Couple build tiny house to live in for grad school

From the Times-News:

If anyone can live together peacefully in 200 square feet of space, Lily and Matt Kirk (along with their dog Uwharrie) think they can do it.

Lily Kirk has been busy building the tiny house they will live in once she starts graduate school at the University of Florida this April.

“We're not staying there forever,” she said. “We have to figure out where to park it.”

The house, based on a design by tiny house advocate, teacher, and book author Dan Louche, has a trailer bed for a foundation, so it's good to go on the road. . .

Last fall, the Kirks enrolled in a workshop Louche was giving in Flat Rock, as they'd been curious about tiny houses for a while.

Ignoring the fact that she had never built anything in her life, not even a bookcase, Lily Kirk undertook the task of building a tiny home.

To learn some skills, she asked to assist in the construction of a tiny house — designed by Flat Rock resident Roger Bass — which, once complete, will be lifted onto stilts among trees at Highland Lake Cove. . .

Read it all.

Two village leaders would delay new park entrance (and add a dog park)

This was the lead story in the Hendersonville Lightning a few weeks ago, but it was put online just a few days ago. By now you know how I feel about adding a dog park (ranked 14 out of 16 in amenities by village residents):

The Village Council is also looking at a new project, adding a fenced dog park, which had not up to now been a high priority. But dog owners have been letting their dogs run loose, which has set off complaints from non-dog walkers and opened a debate over what amenity to add first.

"If you go out to the park now the biggest problem we have are dogs," [Nick Weedman, council member] said. "A former council member stated it perfectly. If you don't have a dog park the whole park becomes a dog park. That's what's happening right now."

The Village Council last week authorized new signs that remind park visitors to leash their dogs. "Not everyone is comfortable with dogs," it adds.

Given the size and sparse use of the park now, "People's common reaction is that doesn't apply to me," Weedman said. . .

All I can say is, Henderson County has six parks--all allow dogs on leashes and only one, Jackson Park, also includes a dog park. When you visit the county parks, you will see visitors walking their dogs on leashes, not letting them run loose. It is factually incorrect to say that "If you don't have a dog park, the whole park  becomes a dog park." I think it's a short-term problem that has been decreasing as people have become more used to the rules and more aware that the park will not stay an open field, but will include amenities throughout.

The village council last year approved the master design plan unanimously. I'm not sure how the idea of a dog park became a priority over every thing else when it is not part of the master plan and ranks so low on what residents indicated they wanted in a park.   

Read it all.

Henderson County primary voting information

From the Henderson County Board of Elections, information on the upcoming primary election:

• Primary election day is Tuesday, May 6
• Voting will be held on Election Day from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. at all 35 county precincts
• Early voting and absentee voting is from April 24 through May 3
• For those in the Flat Rock precinct, voting will be in the Flat Rock Village Hall from April 24-26 (9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.) April 28-May 2 (9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.), and May 3 (9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.)

Don't forget to vote!

GOP sets forums for local races starting April 3

From the Hendersonville Lightning:

The Henderson County Republican Party plans a series of Thursday night campaign forums in April that it hopes will include all 15 Republican candidates on the primary ballot for local office.

The forums will be held starting at 7 p.m. April 3, 10 and 17 at the Opportunity House.

Here's the lineup. . .

Read it all.

Location of the Jackson Park dog park, just in case you're looking. . .

Jackson Park has a wonderful dog park--it's where we take our dog. There is plenty of space and lots of cool, fresh water.

Check it out on the map of Jackson Park--it's the blue rectangle on the left of the map.

And take a look on Google maps:

Area quilters displaying their work on Saturday

From the Hendersonville Lightning:

Area quilters will display their work during the National Quilt Day exhibit at Blue Ridge Mall this Saturday, March 15.

Quilters Hardy Chandler [of Flat Rock] and Dawn Bartholic of the WNC Quilting Guild helped organize this year's exhibit, whose theme of "Initial This!" required quilters to incorporate their initials into the pattern. . . .

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Why the Times-News editorial board is wrong again

Just as they were with the soccer complex fiasco, the Times-News editorial board is wrong again--this time on the dog park issue:

People who thumb their noses at the rules and behave badly should not be rewarded, it’s true. But dog owners in and around Flat Rock should not be punished by the actions of a few scofflaws.

Dog parks are extremely popular, as evident by the hordes of people and pets using one that recently opened at the Mills River Park.. .

Henderson County has six county parks and only Jackson Park includes a dog park. The other parks allow dogs on leashes. These parks do not have lots of dogs running loose just because they don't have dog parks. The Jackson Park dog park is just three miles from Flat Rock, so there is more than enough space there for dogs to run in the immediate area. [ed. - I deleted info on the size of the dog park at Jackson Park because I have not confirmed that with the Parks Dept.]

This issue came up last September as well, before I was on the council. Here is an email I sent the council members at the time that still holds true:

At last Thursday’s village council meeting [held 9/12/13], at the Flat Rock Park Development Advisory Committee presentation, the idea of including a dog park was suggested by several people, including some council members. At yesterday’s park development advisory committee meeting, Ed Lastein showed his latest design of the park, which included an area designated for a dog park.

I am strongly opposed to including a dog park for several reasons:

1) The village council went to great effort to ensure transparency and accountability on the park issue.

• The Flat Rock Park Exploratory Committee provided a survey for residents to complete, held a public forum on the park, and encouraged all residents to participate in letting the village know what they wanted to see in a park.
• Based on that information, the exploratory committee created a list based on number of responses.
• The Flat Rock Park Development Advisory Committee then took that list and determined that they would include the top seven items in the park design.
• This allowed the process to be public, since the exploratory committee’s report was public, and all Flat Rock residents could understand why these particular seven items were to be included: they are the top seven rated features gathered from residents’ input.
• To now preempt that process negates the work of the Exploratory Committee and the decision by the Development Advisory Committee. It also makes unclear how park decisions will be made. All residents were informed of the survey and the public forum. The residents who took the time to come or respond to a survey could now consider that their input is being dismissed. Based on the initial input, they could well ask why these items are not being included:

      Community garden
      Tennis/pickleball/multi-use courts
      Community center
      Bocce court
      Horse shoes

All of these features rated ahead of a dog park in the survey/public forum.

I understand that the needs of residents will change over time and that at a future date, a dog park may be something the village decides to build, but to include it now—to even show a future site (because as soon as it’s on paper, people will assume it will happen)—brings into question the methodology for deciding park features.

2) One of the top concerns I heard from residents was the ongoing maintenance costs of a park. A dog park will require extensive maintenance, including clean-up, providing a water supply, and continuous replenishment of whatever ground surface is used inside the dog park. Some municipalities are also concerned about increased liability with a dog park.

3) While all parks have some of the same features, they do not need to duplicate each other. Jackson Park has a wonderful dog park—it’s where we take our dog. It is just a few miles away and very accessible. There is no need for Flat Rock to duplicate that facility.

4) While the homeowners nearest the park cannot dictate what goes into the park, I do think their wishes should get some weighted consideration. Their understanding was that there would be no dog park in the foreseeable future—that is one reason they welcomed the park. To make a switch to including a dog park at this date seems very counterproductive to maintaining good relations with those most affected.

Thank you.

Unleashed dogs spur call for dog park in Flat Rock [Update]

Update: My thoughts on the issue can be found here.

From the Times-News:

Faced with a pack of complaints about loose dogs at its new village park off Highland Lake Road, Flat Rock council voted 3-2 Monday to lay plans for a contained dog park and, in the meantime, increase signage that pets must be leashed.

“The park has gone to the dogs,” said former Councilman Dave Bucher, who now chairs the village's Park Advisory Board. When approached and told their unleashed canines are breaking park rules, “people have been pretty darn nasty and rude,” he said. . . .

“Let's make it official,” said Councilman Don Farr, who made a motion to erect fencing and establish a contained dog park. He later amended his motion to instruct the Park Advisory Board, working with Project Manager Ed Lastein and Park Development Director and Councilman Jimmy Chandler, to plan for a dog park.

But Councilwoman Anne Coletta said she opposed the idea because a fenced dog park wasn't compatible with the “look and feel” of the passive, dawn-to-dusk park, which she said was conceived by an advisory committee and council largely as “a nature park with observation areas to look at the wildlife.”

Coletta added that not every park has to “provide everything to everybody,” pointing out that Jackson Park has a dog park for those who want to exercise their pups.

“We're also rewarding people that are breaking the rules,” she said. “It's clearly stated that dogs must be on a leash. And I know that it's difficult to keep them on a leash and that right now it looks like a big, open field. But I think once the (new entrance) road goes through and once it starts to look like a park, that perhaps some of this problem will disappear.”. . .

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Ken Grossman, Cassandra King to headline Bookfest

It's that time of year, again--the Blue Ridge Bookfest is six years old!

From the Times-News:

Ken Grossman, co-founder of Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. and author of “Beyond the Pale,” and novelist Cassandra King, author of “Moonrise,” will be the featured speakers at the sixth annual Blue Ridge Bookfest at Blue Ridge Community College on April 25 and 26.

The theme for the 2014 festival is “Tell Us Your Story.”

Grossman will speak at the Friday evening reception. King, wife of well-known author Pat Conroy and an established writer in her own right, will speak at the luncheon on Saturday. . . .

For more information, visit www.blueridgebookfest.org.

Read it all.