Have you participated in Relay for Life?

Yes: 75%

No: 25%

Ashley Butcher

Publisher

Jessica Webb

Editor

Teddy Greene

Photographer

Smoky Mountain Times Editorial Staff

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OPINION

Tony Fortier-Bensen

Reporter

See Letters, page 5A

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D.G. Martin

NC Bookwatch


OPINION

The Great Depression in Swain County: Part 4As previous columns have

suggested, one of the most heartbreaking aspects of the Great Depression in Swain County involved what in effect was a triple economic whammy for local residents. Not only were they caught in the chokehold of hard times gripping the entire nation; they had multiple addi-tional burdens. These included the arrival of the deadly chestnut blight, widespread use of emi-nent domain in taking land for the Great Smoky Mountain National Park with many pay-ments being far less that the ac-tual worth of the land and build-ings, and for many hapless souls, loss of those paltry payments when banks failed.

I do not know how many de-positors lost everything when the Citizens Bank failed, and quite possibly the bank’s records no longer exist. But since it was one of only two local banks at the time, there is every likeli-hood that scores, and probably hundreds of folks who had just seen their life’s work seized with the Park takings then lost their life savings as well.

Fortunately, the other local in-

stitution, Bryson City Bank, did not fail. That glimmer of bright-ness amidst the darkness and gloom of depressed times is a tale largely forgotten in today’s world, but the bank’s survival is a testament to a quartet of in-dividuals who were visionar-ies, staunch citizens, and men of compassion who cared for the people of Swain County.

The details of the bank’s sur-vival, as recounted by Fischer S. Black, can be found in an article entitled “History of the Stanley W. Black Family” in that invaluable treasure trove of material on Swain County’s past, “The Heritage of Swain County.” Fischer was the son of Stanley Black, who had be-

come president of Bryson City Bank just before the onset of the Depression.

In the fall of 1931 the state Commissioner of Banks de-clared that Bryson City Bank had insufficient capital and or-dered the bank to raise addi-tional funds. The shareholders were unable to do so and for a time it looked as if the bank would fail.

At that juncture, three other individuals joined the bank’s president, Stanley Black, to bring Bryson City Bank back from the brink of ruin. They are owed a lasting debt of gratitude by the people of this region, because without their efforts Bryson City Bank would surely have failed.

Had that occurred, the eco-nomic devastation to the re-gion, as bad as it was, would have been infinitely worse. In essence Swain County would have been left a wasteland, with lands lost to the Park and the paltry monies paid for the tak-ing of that land, if deposited in a bank, gone forever.

Fortunately, I. K. Stearns, then president of Carolina Wood Turning Company and

a good friend of Stanley Black, came up with a fine plan to save the bank.

At his urging, Black con-tacted his brother-in-law, Louis Fischer, a wealthy Illinois busi-nessman, and arranged for a $30,000 loan. As security for the loan, Fischer received title to the bank building, hundreds of acres of recently timbered land, and other property. Jack Coburn, a vice-president of the bank and likely the only man at the time resident in Swain County with the means to do so, signed an agreement guar-anteeing the loan’s repayment.

Even those steps, dramatic though they were, likely would not have been enough had not Stanley Black exerted his per-sonal influence with deposi-tors. When patrons began with-drawing their savings, an under-standable action given what had happened with the other local bank and bank failures across the country, he urged them to stay the course and have con-fidence in Bryson City Bank. Black literally stood at the bank door, talking to concerned pa-trons one by one, and eventually

secured an agreement to issue preferred stock to depositors. It was to pay them three per-cent annual interest at the point when bank earnings were suf-ficient to do so.

Somehow, through Black’s personal persuasiveness, the intercession of Stearns and Coburn and Fischer’s magna-nimity, the bank weathered the crisis. Louis Fischer was repaid (without interest) while the de-positors who stayed the course were eventually rewarded. Like Fischer, Coburn and Stearns re-ceived nothing other than the quiet satisfaction of knowing they had done their friends, neighbors, and fellow resi-dents of Swain County a sin-gular favor. Stanley Black’s re-ward came in the bank sur-viving and eventually thriving under his leadership.

It was where my parents banked throughout the years of their lives, it was where I opened my first savings account when a teenager, and in all likelihood many older readers of this news-paper have fond memories of walking into the old bank build-ing on the square (where today’s

Cork and Bean is located) and being greeted warmly by smil-ing tellers such as Helen Gibson and Geneva McCracken. More likely than not, they would also see Stanley Black, who contin-ued to head the bank until it was acquired by Northwestern Bank in the mid-1960s.

The fact that Bryson City Bank weathered the storms of the 1930s was in effect the salva-tion of many local families, and that fact that it did so speaks wonderfully well of the four men mentioned above.

For all but Louis Fischer, whose selfless actions came as an outgrowth of family connec-tions, their motivations were local, personal, and exemplary of what it means to be a fine citizen and truly caring neigh-bor. Without these individuals, now largely forgotten but true icons in local history, it is not an overstatement to say that Swain County of today would be far different and lesser place than it is. Similarly, suffering in Swain County during the Depression, deep and widespread though it undoubtedly was, would have been far worse.

Mountain Musings

and Memories with

Jim Casada

A bank saved and a bank that failed

cate. Enforcement is all but impossible, as the Assembly provided no money to hire people to guard all the pub-lic restrooms and check birth certificates.

Also, not everyone has the same genitalia that they were born with. HB2 mandates that someone with female genitalia but has male on her birth cer-tificate to use the boys shower. Either the Republicans didn’t think this through, or they con-

sciously ignored the reality on the ground to punish, humili-ate and endanger people.

Part II prevents local gov-ernments from setting their own (higher) minimum wage. The worst part is that this states that private profit (business and industry) is more impor-tant than “the general welfare of the people.”

Part III allows discrimina-tion against LGBTQ citizens in employment, housing, and other public accommoda-tions. When an amendment was added to protect these and veteran residents, the Republi-

cans voted it down.It also prevents a civil suit

against those who illegally dis-criminate, but instead man-dates using a state agency whose purpose is to “affect an amicable resolution,” not seek justice.

For these reasons, HB2 can also be called Hate Bill 2.

Dan KowalFrankin, N.C.

North Carolina neglectThe necessity for Swain

County to sue the Department

of Interior and the National Park Service (NPS) regarding the North Shore settlement reflects a broader, long-term endemic problem within the Great Smokies NPS; namely, an NPS-glorifying, Tennessee-cen-tered focus.

Having walked every main-tained mile of trail and wan-dered many more miles off trail, I am personally delighted we have a national park on both the dark and the sunny sides of Old Smoky. But from the Park’s very beginnings, North Caro-lina has been a neglected step child. That claim is borne out

in multiple ways; I’ll cite two.First, along the Old Settlers

Trail east of Greenbrier, Ten-nessee are multiple chimneys and rock walls, lovely remind-ers of Old Settlers and the fact that the price of the Park ex-ceeded acquisition dollars; cultural losses were arguably costlier.

On the sunny side of the mountain, the earliest white settlers ventured into the Oconaluftee Valley. Search the Park portion of that drain-age, from Straight Fork to Tight Run Branch, along upper Min-gus and Couches creeks or the

broad, beautiful Bradley Fork. Nary a chimney will be found, save those of the John Davis cabin, removed from its original place high along the Thomas Divide to bemuse tourists at the Oconaluftee Visitors Center.

Were Luftee chimneys so poorly constructed to have evaporated? On the contrary, the Mingus-Floyd home was a thing of late 19th to mid-20th century beauty, replaced by sterile government hous-ing. Homes such as those of Jim Chambers, Dock Conner,

Letters: Discrimination beyond LGBT, N.C. long ignoredContinued from page 4A

See Letters, page 6A

The big toe is vulnerable and the most complex joint of the foot, where bones, tendons and ligaments work together to dis-tribute our body’s weight.

Physical Therapy, such as ultrasound or other physical therapy may be used to provide temporary relief. I have started massaging the bottom of my feet every night before going to sleep and my night cramps are almost all gone.

If you have diabetes, here are some facts and statistics that

were addressed by all the web-sites I researched:

Inactivity: Among the ages of 45 to 64, physical inactivity boosted the risk of entering a nursing home by 40 percent.

Obesity: In the 65 to 74 age group, obesity increased the risk by 31 percent.

Smoking: Increases the like-lihood of a nursing home ad-mission by 56 percent in the 45 to 64 age range and by 32 per-cent in the older group.

Diabetes: The younger group more than doubles the risk of eventually entering a nursing

home.High Blood Pressure: This

also increases the risk by 35 percent for the younger group and by 29 percent in the older group.

Personally, I am very thank-ful that I stopped smoking al-

most 40 years ago, that I have recently lost the weight and for the benefits I am receiving in my flexerciser class.

Don’t forget to call Ali-son at the SHIIP office, 488-3848, if you have any Medicare questions.

Hope this helps! Have a great month!

The resources this month are the Harvard Medical School (www.fa.hms.harvard.edu/phone # 617/432-7112); Amer-ican College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons (ACFAS) founded in

1942 (www.FootHealthFacts.org #800/421-2237); www.footan-dankleofwestga.com, which is part of the American College of Surgeons and is based in Co-lumbus, Ga (#706/327-8819).


NEWS

and Chastain Reagan weren’t log cabins with mud-chinked chimneys; but rather multi-story frame homes with brick chimneys, dormer windows and expansive porches. Yet the NPS, like Horace Kephart be-fore them, chose to sell stereo-types and ignore realities. The homes of Luftee were destroyed and chimneys were physically removed throughout the drain-age and beyond; cultural evi-dence was erased to build a na-tional park in North Carolina.

Second, turn to an article in the latest issue of Smokies Life, a Great Smoky Mountains Associ-ation publication. “The Top 100 People of the Smokies” exudes salvation by bureaucrats and the associated pre-eminence of the Tennessee portion of the Smok-ies – mentalities which have pre-vailed since the 1930s. The top one hundred was populated, by my count, with:

• 12 from North Carolina

(3 with connections to Swain County, the largest county in the Park, with over 40 percent of Park land area),

• 28 from Tennessee (one born in North Carolina),

• 60 who came from neither state, or were hired government help, the overwhelming major-ity of whom worked out of the Sugarlands.

Dozens of people with more significant roles in Smokies his-tory than the majority of the list could be given, but I’ll simply note three missing names with Swain connections as illustra-tive of what is, at best, willful ignorance: Will Thomas, Tsali, and upper Oconaluftee’s Robert Collins (three Park geographic features are named for Collins).

Unfortunately, the long-term legacy and the need to file a lawsuit against the NPS indi-cate that abysmal, willful igno-rance is likely far too benign a characterization.

Don CasadaBryson City, N.C.

Letters: Continued from page 5A

Feet: Take care of your feet so they can help take care of you Continued from page 4A

Children’s Hope Alliance lunch raises $100,000Tony Fortier-Bensen

[email protected]

Not every child is born into a loving and caring home. Some-times, children are born into a difficult situation. For these kids, Children’s Hope Alliance (CHA) is there to help.

Presented by the Evergreen Foundation, the CHA held its “Giving Them Hope Luncheon” at Southwestern Community College in Sylva on Thursday, May 5 raise funds for the agency that helps children in need.

“Our luncheon was a huge success,” said Katie McMil-lan, CHA Development Of-ficer. “We raised more than $100,000 that will be payable over the next five years to sup-port children and families who need it most.”

Because of recent cutbacks from the state and federal gov-ernment, President and CEO John Koppelmeyer said the needs of the children and fam-ilies in North Carolina are de-pendent on private donations.

“Our government support is decreasing continually. We have less dollars through fed-eral and state dollars than we

did 10 years ago,” said Koppel-meyer. “Having support from local communities and foun-dations is the way we bridge that gap.”

Koppelmeyer said that the group, in its 125th year of ex-istence, expects to operate under a $4.9 million deficit in this year.

Children’s Hope Alliance is one of the largest agencies in North Carolina and supports more than 3,600 children and families in North Carolina.

Hawthorn Heights, a local emergency teen runaway shel-ter in Bryson City, was one of the biggest benefactors of the banquet last year. With many generous donations, the group helped raise $700,000 to help move to a 6,500 square foot ranch home in November 2015 for a larger space and the ability to take in more children.

Hawthorn Heights is cur-rently the only rescue youth shelter for homeless and run-away children west of Asheville.

Two teen girls who were served by Children’s Hope Al-liance and recently adopted voiced their appreciation of the group.

“We’re entirely grateful,” one of the girls said. “We had been through home after home after home and changing schools so often, so when we came through the program, we fi-nally had someone different who actually cared about us.”

Aside from offering children food and a safe place to sleep, Children’s Hope Alliance offers more than 30 programs to fit each child’s specific needs.

“Because of our service, we can provide limitless hope and needs for our children,” Koppel-meyer said. “We are able to plug them into programs that will cater to their specific needs.”

One of the newest programs, TASK, is a six to nine month treatment program that focuses on the needs of adolescent boys

who have committed sexual and abusive acts.

According to Koppelmeyer, its evidence-based study found that 97 percent of kids who complete the program do not abuse again.

“Children who are put into our care are given the oppor-tunity to work on healing from an abusive past and are given

the proper tools to make their life goals a real possibility,” said Koppelmeyer.

To donate, visit www.child renshopealliance.org/donate or contact its donations coordina-tor at 1-800-320-4157.

Last year, the organization received $6.6 million in dona-tions from 5,700 individuals, corporations or foundations.

There will be three more sim-ilar banquets across North Car-olina and a golf tournament in Banner Elk later this year.

Jackson County Schools superintendent Mike Murray summed it up best, “Not every kid wins the lottery when they inherit parents; some kids need our help.”

Photos by Tony Fortier-Bensen/SMTIn front of a large crowd Chidlren’s Hope Alliance President and CEO John Koppelmeyer introduces a video featuring youth served by the agency.

Mike Murray

ple are with so many people helping you anyway they can.”

Allison said he used a website called warmshowers.org that other cross-country cyclists use to find a warm shower and a place to stay for the night before heading off the next day.

Besides camping out on the range, Allison camped in people’s backyards, a farmer’s restored farmhouse and even a police station in Franklinton, Louisiana.

“I just showed up, and they unlocked the doors for me,” said Allison. “They had a logbook of everyone who stayed there, and that was my entertainment for the night.”

Allison said he found another 60-year-old man on the same jour-ney as him, and he read another story of a 20-year-old from Germany who was riding from Canada to the tip of Argentina.

Some people offered more than just a place to stay for the night. One man in

Defuniak Springs, Florida, who said he hike the Appalachian Trail, gave Allison a ride in his open-air cockpit biplane.

Along the way, Allison met people who decided right then and there to join him.

One man he met in Texas joined him for two days. A second Texan joined the party for a couple days, and an-other man from Jackson, Mississippi rode with Allison for three weeks.

Originally, Allison set off on the journey with his buddies from Frank-lin, Kenny and Matt Balmer, but they split up in a small Cajun town, Mamou, Louisiana, as the Balmers preferred a more direct and quicker route to the finish line.

Before he set off for his journey, Al-lison said he was looking most forward to the solitude and wide-open spaces of West Texas; however, he found Lou-isiana and Mississippi to be his favor-ite part of the ride.

“It was such a remote area with lit-tle traffic and a lot of country roads, twists and turns, “ said Allison. “But

there was nobody out there. You could hear the birds, and that made a really big difference.”

In addition, Allison was raising money to end polio. Through his penny-a-mile sponsors, the 3,000 miles piled the pennies up, totaling around $2,000 dollars.

As part of the Bryson City Rotary Club, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foun-dation promised to double the total do-nation, bringing his total fundraiser to around $4,000.

“In my mind, another couple miles was another polio vaccine,” said Alli-son. “That’s really what got me going, having the cause behind it to do it.”

Including donations and the people he met along the way, Allison said he couldn’t believe the hospitality he re-ceived throughout the entire trip.

“It was amazing how friendly people are and well supported this was,” said Allison. “The farther I got; the stron-ger I got, and the easier it was.”

Hospitality: Great people, places seen on ride across countryContinued from page 1A

Submitted photoLee Allison, pictured with wife Carolyn Allison, reached the Atlantic Ocean in Fernandina Beach, Florida, on May 1 in his cross-country bicycle ride that began in San Diego.

owned property where the Swain County Farmer’s Mar-ket is held and before the fish-ing pier, which was completed by N.C. Wildlife Resources last year.

The new observation deck will likely be modeled after the observation deck that Duke En-ergy completed in recent years below the Ela Dam.

The second river access will be before the bridge to Gover-nor’s Island where there is al-ready an informational kiosk. The third access point will be on Island Park.

“We’re looking at these new put-ins and take-outs to be uti-lized by fishermen, kayakers and even guided rafts and fishing outfitters,” Mills said.

He sees the access points as offering a great location for ed-ucational programs as well.

The new observation deck and river access on Island Street will tie into overall plans for the area. Most recently, public rest-rooms have just been completed on the property. Next, work will begin within the coming months for a sidewalk and off-street parking spots. A pollina-tor garden is also planned along one point of the sidewalk, which will be planted and coordinated by the Swain County Soil and Water Conservation District.

“We’re trying to make the whole area down there an an-chor point for the downtown area,” Mills said of Island Street.

With the addition of new river access points, the area will likely grow in popularity for its recre-ational opportunities. In addi-tion, Mills said, the area could be ideal for various events, he said.

For the more primitive access points, Swain County mainte-nance workers will likely be em-ployed for the work, but the county will be contracting for the observation deck.

Mills anticipates the proj-ects to take about a year with the primitive access points being completed first.

The new projects are another example of the community em-bracing its riverfront location.

“The river is a key attrac-tion,” Mills said. “In the past, we’ve kind of ignored it, but now things are coming together with

the greenway, the new sidewalk and fishing pier and the Delayed Harvest status. Now it’s the per-fect storm, and we want to keep concentrating on the river and the Island Street area to make it the best it can be.”

The improvements on Island Street are a part of an overall ef-fort of showing people all the town has to offer and in improv-ing what Mills describes as the redevelopment area.

“The goal is for pedestrians to move downtown, and it’s en-hancing the experience so they can realize, ‘Wow, there’s a lot of neat stuff for us to see and do,’” he said. “We want to help the businesses and help the com-munity enjoy what they’ve got.”

In the future, Mills said, the county will also look at projects

downstream as well. Plans for a pedestrian bridge

that would go from the park-ing area of the Swain County Heritage Museum and Visitor’s Center across to Island Street are also being explored, Mills said, but that project is a long-term goal.

been lost from the department because they had to make the difficult choice of going to an-other agency so they could bet-ter make ends meet.

The average salary for a jailer is $10.42/hour and for a deputy $13.41/hour. Many employees have two jobs and work more than 40 hours a week for the department.

There are currently 25 em-ployees with the sheriff ’s de-partment including deputies and 20 at the jail including the secretary, he said.

Jason Gardner, chief deputy, said up-front training is costly for the county. About $107,000 in the past year’s budget went to training new employees, he said.

The request solicited the simple question from com-missioners: how can the county pay for it?

“That money’s got to come from somewhere sheriff, should

we raise taxes?” posed commis-sioner Steve Moon, to which the sheriff responded that he is only in charge of the sher-iff ’s department budget.

“There’s not a department in here that feels like they're get-ting overpaid,” said Commis-sion Chairman Phil Carson. “You look at EMS and every-thing else; we are at that point of competition. I don't know if you'll get everything you ask for, but we'll consider it.”

Jail administrator Reba “Lou” Jenkins brought up the issue of liability.

With the new Cherokee Justice Center and jail having opened last year, Swain County is housing fewer inmates for the tribe and taking on more for the US Marshals. The jail has the highest revenue west of Asheville, she added, at $1.1 million.

Jenkins said that for safety, they should have more staffing but emphasized the jail is rec-ognized for doing well.

“When the sheriff says the jail is in a tight spot, we are in a tight spot. What we're asking for is a small, minute amount as to the liability that comes back to the county,” she said if something bad were to happen.

The jail houses around 72 prisoners a day with about 20 of those being federal prisoners.

Jenkins also suggested that the comp time employees earn instead of earning more through overtime pay is only beneficial to employees if they leave. She suggested changing that formula so they could earn more when they work it. “That’s gonna boost morale,” she said.

Looking at all employeesFollowing the presentation

from the sheriff ’s department, the discussion among the com-missioners shifted to looking at all county employees.

Commissioner Danny Burns said the county should consider looking at where salaries start

and implementing the pay scale that was developed in the past.

Commissioner Ben Bushy-head said he thought all county employees should be making a living wage and that the board should spend more time in looking at how to adjust sal-aries with that in mind.

Both Alison Cochran, health department director, and Mitchell Jenkins, mainte-nance director, agreed that any plan should include all county employees and told the board they too have struggle with personnel.

For example, a mechanic with the maintenance depart-ment is highly skilled and earns just $12 an hour.

Cochran said she’s been ad-vertising for a nurse since De-cember. In addition, she’s had one recently leave after spend-ing $6,000 in her training be-cause she will earn $12,000 more a year somewhere else, she said.

Following discussion, King

said he would present plans for a percentage increase with a minimum, so that county em-ployees earning the least will see a bigger increase in income.

He said he would bring the information to the next meet-ing (scheduled for tonight), with a “percentage increase no less than with a 2 percent in-crease and a minimum of $600, $700 and $800. “

Further discussions will likely be had over the salary debate. As suggested by Co-chran, the board may also consider other incentives that could help retain employees. Some of those discussed would be reduced cost doctor’s vis-its at a local provider for de-pendents in addition to those received by the policyholder.


NEWS

Former Swain student receives posthumous college diplomaTony Fortier-Bensen

[email protected]

On Saturday, May 7, nearly 1,000 of my classmates and I walked across the shining stage, holding our college diplomas proudly, during the graduation ceremony at High Point Uni-versity in High Point, North Carolina.

However, the graduating class of 2016 was missing one of its classmates.

Tyler Shane Bowman, a graduate of Swain County High School in 2012, passed away at the young age of 19 on March 9, 2013 as a freshman at the university. He was currently studying for a biology degree until a ATV accident during spring break ended his life.

This spring before gradu-ation, High Point University

called his mother Denise Walk-ingstick and asked if she and his family would be present at the graduation ceremony to be given an honorary diploma.

“I was very honored that they still remembered and they still cared and that he was a part of that class and the school,” she said.

After Condoleezza Rice gave an empowering commence-ment speech, President Nido Qubein stepped aside to pres-ent the very first diploma of the day to Denise and her family.

“Sometimes, life can be dif-ficult,” Qubein said at the cere-mony. “Occasionally, our cam-pus family loses a student to an unexpected tragedy. And with such loss comes sadness, which permeates our hearts and in-jures our soul.”

Qubein directed the fam-

ily to come on stage. His dad Kevin Bowman joined Walk-ingstick as well as Tyler’s broth-ers Brodie and Trey Bowman who are current students at Swain County High School, and grandparents Judy and Jim Blevins.

When the family was on stage, everyone in the stands gave a rousing and standing ovation as Qubein handed Walkingstick the honorary diploma.

“It was a complete blur to me. I pretty much cried through the whole thing,” Walkingstick said. “It was tough to do, but I’m glad we could do it for him.”

“It was really emotional,” Kevin Bowman said. “I just have a lot of respect for HPU, and words can’t describe what that means to all of us. It’ll stick with me for the rest of my life.”

Walkingstick said that one of Tyler’s teachers came up to her after the ceremony to tell her that he still has a photo of Tyler on his desk in his office.

“To see what an impact he has made in his short 19 years, not just in Bryson City but as far away as High Point, it’s just incredible,” she said.

Tyler was a four-year let-terman in track and field and cross country during his time at Swain County High School. Currently, the family has an award and scholarship named after him in his honor that goes to a track and field or cross-country athlete.

If you would like to donate to the fund, you can go to a United Community Bank and give to the Tyler Shane Bow-man fund.

Submitted photo

Denise Walkingstick, right, poses with her son’s honorary college diploma with his father Kevin Bowman.

Raises: Next budget meeting is tonight at business centerContinued from page 1A

Grant: Three new river put-ins plannedContinued from page 1A

Submitted photo

Ken Mills, left, accepts the grant award from Shawn Heath, Duke Energy Foundation president.

Connect with us SMOKY MOUNTAIN TIMES@smokymtntimes www.thesmokymountaintimes.com

Great Smoky Mountains Na-tional Park is teaming up again with the Balsam Mountain Trust to present a special program, Birds of Prey, at the Oconaluftee Multipurpose Room on Thurs-day, May 26 at 11 a.m.

Michael Skinner, executive di-rector of the Balsam Mountain Trust, will conduct the hour-long Birds of Prey program. This program will provide vis-itors with an up-close glimpse of some of the most recognized and revered birds such as the tiny eastern screech owl and northern bald eagle.

“We are delighted to con-tinue our partnership with Bal-sam Mountain Trust,” said, Su-pervisory Park Ranger Lynda Doucette. “This program pro-vides an opportunity for park visitors to see and learn about these beautiful birds first hand.”

Balsam Mountain Trust is a local nonprofit whose mis-sion is the stewardship of the natural and cultural resources on Balsam Mountain Preserve and the Blue Ridge Mountain region, through effective land

management practices, sci-entific research, and environ-mental education. The Trust has earned special distinction as a place where non-releasable birds of prey are taken in, cared for, and then utilized as educa-tional ambassadors.

The Oconaluftee Multipur-pose Room is adjacent to the Oconaluftee Visitor Center on Newfound Gap Road, two miles north of Cherokee. For more information on the upcoming Birds of Prey program, please call the Oconaluftee Visitor Center at 828-497-1904. Park in-formation is also available from the park’s website at www.nps.gov/grsm.

For more information about park events, please visit the park website at https://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/calendar.htm.


Submitted photo

Big catchBallard Williamson caught this walleye that weighed 9 pounds on Saturday below the Ela Dam.

OUTDOORSGet up close with birds on the Little Tennessee RiverChildren and adults of all

ages are invited to participate in “biomonitoring” surveys of breeding birds on Mainspring Conservation Trust’s Tessentee Preserve and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ Cowee Mound along the Little Ten-nessee River in Macon County. The first events will be on Sat-urday, May 21, at Cowee and Wednesday, May 25 at Tes-sentee. Both events run from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Mainspring’s Tessentee Pre-serve is a 70-acre property off Hickory Knoll Road, approxi-mately 10 miles south of Frank-lin. The EBCI’s Cowee Mound is a 53-acre property off Rose Creek Road, approximately 7.5 miles northwest of Franklin.

Participants can volunteer with nationally recognized research work that moni-

tors the health and reproduc-tion of birds. Volunteers will provide hands-on assistance in all aspects of the survey work under the training and su-pervision from Southern Ap-palachian Rap-tor Research (SARR) field biologists.

The bird m o n i t o r i n g work is based on the Monitor-ing Avian Pro-ductivity and

Survivorship (MAPS) protocol.

MAPS is a nationwide pro-gram coordinated by the In-stitute for Bird Populations in Point Reyes, California. The MAPS program includes a continent-wide network of over 500 mist netting stations and is designed to monitor produc-tivity, survivorship and popu-lation trends of breeding birds throughout North America. Analyses of the resulting band-ing data provide critical infor-mation relating to the ecol-ogy, conservation and man-agement of North American landbird populations and the factors responsible for changes in their populations. This is the sixth year that SARR has been conducting the bird monitor-ing surveys in Macon County.

Mainspring acquired Tes-

sentee Preserve in 1999 to protect the floodplain, scenic views, waters, wetlands, and di-verse fish and wildlife habitat, as well as cultural history. The property is open to the public for fishing, walking and nature observation.

Mainspring helped the EBCI to acquire Cowee Mound in 2007. The property is histor-ically significant as it encom-passes the heart of the ancient Cherokee town of Cowee, which was the principal com-mercial center of the mountain Cherokee in the 18th century. The property is located within the Cowee-West’s Mill Historic District, which was placed on the National Register of His-toric Places in 2001.

This event is a result of a

partnership between Main-spring, SARR and EBCI’s Fish-eries and Wildlife Management program. The program is spon-sored by the Cherokee Preser-vation Foundation’s Revitaliza-tion of Traditional Cherokee Artisan Resources (RTCAR) initiative, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Coweeta Long Term Ecologi-cal Research program.

SARR will conduct eight monitoring samples from May to early August. For a calendar of sampling dates, visit https://bigbaldbanding.org/calendar/.

For more information and directions, please contact [email protected] or call 828-736-1217.

Submitted photoJoin Mainspring for its next birding “bio-monitoring” event on Wednesday, May 25.

Michael Skinner with a Bald Eagle

Great Smokies National Park hosts Birds of Prey program

SMOKY MOUNTAIN TIMES

BSection

Thursday, May 19, 2016

ommunity LifeCLady Devils track and field dominate regionals

Tony [email protected]

The Swain County High School Maroon Devils’ track and field team continues its win-ning ways after the girls won the

NCHSAA 1A West Regionals and the boys earned an impres-sive third place finish against 19 high schools on Saturday, May 14 at Cherokee High School.

The girls’ 140.50 points nearly doubled second place Robbins-

ville’s 77.50 points. For the boys, they finished with 71 points compared to first place Hayesville High School’s 132 points.

“An amazing day all around,” said head coach Ian Roper. “We

had more regional champions in individual events on Satur-day than we had at the confer-ence meet.”

Swain had 13 athletes de-clared Western Regional cham-pions, and a total of 23 athletes

will be traveling to the NCH-SAA 1A State track and field championships at North Car-olina A&T on Friday, May 20.

For the girls, regional cham-pions include all four relay teams of the 4x100, 4x200,

4x400, and 4x800, which was the first time all season they swept the relay races.

In addition, other Lady Devil regional champions include

Photos by Bryan SittonMaroon Devil Angel Bowers competes in the long jump, flying through the air and landing in the sand. Bowers will go to the NCHSAA 1A State championship meet for the 4x100 and 4x200 relay teams.

Lynsey Hicks pulls the last leg of the 4x800 relay team, finishing in first place. She and her team-mates will look to defend their 2015 state title on Friday in the NCHSAA 1A State meet.

Swain Relay for Life fights the battle against cancerTony Fortier-Bensen

[email protected]

On Friday, May 13, the an-nual Swain County Relay for Life was held at the Swain County High School track, bringing in great food, great music and great times.

Most importantly, the event brought people together in the fight against cancer, with over 30 cancer survivors participat-ing in the cancer survivor lap and teams walking around the track from 6 p.m. until its end with the luminary lights.

“Everything was wonder-ful, said Cindi Woodard, can-cer survivor and events chair of the event. “Thank you to Swain County for making it a huge success.

There were 22 teams and 319 registered participants running around the track in support of the fight against cancer, and the event had a dunking booth, raf-fle ticket prizes, a basketball-shooting contest, and much more.

Currently, the Relay for Life event has raised nearly $23,000 in cancer research this year so far. Donations will continue to be open until August.

Photos by Tony Fortier-Bensen/SMT One of 22 teams, East Elementary, proudly displays their banner to paint to the world purple, the theme of this year’s Swain County Relay for Life. Behind them, other teams follow in their lap around the track.

Luminaries decorated the outskirts of the track at Swain County High School, lighting up the night in remembrance of those lost in the battle against cancer.

Bringing the sicklefin back from the brinkBarbara McRae

[email protected]

For a few days this spring, the sicklefin redhorse became the most sought-after fish in the Southern mountains.

Researchers converged on its spawning grounds on the Lit-tle Tennessee River in an ef-fort to conserve the endangered species. Each year, they have a brief time to collect eggs and sperm, allowing fry to be raised in hatcheries for release into streams that were part of the sicklefin’s original range.

If the name doesn’t resonate with you, there’s a good reason. The fish is so obscure that, 25

years ago, nobody even knew it existed – although, as one of the researchers pointed out, “no-body” is a relative term. Some in the mountains knew it well.

Caleb Hickman, supervisory biologist with Cherokee Fish-eries and Wildlife, said that el-ders of the tribe recognized the fish when shown a specimen in 2006. Their word for it, “ju-nigihtla,” translates as “wearing a red feather,” an apt descrip-tion of its sprightly dorsal fin. The distinctively-shaped fea-ture also inspired the English name, “sicklefin.”

The fish is one of several red-horses found in mountain riv-ers. Dave Matthews, an aquatic

biologist at TVA, explained that it stayed unknown for so long because it is only found in river stretches that are hard to ac-cess. A few specimens collected years ago were thought to be hybrids, he said.

In 1992, Robert Jenkins, a professor of biology at Roanoke College in Virginia, recognized the sicklefin redhorse as a sep-arate species. Subsequent stud-ies have confirmed his work.

The sicklefin is so new to sci-ence that it has not yet received a Latin species name or final taxonomic approval, though that is expected to be a mere formality. Jenkins is writing the candidate paper.

A beautiful bottom-feederThe generic name of the red-

horses, Moxostoma, “mouth to suck,” refers to the fleshy mouth sported by members of the group. They are bottom feeders — suckers — that eat crustaceans, mollusks, insects and algae. The description may be off-putting, but sicklefins are beautiful and sleek, with a golden glint. They grow to about 24 inches in length and can live a relatively long 20 years or more.

Sicklefins depend on clear flowing water. Silt is their enemy: it damages their spawn-

See Track, page 2B

Photo by Barbara McRaeCrystal Ruble pulls a sicklefin out of the holding tank to begin the process of sperm collection and recording data. Before it returns to the river, the fish will have a unique identification number and an RFID tag inserted near the dorsal fin.

Watercolor seminarSwain Center for the Arts will host a water-color seminar in June. 5B

Swain Heritage Festival

Swain County Heritage Festival is returning Memorial Day weekend. 3B

More news insideSee Sicklefin, page 2B

THE SMOKY MOUNTAIN TIMES – Thursday, May 19, 2016 – Page 2B

ing grounds and smothers the creatures they feed on. The fish migrate upstream to spawn, and so they are im-pacted by dams that restrict their movements. These two factors have had an unfortu-nate impact. Healthy popu-lations now occur in parts of just two river systems – the Lit-tle Tennessee and the Hiwas-see. The species is classified as State Threatened in North Car-olina, and as State Endangered in Georgia, where it is known to exist only in Towns County.

They were once much more widely distributed. The Chero-kee and the white settlers who followed them used these fish for food, but it has been many years. In earlier times, people trapped the fish in large num-bers with the help of the stone weirs that still survive in area waters.

The Cherokee cooked sick-lefin and other suckers sev-eral ways, including smoking and drying for winter storage. A heavy catch was cause for celebration. In his “History of the American Indians,” the 18th century trader, James Adair, de-scribed the town feast that fol-lowed a successful catch as a “feast of love” – a highly so-cial meal followed by dancing.

Cultural memories were fad-ing by the time scientists en-tered the picture, but elders still recognized the sicklefin’s importance to the traditional way of life.

“When you lose a species, you lose a culture. Stories are lost,” Hickman said. “The Cher-okee believe that every species is important.”

Today, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) is one of several parties to a formal pact, known as a Cooperative

Candidate Agreement, to con-serve the sicklefin and restore it to its original range, including a stretch of Oconaluftee River.

Endangered?In May 2005, the U.S. Fish

and Wildlife Service declared the fish a candidate for the fed-eral endangered species list. This year, USFWS will deter-mine whether or not it should be on that list, and if so, begin the process of listing.

Parties to the Cooperative Candidate Agreement hope their conservation efforts can make listing unnecessary. The springtime river gatherings are a crucial part of those efforts.

On Monday, Apr. 25, a nor-mally quiet bank of the Lit-tle Tennessee River below the Franklin dam teemed with re-searchers from several agencies and private companies: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services; N.C. Wildlife Resources Com-mission (NCWRC); Duke En-ergy Carolinas; Tennessee Val-ley Authority (TVA); EBCI; and Conservation Fisheries Inc. Steve Fraley of NCWRC co-ordinated the project. He had been to the river on the previ-ous Friday to check on water conditions and the status of

the fish. That Monday, the shallow

waters below the dam ran clear, sparkling under sunny skies, and sicklefin males gathered over the gravelly bed of the river. While team members trolled in boats equipped for electrofishing, scooping up the stunned fish in nets, other re-searchers set up a processing table on the shore and prepared for the harvest.

Each sicklefin must be weighed, measured and checked over. Males are tow-eled off before milking, to pre-vent water from mixing with the sperm prematurely. Re-searchers take a genetic sam-ple and insert an RFID tag (like the ID tag for your pet) with a unique number that allows the individual to be identified if caught again. Every sam-ple is identified, and all bits of data recorded. Then the fish go back in the river, and the collected sperm and eggs go to USFWS Warm Springs Na-tional Fish Hatchery in Geor-gia, or Conservation Fisheries Inc., in Knoxville.

This is not an easy process. The fish are large and feisty, and some put up a fight. The team must work quickly to get them back in the water and minimize stress.

Timing is everything, and some things are beyond the re-searchers’ control. The female will not release eggs until she is ready – water temperature and daylight probably combine to tell her when the time is right. There is no hurrying her.

Males arrive first at the spawning grounds, waiting for the females. On this Monday, males greatly outnumbered fe-males, and the ladies were bid-ing their time. None picked up that day were ready to release their eggs. But, team members planned a few more excursions

on the Tuckasegee and the Lit-tle Tennessee, hoping to find the females in a more cooper-ative mood.

A massive undertakingThe effort to collect gam-

etes and raise fry in hatcher-ies began in 2005 and has con-tinued every year. So far, thou-sands of captive-raised sicklefin have been released into a stretch of the Tuckasegee River in an effort to extend the occupied range. Juveniles have also been released into the Oconaluftee River above Duke Energy’s Ela (Bryson City) Dam.

These measures would not succeed without addressing the factors that caused the sickle-fin’s decline: impounded rivers and siltation. These issues cre-ated huge obstacles that had to be tackled first, and at great ex-pense, to make reintroduction possible.

Here are some of the mea-sures that have been accom-plished or are in process:

- Duke Energy’s removal of

the Dillsboro dam to restore the natural flow of the Tuckasegee River. This was done in 2010.

- Investment by Duke En-ergy of $500,000 in soil and water and habitat conservation initiatives in its Nantahala Area.

- Improvements at Duke’s run-of-river plants (Franklin, Mission and Bryson City) aimed at bettering the aquatic habitat below the dams. Duke is also developing a long-range man-agement plan for these plants to minimize the adverse im-pacts of maintenance, sedi-ment management and emer-gency operations.

- A Water Release Improve-ment Program (RIP) at TVA reservoirs to improve aquatic conditions below the dams.

- Outreach efforts by TVA and others to assist landown-ers in making improvements to riparian properties. These in-clude the “Shade Your Stream” initiative.

The work plan to conserve the species is laid out in the 40-page Cooperative Candidate

Agreement, signed by all the parties involved. The agreement speaks to numerous studies and conservation projects that aim to conserve the sicklefin red-horse and extend its territory.

Funding for the work in-cludes a commitment by TVA for contributions of $200,000 to-ward hatchery operations, and annual funding of more than $60,000 by the USFWS. NCFWS is providing more than $11,000 per year, much of it for stocking initiatives. Duke is providing annual funding of $35,000 to support conservation measures. Georgia Department of Natu-ral Resources has committed $10,000 per year for stocking and monitoring efforts. EBCI is providing $15,000 per year.

Though it fell into obscurity in modern times and was almost forgotten, the sicklefin redhorse played an important role in the lives of mountain people for many centuries. If scientists succeed, the fish’s place in our rivers – and in the fabric of our culture – will be secure.

Sicklefin: USFWS will determine if fish is endangeredContinued from page 1B

COMMUNITY

Caleb Hickman

Photo by Barbara McRae

Biologists use boats equipped for electrofishing to net sicklefin redhorse below the Franklin dam on a return trip to the Little Tennessee River. On an earlier excursion, they had found the females were not ready to release eggs.

Submitted photo

Swain middle students advance to

NHD nationalsSwain Middle School students Ruby Dyer and Maddie Lay have advanced to the National History Day Contest to be held at the University of Maryland on June 11-June 16. They won first place at the State History Day with their exhibit board, “Martha Graham, the Mother of Modern Dance” to be eligible to compete at the national level.

Booth wins Soil and Water Conservation Scholarship

Congratulations to Laura Booth, the recipient of the $500 Area 1 NC Soil and Water Con-servation District Scholarship. She is a senior at Swain County High School and has partic-ipated in Swain Soil & Water Conservation District spon-sored activities such as the Re-source Conservation Workshop and the Envirothon Competi-tion. She is also the president of Future Farmers of Amer-ica chapter at SCHS, an in-tern at the Watershed Associ-ation of the Tuckasegee River, and an active volunteer in the community.

After graduation, Booth plans to study Sustainable Agriculture at Warren Wilson College. We wish her luck as she pursues her career! The Area 1 scholarship is available to high school students interested in pursuing a college major in the studies of agricul-ture, field science, conservation, energy, natural resources, en-vironmental science or related

field. Priority will be given to high school seniors, however all high school students can apply as well as students already en-rolled in college that are from Area 1. Area 1 counties in-clude: Buncombe, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Hen-derson, Jackson, Macon, Mad-ison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Swain, Transylva-

nia and Yancey. Specific amount of scholarship will depend on funding available that year (sev-eral scholarships in the amount of $500 are expected).

If you are interested in ap-plying for the Area 1 Scholar-ship next year, please contact Creeden Kowal at 488-8803 x 101 or [email protected].

Laura Booth

Organic pest management in your gardenThe N.C. Cooperative Exten-

sion Service is holding an in-depth Organic Pest Manage-ment Seminar for gardeners who desire to learn more on how to control (organically) in-sects, diseases and weeds that plague their vegetables. Semi-nars will be held at the follow-ing dates and locations:

• May 26 from 6-8 p.m. room 234 at the Jackson Extension

Center on 538 Scotts Creek Rd. Sylva.

• May 27 from 10 a.m.-noon a.m. room 114 at the Swain Ex-tension Center on 60 Almond School Rd. Bryson City.

This free seminar will cover a whirlwind of topics such as companion plants, farmscap-ing, soil amendments, organi-cally approved sprays, a pleth-ora of tips and more. Partic-

ipants will receive plenty of handouts, ask questions and enjoy a great presentation. You won’t want to miss it!

To register for this class or for more information or direc-tions, contact Christy Breden-kamp at your local N.C. Co-operative Extension Center at phone 828-586-4009 or 488-3848 or email [email protected].

UNCA Graduate, Dean’s and Honor’s ListMary Allison Shell, from Bryson City,

graduated from UNC Asheville in May with a degree in Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, Minor in Neuroscience, Summa cum laude, Distinction in Psychology.

The following students from Bryson City have been named to UNC Asheville’s spring Chancellor’s List / Dean’s List. To see the full list, please visit: http://news.unca.edu/articles/unc-asheville-announces-spring-

2016-chancellors-list-and-deans-list-students• Lauren Anne Shell -- Dean’s List• Mary Allison Shell -- Chancellor’s List• Kirsten Aileen Winchester -- Dean’s ListThe Chancellor’s List is made up of full-

time students who have achieved a 4.0 grade point average. The Dean’s List is made up of full-time students who have achieved be-tween 3.5 and 3.99 grade point average.

LEGO Club at the Marianna Black

Library ThursdayThe Marianna Black Li-

brary in Bryson City will have another LEGO Club meeting on Thursday, May 26, at 4 p.m. The library will provide LEGOs and Duplos for ages 3 and up.

All area children are in-vited join in and let your creativity shine. Last month we had some great cre-ations, and this month the theme will be Fairy Tales!

The Marianna Black Li-brary is also requesting that you consider donating your gently used LEGOs and DUPLOs to the library, to help expand The Library LEGO Club.

For more information, call the library at 488-3030. The Marianna Black Li-brary, a member of the Fon-tana Regional Library, is lo-cated in downtown Bryson City at the corner of Acad-emy and Rector.


COMMUNITY

Heritage Festival returns Memorial Day weekendThe 22nd annual Swain

County Heritage Festival will feature an array of free music for the enjoyment of festival goers.

Bands and singing groups ranging from gospel to coun-try and bluegrass are scheduled to perform during the holiday weekend event.

The festival will take place on Memorial Day weekend, and will begin with “Gospel Night” on Friday evening, May 27 at Riverfront Park, near the Swain County Administration Building in Bryson City. Musi-cal performances will continue with gospel, country and blue-grass throughout the following day, again at Riverfront Park.

Saturday’s events will also include performances by local clogging groups.

As always, there will also be dozens of crafters and vendors on hand to sell their products, plus children’s games, a chil-dren’s potato sack race and a log-sawing contest for adults.

The Swain County Heri-tage Festival is sponsored by the Partnership for the Future of Bryson City-Swain County Tourism Committee. The Part-nership is a nonprofit corpora-tion, formed by volunteers in Swain County to improve the lives of county residents.

There is no charge to attend the festival. Attendees are asked to bring their own lawn chairs.

For more information, email [email protected]. Local crafters are encouraged to email for more information as well.

Musical per-formances begin on Friday, May 27 with an eve-ning of Gospel and continue on Saturday with more gospel, coun-try and blue-grass at the Swain County Heritage Festival. At left, Rye Holler Boys perform at last year’s event.SMT file photo

COMMUNITY NEWSSwain Class Reunions

SaturdayClasses 1948, 1949 and

1950 will have a reunion 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday, May 21 at the Swain Senior Center. Cost is $15. Please call San-dra Clark for reservations at 828-298-3117.

ABC board vacanciesThe Town of Bryson City

is seeking applications for an ABC Board vacancy. Anyone interested can pick up an appli-cation at Town Hall. Applica-tions will be taken until 5 p.m. on Thursday, June 2.

Bryson City Woman’s Club Yard Sale

Bryson City Woman’s Club will have a yard sale Saturday, May 21 at Riverside Pavilion at the Administration Build-ing from 7:30 a.m.-until.

Commissioners budget meeting

Swain County Board of Commissioners will have a budget workshop at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 19 at the Swain County Regional Business Ed-ucation and Training Center, at 45 East Ridge Drive. The meet-ing is open to the public.

Swain Clean CleanupSwain Clean will have the

next countywide litter cleanup on Saturday, May 21. Regis-tration is at 9 a.m. at the In-gles parking lot. The rain date will be Saturday, June 4. Lunch for volunteers will be served at noon at the Visitor Center/Her-itage Museum gazebo on the river. Any questions, please call Chris Roth at 770-315-8950.

Wine tasting benefits Lions Club

A wine tasting is planned

from 6 p.m.-8 p.m. on Friday, May 20 at Country Traditions Wine and Gourmet Market, located at 73 Webster Street in Dillsboro. A $10 donation will go to the Bryson City Lions Club and will be collected at the door. Also, 10 percent of alco-hol sales will be donated. Five different wines will be served by Michael from Empire Dis-tributors and snacks will be provided. Call 828-586-1600 for information.

Occupy meets TuesdayOccupy WNC General As-

sembly will meet at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, May 24 at the Sneak E Squirrel Community Room in Sylva.

Jackson Sheriff’s Office Bass Tournament

Jackson County Sheriff ’s Of-fice 2016 Bass Tournament will be held June 4 at Lake Chatuge

at the Ledford Chapel Boat Ramp. All proceeds benefit the Jackson County Sheriff ’s Office Shop With a Cop Pro-gram. Entry fee is $60 per boat. Prizes will be given for first, second and third place. Blast off will be at 7 a.m. with boats in before 3:30 p.m. For more information, call Chief Deputy Kim Hooper at 828-586-1384.

Drum CircleThis Friday, May 20, a Drum

Circle and potluck supper will be held at UUFF, 89 Sierra Drive, Franklin. Please bring a dish, as raw as you like, to share. Drummers of all lev-els welcome. Bring your own drum, or use one of ours. Gather at 5:30 p.m. Eat at 6 p.m. Drumming at 6:30 p.m. Email [email protected] for more information.

ToastmastersGem City Forum Toast-

masters will hold their meet-ing on Tuesday, May 24 start-ing promptly at 5:30 p.m. in the Drake Education Center on the corner of 210 Phillips St. and Carolina Mountain Road in Franklin.

Guests are always welcomed as they can learn how Toast-masters Clubs develop leader-ship and speaking abilities and increase communication skills.

Gem City Forum Toast-masters Club serves Western NC, West of Asheville, and NE Georgia. See Toastmasters on the web at: http://gemcityfo-rum.org/wpblog/ for more information and to view up-coming meetings.

Jackson Republicans

A hot dog cook out with all the fixin’s is planned for the monthly meeting of the Jackson

County Republican Party on Monday, May 23. The event will be held at the newly opened North Jackson County Repub-lican headquarters, 60 West Sylva Shopping Center (be-tween Sylva and Dillsboro), at 6:30 p.m.

Come to hear from candi-dates and reports on the Dis-trict Convention and the NC GOP Convention. Don Tomas, Southwestern Community Col-lege President and Dr. Michael Murray, Jackson County Super-intendent of Public Schools are expected to speak in support of the proposed quarter cent sales tax increase for Jackson County.

Republicans, unaffiliated voters and others interested are invited to attend this and all GOP meetings and events. For Jackson County GOP informa-tion, please call Ralph Slaugh-ter at 828-743-6491 or email [email protected]. Like us on Facebook at Jack-son County Republican Party.

Ongoing events

Free Clinic: Swain County Caring Corner accepts applica-tions Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 9 a.m.-noon. The clinic is held on Thursday evenings 4 p.m.- 9 p.m. Call 828-341-1998.

Swain Clean: Swain Clean meets monthly every third Tues-day at 6 p.m. at the Senior Citizen Center from February through May. For more infor-mation, email [email protected].

Swain County Farmers Mar-ket Fridays: The Swain County Farmers Market is held on Fri-day mornings through the first Friday in October. The market is located on Island Street, in downtown Bryson. Booths from local growers and crafters include plants, produce, crafts and more. The market is also open on Tuesday evenings from 5 p.m.-8 p.m. through Aug. 16.

Movies on Everett: This family friendly outdoor movie event takes place every Friday night behind the caboose on the corner of Mitchell and Everett Streets from June 3 - July 29. It is sponsored by the Swain County Tourism Development Authority and facilitated by the Downtown Merchants Associa-tion. Opportunities are available for sponsorship. Contact Erin Smith at 404-683-7329. Follow Movies on Everett on Facebook.

Grief support: The Grief Support Group of Franklin meets weekly on Thursdays, 12:30 p.m.-2 p.m. at the SECU Hospice House of Franklin, located at 272 Maple Street, Franklin. For more information, call 828-692-6178 or email [email protected].

Swain Republicans: Swain County Republican Party will meet every third Monday of each month at 7 p.m. at the Swain County Courthouse in the District Courtroom. For more information, contact (828) 506-4893.

Adult Day Care Service: Do you have a loved one needing 24-hour care? Do you need a break? If so, come visit us at Sweet Thoughts located at 67 Bryson Avenue. We will take care of your loved one from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays with lunch being served at noon. To learn more about this service, please call 488-6255 or 488-3491.

Impact Youth Outreach Prayer: Impact Youth Outreach meets at Swain County High School on Mondays at 6 p.m. weekly for prayer. Everyone is welcome. For information, call Robert Owen II (828) 342-4291. To learn more, visit www.impac-tyouthoutreach.com.

Autism Caregivers Meet-ings: The Jackson/Swain/Qualla Autism Chapter and Family Support Network Care-giver Group meeting will be held the second Tuesday of the month September through June. The meetings will be held 6 p.m.-7 p.m. at Swain East Elementary School, located at 4747 Ela Road, Bryson City. To attend, RSVP including your name, phone number and email address. Call 828-506-6111 the meeting day to confirm.

Bingo at VFW on Tuesday: The Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9281 in Bryson City holds two bingo sessions every Tues-day night at 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the VFW Post 9281 at 120 ZJ Hyatt Road, Bryson City. For information, call Billy Whitt at 736-4146.

Free clogging classes on Tuesdays: Beginner Youth Classes (4 to 12 years old) will be at 5 p.m. Easy Intermediate Clogging classes meet at 5:30 p.m. Adult Beginner Classes (12+) will be at 7 p.m. Class-es are held at the Cooperative Extension at 60 Almond School Road in the SCC Swain Cen-ter. Classes are free and open to all ages. No prior dance experience is needed. For more information, contact Dee Decker at 488-3848.

Line dancing classes: The

public is invited to attend free line dance classes at the Senior Center every Wednesday at 9 a.m. Women and men of all ages are invited to participate in the class. For information, call instructor Shirley Sutton at 488-3532.

Bryson City Rotary Club: The Rotary Club meets every Tuesday at noon at the Iron Skillet on Everett Street. For information, call Dana at 828-342-2060.

Photo club: Sylva Photo Club meets the second Satur-day of the month, 2 p.m., at the Methodist Church of Cullowhee located on the campus at West-ern Carolina University. Each meeting features a speaker or workshop and pictures from our members. Field trips are also featured. For more information, contact the Sylva Photo Club at 828-293-9820, [email protected], on the Internet and Facebook.

Alcoholics Anonymous holds weekly meetings: Alcoholics Anonymous meets at Bryson City Presbyterian Church on Everett Street on the following days: Monday — Step meeting, noon; Thursday and Monday — Open meeting, noon; Saturday — Open meeting, 7 p.m. For information, call (828) 254-8539.

VFW posts meet monthly: Meetings for the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9281 Bryson City will meet at 6:30 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month. For information, call Billy Whitt at 736-4146. VFW Post 8013 Whit-tier will meet at 6 p.m. on the second Monday of each month. For information, call Steve Lusk at (828) 497-9166.

Thursday Line Dance Class-es: Learn basic and advanced line dancing steps with fun and energetic instructors. Classes will be from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursdays at the Cooperative Extension at 60 Almond School Road at the SCC Swain Cen-ter. Classes are free and open to all ages. No prior dance experience is needed. For more

information, contact Dee Decker at 488-3848.

Beekeepers club: The Smoky Mountain Beekeepers Club will be holding their annual “Beginners Beekeeping School” for those interested or new to beekeeping. This will be held March 12 from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Swain County Coopera-tive Extension (SCC Building). To register, call Bill Williams at 488-1391.

Bryson City Lions Club meets at Iron Skillet: The Lions Club meets on the first and third Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the Iron Skillet on Everett Street. For information, call Edwin Nelson at 488-0826.

PTSD Support Group: A PTSD Support Group for OEF/OIF and Gulf War Veterans will meet the first and third Thurs-day of every month at 6 p.m. at the Dogwood Wellness Center at 114 Hemlock Street in Dills-boro. For more information, call (828) 586-6262 or email [email protected].

Narconon: Narconon would like to remind families that the use of addicting drugs is on the rise, take steps to protect your family from drug use. If you know anyone who is strug-gling with drug addiction get them the help they need. Call for a free brochure on the signs of addiction for all drugs. Nar-conon also offers free screenings and referrals. 800-431-1754 or

DrugAbuseSolution.com. Addic-tion counseling: Narconon can help you take steps to overcome addiction in your family. Call 800-431-1754 for free screen-ings or referrals.

The New Whittier Cemetery is in bad shape. Amanda Estes did a marvelous job of making sure the cemetery was cleaned off. If you know who took over for her, please let Mary Jen-kins know. Also, if you have loved ones buried there (or know someone who does) or would like to donate time and/

or money to help, please con-tact Mary. Her email address is [email protected]. It would be a shame to let this piece of Whittier’s history to fade away. A big thanks goes to Randy Nations for the work he has already completed at the cemetery.

Happy Birthday to Katlin Roberts, Eilene Nowak, Sandy Carter, Pam Cope and Oliver Piercy.

Happy Anniversary to Bill

and Lotti Tedio.Please pray for Ann Baxter

and Bryant Rhode.We extend sympathy to the

families of Lavon Hyatt and Janet Beck.

A special thanks goes to Deep Creek Baptist Church for feeding the staff of Chero-kee Central Schools in honor of Teacher Appreciation Day! It was so nice!

It’s so funny how even when you write a fictional story, someone always believes you are talking about them! I guess it’s their ego!

Our prayers and sympa-thy are with the family of Pat-tie Cochran. She was the wife of Claude Cochran who was raised on Battle Branch just below the Alarka School. She will certainly be missed at our Green reunions as it was always said they were adopted by us many years ago.

Our prayers and sympa-thy are with Marie Cochran and family in the death of her brother Newell McMahan. Also pray for his wife who is in a nursing home.

Congratulations to all the students who received awards and recognition at the 2016 Academic Banquet Monday

night at the high school. We wish them all the best in life.

It was a fun and touching day Monday morning as the seniors of Swain County High School got to start a new tra-dition by putting on caps and gowns and going back to East and West Elementary, Middle and Bright Adventure Schools where they started from, walk-ing down the halls and march-ing through town and then from Victory Baptist Church to the high school where they were welcomed by the entire high school in front of the bell.

Principal Mark Sale and Stu-dent Council President Laura Booth climbed on top of the bell, and Mr. Sale got every-one’s attention and gave a lit-tle talk about the bell that was placed at the old Swain County

High School in 1904 and was known as the Ridge Ringer and was moved to the present site at the new high school more than 30 years ago.

He talked a little about the Alma Mater, which all of us who have previously gone through the halls of Swain re-member well. After the song, Mr. Sale told Laura to hit the bell 16 times (for each of the 16 years of this decade.) He said the students didn’t know the school song yet, they would by graduation because this is a new annual event. Thanks to all who had a part in getting this together. It sure brought back pride and precious memo-ries to the ones of us there who remember well!

The Senior Citizen’s Day at Mt. Vernon Church on Sunday was really good with some re-ally good singing by the Car-olina Crossmen. They feel like

it is home to them, as Carroll Blanton said he has been sing-ing at Mt. Vernon for more than 30 years. Fred and Marian Le-Quire were the couple married the longest, 63 years, followed by Russell and Elsie Cloer who were married 59 years. Fred was the oldest man at 87 years and Marian the oldest woman at 81 years old. Everyone who 64 years or older received a $10 gift card to Ingles.

The Inmans of Haywood County will be singing at Mt. Vernon Sunday durning the morning service. Everyone is invited.

Donations are needed to help pay to keep the Brendle Hill and Fred Cochran cemeter-ies mowed. They may be given to Dorothy Cochran or Roger Ledford or put in the donation box at the Brendle Hill ceme-tery. Please help with this as we like to keep our cemeter-

ies looking nice, and it takes a lot of work and time to do it. The men of the churches who have always done it in the past are now all getting older and not able to do it. The time has come that they are having to hire someone to do it. It seems the younger generation never has time or gives thought to doing these things.

Decorations will begin June 5 at Cochran Cemetery and June 12 at Brendle Hill and Fred Co-chran Cemetery.

Remember it is time for Bible Schools to begin. Please try to make plans for all the kids to attend. Mt. Vernon will have theirs June 12 - 16 with com-mencement on Friday, June 17.

Happy Birthday to two very special women who have been a great blessing and made a big impact on my life as well as many others; our cousin and a great prayer warrior, Ruth

Burnette on May 20; and my sister-in-law, Glenda Maney on May 21, who has been like a mother to me as well as a sister. I was only two years old when she married my brother Clyde!

Happy Birthday to my youngest grandson Evan Dur-ham on May 23 and oldest grandson Cody Cloer on May 24. May is a killer for me with birthdays as four of five grand-children have birthdays and my son has one. Guess we should have one big party at one time.

Happy Birthday to Chastity Stepp, Barbie, Frank Jones, May 21; Jimmy Lambert, May 22; Bill Dingle, Clay Waldroup, Peyton Matthews, May 23; Bert Herron, May 25.

Happy first anniversary to Wesley and Morgan Bland May 22!

Have a great week and keep a smile. Someone you meet may need to see a smile!


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COMMUNITY

By Carolyn [email protected]

The news from Alarka

The news from WhittierBy Cathy Dunlap

[email protected]

Men’s Teen Challenge Open House

Men’s Teen Challenge of the Smokies will have an open house and dedicationSaturday, May 21 at 4 p.m. at their facility at 336 AG Camp Road off of the Highlands

Road. (Turn by McCall’s Auto sales). There will be a short program in the auditorium, followed by refreshments in the cafeteria.

All of the buildings will be open for a tour to see all that has been done.Men’s Teen Challenge of the Smokies is now taking applications for their faith based

12-month men’s residential addiction recovery program. It will open and begin June 6. Please RSVP. For more info or to RSVP, call 524-2157. For more information, visit www.teenchallengeofthesmokies.com. “Like” Men’s Teen Challenge of the Smokies on Facebook.

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

• “If you use storage bins for kids’ toys, help them stay organized by labeling the bins with illustrations or even printed and laminated photos of the contents. It will make clean-up time a cinch, even for the little tykes who can’t read yet!” — D. in Michigan

• Bobby pins are easily manageable in a magnetic container meant for paper clips. They are inexpensive and can be found at big-box stores or at an office-supply store.

• Save and organize scrap yarn and embroidery threads on clothespins. Wind around and use the clip to hold the end in place. When you need some thread or yarn, you’ll be able to find the end quickly to get what you need.

• “Kids love getting water from the refrigerator dispenser, but we use far too many cups. Now, everybody has his or her own cup for water only, and we attached magnets to the cups so they live on the side of the fridge. Get water, drink, replace cup. Easy!” — A.L. in Alabama

• “Coil pipe cleaners around the out-side of regular plastic hangers. They will keep tank tops and spaghetti straps from falling off the hanger.

• Plastic wrap, parchment paper and foil can be stored easily in the same cabinet as pots and pans if you line them up in a magazine holder.

Send your tips to Now Here’s a Tip, 628 Virginia Drive, Orlando, FL 32803.

© 2016 King Features Synd., Inc.

Drive safely—Watch out for

children at the bus stop!

The Jackson County Pub-lic Library is hosting a mu-sical concert featuring Karen “Sugar” Barnes and Dave Ma-gill on Thursday, May 26 at 7 p.m. in the community room. This program is free of charge.

Karen “Sugar” Barnes was born in Washington, DC, the daughter of lap-steel player, Three-Finger Dean Young. It was Young who first introduced her to a Harmony guitar and from that point, Barnes focused on learning music and theater.

She attended the North Caro-lina School of the Arts, taught theater, and performed in other parts of North Carolina.

In 1999, Barnes began re-searching and performing traditional women’s blues. She loved learning about early blues women like Bessie Smith, Etta Baker and Algia Mae Hinton. She also learned to play a sin-gle-string slide guitar. Sugar Barnes has been a featured mu-sician at MerleFest and many local festivals including: Cullo-

whee!; Greening Up the Moun-tains; the Strawberry Jam; and Bryson City’s Fiddler’s Conven-tion. Barnes resides in Jackson County.

Dave Magill began his mu-sical career playing folk music in Boston coffeehouses. He played in several New Eng-land bands before heading to Austin in 1973. For the next 25 years he traveled the southwest performing classical and con-temporary country music on bass, guitar, and piano. Magill

now divides his time between engineering, and being resident studio musician at the Music Room in Webster.

Barnes and Magill have been working together for several years delivering folk, blues, and country performances throughout western North Carolina.

This program is free and open to the public. The event is co-sponsored by the Friends of the Jackson County Public Library.

For more information, please call the library at (828) 586-2016. The Jackson County Pub-lic Library is a member of Fon-tana Regional Library (www.fontanalib.org).


RELIGION

What’s in your heart is more important than your wallet“Jesus said, ‘Why do you call

Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46, New American Standard Bible). He posed a significant question.

Many people claim Jesus as Savior, wanting to escape a destiny in hell. We may hope that Jesus will help things to go better for us on this earth. We often think that religious affilia-tion creates better networks and opportunities. We may want to

identify with what we think is the right side in moral debates.

What if we claimed Jesus in

gratitude and faith because He claimed us? And then, what if we acted on His claim upon our lives?

Jesus told of two men build-ing houses. The one who built on a good rock foundation rep-resented people who heard God’s words and acted on them. His house stood firm through the storms. The other man built his house without any founda-tion. His house fell when the

torrent burst against it. He rep-resented those who hear but do not act. What are the words and deeds Jesus sought?

The immediate context gives important direction to the words and actions Jesus was looking for. Jesus had just said, “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you… But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting noth-ing in return; and your reward

will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men” (Luke 6:31, 35).

And after a section on not being judgmental, Jesus said, “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart” (Luke 6:45).

There is a lot of talk right now about many issues. Many people are claiming Jesus in ways that reveal their focus on expedience or usefulness. As we search for words of truth to speak, and as we claim Jesus as Lord, let us also be keenly aware of, and quick to repeat, words of grace. Rather than, “What’s in your wallet?” I am more inter-ested to know, “What’s in your heart?”

John Alden

Tagliarini

CHURCH NEWS

Jackson Line SingingJackson Line Baptist Church

will have a good “Old Time Gospel Singing” Saturday, May 21. A hot dog supper and singing benefit for Mrs. Crys-tal Styles will be held. The hot dog supper begins at 4 p.m. in the church fellowship building.

The singing will follow at 6 p.m. Expected singers are Ernie Cable and family, the King fam-ily, the Barnes family, Arlington Baptist Church singers, Old Sa-

vannah Church Choir and pos-sibly others.

Make your plans and invite your families and friends for some great Christian fellow-ship held for a worthy cause.

Cold Springs Baptist SingingCold Springs Baptist Church

will be hosting The Browders on Sunday, May 22 at 11 a.m. The Browders are an award winning gospel group from Hil-tons, Virginia who have had nu-

merous number one songs and albums on the Southern Gospel Music charts over the years. The Browders truly love the Lord and always give God the glory for everything they do.

Everyone is invited to come and hear this wonderful group in their ministry for the Lord. For more information, call 488-9124 or 736-1395.

Shabbatt SaturdayShabbatt Services will be held

on Saturday, May 21 at 10:30 a.m. at Congregation Bamid-bar in the fellowship hall of Andrews United Methodist Church, 101 Chestnut Street, Andrews. For more informa-tion, contact Phyllis Cardoza, 828-369-9270.

North Shore Cemetery 2016 Decorations Schedule:

• Sunday, June 5, Pilkey and Posey, Cable Cove, 9:30 a.m.

• Sunday, June 12, Calhoun,

Walker& Wike, Cable Cove, 9:30 a.m.

• Sunday, June 12, Conner & Stiles, Road to Nowhere, 2 p.m.

• Sunday, June 26, Bone Val-ley and Hall, Cable Cove, 9:30 a.m.

• Sunday, July 3, Proctor and Bradshaw, Cable Cove, 9:30 a.m.

• Sunday, July 17, Fairview and Cook, Cable Cove, 9:30 a.m.

• Sunday, Aug. 7, Cable Branch, Cable Cove, 9:30 a.m.

• Sunday, Aug. 21, Higdon & McCampbell Gap Cable Cove, 9:30 a.m.

• Sunday, Sept. 4, Welch and McClure,Cable Cove, 9:30 a.m.

• Saturday, Sept. 24, Mitchell Cable Cove, 9:30 a.m.

• Sunday, Oct. 9, Wiggins (Noland Ck) & Parking Area Noland Creek, 10 a.m., Bran-ton & Lower Noland

Catch the Spirit offering art classes this summerCatch the Spirit of Appala-

chia’s co-founder Doreyl Am-mons Cain is offering a wide variety of opportunities to those desiring to learn about the basics of pastel painting while enjoying the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

In 2016 beginning in May and throughout the year, a va-riety of workshop experiences are offered.

“Exploring your own creativ-ity while painting wildflowers, birds, portraits, nature scenes and still life is the focus, yet learning the basics of color, composition and tonal quali-ties as you experience the fun of painting. This makes for excit-ing art workshops!’ said Cain.

In May, three “Wildflower Pastel Painting” workshops happen at different locations,

the Southwestern Commu-nity Collage Sylva Campus, the Sylva Senior Center, Na-ture’s Home Preserve in Tuck-asegee and the Stecoah Valley Center.

On June 4 from 2 p.m.- 5 p.m., an art workshop will be at the Hooper’s Homestead in Tuckasegee where partici-pants will learn about life on a mountain farmstead as they

enjoy painting wild flowers. Other art workshops will

be at various locations, with a continuing Pastel Painting Class at the Sylva Senior Cen-ter every last Thursday at 1:30 p.m.- 4:30 p.m.

“This class makes it easier for us youthful, yet aging art-ists!” said Cain.

For more information, con-tact Doreyl Ammons Cain at 293-2239.

2016 Pastel Painting Workshop Schedule:

• May 20, 2 p.m.-5 p.m.- Stecoah Valley Center- Out-side Wildflower Pastel Painting

• May 25, 2 p.m.-5 p.m.- Sylva Campus SCC, Outside Wildflower Pastel Painting

• May 19, 1:30 p.m.- 4:30 p.m.- Sylva Senior Center, Out-side Wildflower Pastel Painting

• June 4, 2 p.m.- 5 p.m.- Hooper Homestead, Tuckase-gee, Outside Wildflower Pas-tel Painting

• June 7, 5:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m.- Sylva Campus SCC, Outside Wildflower Pastel Painting

• June 14, 10:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m.- Cashiers Senior Cen-ter, Outside Wildflower Pas-tel Painting

• June 30, 1:30 p.m.- 4:30 p.m.- Sylva Senior Center, Out-side Birds Pastel Painting

• July 9, 2 p.m.- 5 p.m.- Na-ture’s Home Preserve, Tuck-asegee, Outside Birds Pastel Painting

• July 13, 2 p.m.-5 p.m.- Sylva Campus SCC, Outside Birds Pastel Painting

• July 15, 2 p.m.-5 p.m.- Ste-coah Valley Center- Outside Birds Pastel Painting

• July 23, 10 a.m.- noon- Stecoah Valley Center- Pas-tel Painting for Kids

• July 28, 1:30 p.m.- 4:30 p.m.- Sylva Senior Center, Por-trait Pastel Painting

• Aug. 6, 2 p.m.- 5 p.m.- Na-ture’s Home Preserve, Tuckas-egee, Outside Landscape Pas-tel Painting

• Aug. 25, 1:30 p.m.- 4:30 p.m.- Sylva Senior Center, Fig-ure Pastel Painting

• Sept. 29, 1:30 p.m.- 4:30 PM- Sylva Senior Center, Still Life Pastel Painting

• Oct. 14, 2 p.m.-5 p.m.- Ste-coah Valley Center, - Outside Birds in Fall Landscape Pas-tel Painting

• Oct. 27, 1:30 p.m.- 4:30 p.m.- Sylva Senior Center, Outside Fall Landscape Pas-tel Painting

“A Fresh Start” by Doreyl Ammons Cain

Barnes concert at Jackson library next Thursday

Watercolor seminar at Swain Center for the ArtsThe Swain County Center

for the Arts will host a water-color seminar led by nationally acclaimed art instructor Mark Menendez on Saturday, June 11 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Menendez will lead partic-ipants in creating a beauti-ful painting entitled “Golden Meadow.” He notes, “Many times in my travels in the mountains, I catch the sun pro-

jecting its warm rays into val-leys and hollows. The sun il-luminates the fields where the corn has been harvested, creat-ing a spectacular golden glow.”

In this project, Menen-dez will offer his distinctive approach to watercolor, de-signed to boost skills in land-scape painting. In addition to his unique watercolor method, students will receive a personal

explanation of his view of color theory.

Don’t miss out on this lim-ited opportunity to learn from a nationally acclaimed art in-structor! This seminar is de-signed for beginner and in-termediate artists. There are only 10 spaces available. The fee for the six hour seminar is $45. To reserve a space, please call 488-7843.

Harris Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine to offer free Lunch & Learn June 3

Harris Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine will offer a free educational event on arthritic knees and knee replacement at noon on Friday, June 3 in the Harris Regional Hospital boardroom located at 68 Hospital Road in Sylva. Orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Lawrence Supik will present the session. Lunch will be served. Please call 631-8894 to register.

Dr. Supik practices alongside Douglas Gates, MD, Jud Handley, MD, Ryan Slechta, MD, Robin Pope, PA-C, and Alexis Willey, PA-C at Harris Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine. The group is located on the second floor of Harris Regional Hospital/A Duke LifePoint Hospital and provides the full range of orthopaedic and sports medicine services.

THE SMOKY MOUNTAIN TIMES — Thursday, May 19, 2016 — Page 6B

YARDSALES

Classifieds

Bryson City Woman's Clubyardsale, Saturday, May 21st atRiverside Pavilion at Admin-stration Building. 7:30-until.

Multi-Family, Saturday, May21st, 9am-? Take Alarka exit,follow signs to East Alarka Rdto Earls Rd. Guns, dresses, rid-ing mower, baby clothes & teenclothes. Max 341-5801.

Saturday, May 21st, 8am-until,Cloer Rd, first gray house onthe left. Multi-family. Appliances& lots more. Cancel if rain. 736-4116.

LANDSCAPING /YARD WORK

CHRIS COOK LANDSCAPING

CHRIS COOK GRADING. Wespecialize in Landscaping,grading, crosstie walls, boul-der walls, and we also haulgravel. Call for a free esti-mate 828-371-1768

SPECIALIZING IN GRAVELDRIVEWAYS and road repairs.Hauling small loads of gravel,road bond & topsoil, etc. Grasscutting and bush hogging. Jim828-736-2413.

PAINTINGD&L PAINTING AND PRES-SURE WASHING. Interior andExterior Residential and Com-mercial Free Estimates. Allwork guaranteed. Call LeeCrisp, (828) 479-4052 or mobile508-5270.

D&L Painting Interior ExteriorResidential, Commercial, Pres-sure cleaning/staining, InteriorPre-finished, Tongue & Groove& Doors, Trim etc., Drywall Inc. Hang, Finish, Tex-ture Level 5 Glazing Fully In-sured , also parking lot striping.828-508-5270. 828-479-4052.Free estimates.

MISCELLANEOUSSERVICES

GENERALEMPLOYMENT

GENERALEMPLOYMENT

GENERALEMPLOYMENT

GENERALEMPLOYMENT

GENERALEMPLOYMENT

GENERALEMPLOYMENTB H Graning Landscapes Inc. -

now hiring for the position oflandscape maintenance fore-man, the grass is growing andso is our business, come joinour team. Position requires NCdrivers license, 2 year horticul-tural degree, 2 years field expe-rience in landscape supervi-sion, and good work ethic.Great pay, benefits package,and profit sharing offered toqualified individuals. Pleasecall 586 8303 for more informa-tion or email resume to [email protected].

Be part of the team that bringsback steam in 2016! GreatSmoky Mountains Railroad inBryson City is currently hiringfor Retail Sales Lead & RearBrakeman in Train Operations.Earn train passes, retail andfood discounts, passes to areaattractions, and more! Applica-tions are available at theBryson City Depot or on-line atwww.gsmr.com/jobs.

BP Aztex hiring for all positions.Call Betty 828-736-5131 to getapplication. Will hold nterviewsin two weeks at the UnitedCommunity Bank conferenceroom on Thursday, June 2nd

from 11am-2pm. Bring twoforms of ID. Backgroundchecks required.

BRYSON CITY CABINRENTALS

Bryson City Cabin Rentals hasan immediate opening on theirMaintenance Team. Applicantsmust be reliable, hardworking,have good communicationskills, and flexible. Position re-quires repairing general mainte-nance and repairs at managedproperties, hot tub mainte-nance, and maintaining proper-ties to meet guest and ownerexpectations. Previous experi-ence and knowledge is a plus,but not required. Starting salarycommensurate with experi-ence. Please apply with re-sume and references in personat our office * 264 Highway 19South, Suite 4 Bryson City.888-483-3630

CDL-A TEAM Drivers! $5KBONUS! Top Pay & Benefitswith TN Based Carrier! GetHome Every Weekend! Medicalafter 60 days; Paid Holidays af-ter 90. Safe, late-model equip-ment. FREE Retirement. Haz-mat Required! Call Today!888-543-6480.

Deep Creek Lodge studentsummer jobs. Tube rentals,housekeeping, snack shop.828-488-2587.

THE CHEROKEE INDIANHOSPITAL AUTHORITY hasthe following jobs available:� FT CMA / LPN Specialty

Clinic� FULL TIME CLINICAL

NURSE MANAGER / INPATIENT

� FULL TIME SATELLITECLINICS MANAGER

� FULL TIME EXECUTIVENURSING ADMIN ASSIS-TANT

� FULL TIME RN / OPD(Specialty Clinic)

Applications and job descrip-tions are available at theCherokee Indian Hospital Hu-man Resources Office, MondayFriday from 8:00am - 4:00pm.For more information pleasecall 828 497-9163 and ask forTeresa Carvalho or Deb Toi-neeta. These positions willclose on May 20, 2016 @4:00pm. Indian preferencedoes apply and the originalCIHA job application must besubmitted. Resumes will notbe accepted in lieu of CIHAapplication.

Full and part time positionsavailable for retail sales andgem ores sales. Must be out-going, self-motivated with aneat appearance and positiveattitude. Apply in person atSmoky Mountain Gold andRuby Mine, Hwy 441 Cherokee.

High quality EXPERIENCEDJEWELER needed for estab-lished gem mining business.Full or part time position avail-able. Must be able to work withgold and silver and have excel-lent skills in ring sizing, gem-stone setting, and repairing.Knowledge of lapidary equip-ment a plus. Resumes can bebrought to Smoky MountainGold and Ruby Mine, Hwy 441Cherokee or emailed to [email protected]

The Eastern Band of Chero-kee Indians has the followingpositions open:Closing May 27, 2016 @4pm1. Housing Service Manager-QHA ($49,200-$61,500)2. Administrative Assistant-TOP ($31,078-$38,848)3. Manager of Legal Services-Legal ($76,670-$95,838)4. Associate Counsel IV- CivilLaw ($91,348-$114,185)5. Office Assistant- Education&Training ($25,830-$32,288)6. Cook Aide- KPEP ($19,598-$24,498)7. Driver- Transit ($23,616-$29,520)8. Administrative Assistant-Board of Elections ($25,830-$32,288)9. Assistant Court Clerk (Re-advertisement)- Tribal Court($34,112-$42,640)10. C.N.A (Re-advertisement)-Home Health ($23,616-$29,520)Open Until Filled1. Patrol Officers- CIPD 2. Detention Officer- DetentionServices ($31,078-$38,848)3. Part Time- Paramedic- TribalEMS ($34,112-$42,640)* Please attach all requireddocuments**eg: Driver license, Enroll-ment, Diplomas, Certificates*

Jewelry shop is seeking EXPE-RIENCED SALES PEOPLEwho are professional, outgoing,and are successful in one-on-one high end sales. Jewelrysales experience preferred butwill train. Must be willing towork flexible hours includingnights and weekends. Wageplus unlimited commission. Ap-ply in person at Smoky Moun-tain Gold and Ruby Mine Hwy441 Cherokee.

MASONRY SUPERINTEN-DENT – Pay depending on ex-perience. Company vehicle,paid vacation, incentive pay,profit sharing, Christmasbonus, safety bonus. (828)966-9584.

NOW ACCEPTING APPLICA-TIONS for experienced Fordtechnicians. Would be willingto train right person. Qualifyingcandidates must have workingknowledge of electrical andelectronic systems. Techni-cians will be responsible forworking on warranty and cus-tomer pay vehicles. We'reseeking highly motivated indi-viduals that must have prideand integrity in work. Attrac-tive package and benefitswhich includes medical, den-tal, vision insurance, paid va-cations and holidays. Apply inperson, 4910 Sylva Road.

THE CHEROKEE INDIANHOSPITAL AUTHORITY hasthe following jobs available:� FT OPTICAL ASSISTANTApplications and job descrip-tions are available at theCherokee Indian Hospital Hu-man Resources Office, MondayFriday from 8:00am - 4:00pm.For more information pleasecall 828 497-9163 and ask forTeresa Carvalho or Deb Toi-neeta. These positions willclose on May 23, 2016 @4:00pm. Indian preferencedoes apply and the originalCIHA job application must besubmitted. Resumes will notbe accepted in lieu of CIHAapplication.

Swain County Detention Facili-ty is accepting applications forDetention Officer and MasterController. Must be 21 yearsold, be able to pass a back-ground check, and a drug test.This is a demanding job that re-quires constant vigilance andprofessionalism. Must be ableto work in a team environment,work under pressure, and multi-task duties. To apply pleasecome in person to the SwainCounty Law Enforcement Cen-ter and ask for an application.

The following jobs are availableat Mountain View Manor Nurs-ing Center:� Full or part time CNA all

shifts.� Full or Part time LPN or

RN.All positions require a back-ground check and drug test.Please apply in person atMountain View Manor, 410Buckner Branch Rd., BrysonCity, NC 28713.

THE SMOKY MOUNTAIN TIMES — Thursday, May 19, 2016 — Page 7B

LEGALS

Subscribe to The Smoky Mountain Times and stay up-to-date on what’s happening in

your community and Swain County.

A 12-month In-County subscription isonly $28! Call (828) 488-2189 today!

GENERALEMPLOYMENT

JACKSON COUNTYClinician

Recovery Education Center (REC)

Seeking passionate, values-driven and dynamic profes-sional to join our JacksonCounty Recovery EducationCenter (REC). This programreflects a unique design whichintegrates educational, clinicaland peer support componentsin a center based milieu. Tobe considered, an applicantshould be familiar with the re-covery paradigm of mentalhealth and substance abuseservices. Applicant must havea valid driver's license, reliabletransportation, flexibility andmoderate computer skills. AMaster's degree and licenseeligibility are also required.

Clinician/ Team Leader Recovery Education

Center (REC)This program reflects a uniquedesign which integrates edu-cational, clinical and peer sup-port components in a centerbased milieu. To be consid-ered, an applicant should befamiliar with the recoveryparadigm of mental health andsubstance abuse services.Applicant must have a validdriver's license, reliable trans-portation, flexibility and moder-ate computer skills. A Mas-ter's degree and license eligi-bility are also required.

CHEROKEE COUNTYClinician

Assertive Community Treatment Team (ACTT)

Seeking an energetic and pas-sionate individual to join theAssertive Community Treat-ment Team in the beautifulmountains of Western NorthCarolina. Come experiencethe satisfaction of providingrecovery-oriented serviceswithin the context of a strongteam wraparound model serv-ing Clay, Cherokee and Gra-ham counties. If you are notfamiliar with ACTT, this posi-tion will provide you with anopportunity to experience anenhanced service that reallyworks! Must have a Master'sdegree and be licensed/ li-cense eligible. For further in-formation and to complete anapplication, visit our website: www.meridianbhs.org

SANTAS LAND is opening May21st and we are looking for out-going, self-motivated, ambitiouspeople who enjoy working in afamily environment. Full andpart time positions available forticket sales, retail service, foodservice, ride operator, janitorial,and grounds keeping. Must beat least 14 years old with a neatappearance and positive atti-tude. Apply in person at SantasLand Hwy 19 Cherokee.

MEDICALDo you desire to make a realimpact in your client's well-be-ing? Choices in Senior Care, arecognized Knoxville, TNbased company has excellentopportunities in the Cumber-land Region for Care Man-agers. We offer competitivepay, benefits, 401K and profitsharing. If you are an RN, LPNor LCSW looking for a flexible,home-based job with a compa-ny whose mission is to make adifference, please see our web-site at www.choicesinsenior-care.com. Apply under Ca-reers.

AUCTIONSHarrah's Cherokee Casinoand Resort will have a silentauction from 10 am to 12 pmMay 21, 2016 at the BarclayBuilding located at 164 Chil-dren's Home Road Cherokee,NC. Items to be auctionedrange from golf carts tokitchen equipment.

FURNITUREBeautiful wood Sylvania floormodel tube-type TV. 16.5”wide, 27.5” high. Best offer.828-341-1674, 863-558-0060.

LAWN & GARDEN17'x45' above ground oval pool,all accessories including deck-ing. FIRM $1,500 cash. Seriousinquiries ONLY! 488-2442,leave message.

MISCELLANEOUSFOR SALE

END ROLLS of newsprint pa-per for $2-$6. Cash only. Greatfor wrapping, packing or usingin the garden. Stop by SmokyMountain Times office, 8:30am- 5pm, Monday through Friday.488-2189.Little used four-person hot tub,works good. $150. 828-341-1674, 863-558-0060.

AUTOS FOR SALE

1979 L48 CORVETTENew black paint, new silvermats & interior, driver qualitywhite buckets no tears orsplits . Moon roof with new rub-ber seals, AT, PB, PS, PW, ACnot presently working.(recharge?), tubular exhaustmanifold. Engine runs strong.2* paint bubble on rear bumper.Passenger side window needsadjusting. Frame, fiberglass inexcellent condition. No knownaccidents. Good solid driverVette. $10,500. 828-526-4530.

RVS / CAMPERS1995 Pop up camper, $1,600firm. 828-488-3857 leave mes-sage.

HOMES FOR RENTHOUSE FOR RENT-ALARKA3Br/1.5BA, central air/heat, re-frigerator & stove. Service ani-mals only. $700/month plus de-posit. 488-8562 before 9pm.

APARTMENTSFOR RENT

2-3 bedroom apartments/mo-biles for rent. $500-$700/month with security deposit &references required. Call 488-6298.Smoky Mountain Court, month-ly rentals. $125/week, withkitchen $150/week. Call 736-5651.

MOBILE HOMESFOR RENT

MOBILE HOMESFOR RENT

2BR trailer, Lower Alarka. Re-modeled, references required.Call 736-3124 or 488-8741.

2BR/1BA mobile, quiet park inEla. References/backgroundcheck required. $400/month,$300/deposit. 488-8752.

3BR/2BA mobile home. Heat-ing, cooling, mountain view,mobile home park. $550/month,$550/deposit. 736-0111.

CABINS FOR SALE

STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA IN THE GENERA

COURT OF JUSTICE COUNTY OF SWAIN SUPERIOR COURT

DIVISION

16-E-37

NOTICE TO CREDITORSAND DEBTORS OF

McKINLEY LEE JENKINS, SR.

All persons, firms andcorporations, having claimsagainst McKINLEY LEEJENKINS, SR, deceased, arenotified to exhibit them toMcKINLEY LEE JENKINS, JR.,Executor of the decedent's estateon or before the 28th day of July,2016, or be barred from theirrecovery. Debtors of thedecedent are asked to makeimmediate payment to the abovenamed Executor.

This the 7th day of April, 2016.

McKINLEY LEE JENKINS, JR.,ExecutorFred H. Moody, Jr. Attorney at LawP.O. Box 670Bryson City, NC 28713(828) 488-214704/28/16-05/19/16 244873

State of North CarolinaCounty of Swain

In The General Court of JusticeSuperior Court Division

File No. 16-E-48

Notice to Creditors and Debtorsof Madeline Cable. All persons,firms and corporations, havingclaims against Madeline Cable,deceased, are notified to exhibitthem to Brenda Dills, Executrix ofthe decedent's estate on orbefore the 10th day of August,2016, or be barred from theirrecovery. Debtors of thedecedent are asked to makeimmediate payment to the abovenamed Executrix. This the 12thday of May, 2016.Brenda Dills, Executrix212 Hickory Hill RdBryson City, NC 2871305/19/16-06/09/16 251318

LEGALS


EDUCATION

Masonic Oconee Lodge awards four scholarships

Tony [email protected]

The AF & AM Masonic Oconee Lodge #427 in Bryson City awarded its annual Cur-tis Evans Memorial Scholar-ship on Thursday, May 12 to four Swain County High School seniors who will be attending college next year.

Presented by Roger Wil-liams, chairman of the schol-

arship, this year’s recipients for the $500 scholarships were Chelsea Dehart, Abbey Brown, Autumn Cochran and Conner Cochran.

Dehart will attend Haywood Technical College in the sum-mer, and the other students will attend Western Carolina Uni-versity in the fall.

“One of our main criteria for the fund is if they plan on coming back to Swain County

after they graduate,” said Wig-gins. “We don’t want our kids to get an education and not re-turn to help our community.”

When the fund first started in 2005, the year one of its for-mer members Curtis Evans passed away, they only were able to award two students. In the past four years, they’ve been able to give out four.

Photo by Tony Fortier-Bensen/SMTFour Swain County High School seniors hold their framed certificates awarding them col-lege scholarships at the Oconee Lodge #427. From left are Autumn Cochran, Abbey Brown, Conner Cochran and Chelsea Dehart.

Connect with us SMOKY MOUNTAIN TIMES@smokymtntimes www.thesmokymountaintimes.com

Swain County High School Academic Banquet 2016

At right, Swain County High School principal Mark Sale and senior Madison York embrace as Sale gives her a plaque and letter-man jacket for winning the Principal’s Award.Photos by Tony Fortier-Bensen/SMT

Above, Teacher Kathy Wiggins awards senior Trent Wright the Aubrey Lee Brooks Scholarship for $12,000 each year. Wright will attend North Carolina State University.

Toby Allman presents Gabrielle Lane the certificate for the George and Frances London scholarship, totaling $7,500 for each year. Lane received a total of seven scholarships that night.

On Monday, May 16, Swain County High School held its 27th annual academic awards banquet.

Students received awards for overall excellence in each sub-ject, and the school announced the winners of countless schol-arship opportunities.

This year, students earned $1.5 million in scholarships.

Michael Turner, right, poses with student Nicholi Nazare after receiving the Occupational Preparation Student of the Year award.

Carpentry teacher Derek Oetting presents senior Daniel Hudson DeWalt power tools for his overall excellence in car-pentry in the classroom and out on job sites.

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