The Southern Highland Reader

SYLVA–City Lights Bookstore, a retail anchor in downtown Sylva since the early eighties, is changing hands.

Owners Joyce and Allen Moore are selling the store to longtime employee Chris Wilcox, effective January 1.

Moore informed her customers of the change in a letter written on Monday, in which she wrote, in part:

As I begin my 66th year and a new decade, I feel the need to slow and simplify my own life, but I believe that I am leaving the store in capable hands, well suited to dealing with the evolving complexities of the bookselling world.

The Moores bought the store from local author Gary Carden in 1986, and moved it from Main Street to its current location at the corner of Spring St. and East Jackson St. a few years later.

In her letter, Moore also wrote:

Chris and his employees will also be facing many changes.  Some are beginning to affect not only the face of the bookselling world, but even the book itself.  It will take hard work, a constant acquisition of new information, flexibility and most of all, your continuing support to carry City Lights into the new decade.

Many independent bookstores across the country are closing in these economic hard times, but you have continued to say with your dollars that having a real bookstore in Sylva is important to you.  It is essential that you continue that commitment, not only to City Lights, but to all the independent businesses in downtown Sylva.

MURPHY–Dwight Otwell, staff writer for the Cherokee Scout in Murphy, reported recently about efforts made by mountain farmers to diversify and to profit from niche crops.

Agriculture has dwindled rapidly in the mountains, where farmers face not only the standard competition from industrial farming, but the added challenge of a lack of flat land.

Otwell’s lead:

Farmers who make their entire livelihood from working the land are almost a relic from the past in Cherokee County.

As the number of large farms has steadily dwindled, a new type of farmer has emerged, one who can forge a living from an acre or two growing for a specialty market.

He goes on to interview a vintner, a dairy farmer and vegetable farmers, all of whom are using innovative methods to make their famrs work.

Another excerpt:

A new type of market is using the Internet to sell products to high-end restaurants or consumers. The main market for this area is Atlanta.

The idea is that a chef gets the fresh produce he wants the next day, Wood said. The chef knows the farm the produce comes from and he trusts it. A person with as little as a half acre of land willing to grow specialty crops can make $20,000 to $30,000 an acre.

Read Otwell’s story in the Scout here.

DILLSBORO–This story, in which Constance Richards writes up Barry Kennon’s tiki bar party spot outside his house on the Tuckasegee near Dillsboro, first ran in the August edition of swanky WNC Magazine.

It’s been posted online since, so, given that party journalism pieces are few and far between in the mountains, it obviously needed sharing.

Kennon, a championship kayaker, modeled his tiki bar after one he knew in Costa Rica, and built it around his boat takeout.

Here’s an excerpt:

As more decorations go up, including tiki totems and palm leaves, Dieter Kuhn, Sylva’s resident brewmeister and owner of Heinzelmännchen Brewery, takes the B.Y.O.B. standard to a master’s level and taps a keg of his seasonal Hoppy Gnome. The set-up crew continues their work with golden pints in hand.

“If you only eat your own food and drink your own beer, you’re selling yourself short,” says Kuhn. “We have so many great venues in this little area—people really come together and like to share what they have to offer.”

In the kitchen, [former Spring St. Cafe chef Karl] Engelmann is crisping slices of fresh ciabatta bread and sesame-covered filone from Annie’s Naturally Bakery in the oven, which will be served with a panoply of cheeses. For the early guests, he sends out a platter of thick triangles of farmstead cheeses from Yellow Branch Pottery & Cheese, globes of Dark Cove goat cheese covered in chopped chives, and crudités.

Moving on to the trout, he blends pork sausage from Nantahala Meats and Poultry in Franklin, chopped croutons, garlic, and herbs, and spoons the mixture into the whole trout before wrapping each with bright green banana leaves and tying them with string. “This will literally steam the fish, keep the moisture in, and enhance the flavors,” Engelmann says. He has another trick in mind, too. Shells from the boiled peanuts he’s serving with the Cobb salad will go into the grill flames to add a nutty flavor.

Read the whole story here.

REGIONAL–Charlotte Observer Associate Editor Jack Betts posts about the season’s first snow.

A clip:

The snow gave up its ghosts around dusk when it thinned, bucked, coughed and stopped. An hour later the clouds parted and a cold luminescence lit up the landscape, giving these old hills an eerie specter until the wind began to pick up, blowing snow devils around like little white upside-down tornadoes. We threw more locust on the fire and poured a wee dram, and wondered briefly and idly if we might be able to salvage a snowed-in call to the office out of this lovely gift of late fall in the Blue Ridge.

Read the post at his blog here.

SYLVA–A final point granite marker and plaque will be dedicated Saturday, Dec. 5, to Nathan Hall, a Southwestern Community College surveying technology student who died May 23, 2008 of leukemia.

The dedication service will be held at 11 a.m. behind the Holt Library on SCC’s Jackson Campus.

Retired Southwestern Community College Surveying Technology instructor Peter Messier, left and graduates of SCC’s Surveying Technology program, Bentley Robison, middle, and John Jeleniewski, right, both of Sylva, assist with the granite marker and plaque that will be dedicated Saturday, Dec. 5, to the late Nathan Hall. The 11 a.m. ceremony behind Holt Library will honor Hall, a former SCC Surveying Technology student, who died May 23, 2008 of leukemia.

“Nathan was a model student and an outstanding individual,” said his former SCC surveying technology instructor Peter Messier. “A young surveyor who left his mark on the hearts of all who knew him by unselfishly giving of himself ” is part of the inscription on the plaque that will be dedicated by his former fellow students.

A native and lifelong resident of Jackson County, Hall was a key player in the formation of the first student chapter of the North Carolina Society of Surveyors and was elected the first president of SCC’s student chapter.

“Nathan was on his way to becoming a great surveyor and an asset to the community,” said Messier. “He had an impressive 3.81 grade point average, had received a $1,000 scholarship from the NC Association of Community College Facility Operations and was just two courses shy of completing his degree when he died at age 27. He lived in the Balsam community and was working for Civil Design Consultants in Waynesville at the time of his death.”

The public is invited to the dedication ceremony which will feature personal tributes to Hall.

OTTO–The Land Trust for the Little Tennessee (LTLT) has awarded its 2009 Ramsey-Brunner Land Conservationist of the Year Award to Myra Waldroop and family for their conservation work on family property at Rainbow Springs, in the headwaters of the Nantahala River in Macon County.

The award, which is given to honor individuals who have made significant contributions to land conservation in LTLT’s project area, was presented at LTLT’s annual Fall Celebration at Tessentee Bottomland Preserve in Otto.

The 248-acre property conserved by the easement conveyed to LTLT by Waldroop and her family has numerous conservation values. It lies on either side of the Waterfall Scenic Byway which runs from Rosman to Murphy and is adjacent to National Forest System lands. There are prime farmland soils being farmed and productive forest land that is managed for timber harvest, and, last, but certainly not least, it has nearly 4,000 feet of Nantahala River flowing through it and over 700’ of Black Creek.

According to Myra Waldroop’s records, the family has owned property in Rainbow Springs since as early as 1853.

“My grandfather, C.W. Slagle, acquired land in Rainbow Springs over a number of years,” said Myra.

The family used the property for family vacations for many years. During the 20’s and 30’s the Ritter Lumber Company operated in one of the meadows complete with a thriving lumber town including post office, commissary, hotel and school. A railroad hauled lumber down the river to be shipped away.

In 1948, Myra’s father, Carl Slagle, retired to Rainbow Springs, and later, Myra inherited a portion of the her grandfather’s property where both of her daughters now live. There are many stories of four and five generations who have fished, hunted, and gathered with friends and family at “Rainbow”.

“Many family traditions live on,” says Myra. “With this long history, my family and I decided we wanted this property protected from development. The LTLT was our solution. We appreciate working with the folks at LTLT. A special thanks to Sharon for her patience as we worked out the details of the Deed of Conservation.”

In her presentation of the award to the Waldroop family, Sharon Taylor stated, “LTLT’s mission is to conserve the waters, forests, farms and heritage of the upper Little Tennessee and Hiwassee River valleys. However, we work with landowners on a purely volunteer basis, so it is somewhat opportunistic. When Myra Waldroop called to say she was interested in conserving a portion of the Family’s Rainbow Springs property, that opportunity fit our mission like a glove. I know that all of the conservation values are important to LTLT, and important to the Family, but the Waldroop Family conserved their land because of their love of the land and the heritage that the land represents.”

REGIONAL–It’s a familiar complaint in the mountains: tax money, like water, runs downhill to Raleigh and never comes back.

The Asheville Citizen-Times‘ Joel Burgess contributed a history yesterday of western North Carolina’s under-representation in high-power state politics, quoting WCU faculty member Richard Starnes along the way and naming Jackson County’s Lacy Thornburg as an exception to the rule.

Here’s an excerpt:

With a few notable exceptions, including former House Speaker Liston Ramsey and Govs. Jim Holshouser and Dan Moore, modern mountain politicians have struggled to make a dent in Raleigh’s power structure. Reasons trace back centuries, scholars say, and range from geography to old grudges.“It has to do with the low population and also that WNC has often charted its own political path,” said Richard Starnes, head of the history department at Western Carolina University.

-and-

The list of western politicians who have held great sway in the Tar Heel State largely begins and ends with one man — former House Speaker [Liston] Ramsey.

Read the story here.

REGIONAL–David Tell at the Macon County News reports on the opening of deer season this Monday.

The season, which is expected to be an active one, runs until December 12.

Tell’s lead:

Deer hunting season opens Monday, and it’s expected to be a good one.

Whitetails are numerous, active, mobile — and hungry, according to wildlife officials, and hunter interest and presence are seen as strong.

Read the whole piece here.

REGIONAL–Those television wireless ads, the ones in which translucent, floating coverage maps follow various hipsters around town, have more to do with you than you know.

Even if you’re a consumer of rural land-line phone service.

The TV ads are pushing wireless “3G” service – 3G being a term for service that supports voice, video and data. But they’re relevant to land-line customers as well, because large phone companies are increasingly focused on the installation of wired networks with a capacity to stream great quantities of data.

In heavily populated areas companies that do this make big stacks of money. On the other hand, maintaining these services in rural areas like ours is expensive, which is why Verizon wants – and soon will get – out.

Verizon is in the process of selling its rural land phone business in 14 states – including North Carolina – to a Connecticut company called Frontier Communications. And while regulators in some states are being harder on the deal than others, there is little reason to think that Verizon customers in western North Carolina won’t become Frontier customers sometime next year.

In North Carolina, we haven’t heard too much about this, maybe because our Public Utilities Commission isn’t inclined to rock corporate boats. But in some states — West Virginia, Washington, Oregon and Ohio in particular — people, newspapers and politicians are pointing out that when Verizon makes such sales – and they do it often – the outcome is usually bad for rural customers.

Land customers here will argue that little could be worse than Verizon, but apparently they’d be mistaken. The smaller companies that buy Verizon’s rural land line infrastructure are often saddled with enormous debt in the transaction, and running a phone company in sparsely-populated, often mountainous terrain is high-dollar stuff.

The October bankruptcy of FairPoint Communications is a case in point. In 2008, FairPoint paid $2.7 billion to buy Verizon phone lines in Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire, but soon collapsed under the weight of its debt.

Wrote Oregonlive.com: “That set a grim precedent and served as a warning signal to regulators”.

Read the nuts and bolts of the deal here, from the Wall Street Journal
Read more about Verizon’s mixed messages on rural broadband here, from freepress.net
Read about an Oregon regulatory challenge here, from oregonlive.com
Read about West Virginia public opposition here from the Charleston (WV) Daily Mail
Read about West Virginia State Consumer Advocate Division’s concerns about deal here from WVNH television, Beckley, WV

CHARLOTTE–The Charlotte Observer reports that two Cullowhee area men were sentenced to federal prison Monday for “… attempting to transport, buy or sell an American black bear”.

Bobby Allen Gibson, 24, and Steven Louis Broom, 31, were charged in July of last year.

Both will spend ten months in prison, a year on federal parole and perform 100 hours of community service. Their punishment also includes banishment from federal lands, revocation of hunting and fishing privileges, and, in Broom’s case the revocation of the right to own a dog of any kind.

The Observer story is here.

Asheville Citizen-Times story here.

BALSAM–Blogger “Gulahiyi” holds forth on whether the internet is storytelling’s bane. His references, as always,  are broad-ranging.

An excerpt:

I know it is tempting to blame the Internet for the death of narrative. But is it really that simple? Any loquacious blowhard can satisfy the desire to tell stories…without the assistance of new technologies. But for a soft-spoken recluse such as myself the Internet provides an opportunity to share stories that would otherwise go untold. If it weren’t for this computer screen, I’d just be talking to the walls. Some might count that reason enough to condemn the Internet. It’s not for me to say.

Like it or not, change happens.

Read the entire post here.

REGIONAL–Widely-read Asheville political blog Scrutiny Hooligans has a look at the territory west of Balsam Gap — considered oh-so-mysterious by many Ashevillians – in this post.

Tom Sullivan is the author.

An excerpt:

There are Democrats out there. Not hemp-wearing Asheville Democrats, maybe, but Democrats, and more left-of-center than some here believe. At 10 a.m. on a weekday ahead of the 2006 election, it was a delight to find twenty people gathered at a Murphy campaign headquarters to discuss get-out-the-vote efforts. At a meeting this year after one of the votes on the stimulus bill, Democratic county chairs from across the district gave Shuler’s staff a tongue lashing over his no vote.

NC-11 is, on the whole, a moderately conservative one, with about 35 percent Republican registration and some leftover Reagan Democrats on the rolls. In 2008, Obama won only Buncombe county and Jackson county, home of Western Carolina University. He narrowly lost Madison and Swain. Shuler is a good fit for the district, whether Buncombe progressives like it or not. But it might be strategic for the congressman to show them a little more love whether or not they understand how things are done west of the Balsams. His vote on Saturday night did him damage that only a vote for final passage of the health bill might repair. Might.

Read the post here.

SYLVA–The forecast remains cloudy for Balsam Mountain Preserve, a 4,400-acre gated community near Sylva, after a foreclosure hearing for the property was continued for a month last Friday.

Jackson County Clerk of Court Ann Melton continued the hearing until November 30 at the request of Balsam Mountain Preserve attorney Jay Coward, and over the protests of the Asheville-based attorney for lender TriLyn, according to the Sylva Herald.

TriLyn, a Connecticut-based venture capital firm with connections to the Bank of Scotland and the middle eastern concern Investcorp, argues that Balsam Mountain Preserve has had over a year to address its now $21 million dollar debt to TriLyn, and seeks to foreclose.

Rumor has it that TriLyn officials have a relationship with the owners of the similarly high-end Cliffs Communities, and that the Cliffs Communities might be interested in acquiring the Balsam property. The Balsam Mountain Preserve is owned and was created by Chaffin/Light Associates of South Carolina.

Meanwhile, the Smoky Mountain News reports that a buyout offer from current homeowners on the Preserve is gaining steam.

The recent economic downturn has had a marked impact on the substantial mountain second-home market, and numerous planned or newly-minted gated communities have given up the ghost. But Balsam Mountain Preserve was begun nearly a decade ago, its amenities are mostly in place and over half of its lots are sold.

The Preserve’s recent layoff of about half of its 80-plus person workforce was a significant economic blow to northern Jackson County.

Should the Cliffs Communities appear on the scene in Balsam, one storyline will have come full circle: Balsam Mountain Preserve’s first president was named Jim Anthony, and the CEO of the Cliffs Communities is also named Jim Anthony. When Balsam Mountain Preserve was fresh out of the gates, nearly a decade ago, the Cliffs was involved in a land acquisition controversy in Transylvania County and the dual high-profile names were the source of considerable confusion.

HIGHLANDS–The Atlanta Journal Constitution painted a technicolor picture on Tuesday of the mountain luxury home market.

Reporter Jeffry Scott’s lead:

The bidders came dressed like money on vacation, in polo shirts, sneakers, shorts, loafers without socks and khaki slacks. One wore a flowery print beach shirt; another, a straw cowboy hat, cowboy boots, black jeans and a snake skin jacket.

Into this crowd, the owner of a $4.8 million mountainside luxury second home, cast his plight. And, if you had to guess, you’re probably right. He didn’t get his $4.8 million. He got barely more than half that — $2.45 million.

In a lengthy story for the business section, Scott goes on to give a detailed description of the sluggish high-end real estate market in Highlands and Atlanta, and to make clear how some owners of these properties are turning to simple absolute auction.

Another clip:

Owners of multi-million-dollar estates and second homes built during the boom years who are trying to unload the homes now are watching as they languish, overpriced and unsold, on the market, sometimes for years, then resorting to the last resort: absolute auctions.

In an absolute auction there’s no minimum bid and the seller can’t pull out because the top bid is too low. Three bangs of the gavel and it’s gone. Half of what you hoped for? Tough.

Read the entire piece here.

SYLVA–Don’t get me wrong, I like lists, too. In fact, I remember a teenage addiction to that eighties phenomenon called “The Book of Lists“.

But these days, when publications have less and less money but reader’s appetites for content are growing leaps and bounds, the lists come at you from every direction. US News and World Report, for example, which was a weekly news staple when I was a kid, is now a monthly publication that seems sometimes wholly devoted to lists of schools, hospitals and whatnot.

Sylva and Cullowhee made a couple of lists recently. Cullowhee got a controversial edge over Boone and Asheville in North Carolina as a “better sports town” in the Sporting News, and Sylva was named by the Mother Earth News as one of 11 “Great Places You’ve (Maybe) Never Heard Of”.

The Sporting News list ranks 399 “sports cities” in the U.S., using a methodology that is vague at best. That aside, the upshot is a 199th-place finish for good ol’ Cullowhee, 15 spots ahead of Asheville and 26 ahead of Boone. The howls of wonderment from the Asheville Citizen-Times sports desk will likely brings wails of  self-defense from Western, all amounting to a tempest in a teapot.

Update: Citizen-Times sports editor Bob Berghaus back-pedaled like a slow cornerback today, publishing parts of an op-ed from WCU’s Gibbs Knotts and arriving at the conclusion, more or less, that maybe Cullowhee is a great sports burg, who knows?

Sylva, meanwhile, is unaccustomed to the limelight. The Reader’s home base is a busy working town, described, out of context, by Edward Abbey as having “the life of a market center and the dignity of a county seat”. You can get just about anything you need on Sylva’s Main Street, from fresh-brewed beer to fresh-roasted coffee to fresh-baked bread to fresh fish. You can still get shoes fixed here, and the downtown dentist’s family has been at the same trade in the same place for well over a century.

But in this pre-packaged age, Sylva doesn’t fit the mold of a “destination” (a surprise to its many visitors), so the tourism folks don’t circulate its name much.

Of course, the Mother Earth News isn’t all that concerned with tourism. Here’s what it said about Sylva, which was one of two southern towns to make its list:

“Sylva embodies a vibrant small town that engages its citizenry in a variety of ways,” said John Rockhold, managing editor for the magazine. “Mother Earth News focuses on cool things you can do to live wisely and create community, and we think our readers will identify with a place like Sylva.”

Read about Sylva in the Mother Earth News here.

HIGHLANDS, N.C. – The Bascom is taking its community youth art classes up a notch with a new Saturday program for elementary through middle school age children.

Saturday Art School at The Bascom begins next Saturday, Oct. 24, for kindergartners through eighth graders. Fun, hands-on, age-appropriate art classes are held every Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon. Classes are held for two different age groups: grades K-3 and grades 4-8.

A student in a Bascom youth art class works on a project. A new program called Saturday Art School at The Bascom begins next Saturday, Oct. 24, for kindergartners through eighth graders. Registration is going on now.

The K-3rd Grade class will introduce children to all sorts of materials and methods of art making, with an emphasis on self-expression and immersion into the joy of creating.

The 4th-8th Grade class will cover the fundamentals of art while exploring a variety of media. While having fun with new materials and concepts, students will be gaining an understanding of the basic elements of art that form the foundation for future art study.

“Bring your child to art school for the morning,” said Norma Smith Hendrix, Bascom education director. “Parents can come and have coffee in The Bascom library while their child is in class, or they can drop off their child and enjoy a walk either on our nature trail or downtown Highlands.”

Cost is $64 for an eight-week session, with all materials included. Pre-registration is required and now open.

For more information or to register, visit www.thebascom.org or call (828) 526-4949 ext. 100.

CHEROKEE–In early September, the Knoxville News Sentinel’s Carly Harrington put together this overview of Qualla Boundary economic conditions, and talked to some folks that might not otherwise be heard in such a piece; among them, Leon Grodski and Natalie Smith, owners of Tribal Grounds Coffee and well-known multimedia artist Davy Arch.

The general theme: while the influence of Harrah’s Cherokee Casino has its pluses and minuses, the influx of cash that the casino brings is giving the Cherokee greater opportunity to control their economic destiny.

An excerpt:

While roadside shops continue to hawk their fake American Indian wares, locals say they are trying to get away from such “shot glass” tourist attractions, focusing instead on authentic Cherokee history and heritage.

“The tribe is spending money to create a nicer experience that’s more culturally oriented and authentic. The goal is to move away from the touristy trinkets from China,” Groski said.

After the park opened, people from other places were attracted to the area by the lure of tourism and its financial prospects. The tribe, in need of money, allowed them “to market their junk.”

“They wanted any kind of business they could get. We weren’t generating revenue to support the infrastructure,” Arch said, noting that there’s more tolerance and acceptance of the Cherokee culture today.

“Things are looking up. We have more control of our destiny now than the last couple hundred years. It’s changing.”

Read the piece here.

CHEROKEE-“We stand on the edge of becoming a truly unique voice in the world for indigenous art and culture,” said Joel Queen, new program coordinator and instructor at the Oconaluftee Institute for Cultural Arts in Cherokee.

Queen, whose art is displayed in such places as the Smithsonian Institution and the British Museum in London, says that art is the same language wherever you go. “The language of our Cherokee art is so storied with paintings, weaving, wood crafts, stonework and ceramics and I’ve spent my life creating in the Cherokee mediums,” said this enrolled member of the Eastern Band. “I’ve been able to make a successful living at it but now it’s time for me to give back and that’s why I chose to work with OICA.”

Master Cherokee potter Joel Queen, the new program coordinator and instructor at the Oconaluftee Institute for Cultural Arts in Cherokee, demonstrates a unique technique of using a cloth diaper to allow movement and expansion of clay. Luzene Hill, OICA program outreach coordinator, watches as Queen molds the strip of clay inside as he begins creating a piece of pottery.

His students, like Mike Taylor of Cherokee, respect the artistic heritage Queen brings to the institute. Members of Queen’s family have been potters for nine generations. “A lot of potters will keep their family secrets but I believe in sharing and in keeping the traditions alive so they don’t get lost,” said this grandson of potter Ethel Bigmeat. “One of the reasons to create art is so people can see their past and their future.”

“Part of our strength at OICA comes from our generational teachers like Joel and John Grant, who teaches wood and stone carving,” said Luzene Hill, program outreach coordinator for the institute.

“We give students a foundation in traditional methods, but we also give them the freedom to create contemporary art,” said Hill, an artist whose work is exhibited in private and corporate collections across the country.

Students of all skill levels are welcome at the institute, a joint endeavor of the Eastern Band, Southwestern Community College and Western Carolina University.

Students can earn an associate of fine arts degree from Southwestern. If they want to continue their education they can transfer to Western Carolina University, or any other college in the state university system, as a junior to pursue a bachelor of fine arts degree.

“Not all of our students want to go for a higher degree and we help them find their place in the market,” said Queen. “That’s important- they can be a great artist but if they don’t know how to market their work, they won’t be able to make a living from it.”

“Joel has his own business and gallery so he is the perfect person to help our students with marketing,” said Hill.

At present the classes are small enough that instructors can individualize a program around the student’s skill level.

Queen said part of his job is “taking students’ love of creating and helping them through the steps to achieve the vision they think their piece should look like. My job is to challenge them, to help them push their boundaries and see just how far they can go.”

But before they push the envelope and break all the rules, Queen teaches his students just what the rules are –rules he has learned from a personal mastery of clay and from knowledge and talent passed down from eight generations before him who sifted and kneaded hand-dug clay, stamped it with hand-carved wooden paddles and fired it in traditional pit fires.

“Here at the institute we respect and honor the traditions of our Cherokee ancestors. But after students master technique, we encourage them to show innovation and creativity,” said Queen. “For our Cherokee culture to evolve, our art must evolve first…and art is the same language, no matter where you go.”

While the institute is a mix of traditional and contemporary, the students are also a mix. About half are Cherokee and the others represent a mix of cultures, according to Hill, an EBCI enrolled member.

“The more students we get, the more programs we can offer,” she said. For more information, call 497-3945 or stop by the new location at 70 Bingo Loop Road in Cherokee.

Lily’s Treasures

Loretta Womack’s toy store “Lily’s Treasures”, open for about two years now at the corner of Main and Spring, is closing.

It’s a loss for Main St., in that it will leave a big hole at a prominent location, it’s a loss for the Downtown Sylva Association, of which Womack was president-elect, and it’s a loss for local families who like a step up from the standard fare, toy-wise.

“Almost all of the toys I carry have an underlying social or educational value, and they require interaction on the part of the child,” Womack told me recently. “Our kids need to explore and develop their own superheros and princesses,” she added. “Where is the imagination if all that is done for them?”

A nurse by trade, Womack has hired on with WestCare.

Spring Street Cafe

When most recent owner Lisa Agee closed Spring Street Cafe in late summer, it ended a 15-year stretch during which an eatery filled the spot beneath City Lights Bookstore.

Ownership of the restaurant has reverted to founder Faye Holliday, but the space still belongs to bookstore owners Joyce and Allen Moore.

The three are still considering possibilities, but clearly would like to see another dining establishment in the Spring Street space — one that’s as complementary as possible to a bookstore, Joyce Moore emphasizes.

DILLSBORO–Western Carolina’s Jill Ingram writes here for The Reporter that Western Carolina University’s art department will partner with the Jackson County Green Energy Park in Dillsboro to provide studio space for the study of energy-intensive artwork like glassblowing and metalworking.

Writes Ingram:

The university and the Green Energy Park are in the process of formalizing a collaboration agreement that will include graduate assistantships and classroom instruction based at the park, Tichich said. The park’s resources can help the School of Art and Design develop as “a fine arts center of a four-state area,” Tichich said.

Timm Muth, director of the energy park, said the collaboration is mutually beneficial. The park can provide resources not available at WCU, and new Western Carolina art graduates might take advantage of the Green Energy Park’s role as a business incubator by renting studio space as a step between academics and a career. “I feel that the park could prove to be an invaluable partner for WCU, offering students opportunities to put what they’ve learned into real-world practice,” Muth said.

Read the whole piece here.