A smattering of news from Tuesday

Snow shuts schools
What WLOSer Larry “Bluntman” Blunt as “heavy snow showers” and “waves of sleet” hit Madison County and forced schools to slow. “The snow didn’t stick, but the cold did,” he said.

As usual, Sheraldo was out in the weather with his Indiana Jones hat, telling us about how the wet roads could freeze overnight and how school officials use and automated calling system to alert parents. Sheraldo’s best line, in describing the decision to load up the school buses early was this: “School officials decided it was better to roll these pumpkins sooner than later.”

The Cliffs expanding
Cherub Charu offered a pretty good story about an announcement Tuesday that The Cliffs development in Swannanoa was expanding. The development will cover 2,500 acres of land up a mountainside and over a ridge into Fairview.

The development, called High Carolina, will have walking trails and nature preserves, Charu said. She was quoting Jim Anthony, the developer. High Carolina will appeal to the ultra-rich, will be environmentally friendly and will boost the local economy.

Charu got the contrasting view from Carol Groben, leader of a group called Swannanoa Pride. The group is working on making Swannanoa into an incorporated town. Groben said local residents are worried about stormwater runoff and how the development will look on the side of the mountain. She also said the blue collar/working class nature of the Swannanoa was endangered by pricey properties that could make the entire area too expensive (higher property values means higher taxes) for some people to live there.

Officer charged
A police officer in school, called a school resource officer, at Brevard High School has been charged with some sort of indecent liberties with a minor crime involving a boy. The incident didn’t happen at school, WLOSers said.

Here’s what WLOS has on its web site:

Deputy Charles McCrary was arrested Tuesday afternoon and charged with six counts of statutory sex offense. Sheriff David Mahoney says the victim and his parents came forward last week. They told investigators the crimes happened at McCrary’s home between June of 2005 and November of last year. Mahoney says the case will have a big impact on the community and his department.
“It’s such a horrible situation for everyone involved. My staff and I are committed to pursuing justice and that commitment doesn’t stop when we walk through that front door,” said Sheriff Mahoney.

Holy ground
WLOSer John “Punnyman” Le also had a decent story about an unusual church in downtown Asheville, 34 S. Lexington Ave.

Le still offered up his dorky puns – he said “the writing is on the wall” with video of a woman writing on a window with a marker, for example – but the story was still interesting. The Highland Christian Church rented the space for a month as part of an experiment to mix artistic expression with prayer, Le said. The godly gallery has a wailing wall and other spaces for people to express themselves through prayer and art.

Fighting drugs
WLOSer Carolyn Ryan said City Council on Tuesday was going to talk about the issue of drugs in Ashvegas (they did – see below). She said residents want to pressure City Council to do something about it and would show up to say so (they didn’t.) Ryan quoted Sistah Selena Sullivan about the drug problem, but Ryan failed to note that Sullivan has announced (right here) that she’s a candidate for City Council in this year’s elections.

Greenlife woes
WLOSers said City Council would also talk about a proposed fix to the issue of truck traffic on neighboring Maxwell Street. Residents there have complained about the trucks blocking traffic. They’ve also complained about the noise of the beeping trucks.

WLOSers said the Greenlife manager has spent $100,000 to try and fix things and will spend another $100,000 to try and take truck traffic off the street by moving a loading dock. He said he’ll also do more buffering, like building a fence. A Maxwell Street resident said anything would help.

Mediacom v. Sinclair
A Mediacom cable company spokeswoman spoke to Henderson County officials about how Sinclair sucks eggs for not working with them to reach an agreement and keep Sinclair’s WLOS station on the cable company’s line-up.

Jay Seltzer’s health update: Quitting smoking is good for you
We’re not making this up, folks.

In other news…
Homes are still being rebuilt in Haywood County, more than two years after devastating floods there… Asheville City Schools has not missed a single day for snow this winter. That means the school could lose a waiver that allows it to start school before Aug. 25… Students at The Asheville School got a talking to about libel and slander on the Internet. WLOSers quoted Watson Jordan, who was unidentified but we assume is the headmaster.