Main Street renaissanc­e: WNC’s small towns confront growth, change

Asheville may be a top dream destination for many folks, but for an increasing number of newcomers and old-timers alike, the No. 1 dream destination may be just down the road a ways. With the challenges of urbanization besetting Asheville, newcomers and locals alike are turning to surrounding towns and communities in search of cheaper […]

Saving the family farm

When it comes to saving the family farm, Robin Reeves knows a thing or two. As a member of the sixth generation to grow up on her family’s Madison County farm — a lineage that predates the Civil War — Reeves was faced with being the last generation. The solution? A conservation easement made possible by the Southern Appalachian […]

Eyes on the future: Saving WNC’s farms

Robin Reeves is the sixth generation to grow up on her family’s Madison County farm — a lineage that dates back to before the Civil War. Reeves spent much of her youth helping her parents raise cattle, burley tobacco and tomatoes as well as her extended family in Sandy Mush. As an adolescent, she sold […]

At what price?

A small group of people in the Swannanoa Valley are proposing to form an incorporated township. But after listening to their reasoning, I’ve heard nothing to justify this. I have a personal reason for opposing incorporation. I came to the Swannanoa Valley in 1958 to work at Kearfott in Black Mountain. In 1959, I bought […]

Buncombe Board of Commission­ers preview: Commish peers into porn-viewing booths March 20

At its regular session on Tuesday, March 20, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners will hear from Sheriff Van Duncan on changes in his department and consider: support for Beaucatcher Overlook Park, creation of a Farmland Preservation Plan, tightening animal-control regs and new restrictions on peep-show booths at adult establishments.