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Why did Biltmore remove the beautiful old trees at its main gate? Lead flushing necessary at apartment buildings? City water has a ‘swampy’ smell to it? • Asheville Watchdog

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avlwatchdog.org – JOHN BOYLE – 2024-11-22 06:00:00

Today’s round of questions, my smart-aleck replies and the real answers:

Question: Why did the Biltmore Estate remove all of those beautiful trees at the entrance gate?

My answer: It’s all part of Biltmore Village’s new holiday marketing program, “It’s beginning to look a lot like a hurricane hit us.” It’s probably not the best marketing program in the world…

Real answer: Chalk this up to yet another notch in Tropical Storm Helene’s belt of destruction.

As most folks are aware, floodwaters rose to historic levels in Biltmore Village, including at the estate’s iconic entrance gate. The watermark on the gatehouse building remains visible, about two-thirds up the first floor of the two-story structure.

The trees lining the road leading to the gate were indeed iconic, as they’d been with us for more than a century.

“The tulip poplars that once lined the entrance to Biltmore, many of which were over 100 years old and original to the estate, suffered significant damage when the flooding caused by Tropical Storm Helene washed away the soil around their roots,” Biltmore Estate spokesperson Marissa Jamison said via email. “In addition to root damage, several trees experienced trunk damage, and a few were left leaning after the storm. As a result, the difficult decision was made to remove the trees.”

The Biltmore Estate plans to plant new entrance gate trees in the spring. For the meantime it has trees in large decorative pots. // Watchdog photo by John Boyle

The rows of poplars were planted during estate builder George Vanderbilt’s time, and they once stretched all the way to the depot in Biltmore Village, Jamison noted. Bill Quade, director of horticulture at the estate, shared that before Helene, 17 tulip poplars lined Biltmore’s entrance, 13 of which were original to the estate.

The Biltmore Estate’s gate house sustained flood damage from Tropical Storm Helene on Sept. 27. The high water mark is still visible about two-thirds of the way up on the building’s first floor. // Watchdog photo by John Boyle

“In the spring, we plan to replant these majestic trees as part of a broader effort to rebuild Biltmore’s entrance that we are working on following the losses we’ve all endured,” Jamison said.

The Gate House Gift Shop near the entrance also sustained heavy damage, and Jamison said the future of that building “is still being assessed.”

The 250-room home and 8,000-acre estate, which Vanderbilt originally opened in 1895, had to shut down after Helene downed trees and caused flooding Sept. 27. It reopened Nov. 2 and is hosting many of its popular seasonal programs, including Candlelight Christmas Evenings.

Question: With the concern about lead in the city water, can you ask about apartment buildings and flushing? How are they flushed? I live in the Kenilworth Inn building and it was built around 1910. How does flushing work in an old apartment building? Any other tips to avoid lead in the water? Apartments, to my knowledge, have never been mentioned at the daily briefings, but I easily could have missed it.

My answer: I remember the good old days when “flushing” was just something you had to remind your kids to do after they did their business. I miss those days.

Real answer: As we’ve previously reported, the city announced Nov. 14 that it had found detectable levels of lead in seven schools. The Water Resources Department has stressed that this occurred when the schools were closed and the water sat in pipes, which can lead to lead leaching into the system.

Also, the city suspended its anti-corrosion treatment program for 19 days because of high turbidity in the North Fork Reservoir. In older pipes where lead solder was used, corrosion from chlorine and other chemicals can cause the lead to leach into the system.

The anti-corrosion program was reinstated Oct. 30, but it can take more than a month to become effective again.

The city announced Nov. 18 that the water it was producing was potable again. Until that point, the city had recommended bottled water for any consumption, although it did say if no other sources were available, customers could consume water boiled for at least one minute.

The city has stressed that no lead is in its distribution pipes, but lead can be found in pipes of buildings and homes built in or before 1988, when lead was banned. It also has emphasized that if you flush pipes for 30 seconds to two minutes before using, that removes the lead.

I asked specifically about apartment buildings at the Thursday daily Helene briefing, and  Brenna Cook, the compliance manager for Asheville Water Resources Department, said they should not be of any more concern than older homes.

“So in apartment buildings, people are pretty much using water all the time, but it probably would be good for those property managers to do a system-wide flush,” Cook said. “A lot of those apartment buildings are master metered, so they would want to flush their lines themselves and then direct their tenants to flush their water as well.”

Water usage varies among tenants, Cook said, and the city doesn’t have any way of tracking that individually.

“If the tenant cannot get their building property manager to flush, we do still suggest flushing their water for 10 to 15 minutes at first, but then follow that with 30 seconds to two minutes each time they use the water for consumption, if it hasn’t been used for more than four hours,” Cook said.

Question: (I’m combining two reader questions here) 1. Are there other possible contaminants in the North Fork Reservoir that are not being tested for? 2. OMG, the water is putrid. I chanced a shower and a shave, and washed my hair. I’ve carried a sickening smell all day. Is this our new reality? I lived in Tampa for 25 years, and they got their water from the god-awful Green Swamp. The city water smells like Tampa water.

My answer: I imagine this made you a popular figure at the hot yoga studio.

Real answer: As far as contaminants in the North Fork Reservoir, the city has noted previously that because the reservoir is outside of Black Mountain and in a 20,000-acre watershed that is almost completely undeveloped, the water coming into it from the flooding did not contain chemicals or other materials associated with industry, businesses or other development.

On Thursday, Cook said they continue to test the raw water at North Fork, with results posted on the city’s Water Resources page.

“All the detections came back as normal,” Cook said. “You have to remember, North Fork is a protected watershed, so there’s less likelihood of stuff like that happening during a rain event. I’m not saying we didn’t have a lot of turbidity washing in, but there’s less worry of something like that occurring In the North Fork watershed.”

Assistant City Manager Ben Woody said at the briefing that if you do have discolored water, your first step should be to call the Water Resources customer service line at 828-251-1122.

“But the other thing to remember is, we still operate a significant and substantial water system, just like we have in the past,” Woody said. “We still have breaks that we have to repair.”

The city has had several breaks since repressurizing the system in mid-October.

“We do go repair those, but oftentimes, under normal business, if there’s a water main break there may be for a certain area a boil water advisory,” Woody said. “There may be some discoloration of water.”

Neither Cook nor Woody commented on any “swamp smell” coming from the water. I’ll note that I’ve not heard that complaint from other readers, at least not yet. 

Woody stressed that the water going into taps has a very low turbidity — .1 Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTUs) — which is where it was pre-Helene. The raw water at North Fork still has a turbidity of between 14 and 15, but the city is able to filter it and treat it before distribution.

“I just want to reiterate that the water that we are putting into our distribution system is coming through both of our water treatment plants (North Fork and Mills River), and it is of a quality that it typically is and meets all EPA and North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality standards,” Woody said.


Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. John Boyle has been covering Asheville and surrounding communities since the 20th century. You can reach him at (828) 337-0941, or via email at jboyle@avlwatchdog.org. The Watchdog’s local reporting during this crisis is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.

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Analysis: ‘Valley’ of AI journey risks human foundational, unique traits | National

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www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-02 14:21:00

(The Center Square) – Minority benefit against the majority giving up “agency, creativity, decision-making and other vital skills” in what is described as a valley of an artificial intelligence journey is likely in the next few years, says one voice among hundreds in a report from Elon University.

John M. Stuart’s full-length essay, one of 200 such responses in “Being Human in 2035: How Are We Changing in the Age of AI?,” speaks to the potential problems foreseen as artificial intelligence continues to be incorporated into everyday life by many at varying levels from professional to personal to just plain curious. The report authored by Janna Anderson and Lee Rainie of Elon’s Imagining the Digital Future Center says “the fragile future of some foundational and unique traits” found only in humans is a concern for 6 in 10.

“I fear – the time being – that while there will be a growing minority benefitting ever more significantly with these tools, most people will continue to give up agency, creativity, decision-making and other vital skills to these still-primitive AIs and the tools will remain too centralized and locked down with interfaces that are simply out of our personal control as citizens,” writes Smart, a self-billed global futurist, foresight consultant, entrepreneur and CEO of Foresight University. “I fear we’re still walking into an adaptive valley in which things continue to get worse before they get better. Looking ahead past the next decade, I can imagine a world in which open-source personal AIs are trustworthy and human-centered.

“Many political reforms will reempower our middle class and greatly improve rights and autonomy for all humans, whether or not they are going through life with PAIs. I would bet the vast majority of us will consider ourselves joined at the hip to our digital twins once they become useful enough. I hope we have the courage, vision and discipline to get through this AI valley as quickly and humanely as we can.”

Among the ideas by 2035 from the essays, Paul Saffo offered, “The first multi-trillion-dollar corporation will employ no humans except legally required executives and board, have no offices, own no property and operate entirely through AI and automated systems.”

Saffo is a futurist and technology forecaster in the Silicon Valley of California, and a consulting professor at the School of Engineering at Stanford.

In another, Vint Cerf wrote, “We may find it hard to distinguish between artificial personalities and the real ones. That may result in a search for reliable proof of humanity so that we and bots can tell the difference.”

Cerf is generally known as one of the “fathers of the internet” alongside Robert Kahn and for the internet protocol suite, colloquially known as TCP/IP.

Working alongside the well-respected Elon University Poll, the survey asked, “What might be the magnitude of overall change in the next decade in people’s native operating systems and operations as we more broadly adapt to and use advanced AIs by 2035? From five choices, 61% said considerable (deep and meaningful change 38%) and dramatic (fundamental, revolutionary change 23%) and another 31% said moderate and noticeable, meaning clear and distinct.

Only 5% said minor change and 3% no noticeable change.

“This report is a revealing and provocative declaration to the profound depth of change people are undergoing – often without really noticing at all – as we adapt to deeper uses of advancing AI technology,” Anderson said. “Collectively, these experts are calling on humanity to think intentionally and carefully, taking wise actions now, so we do not sleepwalk into an AI future that we never intended and do not want.”

In another question, respondents answered whether artificial intelligence and related technologies are likely to change the essence of being human. Fifty percent said changes were equally better and worse, 23% said mostly for the worse, and 16% said mostly for the better.

The analysis predicted change mostly negative in nine areas: social and emotional intelligence; capacity and willingness to think deeply about complex concepts; trust in widely shared values and norms; confidence in their native abilities; empathy and application of moral judgment; mental well-being; sense of agency; sense of identity and purpose; and metacognition.

Mostly positive, the report says, are curiosity and capacity to learn; decision-making and problem-solving; and innovative thinking and creativity.

Anderson and Rainie and those working on the analysis did not use large language models for writing and editing, or in analysis of the quantitative data for the qualitative essays. Authors said there was brief experimentation and human realization “there were serious flaws and inaccuracies.” The report says 223 of 301 who responded did so “fully generated out of my own mind, with no LLM assistance.”

Results were gathered between Dec. 27 and Feb. 1.

The post Analysis: ‘Valley’ of AI journey risks human foundational, unique traits | National appeared first on www.thecentersquare.com

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Trump urged to reconsider order gutting agency that gives grants to libraries, museums

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ncnewsline.com – Shauneen Miranda – 2025-04-02 13:00:00

SUMMARY: On March 14, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to dramatically reduce funding for seven federal agencies, including the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), which awarded $266.7 million in 2024. The order aims to eliminate non-essential functions and cut agency personnel to legal minimums. The move sparked backlash from library and museum organizations, warning it would severely impact early literacy programs, internet access, job assistance, and community services. Critics urged Congress to intervene, while the administration framed the cuts as part of efforts to reduce government waste under the U.S. DOGE Service initiative led by Elon Musk. 

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Raleigh City Council discusses transforming area near Lenovo Center, hears concerns

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www.youtube.com – ABC11 – 2025-04-02 08:44:01


SUMMARY: Raleigh City Council is considering a major redevelopment project near the Lenovo Center that would create a new sports and entertainment district with high-rise buildings, restaurants, shops, and upgraded arena facilities. The proposal, supported by city leaders and the Carolina Hurricanes—who agreed to stay for 20 more years—has drawn both excitement and concerns. Students and staff from nearby Cardinal Gibbons High School support the project but worry about pedestrian safety and construction impacts. City leaders suggested annual reviews to address ongoing issues. The council postponed rezoning decisions until April 15 to allow for more discussion and public input.

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New details are emerging about the bold new development that could transform the area around Raleigh’s Lenovo Center, creating a new entertainment district around the arena in west Raleigh.

More: https://abc11.com/post/raleigh-city-council-will-discuss-future-including-wake-bus-rapid-transit-project-housing-security/16114907/
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