NOVEMBER 19, 2009 ISSUE
News Watch
A Quick Look at News Across the Region
Comment Period for Citizens’ Plan for Watauga Ends Sunday
Watauga County residents have until this Sunday, November 22, to review the Citizen’s Plan for Watauga—the county’s new comprehensive plan—online by clicking to www.wataugacounty.org. Draft copies of the plan are also available at the Watauga County Planning & Inspections Department office, located at 331 Queen Street, Suite A in Boone. Prior to this Sunday, residents can submit input on the plan by emailing watauga.plan@ncmail.net.
Once all input is gathered, the Plan Oversight Group—a seven-member group appointed by the Watauga Board of Commissioners that has spent three years crafting the plan from citizens’ and county leaders’ input—will review the comments from the meetings and online submissions, recommend final edits and revise the plan. The revised plan will then be presented to the Board of Commissioners for adoption.
The Citizens’ Plan for Watauga is an expression of the vision of Watauga citizens and leaders of the county’s goals and objectives for managing change in the community. The plan’s purpose is to provide a balance between managing change, preserving community traditions, protecting the natural environment and enhancing quality of life.
ASU Earns Fifth-Straight Southern Conference Title
The ASU football team rolled past Southern Conference heavyweight and rival Elon on Saturday, November 14, to clinch its fifth-straight Southern Conference title.
In addition to becoming just the second program in Southern Conference history to win five conference titles in a row, ASU earned the league’s automatic berth in the 2009 NCAA Division I Football Championship. ASU will make its fifth-consecutive postseason appearance when the playoffs begin on Saturday, November 28.
ASU looks to wrap up a third undefeated Southern Conference slate in four years and claim the outright conference crown this Saturday, November 21, when it hosts archrival Western Carolina University in the annual Battle for the Old Mountain Jug at Kidd Brewer Stadium. Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m.
Is the Doc In? CNN To Announce Hero of the Year November 26
Voting is now closed for the Top 10 CNN Heroes contest, and Boone will have to wait until 9:00 p.m. on Thursday, November 26, to see if local resident and founder of the Boone-based nonprofit Wine To Water Doc Hendley wins the top prize of $100,000.
CNN’s Blue Ribbon Panel selected 28 CNN Heroes for 2009, whose stories aired weekly from February to September on CNN, HLN, CNN International, CNN en Español and CNN.com. The field was further narrowed to the Top 10 CNN Heroes based on the criteria of accomplishment, impact and personal motivation for their service to others. Each of the Top 10 CNN Heroes received $25,000 to use at their discretion.
The Hero of the Year will be announced on November 26 during “CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute,” and that person’s organization will receive an additional $100,000. Next week’s telecast will air live on CNN from Los Angeles, Calif., and is hosted by CNN’s Anderson Cooper and showbiz stars Carrie Underwood, Neil Patrick Harris, Nicole Kidman and Kate Hudson.
For more information on the contest, click to www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes. For more information on Wine To Water, click to www.winetowater.org.
I-40 Rockslide Update
Workers from contractor Phillips & Jordan and subcontractor Janod Construction made significant progress this week in removing debris from the site of a rockslide that has closed down Interstate 40 for months at mile marker 2.6 in North Carolina.
Phillips & Jordan used track hoes about 50 feet above I-40 on a ramp built on the west side of the slope. They also used material that was scaled over the weekend to build a second ramp for track hoes about 30 feet high on the west side of the slope. The two track hoes were successful pulling down debris, including much of the large rock mass that was blocking the middle of the slope. Nearly two-thirds of the rock mass that started out about 60 feet wide, 80 feet tall and 20 feet thick is now gone. Crews will work on drilling and scaling the remainder of the mass for removal.
Janod Construction crews continued drilling holes into boulders on top of the slope in preparation for fastening rock bolts. This work is done in order to temporarily secure the boulders while work is done below. Once the work below is complete, the bolts will be removed from the boulders and then they will be taken down the slope.
For daily updates, click to www.ncdot.gov and click on the I-40 rockslide daily news and information section.
N.C Conservation Trust Protects 1,488-Acre Property on Parkway
The Conservation Trust for North Carolina (CTNC) recently completed a conservation agreement with CSX Corporation on a 1,488-acre property abutting the Blue Ridge Parkway near Spruce Pine. The property, which borders the Parkway from Milepost 325 to Milepost 329.5, encompasses dramatic mountain scenery and includes about 1.5 miles of the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail, important wildlife habitat and more than seven miles of mountain streams. CTNC worked for more than six years to facilitate the $3.6 million purchase of the conservation easement.
CTNC assists, promotes and represents North Carolina’s 24 local land trusts, which have protected 309,360 acres in 1,740 places across the state. It also is dedicated to protecting the Blue Ridge Parkway’s natural and scenic corridor. CTNC has protected more than 31,000 acres in more than 35 locations along the Parkway.
CC Communications and Watauga TDA Win 2009 MarCom Award
Charlotte web design firm CC Communications, Inc. recently earned a Platinum Award in the 2009 international MarCom Awards competition for its design of ExploreBooneArea.com, a website design project recently completed for the Watauga County Tourism Development Authority (WCTDA).
The Platinum Award is the most prestigious award in the MarCom competition, presented only to those entries judged to be among the most outstanding. Platinum winners are recognized for their excellence in terms of quality, creativity and resourcefulness. ExploreBooneArea.com was selected to receive the Platinum Award from a pool of almost 5,000 entries submitted by organizations throughout the United States and several other countries. The Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP), an international organization consisting of several thousand creative professionals, oversees standards, judging and recognition programs for the MarCom Awards. CC Communications is a five-time award winner in the MarCom Awards competition.
Design and development teams at CC Communications collaborated closely with WCTDA executive management during production of the new website. ExploreBooneArea.com promotes Watauga County as the ultimate outdoor adventure and relaxation tourism destination in the Eastern United States.
November Is Adopt a Senior Animal Month
November is Adopt a Senior Animal Month at the Watauga Humane Society. This month, all shelter animals aged 3 years or older qualify for the discounted adoption rate of $55 for cats and $75 for dogs. The discounted adoption rate still provides the society’s full range of valuable benefits as itemized by clicking to www.wataugahumanesociety.org.
To view the senior animals currently available for adoption, stop by the Watauga Humane Society, located at 200 Casey Lane in Boone, or click to www.wataugahumanesociety.org. The Watauga Humane Society is open Tuesday through Friday from 12:30 to 6:00 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 12:30 to 5:00 p.m. and closed Monday. For more information, call 828-264-7865.
ASU’s Master of Social Work Program Receives Accreditation
The master of social work (MSW) degree program in ASU’s Department of Social Work recently received full accreditation from the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), the field’s national accrediting agency. The accreditation process began four years ago when the program was approved for candidacy by CSWE. The program enrolled its first students in January 2007.
The MSW offered by ASU offers concentrations in either individuals and families, or communities and organizations.
“Undergraduate programs are pretty much standard across the country. There is a little room for individualization,” said Dr. Gail Leedy, chair of the ASU Department of Social Work. “At the MSW level you can have specializations. That provided us a chance to look around the community and region and see what we should be offering specific to meet this region’s needs.” Those needs include graduates to work in hospitals, mental health settings, criminal justice systems, nonprofit agencies and schools, as well as licensed clinical social workers, supervisors or administrators in all of these settings.
For more information, click to www.socialwork.appstate.edu/masters.php.
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