Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies and the real answers:
Question: Over the past 10 days, we’ve been getting notices that U.S. Postal Service packages can’t be delivered due to various reasons like, “driveway was blocked,” and “customer requested hold at post office.” These are just not true. When I went into our post office on Hendersonville Road, the Arden Post Office, I was truly shocked. The line was out the door with customers picking up packages. Everyone had similar stories. The post office employees kept blaming Amazon for too many packages and kept saying they were “swamped.” When I say the post office was unorganized, I mean it. Piles of boxes were everywhere. The staff told the customer in front of me to come back in two to three days because they hadn’t sorted the piles and, “we don’t know where your boxes are.” It truly looked like the Whoville post office after the Grinch did his Grinchy thing. I kid you not! It reached a new level this (past) weekend when a medical shipment for my child was left at the post office because “customer requested it be held.” This is simply a lie. They aren’t even trying to deliver packages. Instead they are making up excuses for why they can’t deliver them. This is inexcusable at best. They are holding up medical supplies from reaching customers. This post office has been troublesome for years and everyone in Arden talks about it. But these undelivered packages are a whole new level of irresponsibility. Is there anything you can do to help?
My answer: I’m happy to have a word with the Grinch over a nice Cold Mountain brew at Highland. Also, count me in for singing, “Fah Who Foraze, Dah Who Doraze” when all the whos gather around the Christmas tree.
Real answer: Postal Service spokesperson Philip Bogenberger provided some answers on this one, but I don’t think my reader is going to be fully satisfied.
“Like many Post Offices this time of year, the Arden Post Office is seeing a heavy rise in mail and package volumes, as well as increased customer traffic into Post Offices,” Bogenberger told me. “Still, the Postal Service remains committed to accepting each mailpiece and making every delivery. We are truly appreciative of our team members who are working diligently and efficiently to ensure customers receive their holiday cards and packages by Dec. 25 in addition to delivering non-holiday mail.”
Hey, I appreciate them, too, but I wondered if this building is just too small or they don’t have enough employees. Bogenberger said the Postal Service leases the building.
“There are no plans to relocate at this time, but the Postal Service continually evaluates facilities to ensure they are suitable for operational needs,” he said. “Regarding staff, there were some employees at that office who relocated following Hurricane Helene. During periods of high volumes, we implement contingency plans such as bringing in employees from nearby offices if possible, calling in substitute carriers and hiring seasonal employees. We are committed to delivering every mailpiece.”
In general, Bogenberger said the Postal Service “is more prepared than ever to deliver for the holidays, even as volumes increase to their highest levels.”
“We are processing mail and packages around the clock and our carriers are delivering earlier in the morning and later in the evening.”
Waste Pro’s contract with Buncombe County ends at the end of the year. The company is collecting its trash bins, but it’s not trashing them at the Buncombe County Landfill, the county says. // Watchdog photo by John Boyle
Question: Is it true that Waste Pro is taking all the old trash cans to the dump?
My answer: I was kind of hoping this was true just because I’m a fan of irony.
Real Answer: Buncombe County’s new trash and recycling contractor, FCC Environmental, has been issuing new trash bins, and Waste Pro, whose contract ends at the end of the month, has been picking up its containers. But it’s not trashing them at the Buncombe County Landfill, said Johanna Cano, a Buncombe County spokesperson.
I had asked about this at Thursday’s Tropical Storm Helene briefing.
“We followed up with our Solid Waste department regarding your question about Waste Pro bins,” Cano told me. “They are temporarily staging them there. They will be hauled out to other markets for reuse. They are not being dumped at the landfill.”
Question: Buncombe County’s website gives the public access to their Graphical Information System (GIS) maps. Why is there no overlay that shows road blockages and construction/repair locations? This would be useful for planning travel, especially in areas like Fairview where a lot of work is being done. Surely, they must have this information in GIS just for their own planning and record keeping. This should have been up there within the first week of the Helene event. Nearly three months later, still nothing.
My answer: If you just assume that all traffic maps around here are bright red with congestion, no matter what app or website you use, that’s a pretty good bet.
Real answer: Buncombe County spokesperson Kassi Day checked in with the county’s GIS team for this one.
“Buncombe County acquires, develops, maintains, and uses GIS data in support of its internal business functions and the public services it provides,” Day said. “Since Buncombe County does not maintain roads, we do not maintain an overlay that shows road construction, blockages, etc.”
Day said they do recommend residents check the NCDOT website for real-time information on road closures, construction and incidents — drivenc.gov.
“Google, Waze, Apple Maps, etc. are the standards for routing, as those services provide directions, traffic information, and closures, etc., updated automatically by their algorithms and user input,” Day added.
Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Got a question? Send it to John Boyle at jboyle@avlwatchdog.org or 828-337-0941. His Answer Man columns appear each Tuesday and Friday. The Watchdog’s reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-01 13:32:00
(The Center Square) – Directions on curriculum measured age appropriate and access in public libraries to materials considered harmful to minors are in a proposal at the North Carolina House of Representatives.
Parental Rights for Curriculum and Books, also known as House Bill 595, adds to state law a section for age-appropriate instruction for students; a human growth and development program for fourth and fifth graders; and says reproductive health and safety education shall not happen before seventh grade.
Rep. John A. Torbett, R-Gaston
NCLeg.gov
The bill authored by Rep. John Torbett, R-Gaston, and filed Monday additionally has sections on instructional materials and clarification of “defenses for material harmful to minors.” Public library access for minors is in a fourth section.
Gender identity instruction, a buzzword of recent election cycles, is prohibited prior to students entering the fifth grade. The proposal extends that to prior to the entering seventh grade.
The bill would require parental consent to learn about some elements associated with sex education – infections, contraception, assault and human trafficking.
State law allows schools the option to adopt local policies on parental consent for the reproductive health education.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-03-31 16:37:00
(The Center Square) – Judicial warfare is eroding the confidence in Americans’ justice system leaving a blight on justice itself, says a North Carolina congresswoman who leads the Rules Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C, is speaking out against judges blocking the president’s decisions as granted in the Constitution ahead of a Tuesday congressional hearing.
“As of late, we have certainly seen a slew of rulings by rogue judges that surpass their own constitutional authority,” she said in a post to social media Monday afternoon. “This is judicial warfare in the flesh. If it is not remedied in a commonsense and expeditious fashion, these exercises in partisanship will do further irreparable damage to the nation and to the confidence of Americans in our justice system.”
More than a dozen orders from President Donald Trump – more than in the entire time Joe Biden, Barack Obama and George W. Bush served as presidents – have been thwarted or attempted to be blocked. Among the judges in the spotlight is U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, a pivotal figure in deportation of people accused of being in gangs in addition to just being named to preside in a case involving military operations and a messaging app.
Boasberg, appointed by Bush to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in 2002, was nominated to the federal bench by Obama and confirmed in the Senate 96-0 in 2012.
Boasberg on Wednesday issued and on Friday extended a temporary restraining order that prevents Trump from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport people believed to be part of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. A hearing, Judicial Overreach and Constitutional Limits on the Federal Courts, is at 10 a.m. Tuesday to be conducted jointly by the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet, and the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government from within the Judiciar Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.
California Republican Darrell Issa is chairman of the former committee, Texas’ Chip Roy the latter. North Carolina Democrat Deborah Ross is a minority member of the former; North Carolina Republican Mark Harris is a majority member of the latter.
Witnesses scheduled include former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Cindy Romero, a victim of criminal activity believed perpetrated by Tren de Aragua in Aurora, Colo. Also on the invite list are witnesses from the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation.
Other federal judges drawing fire from supporters of the president include Biden appointees Amir Ali, Loren AliKhan, Deborah Boardman, Angel Kelley and Brendan Hurson; Obama appointees Paul Engelmayer, Amy Berman Jackson, John McConnell and Leo Sorokin; Bush appointee Joseph Laplante; Bill Clinton appointee William Alsup; and Ronald Reagan appointees John Coughenhour and Royce Lamberth.
“Without question,” Foxx said, “exceeding constitutional mandates as a matter of judicial philosophy does nothing more than blight justice itself.”
www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-03-31 15:21:00
(The Center Square) – Wildfires continued to burn Monday in the Carolinas, though a sign of optimism arose with a burning ban lifted in 41 South Carolina counties and measured rainfall in both states.
Largest of the fires is Table Rock in Pickens and Greenville counties of South Carolina. The Black Cove fire is burning in North Carolina’s Polk and Henderson counties, the Rattlesnake fire is burning Haywood County, and the Alarka 5 fire is in Swain County.
South Carolina’s Horry County at the Atlantic Ocean and North Carolina border, and the northwestern counties of Spartanburg, Greenville, Pickens and Oconee remain under a burning ban. In North Carolina, all 100 counties have a ban in effect.
The Table Rock fire size is about 13,191 acres in South Carolina and 574 in North Carolina, the Forestry Commission of the former said. Containment is about 30%.
The Persimmon Ridge fire is 2,078 acres in size with 64% containment. Rain Sunday into Monday measured nearly 1 inch.
The Covington Drive Fire in Myrtle Beach is about 85% contained and in mop-up and strengthened firebreaks stage.
In North Carolina, the Black Cove complex of fires are 7,672 acres in size. It includes the Black Cove (3,502 acres, 36% contained), Deep Woods (3,971 acres, 32% contained) and Fish Hook (199 acres, 100% contained) fires. Rainfall overnight into Monday helped the battle.
