Enka smoke stacks coming down?

Jason Sandford

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

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You see the two tall smoke stacks on the right of this picture of the old American Enka plant here? Those stacks still stand, but they may be coming down very soon.

So says Jerry Rice, an activist resident who has been attending Buncombe County Board of Commissioners meetings for years, railing against any number of perceived injustices. According to Rice, there’s already a contract in place for a company to tear down the iconic stacks.

Rice is worried that the stacks contain asbestos and may not be taken down safely. Rice says he has it on good authority that the demolition work will be conducted around Thanksgiving and he presented his concerns to commissioners on Tuesday night. We’ll follow up and see if we can figure out what’s going on. Has anybody heard about this?

As y’all know, this possible demolition is another blow to many Enka natives who feel that their community has been hijacked by newcomers and by Biltmore Farms developers. The high-end Biltmore Lake development has transformed what was once a classic mill town into classic upscale suburbia.

Natives wailed when Enka Lake was renamed Biltmore Lake. Now they’ll have cause to wail again at the destruction of two stacks that have marked the community for decades.