Huge amount of trees removed across from the airport? When will river and creek debris removal start? Waste Pro dumping trash and recycling together? • Asheville Watchdog
Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies, and the real answers:
Question: What is going on across from the south entrance of Asheville Regional Airport entrance, at the corner of Airport Road and Fanning Bridge Road? A lot of trees have been mowed down. Will it be another gas station? Or is this airport property?
My answer: I think we can all agree that we really need more downed trees around here these days.
Real answer: Two projects are ongoing in this area, which comprises about 10.5 acres and is a bit unusual in that it straddles the Buncombe County/Henderson County/Town of Fletcher lines. So multiple jurisdictions are involved in the planning process, although the airport does own all of the property.
“At 21 Airport Park Road, we have one lone parcel that is going to be another Sheetz,” Town of Fletcher Planning Director Eric Rufa told me.
This Sheetz store will be 6,879 square feet and located across the road from the airport’s main entrance. The Sheetz will be near the cell phone parking lot in front of the Wingate hotel.
Sheetz is a convenience store/gas station chain that opened a location just off I-26 at the Mountain Home exit in Henderson County last August. The company has plans to open five stores in the Asheville area, according to a November 2023 post in the online magazine C-Store Dive.
Plans on file with the Town of Fletcher call for a Sheetz gas station and convenience store on the north end of a parcel owned by Asheville Regional Airport, with more airport parking on the south end all the way down to Fanning Bridge Road. // Provided by Town of Fletcher
I reached out to Sheetz’s media department but didn’t hear back by deadline.
The airport will lease the parcel to Sheetz, according to airport spokesperson Tina Kinsey.
“Sheetz will be located in an area where a portion of our Shuttle Lot is currently located, immediately across the street from the main entrance of the airport,” Kinsey said. “Sheetz is replacing the airport parking spaces taken by their development — adding airport parking to the south, plus the 200-plus spaces contracted by AVL. Parking will extend to Fanning Bridge Road.”
Work crews were clearing the 10.5-acre parcel across from Asheville Regional Airport on Thursday. // Watchdog photo by John Boyle
So in a nutshell, the airport is adding more parking from the corner of Fanning Bridge Road up Airport Road to the Shuttle lot. This is the area the reader describes where the trees are being cut down.
“The airport is actively working to create more parking for travelers as part of the longer-term master plan, and this work is also part of the Sheetz development occurring on Airport Road,” Kinsey said. “Design is still being completed — we anticipate 200-plus additional spaces.”
Kinsey said there isn’t a completion date yet, but they’re targeting construction to begin in the spring.
In January, Nathan Pennington, planning director for Buncombe County, sent an email out to numerous planning and governmental concerns regarding the Sheetz store, explaining how it will fit in in the area.
“As proposed, the gas canopy and parking lot is to occur on the Buncombe County side and the main Sheetz building is to occur to the east on the Fletcher side,” Pennington wrote.
Question: When will someone start cleaning up the rivers and creeks around here? The Swannanoa River through Biltmore Village looks particularly bad. Is the Army Corps of Engineers going to do this? When will it happen?
My answer: This debris, ranging from pickup trucks to plastic wrap, is truly the worst-ever Christmas gift that just keeps on giving.
Real answer: David Connolly, a spokesperson for the Army Corps of Engineers, addressed debris cleanup at the Thursday Buncombe County Helene briefing, focusing mostly on right-of- way cleanup and homeowner debris. I asked him specifically about waterway cleanups.
It looks like debris removal in general is going to take time — months at least and probably longer, and the same holds true for waterways. Connolly did not sugarcoat his answers.
“If you think right-of-way debris removal is complicated, waterway gets that much more complicated,” Connolly said.
He noted that the Corps’ cleanup of heavily damaged Lake Lure is ongoing and will last through April. It began in October.
The Corps does have a “tasking” from FEMA to remove waterway debris in the mountains, but that involves multiple counties and multiple steps before the actual removal begins. Steps include receiving applications for the work, verifying the need through reconnaissance and then putting together a detailed plan that includes definitions of where the waterway in question begins and ends. The Corps also has to determine where the proper points of entry will be.
“So, though it seems like nothing’s happening, there’s a lot of back-end work that’s happening before we can actually be very clear on, ‘Where is the Corps picking up that debris? And how does that work?’” Connolly said, adding that the Corps is looking at similar cleanups in 10 to 15 counties where it’s waiting on clarity of directions. “And then we have to work through the contracting pieces of that, negotiate all those awards out, then start work and complete your work.”
I asked if he could give any kind of rough timeline.
“I honestly can’t — I won’t even pretend to speculate on that right now,” Connolly said. “I wouldn’t want to give people some false hope of a timeline, because I really just don’t have one.”
Readers in the Enka/Candler area say they’ve seen Waste Pro drivers dumping recyclables in with trash in recent weeks. // Provided photo
Question: Today was pickup day for both garbage and recyclables. I live just off of Monte Vista with a Candler address. I watched in dismay as the Waste Pro employee proceeded to dump both containers into the garbage truck. This was done at every address in our neighborhood. We have had enough environmental degradation in this area from Helene. The thought of tons of recyclables that people have taken responsibility to separate going into the landfill is despicable. It’s my understanding that as part of the contract with the county, the recyclable items are to go to Curbie for sorting and then sale. Bottom line is, it’s a good thing that Buncombe County has decided to go with a different vendor. The only question is, should Waste Pro be placed in a garbage container or the recyclable container?
Another reader described the same phenomenon, noting it wasn’t the first time: Unfortunately Waste Amateur did it again, here’s video of both trash and recycling being tossed in the recycling truck. Today is not our recycling day; it’s next week. And next week we were expecting bins to be taken. Two-thirds of the neighborhood, Fountain Park, had their bins taken today. I put mine out just in case. I wonder if there’s any point in recycling while Waste Pro is still the vendor.
My answer: Sometimes I think we answer our own questions.
Real answer: Waste Pro is indeed being replaced by a new waste hauling contractor, FCC Environmental, at the end of the year. That new contractor is putting out new cans and Waste Pro is picking up its old ones, and the only answer I got out of Waste Pro addressed this.
“Waste Pro is operating in accordance with the county-approved transition plan for cart removal,” Waste Pro spokesperson Tracy Meehan told me via email. “Thank you and have a great day.”
I asked for a better explanation but got skunked.
At the daily Helene briefing, Buncombe County spokesperson Stacey Wood addressed debris pickups and FCC, so I asked her about Waste Pro drivers apparently throwing away recyclables.
“So during the transition we are tracking this issue and several others,” Wood said. “We have been made aware that this is occurring in isolated areas and circumstances. We aren’t getting a whole lot about this particular issue that you mentioned, but we are aware of it in certain circumstances.”
The county is tracking issues county residents have with either Waste Pro or FCC Environmental, and it encourages residents to report problems at buncombecounty.org/solidwaste. Neither company is great about returning calls right now, I’ve heard from several readers.
The issues tracker, Wood said, will allow the county to “manage concerns and also to learn about new hot spots if there are areas of debris in the right of way that need to be picked up if it’s causing a public safety risk.”
Wood said the county has heard reports about Waste Pro reportedly dumping in recycling with trash, although it appears to be isolated.
“We wish that it was not happening,” Wood said. “But as we learn about these issues, we are making Waste Pro aware of them. So please continue to keep us informed if you do observe these kinds of things happening, and we’ll do our best to continue to address those with the appropriate provider.”
I asked her if the county really had any leverage, as Waste Pro’s contract is ending.
“We are working as best we can with both providers during this transition,” Wood said.
Again, sometimes I think we answer our own questions.
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 – ) 2025-03-31 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.
by Jane Winik Sartwell, Carolina Public Press March 31, 2025
Corn farmers on food stamps and taking second jobs. Equipment not being repaired. Debts going unpaid.
That’s the reality for many North Carolina corn growers this spring.
Last year was the worst season for the crop in state history, according to Ronnie Heiniger, a corn specialist at N.C. State. Drought wiped out acre after acre in eastern North Carolina last summer. Hurricane Helene devastated any crops left in the mountains.
Normally a $750 million dollar business, corn yielded only $250 million in 2024.
The economic cost to farmers — and their communities — couldn’t be more serious. And with a moderate drought stretching into the early days of this planting season, some are worried about more bad luck to come.
Corn is particularly sensitive to drought due to the crop’s very short window of pollination: This critical period of growth is just a few days long. In North Carolina, that vulnerable timeframe usually happens in June. If no rain falls during those days, corn will simply not continue to grow and yields will sharply decline.
“It was just about as bad as it could get (last season),” Heiniger recalled. “There’s no recovering from 60 days without rainfall. The mood among these farmers is very depressed. Some don’t know where to turn.”
But the N.C. House of Representatives is trying to help, hoping that the money allocated by the Corn Farmers Recovery Act, or HB 296, will be enough to keep the industry going.
The bill — which has yet to make it past the Appropriations Committee, the Rules Committee, the House and Senate — would transfer nearly $90 million from the State Emergency Response and Disaster Relief Fund to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The money would go toward the creation of a 2024 Agricultural Disaster Corn Crop Loss Program, which corn farmers could apply to receive relief funds.
“To be honest, I don’t think most farmers thought the state was going to pay much attention to them,” Heiniger admitted. “This comes as a complete surprise.”
Corn farmers ‘at risk’
Corn is a summer staple on tables across North Carolina, but the crop also is necessary for feeding livestock and producing ethanol, which has a variety of uses. Sampson and Duplin counties, where pigs outnumber people 38 to 1, are home to the largest hog industries in the country. A shortage of feed could make that billion dollar business less profitable, too.
“I think a whole lot of farmers will be applying for this funding if it passes,” Zach Parker, an extension agent in Sampson County, told Carolina Public Press. “I don’t think devastation is understatement in the slightest. As for this summer, the only certainty is uncertainty. But I don’t think the corn industry is going anywhere. We have animals to feed.”
The bill would have the greatest economic impact in eastern North Carolina — the region with the largest, most valuable corn farms.
“In Wilson County, corn farmers have really been at risk,” said state Rep. Dante Pittman, a Democrat who serves Wilson and Nash counties and co-sponsored the Corn Farmers Recovery Act. “We saw an almost $4 million drop in income from corn in Wilson alone.
“The thing about this industry is that we don’t know what this year’s weather is going to bring. Anything we can do to prevent that loss from being devastating is necessary.”
Desperation down on the farm
With the cost of farming supplies high and crop commodity prices low, farmers are growing desperate.
“This bill will not only help farmers, but the farm communities that survive on selling fertilizer, chemicals, seeds, tractors and farm labor,” Heiniger explained. “It will help these rural communities where farmers are turning to food aid for their kids at school.”
The bill is geared toward those who grow corn, but since most farmers harvest a diverse set of crops, the money would in turn support production of soybeans, cotton, sweet potatoes and other North Carolina staples, according to Mike Yoder, an associate director of the College of Agriculture at N.C. State.
But some, like Rhonda Garrison, have concerns about the bill. Like, how will the relief funds be allocated? That’s something Garrison, director of the Corn Growers Association of North Carolina, wants to know.
“The bill is pretty ambiguous in terms of the formula for distributing the money,” Garrison contends. “I guess farmers will just have to apply for it and see what happens.”
But she doesn’t think the money will come too late to be useful.
“There were some farmers — overleveraged farmers who were already on the edge — that were done in completely by 2024,” Garrison said. “But not the majority. The potential money from this bill will likely go toward paying down debt.”
As planting season approaches, North Carolina corn farmers face difficult decisions about the future. There is a possibility the state will face some kind of natural disaster in 2025, whether it be hurricane, drought or continued fires.
“Us farmers rejoice in suffering because it produces character,” Heiniger said. “That’s what these farmers are trying to do: hold onto their character so they can get some hope and keep on going.”
