There’s going to be a lot of pickin and grinin tomorrow in Cullohwee. The Jackson County Community Foundation is putting on their annual Pickin in the Park from 4 until 9pm on Saturday. The event will take place at the Recreation Center in Cullowhee.

The Great Smoky Mountain National Park is getting a little greener these days, thanks to the addition of two new donated electric vehicles. The vehicles are classified as Neighborhood Electric Vehicles, which means they are street legal for public roadways with posted speed limits of 35 miles per hour or less. The park will be using them in the Deep Creek Campground near Bryson City, and in the Cataloochee Valley. 

In Cataloochee, the Elk Bugle Corps, which is comprised of volunteers who circulate through the valley talking to visitors about Elk, will be using the new NEV.  Last year they used a gas fueled ATV to meet and talk about viewing elk responsibly and safely with park visitors. At Deep Creek, maintenance crews will be replacing a pick up truck, to help clean bathrooms, pick up litter, and clean out fire grills.  

The NEV’s are equipped with lights, heaters, wipers, and other car type features, and were purchased with a 31,900 dollar grant from the Clean Fuels Advance Technology program .

The Friends of the Smokies provided an additional 11,100 dollars as a required match.  Their share came from the 1.2 million that has been raised from the NC Friends of the Smokies license plates. In addition, the park received a 33,700 grant from CFAT, which was used with 9,900 from the Friends of the Smokies to purchase and install new tanks to convert the diesel vehicles in the parks fleet to a cleaner burning bio-diesel.

The Democratic Convention will have at least one face from Jackson County this year. William Styles, a senior political science major at Western Carolina University, was recently elected as a delegate at the 11th Congressional District Democratic Convention. He will serve as the districts delegate at the national convention held on August 25 thru August 28th, in Denver Colorado.

Styles a Bryson City resident and  2004 graduate of Swain County, currently serves as third vice chair of the 11th Congressional District Democratic executive committee, and is in charge of college and youth activities. He has also served as president of the Swain County Young Democratic Club and the WCU College Democrats.  

Styles plans to attend law school or work on a political campaign after graduating from Western, and would like to run for the office of Governor at some point.  This summer, Styles will be working for US Representative Heath Shuler in Washington, DC as an intern.  

A special course in CPR will be offered next week for local residents. Westcare Health System will be offering their “Babies Bumps and Bruises” course which covers infant and child CPR, choking, and safety in the home. RN Sherry trout will be teaching the class, and plans to cover all safety concerns. 

“I’ll be doing my teaching according to American heart standards, they will get a little booklet called friends and family, and it goes over everything.  I’ll have safety supplies that you can purchase at different stores, and different suggestions of things that parents say work really well, and a first aid kit that people can go buy.  We just generally sit and talk about general safety.” 

Sherry went on to add that the main thing covered in the course will be infant and child CPR and choking, she also added that the course isn’t just for parents. 

“One person has signed up, and that person is a teenager who is going to be baby sitting, and her mother thought it would be important for her to have this, I agree, I think that’s great.  I can teach teenagers thru adults.”

The class will be offered on Thursday, July 3rd from Noon until 3.  Nurse Trout says it normally only takes around two hours to complete. The cost is 10 dollars per person, and will be held at the Annex Classroom at Harris Regional Hospital.  To register call 586-7300.  6.26.08

Haywood County’s Emergency Communications Center released the 911 calls received during the shooting of Trooper David Shawn Blanton yesterday. The Emergency Center released 27 minutes of calls, the first coming from a trucker that saw the struggle between Blanton and Edwardo Wong II.

Dispatch: “Haywood County 911 what is your emergency” Trucker: “Ma’am, a cops been shot off of 31, There's a cop and he's been fighting with a guy at the 31 on the eastbound side of I-40 and I believe he just shot the cop.” Dispatch: “OK, sir listen to me, is it a highway patrolman or a deputy.” Trucker: “Highway patrolman I believe ma’am, there’s a big truck in front of me, and I’m in a big truck.”

The trucker is put on hold and you can hear him and other truckers try to get a tag number but are unable to. When 911 returns he tells exactly what he saw, and heard.

“I heard pop, pop, pop then the cop was down and the man was digging in his pockets and stuff.”

The second call received is similar to the first, the third caller’s phone rang for around 3 minutes before dispatch answered. Dispatch decided to let the phone ring because the two operators on duty were busy getting critical information from the other two callers.

Jackson County parents will have an opportunity to make sure their kids are safe next week. Westcare Health System will be offering a "Safe & Secure" class that focuses on proper child safety seat installation. RN and Certified Child Safety Seat Technician Sherry Trout will be instructing the class and feels that it's important to all parents.

"The important thing about the car seat class is that a lot of people don't realize that four out of five car seats used incorrectly - they are installed incorrectly by the parent. I was working in Georgia and over the last several years I checked about 300 seats. I believe there were only 7 out of the 300 seats that were installed correctly."

The class lasts around 2 1/2 hours with the actual instruction lasting around an hour with the rest of the time being devoted to checking the car seats.

"I had the parent install them and I'd check them or I'd assist them initially and then they'd learn so much about how to put them in that they'd be able to install them just fine."

The class will be held on Wednesday, July 2nd starting at 6pm and lasting to around 8:30pm in the Annex Classroom at Harris Regional Hospital. The cost is $10.00 which pays for supplies. If you can not make the class on the 2nd, they will be monthly. To register contact the pediatric floor of Harris Regional Hospital at 586-7300. 

The Jackson County Board of Education met on Monday, and received a report from the Jackson County Psychological Services. Dr. Raymond Turpin spoke to the board and mentioned that around 390 Jackson County students are active in their services. The Jackson County Psychological Services is a practice devoted to assisting children and their families address mental health and community support. Everything is going well with the kids program, the only problem is coming from the state level.

"Right now what they're doing at the state level is taking away our ability to hire Provisional Therapists who are therapist who have completed all their formal education and all they lack is some supervised practice in order to be qualified for their licensing exam."

Starting on July 1st the only Provisional Therapist that can do outpatient therapy with Medicaid kids are people directly employed and under supervision of a physician.

"Rural Mental Health Company is pretty much not going to be able to employ these people anymore to do therapy so we're going to have a little bit of a work force shortage for outpatient therapy. I think we've got things moved around where we're taken care of and our kids are taken care of."

Psychological Services have also figured out a way to get more support in the classroom during the school day.

"We've been in discussion with Western and some of the schools, where we are going to be able to use interns starting in the fall, so that we can provide some of this one on one in the schools, we're just not going to bill for it, but they will be able to get there internship hours and we will be able to have some skilled people in there to help these one to one behaviors."

Wong, accused of killing trooper David Shawn Blanton, was already charged with first degree murder, but on Monday, a Grand Jury gave a true bill of indictment for the first degree murder charge.

Wong was also given a second indictment for robbery with a dangerous weapon, that indictment stated that Wong willfully and feloniously stole the gun off of Trooper Blanton.

A search warrant released also showed that Wong actually shot at officers at least 4 times, not twice as originally stated. A list of firearms found in Wongs vehicle was also released. A Sig Sauer p229, a Springfield Armory xd-9, and a Keltec p11 were all found in Wongs vehicle.

There has been no word on whether or not the District Attorney will seek the death penalty.

Westcare Health Systems Foundation will be holding its annual Book Fairs Today, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Kerry Hockman from the Westcare Foundation believes that there will be books available for everyone. “Theres as variety of books for adults and children, and there going to be about 70% off of the retail price.”

The book fair kicks off today in Swain County. “The Swain County Hospital book fair will be in the cafeteria from 10 until 4, then its going to be at Mountain Trace Nursing Center on Wednesday in the family room from 10 until 4, and then will have it two days here at Harris Regional Hospital on Thursday from 10 until 9, and Friday from 7 until 2 and that will take place in the small dining room.”

The Foundation plans to use the proceeds for numerous projects. The proceeds from the Harris Regional book fair will go to the community childcare center, while the proceeds from the Swain County Hospital, and the Mountain Trace Nursing Center will go into each of there respective project funds.

Kerry Hockman hopes the community will come out and help. “This is a great opportunity for the community to come out and support westcare health system, and at the same time getting great books at a huge discount, there's a lot of fun books, and lots of variety, so I encourage everyone to come out.”

The book Fair again starts today at the Swain County Hospital Cafeteria, and will be held from 10am-4pm. Tomorrow it will be held at the Mountain Trace Nursing Center’s family room from 10am-4pm. It will be at Harris Regional on Thursday from 10am-4pm and Friday from 7am to 2pm in the Private Dining Room. For more information call 586-7669

The Board of Commissioners have allotted funds to the Jackson County Green Energy Park for Biofuel production to run all the diesels in the county’s fleet.

Tim Muth, Project Director at the park explains. “We are going to create bio-diesel fuel from waste vegetable oil and we're going to be using that fuel primarily for the Jackson County school buses, almost all of which are diesel, and then some of the other diesel equipment that the county has like the grounds equipment and a few other diesel vehicles as well.”

The oil will come from restaurants, commercial kitchens, and individuals in the form of waste vegetable oil from fryers.

“So we'll be collecting that used grease, instead of them paying some one to take it a way, we will come and get that grease for free, allow them to consider that grease a charitable contribution to the county, and give them some paper work so that they could take that off as a charitable contribution, and then we will take that grease back and use that as our feed stock to create our bio-diesel with.” Muth will be visiting restaurants across the county and in neighboring counties in the next few weeks to try to find sources for oil.

Individuals can also help. “As far as private citizens, we are going to be placing collection bins at all of the staff recycling centers around the county so that if people have there own grease from home they can bring it in just like they do with their used motor oil, now they can bring it in and there will be a receptacle they can pour it in to and then we will come by and collect those.”

The county has allocated $177,000 dollars to the project, that will cover equipment, processing chemicals, complete startup cost, a full time operator, and a part time driver to pick up the waste oil.

Any restaurants or commercial kitchens that would like to help with the project, or for any questions, contact the Green Energy Park at 631-0271.

Trooper David Shawn Blanton was laid to rest on Saturday. More than 2000 family, friends, and law enforcement officers filled Stuart Auditorium at Lake Junaluska to say their respects and goodbyes to the slain trooper.

Blanton was gunned down late Tuesday night by Edwardo Wong the II, a Florida resident with an extensive criminal past. Blanton was carried around the lake to the auditorium by a horse drawn carriage, with an officer leading another horse with no rider following behind. Six officers carried the casket into the auditorium, with law enforcement officers from across the region following two by two.

After the service, Blanton was buried at Thomas Memorial Cemetery in Whittier. Trooper Blanton left behind a wife, newborn son, and a large extended family.

Wongs next appearance in court will be on July 9th, for a probable cause hearing. He is being held at the Haywood County Jail on first degree murder charges.

The Board had to vote on a Resolution in support of an application to participate in the NC small town main street program. The program provides technical assistance in downtown revitalization, to selected small towns in NC. The technical assistance and expenses for the program is provided by the Dept. of Commerce at no charge to the town.

Jimmy Cabe made a motion to adopt the resolution. “ I make a motion that we adopt the resolution. I second, all in favor signify by raising their right hand, okay.” The board passed the resolution unanimously, and the application will be sent to the NC Department of Commerce.

Other towns selected for the program in years past are West Jefferson, Windsor, Walnut Cove, and Mount Olive, as well as others.

Sylva’s Steep Slope Ordinance is getting a little closer to being passed today. During their Town Board Meeting on Thursday, the board members discussed the few problems left in the ordinance.

The first that came up was the distance of vegetation from the owner’s property. Maurice Moody wanted the ordinance to move the distance back from 10 feet.

Harold Hensley believes the owner should be able to do what they want. "My opinion is it can be were the property owner wants it, if he wants to cut it he can cut it, if he wants to let it fall on his house let it fall on his house, we cant just keep putting restrictions on peoples land, if it creates a health or safety hazard to the public that’s one thing, but if it creates a safety or public hazard on yourself that’s another.”

Maurice Moody also had an issue with the amount of two lane roads specified in the ordinance. “I think we’ve got to much two lane roads specified here on steep ground. When you put in a two lane road on steep ground it takes out a huge cut in the mountain.” Moody wants to use more one lane roads to keep the cut, down on the mountain.

The concern comes from emergency vehicles, and the ability to get them to properties on a steep slope, with possible switch backs. “We need to require that emergency vehicles including whatever size fire truck that the fire department takes to a house fire, they need to have curves and grads so that an emergency vehicle can get there.”

The board decided to make all subdivisions stick to the two lane roads, but a private drive can use a 10 foot wide one lane road to hopefully accommodate an emergency vehicle. The board also changed the planting footprint from 10 foot to 20 foot from a house.

A public hearing has been set for the ordinance, it will be held on August 7th at 7 pm, and be held at Sylva’s town hall.

The outpouring of love and grief continues today for slain highway patrol trooper David Blanton. A memorial has begun to take shape at the spot on I-40 were Blanton was gunned down on Tuesday.

Flowers, flags, candles and a softball with a message from a girl once coached by the state trooper have been left at the scene on Thursday.

Trooper Blanton was shot by Edwardo Wong the II Tuesday night after a routine traffic stop. Wong faces first degree murder charges and is being held at the Haywood County Jail until his hearing.

Funeral services have been set for Saturday, arrangements have been made by Wells Funeral home in Canton, this is the third time the home has buried a trooper since 2001.

Blanton leaves his wife and his three week old son, who is still listed in serious condition in the neonatal intensive care unit at Mission Hospital.

Memorial Funds have been set up for the family, donations can by made at all six Mountain Credit Union locations. All State Employee Credit Union locations are also accepting donations, as well as three Champion Credit Union locations in Canton, Clyde, and Arden.

Central United Methodist Church in Canton are also accepting donations, call the church at 648-7270 for more information.

The debate over underage drinking stings continued at yesterday’s Sylva Town Board Meeting. Business owners and the Chief of Police both spoke at the meeting. The business owners seemed to want the same thing from the police department.

“One thing I would like to see, and I think what all this stems from is during the sting operation they follow the same guidelines that the ALE does, that way there’s no gray area.” That was downtown business owner Ross Larenz.

Sheryl Rudd, owner of Heinzelmannchen Brewery also spoke at the meeting. “When the ALE conducts their compliance checks, the minor is the only one involved in the transaction and the adult observes this transaction. In our situation as well as others the minor and adult were together, which leaves great room for mistakes, and is unfair to the server. If the police department choose to continue to conduct these stings, then all alcohol serving establishments need to be aware by want guidelines we will be scrutinized by.”

Sheryl went on to request the police department stop the stings in unwarranted situations, and work with alcohol permit holders to create campaigns to stop underage drinking in the community. “I really feel like if we work together, in whether that’s creating a task force, or whether that’s having meetings with the alcohol permit holders that there are things we can each do in our establishments, these stings won’t even be necessary.”

Police Chief Jeff Jamison also spoke to the board. “Let me assure the board and ensure the business owners of Sylva, that the police department does not have a vendetta against any business that’s operating in the town of Sylva.”

Chief Jamison added that the police department completely follows the ALE guidelines, and that the officer is accompanying the underage in a restaurant to be eyes and ears only. “If they go in separately to a restaurant, the undercover could very easily be seated in another area of the restaurant, to were they wouldn’t be able to observe what was going on.”

Sarah Graham, Town Board Member, hopes more education can come out of all of this. “I think this is a good dialogue and I hope that what comes out of it is more widespread education.”

The Board has been in contact with the ALE, and plans to hold ALE ran courses for the restaurants in the upcoming months. The police department will continue the stings until they see a drop in violations.

Mountain Trace Nursing Center in Webster has a new owner. The 106 bed long term care facility was established in 1989 by C.J. Harris Community Hospital, and has been run by Westcare Health System.

Westcare has agreed to accept a bid from Millennium Management to purchase the home which operated at a loss of 1.1 million dollars in the 2007 fiscal year.

Millennium Management owns 25 facilities in Florida, South Carolina, Ohio, and Georgia, and is experienced in acquiring hospital owned nursing facilities. Officials for the company have expressed that a seamless transition will take place to benefit both employees and residents.

New information has come out in the shooting death of State Trooper David Blanton. Law Enforcement officers have charged Edwardo Wong II with first degree murder charges in the death of Trooper Blanton.

Blanton pulled Wong over Tuesday night around 10:20pm, an altercation occurred between the two and Trooper Blanton was shot twice. Once in the shoulder and once in the wrist. After the shooting Wong took his time leaving the seen, and searched Blanton's body, taking his weapon.

Haywood County Sheriff Deputies, and Canton Police Officers apprehended Wong shortly after the attack. Three weapons, including Blanton's service handgun, as well as drugs were found in Wongs vehicle after an initial search.

Wong, who has a Florida address, told officials he was traveling from Tennessee. He has a lengthy criminal record that includes convictions for felony assault on law enforcement officers, felony drug violations, felony possession of a firearm and others.

Wong is being held in the Haywood County Jail with out bail, until a probable cause hearing on July 9th. 

Memorial Funds for Trooper Blanton’s family have been established at State Employee Credit Unions, under account number 60460003, and 3 Champion Credit Union locations in Arden, Canton, and Clyde.

Funeral Services have also been set for Trooper Blanton, they will take place on Saturday at Lake Junaluska.

Jackson County voters aren’t going to have to wait until November to enter the polling booths. Runoff elections will be taking place for the Democratic nomination for State Labor Commissioner on Tuesday, June 24.

John Brooks called for the run-off after finishing second with 24.4 percent of the vote in the original primary election. Mary Donnan led in the primary with 27.5 percent of the vote. Registered democrats and unaffiliated voters who voted in the democratic primaries in May are eligible to vote, unaffiliated voters that voted in the republican primary in May are not eligible.

The booths will be open from 6:30am until 7:30pm on Tuesday, One stop voting is going on as well, hours are 8am until 5pm today and Friday, with Saturday voting hours of 10am until 1pm. The winner will face Republican incumbent Cherie Berry in the November general election.

For more information call 586-7538

The State Highway Patrol is morning the loss of one of their own today. Trooper David Shawn Blanton was shot twice during a traffic stop on interstate 40 near Canton last night.

Blanton stopped a vehicle around 10:20pm for an unknown violation, once Blanton got the driver out of the car an altercation occurred and the Trooper was shot twice, once in the shoulder and once in the wrist.

The man fled the scene after the shooting, and immediately took exit 31 off of I-40. Haywood County sheriffs deputies and Canton police officers apprehended him shortly after on NC Highway 215.

Blanton, a Cherokee native, was a two year veteran of the highway patrol. He was married and had one child.

Jackson County residents and businesses will have the opportunity to review and ask questions about newly updated Flood Insurance Rate Maps next week. On Tuesday, June 17th the maps will be on display beginning at 6pm, with a presentation to follow at 6:30 at the Jackson County Justice Center.

The public meeting provides an opportunity for residents to see the results of the advance digital technology used to create the new flood maps. Officials from both the state and local levels will be on hand to help residents locate properties on the map and determine levels of flood risk.

Representatives from the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program, and North Carolina Floodplain Management will make short presentations on the map production process, features of the new maps, and how they can be used to reduce losses due to flooding in the future.

State and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) representatives will be on hand after the presentation to answer questions about flood insurance coverage, and floodplain management topics.

For more information on the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program, visit their website at www.ncfloodmaps.com.

The public meeting will again start at 6:00pm with the actual presentation beginning at 6:30pm in the commissioners board room at the Justice Center on Grindstaff Cove Road in Sylva.

Harris Regional Hospital welcomed a special guest to its staff appreciation reception yesterday. US representative Heath Shuler stopped by to thank the staff and discuss the congressional record that he wrote in honor of the Hospital and Westcare Health System.

Before representative Shuler could take the podium, Jerry Mckinney, chairman of the board for Westcare, showed his appreciation for all of the staff.

Westcare and Harris Regional picked up a large chunk of the slack left after Haywood Regional Hospital lost its major insurance carriers in February. Inpatient care increased 15%, catscan imaging study's increased 11%, and outpatient surgery's were up 48% during Haywood Regionals downfall.

Representative Shuler gave a short speech and explained why western North Carolina is a great place to live to the crowd. Shuler was also grateful to be able to give the staff a congressional record.

Representative Schuler signed a copy of the congressional record for the hospital and after a meet and greet with the staff, took a tour of Surgery and the Ambulatory Services Unit.

Two Catamounts are on there way to the big leagues after day two of major league baseballs first year player draft. Tyler Sexton, senior left handed pitcher for Western Carolina, and senior catcher Blake Murphy were both drafted yesterday.

Sexton was the 926th overall pick and taken in the 31st round by the Baltimore Orioles. Murphy was taken in the 42nd round by the ST. Louis Cardinals. Sexton is the third Catamount drafted by the Orioles program. He joins former Western Carolina players Alan Beck, Chris Davidson, and Chuck Koone.

Murphy, a Waynesville North Carolina native, was drafted by the New York Yankees out of Tuscola High School, but choose to attend Western Carolina instead. He is the second Catamount of all time to be drafted by the Cardinals, joining Tom Malchesky who was drafted back in 1988.