Western North Carolina farmers have repeatedly called for a new slaughterhouse and red meat processing plant that meets current needs. But the high cost of such facilities and uncertainty concerning its economic feasibility have hindered efforts to establish one here.
This year’s Firefly Gathering, being held June 25-28 in Barnardsville, aims to take its transformation potential a step further, putting cultural transformation at the forefront. The gathering, now in its eighth year, has always been geared toward changing participants’ lives through a variety of classes based on radical ideas and concepts, but this summer, directors are working to make that goal explicit instead of implicit.
The tailgate on Tom Riddle’s 19-year-old truck catches the attention of passers-by as he cruises the streets of Western North Carolina. The tailgate, custom-painted by Andrea Martin in February, features a replication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., altered to show the names of those veterans from the WNC region, as well as throughout the state, who died in the war.
“We don’t add anything until we find out that people in the community really want it,” says Hopey & Co. co-owner Danette Hopey. The expansion into the renovated space, she says, will include the addition of a stone-baked pizza parlor, butcher shop, espresso and fresh juice bars, ice cream shopette, bakery and a glass-enclosed wine room.
A few days after learning that Katuah Grocery will close at the end of the month, French Broad Food Co-op member-owners convened a March 21 community meeting to discuss expansion ideas that include a parking deck on the north side of the property. Construction could begin as early as 2016.
Students in UNC Asheville’s chapter of the American Meteorological Society use real-world experience, integrated with social media and technology, to feed their love for all things weather-related. There are weather balloons to release in the dark of night, mountaintop weather stations to maintain, snowfall to tweet about and, somewhere, a tornado or hurricane to track.
The 1.5 million children enrolled in North Carolina’s public schools this year will not be the only ones receiving grades soon. State officials plan to release a performance-based, letter-graded report card for each school, starting Feb. 5, and for some education leaders in the Asheville area, anticipation is high. Chip Craig, vice chairman of the […]
