Blog bits: Another power plant proposal, more trouble for newspapers, a new dairy and more

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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A new power plant proposal?
Asheville City Paper had this in its Feb. 7 issue:

Robert Sipes, Progress Energy regional vice president, says it’s possible the company may need to announce plans for a new power plant in WNC this year. “It depends on the results of energy efficiency measures,” he added. The comment came in response to a question at the January meeting of the company’s Community Energy Advisory Council.

Following Woodfin’s rejection of a peaking power plant proposal last spring, Progress Carolinas announced a two-year moratorium on new plant construction. In addition, it appointed CEAC, a group of WNC community leaders to advise of energy conservation and efficiency measures. …

At projected participation rates, the total savings from efficiency programs falls far short of the 100 megawatts necessary to fill a supply gap looming at the end of 2009. Progress also reported a new peak energy demand record for WNC in January. It hadn’t expected a 965 megawatt load until 2010.

I also saw this tidbit about gubernatorial candidate Beverly Perdue’s stance on building new power plants in N.C.:

North Carolina shouldn’t license any more coal-fired power plants because they pollute too much and don’t move the state to greater use of alternative energy and conservation, Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue said Friday.

Releasing her energy platform in her run for governor, Perdue said if elected she would work to require utilities to create half of its future power generation needs through efficiencies.

“In North Carolina, changing our energy strategy energy is about more than protecting our environment — it’s an opportunity to build a green economy and a 21st century green work force,” Perdue said in a news release. Her leading Democratic opponent — State Treasurer Richard Moore — released an energy platform last week.

Perdue said issues surrounding last month’s licensing of a coal-fired power generator in Rutherford County for Duke Energy Corp. “must represent the end of an era for North Carolina.”

Public notices migrate to the Web
This USA Today story signals more potentially bad news for newspaper revenue and newspapers’ role as public notifier:

Like the handwritten thank-you note, another long-standing form of communication may be disappearing into the ether: the newspaper public notice.

At a time when consumers look to the Internet for everything from apartments to jobs, state lawmakers are considering ending the publication of government notices in newspapers, posting the information online instead.

Since the nation’s founding, government agencies have been required by federal or state statutes to print notices in newspapers to inform the public about such matters as condemnation of property or changes in regulations.

Seventy-five percent of adults in the USA are now using the Internet, according to a recent survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, and more and more legislatures are contemplating moving public notices into cyberspace as a way to save money.

“It will continue to be a discussion where states are trying to economize and where they see public notices as a burden,” says Shannon Martin, a journalism professor at the University of Maine who has tracked such efforts.

Publishing public or legal notices in newspapers, however, “is actually part of the legal process that we’ve had for centuries,” she says, “which doesn’t mean that it can’t change. It’s just that there were good reasons … so we might want to think twice before we dismantle it.”

Rhode Island Gov. Donald Carcieri last month proposed moving notices of rule changes by state agencies from newspapers to state websites as part of a plan to address an estimated $550 million budget shortfall.

The shift not only would pare the budget, but “we recognize that most people interested in these notices either have access to a personal computer or Internet access through a public library,” says Jeff Neal, the governor’s spokesman. “It did not seem necessary … to continue these postings in publications.”

No state, however, has completely stopped publishing such notices in newspapers, though nearly two dozen put at least some of that information online, Martin says.

New dairy

Just heard about Three Graces Dairy in Marshall. I cant’ find them on the Web, but from their brochure:

Ferguson Farm is an historic farm located in the Shelton Laurel area of WNC. The farm is home to Madison County’s state-of-the-art dairy operation, Three Graces Dairy. All of our cheeses are “farmstead.” In order for a cheese to be classified as “farmstead,” as defined by the American Cheese Society, the cheese must be made with milk from the farmer’s own herd, flock, on the farm where the animals are raised.

The farm’s goat herd includes three breeds: white Swiss Saanens, Nubians and Nigerian Dwarfs. The brochure says cheeses are available at the farm and through specialty stores and farmers markets. Farm and dairy tours will be available this year. Call 828-656-2195.

The farm “is the dream of Roberta Ferguson,” according to the brochure, and is located at 335 Milky Way, Marshall, N.C. E-mail at [email protected].

Polk County wants our water

The Tryon Daily Bulletin has the story:

Polk County, Tryon, Columbus and Saluda took the first step Friday night in a cooperative project that would satisfy Tryon‘s emergency water needs, and give the rest of them more options for water sources.

The four governments approved a resolution to apply for emergency grant funding for a water line from Saluda to both Tryon and Columbus. The line would allow Tryon to obtain water from Saluda, Hendersonville or Asheville if needed. Tryon is one of about 13 water systems in the state considered to have only about 100 days worth of water supply remaining. The state has been working with Tryon and the other water systems to plan connections to other water sources.

UNC system tuition increases

Here’s the story:

CHAPEL HILL –Tuition and fees are increasing across the University of North Carolina system. The UNC Board of Governors on Friday approved an average tuition increase of 1.2 percent for in-state undergraduate students. The increase will take effect this fall.

Fees will increase an average 4.5 percent.

In-state tuition increases vary across the system’s 16 campuses. The largest increase is 3 percent at UNC Pembroke, followed by 2.7 percent at N.C. State, 2.5 percent at Western Carolina, 2.2 percent at UNC Charlotte, 2 percent at UNC Greensboro and 1.9 percent at Appalachian State and UNC Wilmington.

Other increases are 1.5 percent at Elizabeth City State, 1.4 percent at UNC Asheville and 0.6 percent at East Carolina.

Students at six schools won’t see any increase. They are UNC Chapel Hill, N.C. A&T State, Fayetteville State University, N.C. Central, Winston-Salem State and the N.C. School of the Arts.

Woman from Asheville rescued from tunnel

The Post-Gazette has an amazing story of survival:

Rebecca Lynn Hare says she never doubted that she would emerge alive from a rapidly flooding maintenance tunnel beneath the David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

“It didn’t really bother me much, except it was really embarrassing,” she said, reflecting on the attention generated by her predicament on Thursday, when paramedics rescued her.

“And it was the cold that got to me.”

Ms. Hare, who was homeless and spoke of a troubled past, said she came here from Spokane, Wash., via Monongahela, Pa. She stayed in a Downtown hotel for a few nights before running out of money.

An avowed loner, she took up residence in the 340-foot tunnel.

Born Aaron Lee Wyatt in Asheville, N.C., she said she took her current name after deciding on gender reassignment from male to female.

A maintenance worker at the convention center was sweeping along the riverwalk leading to the Allegheny River Thursday morning when he heard what sounded like a man calling for help from inside the walls.

By then the river had risen above its banks and begun to fill the maintenance tunnel. The shaft was locked from the outside to keep people out, but Ms. Hare said she had found a way in by accident.

She had tossed her belongings onto what she thought was a roof above the tunnel door, which faces the river. The bag dropped inside behind the locked door. When she retrieved it, she decided the environs were more comfortable than sleeping outside under a bridge.

For four days she lived about 200 feet inside the tunnel, which narrows as it moves inland from the river. There is no exit at the inland end.