Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country | Founded 05-05-05

January 4, 2007 issue

Quotes of the Year

January 5, 2006
“North Carolina is the only state in the country that requires county participation in Medicaid.”
Watauga County Director of Social Services Jim Atkinson explaining to the Board of Commissioners why county money supplies almost 50 percent of DSS’s annual budget

January 12, 2006
“This is such a great resource and it’s underutilized. We need to push it more.”
Appalachian Regional Library Director Mary Sizemore discussing NCLIVE, a free online reference collection of databases, encyclopedias, readers’ aids, magazines and newspapers

January 19, 2006
“I’m saddened by what appears to be the priorities of the university as regards our culture.”
Local attorney Charlie Clement commenting at a meeting about ASU’s plan to move the Appalachian Cultural Museum’s collections into storage and create a “living museum” of selected exhibits dispersed across the campus

January 26, 2006
“We were attacked on 9/11. The United States is not an aggressor nation. I think what the president has done is appropriate.”
U.S. Representative Virginia Foxx (R-5) commenting on the war in Iraq during her Listening Post appearance in Boone

February 2, 2006
“Avian flu is scary, but what should scare us all is getting traditional flu vaccines.”
Appalachian Regional Health Department Director Danny Staley commenting on the risk of contracting avian (bird) flu compared to the risk of “regular” flu and the problems the health department has had in getting adequate vaccine supplies in the past five years

February 9, 2006
“I think this will be as big an issue as zoning.”
Watauga County Commissioner David Blust commenting on opposition to the Board of Education’s plans to build a new high school

February 16, 2006
“The idea that teaching kids about sex makes them promiscuous is totally false. And quality sex education and good religious teaching are not mutually exclusive.”
Marriage and family therapist Lynn Coward, Ph.D., LMFT, commenting on Watauga County’s increase in teen pregnancies this school year

March 2, 2006
“You can’t do anything in a jail cell that can’t be seen.”
Watauga County Sheriff Mark Shook, commenting on the security camera system and communications center at the Watauga County Detention Center, scheduled for move-in on March 8

March 9, 2006
“I’m just speaking for Jim Deal, but I’m absolutely confident that the tax rate will be lowered—and lowered significantly.”
Watauga County Board of Commissioners Chair Jim Deal

March 16, 2006
“This is a sad day for this place.”
NASCAR legend Junior Johnson at the farewell party for the Appalachian Cultural Museum

March 23, 2006
“The people in North Fork don’t ask a lot of the county, but they are citizens of the county and are entitled to the right to vote without undue inconvenience.”
Watauga County Board of Elections member Stacy Eggers IV addressing the Watauga County Board of Commissioners regarding the proposed closing of the North Fork precinct

March 30, 2006
“You and I can help keep children safe by doing something as simple as being a resource for single or stressed parents.”
Laura Hickey, Director of the Residential Treatment Program at Grandfather Home for Children

April 6, 2006
“When renovation costs equal or exceed 70 percent of new construction costs, it’s very wise to look closely at a new building.”
Lee McClure, PE, board chair of Construction Control Corporation, the firm that prepared the renovation estimate for Watauga High School

April 13, 2006
“There’s no doubt in my mind taxpayers are entitled to know if their return is being prepared overseas.”
IRS Commissioner Mark Everson commenting on the increasingly common practice among large tax firms to offshore the preparation of U.S. tax returns

April 20, 2006
“We’ve been hoodwinked and we need to let them know we don’t appreciate it.”
Watauga County Commissioner Keith Honeycutt, commenting on Governor Mike Easley’s reported plan to shift money out of the education budget and replace it with lottery proceeds

April 27, 2006
“We have found that private property owners have tried every way to stop trespassers from using their property in the past and have had very little success. Some of the methods that have been tried are towing, verbal warnings and written warnings. After switching to immobilization methods, abuse has dropped as much as 92 percent over a one-year period in most of the lots that we service.”
Jon Tate, Lot Management Solutions, Inc.

May 4, 2006
“There’s enough solar energy in just two counties in Texas to power the entire planet. We should learn how to harness that.”
Renewable energy expert Scott Suddreth

May 11, 2006
“You’re going to have to go get her off the ceiling, she’s going to be so excited.”
Ginny Campbell of the Boone Chamber speaking about Gwen Dhing, general manager of Makoto’s, upon learning the local restaurant won the Small Business of the Year Award

May 18, 2006
“For many of our customers, the legend of North Carolina Mountain Biking is huge—it is a mountain bike destination... it is the perfect place to hold a National Mountain Bike Series event.”
Jeffery Frost, Managing Partner and Promoter for NMBS (National Mountain Bike Series), speaking about the 13th annual Showdown at Sugar, taking place June 8-11

May 25, 2006
“In New York City alone, one less grocery bag per person per year would reduce waste by five million pounds and save $250,000 in disposal costs.”
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

June 2, 2006
“These are young people who don’t have a good time in school. It’s a deficit that they’ll face every day and they are young people well deserving of celebration.”
Saul Chase, Curator of the 10th Annual Brian Ayers Memorial Art Exhibition

June 8, 2006
“Wind is clean energy—inexhaustible and inexpensive—and it will help us to create new jobs and industry in this region.”
ASU Appropriate Technology Professor Dr. Dennis Scanlin

June 22, 2006
“We have people who move here, and when they have a problem, they say ‘that’s not how we did it in town X.’ And we politely remind them that’s why they left town X.”
Davidson, NC Town Manager Leamon Brice commenting on the town’s development regulations

June 29, 2006
“I am ready to go to court and defend myself.”
Watauga County Sheriff Mark Shook, commenting on two discrimination suits filed against him and Watauga County by former employees of the Sheriff’s Office

July 6, 2006
“To live in the mountains is to live in a permanent state of poetry.”
doris davenport, performance poet, writer, educator, dancer and artist who was seleced to deliver the Seventh Annual Carol Grotnes Belk Distinguished Lecture at ASU’s Belk Library as part of An Appalachian Summer

July 13, 2006
“To me, Mozart is the greatest apostle of musical joy that ever lived.”
Maestro William Henry Curry, resident conductor of the North Carolina Symphony

July 20, 2006
“The more we raise, the more we need.”
High Country United Way Executive Director Jenny Miller, commenting on the $500,000 goal for the 2006-07 fundraising campaign

July 27, 2006
“We’re not someone who is going to sell a piece of property and move on.”
Developer Bobby Ginn, announcing the grant of a permanent conservation easement protecting a minimum of 2,000 acres at Laurelmor, an upscale development of 6,000 acres

August 3, 2006
“I don’t believe in inspiration other than being alive. Everybody has their birthright to creative spirit.”
Abstract painter Herb Jackson, whose work was on exhibit at The Art Cellar Gallery in Banner Elk

August 10, 2006
“Unless we stand up, they will continue in what they are doing and only get worse.”
Blowing Rock property owner and forest protection activist Lamar Marshall, commenting on the U.S. Forest Service proposal to log 231 acres in the Globe area

August 17, 2006
“I still think that Boone’s a tough place to make a living, but it’s such a great place to bring up children. Do you want to spend your whole life worried about money, than what the quality of life is like?”
Bill Parish, owner of Highway Robbery

August 24, 2006
“We always knew that passing the Smokestack Act would not give us any cleaner air.”
Matthew Wasson, conservation director of grassroots environmental organization Appalachian Voices

September 7, 2006
“It is a good event; it is a fun event and it deserves to be on the list, but to be named one of the best on the whole North American continent is amazing.”
Catherine Morton, president of the Avery Chamber and marketing director for Grandfather Mountain, commenting on the Woolly Worm Festival’s selection as one of the nation’s top fall festivals

September 14, 2006
“If this thing passes, it is going to be a nightmare.”
Local developer Phil Templeton, commenting on Boone’s proposed steep slope development regulations at a public information session

September 21, 2006
“...global crises impel all citizens to work toward converting humanity’s noblest aspirations for world peace into a practical reality for future generations.”
From the Resolution for The International Day of Peace passed by the Boone Town Council in August 2006

September 28, 2006
“One in four people who have the virus don’t know they have HIV.”
Danny Staley, director of the Appalachian District Health Department, commenting on the CDC’s recommendation that all Americans between the ages of 13 and 64 be routinely tested for HIV

October 5, 2006
“Overall, everyone has been very cooperative, very supportive about the project and wants it to happen.”
DBDA Project Manager Jessica Montford, commenting on the Howard Street Restoration Project

October 12, 2006
“I’m where I am with playwriting because of the Stage Company.”
Writer Robert Inman commenting on the support he has received from the Blowing Rock Stage Company on the occasion of his third play premiere in Blowing Rock, the first at the Hayes Performing Arts Center

October 19, 2006
“I’m not interested in creating jobs at this point; I’m interested in creating entrepreneurs.”
Keith Honeycutt, Watauga County Commissioner, commenting on the opportunities a new Watauga High School will offer in terms of training and economic development

October 26, 2006
“I am a peace farmer and I plant these seeds of peace. Some germinate and some don’t.”
Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mohandas Gandhi, who delivered the keynote address at Lees-McRae College’s Global Community Week, Pathways to Peace

November 2, 2006
“Requests for appointments from the Boone area are higher than any other satellite location that we serve.”
Celeste Collins, executive director of Consumer Credit Counseling Service in Asheville, commenting on the agency’s twice-montly counseling sessions in Boone. The Asheville office serves 18 western North Carolina counties.

November 9, 2006
“In Raleigh they’re calling this the miracle campaign.”
Steve Goss, Democratic Party winner of the NC Senate seat for District 45, commenting on his win over Republican David Blust

November 16, 2006
“Timing is the number one reason this place is closing; a number of years ago people weren’t looking far enough ahead.”
Acting Executive Director Janet Pepin commenting on the closing of High Country Amigos at the end of the year

November 22, 2006
“The visual sensitivity we’re giving to Blowing Rock is the highest level of sensitivity that we can give—it’s the same we give to the Blue Ridge Parkway.”
North Carolina National Forest Service spokesperson Terry Seyden, commenting on the revised plan for timber harvest in the Globe area

November 30, 2006
“It’s unreal the amount of food that’s going out of here.”
Kim Winebarger, client services and volunteer coordinator at the Hunger and Health Coalition, commenting on the number of food boxes distributed by the agency in November and the number of clients served

December 7, 2006
“I was willing to commit to the ultimate promise of the proposed project, but after months of seller negotiations and lack of ASU support, I decided to back away from additional expense with a low probability of a positive outcome.”
Developer Doug Gale, commenting on abandoning his plans to build a mixed-use retail and residential development on West King Street

December 14, 2006
“People come in the store and say they’ve been in New York and that our windows look better than anything they saw in New York.”
Martha Spann of Carriage Trade Antiques in Blowing Rock, commenting on the store’s holiday window displays

December 21, 2006
“[The players] gave me a night that I would never forget. It was electric. You could feel the energy, the enthusiasm. It was even better than the first time.”
ASU Chancellor Ken Peacock commenting on the Mountaineers’ win against UMASS on December 15, giving the team its second consecutive NCAA FCS/Division 1-AA National Championship