Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Here’s some news for the day to start your week:
Murder and arson charges
Cherub Charu, standing in the rain, said a man was arrested and charged with murder and arson after a trailer in Swannanoa went up in smoke and a bloody man was found dead just outside.
Charu said a neighbor, who knew the dead man, was arrested. She had an eyewitness account from somebody who they said they saw the dead man face up with blood all over his face in Forest Hills Mobile Home Park. Witnesses also said they heard a pop and saw flames in the front door of the trailer.
Charu also talked to a couple of young mothers with babies on their hips who said there was a homicide about a month ago just down the road.
No word on a motive. Charu said police said there was some sort of “relationship” between the two men.
In other crime news…
A Barnardsville man was arrested and charged with statutory rape for having sex with a person 13, 14, or 15 years old.
School bond scrutiny
WLOSers had just a short piece on what sounds like a big story – the state Board of Elections is investigating the Macon County school board for its involvement in a local school bond referendum. There’s a $42 million bond referendum on the ballot in November and the school board authorized spending $5,000 of taxpayer money to “educate the public” about the issue, but the problem is that some of the material directly asked people to vote yes on the referendum. WLOSers didn’t expressly say what law the alleged action violated.
Parkside condos
John Le had a snappily edited piece about a committee of the Pack Square Conservancy meeting with developer Stewart Coleman to talk about his plan to build a giant condo building right on Pack Square, on property that Buncombe County commissioners sold to Coleman. That sale has generated a lot of controversy and a lawsuit on behalf of descendants of one of Asheville’s founders.
Le said the developer agreed to build a concrete structure, instead of a steel structure, and that would lower the building height by 13 feet. Le didn’t tell us how many stories tall the building would be. He quoted a woman called “Lady Passion” as saying Coleman was real defensive. Not sure why Le didn’t give the woman’s real name – Dixie Deerman.
Then Le quoted Barry Summers as saying a giant building on Pack Square would send the wrong message about the community to people. Then Le quoted Coleman, who said he’s trying to build a structure that fits in and that all of Ashvegas could enjoy.
The full Park Square Conservancy will get to hear plans on Nov. 7.
In other news..
Continental Teves in Henderson County will get $250,000 in taxpayer money to help them add 35 new jobs and build more brakes for sport utility vehicles. The company says it plans to invest $8 million in its plant… ABCCM got a $1.6 million grant to buy the Super 8 Motel on Tunnel Road and turn it into a shelter for homeless veterans… And in a live report from Pat Simon in New Orleans, Simon told us that Warren Haynes of Ashvegas turned over the keys of a new home to a New Orleans musician who lost his home in Katrina. Money raised at last year’s Christmas Jam in Ashvegas built the home, and Haynes said playing music and turning it into building homes is cool.
In drought news…
Warren Wilson College showed WLOSers how a new building on campus has a roof that funnels rainwater into an underground 15,000-gallon holding tank to be used to flush toilets and water gardens. The system conserves water, they said… And people concerned about Black Mountain Golf Course watering its greens shouldn’t worry. The golf course uses water from Lake Tomahawk, which isn’t a drinking water source, the golf course manager told us.
In weather news…
Mike Cuevas says we’ll probably get more snow this year that we have the past two years, in which we’ve seen less than 3 inches of snow each year.
That Parkside condo deal’s dirty. The land was undervalued. The Commissioner Davids have both said the deal was a mistake. The land is public parkland, and the Pack’s deed stated that it has to remain so.
Coleman’s said that selling condos to the public is a public use and that the people who live there will be able to clean up crime in the park. The police and fire departments are already next to the park. Now he’s saying that, instead of the illegal land deal, the city can swap land with him, so he can build over Marjorie St.
And we haven’t even addressed the plans, which violate just about every criteria for building at the Park, according to Pack Square Conservancy.
Stewart Coleman has donated to the campaigns of Russell, Davis, and Butner. Davis has been recusing himself from the Downtown Commission meetings on the subject, but Butner’s decided he thinks he "can be objective".
This deal is the epitome of the dirty and ought to get torpedoed before it can metastasize into something operatically catastrophic.