Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
The frozen tundra edition:
Top stories
-The weather: Bitter cold temperatures gripped WNC for a second day on Monday, and an evening burst of snow made roads treacherous Monday night. A number of schools were closed and are closed again today.
-Apartment fire: More details will come as an investigation into an overnight fire at Turtle Creek Apartments in south Asheville continues. Fire officials said they used a ladder to rescue a couple of people in dramatic fashion. The local American Red Cross chapter is accepting donations for those who lost their apartments in the blaze.
The rest of the story
-Magnetic Field: The Magnetic Field, the new coffee shop/restaurant/theater in the River Arts District’s Glen Rock building is holding a special invitation-only showing of its first production, the Bernstein Family Christmas. It’s going to be fabulous.
-Viral video: The story behind Asheville’s dancing Santa.
-Want meth with your chips and soda?: Jackson County meth lab inside the Moonshine Mini Mart is busted.
-Assistant principal arrested: An assistant principal at North Windy Ridge school has been suspended after her arrest on a larceny charge.
-A councilman’s year in review: Asheville City Councilman Gordon Smith this week is posting an exhaustive set of blog posts detailing his first year as a councilman. Read it and learn something about local government. Today’s installment offers an extensive review of how council voted on a bunch of key issues.
-Never forget: Today is Pearl Harbor Day.
-Gas up: Gas prices suck.
-Water quality: The Environmental Quality Institute at UNCA is back up and running. Great news for those concerned with water quality. From the Asheville Citizen-Times:
EQI, with Traylor as its head, is back providing monthly water quality data for dozens of sites in Western North Carolina and working toward getting the institute its own nonprofit status.
“It just seemed like a really valuable thing,” Traylor said. “This program had been functioning for 20 years so there was a big database of water quality information and there was still strong community support for it.”
EQI was started in the late 1980s by UNCA professor and environmental advocate Rick Maas.
The institute became a leading national center for data on lead contamination and performed water quality testing for local governments, nonprofits and other organizations. When it closed, EQI provided water quality data for about 200 sites in the region. It had four full-time employees and a handful of interns.
UNCA shuttered the institute in 2009 in response to state budget cuts, saying EQI was nonessential to student education.
-Skateboarders rights: Some skateboarders in Asheville who use their boards to commute want a local ordinance changed to allow them to skate on city streets.
Do the skateboarders who want to use their boards for transportation, not tricks, want to use them in the streets (with cars) or on the sidewalks (with pedestrians)? The article did not make this clear.