Online village poll on park

For those interested, there is an online poll on the Village of Flat Rock website that asks:

What is your opinion of the possible purchase of the Highland Lake Golf Course property by the Village of Flat Rock to develop a park? 

The answer options are:

• I support the idea
• I am opposed to the idea
• I have not yet formed an opinion

Check it out.

Flat Rock exploratory committee run-down *Correction*

Correction: The meeting today (October 29) of the village exploratory committee is at 1:00 p.m., not 4:00 p.m. as reported below. Sorry for the confusion!

From the Times-News, a list of the members of the exploratory committee for the Village of Flat Rock looking into the possible purchase of the Highland Lake Golf Course for a village park and my take on what I know (some of these members I know better than others and some I don't know at all, but overall, it seems to me that the village council has put together a very good mix):

• Ginger Brown (chair) - past president of the Highland Lake Village HOA (one of the three HOAs involved in opposing the soccer complex). Very good choice, especially as chair--I know from experience that Ginger knows how to run a meeting, keep it on task, and make sure everyone knows what's going on.
• Sally Boyd - has been a member of the village Greenways Committee (not sure if she still is) and interested in creating open spaces for walking trails, etc.
• John Dockendorf - parent and founding director of Adventure Treks, supported idea of soccer fields and interested in providing outdoor space in Flat Rock for kids
• Albert Gooch - I'm sorry I don't know anything about Mr. Gooch
• Jack Grup - owner of Highland Lake Inn, very committed to the community. The Inn will be very affected by whatever happens at the golf course property and I think it's good to have a local business owner on the committee.
• Terry Hicks - former mayor of Flat Rock
• Ed Joran - president of the Statonwoods HOA (one of the original three) with lots of experience working with elected officials
• Doug Johnson - resident of Highland Golf Villas (one of the original three) and a retired municipal planner (?) (I could have that wrong--I know it's some type of planner and he's very knowledgeable about how to lay out/configure spaces and all of the elements that go into that.)
• Ed Lastein - landscape architect, currently working with the village on the sidewalk extension
• Ron Redmon - resident of Highland Lake Village and very committed to making sure whatever happens to the golf course property is in keeping with the surrounding residential areas and the vision of Flat Rock

The two council members who will serve as liaisons are Dave Bucher and Jimmy Chandler.And don't forget, the first meeting is this Monday, October 29, at 4:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. at the village hall.

More on Flat Rock possible park plans

Well, you read it here first, but the Times-News and the Hendersonville Lightning are now covering the possible purchase of the Highland Lake golf course by the Village of Flat Rock (you'll have to get a print copy of the Hendersonville Lightning to see their stories--I don't see anything yet online).

From the Times-News:

Flat Rock officials are eyeing Highland Lake Golf Club as a potential location for the village’s first park, but the concept is in the early stages, said Mayor Bob Staton.

“We are exploring that possibility,” he said. “It’s very, very early.”

The idea has been bounced around since July, however, when the village council requested conceptual designs from William Lapsley and Associates.

“We told him if we were to purchase this, give us some ideas of how we can use this,” Staton said. “The council wanted some idea of the use of the property.”

Lapsley returned with plans — which include ideas for tennis courts, trails, playgrounds and a dog park — and gave them to an exploratory committee. That committee, which consists of 10 Flat Rock residents and two council members, will meet for the first time Monday at 4 p.m. for an organizational meeting to create a meeting schedule. All meetings will be open to the public, Staton said....

The desire to purchase the property is more about protecting the entrance to the village, Staton said. Otherwise, the property could fall into the hands of developers.

“It is more of an opportunity than a need,” he said. “It is a gateway to Flat Rock. It is green space we’d like to conserve. We’d like to control the development.”...

Read it all. 

All's well that ends well: Henderson County commissioners purchase school property

Me, I personally think we saved the county from itself. From the Times-News:

Calling it a deal too good to pass up, Henderson County commissioners agreed Wednesday to buy the former Hendersonville Christian School on South Grove Street for $910,000.

The 9.45-acre property will become the county’s new athletics and activity center.

The board also approved an allocation of $1.01 million in startup costs needed to get the property ready for public use, including $505,000 to install artificial turf on the former school’s grass athletic field, $130,000 to light it for night games and another $130,000 to install 65 parking spaces.

In addition, the board will spend $284,000 on repairs and renovations at Jackson Park to bring it up to “tournament standards” capable of hosting baseball and softball teams. Those improvements include new batting cages, wireless scoreboards, new fencing, new or repaired dugouts, extra parking and remodeled restrooms.

That means commissioners have committed $2.11 million toward the new recreation center and Jackson Park, minus $100,000 the county already budgeted for recreation this fiscal year. For now, the money will come from the county’s estimated $26.8 million fund balance, though board members passed a resolution allowing them an 18-month window to finance some or all of it....

County Manager Steve Wyatt outlined ways in which the facility’s costs could be offset through revenues. The county can move karate, dance, scrapbooking and other classes out of Stoney Mountain Community Center, along with one employee, saving $83,000 in necessary upgrades there. And Wyatt said the county has been contacted by numerous parties already interested in renting space at the former school site.

Blue Ridge Community College has expressed interest, he said, in using the property’s newly renovated 15,700-square-foot gym for the physical fitness parts of their basic law enforcement, college transfer and emergency medical science classes. The college now uses the Justice Academy in Edneyville, but the new athletic center is only 2.3 miles away from BRCC.

Wyatt said the Christian school’s gym could serve programming needs ranging from adult and church league basketball to volleyball and indoor soccer. During a public hearing, 10 citizens representing an array of youth and adult sports – from Little League to soccer to tennis – spoke in favor of the school purchase and Jackson Park upgrades....

Read it all. Some ways I think this is a potential win for the county (and a much better deal than the Highland Lake Golf Course):

• Process seems to be much more transparent than the golf course fiasco
• Cost of the property is less ($910,000 for the school versus $1.15 million for the golf course)
• Property is already configured for athletics (even though the county will need to put money into the infrastructure, there is no need to remove a golf course--think how much that would have cost)
• More facilities are already there (the gym can serve multiple purposes)
• Surrounding area already used to a school there, with traffic, etc. (I haven't driven by the school, so I don't know how close residential areas are to it, but I'm assuming since the process was more open, if there was opposition, they would have had a chance to voice their concerns)
• Artificial turf will  be used (and Dennis Justice will be happy!)
• Night lights can be used (and I'm sure we all remember that the county said of the Flat Rock location that there were no immediate plans to put in lights. . .)
• Possibility to tie this in with Jackson Park and create a county recreation area

So, what do you think?

The end of Fall. . .

I think this is probably the last weekend for much leaf color. Some photos from around my part of Highland Lake:

And of course, my dog loves lake water

One-stop voting starts next week

From the Hendersonville Lightning:

Henderson County will offer one-stop voting Oct. 18 through Nov. 3 at three polling places throughout the county and at Henderson County's elections office at 75 E. Central St. in Hendersonville.

Polling places open for one-stop voting from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 3, are:

• Flat Rock Village Hall, 110 Village Center Drive
• Fletcher Library, 120 Library Road
• Etowah Library, 101 Brickyard Road

The elections office in Hendersonville will be open for early voting from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 3. For information call the Board of Elections at 828.697.4970.

Check it out.

One year later: Highland Lake Golf update (info added)

Hard to believe it's been almost a year since the report hit the Times-News about Henderson County trying to purchase the Highland Lake Golf Club. Here's an update with some new information from the Village of Flat Rock, discussed at today's regular monthly council meeting:

• Highland Lake Golf Course is still open for business and still on the market for sale. 
• The golf course location is one of the gateways into the Village of Flat Rock.
• The Flat Rock village council has met with the owners of the golf course to discuss possible purchase of the site for a village park. 
• The village council is in the process of putting together an exploratory committee to look into whether this is something the village wants to do or not, how a park would be structured and maintained, what the costs would be, etc. The committee may recommend for or against the village taking any action on the site.
• There is no agreement or any type of contract between the golf course owners and the village council, and the property is still available for sale.
• The village council is committed to transparency in making this decision.
• And, since there is no contract between the village and the golf course owners and the property is still on the market, the property may be sold at any time to another party and the idea of a village park would become a moot point.  

So, this is an interesting turn of events. I'll keep you posted.

Additional information: This is my understanding of what the Highland Lake Golf property can currently exist as, without the need to go to the village for rezoning or permissions:

• Remain a golf course
• Convert to agriculture
• Develop for residential use the 22 non-flood plane acres (up near the club house and driving range) with 1 house per 1/2 acre (that would be approx. 44 houses total, about the density of the Highland Golf Villas already there). The rest of the golf course property is in a flood plane and would require additional permits/permissions for development.

Henderson County thrifty in spending, ahead in revenue

I thought this report in the Hendersonville Lightning had very clear information on the Henderson County budget. I'm not very good with numbers, but this write-up was basic enough for even me to understand:

Henderson County commissioners got news Monday that went against the general perception of government: the county was thrifty in spending and efficient in collecting taxes in the budget year that ended on June 30.

The result? Revenues exceeded expenses by $7.45 million and the county has socked away a fund balance of $26.8 million, more than a quarter of the total budget....

The unaudited numbers from the year-end financial update showed that county departments across the board came in below budget, in some cases by a point or two and in a few by 25 percent....

On the revenue side, all categories but some special taxes and licenses and restricted intergovernmental came in at 100 percent of projection or better, including current year property taxes at 100.1 percent, past year property collections at 121.4 percent, local option sales tax at 105.4 percent and investment earnings at 226 percent — $621,446 versus a projected $275,000.

Both the county schools and Blue Ridge Community College spent 100 percent of the amount allocated to them....

Check it out.

Georgia Bonesteel quilts (often!)

I meant to link to this article on Highland Lake resident Georgia Bonesteel when it first appeared in the Times-News, but better late than never:

Quilting and friendship go hand in hand — so much so that Georgia Bonesteel, the nationally renowned godmother of lap quilting, still stitches with the Cover Lovers, a group that evolved from one of her classes at Blue Ridge Community College more than 30 years ago.

“We’ve been meeting twice a month for 31 years,” Bonesteel says. “We meet in homes, attend events and continue to learn together.” She has also been instrumental in starting several larger quilting groups in North and South Carolina.

Bonesteel’s devotion to her craft and her passion for learning propelled her from a classroom at BRCC, where she taught beginning sewing, to national exposure as the creator of the TV series “Lap Quilting with Georgia Bonesteel,” which ran on PBS stations for 30 years and still airs on Create TV. She has also written nine books, authored numerous magazine articles, developed new quilting patterns and designed quilt fabrics.

At age 76, Bonesteel is still innovating, and she remains a popular quilting demonstrator for the Southern Highland Craft Guild and for the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, where she has taught since 1995....

In 1979, she showed her quilts to producers at PBS, and a career was launched. “We did a total of 12 series with 13 shows each,” Bonesteel says. “Each series had a book that went along with it, some of which are on my website.

She attributes the popularity of her craft, in part, to its flexibility.

“Lap quilting enables people to quilt on the go, to take sections with them and not be tied down to one large project,” Bonesteel says. “I didn’t start it. I just showed people another way to make a quilt.” Sections of a layered quilt can be quilted individually and then joined, or a basted quilt can be quilted, one area at a time, usually in a hoop....

Bonesteel has recently designed “Grid Grip,” a product printed with quarter-inch squares or triangles that allow a quilter to design on freezer paper.

“You can design on the paper and mark what piece matches another. It makes quilting more like a puzzle where A meets A and B meets B,” Bonesteel explains. And she markets it through a 21st-century venue — her website, www.georgiabonesteel.com.

“There is a huge global interest in quilts,” Bonesteel says. “There are major conventions and symposia throughout the world.”

But despite changes in communications and technology, threads of history and tradition run strong through this craft.

Perhaps the best example is one of Bonesteel’s recent creations — a quilt that is a collaboration with her great-grandmother, who died in Portage, Ohio, in the 1940s....

Read it all.