Letter to the editor: No justification for park

From the Times-News, a letter to the editor from R.J. Demartini of Flat Rock:

The numbers on the proposed Flat Rock Highland Lake Park are in. Approximately $1 million for land, $1.6 million for improvements and a $166,000 annual bill for operations and maintenance (low, if police are required). Project promoters wisely decided to explore investment and expense before deciding whether or not to recommend proceeding. Hopefully those numbers stay their hand.

Undertaking the project would consume more than half of the treasury reserves that preceding VFR mayors and councils painstakingly assembled over the village’s 17-year existence. Furthermore, annual maintenance and operating expenses would cripple our ability to ever restore those reserves. The funds exist to deal with contingencies and to insure against ever having to levy local tax to fund day-to-day operations.

Uncharacteristically among politicians, VFR administrations set challenging standards for approving spending, even forgoing pay for their services. Adding a park might be “nice to have,” but it in no way passes the test of filling a real need to justify its devastating cost. Proposed park amenities are already available locally at no additional cost.

Newspaper coverage declaring that promotional activity of a few reflects majority approval among 3,000-plus citizens misleads. All our people need to be heard now.

Check it out.

February 4 park exploratory committee presentation

From the Village of Flat Rock website, a press release on this coming Monday's meeting:

VILLAGE OF FLAT ROCK

NOTICE OF SPECIAL MEETING
PROPOSED HIGHLAND LAKE PARK

On Monday, February 4, 2013, at 9:30 a.m., the Flat Rock Village Council will hold a special meeting in the Assembly Room of the Flat Rock Village Hall, located at 110 Village Center Drive, in Flat Rock, for a presentation by the Highland Lake Park Exploratory Committee of its findings and recommendations with respect to the village’s proposed purchase of the Highland Lake Golf Club property, an approximately 67 acre parcel of land located at 34 Highland Golf Drive in Flat Rock, and the development of the property as a municipal park.

The Highland Lake Park Exploratory Committee, an ad hoc committee formed in October 2012 to assist the council in exploring the purchase of the golf course for development by the village as a municipal park, was asked to consider and make recommendations to the council as to (a) the best use of the property and facilities and amenities to be provided, (b) how it should be developed, (c) operation and maintenance requirements, (d) traffic considerations, (e) hours of operation, (f) security considerations, and (g) financing (including the availability of grants).

The meeting will be open to the public, who will have the opportunity to comment on the proposed undertaking and to address related questions to council and committee members.

Anyone interested in the presentation by the park exploratory committee to the village council, mark this on your calendar!

59-acre tract in Flat Rock to remain undeveloped

From the Times-News:

A recent conservation easement protecting 59 acres of forest and scenic waterfalls in Flat Rock from development is a boon to local land preservation efforts, Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy Executive Director Kieran Roe said Thursday.

CMLC and Historic Flat Rock Inc. obtained the easement on the slopes of Rush Mountain, a piece of property adjacent to the Kenmure subdivision and Camp Tonawanda, Roe said.

After the conservation easement was finalized, landowners David and Merrily Thomas sold 55 acres of the property to CMLC at a reduced price. The tract was initially purchased and privately held by the Thomases in an effort to keep it in its natural state, according to a news release from CMLC....

Read it all.

A look-back at Our Lady of the Hills Camp

Bishop Vincent Waters (center) visits Our Lady of the Hills Camp in 1958.

A write-up on Our Lady of the Hills Camp (where the Highland Lake Inn is now) in the Catholic News Herald (Diocese of Charlotte):

In late 1955, Bishop Vincent Waters bought 250 acres just south of Hendersonville to be used as a diocesan retreat center for the people of the diocese. Our Lady of the Hills Camp was a popular destination for North Carolina Catholics for the next 30 years.

Family vacations, conferences and a summer camp for youth were offered at the newly-named Catholic Assembly Grounds, more commonly called Our Lady of the Hills Camp.

The property included Highland Lake (also known as Madonna Lake), an Olympic-size swimming pool, an open-air gymnasium and the historic Trenholm-Rhett homestead.

The land had been part of a 1789 land grant to John Earle, and over the years it had belonged to several prominent owners, including Secretary of the Confederate Treasury George Trenholm and South Carolina Gov. William Aiken....

Check it out, especially the photos.

Flat Rock Village Council sets hearing on proposed park

Possible park layout

From the Hendersonville Lightning:

The Flat Rock Village Council will hold a special meeting on Monday, Feb. 4, in the Assembly Room of the Flat Rock Village Hall, at 110 Village Center Drive, to hear the Highland Lake Park Exploratory Committee report its findings and recommendations on the village's proposed purchase of the 67-acre Highland Lake Golf Club property and the development of the property as a municipal park.

The meeting starts at 9:30 a.m....

Read it all.

Hospitals cool to park sponsorship pitch

From the Hendersonville Lightning:

The Highland Lake Park Exploratory Committee is looking at grants and fundraising to help pay for the acquisition of the land for the park and for improvements.

The committee plans to apply for a state Parks and Recreation Trust Fund grant by Jan. 30 and it has discussed creating a foundation to raise money on an ongoing basis. Naming rights or some kind of financial partnership with area hospitals are not going so well....

Read it all.

DOT plans to widen I-26, schedules information session

From the Times-News:

The N.C. Department of Transportation will hold an informational workshop from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 31 on proposed improvements to 22.2 miles of Interstate 26 from U.S. 25 in Henderson County to I-40 in Buncombe County.

The workshop will take place at the Western North Carolina Agricultural Center, Virginia C. Boone Building, at 1301 Fanning Bridge Road in Fletcher.

The proposed project involves a multi-lane widening of I-26 and also includes rehabilitating and widening existing bridges, including the Blue Ridge Parkway bridge over I-26, according to a news release from the NCDOT.

The purpose of the project is to relieve projected congestion along the I-26 corridor, the release says.

The public is invited to attend at any time during the workshop hours to speak individually with NCDOT officials and review the project area map. There will not be a formal presentation....

Read it all.

Porkchop gone

It just got a little easier to get in and out of the Singleton Centre. From the Hendersonville Lightning:

Reviled as a four-inch high monument to bureaucratic overreach and widely ignored by local drivers, the Singleton Centre porkchop is no more.

A crew spent all day Wednesday using a jackhammer and backhoe to break up and remove the concrete barrier. The removal will allow vehicles to make left turns in and out of the shopping and office center, which includes a restaurant, wine bar, cinema, financial office and fitness center.

The triangle-shaped concrete island, known in Flat Rock as the porkchop, restricted cars from making left turns into or out of the office-retail center developed by Jane Singleton, a landowner and developer who lives in Flat Rock....

Read it all.

Presentation by Flat Rock park exploratory committee

Two news stories today on the presentation yesterday by the village park exploratory committee, one from the Times-News and one from the Hendersonville Lightning. First, the Times-News:

Informational sessions on the proposed municipal park at Highland Lake Golf Club on Wednesday afternoon drew about 28 Flat Rock residents, many of them representing homeowners associations.

A PowerPoint demonstration and concept drawing detailing the planned park and its amenities were shared at the site's former golf shop.

“What we have here is an honest representation based on what we know right now,” said retired planner and architect Doug Johnson of the concept drawing.

Potential costs, including ongoing maintenance and funding, were detailed for guests. Around 60 residents were invited, including two representatives from each of the 23 homeowners associations in the village and the executive board of directors of the Flat Rock Historical Society....

Those attending Wednesday's sessions were encouraged by committee members to share what they learned with neighbors, to support village officials in their decision and express support in a letter to the committee....

Read it all, and now the Hendersonville Lightning:

Representatives of Flat Rock homeowners associations and other organizations heard about plans for a proposed Highland Lake Park and took back information to their boards for possible endorsements.

The Highland Lake Park Exploratory Committee presented the plan on a rainy Wednesday to several dozen residents at 2, 3 and 4 p.m. A walking tour was part of the committee's invitation but the rain prevented that. After a PowerPoint presentation detailing the higher priorities for park development and the panel's work so far, committee members appealed to the association leaders for an endorsement.

"Public support is very important to this grant," committee member Albert Gooch told the residents. "These grants are very competitive. We are asking you as representatives of the organizations in Flat Rock to meet with your board of directors and write a letter of support that the Village Council buys the park."

Gooch said the town residents might well ask why the committee is seeking the grant if the Village Council had not yet committed to the park.

"We're writing the grant just in case," he said, "because if we miss that Jan. 31 deadline it's Jan. 31, 2014, before we can get that done. If the Village Council decides not to buy it we can always say we didn't mean it."

The committee is soliciting endorsement letters for a state Parks and Recreation Trust Fund grant application of close to $500,000....

Read it all.

Commissioner Young explains 'no' vote on Flat Rock Playhouse funds

From the Times-News:

Commissioner Larry Young surprised everyone at a board meeting earlier this week by voting “no” to disbursing $50,000 in county funding to the Flat Rock Playhouse. Just minutes earlier, he’d voted against a motion by Commissioner Grady Hawkins to keep the money in county coffers.

The reversal was all the more stunning because Young, once the board’s preeminent Playhouse critic, had agreed Nov. 29 to support the money’s release if Playhouse leaders used the money to hire a new fiscal manager, raised more local funds, established a group of business people to advise them and convinced Flat Rock officials to match the county’s $100,000 contribution....

On Wednesday, Young said he voted “no” out of frustration with two fellow commissioners and because he wanted to make sure the county knew what it was doing with the money. After voting against Hawkins’ motion to keep the $50,000 in the county’s general fund, Young said he intended to ask Bill McKibbin, president of the Playhouse’s board of trustees, some questions.

“I was going to ask Mr. McKibbin whether he’d hired a new financial administrator and whether (Playhouse Artistic Director Vincent) Marini was still going to run the show,” Young said. “Then I was going to say we need to release this $50,000, but we need to earmark it to go toward their debt, not as operating capital. But then Tommy Thompson and Charlie Messer screwed everything up.”...

Read it all.

Flat Rock park could cost roughly $1.5 million to build

I think the operative word here is "roughly." The park exploratory committee will be presenting its report to the village council at the Monday, February 4, council agenda meeting at 9:30 a.m., so plan to attend if you're interested in their findings.

From the Times-News:

Though the numbers are still in flux, members of a Flat Rock exploratory committee said Wednesday it could cost around $1.5 million to develop a new municipal park at the Highland Lake Golf Club. That’s in addition to whatever the land costs.

Capital improvements - including a proposed new entrance off North Highland Lake Road, a gazebo or pavilion, fountain, playground and picnic shelters – could be phased in over multiple years, committee members said, and potentially paid for with grant funds and private gifts....

Village officials have ordered an appraisal of the 67-acre golf course property now owned by Course Doctors Inc., but results aren’t yet available. The course is on the market for $1.3 million, but Henderson County optioned the property in 2011 for $1.1 million before abandoning plans for its own park and soccer complex there after citizens objected.

The ad hoc committee will present its final report to Flat Rock Village Council at 9:30 a.m. Feb. 4 at Village Hall. The committee was asked to consider the best use for the golf course and recommend how it might be developed into a dawn-to-dusk park with features most favored by citizens: open space, walking/biking trails, picnic areas, a playground and other passive features....

Read it all.

Flat Rock Playhouse funding survives in 3-2 county commissioner vote

From the Hendersonville Lightning:

The second half of Henderson County's $100,000 commitment to the Flat Rock Playhouse survived in a 3-2 vote Monday night after commissioners heard from supporters and opponents of the funding.

Commissioner Grady Hawkins voted with Larry Young against the funding and chairman Charlie Messer, Tommy Thompson and Michael Edney voted yes....

Read it all and check out "live coverage" here:

...Charlie Messer is explaining the background about the $100,000 allocation. “We have asked them to come up with a plan to get all the Playhouse in order and we would look at that at a later date. We’re here to talk about the final two payments we had budgeted in this year’s budget. I’ve been to meetings, we did budget $100,000; we have honored half of that and I’m willing to honor the rest of that, in two monthly payments.”...

Flat Rock Playhouse funding on county commissioners agenda

From the Times-News:

Henderson County commissioners will kick off the new year Monday with a discussion of whether to release $50,000 in county funds to the Flat Rock Playhouse. They'll also hear from Sheriff Charlie McDonald about security at the 1995 courthouse and from a group of citizens seeking restrictions on assault weapons.

In November, commissioners voted 4-1 to freeze payment of $50,000 remaining from a $100,000 allocation the county budgeted for the Playhouse last summer, citing concerns about the theater's management and fiscal dealings. Because the vote wasn't unanimous, though, a second vote was required to hold the funds in county coffers.

Since then, some commissioners have reconsidered the Playhouse contribution after the nonprofit theater released a detailed business plan, began the process of hiring a new financial manager and won the support of several high-profile business leaders and the Town of Flat Rock, which ponied up $100,000 last month to help the struggling nonprofit pay down debt.

Though encouraged by recent improvements in the theater's financial picture, incoming Commissioner Grady Hawkins said Sunday he's not in favor of giving the Playhouse more county funds than the $50,000 that's already been disbursed....

“If I were running the [Hendersonville] Little Theater, I'd wonder why the government was compensating my competitor,” he said, adding that further funding for the Playhouse would be “setting a bad precedent.”

But Vice Chairman Tommy Thompson, one of four commissioners who voted to freeze the $50,000 in November, said he now supports allowing the next quarterly payment of $25,000 to be disbursed this week, on schedule....

Read it all.

January 1, 2013