Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
It snowed some
Larry “Gloryhole” Blunt stood outside along the Smoky Park Bridge on Tuesday, his butt cold and his hair frizzed, and told us that there were more than 200 car wrecks on Tuesday because of the winter weather. He beat us over the head with this statistic.
The number was double the number of wrecks state Highway Patrol troopers usually handle in a day, Blunt said. Most of the wrecks were fender-benders, Blunt said. Most of the wrecks were in Haywood County, Blunt said, especially in the Pigeon River Gorge.
Most of Western North Carolina saw 2 to 4 inches of snow, according to Mike “Cuervo” Cuevas back in the warm weather center. And Larry noted that much of the snow melted away by the end of the day.
Schools dismissed early. Sheraldo went out to Madison County to tell us that. Terrie “Pasty-face” Foster was in Swain County and said there were lots of cars stranded there and in Maggie Valley.
Killer snow storm
Carolyn “Little Red” Ryan appeared next to Larry to tell us that the storm claimed one life. A Madison County woman lost control on an icy N.C. Highway 213 and slammed into a pick-up. One other person was injured. In Ryan’s words, the winter weather created a “postcard scene that would prove fatal.” Give us a frackin’ break.
Ryan talked to state DOT workers who tried to “prevent this situation at all costs.” Really, Carolyn? At all costs? Is that what they did? We really don’t think so.
Tossing the story back to Larry, he gave us close-up shots of his shoes in the snow. And he showed us how the glistening moisture on the roadway was turning into black ice right before our very eyes. Good job, Larry.
Ray Bradbury is bad
A Henderson County woman pulled her 11-year-old out of Rugby Elementary School and complained that the teacher was making all the kids read Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt.” Let’s get one thing clear from the start – Bradbury is an incredible sci-fi writer that everybody should read.
WLOSers said the kid had been home-schooled up until this year. So it’s his first year in public school, and he brings the story home for his mama to look over, and she is appalled. WLOSers tell us that “The Veldt” is about children becoming desensitized to violence. And that it’s about children killing their parents – maybe. The teacher says the book has an “interpretive ending.” Which is good, because it helps kids think for themselves.
The mom said the story “sends a terrible message.” School officials say their reading program has helped improve test scores.
Cal Ripken played here
John “Punnyman” Le had a decent story about Cal Ripken Jr. being inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. The local angle was that Jr. used to play Little League here in Ashvegas.
Ripken Jr. played for the 1973 West Asheville All-Stars. His former coach talked about him and said nice things and showed an old autographed baseball.
Remember that missing Laurel Park woman?
They found her dead body in the neighborhood. No word on the cause of death, according to WLOS.
Ashvegas City Council in action
City Council approved a county plan to build a new parking deck near the health center downtown. Council also approved a $35 million bond issue to help repair the city’s aging infrastructure of water pipes. And they approved a plan to build a multi-use building on Broadway.
New traffic engineer
Ken Putnam is the city’s new traffic engineer. The dude worked for 30 years for the state DOT. What he couldn’t get done in that 30 years is what he says he’ll get done now – synchronize the city’s stop lights. He said it will cost $5 million to $10 million for synchronization systems.
Mediacom vs. Sinclair
Mediacom is appealing to the full FCC an earlier decision by a partial group of the board. In that decision, the FCC said everybody was negotiating in good faith.
Power plant open house
Progress Energy held an open house in Woodfin to talk about a new power plant it wants to build out there. We saw gadfly Heather Rayburn talking to some people. What happened to your Staples issue, Heather? And we saw county commissioner Chairman Nathan Ramsey politicking.
Warmest year on record
The National Climatic Data Center, based in Ashvegas, told us that 2006 was the warmest year on record in the United States. It’s all about global warming, according to a weather geek the WLOSers quoted.
New senior center
Haywood County officials celebrated the opening of a new senior center in Canton. The old one was ruined in the floods of 2004.
Health update: prostate surgery
Jay Seltzerwater, who has no shame, stood beside a urinal to tell us that men who have to piss a lot often need prostate surgery.
In other news…
Some artist is painting a mural at West Buncombe Elementary School… Ashvegas City Council tabled proposed action to annex Biltmore Lake… It’s now safe to eat fish pulled from the Pigeon River near the Blue Ridge Paper Mill, according to the state. The old mill, Champion, polluted the hell out of the river. The story was that if you had a mangy dog, you could toss him in the Pigeon and his mange would be cured. But any-hoo, the past couple of decades, pollution-control measures have been put in place and the river has come back to health.
If Mr. Putnam can achieve his goal, there are many things about Asheville traffic that will be revolutionized overnight. Particularly for those going down H’ville Road, out Patton and up Merrimon. You could be amazed. There are strange conflicts between the cities and DOT (discl: I work for DOT) and the different route designations. I doubt the city will allow this to happen downtown since it would slightly increase speeds and the "statements" made by people walking out into traffic would become more weighted towards traffic. It’s not to say that it would favor traffic just that the breaks between pedestrians ROW and traffic ROW would be sharply delineated. It would also disrupt my urban warrior method of riding my bike downtown. College street heading from Jolie Rouge to Pritchard park is the only route that works this way – try it.