News: Murder in Macon, tanked in Transy

Murder in Macon
WLOSer Kassandra “Special K” Pride went out to Macon County on Tuesday to tell us about a man charged with shooting his mother in the backyard of her home. Special K, trying to jazz up the news, said neighbors were left to wonder how he “could kill the person who gave him life.” O, the drama. Save it, Special K, and just tell us what happened.

The dude will have his first court appearance today (Wednesday.)

Tanked in Transy
Meantime, Carolyn “Little Red” Ryan, wearing an odd, fuzzy Kangol-type cap, went out to Brevard to talk to a woman who found a man face down dead in a creek in her back yard.

The woman said she took her dog Snuggles out for a walk and all Snuggles did was go nutso by the creek. So the woman looked and saw the dead guy. Ryan said police weren’t releasing his name yet, but said he was a 20-something who lived in the area. Police said they responded to a complaint about a domestic dispute at the guy’s place on Monday night.

The woman who found the body gave a pretty detailed description of the death scene – she said it looked like the guy had fallen face first, and maybe hit his head on a rock. He had a cell phone by his side. She said she was kinda freaked out by it all.

On the bum beat
Ashvegas is trying to help its homeless. WLOSer Susan Mundy checked out an event Tuesday at the First Baptist Church aimed at hooking up homeless people with service agencies.

The homeless folks got help with everything from health care to food stamps in Project Homeless Connect. Ashvegas is the first city in North Carolina to try Project Homeless Connect. It’s also the first in N.C. to pass a 10-year-plan to end homelessness, Mundy said. The regional director of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development was on hand to clap everybody on the back.

Judging from a recent visit to Pritchard Park, so far it ain’t working.

Organic Christmas trees
John “Punnyman” Le went out to Rogue Harbor Farm, where they grow organic Christmas trees. How niche is that? The couple working the one-acre farm said they sold all 75 of their organic trees. And they also make fresh wreaths that they box up and send out to dozens of states.

Le said the trees smell really good, but organic Christmas tree farming is still a pretty small operation.

In other news…
Woodfin and Weaverville are working on a “mutual boundary agreement,” basically a stopping point for future annexations… Buncombe County commissioners heard from residents about a proposed new power plant that Progress Energy plans to build on county-owned land out in Woodfin. Enviros say we don’t need another fossil-fuel burning plant, and they urged people to mail a letter with their power bill saying as much… Fire officials still don’t know what sparked a 10-acre blaze atop Spivey Mountain the other night… There’s a Christmas tour of bed-and-breakfast inns happening this week… The Wheels Through Time motorcylce museum has a little TV show that will air on local cable access… There was a fire on Rice Branch Road in Beaverdam. Nobody hurt, but four pets died in the fire.

New courtroom
For all you regulars at the Buncombe County Courthouse – that includes you, Sean Deaverview – there’s a new district court judge coming to work and they’re going to need a new courtroom, WLOSers say. So they’re gonna use the Buncombe commissioners’ meeting room. Bob Christy, clerk of court for life, said they’re just running out of space over there and commissioners only meet twice a month.

So the room will get a bailiff and be used for minor stuff like traffic citations. Cherub Charu did the story, and she talked to commissioners Chairman Nathan Ramsey, who said the commish will talk about courthouse space at an upcoming planning retreat.

In still other news…
There’s a green roof on a new building in downtown Ashvegas. The company that built it was Centrino and the architect was Peter Alberice… Fletcher preserves 10 acres of land along Hooper’s Creek… Jones Elementary School Principal Lida Woods is going to Guinea in West Africa to visit her son in the Peace Corps in January. She using her trip to teach her students about the big, wide world…. Some people at Mountain Springs Apartments got a letter from the property management folks saying there’s plumbing work going on, so you can’t use the water during daylight hours, but Michelle Boudin checked it out and said a city inspector said the letter was wrong.