Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Back to normal at Roberson
WLOSers wasted a lot of time Friday re-telling us the big news from Thursday – that 40-some students and adults were taken to the hospital because somebody used a repellent in a hallway.
Holly Headache talked to school and emergency officials, who both said they acted correctly and worked well together. What else would they say? Holly’s not one to ask tough questions. Holly added one tidbit that we hadn’t heard – local officials called in a National Guard hazardous materials team to help them, just in case.
Holly said five students are the subject of a criminal investigation. Meantime, school officials said punishment could range from 10-day suspension to long-term suspension.
Wet road, bad tires lead to crash
That’s what investigators said about the car wreck in Graham County the other day that killed a 10-year-old boy. The car went off the road and hit a propane truck.
Traffic jam over?
WLOSers buried this news in their show at 6 – the U.S. 19/23 bridge work that has required traffic to be detoured around the highway may be finished today (Saturday). This just five days after the state DOT said traffic would be detoured 10 days because of work to fix the cracked bridge.
Guess all that bitching and moaning from drivers got the DOT boys to work a little faster.
Change of venue
State prosecutors have asked for a change in venue for the trial of Polk County Sheriff Chris Abril. During last year’s elections, which Abril won, he was charged with rape and another sexual offense relating to incidents more than 20 years ago. Abril says the charges are politically motivated.
Still negotiating
Park Ridge Hospital and Blue Cross and Blue Shield are still negotiating. Patients, stand by.
A little blog love
A WLOSer producer or John “Punnyman” Le himself has been reading Ashvegas, because he totally ripped us off by doing a story on the Big Belly solar-powered trash can in downtown Asheville, which we posted photos of on Thursday.
The Punnyman talked to a city spokeswoman, who said the machine cost about $4,000 and it’s the only one out right now because they’re testing it. The city hopes it will actually save them money by reducing man hours used to empty overflowing trash cans.
Your butt will be happy
Asheville Pizza & Brewing on Merrimon Ave. has installed more than 90 new seats in the theater. Hurrah!
In other news…
There was a bad erosion problem near Lake Lure that sent a bunch of sediment into the lake. The area saw 3 inches of rain in a 24-hour period the other day… Long-time educator William D. Williams was remembered on Friday at his funeral. He was principal at Swannanoa Elementary School for years and was a school teacher and principal in the country for 30 years… Friday was Read Across America Day, and local schools celebrated the 50th birthday of the Cat in the Hat.… The Big Meow was Friday, a day at the humane society for cats to get an unkind cut… A Henderson County woman is ticked off at the state DOT for widening a road in front of her house and ruining her septic system. DOT replaced it, but the new septic system takes up her entire front yard, she says… There was a small fruit conference in Fletcher on Friday… And two old bridges on Morgan Hill Road will be torn down and replaced with modern bridges.
What exactly is the point of your blog? Regurgitating and making fun of stuff on the WLOST? Kinda sad.
Trouble, Ash, you are in it! My heinie is not at all large. It’s nearly perfect, in fact.
The road work on 19/23 seems to be finished, as traffic wasn’t detoured when I drove back from Johnson City way this afternoon at 4pm.
Edgy, is that a commentary on the condition of the seat, or the largeness of your heine?
Hurrah is right for APC’s new seats! I’ve actually fallen through a couple of the old ones–they collapsed when I sat down!